Gensokyo my Beloved

by Fonzi the Survivalist

It's late spring, year 125 in Gensokyo when a mass spiriting-away of outsiders takes place. The Hakurei shrine maiden thinks this is just a minor incident, easy to resolve. But is it...?

49. The Main Event

Chapter 49 – The Main Event

After the short break, Aya again returned to her role of the tournament announcer and she was just announcing the names of the contestants for the first match.

"So, let's not delay the show any longer! But due to unexpected occurrences, there has been a slight change of duelists in the first match. Instead of Hijiri Byakuren, we'll see a match between Reiuji Utsuho and Mystia Lorelei. Three Spell Cards, three hits to win. The main event has begun! The stage is yours, contestants, let's get it on~!"

After firing her signal danmaku into the sky, the hell raven and the youkai night sparrow took off into the air and unleashed their danmaku at each other. The match was quite boring, though. It ended in less than a minute, in a way that pretty much everyone predicted. Utsuho single-handedly won the duel without getting hit even once. She even apologized to the night sparrow for eliminating her so early. Mystia had probably seen it coming anyway, and with no hard feelings, she rejoined her friends in the crowd.

"My, my…*yawn*… how unexpected." Aya commented while feigning a very unamused attitude. "Reiuji-san has won the match… Tell me folks, but honestly… Did anybody think that Lorelei-san would win? Come on, raise your hands. Don't be shy…"

A few hands were raised from the crowd of spectators, but definitely not many of the shrine visitors thought that the night sparrow would stand a chance.

"And now, folks, it's time for a more interesting match! In a duel where speed and reflexes mean everything, I, Aya Shameimaru will go up against one of the Double Duel champions, Konpaku Youmu~! Again, I apologize to you for not being able to comment this match while fighting, but I believe that words won't be necessary here! Sakuya-san, you better stay by Akyuu's side just in case we'd need you to replay this match in slow motion again."

"Enough talking, Aya." Reimu silenced her. "Get on the stage already."

"Impatient, are we?" the tengu teased her a bit. "Have no fear! Aya-chan is here~!"

Aya boldly flew over to the stage, where Youmu was already waiting for her.

Reimu gave the signal and the danmaku fest started.

---

Youmu drew out her Roukanken in a blink of an eye and intended to land the first hit in the first second. Aya's speed, however, was at least as high as Youmu's and her katana only managed to cut the air where the crow tengu was standing.

Immediately thinking of a counterattack, Aya waved her hauchiwa fan and sent a trio of intersecting wave-shots at Youmu, who was just in a vulnerable position.

*clash*

The half-ghost's sword sang a high-pitched tone as she blocked the incoming shots that dispersed harmlessly. The crowds were going crazy. Battles like this were always more eye-catching than the "David vs. Goliath" matches, in which "David" was rarely the winner.

"Heh… I feel like Caesar in ancient Rome." Soudai remarked as the battle went on.

"Yeah, except that she is the Caesar here…" Kyouichi beckoned at Reimu. "…and the gladiator in one person. Besides, I doubt that the fights in the Colosseum were as interesting as these."

The fight between Aya and Youmu was very fast-paced, but at the same time, both duelists were extremely careful. It even seemed that they were fighting with a certain deal of foresight. Youmu wasn't just waving her sword around. She created a series of highly precise danmaku patterns that nearly took her opponent by surprise, but Aya could deal well with unexpected situations in very short time. It was just about time for one of the girls to declare their Spell Card, and so it happened…

"Gaki Sword "Storybook of the Gaki Realm"!"

Aya did fire a burst of shots with the intention to interrupt Youmu's card declaration, but the half-ghost made a long dodge with such speed that it almost looked like instant teleportation.

Her sword left a trail of white danmaku that resembled arrow heads. The trail quickly burst into all directions, showering the air with magic projectiles. The bullets moved fast and Aya herself was having a bit of a problem with reading their pattern. Fortunately for her, just when the wall of danmaku got close to her, everything seemed to have slowed down for just a brief moment. Aya hurriedly moved to a safer spot and as the high speed kicked in again, she was ready to perform some fast, but precise dodging maneuvers.

And just as that white bullet hail passed her by, she attempted to return fire. She sent a pair of larger red orbs that were directed at Youmu's position and accelerated very quickly, leaving a glowing trail behind. They almost looked like miniature comets as they flashed through the air. As fast as they were, however, they missed their target as the half-ghost just executed another dodging slash, repeating her Spell Card's pattern over and over again.

The crow tengu reporter could feel her heart race as dozens of white danmaku shots were grazing past her. She had an idea how to deal with this card, but the random bursts of bullets were nearly impossible to predict. That one moment of calm during the bursts barely allowed her any relief from the rush of excitement. Another wave was already coming her way and she needed to stay absolutely focused on the dodging.

"And left, and right, and left again! No!"

She felt that all too familiar burning sensation of a danmaku hit on her stomach.

Reimu nonchalantly made one notch next to Aya's name in the chart and continued watching the duel.

Even after just being hit, Aya needed to keep on dodging Youmu's spell until it ended. Of course, she could still try to attack her or use her own Spell Card, but she believed that it would be a waste to use it right now.

She survived the rest of the card's duration and was ready to repay the hit. She made a quick dash towards Youmu and immediately darted backwards while firing a V-shaped stream of blue and white orbs.

The half-phantom only had to slightly change her altitude to keep herself safe from Aya's attack. Without drawing any cards, she created a pattern made of dozens of green and yellow spheres. The curved streams of these spheres intersected each other on many places and forced Aya to keep moving. But the crow tengu had considerably less problems with this pattern. In just a moment, she made her way close to Youmu's position and greeted her with another salvo of bluish waves. This time, Youmu's sword arm was not quick enough to block them and Reimu could make one notch next to her name as well.

The score was even now. Youmu didn't even seem to want to dodge the last attack. She prepared herself to get hit and already thought a few steps ahead. Not even a second after Aya's wave hit her, she bolted towards her while performing a slash.

The surprised tengu gasped and by sheer reflex she ducked in the last possible moment. A light breeze from Youmu's slash caressed her hair, not even realizing how she dodged it or when did Youmu manage to cut her shoulder with her second, shorter sword.

"H-hey!" Aya jetted away from Youmu and checked her shoulder. No physical wound was found, but she could feel a bit light-headed after being cut by the Hakurouken – the White Tower Sword.

Not willing to take any chances, Aya decided enough was enough and called her first Spell Card of the duel.

"Wind God "Wind God Hidden Among Tree Leaves"!"

The card whipped up a gust of wind and hundreds of leaf-shaped green shots appeared around the caster, following the perfectly arranged wind currents. The resulting effect was a beautiful circular formation formed by a multitude of smaller circles of this leaf-shaped danmaku, all swirling around and shooting out in all directions. While initially the pattern appeared to be perfectly symmetrical, as soon as the "leaves" burst out, they broke their regular formation and followed random directions.

Seeing as this wasn't going to be as easy as she thought, Youmu was mentally preparing herself to use another card.

"Not just yet…" she thought to herself as she evaded the flurry of green danmaku with relative ease. "Not yet…"

The second and third wave posed no great problems for her, but during the fourth wave, the danmaku streams have spread widely and covered every cubic meter of space. While still leaving openings, this mass of shots incoming from multiple directions was a true challenge for even the best dodgers. Youmu focused and slipped through a gap between two leaves approaching from her left side. In the same moment she turned her head right and found another chance for her to slip through. Again, a look to her left and…

"Now!"

At the very moment that she felt the touch of danmaku on her leg, Youmu declared her Spell Card.

"Hell Realm Sword "200 Yojana in 1 Slash"!"

Reimu was just about to add a second notch next to Youmu's name to note that she's been hit twice, but her quill remained motionless, since the half-ghost's immediate Spell Card declaration nullified the hit.

A mass of transparent violet orbs popped up in front of Youmu, who subsequently drew out her longer sword and slashed through them. Again, it looked like she simply teleported herself from one side to another as she performed her slash. The orbs that were cut by her blade scattered into hundreds of smaller red pellets and burst outwards.

Now, both Aya and Youmu were in their Spell Card trance and the spectators could see a wild and beautiful display of clashing barrages of green and red lights. While they lasted, both spells were pretty much negating each other, not letting the opposing bullet storm to get near their caster. But Aya was aware that her card would end sooner than Youmu's and was already preparing her dodging tactics as she studied Youmu's bullet pattern.

For another 20 seconds, both girls were literally hidden in the clouds of their own danmaku. As expected, Aya's card fizzled out and she had to rely on her flying skills once again.

"Whoa~!"

She evaded the barrage of red spirit fragments just by a few centimeters. She swung her hauchiwa just as she evaded a series of Youmu's danmaku. Her counterattack almost worked, but Youmu just made another slash, traveling over 20 meter distance in the blink of an eye.

Aya's gust of wind missed its mark again and she now had more bullets in the air to dodge.

As she saw that the wave of incoming danmaku was simply too dense, the crow tengu backed away to allow the bullet formation to spread a little wider so she could squeeze through. And as she did that, Youmu's spell has timed out.

"Now's my chance." thought Aya.

"A perfect opportunity." plotted Youmu.

With the dispersing barrage of Youmu's dying spell, both girls sought to execute their plan in order to eliminate their opponent. Youmu dashed forward to surprise the tengu with a melee attack, while Aya propelled herself downwards, evaded the wall of shots and landed on the stage. Using her muscular strength, she took off again heading for where Youmu was floating while she was using her previous Spell Card. She noticed that the half-ghost was no longer there and in that split second she turned around, noticing the defenseless back of Yuyuko's servant.

Youmu thought that she could surprise Aya by flying along with her own bullet barrage and using it as cover, but something was wrong… The tengu was no longer in her sight and that could not be good.

"Too late, Youmu." Aya sent her regards along with a swift danmaku barrage at the unsuspecting gardener.

"And Aya scores a seco..." Reimu was about to announce that the match was tied once again, but something she saw prevented her from doing so.

The half-ghost focused her senses to be sharper than her blades, and as she heard the distinctive sound of incoming danmaku shots, she turned around while performing a blind slash with her Roukanken.

*clash*

Aya quickly figured that her barrage was not going to be enough to bring Youmu down and so, she repeated her attempt in outflanking her. With her speed, which by several times surpassed the speed of sound, she made another fly-by. This time she jetted over Youmu's head while firing a burst of highly accurate magic bolts. Her plan was to fly around Youmu, while assaulting her from all directions, not giving her much chance for evasion or counterattack.

And the half-ghost was indeed in a pinch right now. While she could use her sword for defense, slashing multiple high-velocity danmaku projectiles incoming from all directions was a bit too much for this girl to handle.

Aya was insanely fast in her flight and her flanking maneuvers were getting more dangerous by each second.

Youmu knew that it would be most unwise if she just stood there and tried to deflect all those incoming shots with her weapon. But even when she tried to keep moving, Aya's hit-and-run tactics wasn't giving her many opportunities. She evaded the first stream while cutting through the second, but a third wave was already about to hit her. The half-ghost was seriously considering using her final Spell Card, even if it meant that she would lose if Aya managed to stay unhit over its duration.

The crow tengu was assailing her from all sides with ever increasing speed and more dangerous danmaku barrages. But with her increased speed she needed to fly a longer distance to make a full 180 degree turn. Nevertheless, Youmu could not react fast enough to avoid every shot.

