/jp/ - Otaku Culture

As an aside, I thought that it would be good if Yamame and Raki got a chance to talk to each other properly. They'd both gone through great effort to try and change themselves. Yamame had done it to try and be with me, and as far as I was concerned, she'd succeeded. Raki, meanwhile, was trying to prove that Lady Kasen was wrong in sealing her without giving her a chance at redemption, and she was trying to get over what she saw as Lady Kasen's betrayal at the same time. I wasn't exactly privy to all of the details, but it seemed to be going okay, especially since they'd had that talk in the hot springs. I didn't know if they'd ever manage to contemplate merging into one being again, but it was an interesting prospect. I thought that Yamame and Raki could probably learn something from each other, or at least have someone who understood how difficult the whole process could be.

Unfortunately, neither of them were here, and even if they were, Raki had seemed dead drunk, which I imagined would lead to some very...Unhealthy behaviour, probably toward me. I got the feeling that she did represent the more uninhibited side of Lady Kasen, compared to how generally uptight Lady Kasen was until she'd gotten drunk too. Actually, I supposed that meant that I was probably in for a bad time no matter which of them I got stuck with if they were dead drunk. So I guessed that my best bet was probably to just stay away from the pair of them until they were sober enough to regret their actions. “So, what have we got here..." Yuugi muttered, sliding one of the pieces of paper towards her. "Hang on, I've got..." She glanced around the room, then turned and got to her feet, heading toward a bookshelf. Curiously, I asked her what she was looking for. "Just, er, a reading aid. Well, I say reading aid...more of a reading enhancer, really. Helps me keep focused." I was only more confused after that, and even more so when she came back, holding a pair of circular reading glasses which looked tiny in her hands. Before I could stop myself, I'd incredulously asked if she really needed those. "H-Huh?" Yuugi looked slightly self-conscious now that I'd drawn attention to it. "U-Um, no, but...I think it helps get me in the mood...?"

Every time I met this oni, I seemed to come away learning something I could embarrass her with. It was a good thing I wasn't the kind of person to use this as blackmail material. "Anyway..." She slipped the glasses on, which made me blink at how innocent it made her look, and then she lifted one of the sheets. "So this was...The first contract. I think that was with the black haired one." Reiko? She was the tall one. "Uh...Yeah, I think that was it." I asked her what exactly that contract had covered. "Oh, it was just the initial stuff. An agreement that the Kurodani lot would repair the damage done by that blue-haired idiot, and we oni would handle the keystone." I nodded slowly, since that sounded like what I had seen.

Really, I needed Yura here, but she'd gone and orchestrated a party that meant she was otherwise engaged. I took the contract and read through it, relieved to see that it was in a readable language. Not that it was much more understandable, but I got enough out of it to see that Yuugi owed several things in exchange for the work being complete. "Is it complete?" Yuugi asked, and I watched her silently for a few moments. "Yes, I suppose it is..." She said one it was clear that I wasn't going to be forthcoming with any answers. "But I need to inspect it first." She told me, and I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. I'd not exactly seen many contract negotiations, or whatever it was that I was doing, but I knew what reluctance to pay up looked like. I doubted it was malicious, but came more likely from a place of understandable concern for the quality of work. Eventually, I sighed and told Yuugi that honestly, this wasn't something I particularly understood, but I'd been asked to help and I was determined to do my best, as long as both of us were honest.

Yuugi looked like she was thinking hard, and then she nodded and took the second contract. "So this - Oh, and this one too - was...When they needed more wood. That was most of those idiot oni down there's fault, so...Yeah, that's fine." Yuugi pulled one last contract over. "...And this was when Kasen and Raki broke the stone, so we had to bring in the Kurodani to actually deal with it." I'd been there for that, so I nodded. "Yeah, so...That's fair, too." Now, I had to bring up Yura's little outburst, so I quickly explained it and swore that no one had known that she was planning it.