EXTRA STAGE
Alice rested in the Hakurei Shrine, recovering from the intense battle with the
second of the two Storm Sisters, Mizuiko. Marisa has long since returned home. After all,
it was getting late.
"Help yourself to the candy, just don't take too much. As for sake, well, we've got
Suika." Reimu invited Alice to make herself at home for the night, since the blonde puppet
girl was doing her job for her all day.
There were a number of benefits to staying at the Shrine. Reimu was a remarkably
powerful Shrine Maiden who had been protecting Gensokyo for years, and for many years to
come. She also had a streak of becoming friends with her enemies, some of which now live in
the Shrine. As such, anything that wanted to hurt any of the ones who lived there would be
picking a fight with some of the most powerful people in all of Gensokyo. Marisa stopped by
often. Reimu runs the place. Suika, a vicious oni who lived underground, moved in a few
years back. Even worse, Yukari Yakumo. If there was anybody you did not want to piss off,
it was she.
The Hakurei Shrine had its share of supernatural beings as well, including Kana, a
poltergeist that has been haunting the Shrine for around a decade now, and the occasional
visits from the Scarlet Sisters, Remilia and Flandre.
Night falls on Gensokyo. Darkness blankets the Shrine, and most of its inhabitants
fall asleep, while Yukari, being nocturnal, was just waking up for the first time in over a
week.
A knock at the door. "Reimu-chan, me and Onee-chan have come to visit you! Mind if we
spend the night here?" The childish voice obviously belonged to the younger of the two
Scarlet Sisters, Flandre Scarlet. Her voice made itself echo throughout the Shrine.
Yukari opened the door. "Hello, girls. Reimu is sleeping at the moment. Come in, but
don't create a mess."
The two vampiresses and Yukari enjoyed the night in anyway that came to mind.
Eventually, the night drew to a close and the Sun began to rise.
"Yukari-sama, something feels wrong." Remilia had planned to return home before the
Sun rose, but lost track of time. Looking outside, however, despite the Sun shining,
Remilia was stunned to see a night sky. Her photosensitive skin itched it not protected by
her parasol, but it didn't burn. Also, the diurnal residents remained asleep while the
nocturnal ones couldn't sleep if they wanted to. Someone was obviously controlling the
light.
Yukari immediately tried to wake up Reimu. If there was another incident, it would be
her job to investigate it. "Reimu-san! Wake up!" Yukari resorted to violently shaking the
raven-haired Shrine Maiden, as well as yelling into her ear, but failed to wake her up. So,
she tried drastic measures. "Border Sign - Border of Sleep Distortion!" Instantly, everyone
in the room woke up.
Reimu was confused by the sudden awakening. "What's going on?"
"I don't know yet, but day has not yet arrived, despite the efforts of the Sun."
Yukari reported.
Alice, who was sleeping nearby until the spell woke her up, came up with an idea.
"Reimu-sama, do you think it may have something to do with those Storm twins?"
Although such an idea made sense, something wasn't right. Where would they have
gotten the power to control day and night?
In Gensokyo, peace was clearly overrated.
Alice felt uneasy, and began to blame herself. Nazuiko had attacked randomly, but her
sister did not take her defeat kindly. Despite this, Alice felt that if the day-stealers
were related to the Storm twins, Alice was at fault. It certainly meant that she would have
to be the one to resolve the issue.
"Alice." Reimu put her hand on Alice's shoulder, trying to console her. "You are by
far strong enough to handle them. If not, I can back you up. Whoever these people are, they
will regret stealing daylight from us." Alice felt reassured. "Understood. Hopefully, you
won't have to protect me, but, at least enforce the Spellcard rules." She grabbed her dolls
and Grimoire. Although using it violated her vow to use strategy over power, she considered
sparse usage to be 'strategic placement' and therefore, counted.
A thought unexpectedly found its way into Alice's head. "What if Marisa shows up?"
Yeah, right. Yukari had to force them awake with a spell, no way Marisa woke up on her own.
But if she did....
"Maybe I'm just lovesick..." she thought to herself.
Alice and Reimu headed out to where Nazuiko first appeared, hoping her master or
whoever was doing this would appear there.
[BGM: Daylight Hidden Among the Darkness]
Everything around them was dark. The water below them reflected no light, regardless
of the bright sun.
"What did you expect? That's what happens when you hurt our friends!" An unknown
voice came from nearby.
"Who are you?" Reimu interrogated. The absence of light began to be reminiscent of
Rumia, the youkai of darkness, though this was not her work.
