/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Um, it was nothing, really!" Nai said, sounding like it had been a lot more than nothing in reality. "I just did my best." She was looking to have a future in being as weak to compliments as Yamame was, which was saying something, because Yamame was amazingly weak to compliments. "D-Do you really think I could learn from you, Big Sis Reiko!?" Reiko nodded, telling her that she'd get back to the conversation at a better time, since things were starting to get into full swing down in the hall.

"You're really doing great, Nai." Yamame told her. "I'm very proud of you, little sister." That, I imagined, was probably enough to make Nai's whole month. "Still, we should probably get down there, or they'll eat all the food." At that moment, Yuugi's musicians started up, and that really got the atmosphere going. "Yep." Yamame continued. "We're going down there." She grabbed my hand and began dragging me over to the stairs.

When I looked back over my shoulder, it was to see the other three looking at us like we were mad, and then they turned and hopped over the balcony to fall down to the ground below. Frowning, I asked Yamame why we were taking the stairs when she could have just carried me down. We re-entered the room that led to the balcony. "Did you really want all of my sisters to watch me carry you down to the ground?" She asked me curiously, and I shrugged. Normally, I supposed that I would have found it embarrassing, but it was Yamame, so I didn't mind. That was the point, I thought. I really didn't mind most things as long as I was with Yamame for them.

Once I'd said that, Yamame paused, then turned around. "I suppose...They might not miss us for a minute." She said, then shoved me into a chair so she could sit on my lap and wrap her arms around my neck. I caressed the small of her back, where I wondered if her spider limbs were located. She leaned in closer, kissing me. "Nothing more." She whispered against my mouth. "Not until we get home." I whispered back that I could wait, though I was certain that it would take an immense force of will.

It was several minutes later when we managed to actually leave the room. Nothing more had happened, but it was still just as hard for either of us to convince ourselves to leave. It was only when Yamame said that she was thirsty that we managed. "Ah!" We entered the main hall, which extended underneath the spot that the balcony reached to, and there was Kisami, a sake cup in her hand and a skewer of some sort of meat in the other. Over on the other side, I could see Nai excitedly talking to a group of spiders who looked to be about her age, and further down, Yura and Ruka had gotten together. Reiko had her own group that she was speaking to, but I didn’t know any of them. "There you two are! Come on, come on! Sit down!" She beckoned us over to sit beside her. "Little Nai and Yura really did quite well on such short notice, didn't they?" I nodded as Yamame praised Nai once more. Yura, she continued, had done good, but it was tempered by the fact that she wasn't supposed to even be throwing the party, so she wasn't getting such high praise. I reached out for one of the skewers, but a hand got there first.

"Careful, boy." The owner told me, and I looked up from the table at them. "You wouldn't want to steal, would you?" The eyes were sharp and dark, underneath straw-coloured hair and a straw-coloured hat with two large eye-like ornaments on the top. I shook my head, instead opting for a skewer underneath. "Good boy." Privately, I wasn't sure how I felt about being called 'boy' again, but out loud, I just thanked her for letting me know. "You're being polite around me. Keep it up, and things will be just fine..." She smiled at me, which was only slightly unsettling, and then she pulled the skewer free, before making very short work of it.

"Hey, hey~!" Kisami got my attention back by shaking my shoulders. "Where were you and Yams just now, hmm? Reiko, Nai and Yura made it down quickly. Why didn't you two~?" She elbowed Yamame and I in turn, spilling a little sake on her navel, since her top wasn’t quite long enough to reach down to her dress.

After a moment, I realised that there were some other attendees who weren’t from the Kurodani family. I spotted Okuu and Orin over in one corner, and over in that corner was some pink-haired girl…Maybe. I wasn’t sure.

Thus, my party experience began with me being vaguely threatened and my...Possibly future sister-in-law asking what I'd just been up to with Yamame, both of which seemed like equally dire scenarios.