Author Topic: A Story (title pending)  (Read 3485 times)

Luna Moth Child

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    • Winterdrake Productions
A Story (title pending)
« on: September 13, 2010, 07:47:48 AM »
This was adapted from something I started writing but lost interest in.

A few paragraphs were copied word from word from that previous work. (I'll let you guess which ones)

... I understand I switched writing styles at various points, please do not comment on that, it is a personal style issue.

I tend to combine first and third person views in a weird mash on occasion, and it gets weirder when I combine two first person views with third person at once (I feel like I did that in the first sequence with Tensaki and Yukari)

I understand these are unsightly issues for a writer, please bear with me, because I understand how much I suck and I don't need more people telling me that than the hundred or so who already have or do on a regular basis.

... and YES, I'm aware that I overuse commas and that because of it more than half of my sentences are run ons.

Don't kill me, it's just a story.

By the way, I can't stress this enough: I do not own Touhou.

This has been a public service announcement, thank you, and enjoy the story.
_________

Prolouge: Fate Is Such an Ugly Word

All things begin and end at once.

When there is no beginning, there can be no ending.

And the two meet, things neither begin nor end.

With no time, there is only void.

-Unknown

The sunset darkened into evening above the fox youkai as she stood at the edge of the warehouse rooftop, staring into the genteel waves of the distant Tokyo Bay. There were no signs of activity anywhere, well... there were, it was a crowded pier with dockworkers loading and unloading things, but there was no sign of the activity she was looking for. She reached into the pouch in the back of her dress and fished out the magical datebook with the kanji 天幸 stenciled on the cover in elegant calligraphic writing.

Just holding the damn thing made made her smile wryly at herself, she'd purloined the book off the tengu's person while passing her in the temple corridor. She still had it, even after four hundred years she still had a gift for grift. Well, technically what she did wasn't the same, but they both required high levels of physical dexterity so it was pretty semantical as far as she was concerned.

The pages were quickly flipped open, zeroing in on a page with August 2031 dated on the top and a date standing out because of the red circle around it with the words "八雲  紫 @ Tokyo Harbor" written in what seemed to be blood. It frustrated her that the names were always written in kanji, she never could quite remember her kanji too well, she'd spent too much time in America. The book was stowed back in her storage pouch. Whoever was being met, whatever was going down, it would happen here, or somewhere hereabouts.

The flat-chested fox didn't wear a single scrap of clothing other than, her shoes, a baseball cap she'd swiped at a Yankees game some decades ago, and her dress... well, dress being the closet word she'd come up for it. Then again though, her dress was a six piece outfit and wasn't even a dress, it was just an outfit, but... meh, tomayto, tomahto.

The tight-fitting black top she wore accentuated her lack of curves in every way possible, much to her chagrin. Similarly dark detached sleeves were worn on both arms from elbow to wrist, clearly more about style than serving as actual arm coverings. Her grayish shirt was so short that she would have been a zettai ryouiki if she had the stockings to match, but instead wore two longer skirt... well, "skirtish" attachments that went down to her ankles, almost like wearing a long cape.

She was Reika Okamioka and she was a servant of the "goddess" Tensaki Kyuuseki. Well... technically Tensaki wasn't a goddess, in reality she was a crow tengu who set herself up as a goddess of a cult to accumulate faith so that she could continue to live out her days in an increasingly scientific world for an indefinite period of time.

She brushed her fiery red hair out of her eyes and reached her hand into her pouch again, returning with a small radio. As she pressed down on the transmit button, she noted on how old old fashioned the walky talky type radio was, but than again, she liked to think of herself as an old fashioned gal. "All men, status report."

"Shinozaki here, the tengu arrived a half hour ago, she's standing in plain sight. I'm surprised those wings of hers haven't attracted more than the curious glance." At that moment she was sure she could feel eyes resting on her and she shifted her gaze to the cab of a dockside crane, the setting sun reflected a glint off the scope of a sniper rifle. She was right, Shinozaki had been staring at her for the moment, but his gaze was quickly directed back to the tengu loitering around the pier.

