/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46459800
“The Suzunaan seems to be doing pretty well for itself lately , I saw you got plenty of new stock. How your husband? We never did get the chance to meet” Anon said. A simple and boring question, but the most one could do when freely exchanging information would be punished.

“We’re doing well enough. I’m always looking out for new stock, so I was lucky enough to snag these out for a good price” That much was true, I had gotten plenty of new books in lately. The truth was it was as much about as giving the Suzunaan more stock as it was therapy for me. I had always been happy with books. Reading them was something that I always loved. But the act of collecting them, of having more was something that had always made me happy. Not just youma books, but any book. Finding books on topics I enjoyed, finding books on things I never even heard of. Getting a big pile of books and flipping through them, carefully organizing them and watching my shelves fill out. Finally managing to finish a collection or series of books and feeling proud I owned the full set. Nobody else really understood it, Even Akyuu found it strange how much I enjoyed simply collecting books, and my husband simply accepted it as a quirk that came with running a bookstore. The only one that seemed to understand was the librarian from the Scarlet Devil Mansion from the very few and short conversations we had over the years. Even then it was hard to tell when she was being serious or not. From the very moment I had learned the truth about Anon’s imprisonment I had been putting much more effort into getting stock for the Suzunaan. At least my customers apereractied it. “Kato is well, thank you. Maybe the two of you can meet up after this is over. ”

“Your kids still causing you some trouble?” Anon nods, a slick smile on his face.

“No, they’ve been good. It’s just that sometimes I think I don’t know what I’m doing. If I say the wrong thing or do the wrong thing, it might be bad for them” I sigh out. Pushing my problems onto someone who had so many already was selfish, but the confused faces of my children were stuck in my mind.

“Well, nobody said raising kids would be easy. Did something happen with them recently?” He says, his practiced mask slipping a bit to show some concern.

“Well, kind of. I made a decision recently that I think they might not really understand. It might have ruined their option of me” It was the best way to put it. I had told my children I had broken one of the great laws of the village, the one told to them over and over again since they could talk.

Anon looked me for a second. Did he suspect I was hiding a lot from him? Of course he did. “Kids are complex” he finally said “Sometimes it seems like they soak up everything like a sponge, other times they live in ignorance. You can never be sure when they’ll get upset over something. You’re lucky in a way. At the age Daisuke and Fumiko are, they’re quick to forgive these things. I mean, do you still hold grudges towards your parents for something that happened when you were that age?”

I honestly couldn’t think of anything. Of course, there had been a few times where I had made things difficult or them or had been scolded, but I never hated them for how they treated me. Of course, they weren’t secretly working with youkai.

“Whatever you did, it’s good you came clean. Kids have a knack of finding out things that they shouldn’t and as long as they can live a childhood without much worry, they’ll forgive you” With those words, the real Anon showed up. Not the dutiful husband who had a smile for everyone that walked through the door and existed for their own desires. But the man who had spent far too long just trying to keep his head above a sea of misery and found his life becoming worse by no means of his own. Just what had he and Hana gone through?

He grips his tea cup, looking off into the distance. “When Hana was born, I thought things would change. Reimu stopped drinking for the babies sake and everyone seemed so eager to forgive her. Me included” He sighed “When she started to abuse me again, all I wanted was to make sure Hana would never find out. I told her so many lies back then, I thought it was for her own good. Looking back, I was so stupid to think I could keep it up forever, but the idea of her finding out just made me-” he suddenly cuts off.