Once Upon a Time in Gensokyo

by Curse Of Kings

In this Touhou fairy tale, a wedding is taking place in the Netherworld between Yuyuko and Prince Leroy. But things are looking bad when not only will the two be miserable together, but another ghost has stolen a powerful artifact to stop the wedding, uncaring of the damage it'll cause. Can Reimu and Marisa make sure everyone lives happily ever after?

1. Prolouge

Fourth Incident – Once Upon a Time in Gensokyo

Prologue

Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame were at the Hakurei Shrine. They had been asked to gather there by Youmu Konpaku, the half-phantom gardener and head servant of Yuyuko Saigyouji, a princess of the Netherworld.

As they meet, Reimu and Marisa notice that Youmu looked very worried and was carrying a strange looking lamp by her side. The lamp was a dark gold old Arabian oil lamp with "eyes" made of obsidian with amethyst "pupils" and a toothy grin made of white marble. The top was ovate with a round top with small spikes for gripping and a z-shaped spout. The spout was where the nose would be on the "face."

"OK, Youmu, we're here," said Reimu, "Why did you call us?"

"It's about Lady Yuyuko. She's getting married."

The girls gasped. Marisa gasped in excitement, clapping her hands while Reimu rolled her eyes.

"What, really? That's great!" Marisa squealed, "We gotta go congratulate her, ze!"

"Seriously?! And we weren't invited why, exactly?" Reimu asked with her hands on her hips.

"I'm sorry. That wasn't my call." Youmu shrugged her shoulders and shook her head, "But the truth is this marriage is a bad thing."

"…Why?"

"The marriage is between Yuyuko and one of her best friends, Prince Leroy," Youmu continued with an annoyed frown on her face, "The key word here is being friends! The two of them aren't in love at all! I just know they'll be miserable if the marriage goes through… So, I need your help to end it."

" …Well Yuyuko is my friend." Reimu replied, "I don't want her to be unhappy for the rest of her unlife."

"Yeah… Me too, ze. So how do we fix this?" asked Marisa.

Youmu picked up the lamp and showed it to them, "We can fix it… With this!"

"That weird looking lamp?" Reimu raised an eyebrow, "What can that thing possibly do?"

"This is no ordinary lamp!" Youmu called out and went on to explain, "It contains great power! You see this lamp-"

Suddenly, Youmu was interrupted by a mature woman's voice from above them.

"Hello there."

The three girls looked up to see Eburinferuton, the self-proclaimed "fairy godmother" of Gensokyo flying above them. Eburinferuton wore a sparkling transparent light purple hooded shawl with a darker blue sleeveless gown with a long hoop skirt with light blue ruffles on the shoulders and rim of the skirt. She had blue eyes and turquoise hair with a cerulean headband that went down to the small of her back. She was as always surrounded by a large scarf made out of glittering blue dust, and had large, wide wings made out of the same material. She of course had her magic wand in hand: a two-foot-long light blue stick topped with a blue and white star with two light blue sparkling tassels that draped down over both sides of the star. Despite being a fairy, who were usually very small and looked like children, she was very tall (for a fairy, she was three foot eleven) and looked like a grown woman.

"Eburinferuton? What are you doing here?" called out Reimu. She was well aware that Eburinfruton had a strong dislike of her, Marisa and most of the nonhuman population of Gensokyo in general, "Last time I checked, we 'don't need or deserve your help'," she snarked with air-quotes from her fingers.

"You still don't," Eburinferuton replied flatly.

She then switched to a normal tone as she eyed the lamp, "But never mind that. Is that Jin's lamp?" she asked, pointing at it.

Youmu looked at it and then back at the fairy, "Um, yes? Why?"

"Good! Ah, sorry in advance, children…"

With a swift swing of her wand, she swung her wand at them and zapped them all with an electrical bolt powerful enough to shock them.

"AAUGH!"

They screamed in pain as they were stunned by the electricity. While they were shocked, Eburinferuton flew down, grabbed the lamp and flew off as fast as her wings could take her.

Soon enough, the effects of the spell would wear off. With her clothes and hair in an ashy mess, Reimu shook her fist in the air and yelled, "OW! HEY! What was that for!?" But it was too late. She was long gone. Once she realized the fairy had left, she sighed and put her hand down.

"Oh…She's gone. What was that all about? Youmu! What's so special about that lamp?" she looked at the teal-dressed young woman for an answer.

"Jin lives in it!" Youmu replied in a panic as she brought her hand to her forehead, "She's our friend, and a genie! I was going to use her third wish to stop the wedding!"

Marisa was enamored by such a thing. "Wow, a genie?! Those are really rare, ze! I can't believe ya found one; they usually have ta be summoned!"

"A genie!? Reimu was equally astounded, "I don't know, Youmu! I've read up on genies, and let me tell you they can be trouble. While most of the older ones give you exactly what you want, many of the younger ones interpret wishes differently."

She began a small tangent whilst pacing back and forth.

"They follow the letter of the wish and not the spirit or even just screw it up due to them not understanding how the wish is handled! And that's not even getting into what the ifrits or "evil genies" are like. I get that you're desperate, but isn't there another way?"

Youmu blinked, and took into account what she had just heard from Reimu.

"…Oh dear. Jin is very young for a genie. I wasn't aware of this; we rarely use her wishes here in the Netherworld and she often changes hands. Maybe we should just get together and make our case to Leroy's parents."

She quickly shifted gears when she remembered the lamp itself. "But that's going to have to wait! We need to get Jin's lamp back before that third wish is made!" She stomped her foot and scratched her head, "But how do we do that? Eburinferuton is already so far away…"

While Reimu and Youmu were talking, Marisa had been busy running through spell options in her head. Then, she gasped when an idea came to her, "Aw, ya don't need ta worry about that, ze! I know tracking spells! All I gotta do is cast one and…" Her broomstick began to ping as a red trail appeared in midair!

"There! I found her, let's go after her!"

The three girls' chased after Eburinferuton at top speed, flying after her to get Jin's lamp back

Meanwhile in an unknown location, a beautiful female ghost with blonde hair and blue eyes wearing a fancy, beautiful blue ball gown, tiara and slippers made entirely out of glass stands in front of a team of four women.

Two of them were human with the other two were youkai. The ghost, Synder Ella, was talking hastily to the other four women. One of them, a lively snow rabbit had a mirror, and in it they were all watching Reimu and her friends. All five of them had their features hidden.

"Thank you again for agreeing to work for me, you four. I'm so glad you were willing to make an exception for me. Anyway… These three are your targets, girls." Synder showed them a magical projection of Reimu, Youmu, and Marisa.

"Your mission is to stop their pursuit of Eburinferuton and also to prevent them from taking back the lamp. Feel free to use force if you want, but do not, I repeat do not kill them, alright?! And no excessive maiming or anything like that either!"

"Ah…that's a relief," Said the lively snow rabbit.

"Yes… Killing… Is such… …A pain," said the other youkai, a Minotaur, in a deep, very slow and rumbling voice.

The oldest of the two humans didn't seem to like that decision, as she groaned and said "Aw, seriously?! That's no fun."

If the oldest looking human seemed to not like the idea, then the youngest member of them all seemed to absolutely despise the idea with every fiber of her being.

"Hmph. You are aware this means our price just doubled, right?"

"Its fine, its fine. I knew you would say that and already paid you double your normal rate. So which one of you is going to go first? Or do you plan to attack them all at once?"

"No," insisted the little girl, "I'll take them all down at once, all on my own. I hate traitors like them…"

With a quick flick of her wrist, she whipped out a hunting knife and slashed open a rift leading to where Reimu, Marisa and Youmu are.

As soon as she confirmed the location of their prey, the little monster huntress gained a devious smirk and called out to her teammates:

"The target is in sight. The hunt is on. Let's go girls."

The little girl leapt through the rift. As it closed up behind her, the remaining four girls turned back to the lively snow rabbit's mirror, which showed the little girl approaching Reimu and her friends…

Stage 1 – Redd, the Leader of Team Grimm

Stage 1 – Redd, the Leader of Team Grimm

Meanwhile, the three girls had been running through an open field. All of a sudden, Reimu stopped running and started to shiver. She broke out into a cold sweat as her skin went pale. Then she held her stomach as if afflicted by a sudden ache. Marisa and Youmu stopped running and turned back to their friend in concern.

"Re-Reimu?! What's wrong?!" Youmu gasped as she ran over to check on her friend, "I've never seen you act this way before…"

Marisa had an terrified, uneasy expression on her face as her lip quivered. "I have! It means she's here! But why? There ain't any youkai around!"

"…Huh? 'She?' I don't get it…" Youmu glanced at Reimu.

"A horrible, twisted aura that makes her less than human…" Reimu explained as she clutched her stomach from the pain, "Yes…Redd Ryder is definitely somewhere close by."

"And who in all of the afterlives is that?!" Youmu yelped as she crouched behind her friends.

"Only one of the biggest psychopaths Gensokyo has to offer!" Reimu went on, gritting her teeth.

"Redd is a murderer, Youmu, plain and simple. She's killed countless youkai. What makes her different from a monster-hunter like Kokuto is that she does not discriminate with the youkai she kills. She goes after not just the youkai who are active threats to humans but also youkai who are neutral or even friendly towards humans! I've lost count of how many friends I've had to save from that maniac, and that's not even getting into the friends she's taken from us! As you might expect, we hate each other but she seems to hate me more, with her constantly calling us traitors for some reason."

"Me too, ze!" Marisa agreed, "The worst part about it all is how hypocritical she is! For all her talk about how youkai are horrible monsters that deserve to die, she is far more of a monster than any of their kind."

At that moment, a crossbow bolt fell from the sky and plunged into the ground a couple of inches in front of Marisa. She shrieked and leapt back as she and the other two girls drew their weapons. As soon as they readied themselves, countless crossbow bolts fell from the sky at random but Youmu deflected them all with her swordplay. After that, a rift opened up and a little girl in question hopped out of it.

Redd wore a bright red and white gothic Lolita dress with a white front and a hot pink back above a pair of murky red jeans and small cherry red slippers with white knee socks. Above this she wore a waist-length blood red hooded shawl tied around the neck with a big red bow with a black diamond shaped like a wolf's head with narrowed eyes made of emeralds. Her moderate cerise hair was in a curly mullet neck-length. Her eyes are silver and very intense. She carries in one hand a wicker basket covered with a red cloth, and Reimu and Marisa knew this seemingly innocuous item was actually her most dangerous weapon of all. This was indeed Redd Ryder.

She used her ability to jump twice to land safely on the ground and glared at them all hatefully. The three girls glared right back.

"You've got the eyes of a killer as always, I see… REDD!" Reimu tensed, ready for battle, "What do you want with us?! Get out of our way, Redd, we're in a hurry! Eburinferuton took something important from us, and we have to get it back before it's too late! All of us are human, well mostly human in Youmu's case, SO BACK OFF!"

"I know. It's why I came here to stop you."

"What!? Why?!"

"Because someone paid all of Team Grimm to prevent you from getting in her way. Now, she unfortunately doesn't want me to kill you all, so I'll give you a chance to leave. I'm sure she'll give you your precious lamp back when she's done with it."

"We're not going anywhere except to get that lamp back, Redd!" Reimu insisted as she held up one of her spell cards, "How about this: We have a Spell Card Battle, and if you lose, you and your team have to leave us alone while we retrieve that lamp!"

Since she knew she couldn't kill them, Redd had no choice but to agree with a huff. "…Fine. But if I win, you have to give up your attempts to get in our way."

With that, her grin turned even more wicked as she held the hunting knife in her left hand, and brought out a loaded crossbow from her basket in her right.

Redd began to snicker, "Heh heh heh…Beating you down will be a joy!"

The duo of girls got themselves ready to fight. "We're going to be the only ones doing the beating, Redd!" Reimu shouted, "This is for all of the friends you've taken from us! Let's go, Marisa!"

"Right!" Marisa added as she clutched her broomstick.

"My, what big teeth you have!" Redd cackled as her grin grew wider, "I can't wait to punch them down your throat!"

To kick things off, Redd immediately reached into her basket and pulled out her trusty crossbow- Her most used weapon when it came to her hunts. She immediately started firing a lengthy series of crossbow bolts at Reimu. She easily avoided the bolts with a series of dodge rolls, and quickly retaliated by firing off dozens of red and blue magical bullets in Redd's direction. The huntress was barely able to dodge and weave her way through the bullet hell, and was ultimately caught off-guard as a danmaku struck her from the side and exploded, causing her to take a tumble, followed by at least a dozen more exploding bullets firing off and detonating upon her.

