Episode 1, Chapter 1
Parum: late U.G.C 103, evening - inside a newly excavated Undersea RELICS site.
"Yeah, I got it. Don't worry. Looks like a simple enough scouting job so I shouldn't be too long. Anyway, just try to keep outta trouble til I get back, yeah? Later."
*click!*
'Now that that's taken care of...'
Putting his tablet/communicator away, a slightly taller than average man in his mid twenties and dressed in a dark long coat open in the front and with one long, wide sleeve on the left over a grey button down shirt over some black, slightly baggy pants that had two amber bands around the left pant leg and wearing a pair of matching black shoes and gloves. In terms of looks, he had a tan complexion, messy grey hair and amber eyes with a decent enough build for a human male along with a few scars littering his body here and there that served as proof to his many years as a battle hardened mercenary Hunter. In terms of personality, the man had a somewhat blunt but friendly enough demeanor... as well as a bit of being a closet pervert, though he was still professional enough to know when to be serious, never fialing to do his jobs well or take care of his responsibilities.
'Right then, let's see here... Oh, looks like there's a lot more mercs out here than I thought there'd be.'
Scoping out the situation, the man saw over a dozen or so mercenaries gathered around, likely waiting to head in themselves. That's when he noticed a black CAST with long white hair headed his way.
"Oh? Another fresh new face, hm? Well, I suppose that's just how it goes when big shots sponsor the jobs. Anyway, I'm Vasque. Good to meet you," Said the now named Vasque as he offered a hand. "Anyway, not much of a surprise that it'd draw so many people. Just the nature of the mercenary business I guess."
"True that," Lyner said with a nod as he took the friendly CAST's hand. "Ah, and my name's Ly-"
"-Come on! Can't we just go home already? Please!? Like, why'd you even bring me here Kraz!?" loudly whined a petite blonde human girl in her mid to late teens with pretty red eyes dressed in a very pink outfit with odd wing accents on the headphones she wore around her neck currently tugging on the sleeves of a much taller and older looking beast man with scruffy looking, long brown hair covering his eyes complete with an equally scruffy beard.
"Ugh, shut up already ya lazy brat! Didja forget that I'm the one who pays ya? Anyway, just stay here and wait a sec! I'll be sure to find you some work that even you can handle," the man grumbled out in a rough but somehow still lazy voice as he waved the blonde off and turned to walk off into the crowd, likely to find the client or their representative and leaving the girl to drop her head down in defeat.
"...Ah, man...! Just, just hurry back, yeah?" the girl grumbled out in a resigned, defeated voice, shoulders slumped in defeat as she turned back around with her head down and quietly ranting about how unfair the world was and how mean the older beast man was. "...stupid jerk...!"
Meanwhile, Vasque and Lyner watched the whole exchange with very different reactions and thoughts.
"What's a kid like that even doing out here?" Vasque asked no one in particular, shaking his head like a teacher watching a poor student act up in class or something.
Lyner shrugged. "Dunno, but think she's a rookie?"
Vasque sighed. "Either way, she's not ready for the field, much less a job like this, if that's how she's acting."
"Seein' her spaz out like that kinda reminds me of my early days. Well, I'd like to think I was a lot less whiny though, haha."
Vasque chuckled. "Is that so?"
Lyner nodded. "Yup. Anyway, Catch ya later."
"Going to keep an eye on her I gather?"
"I'll see what I can do anyway."
"Well then, stay safe out the-"
But, just before the older CAST could finish wishing the younger mercenary well and good luck, the loud sounds of alarms went off, shocking everyone gathered before the ground started to violently shake as the lights flashed in and out to the chaos going on around them.
"Wait, what's going on!? ...Whoa!" Lyner asked as he tried to keep himself steady, looking around and seeing everyone freak out as they a mad dash for the nearest exit. And, it was just as all that was going down that Lyner caught sight of the blonde girl in pink from earlier in the corner of his eye as she stumbled around, clutching her head for some reason. 'Hey, wait a sec. That's not the exit... Just where the hell is she going? Is she okay? Did she hit her head or something?'
