1. I don't own Touhou Project.
2. Told and composed with self amusement.
3. Edited, just a little
4. Feel better this way
5. Comments? Constructively please.
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Adapted from Abeko Nishimeda
Published by Asian Big Brother Generation
I Like You
- May 20, 2007
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On that beautifully sunny day, she suddenly showed up. Just like the winds of a spring storm.
Dark red eyes, black hair and large ribbon on her hair. She was standing in front of me.
"I've fallen in love with you," she stated with full confidence, her eyes were big and she stared right into my eyes, "I've seen you fight. It's full of flashy stuff and useless movements, but even so you kept on coming back again and again."
She wore a bright smile and spoke confidently in front of my face, "I never thought there'd be such an interesting person in the world," with an addition, "I. Like. You."
I slammed the door close, returning to my previous research on my desk.
"Open Up!" There was banging on my apartment door.
Maybe the heat had gotten into me. Flip a paper, open a book.
She came the next day too.
Peering into my eyes, her bright wide mood. "I came to see you." She smiled casually.
No matter how many times I told her to go away, she just came the next day. And the day after that.
"HEY, OPEN UP!" And after a week had passed.
I concentrated to the book in front of me. More knocking. Banging.
"THE WEATHER'S NICE OUTSIDE!"
Maybe it would go away soon enough.
"Heeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!"
I hoped so.
Ignore it, I kept replaying the same words in my head.
And then silent. Perhaps she left? I walked to the door quitely -as much as I could manage- and turned the circle metal handle slowly.
I looked right and left.
Sluurrrpppppp. Noise?
Upward.
Chewing. And then downward.
Casually sat on the ground just beside my door. In seiza, with tea and dango, enjoying-
"Want some?" She said.
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I thought that if I let her in for once, she'd be satisfied. Now I realized that was my first mistake.
"Uwaahhh, it's dirty here," was her casual comment as she stood there in the middle of my room, "This'd make anyone want to stay away."
I sat, my back facing her. In front of me were piles of books, papers, chemical tubes... My research, basically.
"Did you come here just to make fun of me?"
"Oh that's right." She turned and bent until we met eye to an eye. "I have a request of you. Do you have a magic spell that will make the person you like fall in love with you? Ms. Magician?"
Deep breathe.
"...I've...never made one," I cautiously replied, "I don't make things I don't need myself."
She smiled at me. "You wouldn't make a good shopkeeper at all," I was about to retort back at that, "Oh, well. Relying on magic, though it's interesting, isn't very fun."
And then with wide and bright smile. "I'll visit you every day then. I'll be seeing you!"
Ever heard the word 'shell-stumped'?
Exhale.
000
She came everyday.
Every day.
Every day.
Every day.
"You let me in pretty quickly today." Jerking thumb to chin, she shot me an amused smile.
"...If I don't, you'll just kept sitting there."
"So there's still hope yet." Her smile simply widen.
She just kept on coming.
000
"What...exactly do you want?" With a hand supporting my chin on the desk, I rubbed the space between my eyes. Voices. Her voices. I simply could not concentrate.
"Hmm?" Guess what? "I like you. So I want to be with you."
"..." There was an uncomfortable silence. Or maybe that was just for me.
It was every day. She said she likes me. For. Every. Single. Day.
"Ah, that's right," she clasped a hand in front of her chest, "Let me see where you practice your magic."
I turned around at that and said, "Nah, too troublesome." It took time to flash a sweet sweetened smile.
"Hey, come on..."
Now, where's that charm formula from a week ago?
"Hey!"
I should have known.
000
We met in a round landscape not far away with ground, a stump, and a can; that much to be obvious. Not much not less after a short walk.
"Pretty old fashioned, eh?" She commented. "I thought the 'can on a stump' only existed in stories' "
My eyebrow twitched, once.
"It's just like your fighting style. I don't know whether to call it straight forward or something else." Twice.
I leaned in closer to her. "You ask me to show you. And this, is what I get?" I really don't get her.
"Your angry face is also cute," was said, with confidence. It made me irritated. Then the said can flew far with a loud bang.
"Quite some power you've got here." She whistled.
I smiled. "I'm not all about power you know. 'If it's not strong and beautiful, It's not magic' "
" 'If I had good control It'd be perfect.' I wonder if you've ever reached that conclusion," she said nonchalantly.
"As long as I win, it's fine," I countered.
Her observation? "That's just like you." Oh, hell. "If it were me, I would choose the most reliable method of cornering my enemy, even if it was slow."
And then-
"I like you, Marisa."
I'd been trapped.
"I don't like this change of topic."
"Oh, but aren't they the same?" she said.
I did not need this.
"Both love and battle?" She continued, "You do whatever you can to make your opponent recognize your existence. Little by little you corner them. If your opponent acknowledge you even once, you've won. I like you."
I...can't... "...You sure have a lot of confidence in yourself," ...think... "Even though you know absolutely nothing of me. Having that one-sided love confessed to me is just annoying." Suffocating. "...I will not become yours."
Silence.
"Are you afraid?"
I can't breathe.
"Don't come here anymore." I did not recognise my own voice..., almost.
000
...She did not come. Not the next day.
"I like you"
Or the next day either.
"I like you"
She gave up so readily.
"I like you"
000
So this is the extent of her 'like'. In the end, it turned out like this after all. I stared to the same page for almost an hour.
Why am I getting irritated? Now I'm irritated at my own irritation.
The training ground was as empty as usual. A power surge released from my fingertips, a short fuse like lightning energy, but..., the can did not even fell.
A sound reverberated in my heart, as though shaken by the winds of a spring storm.
000
"Do you know anything about this red girl?"
I brought a crudely drawn picture in my hand, showing it to every person I could ask along the way. "She always has this suspicious smile and seems aloof from the world."
Boy : Yeah, I know her. (with thoughtful expression)
Girl : Isn't she The Shine Maiden of The Hakurei Shrine? (stating fact)
Boy : I'm sure her name was...
"Reimu..."
Damnit, this really isn't like me at all
"Reimu Hakurei."
This is just like, being under the effect of a magic spell.
000
"It should be just about time." There was banging, and the maiden walked to open the shoji door. "Just as expected."
Standing there was Marisa Kirisame.
With her broom.
With her pointed hat.
With her pleated skirt.
Me.
Reimu's mellow smile. "Welcome, Marisa."
"I have something I want to ask you," I said, not meeting her eyes. My gaze was shifted to my feet. "What...do you like about me?"
She did not take three minutes to answer. "That place where the tree stump was full of cuts."
Silence. I thought the heat was getting into me, again. And then I heard her perfectly, a voice so bright, cloudless..., alive.
"The sun shining through your hair...or your constantly changing facial expressions."
(My gaze was to be kept steadily onto the dusty floor.)
"Making it seem like you only do things to stand out."
(A speckle of dust near my booty shoes. )
"But in order to stand out, you go to an ordinary spot and do normal things."
(Then, I think...it was nothing to be think about.)
"I like that about you."
(Feel it.)
"I love the part of you who tries to hide what she wants forgotten."
(All in one sentences.)
"I like you."
(It's vexing.)
"I like you."
"You came all the way out here just to ask that?" Reimu sounded interested.
And then-
"That's the (... I... Like...) best of you."
(Just close your eyes.)
I could feel her smile from beneath my pointed hat.
(And listen...)
"...I...will never become yours," I slowly said.
I repeated those words countless times.
"You're not being honest with yourself." Reimu's warm smile. "Go ahead and say it, 'I also like you.' "
I. Like. You.
Even so she noticed, that I had completely changed.
I think...my lips curled up a little, just perhaps.
