Here we are again, I would like to say thank you to those that Reviewed, they help quite a bit, as well as to all the people who look over the story, the total viewed reading gives one motivation to write, anyways, sorry for the delay, and enjoy the read!
Inside the walls of the Manor were wide fields of flowers of many varieties, fountains with sparkling water were placed in the middle of every sixth patch of flowers, and a few birds were seen around the fountains. Each small patch looked to be in the best of their condition, and gave the appearance of being carefully tended to. The wonderful sight ended when one looked at the mansion.
Large and imposing, it seemed to have its own air of smugness as it loomed over Kogasa and Kyouko, the latter having taken bold steps forward while consumed by her anger.
"Kyouko, are you sure that you want to go in? It looks pretty scary," Kogasa said as she followed Kyouko nervously. "Of course I do! I'm going to find whoever's in charge here and tell them to put that China lady on a leash or something!" Kyouko said, visibly annoyed by Meiling's aggressive reaction towards herself. "Whatever you say..." Kogasa said playing Kyouko's shadow as the two entered the Manor.
The doors closed behind the pair with a resounding Thump, scaring Kogasa and unnerving Kyouko slightly. "I wonder where the person in charge is..." Kogasa said as she wandered a bit, looking down the many corridors of the mansion. A narrow stream of danmaku from one of the corridors suddenly whizzed by Kogasa's head, causing her to leap back in shock, "Kyouko! Where'd that come from?!" she yelled out, a small chorus of giggles echoing from several of the corridors.
"Good luck finding us~" a voice chanted from one of the corridors, "if you can't see us~" two more voices called out from the corridors. "Kyouko, what do I do?!" Kogasa cried as several more streams of danmaku whizzed by her. "Follow the patterns, and shoot back!" Kyouko yelled as she tried to decipher where the next attack would originate from.
"I got it!" Kyouko yelled out, "Kogasa, fire behind you!"
Kogasa immediately obeyed, swinging her umbrella behind her sending colorful bullets as well as spit flying behind her, eliciting a yell from the end of that corridor. Immediately after, Kogasa and Kyouko could see down the other corridors, and Luna and Star were visible a few yards down different corridors.
"Sunny's down, Evacuate!" Star cried as she and Luna flew to pick up Sunny, who was covered in the saliva of Kogasa's umbrella, and flew away.
"I wonder what that was all about..."Kogasa said as she looked back at Kyouko, "All clear!" she called out. "Now, down which should we go," Kyouko asked the air as she strained to look down the corridors, failing to see more than a few meters. "I know! The leader was in that corridor" Kogasa swung her arm to the left, "so we should go down there!"
"Fine, but this is only because I have no idea where to go," Kyouko said with a huff as she followed Kogasa down a corridor.
The pair soon arrived to a gigantic doorway, archaic writings scattered over the door in thin, inhuman veins of writing. Kogasa and Kyouko looked up, and a pair of black wings quickly made their way higher up, out of the pair's vision. "Wonder what that was about," Kogasa muttered to herself as she approached the door with Kyouko. The pair heaved, but the door hardly swayed an inch. "How is it that Marisa gets in here without any trouble?" Kyouko asked as she took in a breath, Kogasa having resigned to simply sitting down at the base of the doorway. "We'll have to go in like Marisa does, danmaku blazing!" Kogasa declared as she raised her umbrella into the air, its tongue lolling about.
"Fine," Kyouko said, preparing her own barrage next to Kogasa, the two stepped back to get a running start, then ran forward to attack the door and anyone who was inside. However, they soon slipped on a puddle of Karakasa brand spit, and landed on their backs accordingly. "Kogasa," Kyouko said calmly, "Yes~?" Kogasa answered as innocently as she could, "Is the door open?" "No~".
"..."
"..."
"IMA KILL YOU!" Kyouko yelled in a bout of rage, creating huge sound waves that were all directed at Kogasa, who was soon pressed into the doorway. The sound waves didn't stop until Kogasa was a few inches into the door, causing the door to crack open slightly, as well as Kogasa to fall down.
"Hey, I opened it!" Kyouko said cheerfully as she peeled Kogasa off the floor, through the door was a huge library, with bookshelves that never seemed to end. Books covered every available surface, whether it was an armchair, table, or even potted plant, piles of books "Whoa," Kogasa said in awe as she stepped into the library, nearly tripping over a stray book, "What is this place?"
"This is known as The Voile Library," A sultry voice called out from behind one of the bookshelves. "And what business do you have here?" A tall woman with Scarlet Hair appeared behind Kyouko, her twin wings on the side of her head twitching in unison with those on her back. "We're here to talk to the person in charge," Kyouko said nervously as the woman began to play with her ears. "If you wish to see Lady Patchouli, you must prove that you mean her no harm," The woman whispered in Kyouko's ear, causing the Yamabiko to blush as red as a beet. "And how do I do that...?" Kyouko gasped, her breath becoming more ragged. "What you can do..." The woman crooned before getting several drops of saliva on her as Kogasa was floating directly above her.
"Now hold on here!" Kogasa yelled, "Kyouko's mine, and mine only!" Kogasa hissed, the woman only smiling, said "But we've already exchanged Bodily fluids, won't you take responsibility?" This caused Kyouko to faceplant and Kogasa to blush deeply. "What do you mean?!" Kogasa managed to say as the woman approached her. "I mean, with that nice big stick of yours, you got a lot of its sticky stuff on my own parts, the one that I take good care of too~"
This somehow caused a stream of blood to go flying from Kyouko's nose, and Kogasa backed up into a bookshelf in an attempt to avoid the woman's advances. "I'm sorry if my umbrella got you wet..." Kogasa squeaked as the woman placed her arms over Kogasa's shoulders, neared her mouth to Kogasa's ears, and whispered, "You passed~".
