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Amaterasu      LAST TIME ON TOUHOU BALL Z: Everyone gathered at Marisa's house as Konoe finally woke up. Explanations were had, discoveries were made, and solutions were suggested. In the end, Konoe's sister; Wakahirume, possessed her to tell everyone; 'No. I will not listen to your plans. Sit back and burn.'

     And now...

     Today was the day.

     Today was the day that they would be storming Takamagahara, entering the Palace of The Sun, and bringing the fight directly to Wakahirume. She'd already made her decision. She wasn't going to listen to 'lower life forms'. So it was time to do this the old fashioned way; WITH A BOOT TO THE HEAD.

     ...Figuratively, not literally. Or maybe literally too. Either way!

     Takamagahara is quiet. Eerily quiet. It's a little hotter than it was last time, no thanks to the sunlight intensifying even more than it had last time. The souls of millions of sleeping gods stayed far out of the way. Akiyama and Haruyama were probably off trying to charm a pair of fall goddesses somewhere. Amenohohi was locked in his vast library as usual. Kumanokusubi sat upon the The Infinite Stairway, legs crossed and blade hefted across his shoulders. He wouldn't stop people from passing or flying over.

     At this point, he wanted to see what was going to happen.

     As they reach the palace, they would see that the cruel barrier of water that was previously surrounding the palace was...gone. There were no protections now. It was here, clear as day, as if beckoning these fools to come inside and try their luck. Oh yes, Wakahirume was waiting for them. Waiting for these silly lower life forms to attempt to stop her from awakening her mother. But she wasn't going to have it. She'd send them all packing here and now.

     So she thought anyway.

     You are free to enter the Palace of The Sun, unhindered. Come, little bugs. Come and face your doom.
Marisa Kirisame     Of course today was the day. It hasn't stopped being today in three goddamn months! Marisa Kirisame, for one, is really super ultra tired of all this nonsense! And so she has arrived, flying through the air upon her noble steed once more into the very heart of Gensokyo's troubles.

But the Youkai Exterminator doesn't go to face youkai today.

No, today she goes to face GODS!

AGAIN!

    "Oh, huh," she observes as she sweeps overtop of the great Palace of the sun. Marisa squints narrowly at the building's rooftop, wiping thick droplets of sweat from her brow, cheeks and neck. "I guess they did fix the roof. Well, that's too bad."

She plucks... What look to be a half-dozen of completely filled-to-the-brim sake gourds off her belt. Marisa grins a terrible, awful, wolfish grin as she swings back around and HURLS the bottles down towards the newly repaired roof.

AND THEN SHE SHOOTS THEM.

WITH LASERS.

    They explode, not like firecrackers, but like BOTTLES OF PURE NITROGLYCERINE. Marisa Kirisame may not be able to cook up many alchemical recipes, but the ones she CAN make go boom in the biggest, bluest, possible ways!

Provided that the rooftop, absent of its previous watery protection, DOES in fact cave in as she expects, Marisa elects to take a much more direct route to her ultimate prey.

Because who the fuck takes the door anymore? ALSO, IF IT'S HOT OUT HERE, THAT FLUFFY BITCH GETS TO SUFFER TOO.

Marisa may be a bit spiteful.
Kazuko Kawakami      Kazuko Kawakami is ready for action! She's made sure to bring her bladed naginata, ate a hearty lunch, drank plenty of water, and she's even got a fanny pack with extra water bottles to stay hydrated! Perhaps it's not the most stylish of accessories, but it'll do the job when it's time to save the world! A world.

     A world full of magic users and lasers. So what if she's a little outclassed here? The martial artist will find a way! All that's left is for her to meet with the others. "Heeey! Marisa! See anything up there?" She can't see what it is the witch is doing on the roof, but Kazuko's curiousity gets the better of her after all of five seconds.

     After making sure that naginata is strapped securely to her back, the martial artist gets a running start before trying to scale the palace walls! Climbing, jumping, anything goes as long as she can try to catch up with her flying ally!
Sanae Kochiya     It's still harsh weather, even moreso than usual, even for goddesses. Elsewhere in Gensokyo, Suwako has crawled under the shade of a porch to take a nap away from the heat. Kanako is dressed in a tank top and shorts, of all things, having possibly dug through Sanae's old things to find such unbecoming clothing, but it's light, and that's the important thing. She's got her feet dipped into one of the ponds that the frogs frequent, as footsteps approach from behind her; footsteps belonging to a certain Sanae Kochiya. "Lady Kanako, I'm leaving to try and put a stop to this! I got word that the path should be clear now." Kanako leans backward, almost as if her eyes weren't focusing at first, "Ah, Sanae...swooping in at the last moment to claim credit. I've taught you well." "It's, it's not like that," the green-haired girl protests! The more mature woman laughs, before facing forward again, "It was just a little joke." You can practically hear the tilde. "In any case, please represent us well. There is a rumor the Kappa are thinking of converting to solar power." A slight, ominous pause, "We cannot have that."

    With that, Sanae was off. She's trimmed down one of her robes just a bit, but it's still quite a lot to wear in this heat. The good thing about flying is that the breeze helps keep things manageable, and her being in contact with wind spirits certainly helps further in that respect. She arrives a bit too late to stop Marisa from ruthlessly damaging something that could have made an awesome land mark and tourist trap. "Miss Marisa," she calls, while her form resolves on approach! "Please leave enough behind so that we can at least study the ruins!" She's obviously not too optimistic about it, with that phrasing. Though she also notices another shape moving around down there, and another voice. "Another responder! If Miss Reimu were around to see this..." Well, she's off being lazy somewhere, so best to leave that as it is. She descends down into what is possibly the ready-made grand entrance that Marisa provided. "So they had this kind of place hidden, huh?"
Staren     Staren is up in the air with Marisa, watching a master at work, transparent orange wings buzzing. "Won't they just move a mirror in front of it?" he waits to see how this initial attack of Marisa's goes, so that he can attack in the most effective manner. He doesn't have a lot of heavy weapons with him -- he didn't bring the mecha, since it won't fit in the castle.

    He's starting to feel that may have been a mistake, if they're just going to blow /up/ the castle...

    "Woah! Nice!" he shouts at the explosion. "Okay, I guess they can't reflect /that/!" He watches the smoke eagerly to see if the roof is still there once it's gone.
Yuna Kagurazaka About half an hour ago, in Shiraokadai, Japan, Fraulein Earth:

"Yuna? What are you doing?"

"Putting on sunscreen."

Elner sighs, "You're going into battle, not the beach ..."

"We're going into battle against someone who has every intention of destroying Gensokyo with unrelenting sunlight. Unless my Light Suit will protect me from sunburn too ..."

Here and now:

Yuna is already transformed as she heads up the Infinite Stairway, flying rather than walking; Jiina and Marina are close behind her, with Elner holding the middle of their approximate formation. "Good day to you, Kumanokusubi!" Yuna greets the guardian on her way past, actually sparing a moment to wave; Jiina and Marina wave as well, although they're silent.

Yuna winces at the sound of the explosions from Marisa breaching the castle's roof - or trying to, anyway - but she can't argue with the witch's logic. She *still* isn't sure if she's going to need to break out El-Line, but she's keeping her options open as she finally comes to a hover, waving to her other allies and taking a look at the current state of the palace ... or at least, waiting for the smoke to clear so she can do that. "I wonder if that guy from last week has regenerated already ..." she muses while waiting.
Reina Kinney     Wait, could it be that Reina Kinney is flying too?

    Apparently, GUARDIANS has some kind of new prototypical device that Reina can wear on her back that lets her fly a little. Unfortunately, the power is limited, so she can't fly like a bird or anything like that, but it does allow her some flight movement. Every little bit helps for Reina, especially someone who hates walking long distances. Namely since her boots, while made for protection, aren't all that comfortable at times.

    "I should see about getting some running shoes instead," Reina comments to herself before noticing that she's not alone. She looks to Yuna and smirks a little. "Sorry, Yuna, just talking to myself there," She says with a slight grin. "You do that when you get older!" Older being a relative term, since Reina's only twenty-nine!

    Once they make their arrival, Reina pauses to get a good look at things, only to narrow her eyes as the explosion goes off and the smoke obscures her look at the palace. "So much for a covert entry. Guess it's gonna be full-on assault mode, or something like that!" She comments, debating which weapons to use today.
Amaterasu      Marisa decides to be Marisa.

     To great result. The explosions tear into the palace roofs, causing them to cave in and crumble with a grinding of stone, wood, and metal. Looks like there weren't going to be any mirrors this time. And the reason why becomes all too clear when after the roof is breached, what's revealed is a large, golden throne room, all the way at the back, was a throne of pure golden, masterfully crafted.

     And seated upon it, was a girl about Marisa, Kazuko, and Sanae's age, really. She wore a plain white summer dress, one with a single red ribbon wrapped around it. And on her feet was a pair of white shoes. Her hair was also snow white, with red streaks at the ends of them. And her eyes were red as well, slitted in an animal-like fashion. Curled around her from behind were four white tails. The tips were dipped red, like her hair. She looked a lot like Konoe, but with long hair and more tails.

     "Well, well. It appears that the little bugs have come to pay me a personal visit." She smirked in a cruel manner, an elbow rested upon the throne's armrest, her cheek rested in her closed fist. Her gaze was inclined upwards at Marisa, Staren, and whoever else was coming from above. "....." Her cruel, cool countenance lasted a moment longer, and then she comically pointed upwards. "AND WHY CAN YOU NOT ENTER THE CASTLE LIKE A CIVILIZED PERSON!? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH EFFORT IT TAKES TO FIX YOUR DAMAGE!?"

