//------------------------------// // Agnus Dei // Story: Fate is a Funny Old Thing // by Steventheman //------------------------------// Reimu closed her eyes and slowed her breathing. She thought about everything she had done with her life. She desperately hoped that Marisa would pull through. She had heard that getting your throat slashed was slightly painful and was not recommended by most people. Mobius unclipped the button on his leather holster as Mima raised the knife to swing at Reimu's throat. He drew his pistol and aimed just to the side of Mima's head. Can't kill her. I've got to make sure she at least doesn't inflict lethal damage. Marisa noticed the pilot's aiming. "He better know what he's doing...please know what you're doing..." Marisa whispered to herself, watching the pilot. She got into a combat stance to prepare for the unspoken attack plan. Mobius squeezed the trigger and Marisa fired a barrage of danmaku as Mima began the cut. The evil spirit ducked at the gunshot and magic as Reimu put her head down trying to get to the ground, however, the blade still connected. Reimu slumped back and lay on the floor clutching the right side of her face. Marisa and Cirno ran to aid her. They rolled over the shrine maiden and examined her face. Reimu resisted their efforts to move her blood-stained hand, before Cirno finally pinned it down. "Her eye!" Cirno reacted, examining the wound. "...That's just sick." "Cirno, cool this down," Marisa ordered, ripping a strip of fabric from her apron. The fairy touched the cloth, and Marisa felt her hand go numb. She wrapped it up over her hand and pressed it against the wound, cleaning it. "It's okay. I'm here for you. I'm here." "Wow, when did you get so worked up?" Reimu laughed weakly. "You've been there for me before. Now it's my turn!" Marisa replied, trying to control the bleeding. "It's only a bit of facial bleeding! It's fine!" The pilot aimed his gun at the possessed youkai, before turning his head to Flandre. Run! Get to Reimu! I'll handle this! Flandre did as she was told as the youkai bore down on Mobius. The pilot blankly stared the spirit in the eye, before lowering his gun. He aimed it at the youkai's leg, and squeezed the trigger again. Mima howled, before the pilot rolled to avoid the retalitory strike. He stood up behind the youkai, now floating to take pressure off the wounded leg, before grabbing her from behind. Mima gasped, before clamping her teeth on Mobius' arm. The pilot jerked back, before Mima spun around and slashed her knife at the pilot. Mobius jumped back and grabbed the youkai's arm. Mima growled, and flung her entire right arm at the pilot, smashing him in the face. Mobius recoiled and shook his head, before marching forward, constantly punching. The possessed youkai had little time to react under the flurry of blows, before Mobius swung his leg around and sweeped Mima's legs. She landed on the ground, before feeling the pilot plant an axe kick into her ribs. Do you know what 'nemesis' means? Mima looked up weakly, feeling herself lose control. A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent... Mobius picked up the youkai, whose eyes were rapidly changing color. Mima's hand moved to stab Mobius, before an unknown force prevented it. ...Personified in this case by a horrible bastard. ` Mobius headbutted the youkai to the ground again. Me. Mobius noticed that the spirit was now struggling to remain in control. However, she rapidly floated back up, before dragging her knife across the pilot's chest in a blind rage. Mobius looked down. He put his hand to his chest, and checked his glove. Blood. Quite a bit of it. "You should know better than to interfere, pilot," Mima scolded, kicking Mobius to the ground for the final blow, her eyes starting to switch color back to Mima's. She felt a tapping on her shoulder. She turned around and was met with a haymaker to the face that knocked her flying into the ground. She looked up at the attacker. It was Cirno. A fairy. Who just punched the strongest spirit in the body of the strongest youkai. "You're going to regret that!" Mima spat, rising from the floor, trying not use her injured leg. "No you!" Cirno bellowed. Mobius clutched his wound as he hobbled away, trying to get out of the combat zone. "A fairy can't regret anything! We're too fairy to care about your mere regrets! And I don't want anything you're selling! So take that!" "I...what?" Mima replied, confused. She knew fairies were stupid, but she clearly underestimated the rumors. "Exactly," Cirno laughed, putting her hands on her hips and smiling pridefully. While Mima was trying to process the conversation, Cirno leaped onto her, and began slapping Yukari in the face. "Hey! I know you're over there! Get this spirit out of you or I'm going to give you a right good thumping!" Reimu opened her left eye and looked over to the scene. She smiled at the fairy and gave a thumbs up, before laying her head down again. The fairy's assault stopped. Mima looked straight up. It was the sight she absolutely did not want to see while she was defenceless. Flandre Scarlet. With a glare that could sink battleships. Literally. "Hello, miss," Flandre smiled sweetly. Her eyes flashed with pure rage. "I want to play a game." Mima felt herself separating from Yukari's body. The youkai was winning. Not through fear of the Scarlet, but by sheer determination. The fear of Flandre Scarlet might have been an enhancer though. "Mima! You have overstayed your welcome!" Yukari's voice bellowed. She tried desperately to ignore the agony in her leg. The spirit flew from Yukari's body. Mima floated gently away from the others, before turning around. A shrine maiden, a witch, a vampire, a fairy, a fighter pilot and a gap youkai were all glaring at her. "I can explain everything," Mima pleaded. Her plan was defeated. "Do it then. Impress me," Reimu grunted, the blood loss making her dizzy. "Come on, you've robbed me of my sight, you owe me this much." "You're not going blind Reimu," Marisa lied. She knew her friend's right eye was beyond saving. "You don't understand what it is like for me. To live each day beyond your last. Filled with only burning hatred for one person. That is why I did it. So I could say suck it you lose!" Mima disappeared, making rude hand gestures as her form disappeared. Mobius raised his pistol and fired at the disappearing spirit in rage. Marisa looked like she was about to explode. "...That bitch!" Marisa yelled, standing up and throwing