After the four females had flown off closer to Pandemonium, the humans and non-humans that were holding off the Makai demons in the Makai Capital decided to split off into different and smaller groups, since despite their relatively weaker power, more and more of them kept on appearing, seemingly without end, so it was best decided that they were to split up to divide the demons into smaller groups. The plan was successful, as the Makai demons did as planned.
It also meant that the Gensokians could hold back less without having to accidently hit one of their members.
As it were, Kotohime, Rikako, Ellen and Kana were all paired into a team, the four deciding to lower to the ground, as Rikako's jetpack was damaged by a bullet fired by a Makai demon. "Well that is an annoying inconvenience." The scientist complained as she took off the jetpack, the invention now unable to work from the hole in it, which leaked fuel from it. She huffed in irritation, her hands akimbo. "Guess we'll now have to stay on the ground."
"Well we could fly some more if you were to just use magic." Kotohime responded, not a spec of annoyance in her voice as she kept a happy face, throwing her bombs at the demons, destroying them with a single explosion.
"Don't you have a magic cloud that can carry people, such as yourself." Rikako responded, adamant about not using her magic, even at this situation. She adjusted her glasses as she glared at her friend, the magician-turned-scientist summoning the her multicoloured orbs, the objects flying around her at rapid speeds, shooting out white danmaku everywhere to hit the demons attempting to attack her. "Surely that thing can carry me if it can carry you."
"Sorry, it can only carry those of the royal Sonozika family; it's part of the magic." The crazy princess responded rather bashfully, blushing in embarrassment, however she started to glare at her friend. "Wait, are you calling me fat?!"
Rikako remained silent, the scientist trying to find another way to divert Kotohime's attention.
Luckily, a certain poltergeist was doing it for her. "Oh it doesn't matter how fat and heavy you are, as a ghost everyone is weightless~." Kana said cheerfully, using her telekinesis to pick up the Makai demons that were in the form of quadruped reptiles, the creatures trying to escape from the ghost's telekinesis, but there was no hope for them. Other demons, ones with the form and minds of fairies, were flying right towards Kana, trying to get close to her to fire their danmaku at her. The blonde spectre just smirked at them, making a stop sign appear in her hand, using it to deflect the demons' danmaku and whack them with it. "These demons are so much fun to fight~."
"Freeze! Freeze! Freeze!" Ellen yelled, the witch casting a freezing spell at a bunch of demons. The demons were of course frozen in ice, unable to move from the positions they were in when the blonde witch casted the spell. Ellen, with Sokrates still on her shoulder, spun around and did a cute pose towards the other people of the Dimensional Dream incident. "Fuwa~!"
"That's the spirit!" Kana cheered, flipping Ellen a thumbs up. All of a sudden, the ghost was surrounded in ice. Kana opened her eyes, blinking in surprise as she easily floated out of the shard of ice that surrounded her, her abilities as a ghost making it nigh impossible for any ice in existence to freeze her. "Hey, I know it's exciting to beat up demons, but keep yourself from freezing me."
"But I didn't cast the freeze spell on you..." Ellen said, the blonde looking at the cat on her shoulder with a confused and troubled expression. "Did I?"
"Damn, I really thought my demon ice would have frozen her perfectly." A voice complained from above, the two blondes and purple and red haired females looking up to see a Makai demon that had the form of a little girl, having short, silver hair and a bow on her head; dressed in a black and white dress and having nails that were long and as black as obsidian itself. She had a disgusting grimace of an expression, being the caster behind the ice. Floating next to her was another Makai demon in the form of a little girl, having blonde hair, purple eyes, a white shirt underneath a blue vest with a red bow and a red dress with purple markings near its edges and large wings like that of a bat on her back, holding a little, white wand that was much like Marisa's. "Turns out ghosts are immune to my ice."
"Don't worry 'bout it, Miyuki." Elis cheered, patting her friend on the shoulder in a comforting manner. The demon then looked down at the four Gensokians and the cat, a large grin of malevolent intent appearing on her face. "After all, ghosts aren't immune to danmaku."
Kana quickly figured out what Elis was meaning, the poltergeist picking up all the nearby rubble of the buildings that were destroyed during the attack, using her telekinesis to pick up the rubble and shoot it towards Elis and Miyuki.
"Oh look, clay pigeons~!" Elis cooed, the demon pointing her wand towards the rubble. Without any care that they were once a part of the buildings of this area of the capital, she let out a powerful and widespread lightning attack, the elemental attack breaking apart the building pieces, still heading forwards towards the poltergeist that threw them. Not wanting to feel pain, Kana flew out of the way of the lightning, the electrical sparks barely even grazing her ghostly skin. Kana let out a sigh of relief, only for long, sharp claws that were as dark as a cloudy night to stab through her spectral torso. "Good one, Miyuki. That aught to make you more chipper~!"
Despite already being dead, with the claws stabbing through her body not even being a scratch to her spectral being, Kana could still feel them; and the pain that they inflicted on her algophobic being.
Kana let out an ear-piercing scream, causing Elis and Miyuki to cover their ears as they let out their own unholy shrills of pain, their advanced hearing making the scream something even more horrible than it was Rikako, Kotohime and Ellen.
Elis and Miyuki fell to the ground, passed out from the scream.
"Well, that was unexpected." Kotohime commented. The princess suddenly felt a large shadow cast over her, looking up and seeing a giant demons with fur that were also blacker than the night, almost beings a living silhouette of a circle with arms, legs and claws, its only real features being glowing red eyes and pristine teeth that make that of a shark look dull in comparison. The demon swung a claw at Kotohime, the princess managing to squeeze her form through a gap between two of its three claws as she jumped. Kotohime landed on the claw as it slammed against the ground, causing a tremor and cracking the ground. The demons, previously smiling, let out a angry growl. Before the Makai creature could do anything else, Kotohime stabbed the tip of her katana into one of its eyes, the creature jerking back with a loud roar of pain, green blood flowing out of its eye. Kotohime was sent flying into the air as the creature lunged back, her katana becoming removed from the eye, letting more blood spray out like a geyser. With the cut eye closed, the demon glared Kotohime as she started to fall back down again, the Gensokian making a bomb, bigger than her usual ones, appearing in her hand. "Never mess with the greatest cop in all of Gensokyo!"
