Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor
Chapter 8- Determination Levels Maximum
A Mountain in the Former Hell of the Blazing Fires, eleven twenty-two ante-meridian
The summit of the mountain was as silent as a sound proof room in outer space equipped with anti-noise emitters, and both Utsuho and 'Okuu Junior' were simply sitting together, unsure of what exactly they were waiting for. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Utsuho decided to gently flick the extremely brittle silence, breaking it into pieces.
"I wonder where Orin is..." Utsuho mumbled to herself.
"Her absence is preferred." 'Okuu Junior' muttered, "She would destroy me. You are aware of this."
"But still, she..." Utsuho sighed, "She was a good friend... she told me that she got the shrine maiden that stopped me last time to come down here... she was doing the right thing..."
"Examining data..." 'Okuu Junior' said, pausing briefly, before coming to some kind of conclusion, "She arranged your defeat according to data on events referred to under folder 'Subterranean Animism'. Biotic: Rin Kaenbyou is potentially a threat."
"Didn't you hear me? She did the right thing..." Utsuho mumbled, "...Okuu Junior, what's the right thing to do? I don't know any more..."
"'Right' is an arbitrary concept." the robot stated, "'Right', to me, is only defined by my master. You decide what is right. I cannot decide for you..."
"Okuu Junior..." Utsuho looked to the robot with concern, "...your creator wasn't very nice to you, was he? He can't have been to make you this... um... this..."
"My creator equipped me with large amounts of power and data on how to acquire larger amounts of power." the robot rattled off the various memories it had, "The creator also equipped me with geographical knowledge, and event data prior to my creation. He did not interact with me. He prepared me."
"...for what?" Utsuho asked.
"To be the ultimate battle life form." the Gizoid stated, "Master registry is part of this mechanism. You are the being with the most power that I have encountered. Observance of your skills will enable me to gain large amounts of power."
"So... you're just using me for power?" Utsuho asked, initially disapproving of the robot, before hanging her head in shame herself, "...I... guess that what I've been doing to you has been the same..."
"Incomplete transmission of data." Okuu Junior tried to explain, "That is my primary functioning. My... 'instinct'. As an individual, I can operate within my primary functioning, or beyond it. Complete deviation from primary protocol is not possible, but further motivation for actions may be present. As mentioned previously, I prefer you to my creator. I 'like' you. You have... in your lexicon, 'saved my life'."
"So... you are helping me because you like me, and because you'll get more powerful?" Utsuho asked.
"A mutually beneficial arrangement, correct?" the robot replied, "Power levels are at maximum. Battery is warmed up. Permission to begin conquest?"
Utsuho curled up, and mumbled, "N-not yet, just... just stay here..."
Suddenly, the robot looked away from Utsuho, and stood up, looking into the distance. From the summit, it could just about see... a certain silhouette, floating above the lava. Its eyes glowed, and its jet-pack activated.
"Huh? Okuu Junior, where are you going? I told you not to start the conquest yet!" Utsuho scolded her 'pet'.
"I am not. Interfering biotic detected. Identified as 'Patricia Hakurei'. Terminating." 'Okuu Junior' stated, zipping from its position at the summit and off into the distance before its master could so much as try to tell it to stop.
Utsuho sighed, "...I guess making sure no-one will get in the way is good, even if I do call it off..." getting up herself, Utsuho flew from the mountain's peak and began to follow her robotic friend, shouting, "Wait up, Okuu Junior!"
Former Hell of the Blazing Fires, during the former events
The final stage had begun. Lines of Evil Spirits played follow-the-leader in front of Patricia, firing danmaku at her for no particular reason beyond perhaps a natural aggression... perhaps the less-than-civilised nature of the area had turned them into mindless savages? Patricia didn't know the answer, and for the most part couldn't afford to care, and shot the spirits down like every other one she had encountered.
Their main tactic of firing straight at the girl was wearing thin, and the shrine maiden seemed to be rather bored of the repetitious strategy. 'Fortunately' for her, it seemed that a change of pace was right around the corner.
