Finally, Chapter 4 is here! With Final Fantasy XIV's newest expansion having released, I got a bit...sidetracked to say the least. That being said though, things will be quite interesting when that comes up in the story...
John had awoken in his room in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, today was the day that he would get Patchy's books back...and hopefully be allowed to leave the SDM for a while. He didn't bother eating breakfast, since he was so on edge. His days at the mansion had been pretty nice all things considered, sure he wasn't allowed to actually leave, but he was allowed to explore it (Though he was forbidden from the basement for whatever reason) and he'd found that residents of the SDM were actually pretty nice to have around, from reading books with Patchy to some idle talks with Sakuya or Meiling, or even helping out Koakuma with the library from time to time, the days just flew by. Still he knew he had to help get those books back for Patchouli and so he grabbed his bag and went down to the mansion, waiting for Patchouli so that they could depart. It was about a half-hour before the purple clad mage had finally shown up.
"There you are, I didn't expect you to be so eager to get going." Patchouli said in a somewhat surprised voice
"Well of course, I mean, Marisa played me after all, I think some comeuppance is justified. But uh, how are we going to carry all the books out?" John asked
"You'll carry them out of course." Patchouli replied in a matter-of-fact tone
John's eyes went wide at that revelation "Ho-how?! I can't fit so many books in just my bag, it's way too small!"
"I see...then, hand me your bag for just a moment."
Doing as told, John handed it over, curious as to what kind of magic Patchouli was going to use on it. She merely tapped it with her finger, some runes appearing on the bag before fading away and handing it back to John as if nothing had happened.
Well, that wasn't as exciting as he'd expected.
"So...what did you do to it?" John asked, poking and prodding at his bag a bit
"I've enchanted it, so that now your bag is essentially limitless in space. All you have to do is put something inside, regardless of the size and you can pull it out later, simply think of the item you want to get and if it's in there, you'll grab it."
"Ooooh, so like the bag of holding from Dungeons and Dragons!"
Patchouli gave him a strange look "Dungeons and...what?"
"I'll tell you another time, but before we go, do you know where Sakuya is?"
"You called?"
John let out a less than manly sounding shriek as he spun around to see Sakuya standing behind him. He'd been here an entire week and he still couldn't get used to her popping up out of nowhere. Sakuya herself wore an amused grin.
"My, I didn't know a man could make a sound quite like that."
"S-shut up, I need your help for this plan as well." John said with a blush
"My help...? In what way?"
"I'm sure Marisa is probably going to assume I had a hand in this, so that's why if you see her, whether it be here or in the village and she tries pumping you for information, I want you to tell her that for the past week, I was sentenced to hard labor in the mansion."
"That's all...? I can do that easily enough...but Lady Patchouli, are you sure you wish to go along with John on this excursion? I could very easily go in your stead."
"Don't worry; I'll be fine, even with my condition." Patchouli stated taking out a small bottle that was filled with a pure white liquid. "All I have to do is drink this potion...and for a time, it'll completely stop whatever ails me. I'll be in top form for this encounter."
"My, you're taking this quite serious aren't you?" Sakuya chuckled
"Of course, it's about time that Marisa learned a good lesson or two. And this also serves as a valuable field experiment for this potion; I've never had a good chance to test it."
"Then let's get going, we're burning daylight." John said, changing over to his Scholar Job, over the days he'd tried using it with other jobs, but unfortunately, it seemed like it was only working with this particular one, he'd have to figure out exactly why it was like that later and focus on the matter at hand. Giving Sakuya a good bye, the two set off towards Marisa's home, The two exited the mansion and flew into the sky as Sakuya waved them off John being surprised at how Gensokyo looked from up high like this. It was pretty beautiful, just like with Marisa before, he could see several places from far off, there was another flower field a bit north from where the village should be and he saw a few other places he'd seen with Marisa as well. He was following behind Patchouli since he wasn't sure where she lived exactly, all he knew was that she lived in a magic forest that was easy for any normal person to get lost in, but he couldn't help but wonder what that would look like as well.
"Stick close John!" Patchouli called back to him "Follow the exact path I do once we get to the woods or you'll end up lost!"
