Chapter Text
In the dim space of the laboratory, blue LED strips from the quantum computer systems cast a cold glow onto characters scrolling down the screens. The steady hum of the cooling system blended with the sound of rising bubbles inside a capsule-like infusion chamber positioned right at the center of the room.
A cyborg stood silently before the thick glass, his mechanical eyes lightly flicking down a scanning visor, staring intently at the entity sleeping soundly inside. After a long silence, he spoke in a deep, gravelly voice filtered through his audio modulator:
“Doktor… how... how did you manage to revive this person?”
Doktor, seated behind a massive array of control panels, kept tapping rapidly on a virtual keyboard while pushing up his glasses. He responded casually with his signature German flair:
“Not exactly revived, strictly speaking—more like cryo-stasis to prevent them from dying again. As for how? I simply utilized technology from Black and White Science. Cost a fortune, my friend! I had to clear a massive budget, though fortunately, the government of the Multiverse Galaxy approved it and covered over eighty percent. To put it simply for you: it elongates the telomeres while combining with a specialized vaccine to completely eradicate that mutated virus. I also had to 'borrow' some biotechnology from a few other universes, integrating it into this machine to initiate the restructuring and regeneration of the entire gene sequence.”
The cyborg slowly raised his alloy-armored hand, gently touching the freezing glass of the capsule. Gazing at the faint silhouette inside, the voice of the man once dubbed the Ripper suddenly softened, carrying a rare trace of hesitation:
“…Me… will I even have the courage to look them in the eye when they wake up, Doktor?”
“That depends entirely on whether you are willing to return to the organization's service.” Doktor stopped typing, spinning his chair around to look directly at the cyborg’s back.
The cyborg subtly pulled his hand back, turning around to walk straight toward the exit. “Sorry, but the answer is no. The government has already granted me an independent operational license.”
“Wait! Raiden!” Doktor snapped out of his seat, calling after him, his tone laced with clear anxiety. “You cannot keep using this 'license' excuse to dive headfirst into endless slaughters! There will come a day when you utterly destroy what little humanity you have left—”
Raiden halted right before the automated door, but he didn’t turn back.
“The fact that I still keep the habit of coming here to see you... that itself is already a stroke of massive luck, Doktor. After all the insanity I've tasted in this Multiverse war, I've crossed paths with many people. They are just like me... souls relying on the blade to survive, and every single one of them is terrifyingly strong.”
Hearing this, Doktor let out a weary, exasperated sigh and slumped back into his chair. “So that is your second excuse... Fine, go ahead and dig up more justifications for bloodshed. Keep indulging in those gory acts, and keep deluding yourself into thinking it is justice.”
“…Call me when you're done here,” Raiden said coldly.
“And where are you planning to head off to this time?” Doktor inquired, his fingers already back to tapping the keys.
“I'll know when I get there.”
“Whatever you say. See you around, Raiden.”
“You can call me by my old moniker if you want.”
Doktor's hands froze for a fraction of a second. Eyes glued to the monitor linked to the capsule, he dropped a bone-dry response:
“Not funny, Raiden.”
“And they're right about Germans having no sense of humor.”
SLAM!
The heavy steel door shut with a resounding thud, cutting off the conversation entirely, leaving Doktor alone with the rhythmic ticking and beeping of the machinery.
Raiden snapped his eyes open as a splitting headache instantly hit him. Groaning softly, he reached up to rub his temples, telling himself that the tense dialogue with Doktor just now was probably nothing more than a bad dream.
Yet as his mind cleared, he realized he was no longer inside that suffocating laboratory. Raiden was lying on a thick futon mattress, his body tucked beneath a warm, coarse fabric blanket. He immediately bolted upright, vigilantly scanning his surroundings. The place was a classic Japanese-style room complete with tatami mats lining the floor and shoji paper sliding doors partitioning the space.
Looking down at himself, Raiden raised an eyebrow. From his chest and shoulders down to his armored arms, he was wrapped tightly in a web of stark white medical gauze. He clicked his tongue, casually reaching down to rip the bandages off and toss them aside. His cutting-edge alloy cyborg body possessed built-in electrical and mechanical self-repair protocols; swaddling him in human medical cloth was entirely pointless, if not outright ridiculous.
At that exact moment, his retinal HUD started acting up again. His mechanical eyes kept automatically triggering optical scans, calculating distances, analyzing the wood and tatami textures, and cluttering his vision with a dense overlay of red and green data strings that made him sick. This non-stop scanning loop was incredibly irritating, occasionally blurring and completely obstructing his actual line of sight.
Annoyed, he brought his hand up and gave his head a sharp, painful whack.
Fortunately, the system flickered with static before shutting off entirely, restoring his normal vision. It was the price he paid for being greedy. The day before yesterday, he had foolishly agreed to beta-test a new cyborg scanning firmware just to earn some extra cash for weapon repairs. Since the system hadn't been uninstalled yet, it kept glitching out like crazy.
But whatever, finances didn't matter right now; the urgent priority was figuring out what exact coordinates he had dropped into.
Raiden stood up, walked over to the sliding door, and gently pushed it open.
Right on the veranda, he spotted a young woman sitting with her back turned toward him. She wore an elegant traditional outfit, but what left Raiden completely at a loss for words was the hat perched on her head. It looked... well, like an upside-down green flowerpot carved with some bizarre, ancient characters.
Hearing the rustle of the sliding door behind her, the woman flinched slightly. She paused her ink brush mid-sentence in a leather-bound notebook and slowly turned her head to look. Seeing that Raiden was already on his feet, she showed absolutely no fear toward his cold, mechanical appearance. On the contrary, she flashed a deeply gentle smile:
"Oh, you're awake?"
"Oh... ah, yeah. Hello there." Raiden stammered slightly, seemingly still a bit dazed by everything that was happening. He gave a polite, slight bow. "My name is Raiden."
The woman tilted her head, repeating it with curiosity: "Raiden? Am I pronouncing that right?"
Raiden gave a brief nod of confirmation.
"Well then, hello Raiden." She smiled, introducing herself naturally. "My name is Keine Kamishirasawa, the teacher of this village."
"Village...?" Raiden furrowed his brows, scanning the peaceful scenery around them. "Where exactly am I right now?"
Keine slowly explained, "You are currently in the land of Gensokyo. Judging by your appearance and all that machinery on your body, I am certain you're an outsider from the Outside World."
"Gensokyo..."
The name caused a brief tremor in Raiden's mind. He suddenly recalled scanning this exact name in an encyclopedia logging all the Nexus entities or individuals of their universe, meaning they served as the connecting hubs of their cosmos. It was a place meant for those who possessed the embossed "Nexus" stamp on their citizenship cards. Raiden himself had an identical A-GEN mark sitting proudly on his own ID card.
Noting the shift in the cyborg warrior's expression, Keine perceptively asked: "Hmm? Do you already know something about this place?"
