I wonder if I'm getting tired of doing this. Ten years. Ten years of doing Imperfect Cherry Blossom. And it's getting harder and harder to write. That's also not even counting the events of real life that complicated matters.
Like contracting Covid. That was scary. Always wore a mask, even wore gloves, had sanitizer in my car and I used it every time.
I really do love ICB. It's just getting harder and harder to make the chapters. I want to finish it. To finally complete a work. But... we'll see.
On the Touhou side of things, you can pick up Touhou 9 on Steam. Touhou 9 - 18 is available on Steam. Please show your support for the series, and maybe we can get it all officially released in America.
Something that's come to my attention. With this chapter, Imperfect Cherry Blossom has surpassed the entire Harry Potter series.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is owned by Nagaru Tanigawa. Touhou Project is owned by ZUN and Team Shanghai Alice. I own neither. This is a fan fiction of those works.
Beta Reader (and partial writer) for this episode:
Smooglii
A lone white king stood in the center of the board, not quite surrounded, but with nowhere useful left to run. Eirin and Kasen watched as Yukari's silk-gloved hands manipulated the pieces into formation around it, with a touch so light as to be doubtful she was truly grasping them at all. Simple as it was, this kind of visualization could help in ways not immediately apparent, and it had become quite apparent to all that something on the board was missing.
"I doubt it's just one, at this point." Eirin's eyes narrowed at the lone black knight that had separated from the group, and though her countenance remained calm, with one hand resting against her cheek, her finger tapped on her cheekbone irritably.
Yukari had the same idea, and agreed. Tossing back her fingers into a tiny gap that opened behind her hand, she pulled out and placed two more white kings - one behind the black side's main group, and the other flanking the knight. No matter how much Yukari and the Overmind may have prepared their own communication abilities, they were still lacking compared to an enemy with three bodies, but one mind. Yukari glanced aside at Nagato, who was being held in a sitting position by Mokou and Aya not far away. Drained as she was, the girl had continued to give them updates, and that was all they could rely on. Hecatia would know better than them how to maneuver in this situation, and there was no possibility that her other bodies had snuck off to another universe - not with Yukari watching the boundaries.
Kasen, too, was beginning to grasp the state of the board. "You think that rabbit can handle her?" she asked, watching the knight and king.
"Only if she isn't taken by surprise," said Yukari, now moving the knight back and forth to test the possibilities. "And only if she's wise enough to run. Gaining vantage on the enemy is normally a good idea, but..."
...Could she act as bait? The Hecatia of our universe bears a grudge against the Lunar Capital. If this one is the same, she'd try to attack... but then again...
As though reading Yukari's thoughts, Eirin's brow furrowed, and she said pointedly, "I won't let her be sacrificed."
Yukari smiled unwittingly at what may have resembled an uncommon display of compassion from her counterpart, but to Yukari's mind, was simple pride. If one of Eirin's people were to be the first of their number to die, it might sorely wound her ego, Yukari thought. Before she could offer a rebuttal, though, she found herself interrupted by the voice of a fourth.
"Then let me."
Kaguya was here, beaming with her typical nonchalance. She had her hands behind her back, looking more as if she were joining a frivolous board game rather than offering herself to battle.
Eirin paused to choose her words, then cleared her throat. "My princess, if-"
"I'm fed up, Eirin." Despite that smile, the princess' tone was dour. "If it isn't enough that she taunts us and our Inaba so, she even lays claim to the moon. Her moon, she says. Why, I think she should have to answer to its royalty for such an insult." Kaguya turned to Yukari, and following Eirin's example, made her own pre-emptive retort: "And if you're thinking I'm relying on my immortality, I'm not. I know very well how the Furies must have dealt with my other selves. But my abilities are still a better asset than most, and that's reason enough to go. I quite enjoy this planet and universe, and I won't let it be said that that flammable street worker did more to protect it than I did."
Eirin shut up at that. Haughty as she was, there was nothing she could say against Kaguya, which amused Yukari to witness first-hand. So, she claims to know the risks after all... The question is, would she continue to show such willfulness on the other side?
As it meant the end of the belief that would sustain them, it stood to reason that even a Hourai immortal could not survive the end of a universe. Most likely, nothing could remain in that dead universe for very long, either. But until that time, survive they would - it would not be a pleasant end by any means. Yet Kaguya seemed to understand that such a fate might await her, at least, and she continued to smile. That smile, it seemed to Yukari, was much more genuine than Eirin's put-upon serenity, and that had to count for something.
Moreover, that smile was accented by a steel determination. She treated it like a game, as she did everything else, but this time, it was a game that she knew she must win. Even moreso than Tenshi, Yukari saw in her the reflection of Suzumiya, especially when she tossed her hair impatiently as she was now doing.
"Well? Send me in," she barked in an expectant tone, before pointing an elegant finger at Yukari in defiance. "I won't be denied, you know. If you stall me forever, then that eternity shall become an instant!"
Yukari returned the smile, and Eirin had no choice but to do the same. That's just fine. I think this may work out after all...
Yukari began to wonder how she might handle the next phase, but Eirin was already sifted through Yukari's spare pieces. She found a black bishop and pawn and placed them on the board beside the knight, then looked coolly at Yukari and said, "You can manage that, can't you? If we're to use the Princess, I'll accept nothing less."
You've a high opinion of my abilities, I see. Well, I can't possibly admit to weakness here... Yukari looked long at what she'd done, then finally nodded. She should have known that Eirin wouldn't let Kaguya go so easily.
"Hecatia..." Nagato croaked, her voice carrying a hint of alarm that made Yukari's head snap to look her direction. "She just... His new ability is gone."
Everyone else looked up at that. Overtaxed as she was, Nagato still had the presence of mind to remain vague about the details of the Ultramarine Orb Elixir, but it was apparent from her tone of voice alone that something had gone wrong. Kaguya took one look at her, then turned back to Yukari, exerting an immense pressure from her gaze alone.
"Now is the time!" Her voice raised higher, assuming an air of authority.
There was nothing to do but to acquiesce. Yukari stood up, casting one last look at the chessboard. This delivery should at least arrive quicker than the last. One way or another, this will all be over soon.
[The Meltdown of Haruhi Suzumiya]
[Episode 12.5]
["The Sins of Hecatia Lapislazuli"]
"The next thing I saw is the realization,
That the food chain isn't all that there is in the world.
Because saving a life,
Can also mean destroying another life."
-Wriggle Nightbug, from the doujin Amidst the Firefly Lights by Fusuma Teahouse.
Compared to us, it as if Hecatia were as tall as the building itself. She floated in front of us, above the ruined far side of the Brigade club room, surrounded by swirling snowflakes, a curled hand in front of her smirking lips. She looked so much like she was trying to do an impression of an otome game villainess, I honestly thought she was about to do the laugh.
"Ohoho!" I imagined, or maybe she actually did it - it was hard to tell anything for sure, with my mind so occupied by fear of the very real danger I was now in, the wind in my ears, the pain in my elbow, and the disgusting taste of the elixir still clinging to my tongue. My body ached almost as much as my heart over what could come next. We hadn't gone through a single Fury since I got that power with no casualties. What were the odds we'd all make it out of this alive now? What were the odds that any of us would make it?
I'd seen a future where as far as I could tell, we succeeded in defeating Hecatia, though not all of us made it. Somehow, that future had been changed into one where we we all lived, except for me. But by now, even that one might have been changed again. For all the planning and preparation we did, the fate of our world might have really just come down to how lucky we got.
Right now, I didn't feel lucky. What I saw now beneath me, splattered on the floor in a solid blue hue mixed with bits of orange, yellow, and red, and stinking of my guts - that looked like all of our luck, right there.
I only had a few moments to bemoan that fact before Koizumi and someone - Marisa, I think - grabbed me by the arms and dragged me backwards again, further away from Hecatia. Everyone else backed up with us, fearful of what our adversary might do. What had happened to our morale? The confidence I'd built up? Gone again. Every time, every time I felt like I knew what I had to do, she always found a way to take that away. That, and so much more. And since I was the one who got goaded into the trap, I couldn't even say that it wasn't my fault.
How many times is she going to do this? How many times is she going to undermine us, me...?
The wind drowned everything out. Only the clinking of Hecatia's chains, and the crumbling of some part of the building somewhere, could be heard above it. Gradually, it died away, and I heard Hecatia's voice. She was chuckling. Though her lips just barely parted, she was laughing at me. At us. Hecatia had seemingly effortlessly led me into doing what she wanted all along, even though I'd thought we were just trading barbs before the final battle. Just the same as the way that Yukari had always done, Hecatia had set us up to fall of our own accord, and we'd played our part perfectly. I had thought that revealing the nature of our worlds was Hecatia's only shot left at trying to demoralize us, but now I understood. That wasn't the whole joke. It was just the setup to the punchline.
A real knee-slapper it was, too. Her body shuddered, and she wrapped her arms tight around her lower torso. She was barely containing herself from laughing out loud. "Oh, what?" she said after getting control of herself again. "You can't be that surprised. I'd have been stupid not to realize what you were doing. It's from my game, isn't it?"
"Wh... What?" I choked out. Even speaking made me feel nauseous, like I was coming down with the flu.
"Pointdevice Mode," she said with a shrug, looking to the side where the bookcase once stood. "You get to retry spell cards as much as you want, right? That elixir was nothing but a cheap excuse to make the game more difficult. You're fighting some very strong opponents, after all." Hecatia stared right at me, that satisfied smirk of hers eating away at my very soul. "That's how I knew. And that's why Nagato died. So I could tell who needed to be dealt with first."
She played me. She played me, dammit. And she killed that Nagato while doing it! With how she was acting, I should have been getting angry. But all I was feeling was terror.
Well, not quite. Despite having been removed from the rune that did it, I was still sicker by the moment. Beside me, Koizumi buckled and fell to one knee. That was when I realized Hecatia wasn't just waiting for us to recover while she gloated. There were more of them - so faint, I didn't see them at first, but the entire floor was covered in the impressions of smaller runes, just like the one that had got me.
"I-I think..." Reimu's voice shuddered from somewhere behind and above me. She and some of the others had started flying, but it didn't seem to do any good. The air itself felt poisonous. "I think we screwed up..."
Sakuya looked like she was struggling to breathe. Youmu and Marisa were trying to move me again, but they didn't have the strength. The only ones who looked like they could bear it were Tenshi, Asakura, Shanghai, and Hourai, and the former stepped forward, readying a fist to smash the ground.
Wait, Tenshi-
Actually, if the runes in the floor were to sicken us like this, they might not have had the same annihilation ability as the others. And the dangerous ones were just in the outer walls anyway, right? Hecatia's reaction seemed to confirm that idea; seeing her begin to act, Hecatia raised one hand, and a chain extended from her collar that coiled around it like a snake. With a flick of her wrist, the chain shot forward at Tenshi, who managed to avoid it, but a second later was caught from behind. More chains were coming from the doorway behind us, and our people at the rear had all been funneled in by them. Attached to those chains at the other end was another Hecatia, this one with blue hair and sporting the earth on top of her head. This was one of the other bodies that had beaten me down in the Hell of Blazing Fires.
How did she get-
[Asakura:] "We were looking out for them, but the attack came too quickly. Sorry!"
The chains wrapped around Tenshi's body in an instant, binding her arms to her sides and digging into her flesh, clearly aiming to squeeze the life out of her. More of them streamed at us from both sides, aimed at the others, and I tried in vain to stand up and wrestle them away with my own bare hands. Without the elixir, that might've been all I was good for anyway.
I failed to act. I couldn't stop the chains from wrapping around the others in twos, starting with Youmu and Okuu. Youmu made an effort to draw the Roukanken, but sickened and taken from behind as she was, she couldn't act fast enough. Hecatia must've been prioritizing anyone with the power to break the floor and end the enchantment. And me, well, I only had one thing I could do.
Move! Come on, move! I have to do something! I didn't come this far to die here!
The Sword of Hisou was still in my hand, and I had to do something with it. I wouldn't be fast enough to break the whole floor, and it might have killed me in the process anyway if I fell through to the lower level. If I could maybe target some of the chains...
I didn't have time to think about it. I summoned all of the strength I had into turning it on and swinging it upward at the flailing chains. The blade dug through floor as it went, transforming into a high-pressure water jet, and then an industrial laser as it passed through and shattered the chains, which momentarily set free Marisa and Youmu. The runes that intersected the path of the blade made a fizzling, crackling sound, but failed to explode or do anything but fade away.
...Yes!
My intuition had proven correct; they weren't the same as the runes in the walls, and wouldn't destroy us. Hecatia must have prepared them in a hurry. Of course, only some of them were cut away, and mainly just the ones under me, but still-
-Still, the chains kept coming. Both Hecatias targeted me next, and I was helpless to resist as one of them pulled me to the floor while the second one wrested the Sword of Hisou from my grasp. Nothing else I could do; if anyone was going to save us, it had to be one of the ones free.
"Half-baked, get the hell up!"
I heard Seija's voice cry out, followed by the ringing of metal. Something else clattered ahead of me - the Roukanken had been seized by one of the chains, and was being carried along with the Sword of Hisou to the other side of the room. The other chains were retreating, or rather, being smashed away by something, and soon enough, they had unwrapped themselves from me and all of our other allies and collected around Hecatia, tensed up like coils and ready to strike again. I caught sight of Seija's skirt fluttering by as the girl herself rushed forward and stood in front of me, holding the enchanted baseball bat in both hands.
What the - Did she steal that from me? Not that I was complaining, under the circumstances.
Behind us, Youmu was standing up again. Seija didn't seem to be affected by the runes at all, but Youmu sure was - she grit her teeth and stood like she was using all her will to do so, a white-knuckle grip around the hilt of the Hakurouken, facing the blue Hecatia through the narrow doorway.
"Stay alive..." she whined under her breath, though it was directed at us. "You all have to stay alive...!"
Youmu...
Right away, both Hecatias launched a second attack, and the two of them intercepted. Youmu moved like lightning, and although her sword couldn't cut the chains, she did knock them back. Or rather - and I'm partly guessing since it was too fast to see - she hooked the blade into the links, and pulled them backwards, one by one, while her phantom half poured danmaku into the doorway, perhaps hoping to obscure Hecatia's vision. Seija, meanwhile, made a single wide swing that impacted every chain at once, guided by its homing ability, and sent them flailing out of control towards the other side of the room. What it did to danmaku, it could also do to them, I supposed. She stood where she was, steadfast between us and Hecatia, and protected us together with Youmu. It was a sight I never thought I'd see.
"Seija. You're so very good at getting underfoot, aren't you?" Hecatia said without humor, though she was still playing it cool. "Honestly, it might be my fault for thinking I can control you."
Rather than fight, Hecatia was talking again. By now, I was sure that it wouldn't be just for the sake of it. She must be planning something new. Have to keep an eye out...
[Asakura:] "Oh, she's planning something. I figured out her runes' elemental makeup when they activated just now. You were right, they were put there in a hurry, so they're not fully active yet."
What, they're supposed to do more than make us sick?
[Nagato:] "The runes are almost the same, but only the one that caught you first was fully active. It seems to have an effect not dissimilar to an exceedingly high dose of nuclear radiation, taken all at once. It can destroy organic matter within seconds."
Oh no... All this time worrying about nuclear power, and it looked like it was going to get us in the end. Hecatia was going to irradiate us into oblivion.
[Asakura:] "My body is currently breaking down at the cellular level. The others must be really suffering right now."
True to her words, the pain on the others' faces was increasing. Marisa was trying to squeeze herself in next to me, on the part of the floor without runes. Tenshi was trying to pound the floor again with her fist, but even she had become too weak to break through. Asakura... well, she was just standing still without any sign of being affected, but I had to take her word for it. If those runes were allowed to activate fully, we'd all be dead.
Is that why Youmu can still stand, then? Because she's only half-organic?
[Nagato:] "Her human half is fully organic. She is purely willing herself to fight."
Not... not good. Come on! Someone has to do something!
[Asakura:] "Working on it."
Youmu had grown incredibly pale, and her eyes looked half-dead, like she wasn't really focusing on what was in front of her. She couldn't have recovered fully from all of our previous battles. Even though she was speaking and fighting, and still as fast as ever, the sight of her made me believe that I was looking at her corpse. Still, she stood on guard, waiting for her opponent to try another move.
I couldn't bear to see her like that - and maybe anticipating my feelings, Shanghai and Hourai floated in and stood by her, aiming at the blue Hecatia. They probably couldn't defend against the chains like Youmu could, but... Well, if they could block one for even a second, that might have been enough. That was all I could give her by way of support right now.
I struggled to crane my neck and see what became of Okuu. She was wilting on the ground, with no energy to do anything. I thought that maybe she could destroy the floor, but... even if she managed it without incinerating the rest of us, the fall would probably kill or injure us anyway now that none of us could fly, and no one else seemed in any shape to do anything, either. Our only other option was...
[Asakura:] "Since I've grasped the data, I can shut them down before they fully activate. Just give me some time, okay?"
More time? By the time we're free, we'll all be too weak to do anything...
It was almost the worst possible situation. The only way out was to endure it while everyone got ripped apart from the inside. At least Seija could protect us from the chains, but what if Hecatia dropped another one of those moons on us? Eventually, she's got to realize that we're stalling, too. She's going to kill us, one way or another.
"Oh, but isn't this familiar? We've been in a situation just like this before, haven't we?" Hecatia continued to goad Seija, who hadn't replied to her yet. "I'll make you the same offer I did back then. Kill them, and I might be merciful."
You're still going to tempt our side to yours, after all this?
Seija made a choking noise in her throat, then said, "Yeah, might."
Hecatia wasn't dissuaded. She smiled wider and said, "You know, I like you. I like watching you. That's the real reason I didn't do away with you. It's inspiring to watch you do so much with so little, and to see you surprise me again and again. You've got a lot in common with Piece that way." A strange sense of warmth crept into her expression. "I never expected you to work with me that time. And I never expected you to crush Shinmyoumaru with your own right hand and then stomp her into the ground." Hecatia raised her own hand, tensed it up, then opened and closed it, mimicking Seija's habit. "...But I guess you remember that better than I do."
...That's why she does that? I had thought it was just a nervous tic. Was she remembering the feeling of it?
If my Shinmyoumaru was anything like the one this Seija had, then the inchling princess would have had so much trust in her, only to be betrayed both times. Except this one would have been the ultimate betrayal.
To squeeze out a trusting life with your own hands...
Seija continued to be silent, though I could see the tension in her muscles. Hecatia was clearly trying to provoke her, and if I knew Seija, those weird compliments were probably more likely to set her off than anything. She always did love to be hated, and it only made sense that she'd hate to be loved, too.
Meanwhile, the others still struggled around me, crying out in pain as we waited for salvation. "Please do something, can't you?!" Reimu whisper-shouted, eyes wide. She dropped her gohei, and her breathing became shallow. Sanae silently wept beside her. Marisa had managed to climb almost on top of me, but her legs were still outside of the tiny safe spot I'd made. Koizumi... wasn't where he was before. I tried to look for him, only to find that he was on top of Koishi, pinning her to the ground as she attempted to flail and move. Probably for her own protection, I realized. Everyone's skin was as pale white as the snow falling around us.
This is bad... "Seija," I managed to croak in her direction, "Don't you dare move from that spot." Trying to give her an order might have been just as likely to backfire, but given that her survival depended on ours, I had to hope that her sense of reason would win out here.
Seija made another weird noise, then said, "Ah, shut up, both of you. What the hell do you think you're doing, telling me what to do?" She lifted the bat to point it at Hecatia. "It's always gotta be your way. Even your enemies, you gotta make 'em do what you want. Ain't it lonely, being all by yourself? Even that stupid excuse for an Agreement you made Eiki write wasn't really hers, right?"
Eiki? ...As in, Eiki Shiki? They had a version of her, too?
"Of course it was. All I did was teach her," replied Hecatia. "She was born to enforce the cycle of life and death, but as a former Jizou, she knew the horror of it all. She wanted nothing more than to end it, just as I do."
Seija chuckled. "Really? 'Cause it sounded like she just wanted to fix it to me."
Hecatia's smile dropped, and she began to visibly lose her patience. "Haven't you learned anything? There is nothing left to fix. I came to that realization before any of you. Why do you think I had to do what I did with Keiki? All of you were so misguided after everything we've been through, that you clung to your old ways, holding onto those impure cycles. No. This cycle is pure injustice, the cycle of life is diseased to the core, and with no other hope of escape but mine. Even the attainment of nirvana is impossible now." Her eyes went over to Tenshi, and she said, "Isn't that right?"
...Huh? I looked over at Tenshi, who was biting her lip instead of answering. Hecatia looked at all of us, and then her smile came back and she said, "What? Didn't she tell you? Heaven is closed. The celestials pretend that there's no more room, but the truth is, they're just as covetous and worldly as the rest of us. Wicked, jealous, imperfect beings. It's the same as the Lunar Capital. Only a hermit who breaks in by force can get there now, and if everyone becomes hermits, you can bet there will be retribution. We are all of us trapped in this endless cycle of Hell without Heaven, controlled by masters that care nothing for what lies outside their little worlds." Hecatia looked right at me. "You're fighting for nothing. You have nothing to fight for. Nothing waiting for you. Nothing to fall back on. Your world, and all worlds, need to be purged of needless and painful cycles like this."
...That's... I looked back to Tenshi, who was avoiding the rest of our gazes.
"...It's true." That's all she said. The only emotion in her voice was the pain of the purification.
All of a sudden, Yukari's distaste for celestials made perfect sense. And once again, the universe seemed just a little bit more hopeless. I remembered Eiki telling me that I couldn't reach Heaven because I was bound by my desires. So what, that was a lie of omission? Even if I'd completely abandoned my world and been enlightened, she'd just have said, "Sorry, they're full"?
It was stupid - but I wasn't going to be distracted by it. I fixed my eyes back on Hecatia, reminding myself that she was doing the exact same thing. Deciding who lives in her paradise, and who doesn't. Whatever her reasons, I couldn't forgive that. As if the fact that she was going to erase me from existence wasn't enough.
[Asakura:] "Forty more seconds. Reisen has a rune in the way of her shot, too. I'll give you some adrenaline and things once I've unlocked them, so hit her with everything you've got, okay?"
[Emiri:] "I'm worried that we're severely overtaxing the nanomachines in their body. They weren't designed to perform so many drastic tasks."
[Nagato:] "The old ones needed to be reapplied constantly. The new ones we got due to the evolution I had are holding up."
[Emiri:] "You're very optimistic for untested-"
Untested nanomachines?! Honestly I never gave too much thought to the nanomachines. I had always just believed in them, accepted them. Yet even now one of the data entities were expressing their doubts about them.
[Asakura:] "Do not worry about them. I'll make them work. Everyone just get ready – the Data Overmind won't fail on our side."
I wasn't sure how much good that would do at this point, with everyone too weak to move at all, but it was our only chance. I knew I could move, at least, and Marisa was at least somewhat protected, but what could the two of us do?
Well, for starters, I needed my strength back. Taking advantage of Hecatia and Seija's stare-off, I fumbled on the ground with my satchel, pulling out and stuffing my face with a mushroom block and a celestial peach to replace the one I'd puked up. I skimmed my spell cards - Master Spark. Yeah, that'll do. Chances are, we'll both pick that one...
"Endless cycle?" Seija finally said after a long pause. I couldn't see her face, but by the nuance of her voice, I could tell that she was grinning, showing Hecatia all those wicked, sharp teeth from ear to ear. Her whole body trembled in fear, and the bat rattled in her hands like it was a malfunctioning washing machine, but she didn't move a single centimeter from where she'd planted her feet. "Sounds great. An eternal revolution. If everyone got enlightened or went to Paradise, this universe'd be boring. Heaven ain't all it's cracked up to be."
Disappointment spread across Hecatia's features. "...Even now, you'll fight with such childish reasoning?" she asked.
"What can I say? I ain't perfect. That's just what you said you liked about me, ain't it?"
Hecatia shook her head in a kind of incredulous humor. "...I suppose it is. You could never be part of a perfect world, after all. Though everyone else will forget you, I'll miss you when you're gone."
"Then I'll die happy knowing how much I broke your friggin' heart."
Hecatia smirked again, and the glow beneath all of us suddenly intensified. "Yes, that you will."
