A/N: Hey everybody, my first attempt at fanfiction here and it's already a crossover. Hope you'll enjoy it ^^ Anyway, please R&R!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Touhou Project or Blazblue
Edit: Slightly rewrote and expanded the chapter to make it more in style with the rest.
"So? What are the results?"
"Inconclusive, Professor. We'd have to sent a team down there to investigate."
"Shit. Who knows what she might be doing... Whatever. Make formal orders out of it, slap the Imperator's seal on them and send them to 'Mr Hero' and Makoto."
"Should I inform the Invictus?"
"He didn't get that position yet, but yes. Who knows if he doesn't come and bitch about it."
- AD 2200/2/29 4th Hierarchical City [Naobi], NOL branch -
A month has passed since those disastrous events at [Ibukido]. The NOL has been slowly rebuilding since Sa-... no, Hades Izanami resigned as Emperor... and took hundreds of thousands of lives with her, along with nii-san. First she stole Saya's body, and now him... Tch. It's not like we can do something about it now. We needed to make sure civilization wouldn't collapse. That's what I've been tasked with... After my, Makoto's and Noel's reinstatement as NOL officers, all of us were immediately promoted and assigned to fill in various posts around the Hierarchical Cities, with me overseeing construction of power plants here in [Naobi] to replace now absent seithr with long-forgotten electricity, Makoto clearing up the mess Hazama left in Intelligence and Noel trying to get the Embryo under control. Still... Why does Izanami need him... Is it about his Grimoire? His connection to Saya? Or maybe it's about that lab back from then...
"Lieutenant Colonel." Ugh. Now what?
Looking up from the desk, I noticed my temporary assistant, Lieutenant Ellen Nelson, carrying a sealed document of some sort. I still find it amusing how she ended up here after Kagutsuchi...
"What is it, Lieutenant Nelson?" I said.
"A message from the top, supposedly urgent." she said, placing the document on my desk. Imperator's seal... What could be this important?
"Orders, sir?" she asked after I broke the seal.
"... Dismissed, Lieutenant." I waved her off and once more read through my orders, hearing the clattering of her heels against the wooden floor as she left the office.
'Lieutenant Colonel Jin Kisaragi,
A large electromagnetic disturbance has been detected in Japan.
It might be related to late Shūichirō Ayatsuki's [District 1]
laboratory. You will be investigating this disturbance along with
Intelligence's First Lieutenant Makoto Nanaya. Detailed information
will be given in a briefing at 1630 hours in the meeting room no. 6.'
Electromagnetic disturbance... Kokonoe must have been the one who found it. Never mind that though, now I need to prepare more documents...
After preparing documents for the next overseeing officer for Naobi's aptly-named [Re-electrification Project], I went for the meeting. Of course, the squirrel beastkin was already waiting in front of the room.
"Hey, Jin! How's it been? Therapy's going smoothly?" she asked, waving her hand towards me.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't ask me such private questions while we're technically still on duty." I said. How did she- ah, yes. Kagura and his loose tongue...
"Fine, fine. Anyways, aren't you interested in what can be there in District 1?"
"Why should I be? We've got an assignment and we need to complete it. Simple as that. The Project is much more important."
"Always the same thing with you, Jin. I sometimes wonder why can't you just take it easy once in a while."
"Speaks the one who has now half of the Intelligence under her." I said in a deadpan tone.
"Oh, shut up." she said, pouting.
"Hello there, Makoto, Jin." we heard from behind and turned around around to see Hibiki Kohaku, Kagura's personal assistant. Not much of a wonder, considering he's much more competent than his superior.
"Hey, Hibiki. Will you be giving the briefing or we'll be waiting for Kokonoe?" Makoto asked with her usual tone.
"No, she told me to start without her. Please, enter." he replied as he opened the door. The three of us entered the meeting room, which was pretty much in style with the rest of the branch - pale white walls decorated with NOL crests, large violet banners, sturdy-looking furniture - and took seats by the large oak table in the middle of the room.
"So, how much do you know about District 1?" Hibiki asked while sorting through his notes, charts and such. Just seeing a stack of paper this high reminds me of the sleepless nights back in Academy...
