/jp/ - Otaku Culture

After a moment, she noticed me looking at her and frowned, dropping her arms onto the table. "Yes? Something you like?" I shook my head, but found myself saying that I was still wondering about her bandages. "It's private, okay? Can you handle that answer? No?" I seemed to have touched a nerve, so I backed off and waved my hands in a placating gesture. "I don't like to talk about it." She finally said, and I nodded slowly. I had plenty that I wouldn't like to talk about too, I supposed. I was about to ask her more about how rumours of my death had started to spread, but before Oseki could answer, the old man stomped back out with a plate of youkan.

"Yer lucky customers like ye so much, 'Seki." He growled, slamming the plate down in front of me. "'Wise, I'd hafta give ye a reprimand the likes 'a which ye never seen. 'Least it's the end of the day, so I can forgive ye sitting 'round and chatting when ye should be working." He stomped back off to the kitchen before Oseki could answer.

I decided to try a technique that Lady Kasen had used on me, so I didn't say anything and just stared at her. It took a few moments, but she cracked before long. "He's just in a bad mood." I waited. "...Think I upset him." She muttered, and I nodded slowly. Instead of answering, I took a piece of yokan and bit into it, smiling as the sweetness diffused across my mouth. I offered the plate to Oseki, and after a few moments, she finally reached out for a piece. "Fine. It'll go to waste otherwise." She muttered, taking a small piece.

The conversation naturally dropped off after that. Once I'd eaten my fill and let Oseki finish off the rest, I leaned back in my chair and looked up into the gloomy darkness at the top of the building. For a moment, I thought I saw something moving, but I dismissed it as my imagination soon enough. Probably just a bird, I imagined. "...Thanks." Oseki said, so quietly that I thought I had misheard. I nodded and told her that it was her food in the first place, so I should really be thanking her for whatever she had done to upset the old man enough for me to get the food. "Ha." She said dryly. I asked her where the old man's wife was, because I'd usually seen her serving here too. "Slipped in the storm we just had. She's fine, but will be out a few days." That was a little depressing, but at least she wasn't too hurt.

The old man kicked me out as soon as I had paid, since closing time was soon. I hadn't realised how long I'd been out, and I knew that I would need to get back to Lady Kasen's dojo before long. I said goodbye to Oseki, who gave me a typical professional bow, and I began to head back toward the further reaches of town.

Happily, I didn't see anyone suspicious on the way, and I was able to clear the village with ease. I found the mountain slightly more difficult due to feeling full, as well as tired from the repeated stress from trying to get into the caves, but eventually I managed to make it back to the dojo, where Lady Kasen informed me that she would drill the new route into me tomorrow morning. I noticed that she had put the sealed arm away, which I hoped meant that I wasn't in danger of it trying to draw me in again. Lady Kasen told me that Komachi had left around midday, having received a message on her notepad for a soul who needed ferrying. That was probably for the best, because I was just finding things more complicated with her, despite her insistence that she wanted something uncomplicated.

When I went to lie down that night, I wondered if I could tell Reimu about all this. She'd technically told me to not go near the caves again, but I couldn't help it. The knowledge that I couldn't go inside the caves without having a panic attack was eating away at me, and I needed to resolve it.

I fell asleep, wondering if I'd be capable of standing in the cave within the week.