Maidens of the Kaleidoscope

~Hakurei Shrine~ => Patchouli's Scarlet Library => Topic started by: UnendingEmpire on June 22, 2014, 08:44:33 PM

Title: Let's do One-Shots!
Post by: UnendingEmpire on June 22, 2014, 08:44:33 PM

I'm gonna do my best to update this thread with a new story once a week.  I've already had a thread like this go to the point where posting would be a necro-bump, and blah-be-di-blah, enough about me ^_^;
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My name is Raiko Horikawa, and I'm a tsukogami of the taiko drum variety. I've got the ability to ride any rhythm. What exactly does that mean? Well...

It happens to be raining today, pretty heavily. I'm not all that fond of rain, since it makes my suit heavy, not to mention how much of a mess my shoes can become in the mud. But, rainy days like this are a perfect way to demonstrate what "riding any rhythm" consists of. It's hardly the paradise I'd thought of, but this village is actually a pretty good place to make good use of my powers. There are other youkai, too, but I don't think many of them recognize me just yet. They will, given time. Here in this village, there's also a place where youkai who've hit dire straits can go for a while to take a few deep breaths and try to sort things out. Maybe I'm just a bit of a freeloader, but I kind of like this Myouren Temple place, since it's a free bed with meals and a very nice location.

I stepped out, doing my best to ignore the rain hitting me. It was the rain hitting the buildings that interested me. Humans probably couldn't recognize any rhythm in the way thousands of raindrops slammed against dozens of roofs all at once. I did. All I'd need to ride it was the drum kit I kept nearby at all times, and the two drumsticks in my hand. Setting down the drums, I took a short moment to flex out my arms and wrists. No good drumming if I get sore, after all.

Quite a few youkai used odd powers to become street performers here, and in a lot of cases, they actually earned a pretty nice living doing it. My logic on it is that, since my plan to create a paradise clearly won't fly so well thanks to that maid, I may as well do what I do best anyway. Once my simple-enough warm-up stretches were out of the way, I took one drumstick in each hand, and one hand over each side of the drum kit. Then I started playing. A lot of people who weren't as musically inclined as myself might have called it "out-of-beat" or "missing rhythm," and if it wasn't raining I'd agree with them, but sometimes you just have to play a special way to take advantage of the sounds of the rain.

To accurately describe what it sounded like, with me on those drums, think of the sound of heavy rainfall. Then imagine somebody replacing a fair portion of those sounds with drums. It just sort of flowed along. Probably not the world's best description, but it's sure the best I can give. I live on music, not fancy words. And sure enough, quite a few people who passed by with their umbrellas stopped to listen. One of them was even kind enough to set an umbrella up over me to keep me dry...well, drier than I'd have been without one, at least. They came from behind me, so I couldn't see them, but I could tell that the rain wasn't hitting me anymore. Another especially kind sort even left me 300 yen! This girl I saw; she had red hair like me, and eyes the same color too. The blue bow in her hair bugged me a little, though. That, and she seemed insistent on keeping the lower half of her head and her neck covered. Well, humans were weird by nature, so maybe I was just over-thinking it.

At least, I thought I was over-thinking it, until a gust of wind blew by. Umbrellas were broken (though not the one over me, surprisingly) and even my drum kit fell over, into the muddy dirt roads that made up the Human Village. And I had to get my hands muddy to pull the drums back out. I did a mental inventory check as I picked each piece up. Two drumsticks, an assortment of smaller drums...a head? A red-headed head? With that blue ribbon...this was the girl who gave me 300 yen! Either she wasn't human, or that gust of wind was a lot stronger than I gave credit for. I wasn't even worried about how the wind messed up my suit right now; there was a disembodied head in my hands, and carrying a head with the body a few feet in front of you can often lead to even bigger complications. Even though I'd yet to see any, there were rumors about cops in the village who brought justice down nice and swift; not the kind of folks I'd want calling me a murderer. And to think, this wasn't the strange part of my day. Oh no, my weird day was just starting when the head in my hands talked to me.

"Get me back to my body," she pleaded. "Quickly, before somebody sees me!" So apparently she was a youkai living in disguise. That's okay; at least I didn't have to carry the guilt of murder on my conscious. Sure enough, her now-headless body was just in front of me, feeling around for her now-missing head. No doubt that had to suck, given the rain. So simply enough, I obliged the head in my hands, by handing it over to the body. Her body took a second to stick her head back on its shoulders, and it was kind of creepy, but hey, what youkai isn't at least a little creepy? Once the girl was back in one piece, she smiled and looked at me. "Thank you," she said. "You'd be amazed how hard it is to find your own head sometimes."