Eight more replies followed after that, ranging from nothing to report to having seen something suspicious. She sighed, a half hour ago, they'd been waiting on an alleged associate for a half- hour? This was ridiculous, why would she be waiting that long?

"Okay men, whoever it is ain't showing, let's pack it in. Shinozaki, tell your father that the Sumiyoshi-kai no longer owes me anything."
The response she received to that genuinely surprised her. "Wait! Someone's there with her! I only took my eyes off her for a second, and now someone else is there!"

Reika's eyes immediately turned to the direction where she had estimated Shinozaki to be watching, sure enough Tensaki was there with... someone. She was a distance away and didn't bother to bring binoculars so she couldn't see them very well, but whoever she was looking at held a parasol. Finally, out of an increasingly bad feeling about the situation, she began sorting through her rather sketchy memory of kanji, she had to know who the other person was. "Ya... Ya... Kumo... Yakumo... Murasaki? No that's a literal... it's probably a nanori... wait... Yakumo... Yakumo... Yuuukari... oh shit."

Immediately the transmit button was being pushed. "All men, this is an emergency note, abandon your posts and vacate the area immediately, Shinozaki, get the car ready and wait for me, I still have business here. The whole time she had failed to notice another girl ducking behind a shipping container.
_________

"Tensaki." A smile, seeming infinite patience.
"Yukari." Her voice was calm, serene, but venom dripped from her tone like toxic waste leaking from a corroded drum.
"That's it? Just "Yukari"?"
"Were you expecting something else?"
"Not at all."
"I see..." a smile at last, some degree of kindness was finally displayed. "Here we are, as determined, five hundred years to the day. What grand piece of wisdom did you wait five hundred years to share? What caused you to schedule it that far in advance, especially in a place that didn't exist yet."
"Boundary of present and future." she waved off the query dismissively.

She scanned the dark haired tengu carefully with her eyes, the girl had certainly traded up from the gown of a poor peasant girl she had favored a thousand years ago, perhaps all those years spent with Shikaya had done her well. Her choice of dress was now very elegant, much like her own. Her lavender... well, it wasn't exactly a dress, but dress was the only word to describe it, then again, Yukari thought, what she wore wasn't strictly a "dress" either, there was probably some fancier term that she was too lazy to use on a day to day basis other than the umbrella term "dress".

Well, the lavender dress was majestic and flowing, stopping around her knees, the cerulean frills adding a certain mystique to the crow's appearance. The one real gripe she had with the outfit was that green and blue ribbon that looped around Tensaki's waist and proceeded to wrap around her ebony wings. Offhandedly she wondered if her wings could actually be used to fly, bound as they were.

"Why don't we talk about you?"
"What about me?" Tensaki's tone was challenging, she didn't fear Yukari at all and she wasn't afraid to show it.
"Aren't you planning to start some sort of war between humans and youkai?"
"I'm happy with my present worship, where would you get that idea?" She reached into her dress and came back with a cigarette, which she quickly rubbed against a playing card hidden in her sleeve to light it. Mentally she chastised herself, she had quit four times in the past three months, a fifth time would just be frustrating
"This would involve kidnapping the Hakurei miko and taking down the border, am I right." It was a statement, not a question, the sage of Gensokyo was on top of everything as always.

The cigarette dropped from Tensaki's hand, she was absolutely correct, but how? She racked her brain for any possibly explanation for how Yukari would know about this. There wasn't one, there couldn't possibly be one, no way in hell. She struggled to regain her composure, it wouldn't be good to panic here. "Don't play psychic Yukari, it's unbecoming of a youkai of your power and abilities."

Movement, Yukari's eyes shifted ever so momentarily, she felt as if she were being watched, by multiple sets of eyes in fact. But it felt like the number was decreasing every second. Was it an ambush? Was Tensaki even aware she was being watched? Or was she just being paranoid, the last time they saw eachother hadn't been that bad... other than part about Tensaki screaming "I'll kill you!" while that nurikabe kept her in place with an invisible wall. She decided to check it out as soon as she was finished.
_________

A non-descript youkai girl crouched behind a shipping container, watching the two of them talk, unaware of a dockworker staring at her exposed panties. Even if she had been aware, she wouldn't have done anything about it, she was too focused on was being said. If you hadn't known she was a youkai, she'd have looked like an ordinary Japanese teenager in her skirt and t-shirt. Although, that was only her physical form, her true form was that of a small mirror she held in her hand.

