Chapter Text
Sky Fox “Queen Inari of Kantou’s Eight Provinces”
Nezu’s card. First used during the New Tanabata Incident.
As spirits drop lines of arrowheads, Nezu spreads a web of warning lines. After the lines split into five and stop, they become lasers that pin her target down; this makes navigating through the arrowheads harder. While the lasers are only briefly active, how the warning lines move forces the target to respect them before they become active. While the spell isn’t specialized for isolating its target, it’s good enough at doing so that altering the card to be better at isolating a target wasn’t worth the opportunity cost.
Divine Spirit “Fantasy Light Pursuit”
Nezu’s card. First used during New Tanabata Incident.
While in disguise as Reimu, Nezu releases spirits surrounded by bullets. When the spirits collide with something or get shot down, the bullets spread outwards. The movements of the spirits are defined by how the card is an imitation of Spirit Sign “Fantasy Seal”; around the user to clear bullets, then towards a target.
Saying that this card has been used before implies that Sanae’s route of BoSM occurred in this story’s continuity, because Nezu only uses this card if you’re playing as Sanae. I’m willing to roll with that. People will get less annoyed at someone who made a mess if they clean it up themselves, after all.
“Crystals of Pure Malice”
Nezu’s card. First used during New Tanabata Incident.
Nezu sends keystones surrounded by spirits towards her enemy. Each spirit fires wide lines of arrowhead bullets and a laser. While the laser spins too fast to dodge, it stops short when it would hit an enemy, tracing a radius around them while producing gravity-respecting fireballs where it stops. The spirits can be shot down to weaken the pattern; if all of the spirits surrounding a keystone are shot down, it’ll vanish.
The spell’s lasers and options remind me of an attack used by the Dondonpachi Resurrection version of Taisabachi (the boss fought at the end of that game’s second loop). The other parts of the pattern are quite different; the bullets from Taisabachi’s lasers are fired in the same direction as their source laser instead of going straight down, the other bullets saturate the screen with dotted lines instead of forming walls with large gaps, and the options firing the pattern cannot be destroyed. Still, the laser formations are so similar that I felt the need to check whether Nezu’s lasers only stop for focused targets; fortunately for her opponents, they do not.
Death Lure “Falling Illusion”
Nezu’s card. First used during the tournament.
By calling on tales of foxes playing dead to attract prey, Nezu creates an illusion of her own defeat. To her opponents, she appears to have been shot down after activating the card too late. In reality, she becomes briefly invisible, allowing her to find a new angle of attack.
In order for the card to work, it has to be activated as a deathbomb. Activating it too early will make the illusion react to a hit they haven’t taken yet, while activating it too late means taking a hit for real.
Double Reversal “Sniper’s Shotgun”
Seija’s card. First used during the tournament.
Seija uses a basic attack that can shotgun because shotgunning reverses the paradigm between melee and ranged attacks by encouraging the wielder of a ranged attack to get up close and personal. However, shotgunning is quite heard of in Gensokyo; she’s nowhere near the only person who does it. Thus, this card, which keeps her on the opposite side of things with an omnidirectional spread of bullets that get stronger as they get farther away from her. This is accomplished by firing bullets that break into smaller bullets after some time, which themselves eventually break into especially small and numerous waves.
Reverse Sign “Danmaku Through the Looking-Glass”
Seija’s card. First used during the Tsukumogami Incident.
Seija flips the target’s vision horizontally while launching fireballs at them. The version of this attack which appears on easy and normal mode was used over the hard-lunatic version to emphasize how it’s a bit of a paper tiger once you figure out the gimmick.
Sharpness “Net of Claws”
Team’s card. First used during the tournament.
Against a surrounded target, Nezu releases long lasting lasers that pin opponents down (preventing them from escaping perpendicularly), while Seija summons bullets that converge on herself. Staying between them is the safest position in this attack; someone too close to Nezu won’t have enough space to dodge a single bullet, while someone too close to Seija will face so many bullets that having more space to maneuver won’t matter. The attack is meant to rack up damage while keeping the target pinned in place, making it easy to follow up with a finishing blow.
Inverted Fox Fire “Day-Long Divorce Parade”
Team’s card. First used during the tournament. An advanced version of Fox Fire “Wedding Parade All-Night”, which was first used during the New Tanabata Incident.
In terms of bullets and spirit flames, this attack is quite close to the original: Red spirits chase the target down, bouncing off one wall in the process, while blue spirits leave lines of blue-black fireballs. The big difference, and where all the attack’s new strength lies, is the addition of Seija intermittently flipping the target’s vision vertically. The heart-shaped bullet formations the red spirits leave behind are now made of broken arrowheads to fit the attack’s new name.
My initial plan was to make Mamigasa sweat because of heat from this attack’s fireballs, but that wouldn’t make sense since fox fire isn’t warm. Thus, unusual shadow patterns were used instead.
Disorientation “Möbius Surround”
Team’s card. First used during the tournament.
By borrowing some of Nezu’s knowledge about the power of names, Seija gives the Intimidation Team the ability to fire bullets that wrap around the edge of the arena. The bullets take some time to reappear on the opposite edge, and when they do, they’re mirrored, as if they had reached it by flying along a hidden, other-dimensional Möbius strip. They combine this effect with omnidirectional attacks to make their opponents feel completely surrounded.
In theory, Seija could use this attack on her own, but she isn’t skilled enough at using name-powered magic to do so. Because this card is a team card, Nezu can help Seija wield that magic. Since Seija would need more than a week of practice time to wield it without assistance, teamwork was necessary for the card to usable during the tournament.