Witches' Duel

by Iced Fairy

Sequel to Walpurgisnacht, Patchouli's challenge finally comes due, leading the magicians of Gensoukyo and Makai to engage in a different contest then the usual danmaku.

This is a sequel to my Walpurgisnacht story. New readers should probably start there.

Kirke shook her head in astonishment as more and more people wandered into the Coliseum. "I knew there was a rift in the magical community, but this is ridiculous. We doubled the building's size and we just might run out of room at this rate." She gestured to the stadium seating. "This place should be able to hold four hundred thousand people. I didn't think there were four hundred thousand witches still alive."

Her two co-conspirators turned to each other, then shrugged. "While we witches might have been the first to act, the problem in the community is deeper than that," Alcina pointed out. "There's a large number of male magicians arriving as well."

Morgana gestured to the conspicuously empty sections in the front. "In addition it's a large event in general. One of the greater demon lords, Shinki, said she will be in attendance. And it's been ages since we've had a serious magical battle between anyone, much less two mage colleges."

"Even if one isn't a real mage college," Alcina muttered.

"Now sister, it's not like we had formal training either," Morgana said. "In our days it was apprenticeships, and your school was just who you learned from. The modern colleges are very different."

Kirke tapped her chin as she considered the two sister's words. That did make more sense. A magical realm's honor was at stake here. And there was a lot of bad blood to be settled. This was more than a fight between two schools. It was a clash of ideals.

"How amusing," she noted. "That the two groups fighting don't actually agree with the ideals they're going to be fighting for."

Alcina tapped her foot at that. "What do you mean by that Kirke?"

"The two seem like the quintessential magical college and group of realm dwellers," Morgana agreed.

Kirke pointed at where the college witches were plotting. "The Grey Briar College has always been a research group. They shun the artifice of other spellcasting schools in favor of pure spellcraft. Most magician groups pride themselves on increasing the amount of magic in the world. Each wand or magic ring they create brings the world closer to magical revolution. Or so they claim. To the average elder wizard, the Grey Briar School is just a bunch of useless theorists."

"Meanwhile while the Gensoukyo and Makai crew there are hardly uniform in purpose, they all have one trait the other independent magicians do not." Kirke pointed to each in turn. "They are leaders: high priests, duchesses, hunters, artisans and manipulators. Only Ellen there is a simple itinerant magician. While they lack our power, they are quite active in their spheres of influence."

"I see," Morgana said. The witch sisters looked at each group again. "So does this mean you think Brenda will lose?"

"No," Kirke admitted. "The power disparity is too great. On the Makai side only Byakuren and Ellen are over two hundred years old, and Alice and Marisa are both younger than thirty. In addition they suffer from being the challengers. But I think it might be close. And if the college witches underestimate their foes…" She left the thought unfinished.

Alcina looked over to the mirrors at the side. "Well then, shall we look in on our two groups?"

"Yes." Kirke moved to the left mirror. "The Grey Briar Collegiate will be done with their personal preparations first I imagine."

---

Jacqueline silently seethed as Brenda laid out the dossiers on their opponents. She had no idea why she had to be part of this little farce. After all it was hardly as if the little hedge wizard challenged their school. It was a private matter between Marie and that Patchouli girl. But Brenda was far too protective of her daughter, and the school headmistress was far too lenient on Brenda. Which meant that today instead of studying anti-heat like she wanted to, she was forced to risk her name on some damn fool contest.

Unfortunately she knew enough about politics to realize complaining would do little good. The headmistress had spoken, logic and reason be damned. And pointing out the headmistress' favoritism would only mean she'd be the scapegoat when something inevitably went wrong.

Grete on the other hand was not so savvy. Either that or the woman assumed her skill as a teacher shielded her from petty revenge. "I don't know why you're bothering with those 'reports,' Brenda. Especially given they're certain to be empty. The only one of those girls we can get any information on is Ellen, and even the Devil himself would be hard pressed to guess what spells she remembers any given day." The heavyset elder witch adjusted her glasses and turned her frown towards Marie. "You'd be better off teaching your daughter some trick to use against that Patchouli girl. Anyone who's mastered eastern and western sorcery is going to have a wide range of spells at their call."

Marie bristled at the attack, but the young woman wisely kept her mouth shut this time, letting Brenda keep control of the conversation. "I gathered these reports to better plan how to accept their challenges." She placed one folder in front of each person. "The headmistress was insistent that we make this victory as impressive as possible. We can't simply hide behind the rules and defeat these upstarts at their worst fields. We have to challenge them at their best."

Odette sniffed in contempt. The well-dressed witch was one of the few who had actually volunteered for this nonsense. "I suppose we have to show off just so the other colleges don't try to minimize our victory, but I don't see why we have to pretend that those wart curers have any skill. It would be much better to show off our best spells."

"You seem to be forgetting that we won't be in control of the contest after the first couple of challenges," Hannah pointed out quietly. Jacqueline idly wondered what the unassuming woman had done to get shoved off to this nonsense.

Odette snorted again, but didn't make any other comments. Brenda took that as a win and turned towards Jacqueline and the final member of their party. "So, do you two have anything to add?"

Magdalena looked up from her book just long enough to shake her head. Not surprising. The reclusive mage didn't like words. Or anything other than reading for that matter. Jacqueline had to force the woman out of her nightclothes and into a reasonable dress for the contest.

Sighing Jacqueline looked over the dossier in front of her. 'Mai. No last name, no known family, master unknown, baroness of Makai specializing in demons. Owns a mansion filled with succubi.' She looked back up at Brenda. "So what exactly are we supposed to do with this… 'information'?"

"I know. I know. Do whatever you can," Brenda muttered.

Jacqueline shook her head and opened one of her grimoires on demonology. She could only hope Odette's arrogance was well placed. Otherwise this was going to be a disaster.

---

Alice did her best to shoo Yumeko out the door. "We'll be fine." She pointed to where Sakuya, Ichirin and Alouette were standing down the hallway. "You're making the other maids nervous. Go keep an eye on mother and keep her from doing anything foolish."

Yumeko frowned but finally bowed. "My apologies. You know how your mother worries. I'll try to comfort her but…"

Alice smiled. "I know you're worried as well. I'll try not to do anything excessive."

"Please." Yumeko bowed then headed off. Alice quickly closed the door before someone else came up with a last minute reason to bother them. She had enough problems without others adding to them.

"I think we're finally alone, though I'm sure mother is spying on us remotely," she said.

Byakuren winced. "My apologies."

"I'm kinda jealous you all have fangirls," Marisa said. "Ellen and I didn't get anyone. Well I suppose there was Koakuma…."

"She counts as a crowd by herself." Patchouli nodded as she finished sketching out a rune. "And you're right Alice. Two people are scrying on us. One is obviously using Makai magic, and the other is using a Greek spell so probably our host."

"Why would our hosts spy on us?" Yuki muttered.

Ellen shrugged. "Kirke does things like that sometimes. It's witchy I guess."

"She was pushing this fight for some reason," Alice said. "Though in the end it doesn't matter for us. We just have to win."

"So explain again how this contest goes would you Ellen?" Byakuren said. "I think I understand the details but it's still a little confusing."

Ellen scratched her head. "Um… Let me think…."

"I remember. Correct me if I get something wrong Ellen," Patchouli said. The purple robed mage drew seven lines in the sand. "We pick our order. They pick theirs. Contests are one on one, in succession. No contest can be lethal. Whichever team is currently losing gets to pick what the specific contest will be, though the three witnesses have the power to overrule picks that are unfair or too dangerous."

"Most importantly each of us bets a small item or spell on the match." Patchouli grimaced. "Which you all know, because I provided the collateral."

"Only fair, since this was your fault," Alice stated.

Patchouli sighed. "Anyway, there's one more rule. The witch picking the contest may ask what their opponent's specialty in magic is and challenge them in that field. Whoever triumphs may ask an additional small boon. That I can't cover, because they get to request it directly. The witnesses can intercede though."

Baykuren frowned at that. "I see. How trustworthy is Kirke, Ellen? And what about the other two girls?"

"Don't worry about Kirke. She's a nice person. I know because she likes my fluffy magic," Ellen said. Alice raised an eyebrow at that, given Kirke known history, but she didn't bother trying to correct the elder witch. "Morgana and Alcina are a little more uptight. They know a lot of animal spells, and illusion spells, but they aren't as nice. I don't think they'll let this become a big bloody thing though."

"Remilia's on our side as well," Patchouli said. "That should keep things toned down somewhat."

Yuki sniffed. "Forgive me if I don't trust a vampire to keep things clean. She seemed like she wanted to rip someone's heart out when she was in here."

"She was just showing off in front of your devils," Alice replied, rolling her eyes. "Best to ignore it."

"So then, what's our plan Patchy?" Marisa asked. "I mean I know MY plan, but I want to know what I'm screwing up before I do it. It's no fun if I mess things up by accident."

Patchouli started writing names on the sand. "Fortunately for my health, my plan is only the order we should go in. Everything else will have to be improvised anyway." Patchy finished scribbling down the names. "Ellen goes first, because she's the hardest one to read. If our opponents have any plans she'll mess them up."

"You can count on me!" Ellen said, pumping her fist in the air.

"Next I will go. Leclerc has no chance against me." Patchouli smiled. "That should put them fully on the defensive. The mental dissonance will cause them to make mistakes."

"Because their arrogance and fear of losing will be in conflict," Byakuren said as she nodded appreciatively. "A sound strategy. They'll doubt themselves."

Mai's eyes narrowed. "Can you do it?"

Yuki blinked then nodded at Mai's comment. "You can be sure they've prepared for you Patchouli. You're damn good, but Ellen's not going to lose, which means that Marie girl's going to set the rules."

Patchouli's smile didn't fade. "True. But there's no way a quickly learned rote spell can defeat me. After all, I'm skilled in all magical fields."

"Hm? Even things like love spells?" Alice said absentmindedly. She looked up to see everyone staring at her. "W-what! It was just the first thing that came to mind!"

Patchouli blushed. "Well I'm actually good with those…" It was Alice's turn to stare at her friend's revelation. "I was a teenager with a succubus familiar. You end up learning spells," Patchouli muttered. "It's not like I used them on anyone except my fiancé anyway."

"Fiance?" Marisa asked with wide eyes.

Patchouli coughed. "Another time." She returned to writing down the order. "ANYWAY, after I go Yuki will challenge her opponent." Patchouli's expression grew more serious. "No offense Yuki, but you'll probably have the hardest matchup. Transmutation is one of the Grey Briar College's specialties. They'll probably have their own unique techniques to use."

"Hmph. We'll see." Yuki shrugged, but Alice could tell the fire magician stood a little straighter at the explanation. She was obviously taking things more seriously.

"Either way Marisa will go next to throw them off balance again," Patchouli said. "That should get rid of any confidence they have.

Marisa's grin widened. "I can do off balance."

"Just don't challenge them to sleight of hand," Alice said. Marisa's scowl showed she'd headed off at least one potential embarrassment.

Patchouli rolled her eyes then scratched down the last three names. "Byakuren is another easy win. Brenda's more a college politician then a mage. Mai and Alice should simply wrap things up nicely."

Mai nodded, then pointed at Alice's name. "The crowd might get annoyed."

"The crowd is why Alice is going last," Patchouli admitted.

"Thank you for remembering I hate public contests of strength. Especially one that will be happening in front of my mother," Alice said. "It would have been nice if you'd remembered it earlier of course."

Patchouli had the grace to look slightly embarrassed. "Sorry, but this is the danger of being an active witch." Alice had an urge to smack the purple robed mage with her grimoire, but she held her peace. She'd argued the matter with Patchouli before, and she would again. But now was not the time.

"Don't worry. It'll be over by then," Mai stated with a smirk.

"I'm glad to see you all are confident." Alice turned at the sudden voice. Standing at the door was the red robed witch Morgana. "I take it you're ready for the contest itself?"

"Ready as we'll ever be," Marisa said.

"Then please follow me to the grounds," Morgana said.

Alice gripped her grimoire tighter as they filed out. Hopefully the butterflies in her stomach would leave when the contest itself got underway.

