/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Where was all of this coming from, I asked Reimu curiously. Then, she looked away. "I just, er, I think that you shouldn't wait if you have something special like that." She crossed her arms just a little tighter. "I know that you're more durable than most, but even so...Don't take it for granted." I was starting to get a little worried. Slowly, I asked her if she was okay. "Huh? Um, yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I've just...seen a lot of ghosts. A lot of regrets. A lot of unfulfilled dreams. She loves you just as much as you love her, so I think you should stay together." Reimu's eyes looked quite serious now. "Be happy." And then, she scratched at her cheek. "And, um, I always thought those big wedding things looked really romantic." I wasn't really sure what to say about that, or the whole thing in general, although I quite liked it.

Marry Yamame? I suppose that I wanted to, but I'd not really thought about it in those terms before. I'd just thought that I didn't want to leave her. What was I supposed to do? "Well - Start simple. The ring. You give her a ring with the promise to marry her. It might have a stone of some kind in it." Where was I supposed to find a ring from? "They probably sell them down in the village...But, I think you could come up with something better." I thought about it for a moment, and felt something like a pronounced shift in my mind as a memory clicked into place. Wakasagihime. The stone. She'd given me a stone! "You look like you've just realised something." I nodded, stepping over to Reimu and reaching into the pocket of my coat. The stone was still there, and I lifted it out. "Ooh, that's pretty." Reimu said, looking closer. "Where'd you get something like that?" I shrugged and said that it had been a gift, slipping it back into the pocket. I had an idea already about the ring, and I thought that it as the sort of thing that Yamame would appreciate more than something from the village. "Yeah?" Reimu asked me curiously. "What idea?" Yamame's sisters. One of them was probably capable of working with this sort of thing, and I wanted to involve them. "Huh. That's...Not a bad idea, actually. They could probably tell you what she'd want, too."

I felt like my heart was racing a little. I'd never really imagined a day where I'd be planning to marry someone. I also hadn't ever really imagined having a big sister who wanted to help me plan it out, but I was very pleased about both. "So...You'll have to get that done, and from what I understand, you shouldn't tell Yamame what you're thinking of." I could understand that. I'd want the ring to be a surprise, too, but I'd still have to ask her - at least generally - if she wanted to marry me. "I honestly can't see a scenario where she says no." Was Reimu's contribution, which was very nice of her, but still. "I'd try and meet her sisters quietly, if I were you." Reimu told me, and I noticed that she was shivering again. Fortunately, I had an idea for that, too, since Yamame would be engrossed in working on Kagerou's hood soon, so I'd have a chance to slip away and find her sisters down in the Hot Spring Town. "Ah...A proper wedding..." Reimu sighed, looking a little dreamy. "It'd be lovely, I think." She finished, clearing her throat. "You'd have to watch out for Kasen, though. That's the sort of thing she'd dearly love the chance to meddle in." Ah, that was a good point. I remembered Suika telling me something about that, actually. That Ibaraki-douji had been the sort to get very emotional about weddings. And considering that the last time I'd seen Lady Kasen, her and Raki had been a lot more amiable toward the idea of merging again...Well, it was a problem to deal with when the time came. "And then you could think about chi-"

"Reimu, are you putting strange ideas in someone's head?" I just about jumped out of my skin at the unexpected voice. "What a lovely coat you have on. It seems just a little bit too long, hmm? Is this some new fashion style you're testing out?" Spinning around, I was shocked to see nothing standing in front of me. Instead, floating at about chest height was one of those gaps, but it wasn't Ran who was present. It was Hearn, and she was leaning out of it with a long tabard on like the one that Lady Kasen wore, her hair still somewhat short apart from the two long strands hanging down to her ears. New was the massive floppy cap on her head with the big red bow, and her dress was white now, but she still had that look of smug intelligence. "Why, hello. How have you been, hmm?" She looked over at me, resting her chin on her palm. "I must thank you for your diligence in reporting to Ran. Thanks to that, I've got a very good understanding of what you've been up to, as well as how Eientei shook out."