Hi everybody, sorry I didn't post this yesterday, but I was on airplanes for a lot of the day. Unfortunately I've almost hit my buffer, so if some of the next chapters might be in a different order than you're used to, but hopefully it's still enjoyable. Hope you enjoy!
P.S. Shakespearicles is an actual character in the TF2 universe, as mentioned in the WAR! Update, just in case you were wondering.
Following Sakuya's lead, he entered the large double doors to find himself in a seemingly endless room of towering bookshelves. No matter which direction he looked, he saw bookshelves traveling off into the horizon. There was even a second floor, which had just as many bookshelves as the ground floor. "Welcome," Sakuya said, "to the Voile library."
"Calling this a 'library' is a bit like calling the collected works of Shakespearicles 'a somewhat heavy book'," the Sniper said, still in awe.
"Shakespearicles?" Sakuya said, confused.
"How could you not have heard of Shakespearicles? The Battle-Hardened Bard?" The Sniper shook his head. "He's only the most famous poet/playwright/brawler in existence! He wrote As You Like Hit, All's Well That Ends Well Done, Antony and Cleopatra Versus Julius Caesar, and, what is widely considered his best work, The Taming of the Twenty-Foot, Fire-Breathing Shrew. He shaped modern literature as we know it! How could you not know about him?"
Sakuya was silent for a moment, taken aback. Marisa, looking at Sakuya's expression of befuddlement, began to laugh. "Oh man, I've never seen you so off-put before Sakuya. It really suits you." The next instant, Marisa was nursing her forehead, and Sakuya was back to looking calm and collected, putting a knife away. "Aaaagh, no fair Sakuya. Even if you only hit me with the handle, that hurts, ya know!"
"I did nothing of the sort," Sakuya said, looking away. "Now let's continue. Right this way," she said, walking between two of the many, many bookcases.
The Sniper walked after her, Marisa running up behind. "Hey, would you happen to have a copy of one of those books?"
"Hmm? Oh you mean one of Shakespearicles'," the Sniper said, realization dawning.
"Yeah, they sounded fun."
"Well, I always carry a copy of Richard the Eagle-Eyed on me, since it taught me my sniping techniques," he said, reaching for his shirt pocket and taking out a small paperback book. He held it out to her, but before she could grab it, he pulled it back out of her reach. "BUT, I'm only letting you borrow it. And not your kind of borrowing, my kind of borrowing. So you will give this back to me when we're done with this truth-testing or whatever. Not a second later!" He reached out his free hand. "Do we have a deal?"
"What, don't trust me?" Marisa said, attempting to look innocent.
"No," the Sniper said bluntly.
"Awww, you're no fun," she said. She took the Sniper's hand and shook it. "But I guess we've got a deal."
"Great," the Sniper said. "I'll hold you to that." He held the book out to her and she took it.
"I would appreciate it," Sakuya said, appearing behind them, "If you followed me as quickly as you could." She held up a knife and smiled. "It is far too easy to get lost in here, as you might expect."
"R-right," the Sniper said.
"My fault, Sakuya," Marisa said, "I was just borrowing something from him."
"Then you have my sympathies," Sakuya said, nodding at the Sniper. "Now if you would be so kind as to follow me, please."
"Yeah, sorry." The Sniper began walking after her, while Marisa followed behind him. They walked mostly in silence, though every now and then Marisa, the least used to being silent, would point out something to the Sniper, like spaces in the bookshelves where tomes she'd borrowed had been, or asking questions about Shakespearicles or the outside world in general. The Sniper answered as best he could, but still remained focused on following Sakuya, and trying to work out a plan in case things went south and this "lie detector" didn't believe him for some reason. Unfortunately, the only plan he could come up with was perhaps to throw himself on their mercy, so hopefully the lie detector was trustworthy. Just in case, he kept track of the path they were taking through the bookshelves. He doubted he'd be able to get far before Sakuya caught up to him, but if she was somehow incapacitated, it'd be nice to know which way to flee. Eventually, after walking between about twenty bookshelves, they arrived at an open circular space, a round wooden table in the center. There, they saw a rather frail-looking woman resting on a bench. She had long, purple hair and seemed to be dressed in a long, pajama-looking robe with what looked like a pajama cap on her head. Above her, muttering something, was another woman with long red hair, through which two small wings poked out, dressed in a black dress with white sleeves. The most shocking thing about her was that she had two large wings coming out of her back and was hovering. Sniper sighed internally. He could feel his skepticism and rationality straining to the breaking point. When the resting lady noticed the people approaching, she waved the hovering one off and sat up.