"My name is Souzokuko Yomi, the Shining Youkai of radiant lights." the girl proudly
proclaimed her name and title. "I shall claim vengeance upon you, Alice, for hurting those
innocent girls." It seemed she was arrogant and headstrong, too. Unfortunately, that
probably wasn't hollow arrogance. Four bright lights shined around her, revealing her
short, dark, brown hair, but little other details.
The streams of light formed shining golden spheres along its length, hovering in
place. Alice immediately summoned Shanghai, directing a stream of magic at the light
source, where Souzokuko was standing. The large golden spheres collapsed off of their
positions, and hovered toward Alice. She hastily flew towards Souzokuko to redirect their
flow, careful to avoid the bright centers that actually damaged her.
"Your attacks are your own undoing," Alice slyly commented. "I can't even see my own
dolls, but your danmaku are clearly visible."
The lights faded rapidly, Souzokuko herself beginning to glow intensely. The darkness
changed into daylight around her. She wore a dark violet, silk dress that hung to her
knees, and overly large sleeves. Her hair extended only to her shoulders, and an amulet
depicting the Sun adorned her chest.
"Shining Light - Rising Sun!" Beams of light circled Souzokuko while small diamond
shaped bullets spread out in Alice's direction in a wide fan. She slowly moved away from
the line of bullets, but the entire fan reaimed, keeping her in its center, not letting her
sit still. The beams of light had spread out away from Souzokuko, aimed slightly away from
Alice. She had to move the other direction to not get hit by the lights, but how? She
decided on retreating backwards, and then dashing to the right. The fan followed Alice, and
gave the opening between the waves of danmaku she needed.
Shanghai continued attacking as best as she could, but the Spellcard refused to
break. It only got worse. A second curtain of bullets emerged between the waves, erasing
spots and gaps in the bullets, and the beams continued to rotate around Yomi in larger
numbers and firing more rapidly.
Alice was taken by surprise by the large increase in bullet density. She increased
her movement, but kept relatively in front of Yomi to keep the damage per second up. In
short order, however much Souzokuko had wanted to stretch the Spellcard out, it broke,
granting a successful capture to Alice.
Yomi was not going to count this as a defeat, and argued that she was only warming
up, and so she deserved another Spellcard. Reimu considered the request, and deemed it
legal. "Fine. Play by the rules, though. This counts as an Extra Stage, so it is only fair
that the Mid-Boss gets three attacks. Reimu's declaration worried Alice, and upset Yomi.
"M-m-m-Mid-Boss?! How dare you call me a mid-boss, Red-white!" Souzokuko threatened
to use her next Spellcard on Reimu instead, but the Raven-haired Shrine Maiden refused to
let her. "Don't even think about attacking me." She revealed a Spellcard with her portrait
on it, covered by the phrase "Fantasy Heaven". Souzokuko gave in to the threat, and turned
her attacks on Alice with the most vicious Spellcard she could create.
"Shooting Star - Fall of the Morning Star!" Yomi drew in numerous lights in the form
of Danmaku in huge densities. The lights collected around Souzokuko, and she began to glow
with utter brightness. Alice couldn't bear her eyes to look at her.
Suddenly, the light around Souzokuko began to move toward Alice, albeit incredibly
slowly. Also, as Alice made a panicked dash to get away from the intensely bright light, it
merely resumed its original path instead of following her. Then, it stopped where Alice was
standing the moment Souzokuko first drew in the lights.
Hundreds of lights rushed out from the incredibly dense ball of light, moving in
every direction indiscriminately. The light came out in the form of large numbers of
pellets, as well as a small number of lasers. Alice moved herself between the danmaku and
evaded the lasers. A few seconds later, the light disappeared. A massive amount of energy
collected around Souzokuko as the Spellcard wore off. It broke, and Souzokuko had been
declared defeated.
Souzokuko Yomi flew off in the darkness. The Light in the area returned, yet the sky
remained dark. Someone else was behind this. And if patterns meant anything, whoever it was
would be terrifyingly powerful.
A hollow female voice made itself heard from behind Alice. "Of course, how could
someone with a chest as flat as Souzokuko's have avenged Nazuiko and her twin?"
Alice turned around to see who it was. A came from a girl about Reimu's age or a
little older, with long black hair, dark green eyes, and an expressionless face. She wore a
long sleeved black shirt, and a dark red skirt, hanging shortly above her knees. The outfit
stood out as much as the other three Alice had recently met. It seemed as if they were
vicious youkai from another world, outside of Gensokyo. But, how?
"Then again," the girl added, "Alice isn't incredibly physically mature herself."
"Who are you four?" demanded the impatient puppeteer.
"I only see me here." She looked confused, before realizing what was meant. "Oh, you
mean my subordinates and Souzokuko."
