(IT'S MATT'S TURN TO ACT ACCORDINGLY)
December twenty-ninth. Time to herald the new year in this dreary, dumpy village.
boom. And, wouldn't you know it?
There's some kind of street fight going on. This village has gone to the dogs, man. It consistently proves itself to be a horrible place to live. Very consistently.
KLAANG! A massive icy claymore is parried off a reflective shield.
I recognize the two combatants.
"Fuck- you!" Shimokoa is being herself: particularly violent. "Fuck you! Fuck you!"
"Reflectaga!" Maribel Hearn thrusts some hunk of mirror-like surfaces into the air.
SHING- KLAANG! A prism-esque mirror ball forms around her, and Shimokoa's claymore bounces right the hell off. It's parried with such ferocity that the snow along the village road is pushed aside by the force.
I can feel the arctic wind off of the impact. I'm sure the entire village heard that.
Now I'm all cold, and I just woke up. This sucks.
"Nngh…!?" Shimokoa bears her teeth, staggering back.
"What'd I do to you!?" Maribel gives her a big, sheepish smile back.
Shimokoa snaps back up to Merry's barrier, ready to retaliate. "Rrrgh-" She tries to heft her claymore overhead again, but it's too heavy, and her grip is too awkward to do it in time.
KRAACK- BOOM- FWAM- BOOM- BOOM! As an attack, the mirror-like barrier around Maribel explodes into a cacophony of sparkling magic. It exploded and detonated with unreal, raw power.
It lights up the village road in the shade of this dim, raw day. Each flash of the exploding barrier shards is like a fluorescent lightbulb dying out.
"Rhh-" Shimokoa stumbles, only barely affected by the raw power that probably would've sent me flying across the country.
"Stop!" Maribel held a hand up at her. "We can be friends! Wha-"
KRACK. Finding her grip and forearm strength, Shimokoa cleaves her frozen claymore right into the earth.
BOOOM! A truly massive tremor follows, the dirt becoming dust in the air, her arms shuddering from recoil as her claymore bounces back over her own head.
"Waaal!" Fluffles splash out of the crater in the ground, unleashed from the soil they'd settled- or spawned- under. Some are dirty, others are snowy.
...Oh. Oh, goddamn it. Maribel sees me, and runs towards me, recognizing me.
"Why're people so violent today!?" She asks me this with a goofy smile.
"Get the fuck away from me." I draw some scissors. Time to be ironic. "I'll stab you too."
She leaps away from me, shocked. "What…!? Oh, god-"
Shimokoa snaps from wherever she was bumblefucking around, and twirls from the storm of dust and snow.
An unholy creak of metal is audible, Shimokoa's left eye flashing mint green only a few frames before she unleashes her unholy swing.
WHOOOSH. Maribel's gone when Shimokoa swings. "Hraaaa~!"
WOOSHWOOSHWOOSH! After she'd missed, Shimokoa spun around in place off the momentum of her own attack.
...Shimokoa sees me.
WRRING. The indescribable whine of creaking steel echoes through the wind.
Twirling around, Shimokoa snaps up to me, to explode my head into a million little pieces with a cataclysmic crushing swing.
Shikome's tendrils snap out from behind me; six of them, all to meet the tip of the impact.
KLAAANG! The impact of the claymore against the six tips is otherworldly.
Woosh! Shimokoa does a backflip off of the recoil. "Aah…!" Even I felt that, and I didn't even get fucking hit. Just how strong is she supposed to be? Last I checked, yuki-onna were not oni.
Wait, right. Mima.
"Mima." I speak up. "Do you think Yukari would be happy with this?"
Skriish! Landing, skidding on her knees, Shimokoa's mint green eyes flare to glare at me. "Who the hell cares what that hag thinks? I got snowcone here on cruise control."
Maribel is in the air over us. "Wh- but that's why I'm here! You can't just go around killing people for no reason!"
"If anyone's gonna get killed, it's you, gap kid." Mima forced Shimokoa to grin. "Us, we're just here to have a li'l fun. Ain't that what life's all about?"
"But-..." Maribel can't really contest that- not that it was something meant to be contested. Mima just believes whatever the hell she wants.
Myself, I don't have the energy for this shit.
"Hey!" Mima calls out to me. God, damn it- "Kitty nazi there! Yeah- you!"
"Fuck off." I flip her a finger.
Snorting, Shimokoa jerks her head back. "Now that's not very nice, ze."
Ze? Whatever. "You clearly want me for something. I'm not interested." Not like I'll do anything to you personally.
I turn to Shikome.
Shikome's already waltzing into the midst of the village road.
"Man…" Maribel sighs. "Look- can we not fight here? This is stupid."
Shimokoa heaves, hyperventilating. "Fuck…" It seems Shimokoa's wrestling control. "Fuck- you- human!"
"All of you!" Shimokoa howls to the dreary afternoon sky. "Fuck beasts! Fuck humans! Fuck Earth- and fuck YOU!"
Maribel huffs again. "Look-"
FWISH! Summoning a gauntlet of ice, tipped with massive spikes, Shimokoa thrusts at Maribel.
WOOSH! In just a frame, Shimokoa's icy knuckles bore into Maribel's gut.
Except, there was a gap there.
Shimokoa's gauntlet pierces her own stomach, coming out from a second gap.
Maribel grips her by the neck.
"I wouldn't do that." Maribel gives her a more determined expression. It's like one of a confident protagonist, except icier. It's actually kind of hot.
"Nn-"Shimokoa reels her gauntlet back again, blood flecking from her stomach, and tries to hook Maribel with one fell swoop-
BAM! Shimokoa hooks herself across the face. "Nfhu…"
Maribel grips her by the neck again. "Stop fighting."
Shimokoa's tears glitter under the shade of her magical veil. "Fuck- you! Fuh-"
She reels her arm back, and throws an uppercut.
KABOOM! Her ice gauntlet breaks when it hits her own chin, blood and flesh rocketing into the air.
"Aa- ahn!" Shimokoa whines, going limp mid-flight.
"You idiot!" Maribel grinned at her. "He- hehe! Seriously...!"
thump. Shimokoa flops onto her back, beside Shikome.
"Oh…" Merry trots up to Shikome. "It's you. Your name was, um… Shikome. Yeah."
...Shikome looks around apathetically as usual, her expression soft. Then, confident nothing dumb will happen, she progresses back towards Small Packages.
Shimokoa pushes against the floor, all bloody. "Nn-... hic-..." Is she actually just crying now?
I turn around. This isn't worth my time…
"Hey!" Maribel calls out to me again. Ugh. "Matt!"
Wait, what the fuck. You're not supposed to know that. That's not how this works.
I turn back towards her.
Maribel walks up to me. "How're you doing, dude?"
"Crappy." Born to die, world is a fuck.
Shimokoa stands, her eyes now a vibrantly glowing mint green again. Mima uses her icy maw to beam, and her mint green eyes glitter from the tears beneath the shade.
"Why don't we get breakfast?" Mima proposed. "I know this great lamprey stand that won't make Shimmy go nu~ts."
"I like being warm, thank you." I'd have half the mind to accept if it was a diner. If it's the lamprey stand I've heard of in mundane off-screen conversations, it's going to be fucking chilly.
"Oh, grow a pair, kitty." Mima positively baffles me with the intent of her insult. Does she mean a pair of balls, or a pair of breasts? "It's awfully mild out today." That's... incredibly insincere, coming from a ghost possessing the embodiment of dying from the cold.
Maribel gave me a big smile. "Aw, come on. I can get you a nice, super warm jacket. Would you like that? I know today's stupidly cold, bu~t…"
...Hmm. "What kind of jacket?"
Maribel's expression lights up.
/ / / / INSINCERE / / / /
Fit with a fluffy designer jacket way over my pay grade, Maribel strolls down the icy path between the village and the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, or whatever we're calling that messy place today.
"Uuh." Mima's dropped her edgy echo effect, just speaking plainly from Shimokoa now. "Hey, newsflash kids: maybe this wasn't my brightest idea. Eientei's right over there."
"I don't think they want to fight us in a forest," I reason. "You know what? Let them come. We'll see who has the last laugh." This cold day's filled me with energy. If I really have to be moving, I'm not letting anything stop me.
Mima made Shimokoa shrug. Shimokoa herself spoke next. "I agree. I'll kill as many-... as I need-... as I want to."
Maribel gave us both a curious look. "...What's got you guys so on-edge?"
Ahah. "I've been consistently betrayed by morons. My patience and forgiveness is quite low."
Shimokoa growled back. "Shut the fuck up, you little bitch. Human trash. You could never understand my pain. If I could crush your skull right now, I would. The only reason I don't run away is because Mima sees interest in you."
...Slowly, Maribel hatches a big, awkward smile. "Damn, okay…"
She's facing us by walking backwards, by the way. For some reason, Maribel seems exempt from this shitty ice-laden trail we're walking. In fact, I'm the only one suffering. Ouh…
Well. This can't be all bad. We'll see what the fuck lamprey actually tastes like when we get there. Hopefully they also serve pancakes or something.
"Fuck you." Shimokoa declares, out of nowhere. "Fuck you."
"But- why…?" Maribel dared.
"Just die!" I feel like Shimokoa is just slowly becoming more insane. "Fuck you…"
"But- why…!?" Maribel slowly becomes more incredulous.
Shimokoa says nothing, but her eyes glow fiercer in return.
"Well… uum…" Maribel scratches the back of her head. She looks back at me again. "So, Matt! Are you and Brad still in touch, at all?"
"No." I have no idea what the hell he's off doing. He probably got killed at the time I should've been killed, or something similar. I can't see him making that many less enemies than me. Probably.
"Ooh. I see~..." Maribel nodded, sort of idly. "That's a shame."
"It's really not." I doubt he would have had anything to add about the past few days… or weeks. He'd probably be about as annoying as Mima.
Actually, Mima's more annoying. Brad's at least not an arrogant prick half the time. Just a third of the time. He also knows how to be funny, unlike Mima.
"Oh, don't say that." Maribel smiled a very Yukari-like smile. "I'm sure, under different circumstances, you guys'd be tight."
"I don't need your sugary optimism." At least I can trust her to not have dumb intentions, unlike Yukari. Yukari is very transparently bad at life, as well as deception.
"...I'm curious." Maribel put a hand up to her own chin. "Why a, um… cat girl?"
"Because cat girls are hot." You can't deny that I'm smoking hot. I've never felt more like a cute gay girl in my life.
"Fair enough…" Maribel accepts my argument without, well, argument.
She turns to lead us as we move into the bamboo.
"So," Mima speaks up from inside Shimokoa, "what business've you got with us? You're a not-so-sneaky nod that we're kinda unsettling a certain someone."
"Oh…?" Maribel twists and gives her an airy look, before continuing. "Aah. It's actually nothing like that. You were going around letting Shimokoa there smash things, and it woke me up, and I went outside to see what all the fuss was about."
"And you just so happened to follow us." Mima supposed. "Uh huh…"
"I mean, you guys remind me of-... something," Maribel failed to explain anything. "So I was curious. Plus, I haven't caught up with Matt here in awhile. We hung out for a little while a month or two ago. We like, went down to Old Hell and visited the Palace of Earth Spirits."
"Huh. No shit…" Mima decided that was good enough. "How'd it go? What was the overall uh, tourist party?"
"It was me, Matt, Brad, Renko, and uum… Shikome and Hana, yeah." Maribel managed to remember everybody, somehow. I forgot who Hana was, actually.
