GENSOKYOBOUND

by SKOOLATOON

Hikari Hakurei is Reimu's own daughter of eighteen years. Her quiet demeanor's brought by social inexperience and natural introversion. Night of Gensokyian New Year party, Hikari wakes to a strange meteorite falling from the sky. While many of Gensokyo's finest are in drunken comas in the shrine, Hikari takes it upon herself to investigate. It'd be a long time before she gets home.

30. Hakurei to the Future

Hikari stared down at the half-eaten, slapdash pancakes that sat on a paper plate. 'People say you can taste the love people put into cooking. Right now, I'm tasting the lack of it.'

The party sat around one of those cheap, unfoldable plastic tables.

"Mass produced pancakes." Marigold noted, dryly staring down at her half-eaten plate as well.

Osamu's plate was empty, but he was still chewing. "S'good…!"

'How.' Hikari may have been hungry, but she got sick of eating the pancakes halfway through them.

She looked over at Hiyori's plate.

It was half scrunched, but the pancakes were gone. "...Paper plates are still a strange magic."

"I didn't specialize in the culinary arts." Eirin annotated from across the room, sifting through some tools in a drawer. "That, and time is of the essence."

'Supposedly.'

The clinic shook.

"...Do you have any control over your mother?" Eirin turned to Hikari.

"Nope." Hikari shook her head.

"...Unfortunate." She sighed. "I was going to request Yakumo enlist some kappa to speed this process up, but I can't do that if your mother's behaving like an angry wasp." Then, she pauses, before turning to Hiyori. "The meteorite you obtained. Show it to me."

...Hiyori blinked. "Sure."

She took it out from a glowing pocket on her kimono. Holding it before Eirin, she offered it.

Eirin quickly grabbed it, and held it close to her face, examining the material carefully. "...Yes, this seems adequately charged. Yakumo was grabbing random rocks and such from space, but none of them had the precise charge I required. It's not necessarily extraterrestrial, it's…" She furrowed her brows, looking for a better word. "It's unique."

'How is she not burning her hand?' Hikari figured it might've been the gloves.

"There is a certain energy, from these rocks. Could you sense it, Hakurei?" Suddenly inquisitive, Eirin turns to Hikari.

'They burn indefinitely, so you'd think it would be guessable…' Hikari tilts her head back and forth.

"...Good enough." Eirin turns back to her tools. "I'll need to install this into the temporal gate's power circuit."

With that, she began her work. Taking a wrench, she moved towards the large ring at the back of the room, and kneeled at the side. Flipping open panels and flicking switches, she did things beyond the party's comprehension.

The strangely big surgery room, which lacked more than the foldable tables and some of the stock surgery room counters, was quite tall. The large, ring-like device in the back was as tall as three people, with equal width. It sat upon crude metal props, kept in place with bolted latches. The ring itself had many lines and panels along its smooth exterior. The lines faintly glimmered with blue light every few moments.

Marigold was interested. Sneaking up behind Eirin inadvertently, she brought her arms behind her back and observed. "...What're you doing?"

"Working." Eirin was in no mood to interact, unfortunately.

...Marigold continued to press, though. "What do those switches do?"

...Sighing, Eirin tries to smoke her out with an influx of information. "Well, each one handles a unique and specific subroutine of the temporal gate, specifically designed to allow for dynamic and streamlined modification of not only the power grid but of multiple fail safes. These fail safes must all be active at vaguely the same time to ensure overall stability for the duration of the temporal gate's performance. Were it not active, it would instead be a deadly time-elemental weapon, which isn't exactly what we want."

'...I kinda got that. It's a layer of technical stuff that keeps it from exploding.' Hikari nodded.

Marigold slowly nodded as well. "But, how do they do it? The switches."

"Each one controls an interlocking chamber, and a series of them are able to influence the fluctuation, production, and direction of the spells being cast to produce the temporal modification fabric. Fabric being a simple label, of course, for something not really fabric, but moreso a spell juncture that produces a unified time-elemental shape in space."

"...Ah." Marigold had her brows furrowed. "So they mostly restrict paths and stuff."

"Basically." Eirin continued to work.

"...How do you cast time spells?" Osamu stepped up as well.

The attention began to annoy Eirin. "Very carefully."

Osamu slouched. "Gee, thanks..."

He turns to Marigold. "Dude, do you know?"

She shakes her head. "None of my moms knew anything about time spells, really. Even the bookworm."

Eirin snorted, speaking under her breath. "Moms…"

"What I did learn, though, is that they're really, really hard." Marigold folded her arms. "For good reason, I suppose. Most of the time, you need catalysts that are totally unobtainable, or a natural affinity for time magic."

Osamu poses. "I bet I have a natural affinity for time magic!"

"No human in the history of humanity has had an affinity for time magic." Eirin spoke idly. "Don't get your hopes up. Actually, don't have hopes."

Thud, thud, thud!

Eirin pauses, looking away from the machine. "...You four. Throw yourselves at whatever's in the hallway."

"On it." Osamu gives a thumbs up, and proceeds to walk towards Hiyori. "Let's go!"

Hiyori gives him a sardonic glance, before casually stepping forward to the door. She pushed it open, and peeked outside…

Fwoosh, woosh-woosh-woosh!

Yukari swung two short, solid beams of danmaku around like swords. Whirling around, she spun on a single heel at a time as she gradually encroached upon the hall space Reimu held.

Cli~Cli~Cli~Cli~ng!

Reimu actively blocked the danmaku beams with her gohei. It crackled with magical energy, of the same color as Yukari's knockoff lightsabers.

Yukari tried to throw in a kick to throw her off-

Cling!

Reimu blocked it just like she blocked the beams, and retaliated.

The rest of the party was leaning out the door, now.

Thwack! Reimu's combo began with a single downward hit, similar to how Hikari hit things.

Then, she spun away from it. The unheld gohei continued to spin into Yukari, striking her stomach- "Ouh!" -her back- "Ohn~!" -then her stomach again- "Ahn!" -before returning to Reimu as she spun back into melee range.

Reimu leapt into the air, unleashing the finisher of her combo, a downward, gravity-assisted…

SMAAAA~SH!

"Aaa~h…" Yukari pivoted on her heel, and fell forward, away from Reimu, and onto her stomach. "Oof."

...Reimu let out an exaggerated sigh. "Get up. I'm not done with you." Moving up to Yukari, she brought out more seals. "I said get up."

'Maybe I should stop her…' Hikari contemplated. '...Or maybe not.' She grinned.

Yukari opened a gap under herself, and fell into it.

"No! No you don't!" Reimu leapt after her, tossing seals into the gap.

The gap shut.

…

Then, Hikari was bowled over, a weight colliding with her stomach and throwing her into the gate room proper. 'Wa-wah!?"

Thud!

Blinking a few times, Hikari looked up from the floor to see her mother atop her.

It took Reimu a few moments to process what happened. "...Hi-Hikari?"

"Hi." Hikari looked up at her. "I'm alive."

"You're okay!" Reimu glomped her.

'...This is more physical contact than I'm comfortable with, at this age.' Hikari blushed, feeling awkward. "Ye-yeah…"

Reimu promptly broke from her, and shoved her thumbs in her daughter's mouth, proceeding to stretch her mouth a bit. "It's really you, right?"

Hikari stared at her dryly. 'I don't think this is an effective way of checking someone's identity.'

"...Sorry." Reimu grinned, standing from her. "Geez… Was that thing about poison some stupid lie?"

'...Technically, no.' Hikari found yet another difficult situation to explain. 'You see, we actually only have ten minutes to live, not ten days.' She grinned at her own ill-fated joke, unwilling to actually execute it aloud.

Looking conflicted, Hiyori felt the need to reply to that. "Well, technically…"

Marigold elbowed her. Though Hiyori felt little more than a poke, she got the message.

...Marigold rubbed her elbow.

"Although, now that I have a moment…" Reimu furrows her brows at the party's state of undress. "What happened to your clothes? You were all half-naked, but it somehow got worse between now and the last time I saw you."

...Hikari sighed. 'Fire hurts.' She found that even less of her clothes existed after she was caught in a nuclear blast, leaving her with half-revealed chest bindings, and a pair of riskily tiny shorts that used to be her hakama.

"We~... were attacked." Marigold formed a complete sentence, attempting to beat around the bush. Her custom dress was likely beyond the point of being considered a dress, but she still had far more black and charred fabric than Hikari did, even if her arms, midriff, and legs were showing. Her boots were now charred black, too, with patches of cyan that weren't there before jutting out.

...Reimu grinned enduringly. "By?"

"Clothes eating ants!" Osamu threw his arms into the air. His robes were surprisingly mostly intact, even if they bore a few holes.

…

"You know, those singe marks aren't fooling anyone." Her expression reverted to a cynical one.

"Clothes eating fire ants." Osamu stuck to his guns, folding his arms.

"We got attacked by fire monsters." Hiyori admitted, refusing to let the lie snowball. Her robes were pristine, if somewhat dirty. Despite its immense fire resistance, there were singe marks on some patches of the robe's magical fabric. "We got better, though."

...Reimu nodded. "Well, I guess so. You wouldn't be standing here if you didn't."

'You'd be surprised.' Hikari wasn't sure her mother realized just how potent nearly-free healing actually was.

...A gap opened next to Reimu. Yukari leaned out, grinning. "All better now, Re-"

Reimu raised her fist up and backwards, to punch Yukari in the face.

