Medicine chuckled. "Two more attacks Doll Maker!" Medicine laughed. Her body was smoking a bit from a few laser attacks and a few chips of her arms were splintered off.
Alice panted a bit, whipping her arms about to summoned and cause her dolls to attack. "I'm not done yet..trust me you rogue doll." Alice growled, seeing Medicine nimbly dodge the rainbow danmaku and the swords and lances of the armed war dolls. "Just get hit already!" Alice growled even more, calling as many dolls back as she could when she seen the tsukumogami go on a rampage of knife slices to sever the puppeteer thread.
"One more!" Medicine giggled, picking up one of the dolls and looking at it. "So..these are you're weapons."
"They're good for more than just that." Alice smirked. She clasped her hand, a whining sound being faintly heard.
Medicine looked around, confused. "What did you do...?" She asked, seeing the doll in her hands glow a blinding white.
"Artful Sacrifice!" Alice said, watching as the shanghai doll exploded in a blast of raw energy. "That should do it. She's just a doll, not like she..lived...that" Alice said, seeing as the rogue doll holding the position she was in as the doll blew itself up. Her body was shaking and her clothing was torn. "Did..y-you just...?" She asked, her head slowly turning over to the blond puppeteer. "Did...you just...blow it up?" She asked quietly, her eyes actually welling with poison until nothing but a purple poison was visible. Her sighted faded from not, but using the poison as an extrasensory device. The poison fog that was in the air around the battle field allowed Medicine to see things Alice couldn't.
Alice backed up, cursing under her breath and readying more dolls.
"Three attacks done..MY TURN!" Medicine yelled, using the poison in the air to create a giant slab of poison. She lowered her raised hand, the large block falling down to the earth.
Alice rolled out of the way and hurled a lance armed doll at Medicine, the battle ready doll lashing out.
Medicine took the blow, snipping the string and pulling out the lance. "Don't toy with me...I'll make you the puppet soon." Medicine said, her voice light with a hint of insanity. She plucked a few suzurans out of the ground and held them in her hands. "Now Su-san, I need you're help...her.." the tsukumogami told her flowers. The doll put the lily-of-the-valley's in her hair and looked at Alice. "Puppet versus puppet..have fun." She smirked, falling to her knees and going limp.
Alice blinked, confused but still on guard. She looked around, hearing a familiar grunt. She spun around to see her ally, who she though was dead, slowly push herself off the ground and stand up weakly. "M-Marisa!" Alice said happily, seeing the poison still on the witch's body. "Are you alright?" She asked, getting nothing in response but an airy chuckle.
"Marisa's not here Doll Maker..." 'Marisa' said, looking up at the puppeteer from under her hat. She pulled out her mini-hakkero and readied it.
Alice gasped, suddenly look at Medicine's limp body. "The poison..." She growled.
"Master Spark!" Marisa yelled, launching the rainbow laser at Alice, who narrowly dodged it.
Alice panted, looking at her grimoire. "I don't want to use this..." She said, summoning six dolls. "Curse: Hourai Dolls!" Alice yelled, aiming the six Hourai dolls at Medicine's limp body. They unleashed a stream of purple lasers, Marisa quickly jumping in the way of the attack. Alice growled, snapping the dolls back and sending the six lasers in random directions. "Smart move.."
Marisa panted. "Thanks." She replied, reaching under her apron. "Devildom Torch." She muttered, hurling fragile glass vials at the blond puppeteer. They shattered in a circle around her, launching blue flames into the air around her. Alice stood still, knowing the flames were decoys. The Daughter of Death jumped through the fire, using her grimoire to mask Marisa across the face in an attempt to release her from Medicine's poison control. She landed on the ground, unsteady and wobbled a bit as Marisa's limp body fell to the ground, slowly bending up into a standing position as if her body was a snake. She snapped into place and jerkily moved over to her friend. "Puppets on puppets..looks like I'm the better puppeteer!" Medicine yelled through Marisa, the witch leaping onto Alice and pinning her to the ground.
