/jp/ - Otaku Culture

I took Yamame to my room in the dojo, instead. Happily, I'd remembered to make the beds and tidy before I'd left for the caves, so it wasn't a mess inside. "Um, so..." Yamame began, then trailed off. "Ibaraki-douji...is two people. And they're both her, and they don't seem to like each other much, and Hoshiguma-douji and Shuuten-douji are both here, and..." Now Yamame was starting to look like her brain was locking up, and I was getting a little tired of it all, so I dragged her to the bed and collapsed on top of it. After a moment, she lay back on the bed, next to me. "This is a lot more than I was expecting." With my face buried into the mattress, I asked her if that was a good thing or a bad thing. "A...good thing, I think." I shifted my head to look at her. "Well, I'm learning more about the oni of old." She said, shrugging. "Though I knew Yuugi Hoshiguma somewhat, and I've spoken to Suika Ibuki once or twice. I never knew that Ibaraki-douji - Um, Kasen - was here too." She frowned. "Why don't they like each other? I heard what the arm - Er, Raki - said to Lady Ibaraki. Or, um, Lady Kasen...?" I shook my head and said that it was private business, so I didn't want to tell her much more without the two halves of Ibaraki-douji saying I could.

There was a loud explosion from outside and I jolted. I supposed that Reimu and Suika's fight must have gotten intense. I stumbled to my feet and went out into the hallway, where I looked out of a window. Outside, I could see Reimu, performing backward handsprings to dodge out of the way of a Suika Ibuki who was larger than the dojo itself. She was trying to stomp on Reimu, which seemed incredibly dangerous to me, but Reimu seemed to be having no difficulty at all in evading the massive shoes of the huge oni.

Clearly, my brain was locking up too, because all I did was rub my temples and walk straight back into my room, then fall into the bed and hold Yamame tightly. There were complicated things going on outside, and I didn't want to think about them. "Um, thank you for the hug." Yamame said with some confusion, patting my head. I told her that the Ibaraki-douji situation just had me feeling a little down. "Maybe they just need to fight each other until they've vented all their frustrations." I chuckled a little, because it was just about the same advice that Reimu had come up with and been lectured for. There really did seem to be more in common between Reimu and Yamame than either of them seemed to think. “Are you laughing at my ideas?” She asked me, and I shook my head, drawing her into another hug. It had just been funny, that was all.

Wanting a distraction, I asked Yamame if she'd ever thought about hanging about with mermaids and werewolves. When she stared at me and asked me if I was feeling okay, I shrugged, laughed, and kissed her.