"Jeez, do you really think that we'll be able to get any good scans of magic from this battle?" Chiyuri asked of Yumemi, the blonde teenage dubious of what useful data they can get from the battle that will start in any second. "I mean, one of them isn't going to use magic. And the other is a poltergeist, so we don't know what more data we can collect from her. Don't even know if the battle will be interesting... The battle will probably just be won by the ghost in an instant."
"Your theory may be true; we may not be able to get much data of magic from this battle, but that is part of the intention." Yumeko responded, a sure smile on her face. Chiyuri raised an eyebrow at the professor, not even needing to ask her question to get the answer in response. "You see, even though everyone that we have managed to get here possess some tremendous magical powers, those two are the least likely to give us any data we need. The so-called scientist may possess magic power that could allow her to do more than hold her own against Mima, she is far too reluctant to ever use it. As for the poltergeist? She seems more reliant on using telekinesis and her own little phantoms than using the full power that she has, if she is even aware of such power. This was intended to waste as little research as possible."
"Oh, I get it." Chiyuri said, finally catching up on the red-haired woman's wavelength. "You purposely did this because even though we could have an abundant harvest of magic data with the others, those two will give us little results no matter who you pit them against. You're letting the strong ones fight each other so the weak ones won't hinder our collection."
"Indeed~! That is why you're my top student, Chiyuri, you can actually catch on to what I'm thinking about." Yumemi said, looking at the blonde happily. Yumemi then suddenly looked at the amount of magic data that they have collected throughout the day, her face becoming more stern. She walked towards the computer screen and began tapping away at the keyboard, the screen changing to show all of the magic data that has been collected throughout the voyage. "However, I hope that this battle between them can end quickly, and that Mima picks someone strong who will supply us with enough data of magical power. We have to return home in a few hours at the least with everything we've obtained if we desire for the countless professors to listen to all our research, and sadly we don't have our full quota of data yet."
"W-well there were many places that we could have picked up a ton more magic data in the past, if our Strawberry Birds didn't have those things happen to them." Chiyuri said, trying to get Yumemi out of her little angry mood. "There was that large mansion, for example. We kept on picking up tremendous signals of power there, but every time we got a Strawberry Bird to come close, they would either suddenly warp away from it or get destroyed by a bunch of throwing knives. Or that bamboo forest, where the Birds would either get lost or burned by the phoenix lady by accident. Or-."
"Enough, I get it, Chiyuri." Yumemi said to the student, tapping down on the same keyboard as earlier to change the screen back to the amount of magic data collected that day. "We've had mishaps in the past, but we are coming close to finally achieving our goals. Though, if God is truly smiling down on us, that poltergeist will get Rikako to finally use her magic."
Kana floated into the air, letting out a chorus of high-pitched laughs that emitted from her simultaneously; a common poltergeist trick that she used to use in the days when she was feared by those she haunted. Kana raised her arms, multiple formless phantoms appearing around her as she summoned them into existence, eyes and mouths that were as black as darkness appearing on their faces.
"Oh Rikako~, it's time to play~!" Kana said, still using the legion of high-pitched voices that she used for her laugh.
Rikako didn't know if Kana was trying to scare her or if it was just something she was doing out of excitement, but in the end she honestly didn't care. It was for the sake of science that she was in these weird ruins in the first place, and it is that same reason that was staying in there. The scientist activated her jetpack, flying up in the air and going on a somewhat even level with Kana.
"Let's just get this over with." Rikako said simply.
Kana laughed again, the legion of voices sounding more mad than before. The poltergeist shot her arm towards the scientist, the many phantoms forming around her flying to the purple-haired woman. Rikako reached into her lab coat, pulling out a little green sphere. The woman pressed a button that was in the orb before throwing it towards the oncoming crowd of phantoms. The orb split into four duplicates of itself that were of the exact same size, spinning around in a circle at speeds that made them look like illusions to the naked eye of most humans. The spinning orbs headed towards the phantoms, knocking them away as they head towards Kana, the ghost not afraid of the attack.
