Chapter 48 – The Tournament
Once all the contestants lined up on the stage, Reimu stepped forth to make another announcement.
"Dear shrine visitors, this is it! The moment you've all been waiting for! The danmaku tournament begins right here, right now!"
The crowds went wild again and Reimu had to wait almost half a minute before they calmed down, so that her words could be heard.
"Don't be sad that the Prismriver sisters have left the stage! They will be back after the tournament! Now, even though I'm the host and at the same time a tournament participant, I assure you that there will be no foul play during this competition. All rules must be strictly kept and anyone who breaks them, myself included, will be disqualified immediately! Each participant who will not be currently dueling will be one of the judges. Before any of these "judges" will detect that any of the tournament rules have been violated, they must first consult our main judge! Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the main judge of the tournament, Gensokyo's chronicler with infallible memory – Hieda no Akyuu~!"
Another wave of applause came from the mass of the shrine visitors as they greeted the main judge. The little chronicler trotted towards the stage and with a bit of trouble, she climbed up the stairs. Once she reached her goal, she stepped up next to Reimu and bowed to the audience.
"And now, let me introduce the contestants themselves~! Marisa Kirisame, Alice Margatroid, Remilia Scarlet, Sakuya Izayoi, Meiling Hong, Patchouli Knowledge, Reisen Udongein Inaba, Eirin Yagokoro, Satori Komeiji, Utsuho Reiuji, Cirno, Mystia Lorelei, Rumia, Youmu Konpaku, Yuyuko Saigyouji, Byakuren Hijiri, Shou Toramaru, Minamitsu Murasa, Nue Houjuu, Ichirin Kumoi, Aya Shameimaru, Suika Ibuki, Keine Kamishirasawa, Kogasa Tatara, Yuugi Hoshiguma, and of course, me, Reimu Hakurei. All of us are going to do our best to win. So… without any more unnecessary delays, let the tournament begin~! The first is the Spell Card Survival discipline, in which the opponents take turns in using their Spell Cards. The one who manages to stay unhit for a longer period of time than their opponent will be declared the winner. And our first match will feature… Reisen Udongein Inaba and Sakuya Izayoi! Everyone else, assume your places! Contestants, wait for the signal!"
All of the girls except Reisen and Sakuya have left the stage and took their seats on various places around the stage, while Akyuu was returning back to the shrine along with Reimu and Aya. And once even the main judge was seated, Reimu fired a signal amulet into the sky to start the match.
While most of the outsiders were standing in the crowd, Kyouichi and Soudai decided that they'd simply stay near the shrine, since they could at least sit down on its elevated floor. It wasn't a bad choice, since they could discuss the course of the tournament with some of the judges.
The first match of the tournament has begun. First, it was Reisen's turn to call out her Spell Card and Sakuya's time to evade it for as long as possible. Both of them ascended roughly 20 meters into the air and Reisen drew out her card.
"Visionary Wave "Red-Eyed Hypnosis (Mind Blowing)"!"
Sakuya drew back a bit, and waited for the first bullet barrage to appear. It wasn't long before a multitude of super-dense rings consisting of purple and blue glowing projectiles appeared around the Moon rabbit. Then Reisen also threw in two wide intersecting wave patterns into the mix and sent her bullet-rings outwards. And just as the maid was preparing herself to squeeze through the narrow opening in the ring-shaped waves of danmaku, the bullets suddenly became transparent and the rings rotated, resulting in the change of the bullets' directions.
"What is this trickery?!" uttered the confused head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The sudden change in the pattern has taken her off guard, so she chose to fly yet another couple of meters backwards. She couldn't even use any of her own Spell Cards now, since in this discipline, that would be the equivalent of giving up. She simply had to time this right. Again, the bullet rings became semi-transparent and spun in different directions. Sakuya was hesitant to test whether or not were these magic bullets harmful during their shifting phase. She wanted to play with absolute certainty. She focused all of her senses to the maximum, and when the bullets became bright and solid again, she darted through one of the narrow gaps between them and overcome her first wave. However, the Moon rabbit had already summoned another group of rings and waves that were closing in on Sakuya's position. Again, the maid held her breath and used the exact moment after the bullets materialized to squeeze between them.
The crowds cheered and applauded her skill, but now Sakuya was literally surrounded by purple shots. Reisen kept increasing the bullet density and the frequency of her waves, leaving ever less and less room for Sakuya's movement. Time went on and even when the maid has weaved through several waves, it was only a matter of time until she'd make a mistake.
"This is impossi…" Sakuya closed her eyes before the bullet ring would hit her, but she didn't feel anything. "Huh?" As she reopened her eyes, she saw that the rings were just shifting and the bullets became transparent.
"Just an illusion?"
She was lucky to learn that the bullets were harmless during their shifting phase and she now had to use that short moment of time to take a much safer position in the pattern.
"Wonderful, ladies and gentlemen!" Aya made the commentary of the duel. "It seems that Sakuya-san has learned the trick to survive this seemingly impossible bullet pattern! But how long will she be able to withstand this attack without sustaining a hit?"
Now that the maid already knew an exploitable point of Reisen's pattern, her racing heart has calmed down a bit and she was able to evade all the projectiles without any panicked movements. And finally… the moment has come and Reisen's Spell Card has ended.
The crowds cheered as loudly as when they were welcoming the Prismriver Ensemble.
"A-ma-zing~!" Aya called out and joined the ovation. "Sakuya-san did it! She survived the entire Spell Card! A wonderful performance by the Scaled Devil Mansion's chief maid! She was almost caught up in one of the waves, but she managed to find a way to deal with this intriguing pattern. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it's Sakuya's turn to declare a Spell Card and Reisen's turn to dodge! And even though Sakuya has set the bar pretty high for her, let's all cheer for Reisen! Go for it!"
Sakuya reached for her Spell Card and called its name. "Maid Secret Skill "Marionette"!"
The card in her hand turned into several throwing knives and she flung them at Reisen without warning. The rabbit moved sideways, but the knives that Sakuya threw were no ordinary daggers. They suddenly stopped, changed their color to blue, magically multiplied and created a narrow fan-shaped spreading pattern. What's more, it appeared that Sakuya was still holding some knives in the same hand. And another throw directed at Reisen…
This time the knives changed to red and created a wider cone than the blue ones.
Reisen tilted her head, curiously looking at the knife-shaped danmaku which was still hanging in thin air without motion. Then out of nowhere appeared a mass of green-colored daggers, aimed at random directions and all the knives were set into motion simultaneously.
The pattern was dense and chaotic, but the Moon rabbit didn't lose her head. Calmly and with slow movements, she moved to the sides just to stay in the safe zone. But then things got interesting. As Sakuya repeated her attack, she stopped time for a brief moment. Everything and everyone was motionless. She hurled another two volleys of knives at her opponent and randomly changed some of the knives' heading. Then the flow of time was resumed. To Reisen and everyone else, it looked as though the knives just kept appearing out of nowhere.
The second danmaku wave was a bit trickier, because some of the knives that were already in flight also changed their color and direction, adding to the dangerousness of this Spell Card.
"What the…?" Reisen turned around in surprise as a green knife flying from behind her just grazed her long ear.
It turned out that even the knives that missed her were still a threat and Reisen had to cope with watching Sakuya's attacks as well as her own back.
Aya was providing commentary for the duel: "What looks like an easy card is actually quite a bother! You can tell from Reisen's hasty movements and constant head-turning that she's having some problems with Sakuya's Marionette! No wonder, since Sakuya always keeps stopping the time for a brief moment and changing the trajectories of her flying daggers. This card has no template pattern! It's quite random and you can never tell whether the knife that just missed your head is not going to stab you in the back in the next second! Good luck, Reisen!"
Reisen was performing something that resembled an aerial ballet, because she always had to turn around and check whether some of the knives were not heading her way. And just when she made sure that the green daggers would not hit her she could again shift her attention to…
"Ack!"
"A direct hit~!" Aya announced as she saw one of Sakuya's red knives making contact with Reisen's torso and subsequently disappearing. "The first match is over! Sakuya Izayoi wins by 1 : 0 on Spell Cards and by 45 : 32 on seconds! Despair not, Reisen-san, for you still have three more disciplines to show everyone what you've got! As for you Sakuya-san, congratulations on winning your first match of the tournament!"
Sakuya ended her Spell Card and descended down onto the stage together with the Moon rabbit.
The maid extended her right arm to her "Good duel, Reisen-san."
She nodded and accepted her hand. "Good duel, Sakuya-san."
"This is the true spirit of sportsmanship, ladies and gentlemen! This is the attitude that we all hope to see during this entire tournament. Now, since I'm a crow tengu who cares about others, I'll save Reimu-san from marching up the stage and announce the names of our next duelists in her stead! No need to thank me, Reimu. What are friends for, right? Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to see a match between… well… you're probably not going to see anything at all, folks, because our next contestants are Mystia Lorelei, the night sparrow and Rumia – the youkai of darkness. I wonder how are the judges going to assure the fair-play during this particular match… Well, it will certainly be interesting to have these two young youkai in a danmaku battle."
"Damn…" only now Kyouichi realized it. "That's the youkai that almost killed me the other day… Well, actually both of them wanted to, but at least Mystia was more… reasonable."
"That little girl?" Soudai threw an incredulous glance at his friend. "So she's dangerous?"
"Sometimes I really fail to comprehend Gensokyo's logic… Why is Reimu calmly letting a vicious monster like her and that hell raven even come to the shrine?"
