Pure Lotus of the Sunken Stars (Complete)

~Hakurei Shrine~ > Kosuzu's Grand Bookstore

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Kasu:
Depending on the circumstances, this may or may not end well. :3

Iced Fairy:

--- Quote from: Kasunagi-no-Tsurugi on September 28, 2010, 12:26:30 AM ---Depending on the circumstances, this may or may not end well. :3

--- End quote ---
Lies. This can only end well.

If by "end well" you mean, end in wacky Koishi based shenanigans.

Also good to see Byakuren is ready to give the smackdown to Murasa when needed.

FinnKaenbyou:
Many thanks to Ryuu for linking me to a new word processor that's incredibly good with keeping me away from all those distractions that stopped me getting this written earlier. :V

-----

It took a few minutes for Sango to follow the tunnel to its conclusion. Most of that time was spent wondering exactly what this thing had been built for - she had trouble coming up with a reason for a mansion to have an underwater passageway.

She was helped along to an answer when the water started pulling her along by itself.

"Mmh?!"

A trap?!

Sango started turning around, trying to push herself back out of the tunnel, but whatever current was pulling her in was too strong for her. The tunnel jerked upwards, pulling Sango upwards despite all her best efforts to fight it. This must have been how they got their meat for dinner - lure in some innocent fish with an interesting looking tunnel, then chop them up with a hidden fan. She'd yet to meet this vampire girl, but she already didn't like her.

B-But I don't wanna be dolphin fillet!

She switched to human form, looking for something to hold onto, but the featureless walls gave her nothing to grip. The current continued to pull her upwards, growing only stronger as she was dragged further along.

Hm...?

She took a while to notice it, but the tunnel was getting...brighter. Maybe they shone a light over their chopping fan to lure fish to the surface. Maybe it was all a trap to fool them into safety and make them serve themselves. Either way, she was being pulled towards the light whether she liked it or not. She braced herself, ready for some sort of weapon to cut her up and turn her into tonight's main course.

She was slightly disappointed when it turned out that she had not been lured into a food processor after all, and she surfaced harmlessly in the mansion's fountain.

"...Phwee?"

Sango needed a moment to realise that she'd been letting her imagination get ahead of her. Behind her, the water in the tunnel was spouting upwards into the air, splashing into her eyes. Fortunately, the main hall was deserted, and no-one witnessed her rising up out of the water with a sigh of relief.

"Phew. That was a close one..."

There was no time for her to sit and relax after escaping a deathtrap that didn't exist, though. Koishi had been let loose on this household, and there was more potential for destruction there than with any weapon. Quickly drying herself off, Sango tried to get her bearings and figure out where she was. It was an attempt that failed miserably - the building seemed larger on the inside than it had been on the outside, as ridiculous as it sounded.

Either way, the first thing to do was find a way to blend in. If the no-visitor policy was as strict as the gate guard had made out, people probably wouldn't be too pleased to see a dolphin youkai roaming around minding her own business. If even one maid saw her she'd probably be in deep trouble. Even that maid over there, sighing to herself as she brushed at a smudge on her dress-

!

Sango dipped back down into the fountain before the maid turned in her direction. It was a fairy, maybe four feet tall, fluttering through the hall while harrumphing to herself.

"Goddamn it, Izayoi...just because the mistress likes you doesn't mean you can force all the dirty chores to us..."

The fairy paid Sango no mind as she poked her head out of the water slightly, watching as the maid walked into one of the several rooms that branched out from the hall. Every door looked the same as the one next to it, leaving Sango to wonder exactly how the maids were expected to learn their way around.

A minute later, the door reopened, and the fairy reemerged with a clean uniform. She sighed as she made her way back down the corridor, mumbling something about 'deserts of dust I'm expected to traverse'. Sango pulled herself out of the fountain outright as she disappeared, the gears in her head slowly turning.

So...it's a changing room.

She looked momentarily down the corridors at her side, checking if anyone was looking out into the hall. The coast was clear. She ran as quietly as she could (read: not very, these human feet were still strange things to her) and snuck into the changing room herself. Sure enough, dozens of replacement costumes were lined up on dozens of racks, waiting for a disgruntled fairy to change into.