"...Hmm." Mima snorted. "Who the hell's Hana?"
"A fairy."
"Oh." Mima doesn't ask anything more. She knows who Brad is? ...Or, Renko, for that matter?
We enter the bamboo.
Jade shade is offset by gloomy white and overcast energy. It's comfy, but also very dead.
God. I'm kind of wishing I stayed home. It's still cold, even in this jacket. Whatever, this will be over with eventually…
Quietly, we navigate until we find the food stand somewhere ahead. It's shy of any truly lecherous brush or bamboo.
This is good, because I don't really want us to make a scene immediately. If we can be discrete, that'd be nice.
That said, Shikome seems as vigilant as she usually is. Which is to say, I can't tell if she's sleep-walking or actually acutely aware of everything.
crack, crack. crack. The bamboo around Shikome falters and cracks, becoming yellow, then black. The grass at her feet degrades rapidly, becoming tar-like in consistency in her trail.
Her presence does give me peace over the craziness of the nature around us. There will be no getting trapped in these damn woods.
"Eeh. Guess we could take any ol' random mercenaries." Mima finds her own confidence soon enough. "It'd take more than Reisen to stop us, I'm sure."
"Probably…" For some reason, Maribel is quite confident as well.
We continue up to the stand in question.
Mystia's grilled lamprey stand. I've never been here before, I think.
It really is what it is. A stand. They probably grill lamprey here. It's a little more… established than I thought it'd be.
The snow around it has been cleaned up, it would seem. Mystia herself has a brown cooking apron on over her regular outfit, whatever the hell that is.
"Aah." She sees us, and doesn't seem at all displaced by our party's composition. "What's this? A birthday party?"
"Yup!" Mima forces Shimokoa puts an arm behind my head, making a peace-sign behind my cat ears that already exist. "For li'l Sabrina here!"
Smiling, somewhat amused, Mystia made for the back, fiddling with some grills. "So what'll it be?"
"Pancakes or I'm gonna riot." I don't want lamprey after all.
Mystia snorts. "You're in luck today, birthday girl. Sure thing."
"Yakizakana…" Maribel gets something plain.
...Shimokoa looks around. "Food." I think that actually was Shimokoa who said that.
Mystia gives her a flat look. "...Should I take that to mean anything, or are you just one of the stupid types?"
Shimokoa visibly restrained herself from retorting. "Hmmh. Forgive me if I don't eat human food, little bird. Aren't you on the menu, around these parts?"
"Aren't you something to be served to keep drinks cold?" Mystia was quick on the redraw. "We can play this game all day, rocky. If you don't want anything, that's fine, just shut up if you don't."
Shimokoa powerwalked up to the counter, and began to lean over it. "I will-"
Maribel threw an arm up before her. "She'll, um… do you have any treats? Ice cream, maybe? Cookies?"
...Mystia snorted, giving her a flat look. "Heh? ...We carry some fortune cookies. It was a stupid Eientei deal. I normally don't carry sweets- I'm not a sweet vendor- but-... it's a long story."
"We'll take twenty!" Maribel chirped.
Mystia gave her a strange look. "...Fine. Sure."
With that, Maribel sat next to Shimokoa, sighing.
"I want to kill the vendor." Shimokoa declared.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Pfehe- oh. Maribel broke character to snap at her. "She's just doing her job. She's a little rude maybe, but not everything can be solved with a- a bloodbath!"
"It begins with disrespect." Shimokoa is the edgiest teenager. How old is she again? Not like it matters, does it? Be you two or two hundred, you're probably a fucking brat.
Maribel snorted. "Wha- what?"
"That disrespect reminds me of cruelty." Shimokoa declared. "She'd kill me if she could. If it benefitted her- she would. I'm the one being transparent about it."
Maribel looks disturbed on an intellectual level. "Bhuh… but-... what would you get?"
Shimokoa glared at her. "Peace. Satisfaction. Her money and things."
"That's evil, though!" Maribel argued. "I don't think you need her stuff. And, how would it bring you peace…? You just met her today."
Shimokoa huffed. "Explaining everything to you-... hmmh." She was on the fence of just saying 'fuck it', but actually decided to explain anyway.
Finding her thinking, Shimokoa started forming coherent speech. "Gensokyo is a stage of power. Where authority and fatal potential rules lives. I've lost too many beloved sisters to this chaos, to this… mortal insanity. I've had enough. If the world wants to act so cruel, I'll act just as cruel back.
"If those I love can be killed for no reason, I can kill for just as few reasons in turn. If my sisters are to die for sexual gratification, as targets for abuse and negative emotion, then…"
woosh. Shimokoa tried to smash the counter, but a gap opened up to brace the impact.
CRACK! Some bamboo in the distance cracked as if it were shot with a rifle.
Shimokoa glared at her. "And you- little human bitch. Mitigating my impacts. Trying to stifle my frost's flame. You don't feel my pain. A human could never see these hundreds of years of true, recursive, pain."
"I- I think…" Maribel was struggling to find words to argue with her.
I sigh. "Can you just shut the fuck up?" I'm tired of hearing about Shimokoa's stupid bullshit.
"Fuck you!" Shimokoa flipped me a finger. "He- hehe…" She giggled at the brevity of our interaction. "Especially you. Greedy cat. You'd be cuter if you weren't in the form of a human."
Uh huh. Well, that's great. I can't believe Shimokoa's a furry.
Maribel held her own head, looking between us. "I mean-... um…"
"You don't mean anything." Shimokoa remarked. "I'll beat you for several hours."
Maribel giggled. "Whaha- what the fuck…? Why…!?"
After thinking on it, Shimokoa saw the humor in her own blunt phrase. "Perhaps I could've worded that more sternly. Still…"
Maribel looks at me, pouting. "...And you. Why're you so mean?"
"Because I don't want to be here." I remind her.
Maribel gave me a flat look. "Why're you here then? If you wanna go, go. I just thought-"
"Oh, okay." Let's go.
"Wait- don't go!" Make up your mind. "I wanted to talk with you…!"
/ / / / MARIBEL HEARN'S PERSPECTIVE / / / /
Man… these guys are a handful!
Matt- or Sabrina- is just… so angry. This Shimokoa lady's so angry too. You know, I thought they'd be the like… cold and calculating types, not just angry.
I guess Matt- or Sabrina- kind of is. He- she- they're kinda irritable though. And don't even get me started on Shimokoa here.
"Um. Matt…" What'd I wanna say again? This is so awkward.
Oh. Right. "I know you've kinda had a um, hard time recently. Especially since it's supposed to be Christmas time, but you didn't get any presents, or anything… and the only people you've been spending time with were, um…" I look at Shimokoa again.
...Matt's totally different, too.
Instead of a blonde, kinda stocky but tall dude, they're a black-haired cat girl with red eyes, shorter than me. The name 'Sabrina' definitely fits.
But, I have to remember: at their core, they're still Matt. That's still the soul inside.
"It's fine." Matt seems to relax. Seems like my heart was enough. "I've already got my present." He looks over at Shikome…
Shikome's standing on the counter. When we look at her, she gives us a gentle, airy look from above.
"...Yeah." Matt seems amused.
"Hey, hey." Mystia comes up to her with a broom. "Get, get- get down. Get off the counter!"
whap, whap. Shikome doesn't seem to care about being batted by the broom. After an awkward moment, Shikome actually gets off the counter.
CRACK. Oh. She landed on a stool, and flattened it.
"You- motherfucker…" Mystia held her own head. "Uugh. That's going on your tab."
"Um. That's fine." Money's an object when you're chasing dreams. Or rather, um, Yukari's my bank account, and let's just say money's an object to her…
fwi- fwish. Mima phases from Shimokoa's form, and occupies a stool next to her.
...Oh. Without Mima's shade over her scowling face, Shimokoa just looks upset and broken. She looks like she's about to cry, and like she's full of nervous energy.
"Whew." Mima fanned herself. "Gotta get a little air. Gets stuffy in there…"
Shimokoa snapped to look at her, before sighing.
"Um." Right. So…
I guess I'll get to know them a little better. Matt… he could be an opportunity for me.
The world I desire's at the tip of my fingertips. But even that much is still, you know, effort. I've been thinking…
I can't take anyone from Yukari's world she has here. I can't take Reimu or Marisa or anyone she considers critical to her design here. It'd be… bad, and she'd probably rip my hair out.
There's no going back once it's begun. There's no undoing the past. Any mistakes I make will compound and mark the world I design for eternities. Decades, centuries… maybe even forever.
In the face of that… even if it's bitter, I need to confront Brad again. I don't know what to say to him, however. I've done a bad job of convincing him… but, it's also not the kind of thing people agree to in the first place.
That, and the way I'm thinking of doing it… him and his friends are going to have to trust me to put them back together. They won't have the memories of this place that they do now.
But I want to give them the future they might not have here, on the outside.
It's something more than even lovers can give one another. In that way, I'm caring for them.
Maybe that's how I should explain it, if it's not too late. I must've looked like a freak to them.
They're just the people I'm gonna consider 'main character'-worthy. Yeah. They were my first picks.
That's why it's so rough that things went the way they have. If I can't have someone like them… then, what good would a world be? It's not like I can just yoink anyone else of value to me, either. Reimu, Marisa, anyone like them, they belong in Gensokyo.
But Brad's an outsider. He's fair game. Maria and Genkan aren't anyone important; not here, at least.
I look at Shimokoa, then Matt.
"Hey, guys…" While Mystia cooks our food, I try to organize these fragile, frayed souls.
Matt looks at me. Alright…
I take a breath in. I'm a little nervous. These kindsa people… they're really on-edge, and it kinda puts me on edge.
"What do you want out of life?"
It's a loaded question to them. Immediately, I'm met with skeptical emotions and suspicions.
"I don't know." Matt just didn't have an answer.
"Power." Shimokoa had an easy answer. "The power to kill." Good.
...Mima leaned past Shimokoa, to smirk at me. She didn't say anything in return.
Suddenly, Matt had a thought. "Does anyone know where… Pearl went?"
"Who?" Shimokoa forgot.
Mima snorted. "Oh, right. Uuh. Good question…"
I shouldn't know who Pearl is, so I'm not gonna say anything. Eheh.
Well. I guess I kind of know what they want. It's pretty obvious. But…
"Matt." I speak up. "You want people to stop persecuting you in the short-term, right?"
He turns to me.
"To stop trying to subjugate you." I brought up some recent events. "To stop manipulating you. You want the freedom to be who you are, completely free of judgment."
...He shifts, not saying anything at first.
"You want to be understood."
I keep going. "You don't kill just to kill. You kill as commentary. You're trying to punish the world around you. It was all catalyzed by the first times, where you felt forced to kill. You're punishing society for being naive."
He nods. "I think you should stop."
"Why?"
"It's none of your damn business anyway."
Fair enough, I guess.
I turn to Shimokoa. She's easy.
"I know where Brad is. Genkan's with him still."
...Maybe I should've saved that for after breakfast. No, scratch that, definitely.
Matt dodges out of his seat.
CLA- CLACK, CLACK, CLACK! Every stool is cast aside when Shimokoa grabs me by the neck, and pushes me twenty meters straight ahead from where she faced me.
Without Mima's aid, her strength isn't that great. She's basically just displacing me; in that same way Genkan gently pushes Brad around when she's trying to be cute.
"Tell! Me!" Shimokoa can't summon the same unearthly volume without Mima, either. "Tell me!"
I'm held up against a clump of bamboo.
"On one condition." This feels scummy, but Shimokoa's the kind to bumble her way into deals and stuff. It's almost too easy.
