Where the Fox makes his home~

[CY_Definitive]

"Gah! Ahh! Too hot! Too hot!"

[Automatic Disengage]

Zeroa's eyes widened as he saw a plastic piece pop up from inside the control suite. Obviously a steam-powered manual indication of the system (he had a long way to go before he could make an electrical message appear. He hadn't even discovered circuitry yet).

"No...NO! I'm too close! Not now! Stupid machine, don't do it!"

His lower lip quivered, as if he wanted to cry. His pride and joy; his pain and nemesis. Most of all, his hard work. Done. Kaput. Well, kaput as far as testing for the time being, anyway. The machine still worked, the machine that could catapult a flying capsule into the sky...the blue yonder above.

He dreamt of it. He dreamt of it as his ticket to going back, going back to his home, his village. But was it really? Could he really call it a home? It never felt like one.

But that didn't matter. This was progress. It was something he was sure would make him popular and loved, and wanted. Wanted...to be needed. That was something he figured would be wonderful. As ingenious as one might call his machinations, he could never create something that liked him...that cared for him...that loved him...that needed him.

"Back to square one..."

He hung his head solemnly as he gazed at what looked like a giant silo, adjacent to a large shanty structure he called home. The silo was a patchwork of whatever material he had on hand, could create, or could find. Who knew that metal, wood, earth and bamboo could be combined in such fantastic ways.

And that didn't even include the flying capsule itself. It looked like a oval...a three dimensional oval with massive outcroppings of various containment systems and propulsion outlets. It was mostly steam powered, but Zeroa was getting better with harnessing electrical energy, and had begun to tamper with certain types of combustion liquids.

He reached into his back pocket for a handkerchief, and mopped his brow, ignoring his sweaty, emaciated-looking frame, part of a body which the sun had colored in a little. He usually worked without a shirt, if it was intense labor.

A heavy sigh left him before he moved back over to the silo, and soon enough, banging and clanking could be heard as he reset the system for another go, his chimeny releasing copious amounts of steam nearby.

[Kitten4u]

"This is your friendly neighborhood reporter Shameimaru.
Today we're going to investigate the myserious sounds coming from the Bamboo Forest," Aya whispered to herself.

Who was she talking to? Absolutely no one. Talking to herself like that just made the situation more intense and interesting in her opinion. It also helped her figure out exactly what she wanted to know. After all, if she couldn't properly explain what she was investigating to herself how could she possibly hope to properly interview someone? She would actually be shocked if someone heard her talking to herself. They would have to have tengu-like senses or something because she was being extra careful to be quiet. If whoever was cuasing those noises saw her it may act differently or worse, run off. So what were thsoe noises? Well, if Aya already knew that she wouldn't be here right now trying to figure out what they were. Though, she felt like she was getting close to the source of the sound, so she decided to go over what she knew in her head.

On xx day of xx year she was flying over the Bamboo Forest as she was returning home. Aya didn't remember the exact date, but it wasn't that long ago. Anyway, she heard odd noises and something that looked like boiling water. She wondered if the exiled Lunarian Princess Kaguya and her eternal Rival Mokou were going at it again, but the sounds that were coming from there didn't sound like one of their fights and the forest wasn't on fire. The latter seriously proved that there was no way that they could be fighting. Unfortunately the forest was too thick for her to be able to see anything from the sky, so she had to land in the forest in order to see anything. This was much more difficult than it sounded because the rabbits didn't really enjoy company, particularly Aya's company. Oh, why was the world so afraid of her great pursuit for the truth? Whatever, it didn't matter. Trivial things such as a reputation would not stop her relentless pursuit for information.

Well, since landing in the forest was very annoying she went to the edge of the forest and asked if the rabbits knew anything. Much to Aya's displeasure they didn't. All they said was that it was really annoying, but they hadn't looked into it yet. The sound was loud and kind of scary, so they were still afraid to approach it. However, the rabbits still didn't want her to go check it out for them becuase of what happened last time she entered the forest. Rabbits could be so strange sometimes.

