She'd had her fun little adventure with Lenka, and it had inspired her, sure, but she hadn't come down immediately--and in those couple of weeks since, she'd certainly. Well. Had some s**t happen to her, to say the very least.
Her cheek and jaw still ached, even if they were starting to heal from that punch the Corrupt had given her. And she couldn't even really be upset about it; she'd caused the whole problem, ultimately, by charging into a fight--and for what? A couple of starseeds belonging to total strangers whose bodies she probably wouldn't even be able to locate, because she had no idea when or where that Senshi had pulled them--and in the end, the whole thing had been a total farce. She'd tried to be big and scary. She'd thought she would be able to handle herself. And she had been entirely ******** wrong. Sure, sometimes her magic worked--she'd sent that little Page running, after all. And she'd had a few other encounters where she'd come uot more or less on top. But that was the thing, wasn't it? Every time she came out on top, it felt like luck--and every time she stumbled, that felt like her own (lack of) skill.
Ugh, she knew she was marinating, but she couldn't help it. Thinking about how much her face hurt would inevitably bring her around to the reason it hurt, and she hated thinking about that, but--maybe it was important. Maybe she needed to really take in and understand what an idiot she was, getting into fights she couldn't win.
Because oh, she really was incredibly stupid about that.
Really, what had she reasonably expected. What had she thought her magic would do. What had she really thought she could do, against someone who was so casual about human life as to juggle starseeds in public, where anyone could see her.
The ultimate point: Asuka was a ******** idiot, and she had suffered her due comeuppance for being such, if you asked her. Honestly, she was lucky it hadn't been worse. Bruises would fade without too much extra drama, but if that Senshi had hit any harder...
And worse, what if she reported back to her superiors? What if Asuka had accidentally caused an Incident? If she was honest, she'd been waiting on tenterhooks for some kind of Repercussions, which--honestly, it was inexcusable that she hadn't considered the possibility of Repercussions beforehand. The Mirror and the Negaverse were supposed to be in a detente, not causing problems for each other, and she'd gone and caused problems on purpose.
Maybe the other Senshi had decided that humiliating her for her audacity was enough punishment and hadn't reported it. Maybe she was assuming too much about whatever reporting systems the Negaverse had, anyway. Maybe the other Senshi had totally written it off since she had more than thoroughly won in the end. After all, Asuka wasn't exactly running off to tell Remarque hat had happened (because what had happened was agonizingly embarrassing, but still.)
Anyway. Absolutely none of that was the point. The point was that she had a whole open field, and all the time in the world to build it. And she wanted to build. Lenka had made her start thinking about it, and she couldn't get it out of her head. All of that open, empty possibility--maybe some would see nothingness there, but Asuka saw a blank canvas, just waiting for her to make something of it.
She wasn't like Lenka. She didn't know anything about her homeworld, and honestly, when she imagined what kind of world might have made for a Senshi of Onryo, she wasn't sure she liked what she pictured. Dark forests with leafless trees looming over winding paths that were all too easy to lose--and dangerous to step off. Crumbling old wooden buildings, rotted away by time. An ancient shrine that was falling apart. A massive, rotten manor house full of secrets. Strange, creepy people, probably super isolated, probably practicing weird blood rituals that defiled sacred places with death. And the whole thing covered by a blanket of persistent fog for that full PS1 "our draw distance is shitty but we want to make the place look bigger and creepier" vibe.
Very typical j-horror, sure, but what else was she supposed to associate her sphere with, if not Ringu and Ju-On and Fatal Frame? Maybe with just a little Siren for good measure? The point was: she did not imagine her planet was pleasant. Fun, maybe, if she was the only one there and got to poke around to her heart's content, but realistically nothing she should be thinking about too much. She couldn't get there. She would never be able to. So she would just....have to make something brand new, rather than relying on a dead world for her blueprint.
And honestly, that felt a little liberating. She wasn't trying to recreate something, so she couldn't possibly screw it up. She got to make whatever she wanted to make, and no one could tell her it wasn't "right" for her. Or, well, they culd, but if they tried, they wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
She tapped her foot against her cute little rock pile, and considered. She could probably just build next to that--and so she reached into her subspace and produced three shining crystals. One red and warm, one pale blue and watery, and one gray and somehow weighty. She'd thought of it with Lenka, and the thought had stuck in her head--a hot spring, warm water for her to sink into after a long day of Senshi work. Exactly the type of thing that dreams were made of, honestly.
She'd only done this once before, but Asuka was ready. The process wasn't even really that complicated; probably those silly Order Senshi didn't have anything near as cool as this. Their worlds were what they were, millennia of history bearing down. And they just had to deal with that, and the likelihood that it was all in neglected ruins, and all the rest of the mess that came with inheriting some weird space rock that no one had lived on or touched for a thousand years. Like, if they had some wintery hellscape planet--they just had to deal with that.
And Asuka got to make her own hot springs.
Checkmate, White Moon, she thought, and immediately felt silly for thinking it. She shook her head, held out her hand, and crushed the crystals together.
The effect was instant, and it made Asuka gasp.
A lovely raised hot spring, the size of a backyard hot tub, with pretty rock walls around it. She could see the steam rising from the clear water, and it overflowed its side, draining into a small pool below. The whole thing was perhaps waist high, the perfect height for Asuka to heave herself into it, and oh, she sort of wanted to immediately.
The little pool below, too, was pretty--and it gave her an idea. She'd seen things like it online--raised hot tubs flowing into gorgeous backyard pools, all decorated with stone and made to look natural, like a pretty little waterfall. Like what she was looking at in front of her. So, she produced two more crystals--one blue and one gray--and crushed them together directly over that little lower pool.
To her delight, it worked; the pool expanded, making for a lovely little lower lake. Somewhere to relax in water that--she kicked off her shoes and dipped her stockinged toe in--was definitely not hot like the steaming spring above. Pleasantly warm, certainly, but the kind of enjoyable warm of a sun-warmed backyard pool.
Asuka stared at it, and after a moment of consideration, she grinned. She kicked off her other shoe and peeled off her socks, and then hauled herself into the pool, sinking into the water. Yeah, okay, her fuku would be soaked, but she hadn't exactly come with a bathing suit or anything, so she'd just have to deal. This, though? This was a perfect little oasis, an escape from the hot summer of the real world outside the mirror. Somewhere she would be able to retreat and relax.
She got it now, why rich people spent so much money on stupid stuff like this. And she wanted more. She'd have to gather more crystals--maybe some more rocks, or some greenery, maybe another little water feature. But she was going to make this place her own personal oasis. And she had so, so much space to do it in.
Oh, this was going to be so much fun--and someday, it would be nice enough that she could even show her friends. Something for all of them to enjoy.
[wc: 1520 words]
