AN: Edited the dialogue between Six, Reimu, and Marisa at the end. It felt too simple, so I added more substance.
[Road to Human Village]
Courier Six POV
…
…
…
It's been about 10 minutes since the end of my fight with Rumia, and I decided that I'd head to this "Human Village" she was talking about. I planned to visit the "Hakurei Shrine" at a later date to see if the lady that lives there could have any way to return me to the wasteland.
Anyways, not much happened on my way there. I kept getting the feeling I was being watched, but every time that I tried to see who or what it was, the feeling would immediately vanish.
While walking, I decided to stop and wash myself with some Abraxo Cleaner since I'm assuming the people here won't like the smell of me when I've spent 34 years walking in a wasteland. Though I could get the smells of dirt, grime, and BO to wash away, the lingering stench of radiation was simply going to be with me forever.
Just after I finished cleaning myself up, I placed my helmet and duster back on to continue walking, but I stopped when I saw another figure on the path ahead of me. They seemed to be walking in my direction.
From what I could see at this distance they had... green hair? They were also holding what looked like an umbrella above their head. I couldn't make out any other features, but I could tell that it was probably a female by her figure.
I decided that I would just keep walking and hope she would ignore me.
As we got closer to each other, I noticed something that seemed somewhat concerning.
She was taller than me. It was only by a few inches, but it was still a surprise since I'm around 6 feet.
There was also something else that concerned me.
She had red eyes. Like Rumia's.
I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or not, but from what I've seen, normal humans don't have red eyes. This mean's she's probably a "youkai" or whatever.
She hasn't shown any aggression yet, despite making eye contact with me. So, I'm just gonna pray to Graham and hope for the best.
But as we slowly got closer, I suddenly got a horrible sense of dread creeping through my body. It only increased as the distance between us decreased.
I was too deep in. There was no way for me to back out of this now that we're this close.
Closer.
Closer.
Closer...
Closer...
…
…
…
As soon as we passed, the feelings of fear and dread immediately passed.
It seemed I was finally fre-
"Wait."
I stopped moving, my fight or flight response kicking in instantly.
It seemed she had stopped walking as well...
No. She didn't stop walking.
She was standing behind me.
I didn't turn around.
"Are you, perhaps, an outsider?"
I didn't respond, but I stood up a little straighter.
"It's rude to not respond when someone asks you a question, you know?"
"It's also rude to not introduce yourself before asking a question, you know?" I feel as though I've thrown all senses of self-preservation out the window.
She was silent for a few moments. I couldn't tell what she was doing, but I could hear her moving.
"Fine. My name is Yuuka Kazami. Now, it's only right for you to introduce yourself as well."
"Six."
"Six what?"
"It's my name."
"Hm. Do you have a last name?"
"My full 'name' is Courier Six. It's just easier to say 'Six' instead of 'Courier'. Also, if you call me Courier, I'll kill you."
She didn't talk for a second, so I took that as an opportunity to turn around.
We made eye contact, but neither of us spoke for some time.
"Do you fear nothing, Six?"
I was silent for a moment. "I've seen things a lot scarier than you, ma'am."
She was also quiet.
"Well, are you going to answer my question or not?"
"Which one?"
"I asked if you're an outsider, and I expect you to respond."
"Yes, yes I am"
She stood there staring at me for a few seconds, and it was kind of awkward.
"Well, then, I hope you have a safe journey to the human village! It would be such a shame for a man such as you to die so early." She leaned down to my face and smiled before she started walking away.
"Wait, what do you mean man like m-"
Without warning, there was a blinding flash of light. When I finally opened my eyes after falling to the floor, she was already gone.
"What the hell was that about?"
…
…
[Outside the Human Village]
I could see a huge wall & gate in the distance. This must be the Human Village.
As I walked closer, I could see guards stationed on the gate & walls.
When I got closer, one of them shouted.
"Halt! State your business."
The kid who shouted looked pretty green. Young guy with less armor than the others.
"I'm an outsider. I was told to come here after waking up in that forest over there." I pointed my thumb behind me.
"You don't look like a normal outsider to me! What's to say you're not a youkai trying to sneak in? Also, your eyes are red!"
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose on my mask. "So, this is how it's gonna go..." I muttered.
"Okay, first off, this is a helmet. Watch." I turned off the lights on my mask's lenses. "See? Not eyes. Second off, is this what youkai normally look like? From what I saw back there, they dress like normal people most of the time."
The young guard still had a determined look on his face. "I am a guard of the human village, and I refuse to let a single youkai past this gate! For my pride, for my honor, and for humanit- OW!" An older looking man walked up behind him while he was monologuing and smacked the back of his head.
