~Beyond the Border~ > Rumia's Party Games

RPG - Waking Up From the Dream (Story Thread)

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Gappy: Male changing room, hot spring bathhouse, abandoned Saniwa inn, 7.40 AM, Day 2 Well, snipers now, huh? Yeah, it'd be awesome if he had been able to do anything. But moving from where he sat by the changing rooms would mean instant death for those in his charge. ...maybe even himself. He didn't know the details of the vow yet, but knowing Yukari, it'd be something along those lines. The others had left for the sniper, leaving him alone to his thoughts. Judging by the commotion from the other side, the girls must have left too. Hopefully team FUBAR hadn't left as well...otherwise they'd be dead in the water, so to speak. "Taka-kun, how are things out there?" A voice called from inside the girl's changing room next door. "Oh, just peachy." Mitaka sighed, recognizing Reimu's voice. So team FUBAR was still nearby. "No, sorry, I don't know. I can't move." The door to the male changing rooms slid open to reveal Reimu, Marisa, Alice, Ruukoto, and Suika in their soiled outfits. Mitaka made a mental note to get a change of clothes for them at the first available opportunity. Possibly something that didn't look like it was made for a cosplay convention. "Sorry for moving you out here, Mitaka-san." Ruukoto said apologetically. "But Myon-san and Kojiro-san offered to move you and..." "So it was them, was it...?" Mitaka raised an eyebrow. However, his annoyance was overriden by the fact that he was now talking to the girls in his charge. He suddenly realized that he hadn't spoken to them at all ever since that last toast they had at the border. It felt like a lifetime ago now. They had been so deathly tired and exhausted from the lack of mana the whole evening yesterday that speech had been non-existent. "So, what's all this talk about this sniper thing?" Alice asked. "Someone with a crossbow?" "A bit mores than a crossbow, I reckons ze." Marisa, who had more knowledge of the outside world thanks to all her video games and anime, said. "Whats shall we do abouts it?" "We leave it to the others." Mitaka sighed. "From what I gathered, they've handled the situation. I suppose they're going to ask him questions." "Does this mean we've been rooted out?" Reimu asked. "Who knows." Mitaka shrugged. "If yes then we just move on." "Aww...I was beginning to like this place..." Suika groaned. "More importantly, Reimu, is there a fast way I can develop my mana supply?" Mitaka asked. "Just that, as I am now, I'm rather useless to the team. I mean, I couldn't even follow the others to see our visiting sniper." "Justs makes victory all the more sweeters when you're at the bottoms of the foodchain, ze." Marisa winked. "At the moment, our links are still unstable, so a lot of your mana is lost in transmission." Reimu said. "Essentially, it's spilling about rather carelessly as your contract was forced and wasn't set down properly." "Ah, yes, it was a heat of the moment thing." Mitaka nodded. "You can blame Yukari." "Anyhow, we can first work on team synchronization and..." Reimu began. A loud rumble interrupted her in mid-sentence. An awkward moment passed as all eyes focused on Marisa. "...my stomachs wants to synchronize with some foods." Marisa said, sheepishly. "We haven't eaten since lunch yesterday." Alice sighed. "Even then, it was just biscuits we could find from the ruins of Marisa's place." "...." A heavy silence fell at the mention of Marisa's home. It reminded them too much of Gensokyo and what they had lost. Suika's stomach, louder than Marisa's, brought them back to reality. "Agreed. Food." Mitaka said, pulling himself up onto wobbly feet. "The others can deal with the sniper and have their fun. We can go eat." "What have you alls gots?" Marisa asked. "I've gots tea biscuits and cake." "Senbe rice crackers." Reimu said shortly. "What? it's all I have." She said defensively. "Rice." Ruukoto chirped. "Sake." Suika added. "Butter, soup stock, biscuits, bread..." Alice began. "Pickles, jam..." "Did you bring your entire larder with you?!" Reimu gasped. "I just thought the outside world would be barren and dead. I mean, without mana and everything, I thought nothing would grow out there." Alice said. "I mean, look, we haven't seen any food so far, have we?" She added defensively. "They're all in these places called convenience stores." Marisa, expert on the outside world, said. "They grow them there in these huge white tanks from air, water, and other base substances, right, Mitaka?" "....err...right..." Mitaka sighed, too tired to explain the subtleties of convenience stores at the moment. He made a mental note of explaining the conventions of the outside world to them later. Thankfully, he had an easy to manage team. All of them were (perhaps with the probable exception of Suika) used to the norms of human life. All he had to do was explain the stranger peculiarities of modern outsider life. Main hall of the Saniwa shrine, team Gensokyo's temporary HQ and meeting place, 7.57 AM, Day 2 "Food, food, food..." Suika was chanting happily, her lips and mouth smeared with jam and bread crumbs. "Butter, cheese...biscuits and ham..." Ruukoto chanted her own little tune as she prepared more for the others. She herself ran on a compact nuclear power core, the brainchild of the great Okazaki Yumemi. The little secret was that it didn't need uranium or plutonium to break down. It could break down anything, bread and biscuits included. Reimu had explained to Mitaka that Ruukoto had a soul of her own, much like the 8 million deities or tsukommogami that inhabited innanimate objects, thus why she needed a mana supply as much as anybody else. The others hadn't returned from their little interrogation session. That was fine to Mitaka. That meant he could chat in private to his team and steadily improve relations to overcome the forced nature of the contract. "So we're contracted to this...man, are we?" Alice failed to suppress a sigh. "I'm sorry, it wasn't like I had an entire mana leyline to save you." Mitaka said. "He's right, ze." Marisa said. "He saveds us at the risks of his own lifes, ze. So you should shows some gratitudes, Alice. Daze." "...." Alice blushed a little