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Amaterasu      Takamagahara

     Last time this island was visited, those who ventured forth were beaten halfway to death by the earth itself! ..Wait, that's not right. Who gave the script to those kids!?

     Ahem

     Last time, the twin gods of spring and fall, Akiyama and Haruyama, barred the way forward, claiming that a 'big sis' told them to stop any intruders to the island from getting ahead. After a sound beating, the two were hauled off to the Human Village and left in the care of one Keine Kamishirasawa.

     With those two brats out of the way, the path was clear once again. And this day, they would venture up to this mysterious island again.

     Gensokyo's sunlight remained as intense as ever, or maybe just a little bit more. It was hard to tell. It was just hot.

     That aside, the grassy plain they came across last time was as peaceful as ever. And this time, there were no roadblocks. It was a relatively straight shot through the plains before the scenery began to gradually change to something manmade. Eventually they saw the beginnings of what looked to be the walls of a village. For those flying, they would see something that could be considered odd. Beyond the walls, what could be seen were rows and rows and rows...and rows of houses, that seemed stretch endlessly onward. As far as the eye could see. Without end in sight.

     Surely that was nothing. Just a big village. A city even.

     Totally.

     It was also deathly quiet. Not even a peep from a mouse. Just the faint rustle of wind in the foilage that hugged the path they came from.
Chica Mendez     Whichever poor youkai that Chica Mendez managed to bully into giving her transport up to the floating land got another visit. Another stack of Multiversal credits is slapped in front of them, and of course she bothers them until they finally agree to take her.

    So here she was again! Not wearing her formal gear this time, though. She's gone pretty far on the opposite scale, in fact. Short shorts, combat boots, a T-shirt brazenly declaring something in Or'zet that keeps flashing between blood red and radioactive green. It's not very protective, but even Chica is starting to feel the heat this time, and she's learned that even if she came up here fully armored, it probably wouldn't do her much good.

    Spotting civilization actually makes Chica pause for a moment and start to approach more carefully. She can't see the infinite scale of the place, but she /does/ know population centers. "This place is way too quiet," she grunts into her radio for everyone. "No dogs, no people, business, nothing. Usually you only run into places like this when even the locals know it's too dangerous to stick around." So out comes the gun! And she goes into her Astral Perception again. All of the magic around here makes spotting something difficult, but if she can maybe find a friendly spirit around...
Alice Margatroid     Floating behind the flying dollmaker is Alice's own dolls, Shanghai and Hourai. She missed the first outing with Marisa, unfortunately, so it's today that she makes her own advancement towards the floating hot island. "Mmm, those two were loud on the radio." the dollmaker muttered out, looking around the peaceful looking scenery. A curious look is given towards Chica, "Been here before, I take it?"

    Alice hovers a bit, following a bit behind Chica, more than glad to let the strange clothes wearing non-local go first. "I'm not a hundred percent sure there are locals here to begin with, miss." Alice starts with Hourai starting to move forward past Chica, "Shall we see about entering the town? MIght get more info that way."

    Shanghai tilts her head, "Where's Marisa?" Usually Marisa is here, either causing trouble or fixing trouble caused... "It's unlike her to not be involved in an incident. Like last time."
Kotone Yamakawa TO say Kotone wasn't on edge would be a liem, she was always uneasy about magic and this place felt like a tomb. She didn't have a weapon out just yet but she did throw up several of the small drones and has them fan out whil she gets good feed from them. shes a bit behind Alice and chica as she's looking about for a moment.

"So this place could just be in ruin? I see. I still don't like it I am on edge, Alice. Chica? I been places this quite and ... that's when the horros start coming out of the walls."
Kirito     Another day in Gensokyo. Beyond the usual craziness, the main difference?

    A ten-thousand Yrd piece is sitting in the Hakurei donation box.

    Poor Reimu. It's probably worthless in Gensokyo.

    KIRITO has taken to the skies of Gensokyo like a fish to water. He doesn't look too out of place either maybe. After all... he's got long elven ears, a kind of girly face, he's carrying a sword... and he's flying on big black fairy wings! The sun beating down has his avatar visibly sweating though, and he's wincing at the oppressive heat...

    But it doesn't stop him from swooping up near Alice. "A quick primer'd be helpful. Marisa... black clothing, blonde hair, and a broom right? And she's gone missing?"

    He's already scanning the ground in-between glances at Alice. ANd her dolls. Especially the dolls.

    They're talking after all.

