/jp/ - Otaku Culture

They were mine. Both of them. They were the T-shirts that Lady Hecatia had made me. One was red and the other was yellow, and most importantly, they belonged to me. I'd lost them after returning from the underground where Satori had unlocked my memories of Eientei, and I'd honestly reached a point where I'd given up on seeing them again. But...Here they were. They looked like they'd seen a little bit of wear since I'd last seen them, but it didn't look like anything that a good clean couldn't fix.

But who ran the stall? There didn't seem to be anyone around. I tried calling out a hello. "Hello, hello!" No, there seemed to be no one home. "Huh? But I'm right here? You're kinda silly, Mister Hu-" I poked my head into the stall, then cursed when I felt a pain in my head. "Ouch! You headbutt me!" I pulled back and rubbed my forehead, wondering if I was getting a headache. "Wait, I know you! You're the one who trampled all over me! You were with Miss Yamame!" I frowned. This was just like that time that Yamame had pushed me into a tiny, empty alcove in the Old City. "It wasn't empty, Mister Human! I was there already! It was my alcove! You sat on me!" Wait, it wasn't like that at all. Anyway, I wanted my T-shirts back. "Too bad! They're mine now! I stole them fair and square! If you want them back, you've gotta pay for them! And you've gotta apologize to me!" Since no one seemed to be around, and they were rightly my T-shirts, I wondered if I could just take them back. I could hide them in my coat and give them to Yamame to keep safe. "Hey, hey, what are you doing? You've got a funny look on your face..." I reached out for them, but my hand fell to the side. "Hey, you can't just steal them back!" I tried again, but my hand crashed to the other side. "I'm gonna stop you!"
I tried once more, and this time, my arm seemed to get caught. I frowned. Caught on what? It didn't make any sense. I tried to pull it back, but couldn't "Hey, hey, can you see me!?" No, there was...Something. Right there, right...In front of me. "C'mon, Mister Human! Try harder! I'm right here!" I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. No, I - I couldn't seem to look at something. It was like...I knew it was there, but I didn't want to know. I forced my head to the side. Out of the corner of my eye. Where I didn't think to look.

And there she was. Her hair was an extremely light sort of mint green; Wild, frizzy and sticking in every direction underneath the wide-brimmed black hat with the yellow band and bow on it. Her eyes, too, looked slightly wild and unfocused. Where Satori Komeiji work light blue and pink, this girl wore yellow and green, with frills of pitch black accenting her collar and the ends of her sleeves. A trail of gem-like shapes ran down her shirt, acting as the buttons. The comparison to Satori Komeiji was apt, because the girl was surrounded by wires. They floated in the air and circled her body, forming a large heart shape over her left shoulder. "You can! You can see me, can't you!?" I stared at her with my mouth agape. Yeah, I said. I see you. "I knew it!" The girl finally released my arm and I pulled it back quickly as she cheered. "I knew you were something weird when Big sis said she wanted to see you again!" Big sis...? The girl's face did look familiar, and given the wires...Satori Komeiji's sister? "Yep, yep! That's me! Koishi Komeiji! And I'm really mad at you, Mister Human!" I stared at her blankly. Why?

"You totally sat on me and trampled all over me while I was minding my own business. And you ignored me! That was really mean, you know? I should have just taken your corpse to decorate the Palace of the Earth Spirits!" That sounded...concerning. "But I'm not gonna, Mister Human, because I got to steal your weird T-shirts instead! But they're really weird, so I don't want them now..." I crossed my arms and asked her what she was planning to do with them. "I was gonna sell them, but no one's interested!" I suspected that at least some of them was because it didn't seem like anyone could see her, but I decided not to voice it. "Maybe I should just destroy them..." Koishi Komeiji looked pretty downcast, as if she was getting rid of a cherished item. But no, they were mine! "Huh? But I stole them, so..." That didn't mean they weren't mine! "Well, why didn't you tell me at the time? I wasn't the only one stealing from you!" Maybe not, I said, but Koishi was the one currently trying to sell something that I'd received as a gift from the goddess of Hell. "Ooh, cool!" She said, suddenly looking very excited. "I can sell them back to you! I think she gave them to me, so-" No, I cut her off. She gave them to me. That was why they didn't fit her. "Oh, that makes more sense." Koishi took her hat off for a moment, and I saw that her hair looked even messier without it. "So, how much are you offering?" I frowned. I shouldn't need to pay for my own belongings. Koishi blankly smiled at me. "But it's my belonging right now?"