Chapter Text
The wind blew gently, rustling the leaves atop the bamboo shoots. Mokou wandered around aimlessly, looking around for any sign of life apart from herself. No humans who’d gotten lost, no rabbits hopping about, nothing.
“Man. Nothing’s really happening here, huh.” Mokou had gotten used to the mundaneness that came with immortality. It didn’t make daily life any less boring, though. Repeating the same things day to day got tiring incredibly fast, though there wasn’t much else she could do. The only thing she looked forward to was her near-daily fights to the death with Kaguya.
It was still a while before she and Kaguya were scheduled to meet that day, so Mokou idly stood around, gazing into the endless forest of bamboo ahead of her.
“Bzzt.” Her handphone vibrated from within her shirt pocket. Thankful for the break from her lack of activity, she took it out, staring at the now-illuminated screen.
sumi: hi mokou!!
sumi: hows the new phone i gave you
Fujiwara_no_Mokou: i haven’t really gotten used to using it yet, but it seems interesting enough
sumi: have you used it for anything outside of texting me yet
Fujiwara_no_Mokou: only for searching up this “anime” thing sanae told me about the other day
Fujiwara_no_Mokou: every time i drop by moriya shrine sanae always seems to want to talk to me about stuff for some reason
Fujiwara_no_Mokou: maybe she thinks i know outside world stuff because you and i talk a bunch
sumi: based
Fujiwara_no_Mokou: uuuuuh what does “based” mean
sumi: oop sorry i forgot you dont really know slang
Fujiwara_no_Mokou: slang?
sumi: just search it up
sumi: ok bye mokou!!
Mokou had never heard of “slang” before. What exactly did “based” mean? At least she’d figured out how to use search engines by now.
“...Hmm. Might be fun to use some slang, I guess.” Mokou mumbled to herself, scrolling through whichever website she happened to click on. If anything, it’d at least add some variety to her interactions with people.
Eientei wasn’t too far from where she was in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, so it wouldn’t take too long to drop by and get ready to brawl Kaguya to the death. Most of the time, their conflicts were engaged by Mokou taunting Kaguya from outside Eientei.
She didn’t like deviating from the same time daily too much, as being too early might lead Kaguya to think that she was incredibly eager that day to meet Kaguya (which was mostly true, she didn’t have much else to do most of the time), and being too late might keep Kaguya waiting for too long before she moved on to something else (she decided not to question the strange noises coming from within Eientei the few times she was too late).
“Oi, Kaguya! Plan on getting your ass out here any time soon?” Mokou called out, waiting right outside Eientei for her adversary’s arrival.
The shoji that stood between Eientei and Mokou drew open, revealing Kaguya, now peering at Mokou smugly. “You can’t take a single breath without something stupid coming out of that mouth, can you?”
“Your life is worth nothing.” Mokou retaliated, fire materialising in her open palm.
“Can’t you come up with some better pre-fight banter? It’s always the same insults with you.”
“Shut your cringe-ass mouth up, you bingus.”
“...What the hell is a bingus?”
“You fell off a thousand years ago!”
“Did you fall and hit your head much when you were a child? Your stupidity today is beyond me. I’m not going to deal with you like this.”
As Kaguya turned around, preparing to head back to her abode, Mokou held her palm out in front of her.
“Don’t care, Kaguya. バイデンブラスト [BIDEN BLAST]”
She barely had time to react before her body was engulfed in bright red flames. As Kaguya let out a scream expected from someone who had been assaulted by a literal ball of fire, Mokou snickered from behind her.
“Lol. Lmao. Rofl.”
The Human Village was a fair distance away from the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Keine tended to work long hours in the school there, though, so she’d almost always be there no matter what time Mokou dropped by. She had no idea how Keine functioned on so little sleep. Most of the time, she was only human, after all. Mokou herself also had to rest sometimes, and seeing Keine work for so long always baffled her.
“Still awake?” Mokou peeped her head into the school.
A short distance away, Keine sat, busy marking her students’ papers. It was hard to see much, owing to the relative lack of light, but it was still pretty easy to see that she was tired.
“Barely. I honestly feel like I’m seconds away from dozing off, so your presence here is appreciated,” Keine responded, rubbing her eyes.
Mokou walked over to Keine, sitting herself down beside her fatigued companion.
“Ngl, that drip is kinda fire.”
Keine slowly turned to face Mokou, somewhat confused. “What?”
“Come on, I’m just telling you how lit your fit is. What’s wrong with getting rizzed up a little?”
Keine slowly stood up, backing away from Mokou. “Please don’t light anything on fire in the school. I know we’re on good terms but please, don’t treat the school like your own home.”
“Alright, alright, I get it. I guess I’ll go for today.”
Mokou got up, preparing to make her way back to the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. “Sadge.”
She knew full well the confusion she was causing by using slang, and was enjoying every second of it. Anything that differed from the norm nowadays was entertaining, be it a new incident or Kaguya having a completely absurd hairstyle out of nowhere (she always blamed Tewi though Mokou doubted that).
Light.
Slowly, Mokou saw the sun start to rise from the corner of her eye, painting the sky a brilliant shade of orange. Mokou was slightly startled by this.
“Already? Guess Sumi’s going to show up soon,” Mokou mumbled to herself. She could never understand how time felt like it went by so quickly.
“Oh, hey Mokou,” Sumireko appeared out of nowhere, walking up to Mokou casually.
“You’re here early. What is she cooking?”
A silence fell over the two of them, Sumireko momentarily stunned speechless, and Mokou waiting for Sumireko’s response.
“Uhhhhhhhh, what?”
“What’s wrong? You asked me to search up slang, and I’m using slang.”
Sumireko kept a poker face.
ohmyfuckinggodwhathaveidoneiregreteverythingohshitgodpleasehelpmeiamnotreadyforthisconversationwhathastheinternetdonetoher-
“...Have you been going around using slang everywhere?”
“Don’t worry, I don’t think they mind much, trust. For real for real.”
“I am going to kill myself, I swear to god.”
Sumireko turned around, immediately heading back in whatever direction she came from.
“Come back! Dap me up!”
Mokou stuck her hand out, half-hoping that Sumireko would come back.
And as the sun’s light made its presence fully known, Sumireko screamed.