The Story of a Past Scarlet 8

A/N:
Note that this chapter has some light bloody scenes (yes, even with the spell card rules in effect), so hit that back button if you don’t like them. Also note that I am trying to write things as close as possible to ZUN’s story about the SDM cast, but keep in mind that he is vague, so I will fill those vague gaps with my own ideas of what might have happened. In short, you may disregard this. Also note that I’ve used dialogue from the game again, so remember that ZUN and the translators of the game’s dialogue are to be given credit to in here. Please leave a comment/review, as it will be much appreciated.

Unaware of her servant’s failure to stop Reimu’s advance, Remilia stands on the roof of the clock tower, holding herself by the ornamental metal pike on its top, closing her eyes and smiling as she enjoys the cool wind and the large red full moon. She opens her red eyes and says to herself “really, nights like this is the only reason to live.” The wind stops blowing and Remilia’s smile vanishes for a moment as she looks back through the corner of her eyes, then says to herself “well, it seems Sakuya failed. Tch, of all nights to be getting lazy, really!” Her eyes start to glow bright red when she looks down, then smiles wickedly and says to herself “that’s it, miss intruder, come. Come and meet with your fate that is Remilia Scarlet, the Scarlet Devil, Queen of the Night!” While all of this happens, down at the basement, close to the doors to Patchouli’s Library, behind the locked metal doors, is Flandre Scarlet, who sits on her bed, curling into a ball and holding her knees, listening to the racket occurring outside. She can clearly hear how Sakuya loses her temper so quickly when fighting against the one called Reimu Hakurei, and can hear the low and disappointed tone of voice of the sickly Patchouli as she asks Marisa Kirisame to stop knocking books off their shelves. Flandre’s eyes glow bright as she starts to smile in a most disturbing manner, then says “new humans. I want to see them. I want to play with them... until they break.” She softly giggles to herself, taking notice of how maddened she sounds, making her cry, though she continues to giggle and smile, as she is unable to find herself in the darkness, even though she’s looking so hard. Her maddened giggle echoes all around her room, making her door vibrate and causing the locks outside to loosen up.

At the grand hallway, Sakuya struggles to stand up, sobbing as she thinks what Remilia would say to her for her failure. In her mind, Sakuya sees herself kneeling in the front gates, begging to Remilia, who stands inside, coldly saying “I have no need for useless failures like you. Go, and do whatever you want with the rest of your pathetic life.” Slowly, the door closes in front of Sakuya’s face, and with it, all the light disappears, and Sakuya finds herself wandering through darkness, looking for a purpose in life once more. This vision frightens Sakuya so much, she gets up on her feet, ignoring her own exhaustion, and with a loud war cry she lifts to the air and stops time in order to reach the shrine maiden, before she reaches her mistress.” Up ahead, Reimu is inside the clock tower, and is flying up to the door that will lead her to the roof’s balcony, disregarding the long stairs to the top, and as she flies up, she comes across many magical defenses, as well as stronger fairies. The last two she meets as the very same blue and blonde haired fairies that Remilia had as her first fairy maids. The two of them giggle, then the blue haired one says “stop the intruder!”, while the blonde fairy says “orders from lady Remilia! I win if I shoot more!” Both fairies fire small shards all around themselves, giving Reimu a rough time finding a gap between the relentless attacks from those two and the other six fairies that suddenly pop from the windows. Before long, Reimu manages to graze through the bullets, getting a few tears on her skirt, then fires her amulets straight at the two fairies in front, who shriek just before exploding. After falling all the way to the ground floor, the two fairies slowly get up, and the blue haired one asks “hey, what were we supposed to do?” The blonde one thinks for a moment, then says “clean the dining table! Whoever cleans faster is the winner!” The two fairies try to get up, but the pain in their little bodies prevent them from moving, so the blue haired fairy, with a trembling voice, says “um, let’s rest a bit before we go.” The blonde fairy nods and asks “sure, but why does it hurt so much?” Reimu finally reaches the top where the door to the balcony is, but before she can open it, Sakuya appears right in front of her, looking dreadfully exhausted, panting while holding her chest. Her bonnet looks worn and about to break along with her apron, and she herself looks as though could collapse at any time. After taking in all the air she can, Sakuya still speaks out of breath, saying “I have to make you waste some energy before you meet my mistress, or she might get mad at me.” Reimu sweats, and sounding a bit annoyed, she asks “shouldn’t you be out somewhere else, running some errands?” Using what little strength she has left, Sakuya desperately launches her knives along with some kunai knives, unable to stop time anymore due to her exhaustion. Seemingly annoyed, Reimu sways through the gaps between the many knives, gets closer to Sakuya, then pokes her forehead with her gohei, making her stop the attack. Reimu sighs and says “you are too weak to keep this up, so why don’t you just go and rest?” Sakuya pulls a spell card from her apron and shouts “Conjuring, Eternal Meek!” Sakuya starts throwing knives surrounded by a blue glow in a desperate and rapid manner all over the small room. Reimu is grazed over and over by the blades, losing a good chunk of her red vest and some pieces of her white undershirt, as well as getting many holes on the back of her skirt. Shocked, Reimu exclaims “you psychotic maid, you’re gonna end up killing yourself!”, then flies straight at Sakuya, taking advantage of the gap she left to her right side, then kicks her head and sends her crashing against the wall and falling to the small balcony floor in front of the door to the roof. Reimu sighs, then says “you take it easy now. This will all be over soon.” Sakuya lies with her face on the floor and her right arm hanging over the small balcony’s edge. She whimpers, then whispers “I’m... sorry”, before finally letting herself lose consciousness.

