Chapter 11: Fury
Italics: character thoughts
Chen slowly reached for the handle of the door. With a quick pull, she opened the door slightly. The girl was sitting on the floor, her head in a load of papers. She wasn't paying attention. She had really black hair with a weird tail thing covered in a bandage resting on the floor. Well, here we go!
With a sharp inhale, burst through the door.
"Hey, why are you in our house!?" she yelled, making the girl jump near through the roof of the room.
"The hell?!" she staggered to her feet and backed away, clearing struggling to piece together a response.
"Just because Lady Ran and Lady Yukari aren't here doesn't mean that no one's here! Why are you in our house?" Chen questioned, flailing her arms wildly.
"Y-Yuk-?! That name...I snuck into that b**th's house?! Of all the empty places, why her's?!" the girl forced out.
"Hey, what's your name? I gotta tell Lady Yukari it later."
"No, not if I can help it." the girl growled, crouching down.
Her tail stabbed into a suddenly formed black hole, before a much larger one appeared as a black tendril burst out of it. Chen instinctively dunked as she saw it move, the construct lunging at her, missing her by a hair. Her cap wasn't as lucky, stabbed by the spike and impaled onto the floor.
"WAH?! Stop! That could have hit me!" she cried dodging to the left as the tendril whipped around, slamming into the floor.
The wooden floor cracked from the force of the strike, before the shadow slid along the ground, tearing up wood and knocking Chen into the wall. It reared up, aiming at the winded cat. Chen shook her head just in time to jump to the side, the spike punching a hole in the wall. The girl was standing by the door, grinning, a dark magic aura wisping around her hand as her tail had snaked into a different portal when Chen was distracted. She couldn't get out that way now. She was in trouble. The mean girl was fighting for real. Ran always told her not to fight too seriously...but she was in danger. Light leaked in through the hole, a small circle on the construct releasing mist as the light cut into it. Maybe it didn't like light?
Chen inhaled as the tendril readied itself. Okay, plan time, make light, go cat mode and run, really fast. Perfect. Chen held up her hand, magic pooling in it. The girl was unfazed. She kept charging it more and more, and as the readied to stab, she threw it full force at the ground. It exploded in a flash of pure light, blinding her, and the girl, who let out a loud scream. Chen quickly changed, shrinking and morphing into her twin tailed nekomata form and ran to the hole in the wall. She leapt through it as the light faded, the girl noticing her absence. Chen didn't care where she was running, she just needed to run, fast-AHHH!
Chen let out a pained meow as she was blasted forward, her left hind leg suddenly experiencing a searing pain. She glanced back as she rolled to her feet, spotting the girls hand sticking out of the hole. She had shot her with something, payback for the blinding most likely. Chen ducked into a bush as she curled around to examine her leg. Her fur had burned off, and her skin was a red/black burn. The pain was terrible.
I have to keep going…
She jumped to another bush before escaping into the tree line, dragging her burn leg. It hurt, so much...but that girl could still be after her, she needs to run…
Eientei
"Alice!" Marisa yelled, rushing over.
"Marisa?" Clownpiece wasn't expecting her to be here.
"Clown, wat happened? Who did thiz?" she turned to the fairy, clearing not happy.
"Ehhh, I don't know, she showed up at the shrine like this. Well, it's worse than when she showed up at first, but, err, I don't know!" Clownpiece explained, glancing at Alice.
"It's vampiric poisoning." Eirin ran back into the room, carrying several items "She has been infected with vampire blood and it's destroying her blood and cells to replicate itself. I need to slow it down until Mokou gets back with the report in the Scarlet's."
Eirin dumped all the materials onto her desk and began working, glancing at the two after a second.
"Fairy, could you go find Kaguya and ask her to come here? Marisa, deal with Aya."
"Wat? Wat you mea' deal with Aya?" she turned to find Aya standing by the door.
"I am feeling better now, I going to go write about the pillar thief." she announced, wobbling on her feet.
"Haa, come her tengu. Bac' to bed." Marisa grabbed Aya and dragged her away, before looking back "Ya better help Alice Eirin…" she whispered.
"Who's Kaguya?" Clownpiece asked.
"The only non rabbit in the building currently here."
