At the end of it all, Nineball Seraph, the strongest Armored Core alive, fell, defeated in Isaac City. But the remains of the legendary sentient AC were never found. One Yukari Yakumo intervened at the last, dropping the wounded machine into the fantastical realm of Gensokyo, to a fateful meeting with the OTHER Nineball. Expect other ACs and Super Robots to appear later, SRW style! - Synopsis
As the synopsis may have informed you, Armored Gensokyo is a crossover between Touhou Project, Armored Core, and Super Robot Wars written by DarkShiftRising (Better known as the writer of The Omega Chronicles). Set after the defeat of Nineball Seraph, the fic starts with Hustler One, the AI piloting Nineball Seraph, attempting to stay online after a vicious battle with Leos Klein leaves him barely operational. However, just as he is about to go offline, Yukari Yakumo herself arrives and, after a few words with the damaged AC, sends him to Gensokyo for, as she puts it, "Why, the rest of [his] life, of course!"
This can only end well.
The fic can be started here
on deviantart, or here on FanFiction.Net.
Armored Gensokyo has the following tropes:
- All There in the Manual: The various pieces of artwork done for this fic by the author sometimes have information on a character, including the benefits they get when they pilot certain mechs and ACs. The comments section for some of these pieces, as well as those on several chapters of the fic itself, also give insight into what direction DarkShiftRising plans to take the series in.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: The story alternates between focusing on Hustler One and Cirno, Beowulf and Yuugi, or (very rarely) Shu and Yukari up until about chapter 49. This has slowed down somewhat since the three groups have come together, though it happens on occasion.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Hustler One absolutely refuses to acknowledge the existence of magic within Gensokyo. Partially Justified by the fact that he comes from a world where magic is non-existent, and to him, "magic" is a very illogical explanation.
- Aroused by Their Voice: If Aya Shameimaru's reaction is anything to go by, Shu has quite the sexy voice, with Aya thinking that he could read a restaurant menu and sound like he was trying to seduce someone.
- Artificial Intelligence: Hustler One and Lana Nielsen. Lana is the more human one, while Hustler One is far more cold and calculating.
- Babies Ever After: According to one piece of related art made by the author, Hustler One and Cirno (as an adult) will construct a child that is a mix of Cirno's magic and Nineball Seraph's technological superiority. It was, at first, a joke based on a
M.U.G.E.N character, but Word of God has stated it is, in fact, now canon.- And, as it turns out, Shu and Yukari will also have a child in the future. Who may or may not get their own Granzon. One can only pray for the safety of Gensokyo.
- Badass Normal: Hong Meiling is this in comparison to other Youkai. All she has is super strength.
- Though the "Normal" part is not entirely true, considering she seems to be part dragon.
- Berserk Button: For the record? Killing the overpowered robot piloting AI's only friend? Not a good idea. Nineball Seraph's rampage after a berserk Beowulf killed Cirno (Nobody told Hustler fairies come back to life) is evidence enough of this. Even after Cirno comes back and Beowulf stops his Einst Wolf personality, Hustler One is still angry enough to punch Beowulf in the jaw.
- Big Eater: Rumia tries to chew on Lana's head before learning she has a Hard Light body. Justified in that Rumia was both hungry and enjoys the taste of human flesh.
- Bigger Onthe Inside: The Scarlet Devil Mansion, partially thanks to Sakuya's ability to manipulate spacial dimensions due to their connection to time
- Birds of a Feather: Shu Shirakawa and Yukari Yakumo. Both are very intelligent, often have motives that are unknown to many, slightly snarky, somewhat vain, and have some way of manipulating space-time. (Shu has the Shin Neo Granzon, and Yukari has her Youkai powers). So naturally, there's a subtle hint of romance in their dialogue.
- Although, said subtlety went out the window in the chapter after the one they're formally introduced in.