'Fairy' was the key word here, as Sango quickly discovered that these uniforms expected her to be about two heads shorter in order to wear them. She ran through the racks, looking for anything that could fit her, but it wasn't set to happen any time soon unless she shrank in the next two minutes.

She heard a patting sound from the hall outside.

"Ah?!"

Another maid, most likely. Sango eyed the room, looking for anything that resembled a hiding place, eventually settling for a nearby wardrobe. She pulled it open, only having a moment to look at its contents before entering, and it was only after she'd closed herself in that she realised she was standing right next to a full-size maid uniform. It was labelled as belonging to the Head Maid, whoever that was, though given it was here she assumed it was a replacement.

...Well, not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth.

The footsteps outside came closer as Sango tried to change in the wardrobe. She left her old clothes on the wardrobe floor, deciding that if she was going to wear a disguise she was going to go all the way. The entire ensemble fit her quite well, but there was an offputting ripping noise as she pulled on the main dress. She couldn't make out the problem in the dark, so she tried to put it to the back of her mind as she listened to the sounds of the passer-by.

It was only as the figure passed the door to the changing room that Sango heard the humming that was going along with the footsteps. She couldn't make out much, but alarm bells rung in her head when she made out the words 'dolphin' and 'justice'.

Koishi!

Sango burst out of the wardrobe, not bothering to pick up her clothes as she dashed out of the changing room. Maybe it was dangerous to leave evidence of her infiltration so obvious, but the alternative was giving Koishi more time to have her way with the innards of this mansion. Avoiding that was worth any risk.

She'd been too slow, unfortunately; Koishi had already passed out of the hall by the time Sango emerged. Fortunately, the dripping puddles on the floor were more than enough of a clue, and the occasional footprint gave her a direction to turn. For a moment, she considered looking backwards, at the path Koishi took coming into the hall, to see what sort of devastation she was set to unleash. She decided otherwise, because any time spent not chasing her was time she could spend destroying something else.

Running had been hard enough, but running with these cumbersome pieces of fabric that land-dwellers called 'shoes' was harder still. It felt like she was riding the world's shortest pair of stilts, and her balance was off just enough for Koishi to have the edge on her speed-wise.

There was something uncanny about the way that Koishi moved through the mansion, because every time Sango turned into a new corridor all she saw was a sight of the satori moving just out of view, leaving a devastated hallway in her wake. Vases were dropped, paintings were drawn over, and along the walls little pictures of dolphins had been painted with a childish hand. Sango wondered briefly how Koishi could have caused so much devastation in such little time (and more importantly, where she was getting drawing utensils when her swimsuit didn't have so much as a pocket); a few seconds later she simply put it to one side as 'a Koishi thing'.

One picture in particular, though, kept reappearing, and every time she saw it her heart pumped a little bit faster. It was a poorly-drawn stick figure, with a face consisting of two dots and a mouth, but there were two characteristics in particular that stood out. Namely, the long silver hair and the grey fin on the figure's back.

No.

She stopped staring, taking another turn. Again Koishi was just leaving at the same time she arrived, and again nothing of any taste had survived her onslaught. A marble bust had been toppled, broken apart to the point Sango had no idea who it was meant to have been. She took care not to step on any of the remnants of the sculpture as she took another glance at the wall. Again, the same character appeared half a dozen times on this particular canvas - no sign of Koishi herself, but Sango made several showings.

Oh, please, no. You?re kidding me.

So much for the disguise. Maybe she could have argued before that she was just a new enrollment that no-one had met, but when her face had been drawn along the incriminating graffiti that argument was just about useless. Placing her hands behind her back in a desperate attempt to hide her fin, Sango burst down the corridor, trying to stop Koishi and get her out before she could do any more damage.

At last the corridor came to an end, as Sango stepped out into a second hallway. This time she seriously had to question how one girl could devastate the room so thoroughly in such little time. Giant rips ran along the carpet, and where it wasn?t torn it was stained with what looked like...ice cream? The same art-ruining sketches had been drawn all over the place as well, but now there was even a stick-figure Sango looking down at her from the ceiling, a good ten metres above her. She had only given Koishi maybe ten seconds to have her way with the place unseen, but even by Koishi?s very loose limits this had to be outright impossible.

