/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Either way, I simply smiled and nodded until Lady Kasen turned to leave. I followed her silently to the torii gate, and I caught her mumbling something under her breath about a line. I think she mentioned hairs, too. I couldn't begin to guess at what she'd been talking about.
Instead, I went back to Reimu's room. She was awake, but very quiet. I sat down next to her and checked her forehead. She felt like she had a normal temperature. Reimu locked eyes with me, and her expression grew serious. "Are you going?" She asked.
I only paused for a second or two, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, I nodded. "Good." Reimu said. "Good. You should try." I asked her if she would be okay while I was gone. "Oh, definitely. In fact, I'm a little worried that I'm going to have to train Aunn out of some of these habits, or I'll never get a moment's peace." I chuckled and said that Aunn would work herself sick at this rate and Reimu would be the one stuck taking care of her. Reimu weakly smiled at that, but didn't make much effort to move. I dearly hoped she wasn't taking a turn for the worst. "Go." she said. I nodded and went for the door. "Hey." She called, and I stopped, looking back at her. "About what you said the other day. About being glad to have met me..." She trailed off, and I finally asked her what she was trying to say. "I know it wasn't in good circumstances, but...I'm glad I met you too." I felt my shoulders drop as some sort of tension I hadn't known I was carrying left me. "Good luck." Reimu murmured as I left the Shrine.

The clouds looked like they might be moving away after all, but while I might distrust the word of Aya Shameimaru in other matters, I wouldn't distrust a tengu when it came to the direction the wind was blowing. If she said there would be a storm, it was very likely that there would be a storm. And I definitely didn't want to be caught in it, so I decided to get moving as quickly as I could. I didn't really want to say it, but I think I also wanted to keep moving before I could have a chance to talk myself out of seeing Yamame. I was down the stairs and halfway down the path toward the village in minutes, and I was happy to find no disturbances on the path. For a moment, I thought about trying to bring Yamame another gift, but I both didn't want to risk setting foot in the village again, and I'd have to deal with the youkai living in my house, so I decided that it wasn't worth the risk. Instead, I stepped off of the beaten track, heading toward the caves.

By the time I reached the caves, I was sure that the storm was approaching. the clouds looked so much bigger from up close, and I could tell that it was going to be a heavy rainfall. If I was lucky, I might not get caught in it, but it could easily go the other way and I'd be trudging around soaked through. If I even made it back to the Shrine in those conditions, it'd be Reimu taking care of me. Hoping that the clouds could keep from bursting open for just a little while longer, I stepped into the caves, trying to keep my nerves steady. It had been a while since I'd been in a dark, enclosed space like this, and now I could feel some primal part of my mind recoiling in a way that it hadn't done before. I felt like I was in the bamboo forest, and everyone was closing in on me, and at any moment I'd emerge into a clearing full of youkai and that would be the end of me and-

I dropped to my knees and squeezed my eyes shut. I felt like I was suffocating and I'd barely even entered the cave. It wasn't even the actual Bamboo Forest, but I was frozen in place. I felt stupid, like I was a child again, unable to comprehend the things that were happening. No, I felt like the man I'd been before I'd found out about the holes in my memory. Like I was just bumbling along with no idea of what was really happening behind my back. I just needed to move forward - to take one stupid step into the stupid fucking cave and see the youkai spider who had killed and eaten who knows how many people in the past and...a-and...

I decided not to head back to the dojo yet. Primarily because as I headed down the steps from the Shrine, I couldn't stop thinking about the smile on Lady Kasen's face, and Reimu asking me if she'd been acting weird lately. I didn't know what strange new 'training' Lady Kasen would have planned, but I didn't think I wanted to be there when she got back to put it into practice. I had a ban feeling that it would involve me learning some strange skill that didn't seem anything to do with ascetic training, like...massages, or the training that Lady Kasen told me would happen near the end of my training, the 'How To Care For A Drunk And/Or Injured Shr- Person' training. She had stumbled over her words a little as she spoke, so I wondered what exactly she thought I would be using it for.
Instead, I decided to try and visit Yamame. I knew I had to stay out of the village just in case anyone from Eientei was looking for me, but if I skirted around the borders toward the cave that Yamame lived in, I thought that I would be fine. I hadn't seen her since just after I'd moved in with Lady Kasen, and I found that I missed her. I also was hoping I could ask her to make me some clothes more suitable for the cold of the mountain. Summer was beginning to wane, too, so I'd probably need the clothes before long. My only real worry was that I really didn't have much to pay her with, and I wasn't even sure what she accepted as payment. Corpses? That seemed more like Orin's thing.
Either way, I didn't want to remain at the shrine with a bunch of mob bosses, youkai from Hell, youkai from Former Hell, and other assorted individuals who would try and eat me, or fight me. I would rather go and spend time with the youkai who manipulates infectious diseases.
As I started on the path that would take me nearest to the cave, I reflected on how strange my life was.
The day was bright, and it filled me with a sense of relief after all the cold on the mountain and the rain that had come when I was still living in the village. Lady Kasen's senkai was always at a perfect temperature where the sun was bright but not overbearing, but it was nothing like a comfortable day in the real world. The wind rushed through the trees and set them gently swaying, which sent shadows dancing across the ground. It felt peaceful.
I wondered just what Doctor Yagokoro had been discussing with Fujiwara no Mokou. What had the immortal said that had caused the Doctor's reaction? I didn't know anything about Mokou, apart from the fact that she was immortal. Maybe Doctor Yagokoro was requesting her aid in finding me? I just didn't know. There were still so many questions left unanswered about my time at Eientei and what exactly Doctor Yagokoro's plans were.
Well, it wasn't like I could just rush at Eientei by myself and demand the answers. I'd have to just wait until Reimu and Marisa had recovered from their hangovers - and possibly subsequent hangovers, because that Zanmu girl had seemed rather intent on hosting more parties at the shrine - and the investigation could continue properly. Meanwhile, I would just have to keep myself occupied.
Hence, Yamame. I could see the path I usually took to reach the village, but I couldn't take it this time, just in case. I knew that there was a medicine seller who definitely came from Eientei, but hid their face and body behind loose, baggy clothes and a large hat, so I couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman. I suspected that it was a rabbit, because in all my time at Eientei, I had seen only rabbits, Doctor Yagokoro, and that black-haired girl who had come with Doctor Yagokoro to my first supposed physical therapy session. Perhaps it was Doctor Yagokoro's assistant, but I wasn't about to head into the village to try and confirm that. She was definitely the one who had slipped the letter to Reimu into the Shrine, which made me wonder just what her game was.
I decided to stray off the path, working my way around the outskirts of the village, just close enough to keep the fields that the farmers tended in sight. I didn't want to stray too far into the darker, more dense foliage, just in case, but I also didn't want to get too close to the village, either. I did find myself having to duck into the trees every time a farmer happened to walk past, which I found to make me a little sad. I felt like I was in hiding from people that I used to talk to casually. Like I'd been cut off from everyone else and I didn't know if I'd ever get back.
I tried to put it out of my mind. Instead, I worked my way across the outskirts of the village, then away from it in the direction of the cave. I hadn't been here since Yamame and I had returned from the Old City. The last time I was here, it had been raining. I had just had my mind almost torn apart, and I had no idea what I was meant to do next.