Too late! We're too late! The runes were activating. Around me, everyone screamed, and I felt my heart rise up into my throat-
[Asakura:] "Now!"
-And the next moment, their cries turned from pain into something like fury. The floor stopped glowing. Color rushed back into their skin, and I felt a surge of energy fill my body. My heart beat faster, my blood began to rush, and awoken, I sprang to my feet almost automatically. It was an instantaneous revival, so quick that it felt like being shaken awake in the middle of a dream. I had to fight. I had to take her down, and by the bloodlust in their eyes, so did everyone else.
Except for Youmu, Shanghai, and Hourai, we all faced the red Hecatia. Even I could feel the energy welling up in the room. And then...
[SPELL CARD: DATA PROPOGATION "ENERGY AMPLIFICATION SCREEN"]
[SPELL CARD: SPIRIT SIGN "FANTASY SEAL"]
[SPELL CARD: SCARRED SOUL "SOUL SCULPTURE"]
[SPELL CARD: THORN SIGN "CONFINED INNOCENT"]
[SPELL CARD: KEYSTONE "KANAME FUNNEL"]
[SPELL CARD: LOVE SIGN "MASTER SPARK"]
[SPELL CARD: REBUTTAL "FALSE EQUIVALENCE OF LIFE AND DEATH"]
[SPELL CARD: SNAKE SIGN "GREAT SNAKE SWIMMING IN THE CLOUDS"]
CAUTION!
[SPELL CARD: "HELL'S ARTIFICIAL SUN"]
[SPELL CARD: RECOLLECTION "MASTER SPARK"]
...Well, it became really hard to see after that.
The runes that separated the two halves of the room vanished. Asakura created some kind of energy lattice in front of us, and when the sheer wall of energy that we all created passed through it, the noise turned deafening. Seija just barely managed to dive to the ground before she got caught up in it, being so far in front of us, while Hecatia, who was flying square in front and had so many heavy chains to drag around, couldn't get away in time. What little was left of the far side of the room shattered apart, smoke and dust filled the air, and for the next few seconds, everything was pure white. I felt my skin and clothes begin to singe from the heat of being so close to Okuu's spell, but I kept casting, putting everything I had into it. If anything is putting an end to Hecatia, it's all of this!
[Asakura:] "Oh, that'd be nice, wouldn't it?"
...Seriously?!
[Nagato:] "She had defenses ready. They're being ground away, but a direct attack like that won't penetrate fully."
[Asakura:] "This will just even the playing field. Get ready to fight!"
The light died down, and we didn't waste time standing around in this half-eaten shoe box of a room. Marisa grabbed her broomstick in one hand and my shoulder in the other, and together, we all flew up and fanned out in case our enemy retaliated. As we did, I saw the cloud of smoke left in the wake of our attack begin to dissipate, and inside, pressed up against the indestructible wall of the far building, I saw what looked like a ball of molten metal.
It pretty much was, at that; it was a massive sphere comprised of tightly wound golden chains. A hole had been bored in the center of it, facing us, and through that hole, I saw a single rune that seemed to act as a barrier. It was flickering and wavering, and it fizzled out when the attack stopped... but Hecatia had indeed survived that huge attack.
Well, fine. We're not done yet, either.
Reisen watched through the scope of the rifle from the corner of the hole in the upper floor of the center building, waiting for either the red or blue Hecatia to come out of cover. There was one more not accounted for, and Reisen made sure to keep clicking her tongue, testing the air all around her for a sign of change in the environment. She strained her ears towards the ceiling and floor above and below her, anticipating an attack from somewhere where her echoes couldn't reach. It could come from near or far, or any direction, and Reisen's own window of attack could appear at any moment. Without a spotter, she needed absolute awareness of everything in the battle.
She didn't really want to think about the things Hecatia had shown them and told them. To find out that she was created out of a fictional character... That bothered her less than the idea that her life was on display, and her likeness entertainment for other universes. All the more so because it wasn't really her, but the her in the Shadow Chronicle. The coward who abandoned her friends - that was what the multiverse thought of Reisen. It was better to put such thoughts out of her mind for now.
Click. Nothing around her.
Click. The runes in the air had been erased, too.
Click. The whole building was silent and empty.
[Asakura:] "The blue one has begun retreating inside the building. She may come around."
Thanks. I'll watch out.
If Hecatia showed up inside the gym, Reisen would have to swing her gun around quickly. She increased the pace of her clicking, but just then, the ball of chains fell apart, disintegrating into nothing and revealing the red Hecatia, who floated forward, evidently intent to fight the group assembled above the school. Reisen didn't hesitate - she placed the crosshair and pulled the trigger three times.
...But in the very next instant, another Hecatia came out of the red one. The blonde-haired one, who wore the moon, had gotten in the way of the shots, but neither one of them was hit. Confused and panicked, Reisen took two more shots - and the blonde Hecatia brought up her right hand, which held the Roukanken, and neatly severed the danmaku bullets. She fixed her eyes on Reisen, and a grin crept up over her face. Too late, Reisen realized her plan.
...She wasn't sneaking up on me. She probably didn't even know where I was... She was waiting for me to show her by attacking.
"I'll correct you one last time, Seija," the red one said as she rose up to the level of the others. "I am not lonesome - because I am never alone." She spread her arms, and behind the group, Reisen saw the blue-haired one fly up from the lower level of the building as well.
I can't get any of them by surprise now... I have to wait until they're engaged. That is, if they don't come for me...
Should I reposition? Hide? Reisen didn't have much time to decide, but at least if the blonde one came in her direction, she had room to retreat. For now, it was best to stay put and cover the others. Half of the group arranged themselves to face the blue one, and the other half, the yellow and red. None of them seemed to want to make the first move, but neither did Hecatia. She continued to talk to them, putting one affectionate hand on the blonde one's shoulder.
"The Romans called us Diana, Luna, and Hecate. Together, we were called Trivia... though now, we go by Hecatia Lapislazuli."
Yeah, we all know how much you love yourself...
The two Hecatias separated from one another, and the red one called out, "Those runes were a mercy, if you can believe it. Your suffering would have been brief and slight by comparison. Now, though..." All three Hecatias waved their hands, and in them appeared the same spell card, wrapped in darkness. "...Now, what happens to you is by your own making."
[SpElL CaRd: "MaNy WoRlDs, ThReE HeLlS"]
The three Hecatias surged with energy, each one erupting in a colored flame. Hecate and Diana transformed into streaks of red and blue light, veering to either side of the group above the school, and a third, yellow streak came at Reisen, who pulled back behind the wall and ran to the staircase, anticipating a flood of danmaku through the hole. As she did, she ripped a flashbang from its tether on her backpack and rolled it to the edge of the hole, putting one arm up over her ears and ducking below the edge of the steps to protect herself.
The flash came, and the sound of the BANG remained screeching in her ears, even despite her covering from it, but Reisen quickly swapped to her assault rifle and peeked back over the top of the stairs. There was no one - but she saw the streak of yellow light past the hole, continuing onward to the left. Did I get her? Or is she trying to flank around? Asakura, do you see her?
...
Asakura?
All of a sudden, the air felt colder. No one was responding to Reisen's thoughts, and Reisen couldn't even hear the battle outside anymore. There was no danmaku, Hecatia had stopped talking, and the only noise left was the ringing in Reisen's ears from the flashbang.
...I didn't go deaf, did I? Reisen shifted her foot, and her shoe rubbed audibly on the stair. Her backpack rustled against her back, and the items inside it clinked together. No. Something must have happened outside. Reisen's throat closed up, and she couldn't help but remember how many abilities they had encountered that could simply kill a person, or even a crowd, an instant. If Hecatia had something like that, she'd have used it earlier instead of those runes. There's no way she wouldn't have. But...
The yellow line moved downwards, startling Reisen, and disappeared below the bottom edge of the hole. Beyond, there was blackness. Not just the normal darkness of the hour, but a pure black abyss, stretching infinitely into the distance. She clicked her tongue, and the sound didn't come back from beyond the hole. There was nothing left outside.
Wh-what...?
Am I... the only one left...?
It had to be an illusion, or... or something, she thought. She clicked again - and it was at that moment that she realized there was no sound from the right, either. Risking a moment to look down the hallway, she saw that half of the building had simply vanished. The corridor ended in a neat, perfect cut at what was once the center of the building, leading directly into the void outside. She couldn't see Hecatia, nor the others, nor the culture building or the world beyond through the windows. It was all just black.
...Where is everyone?
Reisen descended the stairs, clicking as she went. There was no one in the second floor hallway, nor the first floor. If Hecatia was still here, she must have been either hanging around the outside of the building or in one of the rooms. Betting on the former, Reisen began to move across the first floor, where the doors were still open from their last pass through, clicking towards each room to check them before she passed. If she could get outside safely, she could confirm the enemy's position, or so she hoped. And yet, no sooner had the thought entered her head than she found that she hated the idea of going out there.
Don't be gone. Whatever this is, it's just part of the spell...
To Reisen, the emptiness outside felt colder than outer space. Though somehow, the light levels were the same as they had been before, there were no visible stars, moon, or sun, and without those, it was more like the depths of Avici, from which there could be no escape. True to the name, it was as if Hecatia had sent her and half of the school building straight into Hell, where she would remain, alone, until the end of the universe.
The edge of the school building cut through one of the classrooms, and it was there, against the wall, that Reisen waited. She couldn't guess what the enemy would do next. She didn't even know if the enemy was still there. Maybe it really was just a spell that threw her into Hell and left her for dead. For Reisen, it would only be fitting, given the circumstances.
Some were given to saying that karma is conscience, and that Heaven and Hell originate inside one's self. Reisen remembered these ideas, and for some time, she suspected that she had never truly left that roiling cavern. Even if she accepted that the coward in her memories wasn't her, it had also shaped who she was, and Kyon was right to say that she wasn't always thinking with her head. In that sense, she was that coward, just as she was also herself. Those memories were her past, even if no one shared them. If she needed proof of that, it was simply this: Here she laid in wait, in this silent void, watching for an enemy that probably wasn't even there. It wasn't prudence, nor the fear of death that kept her from scouting the outside; it was the fear of finding that nothing was there, and there was no way out of this infinite darkness.
I need to find out if she's here.
...I need to find out.
But Reisen couldn't move. All she could do was tell herself that Hecatia would kill her as soon as she did, all the while knowing it was an excuse.
Minutes passed, and still, there was no sign of life. Neither was there any sign that this state of affairs was temporary; if this was just a spell card that contained people, it would have timed out by now. Whatever this was, it may have been permanent, and that notion was like death staring Reisen in the face.
...She's not here, is she?
This is Hell. This all I have to look forward to now.
Could the others, even Eirin and Yukari find her here? It seemed doubtful. Hell was supposed to be larger than comprehension, so unless there was some clue they could follow as to where she'd gone, there was nothing to hope for. And even that would only matter if they survived. If any others had gotten trapped like she did, maybe even all of them...
Reisen didn't want to think about it, but she couldn't deny it. Hecatia might have done away with them all, just like that. What even happened? They flew around us, leaving some kind of energy trail... and that's all I saw. I didn't even feel anything. There was no danmaku. What kind of spell was that?
Whatever it was, it was definitely a Taboo. No way would something like this be acceptable in a real spell card duel. Reisen found herself sinking to the floor, defeated, even as she kept her grip on her rifle. There was no point in wondering about it. She'd never get the answers now.
...In the end, I wasn't able to do anything. I was completely, utterly... useless.
Reisen closed her eyes, and felt moisture on her cheeks. For all the bravado she'd mustered, she hadn't done a thing, and now that she was trapped, what was she doing? "I'm a trained soldier, Kyon. I know how to keep my feelings under control." - What a joke. I bet he saw right through me, saying something like that. As if the Lunarians would train us moon rabbits. Our "training" was nothing but abuse.
The Lunarians never had any expectations of the moon rabbits. In the Lunar Capital's long history, few had ever had the means to reach it, let alone stage an invasion, and it was never the rabbits that made the difference in those battles. Still, ever since those shadow memories had surfaced, Reisen had committed herself to being better. She didn't want to be like the other rabbits, with no discipline - she wanted to be more like the Lunarians. Stronger. Smarter. More pure. By re-applying herself to training for combat, she had hoped to become a more perfect person. But now, that all seemed to have proven pointless.
Sure, she'd been taught how to use a weapon, but what good was that? As much as she tried to make herself look superior, practically everyone in their group was a better fighter than her. She pushed herself again and again to be better, to contribute something, and to get revenge on the Furies, but all the while, she still didn't feel like a soldier. Satori had been wrong. She was a useless, scared rabbit doing little more than acting like she knew what she was doing.
A way out... I want a way out...
Just let me fight and die like normal... I don't care if I die, as long as it's not this...
"Giving up already, Reisen?"
Alarms sounded in Reisen's head, and she realized that she'd stopped clicking a while ago. By pure reflex, she whipped her whole body around into a kneeling position, facing inside the building, and brought the sight up to her eye. Her vision was blurred by the liquid covering it, and in the center of the crosshair was a distorted blob of black and red.
Hecatia!
She's here! She's here after all!
Excitement rushed through her. She couldn't believe her luck. Something to shoot - a purpose. A fight. As long as she had that...
Her finger trembled on the trigger. She tried to shoot, but couldn't. Something was different. That wasn't Hecatia's voice just now. She blinked hard twice, and when that didn't help, she took one hand off her rifle to wipe her eyes. The figure in front of her stood serenely still, waiting for her to regain herself, and the first thing that Reisen saw when she looked back through the sight was her carefree, brilliant smile.
Princess-
"Princess!" she blurted out, lowering the weapon and burning with shame. She tried to reassemble herself into something presentable, standing up and wiping her face again.
Kaguya tittered as she watched her, and said, "It isn't like you to break down and cry so early in the battle. Usually, Tewi has to tease you a lot more before you do that."
"I-I'm terribly sorry, Princess...!" Reisen lowered her head, wanting to cry even more. She didn't understand, but just seeing someone, anyone in this place was more than she had dared to hope for. "I... I'll live up to your expectations from now on..."
Kaguya's expression became piteous, and she said, "Reisen, please. You're not a soldier anymore, so you don't have to keep doing that. It's not like the other Inabas on the moon ever followed protocol anyway, right?"
Reisen froze up, not sure what to say. After a few moments spent choosing her words, she said, "...I don't think I can just stop being a soldier, Princess. Especially not now..."
"I don't mean that. If that's who you are, then you should stay that way forever, " Kaguya replied. She walked forward slowly until she was in arm's reach, then lifted one finger and tapped the tip of Reisen's nose. "But stop being hard on yourself. I don't mind if you cry in front of me, or address me casually, or if you can't do a proper salute. That's quite charming. You always amuse me so much, back home."
...Huh? What's wrong with my salute? Reisen tried one unconsciously, putting the back of her hand against her forehead. She was sure that was how the rabbits taught her to do it. Kaguya giggled, then moved her hand to rest on Reisen's shoulder and said, "I would hate to win the universe only to lose my favorite servant, you know?"
Reisen lowered her head, feeling her cheeks turn red, and knowing that she didn't deserve such sympathy. "...Thank you, Princess... but, I don't think you know how much I've failed. Honestly, I think I should have been harder on myself. I get distracted so easily, and I can't make quick decisions..."
Kaguya gave her a long, stern stare, and then said, "Well then, I'll have Eirin punish you later, so stop worrying about it. How's that?"
Reisen shivered. Even if the Lunarians didn't train her much, there was one thing that always guaranteed she could focus, and that was remembering what would happen if she didn't. Hell and Hecatia may have been terrifying, but compared to that...
"R-right!" Reisen did a clumsy salute again, finally straightening her back and standing tall. "I'll look forward to- I mean, I'll make up for my failures! Please tell her that, too!"
Being a soldier meant taking responsibility for failure. Reisen knew that, and perhaps a little too well. If she were the one to punish herself, she'd have wallowed in this void forever, but as long as her comeuppance was waiting back home, then she just had to make sure that she got there in one piece. To do anything else would have been unthinkable for her pride.
Kaguya folded her hands in front of her, looking pleased. "That's much better. You aren't Lunarian, and you aren't perfect. I don't want you to ever change, okay? Keep being proud, sensitive, silly, and very cute. That's a request from your princess."
I guess... I guess I have no choice, then. Something lifted off of Reisen's shoulders, and she found it not so terribly hard to stand. She held her rifle close to her body, gripping it a little tighter, and looked her in the eye, returning a grateful smile. Kaguya nodded to her, then said, "Oh, and Hecatia is behind you, so kill her dead, all right?"
What-
Reisen pivoted like lightning once again, and through the gun's sight, floating in the blackness just beyond the edge of the room, was the blonde Hecatia - Luna. Reisen didn't hesitate this time. She pulled the trigger three times, but Luna's face disappeared behind a giant, glowing moon that rose up in front of her, and the shots ricocheted off of it, back into the walls behind Reisen. Reisen backed up against Kaguya, shielding her with her body, and stopped firing, realizing the danger.
It reflects?! ...Well, yeah, it's the moon...
"And here I was so certain that you'd succumb immediately," said Luna as the the moon shifted just aside to regard Reisen from above with an expression of passive judgment, though she pointedly did not look her directly in the eye. Reisen didn't fire again, but kept her finger on the trigger, waiting for her next move. The chains connected Luna's collar to the moon hung low beneath her, and the only sound was their clinking.
When did she get there...? How long has she been here?!
"This is the moon's Hell that I made just for you - the Lunarians' nightmare, the Hell of Obsession." Luna held up one hand to gesture at the emptiness around her. "Here, your flaws and imperfections are magnified until eventually, they will drive you to madness."
You... Again, because of you...! "You've been hiding here this whole time?!" Reisen shouted, urging Kaguya with her elbow to back up. Reisen felt that earlier inner rage come surging back.
"Of course not." Luna smirked and turned her eyes on Kaguya. "I left you here to rot, but somehow, she found a way into my closed space. Now I have to stop you both from returning outside."
The battle is still going on? Reisen felt relieved to hear that more than anything - as long as everyone was still fighting, she could give it her all, too. A simple objective was a wonderful thing.
"Hmm? 'Somehow'?" Kaguya tilted her head curiously, paying no heed to Reisen's attempts at moving her. "It's just an infinitely small boundary inside normal space, right? I walked in."
"A what?" said Reisen.
"...Of all people, they had to send you..." Luna became irritable, but her superior smirk stayed put. The moon glowed and pulsed with energy, and it threw itself away from her body, beginning an attack.
The moon swung in a wide circle around her, up and down, sending spiraling waves of danmaku at the two of them. Reisen fired a couple of distraction shots as she dodged back towards the doorway, expecting Kaguya to follow, but Kaguya remained where she was, allowing the circular waves to pass harmlessly around her. Her expression didn't change, and still, she acted as if she wasn't in any danger at all.
The Princess hasn't done much danmaku, has she? Does she realize that isn't a safe spot?!
"Princess! She's going to-"
Before Reisen could complete her warning, the moon itself came crashing through the center, plugging up the hole. With the danmaku tunnel around Kaguya now so thick, it would be impossible for anyone to squeeze through and escape. Thinking quickly, Reisen brought up a spell card in order to punch a hole for her, but it all happened so fast, she couldn't cast in time. Yet as the moon came barreling towards her, Kaguya didn't move or change, and the very instant before it impacted, Reisen saw her continuing to face it with an anticipatory grin.
...And in the very next instant, she was everywhere. What might have been two dozen different Kaguyas filled the room, standing everywhere that wasn't directly in front of a shot, with their hands raised towards Hecatia. One blink of an eye later, they were gone, and there was only one Kaguya, standing just beside where the tunnel had been - and in place of every position she'd been in was a single large, round danmaku shot, which sent itself forward towards Luna, forcing her to back up and shield herself with the moon.
Huh-?!
Before Reisen could even realize, Kaguya was beside her, pushing her into the hallway. Reisen stumbled back just in time to avoid the reflected shots as they pummeled and destroyed the black wall of the classroom, filling the whole room with dust. Hopping a short distance back, she found herself in the middle of the hall, with Kaguya beside her once again, and Luna floated sideways into view beyond the cut-off.
Since when... was the Princess that fast...?
"You used a Taboo spell to trap my poor Inaba here, didn't you?" Kaguya said, walking in front of Reisen. "That's just not done, you know? If you're using your full power against us, doesn't that mean I can do the same?" Folding her hands in her sleeves, she taunted Luna with her lackadaisical attitude, and Luna returned it in kind.
"Nice effort, but I've already protected myself from time manipulation," said Luna. "You'll have to try a little harder to get me with that."
"I'm sure. Well, we'll see, won't we?"
The way the two of them chatted with one another, one would think they were good friends enjoying a casual sport together. Whether Kaguya was underestimating Hecatia or Hecatia was underestimating Kaguya, Reisen felt that this encounter was going to have a great deal more gravity for her. Counting the bullets she still had loaded in her head, she took aim and plotted her next move.
[SpElL CaRd: "MaNy WoRlDs, ThReE HeLlS"]
Hecatia wasn't going to stay on the defensive. Almost as soon as her three bodies had shown themselves, they launched into an attack... or at least, it looked like an attack. While the yellow one shot off beyond the far school building, the red and blue ones moved to surround us, trailing a bright-colored light. They didn't let off any danmaku, but they moved fast - so fast, I hardly had time to blink before they were already at our sides.
"Hold on!" Marisa yelled back at me. I obliged, and Shanghai and Hourai clung to me as she accelerated forward. The two Hecatias had made sharp turns, traveling to another point adjacent to our position, and soon enough, it was pretty clear that they were drawing something in the air with those light trails they left behind. The rest of us wisely decided we didn't want to be in the middle of that, and it wasn't a second after Okuu, our slowest, managed to escape from inside the geometry that the shapes' outlines were completed; two four-pointed pyramids, one blue and one red, that hung next to one another in the air for a moment before rapidly shrinking into nothing. There was a rush of wind - not from where they shrank, but from outside going in towards them - that knocked us slightly off course, and at the points where they vanished, two more pyramids composed of danmaku spread out at us, forcing us to course-correct and dodge them quickly.
What the hell...? Even though they move quick, isn't this kind of a slow attack? It took us by surprise, but this spell was nothing compared to what the other Furies had pulled out. There must have been a trick of some kind.
"Wha... Where'd the..." Marisa began to say.
"Reisen!" Sanae shrieked nearby. "She was in that building!"
...What?
I turned my head, and my stomach sank into my guts. The entire right half of the center building was... gone. Just gone, along with a triangular piece of the ground beneath it, like it'd been cut away with a scalpel. The wind blew into that area as well, and I figured out what this was: That entire section of space had been erased, and the school - and Reisen - along with it, leaving nothing but the spreading pyramid of danmaku. Air was rushing into the vacuum left behind, causing this turbulent wind.
...Reisen is...
...Just like that...?
The pit came into my stomach. I'd already resolved not to hesitate if something like this happened, but...
No... No, I can't dwell on it. Where is Hecatia? We... We have to fight back.
I physically tore my eyes away from the spot where Reisen's perch had disappeared, squeezing Marisa's arm to try and communicate to her that now wasn't the time to stop dodging. All three Hecatias were shooting off again, planning draw even more pyramids, and we all had to focus, or else suffer the same fate. "They're still attacking!" I called out, hoping everyone could hear me, and I kept my eyes on them while Marisa tried to steer us away.
Just... annihilated. Gone.
[Asakura:] "Actually, I'm still receiving information from her. The wavelength is rapidly decreasing, but I don't think she's dead."
The sound of Asakura saying that filled me with both hope and dread. What?! How? Where is she?!
[Asakura:] "I'm not sure. Her nanomachines are still working, but they aren't responding to me. It seems we can only communicate one way."
[Nagato:] "We will perform analysis on this side. Just avoid Hecatia's attacks for now."
Right...
Marisa and I shared a relieved look. We were all still in this, though we could still be taken out at any moment. The three Hecatias completed their shapes a little quicker than the last time, and since there were all three of them together now, it was still a close call for all of us. The wind sucked us in again, and they started on their next ones before we could recover, continuing to speed up.
[Ran:] "No need. I know this data pattern well."
