/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"What are you talking about?" Reimu asked pointedly. "That's some oni friend of Suika's, isn't it?" I nodded and said that she might have been from Hell. "What's she got to do with Kasen? Have those mushrooms finally consumed your brain? Are you some sort of mushroom Marisa now?" She looked between Tenshi and I. "Mushrisa? Marishroom?"

"Marishroom has a better ring to it." Tenshi commented, planting a hand in Marisa's hair and ruffling it. "She needs to wash her hair more thoroughly, so no mushroom spoors get in there." Reimu elbowed me in the side - No doubt wanting to gloat about how they were totally in a relationship, so I casually poked her in the nape of her neck, which instantly made her knees weak. The game was not over yet. "What's wrong with you two?" Tenshi asked with a frown. Nothing, I replied innocently before exclaiming in slight pain when Reimu punched me in the arm. "...Right. Anyway, what the hell is she on about? She's been muttering about clones ever since those two," Here Tenshi nodded in the direction of Ibaraki and Ibaraki, "Showed up." I was sure that Tenshi had already realised what was going on, but she'd been kind enough to keep it a secret. This was confirmed when she looked at me from behind Marisa, then frowned and mouthed a question. "I thought she was supposed to be a secret?" While Marisa was focused on Reimu, I mouthed back that it was a long story.

"Look, I'm not that drunk! And I've been staying off the mushrooms!" Marisa exclaimed, crossing her arms. She'd seemed plenty drunk earlier. "Pfft, like Reimu's collection could do any damage to me. My system's been consuming a heady diet of-"
"Mushrooms, dubious mushrooms, mushrooms that smell weird, mushrooms that look weird, not enough meat, and definitely not enough nutrients." Reimu filled in for her. "That's why you're still so short." Marisa growled, then tried to hit Reimu. Reimu, not having drunk nearly as much as I'd have thought she had, merely shifted her body just slightly to the right and allowed Marisa's balance to tip. She stumbled forward and Reimu moved her arm out, catching Marisa by her waist when she began to fall. "Alright, now that that's over with...Can you please explain what you're talking about? I can only withstand so many weird distractions before I want to punch you even more than I normally do."

"Don't try and lie to me, Reimu. It'll never work. You'd never punch me." I had a feeling that this was probably not as true as Marisa seemed to think that it was. "That oni, the pink haired one." Marisa finally got back to her feet and turned to look at Raki, who'd crossed her arms and seemed to have gotten herself back on track for dealing with the brown-haired girl she was talking to. "I've never seen her before. Where'd she come from, really? Don't just say Hell. Those guys are all workers." She looked back at Reimu with her eyes narrowed. "From the back, I thought she looked familiar..."

"Just your drugged-up imagination, probably." Reimu replied lazily. "No idea who she is. I can't keep track of everyone who shows up to the New Year's Eve party, Marisa. You love this sort of investigative stuff, don't you? Why don't you go and find out?"

Marisa shook her head. "No, that's not - Hang on - I'm the one who loves this investigative stuff? This coming from the girl who knows more about Agatha Chris Q's books than she does about her own religion? Don't you have a whole detective getup in your closet?" That, I thought, was a hit for Marisa, because Reimu grit her teeth and looked away. I'd found that funny hat and cloak of hers in her wardrobe once, actually. I'd assumed it was just a coincidence that a character in one of Agatha Chris Q's books had worn a very similar getup. "A-Anyway, my point is, don't you think she looks just a little bit too similar to Kasen?"

And here was the flaw in our plan. I wasn't sure that Reimu had ever thought beyond the disguise part of dressing up Raki and over to the part about what to actually say if someone started getting close to the truth. And more importantly - And I was really kicking myself for this - I'd forgotten something hugely important.

Raki had an aversion to lying.

We'd all forgotten, apparently. Oni hated lies; It was always a part of their history. It didn't mean that they couldn't lie, but they didn't enjoy it, and Raki had told me in particular that she didn't lie. So...How was this whole disguise plan working out? No one seemed to have started raising a fuss about her, so I could only surmise that nothing had come to pass yet. Perhaps she was just a lot better at creatively rewording the questions she was being given so that she didn't have to lie. Lady Kasen had even said that their plan was more to just act really annoyed when confronted with questions rather than outright lying, too.