Ruler of Day and Night
Project Orochi: Part One: The Black Gate
A Fine Young Knives Production
Directed by Mecchiyama
Starring Karen Daidouji, Mecchiyama, Cube and Cool
Filmed on 200X-04-16 and 200X-04-17
Written commentary by Mecchiyama with some light editing by Cool
~two mysterious babes
two hot dudes
(one wolf puppy dog, one cerberus)
ten mysterious things
no sleep till london bus café
this is project Orochi~
It was a bright, warm spring Harajuku morning when the dame Mecchiyama and big brother Cool received a letter stamped with a wax seal.
On the outside, a freshly inked signature in fanciful cursive. Handwriting as painstakingly practiced as a professional musician would strum the guitar. The signer? A fellow member of the Nerdrangers. Karen Daidouji, Vocaloid and Touhou sharer, lover and loved by many.
Inside was the assignment! Karen was troubled by spookums of unknowable origins. A doorway without a door in the middle of a wheat field, ripples of auburn against a dark background. Though we were best buddies on the Science Adventure and Papercraft Mixi, we didn't even dream of seeing each other offline.
So. Let's fix that!
Armed with a rental car, a backseat filled with dozens of bottles of Dr. Pepper, and Mecchi's preowned Sony VX2100 to capture the adventure, Cool was gently persuaded to take up the driving duties in his scruffy haired teenage boyo form.
Onward! To the far off land of Itoshima, hot off a BOOKOFF shift that was taking foreeeever. Not one moment of sleep can be spared for our princess in peril.
Mecchi Mecchi Tensei!
THIS IS ‘PROJECT: OROCHI’.
In an almost postage stamp sized video, the backseat of a car is in full view as Mecchiyama sits in the middle with an acoustic guitar on her lap. Several dozen twelve packs of Dr. Pepper accompany her at both sides, some still in De La Mancha bags.
“Are, are you recording?” inquired Mecchi as she looked to the left of the camera.
“I’m watching the road, Mecchi.” sounded a low pitched woman’s voice.
“Well, I can’t see if the camera’s recording or not. We need a better camera!”
“Mecchi,” the low pitched voice paused. “Our ‘fun budget’ was spent on the guitar you’re holding.”
“Mecchi cult, assemble!” Mecchiyama beamed at the camera as a looping acoustic bass line started mid-sentence. Mecchi made a grab for the camera as she swung it around to reveal the driver seat.
Mecchi mirthed, “Today! You’ll get to see me with my big bro Cool. That’s him! In the mysterious hero scarf, the tragic past scar over one eye, frizzy hair and fierce canine legs!”
“Yo.” grunted Cool.
“If he was standing I’d show the girls at home his sexy six pack, but, for the mercy of the boys and boyfriends of the Mecchi cult, we’re stuck back here.”
“There’s plenty of room in the passenger side if you’re willing to drop the guitar.”
“No way! We’ve got to do the Project Orochi theme song!” The camera returned to film the backseat.
“By the way, your nail polish looks nice.” complemented Cool.
“Does it?” Mecchi spread her fingers and wiggled them for the camera as the repetitive, looping bass line continued. “I decided to only polish the tips of my nails black and leave the rest alone. Kinda complements your claws!”
“If you say so.”
“Anyway.” Mecchi adjusted the guitar strap and proceeded to very cautiously eye her movements on the string.
She plucked out a melody, not quite in time, not with the right amount of reverb or resonance that the melody demanded, but she was able to keep in tune for about forty-seven seconds.
“If the Mecchi cult would like to see more music, more cameras, games, maybe even production values? Please donate to our Vine Net account! Every macca you spend goes directly towards more adventures with Mecchi on the road.”
“Mecchi, did you get the map printed out before we left?”
“We don’t need a map!” Mecchi side eyed her brother offscreen. “Just go southwest.”
“I… see.” remarked Cool, wistfully.
Because I know what some are thinking, I’ll say it now: Driving without a map is, in a word, karma.
Our first stop once we realized that we sped straight past the nearest Saizerya was to pick up candy and “real food” from the nearest MiniTCO.
