Miko charged forward towards Kaiya, raising her Shaku as Kaiya stepped back, ready to dodge the incoming attack. As she was about to jump away, however, the ground beneath her foot began to raise, trapping her feet as Miko closed in more. "To fall for the first trick we had in our book," Miko smiled, as she got closer to Kaiya, ready to attack with her Shaku. "I'm almost disappointed."
Kaiya simply smiled at the remark, as she teleported out of the earth trap and on top of a nearby house, as a lightning strike echoed behind her. Masked in the shadows of that strike, however, was another lightning bolt being fired directly at her by Tojiko. "Woah!" Kaiya exclaimed, quickly ducking to the left to avoid the attack at the last minute, only being grazed on the arm in the process.
"Impressive ability," Miko smiled, looking at her. "Teleportation, huh?"
Kaiya shrugged at the remark. "Perhaps that's not my only ability," she teased. "I can only assume that the ghost girl down there can deal with lightning. Bit of a troublesome ability with the storm going on. And by that extension, the other girl near her can manipulate earth."
"Perhaps," Miko shrugged, while smiling. "Though, what if I told you," she said, raising her cape as it enveloped her in a ball. Kaiya stepped back, ready for an incoming attack, before the cape vanished. Miko appeared behind her, unknowing to Kaiya, and summoned three swords from portals to attack her, hitting her multiple angles. "You're not the only one with that ability," she smiled, as Kaiya was knocked down towards the ground. With little time to react, she looked up to see a wave of fire from Futo approaching her, which she jumped up out of the way to dodge. Tojiko fired arrows towards Kaiya as she jumped, as Miko closed in from behind for another attack. Being surrounded on two sides, Kaiya looked to her only escape route, and teleported to another end of the village, hiding behind a house.
"Tsk…" Kaiya said, feeling her back where the swords struck her. A bit of blood came on her hands as she did so. "These wounds aren't too deep. No need to use one of my cards…" she muttered. 'So the ghost one can use arrows and lightning, and the taller one can teleport. The one with the weird hat seems to have earth and fire abilities too…' she thought, before something caught her eye. The earth around her leg had begun moving slightly. as she rolled away from her current position, a sharp spike from the earth shot up, narrowly missing her as she avoided. "Phew…" Kaiya muttered, as she faintly felt the house behind her begin moving. She quickly teleported into the air, as another spike came from the house. She looked up towards Miko, who was facing her direction, smiling.
"Good reaction times," Miko said. "If yours were anything like the humans from around here, Futo's spikes would've surely caught you."
"So Futo is the one with the funny hat, then," Kaiya said, dusting herself off from sitting on the ground.
"What?" Futo asked, floating up next to Miko to face Kaiya, as Tojiko followed suit.
"Nothing," Kaiya responded, smiling. She moved her leg backwards as if to make the next move, prompting a response from Miko, Futo and Tojiko to prepare a counter attack. As a ball of seemingly fire formed around her first, instead of rushing towards her opponents, she instead teleported Tojiko closer to her. She attacked by swiftly punching with her first, hitting Tojiko in the stomach as the energy from her fist dissipated into her, knocking her far away and almost hitting Futo as she went flying. The attack appeared to be almost enough to knock her out, though she still managed to hang in there, much to Kaiya's surprise.
"Impressive," Kaiya smiled, as she snapped her fingers. Behind her, many small orbs of rocks resembling meteors began shooting at the taoists, prompting a quick response from Miko who used her shukuchi movement again, wrapping herself in her cape and appearing on the ground beneath Kaiya. As Tojiko was still dazed from the previous attack, Futo created barriers of earth in front of the two of them, protecting them from the meteor shower.
From below Kaiya, Miko unsheathed her sword pointing upwards, causing rays of light to shoot at her, interrupting the meteor shower as Kaiya teleported in front of Miko. Kaiya brought a bright, flaming sword with the power of stars to her hand, as her and Miko engaged in sword fighting combat. "Impressive," Miko complimented. "Your sword skills appear up to par, too," she said, as the two of them appeared to be even matches in the field. Miko raised her cape, causing fire to shoot out from the bottom of it, as Kaiya teleported to Miko's back to escape it. Miko smiled at the teleport, raising her hand as a spear of light appeared around her, knocking Kaiya back and into the air. Sheathing her sword, she brought her Shaku and pointed it at Kaiya, unleashing a small beam of light towards her, which knocked her further away as it made contact.
