/jp/ - Otaku Culture

With a grown, Reimu smacked her in the back with her gohei. "I heard that, you washed-up waste of space!" Somehow, I thought that it was possible that Tenshi had hit a nerve. At that point, they started to move out of my hearing, so I looked back at Raki, who hadn't moved all that much. She was still staring out over the courtyard at the front of the Shrine, which was suddenly much busier. In fact, I saw what looked like some more stands being set up, which I found slightly mystifying. This close to midnight? Although, come to think of it, it'd probably be better to do it around now, since this was the one night of the year where everyone was guaranteed to be staying up late, and we'd eaten hours earlier. Perhaps that poor rabbit had jumped ahead of everyone else and was now paying for it.

"Phew, too much choice!" I heard a voice say, and I turned to see that Komachi was suddenly on the roof. She'd found a coat, a thick and baggy thing that seemed to completely swallow her up, leaving just her head visible against the darkness. "Don't know how Yamame made it all the way here wearing all of those. I'd have passed out! It's like that on the Sanzu, you see, since it's warmer there and slightly more humid, so if you wore that many coats, you'd be sweating so much you'd sink my poor Titanic! In fact, once..." She continued talking, but I stopped making sense of it eventually. Komachi did have a tendency to talk for a long time when she was feeling like it. Raising my hands, I asked her if she'd run into Kisami while she was looking. "Huh? Oh, yeah. She was in Reimu's room with Yamame and that schoolteacher. Her and Yamame were hugging when I went in there, and they were talking when I left. That's fine, right?" I nodded, pleased that it seemed like they'd sorted out Yamame's annoyance.

"What's happening?" Raki asked blankly. "I thought this was my peace and quiet zone, but now there's some loudmouth here, and the entire party has moved to my view." She gazed pointedly at Komachi, who laughed and scratched her head. Raki smiled slightly too. "Well, maybe it's time I stopped sitting up here on my own, anyway." She looked at me with a slight smile. "Thanks. For talking to me." I smiled and nodded. Any time she needed, I said. "Can I - Um..." She awkwardly opened her arms before closing them again. "No, sorry, I shouldn't-" But I rolled my eyes and stepped forward to wrap my arms around her first. "O-Oh!" She sounded a little surprised, but she still managed to keep her strength completely under control. I squeezed gently and told her that I would keep believing in her. To my surprise, I saw the faintest of blushes appear over her face. "Um...Thank you." She mumbled, squeezing back one more time before letting go. She nodded, then turned and dropped down from the rooftop and landed out of sight.

"Aw, how cute." Komachi muttered, throwing her arm over my shoulder. "You've got everyone going to you for hugs, don't you?" It just sort of happened, I replied. "Yeah, well, who doesn't want a hug from a bunch of cute girls?" Komachi did raise a good point, but my favourite hugs were from a specific cute girl, and she was possibly still in Reimu's room. "Oh, you've got a thinking face on." Komachi reached behind my ear, and when she pulled her hand back, there was a golden coin in it. "Care to tell me what you're thinking?" She asked with a cheeky smile. I simply rolled my eyes and told her that I was thinking about Yamame. "Aw, that's adorable. Y'know, I really wish I'd managed to get you before you'd become quite so smitten with Yamame. Ah, well...You definitely seem completely enraptured by her. I'd hate to come between that now." I thanked her for that. It would have been a little bit cruel to try and do something like that at this point, and I was glad that Komachi seemed to recognize that.