I swear I did not plan for this thing to be so long. I am sorry.
-----
It had been 50 years now since the world ended.
Or at least, that's what they had called it to start with. When the Hakurei maiden passed on without an heir, the Great Hakurei Border slowly began to crumble. Youkai of every race and colour were lost in panic, ready for the idyllic world they knew and loved to be consumed by the greedy hands of man. Their last hiding place was set to be smoked out, and when the disbelievers seeped in they would simply cease to exist.
Of course, the truly wise youkai were not among those crying out in fear of the end times. They knew that the powers that be were prepared - it may have required more effort and planning than most would have considered possible, but when it came to Yukari Yakumo 'possible' was a word that lost all meaning. A thousand years of meticulous planning and construction? More resources and research than could ever have possibly been produced in the short time Gensokyo had left? Child's play.
And so it was that on the day scheduled to be Gensokyo's last, that the entire nation felt the ground shaking beneath their legs. The rivers dried up, the land tore itself apart, and the mountains collapsed in a rain of crushing stone. The world caved in on itself, its entire mass collapsing into a single point before it faded away forever into nothingness.
It was a relief, then, that the residents of Gensokyo had already fled to the stars.
A team of kappa engineers had been spirited away beforehand to build the new homeland. It was a job that they never lived to see the end of, only reaching its completion by the third generation of the families. To the rest of Gensokyo, though, only a day had passed, and none of them were prepared for the technological monolith that they retreated to.
It was unofficially christened Neo-Gensokyo or simply The NG, but it was by no means better than the original. Yes, the technology that had been built here was ingenious and indistinguishable to the old magic -
Yukari had quoted some foreign author on that one - but the entire thing felt horribly artificial. It was most obvious of all to the tengu, flying upwards only to see a glass dome protecting them from the lethal vacuum of space.
So some youkai broke away, and began to found their own colonies away from the first. Each began seeking the beauty of the Gensokyo they had known and loved; each ended in painful resignation, simply seeking to make their colony large and wealthy enough to be worth trading with. Yukari was disappointed, but focused simply on the people of Neo-Gensokyo and protecting them from the bandits and pirates that would inevitably rise up among the dissenters.
For all her power, though, Yukari Yakumo was only one woman. Perhaps she could spare enough attention to deal with the lesser foes, but against an experienced foe her duties as The NG's self-appointed ruler were too much of a distraction. And so the rumours began to spread about a gang of former NG residents who made it their goal to rob the innocent and spread across their wealth. No-one knew their names, but together they made up one of the most threatening bandit groups the galaxy had ever known.
They called themselves the Disciples.
-----
"Come in, Docking Command, this is Freighter TH-Twelve, requesting permission to dock."
Always with the lousy paperwork. Back in the old days it had been a simple matter of parking your ship wherever there was room, but right here in the present there was always someone complaining about safety or security or something lousy like that. Now she had the pleasure of waiting thirty seconds for someone to pick up and respond to her when he wasn't busy dealing with the other two dozen ships trying to dock at the same time as her.
"...Ah, roger, TH-Twelve, this is Docking Command. One moment, please, while I look up your freighter in our database..."
And of course there was the ID check to go through as well. She ran her fingers along the buttons of the control panel in front of her - not that there was anything to worry about, given that the entire system was on auto-pilot now. She missed the days when piloting a ship required something resembling skill - nowadays it was simple enough that a drunken oni could turn on a 5-yen piece in her sleep. It made her ashamed to call herself a captain sometimes.
"...Alright, everything looks good. Magnetic Coil Guidance systems enabled. You should be ready to depart within a few minutes. Thank you, and enjoy your visit to Neo-Gensokyo."
"Thank you, Command. TH-Twelve Out. ...Jeez."
The check had turned up nothing. That's what she had expected, but there was always just enough of a doubt in it to bring her pulse up a little. Mouse had promised the new codes would be safe, but one of these days she was inevitably going to get it wrong. The ship started moving without her lifting a finger, pulling itself into the docks with the utmost precision. She hated it, for lack of a better word.
She had been afraid of what would happen when things moved on. Most of all, her greatest fear had been that she would disappear - without an ocean or even a ship to be linked to, would she simply pass on? There was no room for a magical answer - not when the land of the NG pulsated with the beatings of a mechanical heart. Magic was a lost art, and while technology had taken its place she had assumed there were some things that science just wouldn't be able to save.