Partly out of his usual sense of meddling curiosity and concern, Lyner found himself moving on his own towards the girl, feeling an odd sense of deja-vu in the back of his mind at the same time.
'...Dammit...! This is just like with when I found Lapis and her sisters..! Well, whatever. Screw it, too late to turn back now.'
And, before either he or the girl knew it, the pair stumbled through a random door as the ground violently shook one last time as the RELICS site's power went out... causing him to trip and hit his head, hard, knocking him out in the process.
...
'...Are you fucking kidding me!?'
xxx xxx xxx
Meanwhile, outside of the RELICS site.
"What the hell do ya mean you can't open the door, huh!?" shouted a very irate Kraz Muehler to one of the poor technicians trying, and failing, to get the central door to the now sealed RELICS site open.
"... It's like we've told you already! Somehow, for some reason, the site's lockdown protocols went off!" said the technician on the left for the umpteenth time now before sighing and shaking his head to try and clear his head. "Look, I know you're worried, but we're doing everything we can to get the door open, so please, just calm down, step back and let us work, okay?"
Seeing that the CAST technician had a point and that he really wasn't helping, Kraz could only click his tongue in worried frustration as he walked off to try and cool his head.
'Dammit Emilia! You better stay safe in there or so help me..!'
xxx xxx xxx
Somewhere deep inside the now sealed, darkened and monster filled RELICS site, Sector 1.
"... Where, where am I? This definitely isn't Konoha... Ugh, what happened?" a confused Yakumo Kurama asked herself as she cautiously looked around the strange and alien looking hallway she now found herself in. However, it wasn't just the new environment that was foreign to her either... it was the very environment itself. 'What, what is this? It's like, there's this strange energy just lingering faintly in the air... and I don't think it's chakra either. Well, I guess it feels somewhat similar but no, it still feels too different to be chakra...'
Closing her eyes to tune out everything around her for a moment, Yakumo tried to get a better feel for that strange energy she was feeling and see if she could put any of her training in chakra control and sensing to use and get a better read on what's around her. First, however, was she needed to see if she could even still use her chakra in this strange, alien place. So, putting it to the test, Yakumo quickly wove a few hand seals and tried to gather and mold some chakra for a simple genjutsu as a test... only to feel some of that strange energy, whatever it was, being pulled from around her only to quickly disperse before she could do anything with it instead, as if her body and this strange new energy weren't completely synced up yet. But, more importantly...
'It's not just that I can't feel any chakra inside me... I can't feel any chakra at all. But, that shouldn't be possible.'
After another moment of silently trying to puzzle out just what was going on, Yakumo eventually just sighed, shook her head and decided that, rather than just standing around in some random, dimly lit hallway, would pick some random direction and start exploring the place for herself.
'... Better to be proactive than waiting around here and hope that someone will come rescue me or something like that.'
xxx xxx xxx
In another part of the RELICS site, Sector 1.
"...Not here either. Jeez, where the hell did that loud blonde go?" Lyner muttered to himself as he wandered down another hallway in search of the girl he'd seen stumble off into the RELICS site before they got trapped inside. He didn't know how long he'd been looking around for her, but here he was. "Oi! Girl! You alright!? Yell back if you can here me!"
"...Eep...!"
"...?" 'Was that her? Sounded pretty close though, I think. Well, whatever. That way, right?'
Following the direction the voice was coming from, Lyner quickly ran down the left hallway at the fork he was just in.
xxx xxx xxx
RELICS site, first room of Sector 2
"...Ugh! I told him! I told him I wasn't cut out for this! Stupid Kraz! ...Ugh!" Emilia whined as she recalled how she ended up in this situation. "Stupid monsters! Stupid RELICS site! Ugh! How do I get out of here?"
While the irate, ponytailed blonde was busy looking around for an exit and/or someone-anyone-who could help, or at least keep her company(, especially at times like these), she failed to notice the sounds of footsteps getting closer and closer to her until she heard someone call out to her.
"...Oi...!"
"... Eep!"
