Alright, back to business.
4. Futo has a terrible idea.
YES HE CAN
Part 4: Consider Your Messages Read!
Futo snapped her fingers. "I just had a great idea. We know he can fly at least. What if - and just hear me out - we give him a challenge."
Reimu sighed.
"What we do," said Futo, "Is make him an offer. We each use one spell card against him. If he can dodge all three, we show him the way out. But!"
"Oh come on," said Reimu. "I have so much training to do. We don't even know where-"
"But if one of us hits him," said Futo, "Then he must ally himself with that person in the upcoming fight."
"I like it," said Shou.
"You would like it," said Reimu. "You need all the help you can get. Look, he came to my shrine, and I say-"
"Excuse me," said Obama. "I accept your uh challenge."
"Alright!" said Shou. "You know what time it is, Reimu?"
"Please don't say it again," said Reimu.
"It's curvy time, that's what time it is."
"Very well," said Futo, clearing her throat. "Since this was my idea, I retain the right of first attack."
"Shou goes next," said Reimu.
"Fine by me," Shou beamed, and began to rise. Futo and Reimu followed suit. Obama stood his ground.
"Then it's decided. Obama, are you ready?," said Futo, her hands already beginning to glow a bluish-white.
Obama rose, slowly, his hands on his hips, until he was eye level with Futo. "I am ready," he said.
Futo clapped her hands once, then rose, shifting fast to the left. She then released a group of glowing white orbs which blew scattershot towards Obama before hovering for a moment. Obama maintained his position. The orbs then began to rotate, releasing tightly-woven streams of arrows.
Obama leapt catlike through gaps in the streams, jack-knifing at sharp angles, with an expression so serene it insulted Futo. Raising her hands, all the arrows now pointed themselves at Obama, and struck. Just as quickly, Obama flanked his body into a lateral diving position, flying in a graceful, effortless arc just ahead of the chasing barrage of arrows. Within seconds, it was over.
The Gensokyans were speechless. Obama hovered where the stream ended, smiling at Futo.
"Was that it?," he said. "You were done? My goodness, uh ... young lady, that was pitiful. Now ... uh you other two, you can opt now to just take me home."
"Oh, you'll allow us that, will you?" said Shou. "How magnanimous."
"Was that uh sarcasm?" said Obama.
"You are the stranger in this land," said Shou, assuming the lotus position, her hands shaped into gentle prayer, an orange light beginning to form within them. "You do not get to set the terms. Nor change them."
With that, a blast of light flew from her hands, flashing the sight out of everyone's eyes for a split second. And when that split second was past, a wide, rotating band of curved orange shafts of light spun around Shou. The curved lights comprising the band were of varying sizes, and tightly knit, like the rings around a distant planet. They moved with incredible speed, at times spinning in small loops. And within it, Obama spun.
Rotating his body's axis at high speed, while tilting it at deftly chosen angles, Obama managed to avoid each shaft of light that passed him in the rushing current of the band.
"Time's running out," said Futo.
"Huh? Is he ..." said Shou, squinting a bit, tilting the band now, to no effect.
"And time," said Futo.
"Ha ha!," Obama yelled, dusting off his lapels.
"Were you grazing me?," said Shou.
Obama smiled.
Shou tightened her fists. "You
grazed me?"
"Shou come on," said Reimu. "Rules are rules. You just told him that."
"Reimu, please," said Shou. "I can't let him get away with that. Just one more-"
"Shou, silence," said Futo. "You lost. It's Reimu's turn."
Shou glared at Obama. "This isn't over."
"Alright, anyway, enough amateur hour," said Reimu, raising her gohei, red sparks beginning to appear around it. "Time for a professional to take over."
Reimu began to fly in a ring around Obama, her speed increasing so rapidly she soon was just a red blur. Obama furrowed his brow. Four ying-yang orbs, each the size of Obama, appeared at compass points around him. Then the attack began.
Each orb fired out a mass of glowing red spheres at random intervals towards the center. From within the spinning blur of Reimu's orbits, dozens of streams of red cards rushed towards each other, crossing at the center, before bouncing off of Reimu's spin and shooting back towards the center at a different angle. The maelstrom of danmaku audibly drummed in the air.
And yet it persisted. Obama couldn't even be seen within the lattice work of cards and the bursts of red spheres, yet he had to be somewhere in there. Without a way to aim at him, Reimu could only guess where he was hiding.
"Time's running out," said Futo.
Sweat misted on Reimu's brow as she began to tighten her orbit, spinning faster, making the danmaku ever denser.
"Time," said Futo.
The danmaku dispersed. Obama appeared within the dissipation, holding his knees to his chest. He released them, and took a standing position again.
Reimu looked at him: he had a slight smile on his face. Yet, he avoided eye contact.
"That little- He used a safe spot!," said Reimu.
"That's your problem," said Shou. "Kinda always has been."
"I don't remember asking what you think," said Reimu.
"The match is over," said Futo. "No one cares about your-"
"Uh ... if I may," said Obama. "There's something I'd like to say."
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
1. Obama demands they hold up their end of the bargain and get him home.
2. Obama offers to settle whatever dispute seems to be between them.
3. Obama, out of pure spite, attacks each of them with a spell card.
4. Obama suggests he be invited to witness this fight they're talking about.
5. Obama thanks them all from the bottom of his heart for the most fun he's ever had in his life.
YOU DECIDE IT, I WRITE IT: GO!
