Chapter 11: An Alliance on Two Fronts

Shina made her way through the forest, alone, but not the least bit uncertain of her destination. The amount of trees seemed endless, a sea of green blessed with beauty by the rays of the setting sun. She was wowed by how peaceful nature was in Gensokyo. Even with how many Youkai must've populated the world, there were no signs of a struggle on the trees. They'd all been preserved perfectly since the day they first sprouted.

Was it magic that let this happen? Or maybe something else just as mysterious? Whatever it was, Shina could feel a kind presence coming from her surroundings as she continued to run past all the tree trunks. But she knew the forest's comfort wouldn't even be able to compare to the place that lied beyond its branches.

"The Myouren Temple...If I recall correctly, its run by a kind and gentle saint who helps out Youkai in need," She slowed her pace to a brisk stroll to steady her breathing and continue gathering her thoughts, "But...that don't mean she wouldn't wanna help me. Yeah...yeah! Nothin' to worry about!"

With a firm and certain nod her thoughts drifted towards a certain someone, "I'm so glad Alex was honest with me. Hopefully someday he'll be able to be that open with others too..."

She reached into the bottom of her shirt and touched where her heart was beating. The skin felt warm at the mere thought of the bond of trust and love that had grown between her and him.

She closed her eyes and hummed, filling up with happiness as the journey's end drew near, "I'm gonna miss traveling to all these worlds, but...I don't think I'll ever wanna miss another day with my family. Gosh...I wonder what mom 'n sis'll think when I come home with Alex. I hope they can all get along..."

It wasn't hard to imagine Alex and her mom locking horns from time to time like a pair of stubborn bulls, but at the same time he'd probably get along well with her little sis. The possibilities of what a happy family life entailed filled her with longing, but not for very long.

Her eyes started fluttering open as she got a tad embarrassed at herself for getting distracted. Her hand then whipped right out of her shirt and clapped together before the chest as she gave a quick pep talk, "Now's not the time for that Shina! Ya ain't homeward bound yet!"

Peering forward with squinted eyes allowed her to make out the shape of a temple just a few blocks away. With renewed vigor she made a mad dash through the rest of the forest and nearly tripped over a thicket of bushes on her way out.

"Alrighty...here I..." She stopped with a wide-mouthed gasp right at the front gate, and peered past the perimeter stone wall into the courtyard. There wasn't a single soul in sight, neither human nor Youkai.

"That's odd, isn't there supposed to be a youkai girl at the gate?" She tip-toed inside, stretching her legs out in an exaggerated manner in some vain attempt to not make a sound. Once past the gate she poked her head around the corners just to be certain she didn't miss something. But no, there was definitely no one around. The atmosphere felt cold and lifeless as a graveyard, which was pretty ironic seeing how there was one of those in the west part of the temple.

The temple itself was old-fashioned, its design dating back to at least a thousand years ago. But its architecture had been kept intact all this time, save for the tiniest scratches on the posts keeping the overhead roof suspended out front. There was a large stone bell atop the temple, and a visible walkway on the right side stretching way out into the temple's backyard.

"Hmmm, maybe they're out doing Buddhist stuff?" Shina presumed, but upon thinking about it realized something, "...No, duh! Someone'd still be watching the temple then."

With a click of her fingers she had an inspiring idea, "Ah! They gotta be out back practicing sutras...or whatever they're called."

Left with no other recourse as far as she could tell, she began to cup her hands around the mouth and squeezed her eyes shut to yell, "Helllloooooo?! Is anyone hooooooome?!"

The moment she stepped foot on the stairs, a louder pair of feet planted themselves firmly at the top, causing her to hop back and gasp, "Whoa! Huh?"

Standing there with a pure heavenly presence was a youthful woman with long, wavy purple-brown gradient hair and a black and white dress. Straps of black cloth criss-crossed between her shapely chest and waist, while straps of white cloth covered her arms below the shoulders and the thinly built boots above the ankles. A long black cape with a red inside stretched down to her knees, and her skin was as spotless as the petals on a lotus. But it was her hazel eyes that drew in Shina's attention the most. They should've been welcoming but were instead distant, even as her gaze locked squarely on Shina and nothing else.

"Hello there young traveler," She poke with a soothing, vibrant voice that could lull even the most hot-headed child to sleep, and then began to clasp her hands before the chest and taking a greeting bow of the head, "Have you come seeking divine enlightenment?"

