Collapse of Eastern Fantasy
Chapter 10
Reimu flew speedily across various corridors, with danmaku trying to get to her but many missed. Both sides exchanged barrage of bullets at each other but neither is doing serious damage.
(Urgh… even if she's not as fast as Aya, this is still a pain!) Reimu moaned.
"Scattered Spirit: Fantasy Seal -Fader-"
A bombardment of ofuda and orbs flew backwards, with the spheres ricocheting off the walls to make them even more unpredictable. Reimu hoped that this will be enough to at least stall the vampire chasing her for a while.
However, Remilia simply blew apart the incoming danmaku simply with a flap of her wings before continuing on. Her own scarlet eyes glowed even brighter than usual and a foreboding aura is pressing towards Reimu.
"Is it just me, or is everyone more powerful today?" Reimu asked while weaving in and out in the danmaku, while trying to remember the way to Patchouli's library.
"It took you this long to notice? You can thank that boy for this." Remilia grinned as she fired off a red spear-like beam attack.
"Huh?" Reimu inquired as she blasted the spear apart with an orb of energy. "What did he do?"
"Nothing really, though the very fact he's here in Gensōkyō is giving me an advantage." Remilia's face shows an ecstasy that Reimu haven't seen before. "As long as he's here, there's no way I can lose!
Scarlet Sign: Scarlet Meister!"
"What the hell are you on about?" Reimu shouted over the din of all the bullets flying at her, and trying to dodge one giant crimson sphere coming right at her.
"His mere presence is enough to give youkai power, born from the fear of the possibility to be erased beyond which not even hell or the Netherworld can save them. He holds a power that can destroy any supernatural things with only a single touch; a power that rival even that of the gods." Remilia laughed as she thought of the irony that the shrine maiden haven't picked up on this.
"Is that why you want to keep him? I thought this kind of power grab is something only those at the Moriya Shrine would do!"
"Of course that's not the reason – why I want to keep him is for a more base desire. His power makes me feel such a sensation you cannot possibly imagine it. This feeling is the sole purpose why I want him!" Remilia replied as she fired some energy arrows, homing into Reimu.
"You know what? I think you're crazy." Reimu remarked while she increased her speed and flew onward, making the arrows missing their mark.
"That boy said the same thing. I think it's probably time we stopped playing around got serious, right?"
(Wha-!) Reimu could barely show surprise on her face that this kind of ferocious attacks only counted as 'playing around', before Remilia flew in almost like Sakuya's teleportation and dealt a physical blow that smashed the shrine maiden through several walls.
o
"Taboo: Lävatein!"
A bright red lance shined, and many crimson bullets flew out accompanying it. Under the sky blocked by the scarlet mist, it makes seeing the attacks difficult, not to mention dodging them.
"Love Sign: Master Spark!"
Marisa's counterattack clashed with the vampire's, resulting in a sparkling flash.
The two chased each other under the red mist, where scenery is dyed as if blood has covered every inch of the mansion's grounds.
"Why the hell are you coming after me? ! Go chase after Reimu or something!" Marisa bellowed as she tries to keep an eye on Flandre as the small vampire turned herself into four persons.
"What fun would that be? Onee-sama is already fighting her, and there's no point having a two-on-one." Remilia replied as she showered down danmaku.
"Magic Space: Asteroid Belt!" Marisa blasted many stars towards all directions, since she reasoned if she can't keep track of which one is the clone and which isn't, she is just going to blast everything in sight.
The clones vanished from the onslaught of attacks, but the real Flandre flew through the gaps between the bullets as if mocking how easily it can be bypassed.
She flew above Marisa, narrowly missing the ordinary magician with a crimson cross while flying by. Marisa flew backwards as Flandre approached, since if she hadn't then she might have lost a few limbs.
"Forbidden Barrage: Starbow Break!"
Marisa flew close to the ground and dodging the bullets that makes craters in the ground all around her, with the dust starting to stain her white apron and blonde hair.
"Light Blast: Shoot the Moon!"