John called back in affirmation and soon enough, once they were in the woods, they were forced to fly a bit lower than he'd have liked, but the trees and such were absolutely massive to the point they were blocking out the sky, so John and Patchouli didn't really have a choice in the matter. At some point, Patchouli landed on the ground and motioned for John to stop.
"This is it." Patchouli said solemnly
John looked over shoulder (pretty easy to do when he was a whole foot taller than her) to see Marisa's abode in the small clearing of the forest. It was...something to say the least. It was basically a small shack, definitely a one floor home by the size and despite how small it was it was leagues better than the rundown shack John and Kogasa shared.
"Alright...so just to review, I want you to create a distraction, if Marisa is there, keep her occupied while I sneak in and grab the books."
Patchouli nodded, as John switched over to the ninja job. Decked out in purple light armor, with two daggers at his waist, he was now the poster boy for what one would expect a ninja to look like(Much more than a certain ninja in a bright orange jumpsuit he thought). Patchouli of course was surprised yet again.
"Another form...and a ninja by the looks of it, you are certainly full of surprises."
John merely nodded in affirmation. "When the fighting gets well underway I'll move in, once I'm out I shall make a bird call, once you hear three caws that will be your signal to withdraw."
"Right...and knowing Marisa, she'll believe she's driven me off. That should give us enough time to withdraw."
"Correct, however, once we do, I must take the books with me to my place of work."
"Why...?" Patchouli asked confused
"Marisa will notice and surely follow you, but she will be unaware of me. Once you get back to the mansion, send Sakuya to retrieve the books."
Patchouli rubbed her chin for a minute before agreeing "Very well, better to have our bases covered. Now then, let's get this started." She murmured gulping down her potion after and flying towards the front of Marisa's home. She took a deep breath, mustering all of the pent up anger she had so that she could make this come across as threatening as possible.
"MARISA KIRASAME, YOU'VE STOLEN MY BOOKS FOR THE LAST TIME! COME OUT AND FACE RETRIBUTION FOR ALL THAT YOU'VE DONE!" she bellowed at the top of her lungs
John sat hunched behind some bushes watching, since for a few moments, there was no response whatsoever, until a bleary eyed Marisa came out of the house, squinting at the morning sun as she looked at Patchouli.
"What the...Patchy? Why are you here so early in the morning?" Marisa asked
"I've come for my books you thief!" Patchouli spat back
"Hey now, I didn't steal them, I'm just borrowing them! You'll get em back when I die!" Marisa said with a grin
"Sadly that day won't be coming any time soon I'm sure."
"Ouch...that's cold ze, but if it's a fight you want..." She muttered broomstick flying towards her hand "Then I'll be happy to give you one!"
With that Marisa hovered into the air, prepared to take on her sometimes friend, sometimes enemy. Patchouli wasted no time in activating her first spell card, seeking to get Marisa on the defensive sooner rather than later.
"Earth Sign, Rage Trilithon High Level!" She shouted as numerous yellow danmaku began splaying all over the area, Marisa, dodging them and firing back with her own danmaku until Patchy's attack faded
"Man, you're all fired up today ain'tcha Patchy? You're gonna have to do better than that though! Now it's my turn, so get ready! Love Storm, Starlight Typhoon!"
Numerous magic circles surrounded Patchouli as danmaku began to fire out of them, the entire time Marisa herself shooting off some stray shots, in the hopes that Patchouli would slip up and take a hit, but thanks to the potion she'd imbibed earlier, Patchouli was at the top of her game which didn't go unnoticed by Marisa.
"You're doing a lot better than usual today Patchy; I gotta say I'm impressed." Marisa chuckled
"You won't be laughing once I get my books back, now then, Water and Wood Sign, Water Elf!"
This time, large yellow orbs shot from Patchouli's card, they were slow, but this served as a distraction for the smaller faster blue orbs that came out after, Marisa had to duck and dodge, taking a few stray hits as she maneuvered around.
"I'll end this quick ze! Loving Heart, Double Spark!"