"Oh, well… At least I tried." thought the half-ghost as she noticed another dense salvo of bright-red shots and blue waves with the corner of her eye. She braced herself for the inevitable impact, ready to accept her defeat like a warrior…

"Stop the match, stop the match~!" Reimu shouted as she waved a red flag over her head. And she wasn't the only one raising the flag. From the other side of the stage, several other hands with the same-colored flags popped up.

---

With freshly made holes into her clothing, Youmu was slowly descending down to the stage with her head lowered in self-disappointment. Aya finally stopped flying like crazy and landed on the stage after her opponent.

Reimu stood up from her sitting position and cleared her throat before making her announcement: "During her last offensive against her opponent, the contestant Shameimaru Aya has left the designated dueling area, and is thus disqualified."

"Wha…?" Kyouichi surprisedly blinked at Reimu's announcement.

"Eh?" Aya's reaction was filled one half with disbelief and one half with embarrassment.

"Disqualified?" the surprised half-ghost repeated Reimu's last word with an incredulous look on her face.

The spectators as well as the dueling girls were struck dumbfounded for a few seconds while they were processing their thoughts.

"Ayaya… I messed up there, didn't I?" the reporter of Bunbunmaru News blushed as she scratched the back of her head.

Reimu spoke again after a brief pause: "The winner of the match, is therefore Konpaku Youmu~!"

"I… won…" uttered Youmu after taking her time to let Reimu's words roll around in her head. "Hehe… I won…"

Despite being groggy after taking hits from multiple shots sent at her by Aya, Youmu couldn't hold back a smile.

"It was a very fine battle with you, Konpaku-san." Aya bowed to her, sporting a pretty carefree expression on her face.

"But if it wasn't for the rules, I would have lost." Youmu opposed.

"You still had one Spell Card, left, though."

"True, but I was hesitant to use it. Besides, you also had one more card, Aya-san."

"Well, I don't really mind losing to you, Youmu-san. This way I can stay focused on doing my job of a reporter and take plenty of pictures of this tournament. Good luck in your next duels."

"Thank you, Aya-san." the half-ghost bowed to her and the girls parted their ways, leaving the stage vacant for the next pair of duelists.

As the crow tengu made her way back to her original place on the shrine's porch, Reimu couldn't hide her amused smirk.

"And you almost won the match, Aya…"

"Ehehe~. What can I tell you?" shrugged the reporter of Bunbunmaru. "The dueling area is too narrow."

"You were doing really well in the Double Duels, though. I didn't expect you to do such a stupid mistake." the shrine maiden criticized Aya's performance.

Aya didn't really fret about having lost, even if it was due to her own error. "It's just a game… Anyway, I'm curious about how well will you fare in your match, Reimu."

"It's not my turn yet."

"I know, but I'm still curious to see you duel with Marisa."

"Why don't you announce the next pair of contestants before that?" Reimu passed her the tournament chart.

Aya let out a weak chuckle. "Let's see then…" she cleared her throat as she read the names of the following duelists. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have no excuse for being disqualified in the previous match, but life and the tournament goes on~!"

Another wave of cheers echoed from the crowd of humans and youkai. Many of Aya's supporters started calling out her name.

"But in return… I shall provide you all with plenty of 1st class photographs from this tournament in the next issue of Bunbunmaru! Anyway, the danmaku fest continues and the next two girls have a lot in common. A few minutes ago, you could see a duel of speed. Well, now it will be a duel of raw strength and power. Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome the two oni – Ibuki Suika and Hoshiguma Yuugi~!"

---

From the far end of the stage, two female figures ascended into the air and landed on the well illuminated stage of the Hakurei Shrine.

The tall single-horned blonde girl and the short, ginger-haired oni bowed to the audience and the judges before they turned their faces at each other.

"I'm so happy that you've come to visit the surface world!" Suika expressed her joy of reuniting with her long-time friend.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I wasn't even planning it, but Satori suddenly paid me a visit with her interesting request." Yuugi explained the conditions of her unexpected arrival. "I couldn't turn her down when she told me that I could meet you here, hehe~."

"I heard about that." nodded the two-horned Suika. "She was supposed to bring her sister and her kasha along, but they decided to visit the Moriya Shrine."

Their idle conversation got suddenly interrupted by a loud bang and a flurry of red amulets, painting a pattern on the dark night sky. Reimu just gave them the signal to start the duel.

"Aww…" Yuugi pouted in displeasure. "Do we really have to start dueling now? I'd rather have a drinking contest with ya."

"Me too~." acknowledged Suika as she sadly lowered her head.

"Start the duel already~!" a distant shout from Reimu urged the two oni friends to float up and put on a good show for the audience.

"Oh well, this game isn't so bad either." shrugged the blonde oni as she hovered to her position.

"Like old times, eh, Yuugi?" Suika smiled with a nostalgic memory on her mind.

"Remember when we tried to make that super-concentrated sake when we were little?" Yuugi brought up another memory to Suika's mind.

"Pfhahahaha~!" Suika couldn't defend herself from the laughing fit as she recalled that event. "How could I forget? Hahahaha~!"

While Suika and Yuugi were having a good laugh above the stage, the audience and tournament judges were beginning to wonder when these girls would actually start dueling.

"If you don't start in three seconds, you're both disqualified!" Reimu let her impatience be known to the pair of oni.

"Oh well…" Suika regained her composure after the shrine maiden's warning.

"We can still chat and drink after we're done with this duel." said Yuugi and made a circular motion with her right hand, making over a dozen large blue orbs appear around her.

Instead of charging up her attack, Suika was preparing herself to dodge whatever Yuugi would conjure up.

Not having to wait for too long, all of Yuugi's orbs fired blue beams in all directions, just closely missing Suika's left shoulder. After all of Yuugi's orbs have fired their beams, they disappeared for a while before the attack was repeated. In this short moment, Suika charged in, lobbing two fireballs at her opponent with both of her arms.

Yuugi didn't even flinch, even when the projectiles were accurately heading for her position. Her confidence was soon explained by the fact that the circle of blue orbs appeared around her again, serving not only its offensive, but also a defensive purpose.

The fireballs took out two of Yuugi's orbs, but have caused her no harm. The rest of the blue spheres fired their lasers in the same fashion as the first time. This time, however, the pattern was a little easier. After watching the bright beams flashing around her, Suika fired a pair of orb-shaped mist-like projectiles at her opponent. Yuugi finally moved from her place, because she knew what these mysterious magic orbs do. She dodged to her left just in time before Suika's shots reached her original position. But even as she moved away, the misty orbs seemed to have followed her movement, slightly changing their direction. The orbs that were conjured up by Yuugi were about to fire another series of lasers, but Suika's danmaku destroyed several of them before they could fire. Not only that, but the shots continued in their flight, making a sharper turn towards the main target.

"Whoa! Almost made me spill my sake~!" called the blonde oni while making an adequately fast dodge to shake off the persistent danmaku. Even during a battle, she was holding her bright-red tray filled with sake and taking sips from it every few seconds.

"Hey, Yuugi~!" Suika suddenly called at her. "I bet I could make you spill your sake."

"Ohoho~! You're welcome to try~!" she accepted the challenge.

"Okay, Yuugi. Now hold still for a moment…" grinned the ginger-haired oni as she reached for her Spell Card.

"Oni Sign "Missing Power"!"

A purplish light consumed the card in her hand and became one with her body. Almost instantaneously, the otherwise short Suika became a hulking giant.

"Ooooooh~!" Everyone in the crowd spectators and judges couldn't hide their bewilderment from the sight of an oni's power. Suika now measured well over 20 meters in height and the span of her horns almost equaled the width of the large stage. If she wasn't levitating, she'd surely crush the wooden floor of the Hakurei Shrine's festival stage with her feet.

"NOW GET READY, YUUGI…" her voice, loud as thunder, but still childish in sound, resonated over the shrine yard. "HERE IT COMES!"

"Are you going to hit me, or are you just going to waste time talking about it?" Yuugi fearlessly taunted her friend to attack her. "Give me your best punch~!"

Suika knew that she could really go wild with her tremendous strength against an opponent such as Yuugi. She balled her huge fist and readied her massive arm to throw a punch. Everyone at the shrine held their breath for that short moment…

Yuugi just calmly hovered in one place, holding her tray of sake, as if this was just another peaceful moment for her.

"Does she really want to get hit by Suika-san?" Aya couldn't believe her eyes as she watched the scene with her camera snapping pictures in rapid succession.

In the next second, Suika was already swinging her arm at Yuugi.

With force that could shatter an entire mountain range, Suika's gigantic fist met Yuugi's body. The force of impact was so strong that it sent out a mighty shockwave that slightly shook the ground near the Hakurei Shrine and made some of the human spectators lose their balance and fall.

"Kyaaaah~!" exclaimed Reimu who was just sipping her tea and the shockwave made her spill it over herself. "Hot, hot, hot!"

"Are you alright, Reimu?" Aya threw a quick glance at the miko before she resumed snapping shots of the battle.

When the shocked spectators shifted their sights back to the stage, they couldn't hide their amazement. Aya was apparently brimming with excitement as she commented the scene.

"Ayayayaya~! Can it be true…? Yuugi-san bravely took Suika-san's hit!"

The blonde oni was knocked back by nearly ten meters, but she remained floating, and what's more, she was still holding her red tray of sake.

"…OW~!" the magically-grown Suika made a pained expression and began rubbing the fist with which she hit her opponent. "I THINK I PRICKED MYSELF ON YOUR HORN, YUUGI~!"

"Whoa…!" Yuugi shook herself awake after taking a hit that would surely kill any human and send them flying like a cannonball. "Where was I again…?"

She looked a bit confused and after shrugging, she nonchalantly took another sip of sake from her tray.

"She didn't even spill a drop, ladies and gentlemen~!" called Aya. "Unbelievable!"

"What do you mean? She spilled everything~!" Reimu exasperatedly retorted as she tried to dry her soaked dress with her handkerchief.

"No, Reimu-san," the tengu grinned at her futile attempt, "you spilled everything."

"I should disqualify them both for that…" grumbled the shrine maiden, not even looking at the battle anymore.

"I'm still amazed that Yuugi-san was pretty much unharmed by that punch. Just as expected from one of the four Devas of the Mountain. But now she's losing to Suika-san by one hit."

And so, the crow tengu marked the hit into the battle chart while the battle between the two oni went on.

As a sign of respect and honor, Suika ended the effect of her Spell Card prematurely and returned back to her original size.

"Nice punch, Suika." Yuugi nodded in acknowledgement. "But this sake is just too good for me to let it be spilled."

"Hehe… They don't call you Yuugi the Strong for nothing." replied Suika cheerfully. "Now it's your turn to take a whack at me."

"What the hell do they think they're doing?" muttered Reimu, who finally resigned wiping her miko dress and returned to her current duty. "This isn't supposed to be a turn-based battle."

"Oh, come on, Reimu." Aya gave her a smile. "It's for the show and entertainment. Let them do their fight their way."

"But… come to think of it…" Yuugi rubbed her chin thoughtfully, "isn't this supposed to be a danmaku battle, Suika?"

"Yes, but now I'm in an unfair advantage. Just hit me back and we can continue this game with danmaku, okay~?"

"I suppose you're right." the one-horned oni cracked her knuckles. "Are you ready, Suika?"

"I was born ready~!" Suika smacked her underdeveloped chest with her fist as a sign of acceptance.

"Then here I come!"

