Chronicle of the Wolves (Flying Circus/Touhou)

[dragonkid11]

Hahaha dragon what the fuck are you doing

So just a few days, on a whim, I decided to write this for like no goddamn reasons aside from the fact that I just realised Flying Circus the indie TTRPG and Touhou the game have a few things in common.
1. Everyone 'solves problems' by shooting each other while flying
2. A lot of fucking drinking
3. 99% of the Touhou cast is gay, as least according to all the fan medias I have watched or read and I don't care that most of them aren't canon.

Also, God, I haven't wrote stuff like this since like bloody forever, but whatever, this is my self-indulging writing, I wrote this for myself, so I don't care if your eyes suffered when reading this.

Anyway, let's get going.

------
Day -1
------
Sidonia Curtens is not having a good day.

She flew out from her hometown deep in the wood with her own plane, thinking that it would be an easy breeze to live outside of the stuffy village full of crones that think they are so smart and so wise in their magical way and everything she does is totally wrong.

Well, it was, she was doing odd jobs there and there well, until the magical amulet she was wearing the whole time shone a beam of light in the dark and the entire Goth army suddenly wants it really badly.

She could deal with a couple idiots in c.10, until the machine gun clicked dry, there's holes in the left wing, her hand was very tired from trying to keep this thing stable, and the fuel gauge was going below the minimum bar.

*Spud*

And now the engine is dead, great, fantastic.

All she has to do now is not crash the poor thing badly and oh there's trees there's way too many trees OH GO-

The whole plane lurched forward as something catched onto the wheel, and Sidonia was sent flying, thankfully onto a rather soft mossy ground that only mostly bruised her back and not on solid rock.

But it was not over yet, she could still hear Goth planes flying in from the North, they couldn't see her in this darkness, but knowing the number of men they could stuff like a tincan in a K-Class, it's only a matter of time before they do.

So it's probably a very good idea for her to start running, or limping, as her leg aches in pain.

She just has to make it, make it to the next town, or anywhere with people, hopefully with guns.

Little did she know, she would get way more than what she has imagined.

------

Once, there was nothing, next, there's a landmass connected to what should have been an empty coast. Curious, Skyborn trading convoy was the first to head toward the new land and seek for any new resource to trade.

They instead came back with the news of a town that should not have been there, and trades with these new people roared in the following decades.

They spoke differently, have a culture unique to themselves, and while they were an isolationist society at first, things opened up, a melting pot of culture quickly formed.

These people also have their own 'Fae' inhabiting the wood, though initially frightening, these Fae with different name turned out to be more gentle, understanding, and more… human for a lack of word, and their supernatural capability proved to be more boons than curses.

Soon enough, this place became a trading hub, for airships that wanted to trade with towns a whole continent away, but then the great war came, and the people hardened themselves against the war.

Many escaped their homes towards this place, carrying nothing but clothes on their back, as the war engulfed the people, the nations, and eventually, the whole continent. When the worst of the war happened, this land disappeared, leaving the coast empty once more.

And now, it came back, different, yet, familiar.

------

"There she is! I saw her, she's ri-"

There was a bang, and the Goth could no longer yell.

In return, a dozen bullets went whizzing at her direction, none of them hit thankfully.

She runs, ignoring the growing pain on her foot, and only looks back to see how many are still chasing her and return fire to keep them down.

She's very lucky that it's night and they are incredibly bad shots, but she knows she can't run much longer, her gun is about to run dry, an-

The ground she stepped on was more slippery than she thought, and she fell down a ravine. Quickly, she got up and ran on the muddy ground, bullets kept on whizzing by.

"You can't run forever, you will only die tired!" one of the Goth, the leader probably, yelled.

"Yeah well" she says, thinking of a retort, and sees a Goth wearing a bandolier packed with stick grenades. She raises her hand, a ring made of charred wood is on one of her fingers, though the ember was long gone, it still smells like fire.

She focuses her fury onto the ring, her fury from having to run from these fascist morons for hours, hungry from missing out her dinner, and being just really fucking angry, and the grenades glow red.

All 15 of them.

Despite being quite a distance away from the Goth, she can feel her ear ringing when she basically just ended the life of a dozen men in an instant.

"You die in fucking pieces." she laughs tiredly, and runs, or she would if she didn't feel hot metal grazing her thigh.

She falls again, and this time, she doesn't have strength to get up, adrenaline has been the only thing holding her up the whole time.

"Fuck!"

The surviving Goth dashed towards her.

"Fuck fuck fuck!"

At that time, she wasn't sure what to do, as she had run out of all her options. In a panic, she clutched the amulet that got her in such a big trouble, and once again, it glowed in the dark, shining a path of light towards somewhere.

That's not important, what's important is it makes her position very very obvious to anyone watching.

Just moments before the Goth that's aiming his rifle at her could pull the trigger, she felt the wind moving.

A blur moves before her right as the rifle goes bang, in the following seconds, she clutches her shirt, trying to find the hole the bullet would have made, then she realises she just heard a metal ping.

Off the sword that's currently right in front of her.

It is a thick curved blade, almost too large and unwieldy to be called a sword, yet someone is holding it like it is an ordinary piece of steel, someone who is wearing white, with detached sleeves, and a black dress with flame pattern burning up from the bottom.

When the Goth realises what just happened, they raise their guns toward the newcomer. Bad idea, because by the time they do so, all they see is fists, knees, and darkness.

In seconds, about as many Goth marauders fell face first into the ground, and before Sidonia could even comprehend what just happened, more newcomers, wearing similar uniforms, moved besides the girl.

She speaks words Sidonia couldn't understand, and they all fly North, where the Goth land their airship, with big rifles in their hands, their intention is quite clear.

With command given and hostile cleared, the girl looked back toward Sidonia, and only then did she notice the pair of really white fluffy wolf ears twitching on top of her head, like a Wildleute, yet she felt that's not quite the correct answer.

The wolf 'Wildleute' speaks, with a look of concern on her face, but while Sidonia understands her feeling, she still doesn't understand a single word the wolf girl is saying.

"Erm, Gothic?" Sidonia says.

"Ah" the wolf girl says, finally realising what's going on, "Are you alright, what's your name?" she speaks in Gothic, with a rather odd accent, like someone who's familiar with a language yet seemingly unused to it.

"I'm… no not really I'm fucking tired but thank you so much for rescueing me." Sidonia replies, "I'm Sidonia… Curtains, who are you, and where am I?"

"I'm Squad Leader Momiji Inubashiri of the Tengu Patrol Force." she raises a hand toward Sidonia.

Sidonia, of course, accepts it, the ground is getting rather cold from the mud and the night.

"And, this might not have been the best circumstance for this, but welcome to…"

------

Once, there was nothing, next, there's a landmass connected to what should have been an empty coast.

These phenomena were reported in three different places almost simultaneously, yet they all connect to the same exact place.

A place of impossibility, where fairies fly, Oni drink, Kappa builds, and Tengu manages, a place that could only exist because of its founders' desire for a place where they can survive.

This land is called, Gensokyo.

------
Note: So anyway you probably notice how unsubtle the title is on what this fanfic is about at this point

 

[TortugaGreen]

I'm now trying to figure out how to run touhou characters in FC plane fights - I guess if you take the Witch's broom statblock and jimmy that a bit you'll probably get pretty close? It'd be awkward as hell, but I figure it could work.

