Enter The Rebellion
"Hey guys, sorry we're late, da ze! Did we miss anything major?" Marisa asked as she landed in the front doors of the Borealis Rebellion outpost. "You weren't too late so I'd say you're fine," Mari replied. "Then again, an absurd amount of time hasn't passed since we last saw you, so we'd wait either way. By the way, where's-" Before Mari could finish however, her target was right behind Marisa, panting and sweating all over the trail. "(pant) (pant) How the hell did you get past me, (pant) Marisa? I had a (pant) head start!" Reimu exclaimed tiringly. "Heh heh, clearly you forgot who the fastest human in Gensokyo is. Even if you got a 5 second head start, I'd still trump you in terms of speed. I may not be able to best you in danmaku, but I can at least take pride besting you in a flyrace." "Ah, flyraces, I remember when Reirei and I used to do those. It was quite a blast when this world was still, you know, not scorched ablaze."
"I'm sorry, Reirei…?" Nitori asked. "Yep, Reirei. My girlfriend in crimson red. We weren't exactly on good terms at first, but over time, we eventually warmed up to each other, and I still treasure the burning red on her face when I first confessed how I felt to her under the shining moonlight. She's a bit of an ironheart on the outside, but on the inside, she's sweeter than a Cubic Kedama Ice Cream and a Wind Priestess combined. She's cute, brave, and for how much she makes on a daily basis, she whips up some mean meals." "Aw, ain't that cute, Rei. Hey, maybe once we finish… whatever business we have here, we'll take you two out on a double date over at our Geidontei! And no need to be concerned about money, I'll pay for all our meals, how's that sound?" Marisa asked Mari with a gleaming smile in her face. It was there that Mari went weirdly silent for a bit and the winds started growing a bit cold. "Ah… that'd be nice, but… I'm afraid that won't be possible." Mari replied slightly dejectedly. "Why's that?" Reimu asked, "Is she unavailable at the time?" "Well, you could say she's "unavailable at the time"… or at any time in this world actually. She's…" Mari then proceeded to convey the fate of her girlfriend through sign language, specifically the "cut throat".
"Oh… I see." Marisa dejectedly replied. "I'm sorry for your loss. But hey, maybe once we get rid of the Shadow Empress, she'll at least be very proud of you for doing the right thing!" "Yeah… very proud of me…" "H-hey uh, I d-don't mean to be rude… but shouldn't we take cover first… before any of our enemies see us?" Kogasa replied in fear. "Well, this is practically a safe zone, considering our outposts are usually coated in a barrier that protects us from magic attacks and hides our tracks…" "See, Kogasa, no need to be so scared, straight from the source herself, these outposts are completely enemy free." Nitori replied, attempting to convince the karakasa to stop being so cowardly. "BUT!" Mari interrupted, "The Karakasa does have a reason to be scared. While we do have a protective barrier, it doesn't mean our enemies won't find our hideouts one day, and when they do… well, best to be safe than sorry as they say, so we should probably finish the part where we get inside the base first. We can continue our casual conversations once we're inside." "See, Nitori, there is a reason to be scared! Straight from the source herself, these outposts may be partly enemy filled." Kogasa replied to the kappa smugly. "Ah, shut up, you timid little umbrella." And then a mechanical hand appeared from Nitori's pack and slapped Kogasa in the cheeks. "Jeez, no need to be so rude…" the karakasa whispered silently in sadness.
As the metal doors of the outpost opened up to the band of heroes, they were greeted with technological marvels at all sides. Computer screens occupied most of the metal walls, and so did the fancy light machine boxes with the flooring. Nearby the computers were a small rack of weapons, all of which contrast the techno feel of the hideout, such as ; magic wand sticks, yin-yang style blades, flasks, guns, long medieval swords, knives, and… pom poms? We'll get to that when we get there. Near the main computers were an assortment of vending machines, each with their own designated purpose. Aside from drinks and snacks, there's also a machine for entire meals, spell cards, and potions of varying properties such as buffs, explosions, enemy debuffs, and more. There's also a vending machine for a popular card game in the Rebellion outposts in times of freedom, known as Gensou Monsters. You can tell what this is referencing. 90 degrees clockwise to the vending machines section are a bunch of dummies, which seem to be a shooting or practice range of some sort. Someone seems to be shooting at them, but the dummy stands. Either the dummy was built for inanimate immortality, the guns are low in quality, or the person shooting just has really bad aim.
