Episode 1, Chapter 2
Parum, Undersea RELICS site, Sector 2.
"So, let me see if I got this. You come from a place called Konoha on a planet called Earth that's full of shinobi, which are basically like mercenaries that could use those jutsu things you mentioned, which are fueled by an energy source called 'chakra'... and you were the heiress of a clan of these shinobi who specialized in illusion jutsu?" Emilia summarized after hearing Yakumo's (decidedly messier) explanation. "Oh, and you also have no idea how or why you ended up here. Only that you were painting in your room, had a really bad headache before blacking out only to wake up here. Did I miss anything?"
Yakumo shook her head. "Nope, that's everything. Actually, I'm surprised you could remember all of that."
"Ehehe~ Nah, it's nothing. I just have a really good memory is all," Emilia said, a bit flustered at Yakumo's sincere praise. "Anyway, that reminds me. Lyner!"
"Hm? What's up?"
"Tell us about yourself!"
"Oh, well what do you wanna know? My name's Lyner, I'm a mercenary who's worked all over the Gurhal System for over half my life, and I have the strangest luck of running into pretty girls in the weirdest situations. Dunno what else there is to tell really."
"...Pr, pretty? Me?" Emilia stammered out, mostly to herself but still just loud enough for Lyner to hear.
"Uh, yeah? You and Miss Yakumo there are pretty cute, and this is a pretty weird situation. Ah, speaking of which. How are you holding up, Miss Yakumo? Getting used to fighting with the dagger and tech-mag Emilia gave you?"
Yakumo nodded. "Yes, it's a very light and easy weapon to use, this photon dagger. And the tech-mag's ability to seemingly be able to cast my genjutsu, I mean technics, for me is really quite something! I just need to have a clear image of what I want done and send the necessary gathered photons into it! It's a similar, but much more intuitive way of executing jutsu than I'm used, but I can still cast them on my own if need be too!"
"To be fair, most people need to use a mag or some other catalyst to cast technics, but I have heard of people with especially strong spiritual power and photon affinity being able to use technics without them too, like a lot of the higher ranking priests and shrine maidens in the Communion of Gurhal headquartered on Neudaiz for instance," Emilia said, recalling something she read a while back when she was studying about photon arts and technics a while back.
"The Communion of Gurhal? Neudaiz? What are those?" Yakumo asked.
"The Communion of Gurhal is the largest and oldest religious organization in the Gurhal System, and Neudaiz is the name of the planet it originated from and has its headquarters," Lyner explained. "It's also one of the three planets in the Gurhal System alongside Parum, where we are now, and Moatoob, the desert planet and home of the Beasts. It's also where you'll find the most number of Neumans too."
"...Beasts? Neuman? ...What?"
"They're two of the five intelligent, 'humanoid' races that inhabit the Gurhal System. You got plain old humans like you, me and Emilia here for sure, but you also have the lithe, pointy eared Neumans who tend to have higher mental abilities to make up for their generally weaker physical abilities too. Then there's the aptly named and physically stronger Beasts who get their name from their ability to transform into a an even stronger, bestial form, and the purely synthetic and logical, typically rational minded CASTs. Finally, last but not least, are the still mostly unknown Deumans too," Lyner explained.
"... Deumans?" This time, it was Emilia who looked confused. "I've never heard of them before though."
"Ah, right. Well honestly, I'm not really surprised you haven't either. Not a lot of information about them to begin with, and that's on top of their small numbers too. See, they only started appearing a little after three years ago actually. Y'know, after the end of the whole SEED Incident and all that. Plus, unless you know what to look for ahead of time, you might not even recognize them. Well, pro-tip. If the person you're talking to is a little on the slender side, usually has light hair and a pale complexion, possesses crazy high photon abilities, and wears an eye patch, then they're probably a deuman. Also, unlike the other races, who were born out of genetic engineering, nobody really knows how deumans came about, but the prevailing theory is that they're the product of some people's reaction to the SEED virus. Nobody really knows if that's actually true or not though."
"...I see," Emilia said in understanding. "Then, does that mean you've met some deumans before then?"
"Sure have. Actually, I remember this one time when I ran into this one really strong black haired deuman girl a ways back. She wasn't very social, but damn was she strong, was great with a sword, and had some killer legs too."
"...Ugh, men. But wait, didn't you say that deumans usually have light hair?" Emilia asked after quickly getting over her annoyance at Lyner being a typical man.
Lyner nodded. "That long, black hair of hers was a big reason why she stuck out. Oh, she also had a funny habit of talking to herself sometimes, so there was that too. Well, deuman or not, she just had a certain kind of presence to her, I guess."
