"... Master Patchouli..." Daiyousei said.
"Yes?" Patchouli answered, using magic to throw her voice across the library.
"We have visitors. Unwelcome ones. Of the rabbit kind."
There was quiet.
"That Princess. What is she up to?" Patchouli said.
At that moment, Daiyousei noticed Sakuya flying over, looking displeased.
"Did you see any intruders? I don't know how, but they slipped away from me. They made me see some kind of illusion." Sakuya asked.
"I saw a shadow..." Daiyousei said.
"Good enough. That means they're here. I've sealed off the library in a time-space pocket. They can't leave." Sakuya said.
Rumia entered the Palace of the Earth Spirits, and saw three rabbits in uniform seemingly having a heated discussion with Satori, who was sitting down with some tea, and Rin, in her cat form, on her lap.
"How much longer will you speak in rheotic and evade our questions!" the center rabbit said. She sounded frustrated. She had bright pink hair, while the two shorter rabbits both had blue hair. She had a badge on her outfit too, unlike the others.
Satori opened the eye she had cloest to Rumia, and smirked.
"Well, my next visitor is here. I am afraid your welcome has worn out." Satori said. "If you are not bright enough to hold a conversation with me, I do not wish to aid you anyway."
Rumia couldn't help but shiver at how cold Satori was being to the rabbits, but likewise, felt tense. There was something about these rabbits, like they felt superior.
The centre rabbit looked like someone who had been spat on, and hissed, bearing her teeth.
"I've tried to be polite with you, impure Earth-scum. No, you must be worse than that, you are impure scum that even the scum don't want, so you live even lower. You're below scum. We'll just beat the answers we want out of you." the rabbit said.
"You know, I can read your minds. I knew the contempt you had speaking for me, and your intentions, behind your facade. Rumia, you timed your visit... most well. May I ask for your assistance in removing these rabbits from my property? As much as it pains me to hurt animals, these ones will not behave." Satori said, as Rin jumped off her lap and transformed into her humanoid form, stunning the rabbits.
"After all, I'd rather not call Okku up here. She'd make a mess and irradiate the house." Satori said, smirking. "I'll take the middle one, she seems to be the leader, and even us Satori have some pride to maintain."
"I'd like to have punched that one myself." Rin said. "But OK."
"Fine by me. I haven't got to cut loose for a while anyway." Rumia replied.
"Do you even know what you are challengeing? We are Lunarians, we are above you lowly Earth-dwellers, you don't stand a chance. You two, take down the cat and, whatever that one is. I'll deal with the loli."
"Loli?!" Satori said, sounding angry. "That's rich coming from fake-ears!"
Rumia and Rin backed away slowly from the two, as did the two other rabbits, just before a massive barrage of danmaku began to fly from Satori. Satori seemed to be in a form of trance, however, Rumia recognized the attack, it was Toyosatomimi's Honor "Ranks of Twelve Levels", most likely copied from looking in Rumia's mind, unless one of the others there had seem Toyosatomimi fight.
The three rabbits started moving with great agility, fireing accurate, but smal, blasts of energy, shaped akin to bullets, from their fingers, by pointing to their target. The two rabbits not fighting Satori were far more aggressive, and the bullets were very fast. Fast enough and accurate enough that Satori was having issues evading, even with her mind-reading.
"Cat's Walk!" Rin said, suddenly turning back into a cat, and leaping towards the rabbit she was fighting, sending out rings of danmaku behind her, erupting from what looked like footprints.
"Dark Sign: Primal Fears" Rumia said, as everything around her and her foe turned darker, before she unleashed spheres of dark energy, which homed in, and aimed bullets at the rabbit she was fighting. The inspiration for this spell was a combination of Mystia's and Seiga's, and the rabbit was having some trouble evading the dark energy in the low light.
"These rules of this place are so annoying... Lunar Corps; Rapid Fire!" the lead rabbit said, as all three rabbits began a spellcard in unison, before they started unleashing massive barrages of their previous, fast, accurate shots. In spirals and rings, wildly. The lead rabbit fighting Satori added in aimed shots too.
"Whoa!" Rumia gasped, narrowly evadeing a barrage of randomly shot bullets. Rin was having the easiest time, her small body and natural agility helping her evade, while Satori was forced to cancel her imitation to go defensive.
"For some rabbits who only just got to Gensokyo, you're not half bad at danmaku." Rumia said. She knew a little about the Lunarians, enough to know they didn't live in Gensokyo.
"We're Lunarians. We're better than you impure beings at everything." the rabbit fighting Rumia said, before Rumia fired a laser, which hit her and sent her into a wall.
"Except running your mouth and dodging at the same time." Rumia retorted.
"Well Known Imitation: Storm on Mount Ooe" Satori declared, as a massive barrage of bubble-danmaku began to fly from the side, as if carried by a gale, and slammed into the lead rabbit, as Rin for into close range and set off some more of her Cat's Walk, defeating the third rabbit.
"... Who's was that?" Rumia asked.
