Whew. This took a LONG time! There was just so many scenes that I either had to cut or move to the next chapter just because they took up too much space and time and effort, not to mention feeling that I would at least need some scenes with the other characters as well. And well, regarding an event in the previous chapter, I now have trouble trying to go through it now that I know of something I hadn't previously known when I made it. Oh well, I can't really just ignore it now that it's written...
Reimu was sitting in her living room serving tea to the girl she just took in, who was slowly sipping tea as she tried to take in all the information thrown at her when she woke up. The girl, who introduced herself as Kanonno Earhart(whose name sounded weird to Reimu, but she decided not to press on that), claimed that she was on a quest to hunt some monsters wreaking havoc in a village, but she was bathed in light and the next thing she knew she woke up inside the shrine.
"So what you're saying is you don't know who or what brought you here, and that you suspected that that... 'light' was what brought you here?" Reimu asked as she took a sip of her tea.
"I can't be sure myself, but it's the only plausible reason." Kanonno answered with uncertainty, sipping on her cup of tea before setting the cup down. "And from what you told me, I am no longer in Granide, but in "Gensokyo", is it?" Reimu only nodded as she sipped more of her tea. "I guess it's not the first time I've leaped between worlds."
"Not the first time, huh? Now that's a first." Reimu mused, filling up her cup of tea before she continued. "Anyway, you were lucky you didn't disintegrate when you came crashing into Gensokyo. Heck, I was surprised to see you unscathed either." Reimu added.
"Came crashing in? You mean I fell down from the sky?" Kanonno asked, she was surprised this time.
"Yeah. It seems to become a trend amongst Outsiders to come into Gensokyo by falling from the sky nowadays." Reimu said with a chuckle, obviously joking about it but Kanonno seemed to take it as a matter of fact instead.
"Wow, that is serious problem there... Shouldn't we be worried about something like this happening more frequently?" Kanonno asked.
"I don't really care as long as it leaves me out of it." Reimu said with a laidback attitude. "Unless things get serious and my shrine is destroyed, then I'll seek out whomever that causes this and hunt them down until the ends of the world."
"So you're really just lazy about it..." Kanonno muttered in a voice just barely audible to Reimu.
"Huh? Did you say something?" Reimu asked as she thought she heard someone muttering under their breath.
"Nothing." Kanonno replied, scared that she would hear what she was muttering about.
Reimu decided to let that slide and stared into the world outside where things seemed to start happening and several more meteors crashing everywhere. She let out a heavy sigh and was about to head back into the kitchen to make some more tea when she heard another crash at the front yard.
"What the!?"
Reimu, together with Kanonno, decided to head outside to investigate what was going on and sure enough another meteor has crashed into the shrine grounds.
"Again?" Reimu said with some disbelief in her tone. "And it landed right next to where you landed, Kanonno..."
They both began to move closer and closer to the meteor crash site, this one seeming to leave behind a smaller crater in its wake. Inside the crater, as Reimu would expect, was a person. Upon a closer inspection, it was a girl whose black hair is tied in ponytails with ribbons tying them up, dressed in some sort of black dress with white frills and matching black skirt and even matching black shoes and stockings that go as high as her knees as well. She didn't seem to be unconscious though as she started to stir and slowly got up.
"Ow... What just happened...?" the girl asked in her daze, still confused by everything. She looked around to see a girl dressed in a shrine maiden's outfit(Reimu) and another girl dressed in some summer dress(Kanonno) standing close by. "Are we at a... cosplay convention...?" she asked again, still dazed and combined with the headache she received from the fall, she could not think straight. "Dammit Neptune, this isn't funny..." She planted her head on her forehead and began to lie back down, trying to relieve of her headache.
Kanonno stepped closer to Reimu and went to whisper to her ear. "Reimu, what's a "cosplay"?" she asked.
"It's where you dress up as your favorite fictional character." Reimu replied. "Even then it's still rare around here..."
After lying down for a while, the black-haired girl seemed to have recovered slightly, but enough for her to make sense of things around her. Of course the first thing she did was scream.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
The deafening scream prompted Reimu and Kanonno to cover their ears. After the scream, the girl seemed to panic as she looked around, wondering where she is or what she was doing there. She then quickly turned towards Reimu and Kanonno with a glare that screams 'I want answers now or you're dead'.