"Never mind, it's nothing." Raiden waved his hand, brushing the thought aside before asking seriously, "But before that, would you mind telling me exactly where I am located right now?"
"You are in the Human Village. This is the dwelling place and sanctuary for ordinary humans here in Gensokyo," Keine explained gently.
Raiden narrowed his eyes, repeating: "The Human Village? Then how did I end up in a place like this?"
"I'm not entirely sure about that myself." Keine shook her head slightly, her face looking somewhat pensive. "But usually, when people from the outside world slip in here, it's either by accident or because they have been completely forgotten in your world. If it were a case of being forgotten, the Youkai would have captured and devoured you long ago... But since you're still standing here, that's likely not it. Which means the Great Barrier might have sprung a leak again."
"Barrier? Forgotten? And what's this about devouring?" Raiden pressed rapidly, his hands unconsciously tightening. "Does that mean this place is crawling with monsters?"
"Gensokyo is enveloped and protected by an invisible barrier to completely isolate it from the outside world," Keine taught slowly. "Normally, if someone out there is forgotten by society—if no one remembers their existence anymore—they get swept into here. And immediately, they become prime targets for Youkai to hunt as food."
"Youkai?" Raiden questioned.
A thought flashed rapidly through the mechanical warrior's mind. He knew perfectly well that "Youkai" was the term used for supernatural apparitions originating from ancient Japanese folklore. In several previous universes during the Multiverse War, he had clashed with quite a few creatures of this nature. Needless to say, their ultimate fate was always being sliced into a thousand pieces by his High-Frequency (HF) Blade.
However, it seemed this isolated land operated on vastly different laws. To get a better grasp of the current situation, Raiden decided to play dumb and gather more intel:
"What exactly is a Youkai anyway?"
Keine patiently explained: "They are supernatural beings born from human fears and legends. Their power stems directly from mankind's belief and terror. This means that if humans in the outside world cease their superstitions and completely deny their existence... the Youkai will also be forgotten and gradually fade away from existence."
Raiden made a silent assessment. From the sound of it, the fundamental nature of the Youkai here wasn't too different from those in the other universes he had traversed, except perhaps for that bizarre law of survival: fading away if forgotten by humans. And along with that, the law of "the strong trampling the weak" would hold true if the Youkai here were anything like the ones he had encountered before.
Raiden nodded. "I see... So that's why this land of Gensokyo was established?"
"Exactly. This place exists to keep the Youkai, and even the gods, from dissolving into nothingness as humans gradually lose faith in them. The only way for them to survive... is to keep absorbing fear from humans."
"Absorbing from humans?" Raiden narrowed his eyes, pointing his finger down toward the ground. "You mean the people living right here in this Human Village?"
"Of course. You could say the humans here are the absolutely vital life source for all Youkai in Gensokyo."
"Oh..." Raiden pondered, at a loss for words before this bizarre symbiotic ecosystem.
Keine suddenly remembered something. Her tone shifted as her suspicious gaze locked onto his body. "Oh, and another thing... When they hauled you over here earlier, I genuinely thought you were a goner. Your entire body was drenched in a deep crimson mixture of blood and machine oil. Wait a minute..."
The village schoolteacher widened her eyes, scanning his muscular frame from head to toe.
"Where on earth did all the bandages I wrapped around you go?!"
Raiden casually replied, "Uh, I ripped them off and threw them away."
"Hold on!? You what!?" Keine gasped in utter disbelief.
"What's the big deal?" Raiden blinked, confused.
"Do you have any idea how crucial those bandages are for someone with severe injuries, yet you dare to just recklessly tear them all off?! Are you insane?!"
Keine slammed her notebook onto the veranda, bolted to her feet, and marched straight toward Raiden with the thunderous fury of a schoolteacher about to discipline a problematic student.
Startled, Raiden quickly raised both hands in defense. "Whoa, wait! Calm down, lady! My body already has several built-in Nanopaste units for self-repair, alright?"
Keine froze, utterly bewildered. "What on earth? Is that some kind of slang from the Outside World?"
"I forgot to explain clearly..." Raiden sighed, helplessly gesturing to the mechanical joints on his shoulders and chest. "...But looking at my body completely covered in metal and machinery like this, you should have figured it out yourself! How on earth is a bunch of gauze supposed to do anything for reinforced alloy?"
Only then did Keine pause. She took a closer look at the mechanical grooves running along his artificial skin, her face flushing crimson with embarrassment as her voice softened: "Ah... I forgot. I'm sorry... It's just that when I saw you lying unconscious on the futon, I was so worried, wondering if you would even make it through the night."
Raiden lowered his hands, dropping a line full of confidence: "You worry too much. I've got a stubborn lease on life, and I don't die easily."
Keine breathed a sigh of relief, smiling gently: "If you are that confident, then that's wonderful. But since you've been the one asking all the questions so far, would you mind if I asked you a few instead?"
A subtle, barely perceptible smile flashed across the Cyborg Ninja's cold countenance. He tilted his head slightly, his tone carrying genuine respect for his savior: "Go right ahead! How could I refuse such a simple request from the person who saved my life?"
Keine nodded, her eyes full of curiosity as she examined his physical structure: "In that case... why is your body completely made of machinery? When I first saw you, I actually thought you were some kind of new weapon manufactured in the workshops of the Kappa down by the stream."
Hearing the word "Kappa," Raiden raised an eyebrow. From what he had gathered about this land's ecosystem, he figured they were just another type of Youkai, so he wasn't too surprised and didn't bother diving into folklore. He tapped his chest plate, made of dull black steel alloy, producing a dry, hollow clanking sound, and replied slowly:
"It's a long story. To put it simply, I'm sort of half-man, half-machine... Actually, wait, let me take that back. To be more precise, my body has undergone 99% cyborgization, save for my brain."
Keine tilted her head slightly, her delicate eyebrows knitting together in confusion: "Cyborg...? What does that word even mean?"
"It's a term for individuals whose biological bodies are integrated with high-tech machinery, like me. But the explanation is both complicated and tedious for a layman, so that's pretty much all you need to know."
After explaining, Raiden scanned the rustic wooden room and asked a practical question: "Does this place have absolutely no concept of modern technology?"
"Not entirely," Keine sighed, setting her notebook down. "Occasionally, strange objects or people from the Outside World slip through the barrier into here. But the trouble is, nobody in this village knows how to explain or operate those mechanical gadgets. Except for a select few who possess knowledge of the world out there, like the shrine maiden Sanae at the Moriya Shrine, or Rinnosuke, the owner of Kourindou... Though personally, I find the young Sanae's explanations to be much more reliable."
"Oh, who are they?" Raiden grew slightly curious.
"You'll find out eventually, if I get a chance to take you around and introduce you later." Keine stared intently at the intricate mechanical grooves on Raiden's arm, clicking her tongue in awe. "But I must admit, technology in the Outside World has evolved to a terrifying degree... Does replacing your entire body with machinery like that increase your lifespan?"
