"Well then... let's go!" Tenma said, before he thrust his fist forward, and launched a fist-shaped blast of air, which moved very swiftly. Rumia was able to evade, but was taken a bit off-guard by the unexpected speed of Tenma's attack.
"Hah!" Tenma roared, as Rumia noticed her was already above her, and throwing a punch.
'He's fast for a big guy!' Rumia thought, as she formed a sphere of Dark Energy in the path of Tenma's fist, causing him to stop.
"You look shocked. I know, I don't look like I would be able to move that fast, however, you can move a lot quicker when the air is thinner. By reducing the air pressure around me, I can speed myself up. With this power, I am one of three Tengu that can break the sound barrier, even with my size." Tenma explained.
"I guess one's Aya... but who's the third?" Rumia asked.
"Hatate. She only recently became able to, but she's been working on getting faster to try and match Aya better." Tenma said.
"Heh. Nice to see she's still trying." Rumia responded, before she fired a barrage of lasers towards Tenma, who evaded by flying below them.
However, this time, it was Rumia moving in to attack, like Tenma did before, but from below.
The Tengu grinned, and vanished from vision, before stikeing Rumia on her back.
'W-what? How fast is this guy?'
"One moves slower when the air is denser as well. It's not just that I can speed myself up, I can slow you down." Tenma said, as he backed off again.
Rumia felt a dislocated disk in her back, which quickly popped back into place in the darkness. If that was most other youkai, that would have been the end of the fight there and then.
"Concussing Concussion!" Tenma said, before he began to rapidly fire the air-shots from his fists that he used before, to hich Rumia responded with Dark Energy blasts, which quickly overwhelmed Tenma's rate of fire, causing the hybrid Tengu to dodge instead.
"Not bad, not bad..." he said. "Not that ranged fighting is my forte, but still... agh!"
Tenma lurched forward, as the spheres he had dodged slammed into his back, having been directed by Rumia to change direction.
"Does that mean I win?" Rumia asked Yuuka.
"It means I'd let you in. However, don't think a Tengu will quit a fight so easily." Yuuka said, before she zoomed out of Rumia's vision, and she felt a fist slam into her face.
"Ahahahaha! Don't get distracted! I never said I'd stop fighting after you landed a hit on me just because Yuuka did so with Byakuren!" Tenma laughed. "You think Remilia and Yukari fought without Remilia landing a single blow? No, both were too proud to call it quits!"
"Well I ain't one for pride." Rumia said, before she smirked, recovering from Tenma's hammerblow to her face. "However I'm not one to turn down something that's fun."
"That's the spirit! It's been years since I had a good fight. I'm not gonna just back down because you landed a few hits." Tenma said, before he raised one of his hands, before clenching it in a fist, as if he grabbed something.
"Pressure Hammer!"
Rumia suddenly felt as if the air itself slammed into her, as Tenma moved his hand down, and fell down, until she hit what must have been the barrier around Yukari's house.
"An attack that uses the air itself as a weapon. That's impressive." Rumia said, getting back up, before she vanished.
"... Sneaky Girl..." Tenma said quietly, as Rumia appeared directly in front of him, from the shadow he was casting from the moon's light.
"Chi: Yang Fist!" Rumia said, before she slammed her glowing right fist into Tenma's face, sending the large man flying backwards a fair distance.
"Heh. I can see how you moved Yuugi." Tenma said.
"That wasn't even my best punch. I can throw a lot more power into it, given the time to charge." Rumia replied, looking confident, before she suddenly stopped smiling.
"Pressure World." Tenma said simply, as Rumia struggled to breathe.
"Tenma... aren't you going a bit too far?" Remilia said. "This is only supposed to be a sparring match."
"He's not using it's full potential. If he was, Rumia would be dead already." Byakuren said. "He's only thinned the air around her dramatically, instead of making a vacuum around her."
"Yes, they say this is how he defeated the Deva, and that if it wasn't for Suika's own ability to manipulate density to counteract Tenma's 'Pressure World' he would have killed them." Yukari said. "It's not pretty, being in a vacuum. The particles in your body... nothing is stopping them from going wherever they want."
"You could say that before long, you'll be a mist of atoms~" Yuuka said.
Rumia just breathed in deeply, and then grinned, before she shot forward towards Tenma, her fist crackleing with Dark Energy bolts, at incredible speed.
Yukari laughed, as Rumia punched Tenma in the gut, causing the large Tengu to double over, as sparks of dark energy coursed around him.
"I'm not sure if Rumia just thought hitting Tenma would help or if she figured out that if Tenma thinned the air, she'd move faster, like when Tenma slowed her down!"
Rumia backed off, so she could charge in again, however, this time, she stopped in front of Tenma, her hand clearly breaking, before it healed in the night.
