Reimaden
"What's wrong, Miss Mima?" The girl in purple asked, noticing that the evil spirit appears to be frowning.
Mima made no attempt to respond.
"You ponderin' something?" The girl in purple asked again.
Still, no respond came from the evil spirit, as she continued watching the duel between Reimu and Rika, while thinking of something.
"Hello~?" The girl in purple got impatient and tries to grab Mima's attention by waving her hand in front of her face. "Gensokyo to Miss Mima. Anyone there?" She even resorted to clapping her hands once right in front of the evil spirit's face.
That seem to have gotten Mima's attention. "Oh?" She uttered and blinked several times as she snapped out of it. "Were you asking me something?"
The girl in purple scratched her head and then told Mima, "Well... Reimu's pretty close to where we are, now. I think Rika is going to get her butt, even if she's going all serious with her entire arsenal."
Mima remained confident of the situation. "Don't worry. I still have everything under control." She said. "If worse comes to worse, I still have a backup plan."
The girl in purple dropped cold sweat upon hearing that. She swallowed hard, nervously. "And that backup plan will be..."
Mima's answer is, to no surprise to the pupil, a very straightforward one. "You."
This led to the girl in purple sighing nervously. "I freakin' knew it..."
Mima notices how nervous her pupil felt about what is told to her. "Just remember what I taught you all these times. Use the right spells at the right time, and pay close attention to your surroundings. Then everything will be alright."
...
Outside the entrance to Reimaden; World of Fantasies.
"Taste technological weapons, Hakurei shrine maiden!" Rika figuratively chews up the scenery as she controls the rotary guns of the Five Magic Stones to fire at Reimu. "Oh wait..." The Anachronistic Engineer suddenly thought of something. "These guns don't fire real ammo... Oh well, that doesn't really matter, anyway."
At the meantime, the aforementioned rotary guns are aiming at Reimu, firing danmaku at such a fast rate that weaving in between the shots seemed downright impossible, forcing the shrine maiden trainee to move away from where they are aiming instead.
And then there's the six-in-one cannons. Turns out the danmaku they fire have homing capabilities, which meant that they'll just turn around and resume following Reimu should she manage to dodge them. These homing danmaku can be shot out of the air, at which point they'll explode like colorless fireworks instead.
There's also the 24 tubes that fired laser beams. The beams can only fire straight forward, so they can be avoided simply by being not in front of them. But that is not exactly simple when the rotary guns and cannons are also shooting at the same time (even trying to force her in front of the lasers).
Finally there's the two red circles at the back of the bastion. Reimu had thought these two parts were just there to make the Five Magic Stones look more intimidating. But they become more intimidating when they suddenly fired pillars of red light up into the (World Of Fantasies' nonexistent) sky that then crashed down upon the shrine maiden trainee. The pillars of red light are themselves intangible and incapable of doing any harm even when Reimu fails to dodge one and get caught inside it, what they does do is neutralizing any danmaku that she tries to fire through or out of them.
The combination of these weapons made the Five Magic Stones truly an inanimate construct to be reckoned with. But what Reimu found to be the most annoying about the bastion is the Mundane Human controlling it: Rika. Her obnoxious cackle and taunts from time to time are figuratively driving Reimu crazy.
"It is my future job as a shrine maiden to protect humans, especially Mundane Humans from various supernatural being with malicious intents..." Reimu utters the first half of her complaint as she dodges the barrage of the Five Magic Stones' arsenal. "...And the most annoying thing I've faced so far is a Mundane Human! Give me a break!" She finishes the second half of her complaint and then fires several danmaku at the third sphere to no effect.
"Hey, Hakurei Reimu! Taste this!" Rika yelled out a taunt. This is followed by both six-in-one cannons firing a ludicrous amount of homing fireworks danmaku, all directed straight at Reimu.
Reimu dropped cold sweat, then tries her best to shoot down the homing danmaku while keeping her distance from them. The key word being "try", as there are more homing fireworks danmaku than it is possible for humans to count with just a brief glance.
