Turn 2
Every living things were made of molecules, atoms, microscopic things which held things together that create forms for organic and inorganic beings. To shed the greatness that was present in God's creation, the greatest tool of nature accompanied their magnificence: Light. Travelling in a speed that no ordinary man could comprehend, it became helpful once sight took shape, the ultimate power that everything with eyes could channel.
Yet there will always be illusions accompanying such power.
Sunny Milk was sent from the fairy alliance to deliver the letter filled with their declaration of war. Her usual dress, the Victorian dress consisting of long-sleeved white vest and a knee-height white skirt complimented her white hair-dressing. The sun had just went a bit above the nine-o-clock position, and seeing that the slightly-round face of the fairy smiled. The wind blowing against her shoulder-length red hair only made her smile even wider.
As she waltzed inside the Outsider's Frontier unoccupied, the fairy of the sun gazed to the various familiars hauling wood around the incomplete fortress practically built overnight. Bird-humans akin of Tengus lifting gigantic wooden blocks together, a few horned demons hitting a heated metal could be seen from what looked like to be a metallurgy. Various skeletal beings were walking here and there with stacks of papers at hand. There was a female with fox-like properties, mainly being tails and fox-ears, lazily swayed her hand as she sipped a cold glass of lemon tea from a colorful straw lying on a sofa in the middle of it all and shielded from the sun with a large parasol.
While she was not looking at the glass, Sunny had finished everything inside the fancy container but the ice cubes. The confused look that she saw for a split second made her whole trip worth it. From there, she quietly flew toward one of the more fancy-looking roof that was painted white and blue.
Peeking from the entrance door, the small pre-teen girl watched as a black-haired female with a large forehead sifting through a few dozens of papers stacked on the fancy table before her and a few more on her hands. Her young-adult self curiously looked at one paper before laughing for a bit, covering her mouth with her palm. The fairy moved in closer, peeking the first page of the report labeled "Kenshin's Food Critique" that were filled to the brim with a young and hungry girl's report on the food that she happily ate in the last few days.
Jackpot, thought the fairy. The obviously high-ranking girl she observed was perfect to deliver their letter too. She was about to do just what she was told by Star but then she looked at a snippet from the report itself and a giggle came out. Another voice was about to escape from thin air until she realized her moving mouth and quickly silenced herself.
The girl looked up for a second, and she was silent. Sweat began to form as the fairy braced herself for the worst, until the girl in armor laughed once more and broke the tension. Confirming that the older girl didn't hear her, she made an inaudible sigh and placed the letter to the table when a giggling girl was engrossed to her friend's little report once more. Her job done, the red-haired fairy bolted for the exit and slammed head first onto a suit of green armor.
The man didn't flinch, but his eyes did look down. From the strategist side, she heard the loud clunking and rose from her seat to stare at the man standing just outside her post. Ai Naoe raised her brow as she walked toward Rance. Pulling out her knife from the holder strapped on her thigh, she silently brought herself closer toward the man.
Sitting on the floor, the fairy quickly slid herself to one corner of the room and looked for a way out. There were windows with its entrance pushed open and held by a steel-holder in which she were too big to fit or squeeze through. The ceiling wasn't high enough that she could fly uninterrupted, and if she were to scrape the ceiling it won't end well for her.
She should've gone with Luna Child in tow.
"Did you hear that, Lord Rance?'
Drawing his sword, Rance pointed the Demon Sword Muramasa at the space where he heard the floor repelling a weight. "Whatever that is, it should be here. Though, you should know more about what an invisible thing will do in this closed-off space. I'll give you a hint:"
"It's going to aim for the window." The reply stopped what Rance was about to say, and the knight-like figure nodded with a grin. "And judging by that sound, this invisible thing is not small," Ai kicked the ground repeatedly, from lightly tapping it to kicking it as strong as the wood can before it broke. "The sound I heard was somewhere in-between. And from how small those windows are, I doubt the thing had escaped from there."
The explanation was clear enough, but Rance was going to say the thing was probably hiding under Ai's table. Shrugging, he went exactly there and crouched down near her seat to the questioning look of his strategist and even more so when Rance started to poke the inside of his table with the demon blade that only made an annoying repetition out of his effort. He was far from being close. The red-haired fairy was still in the same corner with her mouth covered by the palm of her hands.
Slowly, she began crawling toward the now vacant exit as the two were busy trying to scrounge for the rogue entity. It was at that sweet moment where Sunny could taste the flavor of freedom and fresh air that Rance stood up and shouted a big "Wait." This startled the fairy and she instinctively froze in place. Her palms were turning sticky and something big were painfully rolling and bouncing through insides of her stomach. Her erratic breathing became worse once the man's sight met her invisible own and stayed locked with her.
It was as if a big typhoon had passed for the fairy when Rance picked up the letter she placed on the table and opened it. He then walked toward the strategist and handed the sealed content inside to her: A declaration of war. Ai looked at her Lord as if she was asking where he had found the letter specifically addressed to a man named "Lens" in alphabet. Rance's answer blew her mind, though it didn't impact Rance as much as it did her in. When Ai began explaining about the letter not being there before, Lord Rance with his infinite wisdom linked it to her deprivation of sleep schedule and would love to heal her sore spots. He received a light jab to his armor.
Sunny whispered to herself "screw it" and blasted herself to the same door as the exit before flying into the sky. In minutes, the invisible girl was gone from the camp's area. Not even Isoroku in her archer-tower had seen her abrupt leave.
She did sense a movement in the wind and readied herself to snipe, but by the time she had a good aim for a good shot, the big bird had already left the premise.
It was however, a mission complete for the Fairy Alliance.
"Basically, Rance," Teru rolled the scroll close. "This is a scroll in which the Fairy Alliance misnamed your name a couple of times while declaring a war on our faction. Want me to send a rewritten version of the letter where I corrected your name, "Lens" the Great?'
The gathering hall's seats were mostly empty as only two additional people had joined his cause, but it was a motivating sight for Rance to fill those seats in. Before her was a maid of silver-green hair, speaking out the context of the letter from the letter as abridged as the content itself was short. A constant irk nagged the back of Rance's mind as his effort to make Teru more open to him backfired significantly.
Well, as long as he could fuck her however and whenever it won't really matter.
"You picked the funniest time to crack jokes, Teru. Done sulking already?"
Though that will never exempt her from his teasing.
And Teru went silent once more.
"This is boring me!" With that scream, Rance sighed loudly and huffed a loud "Fine." He clicked his tongue before giving the maid a meaningful look. "Go do that or whatever you want, I don't care. Don't disappoint me."
Teru bowed before she left the gathering hall. The big room was filled with Rance, his harem members, and two fairies contemplating about the situation they were into. There was no debate, however, only Cirno wondering who placed the letter there and Daiyousei being the usual yes-man to Cirno's antics. Kenshin was seen eating another snack slowly, while Isoroku was busy reading quietly from her own sighting journal.
"Isoroku and Daiyousei, you had done your recon while hunting around our territory, right? Who are those Fairy Alliance and what other areas are surrounding our fortress?" Rance was once again in his thinking pose: legs crossed, one arm supporting his chin and the other either holding a standing blade or holding his thigh. "Tell us everything you know about the Fairy Alliance."
"Well," Isoroku started. "I don't actually know much about them. However, from what I gathered, they reside somewhere east from our base. They were actually a faction of their own instead of a faction of four fairies leading their own army. In short: They are working together to combat us. That doesn't bode well with us, honestly."
Omachi sat there sipping cold tea, looking around the halls filled with concerned looks for a second before returning to sipping her tea once more.
"Cirno and I was supposed to be fighting against the other four other factions in a sort of "secret" war. We know that the whole of Gensokyo knows that they weren't a secret to anyone, but we rolled with it anyway. Afterward, we fought against each other for basically six months with no conclusion or any clear winner? It felt longer though." Finishing her speech with a big grin, she placed her hand on Cirno's shoulder and laughed. "It might not be surprising at all, but me and Cirno was the most-favored faction out of all the Fairies. Our faction was the biggest individually than the other fairy factions, but that's not counting the rogue fairies unaffiliated with our faction."
"Why?" Ai raised her hand from one side of the room. "Didn't all the fairies in Gensokyo participate in your secret war?"
"They forgot about it so much that they sometime don't remember what game they were playing anymore. Usually in a matter of a day to a week's time they need to be reminded of which factions they belong to, and predictably, they still forgot about it sooner or later." With a few times her hand rubbing the bridge of her nose, Daiyousei sighed. "In the end we just say whatever and leave those who forgot and keep those who don't. Even with our depleted size of army, we still won our skirmishes! We're just that good!"
"Dai-chan, don't lie." Cirno rubbed the back of her head after clicking her tongue.
"Oh no, Cirno-chan," Dai huffed before smiling wryly. "You're right. I shouldn't lie. Sorry about that."
"So you lost? Big deal," Rance began. "You just need to take back a win later."
"Well, that's the thing, Rance." Cirno stood up. "I have never won against her, against Star Sapphire, since then. I can only ever manage a stalemate. And all the time I fought against her, it felt like she was toying me. What was the expression again, Dai-chan? Stepping on top of one's head?"
"It's "Dancing on the Palm of One's Hand", Cirno-chan."
"Yeah, that!" she hummed confirmation as she nodded smugly. "But yeah, Star Sapphire. She's dangerous. Arguably the most dangerous of all the fairy leaders that aren't me or Daiyousei! But that doesn't mean she has no weaknesses. All of the fairies have their weaknesses." The mention of "weakness" made Rance and Ai lean forward. "Star Sapphire can sense presence of living things, so we can just snipe at her from afar. Luna Child and her nocturnal units will only attack during night time. Sunny Milk have too much confidence in her power and the strength of her units. And then there's Lily White."
"What about Lily White?"
"Potential-wise she is the strongest fairy, or so Cirno said," Daiyousei answered in her friend's stead. "If Cirno drew powers from cold, Lily drew powers from spring. Spring, as in life, can be attained anywhere in Gensokyo so her power will always be consistently great and can only get stronger from there."
"And? Anything else I should know about this Fairy Alliance?"
"Well, aside from their weaknesses as an army, you might want to know their power as an individual," Ai quickly added for Daiyousei to answer her question. "Tell us what you know about that, Daiyousei."
"Okay." The smiling fairy floated with her wings flapping with power. Placing her hand on her chin, she happily started, "So where should I begin? For starters let's talk about what they are. I think most of you already know about what we fairies are, right? Aside from being the embodiment of nature itself, we fairies draw power from nature too and so our power fluctuates around nature. If nature is flourishing, then we get a massive power-up. If nature is dying, then we get a massive power-down." Her eyes began to wander around the gathering hall and stopped where Rance was sitting there. "Rance, before I tell you about their power, can I make you promise me one thing?"