"Don't worry, you two." said the crow tengu reassuringly. "None of the human-eating youkai who have come to this shrine today will eat anyone. They only attack lonely and lost humans. And only when they are sure that these humans are weaker than they are."
"Which we most certainly are." remarked the younger of the two outsiders.
"That's why people like you should never go anywhere alone." said Aya. "Even if it's just a few meters away from the village or this shrine... I hope you learned from your unpleasant experience, Kyouichi."
"Uhhh… yeah… sure." he gave a very unconvincing reply, as he replayed his and Soudai's trek through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost in his mind. Considering the likelihood of encountering some dangerous youkai on their way to the village, they had to be extremely lucky that the only person they met was Fujiwara no Mokou. Surely Tewi's good luck blessing was not just a fraud. But good luck never lasts too long and any human who was not born in Gensokyo should know better than to travel around the eastern wonderland alone.
"Even if you are not native to this world," Akyuu wanted to add her grain of wisdom, "Rumia-san is rather easy to trick and to run away from. And in daytime you can notice her from even far away."
"But I was attacked at night. Just on the stairs to the shrine yard… I never saw her coming. Why aren't youkai like her being exterminated?"
"But they are." Akyuu gave a surprising reply. "By the definition of the Spell Card Rules, an extermination of a youkai is a strictly temporary matter. It simply means that a youkai is defeated in a formal duel."
"So the rules also protect youkai from permanent extermination?" asked Soudai.
"Naturally. Otherwise they'd hardly be accepted by the youkai populace if the treaty would provide advantages for only one of the two parties. And secondly, decades of human-youkai conflicts and skirmishes have already proven that the youkai are not at all easy to dispose of permanently."
"I see." Soudai and Kyouichi nodded almost in unison.
"And the battle is about to begin!" Aya returned to her role of the tournament announcer. "Mystia-san is going to be on the attacking side. Oh… wait a minute… Reimu? Where are you going?"
The shrine maiden flew over to the two youkai girls and appeared to be explaining something to both of them for a while. Then as both Mystia and Rumia nodded, Reimu touched both of their heads with the tip of her gohei and a strange sound similar to a chime could be heard.
"Ah~! Now I see…" Aya nodded understandingly. "Reimu-san has put a magical chime barrier on both of the youkai! Now, even in complete darkness and night-blindness, everyone will be able to tell when one of them gets hit!"
Reimu returned to her privileged spot and gave the signal to begin the match. Mystia already had her card in her hand.
"Hawk Sign "III-Starred Dive"!"
"And just as we all thought!" the crow tengu commented, "Mystia-san resorted to a card that utilizes her song and we all know what her song can do!"
Aya seemed to have quite a bit of insight about the Spell Cards of other youkai. At least she knew what the card was going to do just from the name. And truly, not too long after the night sparrow declared her attack and sent out a burst of white orbs in a circular pattern, she began to sing. Though too far to clearly hear the lyrics, Kyouichi and pretty much everyone else who didn't cover their ears were beginning to notice that their vision was gradually becoming dimmer. The initial burst of white orbs was not even targeted at Mystia's opponent, who didn't even have to move. However, the orbs have left a trail of smaller purple projectiles that have created a symmetrical star-shaped pattern around the night sparrow and a true magical crossfire has started. By this time, Rumia's vision was limited to only several meter radius and she had to evade projectiles coming at her from two sides. Sometimes several waves blended into one and the youkai of darkness had to retreat and wait until an opening appeared.
Otherwise the card was not all that difficult. Rumia was pretty much used to limited vision and could easily move out of harm's way just by trusting her hearing sense.
Now, Mystia's card was intensifying and the patterns were becoming more frequent and the bullets even faster.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'd really like to comment what's going on above the Hakurei Shrine's stage, but even with my sharp tengu eyesight, I can barely see Reimu-san and Akyuu-san sitting next to me. But since we haven't heard the sound of magic chime, I'm guessing that Rumia-san is doing really well so far…"
After a few close calls, Rumia was still holding on as the last seconds of the night sparrow's Spell Card were ticking away. But then a ringing sound echoed throughout the darkness…
"Aaaand that's a hit, if I'm not mistaken~!" Aya exclaimed and turned her glance to the shrine maiden who nodded affirmatively. "Yes, even Reimu has confirmed it~! Rumia got hit by Mystia's Spell Card after 38 seconds~! That's enough, Mystia-san, save your vocal cords for your performance! Now it's your time to endure some danmaku~!"
And as the night sparrow finally stopped her song, everyone's vision returned back to normal.
"Now that we can finally see," Aya continued, "It is now up to Mystia to dodge her opponent's Spell Card. If she can stay unhit for longer than 38 seconds, she will win the duel. But what kind of card has Rumia-san prepared for her? Are we even going to see it, or are we going to be… left in the dark again?"
"Ready?" Reimu called out at the two youkai above the stage. After getting their nods of confirmation, she launched her usual red burst of amulets into the sky to start the second stage of their duel.
The spectators could already see the blonde girl in black and white dress raising her Spell Card-wielding hand over her head.
"Living Darkness "Searching Hands"!"
"Oh, my~!" an excited smile grew on Aya's face. "A new Spell Card from Rumia-san! I'm really curious to see what it does!"
Rumia's card seemed to be swallowing up the surrounding light, forming a sphere of darkness, just as Kyouichi saw her do when he barely escaped her. Mystia wasn't stupid enough to remain hovering close to the no-light zone. She distanced herself from Rumia and prepared herself for whatever this new Spell Card would throw at her. For the first few seconds, the swelling of the orb of darkness was all that was happening, but then came the danmaku.
A quite… intriguing danmaku, to say the least. A thick solid-looking line of shadow with five extended appendages projected from the mass of darkness, like a sinister shadowy hand, reaching out for Mystia. The next moment revealed several more of these "searching hands" extending towards the frightened night sparrow in attempt to grab her and drag her into the center of the impenetrable blackness.
"This is a very original-looking danmaku! Pardon me, but I just have to take a few pictures of it…" Aya quickly grabbed her camera and began snapping. "The black color of the projectiles is not making things very easy for Mystia-san, but make no mistake, dear human minority, a night sparrow's eyes can see much better in the dark than yours!"
Mystia was doing her best to stay away from the dark hand-shaped danmaku, but as time progressed, the shadow arms that were extending, grabbing and retracting, have now created a web that inhibited the night sparrow's maneuvering space.
"I think I'm going to have a little interview with Rumia-san after this match regardless of the result! This Spell Card could even attempt to enter the Visual Contest! Who knows? Perhaps it will! But more importantly, Mystia only has to keep up for several seconds to win! I'm counting down~! Ten, nine, eight…"
Now Kyouichi realized that he wouldn't be much of a help to Reimu as one of the judges, since the danmaku that he saw just now was so dense and perplexing, that he couldn't tell whether or not was any of the "shots" hitting its intended target. So far, none of the official judges made any notion that Mystia had come into contact with any of Rumia's creepy danmaku. Reimu's magical chime also remained silent, confirming that the night sparrow was doing a good job at evading the opponent's Spell Card.
"Three, two…" Aya was counting down the last seconds, "one… Aaaand we know the winner!"
The darkness generated by Rumia's card was gone with Aya's announcement, revealing the blonde youkai girl with her arms still spread wide.
"Is that so~?" she asked as she turned at the tournament announcer.
"Yes, Rumia-san, it is so!" replied the tengu loudly. "Honor to you, but the spoils shall go to the victor! Ladies and gentlemen, Lorelei Mystia-san moves one step up the tournament ladder after this performance! Rumia, you shall now join the ranks of the judges until the end of this discipline… Nevertheless, yours was a very interesting Spell Card, so make sure you'll be ready to be interviewed!"
"Right now?" the confused little youkai of darkness tilted her head to the side.
"No, not now, Rumia-san. We're in the middle of a tournament. Wait until the end of the Survival category."
"Oh… Okay~." She replied with a nod and like a cheerful fairy, she playfully left the stage, joining the other girls who were waiting their turn.
"And now, dear shrine visitors," Aya spoke after clearing her throat, "coming up next, we have yet another interesting match. On the left side of the stage, or to be more exact, on the northern end of the stage, we have... a youkai who likes to leave the fighting to her ever-present follower... Now, I'm not sure if this should be considered a 2 on 1 match, but since nobody has any objections against it, I present you… Ichirin Kumoi from the Temple of Myouren!"
The girl, whose clothing resembled those of a nun hovered over to her place, followed by a pinkish gaseous mass with a face of a bearded old man.
"And her opponent… you know her, you love her, you wouldn't have this tournament without her… Reimu Hakurei~!"
And the shrine maiden reluctantly stood up, slowly flying towards the stage.
Being Reimu's friend and fan, Kyouichi called after her: "Good luck, Reimu~!"
Reimu didn't even turn around. She just flew over to the stage and stopped several meters in front of her opponent.
"Since Reimu's going to duel now, it's up to someone else to start this match." said the tengu reporter as she was standing up and pointing her leaf-shaped fan at the sky. "Ready, set, go~!"
"Try to be a bit more challenging than the last time on that flying ship…." Reimu taunted her opponent before she floated upwards.
Ichirin had the privilege of taking the first turn, and she already had her Spell Card prepared in her hand.
"Tell that to the hand… of Unzan!" came a witty retort from Ichirin. "Barrage "Cloud World Kraken Strike"!" the nyuudou-manipulating youkai just issued an order to her companion to begin the assault.
The cloud entity suddenly began swelling in its size and materialized its two fearsome clenched fists, giving the Hakurei shrine maiden a mean stare.