"Grrgh! You little… Let's see how you handle this, traitor!" Redd hissed as she activated her first Spell Card, Red Hood "The Better to See You With", which opened several paw-shaped rifts around Reimu and released that she had to dodge, followed by a series of hatchets.

"Stop calling me that!" Reimu shouted back as she floated through and elegantly dodged each hatchet. This battle was going a lot easier than it should be. Redd rarely if ever lost her so-called "hunts." What was going on?! It was almost as if she was a novice at this kind of thing! But as she was dodging, Redd had jumped up above her, and lifted up her skirt slightly. A cascade of small but powerful bombs fell towards Reimu's head.

Reimu gasped and leapt back once she saw the bombs and allowed Marisa to take over.

"Marisa!"

"Got it!" Marisa called out and, while riding on her broomstick, punched Redd hard enough to knock her backwards. In a flash, she activated one of her spell cards which cast a series of rainbow-colored, star-shaped bullets that flew out from all sides and swarmed around Redd.

"Grrgh! You'll pay for tha-!" By the time Redd recovered, it was too late. The huntress was already overwhelmed and reeling from the unexpectedly powerful punch that Marisa had landed on her. She tried her best to dodge, and even block some of the explosive bullets, but it wasn't enough. There was no room for her to avoid these as they exploded around her and knocked her even further backwards to the other side of the dirt path.

"Ready ta give up?!" Marisa taunted her.

"Not even close!"

She then activated her next Spell Card, Red Hood "The Better to Hear You With", and took off the white cloth covering her basket. An explosion of darkness came out of the basket, forming into a large pack of savage wolves of darkness that immediately charged on Marisa's position. Redd folded her arms and grinned wickedly, confident that the wolves would devour her.

But Redd had underestimated the witch.

With a quick flick of her broom, she'd fire off more magical bullets that fanned out and swarmed, countering each wolf and turning them to dust in a fiery blaze from each explosion. Even when one tried to sneak up on her from behind, she quickly turned around and punched it hard enough to disintegrate it!

Furious Redd pulled out two long serrated saws and tried to engage Marisa directly, but she still didn't stand a chance. The huntress got in close and swung both saws at Marisa's neck, but Marisa just stopped her by grabbing Redd's wrist with one hand, and delivering a vicious uppercut to Redd's chin with the other. Marisa too was shocked at how easy that was. Usually Redd was at her best at close range. It was almost like she was being forced to hold back. This was beyond strange. Why wasn't she going all out? Sure she was told not to kill them, but even so...

"ARGH! THAT'S IT! LET'S SEE HOW YOU HANDLE THIS!"

Screamed Redd as she reached behind her and pulled out a gigantic repeating crossbow. It honestly looked more like a ballistae than a simple crossbow. She pointed it at them both, pulled the trigger and it began to practically rain giant arrows. But both girls just dodged them all and countered with some of their stronger Spell Cards. Every bullet hit its mark knocking her away and making her giant crossbow fall from her hands and was smashed to pieces upon hitting the ground.

Redd yelled some very nasty words that the average nine-year-old girl had no business knowing, let alone saying as she flew backwards and landed on her back. Much to the two girl's shock and delight, Redd was now tired and scuffed up from the battle, panting heavily as she stood back up. She decided to just finish them off with her Last Word Spell Card, Red Hood "The Better to Eat You With", the one that killed anyone who was hit by it. Or at least it normally did. Due to the rules of the Spell Card System, they wouldn't actually die, but the resulting beatdown that would ensue would very likely make them wish they were dead.

"Alright…you asked for it…"

Redd took out another hunting knife and suddenly stabbed her basket, causing it to break apart and transform into a giant rift in space that started to suck them both in! The blonde witch cried out as she stood her ground with her arm shielding her face.

"Gah! Ze, help me out!"

Reimu did just that as she too did her best to not get sucked in, and activated her Spell Cards once more. When she got within range, she fired off as many danmaku as she could into the portal, and overloaded it. Once she decided it was full, she snapped her fingers and caused an explosion so powerful that it overpowered Redd's spell and canceled it out.

The explosion had more than enough force to send Redd flying into the air before landing face-first in the dirt, her basket reforming by her side. She was now barely able to move through the pain. It was obvious to everyone that she had lost the Battle. All in all, the entire fight was far easier then someone with her well-deserved reputation should have been and both Reimu and Marisa just didn't get why. They should've had the fight of their lives, right?

"Urrgh…"

Reimu floated down to the ground and looked down at the defeated Redd in confusion, "That was disappointingly easy! Wait… It was too easy… But you weren't holding-! Wait a minute! Redd… Are-Are you bad at Spell Card Battles?"

Redd just turned away from them as if in shame and grumbled, " …No comment."

Marisa immediately burst out laughing while pointing at Redd, "BWAHAHAHAHA! I don't believe it! The great Redd Ryder, bane of youkai everywhere, is bad at the one thing most youkai are good at!"

"So that's why you always run away from the Spell Card Battles you lose!" Reimu went on with a smirk on her face, "That's why you always try to avoid fights with us! That's why you try to avoid fighting the older, stronger warriors of Gensokyo… You're ashamed of this glaring weakness of yours, and you don't want us 'traitors' to find out!" she added with air quotes.

Redd snarled and started kicking her legs while slamming her fists on the ground like the child she was,

"Shut up… Shut up shut up shut up! It's not my fault those stupid things aren't lethal! I just never thought I'd have to deal with these kinds of things, that's all!"

"We don't care about that, Redd!" Youmu pleaded with her hands together, "Just stand down and let us pass already!"

Redd rested her elbow on the ground with her chin in her palm as if she was lost in thought for a moment, "Hmmm… Yeah, about that… HA!"

Taking them all by surprise, Redd leapt into the air, pointed at them and tossed a hunting knife at them. However, the knife missed them by a mile, instead landing in between the trio of girls. Reimu cocked her head in confusion, as she knew from experience that Redd's aim should be better.

"What was that all about?!" Reimu questioned with her gohei at the ready, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you missed deliberately!"

"HA! Ya missed!"

Redd smirked, "No, I did not."

The knife sank into the ground, causing the ground around it to crack and break apart. When the knife was no longer visible, the ground turned into a swirling vortex that began to draw them in. The three girls try to flee in a panic, but the pull was far too strong for them and they are quickly swallowed up by it. The vortex closed up behind them.

"AGH!" Youmu cried out.

"W-WHAT'S HAPPENING, REIMU?!" Marisa yelped.

"HOLD ON!" Reimu tried to cast a spell to save them but it was too late.

Redd sighed as she watched the vortex swallow them up. "Tch! I wish I wasn't so bad at this! Oh well. Shuno, Beauty, Goldie…It's all up to you now."

Stage 2 – Shuno, the Speed and Financier of Team Grimm

Stage 2 – Shuno, the Speed and Financier of Team Grimm

The three girls were dumped out in an area of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. In this region, there was a perpetual snow storm blowing in every which-way. It was chilly, but not to the point where they couldn't withstand it. In fact, it actually felt very pleasant. As they trudged through the snow, the three of them couldn't help but wonder why they ended up there…

"…Snow? At this time of year? I didn't think the Bamboo Forest even had this kind of weather. Where are we? Why did Redd send us here?"

"We are in the territory of the lively snow rabbits," Reimu explained as she took a look around, "They're winter spirits who rule over the rabbit youkai of Gensokyo. Their job is to help bring about and wrap up winter. They love the snow, so they use magic to keep the land shrouded in a perpetual snowstorm. As for why we're here…I'm not sure-wait!"

She paused mid-step and snapped her fingers as realization struck her face, "There was something about the princess of the lively snow rabbits, Shuno Wyte! She's part of Team Grimm too! Redd must have sent us here to fight her!"

Youmu tilted her head, then gasped, "Wait, what?! Hold on a minute! What's Team Grimm? What does some team have to do with Redd Ryder?"

"Redd Ryder doesn't work alone," Reimu went on, "She's actually part of a team of four bounty hunters. To be honest it's actually a good thing, I shudder to think what would happen if she didn't have the other three to hold her back. Unlike her, they're actually sane."

Youmu was concerned, "Are they stronger than her?"

Reimu rolled her hand as she thought about it, "Hmmm… Yes and no. Redd is the best at killing youkai, but in terms of overall strength, that honor goes to Goldie Lockez. As for Spell Card Battles… I'm not sure," she added with a shrug, then smirked, "They're probably stronger than Redd is by a long shot, though… That was one of the easiest fights I've ever had!"

"What are we going to do now, ze?" Marisa asked.

"Redd's powers will very likely keep us from fleeing," Reimu replied as they resumed walking through the snowy landscape, "We have no choice. We must track Shuno Wyte down and defeat her. And knowing our luck, we'll probably have to fight the entire team. But finding Shuno may be difficult. Marisa, could you-AH!"

Everyone stopped on a dime. At that moment, the snow that fell all around them suddenly picked up, and transformed from a soft flurry into a raging blizzard! After that, the snow stopped in midair and started to gather in a single spot above them, forming itself into a full-body sized mirror of ice.

The mirror floated to the ground and its surface began to shimmer and ripple. Out of it came a young woman dressed like an elegant ballet dancer. She wore a form fitting dark blue leotard with two thin vertical yellow stripes followed by thick red vertical stripes that were tied together with yellow lace in the middle of the leotard. Around the waist was a thin horizontal red stripe and around her hips was a frilly dark yellow miniskirt that ended in two layers of white ruffles. Her shoulders were light blue, round and puffy with a row of three large red circles. She wore a pair of light amberish gray tights with orange bow ties that are set with bright red apple-shaped rubies. She had a pair of dark yellow heeled slippers on her feet. Her hair was black long and wavy and went down to the small of her back. She wore a pair of black horn-rimmed spectacles on her face and her eyes were cerulean. She was very beautiful with full, red lips and pale skin and she had in her hand a grayish blue violet handheld mirror that ended in a swordlike point.

Reimu and Marisa both recognized her instantly: This was Shuno Wyte, the speed and financier of Team Grimm.

Shuno glanced at them coldly, but not unkindly, "Hello. So you're the ones she wants us to stop. I am Shuno Wyte. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

Reimu looked at her hesitantly. Shuno was always a very polite person, even to her enemies that she had to kill. Interacting with her was always strange.

"Uh…thanks? You're awfully polite for one of Redd's friends."

"Ah yes… Her," Shuno sighed with a hand on her hip, "My apologies for the way she's treated you. Being a bounty hunter is no reason for rudeness, but if you must know, that was her in a good mood. Hard to believe, I know."

"I'll say!" Reimu agreed with her arms folded as she tapped her foot, "But never mind that! I take it we're going to have ourselves a Spell Card Battle?"

"Yes," Shuno replied with a smile as she raised her mirror and voice. "And I have the perfect battlefield for us!" The mirror glowed as she began to chant, "Mirror, Mirror standing tall, stop my foes, once and for all!"

Bright light was shone from the mirror, causing the three girls to avert their eyes with their hands in front of their faces. When the light died out, all four girls were transformed into small balls of white light that flew into the mirror and vanished. The two mirrors disintegrated and turned back into snow.

Reimu, Marisa, and Youmu found themselves in an endless swirling void of blackness and purple smoke. The ground in front of them rippled and glowed. Shuno could be seen rising out of it, pirouetting in place akin to a doll in a music box. In her right hand was a rapier made of snow with a hand mirror for a pommel.

"This is the Realm of Mirrors," Shuno called out to them as her dance slowed to a stop, "Here, I have all the power." Then, she pointed her rapier at them and went on, "I have a special song I'd like to sing just for you. It's a beautiful requiem about your upcoming failure! Now get ready!"

Reimu readied her gohei once more, "Humph. We'll see about that! Bring it on!"

Marisa also readied her broom, and asked, "Heya Reimu? Do ya think she's better at this than Redd is?"

Reimu scoffed, "Pfft! It doesn't matter! Good or bad, she's in our way. And it's high time we got her out of it!"

Given that they were in a much emptier area with more space, the girls were able to float along and cast their spells from a safe distance without worrying about collateral damage.

Reimu started off first, casting multiple danmaku that fanned out across the infinite expanse towards Shuno.

