Scene #3832: A Place In The Sun

Owner	Pose
Amaterasu	LAST TIME ON TOUHOU BALL Z: Sanae, Yuna, and Kotone faced off against the man calling himself The Azure Blade; Kumanokusubi. After a fierce duel of wills and swords, he was ultimately bested. Meanwhile, the Black Swordsman, Kirito rushed on ahead, catching sight of the miko, Konoe. After a brief explosive exchange, names were given, and they parted. NOW The Land of Takamagahara, floating above the skies of Gensokyo, is silent. Silent, and yet those oppressive heat waves radiating from the sun have only gotten more intense since last time. Cirno must have melted by now! Let's do a head count. Down in the Human Village, Akiyama and Haruyama are playing with the village kids. In the Village Lost to Time, Amenohohi is in his library, browsing through books that look suspiciously like they came from the Multiverse. Over at the Infinite Stairway, Kumanokusubi was diligently going through his sword forms. He's not going to stop you. And now, here, at the top of the Infinite Stairway, you can see before you the place where it all begins; The Palace of The Sun. Surrounded on all sides by trees and mountains, it's a veritable golden fortress. It looks like it came out of Ancient Japan. With layered, triangular roofing, sturdy walls, and several stories tall. There was just one problem. There were no windows. And there were no doors. You can walk around the perimeter. You can fly around it. But from every angle...nothing. No openings at all. It's like someone built a house and forgot to cut out a doorway. ...How will you deal with this one?
Marisa Kirisame	How? HOW!? THAT'S EASY. Kirisame Marisa missed the last couple of forays up to the divine plains of Takamagahara, but today the infamous Laserwitch of Gensokyo has made her reappearance in the flesh! Yes, no blatantly unfair super robot here today, just one laser-happy blonde witch astride her trusty broom. There is a fortress in front of her. It has no doors and no windows. Does anyone even doubt what's about to happen? Marisa, fresh from a trip out of the underground and festooned with all manner of MYSTERIOUS BOOZE GOURDS, alights in the sky not far from the great castle of the sun. She considers, briefly, that doing what she's about to do will probably result in her entire bloodline being cursed by at least one of the ten-thousand gods... But it's not like it'll be the first time! Marisa grins a great, shark-tooth, cheshire-cat grin as she grabs hold of a cluster of heavy, off-brown jugs hanging from her shoulder. With a mighty BATTLE CRY, she HURLS THEM at the side of the mighty castle! There's a flash of green and gold, purple and red and icy blue as a quartet of magical crystals materialize in tight orbits around her. She fires a quintet of lasers. The jugs of MYSTERIOUS LIQUID tremble dangerously, AND THEN EXPLODE. The plumes are just as blue as the noontime sky. It looks like the MYSTERIOUS LIQUID was, in fact, a form of MAGICAL EXPLOSIVE! It looks like she's getting RIGHT INTO THIS! "Ahahahahahaha!" Marisa guffaws, "This is the land of the gods? So the one who's in charge is in here, right?" She smirks as her lasers keep RIGHT ON SHOOTING, "Come on then! Get out here and let's end this!"
Kazuko Kawakami	Kazuko shifts from heel to heel as she stretches her legs out going from one side to the other, an excited look. Why's she so excited? Because this is going to be her first real outing since recovering! She's determined to make this a good one, and the fact that solving the problem of the entrance-less castle might be unsuited to her specialties isn't enough to discourage her just yet! Waiting outside the fortress itself, Kazuko stretches a little longer before stepping right up to the front (?) of the fortress, then starts poking at the walls with the non-bladed end of her naginata. "What do you think's in here, anyway? You think these walls are solid gold?" Her eye light up a bit at that. "Maybe we could take some of it and sell it! And..." Wait. Eye-glinting usually reflects in a single color, doesn't it? Noticing that flashing coming from somewhere above her and a rather loud scream, the martial artist yelps in surprise as she BOLTS right out of there. She doesn't want to get caught up in all those explosions, and it's easier to marvel at the lasers and explosions when she's not in the line of fire any more!
Sarah Parsle	Cirno doesn't melt because 1) She's the strongest, dammit, and 2) she can get central air like a /civilized person/. Sarah can appreciate this concept because Arthur H. Lowell, she is /really hot/ right now. The oversight in not bringing that environment suit from Staren is weighing on her, but not as much as she might be weigning on toher people as she slurps from those highly annoying curly sippy straws running from her helmet. "So. Palace." She says, simply, looking it over. "We could look for some kind of secret entrance..." She says, and then looks over at Marisa. The ecto-youth gets the hell out of the way. "... Or we can let laser witch have a go at it. Try not to blow out any load-bearing walls, lady."
Reina Kinney	"I'd love to come here sometime, albeit for sightseeing," Reina Kinney says as she enters the area. "I mean, right now would be SO great for it I bet!" Her sarcasm is easily detected as she speaks. "I mean, I should have taken a few days off, but..." Her voice trails off as she remembers she's on duty. She's a bit late to the whole situation, but that doesn't matter to her, as she can easily figure things out as they happen. Upon arriving at the fortress, Reina looks it over with a slight smirk, then does a double-take as she realizes that there's no way to get in. Her smirk disappears and is replaced with a notable scowl. "OK, someone mind letting me in on the joke here?" She asks to nobody in particular. "I mean, how the hell are we supposed to get in? Is this like some kind of riddle or something?" She runs a hand through her red hair and sighs. "Boy, this is really gonna be one for the history books!"
Yuna Kagurazaka	As usual for this quest thread, Yuna's in Flight Form, Elner is hovering next to her, and Jiina and Marina are hanging back out of anything that could be vaguely considered 'the line of fire'. ... Although where Gensokyo is concerned, it tends to be more of a wide-open field, so the two partners whom Yuna isn't using kinda have to be WAY back. And with Marisa dispensing excessively generous amounts of magical firepower upon what Yuna had figured to be the Palace of the Sun, not even Yuna can fault them for keeping an extremely safe distance. "I think they're all load-bearing, Sarah," Yuna observes wryly. "But on the plus side, if anyone's in there and they have a way out, this much ruckus is guaranteed to get some attention ..." Meanwhile, Yuna has asked Elner to scan and see if there's a way into the palace that DOESN'T involve blowing holes in the walls, and also trying to confirm how many people (and/or other presences) might happen to be inside ... also, just out of curiosity, what the ambient temperature inside the palace actually IS at this point, apart from Marisa's beamspam. Under the circumstances, Yuna may or may not also be offering up prayers that the local deities won't take their wrath out on any of the party ... at least not too disproportionately. Although for all she knows, blowing holes in the sun palace's walls would be a good and welcomed thing.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa wonders how she gets involved in a world were flying is common as having a pair of shoes. Still she'd made it up here and was rying the bulding there was no clear way in. She was letting her drones flt about the building hoping to find a way in. "Wo what Marisa are you just going to kick down a wall?" she looks over to Kazuko fotr a moment shruigging a bit. "That might piss off the owner stealing from Gods tends to get your liver eaten for several thousand years everyday. Maybe tyhe way in is magical and realted to the deity who owns this place?"
Staren	"So this is Gensokyo, huh...? Staren is wearing his armor, of course -- it's usually better to be safe than sorry when going to a potentially hostile area of the multiverse -- and is riding on his broom alongside Marisa. As she prepares to blast them an entrance (which he approves of), he closes his visor and smiles. He bets she'll use a big freaking laser! ...Or, explosives /and/ a laser, that works too! "Yeah, it's a riddle, the riddle is how do you get through a wall, and this is the answer!" At least /someone/ approves of your methods, Marisa!
Kirito	Kirito's taken the time to do a few laps around the palace. Once or twice he swooped in close to inspect it more critically. But a place with no windows and no doors... It takes some thinking. In the end, he swoops down and lands next to Kotone, arms folded. "No windows? No doors? So... that means the only way you're getting in is if the owner wants you in. There might be a password, but--" And in comes Marisa with explosive gourds. Kirito winces, expression turning sheepish even as he shields himself with an arm and Kotone somewhat with his body. He simply stepped in the way on REFLEX it seems... "... THAT's one way to do a password reset..." The boy mumbles, but peers. Waiting for the dust and smoke to clear!
