Collapse of Eastern Fantasy

Chapter 11


(Finally, we've got out of that place.) Kamijou Touma sighed inwardly.

These three have barely managed to escape, after winning two out of three battles against the Scarlet sisters and their maid. Underneath his school uniform that was fixed to the point it seemed like it is new, bandages covered yet more parts of his body; Sakuya gave him even more bruising than before during their battle, and he was barely conscious when the five minutes was up.

In the end, Touma managed to stay conscious for five minutes, and Reimu beat Remilia somehow; with the two victories they were grudgingly allowed to leave unharmed.

(Then again, given the choice, that was at least preferable than getting bitten by Index.) Touma tried to think on the bright side. No physical punishment could be more horrifying than having that nun in white baring her teeth and chomping down on him; a brawl where he gets pounded is nothing in comparison. Even with his own skills in street fighting, it looks like that maid has been practicing with someone that does real martial arts.

On the other hand, the other two girls with him were arguing for some reason.

"Damn it, you two, I lost because I was distracted by the two of you flirting around while I was facing Flandre back there!" Marisa said, annoyed. "What kind of people flirts around when someone else is fighting for your sake?"

"We weren't flirting around!" Reimu replied hotly.

"You expect me to believe that? ! You basically went up and threw yourself on him!" Marisa was reminded when Reimu had her arms around Touma and protectively embraced him – disregarding the battle against Flandre going on, nonetheless.

"WHAT? ! That's rubbish! I only went to see if he's alright when he collapsed on me! Go blame Sakuya for that happening!" After Touma's turn, he ended up falling on top of Reimu as she tried to hold him up – and Marisa was blasted right in the face since she was distracted by the antics on the sidelines, leaving Reimu to shoulder the task of getting them out of there and defeating Remilia.

"Erm… Hakurei-san?" Touma didn't want to interrupt the two's conversation, for fear they might direct their anger at him instead. Still, he has some questions to ask.

"What is it?" Reimu replied stiffly.

"How long until we get to this Hakurei Shrine? It's a bit embarrassing in this position."

Touma was being cradled in Reimu's arms as they flew across the land. Marisa's broom can't handle the weight of two people, so that only leaves Reimu's ability to getting Touma airborne. This was after Reimu complained it'll take them forever to get anywhere just by walking, and then picked up Touma as he (and Marisa) protested. Touma's not afraid of heights or anything, but being in this position is practically just begging destiny to throw some bad luck his way.

"I agree with him; for a shrine maiden you'd think she would know better than just go up and embrace a guy like that – even if she can't stand to be apart from him in the short time that they've met." Marisa commented snidely.

"It's not like you can handle the task of getting him flying." Reimu retorted, with her face bright red – whether from rage at being the target of jokes like these, or is thoroughly embarrassed by this situation, Touma can't tell.

"Why are you called a 'shrine maiden' anyway? You don't look that much like one." Touma asked curiously. Sure, Reimu have the detached sleeves and the paper charms, but her other clothing looked more like a western style dress more than traditional shrine maiden dress.

"And what do you know about shrine maidens?" Reimu asked, her temper steadily rising.

"Well…" He was going to bring up Himegami Aisa's 'casual' clothing, but then thought of the fact he never asked whether Himegami is really a shrine maiden or she just likes to cosplay as one. Even so, her clothing looks much more authentic than the ones the girl that's currently carrying him is wearing.

"Ayayayaya~ what do we have here?" A voice called out to them from above.

Looking up, they saw a silhouette soaring down towards them. As it got closer more details can be made out; it's a girl wearing a white blouse with brown leaf-print sides, a black short skirt with brown leaf-print portions. Her semi-long black hair is flowing behind her as she descends, which are the same colour as her wings. She also holds a hauchiwa fan along with notebook, and a camera is hanging from her neck.

