Continuation of
>>95282 When we last left Anonymous, he was engaged in his first real spell duel, against the vengeful youkai of darkness, Rumia.
10th thread! I never thought I'd make it this far. Also, I was a little bit drunk when typing the latter half of this, so I hope I didn't leave in any errors...
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"Well, I'd prefer it if you didn't tell anyone what happens tonight, for starters... I'd like to keep everything as non-magical as possible at school." She merely blinks at you, a mildly amused smirk still lingering on her face, though her eyes radiate a strong sense of boredom with you.
"Eh, and why would I do that to begin with? Do you go bragging to your friends every time you have a meal?" Stifling a giggle, she resumes waiting; waiting for what? For you to come up with something better?
"Fine, how about just becoming friends?"
"
Rejected."
"Eh, what's the matter? Not so confident anymore?" You shoot a taunting smirk at her, provoking a roll of the glowing red eyes.
"So predictable, so boring! That's just what I'd expect from a boring old token nice-guy human like you! Trying to be friends with everyone, trying to get along with everyone... I bet you pick all the safe choices in life, don’t you? It doesn't always work that way, you know!"
She pouts at you.
"And you even stole Mystia away from me, humph!"
"I'll be wanting you to forgive her, too. She's done no harm." Another frustrated pout, though she doesn't say anything, merely shrugging in resignation. Still not good enough?
"...and maybe I'll have you model for me, sometime." In the nude, is what you leave out and store away in the back of your head in the 'maybe' department with a suppressed smirk.
"Eh, model?" No, not girly embarrassment as you were hoping, but mild confusion.
"You a... sculptor or something?"
"Nah; it's a hobby of mine to draw things that catch my eye, you see. And you, well... You've certainly caught my eye, that's for sure." Her facial expression abruptly goes limp for just a moment, before you add: "Because you're such a stubborn little weirdo." Seems you've provoked her vengeful fury yet again, the little blonde youkai girl with a vendetta against you finally choosing to declare her next spellcard, the bright white representation of her wrath hovering into the air and dissolving.
Night Sign 「Night Bird」 Night Bird? Something you'd have expected from Mystia, considering she's the bird-like one of the pair. Demonstrating the thought process behind the spellcard's name, Rumia raises her arms into the air, before starting to... flap them. Alternating flaps, one arm at a time. It'd look awfully silly, if not for the waves upon waves of bullets shooting towards you, sprayed forth in a pattern as if she were shooting them from a hose. Amusingly enough, this line of thinking allows you to dodge the projectiles with greater ease, though they're flying... awfully... fast... aren't they? Narrowly avoiding bullet after bullet, you start feeling rather exhausted yet again, barely able to work up the energy to counterattack; but Patchouli did say you'd be better off focusing on offense rather than defense, right? You'd probably run out of steam before you could time this out, so you just blast away at her shield, keeping an eye on the bullet waves, trying not to get hit, while still maintaining a steady flow of damage... Come on now, break, break! Break, damn you!
The next wave hits you right in the face; luckily, in the form of that pleasant green mist, again, an increasingly less confident-seeming Rumia floating in the air before you, starting to breathe a little more heavily.
"Ffff... I've... got more where that came from!"
"Is that so?"
"Hey, that's my line!!" You chuckle to yourself to buy some time, and to conceal the feeling of nervousness creeping up on you; you're out of cards, aren't you? And running out results in a loss, doesn't it? You’re kinda screwed, aren’t you? Unless... Unless you can improvise. Patchouli did say it would be difficult to do so, but the fact that she brought it up means it's possible to just pull a new card out of your ass in the middle of the duel, right? Just to be sure, you try to touch the card you've already used, in the back of your mind; an intangible barrier blocks you from accessing it again. One use per duel, huh... Fine then. You try thinking back to the other ideas you had when creating your first card, but your thoughts are swimming about rather slowly by now, a headache gradually creeping up on you even after absorbing the energy from Rumia's last card. You fumble with the collar of your shirt for a moment, pulling out the philosopher's stone Patchouli gave you; this should help, right? Rumia seems to be getting impatient with you already.