her hat to the ground. "She got away! Damn it! Damn it all to Hell!" "Fear not, Miss Kirisame," Yukari groaned, holding the wound in her leg. "Justice will always catch up to those who cheat it. Especially her." "Yeah?" Marisa deflected, throwing her arms up in the air. "She's gone. I can't beat her up for trying to pull a crazy stunt like that! I can't beat her up for trying to kill my friend, and I can't beat her up for making my best friend kiss me!" "Never mind my sight..." Reimu whispered, slightly confused that Marisa was so upset by the idea of kissing. It was fake, so Reimu didn't see the issue. "Stop being so over-dramatic!" Marisa scolded. "Your eye is going to be fine!" "It's destroyed," Yukari corrected. "Seriously, I'm not sure if I could even correct that." "Told you," Reimu smiled, before she felt faint. "I feel funny..." "Blood loss is a terrible thing," Yukari said, holding the hand of her friend. "You're going to be fine though." Mobius looked at his wound again. Blood stained the front of his flight suit. The wound itself was survivable, but the blood loss was his major concern. He reached into his breast pocket and produced a small sweat rag. He noticed a small oil stain on the handkerchief, before shrugging and mopping the blood away to get a clearer look at the slash. It was a decent hit by the ghost, but Mobius grinned. Nothing could ever kill him. Not Yellow Squadron, not a lucky hit on him at Whiskey Corridor, and certainly not a mere knife wound from a ghost. If he had survived air combat at its most brutal and close-range, he could survive a mere slash wound. Mobius noticed the fairy dusting herself off. Cirno looked at the pilot, before hopping over using her wings. They looked at each other for a while, before shaking hands almost instinctively. You did good today. "You too," Cirno replied, not even caring about the sudden voice within her head. Cirno turned around to attend to Reimu again as Flandre shuffled past her, followed closely by a floating Yukari. "Well, I suppose that you wish to go home," Yukari whispered, looking at Mobius. I'm not too sure. "What do you mean?" Yukari asked, adjusting her makeshift bandage on her wound. "Surely, you have something in your world to go back to?" There is. I just don't feel like going back to it. "The issue is, Mobius, is that I can tell you're not human. You are clearly more than human. But you are not a youkai either. You are something altogether more different. And surely, you bring a balance to your world." The balance being fighting in every war for a century? "Those wars would have gone on a lot longer had you not been there," Yukari stated. "I have seen those wars during some of my many excursions to various worlds. Had you not destroyed Stonehenge, then the Erusians would've controlled the Usean Continent under their fascist regime. Are you saying that you don't want to fight the next Erusea? Are you saying the cheers of the people of San Salvacion were not worth it?" The next Erusea could be ISAF for all I know. The next war could be against the very same people I fought for. The next war may never happen. The point is, that world will go on with its ways, regardless of my presence. The world doesn't revolve around me. "You end destructive wars and save millions of civilians," Yukari argued, getting sick of the pilot's attitude, but trying not to outright say that she simply didn't want to go to the trouble of appearing him in Gensokyo. "If the world doesn't revolve around you, then who does it revolve around?" Mobius sighed, shocking Flandre, who believed him completely silent. He turned around and put his head in his hands, before turning back around and kneeling in front of Flandre. I've decided that Yukari is right. The wars of my home world have to be ended by somebody. There is nobody else like me. I am the only one who can do it. So I'm going now. You will probably forget about me as your life goes on. You will forget these events, and you will forget my voice. Time marches forwards. But our acts live on forever. Flandre, ensure your acts are worth celebrating, and if nothing else, don't blow everything up, okay? Flandre nodded. "I can't promise not blowing everything up, but the rest of that stuff I caught." Heheh...Good job kid. Well, don't be too much of a menace to your sister, eat your vegetables and try not to blow up any more shrines, huh? Flandre nodded, hugging Mobius. "Goodbye, Mobi," Flandre whispered. Goodbye, Flandre. Mobius stood up, saluted the girl, who saluted back, before looking at Yukari. Return to Base. "Heh...hahaha!" Reimu laughed, the bleeding slowing up. "I don't think you appreciate just how much this hurts!" "I can tell!" Marisa argued, trying to wrestle Reimu's hand away from her eye. "I mean, it sucks when I get an eyelash caught in there! Now move your hand!" "I don't want to!" "Stop being such a crybaby and let me see your eye!" Marisa grunted, handing the bloodstained cloth to Cirno for her to cool it again. "I didn't get a good enough look at it before." "I can honestly die right now and not give a single damn," Reimu replied, before noticing Cirno holding her hand down to prevent her covering her eye. "Hey! Fairy! Give my arms back!" Marisa grimaced as she examined the wound in detail. The eye was very much destroyed, as she previously guessed. Mima had slashed right through her face. "If only I did something different..." Marisa said under her breath. There was no denying it. It was her fault Reimu was now half-blind. She was responsible. Marisa was never one to feel guilt, but when it was her best friend who was the victim of something beyond a mere material loss, she felt a lot different. The fact of the matter was unchanged however. Reimu was grievously injured and Mima had gotten away. They had failed as resolvers to bring the culprit to justice. "We failed, Reimu..." Marisa whispered sadly, before Reimu put a bloodied hand on her face. "We don't fail, Marisa," Reimu replied, her hand shaking. "We just have unexpected delays." "Hehe...normal service will resume in due time, huh?" Marisa laughed, her friend's words bringing her from her previous feelings of failure. Reimu's hand fell from her face. Marisa could feel something on her cheek. "And also, I'd appreciate it if you didn't wipe your bodily fluids on my face." Reimu weakly laughed, before looking up to Yukari's face. "Mobius One has returned to base," Yukari briefed. "Now, let's get you cleaned up. Your death would disappoint me."