“Yes, this is danmaku,” Satori said before floating back down to where Koishi and I were watching her from. “Now I’ll teach you how to make these patterns yourself and how to float like you asked before.” She reached the ground and started to walk towards us, stopping right before where I was standing.

“First, we should get the basics down, specifically how to feel and manipulate the energy inside you. Right now, can you feel anything strange in your body?” Satori asked.

I closed my eyes, trying to scan my body for anything that felt out of the ordinary. I continued for several minutes before eventually giving up after discovering nothing. I shook my head in denial toward Satori to indicate my inability to do so.

“Instead of spreading your attention around your body, focus all your attention right below your heart. Usually, the source of danmaku energy or magical energy will be located around that area.” Satori instructed.

I nodded before following her directions, focusing my scan on the area below my heart. When I did that, I felt an unordinary warmth originating from there. I tried to concentrate more on that warmth, familiarizing myself with it until I became confident that I could still feel it even when I wasn’t concentrating on it. When I felt like I could do so, I released my concentration and opened my eyes. I still felt that warmth even though I wasn’t focused on it, which meant that I had succeeded in the first task, feeling the energy. I started to smile, feeling proud of my progression.

‘I did it! I can finally feel this danmaku energy or mana as Satori called it! I am rather curious about the difference between danmaku energy and mana though.’ I thought to myself.

“They are basically the same, the only real distinction is the people themselves. Humans and magicians do not have any danmaku energy at all and thus rely on mana to create the bullets necessary for danmaku battles. Basically, every other race here in Gensokyo uses danmaku energy, as for why, I do not know, perhaps an inhabitant of the surface might know, but at the moment, we have no way of contacting them. Moving on, the next step to making danmaku is being able to manipulate your energy at will. Try to make that warmth in your chest circle around your body. Once you have circled your body 10 times, you should have an adequate amount of control to make your first danmaku pattern.” Satori directed.

I nodded before doing as Satori had instructed me. At first, I tried to force the energy to move through my body. However; that did not work at all. The energy absolutely refused to move how I wanted it to, so I gave up on that idea. Next, I tried gently compelling it to, like giving a nudge. I tried this method for several minutes. However, like my first idea, this idea failed, but I did get my energy to move a miniscule amount. It seemed I was on the right track with compelling it gently, but I was still missing something.

‘What could I be missing? Wait, I’ve been treating it like it is sentient, I’ve tried methods that rely on the energy moving by itself. This energy could behave like an object that has some kind of will. It behaves awfully similar to Newton’s first law, stating that an object at rest stays at rest. The energy that is already at rest wants to remain at rest, so forceful methods like my first idea will not work as that will of the energy is determined to stay at rest, and because the energy does not have the capability to make rational thoughts, it relies on instincts. Its instincts tell it to not move, but some kind of outside interference could make it move. My second method failed because it assumed that the will would move after a bit of gentle prodding, which it did a bit, but not much. Maybe infusing the energy with my intent could work as it could influence the instincts of the will inside of the energy and cause it to do what I want it to. It’s worth a try.’ I analyzed it in my head.

Satori smiled, after reading my thoughts I suppose, but that smile gives me the feeling that I’m getting closer to the answer. I tried to direct my intent to the energy, attempting to infuse it with directions about what I wanted it to do, namely to circle around my body. As soon as I finished this, I felt the warmth in my chest start to move, first going towards my head before heading into my arms and into my legs afterward. After the energy had circled my body once, it returned back to where it was before. I smiled seeing that I had succeeded once.

‘Wait, if the key to manipulating this energy is infusing my will and intent to it, what if I connected this energy to my brain so that I could instruct it at any time? Perhaps I could make it like another limb that I could control at will.’ An idea suddenly appeared in my mind.

