Running up the mountain, I avoided any kind of obstacle that other wise would be next to impossible to pass but thanks to the use of the ability card opening gaps for me to go through made this whole thing somewhat underwhelming, kind of as if I was cheating albeit that the range is short so I couldn't use it to open a gap to the top of the youkai mountain but it was fun to use anyhow.
Before I knew it, I was already half way up the mountain and something already didn't seem right, there were no youkai in sight let alone the sound of any of them lurking nearby which raised my suspicion but the lack of youkai was the perfect time for me to take a short break and prepare myself for what lied ahead at the top of the mountain. Taking out all 6 of my cards I began looking through all of them for the first time rather than just giving them a glance before using them in battle like I usually did up until now and that was because I didn't want to take chances with pulling out the wrong ability card so it'd be best I rearrange them a little.
"Half-Half Ghost"
"Shanghai Doll"
"Ice Fairy"
"Screen Border"
"Moon of Madness"
These were 5 of the 6 ability cards that I had remaining and as I was about to read the name of the 6th card, a sudden gust of wind shook the trees catching me off guard as well as making me turn my head away from the direction that the gust came from. Once it was over, I looked back at the direction from which the gust of wind came from and sure enough, someone was flying there and that someone was Aya.
Aya:"Ayayaya, another intruder in the mountain? I can't allow this! Face me intruder for I shall represent this whole mountain!"
"What...?" I was extremely confused by what Aya was saying, she sounded completely out of character compared to all the other times I met her and it sounded like she was getting ready to fight too so raising my Half-Half Ghost card, I prepared to face off against her.
This night has been nothing but confusion.
Aya:"Wind God "Wind God's Leaf-Veiling"!"
Aya rose her fan as leafs were carried by wind before star flying around us resulting in a sphere forming around us that was made from condensed air. The compressed air was condensed enough to make it impossible to see past it so in a sense Aya made a barrier.
Aya:"Alright I think it's safe now."
Y/N:"Safe now? I seriously doubt that seeing that we are about to fight."
Aya:"The mountain is constantly monitored by wolf tengu so I had to pretend to want to fight you so they wouldn't be able to see anything that's happening now."
Y/N:"So we aren't going to fight?"
Aya:"Not unless you want to."
Y/N:"Then what do you want."
Aya:"Glad you asked! If your looking for a way to reach the Moriya shrine then you will need a diversion so you wouldn't be targeted by any youkai which I can provide. After all past this point is extremely well guarded by all sorts of youkai."
"Before I give you my answer, I want to know why your helping me. For all I know you could be lying." I replied, lowering my ability card but still keeping it in my hand just in case.
Aya:"Ayaya? Doubting me already? Well I suppose I can give you a small snippet of my upcoming exclusive scoop. you must have heard of whats going on at the Moriya shrine seeing as how your in such a hurry to reach it in the middle of the night but we have a common enemy, the youkai living on this mountain just want to have this incident over and done with but at the rate at which its going right now I doubt it will ever end seeing as how the battle between the shrine maidens is still on going."
Y/N:"And?"
Aya:"They will need all the help they can get which is something I can't provide them, neither can any of the other youkai living on this mountain because in the end the Moriya shrine is still apart of the mountain so it would be seen as us becoming traitors of the mountain if we did try to fight them so we have to look out for them and help them SO your the next best thing at stopping them!"
"Alright so what's the catch?" I asking, knowing full well that Aya wasn't just doing it out of pure generosity.
Aya:"An all round interview of everything that went down after all this is over! I'll be there to watch the whole fight and take a few dozen screenshots for my article."
Y/N:"Deal."
Aya:"Alright just hide in a bush the moment I drop the cover and stay low for a moment and leave the rest to me!"
After all the exchange of words ended, the condensed air sphere vanished as Aya quickly flew into the skies while I hid into the nearest bush before looking into the sky where Aya was.
