Angelica Vs Yukari Yakumo

by Hyperjade

The Guardian of Magic, all-powerful multiversal deity, and human, decides it would be fun to turn an entire planet's worth of humanity into equally intelligent quadrupedal beasts to see what happens. Such a shame a certain gap hag beat her to it.

Hey, everyone!

Wow, it has been a long time since I uploaded anything. I don't have a legit explanation, I started spending more time writing small prompts and getting ideas on paper and not doing much productive. That and a long list of other distractions I went through.

Let's see, I binge-watched Seananners playing Prop Hunt, watched Criminal Minds, Played through Prey 2017 (fantastic game) two and a half times (since I'm a madman, I wanted to get the no needles achievement while playing on Nightmare Difficulty for the first time. I haven't completed it yet for obvious reasons). I got caught up in Steep, a brilliant open world game centering around winter sports. A friend convinced me to pay some attention to MLP (The show's kind of meh but the world it takes place in has quite a bit of potential). There was a great deal of minding my own business on art sites, and reading fanfiction and generally accomplishing nothing. I wrote all the time, but they were brief ideas put on paper because for goodness sakes, my brain won't shut up long enough to focus on a single story.

Speaking of my other stories, I've made a decision that I hope will let me focus on them easier. I have been juggling New Age, KatJ, and TAC2. The problem with this I think is that there's very little keeping my mind on a single story if I'm not focusing on it. Several part plan is this: I will juggle the three stories for another cycle, so that I can explain the plan to the readers of these stories who don't read this one, before I focus on completing TAC2. After TAC2 is done, I will finish New Age, then KatJ. Then, I'll probably move on to TAC3 and STICK TO IT so I'm not all over the place. Not to mention I'm excited to tell the story of TAC3 and that should entice me to follow the plan.

I have no reviews to cover for some reason... Ah well.

Anyways, For those who have been patient with my empty recent uploads box, thank you. For those who haven't, I understand. I hope you all enjoy this story.

Angelica vs Yukari Yakumo has a twofold purpose. Explore my ability to help readers understand the nature of the Guardians, and/or other immortal characters in my continuity, and I want to use Yukari Yakumo because I discovered Touhou some time ago and I think Yukari's abilities are awesome. It's worth noting that this story operates under the theory that Yukari's true power goes above her supposed limits (because those are word of mouth in the continuity of Touhou or can easily be underplayed by Yukari herself. My understanding is that Yukari maintains a specific image about what her abilities can do in Gensokyo, for the purpose of being in a great position for all her plans to work out. This story presents a version of Yukari Yakumo that operates under the assumption that this theory is correct).

Applying this theory to Yukari allows her to stand against a character as absurdly OP as one of my Guardians, so the battle can be entertaining, as entertaining, I hope, as the increased understanding of the Guardians can be.

This story is also what I hope to be a representation of what I've learned as an author. I was careful writing this, drawing from my previous experience. It's a oneshot including characters that aren't seen much, so the goal is for it to be interesting and compelling despite this. That's the plan, anyways. I ask that you leave a review telling me what I've done well and what I can improve on with it.

Thank you, for your patience.

Oh, and when Necrofantasia starts, there's this youtube video that's eleven minutes long, I think it's labeled Magical Astronomy as well as Necrofantasia. It's my favourite version of Necrofantasia.

---

Angelica VS Yukari Yakumo

Such is the power of chaos when the sky can be colored in rainbows but still be safe to be under, when the plant life is lively and active, when the beasts are strange and the critters are stranger.

Such was the world one could now find a single peculiar human. She was clearly out of the ordinary, for her hair fell down to the small of her back, her skin as pale as the moon, and her form fairly normal looking in the midst of what could only be called a world of harmony within chaos.

What broke that distinction of a normal eighteen-year-old was the gold. Her hair, her eyes, her odd clothing, all of it was colored a gold so magnificent that it appeared to glow.

What she wore was equally as odd as the natural colorization. She seemed to wear normal sweats, but upon closer inspection, the openings at the ankles were as wide as the part around her waist, the curious aspect of the silky smooth clothing being how they slowly widened from the thighs down to the ankles.

Covering her torso and arms was a golden chestplate. It serves as a complete contrast to the apparent comfort wear, and yet she made it work.

The young girl was thus a strange, awe-inspiring sight to behold, only added to by the staff she held.

It was tall, taller than her. It consisted of a foot long handle, the rest of the staff being a pair of rectangular golden blades. Runes made of an incredibly reflective metal, such that one almost couldn't tell there was metal there at all, and the same metal that made up the handle. The runes were in two columns up each blade, each one different, each one of an unknown meaning.

She tapped a finger to her chin as she looked around, speaking to herself in the process: "It's good, but I think it could use more danger." She mused. "something to get human researchers and adventurers wanting front row seats… I got it!"

Now she floated miles in the air over a heavily vegetated mountain. The exact nature of her movement was indescribable. One could not mark the exact time the transition had taken place, only able to recognize that once she had been here, and now she was there.

The barest push of will and the landscape changed. In strange meaningless patterns, rivers of liquid fire appeared in the landscape, disobeying gravity and other laws of physics, they closed every which way. With the slightest of prompts from the girl, the animals and plants would use these rivers for sustenance, strangely unaffected by the heat.

A giggle slipped through the seeming eighteen-year-old's mouth. "nailed it. Now to wait a few thousand years before the extra science-ey human race gets faster than light travel and tries to comprehend a planet of pure magic. So what now?"

Her expression spoke of boredom already, the finished masterpiece below her already forgotten as she considered what to do next.

"To another universe it is!" she proclaimed, and then she was outside.

Not in the sense that she was off planet, it was clearly more than that. In a horizontal plane, an infinite number of spheres that were white with speckled grainy black effects flickering across their surfaces.

With the simplicity of mere will, she turned one of those spheres gold colored rather than white, simply because she could. Then she turned her gaze across the wide, infinite multiverse in search of her next target, steadily humming to herself.

She snapped her fingers. "I know, I'll see how a high tech human race responds to being collectively turned into animal-like creatures! Been a while since I've done that, I wonder how crazy things will get!?

In but a moment, her eyes tracked to a universe a great distance away, and went into it. After giving Saturn an extra ring with a snap of her fingers, she turned away from the greatly altered planet and appeared on earth.

She paused mid finger snap.

"Huh?"

Chaos was erupting around her, but she had not done anything yet. With the expression of befuddlement, she stopped floating and looked around.

She had been planning on turning the humans into quadrupedal, beings that could still function, to see how they would handle it.

The problem was that they were already intelligent quadrupedal beings that were in the process of panicking.

"hey, what gives?" she asked with all the grace of a confused child. "they were totally human a minute ago!"

"A lot can happen in a minute."

The golden girl, for the first time, seemed vaguely concerned. Looking around, she muttered: "You're not invisible, you're not on a different plane of existence. Okay, why can't I find you?"

A giggle was the response. "Because you aren't creative enough."

Now the girl tightened her lips, her happy expression faltering properly. "hey, I'm plenty creative! Watch!"

She snapped her fingers, and the world was promptly thrown into chaos. The buildings were spiraling amalgamations of wood and gold, the streets paved with cobalt and the plants formed with emeralds rather than leaves.

Ignoring the ensuing panic she had caused, she folded her arms behind her back in a peculiar manner, palms resting on her opposite elbow behind her.

"Oh come on." The voice teased. "you call that chaos? Here, let's leave the poor mortals alone and talk outside? You're far more interesting than they are."

The girl looked ready to begin speaking, only for something to open up behind her. Turning on instinct, she witnessed what could only be described as an extradimensional space, dark, with glowing red eyes looming and observing her.

"Hey-" she began, only for the gap in reality to snap shut over her. The girl was gone, and so was the space.

In a split second, The girl found herself outside the universes again. Looking around, she finally noticed someone.

Their eyes met, yellow against gold. The woman wore an extremely voluminous dress with many frills, on the front of which was a purple and slightly red piece of fabric the golden girl didn't remember the name of, which depicted some of the eight trigrams in black.

The dress itself was a bright pink, as was the mob cap resting on her head. Her entire attire was decorated in tied red ribbons, and so was the brilliant blonde hair that practically reached her ankles, tied near the tips.

In her hand was a pink decorative parasol, also decorated In red ribbons.

Something about this woman emitted an aura of danger, despite her frail, pale, and soft appearance, and yet this danger was completely missed by the golden girl.

"So, little girl." The being greeted. "what is your name?"

The girl fidgeted in place, not out of anxiousness, but of merely having too much energy. She smiled brilliantly at her opposition, now floating before her in her unique method of motion. "My name's Angelica." she greeted the woman. "And you're a version of Yukari Yakumo! It's been six thousand years since I saw an iteration of you, but you've never interacted with me this much ever!"

Angelica, now behind Yukari, draped a friendly arm around the other being. "I always thought you came across as the nicest youkai, even if you are the laziest."

Yukari gave a smile. It was a scary sort of smile. The 'cat torturing a mouse' smile. "They say you can tell a youkai's age by how polite they are," she responded simply.

Angelica, in front of Yukari, leaned forward so they were almost nose to nose. "so how old are you?"

Yukari placed an open handheld fan to cover her smile. "you don't ask a lady's age." she chided Angelica, who seemed less than concerned about it.

"I do."

Yukari seemed less amused than before. "You really must learn some manners." she stated, eyes narrowing slightly. "such impulsiveness is beneath someone of your stature."

Angelica blinked. "are you challenging me?" she asked.

Yukari was behaving amused again. Her fan remained in front of her mouth, but her words were loud and clear. "it was you who interrupted my fun and mangled my work." she reminded the golden girl.

"If anything… it is you who are challenging me."

Angelica broke into a grin. "This is gonna be fun!" she claimed, now about forty meters away from Yukari, arms crossed behind her back in that peculiar way once more.

Yukari's smile was hidden from Angelica, but it twisted into something of a mix between confidence and outright sadism.

She began to emit raw power in such a subtle yet direct way that it simply seemed that she could do anything. Then the music began, courtesy of Angelica.

Necrofantasia

"you at least have some taste," Yukari commented as she began emitting countless purple energy kunai in all directions, a growing wall of light with small gaps in between the attacks.

