Greetings, fellow authors and readers! I am J the Observing Author, a writer with a passion for every game I get to play on! Welcome to Touhou Strikers, an epic tale of science, magic, and homage to many other shoot 'em ups that I could think of!
Indeed, this is going to be a rather lengthy series, as you can see. I try to make the format simple enough for readers to understand.
Regardless, if you readers are willing to read this story, then I bid you welcome to my interpretation of the Touhou universe, and I hope you readers enjoy this story!
And I personally thank Terrarian Creeper and his Muse for their help and support. Without them, this story wouldn't be posted at this site. By the way, Terrarian Creeper is the author of "Boundless World of Danmaku". You readers should check it out.
Of course, Touhou belongs to ZUN. I only own the Original Characters and the plot.
In the year 2514, humanity was at its peak. Most of the nations were united under a common rule, wars and disputes were mostly settled, and people began to venture out to space.
But, it wasn't all peaches and cream; as humanity ventured further into space, a new alien race attacked them. Upon the wake of this catastrophic event, the new enemy addressed themselves to humanity as CANY.
Humanity valiantly defended itself against CANY, but they were unprepared by the scale of the forces that C.A.N.Y. has employed. Many lives were lost, cities were levelled, and even the moon was utterly destroyed. People have begun to lose hope . . .
In an armored boat off the coast of Japan, I finished listening to a little history video on my tablet concerning the CANY invasion of Earth. Afterwards, I closed my tablet and sighed. This going to be a long day . . .
東方ストライカーズ - 希望の兆し
Touhou Strikers - The Silver Lining
Chapter 1: Doomed Future to Present-Day Gensokyo
I checked the on my tablet and saw that it was already around 4:13 in the afternoon. Acknowledging the current time, I turned off my tablet and I began to look at my surroundings. I was riding on an armored boat, heading towards a meticulous facility in an artificial island.
Anyway, I was not alone on the armored boat. I was accompanied by a squadron of soldiers. They were battle-hardened, and most of them didn't even bother to speak to me. I guess that's one of the qualities of them being 'professional' at their job.
As I peered on the open window, I could see the devastation that the CANY invasion has left behind. Upturned boats, skeletons of tanks, bloodied corpses, and buildings on the verge of collapse were prominent on the landscape. I probably regretted coming here, but given the situation humanity has, I have to come to terms with it anyway.
"Hey kid, what're you looking at the windows anyway?"
One of the soldiers asked me that particular question. I smiled, knowing at least one of them would be sociable enough to have a little chit-chat at this time.
"I was just looking at the devastation outside," I replied. "I know that CANY is known for their brutality but this-"
"Yeah, I know that kid," The soldier replied. "You've gotta face the reality. There's no point of denying the facts."
Yes, I know that too well. Due to the CANY's invasion, many youths were forced to serve military terms to replenish the fallen soldiers in battle. That was the gruesome fate that awaited many students who finished their high school. Such innocence that childhood presented and the joys of the teenage life were abruptly cut short.
However, I was rather saved my older sister, who persuaded me to join her group called STRKERS and she wanted me to undertake a 'special project' that she and her husband developed to counter CANY. Whatever that project will be, I just hope her husband doesn't inject me with nanites again. Those little mechs inside my body made me sick for a week! My sister and husband explained that I fell sick because my body was adjusting to the nanites. Whether I believed them or not doesn't matter in the long run anyway.
"Hang on kid," The soldier said. "We're almost there."
I peered at the window once more. Just as the soldier has said, the Cybernetic Industries was visible in the background. The Cybernetic Industries was a company primarily focused on cybernetics and nanotechnology. During the CANY invasion, they helped supply armies with cybernetic parts for the amputated soldiers and nanites for accelerated bio-regeneration. There were many missile turrets scattered around the compound in case it was attacked by CANY. As we arrived at the port, the soldiers were busy arming themselves; I was approached by the same soldier I talked to earlier.
"Okay kid, we're nearing the rendezvous point," The soldier explained. "You'd better get ready-"
Suddenly the soldier put his right hand on his helmet. As I could barely hear it, I assumed that the soldier received an urgent call from his superiors. As the call ended, he grabbed my hand.
