/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Momoyo's eyes widened slightly. "A human? Marryin' a tsuchigumo?" Everyone did seem to struggle a little bit with that, even when they'd just found out that Yamame and I were together. "The surface world's just full of surprises, ain't it?" I opened my mouth to say that technically, Yamame was from the underground too, but Kisami clearly didn't want the interruption.

"Something like that." She said, slapping a hand down on my shoulder. "Anyway, that's what I'm here for. Same as always, you know? I come down here for the materials you aren't using. You've got plenty of gold to spare, don't you?"

Momoyo rolled her neck. Now that the conversation was between her and Kisami, I finally got a chance to take in her appearance, and it was a curious thing indeed. Her hair was a pale colour, something that might have been blue, lightened almost to the limit. As pale as blue could be, even more so than Keine's hair. There were tones to it, with a lot of her hair being a darker sort of grey where it wasn't that pale blue. Her hair was messy at the top, sticking up in long spikes on the right side of her head, almost as if it were on purpose. Despite that, her hair was long, hanging down past her lower back, but it was curiously straight here. It hung in thick strands, some darker and some lighter, flowing over the shovel that she'd strapped to her back. Her eyes, too, were a pale blue, but they looked slightly like they were cloudy. I wondered if it was a trick of the light, or if her vision wouldn't be particularly good if she came to the surface.

Her clothes were curious, as well. A shirt, black with yellow patterns, and a short skirt in the same colours, but both were covered in green rings. They were hooked to the sleeves, to her collar and acting sort of like a belt around her waist, then even more around the bottom of her skirt. It was something like this that she was using for hooking the shovel to her back. On her arms and legs, big orange bows wrapped around the limbs. Three on each arm, five on her left leg, then...Strangely, there were only four on her right leg. Had she run out? Another bow was on her back, too. I could see the sides of it from where I stood in front of her.

"-Don't need that junk, anyhow. The dragon gems are enough for me." Momoyo was now leaning on her pickaxe, which she was resting on the floor. "Ain't lyin', though. I'm itchin' for a fight and I know that ya can give me one." She grinned, showing off a set of very sharp teeth. "C'mon, I know ya enjoy a good scrap, too."

"Only sometimes..." Ki replied slowly. I saw her eyes flick upwards. "But..." She leaned in a little closer. "There was a hole in the wall today." She finally murmured. "On the staircase. And, call me crazy, but I don't think I want to attract whatever's up there into coming down here."

To my surprise and more than a bit of relief, Momoyo didn't seem to want to tangle with that, either. She straightened up, her mouth set in a slightly more grim line. "Up on the staircase? For real?" Ki nodded. "Hell." She muttered, looking down. "Good thing ya listened to me when I told ya the story." Curious and hopeful that she'd be able to dispel some of the fears I had, I asked Momoyo what she knew about that tunnel. "Ain't no tunnel through there. Least, ain't one I've dug, and I dug the staircase." She shook her head, actually looking a little haunted. "Only seen it a few times myself. Came down through there once, and there's this hole in the wall that I ain't never seen before. Worse, I can't see into it." I supposed that youkai could see in the dark better than I could, which only made it more worrying that Momoyo couldn't see through there either. "So, I poked my head through." I raised my eyebrows. Given the way it had made me feel, I couldn't even conceive of doing that. What had happened? "Well...Nothing. Felt the worst fear I've ever felt in my life. And then I realised that I could hear something. Sounded like someone cryin'." Had she checked?