The demon let out a roar, the red-haired woman throwing the bomb into its mouth, swallowed whole. The demon widened its safe eye, exploding as the bomb within set off.
Kotohime landed on the ground, smiling victoriously. She pointed her katana at other Makai demons that watched what happened, her victorious smile becoming a smirk.
"So, do you want to mess with me?" Kotohime asked, the Makaians flying away.
"What a bunch of cowards." Elis said grumpily, the demon shooting a powerful blast of fire at Kotohime. The self-proclaimed police officer didn't have time to escape, getting set on fire, screaming in pain. Elis let out a laugh. "Howdoya like that, chump? Know better than to attack Makai. Hahahahaha!"
Rikako immediately felt her blood turn cold in her veins, the self-proclaimed scientist feeling her magic spark to life within in her as her friend was flailing around on fire, screaming in pain. Rikako was hesitant, know that once she unleashed her magic, it would be hard for her to stop it again; she really hates magic, but her friend...
In a sudden moment of genius, Ellen made a giant sphere of water appear above her, the witch using her magic to make it spray down on Kotohime, dousing the princess. Kotohime was lying down on the ground, her body and clothes burned. Ellen began to press her hands together, her palms facing towards the unconscious princess, a faint green glow coming from the palms, healing Kotohime's body and clothes. Kotohime blinked awake, sitting upwards.
"Oh, great, one of them can heal." Elis said sarcastically, crossing her arms over her chest. "How peachy...!"
"Actually, it is~." Miyuki cheered, appearing behind her blonde friend. "This means we can enjoy killin' and torturin' these humans some more for their sin of attacking Makai. And unlike last time, Sariel won't stop us from going all out of these humans."
Elis was suddenly sliced in half by a purple line that cut through the air, the two pieces of the demon's dead corpse falling to the ground. "That is for trying to immolate me!" Kotohime yelled angrily, the livid princess holding her sword tight, a somewhat insane smile gracing her face as Elis' two pieces began to form back together, the demon reviving. "That was just the tip of the iceberg~! For trying to poison Gensokyo and trying to kill someone of the royal Sonozika, I will have to personally punish you. The court has already judged you, and you are determined to be fit for the death penalty."
Miyuki wasn't intimidated or scared by the princess, summoning multiple icicles with sharp ends that could easily cut through human flesh, the dozens of pieces of ice pointing right at the four Gensokians. "These icicles have ended countless warriors, even those protected by armour have shed blood and lost their lives to be because of these icicles alone." The silver-haired demon then shot her hand out towards them. "Die!"
Kana just huffed, the poltergeist using her telekinesis to stop the icicles and make them point at Elis and Miyuki instead. The two Makai demons flew out of the way before they could be impaled by the icicles.
"Oh, we are so going to enjoy shreddin' you four to pieces~!" Elis said as she charged up a spell into the star on her wand.
"So, who wishes to die next~?" Keiko asked, the demon outstretching her arm into the sky, summoning a golden staff with a ruby at the end, her hand closing tightly around the summoned item.
"Ohohoho, I'm afraid that you're a few centuries too late." Mima said with a smirk on her face, the spectre aiming her sceptre at the demon. "And it is very bold of you to assume that you can defeat us when I can easily reduce you to nothing with a simple beam spell."
"Ha, did you forget what I did to the green-haired lady?" Keiko asked, the blonde demon pointing her magical staff at Mima. "I shot her right in the heart."
"Yes, and it was quite the nasty and painful surprise." Yuuka said from behind Keiko, the demon being caught off guard and flying a certain distance away before looking at Yuuka, the human completely fine, with even her clothes repaired. Keiko couldn't help but gawk at the sight before her; she thought that she heard in the stories that humans die without fault when their hearts were destroyed. Yuuka let out a giggle, "What? Didn't you hear that youkai can regenerate their hearts? It may work in killing us, but like most deaths it only really lasts for a few seconds for us youkai."
"W-w-what?" Keiko asked, the bat-like demon shaking and sweating all over.
"Aww, how cute. You look just like Kurumi whenever she gets scared~." Yuuka cooed at Keiko's pure fear, the action still being saintly when compared to her past as the Ultimate Sadist Creature. Yuuka suddenly stopped smiling and looked seriously at Keiko, the demon pointing her closed parasol at the demon. "Sadly though, you're not as cute as Kurumi, and you're kinda poisoning my home. It's a good thing that you're immortal though."
"Aww Hell no!" Marisa said as she appeared at Yuuka's side, the magician protégé making the youkai lower her parasol. "Didn't you hear me in the last chapter? I'm goin' to show her the awesome power of my love-coloured magic."
"Oh, I see." Yuuka responded, automatically changing from her serious tone to a calm and sensible one, the youkai floating away and gesturing her arm towards the human. "By all means, do as you wish to her."
"Just don't take too long, Marisa." Mima said as she sat down on her staff, the object floating through her nearly endless well of magical power. "Just don't take too long. Personally I don't mind the poisons in the air of Makai, but I've grown to soft to let it poison Gensokyo."
"Wait, poison Gensokyo?" Keiko asked, surprised by what the demon casually said. "What are yo-GAH!"
Keiko was jabbed right into the stomach and ribs by the tip of Marisa's broomstick, the magician covered in a blue glow as she was using her Flashing Comet spell. Reimu sat on Genji's shell, watching her friend take on the demon. Keiko growled, waving around her sceptre as she summoned a large barrage of red fireballs, the spell coming out the same way as a Stardust Reverie.
