Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor
Chapter 4- Prepare for Unforeseen Consequences
The side of the Youkai Mountain, around eight-twenty ante-meridian
Patricia and Dawitsu had walked to the opening of the wind tunnel which led to the area known by the above-grounders as 'the Underground', and what the under-grounders called 'Former Hell'- they considered the term more 'Politically Correct', for whatever reason.
Regardless of tautology, the entrance was right in front of the two, and Dawitsu knew that this was where the two had to part ways.
"Well, I wish I could stick around and be your bodyguard, but there's no way I can join you down there..." Dawitsu said, extending his hand at the cave entrance, "...oh yeah, and if you come across any of my Chibi Clones, give 'em my regards... also, ask them about what's going on, perhaps they can tell you something."
Patricia looked at the entrance, her stomach seeming to fill with butterflies. She gingerly walked towards the cave, and said, "...I...guess that I'll see you later..."
"Sure. I have a job to do..." Dawitsu replied, and he began to float upwards, "...best of luck with the incident! If you're anything like Reimu, you'll be done before dinner-time..."
Patricia didn't feel like replying to the mimicker, and simply nodded as he suddenly accelerated, speeding away from the scene at a rather dangerous-looking speed. The shrine maiden now felt truly alone in the world. Swallowing her worries, she muttered, "Here goes..." before entering the cave.
Upon entry, the first thing the miko noticed was an excessively powerful draft that seemed to propel her forwards. Knowing flight was her only option, she kicked herself off the ground and let the air currents take her where she needed to go. Fairies appeared, and seemed to be performing a very rehearsed routine involving several of them appearing from behind Patricia, settling in front of her, and then shooting. Occasionally, a pair of larger fairies would appear, firing strings of bullets with a sine-wave-like trajectory, forming a shape resembling a two-dimensional double helix.
While the attacks were stylish, they were hardly anything to worry about. While the cave was densely populated, there seemed to be very little powerful youkai in the immediate area, not so much as a Tsuchigumo or Tsurube-otoshi. Flying through to the end of the wind tunnel, the moderately genre-savvy shrine maiden asked, "Okay, so where's the next boss? She's got to show up around here, right?"
However, her response came in the form of a panicked-looking woman flying past her. Although it was difficult to gather much of her appearance for the split-second Patricia saw her, it could be determined that the blonde-haired woman said, "RUN! I DO NOT ENVY THE ANCIENT CITY!"
Patricia continued to look at the fleeing Youkai with confusion. If... if she was correct, that was Parsee Mizuhashi... running for her life and declaring how little envy she had for an area. Clearly something major was going on if the embodiment of jealousy was having trouble...
She continued to fly through the caves within the Youkai Mountain, and descended through a massively long pit. What was most unsettling was the eerie... emptiness of the hole. There wasn't any sign of fairies, any sign of strange, danmaku-firing orbs, or really, any people at all. Knowing that the Bridge Princess that supposedly guarded the area had clearly abandoned her post, this made the likelihood of fairy infestation all the greater, yet... there seemed to be nothing there at all.
After what seemed like a eternity, Patricia finally made it to a populated area- the Ancient City, Former Hell's unofficial 'capital'. Hieda no Akyu's records had drawn out the area as if it were a beautiful, bustling place, however, like Ancient Rome under Nero's reign, its usual beauty was tarnished by every other house having large blemishes of some sort, ranging from an ashen tone implying fire damage, to being completely levelled.
The people of the city seemed on high alert, and many people looked to Patricia and began to hide and whisper about her, as if they were expecting a human down here in the midst of the chaos... or aftermath thereof.
Deciding to land and talk to someone, Patricia walked through the ruined city, looking around for a person not afraid of her... it was odd that the famously strong youkai were being so timid, it was as if they were mistaking her for someone else...
Finally, instead of someone being found by Patricia, someone found Patricia, and stepped out in front of her. The woman was tall, top-heavy for lack of a sophisticated word, and had a body which made her seem ever so slightly masculine, although her blue, low-cut kimono seemed to do a good enough job reminding the world that, yes, this person was a female. Her face wasn't particularly notable, and nor was her hair, however, from her head protruded a rather obvious, red horn that gave away her species instantly.