"I eat youkai like you for breakfast." murmured the shrine maiden with an unamused tone.
That seemed to have provoked the youkai cloud into attacking. He shifted his presence to the side of the stage and sent his huge fists flying fast at Reimu. Just when the miko evaded the first two blows, the nyuudou had already materialized another fist, making it seem that he had more than just a pair of them. Although large and quick, Unzan's fists were the least of Reimu's worries at the moment, since each punch has left a trail of scattering purplish orbs in its wake. Soon the air was dense with danmaku shots, giant fists and Unzan's angry-looking face. Making contact with any of the three mentioned things would result in Reimu losing the match, so the black-haired miko had to keep her senses always sharp and her reflexes as quick as possible.
"Ichirin-san… uhh… I mean Unzan-san is attacking Reimu with his really big fists, much larger than Rumia-san's Searching Hands. However, Reimu knows exactly what to do so far. Staying away from the fists and weaving through the trail of danmaku that they leave. That's exactly how this Spell Card should be faced… Ooooh~! That was a close one, Reimu~!"
One of the huge cloudy fists just grazed by her so closely that the wind shockwave has made her do several aerial flips. During the time when she lost control of her stability, a few of the energy orbs missed her head, arm and torso by mere centimeters, almost leaving marks on her red and white outfit. Finally, the shrine maiden managed to regain her bearing just in time to avoid a direct hit from the nyuudou's massive fist.
"Reimu was incredibly lucky, ladies and gentlemen~! For a second there I even thought that she was knocked down, but she's still holding on!"
Ichirin focused her power to intensify the Spell Card's danmaku, even if it meant that her card would end sooner this way. In a duel, she certainly showed no remorse or respect.
"Is that the best you can do?!" the shrine maiden swaggeringly taunted both Unzan and Ichirin, even if her voice was barely audible in the dense danmaku barrage.
Ichirin's patience was running out along with her magical energy. She wanted to teach Reimu a lesson in humility. With her last reserve, she pointed her golden ring-shaped object towards Unzan to boost his performance.
"Knock her out of the shrine yard, Unzan!"
The cloudy giant brightened up and literally showered the air with his fist barrage.
"O-kay… Things just got serious!" said Reimu to herself as a group of lightning-quick fists zoomed over her head.
The attack grew from intense to insane. No longer focusing on making slow, precise evasions, Reimu had to use her full speed to stay away from danger.
"Would you look at that, ladies and gentlemen!" Aya was on the edge of her seat as she commented the duel. "This is a difficulty level bordering with foul play! A danmaku barrage should always leave at least some opening for the opponent to evade it, however, this attack is as dense as it gets~! You can see Reimu-san is desperate to stay away from all that chaos, but where to fly when you're completely surrounded by walls of danmaku?"
Reimu found herself trapped by a dense cluster of purple orbs that blocked her escape from behind and her left side, while the hail of fists was closing in on her from the right.
Seldom did the Hakurei shrine maiden feel this desperate. No longer was her mind trying to think of taunts for Ichirin and Unzan. Now, she was more or less preparing to humbly accept the inevitable… Another fist appeared several meters in front of her, ready to finish her off. Not a split second later, the fist jetted off at Reimu at incredible speed.
…
Reimu closed her eyes and put her arms in front of her face as she braced herself for the mighty impact. An impact that could shatter buildings… An impact that… never came.
"What the…?" she hesitantly opened one of her eyes and peeked over her own arm.
Unzan was staring back at her, his face marked with slight disappointment.
"Holy Kanako-sama~!" Aya cut off the brief silence. "Ichirin-san's Spell Card has ended just before it hit our tournament host~! Reimu, you lucky human! You did it again! Unbelievable, ladies and gentlemen~! Sometimes I wonder what deity is actually worshipped at this little shrine. Perhaps it's even dedicated to a certain curse goddess that takes away all of your misfortunes, hehehe~. Nevertheless, Reimu was extremely lucky to survive this brutal onslaught from Unzan. Now, let's see if Ichirin-san can survive the shrine maiden's retribution!"
The crowds apparently loved dramatic matches, since the applause after Reimu's performance lasted over a minute. Many of the fans kept calling out her name as they raised their hands into the air to show their support.
"With so many supporters I can't help but to wonder why are Reimu-san's donations always so low and so rare~!" the tengu poked fun at her friend.
"And I wonder why has your doubtful little newspaper become so popular recently!" Reimu jabbed back at her.
"Because I write about interesting and unusual things that attract attention, Reimu-san… But now is not the time to discuss the success of Bunbunmaru Newspaper. Pick a Spell Card and let the match continue~!"
"Sure…" the miko muttered under her nose as she was sifting through the Spell Cards in her hands. "Now what should I use? Fantasy Heaven? Naaah… that's too exhausting. But perhaps this one…"
"Are you ready, contestants~?" Aya asked both girls hovering above the stage.
Unzan, who was now shrunk back to a less fearsome size showed the tengu a confirmatory thumbs-up, while Reimu just impatiently called: "Yeah, yeah, just give the signal already!"
Aya's fan sent out a bright bluish crescent-shaped wave into the sky and the second round of the third match has begun.
"Border World "Hakurei Danmaku Bounded Field"!" Reimu exclaimed and activated her card.
Ichirin backed away warily as any smart person facing a Spell Card would, but was this a good move with this particular card?
In a flash of white and red light, a large bluish square boundary appeared around the shrine maiden. Ichirin also noticed another even larger square of same color spreading wide over the shrine yard.
"I know this Spell Card," Aya noted with a wry smile, "but does Ichirin know how to deal with it?"
Of course, this was Ichirin's first time she faced Hakurei Danmaku Bounded Field and didn't quite know what to expect. All became clear soon enough…
As Reimu lifted her arm, a super-dense octa-directional stream of red amulets was released and slowly rotating clockwise. At the same time, a four-directional stream of white ofuda erupted from the Spell Card, spinning slowly counter-clockwise. Ichirin noticed that the streams only reached as far as Reimu's inner square boundary before they vanished into thin air. But as she kept her eyes on the shrine maiden, she noticed that the amulets didn't really disappear. They were literally teleported and projected inwards from the huge outer boundary of the spell. Like tongues of fire lashing at her from the front and from behind, these red and white ofuda streams were brushing against each other at the point of the inner square, leaving momentary openings. Ichirin flew towards the wall of the inner boundary and just as one stream passed by, she dove into the square. She had to retreat almost immediately, though, as when the white amulet streams spinning in the opposite direction were working like some kind of star-shaped scissors. The area behind the youkai girl was no safer. She had to constantly keep moving in and out of Reimu's inner boundary to stay safe. And just when she thought that she had the card all figured out, the shrine maiden threw in several white energy orbs into the mixer. While their density was sparse at best, they proved to be a very unpleasant hindrance to Ichirin's evasion plans. Her nyuudou companion didn't mind the barrage as the amulets were harmlessly passing through his miasmatic body. However, Ichirin was just having an adrenaline rush of her life. Even though the tournament was just an innocent game, she was on edge, as if her very existence depended on the result of this match.
After evading a dangerously aimed white orb, she propelled herself forward into the area edged by the purple square. Immediately, she was forced to dive backwards to avoid being met with the white ofuda stream.
"Ichirin apparently got the hang of it!" echoed Aya's voice over the back yard of the shrine. "The Hakurei Danmaku Bounded Field forces one to constantly keep using the boundary and that's what Ichirin-san is doing right now. If she can keep this up for 25 seconds, Reimu's Spell Card will end."
Ichirin, Unzan, the crowd of spectators and even Reimu herself were all holding their breath as the seconds slowly ticked away. Byakuren's disciple didn't allow any of the danmaku shots to get near her and Unzan helped to warn her from the amulets that were coming from behind.
"Three, two, one… Poof! What a spectacular display, ladies and gentlemen!"
All the amulets turned white and returned back into the shrine maiden's open palm, regaining the form of a Spell Card.
"Both Reimu and Ichirin have managed to survive each other's Spell Cards! But there can be only one winner in a danmaku fight. The match goes on with Ichirin-san choosing another card! Until one of the two gets hit, the duel will continue!"
And after the tengu shot her signal into the air, Ichirin Kumoi was declaring another Spell Card.
"Hand Strike "Fist Smash"!"
By that order, Unzan literally split himself apart and formed two giant fists aimed at each other. The fists then accelerated forward and clashed with incredible force. The resulting impact has created two symmetrical circles of purple energy orbs. And as the danmaku rings were slowly expanding and breaking their symmetry, Unzan's fists appeared several paces further from Ichirin and closer to Reimu. They met each other with another thunderous crash, resulting in more purple danmaku in the air. In this fashion, the fist clashes continued proceeding ever closer to the shrine maiden. Reimu had certainly seen more difficult cards, but she was aware that she shouldn't underestimate her opponent. All she had to do during this attack was to occasionally move away from the giant fists of the nyuudou and deal with a few stray danmaku orbs after the smash.
"I honestly expected something a bit more difficult from Ichirin-san, but it's her choice." Aya remarked as she watched Reimu dance among the lights. "But what's this? Ichirin-san is moving in to flank Reimu! And Unzan is apparently shifting his fist smashes according to her position!"
Now the cloud-like youkai was clashing his fists from all different angles, giving Reimu the challenge that she asked for. As expected, Aya took out her camera whenever she saw some new danmaku pattern and began taking pictures.
"Do you put pictures of danmaku in your newspaper Aya-san?" Kyouichi forwarded a question at her.
