A/N: sorry guys, the winter arc was too strong 😞
Redemption arc...?👀
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Viewing: The Comedic Judge of the Underground
"Haah..."
Sans had finally gotten past the gatekeeper, but not without difficulty.
Although there was no damage taken, the same could not be said for his clothes, as they had various singes and scratches from the numerous close calls.
Sans himself had been physically exhausted, as grappling with a martial artist exerted more stamina than he would have liked.
"No kidding... That girl's a real work of (martial) art."
...
...?
Sans was currently riding his blaster, not willing to walk. As he moved forward, he looked around in awe.
It appeared the mansion had one of those "bigger on the inside" themes going on, meaning the halls were absolutely massive. Elaborate red carpet ran across the hardwood floor, which went well with the red-tinted windows, and red lit chandeliers.
But for sans, it was a little too much red.
"Geez, this place really hurts my eyes. Who lives here, a vampire?"
Yes, you dumbass.
"...? Did someone say something?"
...!?
...
No. Just a coincidence.
In fact, far ahead in the distance, a bunch of what seemed to be fairies were mopping and dusting while wearing a familiar black and white attire.
"Fairy maids? Now that's something."
While the idea of maids were not foreign to him, hiring fairies was unexpected.
Thanks to the book he bought, Gensokyo Chronicles vol. 9, he had a bit of knowledge on the nature of fairies. They were playful, mischievous, and sometimes lazy. Often spending their day playing pranks or lazing around.
Come to think of it, isn't that a description of sans?
He looked at them, now realizing a good majority of them weren't actually working, and wondered.
'Am I actually a fairy?'
While thinking like that, he had approached the fairies on the ground and attempted to initiate conversation.
"Heya."
The fairies flinched before turning around to meet him. However, upon seeing him, they immediately flew away.
Sans, questioning their decision, briefly considered telling them to stop, before stepping off to the side.
As a red ball of energy flew by his head, his eyes narrowed.
"And here I thought fairies were friendly."
It was at this time he noticed all the fairies in the vicinity had their hands pointed at him. As the magic gathered, sans sighed to himself before taking action.
He didn't come all this way to be taken down by children.
Sans raised his hand, and dozens of bones appeared, each one aimed at a fairy.
Just before the little incarnations of nature could fire their magic, he flicked his hand, and all the bones flew out with a booming sound.
They all met their mark as they pierced through with relative ease. The fairy corpses fell to the ground before disappearing with a poof and a smoke cloud.
"Phew, I know that fairies are immortal, but I'm still a little reluctant to do that."
Fairies, being incarnations of nature, are impossible to put down. Even if they died, they would simply reappear after sometime.
The only way to truly kill one would be to destroy the very thing they stand for.
But in the case of a winter fairy, annihilating an entire season would prove difficult.
Sighing, sans hopped back on his blaster. While he would have loved to talk it through, there was nowhere near enough time.
Looking out through the massive windows, sans could see the moon beginning to set.
"Huh, 12am? Or maybe 1? Man, if I knew I'd get teleported to a place like this, i'd have brought my phone with me.."
Sans didn't know how much the mist had advanced in the village. He could only hope it wasn't too bad.
At the thought of the people he met throughout his stay, he felt the need to hurry.
Hurry to help the people of his new home. He had the strength to do so, but he failed. That wouldn't happen again.
He felt the desire to keep his promise.
So that he could live unbound by the shackles of his past life. By the weight of his previous mistakes.
He felt the desire to protect.
So that the people he cared about would never come to harm. So that he would never be alone again.
He felt DETERMINED.
[FILE SAVED]
Sans' soul lit ablaze with determination. Putting his hand to his chest, he felt a comforting warmth spread out from his core.
He could feel his sore muscles heal at a rapid pace, and his mana reserves fill to the top. A full restoration of his physique.
"Heh, can't help but feel like I'm cheating at this point. But these Gensokyo girls are built different, so I ain't complaining."
Steering his blaster, he continued down the hall, while shooting down fairies in his way. Now that he had full mana, he could use his abilities rather lightly.
Ascending a stair case, sans felt better about his chances. After all, he had yet to run into anyone stronger than the gatekeeper, so he felt quite confide-
Sans flinched.
Someone was warping time.
His eyes went hollow, and his smile faded, now replaced with an unbefitting scowl.
When the distortion disappeared, he heard a feminine voice behind him.
"Found you."
Sans doesn't have the greatest track record with time manipulators. In fact, the only track record he has are the ones where they kill all of his friends.