"Tell me." Shimokoa draws an icy knife, and holds it up to one of my eyes. "Here's my condition. Tell me- or you will never see again."
...For some reason, I feel comfy. It might be the snow, and the dim lanterns around Mystia's stand. The overcast makes everything feel… really good.
It's thought-provoking. Dreamy, distant, but real and immediate. Balanced? ...Yeah. Balanced.
"You and Mima are gonna hang out with me for a while." I decide.
"Hey~, hold up, buster…"
Mima places a hand on Shimokoa's knife arm. "Easy, snowcone. I'm the contractor here. I do the wheelin' and dealin'."
With that, she looked at me. "So what's in it for me? I'm sure I could find that clown if I really~ wanted to."
"We're looking for them." Shimokoa glared missiles into Mima. "Do you know where to find them!?"
Mima grinned. "Eeh… I mean-"
"We're going now." Shimokoa let go of me. "Mima. Lead me to them."
"No."
Shimokoa braced her teeth, anger whirling like a gear gone awry in her head.
"Hnnh-" She tries to hoist up her frosty claymore, but without Mima's help in this moment, it's just way too heavy to be useful. "Haah!" Oh- woah! She still manages an okay swing though!
woosh. She tries to club Mima, but the blade goes right through.
Mima giggles. "Man- whaddaya goin' and attackin' me for?"
"Lead me! To them!" Shimokoa is just hellbent on vengeance, isn't she?
"Look. I can't." Mima lies. "We got more business."
"Like hell we do!" Shimokoa can tell the lie easily. "You just don't want to lead me! Because you need me!"
"Well, no, actually." Mima felt obligated to make it clear. "But you're not ready yet-"
Shimokoa turns to me. "Lead us, then. I accept your deal. When I get my revenge, I will follow you. For how long?"
Well… "A week or two, maybe? You'll get an apartment in the Golden Grin. Free snacks. You'll have to do it just 'cause I showed you to them. Regardless of if you'll win or lose."
"Heh…" Shimokoa shook her head. "I could never lose. A human, and the shell of a woman Genkan has become… they pale in comparison to the moon's tranquil fury. To my suffering, to the snow woman's pain…"
Shimokoa looked up. In the six AM sky, the moon was still visible, through the last patch of dim morning sky not consumed by today's setting overcast.
Smiling wickedly, Shimokoa looked at me, eyes wide.
"Don't be surprised-... if, wherever they are-... nothing even remains of it. Don't you chide me-... You'll change your mean when-"
Shimokoa's eyes become the widest, glowing a gentle blue, ecstatic with adrenaline, fear and joy.
"You see the moon shining down, and shedding her tears… for the damaged children who
"On my behalf, she will unleash her wrath."
"You'll know I was right. That I am the rightful holder of my destiny-..."
Shimokoa floated into the air. "I used to be so weak inside! But- this power… I'll never hide again!"
...Um.
"Nn- hehehe!" Shimokoa's having too much fun. Way too much fun. "Aah…"
She looks back down at me, her eyes glimmering with a pale blue energy, before turning mint again. "Where are they?"
"After breakfast." I decide.
...Shimokoa frowns, hard, but reconsiders being even more cringe. "Fine." Thank god.
If I know how she's gonna act… you know, maybe I can be there. If she actually beats the shit out of Brad and his friends, maybe I could save the day, or something…
Yeah. That sounds good. There'll be no complaining or moaning then. I'd just be converting a bad end into a good end.
All according to plan. That sounds edgy to say, but like, a good plan's a flexible one. Rigid plans just snap if they can't force it. What doesn't bend, breaks…
Anyway. That's one down.
Brad still considers Matt a friend. Matt, I don't know. He's very neutral about it. He seems cynical of Brad's existence… so, hmm. How can he be useful?
We come back up. Mystia's giving us the flattest of looks.
...Sheepishly, I put my stool back up. "Sorry about that."
"You know," Matt spoke up, "I didn't want to be around Mima for this reason."
Huh? "What reason…?"
"She's insufferable." Well that's just not very nice, now is it? "She also seems determined on including me in her stupid-... plans." Yeah, 'plans' is probably the right word.
"What'cha sayin' about me?" Mima was suddenly over our shoulders.
"I'm saying go away." Matt's not shy about opposing her. "What do you want from me?"
Mima sighed. "Ooh, lighten up. I'm tellin' you-"
swish. Before Mima can lay a hand on her to be touchy-feely, Shikome interjects with a blackened tendril.
"Ooh- woah." Mima's across the stall really fast.
Shikome's tendril is gone, having retracted back in just a few frames. She's not doing much more than looking in our direction.
...On the topic of Shikome, from what I can understand, I think she's well-fed, so the risk of getting half-murdered by her is pretty minimal. She's really quiet, but she's actually very acutely aware of others' social and animalistic presences. Or um, she's alert. Yeah.
You know… that reminds me. Of that time, about a month ago now… it's less far away than it seems.
When me, Brad, and Matt here went down to Old Hell. Mima showed up during that time, didn't she? I'm not sure why, or what she was doing back then. I don't think she knowed what she was doing either.
But that was our first glimpse at Shikome. Shikome had grappled Mima and tugged her around; she didn't quite have her affinity for draining soul and power from things she touches.
And, me and Brad and Renko had an awkward moment with some weird fringe youkai or something. That was… that was pretty weird!
Me and Renko, we're like… we could've lived. But adding a guy to the mix? Especially when we hardly knew Brad? I don't know. I mean, he's not ba~d looking, but… he's not a girl, for one thing. He also reeked.
It would've been incredibly awkward, at the very least!
Click. Oh. Mystia's done with the food.
"Hey, Matt." I've got a few questions, for him… "I know your bar's fallen in a bad way." I think I know what the kitty likes…
Matt gives me a look, his- her- whatever- his brows furrowed.
"If you work for me for a little while, at the Golden Grin, I can foot you some staff." I give him an offer. I wanna keep him on file, even if I don't have anything to really make him do right now.
He's certainly not prizing power. He's keeping himself busy while Shikome does the actual DPS.
"Unfortunately for you, I don't read contracts." Matt counters.
"I can get you one in English." Don't think I don't know how this works.
"...Hmmh." He didn't seem to expect that.
"You'll get to stay at the apartments we have too, if you want…" I offer him. "As long as Shikome doesn't blow everyone up. If you need to keep her fed… terms for that'll be in the contract."
Really, it depends on how much she'll have to eat. Daily whole person meals is like… not good. Even though the Golden Grin's back halls are a magnitude bigger than the village itself, it's like… many youkai are older than maximum human life spans.
We don't have many expendables. In fact, Gensokyo doesn't have much that's expendable in general. Versus, the outside…
Actually, yeah. Maybe arrange some kinda deal. Sort of like the kind Yukari has with the Scarlet Devil Mansion, perhaps.
I have a frame for the contract written up back at home, but I'm gonna have to work on it.
"What's in it for me?" Matt asks. "Besides staff. What will you expect?"
"The contract'll tell you." I inform him. "But basically, I'll expect some waitress duties. And maybe I'll actually get someone to teach you a thing or two about serving actual alcohol! So consider it an education on actually running a bar too.
"As for what you'll get… hmm. A paycheck; more than you make right now. Heating. A warm bed, a furnished room… and a personal computer."
Later, I'll tell him about the youkai community that operates under the extended Yakumo estate within the Golden Grin. It's basically the front-row seats for Gensokyo's fear festival.
It's not hidden or anything, but… it's better that the village itself doesn't know about it. There's a bunch of precautions in place so that people who aren't at least employed don't know about it. Any human waitresses or, um, 'servers' have to abide by contracts written by Yukari herself.
"I'll think about it." Matt is tempted by the offers of comfort and luxury. "Is self-defense included?"
"I mean, kinda, yeah. We're not just gonna let things gobble up our employees." Like… "But, if you want to stop people from flirting with you, that'll be on you. That's none of my business."
...Ah. I don't think Matt was thinking about that too much, but now he is. As he should, really. It's, uh… important.
He has a question. "Do any lolis work there?" Oh, okay.
I give him a flat look. "Yeah." I mean, youkai, so yes.
...He doesn't say anything, but I think he's interested.
Mima gives me a sassy look. "You're lucky Shimokoa has like, two IQ. Don't think I don't see what yer doin'."
Yeah, yeah, I know I'm stepping on your toes… "What'm I doing?" I give her a cute, sorta clueless look in return.
"You're tryina' mitigate 'em by giving 'em shit to do to keep busy and outta trouble. An' yer planning to defuse Shimokoa, aren't you?" Hmm. "I could care less about kitty and stabby here. I've put a little too much time into snowcone for you to fire that gun too early on me."
Well. That's nice, but, "it's not my fault you're not being fully honest with her…"
"I knew- from the start." Shimokoa is suddenly up behind us, shivering with excited energy. "You were hiding things from me. I know you're using me, Mima. The only thing I won't let you take from me is-... is this."
Mima snorted. "Revenge?"
"It's not revenge." Shimokoa lies. "It's justice. I'm-... I may be vengeful, but this is correcting a wrong in the world. Genkan lays on the blade's edge. If I don't do something as soon as possible, she may be ruined forever."
Mima huffs. "Aah, c'mon. You can't really believe that. People bounce back from that kind of shit. That's even assuming-"
"I don't want a lesson on empathy from you." Shimokoa snaps back. "You know less than you think, spirit."
Mima held her arms out. "Dude- I'm a spirit of vengeance! Bein' petty's my middle name! An' it takes a little knowin' to know how ta be petty in just the right ways!"
"Then I don't need your opinions." Shimokoa looks down at herself, feeling at her sorta torn-up kimono. "Genkan is in danger. Her life has been in danger for weeks. I won't let her be damaged just because you're too stupid to realize the danger she's in. You don't value her, either. I could never let that happen."
...Mima sighed a little. "I'd never tell you not to be angry. Hell, that's what I want. I'm just saying, you could find some better reasons."
"Fuck you." Shimokoa reacted violently. "Shut up. Evil spirit. I said I didn't need your opinion."
"Like…" Mima smiled a little. "The world is pretty fucked up-"
"Shut up!"
"-and it's pretty good that-"
"Fucking! Shut! Up!"
Mima waved her hand.
...Shimokoa kept yelling at her, but didn't make any noise.
"Ehehe. Anyway," Mima continued, "I think it's pretty happenin', to be angry at the bullshit life's dealt you and the people you've loved. And it might be kinda fucked up, but I'm not gonna complain about you goin' around giving life a few of them middle fingers back.
"I'm just saying, you're a little hypocritical." Mima told her. "But the worst is this shit. How many times have you talked with Genkan and just got left confused by it, again? Maybe the one who oughta do some thinking is you, not her…"
With that, Mima unmuted her.
woosh, woosh, woosh. Shimokoa tried to grab Mima; to twist her head off, to smash her back, to rip her arms, anything.
"I think-" Man, she's worked up. "I think you don't know what the- hell- you're talking about!"
...Mima made herself some legs, then folded them. "Okay… how?"
"You don't know the danger she's in! You don't know what we've went through! What others have went through! If the world doesn't want me to kill- it shouldn't kill either! Turnabout is fair- fucking- play!"
Mima held a hand up. "So what about the people you've killed just by lookin' at 'em? What'd they do wrong?"
