Mistress's Room; Scarlet Mansion
Marisa knew that her blind charge toward Remilia is not going to end well for her. But she did it anyway out of desperation, and paid for it with her dignity.
Being thrown a long distance away by a very hard-hitting attack and then crashing into a near indestructible marble wall hard enough to form a crater on it definitely hurts more than a lot, especially for a human like her. It was only thanks to a combination of inertial dampening magic and healing magic that she hasn't been permanently crippled by that attack.
"Yeah, sure, as if goin' all Rambo on a vampire is gonna work! Nice job, Marisa..." The witch scolded herself for that stunt as she pushed herself out of the crater in the marble wall. "What an a-hole you are for even thinkin' of that..."
Remembering why she did that blind charge earlier, Marisa quickly made her way toward the hole in the wall that Remilia made even earlier.
She watched as Remilia had Reimu at her mercy, totally helpless to do anything.
"Now what the heck can I do?" Marisa pondered the two options she has. "Chargin' at her ain't gonna work. Shootin' her might get Reimu shot instead, especially with Spell Cards." The witch then became so frustrated by her lack of options that she started tearing at her own hair. "C'mon, ya a-hole! Is there anythin' that ya can do abo- Wait a sec... 'a-hole'?"
She then smiled as a third option materialized in her mind, having just been inspired by what she just said to herself.
"Hope ya don't mind me stealin' your grooves, Peter Quill..." Saying that, Marisa then summoned her flying broomstick over, and hopped onto it...
...
Outside the Scarlet Mansion
"Then so be it..."
With that said, Remilia brought her mouth closer to Reimu, preparing to puncture the skin of the shrine maiden's exposed neck with her sharp fangs.
Reimu closed her eyes in dread. Is this how she is going to die? Is this how the Hakurei bloodline is going to end once and for all? She could feel Remilia's fangs touching the skin on her neck.
The fangs never went any further than that.
Reimu is glad that something suddenly made Remilia pause. But she didn't know what did. That is, until she heard a familiar voice... singing?
"Ooh-oo child~
Things are gonna get easier~
Ooh-oo child~
Things'll get brighter~
Ooh-oo child~
Things are gonna get easier~
Ooh-oo child~
Things'll get brighter~"
As Remilia moved her fanged mouth away from Reimu's neck, the shrine maiden opened her eyes to find the vampire staring, with utmost confusion, at something.
Reimu moved her head slightly to catch a glimpse of what might have confused Remilia so much as to make her stop literally just a split second away from delivering a killing blow.
Marisa is... dancing... on her flying broomstick. Yes, dancing, while singing something. The flying broomstick automatically adjusted its position with each step Marisa make, so that she always have something to step on during her dancing.
Remilia became so flabbergasted by the audacious sight that she unconsciously released the grip of one of her hands on Reimu, allowing the shrine maiden to dangle at her side.
"What are you doing?" The vampire asked out of confusion.
"Dance off, bro. You and me." Marisa briefly stopped her singing to answer, then continued without missing a beat.
Remilia continued to hover right where she is, trying to make sense of what Marisa is doing. Meanwhile, Reimu is equally confused by the same thing, but is glad that it brought her time to come up with a plan.
Unfortunately for Reimu, there are only two options available for her. One option is summoning the Ying-Yang Orb and use it to knock Remilia senseless, which wouldn't work given how the vampire was able to nonchalantly dodge it just a minute ago. The other option is... well, very embarrassing for Reimu. But what is embarrassment when compared to the continued existence of the Hakurei bloodline and the lives of everyone in Gensokyo?
With what is at stake, Reimu decided that she'd rather be embarrassed than not doing the right thing.
And so having made up her mind, Reimu started shaking her one free hand, in an attempt to get the thing she wanted to fall out of her sleeve.
At the same time, Remilia, unaware of what Reimu is doing, continued to stare at Marisa with utter confusion for a few more seconds before regaining her composure. "What. Are. You. DOING?!" She shouted at the witch.
"I'm distracting ya, big turd blossom!" Marisa stopped her singing altogether and dropped the bombshell to Remilia. "By the way, it worked for a guy called Star Lord, so..."