Admittedly, she should have kept it somewhere safe and out of sight... somewhere where it couldn't get cracked or damaged in a horrible accident, example: somewhere that was not her left hand, like a safety deposit box. However, she was absolutely terrified of being apart from her true form, she forgot the mirror in her room once and went ballistic looking for it, convinced she had lost it somewhere.

She was Kagami, the mirror youkai, "Just Kagami" as she always told people, and another follower of Tensaki Kyuuseki. Although, she was actually suspicious of her, but there was no one she could talk to about them, after all, how do you tell a group of fanatic cultists that their god wasn't really a god? That's why she had followed her to this place, Tensaki rarely left the temple, but what she was hearing in her conversation with the parasoled one was unthinkable. Parasoled one, that's what she called Yukari not knowing her name, Kagami was not an old youkai, there was no way she could have ever heard of Yukari Yakumo before in her life.

"So why are you here than, have you come to stop me?" Tensaki's voice indicated a certain wariness of danger.
"I'm not going to stop you, I'm going to help you grab Reimu."
"Why, what's the catch?" was the response, overlooking a fact or two, namely that Reimu was in her late thirties and had a daughter these days.
"Your fate is to fail, and I'm going to be there." She meant that in more ways than one.
"Fate is such an ugly word, I prefer the term statistically probable... wait... what?"
"You are doomed to failure."
"Don't play mind games with me.."

Kagami picked that moment to dash out of cover, Tensaki quickly turning to face her. She was shocked to see that the moment Tensaki had turned away, that the parasoled one had vanished into some sort of hole in space. She didn't care about that, it was too late to care, she was gone and that was that.

"Kyuuseki!"
"Kagami... how nice to see you, just as whimsical as Rei-chan I see... good thing we didn't involve you." She ignored Yukari out of a misplaced sense of superiority, she wanted to make it clear that she was better, even if she wasn't aware Yukari was no longer standing behind her.
"No disrespect, "goddess"," She started, putting emphasis on the word goddess. "but you are completely insane. There is a very fragile status quo, I can't let you do this."
"I have the support of the others, you think you can stop us all?"
"Maybe not Tensaki, but I can stop you right here and now."
"I have followers to give me power, where do you get your faith?"
"Radio Nekomata, I send postcards in all the time, if you want to get technical, we're on my turf right now."

Tensaki laughed softly, as if she saw this as a big joke. Kagami wasn't sure if she did or not, or maybe she realized she was bluffing. While she sent postcards in for the DJ to read on the air, that did not garner much faith for her. If anything, the lonely NEETs who always listened to Radio Nekomata believed in the nekomata girl and whoever other youkai kept the station on the air 24/7. In all honesty, she was completely dependent on the residual faith from the worshippers back at the temple compound, without it, she had little power.

Although the advent of technology made people stop believing in the supernatural, things such as TV, radio, and the internet made it easier for youkai to gather belief from crazy anime fans, sad lonely males, superstitious people who still believed in the old ways, and people who wanted something to believe in besides their place of worship. After all, if it worked for televangelists or scam artists like Miss Cleo, it could work for them too. Those youkai such as her that didn't retreat to Gensokyo when the Hakurei Barrier went up had to adapt to the new world somehow, technology was a wonderful thing indeed, if you were clever enough to know how to use it to your advantage.

"Okay Kagami, if you insist... if you do believe you can defeat me, we can fight to the death."
"Um... wait a minute..."

Kagami knew that this would not end well. She watched in mild surprise as Tensaki brought herself into the air, this was a public place, flying was not a good idea. It was barely a good idea within the compound. If she didn't flee now, she would be dead, but if she didn't fight... she didn't even want to think of what would happen if she didn't fight.

