Chapter 47 - Realism Versus

Crash Course
The Ebon Hawk landed directly in front of the heavy metal entrance of Castle Doom, having safely made it to Europe. Rokiahi and the baby Alien came out the spacecraft, taking looks around for possible hazards.

"There's no one here..." noted Rokiahi with a little surprise, "Well, Doom's in Japan, right?" She gave the metal door a shove. "Of course it's not going to move." Taking a step back, she looked up, "But as far as I recall, the Castle can be entered from the higher floors." Just looking up at the incredibly high front wall made Rokiahi dizzy. "Well, let's get started," she said, summoning an outdated looking rocket launcher. "Come on, little one," she beckoned, standing next to the castle wall.

The baby Alien was clearly a little afraid of the weapon, pausing for a moment before pulling the trigger. The Rocket hit the ground with a considerable explosion, launching Rokiahi upwards at high speed. Rokiahi was completely unscathed, the Rocket Launcher specifically being a Rocket Jumper, a harmless 'weapon' used primarily for rocket jumping to huge heights. As Rokiahi's rise began to slow, she at the wall with a very steep low angle, pushing her further upwards but also away from the wall. Before she could drift too far away from wall, Rokiahi fired her grappler from her right arm up the wall, which pulled her right back to the stone surface. She finally threw up her grappling hook, latching onto the now nearby upper floor of the castle, pulling herself up to to level ground.

The castle was not an open fort, making it difficult to enter via flight, indeed, the only to enter by flight was through the massive front door. The castle did have a flat top that had looked like a former helicopter landing pad but it was now covered in radar dishes and antenna, likely left over from his work during The First Year in Yamaha. But that was still another floor above Rokiahi.

Rokiahi paced round the wide ledge, looking out for any doors on the wall, eventually coming upon an open entrance to what was essentially an external room, like a small courtyard. And conveniently, inside was a metal door.

"It looks like the front one," noted Rokiahi, "But normal sized. Should make things much easier." Taking out a Subtle Knife tip from Hammerspace, she drew the blade round the door's edges, cutting through the hinges as well as the lock. After The First Year, Naluri had given out several Subtle Knife tips during The Gensokyo festival but only to the trustworthy who could use Hammerspace. Rokiahi rammed the door with her shoulder but the thick and very dense door only fidgeted slightly.

"Hmph," tutted Rokiahi, summoning a block of C4 and sticking it to the door. She inserted a small thin igniter into the soft explosive. Summoning a detonator stick with a single red button on top in her right hand, she placed her left palm on the C4.

The Alien nervously stepped back from Rokiahi, whimpering quietly. Rokiahi pressed the button, the igniter lighting. The C4 exploded with a loud bang but did not move Rokiahi at all, thanks to the Impact Dial in her palm. The explosion only barely pushed the extremely heavy door back, falling into the castle with a boom, echoing through the castle hallways. As Rokiahi stepped onto the fallen door, she poked her little finger into her left ear, carefully adjusting the sponge earplug, designed to seal automatically for loud noises but otherwise completely open.

The baby Alien was a little disoriented though, shaking its head to recover.

"I thought Doom had guards," whispered Rokiahi out of cautious instincts, "It's like everyone upped and went to Japan." She was now in a corridor, stairs going down to her left, stairs going up to her right. "Any sane villain was a castle would hide their important stuff underground. And Doom's pretty sane for a villain, as far as I'm aware." She paced down the spiralling metal steps, the Alien following.

Eventually reaching the ground floor and into a large open room, Rokiahi stopped for breath. "There's exercise and then there's plain insanity," she gasped, sitting on the bottom step. The Alien ran in front of her and looked up at her with curiosity. "So do you know how to go further downwards, little one?" The baby tilted its head again in apparent confusion. Rokiahi pointed at herself, "Me," then she pointed to the ground, "Down." In response, the Alien ran to centre of the room and shrieked loudly with a high pitch. Rokiahi did not attempt to stop it from potentially setting off alarms. Frankly, she was feeling out of it, and desperately wanted something else to think about. The Alien paused for a moment as its shout echoed round the castle. Then it rushed back to Rokiahi and was about to bite her left hand with its razor sharp teeth when it paused for a second time. Rokiahi did not move, her hand in the Alien's mouth, wondering what it was doing. The baby carefully backed off before going round her and pushed her back. Rokiahi stood up, realising the Alien wanted to her to follow it but had, luckily, remembered that its teeth would have easily cut through her skin.

