Winds of Fate

 Marisa looked down below, down at the city she resided in for a whole year now. It was lively enough throughout the year, but the inevitble call for adventures and Kobbers rang out someway, somehow. And where there are Kobbers, there's hustle and bustle.

It was easy enough to spot when activity picked up. In fact, the witch was a little surprised that more and more tourists wearing some youkai fish girl shirt and memorabilia were popping up. Tsubakura complained about this sudden burst of activity when said fish girl made her appearance on stage, claiming she could hear the concert from her bedroom. Certain celebrities made their grand appearance: Dream Defender Doremy (apparently Kevvy's new stage name, just so he wasn't confused with Kogasa) and Frostmaiden Cindy Rozenblair caught the eyes of many a person. She could see now bolts of lightning zipping through the city, presumably people who were really enjoying the fast lane. Heck, she could even see Diadem in her food truck, Hakra and some rather grumpy gal discussing the ways to use the constellation Corvus as a spell. 

As the time of the Kobbers return came ever so closer, the witch's heart beat faster and faster, racing in anticipation.

She landed close to the Silver Tribute, stretching her arms and yawning as she was welcomed by the warm glow of magitech lights. "Maybe I should give Desiree a visit," Marisa said with a small smile. "Start advertisin' the arcade again-"

"Oh? Running a business, are we?"

Marisa snapped her head towards the source, a pair of red eyes looking down at her like a snake who found its prey. 

"Wait, you're here, Kanako?"

The short haired woman flicked her hair back and smirked. "With faith to gather, why wouldn't I be here? So many troubles to resolve, enough to surely gain favor with the locals."

Marisa narrowed her eyes. "Just here for the faith? Ya sure yer not here for Suwako?"

For a split second, she could see Kanako's cheeks flush pink. "W-well, after she inconveniently gave herself radiation poisoning and didn't have the sense to ask Okuu to deal with it, someone had to come and make sure the Mover of Mountains doesn't cripple herself."

"That's a lotta words to try 'n say you wanna keep her safe, Kanny."

Kanako cleared her throat and turned away. "Regardless, seeing how you have become a Champion of sorts and therefore a reliable incident solver in these parts, I thought I would grace  both you and the Kobbers with my presence. They would not deny a goddess her chance to prove herself, not when I can aid them in their endeavors. It would look terrible to see them turn me away on the First of May, after all."

Marisa sighed and shook her head. "All business again, huh. They might not be the same crowd from Vegas, but that ain't the kinda attitude you wanna go in with. They might just call Reimu and Sumi to slap some sense into ya. So why dontcha relax and be a normal gal, for a change?"

The goddess closed her eyes. Marisa what thoughts were brewing in her head before the goddess replied, "Hm, not such a bad idea. If they were to know I were a goddess, it would open the doors for sycophants to bow to my every whim. Easier to gain the trust of the people as an ordinary human with extraordinary powers. I would still gather faith, though in a rather unorthodox way." Kanako smirked as if she had hit the jackpot in a casino. "Yes, that'll do. Perhaps you do get good ideas here and there, Miss Kirisame."

"Always a pleasure, Lady Yasaka, O Heavenly Goddess of Harvests and Rains, One who brought Nuclear Energy to Gensokyo and taught Rinnosuke what a Game Boy was," Marisa said with a smug look of her own.

"Good to know you are more than a scycophant than I remember," Kanako said, unamused. "Now, you've lived here for a while, yes? Would you be so kind as to aid me in finding a suitable place to reside? Or, perhaps we should catch up somewhere. I do believe there is a cafe evoking the Seven Winds, no?"

"Sure thing, but not with that huge rope hangin' 'round yer back." The witch pointed towards the massive shimenawa ring behind Kanako. "If yer gonna be normal for once, might as well start there."

The goddess glared and muttered something under her breath before she said, "Very well... let's head towards your residence. I'm sure you have a big enough closet to hold this, no?"

As the duo flew over to Marisa's new house, the realization that maybe it won't fit in there dawned on the witch. That, and she'd have to live with Kanako until the goddess got her own place, or at least a hotel room.

Oh, the Kobbers could not come soon enough.

The Final Fight

 

Through clear blue skies and the warm rays of the sun, Marisa soared as a trail of explosive orbs followed behind her.

