Disclaimer: Touhou belongs to Zun.
A/N: Reimu's discount donations offers no refunds. This field of battle sure is getting interesting, huh? On with the show!
Midnight, Dream world of a frozen everything:
The first of the three spirits to charge, surprisingly, was Myon. And just like Youmu, it was fast.
"Twi-" Mima began to ready a twilight spark, before getting pounded in the gut by the ornery Myon. The wind knocked out of her, she doubled over.
Next to attack was Tojiko, raining bolts of lightning upon the field of ice at random.
"Frost Spark!"Before Yuyuko could begin to attack as well, I had already fired an icy spark at her. Doing the unexpected, the ghost simply stood there, and opened her mouth so as to... eat... it? She successfuly swallowed down the whole of the spark, before burping. She hadn't eaten since falling asleep, so she was quite hungry.
A hail of butterflies began to come from Yuyuko, but they were not nearly at her usual level. Yuyuko, being asleep, couldn't effectively use spells, and Yukari wasn't about to let her use her power. In the end, she just kept on firing wave after wave of butterflys, before a sneak attack from Cirno got her from behind. Cirno had a bone to pick with the ghost for eating her friend, you see. The distraction that Yuuka gave was the perfect time to sneak up on the ghost.
"Minus K Spark!" The spark passed through the ghost, but still froze her solid. As it impacted upon the floor, in the distance, another layer of ice was added to the endless room, making the plane of ice only get colder, before one of the bolts of lightning touched down on Cirno.
Mima continuously swatted at the angry ghost half, who dodged every swing of her staff and knife. However, Myon wasn't expecting a sneak attack from Yuuka, who simply grabbed its tail, and flung it at Tojiko's face. Two birds with one stone, as ghosts can touch eachother, even if Myon is not truely a ghost. The only reason that Yuuka could grab Myon like that, was that she had frozen her wing to her hand. The energy transfered, while not enough to actually hurt the ghost, was enough to allow a grapple. She had used a similar trick with her parasol once before.
Once more, the shattering of the spell could be heard, and the sleeping spirits vanished.
"Guh... Dammit...!" Yukari was starting to get winded by the battle, Mima and myself were starting to get exausted by the bomb spamming. Neither of us had a particularly large assortment of spellcards that weren't simply spell cards. Mine being master spark, and hers being twilight. Over the last century of being sealed, Mima had forgotten most of her spells, or was now simply too weak to use them. Magic is like a muscle of sorts, don't use it for an extended time, and you will weaken. Mima had honestly even forgotten why she had been sealed in the first place.
Cirno, on the otherhand, wasn't tired as of yet, though partially melted from the lightning. To have the realm of dreams under your control is like plugging your TV remote into a wall socket. Way more energy than needed.
"I'll just have to end this now! Boundry of Humans and Youkai" All three of us suddenly felt... very odd. Especially Mima, who felt her lungs fill with air. Wait, lungs?
Everyone within the room, save for Yukari, had been turned human. Mima was the only one left among us who could actually fight. Myself and Cirno were both little human girls now, while Mima was simply back to the way she was while alive.
"What the..." Yukari was surprised at what she saw, to say the least. Mima looked alot like Reimu, and like reimu, radiated holy energy. ...She could swear she knew that face...
"Great, I'm alive again... How does that even work...?" Both Cirno, and myself simply stood there shivering like crazy, while Mima talked to herself. We were a pair of human girls dressed in clothes made of ice. In a room which was also made of ice. Cirno was doubly cold, due to the sudden confusion of feeling cold as anything but nice. Cirno had never not enjoyed the cold as one would normally enjoy the warmth, The feeling was alien.
Yukari thought for a time, flipping through all of the past shrine maidens. Just who was it that she looked like?
Mima began to float off the ground, and her holy energy starting to darken.
"...You're the sister of the Great Hakurei, arn't you? The one who out of jealousy, killed her..." This revelation was shocking, to say the least. Even Mima herself had forgotten this durring her time sealed.
"Am I? I can hardly remember things of the distant past." Yin Yang orbs began to appear around her, but they were all black. There was no yang within the orbs, only yin remained.
"Why did you do it, why kill your own sister? You nearly destroyed the barrier, and with it, Gensokyo!" Yukari was no longer angry with Cirno, she was angry with the one that long ago she had bloodied her hand on. Yukari was the one who killed Mima, after seeing her end the life of her much strong sister in cold blood. Neither of them knew why, and probably would never find out, but Mima was actually incredibly jealous of her twin sister, Miko, the very first shrine maiden to take care of the border. Mima, no matter how she tried, couldn't hold a candle to Miko's power. Mima, one day fed up with it all, snapped. She took a knife, and ended her sister's life as she slept. It was on this day that Miko became a goddess, it was on this day that Mima was branded a murderer, for however short of a time it had mattered. Yukari, coming by to bug the pair of Shrine maidens, as she always had, walked in on the gruesome scene of Mima not only stabbing her sister, but stabbing her again, and again, Yukari only ariving for the 20th, and final, stab. She reacted without thinking, and as the 20th stab was about to land, a gap appeared, and the knife was lodged not in Miko's body, but in Mima's heart. Gensokyo had no shrine maidens, nobody to keep the border which had only been formed a decade before. With Mima's death, the world began to come undone around them. If not for the Great Hakurei, Miko, using her new power as a goddess, Gensokyo would be no more after only 10 years. With her power, Miko gave Yukari a parting gift. Miko had never made a descendant to carry on the line of the Hakurei, and now, she couldn't, so she did the only thing she could to save Gensokyo. She gave herself to Gensokyo, her very soul. Of that, a child was created. A descendant. This transpired 116 years ago, and the Great Hakurei, Miko, hasn't been seen since.
"I don't know..." Yukari slapped Mima across the face.
"Tell me!" Mima, who honestly couldn't remember, couldn't tell her.
"I can't remember." Once more Yukari slapped Mima.
"Tell... Tell me..." Tears welled up in her eyes, Yukari had fallen for the human girl, Miko. She had never told her these feelings, but she did.
"I'm sorry, I simply can't." Mima, even if she would be able to dodge the slap, chose not to. Even if she couldn't remember, she deserved every bit of punishment she got. The final slap was using all of Yukari's strength, and sent Mima flying across the room, skipping across the floor like a stone across a pond.
"Sorry?" Yukari's voice was but a whisper. "Sorry won't undo what you did, sorry is what you say if you bump into someone... not..." Yukari couldn't go on with her sentance, it was far too painfull. She didn't care about regaining the border of dreams, not today. Now all she wanted was to go back to sleep. Forget this happened, and sleep.
"I'm sorry." Was the last thing said, before the gap hag had left. They had not won by strength, they had won by bringing up old wounds of the heart.
