(in which rabbits are freakin' everywhere)

Surprisingly, our way to the capture point is mostly quiet. Gensokyo's stars shine brightly in the night sky over us, a subtle blue glow enveloping the forested land. Freakin' magical, yo…

Between Mokou and Reisen leading us through the woods, we got through the bamboo of mazery and dastardly trickery in like, a couple minutes.

"When we see 'em, do we just give 'em hell?" Marisa glances at Reisen, drifting on her broom. We're all together in a big party of noob bashing.

"No." Reisen responds firmly, almost turning to us to emphasize the importance of not dicking this up. Ho ho… "Look- when we first get there, I just want you, Mokou, and the princess to be on standby. I'll tell you guys when I'm in recon position."

Marisa notices my name was not mentioned in that rollcall. Still staring at Reisen, she grins. "What, you gonna have Brad run up there and kill himself?"

Reisen rolls her eyes. "Sure. No, I plan to give him some simple pre-op instructions. Just be patient, Marisa…"

...Deciding to heed the rabbit's judgment, Marisa nods compromisingly, looking ahead again. "Ai~ght. I'll be professional with a capital P, ze!"

"I need time to get used to this retarded controller anyway…" Kaguya's remote-controlled Master Chief jumps as it keeps up with the group. On some jumps, she makes it crouch! Also, it jumps like… eight feet in the air. Them's some good legs!

"If you die, you better not blame it on the controls again." Mokou banters, staring at the robot's actions.

Instead of taking the standard paths that I took to get from Eientei to the lake, we pretty much just up and walked through the plains, woods, and what have you to get there. Right now, we should be like, somewhere behind the Hakurei Shrine hill…

Oh, there it is. Ho ho!

Despite being told not to engage on this mission, Reisen's still carrying this huge sniper rifle. That reminds me, I put the super soaker she gave me in my sack earlier.

"Hehehe~!"

Purple, glittery lights glisten from the stick-like canopy above us! The night fae are here to terrorize us, yo…

"Night fairies!" Marisa is equally pepped up by their appearance. "We're screwed, ze. They're gonna nuke us and draw hearts on our stuff."

Snorting, Reisen somehow drew her fucking enormous sniper rifle easily. "How annoying… we've got to wrap this up quickly. I got a few things for this situation, but we'll have to pop the first wave that shows up."

...I still can't get over how big that sniper rifle is. It's almost as big as her!

"No problem." Mokou cracked her knuckles, stepping forward.

"You, there!"

Abruptly, three night fairies drop straight down from the darkness above! "You…" The leader pauses to count us. "Three, four… five. You five!"

They were all stout, but the leader had this like, swirly shell hairstyle. It was freakin' weird. The other two just had long purple hime-cuts.

"This section of the forest belongs to us!" Fairy leader boasts! "If people so unkempt such as you desire to pass… you must pay the toll."

The toll. Oh shit, yo!

...Reisen just stares up at her tiredly, looking just about done with this exchange already.

"What kinda toll?" Marisa calls up to the fairy. "I'll gladly give ya some bombs."

"A- you will?" The fairy pauses, flinching her whole body in surprise. "...What kind of bombs?"

"Catch!" We hear Kaguya's voice over the radio, but I doubt the fairies did since yeah.

Click. Kaguya's Master Chief pulls the pin off a frag grenade, and throws it up into the air towards the fairies.

Acting quickly, the leader fairy moves to catch the frag grenade. "Oh! Oh, you're- you're giving me this?" Greedily clasping it with both hands, the fairy looks over at us in confirmation.

"Wo~w, what is it…?" Her friend gets close.

Her other friend hovers closer to her, too! "It's not a rock, right? Ask 'em if it's a rock..."

"Uh… yeah." Marisa begins to drift backward a little bit… "It's a really good bomb. You can have it."

"...Huh." The night fairy smiles at us! "I guess you day dwellers aren't so bad after-"

BOOM

Our earbud things produce a quiet beep, neutralizing how loud that grenade probably was. I didn't hear the fairies die over it, so it was probably pretty loud.

As the grenade's smoke fades, there are no more fairies. Freakin' fragged.

"Before we move…" Reisen reaches into a big grey bag along her waist…

She pulls out a square pad, and begins attaching rounded parts to the edges of it. Once she's finished with it, she crouches down and places it firmly on the forest floor…

Fwoom!

A weird projection comes out, and it seems to be… us! Minus Kaguya's robot, anyway. We're talking but not making any sense, or noise. We also kinda glow.

"This should attract more of the local youkai than us." Reisen stands up, and quickly begins to move away from the disc. "We have to run. In a few minutes, the device will emit energy that attracts feral youkai."

Huh. It's a holo-party! Clever shit, yo…

"Aw yeah, ze! I'll be runnin' with the best 'a you!" Marisa emphasizes the fact she can just float faster.

Reisen actually begins darting forward- a~nd she's gone into the bushes somewhere. Wow. She's fast as fuck, boy…!

Mokou runs forward after her, going about half as fast which is still pretty freakin' fast.

Me? Yeah, I run yo! I'm left in the dust in about freakin' five seconds, but I run after them!

...The only one slower than me is Kaguya. Master Chief only has a 'menacing power walk' setting apparently. "Wait up! Wait! My walkspeed sucks ass!"

Being cold resistant at this time of night is fun. The air's pretty crisp, too…

I kinda can't see shit in this helmet, though. I think I'll just lift this visor up, for now…

Oo~h, that's better. I can feel the air on my face, too!

Inhaling, I continue to thunder after the lightning fast girls, trying not to get my ass kicked by bushes and trees at the same time.

After a minute or so of running, I manage to catch up to them. We're almost to the lake, now, and I see some weird lights in the distance…

The Scarlet Devil Mansion's also pretty well illuminated- some of the windows, at least.

"Alright." Reisen is not at all winded. "We're nearly there. I want all of you to stay about here, for now."

Marisa is also not at all winded, 'cause broom. "Alri~ght. At least I'll get to watch the bickering couple!"

Mokou is slightly winded. "Yeah, yeah. Hurry up whatever it is you're doing."

I~... am kinda sorta pretty winded. "Ha~h… freakin' workout, yo…!"

Reisen looks over at me, her eyes meeting mine. "Follow me, Brad. I need you to do something."

Ooh, I get to actually be useful!

She walks as slowly as she did previously, so that I can actually freakin' keep up. Moving through the trees, we get closer and closer to the side of the Misty Lake…

Then, we get through the brush, and I see the lake in this evening's glory.

Stars are reflected from the vibrant night sky upon it. Also, on the other side, there are a lo~t of blue lights. Like, bright and glowy shit. Don't like it when enemy shit glows, yo… although it's very pretty.

"There's the research camp." Reisen mentions to me. "Before we make a move on it, we need to… do some things."

Do things, huh. "I like to do things."

She snorts, looking around. Eventually, her gaze settles on some sizable rocks to our left. "Over there. Do you still have that... squirt gun?"

Yeah, yo.

We hear Marisa's voice over the radio. "Don't fuck like rabbits while I'm not around! Hahaha~!"

...Reisen sighs, and starts adjusting her earbud.

Mokou expresses disdain. "The amount of time we had to keep quiet for that crappy joke was-..."

Abruptly, the girls are all cut off.

"I disabled the network temporarily." Reisen gave me a grin. "Draw your weapon."

Alright, yo.

Reaching into my bag, I take out the oversized squirt gun, and set it on the rocks. I got a feeling I'm gonna be shootin' this!

"Good." Reisen nods at my motion.

...When she doesn't reply after a moment, I look over at her. She's just staring at me, and my eyes lock with hers.

Smiling widely, she seemingly leans a little closer. "Your weapon should be ready to fire as is. You… just wanna make sure the scope is turned on."

I got a feeling some weird bullshit is going on, but I don't particularly care yet…

Looking down at my squirt gun- which is now bloomtastic again- I lower myself a bit so I can aim an eye through the scope…

When I do, I see the compound up close! My reticle looks like a blue highlight, too…

"I'll tell you where to shoot." Reisen breathes into my ear! "Just listen. Okay?"

"Okay…!" Is this gonna be some ASMR shit, yo? 'Cause I'm okay with that!

"I'm gonna turn the radio back on… just for the two of us." Reisen whispers next to me. "Okay?"

"Ye." I nod.

Suddenly, I audibly hear Reisen rush off into the distance or something. She's probably getting onto the clock tower or some shit.

So, what, am I just gonna sit here and aim my sniper squirter at these freakin' noobs menacingly until then?

Seems like it. Cool. Well, I can be a little patient, I guess. This sight's still fucking pretty.

"Still there?" I hear Reisen over the radio again! Somehow, it still feels like she's right next to me…

"Ah- yeah." I nod, which is useless because she's probably on the freakin' clocktower now.

Idly, I aim the zoomed reticle about the 'research camp'. I can see lotsa bunny girls here and there in the sights, some with guns and some without. On the few actual towery structures, there are bunny girls with coats and clipboards, accompanied by weird equipment. The tower top rooms glow purple, while the lower structures have very deep, blue lighting for the interior sorta sections. The only bright-as-fuck blue is the exterior walling, for some reason.

Oh, yeah, all their metal surfaces were white and grey and stuff. By 'all their metal surfaces' I mean every surface.

"Now…" Reisen breathes into my ear again despite probably being a few hundred feet away. "I want you to aim at the trees. There are four things I want you to look for…"

When I pan my reticle about the trees, I can see the outline of freakin'... what're these, fluffles? Wat.

"I see fluffy outlines that glow." I report.

"Good." She is pleased! "I want you to aim your… squirt gun at one. Make sure it's the-... central point."

A bright, orange point at the forehead point of the precariously large fluffle shaped outlines materializes. That's kinda a weird place to shoot at, if these are fluffles…

"Make every shot count." Oo~h, that voice is close to my ear…!

Aligning the blue reticle with the tiny orange dot, I try to keep my shaky ass hands steady…

Then, I pull the trigger.

My scope pulses blue for a moment, and I see the orange dot over the fluffle-shaped outline fade. Then, the outline drops from the canopy, flopping onto the floor like a ragdoll. Something seems off about that, but I can't put my finger on it…

Also, this squirt gun seems to have no recoil!

