Chapter Text
~ “I should’ve known that it was you” – Marisa said out loud – “No one else would do something like this”
~ “Is that so?” – Seija retorted – “I’d have thought that you’d be the last one to figure it out, even that stupid gardener would probably do so more quickly”
~ “You mean the stupid gardener that just caught you off guard?” – Mokou stepped up.
~ “Indeed” – She forced a smile – “I felt bad from you four being unable to touch me, so I let you get a hit in”
~ “Hey! I punched you once!” – Kaguya pointed out.
~ “And I hit you with my broom too!” – Marisa exclaimed, not wanting to be left behind.
~ “Yes, and?”
~ “Seija” – Youmu spoke up – “Are you the one that kidnapped those kids from the village?”
~ “Oh no, not at all” – Her words surprised them all – “I lured them here first, then I took them”
~ “That’s the same thing!”
~ “Not at all, they came here on their own, I only asked them to stay and they agreed all on their own”
~ “I doubt that…”
~ “If what you say is true, then you’ll let us take them back, their parents are worried” – Mokou asserted.
~ “Oh, there was no need for you to come all the way here just for that. I was going to go to the village with them tomorrow… in fact, why don’t you leave? You don’t have to worry as I’ll keep them safe”
~ “Do you really expect us to believe you?” – Marisa pointed her mini-hakkero at her.
~ “Well, can’t say I didn’t try…”
Seija got ready to fight and the four answered in suit. But before any of them could attack a bright light blinded them all. The light quickly took humanoid form.
~ “Hey Kirin, you won’t believe what happened!” – Nue then saw the situation she flew into – “Okay, nevermind, you might actually believe it”
~ “What are you doing here!?” – Seija lost all of her focus to scream at her.
~ “Well, Reimu attacked, and I fled” – Nue explained in a monotone voice – “She had company too, 3v1 ain’t good numbers, sis”
~ “No, I’m asking why you came here! They could have followed you!”
~ “Oh yeah, you’re right” – She turned around – “It’s nice that they haven’t”
~ “I should’ve known she’d have an accomplice…” – Marisa mumbled while they argued.
~ “Hey, will you be able to keep them entertained?” – Mokou whispered to the two humans.
~ “We should be able to”
~ “Yeah, not the first time we fought ‘em”
~ “Good, you do so while Kaguya and I look for the children”
~ “We’re not fighting?” – Kaguya asked her.
~ “No, I think we’ll be better at getting the kids out of this place” – Kaguya was about to complain but then she realized she’d get to have more alone time with Mokou.
~ “Sounds good to me”
~ “Actually” – Marisa interjected, before turning to Youmu – “Do you mind if we fight them 1v1?”
~ “Hm? No, who do you want to go against?”
~ “The cheater, I’ve got a bone to pick with her”
~ “Alright, I’ll fight Nue then, can you separate them Miss Mokou?”
~ “Yes, I’ll do it while we set off” – She extended her hand to Kaguya – “You’ll have to hold on tight”
~ “I’ll gladly do so ♡”
Kaguya took Mokou's hand and then proceeded to cling to her. Marisa and Youmu looked at them and got ready after receiving a nod.
Mokou instantly set herself ablaze and dashed forwards, right in between Seija and Nue. Marisa and Youmu at them right after, Marisa sending her opponent flying back using her broom and Youmu sending hers to the ground with a slash of both her swords.
Nue quickly recomposed and flew back, watching how Youmu landed with a thud. Behind her the wall of fire raged and cut off her path to Seija, who had begun dueling Marisa. She could have tried to circumvent it, but she felt that Youmu would stop her if she tried.
~ “Don’t worry about me, Kirin!” – So she shouted – “I’ll be fine on my own!”
~ “Kirin?” – Youmu’s inquiry got no answer, as the counter-attack quickly began.