     She sighed after, calming down. "Hmph. No, I should be more understanding. This is about what can be expected of lower life forms, after all."
Amaterasu      Backtracking a moment, Kumanokusubi grinned and gave Yuna and her escorts a wave. "Yo. Try not to get killed. Big sis is pretty pissed today. Ahahaha!" And he laughed like it was nothing. Then went back to meditating. This was going to be interesting.
Marisa Kirisame THERE IS NOTHING SUFFICIENTLY LARGE EXPLOSIONS CANNOT FIX.

    "Relax, relax," Marisa waves to Player Four as the dust clears. "They put it back together pretty fast after the last time. I even warned them that I'd be back, so they shouldn't work too hard to put their roof back together!" Marisa snickers. Sanae knows that there is not a single remorseful bone in her body. "Didn't listen though. More's the pity!"

As the dust clears, Marisa's smirk grows into a triumphant smile. "Hah! Target sighted! You guys better hurry on up here, or I'll get to have all the fun!"

Speaking of fun.

    "I warned you, didn't I!?" Marisa yells down at the woman upon her sparkling golden throne and idly identifies that, yes, as she expected, this one IS some manner of kitty cat. She files that information away for now. Because it's business time." Marisa flips her Hakkero over in her hand, "Besides, I thought the whole point was that you wanted the sun to wake your mom up. So I just opened the roof up a little! How can you complain about someone so kindly offerin' a helpin' hand, eh?"

"Well, aaaanyway," Marisa lilts, leaning back on her broom. "You gonna turn this damn island around, or are we's gonna have to rough you up first?"

She already knows the answer.

But she might as well have miss God Empress dig her own hole a little deeper first.
Yuna Kagurazaka "I don't know why you're complaining," Yuna retorts to Wakahirume. "Everyone loves having a sunroof." She flies through the 'sunroof,' her eyes narrowing a little as she sees where Wakahirume is sitting.

*The* golden throne of the sun goddess's palace. It should be Amaterasu herself sitting there, and Yuna would be a lot more polite if she *was* ... but no, it's just Wakahirume. And Yuna has just about run out of politeness where *she* is concerned.

"As for 'lower life forms' ... the last time you talked to us, you said you were going to let Gensokyo burn to ashes to awaken the Great August Divinity Amaterasu, She Who Illuminates Heaven. We offered to help find another way, you said Gensokyo should feel honored to burn. Would you be any less angry if it was *your* home that was going to be destroyed for some purpose that you could have helped fulfill another way?"

The Matrix Divider materializes in Yuna's hands as Jiina and Marina glide down behind Yuna; Elner joins them, not by flying, but by teleporting. Yuna *does not* aim at Wakahirume yet; she's pointing her weapon at the floor, and at such an angle that if she *did* fire (which she's not planning to do) and the bolt was somehow reflected, it would only rebound onto her leg or something. She doesn't speak of 'roughing up' Wakahirume, though; Marisa already did that, and simply holding a weapon is the only 'statement' Yuna wants to make on that subject.
Marisa Kirisame Marisa asides to Yuna in the most obvious stage whisper to have ever been stage whispered, "Well y'see, that's the rub. If she doesn't cooperate, then I'm totally gonna blow up her house."

"Fair's fair, right."
Kazuko Kawakami      Finally reaching the roof of the palace, Kazuko takes a moment to dust herself off before peering into that big hole that Marisa's left for Gensokyo's saviors-to-be. Lowering herself through it, she makes sure to swing around a bit on whatever's nearby to land safely enough, coming face to face with... With...

     "... Who're you?" She gives the white-haired girl a blank stare as she unstraps that naginata from her back, a recognizing 'ohhh' leaving the martial artist's lips once she loses her cool. "Oh! You're the lady I barked at!"

     She sounds as proud of herself as ever in remembering that. "Well! My name is Kazuko Kawakami, and we're here to stop your crazy plan!" She boasts, slamming the bottom of her weapon on the floor and pointing at the cat lady dramatically. "This is your last chance to give up on it and let us take over, or we'll kick your butt!"
Sanae Kochiya     Well, with that kind of entrance, who wouldn't be pissed off, really? Setting down in the middle of the rubble, Sanae shifts a few pieces of debris around to clear up the floor, and wafts away some lingering dust clouds, both with a hand gesture and the gentle winds still gathered around her body. "You should hire more servants, then," comes Sanae's honest appraisal! "If you're going to last long in this place, you need a lot of them." She's just giving her honest judgement based on what she's seen. This place looks absolutely empty compared to some of the other self-important dens around Gensokyo. She scratches a cheek thoughtfully, "Don't you have some sun fairies you can hire? ...ah." In the midst of her musing, it is quite easily drowned out by Marisa's own unashamedly loud mouth, so she'll just take a moment glancing over the architecture. It's pretty nice, if a bit gaudy. She prefers the rustic charm of her shrine, though.

    Something catches the wind priestess' attention, though, near the tail end of Marisa's ultimatum. "...wait, someone else has mother trouble?" She looks absolutely perplexed, for a moment, and then a strange expression comes over her face, as if she's trying really hard to not look somewhat bemused. She hadn't really gotten the specifics, other than the Tengu's reports on the matter, until now. The talk of being a lesser creature washes completely over her, it seems, as she doesn't get upset in the least. The tone it's spoken in still gets the point across, though, and she backs up Marisa: "Yes, that tends to be the way things go." No real tinge of regret to that statement of fact, as she draws her wand out at the ready.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa had a better idea of what was going on now, even with the issue of Koone's sister tkaing her over for a moment. To mill over all the in turth of the maters and jusrt what they have to do, it seems they are going to have to punch out a god from the sounds of things. She takes deep breth as she thinks but it looks like they got something else to deal with now. She moved in to follow the other in and she's air dashing to follow Staren in, and needs to watch how she's falling in.
Staren     So there's the target! Wada-whatever. Water jerk girl, who has stated her intention to destroy Gensokyo and everyone in it.

    The only reason Staren doesn't open with immediate bombardment is he knows she won't stay dead. It's an important part of solving problems in the Multiverse that you make sure to punch things in the /right way/, otherwise you may just be wasting.

    This is the part where one of his allies reveals her weakness so they can do their job and save Gensokyo, right?

    Right?

    Yuna seems to be pinning her hopes on some super specific chain of events. Is this really their best plan? He doesn't like it...
Amaterasu      Wakahirume narrows her eyes at Marisa. "I'm not turning anything around, and you say you'll rough me up?" Pause. "...Ahahahahaha! Oh, what a riot! The little insect thinks she can actually stop me! Amusing to no end!" And with a deep sigh, the girl stood up from the throne, crossing her arms as she took one step forward.

     Yuna gets a glance next. "The matters of the lower world mean nothing to me. I was certain that I made that clear last time, no? it doesn't bear repeating." Kazuko is seen, and Wakahirume actually glares. "You...! The barker!" She huffed. "Well, if you want to try, I won't stop you. After all..." The white haired goddess idly observes her long, red nails. "Swatting a few flies should be good entertainment to pass the time with."

     Sanae was given a look next. "No need. We have plenty of servants here. You would have seen if you had actually come in properly." And those fairies would have spammed you with endless walls of bullets, so maybe that was a good thing. "Now then. We're beyond talking here. I have no need to listen to your drivel any further so..."

     Wakahirume raised a hand, and then snapped her fingers. "Die for me." Immediately, threads came in from ALL OVER. Countless threads, from the lower floors, through the walls, they all aimed to wrap around everyone present, bind them and then crush them like paper. They were super durable despite their appearance, and there was far more than any eye could count. They whipped around, chasing people through the air and across the floor. They would be doing their very best to snatch up some fools.

     It looks like the battle has started. Don't get grabbed~.
Yuna Kagurazaka Jiina, Marina, and Elner simply vanish in a blink of light when the threads start closing in from every direction; Yuna is left zipping desperately hither and yon, with barely Elner's split-second warning to aid her reactions. The Matrix Divider disappears in the next instant; if Yuna needs firepower, she still has her pulse blasters, but she doesn't want to risk snagging the Divider on any of those strings and getting tangled up as a result. "You know some of us wanted to do this the gentle way, right?" she calls out to Wakahirume. "You have nobody to blame but yourself for what happens to you now!"

And with that, she opens fire, launching barrages of focused energy bolts towards the throne whenever she has a moment to fire and is facing the right way to do so. She's going to run out of room to maneuver if she's not careful, but ... well, Yuna thought of that.

Which is why, during one of the lulls and turns in her flight around the throne room, her *other* sword appears in her hands - the one that doesn't double as a beam rifle. She continues flying around almost at random, but she's also trying to cut her allies free if any of them get tangled in the strings.
Kirito     Not long after Marisa blasts the roof in, Kirito comes swooping down! He stops midway to where the roof... WAS, simply floating in the air with his arms folded and a frown on his face. A frown that...

    Swiftly's turning into a complete SCOWL the longer that Wakahirume speaks.

    "Feel honored to burn?" He echoes her words coldly, but that coldness hides a sick feeling of rage. Although he's no native of Gensokyo, he's spent enough time flying around in its skies to see that, despite how odd it is, it's a place worth caring about. Worth defending.

    Not burning up in a fire.

    The Hero from a Virtual Land. He'll defend this one too.

    "You're no Goddess." Both hands grip the swords sheathed across his back, and draw them cleanly in a single motion.

    "NOT EVEN CLOSE!"

    The time for words has passed, so Kirito's not bothering with lecturing or trying to understand Wakahirume's reasons. At this point...

    She's an obstacle.

    An obstacle that's putting countless lives at risk!

    With one final gulp... he hoists his weapons, angles his wings... and DIVES down, hoping to simply SLASH across her center of mass with all the speed he can manage and blitz past before she can counter.

    There's LOTS of people who'll be using ranged attacks, and he DOESN'T want to get caught in it.

