Part 18: Chapter 5M: Daiyousei SOS - Part 1

A pair of black and white wings~ slicing the sky apart~ Super Magician~ Marisa Kirisame~

Invincible magic for us all~

Marisa and Nitori are singing a modified version of the classic Mazinger Z opening.

...Can you stop singing? It's embarrassing. And I'd expect this from Marisa, but why are you singing along too, Nitori?



If you wanted to join us, you could just be honest about it.

Yeah, sing along with us too, Alice!

No. Absolutely not.

Alice: the ultimate killjoy.



But the actual culprit still remains unknown. Don't get caught up in the moment and think about things a little.

Yeah Marisa, think about it a bit.

Whose side are you on? Though you're right that we ain't got much info. Besides that maid being involved somehow, the rest is all a mystery.

That maid was strong, so the mastermind has to be a really powerful youkai.

Whatever kind of youkai the culprit is, my Master Spark will wipe 'em out. Besides, it's more fun when the opponent's strong. This'll be a load of fun.

You're really optimistic.



Old days? It wasn't that long ago.

When you first met?

We met at an incident a little while back. It was before spellcards got popular, so I don't think you know about it.

Marisa's referring to Touhou 5, in which she (and three others) invaded Makai (the demonic realm) to find out why so many demons were invading Gensokyo. If you're curious, it was because someone in Makai had started a Gensokyo tourism agency without telling anyone.

Anyways, Alice, the Stage 3 boss in that game, tried to stop the player characters but got beaten up. She then reappeared in the Extra stage (a bonus stage you can play after beating the main game) with a powerful Grimoire enhancing her abilities... then got her butt kicked again. Her second appearance was what Marisa was talking about back in her Chapter 2 when she said she could've stolen Alice's grimoire long ago.

Yeah, nothing comes to mind... You two have been friends for a long time, huh?

I wouldn't say we were friends, exactly.



Going by just the games, Marisa has known Reimu since Touhou 2. Supplementary material since then suggests they knew each other even before that, though, and there's nothing in Touhou 2's script that says they didn't know each other already anyways.

Always known her, for better and for worse. She used to have a really girlish giggle in the old days.

Hmm, that's somehow different from Reimu's image now... Anyway, Marisa and Alice, how did you two end up meeting? I want to know more.

Well... I don't remember it very clearly, and I don't want to either.

I remember it all. It was when I visited Makai.

Huh, and then? Did you two have a danmaku battle?

Well yeah. Back then, Alice was...

There's no need to talk about that. It's not interesting anyway.

What? It's no big deal.



FMW seems to be going under the assumption that Marisa was the one to beat Alice both times.

Shut up!

Alice tries to grab Marisa.

Whoops! You ain't gonna catch me!

Marisa zooms off, and presumably knocks Alice over or something.

Eek!

Whoa, are you okay, Alice!?



Seriously. I can't even see her anymore.

Oh well. Let's follow after her.



Music: Best Friends Atop the Silent Lake



Meet Daiyousei, who I am going to be referring to as Dai from now on because it's easier that way.

...Aww, where could Cirno have gone? Whenever we play hide-and-seek, she always goes and hides really far away. She said she wanted to play near the shrine...



I'm always a seeker too, I want to be a hider sometimes...

...Ah?



(Something just made a noise over there. It must be Cirno. Hehe, I'll sneak up on her and scare her instead.)



Dai retreats in fright.

...

Huh? You're not Cirno... Did I scare you? I'm sorry. I was looking for a friend, but my vision was fuzzy.

Dai is pretty much the sole exception to the "all fairies are kind of jerks" clause.

...

The kedama moves closer to Dai.



Um, are you taking a nap? I'll stop bothering you, so please rest well.

...

The kedama moves in again.

Uh, um...



...I'm sorry, but I'm in a hurry!

Dai tries to run away again, but...

!



...

...U-Um... You're all friends of that kedama, right...? I need to find my friend. Could you let me through...?

...



(What's going on!? These kedama are being strange. They seem agitated somehow... I can't get past them if they're surrounding me like this...!)



Oh boy, that sounds like a fun bonus.



Anyways, Dai! She's the game's dedicated healer character, and she has exactly the stats you'd expect for a role like that.



Right now the best thing to do is to Focus then land on this tree here.



Dai has the option of attacking, but honestly there's no point.