 

[dragonkid11]

Hey so, it turns out that not writing any kind of fiction for years make it very difficult for me to write something coherent, and I had to edit this chapter so many times for future themes and plot points to reconnect back to here, and also I have to seriously figure out how each character would really act so they aren't just me but with animal ears and bits.

Anyway, this is like the best I could get for this chapter, things probably get easier from this point onward as I figure out how does this stupid thing called fanfiction work.

------
Day 0 - 1
------
Momiji Inubashiri was not having a good night.

It was one thing to patrol the surrounding regions of Gensokyo and fight off a pirate group or two with her undermanned squad, it was another thing entirely for her to see a air corvette, a Goth one of all things, heading straight towards here.

It was very fortunate that most of the men onboard decided to leave the vessel undercrewed to chase down one singular girl, allowing her squad to swiftly defeat the remaining crew and capture the ship almost completely intact.

However, this intrusion brought in a lot of questions, why was the Goth pushing so far from their territory, and what made them willing to bring quite a significant force just to chase down one person?

The person in question was a wolf Wildleute, who passed out quickly soon after Momiji found her, with grey ears, and attire typical of a pilot, leather jacket and neck scarf to deal with the cold air, but more notably was her hat, a big pointy Witchy hat, with two holes for her ears to go through.

She's a witch for sure, her ring and a bunch of other stuff in her bag were filled with magic, reminding her of a certain infamous thief very well, but what's more interesting wes her amulet, it just felt important somehow.

With the girl collapsed, the higher up ordered her to keep the girl in sight until she was awake to be brought for questioning, not that she would just leave her alone afterward anyway.

The girl, Sidonia, stirs in her sleep, and jolts up as she awakes in a very unfamiliar place.

"Hey it's okay" Momiji says, "You are safe now, you are in the Hourai hospital."

Originally, medical service was only provided at the Eientei deep in the Bamboo Forest, but with the massive increase in population, and the difficulty of walking through the Bamboo Forest, Eirin, on the order of Princess Kaguya, established a general hospital in the Human Village, though extensive and more specialized cases were still being moved to Eientei for better care.

"Oh, right. I'm safe, I'm safe now…" Sidonia says, clutching at her amulet, "Wait, where's my plane? Is my baby alright!?"

"It's still intact, surprisingly, the Kappa can put it together in no time, but if you don't mind me asking, can you tell me why the Goth sent practically an army to chase you down far away from where they should have been? I wanted to ask you last night but then you… well…" Momiji shrugged

"It's this… thing." she says, holding up the amulet.

"Can I see it?"

Sidonia takes off the amulet and hands it onto her palm, it is an amulet with a rather distinctive blue stone tied to it, there's a symbol carved onto it, not one Momiji knows about however.

No matter how much she tries to pump the amulet with magic, it doesn't glow.

"Didn't seem to work with others."

"Didn't seem to fucking work until a few days ago." Sidonia says, "I have been on the run since then. I was hoping that whatever it's shining towards would save my ass, but it points to here."

"Though in a way." she looks at Momiji and smirks, "It kinda did."

"Can you show me the light again?" Momiji hands the amulet back.

As soon as the amulet touches Sidonia's hand, it shoots a beam of light again.

From her pouch, Momiji takes out a compass.

"East, and about 10 degrees to north."

When Gensokyo was connected to Himmilgard by the power of its founders about a century ago, it merged with 3 different coasts of Himmilgard because it was a landbound location. One is connected to a coast near the eastern sea, and two others are at the lower and upper western sea. From an outsider perspective, it is a very weird sight, at the right place, you could see the land of Gensokyo seemingly disappear into the sea, and when coming from the sea, you can't see the land until you end up on the coast, then suddenly there's a landmass out of nowhere.

Try not to think too hard about it, also probably the common phrase you will hear in Gensokyo.

It also means that Gensokyo is a very popular trading hub, because traveling through Gensokyo can skip over possibly hundreds or even thousands of kilometers if your destination is on the other side of the continent, and it's possible to do this because you can reach different coasts of Himmilgard by steering your airships or even just walking in the right direction.

"It seems to be pointing at Lohner and Loring."

More interestingly, this also means that whatever guidance the amulet uses to point for direction can handle the rather wonky space caused by the presence of Gensokyo and still figure out the shortest path through it, that's no small feat.

"Sidonia, can you move right now?"

"Yeah, give me a second." she stretches her arms and finds them not as stiff as they would be, "Huh, all my fatigue is gone."

"Medicine from Eientei is pretty good, but right now we might need to move."

"Wher-"

A growl resonated in the hospital, coming out of her stomach.

"A change in plan then, first we are going to get something to fill our stomach, then we will talk to my boss, because this might be bigger than both of us."

------
Sidonia Curtens still thinks she's in some kind of dream.

When she walked out of the hospital, she was greeted by a sight she thought only existed in fantasy novels.

The street she came out in has a mix of Gensokyan and Himmilvolk style buildings, with people from both places walking and interacting with each other cheerfully, there's even Skyborn here, eating and drinking without having to worry about being seconds away from being chased off like most settlements she visited before.

That's not the fantastical part, the fantastical part was the winged or even wingless people flying through the air, in defiance of gravity, as if the law of reality that governs everything is meaningless to them.

Gensokyo, a place where reality is mere suggestion at the right condition.

These are the local Fae, or, rather, they are called Youkai, and while they seem even stranger, they can get along with humans just fine, most of them. Some descriptions of Youkai she read in articles seem outright impossible, but after what she has seen, it's starting to feel believable.

They were also just… flying around, landing, and talking to people, or buying items for their daily life, compared that to her village, she only seldomly saw Fae walking in the village once in a very long while, eventhough they are living right in the wood, like they didn't want to deal with humans at all, even to the Fae-touched.

And Momiji was one of them, despite looking like a very normal and cute Wildleute.

She's a Tengu, whatever that actually meant, apparently they came in 3 types, crow, wolf, and, big nose, for some reason.

She didn't have time to sightsee however, as soon as they ate some meat buns, Momiji took her to the Youkai Mountain, by carrying her and flying towards it.

It was a very new experience to her, one she never want to experience ever again for the rest of her life.

Compared to the town at the bottom of the mountain, this place, the Tengu village, felt a bit more familiar, in a way that reminds her of her home village, and not in a good way. It's not the fact that practically the whole village was built on trees, or the fact that barely anything here ran on any kind of power, it's the fact that everyone here seemed to be Tengu, and only Tengu. She saw a few humans, probably, but they wore clothes that looked rather expensive, probably someone influential with the Tengu.

She might just be assuming too much, but she felt stares from the locals, like she didn't belong here.

Right now, she's sitting inside the office of some big Tengu chief, a rather young looking woman with blue hair, who wore a blue dress with a massive solid gold pauldron on her cape, which is as black as her tiny crow wings. The Chief's red eye carefully examined her amulet with a scope, after Momiji told all the info on the Goth intrusion and the amulet to her.

After examining the amulet for what seemed to be minutes, Chief Megumu Iizunamaru let it down on her desk.

"I have determined that I have no idea what this is."

There's a sound similar to that of a cry from a Wolf that's currently dying from having something lodged in its throat, coming from besides Sidonia.

"That is, if I didn't purchase this artifact on a whim."

From the glass cabinet beside her, Megumu pulled out a broken stone tablet, there's a number of carved symbols lined up at the bottom of the tablet, and one looked exactly the same as the one on the amulet.

