/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Maybe...Maybe they won't want to see you. But...that doesn't mean you have to have no one." Tenshi looked up at Yamame. "It's, um, maybe a little bit rich of me to say, but, um, I think you can create a new family here on the surface." Yamame knew very well that she'd been the one to back out of the meeting between her human, Reimu, Tenshi and Marisa at the café in the human village recently, and she'd done it because she was nervous. "I don't think your family has to be someone you're related to. It just has to be someone you care for." This wasn't Yamame's area of expertise, and she wished her human was here, but Reimu had looked like she needed cheering up too, so she had to do her best. "Like, um, Marisa? You care for her a lot, don't you?" It certainly sounded like it from what Yamame's human had told her about the two of them. "Reimu and my human, too. I think you probably have a bigger family than you realise." It probably wasn't as good a speech as her human could give, but she'd tried her best. In fact, she was thinking about family a lot lately. Strange.

And happily for her, Tenshi seemed fairly receptive to it. Or, at least, she didn't tell her to go and kick rocks. "Maybe...Yeah. Maybe you have a point." She looked up at the sky and drew a breath in. "I'm being unfair. Of course, there are people on the surface that I like." She looked back at Yamame. "Thanks. For being willing to talk to me. I think a lot of people wouldn't have wanted to." She exhaled heavily. "So, uh, this crack?" She looked down at the bit of the roof that they'd been crouched over.

"Oh, uh...Yeah." Yamame was a little surprised at how quickly she'd managed to switch back to the work they were doing, but she supposed that Tenshi was just shutting it out for now. "Have you got anything to replace it with?"

"There was some stuff in storage, yeah...Over there." She pointed Yamame over to the other side of the roof, where Yamame found some fresh roof pieces that they could replace the cracked one with.

She carried one over just in time to see that Tenshi had already cut the piece of roof out and was now talking into the hole. "What are you doing down there?" She asked bemusedly. "Why are you in bed?"

Reimu shouted back up, so Yamame leaned over as Tenshi shuffled back so she could get in, and she explained the problem as best she could. Her human and Reimu were both lying on the floor right under the hole in the roof, a blanket over them and - If Yamame was seeing it right - the coat she had made for her human. "It'll be fine. Trust me." Yamame finished her explanation of the problem with the roof, hoping that Reimu wouldn't decide to come and supervise it personally.

Fortunately, Reimu decided not to come up to the roof, so Yamame and Tenshi managed to get the hole repaired as quickly as they could, and before they knew it, they were done. Hopping down from the roof, they almost crashed into Ran, who was removing and replacing several of the storm shutters. Chen, it seemed, was working on some water damage to the veranda, since Yamame caught sight of her coming around the corner from the back of the Shrine. She caught Yamame's eye and gave a happy wave, which Yamame returned with a smile. She was certainly a nice girl, and Yamame hadn't been lying when she'd said that she would like to see her again. Finally, they pulled open the door to Reimu's room and stepped inside.


I found myself hugging Yamame tighter as she explained the speech she had given to Tenshi. "I, er, don't know if it'll really work, but I hope that it helped." Yamame was saying. "I don't think I'm much of a speech giver." I shook my head and replied that she was too kind to not be able to give a good speech about something like that. "Probably not as good as you, though." She mumbled, and I told her that all I tried to do was tell people why I cared. It was the best I could do, so I would keep doing it until it worked, or I couldn't say anything more, and at least I'd know that I had tried my best. I thought that her words to Tenshi had been exactly what she'd needed. It had been a lesson I had taken a while to learn. "Do you, um, ever think that my family is...Too much?" Yamame asked me, fidgeting slightly. "Like...There's too many of us? Like we get on your nerves?" I didn't have to think much before I told her that I didn't think anything of the sort. For someone like me, a massive family was the sort of thing I'd never had, and getting to see Yamame with all of her sisters made me happy. "...Thanks." Yamame whispered. "I love you." I loved her too, and I didn’t think I’d get tired of saying it.

Once it was too cold and Yamame started to look like she was shutting down again, we slipped back inside and lay down next to Reimu, who I caught smiling a little in her sleep when I wrapped my arms around her. Yamame lay on my other side, her head pressed against my shoulder, and I smiled up at the recently repaired ceiling. Family was nice.