I have no idea why, but the bullets these black kedama shoot count as a Strike attack. Speaking of Strike attacks, remember when I said you couldn't Graze them?

I can't get past these kedama without defeating them...

I don't know if I can do it but I'll give it a try.



Turns out I was totally wrong on how Grazing activates. As a recap, back in chapter 1M I said it went off every time you were Focused and got attacked by a non-Strike move. In reality, it's just the regular dodge formula. If the enemy would have hit, you take full damage. If they would've missed, you Graze.
_{This is actually how I originally thought it worked, but I decided in favor of the Strike attack theory because I figured there had to be some positive to being a Strike attack.}

And yes, this flies right in the face of my "Reals aren't at risk from poor luck" statement that I made earlier.



Getting back to the chapter, the safest thing to do in every battle is to just Evade. That will both increases your chance of Grazing and lowers the total damage Dai will take.



And if things go horribly wrong, Dai has three casts of Trust to bail her out.



Turn 2 is the exact same thing as Turn 1.



And Turn 3's where the chapter really starts.

It's hopeless, I can't get past this danmaku by myself. And these kedama are serious too. They seem to want to shoot me down...



...



...No! Don't come any closer!



I wish Dai could move that far normally.

...!



By the way, I apologize for the image overload. A lot of this part of the chapter is cutscene movement.



The kedama slowly close in on their prey.

What are you doing? Please stop... I'm not tasty, you know...? I don't want to... I'm scared... Somebody... save me...




Watch Dai get saved!

You're in a real tight spot, huh? Surrounded by kedama, bullying a lone fairy like you... But you can relax now. The great Kirisame is here. There's nothing to be afraid of anymore.

W-Who are you...?



And as a bonus, the two behind me are my excellent support team... Huh?



Man, those two are taking their time. Maybe I flew a bit too far ahead?

The hero of the forest... ...Um, I'm being attacked by these kedama! I was separated from my friend... So, if you could, um...

Ahh, what are you saying now? Ain't it obvious that I'm here to save you?

Then, you mean...

If you wanna get out of this safe and sound, don't leave my side. Got it?

...Y-Yes!



Dai should just be glad it wasn't Reimu who popped up. She would've probably exterminated both Dai and the kedama.



Anyways, having Dai stick next to Marisa probably isn't the best idea because of this.



I'm going to play it safe and have Dai unfocus and sprint away.



Meanwhile, Marisa will move north to try and bait the kedama.

Only humans are allowed to bully fairies. You kedama should just be quiet and get exterminated!



Sadly, getting the Mini-Hakkero has not powered up any of Marisa's moves.






It has bumped up her Repair cost though. And I didn't mention it, but same goes for Reimu now that she has Fantasy Seal.



Marisa got the kedama' attention, but not without cost.



And since I didn't have her Focus so she could move farther, she's really feeling the Danmaku.



It's a good thing I have Trust to patch her up.



Also, these kedama give some pretty nice rewards. It's a shame Marisa plot killed one.



You guys are so slow.

Marisa, you were the one who flew ahead too far. Alone, you're... Hm?

...

...



Yeah, take a look at the situation.

The situation...

A lone fairy, surrounded and assaulted by several kedama... I see, it's not exactly the usual scenery around here.

So you came to save the fairy. That isn't hard to figure out.

U-Um...



Yeah, bullying the weak is unforgivable!

I'm helping out too. I'll hear the full story later.



Once control returns, I have Marisa repeat Dai's survival tactic from earlier. I could have her continue fighting, but Alice and Nitori need some time to catch up.



Dai proceeds to heal Marisa once,



then lifts off and parks next to Nitori. Support Attack/Defend only work if both units are on the same terrain.



Marisa will be spending most of this chapter weakening enemies.



Also, this is a habit you should probably get used to if you keep Support Defend on Dai. She's not totally useless at it or anything (since she's Defending, she can usually survive one good hit from even a boss), but the units she's next to can likely take the hit better than her. It's good for emergency situations though.

You're disgracing kedamakind by bullying a fairy. Prepare to be messed up!



That kedama sure got messed up.



Here's Dai's Heal command. It'll be her main source of experience, and it's pretty handy. It costs 10 MP a use... for now.



This chapter is pretty great for getting Graze on a character of your choice. I want to get Support Attack on Alice faster than usual (I usually get it by chapter 9), so I'll be feeding kills to her.

Surrounding a girl is deplorable, even for kedama. I'll have to punish you all.



She got a level too.



Now that Alice and Nitori are in range, Marisa's going to charge back to the front.



Thanks to P-Hit, Marisa got 3 Power from this fight (Hit +2, Dodge/Graze +1). It's only been two turns since's she's arrived, yet she's already gotten 21 Power. P-Action skills are a very good investment.



The enemy phase was spent stalling. Also, Marisa successfully lured over the last kedama.



On the next phase, Alice casts Focus, moves next to Marisa, and starts the purge.



I am disappointed her dodge rate is not 100%.



I have Nitori and Dai move closer to Marisa. Next turn I should be able to heal Marisa and Dai, then finish the chapter.



This kedama kindly decided to move next to Marisa.



Looks like Nitori's going to need some healing too.



Dai uses up her remaining SP,



then heals Nitori. Now Marisa is the only character not at full HP, but she's at about 82% so I'm set for the Bonus.



That reminds me, I haven't shown this off yet.



Alice's WP Bonus lets her spawn a Doll next to her once per chapter. They're pretty much useless at anything but bait.



I'd attack, but Dolls can't dodge for shit and are just as weak and fragile as they were back in chapter 2. And any experience/graze they get don't go to Alice, as far as I know, so it's a total waste. They do have their own battle theme though:

Music: Beloved Handmade Dolls

It's pretty nice.



Moving on, Alice wipes out her final kedama for the chapter. She's at 115 Graze now!



Marisa will be finishing this chapter with some good old-fashioned overkill.


Watch Marisa attack!

Alright, cleanup complete. Those hariy balls were surprisingly sturdy.

Hairy...? What, you mean the kedama?

Their appearance was slightly different from the kedama we fought before.



...

Anyways, you can relax now. We've chased those kedama away.

...Um, thank you very much. You saved me from a really dangerous situation...

Well, that's just how things went. They would've been a problem for us too.

I dunno, Dai did kind of antagonize the kedama.

What were you doing around here in the first place? As you just saw, wandering around here alone is not a great idea.

Actually, I'm searching for a friend right now.

You're searching for a friend...? Did your friend go missing?



This was sounding serious, but apparently it's pretty easygoing.

Well, that's fairies for you.

...I-I'm very sorry...

Ah, I didn't mean that in a bad way. Don't worry about it. Anyway, what will you do now?

Ah... I've searched around here a lot already...



Hm? The lake? What a coincidence, that's where we're heading too.

Shall we go together? I'm sure you don't want to be attacked by kedama again.

Um, but.. I'm sure everyone has their own things to do and...

You don't hafta be so reserved cuz you're a fairy. It's on our way after all.

But...

...

In that case, since I've gone there plenty of times...



Ooh, that'll be good. Since you offered, we'll rely on you to be our guide. All right, let's get a move on.



Don't fly off ahead this time!

Everyone leaves, but the cutscene keeps going.

...

This time, Reimu's route won't be the only one ending in shady talk.



So... If I follow behind her, I'll be able to find the Hakurei shrine maiden.



...

I am incredibly disappointed Sanbondo did not have the Kedamas continue to make Gundam quotes in this scene.

...You would be the evil spirits from earlier, I see. Such inferior monsters running rampant...



Mysterious Shrine Maiden is kind of a dick.

Gensokyo must surely be in need of a person more appropriate to be a shrine maiden.

...

One of the kedama charges.



The bomb kills all four kedama.

Hehe... Reimu Hakurei. Your time in the limelight is up.







------

Daiyousei

------

...Huh? What are you two doing here?

Ah, so you were here Luna. We've been looking for you.

Sunny thought up a really fun prank. Let's do it together.

Ooh, what is it?

The player has suspended the game, right? We'll take the chance to advance the game further.

Then when the player starts playing again... they'll be surrounded by danmaku on the verge of death... Doesn't that sound great?

Yep, it does. Let's get started!

I'll start first then. I'll provoke the enemies first by getting close to them and...

Gyaaah!

What's the point if you're just going to get shot down? It's my turn next!

There's no need to rush in, we can wait for the enemies to come to us. So I'll move to here and...

....Nooo, they're surrounding me! Ahhhhh!

Ehehe, the player will be shocked when they restart the game. Because the game over count increased... That's the best we can do, anyway.

How do you game over on an intermission screen?