/jp/ - Otaku Culture

The man swung down the ax, splitting the log into two. He took a moment to catch his breath. Just a few more logs were left to turn into firewood, then there would be weeding the stone path, trimming the grass around the pond, and making dinner. That old floorboard could wait a day to be replaced. There was a lot of work to be done, but he didn't mind. This sort of work had long become routine for him, and he found working his hand gave him focus, and calmed down the tempest of conflicting thoughts and emotions that were in his mind ever since he received the news.

As he looked up in the sky, he saw a shape approaching. The blur became clearer, a black and white figure that soon made it's descent down near the entrance of the shrine. If it's her, then any moment now she too would hear the news. Picking up some of the firewood, he busied himself by hauling them off to storage. A few minutes and three trips later, he was about to get another haul when-

"AAAAAAH! Reimu, really?!"

A voice cried out, cutting through the quiet of the day. Yep, she knew now, he thought with a smile on his face. Abandoning his work for now, he jogged over to the front of the shrine.

There were two figures on the veranda. One was a short blonde woman clad in a witch's outfit and bouncing excitedly on her feet. Marisa Kirisame. Magician, Youkai Exterminator, and a close to him.

Next to him was a taller woman with shorter black hair, wearing a distinctive red and white outfit. Reimu Hakurei. Sole shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine, protector of the land of Gensokyo.

His wife.

"How along are you? Does anybody else know? This is just-" Marisa fired a barrage of questions at the shrine maiden.

"Just a few weeks along. I've been feeling off for a while, so I over to Eientei. They confirmed it. For now, the only other person I've told is Yukari. She showed up asking weird questions, like if there were any big changes that happened lately, so I just told her" Reimu frowned. "She was getting really nosy about it too, it was creepy"

Marisa huffed. "Geez sounds like it. But still, congrats! If you need any help l, just ask me. I'll help in any way I can" Marisa turned her head and saw the man standing there listening in. Now he was the recipient of that world-class smile.

"There's the lucky father to be! Hey Anon, congrats!"

"You should step inside, I'll make some tea and we can talk more. There's just so much to do and once others find out, I think it'll get busy around here. I just want to say hi to Anon first, then I'll be in"

Reimu's face darkened, a shadow of suspicion covering her face. Her posture stiffened, her eyes bore a hole in the witch's head and then-

She relaxed her posture, the dark clouds of anger and suspicion leaving her face, air escaping her lungs. "Alright, sounds good to me, you guys catch up" Reimu walked into the shrine and closed the door behind her.

With the shrine maiden having left the scene, Marisa made her way to Anon. "Hey Anon, it's been a while. How have things been? You know-" Her voice lowers to a whisper "-with her?"

Anon glanced over to the shrine before answering. "Since we found out she's been improving. She's stopped drinking, of course. But she's also been a lot calmer as of late. She might be thinking of the future. This might be it, I hope"

Marisa looked him over. "I certainly hope so. Just know I'll be here for you, okay? If things get bad, I'll do what I can to help"

Anon nodded. "Thanks Marisa. I'll keep it in mind"

"You need any help with the baby? You get names planned?" Marisa's smile returned as the mood got lighter.

"We're cleaning out one of the old rooms to use for her, Yukari said she'd help us get some stuff even if it's from the Outside. We don't have any clothes yet, so we could use those. We probably need a lot more, it's just a lot to take in. We don't even know of they're a boy or girl yet"

"Hey, we got plenty of time to worry about that, okay? Now come on, we need to discuss things with the expectant mother" Marisa spun around and marched towards the shrine. Marisa was usually a chipper girl, but she usually wasn't this happy. Just looking at her eager attitude made him have hope for the future.

-----

The present day. Anon Hakurei, ex-husband to the Hakurei Shrine maiden, is trapped in his own personal hell. But thoughts of that aren't on his mind right now. He shifts in his futon, a pleasant dream of a better time long lost to him bringing some needed peace to him. Like most dreams, it would only last until he wakes, but it was still soothing to him.

Somewhere else, Doremy Sweet is also at peace. After all the nightmares that have been occuring in Gensokyo as of late, it was good to finally find a nice dream.


Just a one-off thing as I won't be able to post an update for a day or two. As usual for things things, it's canon if you want it to be.