Ran's voice startled me, and I almost thought she'd appeared right beside me, but I remembered how she, Chen, and the rest of the interfaces had connected to one another to battle the alternate Nagato. That meant they all must still have been working together.
[Ran:] "If I'm correct, you're dealing with a bounded zone shrunk down to an infinitesimal percentile that continues infinitely downward relative to the environment. You can't cross that boundary by conventional means. That's why signals from inside can reach outside, but your signals to the inside will never arrive."
[Asakura:] "Oh, I see. So that's how it is. It's going to be tricky, in that case..."
What? In small words, please? Can we get her back?
[Asakura:] "The short answer is, 'Yes, but only if we don't get sucked in, too.' We can explain when you're not running for your life, okay?"
Fair enough. Thanks, you guys.
"So don't get sucked into black-hole thingies," quipped Marisa. "Okay, got it! If I can handle Suika, I can handle this."
Surviving this looked like it was going to be easier said than done, though. The Three Hecatias were indeed speeding up, and we had to stay on our toes as they started mixing up their patterns: First, they'd draw three pyramids together, creating a massive vacuum that sucked us all to the center, and then they would draw in staggered patterns, completing them one by one around the edges of the vacuum and making the air even more chaotic. I had to take back what I was thinking about this being easy - now that our movement was restricted so much by the wind and the slow-moving ambient danmaku, it was getting worse and worse by the second.
"Okay maybe I can't handle this easily..."
Of course, we didn't just passively dodge it, either. Even as the first pyramids were being drawn, the others were trying to shoot Hecatia down, and by the second set, the spell cards had started coming out.
[SPELL CARD: ESOTERICA "SECRETLY INHERITED ART OF DANMAKU"]
Sanae had flown high above the rest of us, and was drawing danmaku pentagrams that she attempted to rain down on Hecatia while the rest of us spread out to try and split them up. Most of us were fast enough to get out of the area, at least, but not Okuu. In fact, Okuu had gotten caught up in trying to shoot Hecatia down with streams of plasma from her Third Leg, but she couldn't manage it with how fast they were moving. Her beams impacted the walls of the school, and I thought they'd melt straight through, but the runes inside of them held, and they appeared undamaged even under the pressure. Asakura must have left those ones intact.
"Gonna be hard to go after her in all that," said Marisa, still pulling us back to a safe distance. "You'd have to be crazy or stupid to try it!"
Tell me about it. So I thought as I looked in at the mess, but if Okuu was stupid, I soon found crazy - Reimu hadn't budged, and was still dodging through all of it while she chased after Hecatia, needles in hand. She wasn't having much luck, and it seemed to me that anyone trying to help from afar would just end up making it harder on her. Lucky for her, everyone else on the outside realized it, too. However, someone on the inside didn't.
CAUTION!
[SPELL CARD: FUSION "MELTING WHITE"]
That spell... wasn't what any of us would've wanted. Okuu's answer to an enemy that she couldn't hit was, after a few seconds of noisily powering up, to start spewing miniature stars mixed with smaller fireballs absolutely everywhere, taking the temperature up a few dozen degrees in the process. They crashed against the school walls, creating explosions and shockwaves that interacted with Hecatia's vacuums in a most unpleasant way; even out here, it felt like my guts were turning to jelly. We all had to back up even more, as it would've been certain death to stay nearby while Hecatia's spell was still filling the air, and the red and yellow ones began chasing the rest of us away from the battle, intent on separating us further. Only the blue one stayed behind to keep the pressure on Reimu and Okuu.
Reimu didn't even mind, weaving through everything like it was exactly where she wanted to be. Her uniform was still blackened and marred from her battle with Jinwu, so she had no problems whatsoever with getting near those huge balls of plasma, and when the blue one - whose name I suppose was Diana - tried to draw a pyramid on the other side of a stream of stars from her in order to suck her into them with the vacuum, she didn't even resist. She fell into it, faster than the star itself was moving, and just as I thought I'd witnessed her plunge straight in...
[SPELL CARD: BARRIER "EXPANDING BARRIER"]
...The star passed straight through a cube-shaped barrier that appeared around her, warping to the other side. Another cube appeared around that one, and then another, creating a multi-layered barrier through which all of the surrounding danmaku would pass without ever coming near her.
"I see what she's doin'," said Marisa, suddenly pointing the tip of her broomstick back at Reimu. "Get ready, I'm gonna try and follow her up, ze."
What? We're going in?! Of course - Marisa was at least as crazy as Reimu, so she just had to dive into the danmaku cloud after her. I wasn't about to stop trusting her, though, so all I said in response was, "Don't kill us."
"Heh. Ya know I can't promise that."
Together, we raced into the heart of the battle, through Hecatia's pyramids, Sanae's ritual shots, and Utsuho's stars, and I've gotta say - if Reimu was our best focused dodger, Marisa was probably our best at dodging while moving at top speed. Not that it was a contest, but I could hardly see most of the shots that came whizzing past my face. I grabbed hold of Shanghai and brought her up front, holding her shield forward more for peace of mind than anything, and I kept my head low just in case. Through the small space between it and Marisa, I saw that Diana had stopped drawing pyramids, and was now maneuvering slowly through several of Sanae's patterns towards Reimu. If nothing else, we'd stalled her from doing any more of that for now, though by the sound of things, the other two were still at it, and that spell was still going.
After getting clear of Sanae's shots, Diana took the chain connecting her to her floating earth and wrapped it around both her hands before bursting through Reimu's barriers into her protected space. With her right hand, she whirled the earth like a flail at her, and Reimu had to flip around it, and with the both of them still channeling their spells, they started fighting in close quarters. Reimu swung her gohei at Diana, who blocked it with the chain on her right hand, and made a punch with her left, forcing Reimu to back up or get hit - which gave her time to make another swing with the earth. The two of them kept fighting like that, with swings and punches and kicks that never quite connected, but each move flowed into the next, and flowed with their opponent. Every action was also a reaction, and came out so quick that it looked to me like Reimu, at least, was fighting by pure instinct. Neither of them really had time to read the other, and yet it looked almost like a synchronized dance.
"Is she going to be able to hold out until we get there...?" I wondered aloud.
"'Course she is," said Marisa. "Reimu's fought like this all her life. Her whole brain's nothin' but fightin' now, I bet... Danmaku's all she dreams about, ya know?"
That... made too much sense. Reimu had only ever shown me two sides of her - with something to fight, and with nothing to fight. When she was idle, she was practically a different person. Lazy. Lazier than me, even, before I had started training my body. That was Reimu without purpose. But this...
This really was what she lived for. She'd been forced to defend herself against youkai from Hell when she was just a kid, and probably from that day on, she'd done nothing fight battle after battle just like this. Hecatia may have had millennia of experience over Reimu, but Reimu put her whole being, everything she had, into this.
It's like she's enjoying it. Not having fun, exactly, but... this is her element.
I dreaded this day with so much of my very being, yet she was ready. The only way she lost, from what I saw, was when that Fury Nagato instantly liquefied her, not giving her a chance to fight back. Without that, it'd have gone just like this. If I'd asked, she'd probably have denied the whole thing, but I would have bet anything that Reimu had been looking forward to this day for a long, long time.
"...So that's why we gotta lend her a hand. She'll kill herself tryin' to do it all alone." Marisa pulled a spell card as we neared the barrier, swinging wide to avoid the rain of fire that was coming our way. We narrowly escaped being fried by slipping into the outer layer of the barrier; although we could pass through just fine, all of the danmaku around us was warped to the other side. It was a strong defensive spell, and pretty much forced the enemy to get in close if they wanted to fight Reimu before it timed out.
It forces the enemy to get in close... but if Reimu only used it to protect herself, she'd have tried escaping. She wanted Diana to come to her.
"The barrier's about so-so wide, yeah...? So, I gotta sit right here..." Marisa mumbled to herself as she positioned herself within this small space. Because of the size of the barrier, Diana couldn't attack us without moving, and Reimu would punish her for that if she tried. Marisa must have known that, because she settled on a spot, then pulled out her mini-Hakkero, dropped a dark lump of something-or-other into the port on the top, and began to cast her own spell.
[SPELL CARD: BLACK MAGIC "EVENT HORIZON"]
Magic circles appeared above the mini-Hakkero's port, then spread in a circular pattern from our position until they were outside of the barrier, forming a ring around it. Each one began fanning bright, colorful stars outward, creating a circular shell of danmaku around Reimu's barrier that looped in on itself, making it impossible to leave the barrier.
But Diana doesn't want to leave, right? So, why...?
As soon as I thought that, Reimu's barrier vanished. I panicked for a moment, thinking she'd been hit, but when I looked, she was still fighting with purpose, and in the midst of her fluid movements, she suddenly swung around Diana and into a gap that she tore in the air with her gohei. Diana wasted a precious second trying to turn and track her, but Reimu had already warped up next to us, and had her yin-yang orb in her hand, readying to cast again.
"Stop her," she commanded me with a gesture. I almost didn't see what she meant, but Diana had thrown out her hand and was opening a gap of her own - it seemed her gap ability wasn't as quick as Reimu's or Yukari's. I aimed Shanghai and Hourai at the space between her and that gap, and fired the doll spark. It missed, but they didn't stop firing, and managed to stall her from entering the gap just long enough for Reimu to complete her next spell.
[SPELL CARD: TREASURE "YIN-YANG ASUKAI"]
At the same time as Reimu's orb glowed with a blueish-white energy, I felt a strange wave of force going in towards Marisa, like a gravitational pull that sucked in her magic circles, tightening the circle she'd made and rapidly reducing the space we had to move in. Between that and my denying her an escape route, Diana was forced to charge, tossing the earth ahead of us at her, but Reimu met it by throwing the yin-yang orb - and with a pulse of energy, it grew to a huge size, filling up the space underneath us and clashing against the planetoid, creating a burst of white light that made me look away. What I saw when I looked back was that the giant orb was gone, but the earth had been flung away, and Diana, now without her blue flame, was stunned and being pelted with Marisa's stars.
We got her!
After feeling helpless for a good while, this was a great reprieve. Reimu tossed out her needles at our now-stationary target, and I directed the dolls to hit her with the laser again. This time, we were dead-on, and there was no shield to stop us.
"Reimu, this's gonna get hot in a few seconds," Marisa warned.
"I know, just keep it up!"
Hot? I suddenly noticed that it was indeed a lot hotter now... actually it kind of hurt, and I became aware that the gravity of Marisa's simulated black hole was pulling in more than just her own danmaku. Those huge stars that Okuu had been throwing everywhere had all started curving into our orbit, and quite a few of them were now heading in towards us from all directions. Since they weren't part of Marisa's spell, she wouldn't be safe from them, either. We were all about to be crushed under Okuu's power.
Diana managed to break free from the constant barrage, and was now heading back towards us. The earth swung back up, but instead of going for us, it was circling Diana, extending the chain and wrapping up her body in it. Reimu took this as her cue to open up another gap behind us, then grab us both and drag us through. We all popped out some distance away, and I watched as a cluster of stars clumped together below Okuu and Sanae, and exploded all together, creating a white light that I couldn't look directly at. I let myself breathe out a little bit, but didn't relax - even if she survived that, there were still two more.
...And as it turned out, she did survive. As the smoke blew away in a gust of wind that came from Sanae, the chain fell away from Diana's body in red-hot pieces, and Diana, now with bright red chain-shaped marks burned into her skin, was still flying, though looking quite disoriented. She'd felt that one.
Those chains she used for defense burned her skin up! I cringed thinking how that felt. She was branded all over her body; this fight already leaving permanent marks on her. I looked for the other two - Luna and Hecate were still flying around the others... and still drawing pyramids. That spell card wasn't going to end until she decided it, or we managed to hit all three of them.
Marisa held her hand up to Reimu, who grunted, "Nice one," and high-fived her.
"Got her good with that one," said Marisa, rubbing my shoulder with a grin. "She's nothing we can't handle together."
"Never doubted it," I said. That was some prodigious teamwork, though... The others hadn't hit Luna or Hecate a single time by the looks of it, and it was only through the implicit trust between these two - and Marisa knowing all of our spells inside-out - that they managed to catch Hecatia in that combination. Still, it was heartening. Hecatia had built herself up to be invincible, but bit by bit, we were proving her wrong. I mean, we'd almost beaten her once before, right? All we needed to do was outlast her at this rate.
Diana held the earth in her hand, and a new chain reformed to connect it to her collar. Casting one glance aside at us, she then abandoned us to launch into an attack on Okuu, probably to get her to stop throwing plasma everywhere, and also revenge for the burns. Okuu had to dodge several barrages of chains, and soon canceled her spell to attack Diana directly, engaging her in the same kind of close combat as Reimu. Unlike Reimu, she was neither fast nor elegant, but she was overpoweringly strong. Every swing Diana made with the earth, she batted away easily with her Third Leg. Every opening Diana gave her, she pointed the Third Leg forward and blasted a stream of plasma that was only narrowly avoided. Even that concrete boot got wielded like a mace at the end of her foot; one kick from that would definitely have shattered someone's bones, and Diana certainly seemed to be giving Okuu more space than she did Reimu. Between her sheer weight and the constant threat of her exploding, she was a much more intimidating opponent. If she could do half of what Jinwu did, then Hecatia had every right to be afraid.
By now, Sanae had finished her spell, and was descending to join Okuu in fighting at close range. The wind picked up around her, and she positioned herself behind Diana before casting a new spell.
[SPELL CARD: PREPARATION "SUMMON TAKEMINAKATA"]
More danmaku star patterns flowed out from her, and because of her position, Diana couldn't commit to fighting Okuu. She backed off, but the two of them followed, and it turned into a dance where Sanae attempted to stay behind her while Okuu kept trying to pin her down. Getting involved in any of that would be pretty dangerous, as would joining either of the other two battles, so Reimu, Marisa, and I ended up waiting and catching our breaths, looking for a chance to do something more.
...Can Sanae even summon gods in a world like this? It was a weird thought, but several of Sanae's spells were based on her abilities as a shrine maiden, not her own power as a living god. But if the gods were gone from this world, it seemed to me that entreating them shouldn't have worked. The fact that they did work was quite odd.
[Ran:] "The boundary between our universes is gradually weakening. As it does, Sanae will become more and more capable of summoning the gods to that side. Her doing so will also serve to bring the universes closer together, as they become more involved with one another."
Oh, so it's the gods from our world. It's just getting easier to move between them... Wait, does that mean...?
[Ran:] "Yes. We are ready to send a new ally to you now. Prepare to receive her."
Almost before she had finished speaking, a new gap began to spread open just above the roof of the school by the club room. Since we were still waiting for our turn to fight anyway, the three of us moved down to secure the area, and we found that by the time we got there, it was already halfway ready. Ran wasn't kidding when she said it was getting easier.
The rest of our group had split in two in order to take on Hecate and Luna. Off to our right, Luna was struggling to draw her pyramids as she fended off attacks from Youmu, no doubt trying to reclaim the Roukanken, with Sakuya, Koizumi, and Koishi supporting her. To the left, Hecate was dancing around Tenshi with the Sword of Hisou, while Tenshi had raised enough keystones into the air to build a new building, and was firing a dizzying array of lasers at her. Asakura was standing on one of those keystones, and while she didn't look like she was fighting, I had no doubt she was somehow supporting Tenshi. I'm guessing Tenshi wanted to fight one of them all by herself...
[Asakura:] "Oh, she's not that brash. She asked for my help, actually. When she's the one fighting in front, she's quite amicable to teamwork."
Yeah, as long as you're a sidekick. Still, it was good to hear that Tenshi had some sense. And with someone new coming in, maybe there was hope of getting through this after all.
"For a goddess of magic, she sure ain't being too flashy," remarked Marisa, looking between the three battles. It was true - our own side was pulling out a lot of creative patterns and the like, but Hecatia kept going with those simple pyramids, occasionally fighting with either her stolen swords or the small planets attached to them. I noticed that the three of them had different habits; Diana used the earth directly as a bludgeoning weapon, while Luna used the moon as a shield that reflected danmaku, and Hecate's miasmic globe was kept firmly on her head. Occasionally, it would glow a bright magenta, but I couldn't tell what it was actually doing, except that whenever it did, Tenshi would either stop moving or change course abruptly.
I saw a bright green flash near Luna, and when I looked, Youmu had seemingly passed through her, now with the Roukanken back in her hand. She twisted in midair and became a flurry of metal, but Luna managed to put the moon between them before she could land any real hits - it looked like Luna had prioritized staying unharmed over keeping hold of the sword. Hecatia's bodies all seemed pretty slow at first, but when it came to defending themselves, they were surprisingly quick.
"She's holding back," said Reimu, who was only watching Diana. "As soon as we'd gotten into a pattern in our battle, all she did was try to stop me from hitting her. She wasn't really attacking."
Marisa put her hands behind her head and bunched her lips, thinking about it. "Well, this's only her first spell... Think she's trying to tire us out? She seems like the patient type, so I doubt she'd go for a kill right away after those runes failed, ze."
Reimu frowned. "Yeah... maybe."
If that was her plan, I thought it was a good one. We'd been through such a gauntlet, only sustained by tricks like nanomachines and heavenly peaches, that we weren't going to stay in fighting form forever. Even our side didn't know of these nanomachines would last. On the the other hand, we were now going to be getting new people, and according to Ran, it'd be at a faster rate than before. We still had a lot of powerful people waiting in the wings, which meant that if Hecatia waited too long, she'd soon be drowning in them. Did she just not realize it yet? In that case, tagging our fighters in and out might be a good idea. If someone starts struggling, then Reimu and Marisa can relieve them. We have the advantage in numbers, so we should be using it.
Hecatia didn't even try to come near the gap, and it finished opening in no time at all, after which I was surprised to see Kaguya of all people come through, landing with a crunch on the rooftop snow and carefully setting down what looked like an oversized schoolbag that was full to bursting at her feet. With one hand still on the handle, she waved to us casually with the other like she'd just stepped off a plane.
Honestly, one of the last people I expected to show up.
"Huh? Kaguya?" Marisa blurt out as soon as she saw her.
"Hello, hello," she said to us with a little laugh. "Oh, but there's quite a battle out here, isn't there? You're all doing so much."
Reimu got in front of her, clearly annoyed. "Why are you here?" she demanded. "I was expecting Aya or, or Yuuka, or someone strong like that! We need people who can go toe-to-toe with Hecatia, not... whatever it is you do!"
Harsh, but I was thinking something similar. After watching Aya fight the alternate Nagato in the way she did, I had no idea why she wasn't on this side. In fact, now that I thought about it, we had a lot of powerful youkai just sitting around back in Hell, and if the boundary had weakened enough that sending people through was getting faster, we wouldn't even have to worry about stuff like how long it'd taken Tenshi to come over. At least, not as much, or so it felt like.
"Whatever I do?" Kaguya was nothing but amused by Reimu's accusation, covering her mouth with her sleeve and giving her a sly look. "That's so like you, Reimu. You're very good at saying what's on your mind without thinking. I always liked that about you."
Was that a compliment, or an insult? One thing I'd noticed about old, powerful people, whether it was Yukari, Yuyuko, Eirin, or Yuuka, or even someone like Miko, was that they tended to be difficult to read. Kaguya was a lot like that - or maybe "mysterious" was a better term for it. Despite having dealt with her first-hand, and seen her duel with Mokou and her stand against Seija in the future, I still felt like I didn't know anything about her, least of all what she was capable of. Most of her abilities seemed to come from magic items, and if that was the case, why not just send those items with someone else? "Well, if she's here, Yukari must have had a reason," I said, which didn't seem to make Reimu any happier about it.
"Oh, that? I nagged her into it," said Kaguya, putting her hands together next to her face and silently laughing like she'd told a hilarious joke.
...So, she sent you over so she wouldn't have to put up with you? I couldn't tell if she was being serious. Well, I was sure she wasn't taking us seriously, but as to whether she was telling the truth... well, I could only hope she was able to contribute something amazing.
Reimu fumed at her, and looked like she was about to start yelling, but Marisa put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Well, c'mon, she's here now, right? I think she oughta help out Okuu. The blue one might be gaining on her, ze."
I couldn't tell from here, but it looked like a precarious engagement anyway, so I had to agree that they needed backup. Kaguya, however, just brought her hands under her chin with a wide-eyed look and said, "Oh, no, no, no, I can't do that. I don't care about her, you see. I'm only here for Reisen, so can you tell me where she is?"
"What-"
Reimu looked like she was going to pop a gasket. To be honest, that level of... directness shocked me, too, coming from the Lunarian princess, though she did just praise Reimu's blunt attitude. Either way, Asakura was still ready to provide the answer.
[Asakura:] "The missing half of the central building. Do you see the shape dug into the ground? There's an invisible boundary there. We can't get to it because it shrinks at the same rate as our approach."
"Yeah, uh, how does that work?" I asked, partly to try and distract Reimu. "You're saying Reisen got shrunk?"
[Ran:] "Reisen herself has remained the same size. Hecatia drew a boundary that separated that space from this one, and then diminished that boundary until it became imperceptible. However, it can still be approached if you know where it is."
So... it's tiny, but it's the same size, and you can go there without shrinking? I still don't get it.
[Ran:] "Inside of a room, you might think space is finite because you eventually run into a wall. However, if you move at a rate of only microns, you can continue approaching the boundary of that space. As you lower the rate at which you are moving, you can continue moving indefinitely; just as you can continue subtracting from a decimal infinitely without ever reaching zero. In this way, even the smallest crack can contain infinite space."
That... makes no sense. But why does it sound familiar...?
It was exactly how Futo had described Senkai, the private world of hermits that I'd visited in the future: "The infinite space two forms betwixt." A world that existed inside Gensokyo's cracks. I had no idea how it all worked, but with that frame of reference, I could kind of understand what it meant in practical terms. "So, it's basically a kind of closed space?" I asked.
[Ran:] "Indeed. Hermits use principles such as this to manipulate space. Naturally, Lady Yukari is proficient in these magics, as well."
If it's like a closed space, then just say it's like a closed space in the first place! I can understand those!
It was all way over my head, but since I was able to enter Senkai without changing size or being an esper, I figured I might as well roll with it. So, essentially, all of those pyramids that Hecatia had drawn were creating new closed spaces, and then hiding them away so that we couldn't find them. Which left the question of how to get to them.
[Nagato:] "When approached, the boundaries shrink at a rate equal to their approacher. Since the distance remains the same between them and their approacher, the time it takes to travel into them remains infinite. Under normal circumstances, that precludes any ability to enter those spaces."
Under normal circumstances... So...?
[Nagato:] "Reimu and Kaguya both possess the ability to travel instantaneously across space. That will allow them to enter Hecatia's closed spaces."
"Kaguya has an ability like that?" I said, looking at her. Reimu made sense, but I'd never seen Kaguya try to teleport or anything.
[Nagato:] "Strictly speaking, her ability is the manipulation of the eternal and the instantaneous. If the travel time is infinite, then for her, it can be instant. It also allows her to act within instants shorter than Planck time, similar to Sakuya's ability to stop time."
First it was zeptoseconds, now we're going beyond Planck... What a weird ability. Kaguya's just too confusing all around. At least she was on our side, though. If Nagato was convinced it'd work, that was good enough for me.
Though if Kaguya was that powerful, then thinking about her duels with Mokou... If she'd been able to use her full power, wouldn't she have been able to defeat her easily? Doesn't that basically mean she was only toying with her...?
Looking amused at our confused faces, Kaguya cleared her throat and said, "Well then, if that's all, I'll go and fetch Reisen now." She raised a hand as Reimu stepped forward and quickly added, "No, no, I don't need you to come with me, you'll just get in the way. Have fun with everything!" And with that, she hoisted giant schoolbag, and started flying towards the missing chunk of school, leaving us all behind. The weight of the bag weighed her down enough that she was slow and kept dipping in the air, but she seemed determined to take it with her, making me wish I'd asked what was in it.
...Well, that was... rude. But helpful, I guess. If she was going to save Reisen, I couldn't complain too much, but still...
"I hate people like her. Those Lunarians really only care about themselves..." Reimu muttered darkly to herself as she watched Kaguya go, while Marisa just scratched her head and smiled wryly.
"Eh, well, keep it in perspective. Kaguya ain't so bad. If it were Eirin, she probably wouldn't even have stopped to talk to us."