"Ha, you really think that's gonna stop me?" Marisa said as she summoned her Orreries System, the coloured orbs shooting magic stars at Keiko, the Makai demon mostly dodging, though some of the danmaku managed to either graze her or outright hit her. Marisa sniggered and sneered at Keiko as she continued to dodge the fireballs summoned by the demon. "C'mon, is that really all ya got? Give me somethin' of a challenge."
Reimu looked down at Genji, seeing a sense of tenseness in the turtle's eyes, the ancient being trying to hide it as none of that emotion was on his face. "Hey, Gramps, is something of the matter?" Reimu asked politely, tapping the turtle with her wooden wand. "You look... uneasy."
"I don't really want to wait too long with this battle." Genji said as Marisa began to summon multiple magical circles that appeared in the air, firing elemental attacks at Keiko as the demon tried to evade them. Two of Marisa's Orreries were destroyed, but she looked unharmed outside of faint singes on her clothes and broom. Keiko looked like she was scared out of her mind, yet continued to fight, even with the lose of all her previous bravado, the demon resurrecting shortly after she was destroyed by either the stars from Marisa's Orreries, or one of the elemental attacks. "It is your job as a full shrine maiden to always protect Gensokyo, and as you still can't fly yet, I must help you. I know we're not strong enough to defeat Shinki on our own, especially with we have the misfortune of coming across Yumeko, so we need their help, but..."
"Don't worry, Genji," Reimu said sweetly as she patted the top of the entity's head, the same entity gaining attention of her actions as she used his real name. "We can just end it if it goes on for too long."
Reimu looked back at Marisa, the magician standing on her broomstick as it was flying the opposite way that she was facing, all of her Orreries destroyed and most of her magic circles vanished. Marisa didn't let that deter her though, a large smile on her face as she somersaulted through the air, avoiding the fire attacks that Keiko sent towards her, landing back on her broomstick and pointing her magic wand at the Makai demon, the little star glowing.
"Sorry, but you're just no match for me~!" Marisa said as she unleashed a dense barrage of star-shaped danmaku of various colours towards Keiko, the demon letting out a scream as she could barely avoid the barrage.
"What's with her power?" A Makai demon of the capital grunted as it avoided spheres sent towards him and his comrades by the mysterious woman. "Just one hit from her, and we go down."
"It will be over much easier if you just let my spheres touch you~." Noroiko said in a sing-song voice as she summoned and shot countless curse orbs, hitting Makai demons of various shapes and sizes with the curse. "It's just a curse of unbearable pain, not a curse of eternal pain; you'll be incapacitated by the pain, but it will only last for a few hours. Just touch it, ha, ha, ha~!"
"I swear you're sadistic!" A humanoid Makai demon said as she floated away from the red-haired youkai, unaware of the faint image passing through the air behind her. "What sort of person likes to say people will be incapacitated by pain and-HURK!"
The demon was cut in half by Meira, the human managing to fly through the air at speeds that even the demons had trouble following, cutting and dicing them into pieces with her katana.
"You know, Noro," Meira said as she floated beside the bow-wearing youkai, the same entity enjoying the sight of all the demons that were writhing from the curse she casted on them, "You don't really need to cast a curse like this. You could just cast a curse on them to make them fall into a deep slumber."
"I know, but this is much more entertaining~." Noroiko responded in an almost whimsical way.
Meira just sighed, keeping her katana out as she vanished as a blur, using her sword to create white lines that turned into danmaku that shot towards the Makai demons. Noroiko just ignored her friend's view on her methods, even though she saw it as being infinitely more effective than just killing the demons over and over again until they're too exhausted to continue.
"Nightmare Spark~!" Gengetsu said as she fired a large beam of pure magic, annihilating multiple demons that were in her way.
She was suddenly hit by danmaku from her back and sides, the demon having not predicted to be caught by surprise. Gengetsu teleported away, outside of the range of the demons, the blonde looking to see that they were just a bunch of eyeball demons, shooting their jagged danmaku from their pupils. Gengetsu was ready to pelt them away with danmaku, maybe even unleash another Nightmare Spark upon them, but her sister decided to destroy them instead.
"Hey, I was going to destroy them...!" Gengetsu complained, the dream demon casually shooting danmaku at Makai demons that were reviving from the hit they got from her Nightmare Spark. "Don't you have your own group of Makaians to handle?"
"Yeah, but they're too easy~." Mugetsu responded in a sing-song voice, teleporting out of the way of a golden laser shot by a gigantic eyeball demon, the maid-cosplaying sister firing danmaku at the demon as she flew out of the way of the endless magic bullets it would summon, along with its laser beam. "These things ain't as fun as Reimu and Marisa, but they're entertaining."
"I know, that was one of the greatest battles I've had in the many years that I've lived and enjoyed danmaku battles." Gengetsu agree with her sister, compressing an immense amount of magical energy into a sphere above her hand, throwing the sphere towards a large group of fairy-like demons, the ball of magic exploding into multicoloured star-shaped danmaku; not quite off from the type of danmaku favoured by Marisa and Mima. "Those two humans are quite extraordinary, especially for their arrogant race."
"Yeah, I know," Mugetsu concurred as she slammed a foot down on the head of the eyeball demons, the kick sending it flying down towards the ground, the demon smashing against the ground, the half-blood/half-corpse of its body no doubt going to heal in a few minutes, "Usually humans are very weak, despite everything that they believe of themselves, but those two are something different."
"And so young too... Nightmare Spark." Gengetsu said as she unleashed the laser attack against a bunch of Makai demons, the ones escaping the beam being hit by the dense danmaku that fell down from the sky, obviously shot and summoned by the elder of the dream sisters. "I'm not even sure if they really are humans or just something else that think their humans."