"Mwah." Di-did she just kiss me on the cheek!? Yo! "Now, next target…"

...Once I get over the probably fake kiss sensation, I pan the reticle around. This next one is to the right of the camp. It is also fluffle shaped, and has that orange dot precariously high up on the fluffle figure.

"Make it count." ...That's a slight repetitive, but sure!

Aligning the reticle as best I can, I make sure the shot is right… and I pull the trigger.

My scope pulses blue again, and this fluffle also drops from the tree.

Okay- I think I know what's wrong. Fluffles turn into dust, they don't just ragdoll like freakin'-

"Very, very good." Reisen purrs into my right ear again. "Now… pay close attention."

Oo~h, okay…!

"Look around the camp." She instructs me.

...Panning my reticle around the camp, I see more highlighted figures. One of them's not a figure, but a freakin' machine, but the rest are, uh… more fluffles.

Some of the bunny researches on the tower things, in the low populated labs, are now person-sized fluffles for some reason.

"Shoot the device first." Reisen instructs me. "Then, shoot the- fluffles- any way you want. As long as they fall over…" The way she said fluffles was completely unnatural, like the word wasn't supposed to be there at all.

Somethin's freakin' up, du~de…!

...Well, whatever. Chances are, this rifle's got super-charged danmaku rounds or taser bolts or something.

First, I aim at that machine thing. It's kinda isolated, and what I seem to be aiming for is a little bright ass indent on a bigger machine…

Since the indent is kinda big and oddly defined, it's not hard to aim for it and pull the trigger.

Once my scope pulses blue, the light on the machine goes out.

"Now shoot them…" Reisen whispers to me.

There are four highlighted fluffles. Aiming my reticle at one's head area, I try and get my aim steadier…

This was the only fluffle that was really alone, too. The others were all with freakin' rabbits.

Once my aim is steady, I fire.

My scope pulses again, and the fluffle falls over.

...Oh, shit, one of the rabbits in one of the other towers saw that, she's bookin' it somewhere!

Quickly, I aim at the next fluffle, and just kinda pull the trigger twice. The scope pulses a bunch, and the fluffle falls over. The rabbits all around that fluffle begin moving really fast towards machines and things, and towards one of the support beams…!

So much for stealth! I quickly and jankily aim my squirt sniper at the other fluffle, and just wail on the trigger.

The scope's inner light becomes a freakin' rave party, and the fluffle falls over. Rabbits are running all over the place, now!

I aim at the last fluffle, which has begun moving like the rabbits, and spam the trigger!

Promptly, that one falls over, too.

Once that's done, I wait.

The scope goes dark, and the reticle goes out. Oh. I can't see shit, now, aside from the base's lights.

"Thanks for your help, Brad." Reisen's voice comes through the intercom totally normally, like she never tried to freakin' seduce me the entire time. "Sorry if you experienced anything you didn't like, by the way… but this had to be done."

Nah, I think it was kinda cool…

I raise my head from the scope-

My squirt gun… is not a squirt gun. It's all black, and far more detailed than I first thought.

I try to lift it, only to find it heavier than I thought, too. What the-

Clank, clank clank!

...It falls apart in my hands, becoming a bunch of complex pieces of scrap.

What just happened.

"Marisa, strike team!" Reisen's voice is heard yelling over the radio! "Charge the base, now!"

"We're fighting a base!?" Marisa expresses surprise! "Kickass!"

"What?" Mokou is also surprised! "...Actually, yeah. Wasn't it just a research camp, though?"

"Whatever, we get to shoot crap." Kaguya doesn't really care what the objective is…! "Hurry up and cover me."

Fwa-fwa-fwash!

I'm suddenly blinded by a bunch of aerial light things. No, not bullets- like… I think the research base sent out scouting drones or some shit.

Bright, white lights orbit around me for a moment, before promptly zooming back off to the bunny research camp.

...Yeah, scouting drones. Non-offensive ones, at least, so I didn't die!

"Princess." Reisen begins issuing a command! "A security team is moving around the lake to flank Brad's position. Meet them there."

Oo~h, shit!

"Marisa, do not cross the lake." Reisen suddenly warns our mage…

At that moment, Marisa shot out from the treetops above me, before circling around to a stop. "Wha~t? Why?"

"Too risky." Reisen decides. "Stay back and shoot lasers- but don't pull any spell cards yet."

"...You're boring." I'm envisioning Marisa pouting, here… "Fi~ne. I'll terrorize 'em from here."

I hear Kaguya's loud ass Master Chief suit bound from the brush beside me, marching off around the lakeside. I could see the security team from here, it was four rabbits with flashlight-accented plasma rifles.

"Need me for anything?" Mokou makes herself known!

"You can back Princess up if you want. Otherwise, you can do whatever you want. I have to warn you that the base will probably kill you if you run in there." Reisen gives Mokou some suggestions. "You can freak them out with fireballs and beams from the shore if you want, though. Just don't cross that lake. I had Brad incapacitate the snipers for a reason."

I incapacitated snipers? I'm starting to feel like those 'fluffles' I shot weren't actually fluffles at all…

...Right. Reisen's eye-induced insanity thing, yeah it makes sense now. I'll have to ask her later if I actually killed anybody!

FwiChoo~m!

Marisa promptly sends a long, yellow laser over to the research camp across the lake. She just kinda drags it around the base randomly.

Mokou runs past my rock-based sniper position, running after Kaguya.

Master Chief Kaguya's about to engage some aliens, yo!

As Kaguya nears them, she pulls a frag grenade, tossing it forward.

Instantly, the rabbits all dart out of the way of the grenade lightning fast, some of them performing flashy rolls.

Boom! I hear it explode in the distance, striking no one.

Kaguya's armor leaps into the air a good few feet, four streams of plasma bullets roaring under it.

From behind, Mokou hurls a fireball as support. As it nears one of the rabbit security officers, however, the rabbit just jerks themself out of the way, allowing it to strike the nearby brush.

I dunno if they're shes or hes, 'cause they just got these generic metal-looking armor augments and some visor-esque stuff on their heads. I can see their faces, though, but from here and with this much darkness that's not good enough.

"They move fast…" Mokou begins moving for the woods around the lake's edge.

"They're fucking moon rabbits." Kaguya counters. "Why wouldn't they move fast?"

Patatatatatat! Kaguya's dinky ballistic rifle was heard across the lake…

The rabbit's shields all flickered, but only briefly here and there. Wow.

In response, two of them fired a forward, wild spread of long, blue plasma bolts from their grey rifles.

Kaguya's shield flickered orange as some grazed her, but she ducked behind a nearby tree. "Crap, half shield. Mokou, burn them."

The two rabbits who didn't fire strafed off into the nearby trees hastily, their flashlights quickly becoming obscured.

Extending her arms, Mokou sent a curtain of flames forward to guard the tree Kaguya hid behind. I dunno where Mokou was in the forest herself, but it was near Kaguya.

After a moment of seeming inactivity, I saw Mokou backpedal through the flames herself. "Hah! Can't get me bitch!"

Promptly, the rabbit she was fleeing from ran straight through the fire-

Whack! I heard the impact over radio! The rabbit freakin' kicked her in the chest!

"Gufkh!?" Mokou flew back, tumbling across the lakeside.

Patatatatat! Kaguya fired at the rabbit in retaliation, but her dinky rifle didn't do so much as make it pay attention to her. Good.

From the flames, the other forward moving rabbit darted out, its shield flickering briefly from the fire as it moved to punch Kaguya's visor.

Fwam! Kaguya's shield rippled violently, but held through the melee attack.

In an attempt to continue their assault, the rabbit lunged forward and hugged Master Chief by the waist, attempting to lift it.

"Pfft- hahaha~!" Kaguya apparently found that funny! "Eat shit!"

Whack! She elbows the rabbit, whose shield flickers in response. Dropping to the ground from the force, the rabbit slams both arms into the ground to propel theirself away-

Patatatatat! Kaguya fires her rifle at them-

Fwa~sh! The rabbit's shield actually fell!

"Need help?" Marisa's idly observing from above, still waving her laser at the camp. "'Cause, uh…"

Fwoom! A pillar of flames enveloped the rabbit who was pursuing Mokou, launching them into the air.

"There…" Mokou moved for the brush again. "Annoying things…"

"Princess- jump!" Reisen demands over radio! "Now!"

"Okay- fine!" Making Master Chief jump, Kaguya has it continue towards the rabbit she just disabled the shields of. In the air, she switched from that terrible rifle to her pistol.

Woosh! A rabbit brought their plasma rifle down like a club where Master Chief was previously standing.

Pow! Pow! The pistol is remarkably louder than the rifle, for some reason!

"Gauh…" The rabbit that she melee'd earlier stumbles forward, before dashing at full sprint towards the main base again. I assume some of those shots connected.

"Holy shit- go away!" Mokou is flying in the air, now!

Two rabbit soldiers are running under her, firing up and running behind her. Mokou repeatedly generates pillars of flames, and sends exploding fireballs to try and intercept them, but their shields more often than not take the brunt of the splash damage. That, and their shields prevent them from burning at all.

One of them leaps into the air! I anticipated them to just have a jump height of like, Master Chief's.

No~pe. Soaring right up, the rabbit slaps Mokou in the face with her rifle.

"Fuahk…!" Mokou's sent twirling by the impact! "Da-damn it…!" It seems to have really pissed her off, too!

Kaguya is now dueling just one rabbit, the other seemingly having fled. The rabbit skipped back, quickly nearing Mokou's position but still aiming at Kaguya…

Pow! Pow! Pow!

Of the three shots, Kaguya probably landed one bullet. Good.

Reisen audibly sighs over the radio. "Marisa- use your Master Spark, or something of equal power."

"Hey, I got this shit! My shields haven't fallen once!" Kaguya protests!

The rabbit fires a stream of plasma towards Kaguya, but Master Chief dodges easily by jumping and strafing to the side…

Mokou decides to try and take this opportunity to wail on the rabbit Kaguya focused on. Descending from above, her arms spew flames and she just lets herself fall on the rabbit. "Fuck yo~u!"

