/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46417874
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It's hard to watch; my mind screaming for me to do something…

I stay back anyway, heart thumping and dying a little more as blood cascades down the silk and greases the soil, Keine's back still as an iron wall as she wrote on the infinite paper. Wounds pilling like that'd mean nothing to me or Kags, but for Keine…? A foot rhythmically hitting the ground, arms all tense and shivering like crazy, body trembling and eyes trying to turn away yet never doing so: 'do something, do something—just do something!'

Unable to stay still anymore, I was about to rush to Eientei to fetch someone—anyone—to heal her wounds, blood cool and Blue Moon above shining just as radiantly as one hour ago when this excruciating process started—

“Mokou.” Keine's voice is serene, as if everything under her right elbow wasn't raw, bleeding flesh. “Stay here. Please. I need you.” She turns her face ever so slightly to me, and it's all that's necessary for me to stay, heart about to jump off my chest and mind frenzied with the sights. Squatting, I joined my hands in front of my face as if I hadn’t forsaken the gods, teeth clenched…

It’s so very tiring; tomorrow is just the beginning if we do win.

Here, in this messy and egotistical mind, I do wish we'd lose, that this rebellion crashes and burns. I'd then take my wife and my kids and leave; show them a beautiful world beyond the confines of this barrier. “Are those your true feelings, Mokou~?”

Her voice makes me freeze, wide eyes lifting. Keine wasn't sitting anymore, holding the sealed scroll with her left hand—the right one resembling that of a skinned corpse. But that doesn't matter! D-Did I say all that bullshit out loud?! An acidic feeling begins accumulating behind my eyes as my mind rushes for excuses, words to save this situation. “K-Keine, I, those words—s-sorry—”

“I don't mind, Mokou.”

Perplexity washes over me like permafrost and, staring at her, I frown… She's still in her hakutaku form, her tail slowly wagging and eyes gazing deeply into the moon of fire, the light dancing beautifully on her pupils.

Confusion settles as I get up and approach her. “… Keine?” I call.

“Ten, fifty years into the future—I am still yours, Mokou.” There's a small smile on her face, though her words confuse me. What the fuck is she talking about? “… The Blue Moon is special, Mokou. Fire from the depths of this world layers over the moon and together they create this majestic, extraordinary event. Only under this moon can I write this message to you.” H-Huh? “Under this blue moon of ours is the only time I can write my own destiny.”

A moment of silence and, with broadening eyes, it finally clicks. Her hakutaku powers…?!

“… Are our kiddos fine? Did the revolution succeed? H-How many years into the future?” The words are utterly desperate, though on the inside an overwhelming relief blossoms; nothing bad will happen tomorrow. She'll be safe.

She smiles before negating with her head. “Sorry, Mokou.” Keine then turns her back to me and gazes again into the moon. “… Don't forget why you're fighting. For the livelihood of our friends, so Mystia can be happy, so Kosuzu won't face judgment for being a good person… A Gensokyo free of the likes of Seiga and Yukari. For me, for our kids, fight.” Her voice has this sheer cadence that straightens my spine; it feels like being a child again receiving orders—!

She walks away, the scroll opening as her maimed hand hovers above the bloodied silk, a subtle glow there.

What's she doing…?

“Fight for me, for I'll fight for every good soul in Gensokyo.”

Then she just… Pulls a handle out of the scroll, a blade forming as she stops to be directly underneath the blue moon—one that strikes me as extremely familiar—and gently points the tip of the ordinary sword towards it, blood having bathed the blade already—

—without warning, the blue moon falls from the skies like a legend, instincts screaming for me to rush and save Keine—

“Power gained means nothing, Mokou.” She commands, stopping my mad dash. Keine placidly gazes at the falling moon. “It's fated to die and wither away; it'll not command presence nor authority and all that look upon its use will know it. It'll be inevitably taken away, leaving behind a rotted core. Without that power, the host is nothing.” The moon, a meteor of blue fire… Is stopped by the tip of the sword, standing still as if a leaf on top of a fence. Keine hadn't as much as flinched. “Power must be acquired through test and fire, honed to its perfection and fought for, so when it is taken away, nothing changes.” Slowly, the unmoving moon is drawn into the sword, taking form of a tornado being devoured by the folded steel. “Do know one single thing, my beloved:” Unnoticed, an ember of fire leaves her heart. “This power will not define me.”

With the moon gone, she sheathes the sword into the scroll.

“… Keep this a secret, will you?”

I merely nod, and, as her hakutaku form vanishes, Keine passes out with a sweet smile.