/jp/ - Otaku Culture

While Kogasa processed - Or perhaps looked for a way to deny - that, I dug through the first aid box for a small towel, which I dipped in the bowl of water. Sternly, trying to approximate the tone that Yamame took with her sisters and that Keine had taken with me, I told Kogasa to hold still because it would probably sting. Then, I dabbed at her lip with the towel, and Kogasa shrunk back slightly. "Ouch..." She mumbled. I sympathised, since I'd more or less been responsible for why she'd fallen, but told her to just hold still. Then, I went for a second attempt, and she managed to hold still for this one. "S-So, um...Do they teach vengeful spirits how to do first aid...?" She asked, and I sighed. I'd really thought that she was about to accept it.

Then, I heard shuffling, and a moment later, Yamame had knelt down next to me. She whispered in my ear that she had an idea on how to prove that I was really alive. I heard it, thought for a moment, then slowly nodded. It was a strange idea, but it seemed like it might work. "Kogasa?" She said quietly. "Give me your hand." She laid her own hand out, waiting. "Come on, don't be shy. You'll feel better afterward, promise." It was that tone, the one she reserved for Nai when she was feeling down.

"Huh? Um, why?" Kogasa asked blankly, though she reached out even as she did so. Once she had, Yamame brought it over to me. Specifically, to my chest. Even as Kogasa stammered a question about what exactly Yamame was doing, Yamame laid the tsukumogami's hand on my heart. "H-Huh? Um - What..." She trailed off, and I thought I had an idea why. I'd wondered what Yamame had been planning, but I supposed that this was about as good a way as any to prove that I really did still live.

She could probably feel my heart beating. "I'm sure that Keine can attest to the fact that ghosts and vengeful spirits don't have a beating heart. He does." Yamame said quietly and with a light smile. "He's not dead, Kogasa. You never killed him." She took my free hand. "He's doing just fine."

Kogasa stared for a few moments, then seemed to realise where her hand was and pulled it away as if she'd been burnt. "He's...Really not dead?" Yamame and I replied yes, and I ever heard Keine jump in with some exasperation. She breathed in, slowly and slightly shakily, then squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. "So...All those months that I spent terrified of retribution, then terrified of being haunted...It wasn't my fault?" That, I said, was sort of my fault. I'd been unable to come back to the village for a long while after, and by then, everyone had seemingly just assumed that I was dead.

"Not everyone!" Keine very sharply replied. "Akyuu never believed it for a second, either!" I looked back at her and smiled. It was a very lovely feeling. "Miss Tatara, I'm dreadfully sorry for what you have been going through. I was in a similar position for those months, too. It's no fun." I felt bad about that, too.

Think fast!