Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Alice turns the doll over in her hands, giving the delicate joints a final inspection. They stay stiffly locked, which only contributes to its weird, unnatural look. With a bald head, a featureless torso, and dark, empty eye sockets, the thing looks a little creepy. “She looks good so far,” Alice says, and sits the doll on the workbench. From a nearby shelf, she grabs a box made of a dark wood and covered in baroque engravings. Opening it up, she reveals dozens of tiny eyes, in every color of the rainbow. They're sorted into pairs, each one in a little velvet cubby to keep them from scratching each other. “What color do you think her eyes should be?”

“Um.” Sunshine leans forward and pushes herself up against the edge of the table to look at the options. This seems like a really important decision to her. She's spent the past few days thinking about it, and still isn't sure. Soon though, a pair in the corner catches her attention, and she points to them.

“Those ones?” Alice says. When Sunshine nods in response, she gently prompts, “Can you say it?”

“I. Um. I want... those ones. Please.”

“Very good. Do you know what color that is?”

Sunshine squints at the eyes. Springing all these questions on her without warning doesn't seem fair, but she still doesn't want to disappoint. “Violet?”

“You're close,” Alice says, and coaxes the unfinished doll's chin up, letting her slide one of the eyes into an empty socket. “It's lavender, actually. I think it's a nice color.” Once the eye is in place, she adjusts it until it's pointing forward, then repeats the process with the other one. “There, now it's time for her mouth. Would you like to paint it, or should I?”

“I can.”

“Mmh, well.” Alice closes the box of eyes and slides it back into its spot on the neatly-organized workbench, then grabs a pot of paint and pulls a small brush from a holder. As she opens the paint, she says, “It's hard, so it's okay if you'd like me to do it.”

“Uh-uh. I want to,” Sunshine says, already reaching for the brush. “She's my doll.”

“Okay...” Alice hands the brush over, then guides Sunshine's fingers into the right position on its handle. “Make sure to wipe off the extra paint... there you go. Do you remember how the mouths look on the other dolls? That's what we're trying to do.”

“Mmhm.” Sunshine's lips purse in concentration as she slowly lowers the brush to the doll's face. The mouth comes out just a little wobbly and with a slight hook at one end, but she's still beaming when she lifts the brush away and looks to Alice for approval.

“That's... very good,” Alice says, resisting the perfectionist urge to repaint it herself. She settles for grabbing a cloth to wipe a few extra drips of paint away from the edges. Sunshine blows on the drying mouth as Alice rinses the brush off. “Now, have you thought about what color her hair should be?”

Sunshine hasn't even gotten that far in her plans. She freezes, staring into space and completely overwhelmed with indecision, until Alice slides a different box onto the workbench. Pulling it open, she reveals a collection of doll hair, each one a little wig perched atop a tiny dome to keep them organized. The color selection is a bit tamer than the eyes, but there are still plenty for Sunshine to choose from. She taps a bronze-colored one, and at a familiar, prompting look from Alice, says, “This one. Please.”

Alice nods and lifts the tiny wig, then settles it on the doll's head. With the addition of hair, eyes, and a mouth, it's almost presentable apart from being naked. After closing the box and sliding it away, she looks down to Sunshine. “There. All that's left is the dress. Did you finish it?”

“Mmhm!” Sunshine's been looking forward to this part the most. She's always known the basics of sewing, since it's one of the most common tasks that Alice has her dolls perform, but doing it for herself was an exciting new experience. Alice had given her a plain doll dress to start with, with a small box of trimmings that she could use to decorate it herself. She'd spent days getting it perfect. Hurrying over to the corner of the workshop, she tugs her coat off its peg, then digs the neatly-folded dress out of the pocket. Before she's even halfway across the room again, she's holding it up proudly. It might have started off as a normal white doll dress, but yesterday Sunshine sewed a dozen multicolored bows around the skirt, along with a larger green one, meant for human-sized outfits, at the small of the back. She'd wanted to add a scabbard, but Alice wasn't quite ready to give her that much freedom.

Alice inspects the thing. “It's very... colorful,” she says, in that carefully neutral tone of approval that parents quickly learn to cultivate.

Sunshine nods excitedly. “Um, on the back. There's a green one,” she says, pointing to it. “It's really big.”

“Yes, I see. Would you like to put it on her?”

Sunshine doesn't even wait to answer before she leans over the bench, dress in hand. At a gesture from Alice, the doll raises her arms, and Sunshine pulls the dress into place. Once it's on, she takes a few seconds to adjust it, then steps back and admires her handiwork.

“Do you think she should have a bow in her hair?” Alice asks, and when Sunshine nods in response, pulls one last box out, filled with spools of ribbon. “What color do you think it should be?”

“Um.” Sunshine looks over the options, comparing them to the clothes that the doll is already wearing. “White.”

“White it is, then.” Alice pulls a length of ribbon off the spool, then cuts it. Gathering the doll's hair up, she starts tying a bow at the base. As she works, she says, “Have you thought of a name for her yet?”

"No." Sunshine purses her lips. "Um. What names are good?"

"All of my dolls are named after cities in the outside world. I could tell you some girls' names from my home country, or you could pick a Japanese name..."

Sunshine considers this. She doesn't think that her doll should have the same name as anybody else, so she doesn't like those suggestions. Way back when she chose her own name, she picked something that Alice likes. Since this will be her doll, she should name it after something she likes, but naming her doll Sword, Cake, Pencil, Book, or Moon all seem a little weird. "... Ichigo!"

“... she doesn't look like much of a strawberry, does she?”

“No. But that's her name.”

“Hmm. Okay, then. Ichigo it is.” With a few final adjustments, the bow is in place. “There. All done," Alice says, and looks over the results. Red-brown hair, violet eyes, and a white-and-rainbow dress. It's not quite as bad as she'd feared, but she's already planning how to politely deny involvement with its creation if anybody asks. Sunshine's staring at it with a grin on her face, though, and that's all that matters, really.

"Can I move her now?"

"Yes." Alice says. "She's all yours. Do you know how to give her commands...?" The look that Sunshine gives her is all the answer she needs. "... right, I guess you would. She can shoot, but even though her bullets won't hurt anybody, I don't want you doing it inside the house or having her shoot people, okay? We'll talk about that later."

"Okay," Sunshine says, and turns to the doll. "Come on, let me show you my room!"

Alice's workshop is now located in a small building in the back yard, raised almost overnight thanks to the magic of doll labor. Further away, at a safe blast radius from the house, is a matching workshop for Marisa. Both of their roofs are piled high with the first heavy snow of the winter, and the yard is pockmarked with footprints from the hours that Sunshine has already spent playing in it.

There are more important things to do than play right now, though. Sunshine hitches up her dress, and the snow crunches under her feet as she stomps through it on her way to the house. She'd like to just fly over it, but flying makes her get tired quickly, and she has a lot of big plans for today. Once she steps inside, she stomps her boots clean, slides them off, and rises up on her tiptoes to hang her coat on a peg by the door before she hurries deeper into the house.

Sunshine's bedroom still has scars proving that it used to be Alice's former workshop. The air smells lightly of sawdust, smoke, and old books, and the wooden floor still has scuff marks showing where heavier shelves and benches used to sit. The walls have been painted a cheery pastel yellow, and in the few weeks that she's had it, it's already started filling up with possessions.

“Um,” Sunshine says, and looks around, considering where to start.

“This is my books.” She points to a small bookshelf in the corner, with a single shelf filled with neatly-arranged children's books. Ichigo looks at it dutifully.

“This is my bed.” Her bed is new enough that it still smells lightly of wood lacquer. It's been kept very neatly made.

“This is my toy box.” Sunshine opens it so that Ichigo can view the contents. Inside are a wooden sword, a top, a bag of marbles, a pinwheel, a boxed-up doll-sized tea set, another box with tiny wooden soldiers, and a rubber ball. Once she's satisfied that Ichigo has had enough time to see everything, she closes the lid, then looks around her room again.

“Oh, um.” Sitting on the edge of the dresser is a Shanghai doll in a yellow dress, missing one forearm. Sunshine carefully slides her hands under its armpits and lifts it up for Ichigo's inspection. “This used to be me. But then I got smart, and my moms made me big. If you get smart, they'll, um. They'll probably make you big too. And then I'd have a little sister. And I think that would be fun.” Putting together all those words is hard. Sunshine hopefully watches Ichigo for a reaction, but if Ichigo thinks that this sounds fun, she certainly isn't showing it. With a sigh, Sunshine sits her tiny body back on the dresser. “Well. If you feel like you're getting smart later... let me know.”