Sipping from a sake dish, she calmly said, "Ah... a human miko... say, it's been a while since one of those came all the way down here. Your timing's impeccable, actually..."
Patricia was rather unnerved by the way the powerful-looking woman was standing over her, but tried to ignore this in favour of interrogating her, "...why do you say that?"
"What, are you blind?" the Oni replied, gesturing at the various destroyed buildings around them, "I'm guessing a Youkai from the above-ground sent you down here like the last one. The girl that came down here last time did a good job bringing that raven back down to earth, I guess you're here to help us out a second time? It's weird, though, as far as I'm aware, what's happening down here hasn't affected the above-ground yet..."
Patricia had to admit, it was rather strange that Reimu, Dawitsu, or even Yukari spontaneously had any knowledge of an incident down here given how contained it was, but didn't know whether she should have acknowledged that fact to the woman, "Well, I was sent here by my mentor, Reimu Hakurei..."
"Oh... the first shrine maiden..." the Oni said, smiling, "That'll explain the red-white clothes. I thought it had been a rather long time for a human not to have grown up..."
Patricia sighed. Were all 'friendly' Youkai this talkative? It seemed that Youkai were either out to eat people or talk them to death...
Deciding to get down to business, Patricia began a sentence, "Anyway, Miss..." Patricia cursed herself, realising she had given the Oni an opportunity to talk again...
"...Hoshiguma. Yuugi Hoshiguma." the woman replied, surprisingly keeping it short and sweet.
Grateful for the Oni's short reply, Patricia continued, "Anyway, I was wondering... do you know what caused this and where it headed off to?"
Yuugi smiled to herself, and finished off her dish of sake, before refilling it, "...did your mentor tell you what I did when I met her for the first time?"
"Um..." Patricia closed her eyes, knowing how this was going to turn out, "...you started a pointless Danmaku battle with her, didn't you?"
"Corr-ect!" Yuugi replied, "...while I am rather concerned for the city, I just remember that when we founded this place, is was an even more desolate wasteland, so I figure... why stop having fun? We Oni are strong, we can rebuild anything that falls apart..."
Patricia smiled to herself, remembering her drunken occasional room-mate, Suika, and nodded, "Yeah, that's true. So, I guess you're gonna fight me?"
"Just a quick test of strength." Yuugi said, "I mean, after all, the thing that caused this is pretty powerful..." Yuugi proceeded to point at a spider youkai hiding behind a barrel, "...it's got extremely powerful youkai on their knees. You really need to pass a few tests first..."
Patricia was beginning to get sick of well-meaning people putting her through 'tests'. She was beginning to think that a real Danmaku battle was never going to happen for her, and that she would never get to experience the proper adrenaline buzz Reimu and Marisa constantly rhapsodised about whenever they became nostalgic.
"Well, I'm in a hurry. Is it okay if I skip the 'test of strength' and get onto solving the incident quickly? It's in your interest to let me do so..." Patricia suddenly came to a realisation, "...hold on, why aren't you trying to stop this thing yourself? You're... presumably an Oni, so you're more than strong enough to at least try..."
"You're a human..." Yuugi 'explained', "...a human shrine maiden, at that. If it were my duty to be a hero, then there'd be no fun. No, you humans are the ones that fight Youkai, solve incidents, and save the day. And I'm just fine being part of the ensemble that gets to fight you along the way..."
Patricia was beginning to recognise a rather rigid way of thought among the residents of Gensokyo, as if they were hard-wired to see their entire lives as a great big set of games with repetitive level structure and game-play style. Accepting that fighting her was the only option, she said, "Fine. I'll fight you. And if I win, you tell me where to go next, and a little bit about what the culprit looks like, and what have you..."
"Well, about that..." Yuugi began to say, before changing her mind mid-way through, "...oh, never mind! I'll tell you when you win! Shackles Sign: Shackles a criminal can't take off!"