Bobbing and weaving between a curtain of magical bullets, getting close enough to only be grazed and not hit, was a talent that was driven into many Gensokyo residents. The Spell Card fights demanded such reflexes of them. No one wanted to be the one who bumbled into a bullet, or react a second too late to a laser coming right at them. These were elegant fights, a test of skill as beautiful patterns of orbs, kunai, and much more filled the skies with their dazzling splendor. 

As someone who dealt with many youkai showing off their spell cards to distract and befuddle, dodging was like breathing for Marisa Kirisame: instinct, something she barely had to think about due to muscle memory. She felt the heat of those explosives threaten to sear her skin, sweat dripping from her brow down her cheek, but she did not slow down nor panic when the danger was on top of her.

"COWARD! COME BACK AND FIGHT!" boomed a voice high in the sky before another barrage of explosions rained down. "OR ARE YOU TOO CHICKEN TO FACE A FINAL BOSS?"

Marisa rolled her eyes as she just narrowly dodged the barrage. "Nah, you can keep tiring yourself out," she said. "I'm just here for the ride."

"FOOL!!!" Dark thunderbolts rained down, one of them catching Marisa's broom and setting it aflame. Not willing to be either burnt to a crisp nor take a tumble from the skies, the witch flew down towards the ground and landed on her feet before attempting to put out the flames. The skies around her grew dark as the figure descended, looming over her like any proper Final Boss would.

"Not much of a hotshot now, huh?" said the smug woman's face in the middle of the creature. "And here I was, thinking you were worth the effort."

"PATHETIC WHELP! SOME CHAMPION YOU ARE!" boomed the dragon's head at the bottom. "WE'LL KILL YOU, MAIM YOU, PARADE YOUR CORPSE TO ZETTA AS A WARNING! GWAHAHAHA!"

"Sorry," squeaked the timid torso on top, putting his index fingers together and looking all the world like a sad puppy. "It's just that, well, you're really strong, and that's sort of a problem for us. It'd make us look... uh, bad."

Marisa shrugged. "Well, I'm not gonna roll over and die for any of you, thanks. I ain't a champ for nothin'."

"Oh, really?" The woman's sneer grew. "But you don't have any of your little friends helping you. Without them, you're not much of anything!"

"Pretty sure I also showed off that I can handle myself, too. Or did you miss that last bit of the Brawl?"

"LESS TALK, MORE FIGHT!"

The dragon's orb glowed with red hot power  before a flurry of fireballs rained down upon the ground, setting the ground ablaze where they touched. Marisa hopped back onto her doused broom, magic orbs surrounding her as she took off. They hung behind the tail end of her broom, facing the dreaded Final Boss as they fired piercing lasers at them. Not much good for piercing, though: they left burns where they touched, but nothing more. Marisa groaned and turned around, firing magic missiles in attempt to weaken them. No dice: two of them barely even noticed.

"HAHA, THAT TICKLED!"

"You're going to need to hit harder than that to stop us, witch."

"Ow, ow, OWWW! Cut it out, aim for them, not me!"

"Shut up, Micky. We're in this together, whether you like it or not!"

"I wasn't the one who instigated the fight, Ophelia!"

As they argued, Marisa took this chance to think. Lasers weren't working, magic missiles didn't make a dent, and she knew her sword would just bounce off if neither of those options worked. Using Final Spark too early would leave her without her Mini Hakkero for a time, and if that didn't do anything, then it would simply be a waste. As weird as the trio of demons were, they were at least more bite than bark when it came to being a Final Boss.

There wasn't much time before they decided to actually use their brains and barrage her from every angle, though. Much as she didn't like it, Marisa showered them in stars, lighting up the shadows as they swirled around her. It wasn't perfect: they were tanking those hits about as much as she thought. She just needed to play keep-away until she could exploit some sort of weakness.

Ophelia yawned. "Oh, wonderful, stars. Dryzen, show her what a real star looks like, won't you?"

"OF COURSE! YOUR PUNY STAR MAGICKS ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO MINE!"

