/jp/ - Otaku Culture

I could hear Yamame and Reimu having an indistinct conversation upstairs, their voices murky and quiet. They continued for a while longer, before Reimu came back down to grab me. "She - Uh, I'm not sure." Reimu told me with a confused frown. What was that supposed to mean? "I mean, she said that she should stay and work on what she's working on, but then kept fidgeting like she wanted to go. So...I'm not entirely sure."

Confused now, I called up to Yamame, and within the minute, I heard her footsteps coming over to the ledge, then saw her face peering down at me. "Yes?" She asked, her hair hanging down to look rather strange from my perspective. Did she want to come? "I - Er, no, I should...Work on this..." She vaguely gestured behind her. "Wedding's too soon and I've still got more to do..." She wasn't overworking herself, was she? I asked her with some concern. "Hmm, I might be...But it's just for the wedding, so I think that if there's any good reason to overwork, that's one of them." She paused for a moment. "But I do want to...No, I should stay - Argh, this is really hard!" She squatted down on the ledge, running her hands over her face. "I just feel like I'm pushing up on the time limits that I set up in my head for all of this stuff. I have got to have it all ready in time." Maybe she needed to take a break. If only so that she could resume it feeling more like she had things under control. "But - Taking a break just means that I don't have things under control!"

Yamame leaned her head against her hand, which itself rested on her knee. "Ugh...But I'm not making any progress anyway..." She let out a long, pained sigh. "Reiko and Ki always say the same thing. "Go to bed early, Yams!", and "Don't work for at least another five hours today, dear sister!" Stuff like that." It sounded like they were just looking out for her health and I wasn't about to let her disregard that, so my next words were in the same vein. Come with us and don't think about work for a few hours, Yamame. I tried my best approximation of Yamame's scolding tone, though it didn't seem to work quite so well on the definite article. But, fortunately, working a bit was good enough. "...Fine~" She finally said, drawing out the word. "But if I'm pulling my hair out by the start of April, that'll be your fault." If she was, I'd gladly accept it. Rubbing her eyes, Yamame hopped down to land between Reimu and me. "I'd better put something warmer on..." She mumbled on the way to her bedroom. She'd still been wearing those baggy shorts that I liked for...Reasons. "Trousers, I think..." She said as she entered her room and pulled the door shut behind her.

"She's not usually that hard to convince, right?" Reimu muttered to me, raising an eyebrow. I shook my head. Usually, she wasn't too bad. I thought that it was likely that the wedding was looming in her mind too and it was making it difficult to concentrate. "Wow. I never really have that problem, though. I just relax until it's time to deal with things, and then I deal with them." Must be nice, I thought. Yamame reminded me of Seiran trying to find a way out of accepting that thick cloak from the villager who often visited her stand. I wondered if I should have invited him to the wedding. Well, he might have just shown up anyway. It seemed like that sort of thing. Seiran might have shown up too. Who was handling that, anyway? "Well - Er, I think that since it's happening in the Garden of the Sun, everyone has to go through Yuuka and Kisami for permission. Which...Basically means that everyone who wants to sell food has gone to Kisami because Yuuka scares them." That was a little unfair to Miss Yuuka, but it wasn't entirely unexpected, I supposed. "Fortunately, Kisami is, er...The way she usually is, so everyone's been fine going to her. It's sort of like a festival, in that regard." I thought for a moment, then decided that I was okay with that as long as it wasn't getting in the way.

"You know, I'm surprised that you wanted to invite so many people." Reimu said, playing with a strand of her hair. "Neither of you necessarily seemed all that...I don't know, keen on massive audiences." I was okay with it, I replied with a shrug. After dealing with Yamame's sisters in the Hot Springs Town, it was a lot easier to withstand. Yamame, I supposed was a different case, but she was used to dealing with her sisters, and she was strong beside that, so I knew that she would be fine. "It's so cute seeing how much faith you have in her." Reimu was smiling at me, and I laughed awkwardly and tried to stammer something about how I just trusted her implicitly. "No, don't try and justify it. It's fine. It just makes me feel...Happy." I blinked, then felt a small smile of my own tugging at my lips.