---

As Patchouli walked out onto the sands of the Coliseum the roar of the crowd hit her like a slap. She instinctively froze and looked around, marveling at the crowd. She hadn't seen this many people in one place since Hong Kong. Even more amazing is that the noise wasn't the raucous cheering of a sporting event. The staggering noise right now was just the sound of thousands of people, all chattering with their neighbors at once.

For a moment she craved the silent stillness of her library.

Patchouli shook her head and forced herself to stride proudly onto the sands. Well, levitate proudly anyway. She'd invested far too much in this to retreat now. Besides her friends were risking more for less in this contest.

As she walked she did take her time to view the nearest stands. Remilia of course was in the front row, sitting next to Shinki and acting as if she was on par with the Goddess of an entire realm. Yumeko was probably fantasizing about cutting her friend's head off already. The Makai maid already was on edge because of her one sided rivalry with Sakuya. Fortunately Remi seemed to be on her best behavior, and Sakuya was busy attending to Flandre, Meiling, and the Myouren temple crew, who were sitting to Remi's left.

To Shinki's right Yuki and Mai's demon allies were sitting along with Koakuma. Patchouli was surprised to see Koakuma had acquired the coveted position next to Shinki herself, though given the look on her familiar's face the little devil wasn't as happy about it as some of her sisters were. Perhaps Shinki was grilling Koa about Alice's life in Gensoukyo. That would be an interesting conversation to hear. Too bad she'd have to miss it.

Looking across at where their opponents were walking out, Patchouli smirked. Their opponent's guest box held only a few stern faced witches, and the crowd behind them seemed less emotionally invested in the matter. The Grey Briar College was going to feel the pressure.

Between the two groups stood the three overseers, Alcina's red dress and Morgana's blue dress made them seem like guardian oni next to Kirke's more intricate silver and black raiment. Patchouli knew Kirke by her reputation, and Morgana and Alcina were apparently very similar. The two sisters were around two thousand years old, and specialized in illusions and turning people they didn't like into objects. Staggeringly old fashioned in her mind, but good proper witch behavior.

Patchouli floated over to a respectable distance, Alice and Marisa flanking her. Yuki and Mai walked confidently next to Alice, while Ellen happily pulled Byakuren alongside Marisa. Across from them Brenda led the college witches, something that she was sure rankled Marie. Patchouli made sure to give her target a smirk, which caused the other woman to grimace in annoyance.

The two groups reached the circle that indicated the immediate dueling area at almost the same time and stopped. Patchouli looked over each of the witches opposite her, wondering what secrets they held. Not all of them could be as laughably incompetent as Brenda and Marie after all.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Kirke stepped forward. "This contest between the Grey Briar College and Mahalah Barony will begin. I, Kirke daughter of Hecate, stand as head judge. Alcina and Morganna Strada stand as my assistants. Is this acceptable for both parties?"

"We have no problem with this," Brenda stated.

Patchouli double checked her friend's faces to make sure there wasn't a problem, then turned back to Kirke. "That is fine," she said.

"Very well. You know the rules, and the crowd has been informed of them, so we will skip that explanation." Kirke stepped back. "If the Barony of Mahalah would send forth its first contestant, we could begin."

"Ooh! I get to go first!" Ellen ran into the circle, swinging her cat up on top of her head. "I'm Ellen Fuwafuwaatama Aureus!"

Patchouli felt safe in chuckling as the crowd laughed at Ellen's announcement. Kirke smiled and stepped back. "Then in deference to the friendship between me and Ellen, Alcina shall be head officiate for this contest."

Alcina moved to take Kirke's place. "Who will receive Ellen's challenge?"

There was a pause, then the woman who had been reading the whole time sighed, closed her book, then stepped forward. "Magdalena Nightshade," the woman said.

"Hi," Ellen chirped. Magdelena raised an eyebrow at the happy greeting, but then turned her attention back to her book after a nod in reply.

Both the crowd and Alcina didn't seem to quite know what to think of the matchup. Alcina did her best to get things back on track though. "What field of magic would you like to use, Magdelena," she asked.

Magdelena sighed and said, "I wish to challenge Ellen in the school of magic she knows best." The statement was obviously forced. Apparently someone was pulling the strings from the back to make this look like a blowout. Patchouli nodded to herself. That was to be expected. However…

Ellen beamed at the challenge. "Okay! I'm best at fluffy magic!" There was a pause as Magdelena snapped out of her bored reverie to look at Ellen in shock, then the entire stadium rocked with laughter.

Patchouli nodded again. No plan could survive contact with Ellen.

As Ellen started to look confused by the time Alcina managed to recover herself. "There is no fluffy school of magic," the tourney organizer stated bluntly.

"There isn't?" Ellen looked confused. "Um, then, we could see who has the best kitty? That's a type of magic right?" She held her feline minion out at arm's length as if to offer it as proof. Ellen's cat meowed pleadingly at Kirke as if to request freedom from such a silly contest. This time Marisa and Yuki joined the crowd in laughing. Magdalena was just standing there blinking, while Alcina was moving her hands as if she was trying to summon words and failing.

"If I could make a suggestion." Everyone turned to see Kirke smiling at the sidelines. "Ellen is something of an oracle. Her best magic would be fortune telling."

Ellen's face fell. "But Kiiiirke. I don't like fortune telling. No one's ever happy when I tell them their fortune. And then it happens and they get more angry."

"It is your best field of magic though?" Alicna asked.

Ellen pouted. "Yes."

At this point even Patchouli was feeling a little lost. She hadn't realized Ellen could pout at all, much less that the woman was so good at it.

"Then fortune telling," Magdelina said quietly.

"Are you sure you don't want to compare cats?" Ellen asked hopefully.

"I have mice," the quiet college witch replied.

Ellen sighed, then nodded. "That's fair." Ellen straightened up. "So how about we predict the results of this contest?"

Morgana stepped forward to back up her sister. "That seems like a decent challenge. The six matches of your compatriots?"

"But there are seven matches," Ellen said. "We should do all of them."

Everyone, even Kirke, fell silent. Patchouli gave Ellen another look over. Fortune telling was easy. Accurate fortune telling was hard. Telling your own future was nearly impossible.

Patchouli wasn't good at prophecy, but she'd learned a lot about it. Over time she'd learned Remilia's 'fate manipulation' was in fact simply a perfect ability to tell the future. But a clever mind given time could turn that into a terrifying ability to manipulate events. And the one thing Remilia could not do was see her own fate. After all, how can you see a future that is being changed by you seeing the future?

But Ellen said she could do it. Maybe there was a trick to it that Patchouli didn't know? If so no one else seemed to know it either. It was an impossible challenge.

Magdalena however simply took a deep breath and nodded. "I accept." Patchouli was impressed at the other woman's courage.

Alcina seemed similarly respectful. "Then if both sides are agreed, the contest shall occur. Now for the additional bet. Ellen may ask first as is customary."

"If I win you have to give me marshmallows!" Ellen said, wagging her finger at the other witch.

"Smores," Magdelena replied.

Ellen nodded. "Done!"

Alcina opened her mouth, looked back and forth at the two, the shook her head and returned to the contest. With a wave of her wand she summoned two desks with writing materials. "Please write the outcome of the seven contests and seal the results within the envelopes. There should be no magic on the papers, as you two both know."

"Okay!" Ellen nodded happily then pulled out several coins. Everyone watched as the girlish witch scattered the coins on the ground, then nodded, swept them up and began writing. It wasn't any spell Patchouli was familiar with, but Kirke seemed to nod slightly at it.

Her opponent shook her head slowly, then pulled out a mirror and began chanting. Patchouli was slightly confused. Mirror telling was common, but generally vague. How was the woman going to get results off of that?

Patchouli's question was answered when the woman pulled out a deck of tarot cards and began shuffling them. Apparently the woman was planning on combining several predictions and using logic and guesswork to piece together a fortune. It was actually a pretty clever idea.

After making three draws the woman sighed, closed her eyes, then opened her book and slammed a finger on a page. Magdelena shook her head then scribbled down her own prediction.

Seeing the two were finished, Alcina and Morgana stepped forward and took the two sealed envelopes. "The winner will be determined at the end." Alcina smirked. "And for the benefit of the people making wagers, please don't give your results to anyone else." The crowd groaned and laughed in equal measure at the pronouncement.

Ellen sighed. "Okaaaaay."

"Damn," Patchouli muttered. She was confident in her success, but it would be really nice to know for sure. Which was probably why Alcina had made the proclamation.

"You did well I'm sure," Baykuren said as Ellen rejoined the crew. The gradient haired woman scratched behind Socrates' ears making both the cat and its master happy.

Kirke moved to reclaim her position as moderator. "Since the first contest has yet to be officially decided, the score is still tied. Let the next challenger step forward."

Patchouli took a deep breath, then levitated into the circle. "I Patchouli Knowledge, kabbahlist of the elementalist school, stand for the Barony of Mahalah." The upsurge in voices at her declaration from the crowd surprisingly lifted her spirits.

Across the circle Marie wiped her hands on her dress, then stepped into the circle across the way. "In the name of the Grey Briar College, I Marie Leclerc accept your challenge." The other woman hesitated and looked back towards her mother before coughing and saying, "I challenge you in the field of animal summoning and control." A bit of the hateful gleam returned to the woman's eyes. "Assuming you know any spells in that field of course."

"Hehehe." Patchouli couldn't help but chuckle. "That was almost clever Marie. You were smart enough to realize I'd be skilled at emotion manipulation spells because of my familiar. But it won't be clever enough." She turned to Kirke. "I accept the challenge."

"Very well." Kirke held up her hands. "We shall judge based on the rarity of animals, number of animals and level of control after summoning. I trust you are both familiar with the customs?"

"Yes," Patchouli and Marie both agreed.

Kirke stepped back and whispered a quick warding spell to keep errant summons controlled. "Marie shall go first."

Patchouli narrowed her eyes in concentration as her foe pulled out a simple wand and waved it in the air a few times to get its balance. Patchouli wasn't really a fan of wands herself, so she didn't know why the tool was needed, but she was certain that it was no simple summoning. As the other witch began her incantation while waving the wand, Patchouli began to understand. Marie was using the wand to control two separate spells at once. The small stick served like a conductor's baton, drawing forth the correct spell when Marie was ready for it, while preventing the ambient energy from fading away.

Finally Marie flourished the wand and finished the two spells, the final summoning command serving to end both. There was a rush of wind and energy as the magic reached out to fulfill the other witches' command. Then nothing.

There was a moment of silence, then sections of the crowd began to giggle. Patchouli simply waited. She had little respect for the other magician but it seemed unlikely Marie would just fail.

Socrates' bored meow was the first sign of the summoned creatures. A perfectly black cat hopped out from somewhere and ambled over to Marie without even sparing Ellen's cat a glance. Marie however didn't spare it a glance, instead looking to the sky.

The reason for that soon became clear as a pure white owl flew down to land on her wrist. Marie flinched as the heavy weight settled onto her arm, but the owl did its best to help the woman keep her balance. Patchouli was mildly impressed. It was difficult to keep a bird of prey from just sinking its claws into its perch, much less convincing it to help with its weight.

"Marie Leclerc's spell is complete." Both Patchouli and Marie started as Kirke stepped forward to make her pronouncement. "Patchouli Knowledge, it is your turn."

Patchouli nodded then carefully began braiding her hair. It was harder then she remembered. With Koakuma around to help her out it seemed she'd gotten lazy.

The crowd started muttering after a few minutes, but Patchouli pretended to ignore them. She wasn't much of a street performer, but Alice had taught her a few tricks. She snorted in amusement at the thought. It seemed she was as willing to steal as Marisa in some areas.

Finally Marie cracked and laughed at her. "This is a magic contest, not a beauty contest. Not that you'd have a chance there either," the woman said, placing her free hand on her hip. The crowd gave her a laugh at that. "Don't tell me you haven't learned a single animal summoning spell?"

Patchouli finished off tying the last braid and smiled at Marie. "Well, kabbahlists like myself aren't good at animal summoning no. We focus more on controlling animals that are already there. Which means I'm going to have to be a little more forceful with my summons. And that would make long hair a problem."

"So when do we get to see this oh so impressive spell?" Marie asked as the cat she summoned yawned.

Patchouli carefully pulled out a knife. "I'm going to create it right now."

The first spell was purely mental, a mystical circle in her mind to help sort her own double layered spells. This was one of her magic's strengths, the ability to combine magic without implements or threading thoughts.

