On the deck of the Holy Palanquin Renko and I watched the battle unfold and Murasa and Unzan worked to try to move the ship out of range of any stray bullets. Murasa from her position at the shattered remains of the tiller and Unzan from the stern of the ship, pushing with all his might against the hull. Overall, we were able to move, but only very slowly. More than once Shou or Nazrin had to intervene to deflect a projectile headed our way. Ichirin, meanwhile was busy watching the battle with rapt attention, her hands clasped in front of her in an attitude of prayer. Whenever they weren't busy elsewhere, Shou or Murasa would join her, flitting back and forth between managing the helm or deflecting the occasional stray bullet and praying with heartfelt earnestness for Byakuren's victory.

In contrast, just beside me Shinki and Renko were calmly drinking tea, appreciating spectacle and commenting occasionally on the highlights.

"Renko, how can you just be standing there and casually drinking tea at a time like this? Where did you even get that?"

"Yumeko makes it" Shinki replied happily. "It's her special herbal blend. Here, it'll calm your nerves." She nodded, smiling at me as her maid handed me a delicate china cup full of steaming, floral tea.

"Oh, thank you. It smells lovely, but that isn't what I meant. Don't you think this is an important battle? Everything we've worked for is on the line here."

"Well maybe. Maybe not. We'll just have to see how it goes," Renko replied. Shinki nodded in agreement. Where their confidence in an amenable outcome was coming from, I couldn't imagine.

I turned my attention back to Ichirin and the others. Shou and Murasa had both joined her at the railing now and looked ready to leap into the fight at a moment's notice.

"Shou, if mother Hijiri should somehow lose this fight, don't try to stop me."

"If that should happen, I'd be at your side, rather than in front of you."

Murasa's fingers were tightly gripping the wood of the railing while beside her Shou fidgeted, clenching and unclenching her hand around the shaft of her spear. Beside her, Nazrin stood silently, watching the proceedings with an emotionless expression, her eyes darting about to follow every movement. I followed her gaze to watch as Byakuren darted across a vast stretch of sky, too quick to follow, dashing perhaps two dozen meters in a blur to land a flying kick against Sanae's crossed arms that sent her tumbling through the air.

Byakuren's fighting style was unlike anything we had ever seen, to the point where it made it difficult for me to tell who was winning. The barrages of danmaku she threw out were minor for the most part, just a scattering here or there to cover her movement or dissuade approach. The real threat was the way she could close distance at a frightening pace, her body glowing with a luminous aura as she slipped through gaps between barrages and barriers to engage in fearsome close quarters combat. If not for the fact that she was flying and glowing I wouldn't have though her to be a magician at all -her style looked closer to a practiced and masterful form of martial arts, though after delivering a blow or forcing an opponent to yield ground she would often pause for just an instant and fiddle with her scroll, which appeared to be chanting some combination of sutras and incantations on its own in a deeply resonant voice, flying beside her as she fought.

This style of fighting seemed to be especially troublesome for Marisa, who kept trying to make enough distance between herself and Byakuren to line up a shot with her hakkero only to find her opponent suddenly directly in front of her. Laying down minefields of danmaku and lasers seemed to do little to deter her either, she simply avoided them with a lithe nimbleness and rushed in, ceaselessly pressuring the witch before she could gather her power. Sanae likewise seemed unaccustomed to hand-to-hand combat, though she was improvising by placing numerous patterned barrages behind herself then retreating through them when chased. It seemed an effective defense strategy, but she struggled to setup anything that looked like a serious attack against such a fast-moving target. Reimu seemed to be faring slightly better, relying on wards to stymie Byakuren's assaults and keeping constant pressure on her with a mix of seeking amulets and the occasional swipe with her gohei. Overall, Byakuren was able to effectively keep all three opponents from effectively working together, constantly moving from one to the next and and keeping them out of position. I couldn't speak to the degree of relative power that she held compared to a being like Yuyuko or Kanako, but in terms of a danmaku match, Byakuren seemed to be one of the most skillful and challenging combatants I had ever seen.

At the time of the battle of course, we couldn't hear much of anything that was going on aside from the rattle and boom of the danmaku themselves. Speaking to all three girls afterward though, I was able to assemble the following description of how the fight went.

-.-.-.-.-

"Damn it, I can't get a clean shot!"

"Sanae, you pin her down, Marisa, you bullseye her! I'll keep you safe."

"Damn, I hate to have to rely on a three-on-one attack to get her, but whatever works, I guess!" Marisa turned and jetted away, scattering indiscriminate waves of tumbling stars behind her to dissuade pursuit. Reimu darted forward and erected a barrier, slapping a half dozen ofuda over the glowing lines of light hovering in the air. Almost immediately Byakuren crashed against it, delivering a punch that resounded like thunder against the wall before turning and kicking off of it with both feet, both cracking the barrier and propelling herself away to circle around for another strike. As Reimu struggled to reinforce the ward, Sanae rapidly constructed numerous stacked rings and pentacles of densely-packed danmaku, arraying them so closely together as to leave almost no gap between them. Further out, Marisa turned in the air, leaping to rest her feet on her broomstick and carving an arcing trail as she slowed to a stop. She locked her arm as she tried to pick out where Byakuren's streaking form was headed.