Reimu walks through the door and enters the large balcony on the roof with the large clock tower next to it. She looks around and to the sky, then places her hands on her waist, sighs and asks “isn’t it about time you showed yourself, young lady?” Remilia reveals herself from behind the clock tower and says “I knew it. Humans are useless.” Reimu asks “was that girl really a human?” Remilia asks “are you the murderer?” Reimu smiles and chuckles as she says “don’t worry, one kill doesn’t make me a serial killer.” Though Remilia smiles, her eyes glow bright with anger as she bluntly asks “so what do you want?” Reimu twitches and says “oh that’s right. You and your mist are a bother, so could you please leave this place?” Remilia smiles as she places a hand on her chest, then says “my, jumping to conclusions already, and you don’t even know why. You’re the one in my castle, so you’re the one that should leave!” A sweat drop falls form the back of Reimu’s head as she chuckles, then sounding annoyed, she says “oh, I meant from this world, little girl.” Remilia scoffs and says “you’re hopeless. To think I’m already full. Sakuya was such an excellent maid after all. Those tea and snacks really were something.” Reimu stares at Remilia in disbelief and asks “you sheltered little girl, are you actually strong at all?” Remilia shrugs and says “I’m not sure. I’m not allowed outside often. Sunlight makes me weak.” Reimu’s face turns deadly serious as she stares at Remilia, who slowly descends to the floor in front of the maiden and says “we’ll use five of those stupid spell cards. You’ll become my servant from this night forth.” Reimu smirks and says “oh, you’ll be getting rid of that mist for me before morning comes.” Remilia and Reimu fly to the sky at the same time, as though synchronizing their moves, then point at each other with their right hands and speak at the same time, Reimu saying in an annoyed tone “looks like it’s going to be a long night”, and Remilia excitedly saying “looks like it’s going to be a FUN night!” Reimu and Remilia back away from each other and immediately start attacking, Reimu firing many needles and amulets, while Remilia shoots dense blue and scarlet orbs in a circular pattern from the palm of her hands. Above the clock tower, it looks like there’s a display of fireworks from the two girls locked in battle, their danmaku illuminating the already bright red night sky.

Reimu flies through Remilia’s bullets with ease while throwing her own needles straight at the vampire, all while smiling. Remilia smiles back while still shooting, then says “yes, that’s it, you weakling. Smile while you can.” Right after she finishes her sentence, Remilia feels something smack her forehead, and immediately feels her skin burning up. Her bullets stop while she screams out loud and flies in circles, doing all she can to pull of whatever is burning her forehead, and after Reimu giggles, the pain stops and a blue amulet with red ink falls right off Remilia’s sizzling forehead. Remilia turns her surprised face at Reimu, who giggles again and asks “what? Why are you looking at me like that?” Remilia’s anger suddenly escalates, and in her rage and with raging tears under her glowing eyes, she pulls a spell card from under her hat and clenches is so tight it’s crushed under her hand as she shouts “you little imp, take THIS! Heaven’s Punishment, Star of David!” Regardless of its state, the spell card glows scarlet before disappearing in front of Remilia, who extends her arms and legs and unleashes five glowing orbs that fire five thick scarlet beams that make ten more orbs of light that create 5 more beams each, which create twenty more orbs that fire five beams each. Reimu sweats when she sees she’s trapped inside a large scarlet net, but before she can think of something, the notices how from each of the source orbs, small blue orbs spread out in a circular and crossed formation. Remilia watches with a wicked smile as Reimu seems to despair at the sight of her power, then thinks “yes, little human, despair. Be grateful, though. I am only using a mere fraction of my power. What the-?” To Remilia’s surprise Reimu starts flying so elegantly around and between the bullets and beams, she looks as though she’s gracefully dancing around for mere entertainment as she smile while doing so. Reimu manages to get close to Remilia just as the beams vanish, then strikes Remilia’s head hard with her gohei, cancelling and capturing the spell card. Remilia rubs her head with both hands while Reimu asks “giving up already?” Remilia opens her eyes and looks at the large red moon behind her, then sighs and smiles, and says to herself “calm down Remilia. She’s just a human, and you’re just playing around, so it’s alright.” Reimu has backed away from Remilia and now flies close to the clock, and unable to hear Remilia she angrily asks “hey, what are you mumbling to yourself over there?” Remilia answers by raising both hands and throwing a concentrated scarlet mist at Reimu, and unlike the mist around Gensokyo, this one burns with power. Feeling this power from afar, Reimu gasps and quickly flies away from the mist, keeping an eye on the remaining bits left behind, and even after being careful, she grazes one of the bits of mist with her leg, getting burned by its touch. With a quick yelp, Reimu instinctively grabs hold of her leg in pain and without further thought, she pulls out a spell card and shouts “Spirit Sign, Fantasy Seal!” Unlike with Sakuya, the colorful orbs fly around Reimu this time, and clean the air from Remilia’s mist, then fly straight at the vampire, just as she throws another concentration of mist. Her mist gets swallowed up by the orbs that continue their way to her, so Remilia shrieks and flaps her wings as fast as she can to get away from the orbs, but one of them flies ahead and cuts her off, and all five orbs strike her hard at the same time, burning her with their multi-elemental light. Remilia screams out loud, though more with surprise than pain, and right after Reimu’s attack stops, she pulls a spell card from her left skirt pocket and says “how dare you do that to me! Dark Sign, Scarlet Netherworld!” Remilia surrounds herself with the same burning scarlet mist she was throwing all over before, then it rapidly blows over to Reimu in a spinning manner, giving her a very hard time to avoid being touched. Remilia releases the rest of the mist, making it move in a clockwise and counter clockwise manner, causing Reimu to get burned around her legs and left arm. Remilia laughs and shouts “what’s the matter, too hot for you, miss maiden?” Remilia immediately prepares another cloud of mist, but everything suddenly stops and Remilia stares blankly at the ground without saying a word. When the remaining mist dissipates, Remilia looks at her hands and her abdomen, then notices the needles with charms, one stuck in each hand, and three more in her abdomen. Her eyes glow bright as she growls, and using her energy, she pushes the needles out and away from her body, and sounding seemingly calm, she says “you are becoming a very annoying cockroach, you despicable human.” Reimu smirks and chuckles, then asks “oh my, did I do something wrong?” Remilia sighs and calms down for real, then smiles and says “the night is still young.” Reimu smiles back looking back at Remilia with defiance, then says “just show me what you got, you sheltered vampire.”