uncomfortably. "But...." She sighed. "Look, I'm sorry, I know I'm seeming ungrateful, but what you did was seriously unwise. It would have been better to sacrifice one or two to better help many." "I don't work like that." Mitaka shrugged. "I'm too stupid and simple to understand such concepts, so sue me. I see someone in trouble, I help them." "Yeah, he's a fool. The day I met him in the forest, I found him caught in some spider youkai's web. Apparently he had been trying to save Rumia and Cirno.....by hacking on the web with a stick, thinking it'd break. He almost got eaten himself." Reimu said. "It was a wonder he hadn't gotten eaten before, considering he had been wandering around the forest for 2 weeks." "I'm a good charmer." Mitaka said, simply, earning him a round of laughter from the others. "Oh, where is everyone?" A voice asked from the door. "Oh, Sho." Mitaka nodded at Sho. "Good morning. Food?" "Had a melon. Or what was left of it." Sho said, pointing aside to Yuyuko who seemed unusually content. "More importantly, I have news to share. We may have a solution for..." "Ahem...." The obviously contrived cough drew their attention to a middle-aged man standing at the door of the shrine, a look of mild disapproval on his face. "...uh oh..." Suika murmured, wiping her mouth hurriedly. "Looks like trouble." ============Minutes later============= The man was Saniwa Kyoji, current owner of Saniwa Corporations, one of Japan's smaller yet up and coming conglomerates...and also the owner of the Saniwa shrine, inn, and dojo complex. And he was curious about the reports of a break-in in his ancestral home. "...and he didn't bring guards with him...?" Alice murmured aside to Marisa. "He must be strong!" "I didn't bring the police as I didn't want to make a big issue of it, especially not in my ancestral home.? He coughed. ?I thought I could sort things out personally, and should concerns over my wellbeing arise, I can easily call for help.? He said. ?I have my methods.? ?Anyway, I understand your situation.? Saniwa said, nodding sagely. ?You?re stranded with nowhere to go. I?m sure you have your reasons for not returning home. And perhaps some of you don?t have one to return to.? The girls? faces fell at this. Saniwa probably noticed. ??.? Saniwa looked around at the people gathered in the main hall. The others had returned shortly after he arrived, a little surprised at his arrival, a little wary, but still contrived to apologize along with Mitaka and Sho. ?Such a large number of people?.all so young too?? Saniwa said, looking over the miserable, dirty rag-tag of a group. ?Almost like an entire village, no, an entire?.? Something flickered in his expression, as if he understood something profound. ?Perhaps?it?s silly in this day and age, but?perhaps?? He murmured to himself. ?So, do you have anything to say about intruding on my ancestral home?? He finally addressed Mitaka and Sho, who, being the ones he met first, had become the target of all his queries. ?We?re sorry, we really are.? Sho said. ?As we explained, we arrived very late last night with nowhere to go, and we found this place and?.? ??thought you could just walk in like you own the place?? Saniwa asked, raising an eyebrow. ?No, really, we really needed shelter. We were planning on moving on to find a proper place to stay once we?ve recovered.? Mitaka explained. ?A?a lot of things have happened?these girls have lost a lot of things they once treasured?we?? ?All right, all right.? Saniwa chuckled. ?I just wanted to see how sincere you are. And I?m a Saniwa, I have my ways of knowing.? He winked. ?This shrine and the stuff in it don?t really mean much to my family anymore, as much as I hate to admit it. These are our roots, and yet we?ve outgrown it and forgotten it completely. I came back here because I had planned on reopening the place, just to keep it from deteriorating and collapsing for good.? ?We?re?.? Mitaka began. ?Shush, boy, let me speak.? Saniwa said. ?I was at a loss at where to begin looking for people to start the restoration project?then I meet you all.? He said. ?It must be some sort of destiny, my Saniwa blood says it is so. The shrine too seems to welcome you all. So, how about it? Will you restore and reopen the shrine complex for me?? The room fell silent. It sounded too good to be true. It had to be good to be true. So good it must be a trap of some sort, the more paranoid and cynical amongst them thought. And after yesterday, it wasn?t difficult to be paranoid and cynical. ?Sir, aren?t you being a little too?.trusting?? Pichu asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. ?I have nothing to lose, boy.? Saniwa said. ?The worst that could happen is you people burn the entire shrine down and, honestly, the Saniwa family doesn?t care about this place, as much as I hate to admit it. Besides, you all look like decent folk. The shrine?s powers may have weakened but it?s still strong enough to reject people it doesn?t agree with. The fact that you?ve spent a night here and survived?that says something.? ??.Ok, so you want us to reopen the shrine?? Gpop asked. ?And the ryokan.? Saniwa nodded. ?This place used to be a popular hot springs and worship destination. That was until the surrounding cities got a better share of the tourists and worshippers. Then this town just declined and sort of?well?died.? Saniwa shrugged. ?We Saniwas had grown to become conglomerates by that time. We couldn?t care less about some failure of an inn and shrine.? ?Heck, reopen the dojo if you can manage it. It was open till a little while ago. Some people tried to keep it running, then one day they suddenly up and left. Just like that. So do what you can with the place.? He added. ??.? Everyone looked around at each other. A silent discussion was ended with an agreement with feeble little nods. Finally, Mitaka spoke. ?Ok, we?ll run the place for you. In return we can stay?? ?And take the revenue and split it.? Saniwa said. ?We don?t care for what loose change this place might turn out. If you?re lucky enough to earn a revenue that is, with the town as dead as it is. I?ll jumpstart the enterprise with a little cash, but after that you?re on your own.? ?Thank you very much, sir!? Mitaka bowed. ?Thank you ever so much for this! We can?t thank you enough!?

