A/N: Alright, remember how I said in the last author's note that things would be wrapped up in the next two chapters? Well now I'm not so sure about that. There's enough content that I think I may have to put it into three.
More thoughts about this chapter at the bottom. These chapters are getting longer and longer, huh?
Reviews (Thanks for these by the way. I really appreciate it):
This person (I guess) doesn't want to sign in, so I will call them the 'Corrector': I'll deal with all those corrections probably around the time the next 'Between the Lines' chapter goes up.
Small Notice: Alright, looks like word choice screwed some things up there. And yes, I know about the true Magic Gods and all, but keep in mind this takes place just after NT 10, so he doesn't know anything about them yet. Othinus really is the most powerful being Touma has seen so far.
Guest (May 22): Yes, yes he does. Otherwise he's going to get his ass handed to him. And meh, I won't blame Kakeru for acting like he does; he has a more realistic mindset compared to Touma (at least in my eyes), and at the very least I get where he's coming from. Maybe you won't hate him as much in the next volume. As for Salome changing sides...well, as much as I wouldn't mind that, I don't see it being possible.
neogoki: 'Even', you say? Her being an expert martial artist isn't just fanon; it's canon as well. But I digress; Meiling is the the one opponent he can best deal with, since she's horrible at danmaku and much prefers to settle things with her fist. Everyone else just throws walls of bullets because that's their go-to method of fighting.
Server lock: That's an interesting question, really. I've never thought much about that; perhaps it would, but that type of unfair ability is just...uh, wouldn't that just make him physically immortal? Because in that case, when the Imagine Breaker was within other objects or people, it would have just reconstructed/resurrected said objects or people and continued existing in them...but heck, I don't rule it out as impossible.
enigma95: I actually already have something of that nature planned, but you won't be seeing it for a while.
Croniklerx: Haha, death by Snu-snu. I doubt Koakuma will really kill him though, intentionally or accidentally. And to go so far as to call it Gensoukyou's Kamijou Faction...I wouldn't call them that yet. But indeed, how will they deal with scary maid Sakuya.
And then there's poor old Niang-Niang and Noukan...*sigh* At least there's the possibility of seeing Noukan again. As for that Jiangshi...well, we can only dream. I do feel like we'll be seeing Nephthys again.
But enough of this. There's a 12k+ word chapter for you guys to be reading. Enjoy.
The Scarlet Devil Incident VII
"GAHH!"
Kamijou barely manages to hold his hand up to block the rainbow-colored blast before it reaches him, meaning that the attack hit his hand on the side of it and twists it enough to send pain throughout his whole arm, causing him to shriek like a little girl, or at least a very young boy.
As the attack disperses, he looks for the person who attacked him. Their voice was relatively close when he heard it before the blow came, so he shouldn't have to look far.
He wasn't wrong.
"Kh—!"
Kamijou ducks when he sees the fist flying towards him, and it passes over his head safely. He then lowers his shoulder and throws his weight forward in order to take his assailant down, and he catches the person right in their stomach.
However, they don't go down as expected, as instead of toppling over and hitting the ground he hears a foot skid against the stone walkway of the grounds and a womanly grunt.
This person must be pretty strong…
The fact that his assailant took the full brunt of his body weight like that means that their pretty well built, or that their foundation is strong. Perhaps they are a martial artist of some sort.
And if that is the case, he does not want to leave himself open to a strike. If this person is a professional, they could likely end this fight without him having a chance to fight back with a well-placed punch.
With this in mind, he lets his aching right arm go limp again and pushes off of the opponent with his left hand, him backpedaling backward with the momentum until there is substantial distance between the two of them.
Now, with this distance between them, he's finally able to get a good look at his opponent.
"C-China-san?!"
The red-haired Chinese youkai looks at Kamijou with a relaxed expression, as if he were an old friend despite the two of them not having officially met.
"Yes, yes, that's what they call me, even though my name's Meiling. Hong Meiling."
She says this to him and then cocks an eyebrow. "And what's your name, Outsider?"
"Kamijou Touma."
…is what he wished he would have said, but instead he was a bit preoccupied staring at the girl in her entirety (but mainly at her bust).
I know this isn't the time or place for this, but I think she might be right in my strike zone! That mature body and big-sisterly air about her…!
He shakes his head to direct his thoughts back to the task at hand. As tempting as it is to simply stare at her, he does have an objective to complete.
Well, with the disappearance of Patchouli and the maid, he has two objectives: to confirm Patchouli's safety and deal with the maid if the need arises and to escape this danger-filled mansion.
"My name is K-Kamijou Touma." He stumbles with his words as he introduces himself, if only because of the pain in his arm and the fact that this girl fits his preferences very well. If only she had glasses; then she'd fitting it to a 'T'.
Well, if that's the case, then I guess Mamizou-san from the shop would fit pretty well, too…
He wonders how he didn't notice how good she looked when she stepped into Kourindou on his second day in Gensoukyou, but maybe it's because he was being mentally smothered by the unnaturally thin Reimu and the petite Marisa.
"Kamijou-kun, huh? Nice to meet you," she says, then gets into a fighting stance that anyone could recognize as a martial arts stance.
'Nice to meet you,' she says…? Wasn't she just attacking me? And isn't she about to do it again?
Questioning Meiling's thought process, he asks a question.
"What's the point in getting friendly if you're just going to attack me, Meiling-san," he asks guardedly, preparing for the chance of her responding with her fists rather than her words.
She again cocks an eyebrow and looks at him this time with mild amusement. "Oh? Didn't think you'd complain about that." When she pauses and looks at Kamijou's uncomfortable and slightly banged-up figure, she continues. "Well, there's no need to be overly hostile, you know? As long as I do my job, there isn't really a problem."
Kamijou groans. "So you want to kill me, too?"
She scratches her cheek and looks off to the side, breaking out of her stance. "It's not a matter of wanting to; I have to. Otherwise I'll lose my job, you know? Orders are orders, after all."
"Even so; isn't there a way to do this without you killing me and you still being able to keep your job?" Obviously, Kamijou has no desire to die, and he doesn't want Meiling to lose her job because of him, either.
However, there is almost no room to compromise.
Wait a minute…
He just had a similar conversation with the maid.
"Wait a second, Meiling-san. Your mistress ordered you to do this, right?"
She nods. "Through Sakuya-san, yes."
Again, he sees a light at the end of the tunnel, that light being a conclusion without violence.
"W-well, actually, she cancelled that order. When she gave the order to Koakuma at first, she had a change of heart and had Patchouli-san retract it," Kamijou hurriedly explains and hopes with all of his being that she'll listen and stand down.
She puts a hand on her hip and cocks it to the side, revealing a bit of her leg underneath the Chinese dress in the process.
"Oh, is that so?"
Kamijou sighs in relief as it seems she believes him, thankfully a lot more readily than the maid did.
Thank goodn—
"Too bad that was all a lie."
"…Eh?"
"Remilia-sama never really intended to retract her order, Kamijou-kun. She just had to comply while Patchouli-sama was there with her. She still had an operation in the works behind the scenes," Meiling explains as she twists her head to the side, cracking her neck. "She was never planning to spare your life, Kamijou-kun."
"No…way…"
The light at the end of the tunnel just turned out to be a train's headlight.
All hopes of a peaceful end have tossed out of the window to leave only a desperate struggle in its wake.
If that's true…then what is that maid—Sakuya-san, I think Meiling called her, going to do to Patchouli-san? Silence her?