Remilia flies high to the air, going even higher than the sharp ornamental pike on top of her clock tower, and swinging each wing unleashes an innumerable barrage of daggers in arcs, though in straight lines. Reimu smiles and positions herself so that the daggers all pass between her, but Remilia is no fool and moves the formation around, yet Reimu simply moves very slightly to avoid being hit. Smiling, yet showing her anger through her glowing eyes, Remilia stops her attack and rummages through her left skirt pocket again, then pulls out another spell card. Reimu shrugs as she watches her prepare her third spell, and before Remilia declares it, she says out loud “I summon thee, Vlad Tepes, to watch as I smite the enemy that stands before us. Witness now as her blood becomes a sacrifice in the name of our own! Curse, Curse of Vlad Tepes!” Daggers surrounded by a scarlet aura fly away from Remilia in an ominous, circular manner, releasing drops of blood that turn to danmaku orbs on their trail. Reimu dodges the daggers with ease, and at first, the orbs are no problem to dodge, but Remilia releases another set of daggers, these moving in a counter-clockwise direction, and the danmaku blood orbs they release move to the sky, instead of the ground. Reimu has no real trouble dodging the bullets and daggers, but she’s finding herself being overwhelmed by the amount of orbs in the sky, and one of them grazes her shoulder, making her yelp, flinch and hold her own shoulder. When she pulls her hand away from her shoulder, she realizes it’s bleeding a little, and this makes her angry, making her two yin-yang orbs fly in rapid circles around her, then both she and the orbs fire countless amulets straight at the vampire. The amulets in front break through a strange aura that surrounds Remilia, and the others stick themselves to her skin, causing her to lose her concentration, and with a loud scream, she drops to the ground. As she falls, the amulets slide from her skin one by one, and right after the last one slides off, she turns into a bat just before touching the floor, then flies above Reimu and showers her with small scarlet shards in an uneven pattern. Reimu tries to attack, but Remilia moves too fast and is too small in her bat form for her amulets or needles to hit, so all she can do is dodge the barrage. Remilia takes her human form again, smiling as she looks down, giving Reimu a chance to attack, but as soon as the amulets get close enough, Remilia turns into a bat again and showers Reimu with dense scarlet orbs in straight and narrow lines, though as she moves around, Reimu has to move accordingly so she doesn’t get hit. Again, Remilia takes her human from and smiles as she says “face it, human. You don’t stand a chance!” Reimu tries her needles again, but Remilia quickly turns into a bat again and continues her attack, this time unleashing a very hot barrage of scarlet fireballs that, although they leave a large gap between the formation, some of the fireballs move out of formation at random. Reimu has had enough, so she pulls out her next spell card and says “Dream Sign, Evil Sealing Circle.” Right after Reimu declares her spell, Remilia turns back to human and asks “what was that?” A blue beam flies from Reimu’s own body and straight to the sky, trapping Remilia in it, making her scream out as her entire skin feels as though is being burned by the very same rays from the sun. After Reimu’s attack ends, Remilia recovers and keeps in the air, noticing her skin is fine, yet still burns. At first, she is in complete shock, but she suddenly starts to laugh and a spell card materializes right in front of her face. She grabs it and while still smiling, she shouts “Scarlet Sign, Scarlet Shoot!” Reimu notices the vampire is on edge, so she smirks and says “well, it looks like you’re tired of me already- WHOA!” Reimu is grazed by a thick scarlet mist that comes accompanied by burning blood drops and dense orbs that almost get her, if it weren’t for her reflexes. Remilia surrounds herself with the mist and the danmaku orbs again, but this time she concentrates the attack on Reimu only. The maiden manages to move away from the attack, but quickly realizes the blood drops linger in the air before disappearing. Enjoying the surprise in Reimu’s face, Remilia surrounds herself with the mist and shouts “yes, fear my power human! This is why I am known as the scarlet devil!” When Remilia releases the attack all around, she realizes Reimu is nowhere to be found. She smiles, thinking she’s attained victory, but senses the shrine maiden is behind herself too late, and Reimu strikes her down with a powerful kick that makes her spin like one of Marisa’s stars before she finally stops, capturing Remilia’s spell in the process. Reimu glares at the vampire, raises her gohei, points it at her, then says “enough of this! You only have one spell left, and I’ve only used two. Stop being such a brat and take this mist away.” Remilia snarls and shouts “NEVER!”, then manages to calm herself and says “I’ve only been toying with you so far, but enough is enough, human.” Remilia pulls a spell card from her right pocket, and with a wicked grin on her face, she says “you humans are all alike, thinking you are so strong. Well, you’re wrong, and once this is over, I’ll have you clean the basement bathroom with a sponge!” Reimu sweats and says “now if you do that, I’ll never finish.” Remilia calms down, thinking she has the maiden intimidated, then casually says “that’s the idea.”

