Welcome to chapter 2! Not much to say here, aside from the usual; Please R&R, constructive criticism wanted, same scenario as last time, blah blah blah.
Anyways, just enjoy the story!
– TOUHOU –
"Even more of you? This barely even slows me down…"
Countless fairy maids were scattered across the halls of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, many sealed in ice, the luckier ones disintegrating to regenerate later. Standing in the middle of the hallway was Cirno, surrounded by a field of ice as she lowered her arm, the hand sparking with energy. The crimson corridor was splashed wildly with half-melted icicles and unconscious fairies. The Seraph of Ice casually walked by a barely-alive fairy, graciously ending its life – at least for an hour – and sheathed the sword diagonally across the back of her waist in a manner reminiscent of a certain half-ghost gardener.
Cirno frowned as she ran a hand along the colossal double doors at the end of the hallway. Countless intricate runes were etched along its surface in overlapping spells, glowing ominously as Cirno deciphered the runes – and how to dispel them.
"Well played, Patchouli…" Cirno watched the runes flicker as her hand glided over them. "Set up a trap to force out anyone who tries to disarm the trap you rigged with another trap… Clever." She laid her hand flat against the door, a thin layer of ice coating it. "However, for all the precautions you took, it seems you forgot to properly reinforce…
"This."
The doors exploded outwards, flipping through the air as Cirno blasted them away with a pinpoint surge of magic, laid down with almost surgical precision. Not even stopping, Cirno simply walked forward as a gauntlet of steel pillars smashed apart the hallway behind her.
"So that's how you beat Meiling," murmured a voice from behind a bookshelf.
"Hello, Patchouli." Cirno stepped into view. The asthmatic wizard had apparently been setting up since the moment Cirno set foot inside the mansion. Dozens of open spell books orbited Patchouli, her eyes glazed and distant and she focused on Cirno. Hovering beside her side worriedly was Koakuma, the little devil looking back and forth between the two.
"We both know what you're here for," said Patchouli.
Cirno nodded. "The usual rules?"
"Of course. However, I will not be the one to fight you at the moment." Patchouli raised a hand and pointed it at Cirno. Leaping back, the fairy narrowly avoided being impaled on a series on emerald spikes. As she froze the saw blades that Patchouli threw at her next, Cirno heard the wizard call out. "Sakuya~"
"You–!" Cirno hissed in pain as a knife embedded itself in her arm. Being technically immortal, she and all the other fairies had been exempt from the spell card rules of non-lethality. Now, it was really biting her in the butt as Sakuya appeared at Patchouli's side.
"Yes, Patchy-san?" Sakuya was cool and collected as ever, save from using the wizard's nickname.
"We have an early guest. Amuse her for a little, if you please." Floating into the air, Patchouli turned and flew off slowly. "It seems we will have other visitors soon."
"Understood." Sakuya turned to face Cirno, dozens of knives already in her hands. "Are you ready?"
Pulling out the knife, Cirno tossed it aside and drew her icicle sword, nodding.
The maid reached into her apron's pocket. A brief glimmer of gold, and Sakuya whirled maniacally, countless knives bouncing off of every available surface. Cirno quickly calculated the trajectory of each knife and took off, barely brushing past them. Then, the world flashed once, and Cirno found that each knife had multiplied, quadrupling and flying about even more hazardously. Swiping a knife out of the way, Cirno generated a five-foot-long icicle in her hand and flipped it into the air, holding it like she would a javelin and levelled it at Sakuya.
In a blink of an eye, the maid had warped several feet over, the javelin shattering harmlessly against the magically reinforced bookshelves. She pocketed the watch and ran forward to intercept Cirno, blocking the fairy's knee-kick with a well-placed arm. Twitching her wrist, Sakuya smiled as she flipped a hidden knife around her hand, dropping it into a backhanded stabbing position and thrusting.
Cirno leapt away, grimacing with pain as she ran a thin layer of ice over the cut. Any slower, and she'd have certainly been incapacitated.
"What's wrong?" Sakuya's condescending voice called out. Raising her head, Cirno flicked her wrist, a glacier erupted from the ground to block another wave of projectile knives. "Can't keep up?"
Sakuya appeared for the briefest instant beside Cirno, but as she turned, the maid disappeared, leaving a knife in the fairy's leg. She reappeared behind Cirno, but vanished just as quickly. Slowly, steadily, Sakuya began to flit in and out of existence at incredible speed, looking as if there were multiples of the maid, surrounding Cirno.
"Your illusion is poorly constructed." Cirno levelled her sword at an empty space and jabbed as Sakuya appeared directly in front of it – and phased through the tip as she disappeared again. "What the–"
"Too slow." Sakuya sneered as she appeared in front of Cirno, arms crossed smugly.
"You did nothing but taunt m – argh!" Cirno staggered as dozens of shallow cuts raced across her frame, countless knives clattering to the floor around her. "You… how?"
Sakuya tossed a knife into the air and caught it easily. "Manipulation of time isn't just stopping and resuming it. I can make you register the cuts much later than you would normally, for instance. Or simply arrest my knives' movement and resume it when I want to."