The elegant dancer of a huntress retaliated by pointing her rapier at them and shooting off a tidal wave-sized arc of snow that blocked most of the magic bullets. This allowed her to run through the danmaku with the snow acting as a shield to tank most of the hits for her. Next, she'd wave her rapier and summon several snowmen to attack and charge at the mages.

"Woah!" Reimu gasped and fired more magical bullets from her gohei. A snowman had nearly landed a punch on her, but she was able to narrowly avoid it with her swift dodging skills and zap its head off with some explosive bullets.

"Agh!" Marisa was caught off-guard by a snowman that had bum-rushed her. But she drove it off with a swift punch followed by firing off dozens of star-shaped bullets at it to send it flying backwards and put it down for good. "Where is she?!"

As it turned out, Shuno was above them and had jumped off of the wave of snow. From her hand, she tossed out several multi-colored potion bottles towards them that exploded and released a noxious fume into the air.

"Move!" Reimu called out as a warning, urging Youmu and Marisa to move out of the way as she cast a barrier to defend them from the poison.

"Yikes! Magic potions? I didn't know she was a magician youkai as well!" Cried Youmu.

"She ain't a magician, ze! She just really good at makin' potions an' stuff!"

Shuno took advantage of Reimu letting her guard down and charged her, striking swiftly with her rapier and only barely landing a hit upon her. "You're pretty quick. I see why Redd wasn't able to keep up with you!"

"That and she was a complete pushover!" Reimu dodged a swipe of the sword by flipping backwards and firing off more bullets that exploded in front of Shuno. "Like you!"

"Rrrgh!"

The elegant snow rabbit grunted as she held her rapier in front of herself to block them, but was overwhelmed by the blast and sent flying backwards, spinning until she gathered herself and stood upright. "...looks like I'll have to get serious."

Shuno would activate her first Spell Card, Mirror Mirror "Poison Laces".

Upon activation, she'd summon a blizzard that swept the girls up in a massive flurry of ice and snow as she waved her rapier. Snow would follow them as they all got swept up in the updraft and Reimu would have to think quickly in order to counter this.

"Ze! Look out!" Marisa yelped as she clutched her broom.

But Reimu was already on top of it. She watched closely as they floated up with the snow and kept herself calm as she calculated the exact moment to retaliate. "Okay. I can do this." And with a quick flick of her gohei, she kept her eyes steeled upon the snowballs.

Then, just as they came down and started to fall as giant spiked snowflakes, Reimu fired off more magic bullets to explode each one in mid-air before it could land upon them. But she had to admit, she had actually broken a sweat compared to their fight with Redd.

"Damn this is a bit harder…"

Once the blizzard had died down, Reimu and Marisa found themselves surrounded by a ring of Shuno that quickly began firing blasts of snow at them. They tried to blast the clones, but they just exploded into snow and reformed. They were quickly starting to get overwhelmed, but Reimu quickly spotted one that looked… Different.

"Marisa!" cried out Reimu, "Let's try hitting the one with snow spinning around it!"

"On it, ze!" And she hit the copy with one of her strongest Spell Cards.

Sure enough, the blast destroyed all the copies and even seemed to seriously hurt the real Shuno. But she just melted into the ground and reemerged a good distance away, drinking a potion that healed herself and then another one that created a protective barrier. She then created giant snowballs that grew bigger and bigger as they got closer and closer.

Dodging these snowballs was a pain, and very soon Marisa had had enough and flew forward while firing off more explosive stars while riding on her broom.

"Okay you're actually not as bad as I thought! I actually had to put effort in for that one, ze!"

One of the star bits destroyed the barrier and the battle switched to close-quarters with Shuno charging right at Marisa and swiping at her with her sword.

"You'll never get that lamp back."

Marisa gasped and weaved around the sword strikes, earning a few small scrapes in the process.

"Grgh! That lamp is our friend, ze! You won't get away with this!"

Marisa dealt a heavy punch to Shuno's gut before leaping backwards on her broom, narrowly avoiding a gigantic spiked snowflake Shuno summoned around her.

"Urgh!" The icy huntress was stunned for a moment and was unable to dodge the onslaught of bullets slung her way that exploded around her, and sent her flying through the empty space.

"Nice one!" Reimu called out as she flew up to Marisa. "Think she'll give up yet?"

"I'm not so sure…" Marisa grumbled as she glanced at the princess dressed in white.

Sure enough, she had gotten up and began to retaliate from a distance. She activated her second Spell Card, Mirror Mirror "Poison Comb".

Around Reimu and Marisa, a long and seemingly endless hall of mirrors appeared out of nowhere. In an instant, a small bunch of lasers fired off from her rapier that bounced off and zapped against each one!

"Look out, Marisa!"

Reimu called out as she ducked down. Even though they were in an infinite space, there was no escape from the endless hall of mirrors. The girls floated through and tried to avoid the lasers bouncing off but soon realized it was a fool's errand.

"Darn it!" Marisa yelped as they floated along, "I don't think punching these would be a good idea. What should we do?"

"I've got it," Reimu aimed her gohei at the mirrors, "If we can somehow overload them with our own danmaku, we should be able to shatter them one by one."

"It's worth a shot!"

The two would begin firing off loads of their own bullets at the mirrors. Each time they did, they made sure to duck under them so they would end up shooting themselves. Soon enough, after enough bouncing back and forth, the bullets would shatter the mirrors and leave them exposed to a sudden flurry of woodland critters made of snow!

"Aw, they're so cute-wait-" Marisa gushed over them, but quickly realized they weren't looking to play!

"Get back, Mari!" Reimu yelled as she zapped each one with her bullets, "Grrgh…where did this loser go?!"

Suddenly, Shuno dashed towards them, firing off more snowballs. But Marisa stood in front of Reimu and blocked Shuno's sword attacks with her broom before sending her backwards with a kick that she followed up with enough bullets to shatter her snowflake shield. Reimu would then trade places with her, letting Marisa handle the squirrels and deer made of snow while Reimu summoned a swarm of danmaku that struck Shuno in a pillar formation, resulting in a combination attack that she couldn't escape from!

"Agh!" Shuno screamed as she fell backwards and lost grip on her sword. At this point, all she had was her last resort…her final Spell Card, Mirror Mirror "Poison Apple".

Before the girls could react, a massive mirror would appear beneath their feet that launched the girls into the air as Shuno summoned a total of sixteen other mirrors around them that would fire frozen apples at them as she leapt into the air…

"Ze!" Marisa called out as she started blasting the apples with her bullets.

"I see it!" Reimu called out in response.

Shuno was now above them and had summoned a massive apple tree made of ice! The two mages acted quickly. While Marisa took care of the apple projectiles with her own bullets, Reimu would fly into the air and fire a swarm of her own bullets at the tree. Both of them put a ton of effort into their attacks, but in the end…

"ARGH!"

With a massive explosion, the ice-tree exploded, and Shuno was caught in the blast. When the final blow was struck, Shuno's rapier shattered. The lively snow rabbit started to glow white and exploded into a bright light that forced the girls to shield their eyes behind their hands. After the light faded away Reimu and Marisa were back in the Bamboo Forest and Shuno was in front of them, down on her knees and breathing heavily.

"Argh…huff…How…How did you beat me?" she muttered in disbelief.

Reimu also had to take a deep breath. "If it's any consolation, you did a lot better than Redd did! Now let us pass already!"

"I can't," Shuno replied, "it's not up to me."

Youmu stomped up to her and groaned, "Well then whose call is it?!"

Shuno pointed behind them and answered, "Her's."

The three girls turned around to see Redd and Eburinferuton standing right behind them.

Redd glared and pointed at them angrily and used her hunting knife to slash open a rift that sucked them in before they had a chance to react. Once the rift closed up, Eburinferuton flew off while Redd walked over to Shuno and helped her up.

"You know Redd," Shuno muttered as she took Redd's hand and stood up, "we really need to get better at these Spell Card Battles. This is just getting embarrassing."

Redd sighed and replied, "Yeah, you're right. After this job is over, we'll start working on getting better. It's not fair that my big sister is the only one of us who is good at them," she grumbled with her arms folded.

Shuno leaned over and asked, "Do you think Beauty can stop them?"

"Well the truth is, we don't actually need to stop them. We just need to stall them. And from what I've gathered, we've done a good job so far."

"Really?" Shuno muttered, then shrugged her shoulders with a smile, "That's good to know. I hate failure. Good luck, Beauty! You'll need it!"

Stage 3 – Beauty, the Brains of Team Grimm

The portal dropped the three girls off in a huge castle. The castle is massive, brightly-lit and extravagant, but also completely empty. The castle is a complete mess; covered in metal debris, rubble, books, shadows, broken furniture, objects meant for hunting, animal carcasses and the walls, ceiling and floor are all torn up, slashed and shattered. It more or less looks like some kind of monster had been going on a rampage inside of it. But even as they looked around, the castle seemed to be magically repairing itself. Looking out of a shattered window, Reimu saw that they are deep within the heart of the Forest of Magic.

Youmu took a look around and asked, "What is this place? What happened here?"

"Alice told me about this place, ze!" Marisa spoke up with a giddy expression and explained what she knew of it, "This is Château de la Forêt Enchantée, the home of the ruler of the Forest of Magic! From what she told me, the previous ruler died years ago, and she gave the job to a kindhearted hunter who cared for her in her final moments!"

Reimu paused, then questioned what Marisa just told her, "Wait, the Forest of Magic has a ruler? How come I've never heard of this?"

"Ya never asked!" Marisa replied with a sassy smile, "And I did ask Alice that, ze! According to her, the one ruling over the Forest is really closer to a landlord than a king or queen! Anyone who wants to live there has ta seek 'em out, and they have ta give help ta anyone who asks, as long as they're one'a her subjects!"

"That's good to know," Youmu replied with a nod, but couldn't help but shiver from nerves, "but why are we here?"

Reimu would try to piece together what she knew. "I remember hearing that another member of Team Grimm was a Princess who lived in the Forest of Magic all alone because her temper turned her into a horrible monstrous beast," she explained, "This must be where she lives. As a member of Team Grimm, it appears that she's the next member we must fight. But where is she?"

Marisa shrugged her shoulders, then gasped, "I dunno-Eh!? Look! It's Eburinferuton!" she yelped and pointed upwards.

They looked up. Sure enough, Eburinferuton was floating above them, frowning with her hands on her hips and Jin's lamp floating right beside her. She turned and flew away from them down the hall.

"After her!" Marisa shouted, and the girls gave chase.

As they followed her, they noticed that she was not trying to leave the castle but was actually trying to lure them somewhere. Eventually, Eburinferuton led them to the West Wing of the castle, which opened up into a massive wrecked ballroom full of all kinds of debris. The fairy woman stopped right at the huge set of windows at the far end of the room, turned, looked up and smiled.

The girls stopped and looked at her in confusion. Then, they heard a thunderous crash from behind them! They all turn to see a tall, muscular, and curvaceous female Minotaur glaring at them with her pink and blue eyes. This was Beauty Belle.

Beauty wore a dark blue form fitting suit of armor with curving dark red stripes that went down front, sides and back with a low-cut v-shaped neckline that exposes a generous amount of cleavage. There was a large blue stripe that goes down her front leading to a large spot on her naval that's shaped like a horizontal oval. She wore two shoulder pads on her shoulders that are shaped like bull skulls. The left one was red and the right one was blue. Her legs were covered with two bulky greaves that made her legs look like humanoid bull feet. The right one is red and the left one is blue. Her arms were covered in bulky armor that alternates between red and blue but the hands were light gray. She wore a burgundy fur coat with dark brown stripes as a cape and a huge pair of curved, pale yellow bull horns on her head that parted her shaggy, blood red hair. Her nose was pierced with a solid gold ring and she held a red, blue and green battleax in her hands.

Beauty gave a loud roar to greet them as she spoke slowly, "Gooorah! I am…Beauty Belle…! So… You are… The ones… I have… To fight…! It's… Nothing… Personal… But I will… Crush you… And… Then…"

Reimu tapped her foot, then rolled her eyes at the slow pace of her speech, "Ugggh! We don't have time to listen to all of this! Let's just fight already!" She readied her gohei. "Geeze… Why the Hell are you talking so slowly! Do you have a speech impediment or something!?"

"Please… Don't… Interrupt me… …When I'm speaking. It's… rude…! I don't… Want… To hurt you… So don't… Get on… My nerves…! But still… You have…" "…A point. RARAOR! Nomorewords! Let'sjustfightalready! Iwasinthemiddleofareallygoodbook! IWANTTOGETBACKTOREADINGIT!"

