Author's Notes: Yes, I admit that I already have a version of this story up, but it's now defunct as I'm rewriting it, split into chapters and with better detail. Anyways, let me know what you think of the changes I've made compared to the original. I'll be changing and updating The Other Side to go along with this, rather than simply redoing the story of it as well.
Disclaimer: Touhou Project is owned by Team Shanghai Alice, the sole member of which is ZUN. I only own the words and part of the story.
I had been humiliated. As I floated there and watched the four of them fly further into Makai, all I could feel was hurt and rage. To make matters worse, all it took was one of them to beat me; I had set my dolls out as traps, aided by some of the local demons, but still they persisted. Once they had reached me, only the one in red and white on the back of a flying turtle actually challenged me, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't even seem to touch her.
My name is Alice; daughter to Shinki, Goddess of Makai, and known as The Girl of Death. I am proficient with magic, and more specifically, with magical puppetry. While I am dexterous enough to flawlessly manipulate a doll using strings, my preferred medium is magic; they can do everything for me, from cleaning up after me, to even defending me should I require it. I had employed them to this use that time, and still it was not enough…
I watched as the first one approached on the back of that turtle; my arms were stretched wide as a symbol of barring passage. She came to a stop in front of me looking no worse for the obstacles that had been in her path on the way. She asked, "And who are you supposed to be?"
I smirked while holding my pose. "I am Alice; The Girl of Death!"
"Death?" The girl smiled back at me. "Well I'm certainly scared."
That annoyed me considerably; I shouted, "Are you the one that blasted open the gate?"
She held her hands in front of her, saying, "No way; you've got the wrong person." A second person arrived at that time wearing a witch costume and riding on a flying broom; the first one pointed at the new one and said, "It's her fault; blame her."
The second one's eyes widened and she hastily replied back. "No way; you've got the wrong person!"
I didn't find that funny at all; they were toying with me. I gathered my magic and attacked with a burst of danmaku in all directions; some small bullets, others normal sized. I summoned two dolls to my side and made them fire bullets at them while I started cycling through some of my basic patterns; random bursts, aimed arcs, and full circles of bullets. The witch retreated and two more had joined her; only the red and white turtle rider was actually engaging me by dodging my shots and pelting me and my dolls with magical slips of paper, some of which seemed to be homing in on me.
I was taking a beating; my young human body wasn't meant for magical combat of that magnitude. One of the dolls had been destroyed, but was replaced almost immediately by a new one; I used it and the other remaining doll for my next phase: a shield was formed between the two of them which kept me safe from harm while I was still able to shoot at my opponent. I aimed my shots at her, each stream the same as the last, but she was too quick to be taken in by that; unfortunately the shield only lasts for a few seconds, and they had to disengage it and fly back to my side.
At that point I fired two arcs, like wings, from either side of me, but it left a sizable space in which she hung out in; I started using the rings and arcs from my first patterns while getting covering fire from my dolls. Enough time had passed in which I was able to bring the shield back up, but again I couldn't keep it up indefinitely; after it fell, I dropped the ring pattern and started using a three-way laser and danmaku burst, though it proved ineffective. I continued to be sieged by her shots, and my strength was quickly draining.
Again, I brought the shield up, and again she managed to keep ahead of my attack. When the shield was gone, I knew this was going to be it, so I started firing at a more rapid pace; spiral rings of bullets, faster wing arcs, swifter lasers… But still nothing seemed to faze her. In a last ditch attempt I fired a steady half circle of arrows while getting covering fire, but in the end it was for nothing; she had me beat, and in an explosion of magic I floated there, defeated.
I had to watch as they looked down on me and flew off towards the heart of Makai, each one expressing their satisfaction with the outcome in a different way; Ms. Turtle appeared disappointed, the ghost had smirked at the whole scene, the umbrella gave me a smile that absolutely terrified me… the witch just shrugged and grinned, leaving me in confusion to go along with my sadness.
I had to get away from there, get back to the castle. Fortunately there was an access tunnel that acted like an emergency escape passage leading straight back; I had used it to get outside without anyone seeing me. I snuck back into the castle, but couldn't hide the fact that I had been in a fight; my mother had ordered me to my room and instructed our maid Yumeko to patch me up and heal what wounds she could.
