Touhou Miss Adventure
Episode 19: Feelings in conflict
As they exited the garden of cherry blossoms, Youmu made a sigh of relief, "Finally away again."
"Don't you love Yuyuko?" Sanae asked carefully; sensing a lot of tension in the subject.
"I do, but… her love is suffocating, it's a little too much… I never get a rest." Youmu muttered, not sure what to tell and what to keep quiet.
Marisa snickered, while clutching her sides, "Oh, never going to let you rest, huh?"
"Shush, you." Youmu said, as she was getting annoyed.
Sakuya gave her a concerned and sympathetic look, "You have to tell Yuyuko. A relationship is built on healthy communication."
"Healthy? But her girlfriend is already dead, bit too late for that." Marisa snickered at Youmu's dilemma.
"Marisa, please…" Sakuya lectured. "Don't speak ill of the dead."
"I never get to have fun…" Marisa made a fake pout.
When they arrived at the gate of Mayohiga, two familiars' familiar faces greeted them.
"Excuse me! Is Yukari home? We want to kill her in cold blood." Marisa pipped at them.
Ran made a perplexed expression by the sheer number of people, before she replied. "...My master has informed me that she doesn't wish to be disturbed, so we cannot allow you to see her."
"She should have thought of that... before stealing our Reimu!" Sanae snarled intensely.
Sakuya sighed before taking a few steps forward, glaring at Ran. "Miss Yakumo. We mean it! Tell Yukari to give us Reimu back, Or there will be blood!"
"I'm sorry, but I simply can't grant your request." Ran politely waved them off.
"I'm staying out of this, I don't have a quarrel with any of them." Youmu went off to one side and just looked at the group, "You go on though."
"Are you kidding me?!" Marisa exclaimed.
"You can remain passive if you want, but let me at least borrow your katana." Mokou asked firmly.
"I think you've got this, so I don't see a reason for that." Youmu knew Ran's strength, and it was not enough for how many had gathered to fight her.
Marisa gave her an accusing glare, "Are you trying to be funny?"
"Would I do that?" Youmu replied with a smug grin.
"... I do not care for you right now." Marisa was mortally offended that someone dared to act like her.
"ZE" Youmu made a smiling pose with her fingers, just to mock Marisa.
Marisa was about to make a comeback when she had to dodge a stray blast from Ran, "Wow there, didn't realize we already started."
"Darn you're slow!" Sanae mocked her, as she made a barrier for herself and her allies.
Marisa stared back in frustration. "You could have warned me! You know!"
"Get into position, you two!" Mokou commanded them, as Ran and Chen were charging up for another attack.
While Ran was charging her attack, her feline companion tried to flank the humans, but as she was trying to use her black magic, she was shocked and paralysed from behind. "I got a kitty!" Nue shouted triumphantly.
"Great job Nue! My Alien number one." Sanae beamed with pride.
"CHEEEN!" Ran erupted, going from confident to scared to enraged... hatefully she fired at Nue in retaliation.
Acting quickly, Sanae put up a barrier around Nue. Which gave Nue enough time to get out of harm's way.
The rest scattered out so that Ran had nowhere to evade, "Prepare to fire on my mark." Mokou ordered. "FIRE!"
With desperation, Ran spun backwards to try to avoid getting blown to pieces, she tried to use her supernatural border ability to disappear temporarily, but she knew it only delayed the inevitable defeat, as she sustained several minor wounds from the hailstorm of bullets unleashed from the humans.
Seeing an opening as soon as the shikigami reappeared, Sakuya temporarily stopped time and relocated herself behind the fox. "I am very sorry, but I don't have time for this." She took a knife and used the hilt, to hit Ran in the back of the neck, knocking her out.
"I told you that you had it." Youmu uttered nonchalantly.
"Thanks… Youmu… you were a great help." Marisa noted dryly.
"Two down, One more to go." Sanae chipperly said, this seemed to be going their way.
