The Scarlet Devil 2: Scarlet Devil Rhapsody
by Cyberchao X

Chapter 9

Kogasa: The majority of characters in this story belong to ZUN. Most others are the property of the author.

My name is Utsuho Reiuji, nuclear-powered hell raven, and—

Shut up. You don't have permission to speak.

Kogasa: The narrator of this chapter, however, falls into neither category.

My name is Yasora Kojiwa, yatagarasu of the sun. I've been sealed in the body of this idiot raven for too long, but now the seal is broken, and I'm going to use this body to the fullest. It's far too dark here right now…I think it should be a bit BRIGHTER!

"Mokou-chan? I know you're nervous, but could you please turn down the heat?"

"It's not me," the one called Mokou replied. "Even I'm feeling this. And I don't glow like that."

"Yeah, I thought it seemed brighter. Extremely bright. Like the exact opposite of what happened when Kuroi-chan showed up." This one was the Hakurei miko. Her presence obviously complicated things, because if she dies, this whole place collapses. Let's hope some other people collapse first; I need to get my strength up.

…Ah, there we go. They seem pretty strong. Stronger than some of the ones still standing, actually… Well, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?

"Okuu, if you can still hear me, you have to fight as hard as you can, okay?" That annoying mind-reader. Of course she'd know that I'd taken over her pet bird's body. "If not for yourself, or for me, then for her."

"Satori-sama?"

"It's the yatagarasu. She must've awakened somehow."

"That would explain why the Scarlets are already down. And why I feel like this…" A human, blonde. Doesn't seem to have much power to consume, so she's probably some sort of magician. I hate magicians; I can't consume magic, so the net gain from fighting them is minimal at best, if not negative.

The world seemed to shift without me noticing, and suddenly I felt a number of jagged objects sticking into the bird's body. "Sorry about this…but even if your body is that of the one Lady Flandre loves, anyone who would hurt my mistresses will have to answer to me." Another human. Looks like a very strong one indeed. Protective of those two winged lasses who fell so quickly. I definitely need to make consuming them a priority; that strength would help me immensely.

"So, you're the keeper of those tasty morsels?" My terminology gave her the slightest hesitation, which was all I needed to force her out of the way. (CCX: As for why the SDM crew is there, it actually all goes back to the chapter of The Scarlet Devil where the Flandre/Utsuho angle was first introduced. Flandre, Patchouli, and Sakuya were all on the guest list; Remilia's there as Sakuya's date.) The blonde one looks especially tasty…

"Don't… you… dare."

"Please, like there's anything you can do about it. What happened to you, Reiuji Utsuho? Where's that coldhearted monster that consumed me?"

"Th-there are… others… look, see how they fall to your power." She's trying to appeal to my ego. I didn't think she was that clever. But it won't work…

…Wait, is she trying to use reverse psychology on me? Make me think that she wants me to gain energy so that I do the exact opposite? Wait, that power…it's withering…

I suddenly found my cannon pointed at my own head. Her cannon pointed at her head. I lost focus, and she regained control, but would she really cripple herself to stop me? "Please…get out of here, now!"

"Stupid bird; you're not going to take control back."

"Takes one to know one."

"Damnit, those stupid moon sisters left…I was hoping they'd at least stick around and help out with this mess, but of course, it's not their problem…"

"Relying on others to fight your battles?"

"Hardly. Although, there are times when it can be of use…" She leapt to the side, and I got hit from behind by a giant laser. I turned around. The magician I'd identified earlier. Funny, she shouldn't have still been standing…

She wasn't. Not on her own power, anyway. "Insidious. A spell that can control others? I didn't think I'd be fighting such villains."

"Don't you dare talk about my wife that way. My body may be too weak to act on its own at the moment, but unlike the body you're in, my mind is still my own!"

"I don't believe you. All of your movements, even those of your mouth, are being input by your puppetmaster at the moment. So, why fight through another, puppet girl?"

She smiled at me. "Marisa's all about pure power. And the spell card rules are still in place, so I can't go all out."

"Can't, or don't want to?" asked another miko, this one with green hair.

"A little of both. Besides, I'm not going to have many opportunities to use this spell. Like Marisa said, it doesn't dominate the will of the puppet, so if I used it on anything with a mind of its own, it'd easily be broken by anyone who didn't want to submit to my control."

"…Used it on…don't tell me that's your standard puppet control?"

"Well, I modified it a bit to work on living creatures as well as automatons, but yeah, pretty much. How are you still standing, anyway, Sanae-chan? You're a human too, last I checked."

"Divine protection. And I was never an ordinary human like your husband, anyway." 'Husband', she says. There's nothing but women as far as the eye can see. Well, some of the more androgynous rabbits are probably male, but they're just filler. I've consumed about 25 of them and have barely gained any energy from it. Where'd those two chicks with the wings go? They looked tasty, especially that blonde one. Mm, I can just picture tasting that succulent essence…

…I feel like that train of thought was getting derailed. Draining one's essence is generally a far cleaner process than what was just going through my mind. Enjoyable for me, sure, but not for my victim… I'm not some vampire.