The glowing aura of concentrated power surrounding Byakuren made her easy to track, but rather than curving back toward Reimu's barrier for a second blow, she seemed to have vaulted off at a sharp angle and was now circling around to the side without drawing in. Before any of the girls could question what she was up to she unfurled her scroll, still rocketing forward at speed as she did so.

"Great Magic - [Devil's Recitation]" the scroll intoned sonorously.

In the space of an instant, the luminous aura surrounding Byakuren bloomed, unfolding into two enormous butterfly wings made of fluctuating, flowing, rainbow-colored light. As they unfolded and stretched out, a dense cloud of scattering danmaku and sweeping lasers shot forth from them. The barrage slammed against Reimu's barrier and broke through it in an instant, then scattered both the dense thicket of bullets Sanae had been constructing and the two girls behind it.

"Oh, lady Shinki, isn't that one of your spells?" Yumeko asked as she poured more of the tea for her master.

"She remembered it! I'm so honored! I only showed it to her once and she's using it for something like this. She's so thoughtful, isn't she Yumeko?"

In the time it took them to discuss this, Byakuren had chased down Reimu and was hammering her with a series of punches that Reimu was barely managing to block by hanging ofuda in the air to match each blow and constantly retreating. Sanae and Marisa both abandoned their positions and flew in to help. Sanae arrived first, but all she managed to achieve was to zoom in close enough to be struck by a roundhouse kick that collided with a shining barrier that appeared a few centimeters in front of her ribs. The divine protection of Lady Yasaka doubtlessly saved her from a broken bone, but the impact still sent her rocketing backward, straight into Marisa, who was nearly knocked off of her broom and had to dive and scramble to retrieve her hakkero after dropping it when the two collided. Reimu seized the brief interruption in Byakuren's assault and used it to summon a large square of solid force which she hurled at the nun, pushing her away and making enough room for Reimu to soar away and reunite with the other girls.

"What's this lady's deal? She's way too strong to be just a magician, right?" Reimu panted as the three of them retreated in formation.

"We'll have to come up with something better than whinin' about it. We gotta go all out, Reimu. Together!"

"What do we do though? She breaks anything we try to set up!" Sanae asked.

"Then we keep her in one place. If you can keep her tied down I can hit her."

"I can't get her in a sealing circle though, she's too fast. Sanae, you act as a decoy. When she comes in to pummel you, I'll center a circle around you then Marisa can blast it."

"Wouldn't that get me too?"

"Your noble sacrifice for the good of Gensokyo will be remembered."

"Works for me. I'll aim for the little frog in your hair."

"Hold on, I don't want to be a sacrifice! Especially not for the sake of the Hakurei shrine!"

"Well then figure somethin' else out! We gotta pin her down!"

"I'll do it, you two figure out the rest!" Reimu suddenly declared and turned on the spot, cutting her momentum and springing back the way the three of them had come, right toward Byakuren, who was rapidly closing the distance. As her opponent approached Reimu scattered a salvo of ofuda with one arm and a spray of whirling yin-yang orbs with the other. "Dream sign: [Duplex Barrier!]" She shouted as a wisp of ash vanished from her hand. An enormous rotating cube of luminous wards bloomed around her, sealing both the shrine maiden and Byakuren inside of it as Reimu's danmaku cascaded outward, then looped back inward upon hitting the barrier, creating a confusing, nested array of back-and-forth barrages. Byakuren seemed confused for only a moment. Rather than diving for Reimu, who continued to throw out more and more projectiles, hurling them randomly at the wall of the barrier rather than her target, she sidestepped and headed directly for the vertex of the barrier itself. With a single punch it was shattered, crumbling into fragments of light and releasing a scatter of danmaku in every direction.

The brief window of opportunity brought by Reimu's Spell Card seemed to have been enough though. In the time it had taken Byakuren to break free of the nested wards, Sanae had loosed a Spell Card of her own, pinning the entire space that Reimu's wards had occupied between two slowly narrowing walls of towering and wavering aquamarine light. It was the same technique I had seen her use in her fight against Reimu. Sanae had mentioned to me at one point it was one she preferred not to use, if only because it took a lot of physical strength to maintain. Watching her swing her arms rapidly back and forth as she threw out wave after splitting wave of light, I could see why. As far as effectiveness however, it was hard to criticize. Byakuren was pinned between the oscillating barriers and effectively separated from Reimu, who was still reeling from the impact to her wards.