Unknown “Youkai Orb of Unknown Mechanics”
A sphere of large bullets formed a circle around her before spreading out. They flew away, sticking to the first thing they hit. The bamboo, the grass and even the wall of fire. Youmu quickly weaved in between the bullets but then realized that they were now coming straight at her. She quickly jumped back and evaded them in the air and ran to the side to avoid the rest of them. She then observed that after getting stuck again the bullets flew away.
Understanding the attack now, she made a beeline towards Nue but she shot a clump of bullets towards her. She dashed to the side and kept moving to avoid the aimed ones that followed soon after. But she then realized something. A few bullets got stuck to her swords.
With only a few moments to spare, Youmu threw both her swords high into the air. The bullets tried to find her but she was already gone. She dashed to the nearest bamboo stalk and ran up it with momentum alone. Nue watched her quizzically, wondering what she was trying to do. She then felt something hit her from behind.
She turned around and saw a small white ghost, it was that thing that was always by Youmu’s side. She questioned what she was trying to do with such a weak attack but then realized it was nothing more than a distraction. She turned around again just in time to see Youmu leap off the tree and grab her swords in midair, and now she was coming straight at her. With her raw strength she swung at her both blades, Nue barely managed to block her with her trident but the result was the same either way. They both crashed down into the ground.
Marisa had hit Seija with her broom about four times now. She wondered if this could be counted as a home run but quickly realized that this wasn’t the time for such thoughts. She got ready to hit her for the fifth time but Seija disappeared right in front of her face. She quickly reappeared behind her and returned the favor with a smack of her umbrella.
~ “Ack!” – She managed to recompose herself by using her broom to stop her fall – “So yer still using those cheats of yours…”
~ “I’ve been using them the whole time” – She realized she had stated the obvious – “It’s a pity, but I’ll keep on using them”
~ “I see, guess I don’t have to hold back then”
~ “Don’t make me laugh, it’s not like you still have those spell cards from back then”
~ “Who said I don’t?” – Marisa quickly rummaged through her pockets.
~ “Huh?”
Love Sign “Wide Master”
Marisa charged her mini-hakkero and let out a spark so wide that it covered almost all of her peripheral vision. Seija barely managed to avoid it by teleporting away with her umbrella. Marisa released a bunch of star bullets all around her. She watched her begin charging again and grinned. She remembered this attack, its weakness was its long windup between shots. The next spark was a long way off and she got ready to stop it before it happened.
And then Marisa turned to her.
Love Sign “Machine Gun Spark”
Seija was barely able to dodge the spark that came her way and she managed to quickly reposition in time to dodge the one that came right after. She knew a third one was coming, that was the final one from what she remembered. So she prepared to side step it and land a strike after rushing in. She locked eyes with Marisa and expertly evaded the little stars that were coming from behind her. But there was one thing Seija didn’t know.
Marisa had switched gears once again.
The Wide Master engulfed Seija and she instantly went crashing into the ground. Her only saving grace was the jizo statue she held in her left hand. Otherwise she would have been a goner by now. She painstakingly got up and watched how Marisa was getting ready for the next barrage. She was taking a long time to charge but she knew that didn’t mean anything. All she knew was that if she kept going like this she would be swept up into Marisa’s pace, and she couldn’t allow that.
Marisa released the next spark, it was of the machine gun kind. Seija jumped to the side, being grateful for the fact that the attack couldn’t move. She pocketed the umbrella and took the yin-yang orb and filled it with her power. She waited until the second spark to begin her plan.
She dodged to the side and teleported Marisa to her using the orb. She was shocked and quickly planted herself firmly into the ground because she believed that she wanted to push her into the spark. But that’s not what Seija did, she simply kicked her hand making her release the mini-hakkero. She then continued the attack with a punch to the face but Marisa managed to block her and restrain her arm. They struggled for a bit but the witch proved successful and managed to take out another card.
Celestial Apparatus “Orrery’s Solar System”
Six colorful satellites materialized out of thin air and collided into Seija. They pummeled her all over time and time again, Marisa keeping her close so that she couldn’t escape. Once she deemed it to be enough she let her go and sent her flying with a kick.
