/jp/ - Otaku Culture

He looked over his shoulder, and even though it was a wall behind him, he seemed to be looking at something specific.

"Building?" Meiling asked curiously, leaning forward and resting her arms on the counter. "Which building? How's a building got you all...sad?" She looked at the wall, then remembered that she couldn't see through walls, so she raised a finger, jogged out of the store, then hopped up into the air so she could see over the buildings. There was only one building out in the distance, on the opposite side of the village that could be what Takumi was talking about. Big, ominous, and just a little bit ugly, it stuck out like a sore thumb. She dropped back to the ground, then ducked her head and waved awkwardly at the people who were staring at her. "Is it that one across the village? Looks a bit weird?"

"That's the one..." Tak mumbled, resting his head on the counter. "Lots of strange women going in there. Sometimes alone, sometimes in groups. It's all we hear about." He idly scooped up a handful of sunflower seeds and let them run through his fingers. "You've never heard of it?"

"Um..." It did look sort of familiar. "I think I saw it under construction...? It was weird, just a big empty room. Wait, are you still calling me 'Miss Gatekeeper'? I told you to call me Meiling." She put her hands on her hips. "How many times?"

"Oh, uh, sorry. Force of habit." Tak said, ducking his head a little. Then, his expression slipped into thoughtfulness. "The place has been around for months...Seems like it's been expanding. There's whole rows of stalls set up outside, now. I hear the Market Goddess is ecstatic."

"Stalls? Selling what?" Meiling loved stalls. The tengu always set them up in the mountains when they were releasing new manga, and Remi always gave Meiling some extra money to buy manga on her behalf. "Ooh, is it manga? Tell me it's manga, Tak." She excitedly grabbed at his hands, and he jerked upright.

"I-It's, er..." He looked down at her hands, and Meiling released him as if she'd been burnt. "Well, you could say that it's drawn...something, all right."

Meiling had half a mind to run off right there and then, but she reigned herself in, remembering why she was in the village in the first place. "Oh, I was going to ask...Have you seen anyone in particular recently in the village? Um, really long purple hair, robes that look like pyjamas, looks like she's about to pass out from not sleeping? Hair looks like this." She reached behind her and pulled a bunch of her red hair forward on either side, then bunched it up with her hands. "Like that. But purple. Oh, she was probably floating. She doesn't like walking. Too exhausting, apparently."
"Uh..." Tak scratched his head and looked up at the ceiling. "I don't exactly live out that way, but I was over there recently. I saw that girl, the Hakurei Shrine Maiden's daughter. She was staring at the building."

The Hakurei Shrine Maiden's daughter. That was...Hana, Meiling remembered. Hana Hakurei. She'd come by the mansion a few times in the intervening years between Reimu Hakurei's marriage and the big reveal of her abuse. She'd always been polite, despite the way she was raised. "...Huh." Meiling said. It didn't mean much to her, but she supposed it was interesting nonetheless.

"Oh!" Tak slammed his hand down on the desk and made Meiling jump in fright. "I did see someone! Just for a split second around the side of the building! Purple hair, robes, not actually standing on the ground! That's her, isn't it?"

"Sounds like it!" Meiling nodded, happy to have her first real lead. Perhaps she could be a detective too, like that detective who had come to the mansion! That'd make a great manga. "Sorry, Tak, but I'll have to cut this short. I need to find her before she passes out somewhere." She waved goodbye and left the store at a jog, jumping into the air as soon as she was clear.

Taking to the air, Meiling swooped over the buildings of the village, then dropped down into an alley just off from the building. She was representing the mansion, so it wouldn't do good to scare people. That said, once she'd stepped out onto the street itself and realised that she was towering over most of the villagers, it didn't seem to matter much.

Tak hadn't been lying about there being stalls around the building. It almost looked like the Hakurei Shrine during a festival. Food stalls, souvenirs, a stall selling various 'fertility enhancements', and...

There! A stall with books piled high. Like a moth to a flame, Meiling was drawn to it. Of course, they weren't the books she expected. Instead of action manga about tengu and dragons, there was a man on the cover. He looked familiar, and he was seemingly being held down and struggling against a faceless oni. Meiling flipped the book open to a random page. Oh, they were having sex.

It took a second for the connection to make it's way to her brain, at which point she dropped the book as if it was on fire.