Chapter Text
Sunny Milk’s mind raced as Aya looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something. Aya was known for her hawkish pursuit of news, and Sunny hadn’t really thought about what she’d say to try and convince her to give up her article. Still, she had to try – if Aya reported on this, they’d all be in trouble. ‘Come on, Sunny – you can do this!’ she thought, taking a deep breath and trying to dispel the tension. ‘Just ask nicely and be polite, and maybe she’ll agree to stop?’
“Aya- Miss Shameimaru?” Sunny said, trying to sound as respectful as possible. “Could you please not write about Reimu? Please?”
“My, that was really nice!” Aya said, an amused lilt in her voice. “But I’m afraid I can’t do that – the people deserve to know about this. Besides, I would have thought you three would love the attention.”
“What?!” yelled Sunny, jumping up in outrage. “Why would we want that?! Why would anyone want to be known as Reimu’s killers?! That would be-”
“Really? I didn’t know that – thanks for telling me.”
Sunny sat down hard, all of her fury instantly replaced with dread. She hadn’t even considered that Aya might not know about what happened, and her thoughtlessness may have just just cost them everything. ‘Stupid, stupid, stupid!’ she thought, a sickening feeling in her stomach. ‘Aya’s never going to stop following this story now – what are we going to do?!’
“So, what happened? How did you do it?” Aya asked excitedly, either not noticing or not caring about Sunny’s distress. “Was it an accident, or did you do it on purpose? Was it a failed duel, or some kind of prank?”
‘Wait, that’s it!’
“Hey, Aya! If you aren’t going to stop your article willingly, then we’ll just have to make you!” yelled Sunny, pulling out her pack of Spell Cards and trying to look intimidating. Luna and Star joined her after only a brief moment of shock, their own Cards at the ready. “Come on, let’s get her!”
For a few moments Aya simply stared, shocked at Sunny’s brazen defiance – but she quickly recovered her confidence. “So that’s how you want to do this? Very well, then – but if I win, I expect you three to fully subject yourself to my interview. ” she replied with unwavering confidence, taking to the air and pulling three Cards of her own. “Now, I think three Cards should be plenty and enough to decide this – don’t you agree?”
Looking up at Aya’s imposing figure and self-assured smile, Sunny suddenly started to feel a little unsure – something about Aya’s cocky attitude made it seem like she was absolutely sure of her victory, and Sunny was reminded of the stories she had heard of Aya’s incredible power. Still, she couldn’t back down now – they had to stop Aya somehow, and if Sunny refused this duel Aya would really never give up. “Alright, then!” she yelled back, taking a deep breath and following Aya into the sky, Luna and Star beside her. “Ready or not, here we come!”
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Star Sapphire flew up behind Sunny, ready to join her in her fight with Aya Shameimaru. While she didn’t care much for fighting journalists – they had more important things do to than that – she kind of had to back Sunny up in this. ‘Let’s just get this over with...’ Star thought, getting ready to join in. ‘Hopefully this won’t take long.’
“Sky Sign: Elfin Canopy!”
As Sunny declared her attack and activated the Card, Star quickly flew over to her position to the right of Aya. Luna took the position to the left, and together they started firing a spread of bullets to box Aya in. Sunny started charging her own blast to tag Aya, and Star was a bit surp r ised to see that she didn’t even seem to be trying to get out of the trap. ‘What’s she planning...’ Star thought, as Sunny finished readying her attack.
*Shing!*
With a brilliant flash of light, Sunny shot out her burst of Danmaku, sending streams of magic through the maze of illusory fire. Aya seemingly vanished from Star’s senses, and for a moment Star felt a stab of panic surge through her, as the fear that they had once again done something terrible started rising up within her. Before the thought could even take hold, though, it was quickly dispelled by Star picking up Aya location again – now hovering a good distance in front of them, well out of range of the Spell Card.
“Nice try, but I’m not going to just stand there and take it.” Aya said, idly playing with her own Card as Sunny preemptively ended the bullet pattern – there was no point continuing with Aya so far away. “Now, let me show you how it’s done! Wind God: Wind God’s Leaf-Veiling!”