Of course, it's not like silly things like that would stop her. This was the reporter that broke into the Scarlet Devil Mansion to take pictures of a thief; personal space and privacy meant absolutely nothing to her, and she believed that the phrase "breaking and entering" was created by people that had something interesting to hide. So, here she was in the Bamboo Forest, hiding from a horde of rabbits that would be very angry if they saw her and whatever creature happened to be making those sounds. Though, she would actually like to speak with the latter once she had a vague understanding of what was going on, though she would stay hidden until then.

Based on how loud the sounds were getting she must be getting close. Good, this forest made her feel a little claustrophobic. In fact, just as she pushed the next branch out of her way she saw a small clearing with a guy, a house (presumably the guy's), and some weird oval thing. Mm, a shirtless guy and a new story, life was good. Anyway, what was this guy? It looked more like a kitsune than a kappa, but working on machines was more of the kappa's shtick. Of course, that didn't meant that other people couldn't work with machines, she just wasn't aware that anyone else was. That was interesting. So what the heck was that thing? Its shape didn't really give anything away which was kind of annoying. Oh well, she had a pretty good view from where she was, and she was reasonably hidden as well. It was a great spot to take pictures from, and that's exactly what she did. Though, she did make a few noises as she positioned herself just right to get good pictures, but she didn't think he would notice over the noise he was making. Or at least that's what she hoped.

[CY_Definitive]

By now, Zeroa was working with one hand wrenching and the other holding a blueprint...or at least a papery equivalent of one. With as many bolts, screws, nuts, and springs he used, who wouldn't need one? That wasn't to say many improvisations weren't made, because they were, and never made it on the map.

"Annnd...re-...reh!"

He gave one more push, using all of his body weight.

"--It's in! Yes!"

Now he was torn as to whether he should try it out the real way, or the expirimental way. You see, he wanted to hop in and give it a test flight, but that had its potential dangers, obviously. But what if he got in now, attempted a takeoff, and made it all the way back to his villiage? It's trajectory was set in that direction, and the villiage people would probably wonder what they've done to deserve a giant crater.

Thats, of course, if it worked but had a failed landing. Not something he wanted to think about.

It dawned on him then how little he had really prepared-no, how much he forgot to think of the smaller details. He stood up, and took a few steps back to give everything one more lookover. He was going to launch it without him. He thought it would be better if he tested its capabilities first, rather than risk an incident that would prevent him from ever coming back. After all, maybe he could make more improvements on his SpinnerTop (helicopter prototype) that would improve the fuel and distance capabilities.

"Here it is...the big moment."

He took a few deep breaths before running toward the safe zone (safe for trial, at least) and turned on the control suite. The Flight Capsule itself could be controlled from inside, but for testing purposes he had built a launch sequence elsewhere.

His hands grasped a crank, and he began to churn, slowly at first, but steadily getting faster, charging the turbine. Quickly he reached behind him and pulled a few levers for the silo control, which caused the sides of the silo walls to collapse in on themselves, the sound of a klaxon blaring now heard amongst the rumble of motors and pulleys.

From a far off perspective, it would look like a huge cloud of steam, and under that the silo spilling on itself and reforming into what looks like a cone. This was so that the steam would be directed elsewhere, instead of at the house and Zeroa.

"I WANT TO GO HOME!"

He shouted into the blue sky above. That high blue yonder.

"I want to be loved! I want the village to accept me!"

His hands were shaking. He didn't know why.

"Optimista! Don't fail me! LAUNCH!"

There was a deafening roar, and the sound of a high-pressure jet colliding with the earth. Slowly, at first, the Flight Capsule hovered a little above the launch pad, but then picked up speed and eventually rocketed upwards, angling toward the south. With a giant ring and a burst of more steam, the rocket sped off, higher and higher till it leveled out and sped straight off, toward his home.