Two large lasers then shot out from Marisa's Hakkero as numerous star shaped danmaku flew out as well. The battle field was quickly becoming hectic and though John found all the danmaku flying around to be a truly beautiful sight, he had a job to do. Marisa was adequately distracted now and so now all he had to do was infiltrate her home, which given the size of it, wouldn't be difficult. One of the windows around the back had actually been open, so that was a simple of point of entry for John. He quietly snuck inside, and looking around at Marisa's home, only one thing came to mind:
"Man this place is a dump..." John muttered, as he looked at all the random things strewn around the house. It was messy and cramped, with all sorts of things all over the place. Potion bottles, small trinkets, books, and some pottery littered the room making it difficult to walk around. How the hell Marisa lived in all this was anyone's guess. Still, time was off the essence, and so John got to work on grabbing any books he could get his hand on, stuffing them into his bag. The explosions and booms that rang outside serving as a reminder that he had to be quick with his work before Marisa came back. It took him at least a half hour before he'd gotten a large assortment of the books rounded up. There were some left, but the fighting was dying down as fewer explosions and yells were heard, so he chose this time to exit, better to cut his losses and escape with what he could. Upon, exiting out the window and sneaking back into the bushes, he was able to get a glance at Patchouli, she was tired, her clothes ragged and torn, she was panting heavily and the same could be said for Marisa, though her clothing wasn't nearly as torn up, looks like she'd been the victor of this duel.
John didn't want to waste any more time and so he quickly made three quick caw noises to which Patchouli had thankfully heard.
"The signal..." she thought to herself, inwardly smirking to herself she turned to Marisa, keeping up the angry act. "Tch...You win this time Marisa...but I'll be back, just you wait!"
"Sure thing Patchy, I'll be sure to have some tea out and waiting for you." Marisa joked, a cocky grin on her face
Patchoui turned and left, flying away, which was John's cue to as the saying, goes to 'get the fuck out'. He switched back to Scholar, and using the Flight spell, the magical wings once again formed on his back, allowing him to take flight. He kept low so Marisa wouldn't see him, making sure to keep Patchy in sight as the trees began to grow thick again. Just when he'd thought he'd lost her, Patchouli flew up beside him.
"How many books did you get?" Patchouli asked
"A lot of them, I had to leave some behind once your fight ended though, I didn't want to risk anything."
"Fair enough, I'll guide you out, after that, get going back to the village as fast as you can."
John nodded and the two continued on their way until they'd finally reached the forest's edge and split off from one another. Having thought they heard a faint scream in the distance
Marisa, had watched Patchouli fly off. She had to admit that it was weird to see the purple mage outside of the Scarlet Devil Mansion as she rarely left the place at all. Still, it was nice for her to get some morning exercise in and Patchouli being in top form for the day was an excellent morning workout and it served for some good danmaku practice, especially since Patchouli had almost defeated her too. She made sure Patchouli was truly gone, watching her fly off before returning to her home.
"Man, all that fighting made me hungry, think I'll fix myself some food and then take a nap." As she walked into the small kitchen area she stopped and looked at the living room. The area was a lot barer than she remembered. Where were the books she borrowed? She had them perfectly stacked up and everything!
"What the...where are they?!" She exclaimed looking all over the house, tossing things to the side "They were right here I know it!" Marisa began to panic as she searched "Did Patchouli take them...? No...no she couldn't have I was fighting her, and Sakuya never really cared that much that Marisa borrowed the books, and the times she did come to reclaim them, she'd put up a half-hearted fight and return home saying that Marisa was too tough (though Marisa personally thought that Sakuya did that as a means to get back at Patchy due to the latter being rather snarky). So who on earth could she have gotten to help? Alice wouldn't bother, she was always busy doing her own thing, Reimu would have just beat Marisa into submission, no one else would help Patchouli, not even John unless Patchouli offered him something.
And that's when it hit her.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The sound reverberated throughout the magic forest as Marisa realized that she'd been played for a fool. She had to go after Patchouli; there was a good chance that John was still with her!
Back at Favor Trade, John was at his chair, smugly recounting his tale to Kogasa, the umbrella girl giggling as she imagined the look on Marisa's face.
"So, what's the plan now?" Kogasa asked once John had finished telling the tale
"Now we wait for Sakuya. Once she shows up, I'll pass the books on to her, I'm sure it goes without saying, but if Marisa stops by, you don't know anything got it?"
"You got it, though even if we did tell her, I doubt she'd start a fight here in the village."
