/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Oh, I don't know..." Reimu said, shrugging. "How about desk duty for a while?" Given the way Kotohime's eyes widened, I assumed that it had been a very effective punishment. "You go and write up some of these arrests you've done. I'll deal with these three. Sound good to you?" Kotohime opened her mouth. "Good! Now, Officer Kotohime, open the door." She nodded satisfactorily, and Kotohime, looking like a marionette who's strings had been cut, shuffled forward and opened the door. Once we'd all struggled to our feet - Well, I struggled. Yamame and Kagerou simply floated to their feet - And stepped through the door, Kotohime opened our handcuffs. All three of us sighed in relief at having the blood flow back to normal. Reimu stepped up to me. "That luck of yours, honestly..." She quietly whispered to me. A ghost of a smile crossed my face. "Alright, I'll deal with these lot. You, Kotohime, go and do your reports."

"B-But, Rei-" Kotohime tried one last time, but she didn't get very far.

"No, Kotohime. Go, now, before I lose what little of my patience remains. Do you understand?" Reimu's voice was far harsher here, and I wondered just how much patience she had for Kotohime in general.

"...Yes, Miss Reimu..." Kotohime mumbled despondently, turning and trudging out of the room. It seemed that she was still just child-like enough to submit when an authority figure's voice got sharp. I was happy about that, because she was rather hard to deal with. I really had no idea how I would have convinced her to let me go without an angry Shrine Maiden big sister to bail me out.

"Alright, you three, let's get out of here." Reimu told us. "Don't really want to hang around...Being stuck behind there doesn't look too fun." We began to follow her out of the door, but Yamame paused to grab Kagerou's new hood from the desk. Fortunately, Kotohime hadn't been too interested in it. "Come on, come on!" Reimu urged us, and finally, we stepped back outside. The sky was darkening, but the snow was coming down still, just as it had been when we left. It didn't seem quite as heavy as it had been, though, and fortunately the village still seemed to be mostly okay. Reimu sniffled. "Ugh, I hate having to come all the way out here in this weather. Alright, so...You," Kagerou was the newest recipient of the gohei pointing, "What were you doing here? I'm going to be very upset if you actually were causing a scene."

"Me? Um, no, I was just going to that café..." Kagerou looked confused. "I even kept the hood on." She suddenly remembered the box in Yamame's arms. "Oh, um, Yamame..." She gestured toward the box, so Yamame made a little noise of recognition and handed it over, pulling the lid off as she did so. There was the new hood, just as she'd described, and Kagerou delicately ran a finger over it, being careful to keep her sharp fingernails out of the way. "Wow..." She breathed. "It's lovely." She looked from the cloak to Yamame. "May I?"

"Er, of course." Yamame replied. "It's yours, after all." She nodded slightly stiffly. "So, you like it, then?" She asked, though I noticed that she didn't sound that worried now. Plus, I was sure that she had enough pride in her work not to get terrified over one customer's opinion.

"Oh, I do." Kagerou replied. "Let me just..." She reached up and pulled the hood she'd been wearing off, allowing her fluffy animal ears to stick up properly, and I even spotted them flick slightly as Kagerou ruffled her hair. Draping the old hood over her arm, she pulled the new one from the box and allowed it to unfurl, and a smile began to overtake her features. At the same time, I could see that she was already looking slightly cold, since she now had her bare shoulders exposed to the snow, as well as most of her collarbone and cleavage. The red was a rather deep shade, darker than the red of her dress, but the inside seemed to be lighter. I wondered just where Yamame had gotten the fur from, but I decided that asking such questions would be best saved for later. Kagerou dropped the old hood into the box and held it out, looking around the three of us apologetically. "Um, sorry, but would you mind...?"

"Fine, fine, just be quick about it." Reimu muttered, taking the box and motioning something with her hands that I took to mean "Hurry it up."

I heard a throat clearing, and I looked over to the corner of the room near the door. There was another few diagrams pinned to the walls there, these ones showing lists of names. I spotted Yura's name, which I assumed meant that it was a list of the Kurodani family. And leaning over them, muttering to herself, was the other sister of Yamame's that I had met, Reiko. "Thank you for coming, Yams." Reiko said, turning and striding over. "I'd expected you to take longer."

"Yeah, a lot longer." Yura added, and Yamame slapped her on the arm.

"Regardless," Reiko shot Yura a glare. "We're all happy you're here." She slapped the papers that she had pulled from the wall down at the table. "Come over here." She invited Yamame over to the table, and I followed. Reiko stole the place next to Yamame, leaving me to sit next to Kisami, who looked like she was barely holding herself back from divulging all of Yamame's most embarrassing secrets. "So," She pointed at the diagram showing the layout of the area on the table, "Here's the places that aren't making any progress. I had Ki ask around, and she says that they're the groups that keep coming back to find the oni smacking each other across the face with the wood. The rock's still not getting moved, and I figure it'll take all of us to sort that out, so I'm leaving it to the end. I'm hoping you can...I don't know, talk to the oni? They love you, for whatever reason. More than any of us, at least."

"I think-" Kisami said, raising a finger.

"No, Ki. You're not to talk to them. The last thing we need is you causing a scene." Reiko told her firmly.

She pouted. "Oh, you used to be so nice to me, Rei!"

"Um, yes, I can handle that." Yamame said, nodding. "Shouldn't take too long. Just these areas? Oh, and Hoshiguma's back. Just about an hour ago."

"Really?" Yura said, taking a seat opposite me. "That's good. She's about the only one apart from you who can keep them under control. Honestly, the replacement manager - while Hoshiguma was gone? Bloody useless. Spent more time in his cups than out of them and confused every single one of us with someone else." Personally, I thought that sounded about right for the oni, but I decided not to contribute.

"Hey, this is great news! Work'll be back on track, my little sister came to visit me, all my family's here, and I've got some new eye-candy!" Kisami cheered, slapping me on the back.

"Ki!" Yamame sounded scandalised. "He's not eye-candy! And he's not yours, either!"

Kisami smiled and raised her hands. "Relax, little sister. I'm just very happy, that's all." Yamame stared at her suspiciously for a moment, then turned and got back to speaking to Reimu about the work she needed to do. As soon as the coast was clear, Kisami poked me. "Want to hear about the time Yamame came to me, crying because she'd had a bad dream?"

And then the meeting devolved into Yamame shouting at Kisami, Yura egging her on, and Reiko sighing heavily as she pulled the important papers out of the way.

But at least it was very entertaining.