RPG - Waking Up From the Dream (Story Thread)

[Caber Knight Etch-A-Sketch]

Covenant Ruins, After Miko Training, Day 5


Etch was talking with Nitori when he felt a tug on his overcoat. It was Flandre of all people.

" Etch-san, Nii-Chan won't tell me about the internet. Could you teach me?"

Ah, the curiousity of youth. Etch looked at Nitori, both nodding.

"Of course! Now, let's begin" he said as he openned up the laptop

"Etch, you're not gonna show Flandre that, are you?", Zei asked as Flandre waited eagerly.

"'That'? Whatever do you mean? I was going to start off with a very useful thing" Etch said as he typed in 'google'.
"..I meant as in 4chan.", Zei said, facepalming. "Etch-san, what's google?", Flandre asked Etch.

"Not ALL of 4chan is bad. Besides, it's impossible to see it all." Etch turned to Flandre. "Google is a search engine, something you can use to look for stuff, like information."

"But but but but...", Zei said as he was later shush'd by Mystia. "Ohhh..", Flandre cocked her head to the side. "Etch-kun.. What's 4chan?", she asked him.

"Ah, well 4chan is a place where people put pictures of all kinds. Some people even make their own pictures and put them there. I'll show you later. Right now, here's something you might find interesting" He typed in 'Flandre Scarlet' and clicked 'search'. The screen showed a lot of words relating to Flandre, some touhou wikia, and even showing a site called "Maidens of the Kaleidoscope"

"Wait... Isn't 'Maidens of the Kaleidoscope' the site Zei-kun went to, one day?", Flandre asked Etch.

"Really now?" Etch looked pleasantly suprised. "Rare to meet someone who's been to that place." Etch turned back to the screen. "So anyways, you type in what you are looking for and it pops up, even pictures." Etch clicked on 'Images'. The screen then showed a bunch of pictures of Flandre.

Not caring about the pictures, Flandre went on talking about the site. "And wasn't there...uh.....a 'waifu thread' as Zei called it, on there?", she asked Etch.

"Hmm, not that I remember. They remade the site, so the information is gone. There probably was a 'waifu thread'. Oh yes, I remembered something." Etch then typed  in 'youtube'. The screen changed and showed a bunch of videos of the latest things uploaded.

"Woaahhh~~....", Flandre looked into the screen at the many videos.

"This site, called Youtube, lets you watch videos people have made. There's some good stuff here. Let me show you." Etch said as he typed in 'mcrolled'.

 Zei punched Etch on the top of his head. "Not that  video..", he sighed.

 "Ow... ok ok, not that video. Ah, I know! 'Pingas' perhaps?" He changed the text to 'Pingas'.

 Zei punches Etch again. "No, not that video either."

 "Sheesh!" Etch rubbed his head. "Alright, alright, how about this one?" he said as he typed in 'Innocent Key Sakuya'.

"....Fine, I give. Go ahead and show her that useless..", Zei's voice trailed off as he curses. Flandre still looked at the screen in awe.
 "Alrighty then," Etch said as he clicked on the video. The window changed, and the video began to play.

"Well, what do you think of the internet so far?" Etch asked Flandre as the video ended.

 Zei facepalmed, putting on earplugs. "..wait, Sakuya's in this vide--", Flandre changed her mind and just watched the video.

"Well, what do you think of the internet so far?" Etch asked Flandre as the video ended.
 "...", Flandre didn't speak at all.
 
"Something wrong?" Nitori asked the younger sister of Scarlet.

"Hm? Oh nothing..", Flandre said as she saw a reaction video, "Eh..? Etch-kun, what's that?", she asked him.

"Oh, THAT!" Etch laughed a little. "Sometimes people put disturbing videos on the internet. A lot of people put reactions to these video on the interent was well. Wanna see it?"

Flandre put on a serious look, "I want to see the real video.", she said, being very calm.

"Y-you sure?" Etch sighed. "Flandre, do you know what sex is?"

Flandre nodded her head. "Uh-huh! Zei-kun explained to me one day," she said.

Etch sighed as he typed in 2 girls 1 cup, and showed the video to Flandre. For his own sake, he looked away while Nitori looked at the video to see what the hub bub was about. Zei tried his best to not look at the video as Flandre looked on.

"Eh? What's thi-" Nitori gagged as the video went on. "What is this?!?" Gagging again, Nitori couldn't help but look on.

Flandre just stared blankly as Zei just laid down on the ground, passed out.

The tender music finally ended, and Etch went back to his laptop. "So how was it?"

"Th-that was nasty..." Nitori washed her mouth out with Listerine.

"..So that's what Zei meant by 'lesbian'..", Flandre said as she looked down at him.

Etch smacked Zei awake so that he would know what not to show Flandre. He then typed in '4chan'.

"OW...", Zei said as he rubbed his face. "That hurt, you bastard..", he said. Flandre still blankly looked at the screen, fortunately.

"Anyhow, this is 4chan, a melting pot of people, pictures, photoshopers, and trolls." Etch moved the mouse over /b/.

"And what's /b/?", Flandre asked Etch.

"Ah, /b/, also known as Slash B or B, is... well, how to describe b..." Etch thought for a moment. "B is an unpredictable place, generally used for random and sometimes stupid stuff. Here, let me show you." The link was clicked, and a number of pictures popped up on the screen, including a Coolface.jpg.

"Eh..? Etch-kun, what's that?", Flandre asked as she pointed to the Coolface.jpg.

"Ah, this is one of the things you can find on b. This is a meme called coolface. I'm not really sure how it got star-- oh hey! It's been a while since I saw that!" It was a picture of Etch doing the Coolface very well.

"...", Flandre fell silent.

"Well how about that! I wonder if I can still do it..." Etch then pulled his face into the Coolface.  Flandre looked at Etch's face, then later bursts out laughing. Nitori began laughing as well.

"I still got it..." Etch muttered to himself with pride. Zei looked, then pulled out his face into the Raegface. "Problem officer?" Etch said with his coolface.

"FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...", Zei said with his raegface.

"Well, while you two go talk it out," Nitori said, "I'm going to teach Flandre aaall about the internet!"

Music seemed to start playing as Niroti got out a stick. "Now, the internet is really really great."

"FOR PORN" Everyone looked to Jalal, who stuck her head through a door. Seeing that she was caught, she slammed it close.

Zei laughed a bit at Jalal, but Flandre just copied what he did, facepalming.

"Uh, I've got a fast connection so I don't have to wait." Nitori said in a sing song voice.

"FOR PORN" Jalal slammed the door close again.
 
"Uh," Etch began, "better not finish the song, Nitori."

"Yeah, good idea."

"Anyhow," Etch said as he turned to Flandre, "did that answer your questions?" Flandre nodded her head.

...a little later...

"You know, we haven't really gotten a chance to see the town." Momizi said.

"Yeah, you know what? Let's go see the town for a bit." And so Team Etch left for the town.

[Kojiremi]

Waterfall behind Shrine - 6:20am - Day 5

[[Pearl's Perspective]]

Pearl was enjoying the livliness of the Gensokyians and various outsiders as they frolicked about playing games and actually working. She was especially liking Mokou and Kaguya's constant bickering back and forth.

Pearl: They must be best friends or something. Fighting over the most trivial of things like that teehee~

Komachi and Elly were taking jabs at each other while getting ready for training.

Komachi: ...eh? those immortals huh? Word is that they actually totally completely hate each other for some reason. Some people think that Mokou, who is a phoenix was betrayed by people of the moon and exiled and so she has a nasty grudge against the royal family of the moon. Others think Kaguya did something horrible to Mokou enough to provoke such rage. Who knows.

Elly: so they are immortal? *sweatdrops* there sure are a lot of powerful beings in our world....< I wonder if Mistress Yuka could beat them....>  So many powerful beings and I never heard of these people.

Komachi: haha come on sis, ya gotta get out more. I maybe a shinigami but I take breaks every once in a while to explore and whatnot.  gawd it'd be amazing if i could get one of those 2 on my boat. I'd be the best shinigami in history man!

Pearl listened in and absorbed the information about the 2 immortal residents of Gensokyo. She was starting to see why her dad stayed there all the time. She started to regret staying in the outside world because of her work as a famous chef and dollmaker.

Pearl: Gensokyo...sounds like a very good place. I wish i could have seen it.... Tell me more!


(Sanae and Reimu pass around onigiri for breakfast to those training (or not))


Komachi: haha sure but first i'm hungry! That onigiri the maidens are passing around looks really good yo!

The girls ate onigiri together as they watched others talk and continue to meditate. Pearl was getting more and more amazed by the world of Gensokyo just by hearing of its inhabitants. Remilia, Mokou, Kaguya, and Komachi all seemed very interesting to her. She highly regretted and was feeling jealous of the interesting things her dad was able to see and even do in that world that has just collapsed.  She pouted.

Pearl: ohhh Miss Elly what about you? what do you do in your world?

Elly: *is munching on a rice ball and stops* I...worked for a mistress similar to Mistress Remilia.

Komachi: oh really now? interesting fo' sho

Elly: well unlike Remilia my mistress is normally sleeping and doesn't do much until she wakes up...

Komachi: ...Yukari? you work for Yukari? man it must be rough!

Elly: minus the -ri.

Komachi:......

Komachi turned blue in the face at the realization of who her master was.

Koma: are you friggin serious? Well if that isn't just as rough-no that feels worse to me *sweatdrops*

Elly: I thought you'd say that....Yes my mistress is Yuka Kazami. She's pretty violent only when you disturb her to be honest. But its hard for me to be a gate guard when i don't even know where she is. My job is to make sure intruders don't get into the mansion...but half the time i know if she's home or not. She seems to leave and return without me ever knowing ~_~

Koma: dam that sucks

Pearl: is your mistress powerful Elly?

Koma+Elly: oh VERY powerful!

Elly: she's one of the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo, she is the strongest force of nature there is with the power of nature itself at her command. She has the ability to manipulate flowers and draws her powers from them....and there is A LOT of flowers in Gensokyo....nature itself to draw from.

Pearl: Flowers huh....such a delicate little thing can become so powerful...

Elly: That's what I thought when i met her...but back then...she was very kind and delicate like those flowers and I looked up to her and followed her around but things happened and changed...
Pearl and her teammates were chatting some more as they had breakfast onigiri.


It was around this time that Alice exploded with rage for how everyone was talking about Reimu

?Look?? Alice stood up, seemingly fed up. ??What have each of you done so far? A lot, I?m sure. You?ve saved some of us, probably took part in a few fights, risked your necks, suffered like hell, sure.? Alice rolled her eyes. ?But who warned you all of Gensokyo?s imminent collapse? Who held the gate open for everyone to escape till the very last minute? Who risked her very life to allow everyone to escape safely onboard that blasted ship?!? She asked every one of them. ?It wasn?t me. It wasn?t you. It was my dear friend, Reimu! Do you know how long she has gone without sleep to think up ways to allow us to fight?! I don?t know what this training is for, but whatever it is, it?s for our survival! Don?t forget that we?re fighting a war here! A war against someone or something who wants to wipe us all out! Compared to that?.you think this is unbearable?! Why don?t you go hand yourself to those people in black and see if they treat you any better! Now stop bad mouthing my friend! She?s done enough for you all already! Show some gratitude!? Alice shouted hotly. ??Grrr?you people?I swear, it?s all ?I?, ?me?, and ?myself? with all of you! And we?re supposed to be a ?team??! I?ve had it!? She stormed off, fuming.

[[Kijiri's Perspective]]

Kijiri and her company were having onigiri as well during this time. Till Alice finished her outburst things were awkwardly quiet.
Alice's words stung most of everyone who heard it apparently. It made a lot of sense that evern though most of the outsiders did indeed help many of the Gensokyians but that was after the fact that the border collapsed. If it wasn't for Yukari and Reimu's work to warn and gather everyone they'd all be dead by now anyway regardless of the feats they managed afterwards.

Kijiri: *bites her onigiri* well we do owe reimu a lot of gratitude. even if we're kinda rushing through things like mad, which will cause complaints, we are in a very critical situation. As calm as i may be, i really don't like this.

Minoriko and Remilia were also having some onigiri as well and gave thought to this whole thing

Remi: of course we don't like it. I understand what Reimu is doing here however haste makes waste and rushing won't do any good if fatigue is too great. You can make a perfect warrior by cramming technique and power into him but if the heart and mind are weary then it is pointless.

Minory: we've been here for 5 days now...and everyday somethin horrible happened to us. if this keeps up we will eventually break from fatigue....I'm still exhausted from everythin yesterday and the day before...*sniff* ~_~ I wanna go...home.

Kijiri felt the sadness coming from Minory rather quickly, it was a passionate longing for what was lost. A place to go to: home

Kijiri: Yeah...I know Minoriko, if we all stick together and do this right we can get everyone home. This is the toughest time ever but we'll do it, I'm sure of it. Chin up, once we find Kikuri and make her pay we'll be back home in no-time at all.

Her words of encouragement perked Minory up well enough, she lit up a bit and felt a bit  more ease. Next thing she knew Minory hugged her tightly.

Minory: ohhhh i hope we all get home...its not right to make the entire world suffer over a grudge you have against one person! Who would do such an immoral thing!?

She had her head burried in Kijiri's chest. As to which Kijiri hugged her back and stuck the riceball in her mouth. She rubbed her back lightly to comfort the semi-mourning goddess.

Rumia looked more like she was spacing out than anything at all. Well the Rumia they knew. At some point that other persona is gonna break out again and even though she helped them earlier that morning she wasn't particularly nice about it. In fact Kijiri felt that she was actually a pretty evil persona, one that Reimu would exterminate upon site given its nature. However, he felt that it did what was needed in order to survive. The Rai Forces did remove her seal but it seems that Rumia's former true self manifested as only a split personality.

Kijiri rubbed Rumia on the head while thinking of what the future holds for them. IN return she looked up at her while eating the onigiri that was in her hand and she looked happily content. Oblivious of the dangers that were to stand against them later.

Rumia: Onigiri is sweet!  lets have more! more! ^^
Kijiri: hehe, such bliss i suppose. something like that is nice to have around i guess.

Rumia got up and ran after Sanae to get more onigiri. Much to Sanae's surprise that she almost took the entire stack she was carrying. Kijiri had finished the onigiri in her mouth and noticed that Minoriko had more or less cried herself to sleep in her lap. The smell of grapes and potatoes were stronger now than ever before. Remilia was trying to enjoy her ball and relax a bit which is something that wasn't attainable in a long while now. Rumia came back and gave everyone a riceball.

Kijiri: wow that's a bunch Rumia *Sweatdrops*.

Rumia: hai! Reimi say ahhh!

Remi: ...Reimu? its Remi-*gets a riceball stuffed in her mouth* mmmpphh!! hhmmpp!

Kijiri: ha...hahahhah she got you good Remi!

Rumia: *holds a riceball to Kijiri's mouth* eat up eat up~

Kijiri: uhh okay.

Rumia fed Kijiri the onigiri bit by bit and she enjoyed it happily. Not much she could do with Minoriko in her arms sleeping anyway.  However, Remilia was looking rather Parsee'd and Kijiri could feel it.

Kijiri: *sweatdrop* uhh okay girls its time we start training. I dunno how effective this will be but we'd better do something.

The problem was most of the training was really training Rumia and presuading Remilia to take part of it. She was afraid of the water being dumped on her afterall.

Kijiri: ....this'll be a long morning =_=

[LordVant]

Day 6, 3:00am:

Vant: Oi! Wake up Kanako, you too Suwako.

Kanako:Wh-what the hell? It's so damn early. *yawn* Let me sleep a little more.

Vant: It's time to wake up, we went to bed early for this reason. Now get up.

Suwako: Quiet, you'll wake Sora and Yumemi. *rolls over and tries to sleep*

Vant: They're gone already.

Kanako:Eh? What do you mean, "they're gone already"?

Vant: They left late last night, Yumemi was too loud, I couldn't sleep. They decided to go out on their own.

Kanako: *sits up and stretches* ah well, their decision

Suwako: That's no fun, I wanted to play with Yumemi some

Vant: Nonetheless, we need to get started, there are hostiles nearby. They've been searching for someone and killing anyone that comes within sight.

Kanako: Where are they?

Vant: There's large ones to the south, a large patrol to the east, and one large plus a patrol to the north-west. So! Pick a death-trap, and we can't head directly west because of the sheer cliff.

Kanako: Well obviously north-west to the shrine.

Suwako: I wanna fight the big one!

Vant: Neither of you are in a condition to fight, if you try to use your powers all three of us will go down. Leave it to me....please.

Kanako and Suwako look at each other for a second and then nod and the group decide to head north-west. After about an hour, Vant motions them to hide against the trees. Vant peeks out and sees an incredibly large shadow move by. It had four sturdy legs, strong enough to kick down a tree, with four large talons on each one. It had a large scaly tail, which ended in......a snake head. It had three heads at the front....of course. Vant sighed, "It had to be a fucking chimera." Head of an eagle, a lion, a goat, and the snake tail. Huge wings that could actually support the thing, along with its quick lion body. From its body movement, Vant could tell that it was incredibly agile, the heads worked in unison, each looking in a different direction to improve visibility, with virtually no blind spots. Except one, if he came from above, silently, he could cut off about two of the heads before it noticed, then he'd worry about the snake head striking his back. Alright then, a good plan.

Vant quickly climbed the tree he was against and looked down at the beast, he waited till it was close enough.....and leapt off the tree, silently of course, knife in hand, heading for its back, and.......Vant's kicked in the side by a feline shadow, and sent sprawling along the ground. He quickly regains his feet and just remembers the large patrol he had seen earlier, dammit! Why hadn't he thought of that?! Whatever, he quickly counted the cats, one in front of him next to the chimera, about 12 in the trees, and two behind him. Shit, this'll be tough...but there's a plan. Right!

Vant uses his ability, and things start slowing down, he flips the knife in his hand and throws it into the catgirl on the left of the chimera. He then rushes up to the catgirl and withdraws the knife from its skull as the body turns into gas. Vant moves away thinking it's poison and backflips over the chimera, cutting the spinal cords of all three front heads. As he lands and backflips away from the disintegrating body of the chimera, all 12 catgirls attempt to pounce on him, just as expected. Vant kicks up a tree branch nearby and swings it into 4 of the flying catgirls, then he carries the momentum into a spinning leap and uses his knife on the other 8 catgirls, killing the eighth by planted the knife in its temple. After landing he sees the other two being subdued by Kanako and Suwako as they overpower them and drag them to the ground.

Vant: *walks over to the two* well, seems you do have some of your stre-..

He's cut off as the two catgirls disintegrate as well and the two goddesses are enveloped in a thick cloud of miasma.

Kanako+Suwako: AAAHHH!!!.....?

Kanako: *looks at herself* huh.....nothing happened

Suwako:...me neither..*looks at Kanako*....pfft...ehehehe..eheheheh ahahahahahahhahah AHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAAHHAAHHAHAH!!1!!! *begins rolling on the ground laughing*

Kanako:WHAT! WHAT IS IT?!?!

Suwako: You! ahahahaha! You got cat ears!!!!!!AHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAH!!!!

Kanako: I. WHAT??!?!?!?!

Vant:*blinks as he notices two fuzzy blue cat ears on Kanako's head...and then looks at Suwako*...uh...Suwako? You got some too....and a tail.

Suwako:*sits up, stops laughing immediately, and feels the ears and tail* CUTE~!

Kanako: Tail? *gulps and looks behind her to see a blue-haired tail sticking out of her clothing* ....ehehe...I....can move it.....*thinks a bit and can move her tail like another limb*

Suwako: YAY!!!!~~ Now we're like cat sisters!!!

Vant: hmmm...so that's what it did....of course, why not? *sigh* whatever, we keep moving

Suwako: Hai~!

Kanako: Whichever....but, there is a town up ahead...right? How will we explain this?

Vant: Well...I've seen cosplayers around...and your clothing would make people think you were cosplaying anyway, so think of those as like an add-on to your costumes.

Kanako: O-okay...*blushes a bit*




Day 6, 4:30am:

Vant: Stop.

Kanako and Suwako look at him and obey, immediately crouching down and hiding. Vant listens for a bit and hears a kind of moaning. He motions for the other two to stay put while he checks out the situation. He slowly moves forward until he comes upon a clearing with a small girl in the middle. She has a small yellow cap on and a white bow tied around her long, fiery red hair. She's wearing a green dress with orange sleeves and pants. She's lying on the ground panting heavily, but there are no apparent wounds on her. Vant checks the surroundings for any kind of trap, but sees nothing. Cautiously, he approaches the girl.

Vant: Hey, are you okay?...... Hey  *puts his hand on her shoulder* are you okay?

Kanako: I know her! She's that gate guard at the Scarlet Devil Mansion!

Suwako: Look again granny, she's different, maybe you forgot your glasses, huh?

Kanako: Can it you little twerp!

Vant: Enough! If she's from Gensokyo then she needs mana, I need to make a contract with her....how do I do it if she won't wake up?

Kanako: Here, I'll make the bridge *puts her one hand on Vant and another on the girl* hmmmm...done

Vant: *feels a little energy go out of him* good then, she's breathing regularly now..*shakes her lightly* hey, are you okay?

??: H-huh? W-where am I? Who're you?

Vant:...we're...-

Suwako: We're from Gensokyo too!

??: Eh? Well, that I could guess...but, where am I now?

Kanako: well...you see, Gensokyo's fallen apart, we're not sure what happened, or really what to do. By the way, you need mana to survive, Gensokyo was abundant with it..but now, we're reliant on people like Vant here to supply us with it. We're heading towards a nearby shrine so..if you'd like to tag along...though you really don't have much of an option.

??: O-okay...I'm Orange by the way.

Vant:Orange huh? I'm Vant, this is Kanako, and this is Suwako.

Suwako: We're goddesses!

Orange: Cat goddesses?

Kanako: ugh, no, we ran into some trouble..and now we're kinda stuck like this

Suwako: What's wrong with being a cat girl, obaachan~?