"I should have seen this coming." Cirno dropped to one knee and slammed a palm against the ground. Eyes widening in surprise, Sakuya slid to the side as an ice pillar erupted from under her feet – and promptly tripped and fell on the cold ground.
Getting up immediately, Sakuya stared at Cirno in shock. "When did you do that?"
"You're not the only one who can play mind games, Sakuya-san." Cirno grinned as she snatched her sword from the ground beside her and tossed it at Sakuya. However, as it slammed against the wall directly behind the maid, it exploded, the force of the ice bomb tossing the maid to the ground once more. As Sakuya tried to get up from the slippery ground, Cirno pulled a spell card from her sleeves.
"Afterlife Sign – Tribute to the Ferryman."
A set of solid ice gates emblazoned with the visage of a demon formed behind Cirno, a set of jet-black chains binding it shut. The chains receded, unlocking the gate as they vanished behind it. The gates rapidly opened, dark blue light spilling out as it spat icicle danmaku about wildly, throwing Sakuya head-over-heels through the air. The gate closed, and Cirno leapt after the airborne maid. As Sakuya started to recover, Cirno spun, clocking the maid's face soundly with a solid boot to the jaw, flipping her sideways into the walls of Voile. Sakuya opened an eye, then went quickly for her pocket watch as she saw Cirno flying on a collision course with her.
The wall crumbled under Cirno's assault, Sakuya having barely dropped to the ground in a messy heap. Raising her head, she blinked at the sight of her Luna Dial glaring back at her. She reached out for it, but was immediately stopped as Cirno stomped hard on her arm.
"Nice try, Sakuya-san." Cirno grinned as she twirled her sword in her hand, bringing the tip down to bear on the maid.
Sakuya shifted, glaring at Cirno. "You haven't seen anything yet." With a burst of strength, she flung the fairy off of her, snatching up her pocket watch even as she cast her spell card. "ZA WARUDO!"
Immediately, the world turned monochrome, and Cirno found herself trapped helplessly in place as Sakuya casually stepped up to her. "Toki wo tomare…
"KIAI!"
Drawing dozens of knives in each hand, Sakuya flung them into the air, each one stopping the instant they left her hands. Stepping back with each successive wave of knives, Sakuya finally stopped, her many hidden recesses of knives finally bled dry. Leaning against a bookshelf easily, she muttered, "Soshite, toki ga yugoki desu…"
A flash of light, and time resumed.
Cirno tried to produce an ice shield in the split-second she had, but it shattered under the incredible amount of weaponry Sakuya had produced. As the last of the knives slammed into her hole-riddled body, Sakuya stopped time once more, leaping into the air and crushing Cirno under a mountain of silverware and assorted cutlery. "WRRYYYYYY!"
The mountain exploded outwards, Cirno having smashed her way free. The ground stained red and black, she limped to her feet, glaring at Sakuya. "What was that…?"
The maid shrugged and threw a thin book at her. "I picked it up from one of Patchy-san's manga archives. Ojou-sama should really find something else to do in her spare time."
"Please say you did not copy–"
"Bite me."
Several seconds of silence passed between Sakuya and Cirno, the latter still bleeding out. Eventually, the maid broke the silence. "Shall we get back to killing each other?"
"…"
"…"
"Hades Sign – Three Furies."
A trio of glowing danmaku orbs formed around Cirno, orbiting her and throwing off smaller danmaku as Cirno rushed back into the fray, grabbing her sword as she went. Twirling it around her, the fairy ground to a halt against Sakuya's crossed daggers. Cirno raised an eyebrow. "Daggers, not knives?"
"I carry more than one set of weapons," explained the maid. She pushed away Cirno and jabbed at her stomach, but was forced to back away as the danmaku came around, trying to hit her.
One of the danmaku orbs split off from its orbit around Cirno and sped up, flying towards Sakuya, who ducked it and then was forced to leap over it as it bounced back for another pass. Landing on the ground, Sakuya tossed a wave of knives at Cirno to impede her approach and backed away. She drew her stopwatch –
And watched it skitter away across the ice-covered floor, Cirno having shot it clean out of her hands. Noting the maid's distraction, Cirno dashed forward and sent her reeling with a roundhouse kick. As she tried to recover, the seraph raised an elbow and dropped it hard onto Sakuya's back, slamming her face-first into the ground. Once more, she got up, just as Cirno raised a hand high into the air, calling the three Furies to her. A flick of the hand, and the danmaku rocketed at Sakuya.
The maid bounced out of the smoke, sliding across the floor as Cirno raced after her, expertly gliding across the ice as if she were a skater. Kicking Sakuya high into the air, Cirno snapped off a part of her wing to form a second sword. Leaping into the air, Cirno spun faster and faster until she was a vortex of sub-zero death, ready to grind Sakuya to a fine pulp.
For once, the perfect and elegant maid cursed.
Pichuun~
– TOUHOU –
Oh come on, how could I use the SDM without bringing in Sakuya? And how could I bring in Sakuya without using Za Warudo?
Sue me.
(please don't actually sue me)
Also, I chose a bowl of noodles for the cover image to make the most pathetic pun of all time. I know, I suck at puns...