"How long has it been since the last time all of us gather at my shrine?" Reimu asked as she took note of the crowd that was now situated at her home.
"Weren't we all here for the spring festival two weeks ago?" Marisa asked.
"Dammit Marisa! I was trying to sound cool!"
"Yeah, ya sort of failed all those years ago with da religious wars, ya know."
"Don't remind me." Reimu said while facepalming. "Anyways. As everyone knows, things have just gotten a lot messier, and it's all Yukari's fault."
"Sounds about right." Remilia commented as she sat under her umbrella. "Though it's not like we can do anything about that fact, can we?"
"Kicking her harder off my futon will have to suffice." Reimu said.
"Sorry. It's all my fault that they got away." Byakuren began with an apology. "If only I had-"
"Stop worrying about the 'ifs'" Miko cut her off. "You don't need to go off on the whole taking responsibility thing. You won't look formal while doing since Youmu's the only one who could professionally commit seppuku. It's more Seiga's fault, really. I would send her to hell, but-"
"She'd get out of it in a matter of days." Komachi finished the sentence for her. "Why do hermits have to make our jobs so hard?"
"It's not like you're putting in effort anyways." Miko argued.
"So now what?" Mokou asked. "Do we just burn anything and everything?"
"Of course your one-track mind could only think of such of barbaric solution." Kaguya commented.
"Ya wanna die!?" Mokou stood up and dived straight for the moon princess, so shot back with her own rainbow bullets. Not that the immortal cared if she lost her limbs.
"Youmu, where's the dumplings?"
"They're here Yuyuko-sama." Youmu quickly brought forth an entire pot full of freshly made dumplings straight to the ghost princess's mouth, who began to eat them at an abnormal pace.
"Hey Reimu!" Sanae cried. "How are donations going for your shrine?"
"What are you talking about?" Marisa asked. "She obviously still has none. Her getting any sort of donation would be as likely as Yuyuko fasting. Or Alice not being a loner."
"I heard that." Alice commented. "Do you want to have Shanghai and Hourai stalk you for the rest of your life?"
"So we are all in agreement that this is Yukari's fault." Reimu said.
Theresa could only gawk as she watched literally no progress being made. These were all supposedly the bigwigs of Gensokyo, but it looked like they were all bickering like children. "Umm… shouldn't you be worried about what Otto is planning? How do you even know Fu Hua is working for Otto"
"Nah, don't worry about it. Yukari has connection everywhere, or at least eyes." Suika said.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that my information network is larger than you think." Yukari said as she popped out from a gap next to Reimu. "And I hope you aren't serious about the whole bed matter."
"Trust me, I'm serious."
"Come on, we both know you'll change your mind in the middle of the night." Yukari teased.
"Want to test it out?" Reimu pulled out a handful of needles, ready to skewer the gap youkai. "I can have the hell raven make a sun so that it would never reach night."
"Please understand that my pet is not a tool for your couple arguments." Satori argued. "Even if she's stupid enough to believe so."
"Wait, what? I'm a tool for couple arguments?" The hell raven's response only elected a sigh from both her owner and best friend.
"Onee-chan! Look what I found!" Koishi burst into the room, carrying numerous amounts of katanas with her. "Those people just left them around. They look Japanese, so I thought they belonged here, so I brought them back with me."
Theresa could only stare blankly as she watch the some unidentifiable figure put down all the katanas that were supposed to be in the Schicksal Main Branch Armory.
"Koishi." Satori started. "They wouldn't happen to have been left behind numerous thick steel doors and in a room with numerous things like laser, traps and turrets, were they?"
"Wow! How did you know?" Koishi exclaimed in surprise, earning a groan from everyone else.
"Do none of you realize the problem!?" Theresa cried out. "Otto Apocalypse, the man in charge of the most powerful organization on Earth, is planning something, which is likely not to your benefit! Can't you guys at least show some urgency!?"
"Pfft. Most powerful organization on Earth." Tenshi said sarcastically. "What are we supposed to be? Scared?"
"You should be!"
"Sorry, but I'm afraid the only time the Eldest Daughter got scared was when Yuuka-san got a hold of her." Iku commented. "And when Yukari-san threw a train at her."
"You all seem to be very confident." Sakura commented. "Do you mind disclosing the source?"
"Well, those three won't die even if the world ends." Reimu said as she pointed to Mokou and Kaguya, who were still fighting, and Eirin. "And those two are already dead." She referred to Yuyuko and Mima. "And she hasn't made any plans to return any stolen books, so we know she's not going to die anytime soon." Reimu made sure to give Marisa a good stare.
"Hey! They're still borrowed without permission! I'll still return them when I die!"
"I believe that is not different from stealing." Patchouli commented.
"Will none of you take this seriously!?" Theresa was at her limit.
"I'll admit, it is inevitable that Gensokyo will become a warzone." Byakuren said. "So, Theresa-san. I would recommend you remove yourself from the vicinity. I fear none of us can guarantee your safety."
"I'm concerned for your safety here!"
"I'd laugh myself to death if Yukari needed someone to be worried for her safety." Reimu commented.
