/jp/ - Otaku Culture

And then I yelped again as the needle was pulled out. In Eirin's hand was a contained filled to just a little less than full of dark red blood that sloshed around slightly as she lifted it. "There we go." She spoke. "Your first successful - And willing - donation." It hadn't been so bad, I supposed. "That peach in your veins should replenish the lost blood quickly, and I remain confident that this will last me for some time." Eirin nodded with an expression that might almost have been called pleased. "Do you feel faint?" She asked me. I didn't seem to. "Are you sure? It creeps up on you." I shook my head. I was fine. I sat up in the bed quickly so that I wouldn't be stuck here, then swung me legs over the side and got to my feet. If this was how all my sessions at Eientei were going to go, I could think of worse things to be doing.

I was definitely fine, apart from how the world seemed to tilt slightly. I was...probably less fine, I thought, when the world tipped much more and Yamame caught me on the way down. Deciding with my last second of consciousness, I told Yamame not to attack Eirin for this, since she had warned me.

And then, I passed out.

Still, she was surrounded by bottles, and I wondered if she'd had any more surprise confessions before the night was over. She did seem to have a certain effect on people. Not too dissimilar to the effect that Yamame had on me, I supposed. Actually...There was that fairy. The blonde one with the blue tie. She wasn't near Ki, but she had clearly been watching her, if the way she'd fallen asleep facing her was any indication. Hero worship sure was a funny thing. I just hoped that if Kisami did take a liking to someone, it was someone who could handle her. That, I thought, really narrowed the candidates. I wasn't even sure I could handle her.

And over in the other corner, where she'd been for practically the whole night, was Sakuya Izayoi. She still looked flushed and more than a little drunk, even though she was asleep. She was on her side, and on her other side was Remilia Scarlet, who'd been fussing over her all night, it seemed. The small vampire was curled up tightly against Sakuya's back, and as I watched, the maid unconsciously rolled over and threw an arm over Remilia. I wondered how they were planning to get home, since the sky was clear and cloudless, and the sun was going to be coming up soon.

Speaking of the sun, I could see that it'd be coming up soon. The sky had reached a slightly lighter blue. Suddenly, as if I'd just been handed a divine revelation, it all clicked into place. The sunrise. The torii gate. Everyone was either gone or asleep. And Yamame was right here. For once, I felt like it wouldn't go wrong. Like nothing would get in the way. Idly, I reached into my pocket and confirmed that, yes, the ring was still there.

And I had to do it.

In the end, I asked her if she wanted to watch the sunrise. "Hmm? Oh, er, sure." She let me take her hand and lead the way back across the courtyard and over to the torii gate, where we stood by the side, Yamame wrapping her coat around herself and me with my arms crossed. "I used to only see the sunrise as a...Sort of signal. Get back underground, it meant. Since we underground youkai weren't really supposed to be on the surface back then. It's changed a lot, I think." In a good way? She looked at me with a beautiful smile. "Hmm...Yes, I think so. I don't think I could have ever had this in the old days." Had what, I asked with a frown. She was silent for a moment. "...You, you snake. I don't think I could have even imagined having you." I didn't think I could imagine that either, a year ago. I'd come a long way. "We both have, I think." She was silent for a moment as the first rays of the sunlight stretched across the Shrine's courtyard. "Um...Since it's the start of the new year and everything...I just wanted to say that..." She trailed off again. "I'm really glad that I met you." She finally said. "Never thought that I'd be living my life like this a year ago." I listened silently; my hand now enclosed around that small box in my pocket. "So..." She was still looking out over the sky. "I love you. Really. I really, really love you." The last bit was clear. Her words strong and focused.

That was it. Just as the Sun began to show itself clearly, lighting Yamame Kurodani up and making her hair shine brilliantly, I lowered myself to one knee and lifted the all-important box, holding it in front of me. I didn't respond just yet. I waited, just for a moment. "Um, so-" Yamame said, turning toward me. Her eyes, still that brilliant, bright gold, started at where I had been, then travelled downward. To me. To the box in my hand. Her eyes widened. I chose that moment to flip open the box and reveal the ring inside, and her hands immediately rushed up to cover her mouth as her eyes widened even further.