"I asked some Skyborn about it before, and they mentioned it's something about a royal family or noble."

"A noble? Me? No way!" Sidonia rejected, "But this amulet was passed down from my mother, and her grandmother before that, and so on and on…"

"Well, I'm not one to pry into family history, but there's also one other thing you should know about this stone tablet. It came from one of the Flying Fortresses."

When one travels near the sea at either side of Himmilgard, sometimes they could see a massive stone fortress, floating in the air and obscured by clouds, and there are many of them surrounding the continent, preventing anyone from leaving it by the sea.

There were many attempts by petty politicians, boastful generals, and sometimes just plain crazy people to take down or even take over these Fortresses.

They sure were attempts.

"If this, hypothetically, this amulet is pointing at one of the fortresses, why would this thing be in the mainland instead of out in the sea?" Sidonia asks.

"That's what I would like to know. It might even be a fortress that has broken down, became a part of a mountain, and nobody would have known it would still work if not for this amulet of yours." Megumu says.

"And now the Goth wants it for a superweapon." Sidonia says, "Fine, ya know what, if they want this, they have to come through me, I'm ready to bring the fight to them if they want one, but I can't do this alone."

Megumu smiles, "Good, I was originally gonna make you work with us as your plane is currently in pieces and the repair cost would have been just a bit too hard for you to pay off quickly, but since you are so eager, that makes my job a lot easier!"

Wait what

The Chief lazily leans her face on her palm, tapping on her wooden desk.

"Momiji, what do you think about this situation?"

"I do believe that we should launch an expedition to wherever this place is and either take or destroy the source, preferably with Miss Sidonia helping us willingly. This is the first time the Goth have reached so close to Gensokyo and I would rather not have them brandishing their brand of racial superiority here on top of an ancient death fortress."

"Hmm, that does sound like a good idea." Megumu says, "But we don't exactly have the manpower to spare right now."

A memory clicks in Momiji's mind, "Oh right, a festival is coming soon."

"A festival?" Sidonia asks.

"There's an upcoming Moriya shrine festival in the next week to pray for a good harvest this year. A lot of people will be coming in to gain their blessing, a lot of them, because the blessing works."

"And we the Tengu would be rather tied up in making sure it goes smoothly, and any trouble maker would be dealt with swiftly, with flying castle or otherwise.' Megumu continues, "It's not the first time Gensokyo had an incident with a flying castle, though that one has far less weapons on it."

"I suppose we can just do this after that? Because as much as I want to shoot some Goth, I need a break right no-"

The amulet, still left on the desk, suddenly glowed bright like the sun, before beaming up a blue and white projection of two men into the thin air, one was tall, wearing glasses and military uniform covered in medals, the other just looked like a grunt who did not want to be here at all.

"General, the girl got away, we lost contact with the Schnelligkeit and possibly the rest of the crew." the soldier anxiously relayed the info.

The general put his hand on the soldier, and simply smiled, "Do not worry, young man, I want her because her very existence could leak the information on our operation out, not because we need her, for I have this."

The general pulled out a stone, blue, with the exact same symbol as Sidonia's one on it.

"With this, the girl isn't needed anymore, the world will know our plan soon, but the Goth will have the weapon in time." the general raised up the stone, admiring it, it also happened to let him notice that someone was watching.

"What th-"

Sidonia slammed her hand on her amulet, light slowly stopped leaking between her fingers as the amulet ceased to glow.

"Okay, haha, we have no fucking time at all if they got one of their own already."

Momji slams her hands on the desk, "We really have to do something, Chief Iizunamaru! If the Goth really get to it-"

"I suppose this really comes at a terrible time then, but we really can't spare anyone!" Megumu says as if this doesn't concern her one bit, "Which is why this 'expedition' will be done rather differently."

"How, exactly?" Sidonia asks.

"We can't afford to send out any of our force for the next week, but we did just capture an obsolete air corvette from the Goth last night, which would have either been mothballed or sold off to some wealthy merchants."

"Chief Iizunamaru, are you suggesting that we take one of the airships, find whatever crew we could get, and just set sail?" Momiji asks concerningly.

"Correct!" Megumu points with a smile at her, "We have captured many of these inefficient airships, and there's not many people wealthy enough to buy and use them, and keeping it mothballed is a waste of space, so you might as well use it until it destroys itself!"

"You said the destination should be around Lohner Forest or Loring Hills, correct? So approximately the trip should only take only a week, even if you move at modest speed. However, while I can get you the ship, you will need to find a sponsor for this."

…Hold on

"So, you are saying, you will be giving out an airship, but we need to find a sponsor ourselves, as well as the crew to man the ship." Sidonia worryingly summarizes the situation.

"Correct! In fact, I don't care if you use the airship as a collateral in case the expedition fails, save a lot of paperwork for me too!"

Before she could interject, Momiji leans next to her ear and whispers.

"She's telling us that we can use the airship as a bargaining chip in a contract, not many merchants could purchase or use it, but even the scrap metal from it would be worth a lot. This effectively makes the entire operation a zero cost one, if we could find the right sponsor quickly."

Chief Megumu claps her hands slowly.

"Got it in one, Inubashiri! Now, our business is done here, also Momiji, since you so insistently brought this case to me, I will be assigning you to manage this expedition, have fun, please leave!"

*BANG*

The door locks behind both of them, and up in the wood, the birds are chirping, but it sounds more like laughing.

"So we are totally fucked." Sidonia summarized the situation.

"It's probably fine, it's not just us getting screwed if the Goth got the fortress." Momji calmly says, but her face is full of frustration, "I had have worse tasks shoved into my face before, but organizing an expedition to an unknown location on a shoestring budget while being on a time limit because some genocidal maniac is racing to use an ancient weapon to dominate the world, that's a new one."

"I would be more surprised if that isn't new to you, but in a way, this is still kinda an improvement to me." Sidonia says, "For the last couple days, I didn't have an option, I could only choose to run, but now, I know a girl who can win a gunfight with a sword, and a war airship. I have a choice now, and my choice is I'm going to crush the Goth, because I'm very spiteful against them right now."

"Ah, spite, I fully understand that feeling…" Momiji nods, she perfectly knows and feels that exact same feeling against a certain damn crow everytime she shows her face.

"So yeah! Two of us, plus a big crew with whoever we could find, we can totally do this and kick some Goth's butt!" Sidonia yells, earning some stares from the local Tengu but she really can't give a shit about that right now, " Why am I so excited right now!?"

"Probably because of the side effects of the very strong anti-fatigue shot you just took."

"Okay then! Let's go find our sponsor before I start losing the high and cry from the reality of our situation!"

Despite how bad the situation is, Momiji couldn't help but laugh at her enthusiasm, even if it is mostly caused by additive intake, "That sounds like a good idea, let's go."

And thus, the journey of the two wolves began with their very first step.

------
Note: Not even two chapters in and already our main characters are forced into a rather big situation, what's gonna happen next?!

 

[Khona Moshr]

So reminds me abit of Laputa the Castle in the Sky.

 

[TortugaGreen]

It was very fortunate that most of the men onboard decided to leave the vessel undercrewed to chase down one singular girl, allowing her squad to swiftly defeat the remaining crew and capture the ship almost completely intact.

Click to shrink...