"Well Reimu, I supposed that is rather likely, given that I have to drag you back across the border of life and death after someone makes a donation." Yukari made sure to clarify. "You laughing to death, that is."
"So, are we actually going to talk about what we're going to do?" Byakuren asked, leaving Theresa to cheer internally and thank whatever god Schicksal followed that someone actually was on topic.
"Eh...no." Was the response of just about every other person in the room. Theresa quite literally lacked any words to objection to say.
"Why?"
"You speak as if any of us are going to listen to each other." Remilia said while sipping her tea. "I'm afraid our gods on the mountain have a track record of pursuing their own agenda."
"And it's not like anyone can keep track of a maid who can stop time." Kanako shot back.
"At least she follows orders properly." Remilia replied smugly. "Your little hell raven doesn't look like she can tell between ally and enemy."
"I can't?"
"It's my hell raven." Satori commented. "It was never hers."
"Oh my, weren't you the one who said your pet isn't a tool for arguments?" Yukari asked.
"Gods, this is so annoying to talk about. Let's just worry about this later." Reimu said. "Suika! Bring out the sake!"
"Got it!"
The supposedly serious meeting simply degraded down to a drinking party, with the oni pouring everyone a large cup of sake(Byakuren refused, of course). Theresa could only sigh in disappointment. Truth be told, she wanted to see if she could ask some of them to help her lead some sort of rescue operation for Kiana, or at least help get some information, but it seemed all for naught.
"Where are you going, might I ask?" Yukari popped out in front of the principal, who was about to leave to make her own plans.
"It's none of your business on what I intend to do."
"Well, don't worry about your niece. You don't need to go find her. She'll come find you."
"What?"
"Well, I suppose someone near you." Yukari corrected. "So it may be in your best interest to stay here for the time being. In the end, the results will be the same."
When Theresa got back to the Hyperion, she tried to contact her grandfather, but for some reason the call wasn't going through. Granted, she was trying to leverage the face that she knew Fu Hua's true identity, though she doubt it would actually get her anywhere. After all, Otto was not known to be the most compromising of people. However, that went out the window as even the private communication was not functioning.
But it got her thinking. Why did he take Kiana? Sure, she was a Kaslana, but surely the 3rd Herrscher would be a much better target. "Hey, Himeko, if you were Otto, would you rather take Kiana or Mei?"
"I would take Mei." Himeko answered. "Her being the 3rd Herescher aside, just being much more reasonable than Kiana would make it easier to work with."
"Not necessarily." Theresa said. "You could bribe her with food."
"She'll just start crying for Mei's cooking. It's much harder to deal with her when that comes to be."
"Yeah…" Theresa sat down at the commander's seat in the bridge. "What do you think of them?"
"The Gensokyans?" Himeko fell into thought for awhile. "I would say sketchy. I mean, that Byakuren girl seems nice enough. Around my age too. We would get along so much better if she actually drank though. Her aversion to alcohol is unpleasant."
"I'm pretty sure it's called being healthy."
"Yeah, yeah, it's not like I'm gonna live any longer anyways." Himeko brushed the comment aside. "That doctor seemed pretty off. She was respectful, though she felt like the mad doctor that would run experiments secretly without anyone knowing."
…
A sneeze went off in Eintei. "Master, are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine." Eirin answered. "I'm used to it. Back in the Lunar Capital, everyone talked behind my back." She then pulled out a syringe filled with mysterious purple liquid. "Now, let's test the effects of this drug. Of course, we need to observe it on a unprepared subject."
Sometimes Reisen wish she wasn't a Lunar Rabbit so that she could just die already.
…
"And that Yukari, for some reason, reminds me of the Archbishop."
"Don't remind me." Theresa resisted the urge to facepalm. "And she's basically guilt tripping me into owing for saving Celica. God, and I thought the vampire was a pain to deal with. At least she offered free tea and didn't just pop up out of nowhere."
"Who pops out of nowhere?"
"AH!" Theresa flinches back in freight. Behind was the mysterious silver-haired girl that entered during the middle of the meeting, smiling creepily at her. She remembered hearing her name was Koishi.
"Theresa, what's wrong?"
"Do you not see her?" Theresa asked while pointing to girl in front of her.
"Who? I don't see anyone in front of you."
"What?" Theresa rubbed her eyes a bit. Yep, she was still there.
"Oh, old drunk lady can't notice me." Theresa had to agree. If Himeko had heard her call her old, she definitely would freak out. "Only kids can see me without problems."
"... Are you calling me a kid?"
"Are you not?" Koishi asked innocently. "You're just as short as me, and big sis tells me I'm still a kid."
"I can't tell if you're reasonable for just stupid." Theresa then recalled what Koishi had brought during the meeting. "Wait, you went into a Schickscal base, didn't you?"
"Schickscal? Is that something you can eat?"
"The place where you found the katanas."
"Oh!" Koishi exclaimed. "That place. It was really cool. It was in the sky, above the cloud. It's was really pretty. Not as much as home though."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She could ignore the blatant thievery if it meant information.
