| [Mar. 5th, 2018|04:29 am] |
Pakkun nodded. “Some parts, yes. Think of a fan folded up really tightly. There are leaves touching each other — like my world and the tanuki world — and others that don’t. Except it’s really more like an unimaginable number of fans stacked together and sliding through each other.” He glanced at Genma. “You said the kits took you through the lizard dimension and a tortoise dimension before you got here? Probably had a series of established gates they could slip through, where the worlds are touching.”
Kurenai pursed her lips slightly; it made her mouth bow-shaped. “That makes sense, with what Himself said. Is the human world the linchpin of the fan, then? It would explain how all the creatures mingle there… I wonder if it’s the origin world, reflected here, or if all the connecting dimensions have merely fed into it.” She tweaked Pakkun’s toes, making him snort and retract his leg. He immediately extended the other one. “I’ve seen dogs like you on noblewomen’s laps in court. Are you a pug because you’re related to mortal pugs, or are you mirroring the existence of something in the human world? Or is there an essential Pugness, and you’re its ideal?”
Pakkun gave a shout of laughter, something almost human and almost howling, undercut by a baritone rumble. “I am the pug,” he cackled. “All lesser pugs yield before me.”
Raidou felt his mouth twitch. He considered himself a fairly smart guy, but he’d lost hold of the thread somewhere between ‘the universe is a fan’ and the notion of Pakkun as quintessential pug. Genma, seated to Kurenai’s left, looked like he’d followed the trail better, but he still regarded Kurenai with open admiration, and traded a glance with Raidou that said, succinctly, How the hell do we keep up?
Raidou, content with his place in the universe — multiverse? — as someone designed to hit things really hard until they couldn’t hit back, gave an eloquent shrug. Genma’s mouth tilted, and he hauled himself higher out of the water, getting more air on overheated skin. Raidou was starting to feel more than a little broiled himself, and not just because of the view. But the heat was diffuse now, circulated back into his veins instead of concentrated where he didn’t want it, so he felt safe in standing up to sit on the edge of the pool. The steamy air was a welcome shiver against his skin.
Genma tipped his head back in thought. “The thing that worries me more is whether the tanuki who raid the garbage dump outside Konoha are as magical as these tanuki. Where does our reality end and the other reality take over?”
Pakkun made that snorting sound again. “If they’re raiding garbage, that’s probably a good clue. Not all foxes are the Kyuubi, kid.”
“Thank all the mercies of heaven for that,” Genma said, making a fleeting warding sign.
“How many of those mythical creatures are actually real, and can cross dimensions?” Kurenai asked. “Or do they exist in our world to begin with, like the Tailed Beasts?”
“Do I look like an encyclopedia to you?” Pakkun said grumpily. “Tailed Beasts one through nine are real; I don’t know where they came from. Kappa are real. Tengu are real. Tanuki are — unfortunately — real. Demons are real. Hungry ghosts are probably a human myth. If actual god gods are real, someone needs to kick ‘em in the eye.”
Genma looked over sardonically. “After what happened today, I’m not kicking any gods anywhere.”
Kurenai smiled, an expression balanced delicately between fond and resigned. “I give you a year at most before you get to put that to the test.”
Raidou almost made a warding sign himself. “So, monsters yes, demons yes, gods maybe, but ghosts is a step too far?”
“Probably, I said.” Pakkun extended his front paws for Kurenai to rub. “If you want to jump down a well at midnight and try to feed yourself to something footless and angry, be my guest.” |
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