So hey guys...I've uh...kind of been gone a while. A long while. There's a lot of reasons which led to that and let me explain just what they were. Buckle in, because this may get really long. So first off, around June we got a new supervisor at my job. To make a long story short, this woman was TERRIBLE and awful to be around(she actually just straight up called me retarded once). For a while I was dreading getting up and going to work for a while and in fact I was close to quitting until she got fired (Which me and my other coworkers very much enjoyed). Another thing, and this is a big one: Shadowbringers released around that time and like any good MMO junkie, I buckled down and started playing through it with friends and having a great time. Seriously, Shadowbringers is great and just blows Stormblood out of the water. To go along with that, my friends actually formed a raid static and I took that as a chance to really get a feel for how raiding can be. We'd actually formed up at the end of Stormblood, but this would be the first time we'd ever done Savage content(The hardest fights in the game minus the Ultimate fights for those that don't know) fresh out of the gate. With that being the case, I treated it as way to help along the story with future ideas down the line and boy have I cooked up a few ideas that we'll hopefully get to in a future point in time, but for now, I can just develop those until the time comes. There were also some new game releases that dropped during that window and well...I might have gotten a bit sidetracked. It's not like I wanted to drop nearly 100 hours into Pokemon Sword, but goddammit I blinked once and it happened! And I recently got Atelier Ryza too...
Another thing is that I had several other writing endeavors I worked on in tandem with this one and it was getting to be a bit much. That being the case, I decided to put this on hold a bit while I finished those up. Well, I say a bit and look where we are now? Anyway, I just had way too much on my plate at the time writing wise and I had to stop for the time being. I thought about dropping some little update note or something, but I figured that it'd be nice for people who follow the story that they'd see it suddenly pop back up again. Think of it as a late Christmas gift and a great way to kick off the new year!
Lastly, do you know how hard it is to Yukari proof a foreword section? Seriously, they charge you an arm and a leg for this service and I had to pay for it out of my own pocket, there aren't even any special deals! Thieves I tell ya...
Anyway, Yeah, that's my 'little update' I suppose. To those that have stuck by me for so long, I really am thankful and I hope you continue to enjoy the story. Really, it seriously means a lot to me that you all continue to read and have fun with it. Anyway, enough rambling from me, once again thank you.
Kogasa, Yuuka, Kaguya, Flandre, and Medicine all sat around a table absentmindedly drinking some tea. It was the middle of the afternoon and the girls had finished up most of their odd jobs around the village and were now taking time to enjoy a nice lunch. Or rather they would be, but there was a rather somber atmosphere among them all.
"Is it just me..." Kaguya started "Or is this all rather..."
"Boring?" Kogasa finished taking a sip of her tea
"I agree, the office is lacking the usual energy it normally has." Yuuka sighed
"Well duh, you guys kind of chased your collective boyfriend out of town." Medicine said with shrug
"Tch...you don't have to say it so bluntly."
"Well, it's true. You guys all chased John out of his own home over some poor choice of words and now you're feeling all depressed that he's gone."
"I think we sort of did overdo it." Flandre sighed "I miss John, I like when he's around."
The other girls all nodded in agreement, remaining silent and eating their food until Kaguya spoke.
"You know ladies, I have been thinking. It's been some time since John has been gone...and I feel that we should endeavor to try and prevent something like this from happening again."
"What do you propose…?" Yuuka asked with a raised eyebrow
"Well, let's face it, John is going to catch the eye of more than a few women. We're a testament to that already."
"And…?" Flandre asked
"I was thinking that perhaps...as his future betrothed, we should be supportive. If any other women attempt to enter the fold, we should make sure they're a proper match for John."
"How are we gonna do that? Not that I'm sounding too fond of the idea." Kogasa said
"Simple, we shall enact marriage screenings!" Kaguya said proudly
"Marriage...what?" the other women all said in unison with perplexed stares
"Just as I said: marriage screenings. We will do our utmost to make sure our darling John is surrounded by women he can trust."
"And what are you gonna do about women you all deem untrustworthy then?" Medicine asked
"They'll be denied of course."
"And if they get violent?"
"Four on one is fair yes?" Kaguya said eyeing the other women
"Sounds very fair to me!" Flandre smirked "sides, if we're getting technical, it can be eight on one!"
"I quite like that idea as well." Yuuka said with a devilish smile
"It's decided then. From this day forth, I, Kaguya Houraisan, Yuuka Kazami, Flandre Scarlet, Kogasa Tatara, will be in charge of advising John of if a woman is worth his affection or not."
