/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Well, uh, I was mostly just confused. I didn't really figure out what she was talking about until she was already gone, and then I realised that if I made a scene, I'd really be blowing my cover." That was very mature of her, I thought. Or...Not mature, but it was proof that she was making good progress in regards to her instincts. Raki caught my eye. "I do want to fight her though. Just - Not where it's going to have half of Gensokyo breathing down our necks. How's anyone supposed to enjoy themselves like that?" I had a feeling that Raki meant something different to what she'd just said. Something about the way she'd not wanted to fight in front of too many people. I remembered the conversations I'd had with her that night. She'd been struggling with the number of people at the party, so she probably just didn't want to have lots of eyes on her. Not that I thought she'd say it out loud. "So...How strong is she?"

"Strong enough." Reimu replied dryly. "But you'd have your work cut out just getting her to fight you properly, so I wouldn't recommend it." She paused for a moment. "What were we talking about?" I opened my mouth. "Oh, right. You want to marry Yamame under that peach tree you planted. I guess if I speak to her, she might be willing to keep all the teasing to a minimum, at least until the wedding ceremony is done. That'd be good." I supposed so, though I didn't think she'd pull that much like that anyway. She, and I didn't want to seem overly familiar, seemed to like Yamame and I. I didn't think she'd be willing to offer the suggestion for hosting the wedding there unless she was willing to take it seriously, either. "You have a point, I guess. I still don't like her much, but maybe she'll be okay. She's usually only a pain with strong people, anyway." That seemed like the best response I was going to get, so I nodded and decided to move onto the next question.

"When?" Lady Kasen asked me. "You'll need to decide on a date, after all. Especially since there's probably going to be a lot of guests." There were? I hadn't really thought about it properly, but I'd figured that I would just invite the people I could think of. "Listen to that. "There are?" He says. Of course there are. Haven't you realised that you've managed to either have a direct impact, or at the very least had a good interaction with a lot of people, human and youkai? Even if you didn't invite everyone, they'd probably show up anyway. A human and a youkai getting married, and Reimu's not trying to exterminate them? Held outside of the village, but open to villagers? In the Garden of the Sun at the dawn of Spring? This will most likely be the event of the year, you know." I stared at her, my mouth agape. Really? I didn't realise people cared that much. "You've changed a number of lives, you know? Just with your usual charms. Some of them probably want to see you again." But...I wasn't anybody special. Yamame was, but I was just...Some guy. "Reimu's adoptive brother, who was given a peach by an ex-celestial, who was the subject of a massive Eientei conspiracy. Who's been involved with just about every kind of youkai out there. Closely tied to the goddess of Hell, and friends with a Shinigami." Lady Kasen paused for a moment. "You...Started to convince me to free my partner. I could go on, but I think you're getting the idea."

I seemed to be. Had I really had that much of an effect on people? I hadn't been trying to. I just tried to help out, whenever I saw the opportunity. It wasn't because I'd wanted to cause some major change or anything like that. I just tried to be kind. Suddenly, I felt an arm snake around my shoulder, and I saw Kisami's bushy red hair at my side. "You alright?" She whispered. Slowly, I nodded, though I wasn't entire sure. I thought I was alright, but I was just struggling to process Lady Kasen's words. "She's right, you know. I've not known you as long, but you definitely seem to bring out the best in people. It's no wonder Yams loves you so much that she'll marry you. If I was in her shoes, I'd probably have married you already." I looked over at Ki properly with a raised eyebrow. "Okay, maybe that came out a little strong. But you get what I'm saying, right? Look, don't think about it so hard. Just keep being the way you are." That was all I could do, I supposed. I took in a deep breath, exhaled, then nodded.

"Okay, uh, back to the date discussion. You know, we really could do with having Yamame here." Reimu looked over at me. "Where is she, anyway?" Home, I replied. The weather had her absolutely refusing to step out of the caves, and she'd picked up a bunch of work at the New Year's Party, so she was getting through that. "Really? When did she...? Okay, whatever. She's a seamstress! Why doesn't she just make some warmer clothes?" Bluntly, I reminded her that ten - Possibly nine, I wasn't sure what Komachi had done with the one she'd found - of her coats were still here at the Shrine.

