To be honest, I have a really dumb reason for writing this.
All my other works require a lot of thought and consideration on my part, as well as a lot of planning, even if it seems otherwise. For once, I wanted to write some stupid and childish story where I didn't need to really think about what would happen next; something I could just write and enjoy. Like other works I have starring our beloved baka, Team Nineball has the same cave-type hideout inspired by TakerFoxx's wonderful fanfic Imperfect Metamorphosis. You know, I should really get back to reading that so I can finish catching up, I'm about 2/3 done now so I might read a few more chapters once I get this uploaded.
Oh yeah, did I mention that this, like many other recent works of mine, is based on an image I found on Danbooru? I seem to spend a lot of time there recently.
Summer in Gensokyo. Actually, summer was coming to an end, so let's rephrase that…
It would soon be autumn in Gensokyo. Generally, something interesting happened during the summer, but not even Cirno and the rest of Team Nineball could find something interesting this year. Spring had been unusually quiet (aside from the usual, obnoxiously loud announcements from Lily White) and so far summer wasn't proving any better. And just as Cirno had given up hope as she flew over Misty Lake to try and find anything even remotely interesting, she found something…
A bottle floating in the lake. It seemed to have a couple pieces of paper inside. Aha! We've finally got it! Cirno dove in, and snatched the bottle right out of the water as though anybody else could take it away at any second. Whatever was inside this bottle, it had to be interesting!
Team Nineball's subterranean cave of a hideout was the same as usual, if not a bit hotter than usual because it was getting near the end of summer, and the hideout was underground. It usually didn't seem that way when Cirno was around, though; most likely because she naturally chilled the air around her. That chill swept the hideout when Cirno came bolting in with a bottle in her hand, nothing in it besides two pieces of paper. "I found something," she yelled. "Everybody get out here, I found something!"
Before long, the other four members of Team Nineball were out in the main cavern, some looking excited and others annoyed. "What did you find," Wriggle asked. "It's not another weird sunflower, is it? You know how those things scare me."
"Nah, that's not it," Cirno proclaimed happily and proudly. "I found a bottle!"
"That's it? A bottle?"
"But look! There's something inside! But I can't get the damn thing open, can somebody help?"
"Let me see it," Rumia said. If there was one thing Rumia was good at aside from using darkness, it was opening stuff. From rusty doors that seemed to not budge for anybody else to things that had several magical locks on them, Rumia seemed to be able to open just about anything. When Cirno handed Rumia the bottle, the youkai of darkness demonstrated this talent yet again, as she sunk her teeth deep into the cork that held the bottle shut. Then her hands gripped the end of the neck, and she began pulling the bottle away from her face while she pulled her face away from her hands. Before long, POP! It was open, and Rumia spit the cork out, handing the bottle to Cirno. "Easy."
"Thanks." Cirno pulled out the first paper, and looked it over. "Hm…interesting."
"What? What is it?"
"Whoever wrote this has really neat handwriting."
"…That's it?"
"Hey, I can't read. Any of you willing to take over?"
"Give me that," Wriggle said. She claimed to be the smartest of Team Nineball (but then again, so did Cirno, so does that really mean anything?) but if there was one sense in which she was correct, it was that she was the best reader and writer of the five. "It says…to whom it may concern. I don't know who you are, and I don't know where you are. All I know is that you found this bottle that I cast out into the ocean just moments after I finished writing this letter. My name is Geraldo de Cruz, and I am an explorer and archaeologist."
"What's an archaeologist?"
"No idea. Anyway…as I'm writing this, my body is nearing it's limits. I can't hold out for much longer, so I will tell you what I can. Six years ago, I received news of a wondrous treasure buried deep within an ancient tomb, and promptly put together an exploration party and gathered resources. My men and I spent five long years searching for it, but we have had no luck. Supposedly, this treasure is capable of granting any one wish. My men all eventually died of hunger or thirst, and for the last year I have continued the search alone. I'm afraid my lust for treasure has gotten the best of me, so I entrust to you, dear stranger, the map leading to this treasure. I can only hope that, should you search for this treasure as well, you will have better luck than I did."
As Wriggle finished reading the letter, Cirno had reached her hand in and taken out the map. "Wow, this is awesome!" Before long, everybody else's heads were next to her shoulders so that they too could see the map, and they all looked like they were going to enjoy the search as well. "It's decided," Cirno proclaimed louder than any fairy had the right to. "We've gotta go find this treasure! Then we get our wish!"
"I'll wish to block out the sun," Rumia said happily.
"You can't block out the sun," Mystia and Wriggle said in unison.
"Well, what would you wish for?"
"World peace," Mystia said.
"The power to keep Yuka far away from me," Wriggle said, her voice shaking a bit at the mention of the flower youkai.
