/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"I just don't get what was wrong with our ide- Ouch!" Raki was complaining as Reimu brushed back her hair. "You're really lucky I haven't drunk anything yet. I should punch your lights out for - Gah! Stop - Pulling - So - Hard!" It didn't seem to be going well.

"It's not my fault you never brush your hair!" Reimu replied sharply. "I don't know why it sticks out like it does, but we're trying to make you," She yanked slightly harder and Raki cried out again, "Not look like her!" She pointed over Raki's shoulder at Lady Kasen, who was watching the whole thing and looking very sympathetic. "Still, you're a lot more reasonable now then you were before." Reimu couldn't see it from where she was kneeling behind Raki, but I caught the pleased expression that crossed her face for a split second. "Now - If only - This - Was - Reasonable!" Each word was punctuated with another yank of the brush and another pained yelp from Raki. I was starting to feel a little sorry for her now, but also quite proud that she was willing to withstand it rather than let her temper get the better of her. IT was nice to see.

It seemed that, fortunately for the partygoers who had yet to arrive, Yuyuko's appetite was far larger than her drinking habits, and once she and Youmu had been redirected away from the food and toward the alcohol, we seemed to be safe from sudden food shortages. The sun had more or less set by now, and the sky was a deep, dark blue, bordering on black. We were in the back room of the Shrine, where we'd carried Raki to sleep after she'd passed out on my arm earlier. Lady Kasen had been watching over her, which was also nice to see considering how fractured their relationship had been right after Raki had been unsealed. I was stood by the door, from which I could see out across the veranda and to the torii gate, which was now cast in flickering and jumping shadows from the lanterns that Raki had lit earlier. "Reimu, maybe you should let me-" Lady Kasen tried to speak, but Reimu, who was now gritting her teeth and had a hand on Raki's shoulder as a brace, wasn't hearing it.

"I've - Got - This." She growled. After I spotted a tear in the corner of Raki's eye, I decided that she did not, in fact, have this. Sighing, I unfolded my arms and strode over to Reimu, who'd gotten the brush tangled in a particularly stubborn knot in Raki's hair. I crouched down, then used a moment of opportunity to wrap my arms around Reimu and lift her up. "Wh-What the!? Hey, put me down!" Reimu tried to both punch and kick me at the same time, which fortunately meant that she missed both times. After a moment, Reimu finally managed to get her feet back on the ground and let me pull her over to the side, though she didn't look very happy about it. "What was that for?" She asked me grouchily. I pointedly looked at her, then at Raki's hair. "What? Do you agree with Kasen?" That, she seemed very displeased about, so I raised my hands and said that I just thought she might be better off making sure Yuyuko wasn't eating all of the food. "You're lying," She told me with a mutinous look, "But clearly I'm not trusted here, so I'll just let you get on with it." She turned and stormed out of the room before I could get another word in.

We watched her go. I'd upset her, I muttered ruefully. "Yes, well..." Lady Kasen said, stepping over to me and putting a hand on my shoulder. "She'll be fine. She's always like this until people start arriving for the party. Once she's had some sake, she'll forget it ever happened." I hoped so.

"Er, can we not just leave me like this?" Raki asked impatiently. "Now I've got a brush stuck in my hair." I stepped over and sat down behind her, then very gently coaxed the brush back out by delicately untangling her pink locks. I'd done Reimu's hair before during the storm, and I'd been made to do Yamame's more than once, usually when we'd had to take a bath following our...time in the bedroom. Not to mention, I'd been forced to do Lady Kasen's once or twice as part of my training, though I suspected it was more to do with her attempts to get Reimu and I into a relationship. As a result, I felt like I'd gotten a little better at handling a girl's hair, especially since Yamame's hair was so voluminous already. With the brush freed, I took a gentler approach, very slowly running the brush through Raki's hair and using my fingers to pull the knots free with as little pain as I could. It probably still hurt, though. "Oh, that's...Much better." Raki mumbled. "Why's Reimu got to yank like she's trying to pull my hair out?" I frowned too, because I'd had my hair brushed by Reimu once before and it had been quite a pleasant experience. Maybe she was more stressed than I thought.

Yamame placed both hands on my shoulders, being careful to avoid the bite marks. Then, she let out a trembling sigh and let her head fall. "I'm sorry, I..." I gathered her up in a hug and pet her head, pulling her ribbon free. "I just...I stopped biting you, because I didn't want it to bring back any bad memories, but then you tell me that Ibaraki-douji herself - or part of her - is biting you to prove a point?" I buried my face in her hair and told her that I was fine, and while the bite had been scary, it hadn't been anything like the ones that had happened in the past. Perhaps, I even mumbled, we could see about Yamame biting me from time to time. "I...Oh, you're just the strangest human I've ever met." She looked up at me and kissed me. After a moment, she pulled back again. "What's that...strange taste?" She asked me slowly.