"Let's keep the momentum going girls. We are nearing our goal." Mokou proclaimed, as she and Nue made sure Ran and Chen couldn't move for the next couple of hours.
Sakuya gazed at their destination with a fierce look. "Yukari is up ahead…"
MEANWHILE. Reimu made a puzzled expression as she sipped her tea. "Why did you need to make it so dramatic when you're just inviting me over for tea?"
Yukari gave her a mischievous gaze, but said nothing.
"Never mind, of course it has to be dramatic when you're behind things." Reimu sighed in an exasperated tone.
"You know me so well by now, Reimu." Yukari laughed uncontrollably.
"So what exactly did you want? I doubt you invited me just to smalltalk, we could have done that at the mansion." Reimu knew there was more than meets the eye to this.
"Then let me get to the point of the matter," Yukari asked her and cleared her throat. "Why are you hesitating with Sakuya?"
To say Reimu was getting frustrated was an understatement. "...You of all people should know the answer, Yukari. Don't tell me that, in your old age, you've forgotten the duty of the Hakurei?"
Yukari huffed heartily, though you could see her eyelid twitching. "Such a trifling little thing? You surely underestimate me, my dear."
"Little!?" Reimu asked, not getting the hang of what Yukari was talking about.
Yukari sighed heavily, like she needed to explain such things to a child. "There are numerous ways around that. The first thing you can do is accept a male lover to impregnate you, with the understanding that that will be all of his involvement. A second option is asking the kappa for help. Science outside of Gensokyo can accomplish such feats as pregnancy among genders. The third option is for either myself or your friend Marisa to change your or Sakuya's gender to allow pregnancy."
"Seriously! Are you this bored?! Why do you care so much?!" Reimu asked, perplexed why this was suddenly, this youkai's problem, was well beyond her understanding.
"Indeed I am. it was funny to watch the drama unfold, but you would get nowhere without me." Yukari talked as if this was her favorite soap opera. "I guess you could say I got bored of the status quo."
Reimu rubbed the temples of her head, feeling a slight headache coming. "My God, It's always this way with you."
"You really ought to at least give it a tr-" Yukari stopped talking and got a distant look in her face, as if scanning a distant area for clues, "Oh they are here, faster than I expected."
"Who are?" Reimu looked puzzled, Yukari had stopped whatever she was saying mid-sentence.
Yukari locked up Reimu without another word, and gagged her.
"MHF!" Reimu tried to object but no words came out.
"Just sit tight and enjoy the show, my darling Reimu. your rescuers are here; have to make this look authentic." Yukari patted Reimu's cheek affectionately.
"HELLOOO YUKAARI!" Marisa shouted as they kicked open the front gate, when she noticed Yukari smiling at them, she asked with a grin. "Excuse me, we are looking for A Reimu, have you seen any?"
Yukari just pointed to where Reimu was seated, bound in place, unable to move a muscle.
Sakuya gasped. "REIMU! RELEASE HER AT ONCE YUKARI!" She snarled, ready to attack at any moment.
"If you humans can defeat me, you can have your prized Reimu back. Muhahaha." Yukari cackled, trying to sound as menacing as inhumanly possible. For the sake of Sakuya and Reimu's future, she would turn herself into a villain.
"You couldn't have made it simpler!" Mokou retorted and ignited flames around her, taking aim in the process.
Sanae and Nue also entered combat stances, ready to deflect or counter danmaku from every conceivable angle.
The battle began by the shout. "MASTER SPARK!"
"Marisa! DON'T!" Sakuya tried to warn, but it was too late.
The sparkling beam aimed right for Yukari… was swallowed up by one of Yukari's gaps.
Realizing what just happened, Sakuya glared at Marisa. "You IDIOT! Now we have to worry about that attack in the future!"
"I thought I could catch her by surprise, like, she wouldn't expect such a frontal attack right off the gate!" Marisa boldly stated her reasoning.
