Initial Maneuvers
Two weeks eventually passed after the arrival of Team Gensokyo with events quickly occurring. Thanks to Yasaka, an estate was bought in Kuoh Town and the team was funded to buy themselves the necessary equipment to run it. Alice and Patchouli had both stayed back in Kyoto to begin researching on how to detach Yasaka from the Kyoto magical leylines while the scouting maneuvers quickly went underway.
It had taken a small amount of time for the Kuoh team to adjust to the new environment. Reisen and Aya were both unhindered at the sudden change of the technological level of the outside world compared to Gensokyo's. After all, Reisen was a moon rabbit originally from a society that had superior technology in the first place. Aya worked closely with the Kappa of Gensokyo and become somewhat skilled at handling modern technology. Suika wasn't particularly affected either as the most she did was nap, drink more sake, or ask for alcohol from the outside world. Marisa was the most affected. Instead of some small fire area for the pot or cauldron, food could be cooked on a 'stove' which Reisen had tried to explain to everyone what it was. Marisa complained it was easier to just set up a fire place for everything before Reisen had explained that the stove could have multiple areas to heat up and cook items.
It had caused some amazement for the witch. Enough that she tried to use it, only to cause the stove to blow up somehow and force the team to buy a new one. Marisa was banned from ever using anything that resembled technology again.
As for the clinic, there were hardly any patients that came by as it was new and thus, information had mainly come from scouting and spying in the form of Suika and Aya. Suika dispersed herself into mist and floated around the entire town with an eye on almost everything possible as long as she stayed in that form. Aya, able to hide her black crow wings, simply walked around to take notes as well as pictures on her camera while remaining inconspicuous as best as she could. It worked out quite well as the two of them hadn't been caught to their knowledge and thus, they managed to confirm what Yasaka had said about a devil being in the town. There was way more than one devil as Aya and Suika had found out though.
As far the team knew, the devils they found all went to Kuoh Academy. There were two different groups which were led by two different people as well although they interacted with each other frequently. The first leader Suika and Aya had found was Rias Gremory, who looked a bit similar to Koakuma although her breasts were unbelievably bigger. The other one was less obvious though and Suika had stumbled upon her by accident that turned out in their favor as Rias had been meeting her at the time. Sona Shitori, as the other students named her, was the other devil leader and was something called a 'student council president' although both spying youkai had absolutely no idea what that meant. Thus, they assumed it was just some pointless leadership position.
They seemed to pose no threat so far and they even seemed to be content with their regular activities of attending school. On occasion, the two of them performed some nighttime activities which was a prime time for even more information gathering for the two youkai spies. One of them was stray devil hunting in which Rias or Sona would lead their team of devils to hunt for monster-like creatures. Apparently, they were devils who killed or ran away from their master and without them to keep their powers in check, became a threat. Thus, they were slated to be killed.
Aya secretly photographed their powers as well as their entire group while they were too busy fighting with an enemy. She was almost caught at one point as Sona seemed to be very cautious, but she wasn't detected. Based on what they displayed so far, both devil groups posed very little threat to the Youkai Faction of Kyoto by themselves, and even less to Team Gensokyo but they did each have their own powers. The blond boy Yuuto Kiba for example, could create swords of some kind with a singular effect and was rather quick in terms of speed. When compared to Youmu however, Aya didn't think he wasn't worth too much notice.
Akeno Himejima was a user of thunder, Suika lazily noted. Dangerous, but her movements made it easy to avoid for anyone fast enough which would be most youkai with their enhanced bodies and reflexes.
Rias Gremory rarely fought, but her wave of magic disintegrated and completely destroyed whatever it touched. Aya made sure to take good pictures of that as even in Gensokyo, it would be considered a threat should the user become powerful enough.