"Name it."
"I know that you're that human who raped twenty girls in one night." Hearing that particular word from a figure of a little kid will forever make his ears ring. The tone of cheeriness gone from her tone didn't help too. "All I ask is that you don't do anything to the fairies like you did those girls."
"Are there anyone that looks older than you? Somewhere along the high-schoolgirls and up?"
"No, I don't think so."
"Then I won't touch any of them. I'm not interested in little kids."
"Do you promise that?"
Daiyousei's eyes were like drills burrowing her way into Rance's core.
"Little girls like you shouldn't worry about those kinds of things." Smiling, Rance stood up from his seat and walked toward Daiyousei. Crouching, Rance struggled with his own armor to get in a comfortable pose. "I'll win this fight and get all of the pretty ladies in Gensokyo, don't worry. Especially that Yukari Yakumo."
"Then I'm going to get all the handsome boys in Gensokyo!" Cirno suddenly screamed and every head in the room turned toward her. Her hands were held high as if reaching for the sun and her legs spread making a letter X with her body. She then stopped, her mouth curled upward and her fingers on her chin as she looked upwards. After a few minute had passed, she stared happily to nothingness with a bright smile. "Wait, how many handsome boys are there in Gensokyo?"
"Oh Cirno," Dai-chan patted her friend's head. "Don't chase the boys, let them chase for you instead."
"Yup," Ai nodded from one side of the room, while Kenshin from the opposite side shook her head in defiance. "You have to play hard to get, Cirno-chan!"
Afterward, the whole room broke out into a full-on girl talk. The state of the gathering hall was devoid of the lord in green's presence. He slowly made his way, dragging his feet at times, toward his cushion and sat there with one hand on his cheek. His eyes were squinting at the laughter of girls talking about girly stuff that went from one ear and directly out the other. Suddenly, while the girls were talking about blood-types, Rance called out as loud as he could.
"Daiyousei. The fairies."
This suddenly made the halls quiet, with the now floating Daiyousei pausing mid-air as her mind went blank.
"Oh, right!" it was so suddenly that she hammered her fist onto her open palm. "Then let's take it from the bottom. Firstly, there's Lily White. She's the fairy of spring who gain or lose power if the essence of spring is stronger or weaker respectively. Her unit is very loyal to her, albeit being the weakest though many. Secondly, there are the Fairy Trio; one for the moon, one for the sun, one for the star. Luna Child gain more power at night. Sunny Milk has the power to control light in the area. Star Sapphire has the power of to see the presence of every living being in the area, though to what extent I don't know. Luna's units are the nocturnal fairies that wander during the night. Sunny's units excelled in a full-on skirmish during the day. Star's units are the most dangerous out of the three, though. She and her units excelled not only in both night and day combat, but also in trickeries and cunningness. Expect many weird tactics coming from her."
Opening the door until it slammed the inside of the wall, Teru ran back inside the hall, swerving around the fairy duo, and kneeled before Rance. Her figure was as firm as stone, and her glare had a tint of excitement in it. Grinning, the maid reported. "Lord Rance, the Fairy Alliance had come to attack us. Do we return fire?"
"Hoh," Rance stood up with Chaos and Muramasa in tow. "Where are they now?"
"After I gave one of them their letter of approval, one of their generals sent me back to camp with their first declaration of attack. In a matter of minutes we're going to go into a showdown on our Eastern Gate-Front. The sooner we're there the better for us it will be."
Rance stood there, thinking. If he was right, at the present Ai would be thinking the same thing as him: the legitimacy of the attack. It could be a trap. "If that is so..." he mumbled. "Then Isoroku and Kenshin will come with me. Since we're fighting against fairies I don't know the power of, I want you to come fight with me, Cirno. I'm not having no for an answer."
"Sure thing Rance. I'll show you the coldness of my power!"
"I'm coming too!" Daiyousei said from behind Cirno. "I'm also having a no for an answer!"
"Don't hold us back," Rance said as he, Isoroku, and Kenshin trudged their way out of the gathering hall and outside the manor. From the east was a few wary familiars of Omachi that were silently waiting for Rance to appear, before they disappear from harm's way. "Time to defeat some fairies!"
"So where are the fairies?"
Nothing but an empty field greeted the Outsider's force.
The green fairy overlooked the vast grassland against the East Gate-Front. There were nothing but billowing winds that shook the tiny strands of grass. The scenery of the forests and the mountains behind them stayed static. He had bothered setting up a large camp when he heard about the ensuing attack, but if all of that was for nothing someone's going to be bent over the table. That's it, Ai will take all the blame for all of Teru's faulty. This will be the greatest news he heard this day. Confused, Daiyousei kept looking all around for the biggest sign of life. And yet there were none so far.
"Unless they backed out of the fight we're going to be fighting against nothing. Is this maybe some sort of bluff?"
"Yup, they're just bluffing. Well let's go back inside, the day's getting hotter until I go into the shades." Rance screamed for his maid, but the maid with the silver-green hair didn't respond. "Damned useless maid."
"But Rance, I don't think Star's going to declare an attack without having a scheme in mind. We should keep our eyes out for her movements." Cirno flew above Rance and held out both of her hands palm forward toward Rance. Flapping her wings, something glittering appeared from her hand and fell on Rance's shoulder. The chill made Rance almost jump, but the cooling sensation made him stay on his Ruler's seat. "Besides, if you're hot I can just cool you down. You come here too Dai-chan. That sweat isn't healthy."
"Hoh, that's a good ability you have."
"Isn't it?" Hearing Rance's compliment, the ice fairy smiled. "I can make it colder too you know? Want to make me freeze you over?"
"That sounds unpleasant so no." As Rance said that, Daiyousei floated closer to where Cirno was spraying her ice-cold ability. "Just keep the pace and cold as is. Daiyousei's going to be collateral if you freeze me."
"Sure thing, boss!" the excited fairy poured even more of her ice toward Rance and it made him jump. Daiyousei, meanwhile, doesn't seem to mind the added cold. Realizing the silently rising Rance, the ice fairy asked with a smile. "Too cold?"
"I'm lecturing you later you brat."
To that, Cirno could only laugh.
Picking up movement in the changing winds, Isoroku quickly drew an arrow from the holster and sniped through the green grassland. It launched itself with such force that Rance expected it to fly toward the forest and struck itself through a tree. However, besides any logic Rance and his company could muster, the arrow stopped mid-air after pushing back something invisible before it blew up with a loud jingle. After the smoke cleared out, a single arrow remained and fell on the ground.
Seeing the strange phenomenon, Daiyousei eyes widened as she saw what was happening and with all the force in her lung she shouted. "Invisible enemy!"
From her voice, come a sudden blast of bullets aimed toward the green-haired fairy. Before she could be hit, Rance pulled her close and out of the way before landing on the ground. Not even looking toward Daiyousei and confirming her safety, his eyes were locked toward his enemies and swung the sheated Chaos toward his front. "Isoroku, Kenshin, move your asses into gear!"
"On it!"
Kenshin nodded as she slashed the bullets to non-existent with her blade.
"You can feel them too, right Kenshin?" in-between the onslaughts of bullets, Isoroku was slowly readying her bow and arrows, she looked at where Kenshin was supposed to be at and realized she had went ahead of Isoroku to slash the empty air of the grassland. "That damned girl is even more gung ho than Teru!" realizing the pointlessness in talking to herself, the archer continued. "Come back here if you got surrounded, okay?"
In an instant, the human war goddess was blazing through the grassland. The Bishamonten's drying pole trailed with the girl's blurring white armor. If one were to see a sleek and long slab of metal, regardless of who they are, it would evoke a sense of closeness and incite the instinct to move away from the sword's reach. Combined with her skills that backed the title Sword Master etched into her name, pressuring someone to back away from Uesugi Kenshin was just her usual bread and butter. She prided herself in her technique of instilling fear on her opponents, and winning the battle before it had even begun.
A single slice above Kenshin's head and two puffs of smokes appeared with their accompanying jingle. The woman had discerned the positions of the invisible enemy with her experienced ear used in defeating the trickeries of Sado's youkais. Following that with a vertical slice forward, another explosion of jingle was heard before her. In the last possible second, as bullets of various kinds began to launch themselves toward the female swordsman, she jumped high into the sky.
From there she landed on a squishy invisible platform, and from the texture her foot had landed on she knew that she just crushed a poor girl's face.
"I'm sorry," said Kenshin as sincerely as she could before she leaped deeper toward the enemy force that was still invisible. "But I'm not retreating."
Another slice in-front of her, the shrieking sounds of girls could be heard from the empty air. With each poofs of smokes, various objects cleaved into two were launched onto the ground from nothingness. Whatever was making them invisible wasn't trying to hide them anymore. But for what reason?
The question lingered inside Kenshin's mind as she rushed through the invisible army.
Laughing weakly at the impossible spectacle before her eyes, Isoroku Yamamoto's arrow rang throughout the seemingly empty grassland and pierced something undiscernible. She will never get used to screams coming out from nothingness in every shot that she made.
In one way, this situation looked worse in her head than what was coming from her eyes.
From her nimble fingers, Isoroku released the pulled arrow from its string, blasting a loud sound that reverberated throughout the land, and shot through the empty space above the dancing Kenshin whose sword made for a wild dancing partner. As her arrow pierced through another invisible enemy leaving a loud jingle, she readied another arrow and aimed at where the bullets are being shot at with her form remaining unchanged. This time, it definitely got itself stuck on something hard and thick, like a stone. And when the arrow disappeared as if dragged in with whatever it was struck with, she realized something incredibly fatal and halted sending another arrow above and around Kenshin.
In the middle of the battle, suddenly Kenshin's swings were resulting in nothingness. Eyes opened wide, the swordswoman quickly jumped two times back and keeping her weapons leveled by her chin. Her light blue eyes reflected the grasses littered with wooden and stone-crafted objects left and right, and then she turned her sight front and center. She didn't caught any signs of movements. Not even the wind blowing gave signs of movements. Her ears, however, was picking up the subtle sounds of the fairy wingbeats. And with a legion of wingbeats, a whisper.
"What should we do?"
"Don't worry, I got this."
Still bracing herself for the next attack, the vast green grass felt like they had grown eyes. Along with said grasses, the clouds and the sun casting down its light on the land. From her point of view with her eyes locked on her perimeters, actions surrounding her was as if they were grinded to a halt.
