/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Gensokyo lay still under a blanket of frost. Even a world where gods roamed magic and magic seemed to pour from every crevice felt the coming winter and slowed down, becoming quiet as the residents prepared for the upcoming cold months. Soon, the winter solistace would arrive, but unknown to all but a few it would be a date that would change Gensokyo forever. But while they waited and planned, the Human Village fell into a quiet slumber, with the normal activity and sounds that filled the streets slowed to a crawl. In fact, most of the activity centered around a certain building.

Santa, her loyal reindeer, and an elf she brought along were in the process of trying to enter the service entrance of the HSE. A process made much more difficult with the tree they were trying to take with them. Seiga brushed a few pine needles out of her beard and peered through the branches to her two cohorts. “I felt it give a little. Just let me get a grip and I’ll tell you to push it again-Not now Yoshika” From somewhere behind all the branches, her zombie gave a grunt of understanding. Seiga got her best grip on some sturdy branches. “Now push” She commanded, pulling it towards her as the others tried to push the tree in.

But for all their effort, most of it not on Seiga’s part, it only moved slightly. “Mayhaps this endeavor is not to work” Futo offered up, her voice muffled from the other side of the tree. Seiga could hear her shift her elf hat out of the way as the bell jingled. “The entrance is too small and the girth of this tree is too much, it’ll never fit”

Seiga held back her laughter and took a moment to compose herself. Laughing at something like that would be bad for her image, and she took a lot of pride in it. “Just keep trying to push it in. Now that we have it partway in, the hard part is over since it doesn’t get thicker from here. This hall is deep enough so we can push it all the way to the base and get it inside” Seiga tried to hold herself together.

“Well, if the hall is deep, then all the way to the base we shall go! Hard and fast it is!” Futo redoubled her efforts to shove it in. A few seconds later, Yoshika decided this meant she should too. Seiga stopped herself from busting a gut, then walked over to the doors. She didn’t want to do this because it would annoy Yukari, but it had to be done. Using her ability and her own knowledge of the magics surrounding this place, she nudged it ever so slightly wider, making sure it was subtle enough not to raise alarm. That was all it took. Seiga jumped out of the way as Futo, over-enthusiastic as always shoved the tree in with the help of Yoshika who was just going along with things as always. It was now in, and so Seiga returned the doors to normal, hopefully avoiding a complaint from Yukari. Taking some time to readjust one of Yoshika’s reindeer horns, she took her place at the head of the tree and lifted it up.

“Almost there, we have a bit more to go” she commanded as they marched forwards through the halls. Thankfully the hall was wide enough for the tree, although not wide enough for the tree and passerbys. Seiga ignored the looks shot as way as the few workers that hadn’t taken off scrambled away to duck away in side rooms. This was an important delivery, and it had to arrive. As they neared the doors to the delivery point, they were spotted by two of Yukari’s other servants.

“Hey Kaku, where do you think you’re going to put a tree that big?” Seija mocked. As a bitch hated by everyone, Seiga felt a kinship with the amanojaku. But she had no class at all. Just like there was a difference between “Horrible Infanticide” and “Advancing the magical arts with organic byproducts”, there was a different between a brat and a wicked woman. So Seiga couldn’t take this laying down.

“Bend over and I’ll show you” she responded.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve talking to me like that, Kaku” Seija sneered back, an annoyed and bitchy expression coming to her face. In other words, the same as she always looked.

“I wasn’t talking to you” Seiga said as she nodded to the man next to her. Goro’s eyes widened a bit before he followed Seija as she stormed off. With all obstacles out of the way, it was easy to open the doors to the fake shrine and enter the grounds. With all the space now given to them, it was easy to make their way to the front of the shrine. With just a bit more effort and a tree stand from Seiga’s senkai, the tree was standing upright. All the noise brought someone out of the shrine.

“What’s going on?” Anon asked.