Incident pt. Final
A/N:
Final part of this arc. It was a long journey, so I plan to end it right.
Enjoy the chapter!
This is 10500 words long...
=======================
Viewing: The Comedic Judge of The Underground
Sans was flying through the halls of the scarlet devils mansion at a breakneck speed. His tattered clothes fluttered wildly, and his white hair repeatedly got in the way.
"No matter how many times I fix it, it just keeps coming back. I might have to invest in a hair tie or somethin..."
It was a bit longer than when he first came to Gensokyo, and sans thought of it as a measurement of his stay. Now, however, it was a bit of a hinderance.
Fixing it for the seventh time, he focused his sight ahead. At the end of the long hallway was a massive staircase. Seeing faint red light coming from the top, it was easy to deduce that this was the stairs to the roof.
"Is that where I'm supposed to go? Hmm, lemme look around a little bit more-"
As he finished that sentence, a massive energy signature engulfed his senses, causing a chill to go down his spine. Sans looked back at the stairs, the source of the mana, and grimaced.
It was a direct call, beckoning whoever felt it. Almost pleading for someone, anyone to come up. The heavy mana, as dense, if not, even denser than the king of monsters, weighed down on him immensely. If sans was to be blunt, it was kinda terrifying.
"Heheh, this is a feeling I haven't felt in a while... The feeling of an overwhelming foe. Though I think even Asgore when serious would flinch at that aura."
Recalling the brief spar he had with the king of monsters upon being hired as the judge, sans shook his head with exasperation.
Heart beating loudly, he checked his status before he met her.
____________________________
Sans the Judge
LV 10
ATK: 45
DEF: 13
HP: 25/25 (+15[NEW])
___________________________
His stats had certainly increased since the start of this incident, although the LV increase wasn't very appreciated.
"Welp. What else is there to do besides go up? I really hope this lady is a reasonable person, I'd hate to fight her."
Steering his blaster, he went up the stairs to confront The Scarlet Devil.
=========================
Viewing: The Shrine Maiden of Paradise
"Ugh! What a headache!"
Reimu flew out of the library with a sour expression. After defeating the librarian Patchouli, she extracted information from her regarding the scarlet mist. However, what she heard was beyond her expectations.
.....
....
...
..
.
"The Scarlet Mist?"
"Yeah, that's what I asked wasn't it?"
Patchouli tilted her head, confused.
"You came here without knowing what it is? How foolish."
"Stop messing around and tell me."
At the Hakurei's glare, patchouli gave in and briefly explained.
The Mistress of the house, Remilia Scarlet, wished for people to know of her might. Having just arrived months ago, very few people knew her strength.
The reason the mist was created was to attract strong individuals who could brave the fog and fight her, both asserting her presence, and driving away boredom.
Do note that most of this information is inaccurate due to patchouli entirely misinterpretating her request. The only truth to this explanation is that the mistress was bored and wanted to meet some interesting individuals.
The way in which that would happen- left completely to the librarians descretion- was entirely unexpected.
It is unknown whether this misinterpretation is an accident or intentional, but considering patchouli's reputed intelligence, it's most likely the latter.
However, upon hearing that the mist was harmful, nay, lethal to humans, Reimu's expression shifted. The air grew cold, and her eyes seemed to burn with righteous fury.
In a low, commanding tone, she ordered.
"Stop the mist. I won't say it twice."
Patchouli, expression unmoving, sighed and responded with zero emotional shift.
"I would if I could, but the mist is created using Remilia's mana; It stops when she stops. In other words, It's not up to me."
Hearing that, reimu turned around and flew towards the library entrance at max speed without another word.
Seeing this, patchouli sighed again, pulling out a book to read.
"Sigh. To just barge in and leave whenever you want. It seems this generations Hakurei is quite the handful. Hopefully Remilia can handle it. That red-white shrine maiden is strong."
.....
....
...
..
.
Blitzing down the hall, Reimu frantically searched for the creator of the mist. Looking for even a hint of vampire, she nearly turned the entire first floor upside down.
Luckily for her however, she didn't need to search the second floor for long. Feeling a heavy presence wash over her, she looked up, and with a sinister glare, muttered to herself.
"Found you."
*Click*
*Click*
*Click*
Before she could continue, however, the sounds of heels clicking entered her ears. Looking towards the source of the sound, she faced a woman with white hair in blue maid attire.
"Sorry, the mistress is not currently taking visitors. I'm afraid you must leave."
At this, reimu scowled.
"Oh, just try and stop me."
======================
Viewing: The Comedic Judge of The Underground
Sans touched down on the roof of the mansion. Straight ahead of him lay the sole proprietor of this mansion and those who live in it. The small platinum haired girl floated in the air with her massive bat wings, boldly showing off her vampiric nature.
Sans sweated, as the powerful aura was even more menacing up close. Clearing his throat, he spoke.
"Heya."
Remilia looked back at him, red eyes gleaming with unknown emotion. Sans flinched for a moment, his entire body on edge, but continued speaking.
"You're the boss of this place right? Do you mind having a small chat?"
At sans' words, Remilia turned around and stared directly into his eyes, before smiling.
"You wish for me to stop the mist, correct? Unfortunately there's not much to discuss then."
At this, sans' eyes go dark, and his courteous smile falters. With a melancholic expression, he mutters.
"You won't stop unless I make you, right?"
"You know it well." Remilia nodded.
"Y'know, we really don't have to do this."
Sans looked up at the vampire.
"Whatever you're trying to achieve, there's gotta be a better way right? Doesn't it bother you at all that people are dying because of your actions? Doesn't that get under your skin?"
Remilia, looking slightly confused, answered with an apathetic tone.
"No. Why would it?"
She smiled.
"After all, I am vampire, a noble of the night. Why should I care about what those lower species are going through?"
At those words, sans felt something in his soul burn. His left eye lit ablaze with blue fire, staring back into Remilias crimson gaze.
"Does being above others justify tormenting them? That's a real sick mentality you got going on there. Reminds me of someone I know."
Grinning so wide his face nearly split, sans rebuked remilia with a venomous tone, to which she merely replied with an eery, silent smile.
"Heh, I guess there's no more point in talking then."
Sans raised his hand and summoned two massive skeletal dragon skulls.
"I'll do everything in my power to stop you."
Remilias smile widened, red eyes glowing with terrifying might.
"I look forward to it."
""Danmaku!""
############################
Sans had no time to wonder at the feeling of protection offered by the danmaku system. Immediately, the laser skulls at his side fired at Remilia, prompting her to dodge to the side.
Remilia wasted no time either, responding by shooting a volley of massive scarlet bullets. Wide eyed, sans hops on a blaster and takes flight.