"Yeah, don't mention it. I can't imagine the wind blowing your head off as anything other than painful." My drums were all muddy, though. So were my drumsticks, and my hands. No doubt the bottoms of my shoes were also covered in the stuff. This was why I hated rain; it just made everything more complicated. I'd keep drumming, but mud muffled the sounds of my drums like you wouldn't believe. Really a problem. So with the 300 yen I'd earned in my pocket, I started disassembling the kit so I could go back inside. Only to be stopped by that girl calling out to me again.

"Wait! You can clean those drums off at my house," she said to me. Well, this youkai sure was the generous sort. Giving me money, then saying I can clean my drums at her place? The old nun in the temple says we shouldn't try to take advantage of the kindness of others, but I'm not there for religion. I was there so I could sort things out after I realized creating a paradise wasn't as good an idea as I'd thought. So to hell with the old woman's preaching. She had offered, so it wasn't like I was forcing her to let me clean my drums at her place, was it? Not at all. Turning back around, I nodded to accept her offer. Then the once-headless girl finally introduced herself. "My name is Sekibanki. Mind if I ask who the drummer is that I gave 300 yen?"

"Raiko," I answered, making my way back to this Sekibanki girl. "Raiko Horikawa."

"That's a pretty neat suit you've got there," she said to me, picking up her own umbrella that - by some miracle I've yet to figure out - was also still intact after that gust of wind. Continuing in her theme of kind generosity, she even made room for me beneath it. My drums were still getting wet, but at least it was a step in getting the mud off. "Where did you find a suit like that?"

"Outside world. Put simply, things can sometimes get more complicated for a tsukogami than a...what are you, anyway?"

"Dullahan," Sekibanki answered. A dullahan? If those books on youkai from other regions were accurate, then this Sekibanki girl was a headless rider. Made sense, except? Where was her ride? Maybe at home? Maybe a big horse striding around wasn't exactly subtle, so that made some degree of sense. The rain was still beating hard, and it was tempting to set the drums up again and keep playing, but my suit was already wet, and I didn't want to make other people go out of their way just to keep me dry. Maybe that temple was starting to rub off on me, after all. "Thanks for letting me clean my drums at your place."

"I like your music. It's fine." This still wasn't the weird part.
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Not much later; residence of Sekibanki
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"Nice severed head you've got hanging on the wall there," I said, trying to make it sound more like a compliment than my actual sentiment of get that freakin' thing off your wall.

"That guy died from a pack of wolves. It's amazing I was able to salvage even that much. I'll go get a bath started for the drums, alright? Feel free to take a look around in the meantime."

A hot bath just for my drums...why didn't I ever think of that!? Even though they're still sort of a part of me, I guess I don't really take as much care of my drums as I do the rest of me, at least where hygiene is concerned. This dullahan was sharp. I liked that. Now if only she had a better sense of d?cor. This place felt like a Halloween attraction, not the place where somebody lived every day. Between the severed head, other disturbing things like human fingers tipped with wax for candles, and what had to be the nastiest-looking potato I've ever seen, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if half this crap was in the same room as me. I seriously hoped her "clean off your drums at my place" offer didn't become an offer for a sleepover. I'd thought the kitchen would look a little more cheerful. I thought wrong.

The theme of using human body parts as everyday objects stood strong even in there. While I thought using a person's hands for a cabinet handle was clever, I didn't dare actually touch them. I tried to just imagine the people parts were the items they served as, but it didn't do much good. All it did was creep me out even more when the truth hit me again. I'm pretty sure I set some tsukumogami record for highest jump with what happened next.

"The bath's ready." The voice came from literally right behind me. I yelped, jumped, then turned around. That Sekibanki girl, just like her voice suggested, but only her head. So she could send it off at will, too? That would take some getting used to if we got friendly.

