(in which we BREAK' ER YEAH MAN)
Clack, clack, clack. We're finally playin' air hockey!
The lounge room down here on the first floor is an entire bar, now devoid of anyone 'cause we took our property back over. Booze was left behind on the shelves.
Since we killed the generators, the lights that were set up are no longer set up. Maria made multiple little glowing orbs in the air to help illuminate the room.
It's been a day or two since the big assfuck kabungle. What's it, January sixth? Anyway…
Two things: one, this place is actually a little warm. Warm enough I don't need to stay in my fuckin' camou-kimono all the goddamn time! Finally. Y'know, I like wearin' it and all, but it feels good to be in different clothes.
The cats left behind some apparel, so we stole it. I had a t-shirt on which said "pin me down and knock me up", paired with some ill-fitting jeans! "We need Christmas trees, year-round." I like Christmas, if y'know, that… wasn't already apparent.
Clack! Me an' Hana were dueling at the air hockey table! When I struck it back to her she got into position!
CLACK! She hits it so hard! Oh god— I can barely react!
Clack! I got it!
CLACK! She hits it so fast, Jesus! Lightning crackled up her limbs when she parried the oncoming puck!
SMACK! Me defending against it made such a loud sound!
CLACK! She's leaning halfway onto the table, like a cheater!
Clack- thunk! But hittin' it at the halfway mark of the table left her open, so I was able to bounce it off the wall and into her goal. When she swung her paddle back, she accidentally helped it in.
"Aa—" Her face flashed with surprise!
I gently threw my arms into the air. "Yeah, I won…!" I announced my victory with extremely gentle deliberation. Faux-innocence is a weirdly fun emotion.
"I hate that t-shirt." Genkan gave me a very intent look!
"I love this shirt," I have such a massive grin! "It has such power when a dude wears it."
Genkan was dressed in jeans and her kimono, but she let her kimono hang open, revealing a lacy black bra. She didn't bother with the pig tails from the punk outfit, so her black hair was flowing free.
As for how the air hockey table was actually bein' powered right now, Hana had her shoe on one a' the wires.
Maria had on one a' those cute t-shirts with a big donut on it. I forget, I got her one a' those for Christmas, right? Is that the same one? Anyway, she also wore her way-too-tight jeans I got her on Christmas because I was evil.
Hana herself was wearing a white t-shirt reading "Lightning Cat Racers," featuring a characterized version of Silver's raiju tiger tattoo. She also had some shorts on! The graphic design of the shirt reminded me of the nineties.
"Alright…" Placing the puck down again, Hana really focused! "This time I'm gonna get you."
"I am the defense." Yeah man. "I was never a chap to simply select between defend and attack—!"
CLACK! Oh shit she hit it real hard!
WHAP! When I smacked it to the left, it flipped off the table!
"Ooh!" Hana physically recoiled when it left the table! "Oh no!"
Smiling, Genkan floated the puck back onto the table. "Keep it clean."
"I freakin' shit myself," I declared this before I hit it!
Hana giggled! "Wha— aa—"
Clack! I hit it at her goal, and it went right in before she regained focus! "Whah— no fair!"
"Wahaha!" Yeah, yeehaw! "I lied! I did not, in fact, shit myself! I kept it clean!"
Genkan only realized the joke that was being made a few moments later. "You're a demon."
Our sleeping patterns had returned to normal 'cause of how beat we were after the assfuck battle. We have yet to refurbish the uh, refurbishment, but that was cool. We were still kinda just marveling at how much there was to the place!
All the furniture we ordered was on the top floor. Silver seemed to have brought more of his own shit for the lower floors, which meant we got a lot of free goods. Including this air hockey table!
We still had Zack's fuckin' sword, I realized. Looking over at the nearby wall, I saw that Maria and Genkan had it freakin' hung up for display for some reason. Since it hadn't been pointed at a youkai in awhile, it was just a dull hunk of shit. Yeah— the new name for it is "Zack's fuckin' sword," the sword presumably used by Zack, for fuckin'! Ain't nobody got time for its original name!
"Hey, so… I've got an idea." Hana had a weirdly predatory leer! "Genkan, you should play against Brad, and if he wins… you have to let him plow you on the table."
"We could play the game where I put you inside the floor," Genkan refused! "That's always a game we could play."
Hana liked that answer! "Hehehe! Oh— we should play against each other."
I stepped aside, an' they were soon dueling.
CLACK! Hana's arms on the hockey table were a blur!
Fwiish. Genkan cheated by making walls on her side of the court. The air nature of the table caused the thin ice to shatter and float around, some of 'em flaking away and into the air.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! Hana basically played a game of breakout, while Genkan just stared ominously across the table.
Coming up to Maria, I took a seat with her at the bar counter where she was chillin' out. "Dude, Maria, y'know how to play Pool?" We had a Pool table too!
Maria snorted, looking up from her book. "Do you?"
"I— do, actually, somehow."
"...Where'd you learn that? Isn't it like a bar game?"
"Video games." Urban minigames, man.
"Oh." She lowered her book! "Maybe." What! Whaddaya mean, maybe!?
"Can't believe y'halfway know how to play Pool."
"Yeah. The rules seem apparent, but I don't like, really know them." Hoh.
"Hows, uh… how's your mom, by the way?" It felt weird asking the real questions!
"Oh." That made her change gears. "Um… good. She's back home now. She seems to be doing alright. Doctor Yagokoro, or Eirin, she said um… what she did was technically highly illegal, but she's already doing some weird things with the ministry, so she said it'd be okay this once. So she made mom a new body."
Oh. "That does sound highly illegal!"
"It probably is! But… she's kind of alive again." Maria closed her eyes. "...So, I guess my orphan status has been revoked, for now."
Wow. "Man. Crazy world! What a status to have revoked!"
"Yeah…" She gave me a look. "You know, my mom's only alive again because you're a crackhead."
"Huh. Yeah, that's true." I hadn't really thought about it.
"What do you mean, 'yeah that's true'?"
"All this adventuring has left me brain-blasted."
Maria snorted. "Well… that's fair. But, um, thanks. And…"
She closed the book, placing it aside, before looking at me fully. "This Matt guy."
"That Matt guy?" I raised a brow.
"You know him, right? Did he kill mom?"
Maria knows. "...I dunno exactly. But—"
"If he did, I wanna kill him." Maria put it bluntly! "Don't even try to make me feel bad for him. Nothing can save him. I will stop at nothing to kill him. I'm not letting him procreate."
Jesus! "Uh oh."
"It's not even gonna be a big deal. I just want… to find him and kill him. Just a few thunderbolts would do it."
I did have to mention one thing. "Shikome would super murder you."
"Yeah. That's the problem." Maria closed her eyes. "We gotta kill that thing first."
I thought of the S.S. BONER, and the harpoon I had hooked up to the deck back when I was getting ready for something like Shimokoa. But, Shimokoa isn't who I was afraid of.
"I can't promise anything, but…" I rubbed my hands together. "I've accrued a powerful holy relic, with one shot. Tied it up to a harpoon as a blade, aboard the S.S. BONER. It's good for one impact against a living target. I have no idea what it'd do if it struck something, which's why I'm sayin', no promises."
Maria looked surprised! "Your random non-planning knows no limits."
"Hoh hoh. I'd say, if you really wanted to do that, we're gonna have to be strong enough to contest her though. And she basically does instant death with like every other attack because she's that cool, so we're gonna have to get on some stupid bullshit."
Maria nodded. "I realized earlier, that I'm just… not ready. I'm really not ready. I wouldn't have a shot in hell of fighting Shikome. So, I don't think we should go do that like… right away. Do you even know where Matt is?"
"I can only guess it's somewhere around Shikome, and I have no idea where they might be! 'Cept for like, somewhere in the village."
"Yeah…" Maria relaxed. "He was your friend, somehow, right?"
Smiling, I nodded. "Yeah. But… not as much as you guys. We were close, but not emotionally. Kept one another company on the outside, over uh… IRC, more or less. He was the only person I knew who could, like… do basic analysis of the world around him, and of art. Everyone else in my life was… different. Think of the village's average person."
"Oh. I see." Maria felt that. "So you had history, but… what do you think happened to him? To make him this way?"
"Ah… he was always a contrarian. I have no honest clue."
"Contrarian? Killing people's pretty extreme just for contrarianism."
"Yeah! He, uh, kinda doesn't get people sometimes, yeah…"
"Considering he went around killing people, I'll say!"
I chuckled. "Hooh…"
Eventually, the discussion tapered off. The warm lights of all the magic orbs used to illuminate the room were a little surreal, but pretty nice. Gradually, I turned my gaze to Maria. "Come a long way since we were just stutterin' at each other, huh?"