Weaving though the attack perilously, he begins firing his own bullets. A hail of bones crash down on the vampire. At first, she merely shrugs it off, but soon moves away with a disgruntled expression.
"This is...!"
"What's wrong? Sins crawling up your spine?"
Remilia hears the skeletons voice from behind before losing control of her body. Sans swings his hand and sends her flying into the roof of the mansion.
*Thud* *Crack*
Remilia stands from the rubble almost completely unharmed, and looks at her opponent while smiling.
"This must be the Karmic retribution I heard so much about."
"!!"
Before sans could ask how she knew, she raised her hands towards him and fired a supermassive blast of red energy. Sans narrowly dodges by leaping off of his blaster, but is soon caught in the sights of another bullet.
Summoning a skull to defend himself, he feels it nearly crumble under one bullet.
"Just one of those would be lethal...!"
Feeling a sense of urgency, sans summons a massive bone pillar beneath Remilia, interrupting her third shot. Having been interrupted, Remilia looks briefly annoyed, and grabs the pillar with both hands, before violently pulling it apart.
Sans watches the pillar wider than he is get split down the middle with an incredulous expression.
Three blasters appear above Remilia and attempt to fry her with all their might. But before they can fire, one is shattered by a supermassive bullet, and the other two miss her as she flies through the opening.
Looking down at sans with a haughty glare and wicked grin, Remilia taunts him.
"That's quite impressive skeleton. But it's nowhere near enough."
Sans flinches again as she calls him by his true species. As sweat drops down his back, Remilia continues.
"I think I am done playing around now. Shall we get serious?"
"I don't know, this pace rather suits me?"
Sans' banter goes unanswered, and the surroundings trembled as Remilia gathers mana. The atmosphere thickens, as primal energies fill the air. Sans struggles to swallow his spit, and prepares himself mentally.
And finally, the moment came. An explosion of scarlet energy rang out, as an absurd amount of bullets rained down on the poor skeleton. For a few seconds, sans just stood there, gobsmacked. When he came to his senses, he realized that he could actually die here.
Recognizing the threat, his survival instinct kicked in, and his body moved on its own.
Flying into the barrage, he summoned a separate blaster and beamed a hole through the initial pattern. Things only got more difficult from there, as a zig zag pattern of large red bullets and interweaving blue bullets assaulted him from nearly every direction.
His senses buzzed with stimulation, as the bright lights only served to distract him. He tried his very best to dodge or block everything he saw, but there were some things that he just couldn't predict.
-10
One bullet. One bullet and nearly half of his HP was gone. Searing pain enveloped his side and his mind was blinded by panick. Unable to dodge the continuing onslaught, he franticly retrieved a spell card and casted it.
"Marrow sign - the bone zone!"
In an instant, the entire bullet pattern was erased, replaced by a furious storm of bone bullets. Remilia was swept away in surprise and completely lost track of her target.
Sans put his hands on his knees and breathed heavily. The wound on his side ached, but not as badly as it should've. In fact, with how much it hurt regardless of the spell card system, he was certain It would've killed him any other time.
Trying to regain his breath, he shivered when he felt a gaze land on him.
"Found you."
Teleporting away just in time for a large bullet to pass through where he just was, sans manipulated a dozen blasters to fire directly into the bone zone, hoping at least one of them would hit.
However Remilia simply flew through it. even as it seared her skin, she merely shrugged it off.
He clenched his fists and muttered.
"Still not enough huh...? Gimme a break."
"This is quite fun. Do entertain me more skeleton."
"if you're clamoring for entertainment, how about a couple of jokes? Here's one, what did the skeleton say to the vampire?"
Sans attempted to buy time for a plan, but unfortunately, Remilia didn't seem to be a great audience.
Raising her hand, a spiral of daggers burst out, nicking sans' cheek as he stumbled to get out of the way.
"'You suck!'- woah!"
Another knife nearly imbedded itself in his arm. Sans didn't know how much the spell card system would help there.
'This is bad...' sans muttered to himself.
Attempting to gain distance was no use, their range was the same. Attempting to outgun her was foolish, she dwarfed him in mana and ATK. Tricks and strategies mean nothing in the face of overwhelming strength. And outlasting her was impossible for obvious reasons.
If this kept up, sans would lose.
His mind faltered for a second, and in the next instant, a magic dagger stabbed into his leg, prompting a groan.
-7
Sans fell to one knee, unable to fully support himself. Looking towards the source of his pain, a wall of bullets was about to make impact. In a moment of desparation, he pulled out his newest and strongest spell card.
"Energy Sign - All Out Plasma Pummeling!!"
Dozens of blasters and supermassive bone structures appeared in the sky. With a sense of urgency, sans fired with all his might. The bones and bullets collided and canceled out, while the lasers focused directly on the vampire, who looked on with a face of shock and intrigue.
But that was all.
In a split second, Remilia held out a hand, and an elaborate crimson spear appeared in her hand.
With a single swing, the two forces collided, resulting in a blinding explosion brighter and louder than the clash with Sakuya. Terrifying winds blew in every direction, and heat scorched everything in sight.
Unable to resist the extreme winds, Sans was blown off his blaster, only just narrowly catching himself with a bone platform.
In the end, sans sat on the roof in awful condition. Scratches and first degree burns all over his body, a large bruise on his side, and a stab wound in his leg. There's no need to mention the state his clothes are in, they just barely made it.
Sans looked up at his opponent while breathing heavily. Remilia stood a couple meters away from him, twirling her crimson spear in hand.
"That was quite the show."
Sans looked up.
"I.. huff... Aim to impress.. huff..."
"And impress you did. Ive seen everything I wanted to see."
Remilia complimented sans with a smile.
Hearing this, san clenched his fists, shading Remilia in a deep blue.
"Thats nice, but I'm not done yet."
Ordinarily, nobody would be dumb enough to continue fighting in such a beat up condition, including sans.
Ordinarily, that is.
However, in such a situation, where hundreds of peoples lives depend on him, failure can't be considered an option. He had to push himself. If he couldn't succeed, he had to die trying.
That was the determination he said he'd move forward with.
With a flick of his wrist, Remilia flew backwards with a shocked expression. At the same time, a bone rose from the ground, slamming into Remilias stomach and taking her skywards. With painful Karma flooding her being, she failed to react to another bone falling directly above her.
*THUD*
The pincer attack succeeded, as Remilia was caught and slammed between the two bone pillars. This gruesome attack that would have turned any other youkai to paste, merely knocked the wind out of her.
But for sans, that was an opportunity more valuable than gold.
Quickly, he surrounded the stunned vampire with a ring of blasters and bones, not unlike the spell card he used earlier. And with as much energy as he could muster, sans swung his arm, hoping that this did the trick.
*BWOOOOM*
A bright light appeared above the manor, causing any bystanders to look away.