"They-" Shimokoa loads her response. "They were in my way. They were going to stop me. They would insult me, try to break me. Even those which didn't raise a fist, I could tell by their grins and stares, they were against me. They were part of this cruel world. If they're the infection, I'm the cure." God, what a cliche line…
You know, Shimokoa throws the word 'me' around a lot. ...Could it be that she's just really bad at reading other people? Or can she read other people, but she just can't find it in herself to care? To the point she'd deluded herself into thinking she's an emotional paragon, when she's actually just chaotic energy?
Mima snorted. "They didn't know you, right?"
"Exactly. And I didn't know them." Shimokoa beamed. "So no one will cry when they die."
"Hah…!" Mima liked that one. "Aah, yeah. At least when I went around killin' people, I knew what I was doin' was fucked up."
Shimokoa snorted. "Then we are alike. I know I'm sinning right back- but this world deserves sin. It's not a problem for me to do it, if everything else sins alike. It gets me closer to justice. It gets me closer to happiness and peace."
Mima raised a brow. "Eeh. Personally? I just wanted to fuck shit up. ...Or, uh, I wanted to show the world I was mad. 'Cause the world was a pile of shit.
"Eventually, once you do enough wrong, you just stop caring. You look at the bigger picture instead. When it's that zoomed out, you don't see all the little people you hurt. Ignorance is bliss, ze."
Mima leaned back against the stall counter. Oh- oh, right, my Yakizakana… "I don't lie to myself and justify what I did- and do. It just sorta happens. I don't think too hard about it."
...Shimokoa thought on that, and found a similar response. "Just 'sorta' happens, you say? ...I could see that. Either way, if those we kill didn't want to die, they should have understood us. They should have been better."
Mima snorted. "See- now there's the problem. The world doesn't revolve around you."
Aah. Such a simple point… but, it really is sometimes forgotten, isn't it?
Shimokoa stops talking for a moment. She seems to inherently disagree with it, but-
"I don't exist to be killed then decompose. Not unless I let age take me. We are put on this world, as living beings, to live. If the world is getting in the way of my living, I'll crush all of it!"
Her world sure revolves around her.
You know, people like that must feel really nice sometimes. Living in the lap of their own little ecosystem, with nothing more to think about. Nothing past Gensokyo's borders; nothing even past the clearing one may reside in. Nothing past the trees, and nothing past the sky.
Just you, your toys, and a home. So very… child-like.
People say to hold onto that child inside. That the 'inner child' is a staple of wisdom. I'm sure they don't think of people like Shimokoa when they say that.
The 'inner child' is the ability to comprehend naivety, but also to allow yourself to be naive enough where it counts to be creative, decisive and happy. To take pleasure in the little things in life, to keep your ego from disallowing yourself simple pleasures.
If you let yourself laugh at a dumb joke, is it any less valuable than laughing at a correct, dignified joke? By what metric do we allow a joke's quality to be degraded by our sense of disgust? At what point is it an arbitrary interruption that distracts from our own sense of pleasure?
Shimokoa here probably feels happier than most people, when she's happy. When she's in her element, and everything's going as she's dictated them to.
Lacking knowledge of the world around her, she can't cope with change or hardship. I'm sure once this is all over, she'll have learned nothing, even when the fire inside is cool ash again. It'll be like life before; she might even avert thinking about this time in her life, stowing it away and pretending it never happened.
Me? Eheh… I couldn't be like that. Man, if I was… I wouldn't feel so bad about leaving my own family behind, and I wouldn't feel bad about Renko's uneasiness. I'd just say 'it's their fault' and wash my hands of it. So easy. So happy.
So dumb. Sheltered, afraid, and weak.
Shimokoa looks at her food.
...I look at Mystia.
"You people got problems." Mystia remarked.
"Ehehe…" I hope this doesn't affect any deals we could make later…
...When I look under our stools, I see some fluffles passing through, keeping close to the walling underneath the stall counter.
Since I'm tempted to, I start heckling them with my shoe. Aaw. I disturbed them…
/ / / / A REAL FLUFFLE HECKLER / / / /
After we finished our food, and I finished heckling the fluffles, we walked back to the village together.
"How about I show you guys the Grin?" I propose to them.
"Show me to them." Shimokoa is out for blood.
"Hold-" actually, I should probably make my words count. "...If you went now, you'd get beaten up."
Shimokoa turned to me. Since Mima was inside her again, her features were replaced with a zipper-like mouth of icicles and two glowing eyes. "I don't care. I can take them."
Nnh. "They're inside somewhere, and it's heavily guarded." It's hard to omit where exactly they are, 'cause it'd make explaining this so much easier...
Specifically, right now, they're at the Scarlet Devil Mansion. While Mima herself might be able to take Meiling, Sakuya's a much bigger 'if', and I honestly doubt Shimokoa can even take on Meiling on her own.
"That doesn't matter. Tell me." Shimokoa is way too naive and overconfident, however.
I sigh. "...Okay, I know where they're going to be, in a day." They're probably gonna spend the day at the mansion, so~... "Not where they are right now, but my best guess of right now is too dangerous, even for you and Mima."
...Shimokoa sighed. "As long as you can make good, when the time comes. I don't trust you, human."
"Yeah, I figured."
The gate into the village is already open for us when we get there. The village's machinations happen in the most convenient way for myself; I don't really know how that works myself yet, but… for now, I can only describe it as 'Yukari's looking out for me'.
"Plus, we gotta make a deal." I tell her. "It will be a binding contract. We'll figure out how long it will last. I want to show you what I want of you, some of the things I'll give you… so on."
Shimokoa seems fine with consenting to deals way too quickly. I don't think she'll need or want any of the apartments…
Matt, on the other hand, has some things to gain. Like, plumbing, heating, and comfort. He knows what it's like on the outside, and I can tell he's missing it. Especially since things have kind of sucked for him.
We progress into the village, watched by the guards, but despite our demeanor, my presence promises no stupid questions are asked.
Coming through the grey of this calm, cold day, we reach the village square.
"So many humans." Shimokoa seethed. "...Why can't I kill them? They're all right here."
"Because you'll die immediately," I argue. If a moral standpoint doesn't work, then a logical one-
"So be it." Ohp, well, oka~y… "I-"
"Genkan." I remind her. "You'd leave her behind?"
...Shimokoa hissed. "Damn it…" Yeah, don't go jumping the gun now. "You're-... you're right. I need to at least do that."
Yeah, daily reminder: you have one thing tying you to the world. Don't go off too quickly now.
Matt doesn't say a lot. Shikome doesn't say a lot. Mima's taking a back seat. So…
It's just us: me and Shimokoa. We're the only people who have any kind of discourse, and even then, when Shimokoa's not being angry, she's being quiet.
...How-... awkward. How horribly awkward!
My gut says doing anything around them and assuming they understand why I'm doing it is a mistake. But, whatever.
We eventually come to the doors of the Golden Grin. The bouncers are conveniently absent, just so I don't have to talk with them.
Click- clack! The padded double doors swing open, when I push my way in.
The moment we get inside, things are warmer. The common room's not heated; there's just that many people, and it's nearing noon.
"Come. Down the middle." I beckon them, to follow me down the central path, between the two halves of booths and slot machines.
Here's how the club's laid out, put simply:
Front wall, first booths, L and C-shaped couches against the painted brick wall. There's stereos set up along this wall. There's a black path that stretches from here to either side of the club, and each path goes straight down to the back wall.
A fence made of black-gold slot machines, only breaking where the central red path goes. There's ten machines total; and that's just over here.
Past that, there's four mid-club booths on either wing, making eight total.
Then, the path itself meets the stage.
In the time I took in the visuals, we managed to walk up to the foot of the stage.
On the stage itself, there were three girls in bunny suits.
"You gotta squeeze a little- tease a little- tease a little more. Easy operator come a' knockin' on my do- o- or!"
Oh, right. That song! It's a popular American one, isn't it…?
Each girl had long hair; cyan, black, and blonde, respectively. Only one of them was a genuine lunar bunny girl. One's a youkai with a bunny headband, and the other's an outsider, but a human woman.
Their technicolor bikinis had lollipop heads fixed onto either bra pad. The actual bunny girl's bra was made of Skittles rather than any kind of fabric. She seemed to be the star tonight.
...The star- the lunar bunny- she's the black-haired one, by the way.
"Sometime, anytime, sugar me- sweet! Little miss innocent, sugar me! Yea- aah!"
The blonde and cyan ones made a heart with their hands.
The black-haired star kicked her right leg up- so high she could hug it herself, and she did. Yep; definitely the only lunar bunny of the bunch. "Give a little mo- ore!"
As exhilarating as getting my brains blown out by the music is, we should get moving.
Passing along the front of the stage, past the gold lights that made the walkable floor clear, I gesture for everyone else behind me to follow.
As we pass the counter, Eire's there. She's a black-haired frequenter. Some aristocrat, and maybe a long-time outsider who got lucky.
There's a more shrewd-eyed woman with even straighter black hair next to her, dressed up in denim jeans with a white tank-top. Strangely modern attire for what looks like a local…
"Hey. Merry! Maribel, Marigold, Rosemary, Thyme!"
Oh. Right.
Joon Yorigami twists, seated at that bar counter as well.
She opens her mouth- revealing a single black-and-white die between her teeth. She uses her tongue to twist it, changing it from a six to a one.
Taking it out with her hand, she blows me a kiss and a wink at the same time.
"Hey…" I offhandedly wave back to her. I~ don't feel like getting into a long talk with her right this moment, so I just keep moving…
...She looks like she's about to get up and sass me, but when she sees my party, she shrugs it off and twists back towards the counter.
I've got to admit, there's at least some attractive things about the eternal party atmosphere. It feels pretty good...
Clack. I operate the push door in the back, which leads to the more urban back halls.
As always, they're very sterile. White walls, blue carpet floors, sound-proofed walls, and dim, bleak fluorescent light bars along the ceiling.
"...If you got a gander at any of the bunny outfit-wearing girls, aside from the ones on stage, that's the kinda thing I'm gonna be asking you to do."
Twisting around, I smile at them. "Of course, if you don't want to serve food and drinks, you could work the counter and help mix drinks instead. If you don't want to do that, we have retail jobs and other things in the back rooms here. But you have to do something."
Matt speaks up. "Nice. You're basically offering us dead-end jobs."
I nod at him. "Yeah, for a place to stay. You won't freeze your tits off here."
Shimokoa spoke up. "I object to being used as an asset."
I shrug. "Okay. Sure. I just won't tell you where to find your enemies then."
"Then I'll kill you." Shimokoa decides.
Snorting, I wave a finger at her. "Aah. But you can't beat me, see. Not only that, but if you want to save Genkan tomorrow, then I'm sure you can put up with even just a month of doing things for us."
...Shimokoa exhales. Gotcha~.
But anyway, "I won't ask you guys to serve any private clients... unless you really want to."
...Matt looks at Shikome, then back at me. "Can Shikome get some private clients?"
Ahah. Yeah. "No." I'm afraid that's a really bad idea…
I start moving for the sprawling halls. "C'mon. Let me show you guys to your rooms."
/ / / / MARIBEL METRO / / / /
Click. Matt's room is on the third floor.
I push open the door to it for him. It's…
Well, it's an apartment. Nice big window in the back. We couldn't add balconies anywhere, so… yeah, big windows and that's it.
We can see ice and water on the window, but things're a lot drier now than before. The grey village is in the distance outside the window.
Aah. Sights like that fill my heart, even the drearier and seedier ones.
Computer desk. Couch, TV. A little bed in the back, fits two. Every bed here fits at least two.