As the circles expanded within her mind she slashed her palm lightly and squeezed. The pain made the circle in her mind hazy for a moment, but her usual coughing was a bigger distraction then this minor pain was. She took a deep breath, then another, as blood dripped from her hand into the ground.

She began chanting the spells, each syllable leading into the other spell, runes forming one after another on their respective circles. As the runes spread to life, the inner circle began to glow bright scarlet as it lapped up her blood, while the outer circle began to shimmer with the silver light of the moon. And with it Patchouli felt the exhilaration as magic flowed through her to create a new spell.

The rush didn't last though. It wasn't enough of a new spell to trigger the gleam of the true magic. As the runes filled the circles bit by bit her voice became strained, and she felt a cough starting to form in her chest. But she'd pushed through harder spells before. She focused her mind on the effects, demanding reality bend to her whims, as she cast the final two syllables into the air.

The two circles crystalized in reality, then split apart. The outer circle rose into the air and contracted, slowly settling around Patchouli's brow like a crown, before dispersing back into the ether. The lower circle on the other hand just shattered into a bloody mist, with glittering shards slowly disappearing into the light fog.

Patchouli took the free moment to cough a few times. She'd have to refine the spell a bit later.

High pitched squeaking was the first sign that her summons had worked. Marie yelped and looked around to see if there were mice or rats about, while Kirke and Alcina quickly threw up small vermin wards. Morgana, apparently being a little quicker to guess the truth, looked to the skies.

The rush of bats was more impressive than even Patchouli had expected. There were probably only fifty or so, but the fluttering wings all around her head made her stumble even though she'd been prepared for them. Of course the small creatures happily helped their 'weaker' friend by landing on her and chirping their friendship. The wisdom of tying up her hair was made evident when three of the flying rodents latched on to her braid.

Of course she wasn't going to let all fifty bats land on her, and fortunately the bats understood that. When space on her filled up they fluttered back towards her allies, with mixed results. "Damn it Patchy," Marisa whined as the bats latched on to her hat. "Why am I covered in bloodsucking winged rats?"

"Vampire bats are generally nice creatures, if a little stifling," Patchouli said as she handed off one of the clingier ones to Alice's doll. "You've dealt with affectionate vampires before. These can be handled similarly."

"Oi! What are you saying Patchy!" The crowd laughed as Remilia yelled in from the sidelines.

Fortunately the howl of the other summons prevented her from having another comedy moment with her friend. Everyone shut up and stared as three great dire wolves slowly padded out of the mist. The five foot tall canines slowly padded over to Patchouli's side, then moved to flank her, accepting her as leader of the pack. It probably would have looked very imposing if she wasn't tiny and covered in bats.

It was still imposing enough to get Marie to take a step back and send the girl's summoned cat scurrying behind her though. Patchouli smiled. "My spell is finished."

Kirke nodded in reply. "So it is. I believe I will vote for you in this contest. Do the other witnesses disagree?" Morgana shook her head while Alcina gave Kirke a grimace and an eye roll. "Then the winner of this match is Patchouli Knowledge."

Patchouli's smile twisted into a sneer as she looked over to where Marie was quaking in her little shoes. "So Marie. Where's your confidence now?" She rested an arm on one of the wolves. "Did the little 'hedge magician' beat you at you own game? Using big scary vampire magics?"

Marie opened and closed her mouth then turned and fled to her mother's side, her summoned creatures running with her. As the crowd applauded Patchouli turned around and floated back to her own group.

"Are you satisfied?" Alice asked as Shanghai moved to acquire some more bats.

"Yes," Patchouli replied.

Marisa carefully pulled at an exceptionally clingy vampire bat. "Great. Now are you going to unsummon these soon?"

Patchouli blinked. "Hrm… I don't think I've ever seem Remi actually unsummon the creatures. She usually just tells them to leave."

Byakuren shook her head. "Oh dear. Your spell won't do that. You'll need to send them back to their proper dimension manually."

"Nice one Patchouli," Yuki muttered.

Patchouli felt her face heating up and she opened a book to hide her blush. "It'll be easy to handle. You're up next anyway. Go turn your opponent into fire or something."

Yuki smiled. "Sure thing. Just keep your new friends from interfering."

---

Yuki stretched as she stepped up towards the circle. Alice might hate this whole event, and she'd gotten the idea Byakuren considered it a mistake, but she'd been looking forward to this fight for a while. Makai was a realm of magicians, and as much as she hated to admit it, her success was mainly political. Yuki and Mai had made a very nice mansion and that's it. The other Makai magicians looked at them as dabblers, and the magicians outside of Makai didn't hear about them at all.

Now was a good time to fix that.

She strode up to the circle before turning and waving to the Makai crowd. Her retainers exploded into applause and cheers, which the rest of the crowd picked up on. Yuki smiled, then quickly turned back to the event before she could be penalized for grandstanding. Or one of the succubi threw something inappropriate at her. She adjusted her hat and nodded to Kirke. "Yuki, magician of Makai."

"Very well." Kirke pretended to ignore her politicking and turned to the college witches standing across the circle. "Who accepts Yuki's challenge?"

A witch wearing deep purple and carrying a staff stepped forward. "Hannah Chaput accepts your

challenge." The woman raised an eyebrow. "I have heard your best school is transmutation. Is that correct?"

Yuki started at that. She hadn't expected her opponent to know anything about her, much less what spells she was skilled in. "Yes. I'm a master of elemental transmutation and fire magic."

"And I happen to be a teacher in the field of transmutation. A very long lived and honorable field for us witches." Hannah cradled her staff and looked over to Kirke. "I believe a duel of shapes would be a good match for two witches of our caliber, no?" The crowd began chattering at the declaration. This was one of the ten traditional challenges, and everyone recognized it.

Yuki grimaced. She was losing the control she had been trying to build up. "I agree to your challenge, so long as the judges are willing to prepare such a contest."

Kirke coughed. "There is no need to rush," the ancient witch chided. "However I do agree that a duel of form is a strong one. Would clay be an appropriate medium?"

Yuki shook her head. Earth manipulation wasn't something she found fun. "I'd prefer smoke." She turned to see her opponent's choice.

"Shadow or smoke are my preferred mediums," the other witch stated.

"Hm. I don't really see how it matters myself, but smoke it is." Yuki rolled her eyes at Kirke's pronouncement, then smirked as she caught her opponent doing the same. Hannah shrugged. Of course a three thousand year old witch would have no issues transmuting any and everything. Mere mortals like them would have to stick to more familiar forms. Not that Yuki couldn't improvise of course, but…

Yuki's thoughts were cut off as Alcina and Morgana brought out braziers filled with leaves. Morganna put one of the metal bowls in front of her, while Alcina placed the other in front of Hannah. Yuki took a deep breath and focused her mind as Kirke stepped forward to place green leaves on the coals. As the smoke began to rise Kirke stepped back to address both of them. "Yuki you may ask the additional wager."

"A unique spell of the school of transmutation," Yuki replied simply. The chance to loot another witch's best spells didn't come every day.

Hannah thought for a moment. "I offer two spells, but if I win I may ask you or your servants for a year and a day of work."

Yuki grimaced but then nodded. It was a fairly standard exchange, and there were a lot of rules protecting people under oath of service. Not to mention she didn't think she'd lose. "Accepted, though the demons are Mai's as well."

"I see. That works," Hannah replied with a shrug. "I was planning on having them do paperwork mostly."

Seeing the negotiations were over Kirke stepped forward. "The duel of shapes is one of the oldest duels in the magical traditions. Each of you will use your energy to empower the smoke with the attributes of a creature, item or concept. You will each continue until your spell fails or your chosen transformation fails to overpower the others."

Kirke looked to Hannah. "Hannah shall go first. Begin whenever you are ready."

Hannah nodded, then looked at the smoke and raised her staff. The smoke twisted then began to spin upwards. "I am a hawk, eyes searching, hunting weakness." The smoke hawk snapped open its wings and Yuki began to see the feathers in her mind.

A traditional opening Yuki noted as she expanded her mind into the flame. Slightly defensive and designed to determine the opponent's attack style. But still a threat.

Yuki would oblige her opponent's curiosity. She reached into the smoke, and twisted its power apart. "I am lightning, striking down all to the ground." She felt the crackle of electricity as her miniature lightning bolt ripped through the smoke.

Hannah planted her staff in the ground. "I am steel, corralling and binding the lightning." Yuki felt her power drawn to the smoky lightning rod forming. And she followed it down, losing her mind in the smoky alternate reality.

The steel surrounded her and caged her, but now she was inside it. The metal walls were solid and unflinching here, but she knew a way to defeat them. She shifted her form, changing from energy to a pure idea. "I am rust, eater of metal," she said as she bound herself to the steel and began corrupting it.

As she leeched away at the steel she felt her opponent put her full mind into the contest. "I am acid, burning away the rust." Yuki hissed as her meal dissipated and turned into a horrific bath of burning liquid. Her smoky form was slowly bubbling away.

Her mind spun around for a counter. She considered glass, but that was merely running away. She needed to muster up some defense as well. Finally as a part of her crumbled off she thought of a solution. "I am the soil. Absorbing acid." The burning went away, replaced by the strange feeling of someone else's mind trapped within her. She could feel her opponent trying to fizzle her body away, but the earth could handle it.

There was a wrenching change as her opponent shifted again. "I am plant. Growing from the earth." The other witch became a seed, then sprouted into a beautiful flowering tree, all the while taking Yuki's power for her own.

There were ways to reverse this Yuki knew, but she wasn't that good at earth spells, and she was starting to notice her opponent was skilled at leeching and absorbing powers. It was time to play her trump card.

"I am fire, consuming wood."

With those words she caught the tree alight. She heard the gasp of the crowd, probably because her smoke had exploded. Yuki didn't mind those details though. She simply let herself burn, sending fiery petals raining across the mental landscape. Her foe twisted against the sudden assault, almost losing control of her form.

Of course the counter was quick to come. "I am water, extinguishing fire." Yuki shuddered as the tree collapsed into a pool, her body hissing away as her fuel became cooling liquid. The shift almost was painful, given how much Yuki was throwing into the transformations.

But she could tell that water wasn't her foe's real element. It was time to show the witches of the world her true power.

"I AM FIRE," she proclaimed, "boiling water, banishing steam!" And at her words the flames responded, searing away the cursed water, and sending her foe flying away as the steam was pushed from her flame's heat.

Yuki reveled in her power, but her joy vanished as cold blackness surrounded her. Her flames coughed and sputtered as the void pulled on her. "I am space, the vast emptiness where there is nothing to burn," the silence echoed. And in that terrifying silence Yuki realized what her opponent's soul truly was.

Just as she had become one with fire to learn the ultimate transformation, her opponent had become one with the void, to understand the ultimate mystery.

But that didn't matter.

She summoned her soul and threw her power into her form. "I AM FIRE. THE HEART OF STARS, THE LIGHTS OF THE UNIVERSE. BURNING EVEN IN SPACE!" She exploded into radiance, a tiny sun in an endless galaxy of nothingness.

But her foe did not relent. She fell the nothingness shift again. "I am nothing, before the sun-"

"STOP THIS INSTANT!"

Yuki flopped onto the ground as a mighty wind blew the smoke in front of her away. Looking up dizzily she saw her opponent on the ground as well, wreathed in darkness deeper than the sky. Above them both stood Kirke, fury evident on the older woman's face. "This was meant to be a contest, not a death duel! Throwing your souls at each other is in violation of the rules!"

Yuki looked down to see she had caught fire herself and squelched the magical blaze. "Why not? I was winning!" She forced herself to her feet and pointed at Hannah. "I can survive anything that woman can toss at me, and she doesn't seem weak enough to keel over either. Let's finish this."

"Exactly," Hannah all but hissed. The woman's reserved expression had vanished, replaced by an arrogant smile. "That girl won't die just from having her soul crushed in darkness. I bet she'll only be insane for a day!"

"Hmph. Kill yourselves on your own time," Alcina snapped. "I move to disqualify both contestants, for unreasonable escalation."

"Seconded," Morgana said. "I'm not going to be responsible for cleaning these two up."

"Confirmed," Kirke snapped her fingers. "The match is a tie due to dual forfeit."