"As Gensōkyō is in turmoil in the aftermath of Dragon's reappearance, what does the esteemed shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine do? She's holding a boy in her arms tightly, and fighting over him with Kirisame Marisa? My my, I thought Shrine Maidens have oaths against this kind of things?" Aya Shameimaru smirked as she took a few photos of the situation in front of her.

"Look, it's not like that. This person happens to be the cause of all the commotion, and I'm bringing him back to the shrine so I can get some answers on just what happened." Reimu hastily answered, though she doesn't think the 'reporter' in front of her would just leave it at that.

"Then why did you choose to bring him back to the shrine, instead of just beat the hell out of the offender like you always do?" Aya's smirk grew even wider. "I came out looking for a story, and never in my wildest dreams had I thought I'd find something like 'romance' between my subjects of interest. A love triangle, now THAT I can write about…"

The tengu cackled as she flew off without giving the shrine maiden any more chances to reply, and the lasers Marisa fired off didn't even come close to graze her.

"…" Reimu now have visible cross popping veins on her head, and Touma can feel the girl trembling in anger.

"Do I even want to know who that person is?" Touma groaned. Troublesome things just come one after another right now – not even that last time at the end of the summer holidays with the Aztec Magician, Yamisaka Ouma and Sherry Cromwell was this hectic.

"Shameimaru Aya, the nosiest reporter in Gensōkyō, and the owner of a newspaper that's filled with nothing except rumours." Reimu said, with her face still red.

Another character with red eyes, Touma thought as he looked towards the direction Aya flew off. He's starting to think every character like that is bad news automatically.

o

o

Remilia helped herself to some tea while she pondered on her next moves. After a while, she summoned Sakuya and told her to prepare for an outing after fixing up the mansion.

"But my lady, I thought we agreed to let them go after that last battle?" Sakuya enquired. The agreement on the spell card battles is absolute – and not even her mistress is insane enough to ignore those laws, unless she wants to fight the whole of Gensōkyō for breaking those laws.

"Yes, we agreed to let them leave unharmed; but we didn't say anything about not going after them after they leave." Remilia smiled.

"Finish up the repairs to the mansion, then take the rest of the day off – as soon as night comes we set out to retake Kamijou Touma. He will be mine."

o

o

Ran Yakumo reached the Hakurei Shrine and found Kamijou Touma has not arrived. She went to look for the shrine maiden here, but found she was not home either. As she was looking around, she found the other 'resident' of the Hakurei Shrine drinking sake, even in the middle of the day.

The other person is a 'oni', one that came up to the surface a while back. She has brown eyes and knee-length ginger hair done up in a ponytail. What is distinctive to her appearance is that she has two long straight horns on her head, decorated with ribbons. She also wears a tattered pink blouse, a long purple and pink skirt, and three chain accessories.

"Hello, Ibuki Suika." Ran made a small bow at the small oni.

"Hi there, Ran." Suika smiled lopsidedly, being not quite sober.

"Do you know where Hakurei Reimu is?"

"She went off earlier to investigate the current incident; I decided to stay here to keep a look out."

"I see; then no one else has come here as well?"

"None whatsoever." Suika took another swig at her gourd.

Ran thought for a while, and then decided to stay here and keep Suika company and wait for Reimu to return together - she has to stay here in order to wait for the Fantasy Killer to arrive anyway. But she was interrupted by the oni:

"So, are the 'preparations' going well?"

"… There have been minor problems, but it's everything is proceeding nicely. Things should reach their conclusion as planned by tonight." Ran replied quietly.

"Hmm…" Suika smiled contently. "I better head off then, since I also have a part to play."

The small oni got up unsteadily and stretched. "It's been a while since something like Yukari have suggested has happened. If my friends underground don't get involved in the upcoming 'festival' they'll surely be mad at me. After all, this promises to be the most fun thing we'll be having for years to come.

Tonight, we shall dine in hell." Suika grinned in such a way that's both joyful yet terrifying to behold at the same time.

o

o

Etzali called Tsuchimikado Motoharu to tell him of the orders Academy City have sent them.