Fridge. It's full of some basic goodies, like water and juice, and beer. Food's on the actual person, 'cause that stuff expires way quicker… but we do have our own in-house stores.
"Well?" With all of this laid before him, I hold my arms out. "What do you think?"
Matt didn't look offended. "...Not bad. Supposing I took this offer, when would I be expected to work?"
Hmm. "In a few days. You gotta be acclimated and stuff, of course. I'd talk to you all about it."
Matt is a rather interesting person. I wonder what way he'll take this generosity. Probably not as well as he would have if he weren't kicked around by 'fate'.
Or, rather, Yukari did actually get sick of him, but she wasn't sick enough to just do away with him and Shikome. Just, well, Shikome.
If Matt really did go around killing people uncontrollably, it wouldn't be too hard for someone to get privy of that and then kill him mid-rampage. That, and humans do need to sleep. Any number of things could happen to a human being over the evening. For the most unlucky, their body just stops working.
Although, he wouldn't be rampaging. He'd probably start killing a villager a day again in allies, and stuff. That sort of thing is solved in a few different ways.
One's by by manipulating specific villagers around him to discover crimes in the correct ways… just as how Mokou and Keine eventually caught wind of Shikome's murders.
The other would be to have him die of mysterious causes in his sleep. Now, I don't like that option. Yukari's too convoluted to favor that option, either. She said it just 'wouldn't be interesting' on a random human, and that she'd done it too often to feel good about it.
...I mean, god, how often have you done it, then, Yukari? You're really not the kind to be guilty about things.
Whatever- I shouldn't space out here! Oh, right. "Hey, Matt? Can you tell Shikome to stay here?" I can't see her being in on the actual proceedings. She's just not a customer service kind of girl.
Matt considers the idea, as he stares over some of the random dumb paintings we got in these apartments. "...I guess."
"This all seems like too much." Oh? Shimokoa actually said something that wasn't like, 'murder raagh die die die'.
"Huh…?" Also, whah? "What do you mean?"
"I get by with a futon and some snow." Shimokoa told me. "All of these appliances and fabric cushions are unnecessary."
Aaah. Well, uh… I guess. "Maybe to you. Humans from the outside are a different story. They're used to a lot of advancements and conveniences. It makes them feel comfortable. On the outside-"
"On second thought, if it gets you to be quiet, I don't care."
...How-... how emblematic.
This was almost a 'Brad tells Genkan about the outside' kind of moment, except if Genkan just told Brad to shut up instead.
"I don't see how any of these things could be of value to me." Shimokoa goes on to say this, despite shutting me down.
I mean… "If you're gonna be working here, it'd be convenient."
"This heating is awful, too. Why would you ever do this? What's the advantage?" Shimokoa- please realize that you're not the only person here…!
"You are one of the few things that like the cold. And-"
"Then what am I to do? Melt in the heat? This is terrible." Freaking...
Please, let me finish a thought. "We can just turn the heat in your room down!"
"You should have said that to begin with. Why would you assume I wanted the heat-... 'on'?" Oh my god.
"I didn't- you just wouldn't let me finish talking!"
...Shimokoa purses her lips at me. "That changes nothing. You could have said the more important information first. You have much to learn about speaking, human girl."
"But- you-..." Man, she's like Genkan, if Genkan was a huge asshole. "But you're the one who-"
"Now you're blaming me. Typical human." Oh, well, gee. "Just stop while we're both ahead. I'm sick of wasting breath on you."
Man, "fuck you..."
"Hah?" Shimokoa grinned at my reaction. "Juvenile human bitch. Say that louder."
Wow. Well. Guess there's not really a point in-
"Stop fucking bitching, Jesus Christ." Matt interjects. But- we were done- okay… "Are we done? If we're done, I'd like to kick the both of you out of my room."
Well- no. "...I was planning on taking you guys on a test run of the whole 'waitress' business. Maybe not with me specifically, but..."
"Fine." Matt's ready, I guess. "...Shikome?"
Oh. The potted plant in the corner of the room has become evil. Shikome turns away from it, looking at us apathetically.
Matt moves for the TV. "It would be best if you stuck around here. And… hmm…" He seems to want to give her something to distract her. He finds the remote, and flicks it on.
Shimokoa sighs, and looks drained. She gives the TV a look, before looking away. Is she not curious? She probably is but just doesn't want to talk to us.
...Yeah- this party's really not going to work out, is it?
Matt's like Maria, without any of the spunk, or spark, and he's not having much fun at all. And without the passion for his family. And he doesn't like to cook…
Wait. Oh, god, I just realized. Did I seriously accidentally assemble the complete opposite of Brad's party?
Matt. Shimokoa. And-... me, I guess. What's that make Shikome, the Hana replacement? Not quite an equivalent exchange on that one…
And I'm not even sure which one's better or worse. I'd kill to have Hana here right now. She's so cuddly.
But Shikome here is killathon-marathon extraordinaire. They're on completely different ends of the axis of power.
"Well…" There's really no use in stalling. "Come on, you two. We're gonna start your training."
...Hmm.
When I reach the door of Matt's room, I pause. "Also, would it kill you guys to have a little fun? Like-"
"Work isn't fun." Matt declares.
"Fun?" Shimokoa smiles. "You think 'fun' is part of this world? You really do have so very much to learn. One day, you'll understand. If I haven't killed you by then."
You people are impossible…
Shimokoa keeps going, of course. "If you want to know my idea of fun… hmm. For starters, it doesn't involve you two. It doesn't involve Mima, it doesn't involve the world, or the fact Genkan is in danger, and it sure as hell doesn't involve you." She's so venomous she said that twice and probably didn't even realize.
"But-"
"If I wanted to have fun, I'd be at home, or in the snow. This can never be fun." Shimokoa shook her head. "I don't think you realize just how pitiful your human life is. Fake hearted fool." Fake heart…? What the fuck does that even mean?
"Okay, alright, I get it." Holy crap. "Geez."
I'll just get moving. I mean, sure, this place has some crappy things happening in it, but that doesn't mean there's nothing fun going on. Even ignoring the men, we got a lot of snacks, and some interesting people do stop by.
Joon's one of them. Joon's actually pretty fun to talk to. It helps that she's a big spender. Sometimes she reeeaally overdoes it, though...
We get partway down the hallway, before I take a breath, and try again. "Look. I get it. Life sucks. But-"
"Be quiet already. You'll never understand." Shimokoa declares. "A human is simply incapable. They don't have the same empathy we snow women do."
Okay. Sure…
I mock the idea. "Yeah? You read that in a study?" That sounds like-
"Oh my fucking god." Matt interjects, again. "Stop, fucking, talking. You're both children. Shut up already."
Ugh. Really? Fucking-
Shimokoa takes it worse than I do. "Fuck you."
Matt jerks his head back. "Go fuck yourself."
"Stupid cat."
I'm gonna tear my own hair ou~t… duude…
/ / / / DINER DASH DELUXE SON / / / /
"Alright…!"
Clack! I push open the simple, grey swinging door.
Here we are! The dressing room!
Back here, Tsuruko's staring blankly at a bag of BBQ chips on the makeup table. It hasn't been opened yet, and she doesn't seem certain whether or not she wants to be the one to do it.
Tsuruko's a black-haired shrine maiden from the Aoyama family. She's in her maid outfit right now; not quite standard issue, but tonight's a mixed costume night.
"Every soul- co- contains a- a whisper- of- of light...!"
Aina's doing a ballerina spin in a bunny girl outfit in the corner of the room. She seems to be trying to sing, but she's also getting really dizzy. Her big fluffy pony-tail whips around herself, making a cute party streamer effect…
She's a shrine maiden from the uuh… what family was she from again? Aikawa? Aina Aikawa? Maybe not…?
Well, whatever. She's known for the stupidly fluffy pony tail. It's basically her main hair style. I can't imagine how long all that hair must be when it's totally let down.
I come up to Tsuruko. "...Um." What're we doing, here…?
Tsuruko looks at me, then back at the chips, her expression apathetic as usual.
"Chips, huh?" I break the ice.
Tsuruko snorted. "I'm trying to decide whether or not it would be worth it to consume the chips."
Pftuh. "What, you think you're gonna get fat…?"
"...Not necessarily." She didn't seem eased by that idea either. "It will get dust on me, and ruin the makeup."
Oh. Yeah, it totally would. "Dang. Maybe you could, I don't know… eat it with chopsticks? Or eyebrow tweezers?"
"It'd still ruin my lipstick." What- hey…
"Why're you trying to eat junk food in lipstick in the first place…!?" I'm sensing an error in the logic chain here!
"...I may have done things in the wrong order." Tsuruko admitted. "But… I'm really hungry…"
Man. How'd Yukari deal with dumb little things like these? Did she even bother at all? I'm stumped.
click, click, click. Oh, hey. The sound of heels.
One of the veteran girls comes up to us. She's a brown-haired beauty, both tall and well-endowed. Her eyes are narrow and intelligent, and she's elite enough to just go around in a white sundress.
Nadeshiko's her name. Her flowery, flowy brown hair's like silk.
"You'll just have to apply your lipstick again later, Tsuruko-chan." Nadeshiko gave her a patient smile. "Though, perhaps, Lays isn't the right snack. Check the pantry for some Ritz. They're buttery, but I don't think most clients will notice."
"...I see." Tsuruko nodded. "Thank you, Nadeshiko."
Alright. Well…
Shimokoa and Matt catch up with us, after stalling behind.
"Oh?" Nadeshiko's brows gently raise, as she beholds our newcomers. "Fresh blood?"
"Quite." I confirm. "Nadeshiko, meet Shiko- I mean, Shimokoa, and Sabrina." Calling Matt just 'Matt' would be… weird. He's not even a tomboy or anything. He's just straight up a black-haired loli.
...I swear, the sound of high heels are going to haunt my dreams. They're everywhere.
click, click, click. Like over there!
"You know." I'm curious, turning to the source. "The floor's carpet in here. Why do heels make so much noise?"
Aah. Tatsuako's here, in her maid outfit. That's who was walking around loudly.
She makes herself known by speaking. "...Because, um… pressure?"
Pressure? The heck do you mean, 'pressure'?
Tsuruko speaks up. "It's because the hard heel applies the body's weight onto one point. The floor's not that soft."
"Aah. That… makes sense." Tatsuako took the answer in.
You know, I figured as much, but still, every now and again it's just so piercing. It's kind of funny when everyone's walking at the same time and the room's just… clicking.
Tatsuako's a girl who has long, black hair, but it's done up in two big fluffy twin-tails. She's got a maid outfit, and-
"Classy outfit." Matt comments, while staring at her condom bandolier along her left thigh.
Tatsuako gave him a flat stare. "...Ha, ha. Original observation." Her other thigh has a bandolier of lollipops and sweets.
Tsuruko comes up to Matt, her stare judging. "What's your name, little girl?"
Tsuruko feels at her black-white maid outfit, where the boob window was, making sure it wasn't gonna come loose. Her cleavage was exposed with a generous, fluffy window.
"Sabrina." Matt keeps his facade going. "Sabrina Bloodworth." Are you shitting me. Pardon my french, but-
"Bloo- Bloodworth…?" Tsuruko's equally vexed.
Tatsuako gains a flat look of her own. "Bloodworth, huh?"
...Matt looks between them both, before holding her arms up, shrugging.
"You both look like whores." Shimokoa, you make me feel like you're trying.
"Rude." Tsuruko's sort of a disagreeable person on her own, so she just shrugs off the aggression. "You look homeless."
