Thanks for the encouragement! It's nice to know that this is at least mildly entertaining. :V Remember, though, constructive criticism is really appreciated - I'd much rather have fun writing a good story than have fun writing a bad one. :3
Without further ado, here's part two!
"A challenge?" Hibachi asked warily. She didn't know what the challenge would involve, and despite Wriggle not looking that powerful, the weakening of her own powers made her hesistant to accept. Then again, she thought, it's not like I'm going to be getting much stronger unless I get some of those bees. "What sort of challenge?"
"Oh, don't worry, it's nothing too complicated. Just a round or two of danmaku. You can pull that off, right?" Wriggle replied, still grinning.
Danmaku... that meant shooting, didn't it? So that means--
"Wait, wait," demanded Hibachi. "Does that mean you can make bullets too?"
Wriggle sighed. "You really don't know anything about this place, do you?" Hibachi shook her head. "Fine, fine, let me give you a basic idea. You, I, and... probably most of the creatures in this forest, are what we call youkai. A youkai is generally an embodiment of some kind of creature, object or concept from the real world in human form, and most have heightened speed and strength, the ability to fly and the ability to use danmaku, as well as occasionally having unique powers of their own. Judging from your lack of knowledge and your, err... we'll call it youthful enthusiasm--"
"Hey, what's that supposed to me--"
"I'd say you were just born pretty recently." Wriggle cut Hibachi off once again, bringing another light scowl to her face. "From all the weapon talk you mentioned earlier I'd have thought you used to be some kind of gun, but you're clearly a bee youkai, so... hm. Not really sure how that works out." Wriggle pondered this for a few moments with a serious expression on her face, before smiling widely once again. "Anyhow! The fact that you're here and able to speak to me at all already means that you're one of the more intelligent and powerful youkai. Most of them tend to just wander around the forest and hunt in packs like wild animals."
Well, that kind of makes sense... it explains looking like a human, at least. But what about that challenge?
"So, this... damnaku thing, it basically means we just shoot at each other until one of us gives up, right?" Hibachi questioned. That didn't seem too difficult. She was much weaker than she was used to being, of course, but she was still confident she could win a shooting contest.
"It's dan-ma-ku, not damnaku," Wriggle replied with a smirk, "But yes, that's the basic idea, though it gets a little more complicated than that. So, what do you say? You win, you get a few bees."
Hmm. I have nothing to lose... and thinking about it, that actually sounds kind of fun. What could go wrong?
Beaming with confidence, Hibachi made her decision. "Okay then. Let's go!"
"Ahaha, excellent. It's been so long since I last had a chance to do this~" replied Wriggle, who had begun to hover a few metres off the ground, floating backwards to create some distance between herself and her opponent. Hibachi followed suit, beating her wings until their familiar buzzing returned, lifting her into the air. After a few moments spent wobbling about mid-flight, she got her bearings and turned to look at Wriggle. Her cape flowing out behind her--
That cape thing looks so weird, she thought to herself absent-mindedly.
--seemingly of its own accord, she gathered a group of what appeared to be small, floating lights around her.
"Hmm... these would have worked better if it was night. Oh well, they should still be powerful enough for some basic patterns." Wriggle said softly to herself. Looking up again at Hibachi, she called out to her. "Okay! The rules for danmaku are very simple. The first is that there's no contact allowed; that means bullets only. No tackling, scratching, biting, hair pulling, blah blah blah. The second is that you can't move out of this area," motioning with her arms to the trees at the edges of the clearing as she said this, "Meaning of course that neither of us can try to escape. The third and final rule is that you have to stop shooting when the opponent calls to stop, is unable to continue shooting, or gives up in some fashion. Got all that?"
Hibachi nodded. She kind of wished Wriggle would just get on with it, though - she was getting impatient. Pointing her arms at Wriggle, she exclaimed, "Come on, let's go!"
"Eager to begin, I see." chuckled Wriggle. "Alright then, on the count of three. One..." She brought her arms together, gathering the lights near her hands.
"Two..."
Hibachi tensed up for what seemed like an eternity, and prepared to fire.
"Three!"
Immediately as the word left her lips, she threw her arms open and scattered four large lights ahead of her. At the same time, Hibachi fired three of her streams of purple directly at Wriggle in quick succession. Rather than hitting their target as she'd hoped, though, her opponent avoided all of the streams at once by moving slightly to one side. Looking at Wriggle's face as the bullets flew into the forest, Hibachi saw her wearing a smirk that said 'you'll have to do better than that'.
Aw, damnit, why did I send them all in the same direction? I must really be rusty... wait, where are all of her bullets? I'm sure she doesn't plan to just sit there and let me take pot-shots.
Just as this thought crossed her mind, however, she saw Wriggle wave her left arm; immediately, a cluster of sharp-looking teal bullets appeared, flying a little way to the side of her before arcing gracefully back towards Hibachi. A wave of the right arm, and an identical pattern appeared to mirror it, this time in yellow.
Wow, Hibachi thought to herself, she's definitely got me beaten in terms of numbers. They're really slow, though... they can't be that hard to dodge.