"You're right, but I don't need her hounding me in case I ever leave the village, she could do the same to you as well." John grimaced
"Ugh...yeah that'd be bad, the last thing I want is that witch stalking me." Kogasa said with a shudder
It was then that the door was opened politely as Sakuya stepped inside.
"There you are John; I have been told of the situation by Lady Patchouli. Put the books in this pouch, it's enchanted like your bag."
John and Kogasa got to work, tossing all of the books from John's bag into Sakuya's pouch. Once that was finished the maid gave a small bow.
"Thank you, Lady Patchouli, and by extension my mistress are most grateful to you. Also John, Patchouli asked that I formally extend an invitation to you to join her at the mansion whenever you deem fit. As of now consider yourself an honored guest of the Scarlet Devil Mansion whenever you choose to visit. I will inform Meiling as well so you shouldn't have any problems whenever you arrive."
"Really...?" John said dumbfounded "Well uh...shucks I'm a bit embarrassed, give Patchouli my thanks, I'll be sure to make some time to stop by."
With another graceful bow, Sakuya left just as quickly as she came.
"Well, things seem to be turning out just fine now. " John said with a smile, he felt like playing some XIV after all that happened and so he sat down, ready to spend several hours playing video games."
"Oh yeah!" Kogasa exclaimed pounding her fist into her palm lightly "I forgot to tell you, but that doctor from Eientei came back with your little uh...what did you call it again... a 'cell phone?'" Kogasa said going over to her bed to fish it out from under the pillow
"Ah thanks Kogasa, by the way, how was work while I was gone? I hope you didn't get too many requests."
"Only a few, thankfully it was nothing too difficult, but I got us some extra food and one of the woodworkers was willing to give the office a small overhaul, repair some of the more weaker parts of the office." Kogasa said with a sigh "I wasn't able to surprise anyone this time though."
"Well that's great...and I'm sure you'll surprise someone next time."
"Heh...yeah, oh and I forgot, but princess Kaguya said she wanted to see you again according to that doctor."
"That so...? I wonder what about, well if I see Reisen again, I guess I'll have her show me the way there." John said as he booted up the game, unfortunately, just as he was about to log in to the game, the door swung open again.
"THERE YOU ARE!" Marisa's shouted
With a glare, John looked over at Marisa, the fury on her face "Oh it's you. What do you want?" John said angrily though he had to do his best from breaking out into a smirk
"I want them back!" Marisa growled at him
"Want what back?" John retorted innocently "Nothing here but the stuff that's always been here, right Kogasa?"
Kogasa nodded but Marisa continued glaring "Don't screw with me, I know you took those books, now where are they? Nobody else would care if I took a few books from Patchouli, so who else would help her? What did she give you?"
"Nothing at all, I was stuck at the mansion for the last week doing hard labor since you decided to steal their books."
"Hey you agreed to help me! It's not my fault if you got caught, when you should have ran away!"
"Oh I'm sorry; I didn't know I was supposed to fly! Oh wait, that's right, I can't!" John hollered back at her "Now get out of here, I just got home and I'd like to enjoy some time alone."
"Not until I get my books back ze!"
"And I told you, they're not here. Look around if you want, but you won't find them. This place isn't big, so there's no place I could hide them."
Taking a cursory glance around, Marisa could see that John was in fact telling the truth here, there was no way he could horde all those books here and not have them take up a bunch of space. As much as it pained her to say it, she had little choice but to take his word and leave, she'd have to try getting into the SDM again, but there was no way John was going to help her now.
"Tch, fine, but you better hope I don't find out it was you who took my books, or you're in trouble!"
"Yeah yeah, now get going already." John muttered as she walked out, as soon as Marisa was gone he couldn't help but shoot Kogasa a sly grin
"She's pretty pissed, serves her right." The Karakasa chuckled
"Yeah, but for now, let's take it easy, I really do want to relax, that mansion was nice and all, but nothing is the same as relaxing in your own home."
Kogasa hung up the 'closed' sign outside of the office, with John booting up his laptop and hopping into the game. Kogasa leaned over his shoulder, staring at it intently, intrigued by all that was happening on screen.
"So John...what exactly is that? That guy on the screen is wearing that same armor as you do and the same weapons too."