It's an offer that she's already extended to every one of Alice's dolls, but to no avail. Alice has already warned her a few times not to get her hopes up, but as far as Sunshine is concerned, if it happened once, it could happen again.

“Um. You're my doll. So you're supposed to help me with stuff,” Sunshine says, and looks around the room. She's not sure what she needs help with, really. Alice's dolls always help with cooking and cleaning, but she doesn't have a lot of those to do. After some thought, she opens her dresser, pulls out a double-handful of socks, and drops them on the floor. “... pick up my clothes.”

Without so much as a nod in response, Ichigo hovers down and starts ferrying the socks back to the drawer. Sunshine watches this without as much satisfaction as she'd hoped for. It hasn't been very long since she was a normal doll. Months ago, that sort of thing had been her entire life. Even though she'd enjoyed it at the time, it still feels weird to be on this end of the exchange. Or... maybe 'disappointing' is the word. When she was Alice's doll, carrying out Alice's will was her entire world. It's strange to find out that she can give orders so casually. Something so important should feel important.

Soon enough, all of the socks are put away, and Sunshine scoops Ichigo up and gives the doll a hug. Disappointment is no excuse for being mean. "Good job. You're a good doll, Ichigo," she says earnestly.

Before Sunshine can think of something else for Ichigo to do for her, she's interrupted by the sound of the door closing out in the main room. This is followed by a few seconds of somebody stomping snow off of their boots, followed by a shout of, “Hey, are you guys ready to leave?”

“That's my other mom,” Sunshine explains to Ichigo. “You can meet her too!”

“Hey, you finished her!” As soon as Sunshine is close enough, Marisa scoops her up and gives her a peck on the cheek. “She's really, uh... got lots of colors, huh?”

Sunshine nods at that, then gestures the doll forward. Ichigo floats closer and stiffly bows to Marisa. “Her name is Ichigo.”

“Ichigo, huh? Pleased to meet ya.” Marisa reaches forward, taking the doll's tiny hand between two fingers, and gives her a very light handshake before looking back to Sunshine. “Are you all set to head to the shrine?"

"Mmhm."

"Good. I'll go grab Alice, so why don't you start getting ready?"

Getting ready is its own little challenge. Sunshine's wardrobe used to consist of a single dress and a pair of shoes, but it's been growing by leaps and bounds recently; she's suddenly the owner of socks, underwear, gloves, hats, scarves, dresses, shirts, skirts, shoes, boots, and coats. She hadn't been too sure about the thicker clothes at first, but after the late December chill had set in, she'd learned to accept them pretty quickly.

On top of her yellow dress go white socks, black shoes, black gloves, a white coat, a red scarf, and a white knit cap. Sunshine feels like she's barely visible under all of it, but it keeps her from feeling cold when she walks outside and trudges through the snow back to Alice's workshop, with Ichigo in her arms.

The flight to the shrine is much, much less fun now that it's cold. On long trips, Sunshine rides behind Marisa on her broomstick. Usually, Marisa would fill half the ride with loops, barrel rolls, and dives, keeping Sunshine squealing with delight the whole way. Today, though, it's too cold for any of those. Sunshine clings tightly to Marisa, with her face buried against her mother's back to shield it from the cold air whipping past them. Behind her, Ichigo is latched onto the broomstick, while Alice flies behind the three of them with her own escort of dolls.

From the air, the Hakurei shrine looks nearly abandoned. The roof and grounds are piled high with snow, and the torii are almost hidden under a thick layer of it, too. Only the swept path up to the donation box and the thin pillar of smoke coming from the chimney attest to life.

The three land, and Marisa walks up to the donation box, rings the bell, and bows her head with a couple of halfhearted claps. Sunshine watches curiously. When Marisa finishes, she looks back. "Do you know how to do it?"

"Um." Sunshine looks at the box uncertainly. "What is it?"

"It's, you know. To get the gods to give you good luck 'n stuff."

"Oh."

Marisa turns back toward the box, then mimes the process again. "See, you ring the bell, then clap and bow and think about stuff you want or whatever, and the gods'll—"

"You missed the step about leaving an offering."

Reimu's voice makes the three turn around. The shrine maiden is standing on the path leaning toward the human village, as bundled up as she ever gets in a scarf. She and Marisa hold each other's gazes for several seconds, and even Sunshine senses a little tension. Miraculously, Marisa is the first one to cave, and she digs in several pockets before finding a few grubby coins to drop into Sunshine's hands. "... right, yeah. And put this in the box." A bit more quietly, she adds, "I guess."

Sunshine does as she was told. She steps forward, drops the coins in the box—they make a lonely, lonely sound as they impact against the bottom—rings the bell, and claps her hands twice. She can't decide on anything to pray for, though. Up until a few weeks ago, all of her belongings were a few picture books, a pencil, a pen, an ink well, a handful of toys, and a few changes of clothes. Now she has an entire room just for her stuff. She can't imagine having more. After some deliberation, she instead wishes to get to go on an adventure like her parents, possibly with a dragon involved.

Once she's lingered in prayer for a suitably somber-feeling amount of time, Sunshine straightens up, and Reimu approaches, smiling. “You look bigger than I remember.”

Sunshine shies away to hide behind Marisa. Peeking around her, she nods.

“Heh. She's still kinda shy, I guess,” Marisa says, and stuffs her hands in her pockets. “Anyway, wanna invite us in? It's freezing out here.”

“Inviting yourself in anyway just makes me want to say no...” Reimu says, but drops the subject. “You did donate a little, I guess. That's at least worth a cup of tea. You can come in and warm up, but I don't want you doing anything weird that will scare off other people. New Year's donations are a lot of my income.”

Reimu doesn't have sugar for the tea. Without that, it tastes too bitter to Sunshine, so she only sips at just enough of it to be polite as the four sit around her kotatsu. Thankfully, Alice thought to bring her pencil and paper, so she's able to draw while the adults make conversation. Sunshine does her best to listen to it, but a lot of it goes over her head. The more time she spends at the shrine, the more she realizes that Reimu doesn't spend her entire life fighting youkai. It's kind of disappointing, really.

Sunshine is dragged back into the conversation when Reimu leans over the table to look at her paper. “Hmm, what are you drawing?”

The picture is Sunshine's most ambitious drawing yet. It's a picture of a rocket ship that Marisa told her about riding in once when she helped to invade the moon. Sunshine thinks it would be fun to visit the moon some day, because apparently there's a lake that's bigger than Gensokyo. The moon also has a lot of rabbits on it, which can only be a good thing in her opinion. So, she's drawn herself and her parents, standing outside the rocket and surrounded by bunnies next to the sea. Or started to, at least. So far she only has the rocket, herself, and a few bunnies. She studies the picture for a moment, and hesitates.

[A ROCKET] Sunshine writes, on a different piece of paper. [ON THE MOON.]

“Oh.” Reimu says. “The one that me and your mom rode up there?”

[NO. A NEW ROCKET.]

Reimu cocks her head to the side. “You're not afraid to talk, are you? I won't hurt you...”

Sunshine meets her eyes and, reluctantly, mumbles, “Not afraid.”

“She's uncomfortable with talking sometimes,” Alice explains. “We let her write when she prefers to.”

Sunshine almost wilts with relief at not having to give the explanation herself, but it's still a little embarrassing. Talking is hard. Alice has said that she's getting better at it, but she's not. Not nearly as quickly as she got better at most other things. Even when other people are patient with her, she feels clumsy when she tries saying more than a few words at once. At least when she writes, she can take her time to choose her words.

“Oh,” Reimu says. “Well, that's okay too. I was just wondering. Still, if youkai could be as scared of me as she acts sometimes, my life would be way eas—”

Reimu comes to a complete stop mid-sentence, as a folded paper glides into the side of her head. Robbed of its momentum, the thing falls unceremoniously to the floor, while Reimu follows it back to its point of origin with her eyes. It's not exactly a difficult crime to solve, since Marisa is sitting at the far end of the table, with a small stack of Sunshine's paper in front of her and another piece already halfway folded. “What,” Reimu says, “are you doing.”

“Paper airplane,” Marisa says. “I was tryin' to land it in front of Sunshine, but my aim was off. This place is so drafty, y'know?” The second paper airplane soon takes off, and manages to sail past the end of the table. Sunshine watches in amazement. After doing a loop, it drifts down to the floor, and she takes off after it, with Ichigo riding on her shoulder.