"But why, Meiling-san?! She understands that what happened in the library was an accident, right?!" Kamijou nearly yells at her as he asks this as if knowing will change something.
She shrugs. "I don't know. Sakuya-san didn't tell me that much, and if she didn't tell me, then Remilia-sama didn't tell her, either. There's probably some underlying reason, anyway, and if she didn't tell us then there's no reason for us to worry about it." Meiling gets into her martial arts stance once again, signaling the end of their conversation. "But what I said earlier still stands, Kamijou-kun."
Kamijou, having accepted that he's going to have to fight to get out of this, gets ready to fight as well. "What?"
"I'm just doing my job," she says as she cups her hands together, and he hears a faint 'whirring' sound and sees a faint light as she holds them there. "So no hard feelings, okay?"
And here begins Kamijou's first real fight of the day.
This is getting out of hand, ze!
While things have mostly died down back on the ground because of the unprecedented stalling of the fairies' trademark chaos, up in the air things have been getting progressively worse. At the beginning of Marisa's three-way with the fairy (whose name she had learned to be Emily) and Flandre, things were more or less manageable for the monochrome magician.
However, as time went on, Flandre and Emily seemed to start getting more amped up because of the skirmish, and the fairy in the trio actually displayed something a few moments ago that was probably the most troublesome thing yet.
She started glowing orange, like the evening sun, and the glow had spread to Marisa and Flandre as well.
At first the blonde had thought that it was just some play on the mind to motivate her, or just some weird special effect, but Marisa quickly figured out that it was more than that; it was some sort of emotional control. Marisa, as many can probably tell because of how many she gets in, enjoys fighting, or rather danmaku duels in particular. The only time she can say she fought without starting to enjoy it would be the escapades on the moon a couple months ago, where she was so confused and overwhelmed that there wasn't any room for enjoyment.
This situation is a similar one, except that she's fighting with more guilt than any kind of enjoyment, which made the immense elation at the prospect of fighting that she felt glaringly out of place, so she made quick work of the fairy's ability to focus on the bigger picture rather than each individual stroke.
However, the hold is still on the fairy herself and Flandre Scarlet, the latter of which presents the greatest problem. She's already unstable enough when she's calm; the risk of a serious accident occurring will increase proportionally to her excitement.
To be honest, it would be safer for her to flee this fight entirely, but if she doesn't keep those two occupied and corral them in some direction, the effects of their fight may splash onto Kamijou's hitbox.
She looks around the courtyard again with her bird's-eye-view, and, out of nowhere Sakuya appears, walking past Kamijou and towards Patchouli.
When did she—oh wait, that's a stupid question. She can do that time-screwy thing…
Marisa takes a short moment to look at her begin to speak to Patchouli and then the two of them walk off before looking back at the Outsider.
"Oh?"
The three people he was with: Koakuma and two fairy maids fall to the ground after being hit with what Marisa can make out as knives in the head. She knows immediately that the culprit is a certain Izayoi Sakuya, and that the maid's colleagues are by extension safe since she (probably) wouldn't just kill them like that.
However, just because she knows this doesn't mean that Kamijou knows, as he is shown—
"He's handling this a lot better than I expected…"
Marisa mutters to herself as she watches him search them for injuries and pulses in a relatively composed manner rather than just freaking out, like many people (including her) would have done, which is extremely notable.
Is he…used to this kind of thing…?
Wondering this, the magician girl decides that she's dilly-dallied around long enough and moves to join the fray between the vampire and fairy, reaching down under her dress and pulling out two flasks full of a magical, explosive liquid and chucking one at each girl.
The two combatants, despite seeming totally focused on each other, notice this and aim to shoot them down while still somehow fighting each other with the same intensity that they were before, making Marisa worry just a tiny bit more about them than she was.
Flandre closes her hand, which makes the bottled bomb closest to her be obliterated entirely.
However, Emily, who doesn't have that kind of perfect destruction power, merely shoots out a ball of energy to get rid of the bomb.
Bad idea.
The liquid inside of the container, now that it's been exposed to an outside force, has no choice but to explode, enveloping the two young girls.
"Ahaha, she fell for it," Marisa says to herself as she floats slowly backwards so that she doesn't get caught in the blast. She knows that all she accomplished there is drawing their attention toward her since Emily, while physically weak, can revive entirely and Flandre, being physically sound, will regenerate from any damage that the blast caused, even if her body is destroyed entirely as long as something remains of her.
Of course, Marisa wouldn't carry around a bomb capable of causing that much damage in her skirt; that kind of destructiveness is saved for her actual magic.
The explosion dies down and Marisa readies herself with a star projectile gaining power in her free hand, prepped to shoot it at the first sign of movement.
The problem is, however, that there are many signs of it.
Bats.
Bats everywhere.
The swarm of flying mammals flies out of the smoke and move to envelop the black-white magician, but she won't, or rather can't let that happen.
That Flandre…she doesn't have to fight so seriously!
Marisa raises both hands to the sky and fires a blast from each one, then keeps as still as she can.
This move, in Marisa's boredom (or perhaps her affinity for naming her attacks) is called 'Strato Fraction', and it sends light magic into the air that turns into a cluster of shooting stars as it comes down. [1]
The positioning of the stars is random, so there is a risk of the magician getting hit if she moves at all, which would bring her into the effective range.
Of course, she could move out of it if she weren't surrounded by these bats, but that's the reason she even cast the attack in the first place.
The bats begin to close in while circling her, and almost on instinctive reflex, she fires into the cyclone. It only takes out a couple of bats.
Come to think of it; aren't vampires allergic to the sun or something? How is Flandre able to be outside…?
Marisa, remembering one of the many weaknesses that vampires have, looks through the swarm of bats to view the sky.
She sees her magic starting to fall and assault the bats, and beyond that she sees a disappointing sight.
Wasn't it sunny this mornin'…? That Celestial better not be screwin' with the weather again…
She's referring to the Celestial Hinanawi Tenshi, who wreaked havoc around Gensoukyou in the form of strange weather and earthquakes all to get people to fight her because she was bored. She's hoping that the girl learned her lesson, but in the event that she isn't and is messing with the weather again she'll have to do something about it.
Well, maybe not her, since she got her ass handed to her when Tenshi fought her at full power, but maybe she can get Yukari or the shinigami Onozuka Komachi to do it, since they took her down with no problem during their fights with her. [2]
Marisa seriously considers this, considering how unnaturally warm it is in Gensoukyou today despite the season, but leaves it be in order to focus on the task at hand.
As Strato Fraction takes its toll on the bats, Marisa scours the area for the fairy, who should have blown up entirely from that bomb because of her frailty. There should at least be an orange wisp in the place of Emily's body around the explosion are, but she doesn't see any.
Well, she did revive immediately after being obliterated those couple dozen times by Flandre, so maybe this is to be expected.
Okay, Strato Fraction should be almost over by now…
To disclose some information, she had actually fired a super-charged one that had a longer duration, so it was able to take out many more bats than a normal one would have. That being said, though, there's still a large number of them left.
Just what is Flandre planning to do, circling me for this long…?
Strato Fraction was cast in hopes that the girl would have enough punishment and revert to her base form, but that development didn't happen.
At this point, she's tempted to blast the hell out of the area just to get some breathing room, but decides not to. She doesn't want to hurt Flandre too much, and she doesn't want to incur the wrath of the mansion residents.
She decides to try and contact the vampire.
"Oi, Flandre! You gonna go back to your child form anytime soon?"
There's no answer to her question, but the bats start chirping as if Flandre forgot that she can't communicate in that form.
