The Netherworld
"Die for me."
Alice then waved her right hand forward in a commanding manner.
Upon being commanded by their master, the dolls raised their weapons and charged forward, towards the Guardians of the Sanctuary.
Reimu and Marisa quickly raised their weapons to shoot at the dolls. Sakuya produced more knives and threw them at the dolls as well.
These dolls weren't as tough as Shanghai or Hourai, as they went down after just a few danmaku or a single knife. However, Alice does have a large reserve of them, as she kept summoning them, with the Guardians slowly getting overwhelmed by sheer number.
"Geez, just how many freakin' dolls does she have?!" Marisa complained as she ducked under a doll's sword slash before shredding it apart with her twin revolvers at point-blank range. She then proceed to shoot down more dolls.
"Probably as many dolls as I have knives" Sakuya said as she used her knives and reflexes to cut down any dolls that came near her.
Reimu, keeping her position with her fellow Guardians, fired danmaku at as many dolls as she can see, then launched the Ying-Yang Orb to take care of more.
Alice noticed the Ying-Yang Orb flying towards her as it tore through all the dolls in its trajectory, and dodged it with a nonchalant lean to the side, then once again when it came back toward her from behind on its way back to Reimu.
"Well, it seems that I need to change my bloody tactics a little..." Alice said, as dull as her comically thick posh accent would allow it to sound dull.
Saying that, the puppeteer then held out her left hand, from which a card brimming with magic materialized.
Reimu and Marisa instantly recognized that. "Another Spell Card...?" They both uttered at the same time.
"You two recognize this...?" Sakuya, having never seen a Spell Card before, asked Reimu and Marisa.
"Of course we would! We created it as a secret project of ours!" Marisa stated.
"Emphasize on secret." Reimu added. "We didn't reveal it to anyone. Which means someone has been observing us in secret..."
At the same time, Alice has gotten herself ready to declare her newly-conjured Spell Card.
"Darkness Sign: [Foggy London Dolls]"
Upon Alice declaring her Spell Card, a thick fog suddenly emerged from out of nowhere and blanketed the whole area, reducing everyone's visibility to mere inches.
Luckily for the Guardians, they were already standing close to each other, so they can still keep track of each others' positions amidst the thick fog.
"Alright, stay really close, everyone." Marisa told Reimu and Sakuya. "She's using the ol' 'blind 'em with a fog' tactic, and is expecting us to get separated and become confused."
"How do you know about this?" Sakuya asked, as she readied her knives.
"There was one time where Miss Mima pitted Ako and her friends against me to test their abilities." Marisa explained. "They tried this exact same tactic with smoke, and could've handed me my ass were it not for Markle misaiming her explosion spell and knocking out everyone 'cept me."
"I can attest to that." Reimu added. "It happened on the Shrine's grounds, and almost knocked down the torii."
The Guardians huddled close to each other as they scanned the fog-covered area and listened closely for signs of Alice and her dolls.
Two dolls with polearms suddenly appeared in front of Marisa. The witch quickly raised her revolvers and gunned them down.
Two more dolls, these ones dual-wielding sabers, appeared in front of Sakuya. The maid threw knives at them, which, due to their small size, are the equivalent of getting impaled by javelins, sending them tumbling onto the ground where they became limp and lifeless.
As Reimu scanned and listened closely to the surroundings for enemies, her intuition suddenly went off, causing her to instinctively manipulate the Sacred Hakurei Gohei to deflect two crossbow bolts that are fired at her from within the envelopment of the fog. The shrine maiden then fired danmaku into the fog toward the direction of the crossbow bolts. Two dolls and their crossbows then tumbled forward as they fell limp onto the ground.
More dolls emerged from the envelopment of the fog, each brandishing a variety of weapons. The Guardians held their positions and continued to shoot or slash at any dolls that came close to them. "Slain" dolls and doll-sized weapons piled up around them the longer they fought.