Sans pressed even harder on his nearly empty mana tanks, dragging out the attack as long as he could.
And at some point, when he was almost completely empty, a chilling voice spread out.
"That's ENOUGH."
From within the center of the attack, a red glow began shining, and with one mighty pulse, the surrounding blasters were completely destroyed.
Not just the blasters. Everything within a certain radius was turned to rubble, as the pulse of condensed mana destroyed everything in it's path.
When it ended, sans looked up at Remilia, and felt a shiver run down his spine.
"Just what the hell are you made of...?"
Remilia, now bearing burns all over her body, looked down at sans with glowing eyes and spoke.
"A shame. Truly a shame. I wasn't going to do this, but you went and pushed my patience."
Remilia reached behind her back, seemingly retrieving something.
"Had you just accepted your loss, no one would've had to lose their life today. I might've even taken you under my wing."
When her hand came out again, she was holding a spell card in her hand.
"However, you've proved such ideas unfeasible, as such a smear on my honor cannot be left unpunished. You entertained me well skeleton, and as such, I shall provide you the honor dying by my own prided spell card."
Goodbye.
"Scarlet Gensokyo."
And with that, the sky turned red.
Sans looked up, and chuckled to himself.
'Now how in the hell am I supposed to dodge that? That's gotta be cheating.'
Ruffling his hair in confusion, he went deep in thought.
Sans contemplated how he could do this, how could he win? And yet at this moment, his mind was drawing blanks.
Dodging was impossible in his state, blocking would be stupid, and the only spell cards hes got are either used up, or-
"Wait..."
Reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a gold-rimmed card with a familiar illustration of an elaborate sun-soaked hall.
"Is this really my last hope? Man, that's annoying."
Sans grit his teeth in frustration. The reason he hadn't used this card earlier was simple.
He didn't want to.
Let alone the bad memories associated with the place, just carrying a picture of it makes it feel like he never left. The fact that Marisa described it as "the culmination of ones life and experiences" makes him feel like shit.
For better or worse, Its what defined him; a manifestation of the worst mistakes he's ever made coming back to bite him. He promised to never look back at this place, that he'd change for the better.
Using this spell card felt like a betrayal of his own word.
"Welp."
Clenching his fist, he muttered under his breath.
"This is why I hate making promises."
Holding out the card, he muttered it's name in a low voice full of regret.
"Last Word - Judgment Ha-"
"Spirit Sign - Fantasy Seal!"
"!?"
From somewhere unknown, a multitude of truly gargantuan rainbow colored spheres flew towards the sky. The moment they made contact with the bullets from Remilias spell card, they exploded into large multicolored shockwaves.
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
Sans watched in awe at the seemingly insurmountable spell card being swiftly and colorfully dismantled.
Just a moment ago, he was struggling to decide on whether or not to use his last word. And now here he is watching his problems just disappear.
On one hand, he's relieved to not have to use it, but at the same time, it feels like his internal strife earlier was for nothing, filling him with a strange sense of emptiness.
"Huh... Guess that's life for ya."
As sans watched the spectacle, someone spoke to him from behind.
"Hey."
Turning around, he saw a young woman in red and white shrine maiden attire. The matching ribbon went well with her dark brown hair.
He knew who this was. Her entry in the Gensokyo Chronicles was quite impactful, so it'd be hard not to remember her.
But surprisingly, her stance was outright hostile. With crossed arms and furrowed brows, the frown on her face seemed permanent. It appeared she was in a bad mood.
"Are you okay?"
But contrary to her appearance, the words that came out were rather caring. The tone was a bit sharp, but still caring.
"Ehh.. could be better."
He was currently covered head to toe in cuts and burns.
At his words, she pulled out a slip of paper and threw it at his forehead. Feeling it stick, sans asked what it was.
"Healing talisman. Don't take it off. I won't give you another one."
+1
"Huh. Thanks pal."
"Yeah yeah, just stay here. I have a job to do, so don't get in the way."
"Gotcha."
At sans' response, the young woman flew up to fight Remilia.
"So that's the shrine maiden huh. Not quite what I was expecting, but it seems like she's a good person, if not a little rude."
The moment sans saw her, he felt all tension leave his body.
Why?
Because the moment Reimu arrived, the situation was already solved.
One thing sans remembered from the shrine maidens entry in "Gensokyo Chronicles", was what people called her.
To quote the book, 'When it comes to hunting down troublemakers, she could be considered the strongest.'
+1
"So I guess there's not much I need to do from here on."
Feeling that his role has finally come to an end, sans falls on his ass and relaxes for the first time in what feels like months.
With his mana practically empty, sans is unable to fight and unable to leave. And even though he felt the talisman restore his mana to an extent as well, it wasn't enough to fuel the trip home on his blaster. So he just watches the two women fight with curious eyes.
Remilia seems to be getting crushed, which brought a smile to sans' face.
"Thankfully Reimu's strength is the real deal. The way she just narrowly dodges the attacks, seemingly on purpose, shows she has more than just skill."
Experience. It was something sans was sorely lacking in this fight, and something he saw in Reimu's performance. Putting aside the inferior firepower, mana, and endurance, sans couldn't have won, simply because he was too new.
It may sound like an excuse, but he learned how to spell card duel THIS MORNING. And while he's managed to scrape by some how, he could only get so far before facing something he cant beat with skill alone.
He needs experience. How to dodge optimally, when to counter, where to look for maximum view coverage, how to keep your cool when getting overwhelmed, the type of things you learn across multiple battles.
Before arriving in Gensokyo, he only fought a couple of times due to his status defect, which made him good at dodging, but not so much at everything else. The performance he displayed was the product of his own skill and asgores training.
"But asgore didn't teach me how to fight with scorched eyeballs. How the hell was i supposed to dodge that spell card? Just looking at it hurt my eyes."
Sans assumed the answer fell back down to "experience".
Getting frustrated at his thoughts going in circles, he focuses his attention back on the fight above him.
"I still feel a little bad just doing nothing in this situation, but there's not much I can do. Or, is there? Wait a sec."
Suddenly remembering something, he pulls out a different card, left aside due to its unpredictable nature. Unlike the last word, he couldnt tell anything from its name or illustration.
Soul Sign - A Past Life's Resolve
A confusing depiction of a upright cyan colored heart with an inverted reflection beneath it colored yellow.
Wait yellow?
Wasn't it orange before?
This is exactly what he meant. He didn't even know what it did, and now it's changing? Was he supposed to put his life in the hands of this thing? At least the last word looked strong, this looks like a playing card.
"2 of hearts to be specific."
But still, he has no idea what it's trying to say.
What could it mean? What would it do?
