A Nanoha crossover? Interesting...

[X] Dodge, close, melee.

[x] Dodge, shoot.
When in RomeGensokyo...

[X] Dodge, close, melee.

Nakajima best Striker.

[ ] Dodge, close, melee.

[x] Dodge, close, melee.
SPRING IS CANCELLED. THANK YOU FOR PLAYING.

[X] Dodge, close, melee.

The familiar exhilaration of flight surges through your heart as you kick off the ground and up towards the fairy in white. You roll and strafe from side to side, letting various streams of bullets pass by while you close the distance. "Lan!" you shout out the command word.

"Aff, my dame," your Device responds immediately, and you feel its weight in spear form in your hand. You bring up the black shaft to catch a particularly large bullet on the pointy end, shattering the magical projectile into little puffs of remnant energy that glance harmlessly off the pauldrons of your Barrier Jacket. The blondie's expression turns to alarm when she realizes you have closed half the distance between the two of you in a heartbeat, and she lets loose a randomized spray of multi-colored bullets in your direction.

Too slow - you dart just outside of the cone of death formed by your foe's latest tactic. She redirects the spray towards your new vector but you have already jinked elsewhere by that time. At the last moment you spin your Device in a half circle, adding the angular momentum to the momentum of your own body as you bring the haft of your spear to strike her in the gut with non-lethal force. You are more surprised than anything when your blow actually connects, having expected her to block, dodge, or otherwise have something up her puffy sleeve.

A pang of guilt makes a momentary appearance as you watch the fairy's child-sized figure descend in a graceful arc, her gossamer wings making her spiral as she falls. Her landing, though, is less than graceful. You finish up with a bind before she recovers, securing her arms and wings with silvery rings of light to prevent her escape while you interrogate her.

She shakes her head to clear it, and tries to shake her arms free when she realizes they are bound. "Meanie!" she calls out to you when she inevitably fails. "Stinky human! Cheater!" she adds for good measure while you float back down to earth. At this point all that's missing is the raspberry - ah, there it is. "Pfft!"

"Why don't you say that again, to the spear?" you chuckle with forced levity while letting her admire the pointy end from really up close, using Ether Light's translation routines to allow you to speak the local language. She immediately shuts up, for the moment at least. "What's your name?" you take the opportunity to ask.

"Lily," she grumbles with the kind of short-lived respect that can only be forced out at spearpoint.

You squat down to reduce the difference in height between the two of you. "Alright, Lily, I'm sorry I had to hit you, but you did start shooting at me first," you try to reason with her. "Now, can you tell me where we are?"

"The Spring Path, duh!" Lily rolls her eyes and gives a slight nod in the direction from which she came. You give a start when you notice that the previously green grass is now carpeted with a bed of pink flowers. It takes but a moment for you to recover and file the sight away under impressive, but not particularly relevant to your current situation.

"And this so-called Spring Path is located in??" you guide her, keeping the gentle tone that seems to be working for the moment. "Which province? Country? Continent? Planet?"

"Gensokyo, of course!" You wait for further elaboration, but none appears to be forthcoming, as though that unknown name is supposed to explain everything.

"Any match with known worlds, Ether Light? Any EM or communications you can pick up?"

"Neg, my dame," your Device replies, to your surprise. You must have been taken to a truly backwater world if there wasn't even any electromagnetic signals to detect. It also goes against what little you know of Unadministered Planet 97, which was supposed to be reasonably technologically advanced at least. Your next hope for finding out just exactly where you are would be to try to match the stars of the night sky with astronomical charts, but of course that would have to wait until nightfall.

Lily is staring at the spear. "It-it just talked!" she squeaks out with equal parts surprise and awe.

"Yes, yes," you wave her off dismissively, and dismiss Ether Light back into its compact form of an amulet you wear around your neck. You suspect that you are nearing the end of the useful information you can extract from your captive. Hopefully you will be able to find some other, more helpful locals. "Last question. Where's the nearest town or city from here?"

"That'll be the Human Village - that way, I think." Lily points with a nod of her head. So at least both humans and fairies live in this world. You decide that finding some civilization would be a good next goal to accomplish while it is still light.


[ ] Travel on foot.
[ ] Fly. Not necessarily faster than ground travel (you can boost your speed either way) but it does give you a better view of your surroundings. Of course it also means the locals get a better view of you.
[ ] Wide Area Search. Screw the fairy's suspect advice and find civilization yourself. Magic-capable locals might be able to detect your scan, though.

And there's also the matter of the captured fairy?

[ ] Release Lily if she promises not to shoot you.
[ ] Lily might be useful. Keep her for now.

[X] Fly. Not necessarily faster than ground travel (you can boost your speed either way) but it does give you a better view of your surroundings. Of course it also means the locals get a better view of you.
[X] Release Lily if she promises not to shoot you.
- [X] Invite her to join you.

[x] Wide Area Search. Screw the fairy's suspect advice and find civilization yourself. Magic-capable locals might be able to detect your scan, though.
If there's not tech SPOILERS: THERE IS TECH we'll need magic to get home anyway.
[x] Lily might be useful. Keep her for now.
It is loot now.