"You there! Where am I right now? What is this place?" she asked angrily.
Kanonno was about to answer when Reimu stepped up and stopped her.
"This place is the Hakurei Shrine, stranger. If you're asking about this world in general, this is Gensokyo, the Land of Fantasy." Reimu answered, her face seeming as unfazed as ever.
""Hakurei Shrine"? "Gensokyo"? Don't be ridiculous! No such place exist on Gamindustri!" the girl said in a tone that tells them she doesn't believe them. Then, out of nowhere, she extended her right arm to the side and before they could ask what she was doing, a sword materialized in her hand and she grabbed it before pointing the weapon towards them. "Now tell me where I am or I will force an answer out of you!"
Kanonno stepped back a little as she didn't want to do any fighting, but again, Reimu stepped up and took out her gohei and some paper amulets.
"So it's a fight you want, huh? I really don't want to do this, but if you keep pushing any further, then I will leave you no choice." Reimu said in a calm manner though her pose says that she's on her guard.
"What? You're gonna try and beat me? With a stick!?" That sight alone was more than enough to make the girl laugh so much she had to hold onto her stomach to prevent more aching on her stomach. "Oh boy, everything can become a weapon now, can they?" she asked before getting serious again, still pointing her sword towards Reimu. "I'm warning you! You do not want to mess with me, Noire, CPU of Lastation!" she said as she got into a battle stance, introducing herself along the way.
"CPU? What's that?" Reimu asked half-confused half-taunting.
"You don't even know what a CPU is!?" Noire said in surprise, slapping herself on the forehead. "CPUs are the Goddesses over the nations in which they prosper and protect! How could you not even know such a basic knowledge like that?"
"Well, for one, we're not from-"
"I don't care! You've angered a Goddess, and now you're gonna face my wrath!" Noire said in an angry tone. It's evident to Kanonno and Reimu that she's angry and probably embarrassed beyond belief, and seeing her acting like that reminded Reimu of a certain vampire brat that she knows secretly has a crush on her.
"A Goddess? I've faced many gods and goddesses in the past, so it's not a surprise by now." Reimu said with a chuckle. "If anything, you don't even look like one to me."
This only angered Noire even more to the point she just couldn't handle the mocking she received she immediately went straight for her just after she had said that. Reimu was taken by surprise by this and only barely managed to dodge her attack by jumping back.
"Uh oh, now she's angry..." Kanonno said to Reimu who's now in her own battle stance.
"Well... I guess you leave me no choice then." Reimu grabbed some paper amulets and threw them at Noire. Seeing as they're just paper, Noire didn't even bother dodging them which would prove to be a grave mistake on her part as explosions came off on her when one of the amulets touched her, sending her flying backwards.
Noire coughed as she brushed off the dirt that was caused by her landing. She couldn't believe the power behind those paper amulets. Just one of them was enough to hurt her this much, she thought, so she needed to be more careful now. She got up and rushed towards Reimu again, this time she's wary of the paper amulets she would throw if any.
"Don't think I'd go easy on you just because you're some lowly human!" she exclaimed as she leaped high up into the air before rapidly descending down towards Reimu. "Take this! Volcanic Dive!" Noire called out her attack as she aimed her right leg down towards the ground, causing fire to erupt around her as she landed. Luckily Reimu managed to sidestep at the last moment to avoid catching on fire.
"Okay, she's serious." Reimu noted as she watched Noire setting fire around her as she landed. She also noted how powerful her attacks actually are even if they missed her, and for all she knew, that sword could easily slice her up in half, so she made a mental note to be careful around her. But all of that would just fly out of her head when she noticed something she feared would happen happened; part of her shrine caught on fire as well with some of the porch roof crumbling down. "MY SHRINE!" she shouted in pure bewilderment, her voice so loud she caught the attention of both Kanonno and Noire. Noire had just now realized that she had destroyed that she had destroyed part of her shrine. Before she could even do anything, she caught the shrine maiden looking at her with a death glare full of malice, a malicious dark aura surrounding her. Noire started to back away when she suddenly found herself face to face with her, the collar of her dress being tugged forth. "You ready to die, girl?" Reimu asked with a dark tone in her voice.
