Two mages, two crows, and a maid all suddenly appeared at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The maid that'd taken them there waited for the duo of duos to regain their balance. Once they did, she started to explain why she brought them.
"The mistress has Reimu, and I cannot bring myself to harm her. Let me lead you towards her, as so you may take the brunt of her ire." Sakuya told them, her pompous deamor regained.
Marisa gave her a strange look. "Why can't ya just bring us to her?"
"Because carrying you all is a burden. Aya and Utsuho are quite weighty, and it hurts my back to carry them." She replied, the reporter looking at herself then back up at the silver one.
"What d'you mean 'weighty!?'" She protested, garnering a little giggle from Sakuya.
"Marisa was quite easy to hold. 'Twas almost like carrying the mistress." She continued, much to the annoyance of the stout witch.
"But where is she?" Utsuho interjected, worry plastered on her face.
"As I stated, follow me." The maid replied, already walking in the direction.
Whilst following her, they noticed that she was less than subtly showing off the mansion, bragging about her feats when it came to cleaning and the organization of the fairies and hobgoblins, a few of which offered the quintet pastries. Throughout this tour, the hell raven became increasingly restless, starting to fly ahead of the group, only to rejoin them at later times sporadically.
"I know ya wanna find her quicker, but gettin lost ain't the answer." Marisa reassured her, trying to keep her from flying away from her. In return, she started to play with her hair, feathers, and clothing, chattering her teeth too.
They eventually got to the room, and as they approached, they could hear minor sucking and licking noises from within, mildly disturbing them all.
"Sakuya? Is that you?" Remilia called out from inside.
The two twos barged in, Alice summoning an Atlantis doll and spraying Remilia on the arm with hot water, turning it into wet ash. The vampire held her arm stump and yelled.
"What the hell!? Sakuya! Did you bring them?" She glared, looking at the maid with predatory eyes. They started to sweat a little, and did her best innocent smile, which… wasn't close to convincing.
"O-of course not, mistress." She reassured, eliciting a sigh from her master.
"Well, I needed your help anyways. Reimu won't stop bleeding. Her blood's like watery or something?"
All eyes turned to Reimu. They already knew she'd been beaten, but they never anticipated the fact that she been drained of a significant amount of blood. Immediately after, the hell raven charged at the vampire, easily shoving her onto the wall. Remilia could feel her shoulders slowly turning to ash as the corvid's fusion energy radiated across her body.
"What did you do!?" Utsuho shouted, feeling angry for the first time since she got her powers.
"Nothing! Nothing!" She pleaded, frantically trying to push the raven off. "I just sucked some of her blood and it won't stop coming out!"
And with that, she went nuclear. Her third eye glowed. The pupil pointed toward the Scarlet Devil, and it charged up with energy.
Everything turned into a blinding light.
When the light cleared, the entire room had been atomized, the only traces being the legs of a bed, and the bare floor. Unbeknownst to everyone else, Sakuya had already left, giving them a note and Reimu.
"Sorry. The mistress' state is critical. I cannot help you bring Reimu back
Sakuya"
"Damnit!" Marisa exclaimed, keeping the miko steady on her back. She could feel her friend's blood trickling down onto her neck and staining her clothes. The crimson leaking from her was hauntingly watery, and the same could be said about her increasingly pale skin.
Adrenaline shot through the witch, and she took the bow off her hat, and tied it lightly around her neck, hoping that it'd stop some of the bleeding. She looked at Alice, of whom was shaken with fear, and grabbed her by the wrist.
"Can you get some dolls to help and carry her?" She urged.
"I only have this Atlantis doll, no-one else." The puppeteer replied. "The most I can do right now hope a healing spell would work, but I'm not the best at them…"
She laid her hands on girl, trying her best to heal her wounds. It worked, sort of. Her hands were too shaky, and her voice trembled too much for her to properly treat her wounds.
Marisa nodded, and looked around to the others. "Uhh… Aya! Aya. C-can you help us find the way to a hospital?"
She saluted, and shot up into the air, bolting off to find Reimu aid.
The magician looked for someone else, but already felt the measly weight of her friend lifted off her shoulders. "Don't worry, I'll carry her." Utsuho beamed "I'll keep her warm."
She silently thanked her, and waited impatiently for the tengu to return. Once she did, they all followed, trying to go as quickly as possible. They obviously couldn't match Aya's speed, so she tried her best to lower her pace to theirs.
As they flew across sky, Okuu could feel the shrine maiden's body's temperature dropping rapidly, motivating her to fly faster than usual, and allowing herself to be closer on par with Aya's regular speed.
The sun faded from the sky, bathing it in a pale orange hue; however, this caused them difficulty, as the sun was pointed directly into their eyes. Every so often they'd have to stop, just to make sure they were still on course and to rest their eyes.
During one of these brief moments of respite, the raven could see a familiar sight: Yamane flying towards her. All she could make out was her blonde hair and her poofy brown dress that looked like a tarantula's thorax.
"Hey Utsuho, ya got a treat I see." The arachnid said, hovering close to Reimu's body.
"N-no! Why would say that?" She replied, looking almost horrified. She hugged the body closer to her own, now aware of it's increasing lightness.
"Well, just askin' cause looks like yer holdin a corpse there." Yamane replied matter-of-factly. "Looks pretty fresh, too."
Tears welled up in her eyes as she heard the tengu state that it was a straight shot from their current position, and saw the three fly off before following. The spider was left there, wondering to what she'd said wrong.
Utsuho flew faster than she'd even done before, and she was increasingly aware of it. Her muscles ached immensely, her breathing was so strained that she was wheezing, and her vision blurred to the point she wasn't entirely sure where she was going.
Then suddenly, she started to fall.
She felt an intense, burning pain in her left wing, as it cramped and refused to move any longer. She struggled and failed to make it flap once again, but it refused. Seeing as she couldn't do anything else for Reimu, she shielded her with her wings and body, hoping to save her from possible future harm
The few bamboo she managed to hit did slightly soften the blow, it didn't change the fact that she landed directly on one of her wings, leaving it a mangled mess and entirely unfit for flying. In addition to this, she couldn't move her arm adjectent the wing either, trying to lift it, but getting no response.
Through the searing pain, she looked down at Reimu, and her tears threatened to escape. She looked upon the girl's body. The skin was almost translucent.
"I'm sorry Okuu." a familiar voice told her, placing her hand on her shoulder.
"Please no…"
She looked behind her, and saw Rin, with her wheelbarrow.
Faintly off in the distance, she could hear someone yell "There they are!" But it didn't matter.
"Don't leave me…" Utsuho started to bawl, holding what remained of the miko close to her.
Both daylight and Reimu clutching onto the last grips on the light that they could muster. Only a sliver of it was left as the pale pink and crimson sky started to surrender to the stars of the heavens behind them.