"Yeah." Maria closed her eyes. "Are you not mad at me? For wanting to kill your old friend so badly?"
Well… "No matter what I say, y'seem set on it. It's revenge, but… I can't say it's unfair for you to feel that way. Which's funny, 'cause… when I spared Shimokoa, it was for two reasons. One being, her own lack of control over herself would pro'lly torment her, and her decisions would haunt her. I wanted her to feel her own mistakes. The other being… hopefully, it'd be a valuable lesson to her."
"But, unlike her, I can control my anger," Maria noted. "And because of that, I know it's justified. It's… a kind of justice, I guess. With her, she'll just use it as an excuse to not change."
She was really deliberating over it. "I guess this is just what Matt himself gets," I decided. "I know, if Shimokoa had killed someone close to me, it'd be too late for anything else. I'd want revenge too."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I know it'd be greedy of me, 'cause Shimokoa can hardly control herself, or really even think, but… some prices can only be paid in blood. Even if it's not technically their conscious fault, it's still a debt they've made for themselves, and I'd make 'em pay it."
I'm reminded of myself with Maribel. She'd almost committed a crime that could only be repaid in blood.
Maria nodded, smiling. "I'm glad you see it my way. But… I do need to spend more time training. I'm not nearly strong enough yet… and I don't think it's something I can do alone."
"Ye." Man… Matt. I don't wanna have to make him feel the consequences of his own greed. I'm fine with letting the world do it, with letting him feel its results, but… to think I'd have to help Maria kill him? If he's really dug himself a debt that steep, I guess it can't be helped.
Clack! Clack! Clack! When I came back to the air hockey table, Genkan and Hana were both playing telekinetically. Instead of actually holding the paddles, they stood beside the table, playing patty-cake while watching their paddles carefully.
Casually, I placed a grateful-looking fluffle on the edge of the game area, patting it all over and giving it fluffle love. "Conrad…" I tried to fold it into a shape that looked small but strong.
creak. The door into the room swung open.
Shoof. The new entrant planted a box of beer bottles down by the door.
Steppin' up, I approached Silver. "Whaddaya doin' here, son."
His expression was flat. "I'm here to make peace."
Son. "The deal was you take a freakin' hike. How d'you imagine you're gonna do that?"
"Humility, gifts and money." He strolled past me, coming up to the air hockey table. "Having fun?" He asked both of the girls.
Genkan turned to look at him. Hana immediately took a combat stance!
He held his arms up placatingly. "Peace. I'm here to negotiate. I'm sorry for undermining the… thing you all have going here."
"I'm sorry for having listened to you to begin with." Genkan returned the sentiment!
Y'know, let's get this straight! "What exactly was said? What was the deal? How'd it go while I was gone for like, what, six hours?"
"I decided you'd have an apartment and not a house. There was no arguing, because of the control I had on the property. Genkan eventually caved and accepted, on her behalf and yours. I thought it was done and over with, but…"
"I told you to leave us alone." Hana spoke up, remembering the courage I taught her. "We had a deal."
"Hana. I admire your strength." Silver bowed before her. "...I also mean no hard feelings. I want to make this right."
Hana snorted. "Well, you're wrong, and two wrongs don't make a right, so beat it!"
"See…" Silver scratched at the back of his head, "I've caused an upset in my clan. I'm supposed to be their leader, but after getting them this deal and hyping the whole thing up as a big moment for us… I immediately got us evicted. After losing to a fairy, no less."
Genkan nodded wistfully. "Good job."
Man, this dude never emoted. "So, I'd like if we joined forces. Mutually, as partners."
Hana was surprisingly forward! "Beat it. Kittylitter."
Genkan was not in the mood! "You just want to recoup your losses. Don't pretend to be our friend."
"True. I do. And I figure lending you my assistance would be a good way to earn back what I've put in. I can make you weapons. I can get you men. Women, even. Within reason, that is. …And, if I live here, I can promise nothing will bother you."
"I dunno how I feel about rooming with a man whose ass I just kicked!" I put my arms on my hips! "Back in America, that'd get ya shanked in your sleep. Honor is, in fact, not among thieves there. At least, not often."
"This building is so big we could simply live on different floors," Silver negotiated. "A few floors apart, even. You're also going to need someone to do the cleanup for the mess we made."
Genkan was displeased, dude. "Is it literally too much to ask that we live alone?"
Silver adjusted his posture. "It's not… however, as a word of real advice? The youkai of this forest flourish when working together."
"That's just a cheesy line you had ready."
"...Even so, it's the truth. Even despite last night's showing, neither of you are quite like Kirisame or Margatroid. Either of those girls could defeat me without realizing I was there. If you don't have at least that level of power, this forest is dangerous to structured living."
"Structured living?" I questioned his terminology!
"What I'm saying is that things will see a house or building and seek to demolish it. Spirits, youkai. Thieves, warmongers, hungry beasts. Most of my people live in trees or underground. Have you ever seen more than the magician's homes in the woods? Those of us without the brutal gift of such powerful magic aren't fortunate. And then… there's me."
Pfft. "There's you, huh. Who's you?"
He lowered his surrendering arms. "When you don't pay your debts, I'm what you get."
Genkan huffed. "This forest's cats are bad news, and so are you. But… Brad, what do you think? He could make refurbishing this wreck more convenient."
"He's gotta get something outta this," I told her. "And I don't buy this whole he knew your mother excuse he's usin'."
"Me either. He won't tell me anything about her."
Silver sighed. "I suppose you've earned the right to know. Her name was Yune Kitakanokouji. She's still alive. We can see her, if you really want."
Genkan pointed at him! "What is your interest in me? I have no interest in you. I see the way you stare at me. If you're looking for my affection, just say so, so I may turn you away once and for all."
Silver held his chin high. "I was one of Yune's lovers." Wait… "Therefore, you…"
"Remind you of her?"
"No. I just…" Finish your sentence, son!
Let's be wrong to get him to correct me! "Are you… Genkan's dad!?"
Silver gave me another flat look, but his frown was reinforced this time. "I'm not, but it's complicated. Yune told me about you, Genkan, all those years ago. I made her a promise to protect you. That's why it seems strange. I'm not interested in you in that way."
Genkan's brows were furrowed. "...I see?"
He looked at Hana. "If I was looking for love, I'd rather proposition Hana."
Hana stuck her tongue out! "You're creepy. You're also not Brad. Obsessing over Brad is like, half of what I do! If you knew me at all, you'd know that!"
Silver snorted. "You're lusting after someone else's man. You realize that, right?"
"Yeah. But me and Genkan, we're… figuring it out."
"Keep me in mind, if you ever change yours."
"I sure won't!"
"Tell me straight. Are you my father?" Genkan wanted to know!
"No. Your father was a throwaway human who was killed in the act of breeding you. I was Yune's actual lover."
Genkan looked slightly pissed. An' then her look slowly graduated to moderately pissed! "That was somehow a worse answer."
"I told you it was complicated. It's not flattering."
"Did you ever have any daughters?"
"No. Yune sought not to breed with youkai. Try as I might, there's no fertilizing a snow woman dead set on not bearing children."
I scratched my head! "Geez, you kinda make it sound like y'fuckin' jumped her!"
Silver's unceasingly plain stare throughout this whole thing only got more and more uncanny as this went on! "We fought sometimes, yes. We were quite evenly matched. We would take what we wanted from one another. It was not a time of peace, you see, and between two youkai as influential as us, even romance had to be a spectacle. So, yes, we'd rape each other. A lot. It was not healthy, but… it was exciting."
…Y'know, we didn't really have anything to say about that! I turned to Genkan to announce my cursed thought process. "Relationship goals."
Genkan smiled in a very 'done' way. "That's a totally cartoonish level of stupid."
"For a cartoonishly stupid time. Your mother was also rather crazy." Silver shook his head, looking just a smidge wistful. "Nonetheless, you could imagine my delight in seeing you emerge from your anti-social, frosty prison."
Genkan raised her brows. "First of all, I never want to hear you utter the word 'delight' again. Second, Hana is… correct. You are an incredible creep."
Silver snorted. "I tend to fall into either extreme, yes. Some people like creepy things."
Maria browsed by us, lookin' at the fluffle roaming the air hockey table. "I'm pretty sure Brad is enough creep for both of them."
Clack! Clack! Clack! Oh, right, the air hockey game was actually still going, neither Hana or Genkan truly giving up while we talked.
fwoof. "oow" The fluffle, however, had loafed out in the middle of the field. When the puck bounced off of it, it expressed pain, dude.
fwoof. "stop"
fwoof. "nooo" The fluffle's had it up to here, man.
fwoof. With the fourth gentle impact of the puck, the fluffle flipped out and freakin' flew off the table, going feral!