A rain of arrows in the shape of lighting came from above her, which Kaiya managed to react to and teleport away, closer to Tojiko, who was the source of the attack. Raising her sword to her side, stabbed at the ghost, who backed away from the attack, before stepping closer and unleashing a downward strike, which Tojiko narrowly dodged. The heat and flames from Kaiya's sword appeared to be wearing her even more down, however, as her energy started fading quicker. As Kaiya flew under a wave of fire from Futo, she turned her attention over to her, dashing towards her as she threw her sword past Futo, teleporting to it as she swung at the taoist. A tornado appeared around Futo, knocking Kaiya back before she could finish her own attack, before a series of plates were thrown at the Martian. "Huh…?" Kaiya briefly questioned the choice of offense, before swinging at the plates as they approached her, effortlessly destroying them.
"Blaze Sign, 'Taiyi True Fire'!" Futo exclaimed, as she wrapped herself in flames, before launching those flames down at the ground. Kaiya teleported away from the erupting flames, before finding herself surrounded by arrows shaping themselves into lightning bolts.
"Thunder Arrow, 'Gagouji's Tornado'!" Tojiko exclaimed, as the lightning bolts surrounded her on all sides, causing there to be seemingly nowhere to teleport to. Kaiya sighed, raising her star blade towards the Ghost, as a small ball appeared at the end of it. The ball released a laser, flying through the lightning and hitting Tojiko directly through her side, causing her to fall down to the ground unconscious as the attack ended. Miko had now rejoined the fray, as one of their combatants fell down to the ground.
"Hmm…" Miko sighed, as Tojiko landed on the ground unconscious. "You seem somewhat bored."
"Don't take it as an insult," Kaiya said, bringing her sword down to her side. "The sooner I take out ten of you, the sooner I win my bet. And that makes four. Besides, I already dealt with one of those sages of Gensokyo," Kaiya boasted, to the surprise of Miko and Futo. "As a result, you could say my power is at least on level with one of your sages. It shouldn't come as a surprise."
"Impressive…" Miko muttered. "Well, if your plan was to get us to forfeit, I'm afraid it has failed."
"What a shame," Kaiya sighed, raising her empty hand. "Since you were so kind as to show me some of your spells, how about I return with some of my own? I like to call this one, 'Martian's Star Barrage'."
With that said, Kaiya began teleporting in a spherical shape all around Miko and Futo, firing small bullets with the heat of stars at her opponents. As they were surrounded, Miko bit her lip slightly. "Futo."
"Right," Futo nodded, raising the earth around them and protecting them from all angles, including above them. The safety didn't last long, however, as the bullets managed to burn through the earth and threaten to hit them anyway. "Wh-What madness is this?" Futo asked in surprise as she dodged some of the bullets.
"Drop the shield," Miko said, as she raised her sword. "And watch out," she added, as Futo nodded and the barrier of earth fell. "Hermit Sign "Taoist of the Land of the Rising Sun"," Miko said, as rays of light fired out in all directions, narrowly missing Futo as they surrounded her on all sides, catching Kaiya off guard.
"Woah!" she said, as she was hit by one of the lasers, sending her backwards and landing on one of the nearby houses. Her attack stopped after this, as she steadily stood up on the roof of the house she had landed on. Miko quickly moved above her with her shukuchi movement, however.
"Hermetic Cape," Miko said, as she fired rings of red and blue down at Kaiya from her cape, moving one side of her earmuffs as she did so. Kaiya teleported away onto the ground somewhere, as Miko closed her eyes. To her right, she faintly heard the sound of Kaiya stepping on the earth, as she raised her Shaku in that direction, firing off a quick laser beam at Kaiya's feet, causing her to jump into the air. Using the Shukuchi movement, Miko appeared next to Kaiya, readying for her next attack. "Tao Sign "Heavenly Way Atop One's Palm"," she said, as a globe of lasers appeared above Kaiya, grazing her slightly before she teleported away.
Miko smiled, using the Shukuchi movement again after tracking down her location through sound. "It is a shame you don't realise this ability won't work," Miko smiled as she appeared near Kaiya. "Bloody Cape," she said, removing her cape as purple slices of wind attacked Kaiya, knocking her further away as she took more damage.