"W-Wait, y-you got it all-" Noire was then interrupted when Reimu threw her into the ground so hard she thought she heard some bones cracking.
"Die!" was all Reimu replied before she leaped up into the air and landed with her right foot on Noire's stomach. She then slammed her hand onto her chest, causing a rupture on the ground around her as she was hit with stinging gales of wind that cut into her skin. Noire could only groan in pain as Reimu rose into the air bringing her along before sending her back to the ground, knocking all of her air out as she landed. Before she could even react she found paper amulets heading towards her and she had no choice but to take the full force of them. After feeling nothing coming her way for a while, Noire thought she was in the clear, thinking that she had just unleashed everything she got at her and released a sigh of relief, only to find Reimu with several orbs floating behind her in a circle formation, all of them glowing the colors of the rainbow, just seconds later when the dust had settled. She can see Reimu placing her arms in front of her aimed at her, also glowing like the orbs behind her.
"Now... any last words...?" Reimu asked in a malicious tone, holding off her attack until Noire gave her her answer.
"Um... please forgive me?" was all Noire could say in her display of fear and shock. Reimu closed her eyes as she evaluated Noire's apology, if she would call it an apology anyway.
"...Farewell, "goddess"!" Reimu said as she unleashed all of the glowing orbs at Noire, each of them hitting her once before she fired a laser beam from her hands towards Noire who had pretty much resigned her fat right then and there. Kanonno only watched in fear as Reimu took care of the rude intruder, feeling sorry for her.
"I hope she's okay..."
Nitori had brought the required tools to recharge the weirdly-but-conveniently electricity-reliant tank and was in the process of recharging its power source with her power generator. Sanae and Nepgear helped out as well with the thing while looking to see if the tank was actually in a working condition to begin with. You don't want to spend a lot of time recharging something electrical only to find it useless, now do you?
Nepgear inspected the screen where it shows that the battery had almost filled up to what she assumed was the minimal requirement for the tank to be operational. "18% charging... It's almost reaching 20%, you two, and I believe that could be the minimal amount of charge it needed to be operational." Nepgear said towards her two new friends.
"Wow! 18% already? It must be a fast-charger!" Sanae said in awe as she played with the vulcans which she found out could rotate though they felt stiff to her.
"It must be since we've only charged it for a little over an hour." Nitori said. "If anything, I thought this would take at least a whole day, but who knows, maybe it still had some power reserve left when we started to recharge it."
"But the indicator showed that it started at 3% when we first recharged it." Nepgear claimed.
"Well, it's still some power reserve alright?" Nitori said, not wanting to let her pride as the kappa engineer to falter. "Anyway, what do you think is inside the tank?" Nitori asked.
"I don't know. It's gotta be something cool though." Sanae said. "Do you think there's even a person in there?"
"It looks like an unmanned vehicle to me." Nepgear pondered.
"Oh really? Well, in any case, we shall soon find out when it recharges enough." Nitori said.
They then waited around for the tank to recharge until it meets its minimal threshold. They were waiting for a pretty long time, so in the meantime they chatted about their place of origins, their interests, their relatives, typical stuff girls talk about.
"Oh wow! So I'm not the only robot freak here! I can't believe there are other mecha enthusiasts out there!" Sanae exclaimed.
"I don't believe it either! To think that you two have built a full size mecha in the past, based on what you told me. I wish I could've been here to witness it." Nepgear said.
"Man, you should've seen it when it went online! It was my most proud invention and still is!" Nitori exclaimed. "Too bad some stupid youkai decided to blast it to smithereens though. That thing took months to build..."
"Yeah... I didn't even get to ride and pilot it too..." Sanae said with a hint of disappointment.
"I see... That's sad." Nepgear said sympathising them. "But still, you should come to Gamindustri some time. There are a lot of robots there, even talking ones too! They used to be our enemies but now we're just on neutral grounds." Nepgear added.
"Must be nice to have robot friends, huh?" Sanae pondered.
