Ruukoto knew right from the start that this would happen. Yumemi hadn't bothered to refuel her nuclear fusion cells before giving her away to Reimu, and there was no way for that problem to be fixed here in Gensokyo. Despite that, the robot maid continued on with her duties like she was programmed to do, keeping her low fuel a secret from the young shrine maiden so as not to needlessly worry her. Now though, the truth can't be kept hidden any longer. Numerous warnings were going off in her HUD, and her battery life indicator was a bright red, signifying levels below one percent. As the crisp autumn leaves fell from their trees, Ruukoto sat down her broom and went to find Reimu.
Thankfully, it didn't take long to find the girl as she had been right inside the shrine, enjoying some tea she had just prepared and relaxing at the kotatsu. The dutiful maid really didn't want to interrupt such a peaceful moment, but it was too late; the shrine maiden had already noticed her.
"Is something the matter, Ruukoto?" asked Reimu. She set down her tea and looked over at the robot curiously. This was the first time she had ever seen her so apprehensive.
"Yes, there is, ma'am." Ruukoto bowed to her master. "I only have about 10 minutes worth of fuel left, so I won't be able to serve you any longer. I will be shutting down soon and will need to be scrapped."
"And you're just telling me this now?" Reimu stood up, slightly annoyed by how sudden this issue is. "I thought you were supposed to run semi-permanently."
"I was, but Lady Yumemi forgot to refuel me before handing me off to you. I would've told you earlier, but there's no way for me to be refueled here. I didn't want you to stress about it, Lady Reimu."
Reimu sighed. "Fair enough. Still, new things are always showing up here, so maybe we'll have what you need in the future. How about I keep you in the shed until then?"
The robot gave her master a quizzical look. "It may be a long time before Gensokyo has access to nuclear fusion energy. Are you sure that's the best idea?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Now come along with me." Reimu exited the shrine through the back and gestured for Ruukoto to follow. "I'll show you where you'll be."
Having no other choice, Ruukoto followed along behind towards the shed. It wasn't in the best of conditions - It clearly had signs of weathering, especially water damage - but it would have to do. With Reimu waving her in, the maid carefully stepped over tools and supplies as she walked to the back. By the time she stopped, she was in a back corner, hidden behind a stack of rice bags.
Reimu draped a nearby cloth over her. "Hopefully, this'll keep you dry and out of sight. I'll have your problem fixed as soon as I can, so just wait here." As she left, she shut the shed door, leaving Ruukoto alone in the dark in her final moments.
So this is how it ends, Ruukoto thought to herself. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. She shut her eyes, and a prompt appeared in her HUD, asking if she was sure she'd like to shut down. Ruukoto mouthed a silent "yes", her mind retreating into the calm nothingness.
-[x]-
Ruukoto slowly opened her eyes, her HUD slowly booting up and appearing in her field of view. Oddly enough, her battery indicator was green and showed that she was completely topped off. That wasn't the only thing weird about all this, though. Ruukoto could clearly tell that she was somewhere unfamiliar. She seemed to be in some kind of palace, one that reminded her of the western-style mansions that Lady Yumemi had shown her in a magazine once. I need to figure out where I am, she thought to herself as she stood up. Unfortunately, she slammed her head into someone's chin almost immediately, falling back into said person's lap.
"Unyu! I bit my tongue!" exclaimed the mystery girl.
As Ruukoto looked up at her, she saw that the girl had long black hair, a green bow, and massive black wings. Beside her, lying on the floor, was some kind of orange rod. "Who are you?" she asked.
"Me?" The mystery girl beamed down happily at Ruukoto, despite being in pain. I'm Utsuho Reiuji, the nuclear hell raven, but my friends just call me Okuu!" Before Ruukoto could respond, something seemed to click in Okuu's eyes as she remembered something. "Oh, I need to tell the others that you're up now." She cleared her throat momentarily and called through the palace. "Satori! Reimu! The girl's awake now!"
Approaching from the distance came a much older Reimu - fully grown, in fact - and an odd girl with another eye attached to her body by what appeared to be blood vessels. The odd girl - Ruukoto supposed her to be Satori - spoke up. "Okuu, you didn't have to yell. Remember, I can hear your thoughts, so I was already on my way."
"Oh! Sorry, Satori." The hell raven looked slightly saddened, though she quickly recovered. "I'll try to remember next time."
"Very good." Satori then waved the raven over. "Now, let's give these two some time alone together." As Okuu gets up to follow Satori out, the mind-reader turns to Reimu. "Feel free to come down and visit at any time. I know the pets enjoy it when you're here."
The shrine maiden gave Satori a bit of an apologetic look. "Well, I'm kind of busy up on the surface. I don't really have the time for long treks down here, but if I find time, maybe I'll come down."
Satisfied with that answer, Satori nodded and left the room with Okuu.
Meanwhile, Ruukoto was feeling overwhelmed. She had just booted back up, and already, she was being flooded with questions, people, and stimuli. All she could really do was watch as Reimu faced her again and approached. At least the other two left, but this was all too much still.
Reimu helped her up to her feet. "I said I'd get you working again, didn't I?" she said with a smile.
Ruukoto was about to ask how when she remembered that Okuu said she was nuclear. Figuring that had something to do with it, she held off on that question and instead asked a different, more pressing one. "How long has it been since then?"
Reimu put a hand to her chin as she thought. She really had to dig to figure this one out. "If I had to wager a guess, I'd say about 14 years, probably."
Well, that certainly explained why Reimu looked older now. The shrine maiden had even cut her hair and gotten a new outfit. This got Ruukoto wondering about how the rest of Gensokyo might've changed, though she didn't get to do so for long as Reimu completely cut off that train of thought.
"To be perfectly honest, I had forgotten about you years ago. Suika, an oni that comes by the shrine every now and again, accidentally stumbled upon you in the shed, and that's when I remembered what I had planned to do."
Oh, so Reimu forgot about me. Ruukoto felt somewhat dejected by this revelation, but she was glad to be alive at the very least. Wait, did she say something about an oni? Aren't they very dangerous? Ruukoto thought to herself.
"Anyways, the shrine's changed quite a bit while you were gone. We get quite a few more visitors now. In the end though, it's still the same old run-down shrine." Reimu reached her hand out to the robot. "Are you ready to come on back?"
Ruukoto simply stared at the shrine maiden's hand as her mind flooded with various thoughts and questions. Was she truly ready to work again? Was this all just a dream? Would she even be able to return comfortably after so long? Despite this mess, she grabbed her hand and stated simply "I'm ready." With that, the duo departed together for the surface.
-[xXx]-
A/N: Finally got the time to sit down and work on this. This won't be too long of a fic, so I imagine I'll have it finished some time between the end of this week and the end of this month, all depending on how much time I have and how motivated I tend to feel in regards to working on this. I already have the plot written out for this, so don't worry, we're not flying by the seat of our pants here. This is the first time I've written a multi-chapter story, though, so it'll be interesting to see how the final product turns out. Hopefully, it'll be something we can all enjoy reading.