Magical Lotus - Mahou Shoujou Byakuren - Episode 4, Part 4

[Oldmansour]

>Disappeared? Even if you were still standing in the same place?

>A change in appearance can sometimes be sufficient to fool the simple.

[DracoOmega]

>Hmmm....
>If the Purpose has nothing else to ask, thank it for its answers and finish getting ready for the morning.

[Oldmansour]

>Hmmm....
>If the Purpose has nothing else to ask, thank it for its answers and finish getting ready for the morning.

>It does not, which leaves you to your own devices.
>You note as you make your way out of your room, after you get changed, that it's later in the day than you normally rise, about half past 10. Not a bad thing in this case, as you don't seem to have missed any new catastrophe, and you really do need your rest. The real surprise is that Rin slept in longer than you and then didn't rise with you, that's a bit out of the ordinary for her. She must have needed her rest as well. Which means the task of breakfast this morning falls on your shoulders. Oh, the burdens of the hero.
>As you pour a couple of eggs into a pan, though, the kasha walks out of your room, stretching out with one arm and rubbing her eyes with the other. "G'morning, Mistress." she mumbles in Eire.

[DracoOmega]

>Smile
>"Good morning."

[Oldmansour]

>Smile
>"Good morning."

>Still plainly not quite awake, she mumbles something else in her native tongue. Some of the nuances are lost on you, but it sounds something like, "Sorry I slept in."

[DracoOmega]

>"Oh, don't apologize. Besides, I think we've more than earned our rest."

[Oldmansour]

>"Oh, don't apologize. Besides, I think we've more than earned our rest."

>Rin yawns and nods. "Or more. I had a lotta weird dreams last night."

[DracoOmega]

>"Oh? Anything interesting?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Oh? Anything interesting?"

>"Well... This is probably gonna sound a bit weird, but I kept dreamin' about your brother."

[DracoOmega]

>"...really?"

[Oldmansour]

>"...really?"

>Rin pauses in mid-stretch. "Uh.... Not like that."

[DracoOmega]

>Laugh and shake our head
>"No, no, I just... I dreamt about him last night, too. Sort of."

[Oldmansour]

>Laugh and shake our head
>"No, no, I just... I dreamt about him last night, too. Sort of."

>"You can sort of dream about someone?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Well, you can dream about people as different than they are in the waking world. In my dream, Myouren was... using magic to part a great flood of water coming from a broken dam. I was watching from some distance away with a group of other people - huddled together and frightened. He was protecting us, I think, from the flood. He smiled at me as he did so, and I remember I feeling incredibly proud of him for doing all this. And then, I guess I must have woken up."
>"Curiously, I have the distinct recollection that in this dream he was older than me."

[Oldmansour]

>"Well, you can dream about people as different than they are in the waking world. In my dream, Myouren was... using magic to part a great flood of water coming from a broken dam. I was watching from some distance away with a group of other people - huddled together and frightened. He was protecting us, I think, from the flood. He smiled at me as he did so, and I remember I feeling incredibly proud of him for doing all this. And then, I guess I must have woken up."
>"Curiously, I have the distinct recollection that in this dream he was older than me."

>"That's different, all right. The age flip-flop, I mean, it makes sense that you'd dream him as being a superhero, 'specially since you're one now. Makes sense ta me, anyway."

[DracoOmega]

>Chuckle lightly
>"Perhaps. And what was he like in yours, if I might ask."

[Oldmansour]

>Chuckle lightly
>"Perhaps. And what was he like in yours, if I might ask."

>"Kinda like that, actually." she replies as she sits down at the table, seeing as you've got the cooking handled. "I mean I don't remember a dam, but I do remember him calling up a big rainfall to put out a big ol' forest fire. Saved a bunch of kids all huddled up near little creek. Then there was this big dragon-thing that was attacking a town, and he turned the thing's fire breath back on it, and the thing flew away. Thing I remember most though, there was this town, and there was a mob of youkai fighting a gang of humans. Was like the whole town was fighting it out. And then he walked into town, and people stopped and listened to him talkin', and then all the youkai went home. There was peace."

[DracoOmega]

>"Hmmm... I wonder if the telepathic link we share means we can influence each other's dreams, or if this is just an amusing coincidence?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Hmmm... I wonder if the telepathic link we share means we can influence each other's dreams, or if this is just an amusing coincidence?"

>"Well, did ya share dreams with Lily or Kiku?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Well, I wasn't sleeping next to them, either."
>Give her a little kiss

[Oldmansour]

>"Well, I wasn't sleeping next to them, either."
>Give her a little kiss

>Rin's ears twitch in pleasure at your little gesture of affection. Though not one to let more mundane matters completely slide by the wayside, she cautions you, "Don't let your eggs burn."

[DracoOmega]

>"I can multitask."
>Multitask!

[Oldmansour]

>"I can multitask."
>Multitask!

>In the minutes it takes you to finish preparing two servings of scrambled eggs, toast and a side of tofu bacon (which is better than your friends seem to think it is, thank you very much), you and your Rin exchange a casual conversation about dreams in general, and another quick kiss. You're inclined to chalk the odd coincidence that you both should have dreams involving your brother on the same night as just that, a coincidence, until Rin says off-handedly, "Thing I find kinda weird, though, is that your brother was some kinda hero in each scene I saw, but every time he was done doin' hero stuff, he went back to this run-down wood shack in the middle of nowhere, like it were his home or somethin'."

[DracoOmega]

>Does that... ring a bell?

[Oldmansour]

>Does that... ring a bell?

>You also dreamed of a somewhat decrepit looking wooden shack in an isolated patch of ground.

[DracoOmega]

>"That... also sounds like what I dreamt."
>Try to describe the shack in more detail to her, if we can

[Oldmansour]

>"That... also sounds like what I dreamt."
>Try to describe the shack in more detail to her, if we can

>Your own recollection of that shack is shaky at best. It was a very run-down looking building, a simple one-story thing made of rude logs. Rin, however, provides a bit more in the way of details. "There was a bit of... canvas, I think's the word, coverin' up one of the windows, I think it was broke. Kept seein' it in different seasons, snow one time, rain the next."

[DracoOmega]

>Does this ring any bells also?

[Oldmansour]

>Does this ring any bells also?

>The canvas over the window gels with your memory of the shack. You and Rin almost have to have dreamed of the same shack.

[DracoOmega]

>"That was in my dream, as well. I... find myself increasingly skeptical this is all a coincidence."