Worrying about the state of the mansion could wait, though. At last Sango had caught up to the self-proclaimed Dolphin Rider, standing in front of an ominous looking door - the first, in fact, to look different from the dozens she?d passed getting here. While the other doors were made of well-fashioned, neatly kept wood, this one had been crafted with the strongest, hardest metals that could be brought together, and dozens of locks were thrown across its surface for good measure. In case all of those precautions didn?t serve as enough of a warning, a sign above the door helpfully informed Sango that access to the basement below was punishable by death. (A second sign just beneath it said in smaller font that entering was its own punishment.)

Koishi, in typical style, paid no attention to these signs, simply starting to pick away at the locks on the door.

?Ah-?

Sango almost called out before she remembered that this was meant to be a stealth job - no doubt the maid armies that worked here would swarm around her if she raised her voice. She settled instead for running towards Koishi, planning to grab her and pull her away from The Ominous Door To The Basement if necessary.

This plan would have worked excellently if she hadn?t tripped over one of the tears in the carpet.

?Phweeeee-!?

Sango hit the floor hard, wincing as she grabbed her nose. These ?shoes? that land-dwellers were so fond of were really a pain in the neck, when it came down to it. If she wasn?t wearing the uniform for authenticity, they?d definitely be the first things to go, though these weird white things they called ?socks? were a close second.

?Are you all right??

A voice from above reached Sango as she struggled to her feet. She stood up straight, brushing the dust off her uniform and sighing.

?Ow...uh, yeah. No problem, really. I?m fi-?

Her response died in her throat when she noticed the other speaker had placed a knife to her throat.

?Good. It would be a shame if you had injured yourself before I could exact your sentence.?

It was another maid, this one Sango?s own height, and from the lack of dainty wings it was clear she was no fairy. The pair shared the same uniform, and even the same hair colour, but the maid?s was tied in a pair of braids, one on each side of her face. Her dark blue eyes stared at Sango coldly, catching a glint of the weapon she held with a masterful grip.

?Normally, my orders for dealing with intruders such as yourself would involve turning you in to the mistress. However, since you took the time to damage my spare uniform, I think I?ll make a special exception for you.?

This was not the best way Sango could have been introduced to the head maid, to say the least. She stuttered out a response, trying to come up with a story on the spot that wouldn?t get her diced.

?Uh, well...I?ve got a reason to be here, I swear, and it?ll sound kinda crazy, but I can explain it all. And...I don?t think I damaged it. Did I? I don?t remember doing anythi-?

Sango blinked, and the maid had vanished. She stood still for a moment, blinking wildly to confirm she wasn?t seeing things, until she received a helpful tap on the fin.

?We don?t fit uniforms for fish, you know.?

If this situation had been any less tense, Sango would have pointed out that dolphins weren?t fish and exaggerated the point as much as possible. Given that it wasn?t, though, she just turned her head around to see the maid staring disapprovingly at her back. The fabric of the outfit had been torn clean apart by the protruding fin, to the point where it was a stroke of fortune that Sango?s outfit was even staying together.

?...Oh.?

In the corner of her eye, Sango noticed that Koishi was well more than halfway through the array of locks to the basement door. The maid seemed intent on keeping her in place, though, holding a knife so close to her that Sango could make out the name Sakuya Izayoi engraved on its edge.

Plan A - asking for permission to enter - had failed. Plan B - sneaking in and stopping Koishi before she could bring the mansion to the ground - had failed even more spectacularly. Sango had two plans left, both desperate and unlikely to succeed, but the alternative was bloody and painful (at least for her).

She made an attempt at Plan C - distraction.

?Uh, shouldn?t you be more worried about that girl over there breaking into the basement??

Sakuya raised an eyebrow in confusion, looking over towards the basement door. To Sango?s eyes, Koishi was picking at the locks with a keen hand, as if she?d broken in to this room several times before.

The maid, however, simply looked back at Sango, unimpressed, as she saw the same firmly-locked basement door she?d always seen.

?If you honestly expected me to be distracted by that for long enough that you would have a chance to run, I?m afraid you are sorely mistaken.?

