With the moon's energy coursing through her, Mima was at the top of her game. While she wasn't exactly a slouch at her 'normal' level of strength, her full power could be devastating, capable of forcing even Yuuka to take her seriously.
So, naturally, Mima decided to toy with her opponent, partly to repay the curb-stomping from earlier, and partly to show off her vast power.
Rena found herself desperately diving, ducking and weaving through the air to avoid Mima's assault. She seemed to be under some sort of berserker's fury or something, since Mima was wildly swinging her staff, creating shock waves made out of tiny, star-shaped bullets and grunting like a possessed demon.
"Hrah! Cha! Ara! Reh! Begone!"Mima growled, 'slamming' the crescent side of the staff onto the air between them, creating the biggest shock wave yet. Cursing, Rena realised she couldn't completely avoid the attack in time as the bullets rocketed towards her. Her hair growing longer once again, she enveloped her body as she curled herself defensively, trying to withstand the barrage.
Mima made the motion of wiping sweat from her forehead, having no sweat to wipe despite this. "Man, it's been a while since I drew upon this much power. Maybe I overdid it?"
She watched as Rena emerged from her 'cocoon', panting heavily and sporting several marking on her arms and legs where the bullets had struck particularly hard.
"That moon of yours screwed you right up." Rena snarled, glaring hatefully at the soul.
"Yeah, amazing power does that to people." Mima smiled sweetly at Rena as she prepared to attack again.
Rena tried to think of a way to subdue her enemy quickly and easily. She still had the dagger, tucked away in her hair, but that was obviously useless. Her 'Sweet Vengeance' spell, based upon that cursed blade, may actually affect her, but it was already inferior to the blade's effects...
Suddenly, Mima was charging at her once again, one hand held behind her. She seemed to be charging a spell to use point blank. Rena, with no time to think, chose her next action at random, and met her charge head on.
Mima was surprised Rena flew for herself, and her charging spell faltered slightly as Rena zipped right through her spiritual body, narrowly avoiding the spell in her hand.
Pivoting in the air, Mima threw the incomplete spell, which was a five foot long, glowing green star, resembling a shuriken. Rena glanced behind her shoulder, seeing the spell coming, and made a sharp ascension.
Another homing spell... Rena thought with annoyance as she saw the star arcing towards her, its shape wildly expanding and shrinking. It was pretty unstable.
Well, no way Rena was going to try and block that particular spell. Chances are it would blow up in her face, and that wouldn't do. Instead, she would use its homing to her own advantage.
Just before the shuriken-spell could strike her, Rena quickly dodged backwards, dipping below the spell and charging for Mima, who raised her staff to parry a possible attack.
Mima's spell had curved once again and was still pursuing its target stubbornly, but Rena was hoping Mima would focus her attention on herself, not the spell.
Raising her fist as she flew at Mima, Rena yelled, "Take this! Bullet Punch!"
Just before her made-up-on-the-spot attack hit, Rena dipped below Mima, avoiding the staff's swing in the process. Quickly maneuvering behind Mima, the volatile-looking star should now attempt to pass right through its own caster.
Mima seemed to freeze in shock, seeing her own spell bearing down upon her. "N-no!" She gasped, and the star then stabbed through her left shoulder, throwing Mima back.
"Ha! Far too easy!" Rena gloated, folding her arms and sneering at the soul, who was slowly beginning to fall. "I guess I was right! You are- What the hell?"
Without warning, the shuriken spell, which kept drastically changing its shape, became a perfect, six pointed star, dislodged itself from Mima, and suddenly flew at Rena.
Before she could dodge, it passed right through her body, doing no physical damage, but still sending sharp pains through her abdomen.
The star disappeared at last when it passed Rena, and she clutched her stomach with a wince as Mima smirked at her opponent, completely unharmed.
"Tell me, why did you think you were smart enough to trick me into taking my own spell?" Mima asked with a condescending tone. "It was a painfully obvious ploy. You're several centuries too early to try that kind of thing on me!"
Rena simply kept a snarling expression as Mima continued. "And furthermore, you thought I was really stabbed by that spell? Such a fool, I'm a ghost! No magic would physically stab me in such a way! Least of all my own spell!"
"Are you done?" Rena asked, slowly straightening herself. "Or are you just going to gloat over every tiny, dirty trick you pull?"
Mima simply snickered at the accusation. "A dirty trick? Sure, ambushing someone is fine, but taking a chance to complete a spell? Oooooh, what a cheater I am!"
"Get over that, already!" Rena growled, hating this being almost as much as the humans who had ultimately caused this whole mess. She had no time to waste screwing around with this stupid ghost. She had to get rid of them now, and kill the Shrine Maiden. Truthfully, she could take as long as she needed to kill Reimu, but now was the only time she could safely guarantee that Gensokyo would disappear forever. Any other time, and life might flourish again. No way was Rena going to allow history to repeat itself...
