/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Just in time to see that massive tiger come flying out of the hole at top speed and crash into her, knocking her back so quickly that she couldn't contain her surprise. Then, the tiger wrapped its jaws around her arm again, and took off, dragging Suika behind it. She was just about able to see Kasen follow behind them sedately, and she tried to call out for Yuugi, but caught a glimpse of her and the arm trading blows hard enough to make them double over in turn. No, there was no way out of this one.

And suddenly, she was in the air. Her eyes widened as she spotted the cliff side and realised that Kasen's tiger had just leaped straight off the side of the cliff without any hesitation. Didn’t it have any survival instincts? Suddenly, it let go of her, and she was falling. She spotted it then, another hole opening up, and Kasen's tiger disappeared into it. It closed immediately, leaving Suika falling alone.

She could have taken to the air, but she was too busy laughing at how she'd been beaten. And she was still laughing when she crashed into the mountainside, bounced twice, and smashed into the water again.


"Oi, Yuugi." Suika lazily called from where she was sitting against the wall.

"What?"

"Now that the lightweights are tired out," She cast a glance at Yamame, Reimu and I, "Why don't us four," Indicating the four oni, "Go and have a real party?"

"You're not satisfied yet?" Lady Kasen asked. "Thought you'd gone soft in your old age for a moment."

"Ha! You're one to talk!" Raki laughed, elbowing Lady Kasen in the side. She flinched slightly from the hit and tried to hit the arm in the stomach in retaliation. "Never heard someone lecture so much in my life! We were never that bad before."

"That's what being an ally to humans is about." Lady Kasen defended, raising her bandaged hand in what I knew well as her lecturing pose. "Learning about your weaknesses and where your biggest failings are, and how you can work toward correcting them to ensure you live well. Reimu's habits are a constant worry, after all. And despite my hopes that someone," I worked very hard to not notice the way that Lady Kasen was pointedly not looking at me, "would stay by her side to look after her, it remains my duty to prevent her from falling further into squalor than she already has. In fact-" At this point, Yuugi apparently got bored.

"Oh, spare us, Kasen." Yuugi wrapped an arm around Lady Kasen's neck and began to drag her from the room despite her ineffectual protests. "At least until I'm drunk enough to ignore it."

But then, the party stopped at the doorway. "...Huh." I heard Yuugi say. "What's..."

"Uh-oh." I heard Lady Kasen mutter under her breath. "Ko-!"

In an instant, I saw all of the oni go flying past the doorway and down the corridor. Then, Komachi Onozuka burst through the doorway, still dressed in her work clothes. "Oh, good! You're all here!" She rushed toward Reimu and I, sparing only the slightest pause to glance confusedly at Yamame, who was still very drunk and didn't seem up to much but looking back blearily. "Why are there a bunch of oni in Kasen's house!? Is she being attacked!? Is the arm staging a rebellion!? Do we need to defend her!?"

"Uh, we were having a party." Reimu said, scratching her head. "They're all friends. I think. Did you just...?" I heard stomping down the hallways.

"A party..." Komachi trailed off, then looked behind her. "Oh. I may have...jumped ahead slightly."

"Here I am, having a nice time, and some idiot Shinigami decides to hurl us all down a corridor!" I heard Yuugi stomping back down the hallway toward us. "Maybe she needs to be hurled somewhere." She stood in the doorway, a murderous look on her face. "How about off a cliff!?"