"And Souzokuko? You're saying that as if she's your superior."
"No, she is just not a subordinate. Weaker, perhaps, with less experience in combat,
but, she's more or less my equal all things considered. She's Light, I'm Darkness. Which
reminds me, I have not yet introduced myself. My name is Yuu Hikari."
"Anyway, you are dodging my question, Yuu-sama." Alice reminded her, a little
irritation sounding in her voice. She just wanted this all to end, but needed to play
Reimu's role for her and investigate first.
"Well, I am a practiced ninja. It should not surprise one that I dodged something."
Lovely, Alice thought. This girl was insane.
"Anyway," Yuu continued on her speech and answered Alice's earlier question. "we are
four the ten Divine Legionnaires. We came to Gensokyo to test our powers against some of
the youkai here, and against the humans as well. Namely, the Shrine Maidens and their
friends."
Maidens? She must be referring to Sanae, too.
"That's why Nazuiko attacked you, despite her claim that it was for self-defense. If
you want to know the truth, I never believed her claim. It was obviously just to get her
sister to get revenge for her. The girl was always childish and a sore loser."
"She did attack me first, though." Alice furiously answered. She had been blamed for
it twice, and was hoping Yuu would leave her alone about it. She really didn't do anything
wrong. It was Nazuiko's fault. But, her attempt to keep herself out of a violent war with
these outsiders failed yet again.
[BGM: Reigning Darkness]
"Yeah, well, you know...." Her thoughtless response seemed to hold a dangerous
intent. Yuu was not really concerned with who was to blame, more so with doing what she
came to do, test her powers against the denizens of Gensokyo. Alice would suffice.
Needles erupted from Yuu in rapidly extending circles positioned exactly the same
way, regardless of Yuu's location, at an average pace, and a second wave immediately
following, but moving much slower, and aimed at Alice. She launched wave after wave of
needles in this fashion, Alice counter-attacking with her dolls behind her shooting a
constant rainbow of beams which merged to hit Yuu all at once, inflicting high amounts of
damage.
Alice could not stand still, of course, with the waves of needles flying past her,
and the much slower shots beginning to start catching up. She moved horizontally to keep
the aimed bullets out of her way, dodging the faster waves more vertically, in between the
shots when a gap presented itself. Regardless of the simplicity of the pattern, getting
Yuu to her first Spellcard would take a bit of work. She refused to stay still, making
Alice's mostly condensed attack almost useless.
Thankfully, it hit hard enough to make a difference when it did. "Obscurity - Tunnel
Vision." Yuu activated a Spellcard. It wasn't one of her favorites, really, but it did what
it needed to do. In all honesty, she was just teasing the puppet mistress anyway. She had
doubted that Alice, skilled as she was, had the ability and the endurance and tenacity to
handle what she had planned.
Everything around Alice was blanketed in darkness. Her eyes, however, adjusted to the
lack of light quickly, but only directly ahead of her. The darkness in her peripheral
vision was too thick for her to see in to, even if she turned to face it. Columns of
triangle-shaped bullets flowed slowly out of the thick darkness, dropping like slow moving
water toward the center. As the bullets dropped, they met farther and farther forward,
forcing Alice to push uncomfortably close to Yuu herself.
Thankfully, she was able to remain outside of Yuu's kicking range (her movement was
restricted by the Spellcard, as well, so she was safe from that). Then additional columns
of danmaku pushed the opposite direction, forcing Alice down. If she retreated too quick,
she'd run into the first row, which was slowly giving her room to move backward. If she
retreated too slow, she would be sandwiched by the falling wave.
As Alice reached the far back border of the duel, the danmaku began pushing her back
up, the second wave now moving back up, guiding Alice to safety. As she neared Yuu again,
the waves again began to reverse, and pushed her back. As she reached the middle of the
field, the Spellcard broke. Alice was not expecting such an easy victory. She knew the next
ones were not going to be that simple, and only suspected they would be even more
complicated and difficult by the ease of her first two attacks. The suspicion unsettled her
feelings, and she grew worried, her heart pounding in her chest. She was going through
Makai and back just for defending Marisa, wasn't she? Well, not really. She used to live in
Makai, after all.
Yuu threw a line of Divine Amulets, which started to rotate around her clockwise as a
second line took its place, and then rotated counter-clockwise, immediately replaced by a
third line, before that one split, and rotated both directions simultaneously.
Another simple, yet oddly difficult non-spell. Oddly enough, the Amulets were largely
show, as even if they touched you directly, they did not seem to take effect. Especially
odd considering Alice's status as a youkai, it should have affected her, instead, grazing
her aura. Anyway, that didn't matter. Alice's group of dolls faithfully assaulted Yuu,
driving her into her second Spellcard.
