/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>47102446
Absolutely. my dad gifted me his old Canon Powershot G11 and I only use the reccomended automatic settings I read from the interwebs. I think Aya would be fascinated by digital cameras and how they work, and I would be delighted to tell her as I have some knowledge about it from my field. And I too would be fascinated by photography, as I had no one to kindle an autistic interest out of surface level knowladge in it like Aya could.

Suddenly, I realised that we had another addition. Aya Shameimaru stood slightly off to the side, dressed in a brown suit jacket and shorts. I thought about that for a moment, then realised that she may have not had the money to get new clothes, being a struggling journalist. Camera in hand, I wondered how many pictures she'd already taken. And how I could get copies of them.

"Alright, look - Let's get things started." Reimu called, gathering everyone's attention. "You two," She beckoned Yamame and me over to her. "Follow me." She turned and took off at a slow pace, one that felt very ceremonial. Suddenly, she paused. "Kogasa, you too." She called, and the tsukumogami blinked, then followed behind us. Yamame and I followed. To my surprise, she led us up the stairs of Mugenkan and through the doors. Looking back, I saw that Miss Yuuka was following us, her arms still behind her back. That was very comforting, I decided. They'd had this planned out, because Reimu led us straight into a small antechamber off of the main entrance hall and had us sit down.

"Alright, take a moment to relax." She told Yamame and I. "Breathe in and out and all of that. Consider this your briefing for all this. Shouldn't take too long, and apart from having to do some things differently because there's no head priest, it'll be fairly simple. Still, we want to finish this part up before all the troublemakers show up. That way, you'll be married in my eyes." Yamame and I nodded. "Okay, so - First thing's first - I've got the pledge. This is what you'll be reading to Yamame during the ceremony." She lifted a scroll that looked very...Official. Reimu nodded to me. "You're signing this for the both of you. It says 'Yamame Kurodani' on it here," She indicated a section of the pledge, "But here," Now she indicated the signature block, "You'll write the married name. So, you know, I hope you figured out what that was going to be. Oh, and Kogasa's name goes on here too, as the matchmaker."

"Okay!" Kogasa nearly shouted, clutching her umbrella tightly. "I'll do my best!"

Yamame and I looked at each other. We had, in vague and fleeting terms. That I was happy to take the Kurodani name. I told Yamame that Reimu had granted me permission to use the Hakurei surname. I was already wearing her crest, too. The question was...Was Yamame okay with that? "Yes." She told me seriously. "We'll do both. A human and a youkai surname." I felt like kissing her then but managed to hold off. "I'm only doing this bit in private because I needed a room, and Yuuka gave me a hard no to bringing too many people in here. She said it would rile up certain devils." Yeah, I thought. That sounded about right. Even now, she was standing right outside the door, which I could only assume was to act as a deterrent. "Alright, so...Kurodani-Hakurei?" Yamame and I nodded, and Reimu set the pledge down in front of us, then fetched some ink and a brush. "Well...Here we go. Take a deep breath if it helps. Then...Just sign it." I reached out with a trembling hand to lift the brush and wet it with ink. Gently, I felt Yamame take hold of my other hand, and I breathed in deeply. It did help, and my hand steading. Then, I wrote my name, finishing with 'Kurodani-Hakurei.' Not letting the moment go to waste, I moved my hand to the bride's section and wrote as smoothly as I possibly could, 'Yamame Kurodani-Hakurei.'

"...Alright." Reimu breathed. "Kogasa, write your name here." She indicated a section, and Kogasa, nodding seriously, filled it in. "And...That's the pledge. Good job." She took the pledge back for now and set it to the side. "Now - When we go back out there, you'll have Yamame's family on the left, and your family on the right..." Reimu got to explaining the details for the rest of the ceremony to us. It wasn't overly complex, and I'd seen it happen at least somewhat before, but still, she had us do a practice run at one section. "Offering to the deity." She said, handing us both a branch from a sacred tree fitted with paper strips. "You take the tamagushi, you rotate it to face the other way," She demonstrated, which was good because I'd been about to do it the wrong way, "And you place it down." That was simple enough. "Then, you put your hands together, and slide the left hand down just slightly, and you clap twice. Bow, and that'll be that bit."

"We'll remember." Yamame promised for me.

The rest mostly involved giving everyone a drink, it seemed. Reimu would bow, everyone else would bow, and we'd bow to the gods, and that'd be it. There was a point where we could do the rings, but Reimu had decided that we'd be better off waiting for Miss Yuuka's side of things for that, and we'd both agreed. "Okay...Ready?" We all nodded, including Kogasa, who had seemed mostly lost with the whole thing. Well, we had sprung it on her rather suddenly, but she had risen to the occasion fairly well, I thought. "Let's go, then." And Reimu led us back out of the room.

You heard all sorts of bad things about the Tengu. How they spread rumors and manipulate people, how they're xenophobic and arrogant, the occasional hushed whisper about abducted men. But you started to doubt them when you met Aya. You had picked up the Bunbunmaru out of curiosity when you had nothing else to do but soon started read it out of interest in the unusual paper, then a whim out of boredom lead to you responding to a request from readers to write in to the editor. This lead to the editor herself visiting you the next time she was in the village to have a chat, which led to you going out for drinks, which led to the start of a friendship.

From then on, the two of you would often met. She'd often ask you for your perspective on a story she was writing, or if there was a festival going on, she would have you tag along with her to cover it. Sometimes she wouldn't even bother coming up with an excuse and the two of you would just hand out and relax. Sometime in the relationship, she would reveal a startling secret. The red eyed, pointy eared reporter that always dodged questions what where she lived was actually a Tengu! It was a big shock. honest. But you swore to keep her secret, and she was even willing to pay for a side job where you helped her with her reporter work in the village.

Then one day as the two of you were taking a relaxing stroll on the outskirts on the village, she asked you a question "Anon, you ever wanted to go outside the village? Youkai Mountain is gorgeous, you really should see it for yourself" . You stop and stare at her questioningly. "But isn't it dangerous there for a human". She shakes her head "Oh no, only if you're an idiot that goes alone. With an escort..." she proudly pokes her chest "Nobody is gonna touch a hair on your head. Trust me. Just a day outside the village with me, nobody is gonna even notice" You still had some skepticism about the whole thing, but she was able to wear you down and a date was set. Days pass and the day arrives. You arrived at the meeting point to see Aya already waiting. "Okay, now, you might want to take a deep breath in.." Before you can exhale and ask what she means, she swoops you up and you're in the air. She's fast. Too fast. By the time your brain wakes up and tells your entire body to panic, Youkai Mountain is in sight. As soon as her feet touch solid ground, you worm out of her grasp and flop on the ground, heaving for air. "Ah, guess a normal human ain't used to that sort of thing, sorry" she says sheepishly. "But look" As soon as you gather yourself, you see where she's pointing. The view really is gorgeous from up here. For as far as the eye can see there are mountains and trees, with an unobstructed view of the sky. Even a small land like Gensokyo seems to go on forever from here.After you've appreciated the sights there, Aya dragged you along, showing you more beautiful sights of the mountain and going on about it's history and the settlements there until evening started to set in. "It's getting late, why don't we stay over at my place for dinner and I can drop you off in the morning?". You don't see any reason to say no.