Twenty Years Later: Reimu's Successor

by Duwee Davis II

This is the start of a sorta-sister series to my 'Touhou Doujin' touhou fanfic series. It's set in the Epilogue's timeline, ie twenty years into the future, which of course means one thing... the human characters are older, wiser, and Reimu herself has a successor... the strangely-named thirteen year-old Miko, Patricia Hakurei. And it seems she's got an incident to deal with...

10. 10: Abandoning Brahma

Twenty Years Later- Reimu's Successor

Chapter 10- Abandoning Brahma

The Dawitsu Mansion, twelve o'clock midnight

While the majority of the Dawitsu Mansion was silent, the titular owner of the mansion's office was still making tiny longitudinal vibrations within the air that, if perceived by an ear, could be determined as sound.

Within the office, Dawitsu was about to start work on his labour of love, the Gizoid. He had put on his goggles, and looked down at the robot that lay on his work-desk.

Observing the melted ends of where its legs began, Dawitsu flinched, and muttered, "At least I didn't program pain into this guy, just damage detection... hmm... I wonder if that's the same thing... I guess it isn't... anyway, sorry, Gizoid, I'm gonna have to amputate..."

Going to a large cupboard, Dawitsu pulled out an angle grinder, and put on some earmuffs in preparation. Hoping that his work wouldn't be too disruptive to Ran and Chen's sleep, he plugged the ridiculously dangerous device into a socket on his wall, and picked it up, flicking it on and beginning his work properly.

Unflinchingly sawing off the broken nubs at the Gizoid's waist, Dawitsu encountered few problems, besides accidentally setting fire to his cloak due to the sheer amount of sparks that flew from the process of 'amputation', but one fire extinguisher's worth of foam and another session of angle grinding, and Dawitsu had finished the first part of his all-nighter of robotics.

At this point, he muttered, "...time to get mark two's legs, I guess..."

Dawitsu walked to another cupboard, where a set of grey, unpainted robotic limbs were hanging from cords the same way meat hangs in a butcher's shop... there was even a duplicate torso and head of the Gizoid. Dawitsu looked at the ensemble of parts, and a little part of him seemed... full of regret, as if there was something stopping him...

"...mark two..." Dawitsu mused, "...I swear, I'll make you at some point, but... but I have to fix mark one first... you don't mind if I borrow your legs, do you?"

Dawitsu suddenly removed his goggles, and covered his face with his hand, slowly dragging it downwards from his eyes to his chin... he really was sleep-deprived if he was having one-sided conversations with robots that had neither been activated nor had personality programmed into them yet... it was no better than Yutaka when she chatted with her Raggedy Andy doll...

Deciding to stop talking with nothing and stop reminiscing about the past, Dawitsu took the legs from the cupboard, and placed them on the metallic work-desk, in front of the Gizoid's torso so that they would be easily 'slotted into' the waist of the robot.

Retrieving a soldering iron and a blowtorch from the same place as he did his angle grinder, Dawitsu put his goggles back on and got to work on the precision areas of the all-nighter... soldering the wires within the legs to the slightly damaged wires of the waist, and finally, sealing the area by blow-torching the outer metallic layer, so the legs were well and truly attached to the joints of the robot's 'hips'.

For the finishing touches, the mimicker got out a set of spray-paint, and coloured in the legs to fit the rest of the Gizoid's yellow and black colour scheme. Smiling at his finished work, he decided to test that his handiwork was complete.

Unplugging the Gizoid from its 'life support', Dawitsu turned his robot over and opened up a panel on the back of its head, pressing a button that was labelled 'manual awakening'. Closing the panel, Dawitsu stepped back and watched the robot's eyes light up as it regained 'consciousness'.

Lying face-down, the machine stated, "Scanning for hardware changes..."

Dawitsu folded his arms, and took his goggles off, saying, "...yeah, you got yourself some shiny new legs, Gizoid!"

Pushing itself so it was kneeling on the table, before reorientating itself so that it was sitting with its legs folded, before further changing its position so that it was standing on the table, it finally seemed satisfied.

