Chapter 11: Tick Tock, And Then You Die
"Well, I suppose that takes care of introductions and orientation then..." Lana sighed.
"I-I'm sorry I couldn't be more help..." Daiyousei's shoulders sagged dejectedly. "Gensokyo can be a very dangerous place for outsiders unfamiliar with it, and you seem like a nice person..."
"So it'd be really bad if a nice doll-lady like you were to get in trouble!" The boisterous blue fairy spoke up loudly, smacking one fist against her chest with pride. "So I, the strongest fairy, will be your guardian until you get the hang of things!"
Daiyousei brightened up, even as Wriggle groaned in the background.
"Oh, thank you Cirno!"
"...oi..."The firefly pressed a hand to her face, "Why can't she ever think first before making decisions on the spot like that?"
"Oh, don't be a spoilsport." Mystia hummed, "It's interesting enough, isn't it?"
The two of them watched Cirno continuing to boast, the red and black clad blonde stranger looking rather beleaguered.
"...I guess," Wriggle replied uncertainly, " But still, what if this gets us into trouble?"
She pointed through the trees at the battered crimson frame.
"That had to have made on HELL of a racket coming down! Who knows what kind of attention it could have drawn? Heck, you and I both know there's no way the 'big guns' of Gensokyo'd miss something like that!"
Mystia's expression clouded, the sparrow gnawing on one fingertip worriedly.
"Actually, about that...did you notice anything strange about that machine?"
Wriggle stared at her for a moment, any number of possible retorts playing in her head.
"Um...it's a giant robot that fell out of the sky, plowed halfway across Gensokyo and ejected some kind of intelligent, super advanced doll." She said, raising an eyebrow. "You...might want to be a tad bit more specific."
"Er...good point..." Mystia sweadropped. "Um, I mean did it look as though it had red dust on it?"
The firefly youkai blinked.
"Hang on a sec..." She peered through the trees.
Though its casing was battered and dented, most of it stripped bare by the force with which it had hit the water, there were still deep, bloodred smudges on the metal.
Wriggle'e eyes narrowed at the familiar stains.
"Wait a minute..."
Stepping forward, she pushed her way out of the bushes to get a clear view of the lake.
"If it landed here, and the splash was over there..." Her head turned, following the trajectory of Nineball's crash. As her gaze finally reached to the opposite side of the lake, and what lay in the settling cloud of dust there-
She staggered back a full step as the surge of power slammed into her. Nothing physical, just the raw auras approaching fast.
A scent like the musty, dry scales of a reptile.
A scent like raw iron.
And a scent permeated with the sound of clockwork.
Three very different scents of power, and Wriggle knew every one of them.
"SHITSHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT-!"
Mystia was almost clotheslined by the firefly bolting back the way she'd come.
"Wriggle, that's-!"
"I KNOW WHO THAT IS, NOW SHUT UP AND HELP ME GET THESE BOZOS OUT OF HERE BEFORE-"
A shadow fell over the clearing. Bursting into sight, Wriggle skidded to a halt, everyone else already looking up as the shadows of the unmistakable Divine Pillars of Moriya fell over them.
"Now..." Kanako Yasaka folded her arms, staring down at the group coldly.
"Which one of you wants to explain this to me?"
Lana Nielsen stared up in something close to awe. The energy readings coming off of that imperious figure were...staggering, to say the least! And those bizarre pillars...she didn't even begin to know where to begin trying to explain that phenomenon!
Hustler One's digital pathways twisted in anger for a moment, staring up at the revealed War God through Lana's eyes.
How on earth had they closed in on his location so quickly?! He had only just registered them crossing the lake moments ago, before in the blink of an eye, they were on him! Teleportation...? No, this place was insane by his standards, but even something as incredible as instantaneous transference from one point in space-time to another couldn't be-
And then, his gaze fell on one of the figures revealed as the pillars shifted.
Oh.
...Oh, indeed.
Gray hair and a western maid's uniform, that was all Hustler One was willing to see before he cut the feeds, his digital senses recoiling in shock and incredulity.
An ordinary human at first glance...but once again, the strange...'second sight' of sorts he was beginning to find corrupting his visual data had shown him much, much more. In the same way that one look had told him beyond any physical data that Yukari Yakumo was nothing even remotely approaching human, in the same way that one look from Lana had sensed something inhuman, or Other, about the little band of youkai they had encountered, one look had shown him something far, far more than mere sensors or flesh could perceive.
He'd seen the twisted, impossible matrix of clockwork surrounding her, gears clicking and turning on to infinity itself, meshed seamlessly with the unseen workings of the world around her.
If the core temperature of absolute zero had been a clue to what the ice fairy Cirno's power had been, then that impossible nightmare of clockwork and ever-ticking machinery below the surface of reality meant something truly terrible to Hustler One's impeccable mind.
Teleportation had indeed seemed laughably impossible a moment ago, but compared to this...such an 'impossibility' now seemed merely 'unlikely'.
In the face of an ability to control Time, what else could he conclude?
