About two and a half years (From Aug 2, 2022 to Jan 20, 2025). Jeez, sometimes ideas just come and go :P. Sorry for the wait guys.
It's one thing to be carefree and let your guard down while being in another country for a holiday. It's another to be nearly defenseless while not knowing where you are and if you have any allies nearby.
Especially after you know for certain that you just got headshot.
So it's not his fault that Gaz is not as enthusiastic as his new, shorty companion leading him around what he could assume being an underground city. At least he can tell that the girl doesn't seem to mean any harms to him.
Doesn't excuse his attempts to snatch the gourd that is reek of wine as he sees her constantly taking a swift from. Which earns him playful but surprisingly strong swats from the girl's hands that stop him from doing so.
During the walk, she also introduces him the area around him and the place they are currently in. While he understands every word (which also strikes as a mystery to him since he never learns Japanese before), what she is saying sounds so absurd. Gensokyo, 'Old Hell', Youkais, etc., among words that he may have heard from some of the new recruits that have interests in Eastern cultures. The word 'Oni' is used when the girl introduces herself and those who have horns of all kinds on their heads, but he can't tell if those things are real, and how much the word means to them.
"Mister, where do you want to go now?" After about half an hour, they reach the outskirt of the city and now they are standing in front of a wooden bridge.
"...You said this place is Hell, right? I think I'm in the right place." Gaz replies, thinking that the 'Hell' part means he really is dead.
"Nah, Old Hell isn't New Hell." The SAS soldier also hears about it, but he can't really tell if it's a joke or not. "By the way, you are a guard, right?"
"...I'm a soldier."
"Ah, right, soldier." That drunk face doesn't really assure Gaz so much about her intelligence at the moment. "We don't really have those guys here. Except the Outsiders dropping in a while ago."
"Do you have phones around here?"
"Phone? What's that?"
Gaz can't help but raising an eyebrow. He can see that the place is definitely not that advanced, but not knowing what phone is? It is a first for him. Or that she is lying.
"Are you kidding me?"
"We Onis don't lie, mister." Taking another swift, Suika points her finger to the ceiling above them. "Let's go to Reimu's place. They like gathering there."
"...Lead the way." And the Oni flies up. "...Um, miss?"
"Ah, right. Sorry. Here, let me carry you up."
"I don't think..."
Before Gaz can protest, miniature versions of the Oni suddenly appear behind him and start 'attaching' themselves onto whatever they can grab on him and carrying him up to the 'biggest' version.
"...Never mind." He's starting to think if he's actually in some sort of weird Limbo, because there's no way this is real.
"On hindsight, Mason and Woods would be a better pick than us."
"And trigger their PTSD?"
"Maybe? I mean, Mason told us that he saw Viktor in a tunnel that one time."
The day after handling the Menendez situation, everyone makes a vote on who is going down to Old Hell. The two SOGs instantly vote themselves out, likely to their 'PTSD', so the others tease them a bit but respect their choices. Viktor stays back to keep an eye out for his friend, Soap and Roach are helping Keine, Ghost is mostly busy with the job and so is Griggs. So it's up to Vasquez and Jackson this time, and since it's related to their helicopter, they are the more responsible ones.
"So, we find Suika?"
"If not, the locals will do. And..." They reach the entrance that would lead to Ancient City, with the front being a huge cave. When they enter, they see that the spiral downward is a bit steep. Walkable, but a bit risky. "Yikes, normal people ain't liking this."
"Touche... Hold on. Someone's heading out." Jackson notices a small flash below and reacts to it, which Vasquez catches on as they keep their hands to the pistol holsters, ready in case a fight happens.
"Heyya!" To their relief, it's just a certain drunk Oni, accompanying another soldier with her mini versions. "Got you another friend!"
Both sides look at each other for a moment before Vasquez notices the UK flag on Gaz's chest. "SAS?"
"USMC?" The British questions back, and feels a wave of ease when the other soldiers confirm. "Mind telling me where we are? Because I'm sure we ain't nowhere near Russia, let alone its hellish mountain."
"Well... you just walked out of Hell." Jackson snickers. "But, in all seriousness, we are in a very isolated area of Japan. And my previous statement is also correct."
"...That doesn't look like Hell much to me."
"You sure? We're about to head down there to check for some oil. No volcanos or freezing ice or sh!t?"
"...I'm not sure if I should take that as a joke or not." Gaz's sigh causes the rest to chuckle. "Any ideas why I am here?"
"You died, right?"
"Unless Zakhaev missed my head point-blank."
"Gaz, right? Soap talked about you a bit." Now the two Marines know the identify of the SAS troop in front of him.
"Soap is here... Ok, hold." Gaz's mind starts racing with the newly information. After a few seconds, he continues. "May I know your names first?"
"I'm Jackson, and he's Vasquez." The former then offers a handshake.
"...Yep, I'm in Hell. You two died due to that blast. Griggs told us." Even though he's still having doubts, Gaz still returns the gesture.