Koneko Toujou was an interesting member of Rias' group, both Aya and Suika had told the team. They were very sure that she was a youkai although they didn't know what kind until she revealed whatever traits she had. What she was doing with Rias, they didn't know but her powers in physical strength seemed moderate. Aya teased that someone like Marisa who was completely human, would struggle at a close combat encounter. The witch argued that someone like that wouldn't take more than a minute to beat. After all, Meiling of the Scarlet Devil Mansion was a youkai and a master martial artist who continuously failed to keep Marisa out of the Scarlet Devil Mansion whenever she was on a burglary run. If Meiling couldn't defeat her, she highly doubted Koneko could.
While it was true that Marisa wouldn't be able to fight as effectively at close range as she would medium or far ranged, that had been forced to be rectified by Meiling's mastery of close range combat that still gave Marisa pause. She was forced to become good at fighting back in those disadvantageous conditions whenever Meiling managed to close the distance between them, or risk defeat. On top of that, Aya informed Marisa that Koneko seemed to be much slower than Meiling whom was supremely faster and stronger. Then there were her duels with Reimu, who had become even more skilled with using her Hakurei powers to enhance her physical skills over the years when she was actually motivated to train. Thus, her commonly assumed weakness in physical fights had ceased to exist.
Unfortunately, none of the other seven members of Sona's group had showcased their unique power against a stray devil and were still unknowns.
The other activity the two groups mainly partook in were various contracts made by humans which was harmless for the most part. It mostly involved fulfilling requests for a human that had requested the services of a devil. Said requests ranged from having someone to talk to just wearing strange clothing as Koneko was often asked for. There were obscure, as well as more suggestive ones here and there but none of them had involved fighting.
Aya was the one regularly sent to divulge all the information gained to Kyoto. Already, some of the youkai seemed impressed in how they were undetected while able to gather this much information. The more militant ones were still adamant in not fully committing to leaving and remained unimpressed, arguing that kitsunes could do the exact same thing they did, being masters of illusions and trickery.
Ran had only appeared at the clinic once to check up on them upon Yukari's request due to being too busy handling the safe, yet slow transition of the Youkai Faction to Gensokyo as the distance between Kyoto and the border to Gensokyo was somewhat far. She assured them everything was proceeding well and to keep doing what they were doing.
As the majority of the job had mostly been left to Aya and Suika, Marisa was becoming anxious.
"So bored! There's nothin' to do around here!" Marisa complained loudly, watching Reisen shelf away some medicine. "What's the point of even bein' here anymore? The devils here are weak!"
"Marisa-san," Reisen sighed for the umpteenth time, "Suika-san and Aya-san are both still out trying to find out more information. Two weeks isn't enough and we still don't know what Sona can do. As long as we don't know how strong she or her group is, we can't leave. Alice has also asked that we stay to keep away any threats to the youkai faction."
"Nobody here's strong enough to make us sweat anyway, so what's the point? And what's her name ain't gonna reveal it by herself. We gotta do something to make it happen! Just have one of us fight her and she'll have ta' take us seriously, right?" Marisa tried to reason although Reisen looked indifferent to her logic.
"If we reveal ourselves Marisa-san, then we will become known by others of the supernatural world and attention is not what we need," Reisen countered. "You're honestly starting to sound like that celestial from Heaven."
"What, you mean Tenshi? The one who wrecked Reimu's shrine?" Marisa asked for confirmation, receiving a nod from Reisen. "And aren'tcha just trying to stop talkin' about what we should do? Least you could do is not make it so obvious."
"It was worth a try at least." Reisen shrugged unapologetically. "But, yes her."
Marisa laughed boisterously. "Ahh yeah. I could never forget that incident. Reimu was so angry that she just beat up everybody she met!"
"And I was one of them. She never apologized for it either." Reisen pouted.
Marisa waved it off dismissively. "That's just how she works anyway! Shoot first! Ask questions later!"
The moon rabbit graced the witch with an unimpressed look. "Like you?"
"Yup! Like me!" Marisa didn't even bother hiding the grin she felt at the similarity. "That was one of the biggest parties after an incident too! Even Tenshi was invited after she helped rebuild the shrine."
