/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Still, I stepped out of the room, breathing in deeply. "Oh, you're..." Kasen turned to me, still smiling, but trailed off as she looked at me. Then, her eye twitched. They began to shimmer, like she was about to cry again. "I - I think..." Yes, there were the tears. She tried to rush forward, her arms outstretched for another body-crushing hug.

"Whoa, let's not." Tenshi muttered under her breath, sticking her foot out. Kasen tripped, having completely forgotten to look at anything else, and crashed into the floor, the exhale of breath being the only real sign that she'd felt it at all. "You wouldn't crease his suit with your hugs, would you?"

Kasen took in a sharp breath as she picked herself up from the floor. "I wouldn't dream of it." She told me seriously. "No, I'm - I'm fine. Calm." Her eye twitched again. "Not calm." She suddenly whispered under her breath, her eyes looking from side to side. "It's under control!" Her right arm came up to rub her chin. "Under control? We don't sound like it, do we?"

"Are you having a fit?" Reimu finally asked. Her hair had been pulled very straight, which was a nice change from how bushy it usually was. I'd been wondering about Kasen too, since she'd done something very similar outside. "Do I need to hit you on the head a bit?"

"You're welcome to try. I think we both know how well that usually works for you." Kasen said, looking back up at Reimu. "No - It's..." She paused for a moment, looked around, then dragged Reimu and I into the bathroom, shutting the door behind us. "I'd rather keep this quiet." She whispered. Fortunately, the bathroom was fairly large, so it wasn't cramped inside. "It's...I believe that my two halves were just a bit too independent by the time they merged together. I've...Well, I've sort of got voices in my head."

"...I can go and get Eirin, if you want." Reimu ventures slowly. "I mean - I'm not sure she's an expert on oni, but..."

"What? Reimu, be serious. It's more like...Every now and then, I can hear the two halves in the back of my mind. Not all the time, but every now and then, it's like I hear a whisper." That was...Interesting. Confusing, but interesting. "Like..." Kasen suddenly straightened up, raising her right hand and putting the left one behind her back. "Raki." Her voice shifted to that exact region that Raki had occupied. "We're two merged halves." She lowered her right arm, shifting it behind her back and raising the left arm instead. "Kasen Ibaraki, a simple ascetic." Kasen's voice shifted again to the more polite and calm tone of Lady Kasen. "I don't think that Raki and Kasen Ibaraki are sitting up in my brain, but they're still alive inside me."

"That's...Uh, a little confusing." Reimu finally said. "Is it like how Raki took control of you - Of Ibaraki-douji's body, in Avici?"

"Something like that, perhaps. The difference is that neither side is fighting for dominance any longer, so...They're just...There." This all sounded like it was beyond my ability to think, anyway. I just hoped that she was doing okay, and no one involved was suffering. "No, I think I'm fine. It's just...Growing pains. Re-growing pains." She corrected.

We finally stepped back out of the bathroom, Kasen awkwardly running a hand along one of her horns. It looked about as rough as her mental state apparently was, if she really had Lady Kasen and Raki apparently commenting on everything she did. I wasn't sure I'd be much of a fan of that. I might not have been multiple people combined, but I very much did have versions of me that still had half of my memories missing, and I wasn't sure what they would think if they saw me today. It was much the same dilemma as the one I had regarding whether or not my parents would be happy for me.

"So...Nice suit." Tenshi said, stepping forward from where she'd been leaning against the wall. "Mine's better." She smiled, winking. I told her to say that to Yamame and see what happens. "Ooh, that'd be dangerous. No, I much prefer to not spend my days in the depths of illness. It was bad enough when it happened to Reimu. "Your tie's a mess, though." I ducked my head and said with some embarrassment that I wasn't anywhere near as good as Reimu when it came to doing a tie. "Or me..." She mused, reaching out and pulling her gloves from her hands. She dropped them on the bed, then straightened my suit jacket and took hold of the tie. "Stay still..." She told me, pulling the tie loose from the mess that I'd gotten it into. "This'll be easy."

>>44929747
all that'll do is give her free access to the bed you're recovering in