That was before she'd been given this new body.
Sometimes she still heard the whirrs and clicks in her wrists, and there was the occasional shortout that needed to be repaired, but besides that it all felt incredibly natural. They'd found some way to connect her spirit to the robotic body she was now encased in, and while it obviously wasn't as fluid and free as her old form it was definitely better than nothing.
The whirring and spinning of the gears in her legs when she walked was almost invisible to her now, she'd heard it so often. She knew it would attract attention when she stepped out into the NG, but it wasn't like cyborgs were an absolute rarity.
It was amazing how much it resembled her old self, at least at first glance. The same short black hair, though it never grew; the same pale green eyes, though they never shone or cried. There was nothing to gain in sitting around thinking about all the ways she'd changed, so she didn't.
The ship's whirring came to a halt. The docking was complete, it seemed. The captain lifted herself out of her chair and made her way to the bridge - most likely there was going to be a final meeting to attend before everyone disembarked. Even if her job was to hold up the ship and make sure they could make a run for it the instant the job was done, it was worth showing up for.
After all, any good crime required some meticulous planning.
-----
She didn't have a name when she was down here.
Names were a liability in her line of work. She didn't use hers, and indeed neither did her crewmates. Names were a rare luxury that they could only afford traveling between colonies when there was no risk of them being traced or overheard.
Ghost, of course, would be busy looking after the ship. The last thing they would need was to have their escape route cut off, so it was only logical for someone to stay behind and keep watch. That left three agents working with her in the NG operation: Tiger, Fist, and Lotus.
But first, she had to make her move. Without intel, tonight's heist would fail without a doubt. And when it came to hunting down intel, there was no-one in the field who could match the Mouse.
Neo-Gensokyo was a pretty picture painted on a rotten canvas. If you were willing to look a little deeper then everyday life led you, there was a well-established black market ready to offer you all the information you could ever want. She dipped her toes in here a few times before, when the job had called on her to 'learn' about some of the local aristocrats.
Today's target was the Hinanai family - an esteemed group of former Celestials that had used their old divine contacts to make themselves one of the richest families in the NG. They were by no means well-liked, and they were said to have their hands in more than a few doubtful businesses, but money had an uncanny ability to make all of those accusations disappear. So did a well placed shot to the head, but no-one would hear of that.
Not that any of that mattered to Mouse. She simply wanted to learn a little about the Hinanai household. There'd be a copy of the blueprints somewhere, and of course for the sake of completionism they'd include a guide on the Hinanai family vault. Not that the seller endorsed robbing the wealthy bastards of their blood money, obviously, and you'd never find proof to suggest that they did.
She dressed well, but not well enough to arouse suspicion. There were two ways to cover yourself nowadays - the simple skintight suit with no real flair, or the extravagant, tuxedo-like Mk. II suits made to resemble the fine wear of the olden days. They had been a revolution on the part of Scarlet Industries, though the inspiration of the family's butlers and maids was more evident than they'd have liked to admit.
Mouse settled somewhere in between - it was a Mk. II, true, but it had seen better days, with its defined black coating now fading into a pale shade of grey. It matched her hair by a matter of convenience, but it compared to her bright red eyes there were few people who could talk with her and spend time looking at her choice of clothing.
It wasn't hers, which explained the occasional red stain around the sleeve.
There had been ears once, and a tail. The Mouse codename had been more literal then, but with the descent of magic the youkai of old had their fantastic nature begin to fade away. Only Yukari Yakumo could claim to be at her full strength nowadays, but the rest of the NG had found ways to catch up. Ways that involved bullets flying at high speeds into other people, mainly.
Anyway, she'd already got in touch with one of her local contacts, and arranged a meeting place. The first rule of walking around the NG's back alleys was to keep your head down at all times - no-one here liked the feeling of being watched. Seeing something that you weren't supposed to was the easiest way to earn yourself a ticket to the nearest incinerator. Mouse focused on the floor, the map of the streets running through her mind as she turned almost arbitrarily. She found herself at last in an abandoned old alley. The street, like many others, was almost like an appendix - it served no purpose in its construction, which meant that meetings could take place here in relative privacy.
She wasn't alone as she stepped in. She couldn't see it, but her time on the streets had given her an intuition strong enough to step in when her five senses weren't enough. Sure enough, a figure moved out of the shadows as she approached, revealing a young-looking woman in a plain white Mk. I. She'd gone to the extent of adding a little flair by adding a pair of small wing accessories on its back.
