/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Dearest /jp/, with Summer break upon us (sort of, just chilling out before finals) the passing itch for shmups got the best of myself again and I decided to pick up Mountain of Faith one more time after a year or so of all but total abstinence in order to quench it.
To make things a wee bit more interesting, I decided to start off directly with hard mode. Nothing particularly difficult actually, but level 4 and its end boss Aya didn't need to be asked twice before hitting me like a wall of bricks.
Any advice on how to subdue them both? I haven't found any playthrough for this level on YouTube or anywhere else, and even if there was one it would've been too much grainy and chunky to let me make out what's actually going on onscreen.