E-Nazrin: LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN! (OOC NOTE: This is backtracking, and mostly irrelevant to the story at large. This is generally me plugging plotholes and doing some Yakumo character development. I'll point out anything that might be important, I guess...? Didn't manage to completely catch up, so yeah) Skies of Gensokyo, Day 1, 5.45 PM, complete collapse of the Great Hakurei Barrier "... you're serious." Yukari replied. "Yes. I don't know if there's a ritual or anything, but we'll take care of it at the first opportunity." "You're insane." "And what else is new?" Yukari stared for a moment, then threw her head back and laughed. Then she pulled my head to one side and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. I blinked. She pulled back and covered a mischievous smile with a hand. "Well, take good care of me, then~" I stared at her, and grinned. Turned back to the viewscreen. We were close now. Looks like someone'd taken the laptop backpack already. Good. "Oh my, I wonder if we'll be able to make it in time?" Yukari asked, sounding completely unconcerned. "Doesn't matter. WE'LL JUST BREAK THROUGH EITHER WAY!!!!" I'm not quite clear on how our trip through the Border went, but it hurt. ----- Near Suwa Shrine, ~5.50 PM, outside Gensokyo Pain. Oh god, pain. Hunger, thirst, nausea, worse than you could ever think of. I could feel my bones. FEEL my bonesbonesmybones bone's bones I tried to open my eyes and only saw nonsense. Swaying colors. Wow, so getting sucked dry by Yukari was like an acid trip? Or something? My side hurt a little more for a moment. "... Jeremy?!" a voice called, from far away. Oh hey, I knew that voice! Deodorant! That guy with Reimu! I wondered what he was doing here. I tried to wave an arm in greeting and failed. Tried talking. "Heeeey, man." Well, at least that worked. Fucking killer headache though. "ugh... you get the number on that train?" My vision blacked out, suddenly. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing. "Oi... someone turn on the lights?" "Y... you can't see?" Deodorant asked. A moment's silence, then I heard him gasp. "Y... you didn't. Not Yukari..." I managed a small, wheezing laugh. "Oh, yeah. And Ran... and adorable little Chen..." "You're going to die! There's no way an ordinary human can support a youkai like Yukari! Much less the entire Yakumo family! Ran's a powerful Kyuubi for heaven's sake!" "Hee... yeah, you're telling me..." I was starting to feel even worse. How was that even possible? "... take it from me, I know....." A thought occurred to me. I could still feel, just a little bit, beyond the pain. But all I felt was clothes and ground. ... I wonder. "H... hey. Y'mind finding my drill?" Deodorant didn't get it. "What?!" "The drill, man, the drill! The drill that pierces the heavens!!" I repeated. Stupid... "Er... right." A soft rustling. "Here it is. But the bit's cracked..." "Doesn?t... doesn't matter," I mumbled, "Bolt's the... thmakkitwork..." Tried to see it. Tried to feel it. Tried to move. Tried harder. Felt my hand touch something. I grabbed it. He was right, the bit was broken. The tip was crushed, and the edges were ragged. But it was the drill. I could feel it. I could... I could SEE it. I managed a weak smile. "Ahhh... thanks... don't mind me. I'll... be up in a bit..." I don't know if he replied, or even heard me. ----- I don't usually dream. But I dreamed. I dreamed of drilling through Gensokyo. Holes through the earth, as far as the eye could see. Everywhere. Laughing, covered in a layer of magma and blood. It scared me. I scared me. ----- I moaned and woke up. Properly, this time. Briefly wondered if I was dead. Then I felt something soft under my head - and another by my chest, and my arm... And the deathgrip I had on my 'core drill.' "... Yukari?" I asked, feebly. "Ah, so the madman awakens." I turned to look up and saw Yukari smirking down at me - though she looked very strained. I guess even Spiral and all wasn't quite enough to keep up with her... but at least I wasn't getting torn apart at the seams anymore. Just the headache and some select dull aches. One of the other soft patches detached itself, and a rough tongue scratched at my neck. Yukari pushed me off her lap and into to a sitting position. I reached down absent-mindedly to pet Chen for her concerns, and looked around. Seemed like a very exhausted-looking Gensokyo had congregated in a dilapidated Shinto shrine room. "What happened? Where are we?" "People were gathering at the Hakurei Shrine of this world, and I thought it was better than leaving you in the dirt." "... even if you had the choice?" "Maybe~" "... You seriously dragged me all the way up here by yourself?" "No, no, that Pichu fellow," she pointed at one of the male Gensokyo refugees, Shinki's, I think, "was kind enough to help me out." "Ah, that makes more sense, then." We fell silent, breathing slowly. Ran and Chen curled up in an adorable little ball between us. Couldn't help but smile at them. "Honestly, it's been ages since they spent any time like that." Yukari commented. "In animal form, you mean?" "Yes. Of course, it is rather demeaning for a youkai to act so immature, but..." Silence again. "... know if they're still sentient out here?" Ran nipped my finger and gave me a dirty look. I winced, mostly from the bite. "I'll take that as a yes." Yukari stirred the critterball with a finger. "Of course, it's not like they have much choice right now, since taking human form would probably cause you to implode." Hm. That would explain why I had any chance of keeping up with all three. Yukari was probably redirecting some to them intentionally, too... Still had to make a quip, though. "Let's not test that theory." "No, let's not." Silence again. "... so, what's the plan, now?" "Don't know!" Yukari replied, cheerfully. I made it up instead. "Try to find and save everyone we can, find somewhere to stay - I think we have that covered, at least for the night - figure out long-term survival methods, get to work figuring out how to restore Gensokyo... ... and find out everything we can about whoever tried to destroy it." Yukari's smile faded. She nodded - solemnly, for once. "Seeing as the others are covering the first one, maybe we should try that." She nodded again. "... first and most obvious problem is 'who.'"  