"Damn," Kaiya said, forgoing her ability to teleport and instead choosing to dodge the old fashioned away. However, in the midst of her dodging, a tornado seemed to whip up out of nowhere around her. "Huh!?" she exclaimed in surprise, quickly warping away somewhere else in the air. As she did so, however, the rain around her seemed to form together, creating a wave of water that was thrown at her. As she flew around, the tornado dissipated into a similar wave of wind, as both the powers of water and wind threatened to cut her off wherever she flew.
'Perhaps there's more to funny hat's ability than I thought,' Kaiya thought to herself, looking down at Futo who appeared to be controlling the attacks. 'Well then,' she said, turning around to face the powerful combination of wind and rain behind her. She raised her sword to face it head on. "Star Strike!" she shouted, striking the attack with her blade. As her blade disappeared, the full force of the star moulded into it was released, dissipating the wind and rain attack with its tremendous force as well as sending shock waves through the entirety of Gensokyo, knocking Kaiya, Miko and Futo back a bit.
"Interesting ability," Kaiya said, floating down to land into the village center, where her two opponents were. "Seems I mistook it for simple earth control. It's much more akin to controlling elements, wouldn't you say?"
"Not quite," Futo smiled. "The power is the manipulation of Feng Shui."
"Feng… Shui?" Kaiya asked, having never heard of the technique.
"Hath thou not heard of it?" Futo asked, tilting her head, to which Kaiya shook hers. "Well, thou shalt allow me to-"
"Yes, it is akin to controlling elements," Miko interrupted, as to save the long lecture about Futo's power. Miko then narrowed her eyes. "How about you? An attack that large in power must have something behind it."
"Oh, I suppose it's only fair to tell you," Kaiya said, evidently not taking the fight with complete seriousness. "I can copy celestial objects and use them as my attack. I based that strike off the power of a star, toned down as to not destroy this planet."
"So you're not here to destroy Gensokyo after all," Miko said. "It seems this Hiroko is your leader. Where might I find her?"
"How do you know that name?" Kaiya asked in return.
"My ability is to hear the ten desires strong in your heart," Miko said. "You desire to help this Hiroko, but also uncover her secrets, do you not?"
"...I suppose," Kaiya shrugged. "But you won't find Hiroko any time soon. She's dealing with that girl who summoned this storm in the first place."
"The girl who can use the powers of gods?" Miko asked, before laughing slightly as the storm raged behind her. "Haha, don't make me laugh. Only another God of the highest caliber could even stand a chance against the Dragon God," Miko said, to which Kaiya narrowed her eyes slightly. "Here, let me strike you a deal. How about we stop this fight and wait for the result of your leader's fight. If she comes back, I'll listen to her ten desires and tell you her secrets for you."
Kaiya hesitated for a minute, seemingly considering the offer deeply, before smiling as she shook her head, holding her hat. "I'm… afraid I'll have to decline. She's been my best friend for too long for me to agree to listening in on her secrets," Kaiya said. "Though, let me guess. Your primary motive here was information."
"There's too many questions here, and oh so little answers," Miko smiled. "I was hoping to match up against the leader, but she was busy fighting the lunarians. I thought second best would at least have something interesting to say."
"Sorry to disappoint," Kaiya said, before raising her arm in the air. Above her, a circle of small rocks in the shape of a belt appeared, representing the solar system's Asteroid Belt. "Let's get this over with now, shall we?"
Miko sighed, unsheathing her sword in preparation. As the asteroids began raining down, carefully missing the houses so as not to damage them, Miko and Futo began dodging through them, waiting for an opening to strike at Kaiya. As they carefully closed in, dodging though the asteroids, it appeared harder and harder to get close enough to her through the density of the attack. Futo raised a wall of earth in front of her to protect her from an incoming asteroid. However, two asteroids proved enough to destroy the wall entirely, and as a third one went towards her, Futo created a shield of wind to protect against it. The shield proved too weak, however, as it was destroyed and Futo was knocked to the ground, seemingly rendered defeated by a single hit.
"Tch," Miko muttered, raising her sword towards Kaiya. "Human Sign "Tradition of Just Rewards"," she said, as from her sword extended a large beam of light, taking Kaiya by surprise as it hit her. Afterwards, Miko slammed the large beam of light into the ground, as it disappeared. However, unsurprisingly, upon its disappearance, Kaiya was nowhere to be seen.
"Impressive," Kaiya said, standing on the roof of a house behind her. She pulled a card out of her pocket, throwing it above her to heal the burns from the attack. "Now I'm out of heals. But I still have plenty of tricks up my sleeve."