"Not... exactly." Jackson shakes once and retracts his hand as Vasquez greets Gaz. "I guess you have zero ideas of what's going on then."
"No, mate. Blank page."
"To make it short, we died, but somebody resurrected our a$$ here as a loophole to the whole life-death thing. More are also here, and we kinda just enjoy life for now."
"So a second chance."
"Oorah."
"Guess I will live with that." Gaz decides to just go with the flow. "You said something about oil earlier?"
"We're trying to figure out where to find gas and oil for the Sea Knight. Right now none of us can fly yet, so it's our current choice to move around. We dare not to use it yet though, in case the thing falls midair."
"Understood."
"Maybe you can go with us? The more the ma..." Vasquez then looks at the G36C behind Gaz's back. "You have ammo for your weps?"
"Empty."
"Then it's better you sticking with us. The Youkais here are not that easy to CQC out of the harm way."
"Noted."
"...You did talk with him right, Suika?" Jackson turns to the drunk oni, with her mini versions disappearing.
"I did."
"She did. I just don't know if it's real or not."
"Let's go down, we shouldn't burn too much daylight."
"Not sure if we can see sunlight down there, but sure." Gaz accepts, and the group goes back down. "Miss Suika, thanks for your help."
"Nah, I'm not leaving you yet." To the trio's slight surprise, she actually follows them. "Can't have you walking around down there carrying weapons carelessly. It's sure to attract problems."
"Guess we owe you this time." Vasquez shows his gratitude.
After a decent way covered, Jackson hears Gaz chuckling to himself. "Something funny, buddy?"
"Not sure if Soap told you yet, but after we killed Al-Asad in his safehouse, we defended ourselves from the bottom of the hill then ran to the top since the LZ is there. And then you guys just had to tell us to run back down for extraction."
"...AA-Guns?"
"AA-Guns."
"Then you can't blame us, man!" That's enough for all to laugh, though Suika has no ideas what they are talking about.
After the trio is done laughing, the Oni proposes: "Hey, how about you guys meet Satori? She may have better knowledge about what you are finding for."
"Lead the way, miss."
Later
"...Is she a Princess of sort?"
"You saw it earlier, right?"
"Doesn't mean I know that the one we're about to meet is in there, Jackson." Gaz retorts back, as the Oni knocks on the gate of the building that, to the Outsiders, looks like a Palace from the Victorian time. "And you think I would care about that after thinking that I'm dead?"
"You got a point." Vasquez admits. "And even more after knowing that you have no info provided."
"I wonder why." Gaz half-sarcastically comments.
"Probably expecting us to do the explanation this time." Jackson guesses, which his fellow Marine nods. "The same with Mason and Woods."
"Right."
After a moment, another Youkai (they haven't seen any normal humans down there yet, and they doubt they will), greets them and lets them in. She introduces herself as Orin, one of Satori's pets... which makes Gaz glance at his teammates with 'She just said that?' and the duo nods back.
During the walk, Orin mentions that Satori is her master, and Gaz takes the info with a slightly awkward look on his face, while the other two try to think if they mishear the sentence or not. Although, they do see a lot of actual pets running around...
"Here we are." The two-tailed Hell Cat announces as she opens a relatively normal door that leads to also relatively normal room, where a person is seen sitting in her table with a drink placed in front of her and several pets squeezing themselves around her. "Master, I brought you the guests!"
"Thank you. You can leave now." The cat bounces away after hearing the permission, and the Oni leads the soldier group into the room. "You returned sooner than expected, Suika. And greetings to you, Jackson, Vasquez and Gaz."
That makes the humans pause for a moment, before Vasquez questions themselves: "We are not that famous, are we?"
"Probably got it from your mind." Suika lazily replies.
"Ah right, mind-reader. She's a Satori then." Jackson briefly remembers about Soap's 'not-so-thrilled' discovery while reading the encyclopedia.
"Yes, I am. And yes, Orin is my pet, mister Gaz."
"...Would you mind?" The SAS is not a fan of having his mind being an open book to a stranger.
"I can try ignoring them, if that makes you feel better."
"Yeah, she can't turn it off, so endure it buddy." Jackson pats Gaz's shoulder and takes a seat in the table. And the rest follow his actions later...
"No, I do not know how you got into Old Hell." Gaz sends a glance of annoyance. "That thought of yours is way too loud to be ignored."
"Alright alright." Vasquez attempts to at least soothe the situation, though it seems to be not needed since other than the glance, the SAS does nothing else. "So miss..."
"Satori is fine."
"Miss Satori, we are trying to find out if there is gasoline or oil from the underground areas. Hope you do not mind us asking if there is any down here."
"I can confirm that they exist down here. However, collecting them is not our priority, and even then, we do not have a rig for it."
"Are rigs even a thing in... Right..." Vasquez facepalms, forgetting that they have a mind-reader with them. "Well, it's not exactly a problem. We are not planning to flip this world upside down anyway."