"Okay, okay!" Yamame yelled. The movement in her room was starting to quieten down, which probably meant that she was finished.

"Yamame!" Was the answer she got before something threw her to the floor, red hair going in every direction. "Oh, it's not even been that long but it feels like forever! How could you ignore your big sister like that!?" Kisami cried, showering Yamame with kisses despite her ineffectual protests. "Aw, you're so cute when you're embarrassed. Did you miss me? Ooh, why are your clothes all crumpled? What have you been up to?"

"Ki, get - Get off of me!" Yamame cried. She looked like she was struggling to breath. She looked over at me. "How come you're always refusing to help right when I need you to!?" I crossed my arms and frowned. What was wrong with having a sister who was so happy to see you? Yamame stared at me for a moment, and then a flash of shame came across her face. "...Sorry." She mumbled to me, then turned back to Kisami. "And, um, it's good to see you too, Ki, but please can I get up now?" Kisami looked like she was seriously considering the question, but finally relented and allowed Yamame to stumble up. The blonde spider came over to me while the red spider busied herself with meddling in Yamame's house. "I - I didn't mean-" I gently put my hand on her head and ruffled her hair, and I told her that I knew. "Sorry." She whispered again, and I hugged her tight. After I'd let go, she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and took in a deep breath. "Okay, Ki. How can I help you today?"

Kisami was currently rifling through Yamame's bookshelf. "Ooh, is this a book on - Oh, it's something about clothes." She replaced the book. "C'mon, Yams, don't you have anything on jewels? You know how much I like gemstones." At that, my gaze locked on her. Kisami knew about gemstones? "There's nothing pretty down there, and the only place for materials for stuff like rings is, uh...Hard to get to." Well, that settled it. I needed to talk to Kisami. Alone.

"I do apologize that you barged into my house and couldn't find anything to read, Ki." Yamame said dryly. "Is this a social visit? I can make some tea."

Kisami looked sorely tempted, but then shook her fiery hair. "Really sorry, Yams, but I can't stay. I'm actually here because we need a hand from you. The work's nearly done, but someone needs to talk to the bigwigs like Hoshiguma, and apparently," Here, Kisami's voice began to sound very exasperated, "I'm not allowed. I'm 'too mean', apparently. The nerve! From my own little sister Reiko, no less!"

Yamame and I exchanged a glance, since we'd seen Kisami's mean streak in action, and it had truly been a sight to behold. Three big, bad oni - Well, one and two halves, but still - shouted into complete silence. "So, you want me to-" Seeing an opportunity, I cut her off and said that I could do it. Yamame turned to me with a frown. "...You?" She asked incredulously. "Are you sure?" I nodded. I had plenty of experience talking to Lady Kasen, and I'd spoken a fair amount to both Yuugi and Suika. Besides, I was starting to feel like I was a bit of a burden around here, since I wasn't doing all that much to help. I wanted to do it so Yamame could have the time to do the work she wanted to do, and so I could earn my keep in a manner of speaking. Helping her out in some way would make me happy, more so than just holding things while she was working on clothes. Not that I didn't enjoy that too, because it meant that I could spend time with her.

Yamame stared at me for a few moments, then looked over at Kisami and raised a finger, before pulling me into her bedroom and closing the door. She turned and watched me. "I've never thought you were a burden. You take care of me, and I take care of you. Isn't that how it works?" She said quietly. I smiled a little, saying that I knew that she was too kind for that. Still, I wanted to go with Kisami so Yamame could work on Kagerou's hood instead, because I could tell how excited she was to work on it. "It could be dangerous." She told me. I promised her that I would be careful, and I would try to stay with Yamame's sisters when I could. "They'll take care of you, I think. Probably because the younger girls caught us, er, on the stairs." I felt my heart stir a little when Yamame said that. I couldn’t help it. It just got to me, hearing Yamame say that her family would take care of me. It felt…Really, really lovely. Yamame stared at me. "Thank you." She began. I cocked my head and asked her what she was thanking me for. "Just - For being with me." I smiled widely and nodded. Thank you for exactly the same, I said. "I'll come down as soon as I've finished." She told me, taking my hands. I shook my head and told her to take as much time as she needed. I'd be fine. "Are you sure?" I nodded and pulled her into a kiss. My spider sighed and put her hands on my chest. "Love you." She whispered. Love you too, I replied.

