Marisa flew high in the air above Gensokyo, Genji and Reimu following after the magician as the arrow in the crystal ball pointed her towards the unknown attacker. As soon as the two incident resolvers were in the air, the wild fairies, crazy from the new magical power that was bursting through the air, began to shoot at them without a second thought. The first group of the day that Reimu and Marisa came across had fairies that shot either jagged danmaku that were aimed directly at them, or large bubble-shaped danmaku that flew in all directions. Reimu and Marisa easily countered the fairies by shooting their own danmaku, the fairies only being good for some grazes as they didn't put up much of a fight; becoming defeated with a single bullet.
Reimu and Marisa didn't bother to stop for even a second as they came across the fairies, that was why some of those fairies remained after the two shot through them. The two had soon flown over the Human Village, passing over it completely until they came across a huge field of sunflowers.
"Hmm, that's strange." Marisa commented as she looked at the crystal orb, the green arrow within it pointing downwards towards the field of flowers that she and Reimu were flying above. "According to this thing, whoever it is that's causing this incident is in here... Wait, why do I feel like I know this place?"
Multiple fairies in dresses, with bigger wings than most and sunflowers in their hands, flew out of the vastly large field of sunflowers. Reimu shot away at the sudden attackers with holy danmaku and ofuda as Marisa just sat there, trying to remember where she had heard or seen this field from. The sunflower fairies retreated back into the field, barely being a match for the Hakurei shrine maiden trainee.
Marisa snapped her fingers, her eyes filled with realisation. "I remember, this is the Garden of the Sun!" Marisa said. Reimu turned her head as she looked at her friend, one of her eyebrows raised. Marisa rolled her eyes, knowing that she would have to explain. "When I was young, I nearly wondered in there. My mum stopped me and told me to never go into the Garden of the Sun, because there are youkai in there that sometimes prey on wondering humans. Apparently, this field just appeared in the middle of the night once. It was a long time ago, hell my parents were little kids themselves when it appeared. I've never been in before, 'cause I'm either learning magic or borrowing from others, but I heard that the Garden of the Sun is even bigger on the inside."
"This definitely a youkai's home." Reimu concluded, looking towards the magic field of sunflowers. "I don't doubt that the incident causer is lying in here. Come on Genji, we got to get in there."
The duo (or trio, if you count Genji and Reimu as separate) flew into the Garden of the Sun, with Marisa in the lead. "Heeheehee~! Look, it's a bunch of little girls~." A high-pitched voice from within the field giggled, the sound of dozens of little wings flapping in the background. "They look so lost, it would be a trouble if something were to happen to them~."
A giant wave of fairies flew out from the sunflowers within the field, wasting no time to aim danmaku at the incident resolvers. Reimu and Marisa started to fire back, though it didn't matter how many fairies they destroyed, even with a single bullet, the wave of danmaku was slowly growing stronger with each second.
"We need to fly out of here, this is too much!" Genji yelled, even as he was not one of the ones shooting away at the fairies, he could still tell that the pure number was overwhelming. Genji looked around, trying to find a place where he and Marisa could fly to get away, but most of the areas around them are densely surrounded by sunflowers, and even if that wasn't the case, the high number of oncoming fairies and the endless danmaku they were shooting made the chances even less than they already were. Genji then looked up, seeing that the sky was completely clear of fairies and danmaku. "Fly up into the air, it's our only way of escape!"
Marisa didn't like to run or fly away from battle, she didn't want to give an impression that she was a dirty coward. She always believed that she was far from it. But as Genji flew up into the air, she knew that flying away was their only chance against these crazy little-girl like entities. Making sure that she kept her crystal ball in one hand, Marisa gripped the tip of her broomstick with the other, flying up into the air. Maris was now above the Garden of the Sun, the protégé being surprised by what she saw.
It was like Gensokyo itself had vanished from existence; all that Marisa could see was just sunflowers after sunflowers that reached up to the end of the horizon.