At first it was only a few, but it's gradually getting louder and spreading to the others as if contagious, the high-pitched sound straining her ears and making her feel insignificant in the cacophony.
"Geh…Fine then, Flandre!"
Marisa starts to grip her broom in preparation to try and break through the wall of circling bats, only having not done so earlier for fear of being thrown off by some surprise attack. But since the vampire hasn't done anything besides circle her for this last duration, the magician figures that she won't do anything now.
Marisa grips her hat to prevent it from falling off in her following action. "Here I go, ze!"
Marisa pushes through the bat wall with her trademark speed, sending many of the airborne mammals flying in an out-of-control way, and she whips around to look at the cyclone that she undoubtedly disrupted in her explosive movement. Sure enough, in response to her action, the bats start to converge on a point in the center of the ex-cyclone, forming into the body of vampire Flandre Scarlet.
The magician, feeling a bit akin to a bullfighter, holds an arm out to the side with a slowly growing sphere of energy in it. Her fighting instincts tell her that the vampire is going to do something very soon, and Marisa has to be ready for everything if she doesn't want to be knocked out of the sky. She's sure it would be a pain to Sakuya and Meiling if they had to clean her stain off of their nice stone courtyard, as pretty as her stain may end up being.
The final bats join together with the main body, and the vampire fully focuses on the magician with her scarlet eyes.
"Marisa, you're mean~!"
Flandre calls this from the however-many-meters away that she is, throwing in her own childish wave that makes Marisa wonder if she truly understands the gravity of the situation.
Well, if she doesn't, the blame can be put on the fairy that's obscuring her judgment, and her sister for not helping her mature enough to realize.
"No, I'm just tryna' survive!" Marisa responds with this, the ball of energy in her hand being held now at a constant strength rather than constantly growing. As of now it's about the size of, say, a watermelon. If a watermelon was perfectly spherical.
"Survive what?" Flandre tilts her head to the side in confusion. "I thought we were playing around…"
Marisa buries her face into her free hand. She definitely doesn't understand how serious things are right now.
Well, whether or not Flandre understands is of no concern to her. All she has to do is keep her and the fairy maid from causing collateral with Kamijou.
Wait…
The maid!
Marisa looks around frantically, searching for the maid so she could bring her attention back to her, but she sees no sign of the orange-haired fairy.
"Damn!"
She's lost her.
Don't tell me she went after Kamijou…!
She looks down toward the human boy, who is still in a close-quarters fight with Meiling and looks to be slowly losing ground, especially since it looks like by this point he's totally lost use of his right hand with the way he's not attacking with it. However, despite that troubling scene, it is made a little better on his end with the absence of the fairy maid.
But if she's not there, where the hell is she?
She turns her focus back to Flandre, opting to ask her if she's seen her, but before she can do that…
A wide, wild, and annoyingly happy smile.
"Looking for me?"
Emily was there in front of her, not even a meter away.
H-how did she—
In her hands are two glowing orange spheres, pointed straight towards her. There's no way in hell she's dodging those.
However, she does have a glowing ball of magic in her right hand. If she can't dodge it, she can at least block it with some magic of her own.
The maid throws the two spheres forward.
Marisa holds her hand out in front of her, making sure the sphere will intercept both of the opposing ones before they hit her.
Huh? That's strange…
She was expecting some kind of explosion with the contact of the two opposing forces, or at least to feel some resistance from the impact, but there was nothing.
She looks warily at the ball of magic.
"Did I make it too strong…?"
Marisa looks up at the fairy to see if she tried or will try anything, but all she sees is the annoying smile on her face.
Maybe throwing this ball at her will wipe that irritating grin off her face…
As Marisa contemplates this, the ball in her hand grows as if responding to her possible intentions.
The only problem is that she didn't command it to do that.
"Oi oi oi, what's happenin' here?!"
She pours more concentration into keeping the size and power constant, but no matter how much she puts in the ball seems to get rowdier, gradually becoming more unstable with how much it's rebelling and focusing on gathering power rather than maintaining its shape and size.
"What is—" Marisa begins to wonder what's happening, but understands mid-sentence and glowers at the fairy. "You. What did you do?"
The fairy places her hands on her hips and makes some kind of satisfied noise, reminding her a bit of a certain ice fairy. "Why, I only used my power to make that ball more excitable, is all." She grins in contrarily smugger fashion than the happiness-filled grins from earlier. "My name is Emily Euphoria, you know."
Marisa groans. "Well if ya don't stop it, you're gonna blow us both to hell, ze!"
The fairy covers her mouth, expressing shock that Marisa was beginning to think she couldn't express. "Oh no! Why didn't I think about that before—yeah, right! I'm a fairy, so I can't really die." Despite saying this, she does have a slight expression of worry. "That ball is Spell Card regulated, right?"
"Well, duh! I'm not tryna kill you two!" Marisa was tempted to facepalm in exasperation, but decided against it in order to try and contain the energy of the ever-growing ball. "But Spell Card regulated or not, it's still gonna hurt, ze!"
"Hehe…"
This bitch!
"Don't giggle; turn your power off! I'm not gonna be able to hold this for much longer!"
"Hey, hey, what's going on?" Flandre decides to come and check things out, and oh, such timing. She'll definitely be able to help Marisa focus.
"Flandre, sorry, but you may need to get away from here, now," Marisa warns through gritted teeth, struggling to maintain control as she's at the limits of her concentration. "Don't need ya getting caught in a blast, ze!" She turns back to the fairy. "Do something, before I throw it at ya!" Despite saying this, she adds her other hand to the mix in the hopes that it will at least make her think she's able to pour more energy into keeping it stable. It seems it can act as a placebo in that way.
The fairy backs up some. "Y-you won't really do that, right?"
"I will. I promise on everything I love I'll throw it at you if ya don't do something about this."
This is no lie. Marisa would definitely throw it at her if she doesn't do anything.
The only problem is that she can't. The thing is, since Marisa's will is the only thing keeping the ball's energy in check and form constant, the moment that the ball leaves her hand the energy will flood out in an explosion that will swallow the trio of girls before they have a chance to move.
Well, that's disregarding the shockwave that will blow them away, so if by some miracle one of them manages to dodge the release of heat and light, they'll be hit with the wave of air propelled by it.
"W-well, Marisa-san…uh, my power really can't just be turned off like that…"
"…"
As the fairy fidgets, the vampire and magician are speechless. The manifestation of nature couldn't just stop her power, like most people should be able to.
Trying to keep her cool, Marisa asks, "Well, how can it be turned off?"
"It just stops over time…"
"Over time, yes, over time…well? How long are we talking?" She feels her eye twitch because of a mixture of intense concentration and frustration.
"With the amount of energy I put into your ball…maybe ten, fifteen minutes…?"
All illusions Marisa had of getting out of this without exploding are shattered.
You're telling me I have to wait that long to get my control over this ball back?
At best, she has maybe a two minutes left until her concentration snaps and their assaulted by an explosion. To be honest, though, she'd rather just take the explosion now instead of straining herself first to get the same result.
With this in mind, Marisa concedes her objective of 'stopping the explosion' and instead changes her goal to 'surviving the explosion'.
Her thinking of other things will shorten the amount of time to prepare significantly, though, so she instead proposes something to her two partners.
"Okay, since that time limit means we are most definitely going to explode, I'm going to need the two of you to think up some way to get me out of this as unharmed as possible."
Marisa boldly asks this favor of her opponents, one that their good nature wouldn't allow them to turn down, which she is grateful for. She knows that if she were in their position, she'd probably run off and let them deal with the problem on their own.