Byakuren Hijiri ~ The Supposed Savior of Youkai-Kind

"Enlightenment?" Shina fluttered her eyelashes as the woman's kindness juxtapositioned her standoffish aura, "I-I guess ya could say that...See, sorry to intrude and all, but..."

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave..." The woman's voice got a teensy bit more hostile while still maintaing perfect manners.

"Leave?!" Shina reeled back and her pupils shrank, "But I didn't even tell ya what I'm looking for!"

The woman hovered there, quiet, as the girl kept going at it, "If its because of what I said I didn't mean to offend, honest!"

"Religious preferences are hardly at the forefront of our concerns when it comes to you and your worrisome associate." A boisterous and captivating voice echoed out from behind Byakuren as a lovely gold rimmed violet silk cape unfurled from her sides like a pair of insect wings. The cape's owner spun out to the left of the priestess as though finishing participation in a magic trick, and then brandished a wooden stick known as a shaku down the stairs with the dashing spirit of a majestic knight.

The gallant woman was at least half a foot shorter than her compatriot, but her royal presence made her stand out a lot, lot more. With purple headgear designed like earmuffs covering her horn-styled platinum blonde hair, the woman stared down with fearless grey eyes and an unconquerable upright stance. Her cheekbones were rougher than the average woman's, and her facial features could otherwise be described as masculine. But her skin was as fair and silky as a maiden's, with her frame lithe and there being very little meat on the arms and chest.

Her choice of clothes consisted of a purple dress under a white vest with elaborate trimming, and that dashing collared cape mentioned before. But of greater note is the color of the cape, which signified that she was a high ranking noble of sort. And to top it off, she had a sword with a golden sun at the hilt sheathed at the hip.

Toyosatomimi no Miko ~ The Supposed Savior of Humankind

"Wha wha wha?! Why're they both here?!" Shina nearly tripped over herself in shock of the prince's stunning display of regality along with the general fact that she was even here. The Crown Prince of Shoutoku and the Buddhist Priest were on opposite sides of a religious coin, yet neither seemed bothered by their others close proximity. This puzzling conundrum tied in well to the very thing that had stuck in Shina's mind, and after getting over the initial shock of their teamwork she could try and piece the puzzle together.

"Hold the phone, ya knew I was coming?"

Miko closed her eyes amd ruffled her insides with a billowing chuckle, "But of course! Given the nature of that vampire's declaration it was only a matter of time!"

Continuing to chew the scenery as her compatriot could only stand and watch, the prince swung her left arm up into the sky and her cape began to flutter without a breeze as she proudly declared, "That's not to say that our chance encounter wasn't already predestined by the heavenly stars in the sky!"

Shina stared wide-eyed for a bit as the prince literally sparkled, but then the dry air's touch forced them shut. All she could say then was, "I can't tell if she's hitting on me or not..."

Mustering half an effort to squeeze her hands and bow, Shina put on an awkward grin and apologized, "I-I'm sorry, you must have me mistaken for someone else."

"Even the prettiest face cannot disguise a stench most foul," Miko raised her head with assured pride in herself before lashing her shaku out so strongly that it lifted a gale across the temple grounds, nearly knocking Shina off her feet, "And the erroneous odor of the Phoenix of Destruction is one that cannot be mistaken!"

Shina stiffened up and narrowly glared at the prince, who remained unabashedly confident in themselves as this strange girl spoke up with muddlef confusion, "And where'd ya hear about that?!"

"Does it matter?" Miko chuckled before easing up, "Phoenix of Destruction? Elemental Overlord? Neither title differs enough to be of concern. In the end they are both a part of the same chain that linked our fates to this very moment!"

Bombastic though she may be, Miko's words spoke the truth. The fact that the two religious leadfers knew they were coming was undeniable yet worrying, but even after thinking on it for a bit Shina couldn't figure out why. After the prince's cape rested back onto her shoulders she glanced at her silently pondering companion and muttered respectfully, "Hijiri, you're welcome to speak at your leisure."

Byakuren looked over her shoulder and covered her mouth to whisper with increasing doubts, "Should we really be doing this? This child doesn't have a hint of malice surrounding her."

Miko grabbed the left corner of her cape and used it to cover her mouth, her eyes glinting as she gazed from the corner of them at Byakuren, "A person's true nature isn't just skin-deep. And regardless, this girl may hold the key to our salvation from this particular predicament."