Declaring her attack, Yuugi Hoshiguma released a large, blue ring of energy which blocked Patricia's attempts to shoot her. The shrine maiden instantly thought of the bright idea to move to the side and fire around the ring, however, Yuugi's attack took that into account, and in addition to her 'shackle', she produced countless waves of tiny, ridiculously fast bullets. Patricia's only choice was to keep within the area the ring had been fired, and hope for the best.
It wasn't long before Patricia had figured out that the reason the ring was able to block her attacks was because it itself was being harmed by her ofuda and amulets, and so, she kept firing, causing it to slowly erase itself out of existence, before it exploded erratically, releasing massive, uncontrolled bullets into the area. Throwing herself to the side, Patricia finally had a clear way, and shot away at the Oni.
The Oni was calmly balancing her sake dish as she took the ofuda and amulets without flinching. It was clear that whatever harm this was causing her, it was negligible enough that she simply released another 'shackle' without so much as a hand-wave.
Patricia sighed, not quite knowing what she had to do the be able to fire at the Oni without unleashing a hellish amount of bullets into the field, however, she decided to try a 'compromise' strategy- she'd fire at the ring enough to make it significantly shrink, and then fire at Yuugi with the little space she had. She knew not all of her shots would hit, but it was better than destroying the ring properly.
Drinking from her sake dish, Yuugi calmly remarked, "Oh, that's not good... I'm almost out of sake..."
Patricia was rather annoyed at the woman's clear disregard for her attacks, and decided to forcibly wake her up, declaring a spell-card of her own, "Spirit Sign: Fantasy Seal!"
However, instead of the set of large, homing orbs she expected to appear showing up, a circle of colourful orbs appeared around her, and exploded, clearing her immediate area of bullets, but barely scratching Yuugi.
"Wow, you're a little impulsive, aren't you?" Yuugi mused, "Okay, okay, I'll end this attack, you're being a brave sport. Feat of Strength: Storm on Mount Ooe!"
Patricia breathed a brief sigh of relief as the stream of tiny bullets that surrounded her, along with the large, obstructive rings, disappeared, only for her relief to be poorly founded as an avalanche of large, light blue bullets came flying in from the Underground's equivalent to the sky.
Instinctively, Patricia dodged left, right, up, down, forwards and backwards, panicking as she tried to focus on firing at Yuugi. The Oni herself seemed mildly amused by her little performance.
"Silly human, it's all about remaining calm..." Yuugi advised, still balancing her sake dish on her index finger and her thumb despite it being empty, "...sometimes, three-dimensional thinking can be quite easily replaced by one-dimensional thinking..."
Patricia was rather put off by the drunk's erudite speech, but soon came to realise what she was talking about... she needn't move all over the place, simply remain in front of her opponent and move forwards and backwards. Once she settled into place, she began to throw 'persuasion' needles at Yuugi, who still didn't do so much as flinch at the attack.
"That's it!" Yuugi said encouragingly, "You're getting the hang of it... but you know what the old proverbs say..."
"What do they say?" Patricia asked, moving forwards to avoid another bullet that flew in from the side.
"...whenever you get used to the pain, that's when the feeling changes!" Yuugi declared, and called out yet another spell-card name, "Four Devas Arcanum: Knock Out in Three Steps!"
Yuugi barely moved, however, the whole area shuddered, causing a fairly weak-looking house to finally give up and fall apart. As the city rumbled, two layers of bullets spawned around Yuugi, standing still in mid-air.
Patricia was confused by the attack, and flew backwards, keeping her distance. This turned out to be a rather poor choice, as the next time the Oni caused a mini-quake, a dense set of tiny bullets appeared beyond the stationary layers of bullets, ones which also stood still.
Although none appeared on top of Patricia, the sea of tiny bullets soon began to move, making Patricia panic and 'bomb' for the second time this battle, this time shouting, "Dream Sign: Evil Sealing Circle!"
A square of fire expanded from the shrine maiden, clearing the area of bullets and washing over the utterly unaffected Yuugi without so much as making her blink. Instead, it caused her to say yet another piece of advice.