"Yeah! But uh, they may have been a bit scared of me since I threatened to dismantle them once when we first met... Oh my goodness, how embarrassing it was now that I look back at it..." Nepgear said, covering her face in embarrassment.
"Oh, come on, it can't be that bad, right?" Nitori said to reassure her. She was about to give her a pat to the back, but they then heard the tank making beeping noises and sounds of steam coming out of their exhausts.
"What was that?" Sanae asked.
"It must be the tank! It's gotta be reaching its minimum threshold now!" Nitori exclaimed, but Nepgear was already making her way there. "Hey, wait up!"
Nitori and Sanae ran after her to see what was up with the tank. When they got there, they found the tank vibrating in places. Steam was coming out of its exhaust pipes and the beeping noises were heard coming from the screen where the battery indicator is. It showed that it's well over 20% now(24% to be exact).
"Oh, look! It's reached its threshold!" Sanae claimed.
"Then that means it'll go active, right?" Nepgear asked excitedly.
"Seems like it." Nitori answered as she looked for any activities at the tank.
So far the tank seemed to only vibrate for an unprecedented amount of time, but then it just suddenly stopped moving altogether. Just when they thought it broke down they noticed the vulcans spinning around in place while the cannon turret rotated around in circles.
"Woah..." was all they said as they watched and marveled at the sight in front of them; an advanced mechanism coming to life. The movements stopped shortly after and they all walked closer to see what this tank actually is, if it even is one. Just as they got within touching range, the cannon turret suddenly moved, facing them. The three machinery enthusiasts froze in place as they awaited for the tank's next actions. Will it shoot them? Will it run over them? Do they need to go defensive? As these run through their heads, they heard a voice coming from the tank.
"Oh, it's just civilians. My bad." said a female voice coming from inside the tank.
"So there's someone inside it the whole time?" Sanae said in surprise.
The voice didn't answer as it started to project some light into the ground in front of the tank. They were confused at first, but they later understood why it did that. Within the light projection, an image of a girl slowly appeared. It was a blue-haired girl dressed in a maid outfit, her hair styled to look like twintails. She began to look around her, the tank's cannon also mimicking her for some reason.
"Ah, hello! I take it you're the ones who recharged my power?" the girl in the projection asked.
"That we are." Nitori said as she stepped up with a smile. "So you must be whatever thing that resides within this thing, I assume?"
"That's right! Thank you for recharging me! I was beginning to lose my backup reserves too, so thank you!" the girl in the projection said with energy in her voice.
"You're welcome." Sanae said. "Now, are yo-"
"Could you possibly be an A.I. living inside this tank? Wow! I never knew you could make a sentient vehicle!" Nepgear asked excitedly interrupting Sanae, her eyes glittering with stars.
"That's right, girl! I'm MS-Alice, the Regular Army's first ever A.I. controlled war vehicle!" the projection girl exclaimed, seeming to be as excited as Nepgear. "Now, may I know who you three are? I've introduced myself, so it would be fitting if you introduced yourselves."
Nepgear shook her head to snap herself out of her "geek mode". "I'm Nepgear! It's nice to meet you, Alice!" Nepgear said, introducing herself.
"I-I'm Sanae Kochiya. Nice to meet you." Sanae introduced herself next.
"Nitori Kawashiro, the kappa engineer, at your service!" Nitori introduced herself, lifting a wrench over her shoulder.
"An engineer? So you're the one who made it all possible to recharge me?" MS-Alice asked excitedly.
"You bet! I'm the best 'engie' around here!" Nitori replied, giving off a wide grin.
"Wow! And here I thought Master Marco was the greatest since he was the one who created me." MS-Alice said jokingly.
"Oh. Then that makes you the second best then." Sanae said in a teasing manner, her words directed towards Nitori more than towards MS-Alice.
"Thanks, Sanae. Now I feel so much better..." Nitori sarcastically replied, feeling her pride taking a small hit.
Nepgear giggled at Sanae taking a jab at Nitori. "Well, in any case, I'm super excited to see what you're made of, and I don't mean your firepower!" Nepgear said, her eyes starry again. "Now if you don't mind, can I dismantle you for a bit to see how your A.I. works?"