Shina swung her hand up and hollered, "Heeeeellloooo? I can hear you both!"

With a swift, rugged cough Miko returned to where she was and remarked in a composed manner, "Yes yes, ahem..."

As her body roared with regality through every muscle, the Crown Prince's cape spread wide as she proclaimed, "We bear no ill-will towards you, otherworlder, but it would be in your best interests to leave!"

"Yer not telling me why!" Shina waggled her hands out and raised a brow to give the duo a stinky glare, "Seriously, did I kick over a statue on the way here?!"

"You've done nothing wrong, but we can't run the risk of that changing." Byakuren's honest tip-toeing around the subject just furthered the exasperation on Shina's face.

"Cooooome on, ya can't just leave it like that!"

Miko stepped to the plate and declared with no hint of malice, "I understand your confusion, but taking the time to explain wouldn't be good enough. You will just have to trust that our judgment is sound on this matter."

Shina clutched her fists down by the hips as her glare towards Miko grew fiercer, "You already said yer doing this cause of Alex, and that's reason enough for me not to listen!"

"Oh? So you trust in your associate's good-nature?" Miko raised her brows and slapped the shaku down upon her right palm, "Even if his actions were to cause the end of Gensokyo, would you still believe in him?"

"Damn straight I would!" Shina pumped her fist out and then swung it aside with fingers spread, making a stand of defiance upon the steps of the temple, "You haven't even met Alex and you think he's a monster! I dunno what lies you've been told, but Alex would never destroy this world!"

Byakuren looked to the girl with regret projecting from her eyes as she tried to rationalize the two's seemingly strange behavior, "We do want to believe that he isn't what we believe him to be, that everything that happened back then wasn't just-"

"Hijiri that's enough," Miko sternly dug her feet into the ground and glared at her companion to silence her immediately, "That's none of her business. Look at her..."

The prince's shaku was brandished towards the girl's eyes, whose emerald glisten was consumed by a bright fire in the perception of the observant Taoist, "She's already chosen what to believe. That stance is a manifestation of her conviction, and a declaration of defiance to our desires."

Yet though it wouldn't be wrong to assume she was insulted, the Crown Prince instead grinned and swayed towards the girl, brandishing the shaku out before proclaiming with intrigue, "If this the path that you have chosen then we shall meet you on that rocky road with our own resolve!"

The regal glow around her amplified until it was brighter than the sun above, and her excitement tore away at the layers of stoicism formed throughout the years, "If your faith in that child is as iron clad as you say, then prove it in the heat of battle! For it is only when ideals clash that one can truly come to understand another!"

Byakuren silently nodded and dragged her right foot back across the ground, standing back-to-back with Miko with her fist swung out and her expression shedding all hesitation, "This is all for the safety of Gensokyo. Please don't hate us for doing this."

Shina lowered her head and rubbed the back of it while acting a bit tipsy, overwhelmed by the priest's sincere apology, "Awww schucks...I ain't gonna blame ya for wanting to protect your home..."

She swung her head up and her hair spread like a cape of her own as she reached for the cuff of her bracelet and proclaimed, "But ya ain't the only ones fighting for their home! I'm not gonna win to prove a point, but because I have to!"

With a quick activation of the Gunslinger Drive Shina twirled the pistols next to her hips and locked her fingers around the triggers. Miko brandished her shaku out one last time adjacent to Byakuren's fist and made a declaration of her resolve, "We'll drive you both out of Gensokyo if need be, but only if your desires cry no louder than a kitten's meow! So stand tall, child of omen, and let your desires roar!"

Miko burrowed herself into her cape and spun behind Byakuren, who took the lead with a spell card summoned from the unfurling of a rainbow sutra scroll before her waist. A passionate drive to win bloomed in her eyes and ignited a fire in her heart, allowing her to yell with all her strength as she took to the skies with her partner in tow, "O' blessed Buddha...please ensure my path remains righteous!"

The Spell Card shattered into neon sparkles as Byakuren held the scroll in an arc above her head, creating a bright sphere of white light bigger than her body, "Grand Magic 'Dharma's Light from Beyond'!"