[Kitten4u]

Her ears twitched a bit when he started talking, this was interesting. A shirtless man insert--no, no that's not what story was about, she shook her head a bit. Of course, she made sure to take a few pictures of him working as such pictures would be vital for the article. Now she just needed to know what the hell the round, metal thing was and why he was building it. She figured the two questions would answer themselves at around the same time, but she didn't expect them to be answered like this.

He wanted to go home? Oh that was juicy. Aya wasn't aware that there was a village full of kitsune (or at least he looked like one). Heck, even if it wasn't a village of kitsune it was still unusual to see youkai forming villages. She thought that only the tengu and the kappa did that, but she was always very happy when she was wrong about these things. Oh this was a better story than she could have hoped. Now all she had to do was wait for him to fly, run or do whatever the heck he did to get from place to place. And she was the fastest tengu, so there was no way she wouldn't be able to keep up.

...Well at least she knew what the machine did now. She was furiously taking pictures because she didn't want to miss what it would do next. Aya had never seen anything like this, and she assumed that most of her readers wouldn't have either. There was so much potential here that she actually had to make an effort to not drool. Obviously she couldn't let this guy get away, but she was kind of afraid to fly too close to that machine. Eh, forget fear, Aya was a dedicated repoter. Wherever there was a story she would persue it no matter what that meant.

This time she didn't make any effort to remain hidden. In fact, she actually wanted to talk to this guy, but she figured it would be better if she waited for this thing to land first. In the mean time she would settle for just flying beside him and taking more pictures. Aya was exceptionally fast, so it wasn't too hard to keep up with the machine; in fact it didn't even look like she was trying that hard to keep up. As she continued flying she noticed something terrible, he appeared to be on the ground still. No no, that was the wrong way to say it. It was more of a 'of course he's still on the ground you nitwit, didn't you think to check to make sure he actually got in before you took off like that?!' In her defense there was a lot of steam covering the area, but damn that was stupid.

Unfortunately there was steam blanketing the entire forest, so she couldn't really see where he was and she couldn't even use the stuff coming out of his house as a landmark since it blended in with the steam too well. Well that was certainly annoying. Well, he would probably want to come look at his machine thing for some reason that she didn't know yet. He was testing something right? He wouldn't want to rebuild this entire...thing again would he? Well, Aya certainly hoped so because she was going to follow that thing until it landed. She hoped it would travel out of the Bamboo Forest, or a rabbit might find it and her, and well that wouldn't be good at all. If it didn't fly out of the forest she would still wait for him to show up in plain sight, even if rabbits did show up, but it would still be really annoying. Why did those rabbits have to be so damn territorial?

[CY_Definitive]

The Flight Capsule was working well...

For the first stage, anyway.

Zeroa had a telescope over his right eye, and it hadn't left the Capsule since it took off. He knew what its trajectories and stages were like, but even he didn't know this was gonna happen. Nor did he want it to happen. Oh God, why was this happening?

Once the rocket had reached near the cumulus cloud line, it tilted forward to begin its second stage. This stage would involve the guidance wings and stabilizers emerging from the fuselage, and steam jets in the nose cone to burst, releasing enough pressure to level the capsule out. Then, the rear steam jet would ignite a second time, and release, blasting the capsule toward its destination.

That didn't happen though. Hell no that didn't happen. Goddamn the world for not letting that happen.

Instead, the pressure valve in the lower portion of the nosecone popped, allowing the entire steam tank to erupt and let out the steam with no restraint. That, coupled with the rear booster erupting as scheduled, caused the Capsule to begin somersaulting. It spun like a top, albiet in midair.

Down below, a tear leaked out from his eye. His lip began to quiver again. He felt his throat become painful, and constricted.

He let out a soft shudder as the Capsule lost the fight against gravity, and flipped and flipped and flipped toward the forest. When it finally crashed, a huge plume of bamboo, debris, water, and steam burst forth. Zeroa had stopped looking through the telescope before it hit, and above him, all the steam around his home and the area began to clear.