"AH. MISTRESS MARI. YOU SEEM TO HAVE RETURNED FROM YOUR EXPEDITIONS OUTSIDE THE SAFE ZONE." a familiar yet robotic voice replied. "It has indeed been quite a while… Takane." "Whoa whoa whoa, hold up, why is SHE here, of all people?! And what's with the fancy robotic getup?!" Nitori yelled furiously. If it wasn't already obvious, the Yamawaro and Kappa were pretty bitter trade rivals. The business industry, am I right? "Ah, I seem to have forgotten about the rivalry between the kappas and the yamawaro. Never thought I'd see the day where I'll have to explain it all over again. It's sparking a bit of something in me but I can't remember what… oh well." "The Lost Word!" Marisa and Reimu thought to themselves. Indeed, with every new world they get sucked into there is always a catch, a purpose behind it all, a meaning, a definition. A word that has been taken away by an unknown perpetrator and threatens to fold an entire universe to inexistence if it were never to be found in time, that is the "Lost Word", the phenomenon that circles around our heroes' current situation. "You see, Takane over here is a vital asset to our rebellion, being the mechanic and weapons sponsor for our rebellious endeavors after the Nitori of our world had died. However, in an unfortunate string of events she was spotted with our scouting division snagging a shipment of weapons meant for the Empress' forces, and was left severely injured from the ensuing battle. Well, it was less a battle and more a session of mercy pleading. Her brain was fatally damaged to a state of near brain-death and her limbs were no longer functional. Limb failure, as you may call it. In order to preserve our top mechanic, we had to replace her limbs with robot parts and her consciousness had to be uploaded to our computer networks in order to preserve her life. It wasn't ideal, but our medic said there's not much else we can do." The room went awkwardly silent for a moment. "Anyway…" Mari said, interrupting the silence. "Takane, if you may, please prepare weapons for our otherworldly guests here. I have hopes that this year we finally have found the perfect heroines that could put an end to HER reign." "UNDERSTOOD, MY MISTRESS." Takane left the conversation and made haste towards the weapons rack.
"Welp, now that we've got our top mechanic covered we may as well cover the rest of the rebellion. As I've stated before, I'm Mari, kind of the top dog of the rebellion, and the person shooting there is Reisen. The purple one you're all familiar with, not the blue short hair one. The Empress kind of had to… let's just say "clear up some space" in the solar system to carve the Shadow's Eye on where the Moon was supposed to be."
"The Shadow's Eye?" Marisa replied intriguingly. "Yep, you know, pitch-black, violet, has a giant pupil in the center, tentacles, the reason why the sky was all violet?" "Now that I think about it, the sky did look sinisterly purple." "Yep, that damned false moon over there is practically a massive power plant for all of the Empress' forces, and none of us can truly give it a big whooping without either getting our asses whooped by a giant death eye laser or fire explosives at it and realizing how useless our plan was when it didn't do anything, but let's worry about that matter in a later time."
"Next up is Youmu. Former Hakugyokurou gardener and top chef in our brigade. Which is why she isn't here, since she's always cooped up in her kitchen 20/7. She spends the next 4 hours either grieving or sleeping. Not like there's a difference between the two." "That sounds like a really unhealthy sleep schedule," Nitori replied. "And I spend most of my time in my bunker of a house working on machines." "Yeah without Yuyuko, Youmu's practically past her prime. A mess, so to speak. There's only a few hits she could land on a training dummy before breaking into tears so we just offered her a cook position instead. She still has the occasional breakdowns, but because cooking is her only remnant of memory left of Yuyuko, she made sure to treat the brigade here the same way she'd treat her mistress if she was still here, by stuffing all of our bellies with delicious food with utmost seriousness."