When Isoroku looked at Kenshin, however, the archer gasped.
Kenshin, with her own two eyes, started to see herself disappearing bit by bit and particle by particle. From the tip of her sword and slowly encroaching toward the hilt. After seeing her feet slowly disappearing, she slipped from the grass and landed on the ground and looking around her. She rolled the incoming bullets but stayed on her bottom still-looking upward. Swallowing her spit, she watched with her eyes as lights of various sizes began hovering her way. Gripping her disappearing sword tightly, the girl rolled once more to the right and relied just on her senses to stay cleaving.
Although the girl had started to sweat profusely, her eyes were sharply glaring and her pupils were moving slowly and focused. With the Bishamonten truly channeling its might through her, Kenshin raised her sword above her head as she screamed everything in her lungs.
One slash
Two slash
Three slash
Four.
As she gasped and wheezed on the center of explosions, her hands holding the thin and long katana sideways with both her hands, she shivered as her breathing became uneven. She wanted to take a quick rest, but her body seemingly fading from existence and the state of battle she was in simply wouldn't allow her to take it easy. One wrong step and that would be it.
Rance's eyes widened as he let go of the now-conscious Daiyousei and charged through the empty grassland wielding Muramasa as he swung it wildly to the sound of a few puffs of jingling smokes. As he watched the slowly disappearing Kenshin still in her trained stance, Rance held the demon blade Chaos firmly before jumping as far as his legs would let him.
Landing closely beside the swordswoman, the green-armored ruler launched a big wind scar in-front of him blew the grasses, the bullets and somethings invisible above Kenshin away. Taking this chance and also Kenshin's hand, they went back toward the camp without looking back.
"Holy hell, kid. You got a death wish or something?" Chaos yelled from the man's waist, but all of his concern fell onto deaf ears. "You could've died you know! Wait, wouldn't that actually be a good thing for me?"
"Not again! I won't let it happen again!" Looking from behind him, Kenshin wasn't sure if she should speak a word. In the end, she kept her mouth closed shut. "I'm not losing anyone else again, damnit!"
Mumbling a mantra, he pushed himself forward with Kenshin behind him. Looking back at the girl again, he found whatever was missing from Kenshin returning to normal, except the expression of worry from the swordswoman's face. Stopping mid-way, the man in green inspected everything that was Kenshin from top to bottom. Touching her cheek to her thigh, and then sealing it all with a kiss. Finding that Kenshin was blushing red and covering her mouth, Rance grinned from ear to ear.
Watching it all unfold, Isoroku grumbled with a frown while Cirno and Daiyousei shouted and cheered at them excitedly. The war then stopped at a standstill. Everything was as if they were paused by a remote control.
"You okay?" Rance asked, shaking the swordswoman's shoulder repeatedly. The man's grin was turned upside down, and his shark-like teeth grinded against one another. Seeing that, Kenshin's breathing slowly stabilized as she finally nodded. Not letting go of her hand, he kept on staring at his girl, who replied with another nod. "Good. Ready to go back in?"
Kenshin nodded once again. This time her resolve was finalized.
"Then don't lag behind and try to keep up!" The tone of Rance's harsh voice brought smile in Kenshin's face and they started to charge forward together. Rance ran ahead, not bothering to dodge the incoming bullets. Instead, he erased the incoming bullets with a single slash from Chaos' blade. After clearing the way, Kenshin stepped forward after dodging her share of attacks and a jingle of smokes were slashed into two. Seeing the end-result, Rance huffed as he looked away from Kenshin. "Damnit you're worrying me over nothing!"
"I'm sorry Lord Rance," Kenshin bowed. "I'm going all in now."
"You'd better!"
Their attempt gave Cirno an idea as she zoomed forward as fast as she could, revealing a spellcard in her hand. Suddenly asking Isoroku to cover her, the Archer had no choice but to expend her maximum efforts. Flying high above the couple, the blue-haired fairy pellets a hail of icicle rain in a good wide spread. Creating a carpet-line of white, she made sure that the ices were as far away from the two before throwing the card into the sky. A blinding light enveloped the cloudless blue curtains above as javelins of white ice rained on the green earth. With cheer and confidence, Cirno declared smugly: "Icicle Fall: Easy!"
Rance and Kenshin stayed in the middle of the spellcard's blind spot: directly below Cirno. With her senses sharpened from a heightened willpower, she danced a sharp twister to slash both her enemies and shield the man she loved. Following the Bishamonten's lead, each of Isoroku's arrows were now flowing nicely toward anything that wasn't impaled mid-air by Cirno's icicles. Shooting invisible targets based only from the movements of the wind were building a bridge on unfortified land: Delicate. As such, she took care to aim each of her arrows as precisely as possible. Breathe in, breathe out, and shoot. Daiyousei was watching from behind Isoroku in awe as the table had turned around little by little, one poof of jingle at a time.
Slowly, fairies began to fade into existence from what could be seen as nothingness. Ai Naoe watched from the gate's watchtower with a binocular as she counted on the time since the battle had started. The strategist was tapping her fingers on the edge of the watchtower, with a few papers in-hand and a few others scattered on the small watchtower's floor.
"If the fighting is only waged by the fairy who can refract light without the other three present, then what was their aim?" Ai placed the pen's end before her lips. The pen was played around by the strategist's hand without fail. Rolled around, switching fingers, moving from one pinch of fingers to the next. After a few seconds, her hand stopped. Opening the pen's lid, she began writing something on a blank piece of paper with a wide grin.
Omachi was sitting on a puffy couch with a cold drink on her hand. Watching the situation unfolding before her eyes, she truly had no words to describe what had just transpired before her. The fox's job was to make sure that nothing will disrupt Ai's calculations. A rouge enemy, three fairies of purple-hairs, went flying for the strategist and the nine-tailed fox.
"If we can down these guys we'll get a promotion!" said the fairy up-front.
"What's a promotion!?" said the fairy in the middle.
"I don't know what that is!" said the fairy in the back. "But it sounds delicious!"
Omachi set her drink onto the stand beside the couch before standing up. Readying her claws, she leaped from the watchtower toward the three fairies coming at her. Finding the nine-tails charging toward the purple fairies, they smirked before they formed a single line facing Omachi.
"Take our secret attack we learned from our lady Star Sapphire! Execute the Tri-Stars formation!"
As Omachi was about to gouge the fairies' stomach out, they instantly scatter and created a triangular shape around Omachi. With her feet landing on the gate's roof tiles, she watched as the fairy trio were circling around her while still maintaining their triangle. With Omachi surrounded in a three-way pincer, the fairies laughed as they slowly moved safely outside of the fox's reach.
"Are you ready, Lavender?" the purple-haired fairy with the bow said.
"I was born ready, Magenta!" the purple-haired fairy with a hairpiece replied.
"Don't count this girl Prose out just yet, girls!" the purple-haired fairy with the goggles ascertained her presence. "Moving in by your command, Miss Magenta!"
"Let's down ourselves a fox, girls!" Magenta nodded before rushing abruptly toward Omachi with bullets coming from both of her hands. With her movement, the other girls followed suit and started moving closer and closer toward the fox while maintaining a burst of wide vertical-spread bullets. Dodging the purple pellets herself, the fox soon ran out of platforms to dig her footing into and jumped onto the air. Without breaking a sweat, the fox had leaped herself into the air, but her eyes couldn't track the fairies that were surrounding her.
She looked left and right and back, but no signs of the fairies. Then she found herself gasping as she hurriedly look down and found the three fairies now forming a tower while catching up her distance by flight. They were now opting for a concentrated line of fire that homed at the fox, and the fox knew that getting hit by those bullets would be bad news.
Not to mention her fine tails' furs would be ruffled and dirtied.
With the situation calling for her definite attention, the fox pulled out a divine paper from between her chest and threw it to her back as she floated. Freezing in the air, she let a few bullets grazing her clothes as she dodged the rest of the bullets as they bounced from the purple barrier that the paper emitted. Falling down, the fox landed on Prose's shoulder before dodging her neck from Lavender's bullet. Pulling her right claw back, she continued her fall downward and cleaved the hairpiece girl's body into two.
"What!?" Prose said as she watched her friend being split into two. Not even Lavender was conscious enough to realize she was fading and her body was blowing up.
With their eyes widened, the rest of the Tri-Stars gasped and screamed in horror. "Lavender!"
With the exploding jingle of the middle fairy, she continued for Magenta as Prose turned around for a pincer attack. The fairy turning around did not realize that the paper above her was emitting a flickering purple light that zapped Prose instantly and fried her into puffing out of a jingling existence.
"Prose!" screamed Magenta as she released all the bullets she could muster to shoot toward Omachi. Screaming her lungs out, adrenaline took over the last of the Tri-Stars' body as she exacted her last stand. Pupils small and her eyes wide, the purple bullets shaped like a disjointed and coming apart lines of stars were easily dodged by her target, and with a swift motion Omachi shot a lightning bolt from the tip of her finger which hand was shaped like a gun. Realizing that the leader of the Tri-Star had no way out, the only thing she could do was let out a grunt escape from her mouth. "I'm so sorry girls, Commander Star!"
"Bang!"
A single bolt of lightning pierced through the last fairy's heart before she exploded in a loud puff of smoke.
With that done, Omachi landed on the roof of the watchtower before entering from the side and landing herself on the couch.
Ai turned around with a dozen of stacked papers on her hands. "Good work, bodyguard. Now if you'll excuse me, I found something interesting in my observation. Guard the watchtower at all cost, alright?" With that single request, Ai jumped down the watchtower and ran toward the main mansion of her Lord.
"Sure," taking a sip from her drink, she wiped a sweat from her cheek with a napkin. The name uttered by the last of the Tri-Stars echoed inside her mind, creating doubt as she let out the name from her mouth. "Star Sapphire, what a tactician."
Back to the battlefield, with the dwindling attacks of the fairies themselves becoming visible. It was seen on plain view that some of the fairies were shielding themselves with either a thick wooden or stone shield. Some of them still had Isoroku's arrows planted onto them. Numbering no less than around forty fairies in total, a single figure at the exact center of it all was coming into the vision of Rance's force. It was a girl in a red dress that matched her red-colored hair. She was wheezing and trying to catch her break. Sweat began to from everywhere on the red-head's face, but a strange smile was radiating from it.
"So this is as far as my ability can last, huh?" said leader huffed as she wiped the sweat trailing down her chin. "Better pull out while there's still a chance."