No wonder she was known as the Crow.
She was one of the few contacts who Mouse knew by name. By day, she was Aya Shameimaru, ambitious journalist seeking to tear down the walls of blackmail and bribery that were keeping the NG encased in this unwanted aristocracy. Of course, her work in that field was as unsuccessful as would be expected, so by night she offered her information to whoever she felt could use it the most as the Crow. Maybe it involved getting her hands dirty in the process, but no omelette ever got made without cracking a few eggs first.
"Going for Hinanai tonight, huh?"
Crow started the discussion with a cheery little question. She received a glare in response. Mouse had already told her as much, and if there was anything she couldn't stand it was repeating herself. The smile on her contact's face slowly slipped away as she realised now wasn't the time for playful remarks.
"Gee, you need to lighten up. Your face is gonna stick like that someday if you don't grin every once in a while."
Mouse grit her teeth, growing more irritated by her partner's lack of severity. Lotus already gave her enough of a headache on a regular basis, so the last thing she was willing to deal with was more of this unneeded cheerfulness.
"Just tell me what you've got."
"OK, OK, I get it. You really fit the businesswoman getup, though you ought take that to the dry-cleaners one of these days."
The Crow reached into the satchel she'd brought along, pulling out a few rolled-up sheets of paper. Mouse rolled them out and gave their contents a quick glance to check that she wasn't being fooled. Crow had no reason to give out false free information, but it never hurt to be safe.
"Hm. Looks good. Guard duty?"
"Two at a time, covering the entrance. Shifts every 6 hours, on the hour. Guard's quarters is down the corridor from the vault entrance. No cameras."
That was excellent news for the Disciples, though Mouse would never go so far as to celebrate it. She made a note of the quarters on the map, marking them as safe with a green circle.
"Thanks."
People like the Crow made this job a lot easier. She smiled as she received the compliment, though this one seemed a little more restrained.
"Don't mention it. The Hinanai family are one of the worst out there, and they have a habit of making people...disappear."
She seemed pained as she let out that last point. Mouse had heard stories of the Crow losing a partner in her line of work, something about Inubashiri or something like that. She knew better than to press on the point, giving her contact a small nod before making her way out of the alleyway.
That, effectively, was her job done. She made her way out of the alley, remembering to keep a low profile as she made her way back to the NG's shinier, happier districts. If this information was accurate, the next changing of the guard would be at midnight, which gave them only hours to prepare. This info, though, would hopefully give them enough of an edge to make it into the vault and rob the Celestials blind.
Maybe after the job was done, the escape was made, the goods were safely tucked away, and the ship was well out of the NG's jurisdiction, Mouse would finally allow herself to wear something resembling a smile.
-----
Eleven fifty-eight.
"Man, could time be moving any slower?"
Hong Meiling, professional bodyguard to the Hinanai family, let out a little complaint as she waited around for her shift to start. The guards' quarters was barren, offering only a few chairs and a couch for comfort - a strict contrast to the extravagant furniture that adorned the remainder of the mansion. The difference in class between the protectors and the protected was, in a word, blatant, though it still offered the same resilient, soundproof walling the rest of the mansion was built with.
"You think it's bad now? Wait until you get to spent six hours standing idly in front of a giant, metal door. It's the kinda shit that makes me wish they let me drink on the job."
"Everything makes you wish you could drink on the job."
"Yeah, and?"
Yuugi Hoshiguma was a shining example of the modern oni mindset. If you didn't like it, drink the problem away and enjoy a few hours of bliss before you wake up in a ditch with unexplained marks on your neck. Rinse and repeat as necessary.
She couldn't say she'd come to the Hinanai house willingly for employment. No-one did, in truth - the rumours about the family's ties to the underground spread thick and fast around the NG. No-one spoke of them outside of hushed privacy, though, which if anything doubled the eerie aura they held. Still, money had to come from somewhere, and for all their supposed bribery the Celestials sure had a lot of money to spare. And there were definitely harder ways to work for less money than standing guard in front of a stupid vault that no-one would be stupid enough to rob.
Eleven fifty-nine.
"They 'oughta be coming back round now. I know 'em, they're the sort that'll dodge the last couple 'a minutes 'cause no-one's looking. All the more work for us."