"So what if those hurt the phantoms? It's not like they are real ghosts." Kana said in her supernatural voice, not even making an effort to get out of the way of the scientist's attack, as she was absolutely certain that she would remain unscathed from it. "Your balls will just pass through me, I have nothing to-."
There was suddenly a sensation in Kana's gut, a sensation that she hasn't felt in more years than she can count. It was a feeling that she never liked, and even to this day where she has almost forgotten about it entirely, she still hated it with a passion. And because of how long it has been since she last felt it, before she had even died, the sensation came back to her with more force or power than ever before. It had burned more than a sting from a hornet.
It was pain. After so many decades of no longer feeling pain as she transcended the world of mortals, the world of physical existence, she had felt pain again for the first time in forever. She could only remember the sensation because everyone around her would feel it from time to time, if it weren't for that then she would have completely forgotten about the concept of pain.
It Kana a while to fully process the returning sensation as the green orb continued to push into her spectral stomach. And the longer it took her recognise what she was feeling, the worse the sensation had became.
And as Kana finally processed the pain she was feeling, she let out a wailing scream. It was blood-curdling in its might; it sounded like a mixture of a human scream and something that was of the ghostly realm completely. The sound had broke through the air, sounding louder than the crash of thunder. Even from the distance that she was from the poltergeist, Rikako still had to cover her ears as it felt like the unholy sound was going to turn her deaf. It even sounded loud to Reimu, Genji, Marisa, Mima, Ellen, Sokrates and Kotohime, though none of them had to cover their ears.
The spinning spheres attack had vanished, though that didn't stop the sensation of pain that throbbed within the poltergeist's stomach, a sensation that she could never endure in the first place. Kana had seemingly fell on her back, still remaining in the air because of her transcendence of physical laws, clutching her belly as it continued to feel like a cold knife was being dug deep into it.
As the horrific sensation began to leave Kana, the poltergeist began to ceased her inhuman shriek. The ghost continued to lay on the air, taking in deep breaths as she was recovering from the sensation that had almost felt traumatic in its intensity. A cold sweat was actually coming from Kana's forehead, the poltergeist beginning to float back up until she was floating in the air correctly. The poltergeist immediately began glare at Rikako, the magician-turned scientist feeling like she may have lost a few brain cells from the loud roar that Kana had let loose.
"You!" Kana snapped at Rikako, the scientist glaring back at her for that loud scream that she unleashed out of the blue. "I didn't believe you to be anything more than something to paly with; just a toy made for my amusement. But now that I know that you can... hurt me, I will not toy with you anymore. How could you even hurt me when no one else in the past could?"
"It's simple, really." Rikako answered. Kana took the moment to create more phantoms, the poltergeist forming them together into one ginormous phantom, one that Kana had sent straight towards Rikako. The scientist was well aware of the giant phantom that Kana had sent towards her, the purple-haired scientist pulling out a cylinder tube from her lab coat, pointing it towards the giant phantom, which was slightly slower than the regular phantoms that Kana had conjured. "You see, there are actually some special metals in Gensokyo that can touch and even hurt ghosts,"
Rikako clicked a button on the tube, a small rocket shooting out of the end facing towards the phantom, creating a massive explosion that was like that of a firework.
"These metals are rare and were a nightmare to obtain, but I still manged to get my hands on them." Rikako continued. There was smoke coming out from the side of the cylinder that shot out the rocket, the scientist putting the tool back into her coat. Rikako then suddenly reached deeper into her coat and a sound like that of a button being pressed was heard from within. The same spinning spheres that surrounded her during the fight against Yumemi's creations had returned and did the same thing again, though this time they weren't firing danmaku. For now, at least. "And it doesn't change that danmaku, whenever it's real or artificial, can still hurt a ghost nonetheless."
"I see, so I just have to avoid whatever you shoot towards me." Kana said, the poltergeist smirking. "Whatever, as long as I don't have to feel pain again, I don't care what it is."