The woman then flew upwards and through a hole in one of the bookshelves, calling out, "You two are too young and innocent to cause Lazy, I mean Lady Patchouli any trouble besides mild annoyance; she's down the third lane on the right."
"Kogasa," Kyouko, the first to regain her senses, called out, "Yes?" The Karakasa responded shakily, her voice a little more than a whisper. "Should we keep going?" "Yeah..." Kogasa answered a dreamy look in her eyes.
The pair had taken a few minutes to recover from the assault of words and their various...implications, before following the directions given to them by the woman. At the end of a surprisingly long walk, the two found another door, this one much smaller but covered in arcane symbols, and it was rather obvious that they were in different languages, as the letters varied from the commonly seen Japanese to foreign letters that were unknown to the youkai pair (but known to us and English).
"Who's gonna open it?" Kogasa asked Kyouko, who quickly stepped back, eliciting a sigh from Kogasa. "Fine, I'll knock," Kogasa said as she breathed in and stepped up to the door. Bringing her trembling knuckle up to the door, Kogasa looked at the various symbols, swearing that she saw a few move, and moved in to knock, before a thin voice called out, "Come in,".
Both Kogasa and Kyouko froze, Kogasa looking back nervously at Kyouko, who was completely still. "You twits are too loud for me to read in peace, so you might as well come in, "The voice called out again, showing signs of light annoyance. Kogasa looked back at Kyouko, gulped nervously, and pushed the door.
The door creaked open, revealing a small room that had a bookshelf on either side, or a humble bed at the end. Many of the books present in this room had an old look to them, seemingly untouched since their creation, or at least that's what it looked like to Kogasa, who passed by the mounds of dust once known as books. The two approached the bed, and inside was a very light skinned girl, as if she'd never seen the light of day, her hair was a deep purple, and seemed to flow down to her knees. She wore what looked to be the child of a dress and Pajamas, and in her hands was a thick book, kept meticulously clean unlike the rest of its kin.
"What is it that you two want?" she asked, her voice quiet. "Well, we came in to see who was in charge of the Mansion, because that China woman was ridiculously aggressive, and we somehow ended up here." Kogasa said somewhat cheerfully. "Ah, so you're looking for Remi," the girl deduced, the hand on her book having relaxed slightly. "She's the head of the manor, and is deceivingly weak, she in actuality is very strong, and has been known to help resolve the Eternal Night Incident," the Girl said.
"I am known as Patchouli Knowledge, the Great Unmoving Library, so I am not who you seek. Leave this library, and continue until you see a large staircase, follow the path that goes to the left, and then continue along the Staircase that you see. That leads to the balcony; Remi tends to spend the vast majority of her time there." Patchouli concluded, taking in several deep breaths. "Thank you Miss Knowledge," Kyouko, who finally had the courage to come in, said.
"It's fine little one," Patchouli said with a small smile, now, leave me be and go find Remi, yes?" Kogasa had been overcome with joy for someone to actually being nice, and had decided to hug Patchouli. "Thank you Patchy!" she said as she cut off Patchouli's air supply. "Get off..." Patchouli managed to say as she pried the karakasa off of her. "Koakuma!" Patchouli yelled, and soon after, the Woman from before appeared. Kogasa and Kyouko responded with a frightened yelp and the two of them attempted to hide under Patchouli's covers.
"It's her..." Kogasa whispered as she took cover behind the frail librarian. "Sigh...Koakuma, have you been traumatizing these two?" Patchouli said as her body began to tremble from the combined shaking of Kyouko and Kogasa. "Maybe a little~" Koakuma crooned as she closed the distance between herself and Patchouli. "What did you need of me Lady Patchouli?" Koakuma asked without the usual mischief that came with her voice.
"Escort these two out of the library, and don't ruin their innocence, will you?" Patchouli said as she dragged Kogasa and Kyouko out of their hiding spots.
"Very well~" Koakuma said as she picked up the two youkai by the back of their collars, "I won't do any permanent Damage~"
Sanae neared the cottage, leaves and twigs stuck in her hair from wandering in the forest. "Is this where Marisa lives? Of Course Not! But maybe..." Sanae said to herself as she approached the door, before deciding that the chimney was a better entrance. "If she doesn't see us coming, then she'll have to help!" Sanae concluded as she began to climb onto the roof.
Sane made it onto the roof of the house, and as far as the eye could see, there were trees. "The Forest of Magic is far too big..." Sanae thought as she looked into the surprisingly well kept chimney, "Odd, I thought Marisa was a lot messier than this," Sanae thought as she leapt into the chimney. Sanae made her way into the house. Dolls of various types were as orderly as could be, and were placed in neat little piles throughout the house. Sanae looked around the house, and could have sworn she saw a few dolls moving out of the corner of her eye. "Oh well," She thought to herself as she turned the corner to see a head of blonde hair, "It won't take too long to get backup in finding Kogasa~"
No fighting for you readers this time around~ I wonder how well I portrayed Koakuma? I've seen more than one place claiming that she was a succubus, so I decided to go along with that. Nonetheless, I know that I made Patchy as more of a motherly figure than usual, but hey, most people have been shown a bit differently, so I suppose it doesn't matter too much... Anyways, thanks for reading, and please review!