AN: I do not own Touhou Project: It Belongs to Team Shanghai Alice, also known as ZUN.

Scarlet Formam Diaboli

(Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil)

(Part 2)

(Stage Start)

As Marisa and Cirno shot over the Misty lake Vaati hung on for dear life, as they were flying a myriad of Fairies flew in around them, all of them firing bullets at the trio. As Marisa ducked and weaved her broom around the bullets Vaati clung hard to the wood. "That's a lot of Bullets!" Vaati shouted as the fairies fired at random, some of them hitting each other as well.

"Quick question IS THIS NORMAL!" Vaati shouted over the wind at Marisa. She was busy returning fire as Cirno flew around throwing icicles at fairies, fairies falling and exploding left and right from the two agile flyers. "They normally don't gather like this, normally it's just one or two at most!" Marisa shouted as she returned fire with her magic missiles at a small group of fairies. "I don't get it either, these fairies normally aren't this angry!" Cirno shouted, hitting a Fairy over the head with her plastic sword, the fairy being sent spiraling into the water below.

"She's right at worst they usually fire some bullets and leave, this isn't normal." Marisa said as she switch up her shots, exchanging her her magic missiles for the narrow spark to conserve magic. She directed the laser at the fairies in front of her, making a dive to the side to cleave a line of them into exploding. "Think it's the mist causing this?" Vaati said, bringing back attention to the scarlet sky, the clouds above them firing off red lightning above the mansion nearby. Marisa bucked the broom suddenly to escape a laser fired by one of the fairies, a rather large fairy in a white outfit flanked by several smaller ones firing bullets at random. The bucking motion hit Vaati in the stomach. "Oww… Watch witch!" Vaati complained.

"I have a name you know, now shut up and grab the thing in my back pocket!" Marisa shouted at her passenger. Vaati followed her instructions and grabbed a large phial from Marisa pocket, a glowing purple jar with a lid on it. "Toss it!" Marisa shouted as she dodged another laser, Vaati slowly listing himself up, looking over Marisa's shoulder as he held the bottle in his good arm, throwing it as well as he could, the vial hitting one of the fairies around the bigger on, exploding the small group in an explosion of purple Danamaku.

"I don't know how you bottled up magic, but do you got any more of those?" Vaati asked, Marisa nodding slightly as she went back to dodging bullets and lasers from more fairies. Vaati nodded before grabbing a bottle from Marisa's pocket, tossing it. A fairy caught the bottle in it's hands, and curious it opened the bottle, which exploded her and the group around her from the concentrated magic.

While Vaati and Marisa were dual dogfighting Cirno had been firing icicles at fairies trying to get at them from behind, looking to incapacitate rather then kill the fairies, sending several spiraling, most recovered but others fell into the water below. Cirno frowned, these fairies would not stay down for long, just what was up with them? "Fine then you wanta play, let's PLAY! ICE SIGN: ICICLE CRASH!" Cirno shouted, forming the spell card and using it. Around her several large icicles formed, Cirno pointing at the fairies and directing the ice to fire at them. The large icicles firing forward, homing in on fairies and shattering, knocking them clean out of the sky and causing some to explode into light.

"I am the strongest and don't you forget it!" Cirno taunted as she flew off to join Marisa and Vaati in their firefight, a larger collection of fairies having targeted them while Vaati continued to throw bottles of magic at them as Marisa continued to fire off lasers.

As the trio fought in the sky someone looked on, from the gate of the mansion a girl in a green Chinese outfit, the wind blowing up the back of it reveling her white pants. The Red headed girl wearing a green beret with a star on it as her aqua eyes watched the firefight in the sky. The fairy maids were doing their job at the moment, but slowly losing to the trio in the sky, though the guy on the back of the witch's broom was little cause for concern, all he was doing was throwing bottles of magic, nothing to hard to dodge. The girl, Meiling Hong, was the gate guardian of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and she could not allow these three to trespass onto the mansion grounds. Taking flight, she knew she would have a hard time, for magic was by far her worst skill, but she would defend the mansion not matter what!