I started to implement this idea slowly trying to form a connection between my mind and this energy. At first, I was lost on what to do, but possible ways to do this began to appear in my mind. First, I tried to move all of the energy to my head, trying to connect it to my brain. When I did so, I felt a massive headache, so I knew it was the way to do so. I quickly let the energy move back to its original place below my heart and the headache cleared up. Next, I tried to force an intent into the will of the energy directing it to follow all the directions of my brain. This also failed either because it couldn’t hear the instructions given by my brain, or that the intent behind them was too weak as my brain was pretty far from the energy.

‘Seems like I need my brain to be at least somewhat connected in order to direct the will of the energy, but if too much is connected at once, my brain is unable to handle it.’ With that thought, I started to theorize possible solutions, before one appeared. ‘So, what if I only connected a tiny bit of it to my brain? My brain could instruct that small part attached to my brain, and hopefully, the message would be transmitted to the rest of the energy and it will move how I want it to. This method reminds me of phones, a message delivered from one side will be heard by the other side. I hope that passing my intent like this will work in the same way and that infusing my intent into the part of the energy attached to my brain will be enough to direct how the energy behaves. It’s definitely worth a try.’

I immediately got started on putting this idea into practice. I concentrated on infusing the will of the energy with my intent to move the smallest bit of energy into my head. Once the small chunk of energy was in my head, I immediately directed it to attach and form a connection to my mind. Much to my surprise, I felt the energy obey this and start to form a neural connection with my brain with my mind being the one in control while the energy was subservient. With that done, I tried to see if I could direct the rest of the energy through the chunk attached to my brain. I tried to get the rest of the energy in my body to circle around my body again, and it actually did! After repeating the process another 4 times, it began to feel natural to me, like I was moving another limb. Just a simple thought or command from my brain was enough to cause the energy to move. I easily moved the energy all around my body 5 more times to complete Satori’s instruction of circling the energy around my body 10 times.

I started to grin in excitement for having completed this process and achieving a high proficiency in manipulating this energy.

“I see that you have completed that task, congratulations. Next up, I’ll be teaching you how to float. After you learn that, we’ll finally begin to cover how to make danmaku.” Satori said, noticing the wide grin I had on my face. “To fly, simply move your energy out of your body and direct it to surround your body. Once you have done this, just instruct that energy on where you want to move, and that’s basically it.” She taught me.

I once again nodded before trying what she said. I moved the energy outside my body, which was simpler than I originally thought. I thought that the energy was confined to the inside of my body, but apparently, the energy can move through the skin with ease. I made the energy surround my body and tried to start floating directly upwards, which was also easy for me because it felt like I was just moving another limb. It felt as natural to me as walking did, so I quickly got the hang of it.

I started to do maneuvers in the air to test how much control I had in the air. I was able to move exactly how I wanted to and I was even able to change my speed easily, such as accelerating suddenly or stopping dead in my tracks. Turns were also no problem to me as I could finish changing my directions within fractions of a second.

Both Satori and Koishi had shocked expressions on their faces when they saw how well I could move in the air, probably because I didn’t even know how to fly a few minutes ago. Moments later, they both recovered from their shock and showed a different facial expression towards me. Koishi looked at me, eyes glowing with amazement and excitement, while Satori showed a smile, which I had not seen before this moment.

“Wow, you are more talented than I thought you were, well I guess this makes my job easier, but it does feel kind of good to know that my new sister has a natural talent for at least the dodging aspect of a danmaku battle,” Satori told me.

‘So Satori already regards me as her sister. I know that both of them are actually my sisters, but I’m still hesitant to accept them as so.’ I thought to myself in response to Satori’s compliment.

“It’s fine if you don’t accept us as your sisters yet. I know it’s been a hard time for you, especially considering that you have lost parts of your memory and ended up in a place you had no idea of. It’s totally reasonable for you to not fully accept two completely new people who you never even knew before as your blood-related sisters. Take your time.” Satori reassured me.

‘O-okay t-thank y-you. N-now, y-you w-were saying about l-learning d-danmaku?’ I responded to her in my thoughts.