Yukari closed her eyes. "I... think I may know." "Go on." She leaned over and whispered into my ear. I frowned. "Which one was that again?" Psst. "... seriously? I was expecting at least an end-boss..." "I'm not certain. I know I recognized her powers involved, but she might not be the mastermind." I nodded. "Good point. We'll have to find out." "And how do you intend to do that?" she asked, mischievous smile returning. I worked the gears in my head a little and arrived at the obvious solution. "Internet." I tried to stand up, only to find that my legs appeared to have been replaced with large blocks of extremely painful jelly. I gave up on that with a yelp of pain. "Ah, yes, you still seem a little weak to be doing much on your own." Yukari commented. I glared at her for a moment, and waved down one of the people in better condition. "Hey, could you bring me my backpack? The blue thing in the corner over there. Careful with it." ----- I didn't know if I could get a connection here. I didn't know how long my battery would last. (Not long, obviously, but HOW 'not long' would be useful to know.) But hey, why not? Hm. Maybe I'm still tripping out a bit. I wrestled with some of the power cords while I waited for the computer to boot up. Could there possibly be any wireless networks out here? Did that ancient cellphone satellite connector I brought with me still work? ... and what should I search for first? There were three things I wanted to do out here. Get ahold of everyone in the outer world that's related to Gensokyo - ZUN, Renko, Maribel, maybe Yumemi... if appropriate, raise a general internet panic about Gensokyo existing, and/or the Touhou games if this world didn't have them... and find out about this "Kiruri" girl. ... well, first thing would be to get a working connection. It was about that time that I noticed that Deodorant -- ... wait, Deodorant? Where'd that name come from? ... oh well, it's a memorable nickname. Just shouldn't call him that.... and I still need to apologize to Reimu. ANYWAY. Reimu's husband had woken up, and Yukari was quietly talking with him. I missed the start of it. "You showed great courage there, Mitaka." She said, with a small smile, "That's a strength as well, you know. You developed more spiritually in the last half an hour than you ever did in your entire life." I smiled a bitter smile. Oh, I know the feeling. ... I think. I looked at my laptop again. No wireless connections detected. Damnit. I started disentangling the cellphone wiring. "...ah...so they're...alive?" Deodorant didn't sound so good. I think I missed something here. Maybe it's the mana sharing thing. Lord knows that fucked me up bad. Yukari nodded. "Yes, but only barely. Even the courage of a lion could only go so far. You'll have to train hard to be able to support all 5." I whistled softly. And I thought I had it rough... "Ah..." he nodded, weakly. A pause. "WAIT! That contract was eternally binding! If I don't die..." "Yep, you're stuck with it. Congratu-ma-lations." "But...but...that vow..." "It wasn't the only vow I knew." Yukari shrugged. "Y-you...you...demon!" Deodorant gasped. "...yep, synonymous with 'youkai'." I didn't need to look up to see the smirk on Yukari's face. "You are a deceptive, sneaky bitch and it amuses me deeply even though I know it shouldn't." Yukari ruffled my hair. ----- Abandoned Hakurei Shrine, Yatsugatake National Park, Outside World, Day 1, ~6.18 PM, (OOC: This section might actually mean something.) The topic of everyone who hadn't made it to the shrine room we were in came up. People were, understandably, not pleased. I wasn't, either. During a quiet moment, Yuyuko's mana trough punched the wall. "....we have to go look for them. Save them..." It was a dark thing to do, but I had to speak up. "Who here thinks they're actually in good enough condition to go traipsing about in the mountains without putting yourself in a similar situation?" Silence. "I hate to say it, but I think we're too worn out to really do that. Unless anyone has a better method in mind?" I grimaced. "Besides... we may not have seen the last of that bitch from when we were leaving, and her little shadow goonies and snakes and--" There was a knock at the door. I froze. "...looks like nobody's here..." A voice came from outside. It sounded somewhat familiar. One of the others DID recognize him, and opened the door. He stepped in, panting, and put forth a complaint about the shrine staircase. My own trek up Reimu's seemed so long ago... Then, a more familiar figure pushed her way through them. "...you're all..." My jaw dropped. "Hey, who is she?!" Yuyuko's husband cut in, jumping to his feet. Someone else rushed in after the new celebrity, and apologized for her friend's excitement. It wasn't Maribel. Disappointing. "....you're all from across the border?! Oh my...oh my...wait until Maribel hears this..." I glanced at Yukari. She hadn't reacted. Well, I'll figure out her relation to Maribel sooner or later. "Renko Usami?" I called out, "Are you THE Renko Usami?" She looked at me. Balked. I guess she wasn't expecting a scrawny gaijin in a t-shirt and sweats to be a visitor from Gensokyo. I can't blame her. Yukari