Chapter 2

The Scarlet Devil Mansion

"Huff...huff...huff...here we are...huff...so far away..."

Natsuki made it to the entrance of the Mansion after a very long run. Somehow, he seemed to have made it there before Reimu or Marisa as there seemed to be no sign of a fight at all. If there was one, the chinese girl who seems to be a gatekeeper wouldn't be unscathed. Nor sleeping. Huh, a lazy one. He also saw a sign saying 'The Scarlet Devil Mansion'. Name of the mansion, huh. Natsuki decided to climb up the walls quietly and silently dropped down on the other side.

'That was easy so far. They'll be here soon so I better run before a fight breaks out. Maybe that guard didn't notice due to the non-existent amount of mana I have, or she's actually really lazy,' thought Natsuki. Sure enough, as soon he sensed Reimu and Marisa's presence coming near, the gatekeeper also woke up and flew off towards them.

'Nevermind, I take what I said about her being lazy back. She actually does care about her job but most people have some magic in them. I bet she's a sensor type who can sense other's energy or magic.'

Entering the mansion through one of the open windows on the first floor, the guy looked around to see if anyone was in his nearby vicinity. Seeing no one, he saw a large door with a large amount of magical energy behind it.

'Probably one of the important places. Let's just take a look.'

Opening the door, he soon realized it was a library full of books and it was an immense one at that. Three floors of bookshelves, all filled to the brim with different books of all types. Some are magic books. Some are pure knowledge. Some are stories, legends and myths. Natsuki was awed by the sheer amount of information that he could access in this library. If he could borrow a book or two for a week maybe, he could learn about the ins and outs of Gensokyo!

'Unless they are from the outside and recently moved in with a whole goddamn mansion, there has to be something about the Boundary or knowledge about Gensokyo and how it works at least.'

Suddenly, Natsuki heard books crashing onto the floor with someone yelling for help. Running over to the source of the noise, he saw a pile of books on top of a girl with red hair and a pair of wings on top of her head? What is she, some sort of demon?

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Natsuki.

"I'm fine, thanks for your concern, but I gotta clean up this or else Lady Patchouli will get mad at me... WAIT WHO ARE YOU!?" yelled the demon as she got up from the pile of books.

'Oh great, I gave myself away thanks to me not thinking for myself. Now what?'

"Oh, um, just a newcomer to Gensokyo. I saw the mansion just across the lake and I wanted to pay a visit to what may be my closest neighbor, haha," said Natsuki in a very awkward voice.

"Really? Well, I hope you don't mind if I introduced you to Lady Patchouli then? Oh, I am Koakuma by the way. Usually, I would sent people packing if they came in without an invite, but I guess I'll make an exception for you since you seem sincere enough, that, and you helped me pick all the books back up." Koakuma extended a hand.

"Natsuki...Shirogane. Nice to meet you."

'No point in using that cursed name. I'd rather move on using this new last name rather than let the past haunt me,' thought Natsuki as he thought back to the suffering he endured as Natsuki Komaeda. Fate was not kind to him back in Kagutsuchi, being mentally and emotionally tortured to the point of genocidal insanity is not something he ever wanted again. He hurt so many of his friends and killed so many innocent bystanders while revelling in the destruction he caused. All hated the Komaedas for the destruction they caused back in the old world without seithr, he was lucky to be raised in the Sister's church in a time where people forgot about them. Until that bastard came and reminded everyone about what happened a thousand years ago. As if it wasn't enough, Raito Terumi decided to kill Natsuki's childhood friend in front of his eyes. He attacked Natsuki's fragile emotions, his unstable mind, and found a weak point. Then he broke him to the point Natsuki only wanted to destroy everything in sight. Natsuki did so until someone managed to break his messed up mind and fixed him back up. It was a long rehabilitation process while in hiding from the world, but he came back with a resolve to find and kill the man who was responsible for all this pain and suffering, to make sure his plans for making everyone's lives miserable and painful, just for his entertainment, does not come to fruition. And he succeeded. At the cost of his life. Or at least it would have if he hadn't arrived in Gensokyo. He previously used Shirogane as a family name while in hiding due to his new white hair color at the time thanks to all the stress he got from suppressing his urge to destroy. He eventually recovered from his trauma, and returned to stop Raito for good. Now he's here, finally deciding to put it behind him for good.

