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Chapter 6: The Two Oni

That's that predicament dealt with.

Still, as expected from such detestable underground youkai.
They were far more formidable than I expected.

Um, pardon me...

Hieda no Aya. I'm glad you're safe too.

Huh?

Er, right. Thank you for rescuing me from that terrible situation.

If you hadn't come, I can't even imagine what would've happened to me.

Indeed. You might be one of us, by now.

I could do without more work, thanks.

Eh, dragging along another corpse or two would hardly change things.

_{Dunno how much I'll make mention of it, but this game has a LOT of alternate dialogue. If Lyrica or Komachi are dead here, then SM and Yuyuko will take their lines instead.}

...A-anyway, thank you very much.
Really, I don't even know how you thank you.

Your thanks are plenty.
You are far too important a being for us to risk losing you.

(Seriously, what is Lady Yukari thinking?)

Right, you mentioned that before.

What are you talking about? Humans are one thing, but why do you youkai care about me so much?

Just so you know, I won't hand over my precious Gensokyo Chronicles, even to you.

Hehe. Certainly, I'm interested it reading it, but I won't ask you to give it up.
Anyway, you needn't be so nervous. This is nothing so serious.
You and the Chronicles are playing an important role for both humans, AND youkai... That's all.

Indeed. That probably goes for us ghosts, as well.

Exactly right.

For both? Really?

Are the Gensokyo Chronicles really such a big deal?

Oh yes. The biggest of big deals.

In fact, you might just play a leading role for us.

Er, uh, I'm not sure I follow.

Well, having said all that, you don't need to do anything special.
Act as you will. That will suffice.

What are you even...?

Hehe. Well, we can resume this conversation upon our return.

Now, leaving that aside...

Mistress, Lady Yukari. May I have a moment?
It would appear someone is approaching.
If my eyes do not deceive me, it is the oni from before.

Oh! Guess Yuugi's already coming to see us.
My time to shine!

I figured as much.
Let us meet with her.

Sup, Yuugi. Guess you were hanging out down here after all!

Good to see you're as lively as ever!

Yep. Doin' just fine, here.

But hey, Suika, what's the deal?
You make a big fuss here, and don't even come to greet me?

We got lots goin' on.
I was gunna pay you a visit when the heat died down.

I guess they're acquainted?

Those are... Yuugi Hoshiguma, and Suika Ibuki.

Two Oni, known as members of the "Four Devas of the Mountain".
Just calling them "acquaintences" would be selling it short.

The "Four Devas"? I had no idea...
I thought Suika was just some tiny drunkard.

As long as you recognize who you're talking to now, it's fine.

Helluva thing for YOU to say...

What, just pay me a visit? After all we've been through together?
Well whatever, I'll let that slide.
So. Suika.

It's been forever since we've met. Just saying "farewell" and parting way's a bit boring, don't'cha think?

Hah! Figured you'd say that!
Aight, then what'll it be? Sake? Or maybe...?

This seems like quite a... dangerous conversation.

That's just how Oni are, it seems.

Barely worth asking, yeah? Time's like these, ya gotta wrestle!

I knew it! Same idea, here!

Alright. So this time, how's about the loser's gotta follow what the winner says.

That work for you?

Oho, well aren't you full of bravado. Guess I can't hold anything back!

Suika, no backing down if you lose!

Of course! You better not make excuses when I win!

Everyone, leave her to me. Seriously, don't butt in, alright!?

If you insist.

Everyone, do your best to support Suika without interfering!

Hm...
Suika sure seems confident, but will she really be ok?
If things look dangerous, maybe I should stop them...

So here we go.

This is what I've been preparing Suika for this entire time.

First, let's see what happens if we try to Pair Up Suika.

The hell're you doing?
This is me and Suika's fight! Don't get in our way!

After said combat, this happens:

Hmph. So this is how you surface youkai are, huh?
I'm not about to fight with a bunch of cowards like you.

Loads of youkai spawn in.

Alright, guess I'll sit back and watch.

From here, she retreats, and it becomes a normal Rout map. Presumably there's dialogue for beating the chapter from here, but I'm not a coward, so I've never seen it.

So yeah, let's not do that.

The rules of the duel are as follows:
-No Pair Up
-No healing from SM/Aya/Byakuren

Leaving her in range of Shrine Maiden's Charisma or Luna's healing field are fine, but if you try to surround Yuugi with non-Suika units, she'll attack you and count it as a violation.

As a refresher, let's take a look at Suika.

She's grown very well! Of particular note is the 9 Speed.

