(Limbus Company x DanMachi)
12 Idiots and a Clockface do an "Oopsy" while on a train and get sucked into a world of gods and adventurers... Eh, just your average day for the LCB. What will happen to them in this brave new world? Will Don Quixote mess up yet another plan? Will the Sinners be able to compete against the adventurers?
Oh who am I kidding, Orario and its inhabitants aren't prepared for the horrors of the City…
P.S.: I have a gacha addiction and (barely) an A1 level of reading comprehension
Rough Descent
"This… is unideal"
- Yi Sang
A single star pierced the all-consuming darkness of the void and bathed a sole observer in its light's warmth.
"…te…" A slight buzz came from somewhere.
The being's red coat and tie, donned over formal looking black vestments, made it stand out like a sore thumb amidst the inky surroundings. And yet, its garish fashion wasn't the only thing setting apart from the void – although its body was that of a normal human, in place of its head stood a flaming clock. At a quick glance, one might mistake it for a mask at first but no… The figure's head was indeed a clock, the minute hand resting at somewhere between ten and nine and the hour one striking twelve.
"D…te…" Yet more buzzing filled its non-existent ears. Annoying…
Though the being was surrounded by what seemed to be just empty space, its feet found solid ground no matter where it stepped. There was a slight cold breeze flowing from the direction of the star, gently caressing the spectator's form. It was a rather pleasant experience, almost like going out for a walk on a cool spring day.
"W…k…p…" Was there an insect flying about? Didn't it know that [-] had an important task to do? But what was it again? Something, something gold?
Thought its face had no distinguishable eyes, it appeared the red figure's gaze was firmly planted on the distant star, never letting it leave its sight for even a moment, as if it could disappear any second now. Why? Why was it so transfixed by it? It was important somehow…?
"Wa…u… Dan…" The noise was getting louder, stronger… clearer. Soon, it had transcended the level of a mere annoyance.
"…Dante…"
Dante? The name sounded vaguely familiar, no extremely familiar… IN FACT THAT WAS THEIR NAME! Suddenly, memories flooded back into the figure's, no the Manager's mind – The Bus, The Golden Boughs, The Sinners and all their adventures up to this point. The influx was so sudden and violent that to Dante it felt like their head was exploding, finally breaking them out of their vigil.
As their hands came to clutch at the clock, Dante failed to notice the once gentle breeze becoming a stormy gale, nor the fact that the distant star was getting farther away from them. Or rather they were being blown away from it by the intensifying winds. By the time Dante had regained his bearings, it was far too late – the light, oh so radiant mere moments ago, was now but a pinprick of white in the sea of darkness. Before long, even it was gone… Leaving them alone with their thoughts in near complete darkness, save for the slight illumination of the clock's flames.
"…go…s noth..ng!" A sudden jolt shook Dante. Then another, and another. They were also pretty sure they heard a rock or something hitting metal… Wait, hadn't something like this happened before?
Why were they suddenly experiencing a sense of déjà vu? Something involving Vergillius? …And horses for some reason?
But before they could delve deeper into the feeling, another jolt broke their line of thought. However, unlike those that came before this time it was followed by a loud click and then Dante found themselves lying in a field of debris, starring up at a frantic-eyed Rodion holding a rather large rock. A rock that was on a direct crash course with Dante's head.
A loud bang echoed through the air, quickly followed by the sound of an alarm clock, rather angry sounding ticking and the woman's hasty apology.
"Sorry, sorry but you weren't responding to anything else I tried to do. You don't have any distinguishable features, how could I know you were awake?" The slight smirk on her face made her feelings on the unfortunate incident perfectly clear.
"*Tick Tock Tick Tock*!"
"Welp, ya know in the Backstreets we have a saying – if all else fails, give it a good smack! This was the best idea I could come up with! It's not my fault all our brainy types got turned into red smears when we fell!"
"*Tick Tock*?"
