Chapter Text
The Sea of Fragments
The eternal witch known as Frederica Bernkastel had already attended St Lucia in a previous Fragment. So it wasn’t long before she tired of navigating the dull rules and fawning students again and took her leave of the final Rika.
It had taken significantly longer (but who was counting, in this infinite world between worlds?) to track down Hanyuu and get a satisfying explanation for what had just happened.
But even then, something didn’t quite sit right with Bernkastel. Granted, she was rather paranoid. Spending most of one’s existence getting repeatedly killed by one’s closest friends did that to a girl. So when Hanyuu assured her that this “Eua” entity wouldn’t meddle further, she insisted on inspecting the evidence with her own eyes.
Unfortunately, even after scouring the depths of the Sea, the most she turned up were the traces of the divine battle.
(At least, she assumed that’s what the wreckage of furniture bits and rubble was. The debris floating around the area sure wasn’t as thick the last time she’d checked.)
But eventually, she did come across the ruins of a plush, gaudy bed. The frame was askew and the edges of the pink sheets were torn, but it was still intact enough that the translucent curtains could be and were drawn. Not only that, but behind them, a dark silhouette was hunched over. Almost like she knew someone would be looking for her, and so was cowering away in her hiding spot.
A cruel smirk twitched at the corners of the witch’s mouth. She’d found her prey. Finally .
She still had many, many questions to ask, after all. Questions like “which three fingernails would you like to keep?” And also “would you like to watch my ritual dance again? From the point of view of the futon?”
Hopefully, the goddess’s throat wouldn’t give out from screaming before Bernkastel was finished playing with her. Otherwise she might not actually get answers to her more prosaic questions regarding the goddess’s relationship with Hanyuu.
Anyway.
“So, we finally meet in person, Eu-” Bernkastel. ripped the curtain aside with vicious glee. “-huh?”
Instead of a tiny but smug goddess, the girl huddled on top of the bed was blonde. And curled up in a cozy orange hoodie.
Bernkastel’s sneer dropped to a confused scowl at the sight of her friend. “What are you doing moping around here? Didn’t you say you were going to chase after me?” Ugh. Now they’d have to start the chase all over.
Satoko didn’t reply, so Bernkastel tilted her head and watched her for a while.
…She still didn’t understand the “why,” but “what” the other witch was doing was fairly obvious. She was rubbing her eyes and trying to kludge together a handful of broken Fragments. Even though they obviously didn’t fit together. Indeed, some of the pieces didn’t even look like they were from this sector of the Sea at all.
And she was doing a pretty poor job of it too, Bernkastel thought, given that she’d resorted to holding the mismatched ensemble together with literal band-aids and scotch tape.
Typical. That girl couldn’t even be trusted to clean up her own mess without help.
Bernkastel kicked off her shoes, tossed her St Lucia jacket on a splintered post of the bed frame, and pounced onto the bed.
“Satoko!”
No response. Hm.
She pitched her voice back up to Rika’s cheerful tone. “Satoko~?”
Still no response.
Tch. Bernkastel disliked many things, and being ignored ranked quite highly on the list.
What was so absorbing about a random Fragment anyway? She stealthily came up behind Satoko as the witch was delicately attempting to insert a shard into place. There she waited, then butted her head into her friend’s shoulder at the most aggravating moment possible.
Crack! Crystal ground against crystal, and the small piece shattered in the other witch’s hands.
“ Satoko ,” Bernkastel repeated in her coldest voice.
“Wha-“ Her friend looked up from the Fragment, eyes wide with... surprise? ...Guilt? But when she saw who her visitor was, she pasted a grin back on her face and sniffed arrogantly. “Ohohoho~! Don’t bother calling me by that name anymore! I already gave it back to its true owner!”
Yet even before she was finished talking, the energy was fading from her voice. Her expression, too, had gone back to the blank, listless one she had been wearing before.
Bernkastel gathered some cushions around herself. “Then what am I supposed to call you now?”
“I don’t know.” The witch formerly known as Satoko shrugged apathetically. “I guess I’ll have to think of something for the next time we meet.”
“It better be something I can pronounce. Since I’ll likely be shouting it at you eventually.”
“You’re one to talk, Rika.” The nameless witch glanced to the side at her, then down again. “Or rather, it’s Ms. Fancy Foreign Name here, isn’t it?”
“…Bern.” She let out a long-suffering sigh. “Just Bern is fine if you can’t say the rest of it.”
“Oh?” A wan smile briefly lit her friend’s face. “How about Fred-Fred? Or Cassie? Or Eri-mmph!”
The two tumbled around on the bed as Bernkastel attempted to suffocate her friend with a pillow.