"Hm?" uttered the crow tengu with her eye looking through the lens of her camera. "Well, sometimes I do, but this is simply a little hobby of mine. Here…" she passed him some sort of book. "That's my danmaku portfolio. I've gathered these over the last few years. Some of them are a bit amateurish, I admit… Especially those with my own danmaku obscuring the view. My hobby sometimes became dangerous and I was forced to fight back, you see…"
As Kyouichi briefly browsed through the pages filled with all sorts of colorful danmaku patterns, he couldn't hold his mouth closed.
"You must know a lot of Spell Cards, Aya-san."
With a hint of annoyance, Aya let out a soft sigh. "When will you finally drop that "san" suffix when addressing me, Kyouichi?"
"Sorry… If it annoys you that much, I'll stop it right away… Aya…"
It almost felt a bit strange to him when he said her name without an honorific.
"It doesn't annoy me per se, but I'm much more comfortable when I'm addressed more familiarly. I'm only formal when I'm making interviews for my newspaper."
"Alright…" he returned a smile and continued watching the duel between his favorite shrine maiden and the nyuudou master.
It seemed that Ichirin was trying to confuse Reimu by constantly changing her position, and thus, the angle of Unzan's attacks, but so far, the red-white was not hit by anything. Then all of a sudden…
Aya threw a surprised glance at the chronicler sitting right next to her. "Akyuu has raised a red flag! What did she see that I didn't notice?"
Not long after that, the tengu spotted several other red flags popping up from the other side of the stage and fluttering in the light breeze, signifying that someone broke the rules.
"Contestants, stop the duel~!" Aya shouted at Reimu and Ichirin. "I was a bit too busy taking pictures to notice any violation of the rules. May I ask what exactly happened, Akyuu-chan?"
"Kumoi-san has moved beyond the designated dueling area and is thus disqualified from the Spell Card Survival category." explained the Gensokyo chronicler.
"What an unexpected turn in the course of this tournament, ladies and gentlemen! Ichirin-san might have actually stood a chance but she has taken her flanking tactics a bit too far… She basically defeated herself right now. Reimu, on the other hand, certainly didn't disappoint her fans. She is even one of the top candidates for the winner of this tournament, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Anything can happen in this tournament yet!"
A mixture of cheers and whistles was echoing all over the place as the two contestants were leaving the stage. Unlike the first duel between Sakuya and Reisen, they did not shake their hands after the match. They simply turned away from each other and headed in opposite directions.
"Congratulations, Reimu." Aya welcomed her friend who took her seat next to the main judge without as much as a reply. Despite being victorious, her attitude still seemed rather aloof.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing." sighed the shrine maiden and waved her hand at Aya's question.
Though sensing a certain degree of doubt in her voice, Aya didn't really have the time to pry an answer out of her friend. The tournament needed to progress further and so, Aya returned to her role.
"And the Spell Card Survival continues, ladies and gentlemen! And our next two opponents are… Meiling Hong and Kogasa Tatara! May the best dodger win!"
And so as the two mentioned youkai were moving through the air to meet in a formal duel, Kyouichi curiously continued viewing Aya's portfolio full of Spell Card photographs. Soudai was also looking at the pictures with great interest.
"Hey, wait a minute…" Kyouichi's eyes widened in surprise at one particular picture. "Is that Kazami-san in this picture?"
"Hold on…" Aya asked him to wait a minute, because she was just about to give a signal to Meiling and Kogasa to start the duel. After she launched her characteristic blue wave into the air, she sat down and looked at the picture that Kyouichi was pointing at.
"Aaah, yes… So you've heard about her, eh? That one was especially hard to get, but she can't fly very fast, so I managed to take a few shots."
"I haven't just heard about her." Kyouichi wanted to correct Aya's assumption. "I've met her personally…"
"Too bad I can't see much of her through all that danmaku…" Soudai commented with a sad frown.
"You met Yuuka…" Aya's expression became rather serious in contrast to her usual cheerful attitude. "It must have been when she was visiting the flower shop in the Human Village." she stated with a nod of understanding.
"Yes… yes, you're right." Kyouichi confirmed. He was a bit surprised that Aya knew about her visiting the flower shop. "Are you a friend of hers?"
A very amused laughter came from the crow tengu reporter. "Oh, that's a good one! If we were friends, Kyouichi-kun, I certainly wouldn't have received THAT kind of welcome from her…" she gently tapped at the dense danmaku pattern on the photograph with Yuuka Kazami.
"A little word of advice to you," she continued in a more serious tone, "don't get in her way. She doesn't like humans much, even if she looks like one."
"Well, I've heard that she didn't have many friends from our race." Kyouichi recalled one of the idle conversations he had with the flower youkai. "And I've heard that she likes danmaku battles… Say, Reimu, why wasn't Yuuka-san invited to the tournament?"
"You've got to be kidding me!" she exclaimed loudly, as if Kyouichi's question was the most ridiculous thing she ever heard.
"Hmm… I guess you're right." Kyouichi admitted after a thoughtful moment. "Yuuka-san probably doesn't like crowded places… What a pity… I'd really like to see her dueling."
"Be glad that she's not here." said the crow tengu. "Seriously…"
"Whatever…" shrugged the outsider and returned the portfolio to its rightful owner.
As he returned his attention to the duel above the Hakurei Shrine's stage, he only saw Kogasa rubbing her stomach in a pained expression, most likely after receiving a hit from Meiling's danmaku. The duel ended with no big surprises. The Scarlet Devil Mansion's gate guard has made short work out of her opponent and survived her Spell Card when the karakasa girl was on the offensive.
The rest of the duels in that discipline played out in similar fashion. Some ended surprisingly quickly, others lasted longer than expected. Then came an event that surprised almost everyone – Reimu Hakurei was defeated in the semi-final against Alice. The other pair that managed to fight their way up to the final four was Sakuya and Yuyuko; the former ending up as the victor.
In the final round, the spectators witnessed an intense duel between the puppeteer and the maid, which ended after 4 rounds. The ultimate survivor and the winner of the first discipline was finally known…
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have the first Spell Card Survival champion, and her name is Sakuya Izayoi! Well, it's not her real name, actually, but since nobody knows what she was called before she began working for the Scarlet vampire, Remilia gave her a new job and identity! Congratulations to you, Sakuya-san! And I apologize for defeating your mistress a while ago… We've seen some really interesting battles, but the tournament is far from over! Coming up next is the Double Duels discipline. But make no mistake, folks! The teams are also completely random and you most likely won't see two friends or a master/servant fighting on the same side. The rules for this discipline are simple. Each team can use up to three Spell Cards and each contestant gets eliminated after receiving three hits. The tricky part about the Double Duels is that if just one of the team members gets eliminated, the respective team loses automatically. Also, should the team use up its final Spell Card without eliminating the opposition in the process, they will also be declared defeated. And I should also mention: watch out for that friendly fire, dear contestants~! Getting hit from your partner counts the same as getting hit from your opponent in this discipline~! Now, let us welcome our first quartet of double duelists: Eirin Yagokoro and Cirno will face off against Satori Komeiji and… Oh my, I should hurry to the stage! I'm in team with Satori-san!"
"Well, Cirno-san, it seems that we're a team now." stated Eirin with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Hmm…" the ice fairy thoughtfully observed her new danmaku partner. "I'm small, so I'll be a bit harder to hit… But you are quite big… especially here…" she shamelessly floated up and poked Eirin's breast with her finger.
"Kyaaah~!"
The Lunarian's expression in that moment showed signs of shock, embarrassment and anger at the same time.
"Just wait a couple of decades and you too will be a bit easier to hit in that area…" she made a humorous retort about Cirno's breast size.
On the other side of the stage, Aya and Satori were having a short discussion about tactics.
"So, since I'm a faster flyer, it would be better if…"
"Okay…" nodded Satori who had already read Aya's thought.
"Uhh… Fine, so as for the choice of Spell Cards we should…"
"I know…" muttered the purple-haired youkai girl.
"Good, good…" Aya grinned sheepishly as she scratched the back of her head. "I'm glad that we can understand each other so well. But we should also be careful about…"
"But of course."
"And don't forget about…"
"Yes, yes…"
"Guh…" Aya had given up her attempt to give advice to the young satori, as she was well aware that whatever she was thinking about was well visible to her third eye.
The match was about to begin.
"Guess I'm the one to start this show off again…" muttered Reimu with an annoyed tone as she reluctantly stood up from the porch. "On your marks! Ready! Fight!"
A burst of red ofuda painted a pattern on the night sky and the showdown began.
During the first 30 seconds of the match neither of the teams resorted to using a Spell Card. Probably because they were worried about wasting them needlessly. Cirno decided to take an offensive role while Eirin provided fire support with her longbow. Any arrows that she shot quickly turned into a spray of red magic bullets that were keeping the opposing team at bay.
The ice fairy opened her palms and hurled streams of sharp icicles, as if she was holding a pair of automatic weapons. The crow tengu proved to be a spectacular dodger and despite her rather unfortunate defeat in the Survival category against Shou Toramaru, she was evading every shot with her impressive agility. At the same time she was sending her characteristic wave-shaped danmaku at the other team. Satori was keeping a reasonable distance from the enemy and every few seconds she emitted a blast of red and blue magic bullets and orbs that has created an intricate symmetrical pattern with narrow openings.
And just when one of those waves got close to the ice fairy, she grinned slyly and used her enhanced freezing power.
Satori immediately sensed the danger of Cirno's intention and warned her danmaku partner: "Aya-san, get away from any of my projectiles!"
The crow tengu accelerated forward like a jet fighter and safely eluded the area flooded by Satori's danmaku.