Despite their good nature, though, that does not make them geniuses. Combat geniuses, maybe, but nothing more.
"Um…"
"Uuu…what do we do…?"
Emily and Flandre both seem to be at a mental impasse despite barely taking any time to think about it, effectively dooming Marisa to explode in ninety seconds' time. Maybe this is what she gets for expecting so much of two people with such childish mindsets.
Silently cursing this situation, she says, "Okay, obviously you guys didn't think of anything…so what now? You two can leave if ya want, ze. I'm sure I can find a way out of this."
Flandre fidgets nervously. "R-really? Are you sure?" The vampire seems to definitely not be on board with Marisa making a sacrifice like that, even though she's only suggesting an option that they could have taken at any time.
"Yes, yes. Hurry it up if you're going," she urges at her needless deliberation. While she appreciates the sentiment, they really don't have time to dilly-dally around trying to think of whether they should leave. In truth, it doesn't even really matter, since this magic is Spell Card regulated. The most they'll get is a varying amount of pain.
Which she wants to avoid, obviously, so it would actually be better if the two left. Marisa thinks exceptionally well in three circumstances: in silence, in solitude, and on the fly. If they leave all three criteria will be met, albeit the first one only partially due to the hum of the magic in the ball.
"Then, don't mind if I do!"
A certain fairy's voice is a bit too eager to leave, which tweaks Marisa nerves just a bit.
However, as she follows the voice and the quickly-receding sound of flapping wings and sees the absence of said fairy, she realizes that she doesn't have the time to be irked about something like that.
"Oi! Bring your ass back here, Emily!"
Marisa yells after the fairy, beginning to move to chase her but the energy in the ball begins to fluctuate, forcing the magician into becoming stationary again lest she over-stretch her mind and blow herself away with an uncertain-but-undeniably-massive amount of force.
Gritting her teeth, she watches the fairy zoom towards the dueling Kamijou Touma and Hong Meiling, no doubt with intention to take the boy in. However, with the recent unconsciousness of Koakuma and the strange settling down of the fairies as she's noticing now, what even is the point? From what she can see, she's the only fairy left fighting right now.
…That idiot…does she not realize—!
Marisa just noticed something.
Since the fairies stopped fighting, that fairy has no reason to continue, either. Which means Marisa no longer needs to fool around with these two. All she would have to do is explain things to Emily, and then she can get to helping Kamijou deal with Meiling and get him out.
Of course, she has to take care of that ASAP, because by the looks of the male ground combatant he won't be able to manage both that Chinese youkai and emotion fairy at the same time.
With this in mind, Marisa turns to the only person that can help her with that—Flandre Scarlet—so quickly that her hat is displaced on her head. She'd reach up to fix it, but she fears if she takes off her other hand she'll blow them to hell.
"Flandre, I need ya ta do somethin' for me."
The vampire, who had only watched the fairy go off in shock, looks in surprise to the magician. "H-huh?"
Marisa skips repeating herself and goes straight on to a plan. She shortened the amount of time she has holding the ball from about forty-five seconds to twenty because of it, but if Flandre doesn't delay too long it shouldn't be a problem.
"Alright, when I say 'go', I need ya to tackle me." She motions to fairy rushing off behind her. "Preferably in her direction."
Flandre, of course, looks bewildered at the request. "But—"
"No 'buts', Flandre. I just need ya to do this for me." She doesn't wait for a response and jumps straight into action. "Alright, on three."
Flandre, not being able to argue with the serious Marisa, positions herself so that she can do everything asked of her in a straight line and swallows in nervousness.
Marisa does the same and begins the countdown.
"One, two, three, GO!"
Flandre rushes forward, almost faster than her eyes can pick up, and there is one thing she knows for certain about this plan of hers as she faces forward and awaits the impact in her defenseless side.
This is gonna hurt, ze…
"What are you up to, Sakuya?"
This was supposed to sound authoritative, but came off as weak due to the strain recent events put on Patchouli Knowledge's feeble body. With the near twenty-five minutes of constant magic-casting to keep the other fairies off of Kamijou, she was (and still is) teetering on the edge of unconsciousness.
As such, she's now leaning on the wall in the entry hall of the mansion, the cool interior bringing stark and welcome contrast to the abnormally warm day outside, though that had lessened significantly thanks to the recent cloud cover.
Not that that matters, of course, since her robes do little to release heat, rather letting the heat build up inside over time to slowly cook her, causing them to stick to her normally-unnoticeable figure because of their bagginess.
"Nothing," the maid answers, standing with her hands clasped in front of her uniform in front of the dizzy Patchouli. "I was just concerned that you would roast in this heat, so I thought bringing you inside was a good idea."
While Patchouli would like to believe her to save herself from expending more energy, she knows that she can't do that. The maid, to her knowledge, probably only just recently returned to the mansion, and given her lack of bags, it's likely she put them down in the kitchen.
Also, due to her lack of a questioning look or confusion, she seems to understand what's going on, at least to an extent. The problem here is deciphering what side she's on.
And so, the magician ignores what she said and gets straight to the point. "Are you—"
"Patchouli-sama, could I ask a favor of you?"
She's taken off guard by this. "W-what is it?"
"Could you somehow get Flandre-sama inside of the mansion, and make sure she can't come back out?" Sakuya doesn't break her expression of position by Patchouli, who by this point is starting to move unsteadily to the stairs.
"I suppose I can," Patchouli manages to get this out of her mouth as she sits down on the steps. "If you bring me my medicine." She adds this as an afterthought, despite this deserving to be in the front of her mind.
The maid nods in affirmation, and a cup of medicine appears in her hands the next moment, courtesy of her time-stop. She steps forward to hand it to Patchouli, who gladly accepts it and downs the small cupful in one go.
As she stands up, she looks at the taller maid questioningly. "Though I have to wonder why you didn't just bring her back in here herself."
Sakuya raises an eyebrow. "Are you saying you won't do it?"
Patchouli raises a brow as well because of the tone that the maid is taking with her, but she's willing to let it slide. Not like she can do much to her anyway. "No, I was just nitpicking. Give me a moment," the magician says as she floats forward, to a window to peek up at the sky.
Still overcast. Good. That makes things easier.
In order to fulfill Sakuya's request, she has to exploit one of the vampire's weaknesses—running water. And since all of the materials are present, all that she has to do is bring the water in the clouds down, and her work is done.
Fortunately, the weakness doesn't kill them immediately, but rather is extremely painful for them, so she'll be able to tell quickly and react accordingly.
Beginning to build up the magic within her, she walks past the maid and to the door, which she opens and then starts to mutter her spell to cause the storm. Faint blue light flows from her hands and flows upwards, to the clouds, and moments later the first drops start to fall.
Now all they have to do is wait.
Releasing her breath, she leaves the door open and turns to the maid. "Now, I've done your favor. What will you do next?" She asks this of the maid in a businesslike tone, something she's capable of now because of her fast-acting medicine.
Sakuya holds a hand on her chin and another over her breasts. "Well, I was thinking of dealing with the Outsider first," she turns to Patchouli as her eyes narrow, "Interpret that as you will—but now I'm thinking we should pay a visit to the Mistress."
"Remi?"
Come to think of it, she hadn't seen her outside participating in the battle (which, upon the revelation by Koakuma when she dragged a couple fairies away, was a totally pointless one). And since she wasn't there, that must mean she's still somewhere in the mansion.
