Switching POV…

Aya was flying across the village, searching for Vali. After following some of the commotion over to the square the incident had happened, she hid in a roof, listening to all the conversations that the tengu were having about it.

"Did you see that dragon who came by earlier? The old man threw his tanto at him. Can you believe it?" One of the younger tengu was speaking.

"Yeah. I've always had a hunch that that old man was not right in the head. Like come on, you don't throw a knife at a stranger just because you feel like it! Why is it always the old people who do this shit?" Another tengu answered.

"Even if there've been incidents with outsiders in the past, that doesn't mean everyone who's new around here is out to cause trouble! He should've at least tried speaking to that kid first." The tengu responded, frustratedly.

"Yeah mate. I swear, if someday I become the head of this place, I will make this a place where anyone can be, not just our people!" The other tengu said proudly, standing up like a president of sorts. "It's time that the modern era settles in this land!"

"If we see that dragon kid again, we'll have to get the old man to apologize. We can't be scaring off people with no good reason like that!" The tengu was saying. "It makes us look bad!"

"Yeah. And speaking of which, where did he go?" The second tengu asked. "I saw him run towards the end of the street before I lost him in the crowd."

"I'm pretty sure he ran off towards that park… southeast of here, wasn't it?"" The first tengu inquired. "...Or was it towards the southwest? There's a park over in that direction too., isn't there?"

"That's pretty far from here, but could be a possibility."

"The two biggest parks in here? Hmm…now all that's left is choosing which one to visit first." Aya thought, flipping a coin and looking at its surface. Nodding to herself, she took light once more. "Alright, let's go to the southeast one."

Aya had flown southeast, soaring over the village and towards the park. Once reaching the park, she stayed airborne for a moment to view the surroundings. She noticed a reptilian figure sitting on a bench nearby with various tengu children surrounding him. They seemed to be sharing a meal of sorts.

"Hmm…" Aya mumbled to herself, "Should I, or should I not? Decisions, decisions…" Shrugging her shoulders, she leapt in. "Imma do it."

"This is really good! Even though it's a little undercooked, how is this even possible? There's no fire to heat it up!" The eldest child exclaimed, still astonished by the food.

"Yum! So delicious!" The girl said, pulling a small spoon of food from the package and eating it. "Thanks for the meal, sir!"

Vali gave out a smile in response, and took another spoon from his meal. However, this temporal calm didn't last long, as a familiar figure approached the group.

"So here you were, Vali. You've caused quite the commotion back there." Aya said, pulling out her notebook.

[What do you mean?] asked Vali. [I didn't cause any trouble today.]

Shaking her head, Aya explained, "Your presence caused a bit of trouble in the tengu village. Something about how you were partially responsible for causing a scene and ran away? Everyone there had different stories."

[Oh. I should have stayed on high ground rather than exposing myself like that. My bad.] Vali apologized. [I'll keep that in mind from now on.]

"Eh? There's not really a problem with that. It was a predictable reaction, to be honest." Aya said. "Western dragons haven't been seen in centuries. At least, not one like you."

A moment of uneasy silence preceded the statement. Vali was shocked enough to not be able to formulate an answer, and Aya was slightly worried about her statement. She quickly recomposed herself and got to writing again. "Anyways, let's move on to something else. Kids, what do you think about the food?" she asked the children, writing in her notebook.

"It was incredible! I still have no idea of how he heated it up but it must have been magic!" The eldest child exclaimed.

"Magic? That sounds interesting…" Aya quickly scribbled the statement, and continued with the next child. "And you?"

A girl looked up at the older tengu, food smeared all over her face. "It's yummy!" she chirped, ignoring the crumbs that got all over her clothes.

"That's good to hear…but you're a mess! Here, take this." Aya took out a handkerchief from her chest pocket, and handed it over to the girl, who wiped her face... and then used the stained side of the handkerchief to wipe the crumbs off her clothes at the cost of smearing the sauce all over the fabric.