Kanako: IT'S NOT NORMAL!!! Now quiet you little pipsqueak! *begins grinding her fist into Suwako's head while she tries to squirm away*

Vant:...yeah, they're kinda like that...*glances back at Orange and shrugs*

Orange: ahahahaha! a shrine huh? sounds like fun! let's go!

Suwako: *manages to get away and hooks her arm in Orange's* Let's go!

Vant: It's gonna be a long trip, even though we're almost there...*glances at Kanako* you do look cute though~

Kanako: *blushes some* ehhh......th-thanks..

Vant: *smiles warmly at her* shall we?

Kanako: *blushes madly this time* y-y-y-yeah, l-let's go, V-Vant


And so the four set off towards the shrine, which was in sight at the time, only to walk in on a peculiar scene....to be told later...


Suwako+Orange: 'K bye now~!

Vant+Kanako: Who're you two talking to?

Suwako+Orange: No one~ 

[AJC]

((During and After Nemoma last post))

day 5 10 am to


after the events earlyer Alex and his fairy trope are yet again doing something other than resting from the events.

"And why are we going to her again" Alex says leading his fairy troope to where Amarillo is.

"She didn't say any details only that Amarillo said was she wanted us and that it was something that needs to be taken care of" Lily Black replyed

"also you 3 no goofing off you've caused enough trouble with that shady drug." Alex says to the 3 fairys.

Knowing their guilt the fairys said nothing has they enter Amarillo's room.

just in time to see her appear to collapse Alex helped her up but noticed she felt like she had a noticeable fever.

The first thing they noticed other than Amarillo looking like a bit like a  Train wreck was Lily White with a full wing span.

Eventually Amarillo explained what was up with her and what she's doing while in the middle of her story Alex was wondering how ok Amarillo really is.

"Is she really in control of her powers? it almost sounds like she can barely control them." he thinks to himself.

After finishing up her story about whats up with her she says something that startles Alex in that she's basicly discharging this excess mana into his harem.

She assured that everything will be fine and would probably give them access to their full powers for a short while.

while waiting Alex took a peek at what was on her computer and in the recent activtys was something about a idol contest it didn't really intrest him but figuring that she might be taking part he struck up a quick convo about it but it turns out she wasn't after a while he dropped the issue about it.

Sure enough after she was finished the fairy's appeared like they did in gensokyo with full wing spans.

eventually he decided that he had his fill and decided to head to this contest to see what it was about and probably to prevent any devious plots by the fairys under his care if he didn't take them since they seemed really intrested in it.

"Well i'll be going now take care" Alex said in a cold yet caring manner.

While leaving he overheard someone saying he relys more on his fists than his brains while this would be a stupid thing since a fight while indeed needing a bit of brawn to get stuff done actually requires quite a bit of quick thinking to make sure one can come out on top its rather insulting to him but consistering who probably said it would be a bad show to get mad over it.

Lily black and Daiyousei and the 3 fairys had their minds on the contest and Amarillo well-being to notice the comment.

"i hope she's really ok she didn't really look ok." Lily black says

"i agree i really hope so too that she is ok." Daiyousei replyed

"i think she is she didn't seem too worryed about it seemed to view it has a minor annoying thing than a serious problem." Star sapphire said.

"this is depressing lets talk about this idol contest it seems intresting." Sunny milk said wanting to change the subject.

Grudgenly the rest of the fairys agree it was pointless at this time to worry about Amarillo when other more pressing issues were at hand eventually they get into girly talk that quickly lost alex's intrest about the idol contest.

[Gappy]

Saniwa Shrine/Inn Complex, 5.45 AM, Day 6

-Fade in-

A lone shaft of light pierced through the gap in the screen doors, making its way across the room, before alighting on a pair of gently twitching nekomimi. Their owner, a certain magical puppetteer, was nodding off, a beautifully sewn hakama of purest white sitting in her lap. It bore evidence of fine, meticulous, sewing. It showed no hints of the haste in which it was conceived.

The shaft of sunlight gently caressed her cheeks, lulling her into deeper sleep. She breathed lightly, her nekomimi twitching dreamily. Her head seemed to slowly gain weight before her body slowly drifted backwards as gravity took its hold on her.

But she did not meet the ground. No. Rather, she fell into a pair of arms and was slowly guided towards the ground. A warm cushion was pulled up for her, upon which her head was gently rested by the caring arms.

A warm, fluffy blanket, warmed by the kotatsu, was gently laid atop her. Then, with care, the screen doors opened a slight bit, allowing in a little more light and the owner of the arms to leave, before it was shut tight to bar out the cold.

5 year-old Miyo-chan glanced out at the streak of silverish yellow on the horizon. Daybreak was coming. She didn't 'see' it as such. Rather....she seemed to 'understand' it, sense its very essence. Of course, she didn't know this. She 'knew' the world at that very moment in time, sharply, vividly, as one might 'know' that apples fall and balloons rise.

That bright light at the end of the night sky....She knew it was there...she didn't know what it was, however. But it was....breathtaking.

She made a mental note to ask Reimu-Mama what that glowing thing was.

-Fade out-



-fade in-

The soft frozen dew crunched crisply under the gentle footfalls of the pair of shrine maidens making their way up from the frigid black mass that was the lake. Their pure white sleeves were an ominous dark blue under the first glow of daylight.

?....Reimu....? Sanae's breath rose up in soft white puffs from under her wooly scarf. ?...this wedding....? She began.

?I personally think it's just Yuyuko and Yukari screwing around again.? Reimu shrugs, anticipating the question.

?But then, why...?? Sanae persisted.

?Why not? It's an excuse to have a party.? Reimu shrugs again, probably more for the warmth than anything else, for her shoulders were half-obscured by a mass of wooly scarf.

?Is it all right? I mean, they're supposed to be....??

?Vigilant, yes.? Reimu nods, her expression grave, stopping suddenly in her tracks. ?But not depressingly uptight.? She said, turning around to face Sanae. ?We may be on the run. We may be at war. But we shouldn't lose sight of what's most valuable to us.? She nods over at the shrine and inn. ?This is Gensokyo, Sanae. WE are Gensokyo. And we must preserve what's left of it. That's what we're doing right now.?

?....but...?

?We can't let Kikuri take even the simple pleasures away from us.? Reimu said, gazing off into the distance, towards the sun rising over the mountain ranges crowning the lake. ?We might die tomorrow. We might die today. But until then, we will LIVE.?

Silence fell, quite effectively. A light breeze blew through the flowering branches of the Sakura trees around them, almost dramatically. The two mikos stood silent for a while, their nekomimis fidgeting, watching as the golden light rose over the mountains and flooded gently into the valley of Karuisuwa, lighting up the lake like a bowl of fire.

?....what I'm trying to say is....? Sanae said, finally, breaking off the silence. ?...this marriage....they're both GIRLS.?

?.....? Her sister miko was silent, her nekomimi twitching uncertainly. The dramatic atmosphere drained out faster than a popped balloon. She finally replied, in a defeated voice, ?....Yukari and Yuyuko are screwing around again.?

-fade out-

-fade in-

?Jeez, these two....? Ran sighed as she walked into the common room to find Suika and Marisa asleep with their feet in each other's faces. Every now and then, one would twitch in her sleep, causing her toes to poke at the other's cheeks, thus causing the other to twitch in turn and do the same, creating a sort of messed up perpetual motion machine. Beside them stood the finished ceremonial platforms for the day, decorated with delicate care. She gently covered them both with a blanket before leaving for the kitchens. ?....what would they do without at least one voice of sanity....?? She asked herself, sighing, her kitty ears twitching gently.

-fade out-

[Helepolis]

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[Helepolis]

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[Helepolis]

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[Helepolis]

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[Helepolis]

- - -

[Rabbit]

"Soran, look!  I can see buildings."

Her voice cut through the fog in his mind like a silver bell.  His vision, previously edged with grey, finally resolved when he looked up and saw what Yumemi was talking about.

"Where are we?" he slurred.

"What has happened to you?  This is the town nestled deep in the forest that you lead us towards.  We discussed this hours ago."

Soran stared, uncomprehending.  He had lead them to a town in the middle of nowhere seeking shelter.  He struggled to remember the specific reason for coming to this place.  The twin sisters of dream had told him the way but they had never explained why they were going, only that it was important to the common mutual interest of their little group.  His eyes fixed on a small building in the distance, in the mountains above.

"Good, we've made it", Soran said, "I think we should be safe here from pursuers.  We can blend in among the people of this town.  What is that building in the distance?"

Yumemi looked in the direction he pointed, "I can't be sure but I sense a gathering.  There is powerful spiritual energy coming from that place.  Judging where we are and our surroundings I would guess that it's a shrine of some sort."

Yes.  A shrine is correct.  Bring us closer, there is something we must know.

"Alright but my body is so ugh..."

The ground rushed up towards Soran's vision.  His hand shot out to break his fall.

"Soran?  Soran!  H-hey, hang in there..."

She saw Soran slump to the ground and kneeled to support him.

"Are you alright?  You need to stop collapsing like you have some kind of wasting ill-"

Whatever witty comment she had intended to make died in her throat when she looked at Soran's face.  A miasma of some form of black energy rolled off his face like smoke and both eyes were filled with blood in her sight.  His expression held no pain or exhaustion.  Yumemi stared in disbelief as the signs filled her magic-enhanced sight.

"You're a demon."

His expression did not change, "You noticed.  As expected of a genius scientist."

Yumemi's face hardened.

"Did you expect me to say something else?  Perhaps give a rant on how I plan to escape confinement and wreak havoc on the world?  You can rest easy, I am on a mission of my own and have an interest in seeing your precious contractor alive so rest easy.  Besides, you need me as much as I need you."

"What do you mean?"

"What happened Yumemi?  Is something wrong?" Soran was brushing himself off and trying to stand.

"...nothing.  It's nothing.  In any case, if we are going to be here for a long time we should at least find some kind of shelter.  Check around the town.  We should split up to cover more ground and meet somewhere a bit more central."

The shrine...

"A-alright", Soran murmured.

[E-Nazrin]

A Distant Train Station, ~1:56 PM, Day 2
Participants: Team Drillkumo, Team Star GPS: E-mouse, Sanasanasan

It took us a while to get back to the train station. I'm afraid I was a good part of the problem; between being out of shape and never really walking this much in a day and plushie-maintaining Ran and Chen, the walk was... unpleasant.

But, we arrived just before 2 PM, whereupon I collapsed onto one of the benches with a long sigh.

Yukari shook her head.

"Yes, yes, I'm pathetic." I grumbled back at her.

I closed my eyes for a moment. Oooh, another nap sounds good right now.

Yukari was antsier. "When's the next train arrive?" she asked, probably of Sana and Renko.

"Ah... well, there's one at 1:55..." Renko answered. A pause. "Er, wait, that one already left."

I could feel Yukari glaring at me. Since I didn't really have an answer to her anger, I tried not to respond to it for a while, but eventually helpless guilt won out. I opened my eyes again and frowned up at her.

"Hey, I'm sorry! It's not my fault I can't keep up with all of you!"

She nodded, with a false smile. "I know. But I do believe you could have gone a bit faster if you tried."

I grimaced and averted my eyes. She was right. It's just, it was hurting so much, I didn't...

"That's a bit... harsh." Sana^n cut in. We both looked at him, to see a raised eyebrow and a frown.

Renko agreed. "Yeah. It's not like we knew we were just barely going to miss the next train, anyway."

That... is an extremely good point. Actually, come to think of it...

"For that matter," I added, "If it had been delayed at all, it wouldn't have mattered either way."

Yukari glared at me for a moment, then sighed. "All right, you're right. But I hope that the next one is soon...?"

Renko turned to look at the train schedule. "Says... about 2:15? About 20 minutes."

Yukari sighed again. "I suppose we don't have much choice."

She sat down on the bench next to me, an irritated frown on her face.

"... still worried, huh?" I asked, calmly.

Yukari glanced over. There was a moment of silence, before her scowl softened. "... yes. Reimu may be tough, but we've been away for a long time..."

I nodded. "It shouldn't be... too much longer. We'll find them again soon enough."

Our little chat was interrupted by the station intercom.

"Please excuse the interruption. The next train for the Nagano-Karuisuwa line has been delayed. It is now due to arrive by 2:25 local time. We apologize for any inconvenience."

We were silent for a long moment.

"Curse you, irony gods!" I cried, pumping a fist in the air.

CRACK.

"Owowowow..."

-----

I spent the next few minutes trying to quell the pain in my arm. I probably could have stopped it quickly by letting Ran and Chen return to normal, but that wasn't a good idea in public. The station was fairly crowded, anyway.

... I say 'I,' but... Yukari actually cut in to help massage my muscles after a little while.

"Why...?"

She shrugged. "Not much better to do, is there?"

Wh... Yukari...? Acting sweet-hearted? To ME? This didn't make sense.

... and come to think of it, there was one time sink Yukari always had...

"Even sleeping?"

She hesitated.

"... I'm not particularly tired right now, in fact."

"That's a rarity."

Yukari looked around at the crowds. "There's not much space to lie down here, anyway."

"... good point."

I leaned back on the bench and closed my eyes. This... felt good. My arm was already hurting less...

"... thanks."

"Oh, you'll owe me for it, of course~"

I smiled. "Of course."

We were silent for a while. Yukari eventually stopped... massaging my arm... still can't believe that... and I stretched out my joints, just a little. They popped quietly, but not so painfully. More of a stretch than a dislocation.

"Ahh."

"Ara, did I make it worse?"

I opened my eyes and smiled at her. "Not at all."

.... how am I getting away with this?

I shifted uncomfortably and pulled my arm out of her grasp. She let it go, smiling.

"... so, what do I owe you?"

"I haven't decided yet, but I'm sure it'll be entertaining~"

After a moment, her smile faded. She looked out at the crowds... no, at Sana and Renko, standing nearby with uncomfortable expressions on their faces.
---
"... no, you're better at being serious." she said, quietly.

"... what do you have in mind?"

"Remember what this trip was for in the first place?" Yukari asked.

... that's right. Renko hadn't caught on to the implications of Maribel... not being home.

"... should I be blunt?"

"I'll leave that to you~"

... hmm. She needs to know, and fairly soon. She needs to understand the danger, and what her friend's gotten into. But to hear that Maribel's been kidnapped by the enemy that destroyed all of Gensokyo... would it hurt her more to figure it out herself, or to hear it outright?

... the latter can't be taken back, and she might be worrying about it herself already. I can't exactly describe the situation in full in public like this, either...

"... hey, Renko."

She jumped slightly. "Ah... y, yes?"

"Any idea where Maribel was today?" I asked, trying to sound casual. And failing.

Renko let out a nervous laugh. "Ah, that's right, we never did see her today, did we?" She frowned. "It looked like nobody'd been in her apartment for a while."

Renko turned away from the rest of us. "I... hope nothing's happened to her."

... I wonder if she was worrying about it before or after I asked.

"... hm." I replied, noncommittally. Closed my eyes again.

"Maybe she just went on a trip?" Sanananananana suggested.

... I didn't think of denial.

Renko eagerly leapt on the idea. "Ah! Yes, it's been a while since she visited family abroad..."

"Without telling you?" I asked.

"Well..." she frowned again. "It has been a few months..."

Not the closest of friends anymore, eh...?

"Come to think of it, the only reasons I can think of where she wouldn't call you are A: kidnapped by aliens, or B: went somewhere where there are no phones." Sanasan said.

NOW we're on the right track.

Renko shifted uncomfortably. "Well... something probably came up. Maybe her parents don't want to pay for long-distance..."

"And you don't use the internet?" I countered.

She shook her head. "Not really."

... actually. "I suppose that makes sense, come to think of it... otherwise you'd have probably heard of Touhou, and, well..."

Renko managed another nervous laugh.

"Wait, I use the internet and I haven't heard of Touhou until now..." Sana noted.

I grimaced. "Touche."

Again, we were interrupted by the station intercom, repeating the same message.

"Please excuse the interruption. The next train for the Nagano-Karuisuwa line has been delayed. It is now due to arrive by 2:25 local time. We apologize for any inconvenience."

The announcer sounded kinda bored, actually.

... our conversation trailed off. I decided to leave the rest of this quibble until we got on the train... I think I WILL have to be blunt, in the end.

... how to break the news, though...

-----

Returning Train Ride, ~2:30 PM, Day 2
Participants: Team Drillkumo, Team Star GPS: E-mouse, Sanasanasan

This time the train was semi-crowded, but the occupants were... somewhat unexpected. The multitude of seifuku miniskirts surrounding us as we got on left me feeling fairly uncomfortable. Rather than risk feeling like a skirt-trailing pervert, I was inclined to try and avoid the main crowds. Especially when the girls kept giving our shikigami-plushies looks of intrigue and approval.

Sana^n and Renko seemed willing to go along with this, fortunately. I was a little worried that we might not be able to... have our talk during the ride, but it seemed like the highschoolers favored congregating in cars with one another, despite this making them more crowded than they had to be. By some fluke, the last car of the train was completely empty, and the school crowd in the next one was small - but talkative. About as perfect conditions for a chat as we could hope for, considering the circumstances. The only real inconvenience was that people were too close by for me to get away with letting the shikigami return to normal...

Which would explain the sigh as I collapsed onto the train seat and flopped my head back. "Haaaaaaa. Oh man, I needed that sit-down again..."

Madame awesome-hat and her battery sat down on the other side of the train, silently. Renko didn't seem particularly comfortable, clearly thinking about something. She didn't even put a protective hand on the shopping bag Sana put down between them.

... that's probably my fault.

I was tempted to stretch my arms, but then I remembered the joint-popping incident outside, and decided against it. Yukari sat down to one side of me, wearing a small smile. The usual for her, really. Though she did take it upon herself to take care of the plushikigami this time.

Anyway... we've got some privacy again. I think... it's time to drop the bomb.

I sighed again, and looked over at Renko and Sauna. Grimaced for a moment. "Welp. I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to be an asshole for a minute here."

As expected, that got their attention. "Huh?" Sana asked, simply looking confused. Renko... was worried.

I smiled, sadly. "Well... let me put it this way. Yukari and I wanted to check on Maribel because we were... worried about her well-being."

Sana was a little more worried now. "...Well-being?" Renko just looked even more uncomfortable.

"... Renko. I think you know where I'm going with this."

She nodded, slowly. "....Something happened to her?"

I nodded back, and spoke softly. "... yeah. D'you remember last night? When we were running away from a bunch of goons trying to capture people from Gensokyo?"

She lowered her head a  little. "... yeah."

... guilt. I sighed. "Told you this was going to be an asshole move." Shook my head. "Well... the thing is, remember how I said Gensokyo collapsed due to its magical power source getting swiped? I'm... still not really sure how it happened, but... one of the main defenses Gensokyo had from the outer world was a gigantic border-barrier that made it impossible to get in or out." I considered for a moment. "But you knew that, didn't you?"

Renko nodded. That was silly of me, wasn't it?

... now the real nastiness. I took a deep breath, and sighed again. "Now, the thing about that is... you'd probably need some way to circumvent that border to get at the mana spring."

Yukari shifted from beside me. I knew this because I had realized that her leg was brushing up against mine.

Geh!

I shuffled away a little and looked at her. She was wearing a rather blank expression, but it reminded me... "... and even if you didn't, Gensokyo's strongest would use borders like that to defend it."

Renko and Sana didn't reply, simply looking downcast.

... well, blunt it is. I gave them a pained smile. "And who do we know from out here that's been able to interact with borders?"

Renko closed her eyes. "You... you mean Maribel, don't you?"

Her voice was shaking. I think I can see tears in her eyes...

... why do I want to hug and comfort her? I... shouldn't try to get away with that, should I? But for something like this...

Well... I'll try standing up at least...

CRK.

Ow, damnit! I crumpled back into my seat. Damn plushie ruination!

... I sighed, looking down at the floor. "Yeah. I'm fairly sure Maribel got kidnapped for research purposes or something. Thanks to Touhou, her power would be known, even if she was never found in person before then." Looked up at Renko. "... and that those 'thieves' mentioned investigating borders after we cornered them..."

I noticed Sana had moved much closer to the hatty girl, with one hand on her shoulder. Good. At least he was covering the comforting part, even if he still looked mostly confused.

He proved the source of his confusion with something I had taken for granted.

"Um... her power? What?"

I gently placed my palm over my eyes. Ergh, that stings. I have to stop doing that...

"Um... I never told you, did I?" Renko said. She laughed nervously for a moment. "We, well... the reason I know about the borders we kept looking for is because Mary... Mary could see them."

"What?! That's how you knew where they were?!" I looked again. He was properly freaked out, now.

Renko nodded, hanging her head. "Yeah. I remembered where she usually saw them, and sometimes... I thought I could feel something, but it's thanks to her that I had any leads..."

"Not that you need any now." I muttered.

An uncomfortable silence. After a moment, Renko took a deep breath and looked up at me.

"... where is she."

... well. I wasn't expecting that sort of determination from one of the peaceful outworlders of Touhou. But... I guess after some of her earlier antics, maybe I shouldn't be too surprised.

I shook my head, winced, regretted it for a moment, and replied, "I don't know. Like I said, she probably got kidnapped by those goons or something. But where they have her or..." I trailed off. Ugh... another piece of nastiness. But I have to. "... or whether she's okay, I don't know."

Renko clenched her hands. And teeth. "Where. Is she."

"Ara ara..."

All heads turned to face Yukari, who was looking a little amused at the whole procession. I guess she's feeling a little better now that we're on our way back to finding Reimu.

"You're quite determined to find her, aren't you?" she asked Renko, smiling. I think I saw hat-girl nod back out of the corner of my eye. Yukari returned it, and her smile faded for a moment. "I don't think you have to worry. Kikuri wouldn't throw away someone so valuable." She smirked. "She wouldn't be foolish enough to lose her only lead to fighting me or Reimu on even terms."

"So... she's okay?" Renko asked, slowly.

"Probably." I said, turning back towards her. Slowly, this time. "Yukari has a point."

