Where the Fox makes his home~

[recon5]

The rabbit leader couldn't keep from slapping her forehead in dismay when two more groups of rabbits emerged into the clearing. After all the excitement she had forgotten to keep the rest of the patrols updated and soon every rabbit in the Bamboo Forest would show up. That would leave the vast majority of the Forest unguarded and Tewi would certainly mind that no matter how little she cared about security nowadays.

She quickly called the other leaders over and had them disperse their respective groups to spread the word that everything was under control. Then she went back to watching and waiting. She hoped that the rest of her own group would be able to keep to themselves but as time went by she grew less and less sure of it.

----

From within her hidden realm, Yukari watched the incident unfold. She was just as eager as Aya to find out all she could about the young kitsune and his devices but she didn't think the rabbits would hold off forever. Perhaps she would help to defend the boy's 'privacy' if they snapped but until then she would just wait.

((OOC: Note to Zeroa: Yukari is in an alternate dimension right now so as far as Zeroa, Aya and the rabbits are concerned she doesn't exist. Read her profile for more info.))

[CY_Definitive]

((OOC: Understood.))

More kept showing up. More and more and more. It was so easy to see their ranks swell from all around him, even though he faced away from the leader and the reporter.

Zeroa knew he was running out of options now. No longer could he threaten and make gestures (the odds were against him, and if he made a move to get inside his home, who knew what that reporter would fire at him, though he was certain that no magic could harm him inside).

Reaching in his pocket, he pulled out a handkerchief and blew his nose, turning around to face them for a second before looking down. One look at all of them was all it took. He knew he had no choice. His eyes still streamed tears, but his face looked less pained, as if he was trying to find some kind of resolve.

At least she apologized for her magic attack.

Sensitive as he is, apologies were something he always made (and meant), but something he seldom recieved from others (if they did something wrong). While he couldn't take the time to figure out whether she was being sincere or not, he would reciprocate as himself, regardless.

He took a few breaths before starting, looking at her feet now.

"My....*hic* my name is Zer...-Zeroa". He started, feeling like the failure his name meant. He wanted to make up a name...but he couldn't. He would only be hurting himself to lie like that.

"I was testing a Flying Capsule...wh..-which would...fly me home...so I could...so I could..."

No way he could tell her. Not only would she not understand nor sympathise, but it was none of her business anyway. Sinking to his knees, the tears began to flow heavier again. This was simply too much.

"Please...please don't tell anyone about this...p-please. I'm trying to go home. I'll be gone from here soon." He said, looking up at the rabbits around him for a second before covering his face again. "No more visitors. I beg you. I'll be gone soon...*hic*".

Too bad he didn't know magic. If he could, he'd make himself dissappear.

[Kitten4u]

Ooh, now he was pulling something out of his pocket! Aya hoped it was another strage device and readied her camrea only to be dissapointed when she found out it was just something for him to blow his nose into. Oh well, it was worth a shot just in case it was something interesting. When he turned around she half expected him to continue to be uncooperative, but then he finally gave her his name. About time, seriously. She let go of her camera and let it hang by a strap around her neck, then she pulled a pen out of her notebook and wrote down his name. It could be difficult to juggle so many things with only two arms, but Aya managed.

So that flying machine was supposed to take him home. Interesting. While this didn't confirm her current theory it did reinforce it. So now she just had to figure out what this home was. She was also quite curious to see exactly what he wanted to do as well, but considering how he was acting now was probably not the time to ask. He didn't seem like the type to take over the Bamboo Forest in a hostile takeover, and that was about the only thing she could think of right now. She needed more information before she could make anymore guesses.

"See, it wasn't so hard to tell me your name~ So where is this home of yours?"

She intentionally didn't respond to his last statement. Aya had a newspaper to write, there's no way she could keep any of this secret. Though, she couldn't help but feel that he was being a bit paranoid. Very few people actually came to the Bamboo Forest since it was easy to get lost in and the rabbits weren't exactly kind to outsiders. Not to mention finding this place was very difficult. The only reason Aya waws able to do it was because she had excellent hearing and he had been making a lot of noise. So, he probably didn't have to worry about any visitors, only the rabbits.

