/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>45978548
With the tanuki distracted, she sent all of her heads sans the one on her shoulders up the hole in the ceiling, hoping to hide them among the rooftops. This would be difficult - roofs in this district were more tile than thatch, but they'd have to do. Remembering how she finished off that tanuki this morning, a plan was forming on the go.

By the time she got up, the brave and foolish carpenter was flying through the wall near his table. The crash woke up his partner. "Sankichi?! Shit, not again!", he shouted as he got up and went to fuss over him through the man-shaped hole. Foolish humans.

Feigning nervousness, she looked back to the tanuki. Credit where credit was due, he did sport some bruises and a dislocated nose that he was in the middle of fixing. "Gah... Back for more? No worries, I'm not done with you yet!"

She allowed herself to be shaken off his side by his sudden kick, flying into the window, right into a crowd of villagers gawking at the duel above them. The black-white witch and the ponytailed tanuki were going at it about a chou high in the sky, dropping enchanted rice and star-shaped pastry below, with the onlookers moving aside from the danmaku falling near-harmlessly beside them, trying to stop their children from catching some.

Seeing her dynamic exit from the half-ruined cafe, the crowd gave Sekibanki some berth. Good, she needed that thug to see her to lure him. She also needed a place to lure him to. Her heads flew from roof to roof, hidden from the view of those below, trying to look for a good spot. She was hoping that they would be distracted enough by dueling above and below to notice them.

Soon enough, the bearded tanuki jumped from the window, all smug and with a card in his hand. "And just where you're going? Givin' up already? We're just gettin' started!" She retreated to the middle of the street, with the crowd dispersing even more, parents hiding their overjoyed and cheering children.

"Sharks've gifted me with sight without eyes." Sharks? The hell was he talking about? "No need to leave you out of their generosity!"

"Transformation [Shark's Crocodile Tears]!"

Out of a sudden puff of smoke emerged the tanuki, a bizarre variant of his previous, more human form. He no longer had any hair on him, his skin became a smooth gray-white gradient, and on his neck, a few protrusions appeared, almost like gills.

He fired streams of danmaku, a mix of shining blues and reds, like sapphire and ruby teardrops. They flew in horizontal and vertical arcs, forcing Sekibanki to stay within one area or be hit, with every third or so red sphere bursting into pellets upon hitting the ground, keeping her on her toes. Was this an attempt at sophistication? To make matters worse, he seemed to be closing in, slowly picking up speed. Never mind then, he was still a brute.

She needed to avoid friendly fire on Kanfukutei, any mon that could saved by not hitting it counted. Thankfully, the space here was just right to avoid collateral. Figuring the right amount of power needed for them to dissipate around three ken away from her, she fired off short, wiggling, spine-like strings of danmaku, forcing him into a corridor to make him move slightly at an angle, finally making them parallel to the cafe. Add to that triple shots of bullets about one shaku in radius, and she could keep the tanuki off her long enough for her heads to finish their search.

"The main street? No, too crowded, same with the market square."

"Shame, the angles near that pawn shop looked good..."

"What about this garden? I could make potshots from the trees, and-"

"No, you talking manju! Can't you see it's in the back of this manor? Do you want to get in trouble with a noble?"

"Keep quiet! The humans might hear us!"

"Hmm... This residential backyard seems empty..."

"Let me see... it's rather close too, good."

"And the closest path there is through this zigzag of an alleyway... Perfect."

Now she just needed to lure him into the ambush. The tanuki was getting close, prepared to jump at her, but Sekibanki got ahead of him and leaped through the wall of danmaku to the northern alleyway, narrowly avoiding bullets to her neck and three rows of teeth to her leg (In the middle of a crowd? Was he nuts or something?), pulling out her card as she landed. Her heads were in position on two corners, hidden in the shadows made by the roofs' dormers and valleys. She would have angles on him on every turn, and even if he would make it through, the backyard would be his doom.