Work Text:
It had been too long since Nitori Kawashiro was able to get any actual engineering work done. That war with the underground youkai was… well, she didn’t like to think about it. A lot of nonsense all over one absolute jerk ghost, she thought. Now that that whole ordeal was finished, the kappa was more than happy to return to what she loved best: Tinkering! Lots, and lots of tinkering! And what might she be tinkering with today?
“Hmm, my saltwater purifier may have been a bust before, but I’m sure I can get it this time.”
One might stop and think that, hey, Gensokyo doesn’t have saltwater. Why would there need to be any desalination going on? It’s simple; sometimes, when all you want to do is build and invent, you find yourself building and inventing things just because . Did kappa society really benefit from the development of the folding hang-glider backpack attachment? No, but it sounded cool at the time, and so it was made, even if it only ever saw use a grand total of four times. Such was a kappa’s life.
Eventually, Nitori needed a break from her little endeavor. A combination of being a constant tinkerer and frequently getting asked by the other, less bright kappa for advice on their own engineering escapades tended to mean she needed very frequent breaks. Usually that meant taking time to oversee the others’ work, but right now she really just needed to lie back in bed and enjoy some peace and quiet.
As Nitori sat up and began her break, she began to think about the projects the others had been up to. There was Wakaba, a kappa with a brown bob who was working on a device to translate the speech of river otters; she was fun. Before that she saw Kanna, a girl with twintails who was eager to show off her rice seasoning dispenser. And earlier today she’d met up with that one everyone just called Funny, who she was pretty sure was deeply infatuated with her and didn’t actually have anything to share.
“Actually, now that I think about it a lot of them are infatuated with me,” Nitori mumbled as she took off her big blue jacket, revealing a black… undershirt. No tank top today, she wasn’t feeling it. “Gosh, this is a really awkward situation. There’s already one I especially like… how the heck do I make it clear I’m basically already taken?”
Before Nitori could mull the question over for too long, she heard a noise coming from outside. It wasn’t too difficult to determine what exactly the noise was; it was the sound of someone panicking. Probably another kappa judging from the timbre; they tended to have pretty squeaky-sounding voices. Great, this was probably something Nitori needed to deal with herself; the life of the de facto leader of the kappa was one of very little rest, after all.
Tossing her jacket back on for the sake of looking professional, Nitori rushed out to check up on the noise. The Genbu Ravine was especially quiet this time of day, and the lack of foot traffic made it easy for her to pick out the source of the noise: Near the water stood a kappa with blue hair worn in a ponytail. She was staring down at her hands and alternated between muttering and screaming at random. Evidently whatever had happened was doing a total on her psyche.
Actually, wait. Now that Nitori was looking at her, she looked… yes! Yes, this was her! Marina Amemiya, the girl she’d been planning to ask out for the past week! She didn’t recognize her at first, mainly because she wasn’t wearing her glasses. But why wasn’t she wearing them when she needed them to even make her way around most of the time? Hell, that was worth investigating.
“Hey, hey, Marina!” Nitori called out as she approached. “What’s the matter?”
Marina turned to glance in Nitori’s general direction, her face red from embarrassment. She continued stammering as she held out her hands to show off what she had to share: The shattered remains of a pair of round-lensed spectacles.
“M-my glass- m- glass- glasses, I-I bro- broke my-”
“Slow yourself down, Marina.” Nitori placed her hands on the other kappa’s shoulders in an attempt to make her pull herself together. “Deep breaths. Deep breaths.”
Marina continued to hyperventilate for the next few minutes, before eventually slowing down as rational thought kicked back in. Now at a normal rate of breathing, she could finally manage a few words without tripping over her own tongue.
“I… broke my glasses. I took them off to polish them and… I tripped and… they fell out of my hands. And then I fell on top of them.”
Marina smashed her hands together and made a shockingly accurate imitation of snapping plastic. The sound made Nitori wince, knowing all too well what exactly that sound meant.
“I-I can’t see- I can’t see anything like this, it’s all so blurry, I think I’m getting a headache.”
Marina gripped and shook her head as she leaned on Nitori for support. Nitori, for what it was worth, found herself holding on extra-tight to the half-blind woman, doing her best to comfort her. She wasn’t the best at being comforting, she was used to just being the confident leader type who acted shy around humans because it made her seem more endearing to them. It felt… nice, holding onto her like this.