    Especially if it's from Marisa.
Reina Kinney Having flown in behind Yuna, Reina remained silent for the time being. She was not up for talking right then, given that her plans for covert action were abruptly ended. Apparently, being in GUARDIANS does that to someone. Of course, when she spotted Wakahirume, she scowled a little. Then when Yuna was finished speaking, Reina added her two cents. "Lower life forms? Oh please," She comments with a sneer. "You wouldn't know the first thing about that!" She let herself glide to the ground, before snapping her fingers and materializing her rifle in her hands. Like Yuna, she didn't fire just yet, but did this to let Wakahirume know that she's ready for anything... just about.

    Of course, when the battle starts, Reina shows how mobile she can be even when carrying a rifle. She dodges the threads with great agility, rolling and twisting with the greatest of ease. She's surprised she still has it in her despite carrying this rifle, even though she's done this many times. "Now I'm really peeved!" Reina comments as she opens fire on Wakahirume. "No more Miss Nice Girl!"
Marisa Kirisame "Welp," Marisa heaves her shoulders in a great, exaggerated shrug. "Don't say I didn't warn you! I guess we're doing this the FUN way!"

    Threads. Suddenly it becomes clear just what the blazes was up with these things the last time Marisa rumbled through this neck of the woods. While she has absolutely NO DOUBT that Reimu, if she were here and not HAVING A GREAT TIME IN ACAPULCO-679, would dodge through the infinitesimal space between each strand without breaking a sweat, she also knows that she's not nearly that great at dodging.

And so she uses an alternate strategy. One tied, tested and true for years and years and years.

Marisa...

Has gotta go FAST.

    The witch zooms across the now collapsed rooftop. A wiser woman might be using the fact that she has at least one direction that the threads AREN'T coming from to her advantage. Marisa has a way better idea. She darts INTO the mess of sweeping, striking strands, weaving and juking left and right as she starts raining brilliant, emerald bolts down on the goddess below. But...

Just SHOOTING her ain't what she's going for.

    As the threads converge, seeking this swift-moving target armed with SO MUCH MAGIC, Marisa suddenly swerves downward! She hovers for a brief moment in place before swooping back around, somersaulting in mid-air, and looping back over her own flight path!

It's like she's... Flying in knots.

BECAUSE SHE IS.

Because the best way to deal with Doom Threads is to KNOT THEM UP IN A GREAT BIG BOW.

(She might have more than a little practice trying something like this on Alice. Maybe.)
Sanae Kochiya     There is a slightly helpless shrug, and the seemingly carefree Sanae, wiping just a bit of sweat from her forehead from that terrible heat, just gives a light laugh. "Well...I would have, but there was this hole already here, after all." She'll just go pester the fairies later, maybe, to let them feel useful and that they've done their jobs. The most important thing with this revelation, though: "Well then, it sounds like you're all set! There's just one last thing that needs to be done." As Marisa had not-so-subtly hinted, there's a certain protocol that is followed, when someone arrives with designs on Gensokyo. It doesn't look like Wakahirume is any stranger to the protocol, either, with that continued threatening stance and condescending way of speaking.

    And then it begins! Heightened reflexes from being involved in a number of these situations, and the gift of flight, can only prepare one for so much. Especially when the enemy's attacks cheat. "...no clip," Sanae gasps, and briefly flashing her gamer card? "That's not fair!" It sounds like she is somewhat joking on that, as she has no real time to scold. Instead she's in the air -- she doesn't get ensnared by them *directly*, but the effect is still similar, as her room to maneuver is greatly reduced by having to accomodate all the threads. It also complicates actually being able to fire back, as she has to have her head on a proverbial swivel. "Not even a warm up, then," she continues, breathed between pauses of having to shift her position. And she completely doesn't notice her own pun.

    With just the slightest opening, she's still able to get off several shots of what looks like folded, paper talismans. In mid-flight, the magic on them activates, causing them to take on a form not unlike an origami frog, and then fan out in a wide sweep, aiming to sever even the dense threads with counter-magic. "I've heard of threads so strong that they could even lift sinners out of Hell," she figures. "But can that be right? Miss Yamaxanadu would be really angry!" She's readying another volley, this time of homing serpent shots; before a near miss from the threads snatches them right out of her hand, and crushes them, "Hey! Those aren't easy to make!"
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is dropping in with Staren and knows the nemey cna't be handled with direct force, right? Ther emight be other ways to deal with her and unlike the greek gods? She doesn't know of anything akin to Hinds Blood that might work. So she's going to have to look for another way to deal with things. She comes out of her three point landing she looks at Wakahirume for a moment. She's not happy she wants to knock the smug look off her face for good if she can. Prehaps going after the castle might be the better idea, bring the place down rather than fight her directly? Then again that should be a last resort.

"Well then if that's how you want to do it, fine, I never got to punch out a god before and it will be an interesting experiance."

She's not moving into melee just yet, prehaps it was a figure of speech, but she pulls a plasma grenade off her belt and lobs it at the goddess.
Staren     Staren just makes groans of disgust for the haughty attitude. How does /anyone/ get this bad and full of themselves? It seems they may have to accept a temporary victory in order to not get...threaded? entangled? Strung out? Anyway, Staren flies /up/. Just how far do those threads go?

    If they stop at any remotely reasonable length, Staren flies out of reach, readies his sniper laser rifle, and tries to shoot a burst at Waka-hime from above.

    If they never stop, Staren flies back away, and opens fire on the threads, trying to determine how easily they can be damaged and whether they grow back!
Sarah Parsle It's about at this time that a dark figure arrives, looking down from the hole in the ceiling as everyone gets assaulted by water-tentacles. "That's some hubris." says a familiar voice, punctuated by an incredibly annoying slurp from her swirly straw hat. "Frankly, this is so unreasonable that I find it hard to believe that a logical, thinking being would actually entertain the idea that they hold the advantage here, let alone are warranted in acting that way."

And then she leans in, the ecto-youth smiling. "Hope you're ready, lady. Because this is going to be like eating a whole bakery full of humble pie." She is holding a staff, a humble curled cane of polished oak that the points down into the throne room... And there is a low hum as it fires a single, small bullet of light towards Wakarihime. As soon as it strikes something, there is a sudden 'doip!' sound as whatever is struck is subjected to a force that attempts to flip it upside down 180 degrees.

Then she fires again. And again. And again. And again. The Cane seems to be endless as she simply attempts to keep flipping the youkai end over end repeatedly, not actually doing any direct damage to her.

But he /is/ annoying as hell.
Kazuko Kawakami      "So that's how it's gonna be, huh? Fine! Don't say we didn't warn ya!" Drawing that naginata close, Kazuko spies those watery threads coming from every which way, and her master plan in dealing with this little issue is...

     Cutting them up. And spinning. Namely, she's spinning her naginata at the center, whirling it about and almost looking like a tiny one-girl helicopter! As she spins the weapon at a breakneck pace, she starts advancing towards wakahirume, eventually breaking into a run as she tries to give some extra cover to her allies by shredding those water tentacles to... Shreds!

     Alas, speed is Kazuko's focus rather than precision, and it probably wouldn't be too unexpected for some of those things to get through her reckless charge!
Amaterasu      And the battle begins.

     But also, KIRITO happens. No seriously, where did he come from? Wakahirume only barely took the time to look at him, before he was in her face, letting loose a furious dual bladed slash. It makes direct contact, leaving a a rather grisly cross shaped wound across her torso that immediately began to bleed heavily over her white dress. "Augh! Damn it you-!" She reared back with a claw, swiping at the swordsman, only to find that... he was gone? Damn it.

     And in his place was a barrage of bullets from Yuna, Sanae, Marisa, and Reina. "Fools." With her arm, she raised a wall of compressed thread out of the floor before her, just after a few of those shots struck her at various points of her body. Wakahirume grit her teeth in annoyance and then clenched her fist. The wall of thread that served as a barrier against all of that long range fire then explodes, firing volleys of thickened, thread needles back at those who fired at her first.

     Right then, there was a clink as some kind of...round object rolled towards her? ".....?" What was that? The goddess immediately got a bad feeling once it started thrumming with energy and leapt back, right as it exploded! The force of the explosion sent Wakahirume flying, and she landed atop the back of the golden throne, dusting herself off. "I swear...!"

     MEANWHILE those threads continued to chase people around, getting slashed, shot and cut at without any resistance. It took a bit of exertion, but it was definitely possible to break them. The problem was that they respawned at ridiculous rates, and they chased Staren around further than he expected. But it turns out something happened. ...Marisa's erratic flying caused the lot of them to kind of...knot up? With them like that, he was able to shoot a good amount of them down.

     As for Kazuko, she did her little SPINNY THING and advanced forward through the threads, Wakahirume turned her gaze directly on the girl and pointed a palm in her direction. "As for /you/, I-"

     DOIP.

     "Eh?"

     Wakahirume felt herself get hit with...something. Actually, she could have sword she heard someone that wasn't here before in all this rucku- "W-WHAAA!?" She was suddenly spun upside down! To protect her modesty, she grabbed the ends of her dress, pushing them up as her hair and tails hung upside down. "WHAT STUPIDITY IS THI- HEY NO WAI-" DOIP. "AHHH! STOP!" DOIPDOIDPDOIPDOIPDOIP. "STOPSTOPSTOPSTOP!" DOIPDOIPOIPDOIP!

     "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

     Having kind of lost control now, Wakahirume was stuck there, spinning endlessly, keeping her dress up. She couldn't control her threads any longer, and they just fell apart. Now, all there was, was a goddess at the mercy of a ridiculous staff in the hands of a girl.