"What's the matter? Ooh, don't tell me - was that your only card? Haha, that means you're already all out? I'd guess that makes me the winner tonight~"
"Just... Wait one moment, will you? No rush, now..."
"Oh, but your time is already ticking! You'd better pull something out quickly, or you'll be forfeiting the match... No shame in that, of course." The last sentence is, once again, spoken with that disgustingly honey-sweet tone of hers, followed by a childish giggle; she's just trying to psych you out, man, get a hold of yourself. Concentrate, trust in Patchouli, her lessons, the stone... The stone. You feel a warmth seep into you from the tips of your fingers as you grip the stone tightly, your mind working overtime to arrange mere thoughts and ideas into something tangible; something your brain still struggles to accept as possible after merely one week of even knowing magic is real, yet it doesn't resist for long. That's just your old human self clinging to your past... No, you're still human, right? Even though you're starting to refer to your old home as the 'outside', even though you're rapidly getting used to such supernatural phenomena being common, even though you're exhibiting strange powers yourself, even though you're growing used to that silly nickname of yours... You're still human, right? This sort of thing is nothing beyond the potential of a normal human, is it?
You know what? You'll worry about your humanity later. Right now you've got a youkai here to defeat, unless you want to get eaten; still, she's nowhere near as tricky as anything your mentor threw at you during the weekend, and you have a feeling Patchouli wasn't even using any of her -good- cards against you. Here goes nothing, in any case.
...
Baroque sing - Caravaggio's Tenebrism As the card escapes the depths of your subconscious, you can't help but drop to one knee from the exertion, a sharp spike of pain feeling as if the card had burst itself out right through the back of your skull knocking you off-balance. The blonde little predator hovering above you looks upon this moment of weakness with a sadistic grin, not even paying heed to your spellcard declaration at first; you can tell that in her eyes she's already ripping you apart, stuffing chunks of your flesh down her gullet, savoring the taste of your blood and the sounds of your dying screams.
"D-don't look so smug..." Exerting what strength of will you have left, you stand back up, maintaining your focus on channeling the card and shielding yourself. No... you drop back down, unable to stand. Except, you really -could- stand, but you remember what Patchouli said about distractions. If she thinks you're more out of it than you really are, maybe she'll let her guard down, get overconfident. You've got to try whatever you can think of, if you're getting out of this alive. Meanwhile, the card begins to run its course - two white lasers stream to the left and right of Rumia, before breaking apart into smaller black projectiles, which proceed to fly in her general direction in a loose and erratic, fairly random pattern. It's simple, yet also effective; you remember just how difficult it was to avoid Patchouli's first spellcard, due to the seemingly random trajectories of the boulders. Patterns are predictable, so going for something unpredictable has a better chance of working, even though it's a bit of a gamble with your amateur-level cards. The amount of projectiles created by each pair of lasers isn't exactly overwhelming.
In fact, the little devil isn't even bothering to counterattack, simply floating past the bullets with a smug, overconfident grin on her face; just defeating you isn't enough, she's going to try to time out your card to humiliate you before you die, too. Your little act of seeming more tired than you actually are is starting to become less of an act and more of a reality, to boot, the pain which was previously pulsing every second or two now constant, and your thought process feeling utterly clogged. Well, if you're going to go anyway...
"Say, that modeling I wanted you to do? It would've probably been nude modeling." You follow this up with a bitter smirk, trying your best not to pass out, feeling the card about to end in any case.
"Nu-... What the hell!" You-..." Hah, touched a nerve? Her face turns pure white, then a dark red, then white, then red again, as she can't decide whether she should be shocked or embarrassed over such an idea. And then...
She forgets to dodge a single stray, black little bullet.