"You're absolutely right," Patchouli says, as her earlier suspicions of Remilia being up to something are all but confirmed. Now all they have to find out is what. "I have a few things to speak with her about, anyway."
"Good." The maid walks up to Patchouli and grabs her hand, surprising her slightly but she resists pulling away because she knows what she's going to do.
"Well, if you'll excuse me…"
The scene before her changes in an instant and Patchouli begins to feel nauseous, causing her to grip onto the nearest thing she can use to steady herself—Sakuya. Being transported by the maid is something she'll never get used to.
Taking deep breaths to steady herself as she looks down at the ground, she hears footsteps at the end of the hallway.
Swallowing in a final attempt to calm herself, she releases Sakuya and faces forward, looking for the source of the sound.
And in front of her, covering herself with her wings and walking down the corridor with crossed arms and a shaken expression.
Sakuya wears a concerned expression on her face in response to Remilia's appearance. "Remilia-sama?"
The look of shock on her face is one of glorious proportions, as the normally charismatic vampire's eyes almost bulge out of their sockets at hearing a voice.
Looking up to face the two of them, Remilia immediately tries to recover and lets her wings return to a resting position and coughs as if to clear her throat. "S-Sakuya and Pache! What business do the two of you have here? Aren't you both supposed to be with the Outsider?"
Sakuya, too?
Upon hearing these words, Patchouli takes a moment to look to Sakuya, but it seems that the maid doesn't plan on explaining herself, so she dismisses it and begins her attack.
"We could ask the same of you, Remi," Patchouli says sternly to the vampire, throwing the concern she started to have over her obviously panicked state out of the window when her longtime friend tried to cover it up. "What are you doing in the mansion with everything going on outside?"
Remilia makes an attempt at surprise, but the panic that was present moments ago resurfaces if only a little to mingle in with the emotion. "Y-you all made it o-outside?"
The magician nods. "Yes, and we have been for the last twenty or so minutes." She steps forward towards her. "Not to mention, you split up with me even before that, so I'll ask you again, Remi: What were you doing?"
The vampire flinches at the magician's tone, but stands her ground. "I-I was looking for Koakuma, but since you all made it outside, I guess I've been roaming around for no reason…"
What's with her?
She's acting so stern with the vampire in hopes that she'll stop putting up a farce and tell them what's up, since Sakuya seems to need to know too despite her most likely getting her knowledge of the situation from Remilia, but so far there's no dice.
But if there's something that can rattle Remilia to that extent, the sooner she knows about it, the better.
So, instead of the roundabout method she's chosen, she opts for a more characteristic, direct approach.
"Okay, so that wasn't the best way to go about this…Remi, I need you to answer me honestly."
The vampire only awaits the question, so she goes on and formulates her question.
"I need you to tell me what's really going on. What has happened that's making you act like this?"
With all the seriousness she could muster over top of her default somber attitude, Patchouli asks for an answer. Seeing her friend this panicked is not something seen every day here at the mansion, nor something that she really ever wants to see. And, if she can, she'd like to help her get through it, despite her tiredness. For anyone else this action would be uncharacteristic, but when it comes to her best friend, she would go through a lot.
Remilia, however, doesn't seem to want to cooperate.
Gripping onto her clothes so hard that her knuckles turn white, she says, "N-nothing, Pache. Don't worry about it, okay?"
Scowling at the poor attempt to assuage her, the magician opens her mouth to rebut, but before she can do so she's interrupted.
"Mistress, please. I can't do my job properly if you don't tell me anything."
Sakuya asks this sincerely of her mistress, with her clasped hands visibly tightening at her terrible attempt to mask her uneasiness, and Remilia looks shocked that Sakuya inquired as well.
However, her expression turns half-heartedly sour, as if she were trying too hard to appear as such. "W-what does this have to do with what I asked of you?"
"Nothing, mistress. I am only concerned," Sakuya answers almost immediately, so quickly that Patchouli doesn't think anything of Remilia's question until moments later.
"Wait, Sakuya: what did she ask you to do," the magician asks guardedly though there isn't much need to be so cautious, if Sakuya is there with them now.
But then again, she treats time and space as her plaything on the regular…
Maybe her being cautious isn't unreasonable after all.
As she asks this question, Remilia begins to fidget and averts her gaze from Patchouli's, furthering the magician's suspicions as she looks to Sakuya to answer.
After what seems to be a small internal debate within herself, Sakuya answers. "I was ordered to kill that Outside human."
Out came that straightforward answer, and the bluntness at which it was told put Remilia on guard, while the content garnered a similar reaction from Patchouli.
"Remi."
The vampire flinches, but doesn't answer.
"Remi," the purplette repeats sterner than before, causing the bluenette too flinch again, but slowly turn her gaze toward her.
"Y-yeah?"
"Didn't we go over this in the library? How this was all an unfortunate accident and that you would stop pursuing him?"
Slowly, but surely, the vampire nods, which is both the right answer and the wrong one at the same time.
It's right because it goes along with the hard fact that they went over all that Patchouli just described and then some.
However, that wordless answer is also horribly, almost repulsively wrong coming from that vampire.
Remilia's normal prideful, charismatic, and noble try-hard attitude would have her responding with at least some form of argument, which will end up deteriorating into her throwing a tantrum and abusing her status to get what she wants, but none of that has happened since the library, and even then it was a surprisingly weak effort on her part. Now the girl has been reduced to a jumpy, meek mess, in almost a long-standing state of her signature Charisma Break.
However, skirting around the problem just because Remilia's in a bit of a funk isn't how Patchouli does things. As such, she presses further.
"Then tell me, Remi, just why did you send Sakuya after him? Surely not because you were experiencing a very minor case of embarrassment, right?"
The response Patchouli is expecting isn't an affirmative, so when Remilia, instead of reacting like the magician hit the nail on the head, merely looked unsure to the side again, the purplette feels the urge to sigh in relief, since it seems they're finally reaching the heart of this incident.
The magician, in one of her rare shows of sincere compassion, walks toward the vampire and kneels down to look her in the eye (which really isn't very much of a trip for Patchouli, what with her short stature).
"Remi, I need you to answer me thoroughly and honestly: What's really going on?"
Remilia fidgets and averts her eyes again, which slightly irritates the magician, but after a few moments she seems to steel herself, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath and opening the scarlet orbs up without a trace of hesitation left in them.
"O-Okay, I'll tell you…but you have to promise not to freak out, okay?" The vampire sticks out her pinky finger uncomfortably, requesting for a physical ritual along with the lines.
Really? A promise? She really is a kid at heart…
Sighing, the magician stands back up and wraps her pinky around the bluenette's. "I promise."
She releases the hold and then turns to Sakuya, who was standing dutifully in her position and waiting for the two best friends to finish their business and says, "You too, Sakuya."
Nodding, the silver-haired maid steps forward and performs the ritual while on eye level with the vampire. "Of course, Mistress."
As those two release the hold, Remilia looks hard at the two of them and seems unconsciously to cover herself with her wings again.
"Okay…I saw…"
"Gh—"
All breath leaves Kirisame Marisa's lungs as a mentally unstable vampire rams her in her side, her arms outstretched to wrap around the gold-eyed blonde's torso. The vampire can be excused for this since she doesn't have much experience in exercising restraint, but it still hurt like hell regardless.
But that's not all.
There is also the presence of an ever-growing ball of magical energy, and a rapidly fluctuating one at that, courtesy of a fairy maid by the name of Emily Euphoria. She infused the ball of energy Marisa had planned to use to nuke her with her own magic, making the magic get all wonky and unruly and threaten to nuke not only that fairy, but Marisa and Flandre as well.