For a second, John contemplated feeding her some sort of lie, but Kogasa had been pretty friendly towards him and she had helped him open up his place of business as well as keeping it up and running while he was being detained...with thinking of all of that, there wasn't any reason for him to lie to Kogasa exactly. He was however tired, and really wasn't in the mood for explanations.
"I'll explain tomorrow Kogasa, is that okay?"
She raised an eyebrow and sighed "Well okay, I guess that's fine, but you better not forget alright?"
"I won't I promise."
With that, the day went by and after taking a bath, (Thank goodness for Black Mage and it having a use of both ice and fire magic so he could warm things up easily) he went straight to bed. Morning broke and as usual, John was in front of his computer, mindlessly going through some videos on Youtube after he'd checked his bank accounts and such, which surprisingly for him, he was still getting pay, and he hadn't been to work in a while now...he'd have to rectify that, but he had no idea on how to get home, for now though, he wasn't going to complain about his luck. Things remained pretty quiet for the morning, no requests were coming in, and John decided to go visit the princess later in the day.
"Hey John, are you here?" came the familiar voice of Reisen as she opened the door, glancing at him as she took a quick look around, she let out a snort at Kogasa (who was still asleep on her bed). "Boy, I thought the shoddy look on the outside was just for show, but this really is a dump, you couldn't find a better place to do your business?"
John let out a low growl "Yeah yeah, I get it, this place sucks, what brings you here Reisen?"
"The Princess wants to see you without delay, so let's get going, I've got deliveries to make."
"Well...guess I'm going to visit sooner than anticipated." John thought "Alright, just let me leave a note for Kogasa."
Taking out a some paper and a pen that he'd taken from Patchouli's library (he's sure she wouldn't really miss it) and jotted down a note telling her to watch the office while he was out visiting Kaguya. As he was finishing up, a sudden realization came upon John: He wrote the entire message in perfect Japanese. Wait...how did he know it was perfect Japanese? Everyone around him had been speaking English...right? Only one way to find out...
"Hey Reisen, can I ask you something?"
"What's that?" Reisen asked as the two exited the office
"What am I speaking to you...?"
"Speaking...you mean language? You're speaking Japanese of course, what else would you speak here?"
"H-heh, yeah you're right I was just kidding, let's get going."
As the two made their way through the village and into the bamboo forest John's mind was traveling a mile a minute. How on earth had he learned Japanese, why did everyone (he had to assume that from what Reisen said) hear him speaking Japanese when he heard English loud and clear? There were too many questions going through his mind and he was so engrossed in his thoughts, he didn't realize that he and Reisen had already arrived, the rabbit girl leading him to Kaguya's room where she sat, flanked by Erin on her right.
"Ah Mr. Graham, it's nice to see that you are in good health. I was beginning to wonder what had become of you when you weren't seen around the village for the last week." Kaguya said in the same regal sounding voice as before.
"Oh uh, don't worry about that, I was away on work, had to handle something important for the Scarlet Devil Mansion." John replied casually
"The vampire...?" Erin asked with a raised eyebrow. What could she want with you...?"
"Well not Remilia actually, but Patchouli, just a bit of lost and found I had to help with."
"Lost and found...I see..." Erin murmured
"Anyway, I will cut straight to the point Mr. Graham" Kaguya interjected, expertly regaining control of the conversation. "I wish to join you in your little Favor Trade endeavors."
At this John's eyebrows raised in surprise "Really...?" Was all he could manage to muster in response, having been caught off guard by the sudden request.
"It is true; I however, am opposed to this and as such, to determine if you're up to the task of keeping the Princess safe, I've come up with a request, if you complete it then I'll allow the princess to accompany you without question. If you fail...well, you'll probably be dead, but that's the worst case scenario." Erin spoke up, a small smile on her face the entire time
Needless to say, John was pretty spooked at what she could have planned, that smile was not endearing at all, but even if he was scared, so long as he had his job crystals, he should be just fine...he hoped so at least.
"Okay...so what do I have to do?" John asked grimly
"It's simple really" Erin began holding up a finger "There is a nameless hill not too far from here, up on that hill are numerous poison lily flowers, and I would love to if you could go and grab some for me. Bring me a few dozen and I'll be grateful. That's all."
