Full Power
by Cyberchao X
Disclaimer: Don't own blah blah; also, reminder that my fanfictions follow an orderly progression and therefore things that happened in previous fanfiction will be treated as common knowledge.
It was another beautiful, yet somewhat dull, day in Gensokyo. The Hakurei miko and her bride (who was also a miko and now bore the surname "Hakurei", but could not be called a "Hakurei miko" because the Yin-Yang Orb only recognizes bloodlines, not marriage) had been invited to a picnic in the Magical Forest by their friends the Kirisames, and lacking anything better to do, they of course accepted. Then they got to talking. "Incidents don't come along as frequently as they used to," Reimu said.
"You agree? I thought it was just my imagination," Marisa said.
"No, there was definitely a longer time than usual between the UFO Incident and the Darkness Incident, and now it's been awhile since the Divine Spirits…"
"Yeah, but the Divine Spirits was almost right after the Darkness, so it's not like it's absolutely set…" (A/N: So now I've officially set the timeline: TAoT9C takes place right before—actually, given that Kuroi's introduction happens about halfway through, it's more likely that the conclusion is after—Ten Desires.)
"Oh, I'm not complaining—totally. But even though it all worked out in the end, I felt as though I was a bit rusty during the Darkness Incident—and of course, you didn't even make it there until it was already resolved."
"You're not suggesting we create our own incident just to resolve it, are you?"
"It figures that's how you'd think," Alice said.
"That wasn't what I was suggesting, Alice-san," Reimu said.
"I know. That comment was directed at Marisa."
"I was thinking that we should just have some danmaku battles with each other just to keep our skills up."
"That's what I was hoping you were suggesting," Marisa said. "We haven't really battled each other since, what, the Eternal Night Incident?"
Reimu shook her head. "Sixty Year Cycle Barrier."
"Right, I keep forgetting about that one."
"Ah, yes, this I've got to see. Gensokyo's greatest titans, locked in a duel."
"Are you sure that's what you really want to see, Sanae-chan? You might be disappointed with the outcome," Alice said.
"Psh, yeah right; I beat Marisa twice before we even met you and again during the Sixty Year Cycle Barrier Incident, and only lost during the Eternal Night Incident because the two of you double-teamed me. That's 3-1 in my favor."
"3-2. You forgot about Yumemi-san's tournament."
"…3-2."
"And neither of us has won two duels in a row, so since you won last time, this one will be my victory."
"That's some pretty specious logic, Marisa-chan." (A/N: Obviously, the fact that both Reimu and Marisa are potential player characters in every game since Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dream means that the only time where we can declare that one of them "canonically" beat the other was in Story of Eastern Wonderland, with Reimu the victor. It definitely seemed to make more sense in this particular story to declare Marisa the victor in Imperishable Night, however, because at least within my universe, the Marisa-Alice team seems far more plausible than Yukari teaming up with Reimu, and also because of the "MAlice Cannon".)
"Just you watch! Star Sign 'Dragon Meteor'!"
"Divine Spirit 'Fantasy Seal'!"
"Wow, it really is so nostalgic watching the two of them go at it again."
"That's because your body has already forgotten what it felt like to be on the receiving end of their attacks," Sanae said.
"As if," Alice replied. "I don't think I'll ever forget the first time I was Master Sparked."
"You say that with such a dreamy look on your face…oh, right, Master Spark is a 'Love Sign', so it probably feels good when she does it to you." Alice said nothing, but her blush confirmed Sanae's suspicions that the experience was not altogether undesirable. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
"I-It's still a really intense sensation…it's not really something I want to experience often, but…"
"It's fine. You don't have to defend your deviant behavior. Chill out; it was a joke!" Sanae shouted, noticing Alice's temper flaring.
Unfortunately for Sanae, she'd unwittingly caused Reimu's attention to waver. Just for a split second, but with the level of power that Marisa and Reimu were capable of, even the slightest slip-up could be costly. Marisa took the victory. "Heh, like I said…though I don't feel like I really earned it."
"Nah, you did. I might've been a little distracted, but not enough that it should've made a difference. This was a legitimate victory for you."
"I should probably get some practice in, too," Sanae said.
"It figures you'd wait until we tired each other out to ask for a battle, Nae-chan," Reimu teased.
"Th-that's not it…I mean, yeah, it's true that I've never beaten either one of you in a spell card duel, but I want to be able to claim a real victory one day, not one where there are extenuating circumstances!"
"What about when you were searching for that 'giant robot'?"
"Not really a 'spell card duel' per se." (A/N: Yes, I know that the fighting games have spell cards too, but there are definitely some implications that characters' relative strengths are different in the fighting games than in the pure shooters—e.g. Meiling saying that she "always goes easy on" Sakuya, which jells with the common interpretation that Meiling's actually quite powerful, but bad at spell cards.)
"'Giant robot'?" Marisa and Alice both asked.
"Nothing you need to concern yourselves with," Reimu and Sanae both replied.
"Uh, so perhaps if you two are too tired from your duel, maybe Alice-san will battle me?" Sanae suggested.
Marisa and Alice looked at each other. "That…might not be such a great idea."
"It's fine, I can scale back if you want."
"That…wasn't what I meant," Marisa said. "For one thing, Alice was observing our second battle through her dolls, so she's seen you fight, but you'd be going into the battle essentially blind. Also—"
"You're right; I do only have hearsay to go on…" Sanae interrupted, "Very well; full power it is."