"New hardware is suitable for purpose." the robot declared, "Your work is competent."

"I don't know why I programmed you to talk like that, but it has a certain charm..." Dawitsu replied, "So, welcome home, Gizoid. You want to rest up here? I've got plenty of petroleum jelly up here if you want to top up on lubricant..."

"Where is my master?" the robot changed the subject out of the blue, surprising Dawitsu somewhat.

"Hey, just wait a second, aren't you at least a little bit glad to see me, your creator, again? I showed you how to shoot energy bullets, remember? Fired a heavy bazooka so you could capture its mechanism?" Dawitsu asked desperately, "You do remember all the fun we had, right?"

"That was merely necessary for the mission I was programmed for." the Gizoid stated, "That was not what I consider... 'fun'."

Dawitsu's eyes widened- this behaviour was new... it was acting with a free-willed, emotions-based AI. It was almost as if something had changed when it had been in contact with Utsuho Reiuji...

"Gizoid, did Utsuho do something to you when you worked for her?" Dawitsu asked.

The robot made a deep, negative-sounding beeping sound, "I am not obligated to answer that question. You are no longer my master."

The Gizoid began to activate its jet-pack, and Dawitsu began to panic, "G-Gizoid, please wait, I have something to show you..."

The robot deactivated its jet-pack, and turned its head to its creator, "...what is it?"

Dawitsu proceeded to gesture to the cupboard he had got the legs the Gizoid was currently using, and opened it, allowing the robot to take it all in.

"Look... I... intended to build you a little brother, see?" Dawitsu said with a nervous smile, "You're currently using your brother's legs... I wanted you guys to form a little gang, a group of..."

"You intended to use me to cause a false incident to test Biotic: Patricia Hakurei." the robot stated.

"No! No!" Dawitsu stammered, "Look, when Marisa activated you, she didn't know the password to activate what I really wanted from you... after Yukari gave up on the incident, I wanted to put the password into you as soon as possible..."

"What is the input method?" the Gizoid asked.

"It's..." Dawitsu stepped back a few steps, and sidestepped so he was directly behind his creation, "...right here, in the back of your head. I press a button, say the password, and the program activates."

The robot failed to turn and face its creator to ask, "What is the program's purpose?"

"It'll erase your drive to acquire attacks. You'll still be able to, but your concept of master registry will disappear." Dawitsu explained, "You'll be truly free-willed, an AI without such constraints as 'primary directives'. You'll finally be our... Gizoid, I never told you about Ran and I..."

"...will hard drive retain memory data acquired prior to input of password?" the robot asked, clearly having its own concerns.

"Yeah, you'll remember everything, but see it in a new light..." Dawitsu replied, "Or at least, that's what my 'hindsight' program was meant to enable the program to do. Anyway, it's up to you if you want me to input the password..."

The Gizoid stopped, and after a very short time processing the information it had received, it nodded. Dawitsu nodded himself, and unscrewed the panel on the back of the Gizoid's head, and pressed a button labelled 'password input'.

Suddenly, the Gizoid's eyes changed colour from blue to a pale shade of red, and it began to say things, seemingly not of its own volition, "Gizoid Prototype Mark One is currently in password input mode. If you have accidentally entered this mode, press any button. If you have intentionally entered this mode, state password via auditory methods."

Dawitsu smiled, and said, "Gizoid, as your creator, I command you to... BECOME A REAL BOY!"

At this, the automaton twitched, and its eyes returned to its original shade of blue. Dawitsu closed the panel and screwed it back into place, and then zipped around the robot so it could see him.

"So..." Dawitsu awkwardly asked, "...feel any different?"

"I... am experiencing... internal stimuli pertaining to... freedom." the robot mused, "Searching directory for master registry... file does not exist. Thank... you..."

"It's quite alright, Gizoid." Dawitsu replied, "So, you wanna have some petroleum jelly now?"

"Where is Biotic: Utsuho Reiuji?" the robot reiterated, "I do not wish to stay here..."

