Hikari and Osamu were standing awkwardly on the break room counter, playing patty cake.
"Patty cake, patty cake, baker's mad…" Hikari began.
"Put 'em in the oven, and… blah blah blah!" Osamu forgot how the rest went.
…
Hikari paused. "Was it baker's 'mad' or baker's 'man'?"
"I don't give a shit." Osamu jumped off the counter. "I'm so fucking bored right now."
Mokou sat in the corner of the room, staring into space.
Bang, bang, bang!
"Shut the fuck up!" Mokou boomed at the door.
Osamu got on his knees. "C'mon, whoever the fuck is listening, Eientei, break room, do something!"
Hikari sighed. 'I don't think it's that bad, yet… Besides,' Hikari tore open a bag of chips. 'This place has future chips. I like that.'
Crunch!
==== GENSOKYOBOUND: MARIGOLD'S VIEW ====
Soft footsteps were just barely audible in the evening's howling winds and flurries of snow.
'E-eeegh…'
Marigold was mostly numb as she trudged through the snowy forest. Thankfully, she had some protection from snow and wind by the tall trees, but only every so often.
"A-achoo!..."
In front of her was a rather modern looking home.
'I-I think… I found it…' It was hard to make out in the snow flurries, and the lights were off, but she could see the house's side.
Clumsily stomping through the snow to the houses' side, she ran her numb hands across the cold exterior, though it still felt warmer than her hands.
'D-door…'
She traced along the side of the house until she reached the front door.
Twisting the knob, she found it locked.
'R-right…'
She took out her unlocking machine, unaware of how tightly she was even grasping it. She looked at it, focusing intensely on the task of inserting it into the lock and activating it.
'O-old lock… should work…'
Cli-click, cli-click, cli-cli-click…
Click!
The door creaked open…
'M-mother…'
"A-ah…"
In her excitement, Marigold tripped to the floor on her way in, swinging it wide open. The house was dark.
The lock-opening device slid across the floor…
'I'm safe now…' Marigold let herself relax, crawling along the floor, too fatigued to bother getting up.
'I-I'll just… stay… here…'
Cold air blew into the house from the open door.
...Marigold crawled under the table to shield herself from the winter air.
…
The guest room door swung open.
"The hell was that?"
The figure saw the open door.
She spoke under her breath. "Oh, geez… I told 'er not to disarm the stupid defense system…"
She walked to the door and closed it.
"...Good thing they took off..."
Marigold sighed in relief, balled up under the table.
'Better…'
Marigold's eyes drift closed…
==== GENSOKYOBOUND ====
'C'mon, whoever the fuck is listening, Eientei, break room, do something!'
Marigold heard that voice again, but couldn't reply.
…
==== GENSOKYOBOUND ====
She woke up in a bed, that she knew.
'I-I can feel again…'
Marigold sat up, and sighed.
'...Well, I made it to Mom's house…'
She was in the room that was added to the house for her specifically. Her mother told her it was no big deal since the dolls of hers could do all the legwork easily.
That made her question why it was so hard to get her own room back at the manor.
'I don't mind sleeping with the fairies, anyway. They're friendly.'
…
Her eyes widened. 'That sounds weird! I didn't mean it like that!'
In the excitement, she kicked the covers off herself, only to feel cold air the moment she did so.
'G-geez…'
...Looking over to the nightstand next to the bed, Marigold found her glasses and re-equipped them. She did the same with her outfit, which was on the dresser nearby.
The room wasn't highly decorated, but akin to her corner in Patchouli's library, a drafting table and a shelf of tools was present, the shelf being a fancy, custom-built one this time. The room's walls were a basic blue, with the occasional marking of something Marigold did to the wall in one way or another.
…
"Achoo!"
'I think I'm coming down with something…' She wasn't about to let it stop her, though.
Picking up her backpack which was next to the bedside, she left the room.
In the main room was one of her mothers, Alice.
Alice looks up from a counter that had an assortment of dolls on it, and turns to her.
"You're awake, huh?"
Marigold nodded.
"...That was really something, you know."
Alice moved to the table in the center of the room, and sat down. Marigold did the same.
"Marisa awoke me in the dead of night with some crashing and smashing. At first I thought an intruder was breaking in, but she just wanted me to attend to you."
'So, that was who found me…' Marigold didn't remember much from when she got into the house.
"...You were so cold. I had to check your pulse just to make sure…"
…
"Is it really that lonely at the mansion?" Alice looks up at Marigold solemnly.
'A little, but…'
Marigold recalled the voice she heard last evening.
'It's not a dream… I hope it's not a dream…'
…
…
'Maybe I should say something.' The silence was getting uncomfortable for her.
"S-sorry for making you worry…" Marigold broke the ice.
'Good start as any.'
Alice smiled. "Well… just don't do anything crazy like that again, alright? The fact you weren't attacked by a youkai in such weather is a miracle in and of itself."
'You have no idea.' Gensokyo apparently not only had goats, but also had asshole goats.
…
"Achoo!"
Alice sighed. "Of all the times for me to be out of cold medicine… and Reimu's daughter still hasn't come back with the prescriptions yet. I could have at least snuck a few doses of Patchouli's cough medicine into my own storage."
'I'm pretty sure that's not legal.' Marigold didn't know if Gensokyo had specific laws, now that she thought about it.
"It's still snowing, too. I could make a run to Eientei for you, if you want…" Alice proposed.
'Eientei…' Marigold paused.
"...Eientei's the clinic, right?" Marigold asks.
"Yeah." Alice blinked.
…
"Did you ever finish that doll, Mom?" Marigold had an idea…
Alice paused. "...Not qui~te. Why're you asking now?"
"Just wondering. I'd like to use it, if I could…"
Alice shook her head. "You know the London Lander's not in any state to be used right now, especially by living beings. It's so prone to crashing that I'm pretty sure it's more useful as a battering ram than as a vehicle, for now."
The London Lander was a vehicle Alice had been working on off and on for a few years now for Marigold. Since Marigold was unable to manipulate mana, she also couldn't fly, so Alice had been working on a remedy. Unfortunately, it had been far bigger of a project than she had anticipated, so even years later, it hardly has a fraction of the features Alice had wanted to install, like danmaku cannons or spell card technology.
"I need to get to Eientei." Marigold states. "...Myself."
'She could come with me, but…' Marigold didn't necessarily agree with that notion. 'I like doing these kinds of things myself. Besides, I feel like I'm finally doing something exciting for a change...'
Alice raises a brow. "...'Need' is a strong word. I know you're not feeling well, but-"
"It's not-... Achoo!" ...Marigold rubbed her nose. "It's not that... I need to do something there."
"...Such as?"
…
"Something." Marigold looked conflicted.
'I'm kind of planning to cross that bridge when I get to it…'
…
"...Well, if you insist." Alice furrows her brows. "I guess it's better than letting you try and walk it on your own, and possibly getting hurt, or worse."
Marigold smiled. "Thanks, Mom."
Marigold got up and moved to the door. "Is it in the backyard?"
Alice nodded. "Yeah. Under the tarp."
…
Marigold paused, turning back to Alice. "...You wouldn't, uh, happen to have a wind stone by any chance, would you…?"
…
Alice snorted in amusement. "I would happen to have a wind stone. Do you want it?"
"Yeah."
...Alice got up and headed to room. A few moments later, she returned with a wind stone.
"Here, catch."
Alice tossed it into the air. It glided up and into the ceiling, rebounding off it.
Marigold caught it. It was lighter than a feather, and then some.
'Weird thing.' She couldn't deny that that's what made it a fun thing to fool with, though.
"Bye, Mom." Marigold semi-awkwardly gave her departure.