"As soon as you find the location of the enemy's headquarters, notify us, then take the others with you and retreat at once." Etzali warned Tsuchimikado.

"… So I guess GROUP have been sent to do what we normally do?" Tsuchimikado asked in a heavy voice.

"That's right. We go in, retrieve Imagine Breaker, and kill everyone else." Etzali said without any emotion. "If you don't want to die in the crossfire, leave the place at once. Get the others from the Anglican Church out of there as well."

"The Science Side isn't supposed to mess with the events of the Magic Side, and vice versa… though guess this rule is no longer in effect now, what with Acqua of the Back attacking a few days ago and Academy City teamed up with Necessarius." Tsuchimikado muttered. It's not as if he completely has no idea what Aleister is planning, but to be risking now of all times to worsen relationships with the Magic Side, even to its own allies…

"Aleister is considering launching a localized 'Artificial Heaven' to try and find Imagine Breaker." Etzali continued. With the massive amount of AIM Field projected, no magical defences or camouflage would be enough to hide Imagine Breaker from Academy City.

"You have got to be kidding me… is the opponents we're facing now really worth the trouble of using something on that scale?" Tsuchimikado replied.

"Imagine Breaker is crucial to Aleister's plans. He's willing to do whatever it takes to retrieve it. We have no information on who, or what took Kamijou Touma, or what they are capable. But if this is someone on the level of God's Right Seat pulling the strings, we'd be in serious trouble. Why are we the ones to be sent to handle this, I have no idea though." Etzali paused to make sure Accelerator and Musujime aren't around to hear this conversation.

"That should be obvious – we're expendable, every last one of us. Even if we get wiped out along with whoever is responsible for this entire mess when Artificial Heaven is activated, there would be no major problems." Tsuchimikado laughed dryly, reflecting on the truth of that statement.

"Are you serious? I can understand us and Musujime being the case, but Accelerator as well? He's one of the pieces needed for Artificial Heaven to work, right?" Etzali recalls the black wings Accelerator currently possess - it is obvious that he and the SISTERs clones are involved in that project, from what Tsuchimikado told him - though neither he nor Tsuchimikado knows any more to the point where they would be ordered to be eliminated; which is both a blessing and a curse if they want to get out of their current situation.

"Did you forget about Kakine Teitoku? If one 'Spare Plan' can be made, why can't another one? In the end, even Accelerator is but a pawn for Aleister – one that takes a lot of effort to recreate, but not impossible to." Tsuchimikado responded. "Imagine Breaker, however, is probably the one thing thing that absolutely cannot be replaced in Aleister's plans. None of the risks of losing Kamijou Touma from previous incidents comes close to the current situation."

The risks before of letting Touma fight magicians are meticulously calculated, enough to push Imagine Breaker to 'grow' but not enough to risk it being destroyed. Though how would a ability like that 'grow' is something Tsuchimikado have no clue about; for something beyond the understanding of Magic and Science, possibly only those that stand at the pinnacle of these fields can even grasp what the truth of Imagine Breaker is.

"Guess all we can do now is believe in Kami-yan to solve all this before everything around him is dragged into the depths of hell." Tsuchimikado sighed. Etzali said nothing in response as he terminated the connection on his phone.

o

o

As Touma, Reimu and Marisa soar through the sky on their way to the Hakurei Shrine, they were being assaulted by a large amount of fairies who bombarded them on their travel. Though these are not as berserk as the ones Touma had to deal with near the shores of Misty Lake, since Touma have the glove Eirin gave him on Imagine Breaker this time.

"Che, why is it every time an incident happens we get surrounded by fairies that just don't learn to stay away?" Marisa says annoyed as she bombs a path through and takes down many of their pursuers. "These pests are starting to get on my nerves."

"They are fairies, which aren't known for their intelligence after all…" Reimu says as she swerves to dodge a bullet that came too close for comfort. Due to her holding onto Touma she can't really fire back at the ones shooting at them.

