Stage 1 – Redd, the Leader of Team Grimm
Meanwhile, the three girls had been running through an open field. All of a sudden, Reimu stopped running and started to shiver. She broke out into a cold sweat as her skin went pale. Then she held her stomach as if afflicted by a sudden ache. Marisa and Youmu stopped running and turned back to their friend in concern.
"Re-Reimu?! What's wrong?!" Youmu gasped as she ran over to check on her friend, "I've never seen you act this way before…"
Marisa had an terrified, uneasy expression on her face as her lip quivered. "I have! It means she's here! But why? There ain't any youkai around!"
"…Huh? 'She?' I don't get it…" Youmu glanced at Reimu.
"A horrible, twisted aura that makes her less than human…" Reimu explained as she clutched her stomach from the pain, "Yes… Redd Ryder is definitely somewhere close by."
"And who in all of the afterlives is that?!" Youmu yelped as she crouched behind her friends.
"Only one of the biggest psychopaths Gensokyo has to offer!" Reimu went on, gritting her teeth.
"Redd is a murderer, Youmu, plain and simple. She's killed countless youkai. What makes her different from a monster-hunter like Kokuto is that she does not discriminate with the youkai she kills. She goes after not just the youkai who are active threats to humans but also youkai who are neutral or even friendly towards humans! I've lost count of how many friends I've had to save from that maniac, and that's not even getting into the friends she's taken from us! As you might expect, we hate each other but she seems to hate me more, with her constantly calling us traitors for some reason."
"Me too, ze!" Marisa agreed, "The worst part about it all is how hypocritical she is! For all her talk about how youkai are horrible monsters that deserve to die, she is far more of a monster than any of their kind. Seriously, she's killed so damn many supernatural beings I'm pretty sure she's being slowly cursed with their form as punishment."
At that moment, a crossbow bolt fell from the sky and plunged into the ground a couple of inches in front of Marisa. She shrieked and leapt back as she and the other two girls drew their weapons. As soon as they readied themselves, countless crossbow bolts fell from the sky at random but Youmu deflected them all with her swordplay. After that, a rift opened up and the little girl in question hopped out of it.
Redd wore a bright red and white gothic Lolita dress with a white front and a hot pink back above a pair of murky red jeans and small cherry red slippers with white knee socks. Above this she wore a waist-length blood red hooded shawl tied around the neck with a big red bow with a black diamond shaped like a wolf's head with narrowed eyes made of emeralds. Her moderate cerise hair was in a curly mullet neck-length. Her eyes are silver and very intense. She carried in one hand a wicker basket covered with a red cloth, and Reimu and Marisa knew this seemingly innocuous item was actually her most dangerous weapon of all. This was indeed Redd Ryder.
She used her ability to jump twice to land safely on the ground and glared at them all hatefully. The three girls glared right back.
"You've got the eyes of a killer as always, I see… REDD!" Reimu tensed, ready for battle, "What do you want with us?! Get out of our way, Redd, we're in a hurry! Eburinferuton took something important from us, and we have to get it back before it's too late! All of us are human, well mostly human in Youmu's case, SO BACK OFF!"
"I know. It's why I came here to stop you."
"What!? Why?!"
"Because someone paid all of Team Grimm to prevent you from getting in her way. Now, she unfortunately doesn't want me to kill you all, so I'll give you a chance to leave. I'm sure she'll give you your precious lamp back when she's done with it."
"We're not going anywhere except to get that lamp back, Redd!" Reimu insisted as she held up one of her spell cards, "How about this: We have a Spell Card Battle, and if you lose, you and your team have to leave us alone while we retrieve that lamp!"
Since she knew she couldn't kill them, Redd had no choice but to agree with a huff. "…Fine. But if I win, you have to give up your attempts to get in our way."
With that, her grin turned even more wicked as she pulled out a hunting knife from her basket that she held in her left hand, and brought out a loaded crossbow from her basket in her right.
Redd began to snicker, "Heh heh heh… Beating you down will be a joy!"
The duo of girls got themselves ready to fight. "We're going to be the only ones doing the beating, Redd!" Reimu shouted, "This is for all of the friends you've taken from us! Let's go, Marisa!"
"Right!"
"My, what big teeth you have!" Redd cackled as her grin grew wider, "I can't wait to punch them down your throat!"
To kick things off, Redd immediately reached into her basket and pulled out her trusty crossbow- Her most used weapon when it came to her hunts. She immediately started firing a lengthy series of crossbow bolts at Reimu. She easily avoided the bolts with a series of dodge rolls, and quickly retaliated by firing off dozens of red and blue magical bullets in Redd's direction. The huntress was barely able to dodge and weave her way through the bullet hell, and was ultimately caught off-guard as a danmaku struck her from the side and exploded, causing her to take a tumble, followed by at least a dozen more exploding bullets firing off and detonating upon her.
"Grrgh! You little… Let's see how you handle this, traitor!"
Redd hissed as she activated her first Spell Card, Red Hood "The Better to See You With", which opened several paw-shaped rifts around Reimu and released that she had to dodge, followed by a series of hatchets.
"Stop calling me that!" Reimu shouted back as she floated through and elegantly dodged each hatchet. This battle was going a lot easier than it should be. Redd rarely if ever lost her so-called "hunts." What was going on?! It was almost as if she was a novice at this kind of thing! But as she was dodging, Redd had jumped up above her, and lifted up her skirt slightly. A cascade of small but powerful bombs fell towards Reimu's head.
Reimu gasped and leapt back once she saw the bombs and allowed Marisa to take over.
"Marisa!"
"Got it!" Marisa called out and, while riding on her broomstick, punched Redd hard enough to knock her backwards. In a flash, she activated one of her spell cards which cast a series of rainbow-colored, star-shaped bullets that flew out from all sides and swarmed around Redd.
