Shousetsu Bang*Bang

by Kagamino Kage (鏡乃　影)
illustrated by quaedam



( Title Image )

The song-weaver sang to fill up the darkness of the Chasm. She sang the old tales of the twilight twins of bygone age, of how they had devoured the sun to blackened stump; how then, mad with the fire inside them, they had fallen upon one another, limb torn from limb, bones crushing, until there was nothing left of either. In their madness, they had forgotten to eat the moon. And so the prophecies had come to naught; the world was not cast into utter darkness as foretold, but lit still by pale, inconstant flame. The sun can be seen but seldom, feeble red of a near-spent ember, no longer giver of light and warmth.

With the sun the old kings fell, and the new queens rose with the moon, ushers of that great age of wild magics and unlikely sciences. ( ... )
 

by Kagamino Kage (鏡乃　影)
illustrated by susieoh



( Title Image )

"Let's go ghost-counting," Jan whispers, close in my ear.

"You know we can't go until evening," I scold him gently. "Father would whip us raw if we left off work."

"But -"

"We'll go just after supper. There'll be time enough left. Be patient."

( ... )

[soundtrack]
 

by Kagamino Kage (鏡乃　影)



( Title Image )

There was a seed deep within the earth, scorched and blackened. It pulsed with life, a deep throbbing he felt through the soles of his feet.

He found his tongue was made of clay and paper, and it was growing soft and dissolving in his mouth. Reaching into his mouth to rid himself of the foul substance, he found a string, sticky with saliva; he pulled at the string, and felt something bulging up his throat. He coughed, and out came a small broken clock, still ticking even though its hands had ceased to move long ago. He kept pulling: out came a beautiful egg, colored in delicate shades of peacock blue and green, a large crack running all the way down its side, oozing out the premature life inside. ( ... )
 

by Kagamino Kage (鏡乃　影)



PART ONE

( ... )
 

by Kagamino Kage (鏡乃　影)



As a child, Robin had thought sunlight was a kind of liquid, and continually tried to catch it in jars to keep. Bafflement led to tears of frustration as the glass failed time after time to contain it.

( ... )
 

by Kagamino Kage (鏡乃　影)
illustrated by tongari


( Dramatis Personae )



Ah, public schooling.

The most marvelous invention of the modern era. A veritable deluge of supple young flesh, of sweet-faced girls with breasts like just-ripened fruits, of lithe young boys strutting about with all the endearing awkwardness of newborn deer. Like fresh peaches just waiting to be plucked, pink-tinged with the ardor and vitality of youth.

( ... )
 

by Kagamino Kage (鏡乃　影)



( title image )

"The fourth one in a week!"

"What d'you suppose'll happen if this one turns it down too?"

"Who knows – nothing, I expect. But I do wish someone would take it. It unnerves me so, the way it just lays there and stares and stares and stares."

The two servants bustle about the cellar, lighting up the lamps in preparation for their master and his guest, looking furtively over their shoulders at the young adolescent boy in the corner. Enshrined in a large cage, he lies naked on the cold stone floor, curled listlessly on his side. His eyes, however, yellow-green and cat-like, follow the two women as they move about the room as a beast might watch its prey. ( ... )
 

by Kagamino Kage (鏡乃　影)



Finally, she was alone.

Kat dragged her feet through the damp leaves as she plodded along the forest trail, huddling deeper into her coat. The temperature was dropping. She was tired and cranky, and there was a suspicious and disappointing lack of magic in Broceliande.

The famous forest of Arthurian legend. Kat had desperately wanted to see it, but her mother and sister were only interested in shopping. It figured. The whole trip to France for the Christmas holidays was their idea – "We can visit your great aunt!" her mother had said. "And it'll be fun! You've never even been to Europe!"

( ... )