/jp/ - Otaku Culture

"Something suspicious is afoot!" Marisa grabbed Reimu by the shoulders and shook her intensely. The witch had stumbled up as Reimu and I had followed Raiko out from the side of the Shrine. She smelt quite like sake, and Tenshi was following behind her with her arms crossed and an exasperated look on her face. "There are clones at this party!"

Her announcement didn't seem to inspire very much amazement in Reimu. She raised an arm, pulled Marisa's arm of off hers, then struck the witch in the forehead, making her cry out and let Reimu go. "Before I go and sober you up forcibly, what the hell are you talking about?" Marisa opened her mouth, and her arms came up, presumably to shake Reimu again. "Without," Reimu sharply added, flicking the witch in the forehead, "Shaking the life out of me."

"Honestly, I wouldn't have been surprised if she's sneaking more of those mushrooms." Tenshi exclaimed, sighing and shaking her head. She had loosened her shirt's collar and undone the top button, as well as loosening the bow around her neck. "I did my best to get rid of all the ones in her house, but even celestial luck can't seem to compete with this witch's kleptomania."

"It's - I'm fine!" Marisa insisted to Tenshi, who followed Reimu's example and flicked her in the forehead. "Stop it!" She tried to bat Tenshi's hand away, but the celestial deftly tilted her head to the side to avoid her blind swing. I'd thought that Tenshi was quite drunk earlier, but it seemed that she could actually hold her drink far more than she'd let on. "Where's the Mini-Hakkero..." Marisa mumbled, patting her clothes down as she searched. Behind her, I saw Tenshi raise an eyebrow and then lift the offending magical furnace in her other hand. She poked Marisa in the back and tossed the Mini-Hakkero silently while Marisa turned. Reimu caught it in the air and nodded, before slipping it to me and indicating my coat pocket, which I slipped it into.

Tenshi rolled her eyes. "Marisa, I shall have to revoke your massage privileges if you don't calm down." She spoke in a sharp, almost lecturing voice. "Any more acting up from you, and I'll stop making your bed." For a split second, I tried to decide whether or not she sounded more like Keine or Lady Kasen before the actual words she said filtered through my brain.

Massages? They'd certainly gotten close, hadn't they? And Marisa seemed to take that seriously, because she did calm down after that. "What!? But no one else does it the way you do..." I felt like my jaw was about to drop, so I scratched my chin as an excuse to double check that my mouth was closed. That was...Quite the way to phrase that. Made it sound a little bit more than just a friendly massage. If anything, it reminded me of the conversation that Yamame and I had been forced to endure about sleeping together, when she'd proclaimed her displeasure toward me thinking that perhaps it would be best if I did my best to not get her pregnant quite yet. Even if I definitely wanted to have a family in the future...

Reimu turned to me, snapping me out of my fantasy about having a bunch of children, opening her mouth. I told her to shut up before she could announce that she'd won our little bet about Marisa and Tenshi. Just because they'd become close enough friends to give each other massages didn't mean they were in a relationship. Reimu and I had an argument silently before Marisa got herself together. "Her!" She snapped, pointing at the crowd. I followed her finger and caught sight of Lady Kasen, who was carrying a bag that even from here, I could tell was chock-full of sweets. I chuckled slightly. For a hermit, Lady Kasen seemed to have a number of intense vices that would forever keep her from ascending to Heaven. Not least of which was her own partner.

Raki was near, but not with Lady Kasen. She was standing just slightly away from a stand that seemed to sell shaved ice - Which I couldn't imagine was particularly requested in the dead of Winter - and was fielding questions from a girl wielding a very long pole made of glass which she, interestingly, was not holding with her hand, but with her tail. I hoped that Raki was doing better after our talk, though I couldn't say for sure since she still did look a little bit out of her depth.

Unfortunately, Marisa had me cornered. "She's a clone!" Marisa cried, pointing a shaking finger at Raki this time. Reimu and I looked at each other and had another silent argument, this time about whether or not to play along. Reimu's eyes insisted that she wouldn't realise, while mine thought that the game might be up. After a moment, we turned back to Marisa.