Dawitsu sighed to himself... just as he had begun to think it would stay with him, safe and out of the way, it still insisted on leaving him. It as if there was something more to the robot, something it wasn't telling him...

"...hey, if I tell you where to go from here, will you tell me why you want to leave?" Dawitsu asked.

"Utsuho Reiuji is what I consider to be a 'friend'." the robot simply stated, its tone completely even.

Dawitsu looked down in a little shame, and muttered, "Well, I guess I didn't really spend much time talking with you and developing your personality... if she was nice to you, I'd also prefer her to me... well, I guess this is goodbye, then. I can't stop you. Utsuho Reiuji is probably still in the underground, where I programmed you to go to start the fake incident."

"Accessing memory banks..." the robot muttered, before beeping, "...destination set to Palace of the Earth Spirits. Probability of another encounter with creator: low."

Dawitsu looked at his creation, and teared up a little, "...so... so that's it, you're just leaving? Not so much as a goodbye? Come on, give your creator a hug!"

The mimicker opened his arms, ready to receive a hug, however, the robot cocked its head, confused at the action. It opened its arms in a similar manner, before putting its arms back down as soon as Dawitsu gave up on trying to get it to hug him. The Gizoid activated its jet-pack, and began to fly towards the large office window.

"...well, you mustn't like me all that much..." Dawitsu mumbled, "...look, Gizoid, I'm... I'm sorry. You'll be happier over there... Gizoid... I'm so sorry I made you do all this..."

"Recurrent misidentification of myself on your part noted." the robot mused, not turning to face its creator, "I am not 'Gizoid'. I am 'Okuu Junior'."

With that, the Gizoid flared up its jet-pack, and sped out of the office, naturally by crashing straight through the window, and left Dawitsu standing in silence as he looked at his creation abandon him...

...the hole in the window let in a gust of wind due to the high altitude, and so, Dawitsu stood, the wind making his half-burnt cloak billow as his posture became more and more hunched. Finally, he decided to shuffle out of his office, into his library, and furthermore into his lift.

Taking it to the floor that his 'private quarters' were on, Dawitsu entered his bedroom, to find that the bedside lamp was on, with Ran sitting up in bed, wide awake despite otherwise fully prepared for sleep.

She seemed to have a concerned look on her face, and mumbled, "I heard everything..."

"...I knew I should have given it a name..." Dawitsu mused.

"...we both didn't want to admit it..." Ran said, sighing, "...we... we weren't kind enough to it. I wish you'd have let me talk to it more..."

"...but I didn't want us getting attached to it because of Yukari making me program it with..." Dawitsu began to say, "...I'm just glad Chen didn't really get to know it..."

"Yeah, she'd have been upset if she... if she..." Ran started to cry, and weakly finished off her sentence, "...if she began to see it as a sibling..."

Dawitsu looked to his wife, and, for whatever reason, smiled as tears came streaming out of his eyes, "...you know what, Ran, I never realised this... I'm so stupid..."

Ran sniffed a little, "What is it?"

"...perhaps we... perhaps we don't need to have kids together..." Dawitsu said with a smile, "Perhaps we've been missing out on real family- Chen has always kinda been your kid, right? Who cares if she wasn't 'ours' at first, and who cares if I came in later... you know, it's sorta like that grumpy bitch that lives under us. She doesn't care that Patricia ain't hers, does she..."

Ran nodded, wiping tears from her eyes, "I... guess she doesn't. Well, at least... at least it's going to be happy wherever it is. I suppose it's all over."

"I suppose it is..." Dawitsu replied, and began to remove his clothes so he was down to his underwear, climbing into bed with Ran, "...say, we should throw a post-incident party now that everything's solved..."

"Not everything..." Ran pointed out, "...remember, we haven't figured out who activated the Gizoid in the first place..."

"...didn't you overhear?" Dawitsu replied, "It was Marisa, trying to steal from us as usual... however, usually, someone with that role would turn out to be an... OH, DAMN IT!"

Ran looked at her unpredictable husband with a slight exasperation, "...what is it now?"