As Marisa and Cirno cleaned up the last of the fairies in the sky Vaati sighed from his place behind Marisa. "That was… hectic." He deadpanned as he rubbed his aching back, the bucking of the broom did not help at all. Marisa flashed her passenger a smile before joking. "S'matter, to much for you old man?" Vaati rolled his eyes at her antics, already they were getting along rather well, despite the rough start on his back. She reminded her of him in a way.

"Your killing my back here… I just realized I never caught your name." Vaati said, finally realizing that despite everything he still didn't know her name. Marisa flashed Vaati a second smile as Cirno floated next to them. "Name's Marisa Kirisame, the Ordinary Magician!" She said proudly. At that Vaati raised an eyebrow. "I highly doubt your anything ordinary you crazy witch." Marisa laughed at that as Cirno giggled, Vaati sulked a little bit at being shot down so easily.

"You'll get used to it." Marisa said as she turned back around, here eyes suddenly shooting open as her banked hard to the left, Vaati barely grabbing a hold of the handle again as a small storm of Kunai bullets past them by. As Marisa righted her broom Cirno looked at their attacker, floating between them and the mansion was a redheaded girl in a green outfit, she was in a pose that Cirno did not know. But she wouldn't allow her to just get away with it. Shooting forwards and raising her plastic sword above her head she prepared to strike the girl.

Meiling raised her eyebrow slightly as the blue fairy drew a sword from her back and raised it above her head before flying straight at her. 'Overhead strike, nothing I can't handle." Meiling thought as the fairy got closer. Time seemed to slow down as the fairy brought down the sword, Meiling raising her hands to catch the blade before diverting it to her side, staggering the fairy past her and over extending the fairy's reach. With the girl's back exposed Meiling delivered a hard kick to her, sending the fairy flying into a stone pillar in the lake, embedding the fairy into it knocking her out from the kick and crash.

Meiling didn't have time as a bottle flew at her, dodging swiftly to the side she saw the boy and girl on the broom, the boy holding another bottle and looking rather mad, the girl was charging a blast of magic in her hand before firing a green bullet at her. Meiling dodged to the side and threw some more bullet kunai, the danamaku bullets flying past the duo on the broom as they flew upwards to dodge them. 'If I can't hit them with magic, I'll do it the old fashioned way.' Meiling thought as she shot forward at them, ready to strike.

Marisa pulled up to avoid the flying girl, righting herself and the girl stopped on a dime in midair and faced Marisa and Vaati. 'This is bad, with Vaati on my broom I can't fly as fast, and I'll need all the speed I can get to avoid her if she tries that again.' Marisa thought as the girl spoke.

"I am Meiling Hong, now state your purpose for coming to the Scarlet Devil mansion." She said. "Scarlet Devil Mansion? Can you get any more villainous?" Vaati mumbled, causing a slight chuckle from Marisa, yeah that was a rather obviously 'evil' name for a place, kind of screamed, this place is were all the evil plans take place!

"I am Marisa Kirisame, and I am here to beat Miss Floaty Britches in solving this incident!" Marisa shouted at Meiling. Both Vaati and Meiling raised an eyebrow at that. "Floaty Britches?" Vaati said, obviously confused as Meiling shrugged and shook her head at Marisa. Marisa sweat dropped before explaining a little bit better. "I am going to solve this incident before Reimu Harukei the Shrine maiden does THAT MAKE IT CLEARER!" she shouted. Vaati was taken aback from the suddenness of her shout as Meiling rolled her eyes and got into her fighting stance. "It is my duty as the gatekeeper to not let you into the Scarlet Devil Mansion." Meiling said, letting out a huff at her own rather stereotypical line.

"Well then let the spell card duel begin, da ze!" Marisa shouted as she and Meiling got into position. "Err… do I get a say in this?" Vaati complained from his position behind Marisa. "No." was the response from both Marisa and Meiling as Vaati closed his eyes and frowned, the phantom of a sweat drop on his head. "My move gate keeper! Magic Sign: STARDUST REVERIE!" Marisa shouted, as once again orbs of Magic surrounded her, the Rainbow stars shooting outwards at the gatekeeper.

Because of Meiling's taller stature then both Cirno and Marisa she didn't escape the spell card un scathed, dodging between the stars and gaining slight cuts in her clothing around her sides and on one of her sleeves. But she managed to get up close to Marisa and tried to punch her. But Marisa ducked and she ended up socking Vaati in the nose.