    Kirito's coat pocket bulges and shifts... moments later, Yui hoists the flap open and floats up on her own wings. She's tiny! Oh so tiny. The size of a fist really. Also not too terribly out of place. "Good afternoon!" She bows her head in greeting to Alice and the others, executing a mid-air curtsey with some flair. Her dress looks like an arrangement of flower petals...
Amaterasu      Chica's magical perception will actually pick up plenty of life signs in the village, under all the magic that was coarsing through the island otherwise. Somewhere. Past the gates, there's nothing but abandoned streets and houses. After the first block however, they come upon an odd sight.

     A fairy hurriedly floated by. She had brown hair, dressed in a black skirt and vest, with a white blouse underneath, and a small pair of glasses. She struggled to carry a big stack of books, wings fluttering as she drifted through the street.

     Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted unfamiliar forms, and she turned to look.

     She froze.

     Deeper down the street, and on other blocks as well, other fairies with similar outfits, carrying books, froze as well, as they spotted the group. "......." There was silence for several seconds. Fairies nearby each other met each other's gazes, then looked towards the intruders.

     And then PANIC SET IN. Every which way, fairies scuttled and scurried away, retreating into houses, shutting doors and windows, the latches of locks clicking from all over could be heard like a cacophony of sound. It was kind of impressive.

     And then once again... there was silence.

     What will you do now?
Alice Margatroid     "Sort of. She's normally here with the incidents. She probably had something to do." she shakes her head, giving a brief bow towards Kirito and Yui, "Good to see you here, I hope it wasn't too bad of a flight up here." though Yui gets a strange look, "Not but a few moments here and you've befriended a fairy." Hourai turns to look at Yui with a strange gaze as Shanghai moves in more and more. The fairies give Shanghai a startle, causing the doll to fly right back towards Alice.

    "Strange fairies. All holding books." comes the normally cheerful doll, Hourai, however, turns away from Yui and sets forth, moving to Chica's side. "I'm a bit opposed to breaking and entering. We aren't Marisa." a glance is given to Chica, "Most of us aren't, anyways."

    Alice steps a few feet, "Alright, let's see if we can't catch a fairy and see what it knows... these are... strange ones compared to normal.
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa does ot attack she also has her drones fan out more as she too spots the vrious faries, however they flee they go nd hide ans bar their homes down all at the same time just about. She pauses and starts to think.

"Put away your weapons I don't think it's going to do anything to get the locals to talk keeping them out."

Kotone puts her own weapon away and starts to look about.

"I think kicking the doors down would only make them proven right to be afraid of us. Though they feel like they are spooked pretty hard there, I wouldn't be shocked if they were having trouble with something."
Chica Mendez     Surprise! The place is actually inhabited, according to Chica's Perception. "Huh... Well, good news. The place isn't completely abandoned. It doesn't seem like it's as crazy as those two kids we took on last time, either." Two good things, right?

    So for now, Chica returns her pistol to the holster strapped to her hip as they make their way into the village. To Alice, the Aztlanner elf nods once, giving her dolls a crooked head. Strange, but not totally something she's unfamiliar with. It's like... magical rigging, right? "Call me Chica, or Mendez. If I had to guess where Marisa was, it'd probably be complaining she's too hot and that she doesn't want to take out that giant dumb mech again."

    Not everyone's a stranger, though. The elf gives Kotone a mock salute as she comes up. "Maybe. If it makes you feel any better, there's no indication on Astral that something sanity-eating is around. So... let's hope no shedim."

    Kirito's entrance is given some notice--spotting another person that seems to be an elf brings a smaller grin to the woman's face. "Probably not missing. Like I said, she's probably complaining it's too hot somewhere." She's not quite sure what to do with Yui, though. An awkward half-wave? And a raised brow over at Kirito. "Papa, huh."

    So in they went, and they finally found the lifeforms she'd detected... they're all faeries. Unexpected. It's similarly unexpected that they'd all go diving for their homes like scared rabbits. She puts forth an idea to blow open a lock and start being hardasses, but that's apparently a no-go. "Don't insult me. Unlike Marisa I actually got tact... Somewhere." Fact of the matter was, they had to catch one of them anyway. "They don't look like they're much in the talking mood."

    Chica goes to one of the doors, but doesn't try blowing it open. Instead, she raps lightly on it. "Housekeeping!"

    Stereotypical, maybe. But who says they're not dumb enough to fall for it?
Kirito     Kind of an elf, but Kirito's fairy wings are pretty unmistakable. They vibrate rather fiercely to keep him aloft, and the effort results in a strange noise rather like wind instruments fluting that tickles the ears.

    The young man and his adoptive daughter are BOTH astounded at the scene of PANIC that unfolds down below. It leaves him gawking and Yui frowning in concern.

    "Does this mean they don't welcome visitors?" The tiny fair posits. She's never, EVER seen such an unfriendly welcome.

    "I think it means the last visitor ate some of them...." Kirito blurts only half-seriously. He has NO IDEA what's up with this.