"Oh, hey there Sekibanki. Thanks for doing this much for me." I'll be honest, I don't know what compelled me to thank her. Sure, she gave me that small tip and she was letting me clean my drums (no doubt my shoes too; I'd been bugged enough by this place's d?cor that I forgot to check just how muddy they could have gotten) here, but I'm not really the type to hand out a thank-you over something little like that. Still, it would have been rude to just not say anything, right? That nun must've been really rubbing off on me. So I rounded up my drums and headed to where her body was pointing; no doubt where the bath was.
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Half a bath later...
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I really had to hand it to her. Sekibanki had a pretty nice bathroom. Not grand or anything, but it wasn't like I was using somebody's stomach as a bar of soap or anything gross like that. If I hadn't seen the rest of her house first, I'd call the place pretty normal. By this point, I'd already cleaned off my drums and shoes. I'd never felt better after getting the mud off my drums. In fact, I felt good enough to kick back and take a bit of time to clean the rest of me off as well. If there was another thing I had to credit Sekibanki's bathroom on, it was the awful lack of air flow. It was a good thing though; I happen to like my baths with plenty of steam.

SHUNK! I immediately turned to the source of that sound. If it weren't Sekibanki standing there, I'd start throwing drums at her, but she'd done quite a bit for me already. I just settled for exclaiming "Hey, I'm naked in here!" Then enough steam cleared that I could see her clearly. It was kinda hard not to laugh, especially since I would've felt awful for laughing at her. Across the entirety of her head was a giant splotch of mud in the general shape of a horse's hoof.

"I got kicked in the face by my horse, and he did quite a number for my cleanliness."

"I...see that."

"Honestly, I thought you were still cleaning those drums. I didn't expect you to take a bath for yourself as well. I was going to say I had to clean my head off, but-"

"Just your head?"

"Ideally, my whole body, but yes."

I don't even know what happened next. It was like some force of nature compelled me to say what I still think is one of the most idiotic things I've ever said to another youkai. I didn't even get the chance to think about it. All I remember was me saying "Come on in." I didn't mind bathing with another girl at the time, but...

All I remember from going to bed that night was how unbelievably embarrassed I was. I also remember the candle I blew out before going to bed that night. It was a human finger, tipped with wax.
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I brought it from FanFiction.  There's others there too; I think I'll post one here per week, every Sunday.  Then eventually I'll run out, lol

Well, I hope you enjoyed this story, and will continue to enjoy others that I put here.

Title: Re: Let's do One-Shots!
Post by: UnendingEmpire on June 29, 2014, 04:02:50 PM

Tonight was Halloween night in Gensokyo. A very distinct night where human children dressed up as youkai and ran around collecting candy, while youkai...did the exact same thing. Of course, there were a few youkai who had better things to do with their time. Including, but not limited to, Team Nineball. Gensokyo's most loved (or most annoying, depending on who you asked) gang of merry pranksters had something really fun planned for this wonderful night. And it was all Cirno's fault.

"The rules are easy," Cirno said, looking at her crew just as it was getting dark out. "We're all going into the bamboo forest!" The rest of the crew looked surprised at this daring move. "This place is loaded with scary monsters, so whoever stays there the longest wins!" There was no prize, of course. Just bragging rights that the winner was the bravest of the group. With no doubt, the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and the Forest of Magic were both scary places at night, but there were such twisted things (and Marisa) living within the latter that Cirno didn't want to bother with that place. And before the team even entered the bamboo forest, the first person out left.

"I have a stall to run, so I have go get going," Mystia said, sounding rather upset that she lost that fast. Now Cirno would undoubedtly call her a big chicken. There was a price to pay for having things to do, and it was more than just the financial requirements. With that, four girls remained. Would've been five, but Chen had reported earlier that day that she had prior engagements. So with that, four girls stepped forth into the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, unsure of what exactly awaited them inside. In no time at all, all four girls went their own way. Wriggle went to the right simply to avoid Cirno who was going left, and Rumia ? unable to see so well in her bubble of darkness ? simply walked straight ahead. Daiyousei, rather than leaving, just stayed right there, at the very edge of the bamboo forest. Her reasons were simple enough. No matter who won or lost this contest, Dai was and always would be Team Nineball's number one coward, and the only reason she even came to play this game was so she wouldn't be alone tonight. And in the end, not only did she end up alone, but she wound up alone on a dark night in a bamboo forest she was entirely unfamiliar with, which Cirno had spent all day telling her scary stories about. Tenacity was the only thing keeping her from giving in to her fear and sprinting after Mystia in a panic. By the time she decided it'd be a good idea to follow Cirno, the ice fairy was long out of eyesight. So, deciding on the best course of action, Daiyousei simply went left, same as the very girl she was hoping to follow.