Marisa turned to Alice. "You're not actually going to agree to a full-power battle, are you, Arinya?"
Alice smiled. "Well, you know how I hate to go all out because of what it would mean if I lost anyway…but since Sanae was so polite about it I don't see any reason why I should hold back." They began the match.
"Is she…?" Reimu asked.
"Yep."
"And that's…?"
"Uh-huh."
"Don't those spells predate the spell card rules?"
"She's adapted them."
"Good, because I swear if she makes a widow out of me I will do the same to you. Or possibly to her."
"It's not my fault!"
"No, but it would make her suffer more."
"I tried to talk her out of it…"
The one-sided battle continued. "Hey, Mari-san? Did Alice impose her 'never fight at 100% power' restriction upon herself after we fought her in the mystical wonderland, or was she restricting herself even then?"
"You know, I never asked her. I always just assumed that she was fighting at full power then, but I guess it's possible that she was holding back."
"No, that was always my assumption too. Alice wasn't quite as mature then as she is now."
"You don't have to tell me twice," Marisa said suggestively, and Reimu rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know; more than just her body has changed since then. Though she's definitely not as 'cool' as she tries to give off the image of being."
"Nobody who saw her at her bachelorette party would ever mistake her for being cool and composed, trust me."
"They say alcohol brings out a person's true colors…and Alice has always been a girl of many colors."
"What the hell? Okay, okay, I give up!" Sanae suddenly shouted. "Gah, I'm more out of practice than I thought…"
"No, no, sweetie, you did fine. I've never beaten Alice-san at full power, either. One of the few times I had to outright defer to Mari-san."
"Heh, yeah, you really saw me in a new light after that one, ze…"
"Marisa? Not the time to be thinking about that."
"Ah, right…"
"I see. I knew that you told me that you and Reimu-chan weren't dating yet when we first met, but I didn't realize that it was that soon afterwards that you started."
"…Yeah, it kinda was."
"And remember that that's the only time you've beaten me, whereas Reimu-chan has since bested me in spell card duels on numerous occasions."
"Yeah, yeah, I know…" Marisa replied. "It's not like you'll ever let me forget that fact."
"That's because you keep insisting that you can. I'll grant that maybe if it had been you that I'd run into first during the Spring Snow Incident, you'd have defeated me then…but you didn't. Reimu did, and then you ran into me after I'd been defeated, and you were…uncharacteristically kind to me. I guess I should've realized your feelings right then and there, but I didn't know you well enough to know that that caring demeanor was out of character for you."
"Hey, I'm very caring!"
"Yeah, I know you are. But stopping to help an injured stranger—or in my case, former enemy, though with how much I'd changed since you last saw me I might as well have been a stranger—was never your style."
"Wait, you did that?" Reimu asked. "I never knew that."
"Of course you didn't. At first I'd been considering telling you, because I felt like you might appreciate that I did something generous for a change, but once I realized that you were the one responsible for Alice being so beat up I figured that telling you would've only made you jealous."
"…Maybe, maybe not. After all, I was blind to your true feelings even after getting hit with the MAlice Cannon."
"'MAlice Cannon'?" Sanae asked.
"Our super-special combo attack," Marisa replied.
"Which, like I said, you developed while you were still ostensibly my girlfriend." (A/N: Remember as per PTO/TDM that Reimu didn't find out about Marisa and Alice being a couple until roughly around the time of SWR.)
"…Wait, back to the matter at hand. You're telling me Alice-chan is more powerful than you are?"
"I thought the matter at hand was why Arinya thinks I'm never going to beat her in a spell card battle," Marisa said.
"Well, like I was saying, you're never going to beat me because ever since you fell in love with me, you've always pulled your punches against me without even intending to. You're psychologically incapable of defeating me now, even though you may be stronger."
"Which then implies that Mari-chan is also stronger than Reimu."
"Marisa and I are evenly matched," Reimu insisted. "We've each had victories over opponents that the other couldn't beat. Alice-chan just happens to be one of the ones where Marisa took the lead."
"Actually, during your battle with Sanae-chan, we'd been discussing whether or not that was your full power."
"It was. Then. But you know damn well that I'm more powerful now, and you're more powerful too. So…let's not worry about who's the most powerful."
"…Thank you."
"For what?" Alice wondered.
"I'll tell you later." When "later" came, Marisa told her, "For not trying to show us up back there. You know as well as I do that you're stronger than either of us, but of course, Reimu-san and I have a reputation for being able to defeat opponents who outclass us, so that's a moot point."
"Oh, is that all? Don't think twice about it."
A/N: Just a little reminder that Alice is in fact an EX-Boss while Reimu and Marisa are just stage 4 bosses. But that's also a reminder of why Reimu and Marisa are special. Not counting the versus shooters, every other playable character—Sakuya, Youmu, Sanae, even Mima and Yuuka going back to the PC-98 era—has been a Stage 5 boss, but every time that Reimu and Marisa appear in a game as a boss—Story of Eastern Wonderland, Lotus Land Story, Imperishable Night, even Marisa's appearance as the EX-Boss of Fairy Wars when you consider that that game has only three stages instead of the usual six—it's in stage 4. Reimu and Marisa are literally performing above what their power levels suggest they should be able to do. Enjoy!