The hum of a fluorescent light on the ceiling accompanies the quiet silence of The Office. The Office, the place where the head of the Yagokoro Medical Facility called her working space, looked no different now than it did before the chaos struck. Despite being called The Office, it is actually an entire floor dedicated to the administration of the facility equipped with her very own office within it. Her personal workspace desk and chair seemed like they had not moved an inch. The large oval conference table with a hologram projector in its centre that was the object of awe to many a visitor remained intact. The only difference was that the once brightly lit chamber where she held her meetings with all heads of staff was now illuminated by a single flickering fluorescent light that dangled over the conference table.
The Office, being the top floor of the medical facility's main building, was situated at an elevation high enough to provide a clear view of the blue spire of energy from the power plant and the rest of the facility through its wide windows. Shuttle tracks could be seen connecting the main building to other parts of the city including the power plant. The shuttle network was deemed necessary to connect it to its other branches throughout the city as it was the Underground's sole provider of healthcare after the Yagokoro Medical Facility bought over all its competitors within the region to expand its already immense size, officially making it one of Gensokyo's largest firms.
Sitting by the grand conference table where Eirin would chair important meetings, were five figures under the dim fluorescent light: a tall cyborg, two shrine maidens, a magician and Eirin herself, slumped unconscious in her usual seat. And one of the five members was beginning to feel a little antsy.
"I'm bored~"
Reimu said nothing as she stared into nothingness with her head propped on one arm. Sanae was fiddling with her hair, running her fingers through several locks of it until she dozed off. Eirin was definitely not responding and the tall cyborg known as Dr Samuel Hayden remained silent, the artificial sound of breathing being the only indication that he was awake.
Marisa felt annoyance creeping to her.
"Guys~ I'm boreed.."
With an equally bored tilt, Reimu turned to face her.
"Oi, we get it. What's your point?"
Marisa suddenly got up and slammed the table hard, shocking Sanae awake. Seeing that it was just Marisa, she nuzzled her head in her arms again,
"I'm bored, you're bored, this whole thing is so goddamn boring!", she exclaimed as she pointed an accusatory finger to everyone before stopping at the unconscious Eirin. "Why the hell are we waiting for her to wake up? The world is ending around us, buildings burning, people dying and yet we're wasting our time on this?! Give me a break, will'ya!"
Reimu checked the clock that hung on the wall. 30 minutes had passed. "Isn't this a break, Marisa?"
"And YOU!", she yelled at the cyborg, pretending she had not heard Reimu's snide remark. "You said she'd be awake any moment now! Well? We're still waiting here!"
"As I stated earlier, that was merely an estimation," Hayden replied in a sigh. "I did not expect the medication to be this effective at knocking her out. Besides, you need to remember that it is she that holds the information to the Scroll. Therefore, we must wait until she comes to."
Reimu stretched her arms lazily and yawned. "Umm, remind me again why you knocked out the only person who could help us find the Scroll in the first place? Doesn't seem too productive."
"Yeah, what gives?", added Marisa, crossing her arms in a huff.
The cyborg sighed while rubbing his non-existent temples. "As I have told you for the tenth time now, it was done at her behest. Her reasons for doing so are unclear to me but I can assume that she did this for own safety considering that she has been unconscious for three days. Today being the third day."
Reimu's brows raised in interest. The plot had thickened. "Wait, you mean-?"
"Yes, it is exactly as I say it is, maiden of Hakurei," he answered, anticipating Reimu's inquiry. "And she made it clear that she wanted to-."
"Guys, how long have I been asleep?", a drowsy Sanae butted in as she rubbed her eyes.
Without looking at her, Reimu replied, "It's been 25 years, Sanae." Her tone made it clear that she was not amused.
She then sat up straight and slung her arm around Sanae's shoulders. "So, uh... you had a nice nap? Feel awake and refreshed?"
Flicking stray strands of hair away from her face, she replied with a cheerful "Yeah!" and a gleaming smile that failed to bring up the spirits of anyone in the room. The half-awake expression she had certainly was not helping.