"And lastly…you!" She asked the last remaining child, who gave a simple thumbs up.

"Alright…that'd be it, thank you for the cooperation! You are all free to go now." Aya said, giving the children a smile. She hummed to herself, wondering how she could write an article to make the event seem grander than it really was. However, her mind flashed back to her first meeting with Vali, in which she learned about her other self's fate. Furrowing her eyebrows, she scratched out a few words. "Mmmm…not this time. I'd rather not deal with him any time soon." she muttered to herself, too quiet for anyone to hear.

"Are you sure you don't have anything else to do right now?" Aya asked Vali. "I was expecting you to be with Nitori right now…"

Vali suddenly remembered what he was doing the previous night, and jolted. "Damn it…I forgot that I still need to finish the inventory of the crates…I just hope that Nitori isn't tinkering on my stuff…" He thought, as he facepalmed internally for a moment.

"Looks like I was right, eh?" Aya asked in a smug manner. "If that is the case you should really get going right now. By the way, I should let you know. Despite what you might think, Nitori isn't the patient type."

[Are you serious?]

"Mhm." Aya nodded in confirmation. "You better get going if you don't want to make her mad."

After hearing that, Vali immediately began to head out to the laboratory, not before saying goodbye to Aya and the group of tengu kids, who looked how he jumped over to the top of the surrounding houses and trees, running at full speed, before they could no longer see him.

After a few more seconds, Aya burst into laughter. "Ha! I can't believe he actually fell for it!" she exclaimed, no longer trying to hold back her laughs. "There's no way she would get mad for that!"

Meanwhile, Vali was getting increasingly more worried by what Aya told him. "The last thing I want is to give a bad impression to someone I just met a day ago! It's not happening, I swear to God!"

–

Switching POV…

Back in the laboratory, Sanae and Nitori had just finished listening to the mythology program. It turns out that the outside world wasn't as wary of youkai as they initially expected. Apparently, humanity had taken a certain liking to them, appreciating their role and impact in popular culture and sometimes going as far as to make the most known ones a little homage in the form of a statue. The narrator, who turned out to be a certified historian, gave insight about the festivals that were celebrated to remember the legends that surrounded those mythical beings that formed part of Japanese society at one point.

"Huh. That was interesting. I didn't expect them to appreciate us like that." Nitori said, rubbing her chin. "Even if they still portray us with duck bills, turtle shells, and baldness, it's nice to know we have at least some form of recognition in culture."

"Are you talking about the statues that man mentioned?" Sanae asked. "I wonder how you'd look if you had a statue made of you…" She couldn't help but laugh a bit while imagining Nitori in a more traditional depiction.

"Hey, stop that!" Nitori said, bonking her on the head in embarrasment. "I said stop…!"

*knock knock*

"Yeah? Who is it?" Nitori asked, but no one answered. A couple of seconds passed until the door was knocked again. "Hey! Whoever that is, at least say who you are!.

But there was no response. Sighing, Nitori stopped hitting Sanae to open the door. "Argh…can people just…" She opened the door, finding Vali who looked at her with a sheepish expression.

"Oh! It was you, right. I forgot you can't…I'm very sorry for that…" She said, bowing down.

[Don't worry, I'm used to it. In fact, it already happened once today. Though it was partially my fault.]

Sanae casually called out, "Maybe you could make up a special knock so we know it's you and not some idiot who thinks that people will immediately know whoever's knocking on the door."

[You're not the first person to suggest that option. It's not practical. I'd rather just hope that people answer the door after the first knock…]

"And that's why Lady Megumu called you an idiot for refusing to let yourself be known," grunted Momiji as she suddenly appeared behind Vali. "Instead of using a special knock so people know it's you at the door, you choose to knock and expect them to automatically open the door without question."

"Miss Momiji!? What is she doing here?" He thought in a panic as he quickly bowed to her nervously.