"Then we can save her?"

... I grinned. "We can sure as hell try." ... returned to being serious. "But I don't think we're up to it right now. With the power she's packing and how vulnerable we are right now..." I shook my head. "For the moment, we need to avoid drawing attention. And find out what she's up to... and what she wants..."

"'Don't think we're up to it right now'?"

Renko's boy... Sauna spoke up, sounding nervous.

"Doesn't that imply that we can actually rescue her?"

"Not in our current condition." I replied. Considered for a moment. Smiled. "But... gotta try, right?"

Sana^n gave me a... half-hearted smile. "I... I guess."

... my own smile faded a little. "Thinking about it... most of the Gensokyo crew, and their batteries, still have some amount of power. The mage I talked to about how these mana links work said that they can be strengthened based on... how close they are, emotionally."

"Hmhmhm..."

... Yukari's quiet laugh there sparked thoughts that... no. No, that's not happening. I'm not important enough for her to care about. Or strong enough...

I sighed. Whatever. "And I'm sure there's some way around Kikuri, if we look for it. Some of Gensokyo's residents have frighteningly abusable powers, if we could just get them linked to someone strong enough to handle it... or enough people to handle it..." A thought. I grinned. "Or get the ones they're linked to strong enough, maybe..."

Yukari laughed again, more openly this time. She reached up and flicked at my hair with a finger. "Really, Jeremy, you've already forgotten about yourself getting stronger right after we arrived? I'm disappointed."

I DID forget. But that... was that really me? The Drill... or... tamashii da... damnit.

Although...

"... yeah, you're right. That'll work, won't it? And for that matter..." I brushed a hand over the Drill, "Maybe we can find some external help." I looked at Renko, tilted my head, and smirked. "D'you think a Yoshitsuna would help our odds?"

Renko grinned nervously at my half-joke, and countered with one of her own. "I dunno," she said, voice wavering a little, "My weapon mastery isn't that great."

I grinned back. I guess that'd be a factor, but the stats alone would be... oh man, I'm being silly.

Saunasan brought up a more serious point.

"A Yoshitsuna? Where in the world would we get one of those?"

I shrugged. "No idea. It was a bit of an over-the-top example, really. But... there ARE some magical artifacts from Gensokyo. A lot of them have lost their power after leaving the border, but considering how I'm not a corpse, at least some of them can still work outside, or at least help with mana provision."

I turned and tilted my head at Yukari. "And after finding out Touhou is real, I'm not exactly adverse to believing other 'games' might be."

Sukima shrugged at me. "Maybe."

A brief silence, and suddenly: "I WANT TO JOIN THE PARTY."

Renko's little shout had earned her the turn and blink. "What?"

Sana agreed. "What?!" But he also understood her meaning a bit better than I had. "That's crazy! It's... it's going to be really dangerous, isn't it?!"

I glanced at the door to the train car. No one had really noticed Renko's outburst. Phew.

Back to the matter at hand. "Probably." I admitted. "But I'm hoping we'll be able to hold back and lay low until the Gensokyo crew is in good enough shape to really stand up to her. So, the real danger wouldn't be for a while."

... I frowned. "And... I'm being a douchebag again, but... there might not be a better choice. Renko, you've been connected with Maribel for a while, now, right? You're even referenced in Touhou... now I'm a little surprised you weren't kidnapped, yourself."

Both of them stared at me. I sighed. "I'd have expected Kikuri to want to clean up after herself for something as important as getting Maribel's powers. Or to grab a little extra in the process. I'd have honestly expected you two to be inseparable..."

The enhatted physicist shook her head. "Well... while we were at the University, maybe... but Mary's grades started dropping, and her parents got upset, so..."

I frowned. "Well, that sucks. Though... it's kinda convenient how..."

Yukari cut in.

"So, did you at least make out before she left?"

...

Damnit, Yukari.

I covered my face with a hand, both out of exasperation and, admittedly, to hide a grin.

"Huh?" Sanasana asked.

Renko, on the other hand, caught her implications, and stammered, "W-we weren't THAT kind of friend!!"

"Fufufu... is that so? Come now, there's no need to be shy about it, I think every girl in Gensokyo has had her moments..."

"I don't live in Gensokyo!" physics-hat countered, rather quickly all things considered, "YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID!!"

"Yukari, as much as this conversation amuses me, could we not turn this train ride into a shouting match about lesbians?"

"Nonsense, if she's going to be staying with the others of Gensokyo, well..."

I rubbed my forehead, still grinning. Damnit, Yukari.

"But I suppose it doesn't matter so much, if she's gotten linked to a man anyway..."

"Uh..."

I moved my hand aside enough to see Sana, looking about as clueless as his tone had suggested.

"....what's that supposed to mean?"

I stared at him.

"... how old are you?"

He frowned. "Seventeen....why?"

... I shook my head, slowly. "Then I hope you're acting."

"Fufu... really, Sana. Did you already forget what makes mana links stronger?"

"Oh." Sana paused. Blinked. His face turned bright red. "OH... D, do you really have to do....THAT to make your links stronger? Because I'd rather not...."

... I stole a brief glance at Yukari...

"No WAY!" Renko cut in. "We're doing fine, aren't we?!" She glanced behind her, out the train window. "It's... 2:47 PM, 0.03 degrees south and 0.02 degrees east of Maribel's apartment!"

I blinked. Her ability still works?

"I'm still at my best, even without having to... to go that far!" She was blushing, too. Yukari had accomplished much.

... although.

"Are you sure that's your best?" I asked. Physics-hat gaped at me in disbelief. "I mean... your ability is basically acting like a living GPS, right? Are you sure you can't do better than that?"

I brought up a hand to stroke my chin for a moment. Ugh, need a shave. And it's stinging a little from plushieblah. But that's not the point.

"I mean... I know that would be of limited use normally, but what if it's just a small expression of some bigger power? You do it by tracking where the stars are, right? So... if it isn't just stars... oho. To know where any person is somehow..."

Renko's eyes widened. I smirked at her. Let's see, what else... "Or maybe it's about the stars, but if you could do more than just triangulate from their location... hmm... moving them would have some really nasty consequences and is difficult to make use of... but maybe..." Ah! A grin. "Come to think of it, this is going to sound scary as hell, but there's a raven girl from Gensokyo that has power over nuclear fission and fusion. She can effectively make miniature stars. If your power would let us contain and control one to use as a miniature power source..." A dark chuckle. "Hmhmhm, perhaps that'd even pull off the micro-sized nuclear power sources from the Foundation books..."

A brief silence. Finally, hat-girl recovered her voice. "Is... is that sort of stuff even possible?! I can't do that stuff!"

Yukari answered her. "Gotta try, right?"

Wh... I turned and raised an eyebrow at her. "... wasn't expecting you to steal my lines."

She shrugged at me, smiling. "It was appropriate." It turned to a smirk. "And I must say, I'm finding this quite clever..."

...

M... my face is burning. I turned away from her. Blarg, I don't take compliments well. And... from Yukari? YUKARI?! No, no, she must be being sarcastic...

Renko, thankfully, interrupted my panic. "But wouldn't that sort of power depend on Sana? I'm supposed to get 'mana' or whatever from him, right?"

I looked back at her and noticed Sana looking uncertain, his expression... difficult to describe, but could probably be summed up pretty well with a colon-s internet smiley.

Anyway. "Where am I gonna get all that mana from?" he asked.

"I don't know," I replied, "But we'll figure out something. An extra pair of hands around is always a help, and..." ... there's got to be something they'd be especially useful for... "... you'd be able to recognize Maribel if... when we find her." A second thought. "For that matter, were you staying in that ka... kawurisawa town?"

"Karuisuwa." Yukari corrected.

"Whatever."

Sana nodded. "Yeah, we both live there."

... yet another thought. "... aren't we a bit far from Tokyo, though?"

Renko shook her head and provided the obvious explanation. "We're off this semester. Why do you ask?"

Whatever, back to the real point. "If you've been living there, you know what the place is like, right? If we're going to lay low and avoid attention, we're going to need to fit in at least a little. I can guess a few basics that we'll need to make sure of in terms of social antics, but I've spent all my life in the US, so I'm not familiar with the nuances of... I want to say 'suburban' Japan." Thought. "Especially if there's anything unusual about the town."

Sauna-auna frowned. "Unusual? I haven't really noticed anything unusual..."

Renko playfully bonked him on the head. "What? Do you live under a rock or something when you're not with me?"

I bit my tongue. Yukari didn't.

"Ara ara, so you do stick together already... heehee, how sweet~"

Here we go again...

Sa(na^^x) shifted uncomfortably. Renko just sighed. "Aren't you bored of that joke yet?"

"'Joke?'" Yukari repeated, innocently.

I spoke up; I wasn't as amused this time. "I think we have more important stuff to do than tease them, Yukari."

"Awww, but they have to admit it eventually~"

"I'd think they'd have to do that on their own." I muttered back, deadpan.

Well... there MIGHT be a loophole around that, I guess... unstable morality with that, but if we had to...

..... Koishi. Manipulation of Subconscious.

... there I go again, scaring myself. But maybe... maybe. A trump card. Only if we have to. Only if we have to...

Renko muttered something under her breath and sighed again. "Anyway. I'm sure you already know this, but this town's called Karuisuwa. From what I hear, it's supposed to be named after some deity..."

... Suwa.

Why the FUCK hadn't I noticed before?!

"Suwa." I repeated, aloud. "The goddess part is the 'Suwa' part, right?"

She blinked. "Huh? I don't know, actually. I'm no theology major."

I gave her a look of obvious disappointment. "I would have expected you to know, given your interest in Gensokyo."

"So?" Renko said, frowning. "I only wanted to go to Gensokyo because it's new territory. Think of it!" her voice turned breathless, "An entire world that was hidden for centuries doesn't excite you?!"

"It does," I admitted, "Especially with the way Gensokyo seems to operate." Shook my head. "But that's not my point. My point is 'Suwa.' One of the goddesses that moved to Gensokyo a... few years ago?"

I looked over at Yukari. She nodded. "I was quite impressed by their determination to get in, honestly."

"Yeah..." I shook my head again. "Anyway, two goddesses and their priestess went to Gensokyo from the outer world a few years ago.

One of them was... is named Suwako."

"Huh? Suwako...?" Renko trailed off for a moment. "So....she came from here?"

Shrug. "Apparently. She had to leave the outer world since people were losing faith in her. Well, it was more the other goddess that took over her shrine that did anything about it..."

I trailed off, myself.

"... and we saw her this morning... probably linked to that Awamaka girl..."

Sana the not-boyfriend's eyes widened. "Wait, met her? We met a goddess? There's goddesses here?!"

... still worried about Kanako... why would she do that? Trying to survive? Offered something? After sparking MoF's Incident, I'm still wary of her being power-hungry... but no. I should answer him. We'll find out sooner or later...

"... yeah, there's goddesses here." I confirmed, with a nod. "Suwako herself should be pretty easy to spot, she's got this big, yellow frog-eyed hat that's pretty much unmistakable. And there's at least a few others that should have made it out, too... did I see Minoriko floating around earlier...?"

"Wow..." Renko breathed, awed. She shook her head a little and recovered her composure. "We'll have to talk to them sometime."

"Oh yes, we will." I replied, darkly. Kanako...

"Anyway," madame awesome-hat went on, "A few months ago, it was really quiet here. Then some no-name yakuza from the big cities came to town. I think they got rejected and wandered over here or something."

I raised an eyebrow. "... Yakuza? In an out-of-the-way place like... Kawurisuwa?"

"Karuisuwa."

"Right, right. That's pretty weird... but I guess it shouldn't be surprising after overhearing one yelling about it on that first train..." Frowned. "But why they'd be staging open warfare in town rather thoroughly escapes me." Sighed. "Oh, I hope we didn't fuck this up too badly..."

Renko nodded. "They started out with petty stuff, but they're starting to become a lot more active. It's actually a little worrying..."

"Very worrying." I agreed. "We're going to have to find some way to get them to leave us alone."

"Well, I guess Reimu's already tried the violence approach." Yukari quipped, sounding less than pleased.

That's right, we did overhear a bit of a run-in on the first train. How'd I forget? Whatever. "Yeah in our condition that would be a bad idea."

"...You guys fought against the yakuza?" Sauna asked, "Didn't you guys just come like yesterday?"

Uh... huh. I guess he didn't figure out what that little crash on the train's roof was. Then again, it wasn't the most obvious thing. Guess I'll have to explain.

"You remember that crash on the roof while we were on our way to Maribel's?" I asked. Slow nods. "I overheard someone up there making death threats to someone that 'messed with the yakuza' or something like that. Somehow I forgot that detail until now... and when I yelled up out the window, Deodorant..." Er... "... one of the other mana batteries we brought out answered me. Since the people he's linked to would have to be nearby, they probably got into a fight."

I frowned. "... but that IS a little fast, isn't it? We just arrived... and we didn't make too big a deal about appearing at the shrine. How'd they know, and why'd they get involved so quickly...?"

"How're we supposed to know?" Renko asked, indignant. "We just met you guys yesterday!"

I grimaced. "True. Still, it's weird... it's like they knew we were there, and the only people we met before going to town were....."

...

Really, Akamawa. Are those relics really that valuable...?

There's something going on here...

Yukari interrupted my thoughts with a sigh. "It's not unlike Reimu to pick a fight when she sees something she doesn't like. I'm not sure if she understands that we aren't in Gensokyo anymore... these aren't spellcard duels."

... though I suppose that'd work too. Still, I'm not liking this...

"So, uh... we're going to be with people that are fighting with the Yakuza?" Saunasan asked. "Isn't that... dangerous?"

I nodded a little. "Apparently. But considering how they were still alive after... whatever the hell happened on the roof of that train, I get the impression we'll at least be able to stand up to them. Assuming they're all right..."

Yukari scoffed. "A dunk in the lake would be nothing to Reimu. To any of them, really..." She trailed off. She'd thought of something, but she didn't want to say it.

... I took a guess. "... unless they were injured beforehand?"

A sad laugh. "Yes... perhaps." Sukima's voice turned grave. "Which is what we'll be checking up on... it's been quite a while."

I nodded. "Here's to hoping we can find them."

"Oh, that shouldn't be difficult." Yukari replied, "There was a party to go to at Tourist Helper, remember?"

... derp. That's right. But maybe... "Assuming that hasn't gone under attack or anything?"

"I think we'll be able to tell if those yakuza attack it like they tried on the train."

"... touch?."

"Uh... Party?" Sana asked.

... guess they haven't heard much, huh?

"Apparently there's some plan to go to a... shop or something one of the other batteries knew about in town." I explained, "Some sort of party in the afternoon for... hell if I know, survival's sake?"

"Ara ara, you need a reason to have a party?"

Yukari certainly didn't sound so down now. She's quick about that, it seems.

Renko was almost as puzzled as her boyto... friend. "Huh? We never heard about this."

"You didn't exactly stick around long after arriving." I grumbled. Er, that was a little mean. I sighed. "It didn't come up for a little while, after some of the crazier things from that morning got settled. I don't remember seeing you two when Soniwa showed up..."

"Saniwa."

"Whatever. After that... guy finished with the suspiciousness of handing over the deed to the shrine and some inexplicable oodles of cash, the rest of the crew apparently decided to meet up at some Tourist Helper place in town for a party sometime in the afternoon, after taking care of shopping for relatively normal clothes and the like."

Still really worried about that Saniwa guy. There's something to him... I'm going to have to look up his history, when I get the chance.

"...Oodles of cash?" Renko asked, curiously. "So some guy just gave you a place to stay and lots of money...for no reason?"

I sighed. "I have no idea what the hell was going through that guy's head. He finds a small army of battered weirdos squatting in his ancestral shrine, so he decides to hand it over to them, hand over a bunch of money, and make a bet on our success staying there. It doesn't make sense."

... a hand on my shoulder.

"Now, now, Jeremy. He did say none of his family cared about the shrine anymore, didn't he?"

... I pulled away from Yukari a little, nervous.

"W... well, yeah, but then why not just sell it?"

"Or perhaps he was more interested in setting up that bet..." gap-chan mused.

I turned enough to frown at her out of the corner of my eye. "And put THAT much faith in a bunch of random hobos? If he was going to throw that sort of cash at challenging Awamaka's shrine for those... relics, whatever they are, then why not just hire some people that actually know how to run a modern shrine?"

She shrugged. "Convenience?"

"Sounds pretty suspicious, if you ask me." Renko added.

I turned back towards her in time to see Sana^n nodding slowly. I repeated the gesture, and went on with another complaint. "Not to mention some of the stuff he did there. You don't just HAVE that sort of cash just lying around, and that girl that showed up to deliver it came out of fucking nowhere. And then there's the way he's betting on relics... I'm honestly wondering if he knows about us."

Cluelessman stared at me for a moment. "...How could he know? You just got here yesterday..."

"Touhou." I pointed out, "Most of them WERE in their usual outfits from the games, and he did see us in person before deciding. If he can actually use magic himself, then I wouldn't put it past him to be able to detect that just from being nearby, which he was." I sighed. "But it's also possible that he's just a senile, superstitious old coot, and we can't take it back if we confront him about that directly... but I'll be watching for if he slips..."

Sananananana and Renko shifted uncomfortably, but didn't have any real response to that. Then again, I couldn't think of much else to add at the moment, either. Ugh... there's a lot I need to look into about this whole mess, but right here...

I shook my head. "But I guess that isn't a worry for right now, is it? Right now, it's enough that you two understand what's going on." I smiled. "... and that you're willing to help."

Renko nodded. "Mary needs my help, so..."

... heh. She's brave.

I groaned as I leaned back in my seat. Owwww, spine. Shikigamiplushies are a pain to keep up with... am I EVER going to be able to keep up with the Yakum--

No, don't think like that.

"... anyway, I guess there's not much to do right now aside from wait to get back to--"

"Karuisuwa. Karuisuwa. Next stop, Karuisuwa."

I blinked up at the train intercom. "Well, that's convenient."

I think I heard Yukari moan slightly as she stood up, but I'm not entirely sure. "Let's get going, shall we?"

[ES-Anthy]

The Hallways of the shrine-11:15PM-Day 5

Participating Teams: Team Michigan, Team Makai

Sara and Anthony of Team Michigan were walking in the hallways of the covenant base, talking to each other and getting to know each other better. "So, back in Gensokyo you were the actual gate guard of Makai?" Anthony questioned, cocking his head to one side, and in his fashion of walking involving going backwards while in-front of Sara.

"Yea I was, and I did that each day for my life in Gensokyo and I enjoyed it" Sara replied, giving Anthony an odd look to go along with Anthony's odd walking.

"Man, that sounds pretty radical" Anthony said, being amazed from this fact of now he is linked to the previous gate guard of hell. The two continued to walk for a bit and talked more, eventually coming to a corner and rounding it, in which Anthony with his not looking forward ended up crashing into a group of people.

Unaware of the two who were walking in the same direction, Anthony and Sara had unwittingly bumped into Owl-I mean, Lolibear and Shinki of the Makai group...Oh wait...

Anthony who was unaware of the sudden Lolibear and Shinki around the corner ended up running into the two causing a collision and Anthony being on top of a god of makai and her loli.

It had all went along so fast (or rather too fast) for Lolibear to really say or do anything to avert the collision, and by the time she had regained her senses she found herself underneath someone, Shinki apparently on top of her and the goddess being underneath someone herself.

"Ow..." Shinki groaned a bit as Lolibear beat her fist on the floor several muffled screams (perhaps profanities, but we're not entirely sure) emanating from beneath the goddess.

Sara, on the other hand was watching the three person pileup "Anthony, this is why you don't walk backwar-" Sara was saying until she realized who was under the pile, in which Anthony was quickly tossed off to the side into a wall and followed up with Sara helping up Shinki and the Lolibear.

"W-why me..." Anthony muttered as he was resting up against a wall he was recently flung into.

(BGM for the scene)

"S-s-shinki I f-finally found you again!" Sara squealed as she tightly hugged Shinki, finally finding her mother after all of this. Anthony was still a bit too disoriented from getting sent into the wall, while Sara continued to huge Shinki tightly, her face one of joy from finding her lost family.

Shinki, for a moment, wasn't sure if it was really Sara hugging her, Having seen no trace of her daughter ever since they managed to cross over from Makai. "S-Sara..." The goddess breathed for a moment before she brought the gatekeeper in front of her and stared at her for a good few moments. "Sara...is that...really you?"

"I-it is" said sputtered, looking up from her hugging position, her eyes on the verge of crying in joy.

"Sara...we thought..." Shinki choked, hugging Sara as close to her as she possibly could. "We thought we'd never see you again..."

"I d-did too....but, but I'm h-here now" Sara was saying, choking back slightly on her tears rolling down her cheeks.

Lolibear took in a gasp of air as the goddess was lifted off her beating on her chest to apparently get her lungs to start working properly again from being crushed slightly. "Geeze...I thought I was dying." Lolibear then looked around for a moment and caught a glimpse of Shinki hugging onto someone...crying. "Ah! Shinki what's wrong?"

"Fukuma-chan...Sara she's..." Shinki turned to Lolibear a smile on her face, yet that same face drenched with her joyful tears. "She's alive..."

Anthony at the moment was still dazed, slowly focusing his eyes back to the scene, but still messed up a bit.

Lolibear froze, the reality of someone who was thought to be dead now being turned inside out with their very appearance before her. This was...how do you say, a miracle...or at least it seemed like one to Shinki and Lolibear. "I...I don't believe, Sara..." She said her eyes wide with disbelief. "How...how did you find us...where were you...?"

Sara moved her head to speak to Owlbear "I..I was somehow able to g-get out of Makai when the barrier of Gensokyo collapsed, I was picked up by some odd priestess, along with miss Byakuren and Youki..." Sara said, wiping away her tears "T-then earlier today t-that priestess just dropped us l-like we were nothing to her....but, this one p-person was able to link to us, n-named Anthony."