"Pretty cool, huh?" Marisa says.

Sunshine nods in response, then turns the airplane over in her hands for inspection. Up close, it just looks like normal paper, but that makes sense, she decides. Marisa's broom looks like a normal broom, and she makes that fly all the time.

As Marisa starts folding a third airplane, the unmistakable sound of a heavy load of coins being dropped into the donation box comes from outside, followed by a ring of the bell. Sunshine looks toward the closed door curiously, while her parents' eyes turn toward Reimu.

"Villagers really come up here for New Year's?"

"Well, it's only natural," Reimu says, sounding less confident than she probably intends to. "People want to get blessings to start the year off right."

"Mmhm." Marisa's tongue sticks out the corner of her mouth as she focuses on a perfect fold. "You're not gonna go personally thank 'em?"

"If I did something like that, I'd just come off as needy..."

"Uh-huh." Marisa finishes the third airplane and draws it back for a throw. Following it every centimeter with her eyes, Sunshine rises to standing, ready to chase it down. With a little snap of her forearm, Marisa sends the plane sailing gracefully out over the table. Sunshine tenses up, trying to predict its trajectory. After a few minor adjustments, she's poised right in front of it, her hands held up and ready to snatch it out of the air...

And then, barely half a meter from her face, the air splits into brief darkness, and the plane disappears. Before the hole in space is even closed, another one opens up above the table. The plane plummets out of it, flying straight down, and smacks into the top of Reimu's head.

"O-ow!" Reimu rubs sorely at the impact site. "Y-yukari!"

“Hmm?” The voice comes from the other side of the door, and Sunshine freezes as it opens. The lady outside is even taller than Alice, with very long blonde hair (like her parents!) and a puffy dress. “Did I do something?”

“Like there's anybody else around here who can do that kind of stuff.”

“Well, happy new year to you too, Reimu.” As the lady steps inside, Sunshine scoots around the table as casually as she can, then shrinks down behind it next to Alice. With a nudge, she urges Ichigo forward, and the doll takes up a defensive stance on the table in front of her. The lady still takes a seat across from her. “I'm afraid that I don't have a clue what you're talking about,” she says with a teasing smile.

“Whatever. Shouldn't you be sleeping?”

“The boundary between one year and the next is an important one. I find it best to wake up for long enough to make sure that the transition goes smoothly,” the woman says. Afterward, her eyes turn to Sunshine. “And who might you be?”

Sunshine sinks even further down behind the table, and Alice reaches down to loop an arm around her, pulling her in closer. She's left close enough to feel Alice's warmth through her clothes. It's a reassuring bit of familiarity, but it doesn't dispel her anxiety over the situation. She's nervous around strangers to begin with, but this one seems extra strange. Her eyes are violet; in a creepy way, not cute like Ichigo's. “This is our daughter, Sunshine,” Alice says, then looks downward. “Sunshine, this is Yukari Yakumo. It's okay, she won't hurt you.”

Reimu mutters something in response to that reassurance, and Yukari does her best to pretend not to notice. “Not somebody like you, at least,” Yukari agrees. “With every child of a human and a youkai, Gensokyo's peace grows a little stronger.”

Marisa idly smooths out a fourth airplane, trying a few experimental folds. “Is that what you tell guys when you're tryin' to pick 'em up?”

The comment goes completely over Sunshine's head, but that's not really her main concern, as Yukari leans closer and smiles at her. “Are you frightened of me?”

“Play nice, Yukari,” Reimu says, keeping one eye on the youkai even as she sips tea.

“I don't have any intention of hurting her,” Yukari says, then glances back to Sunshine. “Hmm, here. Would you like to see a magic trick?”

Sunshine eyes Yukari, but the woman is still smiling. It's reassuring enough to coax her to sit up a little straighter, and she hesitantly nods.

As Marisa tosses off her fourth paper airplane, with a low 'nyooooom' sound, Yukari reaches forward. It takes all of Sunshine's bravery to stay rooted to the spot as the woman touches her face, then pulls her hand back. Holding it out, she presents her empty, gloved palm. “I,” she says, and closes her hands with a flourish. When she reopens them, there's another dark gap resting in her palm, and sticking out from it, a little pink-white nubbin. “Have your nose.”

Sunshine stares at this for a second before she realizes what she's looking at. Owning a nose is kind of a recent development in her life, but she knows for sure that it's not supposed to be in some strange lady's hands. Patting her face, she finds that it is, in fact, lacking in the nose department. Her eyes go wide, and an anxious squeaking sound forces itself past her lips. Leaning forward, she reaches for it frantically.

“Hmm? Do you want it back?” Yukari says, easily raising her hand and playing keepaway with Sunshine's nose. “I don't know, I might keep it. It's cuter than my own, I have to admit.”

“That's mine!”

“Now now. Haven't your parents taught you to share?”

“Yukari...” Reimu says testily. “Don't push my patience.”

“Reimu,” Yukari replies, as Sunshine crawls onto the table to reach for the nose. She tugs her hand back further. “I will have you know that it's very important to my continued beauty to—“

“G-give it back!” Sunshine shouts.

Without prompting, Ichigo rises to her feet. The tiny doll raises both arms in the air, and instantly, blasts out dozens of tiny, multicolored projectiles. In a hail of rainbow bullets, Yukari Yakumo falls to the floor.

“It seems that I set her automated defense threshold too low,” Alice says. “She's only supposed to react like that in the case of actual threats to Sunshine's health.” Ichigo is now restrained in her lap, and the tiny doll is thrashing against her hands, looking like it's prepared to leap across the table and start beating Yukari as soon as it gets a chance.

“It serves her right anyway,” Reimu says, still sipping placidly at her tea.

In the corner, Marisa hasn't managed to say anything since the attack. She'd collapsed on top of a paper airplane, laughing hysterically, and the rumpled corner of the poor thing is still sticking out from under her elbow. Sunshine isn't sure what's so funny, but she feels a little better now. Her nose is safely back on her face, but just in case, she has one hand constantly shielding it at all times. Despite her defeat, Yukari seems to be in good spirits too, but Sunshine is pleased to note that she looks a little worse for the wear—her hat got knocked off by the barrage, and her hair looks messier in the aftermath of falling to the floor. It was kind of fun, actually. Sunshine wonders if that's what fights normally look like.

“Now that I've been punished for my sins, I hope that we can be friends,” Yukari says. When Sunshine only glares in response, she continues, “I'll make a note not to tangle with you in the future. I can see that your doll is quite the bodyguard.”

“I don't think she wants to talk to you,” Reimu says. There's just a hint of smugness in her voice.

“S-sure you wanna risk gettin' your butt kicked by a doll again?” Marisa manages to gasp out between laughter, before immediately collapsing back to the table.

Yukari takes the taunts with calm grace. “If your doll was willing to defend you so viciously, she must really like you.”

That finally strikes a chord with Sunshine, and she glances from Yukari to the still-thrashing Ichigo. Her paper is out of reach, so she has to settle for mumbling, “Do you think so?”

“I'm certain,” Yukari says. “What is her name?”

“Ichigo...”

“Hmm. I see. 'Ichigo'… do you like strawberries?” When Sunshine gives a hesitant nod, Yukari cups her hands together again. This time, when she holds one out, there's a plump, ripe little strawberry sitting in her palm. “... would you like a peace offering?”

Sunshine squints suspiciously at the strawberry, but it looks real enough. She still keeps her nose covered with one hand as she reaches for it, only to have Yukari pull it back at the last second. “But first: Reimu, could I borrow three cups?”

“Are you really going to keep doing this?”

“It will end nicely this time, I promise,” Yukari says, nudging her closed fist back away from Sunshine's grasping hands again.

“... I guess it's not my problem if the doll beats you up again,” Reimu says, and turns around to pull a few cups off a shelf. “Just try not to break these. Suika already broke half the set the last time she was here.”

“Mmh. Of course.” Once Reimu sits the cups down, Yukari scoots them closer to herself, and Sunshine reluctantly stops reaching for the strawberry. Even Marisa manages to calm down to lean forward and observe. Yukari lines the cups up in front of herself, then holds the strawberry up for display before hiding it beneath a cup. “Have you memorized which one it's under?”

This is a very strange game, in Sunshine's opinion, but it's an easy question. The three cups look nothing alike. Two of them are traditional yunomi from a matched pair, but with coloration and wear that makes them easy to tell apart. The other one, the one that Yukari hid the strawberry under, is an entirely different kind of cup, a teacup with a handle. She nods.