Sango sighed. Koishi?s subconscious antics had struck again. Plan C had gone down in flames faster than either of the plans before it, which left her Plan D. This was literally her last resort, her one opportunity to make a break for it. She felt a little dirty even before the words had left her mouth, but she preferred a little dirtiness over a little knife in her gut.

If she?d had time to come up with a witty name, she?d have called it Plan D - The DD Gambit.

?...Say. I don?t remember being this well-endowed before I put on the uniform...?

Sango looked down at her own chest, noting that she was a little...bouncier than she had been before. She was clearly onto something, because Sakuya?s hand tensed suddenly when she heard the phrase ?well-endowed?.

?I got changed in the dark, see. This is your outfit, so surely you know the secret behind it, right??

Sakuya?s face quickly turned bright red. The implacable head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion only had one Achilles? heel, and Sango had just called her out on it. The hand holding the knife began to tremble.

?T-That?s...that?s not...?

It was a moment of distraction, and that was all Sango needed. She slid the carpet beneath Sakuya?s feet, sending the maid spiralling to the floor in a heap as she was caught off guard. Sango didn?t bother hanging around to gloat, simply taking this as her cue to run to the hills.

She hadn?t been able to stop Koishi, and as she made her way down the corridor she could see the satori opening the basement door with a mighty creak. There was a confident smile on her face as she started to step down into the abyss below, ready to take on whatever danger the signs and locks had been trying to protect her from.

That was all Sango made out as she turned into a corridor and ran for dear life. That, and a head maid giving her a glare that looked deadlier than any knife.

-----

Which way did I come in again?!

The endless corridors and hallway of the mansion were coming back to haunt Sango, as she suddenly realised that she?d lost track of her direction. Her opponent, however, was a maid who had worked here for years, and who knew these identikit rooms like the back of her hand. Sakuya trailed her intently, still leering furiously as she tried to catch up.

?Get back here, you overgrown sardine! I?ll have you wishing you were the mistress?s next meal by the time I?m done with you!?

She didn?t know it, but Sango had made the perfect move in infuriating the maid. As she?d seen earlier, Sakuya had the ability to stop and start time at will, and with that at her disposal catching one intruder would have been an easy task. In her current state, though, she was about as relaxed as a prettyboy boxer who?d taken a punch to the face*, and her time powers required a level of calm and focus she no longer possessed.

As Sango found out several times, though, she was still a damn good shot with those knives.

?Whoa!?

Another lucky escape. She lost a few strands of hair to that attack, turning away just in time to witness another knife lodging into the wall where her head had been. How many of those things did she have?!

Her legs were starting to hurt now. She was used to high speed chases, but not outside of the water - there was only so long she could keep going before she outright collapsed. Her only chance now was to try ducking into a nearby room and blocking it from the inside, but which room was she supposed to use? How was she even supposed to know, given that they all looked the same?!

Well, except for that one. The one that was coming up to her side right now, made of an older, more refined wood than its neighbours, with the word Library written above it in a font more fitting of a holy scripture-

Wait. Library...library!

Two birds, one stone. If she could find a Stone of Focus here, then maybe there would at least be something to gain from this whole adventure other than a collection of cuts and bruises. Sango abruptly changed direction, shoulder-barging the door and slamming it open as a trio of knives flew past her head. She closed the door behind her the moment she could, locking it on the inside with a dainty looking chain.

Outside the room, she could make out Sakuya?s hands battering the wood, but the door held together in spite of the maid?s beating. Maybe it was reinforced magically as an extra precaution against intruders? It was a question Sango didn?t sit around to consider too long, not when she had her own problems to take care of. Finding herself a Stone of Focus, for one. That couldn?t possibly be too much of a problem, though - after all, how large could a library possibly be?

That thought quickly left her head as she turned around, seeing a sea of bookshelves stretching out as far as her eyes could make out, and probably continuing a lot way past that as well.

Oh, she thought to herself. That large.

Alfred F. Jones:
Koishi and Flandre's meeting in the background makes me smile with glee. Something like this: >:D

I wonder how Patchouli's gonna take to our dolphin?