The rabbit's shield lights up as Mokou executes what they call the 'W + M1' strategy… which essentially translates to 'move forward and shoot flames and hope the enemy just dies'.

Bolting forward, the rabbit pivots around and fires at Mokou-

Pow! Pow! Pow! Kaguya actually lands her freakin' bullets!

Fwi~sh… The rabbit's shields fall!

Mokou falls forward onto her stomach, before jerking herself in the air to avoid further damage.

The rabbit is now on fire from the residual flames, however. Frantically, the rabbit darts over to the water, and leaps in freakin' lightning fast…

Splash!

...In like, ten seconds, she's back out and fleeing towards the camp again.

The other two rabbits who were trailing Mokou previously decide to retreat as well, firing a spray of plasma bolts at Kaguya as they pass by her armor…

Fwi~sh! "Fuck…" Kaguya immediately leaps behind a tree as fast as Master Chief's controls will allow her. "They just fucking looked at me and my shields fell."

...Fortunately, it seems the four rabbits are now all back at that base.

Before the nearby woods could become an inferno from the residual flames, Mokou extinguished them by holding her hand in their direction for a moment. Hoh. Smokey the bear two-point-oh!

"You almost gave me a heart attack, there…" Reisen's tired voice comes from over the voice chat. "Forgive me, Princess, but… I thought you played video games?"

"They were fucking bullet sponges." Kaguya defends herself. "Also, this lake has shitty cover, even if the map design's super non-linear."

"Marisa," Reisen addresses her next complaint target! "Where was that Master Spark I asked for?"

Marisa's currently still randomly beaming the camp across the lake, which has likely lost effectiveness by now. "I mean, they looked like they had it well enough. Mokou didn't die, and the robot's still there."

...I wasn't gonna engage that shit! If Master Chief piloted by a dudebro can't do anything to them, fat fucking chance I have!

"Well, fortunately enough, they've already begun some evacuation sequences." Reisen informs us. "They seem to be heavily understaffed on assault roles. The only thing we have to worry about is that surveillance device. You destroy that, and they'll probably actually retreat since that's pretty much their objective, here. As things stand, they're going to launch it early, both to get their data, get out of here ASAP, and to see if it'll resist you."

"Rela~x, rela~x…" Marisa waves off Reisen's context to the situation. "It's a surveillance robot. Like- doesn't that just mean big camera?"

"I don't know." Reisen admits! "It's going to be something big, so keep your eyes open. Just as a reminder: it's fairy powered."

"Pfft." Marisa shakes her head. "Yeah, okay. What, do they just put a ton 'a sunflower fairies into an oven?"

...Reisen refuses to humor her jeers!

"I am fucking terrified." I speak from my sniper rocks.

Mokou steps up to the lake shore… "Yeah, you probably should be."

Kaguya marches her Master Chief to the lake shore! "If it's a big ass target, my rifle might actually be useful. Dammit- why didn't Eirin give me the shotgun?"

Freakin'- if it's the Halo: Combat Evolved weaponry… "Just use the pistol, yo. Freakin' rifle's worthless!"

"You know what?" Kaguya switches back to her pistol! "Yeah. I won't even try."

Fwoo~m…

...Some weird shit goes on at that looney base camp place.

Vrrr- vrrr- vrrr- vrrr~...!

Tall, neon blue pillars raise from the base, rising high above the trees…

…Well, that's definitely not intimidating.

"Launch." I hear a lunar rabbit voice echo out from the base's intercom!

Cla-clack, cla-clack!

I see some lighting change, but I can't see shit because bright lights and dark night. Oof.

Fwoo~m!

Something rises out from the middle of the camp. Something freakin'... big. Big-ish.

It's large, and pretty boxy. After a moment, the roar of its engines quiets down, but it keeps rising into the night sky. As it rises, I can see the amber glow of the four tiny thrusters beneath it. Kinda curious that they're using like, ignition thrusters…

The box-shaped object did have like, a shaped roof. At the very top was a single pole, with odd protrusions. Dunno what that's about!

Eventually, the poorly lit object stops rising, and just hovers towards the lake, bobbing in the air as it does so…

Marisa stops beaming the base, for a moment. Then, a beam of regular light- like a flashlight- comes from the mini-hakkero, illuminating the base and the rising machine! Now we can see it in fullscreen HD! Aw, yeah!

The box was more rectangular than it was square, floating portrait style. Each corner was a sorta pipe, the middle was like a big metal scaffold block, 'cept with a lot more crossbeams and stuff! The front face- and considering the design, probably the back face- had a big, black screen…

The thing was as big as a tiny house!

"I'm scanning its properties now." Reisen cuts in on our quiet observation of the freakin' super block. "I'll have its resistances and weaknesses soon."

"It's a giant block 'a steel!" Marisa observes! "What's it gonna do, fall on us?"

Suddenly, blue lights flickered to life along the pipe-like things on it.

The screen flickered to life, depicting a very pixelly depiction of Cirno! "...Hello!" She greets us!

...Marisa just nods in mock satisfaction. "Good fight."

"Huh." Mokou nods, too. "They weren't kidding when they said it was fairy powered…"

"Great." Kaguya sounds enthused. "Can we just shoot it down now?"

...The screen flickers for a moment, curiously.

Cli-cli-cli-click.

The pipe-esque edges of the device jut out a little, revealing a little more of the inner machinery.

"I've got brains to burn; no ordinary fairy in this block…" Cirno speaks rather uncharacteristically. Her pixelated avatar speaks when she speaks, though!

Vrrr~. The frame of the machine tilts forward, aiming the pipes towards us and revealing the tops as open.

"Every culture and philosophy, I've read up on them all." That doesn't sound like Cirno…! "I've been living in your shadow for nine_nine_nine_nine_nine_nine, keeping tabs on all of nature's machinations and production lines."

"Yaknow…" Marisa starts to drift back a little more! "I feel like that's not Cirno anymore…"

Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!

From the four pipes along the device's frame, four rockets emerge. These rockets move slowly, arcing up into the air before homing towards Marisa. Bright, pale blue flames trail them as they move through the night sky.

"Ooo~!" Marisa moves a lot faster than them, though! "I see ya've got some new tricks!"

Fwo-fwofwofwoosh! The big freakin' block machine shoots four more blue flame accented rockets from its pipes.

Pow, pow, pow! Kaguya unloads pistol bullets onto it!

Fwi-fwi-fwish.

The entire machine has an energy shield, similar to the ones the rabbits had. Oo~h, that's not good...

Vrr-vrrr-vrr-vrrr~!

"Woah!" Marisa barely grazes a pale blue laser, one of the four the machine generated that actually came close to her. The other three generated from the machine's antenna top were aimed towards Mokou and Kaguya…

Fwi~sh! A beam instantly shattered Kaguya's energy shield, but dealt no knockback. "Holy crap!" Hastily, Master Chief leapt out of the beam!

"Ah…?" Mokou isn't thrown back by the beams, either. Even so, blue flames travel up her form. "The fuck's this?"

"Be careful!" Reisen's voice cautions us! "Those beams inflict silencing! If you get hit by one, you won't be able to use magic for awhile!"

Ho ho ho~... this does not sound like a fight I can participate in to any capacity. It should still make a good watch, and I got health potions for anyone who needs them…!

"So don't call me a moron," Cirno requests of us. "I'm super astute!"

Darting around Cirno completely to avoid the eight or so rockets, Marisa turns the flashlight off, and starts to get serious! "Love Sign…"

Pow, pow, pow! To help Marisa set up, Kaguya fires on the machine from a distance.

Fwi-fwi-fwish. The blue, wire-esque energy shield it has flickers a bit.

Fwoom! Mokou sends a surge of flames at it, causing the shield to ripple further.

Froo~m…

Four rocket-like devices drop out from under Cirno's machine, and begin hovering out. They were like miniature versions of her craft…

They quickly begin to gravitate towards Mokou and Kaguya-

Pew, pew pew-pewpewpewpewpew!

They rapidly begin raining down freakin' inaccurate plasma bolts on the two, causing both immortals to fall back. "What the fuck- minions!?" Kaguya is baffled!

Mokou snorts at her reaction. "That's rich coming from you…"

"Master Spa~rk!" Marisa unleashes her annihilation of love!

VRRRRR~

A~nd now it's really bright! Ho ho ho!

The rainbow beam envelops the entire floating craft. It's so bright I can see things again!

RRRRrrr~...

...Once the huge laser of danmaku doom ends, the machine is revealed to only have been moved slightly back from where it was. The shield's down, though, and some parts of the side Marisa fired on are crackling with danmaku energy.

"There is no conundrum that my core cannot compute." Cirno states plainly. If that's true, can you do my math homework…? Not that I have any in freakin' Gensokyo, but y'know…

Oh, yeah, those rockets are still after Marisa, but she's doin' a good job of jukin' em out.

Vroo~Fwam! Four beams come from the shaft of those pipes that comprise the machine's frame.

"Holy- ah!" Marisa freakin' spins wildly out of the way of them, as they home in on her form and zip into the floor after they miss. Her hat flies off as a result…!

"Immortal…" Mokou sets up her spell card…! "Fire Bird! Flying Phoenix!"

...Nothing happens.

"Fuck." She looks at the blue flames running along her limbs. "Goddammit. This is the worst thing ever."

Kaguya snorts. "I'm glad you found something to take my place."

"Next to you." Mokou quickly corrects herself.

Pow, pow, pow!

Boom, bam boom! Kaguya's shots blow up three of the four miniature plasma-shooting mooks.

Vuu~m… The machine's energy shield recharges.

"Yo, guys!" I call out and make myself known! "I got Panaceas and shit! If you get silenced, I can fix ya up!" I am he who has come prepared! Ho ho!

Kaguya responds plainly. "Don't need 'em, got guns." ...I didn't mean you, yo.

Pow! Kaguya takes care of the last plasma-shooting robot, which just drops into the water uselessly after being shot.

"Gimme that shit…" Mokou ditches Kaguya, heading over for my station at these lakeside rocks…

Marisa starts to fly closer to the lake's shore. "Silencing's such bull. All I gotta do is get nicked by it and I go 'a rollin', ze. How many status potions ya got?"

If I remember correctly… "Five!"