"Ow!" Yukari rubbed her nose, pouting. She replied in a nasally voice, "What'd I do to deserve that…?"

Reimu didn't dignify her plea with a response, instead settling for a frustrated expression.

"If you've finished playing around with the Hakurei…" Eirin spoke up, breaking from her work upon the gate to address the gap youkai's return. "I would like to request that you arrange for a division of kappa to come down here and aid me with this temporal gate."

Reimu gave her the best look of frustration she could muster, but Eirin wasn't affected.

"Oh? Can the lunar prodigy herself not handle this all by her lonesome?" Yukari teased the scientist, her voice back to normal.

Eirin was still seemingly unaffected. "Which is why you sent those four of all people to grab a rock you well knew the location of. Because you're capable of handling things in the extremely inefficient manner of tackling them yourself."

'I'm glad we're being reassured that we're the people for the job.'

"Alri~ght, alri~ght…" Yukari smirked. "Don't get your garments in a twist. They'll be here in a jiffy…"

A gap opened along one of the walls of the room.

From it, a few kappa fell down. They had dark blue, lime green, and blue hair respectively.

"Oof!"

"Woah!"

"Fuck!"

Eirin's brow twitched at the last one.

'Oh, hey.' Hikari recognized one. 'It's Nitori.'

...The first to get up was the angry, dark-blue haired one. "O-oh, woah! Where the hell…!?"

Backing against the wall, he pointed at Eirin. "Who're you!?"

...Eirin took a moment to speak. "I am Eirin Yago-"

"And who're you!?" He pointed at Yukari, while Eirin deflated in the background.

"Just a lovely, seventeen ye-"

"A~nd…!" He held up his finger. His eyes laid on the party. "Oo~h, shit, it's these clowns again."

'What?' Hikari was surprised, herself.

...Marigold snapped her fingers, coming to a realization. "Oh! It's that one kappa! With the industrial grade night light!"

It came back to Hikari. "Oh, yeah…" 'That was pretty cool, if somewhat dangerous… and overkill.'

"I remember!" Osamu grinned. "He was a-..." By some miracle, he managed to restrain himself.

It was for naught, though, as the kappa took notice. "...A what? I was a what!? Go on, finish that, I dare ya!"

...Hikari turned to Osamu. "I think we found your long lost brother."

Osamu pointed at him. "Ass."

...Folding his arms, the kappa seethed. "Well, that's just rude."

'I half expected that to become a fist fight.'

Nitori gave the other kappa a light nudge. "Cheer up, Katai. I'm sure he doesn't mean it."

Katai turned to her, frowning. "Aa~h… what do you know about humans?"

The lime-green haired kappa took his time standing up. Once he was up, he looked around gingerly.

The other two kappa turned to him, staring at him.

"...Am I dead?" He guessed.

"Yes." Katai confirmed.

"No?" Nitori tilted her head.

Pulling a small, pen-like device from his pocket, he aimed it at his arm. "I'll check!"

Katai's eyes widened. "Wh-what the-"

Shink! A piston shot from the pen and went straight through the lime-green haired kappa's arm. "Shh- aa~h! I-I'm not dead! I'm not dead!"

Katai facepalmed. "...Torazu, you idiot."

Eirin was skeptical. "Yakumo, you do realize that if this temporal gate doesn't function to perfection, we-..." She glanced at Reimu. "...might not be able to turn it on, yes…?"

Her sentence caused Yukari to giggle merrily. "Fufufu~! Yes, indeed. Worry not, these three are all geniuses in their own rite."

Torazu was curled up in a ball, next to the temporal gate, nursing his punctured forearm. "...I wanna be dead, now!"

"...For some reason, I am reluctant to take your word." Eirin narrowed her eyes at the gap youkai.

Instead of replying, Yukari settled for being smug, much to Eirin's dismay.

"...Well, then." Eirin turned to the temporal gate. "Time to get to work."

'Time to go find the snacks.' Hikari slowly began to back towards the exit of the room… 'I know this place has-"

Reimu grabbed her shoulder. "Where're you going?"

...Hikari casually turned towards her. "Finding some snacks."

Reimu smiled. "You should be finding some clothes, instead."

'Dang… although in retrospect...' Hikari looked down at her barely existent clothing. 'Maybe I've put off getting them repaired long enough.'

"We could teleport to Mom's place." Marigold proposed. "She'd be able to fix up everything, again."

'Now that I think about it, I'm glad that nuclear explosion scorched those kiss marks off my body.' She looked over her rather dirty skin. '...If the shrine wasn't under attack by shadow creatures from another dimension, I'd propose we take a bath there.'

Reimu rose a brow. "Teleport?"

Hikari snorted. 'Oh, right. She never figured it out, I think…'

"Yeah, we can teleport." Hikari came clean. "...We've been able to for awhile."

...Reimu was confused. "We?"

'Whelp.' Hikari considered plans of action. "Well, it's more like one of us does the teleporting and everyone else just kinda hangs on for the ride."

Osamu suddenly becomes part of the conversation, wedging between Marigold and Hikari. "Yeah, we all just like, daisy-chain together and run at the speed of light."

'He somehow made it sound a lot weirder than it actually is.'

...Reimu processed this. "So you're all going to… somehow get to Alice's house from here, then?"

"Basically." Marigold moved into the hallway, Hiyori trailing behind her.

...Marigold turned to address their oni friend. "I don't think you need new clothes."

Hiyori blinked. "...Oh, right. I just kinda went with the motions, there."

Osamu, Hikari, and Reimu moved out into the bleakly lit hallway as well, closing the door behind themselves as the room became alive with the subtle sounds of wrenches clicking, and the occasional bang of a hammer.

"...If Eirin's doing some kind of time gate thing, she's going to need the bum of a princess to fuel it." Reimu declared. "Considering I don't see her around, I don't know if anyone actually put in the thought to go get her."

"That would be a problem…" Marigold noted. "...But why her?"

"She's got lots of mana, and is actually pretty good with time magic." Reimu admitted. "Not that she'd ever do much with it."

Marigold rose her brows. "Wait… are you saying that she's a time mage?"

Reimu nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

"Her?" Marigold was baffled.

"...Shocking, I know." Reimu grinned. "Anyway, you." She points at Hiyori. "...I don't think you need to go on a clothing trip."

Hiyori agreed. "I suppose not."

"You can go fetch the lazy bum." Reimu declared. "She's over, um…" Reimu points down the hall, before waving her hand about. "Yeah. She's got pink clothes and black hair. Just ask the tall rabbits where she is, and say Eirin sent you. I mean… they probably wouldn't second guess you." She glanced at her horns. "...Just don't ask the short rabbits, or they'll play tricks on you."

Hiyori blinked. "Alright, then. This sounds like it will be… interesting."

As the party lined up to teleport, Hiyori meandered off, in search of the lunar princess.

Hikari was in the front of the line. "...Should we try the running teleport? I don't think we can spin very well in this hallway."

"Sure." Marigold was behind her.

"Dude, what if I upped our strength while we ran?" Osamu had a bright idea, as he lined up behind Marigold.

"Then we'd have more strength to beat you over the head with if it screwed everything up." Marigold retorted.

"...I have no idea how this is going to work." Reimu lined up behind Osamu, apparently.

'Wait, what?' Hikari turned vaguely to the side. "...You're coming, too, Mom?"

"Just incase Alice's house is overrun by shadow monsters." Reimu justified. "Considering I had my hands full with my shrine, of all places…"

'...That's a good point.'

"On three, we're gonna begin running." Hikari announced.

"Alright…" Reimu adjusted herself.

Osamu grinned widely, noting he was between two girls.

"Mmm." Marigold was used to the drill.

"One…" Hikari mustered what wind she could from the desolate clinic halls.

"I'm not sure how this teleports us." Reimu confesses.

"Just bear with us." Marigold instructed her, readying herself.

"Two…" Hikari felt her muscles tense up, as she readied to book it.

Osamu felt slight apprehension at having to consistently haul it with the group, which wasn't a new feeling, to be certain.

"Three!"

The four began running nearly simultaneously, their posture ricketing a bit from the delay. Reimu bolted so quickly at first that she accidentally pushed Osamu into Marigold, causing a chain reaction that Hikari barely managed to avert.

'Woa~h!' It did give a huge speed boost, however.

Rapidly, the party began building up speed before they even reached the end of the hallway-

KraKoo~m!

Lunar and Earthen rabbit alike stared at the smouldering trail in awe, amiss to what the loud noise was.

==== GENSOKYOBOUND ====

KraKoo~m!

Hikari struggled to dig her heels into the dirt, fighting the force of her party being thrown along, and the fact her mother continued to move after they had reached the other side.

'Tree, tree, tree-' "Tree, tree, tree…!" Hikari instinctively used her gohei to block the incoming tree she was being pushed towards.

Cling!

'That's not the sound wood should make, ever.' Hikari blinked.

"Uou~gh!" Osamu was crushed between Reimu and Marigold.

"Oof…" Marigold crashed into Hikari.

Though she temporarily avoided it, her fate was unavoidable. "Ah-!"

Bam! Hikari was pressed against the tree.

...Reimu dizzily stumbled away from the conga line. "Woa~h…"

Eventually, the line fell apart. Osamu sat backwards, onto the floor. "Th-tha~t… wasn't everything I expected it to be…"

Marigold snorted, breaking from Hikari. "What… did you even expect?"