Yuu's aura became visible around her. Anything that it did not touch turned utterly
black, while an image of the moon surrounded her. It was merely an illusion, but one made
out of danmaku.
"Obscurity - Moonlight Shadow!" The bright illusion split the darkness, several
narrow radiant beams highlighting small areas. The narrow beams became bright pillars of
faked moonlight, out-shining everything around it, and split into several spheres of light,
rotating around Yuu in parallel circles, erasing the darkness around them, only to have it
return as they split apart.
The darkness was so intense, Alice could not even see her own hands unless she held
them up to the intense moonlight. She had to hide amongst the very thing she had to avoid
just so she could actually tell how far away they were.
As the balls of light turned a significant distance, additional beams of light
removed more of the darkness, and added more danmaku to the Spellcard. With the lights
orbiting in both directions, they came to intersections frequently enough that Alice could
keep in place, at least for a short time, moving mostly just forward and backward.
More and more lights penetrated the deep darkness, and as the bullets spread, they
removed more and more of the darkness, and eventually, erased it entirely, canceling out
the Spellcard's effect, sending Yuu into her third pattern.
She threw out a ring of Divine Amulets, each amulet splitting into six identical
amulets, which then split into ten. The lines of bullets split into two, one line
proceeding indiscriminately, the other redirecting towards Alice. As the amulets slowly
spread out, the pattern repeated. Yet another easy non-spell, Alice thought. She was proven
wrong as she misjudged the space she was given, and failed to disrupt the stream of aimed
amulets. She had not predicted the trap early enough, and was left no choice but to
activate a counter-spell. She grabbed Shanghai, pulled out a pin needle, and sliced off the
doll's head, releasing an incredibly vast amount of magic power.
"Magipulation - Return Inanimateness!" The magic blast released from Shanghai took
the form of four separate waves, intersecting near the middle of the field. Nothing was
spared in its wake. Every last amulet vanished, Yuu herself sustaining heavy damage.
Again, Yuu's aura surrounded her and became visible. "Obscurity - Veil of Darkness!"
Despite activation of a Spellcard, for some strange reason, Yuu did not move. Even Alice's
attacks seemed to have no effect on her. And then, suddenly, everything turned black,
Alice's vision only detecting anything just out of arms reach of her.
The darkness slowly retreated, revealing masses of bullets. The bullets began to
spread outward with no aim. Four bright lights trapped Alice where she was as the bullets
moved away, and just as they faded, a wall of four large danmaku cannon balls flew towards
Alice, followed by four more shots that all aimed at her directly.
As the last of the bullets began to clear, the darkness returned. Instead of
blanketing everything though, it formed a grid-pattern. The darkness faded away from the
bottom, up, revealing walls of danmaku cannon balls. As the veil disappeared, the cannon
balls had no support, and fell down at angles. Alice frantically dashed as fast as she
could, though she never was very fast on her feet or even in flying, and more walls of
cannon balls cut her off, trapping her. She was not about to accept defeat. The sky was
still darkened by the Youkai in front of her. She had to defeat her, or leave Marisa
sleeping in this unnatural prolonged darkness. The thought of the girl she admired gave her
the courage to admit defeat inadvertently, and activate a Counter-spellcard. She pulled out
a nameless doll, made completely of straw, and no features whatsoever, and a pin needle,
and swiftly severs the doll's head, releasing a wave of energy, which absorbed every thing
it touched. Even though it did touch Yuu, she had her own Counter-counterspell, and the
bomb's effect stopped short, its shape bending around the Youkai's powerful aura.
As the last few cannon balls disappeared out of the Spellcard boundary, the pattern
of the first attack repeated. Again, Alice was surrounded by pure darkness. The darkness
faded, revealing hundreds of small pellets, which began to spread outward again. Just as
the lasers formed to trap Alice, the Spellcard broke.
As Alice began to draw in the bullets remaining, Yuu's aura began to fall apart.
'That shouldn't have happened.' Alice thought to herself, almost aloud. Did she
accidentally kill her? She was only trying to clear the Spellcard. Danmaku is harmless,
anyway. Painful, but... harmless. It can't kill.
And yet, Yuu's aura continued breaking up, as if she was dying a slow death. It
shattered completely, emitting a brilliant light and a fantastic explosion, her body began
its gravity-inspired descent to the ground.
"Something isn't right." Reimu said, frightened.
Alice was perplexed. "What do you mean?"
"I don't mean to say you killed her, Alice. But, she did somehow die."