It wasn't like she ever really liked Halloween. Sure, she loved the idea of free candy, but all fairies were in favor of that. Dai was admittedly a first-rate scaredycat, and tried to stay inside on normal nights, let alone nights where people dressed up as scary youkai. A distinct memory from last Halloween came to mind at the thought of costumes, when Dai stumbled into somebody dressed as nothing more than a bloody human. Even in the face of a relatively harmless costume, Dai still needed a new dress that night. Halloween was a scary night for a weaker fairy, and adding that to being easily scared as it was made tonight a really bad night for her. And this was all before anything even remotely scary happened. As luck would have it, though, that thing just had to happen the second Dai let her guard down. She heard a scream. Judging by the voice, it sounded like Wriggle. She was the second-bravest in the group next to Cirno, so for something to scare her, it had to be pretty bad.

Daiyousei's reaction was to turn around to begin running away...only to find herself lost. It was called the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, but the fairy hadn't expected to get lost so soon. Panic took little time to set in. In the end, she concluded that she was probably going to die here tonight in one way or another, even if it was death by fright. Especially death by fright. At least luck smiled on an otherwise-unlucky fairy for a second, when she saw a familiar face sprinting right past her. Wriggle, almost as hysterical as when she'd been captured by that flower youkai a few weeks prior to tonight. So she was alive.

"She's gonna frigging eat me alive!" the firefly screamed, bolting right past Daiyousei. No matter how lost one gets, running in a straight line long enough can get one out of anywhere, so Dai was sure Wriggle could get home relatively safe. For now, she had bigger concerns. Who was going to eat Wriggle alive? And more importantly, what? There was an earth spider Wriggle had mentioned once before, and Mystia was a night sparrow, but those were the only two people Dai could imagine as eating fireflies. With any luck, the fairy figured, she'd never find out exactly who or what planned to eat Wriggle. But if one thing were ever to conspire against Dai, it had to be luck, of which she had none. Or, more accurately, she had plenty of luck. Just not good luck.

Daiyousei's craptastic bad luck shone once more in a brief gust of wind. Strong enough to knock the fairy off her feet, but short enough to do only that. Some bamboo stalks around her had been pulled out, and other tidbits of dirt kicked around found themselves very much at home in the fairy's otherwise-green hair. And so there she lay on her back, scared, alone, a little chilly, and still wondering about the identity of Wriggle's assailant. Within the next three seconds, two of those things were resolved. However, she was still on her back, scared and a little chilly. In fact, she was even more scared now than she was before, which furthered her chills and made her too afraid to get off her back. She was no longer alone, and her questions of Wriggle's almost-predator were probably answered by the face before her.

"That was terrible," a woman's voice said, running a pair of red-nailed hands through her hair as she walked onward from and in the direction Wriggle had come from and went just a moment ago. "Such a terrible wind on a lovely moonlit night." And then, in yet another instance of bad luck, this long-haired woman turned right toward Daiyousei and saw her. "Bonjour~"

"H-H-H..." On that night, Daiyousei would have been very able to teach even warriors with the souls of dragons a thing or two about shouting. "HELLLLP!" The greater fairy burst into an all-out screaming panic, too scared really to think of doing anything else. The woman before her ? aside from an impressive height and figure ? boasted long dark brown hair, striking red eyes, and a set of very fine red nails. Too fine. More like claws, really. The ears on the top of this woman's head seemed to flinch each time Dai screamed for help again. After only two of these screams, the fairy was most terrified to find a red-nailed hand on her mouth.

"I don't plan to hurt you, fairy," she softly said. Daiyousei could hear a heavy accent on her voice, but couldn't tell where it was from. Somewhere nowhere near Gensokyo, that was for certain. "I'm willing to take my hand off your mouth, but you must promise to stop screaming first. You'll be quiet if I do, oui?" The green-haired fairy nodded in response. As promised, the Frenchwoman's hand found itself no longer on fairy faces, but rather on the cheek of her own face, with her elbow being held in her other hand.

So, Daiyousei told herself, I'm at least alive. Who is this person, anyway? And as a great person had once said, if you don't know an answer, ask the question. Daiyousei took those words to heart with her next move, which consisted of looking at this mysterious woman and giving an introduction and a question. "Thank you for not killing me. My name is Daiyousei. What's yours?"

