/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"We made a bet on who'd get there first. Then we played for who was collecting who. I'd say I drew..." Yamame raised an eyebrow and Tenshi apparently decided that discretion was the better part of valour. "...The better choice. Lovely home, Miss Kurodani." Yamame nodded satisfactorily, and I thought I detected a hint of smugness. "So, er, Reimu wants a get-together. That café in the village. Now...ish."

I looked over at Yamame, the unspoken question on my lips. "Er, well, uh..." She was doing her stammering thing. "I've got some things to get on with, anyway. There's a blazer for that." She pointed at my outfit. I looked over at Tenshi, who shrugged and indicated that she didn't mind. I asked Yamame if she didn't want to come with us. "With - Um...No, I...No. I'll stay here and get some work done." Slowly, I asked if she was sure. "Yes, yes!" A little quick with the reply, I thought, but I nodded and went for my coat. Holding it over my arm, I turned, and Yamame stepped back over to me. "Let me just..." She reached out and undid the top two buttons of my shirt, then pulled the collar so it was slightly more open. "There, that's better."

"Anything else?" Tenshi asked dryly. "I'd kind of like to win that bet..."

Yamame had that look on her face again, the one that I'd seen in the hot springs. A sort of indecision, but it soon resolved itself to determination, and she grabbed me by the collar of the shirt, dragged my head down to her height, and pulled me into an intensely deep kiss. Tongues were involved. It might as well have gone on for hours for all I could tell, and I felt slightly floaty when she finally let me go. "There you are. Hurry back, please. Love you." I mumbled something, staring blankly at the wall.

"This is just painful." Tenshi muttered under her breath, grabbing my arm and dragging me outside. Once the cold air took hold of me, I snapped back to reality and swung my coat around so I could pull it on. Once we'd made some distance from Yamame's house and the tunnels were quiet, Tenshi turned to me. "So, that's the love of your life, huh?" I nodded slightly bashfully. "She's definitely pretty..." She was definitely more than pretty, as far as I was concerned. "...A little awkward, though." That, I was seeing more and more, was true. I think she had wanted to come, but she got a little nervous in rooms with people she didn't know properly. I really wanted to try and get her to work through it, which was why I wanted to, at some point, get to Wakasagihime at the Misty Lake and find out more about that Grassroots Youkai Network of hers. It'd give Yamame something to do on the surface, too. Finally, I said to Tenshi that I was working on it.

It had been a few days since I had left the caves, so I was forced to stop for a few moments at the entrance to get used to the light again. Tenshi, not content to lose her bet, began to push me forward, despite the fact that I was stumbling around blindly. "You know, it'd be really good if you actually became a celestial. Then, you wouldn't be doing all this stumbling around stuff." Well, great, but I didn't much fancy getting attacked by Shinigami for being alive, so I was happy to decline. My eyes had recovered slightly, so I cracked them open just enough to stop myself from tripping over my own feet. There wasn't any rain, but it was bitterly cold. Surprisingly, my clothes seemed to be holding rather well against the weather, which I could only attribute to Yamame's prowess. She must have sewed in something thermal when she was designing the clothes. Of course, my coat was as warm as ever, so I had that going for me.

We were in the village faster than I'd ever made the journey, perhaps because Tenshi wouldn't stop pushing me faster and faster. My curiosity burning over, I asked her just what this bet she'd made was. "Well, er, if I win, Reimu has to let me host festivals at the Hakurei Shrine for two weeks, and if she wins, I have to come and help fix up the Shrine for winter." That...seemed like a bit of an unfair trade. "Well, I was bored! I didn't think I'd have to deal with you stumbling around like a drunk or getting kissed so hard that you couldn't remember your own name! Now, come on and keep moving!"

The village was probably starting to get used to weird sights like this, because I was surprised to not see myself getting all that much attention for showing up in this outfit and getting pushed around by a blue haired girl. At least, until I saw Kogasa Tatara walking out of a shop, a paper bag in her arms. Her eyes caught mine, and I immediately knew what was about to happen, so I broke into a sprint toward her right as she dropped the bag, which I just barely managed to catch before it hit the ground. "V-Vengeful spirit!" She stammered, her mismatched eyes widening comically as I shoved the back into her hands and patted her on the head. "Uwah! He's supposed to be dead!" She cried, turning and sprinting in the opposite direction.

>Kogasa visits the village to look for anon
>Villagers say that he disappeard days ago