Raiden shrugged, his gaze drifting out the distant window. "I've never paid much attention to age or how long I'll live, so I honestly don't know myself."
Just then, the early morning sunlight streamed directly onto the veranda. Keine happened to glance at the wall clock, gasped in shock, and scrambled to her feet in a panic: "Oh no! It's almost time for my class to teach the village children!"
Raiden offered a wry smirk. "Ah, right. I forgot you're the village schoolteacher."
"Yes, I have to go right now!" Keine hastily gathered her stack of books and ink brushes, stepping quickly toward the sliding door. But the moment she placed her hand on the frame, she paused, turning back to look at Raiden with an intensely serious expression, giving strict instructions:
"There is one crucially important thing, Raiden, and you must remember it well: under no circumstances are you allowed to go outside on your own! Your fully mechanized appearance will scare the villagers out of their wits. People will misunderstand and think you're some dangerous mechanical Youkai that has infiltrated the village to cause havoc, throwing the entire place into utter chaos. When that happens, the shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine might show up to 'handle' you—literally! Besides, I was planning to take you to the Hakurei Shrine when I return to show you around, but with your current look, that's probably out of the question."
Raiden clicked his tongue, shaking his head slightly. "Tch, if things are that complicated around here, I guess I have no choice. I promise to keep my word. Just staying put in this room will do, right?"
Hearing the commitment from the stoic warrior, Keine immediately dropped her stern facade and flashed a relieved smile: "Wonderful. Thank you for cooperating."
With that, she deftly slid the door open and stepped outside, shutting it firmly behind her as she hurried off toward the village school, leaving Raiden entirely alone in the quiet tatami room.
Raiden quietly sat down on the tatami floor. In the silence, his mind began working on a way to bend the rules. Suddenly, an idea struck him: Back in Mexico, to infiltrate an enemy base without drawing attention, he had donned a vibrant, traditional Mariachi outfit (well, technically just a cropped jacket) along with a gargantuan sombrero to "blend in" with the locals. The result... flawless! Nobody suspected a thing about a Cyborg Ninja whose biceps were thicker than most people's thighs. (Though, in reality, he still managed to startle those two local guards).
"That's it! I just need to borrow a few clothes from this house and put them on," Raiden muttered, clapping his hands together. He had previously been deployed to Japan on a mission to wipe out a cyborg cartel, so he had picked up enough conversational Japanese to get by.
At that thought, Raiden froze. He suddenly realized something completely absurd: Teacher Keine had been speaking an archaic form of Japanese this entire time, so why did he understand every single word and respond as fluently as a native speaker? He had been too busy slaughtering people lately to notice, but thinking back, it was bizarre. Where did this sudden linguistic mastery come from? What the hell was going on? But Raiden quickly clicked his tongue and dismissed it. It was probably just that damn beta scanning system; it must have a built-in auto-translation feature for cyborgs. Or if not, maybe the linguistic frequency waves radiating from the tallest skyscraper in the central city of the Multiverse Galaxy were still echoing inside his mechanical brain.
Raiden activated his AR Vision. Two metallic protective visors slid shut over his eyes, instantly transforming his entire surroundings into a neon-blue digital interface. Through his HUD, he rapidly panned across moving targets: three kids skipping rope at the intersection, an old man leisurely sweeping leaves on a porch, and two middle-aged men aggressively arguing over a sidewalk board game. Opening the protective visors back up, Raiden confirmed that the coast was clear enough to slip out.
Returning to his disguise plan, Raiden stood up, walked over to a wooden dresser in the corner of the room, and began rummaging through it. First drawer: Ink, brushes, paper. Second drawer: Paper, brushes, ink. Third drawer: Ink, paper, brushes... He rolled his eyes helplessly, about to give up entirely. That was until he forcefully yanked open the very bottom drawer, revealing a neatly folded outfit. Except... it was a dress.
Raiden froze for a few seconds, silently telling himself, 'Am I bi... wait, no, I'm a one hundred percent straight guy, aren't I?' But for the greater good, he gritted his teeth, snatched the dress, and grabbed a nearby coarse cloth towel to wrap around his head.
After wrestling with the garments for a while, Raiden stared at his blurry reflection in a dim mirror. Surprisingly, it... actually worked on him, convincing him that his pale artificial skin was enough to blend in with women's attire. But whatever, who cared at this point? At the very least, the head cloth concealed his signature, slicked-back platinum blond hair, which was far too conspicuous. Raiden felt a brief pang of guilt for stealing from his savior, but he reassured himself that he was merely borrowing it for a short walk and would wash and return it perfectly intact later. He needed to inspect this world; staying cooped up in a corner would turn him into a frog at the bottom of a well, causing him to miss out on the wonders of Gensokyo.
Once finished, he confidently pushed open the sliding door and stepped out of the house.
What met Raiden's eyes was a remarkably vivid and bustling scene. People everywhere were busy with all sorts of chores. Everyone was dressed in feudal-era clothing, and occasionally, a horse-drawn cart would clatter down the street. Groups of children gathered, playing various traditional games, running and shouting throughout the neighborhood. Raiden had initially assumed an isolated village like this would be silent and bleak, but seeing the spectacle before him, his lips curled into a slight smile at the lively atmosphere.
And so, the Cyborg Ninja, clad in a woman's dress, casually strolled down the street, his mechanical eyes scanning everything. After walking a short distance, he stopped and took a deep, refreshing breath.
Man! It had been ages since he last enjoyed air this clean. Even though his body was entirely mechanical, his respiratory sensors could vividly register the purity: no industrial smog from factories, no foul stench of heavy metals or toxic chemicals. He had once been deployed to a pristine, primeval forest in some gaming universe, but even that air couldn't compare to this place.
Despite how much Raiden was enjoying himself, he gradually realized something was terribly amiss. The stares of every single person along the path began converging on him.
Reason number one: He was wearing Teacher Keine's clothes. Reason number two: It was women's clothing, and because he was wearing a skirt, every stride he took exposed his chunky, textured black alloy calves, radiating heavy industrial machinery aesthetics. His makeshift headscarf had slipped askew, revealing a few stylish strands of platinum blond hair. And most peculiar of all, whenever he passed by, the locals caught a heavy whiff of machine oil wafting into the air, as his body was still smeared with a layer of maintenance grease that hadn't quite dried yet.
The villagers began backing away, maintaining a safe distance from Raiden while whispering to one another:
"What on earth is that? Why does that girl smell as awful as a blacksmith's forge?!" Villager 1 pinched their nose, grimacing.
"Pale skin or not, look at that face! You can clearly tell that's a dude, and you're calling him a girl?!" Villager 2 pouted and pointed. "See his legs? They're as black as charred pillars! He probably got too much sun, or some Youkai cursed him to make his limbs turn all pitch-black and deformed like that!"