Meiling shrugged, yawning. Drawing the midnight shift had been a lousy turnout for her, but money was money. Scarlet Industries had laid her off after she got into a dispute with her boss which she still insisted she was being unfairly persecuted on, but somehow a lawyer convinced the jury that referring to someone as China was not, in fact, derogative. And it certainly wasn't worth the dislocated jaw Meiling had handed out.
Fortunately, the Hinanai family were willing to look past minor things like criminal history. They had need of someone with her experience in martial arts, and more importantly they were willing to pay her handsomely for it. And on top of that, the uniform was a rather nice-looking jet-black Mk. II. Better than what Scarlet had her wearing, that was for sure.
"Aaaaaaand...twelve."
The door opened along with the chime of midnight. The two members of the old guard stepped in, looking down at the floor. It figured - with a job like that, anyone would be on the verge of falling asleep.
"Alright, you two. Good job out there, keepin' away all those intruders. Hard work, huh?"
Yuugi immediately walked up to the pair, ready to give them a cheerful greeting as she made to start her shift. There was no initial response, so she gave it a second shot.
"Well, you get to go have fun now. There are still probably a lotta bars open at this ho-"
All Meiling saw from the other side of the room was a slight shuffle from one of the guards towards Yuugi.
The oni fell to the floor in an instant, unconscious.
"The hell!?"
The traitor quickly leapt over Yuugi's collapsed body, jumping straight for Meiling. The bodyguard reacted keenly, pulling a hand out to block her opponent's outstretched foot and throw it aside in a single fluid motion. Her attacker fell at her side, her opening strike deflected.
"Oh, not bad. It's been a while since I've fought someone who knew how to block. Melee combat never seems to make a showing anymore, does it?"
Was it a compliment, an insult? Meiling wasn't sure. She'd been issued a blaster, like every member of the Hinanai guard. There was logically nothing stopping her from pulling out her weapon and blasting her opponent into a pile of dust.
And yet...she couldn't. She knew it was base pride stopping her, but the girl's words struck a nerve in her heart. The other guard simply stood at the entrance, waiting for her to finish up.
"...Heh. An honourable fight, then? And to who do I owe a rare pleasure like that?"
The 'guard' looked up at her with proud violet eyes, her long purple hair running freely down her back. She raised a single hand out with an outstretched palm.
"Names are worthless. You can call me..."
The hand clenched up in an instant. Meiling could almost feel the force held within.
"...Fist."
Meiling grinned. Apparently she wasn't the only one confident in her own abilities.
"Alright, then. Let's savour this little fragment of history."
There was a moment of silence. Both fighters tensed themselves, ready to strike.
Fist flew forward, both hands swinging wildly in Meiling's direction. Or at least it looked wild, but as she blocked the blows that rained down the ex-guard could see that each attack was carefully aimed to test her. She would block a low shot to the kidney, only to have to shift her defense upwards abruptly to stop a jab to the face, before another attack aimed straight at her chest. Showing such accuracy while attacking so erratically...that was impressive, Meiling had to admit.
Still, she could only keep this up for so long. Maybe in the olden days an attack like this could have lasted, but when the magic of Gensokyo faded so did a good deal of the youkai race's natural strength. Meiling had kept herself in shape with constant training, but even then she wasn't anywhere near as strong as she'd been back when the air wasn't doubly filtered to keep it breathable.
Her opponent, on the other hand, looked like she was wearing out. The attacks were slowing down, and it was starting to get easier to block them. Now was the crucial moment, and Meiling waited for precisely the right time to act.
It came almost immediately. A tired, sluggish punch that Meiling could have followed with her eyes closed, aimed straight for her face. Her hand reached out, grabbing at the fist and wrapping her hand around it. That was it. She had the upper hand, now, and even better she'd come up with a cool one-liner to finish the whole thing off.
"Paper covers rock!"
She pressed down on the trapped hand, meanwhile pulling her free arm back to perform the finishing punch. It had been a short fight, but it was one she'd remember and no doubt earn a promotion for-
Wham.
"Ah...?"
There had been a second fist, hiding in the blind spot between Meiling's eyes and the first, landing straight in Meiling's gut. Two fingers were outstretched, ramming into a pair of sensitive pressure points for maximum damage. Meiling's eyes glazed over, and she fell to the floor with a look of awe still attached to her face.
"...Scissors cut paper."
