Hong Meiling Sleepwalks Through the Heavens

Listening to the tengu’s words, Sakuya Izayoi huffed, “Spell card rules are meant for head-on duels – I don’t think there is any need to follow them for thieves who break into private property.”

“I’m no thief,” Aya Shameimaru huffed back and pounded her fist to her chest. “I’m but a reporter in search for nothing but the truth!”

“Well, you’re not going to find any clues or evidence here,” Sakuya said coldly. “Our Mistress is difficult to talk to. If she sees a little rat sneaking around her mansion, she will almost certainly pounce on it and kill it. Plus, my Mistress is much more powerful than I am, so if you want to make it out of here alive, I would suggest turning back right away.”

Tsk, Aya pouted silently in her heart. I’ll just come back some other day.

Aya may be a paparazzi by definition, but she is most definitely not willing to risk her life in the name of journalism. Even though the silver-haired maid’s statement about her Mistress being stronger than her seems a little far-fetched, she couldn’t help but feel her spine chill by how cold and direct her words were.

“In that case, I won’t force you,” Aya turned around, preparing for take-off. “I’ll be leaving!”

Aya left them in a strong gust of wind, but braked mid-air. She turned around and snapped a couple of photos of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Sakuya, and Hong Meiling, before dashing out of view once again.

After making sure she’s gone, Sakuya nodded to Meiling and went back inside the mansion.

Sakuya didn’t bother lecturing Meiling – she just happened to walk past a window and saw Meiling and Aya talking to each other. Then, Aya flew straight up and zipped towards the entrance. Meiling couldn’t stop her even if she wanted to.

But no matter how fast Aya is, she would still come to a screeching halt with Sakuya around. Sakuya is able to manipulate time and space, and hence, she is able to stop time.

However, this bears several limitations – she cannot go straight for the kill when time is stopped, so the next best thing was to surround her opponent with throwing knives, resume time, and allow the knives to rain hell upon her enemy.

Closing the door to the mansion, Sakuya remembered that Meiling was shooting chains out of the palms of her hands.

Strange. I have never seen that before. Is that a new move she created? And that slug… is that her familiar?

Shaking her head, she brushed away her thoughts and continued her endless work.

Meanwhile, Meiling landed back outside the gate.

Sakuya was being way too suspicious! Meiling scrambled in her head. Aya probably thinks that we’re the culprits behind the incident now!

Thankfully, Meiling was overthinking it. Aya was already a disliked figure in Gensokyo, and she received similar treatment whilst interviewing other powerful youkai. If anything, Sakuya was probably the nicest out of the bunch.

…

Several days passed, and the scarlet mist continued to persist in the sky.

Within a few days, the latest issue of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper has been published. The headline briefly describes the Scarlet Mist Incident, with Aya’s thoughts scribbled down below. In addition, she listed several suspects that she considered to be the culprits behind the incident.

Of course, only a handful of people took her article seriously.

Photos of Meiling, Sakuya, and Sluggy were attached. Meiling was described as a “strange youkai with eccentric taste raising a peculiar slug,” while Sakuya was described as a “very cold and facially paralyzed maid of the house.”

At the very least, Aya could say that her paper has made an impact in the heart of one fairy – Cirno, picking up a newspaper discarded by the lake, became very interested in Sluggy. She immediately flew straight towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion to see if she could freeze Sluggy, but of course, the moment she tried to freeze them, she was shot back to the lake with a flying kick.

Meiling’s and Sluggy’s relationship has considerably improved over the past few days (at least, to Meiling), since Sluggy was starting to obey her orders.

It seems that her constant pleading and prodding at the slug bore fruit.

Sluggy accepted their psychic contract with Meiling, but not because of her constant begging for the slug to give her attention.

When Sluggy wasn’t being summoned, they will return to Shikkori Forest.

Sluggy reported their situation to Katsuyu, the main slug. Katsuyu was dumbfounded by the strange turn of events, but instructed the smaller slug to follow Meiling’s orders regardless, so long as she doesn’t do anything to harm the ninja world.

Hence, Sluggy would obey Meiling’s commands for the time being.

Meiling has also become more proficient in utilizing her Adamantine Sealing Chains, and she can now shoot two chains from each hand.