After making sure the wall of fire was long enough, Mokou stopped running and let Kaguya down. She stopped the flames from spreading out and causing a disaster. She waited for Kaguya to dust off her clothes before setting off.
~ “Alright, let’s find the kids”
~ “Do you have any idea of where they could be?”
~ “Not at the moment” – Mokou advanced without worry – “But this area can’t be that big, we’re bound to find them if we keep our eyes open”
~ “Look around a bunch, got it”
The two did so, carefully advancing through the bamboo while making sure to not miss any detail. The sounds of the fighting could still reach them but they quickly faded away. What didn’t fade was the smell of something burning but Mokou realized what was going on.
~ “Won’t you extinguish that?” · Kaguya’s dress was burning softly.
~ “What’s the issue? Do you really think such a puny flame will hurt me?”
~ “No, but you might scare the kids”
~ “Fair enough” – With a snap of her fingers the fire was extinguished.
~ “Good, let’s carry on”
~ “Thank you for worrying dear ♡” – Before Kaguya could continue teasing Mokou they both heard a groan – “What was that?”
~ “C’mon! That must’ve been the kids!”
They rushed over in the direction of the sound. It wasn’t long until their suspicions were proved correct. Right in front of them looked to be a small army of children.
They were all motionless, looking at the empty air with nothing behind their eyes. All but one.
~ “Hey, are you okay!?”
They rushed over to the odd one out. He looked pale, paler than the rest. He was on the floor, gasping for air. He barely looked at the two before hugging Kaguya tightly and began sobbing.
~ “Now, now, you’ll be fine, we’re here to get you out” – Kaguya reassured him.
~ “What is going on?” – Mokou went to another child – “They look famished” – She tried to get their attention but to no avail.
~ “Are you hungry? I think I have some food with me…” – Kaguya looked through her pockets and found some squashed grapes – “…could you tell us what happened here?” – The kid shook his head – “Ah…”
~ “We’ll need to find a way to snap them out of it”
~ “Let’s wait for him to calm down first”
~ “Alright”
After crashing to the ground, Nue quickly recovered and flew back up, looking around. Youmu was nowhere to be seen. Only her ghost-half was, floating in the spot that it bumped into Nue at.
Then, it began to shoot danmaku.
Hellfire Sword “Karmic Winds of Afterimages”
The danmaku came in circular waves of large bubble bullets. Two were shot at once with one of them being faster than the other. Nue was about to begin dodging but then she felt a presence behind her.
She quickly fell down, just in time to see Youmu charging right at where she was, cutting the air with her sword. She didn’t have time to look for her again as she got lost in her own danmaku. The bullets she cut through exploded into smaller bullets that spread themselves in all directions.
~ “I see” – She began dodging the bullets while waiting for the next slash.
In truth, Nue wasn’t actually immune to spell cards. Her ability allowed her to change her form and she was also pretty flexible. She had pretty good reflexes as well. Over the course of years she had become great at dodging, but only with those attacks that she could see coming.
She began to weave around the rapidly dispersing bullets, all the while trying to find where Youmu had flown off to. She quickly felt her growing energy, right behind where her ghost half was shooting from. She prepared herself for the attack just in time for Youmu to charge at her.
Nue stood her ground and pointed her trident at the human. The two clashed, the momentum from the slash sending them down to the ground but they managed to stay on their feet. Nue realized that the spell card had suddenly ended as she had caught Youmu’s katana in between the prongs of her trident.
But Youmu’s fierce expression told Nue that this wasn’t the time to relax. And that proved true as she put in all her strength to continue with her slash, cleanly severing the outer prong. In retaliation, Nue kicked the human away and then stared at her broken weapon. At that moment she honestly felt the urge to cry.
In contrast, Seija watched the satellites revolving Marisa and felt the urge to throw a fit. But she was no petulant child, she was only someone that refused to lose or give in. So no matter how much she had to struggle, she would get up again and again.
~ “Geez, persistent, aint’cha?” – Marisa said to her with a raised eyebrow.
~ “You… how do you even manage to do that?”
~ “Hm? Do what?”
