Draken Residence, Mt Kailash, Two Days Before Tanya’s Decennial Birthday

Tanya started her day like she spent all of her days ever since she turned six. She woke up a half hour prior to sunup to the sounds of her mother’s music from the seashell-thing that passed for music technology in her new world.

She immediately sat upright on her bed, folded her legs in the lotus position, and began her daily ritual. She breathed in, and as she did so, she looked deep in herself, at the chest of memories inside her, and, just as she had done countless times prior, loosened the locks.

As it had been the first time she opened Pandora’s Box, she was flooded with countless memories, of events, of places and of people. Unlike the first time when she opened the box and drowned in the veritable flood of memories, instead she stood her ground. She kept her ‘self’ as she saw fantastical memories, of places where the words ‘hell on earth’ would seem lacking in description.

While on the other hand, she also saw sights that would look fit in heaven. Of cities that seemed to go on forever, of mysterious crafts that ran on... rocks? No, they were ‘coal’, which is apparently what happens when a living thing dies in specific conditions and over a long period of time.

Tanya looked deeper within the memories, to glean impressions of the person she had been in that life of horrors and miracles. She was both disappointed and thrilled.

Tanya Von Degurechaff, her self of another place and era, was a woman (girl?) of peace, yet pledged her life to her Fatherland.

Tanya could not look into the memories of Tanya Von Degurechaff, only into the actions she took. That was an experience in itself, for her other self led a life that could be called many things, peaceful was not one of the descriptors that could be used, it was certainly what Tanya Von Degurechaff seemed to wish for from the bottom of her heart.

It was subtle, yet it was clearly visible to those who looked closely at Tanya’s life.

She fought in the war in the hopes of finishing it quickly, ending the suffering as fast as she could think of.

Tanya Von D. Raken saw many sights, heard many sounds, learned many things in her delve down memory lane. Then, she rejected her former self once more. She was Tanya Von Degurechaff no more.

Outside her mind, she slowly breathed out, all of the memories of her previous self flowing out of her mind and back into the box, locked away till further notice. It was a very odd experience. Tanya forgot the sights and sounds, but remembered her impressions of them clear as crystal.

She did not recall the memories, they were like a feverish night’s dream, leaving her a distinct impression and yet she could only recall it as though through a thinly veiled glass. Tanya slowly gathered her breath once more and burst out of her bed with as much energy as she could muster.

She was wearing a simple tunic and a pair of loose trousers of unknown material her mom had given her a few weeks prior. The shirt was whitish silver in color, while the trousers were a simple faded grey, offering her excellent camouflage during her various errands out of the house. She also wore a pair of thick woolen socks and a pair of solid leather-metal hybrid shoes over them.

No matter what she says to her mom, going on errands was one of the best things in her monotonous life she could do without getting punished in one way or another. It broke the monotony of her life.

Speaking of breaking the solemn monotone that was her life, Tanya jumped up from her bed, twisted and landed to its side, and walked to her study table, which had a mess of notes all over it.

Man, arranging my thoughts in a method that would lead to coherence when the impressions of my last self fade is hard, even when I follow Mom’s advice. Maybe especially then.

Tanya shuffled through the mess of papers on her desk, arranging them in some sort of order as she did so, as if coerced by some inane need to remain organized at all times. She sifted through her piles of notes and drivel till her hands stopped at one particular piece of paper, which seemed to contain several paragraphs of words, with several lines being crossed out.

She kept the sheet aside, and continued her work of making her desk look presentable. She was done with seconds.

She stretched her arms high above her head and flexed her body so as to remove any discomforts of sitting down so soon after waking up. She looked at the sheaf of papers in her hand she seemed to change a bit.

She folded the sheaf and put it into the pouch she carried around her neck at all times, which she had received for being a good girl a few years prior, for getting some bear meat for her mom at a time when meat was scarce and free lunches had mysteriously disappeared.

Maybe it had something to do with the weird dream she had the days prior, involving her last two lives and some deep-rooted trauma involving some dude called Arsene? Or maybe it was a city? Tanya was a bit fuzzy on the details. It also was the very first time she had ever sleepwalked in her life. She woke up next to the waterhole she had to go to for her first ever errand.