"I see," Miko said. "So you martians can heal yourselves too. In that case…" Miko started, before cutting herself off. The rain around them seemed to start dying down a little, and the lightning grew less frequent.
Elsewhere, as the storm died down, Iku suddenly stopped in her movement. Tenshi turned around to face her, narrowing her eyes. "Did she lose?"
"Appears so," Iku replied, with a hesitant nod of her head. Tenshi smiled and put her hands behind her head.
"Seems this girl is pretty tough, huh?" She said, to which Iku nodded. "Strength surpassing even the Dragon God. Who would've thought that was possible. That'll just make it even more exciting when we beat her down, eh?"
"..." Iku stayed in silence for a moment. "We're in over our heads here, Tenshi. My fraction of the dragon's power is nothing compared to-"
"Oh, quit complaining," Tenshi said. "All we have to do is wait for everyone else to do the work for us, then swoop in and take the finishing blow when she's worn out. Then I get all the glory of saving Gensokyo. If the gods themselves are getting involved, it would look bad on me as a celestial to ignore this."
Iku sighed at Tenshi's selfish wording, before walking forward towards her. "Then what's your plan?"
"Eh?"
"To beat her," Iku said, as Tenshi was taken slightly off guard.
"Well," Tenshi started. "Between you and I, all of this place is controlled. I control the ground, you take care of the air. We trap her wherever she goes, and take her out."
"You really haven't thought this through," Iku shaked her head. "It won't be that easy. I hope you're aware of that."
"Hah," Tenshi laughed, waving her hand. "I got this. I don't care if she's stronger than the Dragon God, nobody can beat me," Tenshi boasted, to which Iku sighed in annoyance.
At the Hakurei Shrine, Ran turned her head towards Kasen as the storm died down. All the humans had taken shelter, either inside and around the shrine or beneath some trees as the two of them stood out in the rain. "Any more ideas of yours? There's still two of them left, one of which has demonstrated their power clear enough."
Kasen bit her lip slightly, lost in thought as to what to do next. "Yukari is going ahead with her plan. All we need to do is buy time and protect the residents of Gensokyo. Reimu and the tengu girl are both on their way to the human village," Kasen said, receiving the survey results from her eagle as it flew back to her. "Our strongest pieces should be able to keep them occupied enough. The flower youkai appears ready to jump in on her own merit, and I'm certain that dollmaker won't hold anything back. I'd like the Buddhist Monk to report here, though, as well as the residents of the shrine atop Youkai Mountain to be on standby" Kasen said, as her eagle nodded and flew off in search of Byakuren and Kanako.
"Anything else?" Ran asked.
"If need be, I'll have to step in myself," Kasen said. "Of course, if I lose any little organisation we may have had is thrown out of the window. We'll just have to see when the time comes…" Kasen said, somewhat darkly, to which Ran nodded her head reluctantly.
Approaching the Human Village, drawn by the fighting she saw, Reimu stopped in her tracks as the rainfall lessened. "No way…" she muttered, looking up at the sky. "I knew they were strong to get Yukari worried like that, but this?" She said, before shaking her head. "This girl must be truly insane. Guess I gotta mop up her companion first, though."
Hiroko reappeared through a portal created by her space card, directly above the Garden of the Sun where her battles had taken place before. The rain completely stopped, leaving only an almost flooded Gensokyo in its wake. Miko looked up towards her, narrowing her eyes. 'All I need to do is get close enough to hear her desires…' she thought to herself, as she chose to make a break for it, flying directly up towards her.
As she approached about halfway, however, Kaiya teleported in front of her, causing Miko to stop suddenly. As she was stopping, however, Kaiya fired off a single, large, star-like attack towards her, making contact as it exploded in a small, supernova like fashion. Miko was sent flying back down to the ground, and, upon making contact, struggled to pick herself up off the ground.
"Curious as I am myself," Kaiya said. "She's still my greatest friend. I can't just allow anyone to listen in on her secrets, can I?" Kaiya asked rhetorically, raising her hand. "Our fight ends here. It was fun while it lasted," she said, as an explosion of similar power hit Miko again, sending her flying further backwards and knocking her out. "That makes six, compared to your two," Kaiya said to herself.
"Where are the humans from the village?" A voice said behind Kaiya, as she turned around. "What did you do to them?" Reimu asked.