"Okay, no ears then." she walked out, Eirin sighing as she drew out a syringe of iodine and stabbed it into the misty mixture.
Mokou, you better hurry.
Outside Scarlet Devil Manor
Mokou spotted the large mansion coming into view, spinning in the air before landing in the tree line nearby, sliding along the dirt, flames scorching it slightly. She sprinted up to the gate, Meiling standing up fully from her relaxed leaning on the gate as she reached her.
"No time, move." Meiling barely had time to register what Mokou said before she blocked a fiery roundhouse kick, the flames from the kick licking her exposed arm skin.
The force made her flinch and step back, but not enough to falter. She recovered within a second and returned a backhanded strike to Mokou, which didn't really make her move, just stare.
"I said no time, I need something quickly."
"Then explain instead of attempting to bat me away!" Meiling paced up to her, standing half a head over her.
"Some report on vampires, Eirin needs it now, or some girl's gonna die." Mokou spat before kicking the lock on the gate, the inbuilt mechanism bending and shattering from the strain.
The gate flew open, Mokou running in. Meiling was left stunned, rapidly swapping between the destroyed gate and Mokou.
"Wh-...Bu-...Thanks for f'ing the lock!" Meiling yelled after her.
Mokou elbowed the front door, the latch snapping from the shove. She wandered into the front of the mansion and looked around. Now then, where would the report be? Library? They've a library here right? That mage girl lives in it. Good enough start and that's a knife.
Mokou jerked her head as a silvery knife cut her cheek, a small trickle of blood leaking from it. Probably the maid...she must be-
Her thought was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a knife at her throat, Sakuya behind her.
"I heard metal break, then arrive to our front entrance breached. Care to explain?" she asked, knife near slicing her neck.
"Simple, Eirin needs some report on vampires you have, some cure is in it. We need it fast, no time for excessive talking." Mokou said, grabbing the knife, the blade slicing into her hand as she removed it.
"Well, a bit of explaining would go a long way to avoid all of these delays you're making for yourself." Sakuya retorted, pulling the knife free from Mokou's hand.
"Okay, yeah, I get it, but I need that report."
"Come with me." she grabbed Mokou.
Why did she just-? The next thing she knew, she was standing in front of a large door, the world spinning. She shook her head. Time stuff most likely. As she recovered, Sakuya opened the door, exposing the meeting between Remilia, Patchouli and Reisen. Flandre was staring into the middle distance. The immortal flicked her wrist, a single flame spawning before popping like a firecracker. That drew everyone's attention.
"Hey everyone, sorry to crash the party, but I need something."
"M-Mokou!? Why are you here?" Reisen asked, frowning.
"Simple. Is there a vampire report thing here?" Patchouli held up a bunch of stapled pages "Outstanding Eirin needs in now. Right now."
"What happened?" Remilia leaned back in her chair, curious.
"Some blond girl showed up with some nasty looking skin problem and well, she got poisoned by vampire blood or something. That has a cure." she pointed at the papers.
"Wha-?! I need to go then! Sorry!" Reisen jumped to her feet "Master might need help!"
"She'll be fine, it's Eirin. She also has a fairy helping."
"Okay, Reisen I think you should go then before someone dies." Patchouli commented.
Reisen nodded before grabbed the report and sprinting out.
"Message delivered, bye." a hand stopped her by grabbed her shoulder.
"Not yet, first we need to discuss the gate and door." Sakuya warned.
"And my arm." Meiling walked into view, a small burn on her arm.
"What did you do?" Remilia stood and paced over.
"Well, she burnt me, messed the gates lock up and broke the front door latch." Meiling counted off.
"I was in a rush, it was serious."
"Still could've said 'hey, this is reason, please move'. I'm not an immovable object and unreasonable prick. I let Keine in for her short visit." Meiling complained.
"Oh, so she came here, wondered where she'd gotten to…"
"Patchy, go find Reimu with Flan. I need to talk to are little fire storm here."
"Got it." Patchouli grabbed Flandre's hand and dragged her out, the blond staining her neck to continue watching.