[recon5]

So he was just trying to get home. Interesting...

Yukari wondered for a moment if she should offer to send Zeroa home herself but then she remembered that he had emotional problems with magic. While her methods certainly weren't magic they would definitely seem like it to the kitsune and he wouldn't react very well to them. Better to let him keep trying. Besides, adversity was an excellent builder of character and any failures would be sources of entertainment (for her at least).

On a whim, she decided to look into the flying capsule. She blurred the outer casing of the capsule from her perspective and began to pore over its innards. Those outside her hidden realm would not notice what she had done as it was merely a change in the way she herself saw the device.

The quality of Zeroa's workmanship was nowhere near anything the kappa had but to her surprise Yukari noticed several components and materials that she previously believed were only used outside of Gensokyo. It seemed that without magic to bolster his creations, the kitsune had managed to develop his pure technology at an even faster pace than the local experts. Amused, she toyed with the possibility of removing the kappas' magic for a couple of decades to see if they would make similar progress but she decided to leave that until after this particular incident was over- if she still remembered the idea.

Noticing that some of the rabbits were beginning to grumble, Yukari casually traced a mid-level barrier around the crash site. The barrier would be non-existent until the rabbits tried to use magic in or on it, after which it would repel them quite... violently.

((OOC: Note that Yukari has done all of this without appearing to Aya and Zeroa and they shouldn't be able to notice the barrier until it activates. Also, it will only activate when rabbit magic is used, so Aya's own magic and Zeroa's tech will not trigger it. Yes, she can do all that.))

[CY_Definitive]

"That...way" he said, point off somewhere northeast of him. Interestingly enough, he actually didn't know exactly where the village lie, only how far away it was and it what direction. He'd never used a map before.

Now he began to wonder if it was over. Standing up, he tried to stifle his tears and wipe his eyes.

"I'm going back inside now" he said, somewhat determined, as he walked back to the front door.

She had what she wanted. What other reason was there to bother him?

[Kitten4u]

Did he really think she'd be satisfied with "over there"? Oh silly boy, it's not like she could say that his village was "over there" in her article. Sure he pointed, so she could say something along the lines of "north east of the Bamboo Forest" or something, but it still wasn't specific enough. He also seemed to assume that Aya was done asking questions when that also wasn't true. Right now she only had a vague idea of where the village was (and even saying vague was being way too generous), she didn't know who lived in it, if everyone used technology like that or why he had to fly to get there.

The fact that he pointed to where it was discredited her current theory, but it was still plausable if she could get the rest of the details. Of course, when he continued to be his nice, anti-social self and started to go inside all she could really do was blink. He was surrounded by rabbits who would probably be more than happy to toast him because he had the audacity to make his own in their territory and yet he was willing to continue to treat it as his. Well, he was certainly brave, Aya had to give him that.

She didn't even wait for him to get through the door before she continued to interview him. "Wait! I still have some more questions. If your home is..." she paused for a moment, raised her eyebrow and pointed, "'over there' then why do you need to fly to get there? Is it in the sky? In space?"

She hadn't heard of a floating city before, though Gensokyo was big so it was possible that such a thing existed. If it did exsist she would have to go there just because the idea sounded so cool. And if it was in space...Well let's just say she wouldn't be at all shocked.

[recon5]

When she noticed the kitsune going towards his house, the rabbit leader felt that she had to stop him and fired a warning shot before she could give the issue further thought. The energy orb barely traveled two feet before it seemed to bloom and invert itself. A second later it came flying right back at nearly twice its original speed, grazing the rabbit's ear just as she managed to get herself out of the way. Her subordinates immediately moved to surround her, some tracing their magic circles in the direction of the reflected shot while others brought up barriers to repel further attacks that they expected would come.

