Author's Note: I own none of the characters mentioned or used in this story, except for the one from whose point of view this story is told. Any and all of the other characters belong to Team Shanghai Alice.

Chapter 7: Assault On The Library

I fell on all fours, breathing heavily. I just beat Remilia. In a spell card duel. With her own card. Somehow. I didn't know how it happened, nor did I want to experience it again.

"Remilia!" Patchouli cried out, running to her fallen friend, but suddenly stopped, nearly collapsing herself as she began coughing violently.

"Whoa! Patchouli-sama!" In a minor burst of strength, I managed to drag myself over to Patchouli, who was still coughing. Her blush was an even heavier shade of red now. "Are you okay?"

She continued for a little bit before being able to answer. "I… I'll be fine. Could you… help me over?"

"Sure." I pulled her up, acting as a support so she could walk. It was a little stressful, as I could feel a strange numbness in my arms, but I kept her up. "Are you sick or something? Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"No… I am… always like this. I have… a natural asthma." She coughed a couple more times.

"I'm guessing this is from staying in the library all the time?"

"Maybe. Remilia does keep telling me… to try going outside… but I do not want to leave my books."

"Oh."

We managed to reach Remilia. Aside from the burns and torn clothing, she looked mostly fine. I turned her over, and her face was strangely calm compared to before; she looked like nothing more than an innocent little child taking a nap. Her chest was softly rising and falling. I sighed in relief; at least she was still breathing.

"Do not worry about her, Kaito-san," Patchouli said, reflecting my thoughts. "Spell card duels are not lethal. She should be fine in an hour or two."

"That's good," I sighed. "I thought I might have seriously hurt her."

"I'm surprised that you're concerned at all. Most people do not have such sympathies."

"Hm…" I wasn't sure how to take that. Was she expecting me to flee the instant Remilia was down?

"What are you doing here anyways?" she asked directly.

I explained everything that happened the previous night.

"Strange…" Patchouli looked thoughtful for a moment. "Would you mind explaining to me what you told Remilia?"

"Of course not." I was about to start, then I considered something. "Um, is it alright if we sit down at the table? It's kind of a long story."

"Why not?"

"Do you need any help?"

"No, I'm fine."

The two of us moved Remilia so she was propped up against the wall, then took two seats at the table. To be totally honest, her relaxed style of dress was actually a little distracting at times (I had to tear my eyes away from her nightdress at least twice) but I rolled on with the story, occasionally focusing on her open forehead to divert my attention. With every retelling, I was shortening it slightly, chucking out the parts I didn't think were important.

When I finished, Patchouli was silent.

"Er, if I may," I said. "Remilia-dono did raise a good point when she spoke to me; what exactly are spell card duels anyways?"

"Reimu-chan really should have explained this to you before."

"I know, but I guess she just didn't. She probably didn't expect me to get into a spell card duel on my second day in Gensokyo."

Patchouli sighed. "Then I guess it falls on me to explain this to you. Okay, Kaito-kun, listen to this carefully. It's quite a long explanation, and I have no intention of repeating myself."

I perked up, giving her my full attention. She drew a breath.

"As Remilia said, the spell card system was created by Reimu-chan as a method of being able to fight her as the shrine maiden with an actual fair chance of winning without the added consequence of accidentally destroying Gensokyo's boundary. When a duel is called, the powers of each contestant's cards, like the ones you and Remilia just used, come into effect. The one who called the duel names how many spell cards are to be used and what the conditions for wins and losses are. If the other person does not feel satisfied with the set terms, then they can simply refuse the duel.

"The duel only lasts as long as both competitors are able to keep going. If one of them is knocked out, or is unfit to continue fighting, then they lose the duel. Likewise, if one of them runs out of spell cards, they must admit defeat regardless of whether they can continue fighting or not.

"The spell cards themselves are specific named techniques unique to each person. Within the card is a certain amount of sealed energy to help power the technique itself, and those who wish to use them must invoke the name and incite the correct incantation. Anyone with a certain amount of power is able to possess spell cards, as the cards are little more than containers for their powers."

"Does that mean people like Sakuya-sama and Eirin-sama also have spell cards?" I asked.

She nodded. "I too have a few spell cards of my own. It may not look it, or it may be because of it, but I'm actually a very powerful sorceress. These last hundred years of mi-"

"A hundred years?" I blurted out.

