/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"So, I've been thinking," Reimu said, snapping me out of my thoughts about how many people had walked the path to the Hakurei Shrine. "How did you end up meeting Yamame, anyway? I know that she helped you through the underground when you went to find out what was happening in Eientei, but what about before that?" I swallowed, a little uncomfortably, but finally managed to begin explaining the chain of events that had led to me falling down that hole and into the web of Yamame Kurodani. Reimu stopped me as soon as I got to my fall. "Wait, so Kogasa...? Oh, that little-" She shook her head with a sigh. "She's usually awful at scaring anybody, to be honest." I agreed that she hadn't really scared me, but she'd been standing too close and had forced me to step back when she had tried to surprise me, and that had resulted in me tripping over a rock and falling down the hole. "Wait, that hole? The same one I fell down?" I nodded. It had been very curious, Reimu falling down that same hole as me right as I was...with Yamame. Thoughts of the spider turned my heart to stone. Where was she? How was she doing? I ruminated on some of the things that Hearn had said to me as we approached the fork in the road that led to the village on one side and the mountain on the other. The Forest of Magic was situated roughly halfway up the path toward the mountain, though I'd only travelled there from the village before, and I wasn't sure Reimu had ever travelled there on foot.

It seemed to me that Hearn had used her kidnapping theatrics to scare me. Reimu hadn't seemed convinced of that, as between her gasping breaths and laughter, she had told me that the woman was just awkward in that way, and whatever it was she had actually wanted, it was probably obfuscated behind at least three layers of misdirection. I supposed it could be true, but if so, she had a rather spectacular way of showing it. But then again, I recalled the strange bow I had found when I had been carrying Reimu back to the Shrine from the caves. At the time, I had thought it nothing more than a trinket that one of the youkai who had attended the party that Zanmu Nippaku had thrown at the Hakurei Shrine had dropped. But now, I was comparing it to the design I had seen on Hearn's earrings, and I was coming up with some similarities. Just how long had she been watching me? She'd clearly known more than she let on, but had seemed more content to toy with me and tell me about eating human meat.

And now it was that, occupying my head. Hearn had told me that she didn't try to deny that part of herself. That humans and youkai were not as different as they appeared to be in my mind, as the food I had been eating had also come from an animal that had died. She had told me that denying that part of yourself was not a simple feat. But, she had told me that she respected her conviction and had offered a toast for her success. As we started heading up the winding path toward the mountain, I shook my head. I trusted Yamame. She had helped me at my lowest, and despite the fact that she was a youkai and enjoyed trying to bite me, she hadn't tried to when I had last met her, because she had learnt that I wouldn't take to it quite as easily as I had previously. I still believed in her, and I wondered just what Hearn had been trying to push me to learn. Did she want me to stay away from her? To try harder? Or maybe to accept that she might never manage to give it up entirely? I didn't know if I could do that.

We began to head through the woods, and before long I recognized the stream that I had first had a real conversation with Miss Tenshi at. Relationships were all about give and take, I thought. Yamame was trying to give up something, so I had to try and meet her halfway. It wasn't easy, and I didn't feel particularly settled, but I tried to put Yamame out of my mind for now. There were currently more pressing matters, like speaking to Marisa. We hopped over the stream and continued, the bright sunlight still no match for the gloom of the Forest of Magic. Instead, I asked Reimu if she had any idea how Marisa had been injured. "Not really, no. She told me that it was to do with the investigation, but before she could really say anything more, everyone else started to show up at the Shrine, and then I just couldn't hear myself think, which is about when you woke up, so..." I had appreciated the creativity in her threats, at least.