    But he waves at Alice's dolls nonetheless. "The name's Kirito. Here to help look for Marisa." He may not know many of the Gensokyans, but he has at least seen Marisa in action before!

    A sheepish sort of smile's aimed at Chica...

    But then, following her, the young Spriggan and his Navigation Pixie float down to the streets. "... There's no easy way to go about this situation, is there..." Yeah. It just leaves him scratching a cheek.
Amaterasu      As it turns out... Fairies are that stupid.

     Chica's call of housecleaning is met with the sounds of shuffling, and some muffled arguing, before the lock on the door latched open. Said door swung open. A blonde fairy peered through the half opened door, obscuring the inside of the house. She was floating in the air at about Chica's height, not being tall enough to meet her gaze on her feet.

     "Housecleaning? Does that mean we don't have to clean the house!?" She looked so eager to shirk that particular chore. ...Well, fairies will be fairies.

     At the same time, at the end of the block the group was standing in/floating above, a single, round jewel drifted through the air, stopping short and seeming to 'watch', as they fooled that poor, stupid fairy. It was red, and about the right size to be palmed in one's hand. But it did nothing more. Only floated there and watched.
Chica Mendez     No easy way indeed. Chica sends a big, smug grin to the sort-of-elf and his daughter, as well as the others. How these guys were this dumb was really beyond her. At least they had a lead, now. Mostly.

    "Sure, kid," she tells the fairy lightly. No words on why she doesn't look at all like she's ready to clean anything. "First, though, I need to get paid. And you can do that by kindly telling me what's going on around here. In the village, on this flying rock. That's the deal."

    In the meantime, she makes sure to sneak her foot into the doorway so that the fairy can't suddenly decide to shut it again and leave them high and dry. Unfortunately, that means she hasn't noticed the ominous red gem thing that was watching their movements.
Alice Margatroid     Alice shakes her head a bit, Fairies were stupid but this ... this just takes the proverbial cake. "Good work, Chica." a pause, "Part of me wishes that they wern't that stupid, but..." Alice floats over once everything's seemingly in the clear, she waves Kirito and Kotone over. "While you question, I'm going to have a quick look around. Shanghai, Hourai stay here and help them okay?"

    The two dolls nod and float near Kirito and Chica as Alice takes back off to the sky, taking a good aerial view of the houses around. Something didn't feel right here and she was going to find out what's going on.

    Meanwhile, Shanghai and Hourai give a nod, with Shanghai perking up, "Mmhmm, we just want to know why this big island is here and who's running things." Hourai's eyes, however, shift just a bit before she starts floating towards that red gem. "Kirito, Yui. Come have a look at this." as the doll approaches it closer and closer, waving a hand for the two to come here.

    Alice frowns from her quick look around, only to land near Chica, giving a curious look towards the fairy, something felt off....
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is taking in information on the local fairies and it seems to be dumb, Chica plays off this and hopefully will be able to get some information out of the fairy about just what is going on here. Kotone thinks at what Alice says and lets he go off to look about. She fllows up Hourai and the rest to come check out, just what the Shanghai has found.

"Humm what do you have here?"
Kirito     Kirito just BOGGLES at Chica's stunt actually WORKING. Yui too seems surprised! But before he can really marvel at it... Alice is calling him and Kotone over. He follows them, leaving a trail of short-lived sparkles in the air. "What do you want to show... oooooh." His eyes land on the red gem.

    "... Do things usually just float like that in these parts?"
Amaterasu      Once it's approached, the red gem suddenly glows brightly!

     MEANWHILE

     In what looks to be a considerable library, a figure sits at a wooden table, a scrying orb resting on it before them, showing what the gem in the village is seeing in real time. Once it's spotted and intruders begin to approach, they bring a hand to their chin thoughtfully. "Only one of them matches the description of the intruders from last time. They must have plenty forces."

     Another moment of contemplative silence. "Fine then." They speak up quietly. "Initiate Elemental Overload." The view on the scrying orb abruptly cut off, and they spoke again. "Commence jewel reconstruction." And the view returned, this time in another location entirely. ...It was viewing the group from high above.

     BACK AT THE VILLAGE

     The floating red gem lit up like a light bulb, and a mechanical voice echoed out from it. "Proceeding with Elemental Overload. Breakdown in 5...4....3.....2.....1....0." FWOOSH. The orb shattered, and from it, an explosive force blossomed outward, creating a wave of fire in a ten meter radius. The ground was scorched black, houses were blown up, and most oddly, the surroundings actually phased into static for a second before stablizing. Hope Kirito, Yui, and Hourai got out of there in that time.