Before the rabbit leader could give any commands to her subordinates she was surprised by the feeling of a hand on her shoulder. A fan crossed her field of vision and opened, blocking her view of the crash site as the hand pulled her back a little. She turned to her right and almost jumped out of her skin when she found herself looking into a pair of glistening violet eyes.

----

Yukari had known that she would have to intervene directly but she hadn't expected to do it so soon. That the rabbit leader had fired first was a surprise and a smear on her integrity as a commander. She should at least have had the patience to wait for her subordinates to fire first, or so Yukari thought. As it was, the rabbit leader would have to shoulder full responsibility for taking the first shot.

The border Youkai allowed sinister undertones to creep into her voice as she whispered into the rabbit's ear. "My, we're a tad twitchy today, aren't we? If you're so keen on getting slaughtered I'd be happy to help." She lit her eyes with a mild red glow and molded her teeth into sharp points as her smile widened into a savage grin. The rabbit had been watching Yukari all the time and she literally went white at the change in the Youkai's expression.

By now the rest of the rabbits had realized that something was wrong with their leader and they had noticed the head and hands sticking out of nowhere. They had their magic circles trained on Yukari now but with their leader in her clutches they didn't dare to open fire. Still grinning, she closed her fan and pressed it across her captive's neck. "What, you want to kill her by yourselves? You know, you don't need to trouble yourselves with shooting her. I can dispose of her cleanly enough."

The rabbits let their hands fall at that. Yukari snickered and opened her fan across the lower half of her face with a flourish. The rabbit leader was shaking like a leaf in her left hand but her iron grip prevented her prisoner from falling. She stuck her head out a little further and whispered directly into the rabbit's ear. "Now, I'll let you little bunnies go for now but if I see your faces or your bullets anywhere near this part of the Bamboo Forest... well, I'll decide when I see you. If I see you. I think you understand."

She released her hold at that point and the rabbit leader dropped like a sack of potatoes. Shakily the rabbit managed to indicate to her subordinates that they should disperse and most of them did, with two of them stopping just long enough to pick her up and carry her off. One particularly obstinate scout fired a volley at Yukari's exposed head but the shots dissipated just in front of their target even as a laser lanced out of the darkness to burn a hole right between the rabbit's feet, prompting her to run off as well.

Letting her face settle back into its normal proportions, Yukari smiled and retreated into her gap.

[CY_Definitive]

A sharp intake of breath was all Zeroa took.

His ears perked up from the sound of energy expanding air (he didn't know what it was, actually), followed by the bowing of his head, which was the first part of the movement. Along with that followed his neck, pulled after the head like a chain, and bringing his torso with it. This was followed by his legs going airborne, tucked in slightly aside from the right one kicking out (which launched him through anyway).

He remained inverted for less than 1/8th of a second before rotating a bit more, landing on his shoulder blades and rolling out his body in what could best be described as a very very quick somersault (poorly executed).

Then he sat up, looking behind him with squinted eyes.

You see, Zeroa had a defensive reaction to what he thought might have been an attack. Once he had turned and started walking back to his house, he figured the reporter might take that as a sign of defiance, and attack or approach him. He'd been listening for any sound of movement, when he heard the air expansion (which sounded like a loud pressure release, to him).

He now looked at the reporter suspiciously, believing that she'd done something to try and turn him around. But what, he didn't know. Then he heard her question.

"No damnit. It's on the ground" he said, sounding annoyed. Not sure what to make of her now.

"Don't you see? If I bring my invention with me, they'll shower me with praise and accept me. Thats why I have to fly it there."

Even as he said it, he wasn't absolutely sure it would work. He just hoped it would. It should, right?

[Kitten4u]

Aya actually took a few steps back when he did...whatever the heck that was. Naturally she took a few pictures of him doing...uh that just in case it was something interesting, but once again she was dissapointed when it didn't do anything interesting. Though, she disliked his expression anymore. It's not like she had any intention of attacking him unless he attacked her first. Even then she'd probably just dance around his attacks and take pictures of them.