~ “Switch cards like that, how can you do so without breaking the flow of your attack?”
~ “But I’m not breakin’ the flow, a spark is a spark, no matter what type it is. I just switch what card I put the most energy into, I’m good at multitaskin’, ya see?” – She shrugged like it was nothing – “And don’t try to tell me that I’m cheatin’, I only cheat against cheaters!”
~ “So… now that you brought those things out you can’t use your sparks?”
~ “Yeah, that’s correct, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have any more tricks up mah sleeve” – She smirked – “Wanna see?” – She didn’t give her time to answer.
Closure Sign “Big Crunch”
The satellites suddenly grew two times in size and turned all white. The satellites then advanced in a circular motion, releasing stars behind them. Seija flew up and began to shoot her own danmaku at Marisa. She made sure to stay in between the satellites, dodging the stars and predicting their path. She watched as the satellites curved back, attracted by an unseen gravity, and returned to Marisa. As soon as they got close they began spewing out more stars that catched on fire.
Feeling overwhelmed, Seija quickly took out her camera and used it to erase the bullets around her. She had erased the satellites as well but Marisa spawned their replacements quickly.
Unsealed Magic “Open Universe”
Seija fell back when she felt something was wrong. Instead of curving back, these satellites instead kept going. Before Seija could even think about dodging them Marisa released a second set, then a third and even a fourth.
Seija tried to dodge but the sudden change in the barrage was overwhelming. She got ready to take another pic with her camera but she was blindsided by the stars that followed the satellites.
The next thing she knew she was sprawled on the ground, riddled with pain.
~ “So, ready to give up?” – Seija heard as she painstakingly got up – “I can keep going all day if you want” – Marisa floated above her, looking proud with the satellites orbiting her again.
~ “You wish…”
~ “Yeah, I guess finishing here would be kinda boring, I mean I’d love to keep testing my spell card quick change” – As the human kept talking, Seija took her camera and charged it with her ability.
~ “You’ll have to wait for another time…”
Seija flew up and quickly took a reverse pic below Marisa, creating a sphere of darkness. She looked at the darkness with confusion but was immediately beset upon by an attack from it.
But it wasn’t just any attack, it was her own satellites flying back at her.
Marisa flew back but the attack was quicker and the satellites collided against hers, destroying each other. By the end, only one orbited Marisa.
That’s when Seija attacked again, teleporting in with her orb and then switching to her mallet and hitting the satellite with it. It burst on contact and all that remained were a few coins that Seija put on a bag.
Marisa tried to retaliate but Seija switched items again and teleported away with her umbrella. That’s when the human realized that she wasn’t the only one that knew how to quick change.
Marisa pocketed the cards she was using and took the ol’ reliable, her lasers. But before she could begin shooting Seija used her orb to teleport her again. An object then flew at Marisa and she took it instinctively, it was a bag of coins. Seija then quickly hit it with her mallet and teleported away again.
The mallet’s normal ability was to erase danmaku and turn it into coins. Of course, its reverse ability was the opposite. Erasing coins to create danmaku.
The next thing Marisa knew, she was laying on the ground, absolutely disorientated.
~ “So, ready to give up?” – She heard Seija say.
~ “Throwin’ my words back at me? That ain’t cool at all man…”
~ “I was just giving you the easy way out”
~ “No way… think about my pride at least”
Seija scoffed mockingly but then she felt something. They weren’t alone anymore, and as if to show that, large yin-yang orbs began bouncing around them. Marisa’s face lit up when she saw them.
~ “Fashionably late as always, eh?” – She said to the person slowly landing next to her.
After a few minutes of nice words and waiting, Mokou and Kaguya managed to calm the boy down. His name was Aoi.
~ “Have you calmed down?” – Kaguya asked and he nodded – “Great, now… could you tell us what happened?”
~ “The… the scary lady took me…” – His voice was more fear than sound – “She made us stand here… only fed us sometimes…” – He began to cry and Kaguya hugged him.