"No, that's not it!" Villager 3 cried out, their face completely drained of color as they trembled. "Could it be... that guy himself is a fully-fledged Youkai that sneaked into the village?!"
The mere mention of the word "Youkai" instantly sent a wave of panic through the crowd. The villagers backed away even further, forming a wide, fearful circle around Raiden. A naive young child standing nearby pointed curiously at him:
“Mommy, why is that big sister's hair—”
“DON'T LOOK!!” the mother shrieked in a panic, covering her child's eyes with both hands as she violently yanked them backward. “It'll hypnotize you! That's the hair color of a demon from the Outside World!”
Absorbed in enjoying the scenery, it took Raiden a moment to realize that the atmosphere around him had shifted entirely, and all eyes were fixed on him with pure hostility. He remained completely oblivious to why, because deep down, he was utterly convinced his disguise was absolutely flawless—just like that time in Mexico (though, to reiterate, his Mexico outfit was practically non-existent).
He blinked his mechanical eyes in confusion, looking around before asking a completely clueless question:
“Huh? What's going on, everyone? Did someone draw something on my back? Why is everybody staring at me?”
“See! Look at that?!” Villager 3 shrieked, backing away into a defensive stance. “It can speak human language, and it has a deep, gruff man's voice! It's a freak! Someone call for backup to handle it!”
Raiden narrowed his eyes, his voice dropping into a dangerously low register: “What was that? Who's trying to handle me?”
Seeing the "monster disguised as a woman" growl with clear murderous intent, the crowd instantly descended into absolute pandemonium. The weaker villagers fled for their lives with their hands over their heads, while a few burly men in the village hastily snatched up wooden staffs and carrying poles, raising them defensively to threaten him.
Standing right in the center of the encirclement, a massive cluster of question marks practically materialized over Raiden's head as he grew increasingly baffled:
“???????”
And then, he attempted to step past a tall, muscular man, but...
While the mechanical warrior was struggling amidst a blockade of carrying poles in the Human Village, in a completely unrelated turn of events (for the second time)...
At a quieter corner of the village sat Suzunaan, the most famous bookstore for renting and purchasing antique books in Gensokyo. The space was always filled with the faint scent of old paper, rustic ink, and aged wood. Managing the store was Kosuzu Motoori—a young girl with bright, neatly tied light-brown hair, wearing a checkered kimono paired with a traditional apron.
Kosuzu was no ordinary girl; she possessed a unique innate ability: the power to decipher and understand any written work, whether composed in ancient tongues, complex ciphers, or even "Youkai Books" (tomes infused with supernatural magic). Because of this, her greatest passion in life was hunting down and devouring the bizarre books that slipped into Gensokyo from the Outside World.
Right now, Kosuzu was sitting cross-legged behind the wooden counter, completely absorbed in a treasure she had recently acquired. It was an exceptionally thick book bound in heavy, raw leather, bearing the title: Encyclopedia of Nexus Entities – Part 1. Strangely, it didn't list any publisher like standard books from the outside world; instead, it seemed to be a compilation of records penned by various anonymous authors. The contents detailed entities serving as the focal points of their respective universes. It was so captivating that she completely tuned out the mounting shouts and commotion outside on the street, even if certain passages were a bit difficult for her to grasp.
Excitedly, Kosuzu flipped to a new chapter. At the top of the page, a mysterious code caught her eye:
Chapter: S-2131630 Nomenclature: "Metal Gear"
She curiously scanned through the documents before suddenly freezing at a personal profile with a bolded header: "Raiden (aka Jack the Ripper)". The timeline logs for the year 2018 instantly grabbed her full attention. Kosuzu's eyes went wide with astonishment at the illustration provided: a body composed entirely of sophisticated machinery, artificial muscles interwoven with dark mechanical joints, yet striking against this intimidating appearance was a stylish mop of platinum blond hair.
Just as Kosuzu leaned in to read the biography and abilities detailed below, the uproar from the street suddenly slammed into the shop, drowning out the rustle of the pages. This time, she clearly heard the deeply frustrated roar of a man:
“DAMMIT, ALL OF YOU!! WHAT DID I EVEN DO?? I ALREADY DISGUISED MYSELF, SO WHY IS EVERYONE CHASING ME?!”
“Huh?” Kosuzu blinked in bewilderment, lifting her head.
Right after that yell came a rapid-fire sequence of chaotic noises: a villager screaming “Aaaagh!”, the sound of feet skidding hard across the dirt ground, followed by a resounding THWACK as if someone had just slammed their head directly into a support pillar. Immediately after, heavy, metallic footsteps rapidly clanked toward the shop entrance.
SWOOSH!
The shop's entrance curtain was violently swept aside as a tall, muscular silhouette barged inside. The man wore a crumpled towel wrapped around his head and a woman's dress (Keine's clothes) that was now shredded, tattered, and covered in dust from the pursuit. Through the tears in the fabric, gleaming black alloy plating and lethal-looking mechanical grooves were fully exposed.
Slipping inside, the man quickly checked behind him, panting heavily as he muttered: “Hopefully no one caught up... oh, crap.”
Raiden turned around, locking eyes directly with Kosuzu.
“W-Who are you?! Where did you come from, barging into my shop like this?!” Kosuzu bolted upright from her seat, raising her hands defensively, her face etched with caution.
“Hold on! Kid, calm down for a second!” Raiden waved his hands frantically in explanation. “I'm just borrowing this place to hide for a bit! I swear I don't mean any harm—”
Kosuzu opened her mouth to scream for the villagers, but the moment her gaze swept across the man's face, the words caught in her throat. She froze in her tracks, her eyes darting back and forth between the dress-wearing cyborg and the illustration in the encyclopedia lying open on the counter.
She stared at the 2018 entry. True, there were a few differences: the man standing before her wasn't wearing an eyepatch over his left eye, his platinum blond hair fell naturally instead of being slicked up, and his mechanical jaw modification was absent. However, those glowing red mechanical eyes radiating dangerous authority, paired with that unmistakable platinum hair, left absolutely no room for doubt. This appearance closely matched his profile from the era just prior to 2018!
Trembling, Kosuzu pointed at the page, then back at Raiden, confirming it beyond a shadow of a doubt in her mind: this man was a legendary figure stepped straight out of the pages of the Outside World!
Seeing the young girl suddenly go quiet and stare at him with a bizarre look, Raiden curiously followed her line of sight down to the thick leather-bound book open on the counter. His retinal HUD scanned the page, instantly highlighting the text: Raiden (aka Jack the Ripper) right alongside a portrait of his own face.
Raiden's face went completely blank as his jaw dropped in sheer disbelief:
“Wait a second... What the hell is this? Isn't that... ME?!”
Kosuzu couldn't handle the shock either, clutching her head as she let out a piercing shriek: “WHAT?! YOU'RE ACTUALLY THE GUY FROM THE BOOK?!?!”
