Deep in space, the light of Chris's massive spacecraft streaked through an unfamiliar multiverse. Kai pressed her face to the window, watching a star blur past, while Shin analyzed pathways from his station in the pitch-black air. While Chris manned the controls. Each crew member navigated in their own way through the empty void, following coordinates that promised a trace of Nowa.
Finally, Shin phased through the floor beside Chris to make his report. "Chris, I think this multiverse has more diverse energy than what our original multiverse had," he said.
Chris met Shin's gaze, running a hand through his hair at the thought of yet another universe to cross, another round of adaptation. "Man, I'm not even surprised anymore. Next time we cross a universe my arsenal will be inactive is my guess. For fuck sake."
Chris looked at Kai who was just enjoying the view of the new multiverse, her primal Cambion instinct wanting to go out, vibrating with the energy of a child. Shin looked at Kai, a rare, proud smile crossing his face.
"Looks like your Shadow Dominion has returned." Chris broke the silence. Shin did not break his gaze from Kai, "Yeah, we've been practicing Cambion unification with her Biomass shifter." He paused, sighing. "Each time we do it, our abilities swap for a while. But it's not as bad as before."
Chris glanced at Shin with a smirk. "That's what you get for fucking each other, heh." He turned back to the controls as Shin shot him a deadpan look, not accusing, just long-suffering.
Shin just scoffed. "Yeah, right. Anyway—" He turned to the space ahead. "Let's find Nowa. And for the love of life, let there be a result this time… Hopefully."
Back in Gensokyo.
Marisa, Yukari, and Reimu stared, stunned by the sudden, visceral injury. "Hey! Your eyes!" Marisa yelled, her panic cutting through the silence.
Reimu's hands immediately glowed with a soft, greenish light as she cast a healing ofuda charm toward him. Yukari's gaze was analytical, scanning him not for injury, but for the shift she knew something must have occurred.
["ANOMALY. I'LL PERMIT YOUR STAY. AND PERMIT YOUR FRAMEWORK SYMBIOSIS MANA REQUIREMENT. THAT WILL BE MY OFFER FOR MY MISSCALCULATION."] The draconic eye closed and vanished. The world, once held in a god's grip, breathed again. Time has resumed.
"That's not how its fucking work you moronic clone." Nowa muttered, wiping the blood from his cheeks with the back of his sleeve, the healing energy already flowing. He looked at each of them in turn: the worried magician, the pragmatic miko, and the calculating strategist. "I'll give this a last chance."
Yukari perched up, a flicker of hope in her eyes. "Then—"
"But, when I help," he interrupted, his tone holding a finality that tolerated no argument. "Will depends on my mood. The three days are still on." He had reclaimed his timeline. It was the only leverage he had left.
Reimu's healing aura flickered out. She crossed her arms, her eyes sharpening as they locked onto Yukari. The immediate danger was finally over. Now it was time for accounting.
"What deal?" she demanded, her voice low and dangerous. "What three days? What are you two planning?"
All eyes fell on Yukari. The boundary manipulator had a rare, deer-in-the-lantern-light(Palaryzed fear) expression for a split second before her customary composure slid back into place. She sighed, a theatrical, weary sound.
"The deal, my dear Miko, was our only option," she began. "I found Mr. Beckitzer in a forgotten world, moments from ending his own existence. I offered him a trade: three days of his protection for Gensokyo in the face of an incoming invasion, in exchange for the one thing he was still searching for."
"Which is?" Reimu pressed, unmoved.
"Completion," Nowa answered for her, his voice hollow. "A reason… A purpose… Something to… to fill my miserable life." The words hung in the air, his vision darkening, a sign of full exhaustion.
Yukari nodded. "And the 'plan' was simply to let him experience Gensokyo. To see if its chaos, its life, could offer what a thousand battles could not." She glanced at Nowa, a sliver of genuine remorse in her gaze. "The 'three days' was the time limit he set for himself to find it. After which, he would leave, regardless of the circumstances."
Marisa's jaw dropped. "Wait, so you mean… all this time… you were on a… a trial period? And that big eyeball almost made you fail?!"
SNAP. The sharp, unmistakable sound of a camera shutter cracked through the air from the treeline.
All eyes snapped toward the source. Perched on a low branch, an old-fashioned camera in the hand, was a woman with black wings and a triumphant, predatory grin.
"Aya.." Reimu began, her voice a low growl. She glided closer, her grip on Gohei tightened in her hand. "What do you think you're doing?"