His contemplation didn't last long. Hearing a scream in the distance, sans looks up to see that Reimu had taken a direct hit from Remilias spear, leaving a large gash in her stomach.
While her insides weren't quite spilling out, it seemed like it would leave a nasty scar if not healed properly.
A sense of urgency came over him as he saw Remilia smile before preparing to swing again.
"Welp, I don't know what it does, but there's only one way to find out. I just hope it doesn't take more mana than I have."
Chanting the card name, sans strangely didn't feel any drain at all. And yet, a yellow glow washed over him, healing him, changing him.
Beneath the scarlet moon, one skeleton underwent metamorphosis.
========================
Viewing: The Shrine Maiden of Paradise & The Scarlet Devil
Reimu glared at the vampire before her and spoke.
"How troublesome. You, and that crazy maid."
'That weirdo broke my purification rod...' she mumbled to herself.
"Maid? Surely you don't mean sakuya? Oh dear, I told her to stay still. That girl is so stubborn about the strangest things..."
"Enough of that. On top of the fact that you were about to break spell card rules and kill someone, you're also causing a human extinction event."
Reimu's voice went an octave lower and the air grew thick.
"I'm only going to say this once. Dispell the mist, and accept your punishment."
At Reimu's order, Remilia shuts her eyes tightly and trembles for a moment.
"You, a human, will punish me? Who do you think I am?"
Truthfully speaking, Remilia had gotten her fill of fun and was ready to concede. However, before the words left her mouth, her ego spoke first.
After all, how could a vampire submit to a mere human?
'This wretched mouth of mine!!!' The vampire mentally screamed.
Reimu sighs.
"I guess that's a no."
Lamenting having to do work on such a cold night, reimu pulls out a bundle of glowing talismans.
"Let's get this over with."
Remilia also brandishes her spear.
"Yes, allow me to teach you a lesson."
The tension in the air reaches its climax, as both combatants shout in unison.
""Danmaku!""
Reimu threw the paper slips in her hand, and Remilia shot her signature massive bullet.
The two projectiles clashed, and a surprisingly large explosion rang out.
Reimu immediately went on the offensive, following up with a multitude of talisman shaped bullets.
Remilia attempted to take them head on, but the moment one singed her skin upon contact, she dropped the idea and deflected the rest with her spear while making distance.
The shrine maiden wouldn't easily let her go however, as she chased her down across the sky throwing all sorts of talismans. Binding, explosive, and flaming. The variety was downright impressive, and all were very effective on Remilia.
The vampire attempted to counter with her own danmaku, but the strangest thing kept happening.
She was spraying bullets, large and small, in every direction, yet Reimu didn't seem the least bit pressured. It was like she was made of air the way bullets seemed to only just graze her.
Even the largest bullets only required the smallest movements, missing by just a margin. And that drove Remilia up a wall.
"Are you mocking me!?"
After taking an explosive talisman to the face, she finally lost her temper, and took out a spell card.
"Fine then! Let's see how you handle this!"
Reimu, anticipating the struggles ahead, braces her self with divine power.
"Scarlet Sign - Scarlet Shoot!"
"Wait, Scarlet Shoot...? Really?"
Reimu didn't have another moment to make fun of her naming sense however as 5 massive bullets burst out towards her.
Gracefully dodging the initial blasts, smaller, slower bullets continued to assault her as another barrage of supermassive bullets continued to come out, each one faster than the last.
Eventually, they get so fast that reimu has to focus all of her efforts into dodging them, unable to fire bullets of her own.
And this is exactly what Remilia was waiting for.
Firing one last bullet, she quickly trails behind it. The moment Reimu dodged, her eyes widened as Remilia appeared directly in front of her, spear poised to attack.
Not expecting her to close in so fast, she quickly reached for her purification rod. But instead of sleek wood, Reimu felt nothing.
'Godamnit.'
"AAAAGH!!"
Staggering back, Reimu began doubting whether the spell card system was activated. Even though she reinforced her body with divine power at the last second, it still hurt like hell, causing her blood to boil with rage.
"Whats up with you hitting so hard!? We're not trying to kill each other here!"
Looking at Remilia prepared to attack again, she pulled a spell card out of her sleeve.
Just as the two were about to clash, a beam of yellow light cut between them. Although, it seemed more aimed towards the vampire, causing her to back off.
Both parties looked towards the source, causing confusion and intrigue.
The man Reimu just helped was standing on a strange skeletal creatures head. However, instead of the blue, tattered coat he was wearing, it seemed to have been fashioned into a bandana wrapped around his neck.
Instead of the shorts she previously saw him with, he wore pants with a rough looking texture. If someone from the outside were here, they'd recognize them as jeans.
The pink slippers that had accompanied him throughout his entire stay were somehow replaced with black sandals. The only thing that stayed the same was the white shirt he wore underneath.
Hell, even his aura was different. Compared to the lazy, lackadaisical vibe he gave off when they talked, this seemed unrestrained in a different way. More violent, yet calm. His eyes were sharp, but his posture was relaxed.
To sum it up in one sentence, if he seemed confidently lazy before, now he was stood up straight with a conviction that could kill.
Shocked by this complete flip in personality, Reimu and Remilia stared for a moment before sans pulled down the cloth covering his mouth with a grin.
"Looks like we got ourselves a Mexican standoff."
"...What the hell is a Mexican...?"
=======================
Viewing: The Comedic Judge of The Underground
'I think I understand what this card does now.'
Sans clenched his fist, newly gained strength flowed through his veins. He could clearly see why through his status.
_______________________
Sans the Sheriff
LV 10
ATK: 65 (+20 [NEW])
DEF: 13
HP: 20/20
*The Judge, having lost his PATIENCE, seeks to enact JUSTICE through his own hands. Deliver swift and just punishment to all sinners, as a true sheriff should.*
_____________________________
"I wonder who's writing these prompts? The philosophical weight is no joke."
Jokes aside, sans had mixed feelings about this transformation. On one hand, +20 ATK is by no means a small increase. That's almost half of his previous atk stat. On the other hand, 5 less HP is extremely concerning.
Against an opponent with extremely high attack power, less HP is more than just a burden. Two solid attacks will put him 6 feet under. Such overwhelming strength cannot be undermined.
"So the solution seems clear."
Overwhelm the enemy first.
"Hey, I told you to stay out of this." Reimu scolded sans, who ignored her warnings.
"I would've, had you not gotten hurt."
"Do you think it's my first time getting hit? I've endured far worse than this, so get lost- woah!"
Narrowly dodging another bullet from Remilia, she hijacked the conversation.
"So you've got a new look. Am I supposed to be intimidated?" Remilia taunts sans, seemingly entertained by the situation.
"Nah, but I would be worried. It's 2 on 1."
"You think a numbers advantage would be effective against a being like me?"
