Dutch pulled the trigger and the M4 barked.
Triple bolts of danmaku flew out of the barrel and struck the wall.
A series of numbers appeared on the energy ball behind them. Dutch turned around.
He nodded at the result and turned to Vale floating next to him.
"Perfect. Set the charge level settings to this and mark this charge level. It's the optimum level for any gun, relatively." He said.
Vale turned green for a second then returned to her normal blue. "It's done Master. But what do you mean relatively?" she asked.
"What we have done is to set an adaptive template for any weapon using bullets. For example, a weapon that uses smaller bullets will have a smaller charge. Increase the size and the charge increases. Decrease the size and the charge decreases. Bullet speed is also a major factor. A pistol uses larger rounds than a rifle but flies at a slower rate. This means while a pistol bullet will, by mass, have more charge in it. The rifle bullet, which is faster, will overall have more charge because of the faster speed. It will be the same for any other types of weapons."
"Understood master." Vale answered.
Dutch smiled." And it only took us two nights of modification to get it right."
"Yea and thirty-six experimental firings to get it right. Two of which resulted in a explosion, three of which resulted in danmaku that stopped in midair, and one that resulted in the danmaku breaking up and bouncing off the walls repeatedly." Vale recounted with a sheepish voice.
Dutch chuckled. "It's not experimentation if you don't get something interesting."
"So when will you release this template into the realm?" Vale asked him.
Dutch looked at the energy ball. "Midnight. Part of the spell card rules states that it is absolute. Any modification results in sealing. I highly doubt that the creator of the spell card system will not seal us if he/she finds out about this modification. Even if we are outside the system. Hopefully at midnight, the creator will be asleep and won't detect the changes."
He looked at the computer and smiled. "You crafty youkai." He said.
Vale floated in a confused manner.
"Yukari Yakumo. She is the youkai of boundaries. She can change the border between anything. She's the one that requested me to set the template for guns. She stated that she cannot change the system herself because she is a user and is held down by the rules." Dutch explained.
"But, she can change the border of absolution and add a template herself." He noted.
"Why ask you to do it?" Vale asked.
"Because she wants to avoid being sealed. By using me, she adds a third party into the mix. If the creator goes looking for me, Yukari can show Gensokyo the perpetrator and then bump me off quickly before anyone finds out the truth. Leaving her completely safe." Dutch finished.
"So why are we doing it?" Vale asked in a panicked voice.
"Because she is right. The introduction of guns will break the balance. It will bring a wave of death into Gensokyo. Right now, the spell card system allows for combat without death. While the spell cards can be elevated to lethal levels, it will still be the same spell cards, meaning that a person with experience in spell cards can survive them. With guns however, the bullets are very fast, almost invisible and they are all simple to use. Just point, shoot, reload." Dutch explained.
"With the template, its still point, shoot, reload but this time, it fires danmaku, which are familiar to the spell card users. This means they will be able to recognize and dodge them. With the decrease in speed of the danmaku as well, it will be slower. It's still pretty fast danmaku by their standards but it's is slow enough for them to dodge."
"But if we get found out, we will be sealed!" Vale said again.
"I know."
"Then why?" Vale asked.
Dutch looked at the energy ball. "Because it is right." He spoke, staring into nothing.
Vale floated, silent.
"We work in the shadows, unseen and unheard. Our victories are silent, our defeats are loud. The world condemns our existence but we work to keep it that way." Dutch recited. "That is our creed. The creed of the deniable."
"I understand." Vale answered.
Dutch smiled.
Yukari groaned, face first on the table
Hangovers are not fun.
Lifting her head up, she took the cup of coffee that Ran left on the table and took a long gulp.
Giving up the fight with the pain, she opened a gap, reached inside and changed the border of hangovers, just for her. She sighed in relief as the pain subsided.
Dutch walked in. "Hangover?" He asked.
Yukari smiled. "Not anymore."
Dutch sat down and yawned.
"Didn't sleep well?" Yukari asked him in return.
"Not really. It's just that the vault have been using my sleeping time as my time in it. My mind is sleeping but I have been 'awake' at the same time. It's causing problems." He answered.
"You get used to it. Alternatively, you could find a different way to enter the vault." Yukari said.
"Not now. Not when the changes are about to come into effect." Dutch returned.
"When?"
"Midnight." Dutch answered.
Yukari nodded and took another sip.
"So what are we doing today?" He asked.
"I was thinking of letting you meet the people of the creator of the vault." Yukari said.
