A/N: enjoy the chapter.
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Viewing: The Ordinary Magician
Marisa nearly collapsed to her knees, barely holding herself up with her trusty broom. Her breath was heavy, and her skin gleamed with sweat. Looking up, she could see the hastily formed barrier desperately holding back the mist, yet slowly chipping away under the relentless assault of the frenzied youkai.
"Man, it's uh, a good thing I was working on that new potion huh?" She chuckled.
Indeed. Before she had to drop everything for the village's safety, she was researching a way to apply magical barriers via potions.
"Well, it was just a small project to mimic Reimu's spell card, Evil Sealing Circle, but I had to make a couple adjustments."
Marisa had already created the recipe for the Evil Sealing Potion™, and just needed the ingredients. Unfortunately, she didn't even get the chance to make it home before all hell broke loose.
However, being the magical genius she is, Marisa had already comprehended the theory behind Reimu's spell card, and could mimic the effects using the ingredients she had collected prior.
"Heh, rituals aren't at all my forte, that's Reimu's gig. But still, I think I did pretty well?"
In this way, she had sealed away the village from the fog.
What Marisa didn't account for though, was what effect the mist had on youkai. They've all gone completely berserk, and were hitting the barrier with all they have. She's already had to repair the thing with her own mana countless times, and to be frank, she had reached her limit.
Watching the desperately made barrier slowly collapse, she felt a sinking sensation in her heart.
"I'm actually kinda boned huh?"
As soon as she made this realization, Marisa felt death press down on her shoulders.
"Shit, just when I was about to make another break through...! What a messed up day..."
Marisa collapsed to her knees, seemingly accepting what was to come. Her voice faltered and the humor leaked out. She did everything she could do, all she could hope for was a miracle.
And it appears her hopes were answered.
Just as the barrier was about to break down, releasing the mist and youkai into the village, a peculiar reverberation beat across the village.
Flinching at the sensation, Marisa looked up with wide eyes. The soon to collapse barrier was completely restored, almost as if all of the damage never happened.
Standing in front of her was a woman with frayed white hair with faint green highlights. Her dark green dress fluttered wildly, indicating that some sort of power was in use. The most eye catching detail however, was the pair of horns sitting atop her head, a red ribbon elegantly tied to the left.
Marisa briefly looked at this figure, confused, before connecting the dots.
"Keine??" Her shock and confusion audible.
The woman, now known as Keine Kamishirasawa, looked back briefly, before speaking.
"Marisa Kirisame regained her mana and used it to repair the border."
Her tone was gruff, and her figure trembled. Marisa immediately understood what happened.
Keine Kamishirasawa was a were hakutaku. Hakutaku were mystical youkai with the power to "devour" history. This wouldn't actually erase history however, simply hide it for a period of time.
Being part hakutaku herself, Keine also had this ability. Temporarily hiding the village from major threats is part of the reason why she's treated as a guardian figure in the community.
In her normal form that is.
Keine, being a were Hakutaku, had the ability to transform under the full moon. Gaining horn and a feisty attitude, this form would grant her access to the other ability her species has.
Creating history.
Plugging her own puzzle piece into the story via force, and altering the narrative, permanently. There's one other ability that she gains in this form, but it's not really relevant.
In any case, this is the ability that Hakutaku have, and part of why they're in hiding.
Turns out people aren't keen to having partial reality warpers running arround. Regardless of the fact that they only ever used their abilities for good.
But of course, such an absurd ability has a sky high cost. Keine trembled ever so slightly, as the mana drain was enormous. It was obvious that she wouldn't be able to do this many more times.
Even so, she reassured Marisa and prompted her to act in a different way.
"I'll hold it down over here! Go find another way to hold them off!"
At Keines shout, Marisa came back to her senses, and nodded. In that brief interruption, her mana had regenerated to a usable state, allowing her to once again fly on her broom.
Floating in the air, Marisa knew exactly what she needed to do. You see, Marisa finds herself in this situation simply because of a lack of mana.
As a human, she does not have much natural mana capacity. She's pushed herself as far beyond human limits as possible with potions and such, but at the end of the day, it's nowhere near enough for her ambitions.
Recently, however, this was circumvented by a certain signature tool gifted to her by Rinnosuke.
The mini-hakkero.
With it's ability to draw in and release immense amounts of magical energy, it made for the perfect research tool, as well as weapon. In this way, Marisa's mana problem was practically solved.
However, said tool is not present due to a malfunction earlier today. She was gonna try and fix it before making her potion, but we all know how that ended.