"What's the catch?" John retorted almost instantly
Erin let out a chuckle at how quickly he asked "Smart boy, there is indeed a 'catch'. Up on that hill lives a Youkai who absolutely loathes humans, she'll attack you without hesitation and she can control poisons. So if you see her, it would be wise to run away."
John sat and thought for a minute, he had many Jobs at his disposal, and this youkai up on the hill could control poisons...he decided to look at this from a raid standpoint. While it was true that in the actual game, there were no elemental weaknesses (something John didn't like about the game) this particular youkai was able to control poisons of all kinds, to that end, Scholar and Summoner were out, since a bulk of their damage came from using poisons...if he did get poisoned, he'd need a cure and quick.
"You're welcome to decline the offer if you think it's too much~" Erin teased winking at him
"No...no that won't be a problem, If she poisons me, I'll just esuna it off, shouldn't be too difficult. I accept your request Ms. Yagokoro; I'll be back by nightfall to deliver your flowers."
"I look forward to seeing you return." Kaguya said with a giggle
After heading back to the village, John gathered up his things, Kogasa who was now awake, questioned him as to where he was going so suddenly.
"Gotta go up to some hill with a bunch of poison flowers, I should be okay." John murmured as he packed some of the medicines that he'd received from Erin, no doubt it'd come in handy on his trip.
"Wait...a hill with a bunch of poisonous flowers?! Whoa, do not go there John, you'll die, the girl that lives there hates humans!"
"I know...but if I don't then that means that Erin will have won...and I know it may sound stupid but...well..."
"What?" Kogasa inquired
"I really hate losing." John said with a wry smile
"You're really being stubborn about this?! She isn't like Marisa; she'll actually try to kill you if she finds you!"
"I've got it under control Kogasa, don't you worry."
"Then at least let me come with you!" Kogasa pleaded
"Like you said, whoever this girl is up on that hill is willing to kill me and she uses poison to do it, I don't have enough medicine to go around, and I don't want to risk you getting sick. If you're with me, she'd definitely attack you and if you got hurt, I couldn't live with that."
"O-oh...um...okay then, thanks John." Kogasa murmured with a slight blush, she wasn't expecting that kind of response out of him, and she couldn't deny that her heart had skipped a beat when he said it.
"I'll hopefully be back before nightfall. Feel free to close up shop for the day if you want." John said walking out the door.
"Time to hopefully not die..." He muttered switching to Scholar and casting flight. Soaring up high above the village, John was able to see the hill he had to head to, it was quite a few miles away and was easily notable by all the purple and white he could see from even this high up. He surmised it wouldn't take him too long to get there, and he had his bag which was enchanted thanks to Patchouli, so grabbing the flowers shouldn't be too difficult of a task...John just mentally prayed he didn't have to deal with this youkai who was said to live there.
With that, he flew towards the Hill, doing his best to get there as fast as he could. It took him about 2 hours of nonstop flying before he reached his destination, touching down right where the normal colored foliage ended and the purple-white of the hill began. The air was stifling to say the least, and he felt some nauseous just being around the flowers...it was still bright out, so maybe he didn't have to worry about running into the youkai?
'I better hurry up and get this over with, a few dozen or so flowers, just like she asked.' John thought as he began kneeling down to carefully plucking the flowers, depositing them in his bag before moving on. He made sure to do his best to not touch the leaves since these things were poisonous and he had no idea merely touching the leaves would poison him.
After an hour of picking, John stood up straight and stretched "Man, beading over like that repeatedly is rather painful." He thought wincing at the pain in his lower back "At least I've got all the flowers, I should probably leave before she shows up."
"Before who shows up mister~?" Came a sweet sounding voice from behind him
John turned around in shock to see a young girl standing before him; she was a whole foot shorter than him wearing a red-purple shirt, a red skirt with some red-purple seams, silver-blue eyes and a cute bow on the back of her curly blonde hair. What was most important about her face though was the sinister smile she had on her face.
"Tell me mister, were you left here to die too?" she asked, eerily sweet all the same
"D-die...? Er...no, I just came to pick some flowers and-"
"Oh that's a shame; I may have been more merciful to you if you were abandoned!"
"Merciful...? Just who are you?"