"Oooh~! Wait, wait, wait~!" she interrupted her just a second before Yuugi's fist was about to land on Suika's body. The blonde curiously raised her eyebrow, wondering why Suika halted her. The answer to her question came in form of Suika taking a few hearty gulps of sake from her gourd.

"Aaaah…" she exhaled with a blissful expression on her face. "That hit the spot. Okay, now I'm ready~!"

Not waiting for anything else, Yuugi hovered backwards a few meters and made a brutally-looking charging punch, targeting Suika's torso.

"Umph!" uttered the ginger-haired oni as she was sent backwards by the enormous force of impact. Just barely she managed to regain control of her flight before she got knocked out of the battling area.

"Hahaha…" Suika chuckled as she flew back towards the middle of the stage. "I guess that makes us even then, huh?"

"Not yet…" Yuugi objected as she drew out her Spell Card. "Mysterious Ring "Hell's Wheel of Pain"!"

Immediately after declaring her card, Yuugi spread her arms wide and in a dazzling flash all the danmaku that was just being spawned disappeared harmlessly. "Now we're even." she added with a friendly smile after she just wasted her card.

Being truly even both on hits taken and Spell Cards left, the two oni continued their fight with danmaku. Not that melee hits were against the rules, but they both wanted to show off their magic bullet patterns. After the oni girls have increased the distance between each other, it was more than clear to everyone that an intense danmaku showdown would follow.

Suika created an orb of white light in her hand and threw it at Yuugi like a ball. The orb burst in the middle of its flight, and scattered dozens of small purple objects. It took a few seconds for even the sharp eyes of the crow tengu to identify Suika's danmaku.

"Ayaya, Suika-san is using her gathering and dissolving powers to make miniature replicas of herself and she's using those replicas as a part of her danmaku."

And as the miniature Suikas were littering the air, they subsequently exploded in fiery burst, making the danmaku density even thicker. Yuugi was now forced to move quickly, but very carefully through the clouds of fiery sparks and mini clones of her opponent. But even when under heavy fire, Yuugi was a dangerous adversary. With a just a subtle movement of her hands, she conjured up a huge cluster of two-colored projectiles around herself. The green orbs were immediately sent straight forward at Suika, while the yellow ones were shot sideways. The short oni deftly avoided the spreading cluster of green shots and returned fire. This time she created several large teal spheres and cast them forward in a fan-shaped pattern.

Not long after Yuugi fired her first wave, the yellow orbs which she fired sideways stopped in their flight and changed their heading by 180 degrees. This meant that Suika found herself in the middle of two intersecting salvos of yellow danmaku and had to make a lot of effort to avoid them. On the other hand, Yuugi had to freeze in one place due to the density of danmaku that was sent her way by Suika. She could even feel the warmth of her danmaku grazing all around her body, but none of the orbs hit her. Even when she felt a strong temptation to dive into the middle of the bullet stream and endure the hits, close the distance and fight Suika hand to hand, she knew that such a move would make her lose the duel. She had to devise a plan to score a hit by the means of danmaku. With all the chaos in the air, Yuugi figured it would be a good idea to use a Spell Card, as it would render her nearly immune to enemy fire for a brief moment and further increase the number of her own shots in the air.

"Oni Sign "Supernatural Phenomenon"!"

The Spell Card painted four spreading spiral-shaped strings consisting of hundreds of red magic bullets. They cleared a small area around Yuugi of enemy shots, but appeared to be just a decorative, theatrical pattern to an untrained eye. That changed in the next second as the spirals changed their color from violet to red and all the bullets were sent into motion at varying speeds. The resulting mixed barrage was simply too chaotic and dense to avoid. But Suika was no idiot. She knew that she couldn't just glide through all that curtain fire unscathed, so she declared her own Spell Card just in time before one of those shots touched her.

"Hell "Sigh of Purgatory"!"

After declaring the name of her following spell, her card turned into a bright blue gaseous cloud. Suika then took a deep breath and inhaled the vaporous substance.

"Ayaya, looks like Suika-san's using one of her more difficult cards. But Yuugi-san's card is still in effect. This should be quite a spectacle."

Just after Aya finished her sentence, Suika opened her mouth and exhaled a dazzling cloud burning in bluish fire that spread out symmetrically into several smaller clouds, each leaving a trail of spreading danmaku. A strong smell of alcohol flooded the whole shrine yard after Suika's "sigh".

"Better hold your breath, folks." Aya jokingly warned the audience. "You could get drunk from her breath alone."

For a whole minute and several seconds the people and youkai at the shrine were watching as the spells of two very powerful youkai were clashing and nullifying each other's effects.

The magical projectiles that hit each other in flight created miniature explosions of colorful light accompanied by various noises unlike anything that could be normally heard in the outside world. However, soon the spells have ended and the two oni were left each with just one card. Neither Suika, nor Yuugi wanted to use it, since they'd risk defeat, should their opponent evade every shot of the pattern before their spell runs out of power.

That's when the girls resorted again to normal danmaku attacks, but now they were more intense than ever.

Yuugi, as a show of power, raised her arm and a gleaming stream of yellow light erupted out of her hand, changing direction and bending its shape to a spiral as the blonde oni was beginning to spin around. At first, the narrow stream was no problem to dodge for the shorter oni girl, but after making a full circle, it spread vertically into a solid yellow wall of light, fading away just a few meters away from the safety zone where the spectators and judges were watching the battle. Suika quickly learned that she had to fly as fast as possible in the same direction as the wave of light if she wanted to avoid it.

"Looks like she's using a non-card pattern similar to her Light Oni "Adamant Helix"." noted the crow tengu with her expertise and knowledge of other Spell Cards. "But if she wants to abide the rules, she has to make it easier than her Spell Card version."

Of course, Aya was right, which turned out fortunately for Suika and all her supporters in the crowd. The awe-inspiring wall of yellow light ran out of power just as soon as it would make its second circle around Yuugi and its tail just grazed a few centimeters next to Suika's foot.

And just as the blonde oni was charging up to repeat the attack, Suika closed in on her and declared her final card, giving Yuugi little time and room to move away from immediate danger.

"Night Parade of One Million Demons!"

A tiny dark vortex opened up in the middle of the card and swallowed it in. Then it began rapidly growing in both size and gravity.

"You're taking this tournament seriously, aren't you?" Yuugi asked her a question just before she flew below Suika's feet in order to escape what was about to come in a few seconds.

"This is…" Aya paused herself as she gazed at Suika's card with awe and respect. "This is possibly the most powerful spell coming from possibly the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo…"

"Really?" Kyouichi who was sitting not too far from her asked with a crooked smile. "I've heard about the might of the oni, but …"

"Aya-san says so most likely because the tengu were once serving under the oni a long time ago…" the usually quiet Satori spoke up to explain Aya's reaction.

"Hey, I'm not exaggerating! Just look at that!" she pointed her finger at Suika's growing vortex that resembled a miniature black hole. Of course, she kept taking as many pictures as she could.

All would indicate that Aya was not too far from the truth. Even if Kyouichi and other outsiders didn't see many powerful youkai dueling each other, it was quite obvious that this card was the epitome of the power of the oni. The "black hole" grew to the size of several meters and everyone who watched the match could feel its power as it sucked all the air from the area, creating strong wind blowing toward its center. Suika, however, appeared to be unaffected by her own power and just hovered a few meters away from the powerful vortex and watched Yuugi struggle with its gravity field. With each passing second the gravity grew ever stronger, up to the point where small objects from all over the shrine yard were being sucked in. Various bowls and bits of food from the people in the crowd were swallowed by the blackness, followed by rocks and branches and other small items.

Just as Reimu refilled her cup with fresh tea, the tea poured upwards and disappeared in the rift.

"My tea~!"

"Ayaya, my camera~!" Aya caught her tengu-brand camera in the last second after it slipped out of her hands. "Everyone, hold onto your small belongings~!"

Kyouichi too had to hold his glasses to prevent them from disappearing forever in Suika's miniature black hole. He could even feel the magic detector in his pocket looking for a way out, so he put his other hand on his kimono and held it tightly.

Even Satori's third eye was attracted by the Spell Card's force and the four cords that held it in place were now stretched like a slingshot ready to fire.

Akyuu, in panic of losing her diary, covered it with her body and lifted her worried eyes to the scene of battle.

"So this is what Yuyuko has for a stomach… I see…" Reimu made an inappropriate joke to vent her frustration of losing all her tea to the oni and her spell.

Just when the power of the vortex reached its maximum within the norms of safety, tens of bright danmaku orbs of various sizes appeared out of thin air, being quickly drawn to the vortex. Yuugi just barely evaded the first wave. Meanwhile, Suika charged up to fire a very large bubble-like orb directly at her. While covering a large area, this orb was moving rather slowly and wouldn't be too hard to dodge on its own. However, in combination with all the chaotic danmaku coming from behind and the powerful gravity field of the vortex, Yuugi wasn't as quick and agile as she would like to be.

"Was that a hit?" Akyuu asked while still covering her opened diary.

Yuugi's body was partially hit by the edge of the orb, but fortunately, only the central area of this oversized projectile was valid to make a hit and cause any damage. But Suika's attack wasn't calming down any moment. On the contrary; after assembling enough of smaller blue orbs that were randomly spawning all over the dueling area, the vortex sent out a spiral-shaped barrage of oval bolts of purple light to further reduce Yuugi's chances of winning.

The blonde oni was bravely trying to cope with all the incoming chaos, but any attempt for a counterattack failed when her danmaku was either hit by one of Suika's shots, or sucked in by the black hole. The two-directional streams of magical shots seemed to have no end. On several occasions it looked like Yuugi was hit, but she was avoiding the shots by the skin of her teeth. Perhaps she was only lucky, or perhaps more skillful then she was letting on. But even the best of luck eventually runs out…

"Ack~!" an unpleasant burning sensation stung the back of Yuugi's neck. "Damn it! I thought I could handle this card!"

"That's a hit, alright." Reimu was finally sure that Yuugi came into contact with her opponent's danmaku.

But Suika needed to hit Yuugi yet another time in order to win. Likewise, Suika was hit only once in this fight, but now she was betting everything on her final Spell Card. Hitting someone multiple times with the same Spell Card was not an uncommon sight in danmaku matches. Especially when a more experienced duelist faced a weaker opponent. But in this duel, both girls were pretty much on the same level.

Suika's card was truly outclassing all the other cards. At least in its duration. From all the cards in the previous battles, there was barely a single spell that lasted longer than 60 seconds. This one was just running its third minute. Even though it appeared to be stabilized and no longer increasing in danmaku intensity, Yuugi was growing rather nervous. If she got hit once, she could get hit again and at any time. That's when she suddenly slapped her forehead.

"Oh my… Am I sober or what~?! I totally forgot that I can also use my last card."

Not taking any chances, or giving any chances to Suika, she drew the last card and called out its name.

"Feat of Strength "Storm on Mt. Ooe"!"

A hailstorm of large blue orbs took over one half of the stage and was partially clearing away Suika's danmaku while some of the orbs were even getting close to hitting Suika.

"And another clash of Spell Cards~!" Aya called out with excitement. "But I think we can already tell who's the winner of this match." she added with a subtle smile on her face.

"Really? Who?" Kyouichi was definitely not as certain as Aya about the outcome of this spectacular duel.

But Aya simply kept smiling and shook her head, refusing to tell him.

"Aww, come on, Aya." he pleaded her, but the tengu remained teasingly silent.