"Heh, I knew Mima could kick her ass." Marisa commented happily as she, Reimu and Genji watched the fight from below. It certainly looked like Mima was in complete control. Everything Rena tried was easily countered. They really had so much trouble last time?
"As long as she doesn't kill her." Reimu replied, seeing that shuriken pass right through Rena, and winced, remembering that the girl had suffered a fatal stab wound in roughly the same area. "After all, there's Christina to think about..."
"Oh yeah, the dual-personality!" Marisa seemed just remember that little bit of information. "What's she like, anyway?"
Reimu thought a little on her answer. "...Friendly, I guess. A little creepy, doesn't know Rena."
"Doesn't? But... they're the same." Marisa pointed out, confused.
"Well, Rena's actually dead, and that's her spirit in Christina's body." Reimu explained briefly. "Genji, have you ever heard of that happening before?"
Genji delved into the recesses of his mind, searching for any relevant memories of such an occurrence. It had been a while, but he did come across some information before, by some sort of necromancer bloke.
"I seem to recall it's possible..." Genji muttered. "If I remember right, the spirit possesses the body of someone they harboured a deep emotion for. Love, hate, even indifference. However, what possession entails, I'm not entirely sure on. I suppose the answer is up there."
"Incredibly useful..." Marisa muttered sarcastically.
Reimu watched Rena closely as she faced off against a gloating Mima, wondering how they would resolve this particular incident. Sure, battling was a given, but Reimu had a distinct feeling that this wasn't going to go away after a cup of tea at her shrine. Rena was the first person Reimu had come across that was seriously (well, compared to Mima, at least) trying to kill everyone. How do you convince someone that isn't exactly a good idea?
Lyra's battle wasn't exactly going smoothly either.
Not that Yuuka was on the offensive, oh no. She was still dodging Lyra's attacks. Lyra had summoned another two images of herself, each clone dancing like a lunatic and launching their own bullets. And Yuuka still hadn't taken a hit, much to the maid's dismay. The flower Youkai easily dodged most of the bullets with dance-like moves of her own, and would use her umbrella to swat or block the rest in a fluid movement that seemed a part of her dance.
Sweating with the effort of maintaining her clones via dwindling energy, Lyra noticed figures emerging from the ruined mansion, and saw that it was Rena, followed by the ghost. That witch was nearby, although she seemed to be sitting out.
"Concentrate on your own fight~!" Yuuka advised as she twirled her way past the frenzied dancers and rushed towards Lyra.
Before Lyra could react, the tip of Yuuka's umbrella was pointed at her throat, with Yuuka grinning victoriously. "Your dance squad ended up missing a beat back there."
Lyra didn't reply, instead glaring at Yuuka with a mixture of hate and defeat. The clones dispersed, one by one, as Lyra took a step back from Yuuka.
"It doesn't matter anyway. You'll die soon enough." Lyra said, her voice hollow.
"Really?" Yuuka glanced back at the mansion, lowering her umbrella as she did. Mima and the girl with freakishly long hair had just initiated battle. "I dunno, it looks like they stopped Hair-Gal before she did anything."
That was true, Lyra thought, but Rena was still a surprisingly powerful fighter. Even though she must not have a whole lot of practice (After all, waking up a month every ten years or so didn't keep one in shape), she had so much potential destructive power to use. Lyra had no idea where that strength came from, but it was quite fearsome if it was ever unleashed.
"It's a matter of time." Lyra said, her voice neutral. "All of us will die and we can't stop it."
To her... well, Lyra found she wasn't so surprised when Yuuka burst out laughing, and simply awaited for her to speak.
"Man, you're quite the pessimist!" Yuuka chuckled. "You think that runt can kill us all? Trust me, you're overestimating her far, far too much!"
"I noticed that you're quite powerful, why don't you stop her?" Lyra asked, her gaze cold.
"Not my story." Yuuka shrugged. "Besides, if even the tiniest thing goes wrong, I'll be here to fix it all. Not much else to do, after all..."
Lyra gave Yuuka a weary look, and turned back to the battle. So far, it had been evenly matched, more or less, until the ghost was riddled with bullets. Then, the soul suddenly began dominating the match, unleashing wild swings and spells that had Rena running. She couldn't help but gasp in shock when Mima's star passed through Rena, thinking she might have hurt Christina somehow.
"She'll kill her..." Lyra muttered in fear.
"Everyone's gonna die, remember?" Yuuka replied teasingly. That earned a hateful glare from Lyra. "Look, trust me already! Mima's not aiming to kill!"
"And I'm supposed to trust the words of an insane woman who blew up our home?" Lyra asked.