"Er...Yeah." Ki replied blankly. "Should I go behind a rock or...?" Raki stared at her pointedly. It seemed like she wasn’t in the mood for that sort of time-wasting method. "Guess not?" Ki looked back at Yamame and I. "Um, sorry, but I'll be a minute. Um, what was the order? Tabard, shoes, shirt, shirt? Wait, I said shirt twice…" With Raki’s amused voice replying, Yamame and I decided to slip away.

Taking that as our cue, Yamame and I backed away until we were around the bend. "They got changed in front of each other?" Yamame muttered to me in confusion. "That's - Huh. I suppose Ki wouldn't really care about it that much. If it was a boy, though..." I rolled my eyes. "Still, Miss Raki seems, um, well." Probably a bit more than well, I thought. Even while making a point of staring at her face, it was hard not to notice certain things. Yamame slapped me on the arm. "You snake! What, am I not enough for you?" I raised my hands and said that I hadn't meant it like that. "Only joking." Yamame replied with a smile. "I'm not exactly blind, either." Well, there we were. "I wonder what Suika and Lady Kasen were fighting about...?" I thought it had been about Houso? "No, um, after that. When Suika said to prove that she was really there a thousand years ago." I had a suspicion, but it was quite a personal matter, so I hoped that Yamame wouldn't mind if I didn't share it for now. "Personal? Oh, I suppose so. Hopefully I'll find out at some point." I hoped so too. Privately, I hoped that we would reach a point where Raki and Lady Kasen felt comfortable with merging again, though I knew we were probably still a way off.

"She's gone!" Lady Kasen called, stomping down into the pathway. "Suika Ibuki is gone for now." Curious, I asked why she'd been here in the first place. "Oh, er, well...We'd been getting along better, so when I ran into her at the party, I offered to let her stay. But she’s still just as crass as she used to be, because she was making crude lokes about my poor tiger. If I wasn’t so hungover, I’d have smacked her around for that…" I wondered whose room she'd stayed in. There were plenty on the ground floor, but at the same time, I just knew that she'd used one of the occupied rooms instead. Perhaps even Lady Kasen's own rooms. "Listen, I want to talk to you." Lady Kasen said to me. "It's about - Well, that personal issue." She spared a glance at Yamame. "I'm sorry, Yamame. I would like to tell you, but it isn't entirely my secret to keep."

"Huh? Um, no, it's okay." Yamame looked up at Lady Kasen and nodded along. "I won't pry. I’m just happy that I can be here at all, um, Lady Kasen."

"Ah, that's better!" I heard, and I turned to see Kisami emerging from by the waterfall, now clad in her own clothes. Following her was Raki, straightening out her tabard and straightening the chains on her wrists. "Not that I didn't enjoy being Miss Raki for a day. We should do that again, sometime!" That, I hadn't expected. "So, uh..."

At that point, Lady Kasen finally saw it. "Oh, my, my, my!" She suddenly said, zeroing in on Yamame's hand. "Just what do we have here!? Partner, have you seen this?" She took hold of Yamame’s hand and raised it delicately, examining the ring against the sunlight. “An engagement ring? Partner, this means-“

"A wedding! I saw it!" Raki replied, suddenly very excited. "It's beautiful, isn't it? All shiny and golden but with the stone in the middle reflecting beautiful greens." Raki looked at me. "Did you give her this?" I nodded, but added that Kisami had done all of the hard work. With that, Raki turned to Kisami and wrapped her in a bone-crushing hug. "Amazing job! It shines so well." Oh, I thought. So, even when they were apart, the two halved of Ibaraki-douji still got very excited by the idea of a wedding. "Date?" Raki asked me. I shrugged with a blank look. "Oh, this won't do. C'mon, partner. We need to strategize." And Raki grabbed Lady Kasen's hand, before dragged her along behind her. "Come on!" She shouted at the rest of us.

So there we were, discussing a wedding between a human and a youkai with the two halves of an ancient, famous oni, along with another spider who looked like a certain Chinese gatekeeper.