"Sunny!" Cirno called out as her spellcard's effect dissipated into thin air. "I knew you were behind of this battle! Only you have the power to erase these fairies out of sight!" still, even with the depleted morale of the enemy forces, Cirno was still dodging left and right as she spoke to Sunny. The shooting girls were soon wiped out by a pair of blades or a single arrowhead to their vital points. "Stay right there, I'll kick your butt soon enough!"
As soon as Cirno engaged herself in a conversation with Sunny Milk, the whole battlefield stopped as if a big red light had hovered above the fighters. It was as clear as day that both sides had fought long enough to determine a victor, and being experienced in attacking first and foremost, Sunny knew that no matter how much she struggled she will never win this game of tug-of-war.
All she could do now was to humor her opponent.
"Try if you can, traitor!" Sunny began as a grin formed on her face. "But I guess I shouldn't call you a traitor to the fairy-kind. You're always fighting for what you believe was right. That's why I view you as an opponent I can respect, Cirno. That strength of yours is to be envied!"
"Damn straight I am! Now prepare your face for a good ice-cold beating, Light Fairy!" Forming a ball of ice inside her palm, Cirno spread out her hands toward the red-head. "With this ball of ice I can instantly freeze you solid. This is the ball of Absolute Freeze! I hope you're as weightless as your name implied you are! Take this!" Releasing the ball, it travelled toward Sunny at a speed no ordinary eye could follow. "And become an English Beef!"
"You'll have to wait on that, Ice Fairy!" Her movement was sluggish and unstable, but Sunny dodged the ball of thick and hard ice before she stared into Cirno's eyes. Her whole feel was still that of a fighter, even now when she was clearly at her lowest fighting power. Swallowing her spit and wiping another round of sweat, the red-haired girl pointed her finger at Cirno as she continued talking. "Our fight will not be decided today. As much as I hate to admit it, my job is not to take you down, Cirno!"
"That's impossible!" Genuine shock ran throughout Cirno's nerves. "But I did a rival speech and everything!"
"What are you talking about?" Rance asked from below with a raised eyebrow and a look of a man that had been questioning a lot of things mixed with the look of someone who just didn't care. "Is this the extent of your full force invasion? Pathetic!"
From Cirno's eyes, the redhead set her sight toward the man in green.
"You!" Sunny gasped as she landed on the ground. "Wait a minute! You're that man in the bounty poster!" the light fairy giggled before she formed a ball of fire in each of her hand. "If I strike you down right now I'm going to be rich!" Hurling her hands overhead, the bullets crossed against each other and created new bullets from that exchange. With that, she launched six flaming bullets aimed toward the brown-haired man in green, which his sword wrapped in sheet quickly swatted every bullets away with two of them hitting random fairies in the sea of fairies. "What in the—" her voice was cut mid-way by two exploding jingles. "What in the heck are you supposed to be!?"
"A lord, a great ruler, and the ideal man for girls everywhere. If you know what's good for you, don't treat me like a small-fry!" Rance yelled toward the shrieking fairy, who were so taken aback by that revelation that she began running away from the Outsider. Seeing his enemy flying to the east, he ran after the shrieking fairy while swinging Chaos above his head. "Hey, come back here and let me capture you!"
"No!" Her shriek echoed through the grasslands as she retreated to the forest and disappearing in-between the trees. With their commander gone, the fairies quickly zoomed past Rance, Kenshin, and Cirno to retreat to their territory. Staring at the retreating force, Rance and Cirno laughed in unison as they humored themselves in their greatness.
Daiyousei, however, a lump began to form inside her throat. It was hard to swallow along with the hardly disappearing pang she felt from her stomach. Her eyes went wide for a second before she yelled to herself.
"Oh no."
Looking at the green-haired fairy, Isoroku stared silently at the frozen statue of Daiyousei. Placing her hand on her chin and closing her eyes, the feeling of electric current coursing through her brain was rejuvenating. Then she smirked. "Good job noticing it. Shall we go?"
"You noticed it too, Miss Isoroku?"
"Yeah. Kenshin can protect Rance and Cirno." Turning around, she dashed followed by the flying green-haired fairy. "Can you keep up?"
"Of course I can!" Dai-chan nodded. "I hope we're not too late."
Nodding to each other, the two turned around and head for the gate. Passing the watchtower and the smithy, they saw Ai running toward the same destination as them.
The mansion was devoid of sounds. Even as the two fairies walked past the entrance of the great mansion the heard nary a sound but their own friction to the floor. A fairy with black, waist-long hair turned toward the short, blonde-haired fairy behind her and she shook her head. Flying on a closed-off space would echo their wingbeats across the empty hallways. With a few skids along the polished floor, they slid open the door to the gathering hall and went inside.
Star Sapphire was confident enough that that the nearest presence that were close to them was at least five rooms away.
Translation: Outside.
Closing the door behind them, the two fairies looked at each other before giggling to themselves. They raised their hands up high and fived each other.
"You did it, Star!" the blonde excitedly grinned. "Now all we need to do is plant this wooden seal on where that man Lens would be ruling this area from and the territory will be ours!" From inside her pocket, she pulled out a small and wooden board with a black-brushed kanji that read: Possession. On one end of the corner, a red stamp labeled with the name "Yakumo" could be seen. "But where is this man supposed to be sitting on?"
Star pointed at the slightly-elevated platform on the tatami mattress room. Her index finger specifically aimed at the cushion seat on the center of the three seat that was there. "Judging by how everything were positioned, I can safely say that the one in the middle is his seat. Now let's not dawdle. We have a war to win."
As the two fairies were about to place the seal on the seat, the fairy strategist noticed three things wrong in the room. One, it was too quiet and too lifeless as she had expected a resistance or two from someone, but it could be attributed to the Outsider's force lacking in number. Two, the layout of the mansion was too simple that it made easy access for invaders to locate the gathering hall even without looking for a floor plan, as if it was designed to lure people in and trap them in rather than keep them out. Three, she sensed something from three rooms away and a chain lunging itself toward the blonde fairy's waist. In an instant, Star froze in place.
Turning around, she screamed as loud as she could. "Luna, watch out!"
"What?" Before Luna could press the wooden seal onto the cushion, the chain caught Luna on her stomach before being pulled back with such force that her back was slammed against the slightly ajar sliding door. The force of the pull was strong enough to leave a loud bumping sound. Struggling to get off of the chain, Luna turned around and opened the sliding door. With her body moving in-motion with her body flow, she stumbled downward and the chain was pulled without the blonde fairy with it. Gasping for air, Luna laid on her back with her limbs spread and exhausted. No sounds came from her mouth, but Star could see that she was breathing.
Seemingly coming out of nowhere, the chain was coming out of the ajar sliding door opposite to where Luna was launched out of. The form of the chains were like a slithering snake made out of metal. With the retreat of the chain, the presence she sensed was now running straight toward their location from the rooms adjacent to the room where the chains slithered back into.
Star could sense that one wrong move from her and she will be in a real world of hurt. That ajar sliding door also created many warnings inside her head. Anything that was visible through that small gap between the door and the wall was dangerous, and the fairy with blue ribbon didn't want to test the odds.
Coughing a fit, the fairy on the floor raised her hand with the wooden board and pointed her other hand toward it. Instantly, Star knew what she was going to do and spread her hands open, eyeing Luna to throw it to her. Nodding, the arm containing the piece of board was launched from one hand and flying for the fairy with blue-ribbon. Mid-flight, however, the board was pierced by a silver knife and was sent to the end of the room. Star, sensing that the presence she felt had gone as far as one room away had planned for that to happen. Maddeningly fast, she let her wings hurriedly carry her toward Luna and grabbed her in a bridal carry.
"But we could be winning right now, if you abandon me, Star!"
"Zip it, Luna!" the black-haired fairy hissed as she dodged a chain aiming for her neck from behind her. She halted her wing movement mid-air before flipping her body backward and evading the chain trick with fine grace.
"I can just respawn, you know?"
"That's not the point," the girl shook her head. "If victory means seeing my best friend get hurt, then I'd rather forego victory. We can always try again next time."
Without moving her mouth again, the girl nodded as she rubbed her stomach and winced. Turning her head around, there was a maid busily chasing at her holding a chain and a sickle. Star's face was asking the maid how she had done that chain trick. The maid smirk with a confident expression, as if it was just a neat trick that she had learned after dealing with something similar before.
"Shame on you for going all out against children!"
"As far as I'm concerned, young miss," Teru's reply couldn't be more emotionless than right now. "You fairies could be as old as the first tree that had sprouted from earth."
"But our bodies are still that of kids, you know!?"
"Don't care."
"Heartless maid!"
Keeping her composure, the maid steadily gained a few distance against the fairy strategist. Before them was a sharp corner leading to the inner mansion. The fairies opted for an elaborate flight maneuver: gliding down low before rising up high and turning the weight of the body to where the curve leads. Teru, however, opted for the traditional approach of running from the floor and onto the wall. Seeing what could only be called a demon behind her, Star could only shriek from the top of her lungs.
The path before them had now splitted into two. The left path would lead to the entrance, while the right path would lead to the rear of the mansion. Closing her eyes for a moment, Star kept blazing her way past the various vases and wooden stands lining the long hallway. Before long, she opened her eyes and had decided her next action. Without a word, she turned right with Teru trailing behind the fairies.
Now faced with two doors at the end of the larger hallway, one at the end of the hall and the other to the right side and plastered on the wall, her brain was in need to be put into test again. Taking a deep breath, she had a fifty-fifty chance of escape in her mind. Nothing to lose from taking a risk, she picked the door that was on her right side.
Frantically opening the door with her shoulder, the fairies went into a room that looked to be a kitchen. Crossing above the big wooden table, they knocked a few things from the cabinet as the maid had chased the fairy duo into a single room. However, the fairies were too fast even for Teru and they managed an escape from an open window. After looking for direction of the sun, the fairy flew up and blazed for the western gate's airspace.
Star looked behind her, and saw a big-boobed blonde fox-girl standing on the western gate of the Outsider's fortress. She quickly pulled out a couple of rectangular papers from the space between her breasts and let the papers trail away into the sky.
Still in mid-air, the two of them realized that there were now a couple of crows following them from behind. Luna saw the crows coming at them and pulled Star's shoulder as hard as she could and forced her to turn around. With the crows in range of her bullets, she raised a single hand and blasted forward a stream of bullets that destroyed the night-feathered crows into oblivion. Just by that one shot alone, ten out of the twelve familiars were shot down instantly.