FinnKaenbyou:
The stairway down from the door did nothing to calm Sango?s unease. The bookshelves began to loom over her from the first step, a feeling that only intensified as time went on. She began to wish that she had could fly through the air like so many of the people she?d met, because otherwise she couldn?t imagine having a way to seeing the contents of the higher shelves.

Walking along the library floor, Sango was convinced now that this room alone was larger than the entire mansion had looked from the outside. She?d seen the maid earlier doing strange things to time - maybe she could shift space around as well, to give the mansion more scope beyond what the petty size of the island would offer. It was space that this library clearly needed - examining the shelves, Sango found hundreds, even thousands of unique books covering every subject that she could think of, as well as several that she couldn?t. And those were just the tomes written in a language she recognised - a good number of them had names scrawled on in ancient characters that she couldn?t make head nor tail of.

Where am I even meant to start...?

If she stepped in too far, there was every chance she?d get lost again. The moment she came to a juncture, Sango realised that just like the corridors of the mansion, every bookshelf here looked nigh-identical. Still, if it was a choice between looking around here and heading back out to the knife-toting head maid, she?d take her chances in this labyrinth.

She wandered around aimlessly, without a clue where she was meant to be headed. All she saw on the bookshelves were, well, books - no sign of any artifacts, especially not the sort that Murasa would be needing to get the ship up and running again. She soon lost her sense of time - there were no windows in this library, the only source of light being the occasional candle, flickering to an unseen wind. Occasionally the stone walls of the library shifted colour slightly, as if the blocks had needed to be replaced after being knocked out. The pattern made by the oddly-coloured blocks was almost human-shaped.

?...Yeah, this isn?t working out.?

Dolphin intuition had been a long shot, and sure enough it hadn?t brought her towards her prize. Surely, though, there had to be someone around here who knew her way around - the magician, or her assistants, or her servants, or whatever it was she had. Sango?s search shifted from looking for an item to look for a person - someone, anyone who could point her in the right direction.

This search, at least, didn?t take long, as echoing footsteps were easy enough to make out along the library?s stone floors. Sango approached hastily, following the sound to its source, but her target strolled along lazily as if entirely unaware she was being followed.

Thirty seconds later, Sango made it to her destination. Down the aisle of shelves, she could see a single young woman carrying a small pile of books, a matching set of black, demonic wings behind her head and on her back. Her attention was devoted entirely to balancing the stack of tomes she was carrying around, her scarlet eyes watching with utmost care. Seeing the little devil entranced in her duties, Sango couldn?t bring herself to interrupt, allowing her to finish her job before asking for her aid.

?This goes here, and that goes there...?

She spoke to herself as she started placing the books she was carrying into the shelves, but Sango noticed that her words and her actions didn?t add up. She looked at one spot in the shelf, but then proceeded to place the book in another. From where she was standing, it looked like the devil was deliberately placing the books in the wrong order, and when she came to a finish Sango noticed that unlike the descending order that every other shelf had been ordered in, this one had its titles listed in ascending order.

?Well, she told me to put them in order. Never bothered saying which. Oh man, she?s gonna lose it when she sees this. Good thing she has a loyal servant to look these titles out for her...?

The devil?s congratulations came to a halt as she turned around, seeing Sango waiting for her at the other end of the aisle. She froze in place, unconsciously straightening up her black dress with one hand and fixing her sleeves.

?W-Why, Izayoi-san! It?s unusual for you to visit us, isn?t it??

Izayoi...?

Sango quickly remembered that she was in the head maid?s attire. Apparently, she bore enough resemblance to Sakuya that this librarian had mistaken her for the real maid, and looked towards her with a respectful authority. That, or it was a trusty looking smile to get her to drop her guard, and given what she?d just seen the devil doing Sango was willing to guess it was the latter.

Still, better play along. This might be my free ticket.

?A-Ahem. Yes, apologies. I?m here because we need a Stone of Focus upstairs, and I was hoping that Patchouli would have her hands on one.?

Good thing she?d managed to overhear the demon saying her master?s name, or things would have gone much more awkwardly. Sango made sure to face her at all times, because showing her that fin of hers would probably ruin her disguise. The wings behind the devil?s ears twitched in confusion.

?Oh? A Stone of Focus? As in the channeling device? Why would you need one of those??