"Brad is my creep." Genkan affirmed! "You've stepped out of a dollar store erotica. Begone."
"I'm Brad's creep!" Hana presented the other side of the coin! "Creep overload!"
WHACLACK! She smacked the air hockey puck off the table!
Fwap. Silver caught it with his palm when it flew for his face. "...If we're done beating the crap out of me, I'd like to know if we have a deal or not."
I scratched my head. "Wha' was the deal again…?"
Slightly impatiently, he brushed a hand through his own hair! "My help. The building. Protection. Free. And, potentially, it'd be nice if we could open at least a floor to the public. This lower floor, maybe."
…I looked at the girls!
"I don't trust him, but I think we can trust him… to not do something terribly stupid." Genkan proposed. "And I think we could deal with this place being… strangely public."
The idea did seem attractive. After the day or two we spent getting familiar with the wreckage, I kinda warmed up to the idea of a nice apartment. "That's kinda how apartments work on the outside. Plus the fact we don't gotta pay rent is pretty good. It would, at least, be conventional compared to the freakin' cave."
We looked at Maria. She smiled strangely! "Huh? I don't live here. But… I think you could work something out. He seems reasonable. Even if he's a creep, he's trying to do things for you. You're also capable of decking him if he tries anything dumb again."
Silver heaved a ragged sigh. "I thought Hana was an intruder shittalking my lover's daughter who I swore to protect, give me a break. And I meant everything about this being realistic. I'm giving you all a damn good deal. The least you could do is forgive me for the misunderstanding."
Haah… "I guess so. Y'know, that sorta is the Gensokyo way, innit. And, he did build this entire thing. Might not be exactly what we want, but it's not bad either. Maybe it's just the fact he's a big Alucard lookin' ass. That, and it was easy to assume he was into you at first, Genkan."
"I was extremely uncomfortable the other evening." Genkan noted! "You could have told me the truth sooner, Silver."
Silver folded his arms, sighing. "I guess so. Sorry."
"Y'know what? It's a… deal. Even though it's basically just returning to the deal we previously had except now I understand that you're not as malicious as you seemed. Actually, whaddaya think, Hana?"
Hana held a finger up! "Okay! But! On one condition!"
Ooh. "Oh?"
"We forcibly drag him around Gensokyo to places so we can get a read on who he really is!" Hana proposed! "Also Brad can we do the team-up wombo what's-it-called again?" She looked at Genkan! "Also it would be cool if we talked Genkan into cuddling!"
"Cu— cuddling?" Genkan was surprised!
Hana realized. "Cuddling is your weakness, Genkan. I remember all the times Brad asked you to cuddle and you accepted! And eventually all that cuddly-wuddly time got to your head!"
…Genkan looked at me! "Flip the switch. Make her go back to being unobservant." Yeehaw!
Alright. "Okay Silver, we're gonna take you to Bianco Hills so you can drown in the mud and never find a new land to call ROBLOX."
Silver slowly blinked. "I'm sorry?"
Y'know what…! "Let's kick it! Hey, Genkan, Maria, you guys wanna come along, or d'you wanna… stare at our new collection of fizzling power generators for another day, like we've done for the past two days?"
"As cool as those broken generators are, I wanna do something. Take me with you." Maria sassily joined the adventure!
Genkan held her head higher. "...I'd want to do something about this place, but there's nothing I can actually do about the damage on my own. I ought to come along."
Yeah, man. "Alright, Silver. We're gonna walk ya like a fuckin' pet cat. Let's go to, uuhh…" Hmm. "Uuuuh!"
Hana had an idea! "How well can you fly, Silver?"
"Uh…" Silver held up his hand before his mouth, and looked around unsurely, as if considering multiple options. "I'm not an air-fighter."
Oh no. You're not an air-fighter, Mac baby. So, that's probably why this guy's not more important. Reimu or Marisa could probably just style all over him by going up. "Hooh…"
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
We began to make good on the freakin' idea where we'd start building a concrete obstacle course in the sky. Except— we had no way to anchor it in the air, so we began a journey across Gensokyo to find someone who knew enough space magic to teach Maria how to do that!
We were all fifty meters in the air, far above the ground and trees, looking around. Genkan carried me, while Hana trucked around Maria.
Also, ice resistance isn't actually what we're built for right now! We're all wearing our casual clothing still, but we've got things that help. Ha-chan's got her kimono over her shoulders, I've got the freakin' ice crown on, and Maria's got her silly golden treads on.
This lead to Silver being stuck with the burden of carrying this giant concrete slab we'd ordered! "I—... I hate this."
"But dude, you're literally carrying for the team!"
"That's— not a good thing…"
This did in fact mean that Silver was carrying a hunk of concrete through the air, which I imagine is very not easy. Unfortunately, this meant we could only bring a small concrete chunk along. Despite all his rage, Silver was only a totally ripped feline youkai, not an oni, and that meant couldn't lift that much more than a human.
At first I proposed the obvious: we'd visit Patchouli! But Maria was like, "it's just anchoring objects in the air, how hard could it be to find someone who knows that?"
So we showed up at Alice's place, again! …The visual of us all just slowly descending upon her home was pretty surreal!
"Nngh…" Silver landed hard, still carrying the big concrete chunk! "Uhf." He placed it down when we landed an' approached the house.
"Knock knock!" Hana yelled, instead of knocking! "Alice! We have a wardrobe malfunction!"
…creak. Her hair in a state of slight disarray, Alice opened the door.
"We wish you a Merry Christmas!" I began singing carols! "We wish you a Merry Christmas…!"
Hana began singing with me! "We wish you a Merry Christmas, and a happy new year! Good tidings we bring… to you and your friends! We wish you—"
"Waaaaal!" A fluffle called out from nearby!
"waaal— aaal— aaal!" Additional fluffle calls echoed from the forest canopy…
"Oh my god…" I was endeared! "Maria, we gotta make you sing Christmas carols."
"Huh? Why?"
"Because you're small!" Yeah!
Silver for some reason supported the motion! "You would have an excellent singing voice."
Alice leaned into the doorframe, breathing a sigh. "I see today is the day of the snow women. Come in, come in. Brad— your stuff is ready." Aw, cool.
I entered the cool European house and there were two other snow women here.
"Oh. It's you." Aw! It's that one snow woman in black-crimson from the village!
"Aah…" And it's that one in earthy green, with fuckin' bagpipes!
"Oh, hey guys." Man, now I'm curious. "Are princess cuts just like, genetic or something? Why do you all always get the hime-cut!?"
Trivia fact: the crimson yuki-onna's name was Mayuko. I hope you remember this because it will be on the quiz. As for who she was, she was that one who left her family forever and never wanted to see them again a couple chapters ago! "...I just like how it looks."
"Same as I." Bag pipe yuki-onna was the fuckin' riddler though, and I don't think I ever learned her name. She opened her mouth, bringing it near the bagpipe whistle—
"I swear, if you play those things again, I'll just blow your head off." Alice was not having it! Turning to us, she spoke lower. "Woke me up with those..."
Mayuko immediately got up from her seat at Alice's very busy-looking table, drifting up to us. "Hey. We're seeking investors."
What! "Investors?"
"Yeah." Mayuko looked at bagpipe girl there. "We're working on a project, but we need investors."
"A project?" I asked the obvious questions!
Mayuko returned to the table, and presented to me a plain top hat. "Yeah. We're making these cool hats. Um, I like them."
Alice had a flat stare. "You're ordering those hats. I'm making them."
"Same difference."
"It's really not…!"
I raised all of my eyebrows. "So, uh… why would people invest in this? Do they get their own hats?"
"No," Mayuko shook her head. "They get to be our friend. Well, we'd appreciate it, at least… but I can't promise friendship."
That sounds like an extremely bum deal! "Whaddaya mean, we don't even get our own hats…!?"
"They're expensive," Mayuko said. "Sorry."
Aw. "What if we gave you a fluffle?"
"I would appreciate it, but not very much." Mayuko didn't look like she'd appreciate it… "Please only give me things that I could use for our project. Primarily money. Invest in me."
Genkan had her own questions. "Is investing in you really a good idea?"
"Yeah." Mayuko had nothing else to say on the matter!
Maria had her own new question! "Why?"
"Because I'm awesome." Mayuko found a grateful smile. "And I like hats."
Damn, color me convinced. "Hey, Silver, you got any cash on ya? I wanna invest!"
Silver was not looking convinced! "I'm not so sure…"
"Give me the money, sonny." Ho ho ho ho!
"Fine." He reached into his jacket! "How much money does she want?"