"Then there's the Scout Brigade. Moving on…" "Geez, what's with the lazy transition?" Reimu replied nonchalantly. "Well you'll rarely see them anyway since they're always scouting in search of any weak points of our enemies, so I don't think that would be necessary." "Oh ok."
"And lastly is Patchy. Since she's now a sagacious spirit, it's kind of hard to give her a proper introduction other than you may find her in our library if you see any books afloat. With the formalities out of the way, welcome to the Borealis Rebellion. As a representative of the entire brigade, please, MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME."
"Anyways, as per our memo when greeting for new heroes…" "Wait, you've done this before?!" Kogasa asked in utmost surprise. "Yes, as a matter of fact, we've done this more times than we had fingers." "Whoa… must be a lotta wanderers." Marisa replied. "Indeed. Forty-four souls." Mari continued. "Eleven groups of poor souls like you have wandered unto our world from holes in the sky. Each felled by the hand of the Shadow Empress. On rare occasions, the junk monster you encountered already killed them before I could save them." "This Shadow Empress must be an extraordinary threat it seems." "And you were expecting less after we told you about how the Empress plunged this world into damnation, and replaced the moon with a false one?" "Touche, white mage." "Now where were we, oh yeah, your quest, similar to those who've succeeded you, is to collect the Sealspark Seeds, tiny little relic seeds that possess the power to weaken the Empress' hateful shadow powers. Reirei and I bought them from a strange merchant way before the Shadow Empress even existed, as a symbol of our unfaltering companionship. The power they exude after the Shadow Empress reigned supreme is beyond even the highest form of light magic that I, a White Sorceress, could muster, that being Holy Judgement." "Waitwaitwait hold on hold on hold on, HOLD ON. How on Earth could a thing that you bought from a shady merchant end up as a powerful relic of unimaginable white magical prowess? Even from Gensokyo logic that makes no sense!" Nitori replied in confusion. "That's the neat part, it doesn't. Seems like that all these fantasy tale writers' philosophies in creating relics is to just take a normal object and slap a really cool name on them, regardless of the origin. Let's just go with the power of unfaltering companionship and call it a day." Mari replied casually. "Man, we are really breaking the 4th wall a lot in these two chapters." Marisa replied.
"Anyways, after the Shadow Empress became the highest jurisdictive body in Gensokyo, at least highest jurisdictive position aside from being a Sage, she ordered her troops to raid each corner in the Hakurei Shrine of this world, which as you saw before was in grave ruin both financially and structurally, and sought the seeds that could pave way to her downfall. When she finally found them, she scattered the 8 seeds across 8 of her Dominion Dungeons and orders her elite task force to guard each of those seeds with heart and soul. The dungeons in order, are ; the Cobalt Seed in Aquatrix Grotto guarded by Commander Snakeweed Hevijak, the Jade Seed in Vileaf Temple guarded by Commander Mamizou Futatsuiwa, the Sunrise Seed in Spiral Pyramid guarded by Commander Luminescorch, the Phantasm Seed in Violet Manor guarded by Commander Luna, the Heart Seed in Bubblegum Fortress guarded by Commander Soga no Tojiko, the Citrus Seed in Magmalade Tower guarded by Commander Futo Mononobe, and lastly, the Magma Seed in Heartache Abyss guarded by Commander Ghidorium." "That sure is a looooot of seeds." Marisa replied. "Th-th-there's m-m-more people p-p-potentially stronger than Mamizou?!" Kogasa replied extremely nervously. The karakasa had every right to be scared. If Mamizou was supposed to be the boss of an early game area and she whooped their butts that badly, who's to say that the other commanders won't pose much of a threat?
