/jp/ - Otaku Culture

We headed down silent halls. the staff room was further down, and as we got closer, I could hear the sounds of some sort of work going on inside, so I gently knocked on the door before pulling it open. Inside, looking a little sleepy, sat Keine, surrounded by notebooks. "Oh!" She said, looking a little surprised. "I wasn't expecting you to show up again so soon." It had been a month, I replied slowly. "Yes, but...Well, that's fairly soon for you, isn't it." I sighed and begged her to not keep holding that over my head. "Oh, fine. Sorry, I don't mean to...Ah, is that Miss Yamame I see behind you?" I nodded, stepping inside the room and letting Yamame sidle in next to me. "Hello, Yamame. It's good to see you again." Keine looked between us, then down at the books she was surrounded by. "Ah, sorry. I was just getting some marking done, but I can take a break if you want to talk to me."

It wasn't anything major, I replied. She didn't need to stop her work if she didn't want to. Sitting down, I looked over at Yamame. After a moment, she acquiesced and raised her hand, showing off the ring. Keine looked at it for a few moments, then slowly up at me. "...When?" She asked quietly. I quickly relayed the details. "It's beautiful." She said with a small smile. "Much more beautiful attached to the finger, I should think." Well, I certainly hoped so. "This means...You're planning a ceremony, aren't you?" Yamame and I nodded. I explained the details of the wedding. "You've certainly put a lot of thought into this. I may not be the first you told, but I'm glad that you did come to tell me." I would never leave Keine out in the way that I had foolishly done last year. "...Thank you." Keine quietly replied, smiling gently. "Still, the Garden of the Sun? Akyuu hates that place, you know. Something about a prank by a fairy and a miserable walk back home while she was doing research for her Chronicle update." I laughed a little, then said that I was hoping for things to go much better on this occasion, since a lot more people were involved. I wasn't sure Miss Yuuka would appreciate any pranking like that happening, either. "No, I imagine not. She does seem a very...No nonsense sort of person."

She seemed a little gentler once she was in her own home, but outside of it, she did give off that impression. "So, um, will you come, Miss Keine?" It was a critical question. "I'm getting my sisters to help out with keeping everything running well, too."

"Oh, of course, I'll come. I'm not about to let someone who I've practically raised get married without me there." I smiled a bit, then had to look away. "I'll bring Akyuu along, too. Despite her complaints, she does love getting out of the village when her health permits." She did seem frailer in recent years, and I hoped that she was doing okay. "She's fine, just a bit grumpier. She'd love to come, I'm sure."

I felt like a weight had lifted from my chest. Keine had worried me slightly, not because I didn't think she would come, but because I already felt like I'd left it for too long before telling her, and I'd been feeling a little bit guilty about it. "Yamame, dear, could I speak to you for a little bit? About - Well, about the wedding, but something that's better suited for us girls." I frowned and asked what could be so urgent. "Don't worry, you'll understand soon enough. But it's something that you'd much rather have a surprise." I looked over at Yamame, whose cheeks had gotten just a little bit red, and she nodded and told me that it was probably something she should talk to Keine about. So, feeling a little concerned but reassured that it wasn't something serious, I slowly nodded and got to my feet. I'd wait outside, I told them. For the fresh air. "Don't worry, we won't take too long." Keine told me with a smile. Sighing, I nodded again and left, pulling my boots back on inside the classroom before stepping outside to wonder what it was that they were discussing.

I thought for a few minutes before a snowball smacked into the side of my head. Blinking, I slowly looked to the side. With a smile on her face, and with her bare hands looking a little red, Hieda no Akyuu crouched down to form another snowball so she could throw that one at my head too. She still wore her kimono, though it looked like it had even more layers than usual, and she'd worn a shawl of some sort over that. Before she could finish packing together another snowball, I took off toward her, then used my boot to sweep a bunch of snow straight into her face. She fell back, crying out at first, but after a moment, she giggled. I held out a second longer, then joined in. "My, my, here's a face that I haven't seen for months and months, and the first thing you do upon seeing me is kick snow in my face?" She wiped some snow from her face with a smile, then let her head fall back into the snow with a drawn-out sigh.