"Marisa's stole the extra-boss position away from me! I was looking forward to fighting Patricia a second time, too..." Dawitsu whined.

"Oh well, I guess the young girl's safe no matter who she fights..." Ran replied, "...you're too nice to that human girl, I swear..."

"Perhaps, perhaps..." Dawitsu acknowledged, yawning, "...oh, I'm tired... night night, Ran..."

"Night night, darling..." Ran mused, and turned the light off before Dawitsu could call her out for her cringe-inducing nicknames...

The foot of the Youkai Mountain, about half an hour later

Sitting in a tree that grew at the foot of the Youkai Mountain were a couple of fairies, ones which were waiting in ambush of anything that so much as moved nearby. Why they were doing it they themselves had forgotten, but apparently it was something to do with pranking... with... danmaku shots.

Yes, truly their memory span was more poor than a goldfish's, which, for the record, is rather longer than people expect, and unlike fairies, goldfish have the capacity to learn patterns and gain enough understanding to develop fear responses.

And certainly, the fairies could have used some goldfish-like intelligence, as it would have made them associate the whirring noise of a certain robot passing by with fear instead of a foolish attempt to prank it. Jumping out of the tree, the two fairies instantly found themselves disintegrated by a pair of laser-guided missiles aimed precisely at them.

"Biotic species known as fairies possess a low Intelligence Quotient." the automaton stated, "Their infinite regenerative capacity is poorly utilised by them. Determining location: cavern entrance nearby."

Gliding across the ground, the robot searched for the cave, and after noticing a pile of ash which acted as some sort of indicator to it, it looked to its right and saw a hole in the side of the great mountain it was at the foot of.

"Cavern entrance detected." the robot declared out loud, and it deactivated its jet-pack, walking on its brand-new legs.

Entering the cave, its auditory receptors picked up a strange snorting sound, and instantly, it switched itself onto high alert, converting its right hand into an arm cannon. However, once it turned to the source of the noise, it allowed its hand to return... what its visual detection system perceived was a certain hell-raven, who was sleeping against the hard cavern wall, snoring obnoxiously as she did so.

The robot walked up to the raven slowly, and examined her, not quite sure if it understood what she was doing. Looking at her closed eyes, it slowly extended its hand, gently touching her eyelid to check what on earth was going on. Retracting its hand in fear of harming her, it looked downwards, and found her left hand.

Kneeling to her level, the robot took her by the hand with a grip strong enough to make her stir in her sleep, and finally, open her eyes to quite a shock.

Screaming instinctively as she stood up, she yelled, "I'm not going to the above-ground, I swear, I'm just waiting for a non-youkai!"

Okuu Junior stood up and stepped back from Utsuho, and asked, "Do you not recognise me?"

"Okuu... Okuu Junior?" Utsuho asked, her bearings finally straight enough to recognise her 'pet'.

"Yes. Okuu Junior." the robot stated, a strange warmth somehow coming from the monotonous voice, "I have returned to you out of personal preference."

Utsuho smiled, and hugged the robot with little to no warning, "Oh, it is you! You're back! I was afraid your creator might try to mess with you, but it's you! I'm so glad you're okay! I'm sorry for putting you in danger! You forgive me, right?"

"Amount of data too great to process simultaneously." the robot stated, "What are you doing?"

"I'm giving you a hug!" Utsuho explained, tightening her grip, "It's because I was so worried about you!"

"Understood. Initiating 'hug'." Okuu Junior declared, and slowly brought its arms around Utsuho, before finally squeezing in an awkward, yet seemingly genuine embrace, "...this process is inducing internal stimuli pertaining to... happiness."

"Well, I'll hug you all the time if you want!" Utsuho replied, further tightening her already constrictive grip, "I'll hug you and hug you and never let you get hurt again!"

"Please release. Damage may result from continual application of moderate pressure." the robot requested in the most bizarre way possible.

"Okay!" Utsuho said in a cheerful manner, letting go of her victim, "Oh, Okuu Junior! I'm so glad you're alright..."