Sans chuckles while discreetly glancing at Reimu, who seems to have accepted his intrusion reluctantly.
"Who knows?"
Ding
Sans vanishes from his place.
"You could be caught off guard."
"A trick like that won't work twice...!?"
Whipping around while swinging her spear Remilia shouts. However, while it does cut through something, it's not quite what she expected.
A bundle of bones made to imitate sans' figure was cut in half, while the real thing was nowhere to be found.
Feeling a presence from behind, Remilia attempts to turn, but it's too late.
_______________
Shot type B
Bullet: Handheld plasma cannon
Spell card: Master Gunslinger
______________
"Justice sign - Master Gunslinger!"
A dozen miniature blasters aimed directly at her and repeatedly fired yellow plasma bullets in rotation, searing her skin and sending her hurtling through the air as the attack follows her path.
Staggering at the poison-like Karma, which was stronger than before, she struggles to regain her bearings, leaving her open for Reimu to swoop in and tie her up with binding talismans.
Remilia attempts to break the restraints before feeling herself lose control of her body.
Thrown up into the air, sans and reimu surround her with bullets and lasers.
-BANG
A cloud of smoke hovers over the mansion, with sans and reimu standing side by side just at it's perimeter.
"Huff. Not bad. But I had it handled.
"maybe so, but it doesn't sit well with me to do nothing while someone fights for me."
"sigh, help yourself then."
Remilia flies out of the smoke at mach speeds, shooting a large bullet at reimu while brandishing her spear against sans.
While reimu is forced to dodge, sans must face the vampire alone.
"Take a quick break, I'll take care of it for a bit."
"Jeez. I said I had it handled y'know."
Sans tells reimu to nurse her wounds while he fights the vampire, to the shrine maidens annoyance and relief.
"At least I won't have to worry about scars."
Stepping off to the side, he avoids Remilias thrust, before teleporting away from the follow up swing.
Quickly tracking where he went, Remilia attempts to mow him down with a blistering amount of bullets. Red, blue, large and small, it's different from anything sans has ever seen.
But sans is different too.
Standing on a single bone platform, four small blasters--about the size of his head--appeared behind him. Looking ahead at the wall of bullets approaching him, sans does not feel apprehension like last time, but confidence.
He could see it. Something that wasn't there before. Whether it was his lack of confidence, or skill, it was now visible to him.
A path forward.
Crouching down, sans waited. And waited. The bullets were closing in, but he couldnt move yet.
Not yet.
...Not yet.
...Now!
Leaping off of his platform, he ran across the sky, creating bones beneath him as he ran.
Neatly dodging large bullets with as little movement as possible, he blasted away smaller bullets that threatened to close in on him.
Focusing less on his immediate surroundings and more on the incoming bullets, sans let his body move on its own while his mind did all the work.
These techniques were ones he saw reimu do not too long ago. His application of these moves were shoddy at best, especially considering they were meant to be used while flying, but they were working.
"Something is different..."
While zipping through the barrage, sans thought something seemed different about himself. This shouldn't be this easy. Before, he was struggling to even move his body in time. But now, there was almost zero delay between a thought and an action.
Sans quickly closed the distance, and soon he found himself no longer in immediate danger. Taking aim, a multitude of yellow plasma bullets assaulted Remilia, who grunted and tried to move away, but sans stayed glued to her, even when she began concentrating her bullets on him.
Copying Reimu's techniques, he merely grazed the bullets while retaliating with his own, bones and lasers constantly harassing the opposition.
Eventually, when Remilia looked battered enough, she let out a mighty screech, sending out a destructive mana pulse that crushed sans' bullets and forced him to take distance.
"I REFUSE to be trampled like this!"
Watching as Remilia pulled out another spell card, sans furrowed his brows before relaxing. In return, he took out a blank spell card.
"Shall we go gambling?" He muttered to himself.
"This time, I'll make sure there's no trace of you!" Remilia aimed at sans as he created a new spell card.
Flooding the card with mana, it shines brightly before settling down. Upon looking at the name and illustration, sans puts on a shit-eating grin.
Remilia raises her voice and chants.
"Scarlet Sign - Red Magic!"
Twelve massive magenta orbs burst out from the center of the card, leaving a trail of small red bullets in their path, which moved randomly and sporadically.
"Ohh, but If it was just that, it would have been too easy..."
The magenta orbs bounced around on invisible walls all over the place, making them not only an nuisance, but an active hazard.
Spawning a bone staff in his hand, he dashed forward while knocking away bullets.
To continue his thoughts from earlier, it wasn't his imagination, sans' body had indeed changed. His thoughts were clear, and his actions sharp. He was fast, crazy fast! It was a level above his previous form in terms of physical might, carrying a sort of conviction.
He didn't know if it was a buff from the JUSTICE soul trait or something else, but he was incredibly grateful.
Nearly getting hit and sighing at the fact that people can come up with such troublesome spell cards, he put his body into action. Sans has a plan.
====================
Viewing: The Shrine Maiden of Paradise
Reimu watched all of this with a curious expression.
She was currently sitting back with a healing talisman attached to her belly. That combined with her divine energy as a shrine maiden of the Hakurei God, and she was already fully healed without a scratch.
Even if she continued fighting without breaks, so long as she didn't get hit again, she would have been perfectly fine by the end of the fight.
That's how strong divine power is.
As she watched sans run across the sky, sometimes riding that strange creature, sometimes upon a platform of bones, she thought back to her younger days.
The times when she couldn't fly on her own and had to ride on that old turtles back, the ungraceful yet nimble movements, and the close calls that seemed more like luck than skill.
Yes, Reimu saw her younger self in this man whom she just met. Although, compared to him, she would've taken quite the beating already. Remilia is no joke y'know?
While she was reminiscing about the past, she noticed the battle seemed to take an odd turn. The white haired man was clearly starting to get pressured, and the vampire was gaining the lead.
It got even worse when he took a direct hit from an attack. Leaning on his bone pole, he looked up in fear as bullets closed in from all sides. Remilia smirked as though this was the end, but Reimu knew better.
"What a slimy guy, seriously."
In the hand hidden behind his back, there was a pale yellow card with an illustration of a man shooting a gun, and ricocheting the bullet back into his own head.
And the name of the card?
Sans' face of panick swiftly changed into a smug, shit-eating grin as he pulled out the card and spoke it's name.
"Karma Sign - Sinners Rebuke!"
Instantly, all the bullets in the surrounding froze.
Remilia's eyes widened with shock, and Reimu looked slightly surprised as well.
"A return to sender type card huh? Lucky."
As she predicted, the frozen bullets shifted from red to yellow. Remilia, seemingly recognizing what just happened, stepped back in disbelief, but sans refused to let go.