Youmu tilted her head, "…Are all Minotaur's like this?"

"Actually from what I've heard she's really more of an intellectual, so no!" Reimu replied as she stood in front of Youmu to defend her, "But never mind that! The time for words is over! Here she comes!"

"Ndooooooh!"

Eburinferuton created two balls of light and started to cheer for Beauty. "Whoo! Go for it! Show them who's boss!"

Beauty lowered her head, gripped her axe tightly and charged at them using a magnetic field to boost her speed and power. Reimu and Marisa jumped out of the way, causing Beauty to smash through a wall. The minotaur leapt out of the hole, shook off the rubble, and the fight began in earnest.

"This is gonna be tough, ze," Marisa commented as she hopped on her broom, "She looks like she could tank anything we throw at her."

"Then we'll just have to wear her down! Look out!"

Beauty charged at them once more, only for the magical girls to narrowly avoid her attack. Reimu immediately started casting bullets that spread out in an arc. The minotaur was so huge that she couldn't attempt to dodge them. However, what she lacked in speed, she made up for in pure defense.

Each bullet bounced off of her rather harmlessly, only somewhat pricking her body at best. Beauty turned around and slammed her axe into the floor which generated a shockwave so powerful that the entire castle shook!

"AH!" The girls gasped as they jumped off of the ground and floated into the air to avoid it. Marisa would fly to the other side of Beauty and fire off more bullets to keep her occupied from one side while Reimu handled her on the other side. She countered by spinning while firing beams of pure magnetic force, but the two girl just fought back harder.

"RGGH!"

Soon enough, Beauty's arms bulged, and she grunted, indicating that she had at least taken some damage, but then she quickly charged to the other end of the room and activated her first Spell Card, Magic Rose "North and South Slamming".

Several clones of the minotaur appeared on both sides of the room-including a set of red ones. Immediately after, they all performed a quick slash with their axes which sent giant arcing magnetic fields towards the girls!

The girls didn't panic though. They each both stood on one side of the room and shot at the fields with their magic until they exploded before they could reach them! Just in time too, as Beauty had got herself ready for another attack!

"RRRGH!" With a mighty roar, Beauty slammed her axe into the floor which caused chunks of the ceiling to fall towards them!

Marisa rolled out of the way, and then hopped on her broom to dodge the others as she flew around the room as a distraction.

Reimu would continue her assault, attacking Beauty with all she had, sending wave after wave of bullets out in an arc around the room while creating a barrier here and there to block the falling debris.

That's when Marisa had an idea. With some quick thinking, the little witch blasted one of the pieces of debris with her danmaku with enough force to send it directly at Beauty!

"GAH!" yelped Beauty. The massive chunk of stone had sent her flying into the nearest wall. She had taken a bit more damage from that, and her armor was rather scuffed by now. If they could keep this up, they'd be able to win.

But Beauty wasn't going down so easily. After leaping in front of them and punching them across the room, then leaping up and down to drop huge chunks of metal down their heads, she activated her next Spell Card, Magic Rose "East and West Tractor".

The Minotaur raised her hands and started to conjure magnetic waves that brought loads of metal and other debris into large blocks that would fill the room in a swarm not unlike their danmaku. The girls themselves were almost sucked into the vortex but thankfully were fast enough to avoid being trapped.

Marisa and Reimu dodged each and every block that was headed their way while firing off bullets of their own to counter and destroy each one. The fight seemed like it was going to be a stalemate for a while until Reimu blocked one of the blocks with a shield and bounced it back at Beauty!

This gave them the idea to turn her own attacks against her. They started blasting the magnetized blocks back at her, which caused Beauty to stumble. After which, she immediately used her next Spell Card, Magic Rose "Big Magnetic Sphere".

She summoned 10 giant magnetic spheres above them that floated above them and tried to draw them in as they pulled up the floors. Reimu and Marisa couldn't fly against it, but they fired off several bullets into these spheres which would eventually cause them to explode violently. She charged through the smoke at them, and the fight continued. In the end, everyone had started to tire out from the fighting as they all fell to the floor.

"Ugh… Give… Up…" Beauty huffed.

"No… Way…" Reimu insisted, "I'm… Not… Done!"

As a last resort, Beauty would activate her final Spell Card, Magic Rose "Magnetic Beast". She created a massive magnetic field that held Reimu and Marisa in place and began to draw them both in!

"NO!" Marisa yelled as she used one of her Last Word Spell Cards, "Blazing Star" to knock herself free of the field and punch her directly in the face, stopping her attack. This punch came with a final blast, sending Beauty flying back several dozen feet.

Beauty forced herself to come to a skidding halt, narrowed her eyes and started to walk slowly and menacingly towards them. After she got within about two feet from them, she raised her ax, stopped, and then trembled and fell flat on her face, dropping her ax in the process.

Eburinferuton looked at her sadly and stopped her cheering; the balls of light around her hands vanished.

"Oh no, BEAUTY!" she yelled in a panic, "I'm so sorry this happened! Oh, oh, these girls are as tough as I thought…I've got to get out of here!" And with that, she flew off.

As Eburinferuton flew off, "Oh no, you don't!" Shouted Reimu "After her, girls!" and the girls chase after her.

They followed her all the way to the front entrance. Eburinferuton used her magic to throw open the doors and flew out of it. The girls run after her, but they come face to face with Redd, Shuno and Beauty who were leaning heavily on both her friends and her axe.

Reimu growled and snapped at them, "Get out of our way! You know we can beat you, so GET LOST!"

Marisa would flex her broom and add, "Yeah! Or do ya want some more? We ain't afraid of ya!"

Redd narrowed her eyes, pointed at them and raised her arms. The three girls looked at her in confusion but they soon felt a strange sensation around their feet that started to spread up their legs.

As they look down they are horrified to see themselves vanishing into a rift that consumed them from the bottom up. They tried to fly away, thinking that would stop it from happening, but they were too slow. The rift consumed them all completely, leaving no trace of them. Once they're gone, Redd slumped over and sighed.

"I can't believe you lost too, Beauty!" the little red-hood complained, "This is really going to be bad for our reputation!

Beauty gave tired huffs, "I'm… …Sorry. I tried… My best…! But look… On… The bright side…! Goldie… Will… Crush… Them…! I'm… Sure of it…!"

"Yes," Agreed Shuno, She is our muscle after all. Not to mention, she is the best at Spell Card Battles out of all of us."

Redd felt confident hearing that, "…You're right. Goldie… Big sis… It's all up to you!"

Stage 4 – Goldie, the Muscle of Team Grimm

A very large rift dumped the girls off on the ground right in front of the Boundary separating the Netherworld and Hakugyokurou from the rest of Gensokyo. They all slowly got up, groaning in pain from the rough landing. Looking up, they saw a beautiful woman with long blonde hair styled into nine thick ringlets on each side of her head and baby blue eyes wearing a frilly, fancy gauzy golden sundress over yellow form-fitting armor. She slowly walked towards them with a sassy, hip-swaying gait. Her body was absolutely packed with muscle and her breasts were easily as big as her head. She stopped in front of them, grinned in an audacious way and put her hands on her hips.

This was Goldie Lockez, the last and strongest member of Team Grimm. Floating above next to her was Eburinferuton who looked at them all apprehensively.

Eburinferuton looked at Goldie and muttered, "Okay. Goldie, are you sure you can take them on? I mean, the rest of Team Grimm tried and failed so-"

Goldie cut her off, "Aw, relax, Eburin! Truth is I'm glad my lil' sis and her friends failed!" She boasted while pumping her fists, "I've actually been waiting for a chance to fight these ladies! And now that I have my chance, I'm gonna enjoy every second of this! OH YEAH!" she grinned even wider while cracking her knuckles. Then she glanced at the girls and continued.

"I can't believe you managed to beat my teammates! Well I'm much better at fighting then they are, so don't you dare hold back on me, ladies!"

Reimu raised a brow, "You're awfully cocky. Do you really think you can beat us after we trashed your teammates?"

Marisa joined in with a confident smile, "Yeah! We beat 'em all, and they didn't hold anything back! You sound like yer gonna pull yer punches or somethin' like that!"

Goldie punched her fists together and beckoned them over, "Huh? Pull my punches? Why would I do that? If I did that, this beating wouldn't be any fun! Now get ready, 'cause here I come!"

Eburinferuton created a pair of pom-poms out of sparkling blue light and started cheering for Goldie as Reimu and Marisa fought her.

Goldie charged in at Reimu with intent to punch her, and punched at the air, releasing a fanning arc of fiery bullets that flew out in their direction. Reimu performed a quick roll to float out of the way, the bullets grazed her dress; Goldie's accuracy was nothing short of impressive. Goldie charged in at Reimu with intent to punch her, and punched at the air, releasing a fanning arc of fiery bullets that flew out in their direction. Reimu performed a quick roll to float out of the way but the bullets grazed her dress; Goldie's accuracy was nothing short of impressive.

Marisa counterattacked by firing off shots from her broom that crashed and exploded with Goldie's shots in midair. As the blonde witch was focused on that, Goldie had run around her, and slid underneath her shots, and gave an uppercut that hit Marisa with an explosion that was hard enough to send her into the air followed by firing off shots from her gauntlets from below.

"RGH!" While in the air, Marisa shot back to counter Goldie's attacks.

Reimu would take advantage of this and activate her spell cards to fire off bullets that would travel along the ground and explode near Goldie, causing her to tumble into the nearest tree.

"Oof!" Goldie huffed as she hit the tree back-first and fell to the ground. "Not bad!" she shouted as she picked herself up off the ground and flicked her nose with her thumb. "BUT YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET!"

With that, she activated her first Spell Card, Burning Yellow "Grizzly Bear".

Goldie generated a miniature sun in front of her and began to use it as a punching bag. Each time she punched it, waves of fire were released in Reimu's direction that rushed through the air. Reimu countered this with shots to dispel most of the fire, but was unable to react when Goldie snap kicked the energy ball in her direction.

"WAAGH!" Reimu yelped as she was flung back from the explosion. Goldie would run up to her and attempt to fire off more shotgun shots, but Marisa interrupted her.

"HA!" Marisa yelped as she fired off shots from above that Goldie was forced to roll out of the way and evade so she didn't get hit.

"Grrgh! Not bad!" Goldie huffed as she aimed one arm upwards to fire back at Marisa while running.

"Guess you aren't total babies after all!"

"I'll show you babies!" Marisa yelled, and used a similar trick compared to before. She enchanted her bullets to bounce off surfaces so that even after Goldie dodged them, they'd still bounce back and hit her, exploding on contact!

Goldie tumbled across the forest floor until she slid into a rock. "Hmph…okay then…" She tilted her neck and popped her joints to loosen herself up. "You kids are pissing me off. Time to say goodnight!"

Goldie activated her next Spell Card, "Burning Yellow "Panda Bear".

With a swift punch to the ground, a massive series of gold trees that spanned out into a forest would be erected from the ground. Reimu and Marisa gasped as they floated away from them while Goldie immediately gave chase. Hopping from tree to tree, she'd cause them to all fall in a domino effect after the girls as they flew out of the way!

"Agh!" Marisa yelped as a gold tree slammed behind her, "What should we do, ze?!"

"I dunno! She's pretty skilled, that's for sure!" Reimu yelped back as she realized that this opponent was much stronger than their last three. The mages couldn't exactly think as massive oak, birch and even redwood trees made of solid gold slammed around them and caused earthquakes, followed by golden spikes that erupted from the ground as Goldie tried to smash them with a series of stomping kicks. They weren't really in a position to counterattack yet.

"HAH!"

And before they could blink, Goldie had activated her next Spell Card, Burning Yellow "Kodiak Bear".

With a swift jump and a punch to the earth, she caused the waves of gold to ripple out and towards them. They were barely able to avoid it, and with them came humongous stacks of gold bricks that she threw at them and sheets of gold in the air that she punched at them.

After which, she activated her final Spell Card, Burning Yellow "Shiretoko Brown Bear", she distracted them with a series of explosive punches and giant hooks that released waves of fire, then flew at them with a powerful punch. Reimu and Marisa knew this move well. If this punch hit, it would lead to a no-holds-barred beatdown that would damn well nearly incinerate them.

