Magical Lotus - Mahou Shoujou Byakuren - Episode 3, Part 4

[Oldmansour]

>"From where I am standing, it certainly does not feel as though my world has been taken over by anyone, yet to you, this fact is instinctive knowledge? I find that disconnect curious. Is there anything at all else about them you might know? If they were indeed responsible for trapping your kind in such a hateful realm, then I would greatly wish to learn whatever I can."

>"Hmm..." Louise places one finger under her chin as she thinks. "As I said before, there was a time when we Children and our Mother lived on your world. And so too did the Celestials. We fought each other, and they won. I don't know any intimate details of that conflict, this was so long before I was born."
>"Another Forest thing?" Lily asks with a faint smile.
>"For certain. She was there."

[DracoOmega]

>"I don't suppose you could estimate how many years ago this was? Perhaps I might be able to find something in our own records that stretches back that far, if I knew where to look."

[Oldmansour]

>"I don't suppose you could estimate how many years ago this was? Perhaps I might be able to find something in our own records that stretches back that far, if I knew where to look."

>"We Children have no way to tell. We don't measure years the way you mortals do. We don't measure years at all. I'm not sure even Forest could put a number to that time."

[DracoOmega]

>Sigh a little
>"Unfortunate."
>"Do you at least know why your two kinds fought initially?"

[Oldmansour]

>Sigh a little
>"Unfortunate."
>"Do you at least know why your two kinds fought initially?"

>"Because we are the Children, and they are the Celestials."

[DracoOmega]

>"Perhaps that explanation makes sense to you, so forgive me if I am being ignorant, but why should war between your two kinds have been some kind of cosmic inevitability? Any more than war between our two kinds, or war between any two nations of my world?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Perhaps that explanation makes sense to you, so forgive me if I am being ignorant, but why should war between your two kinds have been some kind of cosmic inevitability? Any more than war between our two kinds, or war between any two nations of my world?"

>"This is likely one of those things that is natural to us but incomprehensible to you. Remember, Terran, our species may look the same, but there are points in which we are fundamentally different."

[DracoOmega]

>"I acknowledge this, but nonetheless I would like to try to understand. I understand that they have wronged you, and that you may wish reprisal upon them for this or other injuries of the past. But before any of this occurred, before your exile, before the war which led to it... at some point in the ancient past, your kinds met for the first time. There was no history, no misdeeds, no hurts to redress. Why, even then, should you be mortal enemies?"

[Oldmansour]

>"I acknowledge this, but nonetheless I would like to try to understand. I understand that they have wronged you, and that you may wish reprisal upon them for this or other injuries of the past. But before any of this occurred, before your exile, before the war which led to it... at some point in the ancient past, your kinds met for the first time. There was no history, no misdeeds, no hurts to redress. Why, even then, should you be mortal enemies?"

>"Because we exist." the Water Champion answers simply. "For us, that is all that matters."

[DracoOmega]

>"You said that you do not like death which serves no purpose. Why should theirs have been different? In times before any transgression done to your kind, what purpose would their deaths have served to anyone?"

[Oldmansour]

>"You said that you do not like death which serves no purpose. Why should theirs have been different? In times before any transgression done to your kind, what purpose would their deaths have served to anyone?"

>"There would have been less of them to fight us." Louise answers. "If there ever was such a time, of course. And that's impossible to imagine."

[DracoOmega]

>"All histories must have some beginning, no?"

>"There was a long time my own kind's history where humans and youkai were considered natural enemies. They preyed upon my kind and ate them. My kind fought and sealed them. I imagine most assumed that this was just the way of things, and indeed it was the way of things for a long time. I do not know how it started, and perhaps here it does not even matter. Certainly, if one were to ask an ancient human what purpose there was to sealing youkai, I would expect a blank stare in response, as though it were a topic which needed no explanation. But now?"
>Look to our two companions
>"We are partners and allies, friends and family. Not matter how natural and inevitable the conflict between our races must once have seemed, it was not so. It was a long and often hard road to reach this point and many suffered on both sides, but it was a path which always existed, simply waiting for someone to search for it."

[Oldmansour]

>"All histories must have some beginning, no?"

>"There was a long time my own kind's history where humans and youkai were considered natural enemies. They preyed upon my kind and ate them. My kind fought and sealed them. I imagine most assumed that this was just the way of things, and indeed it was the way of things for a long time. I do not know how it started, and perhaps here it does not even matter. Certainly, if one were to ask an ancient human what purpose there was to sealing youkai, I would expect a blank stare in response, as though it were a topic which needed no explanation. But now?"
>Look to our two companions
>"We are partners and allies, friends and family. Not matter how natural and inevitable the conflict between our races must once have seemed, it was not so. It was a long and often hard road to reach this point and many suffered on both sides, but it was a path which always existed, simply waiting for someone to search for it."

>"And we like it better dis way, too." White Rose adds. "Both sides, human and non. Don't get us wrong, it ain't all peaches and cream. But the dark days are over now. If dat weren't true, I wouldn't be standin' here."
>"None of us world." Lily finishes with a smile.

>"And you acheived this level of... cohabitation through your own choices, yes, Terrans?" Louise asks. "At some point in your history, someone said, 'I want things to be different,' and eventually, so they came?"

[DracoOmega]

>"As I said, it took many years and much struggle, but yes - ultimately it stems from this, and from the realization that some of the truths we take for granted might not intrinsically be so."