     This was sad.
Sanae Kochiya     Just as some of those countless, annoying threads had threatend to snag Sanae's arm -- for some reason, they seem to lose some of their cohesion. As the mass clears to a more manageable amount, Sanae hears over the sounds of the racket, a stranger noise still. 'Doip?' It takes her a few moments to gather herself enough to trace her eyes from where Sarah is firing her staff, to where Wakahirume is...rapidly being flipped around. Man, this is Gensokyo, what's with that modesty. "It's odd to say," the green-haired teenager reckons, taking this moment to catch her breath, "But now I almost feel sorry for her." A complete charisma break. Well done, Sarah Parsle.

    More importantly, though, in this moment of her scrambling, if she can't control those threads, that leaves an opening. Sanae floats around some of the remaining, uncontrolled masses, angling inward to get closer to the boss. With every rest and break in the pattern comes the opportunity to close distance and really get your focus fire on! For that reason, as it's revealed she still had plenty of those folded cards despite her protests moments earlier, she launches three volleys in short order. This time it's those same serpents that were confiscated by the threads; subtly homing, just for the extra insurance. "You should think more about protecting your body. This is Gensokyo, a land without shame!" She didn't mean that to sound so direct, honestly, but with residents like Marisa, can you really argue?
Kazuko Kawakami      Kazuko's got more bravery than sense, her charge continuing forward as her naginata tears through watery threads while she tugs at the ones that catch around her arms. Even when Wakahirume points her palm, though, she barely even flinches, waiting to sidestep an attack that never actually comes. She does stagger to a stop when the lady flips over suddenly, watching her with a confused stare at that physics-breaking spinning as the water falls right off her arm.

     "... Eh? Is that...?" She looks from her to Sarah, then at Sanae with a snicker at her reaction before turning back to Wakahirume and breaking into a run again. "That's right! If you're worried about people looking up your skirt, then..."

     She slams the blade of her naginata into the ground, then launches herself upwards with the handle. "... Wear spats!" She bellows as she dives forward with her leg extended for a big kick, her skirt fluttering upwards and revealing... Well, spats. No worries about showing anything off that way!
Marisa Kirisame Hahaha! Not even A SEA OF DOOMTHREADS is enough to dissuade Marisa Kirisame. She ducks and weaves and twists between the patterns like some kind of old-hat expert in the art of dodging attacks that would otherwise be total bullshit. Her recklessness doesn't exactly go (completely) unpunished, though! A small handful of threads comes dangerously close to seizing her out of the air--

*POIP*

And then they suddenly go slack.

    Marisa pauses in her manic, wild flight and glances around to try to figure out where that bizarre noise is coming from. When she sees Sarah and the rod, and the spinning, whirling, dynamo fox-cat held helplessly in her thrall... She laughs. She laughs good and long, straight from the very depths of her belly. "Hoooooo, boy, and I thought what I was gonna do to her was gonna be embarrassin'. This is just quality comedy, here."

"Though, you know, for some reason, I don't feel bad about this."

    Her Hakkero begins to glow. Marisa levels it at her divine foe, and unleashes thin beams of PURE MAGICAL ENERGY down at the helpless goddess. "What is it the people outside call it?" She muses, firing laser after laser after laser. "Uhhh. Sch-cat-enfreude?"
Yuna Kagurazaka Oh, of COURSE she's returning fire on TOP of all the strings shooting everywhere. Yuna is already flitting around as fast and as erraticaly as Flight Form allows, but the needles getting launched from the barrier - well, if they're leading the target (that is, her) then Yuna's going to have some more trouble. If they're just getting launched back at where Yuna shot from, it might not be quite as bad ...

But overall, Yuna's path back and forth across the throne room is now being marked by many flickers of light as her battlesuit's protective field tries to repel the needles which intersect her flight. It's probably not much of a surprise that Yuna ceases fire while trying to come up with a better alternative ...

Which is about the point at which Sarah flips Wakahirume off. Repeatedly. With that magical cane she's gotten from somewhere.

Yuna doesn't really notice at first, until she realizes that the threads aren't shootign all over any more. *Then* she slows to a hover, giving Sarah a quick thumbs-up and a relieved grin. "Yeah," Yuna says to Marisa. "I don't think she expected her plans to get upended like this."

Not sure how to punish Wakahirume for her misdeeds? Merciless punning at her expense seems to be Yuna's choice.
Sarah Parsle "Arthur H. Lowell. It's working. It's /actually working/." Sarah says, observing the events with a dispassionate amusement... And she begins to laugh. It's not a nice laugh. It's the kind of laugh someone makes when they're enjoying your suffering. It's a laugh of pure unadulterated schadenfreude.

The doiping continues unabated, Sarah racking up the doipchain as she continues flipping the goddess without respite or mercy. "Okay, so. I want you to do something for me, lady." Sarah says. "Cry uncle. Just surrender, and I won't see if I can make a goddess puke from riding the Doip-A-Whirl. Everyone can stop killing each other and we can move on to doing something productive."

She does use her other hand to salute the others present.
Kirito     Kirito'd managed to dodge the threads but only because of the insane speed he was flying at. The ones that were trailing him had not been able to catch up in time... but the air's still THICK with them.

    UNtil... the goddess is HORRIBLY tortured-distracted by what Kirito's certain is the MOST RIDICULOUS magical artifact he's ever seen.

    Doip.

    Magus Pacci, just WHAT did you artifice there?

    Kirito's staring dumbfoundedly. And he NEARLY flies into a wall. Just barely, he manages to spin around, plant his feet against it, and start RUNNING across the wall instead. For a good ten, fifteen meters before kicking off again into flying!

    ALl the while, the boy's grimacing at his blades. There's some blood on them. That's nauseating to be sure... but he tamps down on the memories that want to boil up.

    For now, he focuses on dodging the threads. If she does SURRENDER... score one Sarah, that's or sure.

    "That's... that's brutal."
Kotone Yamakawa Where did Kirito come from she odens't know but she's glad that he's been able t here. However things are getting crazy as the threads are chasing after them. She does attack them when she can but it seems they keep coming, damn it where was Rory when you needed crazy chemicals that would cause things like stone to combust. Ther'es no time for that shew's got to keeo moving, and she does pull a knie however as she moves to hack and slash the threads. She does see what hawas happening and she now started laughing.

"Don't stop keep it up! I think she needs to eat some serious crow here!"
Amaterasu      DOIP DOIP DOIP

     "STOOOOOOP!" Wakahirume cried, tears actually trailing from her eyes now as she was mercilessly, endlessly flipped. So disorienting was this, that she couldn't even bother retorting to Yuna, Marisa, and Sanae. ..In fact, she was being fired upon now, wasn't she? BLAM! FLASH! BOOM! "Ow! Ow! OW! Ow! STOP THA-OWOW! OW! THAT HUR-AGH!"

     She could hear Sarah telling her to surrender and just give up. Somewhere, in her mind, she spared a moment to think about it, somehwere, while getting bombarbe defenselessly, and spun over and over. "U-U....Unc....-" She stopped. No, rather than complete that statement, Wakahirume grit her teeth and suddenly, the goddess' eyes flared up bright red! "No! ENOUGH OF THIS STUPIDITY!"

     Once the next shot turned her upright, Wakahirume immediately flew upwards at a rapid pace. "You've had your run! It's time for this game to end!" She was actually kind of really beat up. Her dress was bloodied, scorched, and cut, and she was panting a bit. But it looked like she wasn't going to back down. No more words were said. She raised one hand, a tiny ball of water gathering above her palm.

     "Drown."

     And suddenly, that little sphere of water expanded at breakneck speed, exploding outwards in all directions with the same 'scorching water' that the barrier from the last time was comprised of. AKA it was water at a tempurature so high that it logically shouldn't have been water anymore, but yet, it still was. Now this same water was exploding in every direction, even Wakahirume's aiming to wash over everything and burn it into nothing. Just like poor Masakatsu last time.

     ....Hope you all have barriers prepared. It was going to explode upwards out of the open roof as well, there was so much. And interestingly, it didn't seem like it was going to affect the goddess at all. Cheater.
Sarah Parsle Well, that's a problem.

Sarah was REALLY enjoying that, too. Thankfully, Sarah has a solution for this problem too. "Okay, look, you need to RELAX!" Sarah yells... But she sees that ultraheated sphere expand, and with a yell, she hurls herself away from that hole in the ceiling, letting it expode up through said hole and rolling away in an attempt to not get utterly consumed by superheated water. "THIS SUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!" She yells, likely in pain from slightly less superheated water splatters.
Marisa Kirisame Nothing good in this world ever lasts.

    Marisa's smile fades to a pensive line as Wakahirume finally breaks free from her fate of being Yet Another Yakumo Ran. "Lady," Marisa frowns. Wakahirume gathers her power, moulds it into a bead of familiar water. "You really don't want to do what you're about to--"

She does.

    That water again. She experienced its effects first hand, and only survived with minor burns because she was temporarily ensconced in a halo of PURE MAGICAL POWER and was also travelling at speeds that can only be described as downright ludicrous. She could always go ahead and try for a hat-trick, but something tells her that she wouldn't get away so lucky this time.

Besides, she made a promise.

    "Alright, well," Marisa smiles wide and bold, "You asked for it, Wakkikins. Don't say I didn't warn you! 'Cause I did! I'm gonna bring your house crashin' down around you!" Marisa sweeps up, up, up, until she's almost directly overhead of the rapidly expanding sphere of boiling water. Her brow is tight in concentration. Her lips tenderly whisper the spell to the mini-elemental reactor.

She turns, and points her hakkero at the person she doesn't like.

Now.

                      -UNLEASH YOUR ANNIHILATION OF LOVE-                      
                           LOVE SIGN - MASTER SPARK!                          

    A beam of pure, flashing, rainbow light BLASTS down out of the sky like the finger of the highest Buddha in heaven. Marisa roars as the blast smashes into the sphere of boiling water, smashing a hole straight through its outer wall. Her beam forces the boiling fluid to part, carving a hollow cylinder through one side like an augur coring an apple.