"It only feels like yesterday, but it was really years ago…," Reisen sounded reminiscent as she recalled the massive party for the successful rebuilding. "Somehow, I feel old. After all the incidents and everything that's happened, I understand a bit why Reimu-san feels lazy."
Marisa's energetic recollection instantly gave way to a very glum look. "Well… I'm gettin' close to fourty-one, but yeah. I see yer point. Especially after the Lunarian War..."
"Marisa-san?" Reisen frowned, sensing the rapid atmospheric and mood change. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine." Marisa answered slowly. "It's just… When you said you felt old, I kinda feel the same way. Lookin' at Reimi and all, she's already ten. It's hard. Seein' Reimi while Reimu's like that. It always reminds me of what happened. And watchin' Reimu everyday afterwards…"
Reisen didn't really know what to say to that other than an acknowledging 'ahh.'
"Ya' know. Watchin' all the youkai get killed like that. It made me realize that you guys can die too. It just doesn't really come ta' mind when we think about yer age." Marisa paused momentarily to gather her thoughts on what to say. "But I definitely didn't think Reimu would end up like that."
"Why's that?"
Marisa answered briskly. "'Cause she's always been one step ahead of me when it comes ta' duels. As soon as I think I catch up ta' her, she trains a little bit more and then she's better again. When that happens for a while, it's hard ta' think of her losin', let alone dyin' ta' anyone."
"I suppose that's true. Her survival is pivotal to the Great Hakurei Barrier after all. Even the youkai don't dare take the opportunity to kill her," The purple haired girl added in.
"Exactly." Marisa nodded her head. "So I didn't think anything would happen to her and focused on what Yukari told us ta' do. We all had our own thing ta' do to survive. Probably one of the first times that everybody banded together under Yukari ta' win."
A gesture of agreement came from Reisen again. "I remember. Yukari entering every single area of Gensokyo to ask for help in the fight. Even the fairies accepted."
"Yep. With everybody together like that, there's no way we'd lose anybody." Marisa chuckled with false optimism before continuing in a depressed tone. "I couldn't believe it when Alice told me that Reimu was so badly hurt tryin' ta' evacuate everyone from the shrine. Then she ended up in that coma. We won. But look at us. We're barely hangin' on. Heck, I'm barely holdin' on myself."
Reisen cocked an eyebrow, frowning at Marisa's out of character pessimism.
"You? You look like you've been the most optimistic in this group."
Marisa shook her head. "That's just 'cuz I need somethin' to focus on or I'd fall apart. Reimi told us not ta' feel guilty, but I still do and I can't help it. She's too nice to hate anybody, just like Reimu. It doesn't make me feel any better."
She stopped momentarily before continuing.
"I'm her best friend, ya' know? One of the ones who knew her best and I let her end up like that? Can't even imagine how Yukari feels every day."
A soundless single tear dropped to the floor and Reisen remained silent in respect to the ordinary witch.
"I… After we won, I didn't leave my house for a while. Alice even stayed with me for a couple days so I wouldn't do anything stupid." Marisa's voice cracked as a few more tears descended down her face, though she fought through slowly to finish. "So when Yukari told me about the group she was plannin' to assemble to help Gensokyo and Reimu, I couldn't believe that either. Didn't even take a second for me to accept whatever she needed and I asked Alice if she could help me. Course she said yes too the moment I asked. Now though, I'm scared what Reimu will say ta' us after when we pull through. I'm scared how she'll look when I see her back up and not in that bed that I visit with Alice."
Marisa wiped away her tears with her white sleeve and looked at Reisen with an intense gaze.
"But, I wanna see Reimu up again more than anything and I'll protect whatever she left behind. Including Gensokyo and Reimi. I wanna see Reimi smile more often and I know she'll do that if Reimu wakes back up. Then we'll have another big party like before the war. We'll all be happy again and maybe I won't feel so guilty anymore too. That's why no matter what, I'm gonna make sure this works out. Not just fer me, but for everybody else like Reimi and Yukari. And… I'll just hope she'll forgive me for screwin' up like that."
