A/N: (Note/Disclaimer) All recognizable objects and characters belong to their respective owners. Mainly Team Shanghai Alice for Touhou Project or, as per usual, my own characters belonging to me.
Note 2:Ho? What's this? Another chapter? So soon from a person still on hiatus?
("Common Language [Japanese in this case]/Speech")
('Foreign Languages')
("Thoughts (In their own native tongue)")
(Attacks/Weapon names/SFX)
(Other/Foreign/ Speech & Text/Book/Scroll)
(Actions/POV)
(Titles / Flashback/Time/Dates/Place)
(Narration & Everything else)
('Demonic Speech')
("Demonic Thoughts")
A Retired Officer's Shop In The Eastern Wonderland Chapter 2
Desmond's Still Unnamed Game Store
?: 1645
Third Person: Desmond
"Connection to the outside world terminated, connection to onboard ark standing by. Connected," With a sudden jerk of his vision, those words came out from Eve as the glasses changed in tint to a rose. The sudden feeling of movement causes the stumble of the newly minted store owner, though he rights himself quickly, which is quite good considering the tiled flooring of the kitchen before him.
"Eve, imidate dimensional rift check, priority black." Desmond states with a strained tone, he should be fairly used to vertigo caused by dimensional shifts, but for some reason, this was just so much worse. He leans on the frame of the door as a support, keeping his lunch and breakfast down in his stomach where it should be. A beep from his glasses signifies that his artificial partner was working on it. After counting his measured breaths he finely felt his nausea abate.
"An unusually large quantity of void fragments detected, the entire building has been transported to an unknown dimension, attempting reboot of data tethers." Any tone of warmth was gone from Eve's voice, all systems were pointed at the recovery efforts.
"Shift Priority, establish perimeter visual. I get the feeling this is not the usual displacement." Desmond stands up straight as he said the order, immediately turning away from the kitchen and closing the door.
"Priority shift confirmed by Operator Desmond, establishing visual of the perimeter. Recommendation: Operator Desmond, please move to the storefront." He nods to no one as he once more before he moves down the hall, opposite of the personal quarters.
(TOUHOU PROJECT)
?: ?
?: 1645
Third Person: ?
Her golden eyes cracked open at the sudden change in the world. Her lazily sprawled out body and hair in disarray did nothing to her beauty, though some may say this look suits her more.
"Ho, another variable? How fun. I'll just send Ran over." Her alluring voice holds quite a bit of mischievous intent, though far below the surface so that only glint could be seen, just a drop of calculation. She shifts her casual clad body into a more comfortable position as a tear started to rip through the air, opening up a crack of black and eyes. Her eyes then widen after a few seconds of doing… something.
"How strange…" Her tone got a bit colder as several ideas started to go through her head, and were then dismissed.
The Shop
"Reality intrusion deflected." Eve's tone was still quite mechanical as she kept most of her computing power around the shop.
"So they installed a reality anchor here." Desmond remarks as he walks forward to the storefront, his steps ringing out through the silent hallway. The tilled floor was dark and had the shine of being recently polished. It contrasted quite well with the pale cream walls, undecorated at the moment, though he would change that sooner or later.
"They can prevent intrusions of up to a yard from the building." Her voice got quite a bit warmer than before, she is most likely diverting back to her usual objectives as she finishes the most pressing issues.
"Do we have a visual of the outside world?" Noting the tonal shift and getting the message behind it, Desmond asks about the main objective that he assigned.
"Visual is impaired by a red fog, I am currently analyzing it and running tests on its effects. Recommendation: is to wear riding helmet when deploying." Eve's reply was only a second after his own question. Desmond nods in response while taking off his glasses and placing them within his inner jacket pocket.
"How good are the air ventilation and filtration? Transport." He shifts his gloved hands up to a device strapped to his jacket and taps it when he spoke the last word. His eyes showed a strong disposition.
"All systems are working at 100 percent, the mist would only make it about a foot in before being purified. The filters will need to be replaced after this." Eve quietly checks through the many systems of the building. Materializing in his hands was a helmet with a one-way glass pane.
