Library of the Scarlets

Scene 6

            Cirno kept crawling in the small dark pit that I can’t fit in.

            “Can you see anything there, Cirno?”, I asked her.

            There was no reply.

            “Hey, Cirno!”

            “She… I… ah…”, I heard her stutter.

                “Cirno, you fine?! Stop making me worry!”

            “Sh… She’s… here!”

            After hearing that, I didn’t hesitate but use a spell card to get through the small pit.

            “Comet ‘Blazing Star’!”

            I once again rode my broom and slowly flew up high the room, disregarding the books and youkai that bumped with me, and dropped down in a comet speed to the pit. I gave more magic and the bluish aura around me heated up and it felt like my body’s going to burn in flames, but…

            “Fire Metal Sign ‘St. Elmo’s Pillar’.”

            A different voice from beneath the pit activated a spellcard, and the boundaries of the pit cracked and soon, being attacked from both sides, the pit gave in and exploded from overload of power.

            I used too much of my energy and power that I am about to faint but a purple-haired witch and a blue-haired fairy caught me.

            “Oh, isn’t it the thief,” the purple haired witch that wore a night cap and pajamas said.

            “Hey…  Patchy…”, I grinned.

            They descended down and let me rest on a pile of non-moving books. I tried to move myself, but I felt very tired.

            “Master, are you okay?” Cirno worried about me.

            “A fairy calling a human master, I wonder what happened while I was reading…”, Patchouli remarked.

            “You… were reading all along?!”, I blurted out. “What about othe—“

            “I already found them and sent them back out the library through a portal,” Patchouli explained. “I stayed because I was reading.”

            “You rather read books you already read than escape here?!”

            “Stop shouting, Marisa. Besides, to keep the portal open, one has to stay in this side,” Patchouli said. “And it has to be me, for I am the only one who can maintain the portal because I am the only magician.”

            “Master Marisa is a magician, too!”, Cirno defended.

            “Ci…Cirno is right!”

            At first I hesitated because that would mean I will stay here to let them out, but Patchouli has been in this library for more than a century already. She needs time to spend outside the mansion walls.

            Even if it means to miss the flower-viewing.

            “Then later,” Patchouli said. “I am still reading this new book.”

            “Just bring it out there!”, I demanded. “Start going out the mansion, maybe visit the flower-viewing at Hakurei Shrine! If not for you, then go there for my stead!”

            Cirno looked at me with shock, and then looked at Patchouli, who was smiling lightly.

            “Never thought you were a human of compassion, Marisa.”

            That was true.

WAS.

            I became like this since I was teaching Cirno how to use her magic properly for the last three hours. I learned patience and worry, all thanks to a one of a kind fairy.

            Thanks, Cirno.

            “But, this is not the only book that is new,” Patchouli said as she raise the green book she was reading. “Some of the books here are not mine, you know.”

            “Are you saying that all books in Gensokyo are mixed with this library?”, Cirno asked.

No.

            I looked closer to the book Patchouli was reading.

            “Tutorials to Youkai Magic, translated from Youkai Language by Motoori Kosuzu,” I read it aloud.

            Kosuzu is an old friend of mine that works in Suzunaan, a book rental center in the Human Village. This is indeed a book made by her, with the writings all familiar.

            “Are you planning to steal this book too, Marisa?”

            Youkai Magic is an unknown type of magic that is written by youkai in the past, and no one could decipher the language they are written in for they are long forgotten by everyone. Even the youkai of today uses the same language that humans use, and the existence youkai books are only known to few.

            Except for Kosuzu. She has the ability to read any language of a book by just touching them. And, she also has a collection of expensive-renting Youkai Books that only four other people know about. *3

            There is no doubt that she translated one youkai book to human language for an unknown reason.

            Also, this illusion of the library cannot be done by a simple youkai, or even a god’s level, for I met goddesses and know how much power they have. If they had large amounts of Faith, maybe they could, but humans in Gensokyo are in close relations with youkai and may only fear gods when there is an incident.

            But a youkai magic or spell from some youkai book must be able to do this, for no one actually knows what youkai books are fully capable of.

            I only know that youkai books can trap from the one of a kind smoke youkai and a small newborn dragon.

            Turning around, I left a wooden hakkero at my feet and ran towards another room.

            “Master, where are you going—“

            “Cirno, stay here with Patchouli and guard her from any intruders.”

            Jumping back on my broom and forgetting my exhaustion, I started hunting for a girl named Kosuzu.

            If Kosuzu’s books are connected to Patchy’s library, then that must mean the entrance for the Suzunaan can also be found.