Flandre's Quest (Touhou) World - (Madness Quest)

[X] Put it through its paces.


"I suspect we're supposed to be flattered, but execution is going to matter a lot with this," you say. Laevateinn appears in your hand and you lean forward, ready to throw yourself into the Simulator and see how well it performs - then you turn back to look at Shari. "This thing will be fighting properly, won't it?" She frowns nervously.

"Er … are you sure you'll be fine without a Device to more easily monitor your vital signs? I was going to set it at a lower level -" She breaks off as you burst into laughter, startled, but her surprise turns to irritation when you keep it up.

"Flandre-sama." You nod and reach out to absently pat Satsuki's head. She squeaks in surprise but you're still dealing with Shari.

"Unless it's both able to hurt me significantly, makes a concerted effort to ignore all those non-lethal spells you guys like to use, and makes a determined effort to kill me, my safety isn't anything to worry about." Although you should probably hold off on explaining how you got ripped in half, or had a causality-reversing spear shoved through your heart. Maybe after? Shari's expression softens a little and she nods.

"Alright. Then … it's not set for maximum aggression or anything, but it's not going to hold back very much. That's okay?" You nod.

"So long as you amp it up if it needs it." She hesitates before nodding and you flash a grin before throwing yourself forward. You lose the screen showing the simulacrum, but that's okay - you see it high above the city, magic circles glowing a wonderful scarlet color, and as you angle yourself toward it, a stream of red daggers comes pouring down on you. It's hardly danmaku, though, and you giggle and swerve aside - and then you really put on the speed, charging for the Final Boss straight through its rain of blades. If it's surprised by your attack, however, it doesn't show it, and your sweeping strike with Laevateinn rebounds off a circular shield. It turns to follow you as you pass it, and when you slow and turn around you see that the number of magic circles has increased. It sweeps its hand toward you, beams easily dodged, and then the circles begin spitting out their own attacks.

You giggle happily at the true storm of danmaku - several dozen magic circles hover around and behind the Final Boss, all spewing bloody daggers toward you, with enough variation in their patterns that you actually have to keep moving to avoid them. Of course, the difference between this and real danmaku is that here you don't lose just by getting hit, and you spiral through the attack, being grazed and fully impacted and not caring at all. And then you slam into the same circular shield, but head-on with your shoulder leading the charge. Something crunches painfully, but the shield cracks under the impact as well. Before it can rearrange its bullet patterns to catch you without endangering itself, you dive back to the buildings. How clever is it?

Not very. It doesn't bother with the weak danmaku once you're far enough, but the sweeping beams of magic it sends after you aren't much better. You slip through and around them, wondering if you've badly overestimated Shari's creation. "Flandre?" Your head twitches to the side, but you don't see Ginga. "Flandre, we're pulling all the restrictions off. Just to let you know, the buildings are going to go away." You bare your teeth and nod - and then the arena vanishes and the Final Boss dives toward you. Its Laevateinn-staff arcs toward your head, and when you try to raise your own weapon to block it, you feel rings clamped over your arm. Still, that's not enough to stop you, and your free arm leaps up and your wings sweep forward. The staff cracks your arm, but you wrench your other arm free of the bind and sweep Laevateinn up. All you manage to do is knock the hat from the simulacrum's head, but it's not like you're being completely serious right now ….

Realizing the magnitude of its error, the Final Boss flees, setting a barrage of beams to cover its retreat. You keep an eye on it as you avoid the incoming attacks, and when it turns and sweeps its free arm to the side, several massive magic circles appear behind it. And then it raises the staff, and then swings it down - and the circles blast out massive waves of power. You scoot away, darting to the other side of the arena before arcing up, and when the circles reorient themselves to keep attacking, you turn invisible and dart down, sliding through a gap and hopefully going unnoticed. The blasts cut off as the Final Boss realizes that it doesn't know where you are, and when you reappear in mid-charge, Laevateinn already in position to strike, its counters are out of place, and all it can do is defend itself. Laevateinn bursts through its shield, and the raised staff is bent when it tries to parry your attack - and then you simply elbow the simulacrum in the face, shattering the upper row of teeth and part of the nose.

