/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Up for a trip?" Reimu asked me after we had just finished sweeping the courtyard clear of debris from the storm. It had been only a few hours since Lady Kasen had visited, and the sun was beginning to rise high in the sky. The sweeping had taken longer than I had expected, but less time than I imagine it would have if one of us had been doing it alone. I hadn't caught Reimu looking exhausted at any point during the task, which was a great improvement from the last time she had tried, and which made me feel a lot less worried about her health taking another turn for the worst. Even so, I told her to wear a scarf to keep her shoulders warm, because her immune system was likely already weakened and if she caught something now, it might very well have wiped her out entirely.

I stopped and looked over at her, then leaned the broom up against the wall of the Hall of Worship and asked her just what sort of trip she had in mind. "To the Forest of Magic. We need to see Marisa, and I'm hoping that your favourite ex-celestial will be there, too." I asked Reimu why she refused to be nicer to Miss Tenshi, and she rolled her eyes. "It's a long story, but I've got my own reasons. I'm happy that she's helping you, but she still did destroy my house and try to plant a keystone in it, so as far as I'm concerned, she'll deserve a beating for the rest of her life." Miss Tenshi hadn't been very forthcoming about that, but I already knew that she had been the type to act up a lot in the past, and I think that it was only when Shion Yorigami left for the underground with her sister that Miss Tenshi began to calm.

Either way, Reimu was right that we needed to speak to Marisa. She had been injured doing something during the time that Reimu had been ill, then I'd been injured by Satori, then the storm had hit, and everything had just been continuously side-tracked. I remembered what she had said before the storm, and asked her if Marisa and Miss Tenshi weren't going to come back here instead. She looked at me with a frown. "Sun's already up. If they were capable of coming, they already would have." I must have looked slightly alarmed, because she shook her head. "It doesn't mean anything sinister. Maybe Marisa's just more injured than we thought." I slowly nodded, because I didn't really want to deal with any more complications in my life. Either way, it wasn't something we should be putting off any more than we have to. After we had returned the brooms back to their storeroom and locked up the Shrine, Reimu and I prepared to set out.

Or, well, Reimu took to the air and left. I stood at the top of the stairs with my arms crossed, in the centre of the torii gate, and watched impassively as she flew off in the direction of the forest. I began to count upwards in my head.

I'd reached a count of fifty seven when I spotted her returning with a sheepish look on her face. "Sorry, sorry, I forgot you can't fly..." She muttered as she came in for a landing. "And no Marisa here to let you ride her broom, and I don't really want to carry you, so I guess we'll walk." That was fine by me. Walking was how I was used to getting around, and I wondered whether or not I would fly, even if I could. Something about the idea of suddenly losing the ability scared me too much. I began to head down the steps, and I heard Reimu follow me despite some heavy sighs about the time it would take to reach Marisa's house now.

The steps were long, but didn't take too much time to descend, and it was no time at all before we were walking the path toward the village. It was still slightly slippery from the rain, but enough boots had walked this path that it was beaten down into a mostly flat, mostly impervious surface, so it wasn't much trouble to navigate.

I see nothing wrong with that