Outside, the collective roars of the crowd erupted, tearing through the bookstore's naturally peaceful atmosphere:
“The Youkai barged into Suzunaan! Protect Kosuzu inside!!”
The thunderous, heavy stomps of dozens of burly men drew closer by the second, rattling the wooden beams on the ceiling. Instantly, Raiden reached behind his hip and dropped his center of gravity, driven by the battle instincts of a veteran mercenary. His mechanical eyes flared a violent crimson, ready for combat:
“Damn it! They're like leeches!”
“Wait! Calm down first!” Kosuzu rushed over, tugging hard on Raiden's shredded skirt with one hand while using the other to shove him into the cramped space beneath the reading table.
In the blink of an eye, the book-obsessed girl's gears turned faster than anyone could react. Anticipating the crowd rushing in, Kosuzu gritted her teeth and slammed her own forehead hard against the edge of a wooden cabinet. A dull CRACK echoed, and the girl immediately collapsed onto the tatami floor, closing her eyes tight to play unconscious.
The entrance curtain of Suzunaan was kicked wide open. An aggressive mob of villagers, wielding carrying poles and wooden sticks, stormed in like a hurricane. Yet, what met their eyes wasn't a fierce mechanical monster, but little Kosuzu splayed out on the floor, a massive bump already swelling on her forehead.
“Oh my god, Kosuzu!” Villager 3 panicked, tossing his stick aside as he lunged forward and dropped to his knees beside her, his face utterly pale. “It... it laid its hands on her! Heavens, it's going to kill her—”
“Ouch...” Kosuzu knit her brows slightly, slowly opening her eyes while clutching her head, looking around with a well-acted daze. “...Why did everyone gather here in such a huge crowd?”
Villager 4 patted his chest and sighed in relief: “Oh, thank goodness, she's still alive! Anyway, let's set that aside for a moment. There's a bizarre Youkai reeking of machine oil around here trying to cause trouble in the village, so we're planning to corner and drive it out!”
“I-Is that so...?” Kosuzu blinked in bewilderment, her performance completely flawless.
“Did you happen to see where it ran off to while you were lying here?!” several young men impatiently pressed.
Kosuzu rubbed her temples, pretending to recall: “No... I was ambushed from behind at the time. But right before I blacked out, I caught a glimpse of a dark silhouette darting past the door, rushing outside incredibly fast.”
“Then it must have headed to the right! Hurry up, everyone, or it's going to eat someone in the village!” Villager 3 bolted up, rallying the crowd.
With that, the entire mob stampeded back out to the street, shouting loudly toward the right side of the avenue to hunt down the “Youkai.”
The space inside Suzunaan immediately returned to its usual tranquility. Waiting until the villagers' footsteps completely faded away, Kosuzu nonchalantly stood up. She smugly dusted off her checkered kimono, flashing a broad grin:
“All done! I put on a great show, hehe!”
“And I should probably get an Oscar for my performance posing as a table leg... Almost broke my mechanical neck, why the hell is your reading table so tiny??!?”
A low rumble of grumbling echoed. Raiden painstakingly pushed himself up, struggling to crawl his massive cyborg physique out from under the minuscule tea table. Standing at his full height, he rolled his shoulders, stretching out as his gears let out a succession of dry, metallic cracks. Despite wearing a tattered, dust-covered dress, the warrior's sharp, dashing face was a picture of sheer helplessness.
He looked at the young girl with genuine admiration:
“Gotta hand it to you though, you're pretty smart. Thinking to slam your own head into a cabinet to make the crime scene look convincing. But uh... did it hurt?”
“It's fine, a minor thing like this is nothing!” Kosuzu waved it off dismissively, her smile growing even more thrilled. “But this is what's actually important!”
With that, showing absolutely no fear, the girl proactively grabbed the cold, reinforced alloy hand of the Cyborg Ninja, using all her might to drag him over to the counter. Kosuzu was so excited her eyes sparkled as if she had struck gold, her petite finger pointing straight at the bolded profile inside the ancient encyclopedia:
“Look, you're in this book. Look at what they wrote about you!”
Raiden merely leaned down to skim the lines of text running across the premium paper for a moment, then immediately stood back up, crossing his arms over his chest with an indifferent expression.
Surprised, Kosuzu blinked and asked:
“Huh? You're not going to read the whole thing?”
“No need, kid. I already know this book exists, and I've read it all before,” Raiden casually replied.
Kosuzu's eyes widened in astonishment, her voice going up a pitch: “What?! This is documentation regarding your own personal privacy, and you're just okay with people logging it like this?”
Raiden smirked slightly, shaking his head as he explained:
“It's not that bad. While it's a bit annoying, this stuff is kept strictly confidential. Only those whose names are written in this book are even allowed to know it exists. Furthermore, it will incinerate itself if anyone other than its owner touches it. Or, it'll automatically wipe your memory of whatever you just read in someone else's profile if you intend to go around gossiping about it to outsiders. The self-destruct trick is obviously state-of-the-art tech, but that memory-erasing stunt... now that's magic.”
Kosuzu scratched her head in pure curiosity: “Memory-erasing magic? Sounds a bit strange, but that self-destruct tech is even weirder! What kind of insane technology is your Outside World using anyway?”
Raiden didn't answer immediately; he raised a hand to cut her off:
“Before I explain how that tech works, shouldn't you explain who you are first?”
Kosuzu caught herself, lightly smacking her own head: “Oh right, I forgot! My name is Kosuzu Motoori, I work and live right here at this Suzunaan book rental shop. And you? You're definitely from the Outside World, aren't you!”
“Yeah, allow me to introduce myself...” Raiden cleared his throat slightly, a brief hesitation flickering in his eyes before he continued, “...The name's Raiden. Also known as Jack the Ripper. Currently, I'm a Licensed Vigilante.”
Kosuzu tilted her head, confusion written all over her face: “What does that mean?”
“Well... basically, I specialize in dealing with criminals,” Raiden sighed, explaining it in the most practical terms. “Meaning I've been granted the authority to pass judgment and execute them right on the spot, without needing any protocols or courts.”
Kosuzu caught him off guard instantly, tossing out a question so razor-sharp it made the warrior flinch:
“So you can still kill them... Which means, you're a murderer?”
Looking at the straightforward gaze and razor-sharp perception of the teenage girl in front of him, Raiden's sensors seemed to freeze for a beat. He briefly averted his eyes, defending himself in a low voice:
“Well... they... they were all scumbags who had it coming.”
Kosuzu noted his expression and caught the hint, softening her tone: “Alright, I won't pry into that anymore. But what exactly are you doing here in Gensokyo anyway?”
“Sightseeing,” Raiden replied bluntly.
“What? Really?!” Kosuzu stifled a laugh, her eyes scanning him from head to toe. “You expect to go sightseeing looking like that?”