"Pain..." Hikari kept herself stable by clinging to the tree for a few moments longer, until her balance found its way back.

After a few moments, everyone was back on their assorted footwear. Looking around, they saw signs of conflict, but no actual conflict.

Doll parts laid strewn around the house's perimeter, along with numerous intact or patrolling dolls. The house held many dents and holes, but was relatively sound, if a bit scorched. Metal fragments were strewn about everywhere.

...Reimu leaned over, and picked up some sort of electric rod-

Zap! "Ow, ow…" She flailed her hand, dropping the rod. "Stupid…"

Bam! She had expanded a yin-yang orb, and used it to crush the metal rod.

"Warzone." Hikari summarized the situation.

"Du~de…" Osamu looked around in wonderment, albeit tinged with disappointment. "We missed it!"

"...I'm somewhat glad we weren't here at the time." Marigold knew firsthand what kind of crossfire there was when her mother got her dolls out for real.

Strutting up to the door, Hikari rapped her knuckles on it.

…

It creaked open, Alice on the other side. Her eyes widened for a moment, when they ran across the party's figure. Then, she sighed. "What happened to you three now…?"

...Then she noticed Reimu. "Oh. Hi, Reimu."

"Hey." Reimu greeted her equally casually. "I brought the kids to be patched up."

'...It feels kinda weird being called a kid.'

"I ain't no kid!" Osamu objected, taking offense. "I'm, like, eighteen!"

"Like eighteen." Alice interjected. "Which would imply you actually aren't, for better or worse."

Folding his arms, Osamu ceased replying, knowing this was a battle of wits that couldn't be won.

Inside, Hikari considered finding the main table, only to find it. '...It's in three pieces.'

Walking towards the not entirely intact counter at the back of the living room, Alice began using dolls to shuffle through materials on it before she even got there. "How'd your shrine defense go, Reimu?"

"Terrible." Reimu huffed. "They just kept coming, even though I was swatting them down like flies."

Surprised, Alice turned to her. "Really…? I got a single wave of hardy opponents here. Some lightning elemental thing, and some earth-elemental robots."

Marigold smirked. "...Earth-elemental robot seems like an oxymoron."

"You'd think that would be a long-winded way of saying 'golem', but it's not." Alice continued. "Full fledged, metal robots… except earth-elemental."

"I'm glad this place didn't explode." Reimu gave her sentiment as she took a chair from the demolished table, sitting on it.

"I'm glad, too." Alice continued to sift through stuff on her drawers with her own hands, still assisted by dolls.

Hikari and her friends looked for more chairs, only to find none. Osamu tried to sit upon the broken table, only to slide off of it, and onto the floor. Consenting to gravity, he sat on the floor. "Stupid, freaking…"

"I take it I'm to fix up your clothes again?" Alice turned to the party, expression neutral.

"Yeah…" Marigold was sheepish. "Sorry I ruined it so fast."

"Oh, it's no big deal." Alice smiled. "I still have the designs written down. I should probably upgrade it, so that it doesn't happen again. I could only imagine what you had to have done to ruin an already enchanted costume so quickly."

'I think playing in volcanos would ruin anyone's stuff really quickly.' Hikari snorted at her own thought.

Stepping towards the party, Alice looked over Hikari. "...What even happened to you?"

Hikari decided upon the only logical answer. "I fell in a volcano."

...Alice looked over at Reimu, who slowly brought her hand up for a facepalm.

==== GENSOKYOBOUND ====

'I'm not sure how comfortable I am about the bathroom having a hole in the wall.'

Hikari looked up from the filling bathtub, mourning the room's insulation as the cold air easily infiltrated it due to the gaping hole.

"...I mean, no one lives out here anyway." Marigold reasons. "Aside from one of my mothers. And a lot of youkai. I'm pretty sure there's some human scavengers once in awhile, too, but they don't usually last long."

'...That last one was pretty morbid.' Hikari considered. 'Then again, this is probably the village we're talking about. I don't remember them valuing their lives, that much...'

However, just as quickly as they were making good conversation from the hole in the wall, some dolls quickly moved to place wooden planks over the hole systematically. Other dolls assisted to hammer them in place.

'That's pretty efficient.'

"...Well." Marigold nodded. "Mom's on the ball."

Alice stepped in through the bathroom door. "Hey. We're low on water."

Marigold jerked her head towards her mother. "Don't we have a well?"

"It blew up." Alice revealed. "...Well, more than that, actually. We still have some water, so…" She watched the slowly filling bathtub for a moment. "...What you see might be what you get."

Marigold grinned. "What do you mean, 'it blew up'?"

"The electric sword of that floating… thing fell into it. It's actually a good thing the well blew up, or we couldn't use any of the water."

...Marigold made an 'o' shape with her mouth.

Once the bathtub was nearly full, the water from the faucet began tapering off…

'Oh, boy.'

Like that, they all stared at the slowly dwindling water flow.

…

"You've got options." Alice began spelling out the situation, "You could take baths one after another, but the latter gets cold water…"

Both girls cringed.

"...one of you could just not take a bath..."

They gave Alice dry stares.

"...or you could bathe together." She finished.

…

They shrugged.

"There you go." Alice nodded.

Osamu giddily stepped through the bathroom door. "Last one in's a rotten egg!"

He leapt through the air, making an attempt to land in the bathtub- "Oof!"

He was intercepted by a swimsuit clad doll, springing from its perch upon a high-up shelf. It promptly pushed him out of the room itself, Alice following slowly behind. "You'll get your bath, alright, at this rate…"

The door closed.

…

It swung open again, Reimu poking her head in, smiling. "If either of you think of fooling around, I'll know."

Hikari regretted leaving her gohei in the other room.

The door clicked shut, again.

...Looking towards her shrine-maiden friend for a moment, Marigold rolled her eyes. "...Don't tell me she actually bothered you, with that."

Hikari looked away awkwardly. "We-well, no."

"You need more fortitude to that kind of thing." Marigold began removing her charred black rags, their curious, plastic-like substance giving a hollow clack against the floor. "When you practically live with a succubus in the house, half the time, you begin to tune things out." ...She furrowed her brows. "That, and the fairies aren't much better, really."

...Looking down at her friend's nearly entirely carbonated adventure dress, Hikari realized something. "Doesn't your mom need our clothes to fix them?"

Marigold snorted. "...It'd be pretty amazing if anyone managed to recover something from these." She poked the rag she dropped with her foot, the odd plastic substance squishing in as she pressed on it. "...They might be a bit beyond fixing."

Hikari looked down at her own rags, which were almost nothing but the basic strings that kept the hakama on, and some tiny patches of cloth. 'There's not really anything to fix.'

The water from the faucet was little more than a drip.

"Let's see…" Freeing herself from relatively intact but moderately vaporized undergarments, Marigold looked over the one-person bathtub. "How're we gonna make this work?"

Hikari lifted the band of latex rags, and slid off the bunched up rings that used to be her arm sleeves, leaving herself in her chest bindings and hakama waistband. "Very carefully."

Moving to detach the hakama waistband- it fell right off, the string snapping, leaving her partially exposed panties fully exposed.

'Oh.' ...After staring at it for a moment, Hikari nudged it, along with the other trashed clothes, into a pile.

Marigold plopped into the warm tub. "Aa~h… well, we'll figure it out, I'm sure."

Undoing her chest bindings, Hikari's upper torso felt air naturally for the first time in awhile. 'Woa~h. I forgot how much those constrict…'

Marigold watched her remove her white panties idly.

Once she was fully exposed, Hikari stood over the bath tub. "...Now that I look at it, this really is pretty small."

"It's not like we're big people." Marigold shifted her legs about. "Try getting in."

Hikari stepped into the tub, and sat down. At first, she kept her legs curled up, doing her best to try to avoid clipping her friend's, but still found them pressing against the sides of her hips.

"Okay, maybe… hmm…" Marigold retracted her legs slightly, her knees poking above the water. "There. Now you can exist."

Hikari tried extending her legs, only to find she had to take a similar, rigid position, her knees poking Marigold's.

"I have no idea how we're going to get washed." Hikari declared.

Freezing up, Marigold looked across the bathroom. "...We forgot to grab a brush, didn't we?"

It was at that moment that another swimsuit clad doll floated down from above, grabbing various bath time supplies, and bringing them over to the tub.

'...How did it know?'

Marigold accepted the supplies with a reluctant arm. "Well, I can't complain about convenience, I guess."

Putting them aside the bath tub, which was no small effort with how difficult it was to bend her legs. After a moment, however, she managed. "The~re we go…"

Lifting up a brush, she threw it into the middle of the tub. "There."

...Hikari lifted the big scrubby brush. "It's fluffy."

Marigold snorted.

'Now… how to actually use this, as we are...' Hikari began scrubbing the easier places along the length of her legs.

Marigold tried to bend to grab the shampoo, but couldn't. "You know what? Why don't we just…"

Getting up, Marigold grabbed the shampoo as she repositioned herself. Quickly sitting down again, she now had her back to Hikari, but was able to fit between her legs. "There we go!"

...Hikari idly gave Marigold's back two individual scrubs of the brush, brushing over some of the mage's long blonde hair as she did so.

'Her hair tickles.' Some of it was brushing against Hikari's inner thighs.

Grinning and lifting her shampoo, Marigold showed it off. "Watermelon."

