/jp/ - Otaku Culture

So, they'd all seen her working on the wood cutting down there. Why had Nai latched onto it specifically? "Your - Um, you had your human do some wood cutting with me, and it was a lot of fun since he wasn't able to do it as quickly as we usually do." She indicated the others. "So...Well, I thought it would be fun to do more stuff with wood. I asked around, and making things out of wood was a lot of fun, so I'm working really hard..."

Yamame smiled warmly at Nai. "That's really good, Nai. I hope you'll show me some of your work before long, okay?" Nai breathed in sharply, but managed a nod and a weak smile that hid a wider smile. Hopefully that didn't mean that she'd rush things to try and show them to Yamame, though. That'd do no one any good.
"What about you, Yams? Aside from your future husband, I mean." To Yamame's surprise, it had been Reiko who'd said that, and everyone turned to her incredulously. "What?" She asked, looking around. A few seconds of silence were all it took to break her. "Oh, stop staring - Look, I thought that I would try some of the teasing stuff, since Yura and Ruka get to do most of it. It didn't work. It - It did not work." She sighed heavily, then ran her hand through her combed back hair as if it would do anything. It was one of her funny habits.

"W-Well, er..." Yamame took a second to recover from Reiko's sudden impulsive desire to be a comedian, then carried on. "I've been busy with work, like always. I've got a bunch of commissions that I need to go and deliver, and I'm still sketching ideas for Miss Hecatia's clothing line, but it's been a bit slow over Winter." Yamame thought for a moment. "Although, a lot of it's going to be slowed down by the wedding preparations, I guess..." She frowned. "Uh...Anything?" She looked at each of her sisters in turn, who didn't really reply but just watched her carefully. "What's the matter with you all? It's like you've seen...A..." Suddenly, she realised that they weren't staring at her. They were staring behind her.

Very slowly, she straightened up. If they were doing that, there was only one reason, and it was the very thing that Yamame had been afraid of when Ki had revealed that she'd told everyone to come here. She'd thought that it would be fine, because - Really, what were the odds that she would just so happen to stroll by this particular spot on this particular day? She was just ready in time to see the long slender arms wrapping around her collarbone and her neck, and she could feel the presence behind her when she felt the long hair fall on her. "My, my, my..." Her voice was the same, of course. "Isn't this just...A lovely family reunion, and after so long apart." She leaned down and hugged Yamame tightly. "My lovely daughter, coming to see her poor, worried mother at long last."

Yamame finally managed to push herself to her feet and turn around. There she was. Akiru Kurodani. The Kurodani matriarch had chosen one of her less sheer dresses for this occasion, though it still showed off a dangerous amount of skin for Yamame's liking, as well as her other limbs emerging from her back. She, unlike the rest of them, never hid them, and never seemed to need to. Her hair, as always, fell delicately over her left eye, leaving the vibrant crimson of her right eye to stare at her intensely. "Mother..." Yamame replied, hoping that she wouldn't sound exasperated. "It hasn't been that long since I saw you."

"Has it not?" The one eye creased in a frown. "You've grown. All of you have. Now, how have you gone and done that without me looking? Oh, and you don't call me mum anymore..."

"I just got older, mother!" Yamame replied testily. "It does happen, you know." By this point, the others had scrambled to their feet. She took in a deep breath, held it for a moment, and then exhaled. Getting into an argument would do no good. "Mother, I - How have you been?" She finally asked.

"How have I been?" Mum repeated as a question. Oh, she could hide it on the outside, but she'd always been 'mum' and not 'mother' on the inside. "How rare of you to ask, my little Yammy." Yamame cringed. The worst thing Ki had ever done to her is suggest that nickname in front of Mum, and she'd yet to truly forgive her for it. "Yamame, please, mother. Yams, if you must use a nickname."

Mum breathed out slowly. "Oh, Yamame Kurodani, I shall call you whatever I want." Typical, Yamame thought to herself. Immediately, she decided that she would simply have to deal with it. Just...Get to the point and get out of there. "I've been all on my lonesome, you know. Oh, Kisami visits, sometimes, as do her sisters, but you five, let alone the others...Tell me, Nai, how has your work been going?" Work? Did she mean the Hot Spring Towns? The woodworking?

"U-Um, it's been going fine, M-Mum." Nai practically squeaked. She still wasn't old enough yet to reach the part where she started standing up to Mum a little more. "Wood is hard to work with, but...Thank you for asking."