Momiji's squad: [insert "it's free real estate" meme] in the background

Originally, medical service was only provided at the Eientei deep in the Bamboo Forest, but with the massive increase in population, and the difficulty of walking through the Bamboo Forest, Eirin, on the order of Princess Kaguya, established a general hospital in the Human Village, though extensive and more specialized cases were still being moved to Eientei for better care.

Click to shrink...

oh boy, they must be having some spicy immigration if that's necessary to keep up with demand...

When Gensokyo was connected to Himmilgard by the power of its founders about a century ago, it merged with 3 different coasts of Himmilgard because it was a landbound location. One is connected to a coast near the eastern sea, and two others are at the lower and upper western sea. From an outsider perspective, it is a very weird sight, at the right place, you could see the land of Gensokyo seemingly disappear into the sea, and when coming from the sea, you can't see the land until you end up on the coast, then suddenly there's a landmass out of nowhere.

Click to shrink...

and that'd be why! nothing like spacial warping to make an area unreasonably important, and that's on top of the pile of Youkai Nonsense that guarantees it's not going to get raided.

"I do believe that we should launch an expedition to wherever this place is and either take or destroy the source, preferably with Miss Sidonia helping us willingly. This is the first time the Goth have reached so close to Gensokyo and I would rather not have them brandishing their brand of racial superiority here on top of an ancient death fortress."

Click to shrink...

Racism: bad for business. Also, might get bad enough to require Reimu Intervention, and that's always awkward.

"And we the Tengu would be rather tied up in making sure it goes smoothly, and any trouble maker would be dealt with swiftly, with flying castle or otherwise.' Megumu continues, "It's not the first time Gensokyo had an incident with a flying castle, though that one has far less weapons on it."

Click to shrink...

Was this one of the games, or did this happen after gensokyo got isekai'd?

"So yeah! Two of us, plus a big crew with whoever we could find, we can totally do this and kick some Goth's butt!" Sidonia yells, earning some stares from the local Tengu but she really can't give a shit about that right now, " Why am I so excited right now!?"

"Probably because of the side effects of the very strong anti-fatigue shot you just took."

Click to shrink...

Good ol' I-can't-believe-it's-not-meth, always handy for mustering enthusiasm for stupid or ill-planned military efforts.

 

[dragonkid11]

So reminds me abit of Laputa the Castle in the Sky.

Click to shrink...

Parts of Flying Circus are heavily inspired by Ghibli films, let's just say I decided to take a step further.

Was this one of the games, or did this happen after gensokyo got isekai'd?

Click to shrink...

Double Dealing Character actually!

This version of Gensokyo is also connected with Himmilgard about a century ago more or less by the way.

Anyway, let's the next part going!

I also decided to just, fully use past tense for most part because, I'm not what I was even fucking thinking back then, that was such a massive confusion even to me. This is what I get for not writing fanfic for years.

------
Day 0 - 2
------
"Oh god we are going to die." Sidonia said suddenly.

"Did the side effects finally wear off?" Momiji asked.

"Yeah, I'm not feeling delirious anymore, I'm just feeling depressed right now." Sidonia answered, "But whatever, depression can wait, where are we going now?"

"Visiting a friend of mine that might just help us out."

Flying off from the Tengu side of the Youkai Mountain, Sidonia was starting to get used to being carried around by a flying Youkai, as long as she didn't look down. But at this height, it's rather easy to see which part of Tengu territory ended, and which part of Kappa territory began. The Kappa were well known for their adaptability towards technology and it really showed on their side of the mountain, the Genbu Ravine was heavily industrialised, with pipings all across nearby terrain to pipe water in.

She could even see roads connecting the centre town to the ravine, and it was required, so the very same Kappa living in the mountain could easily travel to work at the aerodromes, airship docks, factories, wherever they want, and wherever their expertise was needed. It also allowed people outside to visit their side of the mountain and made purchases there. Probably a boon to them too, because from what she has heard, the Kappa, despite their technological expertise, didn't exactly work well with each other.

Too many chefs spoiled the broth or something like that.

Arriving at the ravine, Sidonia noticed that the place smelled a lot different than what she expected. Yeah sure, it's connected to a river, so it's gonna smell like it, but despite the very industrialised nature of the place, she didn't smell smog or anything like that. Then again, with all the running water and piping, the Kappa probably generated power from that.

After walking from the entrance of the ravine, Momiji has led her into a workshop of a sort, filled with strange contractions she could barely make sense of, and in the middle of all these inventions, was one blue-haired Kappa with short twin tails that wore a blue dress with lots of pockets, busy welding machinery.

"Nitori!" Momiji shouted over the sound.

"Huh?" the Kappa turned around and lifted her welding mask up, "Oh, Momiji, hi! And who's this?"

"I'm erm, Sidonia Curtens, nice to meet you in your workshop?" she extended out her hand.

"Nitori Kawashiro." the Kappa took off her gloves before shaking it, "So what brings you here, Momiji? It's not our shogi time yet, so you must be here for business."

"Well, let me explain."

And once more, Momiji explained everything thus far, from the Goth intrusion, to the amulet, to the possible Goth threat, and then linked the whole thing to a Flying Fortress that might just be full of technologies in it.

As soon as she mentioned that part, the Kappa's typical capitalistic mindset was immediately turned upside down.

"I will pay you just for the chance to get on this trip!" Nitori yelled, "All the costs for the trip? I will handle it!"

"Well that's fast." Sidonia said.

"Think of it this way, I could either get an immensely wealthy treasure trove of technology where even a tiny bit of it is still well worth the cost of the trip, or, if the whole thing falls apart, I still can recuperate my loss by scrapping your air ship. Usually I get low risk low reward or high risk high reward business, this whole plan is zero risk, why would I not join in!?"

"Our funding problem is solved then, but we still need a crew, and we need them fast." Momiji said, and both her and Nitori wondered how to solve this new problem.

"Hey." then Sidonia interposed in between, "Where's the closest bar to the aerodrome?

------

"So all we need to do is put a job notice on this board?" Momiji asked.

After flying away from the Youkai Mountain, the duo plus a Kappa was right back where they started for today, effectively making a big circle around the place. As of now, they are standing in front of a rather impressive Himmilvolk style inn, the smell of booze and meat are just overflowing in the air from within, with humans and Youkai entering and leaving in practically equal numbers.

"Yup, in bigger towns where more flying circuses go by, they tend to have these notice boards for the circuses to grab jobs from, and usually they put them close to a bar, or the town hall, or both at the same time. And turns out this place works the same."

Sidonia continued, "We kinda need people fast however, so we have to put more than just standard payroll fee, like additional pay, or a share on whatever loot the crew find."

"You sound like you have done this before, Sidonia." Nitori said.

"I have been flying for 6 months, Nitori. Though usually, I'm on the opposite side, but I took enough jobs that I kinda know how things work at this point." Sidonia boasted, "Still, considering our tight budget, it's better we use a share system to attract more people in, it also means that even if we didn't get much out of the situation, we won't work at a loss either."

"Genius." Nitori grinned.

"Now let's put this paper up and get some drinks, because we are gonna be doing some waiting!"

For the next couple hours, the trio faced… rather few applicants despite the lucrative payout, as most people tended to want to stay alive and getting away from a Flying Fortress was a good idea to continue to do so.

But this did mean that, anyone that decided to sit down in front of them, was someone that won't run at the first sign of trouble.

------

The first set of the applicants was a bit unexpected.