[X] Fly. Not necessarily faster than ground travel (you can boost your speed either way) but it does give you a better view of your surroundings. Of course it also means the locals get a better view of you.
[X] Release Lily if she promises not to shoot you.
- [X] Invite her to join you.

[X] Fly. Not necessarily faster than ground travel (you can boost your speed either way) but it does give you a better view of your surroundings. Of course it also means the locals get a better view of you.
[X] Release Lily if she promises not to shoot you.
- {X} Invite her to join you.

"Promise you won't shoot me if I let you go?" you ask Lily.

She nods and struggles against the bind, as though trying to work her arm free. You release the magical restraint and she lifts her arm to offer you her pinky finger. The truce is officially sealed with a pinky swear, which counts for more than many a treaty you have heard of before.

"Can you come with me as far as this Human Village?" you press your luck. Fortunately, the fairy doesn't seem to hold the fact that you just delivered her a beating against you.

"Okay? but only if you bring out the talking spear again!" Lily negotiates.

"Here it is," you let Ether Light hang out in amulet form, instead of tucking it beneath your clothes as you usually do. The two of you take to the skies once more, heading in the direction of the Human Village. Lily is right beside you, taking the position of wingwoman without thinking. "Not going to pull out Lan form unless someone else attacks me, though," you add. Which might be more instead of less likely, given that the local customary greeting appears to be a magical barrage. "Right, Ether Light?"

"It is a satisfactory arrangement, my dame," the Device replies.

"Cool!" Lily gushes, her eyes filled with awe. "What else can it do?"

You glance over at her form and come up with an idea. "How about this? Ether Light, Illusion." Your own body shimmers for a moment as the cloaking field activates, and then your figure has been replaced by a copy of Lily, undistinguishable from the real thing. If anyone is looking up now, they'll see two locals flying through the air instead of a local and an alien.

The fairy visibly struggles to rein in her enthusiasm as she forces a pout. "Not fair!" she declares, pointing at you, "there's only one Lily!" You shrug and make a slight tweak. Whereas Lily was clad in white, you choose a black color scheme, making yourself look like her opposite twin. She nods, apparently satisfied with this compromise.

Gensokyo whizzes by below, and before long the vibrant greens of wild fields and forests gradually give way to the more earthly colors of farms in a rural landscape, terraces cutting across gently rolling hills like contour lines on a topographic map. In the distance you spot the telltale sprawl of civilization, the silhouettes of buildings arranged in the neat rows and columns that are almost never found in nature.

"How does it go? it's spring, bitches!" You whoop as you begin your descent.

"Spring is here!" Lily announces after you, and in her excitement she lets loose a spray of magical projectiles towards the village below before you can grab her arm and stop her.

"What'd you do that for?" you demand, perhaps more sharply than you really meant.

"Um, oops?" She offers you a nervous grin that requires all your willpower to stop yourself from slapping it right off her dumb blonde face.

You watch in horrified helplessness as the bullets speed towards the urban centre. There's still some distance between you and the village and the spray was more playful than anything, with any luck they would dissipate before causing too much damage, and maybe most of them would miss the village proper and land relatively harmlessly in the surrounding farms, you try to tell yourself.



Then, the drone of a siren waxing and waning in sinusoidal form shatters your hopes. In a different time and space, in a different dimension, in a different civilization and culture, you have heard this siren before, and it means the same thing now as it did then:

Aerial attack, coming from you.



Ether Light is suddenly uploading threat assessment data directly into your mind. You are being tracked by fire-control radar - apparently this world isn't as technologically backwards as it first seems - with magic-infused projectiles inbound originating from the village. You pull Lily close to you, close enough to envelop her as well within the protective sphere of a Barrier that you put up with all haste, and not a moment too soon - the patch of sky you are in is racked with explosions in short order, as fused shells detonate in your vicinity, releasing a mixture of mundane shrapnel and magical micro-projectiles that batter against the defensive Barrier you have put up.

And then the icing on the cake: Ether Light detects not one, but a pair of magical signatures rising from the ground into the sky. It looks like this world has its own aerial mages as well, and they're on an intercept course with you. You trade altitude for speed, diving out of the immediate area of explosions, and in the brief window before the shells track your new position you take in the measure of your opponents while they are still a ways away. A pair of blue-haired girls in blue dresses, one of whom is a fairy with ice crystals for wings, and the other who appears human but feels off somehow, reminding you of an artificial mage.


[ ] KILL LA FLAK (a.k.a. take down the triple-A first)
-{ } Ranged attack and screw the collateral damage.
-{ } Go to ground and take out the operators.
[ ] ACE COMBAT (a.k.a. focus on the mages, triple-A never hits anything anyways)
-{ } Fairy first.
-{ } Human-like first.
[ ] SHAMEFUR DISPRAY (a.k.a. tactical withdrawal, advancing in a different direction, etc.)
[ ] I KNOW MORTAL TACTICS (a.k.a. write-in)

[X] SHAMEFUR DISPRAY

Hey now, let's not make Lily feel any worse. Let's high tail it out of here. We can always return with our original appearance.

Alt: If you can write in with epic speech of spring, I'll change my vote.

[x] SHAMEFUR DISPRAY (a.k.a. tactical withdrawal, advancing in a different direction, etc.)

No reason to fight and every reason to avoid having our disguise disrupted and showing our real face.