“Chin up, chin up.” Nitori moved Marina to face her. “Remember what we are, Marina.”
“...kappa?”
“Right. We’re kappa. And what are kappa best at?”
“...getting together and getting stuff done?” Marina glances down at the shattered glasses. “You’re not going to get an entire team together to- to fix my glasses, are you? I-I really appreciate the sentiment, but… can- can we please keep this between us?”
Damn, and Nitori really was about to suggest getting a crack team of experts together to fix Marina’s glasses. It was her go-to response to problems, could you blame her for trying? It looked like this had to be a more discrete repair than what she was used to.
“Sure. Sure, we can do this privately. I haven’t had real one-on-one time with another kappa in a while…”
Glancing up, she noticed that Marina’s face was flush red. It took Nitori an embarrassingly long time to realize what she’d done wrong.
“N-not like that! Didn’t mean it like that! Just meant working on stuff, that is all I meant.”
“I-I hoped so, didn’t want to think you would just leap there.”
“No, no, I’m a girl who likes to take things slow and- oh come on, let’s just move on from that! Do you have anything to fix glasses with at your place?”
“Uh… I should.” Marina turned her head back toward her home, a smaller one hidden away in the ravine. “I bought some things along with my glasses when I first got them.”
“Great, super convenient!” Nitori exclaimed, clapping once in a brief moment of triumph. “Let’s get going then! I’m sure I’ll have those things fixed sooner than later!”
***
The good thing about working with larger machines is that there’s fewer small parts. It makes it easier to avoid misplacing things, and even if the larger parts are heavy, it’s easier to tell where exactly they fit into place. This is a realization that Nitori comes to while attempting to repair Marina’s glasses in her home.
“Any luck?”
“I’m trying…”
The two kappa were standing next to each other and doing their best to collaborate, but full collaboration was borderline impossible given the small size of the spectacles. As a result Nitori was doing almost all of the work, while Marina stumbled over her words trying to assist in the endeavor.
“This little glue bottle isn’t little enough , that’s the problem.” Nitori grumbled, still working to the best of her abilities. I can piece the frame together just fine, but the transparent part…”
“The lenses.”
“Right, those… they’re too small. So many little chunks of see-through plastic. It’s taking a lot of effort to stick them back together.”
Despite the clear fruitlessness of this endeavor, Nitori was still trying her best to somehow make gluing together glasses shards work. Marina, for what it was worth, seemed to realize the pointlessness of the exercise from the moment she saw the size of the shards. Yet for some reason she stuck around, never telling Nitori to cut it out or that this wouldn’t work. Maybe she was too fixated on the actual work being done, or maybe there was something else going on. Nitori couldn’t tell what it was, she was too fixated on this and making sure Marina was feeling okay. It was hard to put her crush on the girl aside, but she was making an attempt.
“So,” Nitori suddenly spoke up. She figured she’d fill the empty air with some more conversation; it seemed to distract them both from the frustration of the situation. “These glasses. Where did you get them?”
“Oh, I, uh… I traveled to Kourindou.”
“Kourindou? That little shack near the Forest of Magic? Did you really go all the way out there just for glasses?”
“A tengu escorted me.” Marina looked down sheepishly, staring less at the glasses and more at the table they were sitting on. “It was a few years ago. She said she found some there while she was investigating a story. That they might help me since apparently I have ‘blurry vision’. And goodness, those things work. I got way better eyesight with them, I could fix things better and…”
Marina glances at her ally in their failed attempt at glasses-fixing. Her expression had a newfound sheepishness to it, the reason of which Nitori couldn’t quite figure out at the time and yet… they also somewhat felt the same way.
“...they helped me see things as they are. The finer details, the bits that make things really visually special. It kinda helped me develop an appreciation for how the world looks, you know? Especially the few times I get to leave the ravine, Gensokyo’s a beautiful place full of… really beautiful people. I guess that’s why they call it the place the Gods love. It’s also why I’ve been so darn attached to those things.”
Marina sighed wistfully, staring down at the remains of her glasses. It seemed she’d already resigned herself to an inability to repair these ones in particular. Perhaps they’d be better served melted down to use in other things. Nitori, meanwhile, was very much leaning in the same direction, for as close as she was to gluing every little piece together, the whole thing looked like a clumsy mess.