He had sunk to his knees, the tear having traveled to his chin. It didn't fall till he sniffled.

"I...I-I just wanna...go home."

More tears formed, following the same, mournful trail to his chin. They didn't last long there.

[Kitten4u]

Oh, so it just shot straight up and back down, cool. That saved her the trouble of having to look for him again and having to wait for him to come find the machine thing. Though it was loud and noticeable. Good thing the rabbits were kind of afraid of this or they would have swarmed by now. Aya hoped that they wouldn't feel threatened by all of this and swarm anyway since she really didn't want to deal with them. Fox guy probably didn't either. She was still amazed that he was able to live in the forest like this (or at least this looked like his home) without being mauled by Tewi and her army.

Aya landed on the giant oval before the steam cleared. It was pretty hot on this thing, good thing the single-toothed geta she wore elevated her feet off of the thing enough that she wouldn't hurt herself. She might be a little sweaty after this, but the cool entrance was totally worth it. As the steam cleared she slowly appeared with her camera and notebook ready. Now she just needed a third arm so she could have her pen ready without looking silly like she did now. Though, as the steam cleared she could see him more clearly too and he looked extremely upset. Perhaps was a bad time to interview him? Ah well, he'd get over it.

"Good afternoon sir. I am Aya Shameimaru, reporter for the Bunbunmaru," she jumped off of the weird oval thing. "What are you working on?"

Aya was rather infamous in Gensokyo, but she still introduced herself anyway. People seemed to think her paper was full of lies when it wasn't. She refused to publish lies and would always get very upset when people accused her of doing so. Some people would refuse to answer her questions because of her reputation, and some people would go as far as to avoid her completely. But she was used to people trying to dodge or avoid answering her questions and had found ways to deal with it. She was a reporter, such skills were vital to the sucess of her newspaper.

[recon5]

Some distance behind Aya a sharp line appeared on the landscape and extended until it was about five feet long. Ribbons slithered out and tied themselves around the ends in neat bows, followed by eight fingers poking out of the center and opening the line into a 'wound' through which a strange dimension was visible. Golden hair poured out just then, followed by a youngish face and a shapely (or so their owner liked to think) upper body and arms in a purple nightgown.

Yukari Yakumo, maker and ruler of Gensokyo, had arrived at the scene.

She'd been engaged in her favorite hobby (sleeping) when she 'heard' the crash. Perhaps her powers had 'wandered' (as they were wont to do as she slept) and allowed the sound to reach her ears despite the distance. Honestly, though, she was not the least bit concerned about how she had heard the sound, only that she had heard it and she was suddenly interested in investigating it because it didn't sound like any danmaku she remembered. It was more like the sound of a kappa creation (or one of the Hell Raven's nuclear experiments) blowing up and there was always fun to be had when such things happened. Technology was rare in Gensokyo and the machines created locally were always more interesting than the rather drab rubbish from the outside world. They also tended to fail more spectacularly, which was entertaining in itself.

At the moment Yukari was dangling upside down but it didn't bother her too much as she was too high up to soil her hair. She noted with mild amusement that Aya was already there with notebook in hand. Such was to be expected of the Illusionary Realm's most (in)famous reporter.

What did surprise her, though, was the identity of the culprit and the location of the incident. She had 'ears' all over Gensokyo and she'd heard of the magic-impaired red-headed stepchild (to use an old human metaphor) of the kitsune who had a fondness for machinery but as far as she knew he had been missing for quite some time. At the very least she never expected that he would dare to wreak such havoc on the Bamboo Forest as the rabbits would be enraged. The boy was lucky, however, that Kaguya and Eirin would most likely not be bothered.

He did seem to be in a sorry state, though, and Yukari felt a twinge of pity for him as Aya immediately began her interview. It would be best if the Tengu gave him a bit of time to recover from the ordeal but from Yukari's past experiences with the reporter she doubted that Aya would hold back even for a moment. She decided that she would have to enforce it.