"So," she continued in ignorant bliss, "Did I miss anything important?"
"Nope, you didn't miss anything at all."
"Cool! I'm glad I got some rest. It's been a long day and now I feel alive!"
Whap!
It was then that Sanae felt a strong grip on her head.
"Eh?"
She saw that the arm the hand gripping her head tight belonged to the person sitting on her right. Said person was also sporting a smile that made her regret anything she did, whatever it was.
"Oh really? I feel so happy for you, Sanae. No, really, I do," Reimu continued, her grip tightening with such intensity that Sanae was begging her to let go. "We've through a lot so I understand that you were so tired to begin with. However, the good doctor here was just about to let us in on some very important information. But, someone just had to interrupt him when he was getting to the good part."
Her face went cold as she began to stammer. "O-oh... I am s-so sorry Rei, please don't-!"
Pulling Sanae's head back, she leaned in close to her face.
"Now, do you understand what you just did?", she whispered into her ear.
"Yes, yes, yes! Please just let go of my head already, please!", whimpered Sanae with her hands struggling to get Reimu's hand off her.
"Good." Reimu then slammed Sanae's head on the table hard. "Now go back to sleep and think about what you've done."
Holding her head in pain, Sanae replied with a weak "O-okay" and tenderly rubbed her sore forehead.
Marisa only sighed at the display before her. Some things would never change even in dire times. She swore that being surrounded by enemies left, right and centre would be better than going up against an irritated Reimu. Tapping the table with her knuckle, she motioned to the cybernetic doctor. "So, Doc, you were saying something?"
"Ah, yes, I was," came the low hum reply as Hayden tapped the table with a long metal finger. The metallic taps snapped all conscious participants to attention, much to his convenience.
"As I was saying, it was Dr Yagokoro herself who requested to be sedated to protect the information that she holds. Before I continue, I will address any lingering questions about my origins by saying that yes, I come from a world different from yours and no, I am not a creation of Hell-I was stationed on Mars and I was once a renowned human doctor on Earth before I became the cyborg you see now. Accidents happen."
"Tsk," clicked Reimu as she cursed Hayden for pre-empting her question. "Smartass..."
"I arrived in Gensokyo weeks before the power plant's completion. She personally greeted me upon arrival and took me to her medical facility. I must say that I was impressed by the technology and other fascinating unknown lifeforms around me as it was the first time I have seen intelligent beings that were not human. However, what intrigued me was how she knew I was coming. Unlike the Doom Marine's banishment here, I came here voluntarily long after he came. No one should ever know of that information."
"So that means-!"
"Yes," he replied while casually turning on the hologram on the table to reveal a virtual database of the facility's documentation of Hell. "The influential people of this facility and the power plant have known about this Hell's existence for quite some time."
Pictures, videos, research papers-just about most of the information that he had spent the past few decades on Mars gathering could be seen on the wide blue hologram. They appear to be the result of their own expeditions to Hell as the dates on most of them show that they were documented years after his initial discoveries. The girls were bewildered by this new barrage of info. Marisa, who believed that the catastrophe happening in the Underground was the fault of mysterious outsiders due to the red file she found earlier, was beginning to think otherwise.
"Not only that, but it appears that they have made some findings that even I have overlooked," he muttered, his large cybernetic hand touching a file labelled 'TESTAMENTS'.
Reimu began to feel her head pound again as a set of stone tablets and ancient scrolls were flung into display on the hologram. The visions, the images that crashed into her mind a while ago were coming back in full force as her veins were swelling around her forehead.
"Karma is a bitch, ain't it, Rei?", mocked Sanae with a smug grin.
"S-shut up! Argh!"
"Oh? It appears that you have a connection with the Testaments, I see." Hayden's vertical 'eye' glowed as he turned to the suffering shrine maiden. "Tell me, what do you see when an artefact is presented?"
Reimu strained to lift her head to look at him, her face contorted in pain. "S-suffering...blood everywhere...c-c-corpses piled on more corpses and a barren red desert and... a sarcophagus."
