"How do you tie this?" Yimi held up a rope she'd swiped from who-knows-where, holding it up to Flandre's clasped hands.
The kitten couldn't tie knots. Her shoes didn't even have laces.
"I think I saw Yuuka-nee tie someone up once, but I forgot how." Wriggle was no help.
Rumia was even more useless—head empty, knowing nothing.
"I think it's like this: loop that part through this gap and pull tight. But if you pull too hard, the rope breaks. Last time I pulled the rope tying up a chicken, a bunch of juice squirted out." Flandre sat on the ground studying the problem alongside them.
Sakuya sometimes tied up dolls Flandre had destroyed to keep the stuffing in before sewing them back together. Watch enough times and you pick it up naturally.
"Oh, you're pretty good at this."
And so, with Flandre's help, they successfully bound her hands and feet, hoisted her up, and ran.
BOOM—
Reimu punched straight through the wall—too impatient for doors—and emerged covered in dust. "Pretty resourceful for a little brat. Let me see what the Scarlet Devil Mansion bribed you with."
"Don't move—we've got your daughter." Yimi had Rumia set Flandre down and began the threat.
Reimu stared at them with dead-fish eyes. "What the hell?"
Isn't my daughter supposed to be you?
Bah—isn't the rumored daughter supposed to be you?
"Whose turn is it next?" The kitten looked at Wriggle, still not understanding why they couldn't all rush in together.
"I know—it's her." Rumia pushed Flandre forward.
Wriggle shot her a withering look. "Are you stupid? She's the critical hostage. Second-to-last at the earliest."
"Is that so? The order changed again?"
"Second-to-last?" Flandre didn't understand what they were discussing, but cooperatively nodded along. "I'll go second-to-last."
Whatever this was, it seemed fun.
"I already fought once, so it's your turn." Wriggle poked Rumia.
"It's already my turn? But why did I even come here?" Rumia looked genuinely surprised.
Wriggle folded her arms, thoroughly annoyed. "If you're not going to help, why did you tag along?"
"Good point."
Rumia produced her Spell Cards. A mass of darkness engulfed her body. As a youkai, she possessed a formidable power all her own.
The ability to manipulate the level of darkness.
Exactly what it sounded like. Even in broad daylight, she could conjure darkness to blanket an area, rendering everything within invisible to the naked eye. The most primal fear in the human heart, given form.
"Hah!"
Rumia charged at Reimu.
Reimu sidestepped.
Rumia barreled headlong into the pillar behind Reimu, flopped onto her back, eyes spinning in spirals, Spell Cards scattered across the floor.
She couldn't see through her own darkness either, so using the ability frequently meant crashing into trees.
"Cross!" Yimi called out the nickname she'd given her.
"Pathetic—goes down that fast and she says I'm useless." Wriggle delivered the deathblow from the sidelines, her legs trembling ever so slightly.
She'd just realized that with Rumia down, she was next in the rotation to face the Crimson Slasher.
"Reimu's so strong." The kitten sighed. All those people and not one of them managed to stop her.
"That's because you picked a bunch of misfits." Reimu's gaze swept across the remaining three. Flandre—dragged into this for no reason whatsoever—was admittedly the only actual threat among them.
"Today's incident gauntlet is running backwards from the usual, isn't it?"
It was getting easier as she went?
"Hmph, don't you dare look down on us!" Wriggle gritted her teeth.
Yimi scooped up the Spell Cards Rumia had dropped. These seemed to be Gensokyo's standard combat tools—just as bizarre as the mandatory one-at-a-time rule. Most of them just needed to be thrown. Projectiles, basically.
The kitten knew what to do.
She tapped Wriggle on the shoulder.
"What?" Wriggle turned—and saw the spear that had beaten Remilia materialize in Yimi's hand. Then Yimi grabbed her.
"Hey! What are you—?!"
"Helping."
Wriggle was seized and spun around the spear shaft like a Kinsect on an Insect Glaive. Yimi pressed Rumia's Spell Cards against her body, and the power absorbed instantly.
Wriggle's feet touched ground again. A ribbon of pitch-black energy coiled from her flanks, looped up around her neck, and draped itself like a celestial maiden's silk scarf—or the dark flames of a Zoan Awakening from a certain pirate world.
Wriggle bumped her fists together. "Ooh—I don't know what just happened, but I'm overflowing with power!"
「Achievement Unlocked: [You're Powered Up, Get in There!]. Reward: Portal Energy +5%」
"Oh?"
An incomprehensible display that made Reimu straighten her stance slightly.
Rumia's darkness coursed through Wriggle. This was no simple one-plus-one equation, because Wriggle was no ordinary insect youkai.
She was a firefly youkai—a single point of light in the darkness. Meaning she could now generate darkness like Rumia while simultaneously illuminating the darkness she'd created.
"That changes absolutely nothing!" Reimu pulled out a can of bug spray and blasted Wriggle in the face.
"Cough cough cough! Bleh bleh bleh!" Wriggle rolled on the ground in agony. The military advisor was temporarily offline.
"Green Bug!" The kitten clenched her small fist. "How dare you stomp all over the blending between us!"
Reimu folded her arms. "She reads two pages of a picture book and this is what she picks up? Hurry up and get rid of the weeds you grew, or I'll smack you."
"Don't get cocky—I still have..." Yimi poked Flandre. "The hostage can fight on my side."
"I'm the hostage." Flandre had broken free of the ropes at some point and introduced herself, chin held high.
"Why does the hostage count as your ally? Do you people even know what a hostage IS? I've never seen anyone announce 'I'm the hostage' that proudly."
"Wait... since when was this vampire a hostage that threatens ME?"
Reimu dug through her pockets and produced a piece of candy she'd long forgotten about—heat-warped from its original square into a flat disc—and tossed it to Flandre.
"A present from Marisa. Go play somewhere."
Flandre examined the sorry-looking candy in her hand, dropped it on the ground, and stomped it flat.
Yimi jabbed a finger at Reimu. "You're trying to drive a wedge between me and the hostage!"
"Don't try it!" Flandre raised her sword in solidarity.
If that candy had looked even slightly presentable, she would have accepted.
"Two days of school and she already knows the word 'wedge'? Damn it, that was my candy—I couldn't even bring myself to eat it... Fine! You want to do this the hard way? Have it your way!" Reimu balled her fists.
"Let's go, um..." The kitten had only read a few pages of that manga and couldn't quite remember the lines.
「For the sake of our friendship.」 System prompted.
"For the sake of our friendship!" Yimi echoed.
Flandre—kidnapped roughly three minutes ago—nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Let's get her!"
「Achievement Unlocked: [They Yelled About Friendship and Bonds and Stuff, Then Charged Right In]. Reward: Portal Energy +5%」