"Well, trust the flowers then, they tell me it's all good!"
I have to subdue her somehow... Rena thought as she launched a fresh barrage of bullets at Mima, who, as usual, dodged them effortlessly. She's taking too much time...
When the last bullet whizzed harmlessly passed Mima, she pointed her staff at Rena, a small grin on her face. "Lunatic Luna!"
The moon that adorned Mima's staff glowed, but nothing happened. Rena anticipated some sort of large blast, but she was left hanging. Suspicious, she carefully watched the soul, who still had her staff pointed at Rena.
"Out of mana?" Rena asked mockingly. Mima only grinned wider in response.
It's not doing much... Rena thought, watching the staff glow. Just what is she...? Wait!
Rena realised that Mima wasn't pointing the staff at her, but rather, behind her. Craning her neck, she saw what looked like an orbital bombardment, heading straight for her. Several thin, white beams of light had shot from the sky (or possibly the moon, if the soul's moon motif and spell's general direction was any indication...) and were headed straight for Rena.
Rena had barely budged when a laser brushed by her side, and another grazed her face. Several strands of her hair had burned away as she barely avoided the brunt of the onslaught. A dozen more lasers followed, mostly grazing her, but one hit her left knee dead on, and she plummeted to the ground in a cry of pain.
Her leg felt like it had been chopped off, although she could see it was still attached to her body. Just a huge, red mark where the laser hit. that was all it left? It felt like she just took a shot of concentrated heat from the sun itself!
Forcing herself to concentrate, Rena barely avoided crashing into the ground by levitating. Her head nearly cracked against the ground regardless, but at least she was still in some position to fight.
Lowering herself to her feet, Rena collapsed, unable to use her left leg.
"Shit, why did she have to get a power up from the moon?" Rena growled, seeing the huge drawback to waiting until this particular night. With the ambient magic reaching its peak on this night, during a full moon... it was like fighting an immortal deity.
Mima, seeing that Rena was effectively crippled, saw her chance to quickly end this battle. Holding her staff almost like a rifle, Mima aimed her staff at Rena, a small flicker of light appearing in the gap of her staff's crescent moon.
"What you're about to experience is a great honour!" Mima called to Rena, who simply glared back at her. "This attack is reserved only for my greatest enemies, or those I feel like obliterating thoroughly! Guess which one you count as?"
From below, Marisa watched with starry eyes. "Holy freakin' crap, Mima's going to use it!"
"Er... use what?" Reimu asked nervously.
"Her greatest attack." Marisa whispered dramatically. "A spell so powerful, it's said that Yuuka copied it to create the Master Spark!"
Reimu glanced up at Mima, watching the spell charge. "Yuuka copied it? Says who?"
"Me." Marisa said, entranced. "In fact, I heard that it's so powerful, Mima defeated an ancestor of yours centuries ago with that very attack!"
"And I'm only just now learning of this spell?" Reimu asked dubiously. "It wasn't used on me beforehand, why?"
Marisa only shrugged. "Maybe she doesn't hate you that much, after all?"
Meanwhile, the flicker of light Marisa had been charging was now a large sphere of pale blue light, practically bursting with magical energy. Any rational person would point out that, surely, this was just fatal overkill? Mima would then laugh, then tell them to watch and see.
"Finishing strike: Lunar Spark!" Mima yelled, and her sphere of light erupted, changing to a blinding beam of (metaphorical) death.
"...Shit." Rena grunted as the laser threatened to engulf her. There was no way she was shrugging that off. Time to bring out her back-up.
Mima saw her spell swallow Rena and the surrounding ground around her. By the time the spell finished, Rena should be lying in a huge crater deeper than the mansion's basement.
"That. Was. Awesome!" Marisa practically squee'd in excited awe as the spell blasted Rena's position. "Holy crap I want that spell~!"
"I think there's a good reason Mima hasn't taught it to you yet..." Reimu muttered, and Genji nodded his agreement. It was bad enough when Marisa had to replicate that damn Master Spark, but Mima's version was simply overkill. Unless it was only this strong during a full moon...
The blast went on for about six seconds, and Reimu couldn't help but wince and feel sorry for its victim, who must be going through hell, having to take that...
However, when the spell finally began to die down, Reimu noticed a weird discolouring in the centre of the blast. At first, the shrine maiden thought it was just Rena, but then it became clear that that wasn't all.
Marisa seemed to notice it too, and she yelled to her master, "Miss Mima! She bombed past your spell!"
"What?" Mima's spell finally disappeared, revealing Rena cloaked in fire. The ground underneath her feet still remained, but the ground extending eight feet all around her position was just a smoldering crater.
"That again?" Mima snarled, ready for Rena to launch the fire at her.