"I took them away to a safe place," Kaiya said. "I didn't want any innocents whipped up in this chaos, and they were stuck here in the village out in the storm. They're safe, if that's all you're after."
"You think I'd trust the word of someone invading Gensokyo?" Reimu asked.
"Figured that would be your response," Kaiya sighed, shaking her head as she did so. "If you're here to fight, let's get this over with quickly, then."
"If you want me to end it quickly, then I'll be happy to accept," Reimu said. "Since as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, there's no way I could lose to the likes of you."
Meanwhile, on Mars, Yukari and Eirin stood just inside the invisible city. "It appears Yuyuko and Youmu have yet to find what we're looking for…" Yukari said. "In that case, it must be well hidden. We should go help them look. The sooner we end this, the better."
"No," Eirin responded, looking up to the grand, palace-like structure in the middle. Yukari narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Does the Brain of the Moon have a better plan, now that we're here?" Yukari asked, to which Eirin nodded. "Do tell."
"In the palace, I'm almost certain there is someone locked away that the martians, and especially Hiroko, don't want us to see," Eirin said. "Would that not be a better way to lure her here?"
"Oho, holding a hostage?" Yukari asked, holding her fan out. "What makes you think this is true?"
"She told me," Eirin said, walking forward towards the palace. "How about it? Does the martian's greatest secret not interest you?"
Yukari laughed slightly. "You do have a good point. Very well. Lead the way. Though if you're lying about this assumption, and this merely wastes our time," Yukari said, her face darkening. "I can't promise the safety of you Lunarians in Gensokyo," she said, to which Eirin's eyes narrowed, yet she nodded all the same, as the two walked towards the palace.
Meanwhile in Gensokyo, Hiroko looked around at the half-flooded Gensokyo after the storm. "Seems Eirin and that Youkai Sage aren't here…" she muttered to herself. "They must be up to something," she said, as she began looking up into space. As she did so, however, she felt something start to wrap itself around her legs. "Huh?" she asked herself, looking down as a couple of flowers had extended to wrap around her. She threw out a card, which split into multiple others that prepared to shoot themselves towards the flowers to cut them. However, before she could, a large laser was shot from the flower field below her, enveloping her before she had a chance to escape and destroying the cards she had thrown out. The laser hit the boundary of Gensokyo, creating a visible shockwave that spanned across the entirety of the border. Once the attack finished, Hiroko was left with burns across her body, as some of her ribbons had been destroyed. The flowers seemed to lack any damage, as they simply shrunk and returned to normal.
The sound of clapping was heard by Hiroko somewhere near her. "Well done, well done," a voice said, as Hiroko narrowed her eyes down to the flower field beneath her. "The average person around here would have evaporated into a mist of atoms in the face of that attack," the voice added.
"Good thing I'm much stronger than the average person around here, then," Hiroko smiled, as she threw a card into the air, ready to fire a laser down into the field.
"Good thing indeed," the voice said, from directly behind her this time. Hiroko quickly moved away, as the card she had thrown shot a small laser towards where the voice came from. The laser was reflected towards her by a parasol, which she quickly attempted to dodge, with the laser grazing her arm in the process. The parasol was closed, as Yuuka smiled at her. "It'd be rather boring if you were."
"Yuuka Kazami," Hiroko said, adjusting herself after the surprise attack. "Strongest youkai in Gensokyo. Lover of flowers."
"Flattery will get you nowhere," Yuuka said towards the strongest comment. "Though, great to know I'm a celebrity across outer space."
"Not quite," Hiroko said, reaching into her pocket. "I just dealt with a girl using the power of your God. Does that not mean anything to you?"
"It means a halfway decent challenge," Yuuka smiled, as she raised her parasol towards her. From it, multiple streams of flower-shaped bullets. Hiroko began flying around Yuuka, periodically throwing cards up into the air as she did so, as they slowly surrounded the flower youkai. Once a full circle of cards had been completed, Hiroko threw out a few more to cover below and above the circle, before all cards fired lasers towards, above and below Yuuka, essentially trapping her with no way to deflect them all. However, before the lasers hit her, Yuuka seemingly dematerialised from the bottom up, as she reappeared beneath Hiroko from the head down. However, before Yuuka could begin her counter attack, lightning bolts rained down and around Yuuka as the result of a 'lightning card'. As the lightning bolts threatened to strike the Garden of the Sun, Yuuka was forced to block all the bolts with her parasol, which caused them all to disappear upon striking it.
