Two hours had passed, and right on the moment, the portal re-opened, red mists flowing out, and filling the air.
Mystia and Wriggle coughed a little. "The magic in this air is really strong..." Mystia says.
"Well, being poisioned by magical miasma is the least of our issues." Reimu said, as Byakuren and Sakuya returned, Sakuya leaning on Byakuren, being put on the ground, leaning on a building.
"Guess you lost." Reimu said flatly. "Never seen Sakuya in that state."
"Not now Reimu. You know what's coming." Byakuren said, as a great power was felt coming from the portal.
Shinki came out of the portal, this time, holding a large, ornate staff, a crystal topping it.
"Well, well, well. Yumeko told me that you don't want to come home Alice, and that these vermin do not wish you to either. They think they stand a chance against me." Shinki said.
"Yes." Alice said simply. "I don't want to go home. I have friends here. I like Gensokyo."
A few moments passed, before a great pressure filled the air. Everyone could physically feel Shinki's fury, as she looked at the group collected to oppose her.
"What have you done to brainwash my child?" she hissed
"Marisa probobly stole her preci..." Kogasa started saying, before Wriggle shut her up.
"I told you she wouldn't understand." Alice said.
"I told you we'd win ~ze." Marisa retorted.
"Well, it dosen't matter what they've done to you Alice, dear. I shall drag you back to Makai if I have to, then we can sort out this... brainwashing that must have happened, after these false friends are dead." Shinki declared, before she snapped her fingers, and more portals opened.
Out of the first, and largest portal, came a strange being. Five massive yellow and purple eyes, connected to a yellow mass of energy by thin tendrils of electricty came through.
The second was clearly a vampire of some sort, a star on her cheek, and a wand in her hand.
The third was an angelic-looking woman, with silver hair. She, like Shinki, held a crystal staff, and she had six angelic wings.
"Not these guys..." Reimu said.
"You know these clowns?" Marisa asked.
"Yes, I fought them before I even met you... I didn't know that dimension they were in was Makai though. It was before I even could control the Hakurei Orb, I beat them by literally slamming the orb directly into them, so the orb's powers directly flowed into them as an attack. Sariel in particular, the angel-like one, is tremendously powerful."
"Tremendously powerful? Sounds like my mind of fight." Yuugi said, as a fourth portal opened.
Yuuka grinned sadistically, Reimu shook her head, and Marisa looked in shock.
"M-M-mima-sama!" Marisa shouted, towards the Vengeful Spirit who had come through the last portal.
"How long has it been in Gensokyo years, Marisa?" Mima asked flatly.
"Ten." Marisa replied, tears welling in her eyes at seeing her master again.
"... Ten. Fine then." Mima said, looking at Shinki and the other three. "Let me take on Marisa. Alone." she demanded.
"Marisa is one of the most dangerous to us." Elis replied, "We should team up on her Mima."
"She's also my student! I refuse to let anyone else fight her, or interfere." Mima said to the vampire, causing her to sigh and relent.
"Who's that ghost?" Youmu asked.
"Mima. She's an Evil Spirit who used to haunt the Hakurei Shine, who wanted the power of the Hakurei Orbs. She was also the one who introduced Marisa to magic, and taught her. She's a master of Astral Magics, incredibly powerful, destructive magic." Reimu said. "She was also the fourth person who went to Makai, the one who got left behind."
"Are we done with reuinions?" Shinki asked, Yumeko coming out of her still-open portal, by Shinki's side.
"Okku. Should we end this right now?" Satori said.
"My my, you sound confident." Shinki said flatly, as if bored.
"Unyu?" Utusho asked, tilting her head.
"She means do your combo attack Okku!" Rin shouted to Utusho, causing her to point her rod towards Shinki, and Satori putting her two hands together, both collecting a lot of energy.
"While I may not have the same amount of power as Utusho in this regard, I can still mimic her powers with my Third Eye. Behold, Master and Pet: Double Flare!" Satori announced, as both she and Utusho unleashed a massive blast of yellow energy, heat ripping off it.
Shinki simply but her rod foward, and the combined attack just crashed into the barrier, not even making a crack in it.
"Is that all?" Shinki asked.
As Satori and Utusho attacked Shinki, other fights started breaking out. Yuugi and Suika had began attacking Sariel, based on Reimu's words that she was 'terrifyingly strong'. The Oni, despite their strength, were getting thrown around quite a lot by Sariel, but, likewise, their assult was so relentless that Sariel was constantly on the defense, not able to use an offensive magic to strike a strong blow.
Elis was using the combination of her vamperic speed, agility, power and abilities, combined with blood magic, and was fighting Youmu, Sanae, Mystia and Wriggle at the same time, with ease. Youmu was the biggest hinderence to her assults, although Mystia's song was helping, as was Wriggle's fireflies as distractions.
Yuuka, Ran and Reimu were fighting YuugenMagan, although this was mainly coming down to dodgeing blasts of lightling. All of the attacks of the trio were just passing through YuugenMagan, doing nothing. Cirno was attempting to help as well, but wasn't doing anything useful.
Byakuren joined Utusho and Satori, as did Koishi and Rin, in attempting to attack Shinki, who was outright ignoreing the attacks, letting them wash into her barrier. She even yawned.
Alice was staying out of the fight, just watching, while Marisa and Mima were having their duel, magical stars flying everywhere, as well as lasers.
"Light Blast: Shoot the Moon!" Marisa called, fireing magical rings behind Mima, which them launched beams back towards Marisa, as she fired streams of small stars.