“Right, to make danmaku, you have to form a solid image of how you want a bullet pattern to look. Once you have that visualization, direct the energy inside of you to mimic that pattern once you release the energy from your body. After that, simply move the energy inside you outwards and command the energy to manifest the bullets in the pattern when the energy exits your body. For now, it would probably be easiest to base your patterns on a theme because it would help with visualizing the pattern.” Satori explained. What do you want your theme to be?” She asked after finishing her explanation.

“P-probably s-something to d-do with s-stars and s-space t-then,” I told her after thinking about it for a bit. ‘I have always loved stars and I do have an affinity for anything stellar, so that should be the best choice for me.’ I thought.

“Oooh! That would be so cool!” Koishi exclaimed, making me realize that I had inadvertently spoken out loud when answering Satori’s question. I meant to say it in my thoughts so only Satori heard it, but it seems like words actually came out of my mouth.

“Okay that’s good, now let’s try to make an image of a danmaku pattern with that theme in mind. Remember, you can use any bullet types you want and the pattern itself can be anything you want. Just try to aim for something a bit more simple seeing as this is your first nonspell that you are making. After you have that visualization, I’ll teach you how to project that image onto a paper talisman that lasts forever for you to use at any moment you need it.” Satori instructed.

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Before I started to visualize a pattern I wanted, I decided to choose what bullet types I wanted first. I settled on using a mix of small, medium, and bubble bullets for my first nonspell. Then I started to think about what kind of pattern I wanted. I thought about all the astronomy concepts that I knew, hoping to find inspiration in one of them. Minutes passed before I was finally able to choose a concept that I wanted to base my first nonspell on. That concept was the random solar flares of the sun.

Building off this concept, I started to imagine how a solar flare looked. I remembered that solar flares were small arcs of plasma that emerged out of the surface of the sun. Sometimes a solar flare could also have a straight trajectory. With that idea in mind, I began to visualize what I wanted my first nonspell to look like.

I imagine a bubble bullet at the center of the pattern, acting like a sun, occasionally having an arc of small and medium bullets that emerged from the bubble bullet. The small and medium bullets will start out clumped together but they will quickly disperse when they begin to move. Additionally, the small and medium bullets will spawn further away from each other as the arc moves away from where it originated from. Three of these arcs will occur at the same time, forming a sort of triangle with the bubble bullet at the center. Two of the arcs will appear behind the bubble bullet while only one will appear in front of it. After 2 waves of these arcs, a straight line of small and medium bullets will be shot from the bubble bullet toward where my opponent is. The small and medium bullets will be clumped at first before spreading out. Then this pattern will continue until the energy in it runs out.

“Do you have a clear picture of how you want your pattern to look?” Satori asked as I finished my visualization of the pattern.

I nodded, and she continued. Now simply project that image to your energy, your energy will adapt itself to the pattern. After you have done that, simply move that energy to this paper talisman and you will have registered your first nonspell.

I did as you said and I found out that once again, it was easier than I initially expected. The energy inside my body immediately adapted itself to the pattern I had imaged, now all I had to do was to move the energy onto a paper talisman. I easily moved that energy out of my body and condensed it on the talisman, causing it to emit a bright yellow light. After the light subsided, a miniature image of the pattern I had imagined formed on the talisman.

I held the talisman in my hands with a proud expression on my face, for I had completed my first danmaku pattern.

“Congrats!” I heard Koishi yell in excitement.

“Congratulations on making your first nonspell, do you feel tired or low on energy at all?” Satori asked after congratulating me.

‘A b-bit ti-tired, b-but s-still f-full of energy.’ I answered her with my thoughts.

“Okay, we can probably move on to creating a spell card now. It is exactly like making a nonspell, except that at the end of the danmaku creation and registration, you have to give the spell card a name. Also, remember that creating a spell card will require more energy than creating a nonspell would.” Satori reminded me.

‘O-okay, I-I a-already h-have an i-idea o-of one t-to m-make.’ I responded.

