Mistress's Room; Scarlet Mansion

"En garde!"

Remilia let out a battle cry before lunging toward Reimu and Marisa with her aura-infused spear raised.

Reimu and Marisa dodged the attack simply by moving out of the way, resulting in Remilia continuing on her trajectory uncontrollably until she impacted the section of wall next to the double doors hard enough to form a crater on it.

"Jeez, why do spear users have to do that all the time?" Marisa wondered out loud.

Remilia didn't even need to recover from the impact, as she quickly launched herself out of the crater toward the duo once again.

Reimu and Marisa fired danmaku at Remilia, to absolutely no effect despite obviously scoring several direct hits. They then dodged her lunge in the exact same way.

Once again, the vampire mistress continued on her trajectory as her intended target dodged her attack. But this time, she is able to put herself to a stop before impacting another wall.

"I will make you pay for embarrassing me!" Remilia declared as she spun her spear again as an act of intimidation, this time managing to not hit her head with its shaft. "In your blood!"

"Just how big is your ego, for you to blame us for your mistake?" Reimu pointed out.

"Big enough that there ain't no point in arguing with her about it." Marisa pointed out for Reimu.

Remilia then threw her spear at Reimu, with enough force that a shockwave is produced just from it leaving the vampire's grip.

Reimu raised her gohei to block the thrown spear. But while it does manage to prevent the spear from impaling her, the spear was thrown with such strength that it pushed the shrine maiden along in its trajectory, and continued flying in its path until it smashed a large hole right through the section of wall under the stained glass window.

...

The impact and the sound of marble exploding into tiny pieces disoriented Reimu enough that all she could hear is ringing in her ears as she flew out of the Scarlet Mansion through the hole along with Remilia's spear. She could hear Marisa calling out to her, but the witch's words could not be identified due to the ringing.

Remilia then closed the distance between her and Reimu in the blink of an eye, reclaiming her spear as she then tried to slash at Reimu with it.

Reimu, despite the disorientation, is able to notice the incoming attack and raise her gohei in time to intercept the slash.

There was an explosion of magic energy as the sharp end of Remilia's spear made contact with Reimu's gohei...

...

Hakurei Shrine

Genji and Konngara were both sitting on the shrine's roof when they noticed an explosion of magic energy from off the distance.

"That energy..." Genji said worriedly. "Reimu is in danger..."

"Do not worry." Konngara reassured as she took a sip from her sake bowl. "Her time has not yet come. She will prevail in her mission."

Genji glanced at the Astral Knight. "How are you so sure?"

Konngara set her sake bowl down. "For she took with her a spirit of determination that will carry her through all challenges."

"But all of the previous Hakurei shrine maidens did." Genji pointed out.

Konngara remained silent for a few seconds. Then she responded, "That, and a regalia of the Hakurei clan she took with her..."

Genji was about to ask what Konngara meant by "regalia" when he realized what she meant by it. "Though I wish she realizes that she will have to overcome the embarrassment she will feel about using it..." He spoke.

At that moment, Ellen wandered absentmindedly into the shrine grounds, seemingly looking for something.

"Hello~" Ellen greeted the two ancient beings, not realizing who they really are. "Have you two seen Miss Yumemi anywhere? She asked for a package and I was going to give it to her..."

...

Scarlet Mansion

There was an explosion of magic energy as the sharp end of Remilia's spear made contact with Reimu's gohei...

And the next thing Reimu knows, she is holding the two halves of the gohei in both of her hands.

Reimu was at shock. She had just lost one of her two weapons...

"Anything else you might want to add, human?" Remilia taunted as she hovered a short distance in front of Reimu.

Reimu, with unexpressed fury, put the broken gohei away. "This...!" She answered the taunt as she summoned the Ying-Yang Orb and launched it toward Remilia.

Remilia easily dodged the incoming projectile by side-stepping it, and then used the split second to close the distance with Reimu again. The vampire un-summoned her spear within that split second before putting a crushing grip on both of Reimu's arms.

"I congratulate you and your friend for coming this far, human." Remilia, tightening her inhumanly strong grip on Reimu, told her. "But there is no way you can possibly win against a noble vampire like me..."

Not responding to that spiel, Reimu kept her glare on Remilia as the Ying-Yang Orb made its return trip toward its owner.

Unfortunately for Reimu, Remilia did notice the Ying-Yang Orb coming back. Remilia turned around without releasing her strong grip on Reimu, putting the shrine maiden between herself and the Ying-Yang Orb.

The Orb impacted Reimu in her back with a loud whack. Although danmaku magic meant that the Orb cannot cause physical injuries to anybody (inanimate objects are an entirely different matter), it still knocked the air out of Reimu's lungs, along with the pain in her back which caused her to become unable to focus on anything.

"Admit it. Nothing can stop me from ruling over this land as its master!" Remilia declared. "Because it is my destiny, and I have seen it!"

Reimu, in an attempt to defy Remilia, attempted to knee her in the abdomen.

Remilia briefly looked down at Reimu's knee in response to the attack, then back at the shrine maiden with a smug look on her face.

The vampire promptly returned the favor, kneeing Reimu in the abdomen so hard that she became overcome by pain, and would've plummeted from the air if it wasn't for Remilia's strong grip on her.

"Let 'er go, ya pale-skinned bloodsucker!" Marisa shouted at Remilia, as she came flying on her broomstick. The witch refrained from firing any shots at Remilia due to Reimu being used as a body shield.

Remilia simply released the grip of her right hand from Reimu, re-summoned her spear into it, and then threw the spear at Marisa, again with enough force that a shockwave is produced just from it leaving her hand.

The thrown spear moved way faster than any danmaku, and is so fast that Marisa couldn't dodge it, so she quickly raised a shield spell in an attempt to block it. However, while the shield spell saved Marisa from being impaled, the spear hit with so much force that she is still blown off of her flying broomstick and back through the hole in the mansion that she just came out of.

Reimu couldn't even call out to her friend due to the pain from the earlier attacks overwhelming her ability to respond.

"Do you want to know what happened to those who fought me in the past?" Remilia taunted, as she used one hand to move the collar of Reimu's haori jacket away from her neck, and the other to keep the shrine maiden secured in her grip.

Despite the overwhelming pain, Reimu can still see enough with her eyes to notice the gleam in Remilia's eyes, as well as the fact that the vampire is bearing her fangs.

Reimu dreaded what is coming.

"They've all become my meals... or in Sakuya's case, my servant." Remilia declared. "Now, which one of the two will you choose? Be my meal? Or survive and be my servant?"

"Go...to...Makai..." Reimu struggled to answer.

Remilia smirked upon hearing that. "Then so be it..."

With that said, the vampire then brought her sharp fangs upon the shrine maiden's exposed neck...


Cliffhanger! I don't usually do that...

And well, Reimu and Marisa's fight against Remilia went downhill really quickly. Even if she's exaggerating about things in the previous chapter, she still turned out to be too much for the Incident resolvers to handle, and now they are in serious need of a miracle. If only they have Sanae with them at the moment...

So how is Reimu going to get herself out of this sticky and soon-to-be-bloody moment? That'd have to wait until the next chapter, so stay tuned to find out!

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

Afterwords end here.

NOTE: So having a vacation in another country where FF Dot Net isn't banned meant that I can use the opportunity to post chapters that I've posted to AO3 but not here...