"Really, this girl…" Sanae rubbed her temples, to ease the headache.
Mokou decided to take charge and ordered. "Sakuya, Marisa and Nue, surround and attack Yukari simultaneously. Sanae, you and I will provide defense. And remember to keep moving, never be an easy target!"
"I want to free Reimu!" Sakuya firmly stated her intention.
Sanae nudged Mokou, while looking at Sakuya. "If we can do that, we can just bail, that way we won't have to actually win against Yukari."
Mokou nodded but firmly informed. "We need to make sure Yukari is occupied or weakened before making any such attempt though."
"Ahem… You do all know that I can hear you, right?" Yukari just looked at them, all amping each other up, "I'm being very generous letting you have this team meeting after the first shot has been fired…"
Sanae smiled in return. "And that's why you are the nicest kidnapper I have ever met."
"Well, shall we start in earnest then?" Yukari got into a stance.
"You know the plan! ATTACK!" Mokou shouted, they all launched at Yukari in a flanking maneuver and fired danmaku in an outward spreading pattern.
Youmu entered the gate to see an avalanche of colourful death and explosions in all directions. "Yeah no, I'm staying outside… In fact I might just head home, lady Yukari can probably fill in Yuyuko dearest later on."
The battle was like a rainbow of colour and destruction. To an onlooker from the outside, it looked like a few fast hornets trying to pin down a spider.
To Yukari, this may have been the most challenging battle she had gotten in centuries, not that she was in any mortal danger, as her many gaps consumed the otherwise lethal barrage of shiny death, but she had serious trouble targeting the swift moving humans.
Mokou did her best to direct her friends' attack pattern to seem as chaotic as possible, while she herself warmed up flames to such a degree, that the building itself began to catch fire. "If we fail, at least this building will be burned to ash."
At one point, Sakuya found an opening to force a knife on Yukari, but even with her time stopping ability, a gap always seemed to be opening right where she wanted to go. "That monster knows my powers TOO well!" She snarled to herself, as she just barely avoided being sent to another dimension by one of the gaps.
"Woah Sakuya, mind the gap, please." Marisa chortled at her.
"This is no laughing matter! Shut up and help me." Sakuya retorted.
Sanae and Nue made the perfect duo as the sword and shield, Sanae concentrating on keeping her barriers up and Nue firing from tiny 'purposely' placed embrasures in the barrier.
During the fight, Marisa was making loop de loops to avoid getting burned by her own 'Non-Directional Laser.' It was during this maneuver that Marisa noticed the kotatsu behind Yukari, and the two cups, why she observed this, she couldn't say, it could be a trick of the light, or it could be that Yukari deliberately gave attention to it… whatever the reason, Marisa's suspicion grew even further. "I hope my instinct is right on this."
Despite their rugged teamwork, Mokou started to get the impression that they were gaining the advantage little by little, mostly because none of the attacks fired at her had done next to nothing, to damage herself or her friends which she shielded with her flames, only once did she die. "Let's tighten the noose" She thought and moved in closer trying to maximise her flames' effective area around Yukari.
Seeing Mokou move in close, Sanae decided to do the same, with Nue and Marisa bombarding Yukari from behind the divine shields.
Yukari was actually not sure if she could survive just standing where she stood for any longer than she did, it was only by a hair's breadth that she slipped into one of her gaps and got away, but it was entirely too close to her liking. Reappearing above everyone she shouted. "Impressive, but enough dillydallying, let's take it up a notch."
This was answered when the gang sprinted up to yukari before she would have time to settle herself, they were met with the destructive spell 'Boundary of Wave and Particle'. Despite all of them taking dozens of hits from the rapid firing spell, Sakuya managed to stop time just long enough to actually injure the legendary youkai with the slash of a silver knife.
"Ouch!" If Yukari was ever in doubt about Sakuya's commitment, it was definitely gone. Now it was only Reimu's commitment…