pinched my arm. "Ow!" "You might want to hear this," she said, tersely. I listened as something horrible and despairing was explained. "...people in black armour and helmets... waiting for us?" I'd already done the math. I scrambled to get the cellphone satellite set up (it worked, thank god), and quickly Googled "Kikuri." Oh no. Oh GOD no. I cleared my throat, loudly. "Looks like we've missed a lot while in Gensokyo," I called out. "I've got bad news, and I've got oh-shit-bad news." Koishi's husband stared at me, confused. "A connection? Here? B-" "Satellite." I cut him off, irritably, and waved the phone for emphasis. "Now c'mere and look at the new secretarial aide to the Japanese Prime Minister." I turned the laptop for the others to see. Yukari nodded silently beside me, and Ran and Chen detangled themselves to look as well. Kikuri either was, or was possessing, the Prime Minister's secretary, under the name Saaya Kikuri. In any other situation I would have been more doubtful of the position's ability to conjure up SWAT teams for shadowy pet projects, but a little bit of persuasion magic can go even further than a good bit of manipulative psychology. Shinki and Reimu seemed to agree that she had motive for the whole affair. Hey, wait, Reimu's awake? "I take it Taka-kun's still alive?" she asked, through grit teeth. Taka-who? I briefly had a mental picture of Deodorant shouting "Me! Mi!" and fought down a smirk. "Yeah, apparently. Wake up, big guy." I jabbed him with a toe and immediately regretted it after the responding shock of pain. Yukari snickered, but gently helped me move my leg back to a comfortable position. That girl sends very mixed messages. Deodorant stirred. "Yeah, yeah..." he blinked, obviously thinking about something. "Hey, Taihou, where did you encounter those people?" Wait. Fuck. I stuffed my laptop, attached cellphone and all, into my makeshift backpack, and made a futile but valiant effort to get it onto my back. I realized it would be much easier if I were standing up, and made the mistake of putting my weight on one foot. I crumpled back to the floor with a wail of pain just as several canisters sailed through the windows of the room, spewing some sort of white gas. God damnit. I mean, I know I'm willing to cause a public uproar about Gensokyo, but so that everyone would know about it, not as part of a government plot! Why did these people... why... were they doing it... And had they ever questioned their orders? I heard glass shattering from below. I heard a bunch of heavy boots running up the stairs to the room. I knew what I was going to see, but I watched the door. As I moved my head I realized that Yukari had propped me up in a standing position. Kind of her. I threw my backpack on properly. How was I going to word this? The door burst in, revealing the first few of a mob of black-clad SWAT officers, armed with riot shields and clubs. Half the rest of the room made some sort of quip about them. I stepped towards them. "Why are you here?" I asked, loud enough for the whole house to hear. Taihou rushed forward, and punched one of the SWAT officers to the ground. "Do you know what you're doing here?" Flames danced around Mokou's body. "You're kidnapping other human beings." "Sort of," Yukari quipped, over my shoulder. "Why?" A wall of flames burst up around the doorway. "What reason were you given?" One of the SWAT members jumped through the flames and met Mokou's fist. "Oh, I know, I know. You're just ignoring me." Taihou stopped another from getting behind her. "After all, anyone you're opposed to," Taihou and Mokou 'danced' with their opponents by the burning doorway. "for whatever arbitrary reason," I felt one of the shikigamis bite my ankle. Didn't care. "can never have a good point, right?" I glared, through the flames, at the facemask one of the SWAT members was hidden behind. "What are you?" He hesitated. "I'm not seeing humans." Something bit my other ankle. Harder. "I see animals." I clenched my fist, tighter, threw my head back, and shrieked, "Animals! Unthinking SHEEP!" Thrust a finger at the doorway. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" I glared and panted for a moment, then realized that the doorway was empty. So was the room, pretty much. And that I had kept the 'core drill' clenched in my fist the whole time. "Er?" Yukari smiled at me. "That was very entertaining, dear, now let's go before we miss the boat." "Uh?" She grabbed my hand and dragged me... out the back of the shrine, which had apparently collapsed on itself or something? "Uh, uh, that was a bad idea, wasn't it?" I asked, worried at what I'd apparently missed happening right behind me. "Nah, very worthwhile. Now come on, we need to keep up with the satori!" I... guess we'll have to discuss it on the way. I kept my fist clenched. ----- Yukari very quietly explained the escape route Koishi and Satori had managed to cook up. I was surprised they still had enough of their powers to do it, but hey, if it's walking away free, whatever. ... still need to figure out how the hell the spiral thing happened, for that matter. I NEVER expected that to work. What the hell? ... should focus on not getting caught for now. Hopefully this won't take too long. ----- Forest near Lake Suwa, at the edge of the Yatsugatake National Park boundaries, 11.40 PM, Day 1 THAT TOOK TOO LONG. good fucking god that must have been at least two hours GOD DAMNIT So glad I'm too exhausted to get pissed right now. I'd gotten somewhat familiar with the rest of the crew during the walk, at least. Well, at least the weird nicknames that ended up being agreed on for each 'harem' the outsiders had, like -- "... team Drill isn't doing that well, either." God DAMNIT. After a little more verbal sparring, Mitaka, harem