At least, that's what's supposed to happen. The Final Boss doesn't seem to have realistic injuries, so its head simply snaps back and it tumbles for a moment before apparently deciding that it's not dead yet. More rings of red energy try to bind you - over your arms, your torso, your legs, squeezing your arms against your torso - and another magic circle appears between you and it.


What do you do?

[ ] Let it 'defeat' you.
- [ ] It passes. Tell Shari how it could be better.
- [ ] It fails. Tell Shari how it could be better.

[ ] Defeat the Final Boss.
- [ ] After letting it hit you.
- - [ ] It passes. Tell Shari how it could be better.
- - [ ] It fails. Tell Shari how it could be better.

[ ] Other?


Next Update will be on Saturday.

[X] Defeat the Final Boss.
- [X] After letting it hit you.
- - [X] It passes. Tell Shari how it could be better.


You grin at the simulacrum as it backs away from you, and as it flies higher and farther, more magic circles appear between it and you. Then it stops and raises its staff. "Come on, come on!" Your grin widens - you want to see just what this thing can do, after all - and then the staff swings down and a short beam of energy shoots into the first magic circle, followed by a swirling torrent of scintillating crimson energy. You lean forward as much as you can. The torrent funnels through the magic circles, narrowing at the first circle and gradually widening before abruptly constricting in the last few, so what slams into you is a highly-concentrated blast of energy only a little wider than you are tall. And it hurts, far more than a Master Spark, even more than the attack that laid you low when you had a rampage the last time you were here. The bindings dissolve under the strain and you're hurled to the floor of the arena, too numb to properly evade. Bones break as you slam into the ground and tumble - legs, shoulders, arm, jaw - and you lie still for a moment. Somehow your clothes weren't completely destroyed by the onslaught.

You twitch your head to the side as you remember that, yes, you're in the middle of a fight, and then you wrench your body to the side, spinning and flailing - but you avoid the spear of blazing energy that was aimed at you. "Flandre! Flandre, just stay right there, I'm shutting it down!" You jerk your head up and look around wildly for the owner of the voice.

"No! Don't you dare!" The Final Boss is still up there, but it hangs motionless against the sky instead of attacking.

"But … but, Flandre -" An image appears in the air in front of you - a young woman with long brown hair and glasses, a horrified expression on her face. "You're hurt, we need to get you to a hospital -" She flinches as you snarl and lash out with a claw, breaking the partially-healed arm.

"No! I'm not finished yet. We're going to keep fighting!" You drag yourself closer to the image and turn your better eye toward it, glaring as you try to figure out who this person is and where she could be. Another young woman - taller, with long dark hair - steps behind her and puts a hand on her shoulder. The first girl nods jerkily.

"Re- … reinitializing the combat program. M-Maximum aggression." You grin and cackle before throwing yourself to the side. Where is your gift …? You slip to the side as thin spears of energy rain down on you, some closer than others but none managing to solidly connect, and then you drop to the ground and 'skate' toward your precious gift - and then you put it away and hurl yourself upward toward your opponent. Apart from the spears of red energy it still hurls down at you, two other spells are active; an orb of magic surrounded by a spinning band that seems to be drawing energy into the orb, and a triangle with crackling orbs at the points. Seemingly aware that its spears are ineffectual, despite the closer range not allowing you to dodge as consistently, your opponent switches to a support mode, throwing up circular barriers and trying to restrict your movements by trapping you within caging bands. In response, you begin radiating power, your aura burning away the binding spells before they can stop you, and the barriers you can't go around you split apart and bash through with your claws.

