/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Remi - The magic - It'll blow-" Patchouli's vision was fading, but something was replacing it. A torn up battlefield. The remnant of golden chains wreathed in ice and fire. Sekai. Sekai. "Save – Need to – To save Se-"

"Patchouli, I love you, but shut up for a moment." Remi's voice had become authoritative. "I'll take care of it. What do - You - Need right now? What will help?"

Her mental defences wouldn't last much longer, and she had a horrible feeling that she knew exactly what was coming. "Meiling." She forced the words out. "Get Meiling. She’s – The same problem.” She had to pause to pant for breath for a moment. “Bring her to wherever you put me. I'll pass out in less than a minute." The gatekeeper would be suffering the same thing. Yggdrasil. The word was on her lips. Why? What was she about to receive? “It’s – My mind. Something’s coming.”

"Sakuya!" Remilia Scarlet roared, spinning around. There she was. The sliver-haired maid looked at the situation, then tried to speak over the roaring hum of the experiment about to go wrong. Remi interrupted her immediately. "Take Patchouli and Koakuma somewhere safe. Bring Meiling to the same place. Now!"

Sakuya Izayoi looked on as the magic seemed to grow into something of a blaze. "Mistress, it would be wise to remove yourself from-"

"Now, Sakuya! Do not, under any circumstances, return to this room. I shall contain this. Activate the bunker runes at the door to the library on your way. They'll contain any damage to the library alone. Don’t tell my sister, for she’ll only get overly excited." The maid fell silent, and finally nodded. Remilia Scarlet stretched her hands, stepped forward and into the pit of the experiment, and plunged her arms into the magic wires. "Go!" She yelled back, her face not betraying any of the pain she must have been feeling. Patchouli could see the tendrils of magic burning her skin from here.

And as Patchouli's mental defences finally shattered, her last thought was that she was somewhere else.


The first thing she realised was that she'd been left a message. An all-encompassing, urgent message. For all the modifications that Patchouli had made to both her surroundings and her own body over the years, she didn't have perfect control over her own brain. Still, the message persisted. She thought about it, and it seemed to open, like a letter.



To Patchouli Knowledge, The Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Save her.

With love, Patchouli Knowledge, Lost Remnant from the HSE.



If she'd been capable of it, she might have laughed. She couldn't escape her own subjectivity, after all. If there was one person she would sign a letter to with 'love,' it was herself. She couldn't laugh, because her mind had been ravaged. The message was just the first piece of the puzzle. She would liken it to being hit in the face with a baseball bat. Instantly and without warning. Suddenly, her brain was too crowded. Memories upon memories until her body threatened to give out. They were random. Disordered. Days upon days upon weeks upon months of time in the Hakurei Shrine Experience building. Thousands of spells, Grimoire after grimoire.

And worse were the emotions. A year's worth of time spent with Hong Meiling. A sense of familiarity blossoming into fondness. She'd fought and nearly died by her side. Fought against - Sekai. Hata no Sekai. The child. The physical damage, too. It was coming through slowly, but Patchouli was still unconscious and wouldn't need to deal with it until she woke up. Plenty of near-fatal injuries. A vague burning in her arm - A sigil burning into her. Storage. Spectral. Yes, the memories were coming through too. Her head hurt. She'd be dealing with an immense headache until her brain could make sense of the memories, bit by excruciating bit. A year's worth of time compressed into such a short space meant pain, but pain was worth the gained knowledge.

So many days spent pouring over the same spells and the same books. Devising spell after spell to try and break through the barriers in the HSE. How funny, then, that she'd been trying to recreate the same magic in the mansion at the very same time. Perhaps her spirit self had shared more of a connection with her than she had thought. She could feel the many times she and Meiling had been forced to move because another visitor was entering the fake shrine. No, she had no interest in those memories. Instead, she was curious about the runes of death she had been inscribing. They were esoteric. Patchouli hadn't realised that she knew them at all. But as she continued to wander the damaged pathways of her memories, she understood. Her spirit self - The one that she been trapped in the HSE unbeknownst to her - Had known that she didn't have a choice. She had known that she would either suffer there forever, or she would kill to escape. But...