The crowd broke out in shouts at that, many disappointed, some just shocked. Yuki snarled and tried to shake the smoldering feeling in her chest. "We'd almost finished too. I was going to toss the big bang at her next. If she managed to go back before time existed in the first place of course."

"You were going to try," Hannah snorted. "Though you've got a lot of guts to attempt that."

"Both of you are insane," Kirke muttered. "Go back to your sides before I turn you into lambs to learn about caution."

Yuki snarled, then locked gazes with the college witch. "We'll settle this later it seems."

"I'm glad to hear you say that." Hannah bowed though the woman's wolfish grin only widened. "You're far better than most of the halfwit fools who try to learn my spells. That flame of yours would look quite nice bound in my lab for a year and a day."

"Too bad you'll be bowing before me and begging me to take your spells instead," Yuki replied.

The other witch laughed, then waved and turned away. "We shall see… later. Until then, Yuki."

"Later," Yuki replied with her own cocky wave. She turned back and headed over to where Mai and Alice were waiting.

Her fiery passion cooled as she saw the two other Makai magicians glaring at her. Even more disturbing was Shanghai holding a little noose. "What? I'm sorry I didn't win it, but it wasn't my fault. And we didn't lose either, right?"

Mai stepped forward and smacked her upside the head. "Idiot," the ice mage whispered harshly.

Yuki blinked in surprise. "But, I mean-"

Her protests were cut off as Shanghai smacked her in the back of the head with a book. Yuki decided that it was probably a good idea to start apologizing, then ask Marisa or Patchouli how she'd screwed up later.

---

Grete adjusted her dress as Hannah walked back from the field with that twisted smile on her face. "What was all that nonsense? You're acting like a villain in a street play."

Hannah shrugged. "You wouldn't understand Grete. You never had this kind of drive. You never understood the desire to tear yourself apart, just to learn a little bit of the universe's secrets." The other witch sighed. "Though I admit some of that was our powers reacting to each other. There's no way I could pass up that challenge."

"You should have," Brenda snapped. "We've gone from a certain win to a tie."

"It would have been an insult to win on a detail like that," Hannah replied. "Besides sometimes you need to risk yourself for knowledge."

"Pah," Grete shook her head. "Risk is a sign of incompetence. If you've done your work right you should be certain of the outcome."

Hannah shrugged again and walked over to the sidelines. "Hm… I wonder how far that attitude will take you Grete. Well we'll soon see. After all it's your match."

Grete looked up to see the Kirisame girl approaching the inner circle and her frown deepened. It was insane asking her to duel this… this… child! She couldn't view the blonde witch as anything other than a particularly troublesome student. That face belonged behind a desk, trying to conjure the chalk into frogs, not having a mage duel in an arena. Though Grete supposed the fools in the stands were a fitting replacement for the other students such a troublemaker appealed to.

But she wasn't running this show. Which meant, as usual, something simple would get screwed up and she'd have to fix it. Which was a fairly good explanation for this whole farce, really. She grumbled to herself as she began walking to the circle herself.

Kirke looked over to the Gensoukyo witch first. "Who stands for the Mahalah Barony?"

The witch girl adjusted her hat. "Me. Marisa Kirisame, student of Mima."

Grete blinked at the statement. While the report on the girl had mentioned this Mima, the witch didn't seem important enough to merit a mention. Kirke seemed nonplussed. "Mima?"

"She's a spooky ghost witch who eats good children who can't get home fast enough," Marisa replied cheerily while waggling her fingers. "Fortunately I was a bad kid who ran away from home so she taught me how to shoot lasers instead." The crowd, of course, laughed.

"Fair enough." Kirke seemed to accept the foolish grandstanding. "Who stands to receive the challenge?"

"I Grete von Strauss, head lecturer at the college, accept the challenge," she managed to reply.

Kirke nodded and stepped back. "As the score is currently one win and one tie in the barony's favor, what do you wish the challenge to be?"

Sighing Grete repeated the meaningless words she'd been ordered to say. "I would ask what this chi-, ahem, Marisa Kirisame considers her best field."

"Combat magic," the black white witch replied with a grin.

"What!?" Grete's jaw dropped at the statement. "You are an herbalist, no? A master with mushrooms. A potion maker!"

Marisa's smile didn't fade at all. "Yeah, but that's more a side thing. My job is youkai extermination. My best magic is combat magic." The crowd began muttering at that. Of course they would! Reasonable mages would consider such a duel barbaric, and the people of Maki would find youkai extermination something of a threat.

"That is undignified. Unseemly. And this is supposed to be a safe contest!" Grete sputtered in protest.

The young girl put her hands behind her head. "We can use danmaku. I'm really good at that. Of course sometimes the youkai, and even some humans, don't play nice and you have to kill them. But that shouldn't be a problem here, right?" Marisa's eyes narrowed slightly. "And you can't get out of this one. You want my best, you pull out some spellcards. Combat duels are one of the oldest duel types as well, and danamku was designed specifically to allow it in contests like this."

Grete clenched her jaw. She was stuck. There was no way she could win in some aerial battle game. She was a researcher, not a warrior. She'd have to ditch Brenda's 'plan.' "Very well then. I challenge you to a contest of herbalism." She ignored the mutterings of the crowd and Brenda's hissing behind her.

"Well, that's my second best field so I guess I gotta accept," Marisa said, before twirling her broom and setting it aside. "What spell have you decided to show off then?"

"Well…" Grete looked to where Kirke was officiating. The elder witch just shrugged at the violation of protocol. "I shall demonstrate the creation of life with natural magic."

That got the class, well crowd's, attention. Creating life with alchemy was well understood, if hard. Doing it with standard herbalism was far more difficult. From the way the young witch's smile faded it seemed Marisa knew that well. The young witch sighed then shrugged. "Sure. Let's do it."

"It seems the contest has been agreed upon." Kirke motioned to her aids and the two sisters both conjured up cauldrons and tables loaded with supplies. "Will either of you require more specialized ingredients for your work?"

Grete reviewed the items on the ingredients table. It seemed a well-chosen selection. "No, this should be sufficient."

Marisa looked over the table. "I got some of what I need myself, but I'll need some angel caps, a golden oyster shroom, two dozen cookies, and a bottle of sweet sake." Morgana gave the young witch a skeptical look. "No, really. I actually need them." Marisa's smile returned. "You'd be amazed at the kinda stuff you can pull off with household ingredients."

Kirke snorted. "Will melomakarona suffice?"

"Whoa! Normally I have to steal stuff like that from Sakuya. That'll be great." Marisa replied.

Grete shook her head and forced herself to look away from the spectacle. Dazzle and flash were for those who needed to conceal mistakes. A proper witch could perform a spell every time under the closest scrutiny.

First she separated out what she'd need. Gelatin and Acacia would build the creature's body. Pure water would be required to act as a medium, and then willow bark for the skin. The eyes of a hawk and the ears of a hare would add the proper sensory abilities. She set aside several tinctures for later use, then began grinding up the five flowers of magic. The components were actually simple for a spell of this magnitude. The difficulty would be in timing and the layered spells needed to make the creature alive instead of just a puddle of magical goop.

As she set the cauldron to begin heating she looked over at what the Marisa girl was doing. Grete blinked in surprise as she saw the other magician had laid out a very similar set of components. The major differences was that the girl was stewing up some mushroom broth as a power source, and in addition to the sake and cookies there was a strange sealed flask on her side. Grete spent a moment staring over at the ingredients. There was no way that the girl knew her spell, so why were their ingredients so similar?

Shaking her head she turned back to her own spell. The crowd was chattering amongst themselves, using the brewing time as a break, which meant that Marisa girl couldn't keep up her antics. It was just proper herbalism work now. Just like any good class.

Once her cauldron had gotten to the proper temperature she began putting in the internals. The building components went in first, and she let them mix well before turning off the flames. As the mixture began to cool she carefully began layering her spells, making sure to keep the magical forces in balance. Drawing life from life was technically easy. Too easy. If she didn't take her time and do it slowly and carefully the life being formed would be a colony of mixed creatures and slurry apart.

Bit by bit, piece by piece Grete pulled together her spells. There was no rush or hurry. No pressure. She knew this spell perfectly well, and she was in control of all the variables.

As she slowly worked her enchantments she occasionally looked over to where the kid was doing her work. To Grete's surprise Marisa was being thorough about her work as well, though the young girl's ingredient handling was painful to watch. The little witch was outright juggling the herbs while pouring in what appeared to be raw slime from her flask.

Grete turned away from the nonsense before it hurt her head. If this were her classroom she'd be looking to see if an explosion was imminent, but that was Morgana's problem here. She just had to finish her spell.

It took a few more minutes of chanting, but soon she finished. With a flick of her wand she cooled the flame and chilled the cauldron, allowing the mixture to gel. Looking down she nodded in approval at her success. A small greenish teardrop shaped construct hopped at the bottom of the pot.

She reached down and pulled up the creature and held it up to show it was whole. "I'm finished." She placed the creature down on the table and pointed towards the bat wings. "Fetch." The green blob turned, then bounded over to pick up the bowl and return it.

Grete rested her hand on her hips and waited as the three elder witches moved to inspect the creature. "A strange thing, but definitely life from pure herbal magics," Alcina stated.

"A very interesting spell," Morgana added. "Perhaps this might help us in our own work sister."

Alcina shrugged. "Marble fits my tastes more. But it would be useful to learn I suppose."

"Well now that we've set the bar, let us see how the challenger responds." Kirke turned to where Marisa was idly futzing with some small magical artifact. "Are you almost done Marisa?"

Marisa grinned. "I was pretty much done yeah. Just didn't want to interrupt the judging." Grete blinked at that. These spells were very timing dependent. You couldn't just wait on them! Marisa however didn't seem to care about such details.

The young mage pointed the strange artifact at the cauldron, and braced herself. "Alright kid it's time to wake up! Goooooood MORNING!"

The rainbow colored explosion caused Grete to shield her eyes. She had no idea what the child was doing, but there was no way that much power could safely bring forth organic life!

Fortunately the blast ended as quickly as it began. Snorting in derision she looked over to her opponent's cauldron, then froze as a green head slowly popped out of it.

"Gooooood mooooorning," the slime creature said languidly. The feminine creature pulled itself a little more out of the pot and looked around. "Wheere's the shrine maaiden?"

"Reimu's not here," Marisa replied cheerily. "But I'll bring you by her place later! For now, why don't you try these snacks to celebrate having a body and all."

"Snaaacks?" The slime looked over at the plate of cookies Marisa was holding towards it, the grabbed one and ate it. "Ooooh! Sweeeeeet~"

It all clicked for Grete and she pointed accusingly at the young girl. "You! You took an item that was developing sentience and used your magic to transform it into a demonic familiar! That's completely against the purpose of the exercise! See me after class!"

The crowd laughed as Grete realized her mistake and stepped back, but Kirke shook her head. "She's right. That's a powerful spell, but not what you were asked to do. I will have to disqualify you."

The slime creature stopped guzzling the sake Marisa had given it and looked up at its creator. "Whaaaat's disqualified?"

"Means we get to go talk to your new boss soon," Marisa replied with a dashing smile. The childish witch looked up at Grete. "Oh hey, mind if we borrow that little blob of yours? Figure you don't need it anymore."

Grete blinked. "I suppose I don't but…"

"Thanks!" Marisa waved over the newborn youkai. "Go grab your new pet."

"Ooooh." The goo girl turned and quickly scooted over to the blob that Grete had made.

The older witch was about to point out she hadn't actually given permission when her studied eye caught something. The slime was more liquid, yes, but she could tell that the creatures form had been heavily influenced by her own spell. "Wait… did you?"

"Oh yeah, thanks for the spell." Marisa smiled as her new friend slimed back to her side. "I couldn't get it good enough to beat you of course, but them's the breaks." The young girl's smirk widened as she turned away. "If you're gonna lose, lose with style."

Grete growled. That child really needed a trip to the principal's office!

---

Kirke shook her head as the two walked away. She focused for a moment, then raised her voice so the spells on the grounds would carry it throughout the arena. "Since half the duels have been fought we will have a short break. The contest will resume in twenty minutes." As the crowd began to chatter and shift about she motioned her two assistants over.

Morgana seemed in much better spirits then her sister as the two approached. "Feeling less confident about your bets Alcina?" the blue clad magician asked.