I sat there with her guarding me for a time until there was a commotion in front of the castle; mother had apparently gone out to see what was going on, which made Yumeko nervous. She left me alone to go provide aid, allowing me to once again roam the castle; I had emerged to the main hall just in time to see the four invaders in a massive firefight with Shinki.
There I witnessed the most horrifying and infuriating thing of my entire life up until that point: Shinki had been defeated by the invaders. They made some demands of mother, who promised to follow through with them so long as the four left Makai and never returned. I couldn't stand it, but also couldn't think of anything that I could do to stop it.
At least I couldn't until I remembered the book. In the library was a sacred relic that predated the creation of Makai; a book known simply as the Forgotten Grimoire. Shinki had attempted to harness its power once upon a time but failed to control it completely; it had changed her into the being that she still is to this day, and gave her enough power to create the world of demons that she currently resides in. The book was placed in a magic circle in the library, protected not from theft from the outside, but to keep the power of the book from reaching out to anybody. I knew if I could get ahold of that kind of power, not even those four would be able to stop me.
The castle had been evacuated, not by order of Shinki, but because the other residents and staff had heard of the rampage through Makai that was headed their way. As such, the library was deserted, leaving me with the perfect opportunity; I reached out with both hands and grasped the book, feeling the tendrils of magic lacing through my fingers, up my arms, and welcoming it as it coursed through my body. At that very moment I had felt something like nothing else before or since; it was both wonderful and terrifying, and had I not been healed of the injuries I took from earlier, it would likely have torn my body to pieces.
My mind was filled with magical incantations that I had never even heard before; it felt like my senses were a little sharper than before, and I had every confidence that I couldn't lose should I challenge anyone. I was small for my age, and thus the book was huge to me; I couldn't hold it in just one hand if I wanted. I clutched it tightly and made my way to the express hallway leading back towards the border of Makai. There I waited…
I floated in front of the damaged gate, awaiting the ones who had brought me so much pain; time hadn't allowed for the hole to be patched, but it wouldn't matter after I had finished with them. My slightly heightened senses had allowed me to notice their coming far sooner than I would have otherwise been able to; I went to work quickly, the book seeming to guide me to what I would want to do…
It opened to a page about magical illusion and encasing targets in a real, sustained illusionary world. I gave it a little thought and determined what I would do: trap them in a world based on a picture book from the surface world. Yes, I would enclose them within a Wonderland of my own creation!
The spell did not take long to cast, and soon I found myself within the world as well; my enhanced magic was necessary to keep the image going. I chuckled as I perceived the red and white one attempting to dispel the illusion, and then set to work on providing obstacles to wear them down on their way to get to me. I knew I wouldn't be able avoid going into combat myself, but I could sure make it difficult on them.
My soldiers were danmaku firing playing cards and other youkai of my own devising. Several of them were indestructible, but not impassable; I set a giant Jack against them, though it was more for show than to be an actual challenge. No, I would be the one to kill them, by my own hand.
They approached looking much more tired than I was expecting; all except the witch that is. The others stayed back while she floated forward. She said, "That was fun… time for the main course, right?"
So she wanted to joke around? "I did miss dinner because of you." I said.
"I am quite tasty." She squinted in my direction. "Hey; aren't you that doll girl?"
I attempted a predatory grin, though based on the look she gave me, I'm not sure I succeeded. "I have this book, now; it has all of my most powerful spells, so you have no chance to survive!"
She grinned at me, bowed, and said, "Make your time."
I could feel my eyes light up like fire as rage overtook me; I opened the book and a magic circle appeared behind me. I shot out flames in a wide arc towards the witch, followed by a ring of bullets with an aimed stream of fire. The witch in purple was nimble, though, and dodged all over the place. She was using a missile type of bullet that was quite narrow, which meant that I could try to move out of the way better than I could have with that last opponent I faced. Still, her agility was such that I couldn't stay completely out of the way, especially since moving too much would weaken the incantations.