"It's Kagerou," she smiled. "Kagerou Imaizumi, very fine specimen of both woman and werewolf~"

"Oh, that's nice...w-wait, WEREWOLF!?"

"Oui. Is there a problem?"

"W-Well, it's not that there isn't a problem...did you see a firefly youkai recently? A little taller than me, dark green hair, wears pants?"

"Oh, yes, I spoke to her just recently! I invited her over for dinner, but I must have offended her in some way because she just ran off. But it's quite alright, because maybe you'd like to join me instead?" The Bamboo Forest of the Lost wasn't really a place where one could expect many neighbors, which ? aside from being a werewolf ? made it a bit odd that Kagerou lived there. True to her canine nature, she loved people, and took dinner guests whenever possible. "I'm a wonderful cook, you know."

"...just dinner?" Wriggle ran away over dinner? Maybe Dai's luck was beginning to turn for the better, after all. Sure, she was trusting a werewolf, but it wasn't like she wanted to have the fairy over for dinner. Eating bugs was one thing, but fairies weren't exactly edible, so what could possibly go wrong if she accepted? And besides, skillful a cook though Mystia may have been, Dai was getting tired of the same few dishes for every meal. With a smile and a nod, the greater fairy said "Sure!"

"Fantastic!" Holding out a hand to help Daiyousei up, Kagerou said "I live in a very cozy little cottage here in the bamboo forest. It's not so great for visitors, but the view of the night sky here is tres magnifique." Once Dai was up on her feet, Kagerou added the same comment she'd given her last potential dinner guest. "You know, you're a cute little youkai, aren't you? I could just eat you right up~" Then with a smile that was anything but calming, what with the sharp wolf-like teeth that filled Kagerou's mouth, she added "But that's only a figure of speech, of course."

"...ha," Dai nervously chuckled. "Ha-ha...of course."

"Well, shall we be on our way, then?"

"U-Um, actually, I just remembered I-I have to see somebody. M-Maybe we could have lunch tomorrow instead?"

"Nonsense~" Not letting go of Daiyousei's hand, Kagerou said "It gets so lonely never having any dinner guests. You don't think I'd let myself lose the chance twice in un night, do you?"

"No, really, I have to get going."

"No, you must stay."

"I'm serious, ma'am!"

"Ah, but so am I~" Picking the fairy up off her feet, the French werewolf said "You must come along and enjoy some fine home-cooked meals with me. Do you have any idea what it's like never having anybody over for dinner?" Rather oblivious to Dai's increasingly loud cries for help, she continued onward about her issues of eating alone. "Sure, I could just kill an animal and cook its meat anytime I want, but it's not every day I get to enjoy talking to somebody while I do it. Canines are very friendly by nature, so not having anybody to enjoy having over is a really upsetting thing for moi. C'est un catastrophe for my mood."

"I really can't have dinner with you! Lemme go!"

"Quiet, now. I'd hate to have to silence you myself." With a smile that hadn't yet left her face, Kagerou walked onward and forward deeper into the Bamboo Forest. With every step, Dai felt a little piece of her hope of escape fade away, replaced with the fear that she was about to become a werewolf's dinner.
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Later; residence of Kagerou Imaizumi

"And we're here~!" Setting her fairy hostage on her feet once more, Kagerou gestured to her little cottage. Nothing all that impressive, and certainly hand-made. Behind it was a large fenced-in area with a few different kinds of livestock. Namely sheep, chickens, and cows. That area was probably the highlight of the werewolf's property, until one saw the scary bloody cleaver hanging from its gate. It ? like Kagerou's teeth ? was disturbingly sharp. Daiyousei used the few seconds she spent looking at it by trying to imagine which body part would be the least painful were that cleaver to amputate the fairy. In the end, she concluded that if it came to it, she'd beg Kagerou to cleave off the right leg if she had a choice. Breaking her train of imagination was the voice of the possible-amputator herself. "It's a nice little place, oui?"

"It looks cozy..." In the face of death, honesty was always a good idea. The little cottage looked cozy enough from the outside, but she wondered what the inside was like? A doghouse? A meat locker? Maybe it was both. As she was guided by the hand toward the place Dai was certain would become her grave, she was regretting not following Wriggle's example by running at the mention of dinner. Then she was inside. Against all expectations, it looked just as cozy on the inside. A tiny little fireplace in the corner, a nice-enough-looking bed with what looked like wool blankets, and even a nice rug laid out in the center! It looked like one of those fake tiger rugs people-

"Please try not to get the tiger rug dirty," Kagerou said. "He was my toughest kill, and I'd rather not have to kill another one to replace my rug. Merci."