“Good. Try to remember which one it is,” Yukari says, and starts shuffling the cups around each other in place. Even though Sunshine knows that the cup with the strawberry is the only one that looks different, she follows it with her eyes just in case. Once the cups have orbited each other half a dozen times, Yukari stops and raises her hands away from them. “Do you know which one has the strawberry? If you find it, it's yours.”

Sunshine finds herself smiling as she leans forward. With such an easy game, she can't fail. She taps the teacup, and her wooden finger makes a soft click against the glass..

“Hmm, are you sure that that's the one?” Yukari says, with an impenetrable poker face. “You can rethink your answer if you want.” When Sunshine doesn't budge, she continues. “Very well. Let's see if you're right.” Reaching down, she grabs the cup by its base, gives it a little twist just to raise the anticipation, and jerks it up. There's nothing under it. “Hmm, too bad.”

Sunshine's eyes go wide. Furious, she grabs the cup and checks inside of it, but sure enough, it's empty. “S-she's cheating!” she squeaks, and looks to her parents for support.

“Really, Yukari, don't you think you've done enough?” Alice says, giving Sunshine a reassuring pat on the back.

“Oh, very well. Maybe I didn't explain the rules clearly.” Yukari pushes the two remaining cups forward and next to each other. “Would you like another pick?”

It helps placate Sunshine, just a little. She puts much more thought into it this time, though, studying both cups with a look of intense concentration on her face. She knows that the strawberry was under the teacup, though. After much deliberation, she decides to take things into her own hands, reaching out and yanking one of the cups into the air.

There's nothing beneath it. “You must have very bad luck,” Yukari says. Pushing the last cup forward, she offers, “One last try?”

Sunshine glares at the cup, but it's really the only choice left. She's still more cautious as she reaches out, lifts it up, and finds... nothing. A tremble of moral outrage runs through her, and she glares up at Yukari.

“Well, hmm. Let's check again, shall we?” Lifting the third cup, she upends it and gives it a few shakes. “Nothing there...”

“I have to wonder if you're this sadistic with Chen, too,” Alice says.

Yukari ignores the statement and lifts the second cup. After shaking it a few times, she taps the bottom for good measure. “Nothing...”

“Y'know, Sunshine, if you wanna punch her, your mom and I will back ya up,” Marisa says.

“It isn't entirely uncalled for,” Alice agrees.

Sunshine's attention is focused on the last cup, though. The teacup, the one that she chose first. Yukari lifts it up and makes a show of inspecting the inside. “Hmm. What's this?” she says. Turning the cup over, she lowers it to the table again, then gives it a few minute side-to-side adjustments. Sunshine leans forward, gripping the edge of the table, as Yukari rests both hands atop the cup. Dramatically, she lifts it up, and strawberries pour out. Dozens of them, tumbling down over each other and rolling across the table. Sunshine snatches one up, but it's not really necessary. By the time that it finishes, the pile of strawberries on the table is more than Sunshine has seen in one place in her entire life. Yukari gives the cup a final shake, and one last berry falls to rest on top of the heap. “Well,” she says. “It seems that you were right the first time.”

Sunshine nods quickly, but her attention is still on the berries. She takes a giant bite of the one in her hand, and the rewarding, sweet taste assures her that this part isn't any kind of trick.

“Just imagine how happy she'd be if you hadn't teased her for an hour first...” Reimu says, and claims a small pile of strawberries for herself.

“You have to allow a youkai some mischief during the winter. I'll be asleep and out of your hair for another month or two soon.”

“Not soon enough...”

“Sunshine,” Alice says. “Make sure to thank Yukari for the present. … even if she could have been a bit nicer about it, herself.”

Sunshine is already well into her second strawberry, with juice running down her chin. Under the circumstances, she feels even less comfortable with talking than usual. She still manages to reach over with her free hand, grab her pen, and write, [THANKS].

When the three leave the Hakurei shrine, it's barely early afternoon, but Sunshine is already tired. Normally, she'd be awake until the sun goes down, especially with a sugary snack for lunch, but today was different. Between the excitement of building Ichigo and the trip to the shrine, she's exhausted, and only the cold air keeps her from napping against Marisa's back on the flight home. She's already rubbing her eyes by the time the three walk into the cottage, and as Alice packs the small basket of strawberries off toward the kitchen, Marisa reaches down to ruffle her hair. “Think you're gonna get whatever you prayed for?”

Sunshine looks up blearily, and it takes a moment for her to remember. In all the excitement of the visit, she'd forgotten about the prayer. After some consideration, she nods. She's probably due for an adventure any day now, at this rate.

“Heh. Good. Do you need a nap?”

“Mmhm...”

“Want me to tuck ya in?”

Sunshine glances toward her bedroom thoughtfully, then shakes her head. Normally, she'd say yes, but today is special. “I need to, um. Do something.”

“Big plans already, huh? Sure. Just remember to put your paper an' stuff away before you sleep,” Marisa says, bending down to give Sunshine a kiss on the forehead. “If you make a mess, your mom will kick my butt.”

“Okay.” With Ichigo hovering along behind her, Sunshine toddles off to her room. Once her things are put away and the door is closed behind her, she sits Ichigo on the edge of the bed, then kneels down in front of her. “Do you feel smart yet?” Ichigo doesn't budge in response, and she takes that as her answer. “Um. That's okay. It took me a long time.” She's disappointed, but she tries not to let it get to her. After leaning forward to kiss the doll on the forehead, she tucks her in under the sheets, then slides into bed next to her. Within minutes, Sunshine is fast asleep.

Chapter Text

"Sunshine," Alice says over lunch one day. "How are you and Ichigo getting along?"

Sunshine pauses, halfway through an apple slice, and glances at the doll. Ichigo is sitting on the edge of the table, patiently waiting for orders. Sunshine has to swallow her mouthful of apple before she can reply. "Ichigo is a good doll."

"I'm glad you like her," Alice says. A few dolls down to sweep the remains of her own lunch away. "Do you think that you've gotten used to giving her orders?"

Sunshine nods, and decides to demonstrate. She looks to Ichigo, getting the doll's attention, then glances to her plate. With a subtle gesture, she signals Ichigo into action. Ichigo stands, and toddles across the tabletop, her tiny feet clicking with each step. She grabs Sunshine's fork—which is almost as tall as she is—hefts it into the air, then spins it around and spears a slice of apple. With that, she turns and offers the bite up to Sunshine. Sunshine takes a big bite and looks to her mother for approval.

Alice watches this in obvious surprise. "Hmm. That's... very good," she says. "How did you teach her to understand hand gestures, though?"

Sunshine frowns as she considers that. She can't really explain it. It just sort of... happened. She used to be a doll. She knows how dolls think, and what they're looking for. Directing Ichigo came to her much more naturally than talking did. She shakes her head.

"Do you mean that you don't know?"

Sunshine nods.

"That's considered a very difficult technique," Alice says, still looking over the doll like she expects to spot the trick behind it. "You must get along with her very well."

Sunshine beams and pats Ichigo's head. Ichigo accepts the gesture without any reaction. Sunshine can't help but feel a little disappointed. She's very proud of Ichigo, but no matter how much she praises the doll, Ichigo doesn't give any sign of understanding it. She's sure that it will happen sooner or later, though. Sunshine subtly gestures with a fingertip, and in response, Ichigo sits the fork down.

Alice watches this, then folds her arms on the table in front of her. "How would you like to start learning to control her attacks?"

Sunshine's eyes go wide. She's pretty sure that being able to make Ichigo shoot is the only thing standing between her and fighting bad guys like her parents do. After all, she already knows how to fly. Once she knows how to attack, she can go on adventures! And fight moon rabbits and dragons! She nods so forcefully that her hair bounces.

"Good," Alice says with a smile. "After you finish your lunch, we can go out and get started."

Sunshine stiffens up in amazement. After a moment to recover, she starts hurriedly stuffing apple slices into her mouth.

The two are barely a meter out the door when a very strange sight makes Sunshine draw to a stop.

The snow in the front yard is marred by a long, wide rut. It zig-zags back and forth across the lawn. At one end, near the front door, it starts out tiny. At the other end, Marisa is crouched alongside a ball of snow that's easily as tall as Sunshine is. She fusses over the snowball, oblivious to the pair.