[x] ACE COMBAT (a.k.a. focus on the mages, triple-A never hits anything anyways)
-{x} Human-like first.
Fight because fight.

[X] SHAMEFUR DISPRAY (a.k.a. tactical withdrawal, advancing in a different direction, etc.)

Goddammit Lily!

I noticed that the SHAMEFUR DISPRAY option seems to be more of a list of options (retreat, hide, etc.) I think we might want to specify in the vote on what our retreat strategy is. If we don't, we might end up getting stuck with the most humiliating outcome. Any ideas?

>>183435
Actually, it's just a couple of different ways to say "Run Away" without actually saying it like that. Also
[X] SHAMEFUR DISPRAY

[X] SHAMEFUR DISPRAY

Taking on a single mage? You can do that in your sleep. Taking on a pair of mages? A piece of cake for you. Taking on a pair of mages who have anti-air artillery support? Their odds merely went from ?impossible? to ?snowball's chance in hell?.

Doing all of the above, while protecting Lily? Now that would be troublesome. Given your brief battle earlier, the spring fairy would be little more than a burden slowing you down and making you vulnerable, unless you were to abandon her. That wouldn't be right, seeing as how you did ask her to come along with you, after all. On the other hand, this disproportionate response you're facing seems like so much overkill for Lily. Does she possess some hidden power that she didn't exhibit during your previous exchange? Or was the preparation meant for some other, real, threat and the fairy accidentally triggered it with her carelessness?

It was something to ponder - once you were no longer being pummeled by explosive barrages, that is. You make you have a firm grip on Lily's wrist to drag her along once you execute your escape.

"Eagle Dive," Ether Light announces, and the two of you are accelerating towards the ground at several times G.

"We're gonna crash!" The fairy screams, grabbing on to your arm in fright.

"Chill out," you reassure her, having no time for a longer explanation before you pull up abruptly and stabilize your flight, skimming a few inches above the ground. One of the warning tones in your mind shuts off as the fire-control radar loses you. The last of the flak barrage explodes high overhead before it ceases completely.

Altitude converted to speed, you and Lily are on a vector that takes you away from the village and its fixed defenses at great velocity. it's mobile defenders, though, are still hot on your tail. You look back and see the two mages exhibiting rather poor teamwork - the humanoid (for some reason she doesn't seem quite fully human) one is hanging back and taking a measured approach to the pursuit, while the ice fairy is throwing all caution to the wind and pulling out all stops to get the speed needed to gradually close the distance with you.

"Hey Lily, where?cha ya goin?" Running from danmaku?" The ice fairy calls out. Your translator doesn't quite catch that last word. "What a shameful display! And why?re there two of ya, anyway?"

"You know her?" Your raise an eyebrow at the fairy being dragged along beside you at a speed she probably can't maintain on her own.

"I guess? I melted all her frogs last year. Her name's Cirno, an ice fairy," Lily admits. You're not sure if she means it literally or if it's an idiom that your translator isn't picking up, but at least you know that the two of them have a history, and that goes towards explaining why the village was prepared for Lily's arrival.

You cast another glance back at Cirno. For an ice fairy, she runs hot with passion, tomboyish smirk on her face as she finally gets close enough to start spraying ice shards in your direction. "I need to throw Cirno off our tail. Can you keep flying straight, Lily?" You don't wait for her reply before you shove her ahead to give her a little extra boost, while you yourself turn towards the sun and pull up high into the sky.

You've read about it before: one side retreating and the other pursuing too aggressively, then being routed in turn when those fleeing suddenly turn around and fight. Perhaps it was merely intended to be a delaying action at the time, but afterwards they would claim it a feigned retreat that was planned all along. You fully intend to follow history's example, having no wish to be known for shameful displays.

Trading in your speed back for altitude, you rise up, up, and higher than your pursuer. You wait until you cast your shadow over the ice fairy, the sun at your back outlining your figure in black silhouette, before you utter the activation word ?Lan?. Wings spread and your Device in spear form in your hand, you are the angel of judgment, descending from the sun, looking down upon the sinners below from on high. Well, as much as Lily can look angelic, at least, the glamer making you look like the fairy still active.

"Lookin? good in black, Lily!" Cirno shouts up at you, thumbs up for good measure, not evening noticing the psychological attempt on her.

You dive out of the sun, making minute adjustments to your trajectory to weave back and forth through the spray of icy projectiles than Cirno throws blindly your way. She doesn't get a chance to fire again before you are on top of her, spear-first smashing into the shield of ice that she conjures at the last moment. It cracks and shatters, but not before absorbing most of the momentum behind your charge. She throws a pair of crystalline shards at point blank by way of melee attack, which you dodge and deflect with Ether Light's shaft, leaving her open for your counterattack-

Something seems wrong, a feeling in your gut instead of any rational observation, but you know enough to trust these feelings. You break off your attack and put on a burst of lateral velocity to get away from the space directly in front of Cirno. "Strafe move," Ether Light announces, the maneuver so quick that the words come out only after the fact.

