(Author's Note: When I say 'Amulets', I am referring to the rectangular shaped bullets seen in the games. I believe that is their official name (I heard it from somewhere), but i'm not certain. Figured it best to notify that before the chapter.)
"Us people from Mars see you as a threat, so I came here to deal with you," Saiko said, moving her foot behind her as if she were getting ready to rush in. "Hope you don't mind."
Saiko dashed towards Sagume, giving her hardly any time to react as she reached her arm up to her face. Sagume dodged to the left, moving around her and backing away quickly, avoiding being touched.
'She's fast,' Sagume thought to herself, as Saiko remained still, turning around to face her. 'She rushed in with her hand out. Her ability is likely touch based, so I'd do well to stay away from her.'
"Hm, it's been a while since someone reacted to my attack," Saiko said, a smile emerging on her face. "This might be fun. I'll give you this, satellite dweller, you seem like the type to entertain me."
Sagume didn't respond, choosing instead to summon a mixture of red and blue yin-yang orbs, each firing amulets of their respective colour, in a crisscross pattern aimed at Saiko. Saiko moved upwards to avoid them, as they simply followed her movement upwards.
"Tch. Rather basic," Saiko sighed, as she rushed in again in an attempt to touch Sagume. However, the Yin-Yang orbs from behind her moved upwards, preventing Saiko's attack as she had to dodge further away. Sagume also stayed further away, summoning more Yin-Yang orbs in order to apply pressure upon Saiko.
Moon rabbits that were moving out to confront the Martian army looked up to see the bullet patterns, as well as two figures moving around, with one occasionally attempting to move in, but ultimately failing. Yorihime also noticed this happening, looking at the battle above the Lunar Capital.
"They reached her that quickly?" She asked herself, before shaking her head. "No, they must have something like that Youkai of Boundaries ability to transport them there. Even so, how did they know she was there?" Yorihime eventually shook these questions off, placing hope in Sagume's ability that she would reverse the situation if it got dire.
"You know," Saiko said, dodging between the bullets as they began to get more dense around her, too dense to be able to move upwards, downwards, or towards Sagume with any movement. "Dodging all this is really boring. Looks like i'm forced to play the range game, huh?"
As she said that, Saiko summoned regular bullets above, below, and to both sides of her, which soon transformed further into lasers, locking on to different Yin-Yang orbs and shooting straight towards them, obliterating them in one hit. She continued this, as well as some dodging and aiming some lasers at Sagume herself rather than the Yin-Yang orbs, which the Lunarian simply dodged herself, until all Yin-Yang orbs were gone for that moment in time.
"Sparing with Kasumi gave me all the practice I need to deal with bullets from familiars like that," Saiko said, as she eventually halted her assault. "Though, it was rather fun dodging all that. What's your name, satellite dweller?"
"Sagume Kishin," Sagume replied, moving further away from Saiko. "Orb Sign, 'Disorderly Flock's Duplex Curse'."
A wave of red Yin-Yang orbs began making its way towards Saiko, followed by a wave of blue Yin-Yang orbs. Both sets of Yin-Yang orbs had amulets trailing behind them, as they soon targeted themselves directly at Saiko. Saiko dodged, however, finding herself being followed closely by more amulets as they continued to be summoned. More Yin-Yang orbs were summoned, closing in at different directions as amulets slowly began to circle around Saiko, heavily limiting her movement and making it hard for her to escape.
"'Chlorine Trifluoride Ablaze'." Saiko said, as a pale, greenish yellow liquid was summoned around her, shooting out and coating the amulets that were closing in to surround her. Following that was a wave of fire. The amulets erupted into flames, burning them within nanoseconds to nothingness. This was followed up with a coating on the Yin-Yang orbs, also followed by flames that burnt them instantly also. Another wave of the liquid was fired out, with some directed at Sagume. Sagume dodged most of it, but found a little bit of a liquid part of her sleeve. Thankfully, she successfully dodged the round of fire following it, avoiding serious burns.
(Note: Chlorine Trifluoride is the most flammable liquid known today.)
"You give your special attacks names too?" Saiko asked, seemingly a little surprised by that fact. "It seems we have more in common than I first thought."
