/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46437214
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Crash-landing surely hurts, but I can say with certainty that Patchy's face must be hurting ten times more: Smudged eyes all bloodied, a broken nose and jaw a little unhinged, ghostly clothing a gory show—a weird sight, as if seeing a paint-covered mirror from inside the mirror world—and her hair, always so neat and clean, now but a bird's nest.

At least it’s nice her eyes are normal~

She stares at me as I get up, a hand pressed to my mangled neck, and simply says, “You look awful, Meiling.” I blinked… Then I almost laughed. Almost. Everything hurts too much to do so. “Stay put; I cannot dream of wasting an ounce of magic…” She approaches with a weak-looking sigil taking shape in front of her hand, but I take a quick step back, body ready for anything Sekai throws at us next.

“Save your magic, Lady Patchouli. No need to waste it on me.”

She ignores me completely, pressing the sigil against my neck. It burns, but a good kind of burn. “You're a poet when quiet, preferably one with a functional neck.”

I hum, slowly getting on my knees so she could have better access to the wounded spot. My eyes wandered in the meantime, flimsy smile dying; a wasteland of ash and craters, white vapors clouding the skies as pink thunderbolts fell without clear pattern. Ten minutes ago, this was full of critters and flowers… It brings me back to those days of the Taiping Rebellion. “What's her plan?” No more words are needed.

“… I don't know. She's a weird kid.” Patchy closes her eyes for a moment, likely feeling the first signs of magic exhaustion. “Though I could pick up little pieces of a greater plan, it doesn't matter without the rest of the picture.” I nod; if someone could get to the bottom of this, that'd be Lady Patchouli. “She conversed with me a little, however: Spoke cryptically about this… terrible future that awaits me after I leave and return to my physical body. Ailments that'll develop; body that'll decay; and, hm…” Whatever was to come next likely hit harder than what she had previously imagined and trying to speak it out loud stung like an arrowhead. Heart thumping, a bad omen befell me— “Has she conversed with you too, Meiling?”

My body tenses, lips purse, and hands relax—old practices to keep steady even in times of great stress.

The immovable golden pillar in the distance brought back those words Sekai said before downing me in the fury of the entire Scarlet Devil Mansion… Words that got me two knife wounds and a torn neck.

… But it's Patchy, right? Lady Patchouli, always so keen and conniving, with eyes analytical and a presence for the ages. One of no equals, in talent and in mind… And the one that's kept me company for an entire year in this hell. A hell where now no one stands behind my back—a guardian—but by my side.

'Why have you forsaken using 'Lady Patchouli'?', Sekai had asked me…

“S-She said that nothing… Nothing has changed; I'm still the lowest rank in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, merely the gatekeeper.” Lady Patchouli frowns, the cooling magic restoring my strength and bringing back lucidity—a calm smile amidst this wasteland blossoming. “B-But then she told me how much she… loved me. Hugged me, too! H-Haha… What am I to you, Lady Patchouli? A mere servant? The lazy gatekeeper that's always sleeping…?” I ask, never forgetting where we are—a battlefield. At the smallest show of aggression, independently of the horrors this one year of hell has carved on me, I'll defend my lady. Still… Is it really wrong to wish for more from the people around you? Watching Anon every day, standing to his side and never being heard; seeing in his pained eyes how much he longed to be free again, and yet never asking that of the people he trusted.

I wish he’d do so.

… That sight was never short of heartbreaking.

“She's attacking our insecurities.” I gawk at her and the odd words, strained at having my question completely disregarded. What…? Lady Patchouli calmly got up, my neck not hurting as much anymore. “Sekai focused on drawing out that which we hide dearly for whatever emotional reason, then acknowledged them as lies…” She pinches the bridge of her nose, turning her back to me. I stood up, aghast. “You’ve noticed, right? Sekai could've attacked us at any point now… Rather, she let us talk and make each other aware of the things she’d said.” Lady Patchouli pauses—! Suddenly, her spine straightens, eyes broadening as she turns. “… The slowed-down time; the Ki bridge between you and Anon needing to be real; Sekai not having any Ki; the portal I constructed; these ghostly forms—Meiling! She's trying to—”

My Ki screams. I move.

Speed, crippled by the wounds and blood-letting, was just enough to reach Lady Patchouli and shield her from the might of a pink thunder; a sense of déjà vu inside as the bolt of lightning struck the tips of two connected fingers, rippled through my body and was unleashed from the other arm, detonating a crater in the already desolated land, lifting a veil of dust…

>>45193838
Don't worry. I'm sure there is a wonderful human wife just waiting for you.

*filters you*