Dryzen's orb turned an ominous shade of purple, several other points of the final boss's body shining bright. Marisa's heart stopped for a moment as she realized just was going to happen. She quickly took out her Mini Hakkero and fired a massive Final Spark, just as the trio shot their own massive, star-powered beam.

It was then that Marisa noticed the difference in power. Her beam barely budged forward, while theirs was approaching her and threatening to roast her alive. Maybe leaving without Dreamcast in tow to deal with the strange dark signals Tsubakura was picking up was a massive mistake. Her thoughts filled with happy memories after the brawl, roller blading with Dreamcast, just relaxing with Amity... Even with redemption, karma would always come back, one way or another.

All went white.

Then, a scream pierced through the silence. Marisa found herself still breathing, her mini hakkero burnt out. Did she do it? No, she couldn't have. She was strong, but not that strong. What happened?

Clear as day, she saw the gaping wound in Micky's torso as he cried, flesh and bone exposed to the open air as if something tore a part of him right off. The final boss quivered, Ophelia's sneer shifting to a glare, while Dryzen's voice no longer boomed.

"Such strong mana... it can't... it can't be..." Dryzen's voice trembled like a tree in a storm, his orb losing all its luster.

"Ugh, of all the times for her to show up."

Marisa briefly wondered if Reimu decided she had enough of Gensokyo to come kick ass in Agama before her own body began to tremble. There was something in the air, a strong presence. It reminded her of Yukari, but Yukari would never bother lifting a finger just from the kindness of her heart.

Stomp. Stomp. STOMP. The ground quaked as the mystery assailant appeared. Horns peeked out from pink hair, wings folded behind her back, annoyance written all over her face. 

"So you had the dumb idea to show up here of all places, Valvoga?" said the demon as she stepped forward. "I thought you had a bit more sense than that."

Inbetween Micky's pathetic cries, Ophelia hissed, "Priere. So nice of you to join us, but don't you have your own itty bitty Netherworld to run?"

"YEAH, GO BACK AND RUN BACK HOME! LET US HAVE OUR FUN! LET ME KILL THE WITCH!"

Overlord Priere shook her head. "If you had any brains, you'd be trying to take it over." A pause, the demon looking thoughtful until she became the epitome of smuggery. "Oh, wait. You can't. Because you suck."

Marisa swore that if Ophelia had any control of her cohort's hands, she'd be shaking all four fists at Priere. "You...! Bold words for an idiot who pissed off to another dimension!"

"Bold words for a boss who might as well be tissue paper compared to what the Kobbers have faced."

As the two threw insults at each other, Marisa finally took her chance to stow away her mini-hakkero in her broom's storage compartment and pull out a few potions in its place. She slowly floated away, out of the boss's range of vision. As she did, though, she noticed a few strange creatures bumbling their way through, but didn't really think too much of them as she took off high into the skies. She waited... and waited... and waited...

"-and you think you  can beat us after you struggled to beat Ladeca on your own? Pfft. Fat chance."

"I didn't see you trying to upsurp her for being more Final Boss-y than you. But suuuure, keep dissing me. That'll help your case."

Okay, she waited long enough. At the first sign of magic being thrown about (from neither of them, it looked like), Marisa dived like a comet, wreathing herself in light and smashing herself into that wound Priere conveniently opened up for her. Valvoga screamed in a mix of fury and pain, Micky swiping at the witch but missing her by a hair. Screams of pain turned to rage as the skies lit up beams and explosives, Valvoga haphazardly hurling Star magic at everyone who dared to hurt them. It was back to the dodging game for Marisa, magic orbs firing a healthy mix of lasers and magic missiles to open that wound up further.

The Final Boss turned their attention to the pesky little witch, charging up another powerful beam to annihilate her. Nope, she wasn't going to survive that, so how was she going to feint it out? By jerking and zipping away from it mere seconds before it fired off, in true Gensokian fashion. And with them being distracted, Priere unfolded her wings and took to the skies, blowing another huge chunk of Valvoga off with a magical atomic blast. Marisa cringed a little as the flesh turned rancid, color draining from Micky. They didn't move, the blast doing something to them that kept them from budging an inch. A chance to chip away was not a chance Marisa was going to let slide.

