Chapter 10: One Second of Planning Part 2

Sakuya Izayoi P.O.V

After an extensive planning session that ends in the span of 1 second, Marisa, Keine, and I finally finish constructing a concrete plan that might allow us to win against the Anomaly who is, in the very sense of a word, invincible. I cannot foresee the future so I don't know if this plan will work but I will put my all into it so it will succeed. Perhaps the only one who can foresee the future regarding whether or not this plan will succeed is my mistress.

May my mistress look after me…

In any case, I need to prepare for the upcoming plan too. The plan is not complicated.

First, Marisa, Keine, and I will go back to the location where we were previously before the time acceleration so that the Anomaly wouldn't suspect a thing. Strike when the least suspected is the main component of this plan. For that reason, I will have to continue to throw my knives like before as if nothing changes. The more I do such, the more he thinks that I couldn't do anything to him, and the more he thinks that, when I truly strike, he would be unprepared and will get caught off guard by anything unexpected that I do. The second part of the plan starts when the Anomaly gets distracted. When he gets distracted I will—.

"Are ya ready, Sakuya? You are spacing out again-ze." The voice that cut me from my train of thought is Marisa who is preparing and adjusting her equipment so that everything will go as planned. It seems, my time spent reviewing the plan got cut short and the time to execute the plan is starting. It's a pity, but since I already memorize my part of the plan, it's not like I need to spend any more time looking over them anyway.

As everyone got into their location, I stopped the acceleration of time, causing everything that was previously frozen in my perception to start to move again. As things start to move like normal, the mouth of the Anomaly that had been frozen previously also suddenly becomes noisy again…

"— as you should have realized by now, you are ruining my day. Seriously, if you hadn't realized that fact, you are either a selfish individual who only cares about yourself or an egotistical person who looks down on others, including mine, to consolidate your own importance. Both possibilities are equally disgusting. To have such a mindset just shows how disgusting you are. Selfishly ignore others for your own need and have the gall to look down on others to emphasize your importance; both are equally violating people's rights, and in turn, violating mine! My most precious temple [body] and my innermost sanctuary [mind] are both things that shouldn't be violated by anyone, but but but both were being violated by you fucker! Does no one teach you that you should treat others mental and physical wellbeing with care, respect, and extreme mindfulness!? Now there is also the matter of how you treat me—"

… His mouth never shut up it seemed. But no matter, I grab the knives from under my skirt and throw them at Regulus who is still talking about more nonsense that I don't have the mind to listen to. As the knives hit Regulus, it ceases to exist by its tip and falls to the ground.

Regulus looks at me with annoyance for a second and says, "Now, why did you attack me again? How many times have you attacked me? How many times have I told you to not attack me? Are you by chance ignoring me? My words? Don't you realize that that is a violation of my right to speak? I believe everyone has the right to be listened to. Why don't you—" As he goes on to rant about my previous action, I simply ignored him like many times before as he speaks.

Now this is troublesome. The fact that the knives cease to be by its tip when it hits the Anomaly suggests that he is currently in the state of being 'immovable'. In this state, the Anomaly just cannot be moved from his location no matter how much outside forces were applied. With him being in this state, we wouldn't be able to get Regulus to space so I need to get him out of this state somehow.

Perhaps, provoking him might work?

He has quite a big head on his shoulder so insulting his character might effectively urge him to come after me physically perhaps? Which in turn, would drive him to remove his immovable state?

Let's test that, shall we?

And so I directly cut Regulus off and went straight for a personal attack, "Talking, is that all you can do? I am honestly astonished at how a person can be this shallow," I shake my head dramatically and continue, "Undoubtedly, the only thing going for you is that mouth of yours. After all, that seems to be the only thing you do. Since that is your only trait, you are shallow. You are so shallow in fact that I can describe you in one word, "Annoying". Sorry to say this but… That's right, you are the closest thing to a one-dimensional character. Truly, there is no one as lacking as you."