Three gaps opened- one behind Aya, one beside Yukari and one just above and to the front of the young kitsune. The gap near Aya swallowed her before she even noticed it and closed as she exited the one near Yukari. The one near the kitsune disgorged a massive teddy bear which plopped down onto his lap. The border Youkai then drew a fan from her own gap and spread it before her face (she thought it made her look more mysterious), her eyes twinkling just above (below, perhaps, considering her position) it. "Hug this for a second. I personally feel that Ran would be better for this but she's occupied right now... and you, my dear Tengu, don't you think you're rushing him a bit too much?"

[CY_Definitive]

You ever do that thing where you start to hiccup air when crying real hard?

Well, Zeroa WAS about to reach that stage before an unexpected intrusion occurred...an intrusion in the form of a seemingly young woman who bore a tablet in one hand and a strange doo-hickey in the other.

Come on now! What the hell was this? Could he not grieve in privacy? And to think she had the nerve to ask him what he was doing! As if he would actually care to explain it like it worked or something (if that were the case, he'd still be outraged anyway). He wasn't going home anytime soon. This was heartbreaking! And how embarrassed he looked with puffy eyelids and tears streaking down his cheeks.

"Wha...what are you...DOING HERE!? How di---...how did you...GAH! Oof!"

The first thing that caught him was the sudden appearence of some object behind the intruder. Oh, if he knew it would make her dissapear, he'd probably end up smiling happily, and go contemplate how to grieve and mourn in his home. But noooo. SOMETHING else had to happen.

Well, that something appeared in the form of a teddy bear. Before he got to see what would become of the female intruder, a stuffed animal (bear, by the look of it) suddenly appeared in his lap, in a sort of reversed occurrence that made the first intruder dissappear. Now seated with a stuffed animal in his lap, his mouth went agape, complete with eye-popping suprise as the second intruder appeared.

"Rushing? RUSHING!?" Zeroa urged in shock. Rushing what? What was going on? Did rushing mean that more was actually planned to occur? Was his sanctity being invaded? Had this day finally come? The day he hoped and prayed would never occur?

"All of you! Leave! Get out! Leave me alone! Out-out-out-out-OUT!" he shouted, suddenly finding himself standing and holding his hands up in exclamation (he looked up, frozen as he noticed the teddy bear in his tight grasp, which he promptly flung away).

"I want peace and quiet! This is MY home! Leave or I will...I will make you leave!"

Oh yes, he had planned just in case something had occurred. But unbeknownst to him, they would probably find what sort of "deterrence" he had to be quite comical, should they not leave.

[Kitten4u]

What was she doing here? She thought that just about everyone in Gensokyo knew who she was at this point, but if this guy really didn't that might actually be a good thing. Esspecially since he was being so whiny and anti-social. But, if Aya was one thing it was extremely dedicated to her paper, so she wouldn't give up no matter what he did. Of course, refusing to give her information was a terrible idea in general becasue she would have to draw her own conclusion to what he was doing based on what was happening. She would much rather report the facts, but inferences would work if someone was too incooperative.

Aya turned her head to the side when a gap opened up near the guy. What the heck was Yukari doing here...? Aya wished that she hadn't asked that question once she was pulled into a gap that appeared behind her. She didn't even notice that it was there, and it's not like Yukari usually bothered her when she was interviewing someone. How annoying. She made a nice thud on the ground when she landed rather painfully on her back. Geez, if Yukari was going to ranomly come and gap people around like that she could at least have the decency to let them down gently instead of just dropping them. Oh well, Aya just sighed stood up and brushed herself off.

"Hm?" she looked at Yukari. "I suppose, but I'm a reporter not a counsoler. He can deal with his own problems later, right now I need to figure out what's going on here."