"A Japanese scientific complex from which the Black Beast emerged in 2100, specifically from the Cauldron in Shūichirō's and Relius' lab. Was struck by a time-distorting phenomenon. Place where the Lynchpin was created. Did I miss anything?" Makoto said, as if reciting from memory. She definitely changed from what was back in the Academy...
"That's pretty much it in a nutshell. The thing is, recently Sector Seven has discovered some strange electromagnetic fluctuations in central Honshū. Since those fluctuations weren't there until the Lynchpin was activated, we're certain that they are related to the seithr that was constantly released from District 1's Cauldron."
"So," I said, "we'll be going into a run-down facility to find something that might not even have a logical explanation?"
"Depends on what you consider 'logical'." Kokonoe said as she entered the meeting room, in her usual white labcoat and with a mug of coffee. "How much you've covered already, Hibiki?"
"We've just started."
"Great. I'll be taking over then." she said as she sat besides Hibiki. "It's not an EMP device or anything like that, if that's what you're thinking, squirrel. It better not end up to be some kind of WMD developed by Relius and my bastard of a grandfather, the Beast was enough."
"Says someone who kept a nuclear silo in her own lab..." Makoto muttered quietly, which made Kokonoe glare at her.
"Then we have such options: an Intervention, some kind of seithr-locked weapon, or..." I said, looking at Makoto and waiting for some input.
"...Well, maybe it is Relius? We still don't know where did he go after the Doomsday. Maybe he's trying to restart his other projects..."
"I don't think so. Rachel said that after Valkenhayn kicked his ass all across the Lynchpin storage area, he doesn't even have the will to live." Kokonoe said. So it really seemed to boil down to a yet-unactivated weapon... or something worse, if Izanami's involved.
"In this case, don't you think that we'll need an escort of some sorts? Especially if it's a terrorist group or something." Makoto said. A solid argument, after the Lynchpin's activation a good amount of of non-Hierarchical establishments ended practically in medieval, so people would understandably revolt.
"Nah, you'll be fine." Kokonoe responded with a handwave. "I'll get you an assault rifle or two from the Sector, that should be enough for you two. Or do you want to check them out yourselves?" she added with that cat-like smile.
"Nope, nothing like that." Makoto hurriedly said, waving her hands defensively. I wonder what did she get through to respond like that...
"Anyway," Hibiki said, reminding us of his presence in the room, "you'll be dropped off in the Tokyo Bay in a week, then you'll make for District 1. Makoto, you'll be tasked mainly with making in-depth area scans, mainly near the Cauldron and Shūichirō's hidden laboratory. Jin," he turned to me "your main objective will be to escort Makoto and, if needed, use Yukianesa to search for any Nox-class weapons."
So I've been reduced to escort duty. Funny, I thought that the 'Hero of Ikaruga' won't have to do such menial jobs. Then again, Imperator Homura did make a point in admitting the whole Ikaruga Civil War to be a genocide by any other name. Back on the topic, Yukianesa hadn't responded after the [Doomsday], so even if Nox Nyctores-class weapons resonate with each other, how should we know if we bump into one? I voiced my last concern, which made Kokonoe frown a little.
"If it is a Nox-class, which I highly doubt, unlike some overly paranoid people," - she said, glancing at Hibiki - "then it would need enough seithr for it to operate. But you'll get to that when you scan the Cauldron, so there's no problem with that. So, any other questions or do we get to the technical side of this shit?" Kokonoe said, apparently bored with the whole briefing.
- 2200/02/31 NOL airship inbound to Tokyo -
I once again looked over my equipment for the mission. A heavily modified HK416 assault rifle with 5 spare magazines, a P228 with 3 Parabellum magazines, a detailed map of Honshū with major communication routes, a week's worth of rations, the pills that Kokonoe had me taking since [Doomsday] and, of course, Yukianesa. My greatest memento of Saya... and possibly one of the first signs of Izanami's manipulation of her mind, now just a lifeless piece of scrap metal. I know it's somehow related to that gap in my memory - Rachel confirmed that those gaps are Terumi's work. One of the few things that I can remember from the time when the three of us lived in that church is my goal of freeing nii-san from his fate... I didn't make it, and now he's forced to live the rest of his short and pitiful life as a puppet for that death-obsessed bitch... I wonder though, Rachel said he went into the forming Embryo, but she hasn't said a word yet about how me and Tsubaki are supposed to kill him, aside from using [Immortal Breaker] on her if my brother dies on his own... I still shudder in pain when I think about that fight when his Grimoire went haywire... that primal aggression dictating his movements and attacks, just like the Beast's... Nevertheless, we...I must kill him, no matter-
The sound of knocking pulled me out of my inner monologue.