"And thanks to this guy it appears they're just slightly harder than what we would normally find them; it's like we're fighting at an extra boss' place already…" Marisa complained as she hung onto her broom with just her hands and then kicked a suicidal fairy away as it charged at them, without bothering to blast it to pieces. Touma wonders how she can even pull off that kind of movement while on a broom as she swung herself back onto the broom.

"Stop showing off already." Reimu said in an irritated manner.

"What? I need to conserve my magical energy since I've shot off so many bullets." Marisa said innocently.

"You know full well that doesn't matter – we have limits to the number of bombs but not how many bullets we actually have…" Reimu said between clenched teeth. To her, it's as if Marisa is deliberately doing those moves to impress the newcomer.

"Stop it already, you two." Touma sighed. He's starting to think maybe it would have been a better choice to run all the way there by himself, even if under constant fire from magical ctizens of this world, compared to listening to these girls bicker.

"Fine. We've made it to the Shrine now, anyway." Reimu said as she sped downwards and landed safely, and then roughly dropped Touma down onto the ground. As Touma winced as the bruises start to hurt again, he saw Reimu starting to chant a mantra against the sky that's practically blacked out by the number of fairies flying towards them, and a barrier surrounding the mountain they are on pushed most of the attackers back. As the fairies struggled to get through and tackling the barrier head on, Reimu finished her chanting and flourished her gohei. The barrier shattered along with the multitude of enemies that was chasing after them, leaving none behind.

Reimu, with a smile on her face, then turned back towards to Touma and held a hand to him to try and lift him back up, with the sparkling remains of the barrier and fairies as the backdrop.

"… And you called me 'showing off'…" Marisa muttered.

"There's a passive barrier around this shrine that prevents unwanted visitors coming in, so we should be safe." Reimu told Touma as he got up, ignoring Marisa's comment.

"Yeah, but that barrier doesn't seem to work on anything stronger than a fairy, so if a horde like that come again you might as well start praying." Marisa made another remark.

Before Reimu can retort, another voice called out to them from the shrine building: "Kamijou Touma, I assume?"

As the three of them turned to the old shrine building they saw a woman in blue robes and have nine tails coming towards them. Both Reimu and Marisa recognised instantly who this person is.

"Yakumo Ran. So Yukari really is behind all this." Reimu scowled.

"Thank you for your help in getting him here, Hakurei-san." Ran didn't deny that her mistress is involved with this current incident. "But I'll be taking him now. We are behind schedule as it is."

"Wait right there." Reimu and Marisa stepped forward, readying danmaku and directing it at Ran.

"You better explain everything to us if you want to leave in one piece." Marisa stated.

"And what makes you think we'd just allow a youkai to take a human like that?" Reimu added.

"Because that boy behind you will come willingly with me?" Ran tilted her head. "Last I checked, you don't really have the obligation to stop humans who goes with youkai by their free choice."

"'Free Choice'? Heh, you're making it sound like youkai don't fool people into wanting to be captured with their honeyed words and then devour the victims." Reimu said with narrowed eyes.

"So you are really with that woman named Yukari?" Touma cuts in to the conversation, ignoring the pointed looks Marisa and Reimu gave him.

"That is correct. I am Yakumo Ran, Yakumo Yukari's familiar." Ran replied.

"How do I know you aren't lying about that?" Touma asked suspiciously.

"Ask the two girls with you. They know who I am."

"…" Touma looked at Reimu and Marisa, who grudgingly admitted that Ran is indeed with Yukari.

"Alright. So how is Itsuwa?" Touma decided to ask about the most important thing right now.

"She's safe, I can guarantee you that. Come with me and I'll bring you to her." Ran told him.