"Bombing early on is not recommended. Save it for later." Yuugi said, "Have you ever learnt the martial art known as 'Ju-jitsu'?"
Patricia had never been required to formally learn a martial art, given the highly distance-based combat that every Gensokyo resident and their dogs seemed to employ, so her answer was obviously, "No."
"Well, the first principle of ju-jitsu is that one never flinches and backs away from an attack." Yuugi continued, forming her set double-layer of stationary bullets, "Instead, one redirects the opponent's attack, and moves towards the opponent... you know, for grabbing and such? Or at the very least, a knee to the crotch area..."
"What's the point in..." Patricia began to ask, but soon got to understanding Yuugi's point.
She moved towards Yuugi, nestling herself within the spaces in her double-layer of stationary bullets, and waited for her to spawn the Tokyo-train-station's worth of bullets outside of the layers. Finally, the sea began to move outwards, letting the shrine maiden move out of the double-layer, before those layers themselves moved outwards, being much easier to avoid than the veritable atmosphere of bullets that left Yuugi's control first.
Yuugi excitedly nodded, "Ah, see, now you're getting it! You've got to be calm and face your fears, not run away from them! And when you don't run, it's easier to actually overcome them when running isn't a choice!"
Patricia rolled her eyes, "I never realised this was a philosophical lecture..."
"Hey, fights, philosophy, what's the difference?" the Oni asked, "You humans think the two are like oil and vinegar, but we Oni know that when one shakes up the oil and vinegar, they become delicious dressing, which tastes better than both oil or vinegar alone!"
"I think you got a little lost in the metaphor there..." Patricia said, continuing to fire ofuda at the clearly unfazed Oni.
"...not at all." Yuugi replied, and spontaneously stopped her attack, "Okay, you win. Have fun with finding this destructive lout..."
Patricia stopped shooting at Yuugi, and put her hands on her hips, "Hold the phone, you need to tell me where this 'destructive lout' is..."
"Oh, so I do." Yuugi said, a smile on her face, "Well, it headed off to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, which is..." Yuugi stopped, and pointed down an obscure-looking street, "...down that-a-ways. The houses stop about half-way through, that's how you can tell. If that thing is trying anything major, it'll probably want to go to the abandoned Hell of the Blazing Fires..."
"...why do you keep referring to this incident causer as a 'thing'?" Patricia asked, "Isn't it a youkai of some sort?"
"I don't know." the Oni replied, "Seems to be some kind of ghost. When I saw it attacking the area, the attacks were coming from something invisible. Don't know why it bothers hiding itself when it makes such a scene shooting the place up like that..."
"I... see." Patricia mused, "So, you don't know what it looks like. Oh well, I guess if it's destroying stuff, then I'll be able to find it easily. Thanks for the information... and... uh, I guess I should thank you for the advice, too."
Yuugi laughed to herself, "Think nothing of it, human shrine maiden. When you get back to the above-ground, tell your mentor I said 'hi', okay?"
Patricia nodded, and began to fly down the road Yuugi had pointed down. The Oni folded her arms and said, "...those humans... don't they know the only way to peace is through countless fights?"
Yukari's House, Mayohiga, around quarter-past nine ante-meridian
Yukari Yakumo, the Border Youkai of Gensokyo, the great, omniscient, omnipotent Youkai of boundaries... was feeling particularly lacking in power. Looking at a television screen, the woman felt strangely useless, knowing that for once, she couldn't simply watch over a situation using her gaps.
Looking at her Oni Shikigami, she pressed a button on a remote control, switching the image on the television from a view of the destroyed Ancient City of the Underground to one of the outside of the Palace of the Earth Spirits.
"...hmm... you got to the above-ground somehow, didn't you?" Yukari asked the Oni, who simply nodded in response, "Perhaps I should have just sent you to the Underground to keep watch. I mean, the residents of the city wouldn't notice that you're an outsider, right?"
The Oni seemed determined to remain silent, and made a little 'play' with her hands, with one 'walking', and the other 'kicking' the first in the back, causing the first to 'fly' away. Yukari sighed to herself.