"Wait, you don't mean to say," the blonde girl shouted, afraid she had somehow
murdered someone by accident, "that she killed herself, do you, Reimu-sama?"
And then, Yuu's body stopped falling. It turned itself facing up, and gave off
another brilliant flash of light, her body becoming a black silhouette. "I am overthrown
Death." The light became blinding. The body stood up, and floated back up to where Yuu had
previously been, shortly before her unexplainable death, once again, fully alive. "Darkness
is merely my elemental power," she began to explain, "my true power is that of the Almighty
fury of Overthrowing." Her voice sounded disembodied, and her mouth did not even move. She
may very well have not even been breathing. Just who was Yuu Hikari, and what did she want?
Whatever her purpose, she had chosen to unveil her true power, and was no longer screwing
around. "This is my true strength, the power that can overthrow even my own death, even the
Reaper himself."
The resurrected Yuu Hikari had a completely new aura. It was almost impossible to
detect, if it was not so absurdly radiant. She sealed the two fighters in a strange new
area, strongly resembling the Great Hall of a feudal age French castle. Yuu designated
herself the Feudal Lady, and sat down in the large majestic, if not oversized, chair, and
placed a crown on her head. The crown itself was decorated with jewels, with what remained
of a large ruby in the middle of it, a large crack splitting the gem and the crown down the
middle.
"This is my Dominance - Overthrone!" Yuu activated the first of her last Spellcards
by waving her arm, placing seven insignias throughout the Great Hall that formed the
battlefield.
The first spell insignia was located directly in front of her, shooting blue triangle
bullets in a horizontal wall, the shots parading down the Hall, with the middle moving
first, and each adjacent bullet following. The second and third spell insignias were
located each on a pillar, directly to the sides of Yuu, several feet away. They rotated
slowly, one clockwise and the other counterclockwise, rapidly firing low speed, green,
Divine Sealing Amulets.
Fourth and fifth, a pair of spell insignias at the entrance to the hall, opposite
Yuu, fired a pace of needles aimed at Alice. And lastly, the sixth and seventh insignias
were placed in the farthest corners, and pulsed with a circle of butterflies.
Alice could barely keep track of all of the various attacks. They quickly overwhelmed
her, and she responded with a Spellcard she had not used for years.
"Mystic Sign - Seven Mystic Puppet Strings." She stuck out her hands, stood still,
and poured magic strings out of her three middle fingers on each hand, with Shanghai using
her mouth for the seventh. Each of the seven strings of diamond-shaped bullets cleared any
bullets that passed by them, Alice herself surrounded by an anti-danmaku field. Any of the
strings that touched Yuu's aura, however, were reflected backwards by her counter-Spell,
though did not become damaging to Alice.
Once Alice's Spellcard had come to an end, Yuu seized field control again. Alice had
managed to get a grip on herself and the conditions in place by the Spellcard, and found
the best place she could to avoid as many bullets as possible. She focused on doing high
amounts of damage if possible, and her strategy was working. Yuu was running out of tricks.
So she placed an eighth insignia directly on top of Alice, which exploded in a barrage of
danmaku within a few seconds. However, she had expected it to do something, so she was
already far out of its range. And then it reformed under her again. She continued to move
away from explosion after explosion, finally bringing the brutal Spellcard to its final
end, though having since forsaken the chance to Capture it. Yuu prepared her second
spellcard after reincarnation.
"My radiant dominance shall leave you under my foot, for as long as I shall live. And
with this, my age can be altered at will, Age and Death, overthrown. Face the embodiment of
five-thousand years of human history, Dominance - Stone of Aging."
Two bright lasers stretched out from Yuu, creating a triangle around Alice with her
on its middle line, an array of lasers behind it. A large spherical stone formed near
Alice, and began to follow her. As the stone chased the puppeteer, it shed off pieces of
itself. The diamond shaped debris spread horizontally from the direction of the Stone.
Small particles were left behind, and stayed where they fell off at.
Slowly, Alice kept her pace, avoiding the chasing stone. The debris it shed was
mostly not a problem, that is, until the stationery debris started chasing Alice as well,
though faster and at different angles. She moved as fast as she could away from the stone
without colliding with any debris or the angled lasers, which began fading away from the
outside inward, and she slowed down to evade the aimed debris.
The variation between speed and slowness created a strange pattern to the bullets,
but it also kept her within range to inflict damage on Yuu. A lot of it. Interestingly
enough, she could also damage the Stone itself, though it caused it to release more homing
debris, so she cut off her attacks when it got within range, or when Yuu got out.