Human village
Keine walked through the front gate, sighing. She'd talked to Reimu, gotten some details and now needed to deal with the little problem of telling everyone about the loose blood. Everyone, who so happen to freak out a small rumor. Everyone, who is scared witless of the vampires. Everyone, who is gathered around the school? Keine marched over to the crowd, catching small pieces of the conversation.
"...asked to stay." "...infected…" "...fairies...immune…" "Go…"
Keine forced her way into the crowd to find...the three fairies of light, surrounded.
"But what happens if you can spread it even if you can't be infected by it?" a man asked.
"I don't think that's how diseases work…" Luna whispered.
"We can't trust that, your a fairy, you could have forgotten something!"
"Hey, Luna knows the most of us three. If she says it doesn't do that, it doesn't!" Sunny argued back.
Keine stepped into view, the argument stalling at her appearance.
"Care to explain?"
"Miss Kamishirasawa?" she responded with a raised eyebrow "Eh, these fairies brought the puppet girl from the forest into the village because she was suffering from some disease. The guide told them to wait here for you, but well...if they were carrying her, they might have the disease too and-"
"Okay, that's enough. You three come with me." she ordered, parting the crowd.
The three flew over the group as the humans moved for Keine. Worry was etched on their faces. Want had Alice caught to cause this reaction? Well, a few questions will answer that. And Mokou wanted to speak with her too, odd. She lead them towards her office, a quiet place for a questions-.
A loud crash made the fairies flinch and Keine grimace. What was that…
She turned and marched over to the sound and opened the nearby classroom door, dumbfounded by the sight. A crackling shadowy hole was square in the middle of the blackboard, and the desks had been knocked over by someone. The black haired someone rose up, a shard of wood stuck a horn.
"Hey asshole, stop throwing me through portals!" Seija yelled at the hole, eye twitching.
Seija than turned slightly to spot the four, all staring.
"Oh f**k…"
"SWEAR!" Star cried, face twisted in horror.
"INDECENT!" Luna added covering her eyes seeing Seija's shirt.
"It's the mean girl who ate the cookie Sanae gave me!" Sunny accused.
After the three yelled their respective crys, Keine quickly grabbed Seija collar before she could move.
"Okay, care to explain why you're in the village? Destroying my classroom? With a hole in her shirt, after being banned from coming anywhere near here?" Keine berated, Seija giving a smile.
"Fun fact teach, didn't want to be here, but the Gap b**th's fox is dragging me around along with the help of a wolf." Seija spat back.
"SWEAR!"
"And what do you mean by that?"
"The fox wants to find a youkai called Kageshō who stole a little blood and made a holy vampire. You'll never guess who though." Seija teased.
"Reimu…" Keine breathed.
Seija looked stunned for a second.
"YYYYYeah...was that a good guess or...?"
"Kage...where did I hear that…" Sunny mused, straining her brain as the name sparked a glimpse of something in her head.
"The blond girl was saying it when the white haired girl was checking on her." Luna chimed in.
"Really? I'd like to hear about that, if I could." the five all turned to see Ran standing in the doorway, Kagerou peeking in from behind her.
Base of Youkai mountain
Just off a worn down and unmaintained path, a green haired girl sat on a patch of grass. Sanae's eyes scanned the sky, the clear blue uninterrupted by clouds save one that seemed to cling to the mountain's summit. So a normal clear day. She sighed as the wind picked up, a chill whipping around her. She had just gotten a message from Rinnosuke that his computer was 'doing the blue thing again' and he asked her to fix it. The main problems were thought that the message was from a week ago, having been shoved into the donation box and she'd just emptied it and found it...and she didn't know how to fix a computer blue screening. It could be loads of things. It was at least 15 years old, using Windows vista. An old version of vista to boot. He only used it to catalogue stuff with notepad, why couldn't he just...I don't know, make a list? He was using a diesel portable generator to power the thing how is a pen and paper less convenient?! She shook her head, calm down, it's fine. She'll have a look, if it's dead, it's dead. She'll get him some ink and a pen. Or a pencil. Or a brush it really didn't matter.
She stood and rubbed her neck.
"No more putting it off."
