The Voile

When she thought about it for a bit, Marisa found the whole situation to be a bit funky...

At one moment, this purple beansprout of a magician calling herself Patchouli showed up, saying that she created the Scarlet Mist under orders from mistress of the mansion. Then Patchouli said that she passed control of the Scarlet Mist to the mistress, and that defeating said mistress is now necessary to put an end to it. Then Patchouli said that anyone who wanted to meet the mistress will have to go through her first...

At first, Marisa thought that she and Reimu should be able to handle Patchouli if they worked together.

But then the purple beansprout just had to insult her for being a "mere human".

It was initially nothing personal, but Patchouli had just made it personal for Marisa...

Which is why the witch is using Orerries Solar System to pelt the purple magician with enough danmaku to demolish a large house. Reimu would've called this overkill, but right now, Marisa only wants to prove Patchouli wrong.

Patchouli was no slouch either. While her coughing fits earlier has proven that she isn't physically fit and thus is unable to dodge danmaku like Marisa could, her elemental stones gave her a protective shield similar to Marisa's own Orerries Solar System, allowing her to tank everything Marisa could throw at her. In addition, the elemental stones, as it turns out, could each individually pump out more danmaku than all four multicolored orbs of Orerries Solar System combined.

So when Patchouli counterattacked, Marisa is forced to cease her house-demolishing barrage to evade the hill-pulverizing barrage aimed at her (although the immediate concern is to the barrage taking out the multicolored orbs which would then dispel Orerries Solar System and the shield it provides) by flying behind a bookshelf.

That bookshelf didn't last more than three seconds before it was pulverized into splinters by Patchouli's barrage, forcing Marisa to make a dash toward another bookshelf, which lasted just as briefly against the barrage. Marisa realized that Patchouli's massive firepower meant that taking cover is just as bad as standing out in the open, and so she decided to stop hiding and focus on dodging instead.

"Geez, for someone who owns a library, she sure had no freakin' problem smashin' it up..." Marisa thought to herself as she tried her best to avoid getting hit.

Marisa dodged Patchouli's barrage for a bit before flinging a slicing spell at the magician's elemental stones.

The sound of a blade bouncing off a hard surface indicated that the spell didn't work.

"I appreciate your ability to evade my attacks and pull off a counterattack..." Patchouli temporarily paused her attacks as she told Marisa. "However, you need to try harder than that."

The purple magician then resumed her attacks, spraying a huge amount of danmaku and laser beams at the witch.

"Dangit!" Marisa cursed as she braced herself for the attack.

...

Meanwhile, Reimu saw how Marisa was having trouble with Patchouli, and wanted to give her a hand, in spite of what the witch told her.

Unfortunately for the shrine maiden, she is currently being kept busy by Patchouli's assistant.

The assistant's attacks aren't powerful, or massive in volume. But she is very persistent in her attacks, and very good at dodging attacks too, as Reimu has troubles landing any hits with danmaku, Ofuda, or the Ying-Yang Orb.

Reimu swerved to the left as the assistant fired a pair of laser beams at her. She then fired back at the assistant, who dodged the shots before continuing with another pair of laser beams.

Damn it! Where is that intuition that helped me get through the front gate?! Reimu mentally swore as she continued dodging and counterattacking as best as she could.

All of a sudden, several stray danmaku and laser beams from Marisa's and Patchouli's duel shot toward the direction of Reimu and the assistant, interrupting their fight as they both backed off in order to not become victims of friendly fire by their respective allies.

Reimu recalled chastising Marisa about stray shots back at the farmlands of Hoppou-ri. She reminded herself to watch out for stray shots, and to chastise Marisa about it again later.

The assistant quickly recovered from the shock of almost becoming friendly fire fodder. "Well, that was a shock, almost becoming victims of friendly fire." She said casually. "So, where were we aga-"

Reimu decided not to wait for the assistant to finish speaking, so she launched the Ying-Yang Orb at her opponent while she is distracted.