So when those gorey memories all come flashing back to him, he can't help but glare at the white haired maid behind him.
"Time-control, is it?" His voice was low, and contained nothing but anger.
Flinching at the unexpected hostility, Sakuya quickly recovers and expresses surprise at the fact that he already deduced her ability.
"You're quite observant."
"Well when you experience it so many times, you can't help but notice." His tone lightened in an attempt to control his emotions, but a little bit of snark still leaked out.
"I see." Sakuya retrieved a dagger from an unknown place.
"While I would like to know what the context behind that remark is, I'm afraid we may not linger for so long. I've been tasked with removing you from the estate by the head mistress."
"Izzat so?"
'She uses knives too huh...?' Sans' observation makes him feel more and more riled up as the parallels continue.
"Then hate to burst your bubble pal, but that's not happening."
"Very well. However, before we start, there is something I wish to ask."
Sans raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
"have I done something to draw your ire? As far as I'm concerned this is the first time we meet."
Sans pauses, and looks back on the conversation so far. Realizing how he's been acting towards a complete stranger, he closed his eyes and chuckled to himself. "Heh, 'have you done something'... I wonder that myself."
Opening his eyes, he saw the silhouette of a certain genocidal maniac overlapping with the maid's.
Shaking his head, he spoke. "Nah, you just reminded me of someone."
Sakuya looks confused for a moment at sans' rapid mood changes, and assumes a battle position.
"Then allow us to commence."
Sans does the same.
"Sure."
There was no further reason to converse.
No more words.
""Danmaku.""
Just bullets.
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Viewing: Shrine Maiden of Paradise
Reimu flew through the expansive halls with a bored expression on her face. Passing by a large window, the red tinted moon flashed in her eyes, causing her to groan.
"Ugh, is that the moon? It's getting way too late for this."
Reimu had originally come to this mansion in search of that mystery person. But somewhere along the way discovered a mysterious red mist.
She wanted to just give up chasing whoever shot a laser at her, but now that this mist was involved, she was now obligated to get to the bottom of it.
If it turned out to be an incident, and nobody else knew about it, it was her not only her job, but her life's purpose to deal with it.
"'The Hakurei must keep the balance of Gensokyo' and everything that entails... Geez, why did I go out tonight?"
She murmured to herself with a dispondant expression. It seems this is not the first time something like this happened. And it most likely won't be the last.
"Well, that's that, and this is this. If someone tries to take over again like last time, I'll just smash their head in." Her eyes briefly turn dangerous. An indicator that, despite being tired of her role, she still treats it with the utmost seriousness.
"Speaking of, shouldn't there be someone getting in my way by now? I'm getting tired of swinging this thing."
Lost in her thoughts, the shrine maiden was absent-mindedly swatting away fairies with her Purification Rod. Though the lady seemed frail, her casual swings had quite the terrifying power behind them.
Quirks of divinity, one supposes. Being a shrine maiden brings quite the number of benefits.
Reimu was quite fed up waiting, and decided to find people to pummel- I mean, question.
So when she found a large door on the first floor, she didn't think twice about kicking it open.
BAM!
Floating in, she expected to find the big boss sitting in a large chair behind a desk.
What she didn't expect, was a library so massive she quite literally could not see the end of it.
Flying far above the gargantuan bookcases, she blanched at sheer size of the place. It was also dark as all hell.
"Oh so the halls get ALL the windows, and yet there's not one in here. Who designed this place." She grouched.
Briefly debating whether she should go further, Reimu relents, and ventures deeper.
Once she was 5 minutes in, however, she murmured to herself.
"Is this even a good idea? This place is so huge I don't know if it's even possible to find someone."
"You'd be surprised."
At the sound of a voice below her, Reimu stopped and looked down at the rising figure. Once they were nearly eye to eye, Reimu got a good look at who was speaking.
A short, purple haired girl with similarly purple eyes. She wore what seemed to be nightwear, donning a pink, fluffy dress and night cap with a crescent moon on it. The influence of flight magic caused her to flutter ever so slightly, bringing attention to the multiple red and blue ribbons in her long hair.
All in all, her appearance could be described as 'cute and cozy'.
"And who are you?" Reimu asked.
The purple girl narrowed her eyes and sighed.
"Hah, how rude. Isn't it basic decency to introduce yourself first? After barging into someone else's home no less."
Reimu returned the girls inquiry with a sigh. "Just answer the question. Who are you, and what do you know about the mist. I'm on a time limit."