Seeing that display of power, Omachi smirked as she pulled out another paper with a different inscribing on it. A single one was then tossed with the full power of her hand, and the paper homed toward the fairies. In an explosion of smokes, the paper turned into a demon-like black wolf that bared its fangs toward the fairies. With a loud growling, it kicked the air faster and faster before it caught up with the fairies.
Smirking, Luna pulled out her own rectangular card and casted it on the sky transitioning toward nighttime. With a blinding light enveloping the red ambience, the wolf disappeared after it was sliced into two by a dense yellow beam of light.
Omachi snorted. A fox like grin appeared on her face as two papers of crow appeared onto her hand. After taking in the sight of the fleeing fairies, the fox turned around and jumped down from the western gate's roof.
Star Sapphire could feel nothing chasing after them. With that information in her mind, she let out a sigh of relief. Back on her usual pace again, she turned her sight toward the girl still being carried in her arms.
"Are you okay, Luna?"
"I'm okay, Star." Touching the carrier's cheek, Luna Child giggled. "Such a worrywart."
"Let's go home. We'll discuss our next strategy with Sunny and Lily," the fairy sighed. "Don't push yourself. You're also an important member of the Fairy Alliance."
And with the sun drawing itself closer and closer to the edge of the horizon, the duo flew past the grassland devoid of fighting and straight toward the forest. The pair was caught flying away by the eyes of Rance. Said Lord could only give out a big "hmph" as he held Kenshin's hand back to his fortress.
Back at the gathering hall, Rance was sitting at where his seat was. Spread before him was a full course dinner, but his eyes were completely fixed onto one thing: the piece of wooden board laid in-front of him. He picked the wood up and looked at the word that read as "Yakumo" and grumbled as he threw it onto the tatami mat. Kenshin was beside her lord and quickly fixed the position of the board, while Teru was standing where she was previously, but Ai swore that she was closer to Rance this time.
"Damned Yukari. What the hell kind of thing is this?"
"I'm very sorry Lord Rance, but this perplexed me too." Hand pinching the bridge of her nose, she mumbled something as her eyes squinted at the opened scroll before her. "In this scroll given to me by Lady Yukari, it has nothing to say about whatever this board is. If Teru was to be believed, it was going to be used as something that can win the fairy faction their war against us. The scroll said nothing about this element in the game."
With his left eye twitching, Rance smacked Chaos on the mat.
"What was that for?"
"I'm calling you out Yukari you bitch! I know you're in here so show your damn self already!"
"That's because I intend for it to say nothing about the game." Heeding the man's call, a single head appeared from Rance's crotch and the man jumped back. Kenshin was about to decapitate the blonde but she zipped downward and appeared from the entrance of the gathering hall. "That was too freaking close, Kenshin-chan! Have mercy on me!"
"Tell my Lord about this mishap, and maybe I will forget your insolence."
A fan before the sage's mouth, Yukari laughed. "Fine, fine. I'll cut to the chase then: That is your handicap as an outsider. If that board is placed on top of where Rance was luring the area from, which would be his seat on the gathering hall, then the Outsider's Force basically lose. That's it. Game over. No strings attached."
"That's insane!" Ai stood up and stomped her way toward the Youkai Sage. "What do you mean "no strings attached?" If you're so deigned to implement this feature, tell it outright in the scroll you gave to us!"
"And why should I? You're not playing by your own rule in this game," Yukari giggled as she planted the tip of her folded fan on Ai's large forehead. "It's best that you drill this particular fact into your brain, miss strategist. In Gensokyo, you're playing by my rules and under my whims and what I say goes. I never said that the way home will be as easy as that, right? And besides, the people in Gensokyo wants something to entertain themselves with and relieve themselves from their boredom. You are just at the front-view of the events that will be folding nicely. Isn't that great?"
"Yukari-sama you—"
"I don't mind."
Ai was about to snap and yell at Yukari, until Rance's voice echoed throughout the hall.
"Go ahead, pull all your stops. I will not be beaten that easily." Standing up, Rance walked toward the blonde-haired lady and stared deep into her eyes. Their height were about the same, but the brown-haired man was taller than Yukari. From holding his waist, Rance's hand touched Yukari's chin and held onto it as if it was a picture frame. "But you better not forget one thing: If I defeat you in your own game, you will forever be my woman. Are we clear about that?"
"Fufu," Yukari lowered Rance's hand with her own. "I'm looking forward to that day myself. If they will ever come that is." Laughing behind her fan once more, various eyes began glaring daggers at her. "Anyway, you can keep the wooden board of possession. You can even use it on the fairy alliance's territory and the result will be the same. Let's call it a bonus from me."
Before Ai could snap a word at the blonde, Rance stood up with his palm opened toward Ai. That was the signal for her to stop talking, and so she did. With nothing short of hissing, Ai stepped back to her own seat and watched as her lord handled things.
"And I'm pretty sure this isn't the only time special rules are going to be put into place, right? You're too much of a cunning bitch to not have a few more tricks up your sleeves."
Yukari looked at her usual arm-length white gloves in each hands before showing the back of her arms toward Rance. "These aren't sleeves, they're gloves."
"Stop dodging the question."
"Well... It wouldn't be a surprise if I say it outright, would it? So I'll let you people wonder about it until the time comes. I am sure that you will be very pleased with what I had in mind." Looking around the room, she was glared back with many murderous sight. It didn't bother her by the slightest, but she could read the mood. 'Well that's all from me, goodbye then!"
With a wave of a hand, a portal appeared and swallowed her body whole and leaving the waving hand on the air. It kept on waving back and forth for a while before the hand was pulled into the portal and disappeared without a trace. With his mysterious woman gone, Rance sighed.
"I hate that woman."
"Agreed," Ai nodded.
Omachi and Teru nodded without a word.
Kenshin remained where she was and nodded with Cirno and Daiyousei.
"I'm going to punish that bitch someday." Still grumbling, the lord of the mansion sat on his cushion. His hand was busy slamming Chaos against the tatami mat again and again whilst his teeth ground against his teeth. "Damn it!"
"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop slamming me around though."
Seeing their lord throwing a fit, each and every one of his subjects could only stay silently. Kenshin in particular, was leaning against the man's shoulder with a flushed face. Eating her rice balls all the while, Teru slowly sat on her thighs beside Rance. With both of them leaning their shoulders against Rance, the brown haired man soon threw Chaos behind him and began grappling her women each in his arms. Looking at that herself, Daiyousei closed her eyes with her face slowly burning up. Cirno, meanwhile, nodded in approval of Rance's conduct. Omachi and Ai, meanwhile, was at their own pace discussing the strategies for their next battle. Isoroku, meanwhile, was called by Rance to sit on his lap. After looking at the man for a few moments, she shook her head with a smile.
Thus, the evening in the Rance's Mansion ended very peacefully.
Far away from the Outsider's Mansion, however, the Fairy Alliance once again gathered on their little hideout. Sitting across each other around the large tree stump once more, the fairy trio found themselves rubbing their sweating face or interchanging between rubbing their sleeves and scratching either their forehead or cheek. Sitting where the trio's eyes meet, was the figure of Lily White.
Star was voicing her report about their plan which ended up in failures. This fact had made a lot of fairies understandably angry at the trio, but at the longer the fairy in dark blue dress talked, the lesser the stares came from the fairies. Afterward, the whole group of fairies was silent, except for the long-haired blonde fairy in long-sleeved white vest and white cone-like hat. She was listening until the end, and was biding her time for the right moment to speak.
"And so in the end, you guys failed?" began Lily White.
"Sorry, Lily," Star rubbed the back of her head. "It's either that or watching my friends die. We fairies can revive as much as possible when nature willed it, but even then I refuse to watch my friends die if I can help it.' Star sighed as she looked to the side. "It's not fun seeing your best friend in that situation. This is not what this game was all about, wasn't it? Though I said that, I'm just worming my way for forgiveness from you guys."
There were a few mumbles coming from the fairy-folks, but they soon clapped their hands together and cheered at the fairy trio.
"It's not fun seeing your friends die, huh?" Luna mumbled as her finger scratched her cheek.
Smiling as wide as a horse, Lily continued from there. "How can I forgive something that wasn't a mistake in the first place, Star? You did absolutely nothing wrong. All of you fairies from the Star, Moon, and Sun units have fought to their best and very admirably so." Her chin sticking to her linking fingers, one of her eyes opened to give Star an understanding glance. "And since I wasn't participating in the first place, what do I have to blame you for?"
"So how was the spring-seeing? Did you have fun?" Sunny asked with a smile on her face.
Lily's head bobbed in reaction to the word "spring." Her arms slowly rose and crossed against her chest. "It was amazing. The growing flowers, the changing leaves, the birds chirping and singing above my head. Even my subordinates got into the fun as they drink until they passed out! Something that we should be doing right about now!"
"And how are we going to do that without the booze?" Sunny leered from across the table. "Unless..."
Smirking toward the redhead fairy, Lily leaned against the wooden stump. "Who said I don't have the booze?" She raised her arm and her subordinates flew onto unspecific trees before pulling down a cart of sake inside silver-colored clay bottles. With that, everyone in the army cheered and gave their thanks toward Lily.
Inside the overwhelmingly loud cheer, one fairy girl was still sitting with her crossed arms leaning against the large wooden stump. Her hands were gripping her sleeves as hard as they could until she was numb from the pain. She was shaking in place, and her breathing was uneven.
Lily White's eyes trailed from the cheering crowd and turned toward the other blonde fairy in the general forces. With a bottle of sake in her hand, she grinned as she held Luna's crossed arms softly. "I know you preferred your coffee, Luna Child, but don't mind us having our own feast of sakes, yeah? Heck, why not drink with me for once? Come on, it'll be fun."
No reply.
Luna was still casting her sight downward.
"Come on, Luna, quit acting so serious and be more childish. Like what your name says about yourself." At that sentence, the short-haired girl quickly turned her head at the long-haired fairy. Her teeth was grinding against one another before she opened her mouth and screamed. Yet not a sound came out of her lung as she stopped before her voice was heard by everyone within her earshot. Seeing that reaction, Lily sighed. "Don't tell me you forget why we're fighting in this game in the first place."
"To... win?"
"No, sillyface. I'm talking about having fun."
"But how do I have fun when I'm useless most of the time? All I did right was sneaking our way into the manor. Even Sunny did something right by delivering the letter containing the declaration of war. Let's face it Lily, I did the least bit of contribution on this war, and we're already about to lose our place in the warring area game."
"And what's wrong with that?"