"I'd rather have no home than be a slave of perversion." Shimokoa gave her an icy smile. I've forced her to dispel her angry shadow girl veil thing, because it's really not conducive to customer service. Like, at all.
"A slave? Me?" Tsuruko sneered back. "Compared to you, I'm rich. I'll be sleeping in a warm bed in my pajamas. You'll be laying with the garbage in the torn robes you're wearing now."
"My outfit's style is ancestral. Its colors are me, and its damage is my hardship."
Tsuruko snorted. "Yeah? It's common local trash. Around here, such oriental robes could never be stylish."
Tatsuako centered her flat stare on Tsuruko. "You know, Japanese is in here. Don't forget Chinese Dress Tuesday."
Tsuruko held a hand up to her own face, to discretely retort. "Shush." Well-hidden, I'm sure. Quite a powerful move on her part.
...Shimokoa looks at me. "If you don't calm your children down, I may hurt them."
"Calm yourself down." I tell her. "Tsuruko might be a little rude- that's Tsuruko by the way- but everyone else should be okay. Just give them a chance."
"...You're asking things from me they don't deserve." Shimokoa, come on… "Why do they not fold for me? That sounds more ideal to me."
"Because they're not gonna go out of their way to kill you." Mmnn.
"I can't know that." Mmmmmn. "None of you know my life."
God. "Look- I know you went through some screwed up stuff- but-"
"I don't think you understand." Shimokoa~. "I don't think you can. Ever."
Haven't we been over this? "Ugh, maybe not exactly, but-"
"Shut up, then." Shimokoa nodded once. "You can't talk."
...I give Tsuruko a look.
Tsuruko looks sympathetic. Oh, man, I'm really in over my head…
"Shimokoa, if we just-"
"Shut. Up."
"-tried to understand each other-"
"Shut up."
"If we tried to understand each other…" I pause, because I anticipate her interrupting me, but she doesn't. "Maybe-"
"Shut up."
Okay I've fucking had it. "Shimokoa- you are such a narrow-minded dumbass! Holy shit! Listen to what I'm saying for two- crappy- seconds!"
"Tch." Shimokoa acts like she anticipated this all along. "Showing your true colors, finally?"
That's-... she's so wro~ng! Uugh!
"Look at the world around you for once! Damn it!" I don't even care if this reduces the value of whatever I say to her- it's not like she was giving me the time of day in the first place!
"As if a human like you knows anything about anything." Shimokoa folds her arms. "When was the last time you read a book? Before you start criticizing others, start working on yourself." Oh my god. "If you know nothing of others, you don't even have the foundation to start respecting others."
"I'm going for a B.A. in physics, you psycho. I read like ten books, a-" I don't even know how many or in what interval- I read a lot of books! "Like, twenty books! I don't even know how many! I read that many in a- a year!"
"Maybe you should work on that." Shimokoa looked away. "Walk before you run. Reading isn't difficult."
...Oh. Oh, no. I'm not reacting to what she said, by the way.
Aina's suddenly right behind Shimokoa, smiling brightly. Her bunny headband is leaning forward. My eyes are drawn to her big, fluffy brown pony tail.
"One cummy, two cummy, three cummy, four!" She yells, propping her arms up at her sides. "I'm daddy's princess- but I'm also a whore!"
Shimokoa's mouth hangs open. Pft- oh…
"Cummy." Matt echoes. No- don't you start too.
"I didn't think it would be possible for the mistress to snap like that…" Tatsuako's comment was quiet, but audible over the silent-ish room.
"...I can see where this woman is coming from, but this is kind of ridiculous." Even Tsuruko agrees, and she's kind of mean sometimes for no good reason. But she's never-... so wrong.
"Okay, look…" For both of our sanities… "Shimokoa. Just, do as I say."
"...Fine." Shimokoa has to accept, so she does. "Finally. You're being honest. That's a start."
"Yeah, sure." My respect for her opinion is dwindling like a dying candle. "And I say you can't kill people, and if you do, you'll probably die. Or worse. So don't. And trust me, I can do worse."
Shimokoa nods. "If that's what it takes. I'll hold myself back, but if I must fight to the death, I will."
"Don't be a retard." I feel dirty, being so mean, but I guess I have to be. "Are we clear?"
"Likewise."
...Okay. We've come to… an understanding? Yeah. We've agreed to disagree. Yes, that's how I'll look at it.
I move for one of the changing booths. "Now get in here. I'll give you your outfit. You're going to wear it."
Shimokoa slowly drifts into the booth as I command.
...Man.
Nadeshiko stalks up to me, and speaks quietly. "You did the right thing. Some people just aren't worth reasoning with."
Huh. I thought she was going to chastise me for being unreasonable. I guess Shimokoa was just being too unreasonable herself. She's normally the kind to be patient too…
Aina romps on up to the bag of Lays which Tsuruko left behind, yoinks it up, and-
Rip! When she tears it open, Tsuruko casts an arm up and objects. "Aa- Aina. Your lipstick- you'll ruin it."
...Aina began eating chips. "Omh- mmh, mmn."
Tsuruko slouched. She probably wanted those chips…
Oh, right. I look at Matt. "Um. You too."
Matt looks uncomfortable with parting with his coat, but it's warm enough in here that it doesn't matter so much.
The changing room specifically has some eternal artificial heating coming through the floor grates around the edges. There's something comfy about this kind of industrialization… just, don't look too far down the vents. They're full of crap, and fluffles. Fluffles made of crap.
Not that fluffles aren't normally like that... but the brown-and-black vent gunk fluffles are particularly horrifying.
I sigh while the girls change.
/ / / / MATT'S PERSPECTIVE / / / /
"Mmh…"
I'm not really sure about this bunny girl outfit.
This is the first time in awhile I've had to come to terms with my naked body. If only I were bathing or something.
Really, it's a big missed opportunity. There's a whole lot to myself I've yet to become familiar with.
"Proposition." When I emerge from the dressing room, I confront Maribel. "We should bathe first. We stink."
"Oh, crap, right…" Maribel seemed to neglect this.
You know, I'd remain more hygenic if Gensokyo wasn't an eternal camping trip… and if water weren't precious. And if the springs that were in the village weren't fucking weird.
"Yeah, you guys probably should." Maribel decided. "You and Shimokoa-"
Shimokoa's voice emanates from the still-unopened changing room next to me. "I do not need to bathe. I am clean." She also just lies.
"You're bloody." If Maribel and Shimokoa start arguing again, I'm either hitting them or leaving. "You totally need to clean."
"For whom?" Shimokoa has a mild point, but still.
"You're working here, man. Get it together." Maribel held her own head.
"I don't care."
"Do as I say." Maribel acts like a loser.
"...Fine."
Actually, you know what? "If I have to bathe with her, I'm not." I decide.
Maribel snorts. "We got more than one bathroom." Okay, good. Like hell I'm bathing with her. She'd probably kill me, or freeze the water, or the air… or everything.
Yeah. You know, this isn't such a bad idea.
If I hang low here, I should be fine after the contract is over. No one will find me, or recognize me. I still have my gold nugget; my trust fund.
A computer, too? ...I think this is the beginning of a beautiful working relationship.
Looking at the makeup vanities along the side of this bleak room, I take in the white fluorescents. Very similar to the outside. Like a school, or a grocery store…
Yeah. I'm in my element. At least, more than in the rural bumfuck that the rest of the village is.
Shimokoa opens the dressing room.
"Let's go." I hardly look at the bunny girl outfit she was forced to wear, and I just move straight for the exit.
Aah. Open, airy hallway.
There's some unnatural heat inside the changing room itself, that the hallway outside lacks. It's weirdly comforting, in a strange institutional way, but it's also sort of… weird. Disgusting? Perhaps not so extreme, but it's still hard to place.
...I have a black bunny girl outfit on. Shimokoa's is white.
"Are you gonna whip us?" I ask Maribel, as she leaves the room.
"No." Pity.
It's time to throw a pity party. "Boo hoo." ...Unfortunately, I cannot obey my instinct to wander the heck off. I need Maribel to show me to the actual bathroom-bathrooms, and not the dinky public restrooms.
"Although, uuh, keep in mind that the private segmented bathing areas are really tiny." Maribel brings up some irrelevant rambling. "The spacious ones are mostly mixed bathing."
"Yeah, whatever." I've seen both bodies enough to not give a single flying fuck about private parts. Internet porn does things to you.
/ / / / TWILIGHT TOWN / / / /
Ah. Here we are.
"Bathing block D2." Maribel narrates the moon runes that I cannot read above the two double push doors. "...Uuh. Oh, right. D1 is the swimming pool for summer. This is just the temperature regulated tub."
What the hell are A through C, then?
"If anyone's in there, just don't mind them," Maribel informed us, "they're probably just doing their own thing. But if they do get in your face, be firm. Just, you know, don't kill them or seriously injure them, whatever you do."
...With that, me and Shimokoa enter without comment.
Fortunately, these bunny girl outfits aren't too much of a bitch to slip on and off.
"Bye." Shimokoa doesn't take off her outfit, instead doing a u-turn to ask Maribel about other bathing options.
Yeah, see you.
...Aah. Lockers. I don't know how any of these work. Do you get assigned one?
Hmm, I'll just use an empty one. It's unlikely someone'll snag a standard-issue bunny girl outfit in the time it takes me to lather myself with soap.
The 'tub' itself is a weird existence. It's a big hot tub, sort of like a pool, with soaps and supplies set up at five corners of it. It's like a pentagonal pool.
There's two guys in here? Huh. They don't seem to be doing anything, however.
We'll see if this turns into whacky anime hijinks at a later date. For now, bathing.
Where are the other lolis I was promised? I want fun bath hijinks. Maybe I should've gotten Shikome in here. Lord knows her back probably hasn't been scrubbed since she was born.
...Then again, I've got this feeling that she probably eats the microbial life that tries to stick to her through osmosis or energy draining or something. Do bacteria have souls? How the hell does that kind of thing even work on the microbial scale?
I head up to the hot tub, just straight-up naked. I don't care enough to get in a swimsuit, even if it feels weird… because I don't own a swimsuit, obviously.
splash. I get into the warm water. The bath's organized so you can step inside. It's all some kind of fancy marble or onyx, which I'm not sure if it's safe, but it sure looks nice.
You know, I haven't really stopped to think about it, since this has been unironically more pleasant than spending another day in Small Packages, but this has been a really schizophrenic string of events.
Something just feels abrupt about this. Just, being here, in this heavily urban, seedy structure, in the middle of what otherwise feels like a mix between barn country and an impoverished African nation.
However, I cannot deny, the hot tub feels nice. It's almost too warm at first, but… considering what I've been through, I hardly question it. Heat, embrace me.
"Aah…"
I'm glad Shimokoa isn't here. She would not allow this water to stay warm.
Looking down, I watch my pale body spread out in the shimmering, bleakly lit water. There's some warm lamps overhead, yet they're framed with fluorescent bars around the room's edges.
There're small, open grate windows along the top of the room. How odd. Wouldn't the heat get out? Yet, this room is plenty warm… are we just outputting a stupid amount of energy to heat this room?
Urbanization is scary. I don't wanna think about it, man. I just wanna be a loli.
Let's awkwardly look at who we're bathing with.
Some blue-haired cat guy. Some monkey-looking guy. They're both semi-muscular, with abs.
...The blue-eyed, blue-haired cat guy meets my gaze. He's been staring at me, apparently.
"Haa~." The monkey guy yawned.
Oh. They're both going naked too. I just noticed.
...While the heat was insufferable at first, now I really feel it working into my muscles. Damn.