"I can't help but think there's something very wrong about all this, but I can't wait to see John's face when he learns about this." Medicine said with a snicker
"Well now that that's out of the way...what should be our first order of business?" Yuuka asked taking a sip of her tea "I doubt we're going to just put up a sign saying 'If you want to marry John please inquire inside.'
"Quite right. First we must talk amongst ourselves. Where do we stand? What do we see in John that makes it worth spending the rest of our lives or...part of our lives with him?"
"Well that's easy, he's fun!" Flandre giggled
"Same for me, he's quite powerful." Yuuka said "I can't help but think I've not even seen everything he's capable of. It's hard to find a man like that here in Gensokyo."
"His attitude, and his worldly knowledge are quite fetching, for someone so young, he also has a good head on his shoulders, deciding to start a business instead of being a layabout." Kaguya said smiling, "And what can I say, he's also quite handsome."
"Well for me...he well..." Kogasa started with a blush "He um...well I'm his umbrella so...it's only right that I'm with him for the rest of his days."
The other women stared at her for a moment before breaking out into giggles, causing Kogasa to blush even harder than she already was.
"My my, I knew that John had an intimate relationship with you, but to think that it involved things such as...that." Kaguya giggled
"W-what?! No, it's not like...I-I mean, John hasn't asked to-I-I-I mean…!"
"Kogasa just stop digging an even deeper grave for yourself." Medicine laughed "That said, it's nice to know just what kind of things you're willing to do with John. Maybe we can pass it on to him for you."
"Please don't..." Kogasa whimpered
The teasing continued on for a while longer before the ladies all calmed down, the chatter among them becoming serious once again.
"So, should we look for other women or…" Flandre asked
"There's no need to go into that right now, no doubt John would bring home someone he was interested in." Kaguya said with a shrug
"I...can't really deny that." Kogasa sighed "Though I hope that happens later rather than sooner."
Quiet nods were shared throughout the room, before the girls began putting away their dishes and getting ready to continue on with the rest of their day. As they were all going about this, Kogasa couldn't help but stop and stare at John's laptop, which sat at his desk.
"What's got your attention?" Yuuka asked from behind her
"Well...it's just that I'm so used to seeing John looking at that thing. I can't help but wonder what it is sometimes. It has to be related to his powers in some way."
"Really? What makes you say that?"
"Well, a while ago, I saw John sitting in front of it, it looked like he was...controlling something I think. It was odd because there was a person on screen wearing that same kind of knight armor that he was. He said he'd tell me about it one day, but some things happened and we both kind of forgot about it. After that I've just kind of neglected asking him about it again."
Yuuka raised an eyebrow and looked it over, giving it a small tap here and there "There doesn't seem to be anything that interesting about it."
"Hold on, you do it like this." Kogasa said opening the laptop up, the screen was black, showing nothing but a reflection of her and Yuuka's faces.
"I wonder how we get it to work, I'm certain that John doesn't just stare at a black screen all day."
"Uh...I think I saw him push a button once...ah! This one!"
Kogasa tapped the power button, a small light turning on before she was greeted with a screen asking for a password.
"I...can't read this." Kogasa said squinting at the screen. What language is that?"
"I think this is...English? I recall such a language existing." Yuuka said, but even still I can't imagine what it says."
"Well so much for that, I was kind of wondering if I could use it to find out what John is up to."
"Sorry dear, we'll just have to leave it alone for now I'm afraid."
"Yeah, looks like it."
The two of them closed the laptop, and continued their tasks before the door to the office flew open, Keine calling for everyone's attention.
"Whoa there, calm down, what's the problem Keine?" Medicine said as the others gathered up in front of her
"We've got a problem, there are these strange metal things gathering near the village."
"Metal things?" Medicine asked
"I don't know what they are, they appear somewhat human like, but made of metal. I went to look at them, but the moment they saw me they began to attack. There's at least a dozen of them, and I can't handle them alone, so I was forced to retreat."
"Looks like we've got work to do. Are there any objections at all?" Medicine asked
"I'd hope not, we can't let the village fall, I mean, we all live here after all." Kaguya said
"Well, you all do, I could just go home if things went really badly." Flandre said with a shrug
"John wouldn't like that Flan." Kogasa chastised
"True, that's why I'll help!"
"That's good to hear, but I can't think of a fee at the moment." Keine sighed
"The fee is waived." Medicine said with a wave of her hand "The trade off for helping you is that our home isn't destroyed. More than a fair trade don't you all agree."
