/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Once I'd had my fun, I released Yamame, who straightened her ribbon with a face redder than Yuugi's horn. It had gotten knocked terribly askew in all of the hugs, and her hair stuck out all over the place. "You are - so - doing my hair." She told me seriously, and I smiled and nodded.

Because Yamame couldn't go more than a few minutes without being embarrassed by something, Nai was the next to find her, on the ground floor where I had stopped to grab my coat. "Big Sister!" She called, emerging from the staircase while Yamame waited for me to retrieve the coat and join her. "Are you going? I just wanted to say thank you for telling the oni off!" And before Yamame could do anything, Nai had collided with her waist and wrapped her arms around Yamame. "Big Sister Yura said that I could start working on that mean oni's house. The one you gave the influenza!" I exchanged a glance with Yamame, as well as a raised eyebrow.

"Um, yes, well, you're welcome, Nai." Yamame stammered out, awkwardly patting her on the back. "That oni's a piece of work. Just, er, make sure you work fast. And safely, of course. She already attacked one of us, so she's out of forgiveness in my books. But she should be out for a couple days, so finish up there and get gone before she can start up another fuss." After a few more moments, she finally extracted herself from the hug that Nai was forcing on her. "Did Kisami say something to you?" She asked suddenly, then shook her head. "No, sorry, never mind. A-Anyway, make sure you work safely. I don't want to hear that you're getting into accidents!"

"Y-Yes, Big Sister!" Nai replied, looking very serious. "I won't let you down!" What a ways we'd come from Nai trying to attack me for falling through her webs. Now, she seemed absolutely fine with me. "Are you, um, coming back soon?"

Yamame looked over at me and I raised my hand to tell her that I had no problems with it. "Probably, Nai. Definitely sooner than last time, at least." That clearly made Nai very happy, because she cheered and started a whole new round of hugs, which took Yamame even longer to escape from. Finally, after all of the disruptions, we managed to leave the building, my coat tossed over my shoulder and Yamame looking rather drained. "Can we go home, now?" She asked me tiredly. I'd been happy to go home at any point. It wasn't my fault that Yamame's family loved her too much to let her leave. "Oh, shut up, you. I'm still going to get you back for leaving me out to dry." Taking my hand, we began making our way through the streets of the Hot Spring Town again, though we stayed away from the largest spring where the keystone had been cracked.

On the way out, I spotted Lady Kasen and Raki in the middle of a fist fight with a massive oni man, presumably one of the ones who'd been convinced that he could lift the whole keystone by himself. They seemed to be winning handily, and I spotted Raki blocking attacks that could have hit Lady Kasen a few times, which seemed like a good sign for their relationship. I didn't see her, but at one point, I heard Suika shouting at someone, and then heard the sound of a large amount of danmaku, so I assumed she was doing her bit too. As for Yuugi, I could see her down in the largest spring, seemingly supervising the preliminary clean-up from where Suika had crashed into the keystone.

Happily - For Yamame, because I could watch her get hugged all day - we were not accosted by any more of her sisters on the way out of the city. The tunnels were fairly uneventful, though at one point I spotted the path leading through to that bridge Yamame and I had crossed to reach the Old City on my first trip down to the underground, but Yamame steered me away from it, saying that it was definitely not safe for humans at the moment. "Might be possible next time, I think. Her jealousy usually intensifies and lessens on a cycle." I still didn't really know who exactly she was, but I trusted Yamame to be correct about it.

We arrived back at Yamame's house after a long climb back through the tunnels, and I could feel my tiredness creeping back up on me. The time in the hot springs had left me feeling refreshed, but it hadn't changed the fact that I was exhausted, and by the look of it, so was Yamame. "Do you want to just...?" Yamame asked, looking at me tiredly. I nodded, pulling my boots off, and draping my coat over one of her chairs. Stumbling together to the bedroom, she unbuttoned my shirt, and I pulled the straps of her dress down, letting it fall to the floor as soon as her arms were straight. I wasn't particularly in the mood for anything tiring, and it didn't seem that Yamame was either, because we both fell to the bed, threw all of the covers over us, and fell asleep in seconds, our arms wrapped around each other.

I couldn't help myself, and just before I nodded off, whispered that I loved her into her ear. Perhaps unconsciously, or perhaps not, she clung tighter.