Her tone was soft, very much out of character from what Reisen had seen. Yet, it held a resolute drive as well as a goal that she could follow.
"Sorry. Didn't mean ta' ramble like that. Ya' hardly even know me all that well. Worked together yeah, but personally if ya' get what I mean." She scratched her head sheepishly.
"No. It's OK. I understand. I think everybody forgets that underneath your ordinary witch exterior, we forget that you're only a human. One of the most powerful humans, but a human with emotions and flaws just like everybody else."
Reisen decided to speak up. She felt it was only fair that Marisa heard why she was part of the team, seeing as the latter silently shed tears while explaining hers.
"I wasn't very close to Reimu-san like you, but I do know a bit how you feel," Reisen admitted softly. "Master was very frustrated after that evacuation. I'd never seen her so angry before. Ever."
Marisa looked at her questioningly. "Eirin? Angry? Never thought I'd hear that."
Reisen gave a wry grin. "Yes. Just don't tell Master that I told you this. I'm here to mainly provide you medical assistance in case any of us get hurt like she requested, but Eientei as a whole, myself included, all owe Reimu-san for protecting us just as much as any other Gensokyo resident. And you may not know, but a debt from Master is incredibly rare and I don't exaggerate when I say that it is probably the equivalent of being owed a debt from a Goddess."
Marisa nodded to show she was listening.
"I love Gensokyo very much. Master may not show it, but she does as well. Everybody has treated me very well and I owe it to both her and Gensokyo that I'm still alive. It'd be very shameful of me to not help Gensokyo and Master when they both need it. Master knows that Reimu-san has a heart that cannot truly hate and wants peace. Despite her originating from the Moon, she knew Reimu-san never held it against her or blamed her when the Lunarians invaded. So, I'm here for both Gensokyo and to help Master."
"Huh…" Marisa trailed off. "That's it? Was sorta expectin' more from ya.' Some dark sappy story like me."
"My story or reason of why I'm here isn't as dramatic as yours Marisa-san. Sorry." A joking smile from Reisen was given to Marisa. "Still… I think I understand you better Marisa-san. I hardly know you personally, but I'm thankful that you're part of Team Gensokyo."
"Yeah?" Marisa grinned back. "Well, yer not so bad either Reisen."
"I could say the same for you, Marisa-san." Reisen replied. "So, let's work well together."
She extended her hand out for a handshake which Marisa promptly shook with gusto.
"Yeah. Let's do our best."
xXx
Mist floated around above the school as Suika's consciousness took in the sights around Kuoh Academy.
"Matsuda! Motohama! Let me take a peek as well!"
"Ohhhh! Those breasts! This is truly heaven!"
"We're so lucky!"
Words of that nature were routine whenever Suika's scattered mist form observed the surroundings. Her scattered consciousness allowed her to be in multiple places at once and as a result, she witnessed random events throughout the day such as this one. Sure, spying on Rias and Sona was top priority and she was already doing that. A small section of her mist and consciousness had split from her to keep an eye on the both of them. However, it was getting to the point where constant spying duty was getting monotonous and boring. She watched them tirelessly, but it was beginning to be the same routine now. Both devil groups would attend classes to learn what looked like harder versions of subjects taught here than at Keine's school, Suika reckoned. Afterwards, the both of them would mostly stay in their perspective areas. Rias, a spacious western like mansion room which reminded Suika of Remilia's Scarlet Devil Mansion and Sona in what was called the Student Council Room. In her opinion though, it didn't look all that much different than a regular classroom.