“ Alternatively , I’m going to retrieve the Onigari no Ryuuou just so I can cut your tongue out. That would solve the problem quite elegantly.”
The nameless witch giggled and smiled a bit more genuinely at that. And Bernkastel put down the pillow. For now.
“Okay, Bern .” Her friend rolled the name around her tongue. “Sure. It’s cute enough. I like it.”
“Good.” Bernkastel gently lifted the other witch’s chin. “Now, what can you possibly be looking at that’s more interesting than me?”
“Oh, this?” The nameless witch dismissively tossed the Fragment cluster up and over her shoulder. “Catch.”
Bernkastel reached out, and the Franken-Fragment halted in it’s arc, then drifted toward her palm in a lazy spiral. Once she held it in her hands, she twisted it back and forth in examination.
...It really was a pitiful mess. Entire facets were chipped and dull, or had other bits of crystal haphazardly jammed into the cracks. There were patches of gummy residue where her friend had clearly peeled off a band-aid when she’d changed her mind about what she was doing. And the whole thing smelled cloyingly sweet, like she’d thought dipping it in liquid cotton candy would somehow improve the situation.
As for the shifting scenes inside…
“...I don’t remember this. One of yours?”
“My first loop. Sort of. I changed some details in between the lines.” The nameless witch clenched at the sheet by her sides. “Screwed it up worse now, probably.”
“Why?”
“I just…” She let go of the sheet to hug her knees. “I just wanted to look at some happy Fragments. After. You know.”
“Heartlessly murdering all our friends?”
“Yeah.” She buried her head down.
“You going to try to fix all those Fragments too?”
“Maybe.” she muttered into her knees. “If I can find them.”
“Have fun with that.”
“Aw , thanks .”
“I was being serious.” Bernkastel raised an eyebrow. “It’s none of my business if you want to while away eternity with futile projects. No matter how many you fix, I can bring you another hundred more where they die horribly. ”
“Hypocrite. You still did the same thing for Takano.”
“Not exactly.” She’d watched that too? Interesting. “Regardless, it’s not like the humans will ever thank you.”
“I’m not doing it for them, I’m doing it for me .”
“If you say so.” Bernkastel languidly stretched out over the pillows. “So what about the worlds where you offed yourself in front of me and left me traumatized for life?”
“Hmph! Those ones you’ll just have to deal with.” The witch that was once Satoko turned away and pouted, just like she did when she was human. “Look, even if I was being a total idiot, I’m still mad that I lost, alright?”
“…I took a peek at a few of those, actually.” Bernkastel stared up at the shredded canopy above. “I don’t even go to St Lucia in them. Seems I can’t bear to leave Hinamizawa when my memories there are all I have left of you.”
“Figures.” There it was again. The bitter edge to her friend’s voice was new. That, and she’d toned down her usual haughty mannerisms. “The only times I win is if I can’t stick around to enjoy it.”
“Isn’t it fun, being a witch?”
“Didn’t I tell you? It’s great . I keep finding more and more things to love about it.”
But it sounded a lot more sarcastic this time. Perhaps her power high really was wearing off, now that she’d been left with only her thoughts for company.
...She really did get lonely easily...
“Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it.” If she hadn’t already done so in the past, Bernkastel pondered. Or the future?
Hanyuu had said some rather disconcerting things about the origins of her friend’s… consciousness? Bernkastel didn’t really get it, but that was just par for the course with her goddess sometimes. It would just give her a headache if she thought about it too much.
“…So? What did you think?” the other witch asked with feigned carelessness.
“Of the Fragment?” Bernkastel pretended not to understand. “It’s a true miracle. You managed to produce something that would even have failed Chie’s Arts and Crafts day.”
The nameless witch gave her a withering glare.
“Oh, was I supposed to watch the whole thing?”
Her friend lost her nerve and reached forward to take the Fragment back. “N-nevermind.”
“Too late.” Bernkastel batted aside the grasping hand and and teasingly held the Fragment out of reach. “You gave it away, so it’s mine now.”
“H-hey! Give it back! I’m still working on it!” Even as a witch, the girl was still incredibly cute when she was flustered.
“You can have it back when I’m done.” Bernkastel held the Fragment to her chest and pushed her friend’s head back as she impotently flailed her arms. “I’m curious now.”
“Fiiiine.” The other witch gave up and flopped down onto her stomach. “But don’t expect too much, okay? Unlike you, I’m no poetic genius.”
“Mmhm.” Bernkastel had already settled further into the mass of blankets and was busy conjuring the sensation of a glass of her favorite wine.
“In fact, it’s certainly going to be rea~lly stupid, just like me! So don’t say I didn’t warn you!”
But her warning fell on deaf ears as Bernkastel took a sip of wine and lost herself within the glittering depths of the Fragment...