"Just keep watching." she simply told him and turned her face again to the two dueling oni.

"Satori-san… You can see what she's thinking about, right? Will you tell me… please?"

Satori turned her unamused face at him.

"Pretty please?" he added a rather silly grin to his plea.

The mind reader blinked once without changing her neutral expression before she said: "No." and turned her face away from him, following Aya's example.

"Guh…" uttered Kyouichi after resigning his attempt to figure out why was Aya already certain about the winner before the duel even ended. But it soon became clear even to him.

After only about ten seconds of watching, the bluish orbs that were constantly being gathered by Suika's vortex have changed from bright to semi-transparent and the vortex itself was now emitting bright light instead of swallowing it up.

"Aaaaaaand this is it, ladies and gentlemen~!" Aya called out loudly, so that her voice could be heard through all the noise of danmaku. "This battle is over~!"

The black hole-like vortex exploded into million tiny sparkles of light that quickly faded and so did every single projectile of Suika's Spell Card. Now, only Yuugi's "Storm on Mt. Ooe" was dominating the scene above the Hakurei Shrine's stage, raining dozens of blue bubble-like orbs diagonally downwards. The strong wind has stopped and even the gravity returned back to normal. As soon as the 25 judges raised their green flags, even the blonde oni stopped her spell.

"We've all witnessed a fantastic duel between two members of the most powerful race of youkai in all Gensokyo~!" the tengu journalist commented the match. "We've seen both their raw strength and their danmaku capabilities and I have to say, I was moved~! At first I thought Suika-san was going overboard with her exceedingly powerful spell, but Yuugi-san cleverly played a waiting game and waited for the right moment to use her own final card. And since her card started much later than Suika-san's, it was bound to outlast it. Congratulations to Yuugi-san~! And of course, to Suika-san as well~! You both deserve to go further in the tournament, but the matches can have only one winner and that winner is Hoshiguma Yuugi~!"

A loud applause and cheering like after every match was now resonating over the shrine yard, celebrating Yuugi's victory. Both oni girls shook hands and embraced each other after the battle.

---

"That was so nostalgic~!" said the ginger-haired girl. "I wish you luck in this tournament!"

"Thanks, Suika."

"And don't get defeated by Reimu~!"

"Hehe, I'll try." Yuugi smirked lightly as she descended down to the ground.

"So you've seen it, folks!" Aya was still providing her post-duel commentary. "Even such can be the outcome of a danmaku battle. Please stay with us. After a short break the tournament continues and we're all bound to witness unforgettable duels tonight~! This is Aya Shameimaru and I hope you'll enjoy this tournament until the end~!"

"Finally I can take a short break…" Reimu sighed with relief and for the third time poured tea into her cup. "Ahhh~!"

"Why are you acting to be so tired?" Aya asked with a provoking tone. "You haven't even been doing anything yet, but sitting here."

"As if you were doing any hard labor, Aya…"

"How rude. I was the announcer for the whole tournament." the tengu defended herself. "Can I get some of that tea too? All this talking has made me quite thirsty…"

As the short break was announced, the crowd of humans and youkai was again dispersing all over the shrine yard, looking to resupply food, drinks and snacks.

"How long is this short break anyway?" Asakura Soudai asked the person who organized the whole festival.

"Just about ten or fifteen minutes. We can't afford to delay this competition too much, because there are other things in the program after that." the shrine maiden started explaining as she was serving some of the tea for thirsty Aya.

"And who's going to duel next?" Kyouichi wanted to know.

"Cirno and Byakuren." Reimu replied with an unamused tone. "Why does she always get the easiest opponents? I don't even need to see that duel to know how it'll end."

"Don't get ahead of things, Reimu…" said Aya and sipped her freshly served tea. "But… yeah… I guess you're right…" she changed her mind and agreed with her.

As the girls were discussing the details about the previous and future duels, a sound of footsteps and rolling wheels of a heavy cart being pulled could be heard through the noise in the crowd as it was getting closer to the back entrance of the shrine.

"Ahh, good evening, ladies." a pleasant greeting came from a tall man with silver hair dressed in black and blue kimono. "And gentlemen…" he added after seeing two young males resting on the shrine's porch in the company of four girls.

"Ooh~! Rinnosuke-san…" Aya was quite surprised to see this half-youkai merchant outside of his shop. And so were the other girls…

"Have you just arrived to the shrine?" Reimu gave him a curious glance.

"I was here the whole time." he replied and smiled at her while closing his eyes. "As every year, the festival is an opportunity for me to sell some odds and ends that don't usually sell well throughout the year. But in the end, it's always the food, snacks and drinks that's in the greatest demand…" he gently tapped his hand over the wooden cart with goods that he was pulling around the shrine yard.

"I planned to show myself and greet you ladies a bit earlier, but I thought you'd be busy with the tournament."

"What a good timing!" the cheerful tengu quickly got up from her sitting position and stepped closer to look at the content of Rinnosuke's cart. "I was actually rather thirsty."

"I just served you tea." Reimu reminded her.

"Well, true, but it's a bit too hot. I wonder what beverages you have for sale, Rinnosuke-san… Oooh~! What's this strange container?" she pointed at a small packet of unusual, red, shiny, metallic cylindrical containers that were resting in a small box filled with ground ice.

"Are these drinks too?" she asked and took one out of the box to take a closer look.

As soon as Kyouichi saw what she has taken, he began to chuckle. "So you've found the trick to extract those from that old vending machine in your shop, eh, Rinnosuke-san?"

"Eh? You recognize these, Kyouichi?" Aya, still holding a can of coke, glanced over at the amused outsider.

"Is that a can of cola I see?" Soudai didn't fail to notice the world-famous soft drink that was definitely not produced in Gensokyo. "Where did you get your hands on that?"

"Well, I have this device from the outside world… a vending machine that's apparently full of these. I got a taste of that drink and I have to say it's unlike anything I've tasted before. So sweet and a bit sour, and yet, I can't compare it to any fruit. Its color is like that of a very dark tea… I wonder if I could make more of this drink if I figured out what ingredients to use."

"Wow!" Soudai became just as amused as his younger friend. "But I'm afraid none of us would be able to help you with that… The recipe for that drink is one of the world's greatest trade secrets."

"What a pity." Rinnosuke lowered his head. "I should ask Yukari for another one of those vending machines when she shows up."

"Ah, so that's how you acquired it…" Soudai made an understanding nod. "That Yukari seems like a nice person, hehe…"

"Do you think so?" the owner of Kourindou lightly tilted his head. "Well, she usually brings things that almost never sell, but I have to admit that she's also keeping my business alive."

"But why asking for another vending machine when you could just ask her to bring you a few pallets of cans?" sounded Kyouichi.

"Well…" Rinnosuke thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "I wonder if she could bring me a recipe for this new drink from the outside world…"

"Ha! Wouldn't that be awesome? I imagine that would be no problem for someone like her. Provided all the legends and rumors I've heard about her are true…"

Just as Kyouichi said that, a sudden knock on the wooden elevated floor of the shrine diverted his attention. Reimu put down her tea cup a bit forcefully before she stood up.

"Hey, you've been rather quiet, Reimu-san…" Rinnosuke remarked. "Usually, you and Marisa wouldn't stop chatting when you come to my shop."

"I'm going to change my top." murmured the shrine maiden, looking down at the wet spot on her dress where she spilled tea over herself during the match between the two oni. And with that, she walked into her shrine and closed the door.

"Strange…" the half-youkai man shrugged as he watched Reimu disappear in her shrine.

Aya returned the ice-cold can back into the box of Rinnosuke's cart. "Yeah…" she agreed with his statement regarding the behavior of the Hakurei shrine maiden.

Rinnosuke then shifted his gaze to Satori, who was absentmindedly looking at the shifting crowd around the stage. The youkai from the underground briefly returned her glance before nonchalantly turning away, not willing to give answers to any potential questions about what was going on in Reimu's mind today.

"So… how much for one can?" Kyouichi broke the silence with his question and jingling coins in his palm.

"200 yen."

"Whoa… That's rather steep, but I guess that's understandable due to the limited supply. I'll take one then."

"Me too!" Soudai was desperately digging around in the pocket of his kimono to scrape his last coins together. He was already indebted to both Kyouichi and Midori, but that didn't stop him from enjoying this festival.

"Alright~!" Aya clenched her fist out of excitement. "I'll give this weird cold tea a try too. Two hundred yen is not that much."

Rinnosuke was glad to make the transaction and passed the three cans to each of his customers. While Aya and Soudai didn't wait to open their cans and take a few gulps, Kyouichi was a bit more patient and decided to save his coke for later.

Suddenly everyone turned to the sound of the shrine's sliding door opening. True to her word, Reimu was back, wearing a clean top of her shrine maiden's attire.

"The break is almost over." she announced tersely and took a seat on her usual place.

"Would you mind if I rested here for a while?" asked Rinnosuke.

"Not at all. Why are you even asking?"

"Thank you." the half-youkai sat down on the shrine's elevated floor with a sigh of relief. "Ahh… I've been on my feet ever since morning."

"Mmm… This "kokakora" tea is pretty good…" said Aya after getting the first taste of this caffeine-filled beverage for the first time. "So this is what humans beyond the border drink, eh? I hope it doesn't turn me into a human, hehe~."

"You can relax, Aya." Rinnosuke reassured her. "I've already tested it on myself."

"Ah, I see… So it's safe then." smiled the crow tengu and took another gentle sip.

"By the way, Reimu, where's Marisa?" the shopkeeper wondered why the blonde witch wasn't tagging along with the miko as usual.

"You'll see her soon… falling down from her broom." said Reimu rather cold-bloodedly.

"Hm?" Rinnosuke turned his confused face at Aya.

"Oh… She means that she'll be dueling Marisa after the next match." the crow tengu deciphered Reimu's answer.

"Oh. I see now." he chuckled at Reimu's confidence. At least this was in character with her usual self today.

And so, the short break between the matches of the main event of the danmaku tournament was now at its end. Aya took one more gulp of the tasty new drink from the outside world and cleared her throat.

"Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, it's Shameimaru Aya, bringing you the best commentary of the first summer danmaku tournament in Gensokyo~!"

Even with her cheesy-sounding entry, the crowds were still going wild and cheering loudly.

"The tournament continues, but this time, after seeing two duels with relatively even-matched opponents, myself included, we now have a battle that is expected to be rather one-sided. Our next duelists are: Hijiri Byakuren and Cirno~!"

---

The cheering wasn't as loud as during the previous two matches, but the contestants didn't mind that. From the further side of the stage, two silhouettes, one tall and feminine, the other – short and childish, flew over to the center of the dueling area.

The ice fairy showed a face full of determination, but was also marked by slight uncertainty. Even though the fairy was aware of the limitations of her own powers and dueling skills, she still managed to hide her fear well from the sights of the spectators and her opponent.

Byakuren, on the other hand, looked as she always did – calm, elegant, beautiful and with a smile full of warmth.

"On your marks, duelists~!" Aya called at them with her arm raised, ready to give the signal to start the match.

However, Byakuren also raised her arm as she turned her face at the group of judges sitting at the shrine.

"Eh? What is it, Byakuren-san?" asked the tengu.

"I have an announcement to make." replied the spiritual leader from the Temple of Myouren.

"But you're about to beat up… I mean… duel against Cirno! Can't this wait after the tournament?"

"This announcement is regarding this battle, though."