"Get off me Marisa!" Alice yelled struggling to get free. The poison on Marisa vanished as the witch fell limp on top of the puppeteer. "M-Marisa?" Alice asked, not even moving to break free now.
Medicine's once limp body slowly stood up. "That was pathetically easy to do..." She sighed, cycling through a large amount of poison weapons she could make. "Nope...nah...not this..maybe...Hm..." She said, chuckling evilly. She hunched over, her body twitching and convulsing. A large wave of poison grew behind her slowly, drawing drops of poison from the air and the surrounding suzurans. Her body slowly rose back to it's original standing position, her arm outstretched at the two blond mages. She clenched her fist, the wall shattering into a small army of dolls. The large doll grinned. "A taste of your own medicine Doll Maker!" Medicine chuckled as the dolls hovered around Alice, all taking aim. "Doll Maker's War: Suzuran Army." Medicine smiled, stretching her arms out, thin flickers of light revealing countless poison threads.
Alice's eyes opened, seeing as each of the dolls shattered, then reformed into a giant lance of poison attached to a lifeless doll body. Alice struggled to get Marisa's unconscious body off of her, giving up as the lances grew near. "Dammit Marisa..another mess you gotten us into..." She sighed, bracing her impact and closing her eyes.
The sound of metal hitting metal was heard, the light pining sound of metal falling on the ground. Alice slowly opened her eyes and looked around to see pools of splattered and used poison and knives. Her eyes drifted up more, seeing someone holding multiple knives between her fingers. "S-Sakuya?"
The maid turned around, freezing time around Medicine. "Miss Medicine is out of control I see." Sakuya said, helping Alice up and helping her bring Marisa up.
"Marisa dragged me here..again. This is the second time she nearly got killed. Before it was a mace to her spine, now it was a poison clone of her own Master Spark."
Sakuya sighed. "I knew she would cause nothing but trouble. Ever since I joined up with her and Reimu for those few incidents, she was nothing but trouble."
Alice chuckled a bit and turned to Medicine, standing frozen in a battle pose. "How did you know about this anyway?"
"I was going to visit her today. I haven't seen her in a while and I thought I would surprise her. I'm lucky I came when I did though." Sakuya said, picking up her knives in a flash.
"Thanks, we owe you one." Alice said, walking over to the frozen doll. "Strange though how she came to life."
"She's a tsukumogami. She was given life after one hundred years of inactivity." the maid explained.
"Huh...so that's why..." Alice said, looking at the doll like she was now an art work, not an enemy.
"This is getting a bit...uncomfortable for me. I think I should be taking my leave now. I think you should come with me, unless you want to fight Medicine again. She won't hold back and you know that as well as I." Sakuya said, holding Marisa.
Alice nodded and walked over, helping Sakuya hold the battered and beaten witch. "Yea, think we should get going." Alice said, quickly walking away from the field with Sakuya, the maid unfreezing the large doll when they were out of view.
Medicine, still in the battle pose, threw a punch, missing on purpose but sending a large burst of poison out where Alice and Marisa would be. The wave rippled the ground, leaving the doll exhausted. She fell to her knees once more and the poison in her eyes slowly vanished, being absorbed back into her poison tract. "I..got her..." She said, looking up and seeing no lifeless corpse. "She's..gone?" She said, not even having the energy to change her tone. She looked at some of the flowers, the plants themselves dead from Medicine draining them of poison. "I'm..sorry Su-san...I didn't mean to do that to you." She said, slowly crawling over and weakly cutting the dead plants. She cut a fresh flower, holding it close to her chest and slowly standing up, using the poison from the lone flower to restore her energy to a point where she could walk. "How did she get away?...she came back? Really? Sakuya ended the battle...I would have killed them both!" She said, talking to her flowers. "I'll get her next time, don't worry..." She said, slowly walking back into her fields. "People...I can only trust a few of them." She chuckled. "Reisen, Eirin, Mokou, Keine...and maybe Sakuya now. I don't know..should I?" She asked herself, listening in if her flowers replied. "I know it's my choice but...but she...and I...alright...I get it." the doll said, sighing and sitting down in her fields. "I'll learn to trust more..okay?"