"My job, of course, Shrine Maiden!" Aya Shameimaru chirped, leaping nimbly to air, hovering. "When the entire world freezes and the Dragon God itself manifests, that's not just an incident, it's the story of the millennium! And to find out it's all about a mysterious, powerful, handsome outsider on a three-day trial to find 'completion'?" Her eyes gleamed. "The public has the right to know! The scoop is absolutely divine!"
Nowa simply stared, too physically and emotionally drained to even process this new absurdity. His mana control is weakening. The world swimming at the edges of his vision.
Yukari's face, however, was a mask of cold fury. "Shameimaru," she said, her voice dangerously quiet. "That camera. Hand them over. Now."
"Oh, I don't think so!" Aya laughed, tucking her prizes away safely. "This is going straight to print! 'Hakurei Shrine's Secret Live-In Boyfriend!?' 'The God Who Judged Gensokyo!' 'Yakumo Yukari's Desperate Gambit!' The headlines write themselves!"
Marisa finally found her voice, pointing an accusing finger. "Hey! You can't just print that! You'll mess everything up!"
"On the contrary," Aya said, her grin widening. "I'm just speeding things up! If he's on a trial, let's see how he handles the court of public opinion! This is the biggest story to hit Gensokyo since the Lunarians, and it's mine!"
Reimu took another glide forward, her youkai-exterminating aura flaring. "Aya. Last warning."
Aya sweat cold. Suddenly a black tendril(Liquid Nano Rune Armament) shot out and snatched her camera. She cried out, "Hey! That's mine!"
The black tendril retracted, delivering the camera into Nowa's waiting hand in one smooth motion. All eyes were on him now. Aya began sweating bullets.
"Hey, uh… That's… mine, handsome outsider," she tried, her voice a nervous squeak.
Then, something utterly unexpected happened. Nowa raised the camera, turned it on himself, gave a thumbs-up and a painfully forced, dismissive smirk, and took a picture.
The flash illuminated his blood-streaked face and hollow eyes for a split second. Everyone stared, utterly confused.
The black tendril returned the camera to a stunned Aya. A hollow smirk formed his lips as he began, his voice a dry, rattling whisper. "You need a close-up shot. Caption it. 'A fancy vagrant being rizzed by the world.'"
'A joke for a joke. I don't care about this completion anymore. I just need to push them away…' His vision tunneled. The invisible rune platform he was standing on in the air died.
He fell. There was no grace, no attempt to catch himself, yet a single piece of black feather shed out of his skin and drifted before him. It was the dead weight of absolute exhaustion. He hit the ground with a sickening thud, breaking the ground before the black feather fell beside him, his body finally succumbing to the constant backlash of the 50ms Author, and lay completely still. For a single, suspended second, there was only silence. Then, chaos erupted.
"NOWA!" Marisa shrieked, diving toward him.
Reimu was only a half-step behind, her professional composure snapping back into place. "Don't move him! Yukari, I need you to stabilize his spirit. His energy signature is all over the place!"
Yukari was already weaving her hands through the air, creating a cushioning boundary of energy around his form, her face a mask of grim focus.
'This was not the cost I had calculated.' The strategic gambit was over; now it was triage.
Aya stood frozen, camera forgotten in her hands, her reporter's glee replaced by dawning horror. She had just been joking about headlines, and now the subject of the biggest story in centuries was lying lifeless before her. "I… I didn't… Is he…?"
Reimu shot her a look that could freeze hell over. "Shameimaru. If one word of this gets out before I say so, your newspaper will be my next donation box. Get out."
For once, the tengu reporter had no quip. She nodded mutely, her wings snapping open as she beat a hasty retreat into the sky.
Marisa knelt by Nowa's side, her hands hovering uselessly. "Hey, c'mon, Old-timer… This isn't funny anymore. Wake up."
Reimu placed a hand on his forehead, her healing aura flaring once more. "He's not dead. It's like… every system in his body just shut down at once. It's a total collapse." She looked up at Yukari, her expression stark. "How long?"
Yukari's eyes were closed in concentration. "I cannot say. The 50ms Author doesn't just use mana; it rewrites causality. The 'cost' is… metaphysical. He didn't just overexert himself. He fundamentally overdrew his account with reality."
Marisa's voice was small. "So… what do we do?"
Reimu's jaw was set. "We do our jobs. We protect him. Yukari, get him inside. Marisa, stand guard. No one gets in or out without my permission." She looked down at the unconscious man, the cynical mask gone, leaving only the raw, broken human anomaly beneath, alongside the mystery of the shed Black feather Yukari had picked up through boundary rift.
CHARACTERS IMAGE:
Aya Shameimaru - https://pin.it/7277uIMGH