She followed the Alien to the very middle of the room, inside a wide green circle, who was clawing at the ground. Rokiahi did not understand at first, but quickly noticed the Alien's scratching made the ground sound hollow.

"This is a lift," realised Rokiahi, looking around for controls. Viewing the room properly, Rokiahi noted the circular room was an armoury, gun racks lining the outer wall. The reason she not had not immediately noticed this was because all the guns and equipment were missing. Rokiahi grimaced. The weapons were definitely out there in the world somewhere. And likely being used.

There weren't much in the way of controls in the room, as one that low ranked guards would normally regularly pass through. Doom would not give them that much control. There was a button clearly present, by the room's entrance, with a downwards arrow on it. However, since it was on the wall, it was two metres away from the lift. Rokiahi pushed the button before quickly diving back onto the elevator as it began to descend at a rather fast speed.

"That was an odd design choice," Rokiahi commented, as she got back to her feet, "Probably to make sure someone would always be up there on guard patrol." The elevator quickly reached its destination, with a proper elevator door opening up to the lower floor. The Alien scurried off down the well lit hallway, Rokiahi following down the office block-like corridor. They reached a metal door and the baby scratched at it.

"Wow, you're better than sonar if you can hear through a door like this," praised Rokiahi, turning the door handle. Suddenly, there was a loud crack and the nearby corridor lights blinked off. Rokiahi and the Alien stood absolutely still as the lights flickered back on.

"The door handle's got an enormous electric charge," deduced Rokiahi, "If I wasn't wearing rubber gloves, I'd be well done right now." She looked at the Alien, stood on the steel floor. "So would you." She pushed the door open into an impressive room, full of items on display, like a museum. Full body suits, heavy weapons and metal masks were in glass cases positioned around the floor and walls, both of which were covered in light green tiles. The ceiling was the usual grey metal, powerful lights hanging down on long cables.

Rokiahi stepped gingerly through the room, the electric door handle having put her on guard. "So where now?" she asked the Alien.

The Alien ran to a traditional red British phone booth near the back of the room and looked back at Rokiahi. A little puzzled, Rokiahi opened the booth door, looked inside with care and stepped in, facing the phone and dialler. The booth was only big enough for two normal-sized people. Doom would only barely get in with his armour.

"I've seen things like this before," noted Rokiahi, summoning a mobile phone. It was a Sony Ericsson, a very outdated model, easily surpassed by an iPhone. At least for calling home. Rokiahi pointed the head of the mobile at the booth's keypad. The head flipped open and from it an orange horizontal line scanned down the pad. She then opened the mobile through the middle like a Nintendo DS, the top screen showing the scanned keypad in true colour. However, it displayed green fingerprints on the keys, some being slightly dimmer with age, allowing Rokiahi to tell, the order of key presses. A message suddenly popped up on the screen, having analysed the fingerprints.

Rokiahi frowned, her confirmations confirmed, "These fingerprints are all Naluri's. Doom doesn't leave fingerprints. Naluri definitely came down here this morning... but why?" She started pushing buttons on the keypad, with guidance from the mobile, 269170555. The floor of the booth began to descend, the Alien climbing onto Rokiahi's shoulders. Unlike the big circular elevator before, this descent was slow, dark and tight. However, the lift only went down one floor, opening up into a single room.

"... This looks like a torture room," murmured Rokiahi, looking towards the tilted padded table in the centre of the room, straps present where a person's wrists, elbows, ankles, waist and neck would be. Around the head area, sticky circular pads were hanging by cables from the ceiling. Then she caught of a helmet on a desk by the side of the room. She ran over and picked it up slowly.

