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Post by LadyEvatrice on Feb 26, 2017 22:39:16 GMT
Tobirano Tengoku, or rather, the artist behind that name, had yet another appointment with one of the faces who had survived the Ayashima disaster. This time, it was an American human girl, and from the call for the appointment, she seemed clever enough to understand the truths within his golden Witch stories. This time, he had prepared by attempting a normal sleep schedule and setting up a table on his porch with chairs. The tea he had prepared was ready, os he went to grab it and set the teapot on the table, complete with cups and some snacks. Lastly, he rushed in and grabbed his latest manuscript that had yet to be published, and waited inside for the doorbell to ring.
As soon as he heard it ring, Rohan came up to the door, manuscript in hand. "You must be Ms. Clear. I'm Tobirano Tengoku, or more correctly, Tobrina no Tengoku is the pen name of the great Rohan Kishibe. Welcome."
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Post by Cry on Feb 27, 2017 2:03:12 GMT
"Just call me Cry," the small brunette said softly, bowing slightly as a show of respect towards the Japanese male. She had read that this was almost mandatory, and since she was no older than 18, he was above her. "Thank you for accepting my appointment. You're probably already so busy..." Standing up straight once again, the girl reached up to adjust her black, oval glasses. "I'm sorry, you were probably expecting someone older... But, as you know, I'm here to talk about the island of Ayashima." Her gaze turned from an innocent, wavering one to a sharper, more serious one. "I'd like to know of your connections to that place, and the mysteries behind it. There aren't many people whom know any details.. Except, for you. I want as much information as I can... Please."
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Post by LadyEvatrice on Feb 27, 2017 16:29:38 GMT
She certainly was a polite one. "It's fine. I actually just finished my manuscript and my main story for the week, so this appointment came at an excellent time." He walked over to the table and took a seat. "You're a truly intelligent person, knowing that I hold some sort of knowledge of the truth of the Ayashima disaster. But I expected as much since you deciphered my pen name and found out it was me." To his credit, the song was a good one.
Rohan poured some tea for both of them. "To start with, apart from my stories about Ayashima, one could say my most obvious connection would be the..." he grimaced as the word came out, "friend I have who went to Ayashima. Otonashi-san. But my biggest connection, I believe, has to be to the witch herself... I'm not implying that I'm related to the person behind Eli, though."
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Post by Cry on Feb 28, 2017 18:14:49 GMT
"That's good... And ha, I'm glad to hear you say so," she said as the girl followed him, sitting in the empty chair that was set out across from him. Nodding to him in thanks for the tea, the gently took the cup in her hands, watching him curiously as he spoke. After taking a small sip, she raised an eyebrow and waited for him to finish speaking before she started up, her tone turning into more of a casual one. "Otonashi... I see. I didn't think you were related to them in any way, but... Tell me, is it really a witch?," she asked bluntly, setting the cup on the table and keeping eye contact with the male. "Honestly... The events that transpired, I..." Pursing her lips, she then lowered her gaze. "I just can't seem to accept that it was truly the work of a mere human. It was... Too much. There was nothing I could do to save him..." Clenching her teeth, she squeezed the cup, only to realize that she was going off topic. With a small start, she shook her head, sighing. "Sorry, ignore that. I've been trying to deal with what I saw, but it isn't exactly working," she explained with a small laugh, reaching up to place her fingers against her temple.
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Post by LadyEvatrice on Mar 4, 2017 4:42:47 GMT
"It sounds like you knew Ryo-I mean Otonashi-san, or had at least met her on the island. I'm fairly surprised she didn't reveal her connection to me," he said wistfully. Ryouko had annoyed him, but he'd be lying to himself if he said he didn't miss the days where Ryouko had forcibly spent time with him. "As for Eli Ayase-san... it's safe to say that if she isn't a witch, then she's certainly a very dangerous human claiming to be a witch, wouldn't it?"
Him? So she too, had lost someone important to her in the disaster. Maybe Rohan and this girl were kindred souls after all, though the idea of bonding with someone over a tragedy seemed, for all intent and purpose, a little fucked up. "I don't blame you. I could presume what kept the witch from claiming you as a victim was the presence of a cobweb. It was an old superstition attached to the island that evil spirits could be weakened by those." Same here, he mentally added. "And Eli-san knew what she was doing in taking so many lives over that timespan. She took a lot of things, like loved ones or my peace of mind. She was definitely a witch in that sense." He took another sip of his tea, a little surprised by his oversharing.