She raised an eyebrow. "Is there anything you'd like to say about that?"

It sounded like she was daring me to inquire further. "N-no, no, sorry," I apologized, raising my hands in defense. "But you don't look a day over maybe your late teens."

She placed a hand on her book. "That would be somewhat of a side effect of being a sorceress. You could say that my books have extended my life span."

"I see…" I didn't ask any further than that, afraid of possibly calling down Patchouli's rage. "You said that spell cards were specific named techniques. Why was I able to use Remilia's spell card, then?"

"When someone who does not possess spell cards is challenged or calls for a duel, the opposing or a third party must provide for the person in question. The one who receives them gains control over a small portion of the giver's power, though this rule has no other purpose than to level the playing the field. These types of battles are restricted to a maximum of two spell cards."

"I never even accepted the duel, though," I pointed out.

"When you received Remilia's spell card, it was synonymous to accepting the duel on any terms. However, neither of you stated any terms to be carried out later, so it was simply a battle for no reason at all."

"That sounds… kind of dumb."

"Regardless, you won, so if you had set any conditions for Remilia, she would have had to follow through with them"

I thought about that for a bit, then waved it off. I wouldn't have really wanted too much out of Remilia anyways, so why would I have to worry about it?

"Well, that's it for the basics, I suppose," Patchouli said, rising from her seat. "If this is all I was called out for, then I really should get ba-"

BOOOOOM!

The explosion rocked the entire mansion. Patchouli was going to fall over, but I jumped out to catch her.

"Damn it all, Marisa!" Patchouli shouted once the rumbling stopped.

"Who?" I asked as I helped her to her feet.

"The kleptomaniac friend of Reimu. She's after my books again."

Oh geez.

"I've told her time and again, not to use her Master Spark on the premises. If she was just a little more willing to return her books…." She quickly walked out the room.

I followed. I wasn't sure if I wanted to know what Marisa's Master Spark was. If that loud boom was anything to go by, it was something destructive (not that I needed to say that). But I was curious.

The walk was quick; Patchouli navigated the hallways like she had lived here for years. Which, technically, she had, but she had spent most of that time in the library. I supposed that meant that she memorized all the hallways in almost a glance.

Along the way, there was a door open. A quick glance inside greeted me with a small group of fairy maids huddled in a corner cowering in fear. I wasn't totally surprised by this (normally, I'd probably be doing the same), but I wondered how they managed to get there so fast.

The front was ajar when we got there. A quick step outside easily told us why.

Sakuya was flying through the air, battling someone. I guessed it was Marisa. She was riding around on a broom like a witch, and she wore an outfit that may as well have been a maid's dress like Sakuya's, except black instead of blue, and the dress far longer, extending all the way down to her feet as opposed to the knee-length one Sakuya had. She had on a large black, pointy hat on top of long blonde hair. The two were dueling with knives and what looked like a rainbow array of magic bolts. It seemed like they were at a stalemate; neither was hitting the other with any projectiles whatsoever.

Damn. So Marisa was a magician. Was there anyone who wasn't super-powered around here?

I was tempted to ask that. Then I spotted a massive crater no less than ten meters in diameter in the center of the courtyard. I ran over, wondering what could have possibly made a crater that big.

"Whoa! Meiling!"

I slid down into the crater. Meiling was lying in the center, in a similar state to what Remilia looked like when I had unleashed her own spell card against her. She wasn't moving much.

"Meiling-san, are you alright?" I shook her arm. "Hey, Meiling-san!"

She groaned a little. "So… strong… sparked…" And her head flopped over, out cold.

I assumed what she was saying to mean "Master Sparked." The huge "boom" must have been from Meiling hitting the ground. Or worse, she was crushed into the ground by the beam, which made the crater. Either way, with this much explosive and concussive force, it was a wonder that anything in Gensokyo remained standing. Especially if Marisa had few qualms about using said power. And it certainly looked like she didn't.

"Marisa!"

I turned back towards the sky to see Patchouli flying with all speed towards the aerial battle.

"Oh, hell no," I whispered to myself. She wasn't seriously thinking of fighting Marisa, was she? "Patchoul-sama, wait!"

"Stay there! I'll take care of this."

Gee, like I have anywhere else to go anyways.

Marisa noticed her too. "Oh, so now I get two tries, ze? This is going to be fun!"

"I've had just about enough of you pilfering me of my books all the time!"