Soon, Nitori finished doing what she could for the glasses. With a faux-triumphant cheer, she held up the stuck-together remains of this formerly-brilliant little piece of technology. Each resulting lens looks less like a uniform piece of plastic and more like a mosaic one might find in a museum.
“See, take a look at this. I managed to fix it… okay! Okay enough!”
Nitori seemed proud that she at least got something together, even if the results aren’t… great. She handed the glasses off to Marina, eager to see if, somehow, they worked.
“Here, put them on. Please, please.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll give them a go…”
Marina slipped the glasses on, staring through the lens at Nitori. Within a few seconds she’s already gripping her head.
“How do they feel?”
“Like I’m staring through a kaleidoscope… I don’t think I can do this.”
Marina took off the glasses and put them back on the table, sliding them away and out of sight. She shook her head and frowned.
“I’m sorry. There was no fixing those things. I wish I’d said something instead of wasting your time, I bet you’re really ticked…”
Hearing Marina’s words, Nitori put down all her supplies. No, Nitori wasn’t frustrated with Marina for wasting her time. Far from it, she quite enjoyed the challenge of fixing something she’d never even tried fixing before.
No, she was just perturbed by her own failure. Building and fixing things was supposed to be her job, the thing she was best at! Sure, water manipulation was what she put down for that registry, but she was a kappa through and through. She was supposed to be good at fixing things like this, not making them arguably worse! What point was there in being great at maintaining big, unimportant gadgets if she couldn’t mend something this important?
“No, no. I should be the one who’s sorry. I probably got your hopes up thinking that I could fix those things. Boy do I feel silly, here I was thinking I was gonna somehow miraculously make these glasses work like new.”
Nitori takes a little breather, moving from staring at the table to glancing at the wall in front of her. Something was preventing her from making eye contact, and she couldn’t say what it was for sure but she had an idea. A part of her just wanted to crawl under this table and lay there, or better yet go back to her home and lie under her own table.
She then felt a hand on her back. Marina was giving it a reassuring pat, just a bit of physical affection to maybe get her to feel better. It felt nice admittedly, like a storm was giving way to cleaner skies.
“It’s- it’s fine. Honest. I appreciate that you at least tried. That’s more than some kappa could say.”
“You’re sure? You’re not just trying to make me feel better?”
“No, I mean it. There’s a reason people look up to you. You’re dependable, a real go-getter. I think that’s what draws folks to you, and what makes you such a strong leader.”
Marina grabbed Nitori by the shoulders and rotated her to face her, the maneuver not taking much effort. Even with her near-blindness the resulting stare was intense, her gaze drilling right into her soul. If this was an attempt to emphasize her point, then it was succeeding, as Nitori was fixated right on her.
“...Marina?”
“Yes?”
“...you know what?”
Nitori suddenly sprung forward and pulled Marina into a hug. The sudden boost in energy caught the latter off-guard, but she didn’t seem uncomfortable with it at least. Her arms seemed uncertain whether to hug back, but eventually they did so. The hug lingered for a few more seconds, perhaps a bit too long, before Nitori cut it woefully short; even she was starting to get self-conscious about how long it was taking.
“Sorry. I’m gonna make it up to you. Promise.”
“Y-you’re sure? After- after what-”
“Yes, I’m sure!” Nitori’s expression was now confident, energized. “After what you said, I need to prove that I am what you say I am. Thank you, Marina. Even if I can’t fix every little object, I’m still gonna try to fix your little problem.”
“Okay, okay- but… how are you gonna do that?”
“That’s simple.”
Nitori turned and pointed outside, a faint smirk on her face.
“We’re gonna check out Kourindou. Even if they don’t have any spares, you’ve seen the shopkeeper. What’s he always wearing? That’s right, glasses. If anyone knows where to get an extra pair, it’d be him.”
“...you know, I think you’re right. We should get over there as soon as possible, hopefully he’s found an extra pair or two.” Marina was already turned toward the door, suddenly also full of energy even if her voice didn’t convey it. “I’m about ready to go when you are.”
“Good.” Nitori says, already walking toward the door. “Because I’m ready right now. Hope you don’t mind.”
“I’m coming!”