With only six hours of sleep per day, her [Dream Energy] was recharging very slowly, but since she had nearly half of her Dream Energy left after being forcibly ejected out of the Naruto world, it has finally replenished.

This means that the next time she falls asleep, she will dreamwalk into another world.

This made Meiling a little worried, If Reimu and Marisa come while I’m asleep, that would be very bad.

Normally, she would still be alert while asleep, but with her ability to venture to other worlds, her sleep would be deeper than normal, and the two heroines might just fly in with no problem.

If they enter after a furious battle, Remilia Scarlet would probably let it go, but if Meiling lets them in just like that, she would most definitely have her head.

I fall asleep at night now, and they probably won’t come in the middle of the night. It should be fine to sleep… right?

No! In the original game, Remilia said something about the moon being ‘so red tonight,’ which means it happened at night!

But with the red mist, how could she see the moon?! This is so confusing!

Night will fall in an hour or two, and her eyelids were starting to inadvertent close on their own, I sure hope they don’t come to the mansion when I’m busy living my life in another world…

Looking up, her eyes caught a figure riding a broom in the distance, and the figure was approaching incredibly quickly.

Marisa Kirisame! 

No need to worry about sleep when the enemy has already come to the door.

Marisa Kirisame is a human magician, and she considers herself Reimu Hakurei’s rival despite their close relationship. “It’s friendly competition,” she would say.

Marisa is different from Aya, and tried flying straight into the mansion’s grounds.

“Excuse me!” Meiling shouted, leaping straight into the air and hovered in front of Marisa. “Can I help you?”

Marisa immediately stopped in her tracks and hovered in the air as she sat on her broom – she looks like a fifteen year old, with long blonde hair and a cheeky appearance. She looks like the very definition of a Western witch, donning a black and white dress with a black pointed hat on her head.

“You!” Marisa blurted out. “Y’all are the ones causing this mist above us, aren’t you?”

Meiling looked around, electing not to answer her for now, No sign of Reimu… strange.

According to [Shoot the Bullet], Reimu, based on pure intuition, guessed that the culprit lives in the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Without Reimu, Marisa should have no way of guessing who the culprit is, especially if her source was Aya’s newspaper.

What’s going on? Meiling wondered.

“Hey! I’m talking to ‘ya!” Marisa grumbled. “Are y’all the ones causing this incident?”

“…where’s the Hakurei Shrine Maiden?” Meiling asked.

Marisa’s face turned visibly red at this question and thought to herself, What are you trying to say?! Will you only take me seriously if my name is Reimu Hakurei?!

“Hmph! Who cares about that shrine maiden? If y’all are the culprits, I can handle y’all alone!” Marisa pointed at her with an accusing finger. “I am Marisa Kirisame, and I am a human magician who doesn’t need no damn shrine maiden, you stupid gatekeeper!”

Marisa immediately flew backwards and whipped out a spell card.

Spell card rules, Meiling thought to herself.

[Spell Cards] are simply one’s special moves that are put in the form of a Spell Card. In battle, one must prepare a number of spell cards not exceeding a specified upper limit, and before using it, they must clearly read out the spell card’s name. If they are defeated in spell card battle, then they are declared the loser.

[Spell Card Rules] were instilled to ensure that instant death wouldn’t occur due to powerful abilities, and gives the weak a fighting chance against the strong. Despite this, death by combat still exists, and the chances of a weak person defeating a strong person in spell card battle is slim-to-none.

Meiling has an array of spell cards to use, and in the past few days, she also prepared new spell cards that correspond to her Adamantine Sealing Chains and her Summoning Technique.

As for her Body Flicker Technique, there are no need for spell cards since it is not an offensive move. She can simply use it in battle.

Seeing Marisa whip out her spell card, Meiling wanted to counter with her own.

After all, spell card rules are the norm in Gensokyo. If anybody tries to violate them, they would be targeted by everyone in Gensokyo.

Translator Comments:
I’m back, thankfully it was nothing too serious ^^”; I’m thinking of doing daily uploads Soon™ but my motivation may plummet if I start doing daily uploads… we’ll see how it goes! That being said, thanks for sticking around – I really appreciate the views <3