Angelica tossed her hair and smirked, letting the wave hit her. Large white words rose from her as each one passed through. The word 'MISS'.

Yukari was unimpressed. "for someone who claims to be creative, you take your tricks from others quite a lot. Asriel might just sue."

After a few moments more, Yukari's eyes glowed with her true power, and all of a sudden Angelica doubled over as the attacks quite clearly cut into her. She flashed away in a pillar of gold light only to reappear elsewhere. "did you just… negate my-ow!"

With another fresh wound opened on her arm, Angelica began following the pattern and avoiding the streaming nonspell.

Yukari's voice reached her through the storm: "the boundary between invulnerable and vulnerable is one I have quite a lot of experience with."

Angelica responded by snapping her fingers and causing a field around her to exist in which any kunai would turn around and fly right back from whence they came.

The power interrupted the nonspell, triggering Yukari's motion to her left to avoid it. Almost immediately, however, the kunai began bypassing this spell, catching Angelica off guard and giving her new wounds to replace the now fully healed ones.

The kunai stopped, and Angelica looked around for Yukari, finding nobody there.

"you try to fight the youkai of boundaries by creating a boundary." Yukari deadpanned in her best 'are you seriously that dumb?' tone.

Angelica whirled, her bladed staff at the ready, only to find it striking an opened parasol.

Frankly, the parasol should have been destroyed by the powerful attack. And yet it wasn't. Yukari's now smiling face alerted Angelica that it might be time to move.

She was far too late in that realization.

Evil Spirits "Yakumo Yukari's Spiriting Away"

The ensuing blast of danmaku and lasers struck the golden girl point blank, launching her viciously down onto the surface of one of the universal spheres. The sounds of bone breaking could be heard even from Yukari's position, even as she disappeared into a gap in reality.

"That's not supposed to be your first spell card…" Angelica grumbled as she stood up. With a painful sounding crack, her left knee relocated itself into the correct position. Instants later, the back of her skull did the same. One by one, each vicious injury healed itself, and the golden girl didn't even wince.

Yukari appeared from her gap in a split second. Angelica erected a force field with her infinite magic power. Alas, infinite though it was, it was still a boundary, and so fell under the Gap Youkai's jurisdiction. The blast slipped right through the wall without warning, sending Angelica flying out of sight.

Yukari cut off her attack, merely warping near her opponent's healing body. "I might just assume you like being beaten to a pulp." she mused. "but i think you simply aren't imaginative enough."

Angelica stood up, for the first time looking fairly frustrated. "then let's compete that way, then." she demanded. "see who can create the most."

Yukari spread her fan in front of her mouth again. "you suggest a chaos competition. Very well, show me."

Angelica smirked, and unleashed her power. Towers of nonexistent metal wrapped in plants bearing ethereal flora and shifting fruits, based on nothing and yet solid anyways, pillars and columns present and yet indistinguishable. Reality torn at the seams for the sole purpose of highlighting everything.

Yukari did not bother to point out that this was essentially an escalation on what she had done mere minutes prior on the planet, chaotic structure and manipulation of flora, and instead simply crossed a single boundary.

The boundary between 'chaos' and 'more chaos'.

This distinct and direct boundary simply took her understanding of the chaos around her and escalated it automatically.

Thus, she had one-upped her opponent.

Angelica blinked, looking at the less sane environment, and laughed. "That's only a little bit more chaotic," she commented. "Watch this!"

Angelica snapped her fingers, bending the space to her will, watching as the pillars bent without breaking and the columns broke without bending, the plants spewed fire and the air itself spawned ethereal butterflies.

In doing this, she had solidified the result of the match. Yukari Yakumo was visibly displeased with the act of using butterflies as a part of one's style. After all, that was her style, and she was getting the impression that the golden girl was better at mimicking others than actually creating things.

She absently altered the boundary between chaos and more chaos once more. The effect was instantaneous and complete.

Angelica frowned. "Hey, are you going to keep doing that?"

"Most likely," Yukari replied cheekily. She did it again.

Angelica, wordlessly, summoned her power and began altering reality as much as she could, degrading all the fun design choices and chaotic meaningful surroundings into a void of pure chaos.

But to Yukari, it wasn't even close to such.

"Beat that," Angelica told her.

Yukari began to chuckle, catching the golden girl off guard. After a full minute of simply laughing, she closed her parasol and fan and put them away in a gap.

"I am an elder youkai, and you are a human. What looks like impermeable chaos to you is the tip of the iceberg for me. Are you telling me you cannot enhance your senses?"

Angelica rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "Well… I can, but it's kinda uncomfortable. My mind's human, after all. I could totally do it. Like this."

She narrowed her eyes and her eyes began to glow, as she apparently enhanced her senses. Yukari watched as her opponent became more than human at will, mildly intrigued by the action. And yet, Yukari recognized that her opponent had underestimated her. She didn't seem to realize just how above humans she was. How above everything she was. To the woman who could measure the distance between stars by observing them from a planet's surface, who could fathom chaos thousands of times worse than that which this girl had created, she was being beset by little more than a child, whether this human was actually older than her or not notwithstanding.

Angelica gave Yukari the impression of someone who hadn't strived to learn everything about who they were and what they could do, instead reveling in the few things they already learned.

Angelica exerted her infinite abilities and twisted the chaos around her as much as her mind could manage in this intensified version of human senses, managing to create chaos that could melt the brains of a typical human.

Yukari immediately altered the boundaries between chaos and more chaos.

Growling, Angelica tried even harder, pushed herself even further, and fought to imagine something more chaotic than she already had procured. She succeeded, if only slightly.

And yet, the boundary of chaos and more chaos made everything so much simpler. It was like a 'do my job for me' button, and it worked beautifully.

"Stop that!" Angelica complained.

The boundary of chaos and more chaos.

"Seriously, you're not even doing anything, your powers are doing all the work." the hypocrite complained some more.

The boundary of chaos and more chaos.

Yukari was thoroughly enjoying herself now. Someone of this infinite being before her needs a lesson in humility every once in a while, and with no equal, seemingly, they might remain childish for who knows how long. Yukari was a youkai; Tough love was in their nature if they were old and wise enough to be beyond the human eating phase.

Even if they still did taste wonderful. Yukari allowed herself a moment of thought about the human in front of her that could endlessly regenerate from the very magic that permeates all of reality and beyond.

"Fine, fine, you win!" Angelica gave in hesitantly. "But I still want to show you how creative I can be, so I'll make some spell cards and play it your way!"

Yukari put her fan in front of her face. "You will lose," she told the girl.

"We'll see about that," Angelica smirked, preparing herself for a truly epic battle.

Angelica began unleashing a gensokian nonspell, the pattern that of conical golden lasers and smaller straight lasers pulsing out in between them in random patterns while the four conical ones swiveled circularly around her.

Yukari blinked in vague acknowledgment as she slipped to the side just enough to let a golden laser flash by before she flew upwards to dodge one of the massive cones. The gap youkai flew closer so as to not have to move so far for the cones, and used her extremely fast response time to slide out of the way of the lasers. All the while, she fired purple kunai into the nonspell as it went, before beginning her first nonspell once more.

Angelica began to shift along with the streaming, making both moving targets have more complex attacks to dodge simply because the target was moving. Yukari and Angelica were untouched by one another through Yukari's response time and Angelica's ability to take advantage of the rather lazy kunai nonspell Yukari was using, even if she cut a lot of things close.

Yukari let one of Angelica's lasers fly into a gap that quickly snapped shut, something the golden girl failed to notice as she continued focusing on firing the attacks. But, Angelica's quick creation of a unique pattern suggested to Yukari that perhaps the youkai had underestimated the human, if only a little bit.

Yukari absently wondered if she was getting a mite arrogant with old age.

But time was running out, and it was time for a spell.

Bounded Field "Curse of Dreams and Reality"

Mana Source "Infinity Doublade"

Angelica released her bladed staff as it began to spiral in a circle around the arena, haphazardly spewing golden arrowhead danmaku in all directions as it swiftly moved. Meanwhile, Yukari launched twin attacks, one Bursting into aimed petals and the other into a drastic firework of leaves. Every other moment she would launch another pair.

Yukari crossed her own boundary between obliviousness and awareness, aiming to be able to know when bullets were coming from behind. It was only a moment before she tilted her head to let a gold blast slip by. Angelica, for her part, treated Yukari's spell for what it was, a hardcore streaming spell.

Yukari began attacking with purple kunai to begin the process of capturing the spell card. Angelica now seemed content to let the card deplete itself.

Thus, angelica's spell card was captured before Yukari's was. The youkai realized how and why this had been done.

She deduced that her opponent's true greatest interest was in making things interesting, and so took things only as seriously as she needed to to make that happen.

It was the second time Yukari realized she'd misjudged her opponent in as many minutes.

The gap youkai frowned now as she considered the golden girl under the context that she chose to act this way rather than simply being as impulsive as a child. Before, Angelica had reminded Yukari of Chen, her shikigami's shikigami. Now, Yukari tried to picture herself, were she a little less lazy and a little more impulsive. But even that wasn't quite right.

Then it hit her.

All of these thoughts ran through her advanced mind in a fraction of a second, even as she slid away from the last bolt as her two conclusions separated into current and future relevance.

The current conclusion being that Angelica had purposely lost her first spell card to stagger the fight, so that one of them was always using a spell card and the other would be using a nonspell at that time.

"I believe I understand you now," Yukari commented idly as she continued unleashing the curse of dreams and reality, using a gap to steal one of Angelica's small nonspell lasers, as this nonspell seemed to scatter them in a horizontal fashion, six meter long lasers that somehow held themselves together and spun rapidly, acting as dangerous projectiles as they flew horizontally and covered a circle of space as they flew due to their rotation.

Angelica gave her opponent a questioning look as she grazed the next aimed wave.

"You're old," Yukari stated. The solution should have been obvious, but the lack of creativity had thrown her off. "so old that you augment your behavior so as not to suffer a harsh reality."

Angelica flinched.

