Das Author's Note:
Hello viewers! Long time no see! Glad to see me back? No? I guess so. I'd like to apologies for the long wait on this chapter, for reasons as mentioned my notice before. Haven't seen the notice you say? Don't bother. The next chapter is here! So what are you all waiting for? Enjoy yourselves! Ps, I noticed a great influx of reviews, favorites and follows the instant I announced my temporary absence. Maybe I should go offline more often...
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I'm just kidding. Please don't leave!
The Next Step
It really was no surprise that a few moments later, Tylo came crashing down the roof of Reimu's shrine. Seeing as Skye was in no position to be walking around after sustaining severe injuries, Reimu had somehow caught him mid-flight so as to prevent his unconscious, 100 kilogram body and suit from crashing through her roof.
Needless to say, her hopes of an undamaged shrine were short lived.
Tylo, with his hands sticking out of the ground in one of which held the little black box he salvaged from the destroyed Spore drone, lay face first in the tatami mats next to Reimu's kotatsu. Reimu stormed up to the unmoving body of Tylo, dropped Skye into a heap next to her before delivering a powerful kick to Tylo's stomach.
"Damn it you!" Reimu raved while hopping on one foot, trying to ease the swelling forming in her other. "Couldn't you have come down any softer?!"
"No." Tylo's voice came muffled under the debris. "I had no fuel left."
Reimu pulled Tylo out of the floor with one hand by the nozzle of his jetpack which left him dangling near parallel to the ground.
"How you lift 100 kilogram objects with one hand is beyond me." Tylo mumbled to himself.
"Magic." Came Reimu's unexpected answer before she dropped him as well besides Skye.
"Right..." Tylo said as he lay Skye down on his back in a recovery position. "So, what do you want to talk about now?"
"I don't understand what is going on." Reimu said as she folded her arms. "I am sure you did not tell me everything when we first met. Spit it all out."
"Neither do I." Tylo said. "I am also learning new things as I go."
"So?"
"So, I'd prefer you to assist me more actively in my mission for your and my people's sake… You still remember how to use the rifle right?"
Reimu pulled the MGP-98 seemingly out of nowhere from her dress.
"I... guess. These things scare me."
"Good enough. Hold on to it. You will need it."
"Are you su..."
"Trust me."
Reimu sighed.
"Fine… Well, define actively."
"For starters, I assume you can hold your own in a firefight. So you will need to go your own way and help me uncover as much as possible about the Spores. By right, I have the telepathic rabbit… What's her name… Reisen. Yes, Reisen. She will be my main point of contact with each of us. If you somehow can utilize radio waves to communicate, that'll be great."
"Ahem, hello? I don't know how to use these 'radio waves' thing."
"Right. My bad. Hmm… Ah, take Marisa along with you."
"Huh?" Reimu almost jumped through the roof.
"Last I checked, her magic is really flashy. Use them to set up light signals in your language. I should be able to see them… That is if I am above ground and not somewhere playing real life CraftMine or something."
"What's CraftMine?" Reimu asked, tilting her head as though Tylo had said something utterly ridiculous.
"Oh, it's a game that was really popular on Earth in 2012. Or 200 years ago, give or take from today. Long time ago."
"Just remember you owe me a new roof… And floor."
"Yeah, yeah." Tylo said as he checked Skye's pulse. Judging from its rather erratic pattern, he was going to come back conscious right about…
Skye shot up and gasped. He shot glances first at Reimu, then at Tylo. He continued to turn his head in multiple random directions while taking short and quick breaths.
"What the *expletive *." Skye yelled with his translator off. Reimu thought he was singing and tilted her head in another direction. "Wha – What happened?"
"You are dead." Tylo said nonchalantly. "Look what you've done to Reimu's house."
Skye noticed the rays of the late afternoon sun streaming through the sizeable hole in the shrine's roof. Skye fainted again.
"Ah, well that's that." Tylo said, shrugging his shoulders ignoring the fact that Reimu was staring fiercely at him.
"What's that black box?" Reimu asked.
"Oh this?" Tylo said as he held the artefact up to his eye level. "Probably the scout's massive data core. From the looks of it, it could hold more than a trillion words worth of stuff. Might tell us something about the Spore's whereabouts."
"Can you really store words in such a… thing? I don't see how someone could write a trillion words on such a small and unwieldy thing?"
"You don't write on it silly. Have you been living under a ro… Oh, yes of course."
"Was that an insult?" Reimu fumed.
"No."
"Can you even get anything out of it?"
"Probably, but I wouldn't dare."
"Why?"
"Viruses. That thing could contain portholes designed to counter hackers like me. It would destroy my RIG."
"RIG…" Reimu muttered to herself seemingly in doubt as to what that device was. Ignoring that, she continued. "Viruses? You mean like diseases? I didn't know they could destroy computers too!"