Alice seems confused by this too, and stops mid-step. "... Marisa, what are you doing?"

"Snowman!" Marisa says, without looking back. She scoops up a double-handful of snow and presses it against the side of the giant snowball, then smooths it out with her hands. Sunshine watches this curiously.

"What does that have to do with combat practice?"

"Huh?" Marisa pauses now, and looks back over her shoulder. "Well, she's gotta have something to shoot, right?"

"I was going to use that tree stump by the edge of the yard."

"Aww, come on, it's not fun if you do that." Marisa looks toward Sunshine. "Okay, which one would you rather fight? Some dumb tree, or a snow monster?"

"Um." It seems pretty obvious, really. Judging by their stories, her parents fight monsters all the time. It's practically what monsters are for. Sunshine has only heard one story about her parents fighting a tree. That tree sounded kind of scary, but the stump in the back yard isn't. "Monster."

"Hehe. See? Monster's way better!" Marisa gestures her closer, and Sunshine approaches, her boots crunching through the snow. "Okay, this first ball's done, but we're gonna need three of them for it to be a proper snowman. So, what we're gonna do is..." She scoops up a big handful of snow, then compresses it between her hands. When she opens them, the snow has been compacted into a ball. She sits the ball down, then pushes it along. The snow on the ground sticks to its edges, and it grows. Sunshine peers at it, and Marisa steps away to offer it over. "Get the idea?"

Sunshine crouches down and gives the ball a cautious push, and a bit more snow sticks to its sides. She nods.

"Good! That one'll be the middle, so make it big, okay? Me and Alice will get started on the head."

Alice shakes her head with a sigh. "By the time you finish that, you'll be too cold for what we actually came out here for."

"Cold doesn't bother her much, right? She'll be fine!"

"I wasn't talking about Sunshine."

"Pff. I'm a heat magician, remember? I can keep myself warm pretty much forever."

"Didn't you set your gloves on fire the last time you tried that?"

"That was a fluke!" Marisa turns and tosses a smaller snowball to Alice, who fumblingly catches it. "Here, you're better at art stuff. Make a monster head, 'kay? I'm gonna go fetch the other supplies."

It is a very scary snow monster.

It has a big open mouth, and Marisa found some pointy rocks to fill it with sharp, crooked teeth. Gnarled branches give it arms and claws, and a pair of fat red marbles give it beady eyes. On top, two broken bamboo segments give it pointy horns.

"Snow oni," Marisa says proudly, as she finishes the final touches.

Sunshine has never seen an oni in person, but it fits her parents' descriptions of them. The snow oni is taller than any of them. Marisa had to hover to sit the head on top of the body. It looks like a worthy opponent.

“Yes, it's very impressive,” Alice says. “Sunshine, are you ready to learn how to fight it?”

Sunshine glances to the snow oni again. It seems like a bit of a waste to shoot it after spending all of that time making it. She almost feels sorry for it. Her excitement for learning to fight still outweighs that, though. “Uh-huh.”

Alice nods, and moves to a spot a few meters away. Sunshine follows after her. “Ichigo's attacks aren't dangerous, but I designed her to be flashy. If you're in danger, she should give you enough of a distraction to run away. You should only do that if somebody threatens you though, do you understand? People might get angry if you use her too much.”

Sunshine nods dutifully.

“Good. Now...” Alice crouches down next to Sunshine. “I gave her a few basic commands to start with. Try telling her to attack the oni.”

It feels like a very important moment. Sunshine takes a deep breath and points at the snow oni. “Attack, Ichigo!” she says, as ferociously as she can manage.

Ichigo wastes no time. The doll stiffens up from her limp hovering posture and raises both arms. Dozens of tiny, glowing bullets in every color of the rainbow burst out and patter against the oni's front. Snow crumbles to the ground. The bullets dissipate the moment that they hit, but when the attack stops a few seconds later, the snow oni is covered in pockmarks. Sunshine gapes in amazement at it.

“Do you think you understand?” Alice says. Sunshine nods, and she smiles. “If you need to, you can also control her aim by pointing. Here.” She slides over behind Sunshine, and gently guides the girl's arm upward. “Try telling her to attack again.”

“Attack!”

Again, Ichigo erupts into a rain of tiny bullets. This time, though, Alice guides Sunshine's hand around in a sweeping circle. Ichigo pivots to follow her direction, tracing a line of bullet marks down the oni's front.

“He's lookin' pretty beat up...” Marisa says, and gives the spray of bullets a wide berth as she walks around to join the two.

“I'm going to let go, okay?” Alice says, after a few more seconds of guiding Sunshine's aim. “Take a little time and get used to doing it yourself.” She hesitantly releases Sunshine's hand. Sunshine continues to guide the doll's aim. She points it down toward the ground, and the bullets follow. A cloud of snow rises up from the impacts.

Sunshine traces the stream of bullets around, drawing a lazy figure-eight in the snow, then closes her hand into a fist. Ichigo's attack comes to an abrupt stop. Sunshine pulls her hand back carefully, afraid that she might accidentally direct Ichigo into attacking her. Ichigo stays still, though, and she allows herself to relax after a moment.

“Very good. The only other thing you should know about...” Alice scoops up Ichigo, and moves the doll out into the middle of the yard. She jogs a short distance away before continuing. “Try telling her to activate emergency mode.”

“Um.” Sunshine looks at Ichigo uncertainly. The stuff about attacks made sense, but she doesn't remember any emergencies from her parents' stories. “Activate emergency mode?”

Again, Ichigo's body stiffens up. The doll leaps into the air, coming to a stop around eye level, and the air around her erupts like a firework. Glowing bullets burst out in every direction, forming an intimidating shell of projectiles around the tiny doll. The collected light is bright enough that Sunshine has to avert her eyes, and Alice takes a few steps away to get to a safer distance. “This is only for emergencies,” Alice says. “It should work if you get surrounded, and it's easy to see, so if you get hurt or lost, you can tell her to do this and it will make it easier for us to find you. Do you understand?”

This is all a bit much for Sunshine to take in, but she thinks she understands. It's for if she gets lost or has to fight lots of bad guys. She nods.

Marisa looks between the still-firing doll and Alice. “Uh, do we really have to worry about her getting surrounded?”

“I'd rather her have it and not need it than get cornered and not have it,” Alice says.

“... don't worry, Sunshine, nothing's gonna attack you while we're around, 'kay? Your mom's just, uh, making sure you're safe. Really sure.”

“We're not in the human village, dear. Youkai and fairies prowl around here at times. But, yes. Hopefully none of this will ever be necessary.” Alice turns to Sunshine. “You can tell her to stop now.”

Sunshine inclines her hand through a series of gestures. Even in the middle of her attack, Ichigo notices the subtle command and obeys, cutting off her attack and then hovering over to present herself to the girl. Sunshine scoops the doll up and gives her a hug.

Alice smiles at the display. “Hmm, now... for a little practice, why don't you try to use Ichigo to destroy the snowman? It should—“

“Aw, c'mon!” Marisa says, cutting her off. “We just finished him! It'd be a shame to blast him apart so quick, don't you think?”

“That was why we made him in the first place! … were you just looking for an excuse to build a snowman?”

“... so, anyway, what I'm thinking is,” Marisa says, changing the subject gracelessly. “We have a spell card duel, right? But—“

“Marisa...”

“Hold on, just hear me out! We have a spell card duel, but Sunshine can ride shotgun on my broom and use Ichigo to help out.” Marisa turns, and grins down to Sunshine. “What do you think, kiddo? Wanna have your first real spell card duel?”

“Yeah!” Sunshine's already squirming with excitement. She looks to Alice, and so many words try coming out of her that they almost jam up in her head. “Please, mom?! Like...! Like the, um. The story! With the ghost. You fought, and it was snowing!”

“Yeah! It'll be just like when we fought in the Spring Snow Incident! Except you won't end up faceplanted in the snow, 'cuz I'll tone down my firepower a little.”

“That's not how I remember it,” Alice says, in the tired voice that Sunshine has learned means that she knows she's fighting a losing battle. “Sunshine, are you sure you want to do this? It could be scary. You don't have to do it if you don't want.”

Sunshine shakes her head. “I want to have a real fight!”

Alice studies her expression, then gives up with a defeated shake of her head and a smirk. “You're going to grow up every bit as hardheaded as Marisa, aren't you? I suppose I should welcome the chance for some practice. I'll go prepare, then.” Alice turns and takes a few steps toward the cottage, then pauses. “Marisa?”