Mayuko interjected, "Any."
He gave me a few thousand yen, and I handed it over to Mayuko. Traded more hands than it had to, but whatever.
She counted the yen, before smiling. "I think we can be friends."
I pulled out my cardboard box of summoning contracts! "Then get in the box!"
"Why?"
Setting it down, I folded it open! "It is the ritual of friendship. Do you live in a cave?"
Looking self-conscious, Mayuko got inside. "...I won't answer that question. Okay, I'm in the box. What do I do now?"
fwoof. I folded the top shut, and the box briefly glowed!
Alice blinked with slight concern! "You people…" I think she recognized the familiar summoning contract which just happened! "I'm not running a cafe. Get your things and get out."
I accepted my new equipment! "Aye, aye…!" I collected Bradley's suit, and Brittany's maid outfit!
"Actually, wait." Maria had a question. "Do you do anything with space magic?"
"Not really, no." Oouh.
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO: GENKAN'S PERSPECTIVE ====
"In order to bring some sense to our absolute mess of a party dynamic…" As we reached the end of the forest, I got ahead of Brad and Maria. "I will take Maria to her magic lessons."
Maria accepted this. "Patchouli would probably know some space magic… and, I haven't seen her in a while. Maybe I can really get new stuff to work with."
"Brad, I trust that you and Hana will not be killed by this feline while we're out and about." I gave Brad some instructions.
Silver leaned back, looking sleepy. "I feel like I'll be the one in more danger."
"Good." Danger is what you deserve. …In reality, he hadn't really done much bad to us, but he did always creep me out, and the communication errors only compounded this fear. Pair that with his history as he willingly told it, and I'm not taking any chances.
Too much unknown surrounds that cat. His stare is always hungry and dangerous. Despite Brad's apparent lack of common sense, I can tell he feels it too, and that's very reassuring. He's very good about survival when it really comes down to it.
Maria and myself have really experienced too much turbulence. Then again, that's what I always say, isn't it? We've had a few days to unwind, but a few days of quiet feel like seconds, and a few events which take seconds can feel like days. I don't get it.
…One thing is for sure. Brad doesn't want me focusing on the negatives. I think I can agree.
"Don't worry," Brad gave me a big thumbs-up. "We're gonna screen this dude and find out what he's all about! Our way."
"Yeah!" Hana leapt into the air, her hair flying around when she threw a fist into the air. "Don't worry, Genkan! I won't do anything sexual to Brad without your permission!" When she landed, she gave me a salute.
Over the past two days, we'd… come to some agreements. Even so, somehow, Hana has yet to actually do anything with Brad. I think she's afraid of my thoughts on the matter.
To tell you the truth? So am I. My pride refuses to humor the idea that my lover could have another lover. Despite Hana's humility in professing that she's lower than me, that she's less than me, that only drives me up the wall more. It's so bold. Too bold. It's like an attack. Especially because I look like the bad guy calling her out.
Even so… she is cute. Brad feels like he wants to know her, to see her grow. Hana provides the warmth that I lack. Knowing this, she came to me, telling me she could teach me it.
Would I let myself be taught? Should I let myself be taught?
It's not that I'm not warm. It's just… I'm jealous. A little betrayed. Even further betrayed because I feel unable to admit honestly that I feel betrayed. I'm not sure if I should feel betrayed. Brad very much doesn't want to betray me— and in making that abundantly transparent, he's betrayed me. Or has he? Am I just being… an asshole?
"Hmmh." I gave them a hum. "Good luck." With that, we were on our way.
Maria walked, while I drifted beside her.
We were quiet. This went on for a good while as we passed the Misty Lake's perimeter.
"How do you feel?" Maria asked me.
"Betrayed." My tone was appropriately dour. "How would you feel? Imagine if Brad had picked that Sammy woman to quench his thirsts that you couldn't do for."
Maria shook her head. "Hana's not Sammy. And they're being like, way more respectful of you than anything I've ever heard of silly couples back when I was in school. Hana's like, less perverted than you think. Weirdly."
"I know. It's…" I'm not sure how to feel.
"You have to look at it this way, Genkan. Hana's not… a human being, or a regular youkai. She's a fairy. A being which lives forever, which can't be killed, lacking the things that hold us back. I've gotta eat. You've gotta eat, sort of. We gotta find places to live. We need constant maintenance to survive. To that end… we also want to believe in people."
"Hana doesn't seem radically different than us, however."
"Yeah, but, she doesn't have to buy food from a market. She doesn't have to eat human souls. She doesn't need sex. She can't reproduce. She'll never have to raise her own child. She doesn't have to fear anything. She can't lose."
That's… that is something.
When I heard the word "lose," I immediately thought of Shimokoa. She lost so much. She had everything to lose, and lost it. She hasn't starved to death, but she's been nearly killed on multiple occasions, seen countless friends die, and… whenever she negotiates with anyone else now, it's through a bitter lens. That's why she lost me. I was tired of that. Her negative attitude, her violence…
This lens… it's about loss. She's so aggressive because she understands loss, perhaps more than there is to understand about loss. This makes it a constant part of why she makes decisions. Unfortunately, when it's not applied very intelligently, it simply brings upon more loss.
Maria spoke up when I grew quiet, "Do you get where I'm coming from?"
"Yes," I nodded. "I think so."
Hana is the opposite. Though unintelligent, she cannot lose, even if she can comprehend the risks. And— that's the thing. The more she cares about losing things, the less Hana she becomes, and the more she becomes Brad's Hana.
"She only cares about the things Brad cares about," I realized. "She's afraid of Brad losing. And, Brad's afraid of me losing. By extension, she has to care about me."
"That's…" Maria was unsure of my thought process.
I was still working through it too. "Brad and Hana's problems begin with other people's problems, stemming from other people's fears." Shimokoa's problems begin with her own fears, ignorant of any others.
The only thing I don't get is why Brad is the way he is.
Regardless— I can see why Hana is so appealing. I'm more negative. Even if Brad can take it in stride, someone as selfless as Hana must feel refreshing. I have a presence that is unignorable, but with Hana you could have a conversation with her one second and be totally ignoring her the next.
What if I let go of the idea of losing? What if I just stopped being jealous?
There's a reason Brad doesn't care about eating food. Though he still needs it— he does his best not to even think about it, perhaps subconsciously.
The pieces came together in my mind. They were prospecting people, and I wasn't.
What about Maria? She fears for our friendship, being killed, and… if I remember right, her mother's killer. That became a quest for revenge. I don't think she isn't prospecting, however.
She doesn't share my fear. She doesn't think Brad's betraying me. She just doesn't want anyone to feel bad about this abnormal situation, she wants a sense of trust.
We arrived at the mansion. Meiling was there, watching us come up in the mid-morning light.
"Oh, hey." Meiling began to give us a big smile. "It's you guys. No Brad?"
I came up to her. "Did you know anything about him and Hana?"
She snorted. "...Didn't go so well, I take it?"
"It went alright. What was your opinion?" I was eager to know. "Do you think Brad was bored of me?"
Meiling snorted. "Nah. You really didn't take it well, huh?"
"I took it alright." I affirmed.
"It was a few days ago, wasn't it?"
"...Yes."
"And yer still thinkin' about it."
"Yes."
"Brad loves ya." Meiling affirmed. "If you're still so mixed-up, go do something about it. Don't let it bottle up. Tell them."
"I don't have the heart to crush Hana… or Brad. I love him. I just…"
Meiling put a hand on my shoulder. "Do something. Or don't. Just don't be surprised. If you bottle up unsaid resent, you're gonna let it go eventually, and it's not gonna be pretty."
Why does my fear grow? Aren't humans supposed to be the ones which fear? Why am I afraid of Brad's decisions? I know why, but, why must things be this way?
"What if your lover did the same to you?" I asked Meiling.
"It'd depend. Most guys wouldn't be responsible with something like that. I don't think relationships have to be only two-sided… but a relationship's also a close conversation, and it's hard to stay close with three people. Let alone two most a' the time. It's usually just not in the cards to even try."
Maria added onto that. "Most guys would suggest a threesome out of the selfish desire for one. But like… this is hard. Because Hana was with him basically forever, but she like, never took a claim to him? Because she didn't know what romance or sex was? And he's kinda guilty about that… but she also can't provide what you can?"
I think I get her point now. Yes, this is… not an average situation at all. Typical. "I'm just afraid that, if there was ever a choice between the two of us, Brad's heart would call out more to Hana than me."
"Why's that?" Meiling raised a brow.
"I'm not prospecting. I'm pessimistic. I'm negative. I state my fears first and avoid them. Brad and Hana just do things, and it's… it's overwhelming."