"You were kicked out, eh?" Yukari rolled her eyes, "I can't believe that in the end, my replacement for Ran was a drunken mime..."
The Oni took offence to this somewhat true remark, and in order to hide said truth, she quickly threw away a bottle of sake she had hidden in her pocket.
"...I guess you wouldn't be able to report back to me, anyway..." Yukari mused to herself, switching the video channel again, "Oh well, I guess I..."
Suddenly, the Border Youkai stopped, and smirked. She had switched to a view of the abandoned section of 'Former Hell', the part known as 'the Hell of the Blazing Fires'. There, she saw Utsuho Reiuji with some kind of blob of glowing liquid on her 'third leg'... however, what was even stranger was that there was a strange, dubiously visible object next to her, occasionally flickering into vision.
A rather weedy-sounding voice from behind the camera said, "Whoa... whoa, I actually found something! The original's gonna be so proud of me!"
Yukari face-palmed, "Don't shout your success to the world, you idiotic clone..."
Just as Yukari said that, the object floating next to Utsuho turned around, and declared, "Audio originating from biotic other than the master detected. Terminating biotic."
Yukari's face fell as the creature faced the camera directly, and fired a massive laser towards it, blinding the camera and presumably killing the terminally stupid clone that was wearing it.
The Border Youkai stared at the white noise for a moment, and then thought to herself, "Hold on... that... that thing... that isn't a usual resident of the Underground, that's for sure... also, it was dealing with Utsuho Reiuji rather calmly."
Yukari's Oni Shikigami pointed to herself, and then to Yukari.
"Yes, yes, no need to state the obvious." Yukari replied, nodding, "It referred to Utsuho as a 'master'. If this thing is what I think it is... okay, we may have a problem. A far greater problem than foreseen..."
Opening up a gap and reaching her hand into it, Yukari rummaged around until finally, she pulled Dawitsu out of the gap, and dropped him onto her house's floor.
"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing? I was in the middle of teaching a..." Dawitsu began to say, but Yukari quickly stopped him.
"Come on, it's not like those kids are going to miss you. Let them doss around for five minutes." Yukari said, "Now, I'm here to tell you some bad news..."
"You found it, right?" Dawitsu asked, "That's what you're gonna tell me, right? Well, there was no need to drag me from my job just to tell me my plan's going... well, as planned!"
"Do you think I want to spend any more time with you than necessary?" Yukari rhetorically asked, however, Dawitsu failed to get the memo regarding the question's rhetorical nature.
"...well, I'm a handsome man, I can understand you wanting to..." Dawitsu began to joke, however, he was swiftly silenced by a clubbing into the ground courtesy of Yukari's parasol.
"...just shut up and listen." Yukari bluntly said, "It's working with Utsuho Reiuji."
"It's... it's doing what?" Dawitsu asked, suddenly taking the whole event more seriously, "But... but it why would Utsuho be affiliated with... oh... oh crap..."
"Well, it seems to recognise her as some kind of 'master'..." Yukari replied, "I guess that means Utsuho has big plans of some sort... haven't seen that happen before..."
"So, you reckon Utsuho is planning on using it to attack the above-ground?" Dawitsu said, climbing out of Yukari's floor, "But if she wants to do that, surely she has enough power to do that on her own..."
"You fool..." Yukari replied, "She agreed not to attack the above-ground when Reimu... or... or was it Marisa... well, when Reimu or Marisa beat her, she agreed not to attack the above-ground, so she must know that everyone will attack her if she broke that agreement. Don't tell me you wouldn't step in and defend Gensokyo yourself if that happened..."
"...you have a point. Even with all that fusion power, she's outnumbered." Dawitsu replied, "So, how does using it as some kind of weapon change anything? Everyone would still notice and try to stop the thing, right?"
Yukari ruffled Dawitsu's hair in a very poor facsimile of affection, "Awww, it seems even idiots like you have a brain... I'm so very happy for you..."
Dawitsu blushed slightly as Yukari pinched his cheeks, "...um... what the hell are you talking about?"