"Yes, something like that. Close but not quite… And do you even know what a computer is anyway?"
"Well… I've heard the Kappa talking about such things, computers they called them. Says that it could revolutionise the world."
"Oh, then I've got news for… Wait, Kappa?"
"Err… Yeah?" Reimu said as though such topics were common speech.
"There are such creatures called Kappa in Gensokyo." Reimu continued. "What's so surprising about it?"
"Nothing I guess… I mean, NanoTec uses the code 'Kappa' for some stuff but OK, fine. Are they Lolites as well?"
"By definition of your strange vocabulary which I still can't quite get over, your 'Lolites' or Youkai as they are called here, pretty sure I've told you before, yes. Kappa are Youkai but are quite shy and not the typical stereotypical Youkai one may have in mind."
"Noted." Tylo put a finger on his chin. "That being said, perhaps you could get this cube to the Kappa."
Tylo then reached his hand out, handing the little black cube to Reimu whom took it with both hands on her palm. Reimu then lifted it up and down, inspecting every corner and niche of the cube and was utterly surprised to find no scratches on its perfectly shiny black surface and its slippery and yet dry texture.
"And this might not make much sense to you but listen carefully."
Reimu turned towards Tylo, silently.
"Tell the Kappa, whomever they are this. Say it exactly as I say. Got it?"
"I don't know why I am still listening but OK." Reimu said, signifying her willingness to pay attention.
"Jack this up to the mainframe core, calculate the alithogramic functions of its poly-systemic code in binary and hexadecimal and do take your time, maintain the electronic integrity of the data. Copy it into a hard disk and I will pay you for it later with interest."
"What?"
"Memorised it?"
"No…" Reimu said with a hint of embarrassment in her voice.
Tylo repeated himself.
Reimu nodded her head slightly.
"I think I got it but I really don't understand what it means. Is it even in Loa?"
"From English, it may not have translated 100% accurately but I am sure that the message will be brought across."
"English? What's that?"
Tylo sighed slightly. "My language. Not everyone speaks Loa you know. Especially people who come from the stars, like me."
"So does everyone up there speak English?"
"No. As far as I am concerned, we humans can't even decide on a single language to stick to. I mean, even in NanoTec, there is English, Latin, Mandarin, Spanish, Japanese (a language quite similar to Loa I dare say) and many more. I can't list you all the languages known and spoken by mankind because that will take all day and the next forty after."
"Ah… I see. Interesting." Reimu said. "Will you tell me more once we have time?"
"When were you ever interested?"
"I don't know."
"Whatever. I can."
"Really?"
"You have my word."
Reimu smiled or rather smirked upon hearing this.
"I will remember this."
"Yeah, yeah. Now go. We don't have very much time. Take the gun with you and this."
Tylo threw Reimu another one of his spare magazines for the rifle.
"Remember how I taught you to use it. Especially the bracing."
"Got it." Reimu replied.
"Ah, I almost forgot. Marisa should still be at the crash site. Find her and go." Tylo said.
"Don't worry. I will… Probably." Reimu said with a grin before taking flight, shooting into the evening rays in a blink of an eye.
Tylo then sat down next to Skye. He pushed a few buttons on his RIG which shocked Skye to his feet. Before Skye could say anything vaguely insulting or vulgar, Tylo began speaking.
"Hey, sleeping beauty. Time to go."
"Huh?"
"You heard me." Tylo said as he grabbed Skye by his jetpack. "We have people to return to."
"01-03. Do you read 01-01? I repeat, do you read 01-01?" Radio, whom was orbiting Skye's head began saying.
"Yeah, yeah." Skye muttered as he turned on his long range radio transmitter. "01-04. Read you loud and clear. Eta, soon. The miko is en-route. Out."
"We're out of fuel." Tylo said absent mindedly to Skye as he stood with his hands on his hips besides the empty wooden box in the front of the shrine. "How long do you think it will take us to get back, especially in the dark?"
"Don't know." Skye said as though it were no big deal. "I mean, you have these."
Skye brandished a deck of old charms. Tylo's jaws dropped.
"Wait a minute..." He said or rather squeaked. "Where did you find those from?"
"Your pockets."
"How did you… Never mind." Tylo said before eventually giving up. "What were you thinking of using them for any ways?"
"Teleportation. Although I was told I cannot use magic so I'd thought I would get you to try."
"Well then… I guess I don't mind… Were you told how to use magic by anyone? It is an interesting concept worth investigating after all."
"Agreed. The doll maker, err… Marisa's 'friend' says its as easy as concentrating a little."
Tylo pulled off his gauntlet, took the amulets from Skye and gripped them tightly. The cards then began glowing slightly.
"Woah! You've got it already!" Skye exclaimed, unable to contain his excitement. "Now try throw it with a portal in mind. Maybe it might work."