Shina rose up to meet the challenge as the first bullets were unleashed from the holy capsule. Tiny white bullets with blue rims came out in rows of three and curved around the light's circumference like the blades of a windmill. Shina took aim at Byakuren and started firing off a few bullets of her own, but backed off when a second wave of bullets spewed out in a similar pattern a second later. Then came a third and a fourth wave, completing the windmill comparison.

Shina lowered to attack from a better angle, but then with a bright flash pin sized rays of light shot forth in twelve random directions from the sphere, one of them locking right onto her location. Shina flew up and left to avoid the lilac lasers that shone through. The angle the bullets emerged changed to keep after the girl's movement, and many of them battered against her body as she tried to get away.

More lasers pushed forth from the sphere, but were now joined by waves of light with feathery ruffles flying across the air like thinly blades. The waves left thin golden crescents in the surroundings like a mangled dome, then began to scroll clockwise and counterclockwise depending on where they were placed.

Shina weaved and curved her body around them, pointing her arms out at all times to assail Byakuren with fast firing bullets. A quick change to SMGs hastened the pace and damage, but the intense minefield of bullets weakened the accuracy of her shots.

She thrust forward and dove between a pair of bullet waves, leaning back and using her jet boots to propel away from the straight lasers. She rammed into a couple but squinted only slightly, focused more on proving her worth to her opponent. Thirty seconds were already past, but the high and mighty Crown Prince had been eeriely silent.

Yet as though so privy to Shina's thoughts that they were a book before her face, Byakuren suddenly called out to the Taoist while folding up her scroll, "Miko! Your turn!"

The priestess vanished with a flash step behind the Crown Prince, who hovered forward and swung her cape aside to put her elegance on full display. Shina lowered her guns for a moment as Miko summoned a Spell Card and proclaimed its name with grand authority, "Choice and Consequence 'A Path of Many Roads'!"

The left side of her cape turned blue while the right turned red, and from the shattered card emerged four orbs of white light that shot forth behind Shina. Miko turned around, her cape fluttering back to hide the intentions her cunning mind planned, while the orbs dissolved into comets that flew threw the air past where she stood.

"Be it red cape, or be it blue cape?" Miko leaned over her shoulder as the colors of her cape quickly faded, and the twinkling trails the comets left behind froze in place, "Choose the one you wish for!"

Shina couldn't move, but thankfully neither could the curved lasers that remained. Thus with no other choice but to play Miko's game, she hastily called out the color of her preference, "Blue cape! I pick the blue cape!"

"Mwahaha! Then death it is!" With a cobalt flash from her cape the comets' trails turned blue, with the two rows closest to Shina dissolving into bright colored arrowheads that collapsed towards her location all at once. Now free to move she sprinted ahead and clenched her triggers tight to give Miko everything she had at present while avoiding the bullets.

Some of them grazed her back however, and the second wave of bullets dispersed from the remaining trails. Getting point-blank to Miko was a dangerous play, for a multitude of blue-ish knives spread out in circular waves inches away from her body. Shina flipped back over the knives as a few scraped her limbs, then twirled around with arms hugging close in to avoid Byakuren's lingering lasers.

Miko sent out another set of orbs to summon more arrowheads to the battlefield, all while keeping the pressure up with her bursts of knives. The knives helped obscure the arrowheads, so even if Shina got the gist of how they moved it was hard to keep track along with dealing with everything else.

"These two are working together in perfect harmony. Can't say I was expectin' that. But I ain't about to run away!"

In a daring manuever Shina pressed forward through the center of the collapsing arrowheads, forcing them to intertwine where she once was. She then summoned a rocket launcher and fired at an aura wall she made point-blank to dispel the knives right as they emerged. With that opening given to her she summoned her shotguns and struck Miko with two pounding blasts.

Then she backed away as the curving lasers came around, switching to the safer SMGs for combat. Miko closed her eyes and guffawed, throwing her cape aside with a mere gesture of the hand before proclaiming, "Hijiri! I leave this to you!"

The cape coiled around her body and made her vanish behind Byakuren, who glided forth and resummoned the glowing sphere to continue her attack. Shina braced herself in a safe spot between the curved lasers and analyzed the battlefield for any further trickery on the two's part. Miko's knives were left behind, but they came out slower and at a less frequent rate.

"I gotta take one of 'em down or its gonna get super hectic super fast!" Shina determined that between Byakuren and Miko, Byakuren's patterns seemed to be the most dangerous, as they covered a much larger area. So with the priestess in her sights Shina made great strides across the battlefield, her feet tracing streaks of light across the ground as she treated the air like an ice skating arena.