Rena didn't disappoint. Extending her hand, the fire began to snake its way to Mima's position, who was now more than ready to counter the spell.
Reimu, Genji and Marisa's attention was focused on the fire, so they didn't see Rena's next move until it was too late.
Rena's hair dropped the hidden knife into her hand, and her gaze turned to the distracted miko.
It would be tricky, killing the shrine maiden when Rena was incapable of moving. She could try and fly over, but that would just make her intentions obvious... No, she would just have to take a chance here.
There wasn't much time, Mima had been shrouded in her fire by now, but the blue and green light erupting from within her flames indicated Mima used her own bomb spell to defend.
Rena carefully judged the distance between her and Reimu. The distance was quite significant, for a human. Rena would have a slightly easier time throwing the knife at such a distance, but if she missed...
There was no time to think! Her bomb spell had dispersed, and Mima had just turned her gaze to Rena. It was now or never!
Praying that her knife would strike home, Rena wound her arm back and threw the cursed weapon. It sailed through the air, arcing slightly.
"Reimu! Move!" Mima screamed, seeing what Rena had just done. Startled, Reimu turned her gaze back to Rena, seeing the knife flying straight to her face and froze.
Am I actually going to die here? Reimu thought, surprisingly calmly. Is this how it ends? Not the way I wanted to go...
"Lady Reimu!" Genji screamed, tilting his body, causing Reimu to fall from his shell and land on the ground with a sharp gasp of pain. Her orbs clattered to the ground harmlessly, her Gohei flying from her hand.
And now my butt hurts like hell. Thanks, Genji. Reimu thought with irritation. Slowly, she climbed to her feet, ignoring the pain in her behind to try and figure out if she had really avoided the knife.
There was a stinging sensation near her left shoulder, but no knife embedded there. A tiny cut in her clothing indicated that the knife must have just missed impaling her.
"Reimu! Did it hit you?" Marisa asked, and Reimu was taken aback by her worried tone.
"I-I don't think so.." she muttered, investigating the tear again. Only the tiniest of cuts, no blood even drawn yet.
Marisa breathed a sigh of relief, and faced Rena with a smug expression. "How d'you like that, ya sneaky bitch! You missed!"
Rena mustered all of her self control to keep from screaming. Why? Why had she failed? It wasn't fair! Rena had aimed to stop all the suffering and injustice in this godforsaken land! Why had these idiots been allowed to ruin everything and let it continue?
Mima descended to the ground, staring at Rena with an unreadable expression. Marisa could sense waves of anger emanating from her master, and the witch couldn't help but smirk slightly. Can't deny you like Reimu now, Miss Mima...
"Are you done with your cowardly tricks?" Mima asked in a neutral voice, her staff gripped tightly in her hand. "Because I'd quite like to skip to the part where I blow your very soul from existence."
"... Try it." Rena growled, struggling to stand with her damaged leg. "You'll only hurt my sister by doing it. And if there's one thing I absolutely won't allow, it's for someone like you to harm Christina!"
Mima glared at the long-haired Youkai, thoughts whizzing through her head. It felt strange, getting so defensive over Reimu. there was a time when she wouldn't have bothered even rescuing the girl, all too happy to leave her to whatever fate befell her. Then Marisa took a shining to her, even if her tsundere little apprentice couldn't truly admit it. And Mima herself began to rediscover the feeling of... friendship, that she once held with the Hakurei Family. Although, she couldn't admit that to herself until she went to rescue Reimu.
Mima was only thankful the knife had missed Reimu. If it had struck, Mima would have needed to resort to an unfavourable solution to save her, and Mima sure as hell didn't want to leave Marisa...
"Hmph... Rena, what was the reason you wanted to kill everyone for?" Mima asked.
"To erase all the bullshit this place offers." Rena replied coldly. "No one can truly be happy here, so why suffer a mediocre life for nothing?"
Mima seemed lost in thought for a while, her eyes closed. Rena watched her closely, willing her leg to begin working properly.
"You are the most ill-informed being I've ever come across." Mima finally said. "You act as if Gensokyo is gripped by prejudice and hatred. We have long since moved forward."
"Don't give me that!" Rena spat. "I've seen it for myself, every time I awake. The same persecution, the hatred... it's never dwindled."
"Because you enforce the very thing you hate so much." Mima countered, and Rena froze in shock. "I'm guessing that you visit one particular place every time you wake up, right? It wouldn't happen to be a place tied very deeply to you, would it?"
Reimu, ignoring the irritating scratch on her shoulder, recalled Rena's story once again. If Mima was right in her (surprisingly accurate) assumptions, then Rena constantly visited that village that hated her and Christina so much... what else did she do there?
"...So what if I do?" Rena asked quietly. "I check other villages too. It's all the same."
"Liar."