Fist glanced at the pair of fallen guards for a moment, checking that they'd both been incapacitated. There was no response, so she simply shrugged and made for the doorway. Tiger had been keeping watch, though given that the supposed guards were currently lying on the floor in a heap there wasn't much to worry about. They made their way back out the corridor, stepping over the two guards who Yuugi and Meiling had been expecting, both unconscious and stripped down.
"Nice getup, isn't it? Think it'd make a pretty sweet souvenir."
Tiger shot her mouth now that there was no need to worry about being covert or secretive. She examined the Mk. II she'd borrowed indefinitely from a fallen guard - it clung rather neatly to her figure, almost as if it had been crafted for her. Maybe the Mk. II was a one-size-fit-all? She'd never been into fashion, and it was no surprise that her blonde hair was ruffled around in no real recognisable pattern. An occasional artifical streak of black ran across it as she looked down on herself with her golden eyes.
"Hm. Personally, I have to say I preferred the suits that the Mizuhashi house used."
"Mizuhashi?! They were freaking lime green. Who'd want to be seen in that?"
They made their way to the now unprotected vault door, looking foreboding enough even without two armed guards in front of it. A small keypad on the side offered them the rights to enter if they could only offer it a four digit code.
"I assume you have this covered, Tiger?"
"Four digits? No problem."
She said as much, but her method of cracking the keypad did nothing to instill any confidence. Her finger darted around the keypad, not pressing any button for a moment as she focused on it. She seemed to be trying to read the machine's mind, producing a winning combination to enter. They'd only get one shot at this, so it was down to her making a good guess.
Four hasty taps later, the vault door began to open. Fist sighed incredulously.
"I don't know how you do it. Really."
"What can I say? Guess I was just born lucky."
Well, the fingerprints on the keypad helped out a lot, but she never bothered mentioning that to anyone else. It killed the aura of mystery.
The vault door swung upon with a majestic creak, revealing its innards to the two scavengers. There were gems of every shape and colour, walls lined with gold and laced with platinum, and all sorts of miscellaneous artifacts in-between. Both of the Disciples removed small modules from their suits, which at their order opened up to become full sized bags.
The kappa called the inventions Bags of Holding, though the name always sounded horribly archaic to everyone else.
They quickly started grabbing the most expensive-looking items they could find, dumping them in the bags and getting ready to run. They didn't know how the bag could hold so much without feeling heavy, or how it could be compressed into its miniature size again without harming its contents. Either way, they didn't really care, and simply made the most of it as they stuffed their bags full with the goods. Science nowadays may as well have been magic.
The treasure hunt came to a sudden end as a low wailing sounded in the distance. Tiger cursed under her breath.
"We never got told about an automated security system!"
"Well, these families are good with their dirty secrets. It shouldn't be that much of a surprise."
Fist seemed unafraid, simply closing up her bag and clipping it back around her waist. Tiger let out a sigh, her hand reaching for one of the blasters at her side as she finished up. One was the property of one of the guards lying unconscious in the corridor, while the other was one she'd custom-made. Indistinguishable from the outside, but it packed a little punch that most standard models lacked.
"Better run through the mook's gun first. It's a pain to reload these things."
Blasters were one of the shadier inventions of the modern era, but once they'd emerged they were almost impossible to eradicate from the underground. There had been several attempts to contraband the weapons - or at one point, they'd been desperate enough to try and stop producing the ammunition - but shadier groups always managed to avoid the eye of the law and keep the weapons circulating. All the attempted bans did was give them an excuse to charge higher prices for the weaponry. Apparently they fired with the help of a portable nuclear reactor inside the device - Reiuji class, whatever that meant.
The wailing in the distance grew louder. Both bandits took cover behind the vault wall, listening intently for the approach of the noise. Now they could make out the sound of a propeller coming closer as well, and they primed their weapons ready for fire.
Unsurprisingly, Tiger was the first to react as the copter turret poked its head into the vault, putting it clean in her sights and firing true. A green laser-like stream emerged from within, catching the machine in its path for an instant. When the light dissipated, the back half of the machine fell to the floor in a heap of junk, its propeller still chugging along pathetically.
"Man, they're working with Kawashiro? This is gonna be easier than I thought."
Kawashiro was a small security company, whose founder had completely ignored the technological advances of a thousand years of kappa ingenuity and simply used her own knowledge to produce protective automatons. Needless to say, her works were not the leading brand in the market, but they were definitely the cheapest. Hinanai was a cheapskate, and it showed.