Raiden clicked his tongue, decisively ripping off the crooked head wrap and the tattered, dust-covered dress, revealing a sleek, muscular, and distinctly masculine black alloy chassis under the bookstore's lights. He defended his case:
“Well, earlier I was saved by a schoolteacher in this village. I borrowed some clothes from her closet because she told me not to go outside, thinking a discreet disguise like that would be enough to go for a stroll.”
Kosuzu couldn't hold it in any longer and burst into giggles, teasing him: “Haha! Next time, you should check yourself in a mirror very carefully before attempting an outdoor disguise!... Wait a minute, who did you say saved you? A schoolteacher?”
“Yeah, that schoolteacher. Does she smack you on the head a lot or something?” Raiden asked, recalling Keine's exceptionally stern personality.
Kosuzu went dead silent. The smile instantly vanished from her face. She stared intently at the tattered pile of fabric, covered in muddy footprints and dust on the floor, which Raiden had just stripped off. That was undeniably one of Ms. Keine's familiar outfits. Kosuzu's expression warped as she looked up at Raiden with eyes full of a mixture of profound sympathy and sheer terror, whispering:
“...You're dead meat, mister.”
Raiden blinked in confusion, raising a mechanical eyebrow. “What? Dead how? The clothes are ruined, what's that got to do with me?”
“She's usually really kind, but she is incredibly strict!” Kosuzu cried out, holding her face. “And you dared to tear her clothes to shreds like this! Not to mention, she explicitly told you to stay indoors, yet you snuck out looking like an absolute freak?”
Raiden crossed his arms, offering a stubborn excuse: “Like I said, it was a disguise. There were extenuating circumstances that forced my hand.”
Kosuzu shook her head furiously, declaring with absolute certainty: “Then you're completely doomed! Once Ms. Keine flies into a rage, absolutely no one in the entire Human Village dares to stand in her way! She'll transform and headbutt you into oblivion!”
Faced with the young girl's grave, almost supernatural horror-style warning, Raiden—the Cyborg Ninja who had single-handedly parried giant robots and sliced city-destroying war machines to pieces—merely smirked, tossing out a purely sarcastic, nonchalant remark:
“Oh, I'm so scared.”
Kosuzu frowned, putting her hands on her hips in indignation at the cyborg's indifferent attitude: “Are you really dismissing my warning like that!?”
“Not at all. I'm terrified. I'm absolutely trembling here,” Raiden replied in a flat, deadpan monotone, his sharp face not showing a single hint of emotion.
“You are clearly not scared at all!” The girl stamped her foot.
“I am,” Raiden shrugged slightly, casually tapping his metal fingers against his chest chassis, producing lazy clank, clank sounds. “Human hearts are unpredictable. You can't tell just from looking at my face, but on the inside, I'm sweating machine oil out of pure fear.”
“You. Are. Clearly. Not. Scared.” Kosuzu enunciated every syllable, glaring at the warrior who was deliberately pulling a dry comedic routine.
Raiden clicked his tongue, stretching to loosen his mechanical joints. “Alright, forget it, I'm done playing along. Yeah, you're right, I'm not scared. A guy like me has been through all sorts of hell in life; that little threat doesn't even register. Still... better safe than sorry. Finding a place to lay low right now is probably the smartest move anyway.”
Kosuzu pouted, muttering under her breath about this outsider's annoying stubbornness, but then she adjusted her expression to offer serious advice: “Hmph... If you want a temporary place to hide, heading straight to the Hakurei Shrine is your best bet. It's deserted, and nobody dares to cause trouble up there.”
Hearing the familiar name, Raiden's memory database pinged. He thought to himself: Hakurei Shrine... I think that schoolteacher mentioned this shrine earlier.
“Either way, you can't walk down the street for another second looking like a disheveled half-human, half-machine mess. So, leave it to me!”
With that, before Raiden could even agree, the young girl grabbed his armored wrist and pulled the hulking guest toward the back room of the house with all her might.
Caught completely off guard by being dragged along, Raiden quickly dug his mechanical heels in to brake, asking in bewilderment: “W-wait a minute! Running around so freely like this, is there no one else home!?”
“It's fine, my parents are out today on some business,” Kosuzu explained as she busily rummaged through the wooden wardrobes in the corner of the room. “But they'll probably be back soon, so let me change your clothes quick and clean so you can make your getaway.”
Moments later, the bookworm managed to pull out an old outfit belonging to her father. It was a men's kimono in a rather subtle, discreet ash-gray tone. To deal with his conspicuous mechanical legs, Kosuzu carefully handed him a pair of long, traditional socks to pull up high, concealing the metallic joints. Along with that, she provided a wide-brimmed bamboo hat to cover his striking platinum hair, and finally, a damp towel.
“Use this towel to wipe yourself down to get rid of that machine oil smell, then put this on,” Kosuzu said, handing over the items with a look of immense pride in her styling skills.
Now, if he wore this outfit, Raiden would look exactly like an ordinary wanderer from the Human Village. However, as he was unlatching some of the bulkier light armor plating around his arms and chest to slip into the kimono, Raiden suddenly paused. He glanced at the teenage girl who was standing right there, staring at him. Clearing his throat slightly, he asked:
“Say... you're just gonna stand there staring at a man who's about to return to his 'Adam's suit' without feeling any embarrassment?”
Kosuzu blinked her large, round eyes, asking in pure confusion: “Adam's suit? What kind of clothes are Adam's clothes? I just handed you my dad's outfit?”
Raiden sighed, utterly speechless at the blissful innocence of the local residents: “...It means stark naked, lady.”
A silence stretched for about three seconds. Kosuzu's brain finally finished downloading the data. The young girl's face violently flushed, turning as red as a ripe tomato. In a state of sheer panic, Kosuzu squeezed her eyes shut and swung both hands out, shoving the cyborg's alloy chest plate with all her might.
A shove from a teenage girl obviously didn't pack enough force to knock over a combat machine weighing hundreds of kilograms like Raiden. However, startled by her over-the-top reaction and caught off guard by her embarrassment, the mercenary lost his footing, his mechanical heels skidding backward a fair distance until he bumped against the wooden wall with a dull thud.
“What the hell?!” Raiden widened his eyes in surprise, rubbing the mechanical chest plate where the impact had landed. “You look so fragile, how the heck are you so strong?!”
Kosuzu covered her face, which was still burning hot, stammering as she backed toward the door: “Oh... whoops... well, I forgot! You're the one who startled me by bringing it up!... Besides... besides, you're entirely made of metal and machinery anyway, it's not like you have anything... uh... anything sensitive to hide!”
Raiden frowned, snatching up the kimono and quickly slipping into it before firing back: “I was just joking! Do you even know what a joke is? This is a perfectly normal psychological coping mechanism for when I'm trying to disguise myself as some random nobody of a peasant in a place that I can't even find on a damn world map!”
Having slipped into the kimono and adjusted the brim of his bamboo hat, Raiden was about to head out when he paused, looking back at the young librarian:
“You got any other questions?”