"But—"
"Look, I get it, but that was not your fault." Cutting the girl's speech before it began, Lily placed her hand on Luna's shoulder. "Not even Star's power could predict the usage of chains and sickles. Someone must've had told our powers to that "Lens" man and that someone was heard by a combat genius. If she only had heard of our power in a matter of less than a day, then we need to do something unorthodox to counter her. Did you get a good look of who got you done in like that?"
"A maid," the girl sighed. "A maid with a platinum-green hair. She was using a chain and sickle in a very masterful manner. I would say that she's as scary as that maid from that red mansion."
"Oh, someone like Sakuya Izayoi? I fought against her once and she is indeed powerful! That maid is surely a fun surprise." Lily nodded as she sipped a swig of sake from her cup. "This is indeed a problem for our forces though. We are simply out-skilled. All we have is numbers, and even then we're still fairly in a disadvantage. We also lost our possession board to the Outsider's force, as much as it pains me to say this, but that may be our best chance in winning the Territory War against them."
"I'm sorry."
As the girl said that, another long-haired fairy walked up toward the huge tree stub with two cups of sake in her hands. "Cheer up, Luna," said Star as she set the sake cups onto the makeshift wooden table. "If someone needs to be blamed, then the whole fairy alliance can just blame me. I am the one that costed our victory."
"She's right you know? No wait, what I meant to say is that both of you are wrong and also in the right. Uhm... how do I put this in a good way? Oh yeah. You just need to beat them at your own game, Luna." Finally, Lily White settled for just that. "We fairies may be weak in power and greater in number, true, but we also have our own strength. And what about you, Luna? What do you think your strength is?"
"My strength, huh?" Luna looked at the palm of her hands, before balling them up into a fist. "My strength! Yeah! That should do it!"
Taking a deep breath, Luna grabbed the bottle of sake and drowned her tongue in liquor. The short-haired girl then slammed the sake bottle onto the tree stub with so much force that the two fairies nearest to her could hear the loud clanking sound. Releasing her pent up breath, the girl's dark-colored eyes looked at Star whose eyes reflected Luna's flushed cheeks.
"I swear I'll do better than before. I'll promise you that! I'll even get it on and have some fun while we're at it!"
A small smile began to form on Star's face. "Sure. Do your best, Luna."
"I will!"
Standing up Luna let her actions be dictated by the alcohol now inside her stomach. The first thing she did was standing on the wooden stub and loudly apologizing for her failure to the crowd of fairies. The second thing she did was surfing above the fairies as she screamed cheerily. Finally, the girl drowned herself in the laughter of her peers as she crowd-surfed her way around the gathering wood's clearings. Seeing the happy face of their own kind, Lily and Star quietly watched the excited fairy doing a dance mid-air with Sunny, who was already dancing before Lily, and slowly taking a sip from their respective bottles of liquor.
"Did you have fun fighting against Rance, Star?"
"Sure am. To think the best tactic I can come up with was trounced like that." Smiling wryly, the fairy strategist snorted. "We've been in this fight for far too long, Lily. We don't even remember why we're doing this. It's time for us to end this one with a bang."
Laughing alongside Star, Lily nodded. "Agreed. That man Rance sure is convenient isn't he?"
Action 2/2
Yukari's Subsidy: 150 Ryo
Toll: 5 Ryo
Cirno made the expense for Ice basically non-existent. Omachi was very happy about this.
[Attack the Fairy Alliance – Northern Plains]
The next day and very early in the morning, Cirno had summoned Rance onto the gathering halls. When Rance entered the gathering halls, he was being dragged in by Teru while screaming and complaining onto her ears. Gritting her teeth, she tossed Rance onto the cushion and he growled at his maid before rubbing his butt. A few moments later, he looked forward with the sight of the Ice Fairy crossing her arms at him.
Her grin, as much as annoying to see in the morning, was as much as contagious as her bravado.
"Hoh, so what do you want to talk about this early, Cirno?" the sharp-toothed man yawned. "This better be important, or else Omachi will give you a good spanking."
"Rance, lend me Kenshin to attack the Northern Grassland," said Cirno to the Lord of the mansion. She was standing with her hands on her waist as she talked like an equal to Rance. The man lazing around silently gazed at the blue-haired girl before standing up and patted her head. A few rubbing later, the man exited the room while stretching out a yawn. "Does that mean a yes?" asked the fairy excitedly.
"Sure, whatever. Go get them, Cirno. I'm going back to bed."
Closing her hands into a ball of fist, the blue fairy nodded confidently.
A few moments later, however, Rance peeked out of the exit and pointed at Cirno.
"But don't you dare hurt my woman, alright!? I'll have Omachi and Ai spank you as punishment!"
"Yes sir!"
And with that, Cirno was set for a fight.
Then after that, Rance went back to his bedroom.
Seeing the figure of a fox girl laying herself nicely on top of his bed, Rance quickly jumped, landed his head in-between the humongous bosom of Omachi, and began playing around with her tits. Grinning while pinching and poking her nipples, he slowly made sure that Omachi didn't woke up from her sleep.
Afterward, he slowly pulled his hands from those breasts and opted to pat Omachi's head and stroking her ears, before he sighed and drifted his way to sleep.
Northern Plains.
Compared to the land acquired from brute force by Cirno, the area controlled by Sunny Milk was a bit wilder with a few sets of trees growing independently here and there. The fairies mostly used them as either a place to cool down, or a place to live. As the current owner and key-ruler of the small plot of land, she had made many of changes that she couldn't have done normally. In one place, the many individuals of trees that had sprouted and grew at an alarmingly abnormal pace. A single oak which could take years to form a strong bark, took only three weeks to reach the state of adulthood, with its peak being at around twenty to thirty feet above ground. And said tree wasn't even the tallest tree in her controlled area.
Waltzing in from the west, Cirno and Kenshin trudged through the fairies attacking them with Cirno at the helm. She froze all the bullets that were directed toward her and her company. She made it extra sure that not even a graze will appear on Kenshin's armor, because that would be breaking her trust with Rance. She thought that, but in reality, Kenshin could easily carry her baggage without any interventions needed. Nevertheless, the spirit and persistence of Cirno in keeping the swordswoman safe was contagious to her, and she opted to stay behind and see where this would lead to.
Passing by the thirty feet tall oak tree, the two girls came face to face with a lush and gigantic redwood tree. The tree's bark itself was light-brown in color and many rays of the sun were shining through the gaps between the leaves above. Said tree before them was at least as tall as a mountain itself, about two-hundred feet tall in height. When they first arrive at this plane of existence, Kenshin and the rest of Rance's harems had wondered what the pointy green tip they had seen in the distance was, but looking at it up close the swordswoman could only marvel with a slightly opened mouth and a focused stare of awe.
"Isn't this tree amazing? I don't know how it got here, but out of the blue this baby appeared where a small sprout was."
From behind said tree came out a fairy in red dress. As she stared at the blue-dressed fairy a few feet away below the hill she stood with a big grin, she began talking. "Well, well, well, if it isn't Cirno and the Katana Girl. Where's that brown-haired man "Lens" though? Did you abandon him?" Hearing that coming from Sunny, Kenshin let out a small laugh from her mouth. "Well, whatever. I guess you're not here to drink liquor with your old buddy old pal, huh?"
"I'm here to settle our score, Sunny."
"Oh?" Sunny's eyes suddenly widened as her grin went from ear to ear. "And what do you suppose we settle our scores by?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Cirno pulled out a rectangular object from her pocket. "We'll be doing something with this, of course. Good old one-on-one spellcard battle. I brought Kenshin here as a spectator from my side of the fight."
"No Daiyousei to save your butt this time, huh?" crossing her arms, Sunny smiled wryly. "Well, nevermind about that. My chest ached for vengeance and today I will sate the butterflies inside my chest!"
Sweating, Lily took it upon herself to explain the logic behind her friend's sudden outburst. "Pay her no mind, Kenshin. She does not know what it means... probably."
Cirno's smile didn't waver.
She held her spellcard tightly before her chest and flew slowly to level her vision to Sunny's. Kenshin watched as her eyes trailed to where the two fairies saw each other eye-to-eye. A pressing atmosphere quickly struck her surroundings, as fairies were jutting their heads out from the back of every trees in the area. All of them were Sunny's followers, dressed similarly to how they leader does: either with their hair mimicking her, or there were certain accessories that they mimicked in style.
The ice fairy saw a white cone-shaped hat floating downward to Kenshin side. Staring at Lily White, Cirno glared daggers at her, which prompted her to raise her hands upward in self-defense. "I'm not butting in on this," said the spring fairy.
Cirno snorted, before giving Lily a thumb up and a smirk.
"We're done with introductions now?" Sunny asked. It was rhetoric, but Cirno answered with a confident nod. Eyes sharply staring toward her and body itching all over for the good fight. It would be extremely rude for Sunny if she didn't answer in kind. "Very good. Now we can go straight to the fun stuff!"
Inching away toward each other, each of the fairies glided her way toward the other and passing by each other. Cirno's face was tense, if her furrowed brows and her slight frown was any indication. Sunny, meanwhile, has the face of a confident kid five minutes before her final exam will start. The fairies and Kenshin quietly saw the two of them distancing themselves from each other in a calculated flight. Ai had told Kenshin this before, and she had been into a familiar situation mimicking this particular setup. This was how warriors started their feud based on sportsmanship. Except in her world's case, they were doing this on solid ground.
After gaining a few distance from each other, both of them instantly turned around and their card shone brightly before flashing into non-existence. From each of their bodies, their power was brought forth into the masses' sights. Inside their veins, flow energies that they wouldn't normally have, something that was locked inside cards that were a piece of their unlimited strength. Their eyes became sharper, wilder, and brimming with force. Lightning and sparks flew from each other's eyes and clashed straight on the middle of the line.
Screaming from the top of her lung, Cirno blasted forward with both hands open toward Sunny Milk's face. "Take this! Freeze Sign - Icicle Fall!" sharp and frozen solid water began to form from the back of the ice fairy's body. Starting as small as a gathering of water molecules in the air, the sublimation part always enchanted the sightseers. The part where the small chunk of ice began forming into a lance of ice, however, was even better. "I'll skewer you with my solid cool ice powers!"
Kenshin and the fairies had their eyes glued onto the rapidly-repeated process with glitters in their eyes. Even Kenshin couldn't save herself some gasp and awe toward the spectacle of nature before her. Sunny Milk, however, was prepared for said attack and made her way to the center of where the icicle lances were being thrown into. She had seen her opening move that she couldn't help but smirk toward Cirno.