Numerous sounds of agreement echoed from the others, and without saying anything else, they all rushed towards the entrance to the village. What they saw upon getting there was just as bizarre as Keine had said. The creatures that were in front of them were made purely of metal, all of them having only one arm. The other looking as if he had fallen off at some previous point in time. The head (or what passed for it anyway) lacked eyes, and instead looked a lot more like a gear than anything else.
"What...are these things?" Kogasa said looking at them with a confused expression
"I don't know." Keine said "All I know, is that they've been attacking anyone that comes close, and the last thing we want is the village to become a prison while these things wander around doing who knows what."
"Well it looks as if these things are neither human nor youkai soooo~!" Yuuka said in a singsong voice "I think I can finally have a bit of fun for real!"
Without a second thought, Yuuka lunged at one of the metallic creatures and quickly tore off its arm with a look of manic glee on her face.
This turned out to be a bad idea as the minute Yuuka finished dismantling the first robot, the rest snapped their 'heads' towards her and quickly bum rushed her, slamming their arms into her causing her to stumble over. They hit far harder than she had anticipated, and soon she was on the ground as they began trying to beat her to death.
"H-Hang on Yuuka!" Flandre called out flying towards the robots, the small vampire tackled one off of her friend, proceeding to tear the thing apart just as she did.
The other robotic enemies noticed and just as they were about to attack Flan like they'd done with Yuuka, Kogasa and Kaguya moved to intercept them, knocking them back with some danmaku. Unfortunately, while it did knock them back, it didn't have much of an effect on the mechanical creatures.
"Tch, it appears that we'll have to brute force this. Danmaku doesn't have much of an effect."
Before anyone of them could reply, Keine moved in delivering a powerful punch to one of them, sending it skirting across the ground like a pebble on water.
"Then hit them harder!" Keine shouted as she dodged an attack from another one of the enemies
"If she can hit them that hard why are we even here…?" Kaguya muttered "Well, no matter, you heard the woman, no holding back ladies!"
Sure enough, with no holding back, the six managed to fight off the mechanical creatures. They'd managed to take their numbers down from twelve to a measly three.
"Hah, this isn't so hard! We'll finish these last ones off in no time!" Medicine chuckled as she sent some poison towards them "That should eat away at their bodies till they melt away into nothing!"
"These things weren't actually all that tough now that I think about it. A shame, I kind of wanted something that was a bit more of a challenge." Yuuka sighed
As if on cue, two larger machines appeared, charging towards the group from a small ways off. Before she could react, one of them slammed their large arms into Keine and the other into Flan, knocking the two of them away.
"You just had to say something didn't you?" Kogasa said scowling at Yuuka
The green haired woman gave a shrug as she blocked an attack coming from the other large machine "Enough talk, just help me take them down!"
Rolling her eyes, Kogasa did as requested and began doing her best to try and damage the machines along with Medicine, While Kaguya, Flan, and Keine did their best to hold off the other one. The problem was that these bigger machines hit a lot harder than the small fry, even if they were slower overall. However, things became even worse when several more of the smaller robots appeared and began heading towards the group as well.
"More of them!? Where are they all coming from?!" Keine exclaimed while dodging another swing from the large robot.
"It doesn't matter, we'll just kill them all!" Flandre giggled sadistically as she caused a few other enemies to explode with a simple snap of her fingers.
"I'll handle these small fry, be a dear and help me Princess~! You too Kogasa!" Yuuka said moving to intercept the smaller robots. Surprisingly, she was able to keep them all focused on her, hitting any that tried to attack her while also leaving them open to attacks from the others. Kogasa and Kaguya hit them as hard as they could with their danmaku (and in Kogasa's case, bludgeoning a few with her umbrella).
With the smaller enemies destroyed, the girls went back to the larger one that had still been giving Keine trouble. She ducked, dodged, and blocked as many attacks as she could, but she was starting to get tired from it all.
"Hurry up and get this thing off of me!" Keine yelled blocking another attack.
Heeding her call, Kaguya ushered forth whatever power she had left, striking the robotic menace down with ease.
"I-is that all of them?" Kaguya panted
"I...think so? They aren't all that tough now that I think about it." Medicine said craning her neck from side to side
"Only if you aren't holding back." Kogasa said "They're surprisingly hardy otherwise...but just where did these things come from?"
"Maybe we should ask Reimu and-" Keine said before she was tackled out of the way by Flan
"We aren't done yet!" The little vampire
Seconds after she said that, two more of the large machines had appeared, both of them rotating their bodies 360 degrees before moving towards the group of women.
"Just had to say something..." Medicine sighs "Come on everyone, this is the final stretch I can feel it!"