And not a moment too soon - the temperature of the space you were in a few milliseconds ago drops dramatically, at a rate only possible with magic. The air shimmers in the colours of the rainbow, sunlight refracting through tiny crystals of ice flash frozen from water vapor in the air. An unorthodox attack, that you are unsure whether conventional barriers and shields can defend against, and also one that requires plenty of exertion, if her momentarily slowed reactions and the opening presented is any indicator.

You lunge forward and thrust your spear into the ice fairy's side, using a bit of magic to turn the blow non-lethal, as per the standard rules of engagement for all TSAB personnel. No penetration and no blood, but sheer energy and pain in exchange, projected directly into the target to overload body and mind and render her incapable of continuing to act. The force of your strike sends your opponent cartwheeling head over tail in an arc that ends in a tumbled heap on the furrowed soil of a freshly tilled field. She pulls herself to her feet, shaking her head and re-gathering her strength: not down for the count yet, but having made a good start on getting there.

"Cirno!" The other human-like mage cries out in concern, having caught up within shouting range of the two of you during the exchange of blows. The worry in her exclamation gives way to a cold demeanour as she turns her attention to you. "This is going too far, Lily, even for you. Spring can wait a few more days this year - you need to be taught a lesson first." You feel the ambient temperature drop a few degrees, literally.

You cast a quick glance at your surroundings. Lily has made herself scarce, the smart girl, which means that you don't have to worry about her holding you back in the upcoming confrontation.

The mage reaches into the folds of her blue-and-white dress and draws out a cartridge. No, not a cartridge in form, though it performs the same function - a store of magical energy in a compact and convenient space, accumulated and stored beforehand, to be released when needed. The distance makes it hard to be completely sure, but you are fairly certain that it is a card. The energy signature radiating faintly from the card is similar enough to that of your own cartridges, though with a key difference. Your own cartridges contain raw energy that can be used to power any spell, with your Device responsible for converting it into magical effects on the fly. The card in the mage's hand contains energy that has already been ordered and interpreted, needing only a simple trigger to carry out commands along predetermined lines to unleash a specific spell decided when the card was made. This system is less flexible than yours, requiring a different card for each spell, but on the other hand it doesn't require a Device to use.

All this is hypothesizing on your part, but it looks like you'll get your chance to confirm it within the next few seconds once she activates her card.

[ ] This is practically one-on-one now. You can do this in your sleep. Fight!
-{ } Optional: load a cartridge of your own.
-{ } Optional: write-in your awesome attack.
[ ] Lily had the right idea. You've slowed Cirno down and the other mage can't keep up with your top speed. Delaying action successful, time to withdraw!
-{ } Optional: into the forest.
-{ } Optional: into the bamboo forest.
-{ } Optional: into the field of really tall sunflowers.
-{ } Optional: into the river.
[ ] Try to talk the mage down.
-{ } Optional: take Cirno hostage to force the mage to think twice before unleashing her card.
[ ] Write-in.

[X] Lily had the right idea. You've slowed Cirno down and the other mage can't keep up with your top speed. Delaying action successful, time to withdraw!


Possibly while laughing at them about how "they can't stop spring, bitches!".

>>183565
Could we do this while conjuring illusion of blooming flowers, fornicating animals and other spring related subjects?

>>183566
...Oh yes. Probably without the "bitches" but this would be absolutely amazing.

[X] Lily had the right idea. You've slowed Cirno down and the other mage can't keep up with your top speed. Delaying action successful, time to withdraw!

-{X} Optional: into the field of really tall sunflowers.

I forgot to vote while suggesting casting illusions.

[X] Lily had the right idea. You've slowed Cirno down and the other mage can't keep up with your top speed. Delaying action successful, time to withdraw!
-{X} Optional: into the field of really tall sunflowers.

What could go wrong, really?

[X] Lily had the right idea. You've slowed Cirno down and the other mage can't keep up with your top speed. Delaying action successful, time to withdraw!
-{X} Optional: into the field of really tall sunflowers.

[X] Lily had the right idea. You've slowed Cirno down and the other mage can't keep up with your top speed. Delaying action successful, time to withdraw!
-{X} Optional: into the bamboo forest.

[X] Lily had the right idea. You've slowed Cirno down and the other mage can't keep up with your top speed. Delaying action successful, time to withdraw!
-{X} Optional: into the river

[X] Lily had the right idea. You've slowed Cirno down and the other mage can't keep up with your top speed. Delaying action successful, time to withdraw!
-{X} Optional: into the forest.

i like this lily

[X] Lily had the right idea. You've slowed Cirno down and the other mage can't keep up with your top speed. Delaying action successful, time to withdraw!
-{X} Optional: into the field of really tall sunflowers.
RELEASE THE LEWDS.

[X] Lily had the right idea. You've slowed Cirno down and the other mage can't keep up with your top speed. Delaying action successful, time to withdraw!
-{X} Optional: into the field of really tall sunflowers.
-{X} While laughing at them about how "they can't stop spring, bitches!"
-{X} While conjuring illusion of blooming flowers, fornicating animals and other spring related subjects

"Cold sign: cold snap!" The card in the mage's hand is shriveling away as though burnt, releasing the energy within.

Instantly gone is the balmy spring day, replaced by a troubled sky covered in gray clouds. An ill wind picks up, tossing hair and dresses about in constantly changing directions. A flurry of snow drops from the sky, immediately enveloping you in a blizzard.

