Chapter 16: Wrappin' things up!

[AN]: Whew. This one took forever! I had a little burst of writers block, and wasn't able to get any ideas for how to progress the story. I have plenty of ideas for the third story arc, and how to end the second arc, but I'm just having problems… getting there. There are things for the second arc that need to happen, but I just don't have any ideas to bridge the events. Of course, this is just a complicated way of saying: "Don't expect me to update too frequently now". Of course, to add onto that, My FRC team is also starting the build for our 2012 robot. I'm not going to have any time to work on this during the week. Only on weekends. I might be able to speed things up, if someone doesn't mind a couple spoilers, and would like to help me brainstorm.

Another thing, I actually didn't get any work done over winter break. I don't know, maybe writing fan fiction only works during the school year to relieve stress. Keep in mind, even though the title says: Wrappin' things up, I'm no wrapping up the fanfic, just this story arc. I don't think I have anything else to say on this subject, except maybe… IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZER!

O_o
/ -Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!
\_-Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!

Ok, now that that's out of the way, I can express my gratefulness on how well my holiday special was received… EVERYONE LOVED IT! That you all who reads this story, and I give a special thanks to those who reviewed it. Your reviews motivate me to write this story. It's like, every time I see a new review in my inbox, I immediately have to pull out a computer, and start writing 5 more pages for this fic. Both your Positive and critical review help; just please… no trolling.

Another thing, for reader's convenience, all spell card declarations will now be in bold print. Am I forgetting anything…? Oh yeah! On another note, contrary to what some people may think based on Matt and Rumia's relationship, in the canon of this story, it's more like a best-friends relationship than anything else. In other words, nothing naughty is going on between them.

…

…

I will not support lolicon for you perverts!

Anyway, no Q/A today, so enjoy the chapter.

LT interior (Underground evening)

Matt's POV

"You've almost got it!" Maria shouted as I was trying my best to open the door on my chest with the crowbar that the cheerful nekomata lent me. "Just a little more!" She encouraged with a determination burning in her eyes that mine lacked.

*CLANG!* the crowbar failed to open the door for the umpteenth time tonight.

"Aw shit!" It was the evening after Christmas, and I had just given up on trying to pry the door on my chest open. Yuuka had damaged it when she knocked it out in the first place, and now it wouldn't open at all. "I give up…"

I handed the crowbar to Maria with a sigh. That do wasn't going to open no matter how hard I tried. Besides, all my systems still worked at full power if the watch was at least near me. Maria's cat-like ears drooped, and she accepted the black metal tool. "Sorry Matt. What are you going to do with it now?" She asked while grasping the crowbar in both hands.

I smiled, clipped the golden chain to the button my old watch used to be clipped to, and dropped the mechanical device in my pocket. "Well, it is a watch. Might as well wear it like one." I happily said in my usual cheerful tone of voice. "Why do I feel so happy today?"

Maria frowned. "Um… Matt?" Maria tapped me on the shoulder.

She succeeded on getting my attention. "Yeah?" I turned my head to face the cat youkai.

Maria looked down at the ground while twirling her foot. "Um, I don't think that's a very good place to keep your so- I mean watch." She quickly corrected herself while lightly blushing a light tone of light pink… light.

I chuckled while wrapping my arm around the nekomata. "Nice save. Remember, we are not supposed to talk about that. I don't want people knowing about it, and I realize that Maria. It's just that I can't get the door open, and the watch needs to be within a five meter distance from my heart for me to be…" I thought about how to put what I was going to say for about 4 seconds. "… Not, Completely defenseless." I gave up on finding a more sophisticated way to say it, and shrugged.

Maria pushed my arm off her shoulder, and backed away about 3 feet with sparkling eyes. She clenched both her hands in front of her chest and proclaimed: "But someone might steal it from you! Wild youkai are attracted to shiny objects, and…and…" Dan's nekomata shikigami paused while a brighter blush enveloped her face. "… I-I… I'm kinda worried about you…" She continued quietly.

