It's new chapter time, everybody! And, as probably most of you expected, it's the Engineer's time to meet a fellow engineer. As some of you also might have expected from a chapter based on the Engineer, there's a fair amount of exposition in this one, but it's (hopefully) still entertaining.

On with the show!

Dell Conagher, also known as the Engineer, woke up in a bush to the sound of a whirring noise and a voice seemingly mumbling to itself.

"Come on, stay still, willya? I just want to study you a bit-eek!" There was a sound of metal hitting flesh. "Ouch! Bad hand!" There was a clanging of metal hitting metal, and Dell felt a flash of pain. He grunted and opened his eyes. He saw a small girl with green hair and a cap crouched next to his robotic right hand, sporting a small red mark on her cheek and looking at his hand in a mix of anger and interest. She didn't seem to have heard him. "C'mon, you stupid hand, just let me take a look at you!" It had its pointer finger up and was wagging it back and forth, while the girl tried to reach out at and grab it. Apparently the AI he'd installed in it was working. As he watched, the girl tried to grab the part where the hand connected to his flesh, only for the hand to hit her gently (though for a metal hand, "gently" was still about as hard as a sharp rap with a regular hand) on the head, causing her to kneel down in pain, rubbing her head. "Aaargh you stupid little-fine. Fine! You asked for this," she said, taking what looked like a cattle prod out of her bag and putting down her goggles.

Dell decided now would probably be a good time to speak up, before she either fried his hand's circuitry or just fried him. "Whoa miss, I still need that hand," he said, sitting up. She let out a high-pitched "eep," jumped five feet in the air, and dashed into the cover of some bushes. The tip of her cap still peeked up above the bush however, showing Dell that she was still there.

"Um, sorry miss, didn't mean to scare ya," he said. She didn't say anything. "Were you interested in this?" he asked, waving his gunslinger around. He thought he detected a slight nodding motion in the bush, so he went on. "You don't need to worry about it, it's perfectly fine. Just lost my hand in a little accident with the teleporter, so I replaced it." The bush remained still. He sighed. "It's kinda creepy isn't it?"

"No!" the girl exclaimed, peeking her head out of the bush. "It's amazing! I've worked on prosthetic technology for years, but that hand's fantastic. That AI you've put in it is great." She rubbed her head, "And annoying, but still, it's impressive technology!" Then she seemed to realize that she wasn't hidden in the bush anymore, blushed and darted back into it.

"Wait, you actually like this?" he said, waving the gunslinger around. There was a nod from the bush. "Well I'll be. Never thought someone so young would be interested in stuff like this. Tell you what," he said, rubbing his chin with his good hand, "I need to find my friends who came here with me. If you help me, I'll show you how this works." He stuck out his hand. "Deal?" After a bit of hesitation, a hand reached out from the bush and shook his own. He smiled. "Thanks. Now, if only my PDA were working I could check where their teleporter receivers are, if they're still broadcasting, but…" he trailed off, taking the PDA out of his pocket. The display was cracked, and the casing dented in such a way that it made half the selection buttons unable to be pushed. "It got pretty messed up in the crash."

"What do you need to fix it?" the girl asked, eyeing the device with interest.

"Well, assuming the circuitry's not too badly damaged, I mostly just need some metal, some glass, and some smithing tools."

"Is that all?" the girl said, smirking. "I've got that back at my workshop, I'll take you there," she said, and began walking through the bushes, Dell following behind.

"Wait, you have a workshop?" he asked surprised.

"Course I do," she said indignantly. "What kind of kappa would I be if I didn't have a workshop?"

Kind of an odd last name, Dell thought, but who was he to judge. "I guess your family's really into engineering if even their youngest has their own workshop. Though then again, my dad did build me my first workshop when I was round about four, so who am I to talk," he chuckled.

The girl frowned. "Well I guess you could say that, but look mister, how old do you think I am?"