A giant frenzy of formless phantoms suddenly emerged from Kana's spectral form, the creatures flying towards Rikako. The scientist didn't so much as blink and eye as she had somehow commanded the spinning orbs to begin firing danmaku, the plain white bullets firing in an uninteresting, yet effective pattern that managed to destroy the phantoms. It seemed like all that was needed was just one simple bullet to defeat each of them.
It was then that Rikako suddenly felt a completely supernatural presence behind her, the scientist turned around (and manoeuvre more easily said then done, since she was relying on a jetpack to fly, because of her instance on not using magic), seeing Kana float behind her with a stop sign in her hands, obviously being used as a weapon. Kana swung the stop sign hard on Rikako's head, the girl managing to shrug off the attack and its damage, as, despite how reluctant she was to admit it, she was still a magician, and thus her physical capabilities were far above that of other humans.
Nevertheless, the hard slam had hurt. However Rikako was given little time to rub her head to make it feel better as she was suddenly pushed towards the floor by an invisible force. It wasn't hard to tell that Kana was using her telekinesis to push the scientist without touching her.
Luckily for Rikako, even though Kana was using telekinesis to push towards the floor, she wasn't using that same power to keep a hold on her limbs, meaning she could still move them. In other words, she could still use the weapons she had invented.
Rikako reached into her lab coat and took out the cylinder tube, pressing on the same button from earlier, rockets shooting out of the cylinder towards the poltergeist. Kana's eyes widened as she saw the rocket shoot towards her at high speeds. Knowing that those rockets could actually give her the horrific and ultimately undesirable sensation of pain, the blonde-haired girl avoided the rocket, the fire that was moving the projectile grazing against her cheek.
Kana let out a hiss with the myriad of voices that she was using, almost going back into the pseudo-demonic voice she was using when she was screaming, the ghost putting her hand against her cheek. Kana glared at Rikako as the scientist shot more rockets towards her, this time the poltergeist dodged the rockets and even used her telekinesis to flip some of the rockets to shoot back towards Rikako.
Rikako didn't make even a scream, nor did she widen her eyes. Rikako kept a poker face as she threw wrenches and bolts at the rockets, the weapons exploding. "Do what you want, I know that you have a immense aversion for pain." Rikako said as she tried to see Kana, the poltergeist seemingly hiding behind a cloud of smoke. "I just have to hurt you enough and you will have no choice but to let me win. Even those that are immortal or dead can still lose if they can no longer tolerate the pain."
"Well then, you're just going to have to hit the right one then." Kana responded, her voice sounding even more like a unison than before, like the number of voices has doubled. The smoke cleared, showing two Kanas, the two ghosts were smiling at the purple-haired scientist. "One of us is the real one, the other is a fake. You can't hurt the fake one, the fake is made of phantoms. Are you ready to give up now, Rikako~?"
"No, I won't give up, not if the possible reward is learning of more science." Rikako responded, the danmaku-shooting orbs still spinning around her at extremely fast speeds, the scientist still holding her cylinder as it still had a few rockets in it - though it was questionable if it would be a good decision to use it, as Kana could just make the rockets shoot back towards her - a look of determination on her face. "And stop using that stupid voice; it's not intimidating, just annoying."
"Oh fine then, Killjoy." The two Kanas responded angrily at the same time, now using a regular voice, there arms crossed over their respective spectral chests.
"Huh, this battle is taking longer and being more exciting than I thought." Chiyuri commented as she watched the battle, reaching for some of the strawberries in the latest bowl that Yumemi got Ruukoto to bring. Luckily the professor wasn't feeling stingy with her favourite food, so Chiyuri wasn't hit in the head by Yumemi. "I must admit... I know you're a genius, but this is a different kind that I didn't expect from you."
"Honestly, even I was surprised by this outcome." Yumemi admitted, also eating some of the strawberries, the redhead shrugging nonchalantly at the battle as Rikako was avoiding the two poltergeists as they tried to hit her with stop signs that they were wielding. "Whatever, we're not getting much magic data anyways. The battle's not all that interesting anyways."
"It could always be more boring." Chiyuri said.
