Remilia continued on her way to the dining room, while I was still in the hallway wondering how to get out of this one.
I picked myself up off the floor and decided to keep walking through the mansion in hopes of finding my way out.
"I have an hour to get out of here." I said sighing and with a look of exhaustion. "It took me about two and a half hours to be able to locate the library, I don't think I'll make it out of here in time, I don't want to become a butler!" I said frustrated as I stomped my feet.
The more I walked, the more I encountered more fairies who seemed to be dressed as maids.
"Do the people in this mansion only work late at night?" I wondered.
I tried to approach some of them to ask for the way out. They stared at me and I got no response.
"Aghhh, why are people here so strange?" I said as I pouted.
I came to a hallway where I could see that there was a person dusting some vases, this was not a fairy, it was a girl a little taller than me. She had short silver colored hair with a couple of braids on the sides. She was dressed like a maid and for some strange reason had a belt on one of her thighs where she carried a few rather large knives. She looked like a very refined, elegant and professional person.
She didn't inspire much confidence in me though, but I decided to approach her to ask her about the exit door.
I approached somewhat nervously and asked her.
"Ehm... excuse me, do you know where the exit door to this mansion is?"
She stopped dusting and stared at me.
"What do you think you're doing?" she said annoyed as she looked at me. "Get to cleaning or something. Besides, why aren't you wearing the proper attire?" she replied as she inspected me closely.
"Eh.. hehehe... I just don't work here-" I mumbled.
Just before I could finish speaking, everything froze around me. I couldn't move a muscle and the whole place went into dead silence. It was as if time had stopped completely.
I don't know how many seconds passed, but after a while, everything went back to normal.
"There, now you're much better. Now get to work." Said the maid as she crossed her arms.
I looked down at myself and suddenly I was dressed just like her. I had on a maid's dress with a skirt and white gloves.
"HAAAA?! IN WHAT MOMENT DID I WEAR THIS!" I exclaimed.
"Keep dusting this area, I have to go serve breakfast to the mistress." Said the maid as she walked off down the hallway.
I threw the duster down hard on the floor angrily.
"I don't need to set about cleaning a stupid mansion, I just want to get out of here as soon as possible..." I said complaining.
I started to search my pockets to get the book out, but it didn't seem to be anywhere to be found.
"Eh?.... EHH?! WHERE IS THE BOOK?!" I shouted in panic.
I started looking everywhere, lifting furniture, armchairs, vases, and moving curtains.
"It's nowhere to be found!" I exclaimed in desperation. "Michu I need you to come back!"
As I was lying on the floor, the girl dressed as a maid appeared out of nowhere in front of me.
"What do you think you're doing? You're messing everything up! She said annoyed as she looked at me.
"I need my clothes and a book I was carrying back." I replied angrily.
"Ah... that book. I gave it back to Miss Patchouli." Replied the maid. "If you want it so badly, you'll have to win the duel against the mistress."
Beat the mistress of the mansion? I didn't know how strong she was, but I was definitely in no condition to fight, let alone with the rules they have here for duels. But I couldn't give up, I had to get that book somehow.
"Alright..." I answered determined. "I'll win that duel and get the hell out of here."
"Good, we'll wait for you on the roof at 1:00 am sharp." She said in a serious tone. "Oh, by the way, your clothes are in the laundry because they stunk."
"BUT THOSE ARE NEW!" I yelled to myself.
"I'll be there…" I replied.
I got up from the floor and shook out of my clothes.
"I'm not going to let a little girl win against me hmph." I said as I stuck out my tongue.
I didn't remember about the fact that I was on the verge of death because of Rumia…
*****
I searched for half an hour for a way to get to the roof, but I couldn't find ladders that went that high. So I decided to stand in one of the indoor gardens and take a mega-leap onto the roof.
"Well... I just have to do what Michu told me while we were at the lake." I said somewhat nervously as I looked up at the full moon in the sky. "Here we go."
I focused the energy into my legs as I closed my eyes and flexed my knees.