Teleporting behind her, a series of bones and small blaster covered her flank, leaving her truly surrounded.
Recognizing the situation, Remilia tried to break through one side of the encirclement, when Reimu flew in behind her and slapped a binding talisman on her back. With her limbs locked and her own bullets acting against her, she looked betrayed.
The white haired stranger shot reimu a look of appreciation, before flicking his wrist.
"That's game."
The yellow bullets began to home in on remilia like an angered hive, and she had no time to react before being pummeled by bullets from all sides.
She couldn't even scream as a deafeningly massive explosion rang out above the mansion.
.....
....
...
..
.
"You stopped producing the mist?"
"...yes..."
"Good."
Reimu was currently scolding the downtrodden Remilia, who seemed like she was about to cry.
"Don't look at me like that! If didn't want this to happen, you shouldn't have done it!"
"...yes..."
For someone who was threatening human extinction just a couple minutes ago, she looked rather cute. Of course, sans wanted to beat her up a little bit more, but that's not how things work around here.
"Oh, thanks for the help by the way." Reimu thanked sans for doing her job for her, explaining that she was already tired from the multiple fights she's had on the way here.
"Nah, don't sweat it. You did most of the damage anyway, I basically swooped in and stole your thunder." Sans admitted.
"I don't care about that, any work I don't have to do is good work." She waved her hand dismissively.
'Should a shrine maiden have such a laid back view on work? I mean, same, but that's not exactly a good thing.'
Anyway, the situation at it's root was resolved, now there was only one thing left to do.
"Gotta head back to the village!"
"Oh, yeah, you're right."
Sans, hopped on a blaster and rocketed off at a speed incomparable to the start of his journey, with reimu in close pursuit.
With a stern warning to not try anything, and that they'll administer her punishment later, they left a roughed up Remilia sitting on the roof of her mansion with a sad face.
"If only I just kept my mouth shut..."
========================
Viewing: The Ordinary Magician.
"Phew! I finally made it...! But... Something seems a little..."
Marisa floated in front of her house with an exasperated expression. Her house was almost entirely submerged in scarlet mist.
"Ugh, I really don't want to go in there... The feeling of foreign mana entering the body is so disgusting..."
Marisa had already discerned the nature of the mist, identifying it as foreign mana.
As she said, the feeling of ingesting mana that doesn't belong to you is incredibly revolting, to the point of madness. She concluded that this was what's driving the youkai crazy.
"Of course, when you're strong enough, you can just expell it from your body, which is why there aren't any powerful youkai running around going crazy."
The problem is that this mist was made to infiltrate the body and stay there. Everyone, even powerless humans, dispell foreign bodies automatically. But something like the mist, which was made with malice, is too much for people who cant expell it manually.
"that just makes it more gross... Aargh!!! Let's just get it over with!!"
Marisa held her breath and attempted to charge in, when all of a sudden-
Whoosh
Tilting her head backwards, a yellow bullet flew by before crashing into a tree.
-THUD
"Who the hell..."
Marisa scarily glared into the darkness where the magic came from.
From within, came a short blonde-haired girl in a black vest and skirt, which contrasted with the white blouse she wore underneath. Her red eyes gleamed as she revealed herself from the mist.
"Its a beautiful night tonight. Youkai are stalking, owls are hooting..."
The youkai of dawn, Rumia grins widely, displaying her razor sharp teeth.
"On nights like these, foolish humans like you... Should be-"
"Listen, now is not a good time for this. If you wanna fight, you can you come back later."
Marisa, having lost her patience, interrupts Rumia before turning back towards her house.
"Hmph."
Rumia holds up her hand and an orb appears. Marisa barely had time to look back before she was forced to dodge, a laser narrowly scratching her skin.
"Oh fr? Bring it!"
Marisa reaches into her pouch, but doesn't feel what she's looking for. Her mini-hakkero isnt even working, let alone present.
Looking back and forth between Rumia and her shack, she mutters.
"Shit..."
Clenching her strangely empty hand, Marisa resolves herself and glares at the youkai opposite of her, who doesn't seem to realize what's happening.
""Danmaku!""
The battle begins and immediately Marisa begins spewing magic missiles at Rumia, who responds by blasting her with crimson bullets.
Taking to the skies, Marisa nimbly dodges the fast moving bullets, taking extra care to not get hit.
"I don't have enough mana to blow on shields. If get too reckless, I won't be able to fly anymore. I'll lose for sure if that happens..."
Manipulating an orb to appear behind her, she fires off a laser, landing directly on Rumias face.
"Ugh! Not more lasers!"
"Huh? The hell is she talking about, that's my first one?"
Multiple omnidirectional bursts of blue bullets fly out from Rumia, who pursues Marisa angrily.
Surprised, she dives into the treeline, weaving in and out of cover to dodge the bullets while lasering Rumia from corners.
Marisa peaks out from behind a tree, and comes face to face with multiple lasers. Hastily flying up out of the tree line, she sweat drops at seeing a dozen trees fall over.
"There you are."
Hearing a voice from behind her, she swiftly creates a shield. Rumia closes in, and attempts to scratch her with unnaturally sharp nails. They only reach the shield, but the blue translucent material shatters at her touch.
Countering with a laser to the face, she hastily retreats while firing magic missiles.
Covering her face, Rumia roars and rushes towards Marisa with a spell card in hand.
Marisa, seeing this, panicks and begins running away, flooding her broom with magic to keep distance.
"Night Sign - Night bird!"
Rumia swings her hand, and a wave of blue and cyan bullets fly towards Marisa at high speeds. Clutching her broom, she engages in high skill dodging maneuvers.
Zigzagging left and right, she zips through the gaps while firing magic missiles.
At this point Marisa has dealt a lot of damage, and Rumia begins to falter, but so does she.
Using shields and going this fast is a heavy strain on her mana, and now shes starting to suffer the effects. Just as shes about to dodge another bullet, her broom stops responding.
"Huh? Fuck, already!?"
Marisa has installed a failsafe on her broom. Whenever her mana reaches below 5%, it's stops completely. This was to prevent it from absorbing too much magic and sending her into mana deprivation, but now it was screwing her over.
Completely frozen in the air, Marisa had to lean all the way back to dodge a bullet, and kicked the brooms hairs with her heel twice. This disengaged the mechanism, but it didn't fix her anxiety. She was still low on mana. She was going to lose.
Quickly spinning the gears in her mind, she came up with a bold, if not reckless plan. But with no time to further polish it, she immediately put it into plan.
Turning her broom around, Marisa charged into Rumias spell card before immediately blasting upwards.
Rumia, confused, tiredly chased after her while shooting her bullets.
The two gained higher altitude, and once she reached a sufficient point, marisa deactivated her broom completely, riding out the inertia.
