/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46387809


Still, at present in her mind was the chill, that fear of everything and anything. What if she asked right now in this moment why her previously passive mother would do this? What if Reimu were to change her mind and demand her secrets from Hana in exchange for the overpowered miko’s protection? What if she found out everything…? What if she were to hear her secrets and decide it’s not worth letting her roam free? That Hana would be better off left out in the cold in exile of even the village, or simply be considered an unpleasant stain to be removed like a jinyou …?

How can anyone decide to act so quickly? Especially on something so massive and impractical that no matter what it’d cause pain and death to those around you? Either her mother dies to keep her daughter’s unknown sins quiet, or she lives but forces her once mother-figure into being used by Yukari, used like Hana herself was.

Time didn’t stop to let her answer those questions sadly, and like that the moment shifted as her mother turned her gaze to her. The intensity of before faded as the magic faded and Hana’s wavering courage faltered, Hana needed her mother. She didn’t know why the women tormented herself like this and tried so hard to return cinders to trees, but she couldn’t afford her finding anything out at this juncture. Her mother would surely abandon her just like everyone else will, she just has to keep everything going a little longer until there’s no going back-!

Breathing in through her mouth deeply, Hana inhaled the air beyond her blanketed world and enjoyed the chill that offset her desperate mind. The chill seemed to set her right as it cooled down her broiling thoughts to a mere simmer, infusing her stuffy soul with much needed relief. Though it wasn’t enough to actually change things, it didn’t change the fact that she knew her mother was to die and it’d be all her doing. She knew Kasen-nee was suffering on a level deeper than she believed, and that the only comfort Hana had given her had merely been an extra wound…