/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>47096959
You say that like it's a negative.

While she was speaking, I shuffled my chair slightly closer to Reimu and asked her just what was happening at this table. "I...think that Kasen is trying to..." She trailed off and crossed her arms unhappily. "I think she's trying to determine if Kurodani is a good partner for you." I slumped in my chair, and Reimu patted me on the back. "At least she's not trying to do it to you and me again. Although, if she decides that she," Reimu nodded at Yamame, who was attempting to explain how spider webs could be used to strengthen the wooden planks of buildings, "Isn't suitable, she might try again. Or maybe the other oni will have convinced her not to. We can only hope." She laughed a little at her own words, though I struggled to laugh with her.

But happily, Lady Kasen's strange attempts at determining the exact nature of Yamame and I's relationship were thwarted when the door to the dojo banged open. "-Just saying, we've got better outlets for things than gobbling up humans now, so-" That was the voice of Suika Ibuki, once the Heavenly King known as Shuuten-douji. She was cut off by the sound of several somethings running on four legs, as well as the squawk of birds, then the impact of something, and following that, she burst into laughter. "Haha! They love you, don't they!?"

I could hear Ibaraki-douji's arm, first telling Suika to shut up, and then trying to reason with what I assumed was Houso, who was probably giving her the same treatment that he gave me. "Oh, I'm not your master, won't you just stop? Wait, not the tabard-" She let out a squeal that sounded nothing like what an oni was capable of.

"You know, 'Raki, I think you look pretty good like that. No wonder your better half loves her pets so much. They love you right back!" That voice had to be Yuugi Hoshiguma.

"They're just confusing me for her - Wait, what did you call me?" I heard the arm ask slowly. "'Raki?'" There was silence for a moment. “Hold on, what do you mean ‘better half’!?”

"Yeah." Yuugi replied cheerfully. "Since you're not quite all of Ibaraki, so you only get half the name." I heard movement, then the sound of something being picked up. “But she got all the moral righteousness.”

"...Huh." The arm said, slowly. I heard her stand up, and finally, the three walked into the kitchens. The arm was still brushing stray tiger hairs off of her clothes and trying to straighten her tabard, which looked like something had been pulling on it with their teeth. Suika Ibuki looked wholly unconcerned with anything currently happening, and Yuugi Hoshiguma, the supposedly strongest of them, had stopped moving. I watched curiously as her eyes followed a path from Lady Kasen, to Reimu, to me, and finally to Yamame. And then her face turned as scarlet as her horn, and I remembered what had happened the last time I had been near her. I turned to look at Yamame, who looked back at me and raised a hand in uncertainty. "You know, maybe that's not a bad name." The arm said, turning to Yuugi, who had seemingly locked up entirely. "Huh." She said, poking a sharp nail into the tallest of the oni's chest. It elicited no response but a sort of drawn-out whine. "Ibuki. I think Hoshiguma is broken."

"You - You two..." Yuugi finally stammered out, staring between Yamame and I. "You were the ones that - That..." Her brain seemed to have locked up again. “K-Kissed…”

"Oh, this is just sad." Suika muttered under her breath. "Get over it, you hopeless romantic!" She barked, slapping Yuugi in the back so hard that my chair rocked backward slightly. Reimu, somehow, had leaned forward exactly as it happened which had resulted in her missing it entirely, and she looked at me in confusion. "Moving on. Reimu, I haven't seen you in ages."

"That's because you went off to the underground, all 'I'll pay for your kotatsu later, Reimu!' You remember that?" Reimu asked, her voice somewhat sharp. Suika scratched at the back of her head and laughed.

"Oh, was it that long ago? Sorry, it's hard to tell the time down there. I’ll pay you back, don’t worry." Personally, I thought she didn't sound very sorry. "Oh, and you," She continued, looking at me now. "Sorry about trying to choke you for saying Ibaraki's name. I thought you might be someone more…dangerous."