SBS Time!
ngrey651: If they're concerned that there's something screwy with this woman, shouldn't they investigate her? Look up her background? Look up her history and see if she has, like, a history of violence with anti-nature riots or the like? And if she does, wouldn't you want her out of your town, because you'd want to pick someone who WOULDN'T go postal at the sight of parrots and posies? And why would you give cybernetic arms to someone who just took a FLAMETHROWER to a flower field?
Game2002: I didn't think about those things in the first place, and even if I did, I wouldn't try to take them seriously; otherwise, it's going to be very hard making progress with the , I don't think wanting to burn a flower field is enough to make them want to look into Akemi's past.
Chapter 5
Menace of Metal
Six children were walking along the river that flowed from the direction of Youkai Mountain, and some of them were carrying sweet potatoes.
"I don't see any leaves… Only a few pieces…" one of the children said.
"And we came all the way from the Human Village to this place to look for them, because there were none back there…" another one of the children said. "Looks like we came here for naught…"
Another child looked at the top of the trees and said, "The trees are all bare… I don't think we can roast sweet potatoes anymore… Looks like we'll have to tell our parents to roast them for us at home…"
"Awwww… I was waiting for so long to roast sweet potatoes using dried leaves…" a little girl said as tears slowly came down from the corner of her eyes. "I don't want to wait until next fall to do this…"
"I can't be helped…" said the oldest child. "Anyway, let's head back. It's dangerous if we keep on going forward. Demons will show up sooner or later… In fact, we shouldn't even be coming here without adults…"
Just as the kids were turning to leave, there was a gust of wind that sent several leaves flying in their direction, and they piled up together in front of their eyes. "Look! Leaves!" a child pointed out.
"The amount is enough for roasting sweet potatoes!" the oldest one happily said.
"Yay! We can roast sweet potatoes at last!" the little girl exclaimed while jumping up and down.
The children wasted no time in bringing out matches to light up the pile of leaves to roast the sweet potatoes. Unknown to them, Shizuha was watching from behind a tree not too far away, smiling while watching them enjoy roasting the sweet potatoes.
"My! You're so kindhearted!" said a voice coming from behind her. Shizuha turned around to see that it was the goddess of misfortune, Hina Kagiyama.
"It's you," Shizuha said to her. "It was nothing. I simply didn't want them to come all the way here for naught."
"It really shows how kind you are!" Hina said to her. "You may be a pessimistic person, but you're really a nice person who shows concerns to others. You should let people know this side of you if you want to become more well-known and make more friends!"
"Nah, it's all right," Shizuha told her. "I'm all right with the way things are now. I have never been the kind of person who socializes with other people. Minoriko is the one who is good at that."
"You envy her, don't you?" Hina asked her. "If so, then you should take lessons from her. It's not like you will bring misfortune to people by being near them, like me. Admittedly, there are times when I wish I can have the company of other people, but being the goddess of misfortune, being close to them will bring them misfortune, and I do not wish that they meet such unfortunate luck because of me…"
"It can't be helped, considering what you are," Shizuha said to her. "Anyway, like I said earlier, I'm fine with the way I am now. Minoriko's ability is special and loved by many, but what about me? Making leaves fall isn't something that makes people happy."
"Don't you see those children roasting sweet potatoes happily and eating them?" Hina asked her while looking at the children. "If it weren't for your ability to make leaves dry up and fall down from trees during autumn, you wouldn't see sights like that! The sight before you is proof that there are people who appreciate your existence and ability!"
"You may be right, but compared to Minoriko's, it's nothing," Shizuha said.
"You should stop comparing yourself to your younger sister," Hina told her. "Both of you have very different abilities that cannot be compared with each other. She is well liked for a reason different from you, so you do not have to compare yourself to her all the time."
"Maybe that's just the way I am, always comparing myself to someone superior," Shizuha said as she turned to go deeper into the forest. "I appreciate that you're trying to make me open myself more to other people, but I have my way of living, and as long as I'm happy with it, there's nothing wrong with it."
"I can tell that you actually wish for the opposite," Hina said to her. "You actually want to be loved and praised by other people. Trust me; if you show your kindhearted side to people more, you'll surely be loved more!"
"Some other time, I think," Shizuha said without turning her head.
Hina sighed with a smile and then looked at the children. When she noticed one of the children seeing her, she quickly hid behind the tree. "There's someone over there!" that child said.
The others turned to where he was pointing, and one of them said, "There's nobody there. You must be seeing things. There shouldn't be anyone here other than demons."
"But I saw a human just now!" that child claimed. "I couldn't have mistaken a human for a demon! They look very different! Demons are very ugly and evil-looking, unlike humans."
"You must be seeing things," the oldest child said. "Anyway, once we're done, let's go back home. We shouldn't be staying here for too long. If the adults find out, they won't be happy."