I felt very unprepared to deal with this. Slowly, I asked the girl for her name. "You smashed through nearly all of my sisters' webs on the way down and you ask my name before giving yours? Whatever, fine. My name is Yamame Kurodani. I'm a tsukumogami. A very hungry tsukumogami, I might add." I introduced myself, wondering just how I found myself in these situations. "Well, you might as well get off of my web. Clearly, I'll be going hungry tonight, too." She finally got off of my chest and hauled me up into the air. I looked down and saw that I had been lying in a massive, finely constructed spider web, which made me swallow uneasily. I thanked her in the hope that it might prevent her from trying a second time to eat me. "Y'welcome, I suppose. I'll have to spend the rest of the week helping to rebuild webs, but at least you're happy." Finally, she brought me down onto solid, rocky ground. I looked around, realising that I must be in Miss Yamame's home. There were some scattered about things, like planks of wood, a store of firewood, and a house that seemed equal parts out of place and yet well-built. I asked Miss Yamame if she lived here. "Ugh, don't call me Miss. Yes, yes, this is my home, Mr. Homewrecker." She replied, pointedly. I asked if she had built it herself, because it seemed too high quality to have been any of the humans I knew from the village. "You really don't know much, do you? We tsukumogami are excellent builders. My house is nothing compared to some of the buildings we've made down in Former Hell." I told her that I've never been to Former Hell, but if the buildings are anything like Yamame's, they must have been excellent. She smiled smugly and told me that I had a good eye. I think she liked that. She also said that if I did need to go to Former Hell, she could show me the way, which seemed rather kind of her.
I thought all underground youkai were supposed to be unfriendly and dangerous, but despite being annoyed at me for falling into her house, Yamame seemed fairly nice. In the middle of my musing, I felt sharp pressure on my arm, followed by a second crack. "Damn it!" Yamame yelled. I looked at her, baffled. "Just checking." She muttered, rubbing what was likely a second cracked tooth in her mouth. I awkwardly rubbed my arm clean of saliva. "I've never seen a human with impenetrable skin before. What's wrong with you?" Yamame said as she stared at my arm. I frowned, then revealed that I didn't really know. I wondered if it was a side effect of eating the Heavenly Peach. Maybe I should have tried a little harder to find out what it was before I ate it.
"Well, whatever. I'll have to find something else for dinner. Want me to take you back to the surface?" I smiled in relief and thanked her. She sighed again. "I have to get rid of you somehow. You're standing there looking so tasty yet I can't even take a bite. It's just unfair." Then, she began walking and I rushed to catch up. Yamame didn't say much on the walk back, apart from telling me that I had fallen into a hole her sisters - other tsukumogami, I assume - had broken through to the surface so that they could get around and perform construction jobs for some of the other youkai. It was supposed to be hidden enough that no one would find it, but I was apparently the one idiot who happened to take walks up in that trail. When I told Yamame how I had fallen, she broke into a full laugh. "That was Kogasa! Oh my, she's going to be living off that high for months!" I'm not sure if I liked the sound of that. I think I wanted to give her a scolding.
Finally, we reached a much larger cave entrance, and I saw the sunlight of early evening. I hope Miss Hakurei hasn't been looking for me. Yamame seems nice enough despite trying to eat me twice, so I don't really want to see her get attacked for it. "Here you are. Your human village should be over, er, there...somewhere." She pointed vaguely in the direction. I thanked her again, and she grumbled something about no good deed going unpunished. After that, she left me there, trudging back into the caves.
I finally reached the village just as the darkness began to fall, which thankfully meant that I avoided any youkai lurking in the forest. When I entered my home, I found it nearly the same as always, but there were just enough very slightly different placements of items to leave me convinced. Someone had been in here.