Alcina hissed in frustration then nodded. "It seems all of us underestimated the Grey Briar College's arrogance."

"And Patchouli's cleverness," Kirke said. "She frontloaded her obviously easy wins, allowing her to get the other magicians eager for a victory, while not showing the Gensoukyo team's full skill. Hannah should have beaten Yuki, but that strategy forced a tie. If Brenda loses her match to Byakuren, Jacqueline and Odette will be under a lot of pressure to make decisive victories."

Alcina grimaced. "And there's no telling what spells Byakuren knows. She's not a witch in our sense, or even a fusion magician like the other girls. She's a pure eastern mystic, who knows spells that have died ages ago. If Brenda tries to match strengths, who knows how it will end?"

Kirke nodded. "Which is why I wanted a break. We need to ascertain the crowd and the contestants. I feel the wind shifting, no matter who wins at this point."

"A wise plan," Morganna said. "Who do we start with?"

"We split our efforts," Kirke replied. "You have the ability to capture the voices of many others for later so you would be best scanning the crowd. Ellen knows me so I'll inspect the Gensoukyo crew. Alcina, see if you can pick out how the infighting amongst the college witches is progressing."

"Consider it done," Alcina replied. The two sisters turned to their work, so Kirke closed her eyes and began to listen in on her targets.

The first thing that came to her ears were the sharp words of the puppeteer. "Marisa, I knew you were capable of some really stupid decisions, but creating a newly born youkai just to show off in a duel is pushing it!"

"Hey now, you're scaring her," Marisa replied. "And I didn't just do this on a whim you know. Well not completely. I'd noticed the slime I used to use for jokes was starting to become a youkai a bit ago, I was just trying to figure out what to do with it. And since two people who take in stray youkai were about I figured the time was right!"

Byakuren's sigh was loud and clear. "While I won't turn away a youkai, my temple is not an orphanage."

"Alice. Can I hug?" the slime's voice asked.

"Later," Alice replied shortly.

"I'll hug you!" Kirke opened her eyes to see Ellen hop over and give the creature a light hug. To Kirke's surprise the creature did not smother the forest witch in return, though Ellen would definitely need to wash her dress later.

As the group moved to circle around the new youkai Yuki asked, "So how does it know all you people anyway?"

"Marisa apparently used to dump it on people as a joke when she was younger. Especially if she liked the girl. At least so Koakuma says," Patchouli stated.

Alice's doll was orbiting the girl in annoyance. "She's the proverbial frog in the shirt."

"I wasn't that bad," Marisa protested.

"Tsundere," Mai noted.

Ellen hopped up, leaving the slime girl confused. "Aha! That's a good name. Kaeru!"

"Kaeru?" The slime bobbed up and down. "Ah. I like it. Can I keep it?"

"Sure, Kaeru," Marisa replied with a grin.

Byakuren just shook her head. "Well we've got a break, so let's figure out where the girl is going to stay…"

Kirke decided there wasn't likely to be anything more of use and just put a listener on the group. She turned to her compatriots. "It seems the Gensoukyo crew is too chaotic to second guess their strategy. Anything on your ends?"

Alcina shrugged. "Perhaps. It seems like petty bickering. But we all know how that can change." The witch waved her hands and conjured up a small bowl. "If you want to watch…"

Kirke looked over to see Brenda fuming at Grete. "Why didn't you press that girl harder! You're the best of us at manipulating children! You could have-"

Seeing that the rant was more one of frustration Kirke looked over the other magician's body language. Marie was huddled away in the back, trying not to be seen, shame evident on her face. Meanwhile Brenda was angry, but hardly confident. The older witch was trying to use her height to 'lean' on the others, while still staying between them and her daughter. A losing proposition to be sure.

Hannah and Magdalena were off on their own, each lost in their own worlds. Magdalena was nose deep in a book again, while Hannah was peering into a smooth black mirror, probably practicing one of her unique talents. Grete meanwhile was face to face with Brenda. Not backing down at all.

The biggest threat however came from the last two mages. Jacqueline and Odette both were watching from the side. Jacqueline seemed to just be checking where the wind blew, but Odette's eyes were different. Kirke knew ambition when she saw it.

She focused back on the conversation itself just as Grete cut Brenda off. "That's right! I am the one best able to handle children, and I know a problem child when I see one. This isn't our school, and what we want doesn't matter. If you think Kirke would ban non-lethal combat you're a fool. I went out and I picked the best option and I won, unlike SOME people. That's all that matters!"

"Then the rest of us will just have to pick up the slack that you left," Brenda snarled, "because we cannot afford to merely win." The witch pointed at the stands. "Look there. Do you see the Followers of Merlin? They're watching us and looking for weakness. And there's the School of the Sealed Willow, looking to see if they can steal back the grimoires we took from them three hundred years ago. We are fighting to keep them in line, not to prove ourselves to backwater hedge wizards."

"Keep thinking like that and you'll just outright lose," Hannah said with a chuckle. "You're fighting the strongest one after all. And we all seem to have forgotten, while they might be hedge wizards, they've been fighting amongst each other for the last two hundred years. When was the last contest you were part of?"

"What does that matter? Grete managed to handle her contest, even if she did fail the negotiation," Brenda cursed then turned away. "I'll save this college's reputation then."

Odette chuckled then began walking to the arena's edge. "You'd better. Or those who did succeed might find themselves in a strong position."

Kirke turned away from the pool. "I see. So what are the chances of wars between the mage groups?"

Alcina and Morganna looked at each other. "I don't know. It's been so long," Morganna said.

Kirke grimaced. "Yes it has. I imagine the number of duels might skyrocket, but if people are afraid of war, they might prepare for it."

"And if you're ready for a war why not start one?" Alcina replied grimly. "Perhaps we should work to start some smaller fights to teach the fools the meaning of caution."

"It will have to be prepared carefully though." Kirke pointed to the strange scoreboard. "As you might notice predicting who wins a contest is fairly difficult." She turned to Morgana. "What is the crowd thinking?"

Morgana smiled and waved her hand to create a portal in the air. "Lots of things. But I imagine you're most interested in this."

The portal cleared to reveal two bearded men that Kirke recognized as the heads of the Followers of Merlin. They were whispering to each other, but obviously hadn't thought anyone would scry on them during the contest. "Our old foes seem weaker. Perhaps now is the time to move," the older looking one said.

"Maybe, but maybe not. You've seen the raw power those newcomers tossed about," the younger one cautioned. "They might lack skill and refinement, but power? That we have yet to see. I'm not sure any of our apprentices could throw around that kind of force."

"True." The older man stroked his beard. "We should be cautious then. Probe our enemy with smaller contests before making a move in force. And even if we do strike it might be best to do it officially."

The younger man nodded. "We should wait to see the rest of the results of course, but that seems the wiser plan."

Morgana closed the portal. "As you can see we aren't in for a war, yet. Perhaps Hannah and Yuki did us a favor by being over exuberant."

"Hm, well don't tell them that. They'd be insufferable." Kirke smiled. "Anything else now that we know there isn't a war going to break out?"

Morgana thought for a moment. "Well some of the more estranged sub groups were talking about having their children train in Makai or Gensoukyo. Most seemed hesitant but there were a few exceptions…"

"Oh dear." Alcina sighed. "It seems we'll need to keep an eye on these people for longer than expected."

Kirke looked over the crowd. "So it seems. Perhaps it's time that I started speaking to some more lively gods and goddesses." Her eyes locked on Shinki. "They are so much more talkative then the usual demons."

The two sisters looked at each other. "We'll let you handle that, Kirke," Morgana stated.

"Hah. Well that's for later." Kirke checked her pocketwatch. "I think our break time is about to run out."

"Right." The two moved to their positions to await the next contest.

---

Byakuren forced herself not to openly sigh as Kirke called the contest to order again. Hopefully this would be over fast and she could return to being a nun again. Fighting against the Taoists was one thing but this…

"It's your turn Byakuren," Patchouli stated quietly.

"Ah!" Starting she began walking forward.

She winced a little as Ichirin called out from behind her "Good luck elder sister!" She managed to smile and wave to her followers, but really, they should have known by now she was breaking at least one vow here. Even if Shou had claimed it was okay in the big scheme of things.

As Patchouli had expected Brenda moved to face her across the circle. Seeing there was likely to be no polite way out of this mess she instead bowed to her foe. "I Byakuren Hijiri, head of the Myouren Temple, stand in challenge."

Kirke nodded. "Who receives Byakuren's challenge?"

"I Brenda Leclerc will receive her challenge," the regal witch replied.

"Very well. Since the score is still tied, the choice of challenge is yours Brenda," Kirke said.

Brenda held her hand out to the crowd. "I would ask what school you are best at, temple master."

Baykuren could tell the woman's words were supposed to have bite, but there was nothing in that title that could hurt her. Instead she began to consider the challenge. "Hm… What was the western term for my magic?" She tried to remember what her old friend had called it. "Ah. That's right. Reinforcement."

Brenda looked surprised at that. "Reinforcing magic?" The other witch looked down at the ground while rubbing her chin. "What a useless skill." Blinking Brenda seemed to remember what was going on. "Ah! Yes, well I have no problem with that. It should be a simple test. Whoever can make the weakest material the strongest wins."

"Ah, well…" Byakuren began to think she might have made a mistake, but it sounded somewhat similar to the duel she had expected. "I suppose that could work."

Kirke looked back and forth. "It seems there might be a clash of cultures here. If there is a confusion in the contest we shall renegotiate, but I have a feeling I know what each of you has planned so we can proceed. Byakuren, if you would suggest the additional wager?"

Byakuren nodded. This she had planned out. "I would ask Brenda Leclerc to apologize for her insults towards the youkai, and make a small donation to my temple. Say four silver pounds. Or the local equivalent."

Brenda looked stunned at that. "That's it?"

"Yes." Byakuren smiled at her foe. "That's it. I have no interest in fame anymore."

Brenda grimaced. "Well since it would be impolite to demand too much more, when I win you much admit magicians are the superior race, and give four pounds sterling to our college fund."

"I will say those words if I lose," Byakuren replied sincerely.

"We are agreed then," Kirke stated. The ancient witch gestured to Brenda. "You are going first. Do you need any supplies?"

Brenda smiled and waved her hands before her. "I would request a sheet of glass and a diamond."

"Alcina could you grab a diamond?" Kirke asked before opening up a storage rift and sifting through it. Byakuren nodded to herself. Untouched fine glass was harder to get for those in the magical realms, just because most mages enchanted them out of habit. Diamonds on the other hand had become as common as pebbles.

Soon the two requested objects were on a table in front of Brenda. "I shall begin then." The purple clad witch pulled out a knife, then started carefully etching runes into the glass. Byakuren understood some of the base runes, but as the western witch moved more into the complicated circles she rapidly got lost. Still the picture was pretty. She allowed herself to meditate lightly as the other woman worked.

After several minutes Brenda finished carving and lightly touched the glass with a wand. Magic flowed out slowly into the etchings, solidifying her enchantments into real magic. Byakuren nodded as she saw the glass strengthen and harden under the woman's work.

The spell completed with a few errant sparkles of magic. Brenda took a deep breath, then reached for the diamond and dragged the gem down the glass panes face. Everyone winced at the screech, but when she was finished the glass was unmarred, save for Brenda's own engravings.

"Very nice," Kirke said. "Well-"

"Ah." Brenda held up a hand. "A moment please. I'm not finished." The woman picked up the glass, then ran it next to the diamond's edge. Once again there was a painful shriek, but there was also a grinding. When the college witch set down the two materials, a ragged line ran down the gem.

Kirke raised an eyebrow. "Impressive." She turned to Byakuren. "Will you require any special items for your test?"

Byakuren smiled. "Well, given Brenda has just shown her spell is stronger than any natural material, I'd like to request her enchanted glass."

"A very reasonable request," Kirke replied. "Since Brenda's spell will not fade for another year, it should suffice." The Greek witch held out her hand. "If you would please?"

Brenda nodded and handed over the glass sheet before stepping back. Byakuren almost felt sorry for the poor woman, having to wait and see whatever spell she put together.

"Which is why I should probably end this quickly," Byakuren muttered to herself as she carefully plucked a single strand of hair.