Amaterasu	All is silent. People gather. The time to act has- WAIT WHAT THE HELL IS THAT WITCH DOING UP THE-NO NO SHE WOULDN'T. SHE DID. But.....But they were prepared. Even for THAT. As those lasers fire at the castle, a huge, golden crusted mirror comes whirling into sight from above, placing itself as a shield between the castle and the lasers and explosions. And oddly....the lasers are absorbed right into the mirror, leaving behind a ripple over the surface, as if it were water. Regardless, some of those explosions slip past the surface area of the mirror, nearly striking the castle, if not for a pearlescent barrier shining around it like a cone. It flickered for several moments, giving brief glimpses of windows and doors before they vanished from sight again. Like TV static clearing up. "I knew I was right to be prepared." A man's voice intoned from above. The massive mirror rapidly shrunk down to a more reasonable size before floating up to revolve around the form of a man wearing a red scarf, a white coat, with a matching white kimono, and hakama beneath. He had dark hued skin, and white hair. In that hair was a pair of animal ears, and several tails to match hung behind him. "If that's how you knock, then I wonder what breaking and entering looks like." His tone was even, calm, though his brow twitched with incredulity. He crossed his arms into the sleeves of his coat, floating there with that mirror revolving around him. ...And then he glanced at Kazuko. "And just to make it clear; you won't be selling any of the walls." I got my eye on you, Wanko. Though a bit late now, Elner's scan meanwhile reveals that...hey, the doors and windows are all obviously there! Why wouldn't they be? But that's not what their eyes are telling them, are they? The man sighed and rolled his eyes as he looked over the gathered group. "My name is Masakatsu, and I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to go home." He smirked subtely. "Try again in..." He looked up, quickly doing some mental math. "Two weeks." That was reasonable. Not.
Marisa Kirisame	Welp, Marisa kind of figured that the gods would have some kind of security system. The fact that they have fucking MIRRORS means that things are going to be a bit more difficult for them. It did, however, have the desired secondary effect of conjuring whatever jerkface was in charge of this particular stretch of sunlit hell. "Oh, you ain't gettin' off that easy, fluffy," Marisa grins, licking her parched lips. "I was underground for just a few weeks and finally realized what's been buggin' me all this time," she says, then points BOLDLY INTO THE SKY, "You see this? This bullshit, right up here?" There's... nothing there. Empty air. Clouds. The sky. "You see? The sun was supposed to set hours ago! Nobody in Gensokyo's been able to sleep properly for the past few weeks! /I/ haven't been able to do any stargazing! And I have it on good authority that you jerks are at fault!" "So no. We ain't gonna wait another few months." Marisa tips her hat. Suddenly the crystals surrounding her crack, then shatter into tight, multicolored octagons. Each one swirls around her, then aligns at either flank of her broom, "We're gonna do this now, and I'm gonna show all you godly assholes just what kind of shit you brought on your heads by coming here." Marisa snaps her fingers, her eyes widened into manic disks. Suddenly the world around lights up, little sparks of magic winking into existence like a halo of starlight. She gestures as each spark tranforms into a dart of concussive, magical force, each one directed at the fool who decided to get in their way. "Come on then!" Marisa roars, "Let's get this done, you distressingly pettable lap-fox!"
Yuna Kagurazaka	There actually ARE doors and windows? Yuna blinks in quiet surprise at that, then turns her attention to Masakatsu, bowing deeply and politely to him. (While hovering, yes. She can do that.) "I think 'breaking and entering' is where she actually gains access to the building and helps herself to its contents, but ... um. With all respect due your station, Masakatsu, I don't think we can wait two weeks - I'm surprised that Gensokyo isn't in worse shape already than it is with the continuous and unbroken sun, and as hot as it is already. If we can resolve this faster than two weeks, I'm sure many if not all of Gensokyo's inhabitants would be grateful, and their prayers and praise to the Sun Goddess and her loyal servants would be phenomenal ..." Yuna doesn't want to turn her back on Masakatsu now that they have somebody's attention, but since Elner knows where the doors are, she silently suggests that Elner take Jiina and Marina to try and investigate. A couple of blinks later, the robo-faerie and the two androids are at what Elner pinpointed as the 'front door,' and Marina is feeling around for a doorknob or something ... "In the meantime," Yuna asks, "why do you say to wait two weeks -" Or rather, STARTS to ask; Marisa's already going weapons-free again. Yuna just lets out a sigh and materializes her pistol in her right hand, summoning Shugoseiheki to its usual place on her left arm. "If you'd rather talk than fight, Lord Masakatsu" she calls out, "then I'm willing and happy to listen instead of shooting!" But she's ready to join the fray if she has to.
Marisa Kirisame	"Nope! We talk when he's good and toasty!" Marisa answers, and answers further by firing EVEN MORE BULLETS. "This is Gensokyo! Negotiation only gets to happen when everyone's drunk!"
Reina Kinney	As soon as Reina sees the hints of doors and windows hidden, she frowns even more. "Illusions. Quite a useful security protocol, but they ain't totally foolproof!" She tsks a few times until Masakatsu appears and gives his statement on the matter. Reina shakes her head again and says, "We were trying to find a way in until someone decided to get a bit harsh. Although, if we were breaking and entering, I'm guessing we might use..." Reina suddenly trails off as she realizes what she's saying. To think the guy is telling them to go home and come back in two weeks? As if! Reina actually accesses her social calendar via her wrist unit, and shakes her head at that. "I'm sorry, but I can't come back in two weeks. I've got a yoga class in the morning, then I'm seeing my niece for lunch, and then there's a soccer game which..." She trails off again. "The point is, we ain't leaving anytime soon! We're sticking around and we're gonna get in!" She snaps her fingers and her pistols appears in her hands, ready to be fired if neccessary.
Kazuko Kawakami	"Gyah! I-it was just a thought! Not that I was really gonna take anything..." Kazuko whimpers at Kotone's suggestion and Masakatsu's response, looking not unlike a scolded puppy that's been caught eating dinner early. Plus, she still like having her liver! Still standing a safe distance away until the explosions stop, she peers at the others in the area with some small relief when she notices that she's not the only teenager around. The maybe-owner of the castle gets the bulk of her attention, however, and the martial artist gives the man a disapproving frown when he tells the group to leave. "Are you gonna stop this crazy heatwave, then? Because if not, then we're gonna have to get in whether you like it or not!" Of course, that's easier said than done when their opponent is someone who can literally protect a giant golden fortress against lasers and explosions. The flickering of what looked like doors and windows doesn't go unnoticed, however, and the martial artist keeps her eye on where one of the windows had appeared as she starts backing away slowly. Why back? Because once she gets enough distance to build a running start, she's going to run straight at the wall and try scaling the wall to get to where one of the windows was! Not a door, though, since that'd just be too easy.
Sarah Parsle	"That's not how architecture works." Sarah replies to Yuna, but the time is past because lasers. Sarah looks at the events go down. "So. That's a thing." She tilts her head. "Nice mirror." She walks up, looking up at the mirror floating around him. "You know, you could tell us /why/ this is all happening and maybe we could figure something out. But you're probably not allowed to any more than the last bunch of schmucks, right?" Sarah looks over at the walls, and hangs a finger dangerously close to the wall. She might poke it! Oh god! "Anyway, the fact of the matter is only an idiot makes a castle with no way to get in, and you guys aren't idiots, except maybe in the way you're blatantly hiding the entrances. Stop being ridiculous."
Staren	Staren's not really... from here, so he's not sure what to say. Those glimpses of doors and windows... could the solid walls be an illusion? Still, Marisa is... Marisa-ing. Staren waves a hand in her direction. "I like this girl! She gets it! Seriously, though... start talkin' or we'll have to get /creative/. Just how long can those mirrors of yours keep absorbing her magic? I wonder, if we destroyed the island underneath, would your mirrors be able to absorb /falling/? ...And that's just the /first/ idea, off the top of my head! Talk, or we start getting destructive /and/ creative!"
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa winces as they get the door bell all right. It really had been breaking and entering. She just takes a step back as they are asked to come back in a few months. She sighs for a oment as Marios is well? just thrown out any chance at talking things down, prehaps Kotone should premtively subdue her next tim. It's too late now however she doesn't go for hwr wepaon unlike some of the others. "I'm afraid we're here to settle this issue now."
Kirito	The moment FREAKISH MAGIC happens to interfere with Marisa's attempts, Kirito's grimacing. "Was going to try knocking..." But. Marisa. There's just no helping it with her around, is there? Oh well. He's just here to... help out, right? Not his fault if the natives really gum things up. He'll worry about that if it happens. Following their logic has been tough as it is. Except... with Marisa freaking out in as violent and rude a fashion she can seemingly manage... Kirito's starting to sweatdrop over there. Uhhhh. Wow. "Seriously..." What's he supposed to SAY? Whatever he might want to say, he's not drawing his sword. He wants to see just how this representative is going to react. This ain't how he would've tried negotiating first. So he folds his arms and watches, rather uncertain.