Yukari smirked. "hit the mark, have I?" she asked rhetorically. "you run and run, causing havoc as you go, doing the same thing over and over again, because how else are you supposed to deal with the weight of immortality?"

Angelica was silent, simply making eye contact even as she continued dodging attacks. Yukari noted the probably subconscious increase in firepower, and continued sliding past or through the attacks without so much as a scratch.

When the curse of dreams and reality ended, something new began.

Piercing Gaze "The Mask"

Yukari had that moment before the sequence of lasers centered on her to reflect upon the spell card's title. It had been pulled up on the fly, and likely referenced this very fight. Eight lasers of gold were summoned in a spread that encircled Yukari with Angelica as the origin. They began to collapse inwards, so Yukari flitted through the gap before it closed and watched as another one was summoned. Then another and another, faster and faster until she had to treat the area like a jungle gym of death.

It was, however, well within the gap youkai's capacity for dodging. Meanwhile, Yukari began a nonspell that unleashed growing pentagons of magic circles that unleashed varying colors of energy kunai. The unexpected move startled Angelica, who found suddenly that she was not going to be able to use streaming to escape it.

Angelica let her spell run on autopilot while she focused on sidestepping waves of green, red, purple, blue, and yellow kunai. One nicked her arm, another her cheek due to her surprisingly lackluster battle experience, considering she usually could just use her unlimited magic power to bend the multiverse to her will.

The nonspell seemed to last forever, if only because it was so difficult. One came from her left and slammed into her gut, destroying one of the 'lives' that dictated success in this competition.

"You're really good at overwhelming people." Angelica complemented her opponent.

"You dodge like a medium grade danmaku player, which I did not expect." Yukari returned with what was (for her) high praise.

Angelica faltered, and by so doing avoided a kunai to the face. "am I really that unassuming? C'mon, I work hard to be unmissable!"

"and what a job you are doing." Yukari deadpanned, enjoying the banter, "dodging attacks and the like."

Finally, the assault stopped, and it was Yukari's turn.

Paradox "Perpetual Motion"

Angelica quite quickly realized that she was moving sideways. Trying to stop ended in failure. Immediately, she settled for changing directions so that she was shifting back and forth.

"Hey!" Angelica complained as she tried to use her powers to break Yukari's effect on reality only for it to fail. Danmaku appeared randomly in the space around her and split into several more, forcing her to dodge without the ability to stop. Even as she began her nonspell in a delay, shooting a rapid-fire spread of large gold spheres that soon detonated into many golden lasers, she was doing her best to wobble back and forth through the barrage appearing out of thin air.

Yukari noted absently that her opponent was still trying to disable the effect she put on her in the same way as before, through brute magical force. It seemed in some ways she really wasn't that creative, or perhaps it depended on how willing she was to bother with it.

Psychoanalyzing the golden girl was Yukari's favorite part of the fight. She was so different from others, and yet she behaved as if she was the same, and in a more deceptive fashion than Yukari had originally believed. Such a subtle difference that Angelica seemed not to notice herself.

Yukari smiled as Angelica unleashed a bomb, or the equivalent of one, in an outward blast of infinite golden power that cleared the danmaku in the area temporarily, leaving Yukari to reemerge from her gap and continue on.

Time ran out.

"finally!" Angelica exclaimed as she stopped moving. " I don't get how your powers work at all! Never Mind that, here we go!"

Artwork Charm "The Grand Storybook"

Angelica began unleashing gold sheets of paper with writing on them in black in a massive wave, encircling Yukari's form to give her little space to move, before a single one darted out of the storm.

Yukari smiled as she let it pass by. Aimed attacks with a trajectory hidden by the sheer amount of page danmaku flowing around her. And they were increasing in pace.

Still, despite the lack of space, it was a streaming spell, and Yukari took immediate advantage of the oversight. Her mind was indeed fast enough to catch and measure each surprise danmaku coming from the storm and allowed her to just slightly move out of the way.

Her nonspell began, again unleashing kunai, this time causing them to rain down extremely quickly from above them.

Yukari ramped up the speed, eager to see the golden girl enhance her mind again, and was not disappointed. There was a clear change in the girl's demeanor when she actively enhanced her mind far past human limitations. She clearly wasn't enjoying herself in the process, but she was genuinely trying to win here, and Yukari already had that advantage, so why shouldn't Angelica rise to match?

Yukari realized that her opponent had begun to complain again, something about how a lack of discernible entry points was one of her things. Yukari responded with more kunai.

Yukari captured the spell card with ease, halting her attack to see that the enhanced Angelica remained standing. Something about a human accelerating their minds beyond what was typical seemed to have the effect of making them more serious. Yukari filed this information away as Angelica shook it off, looking briefly upset before going back to all smiles and beginning her nonspell, a devastating array of golden light images of her doublade flying out in random swirling patterns.

Deception Artistry "Dark Side of the Moon"

Yukari unleashed glowing white magic circles in all directions and random distances, and a few black ones. The black ones unleashed sprays of blue lasers in Angelica's vague directions while the white ones unleashed a considerably larger amount of lasers each, but in all directions. Shortly after summoning this attack, Yukari leaned back to let a blade flit over her, before rising up and sitting down on a gap to avoid one passing underneath her. She opened a second gap and allowed a projectile or two to fly harmlessly into it.

With a heightened mental capacity, seeing that out of the corner of her eye brought Yukari's dirty cheating ways to her attention, and thus somewhat distracted her. It wasn't enough for her to be hit, but Yukari could plainly see that she was starting to do her odd movement again, a scenario in which even for her, it was difficult to know when exactly the transference was.

To her eyes, ears, even her nose, Angelica's change of position was completely indiscernible. Yukari could potentially change that using her abilities, but the nature of it intrigued her. It was something capable of fooling her senses, even though it was created with someone with the senses of a human, most of the time. Even if it only really served as an extremely convoluted teleport.

Now both combatants were abusing abilities that made the spell card duel laughably easy. Yukari eventually grew bored with the simplicity, and ceased her cheating ways for the moment, slipping aside as the attacks continued.

Without a second thought, she switched which 'moons' were black and which were white, changing the lasers they fired as well. Now there were a great many vaguely aimed in Angelica's direction and less being fired in all directions. The effect was immediate, as the storm approaching Angelica became too severe to skirt around, so the problem became the storm and not the random particles.

The intervals in which the two types of familiars switched began to come more and more often, until they would switch once per second, turning a vaguely manageable spell card into something as evil as the one she'd planned up next.

But that was then, and this was now. Her opponent had bombed the danmaku away twice in this round, as she was fairly inexperienced with Danmaku battles in general. At least, that was the impression Yukari got. It was kind of a shame. As interesting as this golden girl was, Yukari could not help but think about how Reimu would have captured such a card first try.

In short, the deity was beginning to bore the elder youkai. She had more or less figured out the motives and workings of her opponent, had assured her victory, and now she was wondering if there was a point in actually doing so. Well, she had one of her most evil spellcards ever devised coming up. If that didn't finish it, then perhaps Yukari would continue. It would certainly rekindle her interest in the golden girl if she could get past that spellcard.

With Angelica's turn rising up, she threw her hands forward in a dramatic fashion.

Magic Mirror "Mirror Move".

Yukari frowned, understanding the nature of the spell card instantly. Angelica wanted to use her nonspell against her. So, in accordance with the nature of the battle, she started releasing a nonspell, but having them wrap around the arena and not go anywhere near Angelica.

Angelica blinked. "Wuh?" she asked.

"Honestly, how is that in the spirit of a danmaku duel?" Yukari chided. "Whatever that attack was going to do, there's no beauty to it unless it's at the expense of others. In fact, that seems to be your nature personified, beauty at the expense of others. Perhaps you're simply too old to see much of a problem with that."

Angelica was silent.

Yukari did not return the favor. "As an elder Youkai, I have a lot of advantages. One such advantage is my wisdom and benevolence, a rare trait amongst youkai. Even if benevolence means something ever so slightly different from what a human might perceive it for us. For a human, those advantages can be there at a far earlier age, even if the mind isn't as tuned in to use it properly."

Angelica's expression had twitched into something harder for a moment, but she hid it again right away, wincing as if she was trying to shove down emotions with it. Yukari noted every single detail, and floated up to her face.

"You can barely even frown right. Are you afraid to show any emotion other than happiness? I know from experience that people like you have a breaking point."

Silence.

Yukari continued, eyes half-lidded and tired looking. "To the trained eye, your facade is like freshly polished glass. You can't even keep from wincing when I mention snapping. How often has that happened?"

Now she got a reaction that she desired. Angelica poked a finger into her chest with a real frown. "I get it, mob cap girl, you think I'm in need of a good thrashing because you're one of a really small amount of people who can do it without consequences, without being avoided. And you know what? I probably deserve it. But let me have this, lady. I'm too old for emotional baggage. I'll hide whatever I want to."

Over the course of the small rant, Yukari's eyes had lost their tired look, giving way to a fully attentive one. It was her turn not to respond, and Angelica paused, before perking back up into her ever-present smile. She clapped her hands. "C'mon, let's go! We're not nearly done yet!"

As if Yukari would forget. She smiled anyway, in part because the lack of an answer to her actual question had answered rather a lot, and in part because she always loved using this spell card.

"As you wish."

Sinister Spirits "Double Black Death Butterfly"

Angelica darted away with a yelp as the monstrous attack began. It started with hundreds of massive butterflies being flung all over the arena in a massive pulse, scattered around the space. Then, Yukari crossed her hands rapidly, and all the butterflies began a rotation in both directions to make a tornado of death.

With threats coming from all sides, fast enough to have a motion blur, and in a crazy pattern, Angelica had to enhance her senses further to keep dodging, rolling and flitting about, teleporting in her odd way on occasion. The nonspell she was firing was almost inconsequential as the second burst of butterflies emerged, Yukari letting thin lasers and large golden bubbles pass by her with subtle movements, just enough to get by. With the second burst of butterflies entering play while the others were still moving about, Angelica's job got harder.

It was truly a cruel spell, one even the most vicious of Youkai would fear. Double Black Death Butterfly was something that even Reimu and Marisa had failed to perfect. It brought nostalgic memories to the gap youkai. As it was, she was seeing Angelica try to bomb her way through it, but she got clipped by the seventh wave, and then again in the same wave as she tried desperately to avoid the attacks. Her enhanced mind was her only saving grace in a spell that was, as the name suggested, the double black diamond of spellcards.

