/jp/ - Otaku Culture

After that, as we'd practiced, we did the ritual offering to the Hakurei god. For a split second, I thought I'd felt the branch heat up in my hand, but it stopped right away. Then, it happened again, for a different amount of time. As I rotated it, placed it down, and clapped twice, I wondered if the god was confused about whether or not to be happy about what was happening. Following that, Reimu poured some sake into each of the cups at the table, as well as for Yamame and me, before explaining that it signified all of the family members - And in my case, found family - doing their best to support Yamame and me. Reimu raised a hand, then brought it down, and as one, everyone shouted "Congratulations!" before we all drank together. Finally, we all bowed, according to Reimu's lead.

And...That was Reimu's portion done. "Phew." She said out loud. "I was really worried that the Hakurei god was going to finally strike me down for this one."

Marisa snorted. "Don't worry, I'm sure he's coming up with a great punishment for you as soon as you remember his name." She'd already pocketed her sake cup. Once a thief and a hoarder, always a thief and a hoarder, apparently. "So, that's the private ceremony, right?"

"Right." Tenshi agreed. "So, once all of this stuff is gone, what happens then?"

"Er, some of my sisters are already waiting." Nai said, raising a hand. "Miss Yuuka told us what we should do, so we're going to do that, and then it's just waiting for everyone to arrive, I think."

"Actually," Kisami suddenly spoke up, "How about you go along with Yamame, Nai? You didn't get to stick around for this morning, so you can do it now. I'll handle the girls for this bit." That was kind of her, I thought.

Quietly, Yamame poked me in the sight. "So...Technically, I can call you my husband now, right?" She murmured to me. I couldn't stop the smile, but I didn't think that it was quite real until we'd exchanged the rings. "Hmm..." Yamame hummed. "Yeah, that's...The big bit, isn't it?" She raised her hand, allowing her kimono to slide down and reveal her engagement ring, the green stone glittering in the sunlight. "I love you." She whispered to me. I moved just slightly closer, then whispered the same thing back to her.

Reimu came over to us. "So, in my eyes, you're married. How's it feel?" It felt kind of surreal, I settled on. "Yeah, I thought it might. Especially when you're praying to a god of youkai extermination." At least he hadn't tried to strike us down, I mumbled. "Always a good thing when he doesn't do that." Reimu agreed. "So...I imagine Aya wants pictures, but you'll have to go and change after that, won't you?" Nodding, I wondered where we would go and do that. "Yuuka said that she'd have Elly take one of you to a room while she took the other. "Something about not leaving anyone alone for too long." If there was one thing more surreal than getting married, it was probably that we were regularly going in and out of somewhere so dangerous that we weren't actually allowed to be left alone inside. "Well, you do that in plenty of places. I mean, you got kidnapped by the tengu for that exact reason, right?" Well...Sort of.

"So," Shameimaru's voice was very pleased, and Yamame and I turned just to be greeted with the flash of her camera. "Marriage. It's all rather...Exciting, isn't it?" That was one way of putting it, I replied. "Now, I want pictures. Lots. Of everyone." She pulled open the pocket of her coat to reveal what had to be dozens of extra rolls of film. "Every combination." She raised her voice. "I hope you're not feeling impatient, because this is going to take a while." Despite the event, there was still a chorus of groans. "I want them in front of the tree, okay?" She beckoned us over. "Alright, let's start with the two of you, and then we'll do you two and Reimu, and from there we can add..."

"I have a feeling I'm going to drop dead before we get to the next part." Yamame muttered to me as Aya stepped back, measuring angles...Or whatever it was photographers did. Only if I didn't drop dead first, I replied.

Still, she'd probably win the newspaper competition next year with an article about killing two people via taking so many photographs that they died of exhaustion.

And after a while longer, we were low enough that the echoing sounds I'd been hearing from below were starting to solidify into something more real. I could hear the sound of metal striking against stone, and finally, we reached the bottom of the staircase and stepped out into the mineshaft. Feeling surprisingly timid, I asked Ki if she could light some danmaku so that I could see somewhat. She thought for a moment, then finally raised her hand and brought a ball of light into existence. Instantly, I felt a slight bit of relief surge through me. "Tunnels seem quiet today." Ki muttered. "Hopefully it's just because of whatever was up there, and not because there's something else down here."