A swarm of what seemed to be the robotic sentinels from her last major fight flew into the area, however, this time around they were not armed with orange laser-firing openings at the bottom, but instead rather strange, dark purple attachments that fired lighter purple, curving purple crystals.
Sighing as she forced herself to switch to her 'yin-yang orb smacking' attack type, Patricia tried her best to dodge the barrage from the seven-strong group of sentinels. Occasionally, a needle would hit her, piercing her skin before shattering, causing her to have numerous small holes and associated blood-stains on her dress.
"It's gonna take ages to wash this..." Patricia complained, hitting her yin-yang orb and destroying a pair of sentinels, "I wonder if I can get away with it on my top... I mean, at least that's already red..."
The sentinels, while silent, seemed a little upset that Patricia wasn't taking the fight seriously, and began to fire their needles more rapidly, but before their amazing tactic of 'fill the air with even more of the same type of attack' became anything resembling useful, their once rather large group had been reduced to one.
Patricia smirked, and decided to toy with the thing. It tentatively fired a crystal at Patricia, and watched as she easily dodged it. Increasing its rate of fire, Patricia effortlessly flew circles around the device until finally, it stopped firing due to the fact that the large amount of needles on its attachment had been depleted.
Patricia stared at the floating robot for a while, and the robot came to the wise conclusion to self-destruct, and so it began to fly towards the miko with the intention to take her down with it. Patricia naturally didn't allow for that to happen, and took her Gohei, smacked it with a downwards strike, and left the damaged machine to careen towards the lava below it.
Continuing her flight, Patricia finally came across a person flying in a slow, dejected fashion above the lava, however, it was someone she entirely wasn't expecting... it was a cat youkai which, for whatever reason, possessed both a human pair of ears and a feline pair of ears, and had a heavily braided pair of pigtails, wearing a black dress with dark green embroidery. This must have been one of Satori's pets... but given it wasn't the raven this... 'Gizoid' thing was apparently serving, Patricia assumed she was on her side.
"Hey! You over there!" the shrine maiden called out to the Kasha.
The cat youkai looked to Patricia, and decided to stop flying, and said in a lethargic voice attempting to be an energetic one, "Hey there... sis... you look a lot like someone who came down here a long time ago... I must be going crazy, it's like deja vu..."
"I'm real." Patricia replied, "Hey, are you one of that Satori person's pets? She wants you back home, she's concerned for your safety, or something. There's another pet I have a fight to pick with, though..."
"Huh?" the cat suddenly perked up, "Wait, I'm not seeing things, am I? You're... you're a human shrine maiden!"
"Well... uh, yeah, I'm wearing the clothes..." Patricia said in a sheepish manner, not quite so sure why she was so excited.
"So I don't even need to cause any trouble in the above-ground to get the help I needed before!" Rin said, her tone rather cheery, "There's still hope! Hey, you need to knock some sense into that hell-raven, Okuu! You know the one, right, you beat her before, didn't ya? Wham, bam, thank you mam, job's a good 'n'!"
Patricia couldn't help but think her presence had somehow caused another person to lose her mind, "I... haven't fought her before. Are you thinking of..."
However, Rin had left Patricia before she could fully explain herself, and seemed to be laughing maniacally to herself as she floated back towards the Palace of the Earth Spirits, as if she had just accepted she'd gone mad with despair.
"That was... weird." Patricia said, successfully submitting a nomination for the understatement of the year award, however, given the changing nature of Gensokyo at the moment, there was every chance more nominations would surface.
Flying a little more, and dealing with a few more trails of evil spirits, and a veritable army of far smaller, easier-to-kill sentries, Patricia was beginning to expect the final battle of her little adventure.
However, three particularly hardy evil spirits decided to postpone the final battle a little longer, each being polite enough to take it in turns in their attempts to take her down with a mostly random spray of pink bullets, making for a positively fabulous display of danmaku-based death.
However, one by one, they were vanquished, and Patricia simply floated along, until finally, she came across a landmark which undoubtedly was significant, if her knowledge of adventuring was at all accurate. A fairly small mountain was standing in the sea of lava, with two humanoid figures resting on the summit. One of them had the tell-tale three horns that indicated that yes, this was a significant landmark- her final boss was right there.