The assistant did notice the attack, and simply moves out of the way.

"Oh, so that's where we were! Now I think we should raise the game, don't you think?" The assistant said, before enveloping her whole body in a pink aura as a form of powering up.

Reimu clenched her fists. The assistant's power-up phase isn't very strong, but isn't weak either. If anything, this could take a while...

"How about this?" The assistant taunted. "Doubting your ability to beat me n-"

Her speech was interrupted again, this time due to her taking a direct hit from one of Patchouli's larger and more powerful danmaku that went astray. The danmaku was large enough that it took the assistant with it in its trajectory, pushing her across the Voile into a wall.

Reimu flinched as the large danmaku exploded on impact with the assistant literally right in the middle of it. Wasn't expecting that, but thank the gods for it... She thought to herself.

The large danmaku itself reminded the shrine maiden that she still has another enemy to beat in this library, and a friend to help...

...

Marisa is running out of options.

Most of her attacks are not very effective against Patchouli's five elemental stones, and she's already down three of the four multicolored orbs that made up Orerries Solar System. If she loses one more of the orb, she'll lose the shield provided by the spell, and be at the mercy of Patchouli's powerful attacks.

Marisa, taking cover behind a marble pillar, started to regret telling Reimu she can handle this herself. "Yeah, sure, telling ya friend you can handle this yourself only to realize that ya bit off more than ya can chew. Real smooth, Marisa..." She chastised herself as Patchouli's danmaku and lasers tore through her surroundings.

She overworked her brain trying to come up with a usable tactic when Patchouli stopped attacking all of a sudden.

"Huh? Why the heck did she stop?" Marisa wondered, as she took a peek from behind her cover.

It turns out Patchouli stopped attacking because she just had another coughing fit. Marisa was glad about this, as it gave her some breathing room as well as a chance to retaliate.

"Well, that works too. Sucks to be in poor health."

Jumping out of cover, the witch guided her last multicolored orb into position, aiming and then firing a rainbow laser at one of the five elemental stones.

This time it worked, as the rainbow laser tore through the elemental stone representing Water, causing it to shatter into tiny pieces.

Patchouli recovered from her coughing fit right at that moment. Her stoic face expressed dissatisfaction about losing one of the stones.

"Attacking me when I'm helpless..." Patchouli said with a scowl (or as much as a stoic face can scowl, anyway). "Weren't witches like you supposed to duel honorably...?"

Marisa scoffed in response. "Heh. I dunno how long it has been since ya stepped outta this library, but in the world I was born into, it's all 'bout bein' pragmatic!"

Patchouli narrowed her eyebrows. "Pragmatic, you say...?" She then moved her hand over her tome, rearranging the position of the remaining four elemental stones behind her. "Then I will show you what pragmatism truly is..."

Just as Patchouli is about to begin her next phase of attacks, the Wood elemental stone inexplicably shattered into pieces as something smashed its way through from behind the purple magician.

"What...?" Patchouli uttered in disbelief.

The same object quickly came back and almost smashed the Earth elemental stone had Patchouli not maneuvered it out of the way in time.

That was when Marisa squinted her eyes and noticed what the object is: Reimu's Ying-Yang Orb.

"You told me to take care of the 'flunkies', and I just did." Reimu told Marisa as she caught the Ying-Yang Orb after calling it back to her. "Or rather, this purple magician did, via friendly fire."

Marisa blinked for a bit before she chortled. "Friendly fire... HA! And I'm the 'mere human'!" She then proceed to mock Patchouli. "Ain't really a pro if ya accidentally take out ya own teammate!"

Patchouli broke her stoic face and made an obvious scowl upon being mocked for her accidental mistake. "Bloody buckaroos..." She cursed under her breath.

"By the way, ain't ya gonna show me what pragmatism really is?" Marisa then added as she twirled her magic wand. "How 'bout I give ya a hand?"

Saying that, the witch then aimed her magic wand at something on the ceiling above Patchouli.

"BLAST!"