Sara was still crying a bit, looking around slightly "Wait....w-where is he?..." Anthony, the person Sara was looking for was slowly getting up, swaying back and forth slightly from still being disoriented going head first into the covenant wall.

Both Shinki and Lolibear couldn't fathom how much Sara had to go through on her own...it was truly a miracle that she managed get through all of her hardships unscathed. However there was one aspect of Sara's comments that caught Lolibear off guard "He?"

Lolibear turned and looked up to see just the person she was referring to. "...Are you, Anthony...?"

"Y-yea I am" Anthony sputtered, still swaggering a bit from head contact with the wall.

Sara responded, "Yea, t-this is the person who helped me and Youki-san" Sara was able to calm down a little.

"Ah!" Lolibear said running up to Anthony and shaking his hand with great fervor. "Th-thank you!"

Shinki also turned her head to glance at the person who essentially saved Sara's life, "Yes...thank you, Mr. Anthony...we owe you so much for saving Sara..."

"Oh you're welcome" Anthony said, going along with the hand shake, "I'll help whenever I can, and don't worry about me so much, I don't need anything special for saving someone or bringing people back together" he responded, scratching the back of his head with his free hand. "Oh, and you don't really need to be formal or anything with me, just Anthony will do" he said with a grin on his face.

"I see, but still I give you my greatest thanks for finding my little Sara." Shinki answered with a warm smile as she hugged Sara to her a little more. She didn't want to let the gatekeeper go...not yet...not after having came so close to losing her...

Sara continued to hug Shinki as well, not wanting to leave this moment of joy. Anthony smiled as he watched this moment of family reunion.

"Yes we've searched everywhere for her...we didn't know where to look..." Lolibear said.

"This is nice..." Anthony muttered, only thing that was bothering him was his past memories of never having a mother, his face was slightly saddened for a bit but he shook it off quickly, "Well, I don't know if it's amazing or not, but don't worry about how she got here anymore, just be glad that you're all together" Anthony replied, putting on a big old smile.

"Indeed..." Shinki agreed, almost breaking into tears again at the thought of Sara suffering alone without her mother to hold her close and keep her safe. But now...she didn't have to suffer alone anymore...she had not only her mother and family, but also Anthony and his group as well. "We must cherish this moment...and every moment we have together...always."

"Yea..." Anthony muttered, his memories were getting to him a bit more, but he continued to shake them off, his face showed his slight depression from time to time but he kept fighting it off with a smile.

Sara continued to bury her head into Shinki's chest, still crying a bit, and hugging all the tighter.

"I've decided..." Lolibear said looking toward Anthony a smile on her face. "Anthony, you...are now one of us."

"W-wait, what do you exactly mean?" Anthony asked, a little confused since he doesn't exactly know what the entiredy of team makai is.

"Exactly what it says~" Lolibear says with an even wider smile. "...I know you said you didn't need anything special for saving Sara but, I still think you deserve our loyalty. Anyone who saves a member of my family deserves nothing more than my unwavering friendship."

"T-thanks" Anthony muttered, unable to put in the appreciation he has, "I g-guess that kinda makes me part of the family?" he asked, jokingly.

"Of course, why not~" Shinki smiled with a bit of a chuckle chasing her words.

Anthony's face lit up slightly at the mentioning on those words "Oh t-thanks, I wasn't exactly expecting that answer" he said, blushing slightly.

"Hey Shinki maybe Anthony can be the uncle of the family, we don't have many uncles do we?" Lolibear said as she tugged on Shinki's robe in a playful manner, the goddess giggling in response to her antics as she placed her hand on Lolibear's head and gently ruffled her black hair.

"Yea, I guess Uncle can be the right term, at times" Anthony said, adding a little emphasis on the end of that line.

"Yay~" Lolibear chirped, the childishness of her current form pretty much making itself obvious now. "Sara, Sara we have an uncle now~!"

Sara pulled her head out of where it was, finally done with her tears, she was smiling a bit as well "Heh, that is nice, I guess our family is just getting bigger and bigger" Sara said, chuckling a little bit "So, how does it feel Uncle Anthony" Sara said, still giggling a bit.

"Oh, you don't need to say that" Anthony said, blushing a bit from the awkward feeling of suddenly becoming an uncle at the age of about seventeen.

"Oh, but its fun to say that Uncle Anthony" Sara said jokingly, having a grin on her face.

Shinki smiled to Anthony before noticing one aspect about all of this, "Oh, where were the two of you headed before?" The goddess asked, curious as to what they were up to before all of this had went down. "Excuse me if I'm prying..."

"Well, if you want to know we were honestly just taking a small walk around the base, and getting to know each other" Anthony explained, "Well that, and I was eventually gonna make my way to the garage where we parked that one van we sto- I mean barrowed..." he stuttered a bit on the last part, trying to not seem like a criminal.

"Ah I see," Shinki said with a nod before turning to to Sara with a smile. "It is, isn't it?"

"Just as it's fun to say Father Bear~" The goddess added as she looked over toward Lolibear who froze with a considerable blush on her face. "...Hm, or should I say, Mother Bear."

Sara got a little mischievous grin on her face for a bit, then quickly disappearing, she went up to Anthony and hugged him tightly, saying "Oh uncle Anthony, won't you give me a piggyback ride?" she was giggling all the while.

"W-w-what wait wait for a minute" Anthony was surprised by the sudden getting hugged and asking for a piggy back ride, his face became a deep red, and then he noticed his temperature, "oh crap..." he thought "Oh uh c-can we d-d-do this another time S-sara?" Anthony said, becoming frantic from being still in her hug, which was rather tight.

"Why not right now Uncle Anthony?" Sara said, holding on tighter as Anthony tried to wriggle out slightly, and his face was becoming a deeper shade of red.

"W-well I have my r-r-reasons" Anthony stuttered, realizing he was doomed at that moment, since his temperature just went up a little bit too high, and as soon as that hit, he went up in a poof of smoke, changing into his/her female form.

"...D-dammit..." Ana muttered, still in a hug from Sara, still giggling, remembering Anthony's/Ana's condition.

"Whoops, I kinda forgot that" Sara said, still giggling slightly.

"Araaa~ What happened?" Lolibear said tilting her head to the transformed Anthony.

"Hmm yes that is rather curious." Shinki added

"...Shady drugs and me being a bit too eager to change back into a guy..." Ana muttered, slightly embarrased. "Which all of this now turned me into some Ranma knock off..." Ana continued to mutter, her face completly red from showing this infront of her new family.

"Ah yes that...doctor." Shinki said remembering how kooky Eirin's drugs were in a nutshell. "But it's nothing to be embarrassed about, we all have our quirks here and there~" For some reason I feel the need to put emphasis on that ahoge...

"I guess so..." Ana said, brightening up slightly, Sara decided to let go of Ana, she still had a bit of a grin on her face from earlier.

"Well, at least it makes you an Uncle and an Aunt" Sara said, giggling still.

"Well...that's always interesting..." Ana said, rubbing her chin a bit "Ahem, either way thanks for accepting me into your family, and being kind about my, condition..." Ana said, scratching the back of her head while saying this.

"Yeah just like how, I'm a Papa Bear and a Mama Bear~" Lolibear said with a slight blush. "Oh it's no problem," Lolibear added.

"Thanks" Ana replied, though her voice was fine, her face looked like one of wanting something, but she was holding back on this. Ana remained silent for a bit, before finally asking "...uh, Shinki, I want to ask you for something..."

"Hm?" The goddess said with a slight tilt of her head.

"...I know it's kinda odd just going out and saying this but...can I have a hug?" Ana asked, her face still slightly red.

Shinki however, didn't seem to mind Ana's request unto her and gave the blushing girl her usual smile as she stepped toward her. "Of course you can have a hug~" She said as she wrapped her arms around Ana and hugging her close in a warming embrace.

"T-thanks" Ana stuttered slightly, quickly following up with hugging Shinki back, resting her head on Shinki

"Heh...right now it looks like Ana is more of a daughter than an aunt" Sara said, chuckling a little.

"W-what?" Ana was a little surprised from Sara's comment, making Ana think of Shinki of more as a mother, her face was blushing deep red as well from this idea.

"Ah it does seem that way doesn't it~" Shinki said to Sara, "Of course, having another daughter is never a bad thing..." She added as she patted Ana's head gently as she continued to hug her.

"Aah, w-w-well..." Ana was blushing deep red, stuttering to get words out, but was unable too, and decided to just enjoy the hug, smiling as well with it.

"Ara, so we're having another daughter?" Lolibear asked Shinki as she tugged on her robe.

"Hm, perhaps, that's all if Ana wants it." Shinki answered as she looked to Ana while hugging her still. "You don't mind do you? Being our new daughter?"

"W-well...I don't mind...I never really had siblings before..." Ana said, still studdering a bit

"Hmm, if Ana becomes my sister, does that mean her other form is my brother?" Sara questioned, bringing a hand to her chin.

"Ah, yeah that makes sense." Lolibear nodded in response to Sara's question. "Hee, Yuki and Mai will be happy to know they have a new brother...and a new sister~" Lolibear added

"This...this is nice" Ana muttered, happy with the image of being a part of a large family in her mind. Ana continues to rest her head on Shinki, the recent thoughts added to her mind making her much more at ease.

"...Shinki...can I call you....mother?" Ana said, looking up to Shinki from the hug.

"Of course, Ana..." Shinki said smiling down on the girl who hugged her. "You're a part of our family now, I see no reason why you can't call me 'mother." For a moment, Shinki paused...remembering what it was like when she hugged Alice this way...

"Thank you...mother" Ama said quietly, the usage of the term new to her as she continued to hold onto Shinki, enjoying this moment greatly.

"Hey, Ana~" Lolibear chimed in catching the attention of the goddess that was still hugging the girl in question. "Since you're a part of our family, why don't you come and meet the rest~?"

"Ah, that's a great idea, Fukuma-chan." Shinki agreed as she turned to Ana with a smile. "Do you want to meet your new sisters, Ana-chan~?"

"yea, I want to meet them" Ana replied, with her face still half buried into Shinki.

"That would be grea!t" Sara cheered as well, finally getting to see the rest of her family again.

"Yes, I'm sure everyone will be thrilled to see their loveable sister again." Shinki replied to Sara as she looked to Lolibear "Shall we go?"

"That we should," Lolibear answered as she turned to walk back to where the rest of the Makai group was located. "Hee, I wonder what everyone will say when they not only see their sister again, but discover they have a new one too~?"

"W-well, t-thanks again, s-so much" Ana muttered as she squeezed Shinki one more time before getting out of the hug, following Lolibear to the rest of team Makai is.

Sara walked up next to Ana, putting an arm around Ana's shoulder "Don't worry so much Ana, I should still be thanking you for doing this" Sara replied, a grin on her face "besides, I've always wanted a brother as well as more sisters" she added on.

It took about a few moments, but eventually, Lolibear and the gang arrived at the living quaters of the strange Shrine/Inn combo they resided in. "Ah, here we are-" Lolibear said as she turned to Ana with a smile. "Don't worry, we're nice folks even though we're all demons~" She said as she opened the door to their room...

"I hope so..." Ana muttered, shaking a little bit but not enough to truly notice, while Sara still had her arm around Ana.

"Don't worry Ana, you got me as well and I'll make sure you're good with all of us" Sara stated, giving Ana a quick hug before both of them enter the room.

Lolibear lead the group inside the room, the lot of them coming to see that Mai, Yuki and Luize reading a magazine together and Yumeko dusting around the room, apparently not ready to drop her maid qualities even for being in the outside world. "Oi, we're back~" Lolibear announced to everyone who looked up to see her and Shinki enter the room.

"Ah, Miss Shinki, Miss Owl-" Yumeko started before Shinki stopped her midsentence. "Erm...Miss Fukuma-chan, I take it you had a nice walk together?"

"Yeah, I bet they had a really nice walk together~" Yuki giggled before she took a glance up and saw something familiar waltz in with them. "Wha!?" She gasped evoking the attention of Mai, Luize and Yumeko. "S-Sara!?"

Yumeko raised an eyebrow and looked forward to see that Yuki's eyes were not telling any fibs in what they saw. "Sara...you're...alive?"

"Sara-chan~" Luize squealed running up to the gatekeeper and hugging her tightly, tears forming from her closed eyes. "W-where were you all of this time...w-we missed you oh so much..." She sobbed

"Yes...we...we had no idea where to look for you after the collapse of Makai..." Mai added walking up to Luize's side.

"Yuki, Mai, Luize, Yumeko...I'm finally back, it, was a tough road, b-but...I'm finally w-with all of you again" Sara said, starting to tear up a bit, hugging Luize, Ana stepped back a bit to give Sara and her sisters some room, she watched on with a smile on her face.

"Ah, you will have to thank Ana here," Shinki said as she motioned toward Ana, the lot of them looking up to her. "She saved Sara from all of the hardships she had to endure, she helped here where we could not and for that I would like that everyone give her your thanks."

"Y-yea, just don't worry too much about giving thanks, I'm glad enough just helping" Ana said, stuttering a bit with other thoughts flowing through her mind at the time.

"W-wow...I didn't expect so many sisters..." Ana mutters quietly, her mind was slightly adrift thinking about family and things like that.

Sara continued to hug her sisters, crying a bit in joy while doing so, eventually somehow pulling them all together into one big group hug.

As Sara hugged everyone in her group hug, Yuki was first to note, on what Ana had said. "Sisters...?"

"Ah right, should you tell them Shinki?" Lolibear said with Shinki nodding in response.

"You see Yuki...Ana is now a part of our family." Shinki explained a smile spreading on her face at the thought of having a new daughter. "Fukuma-chan, saw that since she saved Sara then she should be a member of our family."

"We...we have a new sister now?" Mai said just as astonished as Yuki was at the news.

"So it seems, Mai." Yumeko commented with a smile, a chuckle chasing behind her words.

"Y-yea, that's me..." Ana muttered, blushing a bit in embarrassment.

"Well, i-it's nice to meet y-you all...my sisters..." Ana said, a smile growing on her face.

"W-wow this is, like...the best day ever~!" Yuki chirped with profound glee. "Not only do we get to see our Sara again, we even now have a new sister too!"

"Ah, I mean, I'm Yuki. Nice to meetcha Ana~" The crimson witch greeted to Ana with a smile. "And this here is Mai, me and her are pretty tight." She then motions to the ice witch who waved to her a faint smile on her face. It should be noted that Mai doesn't always smile...at least not to those who she doesn't quite know.

"Hello Ana." Mai added.

"Hello Yuki, Mai, it's nice to meet you two" Ana spoke, sounding a bit more confident.

"I-I'm Luize, it's a pleasure to have a new sister in our family." Luize said, smiling through her tears. She's still caught up on seeing Sara again it seems. "Ah sorry I'm...still a tad bit choked up from seeing Sara-chan again..."

"Hello Luize, it's nice to meet you as well" Ana said, smiling more.

"I'm sure it's alright, Luize." Yumeko stated as she soon stepped forward and curtsied in greeting to her newest sibling. "Greetings, Miss Ana. I am Yumeko, Miss Shinki's and Miss Owl-" Shinki coughed evoking Yumeko to stop and rephrase her greeting. "Miss Fukuma-chan's maid. It is a pleasure to have you within our family, I hope you will come to enjoy our company as much as we'll enjoy yours."

"T-thanks Yumeko" Ana said, smiling a bit more, but her eyes started to tear up slightly,"It's...nice to meet you all...a-and to have a family l-like this..." Ana spurted out, starting to tear up a bit "I...could n-never imagine h-having a family l-like this" Ana said, her tears trickling down her face, with her smile still there. "B-before...I only had my f-father....b-but now...I h-have all of you..." Ana said, the tears of joy not stopping any time soon, she pulled all of the sisters into a group hug.

"T-t-thank a-all of y-you...so...s-so much" Ana went on, crying more as she hugged all of her new sisters tightly.

"It's okay, Ana." Shinki said returning the hug, "You may not have had a family before, and I'm sorry that was the case...but now, you have us to be your family."

"T-thanks...M-mother" Ana mutters, choking on her tears.

Even though the lot of them were not as close to the other members as Team Gensokyo, now was pretty much the only moment that marked the Makai group being as close to another as they've ever gotten. Needless to say, this was one of the more...happier moments Lolibear and her group had ever experienced...


As they say, one doesn't always have to be related to you by blood to be within a loving family that cares.

[trancehime]

Outside Saniwa Shrine, 5:20 AM, Day 6

"What did you see?" VIVIT asked, noticing a very downtrodden Hirowaza, sitting on the ground right by the shrine's doors. Hirowaza had been thinking about what he saw earlier, and decided not to burden anyone with it. Instead, he had been reflecting on the previous transgressions and felt that he had a debt to pay everyone. They had allowed him to do his job, and as a result he felt like he had an obligation to do that in return. Furthermore, he had assisted in defending against Mima. Hirowaza had decided from then on that he was going to do his personal agenda in secret, but the horrendous apparition he had seen earlier complicated things. It was going to make keeping secrets a lot harder. Hirowaza eyed Meira suddenly appearing by one of the post. Meira was about to ask the same thing that VIVIT did a few moments ago, but Hirowaza had started to say something.

"I saw something terrible," Hirowaza said, gravely. "It told me I was going to die early. I'm not entirely sure what to make this. I want to help others, but I must also cope with my fate... And now this." he continued, looking at his blade in a sad manner, could almost be considered rather melancholic. Meira and VIVIT just stared at Hirowaza, amazed. "I don't believe you," Meira said. "That must be someone weaving magics to scare you." VIVIT nodded in agreement, but it was as if she could comprehend something like that. Hirowaza shook his head. "I want to think it is someone fiddling with arcana to demoralize me," he said, sounding rather argumentative. "But I fear this is actually truthful. You have seen the terrible power I wield." Hirowaza said. VIVIT clasped her hands in fear. She had opened her mouth to say something, but Meira walked to Hirowaza and kicked him over. Hirowaza fell backwards, not uttering a sound. He stood up to his feet and dusted himself.

"You disgust me," Meira said. "You're here to use them?"

"No," Hirowaza said. "I did not know about many of these revelations until recently."

"Don't make me hit you again."

VIVIT could not bear to see this happening. "The both of you, stop it!" she yelled, causing a booming resonance around the area. It could wake up someone who hadn't achieved REM sleep yet if they were sleeping, and it would definitely scare anyone who was awake. "Don't fight! Let's solve the problem rationally and in a sensible way!" Upon hearing this, Hirowaza turned around and did not face VIVIT and Meira. "You did not explain the origin of your powers to us, and now you are musing about this curse that looms and threatens to kill you." VIVIT continued. She approached Hirowaza and patted his shoulder. Meira simply sighed and tapped her foot impatiently.

"It comes from... here." Hirowaza said, tapping his head. "Descended from a line of exorcists. Special ones. There is apparently a rival family that I've been locked into eternal combat with. The living one had apparently saved me, and I do not believe I can bring myself to kill her as prophecized from the lore."

"That's bullshit," Meira said bluntly. "You're daft."

"Think whatever you want of me," Hirowaza said. "If you--"

"Stop whining and do something about it."

"..."

Hirowaza looked down on the ground,

"...Touche."

[Nemo★Ma]

Saniwa Shrine 4:30 AM

"So that's how you did it." Said Meiling as GA-05 looks at his "Senpai", whose condition is getting better.

"Eh? Huh?" The boy turned around, "Heh, that's what I should do, either I die protecting her in this mission, or my boss will kill me if I failed it again. Ahh, that's only joking!" he saw Meiling's expression and then added.

"You are not as reliable as her, not even by 1/10." Meiling sighed.

"Say, you have known GA-04 for a long time, right? Since you are a Gensokyo Resident." GA-05 took out two golden dices from his shirt pocket and rolled them on the bed-side table.

"Hah, Eleven." He looks at the result.

"Well, I haven't see her that much in the Mansion, She come to the Mansion sometimes to preform healing actions when there are fairies wounded." MeiLing started, "She normally lives on the edge of Magical Forest. However, she proves to be very nice. Actually I have never saw her get angry before, not even once."

"Whoa.. That's highly unusual." The boy rolled the dice again, however one of them rolled down the table and .. "Eh?" he looks on as the 2nd dice roll all the way down the table and falls on Amarillo's head, then went all the way down into her blanket.

"Honestly I didn't met her before this mission, she was erased from our database and is no longer treated a "military unit". " The boy said as he gave up the idea reaching for the second die, then he looked on the table, "Ha, another six." He murmured.

"Giving her nature, it's better to keep her off any battlefield before she get herself killed by some assassin." Meiling replied. "And I see you like dices and coins...."

"Well, One must respect the randomness and luck of life." GA-05 tried to take the die back when a weak voice interrupted his actions.

"That will make it... Twelve.. then." Amarillo holds up the second dice and showed the numbers on it. "I envy your luck."

"Ah, I'm sorry, If I get here sooner..." GA-05 is shocked, "Whatever, now you need rest, you have lost a big portion of blood.."

"... ... I know, and Lily's potential power awakes yet another function of that spear, too bad it's broken now." Seeing the boy's confused eyes, she added "Telepathy is handy in this situation. "

GA-05 take the 2nd dice from Amarillo and put that inside his pocket. "Please assign the mission." he said.

"Mission? Just ensure everyone is alive, anyone that's from gensokyo and their partners, that is." Amarillo try to get up but failed to do so. Not only because of Lily is sleeping using her body as a pillow but -

"Owowowow~ That hurts~" She lean back due to the sudden pain, "it's far more than I thought. Heh." She saw the blood on Lily's wings and dress, then added, "and more blood than I thought too."

"So that if I arrive a bit sooner I can stop this by-" The boy continues.

"By what? Launching a reckless attack in front of that Mima? She is from Gensokyo too, mind you." Amarillo's tone rised a bit higher, "We cannot afford to break the balance more. Also, I saw you has a partner too, so stop abusing ATA Commands."

"What is ATA Command?" Meiling asked, but GA-05 didn't reply.

