Chapter 3 The Sea of Tranquility

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I do not own Touhou or Mass Effect.

Shephard had to physically restrain himself from laughing when Yorihime took Toyohime on a jogging run. He had to.

Oh, how he thought his marine teacher was tough. Compared to him, Yorihime was downright monster.

She managed to drag Toyohime in a way that she keep on hitting the rough rocks of the moon while jogging. Apparently for both Toyohime and Yorihime they had some kind of artificial gravity that treats the moon like the Earth, so it allowed Yorihime to brutally bruise Toyohime.

Toyohime tried to stand up and jog – the only way that Shephard saw to minimize the amount of damage. But the pace that Yorihime took Toyohime led to her tripping several times, thus resuming the dragging times.

Shephard could see how this would actually work. By doing this exercise, Yorihime was improving Toyohime's endurance and speed.

Endurance, because Yorihime had to last through all the sharp rocks she was dragged to.

Speed, so that she can keep up with Yorihime when jogging.

From the conversation Yorihime was telling Tali, who was floating and jumping right next to them, Yorihime was personally responsible for training all the Lunarians in the art of war. This Hell's Jogging was one of the many exercises Yorihime forced her subordinates to come through.

Shephard shivered. Essentially, these Lunarians were all spec-ops. They may not work for waging open warfare, but, given enough time, could easily orchestrate the collapse of several race's governments. Which, from the general attitude of Lunarians, wouldn't have hesitate towards such tactics.

Well, Tali looks like she was having fun. Kind of, with her hands tied. It seemed that Yorihime was explaining to Tali the rigorous, no, more like brutal training that she had implemented, and offered Tali to join. Tali, being not an idiotic Quarian, chose not to participate.

Shephard was conflicted, quite conflicted. He was technically using Tali as a way of gleaming information, but there wasn't much he could do. Considering the extremely fast pace that Yorihime was walking, Shephard did not have time to get to the Normandy, get a full squad ready, and return without the Lunarians simply leaving. So, he was there, trailing behind the Lunarians quite a distance way.

He was extremely shocked when Toyohime told Tali about why the moon base disappearing. It seemed that, this was a first contact procedure with hostile intentions, but then again, the way Toyohime phrased sounded like they never wanted to fight in the first place.

Hmmm, what could he remark about Toyohime and Yorihime? If he was a professional, he would that Toyohime was the weaker link of the duo, being able to tell information more freely. She also had access to more of the classified information than her sister. Yorihime, on the other hand, was a warrior through and through. It'll take at least a thousand Alliance Marines to encircle her and wear her down to the point that she could be killed, or five spectres.

To be honest, though, Shephard would want those type of big sisters. One of them extremely serious, and a tsundere to boot, while the other being the nice one. Both of them cared deeply for the people they love, and are willing to do anything to protect them.

And now, opinions of the Lunarians as general. From what Toyohime said, the two siblings were more on the lenient side. And, it appeared, they were so fixated in the concept of purity, which was kind of worrying. It made them seem like a bunch of religious zealots, similar to Saren and the Reapers.

Gah, the galaxy had already faced too much problems right now, especially with religious zealots. The existence of an entirely new race would definitely throw a loop in everyone's plans, mainly both his and Saren's. The Citadel doesn't have a plan in the first place, so contact with new race could be something very well that they could divert attention to.

No, make that two new races. If he could gleam correctly from Toyohime's conversation, there was also this Gensokyo with their leader, Yukari Yakumo.

Now, Shephard wasn't a connoisseur of sake, but he did know that the older it is, the more mature it tastes. And a thousand year old sake? There would be thousands of people bidding millions of dollar just to have one cup.

So, upon hearing the antics of Yukari, he immediately placed Yukari as a person who he should just turn tail and start running immediately. Not like it's going to happen though…that person would just catch him just for the amusement, if he got a proper grasp of Yukari's abilities

Shephard was so deep in thought that he almost walked into Tali and the Lunarians when they came to a sudden stop. Luckily, Shephard snapped himself back into attention and dived behind a rock cover. He then looked at what was happening.