Well, that is, until Emily ran off to go and capture Kamijou yet again.
The unstable ball of energy was growing in size and destructiveness in Marisa's hands, the growth being somewhat managed by Marisa's now-stretched willpower. She kept it contained for as long as she could, and when she felt her concentration start to dwindle, she came up with a plan not only to stop Emily, but to reduce the amount of damage she would take from the ball.
That brings us to the flying tackle by Flandre Scarlet, and the loss of breath from Kirisame Marisa.
But, since all good things come in threes, right before she gets tackled Marisa releases her right hand's hold on the ball and throws her left one around behind Flandre so that it ends up right where Flandre was a moment ago.
As soon as she releases the ball, the energy is released from Marisa's hold and the sphere loses its shape. Explosively.
There's a bright light, a barely bearable heat, a loud booming.
But most importantly, there's a shockwave.
'BOOM!'
"WAA!"
"HOLY S—!"
Being tackled by Flandre was probably going to make them move extremely fast, if the breath-taking contact was any indication, but this…this is another matter entirely.
Feeling the wind rushing past her face and whipping her hair into a frenzy, Marisa struggles through aching ribs and watering eyes to look at their intended target: Emily Euphoria.
The fairy, thankfully not having that much of a head start on them is quickly coming within range of an attack by either Marisa or Flandre, and Marisa pushes away from Flandre and attempts to right herself and her broom so she can properly strike.
Oi oi oi, this can't be happenin'…
The fairy, Kamijou and China, and the wall of the mansion beyond them are coming up really fast.
And Marisa has lost her broom, and by extension, her only means of keeping herself aloft.
"Oh shit oh shit oh shit ohshitohshitohshit OH SHIT!"
The witch turns around towards the only hope she has of stopping her fall.
"Oi, Flandre! Help me out here!" Damn, why did I even force myself out of her grip?
The vampire floats there, looking dazed and bewildered. "B-but you just let go of me…"
She groans. "Look, I thought I still had my broom then, alright? Just get over her—"
Marisa cuts herself off as she catches sight of her broom, falling to the ground now that it's not supporting its owner.
However, something else catches her eye, something with just as much importance to her as her broom and hakkero.
There, in all of its fiery glory, is her hat.
"Oh, hell no." She focuses again on Flandre. "Flandre, change of plans—go save my hat!"
"H-huh? Your hat?"
"Yes, my hat! Just go!" She points toward it as she flies, and before the scarlet-eyed vampire can respond, Marisa turns to face where she's going. And when her ball-o'-doom escape plan's objective comes into her vision, a fire grows inside of her chest that she needs to vent out.
And Emily Euphoria, the one responsible for this mess in the first place, is not only the target for her plan, but now the target for her emotions as well. How unfortunate for her.
"You…"
Ignoring the wind tearing at her clothes and features, she focuses on the fairy with a danger-filled gaze and reaches for her hakkero.
She holds it forward with two intentions.
One: to slow her fall.
Two: to blast that infernal avatar of nature to oblivion.
A whirring sound comes from the magical item and light begins to grow in the hakkero, visible to Marisa even though it's facing away from her. She opens her mouth to call the attack.
"MASTER SPARK!"
She feels the usual resistance in her arms as the immense laser propels itself directly at the fairy, moving so fast that she Marisa doesn't even see her move to react to the beam as it closes in on her, but she doesn't find this enough. She pushes forward with her arms to counteract the resistance, and then pours even more of her magic into the hakkero, increasing the output and closing the distance to the fairy almost immediately.
She didn't even have time to make a sound as the fairy's frail body is vaporized by the non-Spell Card regulated laser, and it's likely that the fairy, what with what she's seen of her unnatural resurrection speed, is being killed as soon as she resurrects, over and over.
If this were an actual person, Marisa's emotions would range from remorse to downright disgust with herself, but since it's a fairy and they're damned-near immortal, she could care less.
Well, if the fairy were an older one, she would end up feeling something, since the older a fairy gets the more they come to understand what dying really is, but with how much Emily's died since she's been in the courtyard, she's ruled that out as a possibility.
And as the fairy is vaporized completely and Marisa keeps the laser going to do so, she begins to feel herself slow down, lessening the stress on her arms because of it. In a few seconds, she'll need to point the beam downward to make sure she doesn't begin to fly the opposite way.
Wait…
Something has pushed forward into her mind; something she neglected to think about in her attack on the fairy.
She was heading right toward Kamijou and China, right?
She finally takes notice of a sound over the loud hum of the laser.
The fire in her heart turns into a sinking feeling in her gut, and that's not just because of her slowdown from breakneck speed.
"Oh, you've gotta be kiddin' me, ze."
Sighing, Marisa stops the laser and lets herself fall towards the wall of the mansion at a much more comfortable speed than before. In fact, it's slow enough that she can stop it with a simple, non-hakkero enhanced laser, no sweat.
However, she does have to sweat nervously over seeing what was causing the noise that she heard over the Master Spark.
She's holding back.
He can tell this with absolute certainty.
The fact that she's not attacking in the openings his technique leaves and letting him almost graze her with attacks despite her obvious skill in martial arts is a tell-tale sign of this.
And while it does frustrate him a great deal that she's not taking him seriously and fighting on his level, he still greatly appreciates the chance she's giving him. This shows Kamijou Touma that the Chinese youkai really is only fighting him because she was ordered to and not because she wants to.
In a way, this shows him just how kind the youkai called Hong Meiling is.
This just makes him want to ensure she can smile after all of this is over even more.
However, there are more pressing matters at hand.
And that would be that, despite the fact that Meiling is matching herself with his skill level, she still is fighting him. And, given the appropriate and obvious advantage, she will follow through with her order.
With this in mind, he pushes through his fatigue and pain and continues to do his best against her, but slowly she's gaining the upper hand.
Perhaps it's due to how much he's straying from his usual right-hand-centric beat-down method, thanks to the wrist sprain that Marisa unintentionally gave him.
As of now, his right hand is being used only to—actually, it might be better to just see it instead.
Kamijou leans back to dodge a roundhouse kick from Meiling, the attack nearly taking off his nose as it comes inches away from his face, and as her foot returns to the ground he takes the chance to step forward and send his fist forward towards her head.
However, just before it reaches her, both of her feet leave the ground, the girl tucking her body in the air with rainbow-colored light shrouding her boot-covered feet.
Thinking quickly, Kamijou redirects his left fist to hit her body rather than her head and brings up his right hand from his side to knock her feet to the side so that they can't hit him.
The light on her feet dissipates immediately as Kamijou grits his teeth from the contact between then Imagine Breaker and the Chinese youkai's feet, a look of surprise coming across her face as he redirects the physical portion of her dropkick and negates the magical portion. His left fist makes successful contact with her torso, causing Meiling to gasp as the force sends her into the ground.
Kamijou moves forward for a follow-up, but before he can reach down to attack again…
"ACK!"
A force drives the air from his lungs as he's sent flying, his body tumbling over the stones of the courtyard.
He uses the momentum of the blow to roll into a kneeling position facing Meiling, and he sees her rising from the ground clutching her side where he hit her.
He takes a few pained breaths, his chest sore from whatever the hell Meiling hit him with, and he rises to his feet. He attempts to clench his right hand like he normally does to steel himself, but upon being reminded of his injury with the intense pain that came in response, he instead switches to his left.
The two of them stop and look at each other separated by many meters of distance between them, appearing to size the other up.
