/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Orin pushed open the doors and stepped aside, one hand on her waist in a slight bow and the other indicating that we should head inside. Yamame stepped in first, and I followed before having to abruptly throw my hands in front of me to catch the door when Orin just so happened to stop holding it open as I got there. I looked over at her, and she pointedly stared at me as if she was staring through me. Sighing, I pushed the door back open and stepped through, holding it open for Orin after me. No sign of a thank you, as expected.

Inside, the Palace began to shed some of the otherworldliness that it showed in the hallways, replacing the strange lighting with much warmer lamps and rich red carpets. The parlour consisted of multiple couches and single seats arranged around the room, with two opposite each other by an old-looking table. "If you would wait here, my Lady Satori shall be with you soon." The kasha said with a light bow, disappearing through a set of doors on the other side of the room.

We were left alone. "I can't help but feel like she has something against you." Yamame said dryly, and I snorted. What tipped her off? "Well, the refusal to acknowledge your existence was one thing." She shrugged. "I guess we'll just have to wait. Where should we sit?" I surveyed the room, wandering over to a chair from which I could see both the doors we'd entered from and the door that Orin had left through.

"Hey! This is my seat! Wait, don't sit on me again! You look like you'd be really heavy now. You were already heavy then!" I thought for a moment, then decided that a single chair wasn't really the right thing, so I beckoned Yamame over to the couch next to the table instead. "Good!"

"Here?" Yamame asked. I nodded, since it meant Satori would be across the table from us. "Yeah, I suppose that makes sense." She nodded back, taking a seat on the couch. I sat down too, and silence reigned, even if I felt like I was hearing something. "Is there a fly in here?" Yamame asked, frowning. I didn't think this seemed the sort of place to get flies, really. "Hmm...No, I suppose not. The other pets would get them first." She rested her chin on her hand, looking pensive. "You didn't seem very sure about this one." She finally said. "Inviting her." I sighed and sat back against the couch, letting my head fall back to stare at the ornate ceiling. No, I supposed I hadn't. It wasn't easy.

"What isn't?"

"I - Well, plenty of people struggle with Satori." Yamame said, chewing on her little fingernail. "You're still holding a bit of a grudge against her, right? From her unlocking your memories?"

"Big Sis did that? Wow, that's nice of her! Wait, but why would you be holding a grudge, then...?"

It had hurt, I replied with a heavy sigh. And she'd not seemed particularly bothered by the pain. It was just to sate her curiosity. "I know." Yamame replied slowly. "It's - I mean, I get it, I think. But she wanted to be friends, right?"

"She did!? Hooray! Big Sis always acts all superior around people because she thinks that reading minds is really powerful, but it means that no one wants to get closer to her..."

I supposed that I could do my best. I was about to say more when the door that Orin had disappeared through slammed open, and Orin herself stepped back through, a mighty frown on her face. "My - My Lady Satori has requested your presence." She finally said, her voice now very measured. "Please follow me." She turned immediately and stomped back through the door.

"I bet she said that Orin couldn't just leave you in here until she was ready, huh?" I got to my feet and pulled Yamame up so we could rush through the door before Orin disappeared. "I'll come in a bit! Bye for now!" Pushing through the door as it shut, I saw Orin disappear down a hallway to the left.

"Well, she doesn't look too happy." Yamame muttered to me as we jogged after Orin. Turning down the hallway, we caught sight of her waiting at a door on the other end. "How much would you bet that Satori wouldn't let her just leave us in there?" I didn't think it was worth betting on what was almost certainly true, I replied. "Spoilsport." Yamame said, smiling slightly.

At the end of the hallway, Orin opened the door for Yamame and immediately stopped holding the door for me, just as she had before. I ignored it this time and just pushed straight through, emerging in what looked to be a massive dining room. There was a lengthy table, full of polished silverware in the centre of the room, and around it, red carpeted floor. At the edges of the room, there were gargantuan crimson curtains, held by thick ropes to show the large glass windows that let out onto a courtyard lit by the soft glow of several more lamps. The wall behind the table had two doors, which I imagined led to the kitchen, and a raised platform which looked as if it might once have been used for banquets in the past. In the present, there was only one occupied place at the table.

"No, dear me." Satori said, snapping her fingers in front of Okuu's face and pointing a finger at the ground. "Down, Okuu." The hell raven slowly - mirroring the way Yamame and I had been moving when we'd woken up - crouched down, and then I could see Orin, somehow nestled between her wings. "You were not sleeping, dear." She stroked Orin's hair, and the kasha looked pleased, even if she was also hungover. "You were watching in glee, thinking that you'd finally get the catch you've been waiting years for." The pleased look on Orin's face immediately disappeared. "Perhaps your hangover has made you forget your duties. Or perhaps you've forgotten the ultimate abilities I possess? Is a training session in order, my cute little kasha?"

"N-No, no, Lady Satori!" Orin frantically shook her head, then whined and clutched it with both hands. "I'm sorry..." She mumbled with a lot of pain in her voice.

"Um, Lady Satori...?" Okuu mumbled. "Can I get up now? My head hurts..."

"I know it does, dear." Satori told her, petting Okuu's head this time. "Get up. We'll be home soon." Okuu gratefully clambered to her feet.

"What, er..." Yamame whispered to me. "What's going on here...?" I shrugged and said that the Hot Springs Town must have been playing host to comedy acts recently.

"No, I am not a comedy act." Satori told me frostily. "Perhaps you and your spider - Yes, he calls you that - will understand one day in the future." I opened my mouth to reprimand her for revealing- "You will not be doing any reprimanding. And stop thinking about what I mean by what I say. You'll not understand, and it creates a rather distracting amount of background noise. Rather, you should practice not thinking. It would save me a great deal of trouble." Like Koishi, I thought, then felt rather surprised that I'd been allowed to finish the thought. "Koi-" I frowned. Satori had frozen. "Koishi?" She asked me slowly.

"Stupid human has upset Lady Satori." I heard Orin mutter, and when she spotted me glancing at her, she stuck her tongue out and pulled her eyelid down. "Stupid human deserves any punishment he receives." It seemed that her hangover was taking a toll on the way she spoke.

"Koishi Komeiji?" Satori asked me again, and I nodded slowly. "You've met her? You could see her!?" I slowly nodded again, but it had been a very weird meeting, so- "She was selling T-shirts in the human village? And she wants - Wants us to be...friends?" And there was the kicker. "I...See. And she's decided that you and she are friends now?" I- "Oh, I see. Well, then. I suppose I will simply have to extend the hand of friendship to you too, even if you don't believe it." Satori extended her arm, and I stared at it suspiciously. "You wouldn't want to upset my dear little sister, would you?" She asked me, and I realised that I really didn't have much of a choice, so I reached out and shook her hand. "There. That wasn't so difficult, was it?" It had- "It had been fairly difficult, hmm? Baby steps, then. Orin?"

"Lady Satori asks me the impossible." Orin grumbled, peeking over Okuu’s ribbon. "Her dear kasha cannot perform the impossible with a pounding head."

Okuu frowned, trying to look at Orin, which wasn't entirely possible since the kasha was clinging to Okuu's back. "Wait, so you can perform the impossible if-"