"HE WENT BACK DOWN THE HILL!" Aya shouted, point down the hill before flying off in the direction she just pointed as 10 other youkai flew after her, misguiding them off of my trail. Guess she wasn't kidding about this place monitoring me.
Getting out of the bush, I continued with my journey up though things were different now compared to how things looked like when I was in the lower half of the mountain. There were now youkai everywhere now patrolling for any trespassers like me and this would have been a serious issue had I not have had the gap ability card so reaching the top was pretty much just a walk in the park with me avoiding any kind of detection to speak of but you never know if there are youkai watching from somewhere.
Once at the near top I was met with stairs that led up to the shrine and sounds of explosion could be heard echoing from the top of the stairs as all sorts of bullets like orbs, stars and even snakes started flying in every directions from the top. I wasted no time switching from walking and into all out attempt at running, I couldn't afford to waste any more time now that I was at the final destination but before I could go on any further, I was stopped by a wolf youkai. The wolf youkai appearance a white, long-sleeved shirt, and a large black skirt with red flame-like designs reaching up from the bottom of the skirt. They also held a oddly shaped sword and a white, round shield with a red maple leaf print on it.
???:"HALT HUMAN!"
"OUT OF MY WAY!" I yelled as I quickly retrieved Marisa's spell card out of my pocket before shouting out the phrase that activated it with little time to spare.
"Love Sign "Master Spark"!" I yelled as I pointed the card at the youkai before a large laser shot out from the card and right at the youkai whom avoided the attack in the nick of time before charging at me which they followed up with an attempt to slash me to as I put all the strength I had into both my feet to leap away in time but that also resulted with me falling to the ground from the pain of putting so much pressure into my injured leg.
???:"The youkai mountain is off limits to humans for the most part and we do not need another human reaching the top to create more chaos."
Y/N:"Well a certain tengu told me a different story."
???:"Aya... Then you must be a friend of hers. Turn back and tell her that I, Momiji Inubashiri will have a word with her about it later now turn back and leave."
Y/N:"I got a better idea, how about you go tell her that while I go on ahead to help my friends."
Momiji:"No."
Y/N:"Well it was worth a shot but I'm going to reach that shrine no matter what you tell me."
Momiji:"From the sound of the tone in your voice I can tell that you won't listen to me which leaves me no other choice so prepare yourself, human."
I needed to consider my choices wisely here since I already lost 4 ability cards in the span of a single night, not to mention that I wasn't in the best of conditions now so I needed to reserve as much of my strength as possible for whatever awaited me at the top. Momiji didn't seem like the type to use bullets from the way she was taking a sword stance so I was already left with little options to choose from. What I ended up coming up with was that I could try to use the master spark spell card on her again from a closer range and hope that she won't dodge it a second time or I could rely on the use of the ability cards and after a little more consideration, I decided to settle for the ability cards.
"Bring it." I replied as I got off the ground and took out the Shanghai and Ice Fairy ability cards out of my pocket.
Momiji didn't waste a moment to dash at me with her shield up and her sword positioned behind her, ready to be swung once the shield was lowered making it difficult to hit her with anything so with my Shanghai doll ability card, I rose it up to release a Shanghai doll holding a lance as Momiji shot forward her sword right at me which was intercepted by the lance of the shanghai doll, leaving Momiji vulnerable to attacks thanks to her attention shifting towards the shanghai doll.
Not wanting to drag this on any further, I lifted the Ice Fairy ability card which began glowing as it shot out an onslaught of icicles in Momiji's direction resulting in a icy mist forming that slowly vanished with time, revealing that Momiji's lower half was frozen solid keeping her from moving but it didn't seem like it would hold her off for too long seeing as how she was already trying to break free of the ice.
Facing the stairs, I could hear the sound of multiple footsteps heading my way from behind me so not wanting to have to face off against any more youkai, I rushed up the flight of stairs without even looking back for a moment as the Shanghai doll flew next to me.
Reaching the top, the first thing I was met with was Reimu, Marisa and Alice standing there, ready to continue fighting at any moment though they weren't in the best of condition seeing as how they were out of breath but what's more was that Yukari didn't seem to be anywhere, looks like she bailed on them in the end.
