Continuation of
>>95794 When we last left the writefag, he was making weak excuses for his slow and erratic updating speeds.
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While the thought of heading back home for a nice meal (come to think of it, you didn't have lunch today, discounting that peach), taking it easy for the rest of the day and finally getting a good night's sleep is incredibly attractive by this point, you can't help but feel that nagging sensation somewhere in the back of your mind, tugging at your heartstrings. You've been making quite a few promises during your short-yet-eventful stay here in Gensokyo, haven't you? While being a nice and friendly guy is fine and all, the build-up of obligations might start feeling awfully heavy at some point. Ah well, what's done is done - now to deal with the dilemma that presents itself before you.
Start teaching Mystia, or go hang out with Flandre and Cirno? Ah, how convenient it would be to be able to split apart, be in two places at once... Is such a thing impossible even in Gensokyo? You'll have to ask Patchouli the next time you see her. Surely, she'll be back at school tomorrow, right? Right. For now, you flip a mental coin, deciding to do a little of both as it lands on its indecisive edge. Dragging your tired legs up the stairs is a feat of herculean strength for you in your current state, although you can gradually, very slowly sense the strength returning to you. Whatever was in that shot Eirin gave you, it seems to be working.
You come to the door to the book club, which is considerably less familiar to you than it ought to be, considering you're one of its founding members. Come to think of it, you don't really have any books of your own here in Gensokyo to begin with. Well, not counting -that- book, which Patchouli seems to have lent to you for an indefinite period of time. Even though she summoned it to the library, it seemed to have returned back to your house by the time you got back, somehow; best not to worry your head about the mechanics behind this, since magic is probably confusing by definition. Teleportation would be a handy trick to learn, wouldn't it? Since you've been spending so much time with the residents of the Scarlet Devil mansion, it'd be kind of nice to be able to cross the lake with your own power, and swimming doesn't seem like the best idea for that purpose.
You don't feel any particular need to knock or otherwise announce your entry, as you open the door and step inside, greeted with the sight of two girls sitting in a corner, not at all reading or discussing literature. Flandre's wings are drooping down low enough for the weird crystal-things near the tips to be lying flat on the floor, her head hanged low with her face hidden, arms wrapped around the knees. Next to her is a frustrated-yet-concerned looking Cirno, gently patting her in a comforting manner, the look on her face showing conflicting emotions of both caring and lack of understanding, mixed together, struggling. It looks painful, somehow.
"...Yo. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"
The two finally notice your presence, looking up in your direction with wildly contrasting expressions. Cirno, with a face contorting into a disappointed scowl, staring icy daggers at you as if you've just been caught kicking a puppy; and Flandre, both her eyes and lower lip trembling as if she were inches away from crying, just looking at you with slowly widening eyes before-...
"Wah, you're okay!" Springing from her corner, the blonde vampire girl rockets in your direction, tackling you into a hug that sends you off-balance, slamming you into the wall in a not-entirely-painless manner and landing you on your ass, with her in your lap, squeezing you to the point where it's becoming difficult to breathe. You swear you came close to breaking a bone or two there... This girl really needs to learn how to control her strength. Like right now, for example, since you're slowly asphyxiating.
"F-... Flan... Getting hard to breathe here... I'm okay, sorry for worrying you." Her grip loosens enough to allow normal intake of oxygen once again; the feeling of relief is quickly cancelled out by the impact of a small, weak fist against the side of your skull, still strong enough to trigger another wave of painful pulses in your dulled headache.
"Whaddaya think you're doin', scaring Flan-Flan like that? I oughtta smash your eyeballs in for that!" The fairy emphasizes her point by poking at the side of one of your eyeballs through the eyelid with a cool finger, before bonking you across the head yet again.
"Why you little..!" Before you can strangle Cirno in a humorous manner for her behavior, your attention is drawn to Flandre yet again, who gives you a mild smile, before speaking to Cirno.
"It's okay, I was just... worrying too much, as usual." She chuckles at herself softly.
"I have a silly habit of doing that, don't I? I just... Well, you just collapsed right next to me, I didn't know what to think. I'm sorry."
"Tsk, don't be silly. What are you apologizing for? It was my own fault to begin with, I was..." Well, you can't just tell her you were having a danmaku duel yesterday evening, now can you?
"...doing stuff yesterday, and tired myself out. I just need a good night's sleep, that's all." She seems to be more-or-less satisfied with that.
"Are you going home, then..? Or, do you think you'll stick around for a while?" Awh, that face... But, a promise is a promise.
"Sorry... I've got a promise to keep with someone. I'd love to, otherwise, but..."