Not that stopping to talk is really what we should be doing now. Somehow, we'd wound up as a reserve force, even with three battles happening around us, and it didn't feel right. We ought to have been doing something... but, maybe not me. Without either the elixir or the Sword of Hisou, I was more a liability than an asset, and since I was such a liability, I needed someone to babysit me. It was an anxious wait, knowing that the tide could turn at any time, but so far, things seemed pretty even. Marisa was using this time to check her supplies, and it occurred to me that she also relied on her tools, whether it was potions or fuel for her mini-Hakkero, meaning that she might run out of tricks and become just as useless as me. Well, at least she'd still be able to fly.
"You good?"
Marisa cocked her head a bit. "Gonna last for a bit. Not forever, ze. Can't afford to go all out all day, y'know? Nagato?"
[Nagato:] "I'll see about resupplying you in an upcoming reinforcement."
...Where's Seija? I couldn't see her anywhere. The last time I'd noticed her was when she took a dive in the club room. Thinking she might have been hurt, I gathered Shanghai and Hourai, then crept to the edge of the stable part of the roof and looked in through the holes in that part of the building, but she wasn't there, either. She must have been sneaking around somewhere, assuming she didn't flee.
"Hey, Kyon, don't wander off," called Reimu.
"I was just trying to see where Seija went... I haven't seen her, have you?"
Reimu's brow furrowed, and she said, "No. She probably..." She shook her head, abandoning her train of thought. "...That's wrong, she wouldn't have run away. She's got to be skulking around somewhere, looking for a chance, just like us."
Hearing Reimu give Seija some credit was a bit of a shock, but, well, she did just stand her ground to protect us. I could only hope we were both right about what she was doing.
I didn't have time to dwell on it, though, because at that moment, all three Hecatias disengaged with their opponents and changed course. Did her spell card run out? ...No, the red and yellow ones are still burning... Being Taboo, the spell might not even have had a time limit. Luna and Hecate started flying in a straight line right at Okuu, while Diana began to fight more aggressively, putting more and more pressure on her despite Sanae's assistance. "She's changing tactics!" I shouted to the others. "She can't beat us individually, so she's going to gang up on us one by one!"
The other groups pursued, though they couldn't catch up. By now, Luna and Hecate were moving pretty fast, and they looked like long, unbroken streaks of colored light converging on Okuu.
She knows they're coming, right?
[Asakura:] "She does. No need to worry."
CAUTION!
[SPELL CARD: FUSION "ABYSS NOVA"]
Sanae's own spell had ended by now, and she dove in front of Okuu to buy her some time, conjuring a whirlwind around her that seemed to repel Diana at least a little bit. The Third leg roared to life, and a loud droning noise filled the school grounds as light and heat built up, and I wisely chose to look away, because a second later, I was nearly blinded even with my eyes averted. I'd seen a lot of Okuu's spell cards today, and most of them seemed to do pretty much the same thing.
Well, this one did it even bigger: The light got stronger, and the heat turned blistering, as far away as I was, making me further grateful for my body armor with its fire protection. My skin would have baked off long ago. The snow at my feet turned to slush and then steam, coating the whole school roof in a thick cloud, and between that and the brightness, I lost track of everyone else. If it was this bad for me, I could only imagine what it was like for the others, especially Sanae. It was just a huge explosion, with Okuu at the very center, burning up everything around her above the far side of the school grounds.
By the time I was able to look again-
"Kyon!" I heard Marisa shout. I strained my eyes, counting heads, but I couldn't see where Hecatia had gone. Okuu, Sanae, Youmu, Tenshi... yep, everyone else is still there. But where's-
It was then that I noticed something below Okuu. A gap in the air, around the point where the two Hecatias would have intersected if they'd kept going straight. I realized that Marisa was still calling my name, running in my direction, and when I looked to one side, I saw Reimu once again dodging the swinging of the earth on a chain. Diana had joined us on the rooftop.
Before I could say or do anything, two red runes began to glow behind me, one on either side, and then dissipated. The very next moment, the roof burst open where they'd been, and Hecate and Luna both flew through the holes, trailing colored light, and met at a point above me. While Hecate dove back down in front of the club room, Luna remained to smirk at me before disappearing into another gap. It happened so quickly, I hardy had time to realize that I was now standing inside of a red and yellow pyramid, and it had already begun to shrink.
No!
I saw Marisa running towards me, and I, too, tried to reach her. By reflex, I pinched myself, but I still didn't have the power to go back. No matter how much I ran, she seemed to remain the same distance away, and forgetting that there was a hole right in front of me, I tripped and stumbled and slipped right down beneath the roof, where I impacted the hallway floor below with a direct hit to my spine. Pain shot through my whole body, a familiar feeling by now, though lasting pain was something I'd stopped being used to, and I writhed on the floor as my senses momentarily left me. Shanghai floated down after me and started silently fussing and fretting, but there wasn't much she could actually do. If it weren't for that celestial peach, it'd probably have paralyzed me. In any case, it was a few moments more before I became aware of my surroundings, and noticed that something wasn't right.
...Huh?
I was in... the school hallway. I mean, duh, but the problem was, there was a bit too much more hallway than there should have been. When we'd all passed through earlier, the inner walls and furniture had been converted into a mountain of rubble, but now, everything was perfectly intact. Plus, I'd fallen through the roof where one of the corners had formed; if this had cut away my part of the building like the one that got Reisen, shouldn't the rest of the hall in front of me have been missing?
Furthermore, the lights were on. It was a warm light, much different from the moonlight outside. There was no dilapidation on the walls or the floor. I looked up, and saw that the hole through which I'd fallen had vanished, as well. In an instant, the whole school had transformed into its old self, just how I remembered it.
...What now? As if I should ask myself that question. In the back of my mind, I knew.
I was in another closed space.
Cautiously, I rose to my feet. Hourai was floating above me, pointing her lance down the hall and watching for any intruders, so I looked in the other direction and saw the Brigade club room door, still with the papered nameplate. Unlike the one in which we'd found Hecatia, it looked brand new. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that instead of being sealed inside a closed space, I'd somehow fallen into a time slip.
If only.
There was one thing different about this compared to my memory, though: Not only were the halls empty, the building was silent. If I'd really gone back in time or something, and it was a time when the lights would be on, I'd normally be hearing the murmur of people inside of the other clubs, if not Haruhi's own voice echoing from the room in front of me. Maybe it was class time or something, but something told me this wasn't what it seemed. Whatever this was, there was only one thing to do that would give me the information I needed: Trying not to let myself be distracted, I made my way to the club room door, put Shanghai and Hourai in front of me for protection, turned the knob, and pushed it open.
...And inside... was exactly what I expected to see. The club room, exactly how it was during high school with all of Haruhi's random junk cluttering it, only it was decorated for Christmas with tinsel and a little tree. Cardboard boxes that once held said decorations were grouped up underneath the table and around the far desk, no one having bothered to store them away. Outside, it was daytime and snowing, and I could see the hall windows of the opposite building, but still no people. However - and I don't know how I noticed the other building before I noticed him - there was someone in this room, seated at the table and sipping a sipping from a cup with his usual placid smile. A teapot sat next to him on the tabletop. When he saw me looking at him, he nodded to me and said, "Good afternoon. The others will be here soon, but it seems Miss Suzumiya took them elsewhere to try on costumes."
I didn't even bother thinking about what he said. The Koizumi in front of me obviously wasn't the same one I knew - he was a teenager, and didn't have the slightest hint about him that he'd been fighting or training or anything like that. He also paid absolutely no notice to Shanghai or Hourai, despite the latter pointing her lance at his face. He simply looked past it at me, like he couldn't see them at all.
"You're not real," I said immediately. "This is just some stupid illusion or something, right?"
Koizumi grinned, apparently finding my assertion amusing. "Of course. Well, I wouldn't call it stupid. I'm afraid you have a rather bad habit of self-deprecating."
"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.
Rather than answer, Koizumi gestured to the chair across the table from his own and said, "Will you sit?"
To which I answered, "Like hell." Do I really have to deal with a fake Koizumi? I dealt with a fake Haruhi in my dreams this morning, but now this?
I glanced around the room, unsure what I should do next. Going by Asakura's description, there was probably no way out but to wait for rescue. Is Hecatia just screwing with me? What's the point of this? I thought these closed spaces were just holes to stick us in and get us out of the way. Is she still trying to make some kind of point? My eyes found the wall clock, which showed the time to be 18:00 on the dot. Way too late for the club to be gathering, and what's more, the second hand wasn't moving. It was frozen at 18:00 forever.
"Good," said Koizumi, "it seems you're getting it. That means I don't have to explain. Yes, indeed, this world is Hell."
That made my body tense for a moment, a chill running down my spine. That same chill I had when I was being judged by Eiki a while back. I didn't know what that meant, exactly, but it was clear that I was trapped. "So, my personal Hell is being stuck in a room with you?" I said, forcing sarcasm. "Somehow, that makes it more believable."
Koizumi chuckled at my jab. "Well, you aren't stuck. I wouldn't recommend thinking about leaving the school, though. Right now, it's six PM."
That last part seemed like a random thing to say, but I asked, "What happens if I leave?"
"It might stop being six."
A warning both nonsensical and ominous. Coupled with the existence of this endless tea party, I wondered if I hadn't tumbled into Wonderland and was now speaking with the Hatter, only he didn't have a hat on. Well, Alice wasn't here, but I did have her dolls with me, so it was only fitting. Slowly, without a word, I walked to the opposite side of the table from him and sat down, resigning myself to this for the time being.
Really, when I think about it, this is convenient for me. As far as I can tell, I'm safe in here. It's not like I could contribute to the battle without the elixir or the Sword of Hisou, and this way, the others can fight Hecatia without worrying about protecting me. That was fine for now, at least - though it didn't make me any less anxious. I wanted to at least see what was happening. And what if I needed to use my last vials?
"So, then," I said out of idle curiosity, "What makes this Hell?" I'm not being assaulted by demons with pitchforks, or thrown into a lake of blood, so that's good, right?
"Suppose you had nothing urgent outside," he said, obviously referring to the battle with Hecatia. "Would you still want to leave this place? Just as you said, this world is an illusion shaped by your mind - if you really wanted, say, to have all your friends here with you, then soon the halls would be filled with people, and you could have many exciting adventures. Ones without such high stakes, I should add." Leaning back in his chair, he gestured to the door and said, "Why, you could experience such a life even with the addition of your new friends. Imagine sharing a class with Marisa and Reimu and the rest. Maybe Yukari could even be the teacher?"
"You're still not making this sound like Hell," I pointed out. Though upon him saying that, I could see that this was eerily familiar. After all, I was given another life by someone who thought they knew what was better for me. Going by what little I'd seen from those books, I had to question if Hecatia wasn't doing another Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. At least, I was pretty sure that's what that one was about.
"Then would you stay?"
He really can't say things straightforwardly, can he?
"Of course not," I said without hesitation. He just kept looking at me expectantly, though, and I found that I had to think for a moment to put the why of it into words. "I mean, besides the fact that I'm an adult now, it's not real. I'd just be talking to myself, wouldn't I? Having adventures or whatever like that would be no different from a vivid daydream." Just like that dream earlier. Even if it went down the route it looked to be going, it wouldn't have felt right.
He nodded along with my reasoning, and said, "Indeed. Because this world is only your creation, after all."
When he said that, I started to see where he might have been going with this. If the Agency's view of Haruhi was correct - and I still couldn't quite accept such a thing, for a number of reasons - then our universe was the same for Haruhi. Even if the Furies were responsible for its creation, it was ultimately bound to her, and under her control. Taking the most extreme view of it, I could be called nothing more than a figment of her imagination, just as this Koizumi supposedly was to me. I'd have called an idea like that ridiculous before, but as long as I took a theoretical view, I could kind of see what he was implying, and what it meant for this space.
"So, it's a Hell where I'm stuck in my own mind," I said with a grimace. "Where nothing is real, and nothing really matters. Is that the gist of it?"
Koizumi's grin came back, and he answered, "Such is the Hell of Solipsism - a Hell that is feared in the otherworlds, where mind reigns over matter. You may embrace such illusory comforts, and live a life of meaninglessness..."
As he spoke, a shadow passed by the window. Thinking it might have been Hecatia, I stood up and raced to the window, but when I got there, I saw it was actually...
...Okuu?
No - her expression, and the slight differences in her Third Leg told me I was looking at Jinwu. She alighted on the roof of the far building, rested the Third Leg on her knees, and scowled down at me, watching and waiting, as if to threaten that she might blow up the entire grounds with me in it. Far below, in the shadows of the building, I made out other shapes. Monstrous youkai with static in their eyes, very much like the ones that had rampaged during the Endless Night, were hiding away in those dull corners. Behind me, Koizumi continued to explain.
"...But inevitably, you will fall victim to your own fears and regrets, as they come to life and torment you. Everything that happens here is of your own making."
A Hell fit for a world like Gensokyo, where reality is a suggestion, and fear can devour you whole. So, Hecatia built her own themed Hells for us? How cute. This is how she plans to deal with me in here.
Maybe this wasn't such a good place to wait. As long as I stayed unafraid, those fears couldn't come out and hurt me, right? But that was impossible. I was scared to death of Hecatia, and what might happen to the others while I wasn't there. And just knowing that they were lurking, and would attack if I became too aware of them, only served to make me more so. That might have been the real terror.
"And she's supposed to be the one who wants to end Hell?" I muttered, staring down at the shadowy shapes below. "She's a Hell goddess. She can't stop herself from doing stuff like this."
Not any more than Seija can stop herself from betraying people.
At that, a voice that was not Koizumi's replied, "Indeed. For me, with Suzumiya's abilities, my eternal paradise will be much like this Hell."
I whipped around, fists clenched, while the two dolls got into an attack position. I was not at all surprised to see Hecate in the doorway, almost with the same face that Koizumi had been wearing. Koizumi had vanished altogether, and I wasn't sure if this was the real Hecate or just another fear, but either way, I tightened my jaw and prepared myself for something nasty. "How typical of you to make it sound like a noble sacrifice," I growled. "Yeah, you'd really suffer with absolute power, wouldn't you?"
"Neither of us can know that for sure until it happens. But if it comes to pass, I will accept it. That's what it means to save the multiverse." Hecate walked forward, and my body tensed up, anticipating some kind of attack. Why would she come in here herself, though? This can't be the real her. Anyway, if this world is controlled by my mind, I should be able to fight back somehow, right? I tried to imagine all sorts of things: A grizzly bear coming through the door behind Hecate, the Sword of Hisou back in my hand, and myself as a sentai superhero, but however much I tried to will it into being, none of it came true. Clearly, it couldn't have been that easy.
"And if you can't control those abilities?" I said, thinking I should try to keep her talking. "Haruhi's fears don't show up in the real world because she knows they can't exist, but you don't have half of her common sense. That Hell you're so afraid of is going to spring up everywhere, and you know it." Unconsciously, I started walking behind the computer desk to put it between her and me, though I knew that wouldn't stall her much.
Hecate folded her arms and gave me a dour look. "Must we debate this again? I'm aware there will be challenges. I've had lifetimes to learn to control myself, and if that shouldn't be enough, I'm not afraid to do what must be done."
"Like murder whole universes of people? Destroy anyone in the multiverse who even knows about me so the threat of me doesn't exist?"
"Like prevent the murders you're plotting to allow. And to prevent such a thing from being undone. When I get that power, it'll be no good if there's the possibility of it being taken away. Something so important can't be let go. Ever." Her eyes flashed for a moment, but her expression became tepid once again, and she said in a patient voice, "...But I owe you an apology. Thanks to you, I now realize the folly that had been staring me in the face, yet I refused to see."
"Now I know you're not the real one," I said. Unbelievably, she was talking as if I'd actually gotten through to her, but something told me she wasn't about to give up and let me go.
Hecate smiled. "Think again. Until the night covers this dream, you'll be safe from it. I, however, can attack whenever I want. I'm counting on Reimu to understand that."
...Oh, I get it. I'm bait. Reimu alone can come in here, and even if she brings someone else, it won't be everyone. Hecatia's still trying to separate us. Plus, with her being the real creator of this space, she'll probably have the advantage here.
While shifting around behind the desk, my hand brushed against what I thought was its metal leg, but also something velvet. Glancing down, I saw that I was wrong - my foot was up against one of a pair of Christmas decoration boxes that had been shoved into the space beneath it, and my hand, in seeking the desk's edge, had found its way into the gap between them, and nestled in that gap was the bat that Seija had been holding. Tied around its grip was a bright red ribbon of the kind Yukari always sported, and fastened by it to the grip, though it took me a moment to recognize, was the camouflage device that Nitori had provided Sanae. The button to activate it was placed right where it could be pressed while holding the bat.
...So she can even reach in here... but she'd rather give me a weapon than get me out. You really expect me to do something against her...?
I couldn't fathom Yukari's intentions, but I put my hand on the bat anyway, redirecting my gaze to Hecate and hoping that she didn't catch on. It had to be obvious I was hiding something, though, and her expression told me that she wasn't that dim. Even so, she didn't ask. Instead, she said something much more unexpected.
"But while we have this time, I also came in here to tell you this: You are right that I can't be trusted to rule the multiverse." She didn't move, just folded her hands in a show of humility as she explained. "I know just as well as you do how difficult, even suicidal it is for youkai and gods to overcome their nature. All of my friends succumbed to worldly desires, and lost interest in our goal. Such desires blinded them, and I had to do what I had to do with them. Now? Now I realize the same must be done to myself. Even if I've managed to remain true, I am, in the end, imperfect." Hecate gave me a genuine smile. "I've been angry with you, you know? I've wished harm on you for all the times you've gotten in my way. I could never get you on my side, nor alter you significantly; just as Haruhi Suzumiya must be herself, so must you. Otherwise, that power disappears."
Really? ...I guess Haruhi doesn't want me to be different. That was the only reason I could think of why that would be the case. Sure, I could control Haruhi a little bit, and her power as a result, but for it to vanish if I'm tampered with seemed illogical. Nice to know that she loves me how I am, I guess. How's that for a convenient interpretation?
"...All of which is to say... I won't be assuming my divinity as I am now. No - If I'm to prove to you and to all that my desires are true, and to ensure that they will remain so forevermore, I must borrow Junko's ability, and purify myself. I will cease to be a goddess of Hell, and instead, become a being a pure benevolence."
You what?
Junko's ability to purify anything was the ability she'd used to become an embodiment of vengeance. She had such a peaceful look in her eyes as she told me that she harbored no hatred, yet still intended to torment someone forever. Jinwu, once purified, forgot all about her sisters and tried to consume this entire universe just to kill us. That kind of inhuman logic, that purity of purpose that needed no motivation nor reason to exist... I had likened Junko to an automaton, with no real thoughts or feelings at all. That was the kind of being that Hecate was talking about becoming.
...And Hecatia is going to do that to herself when she rules the multiverse?!
"I've seen your world's future. The ugly nature of humans, youkai, and gods alike will turn it into a living nightmare. People will have nothing better to do than to prey on one another socially, ruining others' lives for amusement - and such acts will be not only condoned, but celebrated by the zeitgeist. The world will become more and more connected, offering more and more opportunities for evil to become the norm. The world's 'common sense' will become self-serving delusions that hammer on boundary of fantasy and reality, and culture will vanish beneath that all-encompassing mire. All people will become slaves to authority of their own will, and that is something I cannot, and perhaps should not, prevent. It is not for us, as flawed creatures, to master ourselves like that. If we cannot be enlightened, then we must be mastered, and only the kind of purity that Junko can give me will see it done. I don't know how familiar you are with the process, but to do so is tantamount to sacrificing my very soul. It won't be me that rules the universe. Not really, anyway. But I am prepared to do this." Hecate curled the fingers of her right hand around her chain, softly at first, but then with more tension. "Say what you will, but my purpose has always been true. This will be my last attempt to sway you - will you not accept? Can you not make a sacrifice for something greater than yourself?"
Again?
She really thinks she can get me on her side, even though she already admitted that she's going to wipe me from existence? She thinks she of all people can play to my conscience?
Sure, I'll admit it: That was an impressive claim. If I could believe she was telling the truth, I'd have been moved by that kind of resolve, that she would willingly transform herself into some kind of benevolent machine overlord that could do no wrong, and erase the rest of her personality in the process. If nothing else, she'd made a solid case that she was willing to put her money where her mouth was. If I trusted that she wasn't lying, I couldn't accuse her of being nothing but a power-monger after that.
Not that I did trust her. Just like Seija had implied, Hecatia was afraid of altering herself like she planned on altering everyone else. Would she really be able to go through with that? I didn't buy it, but either way, it still didn't matter. If I were to ask Haruhi, I know what she'd say to an offer like that, and to be honest, it was how I felt, too.
"There's a saying I don't know if you've heard," I said, trying to stand up straight while also gripping the bat, with my finger over the button on the camo device. "'The perfect is the enemy of the good.' Seija was right when she said that world of yours sounds boring. But I say it's worse than that." I don't know what it was, but I felt a bit of courage just then, and I decided to keep going with it. I gestured to her with the bat and said, "You seem to think you've planned this so well, you can even throw out your own free will and assume that everything's going to be fine after you've done what you're aiming to do, but that's crap. I'm not the smartest person, but if human history has taught me anything, it's that people like you don't stop. Once you're a perfect, pure being, you'll start thinking that all of us need to be that way, too! By the sound of things, it's probably going to turn into Hell no matter what you do, but you won't realize it because you've turned yourself into an avatar of obsession!"
Hecate sneered at my logic, just as I expected. "And should I do nothing? You would torment all worlds because you are afraid of what I might do, as though I lack self-awareness. Those are the selfish wishes of a boy who has everything he wants, and no care for the suffering of others."
"I disagree. If I didn't care about the suffering of others, why have I come this far to fight for this imperfect world? Why heal others? Why put myself through all that with that, what did you call it, point device thing? I sacrificed myself more times than I could count to get everyone to this point to fight you." I shook my head. "And I've seen what happens when people become purified. Junko, Jinwu... Yeah, it did them great, didn't it? And you want that for yourself?" I gripped the baseball bat tighter. "If you have the answer, then, well, I don't want to know. But I think it's clear by now that neither of us is going to change our mind."
Maybe I should've tried to drag the conversation out, but I was getting tired of having it. I didn't know if Reimu was coming to save me. All I knew was that I had a weapon, and there was someone in front of me who I wanted to hit with it. Supposedly, this camo device could nullify magic when it was activated, so if I could activate it close to her and then hide somewhere, maybe I'd have a chance. She might have known that I had something, and maybe she could guess it was the bat, but there was no way she'd be able to guess this.
Hecatia got the message. The two of us weren't going to talk this out, and one of us was going to be dead by dawn. The only question was who was going to make the first move. I sure didn't want to, and it seemed like Hecatia was waiting for Reimu as well, so rather than a fight, it was an uncomfortable silence that fell between us, facing off at either end of the table as we were. Despite there being only one way into the room, Hecatia didn't make a single move to a better position, and was content to face her back to the door, leading me to wonder and worry about her plan. She had to have one. If she was the real one, she didn't come in here just on a whim.
Come to think of it, Asakura said she could still receive from Reisen's nanomachines. That means they can probably still hear my thoughts out there. And Hecatia has three pairs of eyes, so I'm the only one who doesn't know what's happening on both sides. Would it have killed Yukari to send a note?
It was really strange how she just... stood there, all casual. I didn't get it. Did she know that Nagato was listening in? If she did, she'd know that the fastest way to get her running here would be to try and kill me, or torture me, or something. If Nagato doesn't tell them I'm in danger, they might just gang up on Diana... but no, they'd probably come here anyway, wouldn't they?
...No, hang on. I'm thinking about it the wrong way. There's also the possibility that I'm an acceptable sacrifice. Time she spends on killing me is time she doesn't spend fighting the rest of them, and now that I don't have the elixir... I didn't want to think of that, but I remembered Mokou's and Aya's attitudes towards fighting Nagato. With so much at stake, they didn't mind the thought of killing her if it would prevent the worst. And yeah, sure, I was supposed to be the "main character" of my universe. Hecatia had implied that if I died, something really bad might happen. But what if that was just a lie for the sake of this trap, to make them want to save me? Or what if we were already past the "story," and Asakura, who was able to read the story, knew that it'd be safe if I died?