As Aya held up her Spell Card, a massive storm of magical leaves exploded out of it, swirling and dancing around her before flying out in every direction. Star jumped aside and dodge the various bullets, but there were just too many of them for Star to keep track of, and she quickly started feeling the distinctive sting of Danmaku impacts. Sunny and Luna didn’t seem to be doing any better, either – getting hit repeatedly by the seemingly random attacks. After a few minutes of desperate dodging, the attack concluded, giving Star and the others a few moments to recover.
“Had enough yet?” called down Aya as Star regrouped with Sunny and Luna, both of them noticeably scratched and scuffed. “We could always skip to the interview if you want.”
“What, you think we’d give up just like that?!” yelled back Sunny defiantly, already holding out her next Card and flying back up to face Aya. “Not a chance! Light Sign: Rutile Flection!”
The Spell Card activated, and waves of bullets started pouring towards Aya from behind the Three Fairies, Star and Luna sending their own Danmaku towards her from their position behind Sunny. Sunny flew forwards with the stream of bullets, and as Aya once again watched and waited Star started to feel a little hopeful – she clearly didn’t know the trick behind the Spell Card. ‘I’m sure we’ve got her this time...’ thought Star as Sunny activated her ability, causing all of the bullets to bend around her and fly out in a massive cone. ‘There’s no way she can dodge all of that, right?’
*click*
Star looked on in shock as all of the bullets vanished, revealing Aya holding her camera up to her eye. As Aya stowed her camera back away again, Star thought she saw a flicker of worry on her face, but it was quickly replaced by confident smile. “What, did you think something that simple would hit me?” she said, with a cocky smile that made even Star annoyed. “Now, watch this! Illusionary Dominance!”
Aya declared her Spell Card, and rocketed off to the side, shooting out waves of Danmaku as she flew. Massive walls of bullets closed in on Sunny, Luna, and Star as Aya blasted around them at blinding speed, and although Star tried to weave through the attacks she got hit several times by bullets she didn’t spot. As Aya slowed to a stop in front of them and the bullets passed them by, Star flew back slowly to the group, wincing at the lingering pain.
“You really should save all of us the trouble and just give up.” Aya said smugly, and Star had to admit she was probably right – they were just wasting their time and energy. Sunny seemed to be willing to continue, though, pulling out her third Spell Card – and Star wasn’t going to just abandon her in the middle of a fight. ‘Come on, Star, push through – we’ve only got one more Card.’
“Sunny, stop – this isn’t working.”
Sunny stopped in the middle of presenting her third Card as Luna spoke up from behind her. “What else can we do?!” she yelled back, whirling around to look at Luna. “We can’t let her tell everyone about Reimu – there’s no way we’ll be able to help her while everyone’s out to try and kill us!”
“Yes, but we can’t beat Aya head-on!” replied Luna, waving at the state of the three of them. “Maybe we could try and convince her?”
‘I don’t think that would work...’ thought Star, as Sunny seemed to pause for a moment. ‘There’s no way she’ll back down after we’ve started a duel.’
“Wait, I’ve got it!” cried out Sunny, springing back around to face Aya. “You two keep her distracted – I’m going to sneak up on her.” she continued before vanishing from sight. ‘Thanks, Sunny...’ thought Star, sighing internally and pulling out one of her own Cards – while she could tell that Sunny wasn’t running away, her leaving them to face Aya was still annoying. ‘I guess it isn’t a bad idea, though – we may as well try it.’
“Star Sign: Twinkle Sapphire!” / “Moonlight: Moon Stillness!”
Star and Luna both activated their Spell Cards at the same time, creating a massive sphere of lights around Luna, Star, and Aya that rapidly started filling up with star-shaped bullets. Aya tensed up as the barrage approached, ready to fly away at a moment’s notice, but she didn’t need to – none of the bullets were actually aimed at her. Even as Luna’s motes of light closed in around Aya and broke formation, none of them actually flew directly at her – clearly, she had realized the same thing that Star had. As the bullets cleared and the two Cards slowly timed out, Aya was left in the exact same place she had started in – she hadn’t even needed to move an inch to avoid the attacks completely. For a moment Aya just floated there, confused, before her expression morphed into amusement, and then outright laughter.