"Perhaps," Sagume answered, before summoning more Yin-Yang orbs in a circle around her. This time, however, those orbs fired their amulets towards Sagume, as they circled around her and eventually fired outwards in a circular pattern, with some more amulets targeting Saiko from either side. Saiko dodged through them, dodging the bullets targeted at her until one amulet managed to scrape her side, cutting through her clothes and causing a cut to appear on her body, which dripped blood down onto the Lunar Capital. Some more amulets closely came to her, slicing parts of her sleeves, and some cutting down into her arm.
"Alright, that's quite enough," Saiko said, seemingly a little annoyed at the preceding. With a swipe of her hand, lasers appeared at points on her swipe, with bullets appearing between them. They were fired out towards Sagume's patterns, colliding with her bullets with the lasers penetrating straight through them. Sagume dodged some of the lasers and bullets as they continued coming in denser patterns, the Yin-Yang orbs moving outwards to connect with some bullets and neutralise them. Sagume found herself at the upper hand in this duel, however, as only received a slight cut to the leg from one of the lasers fired out before changing her method of attack.
'As long as I have the upper hand, there's no need to use my ability,' Sagume thought to herself, before announcing the name of her next attack. "Orb Sign, 'Impure Body Detection Mines V2'."
"Then where's V1?" Saiko asked, as she too halted her onslaught of lasers and bullets. A snake-like structure of Yin Yang orbs emerged, moving around Saiko as they generated small mines behind them, which eventually exploded into bullets. The snake-like structure wrapped closely around Saiko, limiting her dodging movement. Saiko attempted to use her first attack, firing lasers at the Yin-Yang orbs in an attempt to destroy them. However, her attempt failed. "Oh?" She asked, surprised by the result as she felt one of the bullets hit her in the shoulder, as another one hit her on the chest while she was distracted.
Then, amulets began to home in on Saiko as well, severely limiting her window to dodge. "Damn it," Saiko said, gritting her teeth. "I'm not used to your style of fighting. Whatever, 'Germ Ridden Knives'." She said, as she began to shoot knives around her, connecting a neutralising with the bullets and piercing through the cards, allowing her to dodge with more open space around her. One of the knives hit one of the Yin-Yang orbs, which Saiko quickly picked up on and, with a snap of her fingers, the orb disintegrated. Saiko used this opportunity to escape the snake trap, brandishing another knife in between her index and middle finger as she threw it at Sagume with incredible speed and accuracy. Sagume attempted to dodge the knife, however it sliced her on the arm.
"Damn, not enough," Saiko muttered to herself, as she used her blinding speed to get behind Sagume and throw another knife, as Sagume had to dodge the rest of the knives coming out of the now destroyed snake structure. She managed to dodge them all, coming out unscathed other than the cut on her leg, which she winced slightly at. "Hm, so you are fun after all," Saiko smiled, as she brandished another knife in her hand. "You seem to be able to keep up and dodge even though I can travel much faster than light."
Sagume chose not to respond to Saiko's words, and instead chose to summon more Yin-Yang orbs in a circular pattern around her. The amulets fired were denser this time, and in a slightly different pattern. Saiko sighed, raising her finger and firing knives at each Yin-Yang orb, dodging the shots already fired and managing to destroy each orb after they appeared and before they managed to shoot out any more amulets.
"Honestly, this whole charade with your circular patterns is getting incredibly boring, I want more of the challenging stuff, you know? Show me more of those special attacks you have." Saiko said, smiling.
"Saiko," Hiroko's voice came through the chip that Saiko had in her ear. "You're not there to have fun with your opponent. Take it seriously and defeat her already."
"Be quiet, Hiroko," Saiko said, sighing as Sagume seemed confused as the Saiko's talking. "It's been so long since I fought anyone away from Mars. I'm trying to enjoy it and savour the battle, alright?"
"I understand that, but please, try and finish it quickly," Hiroko sighed through the chip, which Saiko sighed at.
"Sorry, friend," Saiko said, towards Sagume. "Orders are I have to finish this quickly. So hurry up with your attacks so I can see what you Lunarians are all about."