"That's simply humans for you, Sister," Mugetsu said as she unlashed a giant bolt of white lightning upon a group of demons that were trying to catch her by surprise; the white electricity sticking out its myriad arms like a spiderweb as it struck the misfortunate creatures, the fairy-like entities exploding into pure magical energy. "Most of the billions of them are just boring, common and all around nothing special. Yet, every century, a certain human or two actually proves themself to stand out an be something more than a powerless bag of flesh that would only live for a few measly years."
The large eyeball demon that shot out the laser flew back up into the air, once again unleashing a barrage and a giant laser towards the two sisters. Gengetsu blocked the laser with her Nightmare Spark, the demons' lasers being the exact same size, unable to destroy each other until both demons stopped their laser attacks.
"What do you say, Sister?" Gengetsu asked as she looked towards her younger, weaker sister. "Shall we show this demon why we are the two most terrible, most fearful demons."
"That sounds wonderful~." Mugetsu responded, the two sisters laughing evilly like axe-crazy maniacs, unleashing their own waves of danmaku against the larger demon, the poor creature of Makai not aware of how infinitesimal of a chance it has.
Elly and Kurumi were surrounded by broken buildings as they chose to also stay near the ground, though they were far away from the group that took part in the Dimensional Dream incident. The shinigami was relying on her usual attack of throwing her curved scythe around like a boomerang, the weapon cutting clean through the demons whenever they made contact, too fast for any of them to react before the blade of the scythe cut through their flesh and bone. The curved weapon even managed to destroy some danmaku along the way, though Elly still relied on danmaku.
Kurumi, however, wasn't having as much of an easy battle against the Makai demons as her friend and master would have, getting covered by cuts and damages all around her, still managing to shoot her lasers through the demons. Though, as many more began to appear, and even more kept on healing from the damages done to them by the two friends, it was becoming even more of a difficulty for the poor youkai, sweat marring on her forehead and underneath her armpits.
Elly looked to her side to her friend, taking deep breaths as she continued to fire more lasers towards the Makai demons. "Hey, Kuru, you okay?" Elly asked, the shinigami changing the shape of her scythe, becoming more like the regular scythe, using it to cut up an demons that were coming close. "You look like you could use a rest... You're literally sweating an entire pool there."
"It's okay." Kurumi reassured with a tired smile. "It's just that we're fighting more demons than I expected... I didn't believe that I would go exhausted this early."
A giant demon, one with the form of a big wolf of grey fur, lunged at Kurumi, the demon ready to bite off the youkai's head. Elly was quick to react, using her skills with a regular scythe to cut of the demon's own head before it could properly process what happened.
"Don't worry, Kuru." Elly said as she stared at the various Makai demons surrounding her and the youkai, keeping hold of her sharp scythe. "I will protect you."
"I don't need protecting, El." Kurumi responded, blushing slightly as she glared at her friend. "I've protected the Lake of Blood and Mugenkan perfectly for years, I can handle these enemies."
"It doesn't matter how strong you are, I will still protect you for being my dear friend." Elly responded calmly, the shinigami and bat youkai blasting more danmaku at the Makai demons, the two girls hoping that the demons would run out of energy or yield to pain before they would.
"I'm sorry, but you won't prove yourself to have good data." Yumemi said as she surrounded herself and Chiyuri with Infinity Bombs once again, releasing dense torrents of danmaku and making crosses of artificial magic fall from the sky. The demons tried to get past the barrier that the Outside World human put up with her destructive forces, barely able to get even their danmaku through. In fact, some couldn't even get a chance to find an opening in the sphere of endless explosions that the two were surrounded by as the crosses stabbed through their bodies like wet paper, dragging them down to the ground and exploding. "You're lucky I didn't decide to land the Probability Space Hypervessel here and begin my magic research here, because you would never get enough magic data before the deadline."
"The only thing that will be dead here is you filthy Gensokyo-inhabiting humans!" One angry Makai demon yelled, waving its fist like an old man complaining about the kids of the new generation.
"Wow, do you kiss your mother with that mouth of yours?" Chiyuri remarked as she shot a large burst of giant danmaku bullets that cut through the air, the blonde Outsider also summoning multiple magic circles that shot out lasers at odd angles. A profound look was suddenly in her eyes as she began to think about the remark. "Wait, since they're all meant to be Shinki's creations, is she technically their mother? And do they kiss her?"
"That's an interesting question." Yumemi responded calmly as she wrote it down in a small notebook that she suddenly had in her hands. "I got to remember to ask Shinki these questions if we manage to get on good sides with her."
"Shinki is our creator, not our mother." Another Makai demon yelled. "And you will never be friends with her for siding with The Monster."
"Oh, I see. That is multiple levels of disappointing." Yumemi said calmly as she scribbled out the words that she wrote down on the notebook. She paused, the human quickly writing something down into the book before shutting it and putting the item and pen into a mysterious hammerspace. Yumemi then pointed a palm towards the Makai demon. "I guess what Mima did was unforgivable, so you also consider us unforgivable. I see there is no point in trying to apologise, but do know that we aren't necessarily siding with Mima; it's more like we have a but of a common goal here."
"Wait, what?" A gruff Makai demon asked, confused as much as the other Makaians in the area.
"Yeah, we don't know what Mima did, didn't even know that Makai even existed for a long while, but we still can't let you poison the place we now live in." Chiyuri said, summoning the circle of artificial magic that she used in her battle against Reimu, shooting dense streams of danmaku from the small circles attached, the plain, white danmaku moving towards the demons quickly, hitting them. "You can't just damage a place to dangerous degrees and not expect those that live there to not retaliate."
"That's exactly what you're doing, Gensokians." A Makai demon said, charging up a sphere of green energy, but it was hit and reduced to mist by the Outsiders' danmaku.