Reimu glares at Remilia as she flies up and turns around to face her, the huge red full moon behind the vampire making her look even more menacing, and although the maiden wants to smirk, she suppresses her desire to do so and simply continues to glare in silence, even clenching her teeth. Remilia’s smile widens as her spell card begins to glow, and before declaring it, she asks “tell me, miss shrine maiden, what is your name?” Reimu sternly replies “Reimu Hakurei, from the Hakurei clan, and current shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine that watches over the land of Gensokyo.” Remilia continues to smile as she says “well, miss Reimu, I hope you came prepared to have your fate changed to feet scrubber, because that’s what I’ll have you do for the rest of your miserable life!” Reimu can’t hold herself and smiles, though continues to scowl, which makes Remilia smile back at her in a wicked manner, then takes a deep breath and shouts “Red Magic!” The spell’s name echoes all over the mansion, and immediately, from Remilia’s own body, dense blue orbs spread out in an arc all around her and set blood-colored orbs in their trail. The spell looks slow and very easy to dodge, but something frightens Reimu, making her gasp and try to reach Remilia before the second wave, but it’s too late, and the blood-colored orbs start to move about. Before the second wave is done, Remilia unleashes the third wave, and by now, Reimu is having a hard time dodging through, and is unable to reach Remilia as she unleashes the fourth, fifth and sixth waves in a row. The entire sky looks like one giant blood puddle, and the red moon behind it makes it look even more frightening, and in the middle of all of this is Remilia, whose eyes continue to glow, and her wicked smile continues to shine through. With so many orbs in the sky, Reimu knows it’s just a matter of time before she’s caught, so she takes her chances and makes the desperate move of flying through the many blood-colored orbs. As Reimu maneuvers herself through the orbs, going left and right, up and down, even having to retreat often, Remilia laughs and shouts “yes, yes! Go ahead and touch them already! Your fate is sealed! ...Wait, what-? Wh-why can’t I change her fate? What’s going on?” Remilia’s smile suddenly turns into a shocked frown as she looks at Reimu’s determined face, flying through her bullets with all her speed and not even grazing them. Remilia starts to feel fear, and as Reimu gets closer, she screams “no! Get away from me!” Reimu is finally in range and pulls a spell card from under her right sleeve, then immediately shouts “Treasure Sign, Yin-Yang Orb!” One of Reimu’s yin-yang orbs flies in front of the spell card and absorbs it, then immediately glows bright gold and increases in size. Remilia screams as the orb quickly flies to her, cancelling her own spell to try and cover her face with her arms, and in an instant, the large yin-yang orb sticks to her skin and starts to burn her, consuming her as though it were alive and eating her, burning her with white hot fire, then spitting her out and throwing her back on to the floor, and after Reimu lands in front of her, she slowly gets up, moaning in pain. Looking at Reimu, Remilia thinks “what happened? Why couldn’t I change her fate? This is impossible! I can see it, but I can’t change it! Why?” Reimu rests her gohei on her shoulder and bends over to offer a hand to Remilia, saying “I’ll expect that mist to be gone by morning, oaky?” Remilia is lost inside her mind while looking at Reimu’s face, unaware that she accepted the maiden’s helping hand, thinking “I completely underestimated her! She’s powerful. Much more powerful than this. Remilia, why did you do that? Ugh, why the hell is this happening?” Reimu takes a deep and relaxing breath, her face turns calm and soothing, and even her aura seems to turn so peaceful, it relaxes even Remilia, and as she heads to the door back to the mansion, she says “well, I guess that’s it. Remember to keep your word, you hear?” Reimu is just about to enter the door, but before she touches the knob, Remilia angrily shouts “wait! Let’s have a rematch!” Reimu turns her face to Remilia and her aura immediately starts to change and fill with energy as she asks “what? What are you talking about?” Remilia clenches her fist behind her skirt and says “you only won because I underestimated you and went soft on you! All because of those stupid spell card rules! Fight me properly! Fight me at my FULLEST! Let us both fight at our fullest, Hakurei!” Reimu stares at Remilia and is about to decline, then Remilia suddenly says “let us fight at full power, Reimu. Show to me your power! ...If you win I pledge to you my allegiance! I will help you care for Gensokyo, I will never kill a human, I will even allow you entrance to my mansion.” Reimu quietly stares at Remilia, who continues “your friends will be my friends. Your enemies will become my enemies as well! If you win, I will hold to this pact I’m making here tonight, right now, and will keep it for as long as there is a Hakurei alive in your clan!” Reimu silently stares at Remilia for some time, then suddenly throws a white talisman with black symbols on it at her. The second Remilia touches it, she feels herself recovering all her lost power, then Reimu says “I will not soil our agreement. Let us both fight at full power now. This battle will end when one of us either gives up, or is unable to move.” Remilia’s face turns calm as she looks at Reimu’s resolute face, then nods and flies to the air. Reimu follows afterward, thinking “I don’t know why I’m doing this. Is this fate, or something else? Regardless, I need to get ready... She seems more powerful now. Reimu, focus, and remember, you are the maiden of Hakurei. You cannot allow yourself to lose.” Remilia flies up along with Reimu and thinks “this human is much more powerful than I could have ever though a human could be. She even surpasses my own power. I know this is a losing battle, but there’s something I need to see. Her power is just unbelievable. I need to see it! I have to see I didn’t lose to just any human!” Once in the air, Reimu and Remilia stare at each other as though looking for something inside each others’ eyes. A cold eastern wind passes by them, then both get ready to attack.

