Luigi walked out of the library as a completely new person. Self-aware, almost. Everyone else who got isekaied here got the easy way out. Luigi here, however, had to suffer a bit. But now he was... mildly confident he could get through. Even without gamer stats, or harems, or some OP isekai cheat, he could slip by. However, when he walked out of the library and into the foyer, he was puzzled. He saw plenty of hobogoblins and fairy maids beforehand, but now? Dead silent. Hell, even the most pressing issue on his mind was-

Where the heck was Bowser? He was loud during his infiltration, but before Luigi entered the library, he seemed to just... cease all actions. It seemed unnatural, way too unreal. Luigi pulled out his flashlight, the white glow contrasting with the scarlet hue of the mansion. "Maaaario - hell, I'd even take Bowser at this point. Boooowser?" He called to both, but as expected, received no reply from either. He bit his lip - and walked forward a bit more.

The only sounds accompanying him was his breath and his echoed footsteps, threatening to alert someone due to how eerily silent it was. The grand foyer, he finally approached. Just turning back would allow him outside the mansion - out of this horror. But no, he had to save someone. So for once, he didn't bail for his life, and kept pressing forward. His main issue was-

He looked up, toward the room where the incident happened. A purple glow and then a thud. Luigi's curiosity got too greedy for him. He slowly dragged his feet up the stairs and into the room.

There, were silver-and-gray-lined walls, with tons of gears, turning clockwise, moving a bunch of other gears, all in different mishmashed directions..., spiraling up and down into madness. Luigi definitely saw this before, although the very rare ones back in the Mushroom Kingdom, no - even more recent - Evershade Valley. Back in Old Clockworks, this was definitely a clock tower.

Luigi did definitely see a giant clock when seeing the mansion from the outside. He was surprised there was a concept of time here. The residents of Gensokyo seemed so old-fashioned, he assumed they only had one simple formula. Day time and night time. To see an elaborate clock like this... It felt weird to see nowadays? Yeah, let's go with that.

Luigi left the door open, but felt his heart stop, as well as the gears, and the clock hands stopping too. He heard a SLAM. He turned to see the door closed by an unknown force. When he turned again, he felt his heart stop again, and then a... silver-haired maid with a blue dress was suddenly there. She was in a male bow pose, folding her arm over her stomach area, as if in front of her master. "Welcome to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Or is it too late to say that now,

you rotten intruder?" She gazed up from her bow, blue eyes beaming a deathly stare at Luigi.

...Luigi was too scared to even shiver. "Uh... Hi... uhm... who are you?" He tried to start up a casual conversation.

The maid was having none of it. "Sakuya Izayoi. Head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. And the one responsible for soon eradicating you."

"T-that's a bit over praising yourself, is it not...? Besides, calling me a rotten intruder? I thought maids were supposed to be soothing and fanservice pandering!"

"I'm a bit angry after having to deal with a giant turtle beast." Sakuya pulled a knife from... somewhere from her thigh? Well there was the fanservice. "So I apologize for not offering you better hospitality. However..." She pointed her knife at Luigi. "You may not see the mistress when I am around."

"I see..." Luigi just sighed. During his library reading, he saw Sakuya getting along with the other authors just fine. Hell, he even saw YUUKA being friendly with them. This was obvious that this version of Gensokyo was hell. "Then I'm afraid I'm... g-gonna have to fight you." Not gonna lie, he was a bit nervous. He also saw the stories where Sakuya was hostile - she seemed life threatening and impossible to defeat.

Not physically, but magically. He peeked at her power in one of these books.

Time manipulation. An ultimate cheat. Sakuya aimed her knife and threw it at Luigi, nearly hitting him. Thankfully, he leaned his head to the side, but it nearly got his NECK. ALSO thankfully, that grazed. She wasn't using her time powers, so maybe, just maybe... Luigi had a chance? Whatever slither of a chance he may have had, he had to take a huge risk.

Was it possible?

A hostile and very pissed off Sakuya, against a green man with barely any power except his Poltergust?

Only one way to find out...

"I didn't need to shave my neck..." Luigi tried to act cool.

"I'll shave your head off. Now, try to survive!" She flung more knives at Luigi. He flinched as he aimed his Poltergust nozzle and went into katana mode to deflect the knives. He physically did the Pogchamp face again.

"Ooooh, so cool!"

Sakuya jumped back, throwing more knives. Luigi picked up speed, his legs starting to SPRINT as he hacked up all the knives thrown at his way with his katana. Seems like he was entering a new battle mechanic, if you wanted to call them that. Nonstop movement with fast-paced action.

Sakuya jumped out of the clock tower and into the crimson hallway, with Luigi jumping a bit to propel himself forward. The hallway seemed to extend for ages. With that, he started sprinting, aiming his katana-tipped nozzle and his flashlight at Sakuya.