Impressive, but you can handle a bit of cold, you think - at least until the first of the swirling snowflakes reaches you and batters against your body, only your Barrier Jacket protecting you from being seriously harmed by their discharge. The snowflakes themselves have been imbued with power, each a magical bullet, and there are a lot more of them coming your way!

You throw up the strongest barrier you can ? ?Steel Shell?, Ether Light announces - and fly away at top speed while snowflakes explode against the protective sphere surrounding you. Fortunately the spell has a limited area of effect, and the moment you pass through an invisible boundary the air is warm and calm once more. You look back, and see the blizzard raging on within the space under the spell's influence, centred on this mage.

She gives chase, trying to draw you back within her spell's effective range, but you keep going with your advantage of speed and continue to widen the gap between the two of you. Streaks of ice magic lance past your position, trailing sparkling particles of frozen water suspended in the air in their wake. That she has to resort to long-ranged attacks is as good as an admission that her card's spell can't reach you.

Now you just need some cover to throw her off your tail entirely and then you're home free - aha, there! You spy a large field of growing sunflowers, already taller than a person, though their heads are still closed buds.

"You can't stop spring, bitches!" You whoop as you dive for the tall stalks, and throw out one last illusion behind you to befuddle your foes: an image of blooming flowers, birds singing, bunnies rutting, the whole nine yards, while you slip between a pair of sunflowers and weave through the field.

Only when you are hidden in a particularly thick clump in this sea of plants do you stop and watch out for signs of pursuit. The ice fairy and the ice mage pass by high overhead, but seem unwilling to descend into the sunflowers like you have. "Lily! it's dangerous in there, come out!" The fairy - Cirno - calls out, a hint of concern in her voice.

You remain where you are - how dangerous could it be?" until the two of them finally give up and fly away. Then you count to one hundred, and only then do you slowly begin to ascend to ascertain whether the coast is really clear-

-huh, something's holding you down, preventing you from going up. You look down and see a leafy vine wrapped around your ankle. How had it gotten there without you noticing? No matter, you point at it, a tiny orb of magic materializing at your fingertip to sever the vine-

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" A woman's voice suggests cheerily in sing-song.

You whip around in place to face the definite non-human, despite her human appearance. She fills out a red plaid dress nicely, over a white shirt that contrasts cleanly with her green wavy hair. Resting on her shoulder is an open parasol, protecting her creamy skin and flawless features from the sun. You can feel that she is immensely powerful, an intense aura of magic radiating from her body that you can't quite identify, that she must have kept suppressed until the moment she chose to reveal herself. it's similar to what you sensed about the ice mage, but orders of magnitude stronger this time.

"So? a black lily, here to make my sunflowers bloom early?" The red-eyed being giggles at her own inside joke. Her eyes flick up and down over you, taking in the entirety of your measure in a single gaze. "it's not polite to lie to a lady," she adds, her tone ever so slightly sharper than before. "Who might you be and what are you doing here, I wonder?"


[ ] Write-in.

[x] Welp, you're rumbled. Drop the disguise, tell her your name and rank within the TSAB, and apologise for trespassing.
Here's hoping for playful troll Yuuka, rather than crazy rapist Yuuka.

[x] Welp, you're rumbled. Drop the disguise, tell her your name and rank within the TSAB, and apologise for trespassing.

You guys went for the Yuuka option... and this is the best you can come up with?

Don't look at me. I didn't vote last time. I just felt bad you weren't getting any votes this time.

>>183618
Sorry, I hadn't voted yet. Lemme see if I can't get something done.
[X] I'm here to see you of course, my lov"Well, how can it be lying if I never even told you anything? Just because you see me as Lily, but Black, and just because you see me as Lily, but Black, making your sunflowers bloom early does not mean that is what is actually happening. In fact, it could be entirely possible that what you are seeing right now isn't even happening. You could, in theory, be doing multiple other things that make you think you are seeing me as Lily, but Black, making your sunflowers bloom early. Suppose that you are dreaming. That would mean that you desire that your sunflowers would boom early, Yes? And perhaps you would also wish that Lily, but Black, makes your sunflowers bloom."And while she's contemplating all this nonsense bullshit we've just spouted let's book it.

I don't want to let our disguise up so early, especially after we've made so much effort to, y'know, not be discovered. And Yuuka's canonically slow moving, so it would be a good idea if we get her to let her guard down and use that as an opportunity to escape.

>>183618
Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise I wasn't playing your game the way you wanted me to play it.
Feel free to tell me how I should be voting instead.

>>183626
Like an elite A-rank TSAB mage who is going through a Takamachi-lead training course and is at the top of her class, who intends to get out of Gensokyo and back to Midchilda ASAP in order to complete this particular training/survival exercise with top marks. Definitely not like a C-rank wussy.

Sorry for not being clear on this point previously. Hope this helps. Now let's see your awesome write-in!

>>183629

So, like overconfident youkai chow?

>>183630
When the going gets tough and the way ahead is unclear, you can always fall back upon the teachings of the Saint Church:



WWVD?

>>183631
[X] Give your name and rank within the TSAB and ask for her name. You've faced down worse, after all, and she at least seems open to diplomacy.
- [X] Befriend her

>>183631
Well considering one of her moms is Nanoha, use more firepower?

