Hiroko looked over to where the Palanquin Ship was falling out of the sky. She bit her lip slightly out of annoyance. "Another one down…" Hiroko muttered. "Then there's three of us left standing. One of which I can't get in contact with right now, and the other isn't much of a fighter. Honestly, must I do everything myself?"
"You've got less than an hour before the first glimpse of sunrise," Eirin said, now visibly a little exhausted from about four hours of fighting. "Hope you planned to take more out than just this."
"Eight of you are down, compared to two of us," Hiroko said. "We still have our two strongest pieces in play, even if one of them isn't available for contact. How many of your strongest pieces are left, Eirin?"
"Well, there's me," Eirin said, raising one finger. "The Sages, the Shrine Maiden, the Flower Youkai, the sisters. We have quite a few."
"And they're all asleep right now," Hiroko said, looking over at the moon. "In that case, we'll have to deal with who we can as quickly as possible."
"I wouldn't count all of them out," another voice said, as Kasen approached the two of them, standing next to Eirin. "The commotion at the mountain caused a few more of our pieces to awaken. You choose a good time to attack, but to throw it all away with such noise is a real shame."
"...Ibaraki Kasen, a sage disguised as a hermit, fan of animals," Hiroko recited as she looked at her. Upon the sage remark, Kasen narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Keep that a secret," Kasen said to Eirin, who simply nodded. "Well, you're the leader, right?"
"That I am," Hiroko said. "And another of you sages is fighting our second most powerful piece. Taking two down before sunrise would be more than ideal."
Kasen glanced over to Eirin. "Hope you don't mind a bit of back up."
"Of course not," Eirin said. "Taking out their most powerful piece before sunrise would be more than ideal," she said, mimicking Hiroko's words. Hiroko smiled slightly as she took another card between two of her fingers.
"Blindness Card," she said, as she threw it at Kasen. Eirin intercepted it by standing in front of Kasen, taking the lack of sight for herself, realising the fact that Kasen would not survive after being taken down once. Kasen used said opportunity to fly above Eirin, changing her bandaged arm into a powerful, jaw-like thing that clamped down Hiroko, who dodged by moving backwards. The jaw clamp was followed by the bandages extending around Hiroko, wrapping her into a cocoon, before she was thrown straight down into the ground.
While this was happening, Eirin unleashed a powerful spell upon herself, making sure it would be strong enough to kill her. This caused her to be regenerated and gain her sight back. Upon seeing Hiroko being thrown to the ground, she muttered some words that Kasen couldn't make out, as she raised her hand towards Hiroko, causing a cage of light to form around her as she was on the ground. From intersections in the light net of the cage, lasers were fired into it, which all connected with each other, before releasing a pillar of light. Kasen had to shield herself from the light emitted by the attack, as the light was seen by everyone else who was still awake in Gensokyo.
"Such a powerful attack…" Kasen said. "Lunarian spell, I assume?"
Eirin nodded. "A fairly high end one at that. That light pillar is said to greatly damage even the most powerful of the Celestial Gods."
After the attack faded, Hiroko hovered up, having lost her breath from the attack as damage was sustained all over her body. "As expected from a... Celestial God yourself."
Kasen looked over to Eirin as she said that. "You have your secrets, I have mine," Eirin said, before turning to Hiroko. "Well, looks like high-end Lunarian magic does the trick well against you. I'm starting to see flaws in your seemingly impenetrable defense."
Hiroko sighed, as she summoned three green cards with hearts on them, before tossing them into the air. Green dust was sprinkled over her, as her wounds were healed. "How can you assume such a thing? You don't know what the other cards in my hand are."
"Indeed I do not," Eirin nodded. "However, I believe i've seen more than one fifth of your cards by now. With allies beginning to wake up, it shall not be long until I get a grasp of everything you can do."
Hiroko nodded, as she raised another card. "I believe it is about time I revealed my high end attacks to you as well."
Eirin's face became more serious upon hearing those words. "Watch out," she said to Kasen. "Unlike me, you won't regenerate if you die."
"I know," Kasen nodded. Hiroko threw her card in the air, as it disappeared and went into the sky.
