/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>45232073
(2/5)
We lashed out against it. I decided to throw all schemes to the wind and populate the field with chaos. Like a monsoon ranging against a muddy field, I sent Seija views of disorderly flips, sowing more and more noise across the sky until even our own navigation became hampered in the onslaught. And even then, I could still feel the cage shrink around us.
I clenched my teeth and thought to decimate the noise even more, down to the most inseparable kernel of existence, to such an extent that my mind would crack under the pressure with such force that my soul would be cast across the afterlife and whatever oblivion lay beyond.
‘That’s not right Goro.’ Seija thought to me.
‘If something’s in our way, we’ll just flip it on its head.’
‘But how!?’ My mind screamed.
We couldn’t grasp her ability and if I couldn’t even conceive of the space she was occupying targeting her directly was a faraway dream. Nothing we were doing to the environment, or her bullets were working as we expected and if there was a pattern, I couldn’t find it. Chaos, constantly rolling the dice was our one option here.
‘Then flip chaos into order.’ She sent to me.
At that moment, the truth of Danmaku revealed itself to the both of us. From the epoch of everything, the spread of all things: earth, the sky, the rivers, plants, animals, people, commerce, it all came together in this moment into something new. One complete thing born of all this confusion all this noise.
We wept, having forgotten almost the whole of it as the moment past us, unsure if we’d ever see it again, but at the very least the path before us was clear.
I took the noise, the muddy, rain-spattered fields I’d laid across the sky and gave them shapes, not forms that were predictable and consistent, but a shape the chaos arrived at none the less. Starry nights, smoky rooms, mold covered buildings, I hunted and hunted until I finally saw The Hive.
“Reverse Sign: Disordinate Harmonics!” Seija screamed.
As Yukari had taught me, once I had found the shape it was easy to produce targeting solutions in any permutation and I barely felt the strain as I fed Seija an unfathomably dense number of instructions, which she gleefully executed.
The sky became something completely alien and it was as if we were no longer amid a fire fight, but floating above it all, watching our bullets fly in weird directions and finally clashing with our opponent’s. Yet, I still couldn’t comprehend it at all, the model I had created was a seemingly chaotic one, even if the result was something strangely beautiful.
The Shrine Maiden still eluded us, but we could see the tides had turned. Her bullet density was lower, we were able to move more freely, and what movements we could perceive of hers were becoming increasingly erratic.
A single bullet striking Seija put an end to our hubris, then three more broke the spell we’d cast, and if it were not Seija quickly flipping her velocity, twelve more bullets that grazed past her would spell her end.
When I looked up to see Hana floating in front of the moon, appearing normally at last, I knew our mistake. She had let us overextend, take on too much risk, bided her time while we relished our freedom, all the while we were unaware, we’d never truly left her cage.
Neither of us heard her say the name of her spell card, instead as the Shrine Maiden rocketed toward her, Seija’s mind raced to find options for evasion, and I fed her one last targeting solution, one that flipped my position with hers.
Hana didn’t stop. Instead, she spun in the air, her selves spreading to her side giving her the appearance of a kite, casting off power until she sped into me, striking me squarely in the gut.
Despite the punches’ location, I felt the hit throughout my entire body, as if each part across and through had been individually hit by a nail. I coughed up blood and had I not willed myself with everything I had prior to her attack, I wouldn’t have managed to clasp her arm.
‘Gotcha’ the expression I saw in the reflection of her small eyes said through a blood-stained smile.
“Let’s call this a draw and talk things out.” I struggled to say.
Her eyes twitched, but she nodded, helpless before her own best interests.


Seija set me down on a grassy hill, looking far worse for wear then me, but still insistent that I let her coddle me. Probably sweet revenge on her part.
Hana simply squinted at us and crossed her arms.
“I’m not apologizing if that’s what you’re after. Your little Oni started that fight, not me.” The little girl complained.
“Water under the bridge. That’s what Danmaku is for right? Resolving *cough* disagreements.” I struggled to say.
Her expression shifted to have some concern, but she remained steadfast.
“If anything, I’m sorry I pulled such a dirty trick on you.” I speak.
“You knew a shrine maiden would hesitate to attack a human.” Hana guessed.