Remilia widened her eyes upon realizing what had just happened, as she quickly turned her attention back onto Reimu.
The vampire has just enough time to see the tip of a paper umbrella before it smacked itself into her chin.
The impact caused Remilia to jerk her head back, and release her grip on Reimu altogether, causing the shrine maiden to start to plummet away from her.
That actually worked. Reimu thought as she plummeted while holding the same paper umbrella she found in the Hakurei Shrine storage shed earlier today. Thank the gods that Marisa did what she just did, however nonsensical it may be... Never mind that!
Dismissing her thoughts, Reimu grabbed the paper umbrella with both of her hands, then held it close to her body and closed her eyes.
Up above, Remilia shook her head to recover from Reimu's surprise attack before turning her attention on Marisa. "How audacious of you to weaponize insanity and make it work..." She said, impressed by the stunt just now.
Marisa stood on her flying broomstick. "Ya can thank James Gunn for that!" She proudly said.
As Remilia was to make her response, a jade-colored pillar of light suddenly shot down from the sky, penetrating the Scarlet Mist that enveloped it, and went past her.
Marisa smiled, for she knew exactly what that was. "Ya might wanna check that out." She said smugly as she pointed at the bottom of the pillar of light.
That was when the pillar of light disappeared. A second later, something flew up from below and hit Remilia with as much force as her spear when it was thrown, knocking her off balance as she gets caught by surprise.
That "something" turned out to be Reimu. But instead of a crisp white haori jacket and red hakama skirt, she is now sporting the same frilly "magical girl" outfit that she briefly had earlier in the day before the Scarlet Mist appeared. The paper umbrella has also transformed into a gohei that is longer than Reimu is tall, with a haraegushi that is just as long.
"Before you say anything, Marisa," Reimu positioned herself near the witch. "it was either this or getting killed. And I'd rather have it be the former."
"Less talk, more ass-kickin'!" Marisa declared, before pointing a finger at Remilia. "And there's one waitin' to be kicked!"
Reimu turned back toward Remilia, and spun her new polearm-length gohei in a windmill-like way as to intimidate the vampire (though Reimu actually don't know how to do that, and have no idea how she just did).
Remilia re-summoned her spear. "Just what is in this land that made you want to risk your life defending it?" She interrogated.
Reimu stopped spinning her gohei and held it out in front of her. The gohei formed a perfectly symmetrical line dividing the left and right half of her body.
"Because this is my home, and it is also my duty as its defender, as well as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden to vanquish all evil forces that threaten it and its inhabitants." Reimu declared, then blinked for a bit as she realized that she isn't that dramatic, and concluded that the gohei itself is putting the words in her mouth. "The Sacred Hakurei Gohei will speak its judgement upon you!"
Marisa, with her wand out, joined Reimu. "And she ain't deliverin' said judgement without me!"
Reimu glanced at Marisa in response to hearing that. "Do you have to get involved in everything?" She asked in a deadpan manner.
"I'm already involved in this just by bein' here. So yeah?" Marisa answered with a shrug.
Just as Reimu is about to speak another sentence, her head jerked back toward Remilia's direction, just in time to see the vampire having thrown her spear again.
Rather than assuming a defensive stance or attempting to block the thrown spear, Reimu instead swung her new gohei like a bat, and swatted the spear away as though it was just a ball.
Remilia is shocked by what she just saw. She called her spear back to her grasped and repeated the same attack several times, all with the same results. The same attack that nearly decimated Reimu the first time it was used is now ineffective against her.
"Such a massive increase in power...! How is that even possible?!" The vampire exclaimed.
Marisa spun her magic wand as an act of intimidation. "'Cause we're the Guardians of the Sanctuary!"
If the situation wasn't so dire, Reimu would've given Marisa a glare. Nevertheless, what the witch said works so well for the moment that the shrine maiden decided to go along with it. "And you picked the wrong sanctuary to try to conquer!"
After her declaration to Remilia, Reimu charged toward the vampire with her new gohei to bear.
Remilia responded by mirroring what Reimu is doing, charging toward the shrine maiden with her spear to bear.
When the two collided and clashed their weapons, a massive shockwave was produced that could be seen all the way from the human villages.