"Change of plans kid," The soldier urgently said. "We need to leave this boat now."
"W-what's going on?" I hesitantly asked.
"Those CANY bastards are gonna attack this place," The soldier explained. "We need to enter Cybernetic Industries ASAP-"
Suddenly, the armored boat came under fire. All of us ducked for cover as the armored boat was pelted with bullets from all sides. I closed my eyes as I could hear bullets deflecting and ricochets were heard across the boat. It seemed that the assault lasted for a long time.
After a while, silence filled my boat. I opened my eyes, stood up and I was horrified at the condition of the other people on the boat. Dead, bloody bodies were lying on the hull of the boat, and bullet holes riddled the supposedly armored boat; those two things made me sick to the bone.
"Don't just stand there," A voice said to me. "We gotta move!"
I looked back and saw the same solder that I talked earlier. Like me, he was relatively unscathed, but from his expressions he was just as horrified at the loss of his comrades.
"I know, but this isn't the time for mourning," The soldier urged. "I'm going to escort you for the sake of my fallen comrades. So, grab a pistol and when you do, we'll start heading for the Cybernetic Industries."
Upon the hearing the soldier's words, I searched the bodies for a more suitable weapon and found it. It was a laser pistol. With a generous battery size, tight shot grouping at range, resilience to extended use, and fairly decent damage output, the laser pistol was a very practical choice for a sidearm. I picked it up along with the additional ammo and placed them in my bag.
"So, you chose a laser pistol, huh?" The soldier smirked. "Not bad, kid. Now, let's go."
As we stepped into the outside, we were greeted by a very gruesome sight. The skies were as dark as the night, missile turrets were firing meticulously, and they were firing at the CANY spider mechs that were literally falling from the sky.
"Come on," The soldier said. "Follow my lead."
As we ran to the Cybernetic Industries, I could see people running in random directions. Some of them were brutally killed by the CANY mechs, others fought valiantly against them. The soldier and I didn't pay much attention to them, as our objective was to find a way inside the facility.
As we reached the front entrance, we were greeted a massive amount of rubble that blocked the passage.
"Damn, the front entrance is sealed," The soldier cursed. "We need to go at the back entrance."
Well, that certainly complicated things for us. It's just a matter of time before those CANY mechs began to look for us.
We ran towards the back entrance as quickly as our feet would take us. The sounds of missiles and gunfire were still audible to my ears; my gut was telling me that if we don't get inside the facility, we'll be gunned to death by those CANY mechs.
As we reached the back entrance, the soldier grabbed the door and attempted to open it. But, it turned out the door was locked.
"Well, it isn't that convenient?" The soldier remarked. "Fortunately, I've got some C4 charges. Better stand back, kid."
As he planted the C4 charge at the door, I hugged the wall and braced for the miniature explosion. Moments later, there was a loud bang, and the door was open and was unhinged from the wall.
"Let's go in," The soldier said. "We might face some CANY mechs inside, so you'd better be prepared."
In response, I readied my laser pistol and we went inside the Cybernetic Industries.
As we went inside, I was surprised that the interior of the building was relatively intact as opposed to the exterior. Most of the things were still arranged neatly, there were no bullet marks, and the lights were still functioning properly. The only things that were out of place were the absence of people other than us and the sound of gunfire coming in the next room.
"Better get ready," The soldier warned me. "When the door opens, you'd better ready your weapon."
As the soldier opened the door, I was horrified at what I saw. Corpses were scattered around the area, and there were people that were severely injured, but still alive; they were crawling out of the room. However, they were gunned down like the rest, and I got to see the perpetrator.
It was one of those spider mechs; I assume it came from above due to the huge gap present on the ceiling. As soon as it gunned down the last injured human, the mech turned its attention towards us.
"Take cover!" The soldier shouted.
The mech attacked us first unleashing its salvo of bullets from its gatling gun in our direction, forcing us to hide. Bullets fly in a single direction as I clutched to my laser pistol.