     At the same time, the fairy at the door frowned. "Heeeeeey...why does a house cleaner need to know all that stuff?" She squinted up at Chica, not buying it at all. And then her gaze flitted to Shanghai, and Alice. "And why do you need so many people to clean a house?" SUSPICIOUS! "I changed my mind!"

     But when she tried to shut the door...whoops, there's Chica's foot. "Hey! What're you doing?" And then blam, off goes the bomb down at the end of the block. The fairy jumps in surprise. "Ahhhh! What was that!?"
Alice Margatroid     As the fairy slowly catches on, Alice does as well.. "Chica, get yourself ready. That isn't a fairy. It's dead." Alice's eyes briefly glow red in response before returning to their natural blue as Shanghai gets into a defensive stance, a sword appearing out of nowhere in her hand. "Tell us what's really going on, miss fairy! I promise not to do anything that would harm you if you tell us." comes Shanghai's response, while Alice just readies herself, a card slipping from her sleeve to her hand.

    Meanwhile, the mutterings from that gem cause Hourai to produce her lance and shield, ducking behind it as a defensive spellcircle appears in front of her. "RUN!" she shouts towards the three behind her, "I'll cover!" Hourai's going to tank the resulting explosion, to buy more time for the three to get out of the blast radius, Hourai pushing forth to try to keep the blast from impacting... "Alice, we have a problem!"
Chica Mendez     Things seemed to be progressing well enough. She sort of just gives Alice a noncommittal shrug when she mentions how she wishes these things were smarter, and when she flies away and leaves her dolls there to watch over things. "What she said," she motions over to Shanghai. She even puts a nice, comforting smile on her face to disarm the fairy. Which... doesn't work. The fairy starts getting suspicious.

    That's about the time that, a little down the way, that red gem thing is EXPLODING WITH FIREY FURY. Chica looks over, mutters something in Spanish, and forces her way inside when the fairy tries to shut the door on her. They thought she was scary? It's time to get fucking scary. The elf reaches for her magic, and for a moment above her face is the barest glimpse of a mystical mask, a snarling wolf. Electrical currents slowly start building along her fingertips. "Tell me what the fuck's going on before I roast you and every other stupid goddamn fairy in this village. Unlike her," she shrugs a shoulder at Shanghai, "I won't hesitate to slaughter all of you little cretins."
Kirito     The mechanical voice's countdown is NOT LOST on Kirito. Kirito's eyes widen in panic with just seconds left.

    He has only a few seconds to respond. And he responds by grabbing his sword. With the kind of precise coordination only a panicked expert could execute he angles the blade and summons forth a Sword Skill!

    Divination glows white-blue. He doesn't RUN.

    Instead... he attempts to PARRY THE FIREBALL and subdue at least some of it with a SLASHSLASHSLASH of ICE POWER!

    Huge, fractal bursts of ice expliode from the ground and the air where his sword passes, contesting with the fireball not just as a physical barrier but cooling its wrath! Hopefully!

    The effort's hardly perfect though. He's blown backwards by the sheer SHOCKWAVE and nearly slams into one of the houses! The only reason he doesn't is... wings. They thrum to life and fight the backwards momentum enough for him to slide across the ground, dig in his heels... ... and...

    "Hwagh... what's that, coming from? Elemental? Like Fire Elemental?!"

    Yui took shelter in Kirito's pocket! And apparently is bruised but not really harmed. can Navigation Pixies even take damage? Probably not.

    But it still hurts!
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa was not expecting an explosion, she pauses as she hears something, it's the start og a sound she knows too well. She moves to try and get clear the Cyborg is running, she looks back over her shoulder, but Kirito is standing his ground. Wait what is Kirito doing and then he moves to tryand parry the blast which. She stops she stares blinking at Kirito's actions. She's been in the multiverse. shes' not seena ynthing quite like that. She recovers after a moment and is rushting to Kirito to make sure he's okay.

"EAsy there...how did you even do that?!"
Amaterasu      ELSEWHERE

     "Tch. Not even one? These intruders are rather formidable. Alright. Initiate Formation V" The figure tsked in annoyance before giving that command. The scrying orb continued to show the view of the overall situation from above, but several smaller 'screens' appeared in the corners of the orb's view, show showing the intruding group at multiple angles, from the air, from the ground, from all around...

     The figure muttered one last command. "Disperse soul cloaking. Retreat." And then they focused on what they'd mentioned previously. This Formation V.

     BACK AT THE VILLAGE

     "Agh...!" The fairy screamed and fluttered back as Chica forced her way in. She'd see that other fairies were inside, about five in totall, all staring at the woman rather fearfully now. That little magic show wasn't helping. Nor was that threat. "S-Slaughter? Cretins?" One of the other fairies, one with green hair stammered. "We're not cretins, you jerk!"