"...Wait, so there are FIVE intelligent races living in this Gurhal system? And most of them were made by humans!?" Yakumo asked after letting Lyner's explanation finally sink in.
"Oh, right. I'm guessing things were different where you came from, huh," Emilia said in understanding. "But yeah, they were made by our ancestors like, almost a whole millennia ago... though a lot of the details are lost to history now thanks to the five hundred or so years our then ancestors wasted fighting each other..."
"...What!?" Yakumo remarked, surprised by this revelation.
Lyner nodded. "Yeah, back when humanity first began exploring the Gurhal System and the planets within it, they embarked on a very ambitious plan to try and create human offshoots who would be better adapted to survive on those new worlds. This is what gave us the Neuman and Beast races respectively, while CASTs came about when synths became self aware from centuries of advancements in technology and programming. Needless to say, and for a great number of reasons I couldn't explain very well, relations between the races eventually became strained and broke down, leading to five centuries of fighting that only ended when a combination of crazy complicated circumstances piled up in such a way that each faction was forced to see that killing each other in the billions while tearing up the environments of the worlds they'd managed to settle and call home wasn't working. Since then, and after who knows how many intense negotiations, everyone's tried their hardest to live as peacefully together as they could and move forward toward the same goals of a more prosperous and peaceful future for everyone in the Gurhal System regardless of where they came from or what race they are."
"...I see," Yakumo said with a light smile, impressed, if a little overwhelmed, by just how much more vast this world was compared to her old one.
"So, about those shinobi you were telling us about. You mentioned being an heiress to a shinobi clan, but were you one too?" Emilia asked, just as curious to learn more about her new friend and her homeland as Yakumo was about them and their world.
"...Eh? Ah, right. About that..."
"...Um, should I not have asked?" Emilia wondered aloud, a little worried she might have stepped on an emotional land mine after seeing Yakumo look so depressed from her question.
Yakumo shook her head, a slight self-deprecating smile on her lips. "No, it's fine. Just some bad memories is all. But, to answer your question, no. I wasn't a shinobi. There were a lot of reasons for that, but most of it came down to my poor health and how specialized my family's skills were..."
"...Oh."
"You're talking about those genjutsu of yours, right?" Lyner asked, remembering a few of the strange techniques she'd used while fighting together as they made their way deeper into the RELICS site. "Illusions and stuff like that, yeah? Pretty powerful ones too. And what did you mean by health problems? You don't seem to be having any issues keeping up with us. Hell, you're definitely in better shape than Emilia here at least."
"Hey!"
*bop!*
"Hehe."
"...Jerk."
Yakumo couldn't help but giggle at the pair's antics as they playfully traded barbs only to notice the state her body was really in since arriving in this new world now that someone pointed it out. "...Huh. Now that you mention it. I do feel pretty good. Much better than I ever did back in Konoha at least... Strange."
"Oh yeah? You think it has something to do with whatever it was that brought you to this world?" Emilia asked, her naturally curious mind running a thousand and one different scenarios as to why that might have happened. Luckily, she had enough sense to not bombard Yakumo with questions and would just write them down in her journal to mull over later, deciding it'd be better to change the subject for now. "Anyway, do you think you can tell us more about those shinobi? And about that hometown of yours. Konoha, right?"
"Huh, I'm a little curious about all that too. Come to think of it, we still don't know too much about each other than the basics, do we? Why don't we all have a little Q&A session while we make our way towards the last sector. Beats just fighting in silence, yeah?" Lyner suggested.
"Hey, good idea! Then, Yakumo will start and you can go next! I'll go last!"
"Why last?" Yakumo asked.
Emilia shrugged. "No reason. But yeah, never mind that! Hurry up! It's your turn to start, so start!"
Yakumo giggled again. "Okay, okay."
"..." 'Huh. That was odd. It was brief, but Emilia looked a little off there. Well, whatever. It's probably just me overthinking it.'
"So, about shinobi..."
- Undersea RELICS site, somewhere in the depths of Sector 3 -
"...?"
Without any particular thought in her mind, a petite girl with a fair complexion and pretty face framed by long, waist length straight red hair and ocean blue eyes blankly looked around the room she now found herself in, a barely perceptible feeling of curiosity and confusion slowly but surely taking root in her heart and mind.
"..."
However, the red haired girl was so focused on trying to understand her current situation that she hadn't noticed the presence of a large, and decidedly hostile, monster slowly creeping up behind her until it was too late.
"...!"