The shrine maiden trainee shot out one homing firework danmaku a bit too late. The explosion occurred close enough to send her tumbling, but thankfully not close enough to completely knock her out of the battle.
Reimu stopped tumbling after a brief moment, but the explosion occurred at such proximity that, for the moment, her ears only registered ringing, and her eyes only blurs. She recalls from classes in the village that this is a case of mild concussion, and you get it by having explosions of any kind occurring close to you even if said explosion is a danmaku-based non-fatal one. Reimu also recalls that the only treatment of mild concussion is to wait, and it shouldn't take too long for her to recover, if the teacher is right.
Unfortunately for Reimu, waiting is not exactly a good idea when you're facing a heavily armed, danmaku-spewing bastion at the moment.
The shrine maiden trainee is very sure Rika just delivered another taunt, but she couldn't tell what the exact words are when all she hears is ringing. Because she couldn't see anything but blurs, Reimu couldn't tell the exact location of the danmaku hat are coming toward her, and had to rely on remembering the location of the origins of those danmaku. Even then, being unable to see or hear due to mild concussion is dangerously inconvenient when in the middle of a barrage of danmaku.
Luckily, Rika isn't very accurate with her aim when she is controlling several danmaku-spewing devices simultaneously, so the best those shots did to Reimu are grazing her. But with limited sight and hearing, as well as complete reliance on instinct and luck for the moment, that is a lot of grazes the shrine maiden trainee have to endure. Doesn't help that Reimu can't even hear herself gasping whenever she feels a danmaku grazing her.
After a minute of instinct-and-luck-based grazing, the mild concussion is beginning to wear off, and Reimu is slowly regaining her ability to see and hear...
...And the first thing she sees upon recovering from the mild concussion is the third sphere of the Five Magic Stones projecting a thin, harmless beam of light at her.
Knowing this is an indication of a huge laser being charged, Reimu instinctively dived downwards (as the mass of danmaku fired by the rotary guns made going upwards not an option) and, sure enough, the third sphere fired a single, but truly massive laser at where she was seconds ago.
As soon as the massive laser died out, Reimu quickly flew back up to evade the 24 small lasers that could only fire straight forward.
"Well I have to say, you were good at dodging huge amounts of shots fired at you..." Rika commented on how long the shrine maiden trainee has lasted against her heavily armed bastion. The Anachronistic Engineer, however, can also be seen laughing while pointing at Reimu. In fact, she is laughing about the shrine maiden trainee's current condition so much that her hands are no longer on the panel, which caused the Five Magic Stones to come to a complete halt.
"What are you laughing at?!" Reimu doesn't take being laughed at (and she is pretty sure this laugh is not a taunt-based one) kindly, and asked angrily, more so than before since this is the first thing she hears after recovering from the mild concussion.
The shrine maiden trainee quickly found out on her own what Rika is laughing about: her clothes being torn all over by the grazes from during her mild concussion, with her hair ribbon being nearly reduced to nothing but bits of singed cloth, which caused her ponytail to be undone.
After what she went through fighting Konngara, Sariel and their entourages last month, Reimu have learned to pay little attention to damages done to her shrine maiden robes as long as the damages don't compromise her modesty. But the ribbon...
"You...destroyed...my...ribbon..." Reimu told Rika with a tone of tranquil fury that put an end to the latter's laughing and sent chills down her spine.
"I think... I just pressed her berserk button..." Rika told herself, for it is now her turn to drop cold sweat and swallow hard.
Reimu conjured the Ying-Yang Orb, which seemed to be glowing more brilliantly than before. "YOU! DESTROYED! MY! RIBBON!" She shouted with maximum anger at Rika.
"Oh no. Oh no!" Rika pretty much panicked at the sight of the furious shrine maiden, as she quickly scrambled to resume her control on the Five Magic Stones.