Her ultimate target...

WAKIHIRUME!!
Sanae Kochiya     It seems their opponent had had enough of the relentless teasing...and man, is she angry! Her temper is boiling so much that it superheats the torrent of water she now releases. It should have instantly flashed to steam, if not plasma, though Sanae has no infrared thermometer built into her head or anything. You can just FEEL it. A momentary look of shock crosses her face, as Sarah (perhaps rightfully, as the source of her torment?) gets scalded by droplets first. It never quite turns into panic, though, and right before she's overtaken she formulates a response. Who knows if it will work, but it's better than trying nothing at all! Conjuring and gathering the power of the resident wind spirits, those she can manage to focus on in time will find themselves encapsulated in a pocket of air. Air thankfully is not a super great conductor of heat, but it won't buy much time, especially for poor Sarah that's possibly already badly burned.

    But, it does buy Sanae enough time, as the air in her bubble is already rapidly heated to 'sauna' levels, to conduct the second part of her miracle. Clasping her wand in her hands, she appears to bow her head forward, and then -- rather than use this time to attack Wakahirume directly, she opens her eyes and speaks past lightly scorched (ouch) hands, "I will perform the miracle...of parting the sea!" It channels much the same spirits that created the bubbles, but in a far more directed and forceful manner, aiming at creating a channel of space directly between Sanae and the foxcat woman! If successful, it should hopefully provide enough room for those that might otherwise be trapped to launch a counter-attack. ...the always bombastic Marisa needs no such assistance, of course. She also shifts her bubble over to try and reach down and lift Sarah into it, with a hoist of her arm if she manages it!
Kazuko Kawakami      A kick! A punch! And then Wakahirume was back in the air. Scrambling back to grab her naginata again, Kazuko readies herself to attack the goddess again when she notices something a little odd about the water. Namely, the crazy amount of heat coming off from it!

     "Wah! Th-that's just cheating!" Crying out in pain as some of those droplets scald her arms raw, the martial artist spies the air bubbles Sanae is releasing and gets in one of them while keeping her eye on her ultimate target once again. But how's someone without magic and projectiles supposed to fight back against some sort of unbeatable thing like /that/?

     Well, the water's not going near the goddess. Why not get closer? Urging that bubble forwards, she... Doubles back a bit once she notices all those giant attacks coming towards the goddess. She may be brave, and she may be stupid, but she's not suicidal! Instead...

     Kazuko barks. Kazuko barks with all her might, trying to get project her voice above the din of battle and to try and throw Wakahirume off yet again. It's not a physical attack, but it's the best she can manage in this situation!
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is not sure she's going to live, she start to move but there may be no way out of this. There's a real element of fear, that water is hot enough to either boil her brain alive or just melt her entire shell and the cyberbrain case along with it. The thoughts of the last of her flesh boiling alive would be painful in a way maybe not but either way as Sane does her thing? She just /runs/ for it trying to make it to the nearest air bubble it won't be perfect but she'll have a chance to last in it. Though the heats going to be bad. So bad her synthic skin and hair is starting to be effected and is either going to /burn/ or melt at this rate.
Yuna Kagurazaka Yuna blinks, just once. She's conjuring water - ?

Then she realizes what Wakahirume has *DONE* with water in the past, and then there isn't enough time for her to react before the 'bubble' of water expands to flood the entire throne room, and then some. Fortunately, Sanae is quick enough to conjure a bubble of air for Yuna before she has time to even start drowning.

That's the last bit of good fortune Yuna has at the moment, though. The Light Suit starts sparking violently, and Yuna screams in a mix of pain and terror; even if the water weren't superheated to the point of killing an unprotected body on contact, she's in the wrong form for aquatic combat - and with Marina *outside* the palace, and water surrounding Yuna on every side, there's no way for her to swap from Flight Form to Marine Form.

The best Elner can do at this point is try to teleport Yuna safely out to the palace roof or something before the Light Suit suffers complete structural integrity collapse; it works well enough that the blonde girl vanishes, and the sound of a thump on the palace roof *might* be audible to those still in battle.
Reina Kinney     When the water appears, Reina tries to activate her flying device, but it stalls. She curses and activates it again, and gets it up into the air just as the water comes into her. She's engulfed by the water, and while her shields are active against the heat, she still is unable to breathe underwater. She fumbles and looks for the device linking her to her shuttle, all while her lungs begin to burn a little as she begins to lose the ability to hold her breath. If she doesn't figure something out, she's in big trouble. Yes, there's an air bubble, but she can't reach it. She silently begins to pray that if she doesn't make it, at least she'll be buried in dry clothing.

    Then Reina spots the device and presses a button on it. Nothing happens. She swears mentally, feeling like she's about to lose the ability to hold her breath any longer as her shields begin to fail. Another press of the button and there's still nothing. By now, Reina's just about out of air and is about to start drowning in a moment, while the heat starts to be felt on her body. She mashes the button several more times, and finally her body disappears in a flash of light. She's back on her shuttle, but knows she can't be waiting out here. She presses the device again almost like it's a reflex, and arrives on the roof alongside Yuna.

    Once she's done that, she collapses to the ground, gasping for air in greedy gulps, while her hair drips water onto the ground. She reaches back to remove her scrunchee, letting her red hair flow freely so that it can drain of water more quickly. At the same time, she begins to wish that she were back in the water because these clothes are making her cold now! "How do you like that, first I nearly drown, now I get pneumonia!"
Kirito     Welp. Maybe he should've kept up the pressure and inflicted more injury, but Kirito's having a hard time hurting something living and breathing and fleshy as is. Every swing is like nails on a chalkboard to his soul... but if he has to...

    It if comes to that...

    OOPS. BOILING WATER EVERYWHERE! "That's cheating...!" The boy gulps. Wasn't every attack supposed to have somewhere you could dodge? Some way to stop it? Maybe... in a video game.

    This ain't one. Really!

    Kirito's SLAMMED hard by the waves. The impact alone's damaging, but the superheated water's HELL on his hitpoints! They just start plummeting steadily. Somewhere his real body's begun to sweat profusely as it believes it's being DRENCHED IN LAVA. All in all it's enough to leave the Black Swordsman discombobulated and disoriented, pretty helpless against the current!

    Fairy Wings can't propel him in the water!
    But then...

    Then he's floating in an air bubble. The boy blinks, glances around... and sees his nearest ally in dire straights.

    He waits for just the right moment for the currents to bring the air bubbles closer together... then raises his sword. It shines green, gathers the power of wind... and with a sharp YELL he plunges -- WHOOOOOOSH!

    Well. Kotone's air bubble just got INVADED. In the instants between heartbeats Kirito executes a feat of terrific timing, tilting his second sword JUST so. Bright whitish-blue light accompanied by a frosty gale spins around Divination! "Please work... HUUUAP!!"

    Desperate, he executes the nearly-impossible SKILL CONNECT, linking the wind-type SONIC LEAP to the ice-type attack SAVAGE FULCRUM. His target? His sword strikes the superheated water in a pattern that draws something like the number four in the water... and BURSTS with raging ice. Several times his own body size and blooming in fractal patterns!

    And once SAVAGE FULCRUM's done with he chains into yet another skill with Vox Unitas, slashing that sword around to spread more and more ice around.

    When all's said and done he's chained together five different Sword Skills within about ten seconds and constructed WALLS OF ICE to reinforce the air bubble. The temperature's lowered... but those walls won't last long at all. Maybe ten seconds at best!

    Kirito remains seemingly frozen in place in the bubble, struggling to move and clenching his teeth. "Come on... wear off, stun time...!"
Amaterasu      Kazuko's barking earns her a glare from Wakahirume. "Seriously? You're a human being! Stop barking!" Of course, her voice was muffled through the sheer volume of water surging through the chamber, so it was a fool's errand at best. BUT IT HAD TO BE SAID. Everyone else is scrambling to defend or find some kind of safe zone, which Sanae mercifully provides, and the others supplement with their own unique skills. It a trial, but they manage to not die. That's the important part. Of course, it's not perfect, but it's enough for now.

     It gives MARISA enough time to do her usual thing. What's that? MASTER SPARK, of course. The rainbow laser bursts downwards, punches into the sphere of water, and then tunnels right through to blast Wakahirume herself. It looks like it's going to hit, the girl's eyes widen, but she doesn't stop.

     RIGHT THEN, something comes whirling in, placing itself in front of the goddess. It was...an ornate, golden mirror. One with a sun flair around the edges. It expanded to the radial width of Master Spark's blast, and began *absorbing it* entirely. Wakahirume's water spell ended right then, the superheated water evaporating into nothing. Then she glared at the mirror. "I didn't need your help." She muttered tersely, halfway glancing behind herself.

     "And I think you did." A familiar voice spoke, floating into sight. Hakama, red scarf, kimono, tails, and white hair with purple streaks. ...It was Masakatsu. He was alive again! And he stared up at Marisa. "Still all about overwhelming firepower, I see." He noted calmly. Everyone else got looks after that. "Impressive. You're all still alive after that." And then...he smirked. "...It's my turn now."

     He floated forward, his body becoming enveloped in a familiar aura of SECOND COLORED ENERGY. His mirror began to rapidly spin as power built up. His eyes went from purple to RAINBOW, and he grinned.

     Thrusting an arm upwards, he called.

     "LOVE SIGN - MASTER SPARK!"

     What followed... was exactly what could be expected. The gathered energy from the mirrow EXPLODED OUTWARDS as a massive beam of love colored energy spiraled upwards, aiming to blast Marisa and everyone else away in a single moment.