The camera focuses on an image of a storefront in the manner of a 7-Eleven, with the stripes replaced with red, blue and white, fills a dark pavement background. The central logo detail is a circle with lettering spelling “MiniTCO” in lettering legally not that distinct from a very popular discount warehouse. It pulls back to show a lineup of cars and two entrances.
A familiar chipper voice, that being Mecchiyama’s, chimes in.
“Hey, so we’re here in front of the mysterious MiniTCO, because Mecchi has a case of the munchies, and Cool here wanted to get some jerky.”
“Real food.”
“And there’s this car following us that we’ve been IGNORING.”
“Since we left the city limits.” Cool clarified.
“So we’re going to try to get some hot dogs and Kirkland Select brand merchandise to outsmart these folks, and stay within our allowance.”
The camera advances with mild turbulence towards the front entrance.
Mecchi’s voice comes down to a raspy whisper. “Let’s sneak through the cart entrance!”
The view started closing in on the shopping cart-only entrance before a swift force tilts it back towards the actual people entrance.
“Let’s not.” monotone’s Cool’s voice off screen. “Those two watching us in the car aren’t going to be impressed.”
“Fine! Mecchi will just have to find another way of impressing them.” Her camera swerves back to the parking lot, on a 2005 purple Toyota Celica that’s seen better days. The view rocks slightly as Mecchi herself advances, her two drooping orange wings visible from the back. Another individual, assumed to be Cool, continues holding the camera at a shoulder's height behind her.
“HEY GUYS!” Mecchi waves with her two hands and arms with all her might. “Wanna take a break? There’s some wonderful hot dogs and discount pastries inside!” She motions with a thumb back to the legendary MiniTCO.
The shadows inside the car stir for a moment before the driver side door opens with a bolt.
Out comes a long white haired girl with a formal tan jacket, gloves, and bony, bat like, wingless appendages resembling arms and hands from the back of her waist. Her legs have long, rider socks and mary jane shoes. A bony tail, reminding Mecchi of a lizard’s skeleton that she once saw in a museum, was situated under a miniskirt. Her head was crowned with bull horns, focusing on the source of this invitation.
“Mecchiyama.” She closes the door behind her as the passenger side slowly, awkwardly opens. “Setsuna’s fusion accident.”
“HEY, I’ve grown into a star in my own right.” Mecchi interrupted, losing a bit of her nerve.
“You’re eighteen kilometres outside the designated safe area for devils in Tokyo.”
A shaggy head of brown hair could be seen from the other side of the car, the camera focusing on it to catch their next uninvited guest of the hour.
“Um, doesn’t that seem a little harsh to lay on them at once?” Two eyes poked up from behind the other car door, slowly rising to reveal a girl wearing a white jacket, blue collared shirt and skirt, and black tie matching her long socks and polished, formal shoes. “I’m detective Marnie!” saluted the girl with one hand, the other at her side.
“Mixi idol Mecchiyama! Pleased to meetcha!” saluted Mecchiyama, undeterred by the bad cop on the other side of the car.
“Cool.” grumbled a voice behind the camera, the perspective shaking slightly.
“Let’s catch up over dinner!” Marnie glanced at the silver haired girl, who had crossed her arms and was watching them all carefully.
Marnie looked straight at the camera. ”Do you mind…”
“Camera stays on.” grunted Cool. “Filming cops is not a crime.”
“Understood!” Marnie softly chuckled. “Well, leave it to Marnie!”
“Rei Shiraishi.” The white haired devil girl pointed to herself with a gloved thumb. “Don’t do anything you’ll live to regret.”
Cool and I sat and conferred at the curiously affordable convenience store with two card carrying birds of the Devil Control Organization. The hot dogs were light and crispy, the salsa was hot, and the plans were simple:
"We drive for twelve hours, and see how far we get. We can decide at that point whether we want to finish the job or not."
The camera opened to Rei brushing her hair aside with one gloved hand, dipping into a cup of coffee pudding with a teaspoon in her other. Her jacket was open to show her purple bowtie and ruffled blouse shirt, with a lanyard showing her ID card in full view.
“Aren’t you going to interview Marnie, first?”
“After she decides on her cake.” Mecchi’s voice opined. “You’re a very quick decider!”
