/jp/ - Otaku Culture

I opened the door to the roof of the HSE and was greeted with a cold breeze and overcast sky. Navigating through the crates and tarps laid by the Yamawaro workers, I found myself at the roofs edge, staring over the crowd. The Workers were putting the final touches on the thick blanket replacement for tired door frame and any evidence of the Kappa's trickery had long since been picked clean and forgotten, lost in the waves of commerce and onlookers who had deals to broker, sights to see, or more mischief to make. I sighed, leaning over the ledge, "So lively for such gloomy weather." I mused to nobody in particular.

I already knew by the time I had made it to the roof that Kasen would be long-gone, but I came anyway for the same reason she had probably been here: solitude. So much had happened in the last few days and so much more was to come that I scarcely had a moment to digest all, much less think about what to say to the crestfallen hermit.

I'd heard what happened through my contacts. Yukari, in order to further her control over Kasen, had chained her Dragon Companion, freshly returned from his journey, to act as a guard for that accursed sword they created. It was an evil, unnecessary thing to do and one I felt a little culpable in, since that thing had a smidgen of the aura that surrounded my bracelet, the Root. So, feeling guilty, and as the only Human in Yukari's employ, I thought I should say something to her or at least give her someone she can vent at, but I suppose she still wanted to be alone for a bit, which was fair. I only wish she'd-

Something changed. I metallic taste suddenly made it's way into my mouth and a Borderer who lives past his first year well knows that means trouble. I make way for the roof exit, but one foot doesn't extend in front of the other and my body falls to the cold, wet floor. The pain from the impact is quickly forgotten as my head feels as though it's lifted up, fell a great distance, and then throbs with incredible pain.

Clutching my head I try to scream, but as if the wind has been knocked out of me I can't even manage a word and all the while a rising buzzing, like the chorus of locus, fills my ears and my vision begins to redden.

My instinct kick in and I bite hard on one of the tarps besides me, forcing myself to focus on something other then the head pain I was experiencing. Was I being attacked? No, I would've sensed it this close to the HSE, in fact, that same sensitivity was making me all the more aware that the agony was now migrating through my veins to my extremities. Maybe I could get help another way? Reaching into my cloak, I pull a piece of paper and tear the thing to throw out, thinking about how Seija put my left shoe to the right and right show to the left. The crude cursed familiar comes to life, walks a few steps, and collapses, not enough focus to even to make a cruddy messenger! I was on my own. Then it was back to why: my sensitivity was making it worse, a metallic taste most likely meant magic(the possibility of chemical warfare aside), and I wasn't being attacked, maybe something in the HSE's nature had changed?

If I could hone in on it maybe there was a way to stop myself from collapsing, since if I did, I felt like I wouldn't be waking back up, but ARGH this noise and overwhelming sensations broke my focus and caused my body to involuntarily jerk and spasm, slamming my limbs into the crates and exacerbating the pain. It was worse then being beaten half to death, more heart throbbing then proper Demon Slaying Sake, and even more relentless then one of Hijiri's Sutra sessions.

Sutras... well, if I might die, may as well be at peace. 'Thus have I heard. At one time...'