/jp/ - Otaku Culture

I felt a pleasant satisfaction as I guided our guests back to the exit of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Seija walked behind Goro, clutching a bag that contained the maid outfit she was forced to wear as part of their wager, Goro walked ahead of her in stride, revealing in his own victory, and Flandre walked in front of both of them, marching like a tin soldier she'd been shown a little prior. It was good to have a peaceful, pleasant meeting for once.

"Hmm." Goro stopped, looking around the halls. "Do you all hear that?" He asked.

"Augh, it's probably just the wind, how's this hall so long anyway?" Seija asked, bumping into Goro's back.

"Oh, oh, I know this one! It's because Sakuya's power over time can also affect space!" Miss Flandre proudly announced.

"That's very good Flan-Chan! Although, I wonder if it couldn't be something else, Sakuya-San, this mansion isn't 'possessed' is it?" he asked.

"It's most certainly haunted I think, but possessed? I don't believe Miss Patchouli would stand for such a thing." I replied.

"So I've been told, Seija, help me out for a moment..." He asked, closing his eyes and hovering his hand in the air as if he was manipulating some unseen contraption.

In that same moment, they vanished.

"Eh? They're going back without me aren't they! No fair!" Miss Flandre said, before shooting through the closest window intent on catching up with them.

I sighed, and made for a broom closet. I hope they didn't get stuck in the walls or something, it took months and many renovations to get the corpse smell out the last time.

---

It was like being submerged in an icy lake.

I couldn't see, hear, smell, feel anything, as if all of existence had collapsed on itself as I had Seija flip open the thread out of which I heard the noise. But how then was it, that I was still 'here'? some part of me was alive or at least, I had some idea of myself after all. Myself...

I clung to that thought and turned it inward, looking at whatever was reflected on my being and I found... nothing. I tried to reach for the bracelet's power, it's way of worming into absolutely anything and swarmed in whatever direction I could and I found... nothing.

Nothing.

But I was thinking, observing myself, that was something, right? And that humming, that whisper I had heard, it came from here didn't it? What if, I stopped thinking?

...

The lights, before they had blinded me, now I could see the void around them, the world, my existence, the light did not exist, the void did, my thoughts did.

I willed myself to move as I would if I had existed and remained still. That wouldn't do, no, I couldn't move as if this world were real, only my thoughts, only the void was. So, I looked out and saw myself, my head, my thoughts, both inside and around me. I sunk into my thoughts, the real within the lights, over and over again, like a mirror within a mirror. I thought about the humming and how it had felt, at once I was within light years of it, in another moment I was within two yards, and at last, I thought myself on that shining isle, with a single tree and a solitary girl, humming some tune.

I tried to call out to her, but she didn't notice me, so I thought myself in front of her and she squeaked.

"My! This is a surprise, I didn't believe anyone's ever snuck up on me." She said, placing a hand on her chest. "Although it's always nice to be noticed and I suppose it would be you to do it, nosy Papa Goro." She said, with a curtsy.

I thought to speak, but there wasn't a message to be conveyed. Words existed after all, right?

"Ah, cat got your tongue?" She said, pawing at the air, in a moment as a cat, then not, but still a feline somehow...

"I suppose it's all fine and good. Mother always thinks how you're most dangerous when you open your mouth." She said.

Ah, how was she speaking? In this place that was in my head? Or maybe this was a space like the HSE? Non-Euclidean as Yukari had called it? No, surly not, how could a space contain itself many times over and still be the same space? It was not as if their existed another direction of travel, quite the opposite, it felt as though the only space that existed was what I've observed.

They're were only a few beings I knew who'd reside in such a space.

I looked from above down at my head and tried my best to pluck things from the real, Yukari? No, she wasn't here, but the Gap? Yes, a reflection of it anyway. Apathy? A little all around. I percieved both alone and the space was empty besides them. Ah, have to perceive the girl as well.

"Thank you, it's rather hard talking like this when one doesn't exists. And as for Mother, you'd be surprised at how much she thinks about you, about everyone in Gensokyo, I'm jealous of all that attention you know? But it's a little better now, after all, you share her curse, to love all of Gensokyo and wish the best for it." She told me.

So that settled it. This was the HSE, but how? That thing has yet to be born after all. And maybe....