Sagume closed her eyes and nodded. 'She's acting like she's been toying with me the whole time. That being said, she's more damaged than I am.' Sagume thought to herself, before biting her lip. "You know, this battle has gone on longer than I expected."
"Same goes for me," Saiko said, waving a knife around in her hand. "I never expected you to be fast enough to dodge my opening attempt."
"You are quite powerful, probably stronger than I am," Sagume said, smiling.
"Saiko!" Hiroko's voice shouted through the ear chip. "She's using her ability to make change the tide of battle so she wins! Hurry up and take care of her!"
"Ow," Saiko muttered to herself, after hearing Hiroko's voice. "Well, it has been fun, Sagume Kishin. Looks like I can't stay around to chat any time longer." Saiko then threw her knife towards Sagume, which Sagume dodged upwards away from. Saiko then moved quickly into the direction Sagume moved, before she was able to move away from that position. She rushed in, gliding past Sagume as her finger-tip scraped past her neck.
"Looks like that's it," Saiko said, stopping herself mid-air. "With that power of yours activating just then, it looks like if you kept going as it were you might have won."
"What?" Sagume asked, moving her hand to the back of her neck, before sighing. "Well, perhaps."
Saiko smiled, raising her fingers in a clicking formation as she clicked them, causing Sagume to pass out mid-air, falling downwards towards the ground. Saiko rushed in and caught her as she fell.
"Hey, Hiroko," Saiko said, looking over to her ear. "If she didn't use her ability, do you think she would have won?"
"Maybe your habit of messing around with your opponents before getting serious would have had you fall victim to her 'Ultimate Attack'," Hiroko responded through the ear chip. "Who knows if that was enough to talk to cause its activation, though. Bring her back here, we can't have someone with an ability such as that roaming around freely on the enemies side."
"Already on it," Saiko said, looking down at the girl she had caught in her hands. "Toying around, huh?" She whispered to herself. "You made me use my strongest special attack, as well as succeeded at keeping me at a distance. There's no way I could have let myself go easy on you. Adapting to your way of using those orbs over Kasumi's was difficult, too. That was fun, satellite dweller, perhaps on Mars we can spar a few times." Upon whispering that to herself, Kaiya's powers transported her and Sagume back to Mars.
Meanwhile, south of the Lunar Capital, Yorihime reached the Martian army, as did the rest of the moon rabbits in the circle around the Lunar Capital. The Martians and Moon rabbits engaged in their danmaku duel, as Yorihime helped on the front lines by cutting through the Martian army.
"Hey, you," Kasumi said, catching Yorihime's attention as she looked over to the girl behind the Martian army. "You seem a lot stronger than the others, and you're not some sort of rabbit girl. Are you, perhaps, the leader of this defense force?"
"Perhaps I am," Yorihime said, standing up straight with her sword in her right hand to the side of her. "Why, do you happen to be leading this attack?"
"Indeed I am," Kasumi smiled, as she unsheathed her sword which hung beside her hip also. "What's your name? It's only right for two important warriors to share names before a battle."
"Watatsuki no Yorihime," Yorihime answered, as she looked slightly more seriously at Kasumi.
"Kasumi Tadeyuki," Kasumi answered, as a silent fly familiar flew up next to her.
"Watatsuki no Yorihime is one of the two captains of the 'Lunar defense force', along with her sister. She was trained by some sort of sage called 'Eirin Yagokoro' and…" Hiroko cut herself off with a scared sounding gasp. "She… has the ability to summon gods…"
"Huh!?" Kasumi exclaimed as her face also turned to one of a mix between surprise and slight fear.
"Be careful, Kasumi," Hiroko said, her tone sounding much more serious than it usually is. "She's incredibly dangerous. Don't take this lightly."
"Well, enough with that talk," Yorihime said, raising her sword to point it at Kasumi. "Let it begin."
*Spell Card!* World Insight!
According to the book 'History of the Invisible City':
The invisible Mars city was founded by the leader of it, however their name and gender are both unknown, and must remain that way to everyone outside of their closest companion, Hiroko Amagai. The city remains invisible through any normal means due to the powers of this leader, however the exact details of such power is ambiguous. That is all that is known about the leader of the Mars City to everybody other than the Minister of Intelligence.
