What sorts of things fall from the sky?
If this were playing out like a Japanese light novel, the answer would almost certainly be a beautiful girl. You'd have a fateful encounter, get swept up in some grand conflict, awaken all sorts of latent powers, and end up getting cozy with a bevy of beauties…
If this were a Hollywood script, however, the situation would be far more ominous. You'd get everything from alien invasions to zombie plagues—a relentless parade of disasters that only an omnipotent superhero could possibly resolve.
But—
What if what fell from the sky was nothing more than a few boxes?
What kind of story would that even be?
Without a moment's hesitation, the silver-haired, red-eyed blood-kin chose to dissolve into mist and scatter to the winds. To be struck by a high-altitude object that was so obviously heavy… even a creature of fantasy would suffer grievous consequences.
Almost at the exact instant Miss Kirie dissipated, a thunderous roar tore through the air, as if something had detonated.
"BOOM—!!"
The impact zone erupted in a cloud of smoke and dust, looking for all the world like it had been bombed.
What in the world is happening?
The vampire, re-forming from the dense vapor, stood at a safe distance. Her ruby-like eyes stared intently at the spot where the falling objects that had nearly crushed her had landed.
In a situation like this, the correct course of action was to maintain distance, find cover, and observe from safety—or better yet, to flee immediately. This world, after all, was fundamentally broken, a place where any manner of ghoul or god could wander in for a stroll.
Miss Kirie Kagarino knew this.
But—
Miss Kirie Kagarino had no real desire to do so.
Though a vampire, she was not as viciously bloodthirsty as the Dead Apostles of the Moon, nor as utterly deranged as the blood-kin of Hellsing. She was, at her core, a young noblewoman who had occasionally masqueraded as a nun. Her family, once part of the European aristocracy, had been murdered when a vampirism craze swept through the nobility. She herself was turned by one of these new vampires, only to escape just before being defiled.
After that, she had hidden in a convent, then drifted aimlessly, eventually finding her way to the Far East. Relying on her vampiric abilities, she had encountered almost nothing that could truly harm her, save for the holy water and crucifixes of the Vatican.
Due to the habits ingrained over three centuries of such a life, she retained a sliver of arrogance, even knowing this world was different from her last. Subconsciously, she didn't believe she would encounter a situation she couldn't handle.
Furthermore—
Her curiosity wouldn't permit her to simply walk away.
After a brief moment of indecision, she crept forward from the grove she had used as cover, wanting to see what was inside those boxes that had fallen from the heavens.
Before she could even step out from among the trees, the boxes began to dissolve like ice under a scorching sun, melting away into wisps of mist.
What is this?
Slightly baffled, Kirie Kagarino peered ahead.
What emerged was a trio: two young women and a young man.
Of the two women, one had ash-gray hair and blue eyes, and was dressed in a magnificent Shenzhou-style robe that gave her the aura of a transcendent immortal. The other was a blonde beauty clad in a refreshingly practical, deep green outfit. Even Kirie, a woman herself, was stunned by their beauty.
Standing between them, however, was a young man.
His medium-length black hair was tied back into a low, effortlessly stylish ponytail with a red cord. His eyes were the color of molten gold, yet they held an innate, chilling indifference.
Simultaneously brilliant and glacial.
It made one think, against their will, of… the Sun of the Underworld?
What in the world?
The vampire, possessing no framework to understand the concept of "divinity," froze. She couldn't comprehend why such a bizarre, contradictory descriptor had sprung into her mind.
And then—
An absolute, primal dread washed over her, as if an unnamable beast had just dragged its tongue across her very soul.
Her mind spun, and her body felt as if it were being simultaneously scorched by flame and plunged into a frozen crypt, buried beneath leagues of ice. The intense, jarring sensation made the not-so-powerful blood-kin's legs tremble and her body shake uncontrollably.
Nergal.
It was the name the Goddess of Venus had once given a certain scumbag, mocking his resemblance to the god who dumped his plague authority on Ereshkigal before running off to play sun god among mortals. Since Nergal, in mythology, was "the Sun that falls into the Underworld," Li Zihan had committed to the role. He had traded divinities with Ereshkigal, forsaking his solar aspect to become a god of the underworld.
However, Ereshkigal, being a second-rate goddess at best, couldn't handle the full power of a chief god's solar divinity and had later returned a portion of it to him. Thus, like the overworked Helios-Hades, this scumbag's divinity now carried the dual properties of both the "Sun" and the "Underworld."
And Kirie Kagarino was one of the undead.
The Sun, which illuminates the living, and the Underworld, which judges the dead—both were the absolute, natural enemies of a blood-kin.
"Well, that was a reasonably smooth landing." The young man stretched languidly. Thanks to the System running on an "Artificial Moron" for an AI, they had been dumped into the mission world in a less-than-graceful fashion. He then glanced at the mission panel.
[Special Mission: The Crisis of the Interlopers.]
[Objective: Resolve all crises caused by interlopers in the Re:Creators world.]
[Details: Please eliminate all extra-dimensional visitors who, for unknown reasons, have appeared in the Re:Creators world and pose a potential threat to its existence.]
The blonde girl in the outfit dubbed "Emerald Forest" surveyed her surroundings, her expression one of wonder at this strange new world.
Then she turned to the man who was infamous for gallivanting across different worlds.
"So, our mission is to eliminate as many of these so-called 'Outsiders' as possible?" Miss Dull Goose had arranged a gym date with Li Zihan, but upon hearing he might face a dangerous battle, she had insisted on coming along. "When do we start?"
Clearly, this combat-oriented Valkyrie was eager to get the fighting over with so they could proceed to their date.
"There's no hurry," the young man said, shaking his head after briefly scanning the list of targets. "We can discuss the mission later. First, we need to find a place to get our bearings."
He then strolled forward, stopping before the trembling vampire, a disarmingly friendly smile on his face.
"So then, my dear lady, would you be so kind as to lend us your residence? We need a place to settle in."