"YOU DESTROYED MY RIBBON!" Reimu, now more furious than ever, yelled loudly before she launches the Ying-Yang Orb by kicking it toward the third sphere of the Five Magic Stones.
The third sphere is resilient enough that it wasn't destroyed outright by the Ying-Yang Orb hitting it, but it didn't completely shrug off the attack either. In fact, the Ying-Yang Orb hit it with so much force that the entire bastion shook with it and temporarily knocked Rika off balance.
Rika quickly climbed back up and, in a moment of panic, just pressed buttons and pulled levers at random, doing anything it takes for her to bring down a furious-beyond-comprehension, purple-haired, flying shrine maiden trainee who's overreacting about a simple hair decoration.
The rage must've made Reimu much better at dodging danmaku, because despite the Five Magic Stone firing all of its weapons at random, the shrine maiden trainee still weaved through the barrage which is several magnitudes thicker than the previous one.
"YOU DESTROYED MY RIBBON!" Reimu repeated the same rage-fuelled words, as she kicks the Ying-Yang Orb a second time toward the third sphere while simultaneously firing her own danmaku at it.
Although the regular danmaku are erased by the pillars of red light, the Ying-Yang Orb simply barreled through them as it is a solid projectile. The Ying-Yang Orb continued to smash its way through every other danmaku the Five Magic Stones fire at it.
Panicking more than before, Rika had the third sphere take aim and then fire the massive laser at the Ying-Yang Orb. The massive laser blasted it with enough force to slow its trajectory, but it is still heading toward the third sphere.
With a loud crash, the Ying-Yang Orb impacted the third sphere a second time, which caused the massive laser to die out instantly. This time, not only is the sphere cracked all over because of the impact, it is also slightly but visibly dislodged from its base.
"This thing is not going to last another hit from that thing..." At this point in Reimu's fury, Rika is starting to become worried about the condition of the Five Magic Stones. When she tries to have the bastion perform a counterattack...
...It fails to respond to any commands she issues. The rotary guns, six-in-one cannons, 24 lasers, the third sphere itself...all went completely idle after the second impact.
Rika's face went totally pale. "A malfunction, right now?!" She uttered, completely immobilized by fear. "I'm deader than dead, na...no...de...su..."
Reimu catches the Ying-Yang Orb as it returns to her. "You'll pay for destroying my ribbon!" She declared, before kicking the Ying-Yang Orb for a third time toward the third sphere.
Rika couldn't do anything from inside her container as she watched the Ying-Yang Orb flying toward her bastion like a cannonball. "Is a simple hair ribbon really worth literally killing someone for...?!" These are the last words she uttered before the Ying-Yang Orb impacts the third sphere for the third time.
The third impact produced a loud crash, which is immediately followed by a loud boom as the last of the five spheres went off in a big explosion. Multiple smaller explosions occurred all over the Five Magic Stones' platform after that, followed by a second big one from right under Rika, which obliterated her container but strangely enough, simply launched her out of it without doing her physical harm.
"Nanodesu~!" Rika yelled, her cry trailing off for the entire duration she is sent airborne by the second big explosion. The Anachronistic Engineer landed on the remains of the third sphere, where she then goes limp and seemingly out cold.
Reimu breathed heavily for a while, tired out from all those dodging and grazing and rage-fuelled finishing-off of the Five Magic Stones and the human girl that controlled the bastion. "No one...destroys...my ribbon...and gets away... with it..."
Genji, who had retreated from the intense battle and just came back, dropped cold sweat. "I do not understand why a simple article of decorative clothing is worth almost killing someone else over..."
Reimu took a while to calm down before she answers the flying turtle. "Someone ancient like you is never going to understand it, gramps..." The shrine maiden trainee's voice indicates that she is still angry about losing her hair ribbon.
Genji sighed. "Then I shall not ask any more about your personal opinion...until you have settled everything with Mima..."
"Now if you excuse me, I have one little thing to do..." Reimu said as she approached Rika and hovered before her.