"Oo~h." Marisa doesn't sound pleased by the number… "Better than none, but u~h… that's still crappy."

Yeah, I'd say so. Depends on how often you get silenced!

"Mokou, can't ya just u~h…" Marisa suddenly addresses Mokou! "Die?"

"Eat shit and die." Mokou monotones, still progressing towards me.

"I mean- to get rid 'a the silencing!" Marisa adds quickly! "How quick do ya respawn from a bullet to the back 'a the head?"

Mokou turns away from me, glaring at the witch as she zooms about in the air. "No. Well- it takes a couple minutes- but I'm not-"

Bam!

Blood splatters across the rocks before me, Mokou limply falling down in front of me. Oh, good. She's still on pastel blue fire, too.

Kaguya giggles merrily in voice chat. "Hehehah! Eat my lead, bitch."

"U~h…" You could hear Marisa grin sheepishly. "Sorry there, Mokou buddy. I think I'll just letcha take the next Panacea..."

Strafing in the air, Marisa generates a large, blue-tinted magic missile of her own! "How's this for ya?"

It accelerates forward, and promptly meets Cirno's craft-

Ti-ti-tick! The blast makes three ticking noises, but that's about it! The blast was larger than that of the smaller, green missiles she shot earlier, though.

Ti-ti-tick! She can spam it almost as fast, although it's noticeably slower by a second or so. The rocket itself also accelerates slower 'cause it's bigger.

Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow! While Marisa chips away at the energy shield, Kaguya contributes with more pistol bullet spam.

Those eight slow-moving moon rockets are still slowly trailing Marisa, and considering how she's skirting away from them, she's noticed them too! "...Hey, Reisen, do these rockets explode on their own after a while or what?"

"Probably not." Reisen answers indifferently. "They're constructs of both magic and technology, and considering they're a baseline model they're probably made to just work awhile and not be very useful otherwise. They're still-"

"Okay thanks!" Marisa quickly talks over her! "Didn't need a journal entry on 'em, ze!"

Kaguya gives her own suggestion related to rocket science. "Try making the rockets run into the machine instead. It's not a very hard puzzle."

"Oo~h, I like that idea…!" Marisa begins to near the giant floating block craft. "Cirno would be enough of an idiot to not see this coming."

"Don't call me a moron." Cirno requests once again!

"You shot rockets that can hit yourself." Kaguya counters, even though Cirno can't hear her. "Moron."

...Cirno's floating block thing 'faces' Kaguya. "You fostered balloon." Wat. Apparently she can hear Kaguya over our intercom! "My IQ is the infinite space from here to the moon."

...I'm not sure if that was clever math commentary, or if she just insulted herself.

Kaguya didn't know what to do with that insult. "I'm a what now?"

While Cirno's slowly drifting towards good ol' Master Chief Kaguya, Marisa passes her, the rockets trailing slowly behind her… and the rockets've all clumped up, too! Since they've got no pathfinding, they slowly drift into the side of the big block...

On collision with the side of the armor, they erupt into person-sized orbs of blue energy, pulses of lunar magic echoing outward from the persistent pastel orbs. Most of them are overlapping, though, so it's just a big bright ball of magic.

Once the 'blasts' end, Cirno's shield is still there.

"So~..." Marisa observes this with mild confusion. "What's with the shield? The whole 'still being up' part."

"Oh." Reisen seems slightly surprised as well. "I should have seen that coming. Let me just take this moment to rattle off the resistances I jotted down…"

Marisa sighs. "Why's a machine got magical resistances? You guys got magic resistant sewing machines on the moon, too?"

"I wouldn't be surprised." Reisen gets ready to read the resistances! "Now-"

"Yeah, they do." Kaguya answers Marisa's question. "...It's a fashion thing."

"Now," Reisen speaks a little louder! "The machine itself is two hundred percent moon resistant. It's also one hundred percent sun, electricity, and space resistant."

"Oh no." Marisa monotones. "Now I can't use all the space attacks I have."

Drifting back and away from the machine, Marisa begins firing those burly blue magic missiles again…

Ti-ti-tick! Ti-ti-tick! Ti-ti-tick! Ho ho! That's a lotta firepower for a few seconds!

"On that note…" Reisen pauses for a moment. "You can't blind, stun, silence, syphon, ignite, freeze, wet, weigh down, doom or instantly kill it."

Aw, good. We all know Marisa has a lot of instant death attacks. Well- induced with the intent to take life with minimal damage, anyway. Master Sparks don't count, 'cause that's just a shitton of damage!

Pow, pow, pow! Kaguya's still unloading on that shield Cirno's got!

Fwa~sh! Huh. All it took was a few moments of sustained firepower to bring that shield down.

"I have studied Machiavelli, Aristotle, Yagokoro and Plato…" Cirno's cute pixel face on the screen really doesn't add anything to what she's saying…! Also- one 'a those names ain't like the other! "Yet you still equate my intellect to that of a potato."

Fwoash. Four more minion bots are ejected from the underside of the giant block Cirno's piloting…

Instead of floating off to distract Kaguya, they all begin to orbit around Cirno's craft-

Vruu~m! They all create large bubbles of bright blue energy, which all overlap and shield the giant aircraft from harm.

Ti-ti-tick! Pow, pow! Ti-ti-tick! However, Marisa and Kaguya's attack quickly cause the bubbles to shrink down into nothing.

Every minion bot with a really small bubble retreats from the main craft for a moment, so that its shield can regrow a little. Since Marisa's rockets did splash damage, all the shield bots retreated at pretty much the same time, all spreading out and moving to far corners of the lake.

"Good robots." Marisa monotones again. Then, she begins criticizing Cirno's strategy. "Y'know, I'm pretty sure a good offense would be a better plan than making a million different ways to like, temporarily not take damage."

Suddenly, Mokou begins to get up! Using her arms, she helps herself back onto her legs, before standing a little shakily… "Fu~ck. Where'd I go to sleep…?"

Pow, pow, pow! Kaguya shoots at one of the weak shield bots nearest her. Her first bullet causes the already tiny shield bubble to retract into the robot, and the other two blow it up.

Mokou flinches at the sound of gunfire. "Shi~t…"

"Hello, friend." I greet her.

'Cause of the radio earbuds we have, she just looks around, at first unsure of where I am, before sighting me. "Oh, you. Oh. Oh- I remember now. Goddamn it."

Rubbing her head, she looks around. Her gaze sets on Master Chief for a moment, before she shakes her head and surveys her limbs… "Well, I'm not silenced anymore."

"You're welcomed..." Kaguya is withholding the giggles.

Pow, pow, pow! Kaguya assassinates a different shield robot, this time having to use two bullets to mow down the shield before blowing up the core shield bot.

The other two shield robots start drifting back into action!

During this time, Marisa's just been shelling and shelling the main block, which is now crackling with danmaku energy on one face.

"This place would fall apart without a fairy's ever-watchful eye." Cirno preaches the power of fairy kind to us! "They might tell you that we're powerless. It's a great big bloody lie." Not just any lie, yo. A bloody lie.

Fwoom. The thrusters on the craft go out.

"Marisa!" Reisen yells! "Get to the shore! Now!"

"Okay!?" Marisa freakin' jets over to the shore! In the next moment, she's floating over Kaguya, a good ten feet off the ground still.

Cirno's craft just plops into the water-

SPLASH

That's a disproportionate amount of water for what just entered the lake…!

This freakin' geyser of water towers over us, before promptly raining down all over the shoreside as a clumpy rain.

...Now I am also on blue fire. Well, it's more like pastel-blue, and it doesn't hurt or actually destroy clothes. In fact, it seems to just travel along skin and stuff for the most part.

Holding out my hand, I try to create a wooden block like I was able to do before.

...Can't even feel my mana. Oof. In the background, I hear Kaguya's energy shield recharge...

Mokou is also silenced again. "That's it, I need a Panacea."

...Marisa's making a mad dash along the coast of the lake to reach me! She's got her broom held up over her head with both arms! "I'm'onna need one! I'm'onna really need one!"

Pow, pow, pow! Kaguya fires at the shield bots, which are still just drifting in the air, their shields freakin' huge now.

Taking out one of the Panacea bottles, I hand it over to Mokou-

"Finally." She takes the bottle… and holds onto it. "Gotta wait for this stupid rain to stop, though."

It continues to rain for a good moment-

Pow pow pow pow pow! Kaguya breaks one of the shield bots by just wildly unloading her clip into it. "Your shields are stupid!"

"He-hey…" Marisa is indeed a bit winded from sprinting across a fraction of the lakeside to reach me. "Gimme."

Reaching into my bag, I hand another small bottle of Panacea over to Marisa. I wonder if that 'toss and cast' type of casting would work… although it'd be stupid to use it now. This rain probably freakin' silences everyone near the lake. Actually, I bet Wakaflakka-whats-her-face is having fun!

Placing her hand on the bottle's cork, she waits for the rain to end. "After this, I gotta go-…" She inhales and exhales! "...Find my hat. Should be on the water..."

Slowly, Cirno's block begins to rise from the water, liquid rushing off of it as it ascends again…

...In a moment, the rain ends!

Audibly, Marisa and Mokou tear the corks off their bottles, and begin chugging.

The remaining shield bot starts glowing red, and its shield vanishes. Gradually, it begins to accelerate towards Kaguya…

...Kaguya aims up at it as it advances. "What're you…"

Pow, pow, pow! ...I think she missed all those shots, somehow.

"No!" Kaguya makes Master Chief leap, barely avoiding getting smashed by the shield bot. When it was close to someone, I could tell it was like, torso-sized! "Go away! I hate you!"

Pow pow pow! Three more frantic shots destroy the robot, so at least one of them must've connected.

Marisa floats back up into the air on her broom, no longer on blue fire. "I should buy a buncha Panaceas. Silencing sucks, ze."

Mokou floats into the air, ready to encounter the robot! "Immortal…"

As Cirno's super block of pain and prolonged combat raises into the air, she boasts about her superior intellect again. "I know my way around here. Every dirt road, every cave…"

"Fire Bird!" Massive wings of flame fold out from behind Mokou's back. Hoh, shit…! "Flying Phoenix!"

Fwoom! She creates a huge, crimson, bird-shaped mass of energy, and sends it at the craft.

