Okay, so no fourth-wall breaking might be impossible
Chapter 1: The Gatekeeper's Nature-hewn Path"What's going on, ze?" Marisa asked, sipping tea.
A loud rumbling and crackling explosions gave her an answer. Wood boards and trees alike snapped like toothpicks, and the walls of the Scarlet Devil Mansion began flying off its frame. The four ladies and Rinnosuke ran outside, only to see a dimensional rift tear open in the sky above the lake, swallow part of the forest, a few fairy maids, and part of the mansion. The rift stabilized, and Rinnosuke sighed.
"Damn. I was too late."
Sakuya had summoned Flandre, Pathouli, Koakuma and the highest-ranking fairy maids to what was left of the dining room. Marisa, who had already heard the story, left to scout. Rinnosuke began to explain the situation. He had noticed Yukari behaving suspiciously around the border, and he began to also notice that the Barrier was weakening. When Marisa returned, she reported many other Gensokyo residents had gone in to the rift to explore, or were sucked in during its formation. Remilia, Sakuya and Patchouli immediately recommended an exploration, but Reimu voiced her complaints, demanding to sit and laze around while the rift repaired itself. Patchouli, however, had an easy way to convince Reimu to come.
"Maybe more people will donate to the Hakurei Shri--"
"Hey, let's go!!"
Reimu leaped out of her seat and grabbed her haraigushi. Marisa gave a nervous smile, happy that her friend was coming to explore and loot precious things with them, and worried about how money-hungry she was.
"Alright, Kourin, here we go ze. Take care of the mansion and the shop for us."
Remilia patted her sister on the head. "Behave, for Morichika-san and Koakuma-san, okay? Listen to what they say, and only use your power for their defense or your own."
Flandre nodded, worried about her sister. "Okay, sis... Are you sure you don't want me to come?"
"No. I don't want you getting hurt."
"But I'm not a little kid..."
"Flandre..."
Flandre nodded, and hugged Remi tightly around the waist. She stood by Rinnosuke and Koa as the exploration party left to for the Hakurei Shrine, Human Village, Patchuoli's library and Scarlet Mansion. At the shrine, they met a goddess who could increase their power in exchange for the life energy of monsters within the rift, while Akyuu agreed to keep records of their journey. Patchouli devised a system to enhance their power based upon a ritual she read about in one of her books, provided they could acquire enough residual energy from the dimensional rift. When they decided they were ready, the Scarlet Miko Spark Exploration Team set off.
Remilia and Sakuya took the lead positions, knowing they were the most battle-hardy. Behind them, came Reimu and Marisa, and behind her was Patchy. When they entered the rift, Marisa expecting a Final Fantasy-style dungeon, they were left speechless by a nature paradise. A warm light basked the area, but unlike sunlight, which would have sapped Remilia of her strength, and eventually burned her into a
delicious crisp, this light made even the vampire feel satisfied. Trees of all different types, sizes, shapes and colors lined a beautiful dirt path, and the ground beside the trees was carpeted with verdant grasses, and flowers bloomed brilliantly in this strange dimension.
The team explored for a while. The local fauna weren't too threatening, especially compared to standard Gensokyo cannon fodder. Their biggest worries, large red demons, were easily taken down in a single shot by Patchouli or Remilia, while Reimu had found a new purpose to one of her old offensive spell cards, completely by accident.
"Reimu! Look out!" Sakuya shouted, panting heavily from just taking down a disembodied soul
"Exorcising Border!"
A flash of light enveloped the area. Reimu and Sakuya were surprised to see their injuries healing before their eyes, strength returning to their bodies. Patchouli had noticed what was going on, and burned down the remaining monsters with Royal Flare.
"We'll be looking for your support, Reimu," the librarian said quietly, "Let's just
hope they don't aim for you all at once."
Day by day, the five girls explored the dungeon, slowly progressing further and further. Reimu drew up a map of the areas they covered. During a sweep one day, Reimu noticed an odd crying sound. The voice was fairly familiar, but she couldn't quite put a handle on who it was.
"Huuuuuuuuh.... huuuuuuuh huh...."
"
Shit, it's a witch. Flashlights off, ze," Marisa whispered.
"Marisa. You're a witch," Reimu pointed out.
"Oh, right."