***
Kourindou was a bit too close to the Human Village for comfort for the kappa; Marina especially, who hadn’t been near humans since that one incident with the seal. As such the two donned fairly simple disguises, wearing hooded jackets instead of their usual overshirts and leaving their backpacks back home. Marina was plainly nervous leaving her belongings unattended back home, but thankfully Nitori was around to keep her comforted. Extra-thankfully the actual trip wasn’t too long, as the duo spotted their destination quickly upon nearing the Forest of Magic thanks to all the decals plastered outside.
The first thing the duo heard upon heading inside was the ringing of a bell. There were two people standing inside, engaged in some conversation neither kappa quite understood. One was a human girl, tall by teenager standards but still clearly a teenager, whose glasses had a neat red frame. The other was their target, the white-haired, half-youkai shopkeeper with plain, very professional-seeming black-framed glasses. Great, two folks with glasses, surely that made it twice as likely to get ahold of some.
“Excuse me!” The kappa agreed that Nitori would be the one speaking for most of this voyage; while Nitori sometimes acted shy, Marina very much was shy. “Rinnosuke? …Sumireko…”
“Oh?” The girl, Sumireko, turned around and looked down slightly at the kappa duo; sure, said kappa were older than her by a fair bit, but that didn’t make them any less microscopic. She grinned upon spotting Nitori. “Oh, it’s the kappa from that one incident! And that other incident! Good to see you again!”
“You know her?” The shopkeeper, Rinnosuke, sat up attentively.
“Well, not know know her, but I know of her. She was scurrying around trying to make a profit off of both incidents. The urban legend and perfect possession incidents I mean, the ones that got me involved in Gensokyo to begin with. She’s got an eye for riches, that one.”
“Don’t I know it.” Nitori walked up to the counter and looked up at Rinnosuke, her expression still as determined as ever. “Alrighty, my friend here is looking for something and if anyone knows how to get a hold of said something, it’d be you.”
Rinnosuke glanced, pausing for a moment before standing up. It was easy to forget just how tall Rinnosuke was given how often he was just sitting down at a chair or something, mulling Gods-know-what over. It seemed he decided that this question was worth his time, and addressed Nitori as such.
“Is that so? Would you mind telling me what exactly you need?”
“Glasses. Like the ones you two are wearing. Hers broke and since she got them from here, we want to see if you still have some.”
Nitori reached out and pointed toward Rinnosuke’s face. The man responded by taking off the pair he was wearing, inspecting them for a moment.
“You want glasses? It’s been a few years since I’ve seen your friend’s face around, but I can certainly see. Sumireko, would you mind helping me check?”
“Not at all, oomfie.”
No one in the room dared to ask what the Hell that even meant; finding some glasses was far more prudent. Kourindou was cluttered and stuffed to the brim with assorted trinkets and knick-knacks, which while appealing in their own right, were not even remotely what the group needed. There were certainly a few glasses-like items, from drinking glasses to novelty Groucho Marx glasses, but it was a struggle to find what they actually needed.
“Oh, look at these.” At one point Marina found a modern-looking box, holding it up for the others to see. “Any idea what these are?”
“Those?” Rinnosuke leaned forward to look closely at the box. “Those are contact lenses. They’re supposed to help you see things, though I only mostly understand the words on the box.”
“I see…” Marina seemed, at the very least, intrigued. “Maybe these could be a replacement for my glasses? I’d have to learn how they work though…”
“Oh, I know.”
Sumireko finally spoke up again, having gone quiet while searching for the past few minutes. All eyes were on the literal child now to try and explain how to best use contact lenses.
“I wore contacts for a couple of years after my eyesight started getting bad, those ones right there are ones you can use for about two weeks or so per pair. You just put them in your eyes in the morning and then take them out and put them in some contact solution before you go to bed. You gotta buy them fairly regularly, but that box should last a while.”
With that, Sumireko returned to searching once more. Strange, they found the contacts, what was she- wait, right, the contact solution. She was looking for the contact solution, that made sense actually. The others, meanwhile, were continuing their search for actual glasses. As the group continued searching, the conversation pivoted.
“Marina? How would you feel about wearing contact lenses?”
“Uh… I’d have to think about it. I… it seems like a fair bit more effort to stick the contacts onto your eye than to just wear glasses, don’t you think? And then having to take them out again? I kind of worry that I might poke my eye out by accident.”
“You have a point, kappa.” Sumireko continued shoving stuff around in her grand search. “It’s why I stopped wearing them. Plus, putting them in wrong can make things pretty problematic. Hold onto that thought if we can’t find any glasses though, I am having a struggle over here.”