As Byakuren emerged from the prison of Reimu's shattered barrier, she found herself already bounded by walls on both sides. The only ways out were forward or back, and without hesitation she chose forward, rocketing ahead toward Sanae and the point at which the waves she was hurling split to become the two walls.

At the mouth of that split though, right at the point where the waves broke, just a half meter away from being caught by the waves at her back was Marisa, standing atop her broom. As Byakuren charged up the path created by the parted sea of Sanae's waves one final Spell Card ignited. Marisa's voice rang out across the darkened skies. "MASTER SPARK!"

The path that Sanae had created between the cascading columns of light was filled in an instant by the breadth of Marisa's laser. Reimu had only a fraction of a heartbeat to escape, and she did so in a way I had never seen her manage before, simply disappearing into a gap behind her and falling out of space, to emerge from a paired gap beside Marisa. I barely had time to notice such details though as the all-consuming rainbow of Marisa's blast washed across the night sky, completely engulfing Byakuren's form.

-.-.-.-.-

Everyone watching the battle from the deck of the Holy Palanquin gasped. As the roar of the hakkero's laser dissipated, it gave way to an eerie, tense silence. As the last of the intense flood of rainbow light faded away, Byakuren's form emerged from within its stream, seemingly unchanged, other than the fact that the glowing aura around her had dimmed significantly and her arms were crossed over her face.

Then, all at once, her body swayed and the aura faded completely. Whatever magic had been holding her aloft was lost and she tumbled, head over heels toward the void below.

Murasa swore explosively and moved to leap over the side of the rails. She was beaten to it by Nazrin though, who was already in the air by that point, diving downward at speed and racing toward Byakuren's plummeting body.

"Nazrin?" Shou cried, extending an arm toward her.

Nazrin never looked back, simply speeding ahead as she dropped precipitously. Ichirin was frozen in shock for a moment but then ran for the back of the ship, calling for Unzan as she did.

"Come on Merry, let's go!" Renko cried, running after her.

"Renko, wait! Go where?" I asked, dropping my teacup to sprint after her.

Instead of answering she reached out as Ichrin leapt into the sky and grabbed a hold of the side of Unzan's towering face as he swooped by. Without thinking, I grabbed onto the hem of her trenchcoat as she was carried away. Seeing us hanging there, Unzan wordless transformed himself, spreading out into a shape that could carry both of us along with Ichirin without issue. Carrying us all, the Nyudo surged ahead, but we were still a long way behind Nazrin.

"Saint Byakuren, grab hold!" Nazrin shouted, extending one of her dousing rods out toward Byakuren.

Still plummeting, her eyes fluttered weakly. Blearily, she looked up. "Nazrin?" she asked, and extended her hand to take the offered rod. As soon as her hand closed around it, Nazrin pulled her in, then spun around her to grab her behind, lifting with all of her might to try to slow their fall. It wasn't enough. The two of them slowed down but were still falling.

"Heads up!" Murasa hollered from behind me. "Or better yet, heads down!"

I had only a moment to look behind me and then duck as Murasa's anchor whistled overhead, trailing a length of heavy chain. It shot past us, and continued to fall, nearly missing Byakuren. Nazrin reached out with one of her dousing rods and snagged the passing chain. Glowing with the watery green flame we had seen around Murasa before, the chain of the anchor contorted as if alive, suddenly convulsing and wrapping itself around the two falling bodies. The chain went stiff and their fall suddenly stopped. Perhaps a dozen seconds later Unzan arrived and extended his massive palms before him, scooping Nazrin, Byakuren and the anchor up all at once, then depositing them on his back with the rest of us.

"Mother Hijiri! Are you alright?" Ichirin asked in alarm.

"Before you ask that how about you get this chain off of us," Nazrin grumbled from beneath Byakuren, her voice muffled by Unzan's muscular pink fluff.

"Ah, sorry, sorry. Thank you Nazarin, thank you Murasa, that was quick thinking, both of you. Unzan, take us up so I can get some slack on this chain."

Dutifully, Unzan returned us to the deck of the ship, where Shou and Murasa were waiting anxiously. As he settled onto the deck and dissolved into mist beneath us, Murasa collected both the anchor and the tremendous length of steel chain and threw them over her shoulder thoughtlessly. They vanished into watery flame in an instant, never hitting the deck.

Byakuren was still weaving unsteadily as she tried to stand, but supported by her disciples she climbed to her feet and looked out over the wavering glow at the center of the Realm of Truth. "I lost, didn't I?" She mumbled.

Reimu, Marisa and Sanae had reached us by that point. Descending onto the deck of the ship with Reimu in the lead they nodded.

"Sure did," Marisa confirmed. "Heck of a fight though. I wouldn't mind learning a few spells like that."

"That means we won right? Yay! I got to solve an Incident this time!" Sanae cheered.

"It means," Reimu began, fixing Byakuren with a cold stare, "that it's over."