"Please don't jinx us anymore than you already have." Kogasa deadpanned
This time, since there were two of them, Keine and Yuuka moved forward to intercept them, each of them drawing the attacks of their respective machine a bit away from the others.
"Hurry up and kill these things! We can't last forever!" Keine called out dodging a swing from
"Speak for yourself, I can go all day!" Yuuka cackled as she tanked a hit from one of the robots head on, smiling at it as she shook the damage off
"Let's just...get this over with." Medicine sighed before moving towards the robot attacking Keine. Kogasa joined her, while Kaguya and Flan began attacking the one that Yuuka was going against. As they began attacking them, even more smaller robots appeared, causing Kogasa of all people to finally snap.
"AGAIN?! REALLY?! THAT'S IT! I'M SICK OF THESE FUCKING THINGS!"
In what could only be described as a moment of pure amazement and terror Kogasa dug her feet into the ground, before pointing her umbrella at the smaller enemies. She then proceeded to fire off an absolutely massive amount of danmaku at them with the intent to kill. The smaller robots were absolutely shredded to pieces thanks to the amount of danmaku fired at them, the entire time Kogasa letting out a maddening howl of anger. When the danmaku finally subsided, there was nothing left of the smaller machines, and everyone else (even the bigger robots) had to stop and stare at what they had just witnessed.
"Wow..." Keine muttered, the others echoing her reaction
Kogasa turned back around, a glare aimed at the last two mechanical beings before she turned to Flandre. "Flan...blow em to hell." She said bluntly
"Huh? I-I can but-"
"Blow. Them. To. Hell." Kogasa interrupted, each word dripping with venom
Letting out a small 'eeep', Flandre did as told, focusing on the last two enemies before destroying them with a clench of her fist.
"W-well...now that that's over, where do you think those things came from?" Keine said trying to lighten the mood."
"Who knows, all that matters is that those metal things are dead." Medicine said with a sigh "I don't know about you all, but I'd much rather head home and sleep...and I think Kogasa definitely needs it."
"I'm fine." Kogasa huffed taking a few deep breathes "I just...need some tea or something."
Everyone agreed to this idea and after double-checking that there were absolutely no more enemies within the area they returned to their home. All the while, a ways off obscured by the trees, a certain figure had been watching.
"Well, it's good to see that those girls are coming along nicely." Ryujin mused to himself "Especially that umbrella, she's definitely become stronger. Oh John, you are doing far better than I had anticipated. I can't wait to see what kind of influence you'll have on the others. You'd best make it worth it, it took a lot of work getting those things here after all."
With that, Ryujin left having been pleased with what he bore witness to...for the moment at least.
Back at the office, Yuuka had just finished preparing some tea, having set the pot down on the table and pouring a cup for each person including Keine. With the excitement having died down, the group were now just trying to get back into the usual lull of things. Thinking about the enemy and where they came from only served to dampen their mood as they had no clues, and so they were all just silently drinking until they heard a knock at the door.
"Oh what is it now? I made sure to turn the sign to closed..." Yuuka said going to answer the door and wrenching it open
"I'm sorry, but we're closed!" she said a bit more forcefully than intended
"But I live here..." John said
"Yes John but still I-wait...John! John you're back!" Yuuka said gripping him into a tight hug "Girls, John is back!"
Before he could react, John found himself at the bottom of a pile of bodies, struggling to speak as he got to his feet.
"L-let me go!" John exclaimed "I can't breathe!"
"We're sorry!" Kaguya exclaimed hugging him tightly, dropping her usual regal tone "We shouldn't have overreacted like that!"
"Yeah, don't run away again okay?" Flan chimed in grabbing onto him from the side with tears in her eyes "It was so boring, don't leave again okay?"
"Yeah...we messed up, can we just forget that it ever happened?" Kogasa said while twirling her umbrella a bit "Maybe a walk while we hash things out is in order?" she couldn't help but blush a little at the suggestion
"I'd really like that but well...uh...girls, I've got some people to introduce you to..."
"Oh? And who could that be?" Kaguya asked
"Come on out you two." John said motioning to a tree, the two figures moved from behind it, one a bit nervous, while the other was all smiles.
"Alright uh...it's all you from here Sanae." John said stepping to the side. Flan was still holding onto him, but he was ready beat a hasty retreat all the same
"H-hello ladies. I-I'm sure you all know me already, but I'm Sanae Kochiya and um...I'm going to marry John as well!" she said blushing hard and bowing
Silence…complete and utter silence.