Alice had asked them to stay in Kuoh in order to take care of any oncoming threats before they directly reached Kyoto. Since Kuoh was a border town near Kyoto, Suika saw it as a wise plan of action. However, they needed something drastic to happen to show the more militant youkai that Gensokyo was still powerful despite the Lunarian Invasion. The easiest thing to do would have just been to beat the hell out of the devils here to show their strength, but even that wasn't a guaranteed success as the ones here in Kuoh she was currently spying on weren't all that powerful anyway. Plus, if they did that, then Suika and Alice were both sure that the Youkai Faction would become placed under scrutiny. If the factions discovered that they were moving to Gensokyo, then a battle for land grab on Kyoto could possibly occur between them in order to take advantage of the latent magical leylines of Kyoto.
Team Gensokyo was strong, Suika knew, but it'd be impossible for them to win. Everyone had their limits after all.
The other method Alice suggested was to wait until the opposing resistance against moving to Gensokyo were the last ones to be moved to Gensokyo. It would be a very slow method, but eventually ensured success and if nothing happened to the Youkai Faction in that time. Then, even the militant youkai couldn't deny that Gensokyo had done a good job protecting them, even if it wasn't as showy as they wanted it to be.
Time-consuming, yet effective in the end. It was the true definition of slow and steady.
Thus, Suika was still relegated to spying duties. It was easy and very safe with so little risk with the nature of her power. But it was repetitive and tiresome to no end.
"It's the perverted trio again!"
"Ahh! Run! Run!"
"W-wait for me! I don't wanna die here!"
"Stop! Don't let them get away!"
Luckily, events like watching the apparently named Perverted Trio get bashed over the heads with kendo swords was much more fun than watching Rias and Akeno sipping some tea. It certainly helped to ease her boredom.
"Agggghhhhhhhhhhhh!" The one named Issei, she found out, screamed as he was physically tormented while his friends abandoned him and escaped with their lives.
Especially when watching amusing things like this.
Throughout the beating, she noticed a small magical signature and Suika's nonphysical head looked up as she noticed an observer on Issei besides herself. The small contingent of mist that had broken from her informed her that it was Rias that was also watching Issei.
This was an action that was more recent with her. She didn't know why yet, but she assumed it was because she wanted him for the group she had. Suika personally thought that he didn't look very strong though and she couldn't find anything interesting about him that warranted Rias' attention. He was perverted and had an unnatural obsession with breasts, but was there something to him that she was missing?
Maybe she knew something that she didn't?
Suika mentally noted that watching Issei and Rias more closely might be a good idea. It didn't seem like Sona was going to show any more information anyway without some kind of bait or incentive.
As the mist followed Rias into the old school building, Suika noticed a door that was shut and clustered with seals and magic. Magic she wasn't familiar with and a powerful one at that to the point where she couldn't slip through under it.
Suika mentally frowned.
This meant that there was something very powerful being held here. It reminded her a bit of the situation with Flandre Scarlet of the Scarlet Devil Mansion who was locked in the basement most of the time.
If she could reform herself, she'd be able to simply break the door down with very little difficulty. However, Akeno, one of the so called Great Ladies of Kuoh was seated in the room and she didn't want to be caught. Thus, it was best to leave it alone for now. If it was sealed, then maybe it was too risky for even the devils. She doubted she could repair the magic seals on the door anyway if she decided to destroy it.
"Hmm?" Akeno perked up, glancing over in Suika's direction.
Uh-oh.
"Ara ara, Is someone there?" The devil asked as she looked around the room curiously in search of the magical signature she felt earlier.
"Akeno? Is something wrong?" Rias asked, as she looked over to her friend.
"No. Nothing's wrong Rias," Akeno replied, kindly smiling back.
That was a sign to sneak away and come back another time. Hopefully when Akeno was too busy. Suika shifted out the window before she could be completely detected and left the Academy. There was no need to stay and further risk detection.
Besides, the day was slightly different and more productive as she now had one more person to watch whose antics were amusing with him running around in his quests for breasts. This would be more fun than stalking Sona for the entire day anyway.
xXx
"I don't remember this group being here before. Must be a new one," Aya commented to herself as she observed a group of humans walking towards an abandoned church in the woods. Her camera flashed multiple times as Aya snapped photos of them. Some for herself and some for extra proof for the Gensokyo Team when she reported back to them on what she found.