Amaterasu	Masakatsu can only arch a brow at Marisa's...Kirisame-ness. What kind of world did they land themselves in? It was kind of amusing. Kind of. "... Distressingly....pettable?" An ear twitched and his expression turned even more incredulous. "....." No. Don't even respond. At the initial spray of danmaku from thw witch, he simply directs the mirror to grow and shield him. Those shots get absorbed into the surface as well. ...But what was it for? Was that all it did? Yuna gets a glance then. "...If you must know, we're doing this /because/ the Sun Goddess isn't here." Huh? What did that mean? he didn't answer the question about two weeks though, because he was busy with danmaku! From below, he glances at Sarah next. If she pokes the barrier, it will respond with a shimmer, as if disturbing the surface of a pond. "As for you; I had no hand in the illusions surrounding the castle. I'd recommend talking to..." Suddenly, at that moment, several ofuda pierces through the wall of the castle barrier and home in on Kazuko, who was attempting to run at a window. There were six in total, and each of them had the character for 'Expulsion' written on them. On impact, they would generate a radial shockwave that would attempt to blow her back and away from the castle. "That would be me." Came a girl's voice. Floating through the barrier and joining Masakatsu with some space to spare between them, was a girl in red and white miko's robes. She had short white hair, cat ears, and two white tails streaked red. Kirito would recognize her. As would Marisa, though she doesn't look the same as when she last saw her, does she? The girl did not look her way. Like she was avoiding doing it. "If you come in now, you'll ruin absolutely /everything/." She looks away. "I'm sorry about the sunlight. I know it's intense and dangerous. But...just give us a little more time!" Masakatsu eyed the miko and let her speak to the group for now. Meanwhile, he glanced at Staren and smirked. "If you send this island crashing down below, I'm sure the natives will do everything but hail you as a hero."
Amaterasu	YUNA The search for a 'front door' is met with the feeling of a large pair of gates behind the barrier. They can feel the hinges and other telltale signs, as well as handles to push in. They can try to sneak in if they dare. DO THEY DARE?
Yuna Kagurazaka	It's not every day that the peaceful solution is demonstrated as the only one that's likely to work, but Masakatsu's mirror-shield seems to be proof of it. "You might as well save your magical reserves for when we find somebody who does need to be shot, Marisa," the blonde girl calls out, dismissing her weapon again - although she keeps Shugoseiheki handy, just in case, while she flies closer to the multitailed man. "So the Sun Goddess is missing? Does anyone - well, if you knew where she were, then she probably wouldn't still be 'missing,' would she ..." As for the front door - well, that's quite the conundrum in its own way. Elner considers the question briefly and bounces it to Yuna; she considers it briefly, and sends an 'instruction' back ... and Jiina just knocks lightly on the door. Might as well see who (if anyone) comes to answer, right? And while they're doing that, Yuna turns to Konoe, bowing politely to her as she did to Masakatsu earlier. "Is there anything that we can do to help shorten the time you need, or to help bring Amaterasu back from wherever she might have gone? I don't suppose she just got stuck in a cave or something, or it'd be perpetual night instead of perpetual day ..." She does know her mythology. ... Some mythology, anyway. Of course, Amaterasu is kind of a prominent figure for Yuna personally for assorted reasons, and she takes the sun goddess VERY seriously.
Staren	Staren looks down. Is there a village down there or something? "Well, we could evacuate people first... a-and it was just the first idea! Geeze!" Staren folds his arms. "And why should we believe you? If your intentions are truly pure and honest, then let's work together! Explain what the hell's going on, and give us a reason to believe you!"
Kazuko Kawakami	Kazuko's eyes widen at the appearance of those defenses, but she won't let a few strips of paper stop her! Between her blistering speed and honed reflexes, she weaves past the first three easily and ducks past the fourth, narrowly avoiding the fifth before running face-first into the sixth. Well, that was just a practice run! Getting blown back just as easily by the ofuda and tumbling to a stop several yards away, the martial artist coughs lightly while peering over at the floating miko once she appears next to Masakatsu. "Is what you're doing that important? Because this really sucks for the people living here, too!" She calls out to the two before strapping the naginata to her back to leave her hands free. She'll need her hands if she makes it to a window, after all, and Kazuko's not the sort to just give up on the first try that easily. She's just about to go running off at that window again, too, but Yuna and Staren... Might actually have a point about the missing Sun Goddess. "... Yeah, how can we know you're not just trying to stall us for time?" The martial artist still looks ready to dash forward again, but she's holding off on that for the time being as she watches them closely.
Marisa Kirisame	If Marisa knows her weird magical artifacts, that mirror is probably absorbing her spells to store their power for future use. Probably in the form of some kind of ridiculous alpha strike or something. But that's fine. Nobody does magical nonsense quite like Marisa does. To wit, she takes one of her many jugs of MYSTERIOUS LIQUID, pops the cork, and tilts whatever is inside down her throat. It... smells of mushrooms. Pungent mushrooms. "I don't care who's here and who isn't. I don't care if I'm ruinin' some kind of weird-ass super plan. I do that every other week!" Marisa growls, hurling the jug aside. She wipes her mouth clean with the back of one hand. "If this place cracks and crumbles, I'll just turn it to ash before it hits the ground. And for that matter, don't think I'm the only line of defense this place's got." "This is Gensokyo," she says, narrowing her eyes. "I'm just here to end things 'fore you all wake the Gap Hag from her hibernation early." And then... Konoe! Marisa just stares. She stares long, she stares hard. "Man," the witch sighs, "And here I was thinking you'd actually got yourself in trouble. Funny how it turns out that the one you're in trouble with is /me./" Marisa tilts the rim of her hat down over her eyes. She hops, landing feet-down on the shaft of her broom. "Suits me fine. The last time we fought, I was jus' tryin' to get you to calm down. This time, you and your new friends've pissed me off." The crystalline hakkero begin glowing, each one giving off a nimbus of cold, blue light. She clenches a fist, each of her orbitals align, revolving around her wrist. Another snap of her fingers, the air around her refills with starlight. Marisa lunges forward, darting through the air like an arcane comet. Her bombardment resumes, apparently giving no heed to the fact that the fox-boy is tanking her shots. All she needs to do is get close. When she does, she extends her arm. The octagonal orbitals whirl along each of their own axes, opening up to reveal a glowing, crystalline core. The atmosphere /shudders/ as each of those octagons unleash an enormous torrent of sub-zero wind. This isn't just her Cold Inferno spell, the wind is far too strong, like a horizontal tornado more than just a gout of cold. There's something else here. Something... eldritch?
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa is just going to keep her weappons holstered for the moment so she's going to listen. "The question is just what will be ruined what have you been actually up to that has left you beahve as such?" Kotone nearly flubbed there and nearly said something undiplomatic. She however caught it in time. "I just wish to better understand what you and oyur comrades are doing." She'd be sweatdropping at Marisa at this point if she were able to as she looks to Konoe. "Yes is there nything we could do to help?"
Reina Kinney	Reina puts her guns away, but still doesn't feel quite comfortable with this whole situation just yet. She folds her arms and sighs. "Then we best try to figure out a way to keep that from happening. I mean, there has to be a way to complete this task without killing many people, right?" She glares at Marisa, wondering if she's trying to sabotage the whole thing on purpose.
Kirito	The overwhelming amount of yelling that is being done at this gatekeeper has Kirito ALMOST wincing in sympathy. But he quickly notices the miko coming out and gives her a wide-eyed look. He'd expected to find her here, but actually seeing her gets his brain going into overdrive. The Sun goddess is missing, huh... "I get it. It's because she's missing that they can't regulate day and night!"
Sarah Parsle	Oh hey, she knows that voice. "Oh, hi ca-... Konoe." Sarah says, waving to the miko. "You're bad at illusions." She points out to the catmiko. "How long did you think we'd sit here being boggled by architectural stupidity?" Of course, everything proceeds to explode, so Sarah gets the hell out of the way, instead turning to start poking her way to a door or window so she can slip inside. It's like Marisa is insanely distracting or something.