Somewhat peeved, I did ask Ki why she'd been so certain that it would all be fine down here. "The last time I was down here, that," And here, she pointed a finger upward, "Did not happen. That hole in the wall? It wasn't even there." I clenched my jaw and tried to think happy thoughts. "I didn't think it would happen. It was something that I was told as a story."

A story? "Yeah, by the foreman. The one we're going to see." I frowned. Why were we seeing her, again? "Well, it's her mine. Or rather, it's the tengu's operation, but it's really her mine, at least these days, and the tengu sort of...Gave up on it at some point, so she's still digging away down here." Wait, so this really was tengu territory? "Er, yes? Did you think it wasn't?" I'd sort of assumed so, since the tengu hadn't actually come in here, and it didn't seem like they'd been bothered about all the youkai in that gambling den that Kisami had brought me to. "Well...It is their territory, otherwise they wouldn't have had any reason to arrest you." I had just thought that since we'd gone through their territory to get to the mine, they were arresting me for that. "No, look - Actually, can we just ignore it? We’re seeing her because it’d be rude to take the stuff she’s digging up without permission." Rolling my eyes, I agreed. It was a sort of pointless argument, in truth.

"At least that card of yours seems to be working. There's no oxygen down here, after all." I blinked. I hadn't even thought about it, and I rummaged in my pocket and pulled the card that Reimu had given me out. It seemed to be pulsing slightly, a very faint light emanating from it. I hoped that didn't mean that I was on a time limit. The air did seem a bit...Colder, considering I felt quite warm in the tunnel. Perhaps that was just how the air generated by the card was. "Alright...Our miner should be down there..." Ki pointed in the direction of the echoing sound of metal against stone, clearly where the miner was working. We began to walk, and I finally found the courage to ask Ki just what in the world we'd nearly run into up above. "I...Don't know." She replied, looking just as unsettled by it as I had. "I've been down into these mines a few times. That spot, right there? It's been a blank wall every time." That only made me feel even more unsettled. "There's a story, though. The miner here told me it, the second or so time I came down here. I can't tell it half as good as she can."

Ki and I walked forward silently for a few moments longer. Finally, I asked Ki what she thought that thing might be. "I...think that there's probably things in Gensokyo that are ancient, and the only reason no one knows of them is because they've been here longer than everyone else. Maybe it's just some sort of ancient animal, or maybe it's some malevolent force that even the smartest youkai can't understand, but...Whatever that is, up there, mimicking the cries of a human in pain, probably to try and lure in others? Well, I think I'd rather not find out." I was silent for some time, and then I finally said that I'd never heard Ki talk so seriously before.

She cracked a little bit of a smile at that. "Ha. It's just...The sort of scary story that makes your imagination run wild. I didn't think that I'd actually be running into the thing in question." I hoped I wouldn't be running into the thing in question ever again, but she was definitely right about it making my imagination run wild, because...I couldn't stop thinking that I had heard a human voice. How had it known to do a human voice? Did it speak a language that I understood? Did it speak at all?

...Or was that the last words of some unfortunate victim from a long, long time ago? Or worse, from recent times?

It was...Shiny. "Seriously? That's the best you've got?" Kisami's complaints were tuned out so I could focus on the ring she'd just given me. It was golden, completely smooth, and slim in width. the surface gleamed without the slightest trace of dust or anything that would impede the shine. I wasn't exactly knowledgeable enough to make any real judgments on the quality, but it certainly looked beautiful, and I felt like I'd better be far more delicate in holding it. At what I assumed was the top, the ring's curve went slightly upward and connected to a small section to which a tiny stony was fitted. The stone, too, was beautiful, a tiny purple thing, but as I held it, it caught the light and reflected it back amazingly. Feeling now like I owed Kisami a slightly better response, I amended my answer to say that it was incredible craftsmanship. She beamed, stood up, then offered me a low bow. "Three days, that took. Gold from the Rainbow Dragon Cave, and the stone came as part of our payment for a construction job with the tengu." I gingerly handed the ring back to Kisami before I somehow damaged it, and she grinned, placing it in a drawer.

