/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"So...Did you really lose a bet?" Reimu lazily asked Kagerou, who was still hovering next to us in her waitress outfit. If I wasn't already taken, should probably have had me eating out of the palm of her hand. The outfit...fit. Fit well. But instead, my thoughts were on whether or not I could procure a set for...other purposes. Involving spiders. Reimu looked at me. Then, she looked at Kagerou, and after a moment, she slapped me in the back of the head. "Stop fantasizing about your girlfriend!" She sharply told me as I rubbed the back of my head. Next to us, Marisa was complaining about some sort of bee incident that had occurred in her house and Tenshi was poking fun at her for letting her house get all messy again. "Because she," She pointed a thumb over her shoulder at Tenshi, "Lost a bet. I might have to rebrand this place to the loser's club."

"I-I, um..." Kagerou was starting to blush, and her look of embarrassment was so palpable that I felt like giving her a hug. "Um, sort of? I mean, this, right now, is the bet. So, I've got to work here and embarrass myself by pretending that I made my own ears, and wearing this outfit that's slightly tight, and trying to keep my tail from being seen..." She trailed off, running out of steam. "I sort of want to die." She finally confessed, and I couldn't help but chuckle slightly. "But if I win the bet by making it through a few days of this, I'll get something good out of it.

"Yeah, well, I get to make her," She pointed at Tenshi again, who had succeeded in stealing Marisa's drink and was taking a sip, "Winter-proof my whole Shrine." Kagerou even managed to look a little sympathetic at that. "And no keystones this time!" Reimu called, slightly louder, at Tenshi, who looked up and stuck her tongue out, then went back to bugging Marisa.

While I was watching Kagerou, I suddenly had a thought, so I stood and asked her if I could speak with her for a moment. "H-Huh? Um...Okay?" I felt Reimu tap me on the back, raising an eyebrow in a silent question when I turned back to look. I shook my head as casually as I could, turning back to Kagerou, who was herself turning toward the kitchens. "Um, Mr. Boss? I'm just stepping outside for a minute."

"Whazzat!?" I heard the old man running the store yell. "Oh, off fer a break, are ye? Just hurry back soon, yeah? Ain't busy anyhow, yanno?" He poked his head out of his kitchen, frowned at Kagerou, then at Oseki in turn, then ducked back inside.

"Yeah, hurry back, Kagerou!" I heard Oseki yell, which made Kagerou cringe. "Wouldn't want me thinking you're skipping out, would you?" Kagerou squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, took a deep breath, then led me outside into a back alley, which was tight and full of supplies for the restaurant, but more importantly, it was private and quiet.

"So, er, what did you want to talk about?" Kagerou slowly asked me, a frown on her face. She took a seat on a large crate which had probably held a bunch of restaurant supplies. "Oh, it wasn't about, um...Eientei, was it? B-Because, I'm really not in my right mind during the full moon, so anything I may have said or done-" I raised a hand and cut her off, telling her that it had nothing to do with Eientei, and I'd gotten over all of that weird stuff she'd been doing to me. Instead, I was curious about her and Wakasagihime's organization. "Huh? Er, the Grassroots Youkai Network?" I nodded. We'd spoken about it a little, during the walk out of Eientei and through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, but I wanted to know a little more about the sort of members they got.

"Oh, well, er..." Kagerou pulled her hat off and ruffled her hair. I spotted the awkwardly cut holes in the hat she'd made for her ears to poke through and tried not to laugh a little. "It's, um, supposed to be for weak youkai, but sometimes they're really rude, so we don't try and invite them. Oh, er, by 'we', I mostly mean Hime. I just go and meet people, and she decides if we should try and invite them. There's some loners who aren't that weak, either, but they're nice and easy to get along with." Privately, I knew that Kagerou was definitely not all that weak, especially during the full moon when she'd been able to hold her own against Reisen, so I figured that she was just docile enough outside of the full moon for people to think she was weak. Or maybe she was just too kind. That'd be nice, I supposed. A lot of the youkai I'd met had been reasonably kind, but had usually had something else lurking deeper down. "I was actually hoping to convince Sekibanki to join, but she's still resisting, so..." I looked up and asked if Sekibanki was that flying head youkai she'd mentioned in the past, and Kagerou stared at me blankly. After a moment, she tentatively spoke. "Do...you not...? Um, yes. The one I mentioned before. If I win this bet, I might be able to make her join, so..."