master of the Hakurei Shrine, collapsed in a puddle, along with his harem. I gloatingly comforted myself in that I was already carrying Chen, and thus would be exempt from any argument about carrying them any further. ... though, no one seemed especially eager to do that, either. My stomach was snarling like a beast, and exhaustion was getting harder and harder to stave off... Eirin pointed out what was apparently a tank that just happened to be rolling through the countryside nearby. What. ----- Several minutes later, Rika was asking me how I'd managed to get her latest invention moving again. I didn't feel like explaining. "Manliness." I stepped past her to... Mannosuke flashed into my head. I quickly tried to drive him out, and saw Satori turn slightly green. Oops. .... and after a moment, sat next to Yukari - and the Drill. I didn't want to get too far away from it, after what happened when Mitaka first found me... I sat and shivered for a bit, mind stewing on nothing. The tank stopped, and I had to stop myself from falling right onto Chen. A large sign pointed out the existence of, apparently, an abandoned shrine up a nearby hill... with one hell of a front yard. I rubbed my eyes a little, and looked the place over. "... looks like a good place to lay low. Good vantage point, not far from town, but not close enough to arouse much suspicion about our arrival... That, and I'm fucking exhausted. Shall we?" "What about the sign?" Rika asked. A fireball lit up the night. "DAMNIT, Mokou!" I cried, alongside Keine. .... well, at least it cleared the path. ----- Abandoned Saniwa Shrine, Day 2, ~12.20 AM (past midnight) Damn my stomach. Damn my inability to sleep in unfamiliar situations. Damn my inability to get to sleep next to other people. "... can't sleep either, huh?" said the... last guy to join us, while we were on the tank - Kojiro, I think? "... no..." Mitaka replied. Jeez, he sounded terrible. Tomorrow, I'll have to find some way to... Ugh... so much to do tomorrow... "We forgot to post sentries." Kojiro explained. A figure shrugged in the darkness, presumably him, "So I'm just sitting here, keeping my eyes and ears open." "The tank's proximity sensors are active. No need to worry about intruders." The poor guy would definitely have to worry about the online meaning of his name, though. Pichu spoke up next. "And yet you're still awake yourself... the one who should be feeling the safest is also wide awake, huh?" Porn Rule was concerned more about other things. ".... nah, just.... that we're here.... and...... I dunno... where do we go from here?" "Perhaps we can start thinking about what we should do from here on out?" Another thing to do tomorrow. Actually, a very important one. I have a lot of ideas for that... just right now I can't really... "Obviously, we have to retake Gensokyo's mana supply from whoever stole it," someone suggested. Duh. "And where do we start?" another asked... Sakuya's demonguy, Taisomething. "It's good to keep that as a long term goal, but we don't have any leads." I had an answer to that one. "Kikuri." "Great, someone high up in the government." I could tell they were rolling their eyes. "Shall we go drop by her office tomorrow? You know, stroll in and say 'oh, hi, Kikuri, how are you today? By the way, could you please give us back our mana'?" Obviously NOT, but in case you haven't been listening to me the whole damn time... ... no. Can't get worked up. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Make a list. Internet. Outsiders. Kikuri. Recruitment.... Someone suggested laying low to recover, and regain our strength. I agree wholeheartedly. "Where," however, turned out to be a better question. No one really had a good answer for it. I wondered how long we could get away with just crashing at this shrine..... though, food would be a problem. Damn. ....... well, being exhausted and hungry wasn't helping. We could at least solve one of those on our own... ----- Abandoned Saniwa Shrine, Karuisuwa, 7.00 AM, Day 2 I'm not sure when I got to sleep, nor how much I slept. But the next thing I remember is waking up in a haze of dust and steam. It was awful. I coughed. "What the fuck happened?" I asked. "Hot spring." I wasn't expecting an answer. I opened my eyes and found myself in... some low-tech room, dusty and steamy as would be expected. Along with all of the other guys that had come out of Gensokyo. "... what?" I asked. Mitaka woke up as well, and echoed my sentiment, if less passionately. "... what?" "Hot spring." Ku... Kojiro repeated. Zei nodded eagerly from next to him. I stared. "... how. I mean, this is an abandoned shrine, isn't it? How could..." "There's also an abandoned ryokan attached to it." Pichu pointed out. "And now, we're inside its changing room." "... why?" Mitaka asked, much more politely than I would have. The wild-looking guy that Eirin brought along shrugged. "Because the girls wanted a bath... And we need to be nearby to keep them alive while they enjoy it." Mitaka rubbed his forehead. I sighed. I flopped onto my back again. "Well, wake me up once they're ready to move. Maybe I'll actually get some more sleep in this hellhole." My stomach loudly protested this arrangement. I growled back at it, irritably. "Myaa~" I turned my head to see Chen waiting in a corner of the room. Oh. Of course, she doesn't really like water, and she can't even get into human form right now... "Hey, Chen. Sorry I'm being such a pain." She offered me a decapitated rat. ".... Uh." "... I appreciate the sentiment, but that wouldn't be the best thing for my digestive system unless things get bad. Have you and Ran had your fill?" She paused, then pulled the corpse back near the wall, and turned to face it. My stomach was quiet for a little while.