"You don't remember what happened?" Rodion's inquiry was met with a single nod from the Manger, who had taken a seat on some nearby debris. Judging by the pieces, Dante estimated that maybe the train's last three or four passenger cars were scattered around them. The cargo one, containing Mephistopheles, however was nowhere in sight. The two were in the middle of a large grassy clearing in some forest, beneath the clearest night sky both of them had ever seen in their life. Judging by the moon's position it was probably sometime after midnight. The lack of light pollution solidified the fact they weren't in a Nest or the Backstreets in Dante's mind, so that only left the Outskirts – and that was a can of worms the Manager did not want to open right now. First they needed to get a grip on what had happened aboard the WARP train.
"Well, uhhh, okay so what's the last thing you remember Dante?" That was a very good question… What did they remember last?
Okay, so they had boarded the WARP Train bound for P. Corp as first class passengers, had been awoken midway through the journey in order to resolve a missing persons case, had discovered that said case was the work of a Bloodfiend and had gone to fight it. So far, so good. Nothing that out of the ordinary had happened so wh- Wait… Something had gone wrong while they were fighting with Cassetti, no not something – DON QUIXOTE!
"*TICK TOCK TICK TOCK*!"
"Yup, Chiquita used that Rip Space move of hers. And then, well one moment you are shouting orders at us, the next alarms are blaring and the train is falling from the sky in pieces~." Dante wondered how she could say all that all the while keeping up her smirk. Sighing to themselves to calm their nerves, Dante realized that this time the fault lay solely with them – after all he had ordered the resident fixer aficionada to use her W. Corp Identity. It was a gamble but things had been getting pretty desperate… There was a reason one did not rip space in an active Warp train.
So that at least explained how they had gotten to this point. Next, they needed to regroup with the other Sinners …
"Oh~ I think that smear over there is Sinclair, and those chunks over there might be Greg's~!"
The clock would have to turn once again. Great, experiencing 11 people either falling or being crushed to death would certainly be a fun experie-…
"*Tick Tock*?*Tick Tick Tock*?"
"How did we survive? Oh, I used Pursuance to get us safely to the ground~ Speaking of which, Dante, are you sure ya can't eat cuz you ain't exactly feeling light~."
"*Tick Tock*!" Well, aside from Rodya's rather rude remark about their weight, that explained every- WAIT IF SHE USED HER E.G.O. THEN WHY WERE THEY KNOCKED OUT ON THE GROUND!?
Tick Tock*?!"
"Promise not to get angry…" Ominous ticking was all she got in response. "So, I might have, maybe, potentially, accidently - lost my hold of you while landing…"
Silence reigned for a good while. Then without a sound Dante got up and wandered off in order to gather the Sinners' corpses in one place. They were done with everything until everyone was up and about once again.
"Oh, come on! Don't be mad – I promise to make it up to you!"
As it turned out, finding and collecting all the Sinners wasn't as easy as Dante would have hoped, seeing how more than half of them appeared to have been crushed beneath the train's carriages with no way to get to them without heavy machinery. Soon the "gather them all in one place" plan had devolved to bringing back anybody they could easily find and recover and using the extra muscle (and the power of their IDs) to get to others. Soon enough Dante and Rodya's efforts were joined by Gregor, Sinclair.
Yi Sang had also been brought back but the man had started murmuring something upon laying eyes on Dante and had withdrawn himself a ways from the others, much to their annoyance. Weird, but then again, this was Mr. Ideal they were talking about. Still, Dante had the strange feeling that the Sinner's behavior would herald a headache in the future.
Back to the matter at hand, while progress was being made it was clear that they would be here for hours. The fact that Rodion was using every opportunity to tease Gregor ("YES I DID GET SQUASHED LIKE A BUG, WE GET IT!") and Dante and Sinclair were too busy trying to get Yi Sang to help even a little also wasn't helping them maintain a good pace. That is until the moment Sinclair had somehow managed to use his halberd as a lever and lift some heavy metal debris for Gregor to drag Meursault's corpse out from under them. The arrival of said Sinner was met with silence and then cheers; given the fact his Rhino ID was basically a bulldozer, a forklift and a heavy-duty crane in one package.