Cue the girl jumping up like a scared cat before quickly spinning around to face whoever it was that called out to her.
"...Err..."
Mouth slightly agape, eyes wide and presently looking like an idiot, Emilia found herself looking up at a taller, older man in his mid twenties with a fairly decent build dressed in grey and black, tan complexion, sharp but still friendly looking amber eyes framed by unkempt, shortish grey hair staring back at her with an odd look on his face.
"..."
"..."
"...Hi...?"
"...Yo."
"...So..."
"Yeah?"
"Who are you and do you have any clue what's going on?" Emilia finally asked in a surprisingly calm voice.
Lyner raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised by how fast the girl's mood could swing. "I'm Lyner, freelance mercenary. As for why I'm here? Well, scouting job aside, I... actually came looking for you. Y'know. To make sure you we're alright. And no, I don't have any idea what's going on, just that we're currently trapped inside the RELICS site."
Now it was Emilia's turn to be surprised... and a little wary. "You do get how suspicious that sounds, right? I mean, vulnerable and cute girl in a short skirt, older guy the girl obviously doesn't know, all alone in some dimly lit RELICS site? Y'know, that whole thing."
"...I mean, when you put it like that, sure? But look. You stumbled in here while clutching your head looking like you were in pain. I happened to see that... and my body just kinda, moved on its own. Anyway, you seem fine, err..."
"Oh, right. I'm Emilia. Emilia Percival. And, thanks I guess. For trying to help me..."
Lyner nodded. "No worries. By the way, and sorry if this comes off as rude, but are you a rookie mercenary or something?"
"... I guess you heard me and Kraz earlier, huh... Yeah, I guess you could say that... Ugh..! But seriously! I told that jerk I wasn't ready for a job like this yet! I told him and he still dragged me out here anyway, y'know!?"
"... Really, the nerve," Lyner deadpanned.
"Right!? Like, sure. He might be my boss or whatever but still! What kinda heartless jerk makes a delicate maiden like me enter such a dangerous place like this, huh!?"
"...Because you're a mercenary?"
"...Um,, about that..," Emilia began, head down and slightly fidgeting a bit and not looking at Lyner. "...See..."
"Hm? What iis it?"
"...I might be registered as a mercenary, sure. And I might also be armed but, I haven't been in many fights before... like, none..."
"..."
"..."
"...Are you serious?"
Emilia nodded.
"... Do you, at least know how to use your weapons?"
Another, slightly more hesitantly, nodded before looking away again.
"...I've finished the VR training drills Kraz made me take at least."
Lyner sighed before putting a reassuring hand on the blonde's shoulder, causing her to jump a bit in surprise at the sudden touch before looking back up at him. "It's fine. Just think of this... as getting in some field training in, yeah?"
"... Yeah, okay. A, anyway! Since it's come to this, then we're in this together... so I'll be counting on you! Got it!"
Lyner chuckled. 'Man, this girl really is all over the place, huh.' "Yeah, I got your back, Emilia."
Emilia positively beamed. "Mm!"
xxx xxx xxx
Back with Yakumo.
"...Eeeiii!"
*SSSHHHIIINNNGGGG*
With a deft and practiced hand, Yakumo swung down her kunai in a downward diagonal slash from left to right on the chest of the closest of the four strange human sized creatures that had wide, grinning mouths and what looked like scythes for arms. Fortunately, for how genuinely unsettling and dangerous they looked, they were slow, very slow... too bad that didn't mean they were necessarily any easier to take down though.
'...Tch! Whatever their skin is made of, it's tough!' Yakumo observed as she felt the resistance even against her now enhanced, energy covered kunai. 'Ugh! And I finally got the hang of gathering and molding whatever this stuff is now too...!'
And, while Yakumo was lost in her thoughts, she barely sensed another of those creatures get behind her and swing its arm down, forcing her to quickly disengage the one she was dealing with and evade as best she could... only to get cut in her right arm and causing her to drop her kunai. Needless to say, even it wasn't all that deep a cut, it still hurt... a lot.
xxx xxx xxx
With Lyner and Emilia.