"Are you kidding," Cirno asked. "We need to wish for an endless winter!"
"You're insane," Wriggle yelled. "You'd kill me and Mystia!"
Daiyousei, being herself, had stayed in the corner. She didn't look at the map, and she wasn't going to say what her wish was. "Um…excuse me…"
"Just adapt! I adapt to the cold just fine, Wriggle."
"You're a damned ice fairy! You're supposed to adapt to the cold!"
"But I also adapt to heat very well."
"Ice…freaking…fairy!"
"Oh, is somebody jealous that I'm stronger?"
"Only in your wildest dreams, Cirno!"
"Both of you cut it out," Mystia yelled into the ears of both Cirno and Wriggle. "We need to get ready to go on this treasure hunt before we even consider our wishes. And before we can get ready, we need to find out how many people to prepare for. So, who is going? I for one would love to."
"I'm in," Cirno said.
"I'd like to go on an adventure," Rumia said happily.
"You guys will be a wreck without me," Wriggle said. "Count me in, too."
"Excellent. And that leaves Daiyousei. How 'bout it, you also coming along?"
"Um…well…" Daiyousei got up to her feet, and said "I'd rather not, to be honest."
"Hm?"
"That Geraldo guy, didn't he die? I know if we die we'll just come back by the end of the day, but death is still very unpleasant, and I'd prefer to avoid it. Mystia, you know it better than any of us, right?"
"…" Mystia's entire body shuddered a little, just thinking about it. All the "trips" to Hakugyokurou, the few weeks that Mystia and Rumia were sworn enemies, the random encounters with that phoenix-girl who ran that fried chicken stand, and most recently, a jiang shi that just up and ate her at random. Being killed was far from fun. "If you don't want to go, you don't have to."
"Thank you."
"I'm sure you'd do the same for me. Now then, our adventure…what do we need?"
"A boat," Cirno said. Then she began running her finger over a large blue part of the map, and said "I'm pretty sure this is water. Wriggle's a bad swimmer, and I know you don't like getting your wings wet, Mystia."
"Can't we just fly over the water?"
"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?"
"I suppose. And we would need somewhere to store everything else. Alright, so a boat it is. What else would we need?"
"Plenty of food and water! And we'd also need…"
The entire day had gone to planning out the things they'd need for the trip. The list was rather large, costing in the millions of yen, but Mystia insisted that nobody panic. Now was the time to show them just why. "I've been saving up since before we even met." Mystia moved a large rock hiding a sub-cavern inside the cavern that was her room, stuffed to the brim with at least fifty bags of yen that looked like they were about to explode. "There's ten-million yen in each of these bags. Multiply that by fifty bags, and we've got five-billion yen. More than enough to fund the adventure."
"F-F-F…" Wriggle couldn't believe her ears. "Five billion? Mystia, do you have any idea what we could do with all that?"
"Live like royalty, get everything we want and more."
"Yeah! Why have you been holding back on us?"
"Because if we have everything we want, there's nothing any of us want."
"That makes no sense…"
"If somebody has all their dreams coming true in the blink of an eye, they have nothing to work towards any longer. Remember when we first started settling in this cave? Having to dig out our own individual rooms and building the camouflage for the front?"
"It was hard as all hell!"
"Exactly. Remember all the good times we had doing it? If I'd just bought us a mansion, we wouldn't have any of those good times. I keep all the money back here for safekeeping, so that anything we need we can get, and occasionally we go out and buy all sorts of fun things. If my business ever dies out, we need some saved-up money to support us until somebody finds a new source of income. Now does it make more sense?"
"I suppose…I still think we should go spend at least half of that." Wriggle faced away from the money to avoid the temptation of stealing her friend's money, and said "It's safe to assume we'll have one kick-ass boat at least, right?"
"That's for certain. This adventure will be long and hard, but we'll get one wish from it. I'll start buying the things we need. Rumia, care to help?"
"Sure." The youkai of darkness grabbed a couple of money bags along with Mystia, and the two left the room, part-nudging/part-shoving Cirno and Wriggle out of the room. "So, what's first on the shopping list?"
"A boat."
"Is that so?"
First chapter of my dumbest and most childish work yet. I'm not gonna say who (if they even find the treasure) will get their wish, since the treasure only grants one single wish. If this were a regular work of mine, this would be the part where I say "The next couple of chapters are gonna have Mystia and Rumia buying everything and Cirno and Wriggle planning out the trip since that's just a disaster waiting to happen" but as I stated, this isn't a regular work of mine. Granted, the next chapter will have that idea, but I dunno about anything from there. All I know is that the boat is gonna be very expensive, like four-billion yen expensive.
I'm not really good with currency conversions, but I say four-billion because…well, you should know that part already