Floating towards the mountain, Patricia smiled, feeling a certain... accomplishment. This was it... it was over, it was all over. Just this one fight, and she'd have solved her first incident. How hard could it be?
Apparently, it wasn't as hard as keeping focus, as the next time she checked the summit in the distance, the humanoid figure with the horns had disappeared from view, causing Patricia to cock her head and say, "Huh?"
At this point, she engaged her other senses, and noticed a certain... whirring sound behind her. Turning to face the noise, she saw the Gizoid floating in front of her, and before she could do anything, it back-handed her in the face, knocking her backwards, dazing her, and making her nose bleed.
"Biotic: Patricia Hakurei: Observational skills: Poor." the Gizoid stated, once again as if it were a simple fact.
Patricia backed away, pinching her nose, saying, "So, here we are... this is it, once I beat you, you have to stop whatever it is you're planning, okay? That's the rules..."
"I am aware of the rules of what you call 'spell-card battles'." the robot replied, "Regardless of what battle type you wish to engage me in, the outcome will remain the same..."
"Oh, but I'm pretty bad at Shogi, I'm sure you'd be able to beat me at that..." Patricia quipped, surprising herself with her own sarcasm.
Oddly enough, the Gizoid seemed to grasp the sarcasm well, and proceeded to rotate one hundred and eighty degrees in the air, revealing a small, glass cube attached to the top of its jet-pack, one that was filled with a thick black paste separated by strips of silvery metal.
"Your remark is most amusing. BEHOLD!" the robot suddenly changed tone in an uncharacteristic manner, "This new power source provides me with enough power to fatally decimate you approximately five hundred thousand, five hundred and seventy nine point five-two-seven-five-five-six times over."
"It also makes you talk a lot..." Patricia remarked, her nosebleed clearly not affecting her pride.
"Language centre has improved slightly." the robot admitted, while turning back around, "Preference to use personal pronouns has increased, and comprehension of complex ideas appears to require less power."
Patricia sighed, "Can we please get on with..."
"Wait!" another voice called.
"What now?" Patricia said in a frustrated manner, holding her head up so as to reduce her nosebleed a little.
A tall woman with long hair as raven as her species flew into the area, wearing a cape as grandiose as her aims for world conquest. On her right arm was her characteristic arm cannon, her 'third leg'. This description was enough even for Patricia to deduce the hell-raven's identity.
"Utsuho Reiuji..." Patricia said in a rather pathetic, nasally tone, her nosebleed now bad enough that she had to be tending to it, "...so, you're the one that's messed everything up. According to an informant, this whole thing would be a lot less messy if it wasn't for you!"
"What are you talking about?" Utsuho asked, "Hey, Okuu Junior, don't attack her just yet..."
"Affirmative." the robot stated.
Utsuho proceeded to fly in front of the now stationary robot, in order to explain herself, "Look, if it wasn't for me, Okuu Junior would still be shooting up places at random, isn't that right, Okuu Junior?"
"Correct. Former objective: Obtain maximum destruction within Underground settlements." the robot confirmed.
"If this is gonna be some big speech, can you save it for after the fight?" Patricia asked, "Because at this rate, I'm gonna fall asleep..."
"Just shut up!" Utsuho snapped, "I'm gonna use Okuu Junior to help make the above-ground recognise the underground as people again, and with his help, I'm gonna make the world a better place!"
"Oh, and making the world a better place means levelling it with sun powers?" Patricia asked, "Reimu's told me about you... you're just a powerful idiot that tried to use her massive power to rule over everyone!"
"Grrr..." Utsuho was beginning to break at Patricia's less-than-sensitive deconstruction of her ideals, "SHUT UP! Okuu Junior's told me about you, too... you're Patricia Hakurei. Whoever beat me before, Reimu or whatever, she's better than you are. She only barely beat me anyway, but you look just like a kid! You may have been able to beat Okuu Junior before, but he's all better now, I know he's gonna stop you!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, if you're not gonna fight me with him, can you please step aside and stop talking..." Patricia dismissively said, tipping her head back forward and snorting a bit of blood upwards, "...I kinda want this thing to be over soon, and you're not helping."