Meiling shrugged. "Why not do the same?"
"Huh?"
"It might not really be in your habits or character, but… how 'bout you just relax? Maybe roll with their energy. See things from their side. Even if you don't get 'em, or if it falls apart… maybe you can understand enough to feel confident over Hana in the end. If it comes down to that, that is."
In a way, she's told me to just wait it out. But there's more to it than that, she told me to wait and see. "I… see."
"If you feel insulted, well, that sucks." Meiling moved to open the gate. "'Cause if you look at it as a one-on-one romance, if that's what you expected, yeah, it is an insult. But you guys are all so spontaneous that I bet it wasn't very planned at all. Right?"
"Right…"
Meiling gestured for us to go inside. "You might see it as an insult, but it ain't. Remember that."
That helped.
…I bet Hana wishes she could just get it over with and fuck Brad already.
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO: BRAD'S PERSPECTIVE ====
"roar" We encountered epic goku.
The huge fluffle held its fin nose open, roaring as it stood at the edge of the human village. Archers were bombarding it, and it was catching fire.
"What the hell…" Silver appeared stand-offish, watching the giant fluffle lumber about on all fours!
"It's epic goku," I affirmed.
"roaaroaroar" The fluffle rebelled, wailing into the air while being rapidly, overwhelmingly bombarded.
thoom, thoom thoom. Discouraged from all of the damage, the adorable colossus grazed towards us as it strafed around the village.
"Epic… Goku?" Silver's cat ears folded back as it approached!
"No. Epic goku. The G is lowercase!"
"Oh my god…" Hana was impressed! "It's huuuge."
THUMP THUMP, THUMP. The huge fluffle grazed even closer! I think it saw us!
"Silver, do your thing where you flex your muscles!"
"Huh?" He looked at me, then at the fluffle! "Rules of Survival…" Uttering the technique's name, blue heat began to pulse from his body in waves, building an aura around him as he flexed.
"roaaaar" Epic goku roared as it stood before Silver. "roooaar"
Me an' Hana got outta the way. We watched Silver stand like a freakin' DBZ character, his aura flaring in defiance of the titanic, three-story tall fluffle.
snap. Oh my god the fluffle snapped at him— and it was titanic!
BOOF! The titanic attack struck Silver so hard it sent him flying down the road! He didn't even flail or get rotated, he just like, was displaced like fifty meters away!
"Wooaaah!" I yelled! "Heey!"
As if frightened by my yell, the fluffle leapt back countless meters, pressing its ass up against the wall of the village in the process.
That's when I noticed it. Uh oh… Reimu Hakurei was in the air, gazing down at the mess. "Oh, brother…"
WOOSH! A single yin-yang came down onto the fluffle. "roaaar" It roared at Reimu!
FWOASH! It shot a fireball up at Reimu! What…!
woosh. Reimu easily avoided the single jet of fire flaring into the sky.
Bwoof. When the yin-yang orb struck, the fluffle became a dust storm.
Hana leapt at me! "Brad look out!" Oh god—
WOOAASH. The sand enveloped us! Oh, shit! Aaah!
…After a moment, we realized that Silver got in the way, defending us from the brunt of the oncoming sandy rush.
"Pfft." Turning to face us, he spat out sand. "...Okay. Okay… okay."
"Aw…" I beamed at 'em! "To be snapped at by such a beast!" I like how he shoulda been like scrunched or something but he just took raw blunt damage that flung him.
Reimu was gone as fast as she arrived. She's trailblazing today!
"You know…" Silver rustled some sand from his big black coat. "We could just be back at the apartment. You know, actually fixing it up. We could help each other out."
Hmm. That's true. "Maybe we could… but…"
"I wanna run around!" Hana contested! "I thought we could make fun of him by putting him in a lot of bad situations."
Hmm. "Y'know, I had the same idea, but aside from draggin' him down to Eientei to fight the underground subway system, I dunno. D'you got any ideas? With meager power comes meager responsibility!"
Silver chuckled under his breath! "I'm not sure if I've earned this level of cruel and unusual punishment."
"...Darn. I can't think of anything." Slowly, Hana smiled! "Hey, Brad. What if we…?"
Lettin' out an exhale, I held up one of my hands. "Freakin'... sure—"
Immediately, Hana locked fingers with both my hands, pressed her face to mine, and—
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO: DUAL PERSPECTIVE: BRAD & HANA ====
We arrived back at the front door of the apartment. Didn't expect to be looking at this angle with Silver on friendly terms! …That might seem oddly specific, but we just had a death battle a couple days ago so y'know, enh.
"I see." Silver came to comprehend. "It feels weird to admit, but the wit I'm attracted to may be the part Brad adds."
I gave him a look! "Dude."
He smiled. "Now that it's us… and you're unified, I have a proposition."
"I've had enough of your shady deals!"
"You stay in that form, and maybe…?"
"I stay in this form and kick your teeth in! This ain't permanent, son. We're free spirits! That means we're undefined. That means we only wanna be stuck like this for as long as we wanna be stuck like this! Also Brad likes Genkan, and that's not gonna change."
Silver shrugged. "I tried. I wanted to make this natural, but I figured I ought to be forward with you. I'm not trying to be secretive or anything. The miscommunication we had when we fought was just that."
"Why do you wanna screw me so bad?" I was curious! "I'm not that special!"
"You were cute. Do I need any other reason? That, and… you beat me. That was hot."
"What fucking S&M fanfic did you step out of?" Freakin'...!
"Gensokyo, decades ago."
"Oh, understandable."
Silver began to move. "Either way, I… mostly came back to make this right."
"Mostly? And the other part?"
"I wanted to see if I had a shot with you."
"No, you don't." I picked up a broom that was laid up against the wall and gave it to him. "Anyway, hold on dude, I gotta take a piss."
"Oh. Alright. I'll get started, then."
He went inside. I walked behind a tree, before noticing I was still wearing my "pin me down and knock me up" shirt, which probably really contributed to the previous discussion.
Anyway, once I got far enough… I flew straight up into the air!
FWRAR! We took off! Let's see if we can get to the mansion and see the others and come back and have it believably be a piss break!
This is such a bad idea— but it fulfills a forbidden wonder in my soul! It's like that feeling when you miss the school bus and you just sprint to school in a mad dash! Or like when you're in the car to or from the supermarket, and you're like "imagine if I got stranded"!
It feels really wrong, but… so, so right!
But, while we're in the air over the Misty Lake, we're confronted!
"Hey! Dummy!"
It was Cirno! "Get back here!"
Pausing in the air, I turned and waved at her! "Cirno~! I love you!"
Cirno gaped! "You whaaa~!?"
While she flew at me, I flew at her at ramming speed!
WHAM! We clashed, just smacking against one another. "Uuhf!"
The smack was so cataclysmic that Cirno got fuckin' thrown away man. "Ow…" That actually really hurt my gut, damn…!
When I reached the gate of the mansion, I had slight depression! "Hey— ow, Meiling. Lemme memme memme."
Meiling blinked. "...Hah? Your friends just came by here. What's up?"
"I'm half-ditching the guy I was gonna screen because I decided he's really boring and I wanted to see Genkan." Maybe he's not so bad when you get to know him buuut considering everything that's happened I'd like to give that like, another couple days… or something.
Actually, wait! "Shit! I could've went up to him and made a joke about fixing the platinum cum tank we own!"
"Mmm…" Meiling had a really vague look! "Well. Nice shirt."
Oh, right. "Thanks!"
Meiling pushed the gate open. "By the way, Genkan seemed a little upset. Maybe it's a good thing you're here to surprise her."
"Oh? She was upset?" Uh oh, question mark?
"Yeah. She seems to be really thinking about this whole… uh… three person thing you're thinking about. It's not my place to really talk about. She feels overwhelmed. Specifically by like, the both of you bouncing off one another."
Uh oh exclamation mark! "That's plausible, yeah…" Hmm. "I guess I'll find out what's up."
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO: GENKAN'S PERSPECTIVE ====
Frustration… is part of learning.
"Firaga!" Maria announced her new spell with authority.
It took her so many tries, but finally…
FWOAM. Fire had been just that; a blast of fire, enough to ignite. Fira had been a true explosion. Firaga, on the other hand… it was magnificent.
From Maria's Iron Beacon staff, she created a truly massive ball of cinder and ash. Firaga was in part a wood spell, combining simple conjuration of a ball of kindling with everything she'd learned about fire.
The slow-moving kindling meteor rolled forward in the library's dim air.
Patchouli created a faint barrier before us. The orb neared the training dummy we had set up— which was a tougher fluffle.
Krk. The Firaga orb began to explode into light once it reached it, like a bomb.