That had been cool and all (no pun intended) but apparently her mom had decided that she had grown up enough to move all of her stuff to her new home, which would be further up the mountain.

I don’t know what the heck happened when I slept, but mom suddenly decided to teach me meditation and focus techniques, and told me to talk to her when I felt angry. I still believe that she went too far, it was only a sleepwalking session, it wasn’t like I turned into a huge monkey on the night of the full moon and killed my only guardian unknowingly.

Tanya looked out of her window, and saw that the sun had shown itself a bit above the horizon. She took a deep breath, and walked out of her door.

As soon as Tanya walked out of her room, her entire body tensed up, like something dangerous would occur, but nothing did.

Tanya relaxed, both in body and mind upon seeing this, and thought to herself in relief that Oksana was asleep in peace. She walked on her tiptoes down to the ground floor, and walked across the living room, and stopped in front of the sun drawn on the wall, by her mother, when she was a baby.

She pushed the sun, and it slid open, revealing a long hidden path which led to Tanya’s experimental lab. Or, as her mom called it, Tanya’s ‘alone-time room’. The pathway was always behind the sun, regardless of the time of day. It followed some strange magic, made by her mom.

It was a few minutes’ walk to the chamber.

Tanya ran with her full strength, wanting to keep the thoughts in her mind fresh as she reached her training room.

At the end of the seemingly endless pathway, there was a double door with a comically large lock in the middle, effectively locking out anyone without a comically large key matching the lock.

Of course, Tanya was not one of those counted under the measly category of ‘anyone’.

When she had lost consciousness when she was seven, it had apparently been because she had eaten something extremely horrendous in taste, that drove her to run to the nearest source of pure water to ‘purify’ her tongue.

Apparently, the thing she ate was known as a ‘Fruit Of The Devil’, and offered her a random ability in exchange for permanently taking away her ability to swim.

If another person were to see the events that occurred in the tunnel without having any prior knowledge, they would have doubted their sanity.

Tanya ran down the tunnel at her top speed and jammed her right hand down the lock’s keyhole with all of her momentum behind it. She then promptly did a side flip centering around her right hand, completing one rotation and also at the same time unlocking the lock. She also muttered something under her breath that would not be audible to any listener not within a meter of her.

She looked down at her fist and gave a weird smile while flexing her fingers. “I am hitting my chuuni phase? It is about time, but still, was that really needed, me?”

Engrossed in her existential crisis, Tanya pulled out the lock, unlatched the latches and began pushing open the door with practiced movements, like she had done the same thing a thousand times before.

She entered the dark room and closed the doors behind her. Once she closed the doors, a section of the wall next to the door shook and opened inwards. Out came Oksana holding her hands to her chest and seemingly struggling to hold her laughter in.

“My cute, wonderful, ma HEHEHEHEHEHEHE”, Seemingly unable to control herself, she collapsed into a fit of laughter. Once she collected herself, she stood up once more, her hair and clothes an absolute mess due to the wringer she put them through, and coughed into her hand, and considerately restarted her monologue for the readers.

“My cute, wonderful, usually mature daughter had such a side to her, I should really give her more time to herself...”, Suddenly, Oksana stopped smiling and held her hand to her chest. She held up her hand, and in it was a small flame, sputtering, weak, yet clearly nowhere near being put out.

“There is no more time, I taught her all the basic knowledge she needs, and she got the power to live out life as she wishes.”

Upon saying this, Oksana reached out for the door, seemingly wanting to push it, but turned around, a smile once more on her face.

“I do not wish to spoil her surprise, she said she finally got it down to a science. I want to hear her first symphony. It is after all, the birth of a genius, one of the best the world had known.”

She decisively turned around and went back the tunnel she came from, closing the wall behind her, and soon, the dust settled, leaving no trace of her brief excursion.

Behind the door, which had never been fully closed, but had a tiny crack for ventilation, which Tanya had been strongarmed into leaving by her memories, there was a tiny shape leaning against the door.

Tanya had her head against her knees, arms wrapped around them as her face glowed a bright red, seeming so hot from embarrassment that someone could cook an egg on her head.

“MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM, WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Tanya wailed internally as she tussled about, rolling around like a tiny ball.