Rena glared at Mima with all the hatred she could muster. Mima returned the look with a cold, even gaze of her own. "It's obvious that you're too deeply attached to your past. you look for anything that even remotely resembles prejudice and count that as an 'injustice', correct?"
"What would you know?" Rena roared, losing her temper. "I lived and died through the human's hatred! Why should they continue to live, while I... I..."
"I know that things have changed." Mima replied coolly. "humans and youkai live side by side these days. Well, there's still the feral guys and the occasional hater, but we've certainly moved on from before."
Marisa stepped next to her master with a smug expression on her face. "Miss Mima's right! If we all hated each other, I wouldn't be Miss Mima's apprentice!"
"And I wouldn't be Lady Reimu's loyal... uh, chauffer..." Genji piped up, realising as he did that he had no official title, and made a mental note to rectify that later.
"And I may be a youkai exterminator, but I still enjoy having some sake with 'em every once in a while." Reimu added, placing a hand to her irritated shoulder. It was really bugging her now. "Hell, I don't even exterminate anyone, all the misbehaving youkai were just bored out their minds!"
Rena's eyes darted to each of her opponents, contemplating their words. She couldn't accept what they said so easily, not after what she had witnessed... No, it had to be a trick.
And yet, Rena simply couldn't detect a lie in their words. It infuriated her, to have these idiots spout nonsesne about how wrong she was! Rena visited that village many times over the years. Always, she heard the hushed whispers, the fearful glances... things were no different to how they where over two hundred years ago.
"Now, you have one chance to simply stop here." Mima continued. "Give up, and we'll be a tad more lenient with your punishment. Otherwise, you'll wish you could die when we're through with you."
"Bit late for that..." Reimu muttered.
"...Tch. Don't think I'll let you win with mere words." Rena growled. Forcing herself to stand upright, she faced her opponents. "What I've seen and what you claim are two different things, and I think I trust myself a little more!"
Mima simply smirked at Rena. "Very well."
"Oh! Miss Mima, can I fight now? I haven't gotten to do anything yet!" Marisa begged like a child wanting a toy from a shop, and Reimu nearly laughed at the image. Unfortunately, her shoulder was proving to be quite the attention seeking distraction.
Removing her hand, Reimu noticed how sticky it felt, and saw a dab of blood over her palm.
Frowning in confusion, she gingerly felt her shoulder again, aware that her miniscule cut was bleeding.
"... Oh, crap." Reimu muttered, mild panic setting in. The blade had cut her after all? Even a tiny cut like this was going to prove fatal eventually...
Mima, after grudgingly letting Marisa have her little battle with Rena, floated by Reimu's side. "Might as well put your orbs away, Hakurei. I can't see that brat lasting much longer... Something wrong?"
"... Most likely." Reimu replied grimly, and Mima noticed the blood on Reimu's shoulder. If Mima had a heart, it would have skipped a beat.
"She hit you?" Mima gasped.
"She WHAT!" Genji turned his attention to Reimu, a horrified look on his ancient face. "Lady Reimu, I thought it missed! Don't tell me I failed to save you?"
"Hey, it didn't hit my face... that's something." Reimu weakly reassured the old turtle. Mima reached out, moving Reimu's hand away from her wound.
The cut had widened slightly, and blood slowly trickled out. At this rate, Reimu would probably die... sometime next week, but Mima didn't doubt that the wound could open even more. This was pretty bad, Mima had to admit.
"... Damn, what a mess." Mima sighed.
Reimu glanced at her wound. "Really? Seems clean enough."
Mima gave Reimu a slap over the head for her comment, and faced Rena, who had already taken to the skies with Marisa for their fight. It was clear that Rena's injured leg hampered her performance even there, but she fought back furiously anyway. She was using that 'Storm of Hatred' spell, forcing Marisa to fight defensively for now.
"...Like hell I'm letting her win..." Mima growled.
Reimu gave Mima a curious look. "Huh, you sound almost concerned about me."
"Is this really the time for your observations?" Mima grumbled.
"Well, I don't think I've got much longer."
"Neither has anyone else, so let's think of a solution, okay?" Mima replied, even though she already had one. Even if the soul would much rather find an alternative.
Guess this was what that foreboding feeling was... Mima realised with a sigh. Up above, Marisa had began dodging repeated blastings of 'Sweet Vengeance', the spell that had pierced her shoulder last night.
And could I really leave Marisa alone, even if it's for a little while? Mima wondered. When the two had first met, Marisa was alone and far more volatile, snapping at every little thing. Since Mima took the young witch under her wing, she had calmed down considerably (not that anyone would agree, since she was still liable to blow something up at any given moment) and harboured deep respect for Mima. How would Marisa react if she were to disappear?
"Get off me."
"Nah."