"Now, you hold on just a moment…" Alice called out to her.
Marigold turned to her again, confused, only to find her mother was right next to her.
She pulled Marigold into a hug.
"I love you." Her mother told her.
…
"I love you too, Mom."
==== GENSOKYOBOUND ====
Marigold pulled the snowy tarp from the large doll-shaped machine.
Her mother had modeled it after one of her London dolls, from what she knew. It really was pretty much just a giant London doll with a control center of sorts in the interior. It used a form of scrying magic to generate a screen on the inside from which to see out of the eyes of the doll.
'It's a little buggy…' Marigold knew that was an understatement.
She opened the hatch on the back, and climbed in.
'Cozy…'
She slammed the hatch shut. On the inside she could hardly hear the howling wind anymore.
'Now, let's see…' A few months ago, her mother briefly went over the controls with her.
'Time to apply what I remember.'
She pressed the big, blue button that was labeled 'START'.
Lines of magic whirled up the walls of the interior. Magic circles formed, shimmered, and dissolved in various places quickly. The construct began vibrating.
'Alright, nice and easy…'
The screen flickered to life, rendered on a sheet of metal. It was very, very blue tinted due to the unoptimized magic used, but Marigold…
…
She squinted.
'Between the white and blue, and all the snow… I really can't make out a single thing.'
Marigold could not, infact, see out of the machine in this weather.
The machine floated into the air, and after a few moments it cleared the trees. Marigold's screen was pretty much pure white.
'That's great.' Marigold shook her head.
She was pretty certain Eientei was in a vague angle from the front of her mother's house…
'Didn't this thing have a radar?' She wasn't about to press buttons and find out, though.
She pressed the unlabeled button above 'START', and the machine began moving forward.
...and forward.
It kept accelerating, and Marigold could feel it.
'Uh oh.'
The machine roared through the air, smacking wind and snow aside as it plowed through the winter sky.
"U-uh…"
'How do I make it slow down…?'
She tried pressing the unlabeled button underneath 'START'.
A green magic circle appeared, showing dots on it.
'Ah. The radar…' The dots seemed entirely random, though. She wouldn't be surprised if it was just totally non-functional and Alice hadn't actually casted any of the magic work on it yet.
...The machine began smacking against thin objects, producing a constant clattering noise.
"A-ah…" Marigold wasn't sure what that was. Was she hitting tree branches? 'I can't be that low down…'
She pressed some random buttons. 'Surely most of these don't work…'
The flying doll began twirling through the air.
'Some of them do, though!'
Boom!
The doll hit something solid, plowing straight through it.
"O-oh, no…!"
'Not good, not good!'
Bam!
'I'm probably crashing into a forest!'
Boom!
Bam!
…
Baa~m!
The device screeched to a halt, out of momentum. The magic circles and lights in the machine began flickering out, leaving Marigold in the dark.
…
'That's not good.'
==== GENSOKYOBOUND: HIKARI'S VIEW ====
Hikari had finished her tenth bag of future chips.
'I'm sick of those things now…' Hikari wiped the dust from the chips on her shrine maiden getup.
Behind her was a smashed open vending machine, bags of chips lying on the counter aside it and on the floor.
Mokou was lying on the table now, her arms folded behind her head as she stared at the ceiling.
Osamu was walking around the room, clapping his hands unrhythmically.
"Come o~n, random stranger, sa~ve ou~r a~ss!" he sang.
They tried everything, from PK Fantasy to randomly casting PK Thunder. The wall and doors to this breakroom were made of some serious shit.
Bang, bang, bang!
The marred door was only slightly budging, now. It was partially melted from Mokou's many attempts to go nuclear on it. The plasted of the walls was melted and burnt away to reveal some sort of white metal on the inside that, as far as Hikari knew, was impenetrable.
'This place is more like a jail than a hospital…' Hikari reflected.
Boom!
Hikari looked to the source of the noise. She looked to the other two, but they didn't react at all.
"...You guys hear that?" Hikari asked.
"Trust me, I've been fucking hearing it for two goddamn days now. I'd rather die of hunger at this point." Mokou sassed.
Osamu stopped. "Hear what?"
Bam!
…
"That." Hikari nodded at the louder noise.
"...Hmm. Probably the fairies." Mokou sighed. "Fuck."
Osamu grinned. "Maybe it's the random dude coming to bail us out!"
Boom!
Hikari snorted. "With what, explosives?"
"What the hell else is he supposed to use to cleave through bloodthirsty zombie fairies?" Osamu folded his arms.
…
'He has a point.'
Bam!
Mokou sat up. "It's getting louder…"
Boom!
Osamu moved to the counter and climbed up onto it. "Oh, fuck that. If that thing blows this room a new one, I'm staying out of the way."
Hikari climbed up onto the counter with him.
Mokou rolled her eyes. "You're both a bunch of pussies, you-"
Baa~m!
A large doll-shaped object plowed through the wall parallel to the door.
Mokou looked to it, alarmed. "-Holy-!"
Thunk!
It collided with her.
Boo~m!
The machine slid to a stop against the other wall of the room. Osamu and Hikari stared at it, wide-eyed.
Mokou was pressed against the wall, blood splattering it. "A-aah… Fuck…"
…
"I ain't touchin' that thing!" Osamu hugged the wall. "...Hikari, you're the one with the stick! Go hit it, or something!"
'No. For all I know, it could explode…' Hikari shook her head, folding her arms.
"C'mon!" Osamu pushed her.
She uneasily leaped from the counter and onto her feet, finding her balance. She turned to Osamu and glared.
He smiled sheepishly. "Go get 'em, slugger…!"
…
Hikari turned to it, and walked up to it. She gave it a good whack.
Bo~ng.
…
'Well, that was pointless.'
Fwwsshh…
A hatch on the back of the doll opened. Hikari stepped back…
...A blonde-haired girl donning swirly glasses stood from the device. She threw her arms back, taking a good look around. The manner in which she threw her arms made the frills of her outfit flutter slightly.
…
"U-uh…" she began, "Is this Eientei?"
==== GENSOKYOBOUND: MARIGOLD'S VIEW ====
Bo~ng.
'I bet that's the parts falling off it, or something.'
…
'Here's to hoping I don't open it to find I ended up in a pile of snow…'
Fwwsshh…
Marigold braced herself for whatever was outside. 'That's a good start.'
Standing from the opening, she threw her arms back in an attempt to appear relatively menacing.
…
'It's a move magi do often to look intimidating, or so they say…' Marigold hoped it worked for her.
Looking around, she realized she wasn't in a snowy forest at all. Rather, she was inside some kind of structure. In front of her was what looked like a shrine maiden with orange dust dirtying parts of her outfit, and for whatever reason there was a village mage standing on the counter along the wall of the room.
…
"U-uh… Is this Eientei?"
The shrine maiden blinked. "...Yeah."
The mage hopped off the counter. "Not anymore, it ain't! Now it's zombie fairy city!"
'Zombie fairies? Is that even possible?' Marigold was skeptical. "...How does a fairy become a zombie?"
He shrugged. "I dunno- don't ask me! We're lookin' for some stupid doctor, but we got our asses locked up in here 'cause of the stupid zombies."
...He looked at the new hole in the wall, and beamed immediately. "Duu~de…"
…
Marigold thought back to her previous two nights of sleep.
'...!'
"Hey, you're-" Marigold was cut off.
"Fuck!"
She turned and saw a pale, white-haired woman pinned to the wall by the London Lander.
'O-oh, geez…' Marigold blanched. "O-oh, uhm…"
Mokou pressed her hands against it, and the outer shell of the head began melting. "A little help here!? One of you fucks! Do something!"
Marigold watched the blood pooling on the floor.