"…"

"Ah, may I ask why you stopped talking all of a sudden? From what I had seen of you so far, you should go on a tangent right about now, no? Now you are losing the only real thing that defines you. Are you trying to erase your existence, perhaps? If so, I congratulate you for succeedin—No wait, you succeeded a long time ago." With such words being spoken that even make Mairsa flinch from the harshness even though it isn't even being directed at her, Regulus began to shake, clenched his fist, and his face now began to be dyed in the color of red, indicating his anger.

It is more than effective, it seems…

"You you you YOU! You clearly insulted my character and my personality just now! You clearly are, there is no doubt about it! How dare you! How dare you, how dare you, how dare YOOUUU!? How am I shallow?! Just what part of me is shallow, huh!? You think my character is shallow?! That is a lie and you know it! I am my own person with a century's worth of experience! So I am no doubt not lacking! What's "one-dimensional" supposed to mean anyway? Why does it sound so mocking?! Huh? Is that laughter I heard? You blond over there, why are you laughing? Stop mocking me you shit!" As he speaks, he is progressively getting angrier. As his anger got near its peak, Regulus began to stomp the ground a couple of times and then heavily stomped his foot toward me, walking toward me, seemingly very pissed and showing a clear intention of murdering me.

It is then when Regulus is being blinded by his anger, I make a move. I jumped backward and threw my knives. This time, I did not throw my knives at the Anomaly's annoying face, this time, I aimed my knives at the ground beneath his very foot while accelerating it fast enough to break a couple of sound barriers. (A/N: Mach 2)

"!"

When the knife reached the ground by its blunt end at a speed faster than the speed of sound, creating a not-so-small crater right underneath Regulus' foot, Regulus' foothold disappeared, causing him to stumble into the crater. As he screams, I accelerate my thought time to make his fall slow down to the point where he doesn't seem to move in my perception.

I am now in the third phase of the plan to launch the Anomaly to outer space.

As my perceptions fasten and the world slows down, I also accelerate both Marisa and Keine's thoughts and body time to the extreme. After adapting to the disorientation that follows, they both begin to fly into the crater I previously made — 30 meters in depth and 4 meters in width. Even though clouds of dust still linger in the air, they squeeze themselves into the small crater anyway and positioned themselves right underneath Regulus' falling body that had been slowed to a crawl.

With them being in the right position, they utter the words that give power,

"Magicannon "Final Master Spark"!"

"Emperor of the Land of the Rising Sun."

A power that is equivalent to three master sparks was being unleashed from Marisa's mini-Hakkero. Immediately after it is unleashed, the gigantic laser freezes, or, it seems to be freezing but in fact, it moves very slowly to the point where it stands still even though it is light in property.

On the Keine side, the light that is supposed to adequately imitate the light of the rising sun is not what it unleashes. The light that is supposed to release to all directions creating the picture of the rising sun from afar is now being controlled, and squeezed into one direction, in one long burst instead, without any fanfare. After the concentrated light of something that embodied the rising sun had been released, just like the Final Master Spark that Marisa previously unleashed, it slowed down to the point where it might as well be frozen.

With this being set up right beneath Regulus, after I stop the acceleration of the body and thought, the Anomaly will no doubt get launched upward to beyond the sky, that, I'm sure of. This plan, as described by Keine, imitates "Apollo 11" and how they got to the moon. With all the energy being put into the propellant, there might even be excess energy, which may launch the Anomaly further, but that is fine too, it's better to be safe than sorry.

With preparation being done, I stop the acceleration of time. With that, a loud explosion ensues, launching Regulus beyond the sky even before he can even utter a word or scream.

It is not even 5 seconds later that I am unable to see the Anomaly from where I'm standing.

He is truly gone for good from this world.

— — — — — — — — — — —

Regulus Corneas P.O.V

What is this!? Why is this? Where am I even?!

