Hashirako/N: we own nothing of this, and, well, the Touhou P-Project series of games is owned by ZUN and Team Shanghai Alice... c-can you stop looking at me, please...?
Cirno took a moment to poke Suwako, who was still out cold. Itoshi's reaction at the disappearance of Inei (陰影 In'ei) (who she thought as a subordinate, which was the first mistake she made www) after Metis', for some stupid reason, was boredom. She stood up, and Kanako finally got a rest from supporting Itoshi's weight. She gripped onto Kanako's shimenawa rope, and took it from her. "Ow." It wrapped around her like a snake, and then started floating in the air, under her control.
Sanae watched from the ceiling, hanging from the rope that Itoshi had tied around her. She couldn't move. She couldn't imagine how someone this stupid managed to defeat them. Instead, she remembered it.
The purple lines flashed, blinding Sanae, and waking up the drunken gods, who had passed out earlier. The wind blew against them, shoving smoke into their faces. The shrine maiden coughed, and saw the two figures standing in the middle of it, who were wheezing horribly. She pitied them for a second. They spoke.
"We *cough* challenge the Moriya *cough* Shrine to a spell card duel!" said the white-haired girl. She looked awfully arrogant, and had gohei hanging from the waist of her dress. She hadn't met anything like her neither here nor in the Outside World.
"First of all, could you politely introduce yourselves? I am afraid it is quite a bad time for this kind of activity. It's 4 o' clock in the morning, about 4 hours before any of us should be awake." she politely rejected. "We could consider accepting at a later hour." she offered an alternative.
"No!" Sanae looked at her. "No? Why?" "Because we don't wanna!" The red haired youkai didn't seem to like being a part of the white-haired one's troubles, but she participated anyways. "y-yeah, we don't want to…"
It reminded her of Cirno and Daiyousei, if Daiyousei was a… "Hey, are you going to join the Moriya Shrine?" she didn't remember leaving any shrine maiden clothes, so she assumed she'd weaved it herself. "We do appreciate someone who has gone through the trouble of making her own outfit. These take a lot of faith to prepare, and blessing the clothes is much less consuming." the tsukumogami felt a bit guilty. "I shall thank you personally and guide you through the ropes of working at one of our shrines, when I've properly dealt with this woman." she pointed at the youkai with a weird dress.
"sorry, but I don't want to join…" it was both adorable and heartbreaking. Then, both girls picked up their respective weapons. The red haired youkai girl started giving off a dangerous and threatening aura. "We shall fight now, whether it is a spell card duel or not. The only thing separating these shall be bloodshed. We recommend the Moriya Shrine accepts this challenge, if they value their lives. Otherwise, we shall obliterate you and your property with the countless weapons that your grounds contain." Several onbashira started floating. "Take a moment, dearie. Let them get the hint by themselves." The foolish youkai somehow had this girl under her thumb. 'How powerful must she be to be able to control such a woman?' (Not that much, she's just specialized in restraining people through ropes and strings, but if she got her hands in something sharp and durable such as Alice's doll strings, cutting people in half would be a scary dream not far off. Power and stupidity are a grrreat pair for people annihilation.)
Sanae freaked out HARD. They were the ones in danger here, not them. She immediately called the goddesses, who had sobered up after hearing the onbashira thump back into the ground. They were at an advantage, and Kanako always could handle onbashira herself. Why was she so afraid of the two? Sanae concluded this was going to be an unending spiral of questions, and decided to ignore whatever she was thinking about.
They accepted, the Moriya being on the defense side.
The gods started flashily.
-Onbashira 「Willow Wood Pillar」-
The giant pillars shook out of the ground. Streaks of lavender bullets flew around them and spread through the battle grounds. The youkai took to the air, and, while Itoshi's ropes swung around madly, Hashirako's single staff dodged through the bullets swiftly, while the user herself soared through the battlefield, keeping watch of her weapon's path. The rope tsukumogami restrained the onbashira, letting Hashirako freely bring horror upon the gods. She had a sickening smile, by the way (It actually looked lovely, but Sanae was horrified at how brutal the pillar tsukumogami's attacks were.).
Kanako managed to swing an onbashira into them both, letting her and Suwako have a breather. She covered for Suwako using a non-spell, while the earth goddess gathered her own faith into her spell card. The wind goddess, at the same time, swung the endless onbashira that occupied the shrine grounds, while the air shifted around them, letting the pillars reach insane speeds, which snapped various of Itoshi's strings and ropes, and managed to get one hit on her. 2 more to go. Their bombs must be terrifying, now that she realized..
Suwako's eyes shined while she let her spell loose.
-Divine Tool 「Eight Million Rusted Rings」-
A myriad rings dashed around the battlefield, while Suwako hoped one of them would get a clean hit. Hashirako's staff blocked most of them gracefully, while she dodged the others. She also covered for her teammate, who had no way of getting around them. Itoshi gathered the cut rope to fix it up, while Hashirako blocked the rings. She used her bomb.
-Binding 「Invisible String of Fate」-
Unbreakable lines of string had cut the thousands of rings that had been speeding next to them, shaving hairs. The gods stayed quiet, unmoving, as they watched Suwako's spell card crash to the floor. "I ran outta rings. I RAN OUTTA RINGS!" the goddess panicked, and Kanako let a spell card she'd been charging, using Suwako's loss as- "I'm handling this! Don't use your spells yet." She let fear spread around the battlefield.
-Scourge Sign: 「Dead Frog」-
A literal storm of bullets hailed down from above. The tsukumogami had small gaps which to slip through, and were forced to use. As simplistic of an attack this was, it was quite bullet-dense. The unpredictable paths made them struggle while onbashira swung side to side. How this was allowed by the spell card regulation spoke volumes about the youkai's skills in dodging. The horror built up as the bullets piled up on the ground, not disappearing. Of course, it would never reach the level of topping up the entire battlefield, but pressure was underway. Itoshi made a momentary umbrella from the bullets, leaving time for Hashirako to attack once. Suwako was knocked away, and a metaphorical sun shined down onto them, as a BFB (Big Fucking Bullet) fell through the middle of the field, throwing Hashirako out of the field, who had took the bullet in Itoshi's stead. Now, it was a one-on-one standoff between the fool and a judgement by the gods.
-「Sorrowful Winds of Execution」-
Kanako took a moment to breathe. A light breeze blew dramatically, while her hair swayed. The string girl took it upon herself to make the first move, when a gust cut right above her head. A thousand invisible blades formed in the air, shapeless and natural. Unlike her teammate, Itoshi had less skill than her in dodging, so clenched her teeth to release yet another bomb, leaving her with one. It would be more than enough.
-Thread Sign 「Weaving Fate」-
A single piece of string flew through the cutting winds bravely. It did not let any cut through it, while the moments of invincibility that came along with her bomb defended her from the violent defeat that would have come. The seemingly harmless string wrapped around Kanako, and suddenly, bound her. The seemingly sentient piece of string removed her spell cards, and Itoshi won by default. Kanako was horribly stupefied at what had just happened. Did she just let herself lose? What kind of shitty writing is this? This is unfair!
Sanae didn't actually remember it all that well, but it was still embarrassing how a tsukumogami could be that powerful. That onbashira girl was hyper-scary…
The incident resolvers (and the culprit!) came in through the entrance to the basement, talismans flying into the room.
My fucking brain fried itself twice over while writing this chapter. God I'm bad at writing. And why did I give her the ability to manipulate normal strings and the 'strings of fate'? I'm just as confused as any of you. Also, there is no action next chapter, if you ask. I am unable to bear butchering the honor and beauty of spell card duels anymore.