'Does watermelon even have much of a scent?' Hikari remembered the candy variant, which tasted nothing like actual watermelon. 'Watermelon tastes and smells more like water, than anything…'

From there, Hikari proceeded to scrub Marigold's back, applying soap to the brush every now and then.

'Brushing some places is still difficult, but this is better than the other position…' Hikari also worked on her own legs a bit, too.

"...How're we gonna wash our hair?" Marigold proposed a new challenge.

==== GENSOKYOBOUND: HIYORI'S VIEW ====

"Yeahjus'takehallninety-fivedowntheonesectionwith- y'know- fiveyellowedtiles, whenyouseethehallwiththeweirdblue- weirderthantheotherbluey'knowwhatI'msayin'- it'sthefifth- ormaybetenth- dooronthe-..." The earthen rabbit girl stopped, taking a breath. "Dooronthenorth, y'knowwhatImean?"

…

"No~...?" Hiyori shook her head at the red-haired rabbit girl.

"...Just follow me." The other, blonde-haired lunar rabbit girl turned around, moving down the hall.

"Hey, Arai-chan, man, shecame'tamealllookin'forthe big K- y'knowwhatI'msayin'- andshealllikeexpectedmeandIguessIwantedtoleadhermanbutArai-chanc'monman."

'I only caught a few things.' Hiyori was amazed and confused. 'She talks at a million kilometers per hour…'

"Yeah, yeah." The blonde rabbit girl, Arai, waved her off. "Look, you can make sure we don't get mauled by enemies or something. Not that there are any."

The stout, red-haired rabbit held up her hands. "Heyman- y'know- that'snotcoolman- y'know…"

After following the blonde rabbit for a few minutes, they came to Kaguya's door.

'...For a princess, I'd expect her to have something more lavish.'

The blonde-haired rabbit knocked. "Kaguya-sama! You have a guest!"

…

The red-haired hare tried knocking herself. "Hey, bigKman, yougotaliveonehere, y'know!"

"Just open the door!" A woman yelled from inside.

Hiyori curiously watched the stout rabbit open the door herself, letting the three in. Moving inside, Hiyori's eyes quickly adjusted to the room's darkness…

Though, she had to squint when she saw the bright light of a computer monitor, which stood out in the darkness. 'Woah…'

"Who the hell came to visit me at four in the morning!?" The barely-clad, black-haired woman yelled. "I'm busy!"

'...Why are you busy at four in the morning?'

Arai was more docile than earlier. "Well, Kaguya-sama, you were formally requested on the behalf of the-"

"Tell 'em to suck it!" Kaguya waved her off. "Let me just- oh, shit!" She leaned to the side in her chair, rapidly pressing keys on her keyboard. "You nearly got me killed!"

Arai sighed.

"HeyKmanman…" Stepping towards Kaguya, she put her hand on the bottom of her office chair. "Yourguestsneedyou- y'knowwhatI'msayin'- man- likeifyoudon'tgetouttheremanIdunnoman."

"What the fuck…" Kaguya almost turned away from the monitor, for a moment. "Did Eirin order cocaine!?"

Then, her screen went red. "Fuck!"

...Hiyori watched as the chair spun around. The half-naked girl glared at the three, brooding.

'This is the princess?' Hiyori felt like she had been had…

"This is your fault, you know." She gestures to the monitor. "You three? Yeah, your fault."

Arai bowed. "Please forgive me, Kaguya-sama…"

"HeyguessI'msorrybutnotreallymanIdunnowhat'syourproblem, Kman…" Her speech made Kaguya furrow her brows in semi-awestruck confusion.

Hiyori wasn't sure what happened, exactly, so she stayed quiet.

"...So, who's the guest? Her?" Kaguya gestures to Hiyori, looking up at her horns. "Good. Great. Did you come to apply for 'walking lobster opener'? ...I mean, we actually could use one of those."

"...Are you sure you're a princess?" Hiyori narrowed her eyes, somewhat suspect.

"Are you sure you're not like, a moose?" Kaguya jabbed back. "Okay, who the fuck is she, and why is she here?"

"She was sent by Eirin to fetch you." Arai spoke. "Eirin needs your assistance in project lab C."

"What?" Kaguya's jaw dropped. "Gaa~h… fine. Let me get my crap on…" With a heavy sigh, Kaguya stood up, walking slightly awkwardly as her legs readjusted to being used.

...As she moved for a different room, she turned and pointed at Hiyori. "Seriously, we could use a walking crap opener person. If you're in need of a job, think about it."

'I'd rather not.' Hiyori didn't particularly need money, anyway.

==== GENSOKYOBOUND: HIKARI'S VIEW ====

"That wasn't as difficult as I expected." Hikari finished combing through her hair, dropping the last of the knots the brush had liberated from her hair into the nearby bin.

"Getting up whenever we needed to do something sucked, though." Marigold shivered in her towel. "It's mid-winter, after all…"

Hikari could agree with that. "Yeah."

Knock, knock, knock.

Someone knocked at the door. "It's okay to come out." It was Reimu's voice.

"Oka~y." Hikari called out, placing the comb down on the sink's side.

Marigold squeezed a rubber ducky.

Sqee~eek…!

"No." Hikari removed it from her hand, placing it at the tub's side. "Not again."

"Hehehe!" Marigold grinned. "But, it's King Ducky. He squeaks really well. That's what makes him king!"

"King Ducky's about to be dethroned." Hikari got up and moved towards the door.

Swinging it open, she stepped out and into the guest room.

Reimu was there, next to the two pairs of new clothes. "Hey, you two. Alice finished them pretty quickly."

Osamu was blindfolded, stepping towards the bed. "Hey, you guys!"

Reimu stood aside as he walked towards the bed. Before he could walk into it and flop on the clothes, she turned him around with a simple swipe of her gohei. He stumbled about for a few moments, before continuing in his new direction.

'His robe seems to have been replaced… sort of?' On examination, Hikari wasn't sure if it was fixed up or replaced, considering the new yellow embroideries that ran along it. His hat seems to have gotten an aesthetic upgrade, as well.

Hikari looked over the red clothes. 'These are probably mine…'

Alice floated into the room, holding a large, red, black, and yellow ribbon. "Ah, you two are out already?"

Marigold shrugged. "It doesn't take more than thirty minutes to wash up."

Alice handed the ribbon to Hikari.

Hikari obtained Chaos Ribbon!

'That's… a rather chaotic looking design.' The black stitching ran across the surface of the ribbon like brambles.

"Forgive how ugly it looks." Alice didn't seem ashamed of it. "Its purpose is largely in functionality. It reduces dark damage."

'Huh.' Hikari blinked. "How?"

Alice smiled at her. "Good question. Often, many more amateurish enchanted goods simply use resistant materials, which would work fine for things like the cold, but not for magic spells, and not for more complex elements. All I could manage on such short notice was that." She gestures to the ribbon. "It doesn't even halve dark damage, but it's better than none. It works by applying a warding spell to your entire body. While the ribbon itself is probably completely immune to dark magic, it projects a fraction of that immunity onto you."

...Hikari nods, satisfied with that explanation. 'The more you know.'

Marigold obtained Elementalist Adventure Dress!

Marigold was midway through putting on her new dress, having gotten her pants and her boots on. "I noticed you decided to add a few more colors…"

Turning to her daughter, Alice nodded. "Mmm. I gave you some general resistance to the elements, both because I had scraps on hand, and because I figured magic damage was what had to have done them in. As long as you don't go fighting any fire enemies again."

"I'm… pretty sure we won't." Marigold awkwardly scratched her cheek. "I hope we won't, at least."

Hikari obtained Midnight Miko Outfit!

...Before Alice could comment on that, Hikari questioned her outfit as she put it on. "What does mine do?"

Alice looked over at the black, red, and white outfit. "I kept some of the elements of that one design you brought me, but I combined them with Reimu's. Partially because I don't have the rubber to spare for a leotard, but also because the leotard wasn't really doing you any favors defensively."

'...Pretty much.' Hikari was glad to have the traditional shrine maiden top back. 'Although… I still have that cloth vest thing that came with the leotard.'

"Even more dark resistance, and some other things." Alice noted. "I focused more on the physical properties than the magical resistances. It might be a little slower to move in, but it… basically, if you fall in a volcano again, it should be a little harder to die. Not that I know how you got out in the first place."

Hikari grinned.

She slid on her arm sleeves, which now had black bands going through white fabric.

Hikari obtained Shade Sleeves!

She turned to Alice questioningly.

"...Basically just a little dark resistance." Alice shrugged. "I didn't really get too creative there. You should be able to attack a little faster, since I used lighter material for those."

Marigold up the new pair of glasses at the bed, and compared it with her current glasses. After doing so, she put them on- "Woaa~h. This is a lot less smudged…"

Marigold obtained Sun Swirly Glasses!

...The dark tinted glasses slowly became brighter as Marigold wore them. "Where did you get these…?"

"I just enchanted one of your spares to resist light a bit better." Alice noted. "Your hobo over there told us about how you've been getting bombarded by light attacks in the past."

Osamu looked over from a corner he was walking into. "Hey! I'm not a hobo… I'm a professional."

"A professional hobo." Alice corrected herself. "My mistake."

Osamu had to remind himself that Alice's wit was like Marigold's on steroids.

"His robe's already pretty good, so I just made it fire resistant." Alice waved off Osamu's latest upgrades. "Even that hat of his."

"Can I take this thing off now…!?" Osamu began tugging at the blindfold pre-emptively.