“Huh?”

“Don't think that I'll take it easy on you just because you have Sunshine is on your team. We haven't had many opportunities to practice lately, ourselves. It would be a shame to waste the chance by holding back, don't you think?”

“Hah! More like don't you come cryin' after me and Sunshine kick your butt. Ain't that right, kiddo?”

It takes Sunshine a moment to realize what Marisa is expecting out of her. She points a finger at Alice and squeaks, “Y-yeah!”

“I can see this will be a memorable fight,” Alice says. After one last smirk at the two over her shoulder, she continues toward the door. “I should only take a few minutes. If you'd like to prepare for your defeat, do it now.”

"Iiiiiiiiin this corner!" Marisa bellows. "The Pipsqueak Painbringer, the Fighter Fantastic of the Forest of Magic, the Half-Pint Hero...!" She pulls the broom into a level glide, freeing her hands for a grand gesture backward. "SUNSHIIIIIIIIINE!"

Sunshine looks up in bewilderment. Is she supposed to do something? She settles for a weak wave over to Alice, with one arm kept in a death grip around Marisa's waist. Marisa covers her own mouth with a hand and makes cheering noises.

Alice claps politely, and her dolls follow suit. "Did you spend that whole time thinking that up?" she shouts back.

Marisa ignores her. "Aaaaaaand in the other corner!" She circles Alice, gesturing to her with one hand. "Some weirdo with a buncha dolls!"

"If you're going to do it, you should do it properly!"

"Uh, fine, jeez, I dunno. The... Butt-kicker of Bucharest! The Doll Lady of, uh... I forget where I was goin' with that. She's got a really cute butt! ALIIIIIIIICE MARGATROOOOOID."

Sunshine doesn't dare to take her hands from around Marisa's waist for long enough to clap, but she directs Ichigo to do so. The doll claps excitedly for Alice. Sunshine can't even hear it over the wind. Alice shakes her head in exasperation at Marisa, but shoots Sunshine a grateful smile.

"Alright! So, how are we gonna do this?" Marisa pulls the broom to a stop alongside Alice. Alice is flanked by two dozen dolls, wielding blunt sparring weapons. Even hovering in midair, they stand in orderly lines. Even Sunshine feels a little intimidated by them. "Sunshine doesn't have spell cards, so I guess we should keep it simple. Go on the count of ten, fight 'til three hits?"

"That sounds fine," Alice agrees, and looks to Sunshine. "Are you sure that you're okay with this? If you get scared, tell Marisa and we'll stop, okay?"

Sunshine nods, and tries her very best to look brave. Alice floats closer and gives her a reassuring pat on the cheek. "My attacks will look scary, but I promise none of them will hurt you. Just try not to fall off of the broom, okay?”

“Okay...!” Sunshine redoubles her grip on Marisa's waist.

“Alright, break it up!” Marisa kicks her foot to the side, and the broom drifts a meter or so away from Alice. “Let's get started!”

“Good luck,” Alice tells Sunshine, and retreats back to her cloud of dolls.

As Marisa starts shouting the countdown, Sunshine looks over her shoulder to Ichigo. “Um. It will be hard to talk. Shoot where I point, okay?” Ichigo gives no indication that she heard, but Sunshine is used to that. She trusts that the doll will obey.

“Alright, here we go! FIVE!” Marisa bellows. Sunshine squirms and tries getting into a secure position on the broom. Ichigo hunkers down behind her. “FOUR!” Dozens of meters away, Alice is making her own preparations. The dolls fan out around her, with the nearly-invisible wires that control them catching the light occasionally. “THREE!” Marisa pulls the mini-hakkero from her belt and flips it into her palm. “Sunshine, get ready, 'cuz we're gonna take off real fast, alright? TWO!” Marisa leans forward along the broom. Alice looks just as ready, bent forward in the air like she's prepared to pounce at the two. “ONE!” Sunshine squeezes her eyes shut and tugs herself tighter against Marisa.

If Marisa shouts 'GO!' it gets lost in everything that happens immediately afterward. The broom takes off like a rocket, jolting Sunshine backward. The cold wind whips past and blasts her hair back. After a second or two of this, she hesitantly opens her eyes, and finds the world whipping past, even faster than it does when they're flying somewhere for a long-distance trip. The trees below are now a green blur. Marisa's dress flaps loudly in the wind. Sunshine looks around the sky, but she can't see Alice anywhere.

The broom drops lower, and the two sweep through a broad turn just above tree level. Past Marisa's shoulder, Sunshine can see Alice hovering in place, waiting for them. Her dolls have scattered, and show up as little colored blotches in the air. “Alright, here we go!” Marisa shouts back. “Get ready to shoot her!”

As the two close the distance toward Alice, the sky lights up with magical effects. Ephemeral spell circles trace themselves into the air around the broom, while glimmering points of light on the dolls announce that they're stockpiling magical energy. In almost the same instant, both sides cut loose. The circles around Marisa spin rapidly and start spraying out bullets, filling the air with tightly-packed helixes of projectiles. Alice sweeps her arms through grand gestures, and a dozen dolls blast out neon beams of energy.

"Hold on!" The lasers close in around them like a web, and Marisa pushes the broom through a series of sharp dodges. Sunshine's world spins around her. Clinging to Marisa's clothes, she struggles to get her bearings. Finally, she spots Alice barely ten meters away, and thrusts a finger up to point at her. Ichigo shoots a stream of tiny bullets into the fray. Already dancing through a series of complicated dodges, Alice barely notices them until the last second. They don't hit, but Sunshine still feels proud as she watches her mother sidestep them.

“We got dolls comin' in!” Marisa shoots back. Sunshine can see them, taking advantage of the broom's reduced speed to close in on the pair. Marisa continues shooting, and they fly past half a dozen defeated dolls, with their hands in the air in surrender. Three sword-wielding Shanghai dolls chase after them, though, stubbornly staying in the blind spot behind Marisa's head. Sunshine belatedly realizes that she should be shooting. She still feels bad as she gives Ichigo the command to attack. Ichigo fires a few quick bursts of bullets at them, and while the dolls try to dodge through it, one of them gets smacked in the stomach. The doll raises its hands in defeat, and it soon falls away.

The other two dolls stick with them, though, swooping through a series of curves as Marisa tries to shake them off. “Think you can shoot 'em?”

“Um, maybe!” Sunshine scowls at the remaining two dolls and jabs her finger at them a few more times. Ichigo matches each one with a burst of bullets. The dolls continue ducking and weaving through the fire until they're close enough for one to lunge at her. Sunshine yelps and ducks away.

And, the other doll takes its chance. It leaps forward while Sunshine is distracted, and jabs Marisa in the side with its thankfully-dull lance.

“O-oof, hey!” Marisa grunts. The broom wobbles through the air as she recovers.

“Sorry!” Sunshine squeaks. She peppers the air behind them with bursts of tiny bullets in retaliation, but the dolls have already finished what they came here for. They drop away from the broom, and she soon loses sight of them.

“Don't worry about it. She's only got one point on us. C'mon, let's get revenge!”

Sunshine starts to nod, but the broom whips through a hairpin turn, and she ends up cringing and pulling herself tight against Marisa again. In a matter of seconds, they screech to a halt. They're left pointed toward both Alice and the pursuing dolls. The dolls rush toward them, but Marisa already has the mini-hakkero primed and raised.

The air trembles, and a Master Spark explodes outward. A hot backdraft buffets Sunshine's face and blasts her hair behind her. Even that much is weaker than she'd expected. Marisa's shown off the attack plenty of times. It's supposed to be a heavy, booming thing that rattles her to her core. This version, though, is watered down. The many dolls caught in the beam tumble backward through the air, but otherwise seem unaffected. Even Alice, at the far end of the blast, only has to shield her eyes against the glare. Regardless, Marisa maintains a knife-edged grin through the attack, her hair billowing in the unnatural wind. “That's one to one!”

The Master Spark fades slowly, and the moment that Alice can see again, she unleashes her counterattack. With another series of exaggerated string-pulls, her remaining dolls sweep in from every direction.

A dozen multicolored streams of bullets converge on their position. Marisa rolls the broom to the side to avoid the worst of them. “Hang on! Gonna do somethin' stupid!” She leans forward, and they... stop flying. In a free fall, the broom plummets past the attackers in a second. Sunshine's eyes go wide at the brief sensation of weightlessness, which is followed by crushing weight as they pull up out of the drop. The broom creaks beneath them, and soon they're on a level course, skimming across the treetops. Marisa looks back to survey her handiwork, and Sunshine follows suit. The dolls that were caught in the Master Spark are all hovering down to join their defeated sisters beneath Alice. Sunshine feels bad for them. It hadn't looked like the attack hurt them, but she personally would have felt terrible if she'd failed Alice like that.