It was Naluri's helmet, completely intact, its screen in its normal viewing position. As Rokiahi turned the helmet round with a heavy heart, she realised the screen had wires connected to it, running up the wall to a projector attached to the ceiling. The head pads were also connected to the projector via its cables. Rokiahi turned to the computer next to the desk. It was running, a word processor was running, a document already open. She began to read it.

"'Date: 21st December 2014. Imagine my surprise to see Naluri knocking on my front door this morning. She requested my assistance with a minidisc. I was cautious about aiding her but in the end Haruhi has been quite sincere about letting us keep our freedom, as well as our protection from others. But why Naluri asked for my aid rather than Haruhi's or Sasaki's is bothering me. What is there that I can do that they can't? Perhaps Naluri wanted to hide something but the two goddesses are all-seeing are they not? Surely they know I'm typing this report this very moment.'"

Rokiahi stopped reading. If a major villain, let alone Doom, was doubting his own powers, there was something definitely wrong. She continued reading, but not out loud, getting more concerned by the second, "DeLorean? What the heck happened last year...? Naluri's future self? Fatal wounds?" she murmured. Her eyes continued to scan through the passage. Then she reached the end.

Something had clearly happened to Doom.

Rokiahi looked at Naluri's helmet. Reaching over to it, she pressed a button on the side of the monitor. A minidisc was slightly ejected from the top of the monitor. Rokiahi pushed the disc back in and pressed the screen. The screen buzzed to life. The circular pads began to make flickering clicks. Understanding the signal was bypassing the projector to the head pads, Rokiahi tiptoed and reached up for the projector, pressing the power button. Images were suddenly projected onto the wall. Without warning, Rokiahi felt something strike her on the back of the head as the camera angle of the video tumbled backwards. Rokiahi turned in shock and surprise, only to see a perfectly normal wall behind her. When she looked back at the projection, she suddenly felt her chest being compressed, making it difficult to breathe. In addition to this, it felt as though she was being pulled downwards and her fingers were in terrible strain, as though she was hanging onto something.

Rokiahi kept an eye on the screen, despite being in incredible discomfort, slowly falling to her knees, She could see the camera had stabilised. "This is Naluri's point of view..." groaned Rokiahi, summoning a breathing mask. She recognised the arms and sleeves of Naluri holding onto the edge of a platform, the video showing events from Naluri's own eyes. Sasaki walked up to Naluri. Reimu and Konata were panicking over the lifeless body of Haruhi in the background, completely ignoring Sasaki and Naluri.

"Sasaki," Naluri strained, her voice hoarse, "Help me up." The video went mostly black as Naluri thinned her eyes.

Sasaki knelt down next to Naluri, "Naluri, you don't have much trust in Haruhi or anyone with superior power do you?"

"What are you talking about?!"

"I want you to learn that Haruhi wasn't a bad person," said Sasaki with a sad smile, "I want you to learn that she suffered more than you do." Naluri opened an eye fully, her vision focusing on Reimu and Konata over Haruhi's immobile body by the steps of a throne.

"Wha-"

"I want you to learn that Haruhi deserved the powers she had." Sasaki told hold of Naluri's wrists, instead of her hands.

Naluri began to shake her head, "No. I should never have trusted you! I should never have-" Sasaki pulled up Naluri's grip, Naluri shooting back, away from what was obviously a spacecraft in outer space. As Naluri fell back towards Earth, Rokiahi felt as though she was being crushed. Despite holding the breathing mask to her face, Rokiahi could not breathe, her throat tightening. Just before Naluri's vision completely faded, Rokiahi fell to the floor, gasping for air, dropping the breathing mask. Her head on the ground, Rokiahi's vision was blurred, her fingers were twitching and her thought processes were stunted. She saw something black walk up to her face. It whimpered, nudging her face with its head.

"Ah, I'm sorry," said a male voice from the video, "Did I wake you?" Rokiahi did not recognise the voice, which brought her back to her senses, realising that her body was in fact completely fine.

"... Haruhi?" mumbled Naluri.

Rokiahi blinked and scrambled back to her feet, patting the Alien in thanks. She looked back the projection, her vision blurring once more, "As long as I watch the video, I can feel what she felt," she recognised, "If her vision blurs, my vision blurs.