There had been some close calls in where she was nearly caught, but the trees hid her presence and obscured the vision enough that her pursued targets thought she was just a crow.
Well, they weren't necessarily wrong technically speaking.
The strange thing she found was that the humans seemed to be aware of the supernatural world. Otherwise, she doubted that they would be following the much smaller group of people in the front with black angel wings. It looked willing and she didn't see any sign of coercion or prisoners or any of those signs.
She swapped her camera for her tengu notebook and pencil and quickly wrote down what she had so far observed from the moderately sized human group.
"Fallen angels then?" She muttered to herself as she snapped another photo from above. "They're not youkai that I know of. This is getting interesting…"
She swapped her camera for her notebook and pencil, quickly writing down what she was seeing. The humans were all wearing priest garbs and though it was difficult to see, they had weapons in the form of a white gun with a long barrel as well as some sort of yellow hilt for a sword. It didn't look like it had a blade however. The fallen angels in front was led by someone in front with long black hair and a scanty outfit that left little to the imagination. In fact, most of it appeared to be black leather.
Eventually, they reached the church and opened the massive wooden doors. The majority of the assembly moved into the church while leaving a few outside which she assumed was for some patrol or guard in case someone came upon them. As they filed in, she eventually she saw their lips moving which meant conversation and seeing as the amount of people had lessened considerably which lowered the risk, she decided to get closer to eavesdrop.
"Ugh, d'you see that guy earlier?" One of the exorcist complained.
Aya's eyes raised in wonder as she closed the distance between them, making sure to avoid making too much noise.
"Freed Sellzen? The genius exorcist? Who hasn't noticed the guy with white hair flirting with our boss while cackling madly to himself?" Another sarcastically responded.
"You don't have to be so rude about it," The first one replied.
"He's got a point though. Why the hell did Raynare bring him along? It doesn't make any damn sense." A third exorcist stated as he brought out a cigarette to smoke. "He's obviously insane. You've gotta be stupid to be near him, let alone work with him. I know I ain't gonna."
"At least the others don't look so bad." The first exorcist that spoke tried to sound hopeful. "Most of us know each other already except, you know. Mittelt looks like she could be my younger sister. Kalawarner has breasts that anyone would kill for and Dohnaseek isn't that bad a guy. Little crazed for battle and a little scary since he's really tall, but someone I could probably sit down with for a cup of coffee without having to worry whether I'll get killed or not."
Now this was a scoop! Aya smiled to herself as she wrote down the names they said. Most likely, judging by what they said, the five specific names she got were the more well-known ones. Freed was clearly an exorcist like them who was touched in the head while the others were either much stronger than them or the fallen angel group in the lead before they went inside the church. She mentally congratulated herself for a successful spying run.
The question now was whether this was enough information to go off of.
Aya mentally shook her head. She wasn't caught yet and she was confident that in the case she was, she could easily get away.
"Any idea why we're here in this city though guys? I hear this is supposed to be devil territory. I don't wanna stick around for too long," the first exorcist asked another.
"I dunno all the details. Somethin' like trying to impress Azazel by bringing Sacred Gears to him after killing their owners."
"S-Sacred gears? And Azazel? Governor General of the Grigori? I dunno Leo. Maybe we should bail. Messing with them is bad news."
"Relax bozo. We're only gonna be here for a couple a' weeks then we're outta here." The third exorcist shrugged away the worries the first exorcist had. "'Sides, from what I heard, there's two sacred gear users. The first is some kid in high school who doesn't even know he's got one. The other is coming right to us with a healing one who can't even fight. You can't seriously be worried about two people like that."
"Oh." He sighed in relief. "That does sound a bit better."
"Geez, what kinda exorcist are you who gets scared like that?"
"Well, we're all exiled so… an exiled exorcist?"
The third exorcist face-palmed. "You're an idiot. Ya' know that?"