"Rest assured, young karakasa." Mari replied in her most attempting-to-calm-the-situation like voice. "If your determination is strong enough, you may be able to go where none of the predecessors ever went ; defeating the Empress for good. So please, try not to be so scared." "Ok, so we've got the situation down," Nitori replied, "but how are we gonna take on these commanders? Our spell cards as you can see, were ineffective. Even if we've got the determination, without magic, we're basically stage 1 mid-bosses. Just free EXP for our enemies." "Well, of course those cards won't be usable here. After all, here, we don't fight using the Spell Card Rules, we fight using the Spell Rules." "Spell Rules?" Marisa asks with intrigue. "What the heck are those?" "I was hoping you'd ask that. You see, young magician, in this world, we don't fight using spell cards, rather, we use magic spells to do our bidding. Spell Cards in this world are broken down into elemental chunks, and those chunks are then absorbed into the body. New "magic spells" are then formed depending on the cards' contained elemental energies, based on its separate amounts and types. If all that sounds like a mouthful then allow me to grace you all with a brief demonstration."
With that, Mari zapped the spell cards right out of the heroes and broke them into what seemed to be tiny light spheres. The light spheres were then absorbed into our heroes' bodies and then…
Reimu learned Fantasy Swipe, Hakurei Barrier, and Dream Wind!
Marisa learned Dark Shock, Moondark Eminence, and Void's Flock!
Nitori learned Summon Smalldroid, Experiment, and Volatile Flask!
Kogasa learned Buffer Cheer, Heal Drizzler, and Droplet Pirouette!
"Hey, our packs of spell cards!" Marisa surprisedly exclaimed. "And what's with these weird four sentence messages telling us we got these weirdly named objects?" "Those are your new spells, be sure to use them well, you'll need them in combat." "Oh cool!" Nitori replied. "So uhh… how do we use these?" "Ah right, I haven't given you your proper classwear to go with your new spells." And with that, Mari sorceled our heroes up a fancy new wardrobe. Reimu got a light armor of red-white hue and a blunt Yin-Yang sword, Marisa got violet and pitch-black robes and wizard hat with some jagged pads on the shoulders and a small tar-dark oaken wand with some small violet energies swirling around the stick's insides, Nitori got a blue miniskirt and a blue lab coat as well as a test tube, and Kogasa got a cyan cheerleading outfit and two purple pom poms with closed eyes.
"Whoa, Reimu, looking cool with that red-white armor!" Marisa replied. Reimu blushed and proceeded to reply with "Thanks… your darker violet robes also look cool on you as well." "This isn't an outfit akin to what I usually wear… but I'll manage." Nitori exclaimed in regards to her new clothes. "At least you got something cool!" Kogasa angrily replied. "How the heck am I supposed to scare someone in this cheerleader wear?! I'm a karakasa, not a high-school cheerleader!" When the rest of the gang looked on Kogasa's new outfit, they could only hold in so much before they burst out into laughter. Kogasa angrily replied with a face as pink as a peach fruit, "STOP LAUGHING!" Only under Mari's coughs did the laughter volcano finally went dormant once more.
"Now that you've gotten your new combat gear, I believe a roll call is appropriate. Reimu, you are now the White Squire, use that Yin-Yang Blade wisely and clobber those who stand in your way. Marisa, you are now the Dark Mageling, make sure to put those dark arts to good use, and be sure not to be consumed by their influence. Nitori, you are now the Apprentice Scientist. Your discoveries will bring light to our darkened world, so use those tools and gadgets wisely. And finally, Kogasa, you are now the Cheerjunior. Use those pom poms of yours to aid your team in battle should they need it." Everyone nodded as their names and roles were mentioned with a smile, except for Kogasa who pouted the entire roll call because she wasn't being taken seriously in this fit.