Ah, there we go, now the guy was acting like how Aya was used to people acting around her. Everyone always tried to get her to leave, but it didn't phase her at all. Neither did Yukari randomly gaping her for that matter, though that probably wouldn't phase anyone since that was something that she could actually expect from Yukari. Aya simply shrugged and started to walk back towards the guy, and she would continue to walk back over to him even if Yukari gapped her away again. She could smell a story here, and as a reporter it was her duty to get it.

"Well that's ironic," she stopped walking once she was reasonably close to where he was standing again. "This is YOUR home huh? I wonder what the rabbits would say about that. They're not particularly fond of outsiders coming into THEIR forest. I'm shocked they haven't made you leave yet," she laughed. "But that's not important. If you don't want to tell me what you're doign could you at least tell me your name?" She figured she could get the rest of the information out of him once he felt a bit more comfortable around her. "I've already introduced myself, wouldn't it be rude of you to not do the same?"

[recon5]

Yukari was a bit disappointed that her (minimal) efforts hadn't been able to make Zeroa dissolve into a sobbing mound of cuteness but she could see from his reaction that further attempts would only make things worse. Predictably, Aya hadn't given her much attention either and had engaged the kitsune again almost immediately. The border Youkai wondered for a moment if this would lead to some sort of romance but she dismissed the thought.

The soft rustling came almost as soon as she'd expected it to. For quite a while already the Earth rabbits had been surprisingly silent as outsiders traipsed through their precious Bamboo Forest but there was only so much that they would permit. Perhaps Tewi had been holding them back until now for reasons that only Eientei knew but nothing would stop them from reacting to such devastation.

With a grin, Yukari slowly drew herself up into her gap. She would observe the proceedings in a more discreet manner.

----

They literally stepped out of nowhere, or maybe they just looked like they did. Could the Moon rabbit have been responsible? Was it some old Earth rabbit magic? It was impossible to tell. One by one they emerged from the bamboo groves around the scene of destruction, little girls with long floppy ears and small puffball tails. Some were furrier than others and some were more rabbit than girl but all of them were angry. Very angry. Fifteen pairs of rabbit eyes glowed crimson around the destroyed flying machine.

Almost as one, fourteen of them raised their hands and fourteen magic circles traced themselves into being. They didn't care who the destroyer was but they would make sure that the monster didn't leave the Bamboo Forest in one piece. The largest rabbit wasn't half as vicious, though, and she raised an open palm to stop the others. "Easy there, girls. Boss lady might not like us killing this one."

The rabbits had been getting more and more restless as news poured in about strangers wandering around the Bamboo Forest. Since Tewi had gone to work for the Moon people she hadn't been nearly as protective of the Forest as she had been before and things had gotten even worse after the Imperishable Night. Without her authority or her permission nearly all of the rabbits had been reluctant to act against outsiders and could only observe them from the shadows. Luckily for them the strangers had been quite harmless.

This one was an obvious exception, but while the big rabbit (relatively big, that is) was just as eager as her subordinates to vaporize the intruder, she felt that he would be less likely to shoot back if given the chance to explain himself and that would avoid unnecessary casualties (Tewi tip #10).

She noticed the Tengu reporter just then but didn't give that one much thought. What was important now was finding out the intruder's motivations for destroying so much of the Bamboo Forest. She walked into the rabbit circle, paced around the intruder until she was looking him in the eye and addressed him in a serious voice.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, young man."

[CY_Definitive]

Rage hadn't subsided yet, and he was still a long ways off from fear. Zeroa could act no differently than he was now. His hands kept balling up into fists as he watched the goddamned rabbit population make their way toward him from the wreckage site.

"No....oh no..."

If not for confusion, he would be cursing up a storm right about now. Things had gone from bad, skipping worse, and was now catching up to downright fuck-my-life. And whats more: the reporter person wasn't even afraid. She just continued to pursue him with questions.

"Go take your introductions to hell!" he shouted viciously at the reporter. "Its a system of bamboo that I've carved my home out of. Fuck them and their intrusion! They shoulda kept to their side."