KABOOM- BOOM- BLAM- BABOOM! The string of explosions shook us to our cores. A pillar of pyre consumed the fluffle, the meteor's massive impact spreading incredible destruction.
The reason this took so many tries wasn't for Maria's lack of trying. It was because she had to weave three conflicting elemental spells together one after another.
"Blizzaga!" After swinging her staff around, she aimed at a tougher fluffle seated near me. I was in its line of fire, but this didn't matter since we shared elements.
FWSSH. The frosty energy bubbled at the tip of her staff, then was unleashed.
FZZT- FZZT- FSSH- FSSH! The sound of absolute zero broke the air itself, producing synthetic noises normally unheard in nature.
Fwash! The flashing frost spread, coating library floor and freezing the air itself. This wasn't a mere shotgun spread, it was a cone of cold.
FWOASH! The surge of cold energy gave me an energy boost when it froze my blood. "Ah…" It was nice.
KRK- SHUUF. Behind me, the fluffle had not only frozen, but from the temperature shock, it had shattered upon freezing. Blizzaga was a new tier of lethal beyond Blizzara.
Pivoting ninety degrees again, Maria aimed her staff at the last fluffle, which sat in place as if it had depression. "Thundaga!"
Thunder and Thundara had more or less been more or less lethal variants of one another.
kzzt- kzzt- krzzt. Thundaga began with the humming of the air, and a line drawn down on the fluffle. As commanded by Patchouli, the fluffle began to move, and the line tracked it.
ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! It was paralyzed by a rain of bolts which tracked its position, and then—
Kracka- THWASH! With one massive clap, lightning as if cast by a god had obliterated the fluffle, erasing it from reality. Only moments later did the roasted charcoal found scattered around the shelves imply what had happened to it. It took me longer to comprehend the violence and piece together the trajectory of the giblets than it took for it all to happen.
Maria aimed up. "Waterga…!" She was being strained, but if she succeeded with this spell, the routine would be over.
Bwup. BWUP. BLOOP- GLOOP! From the now-blue tip of her lantern staff, a massive, ballooning orb of water began to form.
Water had been a bathtub's splash. Waterra had been a small pond.
Waterga was a small lake. The magic bubble was endlessly larger than Maria. It ballooned over her entirely, sagging down, before enveloping even her.
Then, once it was big enough, a shockwave came from Maria.
KRRK- BOOM. WOOAAASH! The water erupted, and the blast was seismic.
I had to float in the air, the massive rushing pulse of water flooding the entirety of the shelves beneath me, rolling to-and-from every shelf in a huge radius from the blast's epicenter.
In the center, Maria was dry, outward force from her magic having kept her own water off of her.
Patchouli nodded. "Very well done. You've completed your primary prefab training."
"Fuuh…" Maria looked lightheaded. "Hehe… yeah. Nnh."
"Take a breath, and we'll talk about other things." Patchouli closed her eyes, taking a breath herself.
I returned to the clearing, but everyone's exhaustion prompted me to close my eyes.
It's when you look past your frustration that you can see a situation for what it really is. When your temper subsides and your childishness no longer has an opinion, and yet you're still going and doing whatever it is you're doing.
That's how I felt when Hana beat me up that evening. Maria, myself, and Silver who was arguably a better physical presence than Brad, we all lost… to Brad, yes, but to Hana as well.
Partially, this is just because of their equipment… but that did also highlight the stupid nature of combat in general. It's no way to solve conflicts. Even if both parties are doing everything to win, that doesn't mean they will. It's not a good summary of their beliefs or the validity of them.
The real measure of a belief is how it affects other people. Now, true, setting aside frustration lets you flourish in combat better, sure. Shimokoa is a prime example. Creativity helps. But… does the absence of creativity in a fatal moment mean everything should change?
When my anger with Hana subsided, and we talked at the base of the apartment tower, I got to see her emotions. I wouldn't have seen them if I simply ruminated on my defeat back then.
"Anchoring an object temporarily is simple," Patchouli demonstrated by putting a book in the air and keeping it there. "This is a method with gravity magic rather than telekinesis. I'm creating downward force fighting gravity independent of my own magical pushing force. However… be careful. If you try to fight more than gravity, this happens."
PING! A chair in the distance flew away with gun-like velocity after Patchouli gestured to it.
KABOOM! A thunderous blast came from somewhere in the distance, the chair being totally destroyed.
RKKK. The impossible raking of wood echoed, woodwork continually being sundered in the distance. What even was that? How was it that violent?
"I had made the chair and its wood independent of the earth's rotation." Patchouli explained. Oh, that's… terrifying. "The earth spins very fast, you see, and we are well-adjusted to doing everything relative to how fast the earth moves. Its gravity is simply that powerful. If we dismiss it and apply a static gravity to an object, it will be destroyed and its remains will go on a counter-gravity rampage before the force is dispelled."
Maria chuckled. "Can you do that to people?"
"Sort of. Their soul and own magical force, no matter how small, will wash the applied force away after a short time. So you can sort of fling them, but they will not be ripped limb-from-llimb or be shattered into a bag of flesh. For example…"
THUD! Maria found herself slammed against a shelf so hard that she bounced. "Eee! Uhgh… fuck…"
"Ah." Patchouli tilted her head back. "Sorry. That was more effective than I thought it would be."
"You—" Maria fell to her side, clutching her staff arm. "You broke my arm…!"
"Ah…" Patchouli looked genuinely apologetic. "Here." She drew a potion from inside her robes. "I had a feeling an accident would happen today. I just didn't think it'd be my fault."
crrk- krak. After the potion's application, Maria's arm snapped back into place.
"Aaa…" She whined, shutting her eyes. "Aaah. Holy… cra— crap…"
"My apologies." Helping her back onto her feet telekinetically, Patchouli looked a little embarrassed.
Maria articulated her arm, feeling out her newly regenerated joints. "...Teach me how to do that. That could be funny."
Patchouli snorted. "...Very well."
…Sensing something was off, I looked to the right.
Hana was hanging upside down, staring into my face. When I noticed her, she got closer and rubbed her nose against mine.
"Achoo!" I sneezed.
Clack. Our heads butt together.
Thud! "Oou!" Hana chirped, falling back onto the floor. "Oww!"
I laughed harder than I should have. "Ahaha… uu— sorry."
Drifting back onto her feet, Hana met my gaze. "Aah— Genkan! Hey!"
Now that my emotions have run their course, I feel some clarity. "...What are you doing here?" Even so, where'd she come from? "Is Brad with you?"
"I ditched that Silver guy because I was bored!" Hana beamed. "And also… I was thinking of you, so I came to find you."
"I see."
"I dunno what to do now. But…" She smiled more naturally. "Are you okay?"
Hmm? "Why ask?"
"You've just been, I don't know… weird, these past few days."
So she can tell… that, or Brad can tell. "Mmh. Yeah. I have."
"What's up?"
I stared her in the eyes. "Can you not try and hold a level discussion with me with the both of you still like that?"
"Huh?"
"It's not fair. It's not fair that you both get to be like that. That you share the same prospecting ideals. Brad and I share opposing values, but you, all you care about is what he cares about. How am I supposed to compete?"
Hana's brows were furrowed. "Wha— what are you saying?"
"I'm saying…" I shook my head. "I'm saying I'm still not okay with your desire for Brad. I'm still afraid. No matter how much I don't want to be. No matter how much you try to convince me."
"But—" Hana, as I expected, recoiled at that.
That's when two different voices came from her, one Brad's and one Hana's.
"It's not about convincing," Brad argued.
"Just believe in me!" Hana had a totally different opinion.
Sensing the disparity, they took pause, spacing out for a moment.
"I see." Interesting. "Then, Brad… tell me. What's the logical reasoning for this?"
"I'm not gonna try an' persuade ya. Fact is, Hana doesn't mean anything by how she is. Being offended by that, like, I understand where you're comin' from, but…"
I think I'm starting to realize that. Part of me wants to believe, "this is wrong and simply shouldn't be accepted!" But… the thing Brad keeps trying to tell me is that I am in control. He just wants me to have a more open mind. That's the thing. I've felt like this situation had gotten out of control, when in reality, it's under control.
Hana is a unique existence. Perhaps it's time to accept that.
Before I could tell them, however, Hana interjected with something else. "But!" I could tell, because whenever Brad talks, he introduces this low power to Hana's voice. When she talks, she gets higher and more energetic. "You're too selfish, aren't you!? You can't help but feel so desperate about this, so… so childish!"
Hmm? "Is that so, Hana?" I challenged her.
"Yeah!"
Hana was getting… angry. I don't think Brad was getting angry. "Bold words from someone who simply wants what I have." I pushed her buttons. "Even bolder still from someone who's basically a child herself."
