/jp/ - Otaku Culture

“You have already seen that the barriers within the HSE aren’t just simple shells or spheres that contain the entire building rather they exist all throughout it in so many more shapes and geometries, however, to truly understand the majesty of my construction you must realize that, in concept, my barriers are just what they appear to be.” I explained.
“Shells?” Goro asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Precisely. When you see the world as I do a wedding ring and a coffee cup will appear the same in the correct perspective and constraints.”
“So… if I can see a ‘scene’ as something more familiar, the same thing as a place I’m used to, then more complicated targets will appear simple?” He asked.
“Yes, you could call it ‘primordial pattern matching’.” I answered, pleased.
‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ is not a turn of phrase I was fond of. After all, who could really be said to be on the same level as the great Yukari Yakumo? My alleged ‘adversaries’ were just playthings and served my interests regardless of where they stood.
That said, it was a neat little distraction to teach the topology of barrier techniques to someone who didn’t already understand them implicitly like Ran or bumpkins who couldn’t care less.
“But then, wouldn’t everything just collapse into one universal form? How would you distinguish anything?” Goro asked.
I sighed, disappointed that he hadn’t already realized the next step. Then again, he was just a simple man after all.
I waved a few gaps into the air to illustrate, “That’s why we apply constraints. Returning to the example of a ring and a coffee cup, both topologies contain a single hole, and we achieve the transformation by merely deforming the ring without breaking its surface. The same transformation would not be possible for a multi-pane window frame since it has four holes.”
“Why don’t you try reaching into this place once more and tell me it’s shape?” I asked.
Goro nodded, closed his eyes, reached forward with his hand, and began to chant ‘nor the vitality that prances in light…’. Instantly the alarms I had set for intrusion went off and I temporarily silenced them. I could tell his probing was not as brutish as last time, and yet…
From behind I took his hand and, like a mother teaching her child how to dance, pushed him forward and let his hand sink into one of my gaps.
At this moment, I felt I could kill him. I merely had to shut the gap to slice off his hand, seal him in a time dilated space so that he couldn’t die, and his Deadman switch would be disarmed. Would that truly be enough to stop him? Was it a violation of the deal we made? Those thoughts didn’t occur to me.
No, I wasn’t some savage who needed to resort to brutish tactics. After all, I was an expectant mother! One far more deserving than the likes of that abusive Reimu. Had I not loved the entirety of Gensokyo as if it were a child all this time? Even Flandare, the scarlet devil feared by all, was now like a daughter to me.
Yes. This child, everyone else, and everything here were born of the Gensokyo that I created. His ability forced deals that were always in others ‘best interests’? Then it was not only best that he defends the HSE, but also that I teach him about its construction. I will trust what has been derived from my design, my motherhood.
Soon they’d see. Hana, Reimu, Anon, they would see that I loved them all more then they could fathom. And when they saw me with my child, they will all see the error of their ways, and I will forgive them. It would be my complete victory!
“Well?” I asked, returning to matters at hand.
“It’s some porous shape. Like, if a sponge had rigid holes.” He answered.
A Menger Sponge. That was one of the bases I had used for the observation layer.
“Why did you hesitate? Are you still afraid of stepping over the line?” I asked.
He shook his head and smiled. “It’s harder without someone else there. I just hadn’t noticed since Seija and I are rarely apart these days.”
How strange these two were. I suppose they should be thankful they were under Yakumo household protection now since nobody else would shelter such queer children.
“Say, Yukari-Sensei, what you said about turning rings into mugs, does the same apply to people?”
“Hmm, what do you mean?” I asked, flipping open my fan.
“Seija ate my fear of dying cursed and it’s like she punched a hole into my soul, I haven’t felt the same since.” He explained. “It’s like I’m a cup with new hole, I’ll never be a ring again. Sorry if it sounds weird, the two ideas just feel familiar is all.”
“It’s good that your thinking isn’t tunneled visioned to topologies, however…” I begin, before flicking his forehead. “You’re about 1,000 years to early to see people as I do.”
Perhaps I was foolish not to realize. My duty as a mother began more then a millennia before my first child was born. All these broken people had gaps in their heart, and it was my nature to fill them.