'S-she's not going to make it at that rate…!' Marigold realized. 'What have I done!?'
Marigold cautiously stepped towards her. "A-are you okay?"
…
Mokou paused and just looked at her, giving her the stink-eye.
'...Stupid question. Still...'
"...You gonna fuckin' do something?" Mokou asked venomously.
'...It must hurt really bad. There's only one thing I can do…'
Marigold drew her Pop Gun.
Mokou sighed. "...The hell are you going to-"
Pop! Pop! Pop!
…
Mokou stared at her, annoyed. "What, are you going to tickle me to death? The hell even is that!?"
Pop! Pop! Pop!
"Stop doing that!"
...Pop!
"For fuck's sake…"
==== GENSOKYOBOUND: HIKARI'S VIEW ====
Hikari watched Mokou get pelted with technicolor danmaku pellets by the frazzled girl.
Pop! Pop!
"God, damn…"
Pop! Pop!
"...You know, if it didn't work the first-"
Pop!
"-ten times, why would it work the next-"
Pop!
"ten times!?"
Osamu had his hand over his mouth, restraining a giggle fit.
Pop! Pop!
…
"Uuuhh…"
Hikari froze.
"H-h-heehhll…"
Osamu and her both turned to see zombie fairies swarming in through the hole in the wall.
"Oh, shit!" Osamu shouts. "Hey, hey girl! May wanna shoot them instead!"
The blonde girl paused, and looked at the fairies. "A-aah… They really are…"
Hikari shook her head. 'This really feels like a fantasy novel right about now. A really cheesy one.'
Hikari tried PK Fantasy α!
A rain of technicolor energy drops flew into the room from the walls.
Fizzle!
As always, they completely disregarded the laws of physics to strike Hikari's foes, leaving echoes of energy behind.
Fizzle!
Hikari focused on the zombie horde.
Bwaa~sh!
Pi-Pi-Pi-Ch-Pi-Pi-Pi-Chuu~n!
…
"...Wow." The blonde girl gaped.
"That's what I said." Osamu agreed.
'Triple.' Hikari also agreed.
"Mind using that on this fucking doll?" Mokou banged on it with her fists.
...More zombies began pouring in from the hole, but at a far fewer rate, trickling compared to the horde that just tried to infiltrate the room.
The blonde girl walked up to the counter, and sat her backpack down on it. "...Give me a moment. I need to do something." She took out some grey parts, one of which was a barrel, and the other which looked like a gun base.
Osamu rolled his eyes. "This ain't the time for arts and crafts!"
A zombie staggered towards Hikari.
SMAAAA~SH!
Pi~chun!
'It's a good thing they move so slow…'
The blonde girl took a stone out, and stuck it in the area between the gun body and barrel attachment point.
...She balled up some of the chip bags, and stuck them in too. "That should keep it in place…"
A few zombie stumbled in…
Osamu grinned. "I got it!"
Osamu tried PK Thunder α!
Thwaa~sh!
Pi~chun!
A fairy exploded.
"I've got it!"
Osamu tried PK Thunder α!
Thwaa~sh!
Boom!
The head of the doll explodes, freeing Mokou from her prison.
She wipes a splash of blood from the blast off her face. "F-finally…"
Hikari intercepts one of the zombies.
SMAAAA~SH!
Pi~chun!
One neared the blonde girl, who pulled out her fruity colored firearm.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
"Egh…" The fairy stops in place.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
It drops to its knees.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Pi~chun!
The blonde girl panted. "Hahh… so many shots…"
She returned to the strange device she was creating.
"...Say, magi…" She started.
"Who, me?" Osamu looked around a little. "Name's Osamu, and I ain't no magi. I'm just a human mage."
She paused.
…
"Osamu, do you know of a way I could harness ambient magic with the barrel of this weapon?" She asks.
He shrugs. "How the hell should I know?"
A zombie fairy saunters in…
The girl perks up. "...Don't kill that one!"
Hikari stops herself from caving its skull in.
'What? Why?'
Pop! Pop! Pop!
The fairy is slowed to a halt by the puny danmaku pellets.
Pop! Pop!
The blonde girl runs up to it and pushes it to the floor.
Thud.
The zombie fairy lands on the floor.
Pop!
A good shot to the head seems to stun its movement entirely.
She turns to the rest of the people in the room. "Could anyone cut a part off of this fairy? Like the finger, for example?"
…
"I could burn it off…" Mokou provides.
"Come here," The blonde girl instructs her, "I need you to burn off a finger or few for me."
Mokou narrowed her eyes. "...Why~?"
"...Science." She assures Mokou.
"...I've seen what science does." Mokou frowns.
"Not what my science does." She argues.
Mokou looks dissatisfied, but goes to help her anyway. Kneeling down, she begins burning the dead looking fingers off…
Ssss…
…
==== GENSOKYOBOUND: MARIGOLD'S VIEW ====
Marigold noticed the weird stares she was getting from the other room's occupants as she watched the culling of the fairie's fingers take place.
'I'm pretty sure a fairy's anatomy naturally harvests ambient magic. All I need to do is find a way to make it make danmaku particles…' A fairy whose body took a lot of abuse was a perfect test subject for this endeavor.
Before long, all five fingers of the fairy's hand were lying on the floor. The fairy didn't even seem to notice.
'Alright…' Marigold picked them up.
She went over to the broken Air Gun's parts.
...She stuck one of the fingers where the trigger was, so that when she pushed the trigger, it'd get squeezed.
'Actually…' She just put all but one of the finger in there. She balled up more of the foil-esque bags and shoved them in on top of the fingers, then clicked the top of the gun back onto the grip. She shoved more balled up bags in the bit that went from the grip to the barrel, and then after attaching the barrel, she slid a finger down into the barrel.
'This isn't going to work.' That she knew.
She aimed the Air Gun at the wall, and pulled the trigger.
Klack!
Wind spiraled out of the barrel as a single, grey danmaku pellet was shot out. It was bigger than the ones her Pop Gun fired, but it was also not as amusing, unfortunately.
...The barrel also shot that finger out of it. Marigold didn't know where it even went.
Osamu nodded slowly. "...I don't even know how the hell that works, to be honest."
Marigold turned to him. "I think I understand. It's the pressure of the trigger in combination with the mana that exists in the fingers. I think the bags circulate the mana and the wind stone I used guides it. I don't actually know, though… that's just a theory."
'A science theory!' Marigold adds mentally.
The shrine maiden shrugs, and the pale-haired woman just sighs. "Whatever…"
...Another zombie saunters in.
Marigold aims for it.
Klack!
A fast, wind-propelled danmaku pellet collides with its head.
Pi~chun!
'Now we're cooking with gas!'
Marigold aims into the hole and fires randomly.
Klack! Klack!
…
She pulls the trigger more, but no bullets come out.
'Wait…'
She pulls off the grip, only to find all the extra fingers are gone.
'Oo~h…'
They were ammo, apparently.
'I suppose I'll have to conserve my shots…'
Marigold stares at the pale-haired pyro expectantly.
"...Don't tell me," she began, "you need more, right?"
Marigold nodded.
Looking vaguely displeased, the pyro got to work on sizzling off the rest of the fairy's fingers.
Ssss…
…
In moments, all the fairy's fingers were off and Marigold loaded them into the grip of the Air Rifle. She also took her Pop Gun and slid it into her left pocket- for easy grabbing if she wanted to shoot something without spending her unorthodox ammo.
"...Can we do that with a few more fairies? I kinda need the-"
"Who the hell do you think I am? A nurse?" The pale-haired woman scowls at her. "If you wanna keep fucking with fairy bits or whatever, you're gonna have to do it yourself."
