/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"I am not going back out there." This was a point-blank refusal, and I was absolutely certain that I was fighting a losing battle. "It's too cold! I can't do it again so soon." Yamame's fifth refusal of this kind in the last four days. She was wrapped up in her chair up in her workshop, with plenty of clothes and a blanket around her. I'd asked her very blankly if it wouldn't be easier to just warm up the house, but she'd informed me very sharply that this was much more comfortable, so I'd decided that pushing the question seemed like a pointless endeavour. "Look, when that freezing wind dies down, I'll brave the snowy Hell again, but I'm staying right here until then. Or, I'm going to Former Hell and sitting in a nice, warm hot spring for several hours." If she did that, Yuugi would probably want to challenge her to hanafuda. "Fine by me. I'll get her this time." She crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out, so I leaned down and kissed her while she wasn't expecting it. After a moment, she gently pushed me back, red-faced. "Yes, well, er...Yes." She stammered, blinking rapidly.

After a moment, she got her wits back. "Alright..." She pointed a finger at me, then rolled her hand so that she was pointing downward. "Sit." I lowered myself into a cross-legged position in front of her, and she lifted the thing she'd just spent the last day or so working on. A scarf, it seemed. It was thick and looked very warm. She'd done it in black, so it went with my latest sweater, a black one with thicker sleeves that meant that I wasn't feeling it so much when the wind rushed up the sleeves of my coat. She'd even gone ahead and added gold bands in diagonal patterns, though they weren't at consistent distances, but they were only on one end of the scarf anyway, so it didn't look particularly awkward either. She lifted the scarf over my head and brought it around my neck, then wound it over itself. "Long enough?" She asked me. I wasn't sure a scarf could be too long. Reimu had gotten that multicoloured thing from Hearn and it was probably longer than I was tall.

"Yes, well...I'm not looking to create a fashion disaster like that, I don't think." I snorted, then examined the scarf myself. It was very pleasant to touch, though I was happy that it didn't feel that coarse either. "I made it with, uh...I think they call it cashmere?" What did Yamame call it? "Er, 'that wool stuff'." I snorted. How very Kisami-like. "What?" Yamame asked, a look of genuine confusion on her face. I shook my head and just said that I was thinking about similarities. "...Uh, okay? You're really weird sometimes." Said the spider youkai who had broken her teeth three different times attempting to bite me. "Shut up!" She snapped with a smile. "It's not my fault that you're the perfect counter to bites."

I shook my head and laughed. Speaking of which, how were her teeth? "Ah, look." She used a finger to pull her lips open. "Ahll be'ah." Indeed, her tooth did seem to have healed perfectly. "Helps that I wasn't wasting all of my energy repairing my sisters' webs this time." I rolled my eyes and asked how many times I'd have to apologise for that. After a few moments of silent, I decided to move on. The scarf was perfect, I finally told her. It was warm, it looked nice, and it was long enough to wrap around myself several times without dragging on the floor. I'd definitely find a way to pay her back at some point. "No, er, it's fine, I'll just-" I jumped up from the floor to gently cup her face with my hands. It was important to me. She did so much for me. "O-Oh..." Yamame stammered as I released her. "Um, o-okay. Er, but that'll be later, right...? For now, I'll just - Er, I've got some work, so..." She vaguely gestured behind her to the desk.

It wasn't a lie. I had no idea when she'd managed it, but she'd picked up some new requests for work. I supposed that she'd been a little busier in the New Year's party than I'd thought. Perhaps during that period of time between her storming off from Kisami and Komachi to meeting me again at the torii gate, she'd done a little bit of searching for work. I asked her just what work she'd gotten, considering I'd been with her for the last several days.

"Er..." She spun her chair around to face the desk, then began to rummage through her papers. "There's...Narumi Yatadera...She wants a smaller version of her coat for the summer months." She raised one sheet, on which seemed to be an invoice, and then a large sketch of the coat in question. I had no idea when they'd gotten together, but I'd definitely heard her talking to Kagerou about Yamame's skills, so I supposed that it had been at some point before I'd fallen off of the roof of the Shrine.