All Rika could do was brace herself as the damned Kappa slammed into her, back pack and all, laying both of them out flat. She was lucky to keep her head as she felt the blades of the helicopter attachments snapping off and flying into god knows where.
“YOU NEARLY KILLED ME!” She screamed once they had stopped rolling.
It took more than a few seconds for Nitori to realize the lump below her was not simply her backpack, but the enraged tank engineer as well. A yip and rolling squeak later, and the Kappa rolled herself under the weight of her own backpack. “Gyah! Ow!” As durable as she might be, a sack of battle implements was still a hefty bunch to squeeze in one poor fabric pouch. Her pouting face barely stuck out with that green cap slipping down.
Amazingly, it had survived the battle.
“You’re…you’re the one that pointed a rocket launcher at my drill! Hic! Now I gotta rebuild everything!” She crosses her arms, putting her chin between them. “I don’t even have Mr. Smiles to rely on now…”
Rika could only stare in shock as she had fired just moments before the drill plugged the tube, leaving her to count down the seconds until the explosives went off.
She Did the only logical thing in this situation, kick the kappa and throw herself as far from the blast as she could before it went off.
Spinning wildly out of control, Nitori went into the air like a broken top. “Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” She cried. “No fair!”
Inertia and drunkeness gave her a severe case of butterfingers, and both the drill and launcher flew off to make one glorious explosion. A ball of flame accompanied by fountains of dirt, Nitori felt the impact snap her heliocoptor blades and send her right back into Rika.
Scorched and dizzy, the kappa simply jabbered upon impact, completely oblivious to her position.
Ah, alcohol, the purest killer of boredom in Gensokyo.
“Wrong button…I’ll show you the wrong bloody button,” Rika growled and grabbed a large tube that had laid in the junk on the side of the shop. She never got this thing to work in all her ground tests, but never had she had a target in the air that hadn’t the mobility to dodge what she thought inside the tube.
Until now.
“STAND STILL AND MAYBE THIS WON’T SUCK!” She shouted, taking a knee and aiming the tube marked ‘FIM-92 WARNING HIGH EXPLOSIVE’
“The only one that this will suck for, is you!” Came Nitori’s battle cry as she barreled right for Rika. Reckless and with drunken fire in her eyes, the kappa’s energy went cold when her drill stopped whirring.
“...”
Hovering, the kappa stared in horror. Unfortunately for her, that drill wasn’t suited for splitting several pounds of high explosives. She had jammed her weapon right up into the tube of Rika’s Stinger...likely miliseconds before it was about to fire off. In that second, she just stared at Rika, flabbergasted and still flushed.
“W-What the hell?” Rika said, picking up the duck as her mind tried to process the insanity of being thrown a rubber duck that hit her in the head. Confusion gave way to bafflement, then to rage.
“COME AND GET IT YOU PIG TAILED JERK! I’LL TAKE THIS DUCK AND SHOVE IT WHERE THE SUN DOESN’T SHINE!”
“Sh-shut up! I just hit the wrong button!” Nitori flailed, putting in new combinations frantically. With a few clicks and metallic springs, a heliocopter blade whirred up from that absurdly large backpack. Nitori was sent into the sky, swaying in her drunken stupper, the Kappa made damn sure she was out of Rika’s reach.
“Listen here, you! I am Nitori Kawashiro! If you think the worst I’ve got is a coding duck, you’ve been asleep under that pile of scrap metal you call a tank too long!” Reaching into her backpack, the stubborn girl hefted free an absurdly oversized drill, nearly as big has herself. Gripping with both hands, Nitori pointed it at Rika, letting the spiral spark to life with almost crackling thunder.
“Charge! I’ll save you, Mr. Smiles!” Going for ramming speed, the little intoxicated kappa sought to save her rubber duck, and put the poor tank engineer in her place.
“Haha! Vengeance is mineeeeeeeeee! I have found you and your ugly braids!” Nitori said, carrying a sake bottle in hand, wobbling like her legs turned to rubber. Very likely, they were close enough. Mechanical arms raised and holding more balloons, she staggered over to her sworn enemy!
“You think your tanks are soooooooo good! Well, I’ll show ya what happens when ya decorate them with frilly flowers and not armor! Taste danmaku, bristle braids!” Nitori shouted, flinging more balloons like mortars are her precious new toy.
“Oh, you damned kappa brat! You are going to regret this!” Rika brushed the trickles of blood off her face before grabbing a wrench and scowling at the Kappa.
