Wizard-Mun is currently in Japan, and will be there for another week or so so I’ll pop in when I can, but you can take it as I’m on a semi-hiatus.
Be back in a week ya’ll!
The wizard’s logic was sound. The more the enemy doesn’t know, the better. Plus, Reimu seriously doubted there was anything in this world that was similar to whatever Harry had shot ou-
Wait, classes?
…Whoops.
“Y-Yeah, I guess. But I had that hangover, so… yeah, not going.” Besides, today was boring classes day. Which is every day because fuck these classes they are the most useless shit she had ever sat through.
“A-Aren’t you supposed to be working?” Turning the question back at him. Genius.
Harry calmly finished off the sandwich and smiled at the girl. “I am. I’m patrolling the student dorms today. While we were sitting here talking, I was running a search of the area through magic.”
He held up a hand to forestall any argument the miko might have. “Relax, no one will notice it.” Harry fished out a small pill box. Inside were bits of what looked like Playdoh. “I have bits of these stuck around the campus. Since they’re all from individual cans, they’re all part of the same whole. So using magic, I can “listen” from each of them simply by using one part of the whole.”
Harry leaned back on the bench and grinned at her. “Pretty handy sometimes, magic. Also useful for keeping beer chilled.”
And not one word of that reached Harry’s brain, did it?
Y’know what? Whatever. The wizard had his fun. “Just remember, it’s a game. That means you can’t kill with it. And please try not to use it too much in the open. I doubt Yukari would let it pass if more Outside humans learned about spellcards…” The last line was mumbled, since it was more of the shrine maiden reprimanding herself than her reprimanding the wizard. Granted, Reimu thought that even just Harry knowing about spellcards wasn’t going to sit well with the sukima youkai. She doubted Yukari’s rage would be as bad as that one time with the kirin, but it still wouldn’t be pretty.
“Is there anything else you wanna know?”
“Ah, but they won’t know it’s not lethal, will they? As long as it hurts, the logical assumption would be that it’s lethal, and cause them to be more careful,” Harry pointed out triumphantly.
He sat back down on the bench, replacing the card in his pocket. “Other than how to make the cards, which I doubt you’ll answer, yes.” Harry turned his gaze to the girl and frowned. “Don’t you have classes?”
Reimu was just gonna go ahead and assume/hope that he didn’t mean actual stars of death.
“Yes, as long as there is some sort of way to dodge it and it’s still in the time limit, you can do whatever you want. Some advice, though. Work on the names.” She hadn’t heard a spellcard name that ridiculous since fighting the Tanuki. Seriously, though. ‘Pseudo-Exorcism of the Stupid Shrine Maiden’? How rude.
“Spell names usually work like this: Somethingsomething Sign [Somethingsomething]. The Sign is usually something that has to do with the danmaku you’re using at the time. The black-white magician uses stars, so most of her cards are ‘Star Sign [blahblah]’. Unless it’s something special, like a signature move. The magician has her [Master Spark]. I have my [Fantasy Heaven]. And so on and so forth.” The shrine maiden eyed Harry. His enthusiasm reminded her of the aforementioned black-white. It would have been slightly disgusting if it wasn’t so nostalgic. “You need some more practice if you ever want to reach that point, though.”
“Hmmmm.”
Harry took a look around, ensuring there were no other students, then two-fingered the card out of his pocket and flicked it into the sky. “[I Find Your Lack of Agility Disturbing!]”
The same pattern appeared, and in its wake, Harry raised his staff and snapped, “Fuego!”
The projectiles bracketed the tide of fire, neatly closing off any avenues of exit. Any opponent in front of him would be forced to dodge to either sides, or retreat a fair distance to escape both the projectiles and the wave of fire. Harry lowered the staff as the fire and flying lightsabers disappeared. “Nah. Having this level is enough. It’s more like having another card up my sleeve than making it my new form of combat.” He paused, then smiled. “Heh. Card up my sleeve.”
‘Yep, I’m pretty sure no one else uses spell cards back in Chicago. This’ll take just about anyone off guard, probably even most of the White Council,’ Harry thought to himself.
Well. Reimu didn’t actually expect Harry to actually pull it off. But he did.
And what the fuck was up with those danmaku? They were like curvy lasers, but not curvy and had some weird metal shit at the end of them. It probably wasn’t worth asking about in the first place anyway. “Uh… Yeah, it’s a start.” In actuality, the wizard’s ability to use the spellcards was astounding. Spellcards were extremely hard to control, and even though Reimu was able to pull it off in her first try (albeit with a lot of unwanted training), most humans can’t do it without trashing a lot of cards at first. Even Marisa, one of the only people Reimu can say is near her skill level, had to go through a lot of spellcards before pulling it off.