"Haruki. Suzumiya Haruki." Naluri, and Rokiahi by watching, suddenly snapped back to their senses. Naluri looked at Haruki next to her before looking at the mirror in the bathroom they were in. Seeing Naluri's reflection in the mirror, triggered a sense of longing in Rokiahi's heart.

"So this is what happened last year," understood Rokiahi, "Naluri didn't tell me any of this. But... this is the future Naluri, isn't it? Naluri wouldn't know this either." Rokiahi pressed the screen on Naluri's helmet again, fast forwarding to a point near the end of the video before letting go.

"Don't get in our way, Haruki!" shouted Naluri, from the video, at the top of her voice as she touched the breastplate of the armour Solace was wearing. The armour disappeared as Naluri placed it in her Hammerspace. They were outside a garage door.

"No!" shouted Haruki from somewhere behind Naluri, "Please don't do it!"

Naluri ignored him as she stood in front of a speeding car that Rokiahi recognised as the DeLorean. As the car approached, Rokiahi realised what would happen next but she could not close her eyes quick enough. Naluri was hit by the DeLorean just as Rokiahi shut her eyes. Rokiahi fell back to her knees in excruciating pain, covering her mouth with her right hand, coughing strongly with tears flowing down her cheeks. Her left hand was on her abdomen, which felt the full force impact of the DeLorean. Rokiahi could hear cracking noises as Naluri was tossed aside like a ragdoll. There was an eerie silence for a moment.

"Naluri..." spoke Sasaki, from the video, "... How are you feeling?" Rokiahi did not risk opening her eyes, fully aware of the pain and agony the future Naluri was going through, her own body recovering from the fake impact.

"I feel... very little," whispered Naluri, unable to speak any louder, "... How long do we have?"

"Four minutes. Five at best."

"... And me?"

"I honestly don't know... I'm sorry... For the pain I caused you."

"I apologise for not believing in you. Are you not mad I disagreed with your plan?"

There was a pause. "I said I would stand by your decision. And I will. It will be for the best," Sasaki sniffed, "I- I have a confession to make... I had another motive. I-"

"I had just noticed," interrupted Naluri, "I'm sorry for disappointing you."

"No..." whimpered Sasaki, "Please, don't apologise to me... Don't waste your precious time on me..."

There was a longer pause before Naluri started talking again, "Haruki. Yuki. Ilse. Solace. Alice. Cirno. Maria. Reimu. Reisen. Sakuya. Nitori. Santiago. White. Black. Sora. Len. Rin. Miku. Gumi. Lynette. Ælious. KC. KITT. Sasaki. Konata. Ritsu. Mio. Thank you all for laying my concerns to rest. Please pass on my thanks to the crew of the Normandy, Superman and Galactus too. And Doc Brown. And whoever else lent a hand. You've all made me a very... very happy person." She coughed hoarsely. "Naluri... Your life is mine. But my life is not yours. I know what you're going to be doing over the next few days. Do not mourn me. While we may not be the same person any more, I ended my path so you can take yours for the both of us. Please, make best use of it. And forgive Haruhi. She's... a good person. Understand?" Another pause. "I have something to say to you too."

Haruki was crying, "Why? Why did you do it?"

"Haruki... When do you plan... to go home?" Naluri asked, her voice quietening.

"I can't go home like this," argued Haruki, "I said I wouldn't go back until I helped save everyone... didn't I? I haven't saved you or Sasaki."

"You did, Haruki," responded Naluri, "You did. We made it out just fine." The conversation carried on for some time, Naluri's condition clearly deteriorating. "... Haruki... We... are not real..." she wept, unable to speak steadily, "We... are all a figment of your imagination... You don't really have godlike powers... You... are an ordinary school student with a big heart... This is all really just a dream... Haruki..." she mumbled, "It's... about time... you... woke up..."

The video terminated, the projector going on standby.

Rokiahi sobbed loudly, her eyes still closed, half from pain, half from pity.

Suddenly, the room's lights went out.