"Heaven Card," she said, as the clouds above her separated. From the sky, many light beams, similar to that of Eirin's attack, rained down from the sky. Eirin's eyes widened slightly, as she once again muttered some lunarian words and made a shield above them, stopping the lasers from raining down. As each laser made contact with the shield, cracks appeared in it. Kasen rushed forward, going underneath Hiroko and and punching her with her bandaged arm, before turning it into a jaw which fired launched Hiroko back with blue force.
"Drop your shield when I say to," Kasen shouted over to Eirin, as the Lunarian reluctantly nodded. Hiroko threw seven cards into the air, each shooting out a thin laser that was reflected by other cards thrown behind Kasen. Kasen dodged up towards the martian, as she summounded Mukou the Raijuu into her bandaged arm, whipping it at Hiroko to stun her a bit. "Now!" Kasen shouted, as she unravelled her bandaged arm and wrapped it around Hiroko again. The shield disappeared, as the powerful lasers rained down from the sky. Kasen span around with Hiroko inside her cocoon, as the cocoon made contact with many of the raining lasers.
Eirin flew through the lasers and up to where the card was floating above Gensokyo, grabbing it and examining it for a second. "I see," Eirin said, instantly realising the magic of how it worked. She muttered some Lunarian words once again, as gravity around her seemed to flip entirely, and the lasers came up towards the Gensokyo barrier and making contact with Hiroko again. Eirin created a field around the card using sorcery, causing all the lasers to come back into the card and get absorbed by it. "Let go of her now!" Eirin shouted down to Kasen, who threw a damaged Hiroko up to Eirin. "Astronomical Entombing," Eirin said, creating a round cage around Hiroko and locking her in. "Watch the barrier, sage!" Eirin said, as she went to the side of Hiroko and threw the card forward. Kasen nodded as she flew as fast as she could towards the Genokyo barrier.
The heaven card released all the contained energy within it, firing a large laser of pure light straight through the orbs of Eirin's Astronomical Entombing and making direct contact with Hiroko. Hiroko let out and audible scream through the orbs as the laser hit her. Kasen, on the other end of Gensokyo, unwrapped her bandaged arm again and made a shield against it, which pushed her back against the barrier. She looked back as she heard a crack, seeing the barrier crack slightly. "Tsk, this has to work," Kasen said, as she spun herself around in a tornado of bandages, wrapping the laser up with it.
Eirin put an arrow into her bow and aimed it at Hiroko as the laser began to die down. It glowed with light, as it grew in size. "This shot is for all those from the Lunar Capital. For those Moon Rabbits, for Sagume and Lord Tsukuyomi. Those who laid down their lives to protect the capital that you took from them. Now, feel their pain," she said, as the laser disappeared and she released the arrow, striking through Hiroko as she appeared heavily damage from the heaven laser, even with her arms crossed in a defensive position. The arrow had a short thread of light behind it, which as it struck through Hiroko, wrapped around her and enveloped her in a thin string of light. The string expanded, before it erupted into light many large, light balls which all combined into a focus around Hiroko. The giant ball then imploded into its centre, before it exploded in a large about of magical power.
Once the light disappeared, Hiroko floated still, severely damaged as her head was twirling around. She fell towards the ground, with many of the red ribbons that previously decorated her dress ripped straight off as well. She landed on her back against the ground, looking up as she raised her arm, looking through blurry vision as she tried to get a heal card.
Kasen stopped spinning in the tornado once the laser stopped firing, as bits of the energy was released across many parts of Gensokyo. She watched as Hiroko fell through the sky, before turning to the crack in the barrier. She placed her hand on it and closed her eyes. Suddenly, however, she felt another hand grab her wrist, which caused her to open her eyes and gasp slightly. From the crack in the barrier, Yukari pulled herself out, and into Gensokyo, as she let go of Kasen.
"Thanks for the wake up call," Yukari said, as she looked across Gensokyo, currently in a fairly damaged state. "How's everything going?"
Kasen seemed displeased at Yukari's sudden entrance, before she growled and gave in. "The Lunarian sage may have just defeated their leader, green hair, ribbons on her dress. The Palanquin ship fell and one was defeated over there, but the green haired one seemed to imply that another one of their forces was defeated. In that case, there's at least two down, possibly three. What are you going to do?"
