Interlude: The White Rabbit (3)

The young, white-haired girl with the red irises, sat on the roof of the shrine on Mt.Ochiru’s peak, gazing up at the moon. Her feet were swinging back and forth as she quietly watched her home’s journey across the night sky.

Her distraction at the matsuri hadn’t been planned, yet that didn’t mean her mission was a complete failure. She had merely seen the deviation before. Multiple times, in that mysterious orb found in the princess’ treasury.

Just like she had seen several deviations. Other branches.

What else could she do, as the sole person left up on the moon? There were only so many times that she could wander through the ruins of the city or pick flowers in the surrounding fields. She had spent many years going through the ethereal items in Kagura’s repository, entertaining herself.

That was how she found a way to talk to Kagura.

That was how she found out that the moon, her home, was going to fall.

Thus, she took to that glowing orb. Watching the future for the princess… and herself. Looking for some way to stop it. She must’ve spent hundreds of years watching every potential branch, every variation, every divergence, desperately trying to find a way to prevent the crash.

An innumerable amount of visions ended in catastrophe, each time the calamity feeling like an inevitability, but still, she watched.

And she watched.

And she watched.

The princess’ worries, Kagura’s guilt, slowly became her own.

On the cycles where the calamity came quick, she had tossed the orb away, in frustration. In exasperation. In anger.

Anger, at her own inaction.

It was either that or become numb to it.

And the little rabbit refused to do that.

She took those days to search through the treasury to find something, anything that could be of help. A scepter for moving stone showed promise but the moon was too large to be affected. Teleportation items were worthless as the sheer scale of the calamity meant there were few places people could safely go.

She would watch the branches of the future when the treasury's lack of assistance frustrated her; she would dig through the myriad of tools and aids when the calamity struck too often.

It was a vicious cycle, infrequently interrupted by conversations with Kagura. Those always made the rabbit work harder.

Watch more.

Search more.

Until, she finally saw that old man from Yuilen. He started appearing multiple times and the calamity came much later.

Or, not at all.

She feverishly watched every branch, looking for the right one. The ones that had the least amount of suffering.

The ones where the moon never fell.

He didn’t succeed in all of them. He failed earlier in some, later in others.

Yet, he gave the most deviations. The most branches.

The most chances.

She kept watching. Eager to find just one path where he succeeded. One path where the moon stayed in the sky.

One path to happiness.

As she watched, the rabbit started to notice a pattern.

There were others. Others who appeared with the old man and in those branches, the calamity came later. The chances to stop it came.

So, the rabbit began to feel hope.

She kept watching, kept searching, kept following the branches of those who surrounded the old man and then she found her.

Kaede.

With every divergent path that the young oiran appeared in, the moon fell later.

If at all…

Reinvigorated by this, the rabbit watched.

And the rabbit searched.

Then, the rabbit began to share her findings with Kagura.

Once Kagura heard of the great hope that the old man (and young girl) seemed to beckon, she pointed the rabbit to the proper tools.

“A master only becomes one once they have the proper tools.” Kagura had said.

There was an ornamental dagger of flames; a piece of glass from a lens that could reveal the unseen; a ring which allowed the wearer to temporarily mature; a veil that could change one’s voice; and, an ancient flute that could only be played under very specific circumstances.

They were all things the rabbit had already found and yet, individually, they didn’t seem helpful.

Only when she listened to the princess did she start to understand.

Only then did she start to plan.

For the rabbit, having seen countless branches, and further branches off those, continued watching the futures of the old man and those of the young guard, and, of course, those of Kaede. Failure often continued to show up, but, incredibly, success did as well.

So the rabbit broke the rules. She searched for her own future, beyond the treasury and the moon, to see if there was any path that could help those three succeed. To help the princess. To help her hope…

And then, when the rabbit saw Kaede at the matsuri, she gave hope a helping hand…