"Hmph! Fine!" Utsuho flew a fair way to the side, and said, "You can handle her on your own, right? Okuu Junior, ATTACK!"
"Roger." the robot replied as it retracted one of its hands, and soon began to speak up again, "Demonstrating new power level... Atomic Fire: Nuclear Fusion!"
Releasing a torrent of blue bullets, the robot initiated the battle, and Patricia quite easily dodged the attack, wondering what exactly the fuss was about. However, the robot proceeded to sound a klaxon, and proceeded to show exactly what the fuss was about.
It fired from itself eight massive, white-hot spheres of light, slowly moving towards Patricia, who panicked, wondering how on earth she was supposed to move swiftly and still avoid the dense sea of blue bullets that were released before it. Deciding to take it slowly, she skirted along the edge of a miniature sun, feeling it burn one of her detached sleeves...
...and despite all of this effort, it was all simply to dodge the attack, and Patricia hadn't even begun to consider how she was going to attack it in a manner that she'd be able to keep up.
Her homing amulets did nothing, she knew that much already... her hakkero was pretty much out of the question given the precarious location, and bombing seemed a little desperate for the first attack... however, this was the final battle, putting her all into it should have been expected.
The Gizoid continued its assault, spraying the area with blue avoidance retardant before frying the air in all five ways, making one wonder exactly how the robotic abomination was staying in one piece.
Patricia was beginning to feel like she could lose this... she cycled through her potential attacks, and then realised that she had an option she had failed to consider in her first battle with the Gizoid. Equipping a set of persuasion needles, she muttered, "I hope this works..."
Throwing the needles at the robot as it filled the area around it with blue bullets once more, it soon felt a 'ping' as the 'persuading' projectiles bounced off of the robot, causing it to pause for a moment.
As the attack field slowly cleared, the robot stared as its opponent in silence. Even Utsuho, who had somehow been watching from the sidelines without getting hurt, asked, "What are you doing, Okuu Junior? You were beating her! She wasn't even hurting you!"
"Utsuho Reiuji's attacks are powerful, but ineffective at hitting target. Likelihood of damage minimal." the Gizoid stated, "Low-power attacks with longer durations may be more effective in subduing her, given her great endurance."
"Will you shut up?" Patricia declared, smacking a yin-yang orb at the robot, catching it off-guard.
"Very well." the Gizoid stated, and suddenly converted its hands into large, pentagonal prisms that were exactly perpendicular to its arms. Descending towards the lava, it began to iterate its internal commands out loud.
"Copycat Sign: Doctor Letz Shake!" the robot declared, dipping its massive 'hands' into the lava. It soon began to say its attack process out loud, "Diverting power to shield. Start-up time... ten seconds. Attack process... initiated."
Patricia was surprised... the thing wasn't firing anything. It was simply rumbling away, making some kind of countdown... however, countdowns were very rarely a good thing, and so, Patricia made it a point to go down there and try to stop it. Upon her approaching, its eyes changed colour, and fired a pair of bright yellow lasers from from them, not that they weren't easily avoided.
Despite this narrative most likely being read in a time greater than five point five seconds, the robot had reached the number 'four' in its countdown and had moved on to its final preparations.
"Finalising. Activating engines... three... two... ONE..." the robot finally finished its countdown, and lifted its two great, pentagonal poles of death, before plunging them into the lava again rapidly, yelling out, "BATTLE CRY!"
The impact did exactly what one would expect- it caused a great tidal wave of lava to originate from the massively destructive robot, and forced Patricia back upwards, while avoiding the highly dangerous flecks of lava that made it to her level.
Accepting that a merciless beating with her Gohei was definitely out of the question, given the sheer amount of close-range impact 'Okuu Junior' must have created, and tried her best to hit the robot from a distance with her yin-yang orbs, which given her height, wasn't so difficult.