?Ah.?

Sango bit her lip. She hadn?t thought this far ahead.

Think, dammit, think! What could they used one of those stones for upstairs?

?To, uh...power the, uh...fountain. The mistress wants to make it more extravagant.?

It was a lousy excuse, and for a moment it looked like the devil had caught her out on it. Sango could see the suspicion rising in her eyes, but a blink later she looked cheerful and welcoming again.

?Oh, certainly! Well, I?m afraid I can?t let you simply take one without letting my mistress know. I?ll take you to Patchouli-sama, and you can discuss it with her, okay??

No. That was not okay. That was very, very bad. This lower-grade devil may have fallen for the disguise, but she had a feeling that a high-ranking magician definitely wouldn?t. She raised her hands up, attempting to protest.

?N-Now, that isn?t necessary. Patchouli and I are good friends, and I?m in sort of a hurry with this. The mistress won?t wait long, after a-?

?Nonsense! I know you work your maids very strictly, Izayoi-san, and we?re the same down here as well! We have rules and regulations, and we?re to stick to them whatever the circumstances! I?m sure she won?t mind if you?re a little late, will she??

Something told Sango that she hadn?t fooled this demon at all. There was a hint of smugness in her smile as she motioned to Sango to follow her, the pride of a predator leading its victim into a trap. Still, it was either this or blowing her cover entirely, so she had to just run with it and follow the devil?s lead.

?Well, I suppose I can always say its your fault...what was your name, again? Sorry, it?s been a while since I came down here.?

?Oh, I?m Koakuma! No worries, I like people not knowing who I am or what I do down here.?

She snickered as she looked away from Sango, who was busy doing some crunching in her head.

Koakuma...little devil?

Apparently, whoever had named her was hideously uncreative. She decided not to raise the point as Koakuma led her around the library, apparently knowing her way around these dozens upon dozens of shelves. Sango wondered if there was a map of the place magically implanted in her head, because she couldn?t imagine anyone knowing how to get from one place to another in a maze like this.

?So, I noticed you aren?t wearing those braids you like so much, Izayoi-san.?

Uh-oh. Think fast.

?I was cooking earlier. I couldn?t have my hair falling down into my food, could I? That would be unhygienic.?

That sounds good. She?ll buy that.

?Really...? The last time you came down here, I distinctly remember seeing flour in your braids. Why the change??

Koakuma looked back at her with a victorious glint in her eye. That was the point when Sango became well aware that she?d been discovered, a point that hit her doubly hard when she realised that the exit was long out of sight. Even if she were to run now, she?d be lost in the endless labyrinth of bookshelves for more than long enough to be caught anyway, assuming she didn?t starve to death first.

?...The mistress was ill after that meal. She ordered me to change her ways.?

?Really? That?s very interesting...?

From the tone in her voice, it was clear Koakuma hadn?t bought her words. In fact, Sango was wondering now if she?d been telling the truth in the first place with her flour story at all. The devil?s walk grew a little more relaxed, and she started humming to herself as she led Sango along, to a tune that the dolphin didn?t recognise but which could hardly be called welcoming.

The journey to visit Koakuma?s master felt like a trip to the gallows. Sango drooped her head as she followed on, until finally the shelves seemed to break apart and produce an opening. This must have been the dead centre of the library - there was only a single desk here, and it was occupied by another woman hunched over an ancient text. Her lips moved silently as she read, mentally repeating the words so they?d stay fresher in her mind. Even from this angle, Sango could see the deathly pale skin hidden behind her long, violet hair, as she continued to study in clothes that looked like they were designed to be slept in. Koakuma gave her a gentle prod on the left shoulder - careful, like touching a mirror and trying not to break it - while standing to her right side in an attempt at a prank. Her master had long since caught on to this game of hers, though, and glanced over her right shoulder towards the pair.

?Koakuma, I thought I had instructed you to order those books in the Reference section.?

She spoke with a detached tone, no real interest or care present in her words. Her dark purple eyes glared at Sango in suspicion. As she?d expected, the magician had seen through her masquerade in an instant. Koakuma cheerily walked up to her master, waving her hands towards the dolphin as an introduction.