Cirno froze the dense pattern of bullets and the chain reaction has been sent all the way back to the young Satori, who quickly dove sideways to escape the icy trap. By this time, Aya has already flanked Cirno, who just barely dodged her danmaku salvo. Eirin was just readying her bow to target the attacking tengu, but her speed was no match for Aya's. With a hit-and-run strategy, Aya struck the Lunarian doctor with one of her waves and retreated to Satori while grazing by Cirno's rapid-fire icicle counterattack.
Eirin figured that she had to surprise the enemy with a change of tactics, and so, she boldly hovered forward and changed her target from the elusive crow tengu to the less experienced and weaker-bodied Satori. But the mind reader saw her coming before she even made her move.
"Eirin-san is after me!" she warned her partner about the upcoming situation and Aya didn't hesitate to fly to Satori's aid.
And as the immortal doctor of Eientei closed the distance between her and her target, she launched a cascade of blue shots and huge greenish orbs that seemed impossible to dodge.
"Whoa! She's powerful…" stated Kyouichi as he observed Eirin's danmaku potential.
"Hey, Kyou…" Soudai spoke to him. "Do you still have that magic detector thing that you used in the bamboo forest?"
"Why yes…" the long-haired outsider nodded affirmatively. "Good idea, Soudai! Let's see how powerful these ladies are…"
And as he grabbed for the said object in his pocket and put it in front of his right eye, he felt like looking through a kaleidoscope.
"Let me see too!" Soudai was already taking the detector out of his hand. "Ooooh~! This is so cool! Look at all those colors!"
Satori was shining in a purplish light, while Aya's white aura was quite brighter. Cirno had a bluish radiance about her and Eirin's glow, which was the brightest of them all, shined in several different colors of the visible light spectrum.
"Hmm… well according to this little gadget of yours, I'd bet my money on the alien…" Soudai commented as he stared at the battle through the glass. But basing his opinion simply on one's raw magical potential could be quite misleading in danmaku battles.
The battle went on and just before Eirin's barrage would bury the poor satori girl alive, Aya darted in, grabbed her from behind under her shoulders and rocketed away from danger.
"What an amazing teamwork…" Reimu murmured to herself as she watched Aya's heroic rescue maneuver.
"Aaand… let's take a look at you, Reimu-san…" Soudai, still mesmerized by the magic detector's alternate mode, continued observing the people around him.
Reimu's divine power showed up as white, mist-like blur with occasional red spots showing up here and there. Surprisingly, her glow wasn't even much brighter than Satori's.
"Interesting… And how about, the main judge?" he shifted the glass to focus on Hieda no Akyuu and revealed just a few weak sparkles of violet color flaring up around her head.
"Not much for danmaku battles, I see… And you, Ishimaru…" he finally moved the detector to scan his friend, "You're just plain boring!" he exclaimed and chuckled as he didn't see a single speck of light around his body.
"Just give it back here before you break it or something…" Kyouichi was already demanding his detector back.
In the meantime, the double duel was just heating up… Or to be exact - freezing down…
"Freeze Sign "Perfect Freeze"!" Cirno decided that now was the right time to utilize her Spell Card.
With immediate effect all the danmaku projectiles that were in flight froze in midair, while Cirno's palms projected a fan-shaped cluster of blue icy orbs that were sent off against Aya and Satori.
"Thank you very much." Satori thanked her savior as she dragged her away from Eirin's barrage. But now that this barrage was frozen, Aya let go of her and readied herself to attack Cirno.
"No, Aya-san!" Satori halted her in the last second. "Don't fire any danmaku while the fairy's Spell Card is active. It would all turn against us."
"But our enemy is also susceptible to friendly fire." Aya opposed with a wry smile blooming on her face. "Let's do this together, Satori!"
Again, she held the young youkai with one of her hands and helped her fly at speeds that Satori would not be capable of. At the same time, both of them fired their danmaku at Cirno while making a big loop around her. Aya needed to be careful so that she wouldn't leave the dueling area and get disqualified. Both she and Satori were firing their danmaku, but Cirno's spell immediately froze all of their shots in place.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing, Aya-san?" Satori questioningly glanced at her teammate.
"You can simply call me Aya." said the reporter with a reassuring smile. "Just leave it to me..."
Aya flew fast, not letting go of Satori and made one full circle around the ice fairy, all the while evading Eirin's attempts to shoot her down.
And as Cirno's Spell Card ended, all the frozen projectiles were set into motion again, but no longer flying in their original direction. A true chaos ensued. Dozens of colorful orbs, bolts, pellets and lasers scattered randomly and threatened both teams.
"Hold on tightly, Satori!" Aya told her companion as she made a series of daring and risky evasive maneuvers that would make a normal human's head spin.
Poor Cirno realized with shock that she was in the middle of a danmaku storm, partially due to the effect of her Perfect Freeze. She evaded several shots, but caught one in the back of her head.
"Ack~! You stupid danmaku! Hit them; not me~!"
But Crino wasn't the only one in trouble.
"Whoa~! I doooont feeeel soooo gooood, Ayaaaaa~!" Satori desperately called out as Aya was driving her through the shower of magic shots.
"Now you're mine…" Eirin waited patiently for the moment when Aya was weaving through the narrow spaces between the danmaku projectiles to release her arrow.
And as the missile pierced the air in its flight, just before it reached the pair of a crow tengu and a satori, it dispersed into multiple shots.
"Damn it!" a curse escaped Aya's lips as she felt a sting on her left thigh. Her partner also got the taste of Eirin's danmaku, taking one shot in her arm. Now the score of both teams was even, with each contestant taking precisely one hit.
"Are you alright, Satori?" Aya checked the condition of her partner, still holding her tightly in flight.
After Satori's confirmatory nod, she asked her another question: "Do you know what I'm thinking about right now?"
The mind-reader's third eye shifted upwards and processed Aya's train of thought. She was now fully aware of the tengu's next plan without her having to say a word.
"I'll do my best." murmured the purple-haired youkai after becoming aware of Aya's next move.
"Let's do this!" Aya called out and soared up into the sky.
"Where are they going?" wondered Cirno as she watched her opponents quickly increasing their altitude. "Isn't that against the rules?"
Eirin thoughtfully gazed into the sky. "The dueling area is only limited by vertical boundaries, so I suppose their move is not breaking any rules… I wonder what they're up to."
"Aren't we going to follow them?" Cirno impatiently asked her partner.
"I'm not sure… Maybe that's exactly what they want… And maybe they're about to perform a high altitude dive-attack, in which case we better prepare some countermeasure."
"Oh, look here they come!" the fairy called as she pointed at the sky at a blazing white line shooting downwards.
Erin drew out her Spell Card, preparing herself for the moment when the enemy team would get within her range.
"Move a bit further away from me, Cirno-san."
"Alright!" the fairy did as she was asked and split up from her teammate.
"Just come and get us, Shameimaru-san." Eirin muttered to herself just when the enemy team was nearing their position.
"Awakened God "Memories of the Age of the Gods"!"
A beautiful colorful spectacle was triggered by Eirin's Spell Card. A huge fan of very large red orbs was making the area behind Eirin a zone of certain hit. However, with greater distance they spread further apart from each other and created quite wide safe zones. On the other hand, the front side of the attack began with a fan-shaped stream of smaller red bolts of magical energy. Then in an instant, several bright blue orbs of light appeared in front of the Lunarian in a regular symmetrical formation. The next moment, Eirin shot a laser-like beam out of her palm into the nearest of these blue orbs, which worked like mirrors, splitting the beams into two and sending them directly into the next group of orbs. The result was resembling a giant magical spider web or a genealogical tree that spread far and wide in front of her. She thought that her card would surely hit someone from the opposing team, but it wouldn't be Satori if she didn't have her mind read beforehand.
Just in time, she managed to warn her tengu partner that the Lunarian was trying to mar their plan with one of her Spell Cards, and so, the fastest reporter in Gensokyo, changed the direction of her flight by 180 degrees. In other words, she instantly stopped and soared back upwards.
"They're getting away again!" Cirno shouted at Eirin who was in the middle of her Spell Card trance.
By this time, however, both Aya and Satori were far out of reach of her danmaku.
Cirno was desperately staring as the enemies were retreating and as Eirin's Spell Card was going to waste.
"Uuuu… What do I do?" she struggled to think of something, but she couldn't follow the fleeing tengu and satori, because she'd surely get hit by the Lunarian's danmaku in the process.
Meanwhile, Aya stopped ascending and gazed at the light show several hundred meters below her feet with amusement. Danmaku shots could travel great lengths too, but at this distance, they were so inaccurate that they hardly posed a threat for Aya and her partner from the underground.
"All we have to do now is to wait until her card ends, hehehe~."
"And then we repeat the attempt, right?" asked Satori.
"We're even on hits right now, but unlike them, we still have three cards left. If we can provoke them into using another card and survive it, we have this battle won."
"I hope you're right…" said the mind-reader with a hint of concern in her tone. Even though she was able to read thoughts, what she was about to do was a surprise attack and she couldn't quite predict how her opponents would react to it.
Erin's Spell Card didn't score a single hit against Aya and Satori, and in fact, it nearly managed to shoot Cirno.
"Hmm… I might have underestimated our opposition." said the Lunarian as she observed the resulting situation. Not even her brilliant mind was enough to outwit the combination of a super-fast flyer and a youkai that could see her brilliant mind like an open book.
For Satori, this battle was an invaluable danmaku experience, teaching her a lot about tactics as well as teamwork.