That limit being her patience.
"Very well. I am Patchouli Knowledge, resident librarian and mage."
Patchouli recited the introduction with an unenthusiastic tone. After that though, she smirked.
"And if it is the scarlet mist that you are talking about, then that is indeed the scarlet devils doing."
"Then lemme see em, I got a couple things to say." She got straight to the point.
"Unfortunately, I cannot allow that to happen."
"You're gonna stop me?"
"Indeed, usually it would be my demon servant that's doing this, but she is off sorting books, thus the role falls to me."
"Poor servant, having to sort books in a place this massive must take ages. But I guess thats still good for me. After all,"
Reimu pointed her purification rod at the librarian.
"I was itching for someone to get in my way."
""Danmaku!""
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Viewing: The Comedic Judge of the Underground
The battle began and Sakuya pointed her dagger at sans as an array of knife shaped bullets(?) fired from behind her.
Sans merely responded by throwing bones to intercept the attacks. As he did so, he heard a distinct clicking sound, followed by a familiar sensation.
Time warp.
No longer seeing his opponent, sans quickly expanded his senses, and noticed an alarmingly close maid right behind him.
Leaping off of his blaster, he narrowly avoided a slash to the back. Sakuya, seeing her foe without a foothold, followed up by shooting a spray of bullets.
Sans spawned a bone and rapidly spun it, knocking away most of the attacks, and teleporting out of her line of sight.
Earlier, sans made a shocking realization. Whenever a battle takes place mid air, he has to focus on three things, attacking, defending, and making sure he doesn't fall.
The usual attack/dodge formula is already hard enough, but throw in the threat of falling to your death, and all of a sudden your mind is working at 100% to make sure you don't turn into a red paste on the ground.
In short, fighting like this wore him down too fast.
He remembered that during the fight with Meiling, they remained mostly grounded. He felt much more comfortable when he didn't have to worry about falling to his death, so he had to make a decision.
Either learn to fly unassisted, or make it so flying is impossible in the first place.
And of the two, he just so happens to have immediate access to one of them.
Reappearing behind her, sans spoke, drawing Sakuya's attention.
"You're blue now."
Before she could even make a confused face, she suddenly began to sink, in spite of the fact that flight was active.
As Sakuya touched down on the ground, she met sans who was already there.
"Heya."
Sans balanced a bone on his finger vertically, before letting fall into his hand.
Sakuya furrowed her brows at the situation. While she was no slouch in grounded combat, the current situation was unfamiliar. Looking down at her body, she recognized what was happening immediately.
"I see. You're counter acting my flight with gravity magic. Clever, but you can't keep it up for long."
Sans knew that. A little downside of blue magic was that it was rather expensive to use. Although taxing on his mana, it's utility was undeniable.
"It may not last long, but it'll serve me well enough."
So he just had to make the most of it.
"Shall we see about that?"
As those words came out of Sakuya's mouth, a faint whirring sound came from her left. Leaping backwards, she saw a massive laser pass by her.
As she landed, the ground beneath her began to shift. She hurriedly moved away and a group of bones shot out of the ground, tearing up the floor and carpet.
"You know it's MY job to fix that right."
"Bummer."
Sakuya threw several knife bullets at sans, prompting him to dodge. As he did, Sakuya dashed forward, quickly advancing towards Sans while also throwing plenty of daggers.
Several bone traps got in her way, but they were swiftly and elegantly dodged without hindering or slowing her speed.
The knives kept sans on his toes, and sakuya circled around, gaining ground and leaning the fight in her favor.
Throwing multiple knives in the air, they slowed and stopped in place, before redirecting themselves at sans. As another group of daggers approached sans, the suspended ones resumed motion.
Two groups approached at once, and Sakuya was almost right in front of him. If he dodged all of them, he'd be leaving himself open in the meantime, and ignoring them to fend off Sakuya was a bad idea for obvious reasons.
Instead, sans just opted to teleport and reposition. Unfortunately Sakuya noticed, and a familiar click sounded out.
As sans found himself in a different position, he still found all the knives flying towards him.
"Huh!?"
Hastily spawning a bone structure to defend himself, questions quickly ran through his mind.
'How the hell? I teleported didn't I? Yeah, the walls are somewhat different here. Then did the knives track me? No wait, there was a time warp...'
As sans racked his brain for how such a close call happened, he mistakenly left the maid out of his sight for too long.
Realizing this, he quickly turned around and found himself staring a bunch of knives in the face.