It's a group of soldiers, all of them dressed with camouflage and were armed to the teeth, one of them was even hefting a LMG, with bandoliers and sacks full of grenades, clips, mags, others instruments of death, and they all looked like the biggest badass in this side of the town.

They were also all 4 feet tall fairies.

"Name is Jasmine, these are my crew of badasses with 1000 kills to show, all of us are veterans and survivors of the Fairy Wars!"

"Didn't all fairies fight in the Fairy Wars and all of you can't die anyway." Nitori countered.

"True, but can you ask for better than that?"

Sidonia leaned towards Momiji and whispered, "What do you think?"

"We need some bodies in case we get in a fight, and a fairy is probably the best choice around since they can't die, at all, unless everything else in the world burns in hellfire first." Momiji whispered back, "They are our meat shields basically."

She then looked back at the fairies, "You are in."

Fairies nearly put holes in the roof of the tavern with their lack of finger discipline when they got excited from the answer.

------

"Minamitsu, what are you doing here?" Momiji asked.

Standing in front of them was a girl with a rather pale skin, wearing a white sailor uniform that reminded Sidonia of some old images of the Macchi wet Navy.

"I heard you have an airship but no captain, so I'm volunteering myself for the role! Also the Myouren temple could probably use some additional funding."

"...You just really want to fly an airship, aren't you?"

Minamitsu Murasa raised finger guns at her, "Got it in one!"

"Can she really do it?" Sidonia asked.

"Well, she flew a magical flying boat before so I guess that counts, though it currently has been transformed into a Buddist temple." Momiji replied.

Sidonia was more surprised at how she's utterly unsurprised at statements like these now just hours after experiencing Gensokyo.

"Minamitsu Murasa, You are in."

------

"Oh wow, this amulet of yours is just like Laputa!"

The next applicant (?) was apparently the green haired shrine maiden of the Moriya temple, though currently she was out of her uniform and in a more casual clothing.

"Momiji, what is Laputa?" Sidonia asked.

The wolf Tengu could only shrug at that.

"Though, sorry for my poor Gothic by the way, this whole Himmilgard place has been oddly Ghibli for some reasons!"

Sidonia stared at Momiji but again, the Tengu could only shrug because she has no idea what the shrine maiden was saying either.

"What are you doing here, Sanae, if you are thinking of joining this expedition, you can't!" Momiji said, "I know your schedule next week and it's full!"

"Come on, I haven't really been out of Gensokyo since I came here and it's not like one missed festival would ruin the whole year!"

"You just forced me to use the K card."

Sidonia turned, "The what?"

"Hey, Kanako-sama! What brings you here to-"

Like most young adults of her age, Sanae Kochiya has the ability to instantly vanish into thin air as soon as their parents or guardians turned their attention towards them at a very bad time.

In Sanae's case, it's more literal.

"Oh, she can be Out of Mind too." Sidonia said.

"Works everytime, except for the time the Goddess is actually here, next one please!"

------

Sidonia was currently very confused on what exactly was she looking at.

The next group of applicants were a wolf Wildleute (probably), a human (probably), and a Fischer, of some kind, probably.

For one, the Fischer has fins for ears, but she knew some Fischer that has those kinds of ears. The Fischer also has a fish tail for legs, which wes why the Fischer's currently sitting on a wheelchair. But the last part was the one that made Sidonia very confused, because the Fischer has white skin with hints of red.

"You are not a Fischer right?"

Wakasagihime laughed, "I really don't understand how the Himmilvolk keep confusing me for Fischer."

"Probably because you are as good looking at one." the wolf Wildleute(?), Kagerou, said.

"So what brings you guys here?" Momiji asked.

"We who are a part of Grassroots Youkai Network-"

Oh so they are youkai, that explains everything then.

"-would like to earn some quick money through this expedition!"

"What can you provide then?"

"I can cook and clean!" Wakasagihime said.

"I can cook and clean and move heavy things around!" Kagerou said.

"And you?" Momiji asked the rather silent human (?).

"I will kill anyone dumb enough to hurt these two." Sekibanki declared, "Also they kinda dragged me here but whatever."

"Perfect, you are in." Sidonia said this time.

------

"Please tell me you two are humans." Sidonia cried.

The last group of applicants were two persons wearing thick gas protection gears, completely covering their bodies from head to toe.

"Erm, yes?" one of them replied, "I'm Amalie, this is Hannah, we flew one of Hugo's Jagdbomber, tough and fast with a better engine than stock model, has light bombing capability and radio."

"We also have eleven kills shared between both of us, with a lot more count of successful bombings." the other one said.

"Congratulations, both of you are in!"

As the two left the inn, Sidonia rested her face on the table and let out an awful groan, "Of so many groups we interviewed today, I can't believe only two humans came to us, and I'm not even entirely sure if they are."

"It is a very risky expedition, most of the people we let in are youkai who are just kinda bored." Nitori said, "Youkai are tougher too so they can shrug off most things that would have been lethal to humans, which means our medical cost would be lower too!"

"Still, we got enough people now, guards, cooks, mechanics, pilots, captain, probably, and other crew, so let's leav-"

But just as the trio got off their seats, a newcomer opened the inn doors wide and strided towards them.

"Hear you guys are going to some rather wild place, do you have a space lef-"

"You are in."

"Momiji, I haven't even finishe-"

The Tengu pointed, "Marisa, you are in."

The newcomer just shrugged at her answer, and instead took the seat they just left from to order some drinks.

"Who is that?"

"Marisa Kirishima, you probably don't know much about her if you are outside of Gensokyo, probably because most news about her is too unrealistic for outsiders to be published." Nitori explained, "Then again, most Gensokyo news is too unrealistic for outsiders apparently."

"Long story short, she's, well, she's an outlier if you consider her as a human." Momiji added on.

"Anyway, I need to properly close up my workshop to make sure any enterprising thief can't get into it when I'm out. See you guys tomorrow, 5 AM right?" Nitori asked as her large backpack opened up for a propeller to emerge out of it, which quickly spun up and lifted her off the ground.

"5 AM! Later, Nitori!"

Both of them waved as the Kappa flew off back to her home.

"That thing looks so ridiculously dangerous, how did she get it to work without cutting her head off?" Sidonia asked.

"Why do you think her hair is so short?"

…Oh

As the two of them walked out of the town, Momiji looked to the rising moon, "It's about to be nighttime, let's get something fresh for dinner."

"Something fresh? Like fish?"

"A bit too late for that, but I can find something better."

------

When Momiji was saying 'Get something fresh', Sidonia didn't expect the Tengu to go hunting for a fawn and roast it over an open flame right in her house.

It really was the freshest a meat could get though.

Despite its slightly charred skin, the meat was perfectly roasted, and the inside was soft, succulent and juicy, the moisture held in by the skin instead of being dried off by the flame. As the two tore the deer apart, Sidonia began to notice that the wolf Tengu has a more wolfy side than she thought. Her white tail swung excitedly when they were waiting for the meat to cook through, and when she ripped the roasted meat apart, her small pointy canine teeth made it very easy.

"Is there something on my face?" Momiji asked.

Oops, got caught staring.

"No, nothing, it's… the meat is really good!"

Nice save, Sidonia!

"Thanks, I prefer the original taste, but some salt and spices really bring out the flavour."

