North of Hoppou-ri Village
Fairies are dumb, mischievous, annoying, forgetful, and weak. Everyone living in Gensokyo knows that (except the fairies themselves).
But everyone also knows that fairies will, for some reason, become more aggressive when there's a major Incident going on. And that is exactly the case right now, with the Scarlet Mist making the fairies aggressive in their attacks against Reimu and Marisa.
Yumemi and Chiyuri hunkered down as danmaku began to fly from every direction, especially from Reimu and Marisa as they fired back at the fairies.
Although Yumemi's priorities were a bit skewed at the moment. "Chiyuri, are the instruments recording all this?" She asked her assistant.
As soon as the professor finishes her sentence, the device standing on a tripod - the most crucial of the research instruments - gets hit by a stray boulder-sized danmaku and explodes into pieces, with the tripod toppling over afterwards.
"Not anymore." Chiyuri deadpanned in reaction to the instrument getting destroyed.
At the same time, Reimu and Marisa continued their shootout against the fairies, who seemed to be relentless in their desire to take down the shrine maiden and the witch. And for ever 10 fairies that get knocked out, 20 more seemed to appear out of nowhere to take their place.
"Hey, Rei!" Marisa called out to Reimu as she fired at the fairies with her magic wand. "There's only the two of us and hundreds of 'em! We're gonna need more than what we can dish out right now!" She dodged a boulder-sized danmaku before firing a spell at the fairy that fired it. "Remember that thing we worked on?"
Reimu wished she could simply shoot her way through the swarm of fairies, like she did in the five Incidents she tackled last year. But Marisa was right, she need much more firepower than the individual shooting can give her in order to deal with this swarm of fairies.
"This better work..."
Still doubting what she is going to do, Reimu reached into her sleeve to pull a Spell Card out. Then she held the Card out in front of her face, and focused her magic energy into it.
The Spell Card didn't need much magic energy to start reacting. Within a split second, the Card began to shine brightly, enough that every fairy and Marisa stopped right in their tracks, and Yumemi and Chiyuri looked up from their position on the ground.
"Fantasy Seal!"
With a loud declaration, Reimu released the magic accumulated in the Spell Card, which manifested as five large orbs of energy in different colors that then shot out in different directions, wiping out every fairy that gets in their way.
The fairies started to stage a retreat in panic upon seeing their brethren getting wiped out of the air by the orbs of energy. But try as they might, the orbs were much faster, and could seemingly seek out targets on their own, and soon most of the fairies in the vicinity of the rice field are knocked out of the air.
The bloodless, non-lethal carnage ended with the orbs converging on a single fairy - the last one still standing - and then blowing her up.
The Spell Card stopped shining once its effects are over. Meanwhile, Reimu just hovered there, astonished by what she just unleashed.
"Holy... Expletive!" Marisa commented, her jaws wide open due to the sight she just saw.
Yumemi, however, was rather excited by the sight. "Mary, mother of God! That is even more awesome than the holographic fireworks display MIT showed the world on January 1st, 2100 A.D.!"
Chiyuri is impressed by the danmaku display made by Reimu's Spell Card. Not so much on how her redheaded professor is acting. "Do you need to act like a teenager..." She stopped herself upon realizing what she just said. "Oh wait, you are a teenager. Never mind..."
Yumemi then turned toward her assistant. "Chiyuri, the instruments! Did they capture anything about the display?!" She asked excitedly.
"The only one that was supposed to have done it was wrecked by the fairies, remember?" Chiyuri said bluntly, while pointing at what is left of the tripod-mounted device.
Yumemi's excitement deflated quickly afterwards as she then pouted. "Remind me to armor the instruments when we get back..."
"You two..." Reimu spoke up, reminding the two outsiders of her presence. "Go hunker down somewhere safe. We're in the middle of an Incident right now, and you both saw how aggressive the fairies can be."
Yumemi and Chiyuri glanced at each other.
"She's right, professor." The assistant said. "The middle of a war zone is no place for us scientists."
"I was just about to say that." The redhead professor acknowledge. "Pack up everything, Chiyuri. We're going back to the ship."
With that, the two outsiders collected everything they've brought here, before activating their jet packs and flying away from the site.
"I guess this proves that Spell Cards are gonna work, right?" Marisa asked as she brandished a Spell Card of her own that she hasn't used yet. "Man, I can't wait to test out mine!"
