Night fell; and everyone went back to their usual places. Everything was quiet; by Gensokyo standards.
Then; the black sky was replaced by some sort of... magical silver. It looked like a metallic sheen.
In the middle of it; was a giant face and upper body of Rika; and she was holding something that looked distinctly like Yumemi's Cross.
"Rumia! I have managed to reverse-engineer Yumemi's technology! If you wish to try and stop me from draining the magic from Gensokyo and killing all youkai; follow this hologram. It will adjust to lead you to my base. If anyone else follows I will activate the Magic Absorber. Rumia must come alone."
Rumia sighed; and looked at Wriggle; Mystia; Cirno and Daiyousei. The five were goofing around over the lake.
Rika's playing up again guys; sorry.
"Go punch her in the face for me." Mystia said.
"Kick her for me." Wriggle said.
"When will she learn?" Daiyousei asked.
"Freeze her solid for me!" Cirno said happily; causing everyone to just look at her disapprovingly.
With that; Rumia flew into the air; level with the holograph. Rika seemed to notice this; and the holograph went towards the ground. Rumia followed the trail of light; to a point in the forest.
As she approached; she noticed a portal; not dissimilar to the one Rika set up to deal with the Lunarians. It turned on; apparent not causing the discharge that required a holographic forest to cloak it that the previous one did.
"In here." Rika's holograph commanded.
"Yeah yeah. Callin' me out here at this time of night... people will get the wrong idea..." Rumia said; as she walked through the portal.
Her joking face fell when she entered.
Rika's base was large and open. However; it was littered with destroyed Rikas. There were fires; smashed tanks and very little was intact.
"What happened here?" Rumia asked; as the portal closed behind her. Rumia noticed it too was smoldering.
Rumia walked towards the centre of the room; towards the only two things in the room that were not ruined. A giant machine Rumia did not recognize; and a cylinder; connected with many wires to the other machine. It flashed with lights and images Rumia did not understand; and had buttons she dare not touch.
The screen on the machine flickered to life. Rika's face on it.
"Sorry about lying. But I kinda need your assistance. In case you've not noticed; that portal is the only way out. And only I can turn it on. So you're stuck here." Rika said.
"Wait; what?" Rumia said.
"Oh; uh; I kinda don't have a body right now; so I'm just existent in my databases in this central supercomputer." Rika said.
"No; what happened here Rika?!" Rumia said.
"The Yamaxandu showed up. She started ranting about how I was on the verge of being irredeemable and would go to Hell. I didn't listen and attacked her with everything I had. She kept lecturing as she trashed everything. She was going to smash the supercomputer too; on the basis that I'm not technically alive so she wouldn't be killing me, so I listened."
Rumia thought for a few moments.
"And since the Yama has not smashed you up... I guess you listened?" Rumia said.
"She spoke for hours; but my databases agreed with what she said. I... have gone too far. I've been blind to the changes and advances in the world. So I resolved to only kill EVIL youkai. And you. I'm the only one allowed to kill you after all." Rika said.
"So... no more hairbrain plans to kill every youkai?" Rumia asked.
"Cross my Processors hope to Bluescreen." Rika said.
"So you're not going to attack my friends anymore?"
"If they turn evil and start attacking humans I will!" Rika said.
Rumia sighed. That seemed good enough.
"Anyway; the Yama smashed all my stuff for another reason; which is why I need you down here. You see; inside that cylinder is my secret project. My ultimate project. You see; ultimately; I want my humanity back. What is inside that cylinder is the pinnacle of my technology; which also uses technology I have reverse-engineered from Yumemi's technology; as well as the Kappa's Magitech." Rika said.
"What's so special about it?" Rumia asked.
"Aside from it being incredibly powerful? It has something I have not had since I turned myself into a machine and data. Emotions. Sure I could get angry and everything but that was programming based on my previous emotions. I can feel the world as well. For all intents and purposes; I will be as close to a human again as I can get. And I will be able to understand some things that I cannot figure out now. Things I did not know when I became like this."
Rumia looked to the cylinder.
"So what do I have to do?" she asked.
"Well; normally I'd have to press the shiny green button on the cylinder to start the process. But all my bodies are wrecked. Then I will be downloaded into the body. By the way; I have no clue what it's going to look like. I ran a program that designed the body to look as if... well... my growth didn't get stunted. And I didn't look at the outcome." Rika said.
Rumia looked at the green button for about half a minute.
"I don't have much choice; and I don't know why... but I feel like you are not lying." Rumia said; as she pressed the button.
The screen flickered out; and then lights started to flash on the cylinder. This continued for about a minute; with the cylinder sparking; and Rumia backing away.
Then; the cylinder opened; and a figure stepped out.
The figure was slightly taller than Rumia; and looked a couple of years older. She looked about 20; unlike Rumia; who looked more 16/17. She looked rather similar to what Rika looked like before; with the same hairstyle; the same clothing style and the same eyes; but she had a pretty good figure.
She experimentally moved each of her limbs and fingers slowly. The movements looked natural, not somewhat jerky. Then; two small bits of metal flew off her shoulders; and floated around her.
"Drones functional. Good. Those are a key part of my combat potential." Rika said.
Rumia took a battle stance upon hearing that; but the drones returned to Rika's shoulders. She then looked at Rumia; in the she looked away; turning a little red.
"U-Uh... I need to run diagnostics. I think some of my functions are incomplete. I'm turning red. You can go. Portal is open." Rika said. "I won't need this base anymore. Or tanks. I'll probobly set up something more permament around where the above-ground portal is..." Rika muttered quickly.
"It almost looks like you're blushing Rika..." Rumia said in a teaseing voice.
The drones quickly flew out of Rika's shoulders as Rumia approached to look at her face closer. The drones quickly flew around; letting loose a small beam of light; and they created a minigun in Rika's hands.
"Get out; idiot!" she roared; unleashing a hail of bullets that Rumia dodged from until she was forced into the portal.
Rika looked at the portal; and just sat down.
"I still don't understand..."
Author Notes: Quick chapter. Kinda busy atm so I churned out this short [but important] one. Eiki basically spent the whole day after the funeral bashing sense into Rika. She is VERY persuasive. When you have the judge of the dead telling you that you are wrong; it's kinda hard for someone as smart as Rika to ignore it. She's nuts; but not stupid.
I might do a bonus chapter at some point of the actual Rika/Eiki interaction; similar to the Rika backstory chapter. But before it was left to interpretation what exactly Eiki said and did that convinced Rika.
Action chapter coming soon. I promise.