"No." Alice shook her head.

"Yes." Hikari contradicted her, giving him mercy.

Trusting the shrine maiden more than the mage, Osamu tore off his blindfold to find everyone decent.

...He gave Alice a dry look, causing her to smirk.

"I think we should be heading back…" Reimu figured, stretching idly. "Hnn~... Thanks for letting us pop by, Alice."

"Oh, anytime." Alice smiled. "I mean, one of you is my daughter, after all, so it's not like I'd have said no."

With that, Reimu began moving for the door. Hikari and Marigold followed behind her.

However, Osamu, was less complacent. "Dude! Aren't we gonna stay for pancakes!?"

Hikari turned towards him. "I don't think there's time."

"We just had pancakes." Marigold countered. "How are you still hungry for pancakes?"

"So?" He grinned widely. "Dude, they're good. How are you not hungry for more pancakes?"

'I disagree with them being good. At least, for that last batch.'

"C'mon!" Reimu called for them from the front door, which pushed them along.

Making their way outside, the four were clad in their new and improved clothing. Outside, they heard the light sound of crickets…

"Are you sure you four will be fine?" Alice wondered. "I have a feeling it's going to be awfully crazy out there."

"No problem." Hikari gave a thumbs up.

Reimu was less certain. "Do we have to do that… teleporting thing, again?"

Hikari nodded. "We can use a better one, because we have more room."

"Good…" Reimu relaxed. "That other one was too counterproductive. I hope you guys didn't use that often."

...Hikari grinned. "N-"

"All the time." Osamu assured her. "You couldn't stop us from usin' it! It was like, krakoom here! Krakoom there!" He grinned widely as well. "That was the shit, dude."

...Hikari slouched.

Reimu smiled dryly. "...Well, as long as you don't use it anymore."

After a quick lineup in the cluttered front yard, which Alice observed curiously, Hikari was ready.

"Again, on three…" She called out to the party.

"Oh, boy…" Reimu dreaded what was about to befall them.

Marigold snorted at her disdain. "Come, now. It won't be bad."

"One…" Hikari began calling wind onto herself.

Osamu began readying his body. "So glad we got enough room this time…"

Tensing her muscles again, Hikari definitely felt like she'd committed these motions to muscle memory by this point. "Two…"

"Try giving us a lot of stopping room…" Reimu suggested in vain.

"Three!" Hikari began running.

Hikari tried Teleport ß!

This time, they were less janky in their startup, although all the movement pretty much was on Hikari's part. Reimu was thrown off a little as they chose a circular pattern instead of bolting straight ahead, but quickly figured out what was going on.

Their speed increased as they circled around and around, until-

KraKoo~m!

Alice jumped at the flash of light. A ring of quaint flames was left in their wake, which quickly died down…

"Huh." She didn't know what to think of that. "So that's how they get around…"

==== GENSOKYOBOUND: HIYORI'S VIEW ====

"Alright…" Kaguya daintily stepped from her room, clad in a long, pink gown with many white ribbons on the front. "I am ready."

Hiyori was the last person remaining in the room, standing idly as she waited for the princess. "Hey."

Losing her regal posture, Kaguya relaxed. "Oh, it's just you."

Hiyori fought back a sigh. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I expected someone more important to have tagged along with you, or something." Kaguya explained. "Whatever. What the fuck does Eirin even need me for, anyway? She knows I don't do physical. It's something physical, isn't it?"

Hiyori shook her head. "I don't think so, no."

"...Oh." Kaguya blinked. "What is it, then?"

"We need your time magic." Hiyori explained.

...Kaguya facepalmed. "Fu~ck. I… I don't even. Fucking… why!?"

Hiyori shrugged. "Don't shoot the messenger."

"...Fine." Pouting, Kaguya begrudgingly moved towards Hiyori. "Let's just get this over with. Find me some scrap paper, too, 'cause if she asks for some homebrew shit, I'm gonna have to be doing a fuckton of math."

'Scrap paper?' Hiyori wasn't sure what she meant, having not worked with paper and pencil often before, especially underground. Even so, she agreed with Kaguya for the sake of not slowing things down. "Sure."

"Cool." Kaguya slid a hand into her long dress, and took out a rectangular device. Flipping it open, she began pressing buttons inside. "Alright, let's get this moving. I'm right behind you."

...With that, Hiyori began progressing. As she left the room and moved down the hall, she occasionally stopped to check if Kaguya was following her. She was each time. '...I don't feel like I can be certain with this girl.'

Retracing her steps, Hiyori eventually found herself back at the project room where the others were.

She swung open the door…

"Don't damage the lead plate, this time." Eirin spoke down to the lime-haired kappa, her expression sour. "We only have so much."

Torazu pouted. "I~'m sorry, Eirin-san-sama-chan…"

...Eirin's brow twitched.

"I brought the princess!" Hiyori called into the room.

"Aye!" The three kappa cheered at the exclamation, despite it meaning little in particular for them.

Kaguya folded her rectangular device shut. "Oo~h, god… Alright, what's this time shit I need to do?"

...Eirin stared at her, for a moment, before replying. "We're making this time gate, here." She gestures to the large ring behind herself. "We very much require your assistance in supplying time magic to each compartment of the device. With a-"

"Fuck this. Fu~ck this!" Kaguya turned to the door. "Nope! No~ way! No-"

Bam! The door slammed shut in front of her.

"Oh, you piece of-"

"Princess, please." Eirin insisted. "It is to be done with an easy control rod."

"A-..." Kaguya's rage became confusion. "A what?"

"An easy control rod." Eirin repeated, before elaborating. "It allows you to simply channel chronic-elemental mana through it, and each compartment of the device will perform the calculations, functions, and coroutines automatically. You only need to fuel it."

...At that, Kaguya nodded in satisfaction. "Huh. Fuck me, you're a genius."

"I'd rather not." Eirin jeered clinically.

Kaguya began walking towards her, grinning. "Yeah, yeah. Where's this rod you keep going on about?"

...Hiyori turned towards the door, hearing it swing open again.

==== GENSOKYOBOUND: HIKARI'S VIEW ====

"Here's where she should be." Reisen gestured to the door.

"...Same place as last time." Reimu noted. "Thanks, Reisen."

Reisen began returning to the front stand, breaking from the party. "Mmm."

From there, Hikari moved to the door, and swung it open. Inside, Hiyori was immediately before the door.

"Oh, hey." Reimu moved in behind Hikari. "Did you find-"

"Hey, hey!" Across the room, Kaguya yelled at Torazu and Katai, who had managed to smash their wrenches together somehow, to make a cross-wrench. "Stop being motherfuckers. You are being motherfuckers."

"...So you found her." Reimu bluntly accepted this.

"Yeah." Hiyori wasn't sure what to say. "...She's really a princess?"

"I think so, anyway." Reimu stared at the princess from afar warily.

'Oh, yeah. Her.' Hikari cited her as one of the reasons she decided to cut back on swearing.

"...I see your clothes have been more than fixed." Hiyori observed the party's new attire.

"Ah, yeah." Hikari looked down at her black accented shrine maiden attire. "It's made of stronger stuff."

...Eirin stepped towards the group, facepalming.

The yelling across the room had gotten louder. Kaguya loomed over the lime-green kappa. "What did you just call me!?"

"A-a very nice lady!" He cowered. "With a very nice, not-bitchy-at-all attitude!"

Eirin turned towards the party again, speaking quietly. "At this rate, she'll spend more time fighting with the kappa than channeling her mana…"

…

'Well, that's a problem.' Hikari observes as a bystander.

...Eirin turns to the party. "I may know her well, but her tempers can be quite the enigmas once they get started. That, and the kappa aren't helping."

"Didja try makin' her pancakes?" Osamu grins.

"Food doesn't help." Eirin dismisses his idea.

"She ain't human, dude." Osamu is at a loss. "Who the hell doesn't like pancakes…?"

Eirin snorts. "Indeed."

'Oh, right!' Hikari eventually realized that she had something to deal with this situation. "I think I can do something."

Eirin perked up. "Oh! Great. I was afraid I was going to have to toss one of you into the mess and hope for the best. Glad to see you're volunteering."

Reimu put a hand on her daughter's shoulder, and gave her some solid advice. "If they don't listen, or if they get aggressive, feel free to blow them up."

'...I think I'm gonna try to avoid that.' Smiling ironically, Hikari set towards the bickering people.

"Please don't." Eirin pleaded as she went.

...Approaching the two, Hikari reached into her pocket, pulling out the Heart Gem that she received from Koishi awhile ago…

'Hopefully she doesn't make the situation worse.' Hikari knew Koishi had a knack for throwing those targeted into emotional turmoil.

Channeling mana into the gem, Hikari prepared to wait-

To her surprise, all it took was seemingly little of her mana to make the gem shine. She kept a steady grip on it, as green tufts of smoky magic began being shot from the gem, swirling into the air around her…

Poof! A large tuft spiralled into the air above her, and from it…

"Heeyyaa~h!"

Koishi twirled down in the air, before facing Hikari.

"Boop!" She poked Hikari on the nose.

Smiling, Hikari greeted her. "Hey. Say, uhm…" She pointed at the two yelling people.

"I'm gonna turn you into fossil fuel…!" With faux glee, Kaguya stomped towards the kappa lecherously.

"N-no! Make it stop! Make it sto~p!" He swung the combo wrench uselessly in the air, backing away from Kaguya as slow as she was stomping towards him.