In one moment I am under the blue sky, in the next, a bright light envelops mine satisfied self, bringing me to a place devoid of light. In this place of black, I can see little dots of bright light all over.

For the first time in a century, I experienced being out of this world for real. And for the second time after forever, I got thrown to the sky, but this time, I got thrown above it.

Being above all existence, I should be happy. But… Fuuccckkkk I'm still flying! Also, flying? What is this sense of familiarity? … Oh fuck, those fucker really now begin to scarily remind me of that red hair knight who did the same thing to me! Regardless! Those fucker, even if they remind me of that unhonorable knight, I will kill them! For doing this to me meeee they must die! I don't care who they remind me of. I don't care if they are Gods. They violate my rights so they deserve to die! I just can't forgive them! To do this to me. To try to kill me. To make me relive those memories of that red hair bastard. How dare they. I have enough! I really have enough! I want to make them see the hopelessness of their actions more, but no more! What do they think life is to be so easily thrown around like toys? Especially mine? Don't mess with me! Don't mess with me! Don't mess with meeeee! Also, just who said that I want to experience being out here, huh? To not even ask if I wanted this or not, those fucker violate my right of "being free from what I do not want". In the first place, I 'want' nothing! For that reason, I need to get back! I need to get back to those fucker who violate my rights! Isn't it common sense that I, the victim, want justice to be served to those who harm my well-being? And so I need to get back to those fucker!

With that being my rights, I stop the acceleration of my body with my "Authority" by freezing the time of the air around me. (A/N: Yes, Gensokyo space has oxygen.)

Anything that falls into my "Authority", I can manipulate them. And so with the air around me going under my "Authority" control, I manipulate them. Making them solid. With the winds solidified, I repel my body backward to the land I previously got forced out of, all while defying all laws of physics.

Seemingly without acceleration, I reach a maximum velocity in an instant. Not being restricted by the law of momentum, in a laid-back position, I fall down to, hopefully, the location I was previously at.

I don't know if I will get back to the same location I was at before. But I have my confidence that I will get back without going off course since I did not change my body position or even tilt my body one bit, so retracing the path I took before by repelling myself backward would definitely make me be where those fuckers are.

As the sky of black shifted into the color of blue, eventually, I passed through the clouds.

And since I had no way of knowing how close I was to the ground, I was too late to make the ground solid enough for me to land properly. It is already hard enough to use my "Authority" on things other than myself as much as I hate to admit, and so it is practically impossible for me, unless I really tried, to imbue my "Authority" onto things that I wasn't able to react to. The result of me not freezing the ground is me falling through the ground…

Falling through the ground?

Falling?

Ground?

My eyes dilated.

A memory intrudes my very thoughts.

Things started to become unfocused.

A scene played out in my mind. Is that me? It is a scene where a pitiful me falls through the ground and crumbles away at the very bottom of the hole I created in the end.

Truly, it's like I'm reliving that very moment; so much so that I find it hard to even concentrate. I cannot focus on anything, even my thoughts. My thoughts is seemingly focused elsewhere and that is the memory of the past that I rather forget. The mere sight of the dirt around me and the sensation of falling were enough to be associated with the sensation I felt that time.

With that sensation, there also comes the want of getting out of this situation. No, saying that I 'want' that just seems wrong, it is more like my 'right' to do such things.

Since it is within my right to not stay in a situation that makes me feel uncomfortable like this, I plan to do the only natural thing here and that is stopping myself from falling further so that I can jump back up to escape this situation.

But before I could do so, another memory intruded my thoughts.

*splat*

Body crumbles. Bone fractured. Lungs ruptured. Heart nearly burst after hitting the ribs. The brain violently hit the skull and back. Tooth came out. Face being smashed to the point of unrecognition. Eyes nearly burst upon impact. Stomach tore. Intestine bleeds and ruptures. Waste came out. Blood vessels burst. Organ failure. Liver… Spleen… Kidneys…..

My mind went blank.