     Another fairy, this one white haired, floated to the other's side. "Yeah! Get out of here! When big sis is finished, she'll destroy every last one of you for this!" And the blonde one that opened the door added: "Yeah! And you're the ones who caused that big boom too, aren't you!?"

     Right at that moment, the five fairies suddenly froze. And then their little fairy bodies phased out of existence, leaving small wisps of light. ...They must have been souls of the dead. They proceed to flutter away, phasing through the walls of the house without any words. Probably because they lacked the means to speak.

     The reason for this became clear when outside, several gems flew into sight from all around. Gems of different colors. Red, blue, green, purple, gold. They all glowed with the color of their gems and proceeded to begin firing waves of elemental magic at those in the village.

     Streams of flame spewed out of the red gem, aimed for Kotone. Countless ice arrows formed around the blue gem before firing off at Hourai. The green gem created a strong gust as wind blades burst forth, converging on Kirito. The purple gem crackled with electricity before chains of lightning fired outwards at Alice and Shanghai. And the gold gem glowed briefly, before the ground began to quake. From beneath Chica, several spires of stone shot up, aiming to pierce at her.

     The game master has made their move.
Alice Margatroid     She /did/ say that they were dead, didn't she... Not paying mind to the words being spoken by the 'fairies'. "Tch, didn't think we would be having a show this early into the investigation." she shrugs as she watches the gems, her eyes focusing upon them. A quick wave of her hand and a small magic circle comes into view and magic string whips off her fingers and into the portal, only to pull out eight dolls, which suddenly head towards Kotone. "Here, just focus and they'll fire on your target!"

    Alice, however, grabs Shanghai and quickly takes back to the sky, narrowly avoiding the lightning strike. Shanghai's sword is pushed forward and a large laser shoots off towards that purple gem, trying to strike it with a sweeping laser as small bullets start flowing off of Alice's hand towards it, unaimed. Hourai, however, raises that shield again, the ice arrows crashing right into the magic barrier around the doll as she presses forward, lance extended with small laser bursts flying off of it.

    The dolls surround Kotone's back in a half circle, almost lifeless but they hold their hands forward and wait for the command.
Chica Mendez     Oh, they're rallying. As more and more come, Chica doesn't back down, instead slowly raising her eyebrows a little more with each sentence. Right when the last one's said their piece, she lifts her hands to just fry all of the stupid little things--only for them to freeze and disperse, floating through the walls and away. So they were actually dead.

    "... We're in your world's equivalent of the afterlife, aren't we." She scowls as she lowers her hands and lets her magic disperse. No need to waste her energy here.

    That thought swiftly changes when things start going to hell. All of the elements are out and about trying to kill them. Immediately Chica brings her Perception back on and pushes her way outside. She sees the sources--and she sees the one that's aiming for her, too. The small rumble underneath her feet is evidence enough of what's going to happen. She springs to the side, but it's not quite fast enough; one of the spikes hits the bottom of her left foot and smacks into the steel plate set into the soles of many types of combat boot. It doesn't penetrate, but it forces the metal to bend and a bruise to form. Chica'll be limping for a few minutes.

    Now's the time for payback. "I just bought these boots!" She growls up at the golden gem. She reaches for her magic again, but this time goes for something other than lightning. In this case, it's a spray of highly acidic fluid. If it was a real gem, it might not do much, but it's a start. Besides, Electricty doesn't work against Earth, right?
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa is just going to have to deal with what Kirito did as things are getting worse, it seems the fairies are not faires aafter all and they'd all be sent up. Things are really heating up at this point. She stares down the gems for but a moment as then comes the magic, the fire and the pain. She's staring to move s quickly as she could she had no real means to deal with magic diectly like this. Other than to try and dodge it thankfully Alice is on the job to lend her a hand with one of her. She soon will find she's got six dolls hovering about her. She's used to useing tech based remots and so Kotone Doll funnel type, gets to work. She starts to focus as the dolls attack trying to.

The afterlife That's a chilling thought give by most world's standard Kotone should be /long/ dead. She shivers at this. The dolls will strike out against hte Gems.

"Just like commanding my drones, I think I get it Alice! Now the doll has her own dolls."
Kirito     "I think that settles one thing! This village is a trap!" And if it's so... then he has very little reason to stick around. But he's got half a mind to ruin the day of whoever set this trap and see what they're made of.

    "It's a Sword Skill! --oh crap. GET UNDER COVER!" He yells to Kotone. There's no time to really react. No time, that is...

    If he was normal.

    Kirito's reflexes really are astounding. He somehow manages to twist his whole body around and backwards, narrowly avoiding a direct blow from one of those wind blades. Instead it leaves a thin, glowing gash along his check. The weird, backwards twisting continues as his wings appear and carry him spiraling through the onslaught. Only a few handfuls of the wind blades slam into his avatar to leave glowing gashes.