But the girls were too quick to react. As soon as Goldie threw her punch, both Marisa and Reimu leapt into the air and fired loads of bullets at Goldie from all sides, preventing her from attacking, then blasted her with their strongest Spell Cards. The end result was Goldie flying away and into a nearby tree so hard that it fell over behind her with a loud crash!

Even after that, she still attempted to stand up and speak.

"…That first blow was too slow! That second blow was too fast! That final blow…was just right…"

With that, Goldie fell over backwards. Goldie is left slumped over on the broken tree stump, unconscious with her armor badly dented and dress ripped to shreds. Eburinferuton stopped cheering and made the pom-poms vanish. She looked at Goldie's unconscious body with horror and looked around desperately.

Youmu shouted at her, "It's over, Eburinferuton! There's nowhere left to run, no one left to hide behind! I know you don't like fighting, so just give us back Jin's lamp already!"

"Yeah!" Marisa added, flying up to the fairy, "Where were ya even gonna take that thing anyway?!"

Eburinferuton sighed, "…Oooh! Look, if you must know, I was going to take it to one of my godchildren. She lives all the way in the Netherworld, so I have to go all the way to-" She paused and brought her hand to her face, "…That's right, the portal leading to the Netherworld is right there. Ugh, I can be so scatterbrained at times! Don't worry Synder, you're godmother's coming!"

With that, Eburinferuton flew up to the gateway to Hakugyokurou and shouted "Synder! Sweetie, I've got it!"

The gateway opened up, but all could be seen was a vague silhouette with glowing blue eyes. She flew inside it and the gateway closed behind her.. The three girls flew up to the gateway and frowned.

"Ugh… This is getting annoying." Reimu groaned, "Youmu! Can you open up the gate for us, please?"

"On it!" Youmu nodded, "I'm opening it up right now!"

Youmu placed her hands on the seal, concentrated and gave the seal a push. It opened up and the three girls flew in. They immediately noticed Eburinferuton flying away from Hakugyokurou and chased after her once more. A few minutes after they've all left, Goldie woke up.

Goldie rubbed her head as she recovered from the battle, "Argh, my head! I can't believe those two beat me! Oh well. I'll just have to get stronger and try harder next time."

Then she started to panic, "Oh crap! My lil' sis and her friends fought them too! I'd better make sure they're all right!"

With that, Goldie ran off to find her friends.

Stage 5 – Synder, Princess of the Netherworld

The three girls flew after Eburinferuton. Leaving Hakugyokurou behind, they noticed she was flying towards a large city in the distance. Once they got near it, they couldn't help but look around in awe since they had never been to this part of the Netherworld before.

"Woah…" Marisa marveled at the sight of the large city, "Wow, where is this place?"

Yomu would explain, "This is Necropolis, the City of the Dead. It's the capital of the Netherworld, led by the current King and Queen of the Dead, the rulers of the entire Netherworld."

"But isn't Yuyuko in charge of the Netherworld?" Reimu asked with a tilt of her head, "I thought she was a princess."

"Ah, that's a common misconception by those who aren't permanent residents here," Youmu went on, "Lady Yuyuko is actually only one of 108 princes and princesses that reign over the Netherworld. Lady Yuyuko is… The fifty-sixth, I believe?" she said whilst looking up with a thoughtful expression, and continued, "The King and Queen are the first. We're currently heading towards the area controlled by the fifth princess."

"Hmmm…" Reimu nodded, "She must be Eburinferuton's godchild. Who is she?"

"Her name is Synder Ella," said Youmu, "She's one of the leaders of the Netherworld. She outranks Lady Yuyuko by a very wide margin. I don't really know her that well, but if memory serves, she and Lady Yuyuko are friends. You say she's behind all of this. Why?"

"I don't know…" Reimu answered with a determined look on her face, "But let's find out."

The girls continued flying, eventually entering a large countryside village. They soon came across a large mansion out on the outskirts. At the front yard they found Eburinferuton about to give Synder Jin's lamp! Just as Synder was about to take the lamp, Reimu shot it out of her hands. Synder jumped back with a gasp and turned to look at them, showing them her entire body.

Synder wore a beautiful pale cornflower blue and silver ballgown with long sleeves and a pair of white opera gloves on her arms and a glittering spiked tiara on her head with blue and white leggings that ended in slippers with small heels topped with sparkly hearts. Her entire outfit, from the tiara to her slippers, was all made of glass. Her dark blonde hair was pulled up into a French twist complimented with a very light cornflower blue band with large gems on both ends of the band and diamond earrings. She also wore a simple dark blue choker around her neck. Her skin was light gray and her eyes were dark blue and were glowing brightly.

"Huh? Youmu?" Synder glanced at her, "What are you doing here? Who are your friends?"

Eburinferuton gasped with her hands on her cheeks, "Oh no! They must have followed me! Youmu can open and close the door to the Netherworld at will… I can't believe I forgot!" She turned to Synder and explained herself, "Synder, sweetie… Those two are Reimu and Marisa. I told you about them earlier, remember? They're friends of Yuyuko; the ones who I said were the ones most likely to get in your way. They must have beat Team Grimm."

"Ah… So that's who you are!" Synder said sadly, "To think, you were able to beat all four of them… You two must be very powerful. So much power… You have so much power. I'm just not sure if it's deserved."

"If it makes you feel better," spat Reimu, "we probably would've had a harder time if we didn't have Spell Card Battles with them! Anyway, it's over Synder! Give us back that lamp!"

Synder hissed in return, "NO! I won't, not now, not ever! Don't you understand?! I'm doing this for us! I'm doing this to save him! I love him! And-and I know he loves me back!"

Reimu raised an eyebrow, "'He?' Who is 'he'?"

Synder gave a happy, longing smile as she went on, "Prince Leroy Charmant, the crown prince of the Netherworld! You two don't realize what a wonderful person he is. He is friendly, humble, generous, caring, protective, kind, a perfect gentleman, and best of all…" The smile on her face turned intense as her voice's tone turned husky, "He has a VERY high pain tolerance. So you see, I can't let you stop me. I won't," she gritted her teeth.

"We'll see about that! Come on, Marisa!" Reimu looked at her partner and raised her gohei, "Let's teach this princess a lesson!"

"So you won't back down, eh?" Synder narrowed her eyes, stepping forward, "In that case, I'm afraid I'll just have to show you what true power is!"

"Don't worry, sweetheart! This time, I'll assist you!"

"Be careful you two," Youmu warned her friends, "I hear Synder is very powerful! Ghosts who make her mad don't make that mistake twice!"

"Ghosts?!" Marisa smirked, "Don't worry! We ain't afraid of some ghost!"

"Yes!" Agreed Reimu, "We've fought a lot stronger than her! Now get ready, because here she comes!"

But without warning, Synder filled the room with a smoky cloud of ash that blinded the girls and caused them to cough, hack and wheeze. It was tough to see through, and they couldn't tell where Synder would attack from first.

"Agh!"

Just as that happened, Synder flung burning explosive shards of glass at them from beyond long range.

Unable to counter it, they were forced to spread out due to the sheer number of explosions sent their way. The glass also nicked and sliced through their clothes and parts of their body, leaving them with several cuts that bled a bit.

"Rgh!" Reimu yelped as she coughed from the ash and dove out of the way of another explosion, "She really means business!"

"Ya think?!" Marisa yelled back as she fired off several bullets to clear the room of its smoke and ash.

Just then, Synder had charged at her with a spear made of glass, thrusting it at Marisa with various slashes. Marisa barely managed to avoid the strikes and had to leap backwards on her broom to get some distance. Synder responded to this by outright throwing her spear at Marisa which caused an explosion that sent the blonde witch flying!

"YIKES!"

While Synder was distracted, Reimu managed to get off a quick shot that exploded beneath Synder's feet and sent her flying into the nearest wall. Just then, Eburinferuton fired off some balls of light that Reimu had no choice but to dodge if she wanted to stay in the fight. In order to keep her occupied, she spun multiple bullets around herself before flinging them off one by one at the fairy to keep her attention.

Synder got up onto her feet and activated her first Spell Card, Midnight "Glass Carriage".

A ring of fire appeared on the floor beneath the witch and shrine maiden, forcing them to float into the air as the ash filled the room. A massive explosion occurred not long after, forcing Reimu and Marisa to fly around to avoid the blasts.

In the meantime, Eburinferuton would continue to send the occasional electrical blast and rays of light from afar but the ash made it difficult for everyone to see. Marisa thought quickly and fired off shots to counteract the explosions and send the shards of glass right back at Synder.

"Rrgh!" Synder had to dodge out of the way to avoid cutting her own throat. "...Not bad. You're smarter than you look! I'm starting to see how you beat Youmu! But the prince will be mine! You have no chance!"

"Ze! What's the plan here?!" Marisa coughed in between her shouts.

"...We have to make her burn herself out. Literally," Reimu suggested, "Make her use her spell cards in quick succession so she tires herself out. That's the only way we have a chance here, Marisa."

"What about the fairy?!" Marisa shouted, "No way we're gonna be able to deal with her at the same time!"

It took some deliberation, but Reimu ultimately came up with a plan that Marisa had no choice but to agree to.

"...this is a stupid idea, but whatever…" Marisa grumbled as she flew towards Synder, "Hey, Synder, over here!"

"Grrgh!"

Synder fired off still more blasts of ash and glass towards Marisa, but the witch would narrowly avoid them while conserving her own power. Every time Eburinferuton would fire off a bolt of plasma, Reimu would be there to counter them with her own bullets to detonate them in mid-air. Soon enough, it worked.

"Stop getting in the way of my love!" Synder screamed and immediately activated her next Spell Card, Midnight "Glass Ball Gown". Throwing up her hands, she summoned up a massive cloud of ashes filled with white hot cinders that followed them around. While this happened she hid in many smaller clouds of ash that bounced around shooting blobs of molten glass at you. But the two girls spotted the one she hid herself away in, the fastest-moving one, and blasted it away, knocking her out of it and stopping the attack.

Arms of ash and glass arrows flew from the cloud in all directions, followed by multiple explosions of hot ash. Reimu and Marisa conserved their power and focused entirely on dodging her attacks for the moment just to waste Synder's Spell Card usage. There was simply no way for them to fight back at the moment, so they had to wait it out.

Just at that moment, Synder used another Spell Card, this one being Midnight "Glass Horses".

Disappearing into a swirling vortex of ash, hundreds of hands made of compressed embers flew at them. While this happened the vortex sucked them in as well as small ash twisters. They were able to dodge the hands and ash twisters but this soon stopped and a huge serpent of ash flew at them and exploded when it hit the ground.

This gave them a clear shot at Synder and they moved in for the kill, but Eiburinferuton was in front of them and unleashed a huge web of lightning that knocked them away, causing them to fall and land on a huge plate of solid glass that wasn't there before. They looked at each other, wondering if it was another Spell Card.

And it was indeed another Spell Card, this one being Midnight "Glass Castle". Hands of glass began to rise from the floor and grab at them, but they flew up and Reimu quickly shattered the glass with her Holy Relic "Yin-Yang Kishin Orb" Spell Card before anything else could happen.

In the end, they were able to make her miss enough times to where Synder cried out in frustration.

"Grrgh! How are you so quick?! I'm starting to see why poor Yuko had such a hard time with you!"

"It's working, ze," Marisa whispered to Reimu, "I think we can keep tiring her out if we keep this up!"

Soon enough, Synder decided she had enough and activated her next Spell Card, Midnight "Glass Tower".

She raised her arms and head and created a gigantic blob of molten glass and made it release hordes of mice, birds and stones of molten glass that all charged at them. The mice crawled up the walls and the birds flew towards them through the air as the stones fell on their heads. Reimu and Marisa had to fire all that they had at them to avoid being overwhelmed. Slowly but surely, they were able to counter most of them with enough danmaku to explode the entire area around them, but the glass shards just reformed into the blob and Synder tossed the thing right at them, causing it to explode, sending shards flying everywhere.

The dust started to settle and the two girls landed on the ground, breathing heavily due to the dense smog.

"...Did… …We do it?" Marisa asked.

"...I have a feeling…" Reimu muttered, "...We're almost there."

"THAT'S IT!" Synder screamed, now fully enraged at this point, "I've had it with you insolent children getting in the way of my marriage! THIS ENDS NOW!" And she got ready to activate her final Spell Card.

"...I think that's our answer," Marisa took a step back, "...What should we do, ze?"

"I'll tell you what you should do: GIVE UP!" Synder interrupted them. And so she activated her last Spell Card, Midnight "Glass Slippers".