trancehime: Somewhere within YATSUGATAKE NATIONAL PARK, 5.30 AM, Day 2, prior event Hirowaza was struggling to keep himself awake, he had lacked sleep for quite some time now, that trip through the border's collapse was quite rough, especially with the manner that Meira had dragged him in. He noted that there were others that escaped but he was quite puzzled and perplexed as to how the two of them ended up here in the park. Meira herself was not looking very amused, she appeared to be peeved about how Hirowaza wasn't able to keep himself awake. She constantly poked him with the butt of her katana in a feeble attempt to keep him conscious. Hirowaza groaned as he rubbed his eyes and looked around. It looked just like the park from what seemed like eons ago. He was back, sort of. In a roundabout way. At this recognizable sight, he was suddenly awake again, as if some sort of inspiration had restored his vigour. Meira simply tilted her head, one eye closed. "We're back... It appears that we have returned," Hirowaza duh'd, as if it wasn't already blindingly obvious. "However, I swear I saw that there were others who went through there before you unceremoniously dragged me, heh." To that Meira simply chuckled. "Yes, Yoh-kun, I guess now that you recognize this place you're finally awake to your senses?" Meira questioned in a rather excited manner. It seemed that Hirowaza was wavering between consciousness and fainting the entire time they had escaped Gensokyo. Right now, the priority for the two of them was to find a place to stay and recover from everything that had just transpired. They may be awake, but they were still rather tired and fatigued. "Well, let's get going, shall we?" Hirowaza murmured to nobody in particular. Meira squicked a sound. "Let's go, the boy says," Meira retorted quizzically. "Let's go, where, exactly?" "Just follow me, and everything will soon be clear, miss." Hirowaza said, in an attempt to sound both polite and cryptic at the same time. Needless to say, it worked better than he expected as Meira responded by shrugging and tagging along. The two of them walked off in the direction of Karuisuwa, as if with some purpose. KARUISUWA, 6.47 AM, Day 2, prior event An odd duo. Some sort of weird kid and a samurai with a katana that's kinda too long. The two of them had arrived in Karuisawa. One of the thoughts that Hirowaza immediately had was something to do with home and shelter, but he was too tired to string them into a coherent sentence. He was visibly exhausted, fortunately the same could not be said for Meira, who was frantically looking around. Unfortunately, on the flipside, Meira was more hungry than she was tired, and again poked the extremely fatigued Hirowaza with the hilt of her katana. "Foooooood." Meira groaned, much like a zombie would. If zombies could talk and say things other than "Brains," that is. To this Hirowaza weakly shuffled around on his person and procured some sort of crackers unknown to Meira. His face suggested that the food was good but again, he was too tired to really mention anything. He then pointed up to an abandoned shrine within the vicinity. "We... we go there, now." Hirowaza said bluntly. His fatigue was starting to get the best of him. ABANDONED SANIWA SHRINE, Karuisuwa, 7.15 AM, Day 2, [Current Event] Hirowaza had somehow guided Meira all the way to this abandoned place, despite struggling to stay awake and nearly making Meira resort to carrying the poor soul. He was determined to get a place to stay and if he had to resort to some abandoned place then so be it. Little did he know that the place was already inhabited with people in a similar situation as he. Hirowaza and Meira then found themselves inside, looking around, perhaps they would find people in this place. Eventually they spent so much time looking around for something worth staying in that they found themselves crawling around, in an effort to stay conscious and not faint from the exhaustion. Eventually, they found one room they haven't really ventured in yet. They fell into the room, which actually HAD people in it, and promptly fell unconscious. ... ... Oh dear.