The waves of bullets spinning out and around from the sphere blended with the knives Miko left behind and were almost indistinguishable from one another. Just the act of blinking confused Shina enough to make her run into them when she wanted to avoid them.

But the smaller bullets were of little concern. The lasers both straight and curved needed her full attention, for they could strike like hot iron and wear her down quick. Tucking her limbs in at the proper times was a necessity, even if it meant losing the chance to strike against Byakuren.

Her body tended to slant while on the fly, throwing her vision into further confusion. Yet at times she decided to roll with it and spun around past multiple Danmaku at once. Through these perilous efforts, Shina managed to unload almost two-hundred SMG bullets onto Byakuren, who proved to be incredibly resilient.

"Shoot! This monk's one tough mama!" Shina broke the first sweat by the time Byakuren had chosen to pass things off to Miko, who split the colors of her cape once more and posed the question with the exact same words and tone.

This time Shina squinted her eyes shut and didn't rely on instinct to make the call. After thinking about it for a few seconds she swung her right hand towards the right side and proclaimed, "I'm going for the red cape this time!"

"Then an even worse fate awaits you!" Miko said with the almost grim dialect of a supervillain as the crimson ran down her cloak like blood and became one with the streaks of light around her.

Shina went on the offensive as soon as she could, pummeling the proud prince with roughly four dozen bullets before the comets broke apart into trails of red arrowheads. The arrows all turned at once towards the center and glided through the air one row at a time, crossing in-between one another.

So far this actually seemed easier than the last choice, but it would soon be time for Shina to bite her tongue on such perilous assumptions. For not only were there swarms of blue knives to worry about, but now Miko added bombardments of red knives diagonally adjacent behind where the blue knives were.

"Oh crap!" Shina's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as she turned away and repelled twenty feet back in a single leap, leaving dozens of bullets to scratch at her body.

"This is getting to be too much!" She turned around and summoned her rocket launcher to clear some of the bullets with the same tactic as before. Flying through the blast with a forward somersault she created a sniper rifle and took two sky quaking shots at Miko's body before the Danmaku returned.

She then rolled back and stood up, slipping between the intersecting arrowheads and a couple lasers with a quick and neat tucking in of the stomach. Her gasp afterwards was heavy and debilitating, leaving her unable to fight back for a couple seconds. But then she firmed her gaze upon the prince and swung her guns up to fire at least a dozen bullets into her.

Miko lost no conviction even after sustaining all this damage. Her posture was peerless, a statuesque form capable of invoking envy amongst the gods. Her smile hid a thousand ideas, but all of them were for the benefit of mankind. That is why she had to keep fighting. Not for herself, but for the people she admired.

"Hijiri, time to take the stage once more!" Miko swapped out upon finishing that declaration of trust, and Byakuren continued to add to the misery Shina had to endure by readding her bullets to this increasingly chaotic pattern.

The priestess' patience and good-will could not be ignored either. Her lack of words actually spoke volumes of how she felt about this predicament. She loves all living things in Gensokyo equally, from the tiniest of humans to the frailest of Youkai, so having no choice but to fight someone showed just how seriously she must have believed in the dangers Alex posed. Yet her expression showed no weakness. She concentrated solely on sending out her Danmaku without error, and kept a saintly air surrounding her body. Truly she wasn't just a saint, she was a superhuman as well.

The two leaders could easily butt heads on differing views of how to handle Youkai and humanity, but it was their shared love of Gensokyo that allowed them to work together. That's why their Danmaku was so fascinating to watch as it was harrowing to avoid. Slowly but surely they had built up to this beautiful and deadly storm of bullets, no doubt displaying the patience the two must have been forced to endure before this moment. And the relentlessness of the Danmaku showed just how determined they were to win.

Compared to the playful bouts beforehand, this battle swept them aside like peebles in a tidal wave, with the two riding that wave ready to overwhelm their target by any means necessary. But as much as Shina could respect their determination to fight to fulfill their desires, she wasn't hard-pressed to show even the slightest bit of hesitation because of that same respect.

She has been patient for a long time too, spending months and months between worlds with nothing but the pitch black depths of space and her closest companion/lover to keep her company. The wait has left its toll on her mind for sure, but it was a toll that made her stronger for it.