"It's Dell Conagher actually, little miss," causing her frown to deepen. "But to answer your question, I'd say you're 'round ten, maybe eleven?"

She snorted. "Well Dell, and my name's Nitori by the way, that's not even close. I'm probably older than you."

"You're pulling my leg," Dell said in disbelief.

"Nope. If was pulling your leg, I'd imagine you'd feel a sharp tugging sensation right around here," she said, poking his thigh. "But seriously, I'm a kappa. We're always relatively small, and we age slowly. The aging thing's true for all youkai, but the stature's pretty much kappa-specific."

"Youkai?" Dell asked curiously. "I thought your family name was Kappa."

Nitori stopped abruptly. "You don't know about youkai? Oh," she said, her face brightening in realization. "You must be from outside! That also explains why your technology is so different. I don't know why I didn't think of it before."

"Outside? Outside what?"

Nitori bit her lip in concentration. Eventually she asked, "Ok, what's the last thing you remember before waking up here?"

"Well, we were all fighting that wizard Merasmus, and he summoned a gigantic bomb out of that book of his. It exploded, and created some sort of vacuum or vortex, because it seemed to create enough suction to drag my friends and I through it, then I woke up to you trying to steal my hand."

"In my defense, I didn't think you'd be needing it anymore. But anyway, that vortex was probably a kind of…well not quite a trans-dimensional portal, because it's technically the same dimension, but a kind of trans-plane portal. Normally, this place exists in a different plane to whichever plane you were in, but still in the same dimension. It's in the same dimension as yours, but doesn't occupy the same space, which explains why this forest can exist while in your world there might be some buildings or something. You following me so far?"

"Well, as best as I get it, you're saying my friends and I got blown through a crack in the wall that separates this plane from our own, so we're in a space that exists on top of the space where we were. I don't get how that's possible, but let's say I accept it for now."

"Right well, this space was originally created to house youkai as a kind of sanctuary to prevent us from being wiped out. Youkai are…kind of hard to explain. But in general, if you think of some sort of mythological creature, like a," she waved her hand, trying to think of a creature he might know, before continuing, "a werewolf or vampire or something, that's a youkai. We kappa are a type of youkai that supposedly drowned people in rivers and played pranks and stuff, but we'd never do something like that anymore. It'd kind of screw over our best buyers, you know?"

"So youkai are mythical creatures. You don't look like a mythical creature I've ever heard of."

"Well, I was getting to that. See, this place kinda accelerated a natural process that makes us youkai start to look, well, human. I'm not entirely sure why it happens, but over time, youkai tend to evolve to look more human, possibly originally because the more human looking ones could get closer to human settlements for prey or something, but the end result is that pretty much all youkai here look human, save for some vestigial aspect like wings, a tail, horns, stuff like that."

"Huh," was all Dell managed to say.

"I know it might be hard to believe, but it's true, I swear." She started walking again. "But whether you believe me or not, my workshop's this way. And in case you do believe me, don't worry about your friends. Almost all youkai are pretty much harmless to humans nowadays, there's just a few that live near the magic forest that still attack humans. I mean, the tengu aren't really pleasant towards outsiders, but they won't kill them."

"My friends can take care of themselves." His thoughts travelled to the Scout. "Well, most of them can anyway."

"If you say so mister," Nitori said, shrugging her shoulders.

Dell wasn't quite sure what to make of the girl's story. It was pretty far-fetched, to say the least. But it worried him that she'd said it so confidently. That probably meant that she, at least, believed it, and that meant she was either telling the truth, or was very smart and completely delusional. Either way, that made her dangerous to be around. But he really needed that workspace. He sighed, and continued following her. He could probably knock her out, if necessary, though he really hoped it wouldn't come to that.

As they reached the edge of the forest, they looked out onto a small plain. A little ways away he saw a small house, seemingly made of thatch, reeds and mud, sitting next to a river.