That being the case, Marisa's primary weapon, the mini-hakkero, was not in her hands. That would have to change ASAP.
For you see, Marisa had made the realization that the reason everything is so difficult is because of the massive amount of youkai attacking the barrier.
So long as she let them keep attacking, the village would eventually fall. When she came to this conclusion, she thought the solution was rather simple.
Question: they were faced with a ridiculous amount of enemies, how do you fix that?
Answer: Sheer, Sundering firepower!!
When face to face with an overwhelming enemy, use overwhelming strength.
"Tsun tzu said that, I think?"
He didn't.
Flying high into the air, she made sure no youkai could see her as she snuck out of the Evil Sealing Circle. It was possible because it only blocked out "evil".
"Reimu's magic is always so convenient, I'm a little jealous." She muttered to herself.
Looking down at the horde of youkai, she gripped her broom tighter. Of course, simply getting the Mini-hakkero would not be the end of it. She also had to find out what caused it to bug out.
Marisa had no idea what she was gonna do, but there was no other choice but to make it work.
She sighed and flew away as fast as she could. There was no time to waste. Keine could only hold out for so long, and if the youkai broke through, a vulnerable Hakutaku would be their first victim.
"Jeez... At a time like this, where could that lazy shrine maiden be? She better be on this case, or else this human village will turn into a youkai one."
As her thoughts shifted towards her friend, she suddenly thought about that white haired newbie with the weird name.
"Ah right, sans. Man I hope he's safe. Poor guy said he barely knows magic, if he got caught outside of the village, he'd be destroyed."
Marisa smiled while shaking her head, unaware of how wrong she was. She would never guess that the person working hardest to fix this was said newbie.
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Viewing: The Comedic Judge and Elegant Maid.
Red eyes met blue, and the air became as thick as tar, tension rising infinitely.
No one dared to move first. No one dared to breath first. Mana clashed in the air as both sides decided to use full power.
Sakuya analyzed the man standing before her. Recalling the abilities he had showcased so far, she thought he was a rather difficult opponent.
Bone manipulation, gravity magic, telekinesis, and those laser skulls she wouldn't want to get hit by. He seemed to be taking it easy earlier, but if he gets serious, it could be a genuinely troublesome skill set.
It didn't help that she couldn't read him at all either. His face, his gestures, it was all so nonchalant that Sakuya was only able to guess what he'd do next.
She decided that if she wants to best him, she would have to lead the fight in her favor. Earlier she caught him off guard by predicting his movement. If such a thing happened again, Sakuya could take control and force him into a corner.
Cementing her plan of action, she decided to seize the initiative-
"Done planning?"
"!"
Preemptively jumping to the side, a bone pillar the size of her torso jutted out from the floor, beating into the air where she just was. Following this, a wall of upright bones raced towards her, prompting her to fly upwards.
As the attack passed under, Sakuya jokingly admonished Sans with an intimidating glint in her eye.
"Whatever happened to 'ladies first'?"
Sans shrugged his shoulders. "Figured there wouldn't be much courtesy in a game where we beat each other half to death."
"Hah, such crudeness is unbefitting of a magician."
"You think I'm crude? Wait till you meet Marisa-"
Before sans could even finish his sentence, a click sounded out. To his left and right was a large spread of bullets, while sakuya herself threw knives at him from behind.
"How rude." Sans looked around with calm eyes, and quickly realized what she was trying to do.
'It seems shes trying to push me into a corner. Did she realize that I'm not good under pressure? Smart, but...'
"Nah, I'm good."
Summoning a bone that reached up to his chest, he gripped it in two hands and teleported, reappearing directly in front of her.
'When someone wants you to dance to their beat, it's best to behave unpredictably'
And it was certainly unpredictable. After all, this entire time, sans was explicitly avoiding close quarters combat. So why would he suddenly take such an aggressive stance?
Least to say, Sakuya was not so prepared. Swinging upwards with his bone staff, sans clashed with the knives in her hand, knocking them away. Sakuya's surprise did not last long however, as she diligently dodged the follow-up swing.
Retrieving a new pair of daggers in each hand, she engaged in the duel with sans.
The two swung sharp and blunt objects at each other, clashing and dodging, even parrying at times. However as the close combat continued, it became more and more clear that Sakuya was superior in melee.
As sans went for a wide swing, thinking he caught Sakuya off guard, she suddenly recovered with a quickness and swiftly closed in, causing sans to abandon the attack to block.
The result was sans' staff cracking in half. Avoiding a swing from the other hand, he quickly backed up, firing multiple bullets to slow her advance.