"May I introduce," Sakuya said, turning to face the Sniper, "Lady Patchouli," the woman in pajamas waved a hand, "and her servant, Koakuma," the hovering woman nodded, looking worried.
"Pleased to meet you," the Sniper said, tipping his hat.
"Mmm," Patchouli said, nodding.
"Nice to meet you," Koakuma said, bowing.
"I see Marisa's still here," Patchouli said, frowning.
The witch smiled and waved. "Ha, you can't get rid of me that easily, Patchouli! Besides, this seems way more interesting than whatever else I'd be doing." She slapped the Sniper on the back, causing his glasses to slip down his nose while he grimaced in pain. "It's not every day you meet a real, live, outsider, after all!"
Patchouli raised an eyebrow. "Outsider, eh? No, I suppose it isn't." She sighed. "I guess I can't really stop you from loitering around here, but don't interfere with the truth magic, alright?"
"Wait, magic?" the Sniper asked. "You're going to use magic as a lie detector?"
"Yes, I am," Patchouli said. "Is there a problem?"
"Well, I," the Sniper began, before looking off to the side. "It's not going to turn my head into a giant bomb and make me explode is it? Or steal my eye and make it into a giant monster or anything, right?" Patchouli, Koakuma, Marisa, and Sakuya all looked at him with expressions of curiosity and incredulity. "It's a long story," he said, scratching the back of his head. "But the gist of it is that the team and magic don't have the best relationship."
After a short silence, Patchouli finally replied, "No. No it won't do anything like that." She gestured at a chalk outline of a circle. "All it will do is read your emotional and physical state to check for signs that you're lying. Nothing will explode, or turn into a monster, or harm any of us in any way."
"Promise?"
"Yes, I promise," Patchouli said, nodding. "To be honest," she said, suppressing a cough, "the type of magic you're describing is very rare. Transmogrification spells of that type are very few and far between, especially ones that powerful. I'd say your experience with magic is more of an outlier than the norm."
"I'd hope so," the Sniper said. He shuddered. "I'd hate for spells like that to be commonplace."
"Man, I want to learn some spells like that," Marisa said, seemingly in awe.
Sakuya and Patchouli shuddered. "I think you're powerful enough as it is," Sakuya said. "If you could turn people into bombs or eyes into monsters too, I'd be worried about Gensokyou's safety." Patchouli nodded.
"Spoilsports," Marisa said, sullenly.
"In any case," Patchouli said, gesturing towards the chalk circle, "I need to finish setting up the spell. It'll probably take about fifteen minutes," she said, turning to Sakuya.
"Very well, Lady Patchouli," Sakuya said, bowing. "We shall wait here then," she said, turning to the Sniper.
He sighed and nodded. "Not like I have a choice." He sat down in a chair next to the round table and began to clean his sunglasses, which still had a bit of dirt on them from his crash-landing. Sakuya smiled and leaned against a bookshelf, though she did seem to flicker at times. Marisa, once becoming aware that no one was in much of a talking mood, began reading the book the Sniper had lent her. Koakuma and Patchouli continued setting up the magic circle, which seemed to mostly require drawing intricate symbols and lines with chalk, but every now and then Patchouli would say an incantation and certain sections of the circle would glow. Once, as she performed an incantation, a bit of chalk dust got in her lungs and sent her into a severe coughing fit. The Sniper half-stood up from his chair, but Sakuya was instantly by Pathcouli's side with a glass of water, as Koakuma stood next to her and gently patted her back. Marisa glanced up from her book with a concerned look, but upon seeing Sakuya and Koakuma already helping, let out a relieved sigh and continued to read her book. The Sniper briefly considered making a run for it while everyone was distracted, but it was too large a gamble. And besides, he wanted his book back. So he sat back down and waited for Patchouli's coughs to subside. Eventually, she stopped coughing and took a long drink from the glass Sakuya had offered her. "Thank you," she said, nodding to Sakuya, who curtsied, and to Koakuma, who smiled, the wings on her head flapping slightly.
