/jp/ - Otaku Culture

(1/5)
“Sorry this tea isn’t the best; I don’t usually have guests.” Kagerou apologized as she set her ornate tea set on the table.
“It’s fine, it’s fine.” I waved.
No matter how awful the brew, none of it would top the cheap poison we tried to develop on the mountain when we were testing a crop replacement. And it had such a promising aroma to.
“So why did you come to visit Yamashiro-kun? Did you get lost in the forest?” She asked.
“Oh no no no. Nothing like that I assure you. I just wanted to discuss a possible business proposal with you.” I answered.
Her hairs began to stand up.
It was natural for her to be nervous. Not everyone was used to having proposal dropped in their laps every day. This sort of behavior could make her easy prey or fearsome opposition.
“I was wondering if you’d like to work at an establishment I plan to erect in the future. It would involve specialized childcare and the pay would be generous.” I proposed.
“Ah, well, this is a little sudden.” She said, rubbing her chin with her nail.
“Oh, is not as if this’ll be happening tomorrow you see, we’re just in the initial scouting phase for talent. I can take your answer now or sometime later, however long you need to decide.” I clarified.
‘Talent’ was a good word for these positions, since child-rearing skills was something Humans took for granted, but wasn’t a forte among Youkai. Of course, I had tried to put out feelers in the human villages and received many rejections from capable woman who had their hands full with grand-children and tending to generational homes.
“I see, well it’s just curious you’d come to me for this kind of thing.” She said, looking away. “I’m not particularly good with children or anything and plenty of my friends are more reliable.”
“On the contrary Kagerou-kun, I can tell by your lovely home and calm demeanor that you’d be adored by children! Such a shame you live out here all by your lonesome, don’t you want to meet some more people?” I encouraged.
“Eh, well I do try to keep a clean household…”
“What’s more, you satisfy a particular thorny workforce category I need filled. You see, some of these children may be a little special.” I continued.
“Special?” She asked? Her wolfen ears perking up at the mention.
“Yes, well let’s say Youkai have been getting awful friendly with some Humans as of late and we project it might cause some ‘incidents’.” I implied.
“Incidents?” She asked, tilting her head.
Ughh, this woman. Take the hint.
I couldn’t just come out and say ‘Half-breeds’, ‘half-youkai’, ‘half-human’, `yin-yangs`, or any of the litany of offensive names that we’ve used in the past, but I was struggling to invent another term. I didn’t even want to think about how these kids were going to curse us for the ways which we’d call them.
“Kagerou-kun, have you ever seen a Youkai and Human get a little too close?” I asked.
“Hmm.” She thought, tilting her head left and right, matching the sway of her tail behind her.
“Last summer I saw a fox and a human sitting really close in the forest, even though it was so hot out that day! I didn’t greet them cause they kind of stunk of sweat.” She said, nodding her head enthusiastically. “Ah, do you mean that the children shouldn’t be so close? I think it’s fine for kids since they’re still figuring things out you know?”
I’ve probably worked with the people she’s talking about to my chagrin. Naïve Humans take one step outside the village nowadays and all the beast Youkai fall over themselves to snuggle up to them, I think it had to do with some animalistic lust for warmth and coddling Humans were so good at.
There was mystery as to how many `beast-babies` (Ah, that sounds wrong as well) were living in the village and I just preferred to take whatever estimate people threw at me and doubled it. This made a lot of opportunity sure, making disguises so they can meet, antiseptic for bites and scratches, all kinds of childcare products, but the couples were infuriating.
`I need perfume that won’t give me away to the villagers, but won’t remove my proud musk my boyfriend likes’, ‘My Tsukumogami wife keeps getting jealous of the tea pots I use at the shop, can you make me something I can brew tea in that isn’t a pot?’, ‘Give me some indestructible toys my kids can’t shred to pieces!’.
It was such a bother dealing with all these needy customers, although now these markets were about to seriously grow, so I needed people like Kagerou-kun who could listen to these requests so I could have the overhead to negotiate deals with craftsmen, suppliers, landowners and the like.
Sometimes it’s so hard being the only Youkai on the mountain with some negotiation sense! Well, that wasn’t entirely true, there was…
“Hey Kagerou-kun, do you know Rinnosuke Morichika?” I ask.