Hot springs really are great. I'm a fuckin' moron for not doing this earlier. This was all worth it. All of today was worth it. Peace has returned to planet Earth.
I hear the slight disturbance of water. The blue-haired cat is moving closer.
"Hey."
He leans onto the spring's marble side next to me. "Takin' a cat bath?" Was that supposed to be a line of some kind?
I actually yawn. "Hwaa~..." I want to go to bed after this.
Leaning onto the marble side with his elbows, like I am, he scoots a little closer. "Haven't seen you around here before. You new, or…?"
"No." I am unhelpful.
"Oh."
Something about him seems untrustworthy. Maybe it's because he's a guy. I'm not gay, after all. Wait, I'm a girl. I guess I am gay, technically. I'm confused.
"Hmm~." He stretches, and lets out a sigh. "Faah. Well, if you've been around the block fer even a couple days, you'd've heard about the Christmas promotional stunt…"
"Nope."
"...So're you new or not?" He half-grinned, staring down at me.
"No." If I keep saying no, he might just go away.
...He gives me a flatter expression. "I can't have an answer…?"
"Nope."
"Damn."
This's gone better than I anticipated. Doesn't look like he's out to leap all over me; at least, not in the violent way.
Looking away from me, he purses his lips. He closes his eyes, takes in the heat, and spreads himself out.
You know, being the target of someone's affection like this is weird. Especially because I'm not in any way attracted to dudes, so this just feels really cursed.
What products are here, anyway? Oh- oh, good, it's all in Japanese. Cool. Like hell I'm going to ask anyone to read for me.
...Hmm. Or maybe I could. I do have feminine charm on my side. Still, considering the scale of this visit, I don't know if giving some idiots the wrong idea could lead to annoying things down the line.
There's-... oh. I was about to say, 'is there no bar soap', but I seem to have found it.
It has 'Golden Grin' engraved into itself. How weird. I'd call it 'tacky', but it's soap. That's about on par with insulting the design of urinal cakes.
"You know," I break the ice, "I was half expecting you to be far more… forward."
The blue-haired cat man looked down at me. His smile was easy. "...Why? D'ya want me to be?"
"No." Let's not get it twisted. "I'm just glad I don't have to kill you."
"Heh." He slowly nodded, as he relaxed. "Well, I mean, as fun as they make it look in porn, sex in a hot tub ain't actually all that hot. The cum gets all gluey, an' it's not all that comfy, and you're already too hot…"
"That's nice and all, but who asked?"
He chuckled. "Eheheh. Well-"
"Show me who asked, because I know I didn't."
His airy smile shifts. "...I sure as hell wouldn't mind givin' you a chance. Are you single?"
"No. I'm in a lesbian relationship."
He licked his lips. "You bi? Or…?"
"No."
"Aah. Damn."
...Then, that's that.
He looks at me again. "Is she bi?"
"Decidedly not."
"Aawh."
That was surprisingly civil, all things considered.
...splash. Wait, what the fuck's in the water? Oh…
"uwoooo" A fluffle bobbed out of the tub's midst, before sinking back down. " o" That's reassuring.
It's made of something pink, so I have to ask. "Is that-...?" What do I ask, actually…?
"It's a bath bomb." He provided.
"Bath bomb." It's a bath bomb fluffle.
fzzz. The fluffle fizzes out, becoming a whirling storm beneath the water, spreading some kind of solvent through the bath.
"Is this healthy?" I wonder.
"It's soap, pro'lly." He doesn't know. "...Or some kinda cleanin' agent." Good.
fzz, zzz. I watch the fluffle slowly dissolve into nothing, spreading out and becoming a pink cloud.
...Yeah. I think I can get used to this. Modern conveniences, I mean, not this fluffle dissolving.
"Hey." The guy uncomfortably close to me speaks. "Mind if I wash yer back?"
There are back-oriented brushes here. Do I want to use them? ...I assume they're clean. Maybe.
These hand towels seem entirely clean, since they're folded up. Not sure about the brushes. Why would they be here otherwise, however?
"I would mind." I decide. Still don't want some guy touching me, at all.
"It's just scrubbin'," he argued with me, "if you're gay, it shouldn't matter, right?"
I guess. Still. "I'm fine on my own." Screw off.
He shrugged, wading away. "Aah. 'Kay…"
...How quaint.
/ / / / SHIMOKOA'S PERSPECTIVE / / / /
"I'm bathed."
Maribel turns around, after I've found her in the midst of the hallway.
"Oh- geez…" She pivots around, discovering me. "Did you have to sneak up on me…?"
Human child. You are quite a child indeed. "I could have killed you." You don't know how fortunate you are that I did not, but I won't bother stating it aloud. "You have Mima to thank for your continued existence."
"...Very cool." As expected, she writes off how thin she rides the line between life and death. Humans are inconsiderate. A simple fact of life. "Anyway!"
She starts to move. "Let's go see if Matt's ready. I didn't tell him to wait anywhere, but I don't think he'd just take off… we're not too far away either."
...Who's Matt? Probably Sabrina. I forget if that was another one of Sabrina's names. It really doesn't matter.
The night is late, as we find Sabrina. All dressed up in her black bunny girl outfit, standing outside public hot spring D2.
...I look down at my own bust. This bunny girl outfit has an uncomfortable cleavage window. I don't want to look sexy. This is awful.
"Alright. You guys cleaned up nice." Maribel gives us a thumbs-up. "Umm… this all took a little longer than I thought, so we don't have any time to hit the bar counters and size up people. Instead, I think we'll go talk with one of the gold or platinum hosts or hostesses."
"I hate you."
...Maribel frowns at me. "Can't we just be-... nice, to each other?"
"Sorry. It slipped." I'm sick of being pushed around. Once I find more power, this place is being levelled, along with the entire Human Village.
In another day, it won't matter anyway.
"Well, um… c'mon." With that, Maribel moves. "You guys want to talk to a guy, or a girl? Actually, we should speak with one of both..."
We continue down the blue carpets. The bland, plastered halls continue seemingly forever.
How do you go anywhere? How do you find anything here? I'm tempted to ask my questions, but I know I won't like the answers, especially now.
Just be quiet. In one day, it all won't matter anyway…
"We'll start with one of the host guys. Umm…" Maribel continues to slowly lead us.
As we make progress, we come across a stairwell. My sense of spatial placement has gone awry since we entered this grey hellscape.
The stairs are rubber. The stairwell itself is stuffy. This massive vertical shaft feels like nothing more than a mass of materials, especially with so little life traversing this particular stairway.
Just a pile of stuffy brick, metal, and rubber. True structural excrement.
We hear unintelligible voices down below, and from somewhere above. I suppose they're not lifeless, but it all still feels isolated.
"You guys, if you're gonna work here, it'd do you good to do a little networking." Maribel is still trying, oh so awkwardly, to prompt us.
It may seem hard to tell, but I can see she's awkward. I just want her to suffer, so I don't make it any less awkward for her.
We ascend back up to the second floor. Wait… were we on the first of third floor?
"Come on." Maribel gestured for us to follow, as she leads us out of the stairwell.
"Weren't we on the third floor?" Sabrina asks the question I ponder.
Maribel snorts. "Uuh. We went through one of the wrapping hallways down to the first floor. I just decided to take the actual stairwell…"
"Do we have elevators?" Sabrina asks. What's an elevator…?
"We do, actually, but they're to the basement levels mostly. We only got one above ground elevator, and it's not really necessary. It's exclusively for access to the fifth floor's back rooms, but it can access the other levels too, kinda."
Now that we're in the formless halls again, Maribel eventually leads us to an open doorway. "Over here."
...Ah.
We seem to be in… a room.
"This is uhm… one of the many staff-only lounge rooms." Ah. Maribel defines what it is. "We got some 'member's only rooms' that're used occasionally, but you'll learn about those later. Those are staff and specific customers."
In here, there are two notable people lounging around.
On a white, L-shaped couch, a single girl lays there in a purple sweater and beige pants. The pants are very low. She's sleeping on her stomach while leaned up against a couch arm, with her butt way up in the air. Her butt's basically hanging out of her pants…
"Mmh…" She's got a short, brown haircut. It's sort of tomboy-ish, but still quite feminine.
In the back of the room, along a straight three-cushioned white couch, a truly massive youkai sat.
He was a cow. He had long, messy brown hair which must've gone halfway down his back. His face was sharp, yet harsh.
Upon seeing us, he smiled widely. "Oh. Hello, Maribel. To what do I owe this pleasure today?"
Maribel strolled up to the stout glass table before the station he sat at. "I came to show off some newbies." Reaching down, she picked up a piece of candy off a bowl in the table's center.
The suited cow youkai lowered a wine glass he held. "For?"
"Formal review. Obviously..." Maribel opened the plastic film around the candy. Looks like a peppermint. "No screwing with these ones, in any definition of the word. I'll have my eye on them."
He scanned his eyes over us. "...Yet, you bring them to me in such delectable outfits. They're quite classy ladies, aren't they? I like classy."
"I'm pretty sure they're both at least partially gay." Maribel decided. What…? "Or bi. So-"
"You say that like I couldn't change their mind."
Maribel gives him a flat look.
...He grins. "Too much?"
"I don't think that's how that works, exactly." Maribel shook her head.
Since I'm not going to be given a chance, I interject on my own to clarify. "I'm not gay. I don't think you're in any position to make decisions for me."
Maribel gives me an indignant look. I must have damaged her ego.
"Oh? Then we're in business." The cow pats the cushion next to him. "...Do I know you from somewhere?" He says this while examining me.
Hmm? "Unlikely." I'd certainly remember someone as vicious-looking as you.
"...Outside the Golden Grin. In the alleys. You and some looters were being suspicious." What?
Maribel interjects. "You're thinking of someone she knows."
"Oh. I see." He shrugged. "Same difference, really. She has a very similar face. That haircut, however, is… interesting."
My bangs are as I like, but the length of my hair's still gradually becoming what it was again, after that katana-wielding cat cut it a week or two ago. I'm thankful that the process isn't taking too long.
"...Genkan?" I can only guess; there are only so many people I know.
"Maybe, maybe not, it doesn't matter." Maribel says something suspect. "Look, this guy might be shady, but he's actually sort of a veteran here."
"Quite." He agreed. "It would do the both of you well to find your way onto my good side."
Maribel instantly contradicts him. "One of the first things you should learn is to not let him push you around."
The cow man just blinks at her. "...How thoughtful of you. You know I like to play hard to get."
"Uh huh." Maribel gives him some vague nods. "He'll try and bully you if you let him."
Well, that's perfect, really. "Then I get to kill him."
"Kill me?" The cow man let his brows raise teasingly. "You really overestimate yourself, sweet cheeks."
"Sweet cheeks?" What a strange insult.
He gestured to me. "You can't go around with that much ass, thinking someone won't call you out on it."
"Everyone around here is perverted, then? Understood." I wouldn't be surprised.
...He gives Maribel a flat look, then me. "Unironically... yes, yes we are."
"You are. The rest of us at least have some reservations about it." Maribel gave him sass. "This guy's a platinum host. His name's Orato."
"Speaking of ass…" Orato patted the cushion next to him again. "Snowy lady. Sit with me."
"No," to plainly put it.
He opened that arm's hand up, and frowned. "Pity. Pity~."
He let his arms take up the cushions around him. "Well, I don't feel like playing around tonight, if either of you were wondering. If you're working here, we'll have plenty of time for that."
Maribel snorted. "All tuckered out from the Christmas rush?"