When the storm of bullets ended, the soldier nodded and we emerged out of our cover and fired at the mech. As I fired on the spider mech, I intentionally aimed at the leg joints to disable its movement. On the other hand, the soldier fired at the weapons of the mech, successfully jamming it.
Not long after we fired at it, the crippled mech retaliated by firing its gatling gun once more; but due to the soldier damaging it, the attempt backfired on the mech horribly, and it exploded, sending shrapnel all over the place and forcing us to take cover.
When all was done, we left our cover and we saw the mech was utterly destroyed by its own weapons. It's a case of death by irony, I took note at that.
"Don't celebrate yet kid," The soldier warned. "These Scouts are mere cannon fodder for CANY."
These mechs are called Scouts? I'll take note of that, thank you very much. Seeing that there were no more mechs on the area, we proceeded towards the elevator.
As we walked in the corridor leading to the elevator, a question began to form in my mind. I'm quite curious to the soldier that was accompanying me. Who was he, and what are his motivations and the like?
"So, do you have a name?" I asked him.
"So a kid like you wants to know my name," The soldier smirked. "Alright, my name's Smith."
So, his name was Smith? Then, I'm glad that this soldier was nice enough to tell me his name.
"Okay, I'm Frank Shinka Kizuna," I introduced to the solder. Upon seeing the soldier grinned, I asked again. "Smith, why did you become a soldier?"
"You're really that fond of asking trivial questions, don't you?" Smith replied. "If you're curious, I was recruited as soon as I finished high school. Yeah, you can say that it is tough fighting CANY, but it's a lot more satisfying than settling down for some mundane job."
"Are you saying that you like to fight as a soldier?" I retorted.
"Kid, I didn't enlist myself because I wanted to be a soldier," Smith replied. "It's because I wanted to fight for my fellow siblings in arms."
I could understand what he was saying to me. I guessed by enlisting as a soldier, Smith was contributing to the society by fighting the CANY invaders.
When we reached for the elevator, I pressed one of the buttons and waited for the door to open. Suddenly, a small squadron of CANY mechs appeared behind us, making the situation even more complicated.
"I'll take care of these tin cans," Smith said. "You go to the elevator ASAP."
"What about you?" I replied.
"Nah, don't worry about me," Smith smiled at me. "Your safety is more important than mine."
Soon afterwards, a beep was heard and the elevator doors opened.
"Now go to the elevator and don't look back!" Smith shouted.
I did as he told and ran like hell towards the elevator. I went to the corner and pressed the 'close' button on the switch. As the elevator doors began to close, I saw bullets riddle one side of the elevator with holes. When the elevator was fully close, I slumped at the floor as it transported me down to the deepest parts of this facility.
Somewhere at the far reaches of space, CANY's elite personnel were observing the assault on the Cybernetic Industries in their battleship. In particular, one of the video feeds showed a bloodied corpse of a man in a secluded corridor near an elevator.
"What was the status of the assault?" An elite clad in blue asked.
"The assault is initially successful," Another elite clad in orange answered. "However, two humans have entered the facility through the back entranced. One of them is dead, courtesy of our mechs. The other slipped into the elevator going to the lower levels."
"This isn't good at all," The blue elite grimaced. "The Chaos Queen wouldn't accept this flaw in the plan . . ."
"Then, we'll compensate for the flaws," The orange elite answered. "Our forces will find that human eventually."
"If you say so," The blue elite agreed as they resumed their observation.
As the elevator continued to travel further down, I was worried about Smith. Did he make it out alive? Based on the number of mechs that he had to fight, I highly doubt that he'll survive that assault.
I slapped myself back to reality. Whoever Smith was, he actually sacrificed himself for my safety. I wouldn't let his sacrifice be wasted!
As the elevator doors opened once more, I cautiously ventured out to another corridor. Unlike the previous corridor, this one only had one straight path; at least it made things a lot easier for me.
As I reached the end of the corridor, I stood in front a high security door. There was a voice recognition speaker on both sides of the door. I approached one of the speakers and spoke out loud.