"...Enter."
"Hey Jin, ready for dropoff?" Makoto said, entering my cabin. "We'll be in Tokyo in 10 minutes, so it's high time we packed up so we can enjoy the scenery!"
"Tch. What's supposed to be interesting in this big pile of rubble? Don't think as if it's going to be an adventure in an unknown land or something."
"Why are you always such a killjoy? Try to look on he bright side of life. Maybe when you and Tsubaki get married, you'll take her on a honeymoon here? After all, Japan is - was, at least, famous for it's cherry blossoms. A real sight to behold~" she said with a smile.
"You don't need to remind me, the Yayoi household has quite a few specimens. But now we need to focus on the matter at hand."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Makoto responded somewhat dejectedly and walked out of the cabin, leaving me on my own. And here I thought she had actually learned to be disciplined by now... Besides, this isn't even the season for cherry blossoms...
- Japan, [District 1] -
We arrived at the complex without bigger incidents. We had to convince the locals with various promises and money for them to cooperate, but even then their distrust was evident. On the other side, although ruined by the Black Beast, it seemed that Japan has managed to recover despite the flow of seithr from the constantly-open Cauldron: the plants and animals weren't as mutated and feral as they were, for example, outside of safe area around [Torifune] or in Ikaruga. The seasons still seemed completely misaligned, though - the amount of vegetation made one think it was the middle of July, not the beginning of March. At some point, the truck owner refused to get closer to the complex. Makoto signaled that to the operator back in the Tokyo outpost, after which we continued on foot.
The complex was indeed run-down, although not as much as a hundred years of inactivity would suggest, which reminded me of the 'time-distorting phenomenon' Makoto mentioned in the briefing. Everything seemed very sturdy, too sturdy to be made simply from normal alloys. I could sense magic being used to reinforce the superstructure, and Makoto confirmed it when that 'analysis kit' indicated presence of magical enhancement. The complex itself was similar to a Hierarchical City, but instead of being built on a mountain it was dug into a mountain. Another resemblance was that the Cauldron - and Ayatsuki's lab as well, I presumed - was located on the bottom of the complex, requiring use of an elevator to get there. Luckily, it was still operational.
The lab itself was nonoperational, and the analysis proven the Cauldron to be destroyed, thus disproving the Nox-class weapon theory. Nevertheless, we started to look around for any signs of recent (relatively to the normal flow of time, at least) activity within the lab. After a few hours we managed to restore power to some of the computers in the lab and, while Makoto began making a memory dump, I checked for any notes about EMP-based weapons.
"Aaaand done. Kokopuffs is gonna love this." I heard Makoto saying to herself, then shouting "Jin, how's the search going?".
"Not much. The only documents mentioning weapons are those regarding the Susano'o Unit or Terumi hiring both Relius and-"
"That we know already. Anything else?" Makoto interrupted me, seemingly in a hurry. Stop interrupting me, squirrel...
"Notes on the Azure Grimoire, how it's working and such. Also, there seems to be a 'to-do list' here..."
"Curious. Let's see what those mad scientists do on their off-time!" she said gleefully. I had to force myself not to facepalm.
"It looks more like a list of future projects..." I said to myself.
"Lemme see!" Makoto came to my side and took over. "Wait a minute... 'Further sampling of subtle electromagnetic background distortions in Yatsugatake Mountains', dated 5th April 2014... Doesn't that correspond to those readings Kokonoe told us about?"
"Possibly..." I pondered. Why is here an entry this old, though?... "If those are indeed the same distortions, then we might be onto something. Send that to her immediately."
"Okay, I'll just copy that list and send it as well" Makoto said and sprang to work instantly.