"Nah, I should thank you for treating me and paying for all of my current expenses." Sidonia replied, "My financial situation isn't really solvent after spending days running away from the Goth, months of saving up and nearly all of it gone in 3 days."

"It's fine, I don't really use money much so it tends to save up after a few decades."

Sidonia nearly choked when she heard that, "Hold, hold on, decades? How old are you!?"

Momiji raised up three fingers.

"...You are not three, right?"

"No, what this means is my age has 3 numbers in it." Momiji answered, "And one of them is not a one."

"Oh, sorry it's just, usually when I have to deal with someone this old, they are usually Fae, and they are a fucking pain in the ass to deal with."

"Oh I know, trust me I know that well." Momiji said, and puts on a faux voice,"'We will arrive and make a deal when the moon is green, and the moth migrates.' what does that even mean, just tell us when properly, and all of them do that too!"

"Different sense of time, my ass! I bet the Fae merely mastered the art of being complete asshole with their incredibly long life." Sidonia said.

"Yeah, I know people who are actually more than 1000 years old, and none of them are even as obnoxious as the Fae!"

"Yeah, fuck the Fae!" Sidonia yelled.

"Yeah!"

"YEAH!"

"YEAH!"

And after a bout of yelling, both of them just sat back down quietly for a while.

"Actually, would you like to hear a story when the Fae tried to invade Gensokyo a few decades ago?" Momiji asked.

"Do tell, that sounds exciting!"

"So, I can't remember the exact details much, but they sent in a couple of these dire animals during the last one a few decades ago."

"Oh I know, gigantic animals that look exactly the same as the normal size one but they are the size of houses."

And can flip tanks over like they weigh nothing.

"Yeah that, I brought one dire deer down on my own, and it was meat for days! Just so much meat, it was practically impossible to cut every single piece of meat out, but that's not even the best part."

Momiji continued, "The best part is that, turns out, the organ also increased in size, and this dire deer has a dire brain!"

Sidonia nearly threw up upon hearing that, "Hol-hold, what, why do you even eat that!?"

"It's delicious, why wouldn't you?" Momiji said as if it was obvious, "Also it was a magical deer, so its brain was extra tasty when cooked through!"

"Stop saying that word when I'm eating!"

"What, brain? Brain brain brain brain brain!" Momiji teased with a grin, "The dire deer, and later a wolf and bear as well, those were way tougher by the way, were all brought down by this blade."

It was the blade that saved Sidonia yesterday, it's just such a ridiculously looking wide curved blade that probably weighed as much as a person, or two, and yet Momiji was holding it one handed with ease.

"I can definitely see why."

"Later I found out, this blade was just as good at cracking small tanks apart."

"In the war?" Sidonia asked.

"Yeah…" Momiji said, memories she didn't want to remember floated in her mind, "There were attempted invasions into Gensokyo before it finally ended."

This was when Sidonia realised, Momiji had probably fought the entirety of the Great War, 20 years straight, an achievement not a single living veteran of the war could reach, because they would all be dead by then.

While not a single attempt reached Gensokyo, that didn't mean it didn't cause some serious damage to the outskirts of the land, where surrounding towns and villages suffered the most.

And the girl in front of her, knew and lived through possibly every single one of it.

Things were quiet for a moment, as the Tengu absorbed in the memories of her past, before Sidonia decided to bring her back to reality.

"Well, this would be a good time to ask if you have booze."

"Huh, what? Oh booze, right, I… don't think my house has any left." Momiji replied, "It would really be good if we have some right now."

The wind chime outside of the house ringed, as the wing suddenly blew wildly.

"You can come in, Aya." the wolf Tengu says.

"Who?" Sidonia faced towards the front door.

A crow Tengu emerged from behind the opened door and stepped in the house, "Aw, don't sound so grumpy at your superior, you puppy."

From behind her, she brought out a bottle of sake wrapped in paper.

"Now, let's get drinking, all three of us!"

------
Note: So yeah, this chapter is basically all about introducing the crew, well, most of them!

 

[Khona Moshr]

Like most young adults of her age, Sanae Kochiya has the ability to instantly vanish into thin air as soon as their parents or guardians turned their attention towards them at a very bad time.

Click to shrink...

$100 on Sanae sneaking on board during take off because she is a teenager in Gensokyo and probably bored of festivals.

Parts of Flying Circus are heavily inspired by Ghibli films, let's just say I decided to take a step further

Click to shrink...

So the question is which bad guy will have Mark Hamill's voice?

 

[TortugaGreen]

Hear you guys are going to some rather wild place, do you have a space lef-"

"You are in."

"Momiji, I haven't even finishe-"

The Tengu pointed, "Marisa, you are in."

Click to shrink...

I fear for the team and everyone they meet's equipment now. Whether by getting "borrowed" in the middle of the night or simply vaporized by Master Spark to the face, the property damage bills are probably already growing.

 

[dragonkid11]

Oh boy, the heat is kicking my ass over here, but still managed to finish up the next chapter when I'm lucid enough to do so.

------
Day 0 - 3
-------
"Sidonia, this is Aya Shameimar-"

"Yes, I'm Aya Shameimaru, Gensokyo's most famous resident reporter!"

The crow Tengu was a young looking woman with short black hair, but as Sidonia figured it out today, looks can be deceiving, especially for Youkai. The 'young' reporter wore a white blouse, black skirt patterned with colourful maple leaves, and the tiny red hat that every Tengu wore and seemed to stay on no matter how quickly the Tengu moved.

Despite the crow leaping towards Sidonia in a single step, the wooden floor didn't creak under her weight at all.

"So, have you read Bunbunmaru newspaper, it's practically my lifework!" Aya asked.

"Erm, no, I haven't even heard of it."

"Just so you know, Sidonia, Bunbunmaru has pretty much been banned outside of Gensokyo 80 years ago for being blatantly inaccurate." Momiji explained, "It's also banned because the former great empires of Himmilgard can't control its source of news, but it's kinda terrible so it's the only thing I fully agree with the former empires on this decision."

"Oy, I'm sitting right here." Aya complained, already inserting herself between the two wolves.

"Besides, it's mostly aimed at people inside Gensokyo instead of outside." Momji said as she took out three small cups from a nearby drawer, handing them out to her guests, "That said, where have you been for today, Aya? I thought you would come knocking for the news, since the Goth hasn't reached this far in before."

"I was being a bit busy gathering news from nearby towns and villages close to Gensokyo, that's my style these days unless an incident happens." Aya poured sake into the cups, "Local news like these are handled by my subordinates instead, but it's not like there's much to say, a squad of Tengu Patrol Force captured an armed airship, girl got saved, a couple Goth surrendered, everything resolved in half an hour."

"A couple of Goth surrendered? What's going to happen to them?" Sidonia asked.

"Gensokyo doesn't exactly have a prison, and we don't exactly have a centralized authority here, so we just make the prisoners do some labours, usually farming for a few years and after that, it's up to them to figure out what to do next with their life. Those are for light ones however, for heavy ones, and especially the officers…"

The crow swiped her hand across her neck.

"They better not waste their second chance then." Sidonia said.

Aya slid towards Sidonia, "I thought you would have wanted all of them to perish, especially after last night."

"If they surrender or forfeit, then shooting them afterwards is just a waste of life. It's pointless." Sidonia then looked at her tiny cup, "Also, I have heard of sake and how strong they are supposed to be, but this one smells way stronger."