- Undersea RELICS site, end of Sector 2 -
"These shinobi definitely sound a lot like mercenaries," Emilia noted after Yakumo finished up her explanation. "Well, minus the assassinations and honey trap jobs anyway. And do shinobi take on jobs like that a lot?"
"Well, unlike traditionally mercenaries who are more like independent freelancers, shinobi are effectively the official military forces of their respective Hidden Villages, with Hidden Villages effectively being self-governing city-states residing within the borders of larger nations. Well, there are some smaller, independent shinobi clans not tied to any Hidden Villages, but they've become really rare these days. As for carrying out assassinations and seduction work? Yes, it's fairly common. You see, in order for Hidden Villages to maintain their autonomy, they made a number of trade and contracting alliances with the governments of the larger nations they resided in. Since then, the modern political strength of those larger nations have become tied to the strength of the Hidden Villages' shinobi corps since they bring in a lot of money for their Hidden Villages while at the same time boosting the prestige of their host nations, which in turn sees them being used more and more in their own political games with their neighbors... but, since Hidden Villages are also essentially their own nations too, they also have to deal with the politics between other Hidden Villages so it's all really quite complicated. In that sense, I'm glad I was unable to join Konoha's shinobi corps, even if I had no choice in it," Yakumo further explained.
"...Seriously, and I thought being a mercenary here was rough," Emilia commented, unable to believe what she just heard.
Lyner nodded. "Yeah. Mercenaries like us just gotta mind our P's and Q's with the clients, not break too many laws, and make sure we fill out the appropriate paperwork when needed. Other than that, and aside from making sure we take on enough jobs to keep the lights on, put food on the table and the occasional 'emergency level' job, we're pretty much free to take whatever jobs we want when we want."
"Yeah. We can just leave all that complicated political stuff to the GUARDIANs and the Alliance."
"GUARDIANs? Alliance?" Yakumo asked by way of repeating the two unfamiliar words.
"Oh, right. The 'Alliance' I mentioned refers to the Gurhal Tripartite Alliance, united governing organization made up of the three planetary governments of Parum, Moatoob, and Neudaiz. The GUARDIANs, on the other hand, are a civilian founded private security force that was given some authority to conduct law enforcement operations and deal with issues the Alliance Military Forces and local Guardian Police Forces can't, or won't, handle for one reason or another. After all, somebody has to do it. Plus, there's good money to made in mercenary work too," Lyner explained.
"...I see. And what about you two?"
"Oh, I'm with a small company called 'Little Wing'," Emilia replied. "And yeah, we aren't super picky about what kind of jobs we take on, so some of them can be a little... very legally grey sometimes. Oh, but this RELICS site survey was... actually my first job, hehe."
"And I'm an independent mercenary not affiliated with any one one group," Lyner said.
"... Um, would it be hard for someone like me to become a mercenary?" Yakumo asked.
"Hm? Well, it depends. For larger, more well established outfits there might be more thorough background checks and paperwork but, for the most part, you just need to get a general 'mercenary's license' and fill out some associated job related paperwork when needed," Lyner explained. "If nothing else, it's definitely more of a headache than anything else but still less of a pain in the ass than trying to join the GUARDIANs, AMF, or GDF though so no, it's not really hard to register and start working as a mercenary if you wanted."
"That's good to know," Yakumo said, relieved that she had options in this new world that'll let her put her skills and training to some good use.
"What, are you thinking becoming a mercenary? Cuz if you are, then I think I can help you out!" Emilia said, more than happy to help if she can.
"Really?"
"Mmhm! Oh, but first, we gotta get ourselves outta here first. Once we do that, I'll definitely talk to my boss and get him to hire you for sure!"
"Really? Thanks!"
"Nice to see you girls getting along and all, but uh, yeah... heads up!"
A moment later, and just as the door opened up into the large room in front of them, another group of 'Evil Sharks' and some four legged monsters called 'Volfu'.
"Maybe it's because of the absurdity of the situation, but it's kinda nuts how fast I'm getting used to all of this..," Yakumo said as she readied her photon dagger and tech-mag for combat next to Lyner and in front of Emilia, settling into the formation they've been using for awhile now.
"That's a good trait to have if you really do plan on becoming a mercenary," Lyner said before dashing ahead to draw in as many of the enemy as he can while Yakumo stunned them with her illusions and Emilia finished them off with her fireballs or supporting the others with buffs or healing technics.
"Y'know, it might be just me but, I dunno, everything feels so much easier now somehow," Emilia observed, honestly a little surprised at how effective and quickly they took down the first wave of enemies.
