/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Next week is good. Same day, same time." Shameimaru replied. "Perhaps we can fit more than one session in a week, but we'll have to figure it out as we go. I won't interrupt as much, either. The more we can get through at once, the better." She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. "It might interest you to know that the book I was putting together when I interviewed Hecatia Lapislazuli was the same one that Marisa Kirisame was going to put an advertisement for the Kirisame Magic Shop in. She did give me the finished draft, offering 'Youkai Extermination, Treasure Hunting, Bloodline Prosperity, and...Romantic Fulfilment.' Though it was in the Forest of Magic, and most humans from the village would have no luck at all getting there. Except you, apparently." That actually did get me to raise my eyebrows. Essentially, then, that was the book that had led to Marisa talking to Reimu about it in that specific pub on that specific night, and the reason I'd met anyone at all. Following the chain of events backwards was proving to be a very strange thing.

Shameimaru got to her feet, gathering up her supplies from the table. Most of them returned to her bag, while the notebook and the fountain pen went into her jacket. She stepped over to the sliding door. "I think we'll be on a good pace next time, now that we've gotten through all the distrust. Don't you?" She smiled in a way that was probably supposed to be pleasantly, but looked slightly tired. At the very least, she no longer seemed quite as unnerving to me as she once had. She pulled open the door to the spare room as Reimu and I got up behind her, only for a sudden gust of strong wind to crash into her. "W-Whoa!" She cried, slamming her foot forward to keep her balance. "Startled me...I guess the Winter's really picking up steam, huh? Let's-" And before she finished, a second, even stronger gust of wind hit her, and even her braced legs couldn't keep her balance, and before I knew it, she was tipping backward and two massive, feathered black wings were unfurling from her back, not that they would be able to do anything before she crashed into the table, which didn't seem like it would be too good, even for a youkai.

Without really thinking, I put my arm out and she fell into it, her hands flailing outward. I caught one of her hands, just in time for Reimu to slam the door shut again. And there was silence. I looked down at Shameimaru, who's wings had shot out to nearly their full wingspan, and were now starting to curl around her on one side, and me on the other. Her eyes were wide and there was a slight redness to her face, which I thought was a little strange. My arm had landed right underneath her wings, and I could feel the feathers against my skin from where my coat sleeve had ridden up. I wondered how her outfit worked with the idea, because it wasn't like it had holes cut in the back for her wings. I'd grabbed one of her hands instinctively, and I was holding it away from me, about as straight as I could.

I was surprised to see that she was slightly heavier than I'd expected. Almost abnormally so, for a person of her size. Though, she was a youkai, so I supposed my estimates for this sort of thing would already be a bit skewed. And she was breathing slightly heavily, her eyes locked on mine. I wondered if she was feeling embarrassed for getting blown over so easily. I tried to adjust my grip upward on her back slightly, and she squeaked. I blinked, then asked her if she was okay. "U-Um, yes? I-" At that moment, I heard a sort of clicking sound and blinked. There was Reimu, a camera in her hands and an expression that looked somewhat conflicted on her face. "Uh...Sorry, I just - Uh, my hands moved on their own, and..." Reimu stared at Shameimaru and I for a moment. "You look like you're dancing, and I just..." She finally said. I opened my mouth to reply, thought for a moment, then realised that she had a point. I wasn't sure how I felt about that since Shameimaru was still pretty unbearable, and it seemed to end whatever pause we'd been in.

I had to conceded that I hadn't. The only tengu I had seen was Shameimaru, who I had a feeling was probably quite strange as far as tengu went. "White hair, white vests, white sleeves...They've got dark skirts, but you'll never see their bottom half from the trees. Plus, with all this snow around? They might as well be invisible."

I asked her if I had anything else to worry about. “Well, there’s probably also a bunch of journalist tengu watching us too. They’ll be looking for a story. Don’t do anything…weird, and they shouldn’t have anything to print.” I asked Kisami how she knew all of this, which got her to look off to the side and hide her face from my line of sight. “It’s, er, a little embarrassing, but on one of the first time I came up here, I got into a fight with the white wolf tengu. I wasn’t as good as I am now, so they beat me up. Fortunately, their lips also got very loose after they thought I was unconscious, so I heard them talking about the crow tengu watching the fight.” Had that ended up in a newspaper, too? “Oh, definitely! I think I have a copy somewhere, actually.” I wondered if Miss Meiling had ever seen it, considering how much Kisami looked like her. “I think this was before that mansion of theirs actually appeared, but…I guess she could have already been around. Maybe she saw it. Maybe that’s why she thought that I was her sister…” Kisami trailed off, deep in thought. “Anyway, they’ll only kidnap you if they think you’re trying to get into tengu territory.”

I grumbled that I couldn't help but feel a little more uneasy now that Kisami had pointed that out. "I thought you said that you used to live with that Lady Kasen?" I had, but... "Well, you've probably been watched for that entire time, so relax. They'll only start causing problems if you go into their territory anyway." Feeling a little better, I asked where we were heading. "Oh, just through their territory." I began to wonder if I should have made a will or something before coming out with Kisami. "What?" She asked, looking like she had no idea what she'd just said.

Luckily, Kisami's words held true, and we weren't actually accosted by anyone for a while longer. We passed the point where I usually turned off of the path to reach Lady Kasen's senkai, but Kisami led me up higher, and I was surprised to find that I was starting to get out of breath. The snow made everything difficult, and walking without slipping and rolling all the way back down to the bottom of the mountain took most of my focus. As a result, I was taken completely by surprise and fell face-first into the snow when I heard another loud crash, like the one I'd heard from inside Yamame's house. I'd assumed that it was from Yuuma breaking through the snow that had been blocking the cave entrance, but as I rolled onto my back and thanked myself for zipping my coat up so the snow couldn't get through, I realised that the crash had been something else entirely.

Of course, from as high up on the mountain as we were, I could see practically the entire valley. I could see the Hakurei Shrine in the distance, and even from as far away as we were, I was certain that I could see someone standing at the torii gate, looking out. I could only imagine that it was Reimu, who was just as curious as I was about the sound. I looked down, then swept my eyes across to try and find the source. I turned out that I didn't have to try very hard, either.

Down and somewhat off to the side was the Genbu Ravine, though it was still close enough that I could say that I was getting a close view of the action. I knew that this was where the kappa lived, and I knew that the rivers that twisted from that ravine and the waterfall that fell from the mountain out through the valley were their waters, and the forests close by and rising a small distance up the mountain were the location of the yamawaro faction. That was where the whole war they had apparently been fighting had been occurring, and that was where Marisa had been held as a prisoner and where Tenshi had joined the opposing faction to her, seemingly just for fun. And even from here, I could see that a whole crater had formed in the woods, with the trees surrounding it having been pushed slightly backward, and all the snow had been blown off, leaving a gradually whitening circle until it reached the point where the impact hadn't disturbed the trees. There was smoke rising from the crater, big twisting trails that dissipated into the white clouds above. I couldn't imagine there was anyone in the valley who hadn't heard that. Hearn could probably have heard that from Australia.