/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>44713594
All round me was danger. I had to be careful. I had to keep calm. Look for an opening. There was one. I dodged my way towards it and unleashed a counter attack, weaving past another wave sent my way. With only a few seconds to rest, another barrage came towards me. As I focused on moving my way though that, I failed to notice the glow in my peripheral vision until the orb of light collided with me.


I landed on the ground again, handing another victory to Marisa in her long streak. Marisa soon landed afterwards, grumbling as she started to peel ofuda off her dress. “Geez, I could never understand how you could throw bits of paper so far. I might not be a youkai but these things sure do stick well” Peeling off the last of them, she dusted herself off. “You’ve been improving, pretty soon you’ll get a win. You were a lot more aggressive this time. Did something happen?”

“Nah, just felt like trying something new” I said. There wasn’t any need to get her involved in all my problems. Maria worked out as crink in her neck. “If you say so. How about you do a lap around the Forest of Magic then we can call it for day, eh?”I set off and flew as fast as I could. I had gotten so used to the Forest of Magic I could transverse it and find my way back without much thinking. I was improving, but was I improving fast enough? I didn’t see any real rush to take over my mother's duties, but with her breathing down my neck, I felt like I had to improve and soon even if it was just to get her to think twice about fighting me. I still had my doubts that would just resort to just attacking us to get her way, but she always did have a temper. It would take a lot of training to match her, it could take years at this rate. I just had to keep my options open and hope for the best. A small part of me hoped she really would just end up dying and end all of this, but I scolded myself for wishing death on someone, even her and accepted it was unlikely. She was still as healthy as a horse and she wasn’t going to knell over and die from any causes soon. I came out of my thoughts to notice I had already looped back around to Marisa’s place. I made my landing. “You’re getting quick. Just keep that up” Marisa said as she watched me touch down. “I think you’ve shown enough improvement for today. You can head back now” I gave her a nod and flew off. It didn’t take me that long at all for me to reach the village and head home.

Dad was there already. “Oh Hana” he greeted me “You’ll have to make dinner just for yourself tonight. Sanae invited me out to a restaurant she says is good” My look of surprise must have been very apparent , as he quickly clarified things. “Oh, it’s not like that. She just wanted to show me a place she knows and catch up on a few things. Just as friends. I’ll be home a little later then usual so just make dinner and clean up. Don’t wait around for me” You better not be home too late, a little voice in the back of my mind spoke up before I pushed it to the side. There was going to be no thinking of that. “See you later then, dad” I told him instead.

A few hours later, dad had left for his little get-together with Sanae and I had long since eaten and cleaned up. I was feeling a little anxious and unable to get to sleep. A walk around the village would do me good, I thought. So I set out. I aimlessly wandered around the village, simply trying to tire myself out by stretching my legs. Reaching one of the quieter and smaller districts of the village, I took a gander at the twilight sky. It really was beautiful, I could feel my heart calm itself down at such a sight “Excuse me, Are you busy?”


The calm in my heart was gone as my heart tried to leap out of my chest. My head snapped around to see who the sudden intruder was. A woman with long blonde hair was suddenly next to me. I didn’t even hear or see her approach, it was like she just dropped in. She was dressed a bit strangely. A long purple dress and a white cap tied to her head with a bow. Something was off about her. The blonde hair was a giveaway. That sort of hair was rare here. Other then Marisa, and Suwako, and Shou at the temple, and that one leaf goddess that I met, and others I couldn’t recall. But blonde hair was still uncommon. Then there was the air she carried herself with. You got a nose for these sorts of things. The way a youkai carries themselves, the energy around them is so different then your normal human. But the thing that disturbed me the most if the feeling that I knew this woman. Vague memories of seeing a woman like her before. They were as vague and cloudy as a fish’s shadow in a muddy stream. Just like that fish, as soon as I tried to grab for a memory, it slipped away. “I said, could we talk?” The strange woman said, interrupting my thoughts.