"NOW!" I shouted as I jumped up.
Suddenly I was high in the sky, I could see the whole mansion from above, it was a very nice view. Until I realized that I didn't know how to get down.
Out of desperation I tried to move all over the place, causing my body to move like a shooting star at high speeds across the sky.
But I ended up heading straight to the roof of the mansion and landed with my face on the ground.
"Ouch..." I said as I scratched my head. "Not the best landing, but at least I'm here." I sighed.
I walked to the edge of the roof.
"What a beautiful view you get from here... I wish Michu could be seeing this too…" I said dazzled as I watched the moonlight reflecting on the lake and the surrounding woods.
Suddenly, behind me a light appeared as I heard the sound of a door opening.
I turned my head back with a serious look.
I could see two silhouettes coming out of the door of the clock tower. A young maid and a small girl with large bat wings were slowly approaching me.
Suddenly they stopped approaching and the vampire girl started doing stretches with her arms.
"Okay, let's start our duel, human." She grinned. "I'll try not to go all out."
The bat girl took a great leap skyward and I could see under the moon a silhouette with large bat wings outstretched.
"Heaven's Punishment..."
"Star of David!" exclaimed the mistress as she levitated above the mansion.
I was engrossed as many magical circles began to form in the sky.
After that many thick red lasers started appearing all over the place, it looked like a spider web.
One of those grazed me and one of the sleeves of my uniform ended up burning. This wasn't a game… I told myself.
From the points where the lasers intersected, large blue spheres began to emerge and move slowly towards where I was. As easy as they seemed to dodge, it was difficult to move in the confined space I had because the lasers were cornering and enclosing me.
It was exceedingly difficult to dodge bullets as huge as those, I thought she had said she wasn't going to fight seriously....
I managed to hold on for a minute and the lasers disappeared. I was all that time running and jumping back and forth while dodging. I'm running out of air and the fight seems to continue.
"Uh...?" said the mistress in confusion. "Why don't you fly and try to attack me back? Well, never mind."
Remilia stopped being static in the air and started moving as she fired a bunch of different sized red bullets at me. Some were enormously large and some were smaller, but they all seemed to be aimed at me.
With effort I managed to get up off the ground and ran as I could hear the bullets exploding right behind me as I ran. "When is this going to end?!" I said agitated.
Suddenly everything went quiet, she wasn't shooting at me anymore. I fell to the ground again from exhaustion to catch some air.
"Hmmm? Looks like you're good at dodging bullets from the ground." Remilia said in a mocking tone. "But I see you're still alive, so how about we increase the difficulty further?". She said as she laughed.
"Hell Sign..."
"Mountain of a Thousand Needles!"
Even more circles appeared in the sky, and huge knives began to come out of them in large numbers. They didn't seem to be directed at me, so I stood up again and tried to identify the pattern they were following.
They seemed to only move diagonally, following the same trajectory with which they appeared. But of course, being so many it was difficult to keep track of them, plus I also had to worry about some small bullets falling randomly from the sky.
I tried to sneak between the larger spaces formed by the rows of knives and at the same time look up so that no bullet would hit me, and I succeeded for a while. Until, through an oversight, a bullet hit me directly. It didn't pierce me, but it did explode, sending me flying a couple of meters.
I fell to the ground and tried to get up right away. But as I was getting up, the knives around me were very close and they tore some of my clothes and caused several cuts on my skin. It was getting harder and harder to get up because of the pain.
I had lost my concentration and several knives kept grazing me, but I kept standing there bleeding, waiting for it to end.
After a few seconds the knives disappeared.
"Ehh...? Looks like you still refuse to die huh?" Remilia said amazed yet teasing. "Let's try something different this time..." she said as she prepared herself.
"SCARLET GENSOKYO!"
Huge purple orbs started to come out following a curved trajectory, they seemed easy to dodge until hundreds of smaller red bullets started to come out where each purple orb passed by. The whole sky slowly began to fill with bullets, I could no longer even see Remilia among so many bullets.