Looking at their opponents I could immediately see Sanae and Mima as well as 2 other people though none of them were in any better condition, ready to resume fighting Reimu and the others as both sides prepared to go into a final stand off.
"Did you serious believe that you ever stood a chance?" Mima questioned, pointing her staff at Marisa out of all three of them.
"Yeah, pretty much, ze." Marisa answered, getting ready for whatever was to come next.
"It's still not late for you to switch sides, Marisa. It's may be too late for them but you can still atone for your past actions and start over." Mima stated and it didn't take much for me to notice that Mima slowly lowered lowered her staff. aiming at the ground below Marisa, almost as if she was hesitating to attack not to mention her voice, it sounded... honest.
Maybe this was just me being me but something was telling me that this doesn't have to end in bloodshed like I thought it would. Maybe there's still a way for her to be talked out of it.
Sanae:"Kanako-sama, do we really have to go through with this?"
???:"We already played our part, for now it would be best to leave everything else to her."
"About that..." Mima said before turning around to face Sanae and the two other women before raising her staff once more but this time in their direction.
"Trinity spark!" What followed was a blast which collided with Sanae and the two women, knocking them away and down to the ground before they even had a chance to react. The blast was strong enough to have knocked out Sanae and a girl who was wearing a weird hat that had eyes attached to the top of it but the purple haired woman still seemed to be holding on from loosing her consciousness.
???:"What is the meaning of this!"
Mima:"Sorry to inform you but there has been a sudden change in plans."
???:"A sudden change in plans? Explain!"
Mima:"Do you seriously believe that I'd be a disposable pawn in your little monopoly? Maybe if you were even a tiny bit more discrete about your backhanded plans of disposing me then I would have been fooled into doing your dirty work but in the end gods are nothing more than a joke."
"Gnnnhh... Damn you..." The purple haired ushered with great annoyance to Mima who simply smirked. This sudden turn of events had pretty much ended up only working in Reimu and the others favor now that there were less enemies to deal with but it also pretty much highlighted the option to try and reason with Mima.
"Now then..." As Mima was about to face Reimu and the others, her eyes finally spotted me standing at the entrance to the shrine grounds.
Mima:"Oh? Well this is certainly a surprise. I was certain that I already killed you back during our last encounter."
Y/N:"Yeah, nice to see you too."
"Y/N, what are you doing here!?" I could hear the voices of Reimu and Marisa yell but I didn't bother to look back at them let alone say a word to them because I was still thinking of a way to solve this whole thing without having to fight Mima all over again. I could also hear Alice but she was more surprised to see the Shanghai replica flying next to me more than actually seeing me be here despite the warning which I guess was somewhat understandable seeing as how there were now 2 Shanghais here.
Mima:"So what brings you here so suddenly? Came to play the hero nobody ever needed seeing as how you failed to arrive with everyone else and not to mention the condition you are in currently though it fits you well in my personal opinion."
Hero...
No matter how many times I hear people say this, I fail to see myself as one...
No...
I don't want to see myself as one let alone be one...
It sickened me hearing the same phrase being said time and time again over the things I did for unrelated reasons...
Y/N:"Hero you say? I don't do the things I end up doing simply because I want to be a hero... No, I don't want to be viewed as anything close to a hero. I don't want to be a savior people need or want, a defender of peace, some kind of guardian angel AND I CERTAINLY DON'T WANT TO HAVE OTHERS THINK OF ME AS ANYTHING THAT COULD RESEMBLE A HERO!"
Nobody said a word.
Nobody said anything let alone tried to after what I just stated though this statement seemed to have somewhat piqued Mima's interest.
Mima:"Then what do you view yourself as from your actions alone?"
Y/N:"I just see myself as an ordinary human trying to right their wrongs after the countless failed attempts at fixing the broken promises I made to those close to me, I just want to keep those close to me safe but I can't even do that without constantly messing something up and if me trying to fix my mistakes ends up making me turn out to look like some kind hero to someone else then they are sorely mistaken to think so."