...I was dead in the future, after all, and that future still existed. That's got to mean...
Yeah. I was dead weight, after all. That must have been why Yukari gave me a camo device and a bat that deflects danmaku; they were both defensive items intended to maximize the time it would take to kill me. My job right now was to stall her as long as possible, to keep her off of the others. But in that case, why wasn't she attacking? Either she knew Reimu would come, in which case she should incentivize her, or she knew she wouldn't, in which case she shouldn't waste her time. I watched the chain that ran between her collar and the otherworld atop her head, which swayed lightly from the slight movements of her neck.
Why? Why just stand there?! She's a god! A goddess of Hell, with unfathomable power! She could crush me like a gnat! Strangle me with those chains! I couldn't take it anymore, but I couldn't risk making the first move myself, so I slowly lifted my head to look her in the eye and asked, "Are you planning on attacking, or what?"
To that, she smiled in a patronizing way, like I'd asked a silly question, and replied, "No, you're doing a fine enough job of that yourself."
...Huh?
I'd been watching her body for signs of movement, but when I looked at her face, I noticed movement out the corner of my eye - the hands on the wall clock were now turning. The second hand spun, and the minute hand seemed like it was counting milliseconds. The time was rapidly approaching 00:00, and I realized that the light inside the club room had changed. It wasn't darker - the indoor light would have covered that up, anyway. Instead, it was brighter, and most of the light was coming from outside.
But it's... almost midnight...?
Shanghai tugged on my collar, and against my better judgment, I turned my head, already knowing and dreading what I'd see. Only when I acknowledged it did I become aware of the roaring of the engine outside, which then began to vibrate the windows, the floor, and the furniture all on its own. There was an incredible halo of light around Jinwu, just as there had been around Okuu outside, and in the pure black shadows it cast, the youkai had grown large and numerous. Forsaking their role as protectors, Shanghai and Hourai cowered behind me, and I wasn't feeling much better than them. If I'd wanted to move now, I couldn't; my legs had frozen up, and I knew I'd made a huge mistake.
...So that's why.
Hecate had been standing where she was for two reasons: One, she knew that I was afraid of her, and my fear would hasten the darkness of this Hell. And two, since she was in front of the doorway, I had nowhere else to run. If there even was a place safe from what was coming, I could only get there through her.
"I've learned to stop attacking you head-on," I somehow heard her say above the noise. "You have a strange habit of surviving the worst. Even when I kill you, you still just won't die. So I think, for a change, I'll let you kill yourself."
Those cruel words were all she would give. She didn't budge a single centimeter, confident in the knowledge that I had no way out. Nullifying magic wouldn't stop a giant explosion, and I couldn't use the bat against it, either. Relying on Shanghai's shield would have been stupid. I had no way of destroying the floor either, just like before. In fact, this was pretty much the same situation as I'd faced with the runes, only this time, I didn't have any allies, and I was looking directly into my recurring nightmare.
Without Nagato and Asakura being able to reach me, they couldn't manage my fear with the nanomachines. I felt my skin turn clammy, my muscles seize, and my heart go into overdrive. I was staring at certain death - for the umpteenth time that day, granted, but it wasn't getting any easier to deal with. I had no options, and no time, and the more I tried to control myself, the more the clock rolled forward. My arms locked up against my body, as if someone were holding them there, embracing my whole torso from behind. All at once, my senses left me, and there was nothing but certainty of my own imminent doom.
What...
What do I do...?
What can I do?
What-
"Don't be afraid," someone whispered in my ear. As if I could stop just like that. I wasn't that cold-blooded. I tried to sink to my knees, but something stopped me, physically holding my body up. I was in a vice, and I realized that I couldn't do anything at all but stand. That high, breathy voice continued to speak softly, "I don't want us to be afraid. If you stop thinking, we won't have to be afraid anymore."
The force surrounding my body contracted, and it began to hurt. I realized that what was holding me up wasn't myself, and something else was attached to me, but I couldn't think straight enough to figure out what was happening. No - actually, my thoughts were leaving my head altogether. The fear had stopped growing in me, and was beginning to subside. I couldn't form words, nor any true conception of my situation, but instead, I felt that the light in front of me was beginning to weaken.
There was someone holding me. I could clearly feel her hands. ...Who?
"Stop thinking. We won't have to fear. Just stop thinking, okay?"
I couldn't agree or disagree. As she said it, it just happened. I turned around to face Hecate, whose brow was furrowed in intrigue. She hadn't noticed the person clinging to my back, even as she stared right at us, but it was clear to her that something was different. I didn't stop to wonder, but faced her, waiting for her move - I now had all the time in the world.
A few moments later, her eyes finally locked on to my new companion, and she muttered, "...So, Reimu failed to enter on purpose. That was a decently clever plan you all had."
I wasn't privy to any plan, but as my reason started to return, I could figure it out. Hecatia was counting on someone to come save me, where they would easily have the tables turned on them by the nature of this Hell. None of us were so fearless that we could fight here without bringing those shadows to life. By reading my mind, Nagato and Asakura must have realized this, and stopped Reimu from coming in herself. Instead, they must have done a feint to distract Diana while sending in someone that Hecate wouldn't notice - someone with power over the unconscious, who could suppress this Hell before it destroyed us. Hecatia might have accounted for such an ability... if only she could remember the person who had it. Only an alien mind like those two would be able to keep reminding themselves of her existence in the middle of battle.
So, even you can't get a handle on Koishi, Hecatia. Looks like we found another of your weaknesses. But... is this what it feels like to be under her power? I slightly turned my head, and there was Koishi's face, next to mine. "...Hey."
Koishi beamed. "Hi!"
"Didn't expect you here." My mind still felt cloudy, but I could at least focus on what was in front of me. I practically forgot about the scene outside, with my only notion of it being the wall clock, which had already rolled all the way back to 18:00. It may have been only a bandage solution, but with Koishi suppressing my fear, it couldn't hurt us. The only thing that could was Hecate.
Speaking of whom...
[SpElL CaRd: OtHeRwOrLd "DiStOrTeD fIrE"]
A great heat began to gather around Hecate, and I caught a glimpse of frustration and fury in her eyes before a mess of chains snaked out of her collar, taking it in. I backed up, debating whether to try and get past her or to attack head-on. "Koishi," I said, "We can't dodge in here."
That didn't seem to worry her. In an affable, almost happy voice, she replied, "So go out."
Maybe because she was still connected to my unconscious, I knew that she didn't mean out the door. I didn't have time to argue the wisdom of it. Taking up the bat and pivoting my body, I took two large steps towards the window and swung it with all my might. The glass shattered, though not completely as I'd hoped, and I kept going, plunging myself and Koishi out into the open air – the creatures that were outside earlier were all gone. The glass dug into my scalp and my arms as it crumbled, and probably Koishi, too, and there was something like a momentary sense of vertigo as I realized that I really should have been more afraid of doing that than I was. The two of us spiraled downward, but a moment later, I felt a jerk against my chest like the opening of a parachute, and I started to dangle in place, held aloft by Koishi's tiny arms. Behind us, the club room exploded into flame for the second time, and a set of flaming chains lashed out through the opened window and walls in a circular motion, tearing away at the building and sending down a shower of glass and debris. The two of us drifted sluggishly aside to avoid it, and I felt Koishi's arms began to fidget against me.
"Heavyyyyyy!" I heard her cry out behind me. A moment later, her hands let go of my chest - and acting on some incredible reflex, I grabbed at one of them with my left hand, half-dropping away from her towards the ground and almost pulling her down with me. She cried out in pain as my grip on her forearm tugged at her. I would probably have panicked if I could.
"Don't drop me!" I barked. "If you let go of me, it's going to be bad in all kinds of ways!"
I probably could have survived the drop with only a little pain thanks to the peaches, but as far as I knew, Koishi needed contact with me to suppress my fears. If they came to life out here, we'd have no defense. Koishi looked down at me in surprise, and just as I thought she was realizing that herself, she said to me, "You're heavy, so I wanted you to fall to death."
Wh-
You start with "don't be afraid," and then go ahead and say that?!
"If I fall to death," I said with more patience than was probably normal, "that defeats the point of saving me, doesn't it?"
Koishi gasped, then scrabbled to try and pull me up into another hug. It seemed that I hadn't fully appreciated this girl's lack of a conscious mind; if she had even the slightest desire to cut me loose or hurt me herself, she'd probably have done it. How the others had convinced her to help me in the first place was something I wished I'd known, but now I had to be aware that my ally was almost as dangerous as my enemy. Funny how that kept happening.
Now all I need are Okuu and Seija to come in here, and I'll be really screwed. Where the hell is Reimu, anyway?
I didn't really have time to dwell on it. The tornado of flaming chains kept getting larger, spiraling out from the club room and sending rings of danmaku outward that Koishi had to drift back to avoid, all while I awkwardly clung to her, hoping that she wouldn't try to drop me again. The chains were expanding rapidly with no significant gaps between them, and they were digging into and blowing past the school walls, which meant there was no useful cover, either. Being Taboo, it was naturally impossible to dodge through without some kind of trick, and I asked Koishi, "You can get us through this somehow, right...?"
"Of course I can," she said, still unbothered. "She isn't honest, so her magic isn't honest. That makes it weaker."
Isn't... honest? "What does that... Wait, Hecatia isn't honest?" I suddenly caught on, thinking back to the conversation we'd just had, and my suspicions. "Do you mean she was lying to me?" How could you even tell that if you can't read her mind?
Koishi watched the tornado of chains like a cat waiting to pounce. The chains began to oscillate, some of them moving slightly horizontally apart from one another, though since they remained in place vertically, that didn't offer us a view inside. I almost thought she wasn't going to answer me, as focused on the target and dodging the outpouring rings as she was, but after a moment, she said, "Not to you. She isn't honest with her heart." Before I could respond or even think about that, Koishi started to fly forward, and she said, more cheerfully now, "Let's graze this one!"
"G... Graze?" I said, feeling it start to get hotter. I still didn't feel fear normally, but even so, I think I started to panic a little bit. "Wait, what do you mean? Are we going to touch those things?!"
"Yeah, that's how you get a high score! It said on the cases."
Wait, what cases? ...Oh crap. "For those games?! Wait a second-"
But in spite of my protests, Koishi dipped and ducked and dodged around the storm of danmaku that burst out near the chains, and began to fly a clockwise circle around them, with the two of us so close to the whirling, ever-expanding chains that we really might have touched them if I'd shifted my weight just slightly to the left. As it was, I felt my skin burning just by proximity, and Koishi's hat was trailing smoke above me, leading me to think that we were going to get struck by the wobbling of the chain wall any moment. My inner voice screamed, telling me in vain to be afraid right now, and really, I might have been, but I felt as focused as Koishi looked to be. I saw the pattern of danmaku slipping out from between the chains, and knew every moment when Koishi was going to go up or down to avoid them. It was like our senses were connected, and in the same moment I saw something, Koishi would react to it. Her reflexes were as quick as Reimu's, and when I thought so, I noticed that the two of them were very similar in how they dodged; by pure instinct, without thinking about it. Just trusting her intuition to avoid it all.
Of course, that didn't help the fact that my skin felt like it was about to peel off. I was pretty sure one or both of us had caught fire, and it was about to get really painful, but Koishi kept going, and the second that the chains beneath us jutted out, we both suddenly plummeted, only to jerk to the left as it closed back up. Koishi's idea of a dive, it seemed, was to just fall without any control whatsoever, and it had put us inside of the spinning chains, sandwiched between the rapidly rotating walls. The heat was almost as intense as the Hell of Blazing Fires, but still, neither of us had caught flame, aside from Koishi's hat. I still couldn't see Hecate, and the walls got narrower as they got closer to the center, but Koishi kept dragging us along them until apparently deciding that we were close enough, after which she pulled a spell card from her sleeve and spun us around, disorienting me as she began to cast.
[SPELL CARD: RESPONSE "YOUKAI POLYGRAPH"]
A huge magic circle extended from us, cut through by wide red walls of transparent light, but I couldn't see anything else through all the fire. I heard the sound of danmaku firing off in the distance, beyond the chains - it was scattered and discordant, bringing to mind the image of someone scribbling furiously across a sheet of paper with a pen. The fact that that exact image had occurred to me was probably no coincidence; judging from Koishi's words and the name of this spell, the polygraph was reacting violently to the spell's target.
"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?!" I heard Hecate call out somewhere within the fuming and clinking chains. Koishi didn't answer, and the two of us continued to orbit her in silence, still channeling the spell. All I could do was cling to Koishi's body as she struggled to keep flying level - powerful as she seemed to be, she was a lot smaller than me, and it clearly took a lot of effort to support my weight. That was probably the real reason she had dropped instead of flying downward earlier. Dodging under these conditions could not have been remotely ideal.
"You're doing great," I muttered, trying to stop her from wanting to drop me again more than anything. "Just... keep it up. Don't fall."
I don't know if she heard me, but she did start to fly a little higher. Unable to see what was happening with Hecate myself, I waited, holding my breath, until...
[SPELL CARD: RAZOR "HUME'S GUILLOTINE"]
...All at once, the chains broke apart and fell away, and the danmaku dissipated. I saw Hecate dipping downward, floating where the hole that used to be the club room was, and Koizumi - the real one this time - was giving chase with his aura shaped into a massive blade, like a butcher's knife, extending from his right hand. Surrounding them was Koishi's danmaku, which was forming from the red light walls in a very erratic pattern, like a wall of shots, each of which was going in and out so fast that almost every shot had a huge horizontal gap between it and the next. Above it all, I spotted Reimu, who was busily filling the space with her amulets, more on Hecate's side than Koizumi's.
Yes! They're here!
I won't lie, I was ready to accept the idea that they'd left me here, but seeing them come to my rescue felt a whole lot better. Since Koishi made her move, they were finally able to come in and take advantage, and it looked like Koizumi had gotten a good hit in on Hecate. She backed off, lashing out more chains to put some distance between her and him, and Koizumi didn't dare follow, parrying a couple of times with the blade before dissipating it and backing up himself.
"You're late!" I yelled at him. "I seriously thought I was going to die this time, you know!"
Koizumi responded to my barb with a good-natured shrug and said, "Sorry for the wait. Hecatia was expecting Reimu, so we needed a way for me to approach instead." As if finding this all very funny, he put his hands in his pockets. "Apparently, this polygraph is much more difficult for an honest person to dodge. I'll admit, it was pretty hard on me."
Yeah, right. You can't even say that with a straight face.
[SpElL CaRd: OtHeRwOrLd "ReSeNtFuL rAiN oF hElL"]
Hecate was not nearly so amused. The ruined building beneath her erupted in purple flame, which spread out along the ground, then rose up and tried to envelop us from beneath, very much like the trap that Clownpiece had sprung on us outside the school gates. Just like that one, it was impossible to dodge through the fire, so we had three options: Try to fly up and over it, bust a hole through it somehow, or take out Hecate before it reached us. As it turned out, the three of us each chose a different option; Koizumi did the smart thing by trying to avoid it before it became a problem, while Koishi and I, being less mobile, had to break through. Remembering the camo device, I nudged her and said, "I can get us past the fire... I think."
"Hmm-hmm, okay," she said, canceling her spell and taking an unnervingly fast dive into the fire wall. I had to react much quicker than I'd have liked, but I managed to press the button on the device just before we reached it, blowing away the fire all around us in one go and rendering the both of us invisible. A few extra balls of purple flame managed to get in close, but I used the bat and Shanghai's shield to knock them away, and once I'd gotten comfortable with using it, I even smacked some in Hecate's direction. Hecate was too busy with Reimu to notice, as naturally, Reimu had elected for the aggressive option. She seemed to be getting the hang of using her gap ability - it was nowhere near as precise or quick as Yukari's, but she still managed to back up into one to avoid the fire, then launched out another one behind Hecatia's back, flowing in and out of close range and swapping between her gohei, needles, and amulets to try and keep Hecate on her toes.
Just like Diana, Hecate was concerning herself more with dodging Reimu's attacks than striking back, at least for the most part. Eventually, though, she took the otherworld off her head and into her hand, and after turning around in the air to avoid one of Reimu's ascension kicks, she held it out to her, and it pulsed with light, causing Reimu to back up quickly, holding her head. At the same time, the flames that had reached so high in the air burst apart, then transformed into long, red bursts of energy that rained back down on the earth. Reimu still managed to duck away from some of them, and Koizumi launched a globe of red energy above her, annihilating a few of the shots that might otherwise have hit. As long as the two of them were working together, it seemed like Hecate had to stay on the defensive. However, the fire from below still didn't stop, and between the two fronts, the air was getting extremely crowded.
We should be able to sneak up on her again, though. Between the invisibility and Koishi being hard to notice...
...But as I was thinking this, I noticed that I could see my hand in front of me. Or rather, a splash of red in the shape of my hand. I suddenly realized that more than just danmaku was coming down from the sky; it had started to rain blood, and it was collecting in pools beneath the blasted-out school, creating a truly hellish spectacle. More importantly though, it was coating and sticking to us, already rendering the invisibility moot.
Did... did she do this on purpose? Maybe she knew about the camo device after all.
"Scary..." Koishi whispered, watching below us. The fire was coming up again, and the rain was coming from above.
"Can you dodge rain?" I asked, trying to figure out some kind of plan. I didn't want to have to rely on the camo's magic nullification, especially since there might have been more spells coming. Obviously, she couldn't have dodged the blood, but the danmaku rain... well, it was still too thick for me.
Koishi still wasn't daunted, though. "Looks like fun," she said, and a moment later, she seemed to have an idea. She began to fly slightly downward, but also towards Hecate, found and passed through a small gap in the fire that was coming up, then dodged through the incoming danmaku rain above. Although I was still weighing her down, she started turning in the air, practically throwing me around her as her body whipped around, contorting us both expertly through the barrage. I did my best to move my body as well, the agility I had built up accounting for something as some shots moved so close I could feel the displacement of air brush against me.
We were getting closer, but as I feared, Hecate had noticed us coming, and she pointed her otherworld at us, creating a flash from within. I wasn't quick enough to look away, and my mind was assaulted by a deluge of horrific images - people impaled off the ground on stakes and left there alive, villagers slaughtering one another, overtaken by madness, and gangs of oni – Suika, Yuugi, and... Kasen?! Why was Kasen there among them - feasting on screaming humans being roasted over a fire. Accompanying it all was a sympathetic pain, as if it all were happening to me. I felt the flames, the spikes through my body, and the horror of Hell, but only for a moment before Koishi's influence began to dampen it once again, leaving me with only an irritating headache and a sense of confusion, like someone had mashed their hand into my brain and scrambled my thoughts. I couldn't tell up from down, and it was lucky that I wasn't the one piloting, as Koishi didn't seem to be affected at all. Had she looked away in time, or could she control her own mind like she was doing with mine?
Getting Koishi on our side had to be one of the smartest ideas anyone had. She kept pulling me out of Hell.
Either way, we couldn't sneak up, but we still had to approach. If we let up the pressure, Hecate might have been able to overwhelm either Reimu or Koizumi, who by now were tag-teaming her with little success. Bit by bit, we kept dodging through each wave of fire and rain, looking for our chance to do something, and in the mean time, Hecate apparently hadn't had enough preaching.
"This is where your selfishness will lead you," she said, sending out another pulse that we all managed to avoid looking at. "To Hell, and to me. And as is the nature of Hell, it shall be only your own making."
"Then I suppose you have no part in our suffering?" Koizumi shot back.
Hecatia answered, "Not at all. Hell is a result of one's actions. You do this to yourself, with your own foul karma. If you insist that there must be an equal reaction, then I am yours."
Koishi saw her chance, and dipped through another wave - but suddenly reversed, instead of striking forward like I'd expected. "Ah!" I heard her gasp, as if coming to some realization. Though invisible, I saw the bloodstains on her hands reach up to her temples, and as the invisibility began to wear off and I could see the tormented look in her eyes, she started to murmur, "It's their fault. Of course it is... It's their fault for hating us."
"Uh, Koishi...?" I prodded her. At the same time, more magic power welled up around us, and I realized she was casting a spell.
[SPELL CARD: "PHILOSOPHY OF THE DESPISED"]
In the same way that she'd connected with me, by getting close to Hecate, Koishi must have connected with her as well. A burst of huge danmaku shots spread out, everything seemed to go dark around us, and repeating lines of danmaku began to intersect in an eerily uniform pattern throughout the area. Koizumi backed off from this one, and Reimu started to focus on maneuvering rather than attacking, as this pattern didn't seem too difficult by itself, but the sharp angles restricted their movement enough that it made Hecatia's spell that much more dangerous. Something even more curious happened when the bullets closed in on us: Koishi made no attempt at dodging the incoming fire and rain, and instead curled up into a ball, covering her head and making it that much more difficult to keep clinging to her.
"It's their fault, it's their fault, it's their fault, it's their fault, it's their fault..." She continued to ramble under her breath, radiating a violent hatred through our link to one another that even the danmaku seemed to shrink away from. It slowed as it approached us, and before it could get close, every shot morphed into a huge, beautiful yellow rose, its petals razor-sharp, and thorny vines stretched between them, connecting each one and forming into a brambly shell around us. At the same time, the same thing was happening around Hecatia: any danmaku that passed near her would bloom into a rose, and those roses would connect with one another, but unlike us, they were free to come as close to Hecate as they pleased.
"What is-"
[SPELL CARD: SPIRIT SIGN "FANTASY ORB"]
Reimu took advantage of Hecate's momentary distraction to toss out a grapeshot of colored orbs, which Hecatia barely managed to avoid - but in doing so, she failed to account for her own danmaku, and was struck by a cluster of roses that were once purple fireballs, ending her spell card. The vines coiled around her, dragging their thorns across her skin, and the roses clumped up so tight that she disappeared within them. The whole cluster then fell away, splashing into a pool of blood far below.
What... what was that? This spell was not just overwhelmingly powerful, it kept going, with the pattern of danmaku morphing and changing into different patterns that Koizumi and Reimu kept having to adapt to. At the same time, the two of us were protected in our rose shell; it seemed like an unbeatable spell, though it wasn't Taboo.
Koishi was just so unpredictable, and surprisingly strong. Her emotions seemed to alter the battlefield itself. Almost like...
"Frightening, isn't it?" Koizumi's voice sounded right next to me, and I almost jumped right off of Koishi in surprise - he and Reimu were now right next to me, having warped in here when I wasn't looking, and Koizumi was admiring the deadly blooms around us. "I'd hate to be the one to fight against this spell."
"...Yeah. It seems perfect," I said, regaining my wits. I probably should have expected them to come in here where it was safer.
"Not perfect - but under the circumstances, the spell has become stronger," he said. "Koishi has found a way to weaponize Hecatia's own heart against her. Even without a third eye, she is a true satori, it seems."
So, it's powered up by sympathy? I listened to Koishi, who just kept mumbling the same thing over and over. I wasn't sure if those feelings were hers or Hecatia's, but maybe that was the point. I didn't really get how that could change a spell card, but I had to trust Koizumi's take on it. After all, he couldn't have made his entrance without knowing how Koishi's other spell worked.
"Koishi's emotions..." Koizumi smirked. "I'd hate to fight celestials powered by her mood swings."
Another aspect of Haruhi shown in an extreme within someone else. Regardless, it was a good thing she wasn't a malicious youkai. With power like that, if she turned evil, she'd do some real damage.
Reimu stared silently at where Hecate had fallen, waiting for her to come back up. She didn't - either we'd defeated her, which seemed unlikely, or she was waiting for this spell to time out. When it became clear she wasn't going to attack, Reimu swung her gohei in front of her and split open another, very wide gap. "We need to get back outside quickly," she said, and personally, I wasn't inclined to disagree.
Koizumi put a hand on Koishi and whispered something, and it must have been persuasive, because she ended her spell card then and there, and looked up at him as if waking from a nap. "Come, quickly!" Koizumi said, taking her hand and leading her - with me attached - through the gap, with Reimu standing aside to see us through.
As we moved, I looked back down at the bloody ruins of the school. Hecate stood tall between the ruined walls, covered in weeping red marks in the shape of thorny vines, but still without signs of exhaustion. She made no move to stop us, and I could have sworn I saw a small smile playing on her lips.