A seven of clubs was in the tengu's hand, swiftly thrown in her general direction. She was sure she couldn't dodge without damaging the mirror, so she tossed it up in the air and rolled to the side, narrowly dodging the card as it exploded in a burst of cutting wind, tearing a sizable hole in a shipping container and it's contents of Sony laptops. She raised her right hand in the air and grasped the mirror in her hand on the way down. It was on.
_________

It was time for Reika to go. Tensaki was about to go completely fucking insane, she was attracting more than her fair share attention from shocked dockworkers, and she did not want to be around when everything fell to pieces. She whirled around with every intention of getting as far away from her current location as she possibly could only to find herself staring face to face with Yukari Yakumo, when had she been seen? She couldn't think of a time where Yukari even looked in her direction once.

She stepped back out of surprise and lost her balance, tumbling over the edge of the roof. If not for her incredible reflexes, not to mention her youkai strength, her landing would have been more painful than it was. Instead she managed to kick off the wall and handspring herself to her feet with a flip. The tengu was still in the air and Kagami seemed to be chasing her, there was no point getting involved, all she could do was run.

She fled in a full sprint across the dockyard, looking up she saw Tensaki pull another card out of her dress and throw it in a downwards direction towards a tanker truck a couple hundred yards away from her. Upon impact with the ground it exploded, taking the tanker truck out in an explosion of angry flame, which immediately engulfed a liquid natural gas tanker docked on the side of the pier, vaporizing it and its contents in a massive explosion.

The LNG tanker with its full hold went up with the force of a thousand charging oni, the immense shockwave throwing her hard into a shipping container. As he struggled to her feet, vision blurry from the blow her head suffered from smashing into the container, she found someone pulling on her arm. "Come on, let's go!" It was Katsu Shinozaki, the son of Taichi Shinozaki, the ninth socho of the Sumiyoshi-kai.

Reika reached in the direction of the flames, she felt responsible for everything that was going wrong at this moment, but she was feeling faint, even Shinozaki could tell. Curious of how much longer she'd make it, an experimental question was asked. "Does the carpet match the drapes?" She immediately turned with a furious slap ready, and collapsed into his arms unconscious before she managed to strike him. As flames leapt from building to building, he found himself dragging her away.
_________

Tensaki looked down upon the burning harborside, there was no trace of Kagami to be found, was it possible she had escaped? She floated complacently, as if going on a rampage had been some sort of victory to her. She became distinctly aware that Yukari was behind her once again.

"Yukari," she started, not bothering to turn around. "I thought you weren't going to stop me."
"Not your plan... but you are making a big mess of things."
"And?"
"Oh hoho~ I see now~"

She whirled around, Yukari's hands had seemingly produced a set of spell cards from nowhere. She reached for her own only to realize that that's what was held in the other youkai's hand; her spell cards, ones she had made special for this very occasion. How had she known? Was their parting that bad, she had only threatened death on Yukari, it wasn't like she had burned down her home or cut off an arm.

"Give. Them. Back. Now!" She outstretched her hand out in a demanding manner. A hole immediately opened in front of her, and an intruding hand returned them to their place.
"Fufufu~ so I was right, the fateless one came ready to fight."
"..."
"Don't you think it's a little too public?" Yukari really didn't care what mess a fight between them would have made and neither did Tensaki, but what she wanted to know was how the tengu would react.

A thin smile, Yakumo was taking the bait, all she needed was to act appropriately. A ten of the diamond sort emerged from her sleeve, getting immediately thrown. Yukari dodged out of the way as it exploded in a blast of freezing water. That was it, just as she expected, she fled over the waters of Tokyo Bay, if everything went right, Yukari would try to stop her.
_________

Okay, maybe it hadn't worked out as planned, nobody tried to stop her, it was puzzling to say the least, she expected a fight. Well... not really, she honestly didn't know what to expect of Yukari. While she floated there thinking, a gap opened up in front of her and Yukari emerged from it.