"...what I mean is, Utsuho is too stupid to realise people will find out about her using a living weapon to get around her agreement, and simply zone in on the weapon, and if they're aware that Utsuho is the user of said weapon, I can be sure they'll zone in on Utsuho next." Yukari explained, switching to patting Dawitsu like a dog, "However, you're smarter than someone able to be fooled by an Ice Fairy! I must say, you superseded my expectations..."
"...okay, you can stop patronising me now." Dawitsu said, "So, what are we going to do? The situation's gonna be far worse for Patricia now that we know someone as powerful as Utsuho is involved..."
"This incident may have fallen outside of our preparations, but something tells me Miss Hakurei will be okay..." Yukari replied, "...if there's something I've learnt about the Hakurei 'Clan', if one can call it that, it's that as long as they're solving incidents, fate is always on their side."
"That still doesn't tell us what we need to do in response to this..." Dawitsu said in a frustrated tone.
"We need to do what my ever-useful Shikigami has been doing throughout our conversation..." Yukari answered, turning her head to face the Oni, "...absolutely nothing."
The Oni responded to the insult by raising its hand, turning it around and pointing only its middle finger upwards.
"She doesn't talk much, does she?" Dawitsu remarked.
The Oni responded by lifting her other hand to repeat the previous action, and Yukari smirked, "Yeah. Thanks for getting me stuck with her, by the way. Now, get out of my house."
"Hey, aren't you going to gap me back to my class?" Dawitsu asked.
"No." Yukari plainly stated, "Now, get out before I get my Shikigami to demonstrate that her bite is infinitely greater than her bark."
Dawitsu quickly scurried out of the Border Youkai's room, and left her house within a minute. Yukari sniggered to herself contentedly, "Well, at least I had some fun today... what do you say? Oh, of course..."
The Oni Shikigami glared at Yukari, not impressed with her joke. Yukari folded her arms, and said, "Come on, I'll get you some vodka from the outside world to make up for that remark."
The Oni's expression changed slightly, and the two walked out of Yukari's bedroom, heading off to... Lord knows where...
The Hell of Blazing Fires, the Underground, slightly before the former events
Utsuho Reiuji was happily flying above the treacherous lava pools which made up most of the abandoned section of 'Former Hell' with her newly-acquired, semi-visible 'pet'. The creature still seemed intent on hiding itself, for whatever reason, almost as if it was stage-shy.
"Raw materials required for construction of battery capable of storing fusion energy may be present in magma." the creature stated in a slightly more elated tone than usual.
"So... there's stuff in the lava that we're gonna make the battery from?" Utsuho said, seemingly getting used to the creature's bizarre dialect.
"Possibly. Are you in possession of data regarding the composition of the magma?" the creature inquired.
"Huh?" Utsuho asked, clearly not being totally used to the creature's odd speech patterns.
"To be specific: Is this magma rich in Iron-two-oxide?" the creature asked, "And furthermore, is mining of the area possible?"
"Well... I don't know what that 'Iron-two-oxide' thing is, well... apart from that Iron is too stable to use in fusion according to the nice lady... why would you need that?" Utsuho said.
"The battery will not be a fusion drive." the creature stated, "It will be a general storage of energy. The only difference shall be that it is capable of storing high enough energy levels to accommodate for your large amount of power..."
"You like my power?" Utsuho asked, "You're a cutie, you know that? Speaking all funny, and what-not? What did you want again?"
The creature seemed a little confused by the brief moment of affection, but soon switched back to its overly technical explanations, "I wish to extract the magma from this location, and further extract Iron-two-oxide from that. In order to perform the second task, I require..."
"Hold on... when you say 'extract', do you mean you want to take some lava from here?" Utsuho asked.
"Yes." the creature quickly replied.
"Well, why didn't you say?" Utsuho replied, and flew downwards towards the lava pool, and dipped her 'third leg' into it. Tilting the massive arm-cannon, she lifted out a blob of magma balanced on her 'third leg', and flew back up carefully, "Okay, here's some of that lava! So, what's the next step?"