“COME BACK HERE SO I CAN REARRANGE YOUR FACE!“ Nitori may want to run, and run fast.
“Yur gonna have to catch me first, shorty!” Nitori boasted, tongue stuck out to add insult to injury. Clumsily pressing buttons on her harness, the kappa readied her next attack!
“Ha, you’ll be no match for my...” And then a rubber duck ejected itself from her backpack, squeaking and bouncing onto Rika’s head.
“...” For just a moment, the battlefield went silent. “No! I need that for debugging! Waaaaaa!”
“Haha! Vengeance is mineeeeeeeeee! I have found you and your ugly braids!” Nitori said, carrying a sake bottle in hand, wobbling like her legs turned to rubber. Very likely, they were close enough. Mechanical arms raised and holding more balloons, she staggered over to her sworn enemy!
“You think your tanks are soooooooo good! Well, I’ll show ya what happens when ya decorate them with frilly flowers and not armor! Taste danmaku, bristle braids!” Nitori shouted, flinging more balloons like mortars are her precious new toy.
“Blargaflarghableh!” Nitori grumbled, laying in the grass just after yet another night spent modifying one of her latest projects. The workshop was too small and too obvious a place to hold this beast of a machine. Naturally, the solution to prying eyes and sabotage was to place it where no one expected Nitori to be.
Specifically, she chose a dry, grassy field far from any rivers or puddles to splash in. Now that the Kappa all returned to the river, these once battle ridden fields were left empty. Tools of war were left discarded by the half-hearted youkai who once shot danmaku filled muskets at each other as a barbaric form of entertainment...essentially the norm for anything not human or Marisa.
“Itstoohoooooooooot!” The Kappa complained, sweating in her work clothes, further staining those baggy cargo pants green with grass and clover. Beside her lay a toppled tool box and various large vehicle parts. Behind her, some meters away, was an indistinguishable, large shape, hurriedly stowed in the brush and surprisingly well camouflaged.
With her work as hidden as it could be, Nitori simply lay there, oblivious to the rest of the world in her heat driven stooper.
“You’re serious about this?” Nitori asked, puzzled by her perspective client.
“Absolutely, ma’am!”, chirped Koakuma, headwings fluttering a bit from the excitement. “Lady Scarlet and my mistress are incredibly enthusiastic and supporting of your goals!”
Nitori raised a brow, greasy gloved hand propped against her hip. “My goals? Or do you mean the entire Kappa Village? There is a pretty big difference, little devil.”
Koakuma nearly jumped back, frightened by her own folly. “Oh...I meant no offense ma’am! The request My Lady has come to you for is direct innovation! Isn’t that a virtue of your kind?”
Nitori nodded, tipping the front of her cap. “Ya, that’s right. The Humans got something right. When all magic is gone, what does Gensokyo have? Jack diddly squat I think! They survive pretty well without it, so why not learn from ‘em? Innovation is the essence of invention and progress, and as you can tell...” The Kappa bangs her wrench against a giant metal leg, a mess of pistons and gears covered in riveted plating. “...I, Nitori Kawashiro am at the forefront of such progress!”
“So....does that mean you’ll do it?” Koakuma asked, leaning in with a book and clipboard tucked firmly in her arms.
“O-o-of course! I can bring your Scarlet Devil Mansion into the modern era! Electricity, appliances, all the conveniences you require!” She chuckled, leaning back against said mechanical leg, crossing one work boot over the other. “Course, you realize what a pretty bit of gold this is going to cost, right?”
“Remilia Scarlet is a lady of fine taste and old wealth. You will not be disappointed, Miss Kawashiro!”
“Isn’t she also a glorified child?” Nitori said bluntly.
“W-w-what? That’s a horrible thing to say about a noble!” Koakuma squeaked.
“I call ‘em as I see ‘em, missy. That’s why I asked if you were all serious about this.”
Koakuma was bewildered. Kappa were strange, and according to Sakuya, Nitori was one of the more eccentric ones. No respect for authority or noble houses. The Kappa thrived on competition with each other. Only in dire situations would they mobilize as one...or for the right price, if Miss Patchouli was correct.
It almost reminded Koakuma of life in Makai...but far less fun.
Finally, the clacking of machines was interrupted by her squeak. “Of course! Why wouldn’t we be serious?”