     THESE GOD DAMN CHEATERS.
Marisa Kirisame     Marisa can't help but smirk as she lets loose with what is by far her FAVORITE SPELL EVER. It just feels so very satisfying, unleashing prismatic, laser-based death upon those who have the gall to look down upon her. A small, angry voice in the lizard hindbrain at the base of her skull cheers in vile, selfish glee every time she's able to show somebody up with her most famous of magics.

But then...

Not everything can go exactly how she likes.

    Her smile goes abruptly cold when THAT MAN appears at the far end of the water column. "You--" Marisa hisses. She hears him, reciting those words. Her eyes widen, "You'll regret that! MARK MY WORDS YOU--"

The world turns technicolor. Brilliant reds and blues and greens and golds surrounds Marisa as her very own spell is turned against her. She lifts her arms to shield herself, but--

She's swallowed up.

For a moment longer, the silhouette of Marisa Kirisame, Ordinary Magician, appears as a black mark in the midst of the beam... And then it vanishes, disappearing into the myriad colors.

When the light fades, she's... Nowhere to be found.

GOD DAMN CHEATERS.
Yuna Kagurazaka On the roof:

Yuna is lying spread-eagled, her chest heaving under her breastplate - not so much from catching her breath (although there's an element of that) as coming down from the grip of an utterly terrifying adrenaline surge ... or rather, the adrenaline that came with her terror. It was bad enough to be confronted with the Light Suit's incompatibility with water when she was wading into the ocean and only about waist-deep; to be *trapped* in the water and unable to get to safety -

Well.

The less she dwells on it, the better. She'll have some more trouble sleeping for a while, in all likelihood.

She's back in her battlesuit's basic form now; Erina is hovering nearby, curled up and surrounded by a shell of golden light as Elner hovers in front of the purple-and-white android; what damage Erina has taken seems to be undergoing repairs right now. Yuna starts to get to her feet -

And immediately has both Jiina and Marina trying to restrain her. "Your powers were badly stressed, Yuna," Jiina says quietly but urgently. "You need to rest, not go back into the fight."

Yuna tries to shake them off, protesting, "But everyone else is still in there! I don't even know if they're oka--"

* LOVE SIGN - MASTER SPARK *

Yuna lets out a scream as rainbows erupt underneath her; fortunately, she has JUST enough presence of mind to make part of her scream into a word, namely, "SHUGOSEIHEKI!!" and the kite shield materializes on her left arm. She hastily interposes the shield underneath her, and between that and what was left of the roof, she seems to be okay.

For now.

Sort of. Maybe. Barely.

On the down side, the rest of the Matrix of Light just got blown away, at least as far as Yuna herself can tell. If she's still alive to rejoin the battle when she finally lands in the throne room again ... well, God help Amaterasu if it turns out that Marisa *IS* actually dead.

God might have to help *Yuna* first, though, because she's on her last legs and the Light Suit won't take much more.
Sanae Kochiya     Having moved into a support role, Sanae didn't really have any counter attacks prepared. The good thing is that the superheated water bubble has dissipated, to at least a degree that she doesn't need to focus on maintaining her air bubbles. Her skin is still a bit pinkened from all the heat, though, and her hair -- while normally not adhering that closely to any particular style, is even messier than usual, perhaps even with the signature ZUN 'coiled/singed strand' jutting out. The burns on her arms are thankfully light. She takes a moment to draw in a deep breath that doesn't feel like the inside of a steel foundry, "Haaaah...huh?" Then comes the bad part. The reprieve comes because Marisa, in her understandable rush to break through and finish things off, had her very attack absorbed into some kind of mirror. Sanae wasn't around for this before, but she knows that anything that can swallow up a Master Spark is probably about to do something terrible with it.

    A combination of factors, conspiring against her and the others! She does redirect her Miracle Power(tm) into a magical shield in the form of a five-pointed star in front of her, and Sarah Parsle if she accepted the hand up moments ago, but it doesn't last long against the prismatic torment. Cracks visibly form, before with a final 'yeek', Sanae gets blasted back into, and actually through, one of the walls of the throne room. Awesome, more structural damage, that'll show `em! After a few moments of more rainbows passing overhead, Sanae proves she's not dead by shifting aside a few pieces of smashed wall, before slumping over one of them to catch her breath. Though it's not her fault, she's still going to blame Marisa for this! Her eyes refocus after a moment, "...Marisa?" Did she? There's no way! Snakes are immune to their own venom, right?
Kazuko Kawakami      "Well, you're a fox! Cat... Lady! Stop flying!" Kazuko glares right back at Wakahirume, her words actually coming through despite all that rushing water. It's not looking great for her with all that water spreading throughout the room, but with Masakatsu's arrival and the water's disappearance?

     Kazuko's back in action. "Of course we're alive! It'll take more then some crazy hot water to stop us!" Two superpowered opponents. Several of her allies are MIA. Should Kazuko be more scared? Probably. Is she? Yes. And yet...

     Even that's not going to break the spirit of a martial artist! Letting out a spirited shout, Kazuko begins spinning her naginata rapidly as she breaks into a run for the third time today. A yellow aura surrounds the helicopter-like movement as she dashes towards Masakatsu, her attention diverted from Wakahirume for the time being. Her movements are even faster than before, the threat of actual death finally convincing her to go all out. Once she's sufficiently underneath him, she launches herself towards him, and...

     "Kawakami Style: Tairin Hanabi!" Kazuko swings her naginata upwards, all of that built up ki augmenting the power and speed of her blow that's aimed right between the mirror-holder's legs!
Reina Kinney     Meanwhile, Reina wants to help out, but unfortunately, that explosion causes a piece of the roof to hit her and knocks her a ways. Before she loses consciousness, she manages to re-teleport onto her shuttle again. Only this time she's landed in her bed so that she won't collapse on the ground of her shuttle. That would be embarassing!
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is getting warning alarms on her HUD temapture mostly there's damage reports coming in and her clopthing isn't doing to well either but well? Kirito has a plan and it seems to help at lest so for keeping Ko's last organics from being broiled alive. the ice help it' helps a lot while she's not looking so good? It's enough to keep Kotone from dying and taking even worse damage.

"I owe you one Kirito."

She turns he head now as she sees things are going to keep heating up for the moment.

"Waka waka, time for the punch line."

Then come the cheter and kotone is sent flying she's atrying to not get thrown to her death nd she activtes the bounce tech which should hopefully save her life in the event no one's able to get her.
Kirito     GOOD THING: Kirito's a gamer. He knows that when a mirror sucks in a BIG MAGICAL LASER, it's -probably- about to send it flying back at the user. This is REALLY BASIC stuff to look out for.

    BAD THING: He's currently paralyzed by using a powerful Sword Skill for about five more seconds.

    "Was that guy watching the whole time...?!" And if so, from WHERE?! He didn't see him anywhere earlier!

    And when he sees Marisa get seemingly VAPORIZED by the return shot... his blood runs cold and brain boils.

    Someone died.

    SOMEONE DIED.

    The one thing he never wanted to see happen again.

    Someone on his team died.

    The boy's youthful face scrunches at first into a reserved grimace, head-bowed... but then...

    With an exclamation like a SNARL. Eyes flare open - where they were black.... are they golden in this light? Or is it a quirk of the Seed emotional rendering?

    Anyone looking into those eyes is in for a treat. A heaping helping of DETERMINATION and MURDEROUS INTENT are boiling up. The boy's paralyzed body seems like, at any moment, it might twitch and kill EVERYTHING in its way.

    But that ominous moment ends the instant his body can once again move.

    "UUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRROOHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Kirito's guttural battlecry reverberates through the broken chambers. Both his wings spring to life with the biggest vibrating-FLAP they may have ever made. They send him straight at the incoming laser! The boy extends both his weapons out before him, blade tips touching.. and PLUNGES ON!

    ANd somehow, somehow, he's pushing through, fueled only by the mad, desperate desire to see nobody else DIE!

TSparks fly and magical energy sizzles, rainbow light clashes against the tip of the corridor he's carving, DRILLING through the MAster Spark for its brief existence. Reams of rainbow power slam into his avatar, drilling crison holes and taking a massive toll in hitpoints. And yet...

    As he's closing the distance to the Goddess and her companion... just a few feet away... that HP meter reaches zero. BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.

    YOU ARE DEAD appears before his eyes, unknown to all others here. Yet when the Master Spark fades away Kirito's still there, avatar blazing with dark flames. His body shakes and shudders as if trying to freeze up, but the boy's STILL MOVING. Covered in weird digital gashes and struggling to breathe properly... he nevertheless manages to fix Masakatsu and Wakarihime with a bone-chilling murderous glare...

    And cross his blades. They glow a bright blueish, without any of the elemental effects that they should have. "Star... burst... STREAM!!"

    Kirito heaves out raggedly.

    In the very next instant he's leaping forward in the air with a series of high-speed slashes. At Wakarihime. At Masakatsu. At the mirror. Truth be told it's a little bit aimless and wild. but he plunges forward, forward, ONWARD, slashing and slashing at anything that isn't one of his allies at ludicrous speeds!

    And chances are, any injuries suffered at this point won't stop him. NOt until his mad combo is finished!
Sarah Parsle Sanae offers a hand up, not a hand out. Sarah sure as hell is going to accept Sanae's escape from near-certain doom! Of course, this means Sarah shares Sanae's fate, getting splattered across tehe back wall next to where Sanae went through. With a groan, Sarah falls to the floor, flopping onto her face in pain. "Uhhhhhhhhhhgghg. Okay, that was bad." She mutters. If she only had more time to react to that mirror... "G... gimme a minute. I think I'll recoalesce my vitality fluid ampoule sometime here..." She mutters, twitching.
Amaterasu      And Marisa is blown away!? Masakatsu keeps his smirk at that, and fires off the last bit of Master Spark left in the mirror. "Heh. So that's how it is." He intoned plainly, relaxing his stance as the rainbow energy leaves him. BUT THEN HERE COMES KAZUKO FROM OUT OF NOWHERE

     No. No wait.