"Wait… NO WAY!" My keen instincts alerted me to several signs, and just to confirm it, I scanned Maria to find that her heart-beat had risen above normal. Maria… Was crushing on me. I immediately blushed, and held my hands out in front of me to shield me from the nekomata kitten. "Uh!... Um!..." I sweated as I frantically tried to find an excuse. I small click came from my head as my half organic-half micro-clockwork brain came up with an idea. I lowered my hands, and pulled out my watch. I pressed the button that opened the golden door to the watch, and nervously said "Oh, would you look at the time? I-It's really late; I should be getting to bed now!" As my hand shook.

I dashed out of the room while Maria pouted with a childish facial expression. "Hmph! This is what I get for trying to help you." She muttered under her breath.

I dashed down the hallway, and ripped my door open. When I slammed it closed, I activated the 7 different locks. Each of them made a satisfying click as the locked down. I slumped against the door, and sighed with relief. "Whew! Got her off my back." I wiped some sweat off my forehead. After taking a couple deep breaths, I stood up, and made my way to my bed where Rumia was already fast asleep.

I threw my Coat off, and slumped down on the mattress. Slowly, I let sweet rest claim my body, as the machines operating inside me whirred down to a slower pace. "System standby: initiated." I hopped onto the warpstar, and promptly flew off into dreamland*.

LT interior (Underground morning)

3rd POV

The howls of the Ever-going underground Oni party quieted down. This could only mean one thing: That daybreak had come, and all the weaker Oni partied themselves out. Matt and Rumia found themselves in an awkward situation that morning. It appears that sometime during the night, a sudden frost had rushed through the underground caves. In Rumia's sub-conscious quest for warmth, she had wrapped her arms around the motionless machine youkai.

Matthew awoke as a cloud of steam rose from his mouth, and the machines in his body started up again. It was only about 2 seconds after the steam cloud dissipated that he noticed Rumia. The machine youkai heavily blushed, and tried to wiggle his way out of Rumia's arms.

It was no use. Rumia just hugged him tighter, so Matt took a deep breath in; then sighed. "Rumia… Hello?" Matt tried to wake the sleeping youkai of darkness. Slowly, she stirred, and then opened her eyes to see Matthew's red face almost pressed against her own. Rumia realized what had happened, and immediately let go of the blushing male youkai.

Rumia sprang up while blushing herself, and smiled shyly at Matt. "Sorry… I must've gotten pretty cold last night…" Rumia silently said. She seemed to be embarrassed by her actions.

Matt climbed out of the bed, and looked at Rumia with warm eyes. "Rumia, I'm not quite sure that's the reason. I put out about as much body heat as a corpse while I sleep." Matt said in a shy tone.

Both the darkness youkai and machine youkai smiled at each other for a while, until the pair was rudely interrupted by a trolling gap youkai. "Oh~ I hate to interrupt such a tender moment, but could I borrow Matt for a second~?" Yukari sang as Matt jumped in surprise. Yukari had a way of popping into a room without anyone noticing.

Matt's face turned back to its normal pale flesh color, and he nodded at Yukari. "S-sure Yukari, I'll come with you." Matt stuttered with the words. Yukari's presence made him nervous ever since she threatened to drop him into the sun.

Yukari smiled as Rumia huffed and crossed her arms. Yukari giggled and stepped out of her gap, while folding up her parasol. "I'm sorry. I wouldn't want to be rude. How about we all go have some breakfast?" Yukari said while smiling. Before Matt or Rumia could say anything, gaps opened under Yukari's, Matt's, and Rumia's feet.

The trio found themselves falling through eyeball land, as Matt froze, and Rumia gave Yukari a dirty glare. "Did you really have to do that?" Rumia asked while maintaining her glare at Yukari.

Yukari almost looked like she was standing on an invisible platform while falling. "No, but its fun to mess with you guys." She said while giggling once again.

The three reached the end of the eyeball filled tunnel, and fell into Yukari's house. Yukari landed perfectly in a chair, while Matt landed headfirst into another chair, and Rumia landed on top of a table.

Matt moaned as he turned his body around, and Rumia climbed off the table while continuing to glare at the gap hag. After Matt adjusted his senses, he shook his head, and looked around the room he was in. The floor was tiled with white tiles, and the walls were made of drywall. The house looked like it was taken straight out of the outside world. It appeared that he was in a kitchen, with stained wooden cabinets hanging above the counters.