Amaterasu	Masakatsu glances at Yuna. "She's not missing. But she's not here in the sense that...-" And then Marisa talks about getting serious. Well this is annoying. Fine then. If she wanted to play that game, then he'd play along. Staren is given a brief look and response as well as he prepares. "Then I suggest you listen to the girl." Konoe, for her part, tried to explain. Finally looking at Marisa in the process. "It's not like that!" She objected, dodging left and right between Marisa's volley of shots. Some of them grazed past her sides, tearing her robes, but she kept at it. "It's more complicated! You see, she's currently locked in a deep slumber! Argh!" Distracted from trying to explain in the heat of battle, Konoe was struck by those freezing cold winds. She sailed through the air and then crash landed in front of the castle doors. After a moment, she struggled back to her feet. "Me and my sister, Waka-blurblblf!?" And then a familiar sight followed. She clutched her throat as it sounded as if she were drowning. Her red eyes widened in true surprise as she weakly breathed out. "When......did she....Agh!" And then suddenly, the illusion surrounding the castle dropped All doors and windows were in plain sight. Over by Elner, Jina, and Marina, who had knocked, the golden gates SWUNG inwards, revealing the fanciful interior of the palace foyer. ...And then countless threads rapidly hurtled out of the palace, and through the front gates. They wrap tightly around Konoe before dragging the miko in with merciless force. The castle gates then SLAMMED shut with a loud, echoing crack. Following that, the illusion around the castle changed dramatically. A wall of water flared up around the palace. But it was boiling hot. Somehow, it retained it's water-like state, while retaining enough heat to scorch on contact. This was definitely not Konoe's meager illusion anymore. Someone much more skilled had taken over. And Masakatsu, who interestingly did not suffer the same treatment as Konoe, shook his head, rising back up from where that cold inferno had struck him. There were ice burns all over him, as well as tears from where the danmaku had struck. "...She spoke out of turn. This is the reality that we face." He smirked. "This is why you simply need to be stopped. Nothing else." And with a wave of his hand, Marisa would see something very familiar form around him. Four colored orbs of magic. "So let me do my job." Those orbs proceeded to revolve around him faster and faster, before they proceeded to fire blasts of concentrated, freezing cold air right at Marisa, and then he would control it's aim to catch everyone else still present in the moving line of fire. That meant Yuna, Staren, Kirito, Kotone, maybe Kazuko, and Reina. What about Sarah? That little rascal apparently got in through a window before the new barrier went up. In fact, she would have been able to see Konoe get dragged back into the palace at alarming speeds, wrapped up by threads binding her. The castle foyer is...golden. There is gold everywhere. There are doors leading to eastern wings, doors leading to western wings, as well as stairs leading up to higher floors. ...There's a lot of upper floors. This is probably a bad idea, isn't it?
Staren	Staren sweatdrops as Marisa blows people away in the middle of talking. "Umm, okay, I'm all for using force when they try to stonewall us, but it sounded like she might have been saying something important there..." And then, threads! "Well, /that's/ ominous." And then Masakatsu declares war on them, god damn it. Staren tries to avoid the attacks, with little success -- but, it's cold air, so it doesn't really do much more than blow him around. "Okay, look you. I dunno what your deal is, but we wanna talk to /her/." Energy wings manifest on his back, and he stuffs the broom into his shoulder bag like Mary Poppins. Everyone knows it's bigger on the inside by now, though. And then he starts flying more evasively in a zig-zag pattern, firing his forearm beam cannons as well as a micromissile at Masakatsu to test his defenses! HEAVEN OR HELL Duel 1 (The First) Let's .\ROCK!/.
Sarah Parsle	Sarah is a sneaky little bugger. Now inside, she watches Konoe get pulled through the area at high speed. She can't match that speed. With a sigh, the ecto-youth looks around. "Welp. Looks like I skipped ahead a little." With a mutter, she looks around, trying to menally approximate some things... And then she slumps. "Dammit. Cat." She mutters again, and begins poking her way through the gaudy as hell foyer, trying to figure out where Konoe got yanked off to. This is the kind of thing people don't normally come back from, and the Ecto-youth is in grave danger of actually caring about the catmiko. Stupid feelings.
Yuna Kagurazaka	So the doors actually opened when knocked on? That's a good sign, and Yuna actually glances towards the gate while 'telling' Elner and the two androids to go on inside and see what's to be seen. Only the robo-faerie makes it, though - and THAT just barely due to the sudden flying threads. Konoe choking up like that when she tries to utter a specific name is NOT a good sign, though, and the fact that Konoe is then dragged bodily away by those threads is even worse. "And this Waka-whoever is the one who's got Amaterasu under a spell or someth-- EEP!!" Yuna doesn't even get to finish her question before Masakatsu goes nuts with Marisa's blizzard-wind barrage. .... yeah, Yuna has to parse that for a couple of moments, too. And she has to do it on the run, figuratively speaking; she's glad she kept her shield handy, but ice building up on Shugoseiheki's surface will just make it a lot harder to keep raised into a useful position. Meanwhile, Marina emerges from the wall of water - WAY up in the air, at that - and is now carrying Jiina's form, steam wafting off both of their bodies. At least they don't seem too badly hurt by what just happened to them, which is a relief to Yuna. She's a little worried about Elner ... but the robo-faerie is probably fine, as far as she can tell. In point of fact, Elner is now doing some high-speed scouting of the palace, flitting around and trying not to be noticed, and ready to teleport away if there are hostile guards who actually spot it. Outside, Yuna studies Masakatsu's pattern as well as she can, then rematerializes her pistol (a one-handed weapon, so she can keep her shield ready) and snaps off a couple of shots at Masakatsu while she keeps trying to dodge his 'borrowed' blizzard-wind spells. Hopefully he can't use his mirror defensively while he's busy attacking ... she doesn't really want to have to dodge her own attacks.
Kazuko Kawakami	It's taking quite a bit of effort for Kazuko not to start yapping and fangirling excitedly over Marisa's crazy lasers and explosions, Masakatsu's threads and ice blasts, and Staren's robotic magical girl powers. Perhaps... Gensokyo is where she needs to go for training? That's definitely something to consider. Priorities, though. Taking off again to avoid getting frozen in place by the cold air, the martial artist brandishes her naginata with a brief twirl before running towards the flying man. "If that's how you wanna do it, then... Don't whine after we kick your butt!" And that's exactly what Kazuko intends to do. Although she's not quite learning how to dodge his blasts as she's just relying on her nigh-inhuman speed to get past them, the end result is the same. Once she's below him, she stabs her naginata into the ground and deftly hops on top of it. Why? Because she's going to use it as a launchpad! She flings herself right towards the flying man at an incredible speed, flipping in midair at the last moment to try and kick him directly in the ass.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa pauses at Kirito's theroy he might be right there, she may or may not be hitting multiversal Goggle right now to check up on a bi of the mythology she's rusty on. However it becomes clear the goddess is having a heck of a power nap tnat that seems to be the source of the trouble. Still well Marissa is doing her things and things are well getting quite explosive to be true. Meanwhile She then gets talking's off and her eyes narrow before she starts running from the magical attack. "Well there goes talking it out, it's time for plan Marissa!" She does not have her smg today, no she's got a pair of blasters and she'll take a few pot shots set to stun as she runs.
Kirito	FINALLY, The Black Swordsman actually moves to do something. Up until now he'd simply been watching, observing, thinking. There are, after all... PLENTY of people doing the fighting and yelling. He doesn't really feel good about getting mixed up in that. If there's anything he can do to avoid CUTTING UP real people, he's definitely going to do that. By the time Masakatsu has turned to start blasting ice wind where Kirito was... he isn't there anymore. he has INSTEAD chosen to act the moment Konoe ends up grabbed! But he's jsut a bit too slow. He spots the barrier appearing with only a second to decide - go through, or stop?! NO TIME TO STOP! What happens next is the kind of insane exploit that only Kirito could think of at a moment's notice. He draws his sword, but it's not to attack, exactly. nevertheless... emerald-white light gathers on his horizontally held sword as it's drawn back... then THRUST FORWARD! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH! A Sword Skill's activated. SONIC LEAP, in fact. It takes effect the instant he reaches the BOILING WATER BARRIER. For a brief moment his avatar 'phases forward', the slash effect slamming into the boiling water and filling it with a hurricane force of GALE SLASH. The result... whether or not he manages to 'safely' reach the dry ground and main gate beyond... is going to be a LOT of steam and boiling water spraying into the air and every which way. But if he CAN get through... Kirito bolts for the gates. Is he... ... is he going to rescue Konoe, maybe...?
