/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"What are you talking about?" Kagerou suddenly appeared behind us, crouching down to join the conversation. "It seems to have gotten Hime a little overexcited, but I think that's cute, so..."

"Well..." Yamame began, looking a little resigned to explaining the whole thing again, but I decided to take charge on this one.

I explained to Kagerou that we'd been asking the Princess about ways that she could get on land for a bit. "Oh, I see...Has she told you what we've tried already?" I nodded. "And...The fish tank idea? I tried going to the kappa, but it's all frozen over at the moment, so I couldn't get there. There were some rumours, too...About how you could get the whole area flooded because of some mysterious voice there, but the rumours disappeared a bit later, so I might try again." She paused. "Sorry, I was asking why Hime was so excited, wasn't I?"

Cutting to the chase, I told Kagerou that we'd just invited her to our wedding. "Oh, you've got a date?" April fourth, I replied. In the Garden of the Sun. "Ah, I see..." Kagerou nodded. "Yeah, I'll try and speak to the kappa." That, I said, was an invite for Kagerou, too. "I-It is?" Kagerou looked up incredulously. "I - But, would you really want someone like me going to an event like that? Shouldn't it be, like...Family?" Yeah, well...Orphan’s lot, I replied. Friends were the best I had, and Kagerou had been a good friend even though I hadn't known her that long. "W-Well, um...Thank you. It really means a lot that you'd consider inviting me to something so special to you." All the people I'd gotten to know were special to me.

And on that note, I stepped over toward Sekibanki. I could only go off of her body language, but she looked a little worried as I got closer. Once I was close enough to talk to her properly, I realised that I could make out some vague features. Her hair was red. That, I was fairly certain about. I couldn't make out her facial features, but it looked like she might have been wearing a bow. "Yes?" Sekibanki asked, crossing her arms. "Can't just drink in peace, can I?"

Well, I supposed not, but I would try to be quick. I'd have felt weird about only inviting two of the members from the Grassroots Youkai Network, so I asked Sekibanki if she'd want to come. "To a wedding?" I nodded. "...Nah. No offense, but I'm not much for those big gatherings, and if you're inviting weak youkai like us, I have a feeling it's going to be big." Slowly, I nodded again, trying not to feel too down about it. I supposed not everyone was going to say yes. "Well, maybe I could stop by for a little bit. We'll see. April fourth, you said? Garden of the Sun?" I nodded a third time. "Got it." Sekibanki said, nodding in the darkness. "...Can I get back to drinking now? Long day." And with that, she got right back to work.

So, I approached Miss Hina, though she politely requested I not come too close. "Ah, if you're about to invite me to your wedding, I'm afraid I'll have to decline, for...Obvious reasons." I had somewhat expected that. "Really? Why would you try, then? We've only just met, too." Someone had pointed out to me that there would probably be a lot more people than I expected showing up, so I had figured I'd just start inviting some of them now. Plus, I didn't want her to feel like I was leaving her out. Miss Hina giggled lightly. "Don't worry, I'm not that fragile. Thank you for thinking of me, though. Oh, and...Good luck." Nodding again, I thanked her for her well wishes and returned to Yamame, who was now being questioned by both Wakasagihime and Kagerou about the wedding.

"Oh, there you are." Yamame said to me with some relief. "I can't keep up with these two much longer..." I looked between the wolf and the mermaid, wondering why Yamame thought that I, apparently, would be able to keep up with them. Instead, I decided to tell them that it was still early days, so we hadn't made all the decisions yet. Truthfully, we hadn't even gotten through the wedding rings yet.

"Oh, I just thought - I still haven't taught you to fish." Wakasagihime said to me cheerfully. "It could be like a wedding gift!" I...Supposed I was fine with that. I'd been meaning to bring up my desire to learn fishing again for a long while, but I'd just never found the opportunity between everything else that seemed to be going on. "Well...You'll have to get a fishing rod first. Maybe the Scarlet Devil Mansion has some fancy outside world ones?" Maybe, but that would entail asking either Remilia Scarlet or Sakuya Izayoi for permission to use it, and I was not ready to do that unless I really had to. The village probably had one somewhere, and otherwise, I could always try asking Ran to ask Yukari Yakumo if she could find one. I'd rather deal with her than the vampire or the maid.