/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>45040174
(2/2)
“Oh, a barrier to exclude banned customers huh? Well,” I snap my fingers “now it’s a barrier that permits banned customers you cucumber hair, eye, outfit having-“
As I pass through the barrier, I feel another invisible force grab me, lift me up, and send me flying out the door I had left open, narrowly dodging several passerby and carts, finally smashing the back of my head into a tea house.
Goro stood above me, the men he was talking to quietly scurrying off adjusting hats and pulling scarves over their faces. He waves to the Yamawaro manning the front counter who waves back as she invites the next person in line into the building.
“Hey! Whose side are you on?” I growled.
“Well obviously yours and not Her’s, after all, I’m on the ‘out’-side.” He chuckled.
“Shove it! I’ll show you how it’s really done.” I say, bolting off down the street.
I make my way between shops, over countertops, through smogs of weird smelling smoke, vault over a few buildings, until I finally arrive at the back entrance of the HSE. The one where I had ‘assaulted’ (more like threated) one of the staff into giving me the reversed miko outfit they had decided to throw out.
Just like last time I touch the door, flick my fingers, and flip the door over, putting me inside. ‘Piece of Cake’ I thought, turning around to see the gold eyes of a fox staring me down.
“Seija, you’ve decided to pay us another visit I see.” Ran says humorlessly.
“Yeah. Didn’t see you at the front counter so I decided to check out back.” I say smirking, before moments later I feel myself falling through the floor into the maw of a gap.
“Please find some other plaything to busy yourself with, some of us are trying to work here.” She remarked as the gap sealed itself shut.
Floating through the space between gaps felt somewhere in between free-fall where everything is weightless and being submerged where you could feel yourself being pulled into the depths. And the only real points of reference where the burning red eyes and shimmers you could spot every so often.
Of course, the hag’s power eventually had to rob me of a little piece of quiet and before I know it, I’m dropped ten feet above a trash heap outside the village.
I curse to an audience of me, shaking off all the refuse and made my way to the road, but not before flipping myself from filthy to clean.
“So that’s how you keep so pristine despite having no home to freshen up at.” Goro said, approaching from behind, carrying a whicker basket.
Well at least it saved me the trouble of finding him later.
“How’d you know I’d end up here?” I asked.
“Yukari likes to dump things in a couple fixed locations: the second-hand shop, a cave on Youkai Mountain, some place you have bolder to in Old Hell, this trash heap just happens to be the closest.” He answered, gesturing in the relative direction of the landmarks as he named them.
“You like going through Yukari’s garbage?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.
“I like to keep an eye on it as a side-project. Trying to see if she has any patterns or if it’s just her preference. Anyway, let me see your head.” He said, moving behind me and pivoting my head forward.
“So, you’ve moved backward from lusting over breasts to obsessing over neck napes. Bravo Goro-kun.” I say, before flinching in stinging pain.
“What are you doing!?” I yell.
“Disinfecting your wound, you were bleeding.” He answered.

“It’ll mend.” I scoffed “No need to fret over every little thing.”
“Sure, sure.” He said, probably ignoring me before applying a bandage against my neck.
“I also picked up this.” He said, pulling a scarf out of his basket and handing it to me.
The garment had black and white stripes crossed with red vertical lines and was made with much higher quality fabric then the shaggy, pink, grandma hand-me-down he gave me before. The pattern still looked like crap, but at least its colors were consistent.
I toss him the hand-me-down and don the new scarf without a word.
“Well, you struck out, now back to my business. You ever hear of the Youkai Grassroots Network?” Goro smirked.