"Finding them is easy though, right? They smell, like, a lot."
"If you wish to find them, I can lend you one of my pets. And yes, I will ask you a return favor as well."
"As long as it's not outlandish."
"One of my pets, Utsuho, is handling the Nuclear Furnace. And since you are more familiar with said item, it may benefit both sides that you to take a look at least and ensure that it won't go out of control."
"...Nuclear..."
"Furnace?"
"You mean a Nuclear Reactor?"
"I suppose you can look at it that way. It's not mine originally, but of those Goddesses on the Mountain of Faith."
"That's unexpected... not surprised, though." Jackson comments. "So basically we need to keep an eye on it. Sounds fair."
"Marine, that's a Nuclear Fusion." Vasquez retorts. "Not counting us getting blasted by a bigger one earlier, getting close to those things without equipment is just asking for a death sentence. And don't forget we are in Hell..."
"No need to worry." Suika speaks up, temporarily stuns the trio a bit since they almost forgot that she's here. "Other than having heavier atmosphere, not much else is harmful down there."
"And you might be able to find replacements for your oil problem. Your newest friend here may help a lot for that."
"And what does that mean?"
Gaz's question and Satori's suggestion make the two Marines turn to look at the SAS soldier for a moment, before they realize why and start laughing out loud.
And it obviously confuses Gaz. "What's so funny?"
Jackson calms down first as he slowly catches his breath. "Okay... so, we have the guy codenamed Ghost. He got dropped into a palace where ghosts lived. And Soap got dropped into a Dollmaker house, the owner preferring quiet and clean place to live. And we have a codenamed Roach which landed nearby a witch house with the person as resilient as one."
"Uh-huh, and..." Gaz waits a bit for a reply... and then realizes that he already gets the answer. "You w4nker$ are taking the pi$$ here, aren't you?"
"We are serious." Even though Vasquez is still chuckling. "If anything, you having a spell to find gas is obviously the most expected outcome here."
"For the record, Soap did learn to heal with a soap-bubble-like spell."
"It's a normal occurrence here in Gensokyo to have your abilities awakened be related to some aspects of your life." Even Satori's lips curl up a bit due to the absurdity. "That's all from me. And welcome to Old Hell."
"So, a research lab."
"What, you expect something else?"
"Yeah. A bit more industrial."
"Looks better than Zakhaev's missile sites, for sure."
"Should we expect anyone down here other than that Utsuho though?" Ignoring his fellow Marine and SAS, Jackson asks the Oni about potential parties around the Furnace.
"Hm... the pets, maybe. Orin, if she has any bodies to through into the Flame."
"Dead bodies, right?"
"You don't see living people close to them during their job, I can tell you that."
Gaz then approaches one of the computers (which the trio also questions how one works down here) and reads through some of the documents listed on the screen. "Hm... nothing unusual on the first glance. At least from a revolutionary point."
"The girls from the Youkai Mountain were from the Outside World, so it's not strange for them to at least know some history." Vasquez replies.
"Guys, check this out." Jackson calls his friends as he holds a thin file folder in front of them. "Our buddy is here."
"What do you... oh, that guy, huh?" Vasquez takes a second to recognize what his subordinate is talking about. "What's it about?"
"Don't know yet. But this..." Jackson brings up a very small piece of paper with 'A certain someone' written on it. "Is enough to know."
"That confirms." The fellow marine nods.
"...Who's that guy?"
"The same one brought you here, Gaz." Jackson then places the folder on a free table and opens the files, with everyone else leaning in. "Hm... an Artificial Intelligence being... Is this folder about how to make one?"
"What's the purpose here?" Vasquez questions. "I mean, we are already struggling to keep our Sea Knight in shape. We don't have the power to keep an AI running, let alone a robot."
"We don't." Jackson agrees. Then, he points to a note in the files that is obviously not natural to the research paper itself. "The Kappas do, however."
"And the Moon Rabbits." Gaz then points to another note... then questions out loud: "So Moon Rabbits exist?"
"They do. We live nearby them, by the way." Vasquez confirms.
"But Reisen doesn't bring anything that can make someone though." The Oni wonders. "She may have guns..."
"Those things are cannons." Jackson retorts, knowing the 'guns' Reisen has with her being bigger than THEM. "That doesn't mean she doesn't know how to make one."
Vasquez raises a more rational question: "Why is this here, though? Like, if we are about to bring this back to the above, then shouldn't the Kappas having this be a better deal?"
"Maybe because you know more about this than them?"
"...Good point, Suika."
"Moon Rabbits are better choices here." Jackson argues.
"Only one of them is in Gensokyo, and it's Reisen." Suika counters. "The others don't like interacting with Earth."
"Hm... let's get back to the Nuclear Furnace first. After we can confirm no abnormalities can happen, we move out. Oorah?"
"Oorah."