/jp/ - Otaku Culture

I need her to be canonically loved by everyone, even pringlesee

Unfortunately, by that point we were truly through the looking glass, and there was no going back, so I whispered to Yura if I could put someone else in charge of handling this party business, and after a moment of biting her lip, she nodded. “Damn.” She muttered. “I think I’ve gone and caused some problems here.”

I shook my head in slight resignation and took on Yamame's cadence again, yelling for everyone to be quiet. Once they'd all calmed down, I asked if Nai was present. "H-Huh?" Ah, there she was, hiding in the back corner of the room. "Um, hi?" She got to her feet, and I was surprised to see that she looked a little unsteady and had a bandage wrapped around her arm. Had she gotten attacked by some ornery oni like that other sister of Yamame's had? I had a feeling that Yamame wouldn't be too happy when she found out about that, but I decided to try and ignore it for now, so I asked Nai to come over here. "Er, sure." Nai said, floating over the heads of all her sisters and coming to a halt in front of me. "Hello?" She said to me, sounding a little uncertain. "Is, er, Big Sis Yamame not with you?" She asked me and I shook my head but reassured her that she would be coming down soon. She hadn't forgotten her promise to Nai that she'd make it down again without such a long wait. "Oh, good!" Nai looked a little bolstered by that, then asked what exactly I had wanted her for. I pulled her to the side of the room while Yura told the others to talk amongst themselves for a few minutes, which immediately turned the room into a barely-audible mess. Still, now that I could talk to Nai properly, I asked her if she would be willing to help plan this impromptu party thing. "Huh? Me?" I nodded. "But - Why me? I'm just one of the workers." I shook my head and told her that she was wrong. She wasn't just one of the workers, she was Yamame's little sister, and I knew very well that Yamame absolutely loved Nai to death. She'd be really happy if Nai was responsible enough to put together whatever this party idea that Yura clearly wanted to make happen.

I eyed the bandage on Nai's arm, and then added that she'd probably also have an easier time forgiving Nai for getting injured after all of her worrying that Nai wasn't old enough to be partaking in the real work yet. "Oh, um...This was just, er..." I said Nai's name sharply. "I'm explaining!" She insisted slightly petulantly. "I fell off a roof near the big springs while getting some fragments of the big fu- Er, the big rock." I told her to stop letting Yura influence her language. "You're not my big brother!" She told me with some exasperation, and I decided to keep quiet that I hoped to be exactly that one day. "A-Anyway, I fell, bashed my arm against a rock on the way down, and Big Sister Kisami helped me patch it up. That's all." I told her that Yamame would probably be a little upset about that, but as long as Nai was certain that she could keep herself safe, I would tell Yamame to not overly worry herself about Nai. "Oh, um, thank you. I really like working with everyone, too. Before, Big Sis wouldn't let me come down here without going with one of my other big sisters." I did remind her that the first time she came down here on her own, she nearly got conned into going to the Hell of Blood Pools by a pair of con artists. "That wasn't - Okay, maybe it was." Nai seemed to have matured a little in the time since my last visit. Perhaps not being coddled so much had been better for her than Yamame could have thought possible? "But I've learnt! I'll never let that happen again."

That was good, so I nodded appreciatively and asked Nai if she was willing to do her big sister Yura the favour of helping to plan out her impromptu party. "Er...Okay, I'll do my best." I sighed in relief and thanked her profusely, and she scratched at her head. "Is she - Um, she just didn't want to send us all home, did she?" I watched Nai for a few moments, and then remarked that she'd gotten very perceptive. I told her to keep quiet about it, and she nodded seriously. I just barely restrained myself from trying to ruffle her hair, reminding myself that I wasn't actually her big brother and doing so would be a little weird.

Stepping back over to Yura, who was facing away from the rest of the group and wringing her hands, I told her that Nai had agreed to help with setting up the party. "N-Nai? Really?" Yura asked me, looking a bit perplexed. "But she's too yo-" I cut her off with Yamame's favourite trick of saying her name very insistently, and it derailed her train of thought instantly. "Sorry, er, yes. Nai. I guess we still think she's too young, huh? She's gone and matured a bit behind my back. Okay, so...I'll have to, er, help with this, won't I? I've started it." Sighing a little, I nodded. I was only a little worried that Yura had opened quite the can of worms, but I would have to handle talking to the oni on my own. Yura, it seemed, would need to go and tell Reiko.