"... Kkkyyyaaa!"
"Eeep!" Emilia yelped before cautiously looking around for the source of the sudden scream. "Wh, what the! Was that, is there someone else here?"
"Not sure, but it sounded really close," Lyner said as he focused his senses to try and find the source of the mystery scream. "Anyway, come on. There's only this hall and the room right past it, so chances are we'll find out really soon. And, if there really is someone there then they'll probably need our help!"
"R, right!"
xxx xxx xxx
'...Dammit! I was careless!' Yakumo mentally cursed as she narrowly evaded another set of clumsy scythe slashes thanks to some well timed sealess and simple Kurama Clan genjutsu. '...The only saving grace right now is that I finally have a handle on molding whatever this weird energy is.'
Over the last few minutes and through a combination of being motivated by desperation to not get cut again, the very real possibility of dying to these disturbing creatures, and plain dumb luck Yakumo was finally learn how to take in the strange energy in the air and combine it with her own spiritual energy to successfully reproduce her clan's genjutsu. However, its effects were a fair bit weaker than what she would've liked as these monsters, whatever they were, acted purely on raw combat instinct and had very little in the way of genuine intelligence. On the other hand, and after the shock that she couldn't really feel her own chakra anymore but was still alive somehow wore off, the brunette realized that rather than gone, her chakra had simply changed into some other form or state after waking up as evidenced by her success at now being able to gather, mold and use that strange energy in place of the chakra she could no longer feel.
'Well, at least I can throw them off balance or stun them but... they're bunched up around and blocking the door in front of me. And with my arm like this, one slip up and I'm dead...! Ugh, what do I do now...?'
But, luckily for Yakumo, the heavens saw fit to answer her prayers in the form of a block of ice quickly racing past her and striking one of those scythe armed monsters right in the face, knocking it back into the others.
"...Wha...!?" '...Wait. Was, was that an ice release jutsu? No way!'
Yakumo had read that 'ice release' was now a lost bloodline limit that once belonged to a small clan that lived in the Land of Water before they were wiped out during the 'Bloodline Purges' that were part of Kiri's civil war from several years ago, though she'd heard that one of Konoha's genin teams supposedly ran into an ice release user during their first ever C turned A-rank mission, a story that was actually pretty famous after it was made public. However, she was brought out of her thoughts when another girl's voice suddenly called out to her at the same time her eyes caught sight of a man in a dark long coat wielding a large, two-handed sword of bright green light dashing forward to take on the still stunned monsters.
"...Whoa...!"
Yakumo could only look on in silent awe as she watched the man effortlessly tear apart the frozen and/or stunned scythe armed monsters until she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder and heard the voice of, presumably the one who used the ice release jutsu earlier, calling out to her.
"Hey, are you okay?" asked a petite blonde girl dressed in pink with a look of concern.
"Hu, huh? Oh, oh. Yes, I'm fine," Yakumo replied with a nod, never taking her eyes off the man wielding the sword of light finishing off the monsters with a circular slash that knocked the three remaining scythe armed monsters back and onto their backs, even managing to take out a second one for good in the process.
The blonde girl sighed in relief and smiled. "Great! I'm, I'm really glad that you were so close by and we could make it here in time to help you. But seriously, I didn't think there'd be any monsters here... I mean, it's been three years since the SEED Crisis ended, which meant that there shouldn't even be any here in the first place... Then again, there's always been an odd connection between their appearance and RELICS sites though, hasn't there. But, no. This one was completely sealed off before now was deemed to be clear before we came... But, there might be other reasons for why this happened I suppose. Also, the fact that the RELICS site locked itself down like it did is proof that something else must be going on here... Certainly explains the weird spacetime, electromagnetic, and photonic energy readings the place is giving off anyway... Hmm..."
"...Uh..."
Yakumo, who had only just woken up in this place, had no clue what the blonde girl was even talking about but was nevertheless surprised at the shift in the girl when she started going through her ideas on what was happening in this strange place... a place she'd just learned was completely locked down and full of more of those strange and violent monsters. The man with her, on the other hand, just whistled at seeing this side of his blonde partner.