I started to imagine a star system with a central star and planets orbiting around it. I decided to go with the same combination of bullets as I had for my nonspell. Again, I imagined a bubble bullet at the center of the pattern. This time I imagined it to be black with gray edges, which I could make happen due to my Less Darkness Manipulation skill. Then I imagined clusters of various sizes consisting of a combination of small and medium bullets each at varying distances away from the central bubble bullet.

Each of those clusters would rotate around the central bubble bullet at varying speeds. After each full rotation, the path of each cluster’s orbit would change from the wind I manipulated with my Miniscule Wind Manipulation skill. I could also make an effect similar to gravity with Miniscule Wind Manipulation, but because the skill cannot control too much wind, the effect will be very small, but it will still be there.

With that image in mind, I started to project it onto the energy in my body. It quickly adapted to the pattern and began to mimic it already. I then moved that energy out of my body onto the paper talisman. After that, I tried to think of a name that would suit this spell card. After a few minutes of thinking, I finally decided on a name. I would call the new spell card Astro Sign [Solar Star System].

After giving the spell card a name, the talisman once again started to glow. Once it was down, the talisman displayed the name of the spell card as well as an image of how the pattern looked. I once again felt a big sense of accomplishment for what I had just achieved.

“Congrats again!” Koishi once again energetically yelled.

“Congratulations on the first spell card, do you still have energy?” Satori asked after congratulating me.

Despite having used a lot of it for creating the two patterns, I still had a decent amount left, so I nodded at Satori’s question.

“Okay, do you want to do a mock danmaku battle so that you can get a feel for how it works, well before that, to use the talismans, you just have to put some of your energy into the talisman and the pattern will appear by itself.?” She asked, seeing me nod.

I nodded again.

“Okay, then let’s g-” Satori started saying before she was cut off.

“Oooh, can I do it?! Please, big sis?” Koishi asked with excitement clearly visible in her voice.

“...Sure” Satori agreed after a brief moment of consideration.

“Let’s do this then!” Koishi said before starting to float upwards. I followed her and soon both of us were in the air just looking at each other.

“Okay, I’ll start then!” She yelled after a few seconds of just staring at each other. After she yelled this, circles of green jagged bullets appeared in a pattern that reminded me of a vine. The circles started small and dense before the bullets eventually spread out, continuing to move in the direction they spawned in. The vine where the center of the circles of jagged bullets spawned started appearing in front of her before curving behind her, then they started to curve towards me. The pattern looked simple at first, but as the bullets got closer to me and started to converge with bullets from other circles, I realized it was harder than I had expected.

I quickly infused the talisman containing my first nonspell with energy. I felt a sizable amount of energy drain from my body. After I stopped feeling energy draining from my body, my nonspell pattern appeared. A red bubble bullet appeared and several arcs of small and medium bullets appeared on the newly formed bubble bullet.

As the bullets from both of us approached the other, I noticed that the bullets didn’t cancel each other out, they just sort of phased through each other as if they weren’t there in the first place. I wonder why this was and if it applied to all types of bullets or only certain ones. Well, I had no time to pursue this thought any further as Koishi’s jagged bullets were already nearing me. Forced to dodge, I weaved my way through the jagged bullets while maintaining my nonspell. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Koishi doing the same for my nonspell. She had a happy expression on her face as she weaved around the arcs and straight lances of bullets.

We continued our nonspell for a few seconds before I started to get hit by Koishi’s first nonspell. At first, it was fairly easy for me to dodge, but it kept getting harder after each wave of jagged bullets until I could no longer dodge them due to my inexperience with danmaku battles. Soon I noticed that my nonspell was starting to end, indicating that the energy infused in my nonspell was running out. A few seconds later, the bullet pattern completely disappeared. Seeing this, I started to prepare to use my spell card.

“Astro Sign [Solar Star System]!” My voice erupted with a deep and sinister tone.