?No worries, Patchouli-sama, everything is in place. Meanwhile...I have an intruder here for you.?

Koakuma shot Sango a demonic grin as she wandered off to some other part of the library, leaving the dolphin to deal with her mistress. Patchouli didn?t even let shock work its way on to her face for an instant, placing her book down and giving Sango a cold stare.

?I see that the rats have learned to swim.?

And already she was talking in riddles. Great. The magician could make out the confusion on Sango?s face, sighing as she found herself needing to explain.

?This library already has something of a rat problem, you see. We have vile, black things breaking in on a regular basis and taking whatever books they require. I had not expected more of their kind, especially not creatures like you.?

She glanced at the fin on Sango?s back - not with amazement, but it was close to that. She examined it almost scientifically, and Sango could imagine her pulling out every about her species from her long history of study.

?...A dolphin? Rather rare in these parts. A remnant of Greek mythology? Doesn?t seem to fit the characteristics when it comes to aiding others...?

She spoke aloud, verbally announcing her train of thought. Given the glare she was getting, Sango had a horrible feeling she was going to be given a good examination by the magician - the kind that involved taking her apart to see what made her tick.

?L-Look, I just wanna talk to you, okay? I don?t mean any harm, honest! I?m just here because I need a Stone of Focus!?

Patchouli?s glare grew more intense. It was an inquisitive look, the kind that silently asked for an explanation. Sango could feel her legs trembling slightly under the weight of that glare, and the story seeped out of her mouth unconsciously.

?W-Well, I live in a lake near here, and a ship crashed there this morning, and they need one of them to get it out. Your gate guard wouldn?t let me in, so...?

The magician?s gaze lightened slightly in surprise. She started muttering to herself again, but this time Sango couldn?t make out her words. She only caught the word 'fountain' and the phrase ?need to have Sakuya add a grate?. Eventually, she pulled herself to her feet, a task that seemed to rack her fragile body. For all her magical strength, she didn?t seem that well off physically.

?...Well, I must at least give you some merit. Making it all the way to me without perishing on the way is a feat I would otherwise have thought beyond your kind.?

?Hey, I resent that. Dolphins are highly intelligent, I?ll have you know!?

Patchouli ignored that claim, stepping out from behind her desk. Her movements were slow, strained, and by the time she?d stepped in front of it she was already breathing a little harder. She reached into her pyjamas, pulling out a trio of paper slits, their faces adorned with ancient characters.

?I would have otherwise taken this opportunity to research your inner workings, but as a reward for your bravery and ingenuity I shall give you a chance to prove yourself. Best me in battle, and you may have your prize. Lose, and perhaps you may have a future working alongside Koakuma...assuming you survive, that is.?

One of the cards in her hand started to glow, and the air surrounding it began to swirl. Sango could only respond with panic - if that was the power the card contained before it was declared, how strong was it going to be when she declared it!?

?Countless leaves of the elven forests, gather and rend my foes to nothing.
Wood Sign [Green Storm]!?

The card exploded in Patchouli?s hand, transforming into hundreds of green fragments that riddled the air around her. Each of them had edges sharp as razors, and all seemed primed to charge the instant she gave the order. Sango?s trembling grew more intense - she?d brought the two spellcards on her person with her along with the new outfit, but she doubted that either of them could possibly match this.

The tired-looking magician brought her hand down, pointing it towards Sango. She looked at her target emotionlessly, letting a single word slip from her mouth.

?Fly.?

The leaves obeyed their master?s order, darting through the air in Sango?s direction by the dozens. The dolphin quickly found herself facing a wall of bullets, flying straight onward with the intent of impaling themselves in the wall behind her - whether she was in their way or not. She looked at the oncoming wall hastily, trying to find some sort of opening to sneak through.

No time, no time! Just do something!

She picked a spot that looked just about clear of bullets, leaping towards it for dear life. The leaves blew past her, but she felt a stinging across her legs as some of their number caught her skin, cutting just beneath the surface with a knife-edge. She hit the floor hard, wincing as she saw more slices and tears along her outfit as a result of the attack.

Oh, great. Now the knife maid has even more to get mad at me for.