Hayden suddenly froze still, not even a single servo whirred. A moment of silence passed. The images on the hologram were floating idly. Reimu and her friends were sure that he had shut-down for a while before they heard him 'breathing' again.
"A sarcophagus...you say?", he uttered in a low soft whisper.
"...Yeah, a sarcophagus." Reimu swallowed back the pain in her head to look at him straight in his face. She flicked away the images on the hologram and wiped the sweat that formed on her brow earlier. "What about it?"
Hayden said nothing. He turned to the hologram again and brought up an image of an open sarcophagus. The sarcophagus, which appeared to be made of solid rock, was scribbled with what was presumably incantations in an alien language. The inside of the stone sarcophagus revealed an indentation of an armoured suit of sorts. An armoured suit that someone swore she had seen before.
A dull pain was resurfacing. Reimu massaged her head gently as she struggled to recall the memory that was attempting to resurface like a chained beach ball at the bottom of the ocean. Hayden, being the sharp doctor he was, noticed this.
"I see that you have come across this before."
She could feel that the chain was being pulled. There was an undeniable familiarity that she felt upon seeing the image. Was it dejavu? Was it a repressed memory? Or was it another image conjured up by the mysterious voice that she had heard a while ago?
"I... I don't know really," she replied. "But, I cannot help but feel that I've seen it somewhere."
"Same here," added Marisa. "I might not know what the hell this is but I darn sure have this gut feeling that we have seen it too. Ain't that right, Sanae?"
Sanae, going with the flow of things, nodded her head furiously. Unfortunately for her, she overdid it and hit the table.
"So, it is not only the Hakurei that has been affected, it seems." The girls were puzzled by his statement. Before they could say anything, however, he had already stood up and brought forward another image.
This new image was that of another open sarcophagus. However, unlike the previous one shown, this one appeared to be recent as it lacked the signs of wear-and-tear by the elements. On the inside, it became clear that its resident was that of a woman with long flowing hair based on the indentation within. Beside it were a set of two smaller indentations that looked exactly like a pair of battle gauntlets. A pair of very familiar gauntlets, to be precise.
The dull pain grew stronger the more Reimu tried to look deeper into her memories. The gauntlets sparked something within her. A feeling of pride and joy. A feeling of unknown sadness and grief. While the indentation of the gauntlets did not tell much, the indentation of the owner beside it made it as clear as day as to who they belonged to. The long hair, the impressive height and the slight indication of combat boots by its feet, Reimu's eyes shot wide upon making the realisation.
"Is that-!"
Gas suddenly hissed out from the table into the girls' faces, knocking them out one by one. She began to feel fatigued. Everything around her was blurry. Her consciousness fading fast, she desperately tried to picture the person that lay in that sarcophagus before slumping to the floor. The person who she yearned to see her beautiful smile after a long twenty years of her absence.
"...m-my...mother..."
Her ears ringing as she lay, she heard the sound of metal clunking towards her. Her body shaking as she tried to resist the enveloping darkness, she glared towards the towering cyborg. "W-Why...?", she growled, her arms weakly dragging her across the floor. "Why...are you...doing this?"
A light blue 'eye' stared as she resisted the effects of the gas in vain. Turning his back on her, Hayden let out a deep sigh.
"It seems that your memories have begun to restore themselves. No, reappear. She had the right hunch after all. Never knew one could be so sharp."
The orange light from the burning city below illuminated the room, casting a shadow on Reimu's limp body. Hearing that her breathing has relaxed, the tall cyborg walked over to the window overseeing the destruction.
"I am sorry for doing this to you but it must be done. You and your friends are required to resolve this issue but I'm afraid here is not place to be. Say hello to your mother for me... Reimu."
The embers flew in the air like cherry blossom petals in spring, circling the bright blue spire without care. It was a beautiful scene, this chaos, as it was almost like watching a surreal natural phenomenon that rarely occurs. Even the flying monstrous blobs and hovering skeletons that guarded the air above the power plant were like a twisted version of the typical flock of birds that flew off into the sunset. The cyborg had not moved from the window, his 'eye' fixated on the scene before him.