"Where's Okina?" Yukari asked, ignoring Kasen's question, which seemed to annoy her a bit.
"Not a clue," Kasen said. "Haven't seen her."
Yukari sighed. "I'm going to wake everyone up, get them fighting, just to be safe. You fix the barrier the best you can, then rendezvous with Eirin and tell her to be on standby to. I'm going to need both of you for something later. Try to get in contact with Okina if you can, too. Ran, Chen, you know what to do."
As Yukari said that, Ran flew out of a gap made by Yukari. "Understood," Ran said, as she flew towards the Human Village. Chen popped out of one of her tails and waved at the two sages as they flew away. Kasen shook her head.
"Of all nights to sleep early," Kasen said, as she turned back to the barrier. Yukari didn't seem to move, though. "What is it now?"
"Kasen," Yukari said, turning around as she smiled. "Looks like your on my side now," she said, as Kasen narrowed her eyes at her.
"We'll see how long that lasts," Kasen said, as Yukari opened a gap in front of herself and exited through that.
"Lady Yagokoro!" Yorihime shouted as she flew up towards her master. "Did you win? Did you defeat her?"
Eirin glanced at Yorihime, before looking down at Hiroko, still conscious, on the ground. "Perhaps not yet. But it shouldn't be long now. Yukari has entered the fray, she'll bring order, even if the one down there gets up."
"May I assist you, if she does wake up, Lady Yagokoro?" Yorihime asked. "My other opponent left for that ship that fell, but never came back. I can only assume she lost."
"Hmm…" Eirin said, as she looked at her hand. "I've used up an alarming amount of magical power. If she isn't down for the count, it's very likely I will lose. Very well, Yorihime. You may stay here."
Yorihime smiled as she heard this, before bowing to her master. "My thanks, Lady Yagokoro," Yorihime said, as she looked down to Hiroko, still struggling to move on the ground. "Should we not knock her unconscious, to be safe?"
"...Yes, go ahead," Eirin said, as Yorihime nodded. She flew down and landed next to Hiroko, with her blade raised. She struck down on the Martian.
In the land of doors, Kaiya brought a bright, flaming sword to her side. Both her and Okina appeared to be worn out from the fighting, but Kaiya would appear to have a slight edge. Okina was originally seated in a chair, however she got out of it and dismissed it away. Kaiya charged at Okina, who dodged to original attack. However, Kaiya threw the sword behind her and teleported towards it, swinging the sword across from Okina's behind and as Okina dodged. Okina then made seven large laser swords appear, with one of them hitting Kaiya, who teleported out of the way. Kaiya then threw her sword towards Okina, teleporting away as Okina went through a door. They went much, much further into the land of doors as the sword turned into an actual star, before it disappeared.
"Interesting ability," Okina said. "Using celestial bodies as your power. I see why you needed to come here."
"This is honestly getting boring," Kaiya said, as she placed a hand on the side of her hat. "We've been here for how many hours and hardly anything's changed between us. Got any special tricks to liven things up?"
"You've seen most of my strongest attacks already," Okina sighed. "Yet you're still standing. I can't believe how powerful you really are."
"Oh really? In that case, would you mind withdrawing from the fight so I can focus on something else?" Kaiya said, before yawning. "Or else I might just fall asleep."
"No can do," Okina said, as went through a door to appear behind Kaiya, striking her with a combo of her punches and kicks, which sent Kaiya flying down. Kaiya stopped herself, before raising her hand as the equivalent of all the asteroids in the asteroid belt appeared behind her.
"Asteroid Shower," Kaiya said, as she sent them all flying towards Okina. Okina opened a door behind her, trying to go through it. "Gravity Pull," Kaiya said, as Okina was pulled towards one of the asteroids by intense gravity instead. Some of the asteroids hit Okina, as most of them missed and disappeared behind her. Kaiya yawned, as Okina recovered from the attack, looking increasingly more worn out. "Don't feel bad. There's only one other person who I know that is stronger than me. You've actually damage me more than I was counting on. Definitely… stronger than that vampire girl by a lot."