"Wow, there is no doubt that this place is owned by a powerful youkai." Marisa said, a vast myriad of danmaku of various shapes, colours and sizes shot up from beneath the magician and the shrine maiden trainee. Marisa glared down at the crazy youkai. "Alright, get lost! Stardust Reverie!"
Marisa summoned a giant rain of star-shaped danmaku, the magical attack destroying the fairies danmaku and obliterating multiple fairies at that, the spell lasting until not a single fairy remained. "That should keep them out of our hair for a while, we should go deeper before they return." Genji said, the turtle (along with the trainee on his back) and Marisa flying in deeper in the Garden of the Sun, especially as the fairies that Marisa had defeated earlier were forming back into existence, though they were still unconscious.
Reimu and Marisa continued to shoot danmaku that were holy and star-shaped (respectively) as they continued to fly through the field of large flowers, defeating all the youkai and fairies that came their way. From time to time, they would come across a rather large group of fairies and/or youkai that would prove to be too much for their regular danmaku, though those were easily gotten ridden with by either a Fantasy Seal from Reimu or a Stardust Reverie from Marisa.
The resolvers followed the guidance of the crystal ball until they reached a lake that was within the giant field of flowers. Whatever the lake was filled with, it definitely wasn't water. Instead it was deep red liquid. Reimu stuck her finger into the lake, feeling that the liquid was rather thick, at least in comparison to water.
Reimu's eyes slowly grew wider as she was realising what the red liquid was. "This is blood...!" Reimu said, taking her finger out. The shrine maiden trainee looked at the digit, painted red by the contents of the lake. Reimu reached into her sleeve with her hand, the one that didn't have the blood-soaked finger, and pulled out an ofuda. Reimu was quick around her finger as she used the ofuda as a type of cloth, the paper managing to soak up all of the blood before Reimu let go of it, the ofuda sinking into the river of blood. It wasn't proper use of the talisman, but Reimu wanted the blood off before it could dry. "This is an entire river of blood. I think that a vampire might live here."
"WHO'RE YOU CALLING A VAMPIRE!" An angry voice yelled from further up in the lake. Reimu, Marisa and Genji looked further up the river, seeing no other living entity in sight, not even a fairy or youkai. But what they did see was a Western-style mansion of pink colouring up ahead, surrounded by a garden of various different flowers. It seemed like the mansion was sitting in the direct centre of the lake, the edge of the garden protected by a metal gate. Even then, surrounding the piece of land that the mansion and garden were located on was a platform of white marble, looking so immaculate that it seemed like it was recently put there or was protected by some magic.
It wouldn't be surprising if the latter option was the right one.
"The crystal ball's pointing towards that mansion over there." Marisa said, the protégé floating towards the mansion. Even though the mansion was a little hard to see from the distance, she could still tell that the arrow was pointing at the doors of the mansion. "We just have to get in there and kick the ass of whoever it is that sent that flower, take their magic and give it to Mima and then we're done."
A little girl-like entity suddenly burst up through the lake of blood, a serious look in her golden eyes, Her hair was a long blonde and she was wearing a white shirt with red suspenders. She also had these large bat wings on her back. "Not so fast!" The mysterious person yelled. "I am Kurumi, the guardian of the Lake of Blood, and a guardian of Mugenkan. It is my job to stop all trespassers from putting even a foot in the area of my mistress, leave now or you will be slaughtered."
Guardian of Blood
Kurumi
Marisa only smiled excitedly at Kurumi. "Whatever, I love a good fight. Hopefully some one on one will get these bones of mine to actually move." Marisa said, stretching her arms. "So you want me to go easy on you or go all out? It doesn't matter what you decide, I'm going to hold nothing back against you nevertheless."
"That really defeats the point of your question." Kurumi mumbled, sweat-dropping from Marisa's lack of care towards options. The vampire(?) regained her composure, continuing to glare at the trio. "I am far stronger than the fairies and youkai that play around in the Garden. I have even defeated many-ARRGH!"