"Get out of my way Yakumo, don't make me hurt you."
"I will defeat you!" The line was cheesy as hell, but by this point, both parties knew what they were really looking for and were just acting for the hell of it.
"No you won't, you're just saying that, you'll fight until you're bored of me, hardly a defeat."
"Likewise, you don't have it in you to hurt me."
"So it's a fight you want."
"Then a fight it shall be, fufufu~?" she waved her fan, proceedings were about to get under way.
Tensaki raised her hands in a pointing motion. "Let's fight than! You're dead Yakumo!"

That time Tensaki's voice and tone were genuine, no acting involved. Three spell cards slid into her one hand and a deck of playing cards into her other, even if this fight wasn't anything big, not like it would determine the fate of the universe or anything, she would not lose. She was the Maiden Untouched By Fate, despite what Yukari had said to her, her fate was her own and nobody else's, not even the gods themselves could assign her a fate. As long as she had faith, every single one of the unlimited possibilities in life were hers to choose from regardless of circumstances, quantum mechanics be damned.

She stared into Yukari's golden eyes, and Yukari stared right back, they both had spell cards at the ready and were prepared to battle to an unknown end on a moment's notice, all it would take was a trigger or some sort. The uncontrollable fire spread to a refinery near the pier causing it to explode, that was it, the fight had begun. Yukari was a step quicker than the crow in attacking, firing off a field of kunai shaped bullets in all directions.

Tensaki with her tengu speed easily dodged the bullets, but Yukari kept them up, and it was unlikely that she'd stop unless forced. Screaming at the top of her lungs, she elevated into the air and launched into a dive, charging stark raving mad at the boundary youkai. She was getting closer, that was it! She threw several of her cards at Yukari and then immediately flipped backwards as they exploded in a shower of bullets.

As expected of her opponent, Yukari breezed through them easily with little effort. She dived downward to avoid the purple kunai, skimming the waves momentarily, and rising back up. More cards were thrown, but even if she could match Yukari in power, which she couldn't, there was no way she could match Yukari in experience.

Still... her smile was smug, both of them were equally matched in arrogance, or so she believed. Someone else might have said something different, the deck was shuffled single-handedly and a spell-card pulled out of it, her others having since been put away.

She needed to force Yukari onto the defensive rather than be the defender herself. It was raised into the air, she declared Card Sign 「Full House」 It was one of the weaker cards in her Repeat Spin Sudden Death set, but since that set didn't exactly operate by the spell card rules of Gensokyo she didn't bother using them as intended. Maybe some other time, but not now.

Five cards were thrown, quickly spiraling around Yukari letting streams of large bullets as they did so. Yukari was surrounded and she knew it, this would have been easy to escape with the gap, always at her side, but she wanted to escape without Tensaki being aware of it. However, in order to do that, she needed to figure out what the card did exactly

The bullets were moving slowly to the center of the spiral, easily grazed, easily dodged, but still slow moving. They began to speed up, then they burst into many like a shotgun firing at high speed. Tensaki looked on amused, maybe she had accidentally vaporized Yukari, it would have been funny. Then again, it was Yukari...that would just be too easy.

A purple kunai struck her in the back, well fuck, she'd escaped when she wasn't looking,,, Tensaki spun around, that actually hurt. As she wove through them, like a spider making a web, Yukari held a spell card of her own out, she didn't know what to expect and held back. A powerful blast of red and blue bullets shot her way, she was sure she wouldn't be able to react in time.

Out of reflex, she kicked her the back of right ankle with such force that it propelled her into a backflip, narrowly dodging an ever approaching blue bullet. Orbs of light appeared in the air around her and fired off similarly colored lasers. She stopped immediately, narrowly avoiding a blue laser as it shot across the sky in front of her. She skirted the laser ever so briefly, weaving in and out of the mesh of blue and red lasers that formed around her.

She was like a rat in a cage, she tossed a few cards out without really aiming them; she didn't even have close to enough focus to devote to attacking Yukari. As she dodged between shots of blue and red bullets, droplets of water began to fall from the sky. She hated when it rained, the water always weighed down on her wings and made them heavier, and there was no way in hell she would ever hide them.