"That's why..." Shina gulped and took a deep long breath, barreling perfectly through the condensing swarm of Danmaku and setting her sights straight at Byakuren. She locked her fingers around the triggers of her guns and in a second had transformed them into shotguns.

Byakuren's disposition flinched for just a moment as Shina crossed her guns out in front and exclaimed passionately, "I'll show ya both why I can't back down!"

One more blast was all it took to shatter Byakuren's spell card and have her drifting back with an arm swung by her face as though acting as protection. Her face scrunched up with a hint of aggression, yet eased into an agape look of surprise that left her staring at an open palm.

Miko pushed forward and gently brushed her comrade back, declaring with an ease of mind to her words and actions, "Do not distress Hijiri, we haven't lost the advantage yet!"

The Crown Prince laid her hands out and continued from where Byakuren left off. But seeing how both her cape colors had been chosen, she changed up the pattern a little by summoning red-blue striped comets that dissolved into both kinds of bullets. The red and blue knives also came out at a greater frequency than before to compensate for the disappearance of all of Byakuren's Danmaku.

Miko had no words to say to her opponent, but her piercing gaze could be felt burrowing deep into Shina's very soul. Shina was distracted for a moment wondering what the Crown Prince had to say at this point, but the only way to find out was either to win or lose.

Thus she kept flying about, weaving between all the bullets while taking shots whenever possible. For even with all that there was to deal with, Miko was left fighting a one-man battle. Shina just needed to be patient and careful, and she'd hopefully succeed in a matter of seconds.

The amount of sweat on Shina's skin grew and glistened off the glow of the Danmaku she slipped between, but her vision remained a perfect 20-20. No bullets went to waste on either parties' end, but it was only a shame for Miko that she didn't have this amount of bullets to start with. Two more seconds later, and Miko's spell card shattered with a resounding clap.

The corner of her cape swung up in front of her body and she closed both eyes with a smile forming across the face. Shina floated far away and panted to catch her breath, but was soon shaken by the sudden eruption of haughty laughter from Miko. The prince had her head leaned back and the shaku laid evenly upright against her chest, letting her laughter echo up into the heavens.

Byakuren stood by her side and didn't seem bothered by her comrade's outburst. In fact, something like this had to be normal for her by now. Miko stopped on the spot and swung her cape aside with a swift raise of the arm and declared, "You've put on a good display of spirit thus far outsider. But we're far from through!"

In perfect unison the two faced each other and raised their respective objects of importance, creating a unified Spell Card that burned with a rainbow fire. After ripping the card apart by pulling their limbs back, Byakuren zipped behind Miko and smashed her fist against an open palm, sending a shockwave across the skies.

Miko grabbed onto the shoulder of her cape and flung it aside in one tug, then went right for the hilt of her sword and began to pull it out. Byakuren leaned forward and swung her fists down, gathering plenty of energy within her body as the strength of her aura became amplified beyond natural human limits. The energy poured out like the radiance of the sun, while the symbols from her sutra scroll became grafted onto her body.

All the while, the symbol of a lotus was traced into the air below the two as they stood firmly in the center of its blossoming visage. Miko pulled the sword straight from the sheath with an unflincing smirk, and the shine from her blade gushed out and eclipsed the light from Byakuren.

"This is..."

"The strength of our will!"

"Last Word!" From the four corners of the lotus a set of different colored gradient leaves unfurled out and shone bright, keeping the rapidly approaching night from truly taking hold over Gensokyo.

Ready and raring to fight with all their might, the two let out a fierce roar towards Shina, whose heart raced as she couldn't help but smile at their overwhelming beautiful display, "Forbidden Unification 'The Bond of Buddhism and Taoism'!"

There was no pause between the Spell Card's declaration and the Danmaku it unleashed. Flooding forth from the light eclipsing Miko's body were hundreds upon hundreds of pure orbs of light, each one colored either yellow, green, blue or purple. They flew fast and spread out to cover even the areas above the forest surrounding all sides of the temple, leaving little time for Shina to get moving.

After taking some bullets to the face she picked up her pace and agile-y glided around the bullets as she rounded the battlefield, trying to find an opening to shoot at Miko. But the prince's presence was hard to determine amongst the sea of lights, so the wiser option seemed to be going after Byakuren.