The Gizoid continued the countdown for its next attack, seemingly unfazed by the beatings it was receiving from the yin-yang orb, and unleashed another tidal wave of lava, declaring as before, "BATTLE CRY!"
While the dodging was extremely light, it was obvious the thing was toying with her, something Utsuho knew just as well as Patricia. And, naturally, she felt it was right that she, calling from her mysteriously safe location, could give her fighter-on-demand some orders.
"Stop that, it's not working, Okuu Junior!" Utsuho declared, "Also, with waves like that, you might hit the Palace! Be careful!"
"Affirmative." the robot replied, and took its massive 'hands' out of the lava, and floated up to Patricia's level, "Power conservation levels... satisfactory. Temporary use of greater amounts of power sustainably possible. Explosion Sign: Peta Flare!"
Patricia rolled her eyes, and wondered why she didn't just fire at Utsuho while she had all the time in the world to. However, her liberties to be sarcastic died along with most micro-organisms unfortunate enough to be occupying the air at that particular moment, as it become filled with a veritable wall's worth of huge, fast-moving, and thankfully shrinking orbs of hydrogen, helium, tritium, and countless other heavier elements.
To compound her troubles, with each tiny star's entry into the world, a set of small, glowing blue bullets appeared as a by-product, adding to another niggling problem. Patricia realised that now that Utsuho was getting her reins on the robot, she'd probably make sure it wouldn't have another bizarre moment of mercy, or, as it claimed, 'power conservation', and so she had to come up with a strategy, quickly.
However, Patricia was noticing that in order to dodge the attack, she mainly had to move quickly, and this kind of movement was... perfect for her 'yin-yang orb throwing' strategy, as long as she was allowed to move in the overall right direction... and given the random nature of the attack, the chances of that seemed pretty much as good as any other direction, so she decided to give it a shot.
Weaving through the sea of suns and giving simply ghastly burns to her dress, Patricia began her deadly game of tennis, which naturally resulted in the Gizoid moving around a lot more quickly, and causing her to miss almost every shot she took. However, once she did hit, she noticed the robot was a lot more affected by the impact than when it was attacking with the lava... that was it! It was weaker at its defence when it was being more offensive! Keeping up her attack and being grateful for any hit she got, finally, the attack ended, and a somewhat irritated-looking Gizoid floated before Patricia, however, something else was different about it...
...its habit of sparking, and twitching its head, had returned. The robot backed away, and declared, "Conservation of power in progress... selecting appropriate attack... selected. Upgraded Robotics: E-one-zero-one beta mark two!"
The robot converted its 'arm cannon' styled nubs into hands, complete with arm-blades, and began a rather simple routine- and it started with equipping some kind of iridescent energy shield, firing a circular barrage consisting of twelve missiles, and charging at Patricia arm-blade first.
Performing an aerial side-step, Patricia attempted to throw a yin-yang orb at the Gizoid, but the orb simply bounced off the shiny sphere that surrounded it. However, Patricia noted that somehow, it still thought it would be able to harm her with its blades through that shield... which meant one thing. It was susceptible to physical attacks.
Next time it fired its missile set and charged towards her, Patricia flew upwards, and grabbed onto the robot's main crest, before swinging around and kicking it in the back, causing the glass battery on its back to gain a crack on its surface. Surprised by this, the robot gained a sudden ruthless streak, and turned around quickly, ready to punch Patricia in the chest, however, Patricia beat it to the punch, albeit she used her Gohei to do the punching for her.
She repeatedly hit the thing in the face, seeming to damage the machine greatly, however, after a short while of unbridled beating, it disappeared, and reappeared instantly, way in the distance. It then began to fire several small, light yellow energy spheres, which would occasionally stop in mid-air and expand, like an explosion if rendered by a virtual engine with limited animation capability.
Patricia found it easy enough to dodge the attack and continue her flight towards it, and, anticipating the shrine maiden, it stopped firing smaller energy spheres, and charged up a larger one, however, before it could finish, Patricia had kicked it in the area most people would use to contain their gut, causing it to tip back and misfire a massive energy orb with an even more massive 'explosion'.