"Nah, that's just how gaining experience from actual battle goes. Don't worry, a few more battles and you won't even notice until we come across a real tough battle again, then rinse and repeat. That's pretty much the secret to getting stronger," Lyner said as he bisected an Evil Shark. "Just be careful not to get too complacent or overconfident. Oh, and don't bite off more than you can chew either."
"Right! Just leave the support to me!" Emilia said as she healed Yakumo with a resta technic.
Lyner nodded. "Yeah, counting on you, Emilia! You too Yakumo!"
"Ye, yeah! just leave it to me..!" muttered a slightly flustered Emilia.
"Heh, I know this might sound kinda strange in a situation like this, but I really can't help but think that there's nothing quite like dungeon crawling with some cute beauties in your party, amirite?"
"...Jeez! Seriously?"
"Are you always like that?" Yakumo asked, not sure what to make of the older man but also undeniably happy for the compliment. 'I wonder if he's one of those womanizing playboys mother tried to warn me about...'
"Hm? Nah, nah. You gotta be the right kinda girl for me to bother really paying attention to like that. You just gotta have a certain something, y'know?"
"...So, we have that 'certain something' then?" Emilia asked, sincerely trying to figure out the older man she was teamed up with. 'I mean, I've never been called pretty before so there's that too, but... I dunno... Ugh. Stupid Emilia! Quit overthinking it!'
"Yeah. I can't really put it into words, but despite what you might think, I don't go around messing with every pretty girl just because they are. Something inside's just gotta click first... Huh, come to think of it... I think I've only ever called a few other girls pretty throughout my whole life, so yeah. Whatever it is, you both got it."
"...I, see," Yakumo said, not exactly sure how she should respond... but also secretly happy for his honest words.
"Well, if it helps, I guess you can call it a sixth sense for good women?"
"...You should've kept that to yourself, Mister Lyner," Yakumo flatly shot back.
"Oh yeah? My bad."
"Seriously," Emilia said, agreeing with Yakumo. "It makes you sound like a womanizer or something..."
"Hey! But, I guess that explains why I never get too many dates then... ugh."
The two girls, seeing how genuinely bummed out Lyner looked, couldn't help but giggle at the sight.
"It's fine! Besides, we could tell you didn't mean anything bad by it," Emilia reassured.
"And it's nice being called pretty from a guy and mean it, trust me," Yakumo added. "And trust me, I have more than plenty of experience with dealing with insincere flattery."
"Well, it doesn't help that you're a total playboy wannabe, so... points for trying, I guess?" Emilia said with a little smirk.
"...Thanks, I guess?"
"You're welcome~ " Emilia said with a giggle. "So, what about you, Yakumo? Is he your type?"
"...Hmm... I wonder...~"
Seeing as he really dug himself in to a verbal hole this time, Lyner wisely kept quiet as the girls chatted amongst themselves while teasing him relentlessly all the while.
'...Well, I guess it's fine. But more importantly, as long as nothing unexpected happens, we should be close to the last room of the sector. Just a little further and we can, hopefully, get out of here. Speaking of pretty girls though... I bet Lapis and the others are getting worried sick. I mean, now that I think about it, I was supposed to check in with 'em awhile ago, wasn't I? ...Shit!'
xxx xxx xxx
Parum, late evening - outside of the RELICS site.
Looking around at the gather crowd of people and how agitated everyone seemed to look, the trio of silver haired, and amber eyed CAST beauties couldn't help but wonder what was going on.
"Hey, Unit One, you think whatever happened here is the reason why he hasn't checked in with us yet?" asked the identical looking girl walking behind and a bit to the right of the one addressed as 'Unit One'.
"I don't know, but that seems like the most logical thing to assume for now, given that he doesn't seem to be present. Actually, Unit Three. Were you able to get in touch with him at all?"
The one called 'Unit Three' shook her head. "No, not yet. But, I did learn that it's not because his communicator is turned off, but rather because there's a great deal of interference preventing any signals from getting through."
"I see. Well for now, let's see if we can find someone who can tell us what's going on before doing anything else," Unit One suggested.
"What about the crowd by the door?" Unit Two suggested, pointing to the group by the RELICS site entrance.
"Well, that does look like the obvious place to start, now doesn't it? Alright, let's go."
- With Kraz -
"Well? Didja make any progress yet? I mean, it's already a few hours already, yeah?" asked the less than patient older Beast.
"...We've finally managed to crack through a few of the RELICS site's security systems, yes, but whatever is responsible for locking the RELICS site down is another story... We're doing our best, but I'll be honest here; none of us has ever seen code this complex before... Frankly, we'd need a real expert on Ancient technologies to deal with this, but..."