The face of a giant clock suddenly appeared on the floor beneath the girls. The clock's hands would begin to tick and spin so they had to avoid it by jumping over and flying above it. Every time it passed a number, hordes of glass shards flew at them and every time it reached 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00, it released three waves of flying glass slippers, with an extra wave added for every three hours it passed. sound, the middle of the clock releases twelve waves of glass slippers and it vanishes. But once it finally struck midnight…

BONG! BONG! BONG! BONG!

A swarm of molten glass slippers flew out towards them and shattered in midair. The girls had to think quickly. Reimu fired off a swarm of bullets to counteract them in midair as Marisa fired off a series of her own to bounce off of the nearest wall and stop Eburinferuton's attacks before they could reach either of them.

In the end, they overpowered her with their explosive blasts and destroyed the clock before it could do anymore damage, leaving Synder exhausted. Synder stumbled back and fell to the ground but got up, dusted herself off and glared at them.

"It's over, Synder!" Reimu shouted, "No more games…Give us back the lamp NOW! You two clearly don't get how dangerous genies can be!"

Synder was shaking on the floor as she fell to her knees and screamed, "No… I don't believe you… I DON'T BELIEVE YOU! I won't give up! I'll NEVER give up! I-I just need some help, that's all! TAKE THIS!"

Synder created an explosion of ashes in front of her that covered a large area. When the dust settled, Synder and Eburinferuton were gone.

"Gah! Not again! Marisa! Cast another tracking spell! Quickly!"

"Got it, ze! …There! I've found her, go after her!"

Stage 6 – Leroy, Crown Prince of Necropolis

Stage 6 – Leroy, Crown Prince of Necropolis

The three girls followed Synder and Eburinferuton into Necropolis. They head for the large castle the city is built around, eventually hearing a young man shouting at someone furiously. The male's voice mentions Synder's name more than once, so they assume she is nearby. They round the corner, entering a courtyard and sure enough, Synder and Eburinferuton are there, being yelled at by a handsome young man wearing armor with blue hair. This is Prince Leroy Charmant, the current crown prince of the Netherworld.

Leroy was dressed in the regal garments of an English prince of the 1,600's, however, closer examination of his uniform revealed he was actually wearing a suit of plate armor. His hair, moderate cerulean and with a dark phthalo blue streak was cut short and swept back, and his armor was light yellow and green, with red pants with a light blue stripe going down each side. He carried with him a sword and tower shield. His eyes were moderate cerulean and his skin was light gray.

"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND, SYNDER!? THIS IS GOING WAY TOO FAR, EVEN FOR YOU! I DEMAND YOU APOLOGIZE TO THOSE WOMEN!"

"L-Leroy, PLEASE! I-I can explain!"

"Alright, FINE! Let's hear it! And I want an explanation from you too, Eburinferuton!"

Synder and Eburinferuton looked at each other, and then looked at Leroy who stared back at them expectantly. With a sad sigh, Synder explained everything to him, with Eburinferuton backing her up. As they speak, Leroy starts to give them both a look of understanding. He too, gives a sad, despondent sigh.

"Oh… What a mess this is," Leroy replied with a sad smile, "All this for my sake? I don't get it. Couldn't you have just asked?"

Eburinferuton looked at Synder and scolded her for her recklessness. "I TOLD you this was a bad idea. After the chewing out you gave Yuyuko after that whole mess with that cherry tree youkai, I would think you'd know a bad idea when you hear, er, think of one."

Admittedly, Synder knew this which is why she couldn't really disagree. " …Oh… Thinking back on it now, this wasn't one of my better ideas," she replied with a sigh, then snapped back, "I just didn't think I had any options!"

"Well, Jin is our friend," Leroy reminded them, "I'm sure she can fix things. I don't want this marriage any more than you do, Synder."

At that moment, Reimu, Marisa and Youmu burst onto the scene, shouting for them to stop. Synder and Eburinferuton looked shocked and a little annoyed, but Leroy just looked at them in confusion.

"HOLD IT!" shouted Reimu.

"STOP!" Marisa yelled.

"WHAT THEY SAID!" Youmu added.

Leroy raised an eyebrow as he looked at them, then gasped. "Eh? I know you… You're Yuko's friend, Youmu! What are you doing here? Who are your friends?" Synder grabbed the side of her head and pointed at them. "Gah! Those two are Reimu and Marisa, Leroy! They're the ones who keep interfering with me. Do something!"

This gave Leroy pause. But he decided to greet them carefully, "Er, right. Hello there, ladies. My name is Leroy Charmant. It's a pleasure to meet you. I know you want the lamp back, but you have to understand-"

"We don't want to hear it, Leroy!" Reimu held up her hand and interrupted him, "Either you give us the lamp, or we beat you three down and take it! The choice is yours!"

Leroy's eyes widened, but he couldn't help but sigh. "…Fine. I'm sorry it had to come to this, ladies. But, I'm afraid I must stop you. How about this: A duel between the two of us on even ground. If I win, you must stand and let us make that wish. But if you win, then I promise you: The lamp is yours."

"…A duel?" Reimu tilted her head in confusion, "I've never had one of those. Is that anything like a Spell Card Battle?" she asked as she held up a random Spell Card.

Leroy looked at her and continued, "Reimu, was it? It can be anything you want. You are the challenged, so that means you are the one who gets to choose how we fight."

It was an easy decision to make, "Oh. Well the choice is simple then. I chose a Spell Card Battle. Are we going to fight here, or do you have some special place for dueling or whatever you call it?"

Leroy nodded in agreement. "Very well. But I get to choose the weapons. I chose my shield, sword and Eburinferuton. You may use whatever you want. As for a place to duel, I do indeed. This way, ladies."

Youmu was worried as she looked at Reimu. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Leroy is an expert at dueling, especially with swords. He was easily able to defeat Youki Konpaku, and was able to easily defeat me as well."

But Reimu simply scoffed in response. "I was able to beat you too, you know! I'm sure I can take him… He actually seems to be a novice at Spell Card Battles."

Youmu would reply with a concerned frown, "It was a Spell Card Battle that he beat me in, Reimu. But yeah, you have a point. Just, don't underestimate him, OK?"

Reimu was still confident though. "Don't worry, I won't!"

The group eventually reached the dueling arena. Reimu and Leroy take their positions and fly into the air. Leroy drew a mostly dark green sword that shimmers with violet ethereal energy and a moderate sapphire blue tower shield with a light rose Southern Cross on the front.

"Ready, BEGIN!"

To start off, Leroy lunged at Reimu with his sword, but Reimu was able to dodge quickly. They both fired off a series of danmaku at each other that canceled out in midair followed by multiple cutting drafts from Leroy's sword. It seemed as if they were evenly matched in this regard.

"Hmph, not bad," Leroy smiled gently at her as he swiped his sword at her sending waves of ghostly fire at her, "Looks like this is already appearing to be a stalemate, young lady."

"Yeah! So why not call this off, already?!" she shouted as she blocked his sword with her gohei and fired an explosion to knock him backwards. "This is a waste of everyone's time!"

"I have my honor to protect," Leroy insisted and immediately thrusted his sword into the ground, causing rays of ethereal light to erupt from the ground, causing Reimu to bob and weave and retaliated with a few Spell Cards, forcing Leroy to resort to activating his first Spell Card, Royalty "Prince of the Hunt".

He called upon the Winds of the Dead that took the form of a raging hurricane that covered the entire battlefield in a torrential hurricane that was flung towards Reimu. The shrine maiden had to fly and dodger blades of wind, flying debris, and angry spirits in order to avoid being swept up in the winds. Reimu counterattacked by sending more explosions his way that got absorbed by the winds and imploded which shocked it out of existence.

"Well, not bad," Leroy complimented her skill. "I suppose we should move this fight right along then. Charge!"

"Huh?!"

Pointing his sword at her, and a series of ghostly arrows flew at her. She avoided them all, but he just activated his second Spell Card: Royalty "Prince of Midnight". He raised his sword and summoned tens of thousands of ghost warriors that formed his armies. He then pointed his sword at Reimu making them charge her en masse, only for her to dodge them all.

However, she just landed into a rain of small lasers fired from Eiburinferuton, followed by Leroy spinning himself into a literal tornado that flew around the arena that Reimu had to dodge.

Leroy and Eiburinferuton fired some more Danmaku at Reimu, but she retaliated with one of her stronger Spell Cards. But Leroy was simply… Impressed.

"You are a fine warrior, Reimu. Are you absolutely sure this is your first duel?"

"It is! But believe you me, Leroy, I've had more Spell Card Battles than I can count!"

"...I see. Let's see how you handle this, then!"

Leroy then activated his third Spell Card, Royalty "Prince of Awakening": He transformed the battlefield into a massive thicket of thorny vines out of nowhere. The series of thorns and vines that appeared on all sides tried to stab and impale her. Her leg was grabbed by one of the vines, but she quickly zapped it with an explosion before her arm was ensnared too, barely being able to avoid big dark purple vortexes that chased her around while Leroy released thorny beams at her.

Panicked, Reimu tried her best to blast it away with a shield, but eventually found herself overwhelmed. But the vines withered away into nothing, and Reimu breathed a sigh of relief, only to avoid yet more cutting drafts from Leroy and balls of light from Eirubinferuton who followed this up with a multi-hit strike with his sword, sending ghostly balls of explosive ectoplasm that covered her in a gooey substance as she was flung backwards. Leroy then used yet another Spell Card.

This time it was Royalty "Prince of the Sea". He planted his sword into the ground, transforming the field into a gigantic whirlpool of souls and stagnant water. The Whirlpool releases blasts of water and lost souls at Reimu while also sucking her in. Reimu had to blast her way out in order to escape, but she did.

"Ready to give up yet?" he asked, "Or are you still looking for more punishment? I have all day. Take your time."

Determined, Reimu would pound her fist into the ground and stand up once more. "Oh-ho! I'm not done yet!"

Leroy just shrugged. "Suit yourself, milady."

Reimu balked at this, not being used to such chivalry. "Uh… OK? Sorry, I'm not used to fighting people who are so, uh, um…"

"...What? Did you expect me to act like a boorish oaf? Mayhaps an spoiled brat with a huge ego to go with his royal status?"

"...Yes, actually. Yes, I did."

"...Oh. My word, the living world certainly has stagnated if that's how they see royalty these days… Ah well! Have at thee!"

Leroy then used his fifth Spell Card, Royalty "Prince of Beasts". He put two fingers to his mouth and whistled, causing an white, ghostly stallion to shimmer into existence that he mounted and rode at her while swinging his sword around. As he did this, a stampede of ghostly warhorses followed him from the opposite direction he's riding from. But Reimu flew up and over the horses and blasted Leroy right off his horse that let out an loud neigh and charged Reimu.

It came too fast to dodge, but it just exploded into green smoke when it impacted her body. When the green haze cleared, she found that Leroy was about to use his penultimate Spell Card: Royalty "Prince of True Love".

Holding up his hand, he created one of the most massive orbs of spectral energy that Reimu had ever seen. And it just got bigger and bigger as Leroy hid behind his shield. Reimu's eyes widened in horror when she realized that it was set to explode after a short time. Reimu fired everything she had at it in order to destroy the orb before it could detonate, but nothing seemed to work. Thinking quickly, Reimu flew behind Leroy, and the blast washed over them both harmlessly.

Reimu tried to hit him with another blast of Danmaku, but Leroy dodged, only to be hit with a second wave. But the prince wasn't bothered in the least, and in fact seemed to genuinely applaud her efforts.

"Fighting you has been an honor, Lady Reimu! I only have one Spell Card left. With your skills, the people of Gensokyo must sing songs of your amazing deeds!"

"...Uh, YEAH! Sure, let's go with that. Just show me your final Spell Card already!"

Leroy paused at this, as it almost seemed as if this Reimu girl was unused to people saying nice things about her. But in the end, he just shrugged.

"If you insist! Eiburinferuton?"

"Oh! So it's THAT Spell Card! Don't worry, Leroy! Your godmother is right here!"

"That" Spell Card turned out to be Royalty "Prince of Happy Endings": Eburinferuton created dark blue energy balls and threw them at Leroy, who swung his sword to deflect them at tReimu. Eburinferuton then made a massive ball, which Leroy deflected. It bounced up and down, hitting the ceiling and floor as it made its way across the arena, creating shockwaves of blue lightning to radiate outward. The ball then bounced right at Leroy and Leroy deflected it once more causing it to explode when it hit the ground. But once more, Reimu dodged them all!