However, the child who claimed to have seen Hina was the kind of person who didn't like it when someone didn't believe what he said, so he walked in the direction of the woods. "I'm going to prove to you that I saw someone there just now! Just you wait!"
"Hey! Don't go into the woods! It's dangerous!" one of the children called out to him, but he didn't listen. Seeing that he wasn't listening to them, the rest of the children decided to go after him.
That child went behind the tree to look for Hina, but the goddess was no longer there. The others caught up with him, and the oldest kid said to him, "See? There is nobody here."
"There was somebody here! He just left! I'm going to look for him! He couldn't have gone far!" the child said, and then he went deeper into the woods, closely followed by the others.
"We really shouldn't be coming here…" another one of the child said. "We should be going home now…"
"Right, we're going back whether or not you really did see a person just now!" the oldest kid said as he grabbed the persistent child's arm. "Maybe you saw a demon disguised as a human in order to lure us into the woods to eat us or harm us! Let's get out of here before we fall into his trap!"
Thinking carefully about what the oldest child said, that child said, "I think you're right… Maybe it was a demon disguising himself as a human in order to lure us in here to eat us… We better leave now…"
Just as they were turning to leave, they suddenly heard the sound of crashing coming from not too far away, and it shocked them. "What was that?!" one of them said.
The children looked in the direction the crashing came from and could see trees toppling in the distance, and there was someone making them fall. "What… What is that…?" another one of the children asked.
"I'm scared…" said the little girl as she hid behind the oldest child.
The thing was cutting down trees in mere seconds while moving in the children's direction, and as it came closer and closer, they were able to get a better look at what it was. It was a silver robot with an evil expression, and its left hand was a chainsaw.
The children slowly moved back in fear as the robot approached them. "What… What kind of demon is that…?" one of the children asked.
"I don't know… I've never seen a demon like that before…" the oldest child said.
The robot didn't seem to be paying them any attention, however. It kept on toppling the trees it came across, not caring that there were children nearby and that they could get hurt if a tree fell. It so happened that a rather tall tree it cut fell in their direction, but luckily, they managed to get out of the way in time.
One of the kids was a rather hot-tempered one, so after avoiding the falling tree, he picked up a fallen branch and flung it at the robot. "Get away from us, you evil demon!" he shouted.
The branch struck the side of the robot's head and bounced off it harmlessly, but it was enough to make the robot turn its attention to them. From its point of view, the text 'Objective: Cut down trees' seen at the bottom left side of its vision changed to 'Eliminate threat', so it started moving in their direction.
Seeing that the robot was coming after then, the kids waste no time in turning to run for their lives, and the robot gave chase. Unfortunately for them, the robot was a faster runner than them, and it was quickly catching up on them. The kids screamed for help, and suddenly, someone came crashing into the side of the robot and sent it flying into a tree.
CRAAAAAAASH!
The children turned around just in time to see Hina touch the ground and stop spinning. "A woman!" one of the children pointed out.
"I think she was the one I saw while we were roasting potatoes!" the child who came looking for her in the first place said. "Yes! She's definitely the one! Do you believe me now?"
Hina turned to the children and said, "Please leave here at once, children! I fear that misfortune will befall you if you stay here any longer!"
"Big sister! Watch out!" the little girl cried out to her. Hina turned to the robot to see that it had gotten up and lunged itself at her to hit her with its chainsaw arm. The goddess leaped to the side in the nick of time, but the side of her waist got cut a little by it.
She grunted in slight pain as she landed from her jump, and then the robot turned to her to attack with its chainsaw again, but she kept on dodging it by moving side to side. The children quickly ran a bit of a distance away and hid behind a tree to watch from there. "We should be getting out of here, don't you think so…?" one of them asked.
"But I want to see what's going to happen next!" the hot-tempered one said.
Hina continued to dodge the robot's chainsaw, and then she jumped and delivered a roundhouse kick to the robot's head to send the whole thing flying to the side. The robot hit a tree and seemingly fell limp, and the goddess approached it to make sure. "Why is there a robot here?" she wondered.
Suddenly, the robot pointed its other hand at her and released a stream of fire from its wrist gun. The goddess screamed as she used her arms to shield herself from the flames, but it did not save her from catching on fire. Acting on instinct, Hina fell to the ground and rolled backwards as fast as she could until she managed to put out the fire, and then she stopped to stand back up. She barely had time to rest, however, as the robot ran at her right after that.
She jumped out of the way to avoid getting hit by its chainsaw, which cut down a tree behind her. The robot then used its wrist-mounted flamethrower against her, but she quickly moved back while spinning. "It's dangerous if I let it use fire so recklessly," she thought. "I must at least do something about its right hand first!"
