Why was Hakurei Reimu the strongest?
She possessed the power to defy gravity and soar freely through the sky, unbound by any constraint. Weight advantages, raw power differentials—none of it mattered against her. You could grab a whole fistful of great youkai in Gensokyo who outclassed her on paper, yet not a single one could claim to have actually beaten her.
Beyond that, her abilities included an enormous reservoir of spiritual energy, the power to commune with the gods, the innate gifts of the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, and even a supernatural intuition bordering on absurd luck—predicting dice rolls with near-perfect accuracy, or sensing she could walk forward despite not seeing the river below and landing squarely on a fish leaping from the water to avoid falling in.
Any one of those would be enough to carry a protagonist.
"Damn it."
Yimi clenched her small fists and surveyed the allies around her, none of whom had lasted long. After she'd fired off her Prana Burst, all three girls had slammed into the walls for a second helping of damage.
She leveled the gohei at Reimu. "That's so cowardly—at least come at me directly."
"You're the one who did that to them. And now you're trying to pin it on me?" Reimu tossed aside the broken gohei, privately reflecting for a rare moment.
Did she learn that from me? I do sometimes pin the blame on people to shake them down for damages...
"Two hours I spent making that gohei—and you went and broke it, you little brat." She took her stance, sending seven Yin-Yang Orbs into orbit around her like the Big Dipper.
"All that mana and you can't even cast a single spell?"
"Whoa." Yimi felt the spiritual energy coursing through her converted reserves. If she had to describe how it differed from mana—it just felt healthier, somehow.
There was also a faint awkwardness to it. She couldn't use the Third Magic to directly generate infinite spiritual power; there was a conversion step in between.
But if she fully committed and swapped all her mana for spiritual power through Adaptive Power, she'd be giving up her unlimited energy supply. And she was counting on studying Reimu.
"Hakurei Divine Fist—Fantasy Nature!"
Reimu opted for hand-to-hand, striking with the force of an oni packed into a mortal's frame.
"Mana... Spiritual Power Burst!" Yimi wielded the gohei like a spear and met the charge head-on.
Reimu dodged.
The moment she activated Fantasy Nature, Reimu slipped into a fleeting state of intangibility. Yimi couldn't land a clean hit—and Reimu's fist was already closing in.
Aya Shameimaru happened to be flying past at that moment, and her eyes lit up. "Ooh—Hakurei Reimu beats her own daughter! Absolutely inhuman! Judging by the posture she might be about to use the 'Ceremony Dress' on the Hakurei kitt—GUH!"
A fist imprint materialized on her cheek from nowhere. She corkscrewed into the distance.
"...Assaulting a journalist who tried to intervene..."
Reimu stared at her own striking hand, puzzled. She hesitated. "It's the same type of power as my Fantasy Nature."
But something was off.
Unlike how other people would directly encounter the misfortune waiting at the end, Reimu—blessed with divine communion—only registered strangeness. She thought she caught a glimpse of something that resembled a deity, yet it was nothing like any god she'd fought before.
She sharpened her instincts and probed for weaknesses. Naturally, nothing came back.
Fantasy Nature, strictly speaking, wasn't a Spell Card at all—it was an innate ability she'd been born with. It manifested across several stages: the intangible evasion state she'd just used; the lighting of the seven Yin-Yang Orbs; a close-range opening that could shatter an opponent's defenses; and ultimately, once all seven orbs were lit, a finishing blow that ended the fight on the spot.
An ability that rendered victory impossible for the opposing side once activated. And its deadliest form—the full seven-lamp ignition—she had already deployed in the split second she'd crossed paths with Flandre, ending that fight immediately.
But if the kitten had used something like the intangible state to slip through, then one of the seven lamps had indeed been lit—which made no sense.
"Tch. Brace yourself, brat." Reimu snatched back the gohei that had always been hers and threw a punch with the other hand.
Deep in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, Eirin Yagokoro flinched backward, clutching her face in furious disbelief. She turned to her side—only to find Tewi Inaba, who happened to be strolling past.
The lucky rabbit stared back blankly, spring-loaded boxing glove still in hand, ready for the prank she'd been planning on Reisen.
Birds scattered from the bamboo grove in a flurry.
Nobody could say for certain who all those redirected punches landed on. All anyone knew was that seven energy charges connected in rapid succession—yet the finishing blow didn't trigger.
Reimu eyed the seven Yin-Yang Orbs orbiting her.
Correction: six. Because Yimi had somehow swiped one and was studying it in her palms.
Famine's Unequal Exchange. You took Kitty's nice straight stick. You have to give Kitty something back.
This brat just pickpocketed my energy gauge?
Yimi turned the Yin-Yang Orb over in her hands. It seemed to be something that could interact with spiritual power, but beyond that she had no clue.
She held it out toward Reimu. "Let me... look at it one more time."
"All right, all right, all right!" Reimu was laughing despite herself. She exhaled long and hard.
Seeing this, the kitten spun toward the allies her own Prana Burst had blasted into the rubble. "Quick—lend me your power!"
Only Wriggle, still draped over a chunk of broken wall, managed to hold up a thumbs-up without lifting her face.
Yimi nodded. "I received it."
You received NOTHING!
"Fantasy Nature!" ×2
Reimu: "?"
The Yin-Yang Orbs detonated like full moons, helping clear a vast stretch of the Scarlet Devil Mansion's rubble. The power behind it was Reimu's and Reimu's alone—an innate ability could not simply be copied at a glance.
The converted spiritual energy meant to imitate hers was swallowed in an instant. This was a force that even gods preferred not to face.
And yet the kid took it head-on, completely unharmed.
At the center of the wreckage, Yimi straightened the hat Marisa had given her. Her other hand was still groping the air, trying to recapture the feeling of Reimu's attack.
Day one of missing Teacher Kaido. Reimu didn't have Teacher Kaido's knack for instruction.
"Little one..." Reimu relaxed her fists.
The effect was faint, almost imperceptible—but she had felt it. For just an instant, a trace of the essence unique to her own ultimate technique had flickered across the kitten's body.
"You've got a deity on you, haven't you?" Reimu pointed this out.
But not one of the myriad gods.
Beneath Yimi's feet, the brickwork showed zero damage. Through her power of divine communion, Reimu caught a glimpse through the white radiance—or rather, the presence on the other side had willingly met her gaze. It wasn't well-known within the Great Hakurei Barrier, but she'd heard of it.
"Everyone makes mistakes—but you must own up to them if you want to grow..."
Yimi thought she heard something like that.
"Talking about you." The kitten pointed at Reimu.
"Miss Reimu." A nine-tailed fox materialized from a gap. "If there's an issue, let's discuss it properly. You can't hit children to educate them."
"Kids who never get hit turn into spoiled brats. Are you siding with the cat without thinking?" Reimu shot her an irritated look. "Wait—why are you here? What's Yukari doing?"
Ran Yakumo's mouth twitched. "That's not what I mean. Perhaps Lady Yukari forgot to mention it—this child has the power to redirect damage..."
Care to guess why I'm the one who came?