"So, you some kinda expert about RELICS sites or something, Emilia?"
His question snapped Emilia back to reality... who then proceeded to go through yet another quick and sudden shift in personality and mood, this time looking a bit embarrassed, blushing and turning away from them. Still, she had to say something, didn't she?
"... Well, I mean... Yeah, I guess you could say I have an interest in this stuff at least, got a problem with that?"
the two shook their heads.
"Not me, nope. I think it's kinda cool actually," the man in the dark coat said with a grin. "Actually, I think you'd get along with some friends of mine since they're into that stuff too. Bunch of cute girls who can kick ass and nerd out? Hell yeah!"
"Wha, what! Cu, cute? Ugh, stop picking on me Lyner! Geez!" Emilia groaned, before dashing up to the now named Lyner and bopping her small fists against his chest. "...Jerk...!"
"Hahaha!"
Yakumo, seeing their antics, couldn't help but giggle at the scene. It was random for sure, but also helped to calm her nerves and get her mind off the strangeness of her present situation. After all, freaking out about it wouldn't help anything.
"Oh, that's right! What's your name? You might've heard 'em already but yeah, I'm Emilia. Emilia Percival! And this jerk-"
"Oi!"
"-here is Lyner! Nice to meetcha!"
"Oh, right! My name is Yakumo Kurama! It's a pleasure to meet you. Also, thank you both so much for saving me earlier!" the brunette greeted back, complete with a deep and very polite bow fitting of her station as a Shinobi Clan Heiress.
...
"...Whoa."
"I know right? She almost looked like a princess there or something!"
"...Pr, princess? Me...?
Both nodded, teasing smiles on their faces.
"I'm not any sort of princess though... Anyway! Never mind me! Emilia!"
"Huh, what?" Emilia replied, a bit surprised by the sudden seriousness in the brunette's eyes.
"That jutsu you used. It was ice release right? I've never seen one before now, so it was quite the sight."
"... 'Jutsu'? 'Ice release'? Are you talking about the rabarta technic I used?" Emilia asked back, confused by the words Yakumo used for the technic she'd used to hit the 'evil shark' when the pair entered the room.
"... 'Rabarta'? If you mean the ice release jutsu, then yes," Yakumo confirmed, though she did wonder why Emilia called it a technique and not a jutsu. '...Maybe it's a foreign variant of jutsu then?'
"Ah, okay. Well, I don't get why you're using such strange words, but whatever," Emilia said, apparently coming to the same conclusion Yakumo did.
"By the way, how did you manage to keep those evil sharks at bay for so long before we got there?" Lyner asked, curious how the seemingly delicate and unarmed girl managed to stave off being attacked by four 'evil sharks' while only taking a single hit. 'Speaking of which.' "Oh, right. Let me take a look at your arm. Gonna need to treat your arm and get you patched up now that we got a chance to take a breather."
"Huh? Oh, right! Um, here," Yakumo said, suddenly remembering that she was still holding her wounded arm and realized the only reason she hadn't felt any pain was probably because of adrenaline and the seriousness of the situation. "...Th, thank you..."
"Hm? Yeah, no worries. And there! Oh, and take this," Lyner said before taking out and handing Yakumo a small bottle full of a slightly glowing green liquid after bandaging her arm.
"...? What's this? Some kind of medicine?"
"What, you've never seen a monomate before?"
'... A, 'monomate'? What a weird name for medicine... Oh well.' With a grateful nod, Yakumo uncorked the bottle and downed the slightly glowing green drink in one go. 'Huh. It's, not bad. Kind of fruity even. And it's a little warm too...'
"So about what I asked earlier," Lyner began, wanting to finally work on getting answers on the new mystery girl. "How did you manage to fight without a weapon? And I don't see a Tech or R mag on you either... Actually, how did you even get here? I mean, I might've missed it, but I don't remember seeing you out in the RELICS site entrance area with the other mercenaries."