Inside Patchouli’s library, Patchouli, Marisa and Koakuma look out the window and watch as Remilia falls to Reimu’s golden yin-yang. Marisa sighs and says “maybe I should have warned that mistress of yours that Reimu just can’t be beat.” Patchouli angrily says “her name is Remilia! Remilia Scarlet! How many times do I have to repeat the name?” Marisa raises her hands defensively and says “alright, alright! Geez, I’m sorry already.” Koakuma looks to the ground next to Patchouli’s feet and asks “well, what’s going to happen now?” Patchouli sighs, then says “I really don’t... wait.” Patchouli raises her head, showing terror in her gaze, frightening Koakuma and Marisa as well. Koakuma asks “what’s the matter lady...? What’s that?” Marisa raises her head and says “I feel something weird.” Patchouli looks outside the window and watches as Remilia and Reimu take flight once more. She starts to shiver and cough, then falls on her knees to the ground. Showing a bit of concern, Koakuma asks “Patchouli, are you alright?” Marisa adds “she’s a very sickly girl.” Patchouli springs from the floor and grabs Marisa by her vest and shouts “HELP ME SPEAD THE PROTECTION, NOW!” Marisa casually says “back away, ze. Why should I help you any-?“ Patchouli presses her forehead on to Marisa’s and sounding very agitated, she says “if you don’t help me now I’m going to release Koakuma’s TRUE form, and I’ll have her do to you so many things, you’ll wish for a quick DEATH long before she is done breaking your spirit!” Marisa’s skin turns pale as she looks at Koakuma’s disturbingly wicked and ominous grin, then looks back at Patchouli, gulps, and says “j-just tell me what to do.” Outside, above the roof’s balcony, Remilia and Reimu continue to stare at each other, while Marisa flies around the mansion as fast as she can, placing books and drawing magical circles around the mansion, while Patchouli stands at the gate and chants as loud as she can, having Meiling hold her on her feet in case she starts coughing again. Reimu and Remilia scream as they suddenly point their hands at each other, and from their hands, a blue and a scarlet beam rush to meet their opponents, only to crash and cause a large spark, just as Patchouli finishes her incantation. The spark alone has enough power to turn the entire mansion to rubble, but Patchouli’s protection weakens it, causing it only to destroy part of the hallway. Marisa exclaims “WOW! What the hell are they thinking?” She flies down to the mansion’s western side and draws a purple magical circle, activating it with haste and giving Patchouli’s own protection more power. With that, she flicks her hat and says “back to the library, ze.”

Remilia and Reimu fly at each other and use both their bodies and magic as powerful weapon, each clash sending large sparks toward the mansion that could destroy it, yet thanks to Patchouli’s and Marisa’s protection, the sparks weaken and bounce to the ground. Remilia smiles and laughs as she backs away from Reimu, then says “take a look at my favorite spell! Divine Spear, Spear of the Gungnir!” Remilia cuts her forearm and uses her blood to summons a spear the same size as the one she used to deal with the other vampires, making herself look tiny next to it. Reimu gasps and shouts “Divine Spirit, Fantasy Seal!” Remilia tosses her gigantic spear straight at Reimu, just as ten large orbs of five colors surround her. The spells crash and cause a powerful magical reaction that makes Patchouli and Meiling fall on their backs, and also cause most of the windows of the mansion in the area to shatter. Reimu’s orbs hold, though five of them are consumed, so she uses the other five to chase after Remilia. The vampire smiles as she flies away from the attack, but the orbs are locked on her and won’t go away, so she flies to Reimu, and just before the first orb touches her foot, she dives and sinks her claws on the maiden’s left calf, making Reimu scream as she flies away, and then Remilia gets hit hard by the one of the five remaining orbs, screaming louder and louder after the rest of the orbs strike one by one, and her screams causes the unconscious Sakuya to moan and attempt to get back up, but she just falls back on the small balcony inside the tall tower. Remilia is still able to fly, but the upper left half of her dress is gone, and her left wing seems is about to turn to ashes. Reimu grabs her calf and places a charm on it to stop the bleeding, then quickly recovers to find Remilia flying far behind her, ready for the next attack. Remilia smiles and says “my name is Remilia Scarlet of the Scarlet clan. I am a descendant of Vlad Tepes! I will not yield to you that easily, Reimu Hakurei of the Hakurei clan!” She pulls out a spell card and shouts “Midnight King, Dracula Cradle!” Reimu pulls out her next spell card from under her sleeve, but before she declares it, she releases as many blue and yellow amulets as she can all around herself, then flies away. Remilia surrounds herself in scarlet energy, then flies down to her mansion and uses a wall to impulse herself back up, using so much power, the wall turns to dust after she bounces off it. Remilia starts to spin around and breaks through Reimu’s amulets like they were mere pieces of paper fluttering in the wind, then heads straight to Reimu, who surrounds her gohei with a blue energy and uses it to bat Remilia’s head and send her elsewhere. Remilia uses the momentum of the impact and wills herself to turn to Reimu once more. Reimu sees the attack coming straight at her again, then shouts “Holy Relic, Yin-Yang Sanctifier Orb!” Both orbs join together and form a massive yin-yang orb ten time Reimu’s own size, and Remilia is out of control and is unable to stop herself. She spins straight into the burning orb of white light and starts to scream loud once more, then stops. At first, Reimu looks down, thinking she’ll see Remilia falling to the ground, but she suddenly gasps and tries to fly upward, but quickly finds herself being struck hard on the abdomen by Remilia’ who regardless of the pain she felt, when through the orb to strike Reimu. Remilia takes advantage of her spinning and swings another claw at Reimu’s right arm, tearing her sleeve off and leaving a bloody gash on her forearm. Reimu screams and manages to free herself from Remilia, who continues falling straight to the roof’s balcony, where she crashes down hard, making a crater on the floor, regardless of the protections. Clenching her teeth from the pain, Reimu uses more charms to stop the blood from flowing out of her arm, then takes many deep breathes before she recovers. Remilia slowly gets back up, then notices Reimu still isn’t ready, so with a wide and wicked grin on her face, she shouts “Divine Spear, Spear of the Gungnir!”, then immediately launches her spear straight at Reimu. The maiden manages to dodge the spear just in time, then spins to dodge another, and another, all of the spears of great size, and all tearing a bit of clothes every time they graze her. Remilia continues her relentless attack, and watches as Reimu dives down, dodging all the spears, then tries to kick her head. Remilia throws herself to the ground to avoid the attack, allowing Reimu to fly over her, then pushes herself back up with her hands and she and Reimu silently glare at each other from across the balcony once again.

