/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Lemontene couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen anything close to this caliber in size before, it preceded any expectations she could’ve had by tenfold. The halls of Hieda Temple School had nothing on the underbelly of Pandæmonium! It wasn’t very happy, or as colorful, or as fun but hey! Still a pretty cool location. She could already imagine what some of her friends would think of this place. But the little fairy didn’t come down here just to marvel at the size of Makai’s monochrome prison cells. There’s somebody important she needed to find. Thankfully, despite the sprawling almost maze-like size of the prison, the lack of any other real prisoners meant that picking up clues on where youknowwho was stashed would be easy! Strangely enough, the smell of all things would end up making the best radar. It wasn’t long before she could find her target.

“...SuuuuuuuuuuuuuurPRISE!” the fairy jumped out of frame into view of the prison cell. Unbeknownst to her target, Lemontene had dawned the scientist’s old outfit, which she’d found about a few days ago laying in the garbage bin of all things. She still couldn't understand why it was in there. They’re supposed to go in the washer!

Rikako quickly turned her head to the yellow devil in a spur of surprise. “Lemontene? Oh. I wasn’t… uh, anticipating seeing… They’re usually supposed to tell you in advance when somebody’s visiting. How did you…?”

Lemontene laughed. “Who did you expect, Peewee Herman?”

“…”

Rikako didn’t respond with anything verbal, instead choosing to look at the fairy with dead, flat eyes for a couple seconds before going back to her original position to continue dissociating. If seen out of context, one could almost mistake her for a Jiang Shi-like creature or something.

Lemontene chuckled, breaking the awkward silence. “So… sure has been a while since we’ve seen each other. How have you been? Hasn’t been so great for me. I still haven’t gotten to see that Super Secret Dungeon Shinki promised, so I’ve been wondering if you’ve been hanging out any better. Maybe there's any sweet new scientififfy things you've discovered while down here? Just from the… uh… uuuuhm…”

The more Lemontene looked around the room, the quicker it sunk in that something wasn’t okay. Starting with Rikako, her head was a mess of cowlicks and eyebags, accompanying the baggy eyes was an expression drained clean of any sort of enthusiasm. Several plates of barely touched food littered the table placed in the middle of the room, an uneven and messy bed in the back, a strange chunky substance in the corner that looked to be the origin source of the strong scent. However, the worst & most notable thing in the room was a noose placed in the middle of the cell. Lemontene swore she gawked at the scenario dumbfounded for what felt like minutes.

“Oh this?” Rikako asked, pointing to the suspicious rope. “Don’t worry about that… It’s just uh… a nicknack! It’s something I got a couple weeks ago from that Mai girl. I only finally got to putting the thing up recently. Cool huh?”

“Rikako…”

“What? Are you also confused? Don’t worry, I can’t say exactly what kind or type it is yet, but it’s absolutely some sort of dreamcatcher.” Rikako scoffed, the lack of any emotion in her voice wasn’t helping sell this story “I was also at first confused about it. I think it’s a kind of makeshift edition-”

“Why do you have a noose?”