/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Ah!" I heard a shout. There, dressed in a thick coat and a scarf, was Aunn. She was running for the Shrine. "There's a cat! And a cat person! I'll defeat them, Miss Reimu!" In fact, both of the Aunns were running for the Shrine, and I started to wonder if I was about to see a massacre. Even though I knew that a komainu wasn’t, strictly speaking, a dog, it seemed that some of those instincts still existed. “I’ll save you!”

"Oh no, not a chance!" I heard Reimu yell. I saw her hand for a split second as she slammed a piece of paper - An ofuda - down on the floor at the door. With a flash of orange light, I bright barrier formed right in the door's opening, leaving Aunn to bounce right off of it and crash face first into the snow. "I've told you a hundred times, Aunn! No chasing poor animals around!" She didn't dispel the barrier, which was probably for the best when Aunn pulled herself out of the snow - Though the snow still remained on her head and lodged in her hair - and jumped up onto the veranda. "Nope, not dispelling this until you calm down." Reimu told her.

I looked back at Ran. "I fear that I've contributed to this situation." She told me. "But my work here is done, so perhaps it is time for me to make my exit." She waved her hand and a gap opened next to her. Through it, I could see Marisa and Tenshi, still hanging there, so with Ran's ushering, I stepped through and found myself behind Reimu, who spun with a needle clutched between her fingers. "Reimu, I've finished with my barrier maintenance. You know what to do from here. Chen, it's time we left Reimu to her business." I wasn't sure why, but something about the way she pronounced the word 'business' was sticking in my head. It was a strange thing. I'd heard it before, somewhere. From someone...With a similar sort of accent, but only the barest trace of it left. Business, business...'Oh, that's my business.' That was it. It had been from the girl with the spork. Yuuma Toutetsu. And, now that I thought about it, Ran had mentioned the name once upon a time. When she'd gotten upset at me, and she's slipped into an accent that was far rougher, she'd almost said the name of 'Toutetsu.' That was...Interesting. I wondered if Ran had dealt with Yuuma in the past, but that wouldn't explain why they both had the accent.

"Ah, coming, Lady Ran!" Chen replied cheerfully. "C-Can we, um, go and see Miss Ya-" I was worried that Chen was going to give away the game to Marisa by revealing that she knew Yamame, which would lead to a whole bunch of questions that would undoubtedly end in her realising that I was seeing her, but fortunately, Marisa chose that moment to loudly make her displeasure toward her ongoing confinement known, so she ended up missing out on the truth yet again. "Come on, Kuro!" Chen tried to call the cat, but it ignored her. Instead, it began moving between Reimu's legs and rubbing against her calves.

"Uh..." Reimu looked down, confused. "Why's this cat refusing to leave me alone?" She looked back up as Aunn struck the barrier again. She seemed to have taken the whole thing as a sort of game, now. "C'mon, Chen's right there..." She nudged her with her foot. "Go..." She tried pleading.

"Ha!" Tenshi said, swinging her rope prison around so she could see the situation more clearly. "Looks like someone's made a friend. See that, Marisa? You could learn something from this."