[SPELL CARD: MOON "APOLLO REFLECTION MIRROR"]
Luna's moon launched forward into the hallway, and Reisen launched backwards in anticipation of the blue, star-shaped shots that spread out from it in a sphere. When they hit the walls, they bounced off, stretching out and becoming faster, and the barrage turned into a danmaku flood as they kept ricocheting down the narrow corridor.
"This one might get kind of bad," said Kaguya, who had appeared beside Reisen and was lazily floating along beside her.
She was right - there were still runes in the outer walls of this part of the school, making them nigh-indestructible, and if the two of them fled upstairs, Hecatia could easily flood the upper levels. In fact, Reisen's ears told her that was already the case - she could no longer see Luna outside, and the sounds of bouncing danmaku were coming from above as well, which meant that soon, the whole interior would be covered in it. The only way out would be to race the danmaku up to the hole in the top level and escape into the void.
"We should-"
Reisen began to speak, but Kaguya interrupted her. "Reisen, this way!" she exclaimed, tugging on Reisen's sleeve and pulling her aside into one of the opened classroom doors. Reisen's mind blanked, and she obeyed at once, and only when she was fully inside did she think that this was a dangerous idea.
"Wait, why-" Reisen cut herself off this time and hurried to slam the door just as the noise of the danmaku in the hallway rushed by. Holding it for a few seconds, she slumped against it and turned back to Kaguya, finishing, "...Why did we come in here, Princess?"
"Isn't this a fun-looking room?" Kaguya said, strolling towards the center between the student desks. "It's like the time we tried to educate the Inabas, right?"
Yeah, but that didn't last after you got bored of it. Reisen was about to answer, but shook her head and said, "I-I don't think this is the time to be reminiscing, Princess. Hecatia could come in here, and we'll be sitting ducks."
"Oh, she didn't see us come in, so I think we're fine. She'll have to search the whole place while that spell is going on." The blackboard caught Kaguya's eye, and she walked quickly towards it like an excited child. "Besides, she knows about the exit up top. She probably put a trap or something there, right?"
...Good point. Trap or no, Hecatia would've expected them to go up that way, so she may have prepared an ambush or some other counter. She might even have been able to beat them to it and pen them in. It was the essential tactic of manipulating an enemy's movements with a large force. Still, there are outdoor windows in this room. We're going to get found sooner or later...
Taking up a piece of chalk from underneath it, Kaguya began scribbling on the blackboard. With a few soft circles and oval shapes, she drew a cute rabbit at the bottom, munching on a carrot. Beside it, she set about doodling its family, or so it seemed. Some sort of battle plan might have been ideal to Reisen's mind right now, but it was not to be. Kaguya didn't want to draw up battle plans. Kaguya was drawing bunny rabbits.
"Is now really the time for that...?" said Reisen, knowing full well that the answer would be in the affirmative.
"Well, it's lonely without a few Inabas around, isn't it?" Kaguya chirped. "I thought it'd be nice."
"Inaba" was the name that Kaguya gave to all rabbits. It was true that she was seldom away from the rabbits of Eientei - they were like playmates or sometimes even toys for her, and she got along with them better than Reisen or Eirin ever did. There was just something about her nature that made them comfortable. Even among Lunarians, Kaguya was a special kind - for having lived so very long, she still possessed such curiosity, and such a love for existence that most of her kind seemed to abandon as their years stretched on. Perhaps even moreso than they were, she was unchanging, and she hated her world to change without her permission. That, Reisen thought, must have been why even now, she acted as if nothing was different.
Whether her actions were wise or foolish, it set Reisen oddly at ease, and she could feel her heart rate going down. The rabbits all pretty much looked the same, but she drew them all in different poses and doing different things, like playing games and pounding mochi. She was a quick artist, so she only took a minute to draw the whole picture, and when she set down the chalk, looking pleased with herself, the blackboard was completely covered in a family of busy, active, and cute little rabbits playing amongst a bamboo thicket. Reisen took a moment to admire it with her, and thought that she could even recognize a few of them - Kaguya had never seemed to distinguish between most of the rabbits, but over in one corner was a rabbit walking on its hands, like one of the ones back home always did - so whether Kaguya even knew that rabbit's real name or not, clearly this was meant to be everyone from Eientei. In that light, it was a pretty complete picture, with only a few things missing.
"Where are Master and Tewi?"
Kaguya smiled. "They're here with us, too. Even if we can't see them."
Yeah... Master has been supporting us all this time from the other universe. From the time when they had arrived at the school, Reisen had a feeling that Yukari's plans were starting to sound more like Eirin's. It wouldn't have been like Eirin to just sit around without contributing when her home was at stake, so Reisen was sure she must have been doing whatever she could. Though, I don't really see why Tewi's not in this picture... She's back with all the others at home, and I somehow doubt she's sending us thoughts and prayers.
Reisen threw a glance out the window, certain that Luna would show up out there eventually, and grumbled, "Kind of wish they could help us now."
Kaguya giggled, tossed her hair, and said with a mischievous glint in her eye, "Oh, can't they?"
As Reisen watched, she walked towards a specific desk in the middle of the room, where a large schoolbag was hanging from the hook on the side, and lifted it on the desktop, then opened it up to reveal a much smaller bamboo satchel within. Inside that, when she unbound and unfolded it, were a row of small glass vials - four of them, two of which contained colored liquids that Reisen knew must have been provided by Eirin, while the other two had been recently emptied. Besides the satchel, the only other thing in the huge bag was a single smoke grenade, identical to the ones Reisen had in her backpack. "Eirin just wouldn't let me go by myself," Kaguya said, pulling the two full vials from the satchel and handing them to Reisen with the simple order of, "Go ahead and drink these."
You could've prioritized this over drawing on the blackboard, Princess... Reisen didn't voice her apprehension, nor question the order. She picked one of the vials and knocked it back, bracing for the foul taste that accompanied her master's chemical concoctions, and put a hand over her mouth to keep it down as it immediately revolted in her stomach, sending a strange feeling through her. For a moment, her mind reeled, but when her focused returned, it felt as if a hand had clamped down over her brain, focusing her thoughts and vision so much that she could see the cracks in the floorboards with incredible clarity.
"Ugh..." Reisen choked as she steadied herself and stood up straight. "What was that...?"
Kaguya waved a hand in front of her face. "Oh, I wasn't paying attention. She said something about 'am-feta.' Maybe it was made from cheese?"
...I think the word you're looking for is "amphetamine"... Great. Addictive stimulants. Though I feel like there might be something more in this.
"She said the dose would induce permanent psychosis in a human, but you've survived worse, so it should be fine. Do you feel fine?" Kaguya asked as an afterthought, or maybe just a point of curiosity, leaning forward to look at Reisen's face.
Master upped the dose?! She wanted to shout, but this had to be for her own good. "Y-yeah..." Reisen retched, but managed to keep a hold of herself. She didn't feel bad, actually - in fact, she felt more alert and in control than ever. Eirin's medicine was the best in the whole universe, so she didn't have to worry. If nothing else, she could be confident in that. Remembering the two empty vials, she asked Kaguya, "Did you take this, too?"
"Oh, no, no. She said it's terribly addictive and might have side effects, and I shouldn't go anywhere near it," said Kaguya, picking up the smoke grenade from the bag. "I only took the antidote."
...Oh. I guess it's therapy for me after this, then. I'll have to watch out for those side-... "Wait, huh? Antidote?"
"For this."
Kaguya pulled the pin, pushed the lever, and then threw the grenade into the corner of the room. It hissed as it sailed, and Reisen's understanding was instantaneous - before the grenade had even left Kaguya hand, Reisen was uncorking and downing the second vial, after which she held her breath for good measure and watched as the air distorted slightly above the grenade, though the gas itself wasn't visible, and had no smell. Kaguya tented her fingers and looked almost wistfully at it.
"That's a poison that will kill even a youkai with a single whiff. It's super-compressed with molecular femtofolding, so we don't have to worry about it running out. Eirin is so reliable, isn't she?"
Femtofolding? ...Kind of like femtofiber, right? As far as Reisen knew, it was a Lunarian process of binding something tighter than living things could comprehend – to anyone's eyes, a perfectly continuous material. Reisen never fully understood it. "Maybe too reliable..." Reisen started to breathe again, then clammed up after saying that, and Kaguya smirked a bit at her impertinence. Outside, the noise of danmaku had long since died down, and the school was eerily silent again. Still, it wasn't likely that Luna had left, so she must have been searching the building for them. It might've been pure luck that they hadn't been found already.
Sure enough, the subtle sound of clinking chains reached Reisen's ears from outside the room, on the staircase to the left. Kaguya was right; she must have gone to the upper levels, anticipating that they'd flee that way, and was now working her way through the building to find them. From here, Reisen and Kaguya could try to run down the hall ahead of her and leave the building, but now that her spell had ended and the place was filling with gas, it would be to their advantage to stay inside as long as possible. Maybe if we go out the right door as she comes in the left one, we could outmaneuver her...
Reisen's mental faculties had become focused to a fine point, and she found it easy to make plans. She felt confident that they could at least do something to fight Luna, and even if defeating her wasn't possible, they might be able to fight her off. She had no illusions that the poison gas might be enough to kill her, but if it could at least slow her down or distract her, that was advantage enough. So as not to make any sound, Reisen floated to the hallway door on the right-hand side and landed softly, putting her hand on the handle and listening carefully, rifle at the ready. Kaguya remained where she was, and Reisen didn't worry about her. They each had their own way of doing things.
The chains crept closer. Hecatia could have known they were here - she could have heard the grenade being thrown, or the way it was hissing now, or even seen Reisen and Kaguya from the outside - but even if she did, it wouldn't change a thing. Reisen's senses were sharper than they had ever been. Even her spike in heart rate wasn't causing a sway with her aiming – Master found a way to counter that. Steady hands, alertness, this really was masterfully made. Reisen was ready to fight.
The chains coiled up. The sound of energy buzzed slightly in the hall...
[SPELL CARD: MOON "REFLECTION OF EVIL"]
...And the left door flew off its hinges as Luna burst in with her chained moon in front of her, splitting into more and more bodies that eventually filled the room, just as Kaguya had done. Reisen opened her door and took cover in the frame, firing off several shots into the one that remained in the hallway - but they all passed through. This was an illusion, and the real one had moved into the room with Kaguya.
That won't work on me!
Without hesitating, Reisen fell into a crouch, twisting to face the inside of the room, clicked her tongue, and fired at the only thing besides Kaguya that she detected above the desks. Luna was quicker, though; she deflected the shots with her moon, which then glowed and began firing yellow lasers outward in all directions - and all of the fake moons did, too. Real or fake, the lasers criss-crossed and began shearing through the indoor walls, forcing Reisen to duck and cover as they sent dust into the hall. Kaguya wove effortlessly through the lasers and began to fire streams of danmaku at where the real Luna had been, but not only did Luna dodge it with ease, several of them came together and passed through one another, mixing up their positions.
Reisen kept her cover by the doorway, ducking and leaping every time a laser passed by her, completely aware of where everything was. She clicked, but this time, she couldn't tell where Luna was - the lasers were emitting a low, droning sound that disrupted her own sound waves. Robbed of her main advantage, she switched to a different plan; she crouched, swept her gun across the whole room above Kaguya's head, and sprayed danmaku everywhere, hoping to catch the real one. Still, nothing seemed to hit, as the Lunas either dodged or let the shots pass through them. Not even looking at their eyes seemed to help, despite the fact that they all moved in exactly the same way.
Should we retreat? Reisen watched as Kaguya seemed to warp and split herself across the whole room, attacking everywhere at once with little success. ...No, there's got to be a way. The Princess wouldn't listen if I said so, anyway.
The Lunas spread out again, rotating the lasers around their moons to try and catch Kaguya. This was pretty much a battle between the two of them, Reisen thought. Her mind was sharpened and her body made strong by Eirin's drug, but as long as she couldn't find the enemy, she couldn't do a thing. The only way would be to watch carefully, and look for a sign of where the real one was.
She's avoiding eye contact. Body language? She has to know when to dodge the Princess, there's got to be a cue there...
[SPELL CARD: "LIFE SPRING INFINITY"]
Kaguya thrust her hand out of her sleeve, holding what looked like a large grail made of a lunar metal in a sophisticated design that Reisen knew must have been crafted by Eirin. Light poured from its opening, sending pure white lasers through the room that passed right through Luna's yellow ones and formed into a tight circle on the far side of the room. Typical for Eirin's taste in spells, the density of the lasers forced the Lunas to restrict their movements, and when they faded, the circle transformed into rings of stars that spread outward as the lasers reformed again elsewhere. It was incredibly dense spell, yet still, it couldn't hit Luna. Even before it had begun, she seemed perfectly aware of how to deal with it.
She's probably seen our spells a bunch of times. We'll need more than this.
Yet at the same time as the lasers fired the second time, filling the room with a buzzy static, something moved in the room that Reisen just barely saw amidst the blinding chaos - a panel in the ceiling fell to the floor, but made no audible sound over the grinding of the walls. Something else came down through the hole, though, right over one of the Lunas, who had passed underneath at that very moment. What looked like a small, barefoot child landed directly on her moon, between the lasers, and peered down at Luna from above, twitching her floppy white ears. Even with her mind quickened, Reisen took a moment to realize what she was seeing.
...Tewi?!
Kaguya's other favorite Inaba was crouched on top of Luna's moon above her head, and Luna, who was focusing on Kaguya, had no idea she was there. However, Tewi made no attempt at taking advantage to attack, and instead, shot a cheeky smile and stuck her tongue out at Reisen. If- If you're here, then attack! The enemy's got her back to you!
Tewi did no such thing. Instead, when the lasers swept up near her, she crawled along the side of the moon, using the craters as handholds to hide herself from Luna's view just as Luna turned her head. Reisen was momentarily furious, but as soon as she remembered to keep firing, she also realized that Tewi's ability to interact with the moon meant that it was the real one. She trained her gun on Luna and fired in a pattern, filling up the next small space that Kaguya's spell made for her to dodge in. Luna's eyes went wide, and she swung the moon around just in time to shield herself from the shots, which bounced off of it perilously close to Tewi.
It really is the real one! How did Tewi know...?
...No, she probably didn't know. She just picked one at random, and it happened to be right. Only Tewi could be that lucky.
Though it somehow felt like Reisen had lost to Tewi just now, she pressed on anyway - now that she knew for certain which Luna was real, even her spell card didn't feel that impressive anymore. In fact, all of the lasers just seemed to... fade away. To Reisen's eyes, the illusion was broken, and so, they might as well not even have existed.
Luna mixed herself up with the illusions again, but it didn't matter. Tewi was still in plain view, giving Reisen a clear target. She dove into the room, entering Kaguya's spell, and ignored the illusory yellow lasers, which passed right through her without hurting. Now was the time to go on the offensive, and she had the perfect spell for that. Reisen allowed her rage to surge forth, letting it all out as she finally had a real chance to do some damage to her target.
[SPELL CARD: SHORTSIGHT "X-WAVE"]
My turn, you world changing bitch!
Threatened by Reisen's charge, Luna met Reisen's eyes by accident. In that moment, Reisen forced all of her power into shortening Luna's brain waves, and Luna averted her eyes too late to stop it. She began looking around her in alarm, at phantasmal figures that Reisen couldn't see, but surely looked to Luna like Reisen had created her own army of illusory clones. Reisen began to dash around between the desks in order to hide her real position just like Luna had, making sure to keep inside Kaguya's safe spots, and she pelted Luna with fire that Luna couldn't block. Or rather, she couldn't block all of the phantasmal shots she was imagining, and together with Kaguya's lasers, she finally took several solid hits in a row - some of them from nothing at all - and fell to the floor, gasping in pain. All of the other Lunas vanished, as did their lasers.
Yes! Now, finish her!
Reisen launched forward, aiming the gun downward for a kill. But before she could reach...
[SpElL CaRd: MoOn "CoSmIc RaDiAtIoN"]
...Another spell started up instantly, forcing Reisen to backpedal as the moon rose up above Hecatia's body and scattered star shots began emanating from it. Tewi, somehow, was still dodging them even as they came out under her feet, looking like she was tap-dancing on top of the moon while moving her body rapidly left and right. On the other hand, the star shots once again began ricocheting off the walls, floor, and ceiling, and so Reisen had to back up out of the room into the hall before they overwhelmed her.
Too much... are Tewi and the Princess going to-
Even as she thought so, Kaguya yelped, and her lasers vanished. Shortly after, Reisen saw her fleeing from the opposite door to the one she'd used, taking cover in the hall with a brand new hole blown in the collar of her fine kimono, and many frayed edges at that. It seemed that they had both gotten overzealous, and Reisen counted them both lucky that they hadn't suffered worse.
Can Tewi survive this? She's fast and small, but still, this is way too dense...
As Luna had destroyed the far door and parts of the walls, the danmaku from her spell was now leaking out and bouncing through the hall, forcing Reisen and Kaguya to keep dodging even in their safe spot. The sound of it firing off also was getting closer, meaning that she was about to break through the other door, too. Reisen quickly reloaded her rifle, backing up and preparing for the inevitable. The very moment that the moon came bursting through the door, though...
"Wha-"
[SPELL CARD: RABBIT SIGN "GREAT FORTUNE CREST"]
Tewi, who had been sliding down the side of the moon that was now facing Luna, planted her feet on its face and leapt off, releasing a blast of danmaku that Luna wasn't prepared to avoid. She immediately fell backward again with an undignified yelp, and her spell ended as she flew in reverse, retracting the moon to shield herself. Tewi, however, was too fast, and she hopped across the desktops after her, ahead of the moon, releasing more blasts as she went. Reisen charged in after them and swung around to flank, firing at the space behind Luna to limit her movement. It worked, and Luna took another hit from Tewi before finally managing to fend her off with the return of her moon.
"Y-you... Ugh..." Luna groaned as she scowled at the two rabbits and Kaguya, who was clapping from the doorway like she was watching a judo match. Reisen saw streaks of red coming down from Luna's eyes - for some reason, she was crying blood.
Tewi crouched on a desk facing Luna, with her hands and feet clinging to the edge and ready to jump. "You don't look so good," she said with a mischievous grin. "Did you eat a bad mushroom?"
It felt kind of relieving Reisen to see Tewi focusing her energies on annoying someone other than Reisen. Pain was indeed evident on Luna's face - and not only from the beating they'd just given her, Reisen guessed. The poisoned air must have been working through her as she exerted herself, and was now beginning to take effect, resulting in the streaks of red that trailed down her face and neck, and down her body beneath her shirt. A red foam was also forming in front of her teeth, but she spat it out and grimaced at them, still avoiding looking directly at Reisen.
She must have expected us to be weakened by our doubts. She didn't expect us to all fight her together, either. If the Princess hadn't come, I'd still be crippled by my own flaws.
...But Tewi and the Princess never thought of themselves as having flaws, no matter how impure they might be. I'm the only one insecure enough for this Hell to work. And now, you're the one regretting your weakness, aren't you?
Reisen's grip tightened around the handle of her rifle. She knew that Luna wasn't beaten; she would make another move if Reisen tried to fire, and it was actually to their benefit that they waste her time here, letting her breathe the corrupted air. She waited and watched, anticipating Luna's next move.
"...I am a goddess of purification," Luna said, standing up straight, "and Hell's fumes are more toxic than this."
"So strong!" breathed Tewi, affecting a perfectly sincere-sounding tone of voice, complete with an expression of admiration. If Reisen didn't know her, she'd have thought she was becoming Hecatia's fan.
Slowly, the corner of Luna's mouth pulled up into a sick grin, and she croaked, "...But if the lunar sage will create a poisonous Hell on earth, then who am I to refuse? I'll accept your gift to the fullest."
What's that supposed to-
[Asakura:] "You're back! Can you hear me now?"
-What? Huh?
Behind Luna, the world rapidly came into view, as if racing towards the school from a great distance away. Not only Asakura's voice, but the sounds of battle outside reached Reisen's ears, and she didn't understand - that is, until she saw the second chain extending from Luna's collar, previously hidden behind her body, which had wrapped itself around the smoke grenade that was still spewing toxic fumes.
Reisen's blood ran cold, upon realizing what Luna's play was going to be.
She put us back on purpose. She's going to...!
The runes in the window behind Luna glowed bright, then dissipated. Tewi leapt at Luna to stop her, but a third chain shot out and blocked her - Tewi only narrowly wriggled out from being caught by it and dropped to the ground while Luna suddenly reversed through the air, smashing through it with her backside to eject herself from the building. Kaguya went after her too, warping to her side in an instant, but in the instant after that, the moon had warped in front of her, and it smashed her back into the building, and Reisen fumbled to catch her in her arms, dropping her rifle in the process. All three of them had been rebuffed, and Luna was ready with a follow-up.
[SPELL CARD: MOON "LUNATIC IMPACT"]
The chain connecting the moon to Luna shattered, and the moon began to charge forward, smashing through the glass next to the hole that Luna had made. Reisen dove to one side, dragging Kaguya as she went, and Tewi slinked beneath it, taking cover as well. When the glass shattered, so did a rune inside of it, splintering into many shards just like those that had stretched between this building and the gym; the shards then faded away, but undoubtedly were still there, and had spread into the hole, making it impossible to pursue Hecatia through it. Reisen knew what this meant: They were trapped in here, and Hecatia had stolen a deadly weapon.
Asakura, that gas...!
[Asakura:] "I know, I could hear your thoughts while you were in there. We'll try to get it under control on our end. Just focus on staying alive, okay?"
DO NOT LET ANYONE BREATHE THAT IN!
The moon ground its way along the floor inside the classroom, pummeling through the classroom door and ejecting out the far outer wall, shattering another rune into more invisible shards. Luna also began to rain star-shaped danmaku around the building and herself, keeping the others away from her. The situation wasn't going to get better by staying, so Reisen turned her attention to the dazed Kaguya laying in her lap.
"Princess, we have to get out of here!" she said, tapping her face with a light hand.
Kaguya seemed to rouse from that, and she took a short look around before saying, "Oh, dear. I didn't expect she could co-opt my ability like that."
Co-opt? Reisen recalled the moon's inexplicable warping before it struck Kaguya. You mean, she can use your ability, too?
[Nagato:] "Hecatia appears to have a sympathetic time manipulation ability, which she bestowed on the other Furies. Though she can't use it herself, the effects of both Kaguya's and Sakuya's superliminal acceleration are copied by her blessing, allowing her to counter them. It is likely an anti-Lunarian precaution, as such abilities are characteristic of the Lunar Capital."
Then we'd better be careful about using it. Reisen picked her rifle back up as she helped Kaguya stand, but no sooner had the three of them gotten their bearings than the moon came back, this time at the level of the ceiling, smashing through the divide between the first and second floors and sending a wave of debris downward that they all had to leap away from. At the same time, a second moon came in from above, punching a hole downward into the spot to which Reisen had dodged. Seeing it coming clearly, Reisen made a dive, but the very edge of the moon still clipped her leg, and the shockwave knocked her aside into the wall, where the stars that had made it through the rune shards above began pouring down.
H-how'd she...?!
Reisen tried to get up, but pain shot through her leg, and she was forced to roll along the ground to avoid the stars. She heard the first move impact the building again somewhere above, and the whole building shook. "She's trying to take down the whole building with us!" Reisen cried out, unable to see Kaguya or Tewi. "Don't go near the holes, you'll die!"
Although the rune shards destroyed most danmaku on contact, it seemed that the moons carried Hecatia's blessing, and were able to break them apart instead. The one that had fallen into the room began to move again, away from Reisen, towards the northwest corner of the building. Kaguya moved out into Reisen's view from behind it, now looking entirely disheveled, though still in perfect health, and she rushed to Reisen's side, as did Tewi. The building shook even more, and a massive crashing down boomed from the direction the moon had went, and from above.
There was no more time. "Go!" Reisen cried, forcing herself to stand despite the pain. "There's a safe hole in the corner, at the far end of the hall! Run, it's coming down!"
Neither of them needed to be told twice. Tewi was off like a rocket, vanishing down the hall, and Kaguya ran after her, tripping over her kimono as she went. She wasn't a very fast runner, and Reisen caught up to her quickly despite her injury; the two sprinted side by side as a third moon entered the school, smashing at a diagonal to compliment the other two. It momentarily blocked their path, but the two of them managed to run around it, as it continued to roll out through the wall to their left. Despite the situation, or perhaps because of it, Kaguya began to laugh breathlessly as they ran, flailing her arms and rocking her head like she was having a good time.
