Chapter 6: Do you believe in magic?

"What do you MEAN it's not there anymore?"

"The energy tracker can't sense it. Whatever was there yesterday is either gone or isn't radiating power."

"Well, do you remember where it was?"

"It was to the right of the door from outside, but we couldn't see 5 feet in front of us with that fog last night..."

Ugh. Well, that's one hope for finding Luke gone.

Bowen walked outside to take a look around, as I sat on my bed in thought.

How are we supposed to-

"Uh... Ray?"

"What?"

"I don't think we need the tracker to find the energy anymore."

"What do you mean?"

Promising.

"Just... just come and look."

I slowly walked over to the door, exiting and immediately turning to where bowen was looking.

"Well then."

As we couldn't see through the previous evening's fog, standing on the opposite side of the lake was a mansion. That majestic kind, the type you think of when you think of the very word.

Every color on it was either green from vegetation or red from paint.

"Doesn't look like something he made."

"Looks can be decieving. Did that fairy last night look any stronger than any other one you'd faced?"

"YES!"

Hand. To. Face.

"Let's just get the shelter packed up and go."

As we packed, we reviewed what little plan we had.

"If we meet hostiles?"

"We fight."

"If we meet non-hostiles?"

"We fight."

"Bonehead..."

"Now, the shelter's in my backpack again. Let's get going."

"But how are we gonna cross?"

"Gimme the hoverpack, I have an idea."

As he handed it to me, I once more began to spark my hand up, giving it extra power while slipping it onto my back.

"Now, as soon as I jump, grab my legs and don't let go."

"Will do. Are you sure this will work?"

"Do rocks fall?"

With that, I jumped into the air, shortly afterwards rocketing off with the combined force of an overloaded hoverpack and my own danmaku shooting us across the lake.

Once we reached the shore, I quickly absorbed some energy, allowing the hoverpack to slowly ease us down...

Oh wait. I think I fried it doing that.

"Uh, Bowen. Slight problem. I don't think we're floating anymore."

"And that means?"

Just then, it gave out, sending us plummeting towards the earth.

"IF I DIE, I'M TAKING YOU WITH ME!"

He then clung to me for dear life.

Smooooooth.

"I've got this."

I quickly forced my danmaku towards the point of our imminent impact, raising it slightly so as to soften the blow.

"There. We're not dying."

"...If we ever manage to hit the ground."

"Come to think of it, we were only like 20 feet above the ground, weren't we?"

"Oh... the hoverpack never failed...

But then what made us feel like we were falling?"

"An updraft?"

"20 feet from the ground?" Sarcasm.

"Hey, I just fought a fucking ice fairy. If you know everything that can happen here then I'll be damned."

Did... did Bowen of all people just form a half-decent comeback?

"Fuck it, this is too slow."

I turned off the hoverpack, gracefully sending us face-first into the ground.

Bowen quickly pulled himself out of the ground, mostly for the express purpose of exclaiming "WHY DID YOU FUCKING DO THAT?!"

"I told you, it was too slow."

"SLOW IS WHAT YOU'LL BE ONCE I'M FINISHED WITH YOU!"

"Whoah, whoah, buddy, calm down now. I'm the only other outsider you can get right now. Either deal with me or go it alone."

After a bit of grumbling, he begrudgingly agreed as we continued onward towards the ever-nearing mansion.

"Whoever picked the decor for this place must have a taste for the color red... And all the wrong shade, at that."

"When did you become an exterior designer?"

After several more minutes of uneventful walking, we ran into a sleeping girl. She appeared to be human, and had a green shirt on, as well as a beret of a matching shade on top of her moderate-length red hair.

I cautiously approached. God knows what species this girl could actually turn out to be.

"Excuse me, hello? Uh... did you see our friend pass through here?"

No response. She didn't even budge.

"Excuse me. Miss. Please wake up." This time, I prodded her a little bit as I spoke.

Still nothing.

Apparently, Bowen had had enough of being ignored.