Yeah, she heard the rabbits attack and she chose to ignore them until she saw any danmaku. After all, it's not like she was paying much attention to them and that sound could be a simple misunderstanding. Plus, reporters weren't supposed to fight anyway, so she avoided it whenever possible. So, since she didn't see anything, she continued to focus on interviewing this guy who continued to be rude and obnoxious. Why did people have to be like that? The world would be so much better if everyone could just be polite.

She was a little dissapointed by his answer as it meant that her last theory couldn't possibly be true anymore. He was not an alien. Ah well, the story could still be interesting, so she would continue to persue it until she was satisfied with the amount of information she had. So he was building it for attention basically? That's interesting, he didn't look like the attention whore type, but appearances could be decieving. She made notes of all this in her notebook.

"Oh I see. Well, do you think you could be more specific on where it is? And what kind of people live there? It is a village of kitsune?"

She actually wanted to go there now and maybe get some pictures of it as well. Meeting and interviewing some of the other people from that village sounded interesting as well.

[recon5]

So that was it. The boy wasn't just trying to get home, he wanted a hero's welcome as well. All this struck Yukari as being just a little bit unreasonable but then she recalled that youths were often keen on gaining respect from their peers and elders, with many making it their main priority in life. It was something she'd seen in Ran and Chen certainly was like that most of the time. The border Youkai's own youth was much too far back for her to remember if she herself had been similar but it really didn't matter anymore.

Still, the child was doing himself no favor by putting his life at risk like he had just done. Yukari had the nagging suspicion that this wouldn't be the last time he endangered himself and it would be a grand waste if he died during a future test run. Somehow she had to get it into his head that more safety measures were necessary but she doubted that he would listen to her after the kind of first impression she'd made.

Then she had a brainwave. Why not let a kitsune advise a kitsune? She reached into a gap and pulled her shikigami into her hidden realm. Ran was initially uncooperative and insisted on going back to her chores, but true to her status she relented soon enough and Yukari was able to explain what she had to do.

----

Hands crossed in her sleeves, Ran slowly descended from the gap until she was inches above the ground. She didn't dare to touch down in case there was a trap right beneath her. While she could sense enchantments well enough the Earth rabbits' devices tended to be non-magical and would escape her notice until she set them off. If she set them off.

The first thing she did was to take stock of her surroundings and her tails bristled at the devastation. The shock turned to mild amazement, however, when she saw the house and the machinery that adorned its outsides. It was hard to believe that a mere pup could have achieved something of this magnitude and she found herself more and more in agreement with Yukari that the youngster's accidental death would be a waste.

Well, she would simply tell him to be more careful next time. She began to float over to where he was conversing with Aya.

[CY_Definitive]

"Specific? Are you even listening to me? I told you, I only know which direction it's in, and how far it should be."

At this point, Zeroa was beginning to sound more exasperated than rude. Had he come to a brick wall on his adventure to find peace and quiet? (more so the former than the latter). He really couldn't give her any more detail on the whereabouts of his home village, and explaining that to her seemed to be like a lost cause.

"Gah...Look, if I promise to build a second seat in the flight capsule to take you there when I leave, for whatever publicity and crap you want to garner, will you leave me be?"

Zeroa asked this sounding serious, but in truth, it was the last thing he wanted to do. He didn't need extra weight (in her case, a little bit of extra weight) or the fact that he'd have to increase the size of the capsule to accommodate her.

Sadly, he looked over to where the crater lie, only to jump back in shock as what appeared to be a kitsune..."hovered" toward their location.

"Oh no....OH CRAP!"

Screw that. Now the situation had really gone to shit. ANOTHER intruder? A KITSUNE to boot!?

Without a word, Zeroa turned 180 degress and made a dash for the front door, as fast as he could (and could only pray would be fast enough).