“Really? That’s what you went with?!” laughed Aya between the chuckles. “You do realize you have to aim at your opponent to hit them, right? I guess what they say about fairy’s intelligence is true after all.” Recovering from her fit of laughter, Aya looked around and continued, now looking a little more irritated. “Did the orange one run away? Well, no matter – I’m sure you two can provide me with all the information I ne-”
“Flickering Light: Fatal Flash!”
Aya jumped in alarm at the shouted voice right behind her, but it was too late – Sunny had already activated the Spell Card and placed it in Aya’s pocket. She blasted into the air at incredible speed, but no matter how fast she went she couldn’t escape the Danmaku, being hit over and over again by the bursts of light no matter where she went. Watching Aya bounce around the air in panic, filling the evening sky with radiance and crow feathers, Star expected to feel overjoyed at their victory – but other than a slight satisfaction at seeing Aya humbled, all she felt was emptiness. As Aya smashed through the tree canopy and crashed into the ground, one thought filled Star’s head.
‘Did we need to do any of this?’
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“Give up yet? Or do we need to do another round?” Sunny Milk called out, flying over to where Aya had crash-landed. Despite her outward confidence, though, internally Sunny was worried – if Aya wasn’t done fighting, there’s no way they would be able to trick her like that again. ‘Hopefully she’s not going to be too mad...’ she thought, watching Aya’s reaction carefully as she lay on forest floor.
Thankfully, Aya seemed to be embarrassed, not angry. “No, I’ll admit it – I underestimated you three.” she groaned, pushing herself off the ground and weakly trying to brush herself off. “Guess I’ll have to find something else to write about...” she continued, slowly limping away.
‘Well, I guess this is over with...’ thought Sunny, watching sadly as Aya hobbled into trees. ‘So why doesn’t this feel good?’ In her head, she knew that they should be getting moving – they had important things to do, and it was getting late – but something about Aya’s pained walk and ruined clothes made Sunny feel awful. ‘Don’t worry about her – she’s a powerful Youkai, she can handle it.’ she told herself, but it did little to alleviate the guilt she was feeling.
“Aya... maybe we could figure something out?”
Sunny’s thoughts whirled, instantly filled with doubt about what she had just said. ‘Why would I do that?!’ she asked herself as Aya stopped and looked back quizzically. ‘We were done here – talking to her more is just going to cause us more trouble!’ Still, she felt she had to do something, and after a few seconds an idea came to her.
“It’s quite late, and we don’t have anywhere to stay nearby.” Sunny said quietly, trying to sound calm – she didn’t want Aya to know what she was thinking. “Maybe if we told you about some other story, you could let us stay in your house for the night?”
“Of course – if it’s newsworthy.” replied Aya, perking up a good deal. Completely turning to face Sunny and pulling out her pen and notepad, she eagerly continued. “What do you have, then? Let’s hear it!”
“Well...” said Sunny, trying to think of something Aya might consider newsworthy. It didn’t take long though – after only a few seconds, she remembered something she had seen earlier that day. “There’s a confused autumn goddess a short way behind us – is that interesting enough?” she said, waving at the path behind them. “She’s started painting the leaves already, even though it’s spring.”
“Really?” asked Aya, looking at Luna and Star. After a few seconds, Luna nodded in confirmation, and Aya’s eyes lit up with excitement at the news. Writing a quick message in her notebook, she tore out a page and handed it to Sunny. “Here, give this to the guards – they’ll show you to my house. Don’t go looking in my study, okay?” she said before flying off towards the direction Sunny had indicated. As she disappeared into the gloom – still moving somewhat unsteadily – Sunny lead Luna and Star further up the mountain, holding the message Aya had given them and trying to push down the bad feelings that still lingered. ‘See, now we have a place to stay for the night instead of being stuck out in the Youkai Forest. Everything’s fine, now!’
‘Right?’