"For the last time, Mara, not everybody outside the village is a youkai!" The older man had a few scars on his face that I could see. He looked like he'd been in this line of work for a while.
He turned over to me and bowed slightly. "Sorry about the kid here, he's still new."
"It's not that big a deal, just make sure he learns his lesson."
"Understood, anyways, Mara! Get down there and open the gate!"
"Y-yes sir!" He seemed to be shivering. Must be new to getting scolded.
After around 20 seconds, the gate was slowly pushed open, and I could see the kid inside struggling to push it. I decided to walk forwards and pull it the rest of the way open with one hand.
"T-thank you. W-w-welcome to the human village!" He bowed.
The older man showed up behind him and walked up to me. "Welcome. Hope that little incident there didn't make you wanna leave."
"Well, it's better than what I encountered out in that forest, so I'll take it."
"You sayin' that you fought a youkai out there?"
"Two, actually."
"You don't look all that banged up for an outsider who's fighting youkai for the first time."
"They may be a different species, but they're no less predictable. Except for maybe the flying one."
The man scratched his beard for a moment before sighing. "Well, if you want to get somewhere to stay the night, I suggest you go visit Keine. She usually lets outsiders stay a while in her guest rooms before they get situated."
This was perfect. I needed a temporary homebase so I could lay out my options of getting back to the Mojave. "Alright, well, where can I find this 'Keine'?"
"If you just walk straight down this main path here, you should find a schoolhouse, and she'll be inside." He pointed his thumb behind him. "The school day will end in about two hours, and then you can go inside. You can walk around and learn where everything is while you wait."
"Hm, well, I guess I'll get going then" It was at this moment that I noticed a sizable crowd began to surround us. I began walking to the edge, but they didn't move out of the way.
I let a little bit of my {Terrifying Presence} seep out, and that got them to move away pretty quick. It didn't stop them from staring at me like I was some sort of attraction, though.
I simply kept walking and kept my eyes looking forward, hoping they would eventually get bored and go home.
They did not.
I heard them whispering and gossiping, but I couldn't make out anything specific since there was so much of it.
While walking somebody caught my eye. It was a short blonde girl with long hair and an abnormally large hat. She looked like a generic comic-book magician. She noticed me looking at her and waved. I didn't wave back and simply kept walking.
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…
The crowd dissipated after about 15 minutes. I occasionally still got stares or children pointing at me and asking their mothers if I was a monster.
If only they knew.
I walked around the village so that my Pip-boy would map it out for me. I wasn't really paying attention to where landmarks were, since the Pip-boy also mapped those out.
I had already visited the schoolhouse, and as the guard said, it was filled with children. I decided to come back later.
…
I eventually rounded back to the schoolhouse, but only an hour had passed. I chose to just sit on a bench outside and take a short nap.
As I closed my eyes, I still couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched.
[Hakurei Shrine]
Reimu Hakurei POV
Nothing happened today.
No youkai attacks.
No incidents.
No surprise visits.
No donations.
So far, it has been pretty peaceful. This is a surprisingly rare these days.
"RREEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIMMMMMMMMMMUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"
Of course, I knew it couldn't last forever.
**CRASH**
There goes my wall.
**CRACK**
And my floor.
**CRUNCH**
And my table.
The room was clouded by dust and smoke.
"Hey Reimu!"
And out walked my dearest friend, Marisa Kirisame.
"Marisa, would you like to enlighten me on why you crashed through my wall?" My eyebrow twitched.
"Sorry, but this is really important! There's a new outsider in the Human Village!"
"Oh really? And why did you need to break my wall down to tell me?" I grabbed my gohei from the floor.
"Cause this guy's real weird! He has this helmet with red eyes and he's covered in this cool armor and he smells really strange and he had a thing on his arm an-"
***WHACK***
I smacked the top of Marisa's head with my gohei.
"OW! Reimu! Why'd you do that!" She was rubbing her head with tears in her eyes.
"Because you broke my wall, my floor, and my table." I placed my gohei back on the floor.
"Okay, okay! But did you hear what I said? About the new outsider, I mean." She seems to have recovered from the hit.
"Of course I did. I think we should pay a visit to him and make sure he doesn't cause any trouble."
"Well, last I saw, he was sleepin' in front of Keine's place."
"Hm, he's probably waiting for the school day to end so he can get a place to sleep." It's a pretty normal thing for outsiders to go visit Keine first, so I'm not surprised.
"Well let's go then! It's gonna get dark soon!" Marisa was already on her broom and getting ready to fly away.
"Alright, but you're paying for these damages, Marisa." I grabbed my gohei and began to float upwards.