A black bubble bullet appeared with clusters of small and medium bullets rotating around it. The path of orbit of each of these clusters changed after they rotated around the bubble bullet. I noticed that Koishi was being pulled towards the bubble bullet, even though the pull only caused her to move toward the bullet by a few centimeters every few seconds. She started to get hit by a few of the clusters because she did not anticipate the change in the path of the clusters.

I continued to dodge Koishi’s green jagged bullets while keeping up my spell card. A few seconds later, I noticed that the green jagged bullets started to disappear indicating the end of Koishi’s first nonspell. I knew that a spell card was going to follow. I started to grow a bit nervous. ‘If Koishi’s nonspell was that difficult for me to dodge, how difficult would her spell card be?’

I had no time to continue my thinking as I heard her voice echo through the Great Hall.

“Symbol [Ancestors Standing Beside Your Bed]!” She yelled in a deep and sinister tone similar to mine when I declared my spell card.

Blue elongated ellipses of pure light started to move upwards before falling down, curving inwards. The lights had started appearing quite far away from me, but they started to spawn inwards towards where I was. At one point, two beams of light spawned right next to me going upwards before falling back down towards where I flew. Reading the trajectory, I saw a safe spot by moving upwards before the light fell back down. Then many waves of red small bullets spawning in circles with Koishi at the center appeared with plenty of room between the bullets. While the red small bullets were still appearing, a line of red medium bullets appeared going towards where I flew. Luckily, they only flew towards where I was when they appeared and they didn’t change trajectories mid-flight.

I had a lot of trouble dodging this pattern and I sustained a lot of damage, but my spell card was still active. Midway through her pattern, Koishi was forced to take a step back to dodge as a cluster of bullets came barreling right in front of her. Koishi appeared surprised for a bit before returning to her usual expression. She started another wave of blue light bullets that once again went upwards before curving inwards and falling down. Expecting it to be the same pattern as the first, I again moved upwards, but I was hit by one of the blue lights. The pattern looked similar, but it was actually different. Instead of moving upwards to dodge, I had to move backward. The hit had inflicted quite a bit of damage to the energy of my spell card pattern and it started to flicker. After a bit of flickering, the spell card returned back to normal, but it was clear that it wouldn’t last too much longer.

While I was looking at my spell card, Koishi had already started her next wave of danmaku. The blue lights once again went upwards before turning inwards and falling. Unsure about where to go to dodge it, I tried to stay in the middle of the two positions I was in when dodging the other times she used these blue lights. I couldn’t tell until the end that the safe spot was in front of me. I tried to move to it, but I was too slow. One of the blue light bullets grazed me and further decreased the energy in my spell card. I started panting in exhaustion due to how much energy I had used and how much thinking I had to do to dodge her danmaku patterns. Despite my exhaustion, my spell card was still active indicating that I had not lost yet. I saw Koishi sustain a few more hits from my spell cards, but she still had a bright smile on her face.

Koishi did not stop her attack, unleashing the pattern of waves of red small bullets spawning in a circle followed by the line of red medium bullets that homed onto where I was. I dodged a few waves of this pattern, but after a while of dodging the same pattern, I started to get hit because my exhaustion was starting to get the better of me.

‘W-what c-can I do now?’ I thought to myself in desperation. I spent a fraction of a second lost in my thoughts, but that fraction of a second spent unfocused turned out to be a fatal mistake. When I had returned my attention to the danmaku battle, I saw a medium red bullet right in front of me. I desperately tried to dodge it, but I was unable to as it was too close to me and I didn’t have enough time to move out of its way.

The bullet hit me and my spell card pattern started to disappear indicating that it had run out of energy.

“I-I l-lost” I managed to stutter before falling onto my knees in exhaustion. I felt my consciousness fading as well.

I heard two sets of footsteps as they ran toward me. I saw their mouths opening and closing, most likely talking to me, but I could not hear them as I began to fall forward. Before going fully unconscious, I had one last thought.

‘That was fun, and I got to witness the thing I had put so much effort into making my first spell card.’