But before Shina could even blink, Byakuren's body bolted around the light surrounding her ally and traced the image of a top-down lotus out of peerless pearl Danmaku. The Danmaku split off in a multitude of waves across the battlefield, encompassing areas that Miko's pattern could not hope to touch. The moment the Danmaku split off, Byakuren was off and running again, this time to create a five-pointed star.

"Her speed's incredible...! C-Can I even hit her now?!" Shina was shaking with both worry and excitement, and her lips quivered into a tiny smile. She kept on the move without pause, but was constantly running into Danmaku in spite of her best attempts to dodge.

Yet it was all running and no fighting for poor Shina, who feared reaching her arms out to fire her weapons with all the Danmaku about. The two hadn't even pulled everything out of their bag of tricks yet, as not long after thinking otherwise Shina was nearly singed by a straight laser fired from the edges of Miko's light.

The lasers lingered for a while as two curved beams snaked between each one, making the whole product resemble a strand of DNA. After the first lasers faded the next ones emerged not too far apart, one of them grazing Shina on the back as she took a dive.

"Gah! This is crazy!" Her mind was feeling fuzzy and it became difficult to concentrate on the three different types of Danmaku all at once on TOP of trying to peg her opponents. It was far too risky to try close range tactics like the shotgun, and there was too many bullets to attempt a 'Bomb'.

In fact, the Last Word seemed specifically designed to render all of her usual tactics worthless. There was absolutely no way they could have planned this so far in advance, meaning that it was something Miko came up with during the last Spell Card. That made Byakuren's contribution all the more impressive, for they hadn't exchanged a word.

And speaking of the priested, the petals of her lotus began to glow and funnel energy into Miko's leaves. Each of their tips unleashed a plume of red and peach light into the sky, then sprayed and spun two streams of blue paper seals like a set of sprinklers.

There was no point getting too worked about yet another type of Danmaku being added to fray. Instead Shina focused all her brain power into coming up with a solution to her predicament. She was dodging Danmaku fine enough at the moment, but there'd come a point where she'd slip up and take plenty of unnecessary hits.

"This battle's gonna drone on and on until I collapse from exhaustion..." As she felt the desire to sigh, she pursed her lips shut and was struck by a spark of inspiration.

"Drone...drone...Drones!" She snapped her fingers out and then bent her arms just a little out from her hips. Reaching deep into her memories of watching super robot anime, she created two triangular probes with a sleek metallic sheen to float beside her.

"Perfect!" She said with pride in her craftsmanship before laying flat out and opening the probes. They twirled around and fired a continuous stream of small laser beams at the center of the battlefield, focusing primarily on Miko's general location.

As long as Shina kept her eyes on the two the drone's aim would remain precise. Now she was free to dodge and weave without worry, for if this Last Word behaved like the battle with Mokou and Kaguya did, then beating just one person will be enough to win.

Now neither side said a word. They fought with their bodies and bullets, making it unclear as to who was close to succumbing to the weariness of this prolonged fight. The Danmaku became a spectacle for those who happened to catch it from afar. No one but those who fought understood why this battle was happening, yet they couldn't unglue their eyes from it.

It felt like this dance could last from night until day with neither side tiring. Was this a testament of their stubbornness to quit? Or perhaps it was all a masquerade waiting to be broken at the slightest hint of leeway.

One bullet. One bullet could decide this duel, and the fate of all Gensokyo. Byakuren and Miko had waited for years for this moment, and victory seemed well in their grasp.

Shina's eyes began to droop and her body descended, but she sprung back up and kept flying. Her drones' pace was slowing, but their aim didn't drop a percent. She wanted to win, but what mattered more was that she was having fun. And even if they tried to force her and Alex to leave upon her defeat...she'd do everything in her power to convince them he was a good person.

Miko closed her eyes and began to hum, waiting for her ally to come in close to murmur, "It seems...this was simple meant to be."

Byakuren paused and her expression became heavy for a moment, yet that great weight was lifted easily by her smile. She raised her head to face the light of the setting sun, and breathed a sigh of relief, "I'm so glad...its finally over."

Shina's probes broke apart, but fired one last parting shot at the stalwart prince. It hit the moment a smile crossed her face. All that Danmaku they worked so hard to create broke down into twinkling stardust and fell to the ground as snow would.

Miko fell floating towards the temple's roof on her back, but was caught and carried to the entrance in a flash by Byakuren. Shina hovered in mid-air with blurry vision and shaky knees. This was a most unbelieveable victory, yet it almost felt undeserved.