Pow, pow, pow! Kaguya helps her chip away at the energy shield from the shore…

Marisa dips close to the water, before making a precarious motion to claim her hat, which was floating somewhere on the surface. "The~re we go!"

Fwam! The fire bird collides with Cirno's machine, creating a huge swath of flames that curl around it! Additionally, a barrage of red, feather-shaped danmaku pellets assaulted the machine, left in the bird's wake-

Fwa~sh. The machine's shield falls.

"Right now, I quite appreciate not being my mind's slave." Cirno speaks as if this situation was still going well for her. "There's so much I'd do for nature here, so much I'd rearrange…"

Fwoom! With a gust of her wings, Mokou sends out another giant danmaku phoenix at the lunar machine.

Four more tiny robot things come from beneath the machine-

Fwam! The second fire bird collides with the machine, as does all the feathers in its wake! Even though the machine's immune to burning for whatever weird reason, the immense heat seems to be having an effect of some kind. Each impact is causing Cirno to kinda drift away…

Marisa starts floating up. Like, just… she goes up, yo. Above the battlefield!

Fwo-fwo-fwo-fwoom. Cirno's machine launches four slow moving homing rockets at Mokou…

Spinning in the air, Mokou changes the side of the machine she's facing entirely, and unfurls her wings-

FWOOM

She sends out an immense wave of big, oblong red bullets all around herself, flourishing outward as a giant sphere of freakin' flames.

...I dunno where the tiny robots went, but they're gone now!

Oh, I just saw this through the red bullets, but she also sent out a spread shot of phoenixes. Only one hit the craft itself-

Fwam! -but freakin', yo…!

I gotta look away. All the light was starting to hurt my eyes, even when everything else is freakin' dark. Jeez…

Fwoom! A~nd that sounds like another phoenix, right after the freakin' mega flare ended. Also, it seems like the rockets trailing after Mokou just freakin'... died or something. One of the spread shot phoenixes probably mowed them down.

Marisa dives down from way above on the other end of the device, using it to shield herself from Mokou's danmaku and freakin' burly flames at this range.

"Loving Heart…!" Oo~h, she's using a spell card! It's probably not gonna be a burly one, since Mokou's on the other side and- "Double Spark!" -nevermind…!

Backing up just a little, Marisa aims the mini-hakkero at the machine…!

"Hey, hey!" Mokou knows what's up, yo. "You're gonna hit me with that!"

"You can take it!" Marisa's such a team player, yo.

Mokou responds aptly. "What the fuck!"

Two white lines aim out from the mini-hakkero horizontally, and-

VRRRRRR~

Fruity color mode has been activated. This makes me wonder how light pollution works, 'cause freakin'...

RRRRRRR~

From down here, I could see how the two equally sized master sparks spread out, and quite wide, too. One of them ultimately went in the direction of the mansion but maybe died out before actually getting there.

The beams were only noticeably split after awhile, so it was like a freakin' medium-range shotgun, except there're only two pellets, and they're fucking house-levelling rainbow beams.

Also, yeah, apparently Marisa can just shoot two Master Sparks at once. Freakin'... yo.

RRRRrrr~...

The immensely bright rainbow lasers of doom finally fade, and the night quickly darkened again.

...Cirno's device was now half-submerged in the water, dark and floating on the lake's slightly active surface.

Everything's quiet again, yo. Ho ho ho…

"Somebody help Mokou…" Reisen sighs over the radio, breakin' the silence. "She's in a pickle."

"Augh- ghugh…" Mokou is suddenly audible, sounding like she's drowning. "Gu-ghn-ngh!"

"Hehehe~..." Marisa giggles. "Sorry, Mokou-ze. Actually- the hell are ya?"

Amber light flashes beneath the waves halfway across the lake from where Mokou originally was.

Zooming over to the spot 'n' stuffing her mini-hakkero in her hat, Marisa takes a deep breath. "Haa~h…!"

Bloop. She nose-dived into the water smoothly, her hat left on the water's surface. Uu~h…

Spla~sh! She emerges from the water's surface holding Mokou with one arm. Mokou's back is against the broom, her head propped against Marisa's right arm- which is on the broom. Marisa's left arm's precariously beneath Mokou's legs trying to keep a hold on her…

"O-ooh…" Marisa shudders, dripping wet. "Cr-crap… not-not my be-best idea…"

"Kaugh- kauf, kaugh…!" Mokou coughs up water, her body crackling with danmaku energy. "Ngh- da-damn…"

...The pale flames on my body're almost out. The hell are these, anyway? Moon flames? Why don't they burn stuff?

"I got support stuffs yo." I make my support known! "Erectin' a dispenser ri~ght here!"

...Marisa turns around and stops flying aimlessly into the distance, moving for me…

"Wh-when I'm drowning…" Slowly, Mokou starts speaking, before starting her sentence again. "When I'm drowning, stunned numb and envisioning how painful my next few respawns will be…"

Then, she starts yelling! "Don't assume I'm in the mood to hear 'Mokou's in a pickle!'"

Boom.

A quaint blast came from the buoyant, floating lunarian hunk of machinery. Afterward, it drifted apart, broken…

"Sorry." Reisen flatly apologizes. "I could just not say anything next time." Ho ho! That attitude, yo!

I really didn't do much this fight other than give people healing items and uh… snipe those snipers. Still not sure if they're dead or just stunned. If they're dead, I'm gonna blame Reisen and promptly forget about it! Not that there was a lot I could do, that thing tanked a Master Spark and most of Mokou's freakin' inferno birds.

...Master Chief power walks over to me. "Fight coulda used more rockets."

In a moment, Marisa reaches my rock-based position! Quickly, she dumps Mokou onto the floor, and takes a seat next to her. "Mo-Mokou, can ya start burning?"

Mokou promptly lights on fire, burning softly. Pretty surreal to see up close…!

"There…" Marisa holds her hands over Mokou like she's a freakin' camp fire. "Good fire."

"Mngh." Mokou just exists.

In the distance, I see the light columns in the research camp retract. Then, a lot of the lights inside seemingly go out…

Fwoo~m!

...The entire interior of the base ascends, revealed to be like, a freakin' floating platform. Metal began expanding to cover the interior, and a cluster of anti-grav thrusters all along the bottom began to kick in to accent the one large thruster that at first propelled the base up.

Within a moment, the base was fully free from the protective lower foundation it had. Turning around in the air idly-

FWOOM

The bottom thruster kicked in again, and the entire structure rocketed off into the night sky with immense speed.

Mokou weakly held up an arm, and gave the retreating base a feeble middle finger. "Do-don't come back…"

Pow pow pow pow pow! Kaguya empties her pistol clip into the air.

"They're gone now." Reisen plays the role of captain obvious. "I'll join you guys shortly."

"Could- could ya get my hat?" Marisa requests. "I'd like to just sit here for a moment."

We hear the rush of wind over the radio. "Sure."

...In a moment, I see Reisen bounding up to the lakeside. Then, she floats- far slower than she runs, actually- towards the lake's surface to get Marisa's hat…

Once she has it, she drifts to the shore, before dashing towards us with unreal speed.

She does, however, slow down as she nears us. "Hey…"

"Hi." Marisa greets her idly, grinning.

With a flick of her wrist, Reisen sends the hat twirling through the air, where it lands almost perfectly on Marisa's head.

"Eight outta ten." Marisa adjusts it a little. "Ya still gotta stick the positioning."

Reisen shrugs. "I'm surprised it's that good after so long."

Freakin'... Reisen's still wearing these really boxy, white goggles. The eye holes emit blue light that extends in a tiny beam outward.

I hold out my arms. "Can you guess my resistances, yo?"

...Reisen runs her eyes along my form, and I can follow the goggle's lasers to see where she looks exactly. "One hundred percent ice resistant. Fifty percent dark resistant, and fifty percent sun resistant. Fifty percent weak to fire and burning. Immune to freezing and sun-related, magically induced blinding."

Marisa chuckles. "The hell'd you get this stuff from? I know ya said Alice, but she charges a freakin' arm and a leg for magic clothing…"

"I got that early bird discount, yo." I reiterate, hoping it'd jog her memory a bit more…

"Oo~h, right…" She nods, looking away. "She thought you were a hobo, but apparently you were a hobo with pocket change."

Son. You're not wrong, though…!

Someone else begins drifting over to us from the lake. Reisen seems to see her coming, as well…

...Noticing our stares, Kaguya pivots Master Chief around to look as well.

It-it'sa Cirno! "What're you guys doing?" She touches down near us!

Marisa almost springs up, but remains seated anyway, which just results in her looking like she had a mini-seizure.

"Eating." I point to Mokou.

Suddenly, the pale blue flames along my form go out. I am no longer silenced. It was fun while it lasted, yo...

...Cirno takes a moment to stare at Mokou. "Eye thought only Rumia did that."

"You feelin' okay?" Marisa checks Cirno's sanity levels!

"A little funny…" Cirno still has some patches and wires on her, probably from the machine. "Eye woke up in a chair and wires and stuff under the water, but they couldn't hold me back!" She props her arms on her hips! "Eye gotta find and beat up whoever thought that would be funny!"

I decide to quiz her. "Who's Machiavelli?"

"Macaroni?" Cirno guesses.

"Aristotle?" I ask my next question!

"Arrow throttle?" Cirno looks at me like I grew two heads.

"Yagokoro?" I grin!

"Yogurt corn?" Cirno blinks. Then, she shakes her head! "Shut up and start speaking sense!"

Sitting down next to the ever-burning Mokou, Reisen lets herself relax… "Alright. I'll have a team out here to clean up the remaining debris tomorrow morning…"

Cirno looks over at her, beaming. "Eye have a team!"

"Not your team." Reisen quickly clarifies.

...I do a little stretch…!

"Hello!" It's Ha-chan! "I finally found you!"

"Ho ho!" I watch her approach from the woods! "Where the frik were you?"

"After I lost you, I was in the bamboo woods but then someone hit me on the head really hard, with a rock!" She nods cheerfully, like this was a good thing. "Then I was hanging upside down, and I had to get cut down by a nice scythe youkai."