"Anyone can hear me?"
Moments passed, and only silence greeted my ears. Seriously, I was assuming that no one was in that room until a familiar voice replied back to me.
"Ah, we've been waiting for you, Frank! Come in!"
That was the voice of my older sister. Thank heaven she's still alive! Anyway, the reinforced door opened and I get to see my older sister once again.
"Lumina, is that you?" I replied at the speakers. "Thank heavens you're alive!"
"Frank, I'm glad you're here too!" She said as she hugged me. And then, her mood suddenly changed as she rebuked me. "Anyway, what took you so long? You could've gotten yourself killed!"
"Yes sis, I'm aware of that," I replied. "By the way, is Doc Brown with you?"
"Yeah, Proton is with me," Lumina replied, letting me go. "In fact, he's more anxious to meet with you once again."
"Then, I'll go to Doc Brown," I concluded as the reinforced doors closed again. "I hope it's something other than a nanite injection . . ."
As Lumina and I went to Doc's study, we found the person in question was sitting in a table; Proton was busy transferring the remaining data to a portable remote control-like device. In fact, he was engrossed at his work that he didn't paid attention to us at all.
"Honey, did you bring someone with you?" Proton said. "Tell that person to leave. I don't want to obtain another one of those 'cake' deliveries. They always prank me with those lies!"
"Uh, I brought my brother here, like you requested," Lumina replied.
"You said 'Frank', right?" Suddenly, Proton shifted his attention from his project to me and my sister. "Frank, it's good to see you again!"
"Yeah, it's good to see you Doc," I sheepishly replied. "Just don't inject me with those nanites again."
"Nonesense! Those nanites are gonna be beneficial to your body in the long run!" Proton blurted aloud. "That subject aside, I want to give you something."
He handed three things to me. Those things were a mystery box with a big red button, a bag I presume to be full of money, and a strange remote control-like device.
"Uh, what are these things?" I asked.
"I can't tell you yet what that mystery box is," Proton teased by wagging his right index finger. "But, the money bag is full of yen, and that device contains the EVOLVE system."
"The evolve who what now?" I was confused at his explanation.
"The EVOLVE stands for Evolving Valiant Offensive Learning Variable Exoskeleton," My sister explained. "It's a battlesuit that consists of nanomachines that can be condensed to form a battlesuit at the command of its user."
"I assume that's the reason why you injected me thrice with nanites," I acknowledged; Proton let out a grin in response. "That's good to know."
"That's not all," Proton added. "The system comes with one of the most power AI ever developed. Say hi to Frank for me."
Suddenly, the remote control-like device began to glow green and spoke to me in a masculine voice.
"Statement: Greetings new user. I am the AI of the EVOLVE system. Please refer to me by same name as the system."
This is incredible; the remote just talked to me! I couldn't believe that they developed this in a short span of time. I guess being injected with nanites was probably worth it.
"As incredible as the EVOLVE system is, I'm afraid that Lumina and I are not its creators," Proton acknowledged. "The EVOLVE system is the ultimate masterpiece of our mentor, Yumemi Okazaki."
"Yumemi Okazaki?" I retorted. "From what I've heard, Yumemi Okazaki is a scientist that was ridiculed amongst the scientific community. I can't believe she would create something like this!"
"Believe it or not, she created the EVOLVE system; Lumina and I were the ones entrusted by her to finish its development upon her last breath," Proton nonchalantly replied. "Oh, there's one more thing I need to show you. This time, it's an invention my wife and I truly created."
Proton pressed a button on the table; a nearby wall retracted and flipped over, revealing a huge cylinder that resembled the interior of an elevator. The most prominent feature of the device is the huge clock that was featured at the front. As soon as I saw the clock, I instantly recognized that device from many fictional works.
"Am I seeing things?" I blurted. "You two built a freaking time machine!"
"You don't have to shout!" My sister nagged me. Then, she regained her composure and explained. "And yes, we built this machine to travel back in time when CANY wasn't a threat to the world."
"Let me guess; you two are planning to send me back in time to destroy CANY before they invade the Earth," I summarized. "Are you two nuts?!"