~ “Shh… you’ll be fine now” – Mokou, who was standing watch, approached.
~ “Do you have any idea why you can move now?” – He shook his head in Kaguya’s arms – “I see, then we have no idea how to free the others”
~ “I’m sure we can find a way” – Kaguya said.
~ “I’d sure hope so”
Before they could glean more information they heard something crash down nearby. Mokou instantly went into high alert and Kaguya put herself in front of the child.
Mokou began to approach where the sound came from and as she got closer she began to hear people talking.
~ “I told you to pay attention to where we were going!” – One sounded like the voice of a child.
~ “You distracted me!” – The other seemed older but still sounded immature.
~ “Cuz you were about to hit a tree!” – Regardless, they both sounded familiar to Mokou.
~ “And thanks to you we hit the other one!” – As she finally got close enough to see them, Mokou dropped her guard.
~ “Sumireko?” – She called out.
~ “Oh hey Mokou” – Sumi got up – “What are you doing here?”
~ “We were looking for the missing kids” – She gestured at the sea of hypnotized children.
~ “Ah, see Shimmy? Told you we’d find them here” – She helped the inchling get up.
~ “Not thanks to you we didn’t, hi Mokou”
~ “Hi, were you looking for the kids too?”
~ “Yeah, we came with Reimu and Sanae but we got separated” – Sumi said as they went to where Kaguya was – “You know, we got lost”
~ “Yeah, the forest does that” – She looked at Kaguya – “Anything new?”
~ “Yes actually, what was it that you said?”
~ “The… the doll…”
~ “Doll?” – Shimmy asked curiously.
~ “Yeah, he said that the scary girl used a doll to hypnotize them”
~ “So it can do that too? Add that to the list alongside screaming and calling your attention” – Mokou said sarcastically.
~ “Sounds very… versatile?” – Sumi added, confused.
~ “Yup, that girl seems to have a tool for every occasion… what was her name? Seiga?” – Kaguya said.
~ “It’s Seija”
~ “Seija!?” – Shimmy almost jumped – “Are ya saying that moron is behind all of this!?”
~ “Oh yeah, you were friends with her, weren’t you?”
~ “Yeah, were, she left me behind!” – Shimmy stomped on the floor, but it barely made any sound – “She makes my blood boil!”
~ “Noted” – Mokou said while Sumi tried to calm her down – “But since you were… so close, then could you tell us how it works?”
~ “Hmph, well…” – Shimmy wracked her brain – “If she’s still using her cheat items then I could just take away their effects”
~ “Y-you can do that?”
~ “Of course, my mallet’s the thing that gave them their powers in the first place” – She showed the mallet off, like it was just an ordinary tool.
~ “So… can you release their hypnosis?” · Kaguya asked warily.
~ “Probably, lemme try”
Shinmyoumaru waved the mallet around and it began to spark with golden energy. She slammed it on the ground and the energy propagated towards the kids, creeping up their bodies when it reached them. One by one, the children were released.
And one by one they began to scream and cry.
~ “Ah, that was probably too sudden… oops”
The four then began to scramble to take care of the kids. Even little Aoi tried to help them.
On the other half, Nue had just gotten over her sadness over her trident now being a skewed bident. She did so just in time as Youmu charged at her, katana at the ready.
They clashed, katana and former trident. Nue only allowed glancing blows to connect though, she didn’t want to end up as the owner of a weird cross spear.
No matter how the clashes went, Nue felt she was losing ground. Youmu, who had been charging energy in her short sword then released it, and the energy slashes flew at Nue. She backflipped to avoid the first two and then turned into a ball of light and flew straight up to avoid the rest.
Needing a change of pace, lest she be swallowed up by the human’s attacks, Nue took the offensive.
Nue Sign “Danmaku Chimera”
Turning back into her true form, Nue shot lasers all around her. The lasers only advanced for a second before turning into fireballs which mixed into each other before turning into lasers again. Youmu watched it all occur and switched gears to long range combat.
