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sutepri[Content Notes]
[Disclaimer]
Scrapped Princess | Prelude of the Stray Cat Princess | The Scrapped Princess's Casket | Part 9/10
". . . if . . . if you're gonna kill me, then kill me!" Big Noise said, collapsing to the floor after having run until he reached the limits of exhaustion. He had probably meant to shout, but his voice was so lacking in strength that it came out more like the delirious muttering of a sick man.
The giant approached Big Noise with light steps . . .
Whump.
The giant stumbled over the rubble that lay scattered around his feet, and fell. Two or three minor electrical discharges scurried through the gloomy castle, and Thor vanished.
". . . oh." Raquel's voice slipped out as she clapped a hand to her mouth.
"A . . . a misfire?" Big Noise muttered, dumbfounded.
For Raquel's part, she had her head tipped to one side, her index finger pressed to her cheek. "That's strange . . . I wonder just where could I have gone wrong."
The original Thor spell does not behave in such a clumsy manner that it will stumble over rubble, and while it may use a portion of its power to eliminate obstacles, it will never discharge the entirety of its destructive force and vanish before making contact with its target.
It seemed that, even having discharged the entirety of its destructive force, this one had not released even one-hundredth of the power of the original spell.
"You . . . you damned amateur . . ."
Big Noise sluggishly lifted himself from the ground and glared at Raquel. As you might expect, Raquel took half a step back, as though nervous of that fixed expression.
"You really went and did it . . . You gave me . . . a pretty brutal workout, didn't you?
"Ah . . . but don't you think you lost a little weight because of that?"
"Could be. Now let me pay you back in full. In full!" Big Noise said, extending his palm in Raquel's direction. "I'm gonna give it all I've got and use my dirtiest spell to kill you. Get ready to experience full-body incontinence before you die!"
And in the moment that he began to recite the incantation.
Guh!
A thick sound erupted from the back of his head, and Big Noise collapsed. His fingers twitched as though rubbing the empty space, and his eyes rolled completely back in his head.
Standing behind him, holding a brick most likely picked up somewhere long the way . . . was Pacifica.
"Oh, Pacifica, you came to save me."
Pacifica answered her elder sister (who, apparently deeply moved, had her hands happily clasped in front of her as she spoke) in a fed-up tone.
" . . . weren't you and Shannon-nii the ones who came to rescue me?"
"Oh, let's not bother about such trivial matters."
". . . well, whatever."
"Where's Shannon?"
At these words, Pacifica's face changed color, and she tossed the brick aside. It landed corner down, directly on the unconscious Big Noise's stomach, and the fat hitman let out a "guh" like a squashed frog . . . But, well, Pacifica and Raquel did not really care much about that.
"That's right! Shannon-nii! He's fighting this ridiculously dangerous hitman . . . Raquel-nee, you have to go save him!"
". . . looks like that's not necessary," Raquel said breezily.
Glancing over her shoulder, Pacifica saw Shannon now emerging from the darkness of the corridor's depths.
Hearing the repeated rap of something hard striking her window, Mutia roused herself from her bed.
Sleepy. Utterly sleepy. There was no reason for a girl's room to have such opulent effects as a mechanical clock, so she could not be sure of the exact time, but . . . judging from how sleepy she was, it was probably around midnight.
"Nn . . . ?"
Her bedroom was on the second floor. When she opened her window, the first snow of the year was falling.
Countless slivers of white swirled silently down from the dark sky. Quite some time must already have passed since it first began to fall because when she looked around, the neighborhood was faintly yet entirely suffused by the color of snow.
"Wow . . . it's so pretty."
After this unaffected murmur, she looked down from her window.
A familiar face was waiting there.
"Pacifica?"
"Sorry to visit so late at night."
Mutia's Sunday school classmate looked up at her with a bashful smile.
"Oh, honestly, what brings you here at this hour? Well, I guess it's all right since I got to see the first snow, but still."
"Yeah. I wanted to ask you something."
"What?"
"Even if I, you know, weren't Pacifica Casull . . . even if I were a completely different person, could we . . . be friends?
"Again with that--" Mutia started to say, "idiotic nonsense," but she stopped herself in mid-sentence. Because even though her classmate was smiling, she could see that Pacifica seemed about to burst into tears at any moment. "Um . . . I don't really understand, but . . ." Mutia said, tipping her head to one side. "A name is just a label. No matter what name you have, you're still you, so . . . Well, I'm sure that if I happened to meet a completely different person in a completely different place, as long as she was like you . . . I think we could have a lot of fun together."
"Really?" Pacifica nodded in satisfaction. "Yeah, you're right."
"Look, I don't really get what this is all about, but if you just stand around out there, you'll catch a cold. I'll go open the front door for you, so--"
"That's okay. I have to go now."
"You do?"
If you have a place to go home to, then going home is best.
With this very natural assumption having come to mind for one reason or another, Mutia waved her hand.
"Well then, good night."
"Yeah," Pacifica called in a clear voice, waving broadly. ". . . good-bye."
"See you next Sunday, okay?"
Mutia had said these words without giving them much thought, but for some reason, she received no answer . . . She tipped her head to one side, thinking that she probably had not been heard, and watched the vanishing form of her classmate as Pacifica hurried away into the snow.
---
[Next] [Previous]
Okay, for some reason, my notebook's default fonts (Arial and such) have abruptly stopped supporting Japanese and Chinese text. They just . . . all of sudden started showing such characters as boxes. Has anyone else had this problem? And if so, is there a way to fix it? I can cope by using language-specific fonts, but it gets problematic when I need to use multiple languages in a single document.
