/jp/ - Otaku Culture

It just keeps getting worse.

Every day more stress fractures: missing shipments, building falling apart due to rambunctious Youkai, fumigation because one of Seiga's experiments failed, all well within what my team could deal with if not for the endless "one more thing" Yukari ask for, the one or two man hours I'd lose in the morning because one of my workers overslept after sneaking out with her revolutionary sweetheart, and my favorite of all, I had to replace the door for fourth time this week! Oh, and I get to miss having breakfast with Anon which was maybe my last moment of serenity left!

"Hey Takane-San." Goro said in a sing-song voice as he approached me holding two cups of coffee.

If he didn't have the coffee, I would've bitten his face off then and there.

Wordlessly, I took the beverage. Black, smelled of morning dew, good. I sip the thing and await the surge of traffic to my brain's logic centers which would fight me through the rest of today.

"So, why didn't you stop her?" I asked grimly, gesturing to my poor, empty door frame. "Aren't you supposed to be guarding this place?"

Goro thought for a minute, crafting a reply that wouldn't tank my mood further. "Shinki-San didn't trigger any alarms on her way in, which meant she was here within the rules or that she found a way around it. If she did find a way and we blinked her out, then she could just come back through the same hole, same if Flan-chan came along to 'conclue' her, and personally, I can think of at least three other people I don't want sneaking through a hidden back door. Besides, a big fight would've broken more then just the front-entrance and be a horrible material cost the solstice celebration can't afford right now." He said, punctuating the statement with a sip.

Damnit. Appealing to my logistical sense with that tongue of his.

"Mam! The door frames well and truly shattered. We'll have to do a complete re-up I'm afraid!" one of the worker Youkai called.

Curses. "And why isn't my forsaken door in the rules huh? Was Ran on a coffee break as well? Couldn't you have done something?!" I pleaded, motioning to the gaping wound in the building I'd worked so hard on. If this place could talk, I think it would be screaming.

"Well... Seija did want to flip her dress." Goro said, looking thoughtful.

"Of course she did. I bet she also spat at her in the eye." I said humorlessly, tossing my hand up as if throwing away some imaginary complaint.

"Not to embarrass her, while not entirely, it's just that, she let us 'hit her' and the shots flew off her clothes like oil and water, so she got the idea, but I vetoed it. Taking 'the Gensokyo Hello' on the cheek is abnormal and she knew Hijiri from Makai so-"

"So you didn't want to flip the skirt of your dear old aunt because she turned the other cheek." I said, gulping down a bit of hot coffee. "Your family tree is getting more crooked by the day."

"Ha, if only you knew." he chuckled. "Speaking of, I need your help." he motioned inward. I leaned sideways, not ready to give him my full respects at the moment for failing to protect my breakfast time.

"During the Solstice battle, I need you to get Seija and I face-to-face and alone with someone strong, sensible, and most importantly, independent." He whispered, waving his one good hand.

He was going to sow a deal with someone. Predictable, but not a bad idea. He wanted Anon out of this pace too so it wouldn't be hard to get someone strong on the other side side to turn-coat once things got hectic. It would make things a lot easier on my end if there was someone else I could trust completely in the last hour, a reliable wildcard. Still....

"Who did you have in mind?" I asked, giving the conversation more attention.

"Satori would be ideal, but she'll be on the back-line no doubt, protected or withdrawn. I've met Yuuka, Yuugi, and a few others like that which may be good candidates, but I'll work with whatever you can give so long as they come directly to the HSE."

I nodded solemnly for a moment before speaking. "You're out of your mind."

"First of all, there's no way people are just 'coming to the HSE' with the amount of reality paper folding happening, second, where do you get off saying I direct someone like 'Yuuka, Blood Lilly Kazami' any which way besides well away from here? Third, why wait until the solstice you've already met her once and..."

His expression hadn't changed. "It'll be too soon. Once we're down to the wire, she'll understand our way."

Oh, silly me, in my morning haze I forgot the chance of getting gapped may be low with Yukari on a never-ending 'everything will work out' ride(that I wasn't invited to), but they're never zero. He couldn't act until things were underway and Okina, or Reimu maybe, had her well occupied.

"So, what am I supposed to do? Wave a flag on this non-Euclidean whatever people have been talking about?"