/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Patchouli swept her hand over to the aforementioned table. "Fortunately, something else is on the table, and I've an interest in seeing what you make of it."

Marisa looked over to the book. "Whoa. That thing is huge. Well, you don't have to worry at all about me stealing that. I'd collapse from exhaustion before I even got to the gates." She almost headed over, but paused. "Wait, hang on. How would making me help Koakuma clean up all the mess you've got in here tell you anything about my magical prowess? Wouldn't a fight be better?"

Patchouli shook her head. "A fight tells me your combat prowess - Or as much as Spell Card Rules will allow, in any case. Useful in some cases, but I'm not interested in assessing your combat prowess at the moment. No, having you clean the library will tell me your general magical prowess - It will tell me what spells you use without thinking. It will show me what degree of difficulty you have in using certain spells, as well as what spells you do and don't know for purposes other than combat. If you are able to unthinkingly cast a spell to manipulate whole scores of books at once, I will know how fine your control is. Liken this to a story. If your combat spells are the major story beats - The battle scenes, or the important plot developments - Then these are the scenes that fit betwixt them. The walking scenes. The talking scenes. The scenes that connect each plot point."

Marisa stared at her blankly. "Continue talking in metaphors like that and I'll give you a walking scene right now - Me walking out." She broke into a slight smile a moment later. "No, but I get what you're saying. Yeah, I guess I focus a little too much on the combat spells. Shame, because some of those non-combat spells would have made pregnant life a hell of a lot easier."

"Some things are obvious in hindsight. Perhaps you should have focused on stealing some books on household spells twenty years ago." Marisa let her head drop in a half-laugh, half-sigh. Patchouli even found just the barest smile playing at her lips, though she immediately clamped down on it. "Now that the tangent is done, let us go back to this book." She indicated Sekai's book once more. "If you touch it, you will die. I am not joking, Marisa." Marisa stared at her like she thought that Patchouli was joking, but quickly swallowed uncomfortably.

"Understood. So...What about it?" She didn't seem to want to look at it now that Patchouli had said that.

"Well, I would like you to try and examine it. Tell me what you think."

"With - Without touching it?" Marisa stared at Patchouli like she had grown another head. "How do you know it's not going to make me explode just for looking at it? It's not just my life I have to worry about anymore!" One of her hands went down to cradle her stomach. True, Patchouli hadn't really considered that, but while she hadn't deciphered the entire book, she was fairly certain that laying one's eyes on it would not cause any adverse affects.

Fortunately, if there was one thing that Patchouli knew about Marisa Kirisame, it was that it was not a difficult task to goad her into doing something. So, she simply raised an eyebrow as she said her next words. "Unless you don't think you can handle it...?" The question hung in the air like the Sword of Damocles, and in three seconds, Marisa's eye twitched. the Sword swung, then fell as Marisa huffed.

"Oh, fine! I'll have a look at it. But only a look, alright? I'm not getting near it just in case it...I don't know, turns me inside-out." Patchouli murmured a thank you, trying to restrain the more victorious smile at successfully convincing Marisa to have a look at Sekai's book. Patchouli spun the book around, though she didn't offer it to Marisa as she watched the witch rummage through her pockets.

"Sure I brought it along, gotta be somewhere..." She was mumbling to herself now. "Wait, is that- Aha!" She finally pulled something out of her pocket. A pair of goggles. Patchouli watched with slight interest as Marias pulled them over her head and onto her eyes. "Not just any old goggles, before you ask. Look, here." She tapped the sides of the goggles, and Patchouli angled her head slightly to see it more clearly. While doing so, she twitched her fingers to activate her favourite detection spell. Yes, Marisa had inscribed runic structures along the sides of the goggles. Quite a lot of runic structures, in fact. Detailed, too. It looked like the goggles replicated an array of different detection and examination spells.