Concluding that she had a while left before she actually had to avoid anything, Hibachi decided to focus on attacking for the time being. Waving her arms quickly in Wriggle's direction, she sent another few short barrages of bullets towards her opponent; having learned her lesson from last time, however, she added some variance into how the bullets were arranged. Instead of simple lines, there were a few arcs, V-shapes and the occasional random spray mixed in - though they were still very sparse, they were a lot faster than that... whatever it was that Wriggle was slowly firing, and the random factor meant that she couldn't simply strafe out of the way of everything this time. Seeing that Wriggle was actually having some trouble dodging them, she grinned and turned her attention to her opponent's bullets.
Which were suddenly inches away from her.
"Ah!" she yelped, quickly throwing herself to one side to avoid the teal bullet in front of her. Agh, that was stupid, that was stupiiiiiiiid, she scolded to herself as she took in the sight of the pattern headed for her. It appeared that the yellow and teal bullets had collapsed downwards in such a way that they interlaced with each other, becoming far denser and more confusing than they'd originally seemed. Still berating herself for her lapse in concentration, Hibachi began to back up--
but not too fast; don't want to ram something I've already dodged
--towards the edges of the clearing to give herself some more space. Still firing her purple arrowheads, she began making jerky movements left and right to avoid the oncoming bullets. She'd gotten more comfortable with her wings than she had been during that embarassing incident with the tree earlier that morning, but not by a huge amount - her movement was still far too clumsy for her liking. Flying to the right to avoid a teal bullet resulted in almost crashing into a yellow one on her other side; doubling back, she was shocked to see a whole cluster of bullets occupying the space she'd just been in a few moments ago. Okay, maybe these are tougher to dodge than they looked, Hibachi decided worriedly. I don't think I can keep this up for all that long... sooner or later, I'm bound to get h--
Pichuuuuun!
...What was that?
Moving through the last few bullets of the wave, Hibachi shifted her attention back to her opponent, who was once again sporting a smile.
"Heehee, not bad, not bad~" Wriggle called out from across the distance. "I didn't expect those to actually hit me. Those arrowheads pack quite a punch, don't they? Still..." Her grin grew wider. "It wouldn't do to get complacent just yet, would it now?" Another wave of her arms, and a second wave of teal and yellow appeared around her, ready to curve down towards the young bee youkai.
Well, I dodged the first wave, but she got hit, so... that means I should win if I can keep this up! she realized. Although...
Hibachi's eyes scanned the clearing.
...Something seems different.
Her eyes settled on one of the glowing lights Wriggle had sent out at the start of the battle.
Aha, there it is. What's going on with that thing?
Pulsating a strange blue, the light ahead of her had begun moving sluggishly towards her. Hmm... so, does that make it a surprise bullet? It's probably in case I stop paying attention, she reasoned. Well, that's okay then, I'll keep my eye on it. It looks like it'll take a long time to reach me, anyway. Nodding to herself, she returned to firing her arrowheads in the few seconds she had left before her dodging resumed. She was definitely getting the hang of this shooting business; her bursts of bullets were becoming ever so slightly faster and denser as the battle progressed, and she could see Wriggle beginning to struggle. Making sure that she didn't get taken by surprise for a second time, she lined herself up with a comfortable gap in Wriggle's pattern and tightened her own barrage, grinning as she heard another pichuuuuuun from the other end of the clearing. At this rate, victory would soon be--
Her train of thought derailed completely as she felt a powerful shock spread throughout her body from her left shoulder, accompanied by yet another loud noise as a bullet disintegrated next to her.
What?! What hit me? I was in the clear!
Abruptly stopping her assault to search for what she could have missed, Hibachi noticed that the floating lights had continued to move and had made their way off to her sides rather than towards her as she'd predicted. Just outside her field of vision, the lights had finally stopped moving and begun their own miniature barrages of small, white pellets, seemingly flung in completely random directions. The bullets from the nearest orb had already begun to mix with Wriggle's main pattern, and though most of them were aimed too far away to have a chance of hitting her, Hibachi realised with a sinking feeling that she may be taking a few more hits in the near future. Hearing a delighted giggle from Wriggle, she scowled and made her way further to the rear of the clearing, her back almost brushing the trees at its edge.
That was a really dirty trick, she complained to herself. I didn't expect her bullets to shoot bullets, too. I don't think I can really avoid all of this...
Deciding on a course of action, Hibachi smiled again and aimed at Wriggle for the umpteenth time.
So I suppose I'll just have to hit her more than she hits me.
Her fingers spewing the glowing purple arrowheads even faster than before, she began dodging with as much agility as she could squeeze out of her wings with her limited practice.
Left -- right -- quickly jumping forward to avoid a pellet -- damn that was sneaky -- right again, avoiding a teal and yellow bullet at the same time --
Pichuuuuun!
A third hit scored on Wriggle, who Hibachi could see was beginning to look ever so slightly strained. No time to celebrate, though, she reminded herself, keeping focused on the bullets.