I hadn't expected the interior of a disease-manipulating youkai's home to be so...homely. As I stepped in and shut the front door behind me, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the door opened onto a spacious and open front room. The room was lit up by a light bulb in the centre of the ceiling. "You humans can't see all too well in the dark, but even we youkai like some more normal light from time to time. When we last did some work for the kappa, I was able to strike a bargain with them to set up some...power sources. I won't pretend to understand much of it, but we have electricity now." I didn't really know much about that either, but I supposed that it was good. A number of comfortable looking seats, not too dissimilar to the kind that I had seen when that silver-haired maid had been leading me through the Vampire's Mansion, littered the room.

I mentioned the similarity to Yamame. "They contracted us for some work, some number of years ago. 'A spot of destruction', they described it. Hardly, as we found when we arrived. A fair portion of the external walls were destroyed, along with an even fairer amount of the interior. Hardly the worst thing we've dealt with, but..." She shrugged. "Well, a nice challenge as far as redesigning went. The vampire's whims became something of an annoyance, but it all got done eventually." She stared at me blankly for a moment, and I stared back just as blankly. "Oh, you were asking about the furniture. Well, they were in the midst of a reshuffle as we worked, and at the end of it, there were plenty of leftovers. They paid us, but told us that if we wanted any of the spares, we were welcome to them." I asked just how much they'd left behind. "Oh, plenty. Nai, my sister who tried to take your head off earlier, has some of their assorted valuables squirreled away somewhere." I asked if I should be worried about that. "Hmm..." Yamame rubbed her chin. "Not...overly worried, no. It's possible that they'll continue to hold some resentment. If you're lucky, someone will distract them before long."

I could only hope, I supposed. Still, if Yamame was with me, they probably wouldn't attack me. Probably. I let my eyes travel across the rest of the front room. Aside from the seating, there was a ornate looking table that I suspected had also been pilfered from the mansion, as well as several cabinets and desks. Occupying a corner was a bookcase, filled from end to end. I couldn't tell what any of the books were, and I wondered if I'd even be able to read them. For all I knew they were written in...tsuchigumo language. Whatever that was. One thing of interest that I noticed was the lack of a staircase. I could see the point at which the roof above ended, which was obviously where the upper floor began, but there was no way up to it. Behind where Yamame stood in the middle of the room were a few more doors. I looked up at the higher floor, then at Yamame questioningly.

"I can fly, obviously, and failing that, I am a spider. A staircase seemed a little bit...unnecessary." Yamame explained, gesturing to the second floor. "That's my work area; I wanted it separate from the rest of my home." That made sense. "What was it you wanted, again?" Yamame asked with a frown. "Oh, warmer clothes. Right. Yeah, let's go up there, then. Hang on." Yamame stepped behind me and wrapped her arms around me. I felt myself lift from the floor and she hoisted me up, and then we were back on the ground before I knew it. "Mind your step." Yamame said, turning another circular thing on the wall and causing light to flood the room. Seeing how close I was to the ledge back down to the first floor, I stepped forward to put some distance between myself and it. I looked up to see that Yamame's work area was a very different space. In one corner sat various needles and equipment that I assumed was used for sewing. In another corner was a rough looking, large table, nothing like the ornate one downstairs. This one looked far more like a work station. "Like I said, dresses are my usual area of expertise, but when I am building for my sisters or myself, here is where I work."

>>44264626
it is a cute outfit