"Ah, there it is. Home sweet home," Nitori said, gesturing towards the house. Dell raised an eyebrow. Nitori looked at him and frowned. "Oh don't give me that look. Most of the workshop's underground anyway. That's just my house to actually live in, since my so-called friends started worrying that I was sleeping in the workshop. Anyway, come on," she said, speeding up the pace. Dell sighed and walked after her, wondering if he was somehow getting swindled. As they approached, a figure standing right outside the house waved to them. "Hey, Hina's here," Nitori said, excitedly. "Hiiii Hina," she yelled at the figure. "Be there in a sec!" She turned towards Dell. "Hina's my friend. She comes and visits me from time to time. She's got a bad reputation because she's a misfortune goddess, but don't worry, she's perfectly safe to be around."

"So there are gods and goddesses here too now?"

"Well, pretty much just goddesses really. The gender ratio is pretty screwed up here."

While they'd been talking, Hina had walked up to meet them. "Hello Nitori," she said, nodding to her friend, who nodded back. "I didn't realize you would have someone else with you. Should I go?" she asked, looking warily at Dell.

"No, no it's fine. Dell here's from the outside," Nitori said, pointing over her shoulder at him.

"How d'you do miss," Dell said, lifting his hardhat in greeting.

"Oh, I'm, I'm doing fine," she replied, sounding surprised and a bit nervous. She gave him a curtsy. "And you? I can't imagine coming in here from the outside would be a very…pleasant experience."

"Well, the travel and landing hurt like the dickens, and I woke up to her," he pointed at Nitori over his shoulder, "tryin' to steal my hand here-"

"Hey!"

"But other than that it's been alright."

Hina smiled sympathetically. "You seem to have been rather unfortunate recently."

"Well, it beats getting blown to pieces, I suppose, but yeah." Nitori and Hina looked at him confused. "Just my job," he said, waving his hand dismissively.

"Right…well, I could help take away that misfortune if you want," Hina said.

"How exactly would you do that?"

"Well, it's a rather complicated ritual where I draw the misfortune out of you and into myself."

"Thanks for the offer miss, but I don't really trust rituals," Dell said. "They usually require some kind of faith, and I don't really have much of that," he continued, trying to be as polite as possible.

"Are you suuuure you don't want to Mister Conagher," Nitori asked, a mischevious grin on her face. "It's a pretty intimate ritual, I hear." Dell blushed, and Hina's expression went from downcast to completely embarrassed.

"Nitori, don't put strange thoughts into his head! All I do is spin," Hina said, turning towards Dell. "There's nothing 'intimate' about it! But," she continued, expression falling, "I understand if you don't want me to. No one has in a while."

Privately, Dell wondered if that was because they thought she was crazy. But she looked sad, and Nitori was switching between looking at Hina apologetically and looking at him with irritation, conveying the idea that if he ever wanted to use her workshop, he'd have to humor Hina. "Fine, fine, you can do the ritual. Just stop looking so sad, alright?"

"You mean it?" Hina asked, expression brightening immediately. With a slight glance sideways, Dell saw Nitori nodding subtly.

"Yes, I mean it. But no intimacy, alright? The AI in this guy might go haywire," he said, pointing to his gunslinger. Hina blushed and looked away, while Nitori chuckled.

"Ha, I was just kidding. No intimacy required," Nitori said. Hina nodded vigorously. She then turned and whispered into Dell's ear. "Thanks for doing this, really. People are afraid of her because they think she spreads the misfortune she collects, or 'leaks' it or something, but that's complete bull. She's been depressed about it for weeks."

Hina looked at Nitori suspiciously. "What are you telling him, Nitori?"

"Oh, just that the 'intimate' ritual costs extra." Hina groaned and put her head in her hands, while Nitori laughed.

After Nitori's, laughter died down, Dell spoke. "So, is there anywhere in particular we need to go for this?"

"No, I can perform it anywhere really. Right here's fine, if you'd like," Hina said.

"Well, if it's not the 'intimate' ritual, sure."

"Don't you start too."