I had a tough time getting up, I was losing a lot of blood and my vision was getting a little blurry, but I still couldn't afford to die here.
I dodged a few bullets for a few seconds, but my body couldn't take any more. Then, I was hit by one that exploded directly in my face.
I fell to the ground again, full of wounds. I opened my eyes contemplating the night sky full of small red flashes falling next to me.
"I don't seem to be able to keep one single promise...huh?" I said as I closed my eyes.
I stretched my hand towards the sky with a smile. "I guess this is where it all ends." I knew I couldn't give up, but I couldn't move a muscle.
As I slowly closed my eyes, I noticed how the sky began to fill with black clouds.
There was absolute silence for a few seconds, and suddenly, a huge purple lightning bolt struck the roof of the mansion. It caused a great roar and shook everything nearby.
Remilia fell to the ground.
"Agh... Sakuya, what was that lightning?" she said coughing.
"I don't know your majesty." Said the maid also coughing and trying to push the smoke away.
The whole roof was covered in black smoke and a few sparks of purple electricity were coming out of it.
Everything remained in complete silence, until Remilia and Sakuya heard some footsteps slowly approaching them. Also, through the smoke they could see a pair of glowing purple eyes.
Remilia got up from the floor while shaking off her clothes.
"Heh... Seems like you're tougher than I thought." she said somewhat agitated. "I guess this is where our real duel begins." She grinned as she prepared to attack.
Remilia soared high into the sky again. From her hand a huge spear of a bright scarlet color began to emerge.
"The Gungnir spear is bound to the fate I myself control; it cannot fail." She muttered as she prepared to throw the spear. Since she couldn't see anything due to the smoke, she just threw it towards the roof.
"TAKE THIS!" she exclaimed as she attacked.
There was a huge explosion on the roof as the spear impacted.
"Kyahaha, you can't escape fate." She said victoriously.
As she was slowly descending towards the roof of the mansion, Remilia heard directly towards her ear a kind of sound that sounded just like static.
Remilia turned slowly backwards, and what she saw seemed to shock her greatly.
A horned silhouette charged with electricity stared at her with a look full of hatred and determination above over her.
Somehow the power granted to me by Michu activated, and I was able to move again. I felt full of energy and my body felt as light as a feather.
There was an explosion of sound in the air and in a split second, I lunged towards Remilia, punching her in the stomach as I dragged her through the sky among the clouds.
Once above the clouds, I released her and then began to hit her hundreds of times in the blink of an eye. In the end I slammed her downward with great force, falling at great speed and crashing into the roof of the mansion.
"Remilia-sama!" exclaimed the maid as she saw her fall from the sky.
"I-I seem to have underestimated him a bit...-" muttered Remilia as she tried to catch her breath.
I descended to the roof of the mansion quickly.
"That was it..." said the maid with anger on her face. "The duel ends here; I'll give you back your book so you can leave." She muttered as she stood up.
"My clothes too..." I said in a somewhat annoyed tone.
The maid looked at me and stopped time again for a moment. A few seconds later she returned with the book and my clothes.
"Here..." she sighed as she handed the things back to me.
I took them and turned around.
The maid grabbed Remilia who was still lying on the floor unconscious and carried her inside the mansion.
I sat down for a moment to breathe; I was still a little upset.
"What the heck is this power? If I hadn't controlled myself I would have ended up killing her..." I said between confused and sad. "If this one is just a fraction of Michu's power, I can't imagine how powerful she really is."
I stood contemplating the nightscape once again for a few seconds.
Small raindrops started to fall.
"I think I'd better get going now, I don't know how I'm going to explain to Hina what happened, she's going to kill me..." I said with a nervous smile. "Okay, time for me to leave this crazy mansion."
I took a leap down from the roof making use of my ability. Once on the ground, I flew upwards trying to keep my balance to travel faster towards Hina's house. This time I went slower so as not to bump into anything, since it was nighttime and I couldn't see a thing.