"Come out of the shadows," he suddenly beckoned. "I know you're there."
"Hmph! You're as sharp as ever, Hayden," replied a feminine voice. The sound of stilettos clacking could be heard approaching step by step. Entering the light, the clacking stopped abruptly followed by the sound of something being dragged away. The voice then giggled in a sly manner. "Or should I say, Brain of the Moon, Yagokoro Eirin?"
"Heh, you're not too bad yourself, Yakumo Yukari," the cyborg replied now facing the blonde woman. "You had the right hunch after all. How are things on your end?"
"Do you know you sound creepy in that ominous robotic voice?", she quipped. "Anyway, the key players needed have now arrived at the scene exactly at the right time. The portals have now been closed."
"Is that so? Well, then we don't much to worry about then."
As soon as she said that, both Hayden's and Eirin's bodies fizzled and disappeared as though they were digital projections. A beat of silence came but it was interrupted by the clacking of footsteps. Yukari looked behind her to see that the person she was talking to was already behind her.
She let out a small whistle. "Wow, impressive piece of tech you got your hands on, Eirin."
"Not really. Hologram projectors have been able to produce life-like projections for quite some time now. You're just behind in the times." Flicking her braid off her shoulder, she walked up to Yukari.
Yukari simply smirked. "And you're still a smartass."
The two women shared a good laugh before moving towards the window together.
"I've already teleported the girls to the power plant. They should be in the care of the insider by now," said Yukari as she stared at the energy spire with a grave expression.
"I hope so," Eirin responded with a similar face. It was a risky move. While Yukari had approached the insider in the day before, both knew there was always a chance that the insider might have long been compromised.
"Well, no point worrying now," she declared after a momentary pause. "They've made it this far. Only way to find out is when we meet up with the insider as we had planned. Then, we can begin briefing them."
"Heh," grunted Yukari. "You're right. It will take a lot of effort to bring them down."
She then turned around and checked her wristwatch. "That's odd. It's not like her to be late."
Right on cue, the sound of elevator doors opening was heard followed by that of approaching footsteps. Upon seeing their late arrivals, Eirin and Yukari let out a sly smirk with the former pushing her glasses up for added effect.
"Sorry I'm late," the visitor half-heartedly apologised while pointing to the person by her side. "Had to pick up Komachi and ran into some trouble on the way."
"It's alright, Shiki," Yukari replied. "What matters is that you turned up."
"That's true," added Eirin. "Now that we're all here, it is now time to bring this plan to fruition."
Eirin, Yukari, Shiki and Komachi exchanged glances with each other. Each of their faces showed a strong will and determination to achieve their common goal.
With her eyes burning with hope and her face bearing a confident grin, Yukari made a declaration that fuelled the flames in the hearts of everyone present: "Let's go and save her, our old friend!"
It was dark. Everything around him was dark. He felt a dull pain in his head. He was knocked out cold. Judging by his surroundings, he was in an observatory lab of sorts as he saw that one of the walls was a clear glass window. He tried punching it to no avail. The glass was more than bulletproof. He should know-his mechanical body granted him the strength to punch through a thick sheet of metal. Whatever this glass was made of, it was certainly tougher than that. He made a mental note to research the chemical makeup of the glass once he found a way out. Speaking of exits, there was only one but it could only be opened from the outside. There was a key-card reader but he could not find any. Calling for help was out of the question too as the window revealed that the whole floor was empty. The lighting was disabled which meant that his 'eye' was the only source of light he had.
He tried to remember the events that led to his current predicament. He opened a portal back on Mars to travel to this unknown dimension where he detected readings of Argent Energy being present to investigate it. Then he recalled appearing in an office room before a peculiar white haired woman who introduced herself as Eirin. As he tried to fathom how anyone could anticipate his coming, the woman told him not to worry. The next thing he knew was that her fist was slamming straight into his face.
Snapping out of his flashback, he noticed a note stuck on his arm. It read, "Thanks for sharing info with me~! Use the card attached to this note to escape!"
Sure enough, there was a card.
"Well played, Eirin. Well played."