"Oh… Alright, but please, make it quick. Reimu's already giving us both impatient glances."

Byakuren nodded in response and began her announcement: "All that I wanted to say is that I feel very sorry for the battles against the weaker youkai during the previous disciplines."

…

An awkward silence arose after the monk's words. Nobody was sure what to say or think about it. Even Aya took a few seconds of sorting her thoughts before she spoke again.

"Is that all you wanted to tell us, Byakuren-san?"

"And therefore…" Byakuren continued, "I'd like to apologize to all of those youkai who I defeated so cold-heartedly, and to make up for it, I hereby forfeit this duel." she finished her sentence with a radiant smile and bowed to everyone.

Instead of an awkward silence, sighs of surprise and whispers were echoing around the stage. Even Cirno herself opened her eyes and mouth wide upon hearing Byakuren's announcement.

"A… Are you an idiot~?!"

"Are you sure, Byakuren-san?" Aya asked with a serious voice. "You'll be disqualified from this discipline if you make that decision."

"I already made that decision, Aya-san. I, Hijiri Byakuren, forfeit this duel and the Single Duels discipline." said the monk firmly.

Aya, with her mouth ajar, slowly turned her face to Reimu.

"Fine by me." the shrine maiden shrugged indifferently. "One less troublesome opponent to worry about…"

"That was rather cold." stated Aya as she turned her eyes back to the stage. She took a deep breath before she nodded to Byakuren's wish. "I still find it a bit hard to believe, ladies and gentlemen, but you've all heard it yourselves… The head of the Temple of Myouren, Hijiri Byakuren-san is forfeiting the main event of the tournament. What a pity… but the program must continue, and so, Cirno the ice fairy is automatically declared the winner."

Aya had a mixed feeling in her heart about Byakuren's decision. On one hand she was a bit sad that she is giving up her chance to win the tournament, but on the other hand, she was impressed by her kind gesture. For several seconds the entire crowd was quiet until somebody called: "Byakuren-sama is so cool~!"

"Wait… was that Midori's voice just now?" Soudai murmured to himself.

That simple cheer has triggered a chain reaction in the crowd and everyone began to call: "Byakuren! Byakuren! Byakuren!"

Cirno wasn't exactly sure about her feelings either and she couldn't find the right words to convey them. Byakuren was already leaving the stage with the sound of the crowd calling her name and the ice fairy was just standing there and staring at her with confusion.

"Please leave the stage, Cirno-san. You've been declared the winner of this round and will be called for your next battle. But now, let me look into the tournament chart… Oh yes, coming up next we have a match between Kamishirasawa Keine and Remilia Scarlet."

Cirno had no choice but to obey and clear the stage for the following duel.

---

Remilia ascended above the crowd, made one acrobatic loop in the air and landed on the stage in the next moment, striking a theatrical pose. Even though she didn't win in the previous disciplines, she was doing really well in the tournament. Now, her opponent was the half-youkai teacher from the Human Village who chose a rather unusual way to enter the stage. She simply walked and used the stairs like a normal human.

Kyouichi did recall that she allegedly turned into her hakutaku form on the night of the full moon, but tonight there was only a narrow C-shaped crescent of the Moon visible in the dark night sky. It appeared that even Remilia was aware of this as she made a taunting remark at her.

"What a pity that you can't even fight me with your full power." she finished the sentence with a soft giggle. "Don't worry, I won't give you much trouble. I'll finish you off quickly, okay?"

Keine ignored her remark completely and simply looked at Aya, waiting for her to fire the signal danmaku. She had no respect for anyone behaving impolitely.

On the other hand, the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion had no respect for anyone but herself. She smirked at the were-hakutaku as she crackled her knuckles. She was one of the few contestants in this tournament who also resorted to physical attacks in combination with danmaku.

A brief moment of silence dramatized the mood before the crow tengu lifted her hand and sent a clear signal into the sky.

"Aaaaand GO~!"

The vampire flapped her bat-like wings just once to jet into the air and start her offensive by spawning an impressively dense volley of large red bubble-like danmaku, combined with waves of smaller blue energy spheres.

Keine saw the gaps and openings in this pattern and gracefully swam through the air as she dodged Remilia's attack.

The teacher countered with a pattern of her own. She summoned several spirit-like familiars around her body and began weaving a pattern that had the same color scheme as that of her opponent. However, Keine's was not as theatrical; it had its elegant symmetry. Unlike the situations with two clashing Spell Cards, these patterns were not destroying each other's danmaku. The magic projectiles simply passed through each other and continued in their intended trajectories. However, Keine was in a disadvantage here, since her danmaku-spawning familiars were being destroyed by Remilia's repeated barrages. This rendered Keine's initial attack much less effective, but on the other hand, it provided her some partial protection. Seeing as neither the vampire, nor the were-hakutaku were getting hit for a longer period of time, the duelists figured that the time was ripe to change their tactics.

First to take the initiative this time was Keine. She boldly flew towards Remilia while she was still using her initial attack. She got as close as possible, and following Suika's example from previous match, she activated her first Spell Card of the duel.

"Land Sign "Three Sacred Treasures – Orb"!"

Keine's card has summoned a snake-like formation of white familiars that headed backwards at first, but made a sharp spiral turn, changing their heading forward. As the "snake" continued its path, the formation broke, leaving larger gaps between individual familiars as they continued making their turn. These familiars were apparently not aimed at Remilia. However, each of them was leaving a dense trail of oval red danmaku combined by the well known large red magical bubbles. And since Keine was floating close to Remilia's position, the vampire was caught in the very first wave before she even noticed it.

"Ack~! Hey~!" she called out in a childish voice. "How dare you?!"

"One point for Kamishirasawa-san~!" Aya marked into her scoring chart. "It would seem as though Scarlet-san didn't even notice her through her own danmaku barrage. It happens sometimes… But this match is still far from o… oh…" Aya left her statement unfinished.

"Kyaaah~!" another scream of Remilia was heard from the mass of dancing lights in the sky. "Cut it out already~!"

"A second hit for Keine-san? And by the same Spell Card?" the tengu's voice had an amused tone as she said it. "And to think that I considered Remilia as one of the top candidates for the Single Duels champion…"

"And you got wiped out in the first round, Aya." Reimu impertinently reminded her.

"In any case…" the journalist continued, as she feigned ignorance to Reimu's remark, "Remilia still has a chance to turn the tables, so let's keep watching the duel."

Finally, the young vampire realized that she shouldn't stay so close to her opponent, but her back was already close to the edge of the dueling area. The only way was to go forward, and to cut her way through the danmaku, she needed to use a card.

"Divine Spear "Spear the Gungnir"!"

Her card turned into a long shaft of red light in Remilia's hand almost instantaneously. The upper tip of this shaft was shaped like a spearhead. The spectators had only a brief moment to observe Remilia's magic weapon, because she didn't wait too long to fling it at Keine with all her might.

"Take that, pitiful half-beast~!"

A blinding flash comparable to Okuu's danmaku has bathed the whole area of the Hakurei Shrine in bright red light. In a blink of an eye, Keine was brutally knocked down and away from Remilia, hitting the stage with a loud thud. Some of the human spectators gasped in shock, worried about Keine's life.

"Ayayaya~! A spell break!" the tengu roughly described what everyone just witnessed. "Remilia-san has used one of her strong Spell Cards and successfully broke Keine-san's spell."

And just as the half-youkai has hit the ground, Remilia was already focusing her power to send out a large bat-shaped danmaku, showing Keine no mercy.

Some people seriously thought that the history teacher form Human Village was already knocked out or worse, but now she was already getting up, ready to soar back into the air.

However, Remilia's bat-shaped shot was a guided one and it approached Keine at dangerous speed. Trying her best to outmaneuver the shot, Keine attempted to fly directly upwards, but due to the stunning impact from her recent fall, her speed was not as fast as she'd like.

"This doesn't look good." she thought to herself as she watched the glowing red bat changing its heading and threatening to collide with her. And she was right…

"Yaaah~!" she cried out desperately as the bat "bit" her arm. But the projectile wouldn't disappear just yet. It kept itself attached to Keine's arm for almost three seconds before it fizzled out. It was obvious to everyone that the were-hakutaku was hit the second time.

"Nice combo from Remilia-san!" Aya acknowledged. "The game is tied, folks! The power of a vampire is definitely not to be trifled with. Remilia-san sure dramatized this duel."

"And one more to finish this…"

After seeing the success of her homing shot, Remilia Scarlet repeated the attack and conjured up another bat-like danmaku bolt with homing capabilities. Now, assuming a completely relaxed and carefree pose while hovering in midair, Remilia watched as her single projectile glided through the air on its way to eliminating her opponent. However, Keine had pretty much recovered from her fall and her altitude was just high enough to attempt an effective evasion maneuver.

Even when Remilia's danmaku bats were homing shots, they could be relatively easily avoided. All it took was decent speed and good timing. With that knowledge on her mind, the were-hakutaku teacher suddenly descended by a few meters, just when the shot was about to hit her. Diving forward, Keine deftly made it safely past Remilia's bat. Even when it was still locked on her, the bullet could not make a sudden sharp turn and continued in its flight before it disappeared harmlessly. The teacher hurried forward before Remilia realized that her shot had missed its mark.

Even the overconfident lady of the Scarlet Devil Mansion had an expression of shock on her face when she saw Keine darting through the air straight at her.

"Come at me, if you dare!" she called at her, secretly reaching for her second Spell Card.

Keine's goal was to rush in forward and again corner her opponent with a spell or at least make Remilia activate her card prematurely. Just ten meters were now separating the space between them and Keine didn't seem like she was about to slow down. Then it happened…

"I got you now! Scarlet Devil "Scarlet Devil"!" Remilia shouted as she suddenly raised her hand with the card.

"Why is she repeating herself?" Reimu poked fun at the name of the vampire's card.

An explosion of red light covered a wide area around Remilia's body. But this sudden eruption of magical energy was spreading mostly along vertical, rather than horizontal axis. The resulting effect was a gigantic pillar of energy.

"My, my…" Aya shook her head incredulously. "Another "ace" class card from Remilia-san. But it looks like Keine-san has stopped just in time to avoid it. If this tournament wasn't limited by the amount of hits taken, this single spell could be enough to end the match if it would hit its target."

The pillar of red light touched the sky and shined brightly like a continuous lightning. It could without a doubt be seen from even the most remote corners of Gensokyo.

"Nice spell…" muttered Reimu. "…for signaling purposes."

Of course, just as the vampire didn't consider anyone superior to herself, Reimu had the same amount of disregard for her opponents.

And while Reimu was contemplating about the moves and cards that she planned to use in her duel against Marisa, the battle between Keine and Remilia continued.

Calmly hovering less than a meter away from the "Scarlet Devil", Keine summoned a fleet of stationary danmaku orbs of sizes ranging from few centimeters to two meter-large bubble spheres with semi-transparent body. It appeared she had to focus on keeping the formation of this danmaku cluster in one place. All this time she had to keep her eyes away from the dazzling light of Remilia's spell. As soon as she noticed the light gradually getting dimmer, she dared to turn her face at the source of the spell, waiting for the right moment when it would fade away completely.

Aya kept the battle lively with her commentary: "Despite its tremendous power, Remilia-san's Scarlet Devil is not a very long-lasting card. I'd put it in the same category as Marisa-san's Master Spark. Except this one shoots its power vertically."