First she took a deep breath and opened up her thoughts, allowing the universe to connect to her. She reached out and made the strand of hair one with her body. No, the hair was always part of her, even if distance said it was not.

With the connection made she poured power into it through her arms. She did not hold back like other mages did, nor did she bother making limits to prevent damage to her body from the power. She sent the power down the natural channels and let her body keep track of those details.

Soon the strand was a glowing light in her mind's eye. She kept the flow of power constant with her breathing and looked down to the glass. The sheet was also glowing, but not quite as brightly as she was.

It was time to begin.

Byakuren began moving the string back and forth. She started slow, about the speed of a running hare, but quickly sped up to something a little more reasonable, about twice the speed of a pouncing tiger. She worked to control her breathing and speed then lowered the rapidly vibrating hair to the glass. The high pitched whine threatened to break her concentration, but she'd learned how to push through such distractions.

She'd sawed halfway through the glass when she felt Brenda's enchantment start to fail. Byakuren quickly stopped her sawing, then let the power flow out with her breathing. The hair became just a hair, and her strength returned to normal.

Byakuren smiled then looked over to Kirke. "I'm afraid if I continued the glass would shatter. Is this enough?"

"I imagine it is," Kirke replied. "Does anyone have an objection?" Alcina and Morgana shook their heads, but Kirke was looking at Brenda when she spoke. The college magician was simply staring at where the glass sheet lay, fists clenched. Her face was pale, and she showed no sign of noticing either Kirke's words or the crowds murmer.

Finally Brenda's expression slowly collapsed into despair. "I…" The witch swallowed a lump in her throat. "I apologize for my harsh words towards youkai and other demons. It was in error."

Byakuren nodded politely. "Thank you."

Brenda twitched, then nodded in return before turning and heading back to her side of the arena as if she was heading toward the gallows. In a way perhaps she was Byakuren thought. Her status was likely to collapse after this. Still it was all of her own doing.

Byakuren bowed to the judges then headed back towards her own line. "Perhaps I should have given her some sutras to think about," she mused.

---

Jacqueline grimaced as Brenda slowly trudged back to their side of the field. She wanted to say 'I told you so,' but she was far more worried about her own challenge. Given the ridiculous skills that Byakuren woman had just shown, she had a bad feeling. And there was one more problem…

"Hey Magdelena," she whispered to the woman who was reading next to her. "I know you can't tell me who wins overall, but can you at least tell me if you beat Ellen?"

The mousy woman looked up briefly. "Sorry," she replied.

Jacqueline cursed. She trusted Magdelena, but with a fortune telling contest it was far too easy to tie. And that meant if she didn't win the Grey Briar College would be in trouble. Which meant she personally would be in extra trouble. It was a good thing she was far better in demonology then she'd let on. Because she had the feeling 'decent enough' wasn't going to cut it against someone who admitted to being a demonologist in a world filled with demons.

She began walking towards the center ring as her opponent, Mai, began her own walk in. The childish bow and angel wings suggested an innocent personality, but the lusty cheers of the woman's devilish minions from the stands belied it. Jacqueline did her best to ignore the shouts of the devils, as well as the silence behind her. Focusing on either could only hurt.

Instead, Jacqueline opened her grimoire to the spell she selected, and took her place across the field. She wouldn't underestimate this magician, but she was a master of the arts. She wasn't going to go down without a fight.

Kirke looked over the two, then turned to Mai. "Who stands in challenge?"

The white clad magician smiled and fluttered her wings. "Mai, Baroness of Mahalah." Jacqueline noted that unlike Yuki this girl seemed proud of her political standing.

"And who stands in reply?" Kirke asked her.

"Jacqueline Oubliette," she stated. "Magician of the Grey Briar College."

Kirke nodded. "Very well. Currently the Barony has the lead. You may state the terms of the challenge."

Jacqueline took a deep breath. "Am I correct in assuming you are most skilled in Demonology," she asked.

Mai's smile widened and she nodded, then winked. Apparently the young mage didn't waste words, though it seemed unlike Magdelena it wasn't because she hated talking, but because she enjoyed playing coy.

"Then that is what our match will be." Jacqueline hesitated, then played her escape card. "I offer the true name of an angel if I lose."

Kirke raised an eyebrow at the technical breach of protocol, but Mai looked intrigued. "I offer the same," the white winged magician replied.

Jacqueline breathed a short sigh of relief. The name of an angel was quite valuable, but she didn't really care if she parted with it, unlike some of the other things that Mai could have requested. With this she protected what she actually cared about, while still having the chance to get something she wanted.

"This is not the traditional manner of bargaining, but seeing as the offers are mutually acceptable and of great value I see no reason for censure," Kirke said.

"Agreed," stated Alcina.

Morgana shrugged. "Not my department really."

"A reminder this is a challenge purely on demonology, so other summonings will not be considered by the judges," Kirke stated before stepping back and throwing up a guardian ward against errant demons. "Also given the problematic nature of containing demons we shall alter the arena slightly."

Alcina and Morgana began chanting, then pulled out decanters of water and poured them into the circle. There was a flash of light, then the arena's floor shifted from light sand, to hard marble. "Will this suffice?" Alcina asked.

"Yes," Jacqueline replied, relieved that she wouldn't have to try to maintain a sealing circle on sand. Mai nodded as well.

Kirke waved her hand, "Then Jacqueline, you shall begin."

Jacqueline nodded then pulled a slim willow wand from her sleeve. She was lucky that this summoning required mostly magical power and not the reagents that most summonings of similar caliber required. Usually she'd need to actually carve the circles in the floor and fill it with quicksilver and unwrought iron. But this summoning was unique, due both to the devil it summoned and the genius witch who created it.

The downside unfortunately was the power required. Jacqueline found herself forced to take a break three times during the casting to summon more ambient magic, and that was with all the mana that innately came from a magical realm with a demon goddess in attendance. Still she persevered, carefully etching out the ruddy red rune. With each stroke of her wand the sigil pulsed with a deeper light, until the very air around it seemed dim and smoky.

Finally it was done. The hell maw symbol was charged and ready. The quick two line spell to activate it was almost child's play in comparison.

And her casting was rewarded by a burst of flame. "What is this?" Jacqueline set her face into a grim frown as the smoke and flame parted to reveal a heavyset devil in fine robes with a massive head. The impossibly large teeth of the demon promised horrible death with every word it spoke. "Who summoned me to this realm? Speak quickly, while my mood is still good."

Jacqueline pocketed her wand and folded her arms. "Gimlet, Prince of Hell, I have summoned you to stand in attendance to me. You shall remain here until you agree to accept my commands."

"What! You dare treat me like some familiar servant?" The demon's angry roar washed over her. "I refuse this binding!" The demon lashed out at the rune then screamed in pain as his claws hit it.

Sighing Jacqueline took a step back. "And there you go."

Gimlet struck against the barrier again. "How is this possible?" The demon lord whirled towards the stands. "You! Shinki, did you cause this? Are you trying to overthrow the true Hell?!"

Jacqueline looked up to see Shinki stand. "Oh no, this is none of my doing Gimlet. Though, you really should stop underestimating witches. That's how you ended up in this mess to begin with isn't it?"

"Ah!" Patchouli's patron stood up and pointed. "You're the idiot who got tricked into breaking contract!" The little vampire laughed. "How pathetic."

Kirke snapped her fingers, silencing the angry retort of the caged demon. "As entertaining as the back and forth is, this event is about petty fights between witches, not petty fights between devils." The Greek witch looked over the demon still ranting in the rune Jacqueline had summoned. "So what does it do?"

"Mostly not kill us all," Jacqueline admitted. "The hard part was summoning him at all. Technically he's banished to hell for another five hundred years or so for breaking a soul contract."

Mai sighed. "It's a very impressive spell."

Kirke raised an eyebrow at that. "Well, that's rather uncommon. Are you giving in, or merely speaking well of your opponent?"

The white winged magician winced. "I'm trying to think up a spell that's equally impressive, and won't get me killed."

Jacqueline nodded and stepped back. She was probably lucky that Kirke didn't really understand how dangerous her summoning really was. For that matter Gimlet here probably wasn't going to be happy with her. She'd have to start preparing from when he escaped five hundred years or so from now. Or if she ever needed to visit the creature's hell.

Putting that thought aside for now she looked up to where Mai was standing. The young mage was leafing through her own grimoire, one that looked to contain pregenerated circles. Jacquline wondered how those would help though. While a pregenerated circle allowed quick summonings in an emergency, while not leaving the spell around for anyone just to steal there was no way a prebuilt spell could summon and control a demon superior to a Prince of Hell.

Mai reached the end of the book, then hesitated for a long moment before flipping back a few pages and looking over something else again. That too was odd. Was it an incomplete spell?

There was a resounding cough from the stands. Everyone looked over to see Shinki standing and waving for attention. "It's alright Mai. You can use that spell. In fact I'd prefer it if you used it. That way I can see what flaws it has."

Mai's face turned as white as her dress, and Jacqueline could see the young mage shiver. Still after a long pause the little witch nodded, then flipped to the back of her grimoire and activated the rune.

Jacqueline looked forward to study the crafting as much as she could, but Mai didn't immediately trigger it. Instead the white winged witch began crafting a second circle around the glowing lines of her first sigil. Unlike Jacqueline's rune, this circle needed to be etched into the floor so there was plenty of time to look it over.

As Mai finished the inner circle Jacqueline started noticing the similarities to her own spell, but this one was using even more archaic Hebrew. She suspected the witch was creating a miniature pocket of Makai. But the outer layer the woman was constructing was completely different. Jacqueline wished she could take notes, because the logic behind the seal was a twisting mess.

Finally the white witch completed the etching then, after a long moment's hesitation, slit her palm and pressed it to the emergency rune. The witch's blood flowed into the symbol as a mystical key, bending and twisting the words into their correct orientation.

There was a pop, and suddenly Shinki was standing inside the circle. Jacqueline's jaw dropped.

"Oh my. It does work," the demon goddess said as she tapped at the mystical bindings surrounding her.

The crowd erupted into chaos. Which probably was to be expected when someone tossed a goddess into a summoning circle. "What the hell were you thinking Mai!" yelled Yuki. The winged magician flinched and blushed.

"Why do you have an emergency spell to summon my mother Mai?" Alice asked with an icier tone. Jacquline idly noted the doll hovering next to the puppeteer was sharpening a small sword. Even creepier was the woman in the bloody maid uniform back in the stands plucking several full sized swords out of thin air. Mai was outright trembling at this point.

"Now now, Alice, Yumeko. Don't be hasty. I did ask Mai to show me the spell so I could find a way out," Shinki said, waggling her finger." The demon goddess looked over the runes. "It is quite clever."

Alcina coughed. "No offense to the goddess, but how can we be sure she's testing the binds to their fullest?"

Kirke raised a finger. "Ah, while I'm not very skilled at demonology, I do know a lot about binding gods and goddesses." She gave a thin smile. "Occupational hazard you understand." The Greek demigod looked over the circle. "And I can say this spell should last about two, perhaps three hours against a skilled magic user. Of course once it's solved it will be useless, but that might be long enough to get a concession."

"That's what I was thinking as well," Shinki replied.

Jacqueline sighed and banished her rune, sending her summon back to its prison. She couldn't even muster up anger. "Well it looks like we both got in trouble. Though, I at least have a couple of centuries to prepare."

Mai nodded sheepishly.

Kirke shook her head. "Well, given the events, I believe Mai wins the contest. Lady Shinki, would you prefer to be moved to the side, or should I ask Mai here to release you?"

"Ah, I'm done looking over the spell, so you can release me now Mai," Shinki said with a smile.

Jacqueline's eyes narrowed as the white winged magician quickly removed her rune. Apparently this demon queen was a better student of Machiavelli than most. Loved and feared, and feared because of love.

She looked back to the unforgiving eyes of her own school. Perhaps, given the mess she was wandering back into, she should consider defecting.

---

Alice simply glared at Mai as Yuki continued her rant. "You know that Yumeko's going to be dreaming of ways to slit our throats for a year now! How did you even think creating that spell was a good idea?"

"I wanted a quick way to get in contact with her in case someone tried to target us," Mai protested.

"And the binding spell?"

Mai looked down at the ground. "Thought experiment."