"Then I guess this duel will decide things once and for all, won't it?"

I was seriously afraid of what that was supposed to mean; if Patchouli won, then her library would be left alone, but if she lost, then she would have to let Marisa "borrow" books whenever she wanted. I really didn't want to know how Marisa treated books if the crater I was standing in was a representation of anything other than her power.

"Very well! Sakuya-san, stand down."

She didn't look too happy about it, but she obeyed. Sakuya floated all the way back down to the edge of the crater.

"Do you need some help?" she asked me.

"Er…" I looked around the crater. She was right; the sides of the crater were too steep for me to climb. "Yes, please."

She simply snapped her fingers, and in a pop I was standing next to her. I was so surprised, I nearly fell back in.

"T-thanks."

"Of course."

From afar, the two of us were spectating. Marisa and Patchouli were flying like eagles streaking across the sky. Rapid-fire magic bolts came in a never-ending stream from both, Marisa's green, and Patchouli's blue. There were more than just plain magic bolts, though: Marisa was occasionally firing out what looked like a stream of rainbow-color-coded stars. Patchouli sometimes shot what looked like a volley of water focused into large, blue bullets. Marisa chucked out a small object, and an explosion of magic lit up the noontime sky. Patchouli opened her book towards Marisa, and a massive fist of fire punched its way out.

If it weren't so terrifying, I could have mistaken it for a magic light show.

Somehow, from what I could see, neither of them was getting hit in any way. Even the bolts that looked like they would make direct hits were ineffective (on top of looking odd, it made me feel kind of dumb for getting hit so much). I was afraid for Patchouli; if what she said about her health was true, then it would only take a few magic shots before she went down.

"You don't have to worry too much," Sakuya said.

"What do you mean?" It seemed like everyone I had met so far had a major in their profession and a minor in "mind reading."

"Patchouli's no fool; even though it looks like she's just firing off magic randomly, I can assure you she's working out a plan to defeat Marisa."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I am. Would you like to see?"

"Uh…" I looked at her dumbly. How would we be able to watch them at all?

"Don't worry," she said, again reading my mind. "I'll take care of that." She snapped her fingers.

I could feel myself pulled out of space three times in rapid succession. By the end of it, the entire battle between Patchouli and Marisa was that much closer. In fact….

I made the mistake of looking down. I nearly lost my balance completely; I was standing in open air on some kind of platform of solid energy.

"Please, don't move around too much," Sakuya warned. "I don't want to have to scrape you off the mansion courtyard."

"Y-yeah," I said shakily. I felt a little sick, being so high up all of a sudden. "Right…."

I looked back to the battle. I noticed almost immediately that Sakuya had some truth in her words; the shots Marisa fired were far more randomly placed than Patchouli's, and sometimes, Patchouli didn't respond immediately. Her volleys sometimes cut themselves short, or extended over a longer period of time, and were better aimed.

I also figured out exactly why neither one of them was getting hit, even by magic bolts that were dead accurate; before the supposed hit, they erected barriers of magic energy, completely dispersing the spell. That's a magician for you.

"You don't look like you're putting up much of a fight!" teased Marisa.

"More of a fight than you, at least," retorted Patchouli,

"Then it's about time I ended this," Marisa declared. She fired out several pulsing green bolts and began darting in to closer range.

Patchouli responded accordingly, countering with several, well-aimed bolts of blue energy. Every single one hit their mark, and the green bolts exploded.

Marisa whipped out something from a pocket in her apron. "Ritual Sign: Orreries Sun!" The spell card broke in four, and transformed into four colored orbs surrounding her: red, green, yellow, and blue. Each was the size of a head, and, as one, they began to glow with white energy. Even from afar, I could see Marisa muttering words under her breath. An incantation?

But Patchouli was ready with one of her own. She spoke the words before calling out the name. "Water Sign: Jellyfish Princess!" she shouted. The card molded into a sphere, then expanded outward to envelop her. In a single flash of light, the sphere became a clear, blue bubble.

The four orbs opened fire, releasing beams of intense energy. They had no effect whatsoever, bouncing off the bubble like it was a rounded mirror. Three shot off into the sky. The final one came dangerously close to hitting the grounded Meiling.

"Uh…" I said, unsure. "How many spell cards do you think they'll use?"

Sakuya looked thoughtful. "If past experience is anything to go by, then I'd say four."

