The Netherworld
"Care to elaborate why?"
Alice gritted her teeth and took several steps back when a slip of her tongue led to the Guardians of the Sanctuary becoming suspicious of her having involvement in the Incident they are investigating.
"I-I am contractually obliged not to reveal anything about my employer..." The puppeteer responded.
That, unfortunately, got the Guardians even more suspicious of her.
"So you do admit that your employer has something to do with this Incident." Reimu took note of the accidentally revealed fact.
"Ya might wanna tell us what ya know 'bout this person." Marisa interrogated Alice, twirling her twin revolvers to emphasize her intention. "Or we Guardians are goin' to have to kick your ass!"
"Are you sure kicking her posterior is all it will take to persuade her?" Sakuya asked Marisa, confused about the wording used by the witch.
Marisa's smirk that was directed against Alice disappeared instantly the moment she heard Sakuya's confused question.
"kickin' ass is a metaphor for defeatin' someone in battle..." Marisa explained for Sakuya with a tone that sounded like she wanted to face-palm.
"I see..." The maid noted.
Reimu, holding tightly onto the Sacred Hakurei Gohei, took a step forward toward Alice's direction. "As Marisa was saying, we can end this peacefully if you just tell us what you know..."
Alice shook her head defiantly. "I'm sorry, but I can't."
Then with a wave of her hands, the puppeteer commanded Shanghai and Hourai to move in front of her, as they each held a shield and a lance and assumed a defensive position.
Seeing Alice preparing herself for the violent route, the Guardians each held out their own weapons in preparation for combat.
"But I assume you won't let me off so easily now..." Alice then said. "If you have to 'kick my arse', then so be it."
Shanghai and Hourai pointed their lances at the Guardians, as they recognized the situation their master has been put into.
"Shanghai, Hourai," The puppeteer then ordered the dolls. "Attack."
Shanghai is the first to charge forward with her lance poised, launching herself toward Reimu like a projectile...
Only to then somehow trip over on air, causing her to tumble toward the cobblestone path and face-plant onto it, dropping her lance and shield in the process.
The Guardians paused at the awkward sight of a small doll with a lance and shield stumbling out of the air all of a sudden. Alice narrowed her eyes at the disbelief that what she just saw actually happened, when it shouldn't be possible at all. Even Hourai lowered her weapons to groan at her sister's epic clumsiness.
"How clumsy must one be in order to trip on air?" Reimu wondered out loud.
Although Shanghai got back up pretty quickly and collected her weapons just as quickly before resuming charging toward Reimu, who parried the attack with the Sacred Hakurei Gohei.
For a doll that's smaller than a fairy, Shanghai is actually stronger than she looks. Reimu found herself unable to push the blue doll back despite using all her strength.
Marisa stepped forward in an attempt to help Reimu, but had to jump back at the last second when Hourai suddenly charged toward her. The witch fired her twin revolvers at the red doll, who just blocked all the shots with her shield as she charged toward the witch again.
"Oh, cra-" Marisa uttered as she watched Hourai charge toward her. She can't dodge as quickly when she isn't on her broom, and there is not enough time for her to bring out her magic wand before Hourai closes the distance and skewers her...
All of a sudden, Sakuya appeared out of thin air and swatted Hourai away from Marisa with the pommel of one of her knives.
"Sometimes, the answer to a problem isn't to shoot it." Sakuya quipped as she flipped the knife and wiped its pommel on her clothes.
Marisa scoffed at the quip. "Gee, thanks for the save..." She then said.
"I'm just doing what I thought I should do." Sakuya replied.
Then without looking away from Marisa, Sakuya raised her knife again to parry Hourai as the red doll attempted another charge aimed at the maid.
Sakuya at first held back Hourai with only one hand on her knife. But then she had to use her other hand to put force on the knife once she realized that Hourai is stronger than she looked.
Marisa seized this opportunity to draw her revolvers and shoot Hourai point-blank while the red doll is occupied. To the witch's surprise, the red doll merely flinched a tiny bit, not enough for Sakuya to push back against her.
Hourai then slammed her shield against Sakuya's face, knocking the silver-haired maid back and causing her to fall over. The red doll then threw her lance at Marisa, who managed to dodge it.
The thrown weapon sailed past Marisa and went on toward Reimu, who noticed it due to her instincts and broke off from her clash with Shanghai so she can duck under it as it flew over her.
The thrown lance continued on its trajectory until it embedded itself into a stone lantern, shattering part of it. The lance then flew back to Hourai's hand on its own.
"That's a really strong doll with a really strong weapon." Marisa said nervously. "This is gonna be so much harder than when the last two dolls she tried to kill us with..."
"Last two?" Sakuya, brandishing more of her throwing knives, asked in curiosity.
"Long story..." Marisa answered.
...
After dodging the lance that was thrown by Hourai (that wasn't even aimed at her), Reimu fired some danmaku at Shanghai as the blue doll charged toward her, with Shanghai's shield tanking all of the shots.
As Shanghai neared her, Reimu sidestepped to dodge the blue doll's attack, then made a quick turnaround to swing the Sacred Hakurei Gohei at her.
Shanghai was sent tumbling forward as the weapon connected with her back. Though the blue doll recovered quickly as she turned around to attempt to stab Reimu, who dodged it before swinging the Gohei at Shanghai again. This time, Shanghai was able to raise her shield in time to block the attack, before retaliating with a simple kick... which was so poorly executed that Reimu didn't even need to dodge or parry it, as she just stood still and watched the kick miss her face by a few inches.
