AN: This totally could have been like three chapters, so please excuse any… jumpiness from one thing to another. I wish I had broken it up, but then the chapters would be way too short.
ALSO, guess who totally can't write battle scenes? Meeeeee! *End AN*
I went up to my room to put away the things we had bought and was immediately scared half to death to find Flandre sitting on my bed in the dark, staring at me.
"Flan!" I cried, flipping on the light. "Flan, what -- what are you doing in here? I thought I locked this door."
"You did," she replied simply.
"Well…" I waited for her to say more, but she didn't. "Well why were you waiting for me? It's way past your bedtime."
"Did you have fun today?" she asked, ignoring my question. "With her?"
"Oh, Flan," I murmured, setting down my things and coming to hug her. She batted my hands away and stood up, nearing the things I had bought.
"This is a pretty hat," she said monotonously, putting the floppy hat on her head and turning to face me. I smiled weakly at her and she glared back, removing the hat. It caught fire in her hands and burned to nothing in seconds.
"Flandre Renee Scarlet!" I shouted furiously, approaching her. "Flan, why the hell would you --"
"Watch your language, Mistress," Sakuya ordered softly, walking in holding a tray of tea. "Cursing is unladylike."
Something changed in Flandre's eyes just then, upon seeing Sakuya. I couldn't put my finger on what exactly it was, but I knew -- I just knew -- it wasn't going to turn out well for any of us if I didn't act now.
"Sakuya," I hissed, sidling towards her while my eyes trained themselves on my sister. "I think you should leave. Now."
To this day I wish Sakuya would have obeyed me. Instead she chuckled and set down her tray of tea before approaching my sister.
"Do you think it is time for a nap, Mistress?" she asked Flandre, moving to grab her hand.
Flandre slapped Sakuya's hand away, murmuring, "Get away from me, old hag."
"Now, now," Sakuya said, smiling patiently. "Sleepiness is no excuse for rudeness. I'll have one of the other maids ready your bath for you and then you can take a nap." Straightening up, she turned to call for one of her fellow maids.
Time seemed to go slowly at that instant. Sakuya looked out into the hall for someone nearby, and while her back was turned, I saw Flandre lift a hand, a thirst for blood in her deadly expression. Without thinking, I dove in between Flandre and Sakuya, knowing the consequences but not fearing them. Sakuya could easily die by Flandre's hands, but I knew I wouldn't.
The next thing I remember is feeling a prick in my shoulder which immediately shot down my right arm. I remember screaming as this prick became a white-hot agony shooting through the very fibers of my shoulder, arm, and hand. I remember hitting the floor and just writhing, wanting to escape the pain, but nothing would do it. I was stuck there, feeling it, and would be stuck feeling it for the next several weeks.
Flandre was almost instantly on her knees, crying her apologies, but I could barely hear her. The last thing I remember before shutting my eyes was feeling Sakuya pick me up in her arms.
I woke up what felt like minutes later, but quickly realized it had been hours upon looking at Vladimir's old grandfather clock. I moved to sit up but groaned and fell back, feeling that same sharp pain shoot through my right arm. I looked down at it to find it covered in bloody bandages.
"Mistress?" came Sakuya's voice.
I turned and found her just entering my room. She set down a new tray of blood-tea and took up a cup, bringing it to me. She helped me to sit up and held the cup to my lips, allowing me to drink.
"I can do it myself," I said stubbornly, though we both knew I couldn't. Sakuya smiled but said nothing.
"Where is she?" I asked when I finished off the cup.
"I think, Mistress, in a way… in some way they did her in a little." Sakuya sighed, averting her eyes sadly. "She's in the basement now. Singing. Has been for hours."
Laying back down, I let out a sigh through my nose, thinking. "Sakuya," I whispered, staring at the ceiling.
"Yes?"
"Have her wings cut off."
Blinking, Sakuya asked, "Well, why? That won't do much good. She already walks everywhere."
"Vladimir once told me," I began, still not looking at her. "That there are five sources of power for a vampire. Eyes, brain, heart, hands, and wings. Get rid of all of them and you'll die, but get rid of one or two of them and your power will be lessened considerably."
"Many of us will die in the process, Mistress," Sakuya mused, looking concerned as she poured me another cup of tea.
I nodded gravely. "Best lose one or two now, rather than lose all of us if we allow her to continue on so strongly. I'm afraid, Sakuya. She grows more and more powerful each day, and she seems to have no sense of consequence. I think this is the best thing we could do for her."