"Another friend?" The look on her face changes from a smile to something else - it's almost like a sadness, but... not. You can't quite place what it is exactly, yet she looks awfully serious all of a sudden, her voice also having turned quiet almost to the point of being a mere whisper. The way she stares at you right now, without blinking, is slowly beginning to make you feel uncomfortable for some reason.
"Er... Yeah, I guess you could say that." An uncomfortable silence fills the room, that unblinking stare still drilling into you; you can feel her grip loosening around just a bit more, until she lets go entirely, sitting down on the floor in front of you and smiling; it's a very light smile, though.
"That's okay, then."
"Psh, lookit what you're doin' again, disappointing Flan-Flan... You should just get lost, y'know?" The upset Cirno is, to the surprise of both of you, interrupted by Flandre.
"Cirno. That's just being rude. Friends should be nice to each other, right?" Cirno looks like she's about to protest, yet Flandre's smile disarms her completely, the words getting caught in her throat.
"...Mph. You're just lucky you're Flan-Flan's friend, or I'd show ya. A friend of my friend is my friend, y'know?" You respond with a quiet nod in appreciation, standing up and dusting yourself off.
"Well then, I'll see you two tomorrow, alright?" The two wave to you as you exit the club room, exhaling deeply in relief. Seems like wherever you go these days, there's a feeling of overwhelming pressure from somewhere always weighing down on your shoulders. Well, the light music club should be a welcome break from that sort of thing, right? You're not even a member, but ARGH. As you reach the door, just as you're about to open it a loud noise that's probably meant to be music blasts through the wooden barrier between yourself and whatever the hell is going on in that room. Your headache now magnified tenfold, you plug your ears and take a few minutes to wait for the agonizing pulsation to fade to a tolerable degree, before you knock on the door. The blonde Prismriver sister opens the door, glancing at you with a glum expression.
"Oh. You again. Was there something..?" She tilts her head at you skeptically.
"...You couldn't possibly be here to join the club, could you? No, not likely..."
"Actually... I'm here to see Mystia."
"Oh, right. You were the boyfriend. How nice..." Her tone of voice has always struck you as more depressing than anything from the moment you first spoke to her, but this time it just irks you.
"She's not my..!"
"Hey Jin! Get in here already."
"And that's not my..! Huh." That voice. It's so familiar, in an incredibly unpleasant sense. No. No way. She'd have no reason at all to be here, right? Unless...
Nope, your fears were correct; sitting backwards on a chair, leaning against the backrest is Rumia, a bored expression on her face as she turns her eyes from Mystia and the two other Prismrivers to you, absent-mindedly gnawing on the chair. You can see the teeth-marks in the wood from all the way where you're standing. If Rumia ever went to a dentist, would he be at risk of injuring his hands? Probably.
"I didn't think you'd be much of a club-person, bro."
"Don't call me that! And what about you?"
"Oh, I'm just here to hang out with Mysty... It's kind of boring here, though." The Prismrivers flinch in unison at that last remark, after which the blonde one coughs quietly to clear her throat before speaking.
"Merlin, Lyrica. We've got another spectator. Yay." The blonde Prismriver turns to her sisters, and you quickly make note which one is meant to be which, for future reference.
"Well, don't sound so glum about it! Ooh, are you here to join the club? Are you?" Merlin rushes over to you, looking incredibly excited, her voice making you wince in pain as you involuntarily clutch your head.
"N-no... Sorry. I..." Fortunately, Mystia comes to your rescue.
"Oh, this is Jin!" God DAMN it.
"He said he'd, um, teach me how to play the guitar, so... It's alright for him to stick around even if he's not a member, isn't it?"
"Oh sure, and I suppose next we'll be serving tea and snacks to our guests. 'Light music club' indeed! Light on the music, that is." A sarcastic smirk spreads across Lyrica's face, as she stays behind her keyboard, not bothering to come greet you or anything. Mystia seems a little hurt by the remark; to save the situation, you gently take the guitar she's clumsily holding in her hands and start playing a little tune. Again, the first, random song that comes to your mind - the intro to Iron Maiden's 'Fear of the Dark'. You almost catch yourself uttering "I am the man who walks alone" but manage to stop yourself just in time; when you stop playing, all eyes on the room are focused on you yet again. Geez, it's as if you're some sort of rockstar...
"...You SURE you don't want to join us?" Merlin is staring at you with an impossibly wide grin on her face; it's creeping you out just a little bit, to be honest.
"I'll, uh, think on it. I'm already in a club, so..."
"There's no rule keeping you from joining more than one club, though." Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.
"Can you play the drums? Lunasa is on the bass guitar, and Lyrica is
really attached to her keyboard, so I'm being forced to learn to play the drums myself... Bah, can't I just play an electric flute or something!?"
