"Aw, one of those nights again?"
Flandre Scarlet kicked at the doll lying on the floor in front of her in frustration. Its head snapped clean off and collided with the opposite wall, leaving a dent in the plaster. The young vampire had been confined to her room once again by her sister, who'd claimed that she had 'business' to attend to. This had happened a dozen times already this month, and every time it meant Flandre had so sit in her room alone, with no-one to talk to or play with. Except these puppets, anyway, but they were too fragile to be any fun.
"I'm so booooooored~!"
Flandre's crystalline wings flapped behind her as she started to fidget. Why was it fair that when her big sis got to go out at night she had to sit in all by herself? Even Sakuya and Patchouli stayed away from her at times like this? They'd make weird excuses like 'I'm making tea' and 'I'm not feeling well', and then they'd just disappear. It was suspicious, enough that even a kid like her could figure it out.
"I bet they're having a party, and they didn't invite me. They're so mean..."
She pouted as she got to her feet, making her way up the staircase out of the basement. The door out was locked with dozens of various bars, locks and barricades. They weren't designed to keep Flandre in as much as they were to keep other people from walking in on her and getting turned into mincemeat.
She pushed the door casually, as if it had never been locked in the first place. There was a painful creaking sound as every lock broke off with ease, snapping with all the resistance of paper. Flandre smiled, stepping out into the corridors of the Scarlet Devil Mansion despite her sister's commands.
"Eh? What's that in the sky?"
One of the Mansion's windows was open, allowing the moonlight to seep in. Remilia had never been a fan of oil lamps, visitors always whipped them to see if there were hearts inside for no reason. She could make out the world beyond the Misty Lake - once a beautiful country, now an overgrown city complex. They called it Gensokyotham now, for reasons no-one had ever passed on to her.
There was something hanging in the sky, too - a pale red light, from some sort of beacon. A black symbol of a bat was contrasted with the light in order to stand out. Flandre looked out at the beacon in wonder, its colour seeming strangely familiar.
Her attention span soon shifted onto a butterfly making its way down the corridor, and the thought of the bat-beacon in the air was last to her.
---
"She usually gets here sooner than this."
Inspector Kotohime tapped a finger on the railing as the overgrown lamp did its job. She glanced at the watch on her wrist - a simplistic thing, with cogs and gears coming out on all sides. The Gensokyotham Police Department had installed this a month ago, and it was only for use when all else failed. It was, in short, a distress signal, to call on the individual who had become the city's greatest hero.
"If she doesn't get here soon, I'm not sure what we're going to do-"
"Then I suppose you should be grateful for my arrival."
Kotohime flinched as a voice rose from behind her. It wasn't the heroine she was trying to contact - it never was. This was her subordinate, a cold and calculated young woman in a sharp black suit with striking silver hair. She eyed Kotohime's watch with disapproval.
"You're late, Izayoi."
The woman shrugged.
"My mistress requires certain preparations. Would you prefer if we simply didn't emerge at all?"
"Good point."
Kotohime sighed as she reached into her robes, pulling out a set of documents. She eyed them over once before handing them over to the woman she addressed as Izayoi.
"Here's our perp at the moment. Letty Whiterock. Calls herself the Big Freeze. She's been responsible for a string of thefts and holdups for the last week, but we can't touch her. I've got five officers still in the hospital from hypothermia, and one guy we had to chisel out by hand. Our criminologists say she's likely to hit the Kamishirasawa Museum tonight. They're showing a new series of ice sculptures that Whiterock apparently has her eyes on."
Izayoi looked over the documents, most of all the photograph of the criminal. She couldn't help but notice that Miss Whiterock was somewhat...pudgy. Apparently Big Freeze was a more accurate pseudonym than she was likely willing to admit.
"Understood. We shall have her captured by sunrise."
Kotohime forced a grin. She hadn't seen this keenness to act in the force for some time.
"Alright. Mind if I pass on one last message to your-"
She blinked again, and the girl was gone. All that remained of her was a single piece of paper, jammed beneath Kotohime's foot.