With a loud chant, a magic missile spawned from the tip of the wand and launched itself toward its target: the base of a large ornate chandelier.

Patchouli gasped as she realized what Marisa's intent was.

An explosion obliterated the base of the chandelier as the magic missile impacted it. No longer having anything keeping it on the ceiling, it began to plummet toward the purple magician standing right below it.

In a moment of panic, Patchouli (whose frequent coughing fit meant that she cannot move very fast and thus prevents her from getting out of the way quickly) commanded the remaining three elemental stones to target the falling chandelier. While the chandelier is mostly made up of glass fractals which are easily taken care of by the barrage of danmaku and laser beams, it is still a rather large chandelier, not to mention that its steel frame is tougher than the fractals and thus much harder to break apart.

As Patchouli is kept busy trying to reduce the falling chandelier to harmless tiny pieces (the shield provided to her by the elemental stones can shrug off an impact, but it is the stones themselves that she is concerned with), Reimu and Marisa took the opportunity to (along with being pragmatic) focus their fire on the elemental stones.

Of course, Patchouli is so focused on taking out the falling chandelier that she didn't notice being fired upon until the Earth stone was blown up by Reimu's Ofuda. And even then, it was too late to do anything as the chandelier landed with a loud crash, burying the purple magician under a pile of expensive glass and steel.

Reimu flinched at the sight. "That is going to hurt..."

Marisa, on the other hand, gleefully blew a raspberry at Patchouli. "How's that for a 'mere human', ya jackass!"

Reimu turned toward Marisa. "All that just because she insulted you?"

Marisa simply shrugged in response. "Says the girl with weight issu-"

Reimu grabbed Marisa by her collar upon hearing that. "I dare you to finish that..." Reimu threatened while glaring straight into Marisa's eyes.

"I'm so sorry..." Marisa nervously apologized as she got reminded what Reimu's berserk button is.

Both girls quickly forgot about the personal issue when they noticed Patchouli digging herself out of the pile of glass and steel that was the chandelier. The purple magician is unhurt thanks to the shield provided by the elemental stones. Although the shield probably isn't there anymore due to the elemental stones not surviving the crashing of the chandelier.

Reimu let go of Marisa, and pointed her gohei at Patchouli in anticipation of an attack. Marisa did the same with her magic wand.

Rather than resuming with her attack, Patchouli just raised a hand to signify her surrender, then coughed for a bit as she swiped some glass particles off of her. "That was... very impressive..." She told Marisa. "I stand corrected. Perhaps you are not a 'mere' human, after all..."

"Anything else ya wanna say?" Marisa asked as she kept her wand pointed at Patchouli.

Patchouli remained silent for a few seconds before answering, "I'm sorry for insulting you..."

Marisa looked like she accepted the apology, as she lowered her magic wand, prompting Reimu to lower her gohei as well.

"Now, which way to your mistress?" Reimu interrogated.

Patchouli answered by simply pointing behind her, at an ornate door on the second floor of the library.

"Thank you." Reimu responded. "And I'm sorry in behalf of myself and Marisa for wrecking your library, even if you did most of the damage yourse-"

Without warning, Marisa suddenly raised her magic wand again, and blasted Patchouli in the face with the same magic missile spell from before.

Patchouli exclaimed "Mukyuu!" as the magic missile blew her into a bookshelf, which then collapsed onto her with all its weight, burying her underneath.

"Your apology ain't sincere enough!" Marisa quipped as she dispelled Orerries Solar System. "Take that, ya Doctor Strange wannabe!"

Reimu reeled back in surprise. But having seen something similar happening to Meiling, she isn't as shocked about it, though she is still pretty shocked. "Again?! Why did you have to... Oh, never mind. I could never understand you..."


And that, my dear readers, is why you do not insult the black-and-white witch.

Anyways, real life's catching up with me again, so expect delays to future updates that I have no control of. Although the delay for this chapter can indeed be partially blamed on Writer's Block. Sorry.

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

Afterwords end here.