The modern appliances made Matt feel like he truly was in the outside world, but the most noticeable feature of the room, was the nine yellow fox tails. The nine tails were attached to a woman standing next to Matt. She gave him a smile and a small wave. "Hello, you must be the Youkai that Yukari is always talking about." She said while setting down a plate of eggs in front of the surprised machine youkai.

Rumia seemed to ease up a bit at the kindness displayed by the fox lady. Matt took a couple seconds to reply, but he soon cleared his throat, and smile back. "Well, I don't know. My name is Matthew, but you can call me Matt." Matt cheerfully stated.

Rumia smiled and pointed at herself. "And I'm Rumia!" she added to Matt's statement.

Yukari crossed her arms, and she seemed annoyed. "Are we going to start yet?" She asked in an impatient tone of voice.

The nine-tailed fox lady bowed, and said: "Sorry Yukari-sama." Her smile dropped off her face as she went to get more eggs. Rumia looked at Matt, and winked at him. As Rumia did this, Matt blushed, and Yukari giggled. The trio waited awhile longer, and the kitsune eventually returned with more eggs.

She gazed at an empty seat, and sighed as she cupped her hands around her mouth, and called up a stair-case. "CHEEEEEEEEEEEENN~**!" She yelled.

During the time that it took for a red blur to dash down the stairs, Rumia and Matt had started a conversation. Yukari interrupted the conversation, as soon as the new addition to the table was seated. "Ok, I'm sure everyone is hungry, so dig in!"

Rumia grew starry-eyed, and devoured her plate like a rabid animal. Matt slowly picked at his food, while Yukari ate normally with an occasional giggle. The fox lady ate in a much more dignified way, and the other cat was constantly interrupted by the fox lady giving her tips on fine dining.

The mot eventful part of the breakfast, was how the two-tailed cat finally got fed up with the nine-tailed fox's pointers, and dug into her meal with her face. Yukari laughed, and choked on a bit of egg. Eventually, she gapped the bit of food out of her throat, and continued laughing. In other words, it was a very eventful breakfast.

Yukari's house (Sun schedule noon)

Matt's POV

"I need to take some tips on design." I was currently in the process of observing the furnishings of Yukari's house. Mainly the eastern-style chairs and walls. "Makes me feel like my decoration is severely out of place." I thought while frowning.

"Well, well. Seems like you like my style of décor." An ominous voice seemed to come from everywhere. I looked around everywhere to try and find the source, but nothing came up. "Fu-fu-fu-fu-fu!" The voice chuckled. "I'm right here." A rift in reality opened, and the troll of boundaries dropped into a chair. "It seems you arrived right on time." Yukari maintained the cross-legged pose she landed in.

I pulled a scrap of paper out of the pocket my watch was hanging from. "What is this about?" I waved the paper in front of her. "You told me to meet you." I stated dryly with a hint of irritation in my voice.

Yukari chuckled lightly. "Fu-fu-fu-fu. I need to follow up on my promise." The gap youkai stood up from her chair, and hid her face half-way behind her trademarked paper fan.

My face brightened up. "Oh yes! I was wondering when you would get around to it." I exclaimed with energy in my voice.

"Yes… Today I'm going to tell you your purpose for existing." Yukari started pacing around as I found myself seated in a chair. I had no doubt that I had fallen through one of Yukari's gaps. "That's right, the reason you're here. The reason I made you, the reason I pulled you into Gensokyo… But do you really want to know?"

I followed Yukari around the room with a dumb expression. She had stopped in front of me, and remained silent.

…

…

"Well… Yeah!" I said with a little hesitation.

Yukari smirked. "Are you sure? I don't think you'll like it." She teased in her trollish voice.

"Yes!" I snapped. The eagerness was dripping from my voice like hot wax off a candle. "I don't have time for your trollishness Yukari!"