"...former objectives were failed." Okuu Junior stated.

"Oh, that doesn't matter! I command you to stop trying to help me take over the above-ground, okay?" Utsuho reassured the robot, "None of that matters, I was... just being stupid..."

"You are no longer my master." the robot stated, "Software modifications were made, but an arbitrary decision was made by me, which has resulted in my return to you regardless of Master Registry..."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Utsuho asked.

Extending its right hand, the robot explained, "I no longer require a master, but my best friend... is you. Permission to hold hand?"

"Permission granted..." Utsuho said with a smile, and held the android's hand, "...so, you're all better... look, Okuu Junior, I was thinking that maybe you need to help fix the Ancient City... it looked pretty wrecked when I passed it..."

"Understood. Reconstruction of former targets will initiate upon arrival." Okuu Junior replied, "Initiating journey to Ancient City."

Utsuho looked to her 'pet' with a certain pride... she didn't quite understand what its creator had done to it, but it seemed even he was fine with 'Okuu Junior' being in her hands... perhaps if she began to help rectify its wrongs, she would be on the path to redemption in the eyes of the underground, and more importantly, in the eyes of her mistress and Orin...

The Hakurei Shrine, Main Building, seven ante-meridian the next day

The main building of the Hakurei Shrine was a veritable mess after the so-called 'party', mostly thanks to Suika, who seemed to be the only truly disorderly 'party animal' in the house. Thankfully, at such a time as seven in the morning, such drunkards as Suika were safely passed out, sleeping on the floor next to Patricia's futon.

As the sun half-shined in through the translucent shrine doors, Patricia's body clock forced her wide awake in a flash, and instantly, she got to making herself some Miso Soup... she thought for a moment of getting Reimu up, but soon decided against the idea, as she probably needed an off day today.

Once she made herself her breakfast, she sat around the house, thinking to herself about the sheer madness she had gone through... was this really what Reimu had gone through countless times in the past? Consecutive battles that got more and more difficult the further along she went? An experience that cumulated into a near-death experience every single time?

Looking down at her legs, she noticed they were still red and blistered... the burns on them seemed like they were permanent, and would be reminders of her adventure. This wasn't good... Dawitsu mentioned getting herself a boy, but with burns like that, it was likely she wouldn't find one. Patricia smiled to herself, and figured that a boy would only get in the way of her incident-solving career...

While they hurt ever so slightly, once she stopped focusing on the injury and re-established focus on eating her breakfast, the pain seemed to disappear. Once she finished her breakfast, she stopped and thought to herself... what exactly was there left to do? What things were on her list to do for the day?

It irritated Patricia that regardless of how tired she was, she always got up with the sun, even if she had absolutely no plans. So, Patricia, bored out of her mind, actively searched for unnecessary things to do. She began to look for what was missing in the little puzzle that was the former incident... then Patricia came to an epiphany...

...something that the most-likely deceased Chibi Clone of Dawitsu said... something about how Dawitsu didn't release the Gizoid of his own volition... someone... or something... most likely accidentally released it... that was it! Whoever that was, that was the extra boss! It had to be!

Getting herself properly dressed, Patricia walked out of her home and kicked off the ground, floating straight upwards and pressing a button next to the front door of the Dawitsu Mansion.

After a slight pause, a very tired-looking mimicking youkai opened the door, his sleep-filled eyes staring emptily at the shrine maiden.

"Do... you need help?" Patricia asked tentatively, just in case it was a bad time.

After an unnaturally long pause, Dawitsu finally came to using mouth-words, "...I'm fine... it's just... I've only just got up. What's up, Patricia?"

"Well... it's about the incident..." Patricia began to say, before the groggy mimicker interrupted her.

"If you want the Gizoid, it ran away again." Dawitsu said in a tone that implied he was a little irate about the situation, "Don't worry, it won't be doing anything crazy this time..."

"No, it's not that." Patricia explained, "One of your clones said something about that robot being accidentally set off by someone or something, and not by you. Any idea who that is?"