I think most of the problem is that you emphasized how powerful Yuuka feel relative to Letty, not us, which is what actually matters. And that "orders of magnitude" is a really big number. Basically if fighting was supposed to be viable here you oversold the threat.

Anyway, I guess I'll change my vote to:

[X] Give your name and rank within the TSAB and ask for her name. You've faced down worse, after all, and she at least seems open to diplomacy.

[X] Give your name and rank within the TSAB and ask for her name. You've faced down worse, after all, and she at least seems open to diplomacy.

>>183638
That's a very good point. I'll admit that "orders of magnitude" might have been too much hyperbole.

I won't be providing explicit power comparisons to MC until she has gotten into some proper fights and gets a better idea of Gensokyo's power levels. In the meantime, you'll have to do with comparisons to previously faced opponents.

Since the vote seems to be going one way, I'll add the following option:

[ ] Write-in name, possibly other personal details.

MC is a human female by default, but enough votes can swing her over to another gender or species.

>>183629
>Like an elite A-rank TSAB mage
I have no idea what that is.
>who is going through a Takamachi-lead
Who?
>training course
What are the course materials?
>and is at the top of her class,
What's her competition like?
>who intends to get out of Gensokyo
She doesn't even know that Gensokyo exists, doesn't know that it's a pocket dimension of Earth, and doesn't know HOW to get out. Askinf
>and back to Midchilda
What's that? Is it tasty? It sounds spicy.
>ASAP in order to complete this particular training/survival exercise
There were others? What were they like?
>with top marks.
What's the criteria?
>Definitely not like a C-rank wussy.
Examples?

If you want me to play the character a certain way, you've got to give me the information that allows me to figure her out. Otherwise I'm just going to vote for whatever seems reasonable to me.

>>183652
You clearly missed something very important! This: >>183317

So perhaps I should have made this more obvious that this is a Nanoha crossover at the start.

How many people are familiar with the Nanoha-verse? How many people would like a introduction to Magical Lyrical Girls and Befriending(TM)? Should I restart and stick all the background info up front?

>>183658
Restarting a story because you don't like the way your readers have been voting is a terrible idea.

The best crossovers are the ones that manage to be thoroughly enjoyable even to people who don't have any idea about the source material. High Contrast, for example, does it right: it wasn't until the story had gotten at least halfway to its current position that I even realized it was based on something external to Touhou (yes, I'm one of those rare people who has never played a KH game in my life), and yet I still enjoyed it thoroughly.

Basically, it should be written under the assumption that everyone is going into it completely blind to the source material. If you need to explain something from the base material, it should be explained through the narrative, just like it would have needed to be explained in the source material.

It's up to you how you do this, but breaking it up into bits and pieces as they apply to the scenario can also give you hooks for ways to add immersion that you wouldn't get by just dumping a block of text explaining the source material's lore.

Finally, don't hold it against your readers if they vote in a way that is objectively reasonable, even if it goes against how you might expect an actual character from the source material to act.

To be honest, even as someone who's familiar with the Nanoha universe, I don't disagree with their choice to be cautious here. Yuuka is canonically very strong, and even those of us familiar with the Nanoha universe have no way of knowing how your interpretation of her strength scales with your interpretation of A-rank TSAB mages without fighting her first, so trying to avoid a fight is quite reasonable. For all we know, she's quite capable and willing of snapping us like a twig if we make even a tiny mistake. I personally voted differently, but I can certainly see why even someone who's familiar with Nanoha might vote this way.

Please don't restart the story, but keep this in mind for the future.

>>183657
>>183658
This is a Touhou board, not a Nanoha board.
The only parts of Nanoha canon that I'm familiar with are 'lesbians, lesbians everywhere', 'Fate has the best ass', and 'the White Devil is overpowered bullshit, someone please nerf'.

If the story you want to write is vastly different from the story the readers want to read (as expressed through their votes), then you're not gonna have a good time.

I watched a youtube video where Fate got spanked one time. That's pretty much all I know about the Nanoha universe; apparently the characters get spanked sometimes.

>>183680
I remember the Nanoha series more for OVERWHELMING POWAH! and the various seiyuu singing, like Mizuki Nana.

>>183683
You don't remember Fate's ass? Or Signum's ass? Nanoha is a very ass centered series.

>>183700

It should be assumed that everbody is familiar with Fate's ass. The above poster probably choose not to explicily say it because the limitations of human interaction simply cannot accurately convey it's majesty.

I've decided to rewrite (not restart, there's a difference) the chapters so far, based on the feedback that I've received.

I'll be adding a prologue-ish chapter as well as changing some of the backstory and motivations. However, and this is the important part, I will be keeping the general direction of the story and the votes made so far, unchanged.

-0-0-0- Prologue -0-0-0-

Thank the Saint for whoever thought to make the elevator's walls reflective mirrors. You make sure your black Enforcer's uniform is immaculate as the elevator climbs towards the admiral's floor. After all, it isn't every day that a newly commissioned officer fresh out of training is summoned by the top brass for a private briefing.

