With a heave you threw yourself against the mass of people, gesturing for Tokiko to follow as you forced your way in the direction of the stage area. If there was one thing you had learned in this goddamn game it was that one-on-one fights were far too hard to control for your liking. An alliance, even if just a temporary one, would swing this fight hard against the flying maid and frankly after she took a pot shot at Flandre you were in no mood to give her anything resembling a 'fair' fight. Hell, if you didn't think she would dodge or block it somehow you would have happily shot her in the back - or gone to hunt down her partner were it not for the fact that whoever it was could be hiding anywhere in the crowd and thus be almost impossible to find until it dispersed some more.

You snorted in annoyance. Given how more than a few of your opponents had played you wouldn't be too surprised if the maid's partner would be hiding out as far from the battleground as possible simply so they wouldn't be targeted. While you couldn't exactly fault the strategy you knew it wasn't one you could use yourself - you cared for Tokiko too much to leave her face an enemy alone. Flandre on the other hand... you needed to find somewhere for her to hide, somewhere close by but far enough away that she had could escape if things went badly. Had your sister been here you would have sent Flandre off to escape with her, but since you couldn't find her right now that wasn't an option.

Unfortunately there really wasn't many good hiding places that were not on or behind the stage itself so you had little choice but to let Flandre follow behind as you shoved your way through the crowd. Behind her came Tokiko who was making sure that the little blond girl wasn't swept away or knocked down by the panicking people heading in the opposite direction to your group. Despite the screaming and yelling filling the air you were more than able to pick out screams of a... different... kind. Screams of pain rather than fear, of people hit by the stray shots of the knife-like projectiles the maid was firing at the stage with almost reckless abandon. Hell, it was pretty obvious to you that the silver-haired woman simply didn't care about anyone else being caught in the crossfire between her and Wriggle. For her part Wriggle wasn't really firing back as much as you expected. Occasionally a stream of glowing yellow lights would cut a path above the crowd - but they seemed to be of similar level to Tokiko's first spells rather than anything more spectacular.

That implied.... what exactly? Off the top of your head you could think of a whole host of reasons why a player would be limiting themselves to low level spells - perhaps they had nothing better or what they did have wasn't useful for offense. Hell, they could simply be waiting until the crowd was dispersed some more so as not to hit any bystanders. You hoped that was the reason - it would be nice to be on the side with the overwhelming advantage in firepower for once.

As you approached the stage you made a decision on what to do with Flandre - the stage was little more than a collection of hollow platforms. Platforms which a young girl could easily crawl underneath if, for example, she didn't want to be stabbed by a veritable blizzard of flying knives. Naturally this was exactly what you instructed the blond girl to do as you approached the stage.

She went under, you and Tokiko went over, and from that point everything started heading downhill - not that you were aware of this at the time.


* * * * * * * *


With a number of battles under your belt you had approached this one with the air of a seasoned professional. Unfortunately most of those battles had been spend with your lying on the ground in pain, and sadly this trend didn't seem likely to stop anytime soon... Which explained why within moments of leaping atop the stage you had fallen off it while clutching at your bleeding nose having just been punched in the face by the spandex-clad actor who had turned out to be both Wriggle's partner and rather paranoid. Thankfully you had managed to avoid having your nose broken, mostly due to the toughness boost being a partner gave you, and the misunderstanding had been cleared up quickly when Wriggle realized exactly who had come to her aid.

Right now you were kneeling down behind Tokiko and her shield spell while clutching at your nose with one hand and holding out your grimoire with the other. One of the many things you had learned practicing with Koishi lately was that any spell you cast with the grimoire out was noticeably, thought not hugely, more powerful than the same spell cast while the grimoire was... wherever it went when it wasn't in your hand. You'd also worked out that some spells - Tokiko's shield for instance - could be made larger simply by... well... 'throwing' more of yourself into the spell when you cast it. Given that you could now place the draining sensation of casting a spell as being an actual drain on your own magic you assumed this feeling meant that you were passing more of your own magic over to Tokiko when you cast the spell. When you did this with your partner's first two spells it resulted in more bullets being fired at once but when you did this with her shield instead it had ended up making the shield larger with the more power you passed over.