By keeping her ghost-half next to her she could double her normal danmaku. It was still not what Reimu or Marisa were capable of, but she thought it enough nonetheless. Her only disappointment was that she couldn’t shoot and charge her sword at the same time, which led her to be quite predictable in her eyes.
But as she jumped through the fireballs and slid across the lasers, Youmu noticed something. She now knew what she had to do and that was to wait.
Nue, on the other hand, was happy just shooting out lasers and dodging Youmu’s measly bullets. She didn’t have to move too much, that’s how confident she was in her abilities. But of course, a surprise attack would throw her whole vibe off. She didn’t expect anything of the sort though, as her eyes were entirely focused on Youmu. That’s why the snakes that fell on her from above blindsided her completely.
As the snakes bit into her face and shoulder Nue yelped. She stopped her spell card to get them off of her but their jaws proved stronger. Then someone landed on top of Nue, using her as a stepping stone for a jump. By the time she looked up all she saw was some toads falling on her which quickly exploded.
Her assaulter landed right next to Youmu.
~ “Hey Youmu”
~ “Hey Sanae” – They fist bumped – “Were you also looking into the missing kids?”
~ “Yeah, I ran into Reimu and went with her” – She explained – “We were actually following her, were you having a rough time?”
~ “I was having fun actually”
~ “Oh… would you mind if I join in?”
~ “No, of course not”
The two humans put their attention back towards Nue. She had just recomposed herself after the exploding toads destroyed the snakes as well. Seeing how one of her previous enemies had followed her she thought that she needed to keep her guard up unless more came.
Nue Sign “Undefined Darkness”
And she would do so with an attack that had her move constantly.
Nue quickly covered herself in darkness and dashed towards her opponents. They jumped back to observe the situation, blue fireballs were sent every which way as the darkness dissipated. By the time they could see Nue again she instantly covered herself in darkness and dashed towards them again.
Youmu and Sanae took off and flew in different directions.
While Youmu charged her swords, Sanae deployed her snakes so that they would know exactly where Nue was at all times. As soon as they had an almost guaranteed pinpoint on her, Youmu released her slashes. They had no way of knowing how effective their attacks were. All they knew was that Nue was dashing after Sanae first.
On one of said dashes Sanae managed to see something in between the darkness: Nue’s figure. That was useful in and of itself but Sanae was more interested in her posture. She seemed to be keeping her trident away from harm. She then saw that it was not really a trident anymore.
Sanae flew back and to the side and waved at Youmu. Once she got her attention she held up three fingers, she then lowered one and pointed at her. Youmu nodded and pointed at her sword. Sanae thought about it then slowly lowered another one of her fingers. Youmu shrugged after seeing that, it wasn’t a bad idea per se, she believed. Sanae took that shrug as a yes.
The priestess quickly flew down to the ground and Nue followed. The spell card kept on going as the slashes and the snakes piled on the damage. Sanae led Nue on a circular path and Youmu tried to dodge the fireballs while staying behind Nue. Sanae waited until the spell card looked to be about depleted to enact her plan.
As Nue lunged forward in what would be her final dash, Sanae opened fire fully, capturing the spell card without problem. Before Nue could change course Sanae then flew at her and made an attempt to take her not-quite-trident. Nue saw that coming and moved her weapon out of harm’s way, right behind her…
By the time she realized her mistake Youmu had already slashed the air. The trident’s middle prong fell to the ground with a soft thud.
Nue looked at her weapon for only a moment, but she felt like time itself had stopped. Nothing else was happening, it was only her, her not-even-a-bident anymore, and her emotions.
~ “Are you kidding me!?” – She yelled at the top of her lungs – “You’re supposed to attack me, not my trident!”
~ “I don’t think it counts as a trident anymore…” – Youmu pointed out.
~ “SHUT UP!” – She let out a short barrage of bullets before turning around – “I’M DONE WITH YOU!” – She quickly turned into a ball of light and flew away.
~ “Well…” – Sanae looked at her leave – “Good job” – She gave Youmu a thumbs up.