Sakuya stood up and smoothed down her skirt, letting loose another sigh. She curtsied to me and bade me her farewell, and I was left to lay in the darkness.
It was early evening at that time, and I sighed. I was very tired from being up all day when I could have been sleeping, but now that I knew it was my time to be awake, I could not shut my eyes again. My brain buzzed in the heat of my room, musing, pondering, about anything that came to it. I wished Sakuya would come back and keep me company.
Maybe twenty-or-so minutes later I heard my sister screaming my name, shrieking that my maids were trying to hurt her. Squeezing my eyes shut, I turned onto my side on the bed and covered my ears, but to no avail. Her screams still penetrated. The next thing I heard was many pairs of footsteps rushing up the stairs towards my room, and then a loud thump and nothing. She must have fallen, or was caught and forced to the ground; either way, it made her scream louder for me.
I couldn't bear it anymore. Sealing away her wings was the smartest thing to do for all of us, but Flandre was, and still is, my sister, and I could not bear to hear her cry so for me, especially knowing that it was I who sealed her fate. Weakly I tumbled out of my bed and hobbled towards the door, when I heard a sickening crack.
Flandre's screams were cut short by it, and then suddenly, another crack. It made me nauseous just thinking about what it could have been, and tentatively I opened my door and peeked outside.
Sakuya was already there, just about to come and get me. She was covered in blood, and despite the situation I grew hungry. I definitely got my fill of blood later that evening, though, after my next discovery.
"Where is she?" I whispered breathlessly. I shook Sakuya's shoulders, crying, "Sakuya, where is she?!"
"The deed is done, Mistress," she replied simply, and she moved aside for me to get past her.
I fell to my knees before reaching the stairway, already sobbing. My sister lay mere feet away from me, about halfway up the stairs, unconscious and bleeding profusely. Standing above her were four or five maids, two of which held onto each of her broken wings, and upon seeing me they dropped Flandre's dead wings as if afraid I would punish them for doing as they were told. I dismissed all but Sakuya and returned to my sister.
"Here," Sakuya murmured, sitting beside me. She withdrew from the pocket of her apron a spool of bandages, and began wrapping the stumps on my sister's back which once held her wings. Smiling sadly, Sakuya whispered, "Believe it or not I cut myself sometimes, handling all these knives. It's always good to keep bandages with you."
I watched silently as Sakuya swathed Flandre's bloodied back, tears streaming down my cheeks. I had done this. Flandre wanted to kill Sakuya, yes, but she wanted it only out of childish jealousy. Perhaps she didn't even realize what her spell would have done to Sakuya. She had hurt me on accident, but I… I hurt her on purpose. My sins were, and always will be, greater than Flandre's.
When Sakuya finished, she turned Flandre onto her back and picked her up as if she weighed nothing. "Come with me, Mistress. We'll lay her down in her room." Without another word, she led me down into the dark basement.
Gently Sakuya set Flandre down onto the bed and covered her with a light blanket. She disappeared a moment and reappeared seconds later, holding a pitcher of blood. She set down the pitcher onto Flandre's bedside table, smiling a little.
"She'll be thirsty when she wakes," she explained, though she didn't need to. I nodded nonetheless.
We stood side-by-side for a long time, just gazing down at the little helpless body that was Flandre. She breathed steadily, but otherwise did not move. It would be hours before she would wake up again, but none of us knew that and so we waited diligently for her, filling the pitcher with fresh blood when the old had gone stale.
Suddenly Flandre stirred, but she didn't wake. I became scared: I couldn't face her, not after what I had done. I asked Sakuya to send down some maids to look after her. As for me, I went up to my room and just slept.
Days turned into weeks, and Flandre had not come up from the basement. This was normal, for the most part, except that I had assumed she would come up to say hello, or at least to kick and scream and ask where her wings had gone. But she didn't, and alas, I was afraid still to face her.
My maids (save for Sakuya, whom I had banned from going into the basement until I was sure Flandre would not try to attack her again) told me every day how my sister was doing. They only brought good news, which made me happy and sad all at once. I was glad that Flandre was doing well, but unhappy that she would not even see me. Not that I ever made an effort to see her, which I regret to this day.
I became more withdrawn, it seemed, to my room or the main foyer on occasion when I was expecting guests. Only Sakuya visited me now, but I was okay with it. She was mostly the only one I wanted to see, anyway. But one night while I walked along the balcony of my mansion, pensively staring at the stars, I suddenly felt restless. Most of my maids, Sakuya included, were asleep. But I wanted to do something.
