/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46129515
"and... done." Goro said as he put one last crease into his latest creation.

The paper thing, crude as it was, came to life, and quickly began to crawl all about me in his lap. I squirmed a bit, wondering if this thing was some kind of insect, but when It crawled up my hand and it's eyes looked in two different directions I knew what it was.

"A Chameleon. Cute." I said, rubbing the things paper-thin chin with my nail.

"Ughh. Maybe I'm not cut out for this craft. Damned leafs of paper always seem to go in the opposite direction of what I want." he bemoaned.

"Hey! I said 'it was cute', so stop trying to fish for pity!" I scolded him.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess your's is the only approval that counts. Well your's and their's." He said, looking out at the pile of burnt paper that stood a few meters from the bed. "Ready to give it another go?" he asked.

I nodded and flung the cursed paper Chameleon into the air, it soared, flailing around, before disappearing and reappearing in the same moment atop the pile of paper scraps. We both leaned forward in the bed, hopeful, until the thing crumpled and fell lifeless.

"Our kids aren't a fan of reptiles I suppose." Goro joked.

While we soaked in the HSE's bathes, paying no mind to the other clientele who were shooting us all kind of dirty looks, Goro got one of his awful ideas. Maybe, just maybe, we could send our soon to be kids, Oiwa and Tsukuyomi, some cursed paper dolls to keep them company.

It was probably a hopeless and foolish endeavor, we could barely navigate that place full of 'nothingness' well enough to show up where we wanted to when we became 'real' again, but trying to find our way within a place that didn't exist itself? Augh, it made my head hurt just thinking about it, so, it was probably pointless, sending little cursed paper doll after doll to our little cursed children, still, it passed the time well enough.

"Say, why name her Tsukuyomi? Are you trying to spite those Lunarian folk?" Goro asked as he placed a hand on my head.

"Yeah maybe I guess. Just figured people look down on the moon, but it lights up the entire night while the sun's off doing whatever, kind of badass right?" I asked.

"Ha, that it is, I'm sure she'll love it." he said after a moment, probably fighting some urge to correct me. Good on him to know when it's not wanted.

"They're both doing okay right?" I asked him, tilting my head back and leaning against his chest.

"Resting I think." Goro said with a smile. "Oiwa stirs more then Tsukuyomi does, but little Yomi cries louder when she wakes up. Strange that I can 'feel' them, yet we still can't 'find' them. It's starting to make me nervous."

"Bah, nervous about what? You saw how we dealt with Konngara and we can even keep pace with that vampire brat now, together, we're unstoppable." I cheered, but Goro's expression didn't change. "Let me guess, you're about to tell me all the reasons why we're screwed."

Goro pulled a sheet from the Tengu newspaper he'd been using as doll making material, instead of the more banal tomes I had retrieved for him. "Reimu-San beat us without lifting a finger, Kasen had you on the floor within less then a second, Mokou would've burnt us to cinders if Keine-Sensei hadn't been there, and if Yuuka or Yuugi had a little less tact, we'd be dead."

"Well that was then and this is now right? We can react almost instantly with those 'raycasts' you're always putting out, travel instantly, plunge our opponents into nothingness, and turn whatever we need to on it's head right?"

For a moment, Goro thought on this, but ultimately shook his head. "If this was the typical danmaku you've been playing in and I've watched since time immemorial that might be the case. We can 'blink' ourselves and attacks sent against us, reflect abilities, and a few other tricks, but what if that doesn't work on that strange ability Yuugi has? Or what if Okina somehow opens a door in our brains? And then there's that legendary vengeful spirit magician, Mima, if she's anything like Hijiri, she's probably been making spells the likes of which nobody has seen! On top of all that, we're operating as a team. If they separate us, get us too far away from the HSE, or take one of us out, we'll be down."

"Okay, all those grannies have a strength or two to play to, but you want to know how I dodged all of that back in my rebel days? I played dirty and broke all their codes. They're all to smug because they've had it good for too long at the top of the hierarchy that they can't even fathom someone like you or I could put up a fight. Plus, they don't even know about the kind of stunts we can pull now! I can't wait to show that fiery-headed flower woman who's boss and...and why are you looking at me like that?" I asked him.

"They definitely know." He said.