Marisa fired back many lasers upwards at the vampire flying over her, with the yellow stars cancelling out many of the barrage that rained down on her from above. With all the explosions the battlefield lighted up as bright as the midday sun, and Flandre unconsciously cringed back as her instincts as a vampire force her to move away.
Then, defying reason one of the lasers managed to pierce through the younger Scarlet sister, whose eyes opened wide in shock. Even Marisa was surprised; those lasers are more for restricting her opponent's movements than as a main weapon for attacking.
"Oh come on – you can't be seriously thinking that was it, right?"
"!" Marisa swiftly turned around and found Flandre flying right beside her without her noticing as the image above them faded – apparently the one above was just a clone Flandre made just then.
"You're no fun; I'll finish this now that I've had a good time out in the open sky. I'm more interested in getting my hands on that boy right now."
o
After a long time of being in chains, Kamijou Touma found himself in a vast library that seemed impossibly large. He tried to struggle but the chains are tightly bound onto him, and his right hand cannot reach the chains themselves.
"Quit struggling; I've made sure it's impossible for you to reach them with your right hand." Patchouli Knowledge said as she tidied up this one part of her domain, making the books fly up back to their shelves with a wave of her hand.
Secluded behind the many shelves, Patchouli set up some barriers that should prevent anyone from finding them – though she didn't think these would work that well with the boy's right hand interfering, along with the shrine maiden's instincts.
"What's with all these books anyway?" Touma asked as if out of curiosity. He thought if maybe he can get her guard down he might be able to do something to get out of this situation.
"These are all grimoires, written by yours truly." Patchouli answered proudly.
"Grimoires! ?" Touma exclaimed. From what he knows about grimoires they were terrible things filled with poisonous knowledge, magical formations that can last indefinitely and seeks to further expand itself – like a virus, if what Index and Stiyl told him is true.
"Oi oi, are you serious? With this many grimoires it's like you have several bunkers of nuclear missiles!" Looking at the shelves and shelves of books in this library which the ends cannot be seen, Touma's mind boggles at the thought of what this many grimoires can do. There has got to be more than the 103,000 stored inside Index's head in just this part of the library alone.
"Nuclear missiles? I've heard there's a hell raven that have this 'nuclear power', but I don't think my books are like that. They're just records of my work." Patchouli replied. "What, are the grimoires in the outside world different?"
"You could say that." Touma said. "If the grimoires I've came across are just normal books then it would've made my life a lot easier." He thought back to the incident with the 'Book of the Law', and how just about every magician in the world is after the 'Index Librorum Prohibitum'.
"Oh? Mind telling me about them?" Patchouli levitated a few armchairs over and sat him down on one of them, and placing further chains onto the already existing ones. She then sat down with a quill and some parchment, looking like she wants to take notes.
"Well, I don't really know much about them… how many books do you have here anyway?" Touma tried to change the topic. The last thing he wants is to get another magician to come after Index, as eventually anyone who's after grimoires will inevitably hear about her existence.
"I've lost count. Thousands of them at the very least, considering how long I've spent writing them."
"Thousands? What, are you several hundreds of years old or something?" Touma couldn't help but ask. Even though he's being taught by a teacher who looks like a little girl but is at least a university graduate, he still can't get used to the fact some women look a lot younger than they actually are.
"Don't you know it's rude to ask for a lady's age?" Patchouli asked in an annoyed manner, before starting to cough.
"Hey, are you alright?" Touma asked. Even in this situation he still worries about other people's safety.
"Don't worry, it's just my health isn't the best after all that time staying indoors; often I'm too immersed in my books to go outside." Patchouli admitted. Then she suddenly bent over in pain.
"Gah!" Her outfit suddenly went to a colour like midnight blue before returning back to the usual purple. For a second there Touma thought he saw a flash of red in her eyes.
"Oh great, this can't be happening…" Patchouli mumbled as she slowly stood upright.