[Disclaimer]
Scrapped Princess | Prelude of the Stray Cat Princess | The Scrapped Princess's Casket | Part 9/10
". . . if . . . if you're gonna kill me, then kill me!" Big Noise said, collapsing to the floor after having run until he reached the limits of exhaustion. He had probably meant to shout, but his voice was so lacking in strength that it came out more like the delirious muttering of a sick man.
The giant approached Big Noise with light steps . . .
Whump.
The giant stumbled over the rubble that lay scattered around his feet, and fell. Two or three minor electrical discharges scurried through the gloomy castle, and Thor vanished.
". . . oh." Raquel's voice slipped out as she clapped a hand to her mouth.
"A . . . a misfire?" Big Noise muttered, dumbfounded.
For Raquel's part, she had her head tipped to one side, her index finger pressed to her cheek. "That's strange . . . I wonder just where could I have gone wrong."
The original Thor spell does not behave in such a clumsy manner that it will stumble over rubble, and while it may use a portion of its power to eliminate obstacles, it will never discharge the entirety of its destructive force and vanish before making contact with its target.
It seemed that, even having discharged the entirety of its destructive force, this one had not released even one-hundredth of the power of the original spell.
"You . . . you damned amateur . . ."
Big Noise sluggishly lifted himself from the ground and glared at Raquel. As you might expect, Raquel took half a step back, as though nervous of that fixed expression.
"You really went and did it . . . You gave me . . . a pretty brutal workout, didn't you?
"Ah . . . but don't you think you lost a little weight because of that?"
"Could be. Now let me pay you back in full. In full!" Big Noise said, extending his palm in Raquel's direction. "I'm gonna give it all I've got and use my dirtiest spell to kill you. Get ready to experience full-body incontinence before you die!"
And in the moment that he began to recite the incantation.
Guh!
A thick sound erupted from the back of his head, and Big Noise collapsed. His fingers twitched as though rubbing the empty space, and his eyes rolled completely back in his head.
Standing behind him, holding a brick most likely picked up somewhere long the way . . . was Pacifica.
"Oh, Pacifica, you came to save me."
Pacifica answered her elder sister (who, apparently deeply moved, had her hands happily clasped in front of her as she spoke) in a fed-up tone.
" . . . weren't you and Shannon-nii the ones who came to rescue me?"
"Oh, let's not bother about such trivial matters."
". . . well, whatever."
"Where's Shannon?"
At these words, Pacifica's face changed color, and she tossed the brick aside. It landed corner down, directly on the unconscious Big Noise's stomach, and the fat hitman let out a "guh" like a squashed frog . . . But, well, Pacifica and Raquel did not really care much about that.
"That's right! Shannon-nii! He's fighting this ridiculously dangerous hitman . . . Raquel-nee, you have to go save him!"
". . . looks like that's not necessary," Raquel said breezily.
Glancing over her shoulder, Pacifica saw Shannon now emerging from the darkness of the corridor's depths.
Hearing the repeated rap of something hard striking her window, Mutia roused herself from her bed.
Sleepy. Utterly sleepy. There was no reason for a girl's room to have such opulent effects as a mechanical clock, so she could not be sure of the exact time, but . . . judging from how sleepy she was, it was probably around midnight.
"Nn . . . ?"
Her bedroom was on the second floor. When she opened her window, the first snow of the year was falling.
Countless slivers of white swirled silently down from the dark sky. Quite some time must already have passed since it first began to fall because when she looked around, the neighborhood was faintly yet entirely suffused by the color of snow.
"Wow . . . it's so pretty."
After this unaffected murmur, she looked down from her window.
A familiar face was waiting there.
"Pacifica?"
"Sorry to visit so late at night."
Mutia's Sunday school classmate looked up at her with a bashful smile.
"Oh, honestly, what brings you here at this hour? Well, I guess it's all right since I got to see the first snow, but still."
"Yeah. I wanted to ask you something."
"What?"
"Even if I, you know, weren't Pacifica Casull . . . even if I were a completely different person, could we . . . be friends?
"Again with that--" Mutia started to say, "idiotic nonsense," but she stopped herself in mid-sentence. Because even though her classmate was smiling, she could see that Pacifica seemed about to burst into tears at any moment. "Um . . . I don't really understand, but . . ." Mutia said, tipping her head to one side. "A name is just a label. No matter what name you have, you're still you, so . . . Well, I'm sure that if I happened to meet a completely different person in a completely different place, as long as she was like you . . . I think we could have a lot of fun together."
"Really?" Pacifica nodded in satisfaction. "Yeah, you're right."
"Look, I don't really get what this is all about, but if you just stand around out there, you'll catch a cold. I'll go open the front door for you, so--"
"That's okay. I have to go now."
"You do?"
If you have a place to go home to, then going home is best.
With this very natural assumption having come to mind for one reason or another, Mutia waved her hand.
"Well then, good night."
"Yeah," Pacifica called in a clear voice, waving broadly. ". . . good-bye."
"See you next Sunday, okay?"
Mutia had said these words without giving them much thought, but for some reason, she received no answer . . . She tipped her head to one side, thinking that she probably had not been heard, and watched the vanishing form of her classmate as Pacifica hurried away into the snow.
---
[Next] [Previous]
Okay, for some reason, my notebook's default fonts (Arial and such) have abruptly stopped supporting Japanese and Chinese text. They just . . . all of sudden started showing such characters as boxes. Has anyone else had this problem? And if so, is there a way to fix it? I can cope by using language-specific fonts, but it gets problematic when I need to use multiple languages in a single document.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-09 03:27 pm (UTC)Ah, thanks. Strangely enough, Windows 7 (which I'm now having to use since my old XP notebook finally died) comes with Japanese fonts pre-installed. I'd been using Tahoma to type Japanese into Notepad all along, so it was kind of a shock to open one of my files and find a field of those infamous blank rectangles aha. Oh well, I'll just keep looking.