/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Climbing the mountain was quite relaxing to me, since I'd run the route so many times under Lady Kasen's supervision. Yamame followed me, seeming to have no trouble at all. "What kind of spider can't walk up a hill?" She said in reply to my looks, shrugging. "I'm arboreal. My kind usually live higher up." But...She lived in the underground... "Yeah, but from the perspective of the Old City, that's still pretty high up." She told me, shrugging like it all made sense that way. "Look, don't think about it like that - I 'm a youkai, so it's mostly preference weighed against instinct." I nodded. "You...Look like you don't really get it." I absolutely did not. "Well, at least you're honest." She finally said weakly.

Once we'd reached the peak - Me breathing somewhat hard, but not too bad overall, we could survey the fight going on in the skies properly. It looked like Kasen had decided that she wanted to try out her danmaku, because she was firing incredibly complex patterns that I'd have had no idea how to dodge, but Reimu was doing a perfect job of shifting between all of the bullets being fired at her. The attack went on a little bit longer, but finally, Reimu seemed to have proven victorious, and she pulled back as Kasen began again, this time targeting Suika. I turned to Yamame and asked her if she wanted to lie down. "Lie - Lie down...?" She repeated incredulously, looking back at the fighting going on in the sky above. Back and back again, my spider looked. "...Yeah, alright." She finally conceded,

I led her back through Lady Kasen's dojo, pausing to greet Kume when I passed him in the hallway, though he didn't give much in the way of a response, and finally, I brought Yamame to my room. "We could - Just leave, couldn't we?" Yamame asked tentatively. We could, but it was a little rude to leave without saying goodbye and I didn't think trying to fly up to get someone's attention was a very safe choice. "Yeah, I'm not going up there..." Yamame nodded, padding over to the bed and sitting down. I walked around to the other side and sat down, and together, we spun ourselves around so that we were lying side by side, our hands intertwined.

"You're all warm, you know." Yamame suddenly told me, after we'd laid in silence for several minutes. "Like, all over." I blinked and turned my head to look at her. She rolled onto her side, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear ad she looked at me, her eyes sparkling. What, like someone who was ill? "No, not ill. Again, I think I would know. No - You're just...Your whole body is warm." Well - If it wasn't, I'd not be doing very well. "No, no, it's warmer than usual people. Am I warm?" She took my hand and pressed it against her cheek. She was...Well, warm enough. A normal temperature? "That's what I mean. You're just a little above normal all the time." I thought about that for a moment, my face likely cycling through a number of variations on 'confused.' Was it uncomfortable? "No, it's, um, quite nice. Wouldn't mind it if you were a little warmer, actually." I promised dryly to keep my eye out for anything that would somehow raise my temperature permanently without killing me in the process. "Well - If you're only this warm, it just means I have to get even closer to you." Yamame said with a slight smile as she made good on her words and wriggled her way closer, until my arms were wrapped around her curled up form. I asked her if that was better, and she hummed contently. "Much better." She replied softly.

A thought crossed my mind. I wanted to go and invite Patchouli Knowledge to the wedding. I already suspected that Remilia Scarlet and therefore Sakuya Izayoi would show up regardless, but Lady Patchouli had been surprisingly crucial to me despite only having spoken to her twice. I murmured it to Yamame, but got no response, and I realised that she'd fallen asleep, the only sound her gentle breathing and the only movement the rise and fall of her chest. I didn't particularly want to go to the Vampire's mansion, but...Well, I'd have to manage. Plus, I could ask Meiling as well. I doubted that Sakuya Izayoi would be willing to give her leave to attend, though. Still, that was for when Yamame had woken up, and given that I could hear the noises of the fighting outside even from in here, I wasn't sure that the group outside would be wrapping things up any time soon. I lay there in thought for just a moment, but finally, I had to act.

"Hello~?" Yamame Kurodani called tentatively. She'd not expected to be back in this part of the caves that made up the underground any time soon. It wasn't for any particular reason, but she'd always thought that if she was meeting someone, it'd be at her house, or perhaps in the Old City.

"Yams!" A voice hissed at her from somewhere to the left of her. This deep in the caves, the Kurodani family had long since set themselves up to live, with houses and open areas for relaxing in. Of course, this was mostly where the older bunch lived; Those who were even more reclusive and antisocial than Yamame used to be, at least in regard to the surface world. Some of Ki's sisters lived around here, and while Yamame, along with most of her sisters who were her own age had grown up here, the younger lot typically drifted away eventually. When she was old enough, she'd left for the surface, until the blind hatred of humanity had become too much and she'd retreated back underground, helping the oni establish their city and building up her own house.

And here she was, with a ring on her finger from a human which represented their love. How things changed.