A nice scythe youkai. Who the hell…? Also, a rope trap sounds like Tewi's doing…

Mokou begins to sit up, still on fire. "Oo~h…"

Cirno leaps back! "Aaa~h! It's still alive!" Holding her arms out, she starts blowing frost onto Mokou!

"Th-the hell…?" Mokou holds her arm up to shield her face from the cold air and ice. "Stop…"

Kaguya begins making Master Chief jump in place, attracting the stares of the fairies…

"We should probably get going…" Standing up, Reisen looks around idly. "We're not going to be left alone for long after an event like that."

Yeah, probably not…

"Let 'em…" Marisa pauses to yawn. "Hau~h… let 'em come, ze."

Giving her a skeptical stare, Reisen begins walking. "Well, we have just the right number of people to probably not be attacked so readily…"

Aah… is there a magic number for a party's size? Like, too big for gankers to get any wise ideas, and too small for any army smashers to feel it worth their time?

"No one would attack us with me around!" Cirno folds her arms, yo… "Eye'm the strongest!"

"That you are, ze." Marisa reaches over and ruffles her hair.

...Slowly, Mokou begins to stand. "Alright… I think I'm good."

Cirno notices she exists again. "...Eye dunno why she got better. Weren't you guys gonna eat her?"

No one dignifies her question with a response, instead moving to follow Reisen…

...Kaguya's idle, though. No one notices she's not moving, except for me!

"Yo Kaguya." I speak to Master Chief. "You still there?"

"I went to take a piss because the cutscene was boring." Kaguya explains promptly. "...I'm still doing that, by the way. We heading back to Eientei?"

Cool information. "Ye." I start moving to follow the girls, and Ha-chan moves with me. "Alright, yo."

As we move to catch up with the main party, Ha-chan speaks. "Why were you talking to a robot person? They can't hear you, you know..."

I tap my ear bud thing. "Radio, yo! I was able to talk to the person controlling the robot!"

Ha-chan gasps. "...People control robots!?"

Oo~h, man, explaining technology to Ha-chan's going to be fun…

==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====

Reisen wasn't entirely wrong about us not getting jumped in the dead of night...

BLAM

She did, however, forget about that holo-party she left behind us. It was still going by the time we got there, and uh…

...Lowering her huge sniper rifle, Reisen scans the clearing she left the holo-party in. A single shot of it had blown away two fairies, and it seems like a good portion of the bullshit here had fled 'cause of it.

There's still this one spider girl with yellow and black markings along her body. "Hmm? More?" Turning to the holograms, she gives them a smirk. "I'll take care of you three later…"

None of the holograms react, still talking wordlessly to each other.

Aiming her hand forward, pointing a pretend pistol at the spider, Reisen makes a request. "Stand down."

Marisa is drowsy, but still ready to rumble! "Aa~h, I can shoot spiders in my sleep, ze…" Reaching into her hat, she begins fumbling around for her mini-hakkero…

"Make me." The spider girl starts to approach us! "It is easy for me to guess that a party such as yourselves is incredibly lost upon such an evening… am I not wrong?"

Reisen fires an oversized, thick, bullet-shaped danmaku pellet towards the spider.

The spider eyes it warily as it slowly accelerates towards her-

Fwa-fwa-fwa-fwam! On impact, it becomes a rippling orb of some kind of pinkish, scarlet energy. The edges crackle with an effect I'd never seen before, like yellow pixelated ripples or some shit...

"Ua~h!?" The blast causes the spider girl to collapse onto her base! "Wh-what!? How!?"

"Hup!" Reisen performs an unnecessary leap, going from our half of the clearing to the other entire end of it.

...Pouting, Marisa floats along. "Awwh. I ha~d that…"

Mokou and Kaguya follow suit, mostly idle.

"It's been thirty minutes since I've shot something." Kaguya drones. "I feel like I'm backtracking."

"Probably because we're actually backtracking." Mokou counters with equal enthusiasm.

I begin to move, eying the baffled spider girl. She seems to be slowly losing consciousness from the danmaku energy. "A-ah…"

"Are we there yet?" Cirno is a Cirno. "Where are we going? Eye bet Eye know a better way…"

"...Where are we going?" Ha-chan doesn't know, either!

Home. Hell. Nuggetstein…

"Somewhere." I give a good answer.

"Eye know how to go somewhere!" Cirno knows opportunity when she sees it!

"I don't!" ...Ha-chan finds me everywhere I go with no provided knowledge, clues, or help. She totally knows where she's going, although she wouldn't really know what it's like until she gets there… I should ask Eirin how Ha-chan's stalker syndrome works.

Again, we continue to make our way towards the Clinic!

==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====

I think I'm as drowsy as Marisa by this point. S'freakin'... dark outside, yo. Although, these sterile hospital lights aren't helping me…

We're currently in the hallways of the clinic. Reisen ran off with Cirno somewhere- probably taking her to get checked out by Eirin- and Kaguya took the armor somewhere.

"I'm off to shoot Kaguya's brains out." Mokou gives us an apt departure. "Bye."

"Yea~h, don't be a stranger…" Slowly, Marisa gives an offhand wave to her.

...Marisa then makes an abrupt right-hand turn to the first door we come across next. "G'night…"

Opening it up without looking inside, she stumbles in and shuts the door.

...It didn't look big in there. Or bright. Or comfy…

After a moment of me and Ha-chan staring at the door, I move to open it…

Marisa stumbles out of the closet, pushing me out of the way. "Whoops… they need to label these damn doors..."

Moving forward, Marisa stomps her way to the next door. Jiggling the handle, she found the door locked. "Good. Goo~d. Lemme…" Reaching into her hat, she drew her mini-hakkero. "Who needs crowbars…?"

Aiming it at the door, she took a few steps back-

FwiChoo~m!

Bam! The wood door was smashed inward by a laser beam, parts of the lock freakin' going flying.

"Wh-what!?" A bunny inside yells!

"What's going on…?"

"Who knocked the receiver over now…?"

Marisa marches inside. "He~y! I'm gonna sleep here!"

...The lunar rabbits all just stare at her. Their reactions fall into two categories: complete indifference and slack-jawed horror.

"Ki-Kirisame…!?" This platinum-haired rabbit is the latter. "What- who authorized you to-"

"Authori~ze, shmothor-... enh." Waving off her attempt at a jeer, Marisa flops into the nearest bed, which held this like, greenish-brown bobby-haired bunny.

...The bunny adjusts herself slightly, her arms still behind her head. "Nnh."

I step in next. "Hi, friends."

...The reactions change to both complete indifference and- no, that's just complete indifference.

A rabbit with short blue hair speaks! "Master's probably testing us again, Umeko…"

The platinum-haired bunny just sighs, rubbing her temples. "Probably, considering class A-S is here." Giving me a glance, she lowers her eyes and returns to whatever she was doing at her desk before Marisa barged in. "Sleep wherever."

Ho ho. I begin to walk over to the bed Marisa plopped into-

Marisa attempts to look at me from the blanket, surprisingly not asleep yet. "I'll shoot'cha."

Aw. Guess I'll have to find a different bed…

The blue-haired rabbit from before pats her own bed. "You can use mine. I can share with someone else…" Getting up, she moves to see which of her teammates she could share a bed with. Oh. I thought she meant sleeping with me was fine, but she just gave up the bed entirely. That works too…

Speaking of, this room has like, seven beds, and they're bunk beds… so it's more like fourteen beds. I say this, but the ceiling's too low for the top bunks to be used, and a few beds have big crates of both the wood and metal variety on them. There're only actually four rabbits in the room right now… and one's asleep.

The blue-haired rabbit passes by the bed of this rabbit with long, blonde hair. "...You still awake, Nui?"

...No answer. Hoh.

"You can just use my bed." Umeko, the platinum-haired bunny, responds. "I'll be up late doing this anyway."

"Thanks, Umeko." Blue-haired hare moves towards the bed nearest Umeko…

Ha-chan walks in next.

Umeko groans. "This is totally a check to make sure our beds are clear. You- how many more of you are there?"

Ha-chan pauses. "U~hm… I think it was… four?"

...Umeko looks like someone drowned her goldfish.

"With you right now." I clarify. She mighta been talking about our party from earlier...

"Oh." Ha-chan looks over at me. "Just me!"

Umeko relaxes. "Oh, good. I can work with that."

...I loom over my respective bed, ready to just flop in.

Then, someone pushes me from behind!

I flop onto my stomach- oof! Ha-chan just flopped onto me…!

"Good night…" Ha-chan speaks close enough to the back of my neck for it to tickle! Hoh…!

...

…Haa~h. This is good… I can feel Ha-chan hug me, even with this clunky ass kimono on. I wish one of these nights I could just sleep in a normal bed so I could just get comfy, with no risk of getting jumped by freakin' hooligans. Or waking up in a cold dark room with a little lightbulb that swings and blinks…!

Ha-chan makes a good security blanket, though… and that unconditional love is reassuring. I'd think more about it, but I don't feel like it right now...

...

==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====

"Wakey wake~y…" I don't recognize that voice... "Like, wake up."

"Maau~..." I recognize that yawn, though!

I'm comfy like this…

"Hehahaha~..." A noob's laughing at us, dude… "Seriously, wake up."

"Cool." ...The bed starts to shift a little-

Holy shit!

Oof…

The mattress' pulled out from beneath us, and me 'n' Ha-chan are sent rolling into the framework below.

Bed springs are mauling me…!

Ha-chan suddenly floats into the air! "Ow- hey, hey! What's the big idea!?"

The greenish-brown-haired rabbit girl points her thumb at the door. "The big idea is that your time's up. Like, get out."

"Make us!" Ha-chan tempts fate.

"Hah." The rabbit sneers at her.

Slowly, I start to rise from the bed springs…

"He-hey, let go! Let go~!" After a brief lunge from the rabbit, Ha-chan was now being dragged out the door. "He~lp!"

"Late~r!" All it takes is a shove from the lunar rabbit to get Ha-chan out the door.

These freakin' bed springs suck. I begin to stand-

Oh! Oh, hey there. I'm just being carried out by my shoulders by this rabbit, now. Good.

...The rabbit notices how I just let her carry me out. "At least one of you little lovebirds has a brain. Also next time, tell that stupid witch to knock. I don't care how much ass she kicks, she snores."