"WAKE THE FUCK UP!" Were the only words to exit his mouth as he slammed the ground, causing a small tremor and a thunderous rumbling.

...Still. No. Response.

"Is she dead?"

"She seems to be breathing..."

"But how did she sleep through THAT?"

"Long night?"

"Anyway, if that didn't wake her up, she probably isn't going to be of much assistance. Let's go look for Luke in that mansion."

Ignoring the apparently very sleepy woman, we pressed on.

As we finally reached the door, we came to the hope-shattering realization that it was locked.

"Now how do we get in there?"

"We probably shouldn't break any windows..." I began to run off. "I'll scout around and see if I can't find a back do-"

CRASH

"There, it's open."

Bowen dusted his right arm off as I quickly returned to see one of the doors no longer on its hinges, and, rather, on its back, halfway across the now-visible entrance hall to the mansion. In its flight path were several chunks of wood, the hinges, and a few spots of flame.

"ARE YOU INSANE?!"

"What? It's not like anybody noticed it."

Of course, now that he had said that, he jinxed it.

As predicted, within seconds, the girl from earlier came crashing down just in front of us as we tried to enter the curiously-placed mansion.

"Where do you think YOU'RE going?" How rude.

"You were asleep earlier. We were looking for our friend, and tried to wake you up to ask for help. Bonehead over here caused a fucking mini-earthquake and you didn't budge, so we just moved on."

"And what makes you think your friend is here?" ...Alright, the "sleeping" comment definitely offended or possbily worried her.

"We have a device that tracks large amounts of energy. This place was the second-largest in the area, the single largest of which we had already checked."

"What does energy have to do with your friend?"

"He builds machines and factories that use electricity. Natually, those places and objects show up on the energy tracker. We're just following signs of his tech, really."

"Fair enough." She nodded. "But you still can't go in here!"

"Why not? Our friend could be in there for all we know."

"No, he could not. Whatever your "energy tracker" sensed was NOT electricity, whatever that is."

"Your proof of this being?"

"I..." She raised her finger, as if making a point. "I, uh..."

And, she's nervous... "It..."

She lowered her finger and closed her mouth.

"I don't. But I'm still not supposed to allow anyone through here!"

Bowen was, once again, angered by the fact that he was being neglected.

Once again smashing the ground for emphasis, he roared "JUST LET US THROUGH BEFORE I KNOCK A WALL DOWN AND GO IN MYSELF!"

"I'm not supposed to let anyone through. I'm not saying it again."

Bowen, now infuriated, somehow managed to form a calm-sounding sentence. "I'll fight you, if you want. If you win, we'll leave. If I win, you'll let us through."

"Do we have a deal?"

He held out his hand to shake on it.

She eyed it curiously for a few seconds, before poking it.

Cultural diversity strikes again!

"...Fine. I'm not going to go easy on outsiders though!"

"Also... I only have one card. Can we keep it to that?"

"You came here with only one card?" She seemed a bit frustrated this time.

"Actually, no I just made it while I was crossing that lake."

He came over and spoke to me before leaping to the battlefield; "Just stay out of this."

-IIIIIIIT'S SHOWTIME!-

(POV switch: Bowen again)

"...Who just said that?" Certainly not you, guard girl.

"Uh... Ray? Any ideas?" Nor Me.

"Oh. Sorry. That must be something the hoverpack does, I guess." Well, it definitely wasn't Ray.

"Why did Luke put something like that in there?"

"Wasn't he designing this thing for you before we left home?"

"Ohh, right..."

SMASH

I found my head lodged in what appeared to be a log.

Fuckin' a... That actually hurt.

"That was a bit..." I cringed, picking myself out of a now-fallen tree. "...low."

"I told you, I'm not going easy!"

"Suit yourself." I brushed off my shirt and jumped into a flaming dive-bomb, barely missing her as she quickly rolled to the side.

Realizing this, I turned to my right and fired off a punch, once again barely dodged.

