/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Thus, it was several minutes before we found ourselves at the mouth of the tunnel again. "Ah, this is so much better." Yamame sighed happily. I asked her to repeat herself, because I could barely hear her under all the layers that she'd thrown on. The massive coat, and several besides. "I've never been so warm during Winter!" She said, louder this time. "We're still flying, though. It'll be an even colder day in Hell - Compared to the personal Hell that Gensokyo in Winter is for me - before I let you convince me to trudge through the snow again." I wasn't sure I understood what she meant, but I did understand that she was not going to go unless she could fly there, so I sighed and agreed.

She did nearly drop me when my foot collided with the top of a tree somewhere over the Forest of Magic because she hadn't properly estimated the distance between me and the tree, but apart from that, the flight was more or less fine, and the apology kiss she gave me once we'd landed at the edge of the Misty Lake was nice enough that I forgave her for nearly dropping me. From the air, we had been able to see the flickering light of a fire, just like Kagerou's letter had claimed. The lake itself was mostly frozen over, but it was dark enough at this point that I didn't much want to try and walk across the lake and fall into a hidden hole in the ice. Wakasagihime could probably have saved me, but it wouldn't exactly be pleasant. The Vampire's Mansion looked lively, with plenty of lights coming through the windows. I could see a bunch of what looked to be fairy maids cleaning the windows, too.

I couldn't see Meiling at the gate, though, so I looked over to the fire I could see at the bank of the lake, but it didn't seem like she was there. Curious, I squinted at the mansion's grounds, wondering if she was there, but I still couldn't see her. Perhaps she was somewhere inside. Either way, we made our way around the bank instead of trying to cut across the lake, so it was almost entirely dark as we neared the crackling of the fire. Yamame did look a little bit cold, despite all the layers she had on, so I hoped that the fire would help. "It's the clear sky." She told me. "Makes it even colder. I think that yuki-onna is nearby." I'd heard of her, but never seen her, and I somewhat doubted that she was just waiting around to inconvenience Yamame by making her colder.

Finally, we got close enough to the fire for the warmth to begin hitting me, and I heard a voice. "You made it!" From behind the fire, something brown and fluffy rushed forward and wrapped her arms around both Yamame and I at once. "I wondered if you'd come, since you didn't make it to some of the earlier meetings we had." I managed to discern Kagerou's voice and awkwardly hugged her back, though I struggled since one of my arms was trapped against Yamame. "Happy New Year!" After a moment longer, I managed to wheeze that she needed to loosen her grip, or she'd be dragging me to Eientei when I passed out. "Oh, er, sorry." The sometimes werewolf released us, and we both gasped for breath. While we recovered, Kagerou continued. "So, er, Hime and I cleared as much snow away as we could - Well, Hime helped, but it was mostly me."

"Has - Has anyone else arrived?" Yamame asked weakly. I supposed that Kagerou's arm might have caught her neck slightly more than it had for me.

"Not yet, but Banki might come, and Meiling from the mansion always says that she can only come if she can get away from the head maid for a night, though it usually takes a couple meetings before she manages it. Hime's here, though." Kagerou indicated the bank of the lake, and I saw that there was a large and jagged hole in the ice, looking like the sort of thing that had been blasted through with danmaku. Right as I looked, the surface suddenly broke and with water streaming everywhere, Wakasagihime emerged. "Kagerou, I found- Oh, my, you came!" She gave one of those small, stately smiles that a princess did. "It's lovely to see you both again." She said, smiling wider. "Are you - Er, warm enough, Miss Yamame?" I looked over at my spider, who blinked and looked down at all her layers.