"True, true." Yumemi said, shoving a strawberry into her mouth. "But it would still be better if it was more exciting."
Sweat was falling down from Rikako's forehead to the rest of her face as she was avoiding the two poltergeists that were trying to hit her with outside world items, the scientist having set her danmaku orbs to fire all around her in rapid speed and high density. It was enough to keep the two Kanas and their agliophobia away from her as she tried to think of a way to defeat them. The scientist suddenly felt an invisible force touch her from all around, the girl being pulled out of her safety ring of danmaku-shooting inventions.
"Heeheeheeee~." One of the Kanas giggled as she flew in front of Rikako, looking incredibly giddy. "Sorry~, looks like I win this~."
"Not just yet, you don't." Rikako said, a smirk appearing on her face. "Didn't you know that the Defence Orbs are programmed to surrounded and protect me whenever they are on?"
The Kana in front of Rikako raised an eyebrow, realising what the scientist said at too late of a time as the spinning orbs suddenly surrounded Rikako again, the danmaku that they were shooting in rapid fire hitting the poltergeist. The Kana let out a scream of pain, though it wasn't something otherworldly, like the scream that Kana made when Rikako hit her with her other mass of spinning orbs. It was at that moment that a idea struck Rikako. Though, that wasn't important as the Kana in front of her went completely white, from top to bottom, even her clothes turned a white colour.
The Kana in front of Rikako burst apart into multiple phantoms, being the fake Kana. Rikako could no longer feel the psychic hold around her, the scientist able to turn around and look at the real Kana, the real poltergeist still holding her stop sign.
"So, you beaten the fake me." Kana commented, the spectral being not looking disappointed or angry in the slightest. Instead, a little grin grew on her face. "No matter, I can just create more."
Indeed, more phantoms suddenly appeared around Kana, the formless creatures forming together until there were a total of five Kanas, which was enough to make Rikako drop her jaw incredulously. However, Rikako still remembered about her mighty invention. As the poltergeists began to shoot fireballs of blue flame towards her, Rikako dodged the attacks and charged up her own, the magician-turned-scientist taking out and throwing another set of four green spheres that grew in size as they entered the air, spinning around at intense speeds, though they didn't fire any danmaku.
Nevertheless, they had hit away the danmaku that went in their way, hitting and destroying the four fake Kanas. Kana, the real one, had manged to dodge the attack before it disappeared, albeit just barely. Before the poltergeist could think of using her telekinesis, or any else of that sort, Rikako began to shoot rockets at her.
Even though Kana had no physical heart, being an entity of spiritual energy and ectoplasm, she did feel something of similar nature leap in her throat. The ghost began to fly away from the rockets, knowing that they would be able to hurt her. She just really couldn't handle pain, it was a sensation that she hated above anything else in Creation.
Kana now felt like the tables were turned on her, the poltergeist flying through the air faster than she has ever done before, seeing fireworks explode near her as Rikako's attack had constantly missed her.
Eventually the rockets had stopped, Kana herself had stopped and turned around, looking at Rikako as she pressed the button that fired rockets out of the cylinder, though nothing was coming out of it. Rikako was obviously angered as the weapon was no longer working, all out of ammo, the self-proclaimed scientist even muttering a few swears under her breath.
Kana began to laugh at Rikako, the poltergeist seemingly sitting on the air as she pointed at the angry scientist, her hand on her stomach as she laughed. At least that wasn't a part of the pain that she hated; pain that she referred to as real pain. Rikako, angered by the ghost, threw the cylinder at Kana, the spirit noticing the oncoming invention. Kana almost prepared for the pain that she wouldn't be able to take, but the metal cylinder passed right through her, like most things in the outside world had.
Kana turned around and looked at the cylinder as it fell towards the floor, the cylinder vanishing from her sight before it could hit the metal floor, as she couldn't see that far. The young-looking ghost heard some sort of sound of rushing through the air. Kana looked behind her, seeing the same green sphere circle attack.