Angelica had almost lost the fight, Yukari realized. She had to decide after her opponent's next spell card whether to end the fight or to let it continue without complaint. It all depended on Angelica's next spell card. Thankfully, there was a look in her eye behind the smile. A look that didn't match any but her most recent experience with the deity. She had broken through a rather expertly built wall in her opponent's mind, and for the time being, through the smile, this girl was being serious for the first time in a long time.

When the butterflies finally took a bow, so to speak, Angelica and Yukari floated in silence in the empty space above the multiverse.

"If you're gonna be that way…" Angelica muttered, bringing her arms out to either side. "I'm gonna play dirty too!"

Friendship Test "Lightning, Cold, Arcane, Shield"

For a single instant, Yukari didn't get it. Then her eyes widened in genuine, deep-rooted astonishment. "You aren't going to-"

Out of nowhere, yellow orbs rose from nothingness and then dropped, dropping into a little-collapsed space of… Space, simulating being planted halfway into the ground, but abusing the very fabric of space itself. There were three rings of them, Yukari between the middle and outer ring.

Then they clicked.

Then they exploded.

Translated into danmaku, the attack released large icicles, small fast lightning shots, red lasers, and a great many yellow solid sphere danmaku that were the size of Yukari. The gap youkai instantly went into motion, releasing a powerful spell card in response to this sudden onslaught of pure power.

It was a complete curveball. Yukari Yakumo had been surprised.

A very youkai-ish grin appeared on her face as she warped in between danmaku, stole some, whipped between others, and spiraled past her opposition. Angelica was treating her nonspell, which was barely visible, like child's play due to her still enhanced senses and, what Yukari assumed, was using a trick so only Yukari was seeing her attack.

It was only reasonable. After all, it was both beautiful and disgusting. If Angelica was watching her own attack, she would have been too dazzled by its beauty and too disgusted by the evil that its use implied to properly dodge Yukari's attack.

When the bullets were halfway out of the screen, the next wave were summoned. They clicked. They exploded. It was like the brother to Double Black Death Butterfly. Beautiful but cruel, its only fallacy being the lack of any curvature in its attacks. It served its purpose in sheer numbers.

Yukari grazed a big yellow orb and then another, sidestepping as another mine dropped into place next to her. Constantly in motion, constantly on the lookout, her mind calculating. The woman who could measures the distance between stars from the surface of the world could read what she could see like an open book, but she had to keep her head on a swivel. Even if she wasn't sleep deprived, this was a genuine challenge in terms of danmaku.

Yukari reminisced while dodging her battles with Yuka. The youkai of seasonal flowers, original owner of the Master Spark, and one of the only people Yukari could get a challenge from. This state of danger, at least in terms of the game, set her heart racing. The gap youkai smiled as she opened a gap and swallowed a mine before it could go off.

The gap youkai lost track of time for a little bit as the bombardment finally ceased. She had almost had to use a bomb in that spell. Staring at the golden girl with newfound interest, Yukari decided that this match would continue no matter what.

Spacetime Boundary "Borrowed Turtle Waves"

Yukari summoned a pair of special gaps. One had a red glow emanating from it, the other a blue one. They circled around the 'arena', one doing so slower than the other, so their positions weren't always clear, sometimes crossing.

They stopped, they glowed brightly and unleashed two beams. One a bright blue, the other a bright red, and they clashed, unleashing red and blue danmaku positively everywhere. Angelica began her dodging from the randomized attack, attentive as the portals began circling after that blast had ended, their glow returning to them.

"It's not nice to steal someone's Kamehameha!" Angelica shouted as she darted underneath the blue beam, causing her to be disoriented and have to bomb through the next wave of randomized danmaku from the clash.

"I am a youkai." Yukari reminded her all too happily. "Being nice isn't in our job description."

Another clash. Angelica's nonspell was fairly similar to her first, though without the conical lasers and instead firing shots that seemed to change position like she did, covering a wider area than they appeared to. Yukari was not fooled in the slightest, though she did like the added touch.

"But you're like… The benevolent one." Angelica whined in an attempt to be funny as she dodged another collision between the times ten Kamehameha and the god Kamehameha "Also, fanservice much?"

"I dub thee the god of hypocrisy." Yukari shot back while she lowered her head slightly to let a laser pass over her.

"That's the Guardian of Magic to you." Angelica replied casually as she actually started getting fairly close to Yukari, which was a problem because her body was still unleashing a nonspell.

"So that's what you are." Yukari mused. Sure, she could have potentially altered the boundary between ignorance and understanding to learn as much, but what was the fun in that? The beams clashed again, causing Angelica to make some distance from Yukari as she had to turn her attention 'downward' towards the oncoming projectiles.

The portals began to glow brighter, and in a last hurrah, the blue beam had a red outline and the red beam was brighter and larger. They clashed and unleashed an absolute storm of danmaku in all directions, so much so that were it not for Angelica's enhanced senses, the pattern, or lack thereof, would be impossible.

Thus the spell card ended. Angelica grinned as she began to glow.

Isolated Fanservice "Grand Chariot"

Yukari rolled her eyes at the self aware name of the card even as seven magic circles appeared above them and began a rainstorm of small yellow danmaku that curved even as they splashed out. Yukari kept her head up as she glided backwards and sideways to let them pass.

Her nonspell began,rose petals of kunai curving and rotating through the empty space as they originated from her body, forcing Angelica to begin grazing them as they blew by her. Without any attention paid to the spell she was using, she made sure to let these petals made out of the general shape the flying colored kunai made.

The impromptu rainstorm would actually be fairly complex to avoid if only because it came from above while her opponent was in front of her, but that was for anyone other than Yukari Yakumo. Because her opponent's position in the fight wasn't actually important, she merely looked up while attacking.

Yukari had seen patterns like this for much of her life, randomized patterns that fell from above or near her opponent, a steady rainfall of armageddon. She was all too familiar with the concept. That sequence passed without incident.

Yukari decided to make up another spellcard on the fly for the sake of the duel in creativity. Her smile was coy, making apparent her idea to steal her opponent's style of stealing other styles.

Temporal Boundary "Stealing From the Maid"

Yukari shot a cluster of bullets all intangibly compacted into a vague sphere shape, and then time stopped. Angelica was more than aware in that instance, but her body wasn't purposely made immune to such techniques at the moment, meaning as she began her nonspell, large orbs made of spinning rings meant to be passed through began flying out as time resumed, but the cluster of attacks burst outwards. The next shot was already in the air when the first burst, and time froze as Yukari consciously redirected each part of the cluster's trajectory, essentially making a spell formed out of cluster bombs aimed at her opponent.

Yukari, rather liking the nature of the nonspell presented before her, slid in between the rotating golden rings as the large spheres passed her, giving a small smile as she continued launching her little packets of destruction.

On Angelica's end, it wound up having very little difference with the other stolen idea Yukari had used thus far in that it unleashed a burst of danmaku everywhere at random. It was denser, but definitely easier to prepare for.

Angelica's ring orbs were something Yukari hadn't quite seen yet, so if it wasn't for her advantage, Angelica may have even gotten a few hits in.

Yukari added one of them into her spell on a whim, having absorbed it into a gap beforehand. Angelica yelped as the attack whizzed right through her, the golden girl lucking out from the surprise attack. For a brief instant, annoyance slipped through her expression. Waiting for the spell to end, she chose her next technique.

Obsidian's Curse "Cursed Dark Matter-Make"

Yukari grinned behind her fan as she slid aside to make way for the black orb with purple lines making a pattern around it as it passed her like an oversized cannonball. "A happy go lucky girl like you using dark powers?" she asked coyly. "Makes sense to me."

"Honesty will get you everywhere," Angelica responded, her spell kicking into full effect. Aimed objects of a vast variety, as well as a host more that scattered randomly, shot out and away from her. Everyday objects, weapons, etcetera made of black matter wrapped in elegant lines of purple glow sailed out. Some released fire danmaku in a trail as they passed that stayed, others unleashed little bolt danmaku in random directions, yet others were surrounded by spiraling rings of blue orbs perhaps meant to symbolize water. The cursed objects that spewed elemental danmaku unleashed hell upon the space in which they dueled.

Yukari's nonspell, usually the nonspell she would use first in a spell card duel, sending Kunai absolutely everywhere directly from herself, managed not to be nearly as chaotic as the storm Angelica was releasing. This Obsidian person seemed to be a prominent person in Angelica's life, if Yukari was reading the well thought out spell card properly.

Also the phrase 'cursed dark matter make'. The latter word there rung a tiny bell in her mind. So subtle she was sure she'd only heard it in a context like it once.

Diving in between one of the objects and the rotating blue spheres, she flew towards Angelica as she dared to challenge herself, weaving in between attacks and predicting where they would go.

Yukari found herself having fun for the first time during the battle. It had started as a critical analysis, but her opponent was slowly unlocking each mental barrier that held an actual human underneath all of those nasty immortality blues.

And humans were, after all, incredibly interesting creatures. True, to an elder youkai such as Yukari Yakumo, a human's existence shouldn't be more than a blip on her radar. But once upon a time, she had met a young woman by the name of Marisa Kirisame.

True, Marisa couldn't be compared to this multiversal-scale deity. One was a hard-working young woman who had spent her life improving herself and reaching and even sometimes surpassing the level of those gifted with the power Gensokyo could hold, like its very own shrine maiden at the time. The other was this goddess of magic.

However, Marisa didn't just represent hard-working folk, she represented humanity. Pointedly, she represented humanity's ability to surprise and awe others who didn't expect much of them.

Yukari Yakumo, seeing this purposeful allegory for another being that she presumed had either long passed or wasn't as relevant in this point in time, found herself nurturing that small moment of surprise, surprise that the human had managed to keep her heart hidden throughout all of that smiling and comedy.

It made the battle all the more fun, as her analytical mind gained more and more on Angelica's hidden personality traits and functions, and why she hid them.