The path out of the mansion would be fraught with opposition, with maybe a dozen of these copter turrets on patrol. Each of them was armed with a more conventional weapon, strong enough to take down any potential intruder even if it didn't match the power of the blaster. Fortunately, they were sluggish and had incredibly poor aim,
almost as if they were trying to miss.Needless to say, to a pair of expert gunners like them, these defenses were basically childs play. For all their weaponry, the turrets suffered from a terrible case of noise, and so its targets were always ready to shoot it out of the sky the instant it emerged. Tiger insisted that they take turns firing - it was ammo conservation, she argued, though her own favourite weapon stayed strapped at her waist.
Fist and Tiger slowly worked their way through the mansion's corridors, leaving a trail of scrap in their wake. No doubt the police had been called in, but up until now it had been something of a breeze. In fact, as the stepped out into the main hall, it almost felt...
Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.
...Too easy.
The machine that stepped into the room didn't look like she posed a threat at first glance, dressed in a traditional maid uniform while sporting rather ridiculous looking green hair.
That was before until they noticed the rather hefty looking beam weapon it was carrying in both arms.
"TARGETS IDENTIFIED.
CHECKING AGAINST EMPLOYEE DATABASE...NO MATCH FOUND.
EXTERMINATION PROTOCOL INITIATED."
The weapon pointed straight at the pair, taking a moment to charge up. Fist and Tiger both found themselves staring into the barrel for an instant, seeing a light green flame appear from inside.
They came to their senses and dodged out of the way just before the green spark devastated the corridor behind them. At the other side of the room, a frightened looking janitor hid beneath the a staircase for safety.
"Oh, come on. Right at the door, too!"
Tiger let off a complaint as she ducked behind cover, looking up only momentarily to try and fire at the enemy. There were no complaints about conserving ammo now - letting up on this thing was likely to earn her a heaping serving of green, fiery death. Fist was firing from the other side of the room as well, but the maid effortlessly sidestepped the attacks and watched uninterested as the lasers flew right past her.
Crap, it's an Okazaki model!No-one knew how the Okazaki models had come into existence. Some said that the original had been designed by a time-travelling human who'd visited Gensokyo on a whim, but the initial technology had been too close to the modern day for that to be believable. Still, nowadays the Okazaki model had been improved to become the deadliest - and most expensive - of all the robotics currently in the field. The secret lay in their famous Gunshot Redirection with Almost Zero Effort engine. Usually just known as the GRAZE engine, it was capable of dodging attacks from almost point blank range without a hint of error.
There was a click as Tiger found her weapon running on empty, not scoring a single hit.
"Dammit."
She ducked down as another green beam flew over her head. She discarded the guard's gun now that it had outlived its use, seeing Fist do the same with her own weapon. Her eyes glanced down to the unused blaster still at her waist.
"Tiger, fire that thing already!"
Fist looked distressed as she looked to her companion, now defenseless against the Okazaki model's attack. Tiger pouted, looking indecisive about the idea.
"But the ammo for this thing is crazy rare! I don't want to use it if I don't have to-"
"You can't use it if you're dead, remember?!"
That was a good enough argument for her. Tiger let out a heaving sigh, finally unsheathing her trademark weapon.
"Fine, fine! Just remember, you owe me one for this!"
The blaster still looked ordinary as she stood up and pointed it at the Okazaki model. The maid simply turned its weapon towards the Tiger, ready to shoot her in the face unless a shot came from the gun. Even then, it was ready to step aside the instant a threat occured, and by now it had locked onto its target had run out of useful cover.
The gun let out a louder blast than usual, but the difference in firepower was barely noticable. The GRAZE engine kicked in, and the maid shifted to the side, expecting the laser to swing right beside her without a hint of damage.
Instead, it curved mid-flight and proceeded to catch the machine in the chest.
"ERROR. ERROR. FATAL EXCEPTION HAS OCCURRED AT LOCATION 00xH1TB0x..."
The machine spat out an error message as its innards let out a desperate whirring. It dropped its weapon with a clang on the floor as its inner gears slowed to a halt. It died standing, a single hand poking at the clean hole through its chest.
Tiger groaned.
"Seriously, homing shots for this thing take forever to make. I'd say that was worth a week of dinner duties."
"Five days."
"Sold."
The smoke began to clear, revealing the room to be a broken-down mess. There were burn marks imprinted in the walls, and some of the valuable artwork hung around the room had been torched in the crossfire. The latest daughter of the Hinanai family wasn't much of a looker anyway, though, so it was no great loss.
