/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Yamame returned a ways into Suika's story, brandishing a bottle of sake and a sake box. "Ah!" Suika almost cheered upon seeing it. "I knew it was around here somewhere!" She tried to reach out immediately to grab it from Yamame, who shrunk back slightly. "Oh, relax, you skittish little spider." She muttered, slightly petulantly. I got up from the side of the bed and went over to Yamame, where she looked a little concerned.

"Never felt so - so out of step before. Like I can't get any sort of rhythm going." She sighed in frustration and closed her eyes. I put my hands on her shoulders and told her to just take a deep breath. Slowly, she breathed in, held it, then breathed out, and then smiled weakly. I kissed her on the forehead, then took the box and bottle from her, returning to the bed. I passed them to Suika, who wasted no time in opening the bottle, filling the box to the brim and downing the whole thing immediately.

"Oh, that's so much better!" She gasped happily, sinking back against the bed contently. Before my eyes, I could see the bruising she had just been covered in beginning to fade. "Can't turn you into an oni if you already are one, either." She refilled it and drained it again. "Phew! I was starting to get worried that I'd be able to see how dumb and ugly you are." She cheerfully said to me, then burst out laughing at my intense frown. "Joking, joking!" She calmed down a little, but was clearly in much greater spirits. "You two are very pretty. And you're just adorable together. Makes Yuugi blow her top, which is always fun to see." Considering the ways that I had already seen Yuugi react to Yamame and I, I wasn't all too surprised. Suika sighed, her smile beginning to fade. "Ibaraki - My Ibaraki, the one I knew in the past - would absolutely adore you two." She rubbed at her chin. "Or she'd try and kidnap you for herself." She told me, which sounded like a far worse option. "Hard to say with her...She always burst into tears if she saw marriage ceremonies." Suika was still referring to 'her Ibaraki' as the one from the past, rather than the two halves of her that were currently in the other room, so I asked her what exactly she thought about Lady Kasen and Raki. "They're different. Not especially bad, but different nonetheless. Mind you, they're-" She cut herself off and looked over at Yamame. "Where'd you get the sake box from, actually?"

"Huh? Oh, um, Lady Ibaraki saw me and asked what I was doing. She gave me the box when I said that you'd asked for a drink." Suika asked Yamame what the two Ibaraki's were doing. "Just talking, I think...In the kitchens." Yamame looked at me. "She said that she'd expected you to come and ask for it, actually." I frowned, then thought back. Why would I have known about a sake box? "Uh...She said that you used it once...?" I had? I frowned more intensely. My first night here...? I'd seen...a rabbit.

Oh, I had used it! The realisation dawned on me and I let out a satisfied sounding noise. "You, uh, doing alright? Need a drink?" Suika asked me slowly. "I think that vacant expression suits you better than...whatever this is." I shook my head and said that I'd forgotten that I'd used the sake box once in the past. "You did, huh? Well, you're no oni, so I guess you were injured too." I'd been having a panic attack, but I supposed it was still true. "Right...And Kasen had you drink from the box to calm you down. I get it. Well, that's very her. The hermit who helps." Suika shrugged and finished downing yet another refill of the sake box. "Ibaraki probably wouldn't have. That was back then, though, when the line of hatred between human and oni was more stark. If she'd grown alongside us..." Suika shook her head, perhaps a little dejectedly. "Doesn't matter." She looked up with brighter eyes. "Anyway! I promised you a story and I'm not going to leave it half done!" She'd deflected, but it was clear that I wasn't going to get anything more out of her. "So, where we were? Oh, right. Yuugi and I left Former Hell."

>>43358095
Give the spider a little more credit than that. She's not an airhead!