[Oldmansour]

>"As I said, it took many years and much struggle, but yes - ultimately it stems from this, and from the realization that some of the truths we take for granted might not intrinsically be so."

>"That is a trait your race and mine do not share. You Terrans change what you are every day. We do not."

[DracoOmega]

>"But you still make choices, no? You have chosen to speak with me now, when you had the power to choose otherwise. You have chosen to share things and to keep other things private. You chose to create those water creatures, because you wished to experiment. You chose to offer your power to some humans and not to others. Am I wrong in this?"

[Oldmansour]

>"But you still make choices, no? You have chosen to speak with me now, when you had the power to choose otherwise. You have chosen to share things and to keep other things private. You chose to create those water creatures, because you wished to experiment. You chose to offer your power to some humans and not to others. Am I wrong in this?"

>"Are there not things about you that you have no choice in doing? You must breathe, you must consume food, you must seek mates. Just as for you, there are aspects of ourselves that we cannot change."

[DracoOmega]

>"We can choose not to consume food if we wish, though understandably few do and we would eventually die if we did not choose otherwise. But the choice remains. There are also those who do not seek mates, though the survival of the species on the whole depends upon some doing so. It is possible to refuse to breathe until one loses consciousness, and the sad fact is that many have prevented themselves from doing so even after, by their own choice and no one else's. It is true that without food or air, we will die, and without procreation, so will humanity. If you mean to say that your drive to warring with the Celestials is the same these, does that mean that you will die if you do not? And not because they will kill you for your neutrality, but because of some fact of your own physiology?"

[Oldmansour]

>"We can choose not to consume food if we wish, though understandably few do and we would eventually die if we did not choose otherwise. But the choice remains. There are also those who do not seek mates, though the survival of the species on the whole depends upon some doing so. It is possible to refuse to breathe until one loses consciousness, and the sad fact is that many have prevented themselves from doing so even after, by their own choice and no one else's. It is true that without food or air, we will die, and without procreation, so will humanity. If you mean to say that your drive to warring with the Celestials is the same these, does that mean that you will die if you do not? And not because they will kill you for your neutrality, but because of some fact of your own physiology?"

>The demon turns her face towards you. "Why are you questioning this so much?" she demands, sounding somewhere between bored and annoyed.

[DracoOmega]

>"Both because I truly do wish to understand your nature as best I can, rather than accept that I might never understand. And also, I guess, because I would hope to see a world where beings of all kinds are able to coexist rather than fight with each other. I do not think it can be wrong to wish for such a thing, but I apologize if I am bothering you by arguing this; I do not mean to press, but merely to explore."

[Oldmansour]

>"Both because I truly do wish to understand your nature as best I can, rather than accept that I might never understand. And also, I guess, because I would hope to see a world where beings of all kinds are able to coexist rather than fight with each other. I do not think it can be wrong to wish for such a thing, but I apologize if I am bothering you by arguing this; I do not mean to press, but merely to explore."

>"Do you question your own nature as much?"

[DracoOmega]

>"Sometimes. It is a central teaching of Buddhism to question those things you might otherwise take for granted, for there are often surprising truths to be found there. Much, even about ourselves, is not as we assume it to be without examination. Strange times such as these may call for this even moreso, as we each meet with others whose views are different from our own. Even our own conversations have led me to ponder many things I had not before done."

[Oldmansour]

>"Sometimes. It is a central teaching of Buddhism to question those things you might otherwise take for granted, for there are often surprising truths to be found there. Much, even about ourselves, is not as we assume it to be without examination. Strange times such as these may call for this even moreso, as we each meet with others whose views are different from our own. Even our own conversations have led me to ponder many things I had not before done."

>"If you spend so much time pondering, I'm forced to wonder how you managed to fight me as well as you did."
>"There's a time for thinking, Louise." Lily replies. "And there's a time for doing."

[DracoOmega]

>"Indeed. I did not mean to suggest one must question everything all of the time. But in quiet moments, there can be great value in taking one's own assumptions and reflecting upon them."

[Oldmansour]

>"Indeed. I did not mean to suggest one must question everything all of the time. But in quiet moments, there can be great value in taking one's own assumptions and reflecting upon them."

>"'Quiet moments.'" the demon says with a choked chuckle. "There's something else my kind can't imagine. Quiet is not peace on Makai. There is no peace on Makai."

[DracoOmega]

>"There is peace here. Perhaps that may be small comfort from where you're standing at the moment, but this place will not assail you as that one did."

[Oldmansour]

>"There is peace here. Perhaps that may be small comfort from where you're standing at the moment, but this place will not assail you as that one did."

>"Not yet, perhaps."

[DracoOmega]

>"Do you expect this will change?"

[Oldmansour]

>"Do you expect this will change?"

>The Water demon kneels down by the water. "I don't know. I haven't been able to completely analyze this cell of mine, but I know this much. That priestess is now one of your followers, and we both know she would see me dead. And she was one of the architects of this little world. So she, just as you, have the power to destroy it, just as you created it. You, I know, will not. You have made that clear both here and after our battle. And you, winged one, will also not destroy this cell." she adds, making Lily's wings flutter as she is addressed directly. "Your repulsion to the idea of killing me was clear."
>"And it still is, believe me." Lily assures her.
>"So the question then becomes, is your influence over the priestess strong enough to keep her from crushing this world with me in it? And that, I do not know."

>Can you really do that? Rin asks on a mental thread. Break this bubble here, I mean.

[DracoOmega]

>Do we think that we could, should we choose to?
>Do we think that Kiku could, should she choose to?