POV switch: Yukari

"It's so much fun messing with him! It looks like I'll be able to do it more in the future too!" I thought to myself, A grin crept onto my face as I Kept the little machine youkai in suspense, but of course, it was hidden by my fan so Matt couldn't see it. Matt was grinning with anticipation and excitement. I sighed, and spoke. "Very well, your purpose for being here… Your purpose for existing. The reason I created, nurtured, and supported you is-

Gunethre's Desert fortress

3rd POV

Gunethre slammed his fist down on a long table in his conference room. "What do you mean you don't agree with me!" he said in anger. The violently insane general was meeting with the other three other generals of the organization that the evil General belonged to. Due to the fact that one of Gunethre's assassins had betrayed him, lied to him, and then laughed in his face, He was currently stuck in Gensokyo without a way back. That ex-assassin, Daniel Elohssa, had secretly built a highly advanced supercomputer that was capable of teleportation, befriended a couple of demons, and then literally laughed in Gunethre's face as he brutally murdered his stereotypical assistant.

Gunethre was stuck in Gensokyo. Dan took his computer's hard drive, and left Gunethre's army with no way out. Luckily, he was able to maintain contact with the other leaders in the outside world because apparently satellite uplinks and transceivers worked through multi-dimensional barriers. Gunethre was in my base's temporary conference room with a computer and web-cam set up in front of him.

"General Lucas Gunethre, We think it would be best if you just surrendered and negotiated a way back home." The man to the left side of Gunethre's screens said. His name was Evean Barchilov, and he spoke with a heavy Russian accent. The order had formed some time before AD 1603; during the Elizabethian era. Sometime during the cold war; Evean joined the organization, and became the fourth elite general.

"We are not an invasion force, we are just trying to cleanse our world of those vile beasts; not other ones." The woman to the right side of the two other people on the screen spoke. Her voice seemed like that of an Elizabethan noble. "The EOC cannot support inter-dimensional travel!" Stated the oldest general of The Eternal Order of Carpadia. Her name was Bathsheba Clavell.

"I agree. We can't afford to keep sending you resources. Just come home; I miss you." Merinda van Vuuren, the third of the elite Generals stated. She was a woman of South African heritage, and she seemed to care for Gunethre. Her most noticeable features were her pointed nose, Ageless look, and violet eyes. It was a rare color amongst humans, even with the influence of magic. Due to this influence of magic, her long, shoulder-length hair, which was done in a bob, had developed a silvery color***.

Gunethre snarled under his breath. "You guys dare to call yourselves leaders?" Gunethre slammed his hands down on the table. "Real leaders don't quit! I won't rest until I devour the soul of every demon in every universe!" Gunethre yelled as he pushed his menacing and twitching steel eye against the lens of the web camera.

The other three generals remained calm, then turned away from their camera, and conversed amongst themselves. After a minute of incoherent mumbling, they all turned back to face their web cam. Bathsheba spoke calmly and slowly. "General Lucas Gunethre, second of the elite Carpadian Generals, We now see that there is no way to quell your stubbornness. I hereby relieve you of duty."

Evean continued. "I'm sorry, but if you can't comply with the rest of the order, then we have no choice but to leave you there. Besides, we cannot have you absorb the souls of our own members when you get angry."

Gunethre's stone-like face eased for the first time in centuries as he was genuinely surprised. "WHAT?" he snapped. "How do you even know about that?" His face eased back to its usual hard stone look.

"We know about a lot of things you do. I've been keeping tabs on all of your actions." General Clavell spoke up.

Merindalet out a small sniffle."*Sniff* Sorry Lucas, I tried; but they're right. We can't keep sending you supplies and risk exposing the organization to the rest of the world" She said with sadness in her voice. Even though she was basically telling Lucas that she and the other generals were abandoning him, the warmness that was only present when she was talking to Gunethre still hung in her voice.

"You are dismissed Lucas." Bathsheba spoke as Gunethre sprang up from his seat and punched a hole through the screen right as the transmission ended.