Looking over her shoulder and the heads of the surrounding mob, he observed the smoking crater that held the wreckage of the downed flight capsule. It wasn't particularly big, and the bamboo around it remained somewhat the same (at least 15 meters out, anyway), so what was the big commotion?

Then the leader (from what he could only assume) of the rabbit mob stepped forth to him, looking stern.

He was suprised, but not phased yet. As if dismissively, he slowly stepped back towards the side of the house, stopping and gesturing impatiently.

"Sure, I'll explain...once you leave me the hell alone! I'm not messing around! Go away! Get away from me! I'll clean up the wreckage later if you're going to whine about it. Happy?"

He stood next to what looked like a lever protruding from the wall under the window, which was actually a bamboo pole sticking out of a patch of bamboo tied together. He didn't mean to make it look discreet, but at the time, he had run out of adhiesive.

[Kitten4u]

Perhaps she shouldn't have mentioned the rabbits at all. It was like mentioning them at all brought some kind of curse upon her or something. To make matters worse they looked angry, and she couldn't tell if they were looking at her or this guy. Well, they were talking to the guy at least, so maybe they didn't mind that she had snuck into the Bamboo Forest even after they told her to get lost? Or maybe they expected her to sneak in anyway? Regardless, this would be an excellent time to run if she had already gotten the story, but alas she needed to continue to interview this guy even if he was being incooperative.

Not only that, he was quite rude as well. Minor details like this were very important in this case since he may not reveal any information she wants and she may have to draw her own conclusion, so she made a note of this. He was also territorial and he was not afraid to claim other peoples' territory as his own. Sure, Aya personally thought that it was unreasonable for the rabbits to claim the entire forest as their own, even if there were a lot of them, but her opinions didn't make it any less "theirs." She was starting to wonder if he peed around this area to mark his territory. He was anti-social, secretive and he was building some kind of ship that would "take him home." Well, this was certainly interesting. She was so glad that she decided to investigate this even if the guy was a total jackass.

Then she wondered how he could explain everything if they weren't there. There's a chance that she might be able to hear if he shouted loud enough and she didn't go too far away, but she got the feeling that's not what he meant. So, she could add bad with words to her list of qualities. If that was the case then she had to be the one to try to patch things up long enough for her to get an interview because it was clear this guy was totally useless when it came to dealing with other people and Yukari was too much of a wild card to count on.

"I apologize for the intrusion," she bowed towards the rabbit that appeared to be the leader. "I heard that there were odd sounds coming from the Bamboo Forest, and that they were scaring some of the residents. The best way to combat fear is with knowledge so I thought I would come here to figure out exactly what was going on." Well, all of that was true, but it did imply that she came her for the rabbits and that was not true at all. "Not to mention it might be interesting to write about." She obviously had to say something like so that the rabbits wouldn't roll their eyes at her psuedo-hero act. "I assure you that I will be leaving once I get the information I need. Now then..." she turned back to the guy, "I will ask again. What is your name, and what does this device do?"

Even after that she figured that the rabbits would not be happy that she was there, she just hoped that they would give her enough time to finish her work. The hard part would be getting this guy to talk. To make matters worse he seemed to be trying to do something to make them leave. Well, even if it worked Aya would just come back, but she would rather not find out what it was. She swung her fan and greated a highly concentrated blast of wind and she aimed it at the base of the lever. She wasn't sure how strong the bamboo was in there, so she created a blast that if it weren't so concentrated it could easily blow over a house. Sure, that might be way more power than what was needed, but it was probably a good idea to take away the ability to pull that lever.

"I'm very sorry I had to do that, but I'm afraid I cannot leave until I get all the information I need. If you simply answer my questions I will leave much sooner."

[recon5]

The big rabbit wasn't fazed in the slightest by Zeroa's bluff and neither were her henchmen. Within the confines of the Bamboo Forest the power of rabbit magic was supreme, or so they strongly believed.