There's no time to dwell on that, though. Marisa looks forward again and guides the broom through a sweeping S-curve to shed some of their speed. “She's playin' serious now!” she shouts back over her shoulder. “Let's give her all we've got this time, yeah?”

Sunshine gives a resolute nod, but she's worried now. What if they lose? That would be a terrible way to start being a hero. She glances back at Ichigo and purses her lips in thought. Ichigo can't shoot very far, so she's not able to do much at the ranges where Alice and Marisa fight. She's good at keeping Alice's dolls away, but for anything else, she'd need to be closer. Sunshine wouldn't last a second if she tried flying through all of those bullets on her own, though, so how's she supposed to do anything?

They climb back up to Alice's level, and rainbow flowers of bullets fill the air. Marisa pulls the broom through a zig-zag series of dodges, and Sunshine hunkers down as the broom creaks beneath her. As they close in, she fires a scattershot burst of glowing orbs from the mini-hakkero. The attacks burst into sparks near Alice, and the dolls' attacks slow down as she focuses on weaving through them. While she's distracted, Marisa pulls the broom into an orbit around her. The mini-hakkero gleams with sharp light. A whirling store of stars blasts outward, and the broom recoils under the force of Marisa's attack. Even as Alice dodges, half a dozen dolls dart upward to meet them.

Marisa cackles with delight as she dodges through Alice's counterattack. Sunshine, though, is just doing all that she can to hang on. The entire world whirls around her in a colorful blur. She can't even get her bearings for long enough to point at Alice, let alone have any hope of hitting her. Another bullet clips Marisa, knocking her hat askew, and Sunshine squirms anxiously. One more hit and they lose, right?

She knows what she needs to do now, but she doesn't like it. She shoots Ichigo an apologetic glance, then traces out a few quick gestures. The doll obeys. Without hesitation, Ichigo leaps off of the broom and takes off on her own. In the much larger firestorm between Alice and Marisa, neither of them pay much attention to the tiny doll

Ichigo darts toward Alice like a bullet. Alice spots the doll, but she's in the middle of a complicated attack, guiding a dozen dolls through the air. It's all the opportunity that Ichigo needs to get in close.

Sunshine hunkers down on the broom and tenses her entire body for a single shout. “E-EMERGENCY MODE!”

Alice starts backpedaling as soon as she hears the first syllable, but it's too late. Ichigo raises both arms in the air and unleashes a deluge of bullets in every direction. Barely a meter away, Alice has no hope of dodging. She can only shield her face with her forearms as she's pelted with dozens of bullets. Sunshine scores the winning hit, and the fifty-six that follow.

Once they're back inside, it takes Sunshine the better part of an hour to calm back down from her victory. Defeated or not, it brings a smile to Alice's face. It's rare to see the girl's moods stick around for long; usually, they fade within minutes unless she finds ways to keep herself excited. Alice has her theories about why this happens—the physical processes that drive human emotion, versus the much more responsive magical nature of Sunshine's consciousness—but it's not a subject that she can speak on with any certainty.

After Sunshine has relaxed enough to settle down for her afternoon nap, Alice throws her winter clothes on and walks out to her workshop. Waiting inside are the dolls that were caught in Marisa's Master Spark. Even with the weaker sparring version of the attack, they look worse for the wear. A few of their outfits are singed around the edges, and on a closer look, she finds that the pressure of the attack has damaged a few delicate joints. After the inspection, she lines the dolls up along the back of the desk, then begins mending them.

It's slow work, slower than normal. She has to flex their joints by hand and hold them in place with a vice as she makes repairs. It sucks up her focus, and she doesn't realize that the door has opened behind her until Marisa speaks up. "... you still aren't used to the new dolls, huh?"

Alice freezes in momentary surprise, then looks back over her shoulder. Behind her, Marisa is leaning in the doorway, with only a light overcoat over her dress to deal with the winter cold. "Is it that obvious?"

"A little, yeah." Marisa pushes the door closed behind her and stomps the snow off of her boots. She leans over the desk. Taking a doll's arm in her hands, she idly flexes the joint. "The strings mean you can't move very fast, right? And you basically have to stick in one spot?"

"They... do have some drawbacks, yes. They're still fine for dueling on the ground."

Alice keeps detailed records of her dolls. Between Sunshine's creation and the point when she discovered that Sunshine had become self-aware, she knows that she lost twenty-two dolls: nine destroyed by Marisa in a sparring match, five more packed with gunpowder that she purposely detonated during the same fight, six that she broke down for parts, and two who had simply worn down. Any of those dolls, with a turn of bad luck, could have been Sunshine.

So, she's made changes. These new combat dolls are simple, without many of the improvements that she's developed over the years. Their bodies are solid wood, without the gunpowder chamber and fuse mechanism that she used to put in her combat dolls. They're tethered to their strings, and can just barely move fifty meters from her if she's careful. Now that she's taken the strings off, they can't move at all. And, most importantly, there's nothing approaching awareness in their heads. They're simple magical automatons, nothing more.

It's a small price to pay for the peace of mind. But it does come with limitations. Seeing Marisa's skeptical glance, Alice continues. “I'm still refining my techniques with them. They're weaker, but direct control allows me to use more unpredictable attacks. Since they're not enchanted to follow orders, I can use stronger combat enchantments on them... It will be fine.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Marisa says, not sounding convinced. “Things have been pretty calm lately, anyway. I guess we're not gonna need to fly off and solve an incident any time soon.”

“You mean that you won't need to,” Alice says, her voice tempered with distraction as she paints over a just-repaired chip on a doll's knee. “One of us needs to stay home and watch Sunshine.”

“She can come too!” Marisa protests, in that half-joking tone that always makes it hard for Alice to tell if she's serious or not. She steps closer and watches Alice work over her shoulder. “It'll be like a family outing!”

“Yes, I'm sure that she could learn a lot about practical archeology by watching you carry off bags full of our opponents' belongings between fights.”

“I'll nab her some presents. We'll call it an early birthday.” Marisa goes quiet for a moment as Alice puts the finishing touches on the knee, then leans in to wrap her arms around her waist, grinning more deviously. “Besides, my back gets cold without somebody sittin' behind me.”

"And whatever happened to 'I'm a heat magician, I can keep myself warm forever'?"

"It's more fun if you do it."

Marisa leans closer in and buries her face against the side of Alice's neck for a few kisses. Alice gives a slight sigh of annoyance, but still reaches back and ruffles her hair. "Did you come out here to tell me something, or are you just here to distract me?"

“I actually did have something to talk about, but I dunno, distractin' is turning out to be pretty fun...”

“You're going to have to pick one of the two, dear.”

“Hm.” Marisa lingers for a bit longer, then reluctantly lets go of Alice. She steps around and hops up to take a seat on the edge of the desk. “Well, it's a surprise! Take a guess!”

“Or you could just tell me,” Alice says, and blows on the paint on the doll's newly-mended knee.

“Hmm...” Marisa leans back on the desk, grinning up at the ceiling. “Tell ya what, we'll compromise. First hint! I ran into someone in the village today.”

Alice looks up from her work. “... are you really going to make me guess?” When Marisa's expression doesn't falter, she crosses her arms and considers this. “Reimu?” A shake of Marisa's head. “Kosuzu?” Another shake. “... it couldn't have been Sakuya, or you wouldn't be smiling... Keine?”

“One point for the pretty lady!”

“Is that all?” Alice says, until slow realization sparkles in her eyes. Marisa's grin only grows in response. “... then what did she say?”

“Hmm? I told you you've gotta guess, didn't I?”

Normally, a response like that would infuriate Alice, but now, she's too focused on the topic. “Does she think Sunshine is ready for school?”

“Well, she didn't put it quite like that, but...”

Alice steps closer. “But what, then?!”

Marisa waits, savoring Alice's anticipation, before she caves in. “... she does think Sunshine might be ready to start school, yeah. She wants us to bring her in sometime. Get a good look at her for herself before she decides, you know?”

Alice closes the last of the distance between them, pulling Marisa into a tight hug and letting out a low sigh of relief. “She's going to be so excited...”