Reina Kinney	Fire bad. Fire very bad. Reina's suddenly questioning her choice of coming here as opposed to staying off today and maybe seeing her niece early. Nevertheless, Reina's moving to get out of the way as quickly as she can, trying to avoid becoming a roast Reina! That's not very tasty! After a few acrobatic moves and a swift tumbling roll, Reina gets into a crouched position and regains her pistols again. However, instead of shooting just yet, Reina points at the source of the trouble and calls out, "BARTA!" Sending forth a freezing blast of magic in hopes of cooling things down. It's a bit of an instinctive thing at the moment.
Marisa Kirisame	Quite a bit happens all at once, and Marisa, for all her incredible speed, has trouble reacting to all of it in time! Konoe's protests illicit a sharp hissing sigh from the witch, Marisa tilts her hat a little further down, "So she's asleep. She's asleep, and that's why you're helping these guys fuck over all of Gensokyo?" "Do you know what'll happen if this keeps goin'? This ain't like the Cherry Blossom Incident. Winter Youkai ain't as merciful as the springtime ones. Soon, they'll get tired of all this shit." She growls, narrowing her eyes beneath her hat, "And then it'll be those poor bastards in the village who'll pay for it!" She doesn't have much time to banter, though. Because whoever is in charge of this joint clearly didn't like Konoe running her mouth. The wall of boiling water is... worrisome. No time to worry about that either, though. Her opponent is proving a bit more of a problem than she expected. Specifically, he just STOLE ONE OF HER SPELLS. ONLY MARISA GETS TO DO THAT. "You ass!" Marisa yells as she's blasted by a gust of winter-wind. She grits her teeth as twists away, still ends up nicked by the cone of cold. Rime coats her body, ice creeping across her skin as it begins to turn numb. But... there's something in her right hand. The one, the only, the completely original MINI-HAKKERO. It's glowing. Glowing dangerously. Glowing with starlight, with heart-fire, with the radiance of DREAM ITSELF. "Only one person gets to steal spells around here!" Marisa bellows as she twists back and then INTO the blizzard. Her body shivers and freezes, but still she charges on in, peeling around its very periphery. She tears a bandolier from her waist and hurls it into the storm. "And that's..." In Marisa's frigid hand... The Hakkero shines. ~~MAGIC SIGN~~ *STARDUST REVERIE* "ME!" Glass shatters. Marisa's eyes burn with inner light as the world suddenly fills to the brim with the very stuff of the stars! "MARISA KIRISAME, burn my name into your retinas! And get--" Enormous star-shaped bolts scream through the air, blasting through the cone of cold and raining down onto the castle below! The witch wastes no time. Marisa shoots forward through the gap she's made, the knotted brush at the end of her broomstick trails a halo of light like the tail of some thousand-year comet. "--PET--" She's... Not firing anything. No. She's going for a much more personal attack. Marisa charges in, riding the shockwave of her very own spell. She adjusts her stance on her broom, widening her legs, steadying her hips, until finally, FINALLY, she can see the whites of Masakatsu's eyes. Marisa smirks. She points the Hakkero... to her back. It roars with magical power! Simultaneously, Marisa pivots her weight, pitching the tip of her broomstick upward! "--THE WRONG WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" The shaft and brush, still blazing with starlight, slash upward in a crushing uppercut, powered by a blast of magical energy on par with a small Master Spark! IS THIS REALLY DANMAKU!? No. But this guy never actually declared a duel, so it's fine.
Amaterasu	Unfortunately for Yuna, that mirror can operate defensively while Masakatsu goes on the offensive. And while he continues to fire that arctic cold blast around, his mirror revolves around him. But he isn't stationary, no. Staren's twin beams graze by his side and head respectively, and he winces. The micromissile however is blocked by the mirror, and it shimmers right into it without an explosion. Aggravating. But there is one weakness. That mirror can't be everywhere at once. Yuna's shots strike him in the back and he stumbles in the air before glaring her way. Not about to focus all of his firepower on her, he decides to do something else. Remember that micromissile Staren fired? Masakatsu's mirror faces Yuna, and that same missile comes bursting back out, heading straight for her! However, that proved to be another distraction as Kazuko's foot connected literally with his behind. "Tch-!" He hissed as he falted in flight for a moment. The martial artist's reward was that concentrated frost blast aimed point blank at her to try and blow her away. he sees Kotone's shots in the meanwhile and veers aside to let them graze by him. Man these Multiverse people were annoying! And then there was Marisa. That fancy lightshow earned all of his attention after the initial volley of attacks was cleared. The frost blast from the revolving orbs is aimed right at her and he smirked. "Steal? I didn't steal anything. I'm just borrowing it for a little while." And she dove forward right into the cold inferno. Those star bolts rain down, some striking the barrier of water and fizzling out within it. The rest forced Masakatsu to dodge around, keeping his focus on Marisa. But she was getting closer and closer. ...What was that object she pulled out anyway? And why did she point it backwar- Oh. She was right in front of him now. And then she ROCKETED UPWARDS into a star powered BROOMSTICK UPPERCUT. ".....!?!??" THWAM! Up goes Masakatsu. Up, up, uuuuup ....and down. Down, down, dooooown. CRASH. Right before the barrier of water, he hits the ground hard. "...Urgh- Okay, that was..." He sat up shakily, rubbing his chin and testing his jaw. "...painful-agh." After he straightened up on the ground, he managed to smirk a painful little smirk. "Thank you for showing me that, Marisa Kirisame." Clenching his fists, he hunched down. "Hmmmmmm......!" And an aura of STARLIGHT flared up around him! "MAGIC SIGN." His eyes glowed with all the colors of the rainbow. He thrust a fist upward and called. "STARDUST REVERIE!" In response, his mirror expanded massively, and then let loose a ferocious barrage of star shaped bolts of magic power. The spread was wide and random, spewing out power in order to blast away anyone caught by it! God damn copycat.
Staren	The regurgitated missile immediately deactivates and disarms before it can hit Yuna. Magic cheats, technology cheats right back :\| Staren has a new plan: Hit this guy with missiles from /every angle at once/ so the mirror can't block. But for now? It's time to take cover and wait for Stardust Reverie to end. It's not like he can spam it, right? Right? Staren dives, trying to fly around the corner of the castle or under the edge of the island for cover. He takes a couple of potshots at Masakatsu with the beam cannons just to keep him on his toes, but this round Staren's focusing on defense and escape.
Amaterasu	Let it be said here and now. Kirito is a god damn cheater. He uses an exploit in a SWORD SKILL to teleport barely past the barrier of scorching hot water, cleaving through it momentarily before it reformed, as if time had reversed itself. he may have sustained some pretty bad burns, leaving red virtual scars on his avatar, but...well, he made it through. The gates would not stop him. With him, Elner, and Sarah inside, they just might be able to do this. Elner and Sarah can probably see each other by now. A quick search of the area reveals that the guards within the palace are...well, fairies. Whether they've been here, or just recruited, they were here. And they were all dressed like traiditional japanese maids. They would immediately open fire on Elner, Sarah, and Kirito with sprays of danmaku fire. ...But they all had patterns to be followed. As for where Konoe was dragged, it was at high speed, but Sarah or Elner may have been able to see that she was dragged up onto a higher floor. Probably not the second. Maybe the third? The fourth? Just head up! And mind the fairies. ...The waves and waves of fairies.
Kazuko Kawakami	Even with as fast as Kazuko is on her feet, her agility won't help her if she's getting blasted at point-black in the air. She's sent hurtling back to the ground with a sharp cry with each impact, first from the blast and again at hitting the ground. It takes her a moment to get her bearings straight and stop shivering, but the martial artist gets back on her feet soon enough to spot the flying man not so... Flying. "So that's your trick, huh? Okay, then...!" Breaking into a confident, if somewhat pained grin, Kazuko starts dashing forward yet again, weaving between the blasts of star magic... Starry magic blasts? Blasted stars... Whatever they're made of, she's quick enough to avoid running straight into them while she's on the ground. A hop left, a juke right, left more, sliding underneath a wave, and only a few shots grazing the sides of her uniform! "Let's see if you can copy this, then!" As Kazuko gets closer, her approach becomes a little more reckless as she grits her teeth through the pain of taking some shots to the sides. She's hoping that the covering fire from her allies can give her the chance to slip right past Masakatsu's mirror, however, since this is quite the large gamble, and the damage from the shots is mounting already! If she does get behind him, she'll try to wrap her arms around his waist, then... "Kawakami Style: Mozu-otoshi!" ... Leap upwards with the sorceror and lift him behind her head in a falling German Suplex!