Sumireko tossed some more things aside, before arriving on an aha as she held up a small bottle. That must have been the solution she was looking for, and not a moment too soon; the other three were still struggling a ton with their glasses search.
“I found some contact solution. So if nothing else, we have a solution! Haha, I’m funny.”
“Thank you, human!” Nitori gave an approving glance, happy the search could at least wind down a bit. She did keep looking for glasses per Marina’s preference, but her vigor wasn’t quite what it used to be.
Marina, meanwhile, was still just as energetic in her search as ever. It didn’t seem like even the presence of an alternative to glasses could slow her down; she really need something to sit on her ears, didn’t she?
“I-is anyone else having any luck?” She could be heard muttering.
“None here,” Nitori responded. “Still prefer the glasses, do you?”
“Y-yeah, I’ve decided I have.” Marina gave a nod as she tossed something aside. “I don’t want to deal with that annoying stuff with the contacts. Besides… glasses are cute. I don’t- I don’t feel as cute without them. Is that weird?”
“Hey, with or without glasses, you’re still-”
There was a pause. Nitori very quickly realized what she was about to say and put a stop to it, for a number of reasons. Damn it, she didn’t want to give away that she had a crush right now. What would happen if Marina realized? She’d probably think Nitori was only helping her to try and score a date, or something less wholesome.
“...Nitori? What’s that word you were gonna say?”
Oh dear. Nitori’s worries looked like they were about to be realized. The twin-tailed kappa stammers out her next sentence like she’s trying to speed through the conversation.
“Can we talk about that later?” Nitori took a deep inhale and held it for a moment, not really wanting to think about this. Once she exhaled, she resolved to just move on, even as her face flushed red from embarrassment. “What I think isn’t important. It’s really not. We can save that chat for after we find those glasses.”
“Well, you may as well talk about it now.”
Rinnosuke finally spoke up again. He’d seemingly gone through every single little nook and cranny of his shop, even the spots the others had already doubled through. His face was difficult to read, but it certainly wasn’t a happy expression.
“I’ve looked through everything. Not a functional pair of glasses in sight. I found frames for glasses that have no lenses, but nothing you could actually use to see.”
Crap. There was really nothing, was there? Sure, they had those contacts so it wasn’t like Marina was doomed to be blind forever, but why, just why did Rinnosuke have to invite that change in topic?
“No luck either, human?”
She hurriedly looked over at Sumireko, who just gestured toward the contacts. It seemed she didn’t have any luck either beyond what she already retrieved. Both kappa were clearly disappointed; sure, contacts were contacts, but they weren’t glasses . Nitori glanced at Marina, who despite her disappointment was putting on a smile in appreciation.
“At least you have those, right? No more having to worry about not being able to see, so long as you’re able to get more of these later.”
“...yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Thank- thank you for finding these, human. They’re better than the alternative. I’ll just have to get used to them, at least unless a pair suddenly pops up here again.”
“No problem, small-fry.” Sumireko, at least, seemed proud of what she accomplished. “If you want I’ll even buy the spares for you! Just let me know and I’ll get them for you.”
Well, at the very least that was taken care of. Nitori, however, was still concerned. There was something that she very definitely did not want to talk about, at least not right now, yet there really was nothing else to talk about. She went quiet, her previous confidence having evaporated like a puddle on a hot day. She looked at Marina, who looked back immediately. Great, what was she supposed to say?
“...uh… mm… I…”
“Nitori, are you good?”
“Yeah, I’m good, I’m good, just give me a minute… I… uh…”
This concern was interrupted with the ringing of a bell. The door opened, and in came a woman with brown hair wearing mostly brown and green. She, too, was wearing glasses… hey, Nitori recognized her! This was Mamizou, the tanuki who kept getting involved in everything for some reason! Mamizou peered down at everyone, taller than everyone sans Rinnosuke who was now back to sitting.
“Golly, looks like I stepped through a tsunami. What in tarnation is going on here?”
“Oh, Mamizou!” Sumireko waved hello to the older woman, seeming to recognize her. “You’re rocking the human look today? Youkai or human, you’ve got rizz for days.”
“I still don’t know what rizz is and I’m not sure I want to. I figured I’d stick to the human look today since I’d be so close to the village.” The woman, Mamizou, then walked over to Nitori and chuckled. “If it isn’t Nitori. Trying to sell Rinnosuke on one of your inventions, are you?”