Slightly straining her mana, marisa fired a full power laser into the youkais face, stinging her eyes and catching her off guard. As Marisa fell into the briefly blinded Rumia, she recalled her broom using an enchantment, and enhanced her physical might with the last of her magic power.
The last thing Rumia saw upon regaining her vision was the hairs of a broom.
-THWACK
.....
....
...
..
.
"Uuuurgh..."
Marisa was currently lying on the forest floor.
Groaning in agony.
"Not my best landing, I'll admit..."
In fact, she had fell nearly 70 meters face first into the dirt. Luckily, she had hit a couple tree branches on the way down, and the physical enhancement only ended after the fall. Even then, it couldn't have been painless.
"Ugh, okay, let's see where we ended up...?
Shakily standing up, she looked around to see where she was, only to find herself 20 steps away from her house.
"Well aren't I lucky...? Cough cough. Oh God, the mist..."
The abhorrent mist began to infiltrate her lungs, filling her with evil mana. It was disgusting to the highest degree.
"Gag, oh God. I can see why those youkai went crazy now. It feels like something, no, someone is under my skin. It's just downright awful."
Expelling the foreign mana from her body as much as possible, she trudged towards her shop/home.
Entering through the front door, she stepped past the piles and heaps of stuff she was 100% going to use later, and looked in a specific pile of garbage- I mean valuables.
After a moment, she pulled out what she was looking for.
"Mini-hakkero acquired! Now I just need to figure out what's wrong with it... Oh jeez."
Marisa scratched her head as she thought over what could have caused it to bug out. She already did a ton of regular maintenance, but even the usual fixes didn't do anything. So she thought about external factors
She carried it around till the afternoon, and up until then the only thing she used it for was flying, after which it just completely stopped working.
"It's strange. It's not like I did anything to break it. The only thing I did was spar with sans, and even then, I didn't use it."
"Hmmm... *COUGH* *GAG* oh fuck me!! This damn mist!!"
Expelling it from her body once more, she looked back at the octagonal wooden block, and flinched.
"Huh? What was that?"
For a moment, Marisa though she saw a hint of yellow. No, she was certain she saw yellow, everything was so red from the mist, it stuck out like a sore thumb. It faded quickly, but it was there.
"How did that happen? Was it when I expelled the mist? But why would that do it?"
Wringing her brain for an answer, she decided to try imitating it. Allowing the mist to seep into her, she expelled all of it, and to her surprise something really did come out.
"Am I expelling something from hakkero? No way..."
Focusing intently on the block, she tried expelling any foreign bodies. She struggled to get a reaction at first, but eventually, golden smoke seeped out from the block, drawing a shocked reaction from Marisa.
"For real...? It was actually clogged? How could that happen??"
It was as she said. Theoretically, it was impossible for the mini-hakkero to get clogged. It's primary function, was to draw magic from the atmosphere and process it into heat and mana.
This meant any and all magic could be absorbed and repurposed into her own. (Of course, it couldn't just suck up an energy beam and spit back out. The absorption rate was incredibly slow and could not be increased.)
The only way it could get clogged was if it came across magic it couldn't process.
"Magic it couldnt process...?!"
Marisa looked at the fading golden smoke rise and disappear with an astonished expression.
When she thought about where it could have come from, only one detail from her day stood out.
"Sans, you got some explaining to do..."
Shaking her head, she ran out of her house as fast as her bruised body could take her and jumped on her broom. The mini-hakkero glowed, and Marisa took off into the sky at blistering speeds.
"It's time to put an end to this."
=======================
Viewing: The Comedic Judge of The Underground
Sans flew in the direction of the village with a tense expression, reimu behind him seemed more calm, but still had a sense of urgency.
The air between the two was awkward. Sans wanted to break the tension and say some jokes, but in this situation where people's lives were on the line, he felt it was a bit inappropriate to do so.
It seemed the shrine maiden was the opposite however.
"So who are you?"
"-whoa! Uh, the names sans. Nice to meet ya. And you must be the shrine maiden right?"
"Hakurei Reimu, just call me Reimu."
"Gotcha."
"Are you an outsider? Your clothing is quite odd."
Sans chuckled.
"Yeah. You figured it out way faster than Marisa did."
"Huh. Yeah, that sounds like her. She's real smart when it comes to magic, but in social aspects, shes a bit of a dunderhead. I didn't know you knew her."
"Yep. She's the one who taught me the spell card rules, although it's a bit of an unfinished job."
Reimu tilted her head.
"Unfinished?"
"She taught me a bit today, but it seems like she left out a few things."
Reimu's face froze, leaving sans confused.
"You only started learning it today...?"
"Yeah...?"
"And you thought it would be a good idea to fight a vampire?"
"Not just a vampire, but an ice fairy, gatekeeper martial artist, and time stopping maid. It's been a very eventful night."
"How are you still alive?"
"Heh, let's just say I had something to SAVE me when I most needed it."
"Why did you emphasize 'save' like that-"
-CRACK
Reimu and sans look ahead at the source of the sound. The village, now in close view, seemed to be surrounded by a large red barrier that was cracked all over.
"What the...?"
"That's..! Hahah, Marisa, you madman!"
"Huh? Do you know what that is?"
"How could I not? That's my Spell card. Unfortunately, however, it doesn't seem like it'll last much longer."
As she predicted, the barrier soon began to fall apart, and dozens of black dots they couldn't quite make out rushed into the village.
"Wait are those...?"
"Youkai!!"
The two began flying even faster than they already were, even straining themselves in the process.
But it's too late.
They were flooding into the village uncontrollably, and they couldn't do anything about it.
Yes. They couldn't.
"Love Sign!"
"Huh...?"
"MAAAA,
STEERRRR,
SPAAAAAARRRK!!!"
From directly above the village, a bright, pink colored light shimmered and glowed, steadily increasing in volume. Until finally, the magic was released.
A massive, rainbow colored laser of destruction washed over the village gates. The blast was so strong sans and reimu felt the heat even from where they were. The night sky was lit up, and the setting moon was nearly blotted out by the beams brightness.
The firepower was, in the purest sense of the word, overwhelming.
The youkai who were the target of such overwhelming firepower, were wiped out in a single blast. Although, since they're youkai, and not regular humans, they barely managed to survive.
Barely.
And even though the blast was so shocking, sans and reimu weren't concerned. Sans had seen an illustration of that spell card before, and Reimu has actually faced it.
They knew who did it.
Wiping the sweat off his brow, Sans followed Reimu to meet the blonde haired magician, who seemed surprised to see the two together.
.....
....
...
..
.
"Woah, so you were working on this incident too?"
Marisa seemed shocked to hear that sans was fighting to stop the mist as well. She expected Reimu, but the newbie she taught this morning? Not in her wildest dreams.