Marisa Kirisame	THWACK! Marisa's broom smashes Masakatsu into the ground! She harrumphs, crossing her arms over her chest as she waits for the inevitable. Masakatsu gets back up-- he's a Stage Four boss, he wouldn't go down with just a solid smack to the jaw. But... Oh that SCUMGARGLER. "Nah, I was wrong," Marisa murmurs as Masakatsu begins glowing. "You ain't doin' what I do. This ain't even proper stealin'." She tilts her hat upward. Starlight Reverie, HER spell, blasts columns of starlight up after her. Marisa dodges and weaves through the stellar clusters, sweeping in-between the asterial waves almost as if she could do it with her eyes closed. "You ain't even makin' these a little bit your own." "Yer just a copycat. You'll never beat me if all you do is throw my own spells back at me!" "Now," Marisa growls. She flicks her thumb as if she were flipping a coin, sending the Mini-Hakkero spinning through the air in a tight, parabolic arc over one shoulder. Her hips pivot, pitching her broom backwards. "That mirror of yours sure is shiny, ain't it? I wonder how much it'll cost to fix..." Marisa shifts her feet apart and bends her knees. Her hips swing to and fro around little motes of starlight. The she holds her arms, the glimmer in that insufferable, shit-eating grin. This... Is this the PATH OF THE SURFER!? Yes. The Star Surfer. this can only mean one thing. She darts upward, away, climbing higher and higher as she dodges between denser and denser clouds of star-stuff. Marisa climbs, feeling the unnatural heat of this place on her skin as she turns her face to the starless sky. Here it is. She twists-- This is it! CUT BACK-- A burst of sky-blue light, a flare of star-struck power! --DROP TURN! BL AZ ING STAR! Marisa screams, a single card crushed tight against the palm of her hand. "...WHEN I SHATTER IT INTO SO MANY ITTY BITTY PIECES!" The world around her BURNS. This isn't like her broom-strike, Marisa is no mere pseudo-comet. Rippling waves of starlit power blaze all around her, coalescing into a singular sphere of magical power. Behind her, the Hakkero ERUPTS! It spews light of a million and one colors, each one howling a chorus of LOVE into the sky! Marisa Kirisame blasts earthward, her own flight taking a half-quadratic course as she dives RIGHT AT for that copycat's mirror, and the asshole that's almost certainly behind it. She aims to plough STRAIGHT THROUGH! To shatter a divine artifact into a million shards! To smash straight into that smug fox's face! To push him, his broken mirror, and whatever else she catches RIGHT INTO, and maybe even THROUGH that BOILING BARRIER. Bolts of Starlight Reverie smash helplessly against her halo of power, they can't stop her now. CAN'T STOP HER NOW SHE'LL MAKE A SUPERSONIC MAN OUT OF YOU!
Reina Kinney	The frosty technic hits, but now there's frost coming back at Reina! She scowls and curses the irony of this. She uses a few tactical moves to avoid it, but some of it grazes her body, and she curses again. "First it's hot, now it's cold. Can't they make up their mind?" Reina says with a scowl as she switches to her pistols, not wanting to waste her technical power on using technics all the time.
Yuna Kagurazaka	Elner is tiny, there are likely danmaku bullets bigger than the robo-faerie, and between Elner's force-field barriers and its ability to teleport, there really isn't a lot for it to worry about as long as there's space to maneuver between the bullets. The down side is that Elner does NOT have any offensive weaponry at all - dodging and occasionally blocking are literally al it can do - so anything that can't be evaded is going to be something resembling an impassable obstacle. At least, until Elner hooks up with any of the other 'intruders' in the palace. Upon meeting up with Sarah, Elner summarizes what it's learned about the palace's layout, and forms up with her; maybe she can do something about the palace fairies if they really do have to fight their way through (instead of dodging them and their danmaku). As for Yuna, she's getting ready to shoot that missile down when Staren overrides it and the missile basically drops out of the sky. Then Masakatsu follows up with a Stardust Reverie. You'll have to excuse Yuna for not attacking this round, she's busy trying not to get shot out of the sky. Good thing she's got a shield, though.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa gets her weapons won't work entirely on something that isn't in the ball park of human and similar lifeform's biology but it's good to see that it seem to have some sort of effect on her foe. "Good one Kazuko!" R Kotone does a cartwheel as she's shooting before she contiunes running anf shooting. "Sorry your only bringing htis on your self by crashing through here heedless of anything or anyone else!" Watching some of the other people makes her wonder about how bad she is up close but for now she must keep moving and shooting.
Kirito	Kirito emerges somewhat scorched and feeling the heat - his real self is undoubtedly sweating bullets from the sensation of HEAT even if it's not scalded all. He's breathing harder as he shrugs off the water. His clothes are a bit soggy now, but he ends up dashing through the foyer and down the halls, meeting up with Sarah Parsle as... well. As storms of FAIRIES just start blasting them all. He can't FLY indoors for more than brief spurts with long cooldowns between... and so for now he doesn't. Instead the Beater hops left and right with fancy footwork. He can't dodge ALL of the blasts... but each individual one's pretty weak. So it's mostly a matter of avoiding enough of them that his Battle Healing skill can keep up with the dozens that keep slipping through his dodging! "Never encountered a defense like this before!" The boy yelps, startled that he has to do ANYTHING so ridiculous just to get through a palace's halls. But he runs along the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, hurling Throwing Picks and smacking Fairies around with the flat of his sword. He uh. Doesn't want to kill anything!
Amaterasu	Well. SO MANY THINGS HAPPENED AT ONCE. Let's go through them in order. FIRST. Marisa declares Masakatsu a copycat! ...It's true though. He doesn't copy the skill and experiences of what he sees. He just reproduces the action with a rough approximation of the power of what he sees. Once you look past the flash, it's kind of aggravating on a personal level! Masakatsu is nonplussed at the witch's words. Just's just going to keep firing that storm of stars! It's crazy! When is he going to run out? It doesn't seem like it's going to be anytime soon! But that's when Kazuko takes matters into her own hands. Weaving left and up, sliding under, jumping shots, she makes her way closer and closer to the god until ...She's past the mirror! "Hm!?" How in the world did she pass by that STAR SPAM!? It was too late to even vocalize his surprise as he found himself grabbed. And then they headed into the air. His vision turned upside down... PLONK. AND NOW HE WAS SEEING A NEW BRAND OF STARS. "ugh...! Seriously-?" He rolled back to his feet, about to refocus the spell...when HERE CAME MARISA on her BLAZING STAR. At this point, the LASER WITCH along with shots from Reina and Kotone barrel into the mirror. The shots get absorbed in, but THE MIRROR CANNOT ABSORB PEOPLE OR THINGS PEOPLE ARE HOLDING. This is unfortunate as the mirror is TACKLED and so is he! ...Wait, isn't Kazuko in front of him? HOPE SHE GOT OUT OF THE WAY because he was headed right into the SCORCHING WATER BARRIER. He and his mirror, and hopefully not Kazuko too, go flying right into the barrier, and then submerge. It's kind of a gruesome sight as he burns up rapidly. And then eventually, he vanishes into wisps of magic, nowhere to be seen. The star barrage is over, and Masakatsu has disappeared. ...Well, he's a god. He's fine. Probably. Maybe.
Amaterasu	As Elner and Kirito, and Sarah who is DOING SOMETHING, do their best to dodge the literal wall of energy bullets, they make their way through the floors of the castle. The first floor is cleared. And then the second. It looks similar to the first. And there are MORE FAIRIES. Damn those fairies, they're like cockroaches! By the third floor, the bullet spam is getting worse and worse as more fairies add their attacks to the fray! But there's always space to weave through, even if that space is getting tighter and tighter as the seconds pass. And then the fourth floor. It's here that the layout changes a bit. From the stairway leading up, tey come up into a circular foyer with doorways in four directions. And in the center, is Konoe her arms being pulled in either direction by shining threads. She's hanging in the air, breathing lowly. "....." She doesn't move, but her gaze settles vaguely on the crew below. ".....?" How did they get in here? ...Why were they here?