"It takes one to know one!" Hana yelled back, her smile venomous.
Fwi- Click! She summoned Nikkou and Nari onto either arm.
"What? Do you want to fight again?" I could tell she was getting herself ready.
"Don't you?"
Hmph. "Maybe that would be a good way to let out some energy."
"If I beat you," Hana pointed at me, "We're sharing Brad. No exceptions. And if you beat me, then that's that."
"It will be less 'sharing' and more like accepting your status as a side thrill."
Hana's eyes snapped wider, her venomous leer expanding—
Fwish! Then, she stepped out of Brad, and Brad fell backwards out of her. "Woah— oof!"
Hana hadn't even noticed. Pink heat began to bloom from her core, a light emitting from her heart. "There's no other way— because you're too stupid to see, Genkan! So I'll make you see, the only way you know how to think!"
I see a small line must be drawn. "Hana?"
"What?"
I cracked my neck, before taking a posture ready for dancing. "You may not fear sex… but you've forgotten how to think, embracing your instincts this hard. Be more realistic."
Hana inhaled. "That's why Brad loves me more!"
I felt an evil smirk begin on my face. "This is why Brad didn't completely embrace you."
Hana's beamed with greater discomfort. "Hehehe! Say what you want, Genkan! But we all know how this battle's gonna end!"
I nodded. "One more fairy who'll never walk again."
The battle was just about to begin.
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
Brad stood at a shelf far behind the three, staring at me with mysticism. That's it.
"Understand now…" I held my head high. "I may be predictable, but I've got my secrets too. You can't hope to know everything about me if you get lazy."
FWRAR! Hana's wings lit up like engines, and she exploded towards me. "Hehehe! Hahahaha~!"
Woosh. Diving forward, I spun around.
WHISHISHISHISH! Hana unleashed a fluttering kick behind me, stopping short of me. Casting off my kimono, now standing in only panties and a bra, I struck a pose once stopped.
Hana was up again, snapping up behind me. "Go to hell~!" It was hard to take her cute voice seriously. She knelt down and punched Nikkou into the floor.
FWAAM! "Aah!" A pillar of sunlight erupted from it, and I found myself flying.
woosh. Doing a backflip mid-air, I recovered flawlessly.
fwish- fwish. Hana roared up to me, her form briefly changing shape between Nikkou and her own. "Rising— DRAGON—"
THUMP! When the uppercut came out, I shoved my elbow down into it before she could put real force behind her arm.
"Uuh…" Hana was forced to sit down from the awkward diversion of her momentum. "Oof!"
I smiled, dancing like an idiot before her, strutting both legs back and forth.
Blushing slightly, Hana got back up. "Alright—"
"Huff!" I threw my left forearm out, spinning around, before stopping on one leg and curling up where I stood.
Hana leapt back, anticipating a longer combo. When I paused, she slid at me. "Gotcha!"
woosh. She threw Nikkou towards my gut.
Woosh! Dropping onto my butt, I slid one-eighty around her to avoid her attack.
"Woohoo~!" Tripping onto my butt, I spun around!
WHAKRACK! As a nearly-naked whirlwind of limbs on the floor, I launched Hana into a bookshelf ahead with my sheer force.
THUD! Hana rebounded head-first off of it. "Uhaa—"
WHAKRACK- KRACK- KRACK- KRACK- KRACK! When I gravitated into her, spinning all around, Hana was beaten senseless against the shelf, bouncing between it and myself. "Anh—" Eventually, she crumbled to the floor.
FWASH! I froze my pose, curled up on the floor, my arms propped between my face and the floor, legs dangling in the air.
chunk- crack. When it was natural, I snapped from my frozen pose and spun back into standing. Hana still wasn't up yet, struggling onto her knees.
My mind flashed back to the previous evening, to both the times I saw Hana bypass Silver's swing to meet him in the stomach. "Hana…"
I watched her rotate, ready for more as she stood. "It's time…" She wiped her lips with her arm, even though she couldn't bleed. "To—"
FWRAR! She rocketed towards me, bringing a fist back. "CRY!"
"I see!"
Krack. She punched first, and I reacted by leaning beside the thrusting punch, elbowing her in the jaw within a lethal frame.
Hana flew straight up into the air.
Clack, clatter! Nikkou and Nari bounced to the floor.
thud. Ever so gently, Hana landed on her back before me, taking the posture of a corpse ready for burial.
"...Dead." I felt the urge to comment on the sheer energy of the posture.
Soon enough, I had my kimono back on… and that's when I realized that I had a similar pink heat blooming from my heart. Once I'm fully clothed again, it dims.
Brad stood next to Patchouli, who was just idly watching with him.
I looked peaceful. "Hello."
Brad began to grin. "Koakuma is now a sad crack smoker." Patchouli turned to him. He continued, "She now looks like what it feels like to run outta crack."
"Very interesting." Patchouli turned to Maria. "Let's continue."
Maria chuckled. "Ehm, alright…"
I turned to Brad. He turned to me. He opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.
"I'm over it," I decided. "Where'd you leave the guest of honor?" I meant Silver.
Brad snorted, not expecting the blunt response. "Duuh… he's back at the apartments, cleaning shit up."
"That's good." I wonder… "I should find us some books to read together. Would you like me to read you stories before bed, Brad? Since you're illiterate?"
Brad snorted. "I don't think I'll be needin' 'em to get to sleep, though!"
He would look nice trapped between my arm and my chest as I read to him in bed. That'd drive him wild. "Are you sure?"
He met this new look in my eyes, and was mystified. I smiled. "...Maybe!"
Mmm. "For example…"
Taking a random book from the shelf, opening it briefly to make sure it wasn't going to bite my face off as this library's books are prone to do, I took Brad's side. I wrapped my left arm around his head, holding him close to my chest. Then, I folded open the book at my waist, prompting him to look down.
"How about like this?" There was no resistance whatsoever when I was involved. "Because I know… that you're so fucking filthy, that this sort of thing would drive you crazy."
Half of Brad's face was in one of my breasts. He blinked in mild awe. "Uuh…"
This is what I have over Hana. And that's when I realized: neither of us are better or worse than the other. We're simply different. One's ego comes into play whenever we draw any comparison, good or bad, between things that don't warrant comparison in the first place. Apples and oranges.
While he was trapped up against me, and I felt his warmth, I flipped through pages in the book. I had no idea what it was about. It was in a language I'm sure neither of us knew. There were graphs and magic sigils which made no sense.
It took me too long to realize, but thankfully, we're all so close that it doesn't matter. We can make this right. "We should go to the village and eat some snacks. Just… unwind."
"Hoh. Yeah. That'll be nice."
That wasn't a fight for Brad. That was a fight against myself. Undeniably, that was my fault, which was why I had to be the one to fight Hana, who only became a monster by my own design.
I never had anything to fear. If I let them have their way, it shouldn't even matter, because I know what I have.
I had an idea. "We should get some tea. I haven't even had you try any teas yet. Not that I'm much of a tea drinker myself… but, in the past, I haven't had anyone to drink tea with. Hana can even come along, if she wants. It might be awkward after what just happened, but…"
I loomed over her as she stared up from the floor. "This is the taste of defeat. Let it sink in."
"Heheheh…" Hana let out a pitiful giggle. "Oww…"
I turned to Brad. "When we get our ugly apartment thing fixed up, I want us to go on a date. A real date. I think I've seen enough to decide things. And you're going to go along with it."
Brad chuckled nervously. "I'm in danger!"
With my arm, I pulled him back against my breast. "You bet you are. We're both going to make up for these past few days… and your dirty fairy can come along too."
Maria continued her magic practice. Brad and I continued to banter, but what I really wanted was to get out and survey the snow village once more. This time with no expectations. To simply idle there, like Brad might with the human village, and wait for trouble to come to us.
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO: BRAD'S PERSPECTIVE ====
After Genkan promptly diffused the situation, things returned to feeling natural. Albeit, Genkan somehow experienced a surge of confidence.
The sunny, raw day was framed by the nice traditional architecture of the snow woman village. Gentle overcast sometimes hid the sun.
crunch. Genkan was eating chips. We stopped by the human village's pretend gas station and got some chips on the way here!
Maria was nearby, standing on a chunk of concrete she'd anchored in the air. Silver stared up at her, somewhat warily.
Y'know, "When we finish the concrete obstacle course, we should advertise it to the snow women. They're demented enough that we'd actually make money hosting it like an attraction."
Hana was next to Genkan, the traditional cartoon band-aid placed on her head. "Aah… ow. Ow. Still ow. Ow."
thunk. thunk. Some snow women were across the street from us, dropping a big fuckin' pearl into the gravel road repeatedly. It's like as big as Maria, but they're dropping it and rolling it around like it's made of rubber.