Tylo did as he was told and lo and behold, the amulets landed in a perfect square arrangement and the insides of the square was shrouded by a dim blue glow.
"Well… What's the worst that could happen." Skye said, grinning, while placing a hand on the flabbergasted Tylo before proceeding to walk towards the portal.
Reimu flew into the setting sun. Ahead was the dark silhouette of a massive mountain that seemed to occupy about two thirds of the horizon before her. Of course, that was Youkai Mountain and where she would find the Kappa. And assuming that Reimu could get by the over zealous Tengu lookouts, she would still have to convince the Kappa to share their technology with her, a 'mere human'. How that was going to be accomplished was as of yet, still beyond her.
She sighed as the light clouds brushed against her cheeks. That feeling would never get old Reimu thought to herself. Over years she looked at her flightless human brethren in the village and not bat an eyelid. Now that she had met the men from the stars, Reimu could not help but think about how privileged she was to be blessed with the abilities of seamless flight, and the extents that humans would take just to fly as she does. Be it with magic, or unknown devices that defy all of her logic.
Reimu's eyebrow twitched slightly. One might have passed it off as a natural occurrence but as an avid user of magic, competent danmaku duellist and a seasoned shrine maiden, she knew exactly what it meant.
Reimu cancelled out all her lateral velocity and conducted an intricate back-hand manoeuvrer that would have made any ballet dancer jealous. The incoming laser fire barely missed the shrine maiden, searing a few strands of her hair into sticky stumps.
An attack! Reimu's mind raced. It happened too quickly and the weird but deadly 'danmaku' if it even could be called so could barely be seen even in the dying dusk of the evening. Reimu looked around with sharp, intuitive jerks of her head. Nothing, short of a couple of flashes in the forests below could be seen out of the ordinary.
"Damn it!" Reimu swore to herself before back-flipping, dodging another laser beam that was aimed right up her dress. Reimu turned her head downwards and saw a brief shadow dart away as fast as the wind.
It's a Spore machine thingy. Reimu concluded in her mind. However, nothing would change much. It was just another opponent, and like the past incidents, an opponent that would be cut down without mercy.
Reimu adjusted her eyes to the tree top level. Before long, she spotted the tiny shadow at the canopy of the temperate forests skirting the leaves briefly before stopping again. Reimu cartwheeled to the left and avoided yet another laser attack.
This time, she felt the heat of the ionizing air particles just a few millimetres from her skin that registered like a mild prickling sensation. Whatever that thing was, it was getting more and more accurate. Was it predicting my moves? Reimu began to worry slightly.
Within that same second, Reimu shrugged off her fears. Smiling slightly, she mumbled to herself.
"All right little robot. You're going down."
Pulling out her gohei, Reimu then dived down towards the little shadow which in response, blasted off backwards away from Reimu, towards Youkai Mountain.
As with every opening salvo, Reimu unleashed a simple barrage of dumb cards which did not home in to the target. The droid, seemingly not registering them as attacks, took every single hit to its body. Reimu reeled back in half-shock. Those cards, when fired at weak youkai, fairies or humans, they would collapse in pure agony. If Reimu wished, she could really kill them with shock. Except the fairies. They regenerate.
So it really was unnatural to see something short of a god or Yukari to take more than two of those cards and not go down, or worse yet, flinch. The cards, upon hitting the droid literally crumpled up on its smooth and shiny body before being blown away by the wind.
Reimu dodged yet another attack from it. Nine seconds, Reimu identified the firing interval for the Spore droid. It did not seem like a lot of time but gave her ample time to close in, attack and retreat back to a safe distance.
"This danmaku is fast! What ever the hell that is!" Reimu exclaimed to herself as she narrowly avoided having a hole cauterized through her chest. "It's like the men in suits! Near invisible danmaku, is fired right at you and would most certainly incapacitate or kill in one hit! That should be illegal!"
The fact is that, according to the official spell card rules put in place by Reimu, they were indeed illegal, and so were the droids and the NanoTec members if Gensokyo ever had a proper immigration policy put in place.
The shrine maiden dove beneath the forest foliage, avoided another shot that set the entire canopy on fire before coming up right under the droid. Reimu climbed onto the droid and with some effort, pried the laser rifle out of its hand and threw it away as far as she possibly could.
The Spore droid, responding to the threat attempted to reach over its back to unhinge its aggressor. Failing miserably, it then began spinning violently and soaring high up into the sky. Reimu held on with a death grip. She remained on board.
Reimu pulled the assault rifle out of her outfit and after anchoring herself tightly to the spinning droid, she placed the weapon's stock as comfortably as she could on her shoulders and braced the front with her opposite hand. The barrel was placed on the back of the droid's neck and not long after, the piece of alien equipment were nothing but burning embers falling from the sky.