Touma nodded. Not like he has a choice but to believe in her – but also that he doesn't think she's lying. From what Touma can see in Ran's eyes, there's a mischievous spark to it, and behind the seriousness she shows on the exterior there's a playful nature that is suppressed in her duty to serve her mistress. And in all that there's no trace of deceit in what the nine-tailed fox is telling him – at least that is what he believes.

As Touma took a step forward he found his arms being caught on both side by the magician and the shrine maiden.

"Stop. Are you really going to trust a youkai?" Reimu asked him.

"What about it?" Touma asked them back.

"… Are you really that stupid, or do you have a death-wish?" Marisa asked. "Don't tell me you've forgot about the Scarlet sisters already."

"Either way, I have to go. This is something I have to do." Touma said as he looked at the girls around him. Ran isn't making a move and the two that grabbed his arms doesn't look like they will let go willingly anytime soon.

"Why?" Both Reimu and Marisa asked.

"… I can't tell you." Touma decided not to bring up the hostage situation, as he doesn't want to get these two involved any further if he can just solve this by himself. Knowing these two, they would just charge in, and blast everything until they get results. Not to mention he doesn't even know where they are keeping Itsuwa right now.

"Gensōkyō is a small place; if you're looking for something sooner or later we would get there eventually, even without a guide." Reimu told him, seeing that he's worried about someone, somewhere in Gensōkyō.

"Not before my time here is up." Touma replied. He shook off the girls' grip on him and walked towards Ran.

"Back at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, you asked us to trust you; but in the end you can't trust us?" Marisa said quietly.

Touma stopped in his tracks. "I'd trust you with my own life, but not with someone else's; not when they don't have a say in this. Thank you, both of you has been a great help back there."

"Wait - " Before Reimu can say any further, they heard another voice from behind the shrine.

o

"Seriously, Yuyuko-sama; I thought you know where the Youkai of Boundary lives? All we've been doing is flying along the Hakurei Barrier all this time."

"What? I don't know where Yukarin's home is, that's why I'm looking for it."

"Huh? ! But I thought you have been friends with Yukamo Yukari for a long time?"

"Well, we've mostly met up at the Netherworld over the years – she's never invited me to her home even though she comes to ours from time to time. I have no clue to where Yukarin could be."

"…"

Two figures flew out from behind the shrine, then saw a standoff between the resident shrine maiden plus her magician friend with Yukari's familiar. Recognising the nine-tailed fox, the two of them flew down towards the group.

"Hello there, Ran." Yuyuko Saigyouji said with a smile. "I was just looking for where your mistress is. Can you take me to her?"

"I'm most sorry; Yukari-sama is currently busy with something else right now." Ran apologised. "After everything is over I shall ask her to visit you - "

"I'm afraid I won't take 'no' for an answer." Yuyuko kept smiling, but now there's a deathly chill that made Touma shiver. A chill that's unlike the kind Cirno gave off, a freezing feeling that stabs at the soul rather than the body.

"Hmm? And who might you be?" Yuyuko directed her attention to Kamijou Touma for a moment. "Ah… I see… so you are what have been causing all this trouble in Gensōkyō.

Ran, tell Yukari that either she comes and meet me, or I make this boy a permanent guest at the Netherworld." Yuyuko delivered the ultimatum without changing expression. "Surely that would be troublesome for her, no?"

"… Very well, I'll let you talk to her right away." Ran brought out a cellphone and started to dial a sequence into it.

"You people have cellphones here?" Touma asked disbelievingly, and ignoring the not-so-subtle death threat. From when they were flying to the shrine he saw a village that looked like Japan from several hundred of years ago, and from the look of the shrine in front of him it doesn't look like this place have ever heard of electricity or running water.

"What, you mean that lump of what's called 'plastic'? We get things like those coming through the Border now and then, but apparently the Yakumos are the only ones that actually know how to use those things in Gensōkyō." Reimu replied.

"Kourin got a stash of these things at his shop too – they're more useful as paperweight than some kind of communication device." Marisa said airily.

