One-way traffic

"How about it."

Finally, a sufficient answer has been provided.

The girl turned to look at the white figure in front of her, a mischievous smile playing on her lips.

"By now, you should have at least a basic understanding of this Gensokyo, right?"

...What are you talking about, the basics?

"I'm sorry, it seems there was something wrong with my thinking."

After confirming all of this, Accelerator probably only had one sentence to say.

"...You're not the only one with a mental problem. All of you Gensokyo folks are pretty abnormal."

It sounds like an insult, and it actually is.

At this moment, in Accelerator's mind, the land called Gensokyo is probably a land completely intertwined with abnormality.

Therefore, after fully understanding this point, he gave up on trying to find out with Alice why the other party had suddenly attacked him.

The other party's actions were completely irrational. If one had to put it in a way, it was probably just to make the situation less boring and to try to make it more interesting.

For this inexplicable reason, she is about to engage in a real battle with Accelerator.

"So, is there anything else you'd like to ask?"

"What else is there to ask... I've completely seen through guys like you who're not right in the head."

The first monster completely gave up the struggle.

He spoke with an utterly helpless tone, shook his head, and stopped considering reasonable factors such as reasons and justifications.

In this fantasy world, common sense about the outside world does not exist.

and so.

To deal with this unconventional situation, we must use equally unconventional methods to solve it.

That means——

"Anyway, no matter how nonsensical your reason is, you're still here just to fight me, right?"

"Just as you can see."

"Ha! That's the best thing ever."

And so it is.

The first person raised both hands, unable to resist revealing an equally clueless expression.

"Your unreasonable principles remind me of even more unconventional memories."

That was the past he had already forgotten.

It is the first bloody and violent historical record in Academy City.

That kind of irrational, extreme "madness" that used to drive him to act solely to defeat everything in his path has now returned to Accelerator.

"I just hope you can handle it."

then.

The first person no longer hesitated. Since the other party was willing to play along, he would play along to the end.

in a blink.

With a speed as fast as the wind, Accelerator's body disappeared.

It wasn't due to any inexplicable manipulation of space; it was simply because his speed was so fast that it seemed as if he had vanished from the spot.

Alice, facing him, remained unperturbed.

She smiled calmly, raising her right arm as the puppets surrounding her assumed a fighting stance.

"Spell Cards".

That is the specific name of a technique.

The power gathered in his hand and was compressed into an extremely small card.

Alice, on the other hand, uses this card, which is transformed from pure power, as a medium to unleash her several extremely powerful skills.

"—A curse upon the 'Shanghai Doll of Magical Light'!"

A burst of multicolored, glass-like light erupted.

As Alice spoke, the intense and dazzling colors spread like ultraviolet rays to the surrounding area.

The puppets moved in sync with the movement of the light.

Their bodies are directly aligned with the paths formed by the light, thus transforming into a highly colorful protective net.

In that instant, an unstoppable barrage of comments came rushing in from all directions.

It was as if the power to completely engulf the environment exploded, and the power of the barrage raged in mid-air. Only the puppeteer in the very center was not threatened in the slightest.

This is the barrier belonging to the bullet comments.

If it's such a powerful barrier, even the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine would have difficulty forcibly breaking into it. As both a puppeteer and a resolute magician, Alice's identity is not so easily broken by others.

but.

It was in that colorful light that completely enveloped the surroundings.

An incredible white abruptly appeared.

Bang——! ! !

His body forced its way into the mass of light, distorting everything.

As if trying to catch the light, Accelerator reached out and manipulated the energy direction of the surrounding light in one breath, distorting and spreading them dramatically.

Power has been given a completely new form.

Originally, the colored light that should have formed a ring-shaped barrier was transformed into a powerful laser beam that struck directly at the heart of the enemy after being touched by Accelerator's hand.

This is not just a simple reflection.

Instead, it directly manipulates the energy itself and gives it a new form, using its unique characteristics to launch a surprise attack on the enemy.

