/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>45850410
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My blood was frigid, limbs trembling. What's Koutei doing?! I looked at him, the Dragonscale Chiljido gleaming with murderous intent and towering over Yukari, who reciprocated the stare with odd placidity, eyes cold and focused, not an ounce of fear, as if she had no worries that, in a fight, she'd win. Seiga hummed, pulling her chisel from her tousled hair, ready to run away if things went awry. Ran had a Gap opened by her hand, and a droplet of sweat on her forehead exposed the true feelings beneath that calm facade. The dragon had an infinite wrath behind his eyes, clutching the handle of the seven-branched sword and ready to move the very world with the promised swing. “K-K—”

“Kasen,” he spoke in dragon tongue, halting my words, my powers allowing me to understand. “We can kill her together. End your torment.” Yukari was staring at me with an intrigued smile.

“K-Koutei… I know you want the best for me, but this is not the answer—Gensokyo depends on Yukari to survive—”

“Then we kill her, and so Gensokyo dies together.” His voice rumbled the world with deep-seated rage, Seiga looking tenser by the second, the people on the shore staring as if watching a world-shattering event. My heart rate already through the roof had reached a new level, body suddenly stopped quivering as sobering thoughts washed over me. “A forest cannot remain unchanged forever. It has to burn its old to make way for the new—and this woman is a parasite that needs to burn.” Yukari's smile was growing, parasol's end against the ground, meeting Koutei's death glare head-on. How can sh—

“Your pet seems to be misbehaving, Kasen.” She said, Ran trembling with the tone; Seiga looked morbidly aroused.

“I-It's not like this; K-Koutei is just—”

“Done. I am done with Kasen's enslavement!” He yelled in Dragon tongue, my eyes bulging even more and my teeth clenching. Yukari hummed, nodding to herself… I gawked at her and, calmly, she smiled at me, a dangerous twinkle in her purple eyes—

—She was understanding everything. She used the Gap to manipulate the boundary of comprehension…

“Don't worry, Kasen. I'm not mad at your misbehaving pet, who is proclaiming to kill me; I'm just disappointed. Control it, please.” I gulped glaciers, slowly turning to Koutei. Behind that deep wrath, a sadness threatened to sprout.

“Please, Kasen… It's unbearable to see your defilement.” Somehow, the whimpering and imploring voice of a massive beast that could level mountains in minutes was especially gut-wrenching. Tenderly, I reached forward, the dragon moving the sword to the side—the displaced air making violent air currents—, to be eye-to-eye with me, my hand brushing the rough skin beneath his massive eye. “I came back to you… But you are fading away…”

I contained my tears, knowing full well the three stares piercing my back—Ran had pity and ears down; Seiga looked thrilled and amazed; and Yukari kept that confident, cold smile of just now. “I know, Koutei, I know… But I love this land! I cannot burn it down…” Reimu flashes in my mind, her smile; Hana's; Anon; Satori, Yuugi, Suika—I simply cannot let all die because of me; not when there's a chance things will change… No matter how low the chance is, “And I know Y-Yukari is working to make it better! When the sword comes out, too, I'll be free.” My whispers didn't seem to reach him, unlike my lies, the large eye closing as if in incisive pain. “Just… wait a bit more, okay? Things will get better.” I place my forehead against his skin, hugging his face as if a kid trying to hug a tree.

Koutei whimpers one last time before moving away from me, burning eyes over Yukari, my heart throbbing—a small hope pleads him to strike her down, but I swiftly snuff it like the weeping cry it is—and, with a defeated look, Koutei stores back the sword inside his body, the thing disappearing in a billion contrasting greens. “I am sorry for my display.” He uttered and before the entire Underground, a dragon bowed to a woman.

Yukari's smile grew tenfold, almost silly-looking. “Good~very good!” The ground beneath us suddenly faded, a Gap consuming and throwing us by the foot of the dragon statue—

—which sprouted from the water as if with life of itself, Gaps all around it—

A shriek of anguish jammed me cold, wide-eyes rushing to Koutei and… My heart was ripped apart: the statue's mouth closed around his neck, caving into the strong scales. “Y-YUKARI, WHAT ARE—”

“Bowing is not enough. Bad pets should be punished~” Hundreds of Gaps started opening and chains, loud and terrifying, began sprouting—n-no, those aren't chains… But 'trains' melded together to look like massive chains—which caved into the statue, making a cruel and makeshift contention collar—

I'm crying. I'm utterly crying; each of Koutei’s cries of sheer suffering destroyed what remains of my soul. My friend, one I watched grow since the egg… Was being chained like a mongrel, his echoing pain a song—

—Because of me. Of my egotistical wishes…