With a final ?ding? the elevator arrives at the admiral's floor. The admiral's secretary looks up from her work when the doors open and you step out. "Enforcer Avalon?" she asks with a professional, polite smile, half query, half rhetorical. You glance at her shoulders - yup, she outranks you. Her name badge reads ?Carina?.

"Yes ma?am," you snap to attention and salute. For some reason that brings a light chuckle to Carina's face as she returns the gesture.

"The admiral will see you now," she waves you in while pressing a button beneath her desk.

You make your way to the admiral's office. The plaque on the door reads ?Adm. C. Harlaown?. You steel yourself, take a deep breath, and open the door.

"Enforcer Avalon reporting, sir!" You salute.

"At ease," he salutes and offers his hand. The man's handshake is firm and to the point. "Please, have a seat. Would you like some tea?"

You freeze up for a moment, realizing that in all your training, you have never been taught whether admirals offering tea was something to be taken at face value and accepted or whether it was a polite gesture meant to be refused. Harlaown sees your momentary indecision and laughs. "There will come a point in your career when accepting or declining someone's offer of tea can be a very serious political decision. Luckily for you, you're much too young for that."

"Then I'll happily have some tea, sir," you nod and finally sit down.

"That's quite enough with the ?sir?s. Relax a little; you're not in boot camp anymore."

Right on cue, there is a knock on the door and a moment Carina enters, setting down a pair of steaming cups on the admiral's desk before retreating gracefully. The tea is unlike any you have seen before. Instead of red or black, it is green, of all colors. There is neither milk nor sugar to go with it. You decide to imitate what Harlaown does with it, which is to lift the cup to his lips and take a sip of it plain.

"Green tea," he explains. "I daresay you'll have plenty of chances to taste the real thing where you're going. Then you can come back and tell me all about how this stuff is a cheap export brand." His voice turns from pleasantries to business. "Comes from this world. Recognize it?" A holographic projection of a planet flickers into being above the desk, rotating serenely about its snow-capped poles, a brilliant blue orb in the darkness of space.

"Unadministered world number 97," you reply automatically, recognizing the outlines of its continents in the middle of the oceans that cover most of the planet. "Homeworld of my aerial combat instructor during officer training."

"Nanoha."

"Yes."

"Then I don't have to worry about your combat competency, at least. It says here that you learned the language of her homeworld. Self-taught, no less. Impressive," Harlaown says with a straight face, having pulled up your service record and personnel files. Your cheeks heat up as blood surges into them. You thought you had left that hormone-ridden crush-filled phase of your young life safely behind now that you were commissioned - apparently not.

"Yes. Though I'm probably rusty; I haven't used it in a while."

"Better than nothing, at least." Harlaown looks up at you. "Have you deduced your mission yet?"

You sit up a little straighter. "Obviously I'm being dispatched to World 97, probably a covert operation of some sort, don't let magic leak out to the locals, and all that. As for why?" you take a sip of tea. "I have theories about Lost Logia, but the information's classified - beyond my own clearance, I mean, certainly not beyond yours, general."

The admiral laughs at that, a friendly and understanding laugh. "You'll soon discover in your line of work that success, or even survival, depends on knowing things you aren't supposed to know. Off the record then, go on."

"Around twenty years ago, there were a number of incidents, to put it one way, involving Lost Logia on World 97. They were all supposedly retrieved, but my guess is that one of them was dormant and didn't get picked up. Until now, when it starts acting up again, and the TSAB wants a team to retrieve it on the quiet without letting the locals being any the wiser about it."

Harlaown looks impressed. "That's about as close to the truth as you can get. I'm starting to understand why you were recommended for this mission."

"Recommended, sir?" You raise an eyebrow, wondering which of your superiors? attention you could have possibly gotten.

"You either have a guardian angel or really pissed someone off, I still can't decide which. This is the sort of mission that can make or break careers, and it's definitely not the sort that you usually send out a rookie for, even if she did graduate top of her class. No offense intended."

"None taken, sir."

"Good. The rest of your orders will be uploaded into your Device." He checks the time. "Report to the Asura immediately. Dismissed."


-0-0-0-0-0-


The Asura is a space-faring and dimension-faring vessel, of a slightly outdated design but still useful for routine surveillance patrols. On board you meet your fellow Enforcer and partner for this mission, Captain Prius, who has quite a few more years of experience than you do. The woman seems friendly and jovial enough, apparently not minding the fact that she has been assigned a rookie to be her partner for this mission.

While the Asura sails across the sea of dimensions, you and Prius have some time to study your orders and come up with a plan. A poster-sized map of Japan has been tacked up to the wall of the cabin that you two have been assigned. Marked on the map are two locations of interest - Uminari City, where the previous battles for the Lost Logia took place (and remained miraculously hidden from the rest of the population, somehow), and somewhere in the middle of nowhere in inland Japan, where the mysterious magical energy signature has been detected.

"The energy signature's all wrong," Prius says with a frown. "There are many types of Lost Logia, but they are all immensely powerful magical artifacts that should be giving off a much stronger signal than this."

"And it doesn't match anything in your database either," you add, having just finished the analysis on your Intelligent Device - an artificial intelligence designed to assist mages (like you) in utilizing magic and casting spells, on top of all the functions a computer can perform, all fitting neatly in a tiny compact form which in your case is a disc smaller than your palm that you wear around your neck like a pendant. You decide not to ask where Prius got a top-secret database of Lost Logia that she isn't supposed to have.