"Nice to meet you! If you take a right there, you'll see Lady Patchouli reading something. If not, she's probably somewhere here looking for a book," said a cheerful Koakuma.

As Koakuma flew away to return the remaining books to their proper places, Natsuki turned around the corner to see a girl in a pink and purple dress, sitting in a chair with a pile of books next to her on the table.

Patchouli Knowledge sighed as she cleared her throat.

"You realize that you have intruded into the Scarlet Devil Mansion without an invite?" said Patchouli.

"Yeah, about that. I was pretty curious for my own good so I decided to come over here and see things for myself. You see, if an interesting incident like this occurs, I tend to be attracted towards the source of said incident," said Natsuki in a guilty tone.

"Nevermind that, I will overlook this since you haven't made a single noise to disturb my reading. However, the head maid might be far more strict if she found out about you entering without permission. You'd probably end up the Mistress' dinner if she found you first."

"Right, wait, end up your mistress' dinner? So the mansion doesn't belong to you?"

"Oh no, it belongs to my dear friend. I happen to enjoy studying magic and gathering knowledge and she wanted me to live under the same roof as her as I happen to be in charge of some of the things that require deep knowledge of magic. One case happens to be her sister who is, how should I say this, way too powerful to be set free? I am in charge of her care to make sure nothing bad happens to the world around us."

Patchouli only sighed at the last part as it was a rather tiring thing to do. A hyper active child-like person is already a handful, but said person is also mentally unstable and has an immense amount of power.

"Hold on a second, this book..." Natsuki trailed off as he looked at what seemed like a grimoire.

"Hmm? That grimoire is a special one. I have not been able to open it...at...all," stuttered Patchouli.

"An Azure Grimoire? What's this doing here? I thought all of them were destroyed!"

...

...

...

Patchouli broke the silence saying, "You, how did you open it?"

"Ah crap, guess I'll have to explain myself. Long story short, I basically came from the Outside World after something happened to me. I happen to have one of these grimoires in my possession in the past. Somehow, my house, along with anything that was in there was sent here as well."

"You said it's an Azure Grimoire? You mean there are multiple?"

"Used to be, but they were not necessarily the same. Different grimoires were classified as Azure-class Grimoires due to have powerful they are, but the one true Azure Grimoire is called the BlazBlue. And this happens to be the copy of the BlazBlue. And I would recommend disposing of this as it has the potential to probably cause a disaster that would unite the entire world against it." said Natsuki

Patchouli was dumbfounded. She finally had the answer to opening this mysterious book, only to be told to dispose of it? A disaster so great it would unite the world?

"You seem to have some knowledge that I have yet to possess or learn about. Are you by any chance from a different...world?" asked the magician.

"I-I actually am. This BlazBlue is one of the reason why someone suffered greatly just so he could save something. This man, is the reason why I, along with pretty much the rest of my world, is still alive. I was just there to pick up the remaining pieces and make sure nothing bad would happen again. I succeeded, but the end result wasn't what I expected. Me ending up in another world. Without any power. A fresh start maybe."

"I-I'm sorry if I brought up some bad memories. Nevertheless, you said you have no power?"

Natsuki looked up at the magician.

"That is not true. You have something deep within you that needs awakening. A drive to do something.

A drive.

A drive to do something.

To live a life that is fulfilling.

Natsuki remembered the words he said when he left for the last battle against Raito.

'I want to live a fulfilling life with my friends. Maybe I'll have a family to take care of. Who knows? All I know is that I want to spend it with people around me.'

The truth behind Natsuki is revealed! Phase Shift is no longer his ability due to losing the Azure Grimoire that was fused into his left eye thanks to it dissolving in the Boundary. Here is an updated stat profile.

Natsuki Shirogane (NEW)

Type : TEC (Technical)

Drive : Unknown

Natsuki does not have a drive anymore due to his loss of the Azure Grimoire. He is happy he no longer has to depend on that cursed book however.

Distortion Type : None

Astral Heat : None

Spellcards : None

Natsuki is reliant on his own skills, but he can perform very well within small coordinated teams as well. Not much is known about his abilities, but he does have an ample amount of magic stored that is waiting to be accessed. Patchy seems to have taken an interest to him in particular, seeing how he doesn't possess not one, but multiple affinities for different elements. "It seems Natsuki could very well become a jack of all trades in danmaku battles if he is taught well."