/jp/ - Otaku Culture

After an hour or so, I decided that I couldn't spend the entire day waiting around the Shrine, so even though the rain was still coming down - though, in more of a light drizzle than a pouring rain - I placed a hand on Reimu's shoulder and told her that I should get going. She looked up at me and nodded. "Remember-" I could always come to the Shrine. I knew and I appreciated it. "Yeah. Don't spend too long over there and leave if it's too much." I told her that I was always careful, and she snorted. "Yeah. Sure."
It may not have been raining as heavily, but it was still cold and windy, and I hadn't even managed to get any warmer clothes, so it was a miserable me who arrived at the caves after an hour trudging through the rain. Maybe that helped, because without even thinking, I walked straight into the cave until I was as far in as I'd ever made it since getting my memories back. I stopped there for a moment, then took another step forward. Then another. And suddenly, it was nothing but darkness.

I could feel my heart pounding, and that primal part of my brain was screaming at me, but I seemed to be holding onto rational thought still. For a moment, I allowed myself to feel some hope. Maybe it wouldn't take so long to conquer this. Maybe I'd be able to go back to my old self.

Then I felt a tap on my shoulder, and the rational part of my brain immediately gave way. I sprinted from the cave back into the rainy daylight, the fear having overtaken me so fast that I didn't even manage to scream. Despite that, I couldn't hear anything for a few moments until my heart began to calm, and then I realised that there had been a voice. Slowly, I turned to look back at the cave, and there stood a spider.

"I thought that was you." Nai said quietly as I managed to breathe in normally again, and I slowly stepped back over to the cave's entrance. "Just like last time." Yamame had told me that it had been Nai who had found me in the throes of a panic attack on my first attempt to under the caves, and she'd dragged me into Yamame's house. "Big Sister wouldn't tell me all of what happened. Just enough to know that you would probably struggle to enter the caves." I breathed out slowly, then nodded. It was something I was working on. "That's fine. I don't think I wanted to know. It's all...humany stuff." Nai crossed her arms and leant against the cave's wall. "It's too bright out here." She finally said. I shrugged and said that the bright areas were where I was safest right now. "Big Sister said that, too."