“Not today, rodent.”
Before Mamizou could protest the rodent allegations, Nitori had already gestured toward Marina, who was already holding onto the box of contacts. She saw an opportunity to delay the inevitable and ran right for it.
“We were looking to get my friend here some new glasses. We didn’t find glasses, but we did find these.”
“Oho, contact lenses. Funny little things, aren’t they? I should ask though… you sure you don’t want a prescription?”
The room went silent. A prescription, who said anything about a prescription? It was at this moment that both other glasses-havers in the room looked aghast, embarrassed even.
“...bruh. How did I forget?”
“I don’t know what a bruh is, but admittedly I feel… quite stupid.” Rinnosuke leaned forward, placing his face firmly in his hands. “In hindsight, Marina, the fact that your glasses worked so well the first time was a complete and utter crapshoot.”
Marina, too, looked completely baffled. She was supposed to have seen a doctor to get glasses this whole time? And no one told her? That’d be cause for alarm for anyone.
“Yeah, turns out glasses don’t typically just… work if you find ‘em on the ground. Sure, they can maybe help you see a little better, but folks’ vision issues manifest differently. Ya gotta go down to an eye doctor and get your lenses prescription-style.” Mamizou then turned her gaze toward Marina, inquisitive. “Us youkai typically live for a while, and glasses have been around for… well, quite a long time. You really didn’t know this?”
Jeez, even Nitori was starting to feel the second-hand embarrassment. She could only imagine how Marina was feeling right now.
“...n-no, ma’am. I’ve always just assumed my eyes were normal. That the world was supposed to look blurry. And when everything suddenly wasn’t when I put on the glasses, you know, I didn’t really question it.”
“I see. Sorry ‘bout the wakeup call then.” Mamizou then walked over to pick a few things up off of a table, glancing at Rinnosuke. “About how much’ll you charge for these things?”
“The earmuffs and the megaphone? You can just have those, unlike most of my other visitors I trust you not to make too much noise with that megaphone there.”
“Thank you.” Mamizou snatches the goods and then turns her attention back to Marina. “Oh come on, don’t gimme that look. There’s an eye doctor right in the Human Village, how do you think folks like Rinnosuke get theirs?”
That comment seemed to get Marina’s attention. She could have just gone right into the Human Village and gotten some new glasses? That disguise seemed to work just fine for getting them through there, it was really that easy just to get new ones?
“You’re sure about that?”
“Of course I’m sure. They might be a bit old-fashioned by the standards, of, say, Outside World glasses, but they work well enough. Maybe even better than the ones you had before. I’ll escort ya if you’ll have me.”
Nitori took a swift look at Marina’s face upon that offer being made; suffice to say, she was elated. She wasn’t sure how exactly she should react body language-wise, so she did her best to look excited and supportive.
“Thank- thank you, miss. Me being a youkai shouldn’t be an issue so long as I can disguise myself alright, right?”
“So long as we pay ‘em well enough, it won’t be!” Mamizou strolled over to the doorway, taking a quick glance back. “Well, you comin’? Hopin’ you’re not busy right now, ‘cause I’m not.”
The two kappa returned to making eye contact with each other finally. Even though Marina couldn’t see Nitori too well still, she still seemed transfixed. After a moment of silence, they gave each other a quick hug, both of them grinning.
“Hey, I helped after all! Indirectly, but still!”
“You know, Nitori? You sure did. Where do you want to meet up after I’m done?”
“Oh, just come back over this way. We can talk about how today went when you get back, because… yeah, I can imagine there’s some things you want to talk about.”
Marina nodded, before breaking off the hug and gearing up to follow Mamizou out. She gave Nitori a thumbs-up, before turning to look up at the tanuki.
“If you’re ready, Mamizou, then I am. Please l-lead the way, I don’t remember the village layout too well.”
“Of course! Just follow right along! Take care all. Good day to you Nitori, I’ll make sure she’s back here before the end of the day. New glasses in hand.”
“You’d better!”
The youkai duo made it out of there, leaving Nitori behind with the human and the half-human. She didn’t have much to say to either of the two remaining, so she chose to just browse the store for the next little bit.