"If you need to rest, Lady Patchouli, I could always resort to more traditional interrogation techniques," Sakuya said, holding a knife. The Sniper gave her a sharp look, then smiled and looked away.
Patchouli rolled her eyes. "I believe he's trying to say that if you wanted to do that you wouldn't have bothered asking me for help in the first place." The Sniper let out a satisfied grunt. "Besides, you know I have those attacks every now and then. It is not a big issue. And if I let a few coughs get in the way of performing spells, I'd hardly be able to call myself a magician, now would I?"
Sakuya frowned. "As you wish then. I simply do not wish your attacks to get worse due to this."
Patchouli sighed. "I can appreciate that, but I'm not so frail that everyone needs to worry about me every time I have an asthma attack." She turned back to the magic circle, studying it for any problems that might have been caused by her coughing fit. Frowning, she redrew a few lines that had been slightly smudged, and then got back to her incantation. Sakuya took the empty glass from Patchouli and, after a flicker in which the Sniper assumed she put the glass away, leaned against her bookshelf again.
After a few minutes had passed, Marisa, who had been clutching the book tightly, let out a loud scream of excitement, causing Sakuya to jump and hold out a knife, the Sniper to reach for his rifle, Koakuma to shoot up into the air and hover a good fifteen feet above everyone, and Patchouli to mess up the line she was drawing. "That was awesome," Marisa said. She turned to the Sniper, who scooted back his chair a bit, afraid of being caught between Patchouli or Sakuya, who both looked livid, and Marisa. "All those explosions! And this is only the first scene, isn't it?"
"Ah, so you finally reached that part then? Yeah, I did tell you he shaped modern literature. But did you notice the shot he made to make them?" the Sniper said, starting to get excited.
"I know! Threading right between that crowd and hitting that tiny bit of flint! That's crazy!"
"Isn't it? That man was a pioneer of modern sniping! He's my idol. I hope that one day, I can make a shot as good as that."
"That'd be awesome! Hey, Patch-" she began to say before Sakuya's hand clamped over her mouth.
"Need I remind you, Marisa," Patchouli was saying, a vein in her forehead throbbing, "that this is a library? Do you know what the main rule of a library is?"
"Mmmph," Marisa said, struggling to get out of Sakuya's grip.
"Exactly. You must be quiet in a library." She turned towards the Sniper. "The same goes for you," she said icily.
"Y-yes, ma'am," the Sniper said, as quietly as he could while still being heard.
"Great. Glad we all understand each other then," she said, waving a hand at Sakuya, who let go of Marisa. "Now I just need to fill in this one last line and it'll be ready," she said, over the sound of Marisa grumbling. She filled in the chalk line and the circle began to glow, creating an intricate web of colors and making the floor look like a stained glass window. "That should do it. Anyone in this circle will be monitored for signs of lying."
"Right," Sakuya said. "In you go then, sir."
The Sniper eyed the glowing circle warily. He didn't trust magic, especially since all his other experiences with it had ended in some sort of pain. But he wasn't sure there was another way out. Still, if he was going to be killed, he'd rather at least try to fight it. "Marisa," he said, softly. She perked up her ears. "Can I trust that they aren't lying? That this isn't some sort of trap?"
She tilted her head in thought. "While I wouldn't put it past them," she said, to which Sakuya narrowed her eyes and Patchouli let out a soft sigh, "I don't think they're lying about it now. And given what I can see of the circle," she said, leaning over the table to stare at the circle, "it doesn't seem like there's any symbols for traps or injury. I'd guess it does mostly what she says it does."
The Sniper supposed that was the closest he was going to get to an unbiased assurance of safety. "Right then," he said, walking up to just outside the circle. "I really hope you're right." He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped into the circle.