This complicated the situation. If somebody back there was indeed looking into the same occurrence that we are now, then that means seithr was actually blocking some sort of extra-logical interference... Seems that the only theory that still applies is the one about an Intervention, though there's a low probability of Izanami being connected to it...
At that moment Kokonoe opened up a connection to Makoto's kit, appearing as a to-scale, animated hologram.
"That's pretty good data you found there. Analyzing all these memory dumps will take a while, but that isn't important right now. Seems we're dealing with an Intervention here, possibly large-scale. Something like the Izayoi's Zanki Barrier, but much bigger and more covert."
"And we are going to scan that, aren't we?" I asked. I'm getting tired of those Observation shenanigans...
"Nice deduction, Sherlock." she deadpanned. "Oh, and by the way, if shit hits the fan, just send a message and we'll drop Tager off to your coordinates."
"Thanks." I said, not much convinced with that. After all, the area affected by this barrier seemed to be around thirty kilometers in diameter, so if we ended up surrounded by hostiles, Tager wouldn't be much of a help. Why didn't she send him in the first place, then?... After another short exchange, Kokonoe cut the connection, and Makoto decided that it's already too late to travel, so we had to sleep in the abandoned lab. I didn't feel excited by idea of sleeping beside a destroyed Cauldron, but better this than a pack of feral seithr-dogs, if any survived. It was better not to test that, though.
It was hard to fall asleep in that godforsaken place. I felt as if somebody kept constantly watching me. Most probably some kind of Observer, maybe an AI; after all, Takamagahara were easily capable of Observing entities. Still, it was enough to keep me from falling asleep. I glanced at Makoto, who, in contrast, seemingly had fallen asleep quite fast, though still tossed around. After an hour of attempting to shake off this uneasy feeling, I got up and once again looked over whatever documents were on Ayatsuki's computer. Analysis of seithr output depending on input voltage... Effects of seithr on human body...no, that won't be too useful... Personal logs? Whatever... As the uneasy feeling not only didn't stop, but seemingly grew even stronger, I finally decided to end this farce.
"Show yourself, Observer." I said quietly, so Makoto wouldn't wake up. Although nobody responded, this ambient nervousness slowly faded away. So there is an Observer. I'll need to confirm this with Makoto in the morning. Since falling asleep would be difficult until I calmed down completely, I decided to continue searching the computer for any other signs of these 'Yatsugatake distortions', but aside from a short note for some other scientist, apparently Relius - strange, since it was almost a century later - there was nothing new. I shut the computer down and lied on the ground near Makoto, finally falling asleep.
When I woke up, Makoto was already talking with Kokonoe about some technical difficulties. Apparently Tager had been damaged during construction of the high-output reactor in Ōkoto (Wasn't he supposed to be on standby?...) and wouldn't be able to support us. Also, the basic readings did indicate a barrier of some sorts in the Yatsugatake Mountains, but it was similar to the Zanki Barrier only in its function of hiding something. We needed to actually enter it to get any useful information.
"Wait a second, Kokonoe. There's a high probability that our actions are being Observed." I said, getting up.
"Good morning to you too, Jin." she deadpanned. "Makoto also mentioned that, so you'd better hurry. The last we want is Izanami finding you without backup."
"Got it, Kokonoe. See you later!" Makoto said, cutting the connection and turning to me. "You felt that strange presence at night too, Jin?"
"Yes. I'm surprised you could sleep with that around." I said.
"Well, I did work under Hazama for a few years, you know. Constant nausea was an occupational hazard." she said. "I got used to it."
"Point taken." I said and started packing my equipment, Makoto following shortly after. "Do you have any idea who could it be?"
"My guess is as good as yours, Jin." she shrugged and continued packing up. "Where did you leave the guns?"
"Right here, by the observation room."
"...Then it seems that Observer wants us here on their terms. They're gone." she said, folding her arms. Great.
"Tch... We need to keep moving and finish it as quickly as possible, then." I said, picking up my stuff and beckoning Makoto to do the same. With nothing more to do, we moved out of the complex, clearing it of any signs of our presence. The strange presence resurfaced for a moment as we closed the door, but disappeared just as quickly. We didn't give it much thought - it wasn't that important as long as it didn't directly interfere.