/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"You know," Reimu suddenly said while she returned from welcoming people to the Setsuban festival at the Shrine, "I kind of hope they are together. Maybe if Marisa has a nagging wife, she'll stop...Well, being herself." I thought for a moment as I dusted off my coat, then crossed my arms again and watched the two we were talking about in question as they examined the stalls together. Would she really be a nagging wife, though? It seemed like Marisa and Tenshi were very good at encouraging each other into stranger things. For all we knew, it would lead to the greatest heist the valley had ever seen. The Vampire's mansion would never be the same again. "Yeah...Yeah, you've probably got a point. For all we know, they'd steal the skies themselves." That sounded a little bit lofty, but then again, maybe that just meant they'd try that bit harder. "Well, anyway, at least it means Marisa's doing something other than making her house a bigger biohazard than it already was."

I wished we'd actually gotten a tour of the place. "I don't think it would have told you that much. Marisa probably didn't even remember what the place looked like when it wasn't buried under piles of stuff." Reimu raised her gohei and examined it from side to side. "I do want to know what their decoration plans are, though. If only so I can tell them to leave it up to someone with better taste. Trust me, Tenshi might be amazing and spectacular and whatever other adjectives you want to throw on there, but restrained is definitely not one of them. She'll try and go as extravagant as the surface allows and it'll just end up more tacky than anything else."

We were silent for a few minutes. After we'd gotten back, I'd gone back to Yamame's home. It had been locked, which was just my luck. After I'd rested against the door for a few minutes, Yamame had apparently snuck up beside me and unlocked the door quietly while I was dozing off. As a result, I'd gone flailing through the door straight onto the floor. Yamame had laughed herself silly while I rubbed my sore head, so I'd been forced to threaten not to make any food for her tonight, which quickly changed her tune and had me treated to a pleasant rest with my head on my spider's lap, where I'd nearly dozed off while she stroked my head. I wondered if this was the good version of the hair ruffling that I and all of her family did to Yamame. Either way, I'd eventually gotten around to convincing her to come with me to the Setsuban festival at the Shrine, which she'd been unsure about...Possibly because she knew a lot of oni already, but I'd come prepared with a story Reimu had told me about Suika dressing up and playing the oni at Setsuban once, so it couldn't be that bad. I decided not to bring up the other story about her nearly getting everyone sick, though. That one had come from Lady Kasen, and she'd apparently had a hell of a time getting it out of Reimu, possibly because it had come down to Suika loudly and violently interrupting the festival to drive everyone away.

Anyway, the story didn't really have the effect that I'd hoped, so I just resorted to the massage treatment to convince Yamame to come with me. She eventually agreed once I'd brought up that perhaps prayers for good fortune would keep my awful luck from getting in the way so much. I doubted it actually would, because my awful luck seemed to transcend what faith and festivals could provide, but it was something, at least.

Idly, I looked over to my other side and called slightly louder to ask if Yamame was planning to come out any time soon. She'd made a beeline straight for Reimu's kotatsu and didn't really seem content to move. "Well..." Reimu shrugged. "At least she's happy. Winter will be over eventually, and then you won't have to coax Yamame out of the house every day. At least it should have warmed up by your wedding, right?" Right, I replied. At worst, maybe Tenshi could do something about it. Or maybe I could just recruit a bunch of fairies.

"Have you got your beans?" Reimu asked me. I looked over to the side, where I'd placed a box full of beans on the veranda. Still had them, I replied. They were fairly tasty, though I couldn't imagine trying to eat a whole box of them. It looked like it would give you indigestion. "Alright, good. We'll do the Grand Bean Throwing event soon." Curious, especially given the size of the crowds, I asked Reimu if she'd really made all of the beans herself. "Well...Not all, but a lot of them. I was up late last night finishing up." I wasn't sure when she'd managed to get all the preparations done, but I had a suspicion, given the number of strangely blue uniforms and green hats milling about the place and running a large number of the stalls.

>>22658289
Of course oni aren't physically hurt by beans. But youkai are weak to psychological attacks, so it's the act of throwing beans and what it means ("oni, get out!") that hurt them.
Just like paper doesn't really hurt physically, but amulets are effective against youkai.