Rika comes to, and slowly pushes herself off the ground...and her face immediately went pale when she sees Reimu standing before her with an intimidating look on her face.
"W...wait, Reimu!" Rika pleaded for Reimu to spare her. "I w...was forced to do this! I never had the idea to pick fights with you, but this lady came to me and..."
Reimu silences Rika by pointing her gohei at the latter's mouth. "I know Mima dragged you into this, and maybe she did threaten you to destroy my shrine, but I'm not going to punish you for that..."
Hearing that, Rika sighed in relief. "I thought I was a goner..."
"But..." Reimu suddenly added, which made Rika feel tense again. "You're going to have to pay...for destroying my ribbon!"
With that said, Reimu raised her gohei above her head, and then brought it down upon Rika's head like a club...
...
Reimaden.
"Remind me not to touch her ribbon under any circumstances!" The girl in purple shrugged after seeing just how much Reimu overreacted to losing her hair ribbon.
"I will." Mima replied jokingly. The Evil Spirit couldn't help but find the shrine maiden trainee's overreaction amusing, despite that very overreaction knocking Rika and the Five Magic Stones out of the whole plan.
The girl in purple turned toward the direction the curse Youkai and Evil Eyes exited Reimaden at, then back at Mima with a shrug. "I'm still not sure if fightin' Reimu was a good idea, 'specially after we both saw what she did to poor Rika..."
"Not alone, if that is what you are thinking, young lady." Mima reassured the girl in purple. "You are not my only pupil, remember?"
That reassurance helped the girl in regaining her confidence. "Oh, right. I'll like Reimu to see what we witches are capable of." She said with a smile.
"Now, let us not keep the shrine maiden waiting." Mima added. "Shall we, Marisa G. Kirisame?"
The girl in purple groaned at first. "Please, drop the 'G' from my name..." And then she pulls a magic wand from out of her purple pointy hat. "But now I'm ready to kick some butt, whenever you are, Miss Mima!"
Mima smiled. "Glad to hear that. Now, let's let Hakurei Reimu into our domain, and the final part of my plan will be complete..."
Well, that took long enough.
Gosh, the fight against the Five Magic Stones, especially the heavily upgraded version in this fan remake of the Touhou franchise, took very long to finish. Probably because the Five Magic Stones is a huge defense system instead of a single danmaku-spewing human/fairy/Youkai/goddess/Lunarian, which meant more things to describe. Which reminds me, the Five Magic Stones are probably the only boss in the entire series to act like the boss of a traditional SHMUP (where the bosses are usually gigantic war machines or heavily armed buildings).
And now that Reimu has defeated Rika and the Five Magic Stones, it is time for our intrepid shrine maiden trainee to enter Reimaden and face our favorite star-shooting witch, Marisa Kirisame (if you're wondering about how I wrote Marisa's full name up there, see below for answers), before moving on to Mima and finishing the Story of Eastern Wonderland arc. Can't wait to get started on the Phantasmagoria of Dimensional Dream arc and see the remade version of Okazaki Yumemi~
Changes from canon:
Five Magic Stones' arsenal - Already covered in the previous chapter. And "homing fireworks danmaku" is just how medieval-minded Reimu sees modern Surface-to-Air Missiles.
Reimu's overreaction to her ribbon - This goes without saying (that it's not in Touhou canon). Yeah, don't touch Reimu's ribbon. Take my word for it...
Marisa G. Kirisame - You're definitely wondering why I wrote Marisa's full name in the western order instead of the Asian order of Kirisame Marisa when I wrote Reimu's as Hakurei Reimu. Well, if that G in the middle of her name hasn't tipped you off already, I changed Marisa from being a pure Japanese to an American-Japanese, and even have her speak with a genuine American accent and not a translated Kansai-ben to drive the point further. As for that G in her name...well, let's just say that Marisa doesn't like her given middle name.
"And that, as they say, is that."
Afterword ends here.