The lasers switched directions, slicing up a fishing trawler as they did so. Tensaki was visibly slowing down, and she knew it, she went for an opening within mesh as the lasers began to box her in. She did a barrel roll, narrowly making it through the opening, clipping the edge of her left wing on the sweeping laser as she did so. There was no way she could attack, even evading the majority of the lasers, she needed to find away out of the mesh.

She dived down descending to the water, ending her flight over the deck of a cargo ship landing on top of a container. The rain was coming down heavier now, she jumped to the next container as one of the lasers swept across the deck of the ship chasing her. She leapt from the ship taking back to the air on wet wings as the ship swiftly sank, taking all hands with.

She skimmed close to the water as the spell card timed out above her, purple kunai began to rain down from the sky, turquoise ones beginning to join in with their darker fellows. With the dodging taking place this close to the water, the waves threatened to swallow her up and pull her beneath their stormy surface. She couldn't return to the sky now, she needed to stay below radar just a bit longer.

This was it, she had managed to slip behind Yukari, she ascended high in the air and dived down. It was risky, but in theory a sufficient physical attack should distract Yukari and put her on the defensive. At the last moment, Yukari turned around smiling and struck her hard on the left wing. Her equilibrium gone, she began to tumble from the sky, spiraling towards the waves below. Sure, she could have flown like Yukari, but that would require energy and power that would be better focused on Yukari.

It was the last moment, before she hit the water, she restabilized her flight and rose up again only to find herself blinded by a light coming from below. She looked down through the hazy rain, apparently their very public battle had attracted JMSDF attention from the DDG174 Kirishima, an aegis destroyer stationed at the nearby naval base in Yokosuka and sent against an enemy of unknown origin... not that she was aware of that of course, she only knew that it was "a navy ship".

"We're attracting attention, shall we call it quits?" A ceasefire momentarily took place as thunder clapped and lightning streaked through the sky.
"Heh, now why would we do that?" A near lucky shot from the Kirishima's 127mm deck gun breezed by Tensaki's face.
"Fufufu~." Yukari clearly found the answer from below funny.
"Bah, there's newer and better ships, whatever it is it's probably a relic or I'd be dead."

The two of them were surprised buy a shout which effectively ended their conversation. "Mirror Sign 「Shadow of Light」" It was Kagami, the mirror youkai come to finish their battle at the most inconvenient time, Yukari took advantage of the distraction to take the initiative on her attack. As the kunai spiraled towards her she found white bullets appearing all around her. They were so bright, they seemed to reflect her image, it almost distracted her from Yukari's fire.

Yep, bullets of purple, turquoise, and yellow, she was used to Yukari's spiraling pattern by now, enough to dodge even amidst the reflective fire. Wait, yellow? She did a double take, surely enough, Kagami was firing off yellow bullets that seemed to reflect off the white ones that surrounded her... no, not seemed to, they WERE reflecting off them.

Every time she tried to move, the reflective bullets moved with her along with their barrage of yellow ones. She didn't even bother counting Yukari's fire because she was used to it by now. She needed to distract Yukari so that she could have an easier time taking out the weaker youkai without having to deal with any surprises Yukari would throw at her, it was hard enough with the destroyer firing its deck gun into the sky, ready to remove any one of the three from it.

As she flipped through the air, nearly bouncing on the bullets, her deck was switched out for new one and shuffled with both hands. another spell card being pulled out. She declared Aces and Eights 「Dead Man's Hand」. Five jokers floated to the air and spun around her, turning a few times before turning into the Jack of clubs, the eight of clubs, the eight of spades, the ace of clubs, and the ace of spade.

They didn't quite turn into the cards, it was more a slight of hand trick than anything, but even if someone could see through the bullets, they would have never noticed. The five cards shot out homing in on Yukari, a sufficient enough distraction in her mind. As they danced through the air, they split several times. The gap youkai was smart about it and ducked into her gap to avoid being hit.

The original target gone, the cards switched directions and began to home in on Kagami. It was almost time, a few more bullets bouncing off the inside off the cage and Tensaki wouldn't be able to dodge anymore. Then she looked up and saw the cards heading straight towards her... she froze completely, in no way had she been expecting this. At point-blank range the cards exploded in a hail of bullets.