After that, their previous snail's pace hard labor was replaced with something more akin to a cakewalk. By the time the first rays of the morning sun shone upon the clearing-turned-crash site, everyone except for Faust was accounted for. Only problem being that they had searched through the entire debris field and yet they had found neither trace nor sign of her anywhere.
A secondary walkthrough of the scene revealed the same thing - namely nothing and soon panic began to set in Dante's mind. The Manager's mental state was not helped by the ensuing argument between the Sinners so they simply tried to tune them out and figure out where she could have possibly gone. Keyword being 'tried'.
"Executive Manager, while regrettable, I believe we should write her off as-"Outis was cut off before she could finish. "We can't just leave Miss Faust-" Sinclair's shaky voice was raised in protest.
"Fellows, may I-" Odd, for a brief moment Dante could've sworn he had heard Yi Sang try and fail to be heard, but the man hadn't spoken a word to anyone since being revived so they must have been mistaken.
"- I ain't leaving the lass-" Heathcliff was as loud as always…
"W.A.W.O.T" Normally, Sinclair would have immediately translated Ryōshū's words but the boy was too engrossed in his own argument to care at the moment.
"Manager Esquire, any true Fixer ought to-"There goes Don Quixote on yet another of her Fixer rants…
"Fellows, please hear me out-"There it was again, this time Dante was sure they had heard Yi Sang. Turning to face in the Sinner's direction, the Manager was met with a perplexed looking Yi Sang, seeming unsure how to proceed. Given the fact that the pale man was not one to get involved in verbal spats like this, whatever it was he had to say must've been important. His mind made up, Dante raised their voice and-
"Oi!" *BANG*
Their words were drowned out by the loud of sound of a mace meeting a shield. It appeared that Ishmael had also noticed their resident genius' plight and had reacted quicker. Having gathered everyone's attention, she pushed Yi Sang in front of her. "This guy wants to say something- so be quiet for a sec. "
"Ah, thank you Miss Ishmael. Now, first let me start by sharing with you the fact I believe I know Miss Faust's whereabout-"But he was cut off from saying anything more.
"Blimey, why didn't you bloody say so earlier lad?!" "Verily?" "S.W.O.T.O.E" - "Stop wasting our time or else?!" "Tick Tock!"
"My deduction goes as thus: Unlike us, who were lucky enough to land with this cluster of debris, Miss Faust must have fallen out of the train at some prior point. I propose that we retrace the path the falling train took along the ground." Silence fell upon the group. Dante really wanted to slap themselves silly for not thinking of that possibility earlier.
"But how wouldst we know what direction that is? For did we not temper with the debris whilst recovering our fallen comrades?" Surprisingly, Don Quixote was the first to break the silence and with a reasonable question at that. Surely, Yi Sang would have an answer… Right? The awkward expression on the genius' face told Dante the opposite. And suddenly, the panic returned in full force.
"Uhmm, m-maybe we should ask Miss Rodya if she remembers- I-I m-mean she and Dante were the only ones to make it through…" Sinclair desperately turned towards the woman. But… "Sorry. I was being too preoccupied with getting Dante to safety to pay close attention to the surroundings." Her answer crushed the young man's last vestiges of hope.
"T-then… I-It's impossible to tell?" Sinclair quietly whimpered.
Damn it. There went that idea. Dante supposed they should still probably split up and look all around the forest for Faust. Just as they were about to announce their new plan, fate decided to throw them a bone.
"Non. It is in fact completely possible to ascertain the general direction we should head in. The evidence is obvious." Meursault's almost monotonous voice stopped everyone in their tracks. Without anyone noticing him the tall Sinner had moved over and crouched down next to some nearby debris.
"Young Meursault, does thou speak verily?!" Don Quixote moved so fast that it almost looked like she had teleported next to the man.