Needless to say right now you had over-charged her shield to make it large enough to shelter not only yourself but also Wriggle and the red-wearing bastard who had punched you. You would have liked to cover more but no matter how much power you used the shield had never grown beyond a few feet across during practice and you didn't expect it to do so under fire either. Your hands were clenched tightly, one in a fist and one around your book, and every time you hear another scream of pain from a bystander who hadn't moved fast enough - or had been crippled early on and remained in the line of fire now - your knuckles turned white as you clenched harder.

The maid, her name confirmed by Wriggle to be Sakuya, had not given your group any chance to parley or even move somewhere less crowded. Her spells weren't exactly strong compared to ones you had seen from others, but they were just so damned fast and she was blasting them out like a knife-throwing machine-gun. Scatters of knifes, lines of knives, knives which would just appear before launching at you... Anyone without a convenient shield ability would have been perforated to bits by now simply from the sheer volume of metal the maid was able to put in the air. Magic metal anyway - the knives only seemed to hang around for a short while after hitting something or being deflected before they faded away... leaving anyone unfortunate enough to have been stabbed to bleed out on the floor. A quick peek around Tokiko's shield showed that there was more than a little amount of blood on the ground and not all of it was from adults.

You hissed nastily when you realized that for a couple of people lying out there the amount of blood pooled around them was more than their bodies had been able to lose.

“Charguto” You flinched at the sound, and feeling, of a spell being cast nearby and turned to look at the most likely source of Wriggle's partner. The red masked man was holding a dark green book open in one hand while his partner was crouching down with a look of concentration on her face - she was also glowing ever so slightly red. “Charguto” When the man stated the spell again the glow grew slightly brighter and it continued to do so when he cast the spell two, three, four times more. By the time he was done Wriggle was glowing bright enough that you had to squint slightly in order to look directly at her.

“Get ready.” She murmured, hissing slightly in what seemed like pain. “We'll give you an opening - our spells are pretty strong, but they take so long to charge up we can't use them while under fire.” She glanced at her partner. “Fast movement?” She asked, causing him to nod once. “Right... Let's go then.”

The man slammed his book shut and seemed to take a deep breath. “CASTAFF”

Wriggle vanished.

No, actually it seemed more correct to say that she moved - at such a speed that she had literally disappeared before your eyes. Turning away from where she had been you immediately noted that the sound of knives hitting Tokiko's shield had ceased and because of this you allowed yourself to peek out into the open.

Ah. So that's what Wriggle was doing. All through the air knives were being knocked aside to clatter harmlessly to the ground as Wriggle evidently zipped about faster than the eye could follow to deal with them. Why she didn't try to attack Sakuya directly you didn't know, but with no knives to block you did have a wide open shot at the flying maid. “Tokiko,” you hissed as you rose to point not at Sakuya but just behind her - you weren't stupid enough to assume that she wasn't good enough to dodge a direct attack so you were going to go with what had worked against a god a long while ago. “Doban!” You yelled. Tokiko's shield burst into nothingness as she whipped her arms up and fired two short lines of bullets at Sakuya. As expected the woman moved so that they barely missed - a method of dodging you had noted that everyone seemed to favor which only served to make them particularly susceptible to this trick of your partner's. The bullets buzzed past Sakuya, impacted against the ceiling of the shopping center, bounced off of that at an angle which let them to hitting into a far wall which they bounced off once more before making a bee-line towards Sakuya's unsuspecting back.

And she simply dodged again.

No... that wasn't quite right. What you had just seen was... well, hard to put into words was an understatement. The best way you could explain it, even to yourself, was that one moment she had been hit... and the next moment she hadn't as she had in fact completely vanished...

“It's a fake!” you yell, startling the man behind you and causing Wriggle to suddenly appear in the air as she stops dead. You on the other hand were already looking about wildly, searching for wherever the real Sakuya was, a dim feeling of worry building at the back of your mind.

Flandre had known who she was.

Flandre had called out to her and she had reacted, which implied that either Sakuya had swapped with the fake without being noticed or that she had been controlling the fake from nearby.

