1 Where The Spider Lilies Bloom ★

Characters

Hozuki Azumi, Shibata Rin, Yoichi, Taira Mamoru, Fujiwara Kenshin, Saito Eiji, Saito Kaede, Ando Hisao, Yamato, Kurosawa Hiro, Inari Takahara, Ukita Kasumi, Okazaki Tobi, Ueda Kohaku, Hozuki Ryuuta, Oda Masaharu, Akechi Jūbei, Ikoma Reira

Description

Not all stories about fate are fairy tales with happy endings...

Foreword

No matter how many times she blinked or cocked her head in wonder, Azumi was still racked with questions.

Getting straight to the point, the Other Azumi chuckled. “Why are you here?”

“This is my dream.” Without consent, the words that fell from her mouth had a hint of defiance to them.

“Your dream?” It laughed.

It laughed at her - Right at her!

Keeping eye contact, the imposter stroked the underside of its chin as it spoke. “You thinking that makes things easier for me.” Resting its arms behind its head, the mime goose-stepped a few paces in jest before stopping abruptly and slyly side-eying its counterpart. “If you’re in here, I can get out.”

Panicking at the words despite not understanding what they meant, Azumi asked again how she can get out of wherever here was.

Leaning its head back a little with a contemplative expression, it made a humming sound. “Do you really want to go home?” Again, it gave her the same sideward glance through narrowed slits.

Keeping her distance, the ashen woman inspected the surreal surroundings. “Not home, but I want to get out of here.”

Curious about the peculiar phrase of words, a smirk pulled at full lips. The tips of pearlescent fangs glistened as they were revealed by the grin and the imposter quickly scampered for the stranger. “Then let’s make a bet.” Slinging an arm around Azumi, the mimic leaned in towards her neck from behind. Expression retaining both the Cheshire grin and the up-turned cresent curves to its eyes, the fake pointed off into the mist seemingly creeping up on them. “Whoever finds the way out gets to go back to the human world.”

Something told Azumi that smile didn’t belong to someone who was willing to play fair, but she couldn’t help but to give her company’s words some attention. ‘Human world?' The more her mind worked, the worse things seemed to be. Still, she couldn’t stand there all night humming and ahh’ing. Disregarding the fact that she was supposedly in some other world and talking to some non-human-looking version of herself, she had no choice but to humour her her doppleganger. “You probably already know where the exit is and you’re just tricking me.”

Lips shrivelling downwards and brow furrowing in apallment, the copy's hand tightened on her shoulder. “Are you calling me a cheat?”

The real Azumi squirmed under the imposter’s grip and the close proximity of the foreign body trying to encompass her. Before she knew it, she shook her head with a gasp from the air being constricted out of her.

Letting up upon its playtoy surrendering, the mime waved its hand and took a step back. “If I knew, wouldn’t I have just left already?” Slivering its way into the ashen female’s view, the fake posed its question again. “Do we have a deal?”

Rubbing the tops of her arms where she’d been violated, Azumi scowled. “Do I even have a choice?”

Apparently irked by the reply, it rolled its eyes. “We could stay here forever, if that would be more accommodating? Not like you’d last long...” It muttered to itself. Straightening up, the imposter began to walk away. Flicking the platinum locks over its shoulder, the mimic wagged its hand in farewell. “I have all the time in the world, unlike you.”

“Wait...”
 

Authors Note:
Snippets of this story have been lingering in the depths of my hard drive for some time now but I’ve only recently got the motivation and ideas to fill it out with the help from some otome games, a blog post by into_xiah_catedlove about reverse harems and our conversation about disgracefully useless female leads.
I’m sure there are plenty of us girls who wouldn’t mind being surrounded by good looking, intelligent guys that like to pay us attention, but that would be all too easy, thus making it highly improbable that such a thing as a reverse harem would ever happen to us in real life. Unless of course you’re really rich and these guys are just after your money.
So, I have several male characters down that encompass the common basics for ‘lover material’ without making them so annoyingly stereotypical. I’m sure you’ll all find one to follow - Not stalk - follow their story; I don’t want you getting arrested. (Tasha is getting off track - You can’t get arrested for stalking a fictional character, Uh, you can’t even stalk them to begin with. Too bad for you…That they’re fictional, I mean.)
Anyway, enough of the bordering insane babble. Enjoy the adventures of Hozuki Azumi, her harem of painfully attractive men, annoying life ruiners and the not so polite body invading.
First chapter is dedicated to important stuff such as foreign words, mini descriptions of characters, relevant historical facts, etc - Like an encyclopedia - which will be updated and added to with each new chapter. So, for any new readers, skip over the first chapter until you’ve read the story - You don’t want to run into spoilers.
All written characters belong to me. This is not a fanfiction, but an original piece of work.