"Freeze Sign - Icicle Fall" was one of the strangest move ever invented by a fairy. It deliberately left a big opening in the middle of where the user were aiming at. However, it was all a trap to trick a first-timer into thinking that there would never be a follow-up to her attack. So far, many people had fell victim to this devious and painful fact. And Sunny always wondered if she had made said move alone, or was there somebody else that nudged her creation drive in making something so intricately un-fairy-like.
But that meant nothing to Sunny, who knew what was the strength and weakness of said card. If she were to play her reflex well, a few great spot will be plausible for her to stay in and dodge the entirety of the ice fairy's spellcard. Coupled with that fact, Sunny could use her power over sunlight to shine a hot and powerful ray that could melt every ice she could throw at her.
And yet, as she dodged every last ice that sharply grazed the outside of her airspace, she didn't go for the easy way out. And instead, she opted to return fire with the same type of bullets that she had hurled toward Rance. Kenshin realized that each fairies has their own signature bullet-types, but their signature bullets are always their bare-bone and weakest attack they could muster. Even then, the power and speed of her bullets were mediocre compared to how vast Cirno shelled out her cold-powered shotgun shells.
In just a few minutes, the glorified dogfight above Kenshin and Lily had become an intricate pattern-solving problem for the sunlight fairy. In return, the problem solver also gave the girl opposing her a great deal of problem in concentration levels. Though the line of bullets consisting of three bullets were easily missed, its simplicity became its biggest strength. As Cirno found herself moving into one of two spaces in-between the bullets and coming out of it finding another two-way exit that repeated.
As if it was a calculated outcome, Cirno soon was hit by a bullet straight to her chest and exploded in a loud smokes of jingle. She then came out of said smoke holding her chest while grinning from ear to ear. Sweat began to form all over her body as her breathing became slightly uneven. As she wiped away the sweat with her arms, she could feel her fingers constantly twitching.
Without a sound, Sunny dashed forward with a wide grin on her face holding her right hand above her head with the other's palm opened and aiming at Cirno's body. The only thing Cirno could do was backing away from the fight by falling down and dodging the vertical bullets thrown haphazardly from that right hand. It was unclear how fast the ray of the sun had gathered on the fairy's right hand, but it was as fast as it did with Sunny's left. The attacks came sooner than expected, as each hands were capable of dishing out big balls of light that exploded into smaller balls of light. Those smaller balls of light were slightly homing at the Ice Fairy, and their speed was ludicrous by fairy's standard.
Another wave of light attacks were hurled vertically toward Cirno from up above. Dodging the bullets by side-stepping to her right, her follow-up for that was running as fast as she could above the hill while shooting barrages of ice needles from her right hand. While at the top of the hill, she turned around and watched as Sunny held both of her hands above her head. The transition of her breathing wasn't ignored by Cirno too, as she found herself staring at what appeared to be a giant ball of white light above Sunny's head. The first instinct of everyone watching their fight regarding that, was to run as far away as possible. The second instinct was to not look at it directly.
"With this, I'll get that title of the strongest fairy from you, Cirno." Swallowing the spit inside her mouth, the sunlight fairy truly had lived up to her name. Although, even with a blinding ball the size of a house above her head, she had enough time for her mouth to make a big grin. "Sunny Sign – Majestic Nova."
With no further provocations, Sunny hurled forward the big ball of concentrated and condensed particles of light toward the Ice Fairy. It was a miracle in on itself that Cirno didn't melt from the sheer heat that Kenshin felt sixty-feet away from where the battle had been waged on. As Kenshin wiped a few sweat from her forehead, she found herself staring at a little blue pixel in the sky circumventing what is basically a miniature sun. It wasn't big enough to instantly scorch the Earth, but it was big enough that people could go blind from seeing the ball directly.
Cirno, being the closest out of all, could feel herself being pulled in by the sheer magnificence and force of the ball of light. It didn't help matter that the ball itself was constantly expanding away from its center. She would love to freeze something as big as a sun, but it was not her duty to commit on that thought today. The only thing she needed to cross out of her to-do list today was beating Sunny in Danmaku battle.
The ball of condensed light had now expanded so far that Cirno's wings of ice had started to graze the surface of said little star. She had flew around the ball of light to catch up to where Sunny was, but when she reached where Sunny was supposed to be, the sunlight fairy had disappeared from there.
By the time Cirno had picked a route around the ball of light, Sunny was taking the opposite way from Cirno. With ball of light now shining below the ice fairy, however, she couldn't help but crack a smile. The thought of Sunny being crushed by her own ball of light started to linger inside her mind and it amused her.
And then, the impossible happened.
Holding her hands up high, the sunlight fairy screamed with all her might and the miniature sun stopped in mid-air. Taking a deep breath, Sunny Milk pulled back her elbows behind her back and then thrusted her arms forward while aiming her sight at where Cirno was. The sun was still expanding, and the sheer size of it was indeed enough to make the ice fairy shriek. But the surprise didn't end there.
When the light fairy suddenly balled her hands into fists, the sun exploded and creating six smaller stars that homed themselves toward the Ice Fairy. Grinning like mad, Cirno braced herself for impact with both hands shielding her body. The flying fairy gasped as she was slowly swallowed by the balls of light and disintegrated as the spells too had ended.
It was so absurd in scale that Kenshin couldn't help but stare in awe.
"Get used to it lady samurai," Lily chuckled from her side as she glanced her way toward her. The smirk on her face was both childish and full of trickery. "We fairies are the weakest race in Gensokyo. Things are only going to get harder from here."
"Thank you," closing her mouth, the female in white armor nodded. "I'll keep that in mind." With that the two of them returned to the fight that was happening before them.
Down the big hill, Sunny's stare was completely frozen toward the sky. She was now lying on the grass with her breathing growing very out of control. Sweats were forming from her head as she quickly wiped each and every one of them that almost got themselves inside her eyes. Victory was inside her mind, and she couldn't help herself but to stay inside her bubble of joy. And yet, every bubble was going to pop sometime.
That time was now.
Sliding with the speed of a lightning bolt on a small board made of ice, Cirno made her way downward the hill screaming. While lying on the board, she steadily aimed her right hand's index finger and thumb which created the shape of a gun. Realizing that, Sunny stood up and was ready to shoot Cirno between her eyes. Yet her effort was futile, for the speed of her hand outmatched the ice bullet that was shot from Cirno's finger that pierced through Sunny's heart. Coming out of the jingling smoke, the ice fairy tumbled a few feet forward on the grass alone before she landed on Kenshin's arms.
Standing up, she found her eyes fixated at the smiling figure of Cirno along with her thumbs up. In response, the swordswoman smiled with Cirno.
"I lost fair and square. As expected from my rival," in-front of the battered-down fairy, Sunny Milk struggled to walk toward Cirno with Lily White holding her shoulder. "I concede this time. I give my best move and still lost. I applaud your effort, traitor."
"No objections here," Lily said. "Even if I were to fight with the fairies now, we're just going to get obliterated by lady samurai over here." Kenshin quietly shook her head to respond Lily White, but the fairy herself shook her head in return. "You're underselling yourself short here lady samurai. Though I guess that's the reason why you're a great figure to behold. It's almost like you're the incarnation of spring itself. Hahaha. So full of life, graceful, and an eyecatcher to boot."
Smiling, Kenshin looked to the side as she responded with a simple "Thank you."
"You're welcome!" cheerily smiled the spring fairy."
"Setting that aside. Don't worry about things here. I'll let the fairies already living here be able to live here in peace." Cirno said as she stood on Kenshin's arms. "And for you, Sunny. I'll beat you again next time. No matter what moves you will throw at me."
"Well setting that aside, I'm counting on you," struggling to even push her fist forward, her fairy units helped to keep her hand steady. "Cirno-chan."
"Count on it Sunny," the ice fairy responded the sunlight fairy in kind, by returning her fistbump. "Anytime, any day, I'll take you on."
"No, not that. I mean taking care of these trees. They're my pride and greatest treasure."
"Oh," Cirno's eyes went wide for a few second, but she regained her composure again soon after. "Sure, it won't kill me in taking care of a few trees."
The sun had slowly reached its peak when the two smiled at one another. With the fairies nodding to each other, the losing army quickly departed while waving their goodbyes. Sunny Milk soon regained her strength and started flying with the fairies toward the eastern forest. Cirno and Kenshin, looking from below the great tall tree, waved goodbye at them with smiles on their face.
Thus, the Northern Plains was acquired by Rance's force.
"I know you're going to be mad, but hear me out." Sunny said to the pouting Luna. "Cirno was really, really strong. I was still no match for her, even after I used a spellcard made from your ideas, Luna."
"...I was about to be mad," Luna sighed. "But I can't blame you on this one. I too was guilty of failure." Her frown was then turned upside down, though her hands were still stuck on her hips. "Did you have fun though?"
"You betcha I did!"
"Well then, next area they attack will undoubtedly be my territory. I'm going to have some fun of my own then." With a skip and a hop, the moon fairy carried with her two rectangular-shaped bags, one being her treasure and the other being virtually bigger than her treasure box. "I'll show them that I can have fun while kicking their butts."
From the distance, Star and Lily nodded their heads in unison.
Action 1/2
Total Ryo: 1260
Satisfaction: 5
[Attack the Fairy Alliance – Southern Riverside.]
A few hours after the successful takeover for the Northern Plains by Cirno, it was time for someone else in the army to pull their weight for the good of Rance's force. Since the girl had been constantly ignoring Rance for the past few days, it was the right time for Teru to be sent on a mission somewhere. At least with her out of the way, she could enjoy fucking around the mansion with either Isoroku or Omachi.
The setting sun gave way to the full moon above them. The only light illuminating their way southward was from a single source up above. And yet that single light gave comfort to each of the maiden's heart, paying no mind to the constant tree shades that was blocking said light. Both Ai and Teru was walking side by side as they invaded the territory of the Fairy Alliance. The road toward the southern riverside had the obstacles of steep cliffs and a great downhill that slowly transition into a more of a rocky and canyon-like feature. There were rocs jutting out of the ground the deeper they went inside the small ravine so near to the human village. It could be that this particular pathway would lead to an entirely new area or region unexplored, but that would be the least prioritized and optimal task in the check box.
"Watch out of rocks falling from above, Teru," warning the maid, the strategist began to shift her weight from her hips to her footings. "Also take note of the incline before us. If we slip on this, we're going to slide down into the river down below."
