/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>45586580 (2/2—p1)
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Me and Meiling could just… stare. How did we stumble onto this? A youkai of a building, like that of the actual Hakurei Shrine, gestating inside millions of different magical channels and layers of barriers, all masterpieces of the Gap Sage. And her almighty power of sewing others’ powers to herself? What are the possibilities? Every resident of the Scarlet Devil Mansion but Koa has come here, and our powers have been perfectly assimilated. But what about others? So many magic signatures—some I know personally and others a total, tempting mystery…

… And this girl's face, so akin to mine, like looking in a mirror and seeing a younger version of myself.

This whole situation is of complicated confusion and mysteries—she called this place a womb; is this where youkai are formed? Are all of them like this? Do all of them have consciousness before being born?—, begging to be unfolded…

It's luring, mystifying.

The nameless girl sighs, that tiny smile trying to fade away but remaining anyway. Her words started to sink, and my chest clenched. Yukari and Anon are incapable of seeing her; that much is easy to discern, but the rest… Words of sorrow and frustration, of a being without mouth but that so badly wanted to scream and did it the moment someone was there to listen.

I stare at Meiling, mulling if I should tell about my perceptions; she was always closer to the heart than the mind, my polar opposite.

She must’ve misunderstood my eyes because she went and took initiative. "T-That's a lot of responsibilities for a little girl, don't you think?" Her voice had a trembling to it, but she pushed past it; the girl silent as if analyzing variables beyond my wildest thoughts—considering the sheer amount of powers that course her being, her thought cabinet should be near boundless; is she reading our minds? Seeing future? All of it at the same time—

"What? 'Course not." She said it with a pout. The tree behind her pulsed with unlimited, unsoundable energy.

Meiling giggled. "I think it is—you called us your mothers, right?" She frowned, then nodded. Meiling got closer, her steps tense, before kneeling to look the ‘youkai’ in the eyes. "Then why don't you leave that for us?"

—What the…?! What's happening?

"Leave it to you?" Meiling nodded. "… Why?"

"We also want to leave this place, return to the people we love." As if testing waters, Meiling hovered her hands around the girl's shoulders. "So, if we somehow leave, we'll do everything in our power to make Anon and Yukari known of you, okay? While we do that, you should focus on getting… birthed?" She gave a weird smile, and I felt my hands sweating for some reason.

Meiling froze, feeling something in the air I couldn't pos— "You are afraid, mother." The girl said, no judgement to it. "That's why you want me to forsake my only dream."

"No! I—" The guardian swallows dry and, under pressure, finally holds the girl's shoulders. I see the cold shiver that goes through her body. "—Y-Yes… I'm afraid. We don't know anything of you, and your capacities are a mystery… But you're more than just that—destructive powers and mysteries—you're a lone little girl, and I know a thing or two about caring for those."

"… Mum Flandre likes you a lot." A smile pulled Meiling’s cheeks up, and the girl hummed. As nothing bad seems in immediate order, I step towards them, eyes on the tree and its magnificent composition. It's for all accounts an egg, yet it interacts with its environment—I caught a stray leaf and watched the moving image of Anon hugging copious amounts of tiny Inaba rabbits, smile big and truly happy—, shaping it based on laws beyond my understanding, as if the world itself were gestating it— "True Mother will think that when I'm born. It'll be my name: Hata no Sekai."

I looked to the side, the girl and Meiling there; though the latter’s eyes shone, I could tell she was on edge… And I felt why the moment the girl—Sekai—calmly took the leaf from my hand, our skins rubbing together briefly: It was like the touch of a thousand souls, all at once. It was highly disturbing. "What are these leaves?" I asked, Sekai playing with it for a little.

"… Possibilities. Past and future," her eyes narrowed, and she let the wind take the leaf away. "There's more, you know? Two sisters: one father can see, the other neither we can, only faintly feel her. Both cry and rage against the plundering of our birthright, though they're much weaker than me and can't take action. I'm unborn, too; I cannot leave this womb yet." Sekai turns to us, and the background of a massive Sakura of blue starlight gives that simple-looking girl an ominous, enchanting aura. The tree trembles, as does the Fake Shrine. "Free us from this nightmare, Mothers, please… Or, when the first winter star rises, I'll do it myself, and this world will regret its transgressions against my family."

Her words… What's happening?

—I remember her words about our time being short, eyes widening.

"Wai—"