What was that? What was that, what was that, what was that?!

The sensation of organs being crushed, body being destroyed, and the pain of slowly dying all while trying desperately to stay alive.

It is at this point that I realized, that is the memory of how I died.

It is the memory of how I stopped myself from falling further to not die but die in the end because of it. The sensation I felt that time is still vividly clear in my memory even now. For me, who hadn't experienced pain once for over a century and just seemingly experienced it for the first time after a long time, of course, I wouldn't forget about them. The pain of that time, that became ever more prominent due the amount of time I hadn't felt pain before, will be forever engraved into me as the worst thing that I ever feel. In fact, those sensations and pain, even if it's just imaginary, surface to the very of my consciousness at this very moment even though I wasn't sustaining any bodily injury.

With those thoughts came, it makes me wonder… What will happen to me if I stop my fall again now? Will the same thing happen to me?

Rationally, I believe that nothing will happen. But there is still that uncertainty. If it happened to me once, why do I believe that it wouldn't happen to me again? That uncertainty gave way to a feeling that is clawing away at my heart.

Is this fear I'm feeling?

No, that's not it. There is no way that that is true.

Then, is this the feeling of me being… scared?

No, a perfect existence such as mine can't stoop that low.

Is this the feeling of being indignant to those who put me in that situation and also violate my right to my physical and emotional well-being?

Yes, that must be it. Those rights violators really had done it this time to make me feel an emotion that I had never felt before. This feeling that is gripping at my heart right now must be the feeling that is beyond the mere feeling of anger. Yes it can't be anything else. That memory too. It might just appear to purely remind me of the fact that I need to cleanse all the violations that have been done against my person. That's right! There is nothing that can explain this unfamiliar feeling and that vivid imagery! Just what other explanation that can explain what I just experienced? For that reason, I need to stop my fall and go back!

I just need to do that.

That is not particularly out of 'need', it is more like 'just revenge'. Yes, but in any case, to be able to deliver my justice, I need to stop my fall.

It is as simple as that.

That is the only way to cleanse off my humiliation.

It is not hard either as it only needs some conscious thought.

But… why? Why can't I do it? What kind of stupidity is this?

Nothing will happen, I'm sure.

My body wouldn't become a piece of meat that lost its human form like last time, I'm sure.

I wouldn't die like last time, I'm sure.

But what is this?

I just can't do it.

A perfect existence such as myself can do anything yet, I couldn't help but be hesitant.

What stops me from doing that, really?

It definitely is not because of me. Is this the work of an outside force?

Is it fate for me to die again in the hole I create?

Am I going to go through to the other side?

Will I die this time? I don't want to die again. No, it isn't that I don't want to die. It is my right to live.

To live, I just need to stop my fall and go back up before I reach the other side of the world. There must be an end somewhere so I need to do it before then.

But… Why can't I do it?

Why wouldn't I do it?

What stops me?

Nothing is stopping me.

So why? Why can't I do it?

There is something stopping me.

Just what is it?

It was not until much later that I looked back at this and realized…

The only thing that stops me is myself.

But it is too late now as I reach the other side.

— — — — — — — — — — —

A/N: I don't know if I'm doing good at portraying Regulus PTSD or not. Fear is irrational so even if it is just fine for Regulus to simply stop himself from falling and go back up, he is too afraid to do so… and that is where it gets tricky, Regulus is just too prideful to even realize that he feels fear. Anyway, Regulus got into the underworld so expect a new cast of characters in the next chapter.

I also have a question. What happens when Satori, who has the ability to read minds, meets Regulus? Can she read his mind? Reading mind can be described as looking at what is there. It isn't like his "ability" prevents others from looking at his face or anything, so I wonder if it will prevent mind reading. Even if Regulus' brain was frozen, he is still capable of thought. Regulus can be described to be there but not there at the same time, so maybe Satori can read his mind? Maybe this is a stupid question but I ask it anyway for confirmation.