"Well, it's not like he doesn't know after you've told him fifty times on the plane where we're going." The sarcastic exorcist finally spoke up, shrugging his shoulders. "Makes you wonder what the hell he did to get exiled in the first place."
"Hey! Stop making fun of me guys! I'm not that bad!"
Without even looking, Aya sensed an incoming presence and an attack from above. She leapt away off the branch she was on as a spear made of light whizzed past her and stabbed itself into the ground. Though her dodge was successful, she ended up in the clear, revealing herself to the group of exorcists whom she was eavesdropping earlier.
All three of them raised their guns at her in a threatening fashion.
"Who are you!?"
"Uh-oh, I've been caught," she declared out loud as she sensed someone coming from behind her as well, attempting to cut off her escape.
"We've had a spy roaming around watching us."
A gruff voice said from behind and she turned to the tall middle-aged man walking out from near her hiding place. He wore a gray trenchcoat over a white dress shirt along with a black fedora covering his short black hair. In his hand was a blue light spear that was the same one that had tried to pierce her earlier.
Dohnaseek, Aya thought, based on what the exorcists described.
Next to him was a much shorter girl with blond hair styled into twintails sporting a black Lolita dress. She was relaxed, almost as if she believed that there was no chance that Aya could get away.
Mittelt, Aya assumed. She certainly fit the description of looking like the exorcist's sister. A girl who was about 145 centimeters or so.
In other words, she was a midget.
"It's pretty annoying and impolite when you attack someone who hasn't done anything to you, you know." Aya pouted in an easy manner.
"Well, you shouldn't have been here in the first place!" Mittelt countered as she formed a pink light spear in her hand. "So? Who are you? You're obviously not human if you could dodge our attack without even looking. And how long have you been here?"
"Me?" Aya pointed at herself before raising her pencil and tengu notebook in front of her attackers. "I'm just an honest reporter, covering a story!"
That only seemed to infuriate Mittelt ever so slightly.
"The way you dodged though. Can you fight?" Dohnaseek asked, a small hint of interest in his voice.
She gave no answer, switching her pout to the most pure and innocent smile she could muster as a crow tengu.
"You're fast at the very least." Dohnaseek complimented before turning to the exorcists. "Don't interfere! She's ours. You don't stand a chance."
Though reluctant to do so, they obeyed by lowering their weapons. Deciding that they were unneeded, they backed up closer to the church to stay away from what they knew would be an onslaught of attacks.
Dohnaseek lobbed another light spear at Aya's head who just tilted her head to the side, watching it shoot pass her harmlessly. It stabbed itself firmly into the church wall behind her.
"Spear from fallen angels aren't very fast. Should be able to be easy to evade for anyone who has fought under Spell Card Rules…," Aya muttered to herself, quickly writing down more of her speculations on the most recent attack.
Deciding to take advantage of her seemingly lack of attention, Mittelt joined in tossing light spears one after another at the crow tengu. To her surprise, a set of black crow wings emerged from her back and she leapt into the air. Once again, the light spears harmlessly flew under her.
"Multiple spears can be thrown…," Aya continued saying repeating to herself as she jotted down more notes. "And each spear looks unique to the holder…"
"Are you even paying attention!?" Mittelt shouted, peeved at her actions.
Her annoyance was only further cemented as she fell victim to the flash of a camera coming from Aya who had apparently taken her picture.
"Aggh!" She shrieked, revealing her own set of black angel wings before taking to the sky. Dohnaseek's eyes narrowed, following his companion.
Completely ignoring her two incoming attackers, she continued to dodge the light spears thrown at her with compete ease while continuing to pen down her thoughts. A shift to the left here and to the right there and allowed to remain completely unscathed throughout the barrage.