Reimu and Remilia pull their spell cards and declare their spells at the same time, Remilia shouting “Divine Spear, Spear of the Gungnir!”, and Reimu shouting “Divine Spirit, Fantasy Seal!” Remilia holds one spear on each hand, each twice her own size, while Reimu summons to her twenty of her five colored elemental orbs, and continues to summon them as she sends one after another at Remilia. Remilia uses her spears to deflect each orb, sending them toward the Lake, causing massive explosions that make it seem as though the lake’s water will get drained through a hole, however, the water just splashes back in place. Reimu, not wanting to cause any harm to the lands, starts throwing each orb away from Remilia so they come from behind when they turn around. Remilia skillfully spins her spears around, jumping around like an acrobat and breaking away each orb, getting closer to Reimu after each jump, then suddenly turns around and lunges her left spear straight to the maiden’s heart, but Reimu uses one of the orbs to protect herself, and pushing the orb with her own hands, she makes sure to keep the spear’s sharp head away from herself, though the intense power being used causes her left sleeve, what little is left of her vest, and her white undershirt to slowly get consumed. Ten orbs fly straight at Remilia from her back, but Remilia is aware, so just as they are about to hit her, she jumps away and lets them hit Reimu instead, causing a powerful explosion that cause the tiles of the floor beneath her feet to rattle. She merges both spears and makes her giant spear once more, then smiles as she stares at the cloud where Reimu was standing. Reimu stands straight, looking back at Remilia with a cold and stern face, and with thirty orbs flying all around her. All the orbs merge into five giant orbs, each twice as large as Reimu herself, and waiting no longer, Remilia launches her spear again. Reimu launches a single orb to contend against Remilia’s giant scarlet spear, both spell crashing against each other and sending out giant sparks that explode violently on the ground, leaving small craters around the outside of the mansion, while the mansion continues to be protected by Patchouli’s and Marisa’s magic protections. Remilia’s spear gets consumed by Reimu’s single orb, then Remilia watches in horror as the other four orbs join in to chase after her. While this happens, Reimu starts to chant and move as though dancing around with her gohei, while Remilia tries to fly away from those orbs. In a desperate attempt to escape, Remilia uses all the strength she can muster to get far away from the homing orbs, pulls out a spell card, then shouts out loud “SCARLET GENSOKYO!” Remilia unleashes massive orbs in circular arcs around herself that leave a large trail of blood-red orbs in their path and sends them all straight at Reimu. The maiden doesn’t notice the attack in time, and by the time she does, she manages to dodge at least two of the six massive orbs headed her way, causing her to scream out loud as the orbs explode on her. Three of Reimu’s own orbs split into eighteen smaller orbs that fly faster than the two remaining giant orbs, and all crash against Remilia’s defenses, clearing a path through the blood red sea of orbs, allowing the two larger orbs to go through to Remilia, who can only gasp and say “oh shit!” As soon as those orbs impact, Remilia screams so loud her scream reaches all the way across the Misty Lake. Reimu’s orbs feel as though the very sun is inside her skin, burning every single part of her body to ashes, yet keeping her alive to endure the pain for what seems like an eternity. After it stops, Remilia falls back to the rooftop’s balcony and crashes on the ground, leaving yet another crater, this one so deep it almost breaks through the floor. Reimu struggles to get back up, only a small piece of her white shirt remains, her left shoe is gone, the lower half of her skirt is gone as well, and blood rushes down her forehead. Remilia has a harder time standing up, her dress is almost completely gone, her undergarments look like worn cloths, her right wing is gone, and her left wing is in ruins, yet she manages to get up. The girls breathe heavily as they look at each other, then smile and chuckle. Without saying another word, each girl pulls a single spell card, as if agreeing on one more spell. Reimu and Remilia slowly waddle toward each other, both exhausted and on their limit, but then they both start running and manage a war cry as they get closer. Once in range, Remilia and Reimu declare their spell cards at the same time, Remilia shouting “Scarlet Devil, Scarlet DEVIL!!”, and Reimu shouting “Divine Arts, Omnidirectional Demon Binding Circle!” Remilia manages to fly in the air, even without her wings, as her familiar scarlet flame cross forms itself around her, while Reimu surrounds herself by an intense golden pillar. Both spells are so gigantic and intense, they illuminate the night all around, and traces of the spells can even be seen all the way back at the Human Village. The two spells crash against each other, causing violent tremors all over the mansion and the lake, causing large waves at the lake that scare the fairies and youkai right out of their homes and the immediate area, away from the Scarlet Mansion and the lake. Reimu grunts as she uses every ounce of strength in her to keep her spell going, but Remilia is already losing her consciousness, and just as she falls into darkness, Reimu’s spell breaks through Remilia’s, making her wake up to the violently painful reality of her loss. As she screams, her mind wanders around, thinking on her past. She sees Meiling, guarding her gate without question, and thinks “I’ve really hated living here so much.” She sees an image of Patchouli supporting her and teaching her about things she wouldn’t be interested in, then thinks “I lost Flan, my life... everything.” She sees Sakuya serving her tea and a beautifully prepared cake, something she missed so much from her home before that massacre, then thinks “but now, at the end, I realize... I had it all again, and maybe... maybe even better than before.” She sees an image of herself being surrounded by her new servants, and a small shadow with odd, but colorful wings, then shouts “I don’t want to die~!” The image of her servants flow through her mind once more as she thinks “I got a new home, new servants... no, a new family. Yes, they truly are like family... but what about Flandre?” Reimu calls off her spell and Remilia falls to the floor, yet to her it feels as though she’s surrounded in darkness and is unaware that the attack had stopped. Right after she falls to the floor, she thinks “Flan, come back to me. I want you to be part of my family again.” A tear escapes her left eye as the image of all her servants, even her fairy maids, and Flandre as well, are all grouped together and welcoming her with open arms, and after seeing this, she thinks “in the end... this land... is...”