Sakuya countered with her own magic, before leaping away, the ground beneath her compromised by bones. Taking to the air once again, she was met with a laser skull right in her face. Sakuya calmly faced this and reached for her stopwatch.
Click
Hearing that distinct sound, sans expanded his senses, and found her standing in the distance while dozens of bullets flew towards him at every angle.
He looked towards Sakuya, who was watching him intently, and sighed.
'Shes gonna redirect the knives if I teleport won't she?'
This is quite the conundrum, sans thought. If he attempts to reposition himself, Sakuya will just aim the bones back at him. And dodging everything is out of the question, he's not untouchable.
'This is bad.' sans muttered. At this point, the stalemate will last forever. A constant back and forth, yet no one has landed a single hit yet.
At this point, it's a war of attrition. The first one to get tired will get swiftly overtaken. And sans isn't exactly known for his stamina.
In other words, sans needs to end the fight quickly before he tires himself out. A swift and lethal counter attack was in order.
'in that case, I guess the solution here is pretty simple.'
Looking at the incoming bullets only a couple dozen feet away, he reached into his pocket, and fumbled around until he felt a card.
Pulling it out and raising his hand above his head, sans spoke the spell cards name.
"Marrow sign - The Bone Zone."
A white bone flew up, and just before the bullets reached sans, it glowed brightly and combusted into a furious storm of bones.
The typhoon enshrouded the entire hallway, shredding apart Sakuyas enclosement. Even she herself was unable to escape the radius in time, receiving multiple hits before stopping time to escape.
Reappearing a good distance away, she checked her wounds, clicking her tongue at the large bruises along her arm. The storm came so quickly and violently that she could barely pull out her stopwatch.
Suddenly feeling a sense of weightlessness, Sakuya's eyes widened as she found herself flying back into the storm uncontrollably. Utilizing her flight magic, Sakuya maneuvered over the ongoing spell card. Looking down into the eye of the storm, she saw sans look up at her before vanishing.
Sensing where sans would appear, she attempted to turn around mid air, but was too late as her side received a crushing blow from sans' staff.
Flinching at the pain, she lost control over her flight, and began to plummet back into the spell card. Feeling a sense of foreboding, she quickly grasped her watch, and stopped time.
Regaining control, Sakuya grabbed her knees and tried to catch her breath. Clutching her side in pain, she quickly thought of a way to defeat the skeleton, but found that her time stop was slowly undoing itself.
Her mana was reaching its limits.
Even though her body was still capable of fighting, mana was a different story entirely. The moment it runs out, she loses all ability to fight, meaning her loss.
This doesn't usually happen to Sakuya. No one she has faced besides Remilia Scarlet has forced her to use time stop so many times in one battle.
The over reliance on her ability in this fight drained her mana at incomparable speeds, which is now having dire consequences.
Sakuya's thoughts ran at a million miles an hour, desperately thinking of a way out. But in the end, she could only think of one.
Unknowing of the fact that she came to the same conclusion sans did, she quickly flew back up at him.
The time stop came undone, but she still flew forward. The plan was simple. Beat him before she gets too tired to fight.
That's right. It was now a race.
Sakuya's red eyes glinted as she blitzed towards him, knocking away the bullets sent at her, and threw as many knives as she could.
Sans furrowed his brows, as he realized that this battle would soon come to an end, and decided to act on a thought he had earlier.
Spell cards couldn't be used twice, as the one he used earlier became gray and faded. Seeing this, he realized he currently didn't have enough spell cards to use.
The Bone Zone was out of order. A Past Life's Resolve has unknown effects, and if anything, was a last resort. And the Last Word was out of the question.
Looking at the approaching battle maid, he reached for a blank spell card in his pocket.
'So let's make a new one?'
Spinning a bone, Sans deflected the knives while shooting multiple blasters, prompting Sakuya to nimbly dodge the lasers. When finally close enough, she swung a dagger in her hand.
Leaning backwards, sans let it fly by. Sakuya, unperturbed, continued to fly past sans, before flipping and throwing knives at the uncomfortably positioned skeleton.
Sans deflected the knives with his own bullets, before reaching out with a glowing dark blue hand. Sakuya seemed to recognized this as gravity magic, and stopped time preemptively. Quickly repositioning herself and unfreezing time, so as to not waste her mana, she attempted to slash his back, but found herself swinging through air.
Dumbfounded, she questioned if he actually predicted she'd stop time. Being somewhat familiar with teleportation magic herself, she knew that it took time to set up.
Heavily confused as to how he teleported away, she felt a massive energy signature behind her.