[Kitten4u]

Yes, Aya had been listening. Quite closely actually; probably more closely than the average person would since she not only needed to hear his words, but fully understand them, interpret them and decide which questions she should ask next. Before he had simply said that it was 'over there,' not that he didn't really know where it was. Of course, this begged one obvious question: if he didn't know where it was how did he expect to get home? There was a lot of stuff north-east of here, and theoretically he could be going north-east forever because of how the border seemed to work.

His offer sounded tempting, but honestly she would rather not ride on one of those weird, oval things. Though, it would be really interesting to see it in action, esspecially if she could get some pictures. Oh the things Aya was willing to do for a story. She was going to have to sacrifice her safty and actually get in that thing. Oh well. The prospect of getting good pictures was enough to make her want to take that option instead of simply flying next to it.

"Yes that would be--" she stopped when he suddenly shouted and dashed back to his house. "Great..." she turned her head to the side and scratched her head.

She figured she might as well just let him go for now. Aya was one of the fastest, if not the fastest tengu in Gensokyo, so she probably could have stopped him if she really wanted to. She looked around with her eyebrows raised. It certainly didn't look like any of the rabbits were attacking, in fact they looked downright scared of something. That 'something' didn't appear to be there anymore, so she decided not to worry about it yet since she could always ask them about it later. Then she looked behind her and saw Ran Yakumo floating behind her. Well, she was hardly anything to panic over. She was probably the only sane one in the Yakumo house. That boy sure was touchy.

It was times like this that made Aya wonder why she bothered being polite to everyone. Well, whatever, she had an interview to finish. She walked up to Zeroa's door. If it was open she would stand just outside until she was invited in and if it was closed she would knock until he decided to open it.

[recon5]

"Well," Ran muttered under her breath, "perhaps this won't be so easy after all." The youngster's sudden flight was a surprise as pups were usually more respectful of their elders, or at least they had been before she left for Mayohiga. While the boy might have been from a different village Ran was sure that kitsune everywhere behaved in the same general manner- with exceptions like this one, of course.

She couldn't quite understand why the boy would fear her. The reason that first came to her mind was that he had been exiled by the other kitsune for some transgression, which would make him hostile to his kind. If what Yukari had told her was true, the boy was using all his machines to compensate for a lack of magic- a trait which kitsune didn't exactly appreciate as magic prowess was a point of pride for them. Where Ran was from, it hadn't been standard practice to banish the magic- deficient but perhaps the settlements were tightening their rules to meet the increasing threat from humans.

It was more likely that he'd begun his tinkering within his settlement and accidents had happened. That would naturally have made the rest of the kitsune wary of him and they would have driven him out to keep the village safe. This thought made Ran even more determined to give him her safety lecture and she increased her flying speed until she caught up with Aya. She decided to pause there for a bit in order to find out what the reporter herself had discovered.

"Pardon me for intruding," she said, looking at Aya, "but my mistress wishes me to enlighten the youth on basic safety measures. It seems, however, that he will be less than receptive in this state. I perceive that you have been speaking with him for some time. Would you be able to advise me on how I should approach him?"

[CY_Definitive]

Blood was pumping.

And it was all he could feel in his chest. A thick thumping. He found himself taking deeper breaths, but he wasn't even running. He wasn't doing anything. Just hiding behind the door, having locked all three deadbolts.

Zeroa whimpered nervously once the knocking started. Tears began to stream down his face, but he didn't feel like he was crying.

Was he even scared anymore? Surely he wasn't terrified?

Spasms began to twist his features as he looked around frantically, his hands writhing as if in some unspeakable agony. He couldn't even press up against the door anymore, the sweat on his bare back preventing friction.

"Oh....oh.....*hic*..."

Everything in front of his eyes began to cloud...

Tears...

His focus was on a lever across the entryway, toward the hallway connecting to the den. In came in and out of cloudy, unfocused sight.