"Okay, you know what? Fuck aiming."

As the guard-girl opened fire, I made a straight-upward leap, quickly lurching forward with the help of my danmaku.

I can't seem to hit her with just punches... I'll have to do something differently.

When I had arrived above her, I launched myself, soon afterward delivering an explosive punch to the ground.

The spherical blast of fire appeared to have caught her off-guard, so, I took a chance, throwing a real punch with all of my strength.

The next thing I could see through the resulting flames was a crater from the impact point leading up to 3 broken trees, all trailing behind her as she returned.

"That was a little rough." Understatement of the day, right there.

"I can't seem to hit you that much, so I just have to hit you all the harder to make up for it."

"That's no way to treat a-"

"Use that fucking excuse. Use it ONE FUCKING TIME, AND I SWEAR TO GOD THAT I WILL STRANGLE YOU WITH YOUR LARGE INTESTINE."

"Eep!" Her eyes quickly widened.

Considering how she was acting before, that must've actually scared her.

She produced a card out of thin air. How the fuck do you do that?

"Colorful sign: Rainbow wind chime!"

She began producing a spiral of rainbow-colored danmaku around her, making approach nigh impossible.

To hell with it, I'm trying anyway!

I took off, running straight into the storm of bullets.

To be honest, all of them stung a bit. I wasn't exactly trying to dodge.

"Hngh..."

"GAH!" I was blown backward at the last minute, landing me right back at square one.

I can't get close at all, and there aren't any openings... But it doesn't seem like she's moving...

"Heeeeh heh heh heh..."

I produced the only card in my posession from my pocket, declaring its name as I had on the lake...

"Molten sign: Eruption!"

Just as before, plumes of lava, rock and fire began to puncture the ground, engulfing the area in a sea of flame.

But, unlike last time, they began to move towards the opponent, eventually preventing her danmaku from spawning around her and, as evidenced by the following noise, was obviously doing its job.

In the same manner as on the lake, a deafening shattering sound marked the end of the battle, causing both the combatant's spell cards to cease at once.

-K.O.-

(POV switch: Back to Ray)

"And there goes that voice again..."

"Will you just shut up about it?"

"Both of you. Shut up."

That was a bit quick. You know, I'm beginning to wonder if brute force really IS the key to success here...

"Anyhow, lady, you agreed to let us through if he beat you."

"I'm not called "lady", my name is Meiling."

"Well you should have introduced yourself sooner if you wanted to be called by your name."

Okay, this is what happens when a girl is like Bowen. Hotheaded, then sheepish once they realize they've done something wrong, but less willing to accept it despite that.

"Fine... you can pass. But I'm telling you, your friend isn't in there!"

"Last time we took advice from a stranger, we had to fight off aliens from another dimension."

"Wasn't that the first time?"

"Oh, right. LAST time, we wound up creating multiple parallel worlds formed entirely out of rift energy."

"Hold on... how did Luke even get the money for this much science equipment?"

"Government research grant? He WAS breaking ground, after all..."

"But portals through space already existed!"

"Not ones safe for organic beings to pass through."

Meiling brought the conversation to a halt.

"Hold on, did you just say portals through space?"

"Yeah. Why? I thought you had someone here who could do that already."

"Exactly. Yukari doesn't take kindly to outsiders doing those kind of things..."

"Well, her bringing us here doesn't seem too unreasonable now, at least..."

Hold on. Where's Bowen?

BANG

"Dammit, Bonehead. Stop leaving."

I blew off after him into the large red mansion.

"...In a young girl's heart~"

Oop- gah. You're here. Anyway...

See, here I decided to not resolve every problem created in this chapter right away. In other news, the basic plot of arc 1 is laid out. It's gonna be 20 chapters or so. Gonna be lots of plot twists and stuff. Have fun.

Also, it was my birthday yesterday, I was sick as a dog the previous 2, and my back hurt tremendously if I tried to move it for 2 days before that. So there's why I didn't get this out sooner.