"Oui." A brief pause, then "Also, please move back by approximately a quarter of a meter, as in your current position you are stepping upon the aforementioned evidence."
"Huh?" Came her smart reply. She took a couple of nervous steps back before looking down at where she had stood prior. Don Quixote saw nothing there. "Prithee share with me where this mysterious evidence is, for I see merely grass."
At this the rest of the Sinners who had instead watched with rapt attention also spoke up.
"Yeah, to be perfectly honest, I also don't see anything there bud. Are you -"
"Spit it out already or I'll -"
"This isn't the time for jokes! Can't you see how heavily the situation is weighing down on the Executive Manager! A court marsha-"
"The grass." Two words from Meursault. That's all it took for them to shut up and scrutinize said grass. And after a bit – "Ah. I seem to have missed something important while my mind wandered to other topics. My apologies." Yi Sang, apparently having reached a eureka moment, quickly moved next to Meursault. As for the rest of them…
"Is there something off with it? I mean it does look a bit disheveled compared to the one in my family's private gardens but I had merely written it off as a stylistic choice." Never change Hong Lu… Never change… This was getting them nowhere.
"*Tick Tick Tock Tick*"
"I see. I shall provide a more descriptive explanation then. There are patches of flattened grass all around the clearing. This was caused by the falling debris. By estimating where the flattened patches begin and combining that information with the way the pieces have embedded themselves in the ground, I have reached the conclusion that heading south has the best chances of a successful retrieval. Using the same method, I can also approximate the relative direction and distance to where the cargo car, carrying the Mephistopheles, ought to have landed. That being somewhere around a kilometer further north from us."
"*Tick Tock-*"
"Non. I am not finished. It concerns me that during the efforts to recover our bodies, we stumbled upon neither Sasha's nor Cassetti's remains. With this in mind, I must state that I believe the Bloodfiends might have escaped and could possible still be in the area."
Meursault's words were met with grave silence once again. Then, Heathcliff aptly described their collective feelings with but a single word.
"Bollocks."
Meanwhile, far to the west of the Sinners location, in what was the greatest city in the world, Orario, something had changed. No, it was not in the city but rather below it. Somewhere in the unexplored depths of the Dungeon, the very thing that had made Orario so great, something emerged from the floor's wall.
A small plantlike structure emitting a gentle golden light. Then another appeared. And another. Soon the strange plants had become so numerous that they appeared more like a single entity rather than an amalgamation. While the city's blissful populace went about its daily lives, while its adventurers braved the traitorous floors of the Dungeon and while the gods sought more and more entertainement, Orario's future was forever altered.
For the great Dungeon had birthed a star in its dark depths…
Back in the clearing, the Sinners now on high alert were preparing to depart on their rescue operation, when suddenly –
"[-]" A quiet whisper echoed from just behind Dante. Startled the Manager tried looking around for whoever had whispered to him but found no one. Perhaps one of the Sinners was playing a prank on them. No given Meursault revelation, this was no time for jokes and they all knew it. So who then? And why did they all of a sudden feel drawn in a certain direction? No. Those questions were added to a growing pile of things to think about after they had found Faust. Ahh, it seemed that the others were ready to go and were waiting on him, judging by their expecting gazes.
With all sorts of things pushed to the very back of their mind the Manager gave the Sinners a small nod and with that they were off. So set on rescuing Faust were they that they failed to notice both the curious glances Yi Sang was throwing their way every now and then and the slight golden aura that had begun to at times flicker around their body.
And cut.
LCB in the world of DanMachi. Yeah, I have gone off the deep end…
I suppose I should throw this out as well –
My Manager ID in Limbus is A822944153 if anyone wants to add me.
And to those who had no idea that Limbus or Project Moon existed or have no experience with them, well:
THE MULTITUDE TIGHTENS ITS HOLD
So yeah, I hope you liked the first chapter and hopefully I'll see you soon.
