Hong Meiling Sleepwalks Through the Heavens

Remilia Scarlet’s chuckle echoed through the mansion, “After the mist spreads across Gensokyo, some people may come to cause trouble for us at the mansion. All of you – put in all your effort to push our enemies back and prevent them from thwarting my great plan!”

“…”

Patchouli Knowledge simply flipped through her novel in silence. Her silence was deafening, as if she was trying to convey that Remilia’s plan of maintaining the scarlet mist will become unfruitful. However, she still remained silent since she was perfectly fine with indulging in her friend’s delusions of grandeur.

“Mistress, do not worry,” Sakuya Izayoi’s voice echoed firmly as she placed her hand over her heart. “No matter what, I will not let our future enemies ruin your plan.”

Hong Meiling side-eyed Sakuya and sighed inwardly. Sakuya may be loyal to Remilia, but according to Meiling’s knowledge, Sakuya was not working for Remilia when the Vampire Mutation Program occured. Currently, Sakuya is nothing but an naïve, innocent girl who has no idea how powerful the residents of Gensokyo are.

Like Patchouli, Meiling knew that the Scarlet Mist Incident will inevitably be resolved, so she too, remained silent.

Remilia was a little unsatisfied at the lone answer and grumbled, “Patchy, Meiling? What are you two thinking about?”

Well, I think your plan is going to go to waste – just like your Vampire Mutation Program… haven’t you learnt your lesson yet?

Of course, Meiling did not speak her mind. With Remilia’s unmoving gaze on her, she quickly flashed a smile and gave a thumbs up, “I will do my best as the mansion’s gatekeeper to prevent trespassers from entering.”

Patchy yawned as she flipped over the next page of her book.

Remilia and Patchouli have been close friends for many years, so Remilia simply gave Meiling a confident smirk of approval.

Well, Patchy’s helping her implement the Scarlet Mist Incident. Nothing better can prove their close relationship.

Shortly after, the meeting was adjourned. Sakuya left deeper into the mansion to notify the fairy maids about the plan, while Meiling returned to the gate to begin practicing her newfound abilities.

The abilities that she obtained have undergone important changes, namely, they do not require chakra nor seals to activate. Instead, Meiling is required to harness her qi to cast them.

As an example, [Adamantine Sealing Chains] are able to physically restrain an opponent, as well as inhibit their chakra; Meiling’s version is able to inhibit all kinds of special, inherent powers that courses through one’s body.

Of course, that doesn’t mean she had instantly obtained an overpowered ability – she must still practice and learn through trial-and-error.

This is true for most of Meiling’s abilities. She pushes herself hard to practice utilizing her limitless supply of qi and implementing it into martial arts – she knew the importance of practicing and training.

Plus, Meiling is a quick learner. For her training regime, she developed a plan to reduce her siesta times and instead practice – doing this avoids Sakuya’s incessant nagging as well.

Peering into her mind, she remembered that once all of her [Dream Energy] is depleted, she will return to the waking world in Gensokyo. However, since Meiling was forcibly awakened by Sakuya, she still has 47 Dream Energy left.

In other words, she only needs to replenish 53 points to ‘sleepwalk’ into the next world.

Meiling wasn’t in a hurry to do so. She wanted to master her new abilities first.

She allocated six hours of sleep per day, and spends most of the other eighteen hours practicing.

The day after the meeting, a deep, scarlet mist began permeating throughout Gensokyo, and the mist was most intense above the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Within just a few hours, the entirety of Gensokyo was shrouded in a scarlet mist, and everybody in Gensokyo begun naming this abnormal situation the [Scarlet Mist Incident].

Meiling simply watched the mist spread as she continued her training. She knew that Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame won’t come knocking on the gate so soon.

Reimu may be the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, but she is extremely lazy. She would only move to solve an incident once it is required of her to do so.

Back in the Touhou game [Shoot the Bullet], Aya Shameimaru, the Tengu reporter, recorded that the Scarlet Mist Incident lasted for more than half a month, which means that the two heroines won’t be here until at least half a month later. For now, she can peacefully practice by the gate.

…

And just like that, a week passed.