As far as you were aware the only people Flandre had admitted to knowing were all quite happy for her to have remained locked away in the basement of her sister's mansion. Flandre had never really claimed to dislike any of them, indeed much of what she said was the opposite but even so...

There was no real doubt in your mind that, whatever the objective she originally had, the maid was going to go after Flandre possibly to get rid of her or... maybe even to try and recruit her to whatever side she was on.

Would Flandre agree to go with her? You had no idea and you weren't entirely willing to find out as you suspected that the blond girl's judgment in such things was impaired at minimum. What was it they called it when a prisoner came to like their jailers too much? Stocky home syndrome? Whatever it was you were sure Flandre had it given how she constantly talked about most of her 'friends' in such glowing terms despite the fact all of them were quite happy to leave her locked away. A whole raft of names, which now you thought about it had included a Sakuya, had come up during conversations with Flandre about the people she knew and lived with.

Now you thought about it hadn't Meiling's name had come up too? You weren't entirely sure what to think of that since she hadn't seemed the kind of person you imagined imprisoning someone... though it wasn't as if you actually knew much about the woman beyond the fact that she was fast on her feet and kicked like a mule. You supposed you were willing to give her some slight benefit of doubt as you vaguely recalled that some things she had said after beating you and Tokiko down implied that she was pleased for Flandre to be out and about. A conscientious objector perhaps?

With the way Sakuya had barely needed to think before trying to spear Flandre on a knife you were pretty damn sure the maid was not such an objector. You grimaced as you realized that such a view was not exactly a good indicator of personality since it was the kind of thinking this survival game was set up to cause... on the other hand Sakuya had fired on random civilians so it was a pretty fair bet that her personality was rotten anyway.

Yeah. Like hell you were going to let her get her hands on Flandre.

You found Flandre backstage, where her escape route underneath the stage had naturally led. Unfortunately you also found Sakuya - though if it was the real one or another fake you had no idea.

Not that it mattered since the moment you saw her you ordered Tokiko to, in your own words, 'blow her goddamn head off'.


* * * * * * * *


Sakuya threw herself up and away as a shot of energy passed though the space her head had been occupying up until a mere moment ago. How depressingly predictable. The boy that had so disrespectfully been carrying the young mistress around like some kind of commoner had, predictably, shown up to play the heroic knight. Probably in an attempt to extort some kind of gain out of the young mistress against her best interests. Not that the young mistress had any favor to give that wasn't the true property of the mistress anyway, the commoner was really wasting his time.

At first she had suspected that the commoner was the young mistresses' partner back when she had first seen him through the eyes of her doppelganger. A useful spell that - one she would have to look into replicating on her own once she returned to Gensokyo - it allowed her to work at a distance with a remote body capable of doing everything she could except take a hit, which was a small price to pay for it's use. Naturally upon spotting the young mistress and her possible partner she had responded quickly to take out what, according to the mistress, was one of the two biggest threats within the entire set-up of this war of survival.

The power to destroy anything with barely a thought... such an ability would end any opponent regardless of how much power they had unlocked from their grimoire. The only real competition for the title of 'biggest threat' would be the ability the netherworld princess supposedly had, that of being able to kill with a thought. Saigyouji and the young mistress... neither could be allowed the chance to progress far enough to unlock what were likely higher-tier abilities.

On the other hand, were one to obtain either as a controllable asset...

Saigyouji was right out on that score as the woman was, frankly, a manipulative bitch on a par with all the top players of Gensokyo. There was little, if anything at all, in existence that could be used to control the woman and what little was capable of doing the job was either out of reach or more dangerous to the controller than the controlled.

The young mistress was another matter entirely as it would be but child's play to remind her of her big sister, the mistress, and explain to her how much the mistress would want her to join up and help her win. The mistress was one of the few people that the young mistress would do anything for after all - the others being the black-white rat and the slacker guard, neither of whom had appeared to have claimed the young mistress already.