"Great, now that you've all geared up for battle, I believe it is time." Mari replied. "Time for what exactly?" Marisa asked in confusion. "Is it not obvious? To test your skills out into our enemies and their strongholds." The metal gates from behind them then opened up. "Go now! Your fate awaits! Put an end to the Shadow Empress' tyranny and just maybe, you'll return to your world safe and sound." And so begins the journey of our heroes throughout the world of R9 Gensokyo. Will they be able to defeat the world's looming threat and return home or will they fail just as the heroes that preceeded them had? Only time will tell…
As the heroes finally left her line of sight, Mari let out a sigh of sorrow. "I hate to always lie to my friends from the other sides." Mari then disappeared in a puff of dark smoke. When she reappeared, she was in some kind of dreary, dark castle, located right where the Human Village used to be. She had also shifted from her white witch garments to pitch black ones with crackles of violet energy surrounding it, and also got a vile dark cloak/cape from out of nowhere. And the bow on her hat that was once as albino as her garments with some red stripes attached to it shifted to a pitch black color scheme with hints of violet alongside her garments, and the center of her bow changed from a sleeping yellow star to an open-eyed star of darkness with an eye of crimson red. Same rings true for the tiny albino star on her braids.
Her wand has also shifted too, from normal wooden stick to a tar-dark oaken wand with dark energy seeping from it. The tip of the wand has also underwent a massive change, as the claw-thing that held the angelic star on her wand started to shift into an actual dark claw with nails of violet and the star that resides on the very top of the tip changed its angel wings for devil wings and grew more purple in color. The halo atop the star was also replaced with a ring of dark phantasmal flames.
The star thing in her chest had also underwent quite the metamorphosis, emitting dark and purple as opposed to yellow and light yellow, in fact the only thing that hasn't changed was her star-shaped Mini Hakkero.
Mari walked down the stairs in front of her until she reached the basement of the castle, where a devious old fiend awaited her ; Seija Kijin, the amanojaku sadist, who was chained to a wall and looked extremely badly bruised, clothes torn and painful purple bruise marks all over the place, with her chains being sentient biting machines that feasted on her imprisoned arms like a buffet.
"Well, if it isn't the darkness wench herself! Judging from the looks of things, I assume you've assembled another ragtag group of "heroes" to save your world from the "paradise" you've turned it into, huh? I gotta say, really "good" efforts to combat the darkness I've dipped your heart into. Almost makes me shed a tear in the eye that you're planning to undo it all." "Zip it, Kijin, you're lucky I haven't killed you where you stand. I would've given you the pleasure of a quick death, but then I realized that a person like you doesn't even deserve the pleasure of an afterlife, even if it means you'll go to the deepest, darkest abysses in Hell's grasp." Mari then raised her wand in front of the bruised Seija, who doesn't seem scared in the slightest. "No, no, I'd rather see to it that I torture you until time itself collapses and folds in on itself. I'd like to see the look in your sorry little eyes as the anarchic hierarchy that you've dreamed for so long, one that you had tried to grasp, evolves and eventually crumbles, and YOU WON'T BE THERE TO SEE IT." Mari then flashed a violet dragon-like laser thing to Seija's chest, and the pain surged through her whole body and formed cracks on her entire molecular structure, from head to toe. As she did so, she flashed out a wicked vile grin with a twinkle as blinding as the sun itself. Well, if it did still exist. Once she was done with her pleasures of torturous behavior, she walked away from the scene. "Hah… hah… such foolishness. You may have "displeasure" torturing me, Mari, but do you think that even in your most stable state, that you are the "villain" in this story? You think "Reirei" as you'd call her, would hug you with such tight grasping once you inevitably make it to the afterlife? Even in light of your good deeds, the weight of your outburst still outweighs your "vile" past. YOU KILLED THE INCHLING PRINCESS. YOU ATE HER, DIGESTED HER, AND THE SHRINE MAIDEN'S FALL WASN'T EVEN THE PRINCESS' FAULT. AND THEN YOU "PACIFIED" THOUSANDS OF YOUKAI IN YOUR OUTBURST, "FORFEITING" EVERLASTING POWER. AND THEN, WITH ALL THE POWER YOU "FORFEITED", ONCE THEY SHOWED UP TO "ENABLE" YOU, YOU USED YOUR NEWLY ACCUMULATED POWERS TO MASSACRE THE SAGES IN A SLOW AND AGONIZING DEATH FOR THEIR "HEAVENLY" "SAGELY" LIVES. AND LET US NOT FORGET THE THOUSANDS OF "IRRELEVANT" CORPSES YOU'VE FEASTED ON WHEN THEY "SUCCEEDED" TO "ENABLE" YOUR "LIGHT" AND WHOSE POWERS YOU'VE "FORFEITED". YOU THINK YOU'RE A SAINT?! SOME LEGENDARY FIGURE WHOM THE FUTURE GENERATIONS WILL "LOOK DOWN UPON"?! YOU'RE NO MORE BETTER THAN ME, YOU "RIGHTEOUS WHITE SORCERESS OF JUSTICE", IF ANYTHING, YOU'RE EVEN MORE OF A SADISTIC PSYCHOPATH THAN I AM! ME, SEIJA KIJIN! WHO MURDERED YOUR FRIEND IN COLD BLOOD AND REGRETTED NOTHING! NOTHING!" Mari then flashed a glint from her eye that magically cause Seija's heart to ache fatally for a few seconds.
