/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"So..." Reimu began, looking a little awkward about it. "Keine." There was a hint of disapproval in her face. "Did you really leave her thinking you were dead for that long?" I sighed and raised my hands, but Kuro seemed to get mad at that, waking up and standing on her back two legs so she could press the front two against my chest until I started again. I'd already explained it to Keine, so I didn't both trying to conceal things and explained the whole thing to Reimu just as I had to Keine. After I'd finished, Reimu was silent for a few moments. "...Ah." She finally whispered. "Look, um, I know that my advice probably isn't too helpful here, since I never actually did live in the village, but I think people there are more accepting of the unknown than you think they are." I told her that I knew. It was good to have it reaffirmed, though. I thanked her, though I couldn't really go and give her a hug thanks to the cat snoozing on my lap.

Stroking her head, I commented that she was very relaxed despite only being around for a few days. "Ugh...I know! She's practically claimed the place as her own. I woke up to find her sleeping in the covers with me yesterday!" Frowning, I lifted the cat, who opened one eye to watch me curiously. Had Kuro done that? The cat, despite the way I was holding her in the air, responded by licking a paw and watching me some more. "What the...? She'd attack me if I tried to do that!" I shrugged, then tried placing her down next to me. She sat back on her haunches and watched me for a moment, then turned and headed over to Reimu, where she rubbed her head against Reimu's leg. "How can she be so needy, anyway? She's supposed to be a wild cat from Mayohiga." Reimu grumbled. "Nope, I'm not indulging you this time. Go on, go and do something else." Kuro decided to hop up on the kotatsu and curl up right in the centre of it. "Honestly, I can't win with her...Hey, do they have a pet shop in the village? I wonder if I can get this furball something to do." I thought about it for a moment, then nodded. There was an old lady who ran a shop for pets near the northern part of the village. She'd probably know what to do. "Phew...That's good. Maybe something like...An owner's guide?"

After a companionable silence, Reimu clapped her hands together. "End of the year soon!" She said cheerfully. "We always have a major party here, you know." I did know. I'd never gone, but I'd definitely heard about Reimu's big new year party, if only by the lack of activity in the following days. It was a massive blowout, the sort of thing that left no one unscathed, even those who didn't drink. "You'll come, right?" I opened my mouth. "Right?" She said again, a little more sharply. Yes, I said. I would definitely come. I smiled and nodded while I thought about how I had definitely not been given a choice. "Bring Yamame, of course. Her sisters - Ooh..." She trailed off. "There's a lot of them, isn't there...?" Oh yes, I replied. Lots and lots. "Ah...But they haven't said whether or not they were doing anything, right? Okay, so, bring Yamame, Kisami, and whoever, but maybe don't bring everyone." I'd make sure to invite them, I replied, though I wasn't sure if they'd come. Ki might, I supposed, but it seemed like it might be a little more than Yamame wanted...Even if I did want to kiss her at the stroke of midnight.

"So, preparation is about all I'll be doing for the next two full days. Wanna help?" She asked me. I opened my mouth, but no sound really came out at the prospect of all the work that would need to be done for a party like this. "I'll take your horrified silence as a yes!" She said, clapping me on the shoulder and jumping to her feet. Kuro raised her head looked at Reimu for a moment, then hopped up too and brushed between Reimu's legs before rubbing against her left ankle. "Fortunately, I've been doing this so long that it's become tradition, so we don't even need to go and hand out flyers." That was probably a good thing, since I had no idea where we would even get flyers at this time. Reimu led be toward the kitchen. "Let's see..." Through the back, into the pantry, then she pulled open a door at the back of the pantry. Inside, I could see more alcohol than I knew what to do with, along with a large number of jars. The room it was all contained in was big enough to stand in, and wide enough to contain a huge number of bottles. "Every party I have involves more alcohol getting left behind than drunk, so I always end up with more. Plus, I brew plum wine every year, so I started that up in summer. There's still a bunch left over from when I got out the stuff, I started making a year ago, too." I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to take from this apart from the knowledge that Reimu had enough alcohol to put most of the valley out of business.

"Somehow, I have a feeling that she's about to say the stupidest thing you've ever heard in your life." Reimu muttered. Kuro the cat seemed to agree, since she hopped from Reimu's lap up onto the small table and sat down facing Marisa.

Tenshi snorted, rolling onto her back. "You have no idea." She spoke. "Seriously, none."

