Disclaimer: Touhou belongs to Zun.
A/N: Haha! 100k words in only 74 chapters! On average, 1371 words per chapter! Wooooooo, go me! I'm happy with how the story is turning out, and wonder where we will be at in another 100k words... Heck, I was expecting myself to grow tired of this by now, but the constant praise is great motivation! I expected to have bit off more than I can chew with a story that I don't intend to end. I've always hated to see things end, and this fanfic will hopefully keep going and going! Well, on with the show!
Twilight, Scarlet Devil Mansion:
"Mima." Mima looked up from the meditation she had ocupying herself with, so as to pass the hours.
"Yes?" Mima had a feeling she knew what she was going to say, but she let the girl voice her own words.
"I will need your help for the last bit, an infusion, that's all." Just as she expected... The adding of 3 people at once was too much, even for one with as much magical energies as Patchouli.
"Sure thing." Mima got up from the bench, and on the way to the door she began to pulse with magic, more and more, stronger and stronger, untill it was no longer but a pulse, and had become a constant flow. The room was slowly becoming saturated in raw magical power. The air had a somewhat sweet taste to it, odd.
As Mima grew closer, the mana began to vacuum towards her back, forming a pair of purple bat wings. When she flapped them once, she began levitating, her body ready for what she need do.
"...Begin." Patchouli hated running out of magic, and very rarely did so. While she could devour magic energies, she rarely made use of it.
Mima's eyes flared black, her wings ripping themselfs appart, flowing towards the Magician, only to vanish, absorbed by her.
Slowly but surely, the energy in Patchouli was replenished, her body felt lighter, her breathing less laboured than usual.
"Khh..." Mima fell from the air, exausted by the energy transfer.
One by one the runes of the door began to glow a chilling icy blue, followed by a devouring black, and ending with white, which hardly had any presence of its own. With that, we were now allowed into the room.
"...Hmm..." Patchouli had a second goal from doing the testing in her room. At the end of being allowed in, the souls of those added always resonate with the door, the frigid blue was Cirno's soul, the hungry black, Rumia's, while the empty white was my own. Patchouli had never seen a soul that was pure white, and would need to do research into the matter.
"Yeah..." Mima knew to an extent the workings of the door. That last soul had to be mine, as the other two were rather obvious, which was slightly disturbing to her, and she could tell that her friend felt the same. Not only is a white soul odd, but it had no way to describe the one it belonged to... like a blank slate.
"Guys, we can go in now." Mima figured she might as well save the athsmatic girl the trouble of speaking, motioning the rest of us to follow.
I carefully picked up Cirno, not seeing any reason to wake her.
By the time I was able to get up, Rumia had already made her way to the beaconing Mima.
The first to enter the door was Patchouli, who placed her palm on the door, vanishing.
"Rumia, you next. Do as Patches did." Rumia, without any sign of worry, placed her hand upon the door, vanishing.
"Usagi, Cirno's going to need to be awake to get in." And here I had hoped to carry her a bit longer...
I began to hold Cirno's nose shut, and plug her mouth with a kiss. It wasn't long untill she woke up, gasping for air, before she found herself standing on the ground.
"Touch the door." Mima saw no reason to explain why, but Cirno did as asked, vanishing in an instant.
I looked to Mima, who gave a nod. I knew what to do, so I simply touched the door, feeling my body seemingly lose all weight.
Unknown location:
I suddenly felt as light as air, the air tasting of the sweetest of magics, and my body touching no ground.
I looked about, seeing nothing but void, nothing at all.
"Hello?" I asked, somewhat fearing that I was alone in a place where there is nothing at all as far as the eye can see. My voice echoed through the void. How does a voice echo off of nothing?
It wasn't long before the odd floating sensation faded, and I regained my sight. I was inside of a dark room, full of ruined thing. Stuffed animals, a few pieces of furniture, and a bunch of rainbow lights in a pair of rows. My vision quickly adjusted to the lack of light, as though a dimmer switch was allowing more light.