"Get off. Now."
"...Nah."
Lyra had found herself in quite a predicament. Watching the battle from afar, she saw the soul youkai blast the utter hell out of Rena, and had moved to intervene before that psycho killed Christina, but Yuuka had then promptly tripped the worried maid, and planted herself on Lyra's back, refusing to budge.
"If you don't move, I will make sure that you're death would frighten even the devil." Lyra growled, not exactly used to making death threats, especially when she was pinned to the ground.
"Frighten me? Oh-ho, this I gotta see!" Yuuka giggled, and Lyra tried to squirm free and kick her stupid green head in.
As useless as it was, Lyra tried to persuade the crazy woman to get the hell off. "Look, if I don't get there soon, that intruder really will kill my mistress! Please, just move!"
Yuuka silently watched the ongoing battle for a few moments. Even from quite a distance away, Yuuka noticed Mima's worried demeanour over the shrine maiden, apparently investigating a wound she received.
"Huh... Guess I miscalculated." Yuuka muttered thoughtfully.
"What? Don't tell me they really killed-" Lyra began in a panic, but was silenced by a tap on the head with Lyra's umbrella.
"Not that... But Hakurei might die soon."
"..That's... not a whole lot better." Lyra muttered. "Um, please move now, I can't feel my chest."
"I can feel it for you, if you like?" Yuuka offered with a wide grin, and chuckled at Lyra's furious attempts to squirm free.
Still, if Mima doesn't do something, we might actually have a problem... Yuuka thought, turning her attention back to the ghost, who seemed to be contemplating her actions. As wild and screwy as Yuuka might be, she still had enough sense to tell how a person was feeling, or what they were thinking, and it looked like Mima was seriously considering saving the shrine maiden.
"Good news! No one's gonna die." Yuuka cheered, turning her attention back to Lyra, who seemed to be having some difficulty with breathing. "Hey, uh... maid person?"
A small groan was the reply, and Yuuka immediately hopped to her feet.
"Silly woman, you should've said if I was too heavy!" Yuuka scolded lightly. "I could've suffocated you, ya know!"
I wonder if I've died already, and this is my hell? Lyra wondered as her pained ribs and back were relieved of the pressure.
Barely dodging another one of those annoying lasers, Marisa shouted at Rena, "Wanna stop spamming that? I've got a better laser to show off!"
"I'll stop when you take the goddamn hit!" Rena roared back, firing yet another 'Vengeance' laser.
Rena could feel her energy depleting fast, and cursed her own stupidity. Why did she let those two live the previous night? Why was she so confident that she could win? So many years of harboured hate and sorrow, wasted on her choice to fight these irritating freaks on a night she really, really couldn't afford to mess up.
Tired with constant dodging, Marisa decided to throw caution to the wind and launch her own offensive. So what if she took a hit? Marisa could take it and deal the hurt back double - no, triple - the amount she recieved.
With two spell cards clutched in her hand, Marisa raised them to the sky as she steered her broom away from Rena's barrage of lasers.
"Starlight Duster, Master Spark!" Marisa yelled, and hundreds of tiny, pink stars surrounded Marisa, obscuring her from view. The stars helped to block the lasers still coming for her, and when they all lunged at Rena, it gave Marisa plenty of time to aim her Master Spark at a frantically dodging Rena. To the witch's annoyance, Rena had dodged each and every star so far, but it was obvious that she was pushing her limits, and her hair wasn't doing any dodging of its own, which Marisa took to mean she was on her last legs.
With a small, explosive sound, Marisa's second spell card fired the Master Spark. Rena saw it coming and saw she had no way to defend. She had used up her Bomb spells. With nothing left to do, she simply curled up into a ball and tried to withstand the blast.
When the spell washed over her, Rena realised that she was screwed now. Pain coursed through her entire, battered body, and she collided with the ground shortly after, stunned from the impact.
She was knocked several feet away from Lyra and Yuuka's location. She stared blankly at Lyra's horrified expression and Yuuka's irritating smirk.
It's not fair... I did no wrong. Why did I lose? Rena wondered, feeling her consciousness slipping. All I wanted to do was avenge my sister...
Is that entirely accurate? A familiar voice echoed in her head, and Rena's eyes widened momentarily, before fluttering shut.
"R-Rena?" Lyra muttered in shock, seeing the defeated girl lying before her. Even if she hated this side of her mistress so much, she was still Christina somewhere inside, and seeing her like this broke her heart. It made her feel like she failed to protect her most beloved person.
"Man, she took a beating." Yuuka commented, and anger flared in Lyra as she stumbled to Rena's side.
"If you hadn't kept me here, she wouldn't have taking that beating!" Lyra snapped.
Yuuka shook her head with an amused smile. "Yeah, she would've. The only difference is, you would have gotten your ass kicked alongside her."