"I learnt to deal with basic teleportation a long time ago," Hiroko said, as Yuuka flew further up so Hiroko was no longer above her. "Though, that parasol of yours certainly seems… unique, to say the least."
"It's just a normal parasol from around here," Yuuka lied, as she closed her parasol and held it next to her. "I would have been disappointed if that simple trick was enough to catch you off guard. Glad to know you martians aren't all bark after all," she said, as with a wave of her parasol, she fired yellow, diamond shaped bullets in waves around her, in all directions except towards the Garden. Hiroko smiled, as she dodged between the waves to a safe spot below Yuuka, taking a card out of her pocket.
"Flame-" she began, before cutting herself off as a large laser hit her unexpectedly, sending her shooting down towards the flower field below. The original flame card from her deck was completely destroyed, as she hit the ground beneath her. Hiroko gasped slightly on impact with the ground as she reached into her pocket, pulling out a reverse card to reverse the laser back towards Yuuka, who simply dodged. After the attack, the flowers appeared unharmed, much to Hiroko's surprise as she used a heal card to restore her burns.
"It would be quite pitiful if the flower youkai had the ability to harm flowers, wouldn't you agree?" Yuuka asked, as she hovered down towards Hiroko, who began flying back up after the attack.
"So being a flower youkai gives your attacks the inability to damage flowers?" Hiroko asked in slight disbelief. "I guess that explains how your earlier attack caused no harm to them, too."
"Indeed it does," Yuuka smiled. "Now for my other question. You were about to use that fire attack of yours, weren't you?" Yuuka asked, to which Hiroko narrowed her eyes slightly and nodded. "Mind using it right now?" Yuuka added, as she smiled, to which Hiroko gave no answer. "Ah, so it's as I thought, then. Whenever you use a card, it creates 'fakes', so to say, that uses that card's abilities. However, once the original is destroyed, you can no longer use that ability. Am I right?"
Hiroko briefly flashed back to Yorihime's lightning strike burning away her 'Tracking Card', which she had intended to use to keep an eye on her wherever she went, so she wouldn't catch her by surprise. After all, she knew with Yorihime's speed, there would be no chance for her to heal in the middle of battle. "Perhaps," Hiroko said, clutching her now deck of fifty cards. "Though for all you know, I still have fifty-one abilities left. There's no way you can handle that many," Hiroko boasted, as Yuuka began laughing. "What's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing, nothing," Yuuka laughed. "It's just I could think of nothing more humiliating than slowly destroying your abilities one by one until you're completely powerless."
"As if i'd allow that to happen!" Hiroko said, drawing a card and throwing it out. "Time card," she said, as the time around her briefly stopped. She threw some cards around, with their edges pointing towards Yuuka, before time automatically resumed after a mere two seconds, causing the cards to shoot themselves towards Yuuka. Yuuka quickly fired out bullets in all directions, connecting with the cards and destroying them before they could reach her. While she was distracted, however, Hiroko threw out another card. "Wind card," she said, as intense wind began to blow in all directions centered from the card. "Ice card," Hiroko said, throwing another card that spawned sharp icicles. The wind picked them up, causing the icicles to blow in all directions centered around the card.
"Tsk," Yuuka said, raising her parasol. From it, several bullets shot out in all directions in front of her, destroying the icicles before they could reach her, as well as destroying those that threatened to strike the flower field. The wind stopped suddenly, as did the icicles, as Yuuka closed her parasol, to find Hiroko nowhere in sight.
"It's over," Hiroko said from above and behind her. She raised her hand as invisible cards began to glow, showing their location. They were scattered like a minefield around Yuuka, however, it seemed none of them threatened the flower field. "Explosion card," She said, as all the invisible cards exploded around her, catching her directly in the center of all of them. Hiroko lowered her arm briefly to rest herself.
"Not too shabby," A new voice said above her. She looked up to see a magician dressed in black, sitting on her broom. "Pretty flashy attacks ya got there," Marisa said.
"I don't care for 'flashiness'," Hiroko said.
"Heh," Marisa laughed, holding her hat as she raised her mini-hakkero towards Hiroko. "With that attitude, there's no way you'd survive here in Gensok-" she started, before being cut off. From the smoke of the explosions, flower bullets were shot up in random directions, as both Hiroko and Marisa started to dodge ones coming near them. "Woah!" Marisa said in reaction, dodging through the flower bullets somewhat clumsily due to high speed.