"I'm not done yet!" Marisa shouted, pulling out a second card. Magic Sign: Stardust Reverie!" The back end of her broom began visibly drawing in magic energy from the card fragments.

"Earth Water Sign: Noachian Deluge!" From Patchouli's hand, a large double-helix of water bullets charged at Marisa at a fantastic speed. Marisa didn't move in time to dodge it, and was blasted back with explosive force.

"Nice one, Patchouli-sama!" I cheered. Things were turning in her favor.

"Had enough, yet?" Patchouli asked. Through her faltering voice, I noticed she was beginning to look physically tired.

"Not a chance!" and a hand-fired laser were Marisa's responses. "Star Sign: Gravity Beat!" This time, the front of her broom was charging. The charging process was quick, and in a single sweep, she aimed at the sky and fired a massive blue shot.

"Why in the world did you shoot that?" Patchouli asked, staring at the shot in amazement. "That won't even come close to hitting me."

A devilish smile was all she got. "Who said I was aiming for you this time?"

What the hell was she talking about? What else was there to hit?

"No!" Patchouli gasped, and began fleing back to the mansion.

"What's going on?" I asked Sakuya.

Even she looked panicked. "I think… oh no. Marisa aimed that shot at the mansion library!"

Author's Notes

Okay, seriously, I REALLY need to make up my mind. And I suppose I have now; I'm going to make it 4 days instead, because seriously, the wait feels too long. My indecisiveness disgusts me to some degree, but regardless, this, at the very least is going to stick, because it gives one day of extra time over 3 days, and I don't have to wait as long as 5.

I only remembered now, that the stuff everybody is supposed to be doing is MAGIC. And what is more or less an integral part about magic is that, most of the time, it requires inciting incantations. Something I completely neglected for the battle between Kaito and Remilia.

Now that I realize my mistake, it's kind of late to try and go back and change it (I know I definitely can, but I prefer letting what's written to stay), so the magic used in the previous chapter will remain as they are. But now that I'm wary of this mistake, I'm going to be inserting incantations where appropriate, but considering the setting, it'll be difficult to say where. And besides not necessarily knowing where to put the incantations, the next question is what. I mean, I'm pretty sure incantations didn't use the native tongue of all people, or magic would be accessible to everyone (which, as seen in Gensokyo, is almost certainly not true. The only examples of a human gaining the same magical prowess as a sorceress like Patchouli or youkai magician like Alice are Marisa and Byakuren).

Regardless of that, I'm going to have do something about it. I'm probably going to put down the incantations in actual Japanese or something (as in, not the romanizations, but actual Japanese characters. The grammar will be crappy, I warn you, because I have nothing else to build off of save for Google Translate), so expect that in the near future whenever Kaito is actually close enough to hear what they're saying. Though just as a heads-up, Kaito's incantations when he uses his spell cards (and I don't mean the ones that are lent to him. I mean his own spell cards. Yes, I'm planning to make up my own original spell cards for Kaito) will not be in Japanese. Oh, they'll be in a different language, definitely, but I'll reserve the actual language for later (yes, I have this part planned -and written - already).

On a small side note, despite them having ties to magic, the various techniques the people of Gensokyo we all know and love will not require incantations, because it would be kind of tedious, not to mention deathly time-consuming, to try and find something particular for every single move seen throughout the world. So those will be left blank.

Getting off that topic now. I have to say, despite the realization of such a screw-up, this chapter satisfied me. It feels kind of like I actually got off my lazy ass and did something about the fact that I suck at fights. It's definitely not nearly as good as plenty of other stories, and it's most likely not the best I can do (if there's a 'best' in this category for me, I haven't reached it yet), but it's good enough for now.

Gee, I really do use a lot of parentheses in a lot of places, don't I? Guess I just have a lot of asides all the time. Ah well, it doesn't really matter to me.

But to clarify something; written in here are basic examples of one of the rules/personal influxes I had explained in the notes last chapter. Orreries Sun and Jellyfish Princess are both the same rating on the SWR/TH power scale. Since Jellyfish Princess is mainly used for defensive measures, neither one won that clash. Noachian Deluge and Stardust Reverie are also rated the same. However, Patchouli took less time with her spell, and, as such, won over Marisa in that bout.

That's it for now, I suppose. I know I had something else to say, but these notes are getting too long, and I don't remember it anyways. Hope these notes aren't being too much of a pain. I just have so much to say!