High above the central training facility of the Reunion Movement, the atmosphere crackled with anticipatory magical currents.
Once Sunny Milk and Reisen Udongein Inaba had officially taken their designated combat positions at opposite ends of the aerial boundary, they both struck simultaneously the exact instant Eirin Yagokoro's commanding voice echoed across the field, signaling the formal beginning of the bracket.
Watching the initial streams of glowing energy begin to trace patterns across the upper atmosphere, Flandre Scarlet hovered lazily in her waiting zone, letting out a soft, unbothered yawn.
"What's wrong, Flandre? Is something the matter? Personally, I think their opening exchange looks quite exciting to watch!" Alina noted, tracking the younger girl's slight expression of dissatisfaction and asking her question in a low, curious voice from the spectator stands.
"Hmph, they are playing far too strictly by-the-book; it feels completely boring to sit here and watch them glide around," Flandre complained, crossing her arms and pouting.
"Too by-the-book? What exactly does that mean in a match like this?" Alina admitted, not quite understanding the underlying nuances of their traditional combat culture.
"The basic, foundational gameplay of a standard Danmaku game is supposed to look like this: both active sides shoot waves of projectiles at each other, and then the whole thing becomes a beautiful contest of who can fluidly dodge the opponent's complex patterns while still successfully landing their own hits. In our home, nobody actually likes pure, raw firepower output, because it completely lacks aesthetic elegance and structural beauty."
Flandre shook her head, explaining the core philosophy with a wave of her hand. "Most of the time, we explicitly utilize our own unique, personalized Danmaku patterns, which are our official Spell Card techniques—just like the high-density battle between my big sister and me just a few moments ago. But those two up there right now are clearly, shamelessly slacking off on the job. They have completely turned a proper, artistic Danmaku game into a generic retro arcade shooter!"
After Flandre finished speaking her mind, Alina focused her gaze upward and realized the truth of the assessment. Although the two combatants currently tracing paths across the sky seemed to be fighting intensely with booming audio cues, the layout of the projectiles was nowhere near as gorgeous, complex, or jaw-droppingly beautiful as the dense sheets of energy unleashed by Flandre and Remilia earlier.
Perhaps the two active participants up in the clouds somehow overheard Flandre's loud long-distance critique.
Immediately following that brief lull, both Sunny Milk and Reisen visibly shifted their stances, each beginning to actively perform their own signature, visually striking magical techniques. Seeing the vast 'fireworks' across the upper horizon instantly become brilliant, layered, and structurally complex again, Flandre finally clapped her hands together happily, her interest fully restored.
After a brief, spirited exchange of specialized tracking shots between both sides, the veteran of the ancient Lunar War—who presently possessed absolutely zero personal fighting spirit or desire to exert herself in front of a human crowd—ultimately "failed" to clear a tracking lane and lost to her diminutive opponent.
A massive, high-pitched cheer instantly went up among the gathered nature fairies on the ground, who were all incredibly happy about Sunny Milk's triumphant first victory over a lunar soldier.
After a few brief minutes of scheduled rest to let the ambient energy dissipate, Sakuya Izayoi spread flew straight up into the arena for the second round of the elimination competition.
Compared to the blatantly slacking Reisen, the head maid was clearly much more serious and poised in her baseline execution. However, Remilia had explicitly reminded her in a quiet whisper before they set out to intentionally hold back a little bit, manage her output, and ensure she didn't accidentally win the entire bracket prematurely. The objective was to leave the remaining fairy opponents for Flandre to happily handle all by herself in the grand finale.
Otherwise, with Sakuya Izayoi's absolute mastery over spatial vectors and temporal manipulation, giving these three rowdy fairies a swift, comprehensive spanking would have posed no structural problem at all.
To put on a proper show for the onlookers, Sakuya Izayoi elegantly showed off a dazzling set of her specialized Spell Cards in the air, creating a dense grid of shimmering silver light that scared the opposing Sunny Milk into shrieking and squawking frantically as she scrambled to find a safe pocket.
Then, after a calculated interval, the perfect maid "accidentally" bumped straight into a stray, slow-moving Danmaku projectile that her opponent had fired completely at random, resulting in a swift, regrettable technical defeat.