"No precedents to guide us, then. We'll have to wing it as we go," she concludes. "Speaking of which, what's your idea for insertion? The Asura's going to enter orbit soon."

"The standard procedure would be personal cross-dimension transfer into Uminari City, meet up with the friendly contacts there, and see if we can get any new intelligence from the ground," you reply, almost reciting the words.

"But?"

"But, if the Lost Logia has a self-defence program, or Saint forbid, there's a mage trying to activate it, they'll pick up our arrival for sure. In which case, we should consider transferring out right on top of the signature's coordinates to get the drop on them."

"Go in hot, spells blazing? I like the sound of that," Prius nods.

"Aren't you supposed to be the calm voice of experienced caution against my rookie tendency to rush in and get myself killed?"

"Am I? I must have missed the memo," she says completely straight, then bursts into laughter at the end.

You wake up in an idyllic pastoral field, green grass blowing and blue brook singing and all that jazz, perfect little white puffballs of clouds mocking you as you stare back at them from your prone position lying on your back on the soft springy turf. There're even a few birds chirping about and bees buzzing around, to complete the perfect little picture of spring.

You close your eyes and try to recall what had brought you to this point. You and Prius had decided to warp directly on top of the location that the Lost Logia's energy signature had been coming from. The Asura had entered World 97?s orbit without incident (offset by one dimension, to avoid detection) and you had performed the standard spell to bring yourself into this world's dimensions at the appropriate coordinates. Then-

Half-remembered visions of eldritch monstrosities, the full knowledge of which would drive any mind mad, flit through your memories. Your consciousness had shut down as a self-defence mechanism before you lost your sanity. The clearest image you can recall is an infinite expanse of infinite lidless eyes, all staring at you - you snap your own eyes open before you go crazy, gasping for air, a chill running down your spine even in the middle of this beautiful spring day.

"Prius?" You call out as you pull yourself up into a sitting position. Nothing save birdsong answers you. Your hand flies towards your chest - thankfully, your Device is still there. You whisper a prayer of gratitude to the Saint for this major mercy.

"Ether Light, systems check," you order your Device.

"All systems functional. No damage," the Intelligent Device responds immediately.

"Raise the Asura," you command.

"Unable to establish communications with Asura. Trans-dimensional barrier detected. Estimated radius: twenty kilometers."

"Try contacting Prius."

"Unable to establish communications with Enforcer Prius," Ether Light replies again in its emotionless monotone. You, on the other hand, are feeling worse by the moment. The situation is already fubar not a minute into the mission proper, and this isn't even supposed to be possible - World 97 is unadministered and left alone precisely because it is a non-magic world, and a barrier this size would be emanating magical energy like a beacon-

That's it! "Ether Light, compare this barrier with the energy signature of the mission objective."

There is a moment's pause, and then the verdict: ?Exact match."

So this Lost Logia is not some ancient artifact, but a huge magical barrier and the entire pocket dimension contained within it. Odds are retrieving this particular Lost Logia like it were some sort of lost knick-knack is beyond your ability. You need to report back and let the brass figure out how to deal with this - the problem being, you are now stuck on the wrong side of the barrier, inside a pocket dimension with no obvious way out.

Time to take stock: you have the clothes on your back - in local fashions, and warm enough for the current spring season, your Intelligent Device Ether Heart, and, after a bit of rummaging, three Cartridges. Shaped in the style of bullets for the now-banned mass drivers of old, instead of propellant these cartridges are filled with magical energy, to be used for high-powered magic that demands more output than your own body can provide. You had originally brought twenty with you, just in case you stumbled upon a cabal of cultists or something and needed to fight, but the other seventeen are nowhere to be found.

You hurry to your feet when you notice the silhouette of something - someone - flying towards you. A child-sized humanoid with a pair of feathered wings, dressed in a white dress with matching white cap - you decide to call a fairy a fairy, even if they are definitely not supposed to exist on this world. "it's spring, bitches!" The fairy shouts out in a cheerful tone, in Japanese. At least that more or less confirms you are in Japan, leaving only the question of why there is a giant barrier there. She throws up her arms and flower petals spring forth from her outstretched hands. And then the petals begin accelerating in your general direction, the foremost projectiles striking the ground in front you and kicking up clods of dirt.

You pool a miniscule amount of magic into your legs and take a long leap back, well clear of the cone of projectiles, which strike the earth with alarming force, even if they did so in a rather large and random spread. The fairy's face, green eyes framed by blonde bangs, is nothing but innocence as she throws another armful of petal-bullets up into the air. "Extra, extra! Come get your spring here, folks!" she cries out, as another barrage of magical flowery projectiles accelerates helter-skelter towards you.

Is this the local custom for greeting visitors? It appears that you need to teach this fairy a lesson in cross-dimensional cultural sensitivity; after all, a magic barrage to the face is generally considered rather rude where you hail from. "Ether Light, set up!"

[X] Dodge, close, melee. (previously voted)

>>183708
Gotta say, this captures the "cocky rookie" feel pretty well.

>>183765
I can't stop reading this as 'cookie rookie'.

So when's the rest coming, OP?