"Yuuka?" Kogasa said calmly
"Yes?" Yuuka replied, equally as calm
"Get the spellcards."
"Oh nonsense, Kogasa dear, I'll just use my bare hands, that'll work just as well."
The other girl's faces all began to twist into fury and John was ready to run for it before the second person made her presence known.
"Alright, that's enough of that." she said stepping in-between John and the girls "Hey, there. Yuugi Hoshiguma. I'm gonna marry John too!" She said with a wide grin
"Wait...Hosiguma..." Kaguya said rubbing her chin for a moment "Oh...you're one of the oni I drank with!"
"I did…?" Yuugi said in a confused tone before looking Kaguya over "Oh yeah, you're that moon princess. You can really put away the drink! Not as good as my future hubby here, but still, not bad."
"Wait...wait a minute, wait just one goddamn second." Medicine piped up, having been watching the exchange the entire time "Are you telling me that when you left this place you not only managed to seduce the mountain shrine maiden, but you also seduced one of the Four Devas?!"
"H-hey, saying it like that makes me sound like some sort of pervert!"
"John, I've seen how you look at Kogasa when she gets out of the bath."
"I only saw her naked once!"
"Seriously?" Yuuka asked "Scale of 1 to 10 dear?"
"9, but that's not important right now!"
Kogasa could only shirk back a bit at the praise. She was hoping for 10, but 9 is definitely not bad…
"A-anyway, this sorta...happened? It was the only way I could complete a job!"
"I find that hard to believe." Keine said coming to the door "Truly John, you've been a great help to the village but I doubt people are going to turn a blind eye to an Oni in their midst. Especially with how rowdy they can be."
"Hey no worries. Hubby made it clear that won't fly topside." Yuugi said "That aside, he didn't seduce me, he beat me at my own game. He out drank me."
Once again, the entire group was silent at yet another revelation that occurred this day
"Flan dear, please go fetch Eirin, I think John may be sick."
"No kidding..." Flan said letting go of him
"I'm fine! I'm am definitely, one hundred percent okay!"
"Yeah, this is a promise I made to myself long ago." Yuugi said with a shrug "The man who could out drank me fairly would be the guy I ended up marrying. I made the declaration years back to get other oni to stop trying to marry me...or worse, but I still gotta stick by it, I'm no liar after all." She said "John just so happened to be the guy to beat me, so yeah, like it or not, this is the case."
"Well then...what about her?" Kogasa said pointing at Sanae
"Er...well...I..." Sanae stammered
"Those two were shacked up at her place for a while. No doubt they had a lot of time to bond, and they're both originally outsiders too, really it'd be a marvel if they didn't hit it off." Yuugi said matter-of-factly. "She had that look in her eye and I knew I couldn't stop her."
"You are...strangely okay with all this." Yuuka said
"Well, jealousy is an ugly thing, and I heard some rumors on John, let alone that undead dragon he fought alongside the tengu. I heard he went toe to toe with a few of you all as well. A guy like that is gonna just attract more than one or two women, that's an undeniable fact."
"Tch..." Yuuka grunted, she couldn't deny that she was right in that regard "Ladies, emergency meeting!" Yuuka called motioning for Kaguya, Flandre, and Kogasa to follow her inside.
"Uh...what are they doing?" John asked
"Oh no, they're actually going through with it..." Medicine sighed placing a hand on her forehead
"Going through with what?" Keine asked
Before she could be answered, the door flew back open with the four women staring at John, Sanae, and Yuugi.
"Okay, we will allow a marriage screening to commence!" Kaguya said
"A marriage what now?!" John exclaimed as he was dragged inside, Sanae, Yuugi, and Keine (who was more interested in just what this all meant) following behind him. John was sat in a chair as the four woman sat and looked at him.
"Now first things first John." Kaguya said crossing her arms "Just what happened and how on earth did you defeat an oni at a drinking contest."
John sighed "Get comfortable and take a seat. It's a long story..."
And so we come to the end of this chapter. That entire fight was meant to be reminisce of Turn 4 of the Binding Coils of Bahamut raids from back during A Realm Reborn. The big difference here that the girls had no healer (Which if this were the game proper would have boned them pretty hard). Anyway, This chapter was a bit shorter than usual, but now we get to the real fun. Namely, how the hell does a human manage to beat an oni at her own game? Stay tuned to find out. And once more, I want to thank you all for continuing to read, I really am happy that I can make something that you all enjoy. So until next time! And I promise I won't take nearly a year off this time and if I do, you all have full rights to bust down my door and hold me hostage at my computer until I finish it.