Vampire. Of course. That would explain why those two young things—young-looking things—were among the first to fall despite seeming among the most powerful beings present. Their very nature is to be repelled by me… and by her. My "host". Yet the time ninja maid's words, my host's reactions, and my own inexplicable preoccupation with her would suggest that Utsuho and this blonde vampire, "Flandre", are very much in love. It makes no sense.

"Maybe not to you."

"Shut up, you stupid satori."

"I see Okuu's been fighting back in her own way. Seems that her feelings for Flandre-san have transferred over to you, Kojiwa."

"Who?"

"I told you, the yatagarasu. Yasora Kojiwa."

"Is that so? Now there's a name I haven't heard in awhile…I came here with the intent of 'fixing' whoever was messing with the darkness, but to run into you…"

"…Who are you?"

"Oh, no one you'd know personally. But let's just say that I've never been so glad to be on the side of the 'light'."

"Heh heh…a youkai of darkness on the side of the light? How amusing…"

"That was the idea."

"Your words betray your true feelings, little one. You're obviously glad to have 'friends' because you'd be too afraid to fight me on your own."

"But I'm not alone. Like you said, I have friends now. Night Sign |Onyx Dream|!"

"Is that all? |Cataclysmic Variable Star|!"

She recovered more quickly than I expected. "Not bad. I remember those all too well. In fact, those suns of yours were a major inspiration of mine! Darkness Sign |Midnight Oil|!"

"Moon Sign |Moonlight Ray|!"

"Damnit, Rumi-tan, I thought I told you to let me handle this!"

"I'm sorry, onee-chan, I just couldn't! I was worried you'd get hurt…"

"You know full well that if there's anything out there that could hurt me, you wouldn't stand a chance against it. And she…is definitely someone who can hurt us."

"Well, well, well, looks like you have a weak point too."

"Focus on your real opponents." Those damn mikos again. "Though it sounds as though Yagami-san has a more personal grudge against you."

"…Yagami, eh? Well, that would explain why in the end I ended up tracking her down when she was the one who had usually initiated our battles. I'm sure she'd be happy to see that her daughters ended up following in her footsteps!"

"|End of Imperishable Night -Rising World-|!"
"|Imperishable Shooting|!"

…I wonder what I did to piss those two off so much… that was probably the most anger of all of these attacks so far.

"Your outburst interrupted their wedding." The satori paused for a moment. "Dumbass."

"I'm not used to hearing such language from you, Satori-sama." The cat.

"So now what? Even if she's stopped actively attacking us, she's still leaking radiation all over the place…and I still have no idea how to seal her away again. I get the feeling that Yukari-sama knew this was going to happen and chose to leave because of it."

"I wish I could help you, Reimu, but I don't know the details behind her sealing, either, other than that it must've occurred nearly instantaneously."

"What makes you say that?"

"Because I don't know the details behind her sealing. If she knew the details, I'd be able to find them."

"Not even your mind-reading is flawless, Satori-san. I was able to defeat you, after all."

"You have far more mental discipline than she does. Also she's in no condition to fight it right now." Wait, it can be blocked?

"You're not in the best condition yourself at the moment, Hakurei-san. Though your spiritual powers are immense, you are still only human, and so you should leave this matter to those best equipped to handle it and allow me to treat you."

"But Eirin, what about my wedding?"

"You'll have your wedding, Hime. Be patient. This attack did a lot of damage."

"…Okay."

CCX: The first-person format is getting more and more challenging. This chapter, I had to have Yasora not get completely knocked out because she was the narrator and the chapter wasn't over, and next chapter I'll probably want to give closure to both the re-sealing of Yasora and the recovery of the Scarlet sisters, which are unlikely to both be witnessed by any one individual. Perhaps all of the work I've done on Lonely No More, which juggles multiple plotlines, has spoiled me.

I definitely wanted to have Kuroi fight Yasora, as a blatant counterpoint to the character that she's loosely based on being the engineer behind Yasora's release in her original work. Yasora, as you probably know, is from the webcomic Touhou Nekokayou, which is among the many works that uses the name "Rumia Yagami" for the so-called "EX-Rumia", which I instead decided to make a completely new character, Kuroi. But originally, the motivation was just that Yasora was making things bright, at nighttime no less, and it pissed Kuroi off. Which kind of was Kuroi's motivation for showing up, but then there was all of this other stuff that I just made up on the spot, which seems maybe a little out of character but then again it's obvious that Kuroi really was quite afraid. And for the record, Yasora wasn't that far off-base about Kuroi being a chip off the old block. Ja ne!