"Make them happy." Hikari requested.

Koishi cracked her fingers. "Alright, Hikari! One happy couple, coming ri~ght up! And by that…" Suddenly, she was very sullen. "I-I can't control what emotion it lands on." Staring at the floor, she waved her hand anyway. "Hope this wo~rks."

Then, she was jerked about, her hands going with the motions. "Hey! Hah! Wahoo~!"

Koishi tried HK Happy α!

Koishi tried HK Fear α!

Koishi tried HK Bad α!

Three bursts of foggy, green magic soared towards the two.

The first one collided with Torazu, making him flinch. "...You know, I actually feel a lot better now!"

Kaguya was launched forward a bit, after the second bolt struck her. "...Oh-oh, fuck! Oh, fuck!" Scrambling backwards, she tried to get away from the kappa. "No, no, no! Do-don't…!"

Torazu's head was thrown aside, as he was smacked by the next incoming magic bolt. "Aah! Oo~h… this sucks. Everything… sucks…" He kneeled, dropping his wrench.

'Uhm…' Hikari stared at them with vague disappointment. 'I don't think that's happy.'

"O-oh, no…" Koishi quivered. "I-I let everyone down…" Floating to the ground beside Hikari, she began shaking. "I- didn't-... I didn't mean…"

Koishi tried Guilt ß!

Poof! A final magical bolt shot out from her chest, and split into two, homing onto the two she targeted.

Hikari put her hand on her shoulder. "Relax."

"Ah!?" Koishi flinched violently, freezing up.

The two individuals were struck by the bolts, pausing.

…

They slowly turned to each other, and began convening…

"Hey, dude…" Kaguya fidgeted awkwardly. "Sorry for, uhm… calling you a motherfucker."

"I'm sorry for calling you a bitchy lady." The kappa held out his hand. "Agree to never be motherfuckers again?"

"Su-sure…" Kaguya reluctantly shook his hand, unsure how to feel about herself.

...Hikari smiled. "See? You didn't screw things up that badly."

...Koishi beamed again. "Wow! I fixed it! I really fixed it!"

Turning and grabbing Hikari's hands, she began hopping in place. "Yea~y!"

"Wo-woah!" Hikari began jumping along with her on impulse, leading to the two hopping in circles.

"...If anything, those two are being motherfuckers." Kaguya disdainfully addressed Hikari and Koishi. "Which is whatever, 'cause I don't even know why they're here."

Nodding, Torazu agreed. "Yeah. I can see that."

...After a few moments, Koishi stopped. "So~, this place is a little different!"

"Yeah…" Hikari stepped back from her a bit, still holding a smile. "C'mon." She began walking back towards her party and Eirin.

As she returned, Reimu commented on the events. "I have no idea how you know Koishi, but that works, I guess."

"Quite." Eirin was smug. "Seldom do I see the princess so humble as of late."

Nitori meandered over from the temporal gate, wiping her forehead.

Eirin perked up. "I hope this is good news."

"It is!" Nitori smiles. "I've gotten all of the T-ninety-nine transistors installed! I'm ready to start on the pipe bits."

Eirin blinked. "...Ah. I'd expect no less of you, Kawashiro."

Turning to the party, Nitori waved. "Hey, guys!"

"Hey, Nitori." Marigold waved back.

"Hi." Reimu casually greeted her.

"I used the metals to make you guys some things, because I saw you here before." She reached into her back pocket, and pulled out two bracelets. "Gifts."

Osamu rubbed his hands together. "I like gifts!"

She tossed one of the bracelets to him.

Osamu obtained Imperial Bracelet!

"I want Marigold to have this one…" Nitori held up one with a barcode-esque black and white texture all around the edges.

Eirin eyed it carefully. "...Isn't that one of the transistors?"

"It died." Nitori may or may not have told her the truth.

Eirin could tell she wasn't. "But it-"

"Blown up." Nitori was adamant about gift giving.

"...Well, you do good work, so I suppose it's fine." Eirin conceded the loss of the transistor, folding her arms.

Nitori handed it to Marigold.

Marigold obtained Eternal Band!

"...Cool." Marigold smiled at it. "Thanks, Nitori."

Katai backed away from the temporal gate, wiping his hands. "It's done!"

...Eirin turned to Nitori. "Don't you have those pipes to install?"

Nitori grinned. "He already started on them."

"...Hmm." Eirin shrugged. "I'll inspect it and clear it, then."

With that, she went along with Nitori to check on the machine's stability.

…

Hikari turned towards her party, who were examining their new stuff.

"I wonder what it does…" Osamu stared intently at his new bracelet.

"Probably nothing." Marigold figured. "Not everything has to do something, you know."

Koishi hopped in place. "Do I get one too!? Do I!?"

Her attention snapping from the examination for a moment, Nitori stared at her for a moment. "...Oh. Oh! You're… you're that one girl!"

"Yeah." Koishi winked. "I'm one girl!" Slouching over, she looked tired. "A~nd only… one girl…"

'I think that's enough.' Hikari wills her to desummon.

The Heart Gem glows brightly, and flashes.

"Oh- oh! See ya, Hikari~!" Koishi starts getting pulled back into the gem, her form slowly being pulled towards it. "Tootaloo~!"

Poof! She became green mist, which gravitated into the Heart Gem.

…

From there, they watched the kappa and the doctor examine the ring's integrity in the bleak hospital light. Nitori had proceeded to neglect that Koishi was ever there to begin with.

Reimu's intuition picked this moment to exist. "Hey, wait…"

She moved up to the gate, and asked Eirin a question. "If it's a temporal gate, will it display what's on the other side?"

"Naturally." Eirin idly provided, not paying full attention to her.

"...Why is it not outside, then?" Reimu folded her arms.

...Eirin slowly stood from the machine, turning to her. "In retrospect, that would have likely been a good idea. Considering the materials, it should be weather resistant."

At that, Reimu began looking around. "It… can it be moved?"

"No. Well, yes, but I highly doubt anyone here can lift it. That, and there are no doors with which to fit it through." Eirin looked towards Hiyori for a moment, but dismissed the idea she had.

"Where's that gap hag?" Reimu wondered.

"You ra~ng?" A gap opened before Reimu, Yukari leaning out of it. "I'm soft, Reimu."

...With a dry expression, Reimu jumped and tugged on Yukari's arm, pulling her from the gap. "We need you to move this gate thing outside."

Thud. Yukari landed on the floor. Rising, she dusted herself off. "Alri~ght, Reimu. You didn't need to get grabby about it…"

Floating up before the gate, Yukari wiggled her gloved fingers. "Where do you want it?"

"...Just outside, I suppose." Eirin decides. "To the right of our front entrance."

"Very well." A gap slowly stretches out underneath the gate…

"Make sure not to break it." Eirin sternly warns the gap youkai.

"Fufufu~. Worry not, Yagokoro. Our interests coincide, this time."

...The gate slowly drifts down into the gap once it's fully stretched, falling as if it were submerged in water, or as light as a feather. As it drifted, the edges harmlessly clipped the gap's edges a bit, not falling perfectly center, producing soft clings as it went in.

...The kappa stared into the gap with wide eyes.

Then, it closed.

...Yukari floated over where it was, and turned to pretty much everyone present. "Let us go outside."

Reimu looked up at her, expression still dry. "Couldn't we have just used that gap?"

…

"Wha- hey!" Reimu promptly fell into a single gap, which closed shortly later.

"Now let us go outside." Yukari was smug.

==== GENSOKYOBOUND ====

Outside, Reimu stood with her arms folded next to the temporal gate.

"Why'd you only teleport me?" She approached the group of people impatiently.

"Well, you asked for it." Yukari shrugged tactfully. "I just gave you what you wanted."

"I didn't ask to-…" Reimu rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

'I can agree with that statement.' Hikari wasn't a big fan of Yukari anymore, either.

Kaguya broke from the crowd. "You bring that rod thing, Eirin?"

"Mmm." Stepping up to the temporal gate, Eirin took a ball from her pocket. Pressing on it, the actual rod portion expanded out from inside.

"Cool…" Marigold liked that.

"Let me just wire it up…" Eirin began taking tubes, pressing them onto the round exterior of the ball part as Kaguya took hold of the shaft.

...Hikari looked to the sky, noticing the darkness of the night give way to a blue glow… 'I think the sun's rising.'

...Katai rose his hand. After a few moments of looking about with mild smugness, Yukari noticed him. "...Yes, kappa?"

"Can we get the hell out of here, now?" Katai huffed. "For all I know, my place's been blown away by those robots."

"Oh, yes." Nodding, Yukari waved her hand. "Here is your compensation."

Gaps opened above the three kappa, and oversized cucumber jars softly dropped from above.

Katai goggled at his. "Holy shit…!"

"Tata~." Yukari waved them goodbye. The kappa and their jars dropped into three more gaps that appeared below them, sending them away. All the gaps then closed.

Holding the fully assembled rod, Kaguya focused, closing her eyes. "...Oka~y…"

She glowed a solid grey, as did the easy control rod. The tubes glowed a much more subtle color, as Kaguya poured her mana through them.

Once the magic reached the device, the pulsing blue wireframe pattern along the round rim of the machine began to light up a full, solid blue. This glow also pulsated, though all at once, rather than the more sheen-like appearance the depowered form held.

Clang! Cla-cla-cla~ng!