…
'I guess she's right.' Marigold considered looking for a scalpel of some sort.
The shrine maiden spoke up. "W-we should probably get going..."
==== GENSOKYOBOUND: HIKARI'S VIEW ====
'I wonder if someone gives lessons on how to improve your voice...'
Hikari walked up to the hole in the wall. No more zombies appeared to be nearby, so she poked her head out…
'Yep. No more zombies. For now.'
As she did so, she brushed shoulders with Mokou, who was stomping past her.
"Lemme go first." Mokou cracked her knuckles. "Let's just say... I've got some boredom to relieve."
"Mmm…" 'You do that.'
Mokou stomps ahead, ready to inflict murder on whatever happens to shamble in her way.
Door slams are heard, with dark hallways as their source.
'Great.' The reason they got stuck in that jail cell of a break room was because of said zombies. Hikari wasn't sure what they were going to do from here…
Osamu and the blonde girl stepped from the hole in the break room next.
"Who the hell turned out all the lights to this place, anyway?" Osamu complained. "The break room has lighting, but the halls don't? Just 'cause there's zombies… whatever."
The blonde girl stopped to consider his words for a moment, but dismissed them. "We need to find a scalpel."
"No, we don't!" Mokou calls from farther up the hallway.
'Considering this place is supposed to be a hospital, that shouldn't be too hard…' She wasn't certain of the girl's rationale, but considering she could make very much needed ranged weaponry, she was alright in Hikari's book.
Hikari then realized they were still following Mokou, even though she was pretty sure she had no idea where to take them.
"...H-hey." Hikari strained out, then cleared her throat. "Huhem…"
Mokou didn't hear her.
'Alright, take two…'
"Hey," She loudly began, "Do you know where we're going?"
Mokou paused. "...Well, there's only a few places we can go. The doc has a couple labs around, but I'm willing to bet shit's goin' down in that bitch's room, too. I was kinda plannin' on stopping by a lab on the way to her room."
'Guess that works.' Better than the aimless wandering she'd be conducting, anyway.
The doors ahead slammed open.
"Well, here we go…" Mokou readies her fists, wrapping them in flames.
The blonde girl turned around to see some more zombies creeping down the hallway.
She raised her Air Rifle.
Klack!
Pi~chun!
The three zombies became two.
"Here!" Osamu readied himself…
Osamu tried PK Freeze ß!
A larger pattern of ice generated in the shape of diamonds.
KaKa-KaKaKling!
Like previously, it froze and thawed repeatedly.
Kra~ck!
A small blast of arctic air was created, with the targeted fairy as ground zero.
Pi~chun!
"Huh…" He stared at his hands, a faint aura of frost fading from them. "...That was awesome!"
'That seemed a little more potent than usual…'
"Dude, I'm like a fuckin' ice fairy!"
The blonde girl drew her Pop Gun and aimed at the remaining zombie fairy.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Osamu tried PK Freeze ß!
KaKa-KaKaKling!
The fairy's body was mangled by the forceful freezing and thawing.
Kra~ck!
…
The fairy was solidified.
…
Pop!
Pi~chun!
It exploded into a deadly magic shard barrage that quickly vaporized into gaseous mana.
'That fairy got annihilated.'
"Hoho~h, shit!" Osamu slapped his thigh. "Dayum!"
The cyan-clad girl looked satisfied.
Fwooom!
Pi~chun! Pi~chun! Pi~chun!
Mokou roasted the small group of fairies approaching them.
"Let's get goin'." She gestured for the other three to follow. "We ain't got forever."
The blonde girl stops near one of the door ways. "Hold on! We should search in here…"
Mokou resists the urge to facepalm. "Fucking- look, there's probably so many fuckin' fairies in there-"
"You go first, then." She suggests. "...I'm just trying to find a scalpel."
"Is that what this is about!?" Mokou growls. "Fuck you."
She tilts her head, but seems unsurprised.
"Well, here…" She raises her Pop Gun and aims it into the dark room.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
The back wall was literally caked in fairies hiding in the dark, illuminated by the danmaku's glow. The rest of the room was fine, however.
She turns to Mokou expectantly.
"...No." Mokou turns back to the open hall. "We're going."
'Hmm…' Hikari just remembered something. 'Didn't I have that one skill? It lit things up, I think…'
Hikari stepped to the entrance of the room.
Hikari tried PK Flash α!
A blinding light filled the room. Aside from that, nothing much seemed to happen at first.
…
Some of the fairies in the room began assaulting each other, for unknown reasons. Unaimed, impulsively fired danmaku spurts lit up the room as the fairies wriggled onto one another and tried to tear at one another.
Pi~chun!
'Huh… That works.' It used nearly as much energy as PK Fantasy, though. 'I can't use that too often…'
Marigold walked in on her own, keeping her Pop Gun handy. One fairy shambled from the convulging mess of sluggishly paced violence to meet her.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
The fairy kneeled.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Pi~chun!
'Not terribly efficient, is it?' Hikari figured that was the price of ranged weaponry. 'If I had that gun, though, this adventure would have been a cakewalk to this point. Seriously. Now I wish I had a gun.'
Unfortunately, Hikari didn't know much about how guns worked. She'd only ever read about flintlocks, so something as simple as that pistol was rather alien to her.
'...This whole place is alien.' Both literally and figuratively.
The blonde girl rummaged through a side cabinet on the left edge of the room.
"Nothing…"
She moved onto the next drawer. Eventually, she pulled out a metal slab of some description, and an empty can.
"This'll do…"
She looked at the empty can, considering it. Nodding and slipping it into her pocket, she found it didn't quite fit.
...After a few moments of struggling, she decided just to run into the hallway, kneel, and attempt to stuff it in a random pocket in her backpack.
Marigold obtained Broken Can!
'...To be fair, I'd probably grab just as much random garbage if I had an entire backpack with me. You never know what could come in handy.' She was still skeptical about how useful some metal cylinder could be. 'Maybe it's a part of some kind. She seems into that kind of stuff.'
Mokou went up to the door and slammed it shut. "There. No more of that shit."
Moaning is heard from down the hallway.
"Look- we gotta get a move on!" Mokou gestures once more for the ragtag band of teenagers to follow her.
'We probably should.' Sitting in one place like this, for this long was likely begging for trouble.
==== GENSOKYOBOUND ====
After many minutes of running, gunning down zombie fairies, and other assorted forms of aimless wandering, the four reached one of the labs Mokou had remembered.
"This is the place…" Mokou walked up to the door. "Let's see if she locked it up tight this time."
She jiggles the handle. It doesn't budge any further.
"No sweat. A fancy wooden door like this can't stop me."
Mokou presses her hand to the door and begins channeling heat into it. The paint melts off, only to reveal the door is not wood, it's just metal with an intricate wood paint job.
She stared at the door blankly. "...Fuck."
'Spoke too soon.' Hikari knew the feeling.
Osamu furrowed his brows. "What… just happened there?"
"Paint." Mokou states simply. "The door was fuckin' painted. It's actually metal… and a heat resistant one at that." She sat down in front of the door. "Damn."
Osamu agreed with her. "Damn."
Hikari sighed. 'Couldn't we just melt through the wall?'
…
'Oh, yeah. The walls also have some sort of insane metal inside them. That stinks…'
The other girl stares at the thin key lock.
==== GENSOKYOBOUND: MARIGOLD'S VIEW ====
'I don't think my… key thingie machine… will fit.' Marigold frowned at the key slot. She'd never seen anything like it.
…
'In this case, I'm not really trying to preserve the lock, though…'
She held her Air Rifle to the lock.
The angry woman with the red trousers got angrier. "If me making it go nuclear didn't melt it, why the fuck would shooting it work?"