Suddenly, the quiet Satori who didn't say nearly anything during the whole tournament spoke: "And now it's over…"

"Huh? It is?" Aya didn't readily understand what was this young youkai referring to, but the truth of her words soon became apparent.

Remilia's card ran out of its power and the young vampire was met with a sight that took her by surprise. More than a hundred of Keine's projectiles were forming a nearly impenetrable wall just a few meters away from her. This was the moment the half-youkai was waiting for. Stretching her harms forward, she set the whole wall of danmaku into motion. Remilia had very little time to react. What's more, she couldn't decide whether she should attempt to dodge the bullets or draw out her final Spell Card. And that split second of hesitation… has cost her the victory in this match.

"Awawaaa~!" she shouted desperately while trying to avoid the dense cluster. And she wasn't doing half bad. "And left, and up, and left, and right…" she waved through the orbs of light, as if driven solely by instinct. But she was in a state of panic, knowing that just one hit could cost her victory in this duel.

"Ending Sign "Phantasmal Emperor"!" Keine pulled out a card and called out its name.

"U-oh…" Remilia figured the situation was serious. With the dense bullet pattern that she was dodging, danmaku from Keine's Spell Card would surely finish her off. She quickly reached for her last Spell Card in order to save herself…

That's when spreading rings of blue arrowhead shots and beam-like bolts have filled the gaps between Keine's earlier attack and left Remilia no chance to dodge. Too late to draw out her last card, the vampire from the Scarlet Devil Mansion let out a pained cry as the wave of danmaku landed on various parts of her body.

"Fuaaaa~! No~! Curses~! How could I lose to a mere half-youkai?!" she flew back and forth erratically while throwing a tantrum. "If this was a real battle, you'd be that what you teach – history! Do you hear me?! HISTORY~!"

Unfazed by her beaten opponent's incensed mood, Keine smiled and bowed to her. "It seems you were right, young lady. You didn't give me much trouble."

This only helped to fuel Remilia's flames of anger.

"This one ended rather quickly, folks!" Aya spoke up after the duel was over. "In fact, this was the second shortest duel in the Single Duels category so far. But this one had another surprising outcome. Rest assured that we are not arranging these matches to end in an unexpected or interesting way, ladies and gentlemen. Everything you see is authentic. Another strong candidate gets crossed out of the tournament chart. Who will win this category? Not even Satori-san, sitting by my side can tell. But we will see…"

While the crow tengu was getting carried away by her own rhetoric, Reimu grabbed her gohei and stood up.

---

"And now, ladies and gentlemen, let us call forth two of the greatest candidates for the title of single champion~! Even though I think they need no introduction, it's my pleasure to remind you anyway~! Two specialists in youkai extermination and old friends, now standing against each other in this contest. Both are excellent danmaku duelists, responsible for resolution of countless greater and minor incidents in the recent years of Gensokyo's history. Ladies and gentlemen… I present you a match between Kirisame Marisa~!" she paused herself and let the wild cheers of audience echo for a while as Marisa glided over to the stage on her trusty bamboo straw broom. "And Hakurei Reimu~!"

Another wave of cheers accompanied the shrine maiden as she flew towards the center of the stage.

"This almost reminds me of that time when we first visited Eientei." said Marisa as Reimu ascended up to her level.

The shrine maiden wasn't very talkative and her reaction to Marisa's nostalgic remark was just a blank, silent stare.

"Oi… You sure you're feeling alright?" the witch's concern for her friend was only increased by Reimu's aloof attitude.

"I'm fine." spoke the miko and slowly drew her gohei-wielding hand forward, pointing the tip of her wand at Marisa's face. "I just don't particularly enjoy defeating humans."

"Ha~! Well, in that case, I shall make it so that you won't be defeating any more humans tonight."

"Sorry, Marisa, but you'll be viewing the remainder of this discipline from the ground."

"Yup… Just like during that night with fake Moon." Marisa nodded to herself with a grin on her face. "This time you don't have any gap youkai to back you up, though. Better give it your best, ze."

Just when Reimu opened her mouth to retort, the light-blue flash of Aya's signal shot flared the sky up. Instead of verbal taunts, blessed amulets and star-shaped danmaku were flying through the air.

"What an intense start of the match~!" Aya excitedly pointed at the dueling girls. "And it seems they both know how to deal with each other's patterns. Oooh… that was a close call for Marisa~!"

A couple of Reimu's amulets have managed to knock Marisa's hat off her head, but since the hat is not a part of the body, Reimu didn't score any points.

"Hey! Watch where you're shootin'~!" Marisa called out at the shrine maiden. "I already lost one hat to Patchy's Royal Flare the other day…"

Planning to take the advantage of the situation, Reimu swung her gohei in the pattern of the "infinity" sign and a flurry of homing amulets burst out from both loops of the horizontal 8.

It appeared Reimu was taking this contest seriously and the fact that she resorted to homing shots so early only showed that she wasn't joking around. However, Marisa was more concerned about her hat than Reimu's incoming salvo. The shrine maiden's amulets have made a light turn in their flight and focused on the witch, but Marisa lowered the front of her broom and kicked it to full speed. It looked as though as she was about to crash right into the stage, but just before it happened, she pulled the broom's nose upwards, while catching her falling hat with the other hand.

"O-ho! What an acrobatic maneuver~!" Aya applauded Marisa's performance. "It seems her sudden dive has even got her out of danger from Reimu's homing amulets~!"

Quickly putting her hat back on, Marisa jetted upwards to evade another dangerous barrage from her good old friend. Without pulling out any cards, Marisa magically created a small group of white, round familiars that began orbiting around her and leaving trails of star-shaped danmaku of various colors in their wake.

Soon there were magic stars floating around everywhere and Reimu had to switch her focus from offense to dodging. Evading the outermost rings of the pattern was no challenge for the Hakurei miko and she even made dodging the second wave look easy. But Marisa suddenly pointed her index finger upwards and a bright blue light began to shine a few centimeters above it. While the shrine maiden was dealing with another dense formation of Marisa's stars, the witch used this moment to her advantage and pointed the stretched out index finger at Reimu.

A dazzling beam of energy caught her in a very bad moment when she was surrounded by danmaku from all directions.

"Guh~!" Reimu got knocked back by several paces before she regained her aerial stability.

"Marisa-san scores the first point of this match~! echoed Aya's voice from below. "And Reimu retaliates swiftly and aggressively~!"

Marisa was well aware that as soon as Reimu would get hit, she'd disregard all danmaku and focuses all her thoughts into making a counterstrike. And that was just the case. Reimu threw several large yin-yang orbs and a high amount of ofuda in the approximate direction of Marisa. While not being aimed at any particular target, her attack covered a large area and it was the ordinary magician again who had to evade. Before even the first yin-yang orb made it to Marisa, the witch noticed a peculiar amulet being held by Reimu, ready to be thrown.

"Wait a sec… That's no amulet! Oh crap!"

"Migrating Spirit "Fantasy Seal –Dark-"!"

She quickly figured that Reimu was holding a Spell Card and planned to use Marisa's own tactic against her, by combining the danmaku of her normal attack and a Spell Card. Immediately pulling her mini-Hakkero out of her hat and pointing it at Reimu, Marisa hoped to activate her own spell in order to save herself from the tide of incoming amulets.

"Love Sign "Master Spark"~!" she yelled out while holding her miniature furnace with both hands.

Reimu's card appeared to be relying on a combination of regular ring-shaped bursts of large white danmaku orbs and repeated flurries of color-changing and target-seeking ofuda amulets.

Marisa's spell, on the other hand, was much simpler. While a lot of the contestants in the tournament have seen this spell on many occasions, the group of outsiders has witnessed it for the first time. And it was a very memorable spell. From the center of Marisa's Hakkero, a giant beam of light shot out in a straightforward fashion. Accompanied by the distinctive humming sound and strong wind produced by the powerful resonance, the Master Spark was cutting through everything in its way. Yin-yang orbs, amulets and Reimu… All of them were caught, and all of them got a taste of its force.

"Marisa-san is in the lead~!" Aya shouted loudly so that she could be heard through the noise. "Reimu-san is getting hit almost too easily, but her opponent is no rookie. Will the popular shrine maiden be able to succeed this time? We'll see after Marisa's Master Spark fades away… By the way, this human magician is not the originator of this spell, but I digress again…"

---

"Whoa…" Kyouichi opened his mouth in awe as he watched Master Spark in action. "That looks brutal. Will Reimu be alright?"

"Ahaha." Aya chuckled softly and nodded. "Even if this looks very powerful, the Spell Card Rules make danmaku non-lethal. Reimu's going to be fine, but not even I would want to bask in the light of Master Spark."

"And… what did you mean that Marisa is not the originator?"

"Exactly what I said." replied the tengu. "She did not invent that technique."

"Who did then?"

While smiling, Aya opened her danmaku snapshot portfolio and silently tapped her finger over the picture of Yuuka Kazami.

Kyouichi put on a surprised face. "Yuuka-san? I thought she was a nature youkai, but… Come to think of it, she did mention something about learning magic too."

"Her spark is even more impressive than Marisa's. Now please excuse me, I need to comment this duel…"

---

In the meantime, Marisa's Master Spark began to weaken and Reimu finally became visible.

"Looks like this isn't a Spell Break, ladies and gentlemen~! I can still see Reimu's danmaku pattern of her Spell Card."

It was amazing that Reimu was still flying and her spell was still spawning more danmaku. But she was hit regardless, and Marisa was now winning by two points.

"Ayaya, but what is this? Even though Marisa has managed to score a hit, her Spell Card lasts much shorter than Reimu's. And it seems that the witch is again getting overwhelmed by the homing amulets~!"

"Hey, Reimu you were supposed to fall after tha… Oh carp~!" the blonde witch squeezed herself between the white orbs, only to be showered by the target-seeking amulets.

"Wasn't it just as I said?" Aya asked the crowd of shrine visitors. "Finally, Reimu scores her first point! I can feel that this match is going to be dramatic yet~!"

"Tche!" Marisa apparently didn't agree with Aya's commentary and was already preparing to use her second card.

"Magic Sign "Milky Way"!"

Just as Marisa declared her card and dozens of large colorful stars erupted from it in a spiral-shaped pattern, Reimu snapped out of her spell trance.

"Ayaya~! Reimu is ending her spell prematurely in order to dodge~! But is this really the wisest move?"

Just as the tengu said, Reimu's amulets and orbs were suddenly gone in a flash and she prepared herself to deal with Marisa's danmaku.

Gliding with grace through the gaps between the beautiful stars, Reimu looked as though as she wanted to wait until Marisa's spell runs out. The pattern didn't even look as difficult as one of Marisa's normal attacks. Everyone was confident in Reimu's abilities to evade everything until the end. Then something unexpected happened…

"Ayayaya~!" the tengu reporter exclaimed in surprise. "I really didn't expect something like that from Reimu! And it looked like an easy pattern too…"

The spectators and even Marisa herself were taking their time to process what just happened.

"After one minute and forty-seven seconds, the duel between Marisa Kirisame and Reimu Hakurei ends~! Marisa-san has defeated Reimu 3 to 1. It seems as though today is not Reimu's day. Despite her victory in the Double-Duels category with Youmu-san as her teammate, she got eliminated in the first round of the Single Duels. Will Marisa become the champion? We'll see that later~! The tournament goes on, even when the crowd's favorite loses!" Aya's words gave away her surprise at Reimu's relatively easy defeat.

