/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"New Hell won't be as easy to get into" Satori explained. "My agents have told me they're also on the lookout for Yukari's fingers and they're a little less liberal then us when it comes to their borders."

I started to speak, but was interrupted. "And no, you won't be able to 'play dead', bribe the ferry woman, or just fly over it. You'll need someone who can help you cross that unfathomable wide river like Yukari."

I sighed. "Let's say we can't get any assistance, is there some way we could do it ourselves?"

Satori stopped for a moment to think. "No. Overcoming an infinite distance is not within Seija's abilities and even augmented with your help I doubt it's something you could achieve for another one hundred years."

Well, maybe not. Counting infinity didn't seem possible, but Yukari had shown me strange models like shapes with limited volumes but infinite perimeters, perhaps the River Sanzu was the same way? Even if it wasn't, maybe infinity could be conceptually divided into two infinities and a fulcrum could be identified-

"Please, stop thinking about such heavy subjects. My migraine is bad enough today." Satori asked.

"Still struggling with Orin's plan? I'm real sorry for that, I needed as many contingences as possible that work together without being coordinated and her talent for smuggling corpses seemed ideal for that. I didn't think she be so... proactive." I shrugged.

"Don't even remind me, least I relive my own trauma." Satori waved. "Back to the topic, pushing the limits of your co-operation with Seija might endanger your child at this point, so don't try it."

"Then how do we proceed?" I say, crossing my arms.

"You have to become Yukari."

At this I raised an eyebrow. I didn't see the Yakumo as some sort of terrifying natural force like other's might, she still had something resembling a consciousness, but standing in her place? That was harder to imagine.

"The Yakumo can see people as purely means, which is not so dissimilar from how you consider everyone's interests, the difference is restraint. You're still afraid of that ability of yours and what you could force people to do, even with the restrictions of 'best interests', Yukari has no such limitation."

"I think I can wrap my head around that much, but how is seeing people as means going to help us cross an infinite river?"

Satori shook her head. "Consider the fights you've had up until this point. Flan's play, Hana's beatdown, Yukari's practice matches, did they gimp their abilities for fair play instead of fulfilling their desires?" She punctuated, pointing to my chest. "Your ability, as well as your partnership with Seija, is the essence of exploitation, fully utilizing something to it's maximum. If you can understand that, both of you can cross that river easily."

I exhaled. In my head I already had a solution, but there was one problem. "Where's the line then? When does altruism become just a mindless indulgence?" I asked, thinking of the HSE.

At this, Satori bit her lip, but could say nothing else.

---
Seija and I sat beside each other on a large rock by the River Sanzu, wrapped under a blanket, we gazed out at the misty tides made up of all manner of ghostly marine life. Waiting for the familiar feeling of static in the air that would indicate Yukari's arrival, which came not long there after.

"Explain yourselves." She said behind us in a serious tone.

I stashed the blanket and stood with Seija to face Yukari. Much like her speech, her demeanor was completely without humor. Yukari did not want to be trifled with at this moment, which was a shame considering who she was addressing.

"Explain what? You're the one who sent us to that palace of perverts. What exactly are we supposed to do when a sage comes knocking and beats us into helping her plan you ungrateful hag?!" Seija yelled.

The response from Yukari was swift and merciless. With a few subtle motions of her hand a cloud of gaps opened around us and boundaries began to shift. But we hadn't just been sitting idly, waiting to be caught, no, I had been mapping this little shore while we sat here and could easily recognize the anomalies Yukari introduced and guide Seija to them, neutralizing the attacks.

But the air here was dead simple, very mutable, and Yukari had more experience. She quickly redoubled her efforts and overwhelmed us, taking the ground beneath my feet and sending me into some hole before Seija could catch me.

When I saw what was in the realm of the gap, I wanted to scream. Massive faces, with the brows stretched to cover their eyes, cackled and laughed all around in an all enclosing tapestry of madness. Feverishly I tried to wrangle my thoughts, map the area, understand the madness, but that was wrong. It wasn't chaos, every detail in the gap had meaning, and it all hurt.

'The child' I realized and clutching the beads to my chest, I prayed my physical body would at least be some protection.

♩ ♫Spooky scary Yukarins~♩ ♫