Once she's dragged me outside the room, she drops me on my ass.

"See ya." With a wink and a casual salute, she recedes into the room and slams the door.

Ha-chan folds her arms. "She was a meanie."

I begin to stand, dusting myself off a little… "Yea~h…" Where'd Marisa bugger off to, anyway? Aah, whatever. There're probably things for me at the briefing room lab place thing, like that suit!

"Let us go find a good place." I put effort into telling Ha-chan where we're going.

"Yeah!" She's happy with that, though!

...I don't actually know where the entrance to that one metallic hallway is. Wait, this ha~ll… is part of the way, okay. If I go forward and take some turns I should get there!

I start walking in a direction, and Ha-chan follows.

"We still have to cuddle later." Ha-chan goes from following me to walking beside me.

"Yeah, flopping over didn't really count, did it…?" I consider. I pretty much just died instantly and got hugged.

"Nope!" She nods! "We're gonna cuddle, and then we're gonna nap."

Nap, huh. Yeah, that'd actually be a good day. I could get away from sniping people- still gotta ask Reisen about that shady business- and watching lunar silencing camera devices explode for a few days.

...As we continue down the hall, we spot some earthen rabbits! By that I mean the stout rabble rouser kind.

The three of them look at me, and two of them scurry off with grins. The last one left's got dishwater blonde hair, like mine!

She smiles up at me. "Good day, mister." ...She pulls out a candy bar. "Would you like a candy bar?"

It has no branding. Ha~h…

"Nah, yo." I walk past the rabbit. "Too early, friend."

She snorts. "That so?" Promptly, she begins unwrapping the candy bar. "Oh, well!"

"I want one…" Ha-chan is tempted by the sweets.

...The rabbit looks up at her with disinterest for a moment, before smirking. "Oh, alright." Slipping her hand into her skirt pocket, she took out another bar. "Here's yours."

Ha-chan reached out to grab it-

Crunch! The wrapper was actually empty, but looked full!

Zazap! Ha-chan was shocked!

"Eep!" She jitters, before grinning. "...Thanks!"

"Pfft…!" Chuckling to herself, the rabbit quickly wanders off, taking the gag wrapper and actual candy bar with her. "Ye-yeah, don't be a stranger…!"

Aw. Them whacky rabbits, yo.

I begin walking again, and Ha-chan continues to follow me. "We need electric toys."

Ho hoh…! "What brought this line 'a thinking about?" Also, clarify electric toys. I mean, I know what you meant- you being electric elemental and all, but-

"Well, I'm electric…" Ha-chan has realized she's not an ice fairy! "And getting shocked feels good."

...She looks me over. "Does it feel good for you too?"

I shake my head. "No. Electricity kills me, yo."

Ha-chan jerks her head back. "Wh-what? Really…?"

Well… yeah. "Yeah, yo. Well- I dunno how much exactly, but even then it doesn't feel like a recommendable experience…"

...Ha-chan looks down. "Oh."

Although, I dunno how resistances affect that. I need something to give me just ten percent more ice resistance, and I can find out whether or not resistances also make you feel good!

Ha-chan looks crestfallen and I dunno what to do about that. Well, I could give her a hug or something…

Now that I thought it, yo, I gotta commit. Would it be weird? Maybe, but who cares!

Walking closer to Ha-chan, I wrap an arm around her. "C'mere…"

...Quickly, she responds back with a full hug! Oof! "Hehehe~!" Ahah…

I am slightly grateful that these halls are dead ninety percent of the time. Is it because this place is just so big, or is everyone just that busy? Those earthy rabbit girls seem to keep to themselves somewhat, too. Except for when they're freakin' bamboozling you.

We find the right door! I think!

...Walking up to it, I freakin' start a long war with it to get it open…!

The~re we go. Hoh.

Didn't this door need an eye scanner to get in? Yeah- that pad's still outside. Huh. It was probably disabled for general ease of access or something...

...Ha-chan moves to follow behind me, but the door starts to close once I get through it! "Yo, yo~...!" I try to keep it open from the inside, but it starts folding shut…!

"Nnh…!" Ha-chan bashes herself against it, but it pushes her until the door is closed anyway.

Click.

After a moment, I tug on the handle and drag it back open again. Freakin' door!

Ha-chan slides through the small opening I make. "That door's meaner than Mistress'...!"

Yeah, at least Remilia's door wasn't engineered to auto-close in your face. It just closes automagically instead, and not in your face.

"...Ooo~..." Ha-chan looked around the super metal hallway. "Are we on a space station?"

You don't know electricity kills almost all humans, but you know what space stations are. "Maybe." I don't actually know what this place is…!

Continuing down the hexagonal freakin' hallways, I eventually reach the sliding door. I walk up to it-

Verr! The two halves slide open smoothly.

"Woa~h…" Ha-chan is awed. "What happened to it…?"

"It fell and couldn't get up." Essentially. Although, once we're inside, it'll get back up…

We enter the room. Eirin's here, and that's about it!

Verr! The door does indeed close behind us, but Ha-chan seems to have missed that, instead ogling the many cryotubes scattered about the room...

Eirin glances up at us, before looking down at her stuff again. It seems she's got some of the parts from that lunar craft here now, already.

"I came for the suit, yo." I make my intent known!

"It's right over there, and ready." Eirin points to the side.

...Oh, so that's what's going on over there. The suit and the helmet are all hung up on a rack-

Fwoa-

Ti~ng!

A circular shockwave of some kinda dark energy began to spread out from the suit, but a tiny triangle placed nearby made an irritating noise before it dispelled it.

"The helmet goes on last, by the way." Eirin gives me some tips and tricks! "When worn, the suit will give one hundred electric resistance. I recommend you don't wear anything under it if you want all of the suit's processes to work as intended."

Oo~h, electric resist, huh? That's… hmm. Considering it's a space suit, it's even clunkier than my kimono.

"The base suit- body minus the helmet, that is- will provide complete immunity to electric magical damage and stunning. It also prevents you from being frozen solid." Eirin explains the suit's processes! "The helmet itself, when worn, activates the suit's heat regulation, which will prevent burning and environmental heat effects from being a problem. It is not fire resistant, however, so do avoid bathing in magma."

That's pretty nice. I can still put myself out, though.

Eirin continues, taking a wrench to the pipe piece she was messing with to undo some bolt. "Having the helmet on also activates toxic substance regulation, giving you poison immunity. The viral banks are slightly outdated, but I don't believe that will be a problem for you. The helmet is also designed to mildly resist blinding, by about fifty percent. Finally, the helmet also increases your electric resistance by a further one hundred percent, totalling two hundred."

Oh. At the same time, I couldn't use that for Ha-chan electric fun time purposes because the helmet's freakin'... a big bulky glass helmet! Actually, wait.

I point at the suit. "S'that helmet made outta glass?"

"Yes and no." Eirin provides. "It's a tempered, transparent ceramic. Since this suit was made for combat, the glass is meant to withstand various kinds of small arms laser fire. Do not be confused: it will not save you from plasma, danmaku, or most normal laser variants. It will not break easily, but do not go falling off of cliffs."

Hoh. As armor, this suit should kick ass. It doesn't look as light as a normal space suit, bu~t I'm pretty sure I can't go around wrestling wolfmen in it.

"Do I get any of those helmet benefits with the helmet on alone?" I grin at Eirin.

...Eirin just looks up at me. "...I suppose it would work as a substitute for sun glasses. No, aside from the blinding resistance, the helmet on its own is useless."

Yeah, I figured as much. Just wanted to make sure!

Nearing the suit, I run my gaze along the design of it…

"Oh, by the way…" Eirin looks over at me. "Equip it outside this room, and take that pyramid with you when you do it." She points to the triangle by the suit. "It dispels the zero gravity spell it randomly casts."

Oh, yeah. This thing just casts an area-of-effect zero gravity spell whenever it damn well feels like it. Electric immunity, poison immunity, temperature normalization, and blinding resistance. I can go anywhere in this thing. I can't fight anything in it, but I can go anywhere…! I think it has an oxygen tank, too…

"How much oxygen is in it?" I ask Eirin, looking over at her.

"Two or three minutes worth." Eirin rattles off the number as she looks down into one of the pipes she's disassembling. "When in breathable air, the suit and tank automatically sample air and fill themselves. There are other tanks available, but those cost extra." Oh, good. Gotta freakin' shell out dough for upgrades…

Finally, I ask another fun question. "If it blows the fuck up, can I get it fixed here?"

Eirin snorts. "Sure. The model isn't expensive on resources by any means, but reassembling it requires a few rabbits to follow the procedure again. As such, reparations would take a day or so."

Go~tcha. Try not to break it, then! I'm more worried about the helmet than the rest of the suit, though. It has these like, white plastic platings around it which are a step up from my freakin' cloth I've been wearing all this time.

Alri~ght…

Looking over the helmet, I see my own reflection in the gla- ceramic. Yo~...!

...I pan my head around. "Wow I look like a freakin'... lunatic!" Got my good ol' neon yellow helmet on.

Ha-chan sees her own reflection! "Hello~!" She waves at it.

...This is gonna be fun.

==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====

END OF CHAPTER 61

PROTAGONIST: Brad, the Fluffle Slayer, Fairy Slayer, Accidental Human Slayer, Ph. D in Plant Hangers, Scarlet Liberator, Village Liberator, Eientei Crucible, Sinker of the Flufftanic, Assembler of the Legendary Air Ride Machine, Sky Climber, Amateur Espionage Practitioner, Illegal Fairy Harborer, Conscientious Party Member, Winter Warrior, Holder of Too Many Titles.

PRIMARY WEAPON: Tundra Bloomer - A earth-elemental plant hanger made from sturdy rock; has a flower curved around the hilt. Able to be used as a jack hammer for demolition purposes. Strikes can be empowered with magical energy. With the addition of an enchanted shaft, it is able to be used as a warhammer and grant the ability to self-cast attack buffs to the wielder. Allows casting of Gaia Seed. Casts Tundra, a weak spike of ice!