"Yukari-sama, Yuyuko-sama wants to talk with you." Seeing as they are the only ones who could call each other using phones in Gensōkyō, Ran skipped the greetings and went straight to the point. After a while listening to her mistress Ran nodded and handed the phone over to the caretaker of the Netherworld.

"Let's see… ah, so this is how you use it… Hi there, Yukari-chan. I'm very put off with you, you know. You invited me to invade the moon once, but now when there's something even more impressive going on you leave me in the dark?" Yuyuko said into the phone with a pout on her face, but everyone present could see she's not really serious about her complaints.

After listening for a time, Yuyuko continued "Is that so? Fine, but you better give me a full explanation when this is all over."

After handing the phone back to Ran, Yuyuko started to float away, and gestured for Youmu to follow. Without warning, Ran's fox tails swept out from behind her, increasing in size, and entangled around Kamijou Touma.

"Wha-"
"!"

Touma was only able to show a look of surprise before engulfed under the fur. Reimu and Marisa quickly attempted to attack the nine-tailed fox, but danmaku started to rain down on them from above. As Reimu looked up she found Yuyuko have brought out her large fan behind her and is pinning both her and Marisa down with a rain of attacks while Ran is escaping into the sky with the boy they brought to the shrine.

"Yuyuko!" Reimu shouted while launching ofudas that homed into the attacker and dodging the incoming bullets, and next to her Marisa does the same while firing back. "What's the meaning of this? !"

"What do you think? We're taking him with us." Yuyuko laughed while putting a hand onto her cheek, as Youmu cuts down the incoming projectiles to protect her mistress. "Sorry about this, but you're going to stay here for a while." She pointed towards the shrine.

"!" Both Marisa and Reimu looked back to see the shrine has somehow started to burn intensely, with black smoke rising up high.

"We'll see you later, Hakurei Reimu." Yuyuko closed her fan and retreated, leaving the Shrine Maiden of Paradise and the Ordinary Magician furiously to try and put out the fire. Touma, with his face not totally covered by the tails, looked on in shock as he saw the smoke from the sky.

o

Ran turned her tails around so that Touma is facing her. In response to his glare, Ran replied "I've managed to take you away to deal with your problem without getting those two involved – isn't this what you wanted?"

"…" Touma couldn't answer back to that. "Did you really have to burn the place up though?" He asked grudgingly.

"Don't worry about that – it did less damage than it seems to." Ran smiled thinly as the two of them flew across the land, with two ghosts following behind.

o

"… What the HELL is this? !" Reimu screeched out.

After frantically getting water from the pond at the back and splashing it onto the shrine to no apparent effect, the fire suddenly vanished as if it was never there, and the shrine unharmed. Only then Reimu realised she's been fooled by nothing more than an illusion – something that normally wouldn't happen, but she panicked when she saw the shrine being damaged.

"That bitch! When I get my hands on her I'll personally make sure she suffers for this!" Reimu clenched her teeth, and felt more angry than embarrassed that as a shrine maiden she was fooled by a youkai.

"Are you talking about Ran or Yukari?" Marisa asked next to her, having stayed to help put the 'fire' out.

"Both of them!" Reimu roared out as she blasted off into the sky, speeding towards the ones responsible as her instincts points her to where the 'Fantasy Killer' is, a void in this world that is empty compared to its surroundings as every trace of magic is flowing away from it. Her fury is of such that even when the multitude of fairies that revived themselves returned to try and force the barrier again they scattered as the shrine maiden blew past, with the air rippling around her.

Marisa also flew off, trying to catch up but knows it's not likely. When Reimu gets serious her speed and power isn't that easily matched, not even by youkai.

(Still…) Marisa thought with a smile. (She's just so damn cute when she's pissed off.)

o

o

[End Chapter 11]


Due to Real Life issues, the updates won't be coming weekly as they have been since I won't have as much time as before to work on this fic. Rest assured though I haven't abandoned this project and the updates will still come, just more slowly from now on.