Forming its hand into a false Gohei, the robot began to imitate Patricia, and hit her in the legs, flipping her over in the air, before kicking her away in the same manner she had just done beforehand.
Patricia was hurting all over, but by this point, she knew she had come way too far to simply give up. A second wind keeping her going, she backed away from the robot, who was busy calculating its next attack strategy.
"Luck is an irrational concept, but your survival is defying probability. Charge period... adequate." the robot stated, its tone having a certain feeling resembling that of suppressed anger, "POWER OUTPUT: ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY PERCENT OF SUSTAINABLE LEVEL! Initiating attack! Hell and Heaven Meltdown!"
"That's my boy, Okuu Junior!" Utsuho called out, if only to remind the reader of her mere existence.
Holding its arms out as it performed some kind of charging, it converted its right arm into an imitation 'third leg', and proceeded to release an utterly monstrous-sized mock sun upwards, and let it slowly drift to the cavern-like ceiling of the Hell of the Blazing Fires.
Patricia averted her eyes at the sheer brightness, and stammered, "That... surely it can't manage any more..."
The robot proceeded to prove her wrong, and as the battery on its back began to crack a little more, it fired a second colossal sun towards the lava below it, and then simply drifted around, sparking and trying its best to stay in one piece.
Patricia couldn't see anything... this was near hopeless- it was clear that 'evil sealing circle' wasn't going to work, given any additional heat stress was clearly negligible at the moment, and she couldn't trust her fantasy orbs to home in on the robot. Not to mention that she was having trouble opening her eyes, let alone being able to aim her yin-yang orbs...
Then, something came to her... the one thing she hadn't tried against the Gizoid... the one thing that was the ultimate risk... well, this was a desperate time indeed, and an energy-based attack seemed like the only one that would actually stick around in this mess.
The robot watched as the shrine maiden fumbled around in the bright light, somehow not getting hit by the blue bullets which came slowly from the two blinding orbs of quark-gluon plasma. This in itself was causing the robot to spark erratically, its battery cracking a little more.
"This is illogical. Probability of termination of biotics such as humans is one hundred percent, given the circumstantial parameters..." the Gizoid complained in its own monotonous, semi-logical manner, "...this... does not... compute... this... does not... compute..."
"You know what else doesn't compute?" Patricia asked, grinning wryly as she winced at the light, pointing a hexagonal prism towards the source of the sound, "The fact you gave away your location when I was practically blind. C'mon hakkero, don't fail me now! Love Sign: Master Spark!"
The laser fired almost immediately, and propelled Patricia backwards, erasing the bullets in her path and sending her dangerously close to the lava. Meanwhile, on the other end of the laser, 'Okuu Junior' took every last piece of the love-coloured monstrosity, its body beginning to feel the strain of its own immense power and the laser's...
Patricia was still flying backwards, stammering, "How... how do I stop this..."
Her shoe began to set on fire as she neared the lava's surface, and she curled up so her legs were as high as possible. Realising her slow descent towards the lava wasn't stopping any time soon, Patricia knew what she had to do... she felt bad, knowing it was a gift from her Aunty Marisa and Uncle Jean, but figured that they'd rather she was alive than the mini-hakkero, and so, she let go of the device, flying upwards as it propelled itself into the lava.
This caused both the laser and the Gizoid's attack to dissipate, and left an exhausted young shrine maiden with burns all over her clothes, as well as second-degree burns to her legs, floating in front of an equally exhausted, twitching, sparking, and overall barely flying 'Okuu Junior'.
Naturally, this was the point where Utsuho decided to be responsible and step in, shouting, "That's it! You can't kill Okuu Junior! You have to go through me! Say goodbye, shrine maiden! This'll show that stupid Reimu not to mess with me!"
The robot next to her stammered weakly, "Impossible... battle impossible... battle..." before inexplicably gaining one last burst of energy, and said to its master, "Get back..."
Patricia slowly floated away from the lava, barely prepared for another attack, however, another attack was exactly what she got.