Swinging his head backwards, he tried, and just barely failed, to dodge them all.
-2
A scarlet streak appeared from the left of his nose up to his right eyebrow, and bright red blood flowed out. If anyone was still in doubt, then this was a clear cut indicator that he was now, uncontestably, human.
Touching his face, Sans felt a stinging pain. He wasn't quite used to the sensation due to the nature of his being, but even he could tell it didn't hurt as much as it should have.
"Praise be to the danmaku system I suppose."
Looking back at the bone wall he made, he saw five knives lodged in it, one of them with a slightly crimson edge.
At the sight of blood, HIS blood, bad memories came back. A stained knife, and a wicked grin flashed in his mind.
As his eyes turned into voids, he raised his hand, and a wall of bones rose behind him. Multiple thuds sounded out as more knives lodged into the defense.
Sakuya sprinted to his side and shot more bullets, but they were blocked by a perfectly timed gaster blaster. Taking the hits, its eyes lit up, and a blue energy ball whirred to life in its maw.
Sakuya attempted to dodge out of the way, but felt her body turn weightless. Looking down, the blue magic had become stronger, and she was now hurtling towards the attack uncontrollably.
Desperately stomping down on the ground, she leaped over the blaster, narrowly dodging it's beam by a centimeter.
The blue magic still in effect, Sakuya was sent flying down the hall. Massive bone pillars began to sprout along the walls and ceiling. At the speed she was flying, crashing into even one would hurt, even with the spell card system.
However, Sakuya realized that the vector for the gravity magic had changed. While she certainly couldn't resist being pulled down the hall, other directions were free game.
Reactivating her flight, what came next was natural.
Leaning to the right, she dodged a pillar that split the hall in half. Stomping on the wall, she flew straight to the ceiling to avoid multiple rows of bones blocking beneath.
As though sans was expecting it though, another row up top followed immediately after. Reaching out, she pushed herself away from the ceiling, narrowly dodging the pillar.
This pattern repeated and varied, flying while using the walls, floor, and ceiling as jump pads, each dodge was as much of a close call as it was completely natural.
Finally reaching the end of the hall, she pulled back as hard as she could before forcefully landing on the wall.
Feeling her legs go numb for a second, Sakuya wanted to just lie down. She couldn't stand still for long though, as the moment she touched the wall, she was forced to jump, narrowly avoiding a laser beam.
It was then that the blue magic finally wore off. She took a moment to relish regaining control, before realizing that she was completely surrounded by bones.
"It seems you're finally getting serious. Allow me to reciprocate."
Retrieving a card from beneath her skirt, Sakuya muttered it's name.
"Illusion image - lunar clock"
Suddenly, an omnidirectional burst of bullets exploded outwards with Sakuya at its center. The initial wave did little to stop the bones coming from all directions, however she was not done.
Sakuya threw a mind boggling amount of knives into the air, so many that sans had to pause and question it.
Click
When he came to, every single one of those knives were aimed to intercept a bone or even two. They gradually regained their inertia, and accelerated to near speed of sound, shattering whatever they touched.
In an instant, sans' attack was entirely dismantled.
Watching this, sans realizes he's lost sight of the maid again.
"That's 1 - 0."
Hearing her voice, he slowly turns to see Sakuya standing elegantly in the distance.
"What does that mean?"
Sakuya looked at sans face to see if he was messing with her, but seeing the genuine confusion, she made an exasperated face.
"You don't know?"
"I wouldn't be asking if I did."
Sighing, she explained with a deadpan face.
"Someone really should have explained this to you. In a spell card duel, each participant may only use a set amount of spell cards. First to use them all loses."
Hearing that explanation, sans' eyes widen in surprise.
"That sounds really important..."
"It IS."
'Man. Marisa really isn't good at the whole teaching thing. You'd think that in a game, the first thing to go over would be the win/lose conditions. ALL of them.'
Reflecting on the lesson with Miss Kirisame, sans' chuckled to himself.
'good thing I rarely use them huh?'
Sakuya interrupted his train of thought.
"If you are done wasting my time, shall we kick things up a notch?"
Sighing, he speaks matter-of-factly.
"Heh, it seems like if we wanna get anywhere with this, it's necessary."
"I couldn't have said it better myself."
Sakuya's azure eyes slowly transition into a menacing red.
"Well then..."
This was blatantly in contrary to sans' left eye combusting into a blue blaze that was, unbeknownst to him, tinged with yellow.
"Round two?"
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