/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Once we'd come back to Suika's temporary room, the situation had changed slightly. Suika had finally hopped from the bed and pulled a pack of cards from somewhere that I recognized as hanafuda cards. Even though we hadn't been gone for long, she and Yuugi were looking desperate to get into a match. "Oh, there's a third and a fourth. Want to play?" Suika asked us, lifting up the cards. I was about to say yes, but I felt a strong sense of foreboding, and before I knew it, I had declined the offer politely. "Oh, my cards not good enough for you?" Suika's voice took on a slight edge and I suddenly wondered if I could run to Reimu before she could punch my head off, but then Suika relaxed. "Nah, just kidding. Oni and humans don't have the best of history when it comes to hanafuda matches. What about you, Kurodani?" She turned her attention to Yamame, who squeaked and looked around. “Can I call you Yamame?”

"Um, me? I don't really know much about hanafuda." She sounded apologetic. "I could try, I guess?" At the very least, I doubted that Yamame would be in fatal danger if she lost. Or won, actually. "Just, um, take it easy on me?" Yamame belatedly nodded. “Oh, um, you can call me Yamame, too.”

And Suika dealt in both Yamame and Yuugi, leaving me to sit beside them and watch with my arms and legs crossed. "Oh, let's get on with the story while we're playing." She looked back up at me. "Won't get distracted again, trust me." I shrugged and said that I was happy to listen. "Alright, so Yuugi punched Kasen in the face right? Wham! She went flying! Oh, it was great..."


The window broke with little effort. Apparently, Kasen hadn't oni-proofed her own window. Or maybe Yuugi had just put all of her strength into it. Either way, the end result was one hermit sent flying into thin air, surrounded by shards of broken glass, three floors off the ground. Hardly a threat, but quite the image, nonetheless. Suika put her hands on her hips and watched with some amusement, though it was tempered by annoyance that she wasn't the one doing it. At least, until she noticed something white flying toward her at speed. She caught on just in time to see that it was a hand. A bandaged hand. "Oh-ho...!" Suika felt a smile beginning to grow as the bandaged hand crashed into her chest and clenched a handful of the white fabric of her shirt.

Yuugi turned to her in annoyance. "What? This one was meant to be mine!" She reached out for Suika just in time for the bandaged hand to yank, dragging the smallest oni into the air. She went hurtling forward, just barely missing the shard of glass still embedded into the window frame, and then she was in open air, just in time to see Kasen dragged Suika toward her. She must have been slowing the rate of her descent, because she surely should have hit the ground by now. The bandaged hand snapped back into the shape of an arm, and Kasen spun in mid-air so she was above Suika. Her face had transformed, the listless energy replaced with seething anger. It was a delightful thing to see, and Suika was already laughing herself hoarse as Kasen's bandaged hand moved to her throat, and suddenly they were falling at speed. Suika's laugh only grew until she was suddenly smashed into the ground hard enough to embed her into it. Her legs and arms involuntarily were thrown upwards, and then slammed down unceremoniously into the ground beside her. She heard a loud cracking sound and knew immediately that a crater had probably formed around her. "Hey!" Suika tried to shift her head just enough to see Yuugi leaning out of the shattered window. Kasen's head whipped around and she growled. Actually, honestly growled. "Here I am, punching you in the face, and you thank me by attacking someone else!? You've sure changed, haven't you!?"

Kasen turned back to Suika, reared back her fist, then drove it into Suika's stomach so hard that her entire body was pushed further into the ground. "Don't you move." She murderously whispered. Suika let out a lazy agreement, happy to see where this avenue led. Kasen turned, crouched down as if she was about to jump, only to suddenly stop. Up above, there was a voice, and it wasn't Yuugi.

"No one's punching her lights out without me watching!" Suika's eyes widened. That had been Kasen. Except, Kasen was here, so it was the arm. And then, she heard the impact of someone being punched. She involuntarily burst out laughing as Yuugi was sent flying through the window too, all of the impact clearly to her face, since her entire body limply followed.