Tiger took this moment to place her trusty weapon back at her waist. She called it the Pagoda, a last remnant of her religious days. Sadly, when Gensokyo disappeared old religion disappeared with it, and the new religions were too chock-full of
aliens and alternate universes for her to really believe in them. Now all they had to do was make their way back to the ship and-
"Freeze."
Oh, come on.A voice emerged from the doorway, as another gunwielder emerged on the scene. The dark blue Mk. II was the sign of a member of the police force, and she pointed a military-issue blaster at the pair. Tiger grit her teeth as the gun zeroed in on her - there was no way she could pull out her gun before the cop shot her down.
"By the power invested in me by Chief Commissioner Yamaxanadu, I, Komachi Ono...aw, screw it, you know what I'm gonna say. You're both under arrest for grand theft."
Komachi kept her gun primed as she moved in, keeping an eye on both criminals as she moved in. Her free hand reached into her pocket to pull out a pair of cuffs. She'd cuff the armed one first, then her partner. There was no problem as long as she kept them both in her sights.
Or at least, there wouldn't have been if a broom hadn't taken that very moment to smash against her skull.
"Ugh..."
Komachi fell to the floor in a heap, her arms only making it halfway to her head before she passed out. Tiger and Fist looked on in awe, neither of them expecting to be saved at a time like this.
From behind Komachi, the janitor who had hidden behind the stairway earlier gave the pair a calm grin.
"Sorry for joining you without an invitation, but I heard that you'd have a guest from the police force dropping by. And I know you two well enough to know you'd never shoot a policewoman on duty, would you?"
Tiger froze for a moment, and let out a grin. Honestly, the woman's skill with disguise was almost uncanny - only now was it clear who their rescuer had been. She offered her companions a smile, removing her hat and revealing a head of long, brown hair. Looking at her, she seemed pure and innocent, but you never realised how dangerous she could be until it was too late.
There was a reason why they called her the Lotus.
-----
Six feet battered against the metal plates of the ship as they ran inside. Ghost could hear their footsteps even from in her own quarters as she watched the bandit trio dash back into their home base. Mouse had returned some time ago, so now the crew was back together again. Ghost turned on the intercom, activating it in the airlock to communicate with her superior.
"Lotus, this is Ghost. Status?"
"Heist successful. Local law enforcement en route."
The captain put on a sadistic smile. Those were exactly the words she'd been hoping to hear since they'd docked.
"So, I guess you don't want me to wait around and play nice, then?"
"You've been waiting around patiently for us. I think you deserve a reward."
Ghost allowed herself a fist-pump as she reached out for the red button on her control panel. It was labelled ominously with the words 'MANUAL CONTROL', threatening to deactivate every function of the auto-pilot.
She pressed it without a hint of doubt, immediately turning to the various screens and panels that were needed to run the freighter.
"Alright then. Main thrusters, on...angle of calibration is clean. No immediate obstacles for the next 15 kilometres, gives us more than enough time to hit the secret weapon."
Her fingers tended to the buttons like a virtuoso treated a pianist - with absolute precision and the utmost care. Not a second was wasted in bringing the main engines of the machine to life, waking it up from its supposed slumber. The radio crackled on, and a flustered voice started to speak up.
"U-Um, Freighter TH-Twelve? This is Docking Command, requesting that you reactivate your auto-pilot and obey normal operating procedures for the safety of-"
"SHUT THE HELL UP, COMMAND!"
She turned off the radio on her side of the connection, leaving whatever poor sucker had been talking to her gibbering to himself. Chalk up another win for Ghost.
"Alright, kid. Show me what you're capable of."
She placed her hands on the main joystick, pressing a thumb down on the red button in its centre. The ship burst into life immediately, breaking away from the dock in a matter of seconds. On land just outside the port, a set of a dozen fuming guards were calling for backup and security, but it was far too late now.
"YAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Ghost guided the freighter through the maze of ships, never so much as clipping another vessel. Her high-flying antics had been known to cause many a stomach-ache, but she was uncatchable when she was at the helm of a vehicle. It wasn't long before the Disciples had emerged from within the NG spaceport, without so much as a scratch. There was no way anything could catch them now, and they quickly turned into nothing but a blip on the radar. Then, in an instant, the ship disappeared from even that, as if it had simply ceased to exist.