Dutch looked the shard in his glove. "Anything I should know beforehand?"
"The subordinates of the people have something that might seem weird. They have rabbit ears." Yukari described.
"I met one of them at the festival. A girl with rabbit ears and purple hair." Dutch remembered.
"That's Reisen Udongein Inaba. She is the student of the creator. Most usually refer to her as Udonge. She is a lunar rabbit." Yukari said.
"A lunar rabbit?" Dutch asked
Yukari nodded. "Yes, that's right. The lunar part will be explained later. Right now, you just need to know this. There are two types of rabbits. The earth rabbits and the lunar rabbits. You can tell the difference via their ears. They use their ears for communication. Hurt one and the others will know it."
Dutch nodded at the information.
"How about Renko and Maribel, Will they be coming along?" Dutch asked.
Yukari chuckled. "They are trying to sleep off the effects of last night."
In their own bedrooms, Renko and Maribel both groan.
Bamboo forest
Dutch looked around. Bamboo, bamboo, everywhere.
"It's easy to get lost here. Follow me and stick close." Yukari said as they look around in the clearing.
She took off into the bamboo. Dutch followed her, constantly making sure he could see her.
She wasn't kidding about getting lost. He thought as he made his way through the forest.
After about a minute or so, the two came onto a clearing. Inside the clearing, girls with rabbit ears were working on mochi, pounding it with mallets. The activity stops as every one of the earth rabbits stop to stare at the intruders.
"Hello. We are here to meet the lunar doctor. Take us to your leader." Yukari said with a smile.
A rabbit with a carrot necklace stepped forward.
"Is Eirin expecting you?" She asked.
"Yes Tewi. She is expecting us. Can you lead us to her?" Yukari answered.
Tewi turned around and spoke. "Get back to work." The rest of the earth rabbits returned back to their mochi.
Yukari and Dutch followed Tewi down a path.
As they walk along the path, Dutch watched Tewi slightly move her leg to the right and continued walking.
Curiously, Dutch raised his leg and tapped the spot. The ground collapsed.
Both Yukari and Tewi carried on walking.
Dutch walked over the hole.
After about 3 minutes of walking, they came up onto a large Japanese style mansion. Right next to the mansion was a clinic.
"The doctor is inside. Good luck." Tewi said, indicating towards the clinic and smiling, before turning around.
Dutch watched her back disappear.
Yukari smiled. "You avoided her trap."
Nod.
"Join the really small club."
The two entered the clinic.
Inside, a earth rabbit at the counter sat up.
"Welcome to Eientei." She spoke.
"We have an appointment with the doctor. Special case." Yukari said.
The rabbit nodded. "She is in the examination room. First on the right."
The two followed the instructions. At the door Yukari turned to Dutch.
"Nervous?" She asked.
"Why? Unless you bought me for a shot, I should be fine." Dutch returned.
Yukari smiled. "You have no idea. Wait for me." She opened the door.
Inside, a woman with silver hair was looking at a piece of paper. She looked up when the door opened.
"Ah. It's you." She said.
Yukari smiled. "I bought the owner."
"Show me."
Dutch walked in through the door.
Eirin stared at him, visually examining with her eyes. Dutch sat down, examining the room with his own eyes. It was your standard lab room, down the random test-tubes with chemicals on stands on the tables.
After a couple of seconds, Eirin looked away. "He looks healthy enough."
Yukari pouted. "You think I would let him come into any harm."
Eirin gave her a sharp look. "You could do that without any moment notice."
Dutch watched the exchange.
Eirin turned to him. "Your name, Age and any other information." She barked.
"Dutch Kotozaki. Age:19. Any other information: classified." Dutch returned, unperturbed by the sudden questions.
Eirin turned back to Yukari. "An outsider." She stated.
Yukari nodded. "Dutch, can you wait outside? The doctor and I have something to talk about."
Dutch nodded before standing up and leaving the room.
Eirin spoke. "I expected someone from Gensokyo. Not an outsider."
"Why would you think that?" Yukari asked.
"The defenses of the vault are substantial. To open the first door would require concentration to open the magical lock while being attacked by the guardians. Exceptional control of magic would be required to open the second door which is guarded by guardians that are specially created to fight magic. Both doors cannot be destroyed by physical means, only by high-powered magic that would destroy the entire vault chamber. Since we know for certain that magic is extremely rare in the outside, the most logical choice was that someone from Gensokyo discovered the secret from here and crossed over the border to find it." She explained.