     KIRITO HAS JOINED THE FRAY. The madman slashed through the beam, dashed straight in, losing all of his HP, but somehow was still going. Ridiculous. What a cheate- wait, they have no room to talk about that now.

     Wakahirume steps in at this point and the two gods split off. Masakatsu engages Kazuko, and Wakahirume engages Kirito. The man with the mirror actually was caught entirely by the attack- No, no, the mirror shot downwards at the last moment, impacting with the shaft of the naginata. "Impressive. I can commend your bravery, girl. For that, I'll face you properly." He brought his hands together, cracking his knuckles. And then he launched forward without hesitation, into a quick combination of practiced punches! A straight jab, a spinning back fist, a body blow, and elbow, and then an uppercut!

     Wakahirume meanwhile stands directly in the path of Kirito's attack! She's not in any condition to take on a raging swordsman, but by her mother, she'll do it. "What's wrong? Mad that your little friend went and got herself erased?" She grinned, lashing with with her arms. Sharpened threads followed, whipping upwards and all around to meet the black swordsman's blows slash for slash. "It's fine! Insects get erased~ It's the way of the world! The natural order or things! Just that the witch was a bigger insect than most!" ...But... But something was wrong. Kirito... His slashes. They were getting faster. Faster, even faster. A blade cleaved into the goddess' waist and she squealed. "Augh! What- Damn yo- Argh!" And another slash down from her shoulder. She grit her teeth and tried to move faster still, but she was losing blood fast. Another blow came, cleaving into an arm and rendering it useless. And then another slash tore into her other shoulder, eliciting a spray of blood once more. "When did this...human get so... powerful!? I won't accept it! Die! Diediediediediedie!" Wakahirume's threads all came together, forming into a single, thick lance that she grasped and thrust straight forward at Kirito's chest!

     But at the same moment...one of his blades pierced her chest. "....Kuh-!" Blood streamed out of her mouth and she let go of her thread lance, sliding off of Kirito's blade and collapsing to the floor of the throne room.

     Wakahirume was dead. That's one of them down.

     But there was something else amiss. As the others might begin to notice. The skies above... They were beginning to darken. The raging sunlight that has been relentlessly beating down on Gensokyo for so long now, was beginning to dim more and more...

     What was going on?
Marisa Kirisame The sky is darkening.

    The light that had rained down upon Takamagahara, baking Gensokyo to a crisp, has begun... to fade? According to Konoe, that can only mean one thing: Amaterasu has begun to awaken, wresting control over the full portion of her divine might once again. But...

There is no great, august, divine presence. There is no sudden revelation of a sun goddess, reborn at last into the world.

    There is only a slow, encroaching darkness. There is only the dying of the light, beginning at the edges of the distant horizon as the sky slowly fades from a vibrant blue to a brilliant gold, to lush, gorgeous orange, red, violet. A wave of night creeping in from the corners of creation. Overhead, the great, glorious sun is being... swallowed up. A jet black disk expands across one edge of the celestial sphere, creeping across its surface to devour every inch of radiant sunlight.

At last, all that remains is that ominous, black circle and the bare, fluctuating corona of light that surrounds it... Until finally, that too is swallowed up.

The disk pulses once. Twice. Beating like a circular heart a dull, evil RED.

Night has fallen. The sun has gone. This is...

                             -*COMPLETE DARKNESS*-                            
Marisa Kirisame                                  -SECONDS AGO-                                

GOD DAMN CHEATERS.

    Marisa growls as she shoots straight up the wave of her own magic spell. All around her, the world is flashing blue and gold and tenebrous black. That, she murmurs to herself, was way closer than she had ever wanted to come to eating that much firepower. She has a brief pang of sympathy for all those she'd LASER'D in the past, but it passes quickly.

She can feel guilty when she's dead. Now, she has a job to do.

    When Masakatsu copied her magic, Marisa barely, just barely, got off a spell of her own: the MAGIC ABSORBER. Already, as the Master Spark carries her into the sky, she can feel the absorber tear at the raw magical power fuelling this perfect copy of her very favorite spell. The colors seem less vibrant. The light seems less intense. Her body fills with power.

This...

This will be enough.

If it's not enough, she doesn't know what WOULD ever be enough.

    She's almost to her destination, now. The sun blazes overhead. Marisa pulls a pair of tinted glasses down over her eyes; if this thing is what she thinks it is, then there'll be no problem. It's just like the Imperishable Night incident, the sun in the sky isn't truly the sun. It's busy rising and setting elsewhere, after all. Gensokyo burns, alone... But that makes it vulnerable.

The heat is definitely real, though. Fortunately she only needs to bear it for a moment.

    At last, the Master Spark fades away entirely, leaving her floating high above the clouds, at the very uppermost limit of the Hakurei Barrier. There's no going further than this; Gensokyo's primordial law forbids it. But this is as far as she needs to go.

    Marisa closes her eyes and steps off her broom. She grabs its shaft like she were taking hold of a magical staff; like she was some kind of PROPER sorceress, if only for a little bit. She draws something out from the folds of her dress; two somethings. Two cards.

She lifts her hand to the sun and crushes the first.

    Magic fills the world around her. She can feel the very power of the stars themselves trace across the sky like a grid, or like the marks on an astrolabe. She forces the power of the absorbed Master Spark into the spell, widening a single point of jet black power at the corner of the sun, feeding it with her own magical energy and that which she borrowed from Masakatsu. Slowly, it begins to grow. Wider and wider and wider, its radius expands, until it reaches such a size that it can feed ITSELF. The thing creeps like a shadow across the full breadth of the false sun in the sky, until, at last, it swallows the star up completely. It gorges upon the sun's light.

This is a magical sun, after all. And, according to those books from the Outside, light is just composed of tiny packets of things that are both particles and waves. Or, in other words, Light Itself is Danmaku.

Marisa seizes upon this truth. She makes it her own. But only for this brief moment.

The black disk is massive. It has to be. She needed to completely block the sun's light from reaching Gensokyo; so of course, this thing in the sky needed to be huge.

It pulses once, twice. She knows it's ready.

And so she turns and grins, beaming down at the land so far below.

    "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for!" Marisa roars. They can't possibly hear her down below, though, so she... improvizes.
Kirito     Every single impact against divine flesh, every spray of blood... it tears at Kirito's soul. He's killing someone. HE IS KILLING SOMEONE.

    It's an enorous drain on his focus. All of his willpower's already committed to the attack though - it won't falter NOW.

    But it's one more scar for his soul, isn't it.

    Every threat that comes at him he desperately parries! Except some that get through and tear into his digital flesh, but none of them ACTUALLY STOP HIM. He's already dead - further damage is... meaningless, isn't it?

    "IT's over NOW!" One last THRUST and he feels a shock of blade hitting bone and thrusting through. Far from a pleasant sensation. He can only imagine what Wakarihime's feeling.

    But that's enough for the spear that slams through his own gut to have true impact in its own way.

    "......" He really feels that this is a good moment for some last words to spit out at the dying so-called Goddess. But his mouth just clams up. Instead... it may be that the last thing she sees is Kirito's regret-filled face.

    Then... the dark flames that were threatening to consume him blaze ever brighter, engulf his body completely! ... And at last, they shrink down to a little ember burnin in the air. Black flames around a purplish core, the little wisp-light slowly, sloooooowly drifts towards the ground...
Kazuko Kawakami      Kazuko grits her teeth as her naginata slams into the mirror, pushing off of it and landing back on the ground of the palace with a few hops back as she prepares to defend herself against what's surely to suck. A lot. Instead...

     Masakatsu's going to face her in close-combat? That actually gets a broad grin from the girl. "You're not gonna use that mirror, then? Okay!" And with that, she tosses her naginata aside to face him on even footing, warriors against warrior, fists against fists. She even gives him a brief bow before launching herself right at Masakatsu!

     The good thing about fighting this way for Kazuko is that she actually knows what to look for. A step here, a clench there, pulling back there. She ducks the jab and back fist, smacks his forearm away with her fist at the body blow, and rears back with her free hand in preparation for a strike before being forced to block the elbow with her other arm.

     "Kuh...! Not bad!" Flat-out blocking strikes definitely isn't her strong suit, though, and she tries to go on the offensive a little too early, taking that uppercut straight to the chin! Kazuko staggers back a step before quite literally fighting through the pain and grogginess, rushing forward with her own series of strikes! A kick, a kick, a kick, a kick, a kick, and for good measure... Another kick.

     Why use six different moves decently well when she can use one move really well?
Marisa Kirisame                                  -DOWN BELOW-                                  

    A girl flutters in on the breeze. She's got pretty, deep purple wings and a dour, humorless expression on her face. She has a big old duffel bag full of... stuff with her. "Ahem," the Celaeno Fragments says, clearing her throat. "I have a message from my master," she says as she pulls from her bag a boombox. An actual, honest-to-god boombox. It crackles to life as she flicks it on, and the little fairy-eldritch tome-girl holds it up over her head.

Marisa's voice crackles out from its speakers:

                "ATTENTION JERKFACES and friends of all kinds!"                
                "Rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated!"                
     "If you aren't looking already- turn your eyes to the sky and behold!    
                    Marisa Kirisame's greatest trick yet!"                    
                 "Watch in amazement as I turn day to night!"                  
            "Witness in wonderment as I block out the sun itself!"            
"Mourn your fate as I do what these morons have been trying to do for months!"
                      "Also you guys MIGHT WANT TO RUN!"                      