The props that held it up snapped off, and the gate floated into the air, propelled by its own magical force, now.

"You can cease." Eirin instructed the princess. "Now, it should be able to self-sufficiently maintain its temporal element, and sustain a safe mana balance."

"Did you make it indestructible by normal means?" Yukari inquired, brow raised.

"Not quite." Eirin seemed disappointed. "On such short notice, I had to use more common metals. It would've taken a week to shape the adamantite and mithril necessary."

Yukari tapped her chin. "...Maybe I can work on that. Though, that will come in time, when I accrue the resources myself."

Eirin grinned. "You mean your shikigami?"

"Hush." Yukari snorted.

The gate flickered to life, a white portal forming in the midst of it.

"Now…" Eirin stepped towards the side of it. "I'll set the time to~..."

Yukari paused, thinking. "...Giygas is most likely to return, at minimum, thirty years from now."

"First, we'll set it to the present, so we have somewhere to begin with." Looking away from the machine, she looked over at Kaguya. "Changing the time should be easy enough. Just trickle some mana into it, princess. I'll handle the controls myself."

"Alright." Kaguya agreed, her hands glowing white as she held them on the shaft.

Marigold was curious. "What time is it set to, right now?"

"None." Eirin informed her. "As in, if you jumped in when it's not set to a time, you just take immense time elemental damage, and are likely erased from time."

...Marigold blinked. "How does that work?"

Eirin didn't reply, deciding to instead keep tinkering with the modifications.

Hikari felt something brush against her leg. 'A-ah…?'

"Take it ea~sy…" A yukkuri Reimu was there, when she looked.

Osamu looked down at it. "Oh, hey. It's one of those things."

...He looked between the time gate, and the yukkuri.

"No." Marigold got between it and him. "You're not tossing the poor thing into nonexistence."

He folded his arms. "S'not like it would've hurt it. I don't think."

After a few moments, the temporal gate rapidly flickered, time periods being displayed as they passed by rapidly. Most of them included pitch-back darkness, pitch-white brightness, or solid colors. A few were of stars, and others were of rocks. Eventually, Eirin stopped it somewhere that resembled the Eientei yard. It looked almost as if the gate were still off, but the shimmering of the image hinted otherwise.

"Alright…" Eirin walked behind it. Once she was behind it, her form was obscured, only her legs visible under the portal's bottom rim. Noticing this herself, she floated up and behind the portal's image, seemingly invisible behind it. "Can everyone see me?"

There was a general murmur of disagreement.

"Good…" Landing, she walked around to the controls again, and slowly twisted a dial. As she did, her form appeared on the temporal gate's image. "Okay, it seems to be stable."

"Thirty years…" Reimu folded her arms. "They'll have a way to get back, right?"

Eirin nodded. "As soon as they go, I'll set the portal back to this time, again, give or take a few minutes, and I'll leave it as such. Since I'm the only one who knows how to operate it, and Yukari will see to it that it becomes practically indestructible, it will continue to rest here."

"Why can't we just go back in time and stop this stupid Giygas guy from ever coming?" Osamu proposed. "Like, kick his mom's ass, or something."

...Eirin gave him a blank stare. "Well, for one thing, there is no time portal in the past, so you'd likely be stranded. For another thing, if you were to make it so that Giygas never existed now, you'd likely either become part of some sort of alternate timeline, or be wiped from existence."

...Turning to him, Marigold simplified it. "If we kill him in the past, we'd've never started this adventure."

Osamu nodded. "Oh. Shit."

"In addition…" Eirin took out a keyring, which was adorned with a plethora of keys. "After today, I'm going to manually put the portal in a sort of stasis mode, to keep hooligans from jumping back to the time I set it too. I'll give one of you the key to re-activate it. It doesn't need to be active for you to arrive at a time period."

Taking a blue key from her key ring, Eirin tossed to to Hikari. Hikari managed to smoothly grab it with one motion. 'Awesome…'

"So… Thirty years?" Eirin looked at Yukari, again.

"Indeed." Yukari was reclining in the air, on a gap's rim.

"Can you two hurry the fuck up…?" Kaguya sighed. "Ti-time magic's so fuckin'... wasteful…"

Yukari drifted towards her, and pulled an elixir from somewhere in the gap. "Open up."

Kaguya glared at her. "What the fuck are you- mmph! Mmm!" Yukari shoved the elixir into her mouth, tilting her head back. "Mmm~!"

…

After a moment, she tore it from Kaguya's mouth. "Ha~h! You… fucking…!"

...She was then less angry. "I mean, that helped, but don't fucking do that!"

Reimu stared at Yukari dryly. "You could've just channeled mana into her…"

Looking down at the shrine maiden, she put a finger over her lips, winking.

The dial on the temporal gate was slid ahead, slowly scrolling through thirty years. Brief flickers of color whirled by, some more close than others, as the gate flickered between day and night. Eventually, Eirin's dial turning slowed, and the image rested on a familiar one of Eientei's side and some associated forestry.

"This should be the time…" Eirin nodded, turning from the device. Looking at Yukari, she sought confirmation. "You're sure about this?"

"Positive." Yukari floated down from the air, dismissing her gap. "I've confirmed it myself. Giygas plans to rest in silence for thirty years, and strike when the time is right. We need these four, who know how to deal with its strategies, to strike at the heart of the next invasion: Giygas himself."

…

"Alright." Eirin nodded. Then, she looked over at Reimu.

"...So how would they return?" Reimu asked after a moment.

...Eirin took a breath. "Were you listening, I had explained that they would re-activate the pre-programmed gate. Though…" Eirin furrowed her brows. "I'm not too certain how alternate timelines may play into this. If we're on the right side of history, they should return mere moments after they depart, having defeated Giygas."

Reimu nods, understanding now. "So if they don't return…"

"...We'll just have to deal with things from there." Eirin sighed. "It really is all down to them."

At that, Reimu rose her gohei. "I want to go with them."

...Yukari slowly turned towards her. "You cannot."

"Why not?" Reimu glared at her.

"We need at least one Hakurei miko present at all times." Yukari restated. "For the sake of the barrier."

...Reimu huffed. "I… I see."

"We'll be fine." Hiyori spoke up for the first time in awhile. "We know what we're doing."

...Reimu turned to Hikari.

Hikari gave her a thumbs up, and a smile. "I'll be alright, Mom."

Reimu pulled her into a hug. Surprised for a moment, Hikari returned it.

…

"Give whatever this Giygas thing is hell." Reimu smiles at her, patting her on the shoulders. "Okay?"

"Yeah." Hikari nodded at her.

"I love you, HIkari."

Hikari always found herself thrown off by these sorts of things. "I-I love you too, Mom."

…

Osamu fidgeted awkwardly.

Reimu broke from her daughter, backing off to the side. Yukari held a static smile, while Kaguya and Eirin moved out of the way.

"Alright…" Hiyori cracked her knuckles, before slinging her mace over her shoulder

Marigold put her new Eternal Band in her pocket, unable to fit it around her wrist at the moment. Sliding out her Heavy Bazooka, she appeared ready. "Let's go, guys."

"Hell yeah." Osamu grinned at the bazooka. "We're gonna beat them the fuck up."

Hikari had her gohei ready. She checked her pocket, finding the ofuda there. "Alright. Let's stay close."

Osamu snorted. "When don't we?"

The four march towards the temporal gate. With their weapons of choice ready, they leapt into it together.

Fwoao~m!

==== GENSOKYOBOUND ====

END OF CHAPTER 30

Protagonist: Hikari Hakurei, Disciple of Paradise

-Inventory-

Weapon: Jet Black Gohei - The gohei once wielded by Sendai Hakurei no Miko. Theoretically, anyway. Boosts attack power, and critical hit rate. The dark impulse of the gohei frequently allows Hikari to strike twice instead of simply once, even when unprepared.

Arms: Shade Sleeves - Dark-elemental arm sleeves. Allows Hikari to add an additional strike to her combo when prepared. Ten percent darkness resistance.

Body: Midnight Miko Outfit - Dark-elemental miko outfit which combines the positive aspects of Reimu and Sendai Hakurei No Miko's outfits. Designed to provide more magical and physical defense all around, and as such might weigh Hikari down a little. Twenty percent darkness resistance.

Misc: Chaos Ribbon - Dark-elemental ribbon. Has a rather crazy slapdash design. Twenty percent darkness resistance.

-Skills-

Attack: Quickly! Swing your gohei at them for massive damage! Sometimes happens twice from the Jet Black Gohei's dark impulse. Has an additional strike due to Hikari's Shade Sleeves.

PK Fantasy α, β, γ, Ω - Bombards the enemy with pain in the form of flashing colors. Deals magical damage. Heavy mental strain that increases with each tier. Third tier forms a barrier, which breaks upon moderate damage. Final tier is a non-elemental nuke of immense magical power.

PK Flash α, ß, γ, Ω - A bright flash that distributes very random status effects to enemies. Usually makes people cry. Higher tiers increase chances, and introduce possibilities of fainting or dispel. Higher tiers can instantly destroy more varieties of foes, and make people feel weird.

Hypnosis α, Ω - Puts weak enemies to sleep for a short time. Works better on tired or exhausted foes. Can also be used in a far more costly form that works on multiple opponents.

Shield α, ß - Halves damage the target takes. Only works against physical attacks, and enough strikes, or powerful strikes, will dispel it. Higher tier turns it into a power-shield that protects even better and even reflects a fraction of protected damage.