"Hey~! She down for the count?" Marisa's voice called from above. Slowly descending from the sky, Marisa hopped off her broom, staring at Rena's unconscious form. "Huh... kinda disappointing. I wanted to last at least as long as Miss Mima..."
Lyra moved herself between Rena and Marisa, arms outstretched. "You've done enough, intruder. I won't allow you to hurt her any more."
Marisa scowled, then her expression brightened. "Fine, then we'll fight instead!"
"That won't do, Kleptosame." Yuuka sighed wistfully, as if fondly remembering good times. "I already fought her to her last life, she can't continue any further."
"...Has she been talking like that ever since she got here?" Marisa asked, and Lyra gave a small nod. It seemed that this witch had suffered her nonsensical words at some point, too.
Marisa huffed, looking like a spoiled child being denied her whims. "Well, great, so I don't have any opponents left to fight?"
"None here, anyway..." Yuuka muttered in mysterious voice, which Marisa ignored. She had the sense not to try and make any sense of Yuuka's words. Since when did they ever mean anything?
"Ah, I see you finished her!" Mima's voice came from several feet away. Genji, carrying the injured Reimu, followed Mima as they made their way to the small gathering.
Reimu saw Lyra standing protectively over Rena's unconscious body, and felt some small, insignificant satisfaction that Lyra's obvious lies from earlier were exposed. Unfortunately, that small, insiginificant satisfaction was drowned by thoughts of her imminent death, as her wound continued to spill blood.
Lyra glared at them as they approached, and noticed Reimu's injury. Her gaze softened somewhat. "...Rena succeeded, then?"
"Looks like it." Reimu sighed.
"...My apologies." Lyra said, knowing how little her sincere words meant.
"Eh? Reimu's hit?" Marisa said in confusion, and studied Reimu's wound herself. "What the hell? Reimu, don't tell me you're gonna die?"
Reimu blinked at Marisa in surprise. "Wait, you're concerned too? I wasn't aware you liked me that much."
"I, well... er..." Marisa mumbled, averting her gaze. Mima sighed, and leaned close to Marisa, whispering in her ear, "Here's my final lesson: It's okay to feel concerned about your friends and/or love interests."
Marisa flinched away from Mima as she'd just shocked her. "L-love interest? Miss Mima, I don't love her! I-I swear!"
"Your red face says otherwise." Genji pointed out, and immediately shrank away when Marisa raised her broom, glaring in his general direction.
Reimu herself looked somewhat embarrassed, and busied herself looking at the night sky, wondering just how long it would be until the Hakurei Barrier began to collapse as her life ebbed away.
However, Marisa realised exactly what Mima had said, and gave her a worried, suspicious look. "Wait, 'final' lesson? What d'you mean by that?"
"It means..." Mima sighed, glancing from Marisa to Reimu. "That I'll need to do something about this."
Marisa gave her master a confused look, and Mima sighed. "Basically, I'll be going away."
"Eh? How can that possibly help?" Marisa yelped. "Miss Mima, don't go! At least, not without me!"
"It's not a place you can follow me too." Mima answered sadly. With a small flash of light, Mima's staff appeared in her hand. "I won't be needing this, either, so I might as well pass it on."
Marisa gazed at the staff in surprise. "B-but you said... that I couldn't receive that until I-"
"You graduated long ago." Mima shrugged. "... I just didn't want you to leave me so quickly."
D-do they even remember us? Lyra wondered as she watched the scene before her unfold.
Marisa gazed at the staff a while longer, stunned. It was too sudden for her. Marisa didn't want to 'graduate' if it meant her master disappearing for whatever reason!
"Miss Mima... I-I wouldn't leave you!" The young witch said pleadingly. "Sure, I'm awesome and stuff, but I don't think I'm better than you yet!"
Mima smiled slightly at her words. "Come on now, I can't hold your hand forever. Even if you borrowed half your move list, you're still an accomplished magician, and pretty damn strong for a human. Just take the damn staff."
With that, Mima thrust her weapon into Marisa's hands, where it began to glow a light violet colour.
"W-what's going on?" Marisa asked.
"It's just reforming to your preference." Mima explained. "That's one of the cool things about it; it changes to suit its owner's style.
The staff began to shrink in Marisa's hands, gradually becoming smaller and smaller until it could fit in the palm of her hand, and its shape changed. When the light faded, everyone present was looking at an eight-sided, wooden object with an octagonical hole in the centre.
"Hm? A Hakkero? Interesting." Mima commented.
Marisa stared at the object in her hand, feeling power pulsing within her weapon. In her mind, she could envision pointing it to the sky, muttering the words of a spell, and a laser shooting straight into the stratosphere.