"That… REALLY FRICKEN HURT!" Vaati shouted as he held his broken nose, the swelling already starting as Meiling shrugged in a silent sorry for getting him involved like that. "I would think that counts as a foul..." Marisa said as she tried going over the rules of the spell card system in her head. "Look I'm sorry about that, just get him off the broom and let's do this properly." Meiling said as a visible sweat drop formed on her head.

Soon Vaati was sitting on top of the same stone pillar that Cirno was embedded into as he cradled his broken nose, Cirno having been pulled out of the rock by Marisa and placed next to him as the cold started to numb their injuries, Marisa and Meiling once again taking their place in the sky.

"After… that happened, let us continue where we left off, it's my turn. Flower sign: Gorgeous Sweet Flower!" Meiling yelled the green spell card she produced producing a pattern of danamaku that fired in all directions, if one had looked at the pattern from above it would have been a flower after flower shape being fired at Marisa. But the slow moving danamaku was no challenge for her to dodge, and the ample space between the petals of the flower patterns providing her ample time to find opening to advance closer to Meiling. Eventually she had gotten close enough, firing a laser right in Meiling's face, the low powered spark leaving a burn mark on Meiling's face as she dodged at the last second, spinning around Marisa to the side of her broom and slamming her elbow into her back, sending Marisa and her broom plummeting downwards before she recovered and got back into positon as Meiling smirked, wiping the slight burn mark on her face with her thumb as Marisa rubbed her back.

"Now you know how I feel you crazy Witch!" Vaati shouted at Marisa out of the blue, still rubbing his nose as the swelling was starting to go down thanks to the cold from Cirno, who was slowly waking up. Meiling laughed at that as Marisa held her fist out at Vaati and shook it in mock anger. "Fine then, third round, and I'll make sure it's the last." Marisa said as she put her hand behind her into one of her back pockets.

"And how are you going to do that witch?" Meiling said, using the nickname everyone else had been using for Marisa just to annoy her a little bit. "Stop calling me a witch, I'm a magician!" Marisa shouted as she pulled out a small octagonal box from behind her, the middle of it slightly indented with a yin yang symbol. With her arm outstretched she held it forward, Meiling scratching her head as she actually looked towards Vaati for a moment, who shrugged as Cirno finally got up and shook her head to wake herself up. "What did I miss?" the fairy said with something of a stutter.

"Two rounds, and here comes the next." Vaati said as he and Cirno diverted their attention to Meiling and Marisa, Meiling bracing herself for whatever Marisa was about to try. Marisa actually got up and stood on her broom for a moment, holding the box as a light started to emit from it.

"Behold the Mini-Hakkero, with this I shall unleash my annihilation of love!" She shouted as she stood atop her broom. At that, Cirno, Vaati and even Meiling all slacken and had a slight sweat drop or confused face. More like Cirno and Meiling were confused and Vaati was sweat dropping from how corny the line sounded. "Did you have anything better to say or did you rehearse that!" Vaati shouted at Marisa, who broke her 'character' to shake her fist at Vaati. "I do what I want, now let me finish!" she yelled before turning back at Meiling, who went back into her defensive pose.

"Now where was I, O yeah!" Marisa said as she jumped off off her broom, floating in the air diagonally to Meiling and pointing the Hakkero at Meiling. "FEEL MY ANNIHILATION OF LOVE! LOVE SIGN!" She started as the power gathering in the Hakkero reached it's limit, the box shaking in her hand as it glowed, little black lines of the box becoming visible as they lit up golden with power. "MASTER!" Now a circle of magic had formed in front of the Hakkero the power starting to emit sparks that flew into the circle as the final act began. "SPARK!"

To everyone else Marisa's proclamation and the charging took less then a second, but Marisa herself was just hamming it up for her grand unveiling of the Master Spark. Everyone watched as from the Hakkero a rainbow colored beam so large it was easily the size of a small island was fired from the tiny box. In that moment Meiling saw her doom, or she would have if the spell card rules weren't in place as she vanished from the beam hitting her as she couldn't move from sheer shock. But while Meiling would be mostly fine, save from some burns and clothing damage the lake was not so lucky.