"Now is the time." Aya whispered into her ear, letting her know that their offensive move was about to begin.
A single nod from Satori, and Aya was already looping downwards, accelerating into incredible speed.
"Let's go after them!" Cirno wanted to make her opponents pay for their insolence and flew upwards to meet them.
"Wait, Cirno-san!" Eirin tired to halt her, but seeing as how the fairy wouldn't listen to her, she was more or less forced to follow her and make sure she wouldn't do any foolish fairy-like mistake.
Two teams were closing in on each other in a dangerous speed. If they were to accidentally crash into each other, the match would end up in a tragedy. But Aya was too skilled a flyer to allow such a thing. Just before meeting the enemy team, she let go of Satori and continued on without her, jetting past both Cirno and Eirin.
Thinking that Aya was still holding Satori to help her fly faster, both the ice fairy and the doctor from Eientei targeted their non-card barrages at the tengu.
That's when Satori, who remained unnoticed, took her chance. Observing the minds of both of her enemies, she channeled her third eye and cupped her hands together. Beams of bright light were seeping through the tiny gaps between her fingers and changed its colors from red to blue before fading into darkness.
As the young satori maiden opened her palms, a freshly created Spell Card rested in her hand.
Such was the extent of her innate ability. She could create Spell Cards based on the experiences of her opponents. While not being exact duplicates, these replicas reflected the danmaku patterns that her opponents have seen or used in the past. Like this, she was able to create a card consisting of both Eirin's and Cirno's danmaku. And she didn't waste a second to declare it.
"Frozen Arcanum "Hourai Ice Cream"!" she read the card's name out loud. "Hourai Ice Cream? Where do these names keep coming from anyway?"
A phantom image appeared right above Satori's head, looking like Princess Kaguya with blue hair and wings like Cirno's. Her dress also resembled that of the ice fairy. The phantom seemed to be channeling its energy into Satori's spell.
A multi-layered ring consisting of magic bullets of varying colors formed itself around Satori and several streams of rapid icicles burst outwards, while spinning slowly around. As the rings expanded layer-by-layer, they froze in place and began falling chaotically like large colorful snowflakes.
"What the…?!" Eirin surprisedly lifted her eyes up and saw Satori and the phantom of Cirno/Kaguya hybrid floating above.
The new Spell Card caught her completely off guard and she failed to evade one of the icicles that hit her hard in the head.
"Unf… Ow…"
"Don't worry, Eirin~!" Cirno called at her while charging her power up. "I'll show her who's the strongest!"
Just when the confusing danmaku was about to drop on her, she focused her freezing power and waited for the right moment when the pattern became as dense as possible.
"Freeze~!"
A series of crackling and hissing sounds, characteristic of rapid freezing echoed in the sky. The denser the bullet formation, the more of them got frozen. And since this new Spell Card was really difficult, the ice wave got all the way to Satori. All of the frozen bullets exploded and sent icy shards flying everywhere. Satori, surrounded in the icy prison of her own danmaku stood no chance in avoiding the hit. Both Satori and Eirin were just one hit away from being eliminated, so the match became even more dramatic.
"It's now or never!" exclaimed Eirin. "Let's both attack Komeiji-san before her partner returns!"
Both of them took off against the lone satori girl while shooting their volleys of magic orbs and icicles. Her mind-reading ability proved to be only of little help in situations such as this.
All she could do is vaguely predict where her opponents would aim their next volley at, but keeping her third eye focused on two minds at once was quite difficult.
But the young mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits still managed to send a few of her own shots at the two assailants, halting their progress.
Cirno was flying first, since she only received one hit and she knew that Eirin was already struck twice. While this tactic seemed almost too logical to come from a fairy, it also had its downside in the current situation.
Aya was already hurrying to save her teammate once more, but she was worried that she wouldn't make it in time. Eirin and Cirno were almost upon her and their attacks were becoming more and more accurate.
Satori was just pulling out another of her Spell Cards in a desperate attempt to survive.
"Ayayayaya~!"
"The tengu!" Eirin swiftly turned around, but before she could channel her magic into danmaku, she was swept backwards by a gust of wind projected by Aya's fan. She was blown right into the stream of Cirno's icicles and served as a human shield that saved Satori from certain defeat.
"And that's the third hit." commented Akyuu and waved a green flag. "Aya-san and Satori-san have won the match."
"Now that was some battle!" Kyouichi was amazed by the spectacle and applauded with the rest of the crowd.
"Aya and Satori make up a good team, I'll give 'em that." Reimu nodded in acknowledgement. "I wonder how I'll be doing with my partner in this discipline. I wish to get at least to the semi-final, but considering how poorly I performed in the Survival category, I wouldn't put my hopes up too high."
"What are you saying, Reimu?" Kyouichi gave her a puzzled look. "You were amazing! Even the best of the best lose every now and then. Trust me, I've watched many sports events back home."
"Well, whatever." the shrine maiden indifferently waved her hand over the entire tournament. "It's not like anything will change if I win anyway…"
"Perhaps something will… Perhaps you'll get more visitors."
"Hmm… Perhaps… perhaps not… I don't even mind the lack of shrine visitors anymore."
"What's with that attitude? Haven't you always wanted more donations?"
"What good is all the money in the world for if it can't buy you happiness?" a deep rhetorical question came out of Reimu's mouth.
"Are you not happy, Reimu?"
Just a soft snort and a shrug of her shoulders was all that made up Reimu's reply. "Don't mind me… I'm just rambling. Need to stay focused on the tournament…"
"So… who's your team partner then?" Kyouichi changed the topic.
"Youmu..."
"Really? Youmu-san?" he asked with a surprised tone. He liked both of them almost equally. Even though he had known Reimu a bit more than the half-ghost, he knew that Youmu was a very friendly, very rational and very cute girl. Not to mention her amazing cooking talent.
"I'll surely be rooting for your team then."
"Hmhm…" Reimu chuckled softly. "Thanks, I guess…"
As the four contestants were descending back to the ground, Aya praisingly shook Satori's hand.
"Excellent job, Satori. I'm really glad to have you as a danmaku partner."
Satori's cheeks gained a lighter shade of red as she was getting praised by the renowned reporter. "No… I… I'm the one who should be telling this to you, Aya-san… You saved me twice… I would surely lose without your help."
"Why all that modesty, Satori-san? You need to be more confident about yourself! Let's aim for the top ranks in the tournament, alright?"
The young satori girl mustered a gentle smile before her eyes trailed off out of shyness. "Okay…"
"Why don't you join us over there at the shrine?" Aya pointed down at the small group of people sitting around the main tournament judge.
"If you won't mind me…"
"Of course not! Why would we mind you? See? That's that lack of confidence that I'm talking about. You need to work on that a bit, Satori…"
Eirin's and Cirno's post-battle discussion was quite different.
"Why did you suddenly throw yourself into my danmaku, you idiot?!" Cirno couldn't understand Eirin's last move, even if it wasn't quite her fault.
The Lunarian doctor's expression was similar to the one when the ice fairy poked her chest before the match. Far and wide she was known as the brightest mind that ever existed, and now, a lowly creature from Earth – a fairy, no less, was calling her an idiot. But Eirin was too smart and too kind to feel offended by Cirno. In fact, she was reminded of the time when she was escaping the lunar emissaries with her mistress and the princess would also call her an idiot for making such a reckless move.
"I'm sorry for dragging you down, Cirno-san." she said with a soft smile. "This is actually my first time fighting a two on two match."
"Geez…" pouted the dissatisfied ice fairy. "If I was in team with Rumi-chan or even Dai-chan, I wouldn't lose in the first match."
"You still have the Single Duels discipline to show your potential, you know."
"Ha! That's right!" she smacked her little fist against her palm, full of new elation. "I'll teach everyone to fear the fairies! Especially that stuck-up shrine maiden. Then I'll take my revenge against that annoying tengu and that three-eyes from the hole in the ground!"
Eirin couldn't hide an amused giggle at the fairy's overconfident words. "Best of luck to you, then… And by the way, I believe quite a few people have already learned to fear the fairies, though I'm not sure if thanks to you…"
"Whoo~!" the cheerful tengu reporter descended down near the shrine along with Satori. "We're back~!"
"Yeah, welcome back." Reimu lazily raised her palm to greet the returning Aya.
"I hope none of you guys mind if Satori-san will join us."
Nobody seemed to have anything against it. And even when Reimu thought that there was no need for several judges to be watching the matches from one place, she was too lazy to object.
"Hey… Kyouichi!" Soudai excitedly jumped up and gave his friend an elbow nudge. "This is a real satori, right?"
"Yes, why…?"
"We'll be doing a test on Monday, remember? No doubt Keine-sensei will throw in a question or two about the satori race…"
"Oh, I see… You want to do a bit of an interview with her, right?"
Soudai nodded repeatedly.
"Very well…" shrugged Kyouichi and turned his gaze over to the mind-reading youkai. "Let's see if she's in the mood to answer our questions… Umm… Excuse me, Satori-sama…"
"Yes?" she turned all of her three eyes at the person who just called her name. "Oh…? A school test? Something about myself…?"
"Whoa! She's awesome!" Soudai was all hyped up after seeing that the youkai girl had perfectly guessed their intentions. "Yes, please, Satori-sama, could you tell us something about yourself? We promise not to bother you for too long."
"I wouldn't trust him on that…" Kyouichi shot Soudai a sidelong glance, while he spoke with Satori.
They were both curious to hear her tell them something about herself and didn't even mind that the second match has already begun. This time Minamitsu and Suika were pitted against a team of Marisa and Yuugi.
