The Sights of Another World

Hakurei Shrine

"Stay close to me. If Reimu sees you alone, she'll probably attack." Marisa whispered to Wes.

"Nice of you to tell me this. Why are we here?" Wes replied.

"I think Reimu might have something which can help." Marisa said, walking up. "Oy! Reimu!"

A girl with a red and white dress flew casually over... And she didn't look happy.

"WHAT, Marisa? I haven't been having a good day today! So make this quick!"

Rui and Wes flinched back. Despite looking about 17 or so, she seems to possess incredible power! Wes thought to himself.

Rui, slightly clueless, waved at Reimu. "And who are you? I've never seen you before a day in my life! I'm talking to you, Sir Shades In Blue!" Reimu shouted at Wes, having noticed them.

Wes chuckled quietly. "That's a new one." he replied coolly. "I like the name. I gotta remember that one."

Marisa whispered to Rui: "Girl to girl, your boyfriend had better drop the mysterious attitude, or Reimu will flatten him, ze."

Rui started to splutter. "What... wh-what, why would you even THINK..."

Marisa tilted her head back and laughed. "Kyahahahaha! The look on your face was PRICELESS, ze! PRICE. LESS."

In the meantime, Reimu had grown sick of Wes's evasive answers and was readying her spell cards, assuming he was here to cause an incident.

"Uh-oh. I'd better step in, ze." Marisa said to Rui, walking over to Reimu.

"They're a couple of lost humans from outside, ze. Just leave them alone." Marisa said to Reimu.

"That implement is very suspicious. VERY. I just can't believe they're here by chance, Marisa. I ALSO can't take that chance!" she replied.

"They're powerless! You'd kill defenseless humans? How does that make you better than the youkai?!" Marisa couldn't believe Reimu's stance.

"*whisper whisper*"

"Porky Minch doesn't count, ze. He messed everything up, so THEN we were gonna beat him up. Innocent until proven guilty, remember?" Marisa was getting worried.

"... Fine. Take them to Kourindou. Do whatever. Just leave me be." Reimu flew back to the shrine and shut the door.

"Well, that worked out. C'mon, follow me." Marisa said. "Kourindou is right this way..."

Wes and Rui continued to walk on, following a girl about who the only thing they knew was that she knew of their world now.

Kourindou

"Kourin! I'm here!" Marisa shouted.

"No need to shout, Marisa." Rinnosuke responded. "Who are these people? The guy looks like a thug. But who's the girl?"

"Kourin! Do you not notice the details of your customers anymore?!" Marisa was incredulous.

"Since you and Reimu are as predictable as Yukari, not really, since they're always different." Rinnosuke coolly replied.

"Why is everyone sassing me lately..." Marisa grumbled. "Anyway! He has... well, see for yourself."

"Oh! My, someone came packing some interesting hardware. I THINK I still have some Miko Orbs in the back. Let me just check..." Rinnosuke ran into the back room.

"Ok, I think it's time I explain why we find these so familiar." Marisa said to Wes.

"No, Marisa, it is not. It's time for ME to explain, since you'll gloss over your part in it," came a voice from the front.

"Alice! Nice to see you, ze!

Rinnosuke came back, lugging a sight which made Wes feel like he had a chance at surviving again.

"Forgot I had this thing! This is a Bonéka Recovery Unit. It should heal any and all Bonéka to full health... But not many of us have Bonéka anymore."

"Wow! That's awesome! Wait, what's a Bonéka? Some type of Pokémon?" Rui asked.

Could she act ANY dumber? We're surrounded by people we don't know! Wes fumed silently.

"Pokémon? Is that what you call the creatures your world fights with?" Alice asked. "Don't worry, it's not like we can take a trip there or anything."

Wes snorted at this and Rui shouted: "BUT YOU DID! Someone with blue blades and red spikes coming out of their face abducted me, then him and a friend came to save me! Then she dragged that friend here!"

"What? Impossible. The only way in or out is through Yukarin's gaps, and she's hibernating!" Marisa said.

"Hmmm..." Alice said.

"What?" said Marisa to Alice.

"I just saw her last week. She said I should 'put my Bonéka back into service.' Something about a fun event..." Alice mused.

Wes used the Bonéka Restoration Device.

"Hmmm... Rui, I believe your name was? And... you in the shades. I will tell you more about the Boneka... If you can defeat me in battle!" Alice declared.

Wes got a Poke Ball ready, and waited for the Spell Card.

Alice opened her book to a page. Then, she pulled a belt from it. On it were six objects that very closely resembled Poke Balls.

Wes's eyes widened.

"Yes, shady. I want to fight with a Puppet again. It has been AGES. Come out, Alice!"

A... doll like thing... emerged from the... poke ball like thing... It resembled Alice exactly, right down to the book she held.

"These little ones are called Bonéka. They resemble the residents here. A long time ago, we battled with these, much as you do with Pokémon. They use mostly the same attacks. We would find them roaming wild. The Miko Orb was used to catch them. But enough. Let us battle."

Next time: Our first Pokemon vs. Boneka fight! Can Wes puzzle out the types of his new foes? Can he defeat Alice? And what will she tell him if he does?

Introductions:

Touhou:

Alice Margatroid: Alice is an... interesting character. She is a magician youkai. Her dream is to create, I kid you not, "an autonomous doll". Yep, she wants to create new life... from dolls. She has a couple of helper dolls that take basic commands. She generally uses them in her spellcards to shoot bullets. Most commonly seen is Shanghai. She also has Hourai, London, France, Holland, Germany... Yep, her dolls (bar Hourai) are named after real places. Hourai is named after the Hourai Elixir, a drink in Japanese mythology believed to give immortality.

Reimu Hakurei: Reimu is THE main character of Touhou Project. When an incident happens in Gensokyo (which is probably about once a week, given that the prevailing logic is "I'm bored, let's start an incident.") she goes around trying to find the culprit. Care to guess how? Not any sort of detective work, oh no. I can sum it up really quickly. "Someone's in my way. Let's beat the crap out of them!" Her intuition is generally right, and she winds up beating her way straight to the culprit.

Rinnosuke Morichika: Half human, half youkai, a much put-upon shopkeeper who gives Marisa and Reimu a credit limit that is practically infinite, with no set payment date. He probably wishes it were otherwise, but those two are like a man who constantly has a gun pointed at you. Don't piss them off.

EarthBound:

Porky Minch: Porky was Ness's next door neighbor in EarthBound. He came back to get in your way again, and again, and again. He allied himself with darkness. The reason he comes up at all is because he seemed like a defenseless human, but he plunged Gensokyo into civil war in the fangame Touhou Mother. Which is what they are referring to.

Boneka: Wait for the next chapter.