"Is it really that fun?!" exclaimed Reisen, almost as exhausted.
"It's just- I knew she'd make this interesting! It's so creative, this whole thing!"
Even in this situation, Kaguya was still herself. It was far from a bad thing - just as Kaguya didn't want her world to change, Reisen never wanted to see Kaguya acting any different, because if that ever happened, then she'd know for sure there was no hope. For that reason, Reisen had to do whatever she could to protect her.
Behind them, the building caved in on itself, demolishing the stairs going up to the top floor. Ahead of them, Tewi was almost at the exit when the wall exploded in front of her. One of the moon was scraping the inside, knocking down the interior walls into the hallway, but Tewi wasn't stopped - she leapt up right as it passed by, bounded off of a piece of rubble mid-flight, and maneuvered her way through the falling debris without slowing down. In the blink of an eye, she was through the hole in the corner and out of the building. Reisen and Kaguya approached the rubble that was left behind, aiming to fly over it, but before they could do so, another moon crashed down through the corner of the building from the top, annihilating it and bringing the upper floors down on top of it. The building sagged, and more and more supports failed.
No!
Reisen skidded to a halt, pulling Kaguya back. The only two safe exits had both been destroyed. The upper level was about to come down on top of them. Asakura, can you get rid of the wall runes?! Or the shards, or something?!
[Asakura:] "Not quickly enough. You have to find your own way out."
Forward was now blocked, and back didn't go anywhere, either. The only place left to flee was... "Up!" Reisen pulled on Kaguya's arm as she flew towards a gap in the ceiling. Danmaku was filtering in here, and many of the upper walls had collapsed, leaving only the invisible rune shards behind. The moment they'd gone up, the part of the upper level to Reisen's left collapsed on itself, burying the lower hallway for good. Another floor and the roof still stood above them, and were crumbling fast, so Reisen and Kaguya booked it to the right and flew just above the collapsed building as it all folded in on itself. Dust was everywhere, forming a huge cloud above the ruined building, and she couldn't see a thing outside. Even breathing was difficult now, and the two of them choked, being unable to even move outside the cloud for fear of running into the cage of rune shards in which they were now trapped.
What now...?
Could we destroy the rune shards somehow? Or...
Some of the shards hissed angrily nearby, glowing red and annihilating the bits of dust that came near. It seemed they could let off a lot of energy - but surely not infinitely. There had to be a limit to how much they could destroy before they stopped working. A danmaku barrage probably wouldn't be enough to destroy one, but...
...Though she hesitated to think of it, Kaguya was an infinite source of matter. If she held a shard in her hand, her body would regenerate even as it was being destroyed, and sooner or later, the shard might run dry. If the two of them were to get out of this cage without Yukari or Reimu's help, that was the only option that could be considered safe.
...No, no, no! Why did I even think of that?! There's got to be another way! I'd rather charge through them myself than ask the Princess to do such a thing!
[Asakura:] "I wouldn't advise it. Their annihilation ability is irregular in strength, but 90% of them have enough power to kill you instantly on contact. I can't tell which ones, though."
I know! But... But, there's got to be some way! If it means the Princess will be safe, I'd...
[Asakura:] "You're so confusing. Isn't it better if you all survive? Well, just sit there and I'll be able to clear a path for you in a minute."
A minute wasn't going to work. Reisen was already choking in the dust cloud, and the moons were rumbling up towards her as danmaku continued to pour down, meaning they were going to have to dodge the spell blind. Not even echolocation would help here. Her drug-fueled mind raced for an answer, her thoughts flying faster and clearer than ever before.
The runes can't be moved without Hecatia's blessing.
Sensing movement, Reisen dodged to her right, taking Kaguya with her as one of the moons rocketed up where she'd just been.
But the moons must have her blessing, which means...
Reisen watched upwards, forcing her eyes open despite the dust. Although she couldn't see anything solid, bright red spots appeared nearby, swirling through the air to avoid the glowing yellow sphere that was moving up through them. It was like they were caught in a slipstream, and would be brushed aside only to move back into the space where the moon had just been, making it a dangerous assumption that they could be cleared away simply by waiting. Something more active would have to be done.
...As long as I can keep up with it, maybe...!
There was no time to consider it in detail. Pulling on Kaguya's hand, Reisen took a dive towards one of the shapes still coming upward. To her relief, Kaguya actually went with her this time, coughing and sputtering as she went, and she was able to guide her along the edge of the moon as it passed, curving around to its underside and following it up. The shards were parted by the moon as expected, and the dust cleared as well - but Reisen scarcely had time to take a breath before she realized that something was wrong. The arc of several shards as they were pushed away was too wide, and as the slipstream gripped them, they began to follow the moon while moving upwards, rather than purely sideways. Not only that, but now that there was no dust to impact them, they had time to turn invisible once again.
Isn't this-
It was, essentially, a barrage of undetectable danmaku from all sides that would destroy her with a touch. Time seemed to slow down, and Reisen found that she was out of options. With her last available seconds, she pulled back on Kaguya's arm, intent on shielding Kaguya with her own body, only to discover that she wasn't there.
No!
Instead, Kaguya was beneath Reisen, facing her and spreading out her arms and legs to fill her entire vision. For the briefest moment, Kaguya stared up fondly at her, before saying, "Really, I know I told you to be silly, but this is-"
An ear-splitting buzzing sound wracked the air around them, and Kaguya's face contorted in pain before, as Reisen watched in horror, both Kaguya and the rune shards that had impacted her backside disintegrated, sending a red mist all around them. She couldn't say or do anything. She only managed to move when something impacted her left side and started crawling along her body, pulling her at the same time until it reached her right hand and began to tug her along, down through the space where the rune shards were coming from.
Princess, why...?
Reisen felt the ripples of energy in the air as the invisible shards flew past, narrowly missing her. When she finally looked at her right hand, she saw that Tewi had wrapped both of her hands around it and was pulling her down to the ground in an arc, through the minefield of shards. An electric buzzing sounded all around them, the energy was palpable, and yet, almost miraculously, nothing was hitting them. It even seemed that they might break out, right up until Tewi ran shoulder-first into a rune shard that sprouted into existence above the gymnasium, causing her to scream and fall, carrying Reisen with her.
No! No, no, no, Tewi!
Reisen quickly regain control of her own flight and reached out her other hand to squeeze Tewi, as if to hold her body together before it could dissolve like Kaguya's. However, she soon realized that Tewi's body wasn't dissolving at all. A red energy ran through it, and she grit her teeth and screwed up her eyes in agony, but she was still alive. Reisen cradled her, continuing their descent towards the gym. No other runes blocked them, and she set Tewi down on the gym roof, propping her up with her own body so that she wouldn't slide down the slanted roof.
"Tewi, are you alive?!" she cried, somehow feeling simultaneously focused and at a loss.
"Aaaaaaaagh, it doesn't feel like it!" Tewi squealed, rubbing at her collar. Reisen saw a black and red corruption ebbing on her skin beneath her shirt, and froze up. She'd apprenticed under Eirin, but had no idea if such a thing was treatable, or how to go about it. Tewi had begun to go pale and sweat, and her veins stood up, bright red, on her skin.
Just as she was fretting over whether or not to try and call for help, she was startled by a movement next to her; Asakura had touched down without her notice, and was rapidly approaching Tewi. "Move, please," she said in a sweet voice, and Reisen did as bidden, watching as her hand touched Tewi's collarbone and lingered there, seemingly without doing anything. There was a long, tense moment where Tewi did nothing but cry out and writhe, and to Reisen, it looked as if she were watching her die.
She came out of nowhere, and... and she somehow survived, but... but did she? Is... is she-
"She'll live, but I need to focus on her for a little while," said Asakura shortly. Her words did not relieve Reisen by themselves, as Tewi didn't get any quieter, but slowly, she began to understand that this was better than what had happened to Kaguya... and after remembering what had happened to Kaguya, Reisen began to feel that horror and shame all over again. After a moment, Asakura turned her head to face Reisen with a questioning look and said, "Kaguya is also alive. In case you didn't know."
Reisen's cheeks turned red, and she looked aside, spotting Kaguya descending from the sky where she'd seen her explode, hastily pulling on a new kimono that had been dispensed by one of Yukari's gaps. "...I didn't really doubt that," she mumbled.
Asakura's eyebrow went up, and she replied, "Are you sure? Because it looked like you were trying to sacrifice your life to protect her."
"I know. You... You wouldn't understand."
That was all Reisen could really say. She wasn't thinking about it in such cold and reasonable terms. It was simply the instinct that had been drilled into her since long ago: A moon rabbit should protect her betters. Death was forbidden on the moon, but if it came to it, it was always better the rabbits than the Lunarians.
[Emiri:] "Royalty seems to have that effect on people. Many have killed themselves over less."
...Maybe. Maybe that's all it is, but... no, I don't think so.
That wasn't right. Hecatia was treating her and everyone else as if they were still citizens of the Lunar Capital, but that hadn't been the case for a very long time. When she thought of it, although Reisen still imagined herself to be a moon rabbit, she had long since stopped thinking of Kaguya as a Lunarian princess. She was different. No, with the Princess, I think there's more than that.
Reisen's old masters, when she had lived on the moon, were kind and loving, but Kaguya was more than that. Though she still held the decorum of a royal, she didn't feel like she was placing herself in a position of superiority. She was superior, even to the Lunarians. In her grace, her manner, and her will, despite being tainted by impurity, Kaguya was a true princess, and the beating heart of Eientei. Eirin and Tewi, and all the earth rabbits who Reisen had looked down on - none of them would give Reisen sympathy. In the time after she believed that she had abandoned her comrades, Kaguya was the only friend, the only family that Reisen could rely on. Kaguya was, in many ways, Reisen's savior. She owed her life to her, and though she knew it was selfish, it had always pained her that Reisen could never repay her for that.
Asakura watched Reisen's face, tilting her head slightly. Reisen knew that she must have been probing her thoughts, but neither of them said anything to one another. Asakura's only reaction was a low, drawn-out "Hmmmmm..."
In the distance, Luna's spell card was over. She had been engaged by Tenshi and Sakuya, with the rest still focusing on Diana. It was then that Kaguya finally returned, looking as if she'd never been struck by those runes, and when she did, she took two steps on the roof of the gym, readjusted her kimono, folded her arms, and said with a frown, "Reisen. Didn't I tell you to stop being hard on yourself?"
"...I'm sorry, Princess, but I had to protect you-"
"Okay, then, answer me this." Kaguya's eyes drilled holes in her, and Reisen, who had been trying to avert her eyes out of shame, found that she dared not look away. "Why is it that you think Tewi came to your rescue just now? Do you think that she also had to protect you? Enough to risk her life in the way she did?"
That wasn't the rebuke that Reisen had expected. She looked at Tewi, who was still feverish, but at least seemed to have her wits returned, and was wearing a perfect poker face. Kaguya was oddly right about that - it may have been Tewi's uncommon luck that saw them through that field of shards, but even Tewi's luck could run out. Going by what Asakura had said before about how ten percent of them weren't strong enough to kill instantly, she must have managed to impact one of the weakest shards, but if she was really lucky, she'd have gotten out of that unharmed. No one knew the limits of Tewi's abilities more than her, which meant that Tewi had made a choice to go in and save Reisen at her own risk. To Reisen, that idea made no sense whatsoever.
We don't get along. If anything, if I die, Tewi won't have to listen to me nag her for slacking off anymore. And somehow, I doubt what Hecatia said about our existence being important to the universe would motivate her like that... Reisen found herself staring, dumbstruck, and all she could say was, "Ummmmm..."
"What are you talking about?" Tewi raised a hand to wave dismissively, grinning about it. "I love Reisen. The house wouldn't be the same without her."
...Okay, now I'm really curious. "Why did you save me?" Reisen asked pointedly.
Tewi rolled her eyes again, then looked aside, winced in pain, and scratched her nose, saying, "It wasn't you I was saving."
"...Not... me?"
Reisen frowned, feeling like she was the only one who didn't get it. Even Asakura had her mouth zipped shut, obviously not wanting to say what she must have been reading from all of their minds.
Finally, as if to dispel the awkwardness, Kaguya cleared her throat and said, "How long have we all lived under one roof? Reisen, I think it should be perfectly obvious that I simply won't abide it if you were to die in my stead." She pointed between the two rabbits. "Hecatia can't possibly hurt me, but you can, do you understand that? That's why Tewi saved me from your terrible mistake. She's much wiser than you, to be able to see such things, aren't you, Tewi?"
Tewi grinned from ear to ear, and said, "Goooosh, if you say it out loud... Hee hee."
...Of course.
It was such a simple thing that Reisen had failed to realize, despite being so clearly and repeatedly reminded of it: Kaguya would not stand for her world to change, and Reisen, for better or worse, was part of that world. She must have ached at least as much to see Tewi fall as she did to think that Reisen would have sacrificed herself. To have come so close to such betrayal shamed Reisen even more, and she was compelled to curl her legs under her and bow so that her forehead touched her knees. "I am so sorry, Princess!" she cried, feeling tears form in her eyes. "Please forgive my mistakes! I am not a worthy servant!"
This was the only thing she could do. Even if she kept failing, she couldn't stop now that she knew how much Kaguya depended on her. As long as she stayed alive, she could atone for everything else as much as necessary. Kaguya stepped forward, bent low to tug on one of Reisen's ears, and said in a low voice, "We're a family, Reisen, and we'll fight Hecatia as one. All three - no, all four - no, all of us at Eientei will be fighting. So stand up at once!"
Reisen could not have complied faster. In a second, she bounced up into a standing position, at attention, surprising Kaguya a little bit. When they both had collected themselves, Kaguya said to Asakura, "I will leave Tewi in your care. And if she perishes, I'll hold you responsible, understand?"
Asakura flashed Kaguya a too-sweet smile by way of response, and together, Reisen and Kaguya lifted up off the gym roof. Tenshi and Sakuya had Luna occupied well enough, but if she managed to break past them, it would be up to them to defend Tewi and Asakura. As Eientei's guardian, that was something Reisen could not afford to fail at - if not for Tewi's sake, then for Kaguya's.
The situation was rapidly getting out of control. After Kyon and half of the culture building were sucked into yet another closed space, Diana had gone on the offensive against the remaining members of the group, and not everyone had fared as well as Reimu. Marisa's attacks were growing fewer, a sure sign that she was running out of explosives and fuel for her mini-Hakkero. Pretty much everyone else besides Reimu that tried to fight Diana had-on had taken a few hits themselves, and once Reimu, Koizumi, and Koishi had broken off to invade the closed space, the front line had changed over to Youmu and Utsuho, the former of whom had to dodge the latter's explosive attacks as much as their mutual enemy. Sanae was still casting rituals from above, while the rest of them waited for their opening to strike, but Diana never seemed to tire out or open herself up. Of Hecatia's three bodies, she seemed the most robust.
Something isn't right about her attacks, though... Sanae had a good vantage of Diana's danmaku; she favored brutal swings with the earth and tight, simple bursts of shots that were always, always blue. Everything Sanae knew about spell cards said that a spell without beauty and sensitivity was powerless, yet this oni-like fighting style had no subtlety at all. Maybe the magic of Hell was something different, she thought, but even Yuugi had displayed a better sense of aesthetics than this.
[SPELL CARD: EARTH "IMPURITY WITHIN ONE'S BODY"]
All across the school grounds, the earth opened up. Holes were carved out by pillars of blue flame that shot up around everyone, and when they reached the height of Diana's flight, they began to swirl and curve unnaturally, each one transforming into a spray of long, blue danmaku that pursued the nearest person. The pressure it put on everyone allowed Diana to force her two close opponents on the defensive, spinning in the earth in unpredictable patterns that made it a deadly risk to get close to her, even for someone as fast as Youmu. Even so, Sanae still thought Diana must have been holding back; her aggression was meant to intimidate, and she only attacked directly when doing so wouldn't put herself at risk. She's trying to force Youmu to make a mistake. She must have a plan...
As this was happening, something distracted Sanae: The missing half of the central school building, where Reisen had been, popped back into existence, roughly reconnecting itself back to its other part.
[SPELL CARD: MOON "LUNATIC IMPACT"]
...And a few seconds later, Luna rose up from behind it, while her moon smashed straight through one of the lower areas. Two more moons were created in turn, and they began to pummel the building while Luna let off a rain of stars all around, which also seemed to intersect with Diana's, making it that much harder for everyone to move - except for Diana herself, who the stars seemed to avoid.
...So, she can cast spells from all three of her bodies at once? But still, they won't hurt her, because they're all her magic... What a cheat that is! ...But why split up, then? She should've overwhelmed us like that from the start.
Whatever the case, she was doing it now, and Sanae was the one in the position to do something about it. She wasn't just throwing out danmaku above the others; every spell she had cast so far was also a ritual to prepare the way for the gods to enter this universe, and now, the boundary had diminished enough that she could clearly hear their voices. To summon them now, she only had to reach across.
"Lady Kanako," she whispered, "are you with me?"
"Of course. Suwako, too."
Sanae felt a hand on her shoulder, and another at the back of her waist. Though they weren't physically there exactly, the outlines of two people floated on either side of her, watching everything unfold below. The wind stirred, carrying snowflakes and the whispers of spirits that, until now, had been long dead, bound to the air and the earth.
Our power is weaker here... but it isn't gone. Sanae could feel the power of the two goddesses of her shrine channeling through her. It felt warm, embracing her.
Now, now I can stand together with you two as a fellow deity.
[Asakura:] "Hecatia stole some poison gas. I can't protect all of you from it, so try not to die, okay?"
...Well, that's a tall order to spring on me. Sanae looked aside at the face next to hers and asked, "Do we have gas masks that Yukari can bring in, or...?"
Kanako smiled. "Several," she said, "but it'll be a whole fuss trying to get them together. If it's gas you're dealing with, I suppose I can be a wind god for a little while."
While the moons continued to pound the central building into dust, Luna arced up over it and focused on Sanae. A chain shot out towards her, grasping a metal object, from which poured out the tortured wails of corrupted air. Even without Asakura telling her, she knew that instinctively to be death itself.
"Behind you! The blue one!" Suwako cried. Sanae glanced back - Diana was reversing while fighting off Youmu, clearly intending to strike at Sanae from both sides. If Sanae tried to dodge, she'd either get stuck into a fight at close range or be forced to flee, and in either case, the gas would soon make short work of them. Instead, she turned away from Diana and raised her onusa high, praying to Kanako and the spirits of the wind, and joining their power across the worlds.
Just as Yukari said... If our hearts are one, the boundary disappears!
[SPELL CARD: GREAT MIRACLE "YASAKA'S DIVINE WIND"]
The chain came within arm's reach, and noise of death screamed in front of Sanae's face, but she didn't blink. With a wave of her onusa, the gas was swept away, along with the grenade and the chain holding it, in a brilliant tornado that swept up around her and spread out as it filled with a sea of danmaku, first blue, then mixed with green - just to splash a bit more color into Diana's spell. The gas could no longer reach her, but it wasn't gone, and Sanae still felt its presence within the whirlwind, making it that much deadlier.
Where did this come from? You said she stole it?
[Asakura:] "The gas was synthesized by Eirin Yagokoro. Looks like it's done a lot of damage to Hecatia already, but she sure is tough, isn't she?"
This? It's so impure, though... A Lunarian made this?
[Asakura:] "Eirin's and Kaguya's powers combined were what created eternal life. By reversing that, don't you think it's natural for them to create instant death?"
Sanae had to agree; life or death, it was the earth's impurity, and a crime against the Lunar Capital. This deadly vapor was proof that Eirin and Kaguya had long since become too tainted to call themselves Lunarians. She wanted to expel it upward, and get rid of it for good, but instead, she had another idea. It would be a shame if the weapon Eirin had sent them became nothing more than a liability.
"Youmu! Cut this in front of me!" Sanae called out, carrying her voice on a new gust of wind. This spell card was far from the display of raw power that Aya could show. For a tornado, it was small, and not so strong that a person couldn't fly through it, but unlike the tengu, Kanako and Sanae were one with the wind. She knew exactly where the gas was, though she couldn't see it, and with the help of the spirits, she guided it into a cloud of smog that covered Diana nearby, and away from Youmu as she broke past and joined Sanae at the eye of the storm. With a flash, the Roukanken passed through the chains binding the grenade, and the grenade itself, before the chain could retract all the way back to Luna - and what followed was more than Sanae had planned for.
It was, in short, an explosion of gas, creating its own wind as more matter than should have been contained in the grenade was released all at once like an expanding foam. Youmu dashed back beside Sanae, and none to soon, as Sanae had to concentrate on keeping the gas under control, leaving her vulnerable to the earth that was swinging at her. Youmu parried the earth, sending it back while Utsuho engaged Diana from the other side, and a sudden rain of knives let everyone know that Sakuya had joined in. Tenshi's keystones came up from below, surrounding Sanae, and Marisa began circling above. All of them knew what had to be done now: They had to protect Sanae at all costs, lest she lose control over the poison gas.
It was an incredible amount, but Sanae could still control it. She swarmed both Luna and Diana with it, forcing it into their noses and mouths, and they started to retreat in opposite directions rather than endure it much longer. Sanae could only chase one of them, so she chose Diana, focusing on dodging her way through her spell. The combined assault soon overwhelmed Diana - she couldn't dodge all of them while suffering from the gas, and her spell ended, ceding the airspace to Sanae's control while she drifted low to the ground near the end of the central building towards the field. Diana released burst after burst of danmaku to get Utsuho off her back, but it didn't work, as Utsuho, having taken several hits already, simply powered through it with her own plasma shots and fortitude. Tenshi and Sakuya flanked her. Sanae covered her in poison. Below, she saw Kaguya, Reisen, Reimu, Koizumi, and Koishi, carrying Kyon, all rising up to rejoin their allies. Sanae didn't dare hope, but it seemed like the upper hand was finally theirs.
This is insane. This is just insane even for a final boss battle!
Seeing the others still up and fighting was a huge relief. Luna was hanging on the outside of the massive tornado spell that Sanae was channeling, looking like she was waiting it out while Diana tried desperately to fend off her many attackers below. Koishi was struggling to carry me up - we planned on passing me off to Marisa in the air, but I wondered if it wouldn't be easier on her to drop me on a rooftop first. Hopefully from a safe height this time.
At least she's actually trying to keep me alive now...
[Nagato:] "I'm mad at you."
Eh?
Even with how she'd changed, Nagato still so rarely expressed an opinion, especially anything hostile, that the only reason I was sure it wasn't Asakura who'd said it was that her tone was as matter-of-fact as always. Is that how you greet me? What'd I do now?
Nagato didn't answer right away, but Asakura butted in.
[Asakura:] "You give up on us so quickly, don't you?"
Huh? What? I did what?
[Nagato:] "You thought we were going to abandon you. After everything, after you not giving up on any of us, you were so easily willing to be given up on."
...Oh. Now that I recalled it, there was a moment where I imagined that they'd left me in there as a sacrifice. I wasn't blaming you or anything. I just thought, it'd have been the right move, strategically... Assuming the universe would survive my death, anyway.
[Nagato:] "And? You made the same choice for me earlier. Right or wrong, you came to my rescue. Don't think I won't do the same for you."
...
Yeah, actually, I can't excuse myself for that. I won't call it a lack of faith, but... sorry, Nagato. At the very least, I didn't want to make a hypocrite out of her.
[Asakura:] "Though, it was actually her who had to stop the others from going in all at once..."
[Nagato:] "There's a difference between abandoning someone and being efficient."
[Asakura:] "Hmm? Did I sound like I was judging you?"
Glad to be back to hearing their voices in my head, I kept an eye out for Luna as Koishi brought us above the tornado and Marisa began to drift towards us. Luna was hovering in place, only dodging stray shots and waiting, probably for the spell to time out, and not paying any attention to us at all. I would've thought we were a prime target, being separated from the others, but... Just what is she after? Is she really just trying to tire us out? Hecatia loved to play with her food, as I'd found out when she beat me within an inch of my life before killing me, but even she wouldn't go as far as to drag out a battle like this when we were steadily receiving reinforcements. She was smiling when I left that Hell, I was sure of it. She had to have some other plan in mind.