As I was soaring through the night sky, I couldn't help but think about how strong can this power might be. Maybe that was the reason Michu was imprisoned I thought.
In that case, I had to learn to control it, I didn't want to hurt anyone, let alone, have to wipe someone out.
Hina had said that the beings that inhabit here are dangerous and that as a human, I was at risk here. But some of them were kind to me, so I didn't know what to think about it. This place is amazing somehow, I understand why it is isolated from the outside world I said as I contemplated the vast forest from above under the full moon.
But still... I have to go back; I can't stay here for too long. Once I complete my mission here, I will have to say goodbye to this fantasy land…
While talking to myself, I managed to locate Hina's house at the foot of the mountain. I flew over and landed slowly on the balcony. I tried to look through the sale before rushing inside.
I could see Hina sitting in the kitchen looking out the window somewhat dejected. Everything was completely silent, except for the sound of raindrops and the sound of night insects.
"Sorry I'm late hehe." I said with a nervous laugh.
Hina turned to see me, she looked like she had seen a ghost.
She ran towards me only to hit me on the head.
"Where have you been all this time?!" she exclaimed between annoyed and sad as she crossed her arms. "And where did you get those clothes? And why are they so burnt and torn...?"
"It's... kind of hard to explain-" I said laughing.
Hina interrupted me as I spoke.
"But well, it doesn't matter. What matters is that somehow you were able to get back safely." She mumbled somewhat apologetically.
"I guess so..." I replied.
At that my stomach roared loudly.
"Oh dear...looks like you haven't eaten in a while." Hina said while laughing. "I'll prepare something to eat, for now go take a bath and change... whatever you're wearing."
"Okay."
I placed the book on a table and headed to the bathroom.
*****
It felt so good to be able to take a bath after this hectic day, even though I still had cuts and wounds everywhere. I tried to wash them so they wouldn't get infected, but they burned so badly.
"AHHHH IT HURTS SO MUCH!" I yelled as I washed my wounds.
Hina ran into the bathroom when she heard me scream.
"What happened! - " exclaimed Hina worriedly as she threw open the door.
There was dead silence as we looked at each other.
"WHY DON'T YOU SAY YOU HAVE NO CLOTHES ON!!!" she exclaimed embarrassed as she slammed the door shut.
"Uh...? I didn't think she was going to open the door just like that..." I mumbled pouting as I continued washing myself.
When I finished I dried myself off and put on my freshly laundered clothes.
"Ahh... Much better." I said with satisfaction as I walked out of the bathroom.
"The food is already served.", Hina said as she arranged some things on the table.
"Ohhh, it looks great!" I said excitedly.
"Thank you so much for the food!" I said as I sat down and ate quickly.
"Eat slowly, you may choke." Hina said smiling.
After eating, we stood around the table talking for a while. Hina had asked me what had happened during the time I was gone.
I explained everything I knew about Michu and about what happened at the mansion.
"Uh... So, is there a youkai that communicates with you that needs your help to be freed? I guess that explains the horns on top of your head and the strange powers you have." Hina said in surprise.
I nodded my head in agreement.
"Also, I got this book at the mansion that talks about the ancient Gensokyo." I said as I showed the book to Hina. "It contains a map that can guide us to where Michu is."
"Ohh, I see." Hina said as she looked at the map. "Tomorrow we can try to find the location. Although... there are many things about this map that I don't understand."
"Yeah… I don't understand it either." I said confused.
The map was drawn on a paper that looked ancient, and the shape did not make sense. It had similarities to the current map of Gensokyo, but with many changes and some places didn't fit, it was as if it was the map of another different place with a few distinguishable places. Or at least that's what Hina said.
"I guess I'll ask Michu when she wakes up to see if she manages to recognize and interpret this map." I said to Hina.
"Sounds good." Hina nodded. "It's already very late as it is, you better go to sleep now, you must be very tired."
"Yes... today was an eventful day. Good night." I said yawning.
"Goodnight." Hina said smiling as she left for her room.