The faces of Reimu, Marisa and Alice were now fully overtaken with shock as well as other emotions similar to it simply because of what I just said alone but at this point I wasn't afraid to say the whole truth anymore and I finally felt at ease, almost as if a heavy burden has finally been lifted from over me after sticking onto me since the tournament concluded.
Mima:"So you came here defeat me in their place, correct?"
Y/N:"No, I won't fight, I just came to talk."
Mima:"Talk? Don't make me laugh! I know how well capable you are of pulling tricks from under your sleeves if things are to go south for you."
"If it's tricks your worried let me assure you about one thing, there aren't any strings attached." I replied, taking out 5 of the 6 ability card, leaving the 6th ability card that I haven't had a chance to see yet in my pocket along side Marisa's spell card before dropping the 5 ability card to the ground as proof that I wasn't planning on fighting her. Hopefully I won't regret this mistake seeing as how I'm putting some of my most powerful ability cards at risk of being destroyed.
Mima:"You truly are naive telling me that your not a hero when all you seem to do is make choices that only spotlight you as one."
Y/N:"And you think that me wanting to fight would make me look any less heroic?"
Mima:"I suppose that you do have a valid point there but just in case, let's make sure you can't pull any more tricks on me."
Mima then raised her staff towards the 5 cards before a bullet was shot from the tip of her staff, directly hitting the 5 cards resulting in a small fire being created that ended up burning all of the cards. It was fun using you gap card, even if your gap opening range was extremely small but I guess all good things must come to a close eventually. The Shanghai doll that was floating next to me also vanished, leaving nothing but a small smoke cloud now that their card was destroyed.
Mima:"Now then, I can make a clear guess that you came all this was to want to enroll yourself as a pupil of mine? I certainly can't see any other reason for you wanting to talk so suddenly."
Y/N:"No, I want you stop all this."
Mima:"That's it? You came all this way, risked your life simply to tell me to stop?"
Y/N:"Pretty much."
Mima:"Then I'll humor you, why would I stop now that everything here is at arm's reach for me to claim."
Y/N:"Because that's not what you truly want, is it."
Mima:"Oh? And what do you mean by that?"
Y/N:"All you wanted was to crush those who opposed you. Well, you succeeded didn't you so what more could you want? You defeat the shrine maiden, your ex-maid and even your former pupil so what more could you want now?"
"Revenge and control, need I say more?" Mima answered but that statement was far from the truth compared to what she said to Marisa earlier, now I understood what she truly wanted.
Y/N:"Yes, you do. I can tell that it's not what you truly want."
Mima didn't respond but I could tell that she wanted to know what it was that she was truly looking for.
Y/N:"What you want is to finally find peace and joy in life, the same peace and joy in peace that you had when Marisa was your student. Continuing this chaos won't bring that feeling back, it will just distance you further away from it the more you try because all of this is doing nothing but causing everyone harm."
Everything I just said was just a gut feeling I had from the vibes I was getting after the brief interaction me and Marisa had in regards to her connection to Mima as well as Mima offering Marisa to be her student once more.
Hearing my sudden response, Mima didn't seem to have taken it all too well almost as if I struck a nerve.
"You know... NOTHING ABOUT ME!" Mima shouted, raising her staff at me in a sudden blind rage after I pointed out what she was truly seeking. It wasn't even a moment later that bullets were shot towards me but I just stood still as all the bullets did nothing but graze me, almost as Mima was intentionally missing.
"It's never too late to go back, try and fix these mistakes. Nobody is stopping you from it and neither will they force you to do it." I said, with a unfazed appearance thought deep down I was terrified for my life that this situation had good chances of worsening if I kept it up.
10 seconds.
That's all it took after I said it that made the onslaught of bullets stop abruptly as Mima lowered herself to the ground before lying down on the ground, facing the cold stone floor almost as if she was defeated with words alone.