"Grrgh! You'll pay for tha-!" By the time Redd recovered, it was too late. The huntress was already overwhelmed and reeling from the unexpectedly powerful punch that Marisa had landed on her. She tried her best to dodge, and even block some of the explosive bullets, but it wasn't enough. There was no room for her to avoid these as they exploded around her and knocked her even further backwards to the other side of the dirt path.
"Ready ta give up?!"
"Not even close!"
She then activated her next Spell Card, Red Hood "The Better to Hear You With", and took off the white cloth covering her basket. An explosion of darkness came out of the basket, forming into a large pack of savage wolves of darkness that immediately charged on Marisa's position. Redd folded her arms and grinned wickedly, confident that the wolves would devour her.
But Redd had underestimated the witch.
With a quick flick of her broom, she'd fire off more magical bullets that fanned out and swarmed, countering each wolf and turning them to dust in a fiery blaze from each explosion. Even when one tried to sneak up on her from behind, she quickly turned around and punched it hard enough to disintegrate it!
Furious Redd pulled out two long serrated saws and tried to engage Marisa directly, but she still didn't stand a chance. The huntress got in close and swung both saws at Marisa's neck, but Marisa just stopped her by grabbing Redd's wrist with one hand, and delivering a vicious uppercut to Redd's chin with the other. Marisa too was shocked at how easy that was. Usually Redd was at her best at close range. It was almost like she was being forced to hold back! This was beyond strange. Why wasn't she going all out?! Sure she was told not to kill them, but even so...
"ARGH! THAT'S IT! LET'S SEE HOW YOU HANDLE THIS!"
Screamed Redd as she reached behind her and pulled out a gigantic repeating crossbow. It honestly looked more like a ballista than a simple crossbow. She pointed it at them both, pulled the trigger and it began to practically rain giant arrows. But both girls just dodged them all and countered with some of their stronger Spell Cards. Every bullet hit its mark knocking her away and making her giant crossbow fall from her hands and was smashed to pieces upon hitting the ground.
Redd yelled some very nasty words that the average nine-year-old girl had no business knowing, let alone saying as she flew backwards and landed on her back. Much to the two girl's shock and delight, Redd was now tired and scuffed up from the battle, panting heavily as she stood back up.
She decided to just finish them off with her Last Word Spell Card, Red Hood "The Better to Eat You With", the one that killed anyone who was hit by it. Or at least it normally did. Due to the rules of the Spell Card System, they wouldn't actually die, but the resulting beatdown that would ensue would very likely make them wish they were dead.
"Alright…you asked for it…"
Redd took out another hunting knife and suddenly stabbed her basket, causing it to break apart and transform into a giant rift in space that started to suck them both in! The blonde witch cried out as she stood her ground with her arm shielding her face.
"Gah! Ze, help me out!"
Reimu did just that as she too did her best to not get sucked in, and activated her Spell Cards once more. When she got within range, she fired off as many danmaku as she could into the portal, and overloaded it. Once she decided it was full, she snapped her fingers and caused an explosion so powerful that it overpowered Redd's spell and canceled it out.
The explosion had more than enough force to send Redd flying into the air before landing face-first in the dirt, her basket reforming by her side. She was now barely able to move through the pain. It was obvious to everyone that she had lost the Battle. All in all, the entire fight was far easier then someone with her well-deserved reputation should have been and both Reimu and Marisa just didn't get why. They should've had the fight of their lives, right?
"Urrgh…"
Reimu floated down to the ground and looked down at the defeated Redd in confusion, "That was disappointingly easy! Wait… It was too easy… But you weren't holding-! Wait a minute! Redd… Are-Are you bad at Spell Card Battles?"
Redd just turned away from them in shame and grumbled, " …No comment."
Marisa immediately burst out laughing while pointing at Redd, "BWAHAHAHAHA! I don't believe it! The great Redd Ryder, bane of youkai everywhere, is bad at the one thing most youkai are good at!"
"So that's why you always run away from the Spell Card Battles you lose!" Reimu went on with a smirk on her face, "That's why you always try to avoid fights with us! That's why you try to avoid fighting the older, stronger warriors of Gensokyo… You're ashamed of this glaring weakness of yours, and you don't want us 'traitors' to find out!" she added with air quotes.
Redd snarled and started kicking her legs while slamming her fists on the ground like the child she was.
"Shut up… Shut up shut up shut up! It's not my fault those stupid things aren't lethal! I just never thought I'd have to deal with these kinds of things, that's all!"
"We don't care about that, Redd!" Youmu pleaded with her hands together, "Just stand down and let us pass already!"
Redd rested her elbow on the ground with her chin in her palm as if she was lost in thought for a moment, "Hmmm… Yeah, about that… HA!"
Taking them all by surprise, Redd leapt into the air, pointed at them and tossed a hunting knife at them. However, the knife missed them by a mile, instead landing in between the trio of girls. Reimu cocked her head in confusion, as she knew from experience that Redd's aim should be better.
"What was that all about?!" Reimu questioned with her gohei at the ready, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you missed deliberately!"
"HA! Ya missed!"
Redd smirked, "No, I did not."
The knife sank into the ground, causing the ground around it to crack and break apart. When the knife was no longer visible, the ground turned into a swirling vortex that began to draw them in. The three girls try to flee in a panic, but the pull was far too strong for them and they are quickly swallowed up by it. The vortex closed up behind them.
"AGH!" Youmu cried out.
"W-WHAT'S HAPPENING, REIMU?!" Marisa yelped.
"HOLD ON!" Reimu tried to cast a spell to save them, but it was too late.
Redd sighed as she watched the vortex swallow them up. "Tch! I wish I wasn't so bad at this! Oh well. Shuno, Beauty, Goldie…It's all up to you now."