Quickly turning around, her eyes widened in shock. Bullets and an unimaginable amount of lasers was heading right for her. Faced with an overwhelming amount of bullets, she briefly questioned when he set this up, before finally realizing the full scale of his scheme.
'He faked me out. He specifically made sure I saw his hand glowing blue so I'd think he would use gravity. What he was actually doing was preparing an escape route so he could follow-up with a spell card.'
'He predicted my usage of time stop to set up two steps ahead.'
Faced with the wall of bullets that she doubted she could navigate in her current state, she opted for the simplest solution.
'This will leave me in a precarious situation, but I don't doubt that it would be the same for him.
Pulling out a red bordered card, she invoked it's name with clenched teeth, clearly feeling the drain on her mana.
"Illusion phantom - Jack the Ludo Bile"
Immediately, it's effects were known, as a large amount of knives and massive red bullets appeared from thin air, and began a direct impact course with sans' attack.
Sans looked at the attack from beyond with a tense expression, large sweat droplets dripping from his face. He was clearly reaching his limits as well. Although, his exhaustion was of a different kind.
His limbs trembled from exertion, and his mind teetered on the edge of collapse. His mana was fine, just a little below half, but if his sluggish body was forced into more melee combat, it'd be his end.
That's why he was betting everything on the new spell card he created just now.
Energy sign - All Out Plasma Pummeling
Unable to spare any surprise for the new category, he used it as soon as he pulled it out.
An attack that seemed purely focused on firepower. No gimmicks, no extra effects like Bone Zone, which kicks up wind, just sheer brutality.
It took much more mana than he thought it would take, which left him a little worse for wear, but he could still fight.
With both fighters conditions on the edge of collapse, they each threw their final hail mary. A blinding flash broke out within the expansive halls.
The windows fractured from the mighty collision, and the carpet was singed in some areas due to the heat.
Sans and Sakuya were both thrown away by the blast, landing on opposite sides of the hall. Neither came out of the blast unscathed, as they both wore burns on their clothes and bodies.
Staggeringly getting up, sans noticed his HP was in a dangerous place. Still getting used to the fact that he had more than one now, the fact that he was below half was extremely stress inducing.
Turning away from his status, he looked back towards his opponent who, in fairness, didn't look much better than he did.
Ignoring the burns, her skin turned pale, her breath heavy, and body swaying and shaking.
Sans recognized these as symptoms of mana deprivation. When a monster falls ill, they may be unable to absorb mana from the atmosphere. It was rather simple to cure, but could be extremely lethal.
He didn't know that humans could experience it too.
In this state, it was practically his victory.
Without mana, the body would slowly break down, trying and failing to sustain itself without that o' so vital life force, and exhaustion would be the least of your worries. Nobody could fight in such a state.
That's why sans examined Sakuya with a curious expression, the fact that she could even stand in such a state was ridiculous. For this reason, he greatly respected her.
Until he saw another spell card in her hand.
"Huh? Hey, wait. Thats a real bad idea y'know? I doubt you have enough mana to cast that spell card."
Sakuya looked at Sans with a familiar, determined expression, causing sans to freeze as he recalled where he saw that gaze.
"It doesn't matter... My mistress ordered me to get rid of you. At all costs."
It's worth noting that Remilia only told Sakuya to stop Sans' advance if she could. She is taking this way too far.
"I'm warning you pal, if you do this, you REALLY won't like what happens next. This is for your sake-"
"-Enough blabber... I will kill you, here and now."
It's worth noting that a declaration of lethal intent goes in direct violation of the spell card rules. It is unknown whether mana deprivation made Sakuya delirious, or if she's actually this devoted to her master.
Both are entirely reasonable assumptions.
As Sakuya held up the spell card, sans could see it's illustration clearly. A silhouette of what seemed to be a maid that had multiple knives sticking out of her from all angles.
Gathering a general idea from that alone, sans prepared to move his tired body and prevent Sakuya from killing herself. Another spell card in this situation could put both of them out of commission.
"Maid Secret Skill"
Sans could visibly see the mana being absorbed into the card, and spawned a bone to knock it out of her hand.
"Killing Doll- huh?"
Well, tried to.
At the the sight of Sakuya freezing still, both body and mana, sans also stopped, looking at the vacant look in her eyes with confusion in his.
Suddenly, the card fell from her hand, which briefly caused sans to worry before she spoke out loud.
"Yes madam, I understand."
At that sentence, sans relaxed his posture, thinking he could decipher what just happened, and walked towards her.
