Kirumi Tojo's Palace | The Ultimate Maid's Failures

[kandata]

By now everyone may be used to find themselves in bizarre locations, between going into palaces and visiting Nekyia. It might not come as a surprise that it has happened again.

What might come as a surprise, though...is how empty this place is.

All around you there's nothing more than a large, gray, featureless expanse. In the distance there seem to be bars, curving upwards to gather so, so high above you, possibly hundreds of miles above, so high it’s hard to distinguish.

It’s a cage. So unfathomably large. You could escape, were you to get to the edges of the cage, but...it would take forever. No matter how you look at it, you're trapped. The atmosphere is so...hopeless. Devoid of anything even remotely positive.

Not that you want to hang around for long, do you? After all, this is someone's palace. Not a place to stick around at. What to do, though?

It’s all so...empty. Silent. Featureless. A flat expanse of hard gray tiles.

Gather together, everyone. Gather and choose a direction. North, East, West, South. All directions look completely identical, but could it affect your time in this place, somehow? Probably not. But all treks start with the first step. Perhaps, if you get moving, you'll progress?

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[kandata]

[Oh, that's such a poignant answer! And Kirumi's voice seems tinged with sympathy for it, even though it's just her disembodied voice]

...in my opinion, you recognizing such flaws means you already are not a coward anymore. What made you want to change with such fervor?

[Will you answer honestly, Shalem?]

cw: death (but not suicide) ideation, violent thoughts

[prozaic]

Want? No, no. [He brushes his hair out of his face.] I did not want to change, nor did I want to examine myself further. I simply believed I could be content to live my life in that office, only occasionally going out to the field for an outreach or a mission, and then passing away quietly, my body taken care of by the company as per regulations. I controlled myself so rigidly, avoiding everything that caught my interest, worrying every day and every night about the possibilities.

Was I truly content? No. Every time I went on a mission, I always felt the adrenaline and missed that feeling, because that truly felt like being alive, and not the quiet, idle life I'd been living. [Then, sharply, angry at himself:] But one would not have pried such an answer out of me, no matter what they did.

What did I fear? Myself. What I could do, what I truly enjoyed, what would truly make me happy. At the time, I just didn't want to be that sort of person, the sort that could look a yawning abyss in its face and find the art in it, the beauty in the macabre. I felt that I was... little more than uncontrollable beast, and not myself, in those moments that I did chance a look.

Then Atem gave me a penalty game, my greatest fear in front of me. I was forced to reconcile with myself-- in violent fashion, even if no blood had been shed. But now, I'm truly content. I am myself. I am no beast.

I am no longer my worst fear.

[Everything here is honest.]

[kandata]

...you have come a long way. Most would sooner give up than face themselves. That you could, and ended up as someone who doesn't fear himself anymore, is remarkable.

[Kirumi seems to have liked that response! Self-actualization, hell yeah.

From the dumbwaiter comes the sound of something arriving. It's a note, black letters on white paper. The handwriting isn't Kirumi's, but it's very close to it.

'I hate I have to do all I'm told. It's like all I'm around for is to be...some convenient prop. I'm sick of it.'

There are also two tubes of glue. Nice, strong glue]