Flandre immediately glared down from the sky at Sakuya Izayoi, who had casually flown back down to the grass completely expressionless after her loss, now standing poised beside Remilia's chair with a perfectly calm, unruffled face.
"Sakuya! Were you openly slacking off up there too?!" Flandre accused, pointing a finger.
One must remember that Sakuya's primary ability was the absolute manipulation of localized time; the physical gaps within that random Danmaku wave just now were mathematically large enough for her to weave through back and forth several times over without a single scratch. There was simply no realistic way she could have been hit unless she explicitly wanted to be.
Sakuya Izayoi merely shook her head with serene composure, smoothing down her apron. "It was entirely a sudden accident, Second Mistress; I was simply far too careless during my evasion step."
Meanwhile, the nature fairies nearby had already fallen into an absolute frenzy of boisterous celebration. After all, from their perspective, this looked like a grand, historic victory no matter how one sliced the data. With their side not having lost a single representative yet, they had already successfully won two high-profile matches in a row, leaving only the opposing team's final general, Flandre.
Seeing the rowdy fairies celebrating so confidently, Flandre elegantly stretched her waist, and then shot straight up into the center of the sky.
Looking at the victorious Sunny Milk coming up to face her for a consecutive round, Flandre's ruby eyes darted around mischievously as she decided deep down to show off some truly unexpected moves. After all, merely winning a straightforward match against a baseline nature fairy wasn't considered impressive at all within her social circle.
But completely outplaying and confounding a fairy with a borrowed technique was a completely different story.
The very instant the match officially began, Flandre casually waved her left hand, and multiple streaks of vibrant Danmaku instantly materialized out of thin air around her form, shooting rapidly toward her target.
Sunny Milk on the opposite side was absolutely not to be outdone. Having already 'defeated' two prominent members of the mansion group back-to-back, she felt that if she could somehow manage to defeat Flandre here as well, she could spend the next three centuries gloating endlessly in front of Cirno, proving once and for all that she was the undisputed strongest fairy in existence.
The colorful Danmaku fired from both sides clashed fiercely in the absolute middle of the airspace, creating a loud, crackling barrier of kinetic energy.
However, Remilia, who was watching the exchange from her comfortable seat below, looked up at Flandre with an expression of deep, utter confusion. She could see clear as day that Flandre wasn't utilizing a single one of her own standard, destructive Spell Cards; instead, her younger sister was actively focusing her internal magical reserves to conjure an entirely foreign geometric formation in the air.
Up in the arena, Sunny Milk was pleasantly surprised to find that Flandre's opening Danmaku wave wasn't even as dense or oppressive as the previous two rounds she had faced; she felt completely confident that she was going to achieve a flawless, three-person team sweep today.
Right at that exact psychological moment, Flandre spread both of her hands wide, officially activating her first major Spell Card of the bout.
VUUUUUUM—
Seeing the entire sky instantly become completely, seamlessly saturated with a brilliant shade of deep scarlet, every single resident hailing from Gensokyo down below simultaneously turned their heads to look directly at Remilia.
Because the technique Flandre had just unleashed with a brilliant grin was precisely her older sister's iconic, signature style—Red Sign [Scarlet Lord].
The high-speed, razor-sharp Danmaku projectiles flying diagonally outward from directly behind those large, pulsing crimson orbs meant that even if a target could visually trace the trajectory, their physical body might not possess the baseline velocity required to dodge through the grid.
Sunny Milk had absolutely never witnessed such an overwhelming, suffocating scene in her entire life. She was so thoroughly terrified by the sudden crimson horizon that she immediately withdrew the offensive technique she was actively preparing to use, shifting entirely into a frantic, screaming defensive flight path as she tried to twist and loop her way through the incoming wall of fire.
But the objective structural result of her panic was deeply sad.
Because Flandre's second wave of high-speed Danmaku had already directly and flawlessly predicted the exact escape path she was currently flying toward. Unable to alter her momentum or dodge in time, Sunny Milk crashed straight head-first into the vibrant grid of energy and suffered a swift, regrettable technical defeat.