She bested my first pattern, so I turned up the heat a little: the next spell had flaming bullets which looked like fluttering wings coming out of either side of me while I shot straight aimed streams of bullets at her; to further limit her space the spell had waves of flames to either side of us. The fire couldn't hurt me, but it certainly would be harmful to her, and I attempted to maneuver her into it, but she wouldn't have any of it; sticking to the area between the 'wings' she dodged left and right to keep away from my aimed shots, all the while trying to wear me down with her own bullets. The book was enhancing my fortitude, but maintaining the illusionary world was draining me.
Since fire wasn't working, I figured I would try the opposite and see how it went. First I dialed down the temperature around us in the hope that it would slow her down, though that didn't exactly work; I began firing aimed ice bullets while emitting snowflake danmaku in a loose blanket pattern. I followed this up with a wide spiral of ice that was perhaps a little too wide; she had no difficulties getting between the bullets and staying out of harm's way. I repeated the pattern a few times, but found myself getting worn down; fortunately with every new spell I seemed to get a little invigorated, though the effect was lessened each time it happened.
I replaced the previous shotgun-like patterns with a more controlled one in the hopes of throwing her off; from eleven points around me I fired slow moving ice bullets which would bounce off of the walls of the illusion and form a lattice around her. No spaces in particular stayed safe for long, but unfortunately there was a pattern to where spots were safe, and she soon began moving in a way which allowed her to avoid every single shot.
Switching gears, I replaced the ice with lasers; I concentrated hard and aimed carefully before coalescing a solid beam straight at her. I was disappointed to find that she had time at the last second to get out of the way; I followed the laser with a series of rapidly firing but slow moving needles that shot out in an arc in front of me. The wily witch found the corridors in the attack and rode out the wave. I tried the laser again while shooting wide rings of needles, but again she got away.
Rather than just use a single beam, I decided to try something different; I started firing multiple lasers in an arc going back and forth in front of me; it wasn't continuous, however, and that was probably a mistake, since she was able to take refuge between the beams. I introduced rings of needles to the pattern, but it wasn't enough to faze her.
I was starting to get a little mad at the spectacle; those other three, though exhausted, seemed to be having much fun watching the fight. I dug deep for the next pattern and remembered something that mother had done; I started firing an arc of basic danmaku around me in even shots while loosing those homing 'lasers' that she had invented. I fired several of them, each one missing by mere inches. I got a little tired of that I fired several of them at once, again missing by a hair's length.
We kept this up for a few minutes before I decided to change things abruptly; rather than attack her from myself, I set up a location a little ways away from me to fire continuously a spray of bullets in four directions, each 'arm' going in the opposite direction of the one across from it. The density of bullets was staggering, and I was straining to maintain everything at that time. She was also looking a little winded, but also looked like she wasn't about to give up for anything; a few moments later and she forced me to stop my current spell.
I wasn't quite done yet; I started emitting arrows in a large spiral around me, not all of them spaced evenly as I had done in the past. Unfortunately the pattern was too simplistic to trick her and soon I was completely out of power. A huge magical explosion marked the end of the illusion and of my ability to defend myself; battered and bleeding from a few places, I barely had the power to hang there in my misery.
The witch approached me and said, "I'll be taking that." She reached to grab my book, and try as I might to pull away, I didn't have the energy to prevent it; the book, however, apparently did, as it emitted what appeared to be a quite painful electric shock.
The ghost flew forward and laughed, though it was not a malicious laugh. She said, "You can't touch that book; it's a grimoire, and it belongs to her."
The witch clucked her tongue. She grinned and said, "Oh well; that was a nice try, ze. You'll have to do better than that to stop us, though!" The other three nodded in agreement, and one by one they filed out through the hole in the barrier of Makai.
I was ashamed of myself; not only had I taken the book I was explicitly told not to touch and had once again left the castle without permission, but I had failed to win, even with the power of the book. What the ghost woman had said was true; the grimoire was now mine and no one else could touch it. I had looked back upon Makai, and could see the ruins for myself; it wasn't completely destroyed, but it would take a long time to rebuild…
I couldn't face my mother; I was genuinely afraid of what her reaction was going to be. I made my decision at that moment that I was going to leave Makai and never return. I flew through the hole that the witch had made and emerged into the land of Gensokyo.
That was the beginning of my week in hell…