"Ash to Ash Command, bringing the maximum damage with the maximum price." Amarillo explained, "like that reckless charge he pulled out as his final attack a while ago. That attack have 50% chance of the attacker being killed because of-"

"OK, I get it." GA-05 sighed more, "I get it, just standard defense stance will do, right?"

"Whatever you mean." Amarillo lean back and lied down "Guess i have no choice but to sleep more."

"It seems Eirin applied something called "Phoenix's Tail" on you." Meiling looks at the bottle on the deskside table.

"Not that again." Amarillo sighed, "It has brought me more trouble than its benefit."


(Part 1/3 Finished.)

[Helepolis]

- - -

[LordVant]

Saniwa Shrine(outside): 6:00am; Co-post between Vant and Trancehime

Major Dialogue Post

Vant begins walking up a long staircase, followed closely by Neko-Kanako, while Neko-Suwako and Orange bounce ahead of them
Suwako: "Come on! Hurry up!"
Orange: "Yeah! Walk faster!"
Vant: "......no"
Kanako: "Quite blunt aren't you?"
Vant: "I'm not in the mood to have fun, let's just get to the shrine"
Vant: "Besides, they're having enough fun for all of us, right?"
Kanako: "ehehe.....right..."
Vant: "Ah...there's the top"
*Vant and crew come in site of the end of the stairs and emerge to find an old style shrine, and no one in sight*
Vant: ".......of course, no one here"
*Hirowaza suddenly walked to Vant's location, he being unaware of anyone there.*
Hirowaza: "What is your purpose here?"
Vant: "Ah looks like someone is here"
*Suwako and Orange peek out from behind Kanako's dress*
Kanako: "When did you two get there?" Nevermind, who are you?"
"I'll spare my own thoughts on your blatant disregard for courtesy," Hirowaza said as VIVIT and Meira made their way to his side.
"Anyway. The name's Hirowaza. Identify yourselves and why you're here so damnably early." *VIVIT and Meira had also introduced themselves, giving their names.
"I'm Vant, this is Kanako, Suwako, and Orange, we came here because.....well, their idea" *waves a hand at Kanako*
Suwako: "Because it's a shrine and we're goddesses!"
"Looking for a place to stay after your precious shrine is lost?" Hirowaza asked.
Kanako: "Is it just me, or is he coming off as a complete jackass?"
Vant: "Kanako...do you want to stay here or not?"
Meira stepped forward. "It's not under our jurisdiction to decide," she said. "But everyone's asleep. You'd best stay with us here and wait for everyone to get up before we make a decision."
VIVIT sighed. "Forgive Hirowaza, he's in a very foul spell right now... Almost as if it were that time of the month, well... Don't concern yourself with that."
Vant: "Right...well, thank you for your hospitality"
"So, how'd you get here?" Meira asked, while Hirowaza decided to sit on the ground and close his eyes, groaning about his back pains due to size of his chest.
Kanako: "When Gensokyo fell apart we-..."
Vant: "We came in from the forest, just traveling"
Meira tilted an eyebrow. VIVIT knew something was wrong. "Traveling, eh?"
Vant: "Decided to go out and got lost"
Hirowaza: "Ye must've come a long way."
Kanako: "Quite"
Suwako: "What god is this to?"
Suwako: "The shrine I mean"
Hirowaza: "This shrine? Uh... Long story. I'd rather not talk about that now..."
Vant: "Okay, how long have you been here?"
Hirowaza: "Not very long."
Vant: "hmm, may we come inside?"
Hirowaza: "Do so at your own risk."
Vant: "there's a risk? What, is it a haunted house?"
Orange: "No haunted houses!"
Hirowaza: "If people wake up by your noise, you may be considered an intruder.
Vant: "Then wouldn't an escort be appropriate?"
"Then I'll go with you," Meira said. "I doubt mister whiny there is in a mood to accompany you."
Suwako: "Yay! Tour! tour!"
Hirowaza: "Don't be so noisy, you'll wake the others."
Suwako: "Sowwy"
Meira: "Let's get a move on."
Vant: "Well then, lead on Meira, come on Kanako"
Orange: "What about us?"
Vant: "Oh you can stay out here and wait for a few days"
Orange: *starts tearing up*
Vant: "I'm kidding, come on Orange, you too Suwako"
*Meira sighed and led Vant and his troupe through the Saniwa shrine.*
Suwako: "ooooooohhh, nice shrine~"
Kanako: "I like it~"
Meira: "I see that you are excited, we shall take it up with Reimu-san in the morning."
Meira: "Oh, wait... It IS morning. Technically. Oh well."
Kanako: "woah woah woah, Reimu-san is here?"
Meira: "Indeed. Most of us reside here."
Suwako: "Reimu Hakurei-san?"
Meira: "Yes."
Kanako: "WE DID IT!!! WE FOUND OUR WAY BACK TO THE OTHERS!!!!"
Suwako: "YAY!!!!!"
*Vant quickly covers their mouths*
Meira: "In the name of Reimu's balls, keep your voices down!"
Vant: "...please keep quiet" *menacing look*
*Suwako&Kanako nod their heads slowly*
Kanako: "Do you know Sanae? Green hair-"
Suwako: "Has a frog clip and a snake on her hair"
Kanako: "White and blue miko outfit?"
Meira: "Can't say I've seen her recently."
*Kanako trades a look with Suwako and appears disheartened*
Vant: "Well, since you know Reimu, and she did say that most of you people reside here"
Suwako: "That's good though, we've found a lot of us. We were right to head for the shrine~"
Kanako: "See? Goddesses intuition works"
Vant: "Tch, lucky guess"
Meira: "Just because you're here doesn't mean we can guarantee your stay though, but I'm sure Reimu will make considerations."
Kanako: "We're from Gensokyo too though!"
Vant: "Quiet Kanako"
Meira: "I know you are, deities of the Moriya Shrine."
Vant: "hm...so you know them?"
Meira: "We of Gensokyo tend to know each other even in passing."
Vant: "well in that case I'll leave"
Kanako: "Wait what?"
Vant: "You found you're people, more residents of Gensokyo, my job's done. Good luck"
Meira: "You, ...Vant?"
Suwako: "Hey wait a minute! You can't just leave us!"
Vant: "I'm sure you'll find someone to make a bond with"
Meira: "You can't abandon those who you made a pact with... Not now, at least.
Vant: "Watch me"
*Hirowaza had finally calmed down and was already standing behind Vant.*
Kanako: ".....oh hell no"
Hirowaza: "Not if I have anything to say about it."
Vant: "Please leave me alone"
"Why do you plan to leave miss Kanako and miss Suwako, anyway?" Hirowaza asked.
*Kanako forms some shrine ropes and lassoes Vant and pulls him back*
Hirowaza: "Do you think they can really find someone to make a bond with? What if Reimu was in a bad mood? And ho' there, miss Kanako. I won't hurt him."
Kanako: "You're not going anywhere, got it?"
Vant: "You're really trying to stop me?"
Kanako: "Who said anything about trying?"
"I suggest you listen to miss Kanako and stay with them before something disastrous happens." Hirowaza said very bluntly.
Vant: *sigh* "I prefer being intact"
Hirowaza: "I think you'd be even more dead if you strayed away, personally."
Vant: "why's that?"
Hirowaza: "Shadow beings lurk this land. You need help if you're to defend yourself from their power."
Vant: "I've taken care of a large one, and several of the felines as well already. So says their cat ears" *hook a thumb at Kanako and Suwako*
Kanako: "yeah....wait how'd you get your arm loose?"
Vant: "Oh, do you want me to put it back?"
Kanako: ".....nevermind"
Hirowaza sighed and looked away. "I'm going back outside to keep watch. Meira-dono, what do you plan to do?"
"I have questions," Meira said. "I'll be here."
"You go do that." Hirowaza said and walked outside again.
Vant: *stands up* "so, you said questions?"
Meira: "So, miss Kanako and miss Suwako mentioned that they were trying to find the others. Do you have an ulterior motive for doing so?"
Kanako: "We're trying to find Sanae, and trying to figure out why Gensokyo fell apart"
Meira: "You might find some helpful information here, then."
Vant: "Well that's good to hear"
Meira: "Also, I've to ask, Vant, how did you meet these two lovely goddesses?"
Vant: "Well I wouldn't say lovely but..." *gets smacked over the head by Kanako* "I helped them escape from imprisonment"
Orange: "Hey don't forget about me!"
Vant: "and we found her in the forest"
Meira: "Orange, I remember you. Do you remember me?"
Orange: "....um.....oh yeah! I remember you! umm...ma...ma...Meira right?"
Meira: "Yes! How've you been, Orange-san?!"
Orange: "I was laying around, enjoying the sun, and then I suddenly woke up and they were standing over me"
Meira: "I guess you've been conned to going with them? Haha."
Vant: "Actually she was dying" *deadpan*
Meira: "Geez, you don't have to be so tactless."
Suwako: "He's stingier than that other person"
Vant: "...yeah pretty much"
Meira: "I gathered."
Vant: "Anything else you want to ask?"
Meira: "After gathering information, what do you plan to do nexgt?"
Kanako: "Well, once we find Sanae, I guess we stay here with everyone else"
Meira: "Fair enough."
Vant: "You mean you will"
Suwako: *Jumps on Vant* "WE will"
"You need to quit thinking like that, mister Vant," Meira said. "It's unhealthy for you in this situation."
"You sound like you could get along with Hirowaza-dono outside. You both seem like complete dicks."
Vant: "I'd get along better if I left"
Kanako: "You wouldn't be getting along at all in that case"
Vant: "Exactly~"
Meira: "You're hopeless. I'm sure Kanako-sama will beat some sense into you."
Kanako: "hehehe, gladly"
*Suddenly, there was a scream.*
Vant: *eyes harden* "Who was that?"
*Meira tilted her head and ran outside to see VIVIT trying to wake up a now unconscious Hirowaza.*
*Vant and party follow*
Meira: "Is he playing dead, VIVIT?" she asked, kicking Hirowaza's body over to make sure he wasn't just playing around.
VIVIT: "H, h, hey! D, d, don't do that! Look at his stomach!"
Meira: "It looks bigger than it usually is. What do you suppose that means?"
VIVIT poked the strange bloated stomach. "It doesn't seem like a cancer or tumor."
Vant: "Well, this looks fun"
Hirowaza woke up and felt something strange. "What is it? Do I have something on my face?"
VIVIT looked back at the problem area and noticed it was now completely normal. "What the...?"
Vant: "Oi you're 2 months pregnant when you're unconcious"
*Hirowaza stood up and looked at Vant and company.* "What...? I don't follow."
Vant: *sigh* "That's why I wanna leave, ever since the yakuza and now you two, nothing is right anymore"
Hirowaza: "...Argh, the yakuza... I want to kill them so bad."
*VIVIT was attending to Hirowaza and analyzing the abnormality while Meira once again assumed position of spokesperson.*
Meira: "Nothing was ever right in this world, mister Vant." she said. "You'd better live with the consequences instead of contemplating escape from your comrades.":
Vant: "Ignorance is bliss my dear"
Meira: "You won't get anything out of that, sir. Kanako-sama, I implore you. You want him to stay, right? Better fix him up."
Kanako: "I'm about to crack his skull"
Vant: "That'd kill you as well"
Meira: "Then don't act like a selfish jerk, and maybe everything will turn out fine like rainbows and flowers."
Vant: "Rainbows are tricks of light and flower fields are burned, don't talk to me about happiness"
Suwako: "Geez, you're such a downer"
Meira: "Happiness? Far from the main lesson here, my dear. But if you really want to leave, be my guest. You'll come running back to us whining. I swear."
Orange: "Yeah, just try being happy"
Vant: "I've never run back to anyone, besides, what reason would I have to come back to you?
Meira: "I see we have an arrogant brat amongst us."
Vant: "Arrogant? Well yes but, can you answer my question?"
Meira: "I'd like to see you try and handle a shitload of barbarous, demonic spirits on your own."
Vant: "I took out a large one and quite a few felines already"
Meira: "You've already mentioned this. And those were nothing."
Vant: "Besides why would they come after me?"
Meira: "You'd be surprised."
Vant: "Random act of hunger?"
Meira: "Possibilities are boundless."
Vant: "So? If I die, I die"
Kanako: "You don't care about your own life?"
Vant: "All people die, why worry so much about it?"
Suwako: "You've gotta pay more attention to life and stop being so apathetic"
Meira: "You're even worse than Hirowaza, man."
Vant:  "Sorry, war does that to people. Well, not war according to the politician bastards"
Meira: "Hmph."
Vant: "What's currently happening here?"
Meira: "Something big is going down. You should consult with Reimu."
Kanako: "Alright, where is she right now?"
Meira: "She's... Hmm. I'm not even sure."
Vant: "I guess we'll have to search, huh?

To be continued...

[Caber Knight Etch-A-Sketch]

Ruined Dream


(will fill in later with intense battle scene where Etch is injured)


Saniwa Shrine 5:25 AM, Day 6


Etch woke with a start, the room all black. The dive was nearly a disaster, his heart pounding from his near-death experience...

Unable to get back asleep, Etch took to wandering the shrine. The cool morning air calmed him down and soothed his senses, and except for the yelling in the distance, it was very calming. He took to the rooftop and sat, thinking over all that had happened. The collapse of Gensokyo, the near misses and close calls, the Sky Ray, and the Yakuza, it was just on thing after another. Time passed, and Etch sighed as his ears perked up, hearing someone behind him.

"Something wrong, Etch?" It was Nitori. Seemed that she had trouble sleeping as well.

"Nah, nothing's wrong. I was just thinking over all the stuff that we've gone through." Etch said as Nitori sat down beside him

"Well, at least you're ok."

"Bah, something like that couldn't kill me, you know."

"Don't say that! I was so worried..."

"Hey, you don't have to worry, I won't die. Besides, I said I would protect you, so if I die, I couldn't possibly do a good job at that."

"Don't joke around like that!" Nitori stood up in a fit. "I can't stand you getting hurt all the time!"

"Eh, the pain isn't too much, I've been through worst." Etch said as he stood up as well "and I did say I would protect you, so--"

"You idiot!" Nitori suddenly held onto Etch.

"Nitori?!" Whether it was the fact that no one else was around, or it was because it was Etch, Nitori seemed a bit more bold in her actions.

Her grip around Etch tightened, as though she was afraid he would go away suddenly. Etch could feel is chest start to get wet from Nitori's tears. "Don't you get it?! I don't want you to get hurt anymore! I love you!" Nitori began crying as she buried her face into Etch's chest.

Etch put his arms around Nitori as she sobbed her eyes out. "Don't worry, I'm not going to go anywhere..." While Etch's face was a gentle one, he was panicing on the inside. Did she just declare her love to me?! Man, what am I going to do? This, combined with Momizi's kiss from a couple of days ago, lead to one hell of a dilemma. It would not be until later that Nitori would realize what she had said. Etch simply held Nitori in his arms until she calmed down...

Of course, since the two of them were standing up, they could have easily been seen by anyone who bothered to look up. Even if no one looked up, two people standing on a roof is hard to ignore...

[Bias Bus]

=== Saniwa Shrine/Inn (Team Spidercats) - 5:57 AM ~ Day 6 ===

Toshiro couldn't sleep...

Well, he had instances where he would doze off, but eventually he would wake right back up and stare back at the ceiling like he was doing right now. Although now, it wouldn't matter much, as it nearly time to get up and get ready for that strange wedding today anyway. He really had no idea as to how such a thing came up, hell, he didn't even know the people who were getting married. He's only heard it from Yamame who overheard one of the residents speak of such a thing, and afterward she came to tell him of the joyous news of what was to come. Toshiro only reacting with a well placed. "...What?" Well, he was now positive that there was never a dull moment around these people, everyday something was happening, be it good or bad. And if it wasn't then you can be sure that something will occur in the near future. Well at least the two of them were happy with each other, unlike most married couples these days...

Still the fact that the two getting married were both girls seemed to weird Toshiro out a bit more than he first thought. Now, Toshiro knew of folks who swung that way, but he never thought he'd get to see a full-on wedding between the two of them. Yamame told him of how Gensokyo has alot of people who do in fact swing that way...albeit both ways so such a thing isn't uncommon back in that realm. And upon asking how they make a child when each person (or youkai) has the same...erm, equipment, Yamame simply dropped the subject with 'Magic' and simply left everything else alone.

A bit of a cop out, but Yamame made it clear that magic in Gensokyo is pretty much the "So  I don't have to explain it" kinda thing...

Speaking of kinships, Toshiro himself felt as though he's managed to get to know his partner, Yamame, a little bit better during this time. Yamame telling him of her home underground and how she used to have a friend named Kisume who...has yet to be found by anyone yet. She voiced her concearn for the girl's safety as Kisume wasn't exactly one who was strong enough to fend off the threats that this world had in store for them. As negative as Toshiro was feeling these days, he couldn't find it in him to just flat out say that Kisume wasn't okay (even though that thought did cross his mind several times), instead he simply reminded Yamame to remain confident in Kisume and maybe she'll turn up. And it was then that Yamame hugged himWhile Orin also seemed to take a bit of a liking to him as well, which was nice being Toshiro was hoping the two of them could get along sometime...if ever.

Maybe it had something to do with the feline features he had sprouted recently...

... ... ...

Hmm, looks like a flashback is in order, isn't it...?

*** Karuisuwa Shopping District ~ Day 5 (Flashback) ***

"Do I really have to go...?" Toshiro complained as Yamame had the 18 year old by the arm dragging him with her to the bustling shopping district of Karuisuwa. Orin as held close to her in her other arm, the fork-tailed cat not complaining of finally getting out for once as opposed to Toshiro who obviously wished for something different. Still this didn't overshadow the fact of how Yamame, someone a bit shorter than Toshiro was able to sustain such a grip on his arm. Then again, Toshiro himself isn't really a physical guy as it stands...

"Yes you do." Yamame replied, having heard this same complaint a total of 3 times, once when she said of where they were going, a second time on their way here and just now when they arrived at their destination. "Some fresh air will do you some good for once, besides Orin and I were getting sorta stir crazy." Yamame mumbled the last part of her sentence, not wanting Toshiro to know that part of the reason they were out here was because she and Orin were bored stiff of being stuck inside most of the day.

"Well yeah I suppose I have stayed inside alot, not counting the time I ran away from home..." Toshiro replied seeing that the tsuchigumo's words held some truth to them, if you consider the fact that he was a slight hikkikomori before ever coming to the Saniwa Shrine/Inn area. Even so, there was still one thing that made this trip all the more fruitless, "But that still doesn't explain why we had to come here of all places...seeing as to how we, y'know, don't have any money to buy anything with."

"Silly Toshiro, we could always just browse we don't have to buy anything." Yamame said with chuckle and a roll of her eyes, before she paused and looked around. "...Now, where's Junes...?"

"Junes?" Toshiro raised an eyebrow walked to Yamame's side, not realizing they were still holding hands. "Uhm, It's in the area, but we need to head back to where I used to live first..."

"Ah...but that's pretty far from here isn't it?" Yamame said with a sigh, before she looked down to gaze upon their hands being intertwined with one another.

"Something wrong, you...look a little red" Toshiro said coming to notice Yamame's blush but, as per the usual, mistaking it as something else.

"Ah! No, nothing's wrong." Yamame replied turning away from Toshiro so is not to reveal to him how red her face has gotten. "Let's...just head to Junes before the crowd comes..."

"Ah you're right, Junes can get pretty crowded on a day like today..." Toshiro nodded as he directed the two youkai to an alley way located between a Jewlery Store and a Bakery. "I think if we go through here we'll come out on the street that leads to my house...but it's pretty shady so stick close to me and Orin...try not to wander off..."

*** Karuisuwa Back Alleys - ~ Day 5 (Flashback) ***

You know when you have a sudden idea to do something, but then when you actually get around to doing it...you realize that your idea...isn't such a good one anymore?

That is what was occuring just as Toshiro, Yamame and Orin began their walk through the back alleys of the shopping district. The surrounding walls were dreary and imposing, and even though the sunshine above was bright, this area still managed to give off an unsettling vibe. Perhaps it was the eeire silence that suddenly overpowered the muffled cacophony of civilization that was supposed to be echoing behind the 3 of them. Yeah, that was part of it...

Toshiro looked around taking in the sighs around him, noticing that the further they went, the darker it was getting so much so that the sky above was beginning to transform. Mutating from the usual blue it harborded and warping into something dark and red. It didn't take a genius to figure out that something was horribly wrong, or rather something was about to go horribly wrong. Toshiro looked to Yamame who did not look comfortable with this at all, her face seething of worry and unease, Orin was just as bad if not worse, the hair on the cat's body standing up as she began hissing.

Suddenly, Yamame stopped in her tracks grappling Toshiro's arm in a grip that was far stronger than her last one. "Toshiro...maybe, we should go back..." Yamame suggested her eyes , "I have a really bad feeling about this place..."

"You read my mind," Toshiro nodded in equal nervousness as he turned only to hear something behind him, a disgusting and stomach-wrenching sound that resonated into his ear and ate at his mind. Toshiro slowly turned his head to see some form of black mass writhing behind him, tendrils of shadow-like appendages reaching out making a horrible sound that can only be described as vile. "What...what the hell..." Toshiro stammered his eyes growing wider for each second he watched the eldritch mass take shape into some form of creature that was not of this Earth. His heart pounded in his chest, and his mouth suddenly lost all moisture seeing the mass of blackness twist around itself, a churning and sloshing sound echoing throughout the alley as a pair of large red eyes opened to meet Toshiro's and began staring not at Toshiro...but at his soul. "Y-Yamame wha...what the hell is going on...?" Toshiro breathed his hand pointed at the shadow that was now emanating of deep throaty growls and grunts that grated at Toshiro's brain.

"I-I don't know, let's just go before it comes after us." Yamame said as she tugged at Toshiro's arm only to have her own come to meet her mouth as she saw the shadowy mass lunge at Toshiro from behind. "Toshiro! Look out!"

