/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46336749
“All I know is that she wants to keep control of Anon and Hana” Akyuu nods as I speak. “She’s put too much effort into all of this to let anything get in her way. Not just anyone that directly opposes her, but anyone that would threaten her long term plan, whatever it is. Keine, Mokou, Aki and Mochi, and all the rest. We’d be variables she wouldn’t want to deal with”

“Yes. Having so many claims on the Hakurei linage would be troublesome in the first place, but with how she’s acting, I doubt her solution to the issue would be measured in any way. Honestly, you became a target the moment you joined Keine’s side” I’m not sure if Akyuu thought that was reassuring or not, so I slumped over the counter with a groan. “I’ve known Yukari. She’d been guiding how the Chronicles should be written for a long time. She might be incomprehensible, but I always knew she was dangerous if she wanted to be. But to think she’s abandoned her duty like this..”

“But that’s not the point! I’m not the same stupid little girl you once knew! I know how the world works now, I have a family to take care of! I’ve been keeping them in the dark about what Gensokyo is, and they’re in danger without even knowing why! I’m not like Marisa or Yuuka or Sanae, I can’t defend them. I’ve never even thrown a punch in my life! I’m useless here!”

Akyuu looks off into the distance before she sighs and turns back towards me. “Geez, you still don’t get it, do you?”

“Excuse me?” I blink back.

“You need to stop hiding your head in the sand. It might be dangerous and you might not be able to do much, but you you really live with yourself if you just sat back and let everyone else take all the risk with what’s at stake?”

I wince. Her ability to cut right to the bone hadn’t dulled in all these years.

“I write the Gensokyo Chronicles to record history and so people can understand this world, despite all the changes I have to make. I write about the most important figures, but that’s not what life is about” I stare at her, wondering where this is going “Gensokyo is more then a handful of powerful figures causing the occasional incident. It’s made up of thousands of people, human and otherwise just trying to live their lives in the way they want. Nobody is going to record their stories, but they’re far from meaningless. Being able to live freely, to be able to fall in love, to experience the peaks and valleys of living is far more important then you realize”

“It’s true that I don’t know what she’s planning, but I know she’s making a big move and she’s not going to let go. All these simple uneventful lives of the ordinary person? That’s whats at stake” It starts to sink in for me, and the pit in my stomach returns with a vengeance. “They might never know it, but they’d be under her heel for as long as they live. She’s overstepped her boundaries and all those who can’t resist her will suffer for it”

“Daisuke...Fumiko..” I mutter out.

“Your children, their children, their friends and the lives of everyone else. They might live and die without knowing it, but they might have their lives controlled by a single deranged woman. All those who are a threat would be eliminated” I think back to all the new mothers out there and shudder at what would happen to them.

“But what can I do? I know what’s at stake but I’m too powerless to do anything about it” I moped.

“That I can’t answer for you” Akyuu says with a slight shrug, as if she knew how useless her advice was. “You might not be strong, but don’t need to. As long as you can live with yourself after all is said is done, then you’ve done enough”

“I..” I gulp, freeing the tension in my throat. “When I die, I want to meet the Yama with my head held high, knowing I did what I thought was right, that my children, and all future generations will be able to live the way they desire. For now, that's all I want"

Akyuu smiles, her cheerfulness a beacon in this fog “Just remember, I’ll be reborn in the world you help shape, so make sure it’s a good one, okay?”

“Okay!” I say back. The fog gets thicker and thicker, clouding my vision. I feel my body getting number and number until it all just stops, and my senses return to me, like a lantern being switched on again.

I open my eyes. My husband is beside me, his arm wrapped around my body. The morning glow assaults my eyes as I get readjusted to the light. I push Kato’s arm out of the way and sit down, working out all the in my body. As I do so, I notice the aching in my heart is gone. I know what to do next.

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