The Lunarians, who were perfectly fine breathing in an oxygen environment, was talking to Tali about something. However, due to there not being any air to transmit the sounds, he couldn't really listen to whatever conversation they were talking.

It was at that moment in which Yorihime, who was still holding Toyohime by the neck, lifted her in the air with just one hand. There was panic shouting from both Toyohime and Tali, but Yorihime simply ignored their protests and threw her sister at –

Threw her sister at…

Threw…

The sister in question just disappeared. There was panic shouting from Tali, but Yorihime just allayed her fears by sticking her arm into something, something that only made her arm disappear up to her elbow, and withdrew. After some hesitation, Tali disappeared from Shephard's view, and Yorihime walked in too, right after looking around the whole landscape.

Shephard frowned as he lowered his sniper rifle in his hand. Well, that'll make it tricky. He didn't know if Yorihime noticed him, definitely not Toyohime, and she was setting an ambush inside that stealth field.

Wait…maybe he could use their ability to intercept communications to their advantage….

Shephard decided to try and contact the Normandy. "This is Commander Shephard. I'm floating in space, can somebody copy?"

There was no response, meaning that the person who was holding the communication jammer managed to intercept that message. Good.

"Anyone? Hard Copy? Am I just going to float in space until I get out of the communication jammer? Oh that's just great. God damn it." Shephard added in sarcastically, and shut off communications.

There, the Lunarians should be tricked into thinking that he was still floating in space. And now for the biggest gamble today.

Shephard stood up and walked to the previous place in which Tali stood. He took a deep breath, prayed to be lucky, and dived in, hoping for cover.

He was…slightly lucky. Nevermind that. He wasn't lucky at all. Unless slamming someone unconscious was lucky. In that case…well, he had all the luck of the universe. And a bit more.

"Sister!" Yorihime shouted as Toyohime flew right in front of her, her sword and assault rifle in her hands immediately.

Unfortunately, he did not have the luck to hit the right target. If he wanted to knock someone unconscious, he wanted to knock Yorihime unconscious. She's the more dangerous one in close combat-

"Shephard!" Tali shouted out loud, "Wait, he didn't mean to –"

"I know he didn't mean to do that." Yorihime's sword was already pointed at Shephard's neck, "He wanted to enter the Sea of Tranquility by sending us a fake communication message."

Shephard could only raise his hand in surrender. "Well, you got me."

"Shephard, what were you doing the whole time?" Tali asked, "Were you…stalking me?"

"OW! MY HEAD!" The girl who was sent flying by Shephard stood up, "Oh my freaking god, my head!"

Shephard winced as the girl in front started hopping all over the place. "Yeah, sorry." Shephard apologized quickly, "And, for your question Tali, I was just making sure you were in good health."

"So you were stalking me!" Tali exclaimed, "Are you some kind of pervert?"

"Well, Shephard right?" Yorihime confirmed, "Would you mind dropping the assault rifle in your hand?"

Shephard looked down. "Oh right." Shephard immediately dropped the gun, "My bad."

He didn't hesitate to do so. He was at all the disadvantages, and for some reason he felt that even if he pulled off a shot at Yorihime she wouldn't hesitate to lop off his head right there and than.

"Great." Yorihime rolled her eyes, "Another person privy to Lunarian secrets. I won't be shocked if the big guy managed to float in right now."

Luckily, wait unluckily for Shephard, Wrex didn't float in at that moment. A Krogan Battlemaster would be much much appreciated, although, as Shephard thought earlier, wouldn't do much against Yorihime. Maybe he'll find the ship and contact for help though…

"Oh, no big guy coming?" Yorihime said, scanning the whole horizon, "Well, that's good. Now, Tali, about our discussion earlier…"

Tali made an audible gulping noise. "Are you sure about this?" Tali asked.

"I'm not sure at all." Toyohime recovered from the head injury, no longer cursing but staring at Shephard. "But, you don't have to worry about the air having any bacterias. I think? I can't think straight, I'm going to need some aspirin."