"It's a Tengu sake, we prefer our stuff to be a lot stronger than usual ones. Try it!"

With a sip, Sidonia could taste more than just the burn of alcohol, but also a flowery taste that's surprisingly soft, hiding how much the drink packed, it's a very dangerous drink if one wasn't careful.

And then she just drank the rest in one go.

"Aaaaaaa, another please."

The crow poured more into her cup, "Just to let you know, Gensokyo's treatment of human outsiders was a lot worse before, if anyone just walked into the woods a century ago, they would have a really high chance of getting attacked or eaten by the local Youkai."

"Oh."

"Oh, just oh!?"

"Aya, I came from a village in the woods close to the Fae, there was once an attack by pirate on the village, but the people there kicked them out and they ran off into the wood. An hour later, an Elf just said they have been taken care of, and believe me when I said them getting killed is probably the best thing to happen to them just for that."

"Also I certainly don't mind getting eaten by a youkai if all of them are as cute looking as both of you."

Oh, huh, why did they look so shocked, did I say that out loud?

"Sidonia, are you getting tipsy already?" Momiji cut in.

"Ha, noooo, I'm fine." she lied, then doubled down on it by gulping down another cup of sake, "This is really good."

"Well, drink is meant to be enjoyable anyway", Aya shrugged, "So, what else can you tell me about your village, not many of my readers actually know how living in the wood goes, so maybe you could tell me a thing or two."

"Sure, so the first thing you need to know about the Fae is…"

------

Momiji looked up towards the moon, it seemed to be bigger than before.

During the early period of Gensokyo connection with Himmilgard, the night sky was filled with 4 moons, 3 from the land of Himmilgard. It was disorienting, especially for Youkai that relied on the moon for power and mood, so it didn't take long for things to turn back to the one moon everyone in Gensokyo was used to. Occasionally, this didn't work, one minute, there's a few extra moons, next, nothing.

The fact that one of the Sages, Yukari Yakumo, could just do this on a whim, was something people occasionally mused about.

A loud snoring came from a nearby source, it was Sidonia, finally going to sleep after drinking half of the bottle, most people Momji knew would get outright knocked out for drinking less than that, instead the Wildleute just kept on drinking, rambling and eating until she finally got tired of the night.

It's kinda amazing in a way.

The bottle, almost completely empty, dropped one final drop of sake into the wolf's cup.

"That's the last of this bottle." Aya said, finally putting the bottle aside, "So, what did Megumu tell you to do?"

"Not exact word, but she told me to lead an expedition to uncover a Flying Fortress while a Goth army is chasing after the same thing, you know, a very normal and easy mission."

"What about your squadmates?" Aya asked.

"I'm only a squad leader when out on patrol, this is something outside of TPF's current purview, and she probably assigned them to the usual guard duty already."

"Time limit?"

"Technically none since she didn't specify it, but she obviously wants this over as quickly as possible."

"Support?"

"Nothing, but we got an air corvette for free with Nitori sponsoring us in exchange for the airship as collateral."

"So you are being handed a mission with incredibly vague objectives or goals, and no support of any kind, and potentially no time limit to actually accomplish it." Aya summed it up, "I'm pretty sure this is just Megumu's way of telling you to get out and take a break."

"If she wants me to take a break, she should say it to my face."

Aya rolled her eyes, "Yes, like that totally worked for the past decade. Look, Momiji, the world has changed and moved on, it's a more peaceful place now, just take your holiday, go fly out there, have fun a bit. The Tengu society isn't like how it used to be now, White Wolf Tengu aren't restricted only to the mountain anymore, and nobody is trying to invade the mountain or Gensokyo. Well, aside from when some Youkai or God or whatever that did try to take control of Gensokyo."

"Why is nobody worried about a runaway Flying Fortress!?" Momiji cried.

"Momiji, you do remember where we are living right? Besides, it's not like the shrine maiden hasn't handled worse." Aya replied, "So, just take your time, chill out, and enjoy the sight outside, treat this like an adventure, a real one, maybe visit the sea, which you haven't even been to one by the way! Oh right, almost forgot!"

From her pocket, the crow pulled out a rather fat stack of cash, "If you can, visit a seaport town called Meer der Ruhe, this currency works there, no need to exchange Thaler for it, also, you should try out lobster there."

"What the hell is a lobster?"

"It's like a crab but someone stretched it through a bamboo, and it's just as tasty."

"Well…" Momiji reluctantly took the stack of paper money, "If you are paying for this, then I guess I could try some new meat."

"There we go, that's the cute Momji I knew!" Aya laughed, and reached her hand to pat the wolf.

The attempt quickly felt short when the wolf bit her hand instead, it took quite a bit of her willpower to not scream out in pain.

"Ow, okay, still no touchy, okay." Aya cried, her hand throbbing in pain.

"Look, I know all of you are just trying to get me out of this funk, I thought I would get over it in time, but that clearly is not working. So, yeah, I guess I will try to use this opportunity to see what Himmilgard looks like now."

"That's the spirit, I know you can do it!" Aya quickly drank down her last cup of sake and stood up, "Anyway, tell me about your adventure when you come back, I will put it on the paper."

Reaching down, she pulled a leg off the roasted deer, "Also, I will be taking this for the sake, see ya, Momiji."

And just as quickly as she arrived here, she vanished like the wind as soon as she closed the front door.

With her alone in her house besides a sleeping human, Momiji disposed off the thoroughly cleaned carcass, put out the flame, and slept on her own bed.

This is really gonna be a long week.

------

It's now the next day, the sun just haven't told anyone about it yet, still slumbering behind the mountain.

The Kosaten aerodrome, even so early in the morning, was a bustling place. Kappa, Fairies, humans, and many others worked to ensure the proper function of this place practically all day and night, as Gensokyo remained one of the primary trade harbor post war due to the fact it's the only place that wasn't bombed to hell. Everyday, dozens of airships moved in and left, transporting either cargo or people in and out.

Sidonia yawned, "So this is our airship?"

"Looks like it." Momiji replied, and stepped into the rather rugged looking K-class, a long cylinder hydrogen gas bag with 8 engines to push it to a top speed of 160 kilometers per hour, with enough guns to deter most fighters and a capacity to carry two planes of its own. It's an excellent design that, while being rather outdated post great war, was still a sign of major local power. That said, around Gensokyo, its gigantic size just meant that it's a very easy target for any powerful flight capable youkai, and while many were captured during the war, their high maintenance nature made them rather difficult to be used, and most were scrapped for metal instead.

The same fate would have befell on this one if not for the expedition.

The instant she stepped in the airship however, something already felt very wrong.

"Why does this place smell like butt!?" Momiji pinched her nose.

"Because when all this ship has seen is sweaty young men dying for the past few decades, the very essence of their body will be permeated into the very frame of this airship."

"What she's trying to say is this is gonna need a lot of detergent." Nitori added.

Already onboard the vessel was Nitori, checking the viability of the vessel, and a fox, wearing a plain white one piece clothing.

"Kudamaki." Momiji said plainly.

"Inubashiri, I'm just here to report the status of the expedition to the Chief, I will leave the ship when it's ready to launch, nothing more, pay me no attention."

And with that said, the fox just propped herself besides a corner and watched.

"Who's that cutey?" Sidonia asked.

"Chief Iizunamaru's eyes, ears, and hands, Tsukasa Kudamaki, like she said, don't care about her." Momiji explained, "Nitori, what else needs to be done with the ship?"