Not wanting to get into more arguments and feeling bad about it already, I told her that I'd woken up early, before either her or Reimu, and I'd helped Komachi Onozuka, the Shinigami from the night before, leave. She'd kissed me lightly on the lips before she'd left, despite my lack of interest, and I'd admonished her for it. Yamame stared at me, her eyes narrowing and relaxing, then she sighed. "Oh. I might...give her a piece of my mind. Or a fever. Or both. I said to you that I didn't want to share, and I still don't." I didn't have any interest in seeking anyone else. I only wanted Yamame. She looked at me and I spotted the bright smile of hers that I loved coming back. "I think I want to talk to Miss Raki, though." She smiled weakly. "Just...clear the air." I didn't want her to start anything, so I begged her to stay calm. She smiled thinly, but didn't say anything. Instead, she disengaged from the hug and headed for the door. I followed, still telling her not to do anything reckless. On the way, I picked up my t-shirt from Lady Hecatia, since my sweater was damaged and bloody. Once I'd pulled it on and grabbed both my coat and the ruined sweater, Yamame was standing outside. She was still massaging her head every few moments, and I wondered if the hangover had made her far more vindictive.

"Oh, there you are." Reimu said, coming back down the hallway. "Listen, I want to talk to the arm." I looked between them with pleading in my eyes. "Just quickly. I believe you, but still." I knew that both Lady Kasen and Raki were in a particularly vulnerable state right now, and I didn't want to make things worse, but it seemed like nothing I could do would convince the two otherwise. Instead, I tried saying that it was probably about time to leave senkai and get back to the real world. "We'll do this first." Reimu told me, and I knew it was hopeless.

"Just a quick talk." Yamame told me, and I gave her a look. "Really!" She insisted, but I had a feeling she wanted to inflict something on Raki as retribution.

"You too?" Reimu asked Yamame, who nodded. "Huh. Well, let's not keep them waiting." And off the two went, leaving me staring at them. Apparently, wanting to attack someone else was the best way to get on Reimu's good list. I followed after them, still trying to get them to stop. On the way, I realised that they had stopped, well before reaching the stairs up to the third floor where Lady Kasen's rooms were. There was her study, the one on the ground floor with the weird marks on the floor that I couldn't make out. The door was open. Reimu and Yamame looked ready to barge in, when I heard Raki's voice.

"I keep thinking about all the people I've eaten." She was speaking quietly, and there was some more emotion behind it. It was understated, but it was there. Immediately, I lunged forward and pulled both of the girls back before they could do anything. I hissed for them to be quiet. "It's funny. I've - I've never done that before." I could see Lady Kasen through the door, holding a book. Next to her was Raki, who was staring off into the distance. "I didn't realise that I knew some of their names." Lady Kasen put the book down on her lap, watching the arm. "They were just...indulgence. Not even a meal, most of the time. Just because I could." She sniffed and rubbed at her eyes. "You didn't tell me that I'd be doing this." She looked over at Lady Kasen. "It was less complicated before. Back then."

"Change happens. And it's never easy, but that doesn't make it bad." Lady Kasen told her. "Even if you're still an oni, you don't have to be like you were in the past. You don't have to be like me."

I felt like we were intruding on something important now, so I dragged Yamame and Reimu back as I pulled us out of that corridor. After a few moments, I realised that they weren't trying to stop me anymore, so I let them go. Instead, they followed me outside, silently. I was surprised that both of them were silent. Once we were both outside, they began speaking again. "I don't think..." Reimu muttered, looking at me. "How do you convince people to try and change their entire being like this?"

Lady Kasen had grown silent. Somehow, I didn't think she had planned for the conversation to go this way. She was looking at the floor, and her fist was clenched. The arm stalked past her, toward Reimu and I. Reimu raised the gohei and took on a fighting stance. "Don't bother, Shrine Maiden. I've lost the taste for it. And unlike her, I don't lie." The arm looked at me. "You're the one who almost freed me before." Slowly, still pressing myself against the wall because I could just feel the strength radiating from the arm, I nodded. "My thanks." She finally said, nodding slightly. "I understand that I'm in...Gensokyo, now?" She asked Reimu, who slowly nodded, still holding the gohei in front of her defensively. "A proper oni would devour you, but I've had her memories in my head. That's not what a proper oni is in this day and age, is it?"