"If you dive into water, it hurts. It's the same when you 'dive' into an area of high air pressure at a fast enough speed." Tenma said, before he sighed.
"It looks like to get past your healing factor I'd either have to exhaust you or deal so much damage that you can't instantly recover from it. So be it, I know you're almost as hard to kill as Remi, so I guess you can withstand an attack of this level..."
Tenma put both his arms out, as if imitating Rumia's relaxed pose of 'The Saint was Crucified'. However, the air began to swirl around, in a huge sphere, in front of his right hand, pulling air from the left side.
"Do you know what happens when a weather system of High pressure meets a system of low pressure?" Tenma asked.
"No." Rumia said "But I guess I should brace myself."
Rumia suddenly became cloaked, in what seemed like a light armor made of Dark Energy. However, the dark energy was coated by a faint aurora. Rumia was using Chi to stabilize the energy, so it wouldn't explode on her.
"Storm Sign: Mountain Lord's Thunderclap!" Tenma cried, as he brought his two hands together in a mighty clap, bringing the low pressure and high pressure together. The result of the two systems clashing, as well as Tenma's further manipulation was a blast of violently twisting air, a miniature Torndo, launched at Rumia, buffetting her with the full force of a tornado.
Tenma clapped a second time, and there was a huge flash, before Rumia felt intense pain. Half a second later, she heard the rumble of thunder.
'T-t-that wasn't lighting magic... that was a real bolt of lightling.' Rumia thought, as the tornado vanished, and the winds calmed.
Tenma was beating his wings, unlike before, and looked worn out. It was pretty clear that was among his strongest attacks. Rumia could think of very, very few who could survive a direct hit from a bolt of real lighting. She had managed to do so simply because the brunt of it had been absorbed by the Dark Energy around her, which had dissipated after being overwhelmed, leaving her crackling with charge, hair standing up, and pretty badly hurt.
She was healing, but not quickly. The damage was severe. Rumia was pretty sure that if she couldn't regenerate in natural darkness, she would have died shortly after the strike.
"Heh... I guess we should call this one a tie." Tenma said. "I'm too tired to keep going, and you're injured, and don't think I've not noticed that your regeneration takes energy as well."
Rumia sighed. She knew she couldn't call Tenma's bluff on this if he had noticed. She was regenerating slower because it was using so much energy, she too would be exhausted after finishing.
"How did the Deva survive that?" Rumia asked.
"I developed that attack after the fight." Tenma admitted, as the two flew back to the rest of the group, and then followed them back inside.
"I assume you've seen enough violence to let her in." Byakuren said to Yuuka.
"I liked the version where I could sense the evil within her, almost breaking free, that I sensed during the Makai incident more. I'm sure that one would be more fun." Yuuka complained. "But yes."
"You prefer evil me..." Rumia said.
"Of course she does. It's Yuuka." Tenma laughed. "She'd probobly love a rampaging strong youkai to fight to the death!"
"Anyway, Rumia, there is only one more thing you need to know. This arrangement between us is a secret. If certain people knew there was an agreement between six of the most powerful and influential youkai in Gensokyo, such as Reimu, they wouldn't be happy about it. Not one bit." Yukari said. "Hopefully, we don't need to put our arrangement into action. It's as much for deterrence as it is for enforcement."
"The only reason why I agreed to join..." Byakuren admitted. "Deterrence is better than intervention. Better to prevent violence in the first place than stop it once it begins."
"Now then, bye-bye~" Yukari said, as gaps opened below everyone, and they fell through, back to where they were.
With two exceptions.
Rumia fell on the bank of the Misty Lake, instead of inside the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
And Tenma, Rumia noticed, lifted himself above the gap just in time, his face resolute.
"So... Five became Six, Yukari." Tenma said.
"Oh my, I told you none of that was important, Tenma!" Yukari said, sounding a little off-guard, quickly raising a fan to cover the surprise on her face.
But Tenma saw something as well as surprise.
"You look worried, Yukari. Tell me. You know Tengu hate not knowing things... and can keep secrets when need be. Even Aya knows when to keep quiet on something she finds out."
"I do not wish to tell you, Tenma. The meaning of those words shall become clear when the time comes. And it has to transpire. If you knew, you would try and prevent it." Yukari said.
"Do you want me to tell Aya to stalk you?"
"Good luck stalking me through gaps." Yukari responded.
"Oh wait, Hatate can use her Spirit Photography and Astral Projection!" Tenma said. "I'll find out either way, Yukari."
Yukari lowered her fan, and look at Tenma. Her eyes had lost their carefree and playful sparkle they usually had.
"Five become Six, but not for long. I'm sure you're smart enough to know what that means, Tenma, without me explaining."
A gap opened below Tenma, and he let himself fall through this time.
'Yukari... what are you plotting that could possibly lead to this?'