Nemo★Ma: Inner Room of Tourist Helpers, Karuisawa, 4:00 pm, Day 2 Amarillo, having gathered lots of information use the cost of all her energy, had finally awake 30 mins ago and have the details filled in by Lily White. Basically she faints right after the man left, and since all the information revealed indicates that things are little worse than it seems, they can't risk carrying Amarillo back. So they used an Alternative way by temporarily enabled Lily White's original yousei ability of Teleportation and teleported them back to the Tourist Helpers. Because of that Lily also is low on energy and sleeps for about 4 hours, then she showed Jason the design of the new shop, saying that Amarillo "realized that it's Sunday and needs more rest." Then she gathered all the information recorded on the paper and put them into order. waiting for Amarillo's energy to be full restored. "It's really crazy, "thought the fairy "if any of the things failed in the morning we could not end up here. " She is also surprised that telepathy (which is a common method of commutation between youseis) can power this strong that can invade human's mind. Or is it because the human out there is too weak? However, when she asked Amarillo about that, Amarillo just claimed that...... "Remember, no beings are flawless, this guy out there is trained for "noticing any small/abnormal movements", and that is exactly why he fell for the trick. If the opponent is a child or have child-like personality he or she will probably ignore my trick too." Right now, Lily watched as Amarillo loads up a map website, looking for the place the sniper had said. No reply. However.... "That probably means it's true, no secret groups repeal their headquarters on the map, even FARGO, which is having advertisements on the TV to promote themselves, having their member's eye covered when send them into their HQ." she murmured. "However, I'm more worried about the other people, especially the Gensokyo Residents, from what I sense before I faint is that their total mana is weakened so much that all of their mana level adds up, include Yukari's  is not match of yours " "!" "So I want you to send a message, telling Alex and others to stay in touch, he maybe is a skilled martial artist but it's not matched when against a group of snipers. If it's Ok, invite them to here. " "Don't we need to get Old Jason's permission first?" said Lily White. "I'll look for him, you can send the message now. " "Well, Alright." The shop tourist helpers consist of three floors, the first floor is the shop itself, the 2nd floor seems is previously used by the Old man's daughter and granddaughter, there are four rooms that can be used as Living rooms. The top floor ,or better say, the Attic, is used by the old man himself. However, there is no one in the attic. There is a note sticked on the door. "GOING TO GROCERIES, WILL COME BACK SOON, OJ @ 1230" She took the note and head back to the room. "Lily, what happened after you showed Jason the design?" "He said he need to do some shopping and then left." "Well, things are getting strange there, I doubt even in Gensokyo that one need more than 4 hours to do his shopping." Amarillo showed the note to Lily.

Demonlord Pichu: ((OOC: I'm going with 'Owlbear' from now on, Pichu sounded kinda gay, I still like'em I just got tired of the name. You can still keep the name in your original posts since everyone pretty much knows it's me anyhow.)) ===Karuisawa Library, 7.58am, Day 2=== Trying to sustain a goddess, let alone 4 demons, is rather taxing when one has a limited amount of Mana to get by on. Although, OwlBear had a rather large well of it within his being, it was running dry quickly and he needed an alternative to either increase his Mana supply or find some other means of sustaining Shinki in this realm (Luize was a special case to consider being she's traveled to and from the Outside at will, so whether or not she actually needed mana is under question). Currently, Owlbear, Shinki and the rest of his group had went to the local library to do some digging on magic in general, actually Yuki only wanted to go because she was curious about the 'computers' Owlbear told her about, she would then drag Mai with her. Luize had disappeared as soon as they entered, but that's typical of an explorer like her and lastly Yumeko was keeping a watchful eye on Yuki so she doesn't cause any trouble. But as for Owlbear he had grown rather frustrated with the lack of information he was recieving regarding the subject he was (trying) to research which he promplty expressed by yelling. "Ahh! This is bull-!" "SHHH!" Owlbear jumped slightly at the angry retort of quieting down from the individuals around him and quickly settled himself, to which Shinki took a seat beside him having heard his out burst and came by to see what was the matter. "I take it you didn't find the information you needed?" "Yeah mostly, none of these ratty-ass books did anything to prove my theory about Magic Circuits and Mana." Owlbear said as he slapped the 'ratty-ass' book with a frustrated hand and stared into space for a moment. It probably shouldn't have come off as such a surprise that such a thing actually exists in books, Magic Circuits is Type-Moon material, but still it was worth a shot right? "Still though, if I manage to prove that it's true I still dunno if I'll be able to actually increase the amount of Magic Circuits in my soul, I've learned (off the internet) that the number of Magic Circuits are pre-determined at birth so there's really no increasing them, moreover, the Circuits themselves are unnatrual to the human body and causes a number of problems for the magus just by existing...if anything else I'll probably be physically weaker at the cost of having more Mana to spare..." "I see...so even with the increased amount of Mana you're saying you won't be useful in combat due to the physical problems the Magic Circuits can inflict upon you." "Exactly, and I can't risk that if I have you and the others to protect." "Don't worry, if it comes to it we will protect you if needed, or do you forget how 'close' we are?" "No no, I didn't forget~" Owlbear chuckled as he batted Shinki's ahoge around a bit. The goddess didn't put up much protest on the matter but simply looked away a little embarrased he would do such a thing in a public area. "In anycase we might have scoot on out of here, these books aren't worth crap in terms of magic so that means I'll probably have to find a different method for sustaining you guys here. Unlike Od, Mana (apparently) can be found in the atmosphere so it should be easier to draw it in. Not sure if it'll be enough...but it's worth keeping you by my side." "I'm sure you can come up with something, you're a rather creative human Owlbear. I place my complete faith in your ability." Shinki said giving Owlbear a warm smile to which he returned with his own. "Thanks, it means alot when coming from someone as equally 'creative' as me."

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