But the battle wasn't over. The time for action had passed, now words were required to win the two's trust over. Thus with a return to her basic form she dropped upon the steps and dashed right on up to the top.

Miko was back on her feet in a second. Her clothes were ruffled, though still shone bright, and that impeccable smile of hers was no worse for the wear.

Shina wasted no time in getting to the nitty gritty of the matter, "Now will you pleaaaaaase listen to me?"

"Fufufu, there's no need to waste time conversing." Miko decreed, her nonchalant attitude causing Shina's patience to snap and her face to turn bright red.

"Oh come ON! Why the hell not?!"

Miko's cape reappeared like magic upon her shoulders as she laid her shaku up against her left one and proclaiming, "Rejoice! ..."

She paused with mouth agape for a moment and then relaxed into a natural smile as she asked, "I'm sorry, I neglected to ask for your name."

Flustered but her anger subdued, Shina fluttered her eyelashes and responded, "U-Umm...Shina, Shina Aurora."

"Ah, what a lovely name. Thank you." Miko nodded her head a couple times and then returned to her bombastic posture as though that pause never existed.

"Rejoice, Shina Aurora! For you have captivated the legendary Prince Shoutoku with your fiery, passionate resolve!"

Shina tilted her head aside to look at Byakuren and ask while she had a finger weakly pointed at the prince, "Is she always like this?"

With a rough cough to try and put Miko in line, the priestess stepped forward and kindly explained, "Its complicated, but...Miko had a reason for paying very, very close attention to you during our duel."

After composing herself Miko tried to coax Shina's muddled mind with a more reliable explanation behind her motives, "You see, I have the power to hear a person's innermost desires. A prolonged battle such as the one we had was necessary to pressure you and see if your spirit clung true to those desires throughout."

The prince bowed her head slightly and acted a little more like a commoner as she apologized, "Forgive that bout of deafness towards your cries back then. Had I known your reasons for being here were so sincere, I never would've initiated that duel."

Byakuren clasped her hands together and hung her head in a similar manner, but her apology came across more as begging for forgiveness, "I am so very sorry for troubling you Ms. Aurora. If there's anything I can do to earn your forgiveness..."

"Whoa hey, don't get ahead of yourselves there!" Shina swung her hands around and her face remained red from embarrassment, "I ain't mad at either of ya now!"

Miko swung back upright almost too quickly, while Byakuren took a few seconds to stare blankly at the girl. Shina wiggled her lips together and tilted her head to give the back of it a gentle rub, "I mean...I just still don't get it, ya know? Ya started all this cause of Alex and I still ain't any closer to know why that is."

And its for the best that you don't. It all turned out to be nothing more than a paranoid farce... Miko firmly stood by her belief in that matter, but had one thing to make clear, "Well, at least as far as you being the enabler of his destructive behavior is concerned. Whether the boy can be trusted beyond that is something we've left that tanuki to judge for herself."

"Tanuki...?" Shina wasn't confused by who they were referring to more so why they brought "Her" up in this context.

"When we saw you both descend from the skies we saw fit to send a warning out to some of the more active members of Gensokyo's hierarchy. Not many were privy to our requests, but the vampire and the Moriya goddesses did decide it was in their best interest to get involved." Miko rested a hand against the side of her head and showed a rare moment of exasperation through her sigh.

"Though I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised they decided to handle these matters in their own way..."

"Then...Miko musta figured Alex and I would've split up at some point. Goodness gracious, good thing this wasn't a deadlier trap..." Shina wanted to piece more of the puzzle together, but started to grow worried about Alex.

"Ummm...so when ya say a tanuki's gonna judge Alex..."

"Just stick around and relax for now Ms. Aurora. I'm positive they'll be finishing up shortly and returning here." Miko plopped onto the ground in a criss-cross pose and breathed in the fresh air, letting out a pleasurable sigh.

"Besides, its doubtless that the three of us still have stuff we wish to discuss. Perhaps we can help you with that Cosmos Drive problem that's been at the forefront of your mind all this?"

Shina blinked a few times but then succumbed to Miko's request the moment the prince patted the ground in front with her shaku. The girl dropped, and Byakuren sat down on her knees to join them. At least this way, Shina figured, she can try and fish for whatever information the two might be willing to let slip...

Next Time: Mamizou's Side of the Story