    "Tch... can't just plow through that carelessly!"

    His wings SNAP to full power vibration and slam in close to his back for a burst of FULL SPEED ACCELERATION, aka the 'AERIAL DRIVE' for a few lingo-tastic fairies.

    He ain't got PATIENCE for this Danmaku crap! His brain's on fire with focus and the incoming wind gales jsut look so, so slow.

    It's the main trait of his family line it seems. Battle Zen focus!

    So he plows through the wind, sacrificing chunks of his Hp to accept grazing blows in exchange for an UNCOMPROMISED course and maximum speed buildup.

    "Wind feeds FIRE!" There's no point to this declaration as he swoops in towards the green jewel... and readies a Sword Skill.

    He might just be wanting to piss off whoever's watching and insult whatever notion they have of elemental rock-paper-scissors.

    Because his sword glows red-orange, igniting moments before it lashes out in a series of six strikes that draw the shape of a five-pointed and finally THRUST into the blazing diagram, causing the whole thing to explode!
Amaterasu      The floating jewels don't exactly stay still to be shot at, of course. They weave through the air, almost as if someone were controlling them remotely. Shanghai's lasers and Alice's shard bullets rain over the gathered gems, striking a few, but not destroying any. Shanghai's laser tagged the purple gem however, and it rapidly lost power, veering through the air and hitting the ground, colored a dull gray now.

     The acidic fluid that Chica hurled at the golden gem managed to hit, washing over the orb and causing it to slowly break down, pieces of glass or something chipping off as it stuttered in mid-air. However, it glowed a weak glow, and then from behind, a clod of earth rose up, about the size of a person's head. Then it fired right towards Chica's back.

     With the combined confusion of Alice's bullets, and the bullet wave was Kotone and the borrowed dolls, the blue gem weaved about erratically, taking hit after hit, but managing to avoid getting completely shot down. It glowed blue, and a wall of ice shot up from the ground before rapidly blasting forward attempting to crash Kotone and those dolls into the side of a house.

     Kirito's swift combo doesn't even give the green jewel time to react before it's sliced apart with a furious six hit flurry. It exploded into several cut up pieces, falling to the ground uselessly.

     ELSEWHERE

     "....These people..." The figure muttered, frowning at what was heard from Kirito over the green gem, and from Alice over the purple gem. "I'm supposed to show up now? Is that how it goes?" They smirked in an amused manner. "...Why not." They stood from their seat, stepping back from the wooden table and heading out.

     BACK AT THE VILLAGE

     From a distant house, a figure figure rose up into the air. This one was not dead or a fairy. It looked to be a young man, wearing a black vest and pants, with a white shirt and tie. His hair was black and tied back, and his eyes were red, covered by a pair of spectacles. Around him, floated fresh, new elemental jewels. And the ones that were in combat previously, fell to the ground and turned gray, no longer needed.

     "So you're the ones encroaching on Takamagahara this time." He adjusted his glasses with the push of a finger, jewels revolving around him slowly. "I don't suppose you would be willing to just go away and let this all run it's course, would you?" He severely doubted it, but why not ask? Didn't cost anything.
Chica Mendez     There's so many cheap tricks going on here you'd think this place had a rock band. The Aztlanner elf lets out a brief crow of victory when the Acid Spray spell hits and starts to disintigrate the stupid little gem. Time to start clearing away the rest of them.

    To that end, she pulls out her Ares Predator from the holster strapped to her hip and starts going to help out Kotone and the rest, only to get smacked in the back and bowled over when more rock is sent her way. Once she's settled on the ground, it takes a few minutes for her to catch her breath again and slowly push herself up--all with a chorus of groans as she feels her bruised back muscles protesting against her.

    At least the puppetmaster behind this whole charade has come to reveal himself, like Alice suspected he would. Being a proud elven woman, Chica forces herself to stand straight and not suck in air while she pointed her gun up at him. "You came to Gensoyoko uninvited first, asshole. Unless you're about to offer a fat stack of cred for all the crap you've put us through, pretty sure /I/ at least am going to tell you to rot in pieces."

    To whit--BANG! Chica fired at one of those stupid circulating gems, though admittedly it's one that's right in front of this guy's sternum. If she hits the gem and destroys it, hey, perfect! If not... oops?
Alice Margatroid     Alice allows the remote dolls to fire with Kotone's command as she, Shanghai and Hourai move to duck around some of the return danmaku, watching the laser tag one of the gems and it falls to the ground. Well, one less thing to worry about. She shakes her head some and, with everyone elses gems 'dying', she give a pleased smile, looks like it wasn't that difficult after all. Or was it? The male voice catches the youkai's ears, causing the three to turn around and stare at the guy.