"Alright the-," A sudden boom sounded off from the outside of the premises causing the young-looking man to straighten up after just getting the thing situated.
"I'm going to check that out, send Mel out front." Desmond quickens his pace at the certainly alarming sound.
"Command acknowledged. Sending Mobius Engine 0: Mel to the storefront. Analyzing distance… Finding a singularity point using acoustic imaging… Detonation location found. Placing on map." The shift of the visor confirmed that he was already in Scout Sight. The map in the right-most bottom corner of his vision was blank save for the dot representing the pinged location and the building he was in at this very moment.
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The chime that signifies the door opening sounds out to the now empty business. Upon seeing the outside world Desmond quirked a brow, from what it seems, the mist is not all that dense considering that sunlight is not filtering through. In fact, even if he did not have his augmented sight he would still be able to see clearly.
"Mobius Circuits... Confirmed, Mobius Generators... Confirmed, Checking Status… All Systems Ready, Identity… Confirmed." The female voice of the two-wheeled transport reviled that it was close to arriving, though his sight could already confirm it. With a backflip jump, he was on the saddle and scanning the area for paths.
"That.. is a lot of ley lines…" He blinks a few time while adjusting his position. Roads of blue run along with the earth and skies, twisting and turning yet still having a distinct pattern. The blue lines on his own bike glowed even brighter, as particles of light started flying off of the wheels as they spun even faster.
Riding along the lines invisible to the eyes of many, he travels quickly to the source of the sound. Though no one on his way there raised a brow in surprise at the flying object. Twists and sudden turns flash by his vision as he gains momentum, to any other man it would have given a sense of vertigo.
"Still got it." He silently remarks, it has been quite some time since he used the ley lines for transport, they mainly had him on planes whenever they wanted him to travel long distances.
Scarlet Devil Mansion
?: 1700
Third Person: Omni
"So you turned them against one another." A young woman with her black hair tied into a ponytail remarks as they watch the two young? girls flying around and firing off bullets of energy at one another. Floating beside her is another lass with fair skin, blue eyes, and blond tresses. Her black witches outfit had a white apron and frills, the actual skirt going down to her knees, along with the same style hat with a white ribbon tied onto its base. Her golden eyes stare up at the sibling quarrel while she rides her broom in a sideways orientation, her black boot-clad feet kicking.
"You never involve me in anything!" Screams the blond girl fighting, her "wings" of what look to be wood flaring behind her, the crystals of many different colors swaying along with the movement. Her red dress flowed along with the wind, though it did nothing for the mist surrounding them, a red vest obscuring the top of the dress from view, the skirt of it would have reached her knees if not for the wind battering it around. Her short blond hair was tied into a ponytail oriented to her left and then hidden from the world by a white mob cap with a red ribbon tied to it. Her feet were in red flats with white socks only reaching her ankles, just below her calves.
Back On The Ground
Desmond stares at what could only be described as bullet hell happening above him before looking down at his sidearm, he decided it would probably be a better idea not to get involved unless he has a different firearm style with him. That particular idea was also in line with seeing the entire battle take place while he was riding on a lay line before going onto the ground as to be less likely to be hit by stray fire.
He glances at the woman on the ground, her long scarlet hair splayed around her. A green beret layed a bit away, probably blown off by the attack on her. Two braids were tied with the end having black ribbons, framing her face. Her green dress fanned around her body, still quite modest though her breasts still strained the fabric. The dress itself was styled in a Chinese style and the beret had a golden start upon it. Inscribed on that star was the Chinese character for dragon: Long. Her breathing is even, no sign of higher than the usual level of labor for an unconscious person.
'May as well come out.' He says aloud, slightly muffled by his helmet, it has been a long enough time of inaction for them to not be a likely threat. A young woman in a maid uniform steps through the gate to the large mansion, her silver hair held by the white headpiece. The uniform's dress was a blue, most likely one closer to navy, and had white frills along with the same color of apron. She also had her hair with two braids to frame her face. The skirt reached down to the middle of her thighs, with her legs and feet clad in a pair of high-heel boots. All of it looked predominantly like the french maid outfit. Her red eyes look at him with a passive note, though it is certain that she has no hostility in her movements.