'Hmm.' "You didn't try melting the lock, though."
"'Cause if I did and made the door completely broken, then it wouldn't open, would it? Kinda the opposite of what we wanna do."
Marigold shrugs, and fires.
Klack!
Red-trousers- as Marigold will now dub her- facepalms. "You fucking idiot…"
...The door swings open.
…
"Well, fu~ck me, right?" She folds her arms, and looks closely at the lock. It was broken, apparently, but not melted. The door handle hung loosely, the entire operation bust.
'I'm not sure how that worked, either. The bolt could've blown the mechanical parts, or something…' Marigold was confused, too.
The shrine maiden stepped forward into the door, pushing it open.
Red-trousers didn't like that. "Hey, hey, what're you-"
The noise of cloth ceasing movement would have been audible had Red-trousers not yelled at all.
"...D'you hear that?" She heard it, though.
Marigold nodded.
The shrine maiden looked back in slight confusion, but continued further into the lit room.
"Hear what?" Osamu looked around before entering the room behind the shrine maiden, much to red-trousers' dismay.
"Hey, hey! I'm supposed to be leading the way, here!" Mokou shoves Osamu aside and enters the room.
"Fuckin', watch it!" He didn't very much appreciate the manhandling.
Marigold entered the room last, looking around.
'I could probably find a proper scalpel here…' She took the metal plate from her pocket and stared at it, judging its potential.
From behind a curtain in the corner of the room, a woman stood. Everyone stopped at the clack of her shoes against the tiled floor.
...Red-trousers was the first to make a move on the curtain. "Doc… that better be you. If yer not Doc, you're gettin' an extra spicy knuckle sandwich!"
'Extra spicy knuckle sandwich.' Marigold was unsure whether to appreciate the pun or cringe at its cheesy nature.
The curtain whirled aside, revealing a woman in blue and red. "What is it now…?"
She stares at Red-trousers.
"How did you even get into this room? I'm quite certain I locked the door."
"Melted through." Red-trousers growled.
The woman blinked in vague surprise. "Did you? Might need stronger metals, then… This room should be totally impenetrable in terms of burning, including extreme heat."
Marigold, glancing at Red-trousers in annoyance, steps forward. "Actually, I shot the lock open- with danmaku."
The doctor had a moment of realization. "Oo~h, right. I forgot about that… I'll make sure to use a different kind of lock next time, then. The common industrial sort tend to get overloaded by danmaku, it seems. The reasons elude me, and I don't really care either."
Marigold nods in satisfaction.
==== GENSOKYOBOUND: HIKARI'S VIEW ====
"Considering the shrine maiden's daughter is here, I might've let that whole fairy situation go on for longer than I should have…" The doctor tilted her head back and forth. "Reimu send you? Weird fairies running around Gensokyo? Something like that? Even the puppeteer's daughter is here, for whatever reason..."
'...Hmm.' Hikari wasn't sure how to feel about such straightforwardness, but it wasn't unwelcomed, all things considered.
"Actually, I came to get some prescriptions…" Hikari began.
"My name… is Marigold." Marigold announced slightly awkwardly.
The doctor blinked. "...I'm pretty sure I've never done business with you before, shrine maiden."
"Part of my chores. Ice for Marisa, medicine for Patchouli, pills for Alice." Hikari rattled off the things she needed.
Marigold intently stared at her after that sentence.
The doctor nodded. "Aah, right. My sincerest apologies, but at the moment we're in a state of emergency of sorts. Well… for my staff, anyway. This situation should be easily remediable. I'm doctor Eirin Yagokoro, if you didn't know by now."
'The Eirin Yagokoro? Huh. I was expecting someone more intimidating, to be honest.' Hikari felt she was respectable, but not powerful. Her mother's stories hyped her up for someone more sadistic.
Mokou moved up to her and grabbed her by the shirt "The hell's the big idea turning all the fairies to zombies!? We've been in here for days 'cause of your shit!"
Eirin yawned. "I was testing if I could increase the durability of fairies. As it turns out, that's a bad idea, lack of bodily functions and all. Throws off the natural balance of their bodies, makes them… more physical, if you will. They respawn just fine, though, as the status is only inflicted by inhalation of my chemical."
Mokou's eyes widened. "Inhalation?"
Before any unfortunate misunderstandings were had, Eirin corrected herself. "Only if you're a being of pure magic… as in, a fairy."
Marigold appeared slightly worried.
Eirin turned her gaze to her, too. "No, magi are not pure magic beings, as much as they might aspire to be. Strictly fairies, I'm sure."
Osamu jerked his head back. "...What? You a magi?"
Marigold turns to him. "Well… yeah."
He claps his hands. "Why didn'cha tell me sooner? Show me some spells, baby!"
She freezes.
…
Eirin stares at the scene without empathy.
…
"Uh… hello?" Osamu waves a hand in front of Marigold's face. "Earth to magi! Come in, magi!"
Marigold backs away. "W-well… I can't."
Osamu whines. "Oh~, c'mon! Just one little spell! Plea~se?"
"I-I…" Marigold composes herself. "I can't cast magic. At all."
Osamu blinked.
…
'Huh.' Hikari wasn't sure how to respond to that.
Mokou, however, saw an opportunity. "Hold on, hold on, lemme get this straight…"
Marigold turned to her.
"You're a magi… who can't cast magic." Mokou confirmed.
Marigold appeared hesitant. "Y-yeah."
"How does that even work?" Mokou grinned. "I mean, are you just that stupid, or what?"
'Ouch.' Hikari was a little surprised at the venom.
She winced from Mokou's words. "H-hey, I-"
Mokou kept pressing. "You're fuckin' magical by birth, and you can't even fuckin' use it? Dumbass. Y'know there're humans that can use it, too? They're better than you, and they weren't even born with it!"
She gestures to Osamu. "I mean, look at him! He's some villager dork!"
He frowned.
Mokou turned back to Marigold. "Here you are, asking for scalpels and fairy fingers and shit… Just who the hell do you think you are? Don't tell me you're some prideful magician, 'cause as far as I'm concerned, you're just another silver spoon brat."
'Where did this come from?' Hikari was surprised by Mokou's outburst. 'I mean… I know she's an angry person, but…'
…
"Awkward…" Eirin muttered, turning back to her 'project' behind the curtains. "Let me know when you two kill each other, or something. I could use some spare organs."
Mokou turns her angry glare to Eirin. "Oh, you what, moon bitch? Some of that hit home, or what?"
Osamu folds his arms locking his eyes on Mokou. "I don't like your attitude."
Mokou glances at him, and then back at Eirin.
"Answer me, Doc." She propped her arms at her sides. "What the hell are you?"
She turns to Marigold. "What the hell are you!?"
"I said…" Osamu steps closer to Mokou, "I don't like your attitude."
"What of it?" Mokou dismissively glances at him. "Look, I'm doing you a favor here. You're more of a mage then that wannabe will ever be."
"That so, huh?" Osamu's expression hardened. "You know what I was supposed to be?"
Mokou stared at him, looking impatient.
"I was supposed to be a villager. Just a regular old carpenter or farmer or some bullshit like that. Then I decided I wanted to do magic. Hell, I'm not even good at that! The only reason I got any spells at all is- well, you don't need to know that- but if we're talkin' who's supposed to be who, then I'm just as much of a failure as this chick!" Osamu slides next to Marigold and wraps his arm around her shoulder. She jumps at the touch, but relaxes.
'...My mother did about a million more awesome things by my age, and I spent those years reading books. Suffice to say, I think I've fallen quite far from the image of 'badass Hakurei miko'." Hikari smiled.
Mokou narrows her eyes. "What about that attitude of hers?"