"POWER OUTPUT: ONE THOUSAND PERCENT OF SUSTAINABLE LEVEL! COMPILING DATA! DECOMPRESSING DATA! ASSIMILATING DATA! RECOMPRESSING DATA! ATTACK DATA COMPLETE!" the Gizoid was sparking more than ever, and converted both of its arms to cannons, before declaring its final attack, "COMBINATION SIGN: FUSION SPARK!"
After a pause, Patricia knew it was best to stay out of the way of its arms- and for good reason, because it proceeded to fire a massive, rainbow-coloured laser, just like the master spark in every way, but didn't leave its attack at that- it also released from itself Utsuho's trademark false suns, which fired off in random directions, shrinking as they did so. To add to the barrage, many missiles, and smaller blue bullets, seemed to almost fall out of the robot, as if it was emptying itself of every ounce of power it had. Despite its clearly high amount of effort, the attack wasn't anywhere near as systematic as what would defeat Patricia, who simply avoided it, not particularly desiring to continue attacking the robot.
Utsuho, who was directly behind 'Okuu Junior' in what seemed to be the only area it was making a concentrated effort not to completely obliterate, looked to the battery on its back... it was fully ruptured, and black paste was leaking from it. The cracks continued to form, and Utsuho knew this was bad news... however, all she could manage to do was quietly whisper her pet's name...
"Okuu Junior..."
At this, the battery on its back shattered, instantly stopping the attack and causing the robot to plummet from the air. Naturally, Utsuho reacted to this first.
"Okuu Junior!" Utsuho yelled as she began to descend as well, "Hold on! I'm coming!"
The robot fell, its arms reaching for Utsuho as it rapidly neared the lava. Utsuho was trying her best to fall as fast as the entirely metallic life-form, however, ultimately, the robot reached the lava before she could reach it.
Slowly sinking, 'Okuu Junior' feebly extended its arms, its legs disappearing into the lava first. By the time the lava had reached its waist, Utsuho got to the robot, and grabbed its hand, pulling on it, trying her hardest not to damage it in the process.
"Hold on, Okuu Junior! I can save you, you'll be okay! I'm so sorry, Okuu Junior!" Utsuho called out, with tearful eyes.
Holding Utsuho's hand with its own, the Gizoid knew it had to push itself in order to assist Utsuho. With its last iota of strength, it activated its jet-pack, and with that last push, Okuu pulled her 'Junior' out of the lava pool, or at least, the upper half of it.
The energy it had used to activate its jet-pack had forced it into hibernation mode, and so, Utsuho simply held the battered, limp piece of metal in her arms, looking upon it in pity, her eyes tearing up.
Patricia, who had been simply watching the whole event, not feeling like stopping it was particularly necessary, decided it was her turn to speak up.
Floating so she was in front of Utsuho, and close enough to speak to her in a civil manner, folded her arms, and said, "So, you gonna stop this world domination crap?"
Utsuho looked at the unconscious Gizoid, then to Patricia, then back to the Gizoid, and finally, back to Patricia. Her eyes became even more filled with tears, and she began to hiccough, occasionally trying to say something before one of them stopped her.
Finally, she burst into tears, and blubbered at Patricia, "I SURRENDER! I DON'T WANT TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD! I DON'T WANT TO LOSE MY FRIENDS!"
Patricia looked at the great, powerful, hell-raven, the one with the power of the stars... reduced to a sobbing wreck. The only thing that could have brought her to this was some kind of private emotional trauma, and Patricia was finding it difficult to determine whether or not it was really fair to ask her what was troubling her. Figuring that if she didn't want to share it, she could just drop it, Patricia decided to ask her anyway.
"What... what are you talking about?" Patricia asked.
"Orin... Orin's probably gonna tell Satori-sama, and then... and then... they'll both hate me... and... and..." Utsuho's inelegant crying became even more inelegant crying, and she continued to erratically talk, "...and then... then they'll tell everyone, and then... and then... all the underground will know, and everyone will hate me and... and... now, the only one that wouldn't leave me... he's... he's... he's..."