"Yes, we are retaliating." Yumemi said casually, surrounding herself and Chiyuri with even more endless explosions of Infinity Bombs. It would be even more nigh impossible for any of the demons to make their way to the two humans; only a Makai demon that is far stronger than the average citizen of the dimension would be able to get a hit on either of them. Yumemi's calm expression melted away, the gears that ran her brain were already turning as she started to think more about what the demon said. She looked towards the girl at her side, the blonde noticing the nervous, dubious look in the older woman's eyes. "Chiyuri... do you think that we are the ones that are attacking, and that the Makai demons are the ones retaliating...?"
That was an unexpected question.
Usually, at least in most of the works of fiction that she read, demons from a poisonous dimension invading another place in the universe, even if that place itself has its own fair share of supernatural creatures, is usually just a demonic dictator trying to conquer more places and all that other cliché (though not entirely unwelcomed) stuff.
Genji said that he wasn't certain why Shinki was suddenly sending demons to Gensokyo. All that anyone really knew is that if it isn't stopped, whatever it is, Gensokyo would end from the poison attached to the demons, or something like that. Besides, the demons were rude and kept on destroying everything in sight for fun... Okay, so the youkai and some of the humans are like that as well, but they are on a much smaller scope.
Then again, Chiyuri thinks she remembers seeing some demons exit their home as they started attacking. She thinks; she wasn't really paying attention.
Maybe attacking the capital of their home with a person who earned herself the moniker as 'The Monster' in a dimension like this was enough to make them think of them as evil. Maybe they are the ones attacking, and the demons are the ones retaliating.
Chiyuri growled in frustration, the Outsider grabbing her hair and pulling at it, not caring that she actually pulled out a few strands; this wasn't something that she thought would enter her mind today, or ever, really. She just knows that she woke up in bed, energised and spending a day off her new job as a scientist among the kappa in Gensokyo and enjoy the party. But if she knew this - questioning if she is doing the right thing by attacking demons in their dimension to stop them from entering Gensokyo - was going to happen, she would have just stayed in bed.
She knows she wasn't the kindest during that day that is known (or lack thereof) as the Dimensional Dream Incident, or even for some of the few days before that, but she was getting desperate to show the world that she once knew as her home that magic just exists.
(But those old farts that were the head of the scientific community of the Outside World refused to believe, making her and Yumemi pariahs. They were the persona non grata of the Outside World, she moved to Gensokyo with Yumemi)
Chiyuri sighed, not only was thinking about philosophical ideas and different perspectives definitely not her forte, but the constant sounds of the Infinity Bombs exploding indefinitely and the danmaku firing across the air, as well as the yells of the seemingly endless demons, were making it hard for her to think.
Chiyuri heard a grunt of pain come from her side, seeing Yumemi hugging her stomach as her face was scrunched in pain. The other Outsider let out a gasp, but the other girl put up a hand before she could do anything.
"It's okay, compared to what Reimu did back when we first met, this is nothing..." Yumemi grunted, reaching back into her hammerspace and pulling out a smartphone, a grin on her face. "I think it's time for some reinforcement. And I'm sure our little protégé in engineering will appreciate this opportunity."
Adequate lights were projecting down on her medium-height frame, the girl wearing goggles as she used a wrench to tighten a bolt, focussing to get it exactly right. She has been working on this for what has felt like forever ever since she got back her access to the advanced technology of the Outside World; the minutes passing in seconds, the hours in minutes, the days in hours, the weeks in days, and so forth.
When ever Rika got into the zone of inventing, especially when concerning her tanks, the rest of the world might as well not exist to her unless she needs it.
It was her biggest achievement in her entire life; a breakthrough in the power of Gensokyo's ingenuity and science. Though after seeing how great the technology was in the otherwise elusive Kappa Village, she did feel a slight depression that her achievement was considered only slightly above mediocre.
But she didn't let that keep her down, in fact she let the more advanced technology teach her that she can definitely improve even more. That was enough for the fire of her determination to be set alight once again.
Her face and clothes were dirty, covered in black smudges, though it was all more than worth it if it allowed Rika to advance her Evil Eye Sigma further.
Rika removed the wrench from the bolt, placing it down on the ground next to other scattered tools, like a screwdriver and hammer, more nuts and bolts laying down on the ground. Rika slammed the panel back on the odd, yet incredibly powerful, tank. Rika quickly ran away, the girl not waiting too long to reappear with a welding mask and the rest of the proper equipment, welding the panel back on. Rika quickly ditched the equipment and was back in her regular lab clothes, not caring for the dirty smudges that were still covering her from head to toe.
"Alright, let's see how you do now~." Rika said enthusiastically, entering inside the Evil Eye Sigma. Yumemi, Chiyuri and Rikako would usually get someone else to test if their inventions work, or if they are going to explode all around, usually getting one of the kappa to test it, as death is more like a stubbed toe for them, but Rika was different; ever since she made her first tank at a young age (albeit it was more like a toy tank that was barely bigger than her hand in the present time), she was always the one to test it out. Sure she has been exposed to more explosions than most humans would survive, but it managed to make her capable of surviving something like that.
Rika then felt a rumble in her pocket, the girl looking down and taking out the device in her pocket, a black rectangle, known as a 'smart phone', an item from the Outside World that Yumemi and Chiyuri decided to bring to make communication between them, Rika, Rikako and the kappa much more easier.
Rika glanced at the screen, seeing the picture of the red-haired Outsider. Rika smiled, swiping the green circle on the screen and moving the phone to her ear. "Hey, Yumi~!" Rika said happily, her overall good mood making her refer to the other girl by her little nickname for her. "How's it doing in this Makai?"
"It's... kinda going bad, really." Yumemi responded, the sounds of explosions and danmaku and lasers shooting through the air in the background of her message. "Some stronger Makai demons are starting to appear, and they're somehow finding a way to get past my barrier of Infinity Bombs. Do you think that you're finished with your Evil Eye Sigma."