"Fucking tell me about it." He brought his legs up onto the couch like a barbarian, and laid on the whole thing. "If I've looked numb the past few days, it's 'cause I was. Just because I'm a cow youkai, doesn't mean I won't be sore after a crazy orgy like that…"
...Maribel smiled like she didn't need to hear that. "Mmhm. So, since my ladies here are shy, I guess I'll ask you to um… impart some wisdom for them."
"Hah? Wisdom? Me?" Orato grinned back at her. "That's hilarious, coming from you. Were all those times you called me a knuckle-dragging dumbass a lie?"
Maribel huffs. "Stuff it. I just mean, you have a lot of experience."
He gestured to his white suit. "I have a lot more than just experience."
"Yeah, like rape allegations." Pft- oh.
Orato laughed. "Hahaha! That I do! That I do."
...With that, he raised a brow once his mirth faded. "Like what? I can't imagine you want to just listen to my voice."
"Tell them things that'll help them be more productive, or safe, or both." Maribel offered.
Orato furrowed his brows. "What a cookie-cutter question."
"I'm tryina' run a business here, not a brothel."
Orato grinned, and held up a hand, as if pretending to whisper to me. "This lady still thinkin' this's a business, an' not a brothel…"
...Did he have any purpose in telling that to me, precisely? He's probably jeering, now that I think about it. Right, he would be. It's not that funny, unfortunately.
"Eeh…" Orato looked more bored. "Snowy lady indeed…"
With that, there was some quiet. He thought on Maribel's question.
I look at Sabrina. Sabrina stares plainly at me.
"You know…" With no further prompting, Orato just starts talking. "The game of 'hard to get' is a pretty common one, isn't it? I'm sure we've all heard of it. Even those of us who aren't… social, like myself."
I suppose that's true. So much wisdom. Very wise.
"You suck." I tell Maribel.
"Ouh." Maribel reacts in a confusingly plain way. Perhaps she's stopped caring.
He chuckled. "...Okay. Well. As I was saying… the two of you may want to be deciduous in the ways you turn down men around here. Some of us, like myself, won't stop at 'no'."
He sat up again. "See, some ladies are in on the whole cat-and-mouse game. Some more domineering ladies are like that. They want a guy who's more like shoe-shiner than a guy. Their own personal door stop. Some people think they're owed a mindreader."
He shrugged, trying to look condescending. "Men like me smell that fear. We smell that confusing want. That desire for the man who'll keep giving, the man without that level of self-respect. Especially in human women.
"Being a controlling person can sometimes be a two way street. It's also not like you can reason with them. When people like that don't work with logic…"
He shifted in his seat, and gestured to his-... crotch. "They sure listen to their body."
Fwish. I form my shotgun of ice, and aim it at his face.
He stares down the barrel, then up at me. "...Of course, this ain't a common truth, or anything. But a man like me can smell a weak bitch the moment she steps into the club. If she's here to shmooze, there can be only so many things she wants. That makes my job easy."
He folded his arms behind his head. "Who's to say someone like you won't give into that desire over time? There's nothing stopping you. It's a whole lot of fun. Men like me are happy to play your pauper. Doesn't that make you feel like a queen?"
"Pregnancy sure is nothing." Sabrina interjects in the background.
Orato gave her a wry look, but didn't address her.
"You speak like that, yet you don't look like a slave to me." I criticize him. "What kind of parasite are you, then?"
Orato shrugged, arms still behind his head, ignoring the gun I have aimed at him. "I'm a bitchy brat's worst nightmare. If they want me to act as I damn well please, then I will. Majority of the time? That might not be exactly what they want, but I'll get my dick cleaned regardless."
BAM! I fire.
"Shi- Shimokoa!" Maribel has my shotgun in the next moment, somehow. As if I couldn't just make more.
FWA- FWASH! The ice particles cut across his face.
...After a moment, he opens his eyes, one of them red from blood.
What an evil, vile man. It's scum like him that can never be re-educated. "You'll never find true love."
"True love?" He sneered. "I don't need it. To pretend it exists is a fruity concept. This isn't a novel."
"You're wrong!" I-... that can't be. No, that's wrong. That can't be right. He's speaking gibberish.
"Tell me what it looks like." Orato licked his lips, as his eye healed back. "Describe this 'love' to me."
...I don't even know where to start. I don't know what to say. No words come to me. None at all.
It's a feeling, deep inside me, but…
I make another shotgun, and aim it at him.
BANG! A gap eats the ice I fire.
"Hah." Orato beamed back at me. "Love indeed."
"You aren't right. Don't go thinking you can leave this room thinking you're right." Scum like this is the kind I exist to cleanse from this world. He is my enemy. The enemy, even!
I wonder if that man following Genkan treats her the same. It might be a vain hope, but I pray that she remains pure and uncorrupted by his human filth.
"I don't have to be right." Orato smirked. "If we both feel good, and if she comes back for another round later, it's all good, right?"
Disgusting. "You're-..." I don't know what to say to that.
It's like the crap that Genkan's pursuer spouted, the times we fought. Something stupid about having fun. As if anything he thought mattered.
With that, Orato stood. "I~... haah. Was that enough?" He looked at Maribel. "Feelin' like hittin' the hay."
Maribel opens her mouth. I don't let her speak.
"I won't let you go." I-... "I'm going to kill you before the sun comes up."
"Uugh." He isn't enthused by the idea. A sign of weakness. "I might be muscle, but I'm not big on the whole 'fight and fuck' kind of thing. It doesn't go well."
Maribel gets to interject before I can form a response. "Yeah, 'cause you're too damn slow to do anything. Also- it's only like, ten."
"I know." He waved her off. "Christmas left me sluggish, Merry, I told you. I feel like chilling, browsing Reddit for a few hours..."
"What the fuck." Sabrina suddenly cut in.
Orato simply gave her a look. As he skirted around the glass table, he came up to her.
Instead of passing by her, like he looked like he would, he stood up against Sabrina, looking directly down.
Orato was four heads taller than Sabrina. She was level with his belt. She backed away when she realized he was sizing her up.
"You are just the most adorable thing." He winked, snapping his fingers of one hand at her. "I'm not really forthright with my compliments often, but god damn. Everything comes together for you."
Sabrina doesn't say anything, instead just glaring him down.
Shrugging, he starts to move. "Mmh. Looking forward to working with you two. Now, if you'll excuse me…"
Coming up to the tomboy who slept with her butt way up in the air, he slowly brought a hand up to her. Wait-
PLAP! He slapped her right on the ass.
"Hhggh." She emitted a mighty snore.
CLUNK! A big, thick bottle of alcohol rolled off the couch she slept on. The fall didn't even break it.
Orato gave us a small expression, before electing to leave her alone, moving for the door.
"Phuh, uhh…" Maribel chuckled a little. "That better not be 'cause Katsuko's ass-drunk…"
...Eventually, she turns to me. I'm glaring daggers at her. Feel my fucking emotions. Read my eyes. You needn't words to realize just how angry I am at this world right now.
Maribel gets incredulous. "Wha- what…? What's wrong? I mean, I know he was a jerk- a huge jerk- but-"
I tune her out. There's no reasoning with a human whore. I suppose what he said, then was correct.
Why do I feel conflicted? Perhaps he described only the common, human whore. Yes. Yet, for some reason, it seemed as if he was talking to me.
Perhaps, on some level, we're allies in the war against human-instilled entropy. Yet, at the same time… he was an embodiment of destructive chaos. He was disgusting. Destructive, awful, reprehensible.
But… if such destruction is targetted towards humans, should I care? Or has he merely adapted to their destructive tendencies in a more deceptive way? If the human whore is so simple, then we need people to deal with them too, I suppose. Meanwhile, they send their men out to die in battles.
...Maybe this is the plan. Maybe this is just part of the battlefront.
Regardless, I can't help but disdain it. Such a disgusting, society-oriented battlement is nothing short of uncanny.
...But, in just one more day,
it won't matter anyway.
/ / / / MATT'S PERSPECTIVE / / / /
With the excitement done- that second platinum hostess we met with was nothing to write home about- I'm allowed to retire to my room.
Midnight passes, as December 29th rolls over to December 30th. The new year is in a few more days.
2016. This isn't how I thought I'd be spending the changing of the years.
A seedy, shitty, corporate Christmas. A holiday weekend of bleak lights, rooms boxed in with concrete and plaster, and lots of fake splendor.
At least… the view of the village from my apartment window is nice. I can take solace in having things here that they don't.
Like, plumbing. Heating. Accessible food and drinks. Computers.
Yes. When I return to Small Packages, I should probably seriously try to modernize it. So far, it has no actual identity on the bar floor, nor does it have serviceable living quarters.
You know what it did have, even as a nothing establishment? People. At all. Even people willing to pay for sex who were too cheap to go here. I've got to say, the Golden Grin is probably infinitely superior in every way.
Girls can get that freakin' musclehead, among other ripped youkai men. The boys get kitsune, kitty girls, bunny women, of all shapes and sizes, even dispositions.
Truly, in terms of gambling, drinks, sex, and sights, this shitty tourist trap has it all. Considering the resources it has, it probably even single-handedly breathes life into the village too.
Like Yukari, it's decidedly not subtle in its intentions. The more annoying part? It's quite the flex. A real power move, you might say. You've got all these religious dumbbells trying to weasel their way into the retarded council, and then you have this ugly eyesore that's just allowed to sit here and manifest itself for no good reason.
This place has probably single-handedly been more influential than the religions, even if the actual scope of spenders here is actually far more limited than one might imagine. It's kind of funny.
In terms of clients? This place isn't cheap, you know. It's either well-to-do men and women, or old fucks. I wonder how often that cow asshole's had to deal with getting requested by a grandma.
Hmh. Then again, being a weirdly self-serving kind of establishment… I think 'platinum hosts' like him get to pick and choose. It's the grunts that deal with the common elderly villager, mostly, and the village is thankfully lacking enough in standards to not complain.
...Haah.
I stare out the dim window, imagining this building's lights. Never really got to see them from Small Packages, all things considered.
shoof. Shikome pokes her head out of the covers next to me.
Congratulations, you've discovered object permanence. ...That's what I want to say, if it meant anything to her. She keeps poking her head out from under the covers with a look of strange wonder. She didn't do this with our other bed.
Is she playing? Does she think it's cute? …'Cause it is.
I don't have the strength to ask these questions.
I fall asleep listening to the soft hum of the building- and the rush of the rolling in storm outside.
/ / / / FREAKIN HAKUGYOKUROU / / / /
END OF CHAPTER 115.5
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
man moving matt and shimokoa around is so difficult because they're so UNREASONABLE AAAA
a sequence of events that might've taken like 3 k words took like 8 k 'cause shimokoa has no off button on the enragement scale, she is in a near-constant state of outrage
it was pretty fun to get to write maribel being the """party leader""" of them, though - w -
especially 'cause maribel VERY BARELY had the reigns on anybody, and everyone was very firmly opposed to change or to getting along with one another
to matt's credit, it's more like life both dealt him a bad hand, and it's really hard writing him to his actual character preferences since his inherent state is kind of set up as the cause of a lot of impulsive decision making back when we were yucking around a bit more
so in that sense, it both feels kind of disingenuous and this matt feels a lot more reactionary and in-the-moment than the matt i know
this batch as a whole has been markedly more serious than most of the previous story beforehand…!
as always, with any emotional or tone (tonal?) arc, not everything will last forever (although broad developments obviously will continue).
as always, see you all next time!