- Boring Yet Practical: Nineball and Cirno's combination, Kelvin Zero. All it does is make it impossible for Nineball Seraph's systems to overheat and, therefore, run for a near limitless amount of time. Said systems include its weapons and boosters. Any Armored Core fan will tell you how absolutely broken that would be on something like Nineball Seraph.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: Meiling manages to knock Hustler One into Misty Lake, which, even for a Youkai, is pretty impressive. Usually, however, it's more of a Downplayed example, as she can only do that kind of thing with short bursts of Ki.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Parsee towards Yuugi, so much so that, when Yuugi gets a look of pure joy from the fight with the Einst Wolf, she goes ballistic, claiming she's the only one that should make Yuugi have that face.
- Parsee also goes ballistic when she thinks Beowulf is trying to take Yuugi from her by seducing Yuugi. Little does she know that Beowulf is pretty much asexual.
- Crossover: Between Touhou Project and Armored Core, with a dash of Super Robot Wars. And it is glorious!
- Deader than Dead: The original Beowulf is this. During the monstrous final battle between Shu and Yukari against his still barely alive remains, his mind was completely destroyed, leaving behind an empty, but still very much alive, body. After several hundred years of slumber, and awakening once more in Gensokyo completely insane, his fight with Yuugi resulted in 'destroying' his insanity, leaving him unconscious and allowing Satori to stitch his psyche back together utilizing the remnants of the original, destroyed Beowulf. The result is that Beowulf awakens once more, with a new, non-Einst personality, but with the body and battle experience of the old Beowulf.
- The Engineer: The Kappas, who are currently in charge of the reconstruction and upgrading of Nineball Seraph.
- Fangirl: Sanae is one for giant robots in general, Nineball Seraph (and it's piloting A.I. Hustler One) included. So much of one that she has a cosplay outfit of Nineball Seraph that she puts on almost immediately after she finds out Nineball is in Gensokyo. This also means she's one of the three people to immediately recognize the Neo Granzon. Which she, perhaps rightfully, proceeds to run from while screaming at the top of her lungs.)
- Fish out of Water: Part of the comedy and drama of this fic comes from the fact that Lana and Nineball are trying to figure out how Gensokyo works.
- Like a Duck Takes to Water: That said, Lana actually adjusts to Gensokyo pretty quickly, even learning how to utilize Danmaku incredibly quickly.
- Genius Ditz: Cirno is a few cans short of a six-pack, but if Hustler One's simulations and reaction are to be believed, then Cirno has some bit of tactical genius going for her.
- Giver of Lame Names: Yukari has a great deal of power. Creative names are not part of that, as Remillia notes their name for their plan (Armored Gensokyo) is far too good for it to have been the border yokai's idea.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Beowulf, although it's more like 1/3rd Human, 1/3rd Einst, 1/3rd Oni, and that's not getting into the contents of his psyche.
- Hidden Depths: Chapter 49 reveals Cirno is very much aware she and her friends are not exactly the strongest beings in Gensokyo, but her self-confidence is still very much real (or at least centuries worth of faking it until she makes it).
- Improbably Female Cast: It's a crossover fanfic that involves Touhou, it's to be expected.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Satori has this reaction with pain medication instead of alcohol upon seeing what Parsee's fight with Beowulf did to her house (specifically the onsen portion)
- Insistent Terminology: Hustler One at refuses to refer to the ambient magic in Gensokyo as "magic", instead referring to it simply as "That energy", and even has to resist the urge to scrub his data banks when he does refer to it as magic.
- Intrepid Reporter: How Aya Shameimaru sees herself, although many citizens of Gensokyo see her more as a Paparazzi. From what we've seen, how she works is a bit of a mix of the two.
- Lamarck Was Right: 9, the future child of Hustler One and Cirno, has both the supreme technology of Nineball Seraph, and Cirno's magical expertise. Justified because 9 is a robot who was built to work as such.
- Magitek: Nineball quickly learns he can use the magic of Gensokyo as a main source power.