Mima dodged between the barrage of lasers without effort, before swinging her Moon Summoner. "Light Annihilation: Peirce the Moon!" Mima cried, unleashing an attack at least twice as fierce as Marisa's, who somehow still managed to evade.
Ritual Sign "Orreries Sun" Marisa called, forming four orbs around herself, connected by a thin line of magic, forming a square around herself.
"You think that will work on me, Marisa? You've not even improved it in these ten years!" Mima chastised, forming an octagon equivilent, before both Marisa and Mima's Orbs started changing positions, fireing magical blasts as they went, before Marisa smirked.
"Except I *have* improved it Mima-Sama! I've learnt other magic over these last ten years!" Marisa said, before the magical blasts turned into rainbow lasers. "Non-Directional Laser; Orreries Style!" Marisa declared, her lasers swamping Mima's barrage of magical bolts.
"Whoa!" Mima said, narrowly dodging a laser, before she formed a magical crest in front of her, pointing her rod at it. "Pulsar Burst!" she cried, unleashing rapid flashes of energy from the circle, which erupted out from it, overpowering Marisa's lasers, and shattering her four orbs.
"You always said magic is all about raw power and not how it looks, right Mima-sama?" Marisa said. "Well that's some nice power, but I got more!"
Mima laughed. "You think you can best me in power? Show me what you have then, there's no way your Astral Magic has advanced beyond mine, especially when I've been training within Makai's Maisma."
Marisa pulled out her Hakkero, and grinned.
"Who said I'm using Astral Magic? Without you to teach me I started to study everyone else's magic, making it my own. That Non-Direction Laser I used before was copied from a friend of mine, and this attack, is based on the attack of someone you know, but is fueled by my love for my freinds!" Marisa said, gathering energy in her Hakkero.
"You've copied Yuuka's ultimate magic?" Mima said with a smile.
'If I fight this back, I'll overdo it. I can't use my real magic without killing Marisa and most of the others here. I just want to test her, after all.' Mima thought to herself.
"Love Sign: Master Spark!" Marisa shouted, as Mima raised her Moon Summoner.
"Streaks in the Sky; Meteor Shower!" Mima declared, as she unleashed an incredible barrage of magical blasts, fighting back the laser.
A bead of sweat ran down Marisa's forehead, before she grasped her Hakkero with both hands, and muttered softly to it, before looking up. "Magicannon... FINAL SPARK!" the witch roared, her beam tripling in size, and brightness, swamping Mima's attack, before swamping the Vengeful Spirit, sending her flying into the ground.
"Sorry Mima-sama, but without you around, I kinda had to stop practicing specifically Astral Magic as hard, and changed into a 'Light' Mage instead, with magic based on stars and lasers." Marisa said, looking at Mima on the ground.
The ghost adjusted her hat, and floated back up. "It dosen't matter, Marisa. You've passed, you're a witch of your own now, you don't need me anymore." Mima said happily.
"... You're not really with Shinki, are you Mima-sama?" Marisa asked.
"Of course not. I just played along to come back and test you. Now, how about we go help the others?" Mima says.
"Ze!" Marisa said happily.
"Looks like Mima is betraying us." Yumeko said.
"No problem. I expected it anyway. I only brought her along because I myself was interested in who would win that struggle." Shinki said. "However, things could be difficult for the other three if Mima knows Magan's weakness. Reimu found it by sheer fluke last time."
"Should I stop her?" Yumeko asked.
"No. I tire of watching these pests attempt to attack me anyway. I think it is time for me to end this facade of hope they have." Shinki said, as the mists flowing out from the portal began to warp around her staff, gathering power.
"The mists of Makai are just a part of me, after all, they are my excess power, that my body cannot contain, so dense and powerful that it is toxic to most beings. I don't even need to use my own body's powers, when my whole wold is a storage of my power." Shinki said.
"Yes,this should be no more difficult that a walk to the park for you." Yumeko says.
Suddenly, a gap opened, and Rumia came out, right in front of Shinki.
"Owww.. Yukari..." Rumia said, rubbing her head and looking at the gap, which closed quickly, before looking at Shinki.
"Damnit Yukari." she said flatly, as Yumeko grabbed her, locking her arms from behind, far too strongly for Rumia to escape from.
"My oh my, look at the present the Gap Hag dropped off. I don't even need exert myself to kill everyone, all I need to do, is remove that seal, throw you out of my barrier, and watch you kill them all for me!" Shinki said happpily.
"What do you mean? I'm too weak to hurt anyone here." Rumia said, feigning a lack of knowledge, whereas inside her beating, throbbing head, the monster was howling Shinki's name, and a desire to kill her. Rumia did not understand though... if she was from Makai, why did the voices want to kill Shinki?
"That's what you think... Yumeko, get ready to throw her, and tell the others to grab Alice and back out. Don't want them getting killed too." Shinki said, as she grabbed Rumia's ribbon, and pulled it off.
[Author Notes: Kogasa likes to break the 4th wall. This is the first example.
Mima wasn't using her strongest magic, but if she did, she'd would have killed Marisa outright. Her pride is strong, but not that strong. She'll explain about her strongest magics in a later arc.
Satori's combo attack worked by reading Utusho's mind and copying her 'actions'. However, Satori's copy is nothing compared to Utusho's attack. Still, it's a way for Satori to power up Okku, and while not Okku's Flare-attacks, it's still strong in it's own right.
Anyway, next chapter is the climax of Arc 2.]