Disclaimer: This is fanwork based on the anime Re:Creators by Troyca. Its setting, characters and plot belong to their rightful creators. I write this only for fun and as a little writing experiment.
EPISODE 11: IT'S TREASON, THEN
I have a dream.
It's a beautiful dream. Everything's perfect. I'm perfect. The most excellent, most glamorous, most talented, most beautiful, sexiest, cutest magician in the world. My clothes are a bit too revealing for my taste, but I suppose it's the result of having to live with a walking Ms. Fanservice and deal with a bunch of perverted authors.
If someone among you lot dares to suggest that my subconscious may be overcompensating due to an inferiority complex about my body, I'll turn you into frogs and burn you alive.
In said dream, I, the treasure of the entire universe, defeat that stupid Military Uniform Princess with a couple of overpowered spells. So elegant! So glorious! After saving the world from that evil, evil threat, everyone praises me as their Lady and Savior. I can see it: humankind will celebrate this day for all eternity, sell souvenirs with my image and create holidays in my name. They'll congratulate me and cry:
"All hail Meteora Österreich!"
Then, for some reason, the dream changes and I'm playing pool with the other Creations as the balls. Weird, but also satisfying. It makes me feel like an omnipotent goddess… which is exactly what I aim to become.
Yes, it's a good dream. But like all dreams, it ends when the dreamer has to wake up.
I hate reality.
00000
When I wake up, I feel disoriented. I'm in a hospital or a clinic. Gods, I miss the healing system of my world. When I take over the multiverse, healthcare will be a priority. Go to the holy imperial temples, give your money to the priests of Goddess-Empress Meteora and one second later you'll be healed. White magic is so efficient!
My minions are overjoyed when they hear I'm awake. It's evident that they're lost without me. They say:
"Oh, glorious leader! Oh, wise and mighty Meteora! This is a dark moment indeed. Your favored champions have been defeated, the enemy is on the rise and the government is in shambles. And for a time we thought we would lose you too. We begged the gods, cried until our tears flooded the room and sacrificed newborn babies to the demons of hell so you could survive your grievous injuries. But now you're with us again! Please, lead us! Without your guidance, we are but helpless children".
Well, perhaps they didn't use those exact words, and I must admit that I'm still under the influence of the sedatives, but you get the gist.
In any case, when Marine and Nakanogane start explaining what happened while I was sleeping, things don't look good. Oh, yes, Princess Tomato survived and now we know that rewriting is possible, but Altair and her minions beat us to a pulp, Magane escaped and Yuuya has been severely compromised: he lost his cursed ghost. And that's despite my warnings about being careful around the Wild Psycho. But did he pay any attention? No, of course he didn't. Now he's broody and gloomy. Ha! Serves you right, Grasshopper Glasses.
Oh, and Mamika is confirmed to be dead. I had planned for her to become my ultimate minion. Now she's gone. It's such a waste.
What about Kanoya? Kikuchihara called him and, according to her, the lolicon pilot has taken Souta for a ride on his giant robot. I don't know if that's literal or a metaphor for some kind of yaoi. Honestly, I don't care. Just tell them to come back ASAP. I need to plan my next move and I want all my minions close.
00000
In the meantime, a doctor and a nurse take care of me. They're amazed by my recovery rate. Something about having "the same composition as humans" but different "physiological abilities". Of course, I'm awesome. But I resent a bit the implication that I'm not human. I am human (for now); it's just that humanity in my world was a superior race. These "gods" are so weak and fragile that I almost pity them. Almost.
Good news: Princess Tomato is recovering fast. Bad news: apparently, she's recovering faster than me. Her wounds were far more serious and she had to be intubated, yet she managed to wake up before me. Is she trying to one up the great Meteora? W-well, I could have healed myself if so I wished, b-but I didn't want to make the doctors look bad! See? That's what it means to be considerate!
Sometimes, my kindness is off the charts.
Nevertheless, the situation is dire. To think I slandered the Military Uniform Princess, painting her as a rabid mass murderer so that everyone would side against her, only for my lies to be true! Being right when I wanted to be wrong is a new experience for me.
She's crazy. More than crazy. Who would want to destroy the world, every world? Who would want to risk her own death for that? To conquer galaxies, to take over entire universes, to enslave your enemies and to be praised for all eternity, that's what an intelligent villain should be about. I'd understand it if she was some kind of alien or demon. If fiction has taught us one thing, it's that people who aren't like us are all chaotic evil and should be put down before they kill us. But she looked human enough.
What a puzzle.
If I were a lesser woman, I'd be afraid. To be honest, losing this fantastic playground and seeing all my potential targets for conquest vanish into thin air is not the kind of prospect I'm looking forward to. Not to mention the possibility of me dying for good. Still, now I can feel more at ease. Nobody will ever realize I lied to their faces. Altair is Evil with capital 'E'. Whoever tries to excuse her, to reason with her or to side with her is a traitor to the whole multiverse. And I just need to look at Kikuchihara to know that her stupid government will be more cooperative and less stingy from now on.
Always look on the bright side of life.
00000
Someone opens the door of the room we've chosen for the meeting. Princess Tomato and Grasshopper Glasses are already here, as well as Kikuchihara, Matsubara, Nakanogane, Marine and Suruga. That dumb fop of Yatoji went to work, so there are only two people missing, the same ones that are entering right now.
"Souta", I greet him with my best "I don't give a f*** about you" face.