When he took a step toward the lever, the entryway suddenly extended outward...like some higher power was stretching the hallway further and further away from him. Like a deluge of dread, all of the past memories in his village came pouring into his mind, further clouding his vision with images he could only remember in night terrors.

Struggling to breath too. He began to hiccup as the mucus in his throat thickened, trying to gulp air as demons from his past surrounded him, Zeroa running toward the lever on the wall that only moved further and further away.

In his mind, he was running across the hallway to the lever, his body weighed down like he was underwater.

He couldn't take it anymore....

From inside the house, a piercing scream burst forth into the forest. Anyone about 400 meters out from the home could hear it fairly audibly. The funny thing was...Zeroa didn't hear a thing.

The lever dropped, pulled to the ground and into the crumpled heap that was Zeroa's body.

Almost immediately, the east and south side of the house began to shake, the dirt surface of the earth on each side rumbling violently and...

Moving?

That's right. The ground itself began to move. Clouds of steam and debris were released to the sky as two large objects began to form from both openings in the earth. Anyone looking at them would notice that, as they emerged, the colossal structures took the form of kitsunes, albiet made of various bits of wood, metal, bamboo, and several other unidentifiable materials.

Once fully emerged, both giants stood several houses high, twice the size of the tree line. The eyes of them were glowing, the ears releasing pillows of steam as their skeletal forms stabilized, aided by what seemed like half a hundred pumps and pipes and poles connected them into the deep chasms left behind from their emergence.

That was how they were powered. They were the pinnacle of Zeroa's research into steam power. They also carried the beginnings of the kitsune's work into electrical power and locomotion.

The giant that stood to the east of the house, staring resolutely toward the horizon, bore a giant wooden board across its chest, tied in sections to other pieces to form the appearence of armor.

DEPH REPRIEVE

The name, emblazoned in red across the beige armor. Under it followed more words in a smaller inscription.

Freedom to be loved, no matter who I am.

Across, on the south side of the house, the twin giant wore the same armor, enscribed with the following in the same manner, but of the color green.

DEPH CONSCIENCE

And below:

Could you live with yourself, after what you've done.

The giants did nothing but stand, resolutely, breathing steam. Zeroa remained on the floor, sobbing softly, curled up into a ball.

This was it. His all or nothing. He'd gone too far.

[Kitten4u]

When Ran approached her she honestly wasn't quite sure how to answer. Aya was a reporter with an infamous reputation, so she had to know exactly what questions to ask and exactly how to deal with the person she was interviewing in order to get any information at all, but this guy was proving to be very difficult. It was like the second she found something that she thought might work it just didn't. It was obvious that he wanted her to leave, so she figured that telling him that she would leave once he told her everything she wanted to know would be a great way to calm him down. Well, it didn't work out all that great.

She rubbed her chin before turning towards Ran and taking a breath as if she were about to speak. However, she exhaled the second she heard all the loud noises and saw the clouds of steam appear around them.

"...Very carefully."

That was the best advice she could give since she wasn't having much luck dealing with Zeroa either. Once the steam cleared a bit and she was actually able to see the massive statues she made sure to get a picture of them before even thinking about everything else. This was actually pretty incredible, it was a shame that he wasn't willing to talk about it. Ah well, it was Aya's job to get that information out of him and she had no intention of leaving until she got that information. Geez, she wasn't lying earlier. If he would just cooperate then she would leave much, much sooner.

She wasn't quite sure what to do now. Aya probably could blow down his house pretty effortlessly, but that would be rude. It didn't look like he was going to open the door either. She really didn't want to damage those statues either. She scratched her head again as she tried to decide what to do next. For now she would just have to settle with talking to him. Of course, if the statues did anything to hurt her she wouldn't hesitate to take them down. If they did anything that seemed even a little threatening she would immediately break down Zeroa's door and run inside. Surely they wouldn't dare to attack their creator?

"Zeroa, can you hear me? You don't need to worry, I'm not here to hurt you."