As she walked onto the path and set off, something made her stop. A slight movement. Then another...and a rustle of a bush near the thinning trees. Is it a mouse? Or a rat? Or a Youkai? Fairy? Other random animals? She didn't have to wait long before a black cat leapt out of the greenery, half running, half limping. Sanae's face curious expression changed to one of worry.
"Hey little cat! Are you okay?" she asked running over.
The animal froze before looking at her. She noticed it had two tails. She only knew one cat that had two tail and that was Sage Yakumo's shinigami's shinigami. As she approached, the cat jumped at her, morphing into a humanoid shape. Chen grabbed onto Sanae, crying.
"It hurts! My leg hurts! Make it stop!" she wailed, grabbing harder.
Sanae pried her off and examined her leg, gasping in surprise. The leg had a horrid burn all down the back of it, the skin burnt off, exposing flesh. It was an angry red, blood leaking from it due to the strain of running. Sanae rubbed the poor girl's head.
"What happened?!"
"S-Some girl broke into our house cuz she thought no one was there, so I tried scaring her off but she made this big tentacle thing and tried stabbing me and when I escaped she shot me with magic!" Chen cried, her claws digging into Sanae.
"Okay okay, it's okay, I'm here. Uhh, we need to get that wound treated. Eientei is a 15 minute fly, can you hold on until then?"
"Uhumm." Chen nodded weakly.
"Good, hold on." and with that, Sanae sped off into the air.
Sorry Rinnosuke, this girl's got a cat to help! It probably wouldn't take long anyway, Eirin is rarely busy, and good old Reisen could help if she was.
Gap…
Yukari floated in the void, thinking. She needed to check on...let's see.
1) The shrine to see if it was clean.
2) Eirin, to check if she has calmed down and found what she was looking for.
3) Reimu. Hopefully the Scarlets haven't driven her up the wall.
4) Ran, if she could find her. And if not, Chen, if Ran had spoken to her.
Yukari smiled and opened a gap, stepping out at the shrine. Silence rang in her ears. The fairies were...very quiet. She walked up to the shrine and looked in. Clean, and empty. She wandered over to the well, having spotted the bucket. The ground was damp. A mop, the bleach and a rag sat in the center of the open path.
This is unusual.
She walked over to the steps, glancing down. She spotted something...black? Quickly walking down, Yukari stopped at a stain on the approach to the steps. A drying, black ichor of a fluid.
"Now I'm worried…"
Yukari opened a gap and stepped into it.
She appeared at Eientei, using a second to enter. She stepped out into...pandemonium. Eirin was hastily concocting something, using gods knows what. She could hear what sounded like Marisa shouting in the side room. And then Clownpiece suddenly appeared with the Lady of Eientei dragged behind her.
"Gap lady!" Clownpiece yelled as she near ran into her.
But Yukari, she was more interested with the patient she had spotted. Alice had lost consciousness, squirming in discomfort even in sleep. And that black...she arrived into a serious situation.
"Lady Sage, is there a reason for your return?" Kaguya asked as she escaped Clownpiece's grip.
Fairies still, made her skin crawl to say the least.
"I was just coming to check if Eirin was able to talk, but it appears she is, very busy."
"Yes, I am not sure what has happened, but it appears serious."
The talking got Eirin to look over, spotting Yukari and Kaguya.
"Kaguya, could you continue grinding this until it's a fine paste and add it to this mix and Yukari, great timing I need Youkai blood." Eirin stepped away from the desk and grabbed Yukari's arm, Kaguya stepping around the two.
Four people in the surgery at once was beginning to eat up room. Clownpiece escaped into the patient room.
"Okay, zeriouz Aya, ya gotta stay put. There'z zome importan' ztuff going on and you're getting in the 'ay!" Marisa attempted to explain to the semi-lucid tengu.
"But I'm fine! I'll just leave and be out of the way."
"Your outta the way 'ere!"
"Do you need help?" Clownpiece stepped over.
"Yeah, keep her here and outta the main place, I'ma go hel' out." Marisa passed off the tengu as she left.
"Hey, I've been meaning to talk to you!" Aya announced "I wanted to interview the moon fairy." she pulled out a bent notebook and pen from her shirt pocket.
"Ehh...hell fairy…" Clownpiece corrected.