The last time Reimu and Remilia clashed their weapons, the two's power levels are so far apart that it instantly ended in a no-holds-barred fight in Remilia's favor. This time, however, Reimu empowered by the Sacred Hakurei Gohei evened out the power levels so that she can hold back Remilia's attempts to push against her.
Seeing that Reimu isn't budging, Remilia opted to "play dirty" for a bit by hitting Reimu with a headbutt...which did absolutely nothing as Reimu didn't even blink, much less flinch in reaction to it.
"I wasn't expecting that either..." Reimu quipped, before retaliating with her own headbutt, which hit so hard that it dazed Remilia for a brief moment. That brief moment caused Remilia to lose the clash right away, as she gets shoved back by Reimu, who then follows up with a kick to the vampire's abdomen, sending her tumbling a distance away like a ball getting kicked.
Remilia regained her balance quickly. But before she can continue attacking, she found herself getting pelted by a barrage of danmaku.
"Smile, ya daughter of a bas-" Marisa yelled hammily as she fired danmaku non-stop with her wand at the vampire.
As the barrage of danmaku are doing nothing to Remilia, she simply retaliated by throwing her spear at Marisa.
However, the spear didn't even get to travel half the distance before Reimu intercepted and swatted it away at a high speed. Before Remilia can summon the spear back to her, Reimu swung the haraegushi of her gohei out like a whip at the vampire, landing a direct hit and causing her to reel back.
Remilia glanced at her left wing where the haraegushi whiplash hit, finding a gleaming white gash travelling diagonally across it. The gash healed thanks to her regenerative ability as a vampire, but it did so at a slower pace than usual due to the attack being imbued by holy or divine magic.
The vampire placed her attention back on the battle at hand as she noticed Marisa firing more danmaku at her.
Reimu reinforced Marisa's danmaku barrage by summoning forth the Ying-Yang Orb and then throwing it into the mix by using the gohei to swat it toward Remilia.
Enhanced by the powers of the Sacred Hakurei Gohei, the Ying-Yang Orb emitted a jade-colored aura and left a trail of magic particles of the same color in its wake as it traveled toward Remilia at quadruple its usual speed. At this speed, the Ying-Yang Orb is too fast for Remilia to react to in any meaningful way even with her vampiric super speed.
Remilia took a direct hit from the Orb, which hit so hard that it'd have pulverized every bone in her body if it wasn't danmaku magic. That said, it still hurts a lot even for a vampire, and Remilia was left clutching her body because of the pain.
"How is this even possible?!" The vampire exclaimed. "I am the lost daughter of Vlad Tepes, the most powerful vampire ever existed! I command the darkness itself, and all those shrouded within it! Nothing should have been able to even hurt me!"
Reimu interrupted Remilia's rant by suddenly appearing right in front of her. The shrine maiden swung her gohei at the vampire, who attempted to parry the attack with her spear, only to have it be snapped in half by the more powerful holy weapon.
"Just one reason..." Reimu quipped as she raised her gohei up in preparation for the finishing blow. "Welcome to Gensokyo!"
She then brought her gohei down upon Remilia's head, and delivered a mighty blow...
Yeah, yeah. I admit the first half of this chapter is just an excuse to make a reference to the famous "dance-off to save the universe" scene from Guardians of the Galaxy, which even had the dancer garner an identical reaction from the intended audience. Even using the song "Ooh Child", just to hammer in the reference even further.
Either way, I guess that wraps up the EoSD arc. Next chapter will be the epilogue to the arc before we move on to the PCB arc.
But wait! What about Flandre? For that, I hate to say this: Flandre will not be fighting Reimu and Marisa, because with how much I have to raise Reimu's power level just to be able to beat this version of Remilia, this version of Flandre will be absolutely impossible to beat if she were stronger than Remilia. However, I do have a non-violent plan for her, so stay tuned for the next chapter to find out!
"And that, as they say, is that..."
Afterwords end here.
NOTE: this is the last chapter of Seasonal Fantasy I can post in FF Dot Net before my four-day vacation ends and I go back to my home country where I won't be able to access the site again for a long time...