General Gunethre or Lucas stood in the middle of the room, panting as his shoulders steadily rose and fell to his breathing. The pure rage he was feeling could not be expressed through any kind of action or word. Just as Lucas started walking out of the room, one of his assistants walked in the doorway to deliver a message. "General, I have-

Before the man could finish, he fell to the floor as the metallic eye in Gunethre's right socket glowed. "Shut it! I'm not in the mood." He grumbled under his breath. It was now that he noticed the envelope clutched in the pale corpse's hand. Gunethre bent down to pick up the envelope, and took a sheet of paper out of it. Gunethre took about 10 seconds to read the message. It stated:

We apologize, but it seems the eastern military base has been destroyed by Daniel Elohssa. Almost all supplies in the base were destroyed.

As Gunethre finished reading the note his hands began shaking with rage. The paper slowly ripped down the middle as Gunethre let out a feral scream that echoed throughout Gensokyo.

Underground

Flandre's POV

"Ugh! It's so boring around here!" I was wandering around the underground looking for something to do. I had just finished beating Super Castlevainia 4, and I just wasn't feeling like playing any other games. Maria was out racing around on her motorcycle with Orin, and Dan was playing World of Warcraft on AILC. The sounds of raiding and angry video gaming could be heard from the next room.

"Maybe I should visit the palace… Yeah! Okuu's probably doing something fun!" I flew off to the palace to play with the nuclear hell raven named Okuu, or Utsuho.

Time skip: 10 minutes.

I was flying along the path to the palace, but on my way there, a large person with a single red horn, a white shirt, and long blonde hair was blocking me. "Get out of the way! I wanna play with Okuu~" I whined.

The tall Oni continued blocking my way. She took a large drink from the sake bowl she was holding. "Why don't you play with me instead?" she questioned as she swallowed the alcoholic liquid, and lowered the bowl.

My expression brightened up, and my crystal wings jingled as I pumped my fist and exclaimed: "Yeah! I've got nothing to do anyway!" I had completely forgotten about going to the palace.

The Oni smirked, and took another swig from the sake dish. "Are you sure? I'm pretty strong." She said with a smug-looking smirk. The Oni was openly challenging me, who was I to turn a challenger down?

I beamed with excitement. "That makes it even better! All the weak guys break before I can start having fun!" My wings started glowing as power surged through them for the inevitable battle. "How long will you last?" I taunted with a wide smile.

The Oni took one last swig from the dish, and balanced it on her head****. "Good, the stronger the opponent, the more of a challenge the battle is." The Oni seemed to want to start a contest between who could be smugger. The grin she wore on her face matched mine perfectly. "3 spell cards, if you knock this dish off my head, then you win."

I materialized my laviaten, and rose into the air. "Then what are we sitting around for! Let's start! Taboo: Laviaten!" I declared as I flew at the Oni. The Oni smirked and moved out of the way at the last second. "Wha?" I missed her with my strike, and just as fast as she moved out of the way, she countered my strike with a hard kick. "Ugh!" I grunted as I flew into a wall.

*Crash!* the air flew out of my lungs as I impacted the wall. As I gathered my senses, a couple stalactites fell due to the shaking in the room.

The Oni lifted a huge boulder over her head, and laughed. "Hahahaha! I thought you'd be more of a challenge than this!" The Oni yelled as she chucked the huge rock at me. I gathered my senses, and rolled out of the way.

I looked back at where I was a second ago as the boulder crashed against the wall. More stalactites fell, and my grin grew in size. "My name is Flandre Scarlet by the way." I said as I turned my gaze to the charging Oni. "Yah!" I dashed out of the way at the last second, and she flew by me.

*Crash!* The Oni crashed into the same wall that the boulder and I did. As the dust cleared, I could see her standing there without a single scratch on her. "My name is Yuugi. I hope you're ready! Knockout in three steps!" Yuugi began her attack as I braced myself for the danmaku she was forming.

Yukari's House

Matt's POV

"What? No! That's crazy!" I thought after Yukari told me why I came to be. "Y… you're lying!" I stated.

Yukari sat back down, and giggled. "Fu-fu-fu-fu! I told you that you wouldn't like it." Her fan was put away, and even though she was giggling, she seemed serious. "I'm being completely serious." She confirmed if it wasn't obvious enough.