Evidently this commoner and his equally common partner had attempted to turn the young mistress to their side but it was obvious that neither knew what they were dealing with - anyone with any sense of self preservation would have had the young mistress safely sealed up in some way to prevent 'accidents'.

She sighed.

“Young mistress,” she said, “Your sister has instructed me to fetch you. She misses you terribly.” Ugh, now there was a lie and a half. Of course the mistress missed her sister, she wanted the insane girl where she could see her rather than wandering the world where she could hurt someone or worse get hurt herself. Or perhaps she just wanted the most powerful weapon in the game under her control - Sakuya had long given up trying to work out exactly how the mistress's relationship with the young mistress worked. Sometimes the elder girl seemed to want to protect her from the world, other times she seemed to want to protect the world from her. Most of the time she just seemed to want the embarassment to the Scarlet name, the young mistress's insanity, to be kept out of sight.

The maid leaned to one side to avoid another shot, this time one aimed more at her center, and sighed again.

“Do you mind?” She asked, her voice hardening. “This does not concern you. The young mistress will be coming with me.”


* * * * * * * *


“Do you mind?” the maid asked in a terrifyingly cold tone as she returned to standing upright after dodging a shot from Tokiko that had been intended to blow her chest out her back. “This does not concern you. The young mistress will be coming with me.”

You frowned.

You glanced at Flandre, crouching behind what appeared to be a large amplifier of some kind. She had been so looking forward to this ever since your sister had told her about it and explained what such a performance was.

Now it was ruined.

There was a crowd of injured, dying and already dead out in front of the stage.

Your sister could be among that number.

All because, from the sound of it, Flandre's 'sister' wanted her returned.

Probably so she could be locked up again.

You scowled.

“Fuck. You.” You stated, glaring at the maid. “Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.”


* * * * * * * *


What did that commoner just say?

“If you want to kidnap Flandre,” he stated, his eyes seemingly afire with anger, “Then you'll go through me first.”

Oh joy, a white knight type. She'd met a number of those before in her service to the mistress - mostly in the form of vampire hunters after the sisters themselves and the occasional inquisitor who came after Patchouli for being a famous witch. Each and every one of them so puffed up with their own arrogance and belief that they were on the side of 'good' even though they never seemed to have any issue with slaughtering the maids - all innocent fairies - by the score. Well, she knew how to deal with them at least.


* * * * * * * *


The maid's eyes closed then she sighed lightly and took a deep breath.

“In that case,” she stated. “Die.”

The first barrage of knives came entirely without warning - a dozen steel blades just appearing a foot or two in front of the maid and giving you little to no time to react before they shot in your direction. Thankfully Tokiko had already moved and had grabbed a wooden panel, possibly left over from the stage construction, and heaved it in front of you just in time for the wave of knives to puncture it instead of you. Flashing your partner a quick grin you lift your leg up and kick the entire panel, knives and all, back at Sakuya - who quite naturally leapt over it and thanks to her ability to fly remained in mid-air.

Glancing around you tried to come up with some sort of plan to fight this woman now that you were sure it was the real one and not a fake - a fake wouldn't have needed to dodge after all. The backstage area, unlike out front, was cluttered with plenty of things to use as cover and was also cut off from the rest of the shopping center thanks to a mix of heavy curtains and metal scaffolding crisscrossing all over. The curtains wouldn't be too hard to escape through if needed but they were heavy enough that one couldn't simply pass by without having to move them aside or cut a way through - hopefully that would limit Sakuya's flying some although they would make it harder to escape quickly under fire. Flandre was huddled down behind a set of speakers, her knees drawn up and her hands clutching at her head... It was obvious she was scared, worried and simply unable to run away even if the route under the stage - too small for you but perfect for her - was still clear.


WHAT NOW BOY, WHAT NOW.
[ ] Lure Sakuya to the front of the stage.
[ ] Lure Sakuya through the side-curtains.

[ ] Grab Flandre and escape to the front.
[ ] Grab Flandre and escape through the side.

[ ] Stand and Fight - Baraika (Ranged)
[ ] Stand and Fight - Zai Bassha (Melee)

ANOTHER TEMPERATURE.
Hot, Warm, Cool, Cold