"What do your sisters do for fun again?" I asked Genkan!
Genkan looked peaceful. "They write poems, sing songs… and they apparently roll gems around for no good reason. They're innocent, violent and often like being depressed."
There we go. "That checks out!" I grinned!
The snow woman across the street overhead, coming up to us. "Disgusting. It's a human tourist."
Her sister came up, scowling at me! "Disgusting. And who's this skank?" She gestured to Genkan with her orb.
thunk. Genkan stood up and smacked her orb away, before sitting down. "You will not survive the winter."
…After the brief expression of distaste, the other snow ladies just kinda left to retrieve their orb.
"I do love my sisters," Genkan announced, and I wasn't sure if she was being ironic! "I mean that genuinely. There's a reason I still act like them."
"You guys do all strike me as innocent with an ego," I admitted.
Genkan snorted. "Mmm. Though, I'd say that I'm…"
"Intelligently innocent," I decided. "Before I'd say you were innocently intelligent."
Genkan jerked her head back! "What's that even supposed to mean?"
"It's subtle, but it's actually big. Being intelligently innocent means you're aware of it. Being innocently intelligent means you're a tryhard and not aware of it. That's a big deal."
"I… see." Genkan found a big smile. "How long did you think of that one?"
"Not long, actually! The words kinda just came to me the other day. Before the fuckin' big kabungle."
Genkan chuckled at my diction. "Uh huh. Well…"
She grabbed me by the head, and kissed me on the cheek. "I love you."
I'm taking some kind of damage in a good way, but I can't find the word to describe what. "...I love you too. It sounds so weird coming from my mouth."
"Because you seldom do these genuinely like that. But I can see through you. Pervert." She kissed me on the cheek again.
Y'know, I don't really know how things turned out okay, but they did, and I'm not gonna complain I guess!
"So…" Hana rubbed her cartoonishly large band-aid! "Um. Genkan…"
Genkan sighed. "You and Brad can have sex, but only when I'm there. And only… if Brad gets me off first. Then we can take turns. Got it?"
Hana didn't react with fanfare. In fact, she was about as confused as I was! Somewhat incredulously, I chuckled. "Weren't ya so against it earlier?"
"I was. But, then, I realized it wasn't so important." Genkan gave me an easy, neutral look. "I'd made that out to be a bigger deal than I had to. My emotions got the better of me, and I was… perhaps, overthinking it. When, really, Hana does mean well, and… I was unable to see how she was rather unique, in a good way."
Closing her eyes, Genkan looked like she wanted to sink back into something, but this bench had no backing to it. "...Hey."
Standing up, she gestured behind herself. "Brad. Hana. Scoot in. Until your hips are touching. Just do it."
…Wordlessly, I just kinda did as she said! When I did it, Hana followed.
Genkan sat back down onto my right leg and Hana's left leg, leaned back into both of us, and wrapped her arms around our shoulders.
"When I stopped focusing on the things I was afraid of, I realized the situation was really far simpler." Genkan acknowledged. "However… I still insist that I be there and there be some catch to it. Hana needs to learn why we have sex. She may be on the right track, but she's so one-track minded that I can't just be sure she gets it."
Hana smiled, even with one leg squished by Genkan's ass. "Alright!"
Genkan caught me eying her chest 'cause I expected her to actually watch Hana emote! When I met her face, she had this… smile.
==== FREAKIN GENSOKYO ====
END OF CHAPTER 127
NEW SKILLS:
MARIA:
Firaga - An infernal mass of kindling and pyre, exploding into a total eruption on impact. Has slight homing properties. There they are— kill 'em with fire!
Blizzaga - Fatal flashing frost which freezes and snap-shatters foes. Hilariously lethal compared to the other ice spells! Doesn't work well on bosses, the instant death resistant, those with shields, or on certain days in Summer.
Thundaga - Express cook your enemy in the microwave.
Waterga - Borderline unusable lake of water which doesn't get you wet (much) but gets everything else (very) wet. Best used from high elevations for maximum chaos.
Anchor - Freezes things in the air indefinitely. Does not work on people or clothes very well.
Spacial Natural - Makes someone or something independent of the earth's gravity and rotation. Doesn't work very well on people. Very destructive for such a simple spell…!
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
imagine me falling out of a closet with the christmas batch yeah that's what this feels like
STILL WORKING ON THE BOOK. so many ideas, so few executions work synergize the way i want
i wanna make a statement about people, depression and how to live for yourself, but it's a message which falters against those who need it the most; which, indeed, is the very reason they need the message to begin with. because of their suffering in family or life, because of the loss which drove their impatience, begetting more loss and more impatience
a kind of impatience only thwarted when we can imagine in dreams a different us who is simply better and cooler than the person we are today. someone who doesn't merely look more composed, but simply IS.
we can talk all day about the value of substance over appearances… but many who'd nod their head with me and fervently rush to agree are guilty of this themselves. one could say, "takes one to know one" but fact is we once were all children, but some of us grew up, and some of us didn't, and that's the problem.
ah, what the hell, it's christmas! i can't stay mad at you guys! come on in, take a seat, make sure y'don't sit on a fluffle though or it might snap back
or maybe do that anyway they're pretty cute and they can't really hurt
ANYWAY, CHRISTMAS BATCH THOUGHTS
it was fun to flex my writing muscles with something that wasn't the book again. i spend so much time socializing on the discord it's kinda nuts, but it's been productive and it's helped me analyze so many things so i can't call it a bad use of time
really am struggling with that book though, even now that i've narrowed down what i want the theme to be. literary market's a tough crowd! i'd ramble more about it but i'll probably save that for discord where people can actually say things to my face
this though, it was fun. there's so much i still wanna do, but i have so little time- in general.
genkan is nice - w -
the various scenes and conflicts have been fun. these chapters have been largely more about direct conversations and conflicts rather than just fucking around… but there's still a little fucking around.
next batch maybe i want more cool character moments, this batch was pretty driven with characteristic but heavy discussion- next batch i might wanna indulge a little, but we'll see
THIS CHAPTER,
is pretty cool - w -
not gonna lie, it was a little bit of a rush, but it was fun, and i think this was a characteristic way to end the conflict
one might be like "but the conflict climax and the confrontational climax of the last chapter don't really line up," but i like that splash of realism on a sort of serious issue
romance and relating with one another is hard! keeping close in romance can sometimes be hard! this ability to take a confident grasp on your perception of yourself and others is very, very important.
i think harem is kinda silly in anime, because typically it's something you only believe as a young teen or kid and as you get older it becomes apparent that harem anime only operates in a juvenile sense
but wait, if you're a young teenager (or a young teen in spirit) you might see me say that and go "really? well, i'd like to believe there's a universe where all five girls could share the same guy! why not, right? they're all close friends!" and, in the context of that anime world, you're not at all wrong really
but in the context of the REAL world, with REAL fears and REAL depression and REAL conflicting interests, a REAL scarcity of time and with REAL shitty people? like, yo, couples do not work a lot of the time. marriages, boyfriend-girlfriend deals, there are breakups all the time because these people cannot imagine enough to be happy with one another, or maybe life just forces them apart and they've gotta move and never see each other again.
so what would make a three-way work? or, god forbid, an entire assfuckin' harem? the people in anime harems are curated, MC-kun is curated, they're all placed in an interesting situation and designed to work together or else there wouldn't be a story.
in this case, though, that's what hana believes! and that's something early-story brad might've believed too! which is why brittany exists, and it's something badly thought he made true through sheer force of will
but, despite being the most free and of those two, brad sorta subscribed to the idea that that just wasn't realistic
it took genkan a moment to realize… her fears would be founded if it was anyone except for hana. because hana thinks life's a freakin' cartoon, because HER life is a cartoon. for that reason, there's really nothing to fear from hana
i think that was a fascinating thing to sorta analyze with these last couple chapters
YO HEY WHERE'S THE MATT CHAPTER WHAT THE MATT DOIN'
it's coming on new years-ish. sorry yo i didn't have time and i thought it better to try and polish this chapter a little (it needed it) rather than spread myself thin and give you a few shitty chapters.
s'not my job, not getting paid, you'll understand ;) (not that it's about money but i doubt taking some time to polish things is a big shame)
but yeah this is a little abnormal for the format but y'know whatever, setting this deadline was helpful but for something like FG they're more guidelines and suggestions than hard rules, s'not like i'm gonna get fired from writing FG or anything XD
hasn't been so long since the last christmas update, has it? i've gotta haul ass yo
as always, see you all next time!
An' have a Merry Christmas!