Nitori just sighed and looked up to the ceiling. If your Lady’s little sister busts anything, it’ll take more than hammers and nails to repair it all. Electrical appliances require care. You can’t solder a wire together with rope and clever knots A blacksmith won’t be able to etch silicon circuit boards. This, little devil, is a delicate investment.”
“Wait...what?” Koakuma asked, obliviously.
The Kappa just chortled and rolled her eyes. “Never mind, miss. Just know this is hard to replace, and even more difficult to install. Unless you want me to run power lines all the way down the mountain with Tengu contracts on my ass, through the forest with those destructive little fairies, and around the Misty Lake where that....little ice bitch lives, you’re responsible for maintaining a generator. Find me a good tributary and we’ll get some water wheels set up.”
“Thank you, Miss Kawashiro!” Koakuma piped up, excited that her first errand run had been successful.
“Nitori, please. But hold your horses, chickie. Your boss is proposing all these renovations. How much do you plan to pay for it all?” Tapping her foot, Nitori smirked, curious.
“Well, of course we have our gold, or mon in equivalency. But what else could you want?”
“Unless you can scrap together 5 million mon, I’ll need resources, a fair trade and incentive for other Kappa to work with me.” Nitori fiddled with her wrench, testing its weight out of boredom. “Something...interesting you foreigners might have?” Her grin turned sly, almost hungering for outside knowledge.
“Well...Patchouli did ask me to give you a gift. A token of gratitude for at least hearing out our proposal!” Approaching Nitori, the polite little girl bowed and held the intricately decorated tome to the Kappa.
With hardly the same grace, Nitori snatched the book up and studied it, squinting. Angular patterns sat etched into a bronze seal, much like an abstract wave. The surface was not leather bound, but smooth and cool aside from the centered seal. White pages, not yellow or cream colored. Either this was a freshly bound book...or...
Her twintails bounced with a life of their own as the sorely unenthused Kappa was brought to shock. She hardly knew the language, but the script was unmistakably Western. “Is this...and Outside book?” She asked, suddenly more subdued than loud.
According to Patchouli, it is indeed! A manual, specifically, for techniques on advanced...uh...tiny little chips-”
“Micro chips! Transistors so tiny I could...” Nitori snaps her gaze up to the mechanical leg, manufactured with gears and pressure, rather than pure electricity and fine motors. In awe, she again focused on the dainty, still smiling Koakuma.
“And we have many more in our collection!” The little devil beamed, flapping her wings. “Your laborers will get the mon they want, and a small portion will be set aside for you as well. Patchouli will provide the rest of your payment once you come to the mansion to discuss designs and blueprints. Perhaps you will find better use for these books than us, and further your inventions.”
A broad smirk spread over Nitori’s face, and she jumped out to roughly shake Koakuma’s hand. “You have a deal! Gimme a week and I’ll have some plans written up!” Nitori chattered fast, nearly babbling over her words.
“T-thank you!” Koakuma stammered. “Waaah, you can stop shaking my hand now.”
“Oh, right!” Nitori left go, and then promptly shoved Koa toward the door. “Now, I’m very busy with orders to fill. Seeya next week!”
Stumbling out, the red headed Devil now had a mission. One of many to come!
As for Nitori, this was just another work day...with a prestigious order.
Hello hello fellow Touhou fans, wacky RPers, and feasting storytellers! Welcome to Devil In The Machine, my first RP blog, revolving around the lives of two very different Touhous! I’ve been meaning to set one up for a long time, but only recently a couple pals of mine gave me the low down on how things work around the Touhou RP blog community.
Originally I planned to play one character, but ultimately decisions aren’t always so easy. It came down to Nitori and Koakuma and after a funny joke I jsut decided, why not both?
Rp has been a great exercise in writing and character interaction that my pals and I have been doing for a number of years. After chat RPs, forum RPs, and collaborative short stories, this will be a very different experience!
So why these two characters and not anything more consistent? The simple answer is I was indecisive. However, I wanted to try out something new. The SDM characters aren’t terribly familiar to me (Youmu is my favorite), so why not give them a little love? Nitori is always a fun character to play and touches on my sci-fi geekiness.
I have asks open as well. There won’t always be a thread to RP in, and even if there is, asks lead to amusing results. For now, I’m focusing on Touhou canon only RPs, but once I’m settled in, OCs will be welcome!
So, with all that said and done, it’s time to rock!
theartofmadeline
stormborns
areudirty
kaledo-art