She could not dodge at all, many of the bullets struck her. She fell into a daze, there was no way in hell she'd be capable of continuing fighting after that. Unlike Yukari and Tensaki, she was unlucky, a several lucky shots from the deck gun took her out of the sky, knocking her mirror out of her hand. It was over for her, and not just the fight, she was being removed from the "grand stage" as Shikaya would have put it. Her spell card faded and Yukari popped back out of her gap, Tensaki took the hint and stopped attacking for the moment.

"I must admit, I'm impressed with this little fiefdom you've set up outside the barrier, to use this much power without tiring..."
"I'll never stop being impressed with you Yukari, you're as strong as ever."
"We've both proved our points to eachother, shall we quit?"
"What's the point of a fight without a victor?"
"Oh hoho~ true enough, we'll let one more spell card decide this."

Tensaki reached into her dress and pulled out several decks of cards and a spell card, Yukari pulled a spell card of her own and held it out. A bolt of lighting shot down between them as they declared their spell cards at the same time.

"Queen's Barrage 「Shoot the Moon」!"
"Bounded Field 「Boundary of Life and Death」!"

A protective wall of enchanted playing cards surrounded Tensaki, this was it, while it wasn't a real fight, this last barrage would be for all the marbles. If she could defeat Yukari Yakumo, it would be her proof to the world that neither fate nor luck had any control over her, that she had escaped the grasp of the gods themselves... that she had joined their ranks.

She swooped through the air, her transparent cage of cards following along, as Yukari fired off white bullets in multiple directions using a counterclockwise motion. Upon counting, she realized there were only seven in each grouping, it was much easier to focus on the ship. Two of the cards shot out and exploded in bursts of twenty-six shots of fiery red bullets each, she missed the ship with each shot, but that was a direct act of hostility against the ship. She didn't care.

She focused the cards on Yukari as more and more began to shoot out as the gap youkai, missing with most of them but finding herself pleasantly surprised as some of them hit their mark, even if only a few. Another set of bullets added itself to the first ones, bluish ones that went in a counterclockwise pattern in sets of two, three, then two again. She smirked, as long as she avoided the white ones, it was easy enough.

She dodged through the white bullets, and wove her way through the blue ones, she fired several more of the cards, but having decided that flame was not the best enchantment to go for with the cards in the middle of a storm, she fired off cards that exploded into bursts of electrified yellow bullets instead. Her opponent easily skimmed them, avoiding any harm that could have been brought about by the attack.

Tensaki tried to keep her distance, weaving and diving, large red bullets had been thrown in at a clockwise rate in a pattern of two per set, closely spaced together. She threw out four more of her transparent cards at Yukari, bursting them into green bullets spread with cutting wind. Managing to squeeze into a space between the red shots and the white bullets that came down like feathers falling from the sky, she found herself having to force herself to go fast due to her wet wings.

Dark blue bullets added in a clockwise rotation, as they swept through the sky, they scattered like sakura on a windy day. She smiled, she'd have to see the sakura scatter some spring to compare it to Yukari's spell card. This was being stepped up a notch, below her several of the bullets struck the Kirishima disabling the deck gun. Of course, Tensaki was too busy focusing on dodging Yukari's shots that she barely noticed that the deck gun was no longer firing it's 127mm rounds into the sky.

Circling Yukari's perimeter, she dodged upward through the bullets as her own cards shot out, she wanted to search for an opening of some kind, of any kind. But the large amount of bullets coming at her all at once with little room for error kept her from finding one, it was frustrating. She lost focus momentarily and smashed into a red bullet, managing to turn it into a skim but ended up running straight onto yellow bullets that were now being fired counterclockwise in a sweeping motion.

She checked her dress closely, there was a hole in the front, but she could easily replace that since she had a few more of these things. What she was more worried about was her ribbon, which luckily for her was still intact. This was getting too intense, five different sets of bullets all being fired at once, she wasn't sure how much long she could take it, she had exhausted what will she had to fight, but her pride would not allow her to surrender.

