Hi everybody! Time for the Sniper's part! We've almost hit the last "Arrival" chapter, which is pretty exciting, at least to me!

Thanks to everybody for reading, and especially to those of you who've reviewed, favorited, or followed! The fact you care enough about the story to leave feedback and/or indicate you want to read more warms my heart, so thanks so much.

But even if you don't review, favorite, etc., the fact that you're reading this story at all is why I keep writing, so thanks to all of you.

Ok, it may be getting old to say that every time, but it's true. Anyway, on with the story


The Sniper came to in a bush that had, until recently, been very well maintained and cultivated. Unfortunately, Sniper's descent had caused a rather large hole in the hedge, scattering flower petals and broken branches everywhere. He groaned and pulled himself out of the hedge, noticing the wide variety of cuts and bruises on his arms and legs, and he plucked a thorn out of his back. "At least this isn't the worst place I've slept in," he thought to himself. "Still, if I ever find Soldier, I'm gonna kill him." Looking around, he saw that he was in a garden of some sort, with lots of different flowers and plants, trimmed into intricate and fantastic shapes. The one he had crashed into looked like a rose bush shaped like a small girl with wings, though now, due to his rather dynamic entrance, she was missing a leg. As he watched, the whole thing slowly toppled over and slammed into the ground with a loud crunch and a puff of rose petals. He winced in sympathy to the gardener, making a mental reminder to apologize to them if he ever had the chance. He began walking towards a building in the distance, hoping to find someone who would know where he was.

As he approached, he found himself staring at the sheer size of the building, which was larger than any he'd ever seen. It was at least three stories tall, with a clock tower and some parapets, and it looked like there had to be at least twenty rooms per floor. What few windows there were seemed to be dyed a deep red, creating a foreboding atmosphere, and he wondered briefly if he'd stepped into an old monster movie. Shaking his head, he tried to banish such unprofessional thoughts from his mind and knocked on the door.

As he was about to knock for the third time, the door swung open, revealing a woman with silver hair and a stern expression, dressed in a maid outfit. "Meiling, what was with that noise earlieeerrrr…" she began, before coming face to face with the bloodied, thorn-studded man in a vampire hunter costume, destroyed topiary behind him.

In retrospect, Sniper thought, as he saw the woman's stunned expression, he might have wanted to clean up a bit first. "G'day miss," he said, doffing his hat, "I seem to require some assistance, could you help me?" This seemed to bring the maid out of her shock, and before he could blink, he felt himself pinned to the wall, a dagger at his throat. He was really starting to get sick of having knives in close proximity to his face, he thought, as the scar on his cheek twinged slightly. "Ah. If this is about the hedge, I am sorry about that, didn't really have a choice in the matter, y'see."

The maid pressed the dagger closer to his throat and whispered to him, "I don't care about Meiling's damn topiary, just tell me who sent you."

"Look, I think you've misunderstood something here-"

She pressed her dagger closer to his neck. "Who. Sent. You."

Sniper decided that since he really didn't seem to have the upper hand in this, he should probably just tell the truth. Or as close to it as he could. "Technically, Merasmus sent me."

"Never heard of him. Why does he want Lady Scarlet dead?"

"Who?"

"Oh, don't play dumb with me." She reached out and took the stakes from his front pocket. "You obviously came prepared."

"What, those? They're just part of my Halloween costume. My rifle's more dangerous than those."

"Halloween costume. No way I'm buying that. Especially since it's September."

The Sniper tried to turn his head, but the knife pressed against his throat, causing a small cut just under his chin. His ability to be polite was wearing thin. "It's October 31rst, you madwoman! Besides, why would I be dressed up like this if it wasn't? What would I possibly be doing? Hunting werewolves, vampires? That's-" he remembered The Horseless Headless Horseman, Monoculus, and even Merasmus, and paused. He rested his head against the wall. "Please tell me vampires and werewolves don't exist. I've already had to accept ghosts and wizards and giant floating eyeballs, my skepticism's been pushed to the limit."

"Giant floating eyeballs?" the maid said.

"Long story, don't ask."