“Oh... uh, no.” Kosuzu waved her hands dismissively. “Asking too much will just bother you, plus I think my shop is about to have a customer anyway.”
Raiden nodded in approval: “Sharp kid. Alright, I'm off.”
With that, the warrior bolted out of the shop at an astonishing speed. In his haste, he nearly collided head-on with a girl around Kosuzu's age who was just stepping onto the threshold. She had short, light purple hair adorned with a pretty flower hairpin. Raiden simply swerved to avoid her and vanished into the crowd on the street, not paying her another thought.
Inside the shop, the moment Kosuzu saw the familiar figure enter, she took a deep breath, forcing a bright smile to greet her as if no thrilling escape had just taken place:
“Ah, Akyuu! It's you!”
The purple-haired girl who had just walked in was Hieda no Akyuu—the current ninth-generation head of the prestigious Hieda clan. Aside from her elegant and refined demeanor, Akyuu bore an immense responsibility: the chronicler of all Gensokyo. To accomplish this monumental task, she was born with an unprecedented ability known as Mnemonic Retention—the capacity to never forget anything she has ever seen or heard, even once. Any event that crossed her sight, down to the minutest detail, was permanently etched into her mind.
Akyuu smiled gently in response: “I'm here to return the books from the other day, and I also want to borrow a few new novels by the author... huh?”
The chronicler's sharp gaze suddenly froze. She narrowed her eyes, staring intently at the strange object lying completely exposed on the reading tea table.
“What's that book on your table?” Akyuu stepped forward curiously.
Kosuzu flinched, cold sweat beginning to bead at the back of her neck: “Hmm? Oh... it's just a book from the Outside World!”
“Let me take a quick look.” Akyuu leaned all the way down, her face showing clear fascination with the antique, premium hardcover and the strange writing inside.
Seeing her friend about to dig deep into Raiden's deadly "Nexus" profile, Kosuzu hastily jumped up to create a distraction: “Feel free to look! Let me go grab those new books for you. You said the other day you'd come by once we got new stock, right? Well, the new arrivals are in...”
Without taking her eyes off the pages, Akyuu brought up a sensitive topic: “Oh, this book is quite interesting... By the way, did you hear about the commotion earlier? Apparently, some kind of iron or steel Youkai is running amok? People are rallying everyone to go hunt it down. You're sitting right by the main street, did you catch anything?”
Kosuzu swallowed hard, trying to keep her voice steady but failing to hide her stammer: “U-Uh... I did hear some heavy footsteps stomping past... but I didn't pay much attention because... because I was too absorbed in my reading.”
A spark of suspicion flashed in Akyuu's eyes. She slowly looked up, staring dead into her best friend's face: “No matter how busy you were, you should have at least heard a vibration that loud and poked your head out to look, right? I know how curious you are. I was sitting in deep focus writing history and I still noticed the noise, and you know very well that my estate is dozens of times larger than this bookstore.”
Normally, Kosuzu would feel a bit irked by having her shop compared to a prestigious clan's grand estate, but now was not the time. Beads of sweat were now breaking out on Kosuzu's forehead. The young girl frantically flipped through a pile of books on the shelf, trying to make an excuse: “W-Well... I really didn't notice! Maybe it's because the crowd didn't run directly past my shop, so it wasn't that loud. It's perfectly normal for me not to know since I was tucked away back here!”
“Hmm, you're acting rather strange today...”
Akyuu's casual remark dealt a critical blow, making Kosuzu shudder as a chill ran down her spine. Before Kosuzu could even think of an excuse, Akyuu dropped another psychological bombshell:
“Also, I passed by a man who just rushed out of your shop earlier. A customer of yours?”
Kosuzu nodded frantically, her hands blindly pulling random books from the shelf without even realizing what she was grabbing: “Oh, right! That guy... he just dropped by to borrow a few detective novels from my shop.”
Akyuu paused in thought, her purple eyes half-closing as if recalling the moment they passed each other on the threshold: “Even though I couldn't see his face clearly because his bamboo hat was pulled down so low, I could still sense a certain aura...”
“An aura?” Kosuzu turned around, unable to contain her curiosity.
Akyuu's voice suddenly turned unusually cold and solemn:
“Bloodlust. An incredibly dense bloodlust of a true warrior. That man's hands... have undoubtedly been stained with the blood of countless enemies and torn through heaps of machinery. I don't have the ability to sense spiritual energy or Youkai power like the Shrine Maidens do, but with the intuition of someone who chronicles the history of the most dangerous creatures in Gensokyo, I think I truly caught a faint scent of death from him.”
Hearing this, Kosuzu's heart skipped a beat. She suddenly recalled Raiden's hesitant self-introduction from earlier: “Jack the Ripper... Licensed Vigilante... They were all scumbags who had it coming...” Raiden had clearly and indirectly admitted that his hands were stained with blood. Akyuu's keen observation skills were truly no joke. Unsure of how to react naturally, Kosuzu could only widen her eyes, faking an exaggerated look of shock:
“Oh wow! Really?! There's actually something that creepy going on?!”
Looking at her friend's clumsy performance, Akyuu let out an impatient sigh. She crossed her arms and jerked her chin toward where Kosuzu was standing: “By the way, the novel I wanted to borrow is on the literature bookshelf on the opposite side. What on earth are you digging around for on the medical science shelf?”
Kosuzu startled, looking down at the pile of acupuncture and herbal medicine books in her hands. Her entire face flushed crimson with embarrassment, her words jumbling together: “Oh! I-I just got a bit confused! Because yesterday my house... uh, yeah, we did a deep clean, so we reorganized the books a bit, and I got the shelves mixed up...”
Akyuu narrowed her eyes, letting out a loaded: “Hmm...”
Meanwhile, in another corner of the Human Village, Raiden was struggling to pull the brim of his bamboo hat lower to avoid the prying eyes of the surrounding villagers. After walking a short distance, a crucial detail suddenly struck him: he had been so busy bantering with little Kosuzu that he completely forgot to ask for directions to this so-called Hakurei Shrine. Helpless against his own goldfish memory, the cyborg had to swallow his pride and ask a few locals along the street, receiving hesitant points toward a secluded mountain sitting on the edge of the village.
Moments later, Raiden stood at the foot of the mountain. What met his eyes was a steep pathway with endless stone stairs, stacked straight up as if trying to pierce through the clouds. Staring up at the staggering height, Raiden clicked his tongue and lowered his center of gravity. He leaned forward slightly, throwing both hands back into his familiar running stance, and instantly channeled power into his mechanical legs.
WHOOSH! A powerful gust of wind whipped up the dry leaves on the ground as Raiden engaged his Ninja Run, rocketing straight up the stone stairs at a terrifying velocity. The men's kimono Kosuzu had lent him fluttered wildly in the wind, but it did absolutely nothing to hinder the physics-defying fluidity of the Cyborg Ninja's stride. In just a few breaths, he conquered thousands of steps and set foot onto the shrine's main courtyard.
