Ever wonder why Sakuya never used the Marisa card?
"Yawn... already? Where am I?"
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, looking left to right. The first thing I noticed was the absolute lack of my usual ceiling. Instead, I was sitting precariously on the concrete edge of a massive rooftop.
"Eh!? What am I doing here?!"
I jumped up, my voice pitching higher than usual before the sudden realization hit me like a flying grimoire. Wait, I'm Marisa! Before I could even begin to figure out what kind of boundary-flipping nonsense was happening, a stark purple portal tore open right in front of me.
"Hello, Marisa~" Yukari said, casually stepping out of the gaps.
"Where am I?! An—" I started, but I was immediately cut off by the gap yokai's frustratingly calm voice.
"To be honest, I don't know either," Yukari shrugged. "But Sakuya, Flan, and Remilia are currently stuck in the Hellsing world, and I am busy teaching Ruby and Miku about danmaku and such."
"Alright, get your old hag energy out of here, because I know that I am the main character here!" I yelled.
Without waiting for another cryptic explanation, I raised my boot and kicked Yukari right back into her own portal.
Pop.
"Now that she's out of the way, time to see what I am working with here," I muttered, brushing off my outfit.
Right on cue, a glowing neon system window materialized directly in front of my face.
[ It's me, Author-san! Because you keep bullying me, I decided to send you somewhere else. Think of it as a side arc/side story! So, you're currently in the world of Gundam. When you achieve the mission, you get to go to another world, which is another... Mecha anime! Suck it! ]
My eye twitched. "...YOU MOTHERFU—!"
After some time spent aggressively pacing the rooftop and cursing the heavens...
"You seriously decided to send a magic person into a world of giant robots?! Well... at least it's not a magical girl anime. I guess I can be happy about that, but I am still mad!"
I huffed, tapping the screen to bring up the official mission prompt.
[ Mission Objective: Survive the One Year War. ]
[ Rewards: Patchouli Transformation Card, Marisa Glock, Memes. ]
"Sounds easy enough, ze~"
I grinned, adjusting the brim of my precious witch hat. I started walking down the fire escape and hit the streets, wandering until I noticed a massive crowd of people lining up outside a government building. Curious, I walked up to a guy near the back.
"Excuse me, sir, what are you standing in line here for?" I asked.
"We are signing up for the military to join Zeon," the man replied, his eyes filled with nationalistic pride. "For our independence!"
"Mhm... Eh, what the heck. I will join, da ze~"
Shrugging my shoulders, I stepped right into the queue behind them. After a brief wait, I officially enlisted in the Army of Zeon and was assigned to the mobile suit corps. Amazingly, the recruiters didn't even ask about my black-and-white witch outfit. They probably just desperately needed warm bodies for the front lines.
(Timeskip cause the author is lazy as hell)
A whole year passed. It was now U.C. 0079—the official start of the One Year War.
By pure coincidence, my enlistment landed me a spot piloting a Zaku II. I had to admit, it was incredibly fun, even though a part of me still wanted to go to a proper fantasy anime so I could show off my actual magic. Currently, my squad and I were being deployed to the dense jungles of Southeast Asia.
"Marisa, you ready?" a voice crackled over the intercom.
"You know it, ze~" I replied, flipping switches and running the final diagnostic checks on my Zaku II.
Ahead of us, the massive cargo doors of the Gaw attack carrier groaned open, letting the roaring wind rush into the hangar.
"Get ready to drop!" another pilot shouted, immediately walking his massive machine forward and jumping out into the sky.
"Yippee!" shouted another, dropping right after him.
"Last one alive locks the door!" the third pilot joked, plunging into the atmosphere. I slammed my thrusters forward, jumping right down after him.
As we fell through the clouds, our Zakus deployed massive specialized parachutes, allowing us to hit the muddy ground with zero complications. I swiveled my mono-eye camera around, taking in the dense canopy of trees surrounding our landing zone.
"Alright, stay frosty on me," Eric, our squad leader, commanded over the secure channel. "And remember, this is a night mission. Try to be as quiet as possible."
Eric's Zaku moved to the front, with the rest of us filing in behind him.
To give you a bit of backstory: we were a standard four-Zaku squad. Three of us were equipped with standard Zaku machine guns, while Yuki carried the heavy Zaku bazooka.
"Marisa, have you heard? The Feddies got themselves their own mobile suits," Cal muttered over the comms.
"Yes, I did... Though I heard that they are incredibly powerful," I replied, keeping my sensors on high alert.
"Please, they probably just copied our Zakus to make their own," Cal scoffed.
"Be quiet, I am picking up something," Eric interrupted, causing us all to freeze in our tracks.
I immediately started scanning the foliage, but my radar was clean. "I don't see anything, boss."
"...Yuki! Fire on 233!" Eric ordered suddenly.
Yuki didn't hesitate. She raised her Zaku bazooka and opened fire directly at the designated coordinates.
BOOM!
The explosive shell detonated perfectly, revealing a hidden GM Ground Type. Its left arm was completely blown off from the blast, but its remaining hand instantly brought its weapon to bear on us.
"Enemy mobile suit!" I yelled.
We opened fire simultaneously, our machine gun rounds shredding the damaged GM Ground Type until it collapsed. But before we could celebrate, two more GM Ground Types jumped out from the treeline, firing their weapons. We immediately scattered, diving for cover behind the massive rock formations.