"...it's a he?" Patricia asked, and decided to try and comfort the highly saddened hell-raven, fearing that a grief-stricken hell-raven going on a rampage may well end up becoming an incident in itself, "I heard you call it a name. What's his name?"
"His name... his name... was... was... 'Okuu Junior'..." Utsuho sniffed, and her crying seemed to stop temporarily, before returning three times as loudly, "...HE WAS SO NICE TO ME AND NOW HE'S DEAD! I SHOULDN'T HAVE MADE HIM FIGHT FOR ME! IT'S ALL MY FAULT!"
"Look, I fought back..." Patricia couldn't quite believe what she was saying, given it was her only means of survival beyond running away and letting Gensokyo be burned to ashes, "...I hurt him too..."
Utsuho shook her head, "No... no... I should have just made him my friend. I shouldn't have made him fight. I shouldn't... I shouldn't have..." Utsuho's voice suddenly adopted an aggressive tone, and she yelled, "LEAVE US ALONE! I want to bury him... I... LEAVE US!"
Patricia floated backwards, and tried to calm her down, before remembering a piece of information that would most definitely calm the bereaved, super-powerful youkai.
"...um... I know the creator of... Okuu Junior, is it?" Patricia asked, before Utsuho sporadically interrupted.
"Yeah... he's... he's Okuu Junior..." Utsuho said in a way which indicated she was trying her best to comfort herself.
"...anyway, I know the creator of Okuu Junior, in fact, he lives really close by to where I live!" Patricia said in a happy tone of voice, trying her hardest to introduce just a little positivity to the atmosphere, "If you like, I could try and get him to fix Okuu Junior for you!"
Utsuho's eyes lit up without warning, "You... you'd do that? You'd do that for me?"
Looking at the legless metal torso in Utsuho's arms, Patricia was somewhat doubtful of whether or not Dawitsu would actually be able to repair the remains of the Gizoid, but smiled, and said, "Of course. But on one condition..."
"What's that? Anything!" Utsuho asked in a tone that indicated she literally meant anything.
"No more of this 'conquering the above-ground' shtick." Patricia calmly commanded, "Simply... stay in the Ancient City and eat Yakitori..." Patricia suddenly remembered that she herself was a bird, and quickly substituted her wording for something else, "...uh, I mean... stay in the Ancient City and drink sake with the Oni or something. Mess around with that spazz of an evil spirit in your mistress' home, you know, just have fun! Don't go and try this whole incident thing again, okay?"
Utsuho hung her head, and said, "Well, I don't think I want to start any more incidents after everything that's happened... I just want to go home..."
"Well, before you do, you're carrying Okuu Junior for me, at least until we get to the exit of the underground, okay?" Patricia 'negotiated', which in this case, meant 'adding conditions to the deal', "And then, when we get there... I dunno, I guess I'll try my best to carry him the rest of the way."
"As long as you make his creator fix him..." Utsuho mused, "...that's all that matters..."
The two began their journey back to the above-ground, and, as I'm sure the reader knows from every adventure story he or she's ever read, the way back was infinitely easier to traverse than the way forward. However, there was something of an excuse for this particular adventure. Everyone was either too afraid of the now notorious 'Patricia Hakurei', or had no business attacking her. Yuugi Hoshiguma in particular watched the two fly past with a certain pride, knowing the incident was well and truly over...
...while Rin and Satori saw the two pass them, they didn't say much about it. Both seemed... highly disappointed in Utsuho. Forgiveness, as I'm sure you, the reader, will learn, is a very tough road indeed, and it is neither instantaneous nor painless. It requires endurance, and Utsuho would have to learn the hard way that sometimes, one's misgivings cannot simply be ignored.
Author's Notes: It's... it's finally done. This chapter was long, and all it was was the pre-battle warm-up, the battle itself, and the post-battle events...
How I managed to drag it out as long as I did I'll have no idea, but I think that it's safe to say this definitely had a 'final boss' feel to it. Uggh, and we haven't even got to the extra boss. Oh, I wonder who that could be?
The questions, the questions? Heh, not really, you could guess it real easy.