Kana didn't have time to react, getting hit in the cheek by one of the spinning spheres. Kana let out another unearthly roar of pain, clutching her cheek with both of her hands as she screamed from the immense pain.
Once again, the wailing was loud and almost made Rikako's ears bleed, the scientist lucky that the lenses of her glasses weren't breaking apart from Kanas screams.
All sound had ceased to some high-pitched ringing that Rikako was hearing within her head, the woman keeping her hands over her ears. It was pointless, she could still hear only the deafening ring, she couldn't hear anything related to the world around her. Rikako's eyes were closed, the scientist slowly opening her eyes, seeing that Kana was standing on the air, her hands still on her cheek, seemingly taking deep breaths, even though she didn't need to breath, as she is a poltergeist and is already dead, thus not needing the necessities required for living.
Rikako could feel her hearing slowly return, the magician-turned-scientist seeing that her main spinning orbs surrounding her, spinning around yet not firing out their danmaku. Rikako noticed her chance, she could win this battle by using Kana's weakness towards pain.
The scientist wasted no time in flying towards the poltergeist, seemingly unaware of all that was going around her. Rikako knew that, even though ghosts and other creatures of the dead can't be injured like those of the mortal realm, they can still be defeated because of their finite energy and durability of pain. And with Kana being absolutely unable to handle pain, all that Rikako has to do is hit her with full force, and the victory is in her hands.
As Rikako came near to Kana, the spinning orbs around her were suddenly struck by blue fireballs, the intentions being greatly damaged and falling to the floor as they could no longer work.
Rikako looked down as the orbs fell to the floor, eventually going too far from her to see them, though she could still hear the sound of them breaking into pieces as they made impact with the ground, the scientist cringing at the sound of metal breaking apart in an instant; of such a brilliant and useful invention being reduced to nothing in an instant.
Rikako looked up at Kana, the poltergeist seemingly having recovered from the pain. Kana was standing up on the air, the blonde ghost smiling; a smirk, she was seemingly faking her recovery. Rikako reached for the inside of her lab coat, however a cold hand grabbed hold of her wrist; Kana's hand.
"You won't be using your devices now." Kana said, the poltergeist moving her hand towards Rikako's jetpack, her spectral hand reaching into the device. The fires coming from the jetpack began to die out as Kana was messing with the insides of the device. It was then that Rikako had absolutely no way of flying, at least not without using her magic. Kana let go of Rikako, the purple-haired scientist falling towards the metal floor. Rikako was plummeting down at high speeds, her only way of stopping herself from hitting the floor face first was to use her magic. While Rikako was somewhat terrified, she knew that as a magician, even a fall from this height would only hurt a bit, not kill her like it would with a regular human. Thus, Rikako's face had slammed hard against the metal floor.
Rikako sat up after a few seconds, her nose bleeding slightly. Rikako reached into her lab coat, pulling out a handkerchief, which she used to rub the blood from her nose until it had stopped bleeding.
Kana appeared before Rikako, the poltergeist still smiling as she had her hands behind her spectral body. "So, you give up now~?" Kana asked. Rikako grimaced at the girl, once again about to reach into her coat to pull out and use a device against the poltergeist, only for both of her hands to go up into the air without her controlling them. Rikako struggled against the invisible chains around her hands, but no matter what she could do, she couldn't escape them.
"Fine then, I give." Rikako admitted, the woman slumping her head as her hands were kept up high in the air. "You win this."
"Haha, I knew it~." Kana said in a mixture of joy and pride. "It is true that the living, especially humans, cannot defeat those that have passed on to the world beyond."
Kana floated away, the poltergeist humming away to herself. Rikako grumbled angrily, the scientist hoping that Yumemi will still teach her about true science and help her show that science is truly beyond the power of magic. Rikako looked at her handkerchief as it lay on the floor, covered in dry blood. Rikako picked up her handkerchief and put it in her lab coat, the woman feeling another magical presence near her. Rikako looked up, seeing Marisa floating in front of her on top of her broomstick, the magical protégé having a rather disappointed look on her face.