"What is?" Touma asked hesitantly. He's sharply reminded of how this is like when the ice fairy from before attacked; that same pair of crimson eyes which showed naught but bloodlust. Even though Remilia also had red eyes, her eyes didn't show that same bloodlust – well, at least not the 'blood' bit.
"Your right hand is overruling the response our minds give saying you're not harmful. This irrational fear is so strong that it makes us go berserk, filling us with power and pushing us to our limits where we could even break apart, all just to get rid of you." Patchouli sighed. "If this was one of my better days maybe I wouldn't be as affected by this unreasonable affliction.
I'm not as powerful as Remilia, or used to madness like Flandre, so soon I'll be taken over by this rage. Sorry, Kamijou Touma, but you can only accept this and die." Patchouli said with clenched teeth as she resisted the urge to cut open the boy in front of her. Only those with weak mental defences would succumb to this, but she's distracted by her own failing health as well to be able to focus solely on stopping the berserking rage. Patchouli briefly wonders if her explanation is really the reason, or is some other force behind this madness...
"Wait! Can't you just let me go?" Touma asked urgently as he thrashed around to no avail.
"Where to? Gensōkyō is a big place, and many other youkai would give you a much more painful death before sending you to the Netherworld." Though heaven in Gensōkyō is supposedly full, Patchouli doesn't really believe this boy in front of her has done things bad enough to be sent to hell, so that leaves only the Netherworld. "I'll at least make it painless. You deserve at least that much."
"Dammit, why is all the magicians I've ever met crazy? !" Touma conveniently skipped over the few exceptions in his mind. "Wait… so is that girl in black suffering from the same deal?"
"Marisa? No, she's human enough that this shouldn't affect her." Patchouli's eyes flashed red and back now and then, and her clothes have been steadily changing colour.
"Sorry, young man. I wished we could have met under other circumstances – we could have had many intriguing conversations."
Patchouli raised her hands and slowly transmuted a long needle out of the wooden armchair she sat on. "It'll all be over with one strike. You won't even feel it coming."
o
Without warning, a loud boom rang out from one of the ends of her library. Through the smoke a shrine maiden got thrown out, followed by a scarlet blur that chased after her.
In addition, a part of the ceiling caved in with a explosion, and Marisa fell down clutching her broom desperately and barely managed to dodge the rain of attacks that followed her. Closing in behind her is the vampire with the many-coloured wings and a satisfied grin from being able to fly so freely.
"!" Both the shrine maiden and the black magician saw Patchouli immediately, as in her distracted state Patchouli didn't notice her own wards have fallen apart.
"Dream Sign: Evil Sealing Circle!"
"Love Sign: Non-Directional Laser!"
Danmaku exploded out from both girls, heading towards the vampires heading in for the final blow.
"What the hell? Where are you aiming at anyway?" Remilia scoffed at what she saw as pitiful aiming on Reimu's part, as there are many holes in the line of fire. Flandre expressed the same thought with a smirk towards Marisa.
Patchouli, on the other hand, looked up swiftly just in time to see paper charms and stars raining down on her and Kamijou Touma. The Scarlet sisters moments later realised their opponents shot bullets out on purpose in such a way to make it seemed like their target was still the vampires when in actuality it was meant to take down Patchouli Knowledge.
That part of the library exploded, with more than a few shelves caught on fire to give the place an eerie, flickering glow.
"Hah, hah… I swear, I'm seriously going to die from something like that one of these days!" Touma said as he crawled out from under a pile of books and held his head with his right hand. Then he realised he can move freely again now that his chains have been blasted off, though the same can be said for large patches of his current clothes as well.
Patchouli, however, took more damage than Touma did. Her eyes were replaced by whirling spirals spinning around and only her head was visible, poking out upside-down from under her pile of grimoires that she's buried under.
"Quick! Hold on to my hand!" A voice called out above him.
As Touma looked up he saw Marisa sped down towards him and reaching her hands out, with Reimu setting up square barriers of some kind that deflected all attacks coming for them. Touma held out his left hand and awkwardly clasped the magician's, before getting pulled off the ground with such his force it felt his shoulder is going to pop out.
