The Voile, Scarlet Mansion

The living books weren't any more resilient than fairies, and they practice the same mob rush tactics as fairies. What makes the living books different than fairies is that each individual living book packs as much magical firepower as a Doom Fairy.

"ZAP!" Marisa casted a spell. From the tip of her magic wand, a bolt of lightning shot out at a living book, then jumped from one living book to another, taking out several dozens in a chain reaction.

Reimu released several Ofuda, taking out dozens more living books in a series of explosions.

Despite the girls' efforts, the living books continued to press on against them in huge numbers.

"Dammit. Shoulda remembered that a library's the worst possible place to run into godsdamn livin' books..." Marisa cursed as she and Reimu are backed into a wall by the increasingly huge number of living books.

With her back touching a wall, and living books surrounding her and Marisa from every other direction, Reimu tries to think of a way she or Marisa could get out of their current predicament.

There's just way too many living books for even the Ying-Yang Orb to handle, and she doesn't have enough Ofuda with her to take out all the enemies.

"If we are going down, then it won't be without a fight..." Reimu said. She then raised her gohei in a defensive manner...

Before noticing that the living books have ceased their attacks. They still have the girls surrounded and pinned down, but all of them have stopped firing, and instead are just sitting still in the air.

"Huh? Why'd they just stop attackin' us?" Marisa wondered out loud. She was preparing to take the opportunity to blast them with a powerful spell, but was stopped by Reimu.

"Could be because whoever is controlling them told them to stop." Reimu said. "Which means..."

"Their controller has arrived." A third voice finished the shrine maiden's sentence.

Immediately after hearing that voice, Reimu and Marisa noticed what appeared to be a magician with long purple hair and clad in purple pajama-like robes, holding a magic tome with one hand as she hovered several feet over the floor.

Magister of the Five Elements

Patchouli Knowledge

"My name is Patchouli Knowledge, and I am the master of The Voile, this library you are currently in." The magician introduced herself, as she slowly descended toward the floor. "I assume you are here to deal with the Scarlet Mist that currently envelops this realm?"

Marisa didn't take any steps forward like she usually would upon meeting a new adversary. She did, however, raise a fist in an attempt to make herself look cool. "Why else would we be blastin' through this mansion, kickin' asses and takin' names in the meantime? Ya ain't lookin' at the Defenders of Gensokyo for nuthin'!"

Standing right next to her, Reimu face-palmed in reaction to Marisa's hammy declaration, uttering "Gaijin mentality..."

The magician, Patchouli, made no emotional reaction toward Marisa's hammy self-introduction. "Then you have come to the right place." She said as she slowly landed on the floor. "However, while it is true that I created the Scarlet Mist, I am merely following the or-"

Patchouli's speech paused abruptly as she suddenly went into a coughing fit.

Reimu rolled her eyes upon seeing this. "Now I feel bad about having to beat her up, even if she is an enemy with direct relation to the Incident..."

Marisa had a similar reaction to the sight. "Really? Ya ain't even got a good health. Ya sure ya can take on either one of us?"

Patchouli's coughing fit lasted for just over 10 seconds before she recovered. "Perhaps not in a duel of physical prowess..." She said as she straightened her posture. "As I was saying, I am merely following the orders of the mistress of this mansion when I created the Scarlet Mist..." She then continued her speech that was interrupted by the coughing fit earlier. "And now that I have given control of it to her, you need to defeat her if you want to end it..."

"And I'm guessin' it is still your responsibility as a friend to protect her and kick our asses?" Marisa asked as she took a step forward.

"Yes." Patchouli answered bluntly. "But how can you, a mere human, ever hope to stand a chance against me, much less her?" She then added, in a somewhat intentionally insulting tone.

That statement appears to have struck a sensitive point in Marisa, as the witch narrowed her eyes and tightened her knuckles. "Let me ask ya another question first..." She said, her tone indicating a build-up of anger. "You're a magician, so that means you can sense how much magic power other people have, right?"

"That is true..." Patchouli answered. She realized that statement earlier must have pushed a sensitive spot, as she performed a gesture with her right hand to summon a small magic circle over her tome, just in case.

Marisa gritted her teeth and tightened her knuckles even further, to the point that it became very obvious that she is about to go off.

Reimu, being the most familiar with Marisa's personality, immediately figured out what is about to happen. "Marisa, please don't take it personally. Just calm do-"

"Reimu..." Marisa interrupted, as she slowly raised her magic wand. "You take care of her flunkies..."

The witch suddenly thrust her magic wand into the air, launching a magical flare that flew into the ceiling of the library and blasting a chunk out of it.

