Chapter 2: The Karakasa
The two youkai flew towards the mountain looming in the distance, exchanging meaningless banter between them. The frog in Rumia's pocket occasionally joined in by croaking.
However, before long, a floating object flew in-between the youkai and the mountain, right on their path. The object was a purple umbrella, closed.
"Rumia, what do you think this is?" Wriggle asked, tilting her head a little.
"I dunno." Rumia commented, as she approached slowly, and reached out to prod the object.
Just before her finger touched the umbrella, an eye opened on it, and a tongue rolled out of a mouth that opened upon it. Then; the umbrella sprang open, and a figure appeared.
"Boo!" the karakasa said, as a young girl who could only really be described as a 'Blue Moeblob' materialized.
Wriggle and Rumia looked shocked at the karakasa, which caused her to begin spinning around happily.
"Yay! I actually surprised someone! They're not humans but it's still great!" the karakasa chimed as she spun in glee, before she stopped, and looked in thought.
"Ya'know, I bet I can surprise you two more if I do this!" she says, before she started to spin her umbrella around, the prongs at the edges beginning to glow.
It takes a moment for Wriggle to notice what this means, before she calls out to her slower friend: "Dodge Rumia! It's laser danmaku!"
"OK~" Rumia replied in an almost casual fashion, as she flew to the side, just in time to evade an attack of blue, spinning lasers from the umbrella of the strange karakasa.
"You were surprised! You were!" the karakasa said happily, moving up and down in the air in a fashion as close to bouncing that a flying being could achieve, before she closed her umbrella, and the figure vanished.
"What's she up to now..." Wriggle wondered, before the umbrella began flying towards Rumia at a high speed. The darkness youkai evaded the tackle, and fired off a shotgun shot of danmaku, on point, striking the karakasa.
She veered off her straight line for a moment on impact, before she opened back up and looked annoyed. "Oh boo. That didn't seem to work..." she commented, before she pulled out a spellcard.
"Large Ring: Umbrella Halo!" the karakasa declared, the card shining in her hand, before it vanished. Upon this, she began to swing her umbrella around her body violently, unleashing a spiral of pink danmaku. It was neither thick, or that fast, but as it furthered from the karakasa, the bullets morphed into diamonds, of rainbow shades.
Even for Rumia and Wriggle, a spellcard of this level was not much of a challenge to evade, and it was only moments before they were confident enough to unleash their own counter-attacks.
"Moon Sign: Moonlight Ray!" Rumia declared, before she slowly brought her hands fowards, a laser emanating from each, while she fired rings of small white bullets , cancelling out much of the karakasa's own attack.
"Lamp Sign: Firefly Phenomenon" Wriggle declared, firing out a rather intricate spiral of danmaku, which slowly fanned out, while her familiars, small fireflies, fired targeted shots at the Karakasa. The two spells easily overwhelmed the karakasa's, and her spell ended.
"Aw… I pulled a weak one again." The karakasa said sadly, before looking at the two youkai. "I guess you're not surprised anymore?"
"Not really." Wriggle says. "It's not easy to get surprised by Danmaku. Not when Reimu's beaten you up before."
"Uh huh." Rumia agreed. "Nor when you hang out with Cirno and fairies!"
The karakasa looked dejected for a moment, before she brightened up. "You're not gonna beat me up are you?"
"Why would we do that?" Rumia asked the karakasa.
"Because people always beat me up. Every time I find Reimu she beats me up. And Sanae, and Marisa." The karakasa complained. "I only just got beat up by Marisa not long ago…"
"Don't they beat up everyone?" Wriggle commented.
"Well… uh… we're not them." Rumia replied.
The karakasa looked to be in thought, before she smiled.
"I like you guys! I can surprise you and I don't get beat up for it! I'm Kogasa! Kogasa Tatara! I'm a karakasa! I'm actually the umbrella, the blue person is just an illusion! Everyone seems to forget that." She chimed gleefully.
"I'm Rumia." Rumia said, before pulling out her frog. "And this is Dinner, and that's Wriggle, and those are… uh... Wriggle… what do you name those thingies?" Rumia says, getting confused halfway through.
"They don't have names. They're just fireflies." Wriggle said. "Now, we're looking for Marisa, where did she go after beating you up?"
Kogasa thought for a few moments. "That's the weird thing. I was following Marisa, to surprise her and everything. She had a book, and kept going on about 'Scarlet' or something. Then something dashed past her really fast. Marisa got mad, saw me, Sparked me, then went to Youkai Mountain."
"Did you see who it was?" Rumia asked.
"I'm pretty good at seeing fast things. I'm pretty fast myself!" Kogasa says proudly, before adding, "Problem was I don't know who it was. They were wearing a lot of purple."
"Purple?" Rumia asks. "Aya doesn't wear purple."
"I don't know anyone who wears purple..." Wriggle asks.
"Well, I guess Aya knows everyone in Gensokyo, so we can go there and ask her anyway!" Rumia says, before looking at Kogasa. "You gonna come with us?"
Kogasa shook her umbrella from side to side, before she shook the illusion's head. "No. I gotta get back to the Mouyren's Graveyard. That's my home. Besides, there's a couple of old ladies who usually come by in a couple of hours who are fun to scare. I can't miss that!"
With that, the Karakasa flew off, and the two youkai began heading for the Youkai Mountain again. However, as they approached, they realized they did not know where on the mountain they would be able to find Aya.
"Rumia... where do you think the crows will live?" Wriggle asks.
"The top! They're birds! Oh wait, maybe the trees... but they're at the bott..." Rumia began before the night sky lit up with the tell-tale beam of rainbow light that meant Marisa was fighting.
"... Spark." Wriggle and Rumia said in unison, looking at each other.
"Wait... we're going to go TOWARDS the Spark-happy witch?" Wriggle said in a panicked fashion.
"Well that's gotta be where Aya is, or whoever stole the book! We can go up there, and teach 'em both a lesson after they're worn out! Then Reimu will be happy and not beat us up!" Rumia said, forgetting, of course, Marisa's boundless energy. The hyperactive witch wasn't exactly one to tire.
"I get the feeling it won't be that easy Rumia, but you got a point, Marisa should be tied. We know she's fired at least two Sparks now, she shot Kogasa earlier." Wriggle says, assuming Marisa has some magical 'Spark Limit'. Because after all, who wouldn't get tied firing of lasers that big?