/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Eientei's attic was in need of a good dusting, but it seemed that none of the rabbits could find the time to get around to it. Marisa landed silently, in the square of light that the moonlight illuminated. She dropped to her knee, then quickly scanned the room to make sure that they weren't at risk of being caught immediately. Just like last time, there was nothing up here but some leftover objects that Marisa remembered Kaguya displaying at her Lunar Capital Expo. Marisa had considered stealing them, but decided that if they were here, they were unlikely to have any real value.

Tenshi dropped in behind her, and the square of light disappeared as she did so, meaning she had successfully covered their entrance. Marisa looked back at her, squinting in the sudden darkness. "I think I can remember where I went." She whispered, fumbling around in her pockets for a vial. It was something she regularly used to gather rare items during night storms. Finding it, she downed it, then smiled as her eyes rapidly took to the darkness, letting her see even in the near-pitch black of the attic. It wouldn't last very long, she they would have to hurry.

She turned, finding the stairs down from the attic immediately. Clearly, no one had done anything to secure the entrance after Mokou and Marisa's last infiltration. It made sense, because a lot of things had happened in that time. Slowly, she crept over to them, then breathed a sigh of relief when she saw no one at the bottom. She looked over her shoulder and motioned Tenshi to follow her, then stole down the stairs as quickly as she could.

Eientei's layout was confusing at the best of times, with far too many staircases and sub-levels. Marisa had been imprisoned in one of them on the last infiltration, and she had no desire to end up there again. She looked down the two hallways, which both simply receded into the darkness that even her enhanced eyes couldn't penetrate, then decided to head in the opposite direction to her first attempt. Right as she took her first step, Tenshi laid a hand on her shoulder. "Not that way." She whispered.
"How the hell would you know?" Marisa asked with a frown.

"I can feel the air currents at a far more minute level than you. That way will only take you further away. Besides, if we're looking for anything here, it's the Doctor, right?" Marisa was forced to concede that point, and nodded begrudgingly. “So, she’ll be nearer to the clinic.” Tenshi continued, clearly pushing her to accept the point. She turned, heading back down the same path she had taken the first time, Tenshi following behind her.

In the unnatural light provided by the potion that Marisa had taken, every hallway had the same almost monochrome shade. Tenshi kept her hand on Marisa's shoulder, both to ensure they stuck together and to keep either of them from running into anything suddenly. Tenshi proved to be a perfect companion for this sort of thing, because every time Marisa turned down a hallway that would have led her away from the entrances to the mansion and further into the subterranean confusion, she would squeeze Marisa's shoulder and shake her head.

"I thought you said that it wouldn't be confusing if the Lunarian Princess wasn't here." Tenshi whispered to her as they passed through another hallway that looked the exact same, that Marisa was certain they had already been through. "Because, as far as I can tell, it's still very confusing."

"I said we'd be done for if she was." Marisa said, looking back at Tenshi and trying not to think about how exposed she felt in the hallway. "Her power is eternity, so the layout is still messed up, but she's not here to mess it up further." She looked down the gloomy corridor, wondering just how far it went in the darkness. "If she was, we wouldn't be leaving without her say so." She couldn't help but get the feeling that they had already travelled further than physically possibly given the dimensions of Eientei from the outside. It reminded her of the Eternal Night incident, when Marisa and Alice had taken the path after Eirin, and found themselves passing through a corridor that had seemed to stretch on forever. Hopefully, the good Doctor wouldn't be waiting to skewer them with arrows on this attempt either.

And in fact, it was starting to look like no one would be waiting at all. The unnatural silence of Eientei was starting to creep into her mind, magnifying and amplifying the slightest sound, until at one point, she heard Tenshi take a breath and whipped her head round, certain that she would see a rabbit's mochi pounding hammer swinging into her head. When Tenshi looked back at her with something between curiosity and concern, she took a shaky breath and tried to calm her nerves. It was all the time spent avoiding Eientei, she was sure. It had built up Eirin Yagokoro's image in her mind, twisting her into some kind of monstrous figure that would swallow her whole, never to be found again.