"Theresa, you okay? You've been talking to the air in front of you for a while now." Himeko was clearly concerned that Theresa was showing the signs of an insane person with an imaginary friend.
"Don't worry. I'm not insane."
"That's what insane people say." Himeko argued. "You know how I always say I'm not drunk when I am."
"So you're admitting to it?" Theresa made a mental note to record that as blackmail. "Anyways, don't worry, I'm fine. I'm just talking to a Gensokyan. Are you sure you aren't drunk from earlier and just not seeing things properly?"
"Pretty sure." Himeko commented. "I'll go wash up anyways." She made her way towards the washrooms in the back of the ship.
"So," Theresa turned back towards Koishi. "Did you see Archbishop Otto?"
"Who's that?"
"You know, the tall white-haired person whose face makes you want to punch him."
"Oh, that guy!" Koishi exclaimed happily. Theresa didn't expect that explanation to work. "His reaction was funny when I hit him in the face."
"Wait, you actually punched the most powerful man in the world? How did you not get maimed by all the guards and security in that place?"
"Well," Koishi adopted a cute, innocent smile. "People don't notice me unless I want them to. Some people are an exception. I think he started to notice something was wrong after the 5th punch."
I'm pretty sure he noticed something after the first. Otto was definitely one of the more intelligent types, and wouldn't get ignore something weird and chalk it up to nature, if his experiments regarding harness the powers of the Hereschers were anything to show. "So, did he say anything in particular?"
"Hmm… he said something to the maid about the Herescher of the Void, something about the 2nd, then something about K423 and her relationships, then something about a vampire. And that's about it. Nothing he blabbed on about sounded interesting, and I needed to hit him, so I didn't pay attention."
Vampire? Could the man know about Remilia? Also, why is hitting him in the face more important than listening on his plans? The thought ran through Theresa's head. As far as she knew, vampires, if Remilia was one, did not exist outside of Gensokyo. However, the old man was more than 500 years old, so it couldn't be improbable that the two met centuries ago. But what was their connection?
"Argh! This is too much to think about. I need something sweet to help my brain function."
"Theresa! Urgent news!" Himeko burst back into the bridge, not caring that her clothes were haphazardly put on. Apparently her definition of washing up was taking a shower. "Main headquarters is moving in this direction, fully armed and ready for war, as we speak!"
"What!?" The main headquarters was in Europe. Why would it be coming this way? What on earth is Otto planning? Even this was a bit overboard by his standards. At least it seemed like she didn't need to go out of her way to pay a visit. "How far away are they?"
"They'll get here in about 36 hours!" There were some things that didn't add up. Normally, if there was a movement from HQ like this, Theresa, as the commander of the Far East branch, would've received corresponding orders to match the movements, and Himeko would tell her firsthand if there were any. That meant that they didn't have any orders, which meant that Otto was waiting for her reaction if he knew she was here. She could warn the Gensokyans, but that would basically label herself was traitor. She could feed information or do other things that could provide help to Schickscal, but aside from the fact that it would put her at risk immediately, helping that geezer just seemed to go against her very being. Of course, she could always just do nothing.
"Yes, you should do that."
Theresa turned around, alarmed at the presence of the newcomer. It was easy to tell who it was, with the purple hair and the weird looking eyeball wrapped around her. If she remembered correctly, the others called the person in front of her Satori. Did she just answer her question from earlier.
"Yes, I did."
Wait. She didn't even say that out loud. How did she even answer it?
"I thought you would've figured it out by now."
Wait, don't tell me she can read my mind?
"Yes, I can."
This was bad. She could not let anyone know of her hobby of cosplaying as a magic girl and her embarrassing speeches about saving the world as one.
"That's an interesting hobby, I must admit."
"How-"
"You should be careful about where you're thoughts go. If you're not careful, you could reveal some rather confidential information."
That was bad, if she couldn't get her thoughts under control, then-
"Oh, your grandfather is bringing his military personnel over to Gensokyo for an possible invasion? I suppose that does sound worrying. Though I do suggest the third option from earlier. Getting yourself stuck in unnecessary messes can be dangerous, so it's always better to stay out of it."
Was she-
"Well, I wouldn't consider it life advice. It's just, unless you're crazy or superhuman, or just not human at all, things in Gensokyo can get quite hectic."
"You're quite-"
"Annoying? Yes, I have realized it given that it is more or less everyone's reaction. This is why animals are so much better. They don't feel insulted when you read their mind."
That's some-
"Backwards logic? It's normal for humans to be insulted? It's normal to have privacy? Well, I suppose you don't want the fact that you mastur-"
Theresa immediately slammed a hand over Satori's mouth to prevent her from blurting out anymore secrets. "Don't tell anyone that. Please."
"Don't worry. I have no intentions of telling anyone." Satori assured. "I do belong to the antisocial group of this land, after all. But in all seriousness, don't do anything reckless. We already have enough reckless idiots in this place. I'm giving you this as a warning to someone who would be at risk if they involved themselves in the conflicts of this land. And don't make any deals with anyone but Byakuren. Especially not Remilia. But odds are, you probably won't have a choice."
For Theresa, saying that message was crypt was an understatement.