"...Um, a tech... mag? Sorry, what are those? And um... about how I got here... You see... I, don't know. The last thing I remember was working on a painting in my room and then blacking out after I got this really bad headache. The next ting I knew, I woke up alone in, this RELICS site you called it? After that, I just wandered around until I ran into those ... evil sharks? As for how I dealt with them," Yakumo then showed the pair her now broken kunai. "It didn't really do very much, but I still had my clan's genjutsu to distract and stun them. The rest, well you already know."
"...Hey, this is gonna sound like a really weird question but, does the word 'Parum' mean anything to you?" Lyner asked. 'There might might not be anything at all to it, but based on the timing and headaches she and Emilia had... Maybe they're connected somehow? Yeah it's a totally batshit crazy idea, but it lines up.'
"... 'Parum'? What's that? Some kind of food? Or is it the name of wherever this place is?" Yakumo asked, tilting her head to the side while Lyner and Emilia glanced at each other before facing her again.
"Parum is the name of the planet we're on where this RELICS site is located," Emilia explained. "..Ugh, this whole thing is really strange. I mean, you don't seem to have amnesia but... Yeah, I don't know what's going on here..."
"...Well, for now, I think you should come with us," Lyner suggested, deciding to try and figure all this out later.
"Are you sure?" Yakumo asked, though very happy that he did. 'No way do I wanna be stuck wherever this place all by myself!'
Lyner nodded before turning to Emilia. "That okay with you, Emilia?"
"I mean, yeah, of course it is! Like, there's no way we can just leave her here! Besides, I wanna know what those 'jutsu' things are! Oh, here. Take these," Emilia said before taking out and offering Yakumo her spare dagger and tech-mag. "I figured these should be easy enough for you to handle. Oh, but let me teach you how to sync up with them so you can put them away or call them out on command."
"...Are, are you sure?"
Emilia nodded. "Yup, no problem. The more the merrier and all that."
"You're pretty reliable when you wanna be, huh?" Lyner commented with a slightly teasing smirk.
"Oh shut up!"
"Hahaha! Right then, now that we got that taken care of, let's get moving. If this place is like any other RELICS site, then there should be an emergency exit teleporter somewhere in its deepest level," Lyner said. "It's not ideal, but it's really our only option right now."
"...Ye, yes!"
"Ugh, right! Stupid RELICS and their inconvenient layouts!"
"Haha!"
xxx xxx xxx
A/N:
And that takes care of the first chapter of a story/crossover I didn't think I'd be doing... Well, not the PSP2i part. I've been wanting to write my own take on the story for a while now, but the minor crossover to add in Yakumo and one more? Nope, didn't see that coming. As for why? Well, I just wanted to really. Plus, their home series doesn't really do anything with them anyway, so I figured, why not?
Ah, Only Yakumo will come from Naruto so don't expect or ask for any others, the answer will be a hard 'no'. This was just me acting on a whim and nothing more.
The plan is to tell an AU retelling of the events of Episodes 1 and 2 before continuing with new, original Episodes to really make this fic its own continuity while building up the harem during their adventures.
As for how Yakumo ended up here? Well, consider it a a combination of the subspace shenanigans going on at the same time as Yakumo's potential reality warping powers being taken to their one time extreme in response to an especially strong desire to 'just disappear and start over somewhere far, far away'. And, what better way then literally ending up in another universe? As a result of ending up in another world, Yakumo lost her bloodline limit and access to chakra in the shift between worlds and instead gained the ability to use photons. In the Phantasy Star lore, at least in PSU and PSO II, photons resonate and react to one's spiritual energy, which is what she made use of to cast her genjutsu in place of her now lost chakra.
In this setting specifically, photons, chakra, and other similar concepts are just alternate, divergent expressions of a singular 'greater concept' not unlike the 'Profound Darkness' in other Phantasy Star games/lore. So, in some worlds it's photons and in others, chakra... etc, etc. In short, photons are the physical embodiment of 'creation and will'.
Anyway, see you next chapter and I hope you enjoy!