Toshiro looked back and in just the nick of time her threw himself back only to land on his bottom and come to lay eyes as the creatures shape began to solidify into something tangible, it's arched back undulating in a black fire that was slowly becoming tamed the longer it lay in front of the frightened 18 year old. Eventually it's form finally became solid, letting them see it for what it was...a small, chubby feline like creature sporting not only large red eyes, but a second set of closed eyes beneathe the open ones that glowed in the darkness of the alley. it's neck was adorned in a poofy mane, a pair of bat-like wings sprouting from it's back and flesh-rending talons on it's front paws.

The cat like monster reared it's head back and let loose a loud eldritch roar that was neither cat like or beast like...it's sound was something that nothing mankind was able to hear. And all of this coming from a creature that was as tall as Orin was on four-legs...

BGM Load ~ Sacrifice Part II

"Toshiro!" Yamame screamed snapping Toshiro from his gaze at the creature long enough for him to see it come at him in a charge. Toshiro rose from his position and leaped forward, only to feel his pantleg swiped at by the powerful slashing of the creature that suddenly had it out for him. For what reason was beyond both him and Yamame...but it was clear that this cat was not going to let them leave here...alive. As Toshiro scrambled away from the beast, her stood aside Yamame and Orin having absolutely no clue on what to do on how to combat this creature...hell, he didn't even know what it was aside from the shape it took in front of him...

"Yamame...what..."

"I don't know." Yamame finished for Toshiro her eyes glued onto the cat like creature that was reared down as if ready to pounce at any given. "But we have to do something...if not then we're going to die here."

"Die..." That was all Toshiro heard. He had no idea on where this thing came from or what it was, but now all of a sudden he was fighting for his life in order to fend it off. It didn't seem fair at all...but, this was how life worked...sorta. Before he could even ask Yamame on what she had in mind, he felt his body being pulled over away from another death charge from the creature that was so powerful that the cat crashed into the cement below creating a large impact crater.

"You have to stay focused, Toshiro!" Yamame chided.

"On what, beating something that I don't even know can be killed or not!?" Toshiro shot back before his arm thrust forward pointing to the cat monster that apparently had it's head still stuck in the ground from the initial attack it used earlier. "I don't even know what to use against it...hell, I don't even have a weapon to fight it with!"

"Here use this!" Yamame said thrusting a long steel pipe to Toshiro, the confused blonde looking to Yamame to which she only responded with, "Don't ask questions, just work with me and Orin and...we might be able to get through this." Might? There's no room for doubt in this sort of situation, but Toshiro wasn't exactly optimistic about their chances either. Sure it was only one of...whatever this thing was, but it was still pretty powerful and to be going up against it with only a steel pipe, webbing and a twin tailed kasha...the odds of winning are...kinda slim...

The monster eventually managed to pull it's overly large head from the ground and shook it about to regather whatever sense it had. Yamame, not one to let the creature attack again, threw her hands forward and unleashed a net of webbing that ensnared the beast, evoking a loud roar from the creature as it immedieatly began to struggle within the stick webbing. "Now! Let's pound it with everything we have!"

And pound they did. Toshiro using his panic to beat the creature with the steel pipe upside it's large head, Yamame having picked up a small 2x4 and unloading on the creature's body and even Rin was biting and clawing at whatever part that wasn't being assaulted by her two comrades. The lot of them didn't let up for a second, as they continued to punish the creature squirming underneath the fury of their strikes, a sickening sound of flesh being rended and fluid being splattered echoing into the crimson sky as Toshiro and his team put every fiber of their fear and strength into killing whatever this thing was. For a moment it looked like that this single mauling would be the end of the creature

Until things took a nosedive...

The pressured monster let out a thunderous roar as it's tail took on the form of a serpent like appendage that opened it's maw to tear into the three of them. Had it not been for Orin yowling out upon seeing it, Toshiro nor Yamame would have been able to escape being torn into shreds by the razor sharp fangs. Toshiro grabbing Yamame by the collar and jerking her back with him, as both of their bodies tumbling back as Orin leapt back with them barely dodging a savage bite from the tail mouth that hissed at them and began to eat the webbing that coated it's owner.

However as soon as Yamame looked up she saw the creature coming down on them. There was no way to dodge the attack, even if she turned over Toshiro would be caught under the creature's body and owould most likely have his face and whatever else the beast could grab hold of, ripped from his body. Either way she looked at it...this was a lose-lose situation. Was she to take the monster's thrashing to protect Toshiro...or flip over and let Toshiro deal with the monster? Suddenly, a black blur sprang from her side tackling the beast down to the pavement and pinning it to the ground, the noise the blur had made was that of an outraged cat...hell it was beyond that of a normal cat now, but it's cry was something that was far beyond a angry yowl of a cat. Yamame bolted upright to see, no one else but Orin, atop the cat monster tearing into whatever her teeth and claws could get a hold of. Her victim soon flipped her over onto her back and attempted to do the same to her, only to have Orin's paws bat away the assaults. The two battling cats rolled around in a primal tussle, dust flying from their heated struggle as Orin's piercing cries clashed with the monster's primeval roars like that of warring titans.

"Orin..."

Unfortunately, It was tragically obvious that Orin wasn't winning the battle. Despite being the same size as the creature, she was far out classed by it's ferocity and strength, and slowly the scales were tipped into the monsters favor the longer the battle was drawn out. "We have to do something!" Toshiro said to Yamame who nodded quickly and rose to help the losing kasha. However before Yamame or Toshiro could even make a move to assist the kasha, the cat monster's tail morphed into a mucsled arm that swung forward with tremendous force, slamming into the kasha's side, sending her flying backward.

"ORIN!!" Yamame shouted bolting from Toshiro's side at a near break neck speed, her arms out stretched to intercept the kasha. Thankfully Yamame managed to catch Rin wtihin her arms, at the price of being pushed back  a few feet from the sheer velocity Rin was traveling and having the wind knocked out of her. Yamame gasped and feel to her knees unable to catch her breath for a good 2 minutes before looking up to see the monster leering at her and the kasha she held protectively against her body. Rin wasn't moving...but appeared to be alive albeit unconcious...

"GRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!"

Yamame eyes shot up only to gaze upon the beast barreling down upon her and the unconcious Rin, the monster roaring out in a savage fury as it lay ready to tear them apart the moment it was within striking distance. Yamame screwed her eyes shut, and hugged Rin to her chest, knowing full well that at the speed the monster was going, there was no way she could escape it. This was it. This was where she and Rin would die...

However, as Yamame sat on the ground awaiting her body to be brutally maimed, she noticed one thing...she wasn't being mauled. At all. The spider girl blinked several moments and noticed someone was standing in front of her...and that someone was Toshiro. She wasn't sure as to how he was doing it, but for a moment she saw a flashing pattern or blue diamond shaped projections manifesting in front of Toshiro, the barrier appearing to keep the monster at bay before it faded completely and Toshiro screamed as loud as he could, as he angrily brought the lead pipe down onto the cat's head slamming it to the ground a disgusting splattering sound emanating from in front of him the moment the pipe made impact with the monster's skull. Seconds after, silence returned to the alley as Toshiro fell to his knees his breathing uneven and heavy. Whatever he just did...really put out all of his energy reserves. But for now...the beast appears to have been felled.

Or so they thought...

The monsters body began to convulse wildly as a thick mist of darkness began to rise from it's writhing form. "Wh-wha?" Toshiro wheeze before his world become nothing but darkness as the cat exploded just a few inches away from his body...

---------

"...T...sh..o.."

Wh..what...?

"To...shi...ro..."

Yamame...is that you...?

"Toshiro...Toshiro are you okay?" Indeed  it was Yamame, the tsuchigumo having came to sit by Toshiro's fallen frame and trying to rouse him from his unconciousness. With limited success up until now.

"Mmm...what...happened?" Toshiro questioned his vision slowly beginning to return to normal as he lay eyes on a, now relieved, Yamame who still held Orin in her arms. She must be unconcious as well. "...And why do I suddenly feel like eating fish...?"

"You're okay...thank goodness..."  Yamame sighed in relief as she plopped back onto her bottom and looked over to the now rising Toshiro who shook his head to regain some senses. Apparently he was asking why he suddenly had a craving for fish...as strange as the question sounded, Yamame actually had an answer for it. Albeit, one that she wasn't sure how to word correctly given the answer is as weird and random as the question itself. "Yeah...about that...Uhm...I don't know how to say this but, you've been turned into a cat person..."

Toshiro paused and gave Yamame a blank look. "...A what now...?"

"Feel on top of your head, Toshiro..."

Toshiro blinked for a moment, before doing as he was told and felt atop his head...much to his suprise, he felt that there were two fuzzy feline ears atop his blonde head. The moment he touched them his eyes went wide with shock. "What the-!?" Toshiro stammered looking at Yamame who simply shrugged. "How...WHY am I a cat!?"

"I'm not sure...you suddenly sprouted them after that other cat exploded." Yamame replied before hesitating and thinking on those words for a moment. "Hmm...I guess that monster is the cause of it then."

Toshiro could only manage a long string of incoherent babbles his mind working at an otherworldly speed to find an explanation as to how an exploding cat monster could transform him into one of those catpeople knock-offs that was so rampant in many anime shows and games these days. However, as much as he wanted to know as to how he transformed...there was still the worry of being returned to normal. Was he going to stay like this for the rest of his life? Was his children going to inherit this weird condition?

"Let's just go back to the shrine for now..." Yamame suggested knowing that there wasn't going to be any good coming out of sitting her trying to explain things to Toshiro. "I suppose that doctor would know on what to do with this...although knowing her she'll probably try to poison you with some other drug of hers." Yamame really didn't seem to like Eirin that much...or rather she was just untrusting of her.

*** Present Day ***

"Rin...cut it out..." Toshiro droned sleepily, pulling his yellow tail away from the kasha who was playfully batting at it. Rin had managed to recover some from the inital fight they were in sometime ago. Had it not been for Yamame catching her, Rin's condition would have been far worse. But she wasn't moving around as much as she used to, in fact this was the most she's moved all morning.

"Aww, don't be a party pooper, Toshiro." Yamame chuckled as she lay on her bed and watched as Toshiro gave up on trying to keep his tail away from Rin and simply decdided to let her do what she would with it. "This is the most I've ever seen you two do together. It's nice to see the both of you getting along for once."

"I can only wonder why she's hanging out with me now..." Toshiro mumbled sarcastically. However not dismissing Yamame's words entirely. Toshiro could see that he and the kasha...didn't really get along at first. But now, she at least seemed to be warming up to him, and not trying to claw his eyes out or anything else of that sort. Figures that something he didn't like would bring Rin joy...but still it made him think of if she really did enjoy him being a cat like she was. He could only wonder. Either way, he was up and so were Yamame and Rin (obviously), so maybe it would be a good idea to simply rise for the morning and get some breakfast? "You guys hungry? I...dunno what these folks have for to though."

"Ah, that was part of the reason why we're awake." Yamame said Toshiro giving her his usual expressions of confusion. "We were waiting on you to get up, Toshiro."

"Oh...sorry, I guess being a cat means you sleep longer...or something..." Toshiro apologize scratching behind his cat like ears. This...was going to take some getting used to...and Toshiro wasn't really looking for ward to it.

[ES-Anthy]

Day 6 - Outside of Van Garage - 12:15AM
Involved people: Team Michigan-Anthony only


It was quite early in the morning, Anthony (changed back after the touching scene with team Makai) said good night to Sara who stayed with her family and his other team members to turned in, while he himself made his way to the Garage, entering it and shutting the door behind him. The battered up old van stood in-front of him, the sides filled with dings and dents, the van itself was slightly tilting for some unknown reason, and god knows how efficient the engine really is. All of that besides the point, Anthony made his way to the side of the van, setting his bag onto a side table and pulling his tool box, and a two liter of coca-cola out of it. "Well, this Van may be a pain in the ass, but someone's gotta fix it." Anthony said aloud, soon pulling out his tools, and starting to rework the Van into better condition.

He continued on into the night, pounding the siding to remove the dings, getting under the vehicle to deal with the tilted-ness of the vehicle, with several odd items lodged in the under area of it, and then opening the hood, and taking all he has to the engine, to make it work as hard as possible.  Anthony continued this until he ran into a certain snag, a random hunk of metal was lodged in part of the engine, it was a miracle the engine ran at all with it stuck in there, and he didn't want to depend on a miracle to keep this thing running.

Anthony started to pull and tug at the mystery alloy, it gave no ground as it stood strong in it's place, the Michigander kept at his tug-o-war until he realized it was getting him nowhere fast.

"God dammit, what's it gonna take to pull this thing out." he thought, rubbing his chin with one hand, he stood thinking for a bit until an idea sprouted from his mind, quickly reaching into his pocket. He pulled out the small green gem that was a part of his plan. "If I can't yank you out with just my hands, I'll give you me times 10!" he yelled out as he gripped the stone tightly in his right hand, and yanked at the object with his left, quickly dislodging it from it's spot. Victory for the Michigander, or so it appears, but as soon as he dislodged the metal piece from the engine he shot up a bit from a bit too much force, smashing his head into the raised hood of the car, causing him to loose his balance and follow up with hitting his head ramming into one of the walls, sending him to a one way trip to la la land, as soon as he fell to the floor his eyes closed, his mind soon started to flutter away, the last thing he saw was the shine of the green gem in his hand.

Day 6 - Dreamscape(?) - ??:??AM
Involved people: Team Michigan-Anthony only

Anthony's eyes opened up to a world of no familiarity at all, even for his dreams it is completely different, well, different yes, but still an average place, a simple room in a small cottage, a window letting in sunlight showed the outside being a field of grass in mid-summer.  Anthony got out of the old cottage bed, realizing his clothing was reduced to a simple shirt and plain jeans, his foot wear, jacket, and bag were nowhere to be found, and the G-stone of his was also missing.

"Dammit where is it? where's all my other stuff too?!" he panicked for a bit, soon realizing it may just be in the other rooms of the cottage. Anthony then exited the small bedroom into the main room of the cabin, finding nothing of his in the cottage in any of the other rooms as well. "...where the crap is my stuff..." he muttered, soon coming up to the door that exits the cottage, the only one he hasn't checked.

"It's as good as any other place to check" Anthony said, soon opening the door to see the outside through another view other than the small window. All he could see was a field of green grass, standing tall, untouched by anything else. The only thing standing out from this other than the cottage and himself was a lone figure standing a bit from the cabin, the person's figure was feminine, her hair was shining blond, and about half way down her back as well, she was dressed in a simple blouse and skirt, and as soon as Anthony laid eyes on her, she turned around to see Anthony, and she started to walk towards him.

Soon the two were face to face, and Anthony couldn't believe what he was seeing, it was himself, well, he was seeing his female half right in-front of himself. "W-wait a minute, where the hell am I and are you me and and..." he continued to babble for a bit until Ana raised a finger to Anthony's lip, making him close his mouth.

"Just calm down for a bit" Ana said, taking her finger off of Anthony's lip. "This, is the state of your mind in rest, well, it is now after everything that has happened in the previous day, making this one section of your dreams walled off from the rest that's connected to your partners, and making me a bigger part of your mind." she continued.

"Wait, so basically you're just another part of me, the more...feminine part?" Anthony asked, rubbing his chin with one hand.

"I guess you could say that, for now at least~" Ana said, giggling a bit.

"Oh wow, even my own mind is hiding things from me, what's next to go bad in my life" spoke Anthony, he looked away for a bit before turning back to Ana, just noticing how his female form's figure looked, making him blush a bit, Ana herself giggled when she noticed Anthony blushing. "S-so...is there really any point for me to still be in this area?" he asked.

"Nope, the only reason you're still here is that you yourself want something from here" Ana said, giggling a bit from knowing what that something is.

"...Look. I can't help myself if you..I..whatever, I can't help it if you look like that..." Anthony stuttered, trying to not focus on Ana.

"Oh? Then what if I looked like this?~" Ana said as she suddenly was in Letty's clothing, Anthony immediately turned his back, trying to keep his focus on something else, and with that he noticed the cottage was gone, leaving only the two of them in an untouched plane of grass.

"S-stop it...I'm not going to do anything...." Anthony muttered, keeping his back turned.

Ana giggled as she went up to Anthony and hugged him from behind "I know you aren't, that's why it's just fun to tease you~" she said.

"...I really am messed up in the head..." Anthony muttered, his thinking itself being screwed up by this moment.

"Oh well little Anthony, it's time." Ana said, letting go of Anthony.

"Hun? Time for what?" Anthony asked, unknowing of the thing Ana ment.

"Time for you to wake up, that's what" Ana said, as she started to wave good bye to Anthony.

"W-wait, I still have questions to ask you!" he yelled out, his surroundings started to fade and blur.

"Don't worry, I'll always be with you, just stay alive" Ana said, he herself was starting to blur from Anthony's vision. "and for now, wake up" she added.

"...I'll stay alive then." Anthony said, clenching his fist. "And you better keep your promise!" he cried out.

"I'll be sure, now wake up" were the last words of Ana's that Anthony could hear, then his vision of the dream world went entirely black, the last thing he saw was a slight glimmer of light, the same shade as the G-stone. Ana's last words rang out inside of his head over and over.

"Wake...up...." continued on his mind, on and on.


Day 6 - Van Garage - 6:25AM
Involved people: Team Michigan-Anthony and Letty


Anthony slowly opened his eyes, everything slightly blurry from just waking up, his vision slowly focused to see the face of Letty looking down at him. He also noticed that his head was resting on Letty's lap at that moment.

"Ah, you're awake now, are you feeling better Anthony?" Letty asked, giving a warm smile to the previously unconscious Michigander.

"Ah, I'm...f-feeling better now..." Anthony stuttered, blushing slightly from the situation. He tried to sit back up but Letty held him down for a bit.

"Just hold on for a second Anthony, you need to rest more." Letty said in a motherly tone, and with those words Anthony naturally gave up resistance, "You hit your head rather hard, so I had to bandage up your forehead a bit" she added.

Anthony just noticed the bandages on his forehead as well, "Okay then Letty..." he muttered, blushing still from the situation. Anthony diverted his eyes a bit to not make contact with Letty's, which was followed with Letty putting her hands on the sides of Anthony's head, turning it so the two of them made eye contact. "H-hey!" Anthony spoke up.

"If something is bothering you, just tell me Anthony" Letty said, her eyes focused on Anthony, while his just continued to look away, his face was blushing red from this.

"I'm...j-just not used to this." he said, continuing his attempt to not make eye contact with Letty. "I...just never had anyone look over me like this" Anthony added, his eyes uncertain.

Letty patted Anthony's forehead slightly. "Well don't worry about anything, you have me, and the others with you now, no need for you to go solo" she said with a warm smile. Anthony continued to rest on Letty's lap, the garage remained silent for that time, until that was broken with the sound of Anthony's stomach growling. "Sounds like someone is hungry" spoke Letty.

"Yea, shouldn't it be about time for breakfast?" Anthony said, looking at his wrist to check the time on his watch.

"Yep, it should, lets go get something to eat" Letty said, getting up herself, and helping Anthony up as well. He was still a bit unbalanced, but still able to walk, and with that the two of them made their way out of the Garage, all the way to the Dining room.


Day 6 - Dining Room - 7:25AM
Involved people: Team Michigan-Anthony and Letty, Team Butler-Entire Team

The couple of Letty and Anthony made their way into the dining room, seeing the entirety of Team Butler already seated and enjoying breakfast.

"Hi guys, uh. Taihou isn't it? Is it okay if we join in here?" asked Anthony, his regular grin back on his face.

"Yes it is, take a seat Anthony-san, Letty-san" Taihou responded in a polite manner, and with those words Letty took a seat at the table, leaving one open to her left, which was between her and Mokou.


"Crap, right next to that, Mokou...Phoenix girl...I just hope she isn't fired up today" Anthony thought, taking a seat inbetween the two, keeping his eyes averted from Mokou and Letty, only staring at his food.

The Michigander and the Spirit of Winter continued their meal along the rest of team butler, exchanging a few words.

"So, how has your day been so far Taihou?" Asked Anthony, trying to do something other than stare at his food.

"It's been perfectly fine so far" responded Taihou, "Oh, can you pass the teapot Anthony-san?" he asked.

"Ah well...okay then" Anthony hesitated, mostly due to his history with hot drinks, quickly grabbing the pot handle. Anthony soon gave a slight yelp of pain as he pulled his hand away quickly from the pot, but his hand was still slightly wrapped around the handle, pulling the tea pot into the air and landing on the table, tipping over and spilling out it's contents, spilling all over Anthony.

The room was filled with a loud yelling soon followed with a high scream as the hot water in the teapot hit Anthony, burning him slightly, that along with changing him into her while quickly standing up. The eyes of team butler soon focused on Anthony/Ana, all of them were giving a weird look at Ana.

"Wait did he...just turn into a she?" Mokou asked, still questioning this moment a bit, soon coming to realization, and following with a grin across her face. Taihou and Keine were still giving an odd stare at Ana, and soon returned to their meals, and Mima gave a small grin and laugh of her own at seeing the transformation.

Ana was blushing deep red at that moment, but gave quick thought and went for a glass of cold water on the table, quickly splashing herself causing the transformation to revert her back into a him.

"Ahh, better" Anthony sighed with relief, still drenched like a sponge after washing dishes, but still relived in being his original gender.

"Oh Anthony, you're all wet now...let me get you an extra set of clothing" Letty said.

"Letty, don't worry they'll dry soon enough" he said, continuing his act of avoiding eye contact, but was soon trumped by when Letty walked up a bit closer to Anthony.

"I'm going to get you clothing anyways Anthony, you're going to catch a cold if you don't change anyways" Letty responded, her motherly tone ringing out in Anthony's head.

"Okay Letty..." Anthony muttered, unable to disregard that tone of voice.

"Good then, just wait here then Anthony" Letty said, smiling and ruffling Anthony's hair, he smiled back, taking a seat back at the table while Letty left the room.

Anthony continued to eat, being able to shrug off being slightly soaked, while Mokou saw this as a perfect chance.