"It's intact, I can say that at least." Nitori shrugged, "The engine is fine, the control is fine, I can see someone was overly eager in dealing with the forward field cannon, I will just put a shutter over the hole for now, anyone who can't fly should not go in there."

"As for the hanger, I will install a large manipulator to grab the plane because I do not trust the zeppelin hook one bit at all, and for the supply, they should come at just about any moment now, we just need to push it into the ship and done."

"Also, we need detergent, this smell is unbearable." Nitori finished.

"We need to clean it up then." Momiji said, "Sidonia, can you come with me? We gonna need to carry a lot of detergent here."

Sidonia laughed, "So that's our first task? Cleaning up this ship?"

"Not unless you want to smell like butt too."

"I got nothing else to do anyway, lead the way."

------

Of course, the task of cleaning up such a massive airship with just two persons was a bit daunting, especially one so soaked in sweat and blood (at a rather disturbing volume).

When the sun finally rose above the mountain range, the crews of the expedition started to trickle in, only to find they can't even move in the ship yet. Some waited, most joined in the cleaning because they got nothing else to do, that definitely sped up the process a bit.

By 9 AM, it's basically complete, the ship can't be fully cleaned no matter what, but at least it didn't have such an intense smell anymore.

Putting the broom aside, Momiji sat down on a bench and groaned, "And I thought spring cleaning was rough, have you ever done anything like this, Sidonia?"

"When I was still living in my home village." she said, "After I flew out, I have been enjoying the pilot life of flying everywhere and living wherever I want, so I haven't done any sort of cleaning for half a year already."

"...I'm jealous."

Noticing something in the distance, Sidonia squinted her eyes to see the object, only to suddenly shoot straight up, and point at the distance, "Oh look! My plane!"

Quickly, she left the airship, jumping right off the ramp to greet the incoming vehicle. It was an odd two legged machine, like a giant chicken, with a Kappa piloting it at the top, each step it took clacking against the ground, dragging behind it was Sidonia's own plane, and a Hugo's Einzigartiger Stahl-Jagdbomber covered in pink and cyan stripes with the two girls team sitting inside it.

"So that's where you two have been." Sidonia said.

"We were tinkering on our plane when this Kappa came in to carry our plane, so we figured why not take a ride in it." one of the survivor duo explained.

"Are you the Dragonslayer?" the other one interjected.

"I, what?" Sidonia stumped by the sudden question, "Oh yeah, I guess."

"I knew it, Amalie, there's only one person that could possibly fly that plane!"

"What plane?" Momiji asked as she walked towards the group, "Okay, I didn't notice because it was dark at that time, but is that dragonskin on your plane!?"

"Yeah." Sidonia answered mechanically.

The other plane the chicken walker carried was a Farman Living Grove, with its wings strengthened by magically tough grey dragon skin. Other than that, it seemed to have a smaller engine than usual with extra gunbarrel sticking out of its front.

"How did you get dragonskin!?" Momiji exclaimed.

"It's a very long story."

"Can you guys move on? I need to move this into your ship." the kappa pilot asked.

"Oh apology, carry on." Momiji backed off with others, and the Kappa continued to drag the planes towards the small hanger, manipulator arms then extended out of the hanger on rail and carried the planes inside it one by one.

"Okay, we have supply, we have airplanes, who are we still missing?" Momiji asked.

"Hey, where is Marisa?" Nitori shouted from the entrance, "We are ready to go already!"

"I guess we will wait for another 10 minutes, Amalie, Hannah, you two can go into the ship first."

But even after waiting for 10 minutes, she didn't come, rather, someone else did. Flying in was a young woman with short blonde hair wearing a blue dress that made her look like a doll, and in her hand was a grimoire that looked rather old.

"Alice? What are you doing here?" Momiji asked.

"Who's her?" Sidonia asked as well.

"Marisa's neighbour, technically, the Forest of Magic is a rather empty place."

"I came here to tell-why does all of you smell like detergent?" Alice replied, "Whatever, I'm here to tell you that Marisa is not coming to your expedition because she's sick."

"Sick, from what!?"

"Long story short, she came home drunk yesterday, ate mushrooms she should not have eaten, and she's now getting her stomach cleaned in a hospital."

"Food poison!?" Momiji shouted in disbelief, "That knocked her out?"

"Her face was purple when I checked on her, if I didn't come sooner, she would be talking to Komachi now."

"Oh yeah, you definitely do not want to eat mushroom while drunk." Sidonia said, "That can potentially intensify the psychedelic effect to a very painful level."

"...Sidonia, I don't think Marisa is eating that kind of mushroom."

"Actually Marisa does take mushrooms recreationally." Alice interjected, "We just didn't tell you because you don't seem like a person that would appreciate your friends saying 'Hey we are gonna get fucked on mushroom, wanna come?'"

"Wait, you didn't know?" Nitori asked from the windows.

"Am I the only one out of loop of this!?" Momiji shouted, "Argh, whatever, I guess we will handle this even without a trump card."

"Well, you guys have fun." Alice said, "Also, Sidonia, that's your name right, can I have a word with you?"

The dollmaker approached Sidonia, then hooked her arm behind her neck to get her closer, "I know Nitori is onboard the ship right now, but I can't fully trust that Kappa to be able to handle this, so if Momiji is in a bit of a pinch, could you help her out for me?"

Sidonia, whose mind currently was just full of how Alice smelled like an amazing perfume, could only come up with "Erm, yeah, sure."

Pulling away from her, Alice wore a smile that could make one's heart racing, "Thank you, Momiji is a good person, but she refuses to ask for help when she needs it."

"Also, just asking, mushrooms?"

"Yeah, Marisa is rather good at finding good ones, really relaxing. I will ask her to get you some good ones when you come back."

"Thanks, I will try to do what you asked, Alice!"

And with their conversation finished, Alice flew away from the aerodrome and Sidonia boarded the airship.

"Huh?"

It might just have been her imagination, but she oddly heard an extra footstep for a second.

Probably just her wild imagination.

As she walked toward the bridge, it sounded like everyone onboard was arguing about something.

"What's going on?" she asked and practically all the onboard crews just turned towards her.

"It's the name, we are deciding on the name of the vessel, but this spirit wants this ship to be named with something like Flying Storehouse!" Momiji pointed.

"Hey, it's a respectable name!" Murasa argued, "Besides, you are not coming up with a better name, miss Tuna!"

"It's an airship that looks like a fish, tuna is a big fish, so that name fits it perfectly!"

"This doggie just wants to eat!"

"Bad Jungfer." Sidonia said.

"What?" the two youkai said at once.

"Bad Jungfer, that's my home village name, if nobody has a better idea, then we could use that."

"Well, that could work." Momiji said, "Murasa?"

"Yeah, that will do." Murasa then reached for the radio, "Kosaten Aerodrome, this is Bad Jungfer, we will be lifting off and leaving Gensokyo, over."

And with that, the airship Bad Jungfer has finally lifted off the ground, turning towards Loring Hills with light guided by the amulet. The expedition might have been sudden, hasty, and ill-advised, but one thing can be said for sure.

"Nitori, engine 6 just broke down!"

It's gonna be a really difficult journey.

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Note: Finally, Day 0 is now fully completed, and yes, I know half of the this chapter is technically already in day 1 of the expedition already, so the chapter name might not entirely fit now.