Yukari unleashed her next spell, made up on the spot in a sort of symbolic response to Angelica's newly visible nature:

Perfect Cherry Blossom "Human Potential"

Knives, curving amulets, stars and lasers spewed forth. Purification needles were emitted in a spiral, magic missiles ghosting them like echoes. The knives bounced off of the unofficial boundaries of the arena once before flying off into the distance. Nearby universes found various danmaku-variety debris bouncing off of their shells.

Angelica's nonspell was fairly similar to her first again, but with the conical lasers reversed so that the points were facing outwards. She had been thoroughly distracted by Yukari's choice of spell cards.

Slowly, a big, genuine grin spread across her face. Twirling aside from a knife, Angelica moved forward as Yukari had earlier, playing the game much more intensely and daringly. Eyes glowing as her perception and response time surpassed human comprehension, the all-powerful being and the being to whom power is irrelevant threw everything they had at each other and flew at immense speeds as they rotated around each other on the battlefield.

Things were truly escalating at this point, such that Yukari believed now was the time to do away with the nonspells on her part.

About halfway through her spell, her own signature butterflies and kunai joined the attack, intensifying the spell in a way that was as abrupt as saying 'how dare you make it through this spell unscathed' would be in a casual conversation. Angelica's near misses in that instant could attest to how dense the spell was becoming, symbolizing just how insane the collateral could have been with three gensokyo humans and Yukari herself fighting.

Angelica watched her spiral around one of her golden cone-shaped lasers as she forced herself through an impromptu aileron roll to let a large knife slide past her, nicking her armor and leaving a gash in the metal.

Even as the spell and nonspell ended, Yukari was taking a closer look at that gold armor. Whatever it was, it had fixed itself very quickly, and on it's own. Perhaps a question as to what kind of gold that was was in order after this was all over.

Titan's Spell "Grand Cataclysm"

Arcanum of the Battlefield "Boundary of Universe and Void"

Angelica looked startled for a split second as white orbs spewing rotating, high velocity black arrowheads that were weirdly visible in the darkness of their battlefield spewed forth in a fantastic pattern, even as a huge magic circle appeared beneath the combatants, starting to release streaming, elegantly twisting bursts of golden lights upwards as they slowly increased in speed and quantity.

Angelica let herself drop, gravity taking her as she spread her arms and fell through countless danmaku in an expertly done method of dodging, swooping around and teleporting away from a blast, skirting one of the white orbs and spiraling into the storm as she challenged Yukari with her mere presence.

Yukari, for her part, hid her smile behind her fan as she twisted away from one of the erratically weaving lasers as it passed her by, tracking the spell even through the storms of danmaku she herself was using. As had become a common behavior for her during the fight, for every ten or so attacks she'd avoided, a few flew into spontaneous gaps in the fabric of the space that surrounded them.

The Grand Cataclysm spell increased in intensity rapidly, creating a truly dangerous spell card. What kept it from being as devilish as something like Double Black Death Butterfly was the fact that one was dodging projectiles from one direction in a fairly recognizable pattern. In fact, Yukari mused, it was likely a level of attack that Angelica in her current state would not be able to pass unscathed were she on the receiving end.

But for her, it was simply a high-tier spell card.

Yukari shifted just to her left, letting a beam buzz her clothing, yet leaving them unscathed. Knowing Angelica was preoccupied, a few gaps opened up near her and released objects flying at speeds too fast for a normal human to comprehend.

Angelica's enhanced response barely let her bend backward to let what she registered was a 'do not enter' street sign shoot over her, blinking in bafflement at its existence. It only took a moment for her to put up a shield even as she wove between some black arrowheads from Yukari's spell card, various street signs and lights bouncing off and falling into the death trap that was Angelica's spell card.

Seeing them sink practically in slow motion, Angelica almost let herself get hit. As far as she could tell, Yukari had just thrown traffic control signs at her for the hell of it.

When she looked back up, she found a big white sphere with her name (metaphorically) on it right in her face.

With quick thinking, Angelica teleported away from the attack in a flash of gold and summoned a few mailboxes and a (normal) police public call box and chucked them right back.

Yukari was clearly amused, even as she cut off her spell in preparation for the next one."Grand Cataclysm" was still going, getting to a point where all the gold blended together and success depended on more than just eyesight.

Yukari succeeded, of course. She put her fan away, and gestured outward with her parasol. " I hope your last three spells hold up, my impulsive friend." she commented.

Angelica's grin widened.

Youkai Mind "Chessmaster's Dance"

Infinite Magic "Infinity Lock"

Yukari blinked as a translucent gold sphere with red chains around it encased her. Reminded slightly of one of her own most famous spells, she witnessed hundreds of golden lasers materialize and slowly approach. So it was to be a war of patience and pathfinding.

Indeed, Yukari's spell consisted of white and black spheres darting in very chess-like motions, beginning to encircle the golden girl and initiate expert chess strategies with Angelica as the sole target.

Both spells were very dense and slow paced. And this time, both were showing respect for the other's spell by not abusing their warping abilities, and instead dodging how it was intended to be dodged.

It was so unexpected that both women took a moment to notice it was happening. Yukari reflected on the last time she'd shown respect in an actual battle. It must have been her last battle with Yuuka. Giving due courtesy and respect was all well and good, but on the battlefield itself…

Something was different about this woman, Yukari realized. Where a normal being would become more stressed out during a battle, more aggravated, more easily breakable, this one seemed to regain her sanity as things turned serious over time, growing more in cognizance as any particular battle went on until she was the human she was supposed to be. A human suppressed by immortality.

She wasn't just an impulsive childish goddess, which Yukari had already learned, but there was so much more hiding under the surface. And only someone like her, who would face Angelica without fear, would ever have an opportunity to see it.

While it would be fair for Yukari to say that the girl wasn't really the sharpest tool in the shed, clearly having not taken experiences over the course of her life to learn how to best handle more serious situations, because her reality warping abilities were so strong that she shouldn't ever need to, in theory, she clearly had a natural intuition that surpassed plenty of the most impressive of people that Yukari has met.

Yukari aced Angelica's spell card with a fair bit of ease, watching her opponent struggle carefully. Angelica had managed to escape the numerous chess-like traps that the spell displayed, barely. Her eyes were glowing brighter than before, leading Yukari to realize that Angelica had been forced to enhance her senses again.

There was a pause as they watched each other, and Yukari felt judged. It was the first time in the fight that Angelica's expression looked like she was doing more than being in the moment. Angelica was reaching a point in a competition that she could conceivably lose where she was trying to read her opponent.

Yukari didn't expect her to succeed, not when a human was facing a youkai. Humans and Youkai were so very different from one another.

The last two spells Yukari intended to use would be fun, she promised herself. This was no normal spell card duel, this was play, like most matches, but something was different. There was a clear winner already, but both sides were happy to show off their creativity.

Yukari caused large portals to open all across their battlefield with no distinct aim. Angelica responded by summoning familiars, magic circles made of gold around her.

Empowered Bonds "Six Gems of Harmony"

Exploitable Meme "Trains, Trains Everywhere!"

Angelica choked at the sound of Yukari's spell, a strangled laugh escaping her even as she managed to avoid being run over by falling a few feet down. Out of the countless gaps in reality, various trains were being launched at her, affected by gravity to give them a slight curve, as they rushed past, making noises, colliding with impressive explosions that released dangerous debris… It was a high-level spell card that was purely for comedy's sake.

Angelica's reference was less joking than Yukari's was for once, the six familiars doing different things. One darted back and forth and released blasts of red danmaku in all directions. One released storms of purple lasers in a vaguely aimed fashion. The third unleashed elegantly twisting danmaku in a spiraling pattern around itself, the threat starting to spread like silk towards her opponent.

The fourth unleashed bursts of multicolored danmaku of peculiar shapes, little rectangles as if representing confetti. These danmaku trailed to a stop before fading away. The fifth made fast dashes straight for Yukari's face, leaving behind a spraying trail of all colors of the rainbow that persisted where they traveled, and the sixth and final one would back away from Yukari at a slow pace, releasing pink and yellow danmaku as if to feebly protect itself, making quite a hazardous little field of danmaku that one mustn't fly into. The danger lied in the latter two, which had danmaku that did not fade.

And yet Yukari narrowed her eyes. This was the prelude to the final spell card, she presumed. A warm-up of sorts.

Angelica was too preoccupied mentally identifying trains as she ducked from shrapnel and darted away from explosions, the ensnaring nature of the portals dumping countless trains around her and at her forcing her to move constantly. Which were aimed and which were not were completely random.

"Hey, I saw that," she commented lightly as a particular one grazed her, roaring past. "The boundary of fiction and reality is fun, isn't it?"

Yukari smirked behind her fan as she simply kept it up and kept her distance from the familiar that definitely wanted her blood with how fast it was moving. A portal flung a multicolored train past her, then a duller one shortly afterward.

"I hope you duplicated that, those boxcar kids will want that back," Angelica commented. "Ooh, shiny. Is that a magnet train from the pokemon universe? Ooh, favorite one. Gold train! You spoil me."

Her aimless comments turned into a full-on rambling sequence as she dodged trains, having fun identifying them and losing track of the battle as she let her familiars do all the work for her.

Despite all the variety, those odd trains made up about ten percent of the storm, the rest being what appeared to be trains from a Japanese train service, having a similar appearance to typical subway trains. Some were damaged, others were whole. All intent on mowing Angelica down.

Yukari realized she was being boxed in, and, barrel rolling away from some 'confetti', she braved the field that the yellow familiar had created, darting right back out again real fast, but having been rewarded for her daring actions by being free from that trap. Her multitasking was leading her vaguely astray, meaning Yukari wasn't as serious as she realized she probably should be.

So she narrowed her eyes and let confetti pieces the size of trucks graze past her while the dashing familiar did the same on her other side. Her movements became precise, 'perfect'. Freely letting danmaku of all paces slide right by her body as if she had precognition, considering she was one step away from such things when she wasn't using her abilities.

The laser's 'random' pattern had been effectively learned by the woman. She wasn't even keeping an eye on the purple familiar any longer. The others had fairly manageable patterns that more or less demanded that she keep moving, but she understood that at her level, she could safely focus on the confetti throwing one and the one charging at her and still be mostly risk-free.