Lifeup α, ß, γ, Ω - Heals target a little. Higher tiers heal more grievous wounds, like bone fractures. Highest tier heals everybody in the party.

Healing α, ß, γ - Heals basic status ailments. Higher tiers can cure more dire effects, like burning alive.

Teleport α, ß - Allows instant transport to the general location of an area remembered by oneself or one's party members. Requires a long, fast run-up to execute, however. Higher tier allows a circular motion to control the run-up instead, giving Hikari more control over the teleport.

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.

Cautionary Barrier - Summon a barrier that deflects attacks and magical attacks of all elements. Can be broken by stronger attacks, and is holy elemental.

Lightshine Ofuda - Two ofuda which explode into orbs of light. Area denying holy attack.

Summon Koishi - Using the Heart Gem's power, Hikari summons Koishi Komeiji. Casts three random HK spells on enemies, before using a higher tier one that depends on her current mood. Typically can manage two uses before she's out of mana. Costs sizable mana.

Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω

Mage: Osamu Katsumi, the Wannabe Mage

-Inventory-

Weapon: Miracle Gohei - Not nearly as effective in Osamu's hands. Does a tenth of its usual damage, and is unable to inflict critical hits. Might break if swung too hard.

Arms: Imperial Bracelet - Gives slight knockback resistance. Doubles the strength of the last cast of magic used before running out of mana.

Body: Super Rugged Robe - A sturdy robe enchanted to resist damage. Made partially with sturdy cloth from deep underground. Grants fifty percent resistance to fire elemental damage.

Misc: Rugged Red Mage Hat - A red colored mage's hat made from cloth in the Human Village. Minor resistance to thunder, ice, and fire magic from its well worn usage in the past. Didn't see much action… until Osamu bought it! Grants ten percent resistance to fire elemental damage.

-Skills-

PK Thunder α, ß, γ - Very random thunder attack that deals limited damage. Higher tiers increase number of bolts, and sometimes power.

PK Hydro α, β, γ - 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, γ, Ω - Generates ice crystals at the target's location. Medium damage and effect; may freeze some targets, especially wet ones. Highest tier has a near-guaranteed freeze chance and immense ice damage, at the cost of being very taxing.

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, Σ - Halves damage from magical and psychic attacks. Thunder spells fry it instantly, and harder blows dispel it. Second tier applies basic shield to entire party at higher mana expense.

PSI Magnet α, Ω - Costs no mana to use, and steals a very tiny amount of mana from the enemy. Enemy has to have mana in the first place for it to work, though.

Offense Up α - Get pissed! Boosts strength and confidence depending on caster's power and receiver's power.

Defense Down α, Ω - Throw the enemy off their game. Makes them slightly more vulnerable to physical attacks.

Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω

Inventor: Marigold Knowledge, the Tri-Magi Love Child

-Inventory-

Weapon: Spectrum Shotgun - A Marigold Knowledge invention. Filled with foil chip bags to conduct the mana, and it is transmitted into a wind stone. Upgraded to draw mana from a simple wooden block filled with immense magic reserves, giving it virtually unlimited ammo. The addition of a battery and a prism allow it to fire seven rainbow colored beams at a wide spread, which deal non-elemental damage. Firing long enough allows them to focus and deal incredible damage, at the cost of insane recoil and instability.

Arms: Eternal Band - Band made from a time transistor. Allows melee attacks to deal time-elemental damage and statuses.

Body: Elementalist Adventure Dress - A custom dress made by Alice. Provides some defense against magical and psychic attacks. Allows very free movement. Grants twenty percent resistance to fire, thunder, and ice elemental attacks.

Misc: Sun Swirly Glasses - Lets Marigold not be blind. Grants immunity to the effects of PK Flash, and to blinding light attacks. Allows Marigold to stare straight into the sun.

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.

Scotch Tape - Transparent adhesive from the outside world. Weak, but handy!

Deck of Cards - Allows Marigold to play Strip Poker with the party. Just kidding… or am I?

Shield Killer - Electrical device used to subdue harassers. Has settings ranging from Tickle Torture to Arse Blaster. Fires electrical projectiles, of unknown power.

NF Burst Gun - A Marigold Knowledge invention. Uses a Pop Gun as the base, but amplifies its power with an array of random batteries jammed into the base with the Pop Gun. The more batteries, the better, but the typical yield is about five bullets per trigger. Spamming the trigger doesn't make it go any faster, unfortunately. Has no foreseeable ammo limit, and the batteries are only there for mana circulation, meaning their power is really inconsequential.

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.

Slime Generator - A bulky box that shoots a small splat of slime. Doesn't seem good for much.

Counter-PSI Device - A weird device Marigold found from a flying saucer. Works in strange ways, and seems to disrupt everyone's concentration. Marigold is immune to its effects.

Charm of Sleep - Grants immunity to sleep while equipped, or held. Can be equipped to Arms or Misc.

Microwave Gun - A Marigold Knowledge invention. Constructed with a controlled flame crystal and metal parts, it fires a beam of sustained microwave energy that cooks biological foes alive. Fire-elemental at its core, it's also very inefficient against machines. The lens used in it was switched with a Moon Lens, allowing it to instead deal moon-elemental damage and silence foes. Silenced foes are unable to use spells.

Defense Shower - A Marigold Knowledge invention. Made of a broom, a showerhead, some magnets, and uses jars of water as ammo. Slapped together with ofuda, giving it a holy defensive effect. The jars are usually filled with Talcum Powder, for alchemical purposes. The liquid that is dispensed becomes auto-applying lotion.

Heavy Bazooka - An invention developed in part by Kappa Tech and Marigold Knowledge. It shoots heavy fire-based blasts of fire magic, and deals high knockback. It was constructed by stuffing some fire and gravity stones into a tube, adding a cap on one side to direct the fire, and hooking a magical wire to the handle. Nitori did most of the work, though...

-Skills-

Time Gal - Now with friends!

Is Duck Dodgers - Of the twenty-fourth-and-one-half century!

Finally Got Actual Mage Gear - How much do you want to bet that most enemies won't use darkness, ice, or fire most of the time?

Timely Slugger - Raa~h!

Is Just In Time - For the free pancake deal at Eientei this… day!

Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω

Fighter: Hiyori Hashimoto, the Buddhist Oni

-Inventory-

Weapon: Mace of Devas - The last of the four treasures held by the Devas of the Mountain. Ability to whack stuff really hard. Increases critical hit rate by lieu of being a really big, blunt, spiky weapon. Allows partial blocking of magic attacks.

Arms: Shackle of Devas - The first of the four treasures held by the Devas of the Mountain. Grants immunity to sleep-inducing magic. Grants fifty percent resistance to wind and thunder magic.

Body: Kimono of Devas - The second of the four treasures held by the Devas of the Mountain. Grants immunity to paralyzing magic. Grants fifty percent resistance to fire magic. Insanely durable. Has a floral design to it…!

Misc: Bows of Devas - The third of the four treasures held by the Devas of the Mountain. Grants immunity to confusion-inducing magic. Grants fifty percent resistance to ice magic.

-Skills-

PK Starstorm α, Ω - Summons forth the stars from the night's sky to rain down upon enemies. Hits all enemies, and deals high magical damage, at the cost of being highly mentally taxing. Can hit allies if they're in the effective area, as the white stars don't have homing properties. Power proportional to amount of enemies, as well.

PK Fire α, ß, γ - Creates an igniting blast of flames at the target's location. More impact comes with higher tiers.

PK Freeze α, β, γ - Generates ice crystals at the target's location. Medium damage and effect; may freeze some targets, especially wet ones.

Shield α, ß, Σ - Halves damage the target takes. Only works against physical attacks, and enough strikes, or powerful strikes, will dispel it. Higher tier turns it into a power-shield that protects even better and even reflects a fraction of protected damage. Highest tier applies a basic shield to the entire party.

Lifeup α, ß, γ - Heals target a little. Higher tiers heal more grievous wounds, like bone fractures.

Healing α, ß, γ, Ω - Heals basic status ailments. Higher tiers can cure more dire effects, like burning alive.

Teleport α, ß - Allows instant transport to the general location of an area remembered by oneself or one's party members. Requires a long, fast run-up to execute, however. Higher tier is largely automatic and requires little room to execute.

Martial Arts - Skilled in hand-to-hand combat.

Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω

Author's Note:

HOO BOY here we are folks, the END ENDGAME.

there might be a couple things to find in the future but otherwise it's straight up brutalization from here, yo

next chapter or the chapter after could easily host the FINAL BOSS, but there'll probably be an epilogue chapter

if i do omakes for fun they'll be after the story is marked as complete and wouldn't be done on any sort of schedule; also the epilogue would have to be done first for obvious reasons

...the omakes would basically either be fun scenarios are post-game UBERBOSSES that i felt like writing for fun if i do at all

anyhow yeah this chapter was full of stuff and things that weren't exactly exciting aside from SWEET EQUIPS BRO, like bath time and pancake eating, but y'know, rome wasn't BUILT IN A DAY

that and the party hasn't slept in awhile and is basically going on whatever energy boosts they've been fed here or there

no combat this time but you can be GUARANTEED DAZ GONNA CHANGE…

also lots of explanation that i hope didn't kill you; don't worry the party probably understands them as well as everyone else does

also did a bit more fixing of the status report, and added the MANY NEW EQUIPS

as always, see you all next time!