On a ruined bed, a sad looking girl sat, her wings and outfit quite familiar.
"...Who are you?" The question seemed odd... Shouldn't she be able to tell? I'm rather memorable, what with the white hair.
"Flandre?" The girl rose a brow.
"Ehh? No, I'm Flandre... You can't take my name, it's mine!" The odd desperation in her voice had sent a chill down my spine. What? How does one... steal a name?
"Wait, I don't want to steal your name!" She seemed to calm down a moment, before once more growing annoyed.
"What, is my name too good for you? Are you saying my name doesn't match me? !" Suddenly her young sounding voice took on a threatening tone.
"N-no... I like your name, It's just that I have one already..." The girl didn't respond for a moment.
"Really?" She seemed different, as though she was a bit unhinged than when I met her earlier.
"Yeah! I love your name, but I already have one! My name's Usagi, don't you remember?" I heard her laugh slightly.
"No... all I remember is nothing but this dark room... The last 400 years have been... rather loney..." What? But we just met today!
"Ohh... I'm... sorry to hear that." Once more she laughed, slightly louder.
"Sorry? For what?" she sounded almost happy, but somehow... a bit crazy. "...What have you done? You were the one to stick me in here weren't you? !" Wait, what? What's with these sudden mood swings!
"Flandre, I don't even know what you mean!" The girl wasn't listening, though. Her wings began to glow brighter, and brighter.
"You must have made me break Mommy and Daddy! You must have!" Wait, she... killed her parents?
"I'll break you, like everything else!" This aura... I can see her power, it's so potent!
I began to back away, afraid for my life.
"Kyuu!" Suddenly everything went black, my eyes popping, my bones all breaking in many location. My skin burned, my muscles torn, ligaments snapped, organs failed. In an instant, I was utterly destroyed.
Patchouli's private library:
I awoke in a bed which I'd never seen before, in a room that looked rather dusty.
Looking about, there were many work stations for various forms of magic, from a table covered in vials for alchemy, to a table for both sorcery and illusion, and even a magic circle for conjuration. I felt as though I had a horrible dream, but I couldn't remember it at all.
"Awake, are we?" I turned, seeing Mima, who had just entered through a gate much like that one I had used before.
"Ahh, yeah... Where am I?" Mima helped me up from the bed.
"Patchouli's room. You blacked out when you teleported into her private library, so she had me place you in here, figuring it best to simply let you awaken on your own. She started work on discovering how to fix Cirno, but hasn't had any luck as of yet. Before she lookes into you, she needed to know some things about you. Said it would be easier that way, instead of taking more work than needed."
Mima motioned for me to touch the door, not expecting me to hesitate as I did.
"What's wrong?" She seemed quite curious over my hesitation.
"I... don't know, but I'm somewhat... afraid..." I remembered my dream, while not remembering my dream. It was a horrible nightmare that felt far too real, and it had given me a slight fear of the doors, but the details of the dream were lost to me.
"Come now, don't be such a baby... Will it help if I hold your hand...?" Mima sighed, finding my reaction somewhat troubling.
"Y-yeah..." My face lit up with a smile. If my hand was held, that just might help.
"Alright, touch the door at the same time, or you'll be left behind, okay?" The lengths she went to make me happier touched me, even if they were rather small lengths.
At the same time, we both pressed our hands to the gate, instantly disappearing. However, this time I was fine. We materialized on the other side, no worse for wear. Mima let go of my hand and I followed after her to where the rest of the group were located. On all sides, there were library shelves, much like the ones of the Voile, but reinforced with magic.
This was where Patchouli kept all of her more dangerous books, as well as her magical artifacts. The shelves were inscribed with numerous runes, warding them from magical damage, some water runes causing water resistance, as well as fire wards on... well, everything, so as to make the books, the shelves, and even the floor, fire proof.