/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"I wonder if there's even more stones underground." Yamame wondered out loud, and Wakasagihime's head froze, then very slowly shifted toward her. Yamame almost quailed under the stare, but she recovered quickly enough. "Um, I was just thinking about the river running across the bridge leading to the Old City, but actually, I think it's probably too rapid for any pretty stones to be hiding under there..."

Wakasagihime relaxed, which allowed Yamame to relax too. I tried to reassuringly rub the small of her back. "I suppose not...That's really a shame, too, because I'd love to try and see the underground one day." By this point, the moon had climbed high in the sky and the temperature had dropped considerably. I hadn't really noticed since I'd been busy with Meiling talking my ear off, but now, I was starting to feel it a little. Yamame didn't look colder at all, but did seem a little slower to respond, which made me more than a little worried that she was starting to...freeze, or however spiders did it. Deciding to head the problem off early, I pulled Yamame to sit in my lap so I could wrap my arms around her and try to keep us both warm. "My, you two are rather cute, aren't you?" Wakasagihime commented with a smile. "But perhaps it's time for you both to be off? I mean no offense, but you both look a little...tired." I looked around, and saw that Kagerou was laying back on the picnic blanket next to Meiling, and she looked a little sleepy, too. Banki had moved behind the rock that she was leaning on so she could lean against it properly, so I assumed that she was tired too. I looked over at Wakasagihime and asked her if she was tired, too. "Oh, maybe a little..." She trailed off for a moment. "But I find that when you live in a lake like this, you cherish every moment you get to spend with people who can walk the land." That made me feel a little sorry for her, stuck in the lake. "Oh, don't pity me, please! I am happy. And I enjoy seeing others happy, too."

Wakasagihime ask us to come a little closer. Yamame was quiet now, but she did manage to shift herself enough for me to shuffle forward. "I've been told that I have a good eye for this sort of thing," She said, collecting the stones that she'd scattered on the rock. "So, I'd like you to have this." she held out an enclosed palm and beckoned me to put my hand under it. The princess opened her hand and let a stone drop into my palm, which she immediately covered with her own hand so that I couldn't see what it was. "Please, take good care of it." Then, she pulled her hand away, revealing the same stone that I'd just given her back. Frowning, I looked at her. She wanted me to keep this one. "Yes, that's right. Keep it." She replied, sweetly. But...I looked at the stone, then back at her. I had thought that this stone meant a lot to her. She had said that it was the first she had collected. "Yes, well...That's the only kind of gift worth giving, isn't it?" She gave Yamame and I a look that suggested that she knew something that we hadn't figured out yet. "In return, remember to invite me, when it happens." I asked her what I would be inviting her to, but she didn't answer. So, instead I slowly asked her what she had an eye for.

And she smiled, slightly mysteriously. "Well, Mr. Human, Miss Yamame, that would be telling, wouldn't it?"