No-one was close enough to see it fly into a dark purple slit in space, which folded in on itself soon afterward.
-----
"Haaaah. I love doing that."
Ghost took a trip to the bridge to meet up with the rest of the crew now that they were out of harm's way. She had been skeptical about installing that secret weapon, but as it turned out the practice she'd now dubbed Jumping the Gap was the easiest way to avoid the beady eyes of the law. Not to mention the feeling of shifting several light years through space in a matter of seconds was incredible.
Anyway, the deed was done, and now was the time to indulge in celebration. Ghost opened up the path to the bridge, seeing that everyone else had already taken a seat. Lotus, of course, was seated at the end, with the rest of the Disciples sitting at her sides. Ghost took the one remaining free space, sitting alongside Fist as the head of the crew started with her victory toast.
Of course, they were all celebrating with tea, one of the few customs that had survived the fall of Gensokyo.
"Today, we've dealt another great blow to the noble scum that would keep the people of Neo-Gensokyo down. No doubt the underground scene will lose a lot of strength now that the Hinanai family can't fund them so freely. And of course, none of this could have been possible without all your help, so let me take this moment to thank each and every one of you."
This was a moment of triumph; codenames didn't matter anymore. She looked at her friends - no, her family - with an expression of pride.
"Murasa, Nazrin, Ichirin, Shou...you have done this ship proud."
Byakuren offered her thanks as she raised her cup upwards. Four hands reached outwards to it, pressing their own cups against it as a toast.
"To the Disciples!"
""""TO THE DISCIPLES!""""
The five thieves declared their toast in unison, before enjoying their tea in comparative silence. Now was a simple matter of waiting for the sixth guest to arrive.
She appeared, as always, on the opposite end of the table from Byakuren, casually walking in through a violet hole in the air.
"Ah, my apologies. Am I late for the toast?"
It was no surprise, really. Yukari Yakumo seemed to be terminally late, always arriving just after the crew had finished their celebrations. By now it was more than obvious she was doing it deliberately.
"Of course you are, Yukari. Don't worry, there's still plenty of tea to be had."
"I'd be honoured."
The secret weapon hadn't come from nowhere, and it didn't run on any scientific protocol. It ran on pure magic, and there was only one source of that left in the NG - Yukari Yakumo herself. It was a simple deal - as the leader of the NG, she could hardly be caught stealing from her own people, so she hired the Disciples to do so in her place.
"So, what have you managed to swipe this time?"
"Oh, a good deal...some nice jewels, and some of the old artifacts that Tenshi was keeping around the house. This should be familiar to you, if I recall..."
Byakuren held up Shou's Bag of Holding, returning it to its full size and rummaging into it. She pulled out a sword with a golden edge, still releasing a light scarlet aura.
"Ah, that's..."
Yukari looked at the sword with misty eyes, reaching out and taking it from Byakuren. She ran a finger along its blade, noting that it was as sharp as she always remembered.
"The blade still has some energy stored in it, I believe. Will it help?"
"Oh, yes...definitely. I can..."
The weapon was bringing back memories of a time she'd long since discarded. Yukari felt the tears running down her face before she even realised she was crying.
She saw the shrine maiden's face, still eternally young in her mind. That carefree smile that so easily turned into a frown if someone used the wrong word, that laissez-faire attitude to life that had been missing for 50 years.
Had she failed? Should she have done more? Stepping beyond the boundaries of life and death was beyond even her, but if she could continue recovering these artifacts then she could make everything better again. She could will it all back, and it would be the Gensokyo everyone wanted so desperately to return to, where the sky was real and the water was pure by nature.
But she couldn't let the world know she needed its help. Yukari Yakumo was meant to be invincible, the strongest of all youkai, and if she pleaded for aid she would be ridiculed. So she'd had to collect the artifacts by proxy, having a team of bandits steal them right out of their hiding places. They'd made amazing progress by now, and the dream of the old Gensokyo was one step closer to coming true.
And maybe, if she tried just hard enough, Reimu would return to see her homeland reborn.
"Yukari, are you alright?"
Byakuren's voice pulled her up back into reality, as Yukari suddenly looked up from the blade. She noticed that a few droplets had fallen onto it, reflecting the entire spectrum upwards into the air.
"Ah, sorry. Just...thinking."
-----
3:30 in the morning AGAIN WHY ARE MY AUTHOR POWERS POWERED BY SLEEP DEP OF ALL THINGS
