/jp/ - Otaku Culture

The trip back from the mountain had been going...Alright, for the most part. Kisami didn't seem like she wanted to spend very long outside, so we'd already been making a beeline for the caves when, of course, something had to happen. We'd been above the path by the Forest of Magic when I'd spotted something on the road. It looked, from my point of view, like a collapsed villager, and I obviously couldn't let that slide, so I called for Ki to stop. "What?" She'd asked me, frowning. "A villager?" I pointed them out and Ki's frown only increased. "But...It's getting dark. Why would...?" It was getting dark. Ki's relief that it had still been daylight outside the mines hadn't lasted long. That was Winter, I supposed. Before you knew it, the sun was gone. Either way, I didn't think it would be a very good idea to leave someone passed out on the road, so I'd insisted that we go and have a look. "Yeah...Probably for the best. It'd make it hard to sleep at night if I let something bad happen to someone."

Down we'd gone, only to find more confusion mounting at the fact that the villager...Didn't look right. Their body looked a bit...Off, like it was shiny or smooth. Like the parts weren't adding up, but I couldn't seem to focus on it. And, for some reason, we couldn't seem to make our minds up on whether it was a man or a woman lying there. Given that Ki and I had still barely recovered from how scary the mineshaft had been, everything about this seemed to be setting off alarms in our heads. "It's - What's going on here...?" Ki mumbled to herself, pulling me closer to her. "Don't go too far from me." She said it like it was a warning, but I had a feeling that she was feeling very unsettled. She tried to stare at the body for a moment, then squeezed her eyes shut.

Then, I heard a rustle, and we both looked over to see...A purple umbrella. It was lying on the floor, next to the body, and I was certain that we should have seen it. "Hey, what's...?" Ki reached out toward it.

And suddenly, it spun of its own accord and the massive tongue that I knew I should have recognized licked Ki's face. "Urameshiya!" I suddenly heard the scream, and we both spun to see the oddly coloured eyes of Kogasa Tatara. At any other time, it wouldn't have been scary, but just at this moment, at this exact time, after this exact day, it was enough to make Ki and I both scream. Kogasa's face split into a wide smile and she cheered. "It worked! I didn't think it would, but the fake villager trick really worked!" I could practically hear Ki's heart pounding, but only over the sound of my own. "Oh, um...Are you okay?" She asked, and I looked over at Ki to see that she was actually crying a little bit.

Now that I'd calmed down a bit, I had to calm Ki down, so I patted her on the arm and told her that it was okay. "I - I just..." She took in a trembling breath. "Just too much, today..." She mumbled, so I pulled her into a hug and patted her on the head a little bit. Once she'd sniffled and wiped her eyes a bit, I turned back to Kogasa with my arms folded, and explained that we'd already had a bit of a fright at the old mineshaft on the mountain. "Th-That place!?" Kogasa asked nervously. "Um, I stay away from there...I know I'm supposed to scare people, but it was really scary in there..." I didn't blame her one bit. Sighing, I realised that I needed to get something out of the way and this seemed like an opportune moment, so I quickly asked Kogasa if she had free time in April. "Um...I already got a big job for the year, so...Yes, I think so." Hurriedly, because I was sure that Ki was getting ready to bolt, I laid out the details of the wedding. "You're getting married? To - To Miss Yamame?" I nodded. Kogasa had basically been responsible for that, I said with a bit of a smile. "Um, I'm really happy for you! I'll - I'll definitely come!" I nodded with a smile, feeling a lot better.

And then, I suddenly felt worse. I heard a noise. A sort of...Shifting, or a rustle. Like that of clothes scraping together. And worse, I heard a laugh, but it sounded all wrong, like it was coming from a different voice at every moment, as if I couldn't latch onto what it actually was. "And I'll...Come too..." The voice said. Now feeling very nervous again, Ki and I slowly turned around.