Library of the Scarlets

Scene 3

            While flying around my way around the humongous Misty Lake, I finally caught the sight of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. I flew down the edge of the lake where some water weeds were growing and continued looking at the view.

The giant circular white panel with two black “hands” (according to them) is already seen in the tallest tower.

They call it a “Clock”, an invention taken from the Outside World, which uses gears and ticks to tell the exact time even without the sun’s rays.

            The owners of this mansion are the Scarlet Sisters, namely Remilia Scarlet and her younger sister Flandre Scarlet. Both of them are the very vampires that once threatened Gensokyo in an incident few years ago.

It was me who first sneaked in her house and bursting right through Remilia’s throne room by beating every person in her household, including Patchouli, in Spellcard battles.

“…sa…”

And, with Reimu’s later appearance, both of us spoiled her plans, and even stopped her younger sister from rampaging after being locked for five hundred years in the basement. I really remembered how powerful everyone we fought was, and now both Reimu and I surpassed them.

“…marisa…”

And ever since, I got the hang of how to sneak inside the mansion without being caught *hee-hee*.

“MARISA!”

I was surprised that I almost fell from my broom. I looked behind me, and saw a young girl with bluish hair, as blue as the ice she had for wings.

It was the Ice Fairy named Cirno.

Fairies commonly appear around these parts, for this is still a part of the Forest of Magic, but Cirno is like a one of a kind fairy you would see mostly around the Misty Lake.

She is one of a kind fairy, for there is no other fairy as brave and yet at the same time as dumb as her. If I remember correctly, I already fought through her twice while investigation incidents and she lost to them both.

“Hey, are you insulting me again in your head?”, she shouted after reading my facial expression.

“I’m no—“

“Of course you are! Prepare to face the Leader of the Three Most Powerful Fairies!”

I had read about this in the newspaper earlier in a small caption on the last page. It was about a fairy shouting that she is the strongest, maybe after defeating the three most powerful fairies in the Forest of Magic, but it was just a filling news that isn’t even bothered to be long.

Must be one of Cirno’s stupidity acts, I thought.

            “Frost Sign ‘Frost Columns’!”

            She dropped down her hands to the ground and started a spellcard. Ice pillars began to rise from the ground beneath her and the range became wider and swallowed even the ground beneath me. More ice pillars rose and shattered to icicles that gave me shivers due to the drop in temperature.

            However, the spell didn’t hit me.

            “W—what?!”, she reacted.

            I raised my skirt a little and revealed that I was standing on my broom which was flying lowly.

            And her spell was bounded to the rules that it can only hit those standing on the ground directly. She really needs to read the description of her spell cards before using them.

            But I gotta admit, this spell looks pretty strong.

            While Cirno is shouting about “who the hell sets up these rules?!” to the sky, I just sneaked around her and flew straight to the mansion’s direction.

            “Not so fast, Ice Sign ‘Icicle Machine Gun’!”

            I looked behind me and saw numerous sharp icicles going straight to me. The first icicle grazed my arm when I looked behind, and learned that each of these icicles is sharper than knives.

            I quickly flew upwards and all the icicles that were aimed to me passed under my broom*1. Laughing silently, I left Cirno chasing me with her small and slow ice wings until she loses her motivation.

            …Hup!

            I jumped inside an open window of the mansion from behind.

            The entrance of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was patrolled by Meiling, the youkai who mastered martial arts, and is another fighter of the Scarlet household I defeated before, but I don’t want to spend time battling with her.

            I looked around and saw myself inside a familiar dark corridor lighted by few candles on the sides. To my left is a narrow staircase going down, and ends with a small wooden door. On the door was a pinned parchment paper with the words “Flandre’s Room” scribbled on it. I can also hear a faint cute snoring from the room.

            Of course, I turned to the deeper corridors in my right. Only someone as foolish as Cirno would want to wake Flandre up.

            I reached another door and opened it, and revealed a medium-sized room branching to three more corridors.

            The first corridor would lead me to another staircase that leads to the Grand Hall where most of the parties held in this mansion, like the day before we went to the moon*2, and is connected to the main entrance.

            The last corridor leads to the Throne room of Remilia, and is the place where Reimu and I defeated her. The throne room would be probably connected to the kitchen and other places in this mansion.

            And the middle corridor ends up to Patchy’s library.

            “♪New set of books, here I come♪,” I started whistling as I walked in the second corridor gladly.

            “Ma…risa… is that you…?”

            “…—!”

            I looked behind and saw a limping silver-haired girl with braids like mine, and wore a western maid suit. And worse, she seemed wounded and exhausted.

            “What happened, Sakuya?!”

            I ran to catch her before she fell down when her legs gave in to pain.

            She looked at me with an expression of “Thanks”, but she looked far behind me and pointed at the pair of large doors right behind me.

            I was astonished as I thought the corridor was still a long way before we would reach the library.

            Were the doors this close before?

            “You were about to bump those doors head-on, you little thief,” Sakuya managed to chuckle even in her condition.

            “That doesn’t matter, what matters is what happened here?”, I said in a flustered way.

            “Can’t you sense it, Marisa?”

            I looked back at the pair of doors, and a dark, uncomfortable feeling seeped in my guts. There was also a little dark smoke revolving around the doors.

            “It’s a youkai’s illusion,” Sakuya explained as she removed my hands supporting her and tried standing up on her own

“Probably,” she added.