"One of Yuugi's spellcards. I've seen it enough times to imitate it even without copying it directly from her mind." Satori said. "I copied a spellcard from your mind too. You see, I have very few of my own, I just copy danmaku in other people's hearts and minds." Satori said.
"But at the same time... you can basically have an infinite amount of possible spellcards, those imitations looked like the real thing." Rumia said, as various animals came and tied up the rabbits.
"I've very good at imitation." Satori said. "Anyway, the rabbits said they were looking for a 'Princess'. They mentioned they were looking in all the 'high class' buildings in Gensokyo, so I would not be surprised if other places of similar status to this palace were visited as well."
Rumia thought for a few moments, before her face fell.
"The Scarlet Mansion! I'd better go back above ground! Tell Okku I said hi!" Rumia said.
Daiyousei looked on in fear, along with Kaokuma, as Sakuya was fighting five of the strange rabbits at once, and Patchouli was fighting three. The rabbits kept going on about the moon, and a princess, and despite being clearly weaker individually than the magician and the maid, they were overpowering the two with sheer numbers.
Sakuya in particular was fighting with incredible zeal, aiming for vitals constantly. She wasn't just fighting to defend herself, she was trying to kill the attackers.
Both Koakuma and Daiyousei knew this fight was way beyond them, but regardless, Daiyousei was using a small amount of air element magic to keep Patchouli from struggling with her illness as much, and running out of breath. It was about as much as she could do in this situation.
Then, Sakuya looked at the door to the rest of the mansion, and clicked her fingers. The door burst open, and a scarlet flash dove through, and slammed all of the rabbits away, darting from one to the other.
Remilia Scarlet had entered the fray, glowing as her own powers flowed from her.
She licked her lips. "Lunarians. I owe you for that time. Do not think you'll escape my domain alive."
"Mistress, I would advise against killing them." Patchouli said. "They bear the markings of a recon squad. If they go missing, it will only prompt a much larger rescue squad, even weaklings like them in sheer numbers are a threat, eight were strong enough to begin overwhelming myself and Sakuya."
"It's that vampire..." one of the rabbits said. "The one who invaded the moon and fought against the Sisters."
"Should we retreat then?" another asked.
"We can't, the maid can seal the room."
Remilia's eyes glinted.
"It may not be wise to kill you, but if you think I'll just let you leave without experiencing the wrath of the Scarlet Devil... then you're sorely mistaken. Sakuya, Patchouli... leave this to me."
"Eight against one? That's hardly fair odds. You'd need a hundred of these small fry as warm up alone." Sakuya said.
Remilia took a pose for battle, before she smirked.
"You're looking for Houraisan, aren't you?"
"You will call her the Princess!" another rabbit said.
"Calling her that... you don't even know, do you?" Remilia retorted. "She's an exile, she's not a Princess. I don't know what lies have been fed to you by those two, but you've been tricked, and have fallen into what you of the moon, consider a place worse than Hell."
The rabbits responded with a massive combined barrage of Danamaku, but Remilia just released a massive cross-shaped aura of scarlet energy, erasing it all, and burning the rabbits with it.
"Beings like you who think you are so high and mighty, but are burnt by me releaseing a little of my vamperic powers. At least if you're going to act strong, be strong!" Remilia said, before she dashed at the rabbits, knocking each of them out with one blow.
Sakuya looked at Remilia.
"How did you know about their objective?"
"Yakumo." Remilia said. "She warned me there was activity on the moon. If they raided the mansion looking for Houraisan, then they most likly raided other establishents as well."
"I only hope no-one went overboard and killed one. That would cause a massive issue, and potential war." Patchouli said, before she entered a coughing fit, Koakuma grabbing her.
"You over-exerted yourself Patchouli-sama." the devil said.
Sunflowers. They were the main plant that could be seen, but there were countless more under the tall flowers. They were all beautiful, surrounding the Mansion.
Scarlet liquid dripped from them. A woman smiled.
"They may be from the moon, but their corpses will make great fertilizer for the flowers~" Yuuka said, licking the blood of the Lunarian rabbits from her fingers. "Usually I'd say what is from the Earth returns to it, but in this case, that would just be rude."
It had not taken her long. For some reason, ten rabbits wandered into her garden. She cared not for why. Yuuka watched them, or, more accurately, sensed them, with her flowers. Then, one flower screamed. A horrible pain, and then, nothing.
A rabbit had picked one of the smaller flowers.
That signaled the last two seconds of her life, as Yuuka rushed to the location, and beheaded her instantly.
Everyone in Gensokyo knew better, but they were not of Gensokyo.
Yuuka fed the flowers with the bodies of ten Lunarian rabbits.
Ten rabbits that would not return to the moon, and therefor set off alarms.
The impure ones were resisting the search for Houraisan. Therefor, they must have kidnapped her.
The only ones who knew otherwise about Houraisan wanted it that way. They wanted an excuse.
Author Notes:
When Yuuka is playing, you will survive. It will be Hell, but you will live.
When Yuuka is angry, you won't even have time to scream.