"I don't know what I should say about myself…" Satori hesitantly spoke up after a silent moment. "All of us satori can read minds of other living beings, including those of other satori… All thinks to our third eye." she pointed her finger at the ever-open eyeball, hanging over her chest, linked to her body by a series of cords. "In fact, I have a little sister, who used to be just like me, but after she decided to forcefully seal her third eye, she lost her power, and at the same time, I could no longer look into her mind."
"Wait…" Soudai halted her for a moment. "So the satori can read each other's minds?"
"Yes, that's right… Often times, verbal communication is completely needless when two of our race meet…"
"So… Hypothetically…" Soudai elaborated on his previous question. "If two satori were to read each other's minds at the same time… Wouldn't they be actually reading their own minds?"
"Like two mirrors facing each other…" Kyouichi gave out a light chuckle at the thought. "Good question, Soudai… I wondered about that myself."
"To your surprise, no." replied the young youkai. "Despite the fact that all healthy satori share the same kind of ability, each of their mindsets are different, just like with you humans… When two or more satori meet, which is quite a rare occasion, by the way, they don't see the reflections of their own minds in the minds of other satori. Although they can always tell what the other person is thinking about them."
"I see… May I also ask one question?" Kyouichi inadvertently raised his hand, as if he was asking a teacher at school. As expected, he didn't even have to put it into words to get an answer from the mistress of the Palace of the Earth Spirits."
"Yes, my sister… Indeed… There is a way for satori to give up on their power by sealing their third eye… Why did she do it, you ask? Because our power makes us shunned, feared and hated by others… I'm honestly still getting accustomed to the feeling that not everyone looks at me with contempt or just straight up runs away from me…" she took a few glances around, as if to confirm her words before she continued. "My younger sibling didn't want to be viewed with such contempt and hatred, and she made a radical decision that changed our lives… I honestly never knew any other satori who sealed their third eye, so I'm not sure if it would be the same if I did the same thing… But you see, my sister has awoken a new ability within herself, as if to compensate for the loss of her mind-reading. Even though her third eye's lid is tightly shut, it can still see… and it can even affect what no ordinary satori can – the subconscious…"
"Manipulate the subconscious?" Kyouichi repeated with an amazed expression. "So can she even drive other people and youkai insane?"
"She is NOT responsible for the fairy incident, young human!" she sharply cut off, seeing what Kyouichi's question hinted at. "She's the one who helped us all get at least a little closer to its resolution."
"…" the dumbfounded Kyouichi blinked twice.
"Apology accepted." said Satori in the next moment. "I know my sister more than anyone else and I assure you that she's the nicest, sweetest person in the world… Associating her with an incident of such caliber is an insult to the Komeiji family."
Kyouichi still had his lips glued together, being unable to express his apology for his insolent thoughts about Satori's younger sister.
"No… wait…" Satori's expression and voice changed suddenly like weather in April. "I… I'm also sorry…" she lowered her head and shook it left and right. "I know you didn't mean it that way. I know well how much the recent fairy attack has affected the surface world. It seems that everyone is just looking for someone to blame and suspect. Even with there being no attacks after we defeated that huge fairy swarm, the true culprit was never found, and so, people will try to find a scapegoat…"
"But if your sister is as innocent as you claim, why hasn't she come here with you then?" Reimu suddenly joined the conversation which she simply couldn't pretend not to hear.
"Don't get me started on that, Reimu-san." she gloomily rolled her eyes at the shrine maiden. "She's not here because she wanted to see the festival at the Moriya Shrine. Besides, you've been there at Eientei when I observed the minds of the afflicted fairies… They're not sick or mind-controlled. They are possessed. Even Eirin-sama has told me that before our match. Our enemy is spiritual."
Reimu let out a heavy sigh and nodded. "Yeah… She told me that too… Sorry… I'm just…"
She wanted to say that she was in a bad mood today, but has left the sentence unfinished.
Satori understood her perfectly and has forgiven her previous question.
"So it should probably be called a spirit incident..." the shrine maiden muttered to herself. "Though I doubt that Yuyuko or Youmu has any part in it…"
"You seriously suspect your friends more than you should, Reimu-san." Satori said sternly. "The princess of the Netherworld is the very embodiment of pure kindness and love. She intends to do whatever she can in order to help you."
"True… She's not the kind of person who would resort to such things… Even if she has the power to manipulate the spirits of the dead… I admit, I'll need all the help I can get."
"You have more supporters than you think, Reimu." Satori smiled faintly and gently tapped Reimu's shoulder.
With somewhat improved mood, the Hakurei shrine maiden faked a weak smile, silently thanking Satori for her comforting words. She returned to watching the match and let the two outsiders continue with their little interview.
"So… Satori-san…" Soudai had another question on his mind. "We've read that many satori have animal companions or shikigami. Is that true?"
Taking a while to fully process the information that he had read in a textbook, Satori nodded affirmatively. "The minds of animals are simple and pure. They feel no shame when their minds are being read. In fact, they are attracted to us, because we can understand them like nobody else can… I personally have a lot of pets. One of them is even here with me…"
Knowing all too well who this cute little pet of Satori's was, Kyouichi gulped nervously.
"Okuu…"
"Yes. She needs a lot of care and constant attention, or else she becomes a bit too lively for her own good. She is a youkai who harbors the power of a god… Despite being rather simple-minded, her heart is pure and innocent. She means no harm even if she accidentally causes some…"
"I just hope she won't "accidentally" recreate the Tunguska Event in Reimu's back yard…"
"The what?" Reimu puzzledly raised her eyebrow at him.
Kyouichi pantomimed an enormous explosion, pressing his arms together with palms opened upwards to represent a nuclear mushroom cloud. While the nature of the said event was never truly explained, it happened just at the dawn of the 20th century in Russia, before any nuclear weapons came into existence.
"Ka-boooom…" he added a not-too-convincing sound effect to his pantomime.
"Well, I certainly don't want any "ka-booooms" going on at my shrine, but I've been convinced…"
"Okuu has learned to suppress her power in Spell Card battles." Satori wanted to clear up the misunderstanding about her pet's dangerousness. "But you are right… she has the potential to be very dangerous, should these established rules be tossed aside."
"Speaking of which, she's coming up right after this battle…" Reimu remarked after checking the tournament match list. "And she's teamed up with Patchouli, it seems…"
"Interesting." Satori stated tersely.
Then Aya stepped into the conversation. "Oi, Kyouichi! Have you taken some pictures of that new Spell Card that Satori made during our match?"
The outsider gasped in response and palm-smacked his head. "Damn it! I completely forgot!" he bowed repeatedly to Aya in apology.
"As expected from Ishimaru…" Soudai took a jab at Kyouichi's dignity.
"I wish that could happen to me sometimes…" Akyuu whispered wishfully.
"Never mind." Aya waved her palm. "Satori can simply show it to me again after the tournament, right?" she winked at the mind-reader and got a nod as an answer.
Happy about being forgiven by Aya, Kyouichi and Soudai resumed watching the tournament.
And the competition sure offered a quantity of awesome battles. Describing them all in detail could fill up a book. Again, there was no lack of surprising twists, as Marisa/Yuugi team was eliminated in the early stage of this discipline. There were also some humorous instances in the tournament, such as when Yuyuko began suddenly chasing her danmaku partner, Mystia, all over the shrine yard, resulting in their disqualification. Or when Sakuya was hesitant to attack her Mistress on the opposing team… Some teams, on the other hand, such as Byakuren/Meiling, Patchouli/Utsuho, Satori/Aya and Reimu/Youmu, have shown a level of cooperation that would be typical of a long-term friendship and combat experience.
The team of a half-ghost and a shrine maiden, which Kyouichi so profusely rooted for, has made it all the way to the final, where they would fight for the title of Double Duel Champions against the dangerous combination of an elemental sorceress and a super-powered hell raven. After five minutes of game time, it still wasn't clear who the winners would be.
While in the previous matches, Youmu and Reimu have dealt with their opposition with terrifying efficiency and swiftness, this match was truly worthy of being called the final battle.
"Utsuho or Patchouli?" Youmu asked her battle partner, her sword steadily clutched in her hands and ready to deliver a lightning-quick strike against her opponents.
Reimu paused in hesitation, having only one Spell Card at their disposal, she couldn't afford to make any more mistakes in this battle. Both the hell raven and the librarian could be very dangerous at close range and Reimu didn't want to take any risks.
"Patchouli." she finally decided while readying her magical yin-yang orbs and charging them up to fire homing amulets.
"Understood." Youmu replied calmly, bringing the blade of her Roukanken a few centimeters lower to match the height of her next target.
Reimu had already received two hits and so did the half-phantom when she underestimated the hell-raven's firepower. On the other hand, Utsuho stood proudly in front of Patchouli, not sustaining a single scratch from Youmu's sword or the slightest touch or Reimu's danmaku. She stood like a mighty, impenetrable fortress, protecting the youkai sorceress behind her. Her overwhelming danmaku served its defensive purpose almost perfectly. The only drawback of her impressive danmaku arsenal was that it once hit her teammate, who wasn't very happy about it…
So far, all of Youmu's and Reimu's offensive attempts were directed at Patchouli, the slower and physically weaker of the enemy duo, but incomparably smarter. With two Spell Cards wasted and a total of four legal danmaku hits sustained, they only managed to succeed once in their attempts to take out the elementalist.
This meant that Patchouli needed to stay behind, and Utsuho needed to protect her.
"We'll wait until they make their move, as usual." Patchouli informed the hell raven. "They are at the disadvantage here and are more likely to make their final mistake in their final desperate attempt."
