/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Explaining everything that had occurred regarding Eientei had ended up taking longer than I'd anticipated and as a result, I was starting to feel rather hungry despite only being about halfway through. I had just finished describing the meeting at the Hakurei Shrine, where Tenshi had thrown Marisa into the floor and Reimu had hit Tenshi on the head with her gohei when Ran looked at me intently and then raised a hand. "Do you need a break?" She asked me, and though I tried to play it cool and say that I was fine, Ran shook her head. "Dehydration and hunger can interfere with your memories, so it is important that you stay hydrated and well fed. I can get you something to eat."

And with that, Ran raised her arm and plunged it into one of those tears in reality with the bows tying it off. She must have seen me staring, because she - in defiance of the attempts to remain cold and emotionless - couldn't seem to help smirking a little. "Lady Hearn's control of gaps can be passed down to me, her shikigami, as and when I need to make use of it." She focused on whatever she was doing with her arm, and then retracted it to reveal...A gyudon bowl. Ribbon-like strips of beef served with onions, spring onions, and rice, and an egg yolk right in the centre. "Direct from a street cart that Lady Hearn discovered in the early hours of the morning on the streets somewhere in Nagoya." Ran told me, pushing it over to me and extracting some money from another gap with her other hand, which she then pushed through the first gap. "Lady Hearn has informed me that I am not to explain how or why the food was ready and waiting. For mystique, as she puts it." It seemed like Ran had given away some of the mystique already, but I was willing to forget that in favour of eating the food, which turned out to be the greatest gyudon I'd ever eaten, and I'd eaten in a lot of places in the village, so that was certainly saying something. It also seemed a little like Ran was willing to, very slightly, undermine Hearn's mystique with how dryly she had explained why she would not be undermining Hearn's mystique.

In fact, it was so good that I ate the whole thing, and that was quite the feat for me. I looked up to see that Ran had refilled my tea cup and pushed it back across to me. I drained the whole thing. "It does seem to creep up on you, doesn't it?" Ran asked mildly, eyeing the empty cup and the empty bowl. After a moment, she took back the bowl, sent it back through her gap, and had returned to watching me. I thanked her and fumbled in my pockets for some money to pay her back with, only for her to raise her hand. "Your money's no good over there." She said, nodding at the gap, which then closed. "Now, shall we continue?" I asked her if I could ask her some questions first, because my burning curiosity about not just Hearn, but Ran and Chen themselves was taking hold of me. "...If you must." She slowly replied, and that only made me take more interest. She sounded like she didn't want to talk about her past, which only made me more curious, especially since I was already getting no answers from Hearn about who exactly she was. The lot of them were nothing but a mystery to me, even if Reimu seemed to know a lot more about them than she was letting on.

So I decided to start slowly and asked her why Hearn wouldn't tell me who she really was. "Is that truly relevant?" She replied, just the tiniest amount sharper. It would help me trust her more, I replied. "...Lady Hearn has told me that I am to answer your relevant questions. This, I feel, is not entirely relevant." I thought it was, but I decided to move past it and onto the next question, which was why Hearn was engaging in these cloak-and-dagger schemes instead of just coming and talking to me directly. "Lady Hearn has a great number of matters which require her attention. This is why Chen and I act as her representatives and aid her in handling some of these responsibilities." That was about what I'd expected, but Reimu's habit of bursting into laughter when I explained what happened when Hearn kidnapped me had me suspecting that there was something more to it, or perhaps that Hearn was the socially awkward type, but with far too much power and desire to manipulate things for her own good. I didn't say that out loud, though, because it would be more than a little rude. Instead, I tried asking if Hearn was her real name. "Do you need me to answer that?" Ran asked dryly, and I responded that no, I probably didn't.

>>44406413
Your life means NOTHING
You serve ZERO PURPOSE
You should KILL YOURSELF NOW