Osamu raises a brow. "What attitude? She's a little weird, but dude, if you wanna talk about weirdly quiet people…" He looks over at Hikari, grinning.
"H-hey…" Hikari tries to fathom a glare, but can't really find it in herself at the moment. Instead, she just looks mildly stern.
He shakes his head, smiling. "Dude, Hikari is like, mad quiet. Not that I mind, or anything."
Mokou seethes. "That's not the point! I mean her disregard for the pain of others!"
Even Marigold seemed confused by the accusation.
'Her what?'
Eirin looked over at the scene. "Tsk, tsk, tsk…"
Mokou turned to her. "You wanna fucking go, Doc?"
"Mokou… You must realize that not everyone with an interest in medicinal practices is like me. I'm a… special case, you see. You must realize that I am, infact, not of this world. My compassion for living beings only extends to those I care about… and those that seem pitiful enough to truly need my care."
She grins.
"I'm sure you know a subject I consider the latter."
Mokou's glare turns from anger to hate. "Oh, fuck right off. I don't call that shit you did care."
"...Pedantics." Eirin jests.
Mokou's arms ignite. "That's it, Doc. It's fucking go time! I'll-"
Eirin throws a scalpel at the wall. It clips the side of a sanitary wipe container, and it slides across the counter and into a stack of medical books. The stack tips over, the top book hitting a tray on top of a shelf. The tray was flung, sending a bottle of pills flying through the air.
...The pills scattered uselessly on the ground. Mokou and the others stared at the pointless chain of events.
Mokou blinked. "...The hell was the point of-"
Shink.
Her eyes widened.
"...Fuck...er…"
Thud.
Mokou sprawled out on the floor, a syringe in her neck.
"Good. Should keep her out for another twenty four hours…" Eirin bended over and retracted the syringe from her neck.
Shink…
'I take back what I said. She's about as sadistic as Mom said she was.'
...She looked to Marigold. "My sincerest apologies about that- and that extends to the rest of you, too."
She then turns back to her experiment.
On the table was a blue-haired fairy girl of some kind. Her chest was cut wide open, various organs exposed and manipulated in ways they were likely not meant to be oriented. Yet, there was no blood, and the fairy wasn't explodinated.
Marigold seemed to have calmed down.
Hikari scratched her head. 'Well, that certainly was something. Why are we here again?'
…
'Oh, right!'
"...Would you happen to know of any nearby magical locations… or something?" Hikari asked Eirin.
The doctor paused. "...Oh, right, right. That place…"
She took some vials out of her pockets, and tossed one of each to the party members.
Hikari got Recarbonizer Vial!
Osamu got Recarbonizer Vial!
Marigold got Recarbonizer Vial!
"You'll need it. Save it." Eirin instructed them. "...Further, there is something behind the malevolence of the fairies. For all intents and purposes, they should be vegetables, and yet they're committing violent acts. I cannot, for the life of me, discern the source… and that is very, very troublesome news, to me, atleast."
She pats Hikari on the shoulder.
"Go find the princess. She's in another clini- room. She's in another room…" Eirin stops herself before she makes a joke no one in the room could understand. "She'll be able to tell you about the magic location. Go now… or whenever, actually. Now that I think about it, could you take as long as possible? I'd really like to keep experimenting on these fairies…"
Pi~chun!
The fairy she was operating on died.
Eirin sighed. "...Brutal murder achieved in just fifteen minutes and thirty seven seconds. It was going so well, too…"
Marigold approached her. "...Do you have any tips for gun making?"
Eirin smiled lightly. "...No. I'm a doctor. Get out."
==== GENSOKYOBOUND ====
Now without Mokou to escort them around, it was back to the aimless wandering for the clinic's heroes.
"Suck it!"
Osamu tried PK Hydro ß!
A large bubbled floated over the zombie horde…
"Now, Mari!"
Marigold aimed at it with her Pop Gun.
Pop!
Fwwaash!
The bubble exploded into an airborne spiral of water. It spun around, lashing out at the zombies with its waves before ceasing to produce more water.
The zombies all were tipped over by the waves.
Hikari ran around in the mess, playing an entire eight-inning golf game with the heads of toppled fairies.
SMAAAA~SH!
Pi~chun!
SMAAAA~SH!
Pi~chun!
SMAAAA~SH!
Pi~chun!
"Now that's what I call teamwork!" Osamu pumps his fist in the air. "Fuck yeah!"
Marigold kneels over the forms of a few of the zombies Hikari missed, popping them once each with her Pop Gun.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
...She took out a scalpel she had obtained prior from the resident doctor, and started slicing off fairy fingers.
The knife clicked against the tiled floor with eached quick slice.
Click, click, click, click, click!
One fairy now had a stubby sort of hand. Marigold made sure not to stare at the uncannily clean flesh and bone.
The clicking continued as she moved onto the next. Osamu and Hikari came back towards her, now done with the horde.
"...Y'know, why do you need fairy fingers, anyway?" Osamu scratched the back of his head.
"Ammo." Marigold tells him. "They work as a source of mana for this gun." She holds up her Air Rifle.
"Huh…" Osamu nods in satisfaction at that answer. "Y'know, I've never really seen a gun before."
'I've only seen flintlocks. They kinda sucked.' Hikari was far more impressed by the ability of both of Marigold's weapons.
Marigold raised a brow at their interest.
They continue forward, religiously checking every room and illuminating the dark ones with small bursts of Pop Gun shots.
They came to a room with a solid metal door with no windows. Osamu swung it open, and Marigold fired shots inside.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
The room's walls were caked with zombie fairies.
'Well…'
…
Marigold stepped back, and Hikari swung the door closed again.
Violent thumping was heard on the other side of the door.
"Nope." Hikari summarized.
"Yeah." Marigold began walking away.
"No~ way." Osamu shook his head.
Eventually they came to an illuminated room, the window emitting a yellow glow.
"Who's goin' in this time?" He looks around at the other two.
They look back at him.
"...No. Look, Mary's got a gun, and you- you got that big stick." He gestures to the Air Rifle and Enchanted Gohei respectively. "All I got is…"
"Magic." Marigold gives a half-grin.
'Irony.'
"...Shit. Now I feel bad." Osamu sighs.
Marigold swung the door open this time, and Hikari pushed Osamu in.
"Hey- wait, fuck!"
He stumbled forward, only to find multiple guns aimed at him. He held his arms up. "Holy shit!"
"It's okay, guys. Just a stupid human."
Tewi was inside, back in her regular outfit.
The other rabbit girls lowered their weapons, looking weary.
Osamu furrowed his brows. "Hey!"
Hikari stepped in behind him.
Tewi blinked. "Oh, hey, it's Reimu's daughter! She's here to solve the incident, fellas!"
The rabbit girls give collective cheers.
"Yeah!"
"About time!"
"Took you long enough! Woo!"
Reimu looked slightly perturbed by being described simply as 'Reimu's daughter'. 'I know, I know, I'm late. Getting locked in a break room does that to you.'
Marigold stepped in behind the other two.
"Hey, it's… a uh… magi." Tewi blinked. "Cool, I guess. Picked a hell of a time to go to the hospital, huh?"
"Zombies." Hikari starts the discussion.
'I suddenly feel like I've forgotten something.'
"No shit." Tewi leaned against the wall. "It's been like, a warzone ever since I came back. I liked it at first, 'cause I got to do stuff like this."
Tewi promptly lifted her mallet and swung it at a rabbit. The rabbit girl ducked, and the mallet struck the wall.
Bam!
The wall vibrated, and a basket full of towels fell from a shelf and landed on one of the observing rabbit girls, knocking her over.
"Kyaa~h!"
Thud.