"Tch! Not bad! But I'm not done yet!" Cried Reimu!

Indeed she wasn't. The two would continue to lob projectiles and explosions at each other with reckless abandon. Reimu knew that she was outmatched here but had to endure for as long as she possibly could.

Eventually, through all odds, she managed to pull through and with one final blast, struck down Leroy!

Prince Leroy floated down to the ground and dropped to one knee, leaning heavily on his sword. Eburinferuton floated down next to him.

"Very well. You fought well, Reimu. I give up," Leroy replied with a grunt of pain.

Reimu smirked and folded her arms. "You weren't half bad, yourself! I'm glad you aren't a sore loser… I hate those. Now then, I take it you'll keep your word."

Leroy sheathed his sword and shield and adjusted his coat. "But of course. I would not deserve to be a prince if I did not keep my word. Just ladies, please…" he looked away from them, "Promise me you'll figure a way out of this mess. If not for me, then for Yuko."

Reimu would smile, "We will, don't worry! Now then, the lamp?"

"Yes," Leroy looked up at the fairy godmother, "Eburinferuton, if you don't mind?"

Eburinferuton grumbled, "Yes, yes. …I told Synder we should've just done this in the… …Oh for the love of-I knew she was stubborn, but this is too much even for her!"

Leroy tilted his head with a concerned expression on his face. "Eburinferuton? What's wrong?"

"It's Synder! She took the lamp!"

Reimu threw her hands into the air. "Oh you have got to be kidding me! Marisa! Tracking spell! NOW!"

"On it, ze!"

"Yeah, I got her! This way!"

"Good!" Reimu pumped her fist and looked at the group, "Come on, everybody! We'll put a stop to Synder, her plans and this wedding, once and for all!"

With that, Marisa flew away. Reimu and Youmu plus Leroy and Eburinferuton took off after her.

EX Stage – Jin, Spirit of the Lamp

Synder, carrying the lamp, burst into a large guest room. In it was Yuyuko Saigyouji, who stared into a mirror deep in thought with a sad expression on her face. She saw Synder in the mirror and perked up, turning to face her friend. Synder looked around frantically, realized she was alone then sighed in relief as she floated over to Yuyuko. She presented the lamp to her.

Synder smiled widely as she showed off the lamp. "Yuyuko, look! It's the key! This is what will stop that wedding! Then I can marry Leroy, and everyone will be happy! Isn't that great!? Isn't this wonderful!?"

Yuyuko's face lit up. "Really? That's great, Synder! But how does it work?"

"It has a genie in it! I'll just wish for the wedding to end and-"

Just then, Reimu broke down the door and she and the others stormed in.

Yuyuko gasped, "Huh?! Leroy? Reimu? Youmu? What are you doing here?"

Reimu pointed her gohei at Synder, "Hold it right there, Synder! There's nowhere left to run! It's over for you!"

Synder had a triumphant grin on her face as she turned towards them.

"You're right! It IS over! FOR THIS WEDDING!"

With that, Synder clutched the lamp and rubbed it three times. The lamp began to shake, rattle and glow. A vast amount of purple smoke started to spew from the lamp's spout. It covered the entire room before it stopped. coalescing and shaping itself into the form of a giant woman with pointed ears, pale, light grayish mulberry skin, moderate violet eyes and blue and white striped hair worn in a ponytail that's on the very top of her head and tied with a red bracelet. This was Jin "Jinny the Genie" Ened.

Jin dresses very similarly to an Arabian harem girl. She was a very beautiful, slender young girl with a sensual, voluptuous hourglass figure with large breasts. She wore a light purple crop top that reveals her midriff and navel with sewn-in off-the-shoulder straps, matching puffy pants with transparent legs, and a light-blue V-shaped waistline and pink curled shoes.

As soon as she got free, she cracked her neck and stretched her back out. "Woah-ho-ho-ho! 500 years! …Can give ya such a crick in the neck! Oi! Hold on a sec…"

Jin pulled off her head, and then spun it around horizontally then vertically. Then she put it back on and smiled at everyone.

"Yuyuko! My girl!" Jin chirped, "Haven't seen ya in like, what a hundred years? …Give or take a couple centuries. Give me some up top, right here!" she held up her hand, and Yuyuko gave her a high-five.

Jin then turned to the others. "And Leroy! Wow, you look pale enough to be dead! …Oh wait, you are dead. Sorry about that. Anyway… Who rubbed my lamp? And xix-nay on the whole lying to get a free wish, OK? I hate it when people do that. I mean, I'll still grant it, but I don't really like it when people get cheated, y'know?"

Jin continued looking around. Her gaze stopped on Synder who was still holding her lamp. Her good mood somehow seemed to get even better.

"Synder!" Jin squealed, "Good ta see ya again, Syndie! …Sin? Can I call ya Sin? …Nah, I feel like that name is taken. By more than one person, actually! Anyway, you're my new master, so that means you get three –oh wait, already granted two- one wish! Now, I should warn you I'm still new at this and I'm kinda sorta weak for a genie, so let's not get to cray-cray with the wish, alright? Now then: What's your wish?"

Marisa raised an eyebrow at Jin's demeanor, "She sure is silly. Reimu, are all genies like this?"

Reimu groaned, "From what I've read? Yes, for the most part. Their job is to literally grant desires. They don't like scaring off potential masters, so they use humor to help them feel at ease. At least, the good ones do… I think ifrits are different."

Synder laughed hysterically and clapped her hands, "I only need one wish, Jin! I wish… …I WISH LEROY AND YUYUKO DIDN'T HAVE TO GET MARRIED!"

Jin thought about it for a moment. "Ah… So what you want is to be in a world without her, eh?" She shrugged. "Well, that's simple enough. Sorry about this Yuyuko, but I gotta stay neutral on these kinda things."

Everyone stared at Jin with horrified looks on their faces.

"Wait, WHAT!?" Synder screamed, "That's not what I meant at all! Jin, wait! Stop!"

Yuyuko took a step backwards, "Ye-Yeah! Don't I get a say in this?! Don't do it, Jin! Or-Or I-I swear, I'll kill-!"

"As you wish!"

Jin snapped her fingers, and Yuyuko vanished in a puff of smoke. Youmu and Synder ran to where Yuyuko was and tried to find some trace of her. But they found nothing and promptly broke down in tears at the loss of their friend. Everyone else looked at Jin with horror. Jin finally notices this and her face falls; immediately losing her jovial demeanor.

Leroy growled at her, "Oh Jin… What have you done!? You destroyed her!"

Jin had a nervous smile on her face. "Oh no… I messed up, didn't I? Guys, I'm really, really sorry… But-But you don't need to worry! I didn't destroy her or anything. I just banished her to another plane where she couldn't escape. She can have whatever she wants and needs there, so it's not such a bad fate."

Just then, Marisa thought of something terrible!

"Wait a minute! Yuyuko hasn't transferred the seal of the Saigyou Ayakashi yet! Reimu, if Yuyuko is no longer in this world…"

"Then that thing will be released, and will try to kill all life in Gensokyo." Reimu recounted, "I know. We've got to fix this, before it's too late! Everyone listen to me! Is there any way to undo this wish?"

"I-I did ask Jin about this once…" Leroy explained, "She said undoing a wish granted by a genie is very hard if made by someone who is not one of them. The best way to undo a genie's wish is to use another genie's wish."

"Right!" Reimu called out as she grabbed Jin's lamp and looked up at the genie, "Jin! I'm your master now! You will obey me! And I wish for you to undo the wish Synder Ella just made!"

Jin gave an awkward smile and nervously rubbed the side of her head. "I, ah, can't. Sorry, master."

"You can't?! What do you mean you can't?!"

Jin sighed, "I'd love to grant your wish, honestly! But I already granted three wishes! Like I said, I'm not that strong. I need time to recharge!"

Reimu folded her arms and huffed, "And how long will that take?!"

"Well, the wishes weren't too epic, so… Five, maybe six days? A week, at most," Jin replied.

Reimu grumbled in frustration, "That's way too long! Saigyou Ayakashi's seal will be undone by then! Isn't there some way for you to recharge faster?!"

"There is, actually!" Jin answered happily, "I should warn you, though, this won't be very easy."

Reimu was fed up at this point. "We can handle it! What do we have to do?"

"You have to attack my lamp. I'm currently bound to it, and if someone attacks it enough, the failsafe will activate, and I'll immediately be restored to full power! But… There's a catch. The failsafe will also force me to fight you guys with everything I have. I can hold back enough so ya don't die, but it will hurt, y'know? Like, a lot at times. So! Is anyone willing to do it?"

Leroy and Synder started to step forward, but Reimu and Marisa stopped them.

"I appreciate the attempt at chivalry Leroy and your desire to set things right Synder, but I think you should let us handle this," Reimu explained.

Marisa nodded in agreement, "Yeah! We really are experts when it comes ta these kinda things."

"Well, if you insist, ladies." Leroy sighed, in no position to argue. "Good luck."

"Jin! Marisa and I will take you on! Get ready!" Reimu shouted.

"What she said, ze!" Marisa called out, "Let's see just how difficult you can be!"

"Good! Sorry in advance if this hurts! I'll try not to hurt you two too badly!" Jin squealed.

Jin turned her lower body into a wisp of purple smoke and folded her arms and Reimu and Marisa began to fight her. They immediately unloaded at her with their most powerful blasts, but the attacks didn't even make Jin flinch. Jin was completely invincible.

"...Uh, you have to attack the lamp, ladies. Uh, no offense, but you too are WAY too weak to scratch me."

"But-But ya just said ya were weak! How can ya possibly be stronger than us?! We're two'a the most powerful beings in Gensokyo!"

"Yeah, for a genie! I'd say my power would be on par with the first youkai who found my lamp. I think her name was Yukari or something like that? I forget. She just discarded me because I literally couldn't do anything she couldn't already do!"

Reimu and Marisa groaned. The fight would clearly be the hardest one yet. But with that, Jin immediately launched herself at them with a dashing punch. They moved out of the way, only for Jin to snap her fingers and a massive amount of flying carpets flew at them. They flew under and around the rugs and started assaulting the lamp.

But much to their shock, the LAMP started to fight back as well! If Jin was near the lamp when it moved around the screen, it would launch her like a cannonball at them. Not only that, Jin's lamp was constantly jumping around the entire fight and every time it landed it created a powerful shockwave. Jin's lamp did stop moving at times, but it was only so it could start firing off shots of poisonous smoke rapid fire in a waving arc at them.

But they just ran around the smoke and continued to hit the lamp and she soon activated her first spell card, Magic Lamp "First Wish". Jin spun around and transformed into a giant red and blue dragon made of winged presents and balloons. The dragon kept moving around breathing fire from its head and waves of smoke from its body parts until Reimu and Marisa hit each segment of its body once. When that happened, they had apparently beaten the dragon, as Jin reappeared shortly after that.

But Jin just snapped her fingers again, and this time a huge stampede of dancing camels and elephants attacked them that they were barely able to avoid. When they were all gone, Jin made a series of giant hands try to grab and crush them as she tossed a series of golden fireballs at them, and then another Spell Card.

This Spell Card was Magic Lamp "To Be Free". She made giant dark blue fists fall from the sky and smash into the ground at random, creating huge shockwaves, then a series of lightning-fast fists that swept through the sides of the room. But Reimu and Marisa were able to dodge them perfectly.

"Geeze! What is it with you and hands!" Reimu exclaimed as Jin sent still more hands at them, followed by her making her own hand grow to giant size and trying to squish them.

Jin just shrugged. "I like hands! They're simple, fun and easy to make!"

Marisa snapped her fingers. "Oh! Like me and stars!" She exclaimed as she barraged the lamp with a shower of said stars.

Jin counted with a series of scimitars that went around slashing and slicing around in various patterns, including a V, L, Z, , , and shape before they all flew at them all at once. When the swords were gone, she was there with another Spell Card ready and waiting for them.

This time it was First Restriction "I Can't Kill People", summoning a fleet of turbans that she sent flying in ever-changing shapes at them. This one was thankfully much easier to avoid, and they continued to hit the lamp, but this time she started to take a deep breath and breathed out purple vortexes at them, which made things a little harder. To make matters worse, no sooner had the vortexes ceased then did Jin use yet another Spell Card on them.

This was Second Restriction "I Can't Bring the Dead Back To Life". She suddenly grew to immense size and fired countless cyan energy rings from her eyes that cover most of the room.