I couldn't resist my smile. Yamame Kurodani, I began. She'd changed my life in so many ways. She'd been there for me no matter how much I'd been going through. She'd taken me to see Satori Komeiji and she'd helped me make it back despite how weak I'd been. She'd cared for me while I was ill, and I'd cared for her while she was ill. She'd changed things for me, and I'd changed things for her. Even though she was a youkai, and I was a human, we'd managed to make things work, and I never wanted to stop. I wanted to be with her forever, and I wanted her to know how much she meant to me. I wanted to take care of her, and I wanted her to take care of me, just as we always said. Finally, after all this time, I said the words.

A day had passed. Yamame had complained a storm when we'd made it back to the cave entrance to find it covered in snow. Again. This time, she didn't seem inclined to wait for a delicate solution, so with one large danmaku blast, she was stomping through the caves towards home and dragging me along with her, complaining the entire time. I got the impression that she didn't particularly love Winter. Once we’d got back to her house, I asked her what she was planning to do about Kagerou’s hood. “Oh…” Yamame rubbed her eyes. “I’ve got to get it to her soon. She’ll be freezing in that thing she was wearing.” It hadn’t exactly looked resistant against the cold, I agreed. “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. We’ll go back to the village, as soon as Ki frees you from whatever this project of hers is that neither of you will tell me about. That café…Where I met her before. If she comes there often, maybe I’ll run into her again. Otherwise, I’ll have to…Try and get to her house through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.” That didn’t sound all too appealing, especially in the snow, but if we had to, I’d accompany her. “Yeah, I don’t exactly want to do it, either.” Yamame replied dryly.

After a quiet night in - So, not particularly quiet - Kisami appeared the next morning, looking like she'd recovered from her experience the previous day. I supposed that she wasn't the sort of person who'd let things affect her for long periods of time. She also continued to be entirely unconcerned with Yamame's privacy, since she burst into her bedroom early in the morning. Yamame had been screaming anyway, but then she was screaming for a very different reason, and it was a bloody and bruised Kisami who finally begged Yamame to let her take me with her for work on our "super secret project". After she'd sworn that Yamame would be happy with the results, and after I'd taken Yamame aside to remind her that beating up her elder sister wasn't the best way to deal with her problems, she'd finally agreed, with the added stipulation that beating up her elder sister had been a wonderful way to deal with a ruined morning. I couldn't exactly argue otherwise, I guessed.

So, bidding me farewell with a steamy kiss, I'd left Yamame's house and followed Kisami through the network of underground tunnels, heading in a different direction than I'd ever taken before. At one point, Kisami had to carry me over a large chasm, but apart from that, it was mostly just a lot of twists and turns. On the way, Kisami had explained to me that her home was deeper than where Yamame lived, but it was somewhat closer to the Hot Springs Town. It explained why I hadn't seen Kisami before coming down there; She had no reason to take the usual path to the surface and she could take a different route to reach the Hot Springs Town that didn't intersect with the path that Yamame and I took. Her house, in comparison to Yamame's, was less house-like and more cave-like. Not to say that it wasn't nice and comfortable, but despite her appearance, Kisami seemed to put less value in the clean and furnished surroundings that made up the bottom floor of Yamame's home. Instead, her house was more in line with the top floor - That of Yamame's workshop. "Everyone's got a couple things going on." Kisami explained to me, ushering me inside. "Yams is a seamstress, but she's also in charge of handling a lot of the woodworks for construction. Reiko manages the whole thing, but she also does a lot of the cleaning up after we're finished with construction. Yura negotiates with whoever we're working with, but she also works on the construction itself. Anyway, you get the idea. So, I help out with all of the...Uh, relationships when we're working, like yelling at the oni and the like, but I'm also a jeweller." I nodded along with the explanation, stepping inside. Kisami certainly could yell with the best of them, given what I had seen her accomplish while yelling at Yuugi, Lady Kasen, and Raki.

It was darker down here, though it looked like the deal the Kurodani family had made with the kappa had extended down here too, because Kisami flipped a switch on the wall and the room lit up, though it wasn't quite as bright as it was in Yamame's house. Kisami's home was only one floor, her bedroom somewhere behind the doors at the end of a long corridor. “Oh, er, leave your shoes on. Floor’s probably a little…sharp.” Kisami told me as she ushered me inside. I wasn’t sure how a floor could be sharp, but I decided that she was telling me for a reason. There was one door just to the left of the door into the home, and Kisami was pushing me in that direction. Inside, I found Kisami's workshop.