Tewi nodded in satisfaction. The other rabbit girl who dodged stood back up, and she and Tewi high-fived one another.
"Smooth as butter." Tewi smirked.
'Is everyone here into disaster dominoes, or what?'
…
"...Though, a lot more rabbits are into hiding now. Honestly, we coulda taken those fairies if everyone wasn't completely stupid and afraid of zombies. I mean, they're even easier than regular fairies. Everyone was complaining about some sort of infection or something stupid like that, but I even let those fairies bite me to check."
The other rabbits in the room's eyes widened, staring at Tewi silently.
"...Oh, c'mon. It's been like four days! I'm fine!"
Marigold nodded. "The infection is only fairy-based. We met with Eirin earlier, and she said so."
A rabbit girl aimed her gun at Marigold. "How do we know you're not in league?"
Marigold squinted. "With who?"
"With the zombies!"
'Here we go…' Hikari was way too used to dealing with stupid locals.
Osamu looked to Marigold, having the same thoughts as Hikari.. "...You got a gun for me to use, or something? I mean… I'm not punchin' anybody if they get close, and I can only cast so fast..."
More rabbits raised their guns.
Tewi sighed. "You guys are really stupid…"
Guns pointed at Tewi.
"Really, really stupid…"
...Marigold reached into her backpack, and took out the doofy brown hat, tossing it to Osamu.
"...Sweet!" Osamu grinned at it. "That's like, two thousand yen at the village designers! When the hell did you-... you can tell me later." He slipped the hat on, readying himself for combat.
Marigold snorted.
Osamu equipped Holmes Brand Designer Hat!
Osamu tried PSI Shield α!
The pale blue, psychic shield protected Marigold!
Marigold looked around at the barrier in wonder.
"It'sa shield!" Osamu exclaims, entering it himself. "Hide me!"
The sound of plasma shots filled the air.
ChewChewChewChew…
Marigold was bombarded with shots, but stayed standing, painfully raising her Air Gun. Her clothes got lightly singed by the blasts, but the psychic shield did a good job of dissipating the shots.
KLAAAA~CK!
"Kyaa~h!" One of the rabbit girls was launched from the headshot.
"It's a zombie!" Another rabbit girl aimed at Marigold…
Bonk!
Tewi's mallet hit her on the head, sending her to the floor.
ChewChewChew!
"Gaa~h!" Tewi wailed melodramatically as some plasma shots hit her. She didn't seem much worse for wear, though, even if her clothes were burned into.
Hikari casually walked up to one of the rabbits, who began backing away fearfully.
"S-stay back! Zombie!"
Chew!
Hikari was clipped in the shoulder, her flesh searing. She winced, raising her gohei and dashing at the rabbit girl.
Chew! Chew!
The other two shots missed, being fired wildly.
"S-stay back!"
SMAAAA~SH!
The rabbit girl spun around, and sprawled to the floor.
A rabbit girl turned her fire from Marigold, looking at Hikari. "The red-white one got through!"
Klack!
"Pftuh…" The rabbit girl cringed from the shot.
Klack!
"Augh!"
Klack!
"Aaah~!" The rabbit girl crumpled limply to the floor.
"Here!"
Osamu tried PK Thunder α!
Thwaaa~sh!
The thunderbolt struck the basket of towels, which exploded into a small shower of burning cloth.
Boom!
The tiny inferno raged, the rabbit under the towels scrambling away as if her life depended on it. "Aaaa~h!"
Hikari turned to one of the rabbit girls who was switching her focus between Marigold and Hikari.
"I'm losing control of the situation!" she wailed. "...Can't take much more of this!"
She crouched and backed into a corner, aiming carefully at her targets.
Hikari tried Hypnosis α!
Energy rippled around the rabbit girl…
"A-ah…" She dropped her gun in a moment of weakness, now unsteadily resting against the back corner.
Marigold aimed at her.
Klack!
"Oof!" The rabbit girl clutched her stomach. "You… bitch…"
Thud.
The two remaining rabbit girls dropped their weapons, putting their arms up. "D-don't shoot!"
"P-please… don't…"
Tewi shook her head. "You idiots. Look, just clean up this mess and I won't set you guys up for a spanking of a lifetime."
The conscious rabbit girls paled.
"Capiche? Good."
With that, Tewi and the party left the break room.
Outside were some zombies, doing the things that zombies do.
Klack! Klack! Klack!
Pi-Pi-Pi~chun!
...Tewi turned to the three. "...Sorry 'bout the stupids. The girls're gettin' awfully stir crazy."
Marigold's psychic shield faded.
...Since no one was speaking up, Hikari prepared herself. "N-no problem…"
'Whoever gave me this voice has to die.'
Tewi giggled. "Still as weird as ya were before, huh?"
Hikari was not in the mood for deprecating shenaniganry. "Hey."
"Haha, jokin', jokin'... " Tewi grinned. "'Sides that, you seem to have some goons of your own." She gestures to Osamu and Marigold.
Osamu flexes his nonexistent mage muscles. "What can I say? I make a pretty good goon, if I do say so myself…"
Marigold folds her arms. "I'm just with these guys because I have no idea what's going on. Some dream… nevermind. It's not worth discussing."
Hikari looks to her. "A dream, huh?"
Marigold blinks.
Osamu beamed. "Dude, I was right! She was the person comin' to break us out!" He nodded in satisfaction.
...Hikari turns to her. "I h-haven't introduced myself properly yet, have I?"
'Nailed it.' Hikari ignored the fact she stumbled over her H.
She held out her hand. "Hikari Hakurei."
Marigold stared at it.
…
She took Hikari's hand, and shook it.
"M-Marigold Knowledge…"
'I'm not the only person who stutters awkwardly in this strange land! Yea~h!'
Tewi yawned. "...You three done havin' a happy-crappy moment? We got pals incoming."
...The three looked around to see some zombies approaching.
Marigold fumbled for her Pop Gun as one neared.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
The zombie fell over.
Tewi facepalmed. "What was that? From that range, you might aswell just flail your limbs at it! I mean seriously, they don't bite! I mean… they do, but… you know what I mean."
Shaking her head, she pulled out a black box with two metal prongs on the end.
"Here. Hold it by the side without the prongs, or I'll declare you officially dumber than a box of rocks."
Marigold takes the device, examining it. There was a setting for voltage, and a setting for turning it on or off.
"Alright, so-"
Tewi is interrupted by the sound of the device springing to life.
Vzzt!
Simple blue spurts of electricity emanate from the prongs.
"...Okay, you know how to turn stuff on, good."
Marigold plays with the power settings. The tiers are listed as follows: Tickle Torture, Danmaku Voltage, Stun, Paralyze, and the final option was marked with a crudely drawn label in crayon reading "Arse Blaster".
...She turned it to max, and the sparks became a violent multi-colored storm of colors, including yellow, white, and red. The device produced an audible hum, and Marigold's arm jittered as some of the electricity charged the nearby air.
Vuuu~m...
"Turn it off!" Tewi yelled.
Marigold did as instructed.
Vuuu~...
The device powered down.
"...Yeah, uh, you kinda don't wanna set it to max. I played with it a little, and max is a lot stronger than it's supposed to be. I didn't use it on anything yet, so… don't do that. It might explode, or somethin'." Tewi explained.
Marigold smiled ironically at the device. "Cool…?"
Tewi sighed. "Look, just keep it on stun or paralyze. It'll be helpful if you're about to get jumped, yeah? Also, I probably don't need to explain this, but 'tickle torture' is what it says on the tin."
Marigold gave her a dry stare.
...The surrounding zombie fairies had been long since cleaned up during the exchange. Hikari and Osamu leaned over the one zombie fairy that Marigold stunned with her Pop Gun.