This silence also, indirectly, left her alone with her thoughts. How the Hell was that conversation going to go when all was said and done? How was Marina gonna feel about her overall behavior this past day? Was it going to be like she’d dreaded? Was she overreacting? She hoped she was overreacting, but she couldn’t think of anything that would point to either answer. Dread and anxiety weren’t things she was used to feeling, and the worst part was that she didn’t know whether she was justified in feeling those things.
Only time would tell.
***
Nitori, in the hours since the others had left, was sitting on the steps to Kourindou. She was currently engaged in the greatest challenge she had ever taken up: A staring contest with the tanuki statue next to the door. Though it was tempting to use this mythical “WD-40” substance she exchanged an old wrench for to try and blind her opponent, she knew she had to play fair.
“...”
Nitori blinked. She yelled out a “damn it” and nearly knocked the statue over. The kappa stood up, a sore but honest loser in this self-imposed challenge, aware of the pointlessness of the task but determined to follow it through to the end. At least that was one consistent thing about her, she wasn’t the type to give up on things without a good reason. And she was good at distracting herself so she didn’t have to mull over her own feelings for too long.
Perhaps it was a rare stroke of good luck, then, that she heard a familiar voice ringing out from nearby. She turned to see Mamizou, waving with a confident smile, and to her side was Marina. And sure enough, Marina was wearing what looked to be a brand new pair of glasses, ones with cozy-looking round lenses, not dissimilar to the ones Mamizou was wearing. Nitori ran over, waving as well.
“There you two are! I was starting to get impatient.” Nitori crossed her arms, feigning frustration though clearly just happy to see Marina again. “How’d it go?”
“Went real smoothly,” Mamizou answered. “Man working the place seemed to know not to ask any questions, just wanted to get the check-up done and get paid. And lookie here, your friend here’s new glasses are pretty cute, ain’t they?”
“It- it’s pretty much what she said,” Marina added with a nod and a smile. She gestured to her glasses with both thumbs, clearly excited to show them off despite her somewhat quiet tone. “I think they’re cute, at least. What do you think?”
Nitori didn’t need to think about this question too hard, but she pretended to take a long, hard look anyway. She found it fun to pretend to be analytical, even when she wasn’t actually taking that hard of a look.
“They’re adorable!” She finally responded with an affirmative nod. Marina seemed giddy at the affirmation.
“Thank goodness! Thanks for helping me over there Mamizou, I get real anxious being near humans so…”
“Don’t sweat it, don’t sweat it. I’ll let you in on a secret.” Mamizou then leaned forward, making sure both kappa were within earshot. She then whispered. “I’m scared of them too, sometimes. Especially the ones from the Outside World. They keep the ones in Gensokyo ignorant for a good reason, I wouldn’t feel so bad about being scared of them.”
Marina seemed reassured as she nodded. Nitori, meanwhile, listened to this like she’d all heard it yesterday, it wasn’t common knowledge or anything but she did feel like she knew this already from somewhere. With that, Mamizou leaned back and smiled once more.
“Well, I’ll leave you two to it. I’ve got a pub to go visit. Have a good evening!”
Mamizou finally made her departure, leaving the kappa alone once more. Glancing at each other, the pair made the same, unspoken decision to just walk back to Genbu Ravine together. As they walked, both seemed unsure of who should speak first; perhaps there was an unspoken fear between both of them in regards to what the other would think of what was on their minds. This sort of anxiety wasn’t exactly conducive to a good conversation, so both remained silent for a while.
But eventually, one would have to crack. And the one that cracked first would ultimately be Marina.
“So…” Marina said as they were out of sight of the Human Village. “Umm… is it okay if I start first?”
“Please, please. Please do.” Nitori took absolutely no hesitation in her answer, not a moment of waiting. Any opportunity to delay embarrassing herself was one she would take any day of the week.
“Okay, okay… so. My thoughts. I’ve been, uh… thinking about things, about today and… before. And I’d like to just ask you… one… single… question. Just- just one. Is that fine?”
One question. God, what question could that be? “What were you thinking?” “What the Hell is wrong with you?” “Were you just trying to get with me this whole time?” All of which, Nitori was sure as Hell not gonna have a good answer for. She could say no, but was that true? Was she being selfish in her motivations today? Damn it, curse her crush, it made it impossible to tell how she felt about anything. She needed to get this out of the way though, hopefully Marina would be forgiving and they’d be able to move on with their lives.
“...yep. One question’s fine.”