The maid paused for a bit, then loosened her grip somewhat and flipped him around. "Ok I'll admit that seemed genuine, but just in case you're a very good liar, I'm going to take you to meet someone who may be able to verify your story. Will you come quietly, or do I need to bind you?" she asked, holding a rope that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"So you're not going to answer my question then?"

"Not yet. First we'll see if they need answering."

The Sniper sighed. "Fine, fine. I doubt I could get away from you anyway."

The maid smiled slightly. "I don't think you could either." She stood back and gestured inside. "After you." The Sniper walked inside and his eyes widened. The entrance was gigantic, even larger than he would have imagined it could be. It mostly consisted of a long red carpet leading up to an ornate staircase, with hallways expanding out in every direction. Hanging above the carpet was an enormous, sparkling chandelier, the candles of which were lit, despite the fact that it was daytime out. And despite the size of both the room and the chandelier, there was no sign of dust or melted wax anywhere. The maid entered behind him and closed the doors silently. She had a slight smile on her face. "Never been in a mansion before?"

"No, not really. Well there was one, but it was haunted by an axe-murdering ghost and was in disrepair, so it doesn't really count," he said, remembering the Horseless Headless Horsemann. "Still," he said, letting out a whistle, "It's impressively clean, for a space so large."

"Why thank you," the maid said. "I try." She gestured down one of the ground floor hallways. "It's this way." The Sniper nodded and began walking down the hallway. It seemed to stretch on for longer than it should have been able to.

Along the walk, the Sniper was trying to come up with a plan for what he could do to escape if this "lie detector" didn't believe him. Obviously, this woman had some sort of power to move near-instantaneously, as the incident at the door had proven. That would make her difficult to take out, as she'd have to be taken completely by surprise. Unfortunately, she was already suspicious of him, so taking her by surprise would be near impossible. At least he wasn't bound, but that was small consolation. Still, he figured he might get a chance when this maid was facing the "lie detector," if necessary, as she would probably be distracted looking at the results. If that failed, he could try predicting where she would show up, but that would be more difficult.

As the Sniper had been trying to come up with a plan, they'd made their way to a large pair of doors. As they approached, some yells and coughs could be heard from inside. The maid frowned.

"Is it normally this loud?" the Sniper asked.

"No. No it isn't. Wait here for a second please," the maid disappeared, and the doors were suddenly open, allowing the Sniper to hear what was being shouted.

"Get back here, Marisa," a voice was saying, then started coughing.

"You can have 'em back when I'm dead," a voice replied. "Ack! Sakuya! When'd you get here? Wait, stupid question."

"Marisa," said a voice he recognized as the maid's. He guessed her name was Sakuya then. "Will you ever give up?"

"Ha, no way! There's too much awesome stuff here," said the second voice, which he supposed was Marisa. It seemed to be getting closer. "And I'll see you lateeeerrrrr," the voice said, getting louder. Suddenly Sakuya was right next to him and attempting to close the doors, but before she could, a girl dressed in black and white with a witch's hat zoomed out.

"Damn it," Sakuya said. "Not again…"

The Sniper figured if he helped them, they might be more willing to let him go, so he slung his sniper rifle off his back and took aim at the rapidly disappearing woman's transport, which appeared to be a broom. "Gotcha, you little hooligan," he whispered, and fired.

Instead of a bullet, as the Sniper expected, the rifle fired what looked like a laser beam, sort of like what his Machina fired. The beam hit the broom's handle dead on, and it began to spin out of the girl's control. She managed to get out a "WHOA," before she crashed into a wall and plummeted to the floor. As the Sniper was busy inspecting his rifle to find out why it had suddenly fired a laser (personally, he suspected Engie might have been trying to modify it without his permission again), Sakuya walked over to the girl on the ground and pulled her upright by the shoulder. The girl was struggling.

"That wasn't fair," she was yelling. "You can't fire danmaku at me once I get out the doors, we agreed on that after the truce!"

Sakuya shrugged. "I didn't." She gestured back towards the Sniper, who was inspecting his rifle, having attempted to eject the spent shell to find there was no bullet loaded in the first place. "He did."