"Oh boy, there she goes." Nitori said before pulling Nepgear away from MS-Alice.
"Please, I would love it if you'd refrain yourself from dismantling me. I almost died and made a full reset when I got destroyed in battle for protecting Master Marco, and it wasn't pleasant..." MS-Alice said, reminiscing a moment from the past where she almost got destroyed in battle and this 'Master Marco' working day and night repairing her.
"So what do you want to do now? I don't think you can return to where you came from, given the circumstances." Sanae asked the tank A.I. girl.
"What do you mean? Of course I'll return to my base in Japan! I just need to get some GPS signal and I'm ready to go!" MS-Alice told her, unaware of the situation at hand.
"Well, that's the thing. You can't go back to Japan. You're not even anywhere near there." Sanae said again.
"Oh, I can take a few thousand kilometers, and with my power charge right now it should be enough for 2000 or so!" MS-Alice told her.
"Alice... as much as we don't want to break your bubble... you're not in any known place on Earth..." Sanae said with a pause. "You're in Gensokyo, a land sealed away from the Outside World to house in all the remaining youkai and any dying species of folklore creatures."
MS-Alice didn't seem to believe her, but she then did a computerized search to find whatever place this 'Gensokyo' is and where it is located. "Searching... Gensokyo..." There was a silence for almost a minute as she searched through her database when suddenly a 'ping' sound is heard from her. "Searching complete. Gensokyo not found. There are no such place as Gensokyo that exists in this world." MS-Alice said, probably just repeating what her search results say.
The three girls there walked up to her to see what MS-Alice was going to do.
"So do you believe us now?" Nitori asked.
"Considering I can't find any known data about this place, I'll believe you for now." MS-Alice said. "And besides, now that I'm in a new place, I'm excited to see what secrets hold here."
"So you're fine with staying here?" Sanae asked.
"Yeah! In fact, I'm gonna go travel right now! ...Right after I'm done recharging."
It was just as Yukari said. She's seeing what she told her about. The cracks have appeared above the village, and she's fearing for the worst as she saw meteors falling from the sky. But what she didn't understand was how the villagers all seem to be ignorant about it. They didn't even notice the cracks in the sky, some even looking up and seeming to act as if it's normal out. Keine could not believe this. Are the cracks invisible to humans? Could the cracks only be visible only from certain angles? Her thoughts were running wild trying to find an answer to this. At first she thought that since it's doing nothing to the village for now, she could just hide the village with her powers and hoped that the cracks would just pass by without doing harm, but she's quickly rejecting that idea as she noticed a few meteors coming straight for the village. Having hidden enough within her home, she walked out to try and stop the meteors, but she was then hit with another surprise.
"What the hell!?"
As soon as she walked a few meters from her house, she could see that the skies are sunny and clear. It's as if nothing has happened. Just what could this mean? How come it's only visible from inside her house? Sadly she could only wonder for so long as she felt herself suddenly hit by a massive force and knocked away, flung into the walls of her house. From there she can see that the meteors have landed inside the village, the villagers now realizing the dangers as they had just then noticed the catastrophe surrounding them.
"So now they could see it, huh...?" Keine said with a groan. She got back up, noticing just how much she was hurting from the meteor that landed right in front of where she was standing just a few seconds ago. She moved to see what the meteor was. The meteor wasn't a meteor; instead it was a person, a middle-aged man dressed in white clothing with a red headband on his forehead.
"A person?!"
Keine was just about to go and help him out when he started to stand up, trying to relieve his aching body by moving his limbs a bit, bone cracks heard with each movement. Keine could only hold in a defensive stance as she watched the man look around before moving towards her.
"Hey! Do you know what happened here? Where am I?" the man asked Keine, looking pretty confused. Even though he doesn't look hostile, Keine still kept herself on her toes just in case.
"Who are you? Why do you come here?" she asked him.
"Hey, don't answer a question with another question." he said, feeling slightly irritated.
Keine sighed and regained her composure. "My name is Keine Kamishirasawa, and I'm the head of this village. May I know who I am speaking to?"
"Ryu." the man answered.
"Ryu? That's all?" Keine asked.