"Hey, you look pretty soaked, why don't I, dry you off some?" snickered Mokou, lighting a fire on her index finger, Anthony's eyes grew wide at the flame suddenly appearing, and made him back up slightly.

"H-hey! Don't get so close with that fire" Anthony panicked slightly, making the gap between him and Mokou grow.

"Oh, what's wrong with a little fire? All I'm going to do with it is dry you off" Mokou continued, moving herself closer to Anthony each time he moved back.

"but...I...I'm perfectly fine" he continued, still panicking from the fire, soon his back pushed up against a wall. Mokou continued to grin, soon making the small flame grow to about the size of her palm, making Anthony shake a little in fear since there was about less than a foot distance between them.

"Well, you don't look like it, you're trembling some, maybe from the cold, wet clothing, so let me just dry it off" Mokou grinned, moving the flame across Anthony's clothing, just a few inches away.

"Ah..w-well okay..." Anthony trembled under the flame, feeling it's heat across his body, soon realizing something. "Ah, M-mokou, can you please stop?" he asked, noticing he was about to reach the transformation point.

"Oh? but I'm not even done, just hold on for a few more minutes." she said, her grin not fading in the least. She continued on moving the flame across Anthony, despite his trembling.

"C-crap" Anthony muttered, as he finally hit the point, causing him to go up in a poof of smoke turning back into Ana, Mokou's grin just grew from there on, soon moving the flame ever so closer to the top of Ana's shirt, singeing it slightly. "H-hey! you're b-burning my clothing!"

"Oh, oops, that was just an accident" Mokou said, soon moving the flame to singe more off the front of the collar and bits at the bottom.

"S-s-stop it! Y-you're doing that on purpose!" Ana yelled, still shaking from the fire at point blank range.

"Heh, you got me, but I'll stop" Mokou smirked, putting out the fire with the closing of her hand "besides, I was just messing with you, and look at yourself, you're all dried up now too"

Ana took a look at herself and realized "O-oh, w-well...thanks" she stuttered, slowly calming down from the fire, "I'm, just rather scared of fire..." she added, moving a bit away from the wall.

"Ah, well sorry if I scared you a bit too much" Mokou said, patting Ana on the back "Just having a bit of fun"

"Well, that isn't too much of a problem..." Ana muttered "Just...don't get so close with a fire next time..."

"I can't promise anything, I'll just do my best to avoid it." Mokou chuckled

"Sure, well I don't know if I ever gave you a proper introduction, I'm...well right now I'm Ana, but usually I'm Anthony" Ana explained, having a condition like this causing some confusion for herself. Ana held out a hand to Mokou.

"Well, I'm Mokou, if we're going on a first name basis" she said, grabbing Ana's hand and shaking it.  The two of them took a seat at the table, grinning like new friends, Keine, Sakuya, and Taihou looked on at the two, smiling a bit themselves, while Mima grinned from enjoying the little show from Mokou and Ana.

[Nemo★Ma]

Day 6, Near Graveyard, about 5AM

A figure wearing black clothes and black hat is slowly walking towards the graveyard. Follows it are three more hooded figures.

"You guys, this is just a scouting mission, I don't want to mess around with the people inside, after all, our presence cannot be known to them."

"Gotcha, boss."

"Er.. I didn't want to repeat myself, Hank. Don't call me by my job, there are thousands of bosses in this world. Plus, "boss" sounds like bad guys, and we are not. "

"Sorry, Commander Vi-"

"Gah! I said no jobs or ranks! Amber Vivian is enough! You really don't know how to treat your younger female Comm- Whatever, forget that."

The speaker, and apparently the leader, Amber Vivian stopped, then took out a small GPS device.

"The location is correct, however I didn't see anything... There must be a hidden entrance somewhere."

"Then we wait until someone come out and force our way in?" Said the male named Hank.

"We cannot ensure that this place is totally abandoned. There is the chance that our information provider gave us wrong info." Said another member, this time a female.

She continues, "Do you have any equipments that can somehow reveal the hidden entrance, if there are one?"

"Nah, this place didn't release any of the singals that my equipment can detect, Beil." Amber sighed, and put the GPS back. "The only way is to see where this entrance could be, and lift them using my power. However... I still prefer using the "Normal Ways" to do things."

"OK, I'll start analyze right away, Amber." said Bail, opening her laptop.

"Don't do that, we are now directly above their heads, and I don't want they notice us because of some wireless signal." Amber turned to the other member, "any ideas, Maso?"

"I see none, if there is a switch somewhere I could activate it.. But no. There is nothing."

"Hah, then let's wait if there are anybody coming up from here." Amber said, "And I'll just act as a tourist. You three retreat into the forest and-" she took off her hat and cape, revealing her long blonde hair and shiny dress below. "keep these."

"Err, don't tell me you are still trying to act like some rich lady..." said Maso, who is trying not to laugh, "just let it go, you are not that type."

"Whatever, that cover won't blown. I know that. Perfect disguise." Amber said, then before she walk off towards the graveyard "I'll see if there are any place that's likely a secret entrance. You guys just wait for my signal."

"Roger."
"Got it."
"OK."

Meanwhile, at Saniwa Shrine

"So you are Amarillo's friend, right?" said Lily White, who had just woke up from a short sleep.

"I'm more shocked by you not asking about her condition first." GA-05 pointed to Amarillo, who is currently still sleeping.

"I think you should know that.. I know her condition well." said Lily, confused.

"I know.. That's her ability, after all." GA-05 sighed, "However- well, nevermind."

GA-05 looks at Meiling, who is currently also sleeping, "The only one with no worries at all is there. GA-04 Hope Firefly, or Amarillo Viridian as you know it. Is my "Senpai". However I have only met her once. This time assuring your safety is my mission, and if I failed it..."

"You will have big trouble back at the headquarters." Said Lily White. "Amarillo told me a moment before."

"Shoot, she even tells you that?!" GA-05 sighed "Telepathy really is dangerous."

"Hmm, since Amarillo is in a sleeping status, she entrusted me to feed you up with the current information on your "mission". and you NEED to listen to it." Lily White smiled. "Well, those wording is what she told me to said."

"Yeah, I know."

*Insert story summaries from Day 1 to Day 5 here*

"Huh, so our enemies this time are these RAI Forces?" GA-04 chuckled, "Not boasting around, but-"

"We just want our homeland back." said Lily.

"Oh, I thought you are going to punish them for what they have done before that."

"Amarillo didn't want to hurt people, however, there are other humans here with the thought to punish them, you should talk to them and see if you can work out that plan."

"Sometime there must have blood." GA-05 looks at the fairy, "You won't understand that situation, Amarillo didn't want to accept that situation, but it exists."

(Part 2/3 Complete)

[LordVant]

Continued from last post


*Vant Kanako, Suwako, and Orange start heading back into the shrine after their introduction with Hirowaza when Vant looks up and sees two people on the roof*
Nitori:I love you!! *cries*
Etch: Don't worry, I'm not going to go anywhere...
*the other three look up as well at the shout*
Vant: "Best leave them to their own shall we?...."
*Vant barely finishes as Orange flies up in no time and nearly runs into the two
Etch:...? *draws sword* Whose there?
Orange: "LOVE CONQUERS ALL~!!!"
Vant: "...dear god"
Kanako: "Hey no talking about us when we're right here"
*Nitori gasps in suprise as Etch reels back from shock*
Vant: *sigh* "Let's go get her before she gets us killed"
*Vant climbs up the paneling while Suwako and Kanako fly up*
Vant: "....wait a minute, since when could you fly?"
Kanako: "eh? oh...uh....wow, I didn't even realize we could"
Suwako: "It was just kinda, second nature"
Vant: "Anyway, who are you?"
Etch: A better question would be who are YOU?
Nitori: Yeah! And how do you know Kanako and Suwako?
*Vant stares at them with a disgruntled look*
Kanako: *grabs Vant's head* "easy there, he made a contract with us"
Nitori: Oh, I see.
Etch: *sighs, sheathing the sword* I'm Austin Magre, but you can call me Etch.
Suwako: *runs up to Nitori* "HEY NITORI~!!!!!" *glomps Nitori*
Nitori: SuwakOOOF!! *steadies herself*
*steps forward and extends hand* "Vant"
*Etch looks at Vant's hand, a little unsure what to do, and shakes his hand*
Vant: *shakes back and turns to his right and points* "and that's Orange"
Orange: "Hi~"
Etch: *looks at Orange* I've.. never seen you before.
Kanako: "Same here, but that girl Meira knew her"
Suwako: "Yeah, with that grumpy guy, Hirowaza"
Suwako: "Speaking of which, why were you so grumpy too?"
Vant: *shrugs" "He just put me in a bad mood, but I'm over it now"
Etch: Ah we-- wait a sec... *begins to tunr red" Y-you didn't....see...that just now... did you?
Kanako: "Oh you mean about you two ki-"
Vant: *Covers Kanako's mouth* "See what?"
*Nitori covers up her face with her hat, blushing*
Suwako: *giggles* "You two were about to make-out"
Etch: E-eh?! *turns red at the same time as Nitori* S-so you did see...
Vant: *facepalms* "anyway, we're trying to get into the shrine but from what Meira told us, we'd basically be shot on sight, so we kinda need something of an escort to get in"
Etch: That so? I guess we could tag along.
Vant: *breathes a sigh of relief* "Maybe now we can get into some actual beds and you two will stop complaining"
Kanako: "The bedding isn't the problem, it's waking up at four in the damn morning!"
Vant: "Shhhhh, quiet or you'll wake the people that are sleeping"
*Kanako gives Vant an incredibly angry look but can't maintain it as Suwako tries to use her tail to take Nitori's hat off, while Orange starts giggling uncontrollably*
*Momiji and Akyu enter the area*
Momiji: Who's yelling at this time of the morning...?
*Suwako manages to lift Nitori's hat off just as the two enter which starts Kanako chuckling and Orange rolling around laughing...and a brief smirk from Vant*
Akyu: Etch. Nitori, come down from there
Vant: "Oh? Sorry for the noise"
Kanako: *peeks over the edge* "Oh hey Momiji!"
Momiji: Hello, Kanako.
Kanako: "You're here too? YOSH! NOW I'M SURE SANAE IS HERE!"
Vant: "Please be quieter Kanako"
Kanako: "Ack, sorry"
Marx: Will you people stop yell? People are still sleeping *Cirno rubs her eyes*
Etch: augh, sorry.
Vant: "I think we might wake up the whole shrine at this rate"
Suwako: *puts on Nitori's hat and walks over to Vant* "yeah, but maybe that's for the better, huh?"
Vant: "My, aren't you perceptive"
Suwako: *runs over and starts chasing Orange* "Ahahahaha"
Nitori: Su-Suwako! Come on, give it back...
Suwako: "You'll have to catch me!"
Etch: *appears in front of Suwako, blocking her path* Ah, don't be like that to Nitori.
21/12/2009 23:28:26 ?Vant? Suwako: "Awwww, party pooper" *hands over Nitori's hat*
Etch: *eye returns to normal color* Ah well, at this rate, everyone will be awake. come on, let's go--ack! *starts coughing up blood*
Akyu: Etch?!
Marx: Oh dear... *injects Etch with a drug* while it's too late, this should help stabalize him...
Suwako: *holds Etch upright while flying* "Oi, you okay?"
Marx: Oh well, gonna go forage for wolves. I'll be back later to check up on him *walks off with Cirno*
Vant: "Alright then"
Etch: I'm alright, I think. I should be able to make it.
Vant: "Forcing yourself to move like that is apparently not good for your health"
Etch: No kidding...*puts the hat on Nitori* shall we go?
Vant: "Very well then, so what exactly is the situation with Gensokyo?"
Etch: *looks off to the side, with a sweat drop, cat ear twitching* Nekomimis...
Vant: "Oh yeah, that"
Akyu: Well, in order to restore Gensokyo, we need to recover all the memories of it...
Vant: "The memories?"
Etch: Yeah
Vant: "Oh, so in that case you just need to get everyone from Gensokyo together right?"
Nitori: Right! But first, we need to become self-sustaining, so... >.>
Kanako: "Self-sustaining?...that's a lot easier for you than it is for us"
Etch: Not exactly... Sakuya and Reimu ran us ragged "training us"
Suwako: "The vampire and her maid? Well, we're gods you must remember, we require tons of mana as well as faith to keep going"
Momiji: Ah yeah, we're trying to get the shrine up and running again.
Kanako: "If the people of that town gave us faith, we'd be fine"
Vant: "What's its name anyway?"
Etch: This is Saniwa Shrine. The resident god seems to have left for a while
Vant: "Saniwa shrine huh? Seems pretty nice"
Kanako: "Now you see why gods like shrines?"
Vant: *shrugs* "So where we headed to first?"
Etch: Well, I think we should get you guys a room.
Vant: "Alright then, let's go"
Nitori: You look like you've had it rough *pulls a twig out of Kanako's hair that no one else seemed to have noticed*
Vant: "A little"
Etch: Alri*grrrrgle* uh... ^.^;
Akyu: "Perhaps we should go to the dining area to get something to eat"
Orange: "Yay food!"
*And so they headed off for food*

To be continued...

[Kojiremi]

Day 5 - 10-11am - Saniwa  waterfall

Training was over, the entire ordeal of uselessly running through the ruins, being
chased by Reimu's balls, and getting miko training outside the waterfall, the
appearance of a strange group and "Lunablade". It took a lot a little convincing from
Kijiri to get Remilia to not react to her. Luckily they were off to the side and was
practically hiding from view whilst the event went on. Luckily they weren't spotted
but even then Kijiri really....REALLY didn't want anymore trouble than they've already
had that day. After everyone was dispersed for the day to do their own thing Kijiri
and Pearl's group went back to the waterfall area to try out the new Linker-MAD
system

Remi: Such a loudmouth bunch, waltzing in distrubting an already dysfunctional group!

She wasn't very thrilled to see the moon people again since one of them bested all 4 of them one in a row. Not like she cared but they were...loud.

Minory: they were...interesting to say the least.

Rumi: I-is that...so? They were weird humans...

Kijiri: *sweatdrops* w-well anyway lets get what we came here to do. *holds a one of the orbs Reimu gave them which looked very suspiciously like a Pokeball*.....haha...i can't believe it. this is just great *sarcastic tone*

Remi: *arms crossed* so...what are we going to do now?

Kijiri: we are gonna try out the Linker thing system. it can boost our powers and hopefully aid us when we need it if we fight those shadow creatures again. All of ushave little to any power left now. Especially since the source of our powers is cut off. Though I and Pearl can use some of our powers in this world it isn't anywhere near as powerful as it could be if we were in Gensokyo.

Rumia: what kinda things can you do Kijiri?

Kijiri: *draws Monohoshizao* (large nodachi/katana with no hand guard)....*drops it*....*Sweatdrops*

Pearl: teehee <3 Little Mom can't hold her sword cause she's too little how cute!~

Kijiri: T_T shut up Pearl...

Komachi: Tahahaha. Well this is rich eh?

Kijiri: *picks up nadachi* W-well anyway we hardly have any sort of power while we're out here. the most I can do is channel and manipulate our mana and move it from person to person or object to object. That's about it. Even then its rather slow. However, its really slow since as you all can see we are all linked together. Remilia, Minoriko and Rumia are liiving off of my mana so I only have 1/4 of what i could have and all my powers are cut down to 1/4 of their potential. 

Remi:....I see and our powers strength and ability to use them is reliant on our mana bonds between you.

Minory: Wow so when Myon, Patchy and Koakuma were with us we were even...weaker?

Kijiri: *nods* yup. when we left Gensokyo it was us 5 so my mana was split 6 ways. With only 1/6 of my own mana left I can hardly do anything on my own except keep you all alive and well. With this Linker...thing we can hopefully get just a bit of our own powers if we can charge the mana up and generate enough to use.

Elly:...so in other words...we're saved but even you people are burdened by us?

Pearl: ohhh don't think that way...its much better than having been totally eradicated instead...

The group fell silent for a bit after thinking about their possible strength in abilities and whatnot. It wasn't a good silence at all.

Kijiri:....anyway lets get started...the only other abilities i have left are weapon enchantment. I can convert mana into an elemental and bestow it upon my nodachi. I learned it from Patchouli while I was at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. I should...be able to do it if we use the Linker system but without it I can't do it at all...

Remi: Have you tried since leaving Gensokyo?

Kijiri: Yeah...during the Sky Ray when we battled the shadows and when I battled Rumia as well. It was a no-go at all. In fact when i tried it hurts me since there is little to any mana to put into the effort.

Pearl: awww...

Kijiri: *shrugs* well...i don't need my elemental enchantment. I've been doing just fine till now anyway. But the extra mana would be great nonetheless. If I get more mana then those connected to me can get the benefit. Alright lets get happening, I'll be the focus and uhh you girls try to use an ability of yours or something i guess?

The group nodded in unison and after finding the command for the Linker-MAD, Kijiri started to focus and meditate into it as best she could. A light red aura started to build up into her as she charged ever so slowly mana being gathered by the surroundings; from the earth, the trees, the waterfall, the sky. She felt the energy building up and it felt rather....nice

Kijiri: hhaaaaaaa...

Pearl: Miss Reimu and Sanae said that the person focusing can't be disturbed or the mana will backfire...it could be disasterous if that happens so we have to be sure to protect the one focusing the mana quite well.

Minory: uhhhh...*holds self* I feel...weird...like something...is entering my body.

Komachi: *laying on the grass* that's probably the mana pouring into you from your master.

Minory: M-m-master?! Now wait just a minute!

Remi: hehehehe Master now is it? amusing.

Kijiri finished charging the mana after about 10 minutes. She felt energized and so did her party of 3 touhou girls. Minory was able to do a few danmaku bullets but not enough to last 5 minutes. Rumia was able to at least summon darkness around her slightly and for a moment it was moderately dark, but dark like blackest pitch. Remilia was able to shoot a few more of her danmaku as she used to and even was able to start a spell card but it fizzled out before fully forming...Kijiri tried to enchant the nodachi with fire but all she could do was make it a hot blade. She figured that if that's as far as it will go for one element then it'll be the same for the others so she gave up on it for now. Even when she finished charging the mana it didn't dissipate immidiately. Luckily the mana stayed within them and slowly was expelled just from them eventually returning them back to their base levels.

Kijiri: this is good...at least we're getting somewhere. Although we should practice this more in order to get the hang of the mana power-up and eventual down.

Minory: hopefully if we keep this up we can have a much better chance at surviving ^_^

Rumia: Y...yeah

Minory: ? Rumia? you look rather pale. Are you okay?

Rumia: I-is that so? I'm fine-fine...just light-headed...I think.

Kijiri: Ah...I see. If you need a break you can rest if you need to.

Rumia: N-no I'm okay let's keep going.

Kijiri:...alrighty then just move at your own pace Rumia. If you get more dizzy let me know

Rumia: H-hai! ...<I've been light-headed all day....auu it only gotten a bit worse after the mana increase...it feels like something is swelling inside of me...> *shakes her head* Alright lets start!

After a bit Kijiri's and Pearl's team tried other ways to charge mana. Having 2 charge mana at the same time should be enough to hopefully shoot danmaku normally so they tried that. Kijri took turns with her teammates to charge mana and took breaks every now and then to let the charged mana dissipate. Even though Kijiri could manipulate the flow of mana it was still tiring to do it all the time. Especially when she herself was rather low on it to begin with. Eventually Kijiri and Rumia tried charging mana together for Remilia and Minoriko.

Kijiri: alright Rumia you sure your okay for this?

Rumia: y-yeah. we just have to focus like we would normally right?

Kijiri: *nods* yup just concentrate on the mana and let it flow into you. If it feels difficult let me know and i'll aid you alright?

Rumia: O-okay will do!

They started their focus together. Both of their powers flowed between them interchangeably and since 2 of them was charging it was much faster than having just one. However, something was distracting Rumia and it wasn't her headache.

??: <So much power? in this state? this is unbelievable>

Rumia: <eh? what was that? did Kijiri say something?>

Kijiri: *felt an irregular wave of mana from Rumia not focusing enough*  Don't falter okay? Keep concentrating...

Rumia: Y-yes! Of course.

??: <no you dolt. it was me the me that should have been here the entire time>

Rumia: <eh?! who are you? don't interfere with us or I'll te->

??: <tell that human numbskull? Like that'll be any good to you once I take you back

over!>

Rumia was having an internal struggle against the bein that helped them while

underground that morning, hours ago. The other one was attempting to break

through and come to the surface.

Kijiri: R-rumia you can't go too lax now keep focus.

Rumia: Uuuugh...graah!! L-leave me alone-!

Kijiri: !? Rumia what's wrong?

The others looked at Rumia who looked like she was in a lot of pain suddenly. Kijiri noticed that as well and immidiately started to release the mana they were charging slowly to avoid/soften a fatal mistake that could happen. She could feel what sounded like glass cracking in her stomach and Rumia stopped concentrating and was holding her head in agony. Then suddenly all the mana they was just charging up
together caused a small mana break and exploded outwards from the both of them.

Remi+Minory: GAAAHHH!

Pearl: MOM!

Komachi: *gets off the ground* What the deuce?!

Pearl and Elly could only watch in horror from small explosion that happened. Rumia had been blown into a tree and on the ground bleeding from her skull and eye. Kijiri had been blown into the waterfall area. The water was only a few inches high in the river since they walked in it previously.

Remi: *turns back and looks at the scene* ...K-Koji? KOJI!!

Wide-eyed and desperate she looked around quickly to see Kijiri laying in the water in the river and immidiately darted in the direction screamin her name. Since they have been charging mana she did have her vampiric qualities but that's why they chose to train under the waterfall cliff. To shade themselves from the sun. She ran up to the river's edge and stopped abruptly realizing that the water, though it flowed it wasn't deep. She hesitated, nearly choking on her partner's name. Before she could do anything else Komachi had ran past her and picked up little Kijiri's body from the river and came back.

Komachi: Vamps really can't cross flowing water eh?

Remi: !! SHUT IT!

Pearl: *checking Rumia's condition with Elly and Minory* We have to get inside and get some bandages. she's bleeding from wounds on her head!