"Must I remind you of this every time, Kijin? Even if my current actions are unideal, it is important to note that I DIDN'T CHOOSE THIS LIFE. YOU POKED THE MONSTROSITY INSIDE ME ONE TOO MANY TIMES AND AWOKE THE CALAMITY. And you know what else, Kijin? I find it ironic that you speak of sympathy regarding Sukuna Shinmyoumaru herself, when you clearly only viewed her as a puppet for your evil desires, only being shattered to pieces once the "toy" which she held I broke into halves. Nor did you bat an eye when I begged you to stop when you were about to kill Reirei, even pledging you my life's worth of service just to save her, yet you did it anyway. You sent her to the Great Beyond, not even shedding a tear, nor did you consider the consequences of your actions. I gotta say though, I got a tasty little treat out of it, so I guess it wasn't all bad." "You can't keep playing this blame game forever, you so called. Eventually, you'll find out the hard way that YOU YOURSELF PICKED THIS PATH, YOU YOURSELF CHOSE TO WAGE WAR WITH THE SAGES AND TERRAMORPHED THIS LAND INTO THE ANARCHY I HOPED TO RULE. AND WHEN YOU INEVITABLY DIE, "REIREI" OR SHOULD I SAY, REIMU, WOULD NEVER LOOK AT YOU THE SAME WAY EVER AGAIN WHEN SHE SEES YOUR FACE IN THE AFTERLIFE. THIS "REALISM" OF "HERESY" THAT RESIDES IN YOUR MIND, IT WILL CRUMBLE, BIT BY BIT, UNTIL YOU REALISE THAT IN YOUR "INSTABILITY" YOU'VE CAUSED THIS LAND SUCH GRAVE "PLEASURES" THAT ONLY YOU YOURSELF ARE THE ONE TO BLAME. THE TRUTH IS IN THE DOCUMENTS, WITCH, AND THE MURDER OF THE YAMAXANDU WON'T CHANGE IT A BIT, "MARISA KIRISAME"." "You've got some balls calling me by that name, as if we're acquainted. Oh and by the way, before I go, LITTLE OLD SHINMY TASTED SO DELECTABLY SWEET WHEN SHE MET WITH MY STOMACH ACIDS." Seija could only let out a small yet extremely pained fit of fury before Mari slammed the door on her and left back to her "other role".
Author's Notes : Chapter 2 is finally here! Admittedly this chapter is my least favorite to work on, particularly because the flow of the story is kind of whack and I struggled to find the right words, as well as being long as hell to develop. Look, I'm not exactly really good on writing these "Meet The Team" kind of stories. At least in story format. Also, while this chapter contains some really subtly slight suggestive themes like a bit of implied v*re in the final paragraphs, I can assure you that this is not a fetish fic whatsoever, however, just in case, I will up the ratings a bit as to not unnerve any young audiences. Again, feel free to criticize and please wait for Interlude 1, which will happen as soon as I finish my break cause holy crap is this chapter long and agonizing to work on.