/jp/ - Otaku Culture

After a moment, she stopped. "Er, I might know someone for that. What time is it?" A quick check confirmed that it was somewhere around the early afternoon. "Oh, that'll be time-consuming..." She sighed. "How badly do you want to sort your throat out?" She asked Yamame.

"Uh..." Yamame blinked. "I mean, I'd like to, but it's not, er...Urgent?" Confusion ruled on her face.

"There's someone I fought once. A god who works for the Ministry of Right and Wrong - She's a gatekeeper between Gensokyo and the Otherworlds like Hell. That was how I met her - The Animal Realm incident." Lady Kasen had explained that one to me while making me row the boat she kept moored up at the base of her senkai. "Niwatarijin. Kutaka Niwatari's her name. Niwatarijin has the ability to heal throat illnesses to some degree, so if you go and see her..." She could probably sort out Yamame's sore throat. "I mean, it's a bit of a trek, but...You'll see Komachi on the way, too, if you haven't invited her yet." That was a good point, and one I'd not considered.

I looked over at Yamame, who looked a bit conflicted with the idea. "It's just - Cold." She grumbled, which was her usual excuse. Curious, I asked if she was okay with inviting Komachi. "Hmm...She did kiss you once, but...Well, I got her back for that. Is she going to be able to come? She's supposed to ferry souls, right?" Another excellent point. "...Did you have an answer, though?" She asked me blankly. No, I replied. I did not. "Wonderful." She muttered, reaching out to flick my hair into my eyes.

"Er, if it helps, it's not actually that cold today. It doesn't seem to be snowing all that much anymore, and Higan's always pretty comfortable." Reimu raised a hand to stop me before I could try and mess with Yamame's hair, too. "It's not that far. We could be back before nightfall." She paused for a second. "Oh, I just had a thought." About? "Kasen. Wedding preparations are getting there, so..." She and Raki might want to give merging a go. "Yeah. I...Really don't know how that's going to go, though..." Well, we'd just have to cross that bridge when we got to it, I supposed. "Good. I hate planning things out like that anyway." She rubbed her forehead. "So? Yamame, fancy a quick trip to the Afterlife?"

I did mutter to her that she had been staying inside for a while. "Yeah, but - Oh, fine. Packages to deliver, anyway." She did poke me in the chest, though. "You're still on the hook for this, though. Snake." What happened to weasel? "Snake fits better today." She almost growled, picking up her teacup and depositing it in the kitchen. What had I even done? "Tempting me out of my warm and comfortable house!" She called from the kitchen. I snagged Reimu's on my way over and dropped my own in with the others. I was happy to deliver her packages, I told Yamame. 'Kurodani courier' had something of a ring to it, anyway. "Yes, yes, I know - And thank you for delivering the one for Merlin. She even threw in a little extra payment. It sounded like she liked it a lot." That was good, though we still had a lot of money thanks to Yuuma Toutetsu's generosity regarding Chiyari staying in my house. Or her lack of understanding when it came to how much money I needed. I wasn't entirely sure.

"You know, if you're going to be Hecatia's representative, you might just end up getting some powers of your own." Reimu commented to me while we listened to Yamame throw coat after coat around upstairs. "No idea what they'd be, though. She's, uh...Greek? Is that right?" She'd mentioned it a few times, I replied. "Yeah, I don't exactly have a handle on any Greek pantheons, sorry." We could always speculate, at least. "Yeah, true...Maybe you'll get the power of outstandingly peculiar fashion sense." Reimu said, elbowing me in the ribs. I poked her in the side. In reply, I said that at the very least, maybe I'd get the ability to fly out of it, which would make things much easier anyway. "Hmm...Yeah, probably. I mean, it'd be pretty underwhelming if you didn't get anything out of it, right?" Right, I muttered. It wasn't going to be until after the wedding, though, so it probably wasn't worth worrying about. "She'll probably have to make you her representative somehow, though. Maybe it's some sort of ancient Greek ritual." Probably horrifyingly painful, I absently mused. "Probably won't even hurt with that peach."