Angelica at this point had no idea where Yukari physically was. So visibly amused by her opponent's spell card and intent on bypassing its complexity unharmed, the golden girl had effectively put Yukari out of sight and out of mind for the moment. She grazed a circus train with unoccupied car-sized cages, ducked under the Friendship Express and darted between the cars of what she believed was the first train developed by mankind in most universes.

She was almost caught off guard a dozen times, saved only by her self-enhancement as she hung in space, entranced by dozens of pop culture references, filing away the jab at the reference her own spell card was using for later.

The spell card began to lapse into a final countdown as the projectiles multiplied in intensity for a final round, fully intending to break her. So much so that they were getting in the way of each other, and the shrapnel from collisions was beginning to be more dangerous than the trains themselves.

Angelica almost didn't notice when they'd stopped. She paused, and cut off her own spell card. As expected, she witnessed an unharmed Yukari slide into her view, a genuine smile on her face.

"Before we wrap this up," Yukari commented. "I want to say something."

Angelica blinked, the pumped up feeling she'd had for those last few seconds fading slightly as she looked around her for a moment. "Uh… Sure?"

"It isn't like me to misjudge people," Yukari explained herself. "There's something different about you. So different and so unconventional that I found myself enjoying playing this game with you, even fully expecting not to. You've surprised me, and you should be proud."

Angelica's eyes went half-lidded, not out of boredom or annoyance, but something deeper. "Thanks, I guess " she muttered, before smiling again, taking her cheery-faced, bright-eyed look once more. "But you know what, that's not important! What's important is that we had fun!"

Yukari watched her opponent in silence. She noticed, absently, that Angelica wasn't fidgeting. Not in the slightest.

"Very well. It's been fun." Yukari took her position with her fan in front of her face, her parasol resting on her right shoulder, and sitting on a gap in the fabric of everything and nothing like it was a small hammock.

Angelica summoned twelve familiars this time. Yukari had been right in assessing that the girl had used the reference to a different universe's heroes to lead up to something twice as intense if not more.

Ultimate Iteration "Unbound Boundary of Life and Death"

Signet of the Multiverse "Twelve Guardians"

Chaos erupted into the void, an unleashment of beauty keyed into the two beings as they unleashed their attacks. Unlike the normal Boundary of Life and Death Spell Card, Unbound Boundary of Life and Death began with all of the bullets that the original card ended with, and began adding more.

Angelica's spell, by contrast, began with just as much intense variety. Yukari witnessed through her unparalleled storm that each familiar had a color that possibly referred to their element. One was golden, like the girl herself, so this spell card was more than a representation of herself and who she was.

It was a representation of the group she was a part of, the group Yukari had yet to fully understand. A collection of people that Yukari presumed helped the girl maintain what remained of her sanity in the face of immortality and acted as friends, family. The most important things in her life.

She was not disappointed.

The blue familiar released blue lasers that pierced in orderly directions, rotating as they fired, the element of water contributing to this power. This first observation in the first second of the fight led her to recognize that it was also a demonstration of how versatile the manners that these elements could be used by these 'guardian' folk.

The red familiar unleashed spiraling storms of fire danmaku, similar to what she remembered Patchouli Knowledge using in some of her spell cards. These danmaku kept rotating even as they flew outwards.

The green familiar pulsed out rippling danmaku that spread vine-like arms as they flew, getting increasingly dangerous as they went. They served as physical barriers that might be in the way when trying to avoid other projectiles.

The silver familiar would shoot out a small, handheld spherical mace-like weapon, with a foot and a half of handle and a perfectly spherical head the size of a bowling ball with pyramidal spikes on it, which would start floating towards Yukari in an aimed effort, duplicating itself and again becoming more dangerous the further it flew because of it creating a sort of wall of itself.

The gold familiar would unleash lasers in all directions that, after they reached twenty meters away from the familiar, would promptly aim themselves at Yukari, like a rapid-fire attack.

The lighter green familiar unleashed semicircular blades in random directions and randomly taking on a speed of slow, medium or fast, creating an unpredictable storm. The blades themselves were white.

The light blue familiar sent similarly colored electric arcs out that made being close to it dangerous, but they stopped at the ten-meter mark and formed into danmaku shaped like various technological odds and ends that flew out in a random pattern.

The yellow familiar proved to be the most dangerous, sending awkwardly zig-zagging bolts, three at a time, one aimed, and the other two to the left or right of it expanding as it went. Grazing the attack was dangerous, so giving it it's due space was in order.

The white one would occasionally unleash massive beams not dissimilar to a Master Spark, but truly pure white. It always telegraphed it's attack much like the Master Spark did in spell card form, but with the chaos all around it, it became more of a threat simply because navigating the rest was difficult.

The pink one would occasionally flash blue, and then make a tremendous noise as it unleashed a blue disc-like shockwave out that lasted for a great deal of time. It would often cut off travel unless one was daring enough to try and sneak in behind it. More concerningly, it liked to aim itself just barely, so if you stood still it would miss you by about ten meters, effectively making it different from the rest of the attacks and thus a part of the problem.

The deep blue one released spiraling rainbow trails in a pinwheel, extremely dense and dangerous up close. The orbs rippled as they flew as if their formation wasn't quite complete, and yet they seemed perfectly functional, like packets of energy.

The black one would release one huge black sphere per second, the spheres making low thrumming sounds as they were sent out, moving very slowly. Their presence overrided the visuals of all the others, like black holes. One couldn't sense the danmaku that the black spheres blocked in one's vision.

Twelve familiars. Representing twelve guardians.

Yukari smiled privately at the implications it presented. The meaning of it, layered and intricate. It meant more to the golden girl than even she or perhaps even some of these other guardians knew. It was the last showcase, an example that Angelica could play the spell card game like someone from Gensokyo would.

Yukari's final spell card, beginning with the full force of the Boundary of Life and Death, began to add more and more patterns to add to the spiraling assault. Blue butterflies that traveled in a double helix pattern. Green orbs that accelerated. Purple orbs that decelerated. Aimed kunai, semi-aimed butterflies, delayed aimed butterflies. Large slow flower heads. Long, thin lasers. In that order, these additions to the Boundary of Life and Death made for something truly hellish. The spell card had been a wall of devastation long before this new one had come into play.

One wasn't meant to beat it. The spell card could only be passed correctly with a great deal of luck, years upon years of experience with spell card battles of similar veins, and an understanding of Yukari Yakumo herself.

Barring the potential for danmaku experience, Yukari had known that Angelica didn't know Yukari in any meaningful way.

Yukari was impressed by her opponent's spell card. It was a high tier spell card that was absolutely chaotic at first sight, but when one paid attention, it was a beautiful mesh of twelve different logics. An unrelenting storm of power and beauty, much like her own spell card was.

Yukari simply held the more difficult spell card.

The golden girl put up a fantastic effort. Yukari watched even as she let Angelica's spell card slip by her from all directions, as the golden girl enhanced her senses a great deal more, and did her very best in that state.

But it didn't last.

Yukari's wall of multicolored, swirling light and death eventually caught up to the golden girl. Angelica's eyes began to widen as she found herself trapped, and then she was consumed by the boundary of life and death, struck by one of the small white bullets that escaped her notice in the storm.

Immediately, everything cut off. The game had ended. Yukari stopped releasing her spell card once the twelve familiars had faded away. The unused danmaku sailed into the abyss, where they would strike nobody.

Yukari slowly looked around in the silence of the aftermath, searching for her opponent. Once she saw Angelica, she found a moment of indecisiveness.

Angelica lay on the surface of one of the universes, her limbs splayed out upon it. Scratches that hadn't healed yet were present. Most striking of all was the look in her eyes. For the first time since Angelica had come into the gap youkai's life, they held a somber look.

"...I lost, huh?" she asked. There was a tinge of the foreign nature of such a statement for someone like her in her tone, but it was mostly defeat.

"Yes," Yukari answered simply

Angelica slowly gathered her legs beneath her and stood up. Yukari heard the snapping sound of her spine realigning from where smashing against the wall of a universe had broken it.

"Guess I had that coming," she stated simply, not quite meeting Yukari's eyes.

Then she clapped Yukari on the shoulder, summoning her typical grin. Her eyes didn't share the smile. She had nothing against Yukari, clearly, but having to ask questions to herself about herself probably didn't help the mood much. "Welp, see ya."

There wasn't any glamour, Yukari noted, in Angelica's departure. She simply vanished.

Yukari Yakumo was alone in the void.

For a few seconds.

"she never was one for long conversation."

Yukari slowly turned, finding a boy who's palette seemed to consist only of pale skin and silver. He wore a short sleeve shirt and pants that were silver; the pants were of the same unusual fashion that Angelica's were. Silver Sneakers, and, a silver cape three times as long as he was tall as a seamless part of the t-shirt.

His eyes and hair were silver as well. They were more openly emotional than his golden counterpart, those eyes. They gleamed in the light of the nearby universes.

He held in his hand a tea kettle and in the other a simple collapsible table.

There was a pause as Yukari and the newcomer simply looked into each other's eyes.

…

"the guardian of time," Yukari smirked behind her teacup, seated in a chair summoned by said silver boy's power.

"yes, that's me." the 'boy' replied. He sipped his own tea. "you may call me Kaigetsu."

"fine name," Yukari noted.

He smiled. It was a far more genuine smile than Angelica could ever give. Yukari wondered if kindness was a genuine natural part of this being. "it has far fewer meanings than yours." he suggested.

Yukari didn't deny as such. Silence fell again.

"I take it that last spell card isn't meant to be defeated." Kaigetsu ventured eventually.

Yukari returned her own genuine smile. "it is possible." she pointed out. "technically. One person captured it."

"Reimu?" Kaigetsu guessed.

Yukari's wistful smile was enough of a confirmation.

Kaigetsu looked down at his almost full cup. "Your Gensokyo, then?"

"gone." Yukari admitted. "but, it lasted a very, very long time. It has its place in history. I remember every moment."

Kaigetsu smiled again, eyes wrought with empathy. "never forget." he advised gently. "Your masterpiece."

