Boundary of Life and Death; The Netherworld
"Phantom...?"
"Ensemble...?"
Reimu and Marisa trailed off as they responded to Lunasa's introducing the Phantom Ensemble with confusion.
"Now that you've introduced yourselves..." Sakuya stepped forward. "Would you happen to have received a letter written by one Remilia Scarlet from last week?" The silver-haired maid brought up.
"A letter from Remilia Scarlet, from last week?" Lunasa acknowledged the question. "I did. But I elected not to reply to it."
"May I ask why?" Sakuya asked.
Lunasa folded her arms. "Why should I bother meself with a response to a 500 years old child who obviously is trying too hard to look like an intimidating figure, and who got defeated in battle because she was distracted by a dance that was performed out of sheer audacity?" She then said very, very bluntly. "A loser like that vampire brat do not deserve a performance from me and me sisters."
The blonde's statement had all three of the Guardians of the Sanctuary completely stunned. Especially Sakuya, who wasn't expecting Lunasa to dish out such an incredibly straightforward insult while managing to sound like she meant it seriously despite her thick borough.
"Wow, she's really mean." Marisa stated. "Like, Regina George-levels of mean..."
"I'm so sorry for me eldest sister's self-entitled attitude..." Lyrica apologized to the Guardians. Despite not understanding the reference Marisa made, the youngest sister understood the intent of the statement it is in. "Maybe I could offer you three our merchandise for-"
Lyrica is suddenly yanked back to her sisters by the collar of her blouse, despite there being no hand grabbing her collar.
"We will not be giving anything to anyone for free, Lyrica." Lunasa chastised her youngest sister. "Especially not to those who don't deserve wasting me time with."
At that point, Reimu certainly did felt offended by what Lunasa just said.
"We don't deserve your time?!" Reimu said with suppressed anger. "I don't care how famous you think you are, if you insist we should be getting autographs from you. But that is just... rude!"
Sakuya calmly stepped forward. "Perhaps we should settle this peacefully. Not everything has to end in violence despite what Mistress Scarlet believes..."
"Speaking of that Scarlet brat..." Lunasa then directed at Sakuya. "The fact you continued to tolerate her childish antics and tantrums proves that you are only good at taking taking care of losers and being one."
Sakuya tensed up in response to Lunasa just mocking both her and Remilia like that. The silver-haired maid think of herself as being able to tolerate any insults directed at her mistress, and only lashes out if her mistress specifically tells her to. But for insulting the vampire mistress and her most loyal servant simultaneously... Even Sakuya has her limits...
"Oh, that is pretty mean, big sister~!" Merlin congratulated her older sister, completely unaware of Reimu and Sakuya reaching their boiling point.
"I'm so sorry for me big sister's attitude." Lyrica, her collar still dragged on by an invisible force, timidly apologized to the Guardians.
Surprisingly, Marisa calmed down first despite not taking Lunasa's belittlement of her team too well moments ago. The witch took her broom out and straddled it as she then hovered off the mist-covered cobblestone path.
"You know what? Let us all get on with what we're s'posed to do." Marisa told her fellow Guardians. "It just ain't worth our time talking to-"
"And you... Marisa G Kirisame, is it?" Lunasa suddenly directed herself toward the witch. "Only an insane person like you would think of using a dance and an abysmally poor taste in music as a distraction. Your mother must be ashamed of you."
Now it's Marisa's turn to reach her boiling point in reaction to Lunasa's insult. "Oh, so it's gonna be that way, huh?"
Merlin giggled at what her older sister just said, completely oblivious to what it just triggered. Lyrica, on the other hand, is fully aware of what's to come, as she became paler than she already is.
"Lunasa, maybe you should be nicer to-" The youngest sister told her eldest sister.
Lyrica was interrupted again, this time by the bowstring of Lunasa's violin poking her in her face.
"Come on, sisters." Lunasa told her sisters. "We shouldn't keep Miss Saigyouji waiting any longer..."
The Guardians stood by, trying but obviously failing to suppress their anger, as Lunasa led her sisters past them toward the huge doorway, with their respective floating instruments following them.
Lyrica reluctantly followed. She feared for her eldest sister, knowing that the Guardians didn't take the self-entitled blonde's insult too well...
"Lyrica, why are you lagging behind?" Lunasa called to Lyrica without stopping in her tracks or looking behind her, as she continued floating toward the huge doorway. "Do not waste our client's ti-"
That was when Marisa suddenly turned around and drew both of her revolvers before firing at Lunasa, all in quick succession.
One of Marisa's shots blew Lunasa's hat right off her head. The other shot struck her floating violin, blowing it into splinters.
"That's what ya get for bein' a self-entitled bitch!" Marisa gleefully taunted as she then holstered her revolvers.
Reimu can't help but let out a gleeful snort at the blonde violinist getting her comeuppance.
Sakuya's anger faded from her expression as she went back to her usual stoic look. But deep down, she is laughing at the comeuppance that Lunasa received courtesy of Marisa.
Lunasa froze in her tracks. She didn't even need to look at her violin to know what happened to it.
"Oh, my..." Merlin actually reacted not with absent-minded giggling, but with a shocked gasp.
