/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>46896930
“WHERE HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN?!”

Orin looks terrible: her eyes are baggy yet wide, her pristine red hair is disheveled, her skin wrinkled, and she has the sad, drowned-out expression of someone who’s spent two days straight awake dealing with the stress of frantically searching for a good place to dispose of nuclear waste. The nurse doesn't care, invading Orin's personal space with a finger pressed against her lips. “SHHHHHH!! The mother is sleeping!” She fiercely points towards the closed door, to which Orin sulks/hiss tiredly before, again, turning to me and Yuugi, who looks very apologetic yet struggles to hide her laugh. Sitting on the bench by the Kasha, Kokoro watches idly. “I'll check out Komeiji-san and if it's all okay, you may come in.” With no other words, the nurse entered the room

“That nurse is an ass.” She growls, one hand harshly cleaning her eyes. “What are you two waiting for? Laugh already, nyan…” Damn, Orin's more fatigued than when we play kancho. I prefer to focus on that… Tsc, even after that pep talk with Yuugi, the frustration hasn't settled down. I don't need protection, so why does Satori-sama feel like I need to?

Why not trust me…?

“Sorry, sorry~how are you two doing?” Yuugi asks.

Kokoro was going to say something, but Orin ran over her. “It was awful, simply awful—there was so much screaming; so much water everywhere before that hag of doors got us here, and we had to stay by Koishi, a-and she's suddenly a professional grappler…” Mumbling in phantom pain, Orin holds carefully to her b-bandaged hand, sounding as if on the verge of tears. “It is crazy how much easier handling corpses is than a laboring woman; what the hell! Did you know there was still more after the baby popped off?! Like, a massive sack of something so gross I puked! But I couldn't puke all over Koishi; that'd be rude, s-so I had to, I had… 35 hours of that torture…” She hugs herself, face nearly green, tail bushy and ears pressed against her hair. Kokoro gives her a gentle pat on the top of the head, and Yuugi offers her plate. Orin takes it right away and guzzles down the alcohol as if there were no tomorrow.

Guess she doesn't care about Satori-sama's orders for now…

Seeing her opportunity, Kokoro followed with a deadpan. “It was traumatic.” And, without ceremony, she falls to the side, head landing on Orin's shoulder, yet eyes sport a thousand-yard stare.

“A-At least it's over—so, so, tell me~boy or girl?”.

Orin groans and rubs her eyes, and as the exhaustion subsides, a small smile creeps onto her lips, almost against her will. Her hands move to support her chin, seemingly proud. “… Boy~”

To my dismay, the oni yells, “Ha!” and pumps her fist, her cheeks flushed. “Suika owes me so much food now~” Oh… What? I don’t get it. Orin laughs softly, her tail wagging in evident delight, and Yuugi follows energetically, ignoring the still-drinking Orin, asking, “Is he cute or—”

“—all's okay with Komeiji-san and her baby,” the same nurse from before appears from behind the now open door, smiling with flushed cheeks. “However, per the doctor's orders, only one at a time—Komeiji-san needs to rest.” She looked between us, fluffy ears down, and patiently waited while her free hand massaged the bulging belly.

Not a single glance is exchanged before Orin says, “Okuu, you should go in.” All eyes are on me, though I focus on Orin's and Yuugi's, my body abruptly tense for motives beyond me.

“Don't look at us like that; it's doubtful these two want to go back there so soon, and someone needs to get them back in shape~!” Yuugi rises to her full height, smiling big and boisterous—that shadow I saw earlier completely gone, though not from memory.

She hides it pretty well…

I wonder if it's the same for Satori-sama.

… Man, this sucks! If I knew I'd be feeling this bad after discovering so much nasty stuff going around me, I'd rather have remained ignorant. Life was much easier when the use of overwhelming force solved all my problems—now I have to think, ugh… “Oi, Okuu.” Orin calls me, eyes turning to her, a silly smile likely spawning from the amount of sake she drank; still, a sharp cleverness remained behind her crimson eyes. “No need to think so hard about it, nyan~it's you, Okuu, the nuclear menace and cutest birdbrain to have ever lived! Koishi and her kiddo will be delightful to have you close by.” She gives me a double thumbs up and, due to erratic movements and tiredness, falls out of the bench; Yuugi snappy to catch the kasha and Kokoro before they hit the floor.

Her words are weird and mix with the ones already bouncing inside this head of mine… A smile opens anyway, though strained, and wings fall a little as a notion is born out of that chaos: nuclear menace and a birdbrain—perhaps that's why Satori-sama doesn't trust me anything about what's happening?

I think of Koutei, the palpable sadness in his eyes as he watched people bow down to him…

With a quick nod to them, I follow the nurse inside.