"Damn it, can't you be a bit gentler?" Touma winced.
"Save your complaining for later, we have two annoyed vampires on our tail!" Marisa spat back.
Reimu's barrier broke from the sheer amount of firepower that was directed at it, so Reimu decided it's time to retreat before they get into a bigger mess.
(Wow, this has got to be the flashiest robbery Marisa has ever done.) Reimu thought. She didn't really care that she herself could be called a accomplice.
As Reimu flew rapidly away from the bursts of bullets, she saw Marisa's broomstick started to wobble unnaturally.
"Hey, what's going on-?" Marisa said in a panicked manner.
"Oh Cr-! is your broom running on magic?" Touma gulped.
"What isn't running on magic in Gensōkyō? !" Marisa yelled back.
"Long story short, magic don't work well with me nearby, so we're gonna crash!"
With a resounding boom Marisa and Touma crash landed onto the ground, with books fluttering around their landing place. As they were falling speedily towards the ground Touma grabbed Marisa and held her close as they smashed into the ground, shielding her from the worst of the bruising.
"Are you two alright? !" Reimu shouted as she tried to hold off the Scarlet sisters as the vampires caught up; she's being forced back as she thought, since going against two of them at once was nearly impossible to begin with, and now they even have a power boost due to that boy.
"Ow…" Marisa winced. She was mostly fine since Touma held on to her tightly. Though being embraced like this made Marisa blush for some reason - she really can't remember the last time someone else did this to her, not after retreating into the Forest of Magic.
"Are you alright?" Touma echoed Reimu's earlier question, even as he gasped from the pain.
"I'm fine… though you can let me go now." Marisa said and then pushed him off roughly, with the blush camouflaging into the firelight reflecting off their face.
In a louder voice, "This idiot shielded me as we landed, so I'm fine." Marisa shouted back to Reimu. "My broom can't take the both of us though, we're stuck!"
"Give it up already, you can't possibly get out of here as you are right now!" Remilia said as she brought down a massive crimson cross made from her aura. Reimu dodged it but was grabbed by Flandre anticipating her movements, and then got thrown down towards the ground after being spinned around by Flandre a few times.
"Ah…!" Reimu smashed onto a bookshelf near where Touma is, and fell down limply.
"Hakurei-san!" Touma yelled out, and then winced from his own bruises.
"I'm fine…" Reimu said as she got back up shakily.
"Feel like reconsidering yet, Kamijou Touma?" Remilia laughed. "We'll let them go if you decide to stay."
"No deal, Remilia!" Reimu pointed her rod with paper charms at the vampires floating above. "It's a matter of principle that shrine maidens don't yield to youkai, not to mention letting someone sacrifice themselves just to ensure our own skin!"
"I'm with her. No damn way I'm just gonna forfeit." Marisa said stubbornly as she picked up her hat, dusted it and shoved it back onto her head. She then brought out her mini-hakkero and turned it up to full power.
"Wait, you two!" Touma also got up and tried to walk to where they are.
"Stay out of this, we'll take care of it; we're professionals." Reimu replied without taking her eyes off Remilia.
"Screw your professionalism! I'm not going to just sit back and watch people that try to protect me getting hurt!" Touma shot back.
"Are you insulting me? ! I'd be the laughing stock of Gensōkyō if I let a victim of a youkai attack get hurt even more!" Reimu replied angrily, finally turning around to stare at Touma.
"I'm not going to just agree to their terms, you baka. I've got something else in mind." Touma then looked up at Remilia, ignoring Reimu's indignant shouts.
"How about this; 3-on-3 spell card battle, if we win two out of three duels we get to go free without any more problems from you people here."
"And if WE win two out of three, you're staying with us for eternity?" Remilia asked with a grin.
"Willingly." Touma replied without hesitation.
Reimu walked up to Touma and pinched the boy's cheeks. Hard.
"Hey, ow!" Touma tried to get free, but the shrine maiden's grip is harder than steel.