Yuna Kagurazaka	Yuna is watching Masakatsu just long enough to see the water barrier start to burn him away - not scalding, BURNING. That should not be possible, water shouldn't get hotter than 'boiling' which isn't enough to LITERALLY burn people - She looks away again in a hurry, cringing, but avertign her gaze doesn't keep her from hearing whatever there is to be heard. Meanwhile, Elner keeps blinking all over the place - maybe confusing where the defending fairies need to aim; if so, at least it should help the two humans a bit. Then the group reaches the fourth floor ... "Kirito, Sarah," Elner asks, "can either of you sever the threads that are holding her without causing them to injure her? If we can free her, I believe I can teleport the four of us outside near Yuna's position."
Kazuko Kawakami	Luckily for Kazuko, her injuries from getting through all those shots (both dodged and facetanked) actually keep her laying safely on the ground instead of getting up in the way of Marisa's high-powered LOVE RAMMING. Sure, some of the backblast from the giant magic-boosted tackle might sting some even while she's lying there, and her clothes have probably taken quite a bit of damage from that and all the magical star blasts, but the martial artist herself is... ... Alive! Harmed, but alive. "And that's... That's what you get for underestimating... Eh?" Sitting up after the dust has settled, Kazuko blinks in confusion as Masakatsu is nowhere to be seen. "Um... Where'd that guy go?" On the plus side, at least it doesn't look like she'll need to get back up soon!
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa sees the mirrors and ponders now, how best to do a follow up aqs her shots are being consumed by the mirror. She's about to make ready to try upping he game. She can only watch in abject horros as te god goes into the burning water barrier and she'll never bea belt o unsee the gruesome sight as he rapidly burns up vanishing into whisps of magic. "I think we have... gone a bit too far." She goes to hep Kazuko if she needs it pausing. "He isn't going to be a problem anymore and let us leave it at that Kazuko. I you didn't see it you really don't want to know."
Reina Kinney	Reina scowls and grits her teeth. "That is DISGUSTING!" Reina comments as Masakatsu starts to burn away. She shakes her head then looks away, albeit rather casually. "If I wanted to see something like that, I'd have taken Renee to a horror movie showing someplace!" She checks to make sure her pistols are still fully charged before taking in the general surroundings. "OK, so what next?"
Staren	Staren's out of sight, but thanks to computer networking and some of the others here, he still gets to see Marisa and Kazuko's crazy attacks and /Masakatsu getting pushed into the water and burning up/! (At this point he doesn't even question why water set someone on fire) "H-holy shit! That was awesome!" Staren cheers as he flies back out of cover and lands in front of the water barrier. "I /hope/ he's not going to be a problem anymore, but somehow it seems like that's too much to hope for..." He looks at the barrier, stroking his chin, before turning to Marisa. "Have any spells for getting us through this? I don't wanna burn up like that." And then he stands waaaaay back, because Marisa.
Marisa Kirisame	So it turns out that gods dissolve like fairies when they're submerged into walls of supercritically heated water. Marisa dwells on this for approximately a quarter of a second before the terrible reality of her situation sets in. She's heading right into that thing herself. ...Welp. Marisa growls as the remnants of that asshole god dissolves into motes of light all around her. Does this count as sacrilege? Does it matter? She's got more things to worry about! MORE, PAINFUL-ER THINGS. Marisa grits her teeth! She forces her magic out into that halo of starlight! THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY TO GO NOW. THIS TRAIN STOPS FOR NOBODY AND NOTHING. Marisa slams into the burning barrier with a splash of way-too-hot water. Her voice goes up in a brief scream as she vanishes into the veil... And appears on the other end, having blasted straight through the curtain before she could boil away like a certain fox god. Marisa falls from her broom and tumbles across the ground, hissing in pain as she comes to a stop along the ground. "Damnit," Marisa growls, adjusting her hat atop her head. First frozen, now burnt! She uncorks another gourd and tosses its contents back, feeling her magical power return as she imbibes the DELICIOUS, NUTRITIOUS MUSHROOM BREW. Well. At least she's on the other side of the wall now. Hmn.
Marisa Kirisame	"Sorry guys, yer gonna have to figure this one out yourselves," she yells back through the wall as she hops onto her broom and begins puttering off into the castle. "Don't worry!" She calls through the wall, "Y'all just go and get my book and she can probably help you through! Or she'll blow up the castle. Either way, it'll probably be fine!"
Sarah Parsle	Sarah could probably be called Dances With Fairies by now, because THAT'S ALL SHE CAN DO to deal with the waves of faeries. she has no ranged weapons that can even inconvenience these faeries! Sarah focuses on pure defense, both exploitng gaps in the spread as well as manipulating the attacks to create those gaps. Faeries are not known for improvising. When they get to the fourth floor, Sarah looks up at the trapped miko. "Oh look, something I can solve." She says, smirking as she produces a wedge-shaped mass of jigsaw puzzle pieces glued to a wooden handle. With a yell and a DRAMATIC YOUTH LEAP, Sarah lunges to bodytackle the miko... And slash out with her JIGSAW at the same time, delivering PUZZLING SLASHES to the strings holding her!
Kirito	Well Kirito was ABOUT to go and cut down Konoe, but Sarah goes and jumps right as he's pondering how exactly to go about it without a lot of fuss and embarassing situations. Well. Sarah taking care of that's definitely more convenient. Saved by the lazy answer, it seems. Plowing through the fairies has left him with half his health GONE though. It'll take a bit to regenerate, so some breathing time is fine! Seeing that Konoe's alright brings a sigh of relief from him though. "Think I just about understand what's going on here. But I get the feeling this will get worse before it gets better. What now, Konoe-san?" Since she referred to him as such earlier he is trying to return the favor and be polite. He's usually more informal, of course. "Do we fight? Do you explain what's going on? Or do we just start traipsing down these hallways?" He smiles rather mischeviously whilst sheathing his weapon across his back and stretching his arms.
Amaterasu	Marisa will run into the castle to find FAIRIES. LOTS OF FAIRIES! They're all shooting at the upper floors. Some of them see her and several dozen begin shooting that way too! These poor fairies had no idea who just came through the castle doors. MEANWHILE Sarah cuts Konoe down, and she collapes to the ground in a heap. She looks like she just got her soul drained. She can barely move. "......." Kirito's teasing earns him a tired, barely there glare. "...et's....get....a...ay....." She managed to utter out. "Befo...re.....sh..e......" But at that point, threads flooded in from the ceiling, writhing and whipping about, they seemed to aiming to grab and capture everyone! If you're going to teleport, now would be a GREAT TIME to do it! Marisa would probably make it. Probably.
Amaterasu	MEANWHILE OUTSIDE Footsteps come from the Infinite Stairway, as someone approaches. And then there's a whistle. "Whew! Look at that!" It was Kumanokusubi, blue kimono, read coat on his shoulders, and an overly large blade hefted onto his shoulder as well. He looked mildly impressed. "Woooooooow. You guys actually took out Masa. Damn." He didn't seem angry at all. Not even a bit.
Yuna Kagurazaka	Elner doesn't even need to look up to see the incoming threads, but it probably helps. One teleport later, the little robo-faerie has materialized outside along with Kirito, Sarah, and Konoe. Marisa is NOT included because Elner didn't see her coming in. Yuna breathes a sigh of relief as Elner deposits the trio on the ground below, and descends, bowing politely to Kumanokusubi. "I don't think we meant to ... 'take him out' quite THAT fatally ..." she says, her tone apologetic and even a little bit miserable. "I hope he won't stay dead, though ..."
Staren	Everyone is just powerbombing through the water... looks like Staren will have to do the same! He sighs. And then hears a voice! he turns around. "Yeah! Is he gonna come back, or did we actually finish him off? ...Also, who are you, and do you have a way through this water thing that won't mess up my armor?"
Kazuko Kawakami	Kazuko's barely able to get back on her feet with Kotone's assistance, picking up her naginata to use it as a crutch before looking around again. "Really? Um... If you say so. So what's the plan now?" She winces slightly while trying to take a step, then takes a moment to shake her legs off before slouching against the polearm. "If we don't know where that guy went, the... What about that other lady? The one that got pulled in?" Her gaze turns to the wall of water, a long hum escaping the martial artist until she turns to Reina, Yuna, Staren, and Kotone. "Do any of you have big sponges in that... Uh. Anywhere? Maybe we can suck the water up to get inside!" She sounds like she's serious.
