/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Um..." Kisami replied weakly. "I - Um, maybe?" She didn't look quite okay. She looked around. "Is, er, the Hakurei Shrine Maiden gone...?" Yamame and I both nodded. That seemed to calm her slightly. "O-Oh. Good..." She swallowed thickly. "Haven't had a scare like that in a long while..." She breathed in, squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then exhaled. Slowly, she seemed to relax. Yamame looked over at me, then gently pulled her into a hug. After a moment, I joined in. That really seemed to do the trick, and Kisami seemed much calmer afterward. "Not - Er, used to being the one who gets scared." She said, shaking her head and trying to pull her hair into some semblance of normality. "Usually, I'm the one doing the scaring." Yamame rolled her eyes and mouthed to me that it was because she just rushed at people and jumped on them. "Also not seen the Hakurei Shrine Maiden much, I guess. Does she get angry like that...Er, often?" I shook my head. It seemed to be at least fairly rare. Yamame had seen it before, though. "That's why you were ill for a while, wasn't it? I heard Yu and Rei talking about it."

"Yes, well...It was a misunderstanding that's been cleared up. I got her back, anyway." She'd done more than that, I thought privately. "So, er, what do we do now? Reimu's off to beat people up. Do we just...Sit here?" Yamame looked at the two of us. "I'd like to go home, if it's possible." I said that since Reimu would probably gone for a while, I'd go and look for Aunn, since she was probably around somewhere. She could take care of things until Reimu got back. "Her? Wasn't she chasing little Chen around the last time we were here?" Well...Yes, I supposed, but it was probably fine now. Plus, she'd done this sort of thing before. "Right...Okay, you go and do that and I'll, er, get Ki sorted." I smiled and nodded but stopped for one last moment before leaving to push some of Kisami's hair from her face, since it was still sticking out every which way. Then, I got up and stepped out onto the veranda, which the sun was shining brightly onto. I began heading down, calling Aunn's name.

After a few moments, I was at the back of the Shrine, and I saw that Genji the giant turtle had already climbed up onto the rock that he'd been sunning himself on the last time I'd seen him. I watched him for a moment, then muttered to myself that it couldn't possibly be that warm just because the sun was there, considering all the snow surrounding him. One of his eyes cracked open, and he slowly raised his head and looked at me. Now feeling a little bad for possibly waking him up, I asked him if he had seen Aunn, though I wasn't exactly expecting an answer. I was surprised, however, when he turned his head toward the other side of the Hall of Worship, where I hadn't seen yet. He definitely was intelligent, I thought, though still unwilling to speak. I thanked him awkwardly, then followed the path around the back of the Shrine. Happily, Genji had been correct, because there was Aunn and Aunn, both of them making identical snow sculptures which looked like komainu statues.