Reimu had grown impatient of Kurumi's talking, the shrine maiden trainee having thrown danmaku at the creature. The maiden's aim was a little off, but it was still enough to hit Kurumi, cutting through the side of her right arm. Even though the charm went through cleanly, and not a piece of it remained as it cut through, the skin and even the clothing around the cut formed by the talisman grew black like it was all burnt, with some smoke even emitting from the open cut. Kurumi hissed in pain as she put her hand over the wound, the blonde looking at Reimu.
"That is holy power, something completely dangerous to youkai." Kurumi said as she looked at Reimu. "You're definitely the shrine maiden, aren't you? Well then, you're the one that my master decided to... 'invite' to play with her. Well, you're still going to have to defeat me before I'll let you pass further."
"So someone sent that lotus to my shrine because they want to play?" Reimu asked. "Are they careless?"
"...Yes, she can be rather careless at times." Kurumi admitted, a drop of sweat falling down the side of her head once again. Kurumi raised a flat palm, a blue sphere appearing above it. "Regardless, as the guardian of both the River of Blood, and Mugenkan, I still cannot just let you enter my master's domain as you please. Defeating me is crucial if you wish to fight my master."
Reimu threw ofuda towards Kurumi, the youkai flying into the air, out of the way of the holy talisman, now aware of the attack as she was paying proper attention. Kurumi threw the ball above her palm towards Reimu and Marisa, the two flying away from the attack as it exploded upon touching the Lake of Blood, causing droplets of blood to fly into the air and rain over Reimu, Genji and Marisa. Marisa ignored that her hat, clothes and body were covered in the red droplets that may have been in someone before, the blonde pointing her magic wand towards Kurumi.
"Lightning Lance Strike!" Marisa yelled, her voice filled with power as she chanted the spell, the star at the end of her wand becoming surrounded by lightning before it shot a large bolt, almost as big as Kurumi herself. The youkai had barely managed to evade the attack, shooting blue lasers at Marisa. The blonde magician dodged the blonde youkai's attacks, flying into the air and charging up her own spell. "Omnidirectional Concerto!"
Blue magic circles appeared around Kurumi, the magic circles in the air and pointing down at her. Kurumi looked around, seeing that there was too small of a space for her to escape through. Or at least that is what Marisa though before she turned into a bat, flying out of the trap of magic circles.
Marisa growled, stopping the rest of the spell as it would just be a waste of energy.
The bat flew away, turning back into Kurumi. The bat youkai shot laser towards Reimu and Marisa, as well as the areas around them, since they were fast enough to dodge the lasers that she used. Even though Reimu was certain that Genji was dodging to lasers, she was suddenly hit in the side by danmaku. Reimu put a hand over the area where she was hit, feeling a stinging sensation there. Reimu looked from where she felt like she was hit, seeing that danmaku was coming from the laser. It seemed that whenever it hit the blood or went a specific distance from Kurumi, it just burst into danmaku.
"Marisa...!" Reimu said.
"Yeah, I already noticed." Marisa responded, knowing the rest of what her friend was going to say. The sorceress merely smirked at Kurumi. "So ya like dirty tricks, don't ya? Well that's good, hopefully now Shorty the Shrine Maiden here won't criticise me for not playing fair."
Marisa took off her hat, reaching in it and pulling out an elixir with a glowing liquid.
"What is that?" Genji asked.
"Just be sure to close your eyes." Marisa said, the magician throwing the elixir high into the air, causing Kurumi to look at it. Marisa looked away and covered her eyes with her hand, pointing her wand at the glass bottle, shooting out a blue laser. As the elixir broke into pieces, the liquid within it began to react to the air, making a large explosion of light. Marisa moved her hand away, seeing that the light explosion had left Kurumi disoriented. The blonde then looked at Reimu and Genji, the two having done what Marisa said and being saved from having their vision ruined by the explosion. "Good, you did as I said. Now fire your ofuda at her; she's weak to holy charms and whatnot, your attacks are the best to use against her!"