    With that, Celly bows deeply and takes off like a shot, still holding that great big boombox over her head. In the sky, the great black disk's rhythmic pulses... accelerate. Their color fades from red to orange, then finally to gold.

                              -FLYING IN THE SKY-                              

    Marisa grins. The sweat on her brow isn't just because of the heat. Her arms and legs tremble from exertion, the staff-broom in her hands twitches unsteadily as she flies to the very edge of the black disk. It's almost ready. All that power, all that light, it just needs a focus, it just needs a PUSH.

She's got the trigger.

    "Alright, you guys ready?" Marisa grins. She tightens her grip on her broom ever so slightly. "I hope you are, 'cause this is going to be a hell of a show! HERE WE GO!" She flicks the second card out into the air. "IT'S FINALLY HERE! Brought about with my own two hands! GENSOKYO'S--" With a flourish, Marisa swings the broom in a wide, extravagant arc, smashing into the delicate rectangle like it were a hammer hitting a firing pin. "MOMENT OF TWILIGHT!!"

Behind her, the black disk pulses one last time.

    The golden wave rides from the center of the circle to come to a stop at its outer edge. Then it whirls back into itself, sweeping with it all the power Marisa's spell had absorbed. It draws inward, glowing brighter and brighter and brighter, until at last...

It can take no more.

                      CELESTIAL SORCERY - TWILIGHT SPARK!                      

    The night SHATTERS as column of blinding white and yellow and orange and gold blasts down towards Takamagahara. It's a column wide enough to swallow up the great castle, a spark bright enough to turn night back into dusk and then further back into twilight. Marisa's roars are drowned out by the sound of thunder as air is abruptly BLASTED out of the beam's path.

Her target...

The gods and goddesses down below. Their castle. Their floating island. The great and divine Amaterasu Omikami at the heart of all of it. Marisa has gathered all the light of the sun itself into a single, devastating beam.

If THIS doesn't do the trick, nothing will.
Yuna Kagurazaka There's a very loud *CLANG* as Yuna hits the floor shield-first, and a not-quite-as-loud crackle from her Light Suit as it protests the additional abuse; however, the battlesuit remains intact for now.

One more direct hit is going to ruin her day, though.

Yuna looks up to catch sight of Wakahirume's body slumping to the floor, while Masakatsu engages Kazuko in an epic one-on-one battle. She probably ought to help the younger Kawakami sister, shouldn't she ... ?

At least Marisa spoke up long enough to confirm that she's still alive. That's good. Yuna doesn't need to avenge her. She shouldn't need to avenge Kirito either; that WAS just his avatar, so ... he's likely having a bad time but he'll be around to complain about it later. Hopefully. Probably. She thinks.

"Nnnnnh ..." With a groan of exertion, Yuna manages to bring her left arm up, and enough effort allows her to brace the kite shield's lower tip against the floor, starting to haul herself to her feet. She's vaguely aware that the light in the room is changing, abating, like the sky outside is darkening - and a few moments later, Elner confirms that it's not her battered imagination, that the sky is indeed darkening ...

Not clouding over. Not from the sun going down. From what appears, as best Elner can detect, to be an eclipse. That's almost more worrisome. But the good news - in so far as there IS good news at the moment - is that it's Marisa.

Blocking out the 'sun' ... and getting her own trump spellcard ready, to judge by what Celaeno conveys.

Run? Yuna can barely even stand up straight right now ... but something else crosses her mind again: Elner, whom she THOUGHT was blown away by the stolen Master Spark, was just in touch with her. That means the robo-faerie isn't dead, probably just teleported to safety. And that means ...

Three figures plus a much tinier form blink into view around Yuna, quickly lifting her to her feet and flying her back out of the throne room. She's going to get waaaaaaaaaaay too front-row of a seat to the Twilight Spark's debut performance, but - well, at least she'll be able to report on it from not *QUITE* ground zero.

Assuming the Matrix of Light is fast enough, anyway.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is near the end of her rope here she's still in the fight but she's got Marissa coming in like batman.

"Marissa!"

She's got her rifle up but there's not much more she can do she holds back attacking and just watches this play out. Even with the help from Kirito she's having problems with her shell and it's not in the best shape after eveyrthing that happened. Ya she's just going to be sitting back and following up if the massive assault going on already isn't enough.
Amaterasu      KICK KICK KICK KICK! Masakatsu weaves left, weaves right, blocks one, parries another, takes a hit to the side, but keeps going! Wakahirume is either dead or dying. He has no time to act on that. Kirito is gone. Must have been a suicide attack. He clenches his fist and drives forward, aiming to meet Kazuko again, but...

     Suddenly, everything is dark. "....?" And he can hear /that witch's/ voice! What in the world was she... Oh. He could see it now. olumns of white, gold, yellow, and orange...wow that was a *lot* of power.

     Masakatsu grinned.

     "Fine then!" Kazuko was disengaged from and he floated upwards with his mirror. "You want to do that, then I'll just take it all and send it right back at you!" He spread his arms and expanded his mirror massively, turning it into a shield that would cover the entire castle! Spark met mirror, and the power began to funnel into the depths. ...But after several seconds, cracks began to form on the surface. Crack...crack crack....SHATTER! The massive mirror broke apart as more energy than it could ever hope to contain burst out of it, and then Twilight Spark consumed the entire castle.

     Caught in that giant ray of absolute sorcery, the very building itself began to crumble into dust. And while this was happening, Wakahirume stirred weakly. "......" She barely, just slightly turned her head enough to see the scorching radiance washing over them. "...Im...possi...e..." Her eyes closed, and she became a black mark that faded away. Masakatsu followed after, screaming in rage. "MARISA KIRISAMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

     The castle foundations were utterly erased from existence, and light enveloped everything.

     ......

     ...

     Suddenly, all of that light from Twilight Spark began to curve inwards. All of it being absorbed into a spherical shape barely able to be made out in the sky where the castle once was. Like a sponge, it absorbed everything till nothing was left. And then the light faded.

     There, floating in the center of the sky, was a huge, glass orb. And in it, waves of golden flames rolled around wildly. The energy that was just unleashed clearly held inside. ...And upon closer inspection, there was a figure laying inside the orb, nine tails curled up around them among the radiant flames.

     That must be Amaterasu. And she was stirring. A single red eye opened, and she gazed out at the darkened landscape from where she lay. "......" And then, her eyes closed again.

     Not yet.

     It would seem that Marisa was partially successful. Amaterasu was definitely going to wake up, however... a little more time was needed. Her form wasn't fully realized. Give it some time for the energy to be absorbed completely.

     What was there left for you to do here? The Palace of The Sun was leveled. Masakatsu and Wakahirume are dead. For now. Takamagahara was miraculously still floating, despite the damage it's taken. But... The burning sunlight was gone. It was finally gone. And now, everyone could see that it was really, actually night time.
Kazuko Kawakami      There's so much at stake on this fight! Although Wakahirume's nowhere to be seen, neither are Kazuko's allies. Evenw ith the sky darkening, all she sees is the one enemy before her! Wait... Why's the sky /darkening/? Noticing that development from far above them, the martial artist lets out an indignant grunt one Masakatsu turns away from her. "Wha... But we're not finished yet!"

     Then she finds out why his focus shifted. Staring with her jaw practically on the floor at the size of that beam, Kazuko's at least smart enough to pick up her naginata and RUN LIKE HELL. Are explosions following her? She can't look back at them. She's too busy escaping the castle to look back!

     She even jumps out of the door dramatically to avoid being caught up in that massive blast at the last moment. Her landing could use a little work, though, since the force of the EVERYTHING consuming the castle does make her land on her face instead of her feet. Still, good enough! She rolls onto her back to stare at where the castle was, where the glass sphere is now, that moving form inside the sphere, and the sky being a distinctly non-heatwavey blinding mess!

     "Did... Uh.... Did we do it?"
Marisa Kirisame She... She did it.

She really, honestly, truly did it.

    A grand sorcery, combining her very own favorite spells with... with those belonging to Lady Mima herself. And she did it all while comitting a terrible sacrelige, turning the divine powers of the gods themselves on their own sacred land.

If Lady Mima were here, Marisa is DEFINITELY sure she would be getting all kinds of headpats right now.

It makes her feel all warm and cozy, right in the childhood.

    Unfortunately, expending tht much energy, even though so much of it came from the false sun and from Masakatsu's Copy Spark, takes a lot out of a girl. Marisa staggers in mid-air. It almost looks like she flops over, but manages to catch herself on her broom. She still manages to fall belly-first onto the thing's shaft- not exactly the most flattering of positions for a spectacular super-wonderful super-witches, but...

Well, she's proud of herself, damnit!

As Marisa slowly floats back down to earth, she winks open an eye to peer at her handywork. An obliterated castle, two ash-streaks that may or may not have belonged to a pair of gods, one of whom cursed her name before disintigrating into sketchlines. All in all, a good haul, but...

The sphere.

The roiling orb that so resembles a sun trapped inside a glass marble. Marisa grumbles, sitting up on her steed to stare into the depths of the FLUFFY ABYSS.

She sees one eye look back at her.

Marisa blinks. The eye shuts. She grins.

She laughs.

"Nyahahahaha! We sure did!" Marisa cackles in reply to a certain Kazuko Kawakami. "Hooooo boy, we sure did."

Beat.

"Gonna want to keep an eye on this, though..."

A shock of dark hair flutters up to the broom. "Master~" Celly chimes, grabbing hold of the witch from behind just as she starts to waver. "Let's go home?"

"...Yeah," Marisa yawns, "...I gotta go lie down. Now that night's back, I think I'm welllll overdue for a good night's sleep."

Hopefully the night youkai don't eat anyone who was out running around in the false daylight.

And if they do, hey, Reimu'll deal with it, right?

UNLESS SHE'S STILL IN ACAPULCO.