This one took a bit, yes?
I don't have much to say about this other than that war is no longer on the horizon. War is here.
Also, I got the other day and have been making my own Walfas videos. The first one featured Mima-sama and the Dio-inspired Sakuya present here, and I even talked about Mima's plan of taking Sanae's body. I quote words said by myself in the video after this, then start the chapter:
"Not only that, but didn't your plan to fake your own death backfire on you? You know, the one where you hid in the mansion's basement?
You took over Sanae's body, stormed the Scarlet Devil Mansion and conquered it with the help of a resurrected Sakuya, faked your own death by hiding that corpse doll in the morgue, and just kicked back in the basement. Not your finest move.
O-Of course, that's only my opinion on it, Mima-sama. I'm sure the readers on thought your plan was excellent."
Look up "UnendingEmpire's Wacky Walfas Adventure" if you wanna see what happened afterwards :D
Sunrise the following morning; shores of the Sanzu River
"Eiki-sama, I don't really think the other Yama will appreciate you doing this twice in such a short period."
"But I don't appreciate my being so useless during my last trip. This Mima character has be sent straight to Hell, and I intend to hand down the judgment in person for interfering with my work!"
"And for making me waste a trip to Higan, right?" Delivering that maid wasn't exactly fun, and then Mima went and resurrected her seconds before Eiki could hand down a judgment!
"You got paid; you should be fine. However, Yama have no salaries, so I intend to make Mima pay dearly for wasting my time!" Yamaxanadu Eiki Shiki stepped off her subordinate's boat, back onto the shores of Gensokyo for the second time since this world fell into godly disarray. She didn't do much the first time so she intended to make up for it this time. "Where is her last known location?"
"Says here that last she was seen was at the Scarlet Devil-" Eiki was gone. "…Mansion."
Kanako and Suwako were at the Myouren Temple once again, standing just inside the front doors. Something about the temple seemed different, but the duo couldn't quite put their finger on it…
"Good morning," a youkai of echoes shouted from down the hall. "Lady Hijiri will see you now!"
"Quit yelling," Suwako shouted back with her hands over her ears. "You're being too loud!"
"You're the one being too quiet!"
"Enough," Byakuren said to the broom-brandishing youkai, putting a hand on top of her head. "Go back to your sweeping, Kyouko."
"Yes, ma'am!" And the green-haired youkai sped off, sweeping up a storm in whatever direction she went.
"Good morning, you two." The Youchrist approached the two goddesses, and said "Follow me. Murasa's waiting for us up front, as well as Nue. We've been preparing all day yesterday, and now we're finally ready."
"Excellent," Kanako said, following the chesty lady down the halls of the Myouren Temple. "What, may I ask, were you preparing for?"
"Oh, you'll see. Believe me when I say that you won't be disappointed, especially with the Myouren Temple acting as a base of operations if your Moriya Shrine isn't large enough."
"Well, it's only a shrine, so it's not quite large enough. Thank you for allowing us to use your space."
"Airspace perhaps," Byakuren said, making a horrible attempt at humor. Then she opened the doors that led out to a boat-like deck beneath the bright blue sky. "Murasa, Nue, it's time."
"Just give the orders," Murasa said, standing behind a ship helm.
"Right. Palanquin Ship…launch!" The temple began rumbling viciously as the boat-turned-temple-turned-boat/temple began lifting off the ground slowly. "This is the greatest achievement of magic and engineering combined," Byakuren boldly proclaimed as the boat's ascension into the sky sped up. "This ordinary boat is now a holy vessel that claims the sky as its ocean! Modeled after the ship that once belonged to none other than our own Captain Murasa Minamitsu!" Byakuren turned to the captain and winked, smiling at the excited hopping of the ghostly sailor; she was obviously more than eager to captain this ship. "This is the Myouren Temple! This is our temple! This is our ship! Behold, the Palanquin Ship!" The ship's ascension into the sky finished, and from where they were, one could see all of Gensokyo beneath them.
"That was quite a speech," Kanako said, walking over to the edge of the deck to get a view of the world. "Did you write that down last night or did you just wing it?"
"I made it up as I went along. I think that's the coolest thing I've said in a while." The view was perfect. "So, what's the plan to defeat Mima?"
"W-Well, we don't really have a plan yet," Suwako said, a bit embarrassed. "First we need to get Mima out of Sanae's body."
"I could do that. I was once a monk, you know."
"So you can exorcise the evil spirit possessing our good girl?"
"…no. But I'm sure the Hakurei miko could!"
Something was passing over the Hakurei Shrine. Something big. Reimu knew that much by the massive shadow covering the shrine; the shadow that forced her to go outside and investigate. And when she did step outside and took a look at what was casting this shadow over her shrine, Reimu's jaw near-literally dropped to the ground. A massive steel airship occupied the skies above the Hakurei Shrine, powered by a massive glowing crystal that protruded from the back of the ship. Flying up to take a look, Reimu was rather surprised to find two faces she'd encountered before. Shinki and Alice Margatroid stood at the front of the ship, Shinki wearing an outfit far from her usual red dress. The goddess looked ready for war!
"Stand down, shrine maiden," Shinki demanded, sending shivers down even Reimu's spine with how dark and serious she sounded in contrast to her usual bubbly self. "These are Makai affairs, and I won't let any denizens of Gensokyo interfere. I'm only here to exterminate Mima, at which point I'll return to Makai and bring my airship and my army with me."
"…"
"You'd best do what she says," Alice said quietly. "It's unwise to defy Shinki when she gets serious."
"I'll say again, Reimu," Shinki said, even more serious than last time. "Stand down!"
"I've decided," Cirno said loudly, standing in front of a (very sloppy) map of Gensokyo. "This Mima person must be dealt with!"