"I had help," Yukari commented.

"all the sweeter."

Yukari took a sip of tea.

Kaigetsu leaned back. "I hope you returned all the trains you stole," he stated suddenly, his sense of humor bubbling in his tone.

"Oh, they were mangled. Nobody would want those wreckages back." Yukari returned. "Besides, a good hike is good for people."

Kaigetsu leaned back in his chair, his ever-gentle expression hiding the barest tint of judgment.

"You're so… Human." Yukari commented, changing the subject.

Kaigetsu relaxed and returned to his casual expression. He awaited Yukari's decision to continue. Yukari gathered rather quickly that were she to remain silent, they would share their tea in silence until they gave their casual goodbyes.

Yukari wasn't anxious to walk away from these interesting humans just yet.

"It's rather a shame that Angelica decided not to join us for tea." she instead spoke up, sipping her tea and turning her purple eyes up to the guardian of time. He seemed wistful, eyes looking not at her, but back to a time when everything was presumably far simpler.

Kaigetsu pushed his finger in a circle on the table to pass the time as he considered his response. "Angelica…" he paused, then met Yukari's eyes for real. "First, I need to thank you. Sometimes she needs someone to really break her mental barriers down, and even the rest of us aren't… Really qualified. She doesn't keep anyone really close, she treats friendship like a universal concept that applies to every living creature she could conceivably come across, but doesn't treat it with the value it deserves. So the only way to break her down is to… well, break her down."

His explanation rung in Yukari's mind as she added it to her mental file on the golden girl, while simultaneously appreciating the irony in her second to last spell card.

"you have been around for some time." she noted. "longer than me, if i were to hazard a guess. Is there no other way?"

Yukari almost regretted her words, seeing the effect they had on the silver-haired 'teenager'. The way his shoulders slumped, his posture worsening in his seat, his eyes taking on a glaze of sorts.

He set his tea down to hide the minor trembling in his hand.

"there's a real human in there somewhere." he murmured. Looking up, he met the gap youkai's eyes. "Lady Yukari, I am six billion years old, and not once in all of those years have I found something that can get through this shell she's made. When she first became the Guardian of Magic, like the rest of us, the feedback of being a part of an infinite amount of our element drove her instantly insane. It took us thousands of years to pull ourselves back together, even if time seemed to pass fast for us during that time."

"but when Angelica pulled herself together, she was different. The rest of us were influenced by our elements to various degrees, but it depended on the ratio in the multiverse that the elements represent themselves in. We were able to push through, but... "

"Magic isn't like the other elements that make up the Guardians. Magic… manifests itself differently in every single one of an infinite multiverse. However subtle the difference, even if down to the deepest we can measure it seems identical, it isn't. Whether it manifests in an organized way or a chaotic or convenient way, on a multiversal scale, the element of magic is the epitome of randomness."

"it's always affected her, changing how she reacts in the world in ways the rest of us can't necessarily run parallel to. She's an enigma despite being much like us."

"All of that means that her mental barriers are outside the nature of the human mind, and usually the minds of any other creature. I've only seen her break in two ways, the first being your method. The result doesn't last long. In a few hours, she'll be back to her 'old' self."

"the other way is such a systematic destruction of innocent life that her human nature reacts strongly enough to break her. This usually results in her ruthlessly destroying the person who committed the crime. It's only happened to her three times so far, and she spends almost a week being outright unapproachable."

Kaigetsu finished his speech, sighing deeply as he managed to take another sip of his tea, releasing the tension allowing him to regain his composure well enough. "I keep trying. I get the sense I'll always be trying."

Yukari sipped her tea. Outwardly, she was simply watching Kaigetsu. Inside, her mind was active, attempting to piece together a method to Angelica's madness.

Kaigetsu's explanation tied together the loose ends in Yukari's understanding of the golden girl, but the answer yet eluded her. Angelica was a goddess of randomness with a human trapped inside.

She briefly considered altering Angelica's boundary of less and more cognizant, but such behavior was usually rather jarring to the mind it was used on, minds were fragile, after all. The reaction she could have to sudden cognizance could be anything.

Running through a mental list of the boundaries she could manipulate (AKA all of them), Yukari reached a conclusion.

She could cure Angelica.

But the resulting person would… not be authentic. She would have to change something about Angelica's nature, or hurt her mind in the process.

Yukari frowned. A problem she couldn't solve. It was troubling, to put it lightly. As her gaze met silver, she turned her observations into something else. Something more important, perhaps.

"I believe you will succeed eventually."

Kaigetsu started. He hadn't expected an answer at all, it seemed. But the vote of confidence from Yukari herself rang a little bell in Kaigetsu's soul that sparked hope.

"you really think so."

"yes, I do."

Kaigetsu's mood showed through his expressive eyes. He was okay again. Yukari settled down while congratulating herself to an extent.

With Kaigetsu's good mood came small talk, which Yukari was to learn shortly.

"How are Ran and Chen?"

Yukari didn't spend a moment questioning how the boy knew of them. Obviously, he had experienced different iterations of Gensokyo before. Older universes with similar events and similar people with similar powers. "They are well. I believe Ran was at the nearest hot spring she could find the moment I set off to relieve my boredom," she responded. Her smile was more at seeing how easily amused Kaigetsu was than amusement at her own joke.

Kaigetsu hummed once he was done chuckling. "I'm… Curious…" he began somewhat hesitantly.

Yukari waved for him to continue.

Kaigetsu looked hesitant still. "I have met a lot of different iterations of you across the multiverse, and usually there's a discrepancy between versions. Usually in your relationship with the two. I was just curious whether, trusting you won't lie to me since you don't necessarily have to maintain an image with me, and they aren't here, whether you consider them family or tools."

"You like the sight of a happy family." It was not a question that Yukari posed. Nor was it flat or annoyed in tone. It was a simple statement, her expression showing no emotional reaction in any way, positive or negative.

"I do. It… Helps, I suppose, every time I see it." Kaigetsu admitted. "And since they would be the ones that grew with you, now that you're freely traversing the multiverse without a Gensokyo to maintain, well. Youkai and humans are very different, but I do suspect that the need for companionship persists."

"It… Does." Yukari admitted, eyes boring into Kaigetsu's. Something about the way this young looking guardian wore his heart on his sleeve encouraged others to do the same. She mused on the fact that he would make a fantastic interrogator, if he was so inclined. "Perhaps not manifesting in the same way, but we are capable of being lonely. We can care for others. As for your question…"

She paused. "Yes. Ran and Chen are family. They are still shikigami, and I use them as I please, but since the fall of Gensokyo, I suppose I slipped the occasional hint that they were more than slaves to me. Ran traded her freedom for power, and Chen, well, she often behaves more like a pet cat, but they are there, and they are important to me."

Kaigetsu's smile broadened.

Yukari continued: "I believe you are making the conjecture that I had hidden those things to maintain the image of myself that would better maintain my status in Gensokyo, allowing me to help maintain it easier. You are a very intelligent and experienced person, unlike your friend."

The Guardian of Time nodded. "It's nice to hear," he stated. He let a silence hang for a minute while Yukari chose to refill their tea herself, the male nodding his thanks as he received his cup back. When he spoke again, he had changed the topic. "Do you have any projects going on?"

Yukari smiled. "I did. Your friend interrupted my newest game. I suppose for all the critique I have over her, we both have a tendency to do something merely to see what happens."

"Immortality blues," Kaigetsu replied simply.

"Indeed." Yukari agreed. "But you, you behave differently."

"Mostly," Kaigetsu muttered. "Every few thousand years or so, I do something similar, though I make sure my changes are far less invasive or destructive. Perhaps I would alter the number of resources a planet has while it's still developing, then jump forward a hundred years at a time to see what people value, what they hold dear in a world where different resources are rarer than the typical planet earth. It's… Time-consuming. I always have to lock the universe and go back afterward of course."

"Of course not, you wouldn't leave your friends alone for millennia." Yukari collected.

Kaigetsu agreed silently, looking down into the tea he was holding, observing the green-tinted liquid with more interest than should be warranted by a cup of tea, paying attention to the ripples that spread across its surface.

"I've never come across an entire universe that is locked by powers such as yours. I imagine you have your reasons." Yukari added.

Kaigetsu smiled wistfully. "Even though my presence has an odd effect of passively resolving paradoxes, it's… Well."

He cut himself off temporarily, awkwardly clearing his throat. "I should be more straightforward. There's something about the hard work and effort that goes into such a project that makes me want to keep it from being disturbed. Not to mention that a paradox that one of my friends causes by barging in, like say, Angelica, well. That's complicated. Usually, I gain or lose memories of things as time rewrites itself in my presence."

"But you are time-" Yukari began, then caught herself. "Ah."

"Yes, if Time rewrites itself, then technically a piece of myself is doing so. The way it resolves itself, therefore, tends to rely on how exactly time flows in whichever universe I'm in." he explained. Then his eyes went half-lidded. "I don't quite remember telling you about our exact nature though."

Yukari smiled. "I'm sorry, did that slip out?"

"You're doing it again," Kaigetsu commented idly.

Yukari hummed. "And what would that 'it' be?" she asked.

"That smile," Kaigetsu told her. "It's not a nice smile. It's a 'cat having tortured a mouse for a thousand years and having enjoyed every moment of it' smile."

Yukari let out a youkai-ish chuckle, light, but somehow edged. "Please accept my apologies. It's a very, very old habit."

Kaigetsu smiled back, his own smile as genuine as they come. "Anyways, I assume you looked us up through a boundary of clairvoyance, or else a boundary between 'not knowing' and 'knowing'?"

Yukari nodded. "I did pry, just a little, once you showed up. I do question why you still refer to yourselves as humans."

Kaigetsu, for the first time in the conversation, looked a smidge defensive. "We are."

"You are sentient cores." Yukari corrected, savoring the technicality. "Minds tied to the whole of your element in the multiverse. You were once human."

"But we are still human in mind " Kaigetsu argued smoothly. "When not adapting ourselves, we are only technically inhuman."