"RUUGH, I'LL KILL BOTH OF YOU! YOU'LL BE NOTHING BUT ATOMS!" Dryzen roared, his orb glowing yet again. Before he could manage that, though, Marisa saw from the corner of her eye something speeding through the sky, screaming like a woman possessed. She blinked, and in the next moment, a baton was sticking right out of the orb, cracks spreading like a spiderweb. Dryzen wailed less like an angry dragon and more like a sniveling child who got a big bad boo boo. 

And who did the deed, Marisa wondered? She wondered no longer as the dust cleared, a rather busty nun holding another baton in her hand and spinning it 'round her fingers as confident as could be. She kind of looked like the demon... were they sisters? Twins?

" Took you long enough, Prier," said the Overlord. "I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to get here!"

The nun's eyes flared with anger as she snapped, "You left me behind, you jackass! You could have at least taken me with you!"

"And risk you dislodging them from your weight alone? No, thank you."

"Rrrgh, why you-"

"Sorry to cut the comedy routine short," Marisa said, "but I think we have bigger problems." She pointed towards Valvoga, who reared back, body beginning to glow as bright as it could.

Lightning crackled throughout the demon's body, Ophelia's face twisted into pure rage. "Fine, I'll take care of all of you in one fell swoop! I'll show you why they call us a Final Boss!"

Priere rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sure, whatever."

Prier stared blankly at them before she cracked out into a chuckle and said, "You're doing it by blowing yourself up? What a sore loser!"

Marisa pulled out a notepad and pen from her broom's stash and leaned back. "Alright, show me whatcha got! Maybe I can learn from it and make a cool new spell out of it."

"SCREW YOU! SCREW ALL OF YOU!"

Valvoga's body pulsed and grew brighter by the second. Marisa knew she was fast enough to zip away, but what about the other two? Prier whistled as a gaggle of monsters, the very same ones Marisa saw bumbling earlier, teamed up to form a barrier around the demon with their magicks, Priere surrounding that barrier with a square barrier of her very own that glowed with holy-ish power. When the mighty Valvoga exploded like a supernova, the first set of barriers broke, but the second held up thanks to the first absorbing most of the energy. Thus, there was little left of the Final Boss but dust and ash.

As the barrier disappeared, Prier dusted her hands off and stood there with confidence. "Another demon sent to repent!" Her pride made way for disappointment as she added, "though the stupid thing blew itself up before I could do a cool finisher."

"What you should have done was told them you beat Ba'al, first," Priere said with a tsk. "Then they would have pissed themselves and ran."

"At this point, beating Ba'al is like saying you beat god: everyone's done it one time or another!"

"You do realize that's preeetty blasphamous, right?"

"What? Kobbers beat gods plenty of times, you know that!"

"I don't think you get it." The overlord shook her head before turning towards Marisa. "Hey, you! You did great! Who taught you all that, anyway?"

Marisa blinked. "Nevermind all that, did Okuu teach you how to blow up a boss or somethin'? Did ya eat a sun god on the way over here like a hot dog?"

"Nah, I just beat up 1 billion demons."

"Oh, so yer a regular incident solver too, eh?" Marisa landed between the nun and demon and grinned. "Thanks for the help! Felt like I was just throwin' rocks at him and hopin' they'd die from a concussion. Marisa's the name, by the way. What about you?"

The Overlord held out her hand for a handshake and smiled. "Overlord Priere. One of the stronger 'Final Bosses' you'll ever meet!"

"And I'm Prier!" the nun chimed in. "La Pucelle's greatest demon hunter, and soon to be their Maiden of Light!"

Marisa gave that hand a mighty shake like they were brothers-in-arms. "Think I heard of ya! Definitely an incident solver, then! Well, 'nuff standin' round here, lemme treat y'all to a drink! Then we can talk about how ya know that Volvega guy and why you came out here in the first place! There's gotta be a story behind it, eh?"

"Mmmmaaaybe~!"

"Aaaand she's not gonna say anything until you drown her with alcohol," Prier sighed. "You'll pay for food too, right? I'm starving. Can't keep eating rations of hardtack.  Blech, who thought those were a good idea?"

Off the trio went, marching happily over to the Silver Tribute. Thus, a new gang of incident solvers was formed! There was one question that lingered in Marisa's mind, though.

Why did a Final Boss show up now, of all times?