"Hey Mai!" The three Makai magicians looked up as Marisa bounded over. "About that spell…"

Marisa froze as Shanghai leveled a sword in front of her eye. "Don't even think about it Marisa," Alice stated. She was pretty sure the black white magician only wanted it as a joke. She was also certain Marisa would use that joke seriously if the woman ever felt threatened. Or thought it was really funny.

"Er, would this be a bad time to tell you you're up Alice," Marisa asked.

"Yes," Alice snapped. "But it's the truth, so I won't blame you for it."

She gripped her grimoire tightly and tried to force Shanghai into something resembling a calm orbit. The cheers from the crowd didn't help, but with great effort she managed to ignore them. When she felt she'd composed herself enough she began walking into the field.

Her opponent was already waiting for her, the richly dressed woman idly tapping her feet with an ornate staff. Alice noted that the woman was frowning, possibly because the contest was all but decided. Hopefully that would lead to this being quick and dull. "I, Alice Margatroid, the seven colored puppeteer, stand in challenge for the Barony of Mahalah."

The witch across the circle wasted no time in replying, "Odette Nineveh accepts your challenge."

"Very well," Kirke gestured towards Odette. "Since the Grey Briar College is currently behind, the choice of challenge is yours."

Odette frowned, then looked down at Alice's Grimoire. Alice couldn't help drawing the precious book closer to her. "I have no skill in puppetry," the woman said, "so instead I challenge you to a contest of power."

Alice froze. Her lungs screamed for air. She was in a brightly lit black plane, and her heartbeat resounded through her ears. There was a ringing in her head, slowly growing closer and closer. She realized she was panicking and tried to force herself to breathe, but her body refused to react properly, drawing in air in spasms.

"I refuse," she managed to spit out. With the words her body started to relax a little.

"What?" Odette looked shocked at the statement.

Alice shook her head. "I refuse. I won't do it."

Odette's expression twisted into a snarl. "You can't just-"

Kirke snapped her fingers. "I would like to remind you that a witch can refuse any contest," Kirke looked over at Alice, "so long as they give an adequate reason."

"I will not use my full power unless it's a battle to the death," Alice snapped. She looked over to where Shanghai was spinning in circles, trying to focus on the doll's movements. "Since this isn't a death duel, I can't accept the contest."

"You coward!" Odette hissed. "Do you think denying me my glory will save your reputation?"

Red flashed through Alice's vision and she found herself staring at the other witch. "I don't care about my reputation. I don't care about your reputation. I don't care about this contest. The only thing I care about is getting through this farce quickly." Alice sneered. "Your college already lost. Keep demanding a test of Power and I'll just forfeit and walk away." And I won't have to deal with the fear of losing no matter how hard I try anymore, she added mentally.

Odette's staff creaked as the woman gripped it tightly and growled. Alice saw many emotions there. Anger was there of course, and humiliation at having her plans foiled. And there was an emotion Alice hadn't expected to see. Fear. Why would the other woman be afraid?

Looking up at where the crowd was whispering in disapproval she suddenly understood. Odette had just as much to lose in this contest as she did. But while Alice feared learning she was forever helpless, Odette was afraid of being judged weak.

Seeing the hidden terror of her opponent somehow helped Alice relax. She began to consider how she wanted to use this. Perhaps she could make this beneficial to both parties. Though she had to make sure the exchange would still favor her.

Brushing her hair back she said, "If you have a desperate need to prove you can kill people perhaps we could demonstrate our curses?"

Odette blinked, then her eyes narrowed. The other witch knew it was a trap. Alice wouldn't have suggested it otherwise. But the chance to prove her killing skills was something that was hard to resist.

Finally the woman straightened up. "Yes. Curses sound like an excellent choice." Odette looked up at Kirke. "Assuming that proper subjects can be found of course."

Kirke gave a tight lipped smile. "As cursing has been a standard component of most witch contests we do in fact have proper subjects lined up." Kirke waved her hand and a image of a well-dressed man at a meeting appeared. "For Odette's target, someone who has repeatedly used their wealth and influence to harm those of her bloodline." Kirke waved her hand again and a man in priest's vestment's appeared. "For Alice's target, a false priest who has been sacrificing children to demons in an improper fashion." Kirke paused. "Improper from both sides of the equation, so you need not worry about angry demons in the matter."

Alice found her jaw hardening again, but this time in a more focused anger. She reached into a pouch and pulled out some of her doll making supplies. "What are the rules?"

"Since this is a contest of magic, the difficulty and power of the spell are most important, though poetic justice in the form of the curses is considered as well," Alcina stated. The witch smiled grimly. "In addition we will be giving you no supplies for this contest, so you'll have to improvise a bit."

Morgana nodded. "However, we do not take responsibility if survivors hunt you down for your actions. Preventing backtracking is an important facet of cursing as well."

Odette sniffed before returning her sneer to the image. "I'll take my chances," the woman stated. Given the lack of magical power most residents of Earth had there wasn't much risk.

"Then Odette, you may begin," Kirke said as she stepped back.

Alice reached into her pouch's extra-dimensional space and pulled out appropriate colored cloth, then began trimming it. As her hands began the automatic work of constructing another doll she looked over at the college mage's work.

Odette had begun creating a set of seven overlapping circles. Alice was well aware of the significance of the number seven, but she wasn't sure how intersecting circles would help more than the usual concentric ones. Perhaps she'd demand an explanation from Patchouli after this.

As the other woman began filling in the mystic runes Alice recognized the seven virtues and deadly sins being placed into each. One by one the circles finished, then began to glow with a faint light. Now Odette was stopping every couple of runes, looking over tomes or occasionally casting what looked like minor divination spells. She was probably looking up information on her target.

Finally the woman finished by using her staff to carve a name into the circle marked with the precepts of Greed and Charity. The circles flashed, then the runes for each of the sins lit up with a dark red color, save for sloth. In that sigil Diligence glowed with a soft white light. Odette slammed her staff into the ground, and the entire spell system flashed red before the light faded. "There. It is done," the college witch said with a grim smile.

"Well then, shall we take a look?" Kirke said as she opened up a scrying portal.

Odette's target was driving along in what looked to be a very expensive car at a very high speed. He seemed utterly unconcerned with the high speed turns that he was making. Alice sniffed. Killing this fool with a curse seemed far too easy.

Sure enough there was an ear rending shriek as the man made the next turn. Alice didn't know enough about cars to tell what had gone wrong, but the back of the vehicle sagged as the man frantically spun the wheel back and forth, the cliff face he'd been driving next to looming before him.

The frantic driver managed to spin away from the edge, only to clip the hill on the other side of the road. The car spun away from the impact, sliding right to the cliff drop but not fully falling over. Alice watched the man sit in stunned confusion for a bit as the car teetered at the edge of the cliff. Finally he seemed to realize what was happening and struggled with his safety harness and the door as the vehicle slowly leaned back for its final plunge. He managed to open the door and fling himself out, just as the car tumbled over the edge.

Alice turned to Odette. "Your victim seems to still be alive."

Odette laughed darkly. "Oh the fun is just starting. A simple accident would be child's play." Odette pointed to where the man was slowly rising to his feet. "Right now he's recovering from his brief realization that all his money and power won't save him from a freak accident. You have to wait until they almost feel safe again…"

The man was now standing on the edge of the cliff, looking down at the wreck. Several expressions were in play on his face, but the biggest one was relief. Finally the man just shook his head and laughed, perhaps proud he'd survived the accident.

Then another speeding car spun around the bend and hit him.

Kirke cut the monitor as the man fell over the side. "I can tell the curse is fatal, but I'm not really willing to wait the twenty four hours before it actually gets around to killing him." She turned to Odette. "It will take twenty four hours correct?"

"Yes. Twenty four hours of almost escaping, but then suffering a new misfortune," Odette's smile turned more twisted. "Most just give up and die around hour ten though."

Alice continued her sewing and sniffed. "Far too much time. Twenty four hours to find a way to counter spell? An excessive spell, other than for petty vengeance."

"If anyone would like to counter spell I encourage them to try," Odette replied. "That curse is designed to give the victim their eternal punishment before they die. To counter it would draw the anger of the angels."

"Not a big deal for those who walk with demons," Alice replied.

Odette turned to her. "Then show me something better."

Alice looked down at the doll. It was starting to show form and definition, but there was a lot of detail work she needed to do to make it acceptable as one of her dolls. "It should take me another twenty minutes to finish."

The other magicians looked to the puppet she was creating. While the face was still blank, the vestments and hair made it obvious that she was making a doll of the man in the picture. "Wait… You can't possibly be making a voodoo doll," Odette said. "We're on a completely different plane of existence. And you don't have any item from the target!"

Alice looked over at the witch, and let the faintest hint of a smile cross onto her face. "True. But, well, I've got friends on the other side."

She turned her focus back entirely to the doll now. She'd done the easy parts, but now she needed to concentrate, to place her emotions into the doll. That was the secret to doll making after all. Her cute little creations were all works of love, designed to help her in her life.

This doll however was ugly and crude. Alice hated it. Each thrust of the needle brought another reason to hate this doll. She saw it pretending to serve people, while stealing from them, trampling others underfoot just to get a few tiny scraps of power.

When she finished sewing on the last eyebrow she snapped the thread viciously. Putting her thread away she looked over the doll. Yes, that was the person she hated. She stowed her needle, then looked over to Kirke. "If you want to watch you should look now. I'm done."

Kirke raised an eyebrow at that. "Oh?" The witch conjured a scrying field that showed the man sleeping soundly. "Very well. We await your performance."

Alice nodded and turned back to her victim doll. "Yes. It should be quite the performance. Something no one has ever seen before." She took a deep breath, then mentally unlocked the clasp on her Grimoire.

Power began to seep into her, but she ignored that. The book was still closed, so its full potential wasn't unleashed. Instead she looked through the book for the knowledge of the past. The memory of 'Alice.' The answers she was searching for came to her quickly, easily, and she returned her focus to the doll.

"Wake up," she ordered the wretched little creature as she connected the threads of hatred to it. The doll's body stiffened, then pulled itself upright. Odette gasped as the doll's other body did as well. Alice shook her head and focused again on the connection. "Come look at me." The doll slowly moved towards her, while dragging the other body to a mirror.

Alice stared down at the murderous human and scowled. "You've been a bad boy." As the doll tried to move away she sent a surge of power through the threads freezing it in place. "Don't you try to run away. You're going to sit here and listen to me."

"You betrayed your oaths, and your congregation, and all for a simple promotion." Abandoning her threads she lifted up the doll and looked it in the eyes. "You were sacrificing children to Belial. He doesn't actually like that you know. He prefers more worthy sacrifices." The doll shivered in her hands as she glared at it. "You must be punished."

Shanghai moved to place a small knife next to the doll, then Alice used her strings to drag the knife to the doll's chest. She took a moment to stretch her fingers, then began the very intricate process of carving the proper ritual circle into the doll's chest. The puppet struggled, cried and complained, but Alice ignored it.

After two minutes the circle was finished. She relaxed her hold on the doll and it slumped, the stuffing slowly oozing out. "Now, are you sorry for what you did?" The puppet nodded vigorously. "Good." Alice placed a hand on the doll's stomach. "In that case I just need you to do one more thing."

"Die for me."

The puppet burst into flames as its soul was dragged down into the hell it had condemned others to.

As she relocked her Grimoire and focused on the contest she found the other witches looking at her with varying levels of respect. "I'm finished."

Kirke nodded. "So I see." She looked back and forth between the two. "While I have to say you put on a better show, the contest is over the spell. Alcina, Morgana, your thoughts?"

Morgana spoke up first. "I support Odette in this contest. Her spell was both more complex and more powerful. Alice's spell would be far less effective against a mage or demon. And while it does leave her more open to a counter spell, offending one of the angelic realms is still a grave danger. Not every witch can just laugh off that kind of threat."

"I have to disagree," Alcina raised a finger to contest the point. "Alice managed to use her doll to both create a link to her victim and use that link to control him. Odette used plain divination magic to find her target's true name, something that also would be harder against a magus or demon. Alice's spell is something I've never seen before."

Kirke nodded at both women's explanations. "Both of you raise good points." The elder witch closed her eyes and rubbed her chin in thought. "In the end I have to decide for Alice. While both of them showed great skill and power, Alice wins on poetic justice. Finding the name of the demon the man was sacrificing to with no information requires a level of attention to detail Odette just didn't show." The elder witch smiled. "However I pity anyone who offends either of you. Please don't engage in a curse war on the side. I would hate to see the mess that leaves behind."