Reimu immediately caught on to what Marisa said, throwing ofuda at the still dazed youkai. The holy paper stabbed into Kurumi's body, burning her. Kurumi let out a scream, the bat youkai grabbing hold of the youkai and quickly throwing them off her, her palms being burnt black with smoke coming from them because of the holy energy's burn effect on her.
"I must retreat!" Kurumi said, the bat-like woman flying away, looking back at Reimu, Marisa and Genji as she continued flying away. "Attack units, you must defend Mugenkan."
As Kurumi continued to fly away, spiked balls appeared from the Lake of Blood, flying towards the incident resolvers at high speeds. Reimu and Marisa countered the balls with their danmaku, holding off against them as they were no match.
"Ha, this is rather easy." Reimu said, easily firing away the spiked balls with her holy danmaku, the shrine maiden trainee still seeing Kurumi from a distance away. Suddenly bats appeared from the sky, screeching towards the trainee and protégé. The two continued to fight against them, easily blasting away multiple bats with a single danmaku bullet. "Yeah, it's still rather easy."
Genji, Reimu and Marisa flew towards Mugenkan, the trio stopping in front of the marble platform surrounding the mansion. "Stop, I won't let you pass. Not until you defeat me." Kurumi said as she appeared from the sky, floating in front of the area, her arms outstretched as she glared at the three. "I am a loyal servant of my mistress, and the guardian of the Lake of Blood. I don't care if you have a way to defeat me with your holy attacks, I have successfully defeated many humans and youkai in the past, I won't let you become an exception to my streak that has been going on for over a decade."
"Really, you've defeated humans and youkai? And for over a decade, too?" Marisa asked, the magician looking like she was on the verge of going into a fit of laughter. "I know that Eggplant 'n I are really strong, but you're so weak that I wouldn't even believe such a statement. I know this is hypocritical coming from me, but you need to be more honest."
"I usually end up fighting others during night time!" Kurumi argued. "I'm a being of the night, so I'm stronger when the sun sets and the moon reveals itself. If it weren't such a sunny day, I would be a harder challenge."
"I'm surprised that you're able to stay out in the sunlight without being burned to ashes." Reimu said, the shrine maiden trainee still standing on Genji. "I mean, I know that my knowledge of vampires isn't the best, but I thought I remember hearing that vampires burn to death in the sunlight."
Kurumi was silent as she looked at Reimu, her eyes emotionless as the area around her eyes darkened. "What did you call me?" Kurumi asked in a dark voice.
"A vampire." Reimu responded simply, the shrine maiden trainee turning her head to the side. "Aren't you a vampire?"
Vampire...
Vampire...
VAMPIRE!
"I AM NOT A STUPID VAMPIRE!" Kurumi roared angrily at Reimu, the bat youkai firing her blue lasers at the purple-haired trainee rapidly. Genji flew Reimu out of the way, the turtle having to speed across the Lake of Blood as Kurumi didn't cease her attempted assault, danmaku shooting around the air as the lasers made contact with the red lake that surrounded Mugenkan. Kurumi ignored Marisa, the bat youkai flying past the other blonde as she continued to hunt down Reimu and Genji (more specifically the latter), aiming her lasers only at them, something that Marisa took easy notice of.
"Wow, Reimu, you sure have a penchant for youkai to try to kill you today." Marisa remarked as Reimu continued to fly away from Kurumi, the shrine maiden trainee throwing ofuda and shooting danmaku at the bat youkai. "Did you get some curse god mad or somethin'?"