"Yams!" The voice hissed again. This time, she blinked and looked over with a frown, wondering who it was that could be calling for her around here. There, squatting down against a wall in an alleyway between two streets, was Yura. "You gone deaf or something? Get over here, quick." She waved Yamame over. Yamame cast a glance back to the street she'd been walking down, but couldn't really see the reason for the secrecy.

"What are you doing down there?" Yamame asked her sister bemusedly. "Have your legs stopped working?" Rolling her eyes, Yura hopped up and dragged Yamame into the alley, and while she probably could have pushed her off, there didn't seem to be much point. "Ki said that she told you all to meet up here, for some reason." Once they were safely ensconced in the alley, Yamame realised that there were others here, too.

Reiko leaned against the wall, her arms crossed, and her hair combed back. Ruka was examining her fingers, and over there, her hands behind her back and a sort of confused look on her face, was Nai. "Oh, you are all here." Yamame looked around. "Why all the secrecy? We could have just sat down over there." She vaguely gestured back out of the alley. "What's up with you all?"

"Sorry." Reiko said, looking up at the building opposite her. "It's just - You know how we all get, being back here." Yamame stared at her incredulously. She'd not even moved that far away when she'd decided to set up for herself.

"Er...No, not really? I mean, did someone feed your horror stories? You're all talking like you're characters in one of those books that they write in the Human Village." She looked at all of her sisters. "Especially you, Nai. You don't even get the weird treatment from our mother. Now, can we please go and sit down somewhere?" It seemed to take a bit of convincing, but after a few moments, her sisters finally acquiesced, and they all shuffled out of the alley and over to a bench. "Honestly, you call me easy to tease and then you're all too scared to go to our old spot?" Yamame hadn't expected that today would involve her having to admonish her own sisters for acting like scared children. Well...Maybe Nai. Sometimes. "Now...Did Ki tell you anything?"

"Just that you had some news. She didn't say what it was, though." Ruka muttered, sliding onto the bench at Yamame's side. Yura wasted no time sitting on the opposite side, leaving Yamame sandwiched between them. Reiko stopped in front of her, and Nai awkwardly perched on the very edge of the bench. "So...I have a feeling I know what it is. Anyone else?"

"Definitely. I mean, we all knew it was coming." Was Yura's reply, to go along with the other affirmation from Reiko.

"Um..." Nai hesitantly spoke up. "I - Um, maybe?" Well, Yamame thought to herself, it wasn't all too unsurprising for Nai to not be certain. She was younger, after all. "It's to do with your human, isn't it?" Yamame raised an eyebrow. "He said something...?"

"He did?" Yamame asked, leaning forward. "What did he tell you, Nai?" She probably shouldn't be engaging in this sort of gossip. It wasn't really important, and Yamame was sure that he would have told her himself if she'd asked. "Don't worry, I'm sure he won't mind."

"Sounding a bit like mum, Yams." Reiko muttered under her breath. "That's the tone she uses when she wants to take something." Yamame blinked and looked around to glare at Reiko. "I'm just saying!" She insisted, looking a bit defensive about it. No one really wanted to sound like their mother did in that tone. It was a bit...Unsettling.

So, Yamame tried again. "Sorry, er...Nai, can you tell me what he said?"

Who else did she have? "Let's see...Um, this one's from Merlin Prismriver. She wants, as she put it, 'some exciting outfits for my solo performances', whatever that means. I'll just...Do my best, I guess." I hadn't even known that she did solo performances. I'd heard a man in a pub complain that Lyrica Prismriver didn't do any, though. I'd not asked him what he was talking about, though. "Oh, and I've got a request from..." She tapped her fingers against the desk, and she flipped through sheets with her other hand. "Mamizou Futatsuiwa. Wants...A tighter shirt. Apparently, hers is a little too loose at the top."

I frowned and asked Yamame what exactly that meant. "Well, er...If I remember correctly, she was - I suppose you could say she wasn't massively blessed. Er, in the chest department." Was that something youkai usually worried about? "Well, I suppose all girls think about it at some point. I'm sure there was at least one instance while you were growing up where you worried about whether you'd grow up...I don't know, frail and too weak to do much on your own." To be fair, I'd grown up being babysat by Hieda no Akyuu from time to time, so I'd gained some appreciation for her tenacity when it came to still doing things she wanted despite her physical limitations. She'd not been as frail then, but the last time I'd seen her, she'd been a lot more sedentary, and simply getting up and walking seemed to take a lot out of her. It hadn't diminished her spark of life, though.

"Er, you okay?" I blinked and snapped out of my thoughts. Fine, I replied. I was just thinking. I supposed she wasn't wrong about worrying about that sort of thing, though I wasn't sure it was quite the same worries for men as it was for women. "Right...Well, anyway, that's what I've got to work on. I think there's a H.H who wants something, too, but I only got that by finding a letter outside my door, so I don't even know who or what it is." How were you supposed to find out, then? "The first letter said she'd send a second letter." Yamame shrugged, though I could barely tell since she was so buried underneath layers of cloth. "I guess I'll find out at some point."

