Backlash (Himeko Soryuu)
| Backlash (Himeko Soryuu) | |
|---|---|
| Date of Cutscene: | 26 August 2023 |
| Location: | Outside of a hotel |
| Synopsis: | Himeko comes back from grocery shopping late at night, when...
Takes place a few days after Scene 300. |
| Cast of Characters: | Pyrite |
In combat, ten minutes can feel like an eternity. Himeko Soryuu has not seen much combat since becoming Pyrite, and she isn't intending to find any such conflict this night. But the past three days feel like a week or longer has passed. She is wearing a jacket much too big for her that hangs on her skinny frame. She has her long black hair braided and swaying behind her while she walks through the town at night. In her weak arms is a large brown paper bag full of food, beverages, and other essentials that living people need. Because she is a living person, and thus requires living people things. Clearly.
Some yahoos hanging around outside the hotel notice her coming, and one of them with bleached hair steps away from the wall he was leaning on with his friends. The others look where their friend is looking, and notice the girl. She looks like she's perhaps thirteen or fourteen. Definitely still short, but growing. "Hey, ojou-san~." one of the creeps lilts at her as he steps in Himeko's way. "Aren't you out a bit late?"
Himeko stops, since her path is obstructed. She can't see very well around the bag in her arms. It actually obscures most of her face.
"Oi, oi. Are you really gonna' bother some kid?" one of the other guys asks, even if he looks like a stereotypical delinquent. At least one of them has some common sense and decency.
The bleach-haired punk turns to talk to his friend. "She doesn't look like a kid to me! She's gotta' be a middle-schooler at least, right? Maybe older. Hard to tell with that jacket." He starts to turn back to continue, but finds the girl isn't there anymore. She walked around him while he was talking, and is now headed towards the steps up to the hotel front door.
Despite more threats, harassment, and antagonism hurled her way, Himeko ignores all of it, and the jerk's friends continue to tell him to stop being a tool, basically. One of them even opens the door for her, since her arms are full, and apologizes for the behavior. "I literally just met this guy and he thinks he's in charge. We won't invite him to hang out again." Guess you really can't judge a book by its cover, huh?
A brief nod of acknowledgment and thanks, and then Himeko continues silently into the lobby.
All the way up to the room she shares with her brother, she continues to move like a normal living human girl. She doesn't cheat by using her powers, she doesn't do anything spooky, she just waits for the elevator to take her to the right floor, leaves when it arrives, and puts down the bag only when she finds the right room.
The sound of keys jangling as Himeko works to get the door open clatter outside for a little bit, before she gains entrance, brings the groceries in, and then makes sure the door is closed and locked behind her.
Mundane tasks. Sorting and putting away groceries where they belong. There's not a lot of space, since it's a hotel in Japan, but enough for the recent purchases to be organized, the refrigerated stuff put away, and a small carton of 'Dark Melon' flavored sorbet in the mini-freezer.
Finally, the black-haired girl is done, heaves a sigh, and begins to walk over to tell her brother she's back. But he's gone. She hopes he didn't go out looking for her.
Brushing her hair out of her face, Himeko catches sight of herself in the bathroom mirror. There's a girl in her early teens standing there. Her skin is rough, slightly pitted, but still the complexion of a young lady. There are scars on her left cheek when she turns to more fully face the mirror, and one hand reaches up to slowly trace them with digits that bear broken and torn fingernails.
She feels like there are sparks flying behind her eyes, electricity through her soul. She finally has a physical body that is virtually complete, and it makes so much of a difference for maintaining her sanity. She isn't regaining something lost, she's gaining what she never had:
A chance to live past age 10.
The girl in the mirror speaks, and she has Himeko's voice, and Himeko is speaking too, but only one of them is heard as they say the same words.
"Who am I from now on?"