Yukari chuckled. "What if I told you that Dutch met two people that have magical abilities, followed them and accidentally discovered the vault, and managed to fight off the defenses while one of them opened both doors and reached the vault. With him having no magical ability."
"The odds of that are so small Marisa being a shrine maiden has larger ones. To fight off the guardians would require superhuman abilities. They were made to fight your kind. Even with the current human weapons, it's impossible." Eirin answered.
"It happened." Yukari said.
Dutch sat on a chair and laid against the wall.
The clinic was making another memory surface.
"It's not a full solution. There's going to be leakage."
"Do it."
Breathing in, Dutch closed his eyes.
...
/Secondary System. Data Override. In progress./
/Estimated time: 3 Days/
...
"Hello?"
Dutch opened his eyes.
The girl with bunny ears from yesterday was standing in front of him.
"You are the guy who alerted me about the man from yesterday, right?" She asked.
Dutch nodded. "I am, my name is Dutch Kotozaki." He introduced.
She has nice red eyes. Dutch thought.
"Reisen Udongein Inaba. Most people call me Udonge." She returned.
"The man. How is he?" He asked.
"He is fine but he is still in critical condition. "She answered.
"Can I see him?"
Udonge motioned. "This way."
Dutch followed her to another part of the clinic.
In a room was the scarred man. He was lying on a bed and around him were machines that monitored his condition in regular beeps.
Dutch entered the room. The man turned to him.
"It's you." He croaked.
Nod.
"Why did you save me?" He asked.
Dutch sat down on a chair. "Because it was right. You did not deserve to die."
The man smiled. "If you stayed here for a while, you would think differently."
Dutch chuckled. "Then you were lucky that I was an outsider, don't you think?"
The room lapsed into silence.
"The old lady was possessed by an evil spirit that I summoned." The man said.
"Why would you do that?" Dutch asked.
"Vengeful spirits carry their desires with them. When the desires come in contact with the lava of old hell, it gets melted down and transformed into gold. The gold sometimes reaches the surface via hot springs. I picked up the gold and it brought the vengeful spirit up as well. It possessed a passing old lady. That's how it happened." The man explained.
"What did the spirit wanted to do?"
"It wanted to use its spell card duplication to sow discord in the village between the other groups. If the human village was attacked by a spell card from another group, distrust would quickly spread." The man said.
"The spirit is gone." Dutch said.
The man smiled. "Thank you."
"So what happens to you now?" Dutch asked.
The man shrugged. "If the village finds out about this, I will be shunned or exiled. Right now, I am staying at the clinic but once I get released, I have nothing for me."
Dutch thought for a while.
"How about an offer." Dutch asked.
The man smiled. "My life is in your debt. You can ask me for anything."
"How would you like to be part of a wolfpack?" Dutch asked.
Dutch stood outside the door, waiting for the call to enter. It has been half an hour. His conversation with the man had ended 15 minutes ago and he made his way back but the room was still closed.
Remembering the conversation, he smiled. The old skills were coming back.
Finally the door opened. "Dutch, can you come in?" Yukari asked.
Dutch walked in the room. It was the same as he left, the lunar doctor and Yukari both still seated at the same spot.
"Sit down." The doctor said with a smile.
As Dutch obeyed, the woman spoke again. "Perhaps I was rude the first time. Let's start over. My name is Yagokoro Eirin. I am a lunarian."
"Dutch Kotozaki, What do you mean with lunarian?" Dutch returned.
"There exists a civilization on the moon. A highly advanced civilization which has existed long before your kind have attained intelligence. I am an example of this civilization." Eirin answered.
"And we can't see this civilization because?" Dutch asked.
"What you see is the scientific moon. The lunar capital exists on the true moon, which you cannot find using your scientific equipment. Both moons are linked together."
Dutch nodded at the information.
"Now it's my turn. Can I see the vault?" Eirin asked.
Dutch phased in his glove and took it off.
Eirin took the glove and examined it." It actually fused into the glove and changed it's shape. That would indicate a successful change of ownership."
"You made this?" Dutch asked.
Eirin looked up. "I was a friend of the maker. The vault was to be a final project for him. At the day he finished, the vault activated and he and it disappeared. From that moment on, the vault carved a path, popping up repeatedly through human history but no matter how hard we tried, we could never get it back. Then it washed up onto the shore of this land. I got hold of it but due to certain circumstances, could not return it back to the moon. I decided on the second best thing, to hide, never to be seen again. It worked, until now."
Dutch shrugged. "I can tell you that meeting the vault was completely unintended."