"It wasn't that stupid!" Marisa retorted, sounding very defensive. "I just thought I'd try and steal some of the yamawaro's inventions! How was I supposed to know that it would explode if anyone other than a yamawaro touched it? And you should really be attacking them too for letting me run around on fire!" There was a second or two of silence after her words, and I muttered quietly that the scenario did sound pretty stupid. "It's not - That - stupid! It's a little silly, at best!" Marisa managed to get her legs to twitch slightly as she said that, and she sighed in relief. "Oh, that's so much be-" Then, she froze, and an emotion comprised of equal part fear and pain crossed her face. "O-Oh, oh no." She muttered, then grit her teeth. "Ouch. Ou- Gah! Ah - No, please- Ah!" At this point, I started to wonder if Marisa had mentally broken while hanging up there.

"Have you lost your mind, Marisa?" Was Reimu's contribution. "I mean, I know there's not much up there left to lose, but what the hell are you doing?"

"P-Pins and - Ouch! - Needles!" Marisa wailed. I winced a little, feeling a lot more sympathetic. I knew very well how much Pins and needles could hurt, given the number of times I'd had either Reimu, Yamame, or on the rare occasion, Kisami, cutting the blood flow to my arm off and letting me suffer for it later. "I told you that it was too tight!" She suddenly displayed a much larger amount of energy, rolling onto her back and pulling her legs up to try and massage them. "Oh, that is the worst..." She moaned. Her head fell to the side to look at Tenshi, who'd apparently recovered enough that she'd already stack her hands behind her hand and crossed her legs, staring up at the ceiling. "What the hell? How come you aren't in pain?"

"You think celestials have to deal with a miniscule pain tolerance like that?" Tenshi asked, looking a little incredulous. "Please, I'm pretty sure even your dear client's got better pain tolerance than you do. Heavenly peaches really do carry their weight." She stretcher her legs out as far as she could, toes pointed outward. "Ah~" She sighed. " I really think two days was excessive, Reimu."

"I don't." Reimu replied dryly.

"Oh, is that right? Any longer, and you'd have had to actually feed us. Or - Feed Marisa, at any rate. I can go for a while without food or drink." Tenshi's eyes caught mine. "I'm sure you've had that experience." I opened my mouth, then realised that I wasn't sure when the last time I'd eaten anything was. Reimu, Kagerou, and Yamame had eaten something at the café when we'd been there, but I hadn't felt particularly hungry. Frankly, I thought I might still be full from the party in Former Hell, and that had been...A while ago. Either way, I told Tenshi that I understood. "Right. And, Reimu, you know what happens after you actually deign to give someone food and water? You have to go to the toilet. Did you want to deal with that?"

Reimu paled slightly. I supposed that she hadn't considered that. It was quite like her, I thought. "...I guess two days was plenty." She muttered. I wondered how long tying the two up had taken. Having to untie them, take them to the toilet, then tie them up again would have been exhausting. Marisa was still complaining about her legs hurting. "She probably needs something to drink, huh?" Reimu hopped up and got Marisa some water, then dragged the witch over to the table by the back of her shirt. "C'mon, you. Drink." She pulled her up into a seated position and offered her the cup.

Marisa, with tears in the corners of her eyes and a very glum look on her face, accepted the cup with a sniffle. She drank it, slowly at first, but then drained the entire thing. She gasped in relief, then offered the cup back to Reimu. "More, please."

Reimu rolled her eyes, but went and retrieved a bucket of water to offer Marisa instead. Marisa, rather amazingly, proceeded to drink the entire thing over the course of about five minutes. "Weren't you with the yamawaro? You're drinking water like you're a kappa." Marisa just gave her a rude gesture in return. "Hmm. Guess you've recovered enough to be a pain in my-" Kuro the cat meowed loudly.

"So," Tenshi said, getting up to her knees and crawling over. "This furball is yours now?" She reached a hand out, leaving it open just in front of Kuro. The cat cautiously sniffed it, then appeared to decide that Tenshi was okay, because she let the ex-celestial stroke her. "There, who's a good girl?" Tenshi whispered cheerfully. "Not many cats get to be pet by a celestial, you know."

>>16534046
>>16534065
Reimu isn't 100% anything. That's why she's great.

Reimu should get a pet.

>>11141876
Nono, only the yin yang orb can.

Reimu is the cutest.

>>10288253
You know, being concerned about timeouts is odd if you're coming from games like IaMP and Soku where the mechanics caused timers to be completely removed. If those games had 99 second timers timing out rounds would be the best way to win.

This game is much more traditional than at least Soku in my opinion because it lacks true flight. You can just look at is as having 6 jump directions instead of 3. There are already easy fullscreen stun combos that will lead to the opponent being at your mercy in the corner with full okizeme. Soku and IaMP even had somewhat silly tech mechanics that let you get out of corner knockdowns. I haven't tested it, as long as this doesn't have any broken teching it should be as hard or harder to get out of the corner compared to either previous game.

>>9629878
>>9629884
Thanks for the feedback guys. Just placed the order!