/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Okay, I know I must seem like I'm being very evasive. She - My mother - is very possessive. Of everything. Her children too, of course. But she's also...What did Ki say? Intense? Yes, I suppose that's right. Intense is a good word. If she gets you in her sights, you are not free to leave until she says so, which...She rarely does. She loves...meeting new people." This conversation was rapidly going into territory that I hadn't expected it to. "Yes, well...You asked." Decided to ask further, I probed Yamame on why she'd been so cagey about her mother.

"...You know how I said that she's possessive?" I nodded. "If she takes a liking to you, she'll try and take you too." I frowned heavily. By which...She meant...? "Yes, probably. If she decides that she wants you as a...Mate, she'll do her best to take you." Even if I was already taken? Did she not care that I was in love with one of her daughters? "Oh, she does love us. I've never doubted that. It's just that she's about as...Seductive as a person can be. I mean, I grew up seeing her - Sorry, no, let's not go there. My point is - I'm a little worried about introducing you to her in case she decides that she wants you for herself."

I would not be letting that happen, no matter how much she wanted it. "You might not have a choice." Yamame told me seriously. "But - Even aside from that, she might just decide that I'm not ready to marry someone. She's like that, you see. Very overbearing. And if she does decide that, she might choose to say that it's because you're not man enough yet. In which case..." What, she'd try and...Fix that? "Um, yes, she might. Especially if she thinks that a puny human is not fit to marry her daughter." I really wondered about this woman, now. "Anyway, it shouldn't be a problem for a while. Unless she decides to visit me, but she hasn't done that in so long that I can hardly remember the last time, so we should be..." She trailed off, listening. After a moment, I asked her what exactly she was doing. "Sorry, I just...Expected that something would go wrong since I said that. It usually does with you, after all.." I snorted.

Still, I wanted to know more. Yamame knew more about my family than most, but while I knew a number of her closest sisters, I didn't know much beyond that. Did she have a father? "Um..." Yamame got very uncomfortable then. "I - Yes, but I think he escaped before Ki was even born." E-Escaped...? I asked Yamame incredulously. "It's really not as bad as it sounds! Look, I'm really not lying when I say that my dear old mum is in a league of her own." At this point, I started to picture it in my head. Like Yamame, the blonde hair...Slightly darker, longer here and - I wasn't really sure where in my imagination this had come from - coming down to cover her right eye and trailing down to just under her chin. Her eyes in my mind were red, darker than blood. There was a seductive sort of smile on her face, and she was laying on her side, her chin resting on her hand. It just seemed the right sort of image given the description I'd gotten. And...She'd be wearing-

"Hey!" Yamame was snapping her fingers in my face and I blinked, coughing slightly. "What the hell is going through your mind?" Actually, I think I just wanted to see Yamame wear the sort of clothes that my mind had been drifting toward. "Anyway, she's dangerous, not so much in terms of physical damage, but in...Other ways." I felt like I was getting some idea. "Let's - Uh, not talk about it. Please?"

Right. I agreed quickly, because what Yamame had given me already was enough for me to know that she was already dangerous enough just in my imagination, let alone in reality. Just out of curiosity, I asked what her name was, then sarcastically asked if it was 'Yamama Kurodani'. "You're a child, you know that?" Yamame told me, but she did crack a small smile. "No, it's...Akiru. Akiru Kurodani." I thought for a moment. Like...Autumn? "Oh, er, no. Like - I think it's 'bright' but I'm not really sure. We don't really use kanji names anyway. At least, none of my sisters do and neither do I." I shrugged and said that it was fine. Still, I wondered if I'd meet her at any point. "Well - I don't think I can very well not invite her to the wedding."

Yamame would have it dragging across the floor, as would Reimu, or Marisa, or nearly anyone else I knew. Lady Hecatia might have just about been able to pull it off, but I didn't think it would fit her style. I weighed it in my hand, surprised by how it felt rougher than the other items. "I've tried to get it at least a little waterproof, but I imagine it won't hold forever." Yamame told me, shrugging. "The material's insulated - check the inside." I turned the coat around and looked at the inside, and was interested to see that the inner lining was full of crisscrossing, soft patches. "Took a while to get that done, and I don't think it's where I want it to be yet." It did look like it wasn't completely finished yet. the ends of the sleeves had no real work put into them, and the top of the coat still had pins in it which I presumed were part of Yamame's process.

"Anyway, try it on for now." I spun it around and slid my hands through the sleeves, letting the coat fall to its full length, which brought it down to just slightly below my knees. Frowning, I asked Yamame if that wouldn't make it get dirty easily. "Why? You could just fl-" She trailed off and I stared at her face with a blank expression. Her jaw worked for a few moments, but no sound came out. "Ah." She finally mumbled. "Okay. Maybe slightly shorter." She plucked the book from the table and scribbled something down inside it. "Whatever would I do without you?" She finally muttered. She shook her head and looked back up, then hopped up from her chair. "Spin." She instructed me, and I did so, feeling the coat flow out with the momentum. "That'd get annoying, so it's a good thing we're already cutting the length down. You could turn in the wrong sop and bowl a couple fairies over. It's very striking, though." I didn't much feel like inventing the latest sport of Fairy Bowling via Big Coat, so I agreed. "I've got some thick boots, too. The sort of thing that'll still be keeping your great-grandchildren's feet dry if you look after them properly." I couldn't have asked for much better, I supposed. This was clothing that would be perfect for most weather apart from summer.

"Okay, so next is-" I stopped her by pulling her into a hug. "I-Is, uh..." After a moment, she relaxed enough to return it. "That's, um, very nice." Thank you, I told her. For doing all of this for me. "O-Oh, er, you're welcome." She was turning slightly red. After I'd held her for a few moments longer, she spoke up. "Do you want to take a break?" I nodded in relief, because I'd been standing for what felt like an eternity and felt like I was going to collapse. I started shrugging the coat back off, but Yamame stopped me. "Let me..." She murmured, slipping her hands underneath the coat and up to my shoulders. She pushed it off, then quickly shifted her arm to catch it and drape it across the chair behind her. Next was the turtleneck, and she repeated the action that she had done earlier and slid her hands up my bare chest to pull it off. It did not get the gentle treatment and was unceremoniously dropped somewhere behind me.

Before she could go any further, I asked her why she insisted on undressing me like this. "Isn't it obvious?" Yamame said to me with a frown. There was something in her eyes that made me nervous. "What's the point in having a wrapped up treat if you don't get to unwrap it later?"

Ah, thought I as she got back to work. It all makes sense now.