The shrine maiden, still in flight would have sighed in relief. Except she forgot that Newton's First Law of Motion existed and that she was still hurtling towards a small plateau located on Youkai Mountain. The inhabitants of a nearby shrine did not stir. The guards from the Tengu village however, did.
"Halt!" A piercing yell filled Reimu's ears.
Her eyes' vision were still extremely blurry and she saw double spinning images of everything. Before her outside the sizeable crater she lay in was what looked like a Tengu, wore a Tengu hat, had white hair, a white tail and brandished a broadsword and a circular shield with a maple leaf on the front. Unable to completely focus on the subject, Reimu eyed both images of the person and decided she preferred the image on the right.
"Who goes ther… Oh, it's you Reimu." The bellowing voice toned down into a milder yet stern voice.
"Ah… Hello there Momiji." Reimu said softly. "Did I get it?"
"Huh? What are you talking about?… Come, can you stand?" Momiji inquired as she extended a hand towards Reimu.
"Yeah, yeah." Reimu said as she stumbled to her feet, tripped over the edges of the crater, casually did a front roll, and ended up on her feet.
"What are you doing here, and at such an… unlikely hour?"
"Errands." Reimu said as she refocused her vision on the wolf Tengu. "And investigating an incident… Say, good timing."
"Wha…?"
"Tell me." Reimu said as she brought her face as close to that of Momiji's. The latter turned her face away in bewilderment and perhaps, disgust. "You wouldn't have happened to see a… Spore droid around here have you?"
"What are you talking about you silly shrine maiden? You sure you did not hit you head too hard now did you?"
"No, I am fine… Ahem, let me rephrase that. Seen anything strange around?"
"No! I mean, why don't you ask the Kappa? As much as I hate to say this, they probably know more about this matter than I do, now please, go bother them instead!"
Reimu receded from Momiji.
"You sure?"
"Well, I… Err… I, what do you mean strange?"
"Like, strange purple flying things?" Reimu elaborated while tilting her head slightly.
"Hmm… Not really but I have heard things about them… Yes, that's right."
"Good." Reimu said, putting her arms on her hips, looking extremely pleased with herself almost as though she did not just slam into the ground at a fraction of the speed of sound. "With that, I shall be off, and fortunately for you, I am not headed for your village. Good night."
"OK… Good night I guess." Momiji said, waving sheepishly as Reimu walked down a nearby path.
As Reimu disappeared into the mist that had just seemed to appear, Momiji stopped waving and sighed. What an encounter. She thought to herself. Maybe I should go and switch shifts.
And thus, Reimu began her search for the Kappa Residence. She knew that it was somewhere in the area, just not sure on exactly where it was. And worry not, she found it eventually… At least after she remembered she forgot to take Marisa with her.
"Stand down you two." Tylo said, waving his hand in a downwards gesture. "It is us."
Moho and Miyu, looked at each other and nodded as they observed Tylo and Skye emerge from the moonlit foliage.
"Reisen and Marisa are their names right?" Skye began. "Are they still here?"
"Affirmative. Reisen is asleep. Marisa had taken off towards Youki Mountain or something as soon as your radio transmission came in."
"OK. Noted."
"Should we establish a listening post around the local area sir?" Miyu asked.
"I was thinking of just that." Tylo nodded. "Seeing that so many Spore drones are in operation here and that so many inhabitants in this area have seen them, I am beginning to believe that they are flying in patterns. So…"
"So, if we make out the patterns, we can pinpoint the exact location of the base of operations of the Spores." Miyu said, finishing Tylo's sentence.
"Correct. How early can you get them up?"
"Already done so sir." Moho said, before Miyu could reply."
"Are you telling me that both of you acted autonomously without orders?" Tylo suddenly said with a deep and threatening voice.
"Huh?" Miyu and Moho said simultaneously. "Well…"
"That's as good as disobeying orders you know that? The consequences are severe, I hope you realise."
"Oh err…" Moho began. Miyu remained silent. "Please don't court marshal us. We acted for what was the best for us sir!"
"Don't worry. I won't have you lot court marshalled. It will be much worse."
The silence was deafening.
"Err… Sir?" Skye began before being cut off by Tylo's swift arm gesture.
"I'll give you all a break! Go and rest." Tylo suddenly said whilst maintaining an uncanny deep and menacing voice.
"What? I thought you…"
Tylo suddenly laughed. "I was joking! Idiots! Good job on the instillation. Just give me a report on what it has discovered for us before I really decide to have you all court marshalled."
"Eh? Umm… Roger that." Miyu yelped.
Reimu tripped over a strange metallic object and almost fell face first into mud if it were not for her flight powers. Taking a closer look at the item in question, she realized that it was a sizeable wheel made out of mild steel… or at least that was what was written on it.