Okina smiled, as she raised her hand. "Senbonzakura," she said, as thousands of small, almost invisible cherry-blossom like blades appeared in the space, before being fired around. Kaiya, not knowing where the cherry blossoms were, instead chose to block as many as she could, however she found herself being cut in many places, none too deep to cause much concern. "Rays of Summer," she said, as many orange lasers, representing summer, appeared and concentrated on Kaiya. As the thousands of blades had not disappeared yet, Kaiya was forced to take the brunt of the lasers. "Falling leaves," Okina said, as orange leaves began slowly floating down, before turning into bullets and raining focusing on Kaiya. "Sharp Winter's Blizzard," Okina said, as a blizzard, holding icey knives, whipped up around them and struck at Kaiya. There was a point, if only for a few seconds, where the beauty and destructive power of all four seasons was on display all at once.
Once the lasers of summer had cleared though, Kaiya found herself able to move. Her right arm was frozen over, as cuts had appeared all over her body and she was severely damaged from the lasers and bullets brought by summer and autumn. This didn't stop her from teleporting behind Okina and placing a hand against her back, however. Instead of trying to dodge, Okina smiled instead. "Now i've no more tricks."
"The last one… really got me…" Kaiya panted, as she released the power of a star into a force blast, which caused Okina to cough blood and her spine to audibly crack slightly, as she fell endlessly through the land of doors. "She… shouldn't be dead…" Kaiya said, as she looked around. "Time… to get outta here…"
As she said that, she teleported back to just outside the Myouren Temple, in the woods. She went against a tree, before lying down. "Well now… that's over. Time to get a bit of… sleep… finally…" she said, as she fell asleep on the grounds of Gensokyo.
Ran and Chen touched down in the human village, as many humans were panicked from the fights going on everywhere, as some had destroyed some houses. "Everyone!" Ran shouted. "Calm yourselves! I have a message from Mistress Yukari!"
"Yukari!?" A man shouted at Ran. "That Youkai! It's all her fault any of this is happening! It's all her fault my house was destroyed!"
Ran narrowed her eyes at the man, as she sighed. "What's going on?" a voice asked behind her, as Ran and Chen turned around to see Hieda no Akyuu, along with Kosuzu Motoori and Rinnosuke Morichika.
"An invasion," Ran replied. "Martians from Mars are attacking Gensokyo. But we're fighting back well, they should be subdued within the next five hours, at most."
"I see," Rinnosuke said. "So you're here to calm the humans and make sure they don't do something rash?" Ran nodded, as Hieda stepped in front of them.
"Ahem," Hieda said. "Everyone! Everything is getting under control! The threat will be subdued before it grows any larger!" as she spoke, the humans stopped to listen to her. "We may be threatened right now, by enemies much more threatening than youkai, but it's those youkai who are fighting for us now! Ran here will personally make sure Yukari pays for any damage done, and will make sure the threat of youkai as well is lessened! They are fighting for us right now, so quell your prejudice for now, please!"
"What are we meant to do?" A woman spoke up. "Anywhere we go, there's a chance a stray laser might kill us!" she shouted, as the humans grew increasing out of control again. Hieda sighed as this happened.
"They're so out of control…" Chen sighed.
"Understandably…" Hieda said, as she coughed again. "Everyone, calm down! I have a plan! We will migrate to the Hakurei Shrine and wait there until this all calms down! The Hakurei Shrine is an important place to Gensokyo, the youkai will make sure that place is protected! Ran here will be our escort!"
"All of us won't fit in one shrine!" a man shouted, as the crowd of people nodded in agreement.
"Then leave that to me," another voice said, as wind zipped past all of them as someone at blazing speed flew past them and landed in front of them. "Aya Shameimaru of the Bunbunmaru Newspaper will lead a group to the Moriya Shrine and Tengu Village! There, the gods of the mountain and the shrine maiden will look after you all, they promised!"
An overwhelming amount of people wished to go to the Moriya Shrine than to the Hakurei Shrine. "Looks like one shrine's the clear winner here," Rinnosuke said, as he looked at the people. "Still, a small village and two shrines won't be enough to accommodate so many people."