And here's Yuugi.

Notice the gigantic difference in stats? Yeah, this duel is stupidly fucking hard.

Take notice of the 13 Speed.

Here's what it looks like when the two of them match up. It's uh... not great, to say the least.

The greatest blessing I've received is Suika hitting 9 Speed. That is exactly the break point needed to not get doubled. You can still beat this chapter even then, but it's a lot more annoying.

Here's the big trick: The Devil Axe. With this bad boy, we can just barely put a dent in Yuugi's hide.

She has the same Iron Skin skill as Suika, so she's taking less damage than displayed, but it's better than 0.

_{_{By the way, thanks to a recent tip-off, I've worked out how to rip the BGM out of the game files. It's a bit of a pain, so I'm not going to do it for every song, but here you go:}}

BGM: 華のさかづき大江山

Let's rock, Yuugi! Don't let me down!

Hah, well said! But YOU'RE the one who better not let ME down!
Let's see how rusty you've gotten!

Bring it! Dyaaaaaah!!

Hn, take this!!

*sounds of clashing*

Woah!?

Gh!

Heh, you're as tough as ever, Yuugi.

Hiding out, getting drunk down here, I was worried you'd gotten soft.

Well ain't you fiesty.

Frankly, I was worried you'd turned chicken.

Hah, please. Who do you think I am?

But, well... Guess I was worried for nothin'.

Guess so. Good to know I can get serious.

Let's go, Suika. See if you can keep up with me!

Right back at ya!

Oh. Hm.

Yeah...

That's gunna happen a lot.

While we're here, have some unique defeat dialogue.

Suika! Are you okay!?

Ugh...

What's wrong, Suika? Is that the best you can do?

Gh, I can't lose like this...!

...Well, it's been a while since we got that crazy.
Made for a bit of fun, at least.

Yuugi...

Alright, I've had my fun. Time for y'all to head on home.

Indeed, we'll do just that.
Yuugi Hoshiguma. Thank you for your earlier assistance.

Ah, likewise.
Thank you very much.

No need. Now go on, get outta here.

Then, we'll be off.

They start to leave.

H-hey, Yuugi!

Mm? What's up?

Um, about the promise...

Huh? Oh right, that thing. Well, I don't really give a crap.
Weak as you are right now, I can't think of anything fun I'd want from ya.

Gah...

Now hurry up, head on back to the surface.

I, I won't let it end like this!
Yuugi! Just wait for the next time we meet!

Yeah, sure. I ain't holding my breath, though.

Yuugi...

DAMN IIIIT!!!

...And then the chapter ends. If you're playing on Standard (the mode with permadeath) I don't think this counts as Suika dying.

But yeah, we definitely don't want that.

Right, so!

Let's try this again.

Much better!

On the enemy phase, she gets tagged, but that's fine.

This opening exchange is the trickiest part, because you have to initiate it. Yuugi doesn't move or attack until Suika does first, meaning she always gets two chances to hit you.

So firstly, there's Luna's skill kicking in for 4 HP. That's nice, but not quite enough.

Luckily, there just so happens to be a convenient tile for us to sit on...

Suika starts moving up to the magic circle.

Now, Yuugi does have 6 Move, so she can always catch Suika in a race. Luckily, you can put people in front of her to force her to detour, and as long as Yuugi's AI can path towards Suika, she won't attack anyone else.

Like Yukari said, we gotta support her without interfering

Yuugi closes in, and...

Suika heals up to full.

"No outside healing" doesn't mean no healing at all

Fighting happens on the enemy phase.

Suika lures Yuugi away.

And other units shift around, making a wall to let Suika heal back up before Yuugi can get to her.

Once you're on the magic circle, you're golden. If Suika's got 9 Speed, you basically can't lose from here.

If Suika doesnt have 9 Speed, then she has a chance of getting doubled, and therefore can always die.

That means you better get acquainted with this button. It's a "Save and Quit" option, creating a temporary battle save that deletes itself upon reloading.

That'd be a shame, except this in a PC game, so you can just back up the save before it deletes itself.

Alternatively, the game lets you autosave every 5 turns, and you can reload those as much as you want. So you could just sync up your fights with that, if you really wanted to.

But luckily, I can just keep doing this, 5 damage at a time.

Until finally...

Thank you for your service, Suika. Here's some HP, Strength, Skill, and Defense.

All-in-all, that took about 20 minutes (though I was doing LP stuff at the same time). If your Suika is not as buff, expect it to take quite a bit longer.