/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>45042898

I slid from shadow to shadow, pausing to make sure I wasn't being followed. Dangit , I thought the streets were supposed to be empty this late in the evening, Why didn’t these people have better things to do than to hang around on the street? While I asked myself that question, I failed to notice the basket in my way, kicking it over. I had to spend a minute apologizing and tidying things up before I doubled back and took another way to get away form the prying eyes. If I ever hoped to have a future as a detective, I needed to work on my sneaking skills. After some delay, I reached the street the brothel was on. Most of the stalls and shops had closed up, so I was able to quickly dash through the alley leading to the back of the shrine experience. The buildings large profile made the shadows here dark and gloomy. It was the perfect place to get up to all shady business , but it was a good thing I was here for honest reasons. Not wanting to waste more time, I knocked on the door and waited.


A few moments later, the door opened. There standing was a woman with dark green hair and a dress with a pattern of different sorts of green. “Call me Yamashiro. I’m the manager. You’ve got twenty minutes before I leave, so get things done before then” She stepped aside to let me in, and I followed her. The backend was almost ordinal, a hallway with the occasional door leading off to somewhere. But I knew that behind each door laid dark and terrible secrets, just waiting for a detecitve to uncover them. That or it could be a bathroom or a closet. Yamashiro went off in one direction, and I tagged along.


“So you’re one of Anon’s friends, right?” she spook about him with shocking familiarity. Did they become friends as well or could it be that it was more? A man escapes his abusive wife and starts up a life of prostitution. He gets wrapped up in a conspiracy involving powerful youkai, and his relationship with the manager running the place becomes something more. It was romantic in a way. Ah, I was imagining things again. They were probably just friends.


“Yes I am. I knew him and Reimu before they got married, even. But it got harder to see him over the years, and it wasn’t until he left the shrine I was able to catch up with him again. He was surprised to hear I had gotten married, that’s how little we interacted over the years” I pass by a cart and pause to look at it. It was full of outfits that looked just like Reimu’s but in different sizes. If the rumors were true, then they had outfits for almost every woman in Gensokyo. Even me. Shame on them for assuming I'd want to go to a place like this!


“Ah, those are dirty. Don’t touch them” she warned me. Oh yeah, the clients must have worn them while doing ‘that’. I move my hand away. “So you run that bookstore in the village yeah? You said you also offer a printing service" We turned down at a bend in the hall and continued on. For some reason It seemed like this place was bigger then it should be.

"I've run it since my parents retired. Sometimes I do print books for clients, but I have to be careful about offering it to youkai. It's a lot riskier than renting out books, please understand" Youkai books might be incredibly valuable, But even I was able to learn printing youkai books would put a target on my back if not handled carefully.

"I get you. Well, I promise you that if I ever buy your services, it'll be completely honest and on the level. I swear on it" Yamashiro held up one hand in a pledge. She certainly seemed honest, and I was a very good judge of character.

We approach the end of the hall and I spy a someone small crouching down, looking at some sort of assortment of fails and gizmos on the wall. When they turned to us, I noticed they were wearing some strange mask. It covered the front of their face and was held in place by a strap, with two lens allowing them to see. Where the mouth would be, some canister jutted out. I couldn't understand why they were wearing it. Before I could ask Yamashiro, she moved away from me to the figure who took off their mask. It could be a Kappa, she was definitely small enough.

The two of them whispered something to each other until Yamashiro turned to me. "You can go ahead. Remember, twenty minutes and I'm leaving" Heading to the end of the hall, she pulled at a latch and the door flush with the wall opened.

We must have gotten turned around somewhere, all I saw behind the door was grass and a tree or two. "Is this it?" I questioned.

"Yeah, it is" She told me. That was the only answer I would get.

I stepped through the door and saw even more greenery surrounding me. I heard the door shut behind men and found that it disappeared. Running over to where it was, I ran my hands over the wall, sighing with relief when I felt a small crack of the door. So it was a secret door, just like the stories! But now there was only one question, where was I?