The lasers began to reform, their large empty center facing Alice. Although they were
far from being dangerous by themselves, they were really cutting off the ability to dodge
the constant flow of aimed debris and the slowly moving Stone. She did not want to use
another Spellcard. She was running low on dolls, and Yuu still had a long way to go before
she would give up. Even the current Spellcard was far from ending. Instead, she decided to
keep up, and dodge as best as she could. Her speed was honestly perfect. If she focused,
her damage covered a wider area, and she was slow enough that the aimed debris stayed
within a small area, so that she didn't have to move much. If need be, though, she could
unfocus, and dash fast enough to outrun the Stone of Aging creeping on her, and create gaps
from the aimed debris, without being too fast to run into the scattered debris or the
lasers holding her back.
Alice maneuvered between piles of debris, away from the Stone, and tried to throw the
aimed debris off course. Of course, it started to get uncomfortably close to her, so she
moved away from it to give her some room. The chase was getting so extensive, that she
could no longer keep her lasers within range of Yuu. She just could not for the life of her
stay in front of her long enough.
Well, might as well drag it out, she thought to herself. Really, Yuu was being ...
cheap. Argh, damn Extra bosses not having to follow rules all the way. Sonuvabitch, more
fourth-wall breaking. Really, that needs to be cut out, now. It was starting to aggravate
the blonde-haired puppeteer girl.
The Stone refused to give up its chase, and the Spellcard had long way to go before
it timed-out. The lasers turned off, and then reformed, changing the position of the arena,
and concealing some of the debris. Well, at least she didn't have that to worry about.
Still, damaging Yuu was going to take a miracle and a half. Capturing the Spellcard would
be twice as hard, at least. She was on its third set, and it presumably was not going to
remain this simple for long. Something was bound to change.
Alice called it. Right on time, too. The Stone of Aging had apparently used up its
five-thousand year limit, and out-aged itself. (Truth be told, had Alice been human, she
probably would have aged to death by now.) It cracked right down the middle, and unleashed
a storm of debris. Thankfully, none of it was going to aim at her, just slowly move
outward. But, now she had both halves to avoid. One kept shedding dust, the other shedding
aimed evidence of its age. That, and, now not shooting one would be difficult. So, she gave
one of the two, the less dangerous, dusty one, of course, the fury of Makai. In time, she
destroyed it, dropping half of the Spellcard's remaining life, as well as connecting a few
spare shots on Yuu, dropping it even further. Just a little more damage, some timed
streaming, and...
Spellcard captured. Yuu would probably not use any non-spells, and go straight to her
next Spellcard.
Alice was not pleased to discover it wasn't just her next Spellcard, but her last as
well.
"Taste the true fury of violent uprisings, the revolutions of History you have just
unlocked by annihilating the Stone of Aging. For with time, all things will end, including
governments, leaders, authority. Even countries have their lives. Even power stales with
age, and new, young, leaders take their place. If it must be by force, then it results in a
violent revolution. Successful revolutions end in the overthrow of power, the change in
rulings, and a new reign of dominance. Such an act is present in all cases, danmaku
included. Let me prove that to you."
"Dominance - Danmaku Overthrowing!"
Yuu hovered suddenly out of the boundaries of the field. At first, this seemed like
cheating, but all it really meant was that the Spellcard was designed to be dodged, not
drained. Not having her as an obstacle could make it a little safer, anyway, if it forced
Alice too close to where Yuu would happen to be.
Alice immediately noticed that her dolls had fallen inanimate around her, and she
could not manage to attack with her own barrages. Looks like her Spellcards would not work
either. "Must be sealed by the magic. Is this her Last Spell?" Alice thought back to when
she had investigated the cause of the imperishable night a few years back, by Marisa's
side. As much as she wanted to think about her feelings for the witch at the moment, she
had more important things to worry about, unfortunately. It would have to wait.
A laser ring formed in the middle of the field, various colors of medium-sized
spheres spiraled inward from the outside of the field, vanishing as they touched the ring.
The ring itself began to rotate, spitting out from two streams of Divine Sealing Amulets,
one on each side of the ring. As the ring began to rotate, a dense halo of bubbles encased
the field, with a border of blue triangle bullets constantly pounding the bubbles closer
and closer to the middle, fading upon contact with the wall of large, overlapping bubbles.
The amulets shot from the ring paused once they met with the bubble wall, and began
to return to the middle, as more continued to flow outward. "Better stay close." Alice
thought to herself, figuring it would be best to round the middle as fast as possible to
avoid the wall of amulets catching up to her, and squeeze between the returning bullets as
efficiently as possible. It was working quite well. If she kept this up, she could return
to Marisa, and finally give everything a rest, once and for all.