INVENTORY:

[Bag of Holding] - A small bag that always seems to be conveniently unaffected by whatever weird crap happens to me. Never enlarges, almost always gives me what I need if I remember it's there. Infinite inventory space. I would like to know where it actually puts all my stuff though…

==o==

WEAPONS:

Swordbreaker - Dark elemental plant hanger. Boosts the power of dark skills. Has a curvy, fancy design that lets it easily counter swords! It better, with a name like 'Swordbreaker'. Provides a weak but passive boost to defense, magical defense, and evade. Lowers the attack of foes as its on-impact effect.

Youkai Inconveniencer - A holy plant hanger, which works as a flail 'cause of the cross necklaces attached to it! May cast Flash, an attack that blinds; works best on darkness elementals and youkai. Acts as a flashlight via candles. Converted to a flail with cross necklaces! Can cast Shine.

Fairy Harp - A sand-red, cast iron plant hanger. It was used to hold a generic potted plant before being utilized as a weapon of mass skull-cracking destruction. With the addition of a wind-grate, it can cast Gust. By the addition of a steel block, its attack and magic attack increased slightly. Sparkles in the light due to fairy dust, able to reduce the accuracy of weak, biological enemies by irritating their senses with the dust. Can play beautiful, flat-tone musi~c!

Flame Salvo - A red and crimson plant hanger comprised of mysterious gems and metals. Boosts the power of fire skills. Ignites stuff on impact. Never again do I need a lighter or the ability to somehow rub two sticks together really hard to make a campfire! Has a flamethrower nozzle, allowing the user to cast Flamethrower Plus! Allows the user to cast Fume.

Vortex Hanger - Wind elemental plant hanger currently attached to the Yin-Yang flail as a crafting material. Granted a limited hover per swing when wielded, but that ability is what allows the flail-o-copter to fly now.

Deep Blue - A blue and silver plant hanger comprised of mysterious fantastical metals. Can produce limitless fresh water. Boosts the power of water skills. Allows wielder to cast Geyser. The addition of a valve served to allow control of its water flow. I wonder if you could use this in place of a sink...

Yin-yang flail-o-copter - A flail with a standard, maximized Hakurei Yin-yang orb in the sling of it. Unable to have its powers fully activated, as only Reimu can truly harness the power of Yin-yang orbs. Minor affinities from the base orb transfer over, though! Crafted from a Hakurei Yin-Yang orb, a rope of panties, and two bra cups. Ropes were used to attach the Vortex Hanger to the yin-yang orb, allowing the flail to be used as a flying device, although it's a bit straining on the arms.

Sharper Than Darkness - A dark, runed plant hanger constructed from the shards of a dead man's sword. Dark effects promote a glass-cannon style; physical attack increased, physical defense lowered. User bleeds out faster. Can cast Revenge, an attack that increases in power the lower the user's health is. A scythe edge from a mysterious ghoul was added to let it cut!

Bee-Sheventeen-Bawmber - A mechanical plant hanger enchanted to make big booms on contact. Explosions are mostly knockback based, but I think it could gib particularly weak-willed people… magic is weird. With the addition of a barrel, it can shoot singular, yellow danmaku bullets.

Million Bucks - A basic green cast-iron plant hanger, from the aged cellar of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. It's a gift from Flandre Scarlet! Has an obsolete map of the cellar's maze, etched by Flandre herself. Shoddily enchanted to give a speed boost when the wielder is lower on health. Lowers defense slightly. With added electric and holy charms, the hanger is slightly electric and holy elemental. Is able to fluidly chain attacks for stringing together longer aerial and ground combos. Allows the user to fluidly transition from combo to jumping. Allows forced aerial combo support. Grants the user the ability to air slide. Increased jump height when running. Gives motion sickness with avid use!

Market Gardener - Critical hits during blast jumps! Otherwise, it's just a normal, old plant hanger. Named after a very similar shovel…!

NERF dart blaster - Nerf guns are cool and all, but don't try defending yourself with one. Please. Unless you're surrounded by fairies who don't know the difference- but y'know- that opportunity's a freakin' million to one.

NERF longsword - 'CAUTION: Do not jab at people or animals'… you know what that means! Maybe one day this will actually come in handy…

==o==

ARMOR:

Kaguya Houraisan Disguise - Wear to become a NEET! Tons of pockets! Seventy-five percent time resistance on equip. Voice, face, and height specifications not included!

Monk Robes - Wear to become a Buddhist! Actually pretty comfy…!

Remilia Scarlet's Mob Cap - Twenty five percent dark resistance. Lets me be a Touhou, too!

Camouflage Kimono - This kimono means business, son. One hundred percent ice resistance, and as such renders me immune to all magical ice damage. Dunno 'bout icicles and stuff, though. Fifty percent freeze resistance… not that freezing will hurt me with this thing on. Fifty percent dark resistance. Negative fifty percent fire and burning resistance. Hopefully hides me a bit when navigating in the freakin' brush...

Yellow Racecar Helmet - It's like a really knockoff space marine helmet! Fifty percent sun resistance, one hundred percent freezing and blinding resistance. Also gives immunity to electrical stunning. It feels like it's got good physical defense, too… at least for my head.

Lunarian Prototype Space Suit - A suit meant for combat in deep space. So far, it's only got the whole 'exist in deep space' part down…! One hundred percent electric resistant. One hundred percent freezing resistant. Has an oxygen tank, but that's only useful if you wear the helmet to go along with it. Randomly casts Zero Gravity when it feels like it.

Lunarian Prototype Deep Space Helmet - It's a freakin' helmet. Fifty percent blinding resistant! When worn with the Lunarian Prototype Space Suit, it also confers immunity to burning and poison, along with another one hundred percent electricity resistance. Yo…!

Testing Oxygen Tank - The oxygen tank used by the Lunarian Prototype Space Suit. Lasts for two and a half minutes! Not meant to actually be used outside of testing, but it's possible. Refills automatically in breathable air.

==o==

CONSUMABLES:

Fifty two thousand, two hundred Yen - ...Yeah, just in a bag. It's about time I documented how much freakin' money I have!

Seven Health Potions - They give you youkai-like regen for like, thirty seconds! No chuggin' these babies to indefinitely survive the cold reaches of outer space. Unless the regen outdoes the asphyxiation, but I think I'd rather die by that point…

Four Mana Potions - Restores an average amount of mana, I think. More than enough for someone like me!

Three Panaceas - Cures all status effects. I dunno if it works on debuffs, though...

WebDings Book about Foreign Juices - Wahaha! This better fetch a price on the market!

Dark Stone - I dunno what it is, but it looks cool. Probably something I can slap to one of my dark weapons!

Enchanted Icicle - I gotta make this melting resistant, soon! It's enchanted to glow in the dark…!

Akihito's Broadsword - Too big for me to use as a weapon. I wonder if I could use it as like, a tent stake or something.

Butterfly Dream Pills - Makes you dream of being a beautiful butterfly!... now, if only there was a pill for lucid or wet dreams, and then I'd consider Yagokoro the doctor to end all doctors!

PARTY:

London, the Multipurpose Combat Doll - What it lacks in brains it makes up for with a suit of armor and some OP utilitarian spells! Can cast basic fire, lightning, and ice attacks, both the magical and physical variety. Has lance, can shoot danmaku. Variety of attack commands now, including intelligent tracking, trailing, patrolling, and defending. Has mana pool for the stronk commands, though, so those should be used sparingly. I really have to remember to use her, at some point!

PRIMARY WEAPON: Shanghai Lance - Burly lance with jabbing ability. Mostly useful as a blunt object, it seems, and intimidation factor. London really likes it, apparently. London shouldn't have sentience, but I can't help but notice the awkward way which it just pauses before it swings this lance.

==o==

ACTUAL AUTHOR'S NOTE:

IS MY INVENTORY STUPIDLY HUGE ENOUGH YET

XD yeah that has gotten big hasn't it

that's not really a bad thing but it does contribute an additional 2 k unjustified words per chapter at this point; although not that it matters since i do make huge enough chapters to justify it, this one was freakin' twelve thousand words

added categories because THAT'S A LOTTA STUFF…

space suit! it's mostly a gimmick equip but it's sturdier than anything i've worn thus far so that's one thing

also randomly casting zero gravity is going to be a freakin' good time - w -

action this chapter- too much, just right, necessary or unnecessary, wat do you want from me yo tell me~

well by that i mean criticism not blatant requests but anyway

to that one anon reviewer who i wanted to talk with but they were anon so i couldn't: eeh i dunno yo, i've had certain segments with specifics going on and certain segments without, part of the problem is the fact i do kinda just make it constantly follow me instead of work in a completely episodic manner and therefore you get some more slow and boring undirected slice of life sections. realistic? yeah kinda, but interesting for readers? i dunno i guess it's worked so far

from the start though this has mostly been a thing for myself and honestly it's going BETTER THAN ANTICIPATED and i will admit at this point that my interest is partially fueled by the interest this stirs

i DID start writing this a bit of not only my own ambition but i also wanted someone like myself to find this and be like "holy SHIT" XD so if I made one person's day with this fic then i have LIVED THE DREAM

i still dunno when exactly i'm gonna start doing work on other things. i mean i HAVE been working on free writes that aren't FREAKIN GENSOKYO for awhile now but so far i've yet to actually commit to one as another secondary story if even a short of some kind

i also want to do some more serious works in the future in shades; mostly just because like, there's a lot of subject matter to explore

mostly the hardest part is experimenting with openings and then thinking about if something's really interesting enough to warrant sharing, along with overall tone evaluation

that and i don't wanna start another work with no direction, because that will just go on FOREVER

...SUCH IS THE WORK BEING READ RIGHT NOW

i'll think of something

anyway you came to read about this chapter right XD

inspiration for the cirno boss fight in general came from freakin'... Miracle of Sound's "The Wheatley Song". like one of those moments where you just listen to music and visualize stuff XD

the suit equip idea came from a suit of similar stats in Epic Battle Fantasy 4, but also listening to some like old ass space-related songs and being like "i like space".

if anybody's not a huge fan of me hyping up the touhou's abilities that's simply too bad because i like hyping up their abilities and showing them off - w -

oh yeah up next is a MATT CHAPTER so all aboard the SLAUGHTER TRAIN WAHAHAHA

HYONK HYO~NK

as always, see you all next time!