For a short time she wondered how much longer the spell card would last, beyond the ability to control gaps, Tensaki knew little about Yukari's capabilities these days. She sent another set of cards dancing through the sky toward's the gap youkai's general direction. Despite that she had switched through the orientation of the enchanted cards, she wasn't getting any better results.

"Holy fuck!" Another sweeping set of medium sized bullets began firing out in a sweeping motion, this time in a clockwiseish pattern, the direct opposite of the previous set. All she had to do was survive until Yukari's spell card ran to it's finish and then the battle would be a draw, but she knew next time would not be for fun, next time would be to the death. Somewhere in the background she thought she heard a shout of "Do a barrel roll", but it was probably just the wind.

Still... it couldn't have hurt to try it. She charged into the most concentrated portion of fire and squeezed into a gap, in a way only a barrel roll would allow, if she could survive the finale, she would come out with her pride intact. She swooped and dived as if her life depended on it and and somehow managed to come out without anymore hits. She had won.. and then Yukari held up another spell card.

"Wait... wha...?"

That was the only thing Tensaki could manage to say as blue and purple bullets began to swiftly surround her, Yukari had clearly decided that she was bored with the battle and intended on ending it immediately. She couldn't counterattack, she had neither spell cards or another card deck ready for this. The bullets closed in on all sides, she held her eyes shut hoping that loss wouldn't be too painful.

A clap of thunder, and a flash of lightning... nothing happened. She opened her eyes and found that they were gone, she was just as confused as Yukari was. An oni floated off to the side, her hair damp from the storm, it was Shikaya, come to stop this before it got out of hand.

"I don't need you here."
"Yes you do." Shikaya replied to Tensaki, but her quiet voice was lost to the storm.
"Fufufu~ the oni returns to the tengu."
"Nice to see you Yukari." the oni bowed at the gap youkai.

Yukari smiled at her, it was genuine, unlike the act she and Tensaki put on with eachother. Shikaya was a rather strange oni, too much interest in theater had given her a strange outlook on life; all the world's a stage. She was beautiful as well, not in an attractive manner, but in a more haunting, ghostly manner.

Her two horns sat in a spiral on either side of her head, almost looking like a snail shell. Dark blue colored hair hung loosely, a hairpin in her hair for decoration. Her dress wasn't elegant, it was more... fanciful. It had been something she always seemed to wear, modified from a purple festival kimono. The neckline was cut shorter, being elegant without exposing too much skin, revealing a pendant she wore around her neck. It seemed to be some sort of spiritual charm, but neither had never bothered to ask about it.

Her sleeves went down to her wrists, bright blue ribbons hanging from them. The kimono itself only went down to her knees where it cut off, she liked the feel of fresh air on her ankles. A belt worn around her waist had a sheathed katana sitting in it, a story about it was vaguely remembered, something about a mountain village, but it had been so long since it was mentioned that neither Tensaki nor Yukari remembered what it was.

"Bow, close curtain, thundering applause, exeunt all." The oni closed her eyes and waved a hand.
"I'm not sure she wishes it."
"I don't even understand what you're saying." Tensaki wouldn't let it on, but she was furious that Shikaya had interrupted their battle.
"Break it up you two, right now!" Her normally calm voice reached levels of anger that rarely showed.
"Hmm... as you wish." As she opened her gap, Yukari turned and looked at Tensaki. "See you next time... or will I." She laughed ever so slightly as she vanished into the gap.

Seeing that, Shikaya began to drift away, followed closely by Tensaki who quickly caught up with her. "Tensaki... you took this too far, we're not even ready for conflict yet."
The tengu was silent, before finally coming up with a reply. "Do a barrel roll?"
The oni laughed. "Don't make me hurt you too? Seriously, aren't deities supposed to have a bit more charisma than that... even if you two were acting."

"What about the other girl?"
"..." Shikaya sighed, didn't Tensaki have any faith in her? "All taken care of."
"Good, then let's go."
"To Gensokyo." The oni's statement was meant as more of a question.
"To Gensokyo."