"Seems the mistress herself decided to step in huh?"
At his words, Sakuya glared at him, before falling to her knees, her tired body unable to support itself any longer. Watching her slump to the floor, sans recalled one more detail, and decided not to worry about her.
The simplest cure to mana deprivation, when in the case of over usage, was rest.
"Nighty night."
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The moment Sakuya passed out, he once again felt the spell card systems influence fade away.
And he immediately felt like dying.
Faceplanting into the floor mid step, he felt his entire body ache. This was by far the most strenuous battle sans had ever fought. Even Frisk didn't give him this much trouble.
"Good Lord, the ladies of Gensokyo are crazy."
Sans couldn't have known during the fight, since he wasn't always human, but his body had been pushed to an extent that he wasn't used to yet.
Going toe to toe with a mana enhanced superhuman was not easy, and the only reason he could continue fighting was the newfound adrenaline gained alongside his humanity.
Lying on the floor a couple meters away from Sakuya, sans once again felt the weight of what he was trying to do.
The responsibility he had taken onto himself was truly enormous, and he felt it with his body and soul. It was uncharacteristic of him, since he usually avoided anything it do with responsibility. So as he laid there in pain, he began to slightly regret taking this action.
"I'm going to have to face someone stronger than her? Shit..."
Muttering those words, sans put his hands on the ground and tried to push himself up. However, his arms trembled briefly before collapsing.
"Ugh... So this is muscle pain huh...? I don't wanna be human any more..."
Sans seriously wanted to give up right now. He writhed on the floor contemplating if he should really be doing this, and the fear of continuing forward only to fail pressed on him heavily.
Not to mention, even if he does succeed, the thought of having to do something like this again weighed like a stone in his stomach. This kind of pain was something he only wanted to experience once. And you're telling him that others may or may not force this on him again?
"Quit joking, who the hell wants to do that?"
Sans genuinely considered giving up and letting someone else do it, no longer thinking himself strong enough. Convincing himself that a short nap was in order, and that 'he earned it', he closed his eyes not knowing if he'd be brave enough to continue when he woke up.
That was the plan, until he saw a yellow flash in the corner of his eye. Sans' eyes flickered open, sensing something familiar about the light. Turning his head, he could say that it was indeed familiar.
Something he had only glimpsed on the verge of death, when he was at his most determined. At the sight of this, Sans felt a shift. Suddenly the future, which he never had the joy/displeasure of looking forward to, didn't seem so daunting. He felt like there was something to help him along the way.
"... Geez, what kind of psycho would willingly put this much burden on himself."
Trying once again, he groaned before coming up to his knees. After a while he shakily stood up on his feet.
"Me apparently."
Feeling his will reignite, Sans clenched his teeth and moved forward, each step taking all of his effort. His destination? The end of the hallway. Looking past Sakuya's unconscious body, a brilliant yellow star shimmered brightly.
It's light felt so encompassing, yet so small that only he could see it. Even then he could only question, 'has it always been there?'.
Slowly, yet relentlessly moving forward, even using the wall as a crutch, Sans pursued the yellow star as though it were calling to him.
Dozens of times he thought to himself that this was a stupid thing to be doing, that he should just give up as there was nothing he could do in this state. Yet the star told him otherwise.
With each step heavier than the last, sans sluggishly approached his goal. And as he finally stood directly in front of it, something called out to him as though luring him into it's thrall.
But he was not lured here, rather, he came here through instinct.
He brought himself here in such a spellbound state, he thought he was actually under a spell. But now that he stood in front of it, sans thought he knew exactly what this was, and he knew exactly what to do.
Closing his eyes, he attempted to communicate with it.
.....
....
...
..
.
*Upon facing the cause for all of your suffering previous to this world, you experience a multitude of emotions. Wrath, sadness, all of the above. The previous holders all used their abilities for their own fulfillment, corrupted by their strength. For which you condemned them. But now that it falls to you, would you really be different?*
*With the promise of strength, and the ability to overcome any and all things, you begrudgingly accept this power as a part of you. As did your forbearers. But this time would be different, YOU would be different, you have to be. The long buried justice within your soul stirs as you swear to never use this power for anything but the righteous. After all, if you have such abilities, shouldn't they be used to help people?*
*In this way, you and I have reached a consensus, and I deem you more than worthy. Seeing my acceptance, you shook your head with an amused smile.*
*And so, as if by second nature, you reach out your hand, and...*
*FILE SAVED*
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This takes the cake off longest chapter I've ever written at 4700 words.
Final part of this arc is next chapter hopefully.