---

Not long after the duel ended, the defeated shrine maiden descended to the ground, and with her head lowered, she walked slowly back to her favorite sitting place on the shrine's veranda.

"Reimu?" the tengu tentatively addressed her, but she didn't respond.

She dropped on the shrine's elevated floor, as if all her strength was drained from her body. Only Satori could see that the thing troubling Reimu's mind was not the result of the previous match.

"What happened, Reimu?" Aya asked again, hoping to hear an explanation for Reimu's last mistake in the duel.

"What does it look like?" she responded agitatedly. "I lost."

"Did you intentionally give Marisa a chance?"

Just as Aya asked her about Marisa, the mentioned person decided to relocate her spectating position to the shrine's porch as well.

"Oi~! Mind if I join 'ya here?" she asked and took a seat next to Reimu without even waiting for a reply to her question. "Hey~! Kourin~! Didn't even know you were here, ze~!"

Almost at the same time when Marisa sat down, Reimu straightened up again, turned around, and without a word walked into the privacy of her shrine.

"Huh?" Marisa curiously watched her leave. "Is she mad at me for defeating her?"

She was curious and wanted to follow her friend inside, but Satori suddenly grabbed her by the hand.

"Hm? What is it, Satori?"

"Reimu-san would rather be by herself for a while…"

Satori's strange answer only managed to make Marisa's expression look even more curious. "So is she not…?"

"Not at all." the mind reader cut her off, answering Marisa's question whether Reimu was angry about losing to her.

"Eh? Then wh…?"

"She will be alright. Just give her a few minutes. You'll see…"

"Jeez! If you can read her mind, why can't you just tell me? I'm one of her best friends. I deserve to know!"

Satori just silently stated into the witch's golden eyes, slowly letting go of her hand.

"Fine." Marisa nodded. "I won't disturb her now, but if she stays there longer than fifteen minutes, I'm taking a look."

Even though Marisa's temptation to peek inside the shrine was even greater than to steal a book from Patchouli's library, she managed to tame it. Instead, she occupied her eyes and thoughts by the next battle that was about to take place.

Aya was already summoning the duelists: "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to call forth the next two contestants to show us their skills in a duel~! This time it will be a match between a youkai who can easily trick your mind and a youkai who can read it! And what's more, both girls' names are also the names of their youkai species~! A big applause for Houjuu Nue and Komeiji Satori~!"

"Uhh… good luck, Satori-san." Kyouichi wished her luck as the purple-haired girl was standing up.

---

The battle was interesting indeed and lasted almost 3 minutes. Nue didn't rely on her shape-shifting ability, but purely on her danmaku potential. Satori managed to successfully avoid most of her attacks due to her mind-reading third eye, but not even that made her invulnerable.

Aya explained that while the nue aren't particularly strong in close combat, they have many powerful and often nasty spells at their disposal. Satori race was very similar in this aspect, relying on the power of their mind and spirit, rather than their body. But since this was a danmaku battle and not a martial-arts tournament, both girls have shown everyone that their respective youkai races command respect. Fascinating, intricate, complex, confusing, dazzling, harmonic, chaotic, beautiful and awe-inspiring… Such was the danmaku presented by both opponents from their normal and Spell Card attacks. The main factor that determined the result of this showdown was, according to Aya, experience. As the older and seemingly more powerful youkai, Nue Houjuu has snatched the victory away from her younger mind-reading opponent.

---

The battles went on and with each victorious girl, there was one girl getting eliminated. Eirin won against Patchouli, Kogasa surprisingly outmatched Minamitsu, Yuyuko has swept Meiling away, Shou defeated Reisen, Ichirin and Unzan have eliminated Rumia…

As the discipline was nearing the finale, only several contestants who have proven their worth in the previous matches have remained. Cirno, who was given a chance by Byakuren in the first round, has actually won her second-round duel against Kogasa. Ironically enough, it was her ex-teammate from the Double Duels discipline who was her third and last opponent. The Lunarian showed little mercy to the ice fairy, but even her little victory spree was stopped by Utsuho's magnificent power. The only remaining oni of the contest, Yuugi Hoshiguma, has been slightly more successful, blasting her way through three more opponents after her match with Suika, but her brute strength came short when she faced the time-manipulating maid, Sakuya Izayoi. Yuyuko was doing well during her first two battles, but perhaps due to her carefree attitude, she received three hits from her third opponent, Alice Margatroid. Shou Toramaru, the tiger youkai and a disciple of the god Bishamonten has blasted through her opponents all the way to the quarterfinal with her wicked curved beam danmaku, only to find her match in Yuyuko's faithful protector, gardener and servant, Youmu Konpaku. The half-ghost was one of Kyouichi's favorite contestants. Prior to defeating Shou, Youmu pleased the crowds with her amazing deflecting skill, speed and concentration in a heated duel with Sakuya. The maid used her power to stop time and glided over behind Youmu's back, but almost immediately after the spectators saw her reappearing behind the half-ghost out of thin air, Youmu was already holding her Roukanken close by her waist and pointing its tip backwards. It appeared as though as Sakuya teleported straight into Youmu's sword. With a light injury, Remilia's faithful maid left the ranks of tournament contestants.

Then came the semifinal and Youmu was again pitted against her feared opponent from the Double Duels category – Utsuho Reiuji. This time, however, it was the hell raven who celebrated her victory. From the second pair of the semifinal, the devious nue called Nue has shown Marisa Kirisame who is the boss, and convincingly defeated all of her Spell Cards with just her ordinary danmaku.

So it was Nue and Okuu who were to everyone's amusement and surprise fighting for the title of the Single Duels champion.

---

From the beginning of the final battle, Okuu has shown that she's got the upper hand when it comes to raw power. Nue was no pushover either. As Aya explained, both of these youkai girls had enormous endurance and vitality. If there were no restrictions in this tournament, both girls could literally bathe in each other's danmaku for extended periods of time before sustaining any serious injuries. However, the rules have forced them both to be careful and to always try to dodge their enemy's attacks. The battle was intense and many times the spectators were forced to simply look away and shield their eyes from the blinding light of Utsuho's danmaku display. Nue's mysterious attacks, on the other hand, were attracting a lot of attention and the shutter of Aya's camera was clicked many times during this fight.

Sometimes she used irregular black mist-like projectiles that constantly changed their shape, other times she used blue magical arrows to rain down on the opposing hell raven and she even summoned large objects that resembled flying saucers to fire beams all over the dueling area.

During one particularly intense attack of Satori's pet, people had a hard time seeing the two dueling girls with all the magical projectiles in the air. By this time both Okuu and Nue have each received two hits and both girls were just one hit away from the title of champion. Okuu wasn't using a Spell Card, but Nue had obvious difficulties with reading the trajectories of the individual projectiles. For the first time in this tournament, Nue decided to use her most distinguishing ability. She made herself look like one of the many miniature nuclear reactions, while she made one of those reactions appear as her. Even Okuu's overview of the situation was limited due to her own danmaku, but once she caught the glimpse of Nue, she charged up her control rod and unleashed another barrage of destruction. Her real target, however, was secretly closing in on her. No longer under direct fire from Utsuho's weapon, Nue could calmly focus on evading smaller clusters of miniature suns as she was nearing her danmaku rival.

"And that's a hi…" Aya was about to raise the green flag and stop the match, but when she saw that Nue's fake image disappeared as soon as Okuu's barrage made contact with it, she left her sentence unfinished. "Uhh… where did Nue-san go?"

Even Utsuho asked herself the same question when she could no longer find any signs of her in front of her. She quickly started looking everywhere around and blasting her danmaku at random.

"You can't hide from me~! Ahahahahaha~!"

One of the random blasts missed the nue by mere centimeters, but she didn't panic and continued to move undetected until she was right behind the frenzied hell raven.

Deactivating her image of one of Okuu's danmaku shots, Nue reappeared a few meters behind her. In the same instant, however, Okuu turned around with her weapon primed. She saw Nue smiling and pointing the tips of her trident at her face.

"Hello." the nue waved her hand, as if she was greeting an old friend and conjured three bolts of magic right in her face. Okuu also fired her weapon almost in sync with her enemy, but she was already too late to avoid Nue's triple shot. The shape-shifter was struck by full force of Utsuho's weapon from point-blank range and her stunned body dropped down onto the stage from the height of almost 30 meters. But before she hit the ground, she could see the judges of the tournament raising their green flags, as if in slow motion.

"And the Single Duels discipline…." Aya called out as she raised her own green flag over her head, but the loud crashing sound interrupted her again.

Several chunks of broken planks were scattered into the air as the falling Nue made a hole into the wooden floor of the stage.

"..is over…" the tengu finished her announcement after making a pained grimace from Nue's terrible crash.

Even though this would normally be a moment for great applause and cheering, everyone in the shrine yard became silent.

"Unyu? Did I overdo it again?" Okuu asked herself as she gazed down at the hole in the stage.

Forgetting to even tell who actually won this duel, Aya stared at the place where Nue crashed with her mouth ajar. After nearly ten seconds, someone finally broke the dead silence. It was Eirin who was hurriedly flying towards the stage with a large leather bag in her hand, followed by her trainee, Reisen.

As soon as they landed near the hole in the stage, something red and pointy peered out from the hole. It was Nue's right wing, as was revealed in the next second, when Nue's upper body surfaced right after it.

"I… I'm okay~!" she called at everyone present and waved her hand at the judges seated at the shrine.

"We're glad that you are…" Reisen exhaled with relief.

"Ladies and gentlemen~!" Aya returned back to her normal self once she saw that Nue was not seriously hurt. "The winner of Single Duels discipline…" she gestured forward…

Utsuho, who was already descending to the stage raised both her arms as a sign of victory.

"…and the winner of the tournament's main event… Nueeeeeeee Houjuuuuuu~!"

"Eh?" Nue used one of the tail-like appendages of her left wing to scratch her own head.

"U… Unyuuuu?!" Utsuho was no less surprised by the judge's verdict.

Finally, the crowds woke up and began one of the loudest ovations of the evening.

"Even when it looked like they both got hit at the same time, it was fairly obvious that it was Nue-san's shots that made contact with Utsuho-san. Congratulations, champion Nue~!"

---

For Okuu it was quite a blow to hear it. For the second time she managed to make it all the way to finale and she was so close to winning, but it still wasn't enough. She looked even more depressed than Reimu when she lost to Marisa. Looking away from the judges seated at the shrine, tears slowly began rolling down her cheeks. She managed to hide it well from everyone except the person who cared for her the most – Satori.

"Okuu~!" she called her pet, but the hell raven refused to turn around.

She repeated her call, but her pet paid her no heed. "Excuse me for a second." she apologized to the other judges and floated towards the stage to comfort Okuu's depressed heart.

"What a wonderful series of battles this has been." Aya continued in the meantime. "And what a wonderful collection of pictures I've just made. With this match, the "hostile" part of this tournament has come to an end. There's but one more discipline left – the Visual Contest. In the meantime, let's take a short break."

Not long after that, Satori was already returning back to the stage, holding Okuu by the hand. It seemed that she managed to comfort her and Okuu showed only little signs of disappointment.

"You are always so nice, Satori-sama~! I just wanted to make you proud of me, so I wanted to win at least once."

"But you already won more than once. Don't blame yourself, Okuu. I'm more proud of you than you think. Now… why don't you sit here with us?" Satori gestured at the shrine's veranda where a group of people and youkai were sitting.