"You know, you have a lot of magic." Marisa said, still floating in front of Rikako. Rikako was silent, though it would not change that Marisa was going to continue her speak. "You could have easily defeated Kana if you used your magic; she wouldn't have even stood a chance against you, even if she wasn't so weak to pain. Why didn't you use your magic?"
"Because I despise using magic, and even magic in general." Rikako answered as she stood up, not hurt by the disappointment in Marisa; she looked down at those who relied on magic for everything in their lives, she had grown so used to the criticism of the magical world that it never hurt her. "Only something of absolute danger would bring me to use my magic. That fight was far from something that would require me to use my magic, so I didn't use the unnecessary. You magic users need to know that you don't have to be lazy and use magic for everything in life."
Rikako began to walk away, Marisa glared at her from the insult, even if it seemed minor, the magician whacking the scientist on top of the head. Rikako made a small growl of annoyance, though continued to walk on; even without the stop sign that Kana hit her on the top of the head with, Rikako had been hit on the head with far harder objects, thus it didn't really mean anything to her.
"The battle between Rikako and Kana has concluded! The winner of the third battle is Kana!" Yumemi announced, the unknown entity muttering something under their breath, though no one could understand what it was. Rikako looked at the screens, sighing as she saw only Kana's picture with the words 'WINNER!' written underneath in gold. "The fourth battle will be to Mima. Mima, you wonderful and powerful ghost, pick who you will fight, in the fourth battle! Reimu, Marisa, Kana, come to the centre of the battle room and wait. Mima, pick your fighter!"
"Hmm," Mima hummed as she floated in front of Reimu (on top of Genji, of course), Marisa and Kana. The three winners were waiting patiently, though it looked like neither Reimu or Marisa were looking forward to having fight against The Great Mima. Kana, on the other hand, looked excited to the battle. It was already clear as soon as she had shown herself that she was new to Gensokyo and knew nothing about Mima; thus she was unaware of the pure magical power and sadism that the ghost can unleash on nearly anyone in a matter of seconds. And it seemed like a bad idea to fight against some of such an infamous legacy when you cannot handle pain in any of its forms. Besides, Mima has begun to think of a little plan related to this mysterious Yumemi. A smirk grew on Mima's lips. "I'll fight against Kana. Time for a battle against a ghost that can actually match me in power, for once."
"Whaaaaaa…?" Reimu and Marisa said, somewhat surprised by Mima's answer.
"Oh my, this'll be a lot of fun~!" Kana said, still completely unaware of what Mima is capable of, the poltergeist looking excited for the inevitable battle. "I still have enough energy to fight for hours on end. I have been left dormant in that mansion for too many years, I've forgotten what my true power is like. Oooooh, I'm so excited to remember what my true power is of~!"
I have worries that this battle could have been a little anticlimactic. This is definitely something different from the previous chapters, as neither characters were popular ones that are usually known as the main cast. It doesn't help that, due to the lack of information regarding Rikako and Kana's capabilities and equipment, there was a lot of liberties that I could take, but not without some restraints as I'm trying to stay close to canon.
It was at a certain time when writing this that I forgot about Rikako's sphere saw attack, but I was already near to the end of the battle so I just decided that those things can just appear in another chapter.
There were some ideas inspired by the game, and there were some that just snuck into my head, concerning both side's attacks. It was honestly a little hard to think of what attacks they could use at times, especially Rikako, as I'm supposed to limit it to her relying on technology instead of magic, but I still have to keep a limit to the technology since Gensokyo is meant to be a (mostly) feudal country.
I have no idea why I thought of Kana having a weakness to pain, to the extent that she lets out a wail upon feeling it. I guess it was just an idea that came to me because I guess living an afterlife in a world where no one can touch or hurt you would do that to someone. Then again, I did mention her not liking pain beforehand.
Oh well, there should be about three or four more chapters left (excluding the chapter between this arc and the next arc, which will really be more of a breather than anything else) before this arc ends. Not like the previous arcs were super long odysseys in the first place.
All reviews, even ones of constructive criticism, are allowed and welcomed.