Reimu ignored Marisa's jest, the purple-eyed maiden focussing on stopping the irate Kurumi who was now focussed purely on her. Was she not a vampire? Did she hate being called a vampire? Reimu didn't stop firing ofuda at Kurumi, the blonde mostly dodging the holy talismans, though Reimu managed to throw some that she would be unable to dodge. Reimu was certain that either the ofuda would hit and defeat the youkai, or they would snap Kurumi back into her senses and cause the youkai to fly away from her. Instead Kurumi, still blinded and fuelled by her burning anger, shot a laser towards the holy paper, burning it to pieces; absolutely nothing left of the ofuda.
"She can destroy the ofuda?!" Reimu exclaimed.
"Well they are paper..." Genji mumbled, still dodging the lasers and danmaku that Kurumi kept on firing towards them with some mysterious new power. "Even if they are filled with holy power, they are still paper. They may be able to hurt and seal youkai and curses, but they can still be destroyed like most paper."
"Marisa, help me!" Reimu yelled.
"Hmm... nah." Marisa responded, the protégé standing on the marble platform and opening the gate that guarded Mugenkan. "You seem like you got this under control. I'll let you handle the little girl while I kick the ass of whoever is in this mansion."
Kurumi stopped to a halt, the bat youkai no longer firing danmaku at Reimu as she turned a dark eye towards Marisa. "What did you call me?" Kurumi asked in an eerily calm voice that held anger within it.
A large grin appeared on Marisa's face; this was an unexpected variable, but a very welcomed one. "Oh, do you hate being called a little girl?" Marisa said, her smirk widening even further as she saw Kurumi's body shake with rage. "Which do you hate being called even more? Vampire or little girl, Vampire?"
Kurumi's body began to twitch without control as her anger was becoming impossible to contain, her entire body spasming as her eyes glowed a complete red. "I WILL KEEP BOTH OF YOUR CORPSES AS TROPHES!" Kurumi roared, the bat youkai flying towards Marisa with her hands outstretched towards her, roaring like a demon.
Marisa sneered at the livid youkai as she flew towards her ferociously, the magician protégé holding her broomstick by the tip as she stood on the platform. As Kurumi neared, the youkai more focussed on the idea of literally tearing the girl apart with her own hands to use danmaku, Marisa swung her broom towards her like a mallet, the stick object whacking her away as it hit her square in the face, even if it was mostly the fibres at the end. Kurumi flew backwards in the air from the force, the bat youkai stopping herself, still glaring at Marisa for calling her by one of the two words that she hates being called.
Kurumi charged up a magical attack in the form of a sphere, the attack sitting in her palm, but she was suddenly surrounded by multicoloured, glowing spheres. Kurumi looked up, seeing Reimu standing on top of the floating Genji, the shrine maiden trainee being the one behind the spheres.
The spheres all suddenly closed in one Kurumi before she could truly react, creating a large explosion that caused blood to rain everywhere, as the explosion caused by the Fantasy Seal was near the Lake of Blood.
"Good job, Shorty the Eggplant." Marisa said with a jest, the blonde seemingly not bothered by the blood that now covered her from the river. Reimu and Genji floated down to the marble platform, the former hopping off the latter and walking to the other maiden as she stood in front of the open gate. Marisa just continued to grin, holding out an open palm towards Reimu as the shrine maiden trainee walked towards her. "High five!"
"So was that a plan, or was it something you thought up on the spot?" Reimu asked. "Where you really planning on just leaving me, or were you trying to bait Kurumi to you?"
Marisa looked at Reimu, the blonde maiden smiling at the trainee. "A little bit of both, really." Marisa answered casually. "You've already beat worse, so my help or not, you would have still defeated the batty youkai. And if she did some to me, I would hit her in the face with ma broom and we would have defeated her with a surprise attack."
Reimu sighed. "I guess I'll forgive for that." The shrine maiden trainee said. "Do you still have the crystal ball?"
"Yep." Marisa responded, the protégé taking the see-through sphere out from some sort of pocket she had. The arrow in the crystal continued to glow as it pointed towards inside the mansion. Marisa, Reimu and Genji walked towards the closed doors of Mugenkan, the two pieces of fine wood opening rather easily, surprising considering that there was an entire line of defence guarding the lake around it. "Alright, let's loot this place and show this little flower master who's boss!"