~ “I kinda feel bad about her…”
~ “Why bother? I mean, she was causing trouble ‘napping all those kids and all”
~ “Actually, Seija was the one doing that… though I guess they are working together”
~ “Seija? Dang, talk about a nuisance” – They both laughed – “So.. what do we do now?”
~ “Oh! Well, uh…” – Youmu looked in the direction that Nue had flown away – “Shouldn’t we… follow her actually?”
~ “Huh… I guess so yeah…”
Youmu and Sanae quickly realized that they should probably stop dallying. They quickly got ready and set off.
On the flip side, Marisa was getting up once again, taking the hand of the one who arrived to help her.
~ “What took ya so long?” – She asked her.
~ “I took a detour” – Reimu watched as Seija began to evade the bouncing yin-yang orbs – “So it was her, huh?”
~ “Yup, the others went to get the kids out” – Marisa dusted off her clothes.
~ “Great, surprised you haven’t beaten her already though”
~ “Come on, don’t act as if it would be easy”
~ “That’s right, which is why I brought this” – Reimu gave her her hat – “You’re not you without this”
~ “Oh! I almost forgot that fell off” – She put it on – “No wonder I was feeling kinda weird”
~ “I know, you even sleep with it on” – Marisa laughed awkwardly – “Anyways, we should probably continue your fight”
~ “Yeah, she won’t know what hit her!” – Marisa hopped on her broom and the two of them flew at her enemy.
They reached Seija just as the final yin-yang orb had disappeared.
Reimu began the fight by sensing some homing amulets her way. Seija flew away but Marisa began to cover her path with lasers. Seija ultimately went into a dead end but she quickly covered herself with the nimble fabric. The amulets went right by her and got burnt by the lasers.
Seija pocketed away the fabric and immediately after Reimu appeared above her and came down with a kick. She barely managed to block her but then Marisa came from behind and hit her with her broom.
She recoiled in pain and was sent flying but managed to stop herself as soon as she recovered. She then noticed that she was surrounded by many sets of barriers.
Dream Land “Great Duplex Barrier”
Reimu appeared right in the middle and began sending out circles of amulets. Each time an amulet hit a barrier it would snap to a different one. Seija quickly tried to find a way around the bullets while she shot at Reimu.
She flew around the barriers, keeping her eyes locked on Reimu. Despite her firepower, the priestess seemed utterly unbothered. This angered her even more.
She poured all of spirit into her shots. She even used the doll’s secondary ability to enhance them, ignoring how it was shaking wildly. She wasn’t going to let her plans go to waste now. But in all her fervor, she had forgotten someone.
She only realized it when Reimu’s expression finally changed. She smiled and vanished. Behind her was the one she had forgotten about: Marisa, charging an attack.
Loving Heart “Double Spark”
The twin beams barreled down at Seija, too fast for her to react. She was consumed whole, burnt to a crisp and most certainly would have been taken out if it hadn’t been for the jizo statue.
She knew, however, that it was running out of power. It probably only had one use left, she couldn’t go around wasting her lives any longer.
She had to do something but only one option came to mind. She took out one of her items and filled it with her ability. She saw how Reimu and Marisa were floating side by side, they looked so smug, thinking the battle was over.
Seija threw her item at them and Reimu quickly moved to block it. But Marisa, knowing what it did, quickly tackled her.
~ “Get down!” – It was the bomb.
The two humans fell to the ground, Marisa trying to cover Reimu so that she would receive the damage for her. But the damage never came and she only realized it once she heard the bomb fall lifelessly on the ground.
~ “Huh? It didn’t explode?”
~ “She probably only threw it to distract us”
~ “Why would she do that?” – Marisa took a look around and her question was answered – “Huh!? Where’d she go!?”
~ “She probably left while you were too busy hugging me”
~ “Hey! We agreed that we’d only do that at night!”
~ “And we agreed to never talk about that in public” – Silence fell upon them as Marisa quickly turned red.
~ “Yeah!” – She got up – “So, let’s follow her and teach her what for!”
~ “You don’t have to tell me twice”