The creature twitched a little, and sparks came from it, making itself temporarily visible. It seemed about to say something, however, a voice was heard in the distance, shouting, "Whoa... whoa, I actually found something! The original's gonna be so proud of me!"
Stopping in its tracks, the creature stated, "Audio originating from biotic other than the master detected. Terminating biotic."
The creature proceeded to turn to the source of the shout, and saw a diminutive, slightly deformed rendition of certain mimicking youkai. The creature twitched, and hesitated slightly before it fired a massive blue laser from itself, which hit the tiny man head on, causing it to fall out of the air and into the lava below it, forming a strange, ash-like residue on the surface.
"Threat terminated." the creature stated, "Target biotic was superficially familiar."
Utsuho, who was too busy focusing on keeping the magma from falling off her 'third leg', said, "Hold on, what just happened?"
"Nothing that concerns you. The master is now safe." the creature replied, and continued to say, "Is the magma below five thousand Kelvin currently?"
"...huh? What are you talking about?" Utsuho asked, "Oh, I get it! You're wondering why I can let this lava stay on my third leg! Well, it's because it's made of a very strong..."
"Determining temperature." the creature stated, ignoring its master, and reached out to touch to blob of magma on Utsuho's third leg.
The mere touch of it caused its hand to fully go into view, it was a cold, shiny grey which became a glowing yellow at the very edges where it was touching the magma.
Utsuho widened her eyes, "That's a strange colour of skin..."
Removing its hand, the creature once again ignored its master, and said, "Temperature is six thousand five hundred and thirty seven Kelvin. Taking magma to cooler location to aide removal of temperature is recommended."
"Huh? You want to go somewhere colder?" Utsuho asked, "Well, okay, but you were the one to ask me to take you here..."
"Our purpose at this location is currently complete." the creature stated, "One electrode of battery, and potentially, material for casing, has been acquired. The other electrode requires lithium metal. Suggested location for retrieval: Unknown."
"So... where do you want to go?" Utsuho said, seemingly concerned for the creature, whose hand was still glowing from touching the magma.
The creature scanned the immediate area, and determined its next location- a small rock mountain standing in the lava, "We shall rest there. Iron-two-oxide extraction process and initialisation of battery construction shall occur there."
"If... you say so... what about going back home?" Utsuho asked.
"Return to Palace of Earth Spirits is not preferred. Satori Komeiji will be searching for me, and attack me in a misguided attempt to protect you from me." the creature explained, seeming to know more about a sentient being's behaviour than Utsuho herself.
"I... guess that makes sense." Utsuho replied, "Hey, are you hungry? Once you sit down on top of there, I can get a corpse from the furnace..."
"I do not require sustenance through digestion of organic molecules." the creature stated, before twitching slightly, and releasing a few sparks, "However, the good intentions of your offer are notified."
Utsuho smiled, and used her left arm to pat the creature where she thought its back was, and said, "Aw, you're actually quite sweet underneath that sciencey gobbledygook, aren't you?"
"What is 'sweet'?" the creature asked.
"Well... well... it just means... you know, you're nice." Utsuho said, "I mean, you're helping me for no reason and you've only just met me... and you're calling me 'master' and all sorts. That makes you sweet."
"I operate by serving the being that demonstrates the most power to me." the creature replied, "I am serving you on that basis."
Utsuho smiled to herself, "Whatever you say, silly. You're so funny, trying to hide it."
The creature ignored its master, and flew to the mountain slowly, taking into account the fact that she was balancing a red-hot, still-liquid globule of magma on her arm cannon. Eventually, they got there, and the creature sat on the peak, and under Utsuho's command, stayed put while she got herself a toasted corpse from her geyser heating centre.
When she returned, she sat with the creature and ate heartily, and occasionally offered a piece of meat to the creature, who refused in the most technical way a person possibly could. Instead, it scraped the ground of the mountain, and held a piece of ground in its hand, looking at it intently, as if it was figuring something out...
Author's Notes: Hooray, hooray, another chapter ends today!
Well, this... happened. Meh, I have no real... notes to say on this beyond I am surprisingly motivated to write again.