Alice seemingly got her wish. The ring in the middle rotated so incredibly fast, the
wall of amulets broke up into pieces, and then it disappeared. All of the bullets
disappeared along with it. Spellcard complete.
Or so she thought. Two insignias appeared next to Alice, and spiraled outward from
her, placing sporadic walls of dark blue amulets as they moved. The walls of amulets moved
outward once the insignias neared the edge of the playing field. The insignias themselves
immediately reversed direction, placing light green amulets facing the other way. They were
still centered, however, where Alice had been when the pattern started, despite her
movement away from that location. Alice squeezed between walls of amulets to get out of
their way as early as possible. Once the green ones began to move inward, it felt like a
really good idea and a lucky decision.
She grazed incredible amounts of bullets by this point, but the number of bullets
grazing her at the moment was astounding. It hardly seemed plausible. The green amulets
faded once they hit the pre-aimed center, and the blue ones flew out of the field and
blinked out of existence. The field once again cleared, a large amount of energy began to
coalesce again. Alice took it as the cue to move toward the center immediately, but stay
away from it.
Another good call on her part. Thin lights began to move from a ring near the edges
inward, meeting in the center. Once the lasers connected, they began to rotate
counter-clockwise. Sealing Amulets flowed out of the gaps between the lasers, stopping at
the edge of the ring and reversing direction. Once they began to move again, however, they
split into two rows of five each. The rotation was slow, however, so fitting in between the
constantly moving gaps was almost done for her. If she moved slowly, there was enough space
between the amulets to move around. The problem was the circular movement, versus Alice's
more straight path, which caused her to have to jump forward at parts to fit in the
'hallways' formed by the consistent shots.
A loud noise, similar to the Master Spark, rang in Alice's ears. The lasers began to
rotating around themselves as they continued to move in a circle. Any time the lasers
connected with others, they unleashed spawns of amulet, still behaving the same way, though
in much more random positioning now. On top of that, the lasers themselves posed a threat
to the puppeteer's goal of returning daylight to a formerly peaceful Gensokyo, and seeing
Marisa again.
She focused herself on dodging, kept the lasers as far from her as she could, and
stayed away from the amulets, trying to not let them cut her off.
In due time, the lasers faded, and Alice absorbed the energy flowing off of the
amulets. The pattern erased itself, and the fourth one started up.
Eight insignias laid in a line, near where Yuu would usually be floating. A light
passed out of them, aimed at Alice, and passed through her harmlessly. A second wave of
lights aimed, as a wave of energy traveled through the first. Every second or two, an
additional group of lights aimed at Alice's position at that moment.
Triangle bullets formed along the border of the dueling field, and spread inward.
After they moved a short distance in, half of the original ones flowed backwards. They
repeated the action again after traveling the same distance in, a second wave of triangle
bullets spawning on the border each time.
A ring formed in the middle of the field again, similar to the one that formed at the
beginning of the Spellcard. Anything that touched the ring was stuck inside of it.
At long last, the remaining lasers faded, the ring opened up, and everything inside
it shot outwards at accelerated speeds. Over a minute had passed since the unleashing of
the Spellcard. Alice's dolls sprang back to life. But, she wasn't controlling them. Eight
Shanghai dolls moved to the other end of the field, and formed a semi-circle, with its
center directly in front of Alice. As she moved away from it, it followed her, at least
horizontally.
Rainbow lights periodically fired from each doll. Hadn't Alice used that attack back
when she helped Marisa investigate the underground? Alice's own danmaku was now being used
against her. So this must be the true meaning of being overthrown. A single Shanghai moved
forward, the other seven fell still. A long, wide, orange laser fired continuously,
Shanghai moving to keep aimed at Alice. "My attacks from the imperishable night", she
thought to herself. What was next, her attacks from when she lived in Makai? "Please, don't
let that be." Even if she had to face herself from the everlasting winter, when spring had
been stolen by ghosts. "Just... end!"
The seven dolls sprang back to life, and all eight of them moved into the center,
forming an octagon. All of their heads fell off simultaneously, and they gave off a huge
blast of energy. Alice retreated from the shockwave, which paused as it touched the
narrower edges of the field. The blast waves suddenly filled with amulets on their insides.
An enormous amount of magic collected in the center of the field. Yuu reappeared
where it was gathered, and as she inhaled deeply, the Spellcard broke, the magic splitting
every piece of danmaku into small items, which Alice could draw in and use to prove her
victory. Finally, Yuu had been defeated once and for all. It didn't seem true, but dammit,
it was.