Sakuya threw a couple of knives, which Luigi strafed to the left to avoid. Luigi countered by sprinting up to Sakuya and attempting to blind her via Strobulb. She tilted her knife around, showing it's metal exterior to Luigi to show his own reflection. He held off on the Strobulb last second because he didn't want the light to reflect off. And due to his shock about Sakuya being a quick thinker, he faltered in his sprinting, lowering his speed a bit.

Luigi then equipped his hammer to get a SLAM onto Sakuya. She blocked it with her knife. Luigi broke off from the clash and switched to katana mode to literally sword dance with Sakuya, knife and katana slashing around, going under, lefts and right, Luigi's offensive options were met with Sakuya's defensive options. Luigi swung all around and clashed with Sakuya again. This time, they locked each other in place. Luigi saw this and veered back -

And kicked Sakuya's stomach with the sole of his foot.

Sakuya skidded back with her heels, twirled, and stopped dead in her tracks, ignoring all friction. She threw a knife in midair while she was kicked, but caught it by it's sharp end with her two fingers.

"Dang, you're tough..." Luigi's sweaty palm gripped his flashlight. Sakuya wasn't even trying at all.

She gazed in a half-manner at Luigi. "If you have some sort of edgy secret weapon, that pitiful state of yours would be a good time to use it."

Luigi thought about it. Well, Yukari wasn't lying about the fairy candy... And it was just one word to say, so maybe Sakuya could be caught off guard. Wouldn't hurt to try, right? He flashed a smile, and stepped back with one foot. He leaned in, clenching his fists, closing his eyes, and then roared to the very high heavens itself.

"PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADS!"

Luigi's echoes and the word itself shook Sakuya to the very core. Little did Luigi know...

It went from Lunatic mode to Impossible mode right then and there.

Sakuya brandished several knives with a slight red face. "Oh, I see how it is. Even an outsider like you is aware. I see. I shall take that word as boldness - and a direct challenge!" She jumped back, an apologetic bow coming from her. She was about to show no mercy. "But unfortunately, a human like you cannot resist my ability. Too bad I can't make this last. Oh well. It ends... now." And then, before Luigi could realise it... nothing happened. In fact, Sakuya was the only one moving...

and time came to a complete stop to everything except Sakuya herself.

She walked up closer to Luigi, examining him. Time stopped for as long as Sakuya wanted, so she took her time in examining. She looked at Luigi's face. "Hmm... Such a face of fear. Makes me feel a little guilty. But.. it is what it is. I can't afford any more slipups after what happened to the mistress earlier..." She waved her hand as a swarm of knives surrounded Luigi. Thousands and upon thousands of knives surrounding him. One outsider view couldn't even tell who was being targeted by the sheer quantity of knives. "Overkill, but I have to make sure."

She stepped back, bowing again. The flow of time resumed.

"A-aaaaa...?!" Luigi's scream couldn't even finish as he was stabbed with knives all around. He closed one of his eyes as a knife went straight into his closed eyelid. "O-oooow...! I-" Luigi tried to pull the knife out by the handle, but as soon as he even moved it, it stung like hell.

Sakuya rushed forward. "Out you go." She jumped and kicked him straight in the gut, wedging in even more of the knives that clung to his stomach. Due to the force of the kick, Luigi was flung out the window, his Poltergust shattering the window behind him.

Luigi plummeted to the ground outside the mansion, thankfully, the impact wedged out most of the knives. Unfortunately, the one knife that remained was the one in his eye. The plumber didn't notice himself, but his clothes were all torn and bloody from the knives, and his Poltergust was shattered and destroyed.

His blurred vision saw Sakuya leap out the window and land, with Meiling catching up. His hearing was muffled, but he still picked up the conversation.

"Sakuya-sama! I'm sorry, first it was that dragon monster, then this green man-!"

"It's fine, Meiling. Almost impossible because they both were powerful and arrived at the same time... But one is better than two. Now, if you want to avoid your next screwup, toss him into the lake."

"A-ah?! Sakuya? Isn't that a bit-"

"Harsh? I know. But I'm increasingly annoyed today. And I have to find out what happened to the mistress." Sakuya walked back into the mansion. Luigi was picked up by the collar via Meiling. She looked at his face.

"Oh, geez, that knife is really wedged into your eye there... sorry about that... and I'm sorry for what I'm about to do, too."

"A-ow... no... I'll come back here and prevail..." Luigi coughed.

"Mmm... With that heavy object on your back? You're likely to drown. Oh well... Survival of the fittest with this latest incident." She threw him up and kicked him far away.

"AAAAAAAH!" Luigi screamed as he plummeted...

Right into the Misty Lake.

This mansion raid... even with Bowser's interruption, was impossible. Luigi needed more than just one. And with that thought in mind...

With water covering his vision, and his Poltergust sinking him into the depths, his eyes slowly closed.