Meiling’s training went by swiftly – even if she wasn’t proficient at utilizing the Adamantine Sealing Chains or the Body Flicker Technique, she had at least learnt how to use them.

She wasn’t sure how to shoot out and control several chains at once like Ashina Uzumaki did, but she could at least shoot out a chain from each hand and control them.

As for the Body Flicker Technique, she is now able to phase a considerable distance in one fell swoop.

However, this ability was bound to the ground. This ability is not actually real teleportation – it is simply an extreme movement enhancer, requiring her to exert all of her force onto the ground in the blink of an eye. Hence, she is unable to use this mid-air.

After learning how to utilize the previous two abilities, she began tapping into summoning techniques, which is [Summoning Technique – Katsuyu].

…isn’t this Tsunade’s own slug? From the Shikkotsu Forest?

Gears began winding in her head – both her and the slug are separated across worlds, so how would this summoning technique work? However, she remembered that she somehow invaded into the body and mind of the original Hong Meiling, and brushed her thoughts away. If I got this ability, then it must work!

The summoning method was different from how ninjas would summon a familiar. Following the steps embedded in her head, Meiling bit her right index finger and pressed it on the ground, and at the same time, she injected qi straight into the ground through her arm. A faint psychic array was formed, and she could feel her blood being siphoned into the array, causing it to emit a dull light.

The next moment, a gargantuan slug emerged from the ground, scooping Meiling up as it was pushed out of the summoning array.

This slug was at least over two meters long, far from the usual 100-feet-tall slugs she remembered seeing in Naruto.

After being summoned, the slug looked around blankly, and could feel a person sitting on its back.

What confused the slug was that a psychic contract bound it to the person on its back.

Strange, the slug thought to itself. It never remembered signing other contracts with anyone other than Tsunade.

The slug twisted its eyes inwards, and found that the contract between itself and Tsunade was seemingly dispelled.

Of course, this slug is simply a part of a much, much larger slug, like the infinitely regenerating, severed limb of a starfish. It tried communicating with its original body telepathically, but heard nothing but silence.

The slug was dumbfounded, but soon realized that this world is not the world that it once knew.

It didn’t know where it was, but it knew that the sky above it was shrouded in a strange scarlet mist. It didn’t remember seeing anything like this in its own world.

While it was in a state of confusion, Meiling leapt off its back and came to its front, speaking to it with a hand scratching the back of her head, “Hello, my name is Hong Meiling, and, uh, I guess you’re contracted to me now. I think I’ll name you… hmm… ooh! Sluggy! Do you like it?”

Slugs are typically calm in temperament. It seemed confused at the sudden turn of events, but it quickly calmed down, or at least, forced itself to calm down.

Hearing its new given name, its heart seemed to drop slightly upon studying the features of its new owner. Is this not the legendary ninja who defended Hidden Eddy Village a few days ago?

Presently in the Naruto world, Hong Meiling’s name spread across continents, even reaching the slugs that resided in Shikkotsu Forest.

Mentioning the name ‘Hong Meiling’ instilled great fear within the hearts of even the most powerful of ninjas, and soon, mysterious benefactors would dispatch ninjas to investigate on this strange, green-clothed ninja. However, all the information that they were able to collect is that she suddenly appeared in Hidden Eddy, and disappeared almost immediately after the war with no trace.

Hence, she remained extremely elusive, and not a single ninja in any continent could scourge any other information about her.

What village does she hail from? Who is her master? Why did she help Hidden Eddy? These were all questions that remained unanswered.

Nobody could find her post war, and ‘Hong Meiling’ became the most unexplainable mystery across all ninja villages.

Because of this, ‘Sluggy’ didn’t expect that it would be summoned by this very enigma, and somehow signed a contract with her without it even knowing.

And more unanswered questions drifted across the slug’s head: How did I sign a contract with her? Why is she signing a contract with me?

Why is she so bad at naming things?!

You name me Sluggy just because I’m a slug?! Of all things?! I’d rather you not give me a name…!

No matter how confused or dissatisfied Sluggy was, it knew that Meiling had become its mistress, and gracefully accepted its new name.