The three entered in through the door, seeing the inside of the mansion mostly consisting of a checkerboard floor with pink walls, multiple tables and shelves put up purely for the sake of holding pots that contained flowers of various different kinds, including flowers that don't even look like they are native to Gensokyo.
"Wow, look at all these flowers~." Reimu said, amazed and completely entranced by the many different flowers that decorated the inside of the mansion.
"Damn, wow did the person in charge of this mansion even get some of these?" Marisa asked, the protégé becoming as entranced as the trainee by the pretty colours of the flowers, by their unique patterns, by their designs that were unlike anything else they had never seen before.
"Listen, this isn't the time to focus on flowers." Genji said calmly, snapping the two maidens back into reality. "You can admire the flowers later, but right now we must find who it was that sent the flower towards the Hakurei shrine."
"Oh, right." Reimu and Marisa said, the two maidens looking at the crystal ball and following wherever the arrow within the sphere had pointed them towards. Knowing that we wouldn't be able to follow them with his slow speed on the ground, Genji floated up and flew after them.
The Hakurei shrine was relatively quiet and peaceful as neither the maiden training to be the next shrine maiden or any of the ancient spirits that guard it were there to protect it. With the exception of a robot maid walking around and repairing all of the hole done to the shrine road, there was completely no sound whatsoever. Not even a single youkai or fairy decided to come by and attack.
Though, that last reason could be because Mima decided to cast some spells that were made specifically to blast away any of the supernatural creatures. After all, it was much easier to find and cast spells made purely for the reasons of getting rid of youkai and fairies than spells that were made for the sake of killing humans.
Maybe that could be a reason why Reimu was able to get to her and defeat her, the ghost pondered. Mima shrugged, the ghost sipping on an illusionary teacup, the action more of a requiem for when she used to actually e able to drink tea than anything else, especially as it was all only an illusion. Mima sat around the kotatsu, constantly alternating whenever she would lay underneath it, sit on top of it, or just lean her back against it. Even if Mima could afford to enjoy some quiet time to herself every once in a while, it was dreadfully boring without Marisa around to teach. Or with Reimu around to annoy. Maybe she could spend some of this time to herself on working on the next scares she'll give to the shrine maiden trainee.
Mima paused, her eyes wide open, the ghost quickly melting into laughter. "Wow, I sure fell far off my throne, didn't I?" Mima laughed, the ghost making her illusion of the teacup dissolve in the air and vanish. Mima calmed down, the ghost making her crescent sceptre appear in her hands. "Maybe, when Reimu and that old fossil return, I'll go and scare some humans. It may be nothing compared to my days as a tyrant that managed to control a certain amount of the world, but it's much more fun than just doing nothing. I don't understand how that princess of the netherworld enjoys just staying in home and eating food."
A portal suddenly opened within the torii gate in front of the Hakurei shrine. Mima looked at the portal with interest, a smile on her face as she knew who would be coming through that portal, the ghost looking forward to the Deva of the Mountain to starve off her boredom for a few minutes. With a snap of her spectral fingers, Mima summoned a banner that hung up on the front of the shrine, the strip of cloth having the words 'WELCOME, KONNGARA' written on it with little doodles of Reimu, Marisa, Genji, Mima and Konngara's heads drawn on.
Konngara passed through the portal between Jigoku and Gensokyo, the oni keeping her eyes closed and a calm expression on her face. Konngara then opened her eyes, the crimson orbs closing in n the green-haired ghost that smiled at her; curved with the slight evil intent that she was infamous for.
"Hello, Konngara." Mima said with faux kindness, giving the ruler of Jigoku a curtsy, though a mocking smile was still on her face. "What brings you here on this fine da-?"