Just like normal people.

More interestingly, I found, was the arm's response. She had been just as gentle with the pets as I had ever seen Lady Kasen be. I hadn't known as much about the oni arm as Reimu had, but what little I did know was turning out to be full of contradictions. She didn't seem full of malice. She wasn't angry, or at least, she was capable of controlling the anger. Despite everything, she had seemed genuinely hurt by Lady Kasen's behaviour towards her.

I burst through the door outside and found that the arm was nowhere to be seen. Slightly worried that she had broken her promise, I whipped me head around, then sighed in relief when I saw her, standing on the edge of the mountain peak, and staring out over the mountain range of Lady Kasen's senkai. The sun was high in the sky, at just the right time of day to make the water below sparkle and send bouncing, undulating reflections up the cliff walls and into the foliage that dotted the other peaks.
After a moment spent debating with myself, I edged up beside her, keeping a healthy distance.

"I'm crying." The arm murmured, lightly touching her cheek, which was wet. I looked at her in surprise. She actually was, genuinely crying. "Why - Why am I doing that, now?" She asked, and though I at first assumed it was a rhetorical question, she looked at me as if she was expecting me to actually answer. I finally ventured a guess and said that perhaps it was because she was happy to be free. "Yes. Yes, that sounds right." The arm said, wiping away the tears with her arm. I got the impression that there might have been something more to it, but the arm didn’t want to reveal it and I didn’t want to invade her privacy by asking. I could already spot the signs of a dam about to burst, so I didn't say anything and just waited for her to crack. "I haven't..." The arm began, trailing off after a moment. "I..." Any moment now... "I don't remember the last time I felt the wind upon my skin." She whispered. "Heard the flowing water, or the rustle of the trees. Seen a real, true animal." I stole another glance at her, and saw that the tears were back. "The warmth of the sun." She sniffed and swallowed thickly. "The world is beautiful." She finally said, her voice just so slightly choked.

The arm seemed content to remain out on the cliff side, staring across the surface. After some time, I stepped back and returned to the dojo, looking for Reimu. She wasn't on the ground floor, but I caught her on her way out of Lady Kasen's room, a deep frown on her face and with her gohei tapping against the ground with each step, seemingly more out of consternation than anything else. "Oh, there you are. I was getting worried." Reimu said, quickly grabbing my arm and pulling me away. After a moment, I pushed her hand off and led her to my room, which was hopefully far enough away on the ground floor that no one could hear anything.

We both stepped inside, looked at each other, then fell face first sideways across the bed. "I managed to convince Kasen to go to bed and resolve things later." Reimu muttered into the bed sheet, and I reported that the arm was happy enough to simply be outside and see the scenery. "She's...not taking things well." I wasn't all that surprised. Having spoken to the arm, I could see that whatever she was, malice and hate were not the only emotions she was capable of showing, which already complicated things. She couldn't be dismissed as just an enemy to defeat anymore, and I had no clue what Reimu's plan would be, let alone my own. "We can't just let her go free." Reimu told me sternly. "No one's supposed to know that Kasen's an oni anyway. Tenshi told me that if people knew that the hermit was actually an oni, it'd destroy trust in hermits on the surface." I mumbled a vague 'uh-huh' into the bed. "But we can't leave things like this, either..."

At times like this, it would have been good if we had someone who could talk to Lady Kasen. Someone who had better experience with this sort of thing. There wasn't all that much I felt like I could say to improve the situation. Lady Kasen had essentially been rejected by her own self, and I didn't know how we could resolve the chasm between them. "Ugh..." Reimu groaned. "All this domestic stuff is irritating. Maybe if we just give them both a good smack, they'll work all their problems out." As appealing as that sounded, I decided to pass, because I wasn't sure any part of me would survive such an idea. But if there was anyone who could give them a smack...

>>38398456
Your pelvis will get smashed.

>>33063767
Don't you think it's particularly unwise to try bullying one of the strongest people in Gensokyo?

>>27599051
Falling for your male disciple is peak Kasen.
Hope she means 'breaking his pelvis' when she says she wants to gobble him up, not something the Arm would do.