Water shot everywhere as the beam destroy the rock pillar that was holding up Cirno and Vaati… along with every pillar behind it for a good hundred meters. The light from the beam so bright and the beam itself so powerful that it held up the remaining bit of the pillar, the top of it, under it's own power before it died away… about a hundred feet up from the water.

Vaati and Cirno exchanged a quick glance as the beam died away. A quick glance down as Gravity started to effect the rock they were on. Cirno started floating as Vaati sat on the rock, with only one thing to say before it started to fall. "Bollocks…" The rock itself started to fall as Cirno took a moment to notice, speeding after it as it fell, Vaati coughing as he was unable to scream.

Cirno managed to grab Vaati by the shoulders, struggling to keep them both up as the rock and a certain object left on it plummeted into the water. At this point Marisa flew down to both of them laughing her face off as a singed Meiling brushed her hat as she flew over to them as well.

"That was amazing, perfect test fire of the Master Spark!" Marisa proclaimed loudly as Meiling mumbled something under her breath, Cirno panting hard to keep her and Vaati from plummeting. "That's nice and all you crazy witch, but do you MIND LET ME ON YOUR BROOM BECAUSE YOU ALMOST BLEW US UP!" Vaati shouted when he found his voice, Marisa just continuing to laugh as Meiling flew over to Cirno and grabbed Vaati by the shoulders out of her grip.

"Consider this my apology for hitting you like that." Meiling said as she glared at Marisa, who at this point was barely hanging onto her broom from laughter. "Your killing my shoulders…" Vaati complained as Meiling rolled her eyes, unaware of Vaati's injuries. "Um gate lady… Vaati has bad injuries that kind of prevent him from moving well, I only grabbed him like that because I had to, and the witch here won't stop laughing." Cirno said, pointing at Marisa… who was still laughing for some reason. Meiling blinked for a moment before looking down at the teen she was holding by the shoulders. "Opps, sorry about that mister." Meiling said in a sorry tone, placing Vaati on Marisa's broom as she finally stopped laughing.

"It's alright… I'll live." Vaati said as he used his good arm to bonk Marisa on the head, the blonde recoiling from the hit before turning around in anger. "What was that for!" She shouted at her passenger.

"For nearly blowing us up you crazy witch!" Vaati shouted back as Cirno and Meiling watched the banter start up, the two arguing over how Marisa had nearly blown them up. While they argued Meiling turned to Cirno to ask a question. "So why are you all heading towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion again?"

Cirno turned away from the banter to look at Meiling for a moment before thinking a bit, looking up and remembering the scarlet mist covering the sky. "Well we are kinda trying to find out why these red clouds are everywhere." Meiling nodded before looking back at the two bantering humans. "Look she beat you, can you let us into the mansion so we can just figure out what's happening." Cirno asked, trying to be nice about it. "I wouldn't call being nearly blown up beat, but fine I'll do it. If only because I accidently hit the poor guy in the nose. And because she beat me." Meiling said as they turned back to the banter and waited for a bit as the two finally stopped arguing.

"You two done?" Meiling asked, the two humans nodded before glaring at each other. Meiling shaking her head. 'These two are more alike then I think they realize.' Meiling thought, not knowing Marisa had thought the same thing earlier. Flying towards the mansion the trio followed her. Vaati and Marisa staying silent to each other during the flight before they all landed in front of the mansion. Not noticing in the confusion Vaati had lost something rather important.

"Where is my cane?" Vaati asked out of the blue, looking around himself slowly not seeing his walking stick as he sat on Marisa's floating broom. Marisa had already started chuckling as Cirno helped Vaati look as Meiling opened the gate. About a minute later Marisa had been slapped curtesy of Cirno. Cirno had started pulling Marisa's broom along as Vaati sat on it while Marisa walked as they entered the mansion, Vaati grumbling about crazy witches as he realized that he had lost his cane on the rock when it had fallen.

Meiling closed the gate behind them as she sighed and went back to guarding the gate. That Marisa girl was nothing but trouble, but Vaati and Cirno seemed nice enough, hopefully she could count on them not to mention she had brought them here after Marisa nearly blew her up.

(Stage 2 CLEAR!)

An: Another chapter come and gone, don't worry we'll be seeing more of Meiling soon. Feel free to leave a review if you want or some criticism.