Normally I would wake Sakuya and bring her with me to the sleeping human village, but that midnight I felt like exploring on my own. I think a part of me wanted to drink blood, though I knew Sakuya had filled me earlier, but that same part of me wanted to cause trouble. I wanted some excitement, I think.
It was a quick flight across the lake and forest to the human village. As expected no one was out, so I landed with a soft thump and began walking through the cobblestone streets, wondering what there was to do at a time like this. I figured that if I was lucky, Keine would at least be around for me to bother, but "no cigar," as Hong would put it. No one was out, indeed.
That restless part of me looking for a fight, I wandered until I found the schoolhouse. Keine would no-doubt be staying there, so I held out a hand to open the front door, smiling a little to myself.
"What are you doing?" came a soft voice from behind me.
I whirled around, surprised, to find a short young woman with long, violet hair. She was dressed only in her sleeping outfit, and tucked under one arm was a thick book. Her other hand was on her hips, and she glared at me.
"Nothing," I replied unconvincingly. I had nothing else to say.
The girl gave a slight 'humph' and turned, walking a short ways to a table placed on a nearby patio. She sat down before it and resumed her reading.
At the time I didn't know what she was, but it definitely wasn't human. A youkai? A demon? I later found out she was a witch, a very young one, but one that would live to be as old as me, perhaps older.
"How do you read in the darkness?" I asked, coming up behind her. Even as a vampire, I could not read well without light.
"I'm not bird-eyed like you," she replied curtly, turning a page.
"I'm not bird-eyed," I hissed, offended by the simple half-insult. "And how are you so calm? I could kill you, you know."
"That would cause trouble," she said, shrugging. "I'm a bit asthmatic, but I could beat you any day."
"Oh, could you?" I chuckled, lifting a hand. In my palm sparked a blue flame, and I showed it to her, expecting to frighten her. She was unmoved.
"I am the one-week wizard, master of the elements," she said monotonously, closing her book and standing up. "If we must do this, let's at least do it in the forest. I don't want to be a bother to the humans." Without another word, she kicked off into the sky and floated backwards, deep into the youkai forest.
When I found her again, she was reading another book and sitting on a tree stump. "What took you so long?" she asked when I landed.
Glaring, I replied, "You left so quickly I thought you were trying to escape me."
"Unfortunately for you, you have found me." She stood up again and dusted off her nightgown. "Well, let's fight. Would you like to start?"
Unused to this more-polite version of battle, I shrugged. After taking a few steps backwards and heaving a long sigh, I cried, "Heaven's Punishment: Star of David!"
This was a favorite of mine, I admit. An array of lasers shot out from my fingers and zoomed through the air at the witch. She dodged them easily, and, suddenly angry, I shouted, "Dark Sign: Scarlet Netherworld!" This had to get her: the blazing knives would mesmerize and confuse her, making her unable to move away.
All of the knives hit at once, causing a small windstorm and a puff of smoke that I couldn't see through. I waited, grinning, for the smoke to part and for the witch's body to fall. I heard no thump of a corpse and stopped grinning: the smoke dissipated, and the witch stood in the middle of it, unharmed. To make matters worse, she had opened her book and was reading.
I was more angry then than I had been in a long time. I gave a cruel smile and raised my hands, about to use another favorite -- Divine Punishment: Young Demon Lord. But before I could even open my mouth, I heard my enemy shriek,
"Metal and Water Sign: Mercury Poison!"
Out of nowhere came a tidal wave, taller than most of the trees around us, and shining silver like the moon that night. At this point I realized that she did not know I was a vampire, and that no poison would affect me, but nonetheless it still hurt like hell to be struck to the ground with gallons and gallons of quicksilver. I'm sure I nearly drowned in it, but upon being given a split second of air, I cried out a Hell Sign spell and the mercury around me vaporized.
"Scarlet Gensokyo!" I screeched, throwing myself at her. This was my purest undulating magic, and it would surely kill her.
The girl, however, jumped into the air and out of the way of my attack. Not wasting a moment, I kicked up into the sky and zipped after her, hell-bent on killing this little peasant who had dared try to best me.
Eventually I caught up with her and grabbed her ankle before throwing her to the ground. While she still fell, I shot another bright-red knife at her, knowing she would be unable to block or dodge it while falling.
Finally I had hit her. The knife plunged itself into her stomach just before she touched the ground, and she fell onto her side and vomited blood. I landed daintily before her and laughed, coming to kick her in the back.
Just before I made it to her, she disappeared into thin air. I stood there a few minutes, awaiting her return, but nothing happened. Figuring myself the victor, I leapt into the sky and flew back home for some tea.