"And what, have a band without drums? Sure, that'll work..."
"It's not like we're ever going to end up performing on stage with this setup anyway..."
...
Well, while the sisters argue amongst themselves, you take a few hours (yes, they keep arguing that long) to start teaching Mystia the basics. She really doesn't know anything about playing an instrument to begin with, but her enthusiasm is commendable and she's quick to learn. By the time you happen to glance out of the window, it's already evening; Rumia appears to have fallen asleep at some point.
"I think I'll be calling it a day. I'll teach you some more sometime, alright? Ah, but... I really think you ought to do something about those fingernails of yours, if you're serious about this." The bird-youkai looks down at her overly long talons, a worried expression on her face; for all you know, she might be using those for hunting. Or... Whatever it is she does to feed herself. If she runs a grilled eel stand, does that mean she eats that sort of thing herself? Human food, that is. Ah well, who knows... You're not about to ask such things, after all. Saying your goodbyes to both a very happy looking Mystia and the still-bickering Prismrivers (who don't even notice you), you head back home, happily realizing you're not about to be ambushed by a man-eating little girl tonight.
...
Or are you?
...
Nope. That blue-haired girl came to mind all of a sudden, but she's nowhere in sight. Guess you scared her pretty good; you feel just a tiny bit guilty for about half a second for defiling her precious hat like that, but you quickly remind yourself what an utter brat she really was, and instantly feel better. A wide yawn escapes you as you tiredly drag your exhausted legs down the path to the village, to your house. A nice, filling meal, a nice, relaxing shower, and you're just about ready for bed. It's still early in the evening, but you did intend to finally get some damn rest for a change. Good night, sweet dreams and all that... Patchouli's probably going to be back to school tomorrow, isn't she? You'd like to ask her... about...
...
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A maze. Stretching out in all directions, and you're in the middle. That's normally the goal of a maze, isn't it? To get to the middle? Except you have no idea how you got here, so this is technically the worst place to be in terms of trying to find your way back out, paths heading in all directions, the options unlimited.
And then you hear crying. It's quiet, barely audible as the sobs echo through the twisting, winding paths of the labyrinth, but it's there. As good a lead as any, you head in the direction of the crying, it guides you away from all the dead ends, you can feel a warmth in the direction you're going, you're almost out...
...And you come to a split in the path. What's worse, the crying is now coming from both sides, but it's... different. From one side, it's a suppressed, choked back sobbing, sounding frustrated, even enraged whenever the mysterious girl's fortitude breaks and the crying becomes more pronounced; the other, a wild, hysterical crying, screaming, painful, agonized, as if the girl was being tortured, losing her mind. You're scared shitless, and yet you know you must pick a path... and that you don't want either one of them to keep crying, for some reason. If only you could pick both paths. However, as you take another step, the floor gives out beneath you, and you fall into a black abyss...
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...and land on your ass on the floor of your room, out of your bed. The concept of a good night's sleep is becoming a hazy memory to you by now. At least you're not as utterly dead-tired as you were yesterday, but the sudden shock into an awake state doesn't do much towards starting your morning off in a good mood. It's odd though, you don't recall ever rollng out of bed in your sleep; or at least not in many, many years. Yesterday's headache is gone, too, now replaced with the dull pain of your skull impacting with the floor. If you're going to keep having spontaneous wake-ups like this every day, then why the hell do you even need that alarm clock... Hm, what time -is- it? Not even 6 AM yet. As you groggily stand up to turn off the alarm, you notice something odd about your bed.
Specifically, the blonde little girl curled up in your sheets, drooling onto your pillow in her sleep. This time, you rub your eyes and examine her more closely, just to make sure you don't mistake the identity yet again; it's not like having random blonde girls in your bed is anything uncommon for you by now; sadly, not in as awesome of a sense as that sounded like.
Yep.
No mistaking it.
Asleep in your bed. The culprit behind shoving you onto the floor.
It's Rumia.
...The slow, calm breathing. The peaceful, innocent look on her face.
It doesn't suit her at all, really. It's like looking at someone else entirely. And she's... Wait, what. Her clothes are in a pile over there, near yours. Then... That means she's...
...
No, don't think about that. Not when it's -her-, in any case. Anyone else would be fine, but not -her-.
[] Draw on her face. [] Eh, let her sleep... The little monster girl can look kind of cute at times like this, too.
-{} ...Try to sneak out of the house and off to school without her noticing.
[] Wake her up, gently.
[] Pull the sheets from her and yell at her in an outraged manner.
[] ...Go back to bed.
-{} Snuggle~