"Whether it was intended or not, you have to deal with the repercussions." Eirin spoke.
"I'm listening."
"The appropriate lunar authorities have been alerted. They will be coming to Gensokyo to meet you and probably bring you back to the moon. There, you will be evaluated. I will not lie. It is very likely that you will not survive."
"Why?" Dutch asked.
"The evaluation will be...grueling. I am not sure what they will put you through but expect tests that will kill you."
"Why would they do that?" Dutch questioned.
Eirin sighed. "The moon has core belief that it is a base of purity. Any being that have a lifespan are impure. Pure beings do not have a lifespan and can live indefinitely. Since you are linked by soul to an object that is made by a pure being, the lunarian elite will try to kill you to prevent it from being known by the greater lunar society. It will threaten their view of purity."
Dutch frowned. "You seem rather aloof of the whole matter."
Eirin smiled. "My experiences have shown me that impure beings are not the savages we think they are. They can be just as the same as any lunarian, sometimes even better than some of the ones on the moon. Even a hyper-advanced civilization has its own set of scum."
"So when will the lunarians arrive?" Yukari asked.
"That, I do not know. I will send word when they arrive." Eirin said.
Mayohiga
That night
Dutch sat on the front porch, staring at the sky.
"Surprised that there is civilization on the moon?" Yukari asked from behind him.
"Definitely." Dutch answered. "But that is not as surprising as that it's core belief can be simplified to they hate anything on earth which is not them. That is scary, to say the least."
"You will be meeting them." Yukari said.
"That part is not as scary as the first." Dutch answered. "I have met my fair share of monsters."
"Lunarians are an upstart race. Some of them look down on the lunar rabbits, their co-inhabitants on the moon. For an advanced race, they are very repulsive." She said.
"A small group does not determine the whole. I'll see for myself." Dutch answered before standing up and leaving.
"Yes you will." Yukari answered.
Eientei
Eirin sat on the table, thinking back to the conversation she with Yukari while Dutch was not in the room.
Flashback start
"He reacted to my sudden questioning without any mistake. It would indicate that he has very fast reflexes. Faster than average." Eirin noted.
Yukari smiled. "Oh, he's more special than that. Yesterday, he got into a fight with four men. I was watching him the whole time and you could see that he already made a plan to win as if he knew it was coming and he had planned it all out."
Eirin noted the information down. "That would indicate experience in fighting."
Yukari nodded. "I used my contacts in the outside world to check on him. They tell me that Dutch's past is unknown. Any information about him is all hidden."
Eirin wrote in her notepad. "A very strange person to have fused with the vault. I recommend that we watch him closely."
"My sentiments exactly." Yukari agreed.
Flashback end.
Taking her notebook, she looked at the information jotted down.
"Master, the clinic has been closed." Udonge said.
Eirin gave Udonge a grateful nod.
"Udonge, during the afternoon, did you meet a young man waiting outside the room?" Eirin asked.
Udonge nodded. "Dutch-san, right?"
"Yes. What do you think of him?" Eirin asked.
"He is a nice person. He was the one that alerted me to the patient. But there was something strange about him." Udonge remembered.
"Carry on." Eirin said.
"When we first met, he looked straight into my eyes without any problems what so ever." Udonge said.
Eirin jotted down the information.
"This human keeps getting stranger and stranger."
Midnight
The vault
Dutch stared at the energy ball.
"Right. Let's finish this." He said.
Walking unto the interface, he started typing. The ball started to glow.
Vale floated behind, watching the events unfold. It was all in Dutch's hands now.
As he typed, the ball glow brighter and brighter until it was a blinding light. It started to give off bursts of lighting that struck the walls.
"Realm rule selected. Adding template. "The interface intoned.
Dutch stepped back from the interface. The lighting bursts were growing in intensity, striking everywhere. Avoiding a moving arc, Dutch stepped back as far as possible.
Suddenly the lighting strikes stopped and the room was silent.
"Is it over?" Dutch asked.
The ball gave out a screech that forced Dutch to cover his ears. The ball started to pulsate, energy sparking along it's diameter.
"Well shit." Dutch said.
It started to grow, giving of an ominous rumble.
Vale flew right in front of Dutch.
"What are you doing?" He yelled.
The ball exploded.
DONE!
Thanks to those that have read and reviewed it and other what not.
Special thanks goes to sweebation for helping to proofread.
Wolfpack:A tactic developed by german u-boat submarines to hunt down convoys of supplies ships. It devastated entire convoys, often reducing 40+ ship convoys to almost none.