The next twenty minutes were a daze. Eirin hastily explained Alice's condition as she drew out...a fair amount of blood from Yukari, who didn't have much say in it. It made her a bit dizzy, but she recovered after minute. Marisa took over the grinding, Kaguya reading off a badly scrawled note from Eirin as she observed Alice, who was worsening. Eirin hooked up a new blood bag and shifted Marisa over as to start actually making the 'cure'. It was more a suppressant, weakening the blood and as such, the poison. She dissolved it in a solvent and sucked some into a syringe, injecting it into Alice. The black slowed and resided slightly, some going purple. It didn't look much better.
"When Reisen and Mokou get back with that report, I can hopefully make something to actually stop it, then cure it. But slowing down is the best I can do." she sighed.
"Wat? Didn't you make the report or zomethin'? Ya not remember it?" Marisa complained.
"50 years ago, on a subject I never finished, about something I thought could never get out. There have been other things to remember." Eirin countered.
"Well, you did keep that blood all this time. It was always a possibility with that around." Yukari added.
"You cauzed thiz!?" Marisa fumed.
"Not directly. Blood samples were stolen, Eirin did not do this." Kaguya corrected.
"Gah, that doezn't matter. Wat if thiz person uzez the blood and makez a vampire or zomethin'"
Yukari smiled. It was brief. A knowing smile. Should she tell Marisa about Reimu? They were friends, but she could fly off the handle. She should keep it under wraps...a tiny bit longer. Let her calm herself from her worry for Alice, yes, that would be for the best.
A knock on the door made the group all turn, before the door was pushed open. A rabbit in pink waved at them.
"Miss Yagokoro, you have someone who needs help!" she announced.
"Uh, is it serious? I already have a lot on my plate." Eirin went silent as Sanae pushed past the rabbit, clutching a crying Chen.
The wound had torn open slightly and had leaked enough blood to stain the bottom of her skirt red.
The room was quiet.
Yukari was quiet.
Yukari's face twisted slightly.
It twitched...it frowned.
She walked over to Chen, who looked up at Yukari, before jumping off Sanae onto her.
"Who." she ordered.
"A g-girl...in our house. Black hair, s-she had a tentacle t-thingy-" Yukari handed Chen back to Sanae.
"I have business to attend to." she vanished into a gap.
"I think, zomeone might be f**king dead." Marisa whispered.
She appeared in their home. Yukari didn't bother about her boots. She didn't care for damage. She scanned the living space. Nothing. Ran's room door was ajar. She yanked it open. The room was trashed, the floor cracked and splintered. There was a hole in the wall. A shadowy construct rose into view. She blasted it with enough power to liquify it, the excess blasting out the back wall. Yukari grabbed the portal as it snapped shut.
"Are you there little thief? You had better hope your not. I don't know your motive. I don't care why you're doing this. You killed someone. You poisoned someone. You ruined someone. You hurt someone. You don't care for Gensokyo's rules. Fine by me. When I catch you, not if, when, you will not get off lightly. Gensokyo is not infinity. You cannot hide from me." the portal closed within a second, Yukari walking to her room.
Kageshō sat alone in a tree, shaded by leaves. She wasn't using her tail to control the construct. She was just reading with a portal open to make sure it was fine. Then she heard Yukari. Her blood ran cold. She was serious…
She was so dead...
AN: Hello. I have one delivery of touhou written at night due to being busy studying for tests.
Anyway, I was away for two weeks and wrote this at night after day studying, so I hope it's fine. I'm glad I got to do more of this, which makes me sound horrible because of what happened in the the chapter. Sorry.
I think this is the first chapter to not have Reimu actually in it, which is a rarity. And Sanae is probably going to be the last character I add to this. Otherwise I going to start forgetting people.
I actually wanted to mention one thing I found funny. While looking for my college notes, I found a piece of paper that I lost that had what I wanted to do like, 6 chapters ago or something on it. With the big one being a line that said 'Aya gets better and has mini paras attempting to figure out the vampire'. I lost that, forgot it, and now she's the butt of a constant fever joke. Truly, my mind is the most consistent of all writers...
So yeah, that's about it. Pm, review, remark on how I'm forgetful or something.
Anyway, enjoy.