"You know, Kamijou-kun, you're a lot better at fighting than I first thought," Meiling calls over, complimenting the boy while once again standing up straight and cocking a hip to the side in a very distracting manner.
"Thanks, I guess," he responds with much more difficulty than the youkai, her appearing to recover immediately with the casual tone and stance she's taking. "I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed that I've gotten so good at it, though…"
"No thanks required," she says while raising a hand to dismiss his thanks. "I was just making an observation. "But tell me: what's up with that right hand of yours?"
Keeping his mouth shut, he considers what it's okay to tell her, or if he should even tell her at all. For all he knows, if he tells her what the deal with his right hand is she'll pull out some crazy attack that his hand has no hope of withstanding.
Maybe if she asks again after this is over, he'll tell her.
"Actually, don't worry about it," she says as she readies herself in a fighting stance again. "Shouldn't be telling your enemies your weaknesses, right?"
Silently, he agrees with her and readies himself as well, his right hand limp at his side.
"Here we go then!"
Meiling raises her leg up and bends her knee at ninety degrees, and bright yellow light glows at the bottom of her foot.
Kamijou rushes forward, determined to strike before she can get her own attack off.
She brings her foot down with a powerful stomp, and a person-sized wave of energy follows the stomp, moving towards him at a nightmarish speed. It's all he can to raise his right hand despite the pain to meet the magical attack, and with a crash the wall dissipates.
However, while he was able to react to that attack, he could not react to the next one.
The Chinese youkai comes in his vision as the wave dissipates, and she seizes his outstretched right hand with her own and uses his forward momentum to drive him to the ground.
Kamijou yelps at the sudden attack and feels weight on the small of his back as his arm is twisted at an odd angle behind him.
"Ghk…gah…"
Kamijou lets out small whimpers as he struggles against the youkai gatekeeper's stable hold and the ever-worsening pain in his already-injured wrist.
"Now, this was fun and all, Kamijou-kun, but I'm afraid I've dilly-dallied long enough."
Her voice went from the laid-back tone he originally heard her with to a very businesslike one, sounding strangely cold in contrast to the slightly friendly one he had come to attribute with her.
Kamijou feels the train approaching him in that tunnel start to close in.
"But remember that I'm not doing this because I want to. At least you can take refuge in that fact."
Can I really take refuge in that?
The human boy thinks this sarcastically and focuses through the pain to look for something to get himself out of this situation.
But in a well-kept courtyard like this, he doubts that there would be an item conveniently lying around for him to use.
Dammit…
Despite this, though, he continues to search, and finds his answer not on the ground like he was expecting, but in the sky.
'BOOM!'
An explosion goes off in the air on the other side of the courtyard, a swirling mass of bright yellow and orange is enveloping the sky.
And coming from the direction of the explosion at nightmarish speeds are three figures.
One he recognizes as the fairy that attacked him here in the courtyard earlier.
The other two, however, are people that he is far more friendly and familiar with, despite their recent meeting.
Is that…Marisa-san? And Flandre-chan?
Now the train has noticed him and is making an effort to slow down.
The thing is, though, is that the three bodies are coming their way.
From the sharp intake of breath he hears, it's clear Meiling has seen and heard this as well.
However, his hopes of that sight making her stop are dashed when Meiling tightens her grip on his hand and presses down on him harder, making it more difficult for him to breathe.
"—!" He can't even make a sound, thanks to the sudden increase in intensity.
"Well this is a problem…"
For you, maybe!
Kamijou renews his struggle and even takes his left hand and pinching the closest area on her body that he can reach: her calf muscle.
"Ow ow ow! Stop that!"
"BWAH?!"
Kamijou lets out another squeal of pain as she twists his arm again and pins his left arm against the ground with her knee, sending pain through his forearm.
By this point the pain in his wrist is blinding, and he'd be surprised if he would even be capable of moving it after this is over, assuming things go his way.
As such, he looks up towards the approaching fairy and the magician/vampire duo quickly closing in on her.
Well, that's wrong, because it's now only a magician, as Marisa seems to have pulled away from the vampire, the problem with that being that she doesn't have her broom with her. Or her hat, for that matter, which makes her look less of a cute witch and more like just a cute cosplayer instead.
The duo exchanges a few words in Marisa's flight, until Flandre flies back towards the aftermath of the explosion for some reason and the witch faces forward, focusing on the fairy in front of her.
Then she reaches under her skirt.
And pulls out her hakkero.
"Oh no."
Kamijou knows what's coming next. And he can't help but utter these words despite the pain wracking his upper body.
She sees the witch girl opening her mouth and pointing the magical item toward the fairy maid.
Adrenaline starts pumping through Kamijou's body, and he finds the strength within himself to resume his struggle once again. Forcing his legs up to their knees, he pushes up on Meiling's weight, making her yelp in surprise and then he forces his upper body up, freeing his left hand which he uses to push himself up further.
"GAAHHH!"
However, the pain in his hand still remains through all of this, and he almost lost his balance when Meiling tightened her grip on his hand.
Regardless of that, as Kamijou gets up into a crouching position, he rams his elbow into the Chinese youkai's side repeatedly, but she pushes through that blunt assault and wraps her legs around his torso to keep her grip on him.
What surprised him the most, though, is the fact that she let go of his hand and shifted her hold to other areas.
"—!"
While his hand was allowed its freedom by its captor, his neck quickly found itself restrained powerfully in between Meiling's arms and her chest, making breathing a chore.
"MASTER SPARK!"
He hears this called out despite the girl's distance from him, and a moment later the ultra-powerful laser flies out of the hakkero.
But that's not all.
The fairy that is in its way doesn't even seem to notice it, as she continues to fly in his direction with a wild grin on her face.
"W-Watch out!"
He manages to rasp this out not nearly loud enough through the crushing pressure on his throat and the loud hum of the laser, and his warning goes unnoticed.
He watches this fairy get vaporized by the laser and instantly gets a bad taste in his mouth, despite watching her revive countless times while fighting against Flandre. Death is just something Kamijou firmly believes should be avoided until it's truly time to go, and even then you give Death trouble when he comes to take you. He doesn't remember if this sentiment was gained during his struggle against Othinus or if he thought this way beforehand, but that doesn't matter.
Gritting his teeth and struggling to breathe, he watches the laser grow nearer to him.
And he puts his right hand out to meet it.
His screams are drowned out by the hum of the laser.
Sound assaulted her ears.
A bright light assaulted her vision.
As Koakuma opens her eyes, she realizes that what she's seeing and hearing is something she's seen before. And even if she hadn't, she has heard enough about it to know what it is.
"The…Master Spark…?"
She tries to sit up and puts a hand to her head, wondering what happened to her as she massages a bruise on her temple.
As she looks at her surroundings, she sees Abby and Caitlyn collapsed on the ground near her, with knives sticking point-down into the ground, beside where her head was existing a similar one.
"So this was Sakuya-san's doing…"
Groaning, the little devil pushes herself off of the ground and looks up, trying to determine who the magician named Kirisame Marisa is firing at, as well as her location.
Tracing the beam to one end, she sees Marisa without her broom or hat firing it off, presumably using it to keep aloft in the absence of her magical item.
In the middle, she sees a constantly-recreating flicker in it in the shape of a body…a fairy, maybe?
And at the end of it…well, she can't see what she's firing at, in all honesty.
She begins to drift toward Marisa, and seconds before she reaches her she stops the beam and continues to drift forward and down toward the ground, looking directly at where she was firing.
Koakuma follows the gaze and sees two things.