"My name is Medicine Melancholy, a poor doll who was abandoned on this hill by your kind, because you humans see us dolls as nothing more than a disposable item to toss aside when you no longer see us as entertaining or useful to you!"
"Uh...look I think we can talk about this and-"
"NO! NO MORE TALKING, I'LL MAKE YOUR INSIDES ROT HUMAN! NOW CHOKE UPON MY POISONS, WRITE IN AGONY!" Medicine bellowed as she began to float into the air.
'Well...so much for trying to take the diplomatic route.' "White Mage!" John exclaimed as a bright light engulfed him, he was no clad in a white robe with red accents on the tip, a staff hugging his back, before he withdrew it
"I'd rather not fight, but if this is how it's gotta be..."
"Hmph, a nice trick, but this place will be your grave human!"
Not giving him the chance, Medicine called forth a small cloud of poison and flung it towards John who dodged easily before activating cleric stance which would increase his attack power and focusing on her and casting Aero III, a small cyclone of air appearing and knocking the doll back a bit.
"M-magic?! You're not just for show then are you?" Medicine said wincing as she felt the sting of the attack even though it'd finished already.
"I don't like to lose." He said calmly, Focusing once more he this time cast another wind spell at her, this one being Aero II, weaker than before, but when combined with the strength of the previous spell, it could dish out some good damage over time.
"A-again?! Wh-why you!" Medicine wasn't about to let some human outdo her, and summoning several more clouds, she positioned them all around John, who tried to leap out of the way, but was unsuccessful as he got a face full of poison.
"Ugh...god, that's horrible." John said wincing as his nausea increased severely. He struggled to get to his feet, the poison acting fast
"How do you like that human? That poison will eat you from the inside out!"
'I hope this works.' John thought as he quickly cast esuna, which thankfully did its job and cleared up his sickness instantly
"Whew...that was close." He murmured
"What in the...how did you recover from that?! It shouldn't be possible!"
"Anything's possible when you're a level 60 White Mage Medicine, White Mages specialize in healing, a few little poisons aren't anything to worry about!"
"Is that so...?" Medicine said with a sneer "Very well, in that case, I won't hold back any longer." As she finished saying that, a massive cloud of purple appeared above the girl's head, which she was currently pointing directly at John.
"Oh...oh crap this won't end well." He muttered as the cloud was sent flying towards him.
Run...he had to run! Doing the best he could, John tried to outrun the blast, only to be knocked forward when it exploded. While he wasn't seriously hurt, he had breathed in some of the poison and he could feel his body locking up a little bit.
"Oh what the hell...paralysis...okay John...you can handle this..." He cast esuna again, but this time it didn't cure his affliction. "Oh great...it's a permanent...gonna have to wait for it to wear off."
"Teehee, what's the matter human, feeling a bit stiff?"
Well...at least it wasn't a bad pun.
"Now stand there and accept your death graciously!"
Not giving her the chance to do anything again, John began casting again, this time Stone III, which mage large spiked stones materialize and slam into Medicine.
A loud wham sound was all that could be heard as Medicine went flying backwards from the attack.
"Gwah! " Medicine cried as the pain ran throughout her body, she managed to stop herself in the air before floating back towards John, hovering a few feet above him, her clothing a bit tattered now from his attacks. "You...I don't know what you are, but you're more irritating than that Hakurei girl...I think I know the perfect way to end this~".
Medicine's body began to glow a faint purple as she began sucking in all the poison around her, until her body was glowing a misty purple, she touched down to the ground, slowly walking towards John whose body had locked up even more now, and he was sure he couldn't move his legs at all now. Medicine inched closer to him, hands outstretched.
"Come now mister, I'll give you a hug and fill your body with the most perfect poison~!"
There was nothing he could do right now, he could try casting another spell, but Medicine would no doubt lunge at him If he did. She got closer...and closer...and closer still, she was mere inches away from him!
And then...
-To Be Continued
Yes, that IS meant to be the little bit from Roundabout playing in the end there. I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and I hope you're looking forward to the next one! As for this chapter in particular, I thought using Medicine would be a good idea, I'm pretty sure she's one of the more forgotten characters in the Touhou world. Don't forget to leave any comments if you have them!