The triangle fires before you reach your enemy, three beams of twining red and silver, but you're simply too close. One beam clips your leg, spinning you away, but it's far from a problem - you simply throw yourself at your enemy, slamming into it and finally, finally rending it with claws and wings. It tries throwing you off, using its magic to bash you with shields or strike you with a burst of energy, but this is your domain, and this thing with the temerity to look like your sister doesn't have any of her talent, skill, intelligence, ruthlessness, or brutality. And when you finally reach into its mouth and pull its lower jaw off, it finally simply fades away along with its spells. You look around suspiciously for a moment, then shake yourself, remembering where you are and what you're doing, and look down at your clothes. "Tsk, tsk." Fortunately, you still have some of those dresses you acquired so long ago, and after changing into one of them you glide down to where Satsuki and the Mid-Childans are waiting. Wendi and Nove back up warily - of course, nowhere near far enough to actually stop you from gutting them if you feel like it - and Shari wobbles as her eyes dart across your body.

"What - but, you were -?" You giggle and shake your head. Is she still going on about that?

"Well, Shari, I guess it deserves a passing grade." She blinks and focuses on you, and you laugh at her confused whine. You settle down on the railing and smile at her. "Of course, if you're actually going to keep using an image of my sister as your 'Final Boss,' it needs to actually be a little bit like her. Are you ready to take notes?" Shari still looks very bewildered, and Ginga clears her throat.

"Um, maybe it would be better if Shari got some rest? I could take the notes for her." You frown at her, but before you can respond Shari shakes her head slowly.

"No … no, it's alright, Ginga. This … I'm fine, really." Ginga doesn't seem convinced, and Shari is definitely still paler than she should be - but if she's willing, you're ready. She turns back to you and bows politely, if a bit unsteadily. "Um, I'm sorry if it failed to meet certain expectations. Hayate gave me the appearance and explained a bit about what she wanted it to be capable of - at its most dangerous, it's supposed to be a challenge even for S-ranked mages." You smile and bob your head up and down. … You should see about securing a supply of blood soon, even if you don't really need it desperately. Coffins are such wonderful things.

"Yep. So, the first thing - it isn't at all capable in melee combat, but it should be as skilled in melee as it is with magic, and quite comfortable integrating them seamlessly." Shari frowns at you.

"Well … I mean, it's supposed to -" She cuts herself off when you raise a hand, gesturing for her to stop.

"If you want to make a whole different appearance, you can do whatever you want with it. But if you're going to use my sister's form, it has to be done right. What you already have is passable, but it's very different from what she's actually capable of." She nods after a moment and you smile. "Good. Second, it's using the wrong number of magical attacks at a time. If it's using something powerful, it should only be using one at a time, but it should be really accurate and very fast to track and recover. If it's using weaker attacks, they should pretty much all be like that danmaku storm with all the daggers." Shari frowns but nods, and her fingers fly over the keyboard in front of her. "Hmm … probably the biggest problem is that it's so slow. I don't mean physically slow - I mean, it is, because my sister is faster than I am - but I'm referring to its reactions. It should be completely impossible for a lone individual to surprise it or make an attack that the Final Boss can't block or shield. Even a team shouldn't be able to blindside it completely, not unless the team has some kind of stealth operatives. Unless you're in a team, you shouldn't be able to take it down without resorting to brute force, and even in a team, brute force should be the most reliable method." She looks at the screen and nods.

"So … heightened reaction times, overcharged magic, fighting ability. Anything else?" Nove snorts in irritation.

"Why not just make her invincible?" Her sisters frown at her and you shake your head.

"Because I'm trying to be accurate. My sister isn't invincible, but she is five hundred years old, extremely skilled, both at magic and with weapons, and she's very powerful. If there's any cheating going on, she'd be able to do it herself." You turn back to Shari. "There are a few other things, but I don't think you can actually do anything about them - your magic system uses magic circles a lot more frequently than she does, and it doesn't seem to have as many esoteric effects. In addition to attack spells, she's also fond of illusions and sense-obfuscating spells." She nods, but she doesn't seem fully occupied listening to you; something else is occupying her mind. Well, that's fine; as long as their Final Boss doesn't embarrass Remilia, it's alright.


What do you do?

[ ] Take Satsuki inside for more lessons.
- [ ] Continue Etiquette.
- [ ] Politics.

[ ] Work with Satsuki on combat skills.

[ ] Other?