/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Reimu’s life was falling apart. It had been on a long steady decline ever since she had gotten married, but it had now turned into a deep plummet and she saw no way out. Reimu groaned as she stared into the mirror, trying to convince herself she still looked good. Those bags under her eyes would go away eventually, the unkempt hair gave her sort of a lazy and-She couldn’t lie to herself. She looked like shit. Damnit, it all went wrong so quickly, the two moments that ruined her life.

The first was when she came home after a day of business in the village and found it to be empty. She had spent a few minutes looking for her husband and daughter, but by all signs they had just picked up their things and suddenly left. Aunn wasn’t saying where they went. This wasn’t new. Sometimes when things got tense they would just pick up and leave for a while. No doubt they had found the arms of someone new to cry in as they talked about how awful she was They’d be back like always and things would return to normal after she gave an apology and a promise to do better. It was a few days later when there was no sign of them she started to panic. She had dreaded the day would come. One of her enemies would get cocky and try to get at her through her family. It would be soon that they’d send her demands or else she’d never see them alive. Or maybe it was some youkai that wanted a trophy under their belt. They were gone, maybe even already dead and she could do nothing about it.

A familiar rage boiled inside of her, and she tried to breathe in, trying to calm herself down. The attempt lasted fir a few second, then she threw a stoll through one of the dividing doors. It helped to make her feel better, but only a little. It took more sacrifices to make her rage subside. The now damaged door was kicked into ruin. The donation box, dry as always, was flipped across the yard. An unfortunate tree got a blast of danmaku and covered the yard in a shower of wood chips. It made her feel a little better, maybe she’d get whoever stole her family away from here to clean all of this up so she wouldn’t have to do this. A plan formed in her mind. This was an incident. She’d have to go where her insists took her, beat up however got in the way and she’d eventually be pointed in the right direction to the mastermind, beat then up and everything would be normal. Her thoughts were interrupted by muttering behind her. She turned around. It must be the ones responsible-no it was just a human family from the village.

The man spoke up first “Is something wrong?” He asked hesitatingly, as if he were gambling his life on that question.

“No, the shrine is closed. Get out!” Reimu pointed to the path away from the shrine. Whatever they wanted, she did not want to deal with it now. They all stood there frozen, too dumbfounded to move. “Out!” she shrieked. That got the message across. They bolted. She could make it up with them later, she had more important business to do. First thing to do, find someone that would know that happened. A name to to her mind right away.


“What do you know about my family going missing?” Reimu said accusingly ash she brandished her Gohei at Aya.

The tengu held up her arms “I’ve got nothing to do with that. Try someone else” she couldn’t hide the smirk on her face. At least she was kind enough to not mock Reimu for knowing something she didn’t, but it didn’t improve her mood.

“Don’t try to hide it. You’re been fucking with my family ever since we got married, you and your fucking articles. Are the tengu wrapped up in this? You’re hiding him to drum up sales for that rag of yours, right? The tengu are trying to blackmail me!” Reimu had no reason to hold back, she gut feeling told her this bird knew something, and that was never wrong

Aya’s brow creased and she leaned back in her chair, so the shrine maiden would have to lean over the desk to attack her “The tengu are no involved in this. It would be stupid to take such a risk, and if we did then we wouldn’t spent so long messing around before giving demands. If haven’t heard any bad news about your family by now, then it must mean they’re safe right? The longer someone holds your family captive, the more danger they put themselves in”

Reimu tried to think of a comeback, but the crow made a point. This was just like the times where they had left her before. They suddenly dissapeared without a word, no news on where they were until they came back. This was just longer. Where could they stay for this long, but be safe? The village.