Amaterasu	The swordsman waves a hand and grins. "Yo. Kumankokusubi. The Azure Blade. These guys came here last time and I challenged 'em to a duel. It was wild." He explained, spreadin his free arm out to accencuate the point. "Anywho, don't bother with the barrier. Unless ya like being fried cat. ....Mmn. Fried." He mumbled after, grinning absently. "As for Masa, don't worry. He'll be juuuuuuust fine. Just give him a day. Reforming sucks. I'd know." He would. "Welp! Ahhhh." He just plopped down right there, sitting cross legged and watching for the eventual result. There would be one. "Imma just wait and see what comes out."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa turns about to see as the swordsman arrive she looks not proud of it but nods to him. "Yes we ended up taking him out I'm afriad. Is there anything left for us to do out here. We soulf get moving and Kazuko you good? Err I don't think the sponges would surive the water not what what I seen it do."
Marisa Kirisame	Marisa may be burnt, she may be frozen, but she once lived through literally almost turning into lightning. A bit of heat and frost ain't nothing compared to that. Besides, she had mushroom brew on the way in, so her magic stores are waaaaay up. She can certainly handle a few fairies. Those poor, poor fairies. They only have about a split second to notice the amazingly feral grin on her lips before their world turns into a maelstrom of lasers and magical missiles. To Marisa Kirisame, asshole bullet hell fairies are nothing but pinatas full of delicious magical energy. Gensokyo is pretty fucked up if you really think about it. ---SOON--- Marisa charges through the castle like a little dervish of awful anti-fairy Quickman deathlasers. She turns a corner, trailing little motes of red and blue and green light that swarm into her just as soon as her speed lets up a little. And she finds... ...Weird... thread-things. Everywhere. "What the fuck?" Marisa murmurs as they sweep down out of the ceiling to try and enact one of those terrible anime things that Sanae is always talking about. Marisa saw one once, never again. More importantly-- "There's no way in hell I'm getting caught now," she mutters, flexing a tiny magical muscle at the back of her head. It's kind of like squeezing the trigger of an imaginary gun. Except the gun in this case is a quartet of crytalline orbs. Orreries Sun!? YOU BETCHA. "Hey, hang on!" she yells, her orbs raking blinding, azure light across the inside of the castle. She reeeaaaaches-- blip Oh. They brought a teleporter. Well. "That's just dandy," Marisa mutters, her Hakkero slipping into her fingers. "I'll just make my own way out," she grins, lasers tearing through fairies and strings alike. "I sure hope that goddess of theirs ain't sleepin' in here, 'cause she's gonna be missin' a roof here in a sec!" UNLESS SOMEONE SHOWS UP TO TELL HER TO STOP AND EVEN THEN SHE PROBABLY WON'T
Kazuko Kawakami	Kazuko narrows her eyes at Kumankokusubi, taking a long look at the newcomers before grunting lightly in disapproval. "... That's too long. How about Kuko?" She's... Trying to negotiate this for some reason. "Wait, so we did beat that guy? Err... Did he get blown up by that?" She turns to the water, then to Kumankokusubi, then back to the water. After a moment, she nods at Kotone and starts backing away from that water. She's no going anywhere near that water after hearing that!
Reina Kinney	Meanwhile, while everyone else is getting out in their own way, Reina teleports back to her shuttle. She's a bit scathed but she's not that badly hurt otherwise. She sighs as she sets the auto-programming in her navigational computers to take her back to Union HQ. At the same time, she sets it up to take a certain type of route so that the warp will be slower in order to save energy on systems, but it will also allow Reina to rest in her quarters until she returns.
Amaterasu	Kuma-chan sputters at Kazuko. "Ey'! That's Kumanokusubi! The Azure Blade! There are no Kukus here! None!" Never! Ever! Kuku!
Amaterasu	And everyone is teleported out. Konoe opens her eyes, seeing the outside again, and just lets out a weak sigh. "....e....m...de....it...." And then she passed out. Welp. That was it for her. Maybe it's about time to get the hell out of here, huh? Hey, where's Marisa anyway?
Kazuko Kawakami	"It's still too long. And you can't be Kuma because there's already a Kuma, and Manko's too close to Wanko!" Kazuko's sounding really adamant about this despite her physical condition. "Unless... How about Subi?"
Amaterasu	"Gaaaaah! You're so annoying!" He growled, frustratedly mussing his hair up with his hands. "Fine then, Kusubi! That's it! No more cuts!" he exclaimed with finality, pointing at Kazuko after. And then everyone got out. "Oh. Well lookit that. They're back."
Marisa Kirisame	No? Nobody stopping the crazy laserwitch from doing something pretty much everyone else might request? Well then... Marisa dodges left. She jukes right. Thin thread-strands shoot down out of the ceiling in twisted locks. If it keeps up then, sometime soon, she'll end up tangled up in them just like Konoe had been. But... BUT-- MARISA HAS A SECRET WEAPON! IT'S NOT REALLY A SECRET. IT'S THE MINI HAKKERO. "Alright~" then," Marisa chimes, pointing the little block of sorcery directly overhead. "LOVE SIGN - MASTER--" --MEANWHILE, OUTSIDE-- Everything is quiet and calm. Konoe and the others are all safe, and all is well in the world, even if the mysterious castle of the sun is currently surrounded in a barrier of deathly hot water. At least everyone who matters is safe, right? RIGHT!? The rooftop of the castle disappears in a massive pillar of LOVE COLORED magic. It smashes into the veil of hot water and somehow... evaporates it. A twinkling star in black and gold and white shoots out of the gaping hole in the barrier before it closes up again and sails on over to join the others. "Jeez!" Marisa sighs, "That was pretty nuts, huh?" Beat. Marisa stares at the weird... swords...man. "Wow," she concludes after a moment. "You're even more inexplicably pettable than the other guy."
Yuna Kagurazaka	The fact that Masakatsu is, in fact, not going to STAY dead seems to be a profound relief to Yuna, particularly judging by the deep sigh she releases. "Good ... thank you for not holding a grudge against us for that, or for beating you," she adds with a sheepish grin to the newly-nicknamed Kusubi. And then, MARISA (busting out rather than in, this time). Yuna just looks over at the beamspam witch with a wry smile and waves to her. "Welcome back .. I think everyone we wanted is back out of the palace now?" She takes a moment to do a headcount. All allies are present and accounted for, Jiina and Marina never made it in but they're within sight, Elner is back, Kirito and Sarah got teleported back out with Elner, Marisa made her own way ... yeah, seems like everyone's here. Plus Konoe, whom Yuna is frankly glad to see is rescued. "Thank you for coming to check on us," she adds, bowing to Kumanokusubi again, then going over to check on Konoe for herself. "And yeah, 'pretty nuts' sounds about right," she agrees (maybe belatedly) to Marisa.
Kazuko Kawakami	"Mm... I guess that'll have to do." Although Kazuko's sounding not too enthused about it, she's cheering inwardly. Victory! Over... Something. Well, good enough. "Kusubi, then. So! What's-" Her question is interrupted by Marisa exploding out of the ceiling in that rainbow of... RAINBOW. Also Konoe's there, too! "Ehehe... We did our job, then? Everything's fixed?" She sounds hopeful as she asks that, her gaze flicking from person to person before turning towards the sun. Not directly at the sun, of course. Just... Sort of around it in case it's still burning death hot.
Marisa Kirisame	"Nah," Marisa says, picking a stray thread out of her hair. "Not until we punch that big sister of theirs in the teeth for setting all this up. Then we'll need to pull up our britches and wake Amawhoever up ourselves. I've got some ideas," she shrugs a little bit before uncorking YET ANOTHER BOTTLE. What is with her and mushroom juice? Wait, no, this one actually smells like wine. Like, real rice wine. It IS after a danmaku bout, so this kind of thing is apparently normal?? "Well, anyway~" Marisa chimes and swings down to STEAL KONOE, provided nobody stops her from sweeping the cat-priestess up onto her (scorched, partially frozen) broom. "If nobody minds, I'mma take cat back home so she can sleep things off. Don't worry, I can keep an eye on her 'till she wakes up."
Staren	The fact that Masakatsu is, in fact, not going to STAY dead seems to be a profound annoyance for Staren, particularly judging by his annoyed grunt and crossed arms. "Rrrgh. Great, so he's gonna keep trying to stop us. Well, at least we know he's weak to..." Staren looks at the barrier. "...Being pushed into hot water?"
Yuna Kagurazaka	"THe situation isn't resolved until the sun goes down," Yuna points out to Kazuko, "and we STILL haven't found Amaterasu. Or this Waka-whomever who keeps drowning people who say her name ..." She's going to have to do some research when she gets back. "He's probably not going to try to stand in our way again," Yuna points out to Staren. "I mean, we didn't kill Kumanokusubi, and he stopped trying to impede our progress after we beat him."