Reimu, however, responded by shaking her head. "I'm glad that they work as I wished. But-" The shrine maiden then gestured toward Hoppou-ri Village. "I think we should watch where and when we use them."
Marisa looked at what Reimu is pointing at, and instantly got the intent of the message. "Uh, yeah. Gotta work on that. Ya ain't gettin' any respect if ya cause collateral damage all the time, as the Avengers found out the hard way..."
...
Misty Lake south shores
Reimu and Marisa continued heading northwards after dealing with the fairies at Hoppou-ri.
The girls' trek has led them to the southern shores of the Misty Lake. Despite the lake's thick mist and the red tint created by the Scarlet Mist, they can still see that something in the center of the Lake, deep within its namesake mist, is producing the Scarlet Mist.
"So I'm guessin' that whoever is causin' all this is right over there." Marisa pointed out.
"Obviously." Reimu responded bluntly. "And whatever might be causing it, I'm going to stop them."
Marisa glanced at the thick mist, then back at Reimu. "But we can't see a damn's worth in there! How are we gonna-"
Reimu suddenly became very alerted of something, as she scanned her surroundings.
"What's wrong, Rei?" Marisa, having no idea what is going o with the shrine maiden, asked.
"I think-" Reimu, feeling somewhat uneasy, answered. "-Something is approaching us-"
Without finishing her sentence, Reimu quickly turned around to swipe her gohei at a huge black blob that suddenly appeared behind her. The reflexive attack caused the black blob to reel back before sinking into the ground.
"A Youkai!" Reimu said.
Marisa didn't need to be told to get ready for a fight. "Whoa! That one came outta nowhere!"
"So keep your eyes out for it!" Reimu said as she summoned the Ying-Yang Orb to her side, and held out her gohei with her right hand while holding three Exorcising Needles with her left.
Marisa held her magic wand out, ready to blast any enemy that might appear suddenly. "It's a good thing we made those Spell Cards. Otherwise, it's gonna be one heck of a dogfight."
"If there is anything I've learned from last year, it is that nothing is ever easy." Reimu said while being vigilant of the surroundings. "And that Youkai tend to not play fai-"
Before Reimu can finish her statement, the huge black blob reappeared in the shape of a maw lined with sharp teeth.
The black blob closed its maw around Reimu with lightning speed, and then started to behave in a way that made it look like its chewing.
"Reimu!" Marisa became alarmed, as she produced one of her own Spell Card and prepared to use it against the black blob.
As the witch prepared her attack, the black blob suddenly stopped chewing as it began to expand uncontrollably.
It wasn't very long before the black blob burst like a balloon, as Reimu forced her way out of it with her gohei held out like a spear.
"How dare you eat the Hakurei shrine maiden?!" Reimu shouted at the black blob, which had disappeared again. "This is only my first day! I could've lost all respect!"
Marisa rolled her eyes. While she is glad that Reimu is not hurt, she is wondering why the shrine maiden is more concerned about losing her respect than, say, her life.
"Ya alright?" Marisa asked the shrine maiden.
"I am. Thanks for asking." Reimu answered as she adjusted her hair ribbon. "Some Youkai that was..."
The girls then noticed that the black blob appears to be reforming itself, as pieces of it gathered back together into a single spot. Once the blob reached its full size again, it then dispersed itself in a controlled manner.
Hovering there, at where the black blob was, is what appeared to be a little humanoid girl with red eyes and short blonde hair with a small red hair bow, wearing a black vest and skirt, and a white blouse with a red tie.
"You taste very... sweet~!" Said the little girl as she smacked her lips.
You can definitely guess who this is.
Sorry for the delay. I was so hyped about the premiere of Avengers: Endgame that I totally forgot to write this chapter last week. It was a really hyped movie all over the world (with tickets here sold out before April even began), and I've been looking forward to watch it too. "Whatever it takes", indeed!
Anyway, I originally planned for the black blob to be just that, a black spherical blob. But then Zun announced Wily Beast and Weakest Creature, and as I took a look at Reimu's unusual shadow in that game's title screen, I immediately thought to myself, "Hey, that looks like a form a certain shadow Youkai could use!" and here you have. What a way to introduce the first ever boss to use Spell Cards.
As I mentioned before, Spell Cards in the YMC-verse don't work the same way they do in canon, although the general idea of non-fatally subduing the opponent is still there. I don't need to remind you in every single chapter, so please remember it.
"And that, as they say, is that."
Afterword ends here.