"WHAT are you thinking!" Reimu pulled Touma face down slightly so the two see eye to eye. "You can't even use spell cards right? How can you hope to win? !"
"If I can last against Dragon until the time limit is reached, I can last against vampires." Touma said as he tried to pull off Reimu's grip. "Or are you telling me that these two are even stronger than the 'Highest God of Gensōkyō'?"
"Wha… you defeated Dragon?" Reimu stared wide-eyed at Touma and let her hand go.
"Barely. Also, even if I lose, I'm sure the two of you can win your matches." Touma looked at Reimu with unwavering trust. "I believe in you two to get me out of this, but I don't want to just sit and wait for that to happen. If you're going to help me then that makes you a fellow comrade-in-arms - and comrades help one another in getting each other out of trouble.
If we're on the same side then trust me as I trust you."
"…" Reimu went speechless. Come to think of it, this is probably the first time she had something like this said to her.
"Enough chitchat; Sakuya." Remilia snapped her fingers and the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion appeared out of nowhere.
"Sakuya will be your opponent, Kamijou Touma. I'll take on the shrine maiden and Flandre can have Marisa."
"Wha- Aren't that other girl going to be my opponent? !" Touma gulped, seeing the physically palpable menacing aura that Sakuya is giving off as the maid looked towards him.
"You mean Patchouli? She's out cold thanks to those two behind you, so Sakuya will take you on. Besides, since she can actually touch you without fear of being erased I'd say she's the best person on my side for this role."
"…" Touma was hoping he'd end up fighting a supernatural opponent that can't touch him, and who'd be too berserk to think straight due to his Imagine Breaker so would rely only on strength and not tactics. Guess that won't be happening, considering how instead of going berserk Sakuya calmed down to be coldly calculating on how she will deal pain for his earlier remark.
With a few flaps of her wings Remilia cleared all the book shelves in the area away with a powerful gust, and put out the fire that's burning on a few of the shelves. The library was dimly lit from the hole in the roof where sunlight shone down, barely enough for human eyes to make things out now that the fire has been put out. Though when the danmaku starts to fly the place will be lit up brightly, Touma thought.
"Number of spell cards allowed: unlimited. Attacks outside called spells: allowed. Physical attacks: allowed, as long it doesn't involve using knives to cut or stab. Basically, anything goes as long as it's not a fatal attack or a low blow, within the time limit of this battle of five minutes. To make things fair, since you can't use spell cards all you have to do is stay conscious all the way through." Remilia smiled as she dictated the terms for Touma and Sakuya's battle. Reimu and Marisa looked worriedly at Touma, who's stumbling as he walks towards the maid that floated down towards him.
"Do try to last long enough for Sakuya to relieve her stress, Touma-kun. I've got more things planned for you in the days to come than you can possibly hope for, and I'd like it if you both put today's mishaps behind you." Remilia grinned, and Flandre is almost salivating at the coming battles.
At the signal of the duel beginning the first thing Sakuya did was to teleport in and gave a uppercut right in the chin for Touma, sending him flying up into the air; she obeyed the order to not use the knives to injure Touma, and using the knives in a spell would probably useless against the boy's right hand anyway.
Not to mention it's intensely satisfying to be able to feel her own fist landing onto the person that exposed her secret. As Touma counterattacked Sakuya tried to stop time, but found at this close distance with his glove off her ability isn't working quite well, as even the earlier uppercut wasn't as effective as it could have been since her teleport faltered slightly. With a blow to her side, Sakuya increased the distance between them before using her powers to go behind him and charge in from behind. Touma on the other hand isn't too surprised at her ability to seemingly teleport, as he has fought ability-users before. He ended up blocking a kick to his torso but then a second kick rolled out towards his face; it seems Sakuya has picked up a few physical moves from Meiling, from how she floated up and then blew past Touma's defences.
Their savage brawl continues under the sight of various other girls, mesmerized at the exchange of moves not normally seen in a land where bullets rather than fists settle disputes.
O
O
[End Chapter 10]