Teru looked to her right and found her eyes catching the sight of a river flowing toward a cavern-like entrance. The blue outline of said river ebbed and swerved in a fast-paced stream thirty feet below the ground she was standing on. Looking forward, she found many grasses and molds that had started growing to the sides of bedrocks that was seemingly placed in a haphazard manner everywhere else. The cliff-canyon terrain full of rocks was something pleasing to her eyes at least, as she hummed a song while walking along the steep cliff a few inches from her feet.
Ai told Teru that it was dangerous to be walking there, but she paid her no mind.
"Where do you suppose the fairy had set up their base? Kenshin and Cirno said that we need to look at a landmark, but I don't want to fight above that flowing river."
"Well," Ai pulled out a map from inside of her chest-plate. "In the map Isoroku drew from her scouting. She drew a bridge made out of wood somewhere near here. It was far from the usual path, but it was still used by people from time to time."
Teru nodded as she held her Dragonfly Cutter up high. "Fairies from eleven o' clock."
"Got it," Ai swiftly pulled out the knife from her thigh-holder and send it flying toward a fairy peeking out from the big bedrock a few steps ahead and the right of Ai and Teru. The flying knife hit the rocks bedrock wall below the ducking fairy and this prompted a tongue click from the strategist. "Missed by a few centimeters."
A silver-green flash suddenly zipped toward the bedrock and climbed it in a matter of seconds. Now above the fairy dressed in dirty-blonde outfit scheme, she placed her spear's blade beside the single fairy's neck.
"Spill the beans or face decapitation."
The fairy however, calmly stood up and walked calmly away from the maid. "Follow me, our leader Luna Child would like to meet with you two."
Ai ran as fast as she could to catch up to the monstrous spec of the household maid. Sweat began to form from her sweat which were soon wiped away be her arm. Facing the nameless fairy under Luna's command and Teru's head nudging toward the bridge. It would safe for her to assume that they were invited for a meeting between generals.
Walking across the rocky ground toward the bridge, the two found that they were inside a cage of fairies that had surrounded them both on ground and the sky. If they were to attack all of them all at once, it would take hours to destroy them flat. From their sightings alone, it had measured to the double-digits beginning with three, and there would surely be more fairies that had hid their presence somewhere out of their sight.
Taking a step into the wooden bridge, the two found themselves at the gallery of fairies floating behind a single fairy sitting on a fancy wooden chair at the middle-point of the bridge. A single table with three chairs were placed on the bridge made with the combination of wood and metal. Eyeing the two outsiders, Luna Child kept herself seated on her chair as she spread open her arms toward the standing humans before her.
"Welcome to my night banquet, humans. Would you care to join me on my usual nightly occasion? We will sit opposite to one another while reading books and accompanied by the fragrance, taste, and refinement of coffees. Of course, I will serve them myself. No poisons or trickeries. I prefer my coffees mild leaning a little thick."
"And why should we agree?"
"Why shouldn't you? As a strategist, you should know that there are more ways to win a territory than to fight it out, no?"
Staring at the girl illuminated by the fullness of the moonlight, Ai slowly took a seat opposite of her foe, and with that Luna Child smiled. Ducking below the desk, she pulled out a closed compartment made of two boards with a pattern of black and white. Setting said board onto the table, many of the fairies perching themselves on the beaming on top of the bridge gasped. Then they began to chatter against one another above ground.
Ai had thought for the bridge to be something small, however, it was a lengthy bridge that was connecting two pieces of level land five kilometers apart. All in all, the strategist concluded that the area the moon fairy was in charge of was very different than what she had expected. Though she had suspicion that the bridge wasn't made by Luna Child herself. The biggest fear she had right now, however, was her inability to fly.
If push comes to shove, Ai and Teru will be ready to jump. Looking at each other knowing what the other was thinking about their situation, they'd rather not talk or discuss about it.
"Maid," Luna Child looked up and stared at the maid with a smile. "Do you know how to play chess?"
"A simpler version of shogi, yes?"
"Sure, but I'd say both board games have their own strengths and weaknesses." Opening up the board, Luna let the pieces fall onto the table. "I'll set it up for you and we'll go by the rule of best out of three. Just to be clear, I will not pull any punches."
"I thought you fairies were pretty hellbent on taking over our territories?" Teru began mimicking the placement of pieces as demonstrated previously by Luna. "Why the sudden change of heart?"
"What do you think the warring area is?"
"A war?" Ai crossed her arms as she said that. Her face evoking the usual business expression. "That's what a warring state is."
"Wrong answer," finally completing her side of the board with her king, she continued. "The correct answer: A game. We fairies do these things for fun. How do you think we managed to get ourselves into a deadlock for eight months in this war if we weren't just playing around?" Looking up, she pointed at her white pieces, and the maid gave the fairy the go ahead. "Thank you. Expanding from what I've said, this is all just a game for us. We're in it to have fun, and our defeat yesterday made me realize just that. Still, you people are here to take my territory, so it's better for the both of us if we at least had some fun while doing so, right?"
With all that said, Luna moved the pawn before her king two tiles ahead.
Teru didn't respond with words, but let out a small smile as she moved her right-positioned knight two tiles away from her right bishop.
And thus, the game of chess was underway.
In a show of confidence, Luna smirked as she sent her rook for the final attack. After managing her army into pinning the king of the black pieces at one corner of the board by the queen, it was time for the rook to exact the finishing blow. Teru had seen that piece coming in from a few moves away, and was just now coming to terms with her defeat.
"I lost? How could I lose?"
Denial was the first step toward acceptance.
"Yep, that's a checkmate," Luna chuckled after taking a swift win from Teru. "I beat you fair and square. Now, normally I will ask you to go home and try again, but the night is long and the full moon is beautiful. I'll let you guys have my territory if you managed to take a win from me. Sounds fair, right?"
Teru looked ahead of her and showed a raised finger toward Luna. "I'll fight you again. One more time." She then turned toward the strategist. "It's fine if I do that, right? If I can snatch a win, we'll go back with a territory won."
Ai snorted as she pulled her head back with a smile. "Do whatever you want. Tag me in if you've had enough with playing chess."
"That's very unlikely," and to that response Ai chuckled lightly. "What was that supposed to mean?"
"I agree with miss strategist beside you on this one." The moon fairy began as she laid down the pieces of chess on the board as it was a game ago. "You're going to regret that decision, Maid."
"...We'll see about that, Fairy."
"My name is Luna Child. Just call me Luna."
"Teru Mori. Teru's fine."
"And what about you, miss strategist?"
"Ai Naoe. You can call me Ai."
"Then it's nice to meet you Teru-chan, Ai-chan." Clapping her hands together after seeing a full view of a clean and crowded with pieces chessboard, she bowed toward the two of them for the first time. "May the best chess-player win."
Blinking a few times, Teru nodded reluctantly.
With that, Ai began to giggle to herself.
The gallery of fairies cheered as another match of chess started again before their eyes. The current score for the best out of three was 1 – 0 in the fairies' favor. With a few cups of coffee and a pile of snacks on a plate, the night slowly etched away one chess move at a time.
"I'm impressed," Luna said with both hands on her cheek and her lips forming a cat-like shape. "One hundred and fifty one round of losses and one round of win. Looks like being stubborn and persistent paid off for you, huh?"
Breathing hard, the maid huffed and puffed her life force away as her chin was glued onto the table and both hands on top of her head. Looking at the final result on the board and the strategist who was enjoying her fifth cup of hot mocha, she couldn't contain the scream that was just begging to be released. And yet nothing came out of her mouth. At first, she was examining her throat with her fingers and rolling her tongue inside her mouth to feel if there was something wrong with it, but then she stared at Luna with the sharpness of a thousand knives.
Grinning, the moon fairy laughed as hard as she could, wiping away the tears that began to form from her eyes. Flying above before Teru could catch the fairy's feet, she perched herself on one of the bridge's beam and looked down on the two humans below her. "Congratulations, strategist, maid. You've gotten yourself my territory. But don't expect to have your way with it, because you can bet your soul we do not take kindly to obstructions of nature." Her talk was constantly interrupted by Teru yelling at her to go down and fight her in a fisticuff, but with a stick of a tongue and a pinching down of her eyelid, she refused. "Thanks for the match, loser. It was fun!"
"Oh come on now, Luna Child," Ai stood up and turned her head toward the fairy high up. "Are you seriously going to run away before I get my fun? Not going to give me the time to battle it out with my wits? Afterall, I am very good at chess myself."
"Well... let me think about that." Luna looked at the moon which was slowly gaining a dimmer color and a darker hue around it. The sun was three to two hours away from arriving, but Luna didn't mind in the least. "Sure, but you have to calm that maid first, Ai-chan. Can't really play if I'm dead, can I?"
"Hm... good point. Sit down, Teru."
"I'm not a dog!" Teru barked back at the strategist. "And no I should be playing the game again! Just one hundred and fifty more win to get an even score and plus one from that to get myself a definite win!"
Raising her brow, Ai shook her head and laughed. "Wait your turn, alright?" To that reply, the grumbling of the maid was met with another laugh. "Oh come on. What will Rance think of you when he found out that you're a sore loser?"
"...I don't care." Teru looked to the side with a luminescent blush on both of her cheek. "Not like he'll believe it anyway."
"Hmmm?" the strategist covered her mouth with her palm. "Is that so? Someone sure is happy."
A moment of silence afterward, the ownership of the Southern Riverside was given to the Forces of Rance. Afterward, another game of chess began once more. In this one and the next, Luna introduced the members of her fairy units and let them fight in her place a couple of times. Sometimes Luna will win against Ai, and sometimes it's the reverse, but there was one thing that was constant throughout their games offshooting the night: The smiles that were reflected by the moonlight.
An Unknown Faction is currently active...
"So the fairies have opted to get out of this current war," looking upward, a single female had her dark brown-hair swaying left and right. The water that met her face made her shiver and shook in excitement. In her right hand was a container with cold water inside them, and the other hand was holding an unrolled scroll which was silently rolled up and placed on the bag she carried on her back. "Just one more territory and they're done. I'd better tell this to the other youkais. Maybe I could sell this information to the tengus too for a hefty price. Maybe they'll buy more information if I investigate the Outsider's forces too? Could be. I heard the lord of the Outsider's mansion is very kind, though very perverted, toward girls. I think I should give that man a visit tomorrow."
With the girl's face reflected on the lake of death's body of water, she let out a big howl before turning her head around toward the woods. Above her, the moonlight that the entirety of Gensokyo saw that night began to gleam and glitter in white and yellow twinkles. Though almost no one had noticed that from how miniscule those sparkles were.
Currently in war with the Fairy Alliance
Northern Plains Conquered
Southern Riverside Conquered
Western Forest Entrance Unconquered