"Hey, Alice!" Marisa shouted out while shooting at dolls that approached her with weapons. "Ya gonna need to be more creative than just throwing dolls at us!" She taunted the puppeteer.
After Marisa's taunt, the onslaught of dolls quickly came to a halt.
"Well, Marisa, you are absolutely right." Alice is heard saying from within the envelopment of the fog.
Moments later, Alice herself suddenly emerged from within the fog, charging toward Marisa with a lance as big as she is.
"Holy sh-" Marisa cursed as she is caught unaware by the sudden attack.
Thankfully for Marisa, Reimu's intuition kicked in, and upon sensing the oncoming attack, quickly moved in to deflect Alice's lance with her gohei.
"No tea parties this time." Alice said before retreating back into the fog.
Reimu and Marisa then fired at Alice's direction, with Sakuya adding her knives to the barrage. However, the barrage don't appear to have hit anything or anyone.
"Thanks for the save back there, Rei." Marisa said to Reimu.
"Fight now. Thank later." Reimu responded.
Moments later, another doll popped out from the fog. This one appears to be completely unarmed.
Reimu instinctively fired danmaku at the doll to take it out. However, the doll exploded upon being struck, with the shockwave knocking down all three Guardians and dazing them.
As Reimu tried to get up, all she could hear is ringing in her ears, the side effect of being so close to an explosion. She then looked toward Marisa and Sakuya, whom she could tell are suffering the same effects as they too tried to get back up on their feet.
Despite being dazed and temporarily deaf, the shrine maiden's intuition still functioned as normal, as she rolled out just in time to avoid getting chopped by a halberd-wielding doll, which she then shot at. Though due to being dazed, it took her several shots before she could hit that doll even at such a short distance.
Soon, Reimu recovered from the effects of the dazing, standing up as she shook her head to reorient herself.
Reimu felt her intuition kick in again, as her body leaned down on its own accord, just in time for her to see another unarmed explosive doll sailing over her head.
With her quick reflex, Reimu grabbed the explosive doll and threw it at the direction where it came from. Then she fired a danmaku at the doll just as it disappeared into the fog.
The doll exploded upon getting hit, though this time there is enough distance that Reimu wouldn't be dazed by it. On the other hand, the sound of Alice yelping can be heard at the same time as the explosion.
Using the source of Alice's yelp as a guide, Reimu launched the Ying-Yang Orb toward that direction, hoping that it would hit the hidden puppeteer.
The Orb most certainly did hit Alice, as she is heard letting out another yelp at the same time as a metallic impact, followed by the sound of glass shattering.
Immediately after the sound of glass shattering, the fog began to thin out until it completely dissipated, returning the Guardians to the eerie environment of the Netherworld.
On the cobblestone pavement in front of Reimu, sat Alice, with her huge lance laying to her right, and her grimoire to her left. The puppeteer rubbed her left shoulder, as that was apparently where the Ying-Yang Orb hit her just now.
Alice noticed Reimu, and was about to pick up her lance to continue fighting when Reimu kicked the lance away before thrusting the Sacred Hakurei Gohei at her. Alice braced for an impact to her face, but the shrine maiden's weapon stopped just an inch away from her nose.
"You've been a bad girl again, Alice." Reimu said. "Though not as bad as when we last met you in Makai."
At the same time, Marisa recovered from her daze, and got back up on her two feet, picking up her twin revolvers in the process.
"I guess all those lab accidents from Ako ain't enough to make me completely daze-proof..." The witch said as she placed her witch hat back on her head. She then turned her attention toward Alice. "Well, I see that ya got beat again, Alice!"
With no tricks left that she could use, Alice decided to simply raise both her hands and surrender. "Congratulations, Guardians. You have defeated me..."
"As we should be!" Marisa boasted.
