/jp/ - Otaku Culture

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“Mama! Mama!” Little Goro shouted while running through the temple before falling flat on his face and getting up again.
“Hijiri-Sensei! Nue is bullying me again!” Goro said.
Byakuren Hijiri used every ounce of her superhuman will and uttered a small spell to maintain her composure, while Ichirin and another monk both bit their tongues as to not burst into laughter.
“What did Nue do to you this time little one?” Hijiri asked, kneeling next to the boy, and patting his head.
“She took the stave I was carving for my father and hid it! She’s always picking on me!” Goro pouted.
“Now, now, It’s alright.” Hijiri comforted. “Have you asked her nicely to give it back?”
“It won’t do any good, she’ll just taunt me again and make fun of me. I really hate her.” Goro said, kicking some dust.
“It won’t do any good to hate her you know.” Hijiri softly scolded. “Why don’t you try offering something in return? Nue may just want to play with you after all.”
“Fine. But I don’t know why she’s always messing with me and nobody else.” Goro said, giving a small bow. “Thank you, Hijiri-sensei.”
As he ran off, Hijiri couldn’t help but smile and fawn. “Kids really are the best, aren’t they?”
Ichirin and the other monk averted their eyes in embarrassment.


“Nue! Nue! Come out! I know your hiding here!” Little Goro yelled out into the temple bushes, were Nue had hung his stained sheets two weeks prior.
“Oh, little Goro-kun!” A small voice emanated from a bush.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“You took my stave! I worked hard on that! Please give it back!” Goro demanded.
“Rude little boys don’t get any dinner you know. And their hard work and attachment to material things like staves and Papas will surely lead them to stary from the path. I really am helping you out here.” Nue jeered.
Goro’s little fists tensed up into a ball, but he remembered what Hijiri told him.
“What do you want?” He asked.
“Pardon?” Nue replied, “That’s a very open question little one.”
“I want my stave back so I’ll give you something you want, and we can both be happy.” Goro answered.
“Oh, but little Goro-kun, I already have what I want in ample supply! You’re afraid of what happened to your precious gift to Papa aren’t you? Of whether he’ll come back from his last little job too late to play with you? There’s nothing else for you to offer me now!” Nue laughed.
Little Goro frowned and was about to cry. ‘Why was this Nue so mean?’ he thought.
He never saw her at the temple festivities, and she only teased him while they were both by their lonesome, was it that she didn’t have any friends?
“Then I’ll be your friend.” Goro offered.
“Excuse me?” Nue replied, a little shocked.
“You said I didn’t have anything to offer you, but you don’t have any friends, so I’ll be your friend and you’ll give me back the stave!” Goro said, a little excited.
Nue sighed. “You just don’t get it do you?”
Goro saw the bush shaking and it’s leaves flutter and fly off like butterflies. The empty branches all twisted and sunk into the dirt, sneaking around like ground hogs, displacing the earth as they traveled through the ground and behind him. Before Goro could turn to look, he felt a hand hold his chin in place. He froze.
“I’m a Youkai, I don’t need friends. All a human like you has to offer me is your fear.” She said in a carefree tone.
“But Hijiri-sensei said-“
“Hijiri isn’t some weak little brat. That’s why she can say such things and offer me a little place to call home. Seriously, you’ve never even seen my face, there’s no way we could be friends.”
Goro sniffed, trying hard to maintain his composure. “That’s not true! I, I never saw my Mama’s face, but she was still my friend!”
“Really? Are you sure? Maybe she ran away from you and Papa because she found a better son who wasn’t such a crybaby?” Nue teased.
“She wouldn’t! Father said one day if I pray earnestly and live a good life, we’d all see each other again! You’ll see!”
“Ha, that sounds like attachment. Your mama would never want a son who’s such an awful failure of a Buddhist!” Nue said.
“No, I didn’t, she-“Goro struggled, holding back tears. “Mama won’t come back?” He muttered.
“Maybe never.” Nue whispered into his ear.
“Mama!” The dam had burst, Goro wailed and turning around, clutched onto the closest person he could find: Nue.
As if trying to empty his body of all fluid, little Goro sobbed into Nue’s dress, babbling incoherently about loneliness, his mother, and many other things Nue couldn’t understand.
What Nue did feel was a plummeting in the fear of unknown and a rise in the certainty of solitude.
So Nue comforted little Goro, awkwardly at first, patting his head saying, ‘there there’, then a little more closely by patting his back, until she found herself tearing up a little and pulled him into a full-on embrace.
“It’ll be alright for now; I’ll be your friend.” Nue said.