"Oy, Koishi!" Marisa called out when she came near. "Wow, you're actually holding him up, huh? That's gotta be real heavy."
Koishi groaned, "Yeeeeeeah, too heavy, I'll drop him."
Not again-
She pushed against my stomach and I slid off of her like an eggshell, barely having time to tell if I were falling right side up or not before Marisa swooped low and somehow managed to catch me with the rear end of her broom. I reflexively put my arms around her, and she sighed, "Ah, yeah, that's better. I was feelin' too light 'til now, ze. And too free in the chest."
...Without a word, I moved my hands somewhere more appropriate, and tried to focus on Hecatia instead of what I'd just accidentally done. Somehow, her not making a bigger deal of it made it more awkward, not less. In the corner of my eye, I saw Koishi blushing bright red.
"What do you think of the enemy's tactics?"
Speaking of awkward, I turned away from Koishi only to find Koizumi's face up against mine, whispering conspiratorially. After gathering my wits and leaning back a bit, I said, "Um... I don't think what Hecatia's doing makes sense. She'll lose if she forces a battle of attrition, but she's not pushing the attack much, either."
"My thoughts exactly. There must be a move she can make that she thinks will turn the tables on us. We should try to look out for that, and prepare for it."
You make that sound so simple. If there is such a move, I'd think Yukari would know about it, not that she'd ever communicate it to us. But it's not like we can rely on her, especially when she can't see what's happening here directly... As I pondered this, the missing end of the culture building which had been turned into the Hell of Solipsism reappeared, with Hecate standing on its crumbling roof, watching the battle. She, too, made no attempt at relieving the pressure on Diana, which disturbed me to watch. There couldn't have been a clearer sign that things were going the way she wanted.
"Oh, and by the way..." Koizumi intruded on my vision again, this time holding a familiar hilt. "Do try not to drop this again. You won't want to explain to Tenshi how you lost it."
I took the Sword of Hisou from him, a bit dazed, and said, "You got this off her?" I didn't even see it...
"Koishi did, actually. Seemed quite content to keep it, too." Koizumi grinned, and behind him, I saw Koishi patting herself down like she was looking for her lost keys. She must have grabbed it with those vines after she'd tied Hecate up, and hidden it from me. Great...
"Thanks," I groaned. "I'd probably have lost it for good if she stole it."
With that disaster averted, at least things seemed to be coming into place. Reisen and Kaguya were flying up to join us, and I spotted Asakura below them on the gym roof, tending to someone that I took a moment to recognize as Tewi. Not only that, another gap was opening up next to them, signaling that we would soon have a new member of our group.
...Tewi? When did she get here? And what happened?
[Asakura:] "She was in the bag that Kaguya was carrying. She fought with Reisen and Kaguya, but got wounded by a rune shard while saving them. Very heroic, I think. I'll make sure she lives, so don't worry about her."
Huh. A sneaky entrance sounds like her... though being heroic doesn't. Still, if she had to save Reisen - I wasn't sure Kaguya would need saving - then I was glad she came. Hopefully her replacement would be just as decisive. Speaking of, who is it? I don't like surprises, can we hear who's coming beforehand?
[Asakura:] "Oh, I'm sure you can guess. We didn't plan on sending Kaguya, but once we did, she just had to come, too."
...Oh, great.
The gap finished opening much quicker this time, and sure enough, what came out of it was Mokou. She took two steps across the roof, glanced down at Tewi, and then rocketed up near us, boosting her speed with a blast of flame behind her and arriving at our gathering at the same time as Kaguya and Reisen did.
"Oh, my," said Kaguya, hiding a smile behind her sleeve. "We must be winning."
Mokou glowered at her and replied, "Yeah. It's like we're taunting her by sending you in."
"Well, now that you're here, I guess we can relax?"
These two are... actually on the same wavelength, huh...?
Mokou made an ugly smirk, like she wanted to strangle Kaguya, but turned it on Hecate instead. "Go right ahead," she growled, and at once, she was off through the air towards her prey, leaving the rest of us to decide if we should help or not. For most, it was a simple decision; Reimu, Koizumi, and even Reisen and Kaguya dove after her, with the latter doing her best, unsuccessfully, to try and overtake Mokou. Koishi floated off in Luna's direction, unconcerned with what we were doing, which made Marisa and I the only ones unsure of our next step.
"Uh..." Marisa exchanged glances with me before saying, "I'm kinda tapped, ze. I thought I'd made enough stuff for today, but I guess not..."
"I'd be surprised if you had," I answered. We all knew that today would be a long, almost impossible road, but we were wearing thin even before we got to this universe, and it'd been almost non-stop fighting since then. That Marisa's supplies had lasted this long was a small miracle.
[Emiri:] "Working on that, you two. Resupplies will be on the way."
[SPELL CARD: HOURAI "SOUTH WIND, CLEAR SKY -FUJIYAMA VOLCANO-"]
The two of us ended up watching as Mokou streaked down towards Hecate, and I almost thought she'd collide with her, but she probably knew that'd be a dumb idea. Chains flowed out from Hecate's collar and bristled at the oncoming fireball, and Mokou pulled up, unfurling wide wings of spitting flame from her back and spraying a clotted mess of fireballs downward.
[SPELL CARD: DIVINE TREASURE "SALAMANDER SHIELD"]
Not to be outdone, Kaguya soon caught up with her and threw out her left arm, then reached into her wide-open sleeve with her right. From within - and I was positive that such a thing couldn't actually have fit inside those clothes - she pulled out what looked like a burning disc, which she held like a shield. More fire burst out of it, sending out waves of it towards Hecatia and all around her - which, naturally, Mokou had to dodge as well. Most of the time, when two people on the same side used a spell card, they'd put some distance between one another, but every time Hecate changed her facing while dodging through their spells, the two of them would jockey to be the one in front of her, keeping her attention. One of them always had to back off, or else be caught in the other's spell.
"Competin' for glory, looks like," said Marisa, bemused.
I sighed. "Even now, when we're supposed to all be working together..."
"Hey, whatever gets 'em motivated," she said with a laugh.
The others did their best to get some shots in, but Hecate soon figured out a way to slip through their spells - since they came mostly in waves, they were each trying to time their attacks to take advantage of the other's distraction, allowing her to decide their pace by provoking one or the other with her movements. Once she'd created an opening for herself...
[SPELL CARD: OTHERWORLD "OUMAGATOKI"]
...She started fighting fire with fire. Well, a kind of fire. The light around us changed, and though the stars still shone above, it started to look more like twilight here at the school, and in the fashion of that transitional moment, many spirits began to materialize and whirl around her, resembling streaks of purple flame that formed into a tornado of Hecate's own, even as Sanae's began to wind down. Now she's summoning spirits from our world, too... or is our presence reviving them here? Either way, it was all so dense that I couldn't see inside, and the others stopped attacking as well. The group fighting Diana didn't catch a break either, since we were so close together that it just replaced Sanae's danmaku instead.
"Hold on!" Marisa suddenly shouted. While I was worrying about Tenshi, Youmu, and Sakuya, Marisa had her eyes fixed skyward, and she accelerated without warning, almost making me fall off the broom. We dipped and ducked around the shots we passed by, and I couldn't tell where we were going until I saw someone falling from above - the second time I'd seen this today.
Sanae?!
She was plummeting headfirst, with no sign of consciousness. Above her, Diana was swinging around the earth on a much longer chain than she'd been using, keeping her distance from Youmu while also throwing off more blue danmaku everywhere. I hadn't even seen her move up there.
[Asakura:] "She breathed in the poison gas. Bring her to me."
What?! Poison gas?!
Marisa and I whipped around in the air, even turning upside down to avoid the spray from Diana. Sanae dropped lower, and we went into a dive, turning our backs on Diana and hoping that the others could keep her busy. As we pulled up beside her, I passed the bat to Marisa for her to hold and reached out with both hands, fearing the worst. After all, the last time I'd seen her drop like this, Nagato had told me she was already dead. As soon as I'd got a hold of her, I pulled her close, and Marisa leveled out along the ground, making a tight turn towards the gymnasium. Sanae's head lolled back, and when I held it up with my hand, I saw her mouth frothing red, and bloody tears gathering at the edges of her eyes.
My heart leapt into my throat. I couldn't undo it this time. There's no way, not again. She's not...
[Asakura: "She would be, if she weren't a god. And she will be if I can't tend to her in the next few seconds."]
Still supporting her, I gripped the Sword of Hisou and tried to figure out where the enemy was. Diana and Hecate were still occupied, but - Where's Luna? I scanned above us, and saw that Luna had indeed tried to follow up by attacking the gym, but Koishi was in front of her, meeting her whipping chains with her own thorny vines. Reisen and Koizumi had also broken off from the other battle, and were closing in to help keep her at bay.
We somehow made it up onto the gym, and I practically threw Sanae at Asakura, who simply wrapped an arm around her and crouched low, keeping her left hand on Tewi, who looked half-awake. "Where the hell did poison gas come from?!" I yelled, trying to keep myself under control.
[Nagato:] "Eirin sent it over to use against Hecatia. Then after it damaged Hecatia, she tried to use it against us - Sanae was controlling and holding it back with the wind. Before her spell ended, she expelled it upwards so that it couldn't harm anyone else, but Diana intentionally stored some of it in her lungs."
How... how strong is she that she can do that, but it takes Sanae out instantly? It sounded unreal. To even think of saving a toxic gas by holding your breath, and then... What? Blowing in her face?
"A kiss of death," said Asakura, almost admiringly. "She had a very elegant way of pulling her in. It looked so romantic."
Don't even joke.
[Emiri:] "No one thought she could get that close that quickly. She's much faster than she looks."
She's a lot more everything than she looks. I stared down at Sanae, hoping to see some flicker of life, but all I had was Asakura's word that she was still among the living.
My morale took another hit as I understood something. Hecatia was using everything against us. She was trying to break us. She used the conditions of the Ultramarine Elixir to find out who had it, she was using our own fear to try to get us killed, and she tried to use the poison gas brought in to fight her against us as well. No, Koizumi was right. Hecatia had something else in mind, and was effortlessly countering our strategies as we were fighting. This was a war of attrition, but half against ourselves.
"We beat her once before, ze," said Marisa, standing up and glaring up at Diana. "Remember? We can do it again."
After another moment, I tore my eyes away and joined her in watching the battle above. "We'd better."
Wishing it didn't make it happen, though. Almost immediately, Kaguya's and Mokou's spell cards off to our left dissolved together, as did Hecate's, and the darkness of night returned. I barely saw Luna - she'd broken away from the three who'd come to intercept her, and taken advantage of Hecate's distraction to get in in close quarters with Mokou, bearing over her like a panther about to finish off its prey. She lashed at Mokou with her chains, but Mokou didn't flinch, and cast a new spell even through the pain.
[SpElL CaRd: ReGrEtFuL LiFe "ImMoRtAlItY's ReCkLeSs SaCrIfIcE"]
Heat rapidly built up around Mokou's body, and flames began to burst out of her skin, but before she could make a single attack, the chains that Luna had used to attack her came back and coiled around her whole body, glowing red. They moved as fast as I could blink, and no one could stop her from casting her own spell - one which seemed to feed energy between the two of them as it activated.
[SpElL CaRd: EtErNaL oRb SiGn "ReCkLeSs SaCrIfIcE's ReFlEcTiOn"]
The combustion that Mokou had begun in herself didn't stop. She continued to ignite, and Luna's chains flung her backwards, still wrapped around her, straight towards Kaguya, who had been approaching from behind. Kaguya tried to dodge away, but too late - Mokou exploded in a huge fireball, sending wave after wave of flames outward, lighting up everything around the school. Kaguya was caught in it, and fell away; though it seemed like her kimono somehow withstood the fire, the girl herself writhed in pain as she moved. Mokou began reforming inside the grip of the chains immediately, and Luna swung her up at Koizumi, who was closing in to attack, but had to abandon that plan in order to dodge the second explosion. Meanwhile, she'd started letting off stars while gliding lower, between the school buildings, and every time those shots hit the walls of the school, they bounced off and stretched out like lasers, creating yet another chaotic environment.
She's... hijacking Mokou's spell?! It wasn't like that, but it was way worse. She's using Mokou as an explosive flail!
That was the first time I'd seen anything like that. Luna wielded Mokou in the same way Diana was using the earth, while at the same time shielding herself from attack with the moon. Koizumi didn't last long, and neither did Koishi, both of them taking hits and drifting away towards the ground in pain. Asakura had to divert some of her attention to stopping or avoiding the danmaku that reached the gym roof, and it made me nervous to think that a stray shot might land on Sanae or Tewi. Reimu, as usual, was dodging through it, though, as was Reisen, to my surprise. Reisen looked more alert and serious than I'd ever seen her, and she seemed to weave in between everything as effortlessly as Reimu did, taking shots at every open opportunity. With Hecate pressing the attack from behind, though, neither one of them could make any headway, and they soon had to back off as they'd grazed so much danmaku that it was wearing them down.
This is going wrong. How'd it get away from us so quickly?
One minute it seemed like Hecatia was just toying with us individually, and the next, her three bodies were working together and had managed to hurt us badly.
The worst part was the screaming. Something I wished I never heard, like it was from my darkest nightmares. Mokou screeched in terror every time she was flung, and in agony every time she exploded, leaving no doubt as to what it must have felt like to be used as a living weapon, while Luna just floated back and forth between oncoming shots, flashing us her sickly sweet smile. Below, Koizumi was rising back up into the air, trying to find a way in.
She's using one of us as her own weapon and she's smiling about it! "...We have to do something!" I shouted.
Marisa looked at me worriedly, and said, "I'm with ya there, but..."
There's a way. There's got to be. My eyes went to the bat that Marisa was still holding, then back to our allies, and I said, "If you can make it through that spell even a little..."
Marisa sighed, then held up the bat for me to take. "Well, I don't wanna sit on the sidelines, ze. Long as you're fine with bein' cooked, I wanna do everything I can."
I shrugged. "We got these fire protection vests for a reason. It should help, right?"
The two of us lifted off and drifted around the other side of Luna from Reimu and Reisen, hoping to at least distract her a bit. This time around, I tried not to be dead weight; swinging the bat at the danmaku around us felt awkward, mostly because I had to avoid knocking Marisa on the head, but it was better than doing nothing, and Marisa seemed to trust in my arm, because she went for some much riskier maneuvers than before, darting into medium range as Mokou was swung above us, trying to get a good shot with a flurry of stars from her mini-Hakkero, which she fueled with one of her last little mushroom lumps. I twisted around on the broom to be ready, and when Mokou exploded, I squinted my eyes against the light and the scorching heat, and swung it through the oncoming flames, which rebounded off the bat and then off each other, and a whole wave of fire was swept away.
That was enough to protect us, but Marisa still couldn't risk going too close, and Luna was hardly bothered by her assault. She kept her attention on Reimu while she dodged with small movements, making a wide sweep with Mokou and smearing fire all around us, which forced me to repel it from several directions. For the time being at least, we were at a standstill.
"...That guy, is he crazy? He's gonna get burned again, ze..."
Marisa was mumbling more to herself than to me, and I noticed that Koizumi had rejoined the fight. Unlike Marisa, Reimu, and Reisen though, he had his esper blade out and was trying to attack the chain binding Mokou to Luna, rather than Luna herself - which was even more dangerous, since the chain kept moving, and it put him even closer to the explosions than we were. It was a futile effort, too - he'd keep getting almost within range to attack the chain, and Luna would jerk it away, sending Mokou off to blow up somewhere else. It was like she was taunting all of us while making our friend suffer.
This is messed up. Is she trying to be as brutal as possible because we didn't let her kill us earlier? I could still hear Mokou screaming overhead, and so could Koizumi. When he passed by me to try and chase the chain, I saw his face was like stone. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. I still wasn't clear on exactly what his relationship to Mokou was, but he probably didn't care about the enemy right now; he just wanted to save her. Seeing him so serious, I wanted to do something. There had to be something I could do.
"Koizumi!" I called out before he passed us by. I was only half-thinking about it, but I found myself untying the ribbon on the handle of the bat. He turned back to look at me, and for a moment, I thought he even looked annoyed that I was distracting him, but I pulled the camouflage device off the bat and threw it at him anyway. "Use it!" I told him.
He caught it easily, then stared at it in his hand for a moment before understanding. He nodded to me, and a little bit of his smile came back; and then he flew into the trajectory the Mokou-flail, which was on its way back to hurt us again, and this time, he didn't go for the chain between them; he went for Mokou herself, who was already starting to ignite again. Without even bothering to put up a shield or bring out his blade, he went right up next to her, and reached out with one hand.
"He's gonna-!" Marisa started to exclaim.
"No," I said. "He's got it!"
Just as Mokou combusted, the light around the two of them contorted for about a meter in every direction, and the chains that were holding her shattered and fell to pieces. When Mokou's body reformed, she was free, and the spell card was over - Luna looked back at us in shock, and Reimu seized the opportunity to close in. Luna was a second too late in dodging, and was smacked upside the head by her gohei, followed by a high kick that knocked her backwards, and a barrage of bullets from Reisen that she couldn't avoid. Hecate moved in, and both she and Luna raised their hands to one another - which made Reimu sense danger, and she warped away before they could do anything. At the same time, Diana also flew in to join them, and I saw Tenshi, Sakuya, and Youmu spread out in a semi-circle, seemingly having corralled her there.
[Asakura:] "Well done, everyone."
Huh?
Almost before I'd realized it, we had all three of Hecatia's bodies encircled. While I'd been focused on the individual battles, Asakura had maneuvered us into an advantageous position. All three of them in one place, and looking worse for wear; Hecate with her weeping red thorn marks, Diana with her burning red chain marks, and Luna, with blood still flowing from her eyes and mouth. They watched us warily, perhaps realizing the same thing, and then... turned their backs on us, facing each other instead.
...What?
[Asakura:] "She's doing something. Attack now."
Most of us were already doing just that. Everyone fired towards the three of them, but each simply took one step inward, and their bodies fused and melded together, and a shockwave of energy blew away the danmaku. The energy formed into a pyramid, which shifted between blue, yellow, and red before turning white and forming into a single humanoid shape.
...A very large one. And growing even larger. All of us backed up - shooting it didn't seem to do anything, so we instead took cover behind the school buildings on all sides of her as the energy swelled to the size of one of Haruhi's celestials.
What now?! Is she growing bigger?!
[Emiri:] "Well, she is a titan."
You have got to be kidding me!
But no, nobody was kidding me. This final boss had another phase, it seemed.
The light dissipated into a wave of white danmaku that shot out at high speed in all directions, forcing us to duck low. Behind it stood, indeed, giant red-haired Hecatia, connected by her chains to the earth, moon, and otherworlds, each one half the size of the gym. She was twice as tall as the school, and stood between the central classroom building and the culture building, facing in my direction with her usual smirk. Her skin was crossed diagonally in two directions with intersecting red thorn and chain marks, joined by straight lines of blood from her eyes. Though she'd kept her wounds, she still showed no signs of fatigue; she was as ready to fight as ever.
I wasn't really surprised. Hecatia may have almost gone down once, but as long as she had life in her body, she wasn't going to give up. I felt the same, and probably, so did the rest. If Hecatia wanted to drag this out, we were all happy to oblige. Big or small, this was just another one of her tricks we had to deal with.
Why does she have to have a giant form, though? I could have done without this phase!
"You know... I'm okay with this." Reimu said as she slowly rotated her neck. "The bigger they are, the more there is to hit." She looked over to Koizumi. "You got experience with this, right?"
Koizumi had put Mokou down on the ground, who was quickly recovering. After making sure she was all right, he turned his stone face back at the massive Hecatia, as his body lit up with his power. "Yes. Yes, I can handle this."
They were the only two who looked remotely confident. All of us were intimidated in some fashion by the size of our opponent. I know I was.
We were so close now. So close to the end. At least, that was what I thought at the time.
Patchouli had gathered all the materials and notes she could prepare. Yuyuko was awake again, ready to go, and being helped up by Koakuma. Whoever knocked her out hadn't been aiming to hurt her, which meant it had some other purpose. The fact that right after, it sounded like the group went on a tear and pushed Hecatia's forces back amidst an underground snowfall seemed to suggest a connection.
Everything was happening for a reason. That usually was the case when it came to Gensokyo and the Brigade. And that truth...
Patchouli had kept the radio on, and Hecatia's revelation had floored her. That each side was fiction to the other. It was so fascinating. Perhaps that didn't stop there – maybe some of Patchouli's favorite stories were real somewhere in the multiverse, and someone out there was reading about her. The magician had smiled on that thought, making her as giddy as when she was very young and enjoying her early books. To think she'd find yet another reason to enjoy her favorite pastime. She had always known that books could give birth to youkai and great powers, but this was on a whole other level.
And to think some people don't appreciate the power of the written word. Now it's more powerful than anyone could have imagined.
For now though, there was little time to pontificate about it. Hastily stuffing the notes into a satchel, she felt ready to take on the god of magic. Having Yuyuko there also produced something fruitful - before she was attacked, Yuyuko had gone to look for the books regarding the Saigyou monastery. Right next to her unconscious body, there was one that Patchouli and Koakuma had failed to find years ago. It had detailed descriptions on how to invoke the Paranormal Border. There was a from of it derived from heavenly power, but Kyon's version of it was the power of the earth - the power of nature, distilled into the essence of spring. Inducing it chemically required materials that were in short supply, but now that she understood the process itself...
I'm ready now. We're ready. We're going to win this fight-
Patchouli's thoughts were interrupted by the grandfather clock. The librarian shot a look at it, feeling tired. She had been up all day, and hadn't had a chance to rest.
No matter. My fatigue can't matter. Not while something so important is going on.
December 25th, 2008.
Christmas Day.
They lied to you.
They used you.
It was supposed to be all for you, wasn't it?
You were supposed to find them on your own. You were supposed to make the discovery. You were to be the one to find the signs, use your intelligence, and discover that this world was far more wonderful than most of its inhabitants could ever dream of.
But all your effort...
Flashes of memory. Of middle school. Of high school. Everything done. "I am here." Of investigating the halls. Putting up with her Brigade subordinates. It was all a lie. Each and every one of her friends betrayed her for their own needs. Everybody had used her. Her high school life meant nothing. She never accomplished anything. She-
"...Lied?"
She wasn't sure where she was, or what she was doing. The last thing she completely remembered was that she was in her dorm room, ready to spend Christmas Eve with...
She tensed. She remembered the nightmare she had - of being constricted; the feeling of being suffocated. Held in place while people in front of her died, while he suffered. It felt so real, so terrifying. The way he called out to her, his panic, his emotion, it scared her on such a primal level. He was so afraid of losing her, and she of losing him.
But it was also during that time her mind was flooded with those words, telling her that everything was a lie. She was shown images of a time traveler, an esper, and an alien all gathering around her, lying to her, using her. That Asahina, Koizumi, and Nagato were doing their best to have her lead a boring life, doing their best to keep her from achieving her dream, holding her back. Holding her back, like it was the most important thing in the world.
When she got out of bed, she'd...
She wasn't in bed. She was on top of a futon with another person, above the covers, and it was hot. Had Tsuruya turned up the heat in their room? Her eyes were taking their time to focus, much longer than they should have. Her hand found the floor, and it felt like rock.
What... is this...?
She thought she might have fainted, which could have explained the blurry vision. But she felt so tired, exhausted even. Like she could sleep for another week or so. Things were coming into focus, and she was making out shapes, and understood she wasn't in her room. She was in some larger room, no... a cavern?
Her heartbeat rose as she didn' t understand what was going on. She got up to her knees, staring at everyone. A blonde woman, a woman with a long white ponytail wearing some blue and red nurse's outfit. Kids with... Do those kids have wings?! Are they fairies?! A short girl with horns on her head, a cat girl, and-
"Uh-oh."
She turned to the source of the voice, right behind her. There was some girl in brown with wings on her back, and strange, feathered ears. The girl looked absolutely in shock.
"Everyone?! She's awake!"
Everyone turned towards her, all at once. Their eyes, alien and unknown, chilled her soul, but none of them said a word.
Those eyes, Haruhi thought, looked afraid of her.
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