Sakuya blinked, the hairs on the nape of her neck rising slightly as she felt a gaze settle on her. Not from Cirno or her usual band of Team Nineball members, but something...different, something alien.
Looking around warily, she realized that something was out of the ordinary. Even at their most active, Team Nineball had only ever consisted of five members.
Cirno, Daiyousei, Wriggle Nightbug, Rumia and Mystia Lorelei.
But there was a new face down there now.
Gold hair, dressed in a red and black ensemble and with a pair of narrow, rectangular, half-rimmed spectacles, Lana Nielsen stared back up through cold crimson eyes, pupils dilating and contracting with a whine as she tried to make sense of the situation.
Newcomers? But where had they come from? Even in his current condition, Nineball Seraph should have had more than enough left in it's sensor suite to...
To...
She read the terse, curt report from Hustler One.
Well.
Um.
That would do it, yes. With the more...esoteric data from her other half accounting for that, she swept her gaze across the other newcomers.
First off was the one in front. Blue haired, imperious, and in varying shades of red, she wore some kind of massive, twisted rope-looking ring on her back, a shimenawa as her database reliably informed, something used to seal gods. And since her database was now oh so helpfully adding that the pillars now orbiting were divine pillars of some kind of another, also from Japanese Shinto mythology, that said all kinds of things about the woman to which they were attached, and none of them good.
A divine being powerful enough to wear a divinity-sealing artifact without any kind of effect?
Oh this was going to su-
Kanako Yasaka
The Avatar of Mountains and Lakes
BGM: ~Mountain of Faith~
…
...Lana risked a quick look around.
Okay, the ACTUAL hell was that?
Since when did she OR Hustler have subtitle options?!
...and where the hell was that music coming from anyway?
"Oi, Kanako."
The red-clad, pillar wielding figure now positively identified as Kanako turned, feeling a tap on her shoulder.
Lana blinked as she saw the third individual. Much smaller, this one wore a lilac dress with white sleeves, and a...
There was a pause.
As if sensing the question coming, Hustler One sent a wave of annoyance back. Yes, he saw the hat too. No, he had no idea why it was such a weird looking hat. And no, he was NOT going to risk his sensors again, he'd had quite enough of this place's insanity and sheer illogicality already, thank you very much!
Wincing at the volume of the digital response, Lana sheepishly added 'frustration' and/or 'outrage' to the normally cold machine's rapidly increasing emotional repertoire.
"What is it now, Suwako?"
"...wait, you seriously didn't notice?" The frog goddess gave her a deadpan look. "Man, when you get fired up, you get fired up!"
"It seems that machine isn't the only strange appearance today." Sakuya forestalled the inevitable annoyed response from the snake goddess, inclining her head slightly towards Team Nineball below.
"I do not recall Cirno and her group ever having someone as...outlandish in appearance as that in their group before."
Kanako blinked, looking back down. Now that they had pointed it out...
She took in the appearance of the stranger, golden hair over a red and black ensemble, and several years older than the youkai near her, at least in looks, Lana Nielsen did indeed stick out.
Matching stares warily with the three of the newcomers, she discreetly tugged on Daiyousei's sleeve.
"Oi...who the hell are those three? Granted you lot haven't exactly been normal by any stretch of the word, but those guys look like they mean business...!"
The lake fairy shivered. Next to her, a grim faced Wriggle replied.
"Good eye...that's Kanako Yasaka in front, the boss of the Moriya Shrine and one of Gensokyo's top dogs...the younger looking one behind her is her old rival, Suwako of Moriya. She looks harmless, but she's almost, if not more powerful than Kanako herself. And the third one-"
"-Is Sakuya Izayoi, Head Maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and second in command of my lady Remilia Scarlet." A voice spoke from directly behind them, the gray-haired maid folding her arms with a cool smile.
For her part, Lana Nielsen of the Ravens didn't stop for a second. Hustler One's devastating combat prowess roaring to the fore, she whirled, in motion even as Wriggle and Daiyousei stumbled back in shock from the maid's instantaneous teleportation.
Sparks flew, a clash of steel, and the rigid fingers of her hand grated against a handful of knives.
The Administrator's eyes widened. She was no slouch in physical output, thanks to the unique hardlight structure of her hologram, not to mention the lightning fast processing speed of her and Hustler One, but this...maid, a relatively unaugmented human could match her?!
"Holy..." Wriggle gaped. "She's taking on the maid?! There's a limit to ignorance, even for newcomers!"
"Nope!" Cirno grinned, eyes sparkling as she watched, apparently unperturbed in the slightest. "She's just STRONG!"
"...Cirno, please just stop talking..." Rumia groaned.
A/N: Because really, Sakuya can control time. Considering the more...scientific approach of Hustler One, I think it would only make sense that he'd 'perceive' her as something bordering on high-octane nightmare fuel.
And then of course, she's suddenly up in your base, ambushing your EO units and stabbing you in the back.
Because...well, pocketwatch OP. XD