Hong Meiling Sleepwalks Through the Heavens

The slugs possess two abilities – a powerful healing ability, and the ability to spit acid to subdue enemies.

Hong Meiling wanted Sluggy to show off its abilities, but strangely, it seemed that it was not very willing to follow her instructions.

Even if there was a psychic contract, that doesn’t mean that the contracted beast must act accordingly to its summoner’s wishes.

Meiling scratched her head watching the unmoving slug laying motionless in front of her.

What’s the use of a summoning ability if my summon doesn’t listen to me?!

“Sluggy, would you like anything to eat?”

“Sluggy, would you like a massage?”

“Sluggy, please, talk to me…!”

Slugs are able to speak human language, but it seemed as if it was pretending to not understand her.

And sure enough, it relented when Meiling asked, “Is there anything I can do for you?”

“…I want to bask in the sun.”

“Ah.”

Slugs are known to have soothing, pleasant voices, but Meiling did not feel either soothed or pleased by its words.

I could give you everything, but not this!

If she were to ask Remilia Scarlet to remove the scarlet mist blocking out the Sun, she might get thrown into the basement to become Flandre’s plaything.

“Ah… as you can see, I can’t do that. If you wait for another week or so, you can bathe in the Sun again.”

If my memory serves me right, Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame will come knocking on the gate within a few days!

“So, help me out a little,” Meiling muttered to Sluggy. “Ask for something that I can help you with.”

“Hmm… without the Sun, I feel sooooo… tired…” Sluggy flopped around and went back to ignoring Meiling.

Meiling felt helpless. It seemed that having a good relationship with her pet is difficult.

Just as she was about to poke at the slug again, a black figure could be seen in the distance flying towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion at blinding speeds.

…Reimu? No, it can’t be. It’s too early.

When the black figure flew closer, Meiling could see that it was Aya Shameimaru.

Aya is a Crow Tengu and resides by the Youkai Mountain. She works as a reporter, and runs a newspaper called the Bunbunmaru. With her ability to move extremely fast, it was naturally that she would become a reporter, zipping around from place to place to catch the latest scoop for her newspaper.

However, when things are tame and boring in Gensokyo, she will simply make up stories, or exaggerate the smallest of news to fill her paper.

Because of this, Bunbunmaru’s credibility is poor at best. The beings in Gensokyo simply treat the Bunbunmaru as some form of entertainment or gossip, and rarely seek it out to scourge for actual news.

With the Scarlet Mist Incident, however, there was no way that Aya would let such news go to waste.

It’s been a week, though. She’s slow to come here, Meiling thought to herself.

Originally, Meiling thought Aya would simply fly into the mansion grounds. After all, she is deemed the fastest in Gensokyo.

However, to her surprise, Aya landed gingerly right in front of Meiling.

Aya looks similar to a human girl in her twenties – she had black hair and red eyes, She looked put together, like a news reporter, donning white clothes and a black skirt with a tiny red hat resting on her head.

“Greetings!” Aya greeted enthusiastically. “My name is Aya Shameimaru, and I am a reporter of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper!”

Before Meiling could reply, Aya’s attention was trained on the huge slug lying next to Meiling.

She saw it at first, but she couldn’t tell what it was from such a large distance. Now, a slimy slug is slithering around on the same spot by the gate of the mansion.

“What a big slug you have!” Aya gasped, with sparkles in her eyes. She immediately raised her camera and took two photos of Sluggy.

“Oh, wow,” Aya said, checking her photos. “On second thought, it’s kinda disgusting…”

Looking closer, it seemed that the slug seemed to manifest red veins on its head that closely resemble an anger symbol, but Aya chalked it up to her own imagination.

Silly me! How could slugs be angry? They are just slugs! Aya thought to herself.

Sluggy, unlike other slugs, is intelligent, and it felt extremely wronged that it was called disgusting.

“What’s wrong with my slug?” Meiling pouted, trying to gain the slug’s favor. “It’s cute, no?”

Aya’s eyelids fell, staring at Meiling with an expression that could only say, “Are you kidding me?”, but Aya held her tongue.

After all, the slug might be her shikigami or familiar. It’s normal for owners to favor their pets, no matter how ugly they were.

“Well, back to business!” Aya smiled as she held her notepad and pencil. “Let me get straight to the point – did you cause the Scarlet Mist Incident? ”

Meiling was mistaken about Aya’s poor investigation speed – in reality, Aya had been zipping around Gensokyo looking for clues.

After all, nobody, other than the residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, knew who the culprit was, and there was no shortage of powerful beings that reside in Gensokyo. Aya narrowed down suspicious figures and interviewed them, but all of them denied their involvement. Looking down at her notepad, the Scarlet Devil Mansion was regarded as one of the few less likely culprits.

With Aya’s question, Meiling remembered some information from [Shoot the Bullet].

According to the game entries, Aya didn’t know who the culprit was until Reimu set out to solve the incident. Reimu seemingly already knew who the culprit was, as her first destination was to fly towards the Misty Lake. Of course, this was part of Reimu’s ability to ‘float,’ and everything would simply go her way. She simply guessed that the culprit would be towards Misty Lake’s direction, and stumbled upon the Scarlet Devil Mansion soon after.

Since Aya didn’t know who the culprit was back then, that means the previous Meiling gave Aya a false answer.

Plus, Remilia may not want the truth to be revealed too early.

“I’m not quite sure,” Meiling pondered. “My little slug loves to bathe in the Sun, and now that the Sun is gone, my slug no longer has energy. It even has the gall to talk back to its mistress!”

“Is that so? I guess this incident has nothing to do with you…” Aya recorded in her notepad. “Do you have any clues or pointers?”

“No clue,” she shrugged. “If I did, I would’ve seek justice for my slug!”

Aya looked up and hesitated, glancing towards Meiling, “Well, if that’s the case, I would like to interview the people in the mansion. Could you please let me enter?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, but my Mistress doesn’t like visitors.”

“That’s suspicious,” Aya touched her chin. “That’s weird.”

Immediately, she leapt up into the air and zipped towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Sure enough, she forced her way in.

Seeing this, Meiling stretched out her left and right hand, sending out chains that flew rapidly towards Aya.

The chains, however, couldn’t catch up to Aya, and they simply fell flat on the floor. After all, she is the fastest being in Gensokyo despite Meiling’s immediate response.

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

However, in the next moment, dozens of knives suddenly in Aya’s path, with their tips aiming towards her, forming a shiny, murderous semicircle.

She immediately stopped herself mid-air, as if she applied an emergency brake. She hurriedly leapt backwards, avoiding the knives that narrowly flew past her head.

Aya was visibly confused, but Meiling knew that Sakuya was here to assist her.

In another blink of an eye, Sakuya appeared right in front of Aya.

Aya felt a little troubled – she didn’t know what the other party’s abilities are, so she couldn’t respond accordingly.

Meiling flew over the gate soon after, and landed behind Aya, sandwiching her alongside Sakuya.

If it was a one-on-one fight, Aya could handle it, but one-on-twos were difficult. The strange maid with the silver hair had peculiar abilities too, and it may be difficult for her to use her speed to her advantage, according to Aya’s quick deduction.

“Aha, I’m cornered,” Aya forced out a laugh. “E-even if we have to fight, we still need to abide to Spell Card Rules, right…?”

Translator Notes:

I will be taking a short break, so no release tomorrow as I am feeling a little sick. See you all on Wednesday! ^_^