Hakugyokurou

Even knowing that Youmu is most definitely holding back this time (as Yuyuko has ordered her to not use lethal force), Reimu knew that the half-ghost samurai is still going to be a challenging opponent.

Reimu knew that because she just raised the Sacred Hakurei Gohei to block Youmu's sword slash and is currently trying her hardest to push back against the samurai, even despite the enhanced strength granted by the Sacred Hakurei Gohei. Just how is Youmu able to apply this much strength despite looking so petite?

Fortunately for Reimu, Youmu is forced to break off so she could dodge a shower of danmaku that was fired at her by Marisa's Orreries Solar System. Unfortunately, as she is also in the direct line of fire, the shrine maiden had to dodge it too to avoid getting hit by friendly fire.

"Watch it, Marisa!" Reimu then called the witch out.

"Sorry!" Marisa apologized.

With Youmu separated from Reimu, Marisa took the opportunity to fire a barrage at the samurai.

Though it is impossible for Youmu to parry the barrage due to the sheer volume and density of danmaku, she is still able to dodge it with her super speed, which she did, and also used as an opportunity to close the distance with Marisa.

All four of the multicolored orbs that forms Orreries Solar System are then swiftly cut to ribbons, shutting down the spell before Marisa even realized it.

"Damn it!" The witch cursed as she, in a hurry to get Youmu away from her, swung her magic wand like a bludgeon at the samurai.

Youmu, having not expected such a cheap shot, reeled back a bit upon getting struck in the face by Marisa's wand. Of course, since a magic wand wasn't designed to be used as a melee weapon in the first place, Youmu recovered from that melee attack within a second.

Although just that one second proved to be a long enough distraction for Reimu to then bean her in the face with the Ying-Yang Orb, knocking her off her feet and away from Marisa as she got sent flying into the pond in the center of the courtyard and briefly lost her grip on her swords.

It took a moment for the dazed Youmu to climb out of the pond and stand back up. Though before the samurai can do anything else, Sakuya suddenly popped into view to kick her swords away and out of reach, then zipped toward her to hold up a knife against her neck.

"I believe this is where you should yield." Sakuya informed Youmu as the former kept her knife up against the latter's neck.

Reimu and Marisa, for good measure, aimed their weapons at Youmu, just in case.

"Yeah, ya really should." Marisa quipped as she kept her wand aimed at Youmu. "Do us all a favor and just raise the white flag now."

Youmu seemed to hesitate for a bit, before seemingly lowering her hands.

Marisa lowered her wand. "That was easy." She said with a smirk.

Reimu, however, didn't lower her gohei, and remained alert. "Too easy, in fact." She pointed out, suspicious as to what Youmu may be planning.

Sakuya, silently acknowledging what Reimu just said, wordlessly warned Youmu against trying anything by digging her knife slightly deeper into the samurai's neck, not enough to draw blood but enough for her to feel the sharp edge.

"Please do not make this harder than it already is." The maid then informed her hostage in a calm but threatening way.

Youmu said nothing for a moment. Then...

"Then I shall make this simple..."

A card suddenly materialized in her right hand, only to immediately shatter into magic particles when she clenched that same hand, all within the blink of an eye.

That was when Reimu's intuition went off.

"Hell Realm Sword: 'Two Hundred Yojana in a Flash'" She then declared.

Upon her declaration, a sonic boom erupted from where Youmu stood, blowing all three Guardians -including Reimu as it was too fast for her to perceive - right off their feet, and even shattering all four of the multicolored orbs of Marisa's Orreries Solar System. Youmu herself was nowhere to be seen after the sonic boom.

"Was that-" Reimu exclaimed as she got back up on her feet.

"A Spell Card?! Definitely!" Marisa finished for Reimu as she got up with assistance from her flying broomstick.

The duo turned toward Sakuya, and found that she has been knocked out cold due to taking the sonic boom at point-blank range.

"Great. We just lost the one person who could outpace that supersonic bitch." Marisa cursed as she raised a magical shield as a precaution.

Reimu tightened her grip on the Sacred Hakurei Gohei, and readied the Ying-Yang Orb for when she needed to use it for an attack.

It hasn't even felt like a second has passed before the shrine maiden's intuition went off again. She quickly dashed in front of Marisa and assumed a defensive pose just in time to intercept and block a supersonic cross slash from Youmu.