"Huh." Yamame had her arms crossed and her eyebrows had raised slightly. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow of my own. "Just, er, thinking that she looks like almost a different person with her hair down." I looked back at Reimu. Sure, I'd spent a reasonable amount of time with her in this state, so I was used to it, but I kind of understood. If anything, she looked just a little bit like Kaguya Houraisan. They both had the same hairstyle. "She's still cute, though." I stood up straight, then turned and stared at Yamame. "What?" She asked, looking up at me. I stared slightly harder. "I'm not blind, you know. She's very pretty." I tilted my head. "No, I'm not interested!" Now, Yamame looked a little scandalised. "Urgh, get your mind out of the gutter. It's you that I'm interested in, not her. But I can still appreciate that she is very pretty!" I quit my teasing of Yamame and agreed that Reimu was indeed very pretty.

Pretty or not, that didn't change the fact that she was still fast asleep on Yamame's couch. "So, er, do we need to wake her up, or...?" I thought about it. The most likely scenario was that someone like Marisa would get worried, but she was with Tenshi who had accurately guessed that Reimu would fall asleep just as soon as she'd left Eientei, so I imagined that they would understand what was happening. Aunn would probably worry, but I doubted that it was the first time that Reimu had been gone from the Shrine for longer than a day. All in all, I figured that it would do more harm than good to wake her, so I shook my head and said to Yamame that we should just leave her alone until she wakes up. She probably needed the rest. "Hmm...Okay, well, I don't really want to have a cranky Shrine Maiden rampaging about my living room, so...Outfits?" I felt a chill wash over me. "Or sketches, at least. Maybe not outfits, if you're hurting as much as you seem to be." I could...probably handle sketches. Probably.

But instead, there was a knock on the door and both Yamame and I jumped. "Sister~?" Now that I'd met them, I recognized that as Reiko's voice. "Yams? You busy?" Yamame and I exchanged a look, then both turned to look at Reimu. "Pretty boy Come on, I can tell you're home." I stared blankly at Yamame for a moment, until she raised her eyebrows at me. Bemused, I pointed a finger at my own chest. Was I the pretty boy? Yamame scoffed, then let a thoughtful expression come over her face, then nodded. For a moment, she seemed intent to carry Reimu off somewhere, but then she shook her head and shrugged. They'd known that we were going here, anyway, I whispered.

Finally, Yamame shrugged and opened the door without a second thought. "Oh, there you are." At first, I thought that it was just Reiko outside, but after a moment, Yura's face popped out from above the door, upside down, and I startled, jumping back slightly. She was kind enough to cover her mouth, so I didn't see her laughing at me, but I knew she was. "Yams, we really could do with your help downstairs."

I looked at Yamame in confusion. "The Hot Springs." She mouthed to me. Ah, that made sense.

"Look, the oni have decided to get really rowdy lately. Something about the managers going off on a business trip and the ones that they put in charge are, well, oni. They got drunk, forgot that we had work going on, and got straight back to attempting to lift the big rock. They keep finding out supplies, too!" Reiko was starting to look stressed, and I'd only seen her once but even so, I could tell.

"Yeah, she's right. They keep coercing the others into drinking games, and then it slows up work for another day or two until they've recovered from their hangovers. Right bloody pain, dear sister." Yura shook her head. "But you're our most beloved sister, and even the oni love you." I'd gotten that impression when Yamame had led me through the Old City to meet Satori. "So..." Yura's eye flickered back and forth between Yamame and I with a slightly coy smile. "If you're not, er, busy..."

"No, no, sister. Definitely not. Not with this injured idiot," She pointed a finger at me, and I looked away, "And this sleepy idiot." She pointed a finger behind her, to the unconscious Reimu.

"Whoa, she's still here?" Yura asked, now barging into the room. After a moment, and shaking her head, Reiko followed her. "That was half a day ago. How tired was she?" Yura looked over at both of us, and I shrugged while Yamame made a noncommittal noise. "Hey, can I mess with her?" She squatted down in front of Reimu, who I noticed with some worry had acquired a slight crease to her brow. "Nothing bad, promise. Just...draw on her face or something."

"Don't be a child, sister." Reiko admonished. "She's clearly not well." The tallest of the spiders looked over her shoulder at Yamame. "Not your handiwork, Yams?"