/jp/ - Otaku Culture

In the bathroom, I set to scrubbing my hair and body as clean as possibly while the bath filled, then I stepped into the hot water and sighed heavily. I was thinking about Doremy Sweet. More specifically, I was thinking about my strange time in that twisting castle with its corridors that went on far beyond any sort of logical length. I wondered what my subconsciousness had been trying to tell me. I was also ruminating on Doremy's words, about understanding youkai. She had offered to tell me what Yamame dreamed about, and I'd been very close to saying yes. The only thing that had stopped me was my own fears that it would confirm my worries about youkai. I knew, logically, that nothing had changed about her. That if I went to see Yamame right now, she would greet me and talk to me the same way she always had. It was only me that had changed. I'd been given a harsh reminder that youkai were, and always would be, inhuman. Creatures who fed off of humanity's fear or flesh.

But...So was Doremy. And she'd been very pleasant to talk to. So was Aunn, and Reimu even let her help her bathe. So was Miss Narumi, who'd crushed half of my chest and bawled her eyes out in apology when I'd woken up at Eientei. For all my worries, it seemed like youkai could reflect humanity far closer than just showing our worst fears made manifest. So, how would Yamame feel if I rejected her now? It may not be quite the same as being a repeated target of would-be youkai exterminators, but I imagined it would hurt all the same. And I just wasn't sure I could put her through that. I refused to write her off if there was any chance that a relationship could work. It might be difficult. Maybe it wouldn't work out. But she had done enough for me to be worth trying for.

I heard a bang in the hallway and shot to my feet in the middle of the bath, only for the door to slam open. Reimu was stood there, leaning heavily against the doorframe, and her mouth had dropped open. I almost asked what was wrong, before I slowly felt the awareness of where I was, and more particularly, what I was not wearing filter through my mind, and with what I was certain was a manly shriek of embarrassment, I dropped back into the water deep enough to drown myself. "Now we're even." Reimu stammered as her face grew red once more. "Are you, er, done? I want a bath too, you know." I shakily told her that I would be out in a moment, and she stumbled back out of sight, pulling the door shut with a little grunt of exertion.

Suitably embarrassed and feeling rather exposed, I decided to jump out of the bath and dry myself off quickly. Once I'd pulled all of my clothes back on and dried my hair as best I could, I pulled the door open and stepped out. Reimu was waiting in the hallway, and she didn't seem to want to look directly at me. That was fine, because I was struggling to look directly at her, too. I stuttered my way through telling her that the bath was hers. "Yes, I- Um, thank you." She managed to say back, very eloquently. She then stormed into the bathroom, her embarrassment apparently overpowering any weakness from her illness. That seemed rather impressive to me.

>>13704785
She's quite powerful without it as well.