Reimu sits on the floor next to Remilia, holding herself up with her arms as she takes long, recuperating breaths. The clock tower’s door suddenly bursts open, and Sakuya slowly makes her way to her mistress, throwing herself on her knees and sliding next to the vampire, weakly exclaiming “mistress Remilia!” She looks at Reimu and snarls, then says “I’m going to kill you for this!” Reimu manages to lift her arm, making Sakuya stop speaking, and speaking out of breath, she manages to say “she’s... alive. Gee, what... an annoying... little human you... you are.” From behind Reimu, Marisa’s terrorized voice reaches the maiden as she shouts “Reimu, you crazy, blockheaded fool, what the hell happened? I though you beat her already! What gives? What’s the big idea?” Marisa kneels down and wraps Reimu’s arm around her neck, helping Reimu up as she says “calm down. I’m just tired. You don’t need to shout.” Marisa readies her broom, where she already has a small sack with books tied to it, so she can take Reimu back home, but before she can sit her friend on it, Remilia manages to weakly says “wait.” Reimu and Marisa lift their heads to Remilia, who rests on Sakuya’s hands. Remilia raises her arm to Reimu, signaling she wants to get closer, so Sakuya walks closer to the maiden and the witch. Remilia struggles to lift her hand to Reimu’s forehead, then swipes some blood from her, then places it on her own lips, but doesn’t drink it. She smiles at Reimu and says “The pact... is sealed. And... thank... you.” With that, Remilia finally falls unconscious on Sakuya’s arms, smiling like she did when she was living in the hidden misty land she used to call her home. Marisa looks curiously at Reimu, then back at Remilia, unaware of what happened, then shrugs and says “whatever. Let’s get you home, Reimu. We need to treat those gashes and get you some clothes. You’re a maiden after all! Being all shameless like that!” With that, Marisa sits Reimu and herself on the broom, letting her friend rest on her shoulder as she lifts off and flies back to the shrine, shouting “and don’t forget about the mist!” Sakuya looks at her mistress, smiling as she lies on her hands, then sighs and softly says “let’s go inside, my lady.” As Sakuya slowly makes her way back inside, Meiling reaches she roof and runs straight at the girls, wrapping Sakuya’s arm around her own neck and helping her and their mistress back inside.

2 Days Later
At the Scarlet Devil Mansion, after having rested well and recovered from her battle with Reimu, Remilia has called her servants for a very important meeting inside the main hall. The last one to arrive to the room is Meiling, who nervously enters the room. She walks through the fairies and stands between Sakuya and Patchouli, both looking as nervous as Meiling herself. When they are all ready, Remilia raises her head from her large seat, then all the chattering fairies quiet down. Remilia stares at all of them, placing particular attention on Meiling, Patchouli and Sakuya, and their depressed and fearful faces, black shadows cast over their eyes. She gets off her chair and looks at them sternly, then says “we go beat, and quite badly, by no more than two humans!” Raising her voice at the end of her sentence, all the servants, including the fairy maids, all lower their faces, as though trying to bury them from their shame. Remilia smiles, then sighs and says “but I’m not mad. You all gave it your all, just as I’d expect from anyone that lives inside this mansion!” Everyone raises their heads and start looking at each other in surprise, Sakuya revealing her blue eyes to the rest. Remilia continues “however, it is clear you all need to work a little harder so something like this doesn’t happen again. Even with this spell card rule, we should be able to fend off ANY intruder! I want you all to train harder until you all improve those skills you already posses. I hope I have made myself clear!” All the servants smile at Remilia, all happy to know they aren’t being kicked out, shunned, or punished, then they all salute Remilia and say “yes’ my lady Remilia” at the same time. Remilia smiles and softly says “good. Now, there is something very important you all need to know.” Sakuya asks “is it about that shrine maiden, my lady?” Remilia smiles proudly and says “very good, Sakuya. You see, from now on, she is your ally and friend. She and ALL her friends are welcome inside this mansion. We are to also help her take care of this land, OUR home, to the best of our abilities.” Patchouli asks “well, that sounds easy enough, but Remi... what exactly happened?” Remilia smiles proudly once more, then says “I want you all in the best shape you can get, and that includes you, Patchy. It would be quite terrible if something were to happen to you, to any of you. After all...” Remilia looks at her servants through the corner of her eyes and with a bright smile she tries to hide, then says “this place just wouldn’t be home without you.” Everyone, from Sakuya to the two little blonde and blue haired fairies, smile brightly after hearing Remilia say those words. Remilia recovers her stern face, then loudly says “well, get going. Do your chores and start working on improving yourselves! Make me proud!” The servants leave the room with bright smiles on their faces, except for Sakuya, who stays behind and waits for the others to leave before bowing to the ground and placing her head on the carpet, saying “I’m so sorry, my lady! I’ll do my best to improve, to be able to serve and protect you, should something like this ever happen again!” Without turning around, and sounding very stern, Remilia says “Sakuya, I’m going to visit the shrine. Please watch over the mansion while I’m gone.” Sakuya slowly gets back up and watches as Remilia exits the door behind her, but before she leaves, she says “there’s nothing to forgive, Sakuya. I already told you, you all did your best. I am just glad to see you are all alive and well.” Remilia closes the door behind her, leaving Sakuya with a bright smile on her face and sniffling as she stands up, allowing her tears of joy escape her eyes as she thinks “in the end, I owe her so much. Even now, after my failure, I am still allowed to serve her. Some might call her a devil, but to me, she’s an angel in disguise.” Sakuya sighs, looks around, and immediately starts with her cleaning duties by dusting the small ornamental table by the room’s entrance.