"Think? I know I'm finished." Rika responded triumphantly with bravado. "Not only is this thing bigger, stronger, flashier and all around awesomer than before, but I even managed to make it that you can breathe in it when underwater, in space and even in a poisonous dimension like Makai."
"Ah! …Uh, that's good for you. Really...!" Yumemi responded as the sounds of explosions, danmaku and lasers became louder, with more and more sounds of struggling coming from the phone. "Hey, do you think you could come over to Makai. Like, right now. We're going to need help."
Rika could hear the sound of Chiyuri screaming in the background, the same Outsider letting out an angry grunt before a loud sound of danmaku firing was heard.
"There, that'll show ya!" Chiyuri yelled.
"So yeah, if you could come over right now- Oh, hold on a sec..." Yumemi said, letting out a yell as she presumably fired some danmaku at the immortal non-humans of Makai. "Yeah, we could really use your help...!"
"Don't worry, Yumi, I'll come over and show them - and Rikako - that my Evil Eye Sigma is the greatest tank in Creation, and that they're no match for it." Rika responded, the girl entering her tank from the removable panel at the top of the tank, not caring that she is still covered by the smudges, the black marks spreading to the chair and the many knobs and buttons as she pressed down on them. The Evil Eye Sigma made a whir as it turned on; becoming alive. Soft, dim lights glowed within the tank, the dress-wearing tank floating up into the air. Rika let out a laugh. "Those demons won't know what's gonna hit them."
"That's... that's good." Yumemi responded hesitantly. "Just..."
Yumemi mumbled something quickly, her voice being inaudible from the booms and static. Yumemi hung up before Rika could question her, the Gensokyo native shrugging it off. She clasped the handles of the Evil Eye Sigma, the handles like something from the Outside World that Yumemi and Chiyuri showed her from photos and videos - she believes it is a motorcycle.
Getting a signal of where Yumemi is located, Rika spoke into the microphone within her tank. "Alright, open up the door." Rika said, the large, metal door in front of her opening. Rika chortled with excitement that could barely be contained, the engineer and her advanced tank flying through the air, heading towards a location near the Hakurei shrine; the portal to Makai.
"Damn, that took far longer than I expected." Orange huffed, Matenshi was beside her, doing the exact same action as they were both left exhausted by the battle. Even with their combined strength, they could barely defeat the demon, and even then they were killed quite a few times, the only reason why they didn't lose to the electric demon being that they can revive nearly an infinite amount of times, and even then it was because only one died at a time. The electricity surrounding Orange's baton died out, the youkai glaring at the five disks that composed of YuugenMagan. "How are you so strong?!"
"YuugenMagan is a proud and powerful demon of Makai." YuugenMagan responded, its eyes in the form of swirls. "YuugenMagan should have won...!"
"Well, you're no match for a duo like us...!" Matenshi cheered, the youkai and her friend bumping fists. "You should have known that you would have never stood a chance against us."
"But YuugenMagan remembers killing both of you multiple times." The yellow demon responded, its eyes returning to normal as it gave an annoyed look towards the two. "If neither of you were youkai, you have both died once and lost to YuugenMagan."
The two youkai ignored the demon, the stone doors of the portal to Makai opening up by an invisible force. Before either of the two could walk further and enter, something flew through the air at high-speeds, breaking Orange and Matenshi's eardrums as it managed to squeeze through the rock door.
The three non-humans blinked as they processed what happened.
"What was that?" Orange asked, staring at the bright light of the gateway's entrance.
"I believe a giant creature in a green dress jus flew right past us, though it had a body most odd." Matenshi answered, not getting much of a better look at the creature due to the faint lapse in time that she saw it. The purple-eyed woman then widened the aforementioned eyes. "Orange, do you think that it was a Makai demon?!"
Orange paused and bite her tongue, having little to no suspicion that it wasn't a demon of Makai.
Her only guess of it being something other than a Makai demon was that it was a Gensokyo youkai that found out about the incident that the duo heard of from that odd maid at the Hakurei shrine, either having a form that neither of them knew about prior, or it was just an illusion of the mind as a similar-looking youkai passed by at high-speeds, possibly a tengu looking to take some pictures and use it to make an article for the Bunbunmaru Newspaper, or some other newspaper business that she had nothing to see before.
But even then, Orange could guess that it has a very minimal chance of being true
"No, it's not a Makai demon." YuugenMagan said as it laid completely flat on the ground, bored, red eyes looking up at the azure sky. "YuugenMagan knows Makai demon when Makai demon close, and that is not Makai demon."
YuugenMagan was left paused as it continued to look up at the now exposed sky of Gensokyo, hoping that Lady Shinki or one of the Youkai Saints would fix the damage that Hakurei Maiden and The Monster made. The eyes on the disks that were YuugenMagan widened as the pupils shrunk to the size of an ant, seen by the perspective of a very tall human, or humanoid.
"Halt! You must defeat...!" YuugenMagan began, the gatekeeper stopping as it seemingly let out a sigh from all the eyes on its body, or at least around its eyes. It felt exhausted, absolutely tired from that immense attack Hakurei Maiden shot towards it, as well as from those attacks by the two youkai - though it was particularly from the former. YuugenMagan just hopes that the Hakurei Maiden is under mind control and not siding with The Monster willingly. If that former is the case, then The Hakurei Maiden will be spared to wrath of Lady Shinki. "Auugh…! Great Lady Shinki in Pandemonium, YuugenMagan can't fight anymore...!"
"Should we do something about that demon?" Matenshi asked, the angel-like youkai suddenly having holy crosses in her hands. "We could exorcise him from Gensokyo."