Several dolls around Alice were swallowed up as a result.

Alice's own power completely defeated most of the dolls, but even so, Alice's expression remained unmoved.

She took back control of the remaining puppets.

The puppets formed a line, transforming into shields to intercept Accelerator's attack.

Squeak——!!

A sound like rotten wood being pierced through whistled through the air.

Accelerator saw that although the beams of light hit the dolls directly, they failed to penetrate their bodies in an instant, allowing Alice to seize the opportunity to escape the encirclement.

Do you think you can escape?

Ultimately, the strongest weapon should be oneself.

No matter how powerful the force he controls, he is still best suited to use his fists and feet to launch powerful attacks.

Without hesitation, Accelerator charged straight at the fleeing enemy like a fighter jet.

The beams of light kept hitting him, but they were all intercepted by the reflection of the first beam and forcibly given a new energy form, thus striking back in this manner.

then.

Just as the opponent's attack came again, Alice couldn't help but chuckle.

"Spell Cards".

Unbeknownst to her, the girl had already tightly grasped an energy spell card that shone with golden light in her hand.

Ignoring the beam of light shooting straight at her, she instead shouted out the name of the power.

"The curse of the 'Hanging Hourai Doll'—!"

A massive magic circle was generated.

The magic circle was blood-red, and as it was directly struck by those beams of light, it also absorbed the power of the beams themselves.

Dozens of puppet figures reappeared around her.

What's amazing is that these puppets are in completely different poses from the previous puppets.

As the dolls were gathered together, the enormous magic circle in front of Alice became even more bizarre.

"This is…"

"You seem to be able to reorganize and reorder the powers of my puppets, is that right?"

The forces kept coming together, which in turn generated an even larger and more destructive energy.

Accelerator looked ahead with a somewhat wary gaze.

"It's a real shame that, as a puppeteer, what I can't stand the most is being controlled by others."

As she finished speaking, an intense stream of light condensed in the central area of ​​the magic circle.

It was a blood-red light.

Its vibrancy is unmatched by anything else, its extreme nature is beyond the reach of any other existence.

The radiance manifested as tiny, spear-like streams of light.

"So, I'm sorry."

The dolls moved in sync with Alice's actions, compressing that power to its absolute limit.

Alice responded with an even more touching smile.

"This battle is my victory."

boom--! ! ! !

A sound comparable to that of an artillery shell exploded outwards.

The light, which shot out almost instantly, shattered into pieces in an instant.

They rearranged themselves in all directions, absorbing some stranger power, and then re-merged during flight, transforming into a completely new form of power.

Accelerator immediately frowned.

He could sense that there was something within that power that completely violated the laws of physics.

"…curse?"

He must have seen something similar before.

That was what I saw inside Roswaal's mansion when I was eliminating a deadly threat to a demon girl named Rem.

"Oh? It's amazing that you could even notice that. I thought you would be defeated without knowing the truth."

"Are you sure this is okay? This is just a normal spell card battle, right? Come to think of it, this has completely exceeded the scope of the rules."

"It's okay to slightly overstep the rules. Even the Hakurei Shrine Maiden often goes over the rules of spell cards on her own. What's the big deal about that?"

No matter how you explain it, that light always possesses an unimaginable and extremely threatening level.

The curse likely originates from within those dolls.

They adopted a posture resembling hanging themselves, and it was this very behavior that caused the continuous curse power to converge inside the beam of light.

A simple curse is nothing special; it's ultimately just a pure form of power.

However, this was completely different from what happened at the mansion.

If Accelerator fails to perfectly and accurately block these curses, they will directly affect his body, causing him to suffer a bizarre fate that even he himself could not have predicted, through his own reflection.

The first person clearly understands just how likely this is to happen.

Alice was extremely confident about this.

"There's nothing we can do about it. No matter how strong you are, you can't withstand an extraordinary curse."

The blonde girl spoke as if it were a certainty.

She was now completely convinced that this time it would be her victory.