/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Ibaraki-douji - Kasen - seemed to have lost nearly all of her reservations that she'd had as Lady Kasen and Raki. Even from where Yamame and I were, all the way down at the bottom of the valleys of her senkai, I could hear her almost crazed laughter, the whoops and cheers followed by the shockwaves that were visible even from this far down nearly rocking the boat that Yamame and I were in. I stood at the back, indulging in the ability to act like Komachi and push the boat while Yamame sat just in front of me, her head seemingly tilted up to the sky permanently. I tried pointing out that she'd hurt her neck if she kept it up, but she just looked back at me, rolled her eyes, and then went right back to it. The sun shone down brightly, warming me through. I'd been forced to finally part with my coat and lay it down on the inside of the boat, and Yamame looked like she was a little bit sweaty.

"She's...So strong." Yamame murmured as Kasen's excited cries bounced down to reach us. There were some roars of danmaku being fired, but a lot of it was the sound of punches and kicks colliding or being blocked. "Like - I've seen the oni, right? I've seen them fight each other as jokes, and I've seen them fight each other seriously. I've even seen Yuugi and Suika fight each other." Yeah, I replied. I'd not seen many oni fights, obviously, but I'd heard plenty of stories, either as stories to scare me as a child, or actual stories, such as Suika's story of how she'd gotten Lady Kasen and Raki to snap out of their post-unsealing funk. "But - That?" Yamame pointed a finger upward, and I looked up to see that Kasen was floating far above us. As I looked, I saw Suika come launching from one side and Yuugi coming from the other side. Both of them had their fists swinging, but Kasen just waited until the last possible moment, then raised both of her hands and caught the two fists at once. There was that shockwave again, and I planted my feet better to stop myself tipping into the water.

"She's probably equally matched with the other two, but..." Yamame paused, and I tried needling her by asking if this was all part of a secret crush on Lady Kasen talking. "Wh- No!" She looked back at me with a raised eyebrow. "Don't say weird things." She told me crossly, so I raised my hands - Keeping one gripped on the pole I was pushing the boat with - and apologised. "It's just - I think I understand Kasen the best." Yamame finally settled on. "And I think she's the smartest one." Up above, Kasen suddenly released the two fists in her grasp, sending the two oni rushing forward to crash into each other. Before they could recover, Kasen had grabbed the back of their heads by their hair and smashed their heads together, Suika just barely avoiding having Yuugi's horn sticking out of her head. That sent the two oni crashing downward. Yuugi smashed into a tree and landed somewhere on the side of the peak next to us, while Suika fell headfirst into the water. Unfortunately, this was right next to us, and I barely managed to avoid tipping into the water myself. Yamame managed to hover just slightly up from the boat in order to prevent the wobbling.

A second later, Suika's head broke the surface as she drew in a large gasp, coughing and spluttering. She spotted us a moment later, swimming over and dragging herself up and into the boat. I was sure that the only reason that motion hadn't tipped me over was because she was the smallest of the oni fighting today. "Ha..." She gasped, groaning and rolling onto her back to draw in some breaths. "She's - Just like she was..."

Yamame slowly lowered herself back into the boat as I asked Suika if she was alright. "What? Yeah, obviously. Little thing like that would never do me in. What do you - Oh, look at that..." She was staring straight up, so I mirrored her and looked skyward. Now, Kasen was gracefully spinning and rolling to avoid swings of Reimu's gohei and a large volley of ofuda. I didn't think Reimu would win, truthfully. Given that she'd been unable to win when she'd last fought this particular Kasen, I wasn't sure how things could go differently this time. That said, she seemed to be holding her own, using her own gap ability to dodge nearly everything that Kasen was throwing at her. "She's going to lose. Reimu, I mean." Suika said, crossing her arms. I asked her what specifically made her think so out of curiosity. "It's not what you think. I mean, a human can't beat an oni in a hand-to-hand fight, obviously, but that's not why. She's forgotten. She's treating Kasen like she's just another oni." So...What had she forgotten? "Suika's smile just grew wider, so I looked up once more.

And I was just in time to see Kasen raise her hand and a massive hole in the world opened, through which launched Houso. He crashed into Reimu, his jaws catching on her gohei and ripping it from her hand. It fell down somewhere that I couldn't make out. Now falling, he disappeared through another of Kasen's portals.

ONI!