Yuu was not the type of girl that would be described as a sore loser. She didn't
enjoy losing, but it just meant that she could be beaten. Which is one of the reasons that
the Spellcard system exists, isn't it? "I didn't expect you to last so long." she bluntly
stated, offering her congratulations for Alice's diligence.
Alice began breathing heavily. "Aren't... you... tired, yet?" She had spent so much
time moving around with the last few Spellcards, she could barely talk still.
"I've made my point. No need to be totally serious for longer than say, fifteen
seconds?" You won."
And yet, a quick glance revealed the sky as black as ever, in spit of the sun
reaching within a few hours of high-noon. "Then fix the damn sky!" Alice demanded.
"As you wish, flat-chest." Yuu's comment infuriated the puppeteer, but there was
nothing she could do.
The sky slowly brightened, and began to glow a dark orange. Slowly, the light turned
bluer and bluer over the next few hours.
Meanwhile, Yuu and Souzokuko decided to explore Gensokyo in the newfound daylight.
Alice and Reimu returned the Hakurei Shrine for some much needed rest and relaxation.
"Alice, you should return home." Reimu suggested, once her guest had recovered. Honestly,
the Shrine Maiden wanted simple peace and quiet, and to return to being her usual lazy
self. As Alice left, she surveyed her Shrine to see what had happened since they left to
investigate the overthrown Day. "Looks like the Scarlet Sisters left, and Yukari went back
to bed. And even Marisa showed up." Hey, wait! When did she get here!?"
"Marisa?" Reimu questioned her sudden visitor. Shouldn't she be just waking up? Or,
had she somehow been awake the whole time?
"Reimu, where is she?" Marisa wasted no time.
"Alice? She returned home."
"Son of a bitch!" Marisa muttered under her breath. "Patch is going to murder me."
Marisa threw her hat on the floor, which floated immediately back on to its original place
on her head. The black magician girl bolted out of the Shrine, and quickly flew to her
neighbor's house in the Forest of Magic.
"Alice?" Marisa banged her fists on the puppeteer's door as hard as she could.
"Alice!? You there? Open up!"
She could not get an answer, no matter how hard she beat the door up. Then, she heard
a voice from behind her.
"I'm not home, yet, stupid." Alice said jokingly.
"I was waiting for you at the Shrine. Miss Red-white said you went home." Marisa
explained.
"You forget you are much faster than me."
"Come with me to the Scarlet Devil Mansion." Marisa had a look in her eyes that told
Alice that it meant the world to Marisa if Alice came. But, her plea was rejected.
"No. I'm never going back to that place again." She snapped at her friend's
suggestion. "I know that you love Patchouli. I hate her, just as much as she hates me."
Alice's answer almost made Marisa cry, but she had to be strong, and not let it
affect her. True, she adored Patchouli. The girl's physical weakness gave Marisa almost a
motherly feeling as she did her best to tend to her and get Patchouli to do things, and the
purple-haired girl's mental strength was admirable.
Alice's sweet, loving, and yet aggressive dual-nature was attractive, and her
appearance was beautiful beyond common measure. And now it came down to the wire. Marisa
had to choose one of the two girls, but would risk losing both of them. She bet her luck on
it, and put the decision in the hands of Fate.
"Alice, I do love you. Just, please, go with me to the -"
Alice wouldn't let Marisa talk. "I said no, you cheating whore!" She screamed as loud
as she could. After all that she went through for her, and Marisa wanted to be with
Patchouli? Forget about her then. She's just some stupid human girl who means nothing to
her.
Marisa gave up convincing her with words. So she placed her lips on Alice in a
powerful kiss instead.
Alice responded by slapping Marisa's cheek as hard as she could as she pulled herself
away from the girl she had used to want to call her lover.
"Fine, be that way, bitch." Marisa quickly disappeared again, and headed off to the
Scarlet Devil Mansion. Alice had not heard from or about her again for the next several
days, though it was rumored she spent some time at the Hakurei Shrine.
Alice was horribly confused by everything that had happened over the past week or so.
Her heart did not understand what to say anymore. She loved Marisa, and hated her at the
same time, or did she just hate Patchouli?
She almost made up her mind in the middle of the night. A reminder lay there on the
shelf, Eyeless.
Heartless.
Soulless.
A doll she had constructed years ago in Marisa's image, but never completed. She had
wanted it to be absolutely perfect, which meant it had to be anatomically accurate. But,
that would mean.... She chose not to think about that.
She climbed out of bed, dressed in her sleeping attire, and kissed her Marisa doll on
its lips. She fell asleep with it in her arms, embracing it against her chest.
A warm feeling covered Alice that night, as she spent the night alone, like she had
so many other nights, with nothing but thoughts to keep her company.
~Next Romance~
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