After a few moments of silence, she looked back up at me. "So, you're...Going to the Shrine?" I nodded. It was the fifth, which meant that it was time for me to go and meet Aya Shameimaru. "I feel bad about not coming with you, but..." No, I understood. It wasn't something entirely within her control. It was just a spider thing, and I didn't want to force her out into the miserable cold. She smiled weakly at me once I was finished. "Thanks." Came the mumbled reply. "I know that Reimu will take care of you, anyway. Plus, if I see that tengu again, I might just try and give her something a little bit more long-lasting." That sounded like a good enough reason not to bring her along, in my opinion. I was trying to not antagonise Shameimaru, because even though she'd been fairly amiable to me as of late, she had still threatened me once or twice and she was definitely too fast for anyone to catch if she decided to kidnap me. "We naturally, er, sort of hibernate. Spiders, I mean. It's not exactly hibernation, but it'll be easier to understand." I nodded. "So...While I can push past my instincts to go outside, I really don't want to." Yamame, I said insistently. I got it. It was fine. She was just trying to reassure me repeatedly. "Right, fine. I'll stop going on about it. Er, I'll come with you to the cave entrance, though. It's probably buried under snow again."

A few minutes later, I was trying to conceal my laughter. She'd refused to remove any of the layers she'd already been wearing, so there she was, wrapped in a blanket with several layers underneath, trying to walk through the tunnels with me. "Shut up." She told me before I could say anything. I raised my hands and told her that I thought it was cute. "It shouldn't be - No, still shut up." She gave up on walking then and floated the rest of the way.

And, as expected, the cave entrance was very much blocked. "Every time." Yamame muttered. "We really need to do something about the way snow can just block this whole thing off. It was fine when the agreement to keep the surface and the underground separate was in effect, but now... She shook her head, then raised a gloved hand and fired a large volley of danmaku, big enough to completely demolish the wall of snow and scatter it all off. Unfortunately, that meant that the wind was upon us, as well as the snow that was still falling. "Oh, no, not a chance! This will not do at all!" Yamame cried. Immediately, she threw her arms around me and pulled me down for a kiss. "Good luck with the journalist! I love you!" She called over the wind, then immediately turned and took off in the opposite direction, back into the tunnels.

Reimu already knew enough, I supposed. The Shrine Maiden took her own cup and sat in the smaller chair, letting Yamame throw some sort of disparagement her way in regards to her tea-making abilities. After a moment, she looked down at the chair. "I've seen these before." She frowned. "Aren't they from the Scarlet Devil Mansion?" That sent Yamame off into an explanation of how she had acquired materials from the...was that the name? I'd been calling it the Vampire's Mansion for so long that it hadn't even occurred to me that it probably had a real name. I wondered just how many things I didn't know. The list was probably infinitely long. The list of things I did know probably wasn't. With that cheery thought in mind, I took a sip of the tea and found that it was excellent, though I could tell that these wee perhaps not the same tea leaves that Reimu used at the Shrine. "So you do construction on those sorts of buildings? I see. I did wonder how the tengu were getting those buildings up so fast." Reimu took a sip of her tea, placing it in her lap. "Sisters, then?" Yamame nodded. "I always..." She trailed off, then shook her head. "Where are they all? I didn't see anyone in the caves."

"Yamame shrugged. "They've been working. A big project in the Hot Springs down in the Old City." Yamame had told me about this one already, but she explained it again to Reimu. "It's complex." She finally said.

"It sounds like someone needs a beating." Reimu muttered in response. I decided to not mention that Tenshi had been the one to drop that particular rock in the Hot Springs. Now that I looked at her, Reimu looked uncomfortable. She was sat stiffly, holding her tea in both hands, and her booted feet were angled in such a way that she could leap in any direction at a moment's notice. Fortunately, she seemed to be thinking much of the same thing, because it wasn't long until she had drained her tea and rose to her feet. "Well, I should, er, get back. Get well soon, because I think Kasen wants you for something. I'll be back soon to see how you're doing," She pointed at me, "And that you're...behaving." She didn't wait for Yamame to respond, but headed to the door and pulled it open. "Good, um, evening." She mumbled, stepping outside and unceremoniously slamming it shut behind her. I'd barely even had half of my tea yet.

Slowly, I asked Yamame if she had said something. "Nothing. I said nothing." She proudly told me. It sounded like a lie. "I may have insinuated, but I didn't say anything." Well, that sounded like it would make for an awkward conversation later. I couldn't wait. I thought about scolding her for it, but decided that it wouldn't be worth it. Instead, I drained my tea. "Bed?" Yamame asked me. I stood, and she was already pushing me in that direction.

Still, I thought to myself. Could be worse.