"I-in that case," another voice said behind them, as Nazrin walked up to the ground, with the Jewelled Pagoda of Bishamonten hidden behind her back. "T-the Myouren Shrine is open to anyone who wishes to come! It'll be a longer walk, but the pagoda of the god Bishamonten will light the way!" she shouted, as she held up the pagoda.
"Making decisions independent of Byakuren…" Ran muttered. "Interesting, from her…"
"In that case!" Hieda spoke up again. "Everyone who wants to go to the Moriya Shrine, line up with Aya over there! Everyone who wants to go to Myouren Temple, line up with the mouse girl over there! And anyone who wants to go to the Hakurei Shrine, line up with Ran other there!" Hieda shouted, as she pointed to the places that each of the three went over to.
The people who went towards Aya were saying things along the lines of 'This god has done so much for us' and 'How kind of the Moriya Shrine'. Almost for completely opposite reasons it seemed, people who went over to Nazrin were saying things more along the lines of 'I've never seen her before' and 'she's cute', which caused the mouse to feel slightly uneasy. Not many people went towards Ran, however, causing roughly fifty-five percent of people going to the Moriya Shrine, forty percent of people going to the Myouren Temple and a maximum of five percent going to the Hakurei Shrine.
Hieda laughed slightly. "I'm afraid we will need more people for the Hakurei Shrine and less people in the other places!" she shouted, as people reluctantly went towards Shou, causing a split more along the lines of forty percent for Moriya Shrine, thirty-five percent for Myouren Temple and twenty-five percent for Hakurei Shrine. "That will work!" Hieda shouted again. "Now, everyone, safe travels!" With that, everyone walked off, Chen following Ran after having been dragged away from chasing after Nazrin. Rinnosuke went with Nazrin, and Hieda and Kosuzu went with Aya to the Moriya Shrine.
At the Hakurei Shrine, Yukari's top half popped out of the gap, as she grabbed a feather duster and tickled Reimu's face with it. "Reimu, wake up," she said, as Reimu thrashed around and knocked the feather duster away. Reimu quickly sat up and looked at Yukari.
"Yukari! What do you want!" Reimu shouted, more demanding than questioning. "Do you want to be exterminated that ba-"
"The Martians are here," Yukari said, as Reimu stopped and pursed her lips.
"...I see," Reimu said, standing up. "In that case, i'll go get Marisa. But after i've exterminated them, you're next."
Yukari smiled as Reimu said that. "I'd expect nothing less of you," Yukari said. "Everything has been going well so far. I hope you won't mess it up."
After saying this, Yukari disappeared through her gap, leaving Reimu shaking her head. Reimu then went out of the shrine and flew over to the Forest of Magic.
Where Hiroko had fallen, Yorihime had struck down at her body. However, as she did, her body turned into cards and flew past Yorihime, as she rematerialised and staggered around, coughing up blood as she did. Yorihime narrowed her eyes as she did, flying up and attempting to strike her again. Hiroko turned into cards once again, as she rematerialised further away and reached for her heal card. She threw five of them up into the air, however, Yorihime sliced through all five of them, cutting them in half and negating their ability. She then brought her sword down on Hiroko, who raised an arm to block it. As she did, however, the blade sliced straight through her arm, cutting the bottom half below her elbow clean off.
"Grr…" Hiroko muttered. "Y-y-you... No… I m-must retreat… now…." she said, as turned into cards to dodge another attack, before retreating into the Garden of the Sun.
"Persistent…" Yorihime muttered, as she quickly flew to the Garden of the Sun. She found Hiroko quickly, as she was trying to get a heal card. Hiroko bit her lip, as she staggered backwards to dodge the full front of a wide slash, instead getting cut across her abdomen. She growled, as she once again turned into cards and retreated further into the Garden. Yorihime tried to look for her, but failed to. "Tsk… she got away."
Yorihime flew back up to Eirin. "My apologies, Lady Yagokoro. She managed to escape."
"Don't worry about it," Eirin said, as she looked down towards Eientei. "I doubt she'll come back to fight me now. She may fear permanent loss this time," she said, as she looked over to Kasen, who finished fixing the barrier and was now flying back. "Sorry for the inconvenience."
"Did we win?" Kasen asked, as Eirin paused for a moment, before nodding.