In an instant, I received two karate chops to the head. I comically clutched my head in pain from the blows.
"Keh, ouch," I groaned. "What was that for?!"
"Don't underestimate our scientific prowess!" Proton exclaimed. "By defeating CANY in the past, we can potentially avert the disaster we're facing at the present!"
"That's why we built this prototype time machine," My sister continued. "To simplify it for you: The plan is to send you back in time, find the CANY HQ, and destroy them."
Sure, the plan was simple to explain, but I felt as though they didn't consider other, more practical choices.
"Uh, did you even consider other options?" I protested. "Did you two consider developing more sophisticated weapons or even a robot army?"
The couple looked at each other and shrugged before one of them answered to me.
"Uh, we did consider those, but given the limited time and resources, we didn't go through those options," Lumina replied.
You know, I couldn't blame them for their choices. After all, they are the best at what they do; who am I to complain?
"I guess we can't complain on the choices you two made," I sighed. "Let's just go with it-"
Suddenly, the reinforced door bended and bullets began to pierce through the room. I retreated behind the time machine as Lumina began to configure the time machine console and Proton became alert.
"Darn it, those CANY mechs are here!" Proton exclaimed as he grabbed a laser pistol. "Frank, you need to enter the time machine now."
"What about you two?" I asked. Truthfully, I don't want them to meet the same fate as Smith.
"We can take care of ourselves," Lumina replied as she entered the coordinates on the time machine. "We're going to send you back in time in approximately 500 years-"
Suddenly, a stray bullet from one of the CANY mechs pierced through the delicate electronics; Lumina backed off as sparks was emitted from the damaged console.
"Damn it, I wasn't done with inputting the exact location," She gritted her teeth. "At least I've inputted the exact number of years to go back, but the location was truly randomized."
"It doesn't matter since he'll travel back to the same time period anyway!" Proton shouted as he fired his pistol on the incoming mechs. "Tell Frank to get inside and activate the time machine!"
"You heard what he said," My sister urged. "Get in."
I grabbed the mysterious box, the money bag, and the EVOLVE system and put them in my bag, and then I entered the time machine.
"Frank, good luck," My sister said as she put her left hand on the glass. "I hope I can see you again."
I didn't speak any words; instead, I put my right hand to match her left hand. I saw tears flowing from her eyes as she activated the time machine. A bright, white light engulfed me, and moments later, a bright flash of light engulfed my eyes, and then my mind lost consciousness . . .
The moment I regained consciousness and opened my eyes, I realized that I was covered in a futon underneath a kotatsu. And from the surroundings, I realized that I was in an old-fashioned Japanese home, inside of a shrine in particular.
"Who, what, and where the heck am I?!" I exclaimed.
"Well, you're really that jittery when you wake up, huh?" Someone replied to me. A pair of hands opened the door and a shrine maiden entered the room.
She was a girl who was slightly younger than me. She was wearing a modified red and white shrine maiden outfit. As I continued to keep an eye on her, I noticed that she was holding a tray containing two cups of warm tea. She had a neutral expression on her face, but she was keeping an eye on me, as if she had found something new and unique.
"I was beginning to doubt that you'll wake up," The shrine maiden remarked. "After all, it seemed you rolled down the staircase when I found you."
"I did?" I scratched my head. I couldn't recall anything when I became unconscious. "Nonetheless, thank you for saving me. My name is Frank Shinka Kizuna. And you are?"
A smile formed on the lips on the shrine maiden; as she put the tray down to the kotatsu, I assumed that I somehow satisfied her with my honesty.
"Frank Shinka Kizuna? That's the first time I've heard such a name for an outsider," The shrine maiden chuckled. "Anyway, I am Reimu Hakurei and welcome to the land of fantasy, Gensokyo."
End of Chapter
To be continued in . . .
東方ストライカーズ - 希望の兆し
Touhou Strikers - The Silver Lining
Chapter 2: Explanations, Insights, and Demonstrations
The next chapter is on its early stages.
So, please wait kindly until the next update . . .