"ASDFGHJKL" My mind was scrambled. "B-b-but you said that I needed to be strong, and I passed your test!" I retorted. Yukari didn't shift the position she was sitting in, or move at all for that matter.

The gap hag put on a serious expression. "Of course Matt, how could you if you're not strong enough." She finally shifted position, and leaned forward as she said "So what do you say?" In a lighter tone of voice.

"I… I don't know." I dumbly stuttered. "Just give me some time to think about it." I finished after I regained my senses.

Yukari sighed, and then stood up. "Fine!" She said in a disappointed tone of voice. "I'll give you until tomorrow to decide. I hope you make the right choice."

I shot out of my seat. "Wait, I-

Unfortunately I couldn't finish because a gap opened up right under my feet, and I found myself being hurled through gap-land. "Yaaaaaaahhhh!" I screamed as I fell.

I landed on the ground with an "Oof!" and gradually picked myself up while rubbing my back. As soon as I was on my feet, another gap opened above my head, and before I could even think; Rumia dropped out from it.

"Gah!" She landed on me.

Yukari's house

Yukari's POV

I giggled, and sat back in my seat. I was sure to gap Rumia back with Matt, and closed both the gaps they fell out of. "Fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu-fu! I do hope you make the right choice, you will make a wonderful shikigami."

To Be Continued…

[AN]: Footnotes.

*Ok, anyone who has played super smash brothers or any game in the Kirby franchise should know what the warpstar is. Kirby uses it as his main mode of transport. The dreamland I'm referring to, of course, isn't Kirby's.

**An over-used Touhou meme. Just had to put it in there.

***Merinda van Vuuren is courtesy of Ban3. He came up with this character, and for that, I thank you.

****Yuugi is known to balance a sake dish on her head as she fights. Besides, even though Flandre is really powerful, she's not so much when she isn't having one of her… episodes.

Ok, just something I want to point out. In my Touhouverse, the underground operates on a completely different time schedule. Instead of the sun rising, the Oni partiers get too drunk, and quiet down. That's when most non-oni folk wake up.

YAY! Yuugi's in the story. So we finally find out Yukari's purpose for creating Matt. Although she didn't exactly intend for him to be a machine youkai, the fact that his soul was put into a pocket watch, and that fact that Yukari, Yuyuko, and Satori made him during a time of American growth IN AMERICA did push his ability in that direction. It seems a lot of people really enjoy Dan and AILC. Are they just more interesting than Matt? IDK. They're definitely the most interesting OCs I've come up with in my opinion.

Rumia: "Is that so?"

*PUNCH!*

Rumia: "Auuuuuuuuuu…"

Well, with that being said, Here's a quick layout of Matt's LT

Epic Touhou Project profile: Land Train

The Land Train is basically a mobile house that Matt, Dan, Flandre, Maria, Rumia, And Dan's sentient computer: AILC live in. It is basically a steam-powered RV that is bigger on the inside, than on the outside. This is mainly due to Yukari's tampering with borders. The dining room alone is the size of the vehicle as seen on the outside.

The basic layout:

You walk in through the front door, and into the living room. There are two arm-chairs, and a couch. On the opposite wall to the couch, is a TV, and video game consoles. The side opposite of the armchairs is a seat for the driver along with a steering wheel.

In between the armchairs, is an entry-way to a short hallway. A door on the right leads to Dan's room, and a door on the left leads to Maria's where AILC also stays. Two more doors on either side hold bathrooms. At the end of the hallway, is a kitchen, and in a door to the right side of the kitchen, is the dining room.

If you continue towards the back of the LT, and through the kitchen, you will come to another hallway. In this one, a lounge lies in a door to the left where an internet connection can be established, and bookshelves line the walls of said lounge.

On two doors to the right, are a bathroom, and Flandre's bedroom, which is furnished plainly. Nothing special there.

Finally, at the end of the hallway, is the master bedroom where Matt and Rumia sleep. It is the only other room in the house that has a TV. There is a king bed, and a private bathroom.

Matt built the LT out of parts in a kappa scrap-yard, and an RV that was conveniently rotting away in said scrap-yard. It can be summoned to Matt's location through the use of a spell card. That about wraps this up.

Till next time everyone.