Komachi: and little master here is bleeding from her stomach it seems!

Remi: !! No Don't just stand there get them inside now!

The 2 teams rushed into the shrine as fast as they could to apply first aid and get help.

Rumia: <w...where...am I?>

Kijiri: <Th...this place...so...dark...I feel like...my head is splitting...>

??: < hehehe. well your not dead but if what that miko said about comas being true I'll take that to my advantage>

While the teams rushed to get Aide. Kijiri and Rumia were in their own worlds unconsciously against a looming darkness

~~~~Dive Sequence start~~~~

to be continued.

[Nemo★Ma]

Graveyard, about 0530AM, Amber Vivian and Elite Police Crew.

As Amber is walking around in the graveyard, she felt somebody patting her back.

She turns back and see a man dressed in a dark green suit.

"This is not a place for little girls like you!" the man said in a very deep voice.

"And I'm NOT little! I'm 16!" Amber shouted.

Meanwhile, in the forest beside the Graveyard...

"Seems our bait had caught something." Maso looks as Amber is arguing with that man, "Beil, starting predict process, we must figure out where that guy comes out."

"Get it." Bail took out her laptop and starting running a program.

At this time, Amber is still trying to stall that unknown man.

"At least you would need some manners! Didn't your parents taught you how you will respond to a girl?" she shouted at the man "angrily".

But she quickly changed her mind when she saw the man reached for his pocket for something...

The man didn't know what had happened, in the split second, his mini stun gun, which is originally kept well in his pocket, is gone from the pocket to the girl's hands.

"But she never moved! How would she did that!!"

"Ah," Amber tried to conceal her shock "So you have this trick here, am I really that attractive for you?"

"Gah! You! Seems like you know much more than you should now. Great, because your body will be rest here forever!"

The man finished his sentence, and found himself on the ground.

"Sorry, It seems that I'm a little... extraordinary here." Amber then shouted towards the forest, where her fellow members are hiding. "HELP! PERVERTS SPOTTED!!"

"Ahh, Milady, what had happened!" Beil rushed out and found the man was no longer there. with Hank and Maso follows closely behind her.

"Quickly, Hank, ready our vehicle. The pursuit will be on the way very soon." As Amber is running towards them, she quickly said, "BTW, have you got the secret entrance?"

"Yeah, commander." Beil responded, "Or do you still want the title "milady"?"

"Nah, it's too funny for me." Amber replied, and tried to change the topics to counter with the chuckles by Maso and Hank.

"Let's move out from here as soon as possible."

"Get it."

As Amber and her crew get in the car, they saw three motorcycles, possibly armed, coming towards them.

"Hank, show them your skills!"

"My honor, Commander."

Their car rushed out like a blaze, with the motorcycles closely following behind.

"By the way, commander." Bail finished checking up the maps, "Where are we heading?"

"Kamisuwa, of course" Amber replied, "小隱隱于山，大隱隱于市."

"Err, excuse me?" As Beil started, Maso interrupted her, "Chinese saying, means that the best way to become a hermit is to hide in a city than in a mountain."

"Correct." said Amber, "now let's cut the tailing first." she looks at the pursuiters from the car's mirror.

Meanwhile, Saniwa Shrine, Amarillo Viridian, Jason Zhao and Lily White Side.

"A Pseudo Codename?" GA-05 asked.

"Yeah, Jason Zhao that is, then everybody here may call you Jason." said Amarillo Viridian, who is, according to herself, 99% recovered minus a meal.

"Hah, that's OK for me. Now I want to talk about your ideas on this mission-"

"I hope you are not going to lecture me on how soft I am. " Amarillo cut his words, "We are here not on a Chrono Agent Mission, but rather saving ourselves. I have no interest on Chrono Agent Missions."

"However I have a mission." Jason started.

"And that's protect me, not kicking bad guys around like you want to. Well, if you really want to I won't stop you, talking to some of other guys there for their advises." Amarillo stopped, "As of me, I don't want harm anybody here. "Tsuki" being an exception." She added.

""Tsuki"?" Jason thought for a while. "Ah, the guy that-"

"Forget it, he, or rather she, are not here." Amarillo get out from the bed and checked her weapon, "and this need some repair, guess I need Nitori for that again."

"You sure she can do it? That's a weapon like, 4000 years beyond their technology." Jason is shocked.

"Hah, she is from Gensokyo, where anything will happen." Amarillo checked the crystal to see if it's intact, "Nitori will be more than exciting seeing this newer crystal."

"Guess so." Jason left out a sigh. Then he suddenly remembered something. "Oh yeah, this set of Tarots are what Fairy Phoenix entrusted to me. She said that you can make use of it." He hands Amarillo a full set of Tarot Cards.

"The box suits your taste." Amarillo looks at the golden box, "I wonder if the card inside is golden too."

"Nah, the card is made of some metal, but not gold. The metal is fused with the paper and it's said that it can focus some energy or something. I don't understand that." Jason pointed at the box. "The box is what I used to keep my golden Pokers, but on last mission all 52 of them have been thrown out as weapons."

"Ahhhh, stop here. I'll go check with Lily and Meiling for the breakfast."

"Hauu~ Even you don't want to listen to my story?" Jason sighed and follows her closely.

[Nemo★Ma]

Outskirts of town, about 06300AM, Amber Vivian and Elite Police Crew.

If there are somebody living very close of town, he or she will have to be wake up by this loud noise, generated by car engine's roar, and another 12 engines that's after that car.

Well, not a pleasant style eh? At least that's better than the drivers and other three people in the car, maybe.

"I wonder how they managed to keep up with us." Hank, while keeping the steering wheel still with his both hands, looked at a small panel in front of him, "Amber, I may want your permission to use the weapons on the car."

"No, even though we are polices, it's not wise to always resort to weapon." Amber, sitting in the back of the car, looking through the front mirror and counted the number of black motorcycles closely follows them. "12 motorcycles, with 2 men each on."

"There is no chance that we may outrun them." said Maso, "Even though you managed to get away, they can always get us from the other side."

"Yeah, and that's what I'm afraid of." Amber cleared her throat, "However..."

"However what? Please decide soon, chief." Hank pressed his foot down hard again. "If this thing is still rushing at this pace... I'm not sure-"

"I know, I know. We are risky enough, so why not play it the more "Risky Way"?" Amber leaned backwards. "Now, my final command-"

"Oh not again--" Beil sighed "This is her 42nd final command, better record that clearly." she opened her laptop.

"Hank, after I move, please find yourself a best "Id" in town, may that be wandering tourist or others- I don't care, but get rid of that car. Beil, looking for a place that can be provided with the best chance of being "overlooked", and Maso, on the lookout of any unfriendly "friends". And as of Amber- " she flipped opened the car door.

"Amber Vivian, now on the move." She jumped out of the car, and perfectly land on the ground on her feet.

"Hah, It's our crazy young loli chief as usual," Hank gives out a grin, " and Beil, if you please, may you restore the car into its "original status"? -thanks."

Amber, on the other hand, slowly rise her hand into a fancy pose.

"Guys, may I teach you this lesson-"

She pushed her hand forward "-that messing around, with a telekinesis master-"

BOOM.

"- Is dangerous?"

"Now, go find a repair shop." With those words, she left the scene without even looking back.


A moment later, Saniwa Shrine

"Tarots? What are these?" Asked Lily White.

"Well, that's what you will need when you want to read the future." Replied Jason, "I don't believe in any of these."

"Hmm, The Devil is the "Betrayer" of FARGO, interesting." Amarillo looks at the card in her hands. "Well, never mind, where is Meiling anyways?" She looked up.

[You can get the entire set of tarots from HERE]

"She is in the courtyard. said she wants to check around the shrine. Wondering what is she checking, heh." Jason took out his dices. "I heard she was a gate-keeper?"

"You sure read your book well, though that she is not that serious on her gatekeeping." Amarillo paused and thinks for a while, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure I saw her sleeping on duty twice in my two visits there."

Jason looks stunned, "Oh, is that the case? Then I'll go... well, you know, check her up." he picked up his sword and ran away.

"So with these you can read the future now?"

"Eh?" Amarillo turned around and saw Lily looking at the cards.

"I can't get it that some cards with a number and title can reveal the future to us."

"Well, I can't get it too. I don't believe in fortune-telling, you see. " Amarillo answered.

"Oh."

"Hm? Something on your mind? You looks quiet today."

"Eh? Nothing." Lily quickly replied with a grin "Absolutely nothing."

"Hmm, maybe I'm thinking too much." Amarillo is about to stand up when she heard her phone rang.

"That Rinnosuke, never keeps me off the line, falls in love with me or something?" Amarillo picked up the phone.

"Hah, that's lame joke even for me." Lily laughed when she heard the last part.

However....

"What? Is that true?" Amarillo shouted.

"Yeah, some girl, seems taller than you, but looks the same to you, just get into the shop, she have three other people following her as well, they seems to be friends or something." Rinnosuke's voice came through the line.

"Hmm, that's sure not right."Amarillo paused "I'll be there soon, yeah, I know, but I have to check her out. Well, see you later."

She hanged up the phone.

"Lily, we go get Jason and Meiling, things are becoming.... Strange. Well, you can't predict the future, however you can experience it." She put the Tarot card back to the case and quickly started to run....

and fall over.

"Gah, forget the wounds. Whatever, I'm fine."

[Helepolis]

- - -

[trancehime]

Saniwa Shrine - Living Quarters/Dining, 7:45~ AM, Day 6
Meira+VIVIT+Hirowaza, Taihou+Keine+Moko+Sak+Mima, Anthony+Letty

"You know, I always wondered why we were sitting out here..." VIVIT asked curiously, looking around. Hirowaza shrugged. He responded quickly, though. "It was Meira-dono's idea," he sighed. "Don't ask me, I don't know anything about it. Aren't you both hungry, anyway?" Meira laughed.

"Concerned about our hunger?" Meira asked, implying something cheeky.
"It's... it's bad to linger on an empty stomach," Hirowaza retorted. "Anyway, don't you smell something good?"
"Well, now that you mention it... I kinda do, actually."
"Want to go check it out? I think our good ol' friend Taihou-san the faithful butler has something tasty up."
"Wait... the last time you ate wasn't even two hours ago!"
"...The stuff you made was delicious, but I'm still hungry, yes."
"That battle took a lot out of you."
"It did. I expended much energy."
"You have to stop doing that!"
"Doing what?"
"You and I know you have learned a lot, but you have to stop charging in alone. You are not a knight in shining armor. You will die a lot faster than you think you will if you keep doing that!"
"...Try keeping up with me next time."
"Don't give me that."
"I was kidding. Anyway, enough talking heads. Maybe we'll feel better after something to eat. I have to rant, anyway."


"I really don't get it," the voice of Anthony could be heard, as Hirowaza, VIVIT and Meira made their way to the source of the rapturous smell. "What happened?" he asked.

Hirowaza had stepped into the room and sighed.

"A certain someone here was being unruly so we had to discipline them," Hirowaza said. "Basically, Taihou-san there... and his Spirit friend... Needed to be taught a lesson, so we did that. By beating them senseless, apparently, as that was the only way." From this, he could tell that Taihou was disdained by this choice of words. Hirowaza paid no heed to it despite knowing it to be so.

"Ah, h-hey, Hirowaza..." Taihou had muttered.
"You cannot deny that you were causing trouble for the rest of us. We had to make sure that scornful spirit and you wouldn't do something like that again." Hirowaza scowled.
"Shut it, you little punk. I ought to-" Mokou spat at Hirowaza, but was cut-off by Keine.
"Please, calm down. He's right, no matter how rudely he puts it. I value brutal honesty at times like this."

"Anyway, I'm sorry to crash the party. I see that Taihou-san has made something that seems to be delicious, as expected of a butler of such high calibre as his. May we?" Hirowaza asked.
Mima smirked. "Oh, sure you can, hotshot," she said, twisting her face, almost in a delightfully sadistic manner. "You can be with me~"
Hirowaza smiled back, almost devilishly. "Oh, but of course, you little letch of a spirit, you."
Meira scratched her head. "Hey, let's not turn the dial up to 11 over here... It's supposed to be peaceful, eh?"
VIVIT shivered. "I hope nothing bad happens..."
"I'll take care of myself."

After some time, everyone had learned about what happened to Anthony, which culminated in Hirowaza literally spurting out what he was drinking. He did not say anything, he could not say anything, he could not think of anything on how to react to this. He did, however, realize the potential effects of anything that doctor churned out. He shuddered at the thought. VIVIT looked at Hirowaza's chest. It seemed to be more noticeable, but fortunately, Hirowaza did not feel its weight. She was fearful for what Mima would do to him, after that little exchange earlier.

"So," Hirowaza said, gripping his weapon kept by his side tightly. "How's everything going for you, Mr. Anthony? It's been a while since we could talk like this. I worry about you sometimes."

Eh? Hirowaza, show worry? Meira said. Perhaps he isn't being completely stupid when he does that... Still... What a way to show it. We'll find a way to fix you yet.

[ES-Anthy]

Saniwa Shrine - Living Quarters/Dining, 7:50~ AM, Day 6
Meira+VIVIT+Hirowaza, Taihou+Keine+Moko+Sak+Mima, Anthony+Letty

Anthony was still clinging to Letty, blushing a bit from being so close to her, making sure he wasn't forcibly changed back into his female form by Mokou.

"So," Hirowaza said, gripping his weapon kept by his side tightly. "How's everything going for you, Mr. Anthony? It's been a while since we could talk like this. I worry about you sometimes."

"Ah, everything's going fine...well except for the whole gender flipping stuff" Anthony sighed, still peeved at his current condition, soon moving up close to whisper distance with Hirowaza "The thing that really makes this bites is that a good chunk of the people here are able to do some form of magic stuff and can cause me to change gender at their will, which isn't good for me" giving a quick glare over at Mokou and Mima, quickly looking back and sighing "and it doesn't help that they're pervs as well" he finished whispering, returning to his seat and eating his sandwich, occasionally looking around at the others on the table.

"So, Anthony-san, can you tell me more about yourself? all we really know about you is, well what has happened in the past day or so" Taihou asked, the others listening as well.

"I see, well if you just want to know about my past, it's not really much" Anthony said, his eyes still shifting around before he sighed and relaxed a bit. "Well, I've been in this town for the past 3, maybe 4 months, my days either filled with working on repairing buildings, working on a car or two, or just working out, I met Nate about 2 months or so ago, and that's how my life has been for the time I've been here in Japan" he told, "Well, there's also the average weekly beating on some yakuza, but then that happens often enough that I some times forget about it" he chuckled.

"Ah, but what about before that Anthony-san, you certainly have to had a past before coming here" Taihou questioned, hitting a certain string in Anthony.

"W-well, that's something I'll talk about another time, for now I'll just chock it up as I used to play hockey and did boxing back in the states" he said, keeping his cool for the moment. "It's, a part of my past I kinda prefer to keep in the past, if you don't mind." he sighed, and continued on with eating, Letty looked at Anthony, saddened by knowing what really happened in his past, she shook it off and returned to her breakfast as well.

Taihou was looking at Anthony in a questioning manner, along with a few members of his team before returning to breakfast, deciding to leave Anthony to himself for now, leaving the room in a bit of silence excluding the noises from eating, the foot steps of several people could be herd coming from the hallway.

[mad]

Saniwa Shrine - Living Quarters/Dining,  AM, Day 6
Meira+VIVIT+Hirowaza, Taihou+Keine+Moko+Sak+Mima, Anthony+Letty, Jalal+Eirin

Team Lunatic took advantage of...ignored details? Missing time frames? An inability to communicate clearly? Nevermind, the world is hard to describe without a familiar frame of reference. They did nothing of the sort.

They came up behind Anthony and bottled up some smoke.

"Top of the morming to y'all! Tis a fine day to partake of stacked edibles is it not?" Jalal said. Eirin took a seat amonst the crowd after stowing away the bottles of smoke, while Jalal took a sandwich for both her and himself and sat.

[LordVant]

Saniwa Shrine - Dining Area, 8:00 AM, Day 6
Hirowaza's Team, Team Butler, Anthony+Letty, Etch+Nitori, Vant's Team

Vant, Kanako, Suwako, Orange, Etch, and Nitori made their way down the hallway into the dining area where apparently there was quite a bit of conversation going on already.

"You think we'll be welcomed as warmly as before?" Vant asked in a bored manner.

"I hope it'll be warmer, perhaps there'll be warm food at least?" retorted Kanako.

"I'm sure they won't be too cold towards you." said Etch.

"We can only pray then, *chuckles* right Kanako?" Vant said.

"I suppose so~" replied Kanako.

The two teams came to the end of the corridor just as the last snippets of conversation could be heard quite clearly,

Vant knew the voice at once, "oh great, him again....ah well, I suppose I could try not to be an absolute prick on my first greetings"

"Maybe if you'd try smiling once in a while and acted nicer you could get along with them better." Kanako said back as she began dragging Vant into the room.

The two teams entered as a few heads turned to see the new visitors. Vant looked around the room at the various characters seated around the table, < "hmmm, let's see, that green-haired woman with the star-y hat looks a bit deceptive..she could be a dangerous enemy but a powerful ally. The maid seated there looks quick, she's got knives for eyes. The blue dressed woman with white-ish hair seems confident in herself, but has a nice, calm demeanor. The girl with long white hair...seems to be able to control fire, a useful talent, better not piss her off. The other woman there, blue dress, white hair, she's got a nice smile but she's definitely got an air of authority around her...it'd be wise to stay quiet when she speaks....oh look, it's Meira and VIVIT, along with Hirowaza...his attitude kinda rubbed off on me back there, maybe I shouldn't be around him when he's angry like that. Hmmm, a wonderful assortment of people...and of course there's the food, looks pretty good~" > Finished with his assessment, Vant takes a step forward, a step to the right, and then props himself up against the wall.

Sakuya was the first to comment, "Hmm, seems we have a new guest here"

"Oh, well *gets up and walks over to Vant* I'm Kamishirasawa Keine, glad to meet you"

"I'm Vant, it's wonderful to meet you as well"

"Yo, I'm Mokou...so I'm guessing you're the backwoods type, eh?"

"My~ you shouldn't be so mean to them *giggles* I'm Mima. <3"

"Izayoi Taihou, and this is Izayoi Sakuya" *who makes a light bow towards Vant*

"I'm Anthony and this is Letty" *hooks a thumb at her as she smiles warmly(ironically) at Vant*

Vant motions his party forward, "Perhaps you three should eat so you don't drop from exhaustion?"

"Eh...oh sure" Kanako says as she walks over to the table and grabs for a sandwich before it suddenly disapears into the mouth of Orange who, during the greetings, had worked her way to the table and began eating quite a bit of food*

"Oi oi, save some for the rest of us" Suwako said angrily as she ran over to the table and began eating as well.

*sigh* "Seems they were starving this whole time, should've caught another boar"

Anthony moves over to Vant, "So how'd you meet them anyway?"

Vant ponders for a moment, "Well let's see, after working in the Amakawa residence for awhile, I suppose I quit when I saw what the other yakuza were doing to them, I definitely couldn't stand for that, so I quit my job as a yakuza- Vant barely gets the "za" out before Anthony punches Vant in the nose.

"Hey!" Kanako yells out as she sees what happens and prepares to onbashira Anthony.

"Get out of here you freaking Yakuza before I throw you out!"

"Oh well this is bothersome, see Kanako? I told you I should've left." Vant replies in a slightly irritated tone.

"You should worry more about the blood coming out of your nose instead of the past." Kanako says as she bites down on a sandwich, apparently unconcerned with the situation given Vant's response.

"Wait, don't you worry about this guy you came in with?" Anthony rebukes, looking over at Kanako

"Yeah, I doubted him at first, but I honestly don't think he's really got the yakuza's nature...except for being a pain in the ass at times." replied Kanako.

Anthony sits back down, crossing both his legs and arms "So wait, you're tellin me this punk is just some two bit chump who even can't match a yakuza?" he says, not even regarding Vant.

"He WAS a yakuza, till he saw what they were doing to us, and he's got more talent than your typical lacky. Besides, you spend some time with him and you'll just know that he's not really one of them." Kanako said finishing the sandwich she grabbed earlier and reaching for another.

"Eh...I think I see what you're getting at" he stands up and walks over to Vant "I'm sorry for slugging you like that, it's my...usual greeting to the yakuza" Anthony sputtered.

"Don't worry about it, oh and by the way, try aiming at an upward angle and catch the end of their noses, it'll break real easy." Vant said in a disturbingly flippant manner.

Anthony smirks, "Nah, you see, you gotta nail them on the chin, it messes with the body enough to keep them on the ground for the ten count" starting to go off onto a lecture of boxing.

Vant smiles, "Ah but then there's split, are you trying to knock them down or wanting them to hurt?"

"Heh, that's where it goes into street fighting, you don't wait for them to get up, you just continue on..." Anthony's enthusiasm soon dying out, walking back over to the table "Sorry, I haven't thought of doing something like that in a while, just brings back a few memories"

Vant walks over to Anthony and thrusts his hand out, "Well despite the initial contact, it was pretty nice meeting you."

Anthony takes Vant's hand and shakes it "Nice to meet ya too, though you may want to check your jaw in the infirmary when you get the chance" he chuckled.

"Hate to dissapoint you but it's fine, though I can tell you could've put quite a bit more into that punch." Vant said with his head crooked on one side.

"Just making sure, don't want to find out later than sooner" Anthony responded, scratching the back of his head.

"Right then! I was wondering if you could point me in the direction of the nearest container of booze!" Vant said with an eerie smile and wide eyes.

"...You really should hold off, it's still morning after all..." Anthony spoke, now leering at Vant.

"Yeah, I need some way to live through this insanity without losing it myself...though I think I'm already looney to some extent. There's a wedding coming up anyway so, don't wanna be drunk for that." Vant said kind of down but returning to his normal demeanor at the end.

Anthony himself returns to the table and continues on the sandwich he left off at.



To be continued