"!" So the tiger was real? Suddenly, all the things in this otherwise-cozy cottage seemed much darker and more twisted in nature. All she could see in Kagerou's wool blanket was the sheep she must have butchered to get the wool, and turning to look at the deer head mounted on the wall brought her to a fairly obvious conclusion. That otherwise-cute quilt with the different animal prints became a terrifying phantasmagoria of the countless species Kagerou must have hunted to make it, and worst of all was the leather seats on the numerous bamboo chairs. What kind of animal had to die to make those? In that moment of moderately distorted perception, the fairy swore that if she left here alive, she'd found some kind of organization to end the mistreatment of animals for things like furniture and clothing. But that was just the crazy in her talking.

"You look nervous," Kagerou said, lighting an oven and preparing what could only be described as a meat-heavy dish-in-the-making. "Something wrong?"

Dai couldn't get the words out. All she could do was stammer and stutter in a scared attempt to think of what kind of words she could use. Here she was on Halloween night, in a cottage filled with stuff made from dead animals and a scary cleaver in the back, deep in a bamboo forest she'd never escape without the help of the very werewolf she was increasingly certain would turn the unfortunate fairy into her next meal. Until the sound of something landing outside resonated into the cottage.

"Un moment," Kagerou said, stepping past the fairy and out the door. Visitors were welcome, but some were more welcome than others. Notably, that doctor and her rabbits weren't so fond of Kagerou after one incident in which the werewolf quite literally devoured half of the Eientei staff. They'd been giving her trouble ever since. However, the conversation Daiyousei heard implied that the person outside wasn't hostile.

"Hey, I'm lost. Do you know how to get out?"

"Oui, but I am cooking right now. Perhaps you'd like to join me, and we'll take you home afterwards?"

"Sure! I love home-cooked meals!" Then came the sounds of footsteps, coming closer and closer to the little cottage Kagerou called home. "Oh, you wouldn't happen to have seen a fairy, have you? Besides me."

"I saw one other fairy. A little smaller than you, green hair, gold trim on the top of her wings?"

"That's her! That's Dai! Where is she?"

"Right here," Kagerou happily said, stepping inside. Dai's jaw nearly dropped to the floor when she saw who had stumbled upon this disturbing-yet-still-rather-quaint place. It was, of all people, Cirno. Dai was about to yell "Get out of here, she's going to turn us into dinner!" About to. What stopped her was a happy declaration by the very person she was going to say planned to make a meal of two fairies.

"Tonight I decided to have something from a cow. How do you girls feel about meatloaves basted in French wine?"

"That sounds great!" Cirno exclaimed. "Hear that, Dai? Meatloaf! Basted in wine! I don't know what this French she's talking about is, but it sounds good!" Cirno for one sounded ecstatic. While she wasn't necessarily fond of alcohol, Cirno had a peculiar way of knowing when something would or wouldn't work. That probably came from or added to her amazing planning powers that outdid her control of ice, but Daiyousei still looked kind of concerned.

"Suddenly, I'm not hungry anymore," she lied.

"Then feel free to just sit and speak with your friend while I cook up some dinner~"
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One cooking later...

"C'est fini!" Setting three plates down on the table with a big fang-filled smile on her face, Kagerou said "Let's all dig in! Oh...I forgot, you lost your appetite, Daiyousei, didn't you?"

"Huh?" The cooking was done? And she wasn't dead? Nor was Cirno? Maybe...maybe she was mistaken. She'd once read a book Mystia lent her, about these two kids who got lost and wandered into a house. The woman living there gave them nice food just to fatten them up, then planned to eat them afterwards! On the other hand, Dai couldn't even remember the name of that book, so she obviously couldn't have liked it that much. Maybe Kagerou's intentions weren't bad, after all. Cirno sitting down, taking her first bite, and immediately going "Wow, that's amazing!" also tipped Dai in the right direction a little.

"So, Daiyousei? You are dining with us, oui?"