    The jewels get a good notice, at least she thinks this was the person who commanded those things, "Your command over spirits and those jewels are impressive." a bit of buttering up... and then Chica goes off... literally... with the gun. "You really don't know how Gensokyo works, do you...?" she shakes her head and sighs, Shanghai's laser fires and knocks the gun away from Chica, "My apologies, my comrade doesn't know much about Gensokyo rules..."

    She floats down some, Shanghai and Hourai moving to flank the dollmaker, "I'm Alice Margatroid. A resident here." she curtsies and Shanghai and Hourai follow. "We will be willing to go away if you're willing to answer a few questions, a ... peaceful resolution to this would be nice... and less heat on the ground so we can finish enjoying the winter here..."

    Alice turns to look at the people behind her... "This is Kotone, the winged boy is Kirito, and ... Miss Shoots First is Chica. Now, would you care to tell us your name and why Takamagahara is here?"
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa will be making use of her doll funnels for the moment but she is getting to cover she's durable but she's not immune to harm. She's going to try to scramble backa nd get to some level of cover. She's thankfully quick enough to get back and she's certainly not going to hold still at all. Finally things change as a mysterious person shows up. She doesn't attack with the dolls and she does noe go for the weapon she's carrying she looks at the man nd nods. "Yes, if something is wrong prehaps we cna help with it?"
Kirito     DOWN goes the jewels. Kirito barely has a few seconds to catch his breath and sheath the sword though... because THAT GUY shows up in the village. When he's introduced the Black Swordsman.

    "I came here to help Alice find one of her friends... and the search lead us here. But I don't have a beef with this place... except it tried to kill us." His tone goes from fairly pleasant to rather dark, fast, and the young man's eyes narrow hard too.

    He's demanding an answer from this guy.
Amaterasu      Someone was trigger happy. The man arched a brow, but didn't move. The gem that happened to be in the path of the bullet, it was a golden gem. Immediately, it took on a glow, and small shield of condensed dirt formed, hardening into a thick slab that took the bullet's impact, before simply falling back into dirt and hitting the ground, slug and all.

     "Eloquent." Was all he had to say to Chica, his red gaze settling on her for a moment, before Alice cut in. His eyes settled on her, listening to what she had to say, and glancing at those introduced in turn. "Well met." He closed his eyes and sighed. "A peaceful resolution would work out fine for me as well. I'm not all that eager to get shot out of the sky today." Chica earned another pointed glance at that.

     Seems like not everyone here was like those two brats from last time. Pushing up his glasses with a finger, he spoke. "My name is Amenohohi. As for why Takamagahara is here. ...My sister brought our home down into this placed call 'Gensokyo', because she needed to expose the island to sunlight." A pause followed. "As for why the sunlight has gotten so intense..." He averted his eyes, evidently knowing something but being unable to say. "Let's just say that's an...unexpected side effect."

     A side effect of what?

     "Unfortunately, I can't say anything else." A shrug followed. "I'm sure at least one of you has seen what happened to those two who tried to talk more than necessary."

     Well, that was about as cooperative as he could be.
Chica Mendez     Cheap tricks, man. Always get a good runner down.

    The bullet's impact is effectively negated, and soon Chica's pistol goes flying off when one of the dolls lasers it away. There's some terse words over radio for this, but eventually Chica grunts and goes to fetch her weapon from where it had landed. His pointed glare is matched with a particular rude gesture from the elf after she's holstered the weapon again. "You don't like the heat, don't try to blow us the fuck up without any reason. Remember, you attacked us." It's... kind of an unspoken rule of shadowrunning, as it were. If someone draws steel--literally or figuratively--you have full permission to gun them down. Buuut... this isn't the Sixth World.

    At least he's willing to put out some information to clear all of this crap up. Now's the time to let Alice do her thing... But she's not really liking the sort of implications that are coming from all of this.
Kirito     Kirito's a bit unsettled by the facts that Yui quickly digs up over his NerveGear's internet searching. A kid of Amaterasu? While that may not be EXACTLY accurate for what he's looking at, the UNBEARABLY HEAVY SUNLIGHT does lend credence to Yui's conclusion. He frowns at the apparent god's evasiveness.

    But he's not yet sure what to say. He'll leave it, for now, to Alice - who seems to be way more eloquent and proper than he's of any mind to be.
Alice Margatroid     Alice stepped up to the plate... and now she gets to talk to the son of the sun (Hah) god. "Amenohohi." she gives a bit of a bow in respect before she listens to what he has to say, "I do not think anyone here is eager to be shot out of the sky." though when he mentions he has a sister "Your sister? If you do not mind me assuming, may I guess as to the name?" she waits a moment, "Amaterasu?" she gives a brief smile, continuing to listen to the man.