"Yeah, I get it. There's no tellin' how long that'd take, yeah?"
The man just silently nodded. "...Unfortunately, yes. We've put in a request for a specialist with the GUARDIANs, but..."
"...Great. Just fuckin' great...! ...Fuck!"
"...Yeah. Tell me about it... Anyway, just try to be a little more pati-"
Just then...
"-Oh? You need someone knowledgeable in Ancient technology do you? Well then, do you mind if my sisters and I have a look?"
"...And who are you three supposed to be, huh?" asked a very skeptical and irate Kraz as he eyed the three identical looking, very human looking CAST girls calmly walking over to him and the other guys working on trying to open up the RELICS site doors.
"Oh, right. Introductions. Well, You can call us Lapis. And you are?"
"...I'm Kraz, a mercenary. So what, you on a job here too?"
Lapis Unit One shook her head. "Not us, no, but a friend of ours was. We haven't heard from him for a few hours now and grew concerned, which led us to coming here to see what was going on for ourselves. More importantly, I'm guessing that you're also worried about someone in the same boat as our friend?"
Kraz didn't say anything for a moment, his expression unreadable as he just stared at the three CAST girls before finally letting out a deep, almost defeated sigh. "This was supposed to be a simple survey gig, so I thought it'd be a good first job to let an employee of mine get some experience... but then, something went wrong and the whole RELICS site locked itself down! I dunno how it happened, but that damn fool of a girl somehow got herself trapped inside too..! Well, not just her, apparently. Since then, these guys over there have been trying to get the damn door open to no success. That's why we need a specialist in Ancient technologies."
"Oh?"
"... So, do you happen to know anything about Ancients' programming though?" one o f the men trying to get the door open asked, clearly desperate for any sort of solution at this point. "If so, then perhaps you can get it open, or at least point my team in the right direction."
"Of course," Lapis Unit One said with a nod.
"Great, thanks!" the man said with a relieved sigh and a nod. "Then, right this way please."
- Meanwhile, back with Lyner and the others -
Undersea RELICS site, in the hallway just before the final room of Sector 3.
"I can do this... I can do this," Yakumo quietly said to herself as she stood in front of Lyner and Emilia, tech mag at the ready. "Okay! Here goes nothing! Eeeiii!"
With a small (and cute) little shout to pump herself, Yakumo willed her tech-mag to perform the two technics Emilia had taught her and that she'd finished practicing to get right and would, if all went well, buff them.
'Shifta is a fire based technic taht's supposed to raise our physical and special attack power while deband is a water/ice based skill that raises physical defense, special resistance and evasion... Alright, and everything looks like it's going well too!'
Just as Emilia had shown her, a warm red ring followed by a cool blue ring enveloped the three of them and applied the intended buffs just as she'd envisioned them.
"Alright! Great job Yakumo!" Emilia, happy for her new friend's success, couldn't help but let out a big smile as she felt the effects of the two support technics coursing through her body.
Lyner nodded. "Emilia's right. You really got hang of quickly casting technics in no time at all." He then turned to Emilia. "You too. You're a pretty good teacher. Way better than me at explaining stuff like that."
Both girls, still not at all used to the praise, couldn't help but blush a bit, a sight Lyner lightly chuckled at and enjoyed.
"...Ye, yeah well... I really am that awesome so it was a piece of cake!" Emilia said, puffing out her petite chest in pride (and to hide her embarrassment.
"I hope you'll be able to teach me more technics later," Yakumo said, wanting both to find more ways to impress and get more praise out of Lyner, but to spend time with her new friends as well.
"Totally! And you'll show me how to use some of those illusion technics of yours too, right? Like, at least some of the easier ones, yeah?"
Yakumo smiled and nodded. "Of course! And I think someone as smart and talented as you should be able to pick up the basics in no time at all too!"
"Man, you girls are lucky. All a guy like me is good for is beating stuff up. I mean, I'm okay with using support and healing technics, but I suck at using anything else," Lyner said. "Well, even what I can use isn't that strong either though."
"No worries! Support is like, the bread and butter of us Vanguards! Right, Yakumo?"
"Yes!"
Lyner chuckled. "Alright, I'll be counting on you two then. Anyway, are you two ready?"
Both girls confidently nodded.
"Alright, this should be the last room before the emergency teleporter so stay alert and be ready for anything, okay?"
xxx xxx xxx
A/N:
Alright! Another chapter down!
Any guesses who the new character is?
Hint: She is from a Phantasy Star game.
Anyway, the 'prologue' should wrap up in the next one or two chapters.