The girl looked at him, as he was peering into the chamber. Her eyes widened briefly, then narrowed again. "Who's he then?"

Sakuya frowned. "I really don't know. I thought he might be an assassin targeting Lady Remilia, but I'm not so sure now." Her expression softened into a slight grin. "But in any case, since he stopped you, I'll be taking these back," she said, picking up the bag Marisa had been stuffing books into.

Marisa sighed. "Fiiiiiine. I'll just have to borrow them again later." Sakuya rolled her eyes at this. "But now I'm curious. You don't mind if I go talk to him a bit, do you?"

Sakuya raised an eyebrow. "Curious, huh? Well as long as you don't let him escape or anything, I'm fine with it." Marisa began walking towards the Sniper, while Sakuya vanished, presumably to go put the books back into their rightful places in the library.

"Hey, you," she called out. The Sniper looked up from his gun, still puzzled. "What'd you do that for? Those were some super amazing books, and I woulda gotten away with 'em too, if it wasn't for your meddling."

"So sorry to have foiled your escape then, Miss," the Sniper said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "Next time I see a robbery in progress I'll be sure to just stand idly by."

"Robbery? That wasn't a robbery, I was just borrowing," she replied, waving a hand.

The Sniper raised an eyebrow. "Borrowing usually doesn't result in people yelling at you," he said. "Well, unless you borrow from Soldier, but he's kinda…crazy."

"Nah, we made a whole agreement and everything. If I make it out the doors I'm home free. But anyway," she said, looking at him suspiciously. "Why'd you go after me if you know Sakuya thinks you're dangerous? Shouldn't you be helping me out?"

The Sniper shrugged. "Well, helping you out wouldn't really help me, cause you'd just fly away and I'm left here holding the bag. Helping them out endears me to them a bit. Now that I've done them a favor, hopefully they won't try to kill me."

Marisa looked irritated. "I guess that's true, but…maaaaan," she said, rubbing her head in irritation. Then she pointed at him "If I hadn't thought I was safe, you'd never have been able to hit me."

"Guess it's lucky for me you thought you were safe then," the Sniper said. "And lucky for you I didn't end up firing a bullet," he said, gesturing towards the rifle. "I imagine splinters would hurt, and I doubt you'd want your broom damaged." He frowned, looking puzzled. "Though I don't really know why it fired that laser-like thing."

Marisa frowned. "A bullet? Like a danmaku bullet?"

"Danmaku? I've never heard of that brand. No, it was just a good old Mann Co. bullet. I'm contractually obligated to use those."

"Whaaaat?" Marisa yelled, causing the Sniper to cover his ears. "How can you not know about danmaku?"

"Bloody hell woman, what'd you have to yell for?"

"But if you don't know about danmaku," Marisa said, looking at him with wide eyes, "you must be from outside Gensokyou!"

"Well, considering I've never heard about Gensokyou, I'd guess you're right about that. Is that where I am?"

"Yep! I guess I'll be the first to officially welcome you, so welcome to Gensokyou," she said, sticking out her hand.

The Sniper shook it. "Well thanks then, Ms. Marisa, was it?"

"Yep," Marisa said cheerfully. She clapped her hands together. "I have so many questions for you. Like, like…what's magic like on the outside!"

"Magic? I don't-" before the Sniper could finish, Sakuya reappeared beside them.

"My apologies. Explaining the situation took a bit longer than I expected. Are you ready then, sir?"

"Awwww Sakuyaaa," Marisa said, pouting. "I was just about to get answers about what sort of magic is outside!"

"I'm sure you'll get a chance after this. Assuming," she looked pointedly at the Sniper, "our friend here is telling the truth."

The Sniper rolled his eyes, and considered his options. Given that his gun no longer shot bullets, but rather strange lasers that, judging from the lack of injury to Marisa's broom, didn't do any physical damage, his plan to take out Sakuya seemed impossible at this point. He had to hope that they'd recognize that he was telling the truth, or things would likely get very unpleasant for him very quickly. He sighed. "Well, let's get this over with then, shall we?"