The impact of Youmu's swords against the Sacred Hakurei Gohei created a shockwave that although not powerful enough to make either Reimu or Youmu flinch, did kick up all the dust, leaves, and petals around the courtyard, as well as blowing Marisa's witch hat off her head.

Once again, Reimu struggled to hold off Youmu. But this time, the samurai's cross slash is enhanced by her Spell Card and thus has even more force applied to it causing the shrine maiden to be pushed back a few inches for every second she held her defense.

"I believe this is where you should yield." Youmu echoed what Sakuya said to her earlier as she continued to push against Reimu.

Reimu made no response. She gritted her teeth as she focused on holding off Youmu's Spell Card-enhanced attack.

A loud bang suddenly rang out, followed immediately by Youmu's head jerking to the side, as if struck by something. This was enough to cause her to lose focus and reduce the amount of force she is putting into her attack.

Seizing the opportunity, Reimu immediately pushed back against Youmu before delivering a kick to her torso hard enough to send her flying, hard enough to smash through a stone lantern.

"Yeah, parry that, ya bitch!" Marisa, having moved herself to the sides while everyone were distracted, announced while holding her twin revolvers that she had swapped out her magic wand for beforehand and aimed at Youmu.

Reimu seem unimpressed at Marisa just up and shooting Youmu with a gun, even if said gun is modified to fire nonlethal danmaku.

The witch quickly noticed the look the shrine maiden is giving her. "What? Only parameter they gave is 'no killing allowed', nothing about not using certain kinds of weapons." She responded as she twirled the revolvers. "It's either just shootin' her in the head, or watch you get your ass kicked."

To that, Reimu just sighed. Though Reimu considered guns dishonorable, Yuyuko did never specify that guns are forbidden in the spar, only that lethal forces are not allowed.

Moments later, Youmu recovered from that attack and got back up. With both of her swords still gripped tight in her hands, the samurai set her sight on the Guardians, anger written on her face.

"Did she seriously just shrug off a headshot, a superpowered kick, and then gettin' sent flyin' into a stone lantern hard enough to break it?" Marisa expressed surprise at how Youmu is still standing despite all that, as she pointed her twin revolvers at the samurai.

"I don't think she's human to begin with." Reimu noted as she re-summoned the Ying-Yang Orb. "I sense something unusual abo-..."

The shrine maiden stopped mid sentence as her intuition went off again. This time, it all but screamed at her to launch the Ying-Yang Orb now, which she did on autopilot.

With a battle cry, Youmu charged once more at supersonic speed and with both swords ready to be brought down upon the Guardians.

Unfortunately for Youmu, Reimu has already launched the Ying-Yang Orb at that point, and Youmu can't stop in time due to how fast she is moving...

So the samurai could only watch helplessly as she all but threw herself face-first into the Ying-Yang Orb...

Smack

"MYON!"

...

With the spar against Youmu over, Reimu dragged the unconscious samurai over to be presented to Yuyuko.

"Well, we've defeated your servant." Reimu then told Yuyuko. "But I'm sorry for ending the fight with her in this state." She then apologized to the Herald Princess.

Yuyuko took a glance at the unconscious Youmu. Even if the Ying-Yang Orb is running on danmaku rules that prevented it from causing physical harm, the samurai is definitely going to feel as if her entire face got caved in once she wakes up.

"Youmu was going, as you would say, overboard, so consider this a proper punishment for her instead." Yuyuko nonchalantly responded.

At the same time, Marisa dragged the also unconscious Sakuya over, albeit in a much better and dignified position than Youmu was.

"Actually, we're kinda in a hurry to get everything fixed." Marisa interrupted the brief conversation. "So can we hurry up and get things over with once and for all?"

Nope! Not dead!

Marisa's kind of right, though. Not only has this chapter been delayed way too long already, but the entire PCB arc has already dragged on for way too long, and I wanted to get it over with ASAP. So that's why this chapter seems rushed. Trust me, I didn't like this decision either, but I felt like I had to.

Next chapter, we'll be doing Yuyuko for real. Then it's just one more chapter after that and the PCB arc will be all over. No fight against the Yakumos, though. At the current levels of the Guardians of the Sanctuary, they'd just get curb stomped in a fight against Ran or Yukari whom I'd not be buffing due to them being already overpowered in canon to begin with, and I'd feel really bad about having the Guardians beat up Chen...

"And that, as they say, is that..."

Afterword ends here.