Backwards -- right -- right again, avoiding a nasty cluster of slow pellets. Glancing even further to her right and seeing some interlaced yellow and teal, she quickly doubled back -- wait, too fast, too fast! -- and careened into a bullet lagging behind the rest of the cluster. Another shock, accompanied as always by the bizarre noise. Feeling her energy start to drain, Hibachi renewed her efforts.
---
Pichuuuuun! went Wriggle, after a particularly swift series of attacks from Hibachi.
Pichuuuuun! went Hibachi, misjudging the main pattern and colliding head-on with a yellow and teal bullet at once.
Owowow, that really took it out of me. I can't keep this up much longer. Scratch that, I don't think I can even handle one more hit.
Hibachi gritted her teeth and glared at her opponent.
Got to keep shooting, though... she must be drained by now. It's the only chance of me still winning this challenge.
Upping the speed of her assault still further, Hibachi weaved her way through a particularly confusing series of waves.
Diagonally -- left -- a quick loop around some slow bullets -- argh there are too many of these things -- forward through a disappearing gap --
Glancing to her sides, Hibachi was shocked to see any escape routes cut off by groups of pellets. Her sides were blocked off, she couldn't back up or she'd crash into the bullets she just avoided, and there was a high speed teal bullet headed directly for her. Taking the situation in, she realised with certainty that she couldn't avoid this. She'd lost.
Ah, really? Getting trapped now? But I was so close to winning...
As the bullet got nearer still, she sighed in defeat, closing her eyes and bracing for the inevitable impact.
Pichuuuuun!
...Eh?
She heard the noise, but the usual accompanying shock was missing. Slowly opening one of her eyes in puzzlement, she noticed that the clearing was free of both Wriggle's bullets and her floating lights.
She's stopped shooting? Wait... that means she lost, doesn't it?
Hibachi laughed in relief. I won! I really won!
"Ahahaha, I win! I wiiiiin!" Hibachi called out, whooping for joy. Spinning around a few times in the air as a sort of victory dance, she turned to see Wriggle's reaction.
She was still grinning.
Wait, why does she look so happy? I won, didn't I?
"I must admit, young Hibachi, I didn't expect you to last this long. I'm really impressed!" Wriggle called out to her. Reaching into a trouser pocket, she withdrew a small rectangular object, lifting it up to the light. "The warm-up is over, though."
What's she--
"Firefly Sign - Comet on Earth!"
Immediately as the words left Wriggle's lips, a huge wheel of glowing lights burst out from around her, expanding towards the edges of the clearing. Curving gently to one side, they began to leave trails of blue bullets, creating what Hibachi could only describe as solid walls in her dazed state. Too stunned to do anything but stay still and stare in bafflement, she saw Wriggle flash as a group of gigantic spheres flew towards her; being walled in, there was no way she could possibly avoid them.
Oh, she thought blankly.
Pichuuuuuuuuuun!!
Feeling the last of her energy leave her, Hibachi lost consciousness.
...What, you didn't think Hibachi was actually going to beat Wriggle, did you?
:P
Apologies if the 'damnaku' scene was too long/boring, it's my first time writing any kind of fight scene and it turned out quite a lot longer than I expected. Next update might not be until sometime late next week, because I have a ton of schoolwork that needs to get done and such. :V
- Can mecha turn into into youkai too?
I don't see why not.
- Why didn't Hibachi realize earlier that she was a youkai? Didn't the pain of hitting a tree, the need to drink water, her far smaller size, or the lack of several limbs and a computer interface tip her off? Or is Hibachi that dense? Machines aren't supposed to feel, so shouldn't she have noticed earlier that she's organic now?
- Why would a bee mecha be capable of controlling organic bees? Hibachi is a weapon of mass destruction meant to battle spaceships. What use would controlling normal bees have for Hibachi? I can understand if she could control mecha bees, but why organic bees?
- Shouldn't a Weapon-of-Mass-Destruction youkai be a lot more powerful than that? Sure, she's sentient and has a human form, but she lost all of her former glory in the power department.
The answer to most of these questions is that regardless of what Hibachi used to be, she's currently a day-old youkai. :P Yes, it would have been very obvious to any mature person in their right mind that they weren't a machine after having a bump on their head and such, but Hibachi at this point is more like an impulsive ten-year-old with a very one-track mind. Given that she was focused on wondering where she was, it didn't actually occur to her that she wasn't a machine until she consciously used her limbs for something.
As for the second question; again, she's not a mecha anymore. She's not really thinking in terms of 'are these the same things I used to control?' so much as 'I want some bees!'. Saying any more than that might be spoilers, so. :V For the final question; again, it's her first day of being a youkai; she's not going to be beating experienced youkai who already know what they're doing. I wouldn't be so cruel as to remove all of these powers permanently, though. Probably.
Keep in mind, though, this is a very silly fanfic and I'm not really trying to stick to canon accurately as much as trying to have fun here. :P Of course, my writing is not exactly excellent, so I apologise if I explained things poorly during the story. If there's something anyone's unsure about, ask away - I'll know what I'm neglecting to mention and future updates may be better for it.