"Nah, I feel like he's suffered enough, and this is coming from someone who suffers misfortune daily." Orange responded, the baton-wielding youkai jumping into the bright light within the stone door. Matenshi shrugged and threw the crosses at YuugenMagan - the cheap fakes not doing a single piece of damage to him, following after her new best friend.
Orange and Matenshi both hoped that they would have the luck of not encountering any Makai demons right away, letting their regenerative abilities heal them to full health (or at least somewhere near there) before they fight against some of the Makai demons, or even have a chance to be cool and save the lives of one of the other Gensokians (maybe even that shrine maiden herself) and feel like a success for once.
But, considering fate's hatred of both them with every part of its abstract being (or its love to be a sadist and make them both suffer even more than it does with most people), they instead just had to arrive as a bunch of Makai demons that looked like they could be an entire army.
There were many demons of various sizes and colours, it was almost hard to believe that only one entity created all of them. Almost.
Two demons that particularly stood out were a demon with a female humanoid form, having hair at a shade of purple that was so light that it looked pink, wearing a red dress with some white around it. The other was a blonde demon, wearing a dress of white and purple.
At the very least, the two Gensokyo youkai were lucky enough to not be noticed by the demons; the Makaians looking away as they looked at the large city in the distance.
"What was that?" The blonde demon asked. "All I remember is returning from that green-haired lady's giant beam attack, and then suddenly this big, black and green thing just flew over and passed us."
"I don't know, Louise. I don't know." The red dress-wearing demon to her side responded. Even though neither of the two Gensokyo youkai, quietly sneaking past the two demons, could see her face, the way her body tensed and a growl tore out of her throat were enough evidence to Orange and Matenshi that she was getting angry, confirming it with an angry swear. "I never thought that The Monster would comeback, especially as a ghost. I was certain that by now she would be burning in the deepest, hottest, most torturous region of Hell. Instead she's back and bringing a shrine maiden and a tone of fire power with her...! Dammit!"
The demon then stuck two of her fingers into her mouth, letting out a high-pitched whistle, attracting the attention of the Makai demons.
And causing all of them, with the exception of her and Louise, to see them. What rotten misfortune!
"Alright, listen up now." The main demon said, her hands akimbo as she seemingly looked at the other residents of the demon dimension. Of course, the other demons were looking past her and towards the duo, though it didn't seem like she was aware... For this transient moment. "I know you'll wanted a vacation in Gensokyo, get to see the sights, try the cuisine, and enjoy some simple danmaku plans. I wanted to enjoy that as well, but it seems like Gensokyo - or to be more exact, The Monster - has launched an a war against us today. Whenever that is a good or bad thing depends on how you look at the subject. She is probably going to try what she did when she last came here once again, maybe even something worse. I still remember when I saw her, her bodies covered in..."
"Umm... Sara." Louise said, tapping the other demon on the shoulder.
Sara looked at Louise, the demon raising an eyebrow in confusion, "Yes?"
"There's some more Gensokians behind you." Louise said flatly, pointing at the youkai duo.
Sara turned towards the two youkai, immediately glaring at the Gensokians. "So you two are teaming with The Monster, aren't you?" The demon accused, going into a fighting stance as a red aura surrounded her, air shooting out every which way from her power. "If you wish to go any further, I will end you both. I know what you youkai are like, killing you may only be temporary, but it will be enough for me to figure out how strong you are."
"I-I'll fight as well." Louise said, the magic-oriented demon making the air around her rise, spheres of pure magic appearing above her hands. "I usually don't like fighting, but I can't let this invasion go on. I don't want Makai to be either erased off the face of existence or to be taken over by The Monster."
"If you fight against us, you will stand no chance." Orange said, pointing her baton towards the many Makai demons in front of her and Matenshi. "This baton of mine can drain people's powers and allow me to use it. Try to fight me and-"
Sara was suddenly in front of Orange, the purple-haired demon upper-cutting the youkai underneath the chin. Despite still being stronger than the average human, physically at least, Orange's head went shooting up into the sky, her decapitated corpse falling down to the ground. Matenshi gasped at sight of her friend, without a head as blood leaked out of the opening.
Matenshi faced towards Sara, the angel-like youkai preparing to fire lasers and danmaku at the demon, but before she could react, she was shot through the chest by a blue laser, the youkai being pelted by red, rocket-shaped danmaku, falling down as a burnt corpse.
"Hmph, they were easy." Sara said, the demon turning around and facing towards the other Makai demons, her hands akimbo. "Alright, all of you stay here in case any other youkai or whatever enter in from Gensokyo. If you spot one of them, unleash hell on them. Be sure to do the same to those youkai."
Sara was pointing at the corpses of Orange and Matenshi, already regenerating from the damage done to their bodies.
"Louise and I will go back to The Capital and try to stop the attacking Gensokians; we're stronger than the average Makai demon, as you all know, so we will be the ones to fight them." The purple-eyed demon continued, looking towards her blonde friend. "Are you ready, Louise?"
"Y-Yeah... I guess so." Louise stuttered, the two demons flying off back to the buildings in the distance.
"Dammit, hold still, human!" Keiko yelled as she continued to shoot fireballs at Marisa, the magician just continuing to smirk at her as she fired her signature danmaku at the demon, avoiding the fire that the demon kept on sending her way. "I'll burn you to a crisp skeleton!"
"You should really get your temper under control." Marisa sneered at the red-eyed demon, waging her finger at her. Marisa then started waving her wand around as she summoned swords made of water, the conjured weapons flying towards Keiko. "If you get controlled by your rage, things are just gonna get worse for ya~!"
Keiko dodged the swords, summoning red magic circles around her, the circles firing lasers of the exact same colour towards the blonde human. "Shut up and lose to me!" Keiko yelled, not listening to what Marisa was saying; these Gensokians had just suddenly came to Makai and began beating everyone up and destroying the buildings. And for what, just wanting to enjoy some time within Gensokyo? What a bunch of jerks!