"Technically, we did win the fight," Eirin said. "However, she escaped. She won't be down and out for the count just yet, unfortunately."
Kasen sighed, as she looked down at Gensokyo. "Well, we did well. We know her weakness, after all."
"What is it?" Yorihime asked, as she looked at the two of them.
"She's very powerful, but her weakness is that very same power being used against her," Eirin said. "I figured as such, the only way to beat someone so strong is with their own power."
"I see…" Yorihime said. "Well, what should we do now, Lady Yagokoro?"
"Eirin," Kasen said. "Yukari said she wants us on standby. I assume she has something planned for the both of us to do."
Eirin nodded. "I see," Eirin said. "Then we shall wait."
A few minutes later, Yukari flew up to the group. "Now, everything seems to be in working order," she said, as she looked around at the three of them. "Meddlesome Lunarian Sage, you will accompany me."
Yorihime raised her blade upon hearing at how Yukari referred to Eirin, as Eirin lowered her blade. "Accompany you where?"
"Yuyuko and Youmu have gone to the moons on Mars," Yukari said. "Based on the book, there should be cards keeping the city invisible. We're going to meddle with it, which should cause Hiroko to become concerned. We'll make her come our way, causing the rest of the Martian's here to be in scrambles. When she comes back to the city, you, me, Youmu and Yuyuko will ambush her and take her down, while everyone here will mop up the rest of the Martians that are still here. That's my strategy to take her down."
"I see," Eirin said. "You saw how I fought against her before, right? So you wanted me to help. I'll accept that plan. Where are we to go?"
"We're going directly inside the city," Yukari said. "To investigate. See what we find."
'Then we can see that Nuwa…' Eirin thought, as she looked up. "Understood. We will free Lord Tsukuyomi and Lady Sagume, right?"
Yukari nodded. "Sure, sure, of course."
"Where do I come into this?" Kasen asked.
"Since we can't find Okina and i'll be leaving Gensokyo, you will be in charge of Gensokyo until i'm back. In other words, you're leading the defense and are the king in this chess game, for now," Yukari said, as Kasen's eyes widened, before she nodded. "I've set up the Hakurei Shrine as your base. Feel free to monitor everything that's happening. Just don't lose."
Kasen nodded. "Of course I won't," Kasen said, as she flew down to the Hakurei Shrine.
"Watatsuki sister," Yukari said. "Get your sister and look for Hiroko. The two of you will be holding her off for now."
Yorihime reluctantly nodded. "Understood…" she muttered, as she flew down to Eientei to meet with Toyohime. Yukari opened a gap in front of her and Eirin.
"Well, shall we?" Yukari said, as Eirin walked through first, with Yukari following and closing the gap behind her.
Aya led the group to just outside the Youkai Mountain, before her eyes widened and she raised her fan to the side. In front of her, all the remaining Martian Henchmen had banded up in one force, and was attacking the Youkai Mountain, getting into a fight with the Tengu. "Sorry about this," Aya said, as she looked behind her at the humans. "This won't take long. Get back to the village, i'll come back soon."
The humans nodded, as they ran back to the human village as quickly as they could. Aya flew up above them, looking around to see Momiji Inubashiri swinging her blade and blocking with her shield, as well as Hatate Himekaidou observing from the mountain. Aya shook her head, as she raised her fan and blew a tornado at the force, whipping them up and throwing them away. "Seems the leader of this rag tag group isn't here…" Aya muttered, as she continued blowing wind blasts at the enemies.
Yorimi, being the one that had gathered the Martian Henchmen together, had left the battle and was watching from afar. Her plan was to sneak around the mountain and assault the leader of the Tengu while they were off guard, but she stopped to make sure all was going well.
"Team Nine, get her!" A voice said, as Cirno, Rumia, Daiyousei, Wriggle and Mystia jumped out at her. "Well, well, well, look at this catch."
Yorimi sighed. "An ambush against me?" she asked, smiling slightly. "You should know, I am by far the strongest of all Martians," she lied, attempting to make them flee.
"Good, I am the strongest of all people in Gensokyo!" Cirno claimed. "Now, Team Nine, it's time to play our part."