Why haven't I seen it before? Reimu wondered to herself, considering the fact that she had been walking in circles for the past hour or so. Never mind that she thought to herself again as she reached her hand out to turn the wheel. One might have convinced themselves to do otherwise but that was instinct for you.
An array of danmaku turrets popped out of the ground the moment Reimu touched the wheel. All of them began glowing brightly as they pointed their barrels at the shrine maiden.
"*State your purpose for visit within 20 seconds. Else, leave or we atomize your face.*"
Reimu sighed. It was going to be a long night.
The wheel, or as Reimu now knew as a 'bulkhead' slid into the ground before the latter split open cleanly, revealing a white walled, futuristic looking shaft complete with a ladder going about ten meters down. Looking around and seeing that nobody was around, Reimu gathered all the demolished danmaku turrets in her hand, threw them all into a nearby ditch before dropping herself down the hole, closing the bulkhead as she went.
Nitori Kappashiro, the most famous kappa in all of Gensokyo for perhaps, not the right reasons, picked up her giant green backpack with on hand and toothbrush in the other as she prepared to embark on a trip for undisclosed reasons.
With a yawn, she put her gear on and with an enthusiastic tone with each step she took, Nitori almost skipped out of her room and into the collective Kappa enclave hallway where she was greeted ever so abruptly by the shrine maiden in the middle of the hallway.
"Ah! Great timing!" Reimu said, rather pleased with herself. "I would like to talk to you."
Nitori did not even reply. She had fainted from shock.
About five minutes later, and after almost all the Kappa present gathered around their unconscious comrade, Nitori pushed herself back up to a seated position. She stretched and yawned before seeing Reimu kneeling next to her in the middle of the collective hallway and realizing that she was not getting up from bed.
"Wahh! Where did you come from?!" Nitori exclaimed with a squeak. "And what do you want?! I didn't do anything this time! I swear!"
The crowd bellowed with laughter. Reimu sighed.
"Calm down. I am not here to exterminate you. Ironically, I am on an errand… And it involves money."
A chorus of murmuring began emanating from the crowd.
"How much?" Nitori said with an aura of seemingly forgetting everything that happened before.
"Don't know. How much do you think this is worth?"
Reimu brandished the little black box. Her action was followed by gasps of awe from the other Kappa.
"Doesn't seem like something you'd make. Where did you find that?" Nitori asked.
"What's his name… This Tylo guy did. You need not know the details on how he got it because I didn't see him pick it up."
"Yeah whatever… Let me see it."
"No way. I have an errand to run."
"What! It's just a fetch quest right? Letting me see won't hurt a bit!" Nitori began growing impatient.
"No, before I exterminate you… Oh wait, you have a computer right?"
"Laptop actually."
"Right… Oh, you're Nitori right?"
The crowd erupted yet again into uncontrollable laughter.
"You mean you don't even know the names of those you beat up?!"
"Whatever. I was actually supposed to deliver this to you."
"Then why didn't you say so earlier?!"
"I was just fooling around." Reimu laughed half-heartedly. "Hmm… What was I supposed to say again? Something like… Jack this up to some mainframe core thingy, calculate the alithogramic functions of its poly-systemic code in binary and hexadecimal and err… Take your time. Also, try and maintain the electronic integrity of the data. Copy it into a hard disk and I will pay you for it later with interest… Oh, I actually remembered it!"
Nitori sighed, dusted herself off and stood up.
"Fine! You owe me big time!" Nitori huffed as she strode into her room. "Follow me." She called out, directing it towards Reimu.
The crowd of Kappa burst into murmuring again as Reimu walked into the room.
"And for the record, I am not, NOT in any freaky relationship with this disgusting shrine maiden!" Nitori stuck her head into the hallway to yell before slamming the door shut.
"Yes?" Keine, dressed in her nightgown, called out as she opened the door to her house, only to be surprised to see Tylo and Miyu standing before her. With noticeable bags below her eyes and a significant drag to her voice, Keine spoke.
"Oh, you people. Whilst I don't have a full understanding of your culture and practices, here in Gensokyo, it is quite rude to visit someone past midnight…" Keine eyed the two for a moment before continuing. "Especially when it involves money."
"In my society, it is not particularly nice to delay payment to someone especially after he or she has done you a favour."
"Hmph." Keine folded her arms and shook her head. "I suppose it can't be helped. Come in."
Tylo and Miyu did just that. The house was, unexpectedly under furnished and rather plain looking from the inside.
"How did you all even know that this was my house? It would have been pretty embarrassing if you had walked into the wrong house now wouldn't it? Keine asked with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"Well… We just looked for the biggest house in the central areas of the village. Leaders usually have the biggest houses here. Or at least the most powerful do." Miyu said as-a-matter-of-factly.
Keine scratched her head. "I suppose that reasoning is valid but not all powerful people here in Gensokyo live in rather impoverished conditions."
"What, like Reimu?" Tylo asked off the bat.