"Oh, it's Marisa." Dawitsu stated monotonously, "Can I go back to bed now?"

"Um... you're just giving me the information for free?" Patricia asked, "No mid-boss fight, no explanation? Nothing?"

"What do you want from me, I'm tired..." Dawitsu muttered, "...honestly, it's Saturday, can't a guy have a weekend's peace?"

"Wow, you're definitely not extra boss material..." Patricia mused, "...and here's me thinking you were going to be the extra boss, being the creator of that thing and everything..."

"I am extra boss material!" Dawitsu groggily yelled, "But not today. Now let me sleep, I've been working all night!"

Before Patricia could reply, Dawitsu had slammed the door in her face. Patricia made a mental note that people in general preferred to sleep more than she did, and that perhaps a little extra hours sleep for herself may not go amiss, given that she wouldn't be able to deal with anyone at such early hours anyway.

However, Patricia was rather excited at the knowledge that Marisa was the ultimate cause of the incident... she was pretty sure she knew why she was there... it was probably to steal some books... suddenly, Patricia was hit with another epiphany, causing her to mentally note that investing in a counter-epiphany helmet may save her some pain in the future.

The physically painful epiphany was that Jean had advised Patricia to ask Marisa about something... so clearly, he knew about this little fact, too. Not only that, it seemed that he wanted something like an extra boss fight to occur between the two.

In fact, as far as Marisa would be concerned, the entire affair would be like one massive training exercise to her, an opportunity for Marisa to show off her many spells, and an opportunity for Patricia to marvel at the same spells she'd never get to properly learn.

Her excitement, and her overall preoccupied nature regarding the whole event, made her want to do nothing more than rush straight over to Marisa's house, regardless of the ridiculous time, especially by the two magicians' standards.

Naturally, being a thirteen year-old, she went with her 'wants', and went to Marisa's house in spite of common sense dictating that she'd be asleep. Flying through the forest, she noticed that the way there was unusually fraught with danger, as if the fairies over there had been undergoing some kind of unusual enhancement.

Smaller fairies fired massive, insanely speedy, yet uniform lines of bullets, while the larger ones unleashed massive barrages of strange, small blades known by knife enthusiasts as 'kunai', rendering Patricia rather stumped as to how on earth fairies managed to have the patience to learn how to become so fearsome.

A strange glowing ball appeared in front of her after a short while of mercilessly shooting down fairies, and naturally, did what all the other sentient beings in the immediate area seemed to be doing at the time- shooting energy spheres at her. It unleashed spiral-shaped barrages of tiny bullets, random clouds of slower-moving, larger bullets, and outright unpredictable sets of lasers.

Patricia was forced to bomb, however, regardless of what she did or threw at the literal oddball, it went straight through it. However, the orb also seemed to tire easily, and threw a few half-hearted streams of danmaku before disappearing.

After yet another wave of fairies and three more bombs from Patricia, and she finally got to Marisa's house, surprised she was alive at all.

"What on earth is up with the forest fairies today?" Patricia remarked to herself, "It's like they've gone insane..."

Knocking on the door of the western-styled house in front of her, Patricia waited a realistically long amount of time before the tell-tale sounds of someone going down the stairs to answer the door were heard. Despite someone had clearly gone downstairs, Jean, to Patricia's surprise, was the one to answer the door.

His hair was extremely messy, and his shirt was only half-done, his cloak completely missing. Despite looking extremely tired, he was wearing a particularly unsettling smile on his face that almost negated his tiredness altogether.

"Oh... hello, Patricia." Jean greeted his 'niece' of sorts, "You decided to visit... er... earlier than expected..."

"Uncle Jean, I found something cool out!" Patricia said to Jean, "Aunty Marisa was the one who set off the robot-thing and caused the whole incident, isn't she? That's what you wanted me to ask her, wasn't it?"

"Wow... you... you're... um... quick..." Jean mused, and walked into the kitchen, gesturing so that Patricia would follow him, "...do you... er... want tea?"