"So," She began, sweeping her work surface clear. "Got any ideas?" I thought for a moment. Did I have anything I could make use of like that? As I shifted my balance, I heard something knock into something else in my coat pockets, and suddenly, a memory crossed my mind. In my pocket, there certainly was something. I reached in, rummaging through various little things I'd picked up at one time or another, and eventually I felt it. The smooth surface of a stone. I pulled it out and examined it, holding it up to the light. A deep, vibrant green, and definitely too large for any ring, but it was certainly pretty. "Ooh!" Kisami cried, leaping up from the desk and leaning over. "Give!" She threw an open palm out and began gesturing. Curious, I slowly dropped it into her waiting hand, and she dropped back into her chair. Then, she gently placed the stone down on the work surface and began to rummage from her drawers, before extracting a small, black object with a glass lens. She attached it over her eye, pulling her hair out of the way so she could do...something with it, then looked up at me. I slowly asked her what exactly she'd gotten out. "Monocular!" She replied. "It's kind of like binoculars, but for close up things." Simple enough an explanation for me to understand, for once.

Kisami lifted the stone gently, then began to examine it, squeezing her normal eye shut. "This is...Exceptionally pretty." She told me, her voice falling into something I'd heard before. I liked to think of it as the appraising voice, one I'd heard from various people in the village who worked with different crafts. when they were explaining something, or examining something, they all took on this sort of voice. "Not quite clean, but...Traces of basic cleaning, like...Water?" She looked over at me again. "Did you try and clean this?" I nodded. "I see..." She turned back to it. "Highly transparent - Some inclusions, but they're fairly symmetrical. It's a rough emerald and needs proper cleaning, but...It's a very intense green. That's really good, wow..." She turned back to me. "Seriously, where'd you find this? You'd be hard-pressed to find something like this in the Outside World, let alone here." I'd been given it as a gift, I replied. From the mermaid who lived in the Misty Lake. She'd had plenty more stones, and she'd also said that there were plenty more down in the depths of the lake. "There's a mermaid in - No, sorry. Getting distracted. So, it came from the depths of the Misty Lake? I guess it drifted in..."

"She wants to see me?" Yamame asked, frowning. She waved at her sisters, who cheerfully waved back and got right back to work. "Alone? Um, that might be hard..." I thought Yamame wasn't giving herself enough credit. "It's just hard to talk to her! I get all tongue-tied and don't know what to say!" It seemed that Yamame hadn't quite gotten over being star-struck by Ibaraki-douji. I gave her a one-armed hug and told her that she would be fine. Just say the truth. She did smile weakly after that, so I hoped that things would be fine.

The next place was back on the ground by the springs themselves, and here were several oni, already taking turns hitting each other in the head with wooden planks while some of Yamame's sisters tried to ineffectively make them stop. "Oh, seriously?" Yamame muttered. "They're actually doing that?" I guessed that it was some sort of challenge that had gotten out of hand. "Well, let's sort it out. Hey, you could have a go." I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not going to let them retaliate, and it might be the only chance you get to whack an oni in the face with a wooden plank." That was a rather persuasive argument, so as we approached, I grabbed a wooden plank from the pile that Yamame pointed out to me as already useless. Then, I tapped one of the oni on the shoulder, and as he turned, I swung that plank with all my might. Unfortunately, the oni in question had a single horn that stuck out from the front of his head, so I was surprised when the plank didn't break, but simply got embedded on the horn and blocked the oni's eyes. "Alright!" Yamame shouted, getting everyone's attention. "Not very mature behaviour, is it?"

"Recognize that voice..." The oni with the plank stuck on his head muttered. "Miss Kurodani?" His friend turned, looking at me, but Yamame raised her voice first.

"That's right!" Yamame shouted. "And I'm very disappointed in you lot! Here my lovely sisters are, just trying to do their jobs, and you lot are stealing their supplies and wasting them on - And I can't believe I'm really saying this - Hitting each other in the face for absolutely no reason!" She huffed. "Then again, maybe hitting each other in the face is why you seem to think that this is a good idea..."

In the end, Yamame extracted an apology from the gathered oni along with a promise to stop stealing the wood for their silly challenges. Finally, she sent them on their way, and I breathed a sigh of relief, since I'd been worried that I'd have a fight on my hands if Yamame hadn't been able to keep them under control. As had happened previously, Yamame's sisters profusely thanked her, then got back to work, spinning webs around the old and rotten wood so it could be transported all at once, and fitting the new planks perfectly. "If Ki's been getting them all hot and bothered just so I've got more work to do, I'm giving her the influenza. Even if she is my big sister." Yamame muttered darkly as we began climbing the stairs up to the next location. Personally, I quite liked getting to see this side of Yamame. "Oh, and I need to knock Yura's head against something for letting Nai wander off unsupervised. I'm happy she seems to be working so well, but she's an easy target for scams down here."

I decided not to mention that I'd probably have fallen for it too.