/jp/ - Otaku Culture

She lifted another photograph, this one showing me...On fire. Oh, it was Miss Junko. Her, er, outburst. I could feel my back ache just slightly. The cold got to it sometimes, too. Same with my arm, but at least Shameimaru hadn't pulled out a picture of that particular incident. It was still difficult for me to think about without shivering. With a little bit of strain, I asked her what she was trying to prove. "Just...Showing what I've got so far. Here, I'll speed things up." She placed the stack on the edge of the table, then ran her hand over it and slid the photographs out into a straight line across the table. They told an impressive story. A fair number, though not all of my dates were here, as well as meetings with Tenshi and Reimu. She'd even managed to get a picture of Reimu in the pouring rain, pointing her gohei at my head as she told me to go and speak to Lady Patchouli in the Vampire's mansion. "Tell me about the ones I'm missing. I'm sure there's a few." Shameimaru told me. Reimu didn't look too pleased about it, but after a shot a glance at her, she grit her teeth and nodded.

And off my first session with Shameimaru went. I struggled with recounting the story of my date with Rumia. It was something I'd gotten better at, but I still found myself shaking a little and struggling to get through my words, and Reimu had to take over. For her part, Shameimaru managed to keep any smugness to a minimum, though I wouldn't have been surprised if it had taken significant effort. Fortunately, it got a little bit easier after that, until I had to explain what my physical therapy sessions in Eientei had really been, and my memories were still hazy from that time. I remembered flashes of emotion. Intense fear and panic, then the confusion and blissful ignorance of forgetting. Some days, I remembered more clearly than others. Others, I still couldn't remember at all. I'd gotten through my date with Miss Narumi - The sections that Shameimaru didn't know about, because she had a picture of the very distressed living jizo taking me to Eientei - and my meeting with both Tenshi and Lady Patchouli, though I kept certain things back that Tenshi had said which had made her sound quite vulnerable, when Shameimaru paused.

After a moment, she told me that if I was going to struggle too much, it would be better if we didn't push the sessions for too long, or it might just lead to me forgetting things. "Also," She continued, "When did you meet Yamame, exactly?" I scratched my head. It had been just after I'd met Miss Yuuka, which itself was just after Tenshi had given me the peach. I finally said that my last real date before I'd met Yamame had been with Lady Hecatia, though I wondered if it really counted as a date right after I said it.

"L-Lady Hecatia, you say...?" Shameimaru stammered slightly over Lady Hecatia's name, and I asked her what was wrong out of curiosity. "No, it's - I interviewed her for a book I was putting together, once. She was, er...Intense." I took that to mean that she'd demolished Shameimaru at whatever she'd been trying to say, because she could definitely talk rings around someone if she wanted to. "So - Er, you had a date with her...? Is that why..." She tapped her finger against one of the photographs. Me in the Hell T-shirt. "You're wearing this?" She made it for me, I replied with a nod. As an apology for accidentally burning up my other clothes. "Can you...Tell me about that?" She had a frown, now. "Wait, why did your clothes burn? Where were you?" Hell, I replied. "H-Hell...?" Shameimaru mumbled, looking aghast.

One round of explanations later, she was rubbing her forehead like she had a headache. "So...She - She took you to Hell, then burnt your clothes off, then took you somewhere else and made you new ones?" That sounded about right. "I think I need something stronger to drink for all this..." I wondered if I should mention the peach now or not. Perhaps it would be better to leave the meeting with Miss Yuuka for later, too... "Maybe we should leave it there for now..." Shameimaru finally said. "And bring a bottle of sake for the next time." Wouldn't that get in the way of the interview? "I'm a tengu, boy. A bottle of sake to me is like a drop of sake to you." There was an edge to her words there. I supposed I'd sort of questioned her pride as a tengu.

"Done?" Reimu asked, crossing her arms. "Fine by me. You can bring the sake if you want, but if you get drunk and start getting handsy, I will beat you so bad that you'll be lucky if you can even hold a pen again." Somehow, I didn't doubt what she was saying. "This is going to take a while..." She muttered. "Alright, when do we want to do this again? Next week?"