"Let them come then!" the fired-up hell raven raised her arm-mounted hexagonal rod and aimed it at the two distant green and red figures. "The faster they'll move, the more likely they'll hit my wall of danmaku!"
"Let's go." Reimu gave the signal to her partner to begin their new attack. They already went over their plan and now was the time to see if it would actually work. They accelerated forward, Youmu in front, Reimu in close tandem behind her. They flew rather slowly, gradually approaching their feared opponent.
Patchouli didn't like how slowly they were flying and sensed some devious scheme coming from her opponents.
"Huh? What's the matter? Have you already given up?" Utsuho tauntingly asked the two slowly moving targets as she charged her weapon. "Embrace the light then!"
"No, wait!" Patchouli didn't want her partner to fire her salvo prematurely, because their enemies could exploit the short period of time when the hell raven would charge up for another barrage.
But, of course, the stubborn subterranean avian did not heed her advice. She fired a bright-yellow continuous beam of thermonuclear energy at the half-ghost.
Not sure if even one millisecond has passed when the ray traveled the necessary distance to hit Youmu straight in the head, but all that the spectators could see from below the stage was that Utsuho's beam made and L-shaped bend into the dark sky when it came into contact with Youmu's magic weapon.
"I'm not even sure what just happened, ladies and gentlemen, but my hunch tells me that we've just witnessed Youmu successfully blocking an attack at the speed of light! If that's not worthy of your applause, dear shrine visitors, then I don't know what is!"
Aya certainly knew how to keep the crowds going wild. And as the spectators went crazy over Youmu's unbelievable feat, the crow tengu added: "Louder, louder! This deserves a louder cheering! I mean… how often do you see half-ghosts and hell ravens sparring in your back yard, people? And let's not forget about youkai librarians who only go out of their libraries once a decade and ego-centric, money-hungry shrine maidens who will shoot you first and drink tea with you later… They're important too…"
This time the spectators reacted with laughter and that's exactly how Aya wanted this festival to be like – fun and enjoyable.
After Youmu averted her and Reimu's defeat with her amazing block, the two of them broke their formation, intending to zoom past Utsuho from both sides. Since they wanted to do this synchronically, Youmu had to slow down a bit to adjust her speed to her partner's. This, however, turned out to be the opening for Patchouli and Utsuho to thwart their plan. While the elemental sorceress has sent water-based danmaku volleys at the incoming shrine maiden, Okuu has created a wide field of relatively stable miniature nuclear reactions that lingered in the air almost motionlessly. This danmaku wall was wide enough to connect both ends of the designated dueling area and the opposing team could not choose to go around it without breaking the rules. They had to carefully navigate through the bright blazing orbs to get to their target and had to slow down even more. Patchouli's watery orbs didn't manage to take Reimu out, but as they made contact with Utsuho's nuclear minefield, they immediately vaporized, creating large amounts of steam which obscured Reimu's vision.
"Feels like in a hot-spring… Sure could go for a bath right now…" she thought as she was dodging the fiery orbs in a cloud of steam. "Uhh… what am I thinking? Got to stay focused!"
"You're not getting past me, red-white!" Utsuho shouted at the shrine maiden, charging her rod up for another blast.
Reimu swung her gohei and conjured up a pair of large square-shaped homing ofuda, intending to score the third and final hit against Patchouli.
"Oh no, you won't!" the hell raven predicted her move and fired her nuclear beam at her opponent.
Reimu arched her back just in time to save herself from the dazzling ray and its subsequent shockwave. While evading the beam, her attack got interrupted and her homing amulets were not as homing as she would like them to be. The two yellow ofuda harmlessly flew in a straightforward trajectory, not acquiring any of Reimu's opponents.
In the meantime, Patchouli switched her target to Youmu, who was just working her way through Utsuho's stationary projectiles. This time, the elemental sorceress decided to switch her offensive element to earth. Not willing to use a Spell Card, the librarian raised her arms and summoned an eruption of yellow danmaku pellets, shooting from below, covering the area below Youmu.
But the half-ghost was fast and the barrage from below didn't prove to be very effective against her. Finally, she weaved her way through Okuu's danmaku wall and her path to Patchouli was clear.
"Just come a little closer." Patchouli taunted the silver-haired girl in her thoughts. She already had another danmaku barrage all charged up and ready to use.
While Reimu was busy dealing with Okuu, Youmu quickly tried to outmaneuver Patchouli and finish her off with an accurate shot. But this was exactly what the young youkai wanted. Once the half-ghost was close enough, she utilized another element, this time the element of fire. A thick cluster of fireballs came flying at Youmu, making a deceptive side-to-side motion. At the same time, a dense fireball pattern erupted out of Patchouli's palms, giving Youmu a very poor chance to dodge.
Even if she used her youkai-forged blade to neutralize Patchouli's danmaku, there were simply too many fireballs in the air and too little time to think.
"I'm done for!" a fleeting thought flashed through Youmu's mind just a split second before the fire barrage got to her.
"But maybe I can still make it." she thought to herself as she focused all of her thoughts into one single goal.
"Ooooooh~!" the crowds below went silent as they saw the definite end of the match.
"Ayayayayaya~! It happened so fast, folks, that I myself have questions about what happened exactly!"
Youmu was hit by some of the fireballs and was just rubbing her lightly burnt shoulder, but at the same time, her ghost-half was floating behind Patchouli, taking the shape of Youmu's body. Its stance indicated that she had just performed a diagonal downward slash.
Patchouli's body wasn't hurt, but she felt a chilling sensation that paralyzed her for a few seconds and drained a good portion of her magical power.
"Both Youmu-san and Patchouli-san have hit each other, but the question is who was hit first?" Aya threw questioning glances at both Akyuu and Satori. This was one of those rare instances when even Akyuu's perfect memory was of no use, since everything happened simply too fast.
"I'm sorry, Aya-san, but I'm also uncertain about the outcome of this match."
That's when the crow tengu got an idea. "If only we could replay that last moment… That's it! We need to consult this with Sakuya-san. I'll be right back!"
All of the participants of the final match were already standing on firm ground, scratching their heads and exchanging questioning glances. Not even they were sure who actually won and who didn't.
"Sorry I took so long!" Aya returned to the shrine in company of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's chief maid. "Here she is. Now, Sakuya-san, can you return the time to that final moment of the duel, so we could determine the winner?"
Even though Sakuya was a time-manipulator, her ability was limited only to slowing down or stopping the flow of time. Perhaps she could restore a broken object if she had all the pieces, but direct time travel to the past or to the future was still beyond her power.
"What do you mean you can't?" Aya asked her after the maid explained the range of her ability.
"Then perhaps you could slow down the time for me while I look into my memory." Akyuu suggested a brilliant idea.
"That might actually work." Sakuya nodded in acknowledgement and grabbed her silver pocket watch. She laid one hand on Akyuu's head and activated her power.
Now the little chronicler began to notice the time around her slowed down. She then closed her eyes and recalled the last seconds of the match in her mind. Everything played out much slower and clearer. After replaying the memory for a few more times, she could safely declare the winner with absolute certainty.
"I saw it clearly too." Satori confirmed the judgement before it was even put into words, since she could see Akyuu's slow-motion recollection with her third eye.
"Well then," Aya looked at them both impatiently, "don't keep us in the dark. Who won that match?"
From both sides, Satori and Akyuu whispered their answer into both of her ears.
"I guess the decision is official then." said the crow tengu and cleared her throat. "Ladies and gentlemen! We now know the result of the final match!"
She paused for a while and watched amusedly as the crowd's impatience and curiosity grew with each second. Even the contestants themselves were now holding their fists clenched and sweating nervously before Aya declared the results.
"The winners of the match and the Double Duel champions are… the team of Reimu Hakurei and Youmu Konpaku~!"
Both of the mentioned girls jumped up with their arms over their heads as the loud wave of applause silenced their shouts of cheer.
On the other hand, Okuu seemed to be very disappointed by the announcement and nobody could blame her. She did so well in this match, and yet it wasn't enough to win. At least Patchouli looked as though she was indifferent about the whole tournament.
"By a mere split second, ladies and gentlemen~! Youmu phased her ghost half into her own shape and dealt the final decisive strike against Patchouli just before she was burnt by her fiery danmaku. A close, but all the more satisfying victory for the miko/half-ghost team! Congratulations~!"
"I knew you'd win, Reimu! And you too, Youmu!" Kyouichi called out at the winners of the Double Duel discipline.
"The tournament continues, folks, so don't go home just yet~!" Aya was already holding a new tournament pyramid chart in her hand. "In just a few moments, you will see the main event! And as you all know, the results from the previous two disciplines won't matter at all, because all danmaku battles are unpredictable!~!"
The crowds again let out a series of cheers after Aya's words and all the contestants returned to their places.
Even though Reimu just won the discipline, her elation quickly faded as she became aware that another series of battles was waiting for her.
"You've been doing really well, Reimu, but now it gets serious. Don't you think that I'm going to be easy on you." Aya gave her a warning and flashed a confident smile.
"But first you need to win against Youmu." Reimu pointed at Aya's first opponent in the chart. "While I get Marisa as my first opponent. Oh, joy…"
"Do I sense doubt in your voice, Reimu? What's the matter, haven't you two battled countless times already?"
"I'm not in doubt… I'm just… *sigh* never mind… Sorry, Marisa, but I'm not letting you win." she apologized to the witch who wasn't there to hear her.
"Ha, I bet she's probably saying the same thing to you." the crow tengu retorted.