>"Well, at any rate, it seems things are getting more and more tangled, wouldn't you say? Because I was told recently that those of this keep were not meant to awaken for quite a few more years, but Yuzuriha said otherwise. All in all, a very strange and hectic day."
>Let's continue watching the chaos for a little while longer.
>"That's what Celes told me, too. Who told you years?"
>"An oracle, if Remilia's right about her race." Reisen answers. "She claimed to be able to see the future."
>"Well, was she right about anything else?"
>"She seemed to know what she was talking about."
>"Might need to work on her dates, then."
>"Deva Realm Sword "Seven Sins"!" Youmu yells, producing one of her spellcards as she sideslips a torrent of small circular bullets. She flies back and to her left, drawing both her katanas. You see a small grin on the face of her opponent as the half-ghost swings her longer blade down. Seven lines of arrowhead danmaku, each line a different color of the rainbow, manifest around Youmu, pointing in every direction, and blast out, littering the field with prismatic bullets. Sei remains mobile but doesn't move quickly, studying the waves of incoming fire for open spots. If this is the first time she's seen a Konpaku spellcard, though, you know she's in for a surprise, as Sakuya told you all about her time dilation ability. Right on time, everything slows down all of a sudden for the two combatants, but to her credit, Sei does not outwardly show surprise. Her movements show it, though, and they seem jerkier than they did before as she passes through a gap between two bursts of bullets, only for time to speed up again as she does, and she is pummeled by green and light blue arrowheads.
>Ranka, too, it seems, decides to step up her game a bit, as she produces a spellcard of her own, seemingly pulling the thing out of her voluminous blonde hair. Perhaps getting clobbered by that large red shot ruffled her feathers.
>"Tropical Depression: Coconut Cyclone!" Raising both hands over her head, white and blue petals, combined with large brown circles, begin to gather in her open palms and then shoot out again in rapid-fire pulses, shrapnel-like petals followed by slightly slower brown orbs, all the while power gathers in her hands, crackling with blue electricity and white light. This power pulses once, and light blue needle-like raindrop shaped danmaku cascades out, all of this power focused on the tower in front of her. At least, as focused as you think she can manage, given that she seems to be channeling a storm in her hands. If her opponent is limited to the space inside that tower, she's doomed.
>Excitement at the show above her evident, the Prismriver standing next to Honoka takes flight, letting her instrument float around her, but Honoka reaches out and takes her hand, stopping her before she can interject herself into either of the matches going on above. Merlin, instead of seeming upset by this, merely says something to Honoka, her words lost amidst the sound of bullets flying above, then backs away from the cloaked youkai a bit. Honoka initially shakes her head, then pauses, and looks up in your direction. Whatever she sees evidently satisfies her, as she turns back towards Merlin and nods once, saying something that sounds like, as best as you can tell, "Hit me with everything". Sounds like they're gonna go at it themselves. Sakuya told you that the three Prismrivers together were quite skilled, but not so much one on one. It should be interesting to see what Honoka does against that kind of foe, if she's stronger than Merlin, being miss 'fair fight' that she is.