"Mima!" Konngara roared angrily, the oni growing to her true size, the gigantic woman glaring down at the ghost. Konngara raised her hand into the air, a flash of lighting making a katana appear in her hand, the one-horned woman pointing her katana down at Mima, the tip of the giant blade stopping on front of the bored sorceress ghost's face. "What are you doing here? And what have you done to Reimu?!"
"Relax. Relax." Mima responded casually, waving her arms nonchalantly. "And to think that I made a banner for you; created it purely in the span of a second. Oh well, whatever. Anyways, I'm no longer going after power. You could almost say that I've turned over a new leaf, but that isn't the exact case. Reimu isn't here because she and my protégé are going after someone that sent an attack to the shrine."
"Oh really?" Konngara responded sarcastically, not believing the ghost for a second; she has more than enough experience with Mima's infamous lies. The Astral Knight didn't even bother with moving away her katana, or the blade that she kept to Mima's face, the ghost still not intimidated by the weapon. "And who and what is it that attacked the shrine?"
"Don't know." The ghost answered with another nonchalant shrug. "Someone sent a giant flower to attack the shrine. After that, Reimu and my protégé went of to find whoever is behind this current incident."
"Wow, your lies have lost their power." Konngara said, the oni pointing her katana away from Mima, though she kept it pointing near nevertheless. "Do you really believe that I am gullible enough to think that such an obvious lie is the truth?"
"Oh, it is very well the truth, Konngara." A voice said, definitely not Mima's voice. It was from behind Konngara, though the giant oni was rather reluctant to turn around and look at the woman behind the voice. And frankly, Mima didn't really want to speak with the youkai either, even if she was seemingly on her defence.
Truly, there were very few that could really tolerate someone so powerful and so untrustworthy.
Konngara shrunk down to a size more akin to a human adult, allowing Mima to see the particular youkai who has appeared. Mima looked at the youkai as she sat on the rift in reality, her legs crossed as a smile graced her peach lips. Mima's green eyes looked directly into the gold of the other woman's eyes.
"Hello, Yukari..."
There's the battle against Kurumi, though it wasn't exactly as I planned. When I originally wrote the first thousand words or so, I originally intended for this chapter to have an enemy that was completely original, just a youkai in the Garden of the Sun that decided to fight against Reimu and Marisa. But I decided to ditch the idea since I'm intending for the battle against Yuuka to take up two chapters, and I'm intending the chapters that deal with fighting against Mugetsu and Gengetsu to be two separate chapters. Plus, I didn't have any real ideas for the random youkai.
I felt like this battle may have been underwhelming, especially when compared to the previous chapter. I seemed to have suffered from a case of writer's block when making the fight against Kurumi, but I at least had used the fact that youkai are meant to be weak against holy power, and I decided to use Kurumi's two Berserk Buttons (at least in this fanfic's continuity) in the battle, with her getting murderously angry.
As for Yukari, she has decided to make an appearance. This is to stop Mima from interrupting the inevitable battle that the main trio have against Yuuka, while the gap youkai also sheds some light on the flower youkai. Mostly that she's no longer the Ultimate Sadist Creature and is just more of a kind person who is capricious and random.
Also, I forgot to mention in the last chapter that Orange being Taiwanese was 'inspired' (if not downright plagiarised (guilty)) by Young Maiden's Chronicles: Spirit Dream, because I literally didn't know what else to do with her character. (She's definitely not appearing in my version of Mystic Square)
I also forgot to note that Kana's yelling in the last chapter was meant to be a reference to the 'Will you two shut up?!' scene from The Simpsons. I honestly imagined the poltergeist yelling in Homer's voice...
Anyways, I decided to bring Konngara into this because for some reason when I imagined this specific part of Maiden's Capriccio, I imagined Konngara as being a part of it. Hopefully I can make her relevant and not make it seem like I just brought her back for the sake of being brought back. (Though she'll definitely have a role in the Mystic Square arc, but the importance of it is more up to the readers)
All reviews, even ones of constructive criticism, are accepted and allowed.