After a clumsy and painful roll, Sango rushed to her feet and started down the first path she could see. She?d learned two important facts about Patchouli - one, she was about as physically strong as a sheet of soggy paper, so she could make a break for it while the magician prepared herself a less grueling form of transport.

Two, and this was the important one - she wasn?t going to be able to take her in a head-on fight. No doubt she could sense her presence wherever she went, with magical powers as potent as hers, so a surprise attack was out of the question. That left her only one option if she was going to survive - she had to outlast Patchouli, run away until she was too tired to keep up the fight.

Easier said than done!

She?d been lucky to escape with so few injuries, but already her speed on the ground had taken a hit. She limped slightly, wincing with every step thanks to the cuts along her legs. If there was water on hand, she could pull herself back together, but...

?Spirits of the land, rise up in anger and dissipate in fury.
Earth Sign [Rage Trilithon]!?

Patchouli?s voice echoed through the library as she declared her second card. She didn?t need to be near Sango to tell where she was headed, and proceeded to send her a roadblock. A trio of stone columns burst out from the earth in front of her with enough force to knock her back, looming over her exit threateningly. For an instant, Sango stared up blankly at the stone pillars, too tired to rise straight to her feet.

That quickly changed as the columns began to collapse, their remnants falling towards her at high speed.

?Uwah!?

Sango rolled backward, dodging the first wave of bullets as they made destructive patterns in the stone beneath them. The second, though, was looming in on her quickly, and behind her she could make out the sound of leaves fluttering in the wind. On both sides, she was well and truly trapped.

Time for emergency measures. Sango reached into one of the outfit?s pockets, pulling out the first of her two cards.

?As the dirty waters are made pure, strike down my enemies with what remains!
Cleansing Sign [Purified Greywater]!?

She spoke as quickly as her mouth would let her, the card shining to life in double time. The same grey wall of bullets as always formed in front of her, and as she clicked her fingers it fired off into its requisite colours. The blue bullets dashing behind her cut through the wall of green leaves, while the black bullets tore a hole in the collapsing stones for only a moment.

Now!

Sango saw her opening and took it, leaping through the gap in the rocks. It was a close call, and she felt one of her socks being torn through her leg as the column fell back down. She was glad to be rid of it, and if she wasn?t in such a rush right now she would have removed the other sock as well, along with these horrible shoe contraptions.

Now the fatigue was really starting to set in. Sango needed a moment to stop, rest, recuperate, but there was no way she would be offered any rest here. She ran onward, looking for somewhere to hide and recover even for the slightest of moments.

Her prayers were soon answered, as a pool slowly came into view in front of her.

She didn?t want to know what a swimming pool was doing in a library, and frankly she didn?t care. She simply jumped off the edge, landing into the water with an elegant swan dive. Immediately the relief started to come to her - the water here had been formed magically, and so it was of the purest calibre. Simply by being in its presence Sango felt stronger, the cuts and scrapes on her legs beginning to close up. She was surprised that Patchouli had left her this option - it was a convenient escape for a youkai with her abilities.

In fact...it was a little too convenient.

?...I call upon the power of ice to condemn my foe to a watery grave.?

A voice drifted through the water, muffled but audible. Patchouli was floating above the water, sitting on a cushion of air and looking straight down at her. Even from down here, she could make out the same heartless glare as always.

By the time Sango was aware that she?d been tricked, it was too late.

?Water Sign [Bury In Lake]!?

Now it wasn?t the card that Sango saw glowing, but the water around her. She put a hand in front of her face to cover her eyes for the moment the card took to activate. As she looked again, she found that the surface of the pool had been encased in a firm barrier of ice.

!!!

Sango burst for the surface, punching at the wall keeping her trapped in the water, but the ice didn?t so much as budge. As fear started to make its way onto her face, she could hear Patchouli talking to her without a hint of emotion.

?Your logic was sound, but you were too hasty to seek shelter without bothering to consider the possibility of a trap. I cannot grade your performance as anything above thirty points out of ninety six. A disappointment - you seemed to be excellent potential.?

Patchouli let her air cushion sink downward, and the magician stepped on the solid ice. She looked down at Sango, seeing the look of panic as she started beating at the barrier for dear life.

?Yes, perhaps the rats have learned to swim. But they can still drown.?

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