One is the orange wisp that is a fairy's life energy drifting in the air, which slowly gives way to a new fairy body entirely.
E-Emily?
And the second is Kamijou Touma, with the gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion clinging to his back. It seems that she has her legs locked around his waist and her arms around his neck, which cannot be comfortable for him with her weight and strength. This is confirmed by how he's grasping at her arm with his left hand, and his right hand is forward after blocking that massive laser.
Kamijou-kun?!
His grasping at her arm looks to be getting feebler and feebler, but his fight doesn't end there, since he yanks his left arm back and reaches behind him, and whatever he did makes her jump and release him immediately.
She hears the hum of another laser to her left, and she turns to see Marisa pointing her palms downward with a blue laser coming out of each one, using that to lower herself into the ground.
Koakuma follows her down at a distance, careful not to startle her since she had a strange expression on her face as she went down.
Upon returning to the ground, Koakuma clears her throat, catching the attention of the magician as she whirls around to face her.
"Oh, Koakuma. You're awake," Marisa says with a distressed expression, looking at Kamijou and Meiling in the distance, and the revived fairy looking at her surroundings, notably at the area behind Koakuma and Marisa by the entrance where the mass of recovering fairies are.
"That I am."
The fairy floats slowly toward the mass of fairies with a troubled expression, where she starts talking hurriedly with the closest one to get answers.
"So? What do ya want," she asks grouchily. "'Cause unless you're gonna help me out here, I don't see what ya would be doin' here with me."
Sighing, Koakuma answers her. "Nothing really. I just want to know what happened while I was out."
Groaning, Marisa says, "Well, Kamijou started fightin' with Meiling there, Sakuya dragged Patchouli inside for somethin'—probably a threesome with that loli mistress of theirs, and Emily tried ta blow the me and Flandre out of the sky." The magician points toward their left, where they see Flandre flying toward them with a cone-shaped object in her hand.
One look at Marisa's head tells her what it is, but a single, anger-filled look from her tells Koakuma not to say anything about it.
"God dammit, she couldn't even have the insight ta bring my broom, too?"
Marisa scratches her head in frustration and attempts to fix up her hair a little, semi-calmly awaiting the junior vampire's arrival.
In this time, Koakuma realizes something the girl said in her explanation.
Wait, a th-threesome?
Perhaps because of her species, her mind immediate jumps to fantasies instead of questioning the thought processes of the human vampire.
"Hey, hey, Marisa! I got your hat!"
Flandre extends the…charred hat to Marisa after landing, and it's clear the state of the hat is not something she wanted to see, what with how she takes it gingerly and glares at Emily.
"I'm gonna kill her."
"You can try," Koakuma says, and looks towards Kamijou, who is speaking in a guarded manner to Meiling about something; only the Dragon (and maybe Yakumo Yukari) knows what.
And, upon looking at him, she feels that same feeling from earlier rise in her chest, but she forces it down.
Just focus on getting him out of here. Nothing else.
Taking a deep breath, she says "I'm going to go help Kamijou, Marisa-san. What will you—"
Koakuma stops short of her question as she feels something small and wet hit her nose.
Rain…
She looks up to the cloudy sky, wondering where the sunny skies from earlier today went.
She holds a hand out to feel for more raindrops, but before she can do that she jumps in surprise.
"AAHHH!"
Whipping her head around, her eyes fall upon Flandre Scarlet writhing on the ground for some reason.
Rushing forward, Koakuma takes to Flandre's side, with Marisa not too far behind.
"Oi, Flandre! What's up with you?!"
"What's wrong, Flandre-sama?"
The vampire continues to writhe on the ground, her body seizing up and tears beginning to fall from her eyes. "The rain," she says through sobs. "The rain! Make it stop!"
A look of horrified understanding comes across Koakuma and Marisa's faces, and the two of them take quick action.
Koakuma stretches her wings to block as much of the now-full-on torrent of rain as she can, and Marisa holds out her hands and begins muttering something, a bright white light coming from her hands and enveloping the small vampire.
Within seconds, the vampire's agonized wails give way to only sobs.
When the light dies down, the girl has her eyes squeezed shut and the rain appears to evaporate before it touches her skin.
"W-what did you do," Flandre asks in confusion as she sits up with her eyes still shut. "I can still hear the rain, but I can't feel it…"
Swallowing, Marisa begins to answer. "I cast a spell that makes the rain evaporate before it touches you. Everything's al—"
Flandre slowly opens her eyes…and her face morphs again into one of pure terror.
The scream that followed made her blood run cold.
She reaches out to comfort the vampire, but before she can get there the vampire disappears in a blur. She could barely follow the girl's motion back to the mansion with her eyes.
"Flandre!"
Marisa, surprisingly, jumps into action before Koakuma does, sprinting after the vampire at a speed that looks almost as fast as when she's on her broom, even if it's only a trick of the mind.
S-so fast…
Koakuma wonders if she should go after her, or if the two of them are needed to placate the vampire, and concludes that just one of them would be alright, even if Koakuma wants to be the one calming her rather than the magician.
She grimaces, and turns to what she was trying to tell Marisa she would do before the rain started: Kamijou Touma and Hong Meiling.
It seems the two of them have resumed their conflict, but Kamijou's on the extreme defensive, dodging the Chinese youkai's attacks with a skill you would only see from a professional fighter. And as far as she can tell, Kamijou isn't a professional at anything.
But regardless of that, he can only dodge and defend for so long before he slips up.
So the little devil will have to do something.
With this in mind, she moves to aid the human boy.
[1]: You'll see this in the fighting games. Or at least in Hisoutensoku, Hopeless Masquerade, and Urban Legend in Limbo. I haven't gone through the decks in Scarlet Weather Rhapsody or Immaterial and Missing Power, so I don't know about its existence there.
[2]: Eh. Long story short (dunno if this is a spoiler or not), but Komachi and Yukari wipe the floor with Tenshi in SWR. And when Tenshi goes into her rematch chain in her story, Komachi and Yukari are among those not rematched, which to me implies that Tenshi was already fighting seriously in their scenarios and still got beat. So yeah. Komachi and Yukari are strong. Very much so.
A/N: So yeah, that's a wrap. And boy, am I glad it is, because this chapter gave me hell. From the part with Remilia onward I had to rewrite at least three times because it didn't turn out the way I wanted to, and even now I think this is just the closest I'm going to get to satisfaction. I had to play around with POV too, with Remilia's scene being from her POV and the Meiling v Kamijou exchange being from the Chinese youkai's POV, but this is what I settled on. At least next chapter we'll be able to see things from the elder vampire's POV.
*spits in order to rid self of bad taste*
Okay, well in all honesty, things are just going to get abysmal from here. May the Dragon and the Magic Gods have mercy on them all.
A couple more things before I leave you all alone: it turns out that, much like ZUN, Kamachi is taking a little hiatus as well. So don't expect another novel until maybe December, and don't expect another game until around that same time. It's sad, I know, but it's a fact of life. Check the blog on the Toaru wiki if you need a source.
Another thing is that Miki-san, one of Kamachi's editors, said that a Season 3 is still "possible to make" on Twitter. Keep in mind that this is an unofficial statement, so please don't get your hopes up.
To quote the post: "Please understand that this is an unofficial statement. I am always receiving everyone's passionate opinions on this. Index anime [season 3] is plausible, so please wait!"
Again, if you want a source, check either the Toaru blog or Anime News Network.
Well, that's all I have to say here. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.
Leave a review and such, and I'll see you all next chapter.