"I told you to be nicer to her, big sister..." Lyrica informed Lunasa. The brunette keyboardist feared for both her eldest sister and the witch whom she idolized.
Now it is Lunasa's turn to try but obviously fail to suppress her anger. At that moment, her hat promptly floated up from the ground (somehow) and set itself back up on her head, the hole right through the headwear somehow quickly reverted until it was as if it was never made in the first place. The wooden splinters that were once the violin floated up from the ground and join together like a jigsaw puzzle until they formed into the same violin, looking like it was never broken to begin with.
That left the Guardians speechless, seeing Lunasa undoing both damages so flawlessly and somehow doing it without using any magic.
"Merlin, Lyrica," Lunasa then ordered her sisters. "help me take care of these pests."
Hearing that made the Guardians boil again.
"Oh, so now we're pests, huh?" Marisa said as she raised her revolvers again. "Maybe I should put the next one in your sku-"
Lunasa immediately turned around and thrust her left hand forward toward the Guardians, and all of a sudden, Reimu, Marisa, and Sakuya were blown off their feet by something.
Reimu and Sakuya were able to land on their feet and quickly regain balance. Though Marisa was unable to stick her landing and fell on the cobblestone path on her back, she was able to quickly get back up and retaliate by firing her twin revolvers at Lunasa.
The other Guardians followed suit, with Reimu sending out several Ofuda and Sakuya throwing over a dozen knives, all aimed at Lunasa.
The danmaku fired from the revolvers along with Reimu's Ofuda and Sakuya's knives froze in midair right in front of the blonde violinist, as though they were caught on something.
"Forgive me if I'm hallucinating, but that looks kinda like telekinesis..." Marisa nervously pointed out.
"You're not hallucinating..." Lyrica regretfully told the Guardians. "Me sisters and I can do that as poltergeists..."
Lunasa then diverted all the projectiles toward a stone lantern to her right, utterly obliterating and reducing it into powdered stone.
"Lyrica, stop treating the enemy as anything but." The blonde violinist then scolded her youngest sister.
"Yes... big sister..." Lyrica reluctantly obeyed as she took position at Lunasa's left, her keyboard floating into position in front of her.
Merlin excitedly skipped forward and took position at Lunasa's right, as she then snatched her floating trumpet from the air with her hand, and blew it on a whim.
With both of her younger sisters in position, Lunasa grabbed her violin with her right hand, and the bow with her left hand. Then she assumed the stance of a proper violinist.
"Allow me and me sisters to give you an unforgettable performance."
...
Hakugyokurou
"Youmu?"
"Yes, Lady Saigyouji?"
"Can you check what is taking the Phantom Ensemble so long?"
"I already did just now. It appears that they are currently engaged in combat with a group of three."
"A group of three, you say?"
"They appear to be the same group that caused the puppeteer to have to cancel her contract with us at the last second."
"The Guardians of Gensokyo?"
"I believe they call themselves the Guardians of the Sanctuary, Lady Saigyouji."
"Oh. I presume that the Phantom Ensemble won't be making it here, then?"
"That appears to be very likely."
"I see."
"Do you have any plans for the Guardians, Lady Saigyouji?"
"Just stand by for now, Youmu. In the meantime, why don't you go make some more tea?"
...
Boundary of Life and Death
The Phantom Ensemble, ultimately, gave a very "forgettable" performance. Or rather, Lunasa did.
Despite her telekinetic prowess, Lunasa was knocked down by the Guardians in no time flat, with Merlin falling mere moments later (and somehow getting knocked out cold, which shouldn't be possible for poltergeists) and Lyrica choosing to surrender on the spot.
Giving Lunasa the beatdown that she deserved put the Guardians in a better mood.
"Wow, you girls are no pushovers at all." Lyrica told the Guardians. She then glanced at her eldest sister who was so ashamed of getting beaten that she made herself nearly invisible. "You really shouldn't have acted like you own the place, eldest sister." The keyboardist informed the violinist.
Lunasa refused to say a word and remained nearly invisible.
Lyrica turned back to the Guardians. "I really do apologize for me eldest sister's attitude."
"Nah, it ain't your fault, so we ain't gonna hold it over ya." Marisa reassured Lyrica.
"Like Marisa said, it wasn't your fault." Reimu also reassured.
"We have no grudges toward you, only your eldest sister." Sakuya pointed out.
"But still..." Lyrica said.
"Let's bury the hatchet for now." Marisa said as she put her twin revolvers away. "Right now, my friends and I need to have a chat with whoever's behind that gateway."
"You want to meet Miss Saigyouji?"
"Miss who?"
I'm terribly, terribly sorry, but I just couldn't come up with a fight scene that would do the Phantom Ensemble justice, no matter how hard I tried. So I said "Screw it" and had the Guardians give the Phantom Ensemble a curbstomp.
But anyway, it was entirely my idea to write Lunasa as a really mean, self-entitled celebrity Alpha Bitch who thinks everyone should kneel before her. Not sure why I came up with that, though. And I do apologize to Lunasa fans if you don't like how she's portrayed here.
"And that, as they say, is that..."
Afterword ends here.