It read, simply, 'Your watch was seven seconds fast. Forgive me for taking the time to correct it. ~十六夜'
Kotohime growled.
"I hate it when she does that."
---
Of course, the museum in question was as aware of the potential threat as Inspector Kotohime was. Extra security had been called in from all corners of the city, everything that their somewhat scarce budget could hope to afford. The end result of this was six fully-armed guards, spellcards at the ready, all hunched around a few blocks of ice shaped to look like people.
Art was a curious thing.
One of these guards seemed younger than the rest; a fairy, with a pair of blue crystallic wings protruding from her back. She eyed her companions, yawning slightly.
"Geez, this is boring. It's not even like these sculptures are any good, y'know. Maybe we oughta just hand 'em over?"
The other guards - large, bulky oni in proper body armour, turned to her in surprise. They took a few seconds to comprehend exactly what she'd said.
They then proceeded to burst into haughty laughter.
"Jeez, kid, you serious?! No way this Big Freeze chick is ever gonna be able to offer us as much as we're gettin' paid here."
The five guards continued to laugh uncontrollably, leaning on each other simply so they wouldn't fall over. The fairy didn't seem affected, her eyes closing slightly.
"Gave you a chance. Can't deny that."
She clicked her fingers, muttering something beneath her breath.
"...Perfect Freeze."
Moments later, there were 5 less guards in the room. And 5 more blocks of ice. The lone fairy stuck her tongue out at the now paralysed oni.
"That'll teach you to mess with the strongest~"
She continued to smirk as the door behind her opened, bringing a new chill into the room. The new entrant needed to squeeze a little to get into the room fully, but she pulled it off in the end. She took a moment to witness her apprentice's handiwork, before wrapping her arms around her in a gentle hug.
"Good work, Cirno. I chose well with you, I know it."
The fairy's wings fluttered with pride.
"Thanks, Miss Whiterock! Not that I'd be anything without your help, of course!"
Letty nodded. Cirno was the only person she allowed to refer to her by name, and with good reason - she was to be her successor. Right now she was basically the Little Freeze, but Cirno had potential greater than any youkai Letty had ever met.
"...Anyway. We're stealing these, right?"
Letty shook her head, surprising the fairy.
"We can't let people manipulate ice like this. They take our element into their hands? Someone needs to show them a little respect."
She outstretched a hand.
"Feel free to shatter them all. And if you 'miss' and take out one of those guards...well, I won't mind."
There was a smile on her face that seemed far too calm. Cirno nodded regardless, eager to please.
"Right! Time to show them just what I can-"
"Stop right there."
A third voice, from above. Letty and Cirno were both caught off guard, flinching as they looked upward. A small, hooded figure looked down on both of them, no part of her visible beyond her eyes and the demonic wings coming from her back. Her stare was as cold as the air around her, and she looked fearlessly into the eyes of the criminal.
Letty forced a grin.
"Heh. So you found us?"
There was no response from the hood. Letty bit her lip.
"...Cirno, I'll leave this to you."
"Right!"
The fairy nodded in approval at the new duty she was given. She wasn't even slightly aware that she was basically being used as a sacrifice. There was a barely audible sigh from above.
Letty wasted no time getting through the doorway this time, leaving her apprentice to face the mystery figure above. Cirno wasted no time moving straight into the trash talk.
"So, you think you're fancy just because you have a pretty hood? Look here, missy, you're not going to beat me. After all, I'm the stro-"
Beneath the hood, Cirno's opponent had already pulled out a weapon and thrown it. A tiny bat-shaped piece of metal caught the fairy on the side of the head.
It disoriented her enough for a full on attack. The hood leapt down from above, swooping onto Cirno with her leathery wings. A drop kick to the face was enough to stop her before she could declare any sort of attack.
Cirno had potential, true, but she also had a habit of talking too much.
---
"Hah, hah, hah..."
It was times like this Letty wished she could have been the Petit Freeze or the Not-Particularly-Chubby Freeze. Running was never really her specialty, and as she chugged past the guards she herself had frozen she felt an urge to stop for a breather. Still, Cirno would probably only be able to hold that vigilante off for so long.