Alice sighed, then smiled as the judgment was passed. Across from her Odette slammed her staff into the ground then glared at Kirke. Alice made a note to put up some more wards on her house, but she didn't honestly think the other witch would press the matter personally. Their part in this farce was over and done.

Now she could return to the important task of chewing Patchouli out for a month. What the hell had that woman been thinking!

---

Kirke looked as the two final contestants walked back to their respective groups. Both seemed somewhat more subdued then when they had entered, but the pall over the Grey Briar College was far more obvious. Alice had done them a favor at least by allowing them to show off a killing skill. The crowd had been both impressed and warned off by both performances. The various factions were all chatting amongst themselves, wondering how a particular spell had been designed, or questioning the fairness of her judgment. Now was the time to finish this event off.

She used magic to raise her voice. "The score stands at one victory for the Grey Briar College and four for the Mahalah Barony. We will now review the results of the first contest to determine the final score." Alcina and Morgana moved to flank her as she opened the two envelopes that had contained the predictions. Both witches had terrible handwriting, but the details were obvious.

Kirke's mouth twitched upwards as she finished reading. Honestly she hadn't thought Ellen would be this clever.

She motioned both Ellen and Magdelena to step slightly forward. "On review we found that both of you predicted the events of this contest perfectly, except for the results of this first contest." Kirke turned towards Magdelena. "Magdelena stated her contest would end in a tie." She looked over towards Ellen. "Ellen on the other hand proclaimed she would be victorious. Thus we must find in her favor."

Magdelena blinked. "How? The fortune said it would be a tie."

Ellen placed her hands on her hips and smiled. "Well it's obvious. Sure it said we would tie, but you can't win unless you predict that you win right? So the fortune for our contest didn't matter."

The quiet witch blinked again, then shrugged and nodded.

Turning back to the stands, Kirke said, "The contest between the Barony of Mahalah and the Grey Briar College is complete. The Barony of Mahalah are the victors." Kirke looked at both groups, then swept her eyes across the crowd. "We hope this contest was an interesting diversion, and that no animosity or grudges will linger from this." Kirke allowed her voice to take a harsh edge. It was important to remind the children that their elders and betters were watching.

"Thank you all for attending. The realm will last another three days before returning to the void, so feel free to take your time exiting." Kirke dispelled her voice boosting spell, then turned to her allies. "And now the real work begins."

Alcina and Morganna nodded. "The renewal of the magician race," Alcina said.

"I do hope there will be fewer cauldrons though," Morgana replied. "I really don't like that prop."

---

"Ow ow ow ow ow." Marisa rubbed her bruised forehead. "Come on Reimu, can't you take a joke?"

"Not when the joke is me getting slimed!" Reimu wrung out her sleeves as Kaeru burbled happily inside a sealing circle. "Seriously, Marisa. I thought you'd grown up a little."

"Reimu doesn't like hugs?" the slime asked.

Byakuren patted the creature. "She's a little brisk with people when surprised."

Marisa sighed. "This sucks. I go win some universe wide witch contest, and I still get no respect."

"You lost your match though," Byakuren pointed out.

Marisa shrugged. "Details, details. All the people congratulating us after we won didn't care about that."

Byakuren heaved a sigh. "You're such a bad influence Marisa. The Yama's going to yell at you."

Reimu finished squeezing out one sleeve and switched to the other. "So where's your new youkai friend going to be staying anyway?"

Kaeru perked up at that. "Aunt Shinki said I could stay~"

"Good," Reimu muttered. "I'd hate to think of the pranks Marisa would talk you into if you stuck around here." She looked up again and glared at the black white magician. "And you aren't allowed to take her there yourself. Every time you leave Gensoukyo you bring back another stray. I don't need another passel of magicians or demons or something wandering in."

Marisa folded her hands behind her head. "Er, well actually Reimu…."

---

Patchouli sipped her tea while trying to avoid the burning red gaze of one hundred and eight angry dolls, each of them holding a unique weapon. Internally she was impressed. She didn't know Alice had enough background knowledge to create one hundred and eight tiny weapon replicas. On the other hand the fact that the dolls had been following her for two days indicated she'd annoyed the young doll master a lot more then she'd intended to.

As she flipped a page she managed to raise her eyes to where Alice was idly repairing Shanghai. She was also impressed at how Alice could keep a straight face while radiating such malice. Still it had calmed a little. Now might be the proper time.

She sent a mental note to Koakuma to stop hiding behind the shelves and attend and put down her teacup and book. "Would now be an acceptable time to talk about matters Alice?"

Alice finished a line of sewing, then put her needle away. "I suppose it might." She looked down at Patchouli with a harsh glare.

She took a deep breath, then bowed to Alice. "I apologize for my actions. I should have consulted you about what I was planning in the first place."

Alice's eyes narrowed. "You've apologized for that before. That's not the problem."

Patchouli shook her head. "No, that is the problem. I just didn't realize how badly I would hurt you." Patchouli flinched as the dolls around her inched closer, but she stuck to her guns. "You know I'm an active witch Alice. I will get us into danger in the future."

She swallowed the lump in her throat and forced herself to continue. "But I was wrong to leave you in the dark. You're my friend, but not like Remilia. You deserved to know what I was doing so you could decide what part you wanted to play, or even if you wanted nothing to do with me anymore."

Patchouli gestured Koakuma forward. The little devil hesitated, then with great trepidation stepped up to the desk and placed down the contract to the coven they had formed. "I'm willing to place that as a geas on myself if you wish." A few unbidden coughs shook her before she was able to continue. "Or… if you really want to, I can cancel the contract."

Alice looked over at her and the paper, folding her arms in thought. Koakuma withered under the glare, tears forming in her eyes. Patchouli managed to keep her composure, but the painful butterflies in her stomach were the worst they'd ever been.

Finally Alice shut her eyes. The dolls lowered their weapons and slowly backed away. "You should have consulted me. And you will in the future." Alice sighed. "But it won't be because of a magic spell. You'll have to do it yourself, because you respect me as a person."

The doll maker slumped back. "And while I'm really angry, nothing would have changed if you'd asked honestly. I would have made all the same choices. So I'll forgive you this once."

The butterflies in Patchouli's stomach began to fly out, though she didn't feel relaxed yet. "Thank you. And again, I'm sorry."

"You better be." Alice's frown returned. "You should be glad I don't like mother interfering in my personal affairs as well. She'd have taken you apart."

Patchouli winced. "I see. It seems I shall be at your call for some time."

"Yes you will," Alice said. "Not that you mind I imagine."

"No, I suppose not," Patchouli said, returning to her tea.

---

As the door opened Jacqueline looked up from the materials she was inspecting. "Ah Odette. What menial punishment task do they have you at right now?"

Odette snarled, then closed the door behind her. "They have me cleaning the sewers, and by me I mean I commandeered some of Grete's homunculi to handle matters."

"And decided to hide here? Well that's not a bad plan." Jacqueline shelved the material and reached for another unmarked bottle. "They don't check my work at all. I've just been using a filing spell and using the time for experiments."

"How can you be so calm about this!" Odette spat. "You and I both know what we did out there was on par with all but the grand masters can do. Hell your spell was better than any demonology spell I've seen, and I only lost because my curse wasn't flashy enough!" She slammed her staff on the ground. "They have no right punishing us because Brenda underestimated her foes!"

"They're idiots." Jacqueline smiled as the silver powder reacted properly to her resonance spell. She added that to the set of ingredients on her work table. "And soon they'll be out of a job."

Odette looked over at her like she'd grown another head. "What are you talking about?"

Jaqueline's smile widened as she moved over to the sulfur. "Odette, you said it yourself. How big is the difference between us and the grandmasters?" As Odette's expression turned thoughtful she continued, "Those children over half our age matched us spell for spell. And Byakuren utterly destroyed Brenda. They've been training constantly, while we've been researching. They know how to handle contests and challenges."

"However, we know more than them. Much more than the youngest mages." Jacqueline looked at Odette. "How much more could we advance if we actively trained our skills against other worthy foes, Odette?"

Odette tapped her foot a few times, then her eyes opened wide in realization. "We could become even stronger then the grandmasters."

"Exactly," Jacqueline replied.

Odette slowly smiled. "Perhaps I shall go to the sewers. After all, attack spells work better in open hallways." The violent mage paused. "Though this method will be more dangerous than our usual studies. Not all duels end with all parties alive."

"That is a risk I know we're both willing to take." Jacqueline returned to her own studies. "We should speak about this again later. After all we'll need new rules to prevent ourselves from getting sloppy should we succeed."

"Later," Odette agreed before stepping out.

Jacqueline nodded to herself as the ambitious mage left. She didn't actually want the position, but there needed to be some changes. She'd let Odette play headmistress while keeping the other woman from doing anything too stupid. Though she'd probably want some other people to help.

---

Yuki yawned as she entered the dining hall. "Morning, Mai."

Her white clad friend nodded, before returning to the paperwork on the table. As Yuki walked down the stairs, she noticed her friend's new accessory was still there as well. "Yumeko's still mad?" Yuki asked as she pointed to the sword hanging over Mai's head.

"Yes," sighed Mai. "I'm almost finished with this counter spell at least."

"Good," Yuki replied. Just because both of them knew that the maid wouldn't kill them didn't mean her ire wasn't annoying as all hell.

"Miss Yuki?" Yuki looked up to see Elsepeth, at the entryway. "There's a guest calling for you."

Yuki looked up from the breakfast. "Huh, who is it?"

"Hannah Chaput," the demon said. "She claims she's here to crush your spirit and claim you as an apprentice. Shall I ask her to return later, or will you meet her now?"

Yuki blinked a few moments then looked over to where Mai was glaring at her. "Er, ask her if she's interested in breakfast."

"Yes Miss Yuki." The little succubus bowed then walked out. Yuki turned her attention to the bacon before Mai's glare caused it to freeze over.

A few moments later Alouette placed another breakfast serving on the table just before Elsepeth led Yuki's old opponent into the room. Hannah looked around before giving Yuki a polite nod. "Hello again. I have to say the place is impressive. I didn't actually expect you to have a barony worthy of the title. Most actual barons didn't after all."

"Thanks," Yuki replied hesitantly. She cleared her throat. "Er, as you can see we're suffering a few political difficulties, so you might have to wait on that rematch."

"I take it by political difficulties you mean the fact that your friend over there is going to try to kill both of us if we attempt it?" Hannah asked mildly as she picked through the eggs.

Yuki nodded. "Yes."

Hannah sighed. "That's too bad. I can understand the sentiment, though." She frowned. "Unfortunately I've been ordered to try to get that rematch in for the honor of our school. They'll probably fire me if I don't spend a week pushing the matter." The void mage took a bite of the eggs then blinked in surprise. "Er, did I say week? I meant month. Oh yes, I definitely have to pester you for a month."

"I suppose we'll have to set up a guest room," Mai muttered.

"You could let me do the rematch," Yuki replied.

Mai's glare forced her to retreat to the pancakes. Oh well, maybe while the college mage was here she could squeeze some secrets out of the woman.

At least things were still interesting.

---

Ellen looked up from her dusting at the knock on her door. "Oooh! Who could it be, Socrates?" The cat gave a non-committal meow in response, so Ellen moved to the entryway herself. "Welcome!" she said as she opened the door.

A mousy witch with a book and a bag nodded to her. The woman held up the bag, revealing it contained marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate. "Winnings."

"Huh?" Ellen shook her head as she looked at the strange witch. "Did I enter a contest or something? Like a lotto? I don't have a ticket, so I don't think I did."

The other witch stood there for a while blinking, then shook her head. "Mage contest." The woman bowed again. "Magdalena."

"Is that my name?" Ellen asked. "Oh, no wait. Ellen is my name. So Magdalena must be your name." Ellen smiled at her new friend. "Come on in Magdalena!"

"Thanks," the woman said as she walked in.

Ellen began chattering as she ran over to make tea. It was always so lovely to have a guest over. Especially since said guest had been nice enough to bring gifts. This Magdalena must be a good friend if she knew that Ellen liked fluffy foods like marshmallows!