- A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Read: A Downplayed example. Satori mentions that one thing she dislikes about her Third Eye is that she knows what everyone thinks about her, which influences her actions in public, as she doesn't wish to hear people thinking anything too negative about her. However, thanks to complications that occurred while repairing Beowulfs mind, his mind can't be read. She's actually THANKFUL for this, as it means there's one person she feels comfortable being much more casual around.
- Mundane Utility: Yukari's method of updating the main cast as to what's going on? Using her portals to host a conference call.
- "No. Just… No" Reaction: Reimu has a minor one upon realizing Yukari may actually be dating Shu. Satori agrees.
- Noodle Incident: We're told five things: It was in a shower, Beowulf and Parsee do not and will not talk about it, Yuugi was involved, fires were caused, and it's the incident that lead to Satori allowing Beowulf to live in her mansion.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Sakuya and Lana pull this on each other (First Sakuya, then Lana) so as to perform a "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards one another. Funny enough, it causes them to start... well, like is a strong word, more like not absolutely hate each other.
- Odd Friendship: Hustler One and Cirno, a giant mech controlling AI and a fairy that controls ice, respectively. They apparently get along well enough that, eventually, they'll construct a child together named simply '9', who looks like Cirno with Nineball Seraph's color scheme.
- Oh, Crap!: Hustler One has this reaction upon realizing he was teleported into Gensokyo... Thousands of feet above the ground.
- Lana Nielsen and Sakuya have this reaction upon realizing Hustler One and Cirno are getting along. Lana has no idea why she feels that way, but Sakuya has this reaction because she realizes that Nineball + Cirno's "idiot genius" = bad news.
- The Neo Granzon appearing pretty much causes this reaction in everyone, though it's more pronounced in Sanae and Beowulf, who know just how terrifying Shu and his mech can be.
- Only Friend: Though it has as much to do with the fact that Hustler One hasn't really been in Gensokyo for long as much as him being cold and somewhat emotionless, Cirno is basically Hustler One's only real friend at this point. Lana doesn't really count as she's technically a part of his programing, plus they tend to keep their relationship a bit more professional.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Lana and Sakuya exchange these in chapter 41, mostly regarding their views on humanity. Interestingly, both concede that the other has some good points, and agree to disagree.
- Rule of Cool: As admitted by the author, the main reason he wrote this is because he though this was a cool idea, and it was a shame nobody had done this before.
- Shout-Out: Daiyousei thinks that Rumia may have opened a box with an Eldritch Abomination that will eat her, but then dismiss it.
- Yukari mentions that Shu has a strong dislike of a "Dr. Kihara".
- One of the trashy romance novels Koakuma reads is called "Ninjas of Love."
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Yukari and Shu have a bit of this going on between them. Word of God states (Half joking, half serious) that this is essentially their equivalent to flirting.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Cirno and Hustler One get along quickly. Mostly because he figures out that Cirno's seemingly stupid tactics are, in reality, quite devastating to anyone caught on the wrong end (when physically possible for Nineball Seraph to pull off), but at the same time it quickly becomes apparent Hustler One sees her as a friend for more than that.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Shu Shirakawa's main method of keeping people from discovering his and Yukari's activities? Use the Neo Granzon to destroy the entire area with Black Hole Cluster.
- Later events, however, shows he generally is a lot more stealthy in his actions. Destroying the arena Nineball was found in was probably done to make sure the lack of a body made some degree of sense.
- Too Much Alike: This is half the reason Lana and Sakuya can barely stand each other. Both are very capable combatants with VERY similar personalities and killer instincts that cause them to try to kill the other one under suspicion the other one will try to kill them (which leads to the other one trying to kill the one who started it in self defense).
- Troll: Shu and Yukari, of course.
- Villain Team-Up: Shu Shirakawa and Yukari Yakumo have apparently decided to team up, although like anything involving the two, it's impossible to tell for what value of villainous, as well as why. Although, considering their constant... flirting, part of the reason may be that they're dating.
- Wham Line: More than a few of the chapters end with one, but of the biggest may be the one from chapter 32. Not because of what was said, but because of who said it.“But not your mind.” [Reimu] said flatly. “You are an Einst, after all.”