"Yuki, stay in the back! Marisa, you defend her while me and Cal handle these mobile suits!" Eric barked, leaning out from cover to return fire with his machine gun.
As Cal and Eric engaged the two GMs, my radar suddenly began to ping frantically. More signals were rapidly approaching our position.
"Eric, I think their Federation reinforcements are coming!" I warned.
"I got you now!" Cal yelled on the other channel, successfully closing the distance and striking a GM Ground Type with his glowing Heat Hawk.
But my mono-eye caught a flash of bright light in the distance. "Cal, look out!"
Without thinking, I fired up my Zaku's thrusters, slamming into Cal's machine and pushing him violently out of the way just as a blazing pink beam of superheated plasma shot right through the space he had been standing in.
"Shit... thank you, Marisa," Cal breathed, quickly bringing his Zaku back to its feet and firing wildly at the source of the shot.
"Beam weapons?!" Yuki gasped from the rear.
"Quick, everyone form up!" Eric commanded.
Emerging from the shadows of the trees was a mobile suit that looked completely different from the mass-produced GMs. It possessed a distinct V-fin and a terrifyingly solid frame. A Ground Gundam.
"Shit, it's the Gundam!" Cal panicked. "What is the White Devil doing here?!" He saw the Gundam face and instantly assumed it was the legendary demon of the Federation.
"We will make an opening for Yuki to take a shot," Eric said, his voice dropping into a grim, determined tone. "Is everyone willing to give their all?"
"Of course I am," Cal growled.
"Copy," Yuki confirmed.
"You know it! Da ze!" I cheered, leaning out and opening fire. My Zaku machine gun roared, peppering the machine, but the solid round kinetic shots bounced effortlessly off its armor.
"This thing is just tanking multiple shots!" Cal yelled as the Ground Gundam raised its beam rifle, firing a shot that Cal barely managed to dodge by throwing his machine into a mudslide.
"I got you now!" Eric shouted. While the Gundam was distracted by our frontline fire, Eric had successfully maneuvered his Zaku completely behind it, raising his Heat Hawk to deliver a fatal strike to the backpack.
But before the axe could fall, a hidden GM Ground Type stepped into the clearing, aiming its beam rifle directly at Eric's machine.
ZAP!
The beam punched cleanly through the Zaku's head camera, causing the massive green machine to collapse forward.
Thud!
"Shit! Yuki, Cal, distract them! I will try to recover Eric!" I yelled.
Firing my jump thrusters, my Zaku launched into the air while Yuki and Cal laid down a heavy wall of suppressive fire against the Ground Gundam and the remaining GM.
I landed heavily behind the enemy lines, drawing my Heat Hawk to strike the Gundam. It reacted with terrifying speed, drawing a beam saber to parry my blow. At the same time, the surviving GM swung its beam rifle toward my cockpit.
BOOM!
Yuki fired a perfectly timed bazooka shell, hitting the GM dead-on and causing it to detonate in a massive fireball. But the distraction cost me; the Ground Gundam delivered a powerful kick to my Zaku's torso, sending me crashing into the dirt. It raised its beam rifle, aiming it straight at my cockpit.
Suddenly, Eric's headless Zaku II—operating entirely on blind luck and manual controls—slammed into the Gundam, knocking it to the ground. Eric's machine opened fire point-blank, the bullets bouncing off the Gundam's chest plate. As the Gundam scrambled to shoot him, I ignited my thrusters, slid across the mud, and swung my Heat Hawk, cleanly severing the Gundam's right arm holding the beam rifle.
"Get back!" I yelled, shoving Eric's headless machine out of the way just as Yuki fired her final bazooka shell, forcing the heavily damaged Gundam to retreat into the jungle.
"Eric, you alive?" Cal asked, his Zaku's arms trembling as he reloaded his machine gun.
"Of * *** I am," Eric's voice cracked over the radio, heavily distorted by static.
"Good to know, but what do we do now?" I asked, looking around the smoking battlefield. Eric's Zaku walked over, placing a giant mechanical hand on my suit's shoulder.
"There's a Zeon base near here. If we can find it, I can repair my Zaku," Eric said, the audio finally clearing up.
"Understood," I said. Hooking my Zaku's arm under his, I helped guide Eric's machine forward, since his primary cameras were completely melted inside the cockpit.
After a grueling amount of walking through the treacherous terrain, we finally managed to cross back into friendly lines. We were given hot rations, and our Zakus were quickly repaired and refueled. But the good news didn't last long.
Word reached the base that Odessa had fallen. Zeon was officially losing its grip on Earth, and a mass retreat back to space was ordered. Gathering the remaining Zeon forces in the Asian theater, our squad made a desperate push toward the HLV (Heavy Launch Vehicle) launch sites. We took heavy casualties from pursuing Federation forces and local guerrilla ambushes along the way.
As we broke through the final perimeter, we saw multiple HLVs already igniting their engines, launching up into the dark sky toward space. Me and my squad immediately turned our weapons around, forming a defensive line to hold off the incoming Federation forces so the transports could escape.
Fortunately, we managed to scramble into the cargo bay of one of the final HLVs just before the doors sealed. The high G-forces pressed us into our pilot seats as the rocket blasted away from Earth.
Next stop: A Baoa Qu, where we were scheduled to receive brand-new mobile suits.
A/N: So, how do you like this side arc where Marisa gets sent to sci-fi animes and not fantasy because she keeps bullying me? :( This will or will not be canon based on your comments in this chapter! If no one comments, I guess I will just continue it and such!