Despite his willingness to sacrifice himself for me, I can't still forgive him for withholding important information and meeting with Shark Girl without my consent. He'll have to do better if he wants to become my Minister of Snacks.
Followed my Kanoya, the boy approaches Princess Tomato and I with a worried face.
"Are you fine now?"
No, of course we aren't. I'm still in pain and my red-haired minion is in a wheelchair. But I guess that's not the real point of the question.
"Yes", Princess Tomato answers with a smile.
"Yes", I say. So deadpan.
My inexpressive passive-aggressiveness is becoming so obvious that people are starting to give me weird looks. That, or my sedatives are making me see things, like that small pink elephant dancing over Nakanogane's head.
I bow.
"I apologize for making you worry", I say.
Yes, this is the demure, politically correct Meteora everybody knows and loves. But now it's Kikuchihara the one who is glaring suspiciously at me.
"Is it about the battle last night?", she asks.
I nod. Time for my tried and tested expositions. I'd info-sump the Military Uniform Princess into oblivion if I could.
"Previously, I said that if we could discover who created Altair we could make a lot of progress. However, it has become necessary to alter this strategy".
From the looks of everyone, it's pretty clear they don't understand what I'm talking about.
"What?", a confused Matsubara asks.
Now it's the time for the great reveal. Again, Meteora Österreich proves to be the greatest reservoir of knowledge of all time!
"That's…"
"It's because Altair's creator is already dead", Souta interrupts.
WTF? What do you think you're doing, errand boy? This is my show! Shoo, shoo, go back to your background.
Too late. Everybody else is dumbstruck by Souta's words.
"Souta?", Princess Tomato mutters.
"I'm sorry. I knew all along".
"What do you mean?", Mr. Matsubara asks.
Dramatic pause. Souta looks down, then raises his head. Damn, he's getting good at this. And then he drops the bomb:
"I knew about Altair from the beginning".
What? He knew and he didn't say anything? TRAITOR! I need to ask Kikuchihara if Japan has the death penalty. Oh, wait, it has! Time for some hanging.
No, no, don't look at me with those sad puppy eyes. I'm not going to fall for… Ugh, okay, at least I'll give you the chance to explain yourself.
"The reason is that… Altair's creator… Setsuna Shimazaki is… my… really dear… friend", he mutters slowly and painfully. Wow, he's taking his time. "And I'm the one… who killed her".
Okay, okay, you killed someone. So edgy. Now, can we get back to my plan, please?
Wait, what is this? Flashbacks? No, no, no! This is not how you do things! To use flashbacks is to admit you suck at exposition. Tell, don't show! If you don't bore your audience with never-ending and monotonous info dumps, how will you showcase that you're more intelligent than them?
Hey! I'm talking to you, Souta! Don't start a damn flashback! Don't…!
00000
Sigh. What a boring story.
Basically, in the past Souta was the same friendless background character we know and tolerate, but back then he also drew things. He sucked at drawing, yet he was naive enough to upload those hideous monstrosities in the hopes someone would like them. Then he found this Setsuna's gallery and was amazed by her far more superior art. They chatted, they went out to an event and, sadly, he saved her from falling to her death. Imagine how many problems we could have avoided had she died there. I blame his infatuation. I can almost hear his thoughts:
"She wears glasses! I wear glasses! We're perfect for each other!"
Or something like that. With his luck, I bet she was a lesbian.
The thing is, after a time he realized that her friend was on course to become a famous artist while he would remain one of the many anonymous wannabes. He started resenting her success, and when some jealous worms started accusing her of plagiarism, he did nothing to help her. Ultimately, his cowardice stopped him. The end.
"And… And...", he adds, looking guiltier than ever, "And watching Shimazaki get put down made me feel a little bit less lonely about being left behind. Somewhere in my mind I felt such an ugly… sense of satisfaction".
Oh, my, he's about to cry. What, do you think that will make me feel sorry for you? Come on! You behaved as the background character you were supposed to be. The mob says Shimazaki is amazing? Then she's amazing. The mob turns against her? You turn against her. Geez.
Gods, give me patience. At this rate, it's going to take a whole week for him to finish this damn flashback.
…
Seriously. I haven't had the chance to do my exposition routine! This is so unfair! I'm supposed to be the protagonist, aren't I?
…
Aren't I?
Author's notes:
The Secret Journal of Meteora Österreich is back! I promised I'd be back by September, didn't I? Yeah, I know I'm a bit late. I wanted to wait until the end of the series to know if I needed to make changes. My greatest fear was that Meteora would be revealed, without an ounce of vagueness, to be the most altruistic goody two-shoes in fiction. But guess what? Not only it didn't happen, but it practically confirmed she's EVIL… from a certain point of view XD
So here am I, back with updates. My plan is to finish the rest of the chapters as soon as possible. No deadlines, but this story certainly won't last until 2018.
-This chapter is shorter than usual, because Meteora didn't have almost any screentime. And when she was about to info dump, Souta interrupted her. So rude! Expect it to be a trend; it seems that, in general, the more the plot advances, the less scenes Meteora has. I suspect that the creators of the series realized the problems of Meteora's overexposition in the first episodes.
-Most of you probably recognized Meteora's dream from episode 13. As for the rest, poor Meteora didn't have a lot of speaking time in episode 11.
-You know, I find it interesting that when Souta made the great reveal, they never showed Meteora's face. Who knows what kind of face she was making!
-Yep, Japan does have the death penalty, and hanging is the execution method.
See you in the next update!