"Last I checked, you were still dazed when I dealt her the knockout blow. Also, it looks like Sakuya is still dazed right now..." Reimu turned to remind Marisa and glanced at Sakuya who is still struggling to pick herself up amidst her dazed state. She then turned back toward Alice. "Now, would you kindly be a good girl, and tell me something about your employer?"
Alice sighed. She knew it would've come back to that.
"Alright, I'd tell you about her..." The puppeteer confessed. "She hired me to put up a puppet performance for a banquet she will be holding. I don't know what that banquet is all about, but I overheard a conversation she had with her loyal servant that it did involve siphoning Spring away from Gensokyo."
"Turns out Yumemi was right about someone stealing Spring." Reimu noted.
"I'm not the only person hired by my employer." Alice added. "But I have yet to hear anything about my... co-workers, if you consider them to be so..."
"Alright, now at least we know to expect more company." Marisa took note.
"Thanks for confessing, Alice." Reimu told the puppeteer. "But I have one more question I want to ask."
"Go ahead..."
"That tactic where you conjured the fog to try to confuse us... Where did you get the card part of it?"
Alice blinked a few times in response to being asked that. Seems she wasn't sure of the right answer.
"I, um, received a visit from a mysterious woman with a parasol... last week." Alice answered the question anyway. "She gave me a stack of cards brimming with magical energy, told me that I can channel them for stronger or special spells. Then she just... left."
"That's it?" Reimu noted. "She just left?"
"Yes." Alice confirmed.
Reimu sighed. While she now knows who is behind her and Marisa's privately-developed concept of Spell Cards getting leaked out, based on the clues Alice gave her, she is still not sure why.
The shrine maiden withdrew her gohei from Alice's face. "That will be all, Alice." She said. "Now, you might want to stay away from your employer for a bit..."
"'Cause things are about to get real messy!" Marisa suddenly cut in and announced.
Reimu didn't stop Marisa for that. She is right about it, after all.
Alice let out another sigh. "Well then. In that case, do inform my employer that her contract with me has to be cancelled due to... unforeseen circumstances." She said as she stood up and patted dust off her clothes.
Shanghai woke up from her unconsciousness just in time to see Alice departing peacefully.
"Shanghai, go pick up your sister..." Alice ordered the blue doll. "We're going home..."
"Shanghai?" Shanghai looked like she was confused about "picking up" her sister... until she noticed Hourai still stuck in a block of ice. The blue doll opened her mouth as if saying "Ah, that's why..."
And with that, Alice departed from the scene, with Shanghai right behind her, hauling the ice block containing Hourai above her head.
"Ain't that often our enemies just left us in peaceful terms..." Marisa stated.
"I prefer making friends over enemies if possible." Reimu responded.
At the same time, Sakuya has finally recovered from being dazed.
"I... believe that I am in need of better endurance..." Sakuya remarked as she got back up on her feet.
"Yep, you took that explosion worse than Reimu and I did, and missed everything after it as a result." Marisa told the maid.
As the Guardians then made their way through the Netherworld, toward where they think Alice's "employer" is, Reimu kept her mind occupied about what she just learned.
Yakumo Yukari, what were your plans for the Spell Cards?
Well, this took long enough...
Anyway, through my FUBAR'd schedule and admittedly somewhat skewed priorities, I actually put this on hold last week when I could have posted it back then because upon my getting into RWBY, a new fanfic idea quickly popped into my mind, and I wound up spending three days in the previous week working on what became the first chapter of my new fanfic and first ever RWBY fanfic, The Rose Thorn of Earth, because it was such a good idea that I felt like I need to write it down and share it ASAP.
Seriously, what's with works that have "bitchy prodigy witch from rich family falling in love with dumb brunette underdog" being so addictive and full of fanfic materials? I guess that's the power of the "Gay Trinity" that is Little Witch Academia, The Owl House, and RWBY...
In other words, be sure to check out my latest fanfic, The Rose Thorn of Earth, and give it reviews if you can!
"And that, as they say, is that..."
Afterword ends here.