Yukari slowly nodded. "I will grant you that, I observed as much playing with your friend. The nature of your mind somehow remained just as it was when you were human, and even retains its nature when you aren't consciously modifying it. It's very interesting. But, technically…"

"Remind me to hook you up with the Vulcan race." Kaigetsu casually interrupted. Yukari gave that smile again but didn't respond.

Kaigetsu softened up. "Was that too rude?" he asked.

Yukari decided to throw him a bone. It had been somewhat irritating, but in his defense, she had been irritating first. "Sometimes even the gap youkai of Gensokyo needs a good word or two against them. You never know what you may learn if you listen to someone's critique."

Kaigetsu nodded in response. "That's more than true. Though… It is a bit difficult if they're giving you advice that doesn't work long term."

"I can feel your immortality blues from here." Yukari sympathized in her own way.

"Honestly." Kaigetsu murmured, rubbing his eyes with one hand and resting the teacup on the table with the other. "There have been incidents involving people who know I'm immortal giving love advice. Love advice, meant for mortals."

Yukari just watched him impassively, her fan covering her mouth again. The ever-present tool hiding her expression from the silver boy.

"The cost of… Being as compassionate as I can is…" he stopped himself, facepalming. "No, that's wrong of me to complain."

Yukari raised a questioning brow.

Kaigetsu sighed. "One of the things I want from people, no matter who they are, is to treat me like they would treat anyone else. I don't like to be treated like a god or anyone special really…"

"You are special. And you are more than a god." Yukari reminded him flatly.

"But I have a double standard, I guess." he continued unabated, expression miserable. "As much as I would like them to treat me like them regularly, if they're trying to tell me how to live my life, even if it's good advice for the future, I have this gut feeling I have to squash, the urge to tell them they don't know what they're talking about"

He finally sighed, some of the tension he'd built up fading away. "I work so hard to treat others with the utmost benevolence, so it's hard when I have these moments of frustration that aren't… Rational."

Yukari 'hmm'd. "I can see why it disturbs you so much. Being kind comes almost unnaturally easily to you, does it not?"

Kaigetsu silently made eye contact.

"So," Yukari continued. "Having moments in which you feel even the slightest frustration of annoyance at someone else throws you off. You're not like your friend, you are so very straightforward and easy to analyze."

She earned a reluctant half-smile in response, and silently congratulated herself.

"It isn't a strictly bad thing, being easy to see through." Yukari continued casually. "It keeps you honest, even when you have the compulsion to lie, you know you'll be seen through."

Kaigetsu sighed as he sat back. "And there are so many clever ways to solve a problem while being kind and honest. They're just… More difficult."

Yukari was under no illusion that the teenager looking guy in front of her had just sniped at her with that statement, and so she instead smiled like she usually does. "And you know who I am." she began, awaiting the conclusion.

"The lazy one." Kaigetsu smiled, as if the two were sharing an inside joke that wasn't so hidden away.

"They call me the demon that sleeps between fantasy and reality," Yukari confirmed. "Now how does one get a title like that?"

Kaigetsu looked up, eyebrow quirked. "Being Zephyr?"

Yukari tilted her head, not losing her smile. "Oh? Another friend of yours?"

Kaigetsu's wistful expression was back. "The Guardian of Wind. he does his best to sleep eternity away. Most of the time it just feels like there's eleven of us instead of twelve. Ten if Phaedrus is in one of his moods."

"Some simply aren't meant for immortality." Yukari decided, wondering if it was worth questioning whether Phaedrus was important to the conversation. The way Kaigetsu spoke, the subtle tones in his voice, she figured this Phaedrus bloke was the dreary member of the perhaps the edgy one. She'd heard that word in the last few universes she'd visited. She wondered why it seemed to have so many meanings before quickly dismissing it. When one can't find a word, there's lots of made up ones you can try.

Kaigetsu's face cleared. "Can you name a human who is?"

Yukari took the 'question' (it was really more of a statement) in silence.

After all, there was a very good reason that humans weren't born long-lived.

Kaigetsu refilled the tea without needing to ask permission, giving Yukari another talking point.

"You yourself can read others fairly well," she noted. "It's subtle, if only because you are so very straightforward."

Kaigetsu's lips turned upwards slightly. "It comes with being an old man." he murmured, taking a sip of his refilled drink.

"So too does senility"

Kaigetsu snorted. "Might be an improvement."

Yukari raised a brow. "Twelve senile gods, who can casually release infinite power?"

Kaigetsu set the teacup down. "Might not be an improvement."

"Escapism isn't healthy for a human," Yukari added.

Kaigetsu nodded. "No, it's not. At least, not in this way."

"Is it common for you to leave things open-ended?"

"For the past few years, yeah. I picked up the habit after I advised someone incorrectly a while back. I'll get over it."

"Leave a statement vague in fear of being wrong."

"Absolutely."

Yukari hid her smile again. "Is picking up habits truly so much easier than breaking them for humans?" she teased.

"I'll get back to you if I ever feel like interrupting one of your naps." Kaigetsu shot back, not hiding his smile.

"If you wish to experience a thousand years' torment." Yukari threatened casually.

"Do you think you can outmatch the first few thousand years of being us?" Kaigetsu asked, morbidly curious. Yukari noted the implication that becoming one of these Guardians must have really sucked.

"Yes." was her response.

Kaigetsu accepted this in silence, as the two seemed to be adept at doing. It actually grew vaguely uncomfortable, and Yukari could sense it. She double checked how bad those first few thousand years had gone for these guardian folk. The very idea that Yukari could do worse than them, even if she was playing around right now, had clearly, legitimately disturbed him.

"You seem too nice to interrupt someone's beauty sleep anyways." she reasoned casually, successfully cutting the tension away.

Mostly. "Yeah," Kaigetsu responded, absently drinking a larger amount of his tea. "I brought it up. I shouldn't have."

"Perhaps not." Yukari agreed. The now somber atmosphere weighed on the two of them for a while. When Yukari spoke again, it was with a tone resembling finality. "Is this the end of our conversation?"

"It would be a pity " Kaigetsu responded idly. "You are very insightful, and I feel like…"

"Like?" Yukari pressed.

"I almost feel like we have been conversing so far as temporary acquaintances rather than friends," Kaigetsu admitted. "Like someone speaking to a trusted advisor you might not see again. I don't want to feel like that."

Yukari leaned back in her chair. "I'll be sure to keep tabs on you" she promised, giving what Kaigetsu believed was a genuine smile. "After all, the difference between friends and acquaintances is the promise to meet again on irrelevant terms."

Kaigetsu smiled. "Friends, then." the Guardian of Time looked content. "Thank you."

"You're rather welcome." Yukari continued smiling. There was something about helping this particular one relax that just seemed to make one feel good about themselves. She noted the feeling even as she wondered what kind of fun she could now have with these guardian folk now that she was on their friends list. After all, few things truly changed how she felt about a situation. She rarely had to reconsider something; Usually, she accurately predicted what would occur and what her thoughts about them were long before she was faced with those things.

Then again, how does one predict someone simply being likable when one has never met them? He wasn't faultless, but he owned his faults. They weighed on him. He strove to be the best he could be. Yukari remembered when she came to respect that last bit. It was the day Marisa Kirisame had landed a master spark to her face.

And it hadn't crossed her mind to cheat, either. Perhaps she had subconsciously wanted to see where this would go and go along for the ride.

Yukari maintained her smile, gapping away her fan. Kaigetsu's reward for forging such a bond with the gap youkai was the youkai's almost subconscious action of not hiding her expression. Whether she was sneering or smiling for real, it was plain to see.

"So, Guardian of Time." Yukari began. "I am so very interested to hear about some of the guardians' exploits."

Kaigetsu's smile broadened as Yukari's words dredged memories to the surface. He began to speak, in the isolated, empty void above the infinite plane of spatially differentiated universes, to the only audience with the patience to listen to so many tales. Sharing tea together as the two friends, as severely different in their ways as they were, spoke and laughed and even occasionally applied the immortal all-powerful version of gossip.

Kaigetsu's smile was so very real.

Yukari seemed particularly happy about the return to the Gensokyo Cliche, drinking tea with your enemies after an expressive and impressive duel. The very progression of events reminding her of happy days long past, yet still clear as if they were yesterday in her mind. True, she may not be having tea with her actual opponent, but it was close enough, A new time in her immortal life was coming to pass. New acquaintances and even friends to stave off the boredom with and with a lack of responsibility holding her down to boot.

Yes, it was fair to say that Yukari Yakumo's smile, surprisingly enough, was very real too.

---

Whew, that was a long time coming, and I have hope that it's good. Either way, it's the hopeful start of me writing more than random prompts that don't wind up getting posted.

Oneshot VS stories are something I've contemplated all the time, though this is the first time doing a proper one. I've had other ideas like Erza Scarlet VS Pokemon Champion Cynthia, or Master Sura (from Wizard of Legend) VS Grimnir (from Magicka). The original thought of Yukari Yakumo pitted her against Son Goku, because I thought having a character from such a straightforward, power based mini-multiverse try to understand someone of Yukari's stance, considering that physical power isn't relevant to Yukari with her abilities. I revised that to set her against Angelica because I thought it was important to give readers an understanding of the Guardians on a greater scale than really comes into play when they interact with mortals. It helped that this version of Yukari could give Angelica the smackdown she deserves.

Not to mention that Goku vs Yukari would have been a stomp, despite the immense interest there could be in seeing a Dragon Ball character try to understand something so complex and indirect as Yukari. THIS was a stomp, and the guardians can casually unleash infinite power, even by accident, easily.

Simply to get it out, if I do do more oneshots that are simply VS matches, I'll probably add them as additional chapters to this story. Does that mean I'll make it not a touhou story, or make it a crossover, or change its title? ...No. I wouldn't be much of a madman if I don't occasionally do something against what would be considered ordinary or proper. So if you are interested in more VS matches from me, you'd have to follow this story to get to them.

Anyways, I really enjoyed writing this to the best of my abilities, and I truly hope that you enjoyed reading it. Please review, and if you wish to, favorite. I don't know if everyone who follows me as an author will look at a story about Touhou, especially since Touhou is not my standard for stories, but to all who do, I hope you enjoyed yourselves.

Enjoy the rest of your days, everyone. It's good to be back!