    Alice turns towards Shanghai and Hourai, before turning back to the averted gaze of Amenohohi, "There are other places that have sunlight. There's the Americas outside of Gensokyo and plenty of others." still, the mention of a side effect, "What do you mean... 'side effect'... and how long will it take you and your sister to get out of Gensokyo if we can find a place with better sunlight for you all?"
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa sees tht she can fully stand down now and she's more than happy to do so, she lowers he weapon now and looks to Amenohoshi for a moment.

"I see, so she's here to get this place sunlight but you had the attention of others such as us?"

Kotone seems to get the idea, she's going to let htings go as things could get far worse if she got lippy she pauses though wait that name? Could it be? She shakes her hewad a little bit as she looks over to Kirito. With a very confused look on her face.
Amaterasu      Amenohohi gave no emotional indication at Alice's guess. Smoothly, he replied. "Wrong." He pushed his glasses up. "Either way, I can't confirm or deny anything further. I did my job of stalling you. I gave you some information. And now..." He turned away, slipping his hands into his pants pockets idly, jewels continuing to orbit around him.

     "Unfortunately, moving now would be problematic. If you want to put a stop to it..." He waved an arm outwards, and the illusion surrounding the village immediately dispelled, breaking down into static. The once intact village was now revealed to be a vast ruin of burned down houses and foundations that seem to have been that way for millenia.

     It suddenly looked a lot more depressing. Off at the other end, was a path that lead out of the village and deeper into the island. "Feel free to go ahead. I'm not here to stop you any further than I already have. ...And I have my books to get to." With a push of his glasses, Amenohohi proceeded to float off, leaving the group with only half answered questions, and a reason to press onward.

     "The Azure Blade awaits you, if you decided to go forward." With that final warning, he descended down towards a ruin, not waiting for any farewells or attempts to stop him, and proceeded inside.
Alice Margatroid     Stalling or not, Alice got the info she needed. "Then my apologizes for the bad guess." though when the illusion of the village vanishes and the ruins reappear... Alice gives a frown, even more so when he just turns to leave. "Problematic in moving now... illusions..." she hmms.. "Wonder why I couldn't see through this illusion." she shakes her head a bit more and turns towards the group, "Let's go back to my cottage... I'll fix you all dinner and we can figure out what we're going to do from there. We aren't going to get anywhere further with him."

    The Azure Blade, huh? Marisa will want to know this. "And I need to write something to Marisa, she'll want to know what transpired here." a pause, "As long as she's not getting burned in hell by Utsuhou, that is..."
Chica Mendez     So, this guy was supposed to distract them. CHica has a feeling that whatever this guy is hiding is actually going to be pretty important--and pretty bad for Gensokyo as a whole. But she'll save the conspiracy theories for when they're off of this floating rock and in secret.

    The elf waves the man away irritably; when he releases the illusion over the town she takes it all in without much of a change to her expression. It's not like it's really so different from the Barrens, after all. Just another fucked-up place.

    "Dinner sounds good," Chica says finally. Once she's sure that the guy isn't going to try to roll on back and kill them, she starts making her way off of this damn place. "I'm telling you now--this is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Almost willing to put down cred on it."
Kotone Yamakawa Kotone Yamakawa thinks about the warning, at least she thinks its a warning the man gives them. Or is he more than a man. Kotoone has just given up asking on such things to be honest, in the mulriverse it's better that way. She looks to Alaiuce at the mentiuon of dinner.

"That sounds like a good plan to me, honestly Alice. Also thanks for the loan of the dolls, Alice. Yoiu given me some ideas for my own drone ideas."

She looks over to Kirito.

"Your just nuts, I seen some of the things full body military prosetie can do like my own but I not seen anything like that. That was something almost right out of a video game."

Nope she has no idea about Kirito's power set or the death game he was in. She also looks to Chica

"Well that certainly was a thing..."
Kirito     Kirito ends up looking over his shoulder in disbelief at Kotone. He blinks a few times. Then cracks a sort of wise-ass smile. "Something out of a video game? ... yeah, sounds about right." You can never have too much playful sarcasm.
Amaterasu      UNDEFINED LOCATION

     A figure sat in the middle of a vast staircase stretching endlessly downward and upwards. They had a grin upon their face as they looked off at the village ruins in the distance. A huge blade was hefted upon their shoulder, fingers drumming around the handle idly.

     "Heh. So it's my turn next? Finally. I've been gettin' bored out of my skull just waitin' here."

     Their grin widened.

     "We'll see just how good these intruders really are."