"Later." Yorihime responded and then yawned, "We could wait the whole entire day debating whether or not it would be a good idea to take off your helmet. But, I rather not wait all day. And I'm pretty sure that the Lunar capital would be missing us soon."

"Shephard?" Tali looked at him, "Should I?

Shephard took a deep breath. "Just wait one moment." Shephard decided, pressing a button on the side of helmet, "I'll see if the air is breathable."

"Shephard!" Tali called out loud, but it was too late. Shephard's helmet was off and…nothing happened.

"Really? This place drives humans insane?" Shephard looked at Yorihime who simply shrugged.

"Well, it only drives those insane who are quite weak minded." Yorihime commented, "It seems that you are quite stubborn, and thus, unlike those previously who visited here, you don't seem to have much of a mental effect. Maybe if you stay here too long, the effects starts manifesting, but right now you're pretty good."

Shephard frowned. "That seemed both like an insult and a compliment."

Yorihime shook her head. "And what gave it away?" Yorihime sarcastically asked, "I have a question though. Are you and Tali in a….relationship with each other?"

It took a moment for Shephard to comprehend what Yorihime stated. For Tali, another moment later.

"WE'RE NOT IN A RELATIONSHIP!" Both Tali and Shephard yelled, making Yorihime chuckle.

"Definitely seems like it." Yorihime observed, "But I won't pursue it. After all, it's not often in which you meet a man willing to throw himself into a dangerous situation that may kill him outright."

Tali made a coughing noise. "Why didn't you tell us that it had to be long exposure for the purity to start worming into our minds?"

Yorihime looked with question marks on her face. "Didn't Toyohime tell you?" She asked.

Tali shook her head, making Yorihime looking venomously at her sister once more. "Alright, hell's training number one."

Toyohime looked at Yorihime in horror. "It was part of a test, it was part of a test!" Toyohime explained, "I just wanted to see if Tali had truly the courage to take off her helmet! But, that kind of derailed when Shephard took off his helmet so easily."

"Hmmm," Yorihime broke away from her stare and looked at Shephard. "Your name is Shephard right?"

Shephard nodded, and Yorihime smiled. "You have a lot of guts to casually take off your helmet off." Yorihime said, "You are willing to go that far for one of your subordinates, that's the worst type of commander ever."

Shephard frowned, and then saw Yorihime's point. No commander should risk his life for his subordinate, but in this case he just did. But,Yorihime had more to say.

"At the same time of being the worst commander," Yorihime said, a soft steel in her tone, "You proves to be the best. You have gained my trust, Commander Shephard, from one soldier to another."

Shephard gave a massive sigh of relief. "Well, at least I know that you wouldn't try and kill me." Shephard joked, making Yorihime crack a smile.

Hissssss

"Shephard?" Shephard turned around, almost breaking his neck. It was a new person, but it wasn't truly a new person. He knew who was speaking, but he didn't know who. So, who the hell is here with –

All words were lost when Shephard saw who it was.

For a couple of moments, there was just silence. Until it was broken by a low whistle from Yorihime.

"Well, Shephard, looks like you just found yourself a lovely wife." Yorihime said, making Toyohime snicker on the side.

Shephard couldn't really speak. Tali's helmet was off, showing a visage almost identical to humans. And, wow, she was beautiful. She was beautiful.

"Um, Commander?" Tali said, looking to the side, "I'm kind of embarrassed…."

Shephard snapped back into attention and looked away at Tali too. "I'm sorry!" Shephard exclaimed, "Um, you look good!"

"Thanks commander." Tali said, and knowing Tali with an extremely red face.

Another couple of moments passed before Toyohime suddenly turned to Yorihime. "Yorihime! Gensokyo is coming!"

Shephard frowned. Gensokyo? Wasn't that –

He then the torn expression of Yorihime, who was split between looking scared and looking…happy? Why happy?

"Well, than let us see what they have to say." Yorihime grimaced, "Their answer to Toyohime's message before will determine our race's survival."

Author's Notice

Sorry, short chapter. Was really, really, really preoccupied with school these days. Will be uploading Chess and Gems soon.