Finally.

---

[X] Yamame said something about seeing where she lived, didn't she?
[X] Kisume will come too, right? It's not too late to eat lunch, is it?

"Didn't you say something about going to see your house, Yamame?" you ask.

"My house?" she looks puzzled for a moment, then realization hits and she smiles broadly. "Oh, yeah! we can go see where I live!" She looks down at Kisume, who's still clinging to Yamame's legs in a halfhearted attempt to hide from you. "That's okay with you, right, Kisume?" The smaller girl stares up at her for a moment, silent, then nods vigorously, her twin pigtails flapping up and down.

"Okay, then, let's go!" As Yamame speaks, her friend finally lets go of her, crouching back down into her bucket. A good thing, too; she barely manages to get her body inside before Yamame reaches down, grabbing the handle of the bucket, and, in one quick motion, swings her arm around in a full circle, turning the bucket and its occupant upside down, suspended by centripetal force alone for a brief moment. You cringe as she follows through, half-expecting her to end her wind-up by throwing the bucket straight at you, but she stops short, her arm slowing down to a casual swing.

And this is her friend? Just watching something like that makes you a little queasy; you can't imagine actually being subject to it. Kisume, however, seems to enjoy it; she's smiling for the first time since you met her, and you think you heard a small laugh somewhere in mid-swing.

"It's pretty close, so we can just walk," Yamame says, setting off away from the caves, and you follow after her. "I moved just a little while ago, so it's not as nice as I'd like it to be, but-- ah, what was that?"

Huh? "I didn't say--" Oh, she must mean Kisume. You didn't hear her say anything, but you are farther away from her than Yamame, and she doesn't seem like the type to project. You lean forward slightly and look at her, waiting for her to repeat herself.

She wilts under the pressure, though, staring at you like a startled animal for a long moment before ducking back into hiding, only her eyes peering out over the rim of the bucket at you.

"Kisumeee!" Yamame whines, a note of exasperation in her voice. "Come ooon..."

Silence. Her eyes are darting back and forth between you and Yamame now, as though she's worried that one of you is going to pounce. You pointedly look away, trying to relieve some of her tension by not staring at her, and you see her raise her head slightly in your peripheral vision.

"..you move..." You manage to pick out a few sounds somehow, but she's still barely managing to get the words out. "Where... did you move to...?"

All this for a simple question like that? You've heard of shy, but this is ridiculous. And why is she scared of you, of all people? If she's like any of the other youkai you've met so far,she could gut you without too much effort.

The rest of the trip continues without incident, with Yamame and Kisume mostly talking quietly to each other. Yamame tries to include you in the conversation at times, but the topics seem to switch between local geography and local society, neither of which you know much about, and you mostly keep quiet and listen. As you walk, you begin to make out something in the distance among the scattered boulders that pass for scenery. That can't be it, though, can it? Not at that size, not to mention that it doesn't look like a house at all. In fact, you can't see too well from here, but it almost looks like... a...

"Here it is!" Yamame says a few minutes later as you approach it, turning with a sweeping hand motion.

It's... a spiderweb. A huge one, easily as tall as Yuugi's house, stretching between two rock formations several dozen feet apart. It stands in stark contrast to the dirt-colored scenery, its white silk practically gleaming in the dim light of the cavern. Setting its size aside, it looks pretty similar to a usual spiderweb, with concentric circles spreading out from the center, spaced a few feet apart from each other. The strands are about as big around as a rope, but clearly very light; you can see the entire structure sway slightly with the breeze.

In retrospect, you probably should have expected this, you think, chuckling slightly at the absurdity of the situation. Yuugi did say that Yamame preferred the outdoors, and she is a spider youkai. This puts a damper on your plan to offer to make lunch, though.

"Do you like it?" Yamame asks, getting a vigorous nod from Kisume in reply.

"It's amazing," you say honestly. She made this thing herself?

Setting Kisume's bucket down lightly, she steps up to you and gives you... a look. You recognize this one from before, when you first met her and she wanted to take you to see Yuugi the 'fun way': pure enthusiasm, with a big smile and just a hint of puppy dog eyes.

"Wanna race to the top?"

---

A few hours later, you find yourself atop the web, sitting with your back against one of the rocks that the web is anchored to, enjoying the breeze as Yamame climbs back up to where you are.

After the first two races to the top ended up suspended when you accidentally touched one of the sticky strands of the web and Yamame had to cut you out, you finally made it to the top of the web (in dead last, naturally, though you're not quite sure how Kisume managed to climb that far without leaving her bucket). The top of the web, though still made of the same silk as the rest, is patterned differently, with multiple strands criss-crossing over each other to form a sort of rope bridge, several feet wide, between the web's two anchoring rocks. You're not sure enough of your footing to stand up on it like Yamame does, but it's comfortable enough to sit on, and you don't feel like you have to hold on for dear life every time a breeze comes.

Once you got there, Yamame suggested a different game; one that involved tying a stretchy piece of rope to your midsection, then jumping off of the web, letting yourself fall until the rope caught you and sprung you back up to the top. At first, you adamantly refused, nervous enough about being stories above the ground without actually throwing yourself off, but after watching the other two enjoy themselves (and not fall to their doom), you relented. The experience was... well, you can see what they like about it, but you think you were too scared to enjoy it properly. It was tiring, too; you were out of breath when you finally got back to the top of the web (although that could have been from the screaming), and it feels like your stomach is bruised from that rope.

Still, you've had fun. It feels like it's been a long time since you've done something like this; something that got you up and moving that wasn't just another job. Besides, you can't say that you've gained nothing from this; Kisume seems to be warming up to you, too, if in her own way. She still hasn't spoken to you of her own volition, and doesn't seem likely to, but at least you can meet each other's eyes without her trying to hide now.

"Ah, that was a good one!" Yamame says, pulling herself up on top of the web. Yawning, she stretches her arms over her head, then lets herself fall backwards onto the web. "I'm getting kinda tired, though. Is there anything else you want to do, Mr. Taizou?"

You are getting kind of hungry, now that you think of it. Still, it's a little late for lunch now, and there were some other things that looked interesting around here...

[ ] Go back to Yuugi's house for a late lunch.
[ ] Suggest something else to do.