The girls quickly found the source of the sound. It was Meiling, who was sucked into the dimension when the rift was torn.
"They're dead... Remilia-sama, Sakuya-san, Patchouli-san, Flan-san, the mansion... whaaaa!" The Chinese gate guard began bawling uncontrollably.
"What do you mean by dead. We're right here, China," Sakuya chided, "if you don't stop crying now, I won't make you those delicious mantou you like--"
"AAH! GHOSTS!" Meiling screamed.
Meiling was taken aback. She instantly switched into her fighting mode. She charged at Remilia. Reimu, knowing what was about to happen, quickly summoned barriers of light around the exploration team. Meiling's impact with the small vampire did nothing more than create a small dust cloud from Remilia's feet.
"Meiling! We're on your side! What are you doing?!" Reimu shouted at the gatekeeper.
"Reimu too?!" Meiling still believed that they were still ghosts.
"Gonna slap some sense into her..."
Remilia drew a danmaku spear, and hurled it straight at the gatekeeper, nailing her straight in the chest. Meiling staggered a little bit, but was otherwise was unfazed by the attack. She drew energy into her fist, and hurled a chi ball straight at Sakuya, who blocked it gracefully. The maid hurled a massive barrage of knives at Meiling, but each knife was deflected by a powerful burst of chi. Marisa and Patchouli were floating high above the battle, concentrating on preparing powerful spells to quickly incapacitate the gatekeeper before she could do any real damage.
"Earthlight Ray!"
Marisa drew several pentagram runes from her apron, and hurled them towards the shrubbery behind the gatekeeper, who was distracted by the voice from above. She was pelted from behind with a volley of green light, each hit causing her searing pain. Remilia took advantage of the situation, and hurled several more Gungnir spears at Meiling, knocking her down, and causing her more pain.
"Asteroid Belt!"
A flurry of stars flew from the black-and-white witch, each brilliantly colored projectile exploding upon collision with either Meiling or the ground. A massive dust cloud was formed, obscuring her from view. Remilia let her guard down, believing they had managed to subdue her.
"I'm not done yet..."
A typhoon of prismatic light enveloped Meiling and blew away the dust. Many of her minor injuries were completely healed, and even some of the major injuries had begun to heal. She and Remilia began exchanging blows, left and right, but the vampire had overworked herself. She knew if this kept up, she would lose. However, she had to buy Patchouli time to cast her spell, and Reimu time to restore her energy enough to heal. Meiling took advantage of the tiring vampire's slower reactions, and when Remilia had charged straight at her, Meiling made her move.
"Roc's Fist!"
Meiling braced herself into the ground, slammed one foot forward, and let loose a rainbow-colored punch. The timing was flawless. Remilia had no time to cancel out of her dive, and flew straight into the Chinese youkai's attack. She was too tired to get up again, and Sakuya took her place.
"Mistress, rest a bit and wait until Reimu has prepared her healing spell. However, I am confident that Patchouli, Marisa and I shall finish this right now."
Sakuya knew her attacks were useless. Even in her depleted state, on top of deflecting her master's attacks, managed to shrug off every salvo of knives the maid threw. However, they served an excellent purpose - distraction.
"Killing Doll!"
"Not going to work, ghost!"
A circle of knives formed around Sakuya, before she released them one by one at the gatekeeper, who deflected them with a single sweep of her arm.
"Patchouli-san! Marisa-san!"
"Magic Missile!"
Marisa fired a barrage of her standard green energy blasts, each one finding its mark on the gatekeeper, who was too tired to dodge at this point. The blasts stung, but it was nothing compared to everything she endured earlier. Meiling was ready to take the "ghost" down right then, when a book appeared in front of her face.
"Silent Selene!"
Blue light enveloped Patchouli, pale blue spears of energy danced around the librarian's small form. This final attack was too much for the gatekeeper to bear, and she collapsed. Reimu took advantage of the situation, and healed the exploration team, and they dragged Meiling back to the Mansion for rest and interrogation. Sakuya, Patchouli and Remilia had also noticed her amazing resilience, thinking of a plan to have the gatekeeper come with them. Flandre was just happy to have her sister, maid, librarian and gatekeeper back, and for a short time, the Scarlet Miko Spark exploration team took a well-deserved break.