Incidentally, the place where Satori pointed at happened to be close to where the outsider, Kyouichi was seated.

"Okay~!" Okuu cheerfully obeyed her mistress and sat down.

Realizing who was just sitting next to him, Kyouichi nervously swallowed and immediately shifted a few meters away from the powerful youkai.

"Hm? What's with that human?" she wondered why he would back away from her, as if he was afraid of something.

"Who would have guessed it would be Nue to defeat me and win this discipline, ze…" Marisa was just talking to Rinnosuke.

"I'm surprised myself." he admitted as he glanced over at Nue who just crawled out of the hole that she made and was now waving at the cheering crowd. "But what's going to be done about that hole in the stage?"

"Oh… Yeah, you're right." Marisa nodded. "Oi~! Nue~! You sure wrecked that stage!" she called out at the black-haired shape-shifter.

Only then did Nue realize that something should be done about the damaged stage and after taking a moment to think, she triumphantly raised her finger and smiled. She began making some intricate movements with her hand and conjured up a single spark of white light. This spark slowly circled around the hole and drew closer toward its center. Then after an effect that resembled a smokescreen, the stage was good as new again.

Satisfied with her good work, Nue widened her smile and bowed to everyone.

"Oi, oi…" Marisa disapprovingly shook her head just as Aya did.

"What's wrong?" Kyouichi wondered as he shifted his eyes from Marisa to Aya and back. "She fixed it, didn't she?"

"Uhh… no, she didn't." said the blonde magician.

"Nue's ability isn't actually shape-shifting, as you might think." Aya began to explain. "She is merely able to hide the true form of things with her "Seeds of Unknown Form", which you just saw now. So in reality, she can't change her form, but simply mask it as something else."

"In other words, there's still a huge gaping hole in the stage, but everyone sees it as if the stage was fixed." Marisa completed the information. "Reimu's not going to like this…"

…

"Oh my~!" she suddenly straightened up. "I just realized… Reimu still hasn't come out of the shrine, has she?"

With all those interesting battles going on, she forgot that her friend was still inside her shrine. And the fact that she hasn't come out after more than half an hour has certainly raised her alarm.

"Hey, everyone, I'm going to check on her. Who's with me?"

Aya, Akyuu, Satori, Rinnosuke and Kyouichi decided to go with her, as they were all concerned about Reimu. With all of them standing at the back sliding door of the shrine, Marisa tentatively slid the door open and peered inside.

"I want to see too." Aya put her chin on top of Marisa's head to take a peek.

It was dark inside. None of Reimu's oil lamps were lit and the shrine maiden was nowhere to be seen in the main room.

"Pssst… Reimu?" Marisa whispered into the room, but heard no reply. "Where could she go?"

"Let's go inside and find her." Aya suggested. "I'm getting a little worried."

Everyone took their shoes, sandals and geta off and entered the Hakurei Shrine.

"Reimu?" Marisa called for her again, this time not hushing her voice.

"Maybe she's in the bathroom." said Akyuu.

"Then I'll go and take a look." Marisa volunteered to go to look for Reimu there, while leaving the rest of the shrine to others.

"Hmm…" Aya looked around one of the folding screens standing in the corner of the room. "Doesn't look like she's here…" then she proceeded to opening the wardrobes to make sure the miko wasn't hiding in one of them.

"Come on, don't just stand there~! Help me look for her!" she prompted Akyuu, Satori, Rinnosuke and Kyouichi to ease her search and help her. But the ones in question only exchanged their confused looks and left Aya continue her thorough search.

"She's not there either, ze…" Marisa came out of the bathroom and announced her negative result. "I wonder if there are any secret trap doors in this shrine…" she began to fantasize.

"Will you please quiet your loud minds for a second?" Satori asked with a slightly raised voice. "I'm trying to hear Reimu-san's thoughts, but you aren't making it easy."

"Oh…" Aya finally stopped checking every piece of Reimu's furniture. "Sorry, Satori-san."

Kyouichi who was just standing there idly, slowly shifted his gaze at the front sliding door.

"Oh… You think Reimu left the shrine through the main door?" Marisa asked, as if she was a mind-reader herself.

"Doesn't seem like there are any more options left. Unless you're right about those secret trap doors, Marisa…" the outsider shrugged and slowly approached the door. Marisa followed him closely. Slowly and carefully, they slid the front door open and peered through the narrow gap.

There, sitting on the veranda and facing the front yard, was the Hakurei shrine maiden. She appeared to be muttering something to herself.

Kyouichi and Marisa held their breaths so they'd be able to hear what she was saying.

"Do you hear her?" the outsider whispered to Marisa.

"Shhh~! I'm trying to listen…" she hushed him scoldingly.

When they focused their ears, they could faintly hear Reimu's voice.

"Why…? Where did I go wrong? Was it something I said? Done? Is this your game, or punishment?" her voice sounded a little hoarse, as is she was crying recently.

"What's she talking about?" Aya who joined the two humans in spying on the miko quietly muttered a question.

"How should I know?" Marisa whispered back.

"I prepared everything so well… Done so much work… Invited so many guests… But it still wasn't enough." Reimu continued to lament. "I even prayed… I even put my wish on the tree... All for you… The hanami… This festival… I'm… I'm sorry…"

"Reminiscing about her dead parents?" wondered the crow tengu as she eavesdropped.

"I know you can hear me… and I know you're watching… or aren't you? Look… even got so much donation money today… I should be filled with joy. But what is all the money good for? How can I be truly filled with joy… when you're not here? ...Yukari…"

What she said has left everyone who heard her words, or read her thoughts, completely speechless. Finally they heard why Reimu behaved so strangely aloof today.

"…Yukari?" Marisa repeated with a puzzled expression. "So this was all because Reimu misses her? I… I'm such a fool… I should have figured that out in the first place." she began to blame herself.

"Reimu…" Aya felt sorry for her as well.

"While I admit that I never had a good feeling from that youkai," Rinnosuke spoke up, "I too would like her to show up again…"

"You knew about this the whole time, didn't you?" Marisa turned her face to Satori.

The youkai girl nodded with a sign of guilt in her facial expression. "Reimu-san has a strong heart, like you." she spoke to the witch. "But this thought has been troubling her for a longer time and now it seems she needed to let it out... She'll be fine, but perhaps she needs a little cheering up."

"So that's why she put up such a miserable fight against me…" Marisa began searching her thoughts in retrospect. "Now that makes me feel bad about going against her so harshly."

Just as she said that, the front sliding door of the shrine suddenly opened, and everyone's heart skipped a beat from the shock.

"Ayayaya~! Reimu~!"

"Huh? What are you all doing here?" Reimu raised her eyebrow at the group of people and youkai standing in her shrine.

"We were… ehh… looking for you." Marisa answered almost truthfully. She didn't want to reveal that she was eavesdropping on her.

Reimu stood there in the doorway, silently eyeing everyone in the room when her eyes rested at the youkai from the underground. "You told them… didn't you?"

"No. They found out…"

"So you saw me." the shrine maiden spoke without changing her calm voice or expression. She looked a little scary.

"Reimu-san… We're sorry to have spied on you." Aya was the first to apologize. "But we could all figure something was not right with you today…"

"I see… I was so obvious, wasn't I?"

"Reimu, we know how you feel." Marisa put her hand on Reimu's shoulder, prompting her to come in. "And we don't want you to feel sad. I'm sure Yukari will come back soon. And if she won't, then we'll find her."

Reimu finally stepped inside her shrine and closed the door, but she didn't even know what to say. Strange mixture of despair, anger and embarrassment was filling up her heart. The last thing that she wanted was everyone seeing her in a weak moment and everyone knowing how much she misses a certain youkai. Now that it wasn't a secret anymore, Reimu was beginning to feel as her negative emotions were slowly going away. Perhaps all she really needed to do to make herself feel better was to talk to someone about her feelings. But being proud and stubborn, she would simply stay quiet or conveniently change the topic to avoid giving any answers. Now that her feelings have forced their way out of her, she could feel strange relief.

"I… I'm sorry if I made you all worry about me." she apologized and a weak smile has settled on her lips.

Seeing her light smile, Aya couldn't hold back her own smile. "Everything is going to be alright… Come, Reimu." she beckoned. "The last category of the tournament is about to begin and it can't start without you."

"Yeah~! Let's throw a huge party after this tournament, ze! We'll be drinking, singing and dancing until morning!" Marisa was already planning ahead.

"Sure, I'm coming." the miko followed her friends out of the shrine, letting go of all bad thoughts.

Kyouichi who was just silently watching the whole situation felt a little awkward about poking his nose into Reimu's privacy, but at least it helped him to understand her behavior.

---

"Ah… It's that miko." Okuu, who was resting on the shrine's porch pointed at Reimu when she saw her stepping out of the shrine along with others.

"Okuu. It's not polite to point your finger at other people." Satori reminded her some basics of etiquette. "That also goes for pointing your control rod at them."

"Unyuu~."

"And you should finally learn her name, Okuu."

Even Reimu smirked at the endearing nature of this otherwise very dangerous youkai.

"Well, I guess it's about time to start the last discipline." said the crow tengu and finished the tea in her cup.

"Come to think of it… I'm also kind of thirsty." Kyouichi muttered to himself as he recalled that he bought a can of cola from Rinnosuke a while ago. But he couldn't find it anywhere around him. Then he looked a few meters to his right and saw it. When he was shifting away from the hell raven in fear, he forgot his can. What's worse, it now seemed that the strange-looking object from the outside world has caught Okuu's attention.

"Unyu? What could this weird thing be?" she grabbed the can and began observing it from all sides. "Do you know, Satori-sama?"

"Put that down. It doesn't belong to you." Satori asked her to leave it alone.

"But I want to know what it is~." she insisted and shook the can lightly.

"Noo~! What are you doing?!" Kyouichi called out at her, still keeping some safe distance. "Let it go! You'll make Nuka-Cola out of it!"

"Unyu? Is this thing yours?" she asked him with a curious look. "Will you tell me what it is?"

"Yes, it's mine and it's one of the rarest drinks in Gensokyo."

"Oh~! Okay~!" she flashed a smile and gestured to Kyouichi to come and take his rare drink back. But the outsider refused to take a step towards her.

That's when Satori centered her third eye at him. "You still fear Okuu… Because you think she emits radiation?"

She was spot on, as expected, and the outsider confirmed it with a shy nod.

"Ahahaha~!" Okuu began to laugh. "How silly. My ability is nuclear fusion; not nuclear fission. It is the nuclear fission that produces gamma radiation."

Kyouichi forgot how to speak for a while. Despite looking like she didn't know how to count to 10, Okuu just lectured him about nuclear physics.

"Hey. Don't you want your drink back?" the hell raven spoke again after seeing no reaction from the human. "Can I keep it then?"

Finally gathering some courage, Kyouichi walked closer to her and hastily took the can out of her hand.

"How do you even drink from this weird cup? It's got bottoms from both sides…"

"Like this…" he opened the can with a hiss and pop and took a little gulp, as if he was afraid that it would taste bad. "Hmm… I guess it's still safe."

After he got convinced that Okuu wasn't radioactive, the outsider had calmed down a little, but for some reason still took his seat a few meters away from her just to be sure.

Meanwhile, the final discipline of the Tanabata Danmaku Tournament was just about to start and Aya was already clearing her throat to announce it.

"Alright," said the crow tengu as she was standing up. "It's time to bring this show to its end."