"...oui!" She didn't know what it meant, but Kagerou sure had used that word a lot today, among others she didn't understand. In case the word meant something Dai wasn't trying to say, the fairy quickly sat herself down at the table opposite Cirno, to the right of Kagerou. In front of her was a well-cooked slab'o'tasty-looking meat that had a distinct red shine to it. That must have been the wine Kagerou mentioned.

"A shame your travesti friend ran away. That one empty seat looks much emptier now," Kagerou said. "Go ahead, Daiyousei. Try a bite."

"Oh, sure." The green-haired fairy plunged her fork into the meat, cut a little piece off, and put that piece into her mouth. It was amazing! The meat was very nice and had a good flavor, and the wine she basted it in added a smooth texture that wasted no time in giving in to the meat's texture, and left an aftertaste that was somewhat sweet and somewhat bitter. It was the best thing Dai had eaten in a long time. "How did you make this?"

"I could teach you someday. How about you come by and visit now and then?"

"..."

"Unless you don't trust a werewolf~"

"I guess...sure, I could come by every few days."

"Ah, c'est magnifique, merci! The wine on that meat is quite strong, so I'm sure we'll be partying once we're finished~!"
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November 1st; Bamboo Forest of the Lost...

"Uuu...my head hurts..." Daiyousei opened her eyes to take in the surroundings she wasn't expecting at all. She found herself on a tiger rug, in a place with many decorations that looked vastly creepier last night than they did now. And she heard the sound of water outside, and a woman humming something merrily. Cirno was asleep next to her, holding an empty bottle of wine like a drunkard passed out from alcohol. On it were a whole lot of words Dai didn't understand. For now, the woman outside was her concern. It wasn't raining, so whoever was humming had to be working with water. The greater fairy got up to her feet, stepped out and around the werewolf's cottage to find? The werewolf herself, with a not-so-bloody cleaver in her hands and a tub of water with a deep red hue in front of her.

"Ah, bonjour Daiyousei."

"Hi there. What happened last night?"

"Oh, we had such fun! I don't remember most of it, but I recall there was a point where you and Cirno said you were going to win something."

"Huh?" Then it hit her. Four girls entered the Bamboo Forest of the Lost last night to see who could stay here the longest. At least two of them were still there. Daiyousei smiled when she realized she wasn't going to lose this contest. No way. Thanks entirely to the person who at first nearly scared her right out of the contest to begin with. With a witty smile, Dai said "Cirno needs to get up soon; I'm sure people are missing her back home."

"Yes, of course. Let me finish cleaning this, then we'll wake her up. Will you be going with her?"

"...nah. I want to stick around here for a little while."
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I wrote this one as a Halloween special last year; one of two.  The other one is in one of those threads I've got in here (the ones that were gonna be one-shot threads but I ignored them to the point that it would be necro-bumping by now) so I might just put that up here too sometime.

That said, as I'm typing these notes, I can't quite tell if I'm full to the brim with energy or unusually tired for this time of day.  Whichever is the case, I'm in no mood to re-read this and have fun pointing at little details.  Hope you enjoyed, and will continue to as always :)

Title: Re: Let's do One-Shots!
Post by: UnendingEmpire on July 08, 2014, 01:20:00 AM

Shot 3: A HijiKijin One-Shot

Tohohana, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. A city with a long-running history, a well-flowing economy, and a whole lot of crime problems. If there was one other thing Tohohana had no shortage of besides criminals, it'd be homeless or otherwise troubled youths, a fair portion of which were also criminals. About a week ago, another such person had come to town. As was the norm for underage people discovered to be lacking in a place to stay, she wound up living in the local youth shelter, headed by one Byakuren Hijiri. Ordinarily, Byakuren was easily able to get people to open up to her and learn their respective stories. In the case of this one, though...

"I'll be frank," Byakuren said. This was the seventh day in a row she'd brought this one in for counseling, and the last six times her new ward spoke not a word. "I can't help you if you won't talk to me. I want to help you, alright? I'm not your enemy."

"..." She didn't even look at Byakuren. Rather, her eyes were fixated on the clock on the wall, so that she could get up and leave the instant a half-hour passed. Wherever she had come from, it wasn't near Tohohana. She came here in her uniform from the last school she attended (presuming it was indeed her uniform) which was black and red as opposed to the white and blue ones that were the norm for this city. While most people happily took Byakuren's kind assistance, she rejected it with no signs of budging. Even though tests showed she was probably one of the smartest kids in town, she was in the lowest class for her grade, largely because of behavior reasons. However somebody did something, she had to do it the opposite. Her name was Seija.