The goddess then ran at the robot. When it used its flamethrower against her again, she jumped over the fire and landed on top of its wrist gun. Hina forced the robot onto the ground by doing that and managed to flatten and damage the wrist gun as well. However, the robot was unaware of this, and when the goddess jumped back and it got up to use its flamethrower again, the wrist gun released smoke and then exploded, taking out the robot's hand.
BAAAAAAAAANG!
The robot took several steps back from the blast and then looked at its hand. If it was able to show expressions, it would do so now. "Good! Got rid of the most dangerous part of him!" Hina thought.
Suddenly, the robot's body opened, and four wires shot out. Because this happened very suddenly, Hina had no time to react, so the wires caught her arms and waist. "What the?!"
Two semicircle saw blades came out of the robot's body and connected together back to back to form a buzzsaw, and then the wires started pulling Hina in. The goddess struggled to break free from the wires, but they were too tough to break. They were being pulled back at a force that was too much for her to fight against as well.
The goddess continued to struggle to escape when suddenly leaves flew at the wire and severed them, freeing her. The robot turned to look at the source of the leaves, only to receive a foot to the face by Shizuha. The goddess of red leaves bounced back into the air as the robot went flying back and slid across the leaf-covered ground.
Shizuha turned to Hina and asked her, "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine… Thanks for the help!" Hina said to her while trying to remove the wires from herself.
Shizuha turned to the robot to see it getting back up, and when it did, it fired four wires from its body again, but the goddess leaped to the side and then flung a leaf with superb accuracy at the robot's left eye, destroying it. Because of this, the robot moved backwards awkwardly while retracing its wires into its body and closing it. Shizuha ran at the robot and unleashed a series of kicking combos against it nonstop.
KICK SMASH KICK SMASH SMASH!
By the time Shizuha was done kicking the robot, there were dents all over its body, and some of its joints looked like they were going to fall off. Shizuha then grabbed the robot by its head and forcefully lowered it to smash it in the chin with her knee, and such an act caused its jaw to be shattered.
While the robot was trying to recover from receiving a fatal blow, Shizuha took out a leaf, grabbed its head, and plunged it into its other eye to blind it completely. After that, she forcefully twisted the robot's head to the side and snapped it. Finally, she pulled back her leg and turned to the side a little before unleashing a devastating kick that sent the robot shooting backwards at a high speed.
KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!
The robot crash into a tree with such a force that the latter toppled forward, crushing it.
CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!
"Whoa…" Hina was in a loss of words when she saw Shizuha defeating the robot.
Shizuha approached the defeated robot to inspect it, but when she a heard a loud beeping sound coming from it, her instinct told her to get away from it. It was the correct decision to get away from the robot, because after the beeping sound was heard several times, the robot exploded.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
"It exploded… Guess it's normal for a machine to explode when it is destroyed…" Shizuha thought.
Hina walked up next to her and said, "Wow… Never thought you were this good! I know you're good at fighting up close, but I didn't expect you to be this good! This is the first time I saw you fighting seriously like this!"
The two goddesses then noticed the children from before looking at them from nearby, and they were unsure if those two were safe to approach. "It's all right now, kids," said Hina, trying to start a conversation with them. "You don't have to be scared. We won't hurt you."
"Tha… Thanks…" the oldest child said. "Thank you for saving us…"
"That was really awesome!" said one of the children, the hot-tempered one. "Yellow-haired sis was really cool! She totally destroyed that demon with an awesome kick!"
"Yeah! That was awesome!" said another one.
The little girl went close to the two goddesses. "Thank you for helping us, big sisters!" she said to them.
"I'm glad that you're safe!" Hina said to her. "Now please go back home to your parents. I'm sure they're worried about you. Also, please do not stay close to me for too long, because I am the goddess of misfortune, and being close to me is not good for you, I fear…"
"Why? What bad things will happen?" the little girls asked. "Big sister is beautiful and strong, so why will bad things happen if I come near you?"
"Because misfortune will befall you and make you run into all sorts of bad luck, such as getting injured or getting attacked by demons," Shizuha said to her in a straightforward manner.
"Shizuha! You're scaring her!" Hina said to her.
"But that's the truth," Shizuha told her. "It's for the safety for this little girl that I said this. Run along now, kids. Go back home. You shouldn't be in this place. It's very dangerous for the likes of you to be here."
The little girl, a bit scared by Shizuha's attitude, returned to join the other kids, but not before thanking her for saving them. The children gave the goddesses one last thanks before Hina told them the direction they should be heading for if they wanted to leave the woods and return to the Human Village.
As they watched the children leave, Hina said to Shizuha, "This is a good opportunity for you to open up to those children, you know? You should be kinder to them and let them know the good side of you. Saving them was a good start!"
"Like I've always said, I lack social skills, so I wouldn't know how to act friendly in front of them, that's why I acted the way I have always been," Shizuha said.