She'd heard the rumours - a hooded figure who'd taken out every criminal to threaten Gensokyotham for the last month - but she'd assumed she was just an urban myth passed around by the police to scare people away. Now, though, she knew for a fact this caped crusader was very much real.
Something moved above her. She couldn't make out where in particular, but her eyes were drawn to the ceiling. She saw nothing.
"Who's there?!"
The figure above her moved, always positioning herself outside Letty's line of sight. The Big Freeze grew more and more desperate.
"S-Show yourself! Stop hiding!"
Her fear seeped through into her voice regardless. The figure waited, allowing her opponent's mind to win the battle for her.
Then she emerged.
"Gh-!"
Letty heard a pair of feet hit the floor behind her. The hooded figure stared her in the eyes again, and her body unconsciously started to step backward.
There was silence.
Then...
"Evildoer, you are a stain on the justice of this world!"
The figure pulled away her cape, revealing something thoroughly unexpected underneath. It was a young girl, with pale blue hair and crimson eyes, and wearing of all things a skin-tight scarlet outfit underneath which offered her all the coverage of a swimsuit. A belt along her waist had a variety of gadgets hanging from it, weapons and all, and a ring on one of her fingers had a simple insignia of a bat engraved on it. Beneath the hood was a poofy hat in a colour that must have once been white but had now turned slightly pink for reasons unknown. And - was it just the ice around her, or was she sparkling...?
"When evil threatens the city of Gensokyotham...
When villains fall upon the night...
They are fated to fall to me! The Scarlet Devil!"
Letty was torn between the urge to laugh and cry, and chose simply to watch this scene in awe.
"And now, in the name of the Scarlet Moon, I will punish you!"
The girl lifted her ring finger into the air, and the trinket started to pulse with a crimson light. A line emerged, expanding and gaining shape until within a few minutes it had taken form as a spear. It fell into her hand, still shining with all the power of love and justice. The moon's light fell on her, itself gaining a light red tint as if in respect of her power.
"Here it comes! My ultimate attack...!"
She lifted her arm up, ready to fling the spear at her foe. Letty was still too enawed to notice, let alone dodge.
"Take this! Super Special Scarlet Smasher Number XIII - Spear The Gungnir!!"
It flew at a blinding pace across the room, hitting Letty square in the chest and sending her slamming into the wall. The magical weapon was designed not to kill, but the impact from the collision was still enough to knock her out cold.
The Scarlet Devil took a few moments to bask in her victory. Both her foes had been eliminated, and the day was saved.
But still-
"Milady, I believe you were supposed to save your final attack until after everything else had failed."
Izayoi - or rather, Sakuya - had emerged from nowhere, as usual. She came into existence somewhere behind Remilia's left shoulder. The vampire pouted.
"It worked, didn't it? I don't understand why I have to start by using my weak attacks first."
"But that was what Lady Patchouli insisted. She knows more about this crimefighting business than either of us."
Remilia wasn't as convinced, though with Sakuya you could never tell is she really was as resolute as she sounded. Every so often she was certain that her servant missed her old maid uniform.
"I don't know...it feels sort of like she's taken two different ideas and merged them together. And I was fine just being some hooded hero...did she need to throw in this whole magical thing?"
Behind them, the sounds of sirens started to rise up. That was their cue to leave.
"Well, it's something to bring up later. For now, we should be making our way out."
Sakuya had already retreived her cape, and Remilia accepted it and strapped it back on as she flew through an open window and out of sight. She was back to being the mysterious, caped crusader the world knew to be the Scarlet Devil.
The only ones who claimed otherwise were the hysterical criminals who she apprehended, and their claims were assumed to simply be an attempt to discredit her. After all, what sort of caped crusader would really be so sparkly and magical beneath the hood?
---
And meanwhile, back at the mansion, watching it all from afar, Patchouli Knowledge lay unconscious from blood loss. Her hand was still held upwards in a thumbs-up motion.
Remilia...you're so cute~Behind her, the door to the library was torn off its hinges.
"Patchy, I wanna play! Let's- wait, is that...sis...?"
-----