"Why...?
Why try and stop me...?
Why risk your life...?
Why say that you view yourself as no hero with such actions...?
Why do you try to keep all this up...?
why...?"
Mima questioned as I looked down at her with uncertainty as to what I should say in a situation like this so I ended up going along with my gut feeling and replied with the most honest response that I could think of.
Y/N:"Because there is still someone who views you as their only family, no matter what you did in the past or even now they still view you as family, their family, the only one to look out for them in their time of need, someone they could rely on no matter what. I'm not gonna be one to strip that right away from them and neither should anyone else."
Mima slowly rose her head up towards me before looking over at Reimu, Marisa and Alice though it was obvious that she was mainly focused on Marisa and I guess that whatever she saw in Marisa must have only confirmed what I just said.
Y/N:"If you still intend to continue then so be it but just remember that all of this is all up to you to choose."
Mima:"You... Made your point clear and... I have no reason to continue this anymore..."
Mima's tone of voice sounded like she was having trouble admitting defeat but if it meant that she could still fix the issues that she caused then that was a small price to pay which in turn made Marisa's eye glint with both hope and joy.
Turning away from Mima for a moment, I looked over at Reimu, Marisa and Alice whom were all left speechless since they were still trying to process everything I just said let alone everything that just happened.
"Reimu, when are you planning to seal Mima away?" I asked, hoping that she wouldn't say something along the lines of "Right now" which in turn made Reimu shake her head so she could focus.
"Well..." Reimu responded, she didn't sound certain but once she looked over at Marisa something inside her must have given her a different choice to what she was planning to say originally.
"I guess she can stay around for a bit... but if she dares to start another incident then I won't hesitate to seal her for good and make sure she stays that way!" Reimu answered, this was an answered nobody expected especially both Mima and Marisa.
Alice:"Are you sure about this, Reimu?"
Reimu:"I'm tired of having to seal her all the time so I might as well give her a second chance and hope that she doesn't do anything stupid this time around."
Marisa was ecstatic after hearing all this since now she could catch up on old times with the one person that she truly viewed as family while I turned away and looked up at the sky. A lot has happened this night which mostly led to chaos. First the whole scarlet devil mansion fortune telling thing, then Koishi breaking into my home and her sister opening a mental scar I wanted to forget about and then this whole incident and all I'll say is that this night has been full of surprises so me saying that I'm glad that it's all over would be an understatement to say the least.
Just like that everything came to an end.
Old problems were finally resolved.
New possibilities were forged.
And the night sky was riddled with stars that gave out a feeling of long awaited comfort that I always lamented about.
This felt like a happy ending straight out of a story, something nobody ever expected.
As I watched on the moon in the distant skies and the stars that surrounded it, something caught my attention. I quickly noticed what seemed to be a pillar floating mid-air and as soon as I discovered it, I could hear the voice of the purple haired woman weakly muttering something to herself.
???:"No... I refuse to let her end it like this... I was so close... A god like me won't... accept this sort of humiliation!"
Looking over at the woman, her eyes were fixed on Mima and something already told me that this meant nothing but trouble. The woman rose one of her hand before slamming it to the ground as the pillar started free falling from the sky and towards Mima with nobody besides myself noticing it falling down at rapid speeds.
"WATCH OUT!" I yelled as I pushed Mima out of the way and in turn falling down to the ground myself from the sudden stress I placed on my injured leg while pushing her.
Quickly reaching into my pocket I attempted to withdraw Marisa's master spark spell card as the pillar closed in on me but what I ended up taking out was the 6th spell card by accident and it didn't seem to be doing anything when I rose it in the sky.
At this point it was too late for me to take out Marisa's spell card.
It was too late for me to see the picture or even the name of the ability card I just drew out of my pocket.
It was too late for me to do anything besides watch my friends look at me with confusion as to what was going on as the pillar drew closer and closer to me.
What followed next was pain all over my body at subdued itself as I heard the sound of my bones being crushed and my vision turning to nothing but darkness...