"Still kicking, then?" Hiroko asked, as the smoke cleared. Yuuka smiled, as she was left with only mild burns on her body from the explosions.
"It'll take much more than that to take me out," Yuuka said in response, before looking up towards Marisa. "Seems a little weed has wormed their way out of the forest."
"C'mon," Marisa said in response, sighing as she did so. "I was tryin' to make a cool entrance after ya lost. If only ya coulda waited a few more seconds."
"What a shame," Yuuka said jokingly. "And just when I was about to use my ultimate magic, too. Though, I suppose you getting beaten down by her might be equally as entertaining."
"Ultimate magic?" Hiroko asked in confusion.
"I thought that was Alice's-" Marisa started.
"Be quiet or else I'll destroy you like the rest of the weeds in my garden," Yuuka said with a smile, as a drop of sweat appeared on Marisa's forehead. Before they could continue bickering, however, a flurry of lasers of similar randomness was fired at the two of them by Hiroko's cards. The two of them dodged around the laser shower being fired at them, before Marisa smiled and moved backwards on her broom a bit.
"Magic Sign, "Stardust Reverie"!" She shouted energetically, as she shot forward on her broom, grazing past the flurry of lasers, as well as shooting star shaped bullets behind her, towards Hiroko, who raised her hand to create an energy shield from the attack. Marisa's attack managed to break the shield, knocking Hiroko off balance as Marisa's attack ended. "Light Sign, "Luminous Strike"!" Marisa shouted with similar energy, shooting a large, yellow, star-shaped attack at point blank range, causing Hiroko to fly downwards towards the ground. "Heh, that was easy," Marisa said, turning around to face Yuuka, who seemed displeased at the stars Marisa had indirectly shot at her. "What do ya think?"
"I think she's already ready to start her counterattack," Yuuka said, as Marisa spun around and quickly avoided a card that was thrown at her. The card stopped mid-air however, as from it, lightning bolts fired directly at Marisa, which grazed her as she quickly flew away, causing Yuuka to teleport down and block the bolts with her parasol before they struck the garden. Hiroko flew up, as Yuuka shot out flower bullets towards her, which was effortlessly dodged. However, as Hiroko was distracted by dodging, flower-shaped bullets grew around her, effectively trapping her without being able to escape.
"Fantastic Spring Flowers," Yuuka said, before raising her parasol towards the flower cage. She shot a stream of large bullets into the cage. Once her attack finished, the flowers around Hiroko fell down towards the ground, as she took minor damage.
"She's tough, huh?" Marisa said, flying down near Yuuka.
"I've hardly gotten serious yet," Yuuka said, smiling.
"Whatever ya say," Marisa said, smiling. "Though, it's time I end this," she said, raising her mini-hakkero towards Hiroko. "Mater Spark!" She shouted, firing her master spark laser towards Hiroko, who dodged the attack and threw out a card, which fired a simple laser at Marisa. Marisa halted her attack to dodge the laser, before firing another Master Spark at Hiroko, who pulled out a reverse card to send the attack back at her. Marisa quickly dived down to avoid the reflected attack.
"You call that a Master Spark?" Yuuka laughed.
"You coulda at least sent it back to her with your parasol!" Marisa complained, holding her hat. "I was relyin' on you to send it back at her while I shot anotha one!"
"Next time you come up with a stupid plan, you should tell me," Yuuka said.
"It wasn't stupid," Marisa claimed.
"Yes, it was," Yuuka said. "If she can dodge one tiny laser like that, she'd be able to dodge two."
"Will you two stop bickering!?" Another voice said behind them, as they both looked behind them.
"Another weed from the forest?" Yuuka asked, as Alice hovered up to their level.
"The entirety of Gensokyo could be on the line here!" Alice scolded the two of them, holding her locked Grimoire in her hand. "And yet the two of you are out here arguing with each other. Though, I suppose I should've expected nothing more from the two of you."
"Oh, hey there Alice," Marisa said, waving. "I was wonderin' when you'd show up. You here to help?"
"No," Alice said, flying in front of the two of them. "I'm here to take over."
"Borin' old Alice, as per usual," Marisa sighed.
"And what exactly will someone like you do?" Yuuka asked, as Alice pulled a key out of her dress pocket, using it to unlock her locked Grimoire.
"I'll finish this," Alice said, opening her Grimoire as Hiroko narrowed her eyes. "With the Ultimate Magic in all of Gensokyo."