Harry was rather pleased. He could shoot lightsabers. Screw fire and frost, shooting lightsabers is how I’m gonna fight now, he thought to himself.
He flicked the card into the air and caught it again. “Hmmm. I wonder if I can make it shoot Death Stars that shoot Death Stars that shoot Star Destroyers …” he wondered out loud. Harry stared at the card, a speculative expression on the face. “… so there’s no actual limit to the number of projectiles, as long as they have a path to dodge, right?” he said, continuing to stare at his card.
Harry blinked. His card. My card. He grinned, and slipped the card into his pocket.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
By that point, there were no more students lingering around. Probably due to classes. Which Reimu should probably be attending. Oh well, she could use her hangover as an excuse. The point was, there was no one wandering around, so it should be okay to show her magic. The shrine maiden stepped far away from the wizard, and uttered her spell.
“Dream Sign「Duplex Barrier」”
Rays of light spread out from Reimu’s card, creating two boxes of light, one inside the other. From the rays shot out hundreds of paper amulets, flying straight out until hitting the rays’ plane. They seemed to disappear, until they shot out of the next barrier, in different places. Luckily, Reimu had toned down the spell, so that they would stay in the barriers. After a few seconds, everything dissipated as quickly as they had appeared.
“That’s what mine look like, although I weakened it considerably so I wouldn’t hit you. In theory, yes, they could appear to be bunnies. I’ve met a person who shot out things in the shape of dogs and birds, so anything is possible.”
Harry’s last question caught her off-guard. “Huh?!” She always had a spare blank card lying around, in case she came up with some sort of new spell, but was it really okay to let him use it?
…Well, maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if she let him try once. She handed him the card. “Fine. Only one. But there are rules you have to follow. This is a game, after all. It has to be in a pattern, you can’t go in trying to make it impossible to dodge, and it has to last at least 30 seconds, but no longer than 3 minutes. Just write down a fancy spell name, focus your magic into it, and try to imagine what pattern it would be in.”
Harry’s face lit up like a kid at Christmas.
He took the card and turned it over. It looked rather unremarkable, beyond the normal magical sigils and runes that your average magical item had. “Last 30 seconds, no longer than 3 minutes, fancy spell name …”
Harry took the card and stared at it. “And it has to have a pattern and I have to leave room for them to breathe, huh …” He stared at the card and thought hard. Harry moved off the bench and sat on the ground. After fifteen minutes of silence, he suddenly smiled brightly, and turning to hide the card from Reimu, scribbled something. Then he enclosed the card in his hands and concentrated; he slowly fed magic into the card, keeping the pattern in his mind.
After a few minutes, he sighed, and smiled at Reimu, card in hand. “I think I did it! Well, let’s see how it looks!”
He tossed the card into the air, and uttered, “[I Find Your Lack Of Agility Disturbing]!”
There was a flash of light, and three silvery white orbs flew out, spaced evenly. Moments later, each one spat out six flying lightsabers, and those lightsabers each released six more lightsabers. The magical projectiles flew into the distance for a while before disappating.
“Well, the pattern is a bit basic, maybe. But it’s a start, right?” he said hopefully, turning to Reimu.
Creatures? That’s ridicul-
Riiight. Reimu hadn’t explained all of the spellcard stuff in a long time, so she forgot to describe what danmaku actually were.
There was a comparison the gap youkai always made when talking about it. Maybe that would make some sense. “Sorry to dash your hopes, but it isn’t anything that extravagant. They’re similar to something you people call ‘bullets’. They’re little energy-filled objects that shoot at the opponent, or just anywhere, really.” Danmaku don’t discriminate. That’s why even watching a spellcard battle is extremely dangerous.
“What they look like depends on the person using them. They can be anything from orbs of light, charms, arrows, stars, curvy lasers… you name it. Users infuse some of their own magic into the cards. Once again, the limit of their power depends only on the limit of the user’s imagination.”
Harry turned this admittedly alien version of magical combat over in his mind. “So … basically danmaku is like … a salvo of bullets or something. And you say that the projectiles depend on the person using them you say.”
A speculative look crossed his face. “So … let’s say this person is extremely fluffy. Say he likes bunnies, cute things, flowers and stuff like that. So is there a possibility he’ll shoot … I dunno rainbows or something?” Then a second, notably more circumspect look slipped across his face. “Say, you said anybody can use these spell cards, right? So … you uh, wouldn’t happen to have a spare … ?”
Sanae screamed. That’s it…they got her…her disguise wasn’t of any use anymore. She tried to turn around to look her opponent in the eyes but she was tangled up pretty tight.
“Let go of me!!”, she yelled and began struggling.
Sanae shivered. It couldn’t be….that this was the hideout of the good side? Was she in their headquarters right now? She had to act as if she were one of them.
“M-My name is the Mjörnir Hammer, Dekomori Sanae! I am new here, desu.”