"This sorry excuse of a magician who has an even bigger ego than Doctor Strange..." Marisa, with her absolute fury apparent, stated. "She's mine."

With her intention made clear, Marisa then proceed to fire off a huge bolt of electricity, which zapped and destroyed all the surrounding living books on its way toward Patchouli.

With a wave of her hand, Patchouli raised a magic shield just in time to deflect the electricity. The deflected electricity arced off into multiple directions, tearing apart every furniture, pillars and bookshelves that got in the way.

Soon, the electricity died down, and Patchouli dispelled the shield to prepare for a counterattack... which she couldn't perform as Marisa's flying broomstick suddenly slammed tip first into her, knocking her back several feet. Patchouli managed to not get knocked off her feet, though the effort to do so is enough to send her into another coughing fit.

Marisa caught her flying broomstick as it flew back to her on its own. "How's that for a weakling, bitch?" She taunted the purple magician. "Ya ain't even got a broom! And ya just got a taste of what I can do with it!"

Patchouli said nothing as she recovered from her second coughing fit. She performed a different gesture, which added another ring of runes to the magic circle over her tome. In doing so, five crystal that are about as big as she is materialized around her, each one with a different color from the others.

"I'm sorry for unintentionally insulting you earlier..." Patchouli said to Marisa, though it is pretty obvious that her apology is faked. "But it is my duty to get rid of you from this mansion. And for that, I will be using the powers of the elements..."

Marisa, owing to her study of magic with Mima, knew what Patchouli meant by "the elements": the elements of Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth. To summon the powers of those five elements required a very high level of understanding in elemental magic, which Marisa herself never was able to learn. The fact that Patchouli is able to summon them with no effort tells Marisa that she must be a very skilled magician.

That, however, did not cause Marisa's will to falter.

"So what? Ya think ya can beat me by just being smarter?!" Marisa yelled out, before casting her spell to activate Orreries Solar System. "I'm all 'bout brute force, I tell ya! Prepare for an ass-kickin'!"

...

As Marisa started her duel against Patchouli, Reimu who was left where she was watched the event unfold with amazement. She also reminded herself not to push Marisa's berserk button, now that she knows what it is, and the consequences of pushing it.

The shrine maiden then remembered that Marisa told her to take care of the "flunkies"... which she couldn't do anything about because they have all been taken care of by the witch.

"Still, I should go help Marisa..." Reimu told herself as she took off from the floor. She was about to join Marisa in fighting Patchouli when the same instincts that helped her beat Meiling triggered again, telling her to stop right where she is, which she did.

A pink beam of light appeared exactly a second after that, burning a hole on the floor mere inches in front of her.

"I can't let you do that!" Said a woman who has long red hair, wears a jet black suit and skirt, as well as what appeared to be two pair of demonic wings - a large pair sprouting from her back, and a smaller pair from the sides of her head. "Miss Patchouli summoned me as her Assistant, and I have to do whatever she says!"

Reimu sighed. Marisa told her to deal with the "flunkies", and now a "flunky" has just presented herself to keep the shrine maiden busy. Reimu hoped that her arrogant, hot-blooded westerner of a friend can take care of Patchouli.

And just like that, the two girls dueled their respective opponents in opposite ends of The Voile...


Like I said, I felt like I must meet a deadline, and had to limit the chapter to a brief minion fight and a pre-boss battle conversation just to be able to get it posted ASAP.

But I promise that the next chapter will definitely be of Marisa vs Patchouli, and Reimu vs Koakuma. And the two fights will be happening at the same time, just like when Reimu and Marisa fought Mugetsu and Gengetsu in Spirit Dream.

Speaking of Koakuma, I wanted to give this version of her a proper name beyond something descriptively direct like "little devil", but couldn't think up of one. So I guess I'll have to handwave this Koakuma's lack of a name as Patchouli not bothering with one when she summoned her.

Speaking of Patchouli as well, there's actually a reason for her somewhat directed hostility against Marisa. But since there's no way to put said reason in the story without making it sound like needless exposition, I'll drop it right here as a sort of Word of God below...
Patchouli had to deal with a particularly annoying American merchant that acted like a total cowboy in the one week preceding her performing the ritual that dropped the Scarlet Mansion into Gensokyo. She agreed to Remilia's request to "have the Scarlet Mansion be transported to another realm" primarily just so she can get away from that jackass buckaroo, only to end up meeting another jackass buckaroo (Marisa) in the place she least expected to have any Americans at all (Gensokyo). Hence Patchouli's directed hostility against Marisa.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

Afterwords end here.