>This implies that Zemyla picked up on one little detail I was rather
>hoping someone had noticed, that being: When Reimu said of the
>Zauberschulbuch, "I've studied this document thoroughly," what
>she meant was that she sort of skimmed it on the flight from Marseille
>to Ribeauvillé and figured that was good enough. (And Marisa
>would know that perfectly well, too, which gives that particular
>suggestion added weight.) It's in her nature to half-ass things she's
>already convinced she knows enough about.
...
>The way the thing has to go down, she just shows up and Is a Problem.
>G doesn't have a way, or the time, to learn any of it before he has to
>deal with her. He'd probably be more sympathetic to her situation if
>he did, even though she's coming after him.

This seems like the right place to bring up the problem I had
with this story, because I had a different problem. Skipping
the fight worked fine for me; what didn't work was the lead-in. Why
does Gryphon let Reimu pick this fight with him? Why isn't his
response to "the way you've come up with to get around that
is... foul. Unnatural. And the work of a man, to boot" along the lines
of "OK, I'm going to need you to show me exactly what you found in the
Zauberschulbuch to give you that impression, because foul and
unnatural is the opposite of my understanding of the Force, and
if I didn't get that across clearly enough, there need to be some
revisions"?

Given her character, she would probably continue trying to pick a
fight, but he could continue not picking up the gauntlet, and trying
to get her to talk it out instead. If she busts out the offensive
magic anyway, then I suppose he gets to demonstrate his ability to
shield—thus proving that he isn't a complete fraud, at least—and that
might make a smoother segue into a fight sequence, if you still want
to write one.