The border of the duel fades in another circular gust of wind, your scarf billowing dramatically as you kneel there, staring at your defeated foe from under the visor of your cap. The blonde little man-eater drops from the sky, collapsing onto her own knees as well, staring at you with a mouth gaping open, eyes wide with disbelief. She had all the advantages, and more experience, and yet you pulled through - is this the true potential of the human spirit? Well, right now you're just too damn tired to feel overly triumphant.
"...I can't believe this. You..! You! You must've cheated, there's no way I... I..." You swear you can see tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.
"Even like this, I should've... You couldn't have... I... But... But I'm a youkai! You're just a human! Eating humans is a youkai's job! Why... Why can't I kill you?"
"Who knows..." You're drifting in and out of consciousness by now.
"Maybe it's... fate?" You offer her a friendly chuckle, before continuing.
"It took a lot out of me, though... Don't take it too badly. In fact, I'm disappointed in myself..."
"Eh, why?"
"Because... I'm too tired right now. I would've wanted to sketch your crying face; you're kinda cute like that, even though you're an evil little man-eater." She seems to take the last bit as a compliment rather than an insult, wiping her eyes with her sleeves.
"I, I'm not crying... There's nothing to cry over. After all, you... beat me fair and square." She glances to the side, avoiding eye contact with you, seeming frustrated to no end.
"...I demand a rematch, some day."
"I thought you weren't allowed to eat me anymore?"
"What, forever!?"
"Forever." She scowls at you in response, before crossing her arms defiantly.
"Fine! Who cares about that anymore!" I just want to defeat you, that's all..."
"I thought we were going to be friends from now on? That was one of my victory terms, wasn't it? Unless you'd prefer friendly rivals instead."
She pauses in thought, for a brief moment. "Rivals, huh..." Before she can respond, you lose balance and collapse onto the grass, staring up into the evening sky; such a beautiful red tone... And to think, you were this close to staining the grass a similar shade with your own blood, just now.
"Hey!" She rushes over to you, that frustrated frown still lingering on her face.
"If you die right now anyway, I'm still going to eat you, you know."
"I'm not gonna die, but..." Struggling to get back up, your limbs feel heavy as if they were full of lead.
"...could I ask you for a favor, now that we're friends?"
"Rivals."
"Rivals, then." Another pause as she stares at you with an upset look on her face, eyes shifting aside every now and then.
"...what is it."
"Give me a lift back to the village? I don't think I can walk in my current condition."
"Eh!" Do I look like a mule?" You don't give her an answer, instead simply staring into the sky some more, a strong feeling of apathy towards everything and anything setting in as the mental backlash drives further nails of pain into your brain, dulling out your senses. Suddenly, you feel a familiar strong grip grasping you under the arms, and two slender girly arms wrap around your midsection; and then, the feeling of weightlessness. Looking down, your sight obfuscated by a dim haze, you can see the human village steadily approaching, some houses already having lights burning in the windows as the sun gradually begins to set; the haze becomes thicker and blacker, and the heat becomes less annoying. Rumia must be creating that shadow bubble around herself again, to hide you two. What happened next, you can't quite remember... You recall Rumia setting you down by your house; telling her where you live might not have been the smartest thing you've ever done, but you were too tired at the time to think of that. You recall explaining to your host family how you're VERY tired from P.E. And finally, you recall collapsing in your bed, passing out the moment your head touches the pillow.
...
Morning already? You feel like you just went to sleep; the sensation resembling a killer hangover reminds you of your exploits yesterday. Wait, did you really sleep that long? Skipping dinner and everything? You must've been even more exhausted than you had imagined. Come to think of it, what woke you up anyway? You didn't hear your alarm clock ring, did you? No, what woke you up was... a weight on your abdomen. Struggling to open your eyes, you make out a humanoid figure sitting on top of you - blonde hair, red eyes...
...huh.
[] "...Flan?"
[] "...Rumia?"
[] Snuggle.