"It works... like some sort of focus point..." Marisa muttered.
"Congrats, you obtained the 'Tool of Ultimate Destruction'!" Yuuka cheered.
"Gods, save us..." Genji muttered.
"So yeah, about the cursed wound that's killing me as we speak..." Reimu said, hoping to attract some attention back to her problem, and find out just what Mima's solution is.
Mima placed her hand on Marisa's shoulder, and began to guide her away. "In a minute, 'kay? Just got something really important to say to my beloved apprentice!"
Reimu, Marisa and Lyra stared at the two in disbelief as Mima led them out of earshot and began whispering in her ear. This had better be something important... Reimu thought with more than a little irritation. I feel like my life isn't entirely significant at the moment...
The two returned quickly, with Marisa looking somewhat happier, but still pretty upset about her master leaving.
"Okay, Hakurei, here's the deal." Mima said. "...I have to trasfer my existence unto you."
"...Come again?" Reimu said, bewildered.
"I counteract the 'curse of death' with the 'gift of life'." Mima explained. "Or something like that. You'd better appreciate this, because I'd normally not bother my ass helping you."
Reimu regarded the soul for a moment, feeling surprise and gratitude. She hadn't expected Mima to ever save her life. Then again, since Reimu's life was all that was keeping the Barrier around Gensokyo, perhaps it was in Mima's best interests.
"Just do me one favour." Mima whispered, and Reimu leaned forward to hear. "Make sure Marisa's all right. At least, once in a while, okay?"
Reimu was pretty confused by the request, but she nodded regardless. It was something she could live with, after all.
Mima gave the wound another look, and saw that her arm and side was coated with blood, down to her hip. It wouldn't be long before the blood loss became a serious problem.
"Not another moment to waste then." Mima said, and placed her hands on either side of Reimu's face, leaning in uncomfortably close. "Watch closely, Marisa!"
"Sh-shut up!" Marisa yelled back.
Reimu herself, looked somewhat embarrassed. "Uh, Mima? What exactly are you-"
Before she could finish, Mima suddenly leaned forward, and Reimu thought their lips met. Before Reimu could beat her spirit back into flesh for such an action, Mima passed right through her, seemingly dissolving before her eyes.
Rubbing her lips, Reimu gave everyone a bewildered look. "Uh... did she really try to...?"
"I sure hope not..." Genji and Marisa growled in unison.
"I do." Yuuka added, possibly just to annoy the witch and the turtle.
"...I'm taking Rena back to what's left of our home." Lyra sighed, seeing that she was essentially forgotten.
A flash of pain surged through Reimu's shoulder, and she yelped, clutching her shoulder. Marisa instantly rushed forward, gripping her good shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"
Looking at the wound through Reimu's fingers, Marisa saw the blood beginning to stop its flow. After a moment, it stopped completely, and the cut began to close.
"... She did it." Marisa sighed, her eyes beginning to water. "She saved your life, Reimu."
"...Yeah." Reimu smiled weakly at Marisa. "Guess I gotta repay her somehow."
Yuuka cleared her throat audibly, gaining everyone's attention.
"Well, now that my vast, meaninful input of this incident is at a close, I must be on my way." Yuuka said, beginning to walk away. "May we meet again in another stage, my eternal rivals!"
With out a goodbye reply, Yuuka walked off into the distance.
"...Think she's gonna walk over the mountains?" Marisa asked.
"Who cares?" Reimu shrugged, and made a disgusted face. "Ugh. Sorry Lyra, this dress is ruined."
"...It doesn't matter." Lyra replied, feeling infinitely more sane and normal without Yuuka around. She carefully hoisted Rena into her arms. "You are welcome to recuperate at our home for now, Miss Hakurei... uh, Miss Kleptosami, was it?"
"Eh? It's Kirisame! Where'd you get Kle-ah..." Marisa remembered Yuuka calling her that that nickname. "Well, thanks, I guess."
"I don't get a menion?" Genji asked in irritation. "Honestly... Just 'cause I'm old doesn't mean I'm not important enough to even be asked a simple question. Why do I even bother tagging along, anyway?"
Author's Note:
I hope that battle was satisfying enough. I had to downplay it from my original idea (Rena VS Reimu, Mima, Marisa AND Yuuka? Overpowered, much?) and have Rena at a far more reasonable level of strength. Perhaps she wouldn't do too badly against 'normal' Mima? Speaking of Mima, I hope her solution doesn't come across as a huge ass pull. And I know Marisa is supposed to get that Hakkero from Rinnosuke... But I feel obtaining it this way helps add an extra reason she treats it so well.
Would've had this out a few days ago, but I had no internet connection. Bit of a recurring problem, that. Oh, and that problem that didn't allow me to update for god knows how long... And I only just came across the solution . Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter.