Part 7

Music: Border of Regular and Irregular Days

Full Text

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Just like with Kanako and Suwako, Yukari and co. join at the beginning of the chapter. So first things first I have to get them some skills.



Since this is a NG+ file I obviously have more than enough PP to spare, but it's important to note that Yukari starts with enough PP for a level of Support Defend and maybe two levels of SP Up. She wants those skills.



She wants the Mystic Memory just as much. For the most part, all equip items related to certain characters are pretty well suited for them.



Though unfortunately for Suika, she needs to ditch the Ibuki Gourd pronto for a Flight Charm. Her B rank in Air ruins her. Same goes for Chen, but Chen has more than one item slot so it's not a real hassle.



There doesn't appear to be any great amount of youkai aura in the area.

Moving straight through the forest at night like this is kind of frightening...

If you're scared, I don't think anyone would mind you falling back.

Is this because human eyes don't work at night... huh?

Is that a food stand? How odd, why in a place like this?

If she's going after the smell of food, Reimu must be hungry too.

No, I'm not. But...



? I just heard a song.

A singing voice coming from a food cart? Could it be?!

Oh, customers? Or are you easy prey...?



...!

...They're not here to eat~♪ They're tanuki~♪

Hold on, who's a tanuki?

Um, uh... Who might you be? You appear to be a youkai, but...?

That's Mystia, the night sparrow. Akyu probably knows more about her than I do.

Yes. As you said, she's a youkai named Mystia Lorelei. As a night sparrow, she leads people astray at night with her song.

I'd heard she started running a food stall a while ago, but...

Who are you all? And here I thought you'd be easy prey.

Sorry, but we're neither customers nor food.

We're here to investigate the incident. Do you know anything about it?

Incident? You mean the long night? Well, it is a bit annoying to have so few humans around, but... In exchange, I get to sing all I want~♪

*sigh* I can't tell if we're getting through to her or not.

This is annoying. Let's just exterminate her already.

Huh? But I thought she had nothing do with any of this?

And that has nothing to do why I'm exterminating her. She a youkai, I found her, and that's good enough for me.

I think we all saw this coming. At least sing us a song that'll get us fired up.

I don't take requests. It's been a while since I've seen a human, so I'm not letting them get away.

Bird of the night, song of the night~♪ Take away these people's sight~♪


A bonus like that is a sign that the boss has some sort of dick move.

Music: Sage, Please Guide Me



Anyway, Yukari. She is full of gimmicks, and the main one is a spirit exclusive to her: Dream.



It lets her choose from every single spirit the current party has. The SP cost is set to double the standard amount as balance, but with the Mystic Memory and a future PS she can get it down to almost standard cost.

Yukari is explicitly designed as a backrow character so her vast spirit pool isn't that useful for her,



but it's a huge boon for whoever her partner is.



This is completely irrelevant to the current topic but this kedama dodged six 60%s in a row.



Back on topic, since I got Support Defend on Yukari she's providing the usual safety net. But since she's giving Accel at the same time, this means Reimu can dash unfocused into enemy territory without fear. Either she'll dodge, or Yukari will take the hit.



Or she could trigger Parry, that too.

At the moment, Reimu's defenses are three-fold. She has her own sky high evasion rates (with Shrine Maiden and the Yin Yang Orb giving her quite the buff), Yukari's shield, and Parry. She's pretty much immortal now barring enemies with Fury and Strike. But she can just cast Sense for those.



The other fun thing Yukari can do is use her default PS, Spiriting Away.



It lets me straight up teleport units to Yukari's side. The synergy between this and Reimu being able to forge a path deep into enemy lines is obvious, but you might not have realized I can also use it to warp the ship. Which, as you might recall, can hold other characters.

I won't be able to do anything particularly absurd until Reimu gets Zeal, but even as is this allows for some creative moves.



With that out of the way, here's the map of the stage. Mystia's stall over there is another bonus conversation spot, but I'm not going to bother.

Huh? What happened to Sanae?

She and Suika missed two 80%s on a bat, which proceeded to one-shot her.

After that I said screw it and just started blowing through SP. Stupid bats and their S ranks in Night.



On the plus side, it meant Ran got enough Power to bust out her combination attack with Chen.



The animation of which is particularly nonsensical with team attacks on because Chen runs forward to dive bomb the enemy,



then somehow magically returns back to start the combination, then does the divebomb, then warps back to Ran.

There wasn't much effort made to try and make team attacks work with combination attacks, is what I am saying. But hey, better this than being banned from team attacks while doing a combination.

She's pretty stubborn, for a bird.

Could you please not insult birds when I'm standing right here?

...Oh?

Music: The Dancing, Blooming, Butterfly Person A!!
_{The joke here is that Yuyuko was demoted from final boss to stage 1 boss when she reappeared in TD. People claimed in her next appearance, she would just be "Butterfly Person A".}



Don't leave me behind, Youmu~.

Lady Yukari, that's-

If it isn't Yuyuko. How unusual, to see you out and about this late at night.

You too, Yukari. What are you doing up so early in the morning?

Who're they? I've never seen them before...

Yuyuko Saigyoji and her gardener Youmu Konpaku. The two of them reside in the Netherworld. Apparently she's in charge of managing the spirits.

Wow, what's an important ghost like her doing down on the surface?

Nice to see you again, Youmu. Are you two here to investigate the incident?

Yes. I'm serving as a bodyguard so Lady Yuyuko can go out personally. Both the moon and the night incidents are quite serious matters for Gensokyo.

Is that giant box the flying ship Yukari mentioned?

We finished repairs the other day, so we're working with the investigation team now.

So, the opponent you face is the key to resolving this incident?

Well, that's not really clear yet, but it ended up this way anyhow.

Shall we go with them, Youmu?

I don't see why not, but please be careful. The chirping of a night sparrow youkai is an ominous sound indeed.

Oh my. But the sound of a ghost showing up is far more ominous.

Youmu and Yuyuko team up.



...Please take this seriously. We need to resolve this quickly.



Okay so first things first, Youmu doesn't have a Firefly Gem on so she sucks this map.



And unfortunately for her, the Netherworld Dwellers' Team (more commonly known as Ghost Team) won't be doing much better. In fact, they're another good example of a bad team! See, Youmu and Yuyuko have zero synergy. Youmu gives Yuyuko Accel, but Yuyuko has barely any post-movement attacks so it's of limited use. Yuyuko also hits pretty damn hard so she doesn't need Youmu's rather mediocre team attack, and putting her in the back to tank for Youmu is just as much of a waste as putting Youmu in the back just to cast Accel. And worst of all, the two have completely different effective ranges of attack so I can't even move in with Yuyuko then switch to Youmu. There is pretty much no reason to bother with Ghost Team, the two will do better separated.

I do want to point out that they're one of the game's few cases of unequal friendships though: Yuyuko's presence gives Youmu a 15% Hit/Evade boost, but Youmu only gives Yuyuko a 10%. Way to be a jerk, Yuyuko.



Anyway, Yuyuko has Rally. For the not so-low cost of 80 SP, she can give 5 Power to everyone in the party.



And that pushes Ran over 130 Power, which is where her default PS kicks in. Nine-tailed Fox (literally White-faced Golden Fox but that just refers to a nine-tails) boosts the effect of Predict, Belief, Guard, and Diligence by x1.5. So Ran just hulked the hell out.



Just look at that overkill.

I thought some foolishly-tasty humans had finally shown up, but there aren't many humans among you, huh.

Well, whatever. Thanks to my ability, you can't-

Oh for crying out loud, I've said this before, haven't I?!

?

I can see in the dark!

Music: Grilled Lamprey Under the Moonlight



Mystia is as much of a joke as Wriggle. Worst I can say about her is that she has Alert.



These two bats have been staying out of the battle up to this point, so I send Reimu north to grab their attention.

Looks like Aya already knows about you.

Does that make me a celebrity?

No, I think it's more that Aya's reach is just that wide... still, it's amazing how many people she knows. That's her reporting style for you.



Like Aya before her, Mystia is practically impervious to people without Strike.



But this time I have Shizuha.

A youkai that makes humans night-blind... what a hassle.

You say that, but aren't you a youkai?

That's true, but among us there are some humans too- wait, now that I count, there are only two. That's less than I was expecting.



Besides singing, do you also manage this food cart?

That's right, this is Mystia's Singing Food Cart~!

Hmph, could this be the appearance of a rival? Shizuha's songs and my entrepreneur spirit... Together, they're unstoppable!

H-hold on a second! When did you come up with that?!



It'd be nice if I had a cup of sake to go with this song~.

Well my cart sells that too! I sing to drinking customers, free of charge.

Oooh, that's nice. But I bet humans would get sick of it.



That's a nice smell~.

...? Are you talking about the grilled lamprey?

If you can't see a thing, an eel's just the thing~♪ If you do your best, you'll have lots of dreams♪

*drool*



*chirp* Sparrows are very playful~♪

Miss Ran, it's a singing youkai!

That's a nice singing voice. The lyrics are quite cute too. Chen, how about we practice something ourselves for the next feas-

The pouncing stray dog~♪ Had the tables turned and became bones~♪

?!

Chen, no! Don't listen to this song!



A bunch of Hermit Purple boosted attacks later, the first lifebar goes down.

Hey, hold on a minute~!

Good grief, she's trying to sing in the middle of a danmaku battle.

I feel sorry for her, but it ends here.

What are you talking about? The fun youkai festival is just starting.

A good girl like me sleeps all day~♪ But nighttime is the time to play~♪ Human hunting all night long, yay~♪

Be careful, everyone. The song of a night sparrow causes you to lose your way!

The birdsong in the dead of night~♪ Making them all lose their sight~♪

Lose your night vision while entranced by my song!







Song of the Night Sparrow zeroes out the accuracy of anyone in the field, even if they use Strike. And as you can quite obviously see, the field covers the entire screen!

A youkai sparrow, huh. Not sure just what to think about this.

Whaaaat, we've just met! Why are you getting such a bad feeling?

Well, your kind is always looking for food while the sun's up. My henchmen rats don't really want to come out.



Once you know Mystia's gimmick as a player character, Song of the Night Sparrow being an attack is just kind of weird. But that's a topic for another day!


Since Mystia actually survived the first turn of her spell, a spellcard tutorial pops up. But you all should know how they work by now.

Wriggle had this too, but she died too fast.



Yukari was out of SP, so I had Aya use Tailwind to get Reimu to the spell's blindspot.



Reimu + Yukari + Ran did about 16k. It also got Yukari to 150 Power, which means Extend activated and restored 20% of her SP.

Anyway, I think there's only one way to end this fight.



Nazrin blows my sole bomb to clear the way,



Hatate drops her second Hermit Purple to ensure a kill,



aaaand Yuyuko has a 0%. Never mind then.



Ran and Chen finish the job instead. Mystia drops some Grilled Lamprey, which is really good! It restores 20 SP and boosts Power by 10 when consumed.

Ngh, whyyyy?

It was scary when it suddenly got all dark, but we pulled through somehow.

If I had gotten careless, I could have taken the ship in the wrong direction.

So, Youmu, did you learn anything by cutting her?

Hmm, yes, I think she's probably unrelated to the incident.

Couldn't you have guessed that without cutting me?!

For now, let's take her back with us for questioning.

I'm pretty sure you can tell just by looking at her that she doesn't know anything...

We can't rule it out though. And since we have the ship, we can question her while we travel.

Let's get going then. I'll grab the sparrow.

Youmu and Yuyuko, the entrance is over here, if you please.

Donna Donna Donna~♪ Goodbye, my days of freedom~♪

Please don't sing such an unpleasant song.



Wait, what, why didn't I get the bonu-

oh right I'm not allowed to use bombs



I played this chapter over the course of two nights, though, so I actually had a quicksave. And this time around the spell's actual gimmick popped up: Mystia will select a single unit to fix her field on. On my first run she only picked units close to her, but this time she picked Suika who's a little farther away. This really limits who can attack her, and worst comes to worst might force a bomb.

The best way to deal with this is to surround her before starting the spell.



It's also worth noting that I've been leaving Dai inside the ship so I can just have her pop out any time I need to cast Trust on someone. And if she ever falls behind in levels, I can just send her out to heal some people.



This time Reimu grabs the kill.



Much better.



Maybe next time she'll actually hit. <>

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I see you're leaving your post. Good work. Aya and Lady Kochiya are also appreciativ-

Woah, woah, what's with the "lady"? Don't tell me you haven't kicked that habit from FMW P yet.

Didn't you say that we should drop the formalities?

Gh, I suppose so...

We're finally in FMW I, so don't let this chance get away from you.

Anyway, how about you try that last line again?

...Understood. Okay, Aya and Lady Kochi-

Wait, no, Sana-, Lady Sana-

...

Aya and Sanae Kochiya are also very appreciative.

Wha- my full name?!

Is taking baby steps like this really okay?