Dropping a bundle of clothes into his arms, she said, "That's your training clothes. Remember, training starts at six in the morning." She briskly walked away without looking back.

Vali stood silent, just giving a small nod. [Is she usually like this?] He turned around to face the others.

Nitori replied, "A few months ago, she was just another grunt that people forget or don't notice even if she's right in front of them. Now that she's been promoted to a higher position, she's been having fun playing the role of a superior or commanding officer who can pop up out of nowhere."

[I see. I hope that doesn't mean I'll have to deal with an inflated ego in the future, in the worst case.] Vali wrote. [Anyways…Nitori, did you leave my paper towers untouched? I'm not done yet.]

Sighing, Nitori said, "I specifically only went through the things that were labeled as finished. By the way, why in the world would you categorize the laptops as safe? Do you have any idea how dangerous they are?"

[What do you mean? I handled it perfectly well. The silver that they're made of is not dangerous for you or me, but to vampires and werewolves.]

"That's not the point! When I said 'safe', I meant as in safe for Gensokyo, not safe for just us." snapped Nitori. "Silver and iron are two of the most well-known substances that counter magic and are the weaknesses of supernatural beings!"

[And I'm the Queen of England.] Vali retorted, ignoring her explanation. [Seriously, where'd you hear such a stupid thing? Iron is a neutral element! Otherwise no one here would be able to use knives!]

"First off, it's only impure iron that doesn't affect supernatural beings. The iron in those laptops are clearly purified, meaning that they will harm supernatural beings. Second, all metal items in Gensokyo are made of steel, not iron. We don't even have iron in Gensokyo, at least until now." Groaning, Nitori dragged a hand over her face. "Forget it, we'll deal with those anti-supernatural laptops later. What data did they contain?" she asked.

[So far, nothing really useful or relevant. There were many others and I didn't have time to hand check the contents of every drive, so I just extracted them and piled them over there.] He pointed to a large box in a corner, labeled as "Important stuff". [Please don't do anything to them. I'll find a way to set up a data storage server in the near future.]

Nitori raised an eyebrow for a moment, before shrugging it off. "Well, as long as they don't have anything concerning, it seems fine to me." She thought, while thinking of what to do. Vali meanwhile opened one of the nearby shelves, looking for something specific. After a while, he pulled out a blank notebook, and approached the biggest crate in the stockpile, looking at it.

"This should be the final weapon box. I hope there's nothing weird here." Vali thought, as he picked a random case to take out. After a while, he decided on a really large one, that was at the bottom of the crate. "Oh, what 's this?" He thought, as he pulled it out, accidentally scattering some of the crate's contents all over the place.

Nitori looked at the case in question. It was roughly as big as a toolbox, and had a beige color. It had an imprinted sigil that she had never seen before, consisting of a helmet with a sword and an ax crossing behind it.

"I can't read that. What does it say?" She asked.

[Knight's Armament]

Vali opened the case, finding some spare manuals and plastic bags at first. But after a quick read, he jolted up and started to remove everything from the box, until he found what he was looking for.

"A M110 sniper rifle!? Awesome! I've always wanted to see one in person!" He thought, lifting up a large, packaged object, and then unwrapping it. A large, assembled weapon, made in steel and plastic, and painted in a tan color. Vali then took out the other two packages, and did the same thing. Those were the sight, and the bipod. Reaching for one of the manuals, he quickly assembled everything, and showed it off to Nitori.

[Feel free to take a look while I go through the rest of this crate.]

Nitori took the rifle, looking at the structure of it.

"It's not as heavy as I expected. And judging by the quality of the materials, this must be something really expensive, isn't it?"

[Yes. It's as expensive as a regular house, for the most part.]

"Wow. And how are you supposed to use this?"

[I'm on it right now.]

Right after that, Vali took the manual, and started to scan it, as he quickly wrote out the most important aspects. Unlike the radio's manual, the weapon's manual was shorter, so it didn't take too long to read.