"Alright, alright. Ready whenever you are."

"Ok. Nitori, could you move out of the way a bit? Don't want to accidentally remove your misfortune," she said, glaring.

"Jeez Hina, learn to take a joke," Nitori said, walking out of the way.

"Ok, stand still please Mr. Conagher," Hina said. She put her hands above her head and began spinning on one leg. She began to spin faster and faster, and as she spun, Dell saw black mist begin to form around his body. As she spun faster, it began to get siphoned off of him and flow towards her, like gas being sucked into a vacuum. He was curious as to why misfortune seemed to coalesce into a gas, or if the gas was misfortune at all, but he heeded her warnings and remained still for the duration. Eventually, after her spinning had reached a rate seemingly unattainable by a human being, the last vestiges of the black mist were siphoned away, and Hina began to slow down. After a few seconds, she'd stopped spinning entirely. Despite the intensity and duration of her spinning, she didn't look dizzy at all. Instead, her brow was creased in concentration. Eventually she spoke. "You have some very…odd misfortunes Mr. Conagher. The place you come from must be very violent. And it seems like you've…died? Multiple times? That can't be right."

"Ah. That's, well, I can't really tell you about it. Sorry miss, you'll just have to live in curiosity," he said. Though if she knew about that, she was almost certainly actually capable of drawing out misfortunes or memories or something. Which meant Nitori had probably been telling the truth. He wished, not for the first time, that something scientifically unexplainable didn't happen every Halloween. It was enough to drive someone mad. "Thanks for removing them though, Miss. I do feel better."

Hina curtsied, still looking distracted. "Always happy to help." She turned to Nitori. "Could I talk to you for a second?"

Nitori looked at her, a bit confused. "I mean, sure, I guess. Just let me get Dell set up in my workshop and I'll be right with you."

Hina looked at Dell warily, then nodded. Nitori smiled and nodded at Dell, "All right then! Come on Dell, it's this way." She walked over to her house, then opened the door and stepped inside. As Dell was about to follow, she said, "Could you wait out there for a sec? Just gotta deactivate the cloaking field. Aaaaaand there!"

As she said that, there was a brief shimmer in the air, and then the area next to her house which had, until recently, just looked like a regular plain, was covered in scraps and bits of metal, and in the center of it was an elevator. Dell whistled. "That's some pretty impressive tech."

"Isn't it?" Nitori said excitedly, coming out of her house. "I set it up so people wouldn't try to steal from me when I'm away. It's also electrified, you know, just in case."

"Clever," Dell said. "Good thing I got permission then."

"Yep. The workshop's down that elevator there," she said, pointing to the elevator. "All this scrap is mostly just for show."

"Clients don't trust ya unless you got a whole bunch of metal lying around, huh? I've been there."

"Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a good source of metal, mind, but I wish I could organize it every once in a while," she said, as they walked towards the elevator. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I've got a whole bunch sorted downstairs, it'd just be nice if I could have them all sorted instead of just lying around here, but that's the look you need for a 'professional' engineer." They reached the elevator. "Anyway, here you go," she said, hitting the button on the elevator. "Most of the stuff down there's organized by material, size, durability, and so on. I'm going to stay up here to talk to Hina, and I'll join you in a sec, but there's one very important thing I have to tell you." She paused for dramatic effect, then glared at him sharply. "Do not under any circumstances, touch my inventions or prototypes down there. They're in their own little marked off spaces, so I'm not going to take 'Oh, I didn't know' as an answer, ok? We clear Mr. Conagher?"

Dell put his hands up. "We're clear, we're clear. Jeez, for someone who was trying to steal one of my inventions earlier, you're rather protective of your own, aren't you?"

"That's just because I thought you were dead," Nitori said, unapologetically. "But since we're clear, down you go then." She pushed Dell into the elevator and hit a button inside it, then walked out as the doors closed.

As the elevator began to descend, Dell wondered what exactly he'd gotten himself into.