Aya continued thinking to herself as she evaded to the unrelenting assault on her with virtually no difficulty. Was this the strength of a fallen angel with only two wings? It seemed to be a complete joke and it would definitely be amongst the lowest in her opinion. It would beat a fairy easily and a human if they had no idea what to expect and couldn't fight properly. Then came former Cirno level and while incredibly strong on fairy levels, enough to match weak youkai, still weak in general. The new Cirno level had her actually able to take on youkai to a much more even degree and even some of Gensokyo's stronger residents.
Such was the consequence of a war that had involved everyone within Gensokyo. Fairies were no exception, forced to become stronger or be killed repeatedly. Cirno had chosen the former, asking various others for help in improving and had eventually become powerful enough to actually become a frontline fighter. Her intelligence had even been forced to rise and fortunately, she didn't go mad under the pressure placed upon her. Especially after Aya recalled Cirno witnessing several of her friends dying and reviving over and over. The resolve she had was stunning at the time as she declared that she would form a strong team to help everybody.
Aya shook her head. There was no point thinking about the Lunarian Invasion anymore. Now was the time to move on and tend to the aftermath as best as possible.
"I don't think Cirno is a good comparison anymore…," Aya said to herself, mindlessly avoiding another volley of light spears. "I think greater fairy or weak youkai will work."
That seemed about right. Using Spell Card Rules, the amount of danmaku that one faced was generally a good signal of someone's strength. The spear had decent speed, but ultimately only counted as a single 'bullet.' It was easy to track and dodge with enough experience in spell card duels.
She decided to put that down in her notebook as well.
"Why aren't you fighting back?" Dohnaseek asked, stopping his attack as he frowned unhappily. "This isn't exciting at all."
"Well, my bullets would get in the way if I wanted to take a picture. Like this!" Aya raised the camera quickly and took his picture.
"Gahh!" He flinched at the flash covering his eyes momentarily and as he turned to hurl another spear at her, she was quickly flying away into the distance.
"Bye! I've got everything I need! Thank you for your time!" She turned her whole body around, continuing to fly backwards while waving to them in a polite gesture.
"Stop her! Don't let her escape!" He commanded his female companion as they tried to chase after her.
It was ultimately futile. Whenever it felt like they got closer, she suddenly sped up and she would be out of range of their light spears.
"How is she so fast!?" Mittelt shrieked as she pushed herself to her absolute limit to catch up to the crown tengu to no avail.
Finally, Aya was nothing but a black speck in the sky and the fallen angel duo were forced to break pursuit.
"What the hell was that!? We couldn't even hit her and she didn't even take us seriously!" Mittelt stated, turning to Dohnaseek in anger. "What the hell was she?"
"A fallen angel as well?" He answered before shaking his head to reject what he said. "No, she only had one set of wings. Someone of her caliber wouldn't just have one set."
Mittelt scowled. "Well it doesn't matter now. She got away with our plans and now she might go somewhere to leak it out. We didn't even get her name! What are we going to tell Raynare?"
Dohnaseek lowered his fedora grimly. "We'll tell her that there's someone else in the town and what we know."
"Well she said she was a reporter right?" Mittelt asked. "Could she work for a newspaper or something?"
Dohnaseek shrugged. "Who knows. And what newspaper would recruit someone like her that you know of?"
It was a question that remained unanswered and they began flying back to the church.
The two of them never noticed the bat familiar that was watching them and it flew away in the direction of Kuoh Academy.
A/N: Now this chapter in particular, I enjoyed writing a lot more and I hope it shows. What I tried to show here sort of is the effects of the Lunarian War, particularly to Marisa who has lost Reimu, her best friend. While not to the same extent, I can relate in which I've lost friends (Not to death mind you) and only guilt was left for me and wondering whether I could have done something different. This isn't young Marisa anymore. While she still retains that cheerful personality, it's hard to stay the same after coming out of a difficult conflict as well as losing your best friend. I hope that I managed to at least show that. The same goes for the power comparison between Aya and the fallen angel which is completely unfair. I hope that this chapter did not disappoint and that you enjoyed it!
Once again, thanks to beta Xavic for helping me out with this chapter! Thanks for everything!