/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Ah, yer lookin' - You're looking for her. Think she's in the temple, actually. Yer gonna - I mean, you'll want to go there now, right?" Nodding, Murasa started leading us in that direction. Curious, I asked her why she'd not brought her coat along. "Ah..." She said, in a long and drawn-out way that sounded like it should come from someone older. "Couldn't find it. Ain't seen it in a spell." I wondered about that. Murasa had seemed very attached to the coat when I'd last seen her. She'd said that she had kept it from her old seafaring days. "Didn't take you as carin' about that sort of thing." She said, muttering something under her breath. I shrugged but said that I got the sentimental aspect. "Yeah...I'll dig it out."

We were at the temple gates now, and Murasa led us through. "Huh? 'Mitsu?" Kyouko Kasodani asked, frowning. "But I just...?" She looked back, toward the temple, then back at Murasa, blinking.

"What'cher see, Kyouko?" Murasa asked, crouching slightly. I was surprised that she hadn't gone all the way into a proper squat because she'd been doing that all the time when I'd last seen her.

"No, uh...I must have been mistaken. I'll just - Um, get back to sweeping." Kyouko was frowning intensely, and I wondered just what it was that she was so confused about. "Well, I think that Mamizou is down that way, somewhere." She pointed off down toward the right side of the temple. "Good luck." And then, she left us.

I watched her vigorously walk up the stairs quickly and around a corner to the left, then looked back at Kyouko. She was staring in that direction too. "That's really weird..." She mumbled to herself.

Yamame was frowning too. "Miss Kyouko? Did you think someone was wrong with her?" She crouched significantly more than Murasa had. "What were you seeing?"

"Um, it's just - I mean..." Kyouko trailed off, looking back. "I'm sure that I saw 'Mitsu just a minute ago. She was wearing her coat. But...She was leading you in." Kyouko's frown intensified. "I guess I must have spent too long thinking about songs." She paused suddenly. "Oh, um, please don't mention that to Sister Hijiri. She doesn't like Mysty." We promised that we wouldn't, then bade the tiny greeter goodbye before she could remember that she hadn't yelled 'Good morning' at us yet.

Instead, we went up the stairs and paused for a moment on the landing. "Did she - Er, that 'Mitsu' girl - Did she seem a bit...Weird, to you?" Minamitsu Murasa, I told her, quickly. She did seem a bit strange, I continued. Her speech had been a bit weird, and her movements hadn't seemed even slightly as fluid as they had when I'd last seen her. Maybe she'd gotten ill? Yamame looked at me, an eyebrow raised. "I think I would know." She finally said dryly. Oh, I replied. She probably would, wouldn't she? "But - No, I don't think so..." Shrugging, I finally suggested that perhaps she'd just had an off day.

Then, I heard footsteps from behind me, and I turned to see Ichirin Kumoi. She looked like she'd been caught in a gust of wind because there was a leaf stuck to the top of her hood. Much like Murasa, she didn't seem to be bringing attention to it, so I decided not to either. I did wonder how far the leaf had travelled to get to her, though, since it was bright green, and I didn't think you'd find many leaves of that colour in late Winter. "What'cher-" She coughed to clear her throat. "What're you doing here?" She asked curiously. "Converting?"

"Delivery." Yamame replied, watching Ichirin curiously. After a moment, I noticed the slight glint of some sort of plan in her eyes. "She's down here, right?" Yamame asked, waving an arm behind her.

"Yeah - Er, I mean, yer looking for Mamizou, right? Yeah, she's down there, to the right." Ichirin nodded a lot. Curiously, I asked where Unzan, her nyuudou friend was. "Oh, he's...Around." She replied slowly. "You'll see how somewhere, I'm sure." She paused for a moment. "Reimu's in with the bo- with Sister Hijiri. Not sure what they're talking about, but it looked like it might take a while." Shrugging, I said that we would just have to go and find Mamizou ourselves. "Yeah, y'should do that." And Ichirin turned, walking away. Blankly, I wondered if we'd somehow upset her.

"Come on." Yamame said shortly, grabbing my hand and pulling me around the main building and to the right, in the direction that Murasa indicated. After we were properly around the corner, Yamame stopped. "Something weird is going on." She whispered to me. I frowned, then asked her what she was talking about. Aside from Murasa, things seemed normal enough. "You know how I said, 'She's down here, right?' to that, uh, Ichirin?"