Reimu's response to such a lame attack is to hold the Ying-Yang Orb up and bring it down like a hammer upon Shanghai.
The shrine maiden's counterattack was so much more effective, as it slammed the blue doll down toward the cobblestone pathway hard enough to crack it.
Surprisingly, Shanghai remained intact despite the strength of that attack and getting slammed into the ground. She soon got back up and lunged at Reimu once more.
Reimu dodged that attack as well before bringing the Orb down on Shanghai once more, slamming the blue doll against the cobblestone pathway again.
Shanghai remained relatively intact despite getting hit by the same cobblestone-cracking attack twice. Though this time, she didn't get back up. Rather, she tried to before collapsing and seemingly falling unconscious.
...
Marisa, having had the time to holster her twin revolvers and draw her magic wand, raised a magic shield to block another one of Hourai's charges toward her.
Not only is Hourai not bounced away upon hitting the shield, she in fact has the tip of her lance embedded into it, as she tried to push through it, with Marisa struggling to push back and keep the shield up.
However, Hourai is forced to break off when she noticed Sakuya throwing a barrage of knives toward her, and use her own shield to block the knives.
With Hourai temporarily distracted, Marisa lowered the shield and fired a stream of electricity at the red doll.
Without her shield in the way of the attack, Hourai took the full brunt of the electricity spell, throwing her against a stone lantern hard enough to smash it into pieces.
To Marisa's and Sakuya's surprise, Hourai emerged from the attack unscathed, as she then threw her lance at them in retaliation.
Marisa and Sakuya dodged the thrown lance and watched it embed itself into another stone lantern.
Instead of calling the lance back to her, Hourai decided to rush forward and hit Marisa on the head with her shield while the witch is distracted by the lance, causing the witch to collapse onto the ground, dazed by the attack. Hourai then tried to do the same to Sakuya, who parried the attack with both hands holding a knife each.
Hourai suddenly let go of her shield and gave it a flying kick while it was still held against Sakuya's knives, sending the maid stumbling backwards onto the ground. The red doll then called her lance and shield back to her, before throwing the former again at Sakuya while she is still flat on the ground.
Sakuya quickly raised her right hand and performed a finger snap, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Hourai wasn't expecting Sakuya's disappearing act at all, so the red doll became confused as she wondered what happened.
Sakuya quickly reappeared behind Hourai and slashed at the red doll, with the slash managing to sever her left hand. Sakuya then placed the edge of her knife over Hourai's neck.
"You are intelligent, so perhaps we can come to an agreement that doesn't involve cutting off another body part..." Sakuya told Hourai threateningly.
Hourai responded by dropping her shield, grabbing the knife with her right hand, pull it out of Sakuya's hand, before delivering a roundhouse kick to the silver-haired maid's face, knocking her down to the ground.
Hourai then called her lance back with her right hand, and prepared to bring it down upon Sakuya while she is still on the ground...
The red doll's attack is interrupted when she suddenly got blasted by a jet of freezing wind, freezing her into a block of ice as she then fell onto the ground with a thud.
It turns out that the freezing wind had come from Marisa, who just recovered from her daze and struck Hourai unaware.
"Man, that shield bash really did hurt." Marisa then said as she rubbed her head to relieve herself of the leftover pain from getting dazed. "Now I know why Steve Rogers does it all the time..."
Sakuya, of course, doesn't understand the reference Marisa just made, so she looked at the witch with a quizzical tilt.
Marisa did notice Sakuya's confusion. "It's a reference to one of my favorite stories." She explained.
Sakuya just nodded in response.
The two then looked at Hourai who, although unable to move due to being frozen in a solid block of ice, is still able to emote, and expressed her disdain at being defeated with a furious look.
Marisa took the opportunity to taunt Hourai with a rude hand gesture.
"I don't think it is wise to taunt a downed opponent." Sakuya remarked.
Marisa just ignored that, as she then turned toward Reimu to see how the shrine maiden is doing. "Yo, Reimu! Ya doin' fine there?"
The timing is quite appropriate, as Reimu dealt the knockout blow to Shanghai at the exact same time. Once Reimu has confirmed that Shanghai has been knocked out, she turned toward Marisa and Sakuya as well. "I'm doing fine." She said. "This was much easier than the last two of Alice's dolls that we fought."
"Maybe it's cause these two ain't much of berserkers than those two?" Marisa suggested.
"Maybe?" Reimu said.
With the dolls dealt with, the Guardians then turned their attention toward Alice.
Alice gritted her teeth in frustration as she watched Shanghai and Hourai getting beaten.
"We beat your dolls again, Alice!" Marisa taunted the puppeteer. "Anything else ya have up your sleeves?"
Alice lowered her head and rubbed her forehead for a bit, before raising her head again to look at the Guardians again.
"As a matter of fact, I do."
Alice then raised a hand to perform a finger snap. Immediately after that finger snap, dozens of dolls armed with a variety of weapons materialized into existence around her.
The Guardians took a step back in response to what they just saw.
Alice took a step forward in a menacing manner before uttering a short sentence...
"Die for me."
Now, Alice obviously knows something about Yuyuko and her plan to steal spring, and we know the Guardians of the Sanctuary will kick her British "arse" and make her spit out everything she knows about it...
I've got nothing else to say on this...
"And that, as they say, is that."
Afterword ends here...