"If I don't get something from you soon ? at least a name ? I won't be able to keep you much longer. I have to get paperwork done so you're officially one of the shelter's children, and if I can't at least get a name, I can't do that. You don't want to have to leave here, right?"

"...what if I do?" she muttered.

This one's a tough nut to crack. I think I get it now, though. "Very well," Byakuren said, getting up to her feet as though to leave. "If I can't get anything from you, I can't get anything from you. Not much I can-"

"Seija," she interrupted. "Seija Kijin."

So she only responds to reverse psychology. This should be easy now. Sitting back down, Byakuren smiled and said "It's good I've got a name to work with now, Seija. I can probably get the paperwork done right now like this, no need for your age or-"

"17."

"And it's not like we really care about any criminal activity you could have done before coming here, so I'll just say you didn't do-"

"Fifteen charges of theft, 47 charges of vandalism, 32 charges of assault, and six charges of arson."

Oh my. "So that's everything. Wonderful."

"And fourteen charges of threatening an officer of the law."

I think if I write all this down, she'll be in prison instead of my care. Maybe I'll just write a little white lie, for her sake. "What a terrible rap sheet."

"Pffft, you've clearly never been in Manhattan."

"Hm?"

"Manhattan."

"Oh, that's right! Of course, it's that-"

"The Big Apple, New York City, whatever you want to call it. Where I learned to walk, talk, sneak, and stalk." Those 32 assaults she had back in the United States? Just 32 people who had the balls to make fun of her name before she and her family moved to Tokyo a year back. Six arsons? Five people that through years of mockery engraved it in her skull that she was the exact opposite of everybody else. There were fourteen police officers who tried to convince her otherwise, and 47 people who dug the idea even deeper into her brain by accepting it. The fifteen thefts, on the other hand, as well as her sixth arson, were all in Tokyo after a car accident rendered her parents deceased. Fortunately, Seija herself never killed anybody.

"Sounds wonderful there."

"It sucks, I hated it!" Seija's yet-unchanging expression of distrust shifted to unadulterated rage from years past and her entire expression went red as the results of reverse psychology did their job like a charm. "S-So what if I'm a little different? Big deal, I was conceived in Tokyo and born in Manhattan, so what!? It's not like I care how weird my name sounded there! It's just my identity; the thing that most makes me me! If it sounds funny and I should just go back home to all those ching-chong countries, big deal! I don't care! I never cared; I don't think I'll ever start to care about something as stupid as a name! Or being left-handed for that matter! So I'm the opposite of everybody else? Big deal!" All that was left was to catch her breath in deep gasps.

Waiting patiently for the girl who just spilt everything to catch said breath, Byakuren asked "Feeling a little better now?"

"Pfffft, yeah right! Like I said, it doesn't bother me."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." With a smile that could only be described as saintly, Byakuren said "Your name is weird and everybody in Manhattan taught you to accept that. Why should you care?"

"A-Actually...it...kinda hurt. Just a little!"

"It's a very minor thing, after all."

"...just who are you? Really, who are you?" For six days, Seija was unmoving in not saying a word, and now this lady was getting her to spill the beans on her name, age, past criminal charges, even a fair portion of her life story! She was the first; even if she was contrarian by nature, even Seija knew that nobody else ever came close.

"Somebody who wants to help you. But if you keep lying to me, I can't help you. You're living with people just like you now." Pointing through the window on the door, which led to the rest of the local youth shelter ? a window through which they could see a fair few of the people living here ? Byakuren said "All of those people are like you. You may think you're the opposite of everybody else, but you're still human. If you grew up in a narrow-minded neighborhood, there's not much I can do about it, but I can say this. Nobody here will give you any reason to hide anything; we're all here to help each other, if you'll let us."

"...so I just tell you things I already knew?"

"Yes."

"And you..."

"Help with your problems, be they psychological matters that have haunted you since childhood, or trivial day-to-day things. I think another introduction is in order." Holding out her hand (and hoping for a better result than the first time, in which Seija slapped her hand) with a smile, Byakuren said "My name is Byakuren Hijiri. I founded the shelter you'll be living in."

"And..." It took her some deep breaths, and her hand was shaking for a moment. But finally, her hand gripped that of the woman across from her. "And I'm Seija Kijin. Thank you for letting me stay here."
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No comments this time.  I'm bored.