"Yep. I took quit the beating too. The vampire and her maid were crazy strong."
"He's not wrong about that. That bloodsucker landed a pretty good hit on me." Reimu replied from a distance as she analysed the state of the village.
Marisa seemed shocked.
"Whoa, even Reimu's agreeing with you?! You're not kiddin! To even scratch reimu requires a ton of effort!"
Marisa seemed to be rather experienced when it came to facing Reimu, proof of their long standing friendship.
"I've been pretty busy on my end too."
"I can tell."
Sans looked around. The mana-dense air, the falling barrier fragments, and the scorched land that used to be the front gate area. Not to mention the unconscious bodies of the youkai.
"You had your fair share of trouble too ey?"
Marisa groaned in agreement.
"Like you wouldn't believe. I almost died today y'know."
"Oof. Same." Sans grimaced. He didn't want to feel death a second time.
"Poor guy, that was probably your first time huh?"
Sans wanted to reply 'No.' but Marisa moved on already.
"Oh! Speaking of, is Keine okay!?"
"Shes fine."
Reimu joined back in the conversation, floating over after checking the damages.
"Just mana deprivation. It'll heal with a good night's sleep."
Marisa sighed in relief.
"Thank goodness. I was almost too late to help her. She really saved my skin back then, so I wanna thank her."
"You can thank her after she wakes up. She's out cold right now. Besides, we're not done yet." Reimu pointed out.
"Huh? Oh."
Looking at where she pointed, Marisa saw the mist slowly leaking into the village.
"Crap, what do we do about that!?"
"Quit your panicking, I'll handle this."
"Huh?"
Flying up towards the mist, reimu spoke out loud to Marisa.
"Your little imitation earlier was quite cute. But it still has a long way to go to match the real thing."
"Pshh, showoff..." Sans could her mutter under her breath, but instead, he focused on what reimu was doing. The unusual energy he had always felt coming off of her now radiated in visible waves.
A pale, crimson glow, inherently different from anything he had ever seen before. It gathered in such immense quantities, that sans had to squint his eyes.
Eventually, when the light reached its zenith, reimu put out her hands, and let out a mighty voice that seemed tinted with a mystical presence.
"Dream Sign - Evil Sealing Circle!"
A great wall of what could only be defined as divine energy washed over the landscape like a wave. The moment it reached the mist, the vile energy seemingly disappeared. No, disappear is the wrong word, it was purified. Transformed into a natural, healthier substance, and integrated into the environment, as if it never existed.
Like this, the wave continued far into the forest, purifying the abhorrent existence across a wide area.
"Phew. That's done, for now."
Reimu wiped her forehead with a proud expression, while sans and Marisa looked awed.
"Wow... Y'know, it's times like this that I remember you're a shrine maiden and can actually act like one."
"Haah💢?? What's that supposed to mean? How do I usually act??" Reimu glared daggers at Marisa.
"Like a lazy, penny-pinching brute?" However she either didn't notice, or was used to it and didn't care.
"Who are you calling a brute!?"
"So she doesn't deny being lazy and greedy..."
"I'm a lady damnit! A lady!!"
"You're a mad dog is what you are Hahaha- oh shit!"
Dodging a binding talisman, Marisa flies here and there while Reimu chases, leaving Sans to sit in a corner and relax while going over the events of today.
*Your mission is complete. You stayed true to your word and kept your promises, even making some friends in the process.
The darkness is receding, and the light of the future is shining brightly. Even though there were bumps along the way, you never completely lost your spark. This makes you confident that no matter what the path ahead holds, you'll be able to face it undaunted, as you have companions that will help you along the way.
Compared to before, when the uncertainty of the future filled you with dread, it now fills you with excitement.
You're filled with DETERMINATION.*
*File Saved*
A bright golden light washes over sans as he feels strength fill his body.
"Huh? What was that?"
"...!"
Reimu and Marisa looked over at sans who was briefly surrounded by a golden aura. Reimu looked intrigued as the gold energy was unlike anything she'd ever seen before, while Marisa seemed very shocked to see this again so soon.
As the aura faded and sans opened his eyes, he came face to face with the two women standing over him with questions all over their faces.
Sensing the incoming barrage of questions, he quickly deflects the conversation to something else.
"What-"
"By the way, what do we do with the fried youkai?"
Sans pointed to the unconscious youkai, who were beginning to stink up the place with the smell of burnt flesh. However, the response he got was rather unexpected.
"Oh, yeah. I'll just go and finish them off."
"!?!?"
Sans physically recoiled at Reimu's words.
"What do you mean 'finish them off'?"
"Exorcise them, duh. They tried to devour the village, I can't just let em off."
"Reimu, I'm pretty sure that was under the influence of the mist. They can't be blamed for that."
Marisa even jumped in with unknown facts, nervously trying to stop Reimu's unwarranted slaughter.
"Izzat so? Oh well, guess we can just throw em into the forest then."
Sans shivered at the switch from being totally on board with mass murder to letting them live. As reimu walked to go pick them up, sans looked at her back and decided to act on a suspicion he had.
And he couldn't believe his eyes.
___________________________
Hakurei Reimu, Shrine Maiden of Paradise
LV 15
ATK: 58
DEF: 32
HP: 80
*The Hakurei Shrine maiden, protector of Gensokyo, and blessed by the Hakurei God with a strong physique.*
*These guardians are solely dedicated to keeping their home safe from any and all threats, including youkai. Forced to exorcise so many villainous youkai in the name of protection, her perception of them has been altered significantly.*
*She no longer hesitates to exterminate them, especially when they're causing her trouble. She is often held back by others from going on rampages during mood swings.*
__________________________
"Oh good lord."
It wasn't quite as bad as he thought, but it still confirmed his suspicions.
Someone who doesn't hesitate to eradicate multiple people like that is someone who has high LV.
It was highly concerning that this lands protector was a slaughter enthusiast. Likely not of her own volition, if the check window could be trusted.
"Will everything be alright...?"
His excitement for the future was slightly shaken.
Arc 1 complete
===================
A/N:
So that's arc 1. Fucking finally huh? It only took 2 months. My bad, but when you dont feel like writing, what can you do? lol.
Jokes aside, I just wanna thank you all for sticking around up to this point. I wouldn't be surprised if some people dropped this book due to the lack of updates, for which I don't blame them. I would've done the same.
So for those of you who stayed, you're silly, but also thank you for being patient.
There's a brief interlude arc before we get to the next game in the touhou series, so prepare for some slice of life and training.
That said, if any of you are familiar with touhou, you'd know there's one more part of touhou 6 that we have not gone over. That will be next chapter. So stay tuned, we're going back to the mansion.