Marina nodded and held her breath. Nitori maintained eye contact as they walked; as much as it pained her to do so, she needed to make it clear she was paying utmost attention. The bespectacled kappa, clearly grateful for the attention, took a deep, loud inhale, puffing out her chest to take in more breath.
“...please, pretty please…”
She then suddenly gripped Nitori’s arm, her face full of an energy she hadn’t seen since she was describing her old, broken glasses. The abrupt force made her sorta-boss jump.
“P-please go out with me! Please! Please.”
The plea probably caught Nitori more off-guard than the gestures. What- what the Hell was Marina saying? Did she… did she really want to go on a date with her ? After everything today? Here Nitori was, thinking she’d been obvious with her own feelings to the point of being uncomfortable, and now suddenly Marina was practically begging her to take her out on a romantic outing?
“H-hey, Marina, Marina! Slow down, slow down! Deep breaths!” Nitori echoed what she’d said earlier in regards to when they met up today. “Please, please, just… let’s talk this through, okay?”
Marina once again paused to let her breathing slow. She had once again returned to being anxious, though for a much, much different reason this time around. The kappa turned to her companion, a faint smile encroaching on her face.
“Y-yeah, uh… I have a confession to make. I… actually, a lot of the kappa in the ravine have crushes on you. I’ve just been… really nervous in admitting my own feelings. Worried that you’d already found someone you were interested in.”
Nitori paused, mulling that over. God, there really were a lot of kappa that looked at her funny, weren’t there? They were a lot of cute kappa, though none had… really struck her like Marina had. So the fact that Marina was, indeed, one of the ones that reciprocated her feelings like that felt… comforting. Like she didn’t have to be so worried, everything was gonna be okay.
“So… uh… is that okay? I-if you already have someone you like, it’s fine, just let me-”
Nitori then moved to hold Marina’s hand. Her fingers nervously twitched, but her grip was solid, firm. There was something telling her not to let go; her heart, perhaps?
“Marina? Uh… c-can I ask something of you? Uh… have my own feelings been… obvious today?”
“Y-your own feelings? You mean…” Marina’s eyes began to sparkle, even visible through the lenses of her specs. “I wasn’t seeing things? I really had a chance? O-oh, oh thank goodness. I had a feeling throughout today, admittedly, but I was worried the whole time I was just hallucinating it, or that you were just making honest little slip-ups. I’m so glad I wasn’t just imagining things.”
“Y-yeah, yeah… I admit it, I… I’ve had a crush on you for a while. And have been meaning to ask you out for a while, the next time I saw you in fact. I just wanted to put it off because… well.” Nitori pointed to Marina’s glasses. “There was something way more important that needed to be addressed.”
Marina looked up at the sky and smiled as they neared Youkai Mountain. Nitori did much the same, their held hands helping keep them close. The ravine was closeby, just a brisk walk away, and so the conversation slowly began to wind down, and people’s nerves started to calm themselves.
“I guess, uh… when you paused after saying Gensokyo was full of beautiful people, maybe I should have taken it as a hint?”
“Maybe.” Marina let out a quiet little chuckle. “Maybe…”
The ravine was within range now, visible to the naked eye. The pair walked slowly, just a little tired from their trek halfway across Gensokyo. Perhaps it was just the excitement of the day that kept them going.
“So… uh… how does tomorrow night sound for the date?” Nitori thought over her next words carefully. “I think I know exactly which pub that tanuki was talking about earlier. I hear the girl at the bar’s secretly a youkai and lets other youkai eat and drink there after hours.”
“A youkai-friendly drinking spot? Sure, sure! That sounds lovely, uh… very lovely, actually. I’m looking forward to it!”
“Great, it’s a date then! I’ll see you around!”
The duo made it into the ravine, upon which they split off in the direction of their individual homes. There was a shared level of excitement in their gaits now despite their diverging paths, for they knew that those paths would intertwine again come the next day. Yep, another meet up, catching up on the day’s events, and the inevitable moments after where they were both hammered, cheering as they hung onto each other because the alternative was falling face first onto the floor below.
Nitori, for one, was unfathomably thankful that that was how tomorrow was going to go. Even moreso, she was grateful that Marina was able to take her actions throughout the day so well. It helped her be hopeful for the future, that hey, maybe this was meant to be! And that’d be nice, right? Right, it would be!
At last, Nitori could finally relax.