'Hello…' Her trailing off gives the signal of wanting to know the identity of the man before her. Not that she could tell anything from him, she has over a hundred years of reading body movements, though she could never really understand others…
'I'm a (Retired) officer of the Magius Police Department.' He decided not to give his name, for now, they'll be in contact anyway, after all, their residences are not too far apart. She nods at that, though he could tell that there was a bit of disconnect.
'Mr. Officer, I am Sakyua Izayoi." Her voice was calm, though she stumbed a bit with the pronunciation of "officer"… strange. It seemed to be a forign word to her… how was that? And her accent was strange as well. Neither of them sounded like it came from the current world. For himself, his accent could be placed more with the twenty-first-century style of English, more or less around the 2010s, which is particularly different from the current day's accent. It could be assumed to be an older way of speaking…
Another boom racks the air as the twin girls now turn to the other two flying persons before starting their attacks. Though neither of them was anywhere close to hear what they are saying. So is the price of staying away from danger.
"So, what is the situation?" He asks rather plainly from beside the unconscious lady. His eyes shift away from the beautiful shower of bullets that were most likely inefficient as hell, still extremely pretty though. She nods before opening her mouth to say something but…
Bang. The sudden shot of his sidearm stopped her from speaking, and the stray bullet that would have hurt, to say the least. And if it was let be then it would have hit the young woman in front of him. He then once again holsters it, noting that she stiffened up quite a bit. Though judging by her posture before he shot, she already knew of the bullet coming towards her body. He just motions her to speak.
'Yes, my twin mistresses are currently fighting the two interlopers in a spell card battle.' Desmond raised a brow at the last three words, so that was what the thing was called.
'The blond witch busted into the area, first defeating Hong Meling, who is on the ground beside you, before getting inside and finding the younger mistress. The priestess then came in as well before I fought her, she then proceeded to defeat me before hearing an explosion and going to investigate the outside.'
'Spell card battle?' He asks a question which would have a relatively standard answer by the way she talked about fighting so casually.
'A set of rules placed by the shrine maiden that allows fighting with minimal repercussions. Any attack inflicted in one will be healed after the battle is over and a winner decided. Though the standard is beating one another till one is unconscious The winner can do anything to the loser under the rules.' She quickly gave a brief explanation of the system that Desmond was quite unfamiliar with. He looks at the lass on the ground, so that is how she is still alive. Considering the amount of damage those bullets could cause, it would have been fatal if the rules had not been set in place.
'So what about the red mist, I'm starting to think that it's due to your side.' He remarks while piecing the pieces together. If the Miko placed the rules, it goes without saying that she doesn't want destruction everywhere, and the witch is fighting alongside her so that marks her off the list of suspects.
'Yes, Mistress Remila decided that she wanted to walk around without sunlight.' He nods slightly, they are definitely not human beings, so he searches through his memory of western monsters that were weak to light. The main one that came to mind was vampires, and those wings did not help in hiding that identity, though the blond did not have the wings that you would expect.
'I'm guessing there is some more meaning in spell cards?' He asks after a few seconds of deliberation, it would be a good idea to get information now before he ends up in over his head. Though with how it is going now, he is probably going to be dragged in no matter what he does. Not like it matters anyway, he is retired after all.
'Yes, spell cards are special attacks that represent the user in some way. Like the one, they are using now.' She nods to the overhead battle of twin vampires, a witch, and a shrine maiden.
'Thank you for the answers, though I'll be staying till they come down.' She opens her mouth to say something before she stops and nods. Desmond decides to just sit on the grass while watching the battle overhead.
Word Count: ~2,500
Date Completed: 4/5/20
Note: And finished for this chapter, not going too in-depth with the battle and decided to make this a very information dump of a chapter. I hope you all enjoyed it.