"No comment."
"Wait, you mean she is one of the most powerful people here?"
"You didn't know that? I'm surprised. Maybe I might have underestimated your intelligence."
"I never really saw her as a fighter… One learns something new everyday, or am I just forgetful?"
"Yeah, yeah…" Keine said, yawned, stretched before yawning again. A bag of silver landed in Tylo's arms. "Here's your 20 000 yen worth of silver. Check."
Tylo passed the bag of money to Miyu.
"Can you count the money outside?" Keine asked impatiently and with her eyebrow twitching. "You people are denying me my well deserved sleep."
"Right, right. Farewell." Tylo said as he ushered Miyu out of the house.
"By the way, have you sighted anything else that is in any way…"
Before Tylo could finish his sentence, he was lifted up by some unearthly force and soon found himself soaring through the air, crashing face first on the ground before hearing the door slam behind him.
"Women are scary sometimes." Tylo said as he pulled himself back to his feet.
Miyu stifled a snicker.
"Is all the money there?"
Miyu nodded.
"Good. So, according to our listening post there should be a Spore patrol flying overhead us in about 15 minutes?"
"I guess so. But our predictions are not 100% correct yet. We have only observed their movements for less than 48 hours."
"Doesn't matter. Let's find some place to hunker down a bit. We can return in a few hours time."
"Roger that."
The blonde witch silently glided through the night. Despite being well aware of the dangers that lurked amidst the canopy below her or the clouds that were above, she was nothing but determined to find her friend.
"That damn Reimu." Marisa grumbled with the NanoTec rifle tucked awkwardly under her arm. "She owes me a thousand yen for leaving so abruptly ze. When I find her… I'm going to… What am I going to do? Hmm… Never mind."
Marisa inspected the rifle she had. Sleek, black, compact and many other features already mentioned in the previous chapter, I mean three hours ago. She pulled out the magazine, dropped it by accident and caught it mid-air just as she gave herself a new hairstyle by skimming the top of the forest below.
The dragon breath rounds were still there and at least 60 more were present in her dress. Smiling slightly to herself, she readjusted her hair, pulled out a couple twigs and leaves from the mess and fired a single round at the fairy that was barely keeping up with her, terminating its three minute long life and guaranteeing it yet another inconvenient respawn cycle.
The magnesium flares lingered in the air for a noticeable amount of time, shining like stars in the darkness. Flashy.
Marisa turned and looked forwards again. Her vision was obscured by a blur of brown and patches of green with a little white at the top of her vision. Strange, she thought to herself. I've never seen such a weird phenomena in Gensokyo before. The white slowly disappeared and the brown and green begun getting more and more distinct, separating themselves from each other.
Travelling at high speeds do cause visual blurs. Marisa recalled. After all, she was an avid fast flyer. What was green and brown, or brown and green? She continued thinking. Dirt and grass probably. So… Putting two and two together, Marisa suddenly had a brainwave, as though a lightbulb lit up above her head. All of that took roughly half a second and a bit.
And then it hit her.
The walls of Nitori's laboratory crumbled and water began rushing in in bucketfuls. The breach was quickly patched by automated machinery, but only partially. Reimu and Nitori jumped at the sudden noise, look around at the wrecked machinery before the former's face soured as she saw the drenched upper body of Marisa poking through the wall.
"Yo." She said with her usual voice as she rubbed her head. "Never thought I'd find you here. What's up?"
"Ah, yes. I forgot to pick you up. My bad." Reimu said.
"Exactly! Glad you realize… By the way, where am I?"
"In my lab!" Nitori fumed. "Which you just wrecked!"
"Oops." Marisa shrugged her shoulders.
"Never mind that." Reimu said impatiently. "Have you done it yet?"
"Done what?"
"The… You know, calculating the alithogramic functions of its poly-systemic..."
"Right, right… Hmm… Yes, I have." Nitori said with a sigh as she handed the miko a harddisk and the black box back. "You owe me."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll find a way to bill Tylo for this."
"You mean that guy you went ahead and…"
"Never mind." The miko quickly said before Nitori could say anything not-safe-for-work.
Reimu got up from her seat and stretched.
"Great. I got what I came for. Nitori, you'll get your payment… one day. Marisa, let's go."
"But I'm stuck!"
"You'll live."
"Hey!"
"I don't fancy her being there all night." Nitori said, crossed arms with one eye closed. "Maybe remove her… Hmm… Ah, using this!"
A bottle rocket launcher appeared out of no where.
"H-Hey! Wait!" Marisa tried to protest.
"No hard feelings." Nitori began. "The lab's trashed already anyway and I do want to test this new piece of equipment out too."
"Oh for f…" Marisa tried saying before being hit in the face with a water train filled with anvils.
"You're quite late, you know that?" Tylo said, whist seated on the foldable ladder of his escape pod. "I know, hunter killer drones and all but really, did it really take you four hours to get back here?"