While the rabbit was a bit miffed at Aya not giving her a chance to reply, she controlled her temper, deciding to wait for an opening instead of interrupting the tengu. She knew nothing of the intruder's power but Aya had quite a reputation for being a tenacious and skillful fighter. Having her shoot back would definitely lead to a bloodbath (which she wanted to avoid despite being certain that the rabbits would come out on top). Some of the rabbits were beginning to fidget, their magic circles flashing intermittently as if they were trying to hold back attacks, so the leader signaled for them to stand down.

At that moment two more groups of rabbits appeared, one with ten members and one with eight. The leader of the first group signaled to them to hold their fire as well. When the other two head rabbits came for an explanation she merely put a finger on her lips and motioned for them to watch the reporter do her thing.

[CY_Definitive]

Zeroa's eyes widened as he saw (rather, heard) the rustle of what he could only imagine was magic draw near him in a short burst. He knew whatever it was wouldn't hit him (his reflexes were too good for that), but whatever it may be collided with the level he was about to push.

"Gah....GAH! What did you do!? Magic!? MAGIC?!"

He wanted to say "What did you do to my house?!", but the fact that she used magic...

He wanted to turn away now, his throat getting sore and his face heating up as he tried to hold back tears.

I'm trying...really, I am! Please, I can do it! I know I can!

Didn't matter that time. The Village Chief didn't care. Nor did it help to have the entire council of the place watching you, no faith whatsoever.

...Hrn!...It won't work mommy...It won't move...

Darling, it's simple. Just focus on it, think of what you want it to do, and act on it. Believe in yourself, sweety.

.............Nng............*sniffle*.....I'm trying mommy....I'm trying...*wibble*

Dad had already disowned him, but not Mom. No, she believed he could...for a while, anyway. That was far back, but...

...The same tears came once more.

Zeroa did turn around now, his hands loose and trembling as he continued, with all his might, to fight his emotion as it came over him. It burned and hurt at the same time, and he didn't hold back in trying to stop it. But, to no avail.

"Why did you do that...?" he sobbed, facing away from the Reporter as he spoke. Her use of magic opened up an old wound.

He didn't expect her to answer that, or even care. Hell, he wasn't even sure what made HIM ask her that. No, he didn't fear her, or anyone else at the scene just yet, but he was in grief. A part of him wanted to tell her what it was, and make up a name to give her. But only on the condition that she never reported it. God forbid he get more visitors, or next time that lever wouldn't stop his wrath.

[Kitten4u]

At least the rabbits seemed to be willing to give her some time because she was certainly going to need it. Though more were showing up and that could be potentially bad. Eh, not point in worrying about it right now. They were giving her time, she might as well use it.

So, back to the guy. Yes she did use magic. Most people in Gensokyo used magic, so why was he shocked? This was very interesting indeed. As for why she did that wasn't it obvious? Let's see, first he created some strange machine. That means he could have other machines laying around. Second, he threatened to make them leave if they didn't leave by choice. Then he went towards that lever. Gee, why in Gensokyo would she want to make it so he couldn't pull that lever? Obviously she couldn't say something like that though, it would be rude and Aya refused to be rude when interviewing someone. Yes, even if they were rude themselves. She sighed and tapped her fan on her head for a minute before finally responding.

"It's only natural that I get a little defensive after being threatened. Again, I'm very sorry I had to do that, but I will not leave until I get the information I want. So, what's your name? What were you building?"

She actually had enough data to write an article right now, she just didn't know if any of it was true. Contrary to popular belief, Aya didn't print lies. Sometimes she would print untruths if the person she was interviewing was simply too uncooperative to give her the information she wanted, but she would never lie. In fact, she frequently went out of her way to get the truth. This was one of those times. Rabbits were starting to swarm around the area and they had made it quite clear that they didn't want her in the forst earlier, plus this guy was being quite rude. If she wasn't willing to go out of her way to persue the truth she would have left to go write the article based on her inferences. It was actually fortunate for this guy that she didn't want to just leave because her current guess as to what he was doing was rather...interesting to say the least.