/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Six more days passed in the same manner. Once Lady Kasen had ensured that I knew the new route to get into her senkai was, which took a few hours of being beaten over the head every time I forgot until I could do it with my eyes shut, I would head for the caves. There, I would try and get further inside and force the rational part of my brain to keep control even when the primal part was screaming. After a full day of staring into the darkness, I would return, shivering and exhausted, to the dojo and pass out like I was dead to the world. I returned to the café twice more, and despite agreeing to share food with me, Oseki still didn't seem particularly excited to see me. I found her mysterious in an intriguing way, which only seemed to make her find me more annoying. At least the food was good.

By the end of the sixth day, I had managed to force myself far enough into the cave that I could only just see the daylight behind me. Feeling that intense ringing in my ears and the pounding of my heart, I shook my head and stumbled back out, breathing incredibly heavily despite having done no major exercise. There, I fell against the wall, just letting the cool air was over me.

Summer was well and truly coming to an end, and Autumn was rearing its head. Already, I had spotted the Harvest goddess and her sister, the goddess of the autumn leaves, on my way down from the mountain. The elder sister had her sleeves rolled up and a belt around her waist from which hung the different colours that she would paint the leaves with. Within a month, she would have swept across Gensokyo and dyed the land in brilliant golds and reds, and unlike previous years, I realised that I would see an amazing view from the mountain.

The downside was that the weather had gotten colder, wetter, and generally more unforgiving. It had rained twice in the last few days, both times the unbearable, unrelenting drizzle that sucked all the energy from your body. After the storm, I had hoped that the weather would take a turn for the better, but it looked like that had been wishful thinking. My clothes were rapidly becoming inadequate for the weather, and I still hadn't managed to muster up the courage to step into my house to try and reclaim some clothing that could provide better protection. During the early morning of the seventh day, I changed the pattern and headed instead for the Hakurei Shrine, because I hadn't seen Reimu for a week and I wondered if she had any spare scarves or something. Lady Kasen had told me that she had nothing, because such comforts were the sort of thing that she as a hermit was working to remove from her life, and either way, her senkai was kept at the perfect temperature anyway. That was great for her, but not so much for me.

Reimu had just finished sweeping the courtyard when I arrived, and she promptly dragged me inside so she could berate me for not telling her where I was and what I was doing. After I had calmed her down and explained that I had been trying to get over my aversion to the caves and darkness, she'd berated me a second time for going to the caves without telling her, but calmed down once I explained that it had led to some progress. Finally, she'd offered me tea. "Starting to get cold." She groused. "It'll be miserable here in winter. Suika broke the kotatsu earlier in summer during a party. She swore that she could spin it on her finger without dropping it." I asked if she had dropped it. "No, actually. She did it pretty well, but then something else caught her attention and she dropped it without thinking. She still owes me a new one." I'd never had a kotatsu.