Then again, The Monster is with them, so it would make sense that they would be so willing to hurt people for the sake of it.
"Hey..." Marisa waved at Keiko casually, the magician protégé lying on her side, a mellow expression on her face, enough proof that she didn't take this battle seriously. "Sorry, but I got places to go, people to beat, so I'll end this quickly for ya."
Before Keiko could do anything, her wand was kicked out of her hand by Marisa, the item disappearing into the abyss of darkness hidden within the buildings. The demon paused as she looked at her empty hand, being one of the few Makai demons that need an item like a wand to use their powers properly.
"Fu- Fudge!" Keiko said, stopping her swear. Though it was rather meaningless for her to stop as Marisa pointed her magic wand at the demon at point-blank range.
"Burst. Dragon." Marisa said, a large smirk on her face. Keiko was hit without a chance to escape or counter, being hit by a dragon made of fire, the creature exploding upon touching her. Keiko fell down to the ground, a trail of smoke coming from her as the unconscious demon sunk into the same abyss as her wand.
"There, that wasn't too long." Marisa said as she faced towards the other four with her, throwing her wand up and down, the item spinning whenever it was in the air. "Now lets get to Shinki and kick her butt already. I've been looking forward to fighting her when I heard about how strong she is."
"It... would be nice to have a rematch against Shinki, though I'm afraid it will have to wait." Mima spoke calmly, pointing towards a bunch of fairy-like Makai demons flying towards them, firing various forms of danmaku towards the five, even though they were nowhere near close to humans and non-humans. "It seems that despite how quickly that battle was resolved, the sheer flashiness of it alone was enough to attract the attention of more annoying weaklings."
"Oh..." Marisa said, looking away as she had some sort of look of an epiphany in her eyes. "I guess sometimes danmaku shouldn't be all flashy."
"Indeed." Yuuka responded calmly, the youkai looking towards the swarm of Makai demons, seemingly more and more of them joining the fray as they came closer and closer. Yuuka just smirked, pointing her parasol at them, magic glowing at the tip. "Oh well, a few more seconds isn't going to make the end of Gensokyo imminent. Just a little blast, and they'll be gone in no time."
Mima pointed her staff at the oncoming demons as she surrounded herself with her own Orreries, of course the demons were aiming towards her because of the infamous action she caused countless years ago; Reimu prepared her gohei in case she had to whack any of the demons, the Yin-Yang Orbs by her side glowing with holy energy as Reimu prepared to fire holy danmaku; Marisa sat back down on her broomstick, prepared to cast some more spells as Keiko proved to be too little of a match for her and her love-coloured magic; Yuuka smiled as she closed her parasol once again, wanting to end it quickly and swiftly, for all of them.
And it was over quickly as Fantasy Seals, Stardust Reveries, Dim Sparks and Master Sparks when flying through the air, reducing the Makai demons to a mist of atoms, though they would soon resurrect due to their supernatural abilities as non-humans.
"Ha, that was barely even a challenge." Mima said as she made her Orreries disappear. "We should get to Shinki in relatively little time, unless if we face Yumeko."
Genji made a large audible gulp upon the thought of having to fight the demon maid; even though Shinki is stronger than her, her tactics and abilities can make for a horrifying time. Reimu was well aware of the fear that was one Genji's face, and she could even see a faint spec of the same emotion behind Mima's smug mask.
Marisa and Yuuka looked at each other and merely shrugged, though Reimu could feel nervousness slowly develop in her stomach; an enemy that is feared by the likes of Genji and Mima is someone that is better off avoided.
It didn't help that Reimu had a feeling that she would encounter and be forced to fight this Yumeko.
Nevertheless, Reimu didn't make Genji stop as he flew her forwards with the rest of the quartet; if Genji and Mima can fly further, deeper into Makai, knowing that there is a possibility to fight this mysterious Yumeko and not even show fear as they flew forwards, then she should not be afraid. She is no longer a trainee, she is a full Hakurei shrine maiden (unless if you think otherwise, due to her not having the ability to fly), and she must fight for Gensokyo's survival, no matter what.
Even if she gives her life so Gensokyo to survive... that is her duty as shrine maiden.
"Hold on, wait." Yuuka said, the powerful youkai stopping. Genji, Marisa and Mima stopped to look at her, the green-haired sniffing at the air. "I smell... something odd. Like it's both demon and human..."
"Hey, look there!" Reimu said as she pointed towards the distance, a blurry shape of blue, pink and yellow flying right towards them, the odd aura coming closer along with her, her shape becoming more defined as she was no longer such a distance away.
"A little girl?" Mima questioned as the human (?) came closer towards them, tears in her eyes. "That's strange, I don't remember seeing her any previous times I went here, and Shinki has never created a human child before."
The girl stopped in front of them, her arms stretched out towards her sides, tears in her eyes.
"Please... please stop!" The girl sobbed. "Please, stop destroying my home!"
Sorry for the lateness of this chapter (at least when compared to how frequently I usually post a new chapter of this fic), there were a few days where I could barely write anything, so this is later than I hoped it would be.
Yeah, no love for the original character. It kind of dawned on me that, since I will be writing for basically every character that has appeared in the past, through one way of another, I won't be able to write that much about completely original characters, with everything that I have to make, and such.
Whops...
Of course, like I promised, Alice did appear in this chapter, and Rika is finally making her appearance with the Evil Eye Sigma. Oh yeah, and Sara and Louise are going to have some fight scenes, but obviously not against any of the main four.
The next chapter will be more focussed on a fight between Alice and the main quartet, or at least scenes with them. Maybe there will be some more of the battle against Konngara and Sariel, I don't know.
But the chapter after that will definitely be focussed on the others, at least more than the main four.
All reviews, even ones of constructive criticism, are accepted and appreciated.