At the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu sweeps some leaves from the left side of the courtyard, then stops to swipe the sweat off her forehead with her sleeve. The only thing she can hear is the sound of the cicadas and leaves blowing in the wind on her deserted shrine, relaxing herself to the point of falling asleep while holding her broom, but quickly wakes up when she hears a very familiar voice at the gate of her shrine. Remilia lands quietly on the shrine grounds, looks around, then says “boy, this place sure is empty.” Reimu gets a bit annoyed at her comment, then says “that’s none of your business! And what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be turning to ashes because of the sun or something?” Remilia holds a parasol above her head as she smiles at Reimu and says “no, I said sunlight weakens me.” Reimu gets annoyed again and rushes to Remilia, then asks “wait a minute, how the hell can you be here?” Remilia smiles and replies “as long as I have my parasol, I can go wherever I want. It’s pretty convenient.” Steam blows out of Reimu’s ears as she wraps her arm around Remilia’s neck and pulls her parasol away, angrily asking “if it’s so convenient, why the hell did you spread that annoying mist for?” Remilia gasps as she tries to reach for her parasol, and shouts “wait, Reimu! Direct sunlight can kill me!” Reimu tightens her arm and speaks through her teeth as she says “well, how about just a little bit of sunlight. You are sickeningly pale!” Remilia shouts “no~ I’ll turn to ashes before I can get tanned!” Reimu grunts “that’s not a problem!” Remilia cries “but if I turn to ashes and you breathe them in, you’ll become immortal!” Reimu immediately lets Remilia go, smiles, then says “heh, that would be bad, wouldn’t it. But maybe I’ll just extend my life if I breathe in a little.” Remilia grabs her parasol from Reimu’s hand and covers herself with it once more, then says “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Reimu smiles, sighs, then says “yeah, I guess you’re right. Whatever, I’ll make some tea.” Remilia asks “uu, do you have any red tea?” Reimu smiles sheepishly as a sweat drop falls from the back of her head, then says “er, I don’t think I have that kind of tea here.” Remilia sighs and shrugs, then says “I guess I can try it without the red stuff...”

Later that day, at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Marisa stands on the railed edge of the well-shaded second floor balcony, admiring the garden below. She looks back and says “this place is boring.” Sakuya calmly replies “you’re the one that keeps coming over. Why don’t you just go home?” Marisa smiles and says “I don’t wanna.” Marisa stares at Sakuya for a moment, then asks “hey, I’m a guest her, so where’s my tea and snack?” Sakuya sighs and says “please go home.” Marisa ignores Sakuya and asks “hey, where’s Remilia?” Patchouli suddenly speaks from behind Marisa, making the black and white witch shriek and jump in place, as she says “Remi’s been going outside more often now.” Sakuya adds “and she seems different. She seems to be at peace.” Patchouli stares at Sakuya and says “you seem somewhat different as well. You seem more calm and joyous.” Sakuya giggles after placing a cup full of red tea and a piece of cake on the balcony’s table, then says “well, seeing my lady so happy makes me feel very happy too.” Patchouli stares at Sakuya and thinks “so these are the effects of the pact.” Marisa takes a sip form her tea and asks “hey, why is this so red?” Sakuya replies “that tea is special. I used a very rare leaf that can only be-“ Marisa cuts Sakuya’s explanation as she asks “yeah yeah, what’s in this cake?” Sakuya smiles and says “It’s very special, and my mistress’ favorite. I used a very special flower that grow from the bamboo.” Marisa asks “are you trying to poison me?” Sakuya replies “you should be thankful. These flowers take fifty years to bloom, but with my powers of time manipulation, I can make them bloom instantly.” Unimpressed, Marisa says “yeah, yeah, whatever.” Remilia flies from outside to the balcony and angrily says “HEY, stop drinking my tea and eating my snacks!” Patchouli casually says “welcome back, Remi.” Sakuya smiles and says “don’t worry my lady, I’ve made plenty. It has your favorite leaf, and I added that flower you like so much to the cake.” Like a child, Remilia extend her arms, drops her parasol on the floor, and gleefully exclaims “yay! My favorite!” Marisa stares at her tea with suspicion and asks “you poisoned me, didn’t you?” Sakuya smiles and says “there’s no reason to do that yet.” Maris sweats and stars at Sakuya in disbelief, but shrugs and drinks her tea without question. Down at the basement, Flandre can hear Marisa’s voice all the way inside her room. She sits with her back against the wall, hugging her knees as she sways back and forth, softly giggling to herself. She can hear Patchouli angrily calling out to Marisa, then says “that human is back... that Marisa. I... I want to meet her. I want to play with that human!” At first, she starts to giggle in a disturbing manner, but quiets down and starts sobbing. She splits herself up into 3 more selves, and one of them bends down to pate her back and say “it’s ok Flandre. You’ll play with her, you’ll see. We will all play with her.”

To be continued...

Characters, Spell Cards and Scenario belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Some dialogue was taken from the EoSD game, so I give credit to ZUN and the translators of said dialogues for those.
AUG 11 2010
Written by
Willie G.R.

A/N:
Note that this story has been and will be used as base for anything concerning the SDM's cast history on my stories, unless noted otherwise.
Geez, I really wanted to finish this story in this chapter so I could start working on my next Sukima. I am quite eager to start working on it. Alas, the events with Remilia are long and quite epic, really. Well, at least our vampire has most of her life back, though, she’s had it back for a while, but just didn’t notice it. Really, it sometimes take a hard push for us to see that which we already have. It’s sad to realize the value of that which we had after its gone, so it’s important to keep a weathered eye open and enjoy all that surrounds us. Next chapter is the Extra Stage, where Reimu and Marisa meet with the sister of the Scarlet Devil. I guess after what Reimu went through when fighting Remilia that second time, it lets us know she’ll be fine against Flandre (after all, the spell card rules are in effect when she meets that cute and destructive vampire). As for Marisa... Nah, I’ll reserve my comments until after the chapter.
Seriously though, after writing this, I feel more respect toward both Reimu and Remilia. They both fought hard and with honor, but honestly, that human is something, isn’t she? It’s not every day you contend against a vampire and live to tell the tale! Ah well, thank you very much for reading, and know that I truly appreciate it when you leave your comments/reviews. Makes me very glad to know my work is liked, so please keep leaving your comments/reviews. Until next chapter, take care!