Message Recipients: cynthia_10@pokemail.com.si

Message Sent By: thechosen1@pokemail.com.uv

Subject: Re: Code OMG

Hi Cynthia,

I have had prior contact with Subject 12A before. She contacted me a couple of years after Plasma's disbandment, wanting to set up a branch of the Youth wing of the Pokemon Liberation Front. I had to explain to her very carefully that that was no longer a thing and why such ideas were flawed. She scolded me for betraying my own ideals and hung up and I never heard from her since.

Why I remember her out of all the other fanatics that Ghetsis influenced over the years is because she was only nine years old at the time.

Ask Looker to check the local juvenile record files, pretty sure I heard something about her continuing activist work and getting into trouble not too long ago.

Hilda managed to catch up with Jimmy; she confirmed that he has encountered Subject 12B during anime,manga and gaming conventions before, but no events of great significance took place between them. Probably.

Glad I could be of help.

N.

***

Cirno plopped herself into the bottom of the orb she was trapped in and huffed loudly.

She had spent the better part of an evening once again trying to break out of the orb, trying everything from ice blasts to hammering on it with her fists to combining both and ice-fisting it. At least that was what she was calling it for now, she couldn't come up with a better name.

Thus far however the orb's inner walls had proven stubbornly immune to physical, elemental or magical damage and it was frustrating the fairy to no end. She decided that sooner or later if she kept going at it the stupid orb would just give up and break. Eventually.

"I don't like it here. Its too dark," she announced loudly to her surroundings after another round of useless efforts. She waited and received no answer, which was only natural since the other occupants of the neighbouring spheres were all puppets. They might behave like the youkai they were modelled after, albeit to a hyperbolic, exaggerated degree, but when alone they did nothing, for their magic programming required them to only be activated by proximity to a human or a puppet outside an orb.

Cirno however was not a puppet. She was the bona fide fairy of ice from Gensokyo, accidentally transported here in exchange for Bill Masaki. Amber's Voice-powered reality warping abilities were capable of transforming appearance, granting new powersets, changing perceptions and paradigms to suit her world views and so on, but they were incapable of transforming a human into another youkai altogether, so they had done the next best thing and substituted one for the other instead.

Of course, Cirno was aware of none of this. All she knew was that one moment she was there and next she was here. Here being in Bill's house, where she had promptly froze Amber in a block of ice and fled, yet in the end by sheer bad luck the paths crossed again and she had been captured.

Thus far Cirno had attempted to escape while in the Daycare and later the PC but every time she almost made it out Amber had returned for her. She was running out of ideas.

She pouted at the orb's walls and announced loudly "IT'S DARK IN HERE AND I DON'T LIKE IT," in case someone would hear her.

To her surprise she received a reply of "Yeah, me too."

Cirno thought for a long time and finally remembered where she had heard that voice before. "Reimu Hakurei?!"

"I'm guessing that voice I'm hearing is Cirno, right?"

"What are you doing here? You can't be a puppet right?

"No. I'm in the Yin-Yang Orb."

"But if you're in an orb you must be a puppet because you're too big to fit in an orb."

"It IS me," sighed Reimu. "Apparently some Voices are worshipping me as the bringer of Synchronisation or something like that, and that faith alone has put me on the goddess level, so that's why the real me was dragged here. I don't even know what synchronisation is or what I can do with it. Sheesh. I bet Sanae doesn't have to deal with this crap. Why am I even telling you all this, I don't know either," she groaned again as she realised her words were just wasted on Cirno, who probably hadn't understood anything she had said.

"Actually Sanae is here."

"Wait, what? I thought it was me and Marisa who were being worshipped here, how did she-"

"I mean, Sanae the puppet not Sanae the person."

"Oh."

Reimu would have said more if not for the fact that at that point the conversation was abruptly interrupted by the bag being overturned and both their orbs being tipped out into the grass below.

"I thought I heard someone having a conversation without me," said Amber cheerfully. "Strange. I thought puppets can't talk in their orbs."

"For the LAST TIME, I AM NOT A PUPPET!!!"

"Ok, just for being rude, you're getting a timeout," said Amber, stuffing Cirno back inside the bag amid muffled yells. "You however, the Reimu puppet, you can come out."

There was a swirl of lights and a disgruntled looking miniature Reimu appeared, examined her brand new chibi proportions with mild annoyance and looked at Amber squarely in the eye.

"So you're the girl causing us all this trouble." she said, crossing her arms.

Amber frowned. This was new behavior she hadn't got from a Boneka before. "Who's us?"

"Us being all the people involved in making sure your fantasies don't cause the destruction of two universes," said Reimu flatly. "Also believe or not I'm real. As is Cirno."

Amber seemed to take a while to process this, slowly mouthing out the words Reimu had said. "But....how do you prove that you're-"

"Do Boneka have the ability to remain conscious and talking while inside an orb?"

She waited as the penny slowly dropped and Amber's face lit up. "Oh my GOSH you really are the real Reimu! Tell me, what must it be like to have fun adventures every day and walk among fairies and vampires and witches and gods, and do whatever you want without people judging and expecting things of you and lead your own life and do magic, real magic and -"

Amber paused in her squeeing when she realised that Reimu Hakurei was beginning to chuckle.

"Seriously girl, I don't know where you got the travel brochure, but the Gensokyo I live in isn't anything like that.  Adventures? Fun? Freedom? You tell me what those are when everyday you're standing as the only person on the fine line between humans and youkai trying to stop the fragile peace from fracturing. Every. Single. Damn. Day. Everytime something goes wrong, someone wants to fight someone one else, something important goes missing? I have to deal with it. Because its my gods damned duty.  Yeah sure, no one tells me what to do but that's because I got practically no friends except Marisa, most humans don't trust me for being close to youkai and vice versa." she added bitterly.

Amber tried to open her mouth to speak but Reimu was on a roll now. "Half the time I hardly have enough money to feed myself, let alone keep the freaking shrine going. Some shrine maiden I am, I don't even know which gods I serve and the ones I do know are freaking idiots who can't do shit without squabbling. Least your gods have some amount of sense to do something when the world is at stake. And the rest of the youkai aren't much better. Liars. Killers. Monsters. The more cute or beautiful they are the worst they are under the frilly dresses. You want excitement and adventures and magic? Sure, try walking in my shoes for a mile without getting freaking literally near-murdered daily by spells designed to drain your blood and rip out your soul."

Reimu angrily gestured at the general area around them, not noticing that Amber's lower lip was beginning to tremble. "You have a normal life! A world without magic! A government supported career scheme for youths! And not only do you not appreciate what you have, you want so much more that your desire is causing both yours and my universes to clash. Are you so selfish that you would tear the fabric of reality apart to make this stupid half-assed imaginary dreamworld exist? And what  are you doing now," she said, for Amber had squeezed her eyes shut and seemed to be holding her breath, and her face was now a faint shade of purple. Her shoulders were shaking slightly.

"A you trying to wish it all away? Wish me out of existence? Undo what you did? Grow up. Seriously. This is real, as real as me standing in front of you right now and as real as the baka fairy in your bag who don't belong here." Reimu took a deep breath, trying to compose herself from shaking as well, and wiped her eyes to conceal the tears of rage that had formed. "I'm gonna call it a night. You should too, for your own sake."

With that, she vanished back into the orb, leaving Amber Hearn alone with the harsh words still hanging in the air.