"Well…it doesn't have that much going on for it. Just maintenance advice and assembly instructions." He thought, while handing the transcript to Nitori. [The other booklets are just warranty and legal stuff, so it doesn't really matter. You can use them for anything else.]

"I think we should rather address the elephant in the room." Nitori said, pointing at the largest crate, made of a shiny and metallic material, most likely hardened steel. It had no evident opening spots, nor gaps where to fit any crowbar to open it by force. The only thing that gave a hint about how to open it was a card scanner on the top of it.

"Do you have any idea of how to open this thing? I've tried everything on it, including a crowbar, drills, explosive charges, and even a plasma cutter. Not a single scratch." She pointed at a spot in the lab, which had burn marks, scratches, and metallic powder covering everything.

Vali inspected the box for a moment. Then, a bulb lightened. Maybe the master keycard that he still had on himself could be of some use now! He took it out of his chest pockets, brushed its surface clean, and inserted it in the card reader. A moment later, the case made a loud sound, followed by a voice clip.

"Access granted. Welcome, Commander Haur Durdadi. I hope you have a good day."

Upon hearing that, Sanae instantly burst into laughter, while Vali held back a snort. "Wow, that place's security sucks if this fake name didn't draw attention! I still can't believe it actually made it into the system!" He thought.

"What's next?" snickered Sanae, "Mike Hawk? Dick Ryder? Oh, what about Khan Teppounder?"

"Starting depressurization. Please stay away from the crate."

*FSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS*

The box released a huge stream of air from its four corners, sending papers on the lab into the air…including the tower of papers Vali had made the night prior. He made a run for it, managing to contain his research job. Nitori on the other hand was trying to avoid the trash to fly away outside through an open window…and Sanae was too busy trying to avoid her skirt lifting up due to the heavy wind. It eventually came to a stop, much to everyone's relief.

"Opening sequence has been successfully completed."

After opening the crate, they looked inside only to see… a blue case inside, with another lock and card scanner on it. Aside from it, there were many other crates and cases, each one coated in a different color, such as pink, red and black. The group decided to open the first one they saw. It turned out to be not as heavy as they expected. Below the case, there was a duct taped, folded booklet that contained the instructions and information about what was inside.

"Prototype 008: Self-Aware Tesla Gun" Nitori read out, much to the other's surprise. "What the heck?" She continued reading the booklet, as it contained other relevant information.

"This one-of-a-kind prototype is scheduled to be sent to the HQ in France. Sample is ready to be tested and approved for mass production.

Researcher's note 1:

I thought it would be a good idea if we pre-loaded the AI-Core with extensive information of all kinds. Please let me know if the council likes the idea. If not, the manual states how to wipe the system and erase the data..

- Alpha

Researcher's note 2:

After extensive discussion, we have included six different voice packs, for the council's comfort. The male voice n°1 "Eden" will be set as a default voice. Again, the instructions for changing voices are in the booklet.

- Delta
Researcher's note 3:

I've been thinking of this idea for a while. What if the weapon could communicate with others of its kind via wireless connection? It could be interesting. I've included a universal communication device on the main chipset. Please mention this to the R+D lab in France before the testing phase. I don't want to deal with angry French executives anymore.

- Beta

Researcher's note 4:

Who the hell included 'hyperactive high school girl in love', "crazy drill sergeant", and 'drunk Scotsman' as voice modules? Please, stop wasting our budget.

- Sigma"

"...I think we're better off reading this later." Nitori said, skipping through pages and pages of research notes, of which about a third were arguments between the researchers. After several minutes of going back and forth between the manual and the blue container, the process was almost complete. "Alright," hummed Nitori, "Just this last touch and then… aha!" The case's plates clicked as they expanded to release the locks, letting out gusts of steam as the internal mechanisms disabled all security. "Now let's see what's inside."