/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Koakuma will still be here, of course." Patchouli suddenly said. The need to reassure Sakuya seemed to have broken through. "She will continue to recover the books and other tools that were thrown around when the library was destroyed. She can, I'm sure, attest to the fact that I am taking better care of myself now." Patchouli would make no mention of the fact that yet another note had slipped out of Sekai's book the previous night. She would definitely not mention that it had told her to go to bed on time. No, Sekai would not be getting into her good graces that easily. "Sakuya, I am not foolish. I can take care of myself, much as you take care of us in the mansion."

Sakuya nodded hesitantly. "...Yes, I know. I apologise, Lady Patchouli."

"It is not a sin to be concerned for someone's wellbeing." Patchouli replied unthinkingly. She'd been thinking of Sekai again, and her notes begging Patchouli to let her die if it came down to it. "Even if it may be overbearing." Or foolish. What would be the point of it all if Sekai decided to sacrifice herself to keep Meiling from dying? Foolish child. "Now, I really must take my leave."

"O-Of course, Lady Patchouli. Safe travels." Sakuya finally bowed, and Patchouli Knowledge left the library. Koakuma would continue to work, and Patchouli was sure that she'd already completely destroyed any semblance of sorting in the ever-growing pile of recovered books taking up floor space. It would certainly have been good if Marisa had been capable of performing that sort of labour at the moment, though doing so would more likely induce a different kind of labour entirely. Fortunately, Patchouli already had some thoughts on that. A few carefully applied potions and seals, and perhaps some sort of essence from a tanuki, and she could likely give Marisa back her regular body, unimpeded by her pregnancy for a short period of time. Perhaps, if she included something that evoked the idea of youth, she could temporarily return Marisa to her physical prime. It was certainly something that would come up soon, given the rapidly approaching Solstice, and the whispers in the back of Patchouli's mind about a great battle to be fought on that day.

For now, she needed ingredients to work on Sekai's body. Some were easy to come across, such as bark from a tree. That, she had decided, best evoked the idea of the skin of the body. Something that formed a barrier to protect the insides. She'd thought of perhaps the skin of a fruit, but had decided against it. The skin of a fruit wasn't tough in comparison. It didn't provide as effective of a barrier. Some other ingredients were more esoteric. Something that evoked a beating heart, for example. Sekai was a god, so it was arguably unnecessary, but Patchouli felt that it was best to give the child as many tools as possible to work with when it came to reshaping her body in the future.

Alchemy, of course, was a highly individual art. Many of its concepts revolved around what properties a material was thought to have, or what was believed about it. It seemed that thinking like a poet made understanding the reactions easier. It was easier, for example, to make a potion that would be absorbed into the skin by including fangs, or porcupine quills, as these are associated with penetrating the skin. Similarly, spider webs were known to be sticky, so including them into a potion could help imbue the finished result with said stickiness.

Where Patchouli was going with this, was that she needed something that evoked the idea of something sewing itself back up. This, in a sense, would let her imbue Sekai's body with the ability to heal itself. She also, on a different note, needed something to capture the dexterity of the body, and fortunately, she knew where she could get both.

Unfortunately, she also knew that the Kurodani family were otherwise engaged.

Still, that wasn't going to deter her. She would wait, if it was necessary. Yamame Kurodani was an unparalleled seamstress despite her words to the contrary, and she was an orb-weaver besides. That covered both of her requirements.

Patchouli pulled open the doors to the mansion and floated outside. The snow blanketed everything. Technically, the Solstice was the beginning of Winter, but it hadn't stopped the snow from arriving early. She wondered why Sakuya hadn't come to her to arrange for the snow not to fall on the mansion, as she had once done for the rain. Then again, the right time for that would have been in the depths of her compounding sleep and concentration problems, so she most likely wouldn't have made much headway anyway. Sakuya, it seemed, had noticed her poor state earlier than she'd let on. And...Perhaps the snow blanketing the gardens of the mansion was rather pretty.