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Post by Cry on Mar 16, 2017 14:21:25 GMT
"I only found out about the way to repel her using cobwebs by pure accident. I had fallen asleep with a duster covered with cobwebs in my hand after I cleaned my room, since it was old and rather dirty. When I woke up, there were bloody tracks, like someone was coming for me after slaughtering. However, they stayed a certain distance away... And I was completely fine. It was like they had given up. I figured that whatever it was seemed to hate something I had, and it could have only been something new, since they would have probably been able to get close before I went into my room. I don't know if it was someone I knew, or not, but I did a couple more tests. I changed things little by little, but every time I had a cobweb, I was safe. So, I deduced that it was the cobwebs," she explained fully, raising her cup to sip her tea as she closed her eyes. After a moment of thinking, she lowered it back onto the table, her gaze fixated on the dark liquid in the cup.
"... Whatever happened wasn't the work of a human. If it was a human, they would have had the constant fear of getting caught. This person... Thing... Whatever, was confident in their abilities. It was definitely gruesome. I'll never forget that smell of rotting meat...," she murmured, reaching up to cover her mouth before she shook her head.
"Nonetheless, I did meet Ryouko. She was a really happy girl... She was also the reason I knew who you were." With a small shrug, she looked back up and stared at the male.
"She... She really did love you. She told me that every time she visited you, she was just happy to even be close to you. Just remember that." She could tell that he was grieving, in his own way. The brunette knew they weren't exactly lovers, but from the way Ryouko spoke of him, they were at least somewhat close. At least, that's the feeling she got.
"She didn't tell me exactly who you were, but that part I figured out on my own."
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Post by LadyEvatrice on Mar 16, 2017 19:47:18 GMT
That image was both humorous and horrifying to imagine: a woman scratching at the door, trying to get in after she'd had taken lives beforehand, only to be stopped by something in the room she couldn't see. Even if Rohan hadn't read Ryouko's notebook, he knew very well that Ryouko had been smart enough to deduce the pattern Cry had found out. He hadn't finished the notebook though, perhaps as a sort of mechanism to really avoid facing Ryouko's permanent disappearance from anywhere that wasn't pretending she was here. "If one were to believe that it was a human who had killed, it'd be easy to suspect one of the servants, partly because of the belief that the servants always do it, and because only a servant could have known about the feather duster firsthand. But as you said... even the most skillful serial killer, no matter how violent, operates with caution to avoid being caught." He cringed as a memory he'd pushed back tried to resurface, as that murder and this massacre had nothing to do with each other, to borrow Ryouko's phrasing.
The artist's other hand ran over the top of his manuscript as he heard Cry tell him about how Ryouko was like on the island. Whether or not he realized it, he did seem calm and almost nostalgic as he heard about his lost friend, with a relaxed smile on his face. "Ryouko-san was always honest about her feelings for me. And it seems so much like her to tell somebody she recently met about me. It seems she was true to herself to the..." Rohan's voice trailed off. "But... thank you, Cry. I'd intended to ask you to read from my latest Golden Witch story, but hadn't expected a sort of Heart-to-Heart."
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Post by Cry on Mar 19, 2017 18:55:44 GMT
Cry chuckled and nodded, leaning back in the chair and closing her eyes. "I hadn't expected one either, but things usually turn out different than planned. Whatever can happen, will happen- Murphy's Law," she hummed, only to grin at him before she tilted her head, her eyes soon dropping down to the manuscript on the table. She had been wondering what that was.
"I'll read, for sure, if you'd allow me to. Though, a great artist once told me to never let anyone see the original, first work. It should stay hidden, since an author's writings could lead to uncovering things people shouldn't usually know," she noted, her expression serious. However, after that little tidbit, she relaxed and sat up straight, shrugging. "Although, it is your story. If you want to show it to me, I have no qualms about reading it."
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Post by LadyEvatrice on Mar 20, 2017 5:31:23 GMT
"That's true. After all, it certainly was possible that a massacre could have happened, however extremely low the chance was of it, and it was extremely low that I'd ever be mourning the death of somebody, yet, all of those things indeed happened." If those were considered miracles, whoever governed over miracles certainly was at the least as awful of a person as he was, if not worse. The manga artist pushed the manuscript across the table, more certain about what he intended to do than before. After all, this exchange had convinced him that he'd underestimated this human with how far she was able to dig and understand him. Hell, if he slipped up, he might even expose the fact he himself was a witch, albeit of a different kind than Eli.
"I suppose that is true, although I rarely show anybody my rough drafts," Rohan agreed, simply opting for another sip at tea while the hand that was now free from the manuscript taped the table with the other side of his pen. "This is the finalized copy of the latest Golden Witch tale before I send it in for publishing. I've named it Dusk of the Golden Witch. And I feel that since you've made it this far, you'll probably be the first to uncover the full truth. So I offer to you another glimpse of the truth, Cry, and ask for you to read my work. I ask you this not as Tobirano Tengoku, but as the fellow writer, Kishibe-sensei." It felt funny referring to himself in third person, but he had no better way to phrase it. If Cry did take up the offer to read this tale, Rohan, as a Creator Witch, was obligated to take her under protection from other witches until she was done reading the tale, and well, if he couldn't protect his dead friend, he could at least extend that defense to a person who had known her and understood him.
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