Harry eyed the weird blonde. “The “Mjörnir Hammer”?” His eyes went to the weights in her hair. “You mean your hair?” Harry’s eyes went back to the blonde, who was still bound quite tight to his staff by her own … hair. “I don’t think Thor would appreciate you naming your … hair hammer … after Mjörnir.”
“You’re quite energetic for someone who’s new here,” he said. Harry looked around; more than a few students were looking at the weird girl who was tied to his staff by her … hair … ‘I don’t think I’ve ever had to focus on someone’s hair ever since Deidre.’ he thought to himself. “Punishment for dangerous behaivor,” he said, and thwacked her on the forehead. While she was wincing in pain, he pushed the staff out of her hair with a focused push of power, causing the staff to fly up into the air.
Moments later, he caught the staff as it fell back to the earth. Idly, Harry spun it as he said to the girl,”New here, right? Like I said I’m a security guard. Do you need help getting anywhere?”
The redhead wrapped her thin arms around her small, shivering torso as she roamed the outside of Tancho Academy curiously, taking in every sight there was to see. The temperature here was much colder than it was back at home and, for someone who was almost always cold, Flaky would certainly have a lot of things to get used to at this new place. Her large ruby orbs darted around as she quickly made her way through the entrance of the school, a sigh of relief escaping her lips as the warmth from the heaters seemed to engulf her. Her knees wobbled slightly as she walked down the nearly-empty hallway, searching for her first class.
The thought of being somewhere completely new without all of her friends scared Flaky, but the tragic things that continuously happened back home was what caused her to move away in the first place. She just couldn’t take all of the insanity there anymore! It wasn’t like anyone would blame her… Right? And she was sure to make new friends! She hoped.
The feeling of the loose strap on her backpack being tugged caused the girl to stiffen up and slowly turn her head to face the person she assumed was trying to catch her attention. Some tall, muscular guy with greased black hair who looked too old to still be in school tightened his grip on her backpack and proceeded to yank it, causing Flaky to wince and slip out of the straps, breaking herself free.
“H-Hey you can’t take that…! I-I have important things in there! L-Like lunch money!” Perhaps that wasn’t the best thing to say to someone trying to steal her belongings in the first place because at the mention of ‘money’, the stranger’s smile grew smug.
“H-Help!! Can someone h-help me?!” She cried out as she reached for the backpack, which the male was holding above her tauntingly.
Harry heard the call for help, and reacted accordingly.
A quick sprint in the direction of the shout found a small red haired girl being bullied by a man who was holding onto a backpack. It looked like the man was about to grab her backpack. He raised his staff, about to blow him away, but paused. Harry remembered his promise to Reimu, so instead of throwing wind at him like he normally would, he whispered a quick apology to his staff and …
Threw it right at the would-be thief, propelling the impromptu projectile with just a hint of force.
The solidly carved staff hit the thief squarely in the head causing his head to snap back, and the backpack to be dropped to the ground. Harry closed the distance, whipping out his pistol and aiming it squarely at the thief on the ground. “I would suggest you leave,” he said, voice frosty. With his other hand, he summoned the staff back to his hand, and stabbed it onto the ground, causing the earth to rumble. “Wouldn’t want to have to send anyone to the morgue,” Harry added, eyes unflinching.
As the thief ran away, fairly peeing himself in terror, he turned back to the little girl. Holstering the pistol, he picked up the backpack and passed it back to the girl. “There you go. You alright?”
Reimu sighed. That’s how most newcomers in the Human Village reacted after hearing spellcard rules. “From what I heard, things were the same when the rules were first implemented. No one, youkai especially, wanted to follow them. It took a lot of ‘persuading’ from the strongest youkai, who happened to be on the human’s side for this one. After a few centuries, everyone got used to it. Plus, they’re not completely safe. They have enough power to incapacitate, if so needed.” If they weren’t that powerful, Reimu wouldn’t be able to exterminate youkai, since they’d probably try to run away.
“Trust me, getting hit by even one danmaku hurts like all hells.” Even through all the years of doing work, she still couldn’t fully get used to the searing pain that came after getting hit by one of those bullets.
Harry raised an eyebrow.
“Oh? Well I guess you said it was non-lethal, but didn’t say it didn’t hurt.” He looked at the spell card. “Hmmm. So you … what, store your powers into the card, and when it comes to it, you release your powers from the card and they take the form of this ‘danmaku’?”
“Wait, what is a ‘danmaku’ to begin with? Is that like some form of a creature that the card summons, and then you do battle, and you have to break your opponents’ shields or something to hit them? Cause I think I saw a show like that once.” Harry was genuinely curious now. He knew that TVs didn’t always show the truth, but they DID have Merlin in that King Arthur drama, and the Merlin DID exist so maybe …