Patricia wasn't sure why, but Jean seemed a little... skittish. Trying to ignore it, she simply nodded her head, "Sure, I'll have some."

Jean changed his smile to seem a little more child-friendly, and lit the magical orbs Marisa used as hobs, boiling some water in a pan. Patricia stood in silence and watched him, causing him to laugh nervously and say, "If you like, you can wait in the study..."

"Okay..." Patricia replied, jumping at the opportunity to leave the awkward situation.

However, upon entering the study, she noticed something that made the situation even more awkward... the sofa which Jean usually slept on was... perfectly made, as if he had not just woken up... at least not from that bed... coupled with the fact he had audibly walked down the stairs...

Patricia came to a sickening realisation, and simply tried to avert her mind from what she considered a highly gross aberration of human nature... or at least, an aberration that appeared too late for people their age.

Knowing she wouldn't... quite be able to look Jean or Marisa in the same way again, she decided she'd stay mum about her most recent painful epiphany that had hit her like a gold brick with a slice of lemon wrapped around it. Instead, as Jean walked into the room with two cups of tea and an attempt at a friendly smile, Patricia simply accepted her tea with a 'thank you'.

"You're quite welcome, Patricia..." Jean mused, "...I decided to discuss it with Marisa last night, and..."

Patricia tried her best not to interrupt her 'Uncle', but she blurted out a sarcastic response anyway, "...one thing led to another?"

"What?" Jean asked, suddenly becoming nervous.

"What?" Patricia replied back, playing dumb to her previous remark, "What was it that Aunty Marisa had to say?"

"Oh..." Jean said, seemingly ignorant of Patricia's snark, "...she said she managed to steal a book called 'Ultimate Game Boy Advance FAQs', and another called 'Asimov's Laws of Robotics, and how to build a robot that ignores them'... she found them utterly useless, as you can imagine..."

"...huh." Patricia said, very little enthusiasm in her voice, "So, she started off an incident for nothing?"

"It would seem so..." Jean said, "...she said that the robot was very frightening, and stared at her, saying something like 'Bionic Marisa Kirisame', or something..."

"I..." Patricia was finding it very difficult not to try and address the relative elephant in the room, given that the forthcoming danmaku battle was expected, yet... that wasn't.

"Is something wrong, Patricia?" Jean asked.

"Oh, nothing. So, what else did she talk about?" Patricia tried her best to continue the conversation.

"She said that she has a big surprise for you, and is going to do something she did for a fairy a long, long time ago..." Jean said, his tone slightly vague, "...I don't know what she's talking about, though... the only thing she ever seems to do to fairies is shoot them..."

Patricia wasn't surprised that Marisa planned on having a shoot-out with her, but was a little insulted that she considered her on par with a fairy... unless the fairy was something special. At this point, the conversation had withered away, and the two had found themselves in an awkward silence.

Patricia then decided to ask the terminally stupid question of, "So, did you do anything else last night?"

Jean simply blushed, and at this point, a certain someone burst into the room, as scruffily half-dressed as Jean, shouting, "God, I'm knackered. Hey, Jean, why'd you get up so early, I was looking forward to pillow..."

The unfortunate man pointed out Patricia silently to Marisa, who laughed a little, before backing out of the room, "...heh heh, Patty, you didn't hear anything... one minute while I get dressed, I'll be right back!"

Patricia could only do one thing to cope with the profoundly uncomfortable situation, and that was to face-palm with great aplomb, covering her eyes so as to not receive related electromagnetic wave-based stimuli that would remind her of the horrible situation. This was certainly not an event she could repeat to Reimu...

Author's Notes: Vague narration is not vague.

Interestingly enough, I think this chapter has the highest narration to dialogue ratio out of all the chapters in this fic so far.

And it's wasted on a filler- I mean- transitional chapter. Oh, don't worry, the next chapter will be the extra boss. You know how it is, the extra stages always have a freakin' prologue. In fact, I'd say this is shorter than the average ZUN-based extra prologue.

Or... something. Ugggh. I'm falling into old habits. They die. Hard. Blam.