Yet, he was greeted only by a bone-chilling silence. The shrine looked quite weathered, deserted, with not a soul in sight. Raiden approached the main building, cupped his hands around his mouth, and yelled out:
“ANYONE HOME?!”
The surroundings remained dead silent, with no response other than the sparse cawing of crows perched on a nearby ancient tree. Raiden raised a mechanical eyebrow in deep suspicion. His curiosity piqued, he lightly stepped onto the wooden veranda and gently pushed open the sliding door to peek inside.
And the exact moment the door cracked open, an utterly insane and chaotic spectacle slapped him right in the face.
Right in the middle of the living room, a cup with fully animated cartoon limbs and a dead-eyed, white-haired middle-aged man were tied tightly together by several thick coils of rope. Their bodies were also plastered with countless yellow talisman slips, making them look incredibly pathetic. Towering right in front of these two culprits was a young girl wearing a distinct red-and-white shrine maiden outfit, her bare shoulders daringly exposed, hands on her hips with a face darkened by pure murderous intent.
This was none other than Cuphead and Sakata Gintoki suffering under Hakurei Reimu's punishment. The moment he heard a noise, Cuphead thrashed around like a caught fish, screaming insults at the top of his lungs:
“You sleeveless, exposed-shoulder brat! Let me go! I haven't even dealt with that flower-manipulating witch yet, and now some other freak pops out of nowhere to block my way?!”
Gintoki, chained right next to him with messy, disheveled hair, tried to use his last shred of sanity to hold him back: “Calm down, Cuphead. Tone it down, little brother. After all, we're the ones who caused a ruckus when we woke up, so we reap what we sow...”
Hearing this, Reimu let out a cold smirk, menacingly tapping her purification rod against the floorboards with rhythmic thud, thud sounds: “See? Did you hear that, you cup-headed punk? This white-haired guy at least knows his place—”
PHTOOM!
A massive glob of spit launched straight from Gintoki's mouth in a mathematically flawless parabola, landing dead-center on the Hakurei Shrine Maiden's face.
The room instantly froze. Time seemed to grind to a halt. Reimu’s face turned pitch black, a bizarre, demonic smile slowly spreading across her lips as she ground her teeth together with a horrifying screeech.
Witnessing his teammate's utterly catastrophic move, Cuphead's porcelain eyes rolled back in sheer terror as he shrieked in vain: “ARE YOU INSANE??! YOU JUST KILLED US BOTH, GINTOKI!!!”
At that moment, Gintoki suddenly went into convulsions, his eyes turning completely white like a psychopath who had lost all humanity. He whipped his head around, snapping his jaws wide open, and roared directly into the kid's face in a violently raspy voice: “Shut your goddamn mouth, you cum-brained cup!!!”
Cuphead, not one to back down, screamed back as steam billowed from his head: “HOLY SHIT!! HIS BALLS ARE ACHING SO HE'S GOING INSANE AGAIN!!”
While Cuphead was furiously screaming in Gintoki's face, the kid instinctively glanced over his shoulder. Instantly, the straw on Cuphead's head snapped upright like a lightning rod. Behind Reimu's back, two massive Yin-Yang Orbs bristling with dense Danmaku energy slowly materialized, spinning violently like two nuclear warheads on the verge of detonation.
Reimu smiled sweetly, but her eyes were consumed by a deadly, murderous shadow: “You. Two. Bastards. Drop. Dead.”
“REIMU-SAN, CALM DOWN!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!” Cuphead screamed in terror, the tea inside his head splashing everywhere.
But right at that razor's edge between life and death, Cuphead's desperate gaze happened to lock onto Raiden’s bewildered face peeking through the crack in the door. The kid's porcelain head clocked it in a flash. He immediately slammed his head hard against Gintoki’s shoulder: “Gintoki-san! Wake up! Look over there! The guy who caused our entire goddamn mess in the first place has shown up!!”
Gintoki blinked, his eyes slowly returning to their usual deadpan, half-lidded state. He glanced in the direction Cuphead was pointing: “What asshole is barking about... wait, looking at that high-tech, dashing cyber-face... it's...”
Cuphead nodded furiously: “It's him! Who else?!”
Seeing her two captives suddenly shift their focus, Reimu also narrowed her eyes in vigilance. She slowly turned her head back toward the entrance, locking eyes with Raiden, who was standing there dumbfounded in his borrowed men's kimono. Reimu blinked, dialing back her bloodlust just a fraction, and asked in a deeply puzzled voice:
“Uh... who are you? And why did you just wander so deep into my shrine?...”
Raiden stood in silence, staring at the three bizarre entities in the room for a long moment. The processing core in his brain tried desperately to compute the insane logic of this universe and failed completely. Finally, the Cyborg Ninja calmly dropped a cold-hard line:
“My bad, wrong house.”
SLAM!
With that, Raiden decisively and ruthlessly slammed the sliding door shut, turning on his heel with the full intention of engaging his Ninja Run to escape this asylum immediately.
Inside the room, Reimu scratched her head in confusion: “Huh, what a weirdo...”
However, before she could even process it, a cataclysmic explosion of sound erupted from behind her.
CRASH!!!!
The wooden sliding door of the main hall was obliterated into a hundred flying splinters. Stepping out from the billowing cloud of dust and smoke were none other than Gintoki and Cuphead. In some miraculous way that completely defied the logic of binding talismans, the two gambling degenerates—despite still being tied tightly together by ropes—had merged into a frenzied battering ram driven by a peak surge of absolute rage, roaring forward at a wind-shearing speed.
The two bellowed in unison, their volume enough to blow up the entire mountain: “THAT'S THE BASTARD WHO DRAGGED US TO THIS GODFORSAKEN PLACE!! STOP RIGHT THERE!!”
Raiden flinched as his sensor systems blared a non-stop red alert. Even though he was a seasoned veteran who had gone toe-to-toe with colossal war machines, faced with the bizarre, physics-defying murderous aura of these two maniacs charging at him—coupled with a nagging spark of guilt because, yeah, his mess did drag them here—Raiden knew perfectly well that fighting back was a terrible idea.
He immediately booked it, activating his Ninja Run at maximum capacity to make a run for it: “HOLY SHIT!!”
A state-of-the-art armored cyborg running for his life in the front, pursued by a white-haired samurai and a porcelain cup tied together, barreling forward like a rogue ballistic missile. Due to some twisted cosmic joke of fate, no matter how fast Raiden ran, he couldn't put any distance between himself and the blazing fury of the two-man battering ram behind him. The gap closed tighter, and tighter... until the man-cup mass slammed dead into the warrior's back.
Gintoki and Cuphead: “HUMAN BULLET TANK!!”
BOOM!!!!!!!!!!
An earth-shattering explosion erupted, blowing away an entire corner of the Hakurei Shrine courtyard.