"Well… Yes, killer things and all… And Marisa insisted she go home and get a change of clothes. I was sleepy and went home to take a short nap." Reimu said as-a-matter-of-factly.
"…Fine." Tylo said with a sigh, obviously wary with fatigue. "You have the harddisk?"
Reimu patted her attire in multiple locations. A look of shock jumped onto her face.
"Oh no. I think it fell out on the way back here." Reimu said as she pulled out the black box. "At least I still have this."
"Good job ze!" Marisa said sarcastically. "I knew we could count on you!"
Tylo audibly groaned through his helmet and stood up slowly, bracing his body weight on his rifle.
"Well then, let's go find it." Tylo said as he cracked his neck. "Can't leave young girls like yourselves wander off this late now can I?"
Marisa's face flushed red. "Oi! Don't patronize me ze! I can take care of myself and probably better than you can yourself!"
Reimu shrugged her shoulders for the umpteenth time. "That's just his way of showing concern." She said nonchalantly. "No harm done, and don't ask me how I know that."
"It's best we walk." Tylo said, seemingly ignoring everything that Marisa said. "It will be easier to find the disk that way and we do want to be quick about it… Before someone, or something gets its hands on it first."
"You don't have to make it so scary…" Reimu said as she shuddered at the thought of that something.
"You're right. Women are scary enough." Tylo said jokingly without laughing.
"Y-You…" Marisa raised a finger before putting it back down again, completely lost for words. She knew he was right, especially in Gensokyo.
Tylo spent the next few minutes stumbling and tripping over unseen roots and vines, much to the amusement of Reimu and Marisa, who were not tripping over anything due to their convenient flight powers. It was completely dark and with Tylo leading the way, the two girls only had the soldier's footsteps to guide them and as for Tylo, his infra-red scanning was not doing a particularly good job.
Reimu was about to give up, turn around and fly off but she tripped and pivoted over something cold and hard, only to realise it was a crouched down Tylo. The soldier caught the spinning Reimu, put his hand over her mouth to muffle her sudden yelp of surprise, and told her to keep quiet.
Reimu tried to ask what was going on but Tylo put his other hand's finger on his lips… Or at least the brim of his helmet. He then pointed to a faint light in the forest clearing that Reimu only just noticed.
Squinting a little, Reimu made out a thousand fireflies and two shadows within the light. One was standing and holding something out, while the other was on its posterior backed up against a rock.
Reimu lunged out on instinct to help, but was held back by Tylo and even Marisa. Tylo shook his head as he readied his rifle, his eyes looking down the scope.
The loud bang followed a split second after and the first shadow flinched from the impact. Tylo pulled Reimu towards the side and dived for another bush. The initial bush he was hiding behind was vaporised instantly, leaving nothing but glass in its place.
"Spore Heavy Assault." Tylo mumbled to Reimu and Marisa. "Find some cover. Quick!"
They did as they were told.
It was a 1v1 fight. A NanoTec Special Force Unit and a Spore Heavy Assault. As far as Tylo could tell, it was not an even fight. At least, not in Tylo's favour anyway. He poked his rifle out of cover, fired a couple of shots before finding another set of bushes as his previous one was blown away.
"No good…" Tylo mumbled to himself. "I can't put a dent in that thing with a rifle like this."
"Reimu! Marisa! Let's go, I don't think… Wha…?" Tylo began before realising that both of them had disappeared from their original position.
Tylo immediately peeked out of his cover only to see that the bright light illuminating the clearing in the trees had, in fact, grown much, much brighter. Another two shadows, appearing to have merged together were ironically the source of the additional brightness.
Tylo fired another volley at the droid, took a glancing hit to his left ankle and dove behind a rock.
The soldier winced at the pain despite the immediate flow of bio foam into his wound. At this point, the light that emanated from the clearing flooded the area. Suddenly, a yell resounded in the night, pierced the heavens and the light out glowed everything.
"Heaven Sign!" A chorus of two voices echoed. "Fantasy Spark!"
"Please be patient. Girls are cooling down and preparing for… Kaw!"
A talking crow flew away frantically as the fallen tree it perched on was pushed away by a half buried Tylo whose armour was caked with dirt and ash.
"What…?" Tylo stuttered, flabbergasted. "What the hell was that?! A crossover episode?!"
Reimu and Marisa, both still holding onto the mini hakkero which was billowing thick black smoke, stood in the epicentre of what seemed to be ground zero of a thermonuclear weapon. Trees were uprooted and lay scattered, some burnt to ash, in the general vicinity and whatever fireflies that were present before were almost certainly dispersed or disintegrated by the attack.
"Heh! Well, that'll show him ze!" Said a voice.
