/jp/ - Otaku Culture

(1/2)
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Yukari didn't notice my escapades to help Reimu—yet.

I cut cookie dough with little iron molds: rotund heads with cat ears; circles that I'll cook in two different temperatures—thanks, gap—which will end with two different colors; and small squares with protruding nine spikes. Then, a gap opens behind me, and the pressure fills the room and snuffs my joyous mood as swiftly as a star…

8 days, 13 hours? She's losing her touch.

… Must tread carefully.

Turning, I met Yukari's stern gaze, leaving the cookie mold on the counter and cleaning my hands on the apron. "Yukari-sama, good eve—"

"When were you planning to tell me, Ran? Were you planning to do so at all?" Her purple eyes scan over me, looking for the smallest of breaches. I fake confusion as natural as breathing, never turning away my gaze, only the perfect and controllable shikigami I've been for six hundred years.

"I don't understand, Yukari-sama—"

"Reimu."

"Ah…" It was timed—hardly. I can manage to look a bit embarrassed as I let a smile creep in, giggling a little. "My, you've discovered my personal project earlier than I thought you would," a compliment, yet her eyes are unchanged. Cold and analytical, she passes the illusion she has complete control over the situation. She demanded explanation with a stare. "With the furthering of autumn, Yukari-sama, I thought it'd be the perfect time to enact the second part of a punishment—the adaptation phase."

It's probably against her will, but she minimally raises an eyebrow.

I move around the kitchen, gathering what I'll need for the cookies, on the edge to not make one wrong move. I can't let this situation scale; there'll only be disadvantages for me—Chen. Breathing calmly, not affected, I start: "When disciplining children, Yukari-sama, having only the punishment is not enough. They'll use their time grounded to simply concoct ways to further their mischievousness without being caught—Reimu wouldn't be different—so, I decided to use her misery and hunger to forge good habits out from the punishment. I'd bring food, but she could only eat after filling her daily quota of cleaning the shrine. It's proceeding well; multiple times now she stopped her more violent tendencies and found better outlets for them in meandering work and such, for example. It's like a prison: If we only punish, nothing gets better—and the plan is to have Reimu become a better person and salvage her marriage with Anon, right?" I look into her eyes, and, for a moment, I swear I saw her wincing just a bit… Oh?

I don't focus on that much, rather her other microreactions. It was a well-thought-out lie I've brewed since the moment I decided to go to the Hakurei Shrine, and although I know there'll be consequences, they've been mitigated and won’t include Chen… But if Yukari really has lost her mind enough and decides that Chen shall suffer, then I’ll have lost my faith entirely: The coordinates are on the tip of my tongue; Yukari is just three meters away.

I'll gap one talisman, and Yukari will be nothing but crumbled dust…

… I remember Chen's words, her embrace that night so strong, Yukari's heartbreak. I pray to any God listening to it doesn't get to that point…

I won't hesitate otherwise.

The second stretches…

"Very smart, my shikigami, truly—" she starts, reaching into a gap—her voice hadn't a spec of suspicion. The lie landed. I didn't show any of the magnanimous relief. "Yet, you of all people should've known how much I despise not knowing things. What if I had something stored for Reimu? Did you consider that?"

"No, Yukari-sama. I did not." I say straight-up, feeling bitter cold when she pulls something out of the gap—strong and shining leather, a tense rope attached to a handle: a whip.

Nodding without a fight, I undress my upper gown, turn, and kneel on the ground, looking at the wall. "My, my? Why so eager?"

"I know you didn't like the things I did, Yukari-sama, a mistake as a shikigami—not accepting punishment would be making a fool of you and me." I feel her hands coursing through my back, and it takes a lot to not jolt away—even more to let out a serene moan. She giggles, cracks the whip, takes two steps back, and I feel the pressure in the room fading away.

Yukari thinks she has everything under control; that this was a simple mistake made by her shikigami…

She's comfortable with her plans and their expected results. And she's even more confident in her powers.

The whip strikes true, the pain is massive, and I feel blood vessels opening like hoses, yet I pour all my strength into not laughing, eyes wide. Pain is nothing. Chen is safe. All of our plans are slipping beneath Yukari unnoticed, and sooner than later, Anon will smile and say, 'I am so happy'.

And then it’ll all be worth it.

Timing exactly the wave of guttural pain and a scream with an unperceivable gap snap—opening a gap for only a millisecond—I tell Toutetsu it's time for her to contact Reimu.

I cry in pain.

I hide a wide smile.