“Thats it! I am gonna make this the best one he has ever heard! I have been working on it for over 5 months by now, mom said so too! I can do this!”

Tanya’s mind had temporarily regained the real maturity of a real 9 year old due to the extreme emotions she went through in a short time.

“But what was that at the end? Is she gonna finally start teaching me actual sword techniques other than thrust and some swings? YAY!”

Time passed, it was now nearing sunset, Oksana was sitting in the living room on her chair, Tanya was standing on top of the table, with nothing on her hands.

As sunset grew nearer and nearer, Oksana began cheering on Tanya, for her to begin.

Tanya closed her eyes, and took a deep breath in.

“Gakki-Gakki No ORCHESTRA”

Immediately, around her, some lights dimmed, curtains closed, some lights changed and focused solely on her, a veela seemed to have appeared in her arms, various instruments also came in being on her shoulders, but small sized.

Tanya took a deep breath and told her mother, “This song is for you and the entire world, to know that I am not someone who will shy away.”

Tanya thought back to her last life, a life full of overconfidence, zeal, and an ego so large that going against a being as powerful as a god looked like the better option to being like every other mortal.

When I open up the door
Is it evening, or late afternoon?
How I got home’s just a blur and
now my body’s all that’s certain

So, good morning to you all

But I’m lost somewhere in between
the familiar, and unknown
This scenery before me

 

Ever since I was convinced that

it was impossible, I found a way
I’m strong enough to keep on living
I’m embarrassed to admit it

And if I try to forget
What it is I’m meant to do next
All the pain and remorse would
just fill me with regret

Now lift your head up high
With the darkness in your eyes
Once again the light was born
When you looked above and saw it!

Now the world is brightly painted

With colors that I chose for it
But I wonder what the scars I
didn’t choose would even mean
Thinking I’m the only hero
The center of the world I know
But until the end, and without
rest, up on the stage I’ll be
What can I do? I can’t even
pretend that I’m empty...

Hello, hey there, I’m standing right here!
Hello, hey there, I’m standing right here!

What my senses have remembered

is so different from all my memories
Many tears that have
been shed within my arms
While I hold the weight
of my aching heart

I try to understand enough

But still it never changes
If it’s not that, then I can’t
see anything at all!

So take a deeper breath

Keep on living with your strength
When your heart has beat its last
I will fight to drag it back here!

Plugged my ears to hear it faintly

A rainbow colored melody
Inside, there is a feeling
so unbreakable that sings
Try to hide it like a hero
The thing that I have held so close
It scares me that I must
protect it with my everything

When I open up the door
There’s a lie that’s twisted into truth
Now my body’s all that’s sure
Trying to pretend it’s empty
So, good morning, now I know

This ain’t even close to over
I will shout it out aloud -
Hello, hey there, I’m right here!

 

Now open up your eyes

With your strength to realise
And see that everything was born
When you looked around and saw it!

Now the world is brightly painted

With colors that I chose for it
But I wonder what the scars I
didn’t choose would even mean
Thinking I’m the only hero
There’s something I have held so close
It scares me when I think about
how much it’s worth to me

Plugged my ears to hear it faintly
A rainbow colored melody
Inside, there is a feeling
so unbreakable that sings
Screaming loudly as a hero
I stood atop the world I know
But until the end, and without
rest, up on the stage I’ll be
No meaning left, pretending
that I am dead, so…

Hello, hey there, I’m standing right here!
Hello, hey there, I’m standing right here!
Hello, hey there, I’m standing right here!

Hello, Hey there, I’m standing right here!

 

Oksana looked at her daughter with great pride.

She is definitely mine and your daughter, mister ‘sage’. How I wish I could hear her other works. It is her birthday tomorrow, her happiest day of the year and yet...

Oksana got up and hugged her daughter, who was lying on the table with no energy due to using too much of her stamina over a very short time.

Tanya heard a soft voice just as she went to sleep, saying ,”That was one hell of a song Maestro.”

She slept better than she did when she was a kid or when she finished her first errand.

Tanya had expressed all of her feelings and had finally come to terms with Tanya Von Degurechaff as a person. She would turn 10 the next day.

But this would remain the happiest of her memories as a child on Mt. Kailash.