"Yeah, yeah, I will. Let's just go already!" She sped off before I could respond.
"Idiot..."
[Human Village]
Courier Six POV
I woke up around two hours after I started the nap. The schoolhouse seems to have quieted down, so I'm assuming that the children have all left.
I walked up to the door and gave it a few knocks. A few seconds passed by, then a woman with silver hair that had blue streaks in it answered the door. The first thing I noticed about her was her odd choice of headwear. It looked like a small building with ribbons on it. Very odd, but it's none of my business. She was also a bit shorter than me.
"Hello? Who is i-" She stopped talking mid-sentence. I then realized I had not fully disabled {Terrifying Presence}, so I quickly fixed that problem.
"What's up. I'm an outsider and was told to come here by the guys at the front gate." I decided to speak up since she didn't seem capable. "Also, my name's Six."
"O-oh, I'm sorry. Yes, I can let you stay in one of the guest rooms for a few nights until you find somewhere else to live." She bowed and stepped aside so I could walk in.
She proceeded to show me to my room. "Here we are. You can stay here for a while, but don't expect me to do everything for you. You'll have to make your bed and all that on your own."
"Don't worry ma'am, you're doing more than enough for me already."
She bowed. "Alright, I guess I will see you in the morning." She began walking away.
I walked into my new room. It was nothing special, just a bed, closet, and a desk with a chair. But it was just what I needed.
I immediately took off my helmet and placed it on my desk. I pulled some tools, scrap metal, and scrap electronics out of my storage and got to work repairing the lens.
It shouldn't take too long.
1 hour later
Before I knew it, the helmet looked good as new. I always knew that learning {Jury Rigging} would be a good investment.
Before I could begin to truly admire my work, the door to my room flew open.
"Hello? Creepy guy with the red eyes?" I slammed my helmet on my head before looking over to the voice. There were two girls standing in the doorway. The blonde magician looking girl from earlier was standing in front, while a black-haired girl with a strange red and white dress and separated sleeves that exposed her armpits stood behind her.
"Jesus fucking Christ, can you knock?"
"Oh, there you are! Also, sorry." She then knocked on the already opened door. I pinched the bridge of my mask's nose.
"Marisa, move, I need to get inside." The girl behind her pushed the magician aside and stepped in.
Neither of them looked be that old. I was sure I could take them both on if it came down to it.
"So, uh, maybe want to enlighten me on why you just broke into my room?"
"We didn't break in, we have Keine's permission! Also, I'm actually kind of surprised she actually took you in. I assumed she'd turn you away because of how creepy you are."
This kid...
"Listen, can you just tell me what you want?"
The black-haired girl then spoke up. "We're here to make sure you know how things work around here"
"Uhh... Is this like, some secret mafia thing where I have to pay protection money or I get assassinated?"
"What? No, no, nothing like that. Although, that would be pretty cool." The girl named Marisa cut in.
"We're just here to tell you the rules, and what happens when you don't abide by them." The black-haired girl pushed Marisa to the side so that she was standing in front.
I sighed. "Can you at least tell me your names before I stop listening?"
Marisa pushed forwards and began pointing between herself and the other girl. "My name's Marisa! I'm a magician, and this here is Reimu. She's the Hakurei Shrine Maiden." She leaned in close and whispered. "She's kind of mean, but it gets better once you get to know her."
"I heard that." Reimu sighed.
"Hm. Well, I guess it's only proper to introduce myself now. My name is Courier Six. Please just call me Six."
"I don't think I've met someone with a name like that before..." Reimu spoke.
"I could say the same to you, girl."
"Fair point."
"So, you said you were here to tell me something about rules?" I decided to get this conversation back on track.
"Well, thing is... We don't actually have the time to list out everything, so we're just gonna give you this little book here-" Marisa pulled a small leather book out of... somewhere... and handed it to me. "-and we're gonna leave, cause we have things to do." She began walking away.
Reimu began walking out with her, but turned around at the doorway. "You better make sure you read that book, because if you don't, I will find you.
"Yeah, yeah, no promises." I whispered
"What was that?" Her head snapped back to me and she began holding her stick-thing menacingly.
"Nothing, nothing, you can be on your way now." I waved her off.
"That's what I thought..." She shut the door and left.
I sighed and went to sit down on my bed. I stared at the book for a while before tossing it behind me without a second glance. "Like hell I'm gonna spend the time to memorize a buncha' garbage..." I inserted a holotape for "Johnny Guitar" into my Pip-boy before I laid down and closed my eyes.
I had a sinking feeling that tomorrow wasn't going to be very nice to me.