"You're always like that… I do hope that you change someday," Hina told her. "Friends are nice and important to have, so you shouldn't miss the opportunity to make some."
"Let's not talk about that now," Shizuha said, and then she turned to look at the burnt spot, the spot where the robot once was. "Don't you find it strange that there's a robot on the loose here?"
Hina looked at the same spot and nodded. "Indeed… Why would it be cutting trees, too? The only explanation for the robot is that it came from the science lab."
"You're right," Shizuha said with a nod. "In Gensokyo, something as advanced as a robot can only come from the science lab."
"But why would they create something that would attack civilians? That's unlike of anyone in the lab to build something like this…" Hina wondered.
"Or the robot was just acting on self-defense. Anyway, I think we should talk to Nitori or someone from the lab to get to the bottom of this," Shizuha suggested, and Hina nodded in agreement.
No sooner after agreeing that they should tell Nitori or anyone from the science lab about the robot, several kappas from there, including Nitori herself, were at the site where the battle once took place.
Nitori was crouched down in front of the spot of the explosion, inspecting that place to see if there were any pieces of the robot that could be collected and examined. Hina asked her, "Well? Did you find anything?"
"If you consider a single bolt to be something…" Nitori said as she picked up a charred bolt. "This is really all I can find of the robot you claim to have seen… Whoever built it must've installed a self-destruction mechanism in it so that it cannot be examined when it is destroyed… Pretty smart of him if you ask me…"
"Do you think you can find out anything from that single bolt?" Shizuha asked her.
"I doubt so…" Nitori said. "However, it should be good proof that the robot came from the lab, as I cannot think of anywhere else that have bolts like this. Wait… I think Kourindou may have bolts as well, but I still think it came from the lab… Anyway, at least there's something to take back…" The kappa stood up and looked at her colleagues, who were examining the cut trees and asked them if they found anything, but the answer was negative, other than that the tree was cut down using a chainsaw. "Well, looks like we've hit a dead end in our search…"
"Guess we'll never be able to find the culprit, right?" Shizuha asked.
"You said the robot is humanoid in appearance and is silver all over, right?" Nitori said while examining the bolt she found. "It's face…"
"A pretty generic angry face, that's the best way I can describe it," Shizuha said. "You know… Angry eyes and a frown… Also, the eyes were giving off orange light."
"Doesn't sound like anything we have back there…" Nitori said before putting the bolt into her pocket. "Anyway, we'll look into this, and we'll see into it that something like this doesn't happen again. The last thing we want is to have something coming from us harming the civilians here…"
Back in the science lab, in the area where machines were being worked on, Nitori presented the bolt to Rika to see if the latter could find out anything. "There's really nothing you can find out just by looking at a simple bolt, you know… And a charred one at that…" Rika said. "The only thing we can determine is that it's been through fire or an explosion…"
"Figures…" said Nitori in disappointment.
"Perhaps the most we can do is to match it with the bolts we have to see if it really did come from here," Rika said. "Other than that, I don't know if we can find out anything more… Your description of the robot sounds unfamiliar to me as well… As far as I remember, we weren't building any robots lately. The only humanoid robot we have currently is Hisou Tensoku, and it hasn't been used since its test run. Plus, the size is off, too…"
"Whatever the case is, we better keep an eye on things to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again," Nitori said to her. "Kanako wouldn't like it if she finds out that a robot was causing trouble on the surface…"
"Right," Rika said with a nod. "We'll definitely look into this to make sure that this doesn't happen again."
Unknown to them, Akemi was peeking at them from behind the door, and she heard everything they said. When she though their conversation came to an end, she left and headed in the direction of her office. "I doubt they're going to find out anything from that bolt," Akemi said in her head. "Even so, I have to make the self-destruct mechanism more perfect in order for there to be no remaining parts when the robots blow up…"
She returned to her office and then sat down on her chair. Looking at her cybernetic arms, Akemi said, "Thanks to these cybernetic arms, I'm able to build robots in a short amount of time! Something like that should take days to complete, but I was able to complete one in less than an hour!"
Then she stood up and headed over to the wall at the back of the office. Moving aside the calendar hanging there, she pushed the part of the wall behind it to reveal a secret passage next to it. She went into the passage and came to a room that had several of the same kind of robots. "Built ten of them in a single night, and without anybody realizing it as well!" Akemi said to herself. "I even managed to build this secret room without anybody realizing it! I bet they have no idea that these arms they gave me are this powerful! Thanks to them, I shall be able to lay waste to this primitive piece of land called Gensokyo and then turn it into a bustling city, or town! Heheheheheheh! Hahahahahahahaha!"
TO BE CONTINUED
I had fun typing Shizuha's fight, though I'm not sure if some of you will say that I made her way too out of character… Please let me know what you think of my portrayal of her.
Thanks in advance!
God bless you all!