“So I am.” Rei crossed her legs with a wink. “This is going online, right?”
“With your consent.” Mecchi offered. While it is certainly not the only motive behind keeping the camera rolling, an interview seemed like a reasonable compromise to learn more about their pursuers. And of course, any content is content.
“Granted.” Rei deadpanned in between bites. “You’re going pretty far for two subordinates that never thought of leaving Tokyo.”
“Well, Setsuna’s pretty good about taking care of himself…”
“Besides that time he got stabbed.” interjected Cool.
“We were there, though!” Mecchi chirped. “Don’t know if we helped much, though.”
“We tried.” Cool conferred. “He got better. Still, it sure took awhile for him to recover.”
Rei quickly scribbled a few notes in her pocket notepad as the sibling demons mused about Setsuna’s fate.
“Say, maybe you’d happen to know of why?” Mecchi asked Rei.
Rei put away her notepad in one flick of her wrist. “Maou aren’t invincible, as you should know.”
“Setsuna’s survived some pretty impressive death blows in the past, like that time he had a concrete stake driven through his heart!”
“Tell me more.” Rei clicked her pen.
“No.” Cool interrupted. “We’d like to more about why you’re here, now.”
Rei didn’t look up from her notepad. “I’m assessing the threat.”
“Where did you come from?” Mecchi was quick to change the subject, in her own way. “Makai doesn’t produce many Devil Children that look like you.”
“Saint Classico, Cruor Makai.” Rei raised her gaze and put away her belongings, pushing herself slightly away from the table to reveal the Heckler & Koch HK91A2 assault rifle slung at her shoulder.
“Hey, guys!” Marnie approached the table with a slice of tuxedo cake in hand, waving at the camera with her other. “This place is so much friendlier on the wallet than a FamilyMart!”
“It’s a Costco reseller, Marnie.” Rei stated matter of factly.
“Well, I happen to like their big huge blueberry muffins!” Marnie defended herself. “Reminds me of what mom used to make!”
“How’d you get into this line of work, Marnie?” asked the camerawoman, Mecchiyama.
“Oh, I was the hometown detective, helping out with local cases all the time on my dad’s allowance.” plucked Marnie. “And then dad told me that there were openings in the DCO, so I decided, why not give it a try?”
“And he let you sign up for a job hunting down demons?” inquired Cool.
“Well.” Marnie put a finger to her cheek. “I might not have been fully honest about which branch of the police force I signed up for.”
“He knows now.” Rei asserted.
“I guess so.” Marnie grinned nervously.
“I’ve never heard of a blood region of Makai.” Cool probed with a raised eyebrow, taking Rei’s identification into further consideration.
“Makai’s changed a bit since you’ve been last there.” Rei explained. “You know that there’s no daimaou, no king on the throne.”
“I didn’t.”
“Then maybe you should head back there instead of further out here. For all our sakes.” Rei tapped her rifle twice.
“We’re actually out here to investigate a portal in Itoshima.”
Marnie’s eyes went wide between bites as Rei’s gaze fixed on Mecchi’s declaration.
Undeterred, Mecchi continued, “And see a bunch of the sights and sounds of Japan along the way!”
“It’s a road trip to help an Internet friend.” Cool explained, more succinctly.
Rei’s wings flexed, like fingers on hands closing, then fanning apart, as her tail loosened from her chair. “You two seem completely unaware of what lies outside Tokyo.”
“That’s right!” Mecchi confirmed.
“Well, here’s a tip for you two.” Rei’s eyes fell to a wavering gaze. “That shadow behind the store, where it looks like there’s dozens of emeralds glistening? Liquid cats, watching us all. You can pet them, but don’t try to pick one up for very long.”
Cool shivered a bit in his seat, repressing an urge.
“I hope you two have a good time.” Marnie raised as she was finishing the last bites of frosting from her cake. “It looks like we’ve got bigger business at the Temple of the Wheel.” Marnie pointed at a grid rendered by a tiny, satellite-like robot hovering at her side.
“We’ll be in touch.” Rei hailed. “Don’t make us come sooner than we’d like.”
“Count on it.” Cool snipped, scarfing down his 250 yen hot sauced hotdog in a single gulp.
To be continued!