Hikari poked it with her gohei.
"Dude, look at its left eye! It's all swollen and shit!" Osamu observed, both awed and slightly disturbed.
"That's nice." Hikari didn't really care, having seen enough gruesome fairy biology to prevent her from becoming squeamish.
Marigold obtained the Stun Gun!
She looked to her pocket, noticing the Pop Gun filled important space for her new armament. Taking a moment of solemn consideration, she decided to stuff the keepsake pistol into her backpack, and keep the Stun Gun handy. She figured the Air Rifle was all she needed projectile-wise.
…
She moved to the fallen fairy, and began getting to work in its fingers.
Click, click, click…
Tewi rose a brow. "...The hell are you doing to that thing?"
"Salvaging ammo." Marigold answered. "...My gun uses fairy fingers as ammo. Don't ask."
Tewi grinned. "Coo~l…"
'I don't know how to feel about that response.'
Her other party members were of similar thinking.
"...It's pretty inconvenient, to be honest." Marigold elaborates.
Tewi shrugged. "Eh. I could strike a deal with Reisen for ya, have her look at yer gun or somethin'."
Marigold nodded. "I'd like that…" She wasn't sure who Reisen was, but she trusted Tewi knew a reliable source when it came to that sort of thing.
The zombie, now liberated of the burden of opposable fingers and thumbs, sat on the floor.
Hikari readied her gohei like a golf club…
"Fore!" Osamu shouted.
SMAAAA~SH!
Pi~chun!
'Satisfaction.'
…
Tewi scratched her head. "So uh, we done here, or…?"
'Right, right…' "We need to find the princess' room, or something." Hikari proposed.
'Why does a clinic have a princess?'
Tewi smirked. "Say no more. I know a few shortcuts here or there. We shouldn't have to deal with anymore stupid zombies…"
Walking down the hallway, Tewi stopped at one of the many generic tables with a vase upon it.
"Pay attention…" Tewi rotated the vase, and one of the squares as red instead of blue on the other side. "See that?"
'Don't tell me the clinic has a series of secret passages for no explainable reason…'
Tewi proceeds slide the table into the middle of the hall, and it clicked into some subtle indents in the floor. A trap door opened where the table used to be.
"...The fuck?" Osamu stared down into it. There was a staircase leading down.
'I'm not sure if this is a clinic anymore.'
"Like it?" Tewi proudly grinned. "I dug most'a these passages myself! C'mon, follow me…"
Tewi runs down the stairs, and the party follows behind her carefully…
==== GENSOKYOBOUND ====
END OF CHAPTER 6
Protagonist: Hikari Hakurei, Disciple of Paradise
-Inventory-
Weapon: Magical Gohei - Ability to whack stuff really hard. Amplifies whacking power, too! Able to deal magical damage. Critical hits enabled.
Arms: Iconic Hakurei Arm Sleeves - Keeps arms warm. A Hakurei tradition. How they stay on is a Hakurei family secret.
Body: Nothing
Misc: Nothing
-Skills-
Attack: Quickly! Swing your gohei at them for massive damage!
PK Fantasy α, β - Bombards the enemy with pain in the form of flashing colors. Deals magical damage. Heavy mental strain that increases with each tier.
PK Flash α - A bright flash that distributes very random status effects to enemies. Usually makes people cry.
PK Hypnosis α - Puts weak enemies to sleep for a short time. Works better on tired or exhausted foes.
Shield α - Halves damage the target takes. Only works against physical attacks, and enough strikes, or powerful strikes, will dispel it.
PSI Lifeup α - Heals target a little.
PSI Healing α - Heals basic status ailments.
Ofuda Toss - Throw a holy ofuda that does massive holy elemental damage to youkai and dark elemental foes. Effect lessens the more holy the thing you're attacking is, to the point of healing holy things. Only works if you actually have ofuda, though.
β-β-β-β
Mage: Osamu Katsumi, the Wannabe Mage
-Inventory-
Weapon: Fisticuffs!
Arms: Nothing
Body: Worn Magician Robes - An old robe from the days when the village respected the medium of magic. Well past its due date, but still comfy!
Misc: Holmes Brand Designer Hat - Village swag! A retro village hat that ceased production ten years ago. Sells for a pretty penny nowadays, but it's pretty useless otherwise.
-Skills-
PK Thunder α - Very random thunder attack that deals limited damage.
PK Hydro α, β - Gets everyone wet. Usefulness with PK Thunder and PK Freeze depends on whether you hit yourself or not! Creates whirling water spirals at higher tiers.
PK Freeze α, β - Generates ice crystals at the target's location. Medium damage and effect; may freeze some targets, especially wet ones.
Fireball - Manipulate mana to make a shoddy fireball. Low damage and effect.
Static Hands - Not a real spell. Result of a very undercharged PK Thunder that can accidentally go off.
PSI Telepathy α - Speak to friends you haven't met yet! Unstable connection and only works if they have the skill or are asleep.
PSI Shield α - Halves damage from magical and psychic attacks. Thunder spells fry it instantly, and harder blows dispel it.
β-β-β-β
Inventor: Marigold Knowledge, the Tri-Magi Love Child
-Inventory-
Weapon: Air Gun - A Marigold Knowledge invention. Uses air to propel moderately powered danmaku particles at high speeds. Bland, but efficient. Filled with foil chip bags to conduct the mana, and it is transmitted into a wind stone. Coagulated fairy fingers are currently the only viable mana-providing ammo for this weapon.
Arms: Nothing
Body: Custom Dress - A custom dress made by Alice. Provided slight defense against magical and psychic attacks.
Misc: Swirly Glasses - Lets Marigold not be blind.
Backpack - Allows extended inventory. Aged relic from the Kourindou.
Unnamed Lock Opening Device - Opens locks very precariously. Made with steel, burnt cloth, packaging peanuts, thumbtacks, string, and wooden wheels. Don't even ask…
Ruler - Lets you measure the world around you!
Protractor - Lets you find the angles of anything ever. Totally overpowered.
Deck of Cards - Allows Marigold to play Strip Poker with the party. Just kidding… or am I?
Pop Gun - A toy, very much harmless danmaku pellet gun. If you lay into something with it, though, it's still going to inflict some serious stunning and stopping power.
Stun Gun - Electrical device used to subdue harassers. Has settings ranging from Tickle Torture to Arse Blaster. Able to stun and inflict paralysis on certain foes. Deals electrical damage, and on the highest setting can fry shields, at the cost of temporarily shorting itself out.
-Skills-
Russian Tapdancing Extraordinaire - Skilled at curling into a ball and hopping on one leg while holding the other one like a rifle.
Knows How To Code In HTML - Shared skill with the rest of sentient beings in and outside of Gensokyo, and some various forms of primate.
Professional Bum - Actually, that'd be Osamu, innit?
Professional Bum Fondler - Patchouli has some interesting reference materials in her room's personal shelf...
Fairy Whisperer - Except when they're undead.
Author's Note:
hello brave new world!
ahhh, that time of the evening again, to publish a new chapter of work
this chapter went pretty smoothly for the most part; keeping track of skill, item, and etc progression at this point is getting a slight more convoluted however. i don't mind, though! s'all the fun of writing the progression…
i always have those moments where i'm like "how could i possibly sit down for an extended period of time and just write" and then i do it and am just like "...oh"
writers block is not a fatigue i've ever suffered from; slow moments, sure, but never a big ass "oh god i can't think ever again help no" of any sort. i dunno if that's just a thing other people get or if it's an excuse for being lazy
i should stop ranting about irrelevant things
marigold's a fun character though, yo
as always, see you all next time!
PROOFREADER'S NOTE:
All shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.