"That was awesome!" Came the other voice. "I can't believe we pulled it off! It's a shame about the hakkero though…"
"Yeah! You owe me big time!"
The shadow of the shrine maiden turned towards the still dazed soldier.
"And now, have I proven to you that we can hold our own against these invaders without your weapons?"
"Yeah! Who needs stealth when we have this!" Said Marisa's silhouette.
"Uh, fine… I guess." Tylo stammered. "I stand corrected."
He got up, dusted himself off warily and walked over to the unidentified victim of the Spore attack, who was lying on the ground in a fetal position.
Before Tylo could say anything vaguely untactful, Reimu walked past him and crouched by the figure.
"Wriggle? Ah, yes it's you. Are you OK?"
"H-Huh? The S-Shrine Maiden?!"
"Yes, it's me. Are you hurt?"
"No… Thank you for saving me! There was this big red metal thing and it kept asking me to hand something over or something… And then there was this big explosion, I-I don't know what is going on!"
"Relax, you're safe now."
"I can't thank you enough! How could I ever repay you?"
"Sorry to butt in like this." Tylo began, walking forwards. "My name is Tylo, a friend of the shrine maiden. You want a way to repay us, am I right to say that?"
Wriggle, obviously intimidated, backed away slightly. Ignoring the glare of disapproval from Reimu, Tylo knelt down and put a hand forwards to the scared Lolite.
"Don't worry, I intend you no harm. In fact, could you help me?"
She timidly nodded.
"Right. I am not sure, but have you seen a flat, grey like thing with a light at an end? A hard disk if you would."
"Y-You mean this?" Wriggle asked as she pulled out exactly what Tylo described.
"Ah, you have it! Wonderful!" The NanoTec soldier took it from Wriggle's hands.
He stood up and yawned.
"Well, we found what we were looking for. Reimu, Marisa, let's go."
"And leave this poor girl here? All alone?" Reimu asked sternly.
"Alright, fine." Tylo shrugged his shoulders. "Marisa?"
"I'll accompany Reimu. I dare not leave her with you."
"Duly noted. And I can't let you two out of my sights either, lest you get yourselves killed. The last fight just now was in your favour as the Spore droid was searching for me. Not you."
"Blah, blah, blah. I'm sorry." Marisa jeered. "I can't hear you over how awesome we were."
"Fine, fine." Tylo said, with a tinge of fatigue and a dash of exasperation in his voice. "I'll wait here. Finish what you need to please."
Tylo then plugged the hard disk into a port in his RIG. Reimu meanwhile, spoke to the Youkai.
"OK, I need you to tell me exactly what happened." Reimu asked as quietly as she could.
Wriggle hesitated a little before replying. "W-Well, I was just out here, minding my own business when I found that… small thing lying on the ground. I picked it up to see what it was… And then…"
Reimu nodded her head, ushering the Youkai to continue. She obliged.
"And then my light bugs lit the area up so I could see better, and that was when…" The youkai began to sob. "I was so scared…"
"It's alright. I am here now." Reimu reassured her again.
"That's right ze! We will kick any and all of their asses." Marisa interjected with a wide grin.
"Thanks…" Wriggle said quietly.
"Now, listen carefully." Reimu said. "These… things, Spores, I believe is what the outsiders call them, are attracted to light."
"It's a study protocol." Tylo interrupted.
"Whatever. Don't light up areas of the forest again, at least until this incident is resolved. That will keep you safe."
"But… Doing so is my job!"
"It can't be helped, sorry."
Wriggle then stood up and wiped the tears off her face.
"O-OK… Thank you again shrine maiden… I have to go now. Bye!"
"Take care!" Reimu shouted after as the little silhouette faded into the undergrowth.
"Never saw you as someone who could talk like that ze." Marisa commented.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Reimu turned and half yelled.
"She has a point." Tylo said. Although Reimu could not be sure, she almost saw a grin under that helmet of his. "But never mind that for now. Right now, I have identified a Spore forward base of operations."
Reimu and Marisa stared at Tylo as though he was speaking, yet again, in an alien tongue.
"If you all are coming along with us, I suggest you pack your bags now. We are leaving tomorrow morning."
"So fast?"
"Time and the enemy waits for no one." Tylo said with confidence.
"Ugh. Fine…" Marisa groaned. "And here I was thinking that you'd be so nice as to give us a short break. Most incidents are over in 45 minutes anyway."
"Not in my world." Tylo said, shrugging his shoulders.
"So where exactly are we going?" Reimu asked while tapping her feet on the ground.
Tylo pointed downwards. "We are going underground."
"Again?!" Reimu stood, shocked and appalled. "I nearly got toasted the last time I went there!"
"In that case…" Tylo tossed Reimu a bag filled with 10 000 Yen in coins. "Deliver this to the kappa for me. I did say I was going to repay them after all."
"Oh for god's sake." Reimu groaned.
To be continued.