"No. Er, no. Things work differently now." Reimu finally managed to say in a strangled voice. "Most youkai rarely need to eat humans anymore."

"Is that right?" The arm asked, her eyes slightly widening. "Hmm..." She rubbed her chin, and for some strange reason, I noticed that she only had sharp nails on one hand.

"You're a bit more...reasonable than I remember." Reimu finally muttered.

"I had some notions about my standing corrected." The arm said, casting an eye back toward Lady Kasen. "And I'm going to prove her wrong."

"In that case, um, I'd like to request that you don't leave the senkai. It'd cause some...awkward questions." Reimu's grip was looking extremely strong. "And maybe some bigger problems."

For a moment, the arm looked like she was going to refuse, but then her eyes flickered back to Lady Kasen. "For now. We'll see how I feel later."

"Thank you." Reimu said, sounding like she wasn't worried at all, which was a far cry from the way I felt. The arm nodded, then walked past us to the door, which she threw open in spite of the seal that Reimu had placed on it when she had entered.

"Wait!" Lady Kasen shouted, her bandaged arm flying out to land on the arm's shoulder. "Why did you try and trick him into freeing you back then?" The arm sighed, then turned and wandered back over to Lady Kasen, muttering that she hadn't tricked me at all. Which, I supposed, she hadn't. She had nudged my thoughts in a certain direction, which was somewhat manipulation, but it hadn't truly been a lie. "Why did you..." She trailed off, raising her hands and clenching them over each other in front of her chest. She looked abjectly miserable. "I - I wanted...I hoped that we-"

The arm laid her hands over Lady Kasen's own. "That's the trouble with hope." She whispered, staring deeply into Lady Kasen’s eyes. "It's hard to resist."

And then, she removed her hands, turned around, and walked straight out of the room without sparing any of us a second glance.

I turned to watch her leave, and if I pretended hard enough, I could almost convince myself that the small sound behind me wasn’t Lady Kasen's tears hitting the ground.

My arm descended. My hand grasped the lid. The ofuda easily gave way underneath my fingers, and I lifted the lid.

In an instant, darkness surrounded me. I felt a sense of vertigo, but after a moment, it subsided and I could see that I was still in Lady Kasen's room. The box was open, and I could see, impossibly, a dry, mummified arm inside. It was shaking slightly, like it was still alive despite the state of decomposition it was in. There was a swirling black mist around it, which had been the darkness I had seen, and I felt weak. It had gotten in my head, twisted my thoughts until I did what it wanted. I fell to the floor, trying to get my bearings again. I felt like I'd broken Lady Kasen's trust and done something incredibly stupid. The mist was starting to coalesce into a humanoid shape when I heard a crash and a bang behind me. "Oh, no you don't!" I heard a yell, and there was Lady Kasen, her bandaged arm stretching out and forcing the lid back on the box. "Quick, there's more of Reimu's ofuda in the drawer!" She yelled at me. "We need to reseal the arm, now!"

I threw myself toward Lady Kasen's desk, feeling like a strange humming was starting to sound, and more worryingly, the shape was starting to solidify. "Second drawer!" Lady Kasen yelled, and I pulled it open, dragging out as many of the ofuda inside as I could. "On the box, before she gets free! If she gets free, we're in for a whole world of trouble!" I fell to the floor in front of the box, hurriedly trying to paste as many of the ofuda as I could on it. I could feel the box shaking, like the arm inside was fighting to get out, and when I rolled onto my back, I could see that the shape of the mist was nearly solid. I threw the last ofuda on as the shape began to reach out a clawed hand for me, and at the last moment, I gasped.

The shape above me was reaching down toward me, and I could see the features beginning to emerge. Pink hair, horns, and eyes that contained malice and little more. The outfit was almost the same from the rose-patterned tabard to the broken chains running from her wrists and the giant chained ball coming off of her ankles, but in place of the accessories on her head, there were two fairly long horns. It was Lady Kasen without a doubt, but she was an oni. My heart was beating hard, and my blood ran cold. Why was something like this in Lady Kasen's dojo? Her right hand was reaching toward me, and I could see that she had extremely sharp nails that almost looked like claws. Just as I felt the claws graze me, the mist dissipated, and the box stopped shaking. The humming sound I had been hearing faded away, and all that was left was me, Lady Kasen and her bandaged hand, which was slowly winding itself back into the shape of an arm, the box and a room that looked like it had been blown through by the tengu. "Well," Lady Kasen panted, sinking to sit on the floor beside me with relief and exertion in equal parts on her face, "It's a good thing Reimu wasn't here to see that. She'd have a conniption!"