She hung her head low after drifting back down to the grass, her wings drooping. "I am so sorry, everyone... I finally lost!"
The surrounding nature fairies, however, immediately chattered away in a high-pitched cluster to comfort her, loudly proclaiming that she was already deeply impressive since she had single-handedly taken down two of the mansion's powerful adult fighters all by herself. The remaining, lone Flandre would simply be left for the stronger teammates behind her to defeat.
At this exact time, the true powerhouse and mainstay of the fairy alliance, Rumia, flew confidently up into the air to take her turn. Looking across the field at Flandre, who was already happily focusing her hands to conjure yet another entirely mysterious magical formation, the dark Youkai instinctually felt a slight, cold prickle of unease creeping up her spine.
"Can we officially start the round now?" Rumia called out, keeping her eyes locked on Flandre's moving fingers.
"Of course, you may commence the match whenever both sides are ready," replied the absolutely fair, analytical referee, Eirin Yagokoro.
"But since the countdown hasn't technically started yet, what exactly is she doing over there right now?" Rumia questioned, trying to leverage a clever off-field technicality to get Flandre disqualified for pre-casting.
Eirin Yagokoro adjusted her gaze, carefully analyzing the ambient magical particles swirling around Flandre's small form before replying calmly, "She is not actively utilizing or deploying active Danmaku projectiles yet, so this preparation phase does not count as cheating or a violation of our established regulations."
Hearing Eirin's clear administrative ruling, Rumia looked back at Flandre, who was clearly almost finished structuring her massive, intricate magical formula. Sensing that she absolutely couldn't afford to wait for her opponent to finish completing the spell, she spoke up loudly, "Then let's start the match right now!"
The very microsecond the final word left her mouth and Eirin Yagokoro shouted the official start, Rumia directly activated a high-density Spell Card against Flandre's position—Dark Sign [Dark Side of the Moon].
As the spell took effect, Rumia's physical form instantly disappeared entirely into the shadows of the barrier, while a massive, overwhelming tide of pitch-black Danmaku pressed down toward Flandre like a suffocating, incoming ocean wave. Structurally speaking, the layout looked incredibly similar in density to Flandre's own terrifying signature Spell Card, Secret Bullet [And Then Will There Be None?].
Facing this pitch-black wall of dark energy, Flandre wasn't surprised or panicked at all. Instead, a massive, delighted grin broke across her face as she spread her hands out wide to the sides.
"It is only polite to properly reciprocate a beautiful gift; take a close look at this move!"
As she cheered, her small back could be seen unfolding like a magnificent, shimmering folding screen made of pure spiritual energy. Then, an unbelievably dense, breathtakingly gorgeous array of pale pink and white Danmaku petals violently shot out in all directions across the sky, completely illuminating the darkness.
"Wait a minute! This isn't your own signature Spell Card at all!" Rumia complained loudly, her voice cracking as she began to dodge frantically through the beautiful, spiraling vortex of energy.
Although she had never personally faced this specific pattern before in tournament play, she was absolutely, mathematically certain that a Spell Card possessing this specific level of overwhelming, artistic magnificence was definitely not a native technique belonging to the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
Meanwhile, down on the grass, the few senior figures who instantly recognized the incoming pattern looked up at the happily laughing Flandre with completely helpless expressions.
"Has this little sister of yours secretly been paying unauthorized visits to Hakugyokurou behind your back?" Inaba Tewi asked, her long rabbit ears twitching with amusement as she turned to look at Remilia.
"Maybe... perhaps she actually has!" Remilia admitted, her tone trailing off as she scratched her cheek in complete disbelief.
She wasn't entirely sure of her sister's travel itinerary either, but the legendary Spell Card Flandre was currently deploying with such fluid precision up in the clouds was explicitly the absolute, undisputed signature technique of the ancient ghost mistress of Hakugyokurou, managing the mystical Saigyou Ayakashi tree: [Resurrection Butterfly - 80% Reflow].
This specific move was an incredibly advanced, high-tier technique that its original owner rarely ever resorted to using even during serious Danmaku bouts. It was universally considered her ultimate trump card, and Remilia had absolutely never expected that her younger sister would be able to replicate its intricate, blooming geometry so flawlessly.