"How do you plan to defeat her," Wriggle asked. "Face it, she makes you look like a chip of ice in comparison for power. Unless you have an amazing plan, which I doubt, facing that monster would be equal to suicide."
"I hate admitting it," Mystia added. "But Wriggle's right. Fighting somebody as powerful as Mima is death. We need a plan."
"Cirno isn't bright," Rumia said, stepping into the main chamber of Team Nineball's subterranean hideout. "But she's not stupid. She's not the kind of person who would say something this bold without having a plan ready. And you know that whatever we need to get our hands on, myself and Mystia can easily get it."
"There is a plan," the ice fairy said bravely. "I had to put the good ol' Cirno brain into overdrive to work this out, and it's going to take us a full day of preparing, but not even Mima will be able to stop us if we pull it off!" Ensuring that every other member of Team Nineball was standing in front of her, Cirno began explaining her plan. "We need to relay this info over to Chen as well; finding her is essential to the plan. That aside, it's like this. I'm going to lead the whole operation, and Wriggle will…"
Fairies are now explaining/Nekomatas are now arriving…
"And that's my plan! Dai can help me get the other fairies in on this, too!"
"We need all of that," Rumia asked. "Well, I'd better start getting everything we need. Myschi, you come with me since there's no way I can do it alone."
"You've got it." Cirno's plan called for some pretty ridiculous things. Massive amplifiers, a microphone, several hundred tricycles, seven intercom headsets, and that was just the items! The plan also called for the aid of thousands of people. Mystia wasn't sure how Cirno intended to get the aid of every fairy in the Forest of Magic, but the night sparrow knew better than to question the Nineball herself; when she needed to get stuff done, it got done.
"I bet Ran-shama and Yukari-shama can help, too," Chen said. "Yukari-shama can get us the things Rumi and Myschi can't, like those amplifiers and a microphone!" And with that, the two-tailed nekomata began speeding off, hopping on a tricycle of her own once she was outside. She had to get home and tell Ran and Yukari about Cirno's awesome plan!
"As for me," Wriggle said. "…I don't like it, but you're onto something, Cirno. Whatever happens in there, though, I'm making sure I put you through the same." A dark flicker crossed through Wriggle's eyes as she finished that sentence. "You'd best hope Yuka's getting tired of me being her plaything."
"Sadism makes sadism," Cirno asked herself as the firefly youkai started heading out. "So Wriggle's gonna turn me into a sadist?"
"All explosive dolls," Alice commanded from the front of the massive airship built by the finest engineers in Makai. "Launch and detonate! I repeat, launch and detonate!" It was a real shame to make all those dolls just to see them all die like that, but the keen observer would note that there was no way Alice could make a number of dolls anywhere near the number leaping off the ship, not in a day. That was a given; no dollmaker could make over a thousand dolls in a single day. That was why the locks on the book that rested faithfully in her arms were no longer present. The Grimoire of Alice had been unlocked, and it entered such a state with the intention of raining fiery doom down on Mima's new hideout.
By the time Alice was through, the Scarlet Devil Mansion would be nothing more than rubble.
"It's a Makai airship you say, Yuka?"
"Yes, Mima-sama, right above us." For once, Yuka looked concerned. "I have reason to believe Shinki is on board, and there's no way she'd bring in an airship this big without an army."
"Intriguing…go home for the day, Yuka. Go. Now."
"W-What? Why-" BOOM! BOOM!
"A rain of explosives…you'd best head home, Yuka. I'll deal with these intruders personally." Mima's black wings would have unfolded if she weren't in a host body. Since she was, however, the evil spirit settled for picking up her crescent-tipped staff and making her way outside, right into the heat of the fight. Joining her was the perfect and elegant maid. "Sakuya, hang back until the Makai army is on the ground. Once they're down here, I expect them to be mowed down like weeds."
Originally, I was gonna do two things.
A: I was gonna have an extended version of the Sanzu River scene where a certain necromantic OC of mine escaped from Higan to fight Mima. I decided against it because he wouldn't fit in with the rest of the cast.
B: I was gonna name this chapter The Grimoire of Alice, but it wouldn't be relevant until the end of the chapter. Also, notice how she said "All EXPLOSIVE dolls" there? Know what that means?
Anyway, the day's going to be saved by a very unlikely heroine…and it's not Cirno. One last review, this time for every individual faction instead of just Team Mima/Team Gensokyo, and this time I'm including EVERYBODY that's going to be fighting, on-screen or off!
Myouren-Moriya Alliance: Kanako, Suwako, Byakuren, Murasa, Nue, Ichirin, Unzan, Nazrin, Shou
Makai Royal Army: Shinki, Alice, about 10,000 of Makai's finest soldiers, 1,000+ explosive dolls, a couple hundred combat dolls, two goliath dolls
Mima's New Gensokyo: Mima, Dio-Sakuya (which translates from Spanish as "God-Sakuya" fyi), Marisa, Remilia, Patchouli, Meiling, Aya, Sanae (as Mima's host body)
Team Nineball: Cirno, Mystia, Rumia, Wriggle, Chen, EVERY fairy in the Forest of Magic (quite a few of which are tricycle-riding cavalry), nearly every bug in Gensokyo, Yuka, Daiyousei (as a tactician)
Palace of Earth Spirits: Satori, Koishi, Utsuho
Everybody else (no factions): Reimu, Eiki
This sounds like it would make one hell of an RTS, doesn't it? I know that at the least, we'll see some on-screen fighting or at least SOMETHING from the below people. Don't read any more if you don't want some minor spoilers!
Shinki, Mima, EX-Sakuya, Sanae (as Mima's host body), Cirno, Yuka, Satori, Koishi, Reimu, Eiki, Sanae (as herself)