When that was over, she somehow grew even larger, far larger than the already-large room would allow. She opened her mouth this time and countless copies of herself charged out from her maw, each one dressed for war and armed to the teeth, sometimes literally. Avoiding them all was a pain, but the lamp at least held still and didn't attack, so they just did their best to blast it, and Jin was soon back to normal, flying at them with a powerful tackle. Yet another Spell Card followed.

Said Spell Card was Final Restriction "I Can't Make People Fall in Love". She punched the ground, causing pillars of treasure, food and stone to rise up from the ground at random intervals before she punched the ground again, making them all explode.

They were able to avoid both the pillars and explosions, but the attacks from the lamp made it more than a little difficult. At least Jin was giving them warnings when she was attacking them. Case in point…

"Uh… Girls…? Ya might wanna, oh I don't know, RUN!" And then she summoned a giant ball of purple energy that just got bigger and bigger. However, this attack was their best chance of damaging her, so they just blasted at her until she burst into smoke. Much to their delight, the energy sphere fell right on top of the lamp and exploded, very clearly doing heavy damage.

Jin just reappeared, completely unharmed as always. "...Hey, nice job! Maybe I should use that attack more often!" The lamp seemed to dislike that idea, because it blasted her with fire, covering her with ash and soot.

"...Then again, maybe not!" Jin coughed out, shaking it all off as she spat out rings of black smoke. Reimu rolled her eyes at this silly display, but Jin just used another Spell Card on them, this being Magic Lamp "Second Wish".

Sinking into the ground, Jin came back up with a giant sphere of lava. She then split it into hundreds of thousands of smaller balls and sent them bounding around the room. But the balls all quickly cooled down and crumbled into nothing, and Jin gave them a round of applause.

"Bravo, ladies, bravo! You've made it to the halfway point! Now all you gotta do is-!" The lamp cut her off with a powerful bolt of lightning, causing her skeleton to become visible for a few seconds.

"OK, OK, OK! I'll shut up and go back to attacking them already! Yeesh… Sorry about this, girls. My lamp likes it when I shut up, stop fooling around and get down to business!"

"...Wait. What are you saying?!" exclaimed Reimu in shock, "Let me get this straight. Your lamp is… A living being?! But I'm not sensing ANY life from it!"

"It's more like a manifestation of my subconscious will! Now check out this trick!"

Jin pointed at Reimu, and she was suddenly wrapped up tightly with rope and shoved in a basket. She floated out of it just in time to see around a hundred swords appear and pierce the basket, completely destroying it.

"OH, COME ON! HOW THE HELL COULD I HAVE SURVIVED THAT ATTACK!"

"Hey now! You'd be surprised what you can live through! Now then! Here comes my seventh Spell Card!"

With her next spell card, Magic Lamp "A Friend like Me", she moved to the center of the room and started to dance and created a tornado around her that sucked them in while two big tornadoes of fire orbited her while releasing waves of smaller fire tornados. They were able to dodge the tornadoes of fire, but they still got sucked in just the same. The tornado that surrounded Jin didn't seem to harm them, though, so they just shrugged and went back to blasting away at the lamp until the tornados all vanished.

After they put enough fire through it, the lamp caused an explosion in order to knock them away. Jin followed this up with more scimitars that flew in even more complex patterns, and then used another Spell Card: Magic Lamp "What Will It Be, Master?". She summoned even more scimitars that bounced and spun around the room randomly, only to be shot down by the two girls.

When all of the swords were gone, she tossed up a series of golden hoops. Jin then created a big golden hoop and punched it. The other hoops just appeared right next to them and giant fists flew out of it.

Dodging this was a pain, but the hoops were gone as quickly as they appeared, only for Jin to use her next Spell Card, that being Magic Lamp "Become a Prince". She started chanting in Arabic, which sounded like mere gibberish to the girls who didn't speak a word of it, but it summoned a powerful electrified dust storm that was tricky to avoid.

When the dust storm cleared both Reimu and Marisa found themselves surrounded by twelve giant golden hoops that rotated around them. She then repeatedly struck at them with eleven fists through the rings, while watching them through one of them. They quickly hit the ring with Jin in it and ended the attack instantly and went right back to attack the lamp.

Then she activated one of her strongest spell cards, Magic Lamp "Save My Life" and snapped her fingers again, creating a giant lavish Saudi Arabian palace that she made explode, making the pieces fly around in various patterns and sending more explosions in all directions that the girls barely managed to dodge and weave around.

She then took out a small bowl and turned it over and made it fire countless bits of confections. "Good news, girls! I'm almost back to full power now! Pretty soon-!" She was cut off by a giant hat dropping a giant rabbit doll on top of her that she picked up with one hand and tossed aside, where it exploded into confetti.

"...OK, YEAH! You girls better step up your game! My lamp's getting REALLY cranky right now!"

No further words were spoken, and Jin just used her penultimate Spell Card: Magic Lamp "Final Wish": Jin's lamp summoned many clouds of mist that covered the entire room. They begin to solidify and trap them in place while Jin appears from the mist to attack them if the mist was in front or behind them.

But the girls did indeed "step up their game," blasting the lamp with their strongest Spell Cards. Somehow, the lamp started attacking them directly after that.

"Jin! Your lamp is getting super aggressive! Why?!"

"It's a good thing! Trust me! Just keep it up! I-" A giant spinning plate flew up from the lamp and smashed her into the ceiling. "...Uh, never mind that! Here comes a big one, so get ready!" Jin then used her final Spell Card: Magic Lamp "Free At Last!".

Jin's lamp called forth swarms of smoky soldiers that slowly chased Reimu and Marisa. Some attacked them with swords, some tried to tackle them, and some tried to hold them in place so Jin could assault them with a relentless barrage of punches and kicks. But the girls were able to destroy or avoid the constructs, attacking the lamp nonstop all the while.

The two of them continued to attack the lamp until Jin snapped her fingers, which caused them to stop moving. They tried to get out of the field, but nothing worked as Jin slowly floated over to them. But she smiled in relief.

"...I'm okay now. Back to full power and everything! Let's fix this."

"Finally!" Reimu yelled, her dress singed and torn as Marisa gave a haggard huff.

Jin released them and Reimu got the lamp. She wished for Yuyuko's safe return.

With a smile, Jin replied, "As you wish!" and snapped her fingers. There was a puff of smoke, and Yuyuko returned to them, blinking and looking around in surprise. Synder, Leroy and Youmu immediately ran over to her and hugged her.

"Oooh, my head!" Yuyuko rubbed her sore head, "What just happened?"

"YUYUKO!" Synder squealed, "Oh gods, I'm so glad you're back! I thought I'd never see you again…" She then paused and took a step back with a nervous smile on her face. "I am so sorry this happened. Argh, I really messed up, didn't I?"

Everyone else glared at her and shouted together, "OH, YOU THINK!?"

Synder pleaded with them, "L-look, I promise I'll make it up to you all! But… What do we do about the wedding? It's still going to happen in six years."

Reimu's jaw dropped. "SIX YEARS?! What kind of wedding takes six years to happen?!"

"Time isn't really important when you're dead, Reimu," Yuyuko replied with a shrug.

"I think I have a way," Leroy spoke up, "Between the six of us, we should be able to make our case for me to marry Synder and not Yuko. My father is a reasonable man. He should listen to us. And if not, we can just tell my mother. He always listens to her."

Reimu tilted her head and asked, "Uh, what about us?"

"I'm afraid that the living have no authority in the Netherworld." Leroy shook his head. "If you were dead, maybe, but you're not, so there isn't really that much you can do. Still, I do want extra help, so if you still want to come, well I say go for it."

"OK, we'll come with you." Reimu nodded, "I kind of want to meet your parents, anyway. It's good to have more friends in high places."

Leroy agreed to her terms. "Very well. Come, everybody… My parents should be in the royal sculpture garden right about now."

Everyone left the room, and went off to track down Leroy's parents. They managed to track them down, and sure enough, Synder, Leroy, Eburinferuton, Jin and Yuyuko are able to change their minds. They said that Synder and Leroy can marry instead, and after being thanked for their help and apologized to, Reimu and Marisa head back home.

Ending

Some time has passed since Synder's attempt to stop the wedding of Yuyuko and Leroy. The events surrounding Jin and her lamp have not involved anyone aside from a select few, so nobody has really noticed everything that happened recently. Reimu and Marisa were back at the shrine doing their daily chores when they noticed two figures floating towards them. It was Synder and Eburinferuton. Synder looks very guilty while Eburinferuton is looking at her sternly and expectantly.

Reimu looked up at them and tilted her head. "Synder? Eburinferuton? What are you doing here?"

Eburinferuton glared at Synder, and then glanced at the girls. "Synder has something she'd like to say to you two. Synder?"

Synder knelt down in front of the girls and apologized. "Ye-Yes. Reimu… Marisa… I am so, so sorry for everything I put you through. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, please tell me. I swear, I will make it happen. I know what I did was unforgivable, but…"

Eburinferuton rolled her eyes and waved her hand. "OK sweetie, you're laying it on a little thick. Though I suppose it's not as dramatic as your apology to Yuyuko and Youmu…"

Synder laughed nervously and stood up. " …Er, you're right. But seriously though, I am sorry. I'm sorry, and I'd really like to know how I can make it up to you."

"Oh geeze… Synder, you really don't need to apologize, especially not like this. We don't hold any grudges towards you. Right, Marisa?" Remi looked at her blonde friend.

"Yeah! We aren't mad at all, ze!" she replied.

Eburinferuton was surprised to hear this. "R-Really? You're not mad at all? Huh. Maybe you two aren't completely hopeless."

Reimu puffed out her cheeks and shouted, "HEY! I'm not THAT bad, dammit!"

Eburinferuton chuckled. "Eh heh heh heh… Sorry, about that dear, I didn't mean it like that. But you really aren't mad at us?"

Reimu shrugged her shoulders. "Well, yes. You two are far from the only troublemakers we've had to deal with. I figure it would be a waste of our time to get mad at everyone who caused us grief. As long as they don't do anything truly unforgivable, it's far easier to just forgive, forget and move on. But to tell you the truth… There is one thing you can do to make our lives easier."

"Really? What is it? Just say the word and it's done," Synder asked.

"It's about Jin and her lamp," Reimu went on, "After what she did to Yuyuko, I am very, very worried that she might end up in the hands of someone with far less noble intentions than you ever did. Do you think you could keep it in the safest place you can find?"

"Ah yes… That. The truth is, there's no need to worry. After everything was resolved, my daring Leroy and I had the same idea. So we put Jin's lamp under lock and key, with our best warriors guarding it around the clock. We even used Jin's second and third wish to gain extra safety. So, we should be fine," Synder replied.

Reimu breathed a sigh of relief. "Really? That's great! I'd hate to think what would happen if Satsujinki or Frozenblaze got their hands on that lamp. Oh yeah… One more thing. Good luck with your upcoming wedding! Just make sure you invite us!"

Synder clapped her hands. "Oh, thank you so much! I will definitely invite you two. And Yuyuko and Youmu! But there's no need to fear. I'm sure we'll all live happily ever after!"

Eburinferuton agreed. "Yes! Or at the very least, as happy as things can get, given the current circumstances!"

Unbeknownst to them all, they were being observed by Team Grimm in one of Shuno Wyte's magic mirrors. Redd looked angry, Goldie looked happy, Beauty looked pleased and Shuno looked relieved.

"DAMN IT!" Redd hissed, "There's no way we can wipe out our enemies now!" She sighed, "Oh well. Beauty. Have you found a way to get us better at these Spell Card Battles yet?! That whole show earlier was just embarrassing! Not to mention that that traitor Reimu has likely spread the word about our weakness now!

Beauty would mutter, "Don't… Worry… I have… Some… Ideas… It will… Just… Take… Some time…!"

Shuno tried to calm her friend down. "Now, now, Redd! This may not be as bad as you think! You are aware that if you did wish for the death of all youkai, we would die too, right? …Right?"

Goldie tried to put on a smile, " Yeah! I don't want my adopted family to die, ya know! Besides, if there weren't any youkai, we'd be out of a job! Not to mention things would be a lot less fun around here."

Redd scoffed. "Hrm. Now that you mention it, you two have a point. But never mind that… I've got some new and interesting contracts lined up! Let's go girls! A new hunt awaits us!"

With that Team Grimm left, off on another adventure.

The End