"Yes. Just 'Ryu'." Ryu answered again. "Now can I know where I am right now? I don't think I'm in a place I recognize."
"Ah, yes, you are currently in the Human Village, Mr. Ryu, but you seem to be from the Outside World, so the accurate answer is you are now in the Human Village located in Gensokyo." Keine said. Of course Ryu was confused, but he decided to brush it off as it wasn't the first time jumping between worlds has happened to him.
"I... see... Anyway, what's up with this place? This place looks like an apocalypse is happening." Ryu joked.
"Actually, that's not far from the truth." Keine said. "More specifically, from what she told me, the Great Hakurei Barrier has broken down and rifts between worlds started appearing everywhere."
"Great Hakurei Barrier?"
"Yes, the barrier that kept Gensokyo separated and hidden from the Outside." Keine said with a pause. "Ah, but don't worry, they're repairing it as we speak, so we can assure you that this will be resolved shortly." she added, trying to reassure him, but the reassurance was cut short when they heard something crash near their place. They turned towards the source of it to see a dark cloud forming on the ground.
"So... you've finally come..." said a rough-sounding voice coming from the clouds which revealed a dark figure as lightning flashed around.
"No! You can't be... Not you too...!"
Meanwhile, at Moriya Shrine...
A woman dressed in mostly gothic outfit was standing in front of two other girls with a weapon in hand, one that looks like a mix of a sword and a drill. She was looking at them with a smirk as she stood victorious over them. Of course the other two girls in question were none other than Moriya Shrine's resident goddesses, Kanako Yasaka and Suwako Moriya, both of them with tattered clothes and cuts and bruises all over their body while the woman standing barely had a scratch on her save for a bit of tear on her dress.
"Fufufu~ For two Goddesses working together, you two sure are weak!" the woman said with pride. "I mean, of course, I AM the strongest being out there after all! What do you expect~?"
"You... What do you want from us?" the taller woman, Kanako, asked, too badly injured from their off-screen fight with the newcomer.
"Just you wait, old hag! Reimu and Sanae and the others will come get you and beat you up real good!" the shorter girl, Suwako, said to her before attempting to spit at her, only for the spit to land back at her face.
The victorious woman got irritated at the smaller girl's comment and walked to her angrily. "What did you say to me, bitch? I can't hear you!" She then stomped on Suwako's face before kicking her into the walls of the shrine, destroying it on impact.
"Suwako!" Kanako only watched Suwako lay unconscious after the kick before turning back to her opponent. "Who are you? What do you want with us? Why are you doing this?"
The woman smirked and planted her foot on top of Kanako's head. "My name is not important. What's important is my goal, and that is to take over this world and rule over it!" she said. "Not only that, I spread my influence far and wide beyond this world so everyone will know how powerful I am!" She then stepped off of Kanako's head and pulled her up by the hair. "So I suggest you two cooperate with me if you want to live."
"What if we don't? What will you do about it then?" Kanako asked, trying to taunt her into fighting her again even if she's battered. The woman only looked at her with silence before throwing her back into the ground.
"Oh well, that's too bad. I would've at least shown you mercy if you decide to cooperate, but since you won't..." She raised her hands up in the air and cords suddenly started appearing out of thin air, tightly wrapping around Kanako's and Suwako's bodies in suggestive ways, ripping through some parts of their clothes.
"W-What is this?! Let us go!" Kanako shouted as she tried to resist the entangling cords only for them to coil around their body parts tighter.
"Fufufu~ You two shall be the power source I will need to rule over this world!" the woman only told them as she got them to hang about higher. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be intruding your humble abode." she said before walking inside the half-wrecked shrine. Kanako could only watch her do as she please as she felt her power slowly getting sapped away.
[A/N : Looks like from this week on, I will be busier than ever, so probably no updates for a long while.]
New Characters(based on appearance)
Noire - Hyperdimension Neptunia
Ryu - Street Fighter
Dark figure - Street Fighter II Turbo
Gothic woman - Hyperdimension Neptunia
Returning Characters
Kanonno Earhart - Tales of the World : Radiant Mythology 2
Nepgear - Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2
MS-Alice - Metal Slug Attack