Chapter Text

Sunshine isn't excited. Not one bit.

“You'll be able to make friends with other children your age,” Alice says, for what feels like the fiftieth time this week.

She offers up Sunshine's bag, and Sunshine slides it onto her shoulder. Sunshine doesn't respond to the reassurance.

“Keine is nice,” Alice continues. “I'm sure that you'll get along with her.”

Sunshine frowns and looks down at the floor.

“And you'll learn a lot of new things.”

It's been like this ever since her parents started talking about school again, a week ago. They seem very convinced that she'll like it if she just gives it a chance. Sunshine isn't so sure. An entire day away from her parents sounds like a really long time. All kinds of things could happen in an entire day, and she's supposed to spend all that time with a bunch of strangers?

The morning has been a blur of activity so far—waking up earlier than usual, having breakfast while Alice packed a lunch box for her, and now getting dressed to go out. To add insult to injury, they won't even let her bring her toy sword with her.

Sunshine wants to write her response, but she doesn't have paper handy right now. Reluctantly, she mumbles, “I learn things here.”

Marisa makes an attempt. “I bet all the other kids will be really jealous of Ichigo. Probably nobody else has a doll as neat as her.”

Sunshine has to admit that that part sounds nice, at least. She glances up to Ichigo, who is hovering expectantly next to her like always. She doesn't really understand why she'd want somebody to be jealous of Ichigo, but she does like the idea of getting to show her to more people. She's proud of Ichigo. Ichigo is a very good doll.

“And, Marisa continues, “if we're goin' into the village for school every day, we can stop by the candy store and stuff sometimes too.”

“She's only been eating for a matter of months,” Alice says. “You don't need to ruin her diet just yet.”

Sunshine cheers up for a moment, until she remembers the caveat: to get that candy, she has to go to school. She frowns and crosses her arms. Her puffy winter coat sleeves make this a little difficult, but she does the best that she can.

“Sunshine,” Alice says, and crouches down to eye level with her. “I know that this might seem scary to you right now, but it's important. You know that we wouldn't do anything to hurt you, right?”

Sunshine gives a tentative nod.

“Good. Can you be brave for us?”

“Okay...”

“Thank you.” Alice leans in and gives her a kiss on the forehead. “We need to leave soon. Keine is probably waiting on us.”

From the air, the human village is a checkerboard of snow-topped buildings, casting long shadows on the muddy streets in the morning sunlight. From her spot on Marisa's broomstick, Sunshine looks down at it uncertainly. Her few prior visits to the village were all fun ones—one time, she bought her sword, and another time, Marisa took her to a restaurant and let her eat a meat bun as big as her head. She still can't help but feel uncomfortable whenever they visit, though. There are a lot of people she's never met here, and the streets are a blur of things she's never seen before.

They swoop down and land in front of the schoolhouse, one of the biggest buildings in the village. Other children are already making their way inside, and in the distance, she can hear barking dogs, merchants shouting about their wares, the clattering of carts, all the sounds of city life. Sunshine wraps her arms around Ichigo and holds the doll protectively to her chest.

They don't follow the other students, though. Marisa leads the way around the building, and they enter through a side door. Inside is a small room, a mess of books and scrolls. A woman is kneeling at a cluttered table in the middle of the room, looking over a stack of papers, and she doesn't even glance up as they enter. “You're ten minutes late,” she says distractedly.

“Come on, that's practically the same thing as on time!” Marisa says.

“We're sorry,” Alice says, and shoots Marisa a warning glance. “Sunshine was... reluctant to come. We had some delays getting out the door.”

“That's understandable. Most children are worried about their first day of school.” The woman makes a few marks on the paper at the top of the stack, then looks up from it. Her eyes go right to Sunshine, and she smiles. “You must be Sunshine, right?”

Sunshine is already hiding behind Alice, but she peeks out past her to give a reluctant nod.

“This is Ke—er, Miss Kamishirasawa,” Alice says, giving Sunshine a slight push toward her. “She's the head teacher here. Don't worry, she's friendly.”

Sunshine scrutinizes the woman. She has a weird hat, but other than that, she looks pretty normal. She has a pretty dress, and it and her hair are blue, which is a pretty color. She doesn't look very scary. Reluctantly, Sunshine eases out from behind Alice. “... hi...”

“Hello, Sunshine. Your parents have told me a lot about you.”

Sunshine isn't sure how to respond to that, so she doesn't.

“Would you like to sit down? It's okay if you'd prefer to write instead of talk.”

Sunshine nods again, and Miss Kamishirasawa gestures at the spot across the table from her. She hurries over, pulls a notebook out of her new bag, and sits Ichigo on the table before kneeling.

“I have one of my assistants handling the class this morning,” Miss Kamishirasawa says, looking up to Alice and Marisa. “I'll need some time with Sunshine to get an idea of where her education stands. If that doesn't turn up any surprises, she can meet the other students and sit through classes this afternoon. How does that sound?”

“Sounds good to me,” Marisa says, then hesitates. “Is it alright for me and Alice to hang around until then? You know, for moral support and stuff.”

“Sunshine, would you like that?”

Sunshine quickly nods.

“It's settled, then.”

Miss Kamishirasawa leafs through a different stack on the table, then pulls out a small book. She opens it up, then gives Sunshine a reassuring smile over it. “I'd like to ask you some questions to find out how much you already know. Does that sound okay?”

Sunshine nods again.

“Can you write your response?”

Sunshine opens her notebook, writes, [YES], and holds it up.

“Very good. Your penmanship is excellent.”

Sunshine glances bashfully aside. She's not used to being complimented by strangers. It's a weird feeling, but nice. [THANKS.]

“How about 'dog'? Can you write that?”

Sunshine does, and the questioning continues. Soon, the page is filling with a one-sided record of the conversation. [DOG. YES. WHAT'S THAT MEAN? 2 2 2 2 2 2 10. SIX. FIVE. I DON'T KNOW. NO. TWO.]

It's a back-and-forth dialogue that fills the page with answers, then overflows onto the next. It covers every topic Sunshine's ever thought of, and some that she hasn't. It's a fun challenge, though. Within ten minutes, she forgets her earlier nervousness and leans forward over the notebook, her tongue sticking out the corner of her mouth as she concentrates on her answers. She's still writing her answer to the final question when Keine leans back and announces, “I think I've seen enough.”

“Oh?” Marisa's voice comes from somewhere behind Sunshine—at some point, she got so focused on the questioning that she lost track of her parents. That's a first. “How'd she do?”

Miss Kamishirasawa glances down at the paper thoughtfully. “Sunshine, how old are you?”

Sunshine freezes in indecision. After a moment, she looks back to her parents for help.

“That's a... complicated topic,” Alice says. “We learned that she was self-aware about five months ago, though.”

“... I see. Well, her reading and writing skills are at the level of my second- or third-year students, as is her math. Have you been tutoring her in them?”

“Reading and writing, yes. As for math...” Alice hesitates. “You might say that it comes naturally to her.”

“'Naturally'?”

“My dolls all have some basic mathematic skills. If you ask a doll to sew two buttons apiece onto five outfits, you don't want to have to specify that it will need ten buttons.”

“She's understood math since her creation, then?”

“The basics, yes. As well as understanding speech. The reading and writing, though, are her own doing.”

Miss Kamishirasawa looks stunned for a moment before she remembers to reply. “... well then. Her history knowledge is very basic, but that's the only area where she isn't ahead of my younger students. I feel like she'd fit in well with the second-years.”

Marisa says, “Huh, how old is that?”

“Mostly six- and seven-year-olds.”

Marisa gives Sunshine a pat on the back. “Hear that? Not bad for a five-month-old.”

Sunshine looks up at her in confusion.

“I think that should be a good match, yes,” Alice says, looking relieved. “It's the age I had in mind when I crafted her new body.”

“Speaking of which...” Miss Kamishirasawa looks back to Sunshine and extends a hand across the table. “Sunshine, can I please see your hand?”

Sunshine looks down at the outstretched hand uncertainly, then hesitantly reaches out and rests her hand in the teacher's palm. Miss Kamishirasawa's hand is almost twice as big as hers, warm and soft. She cups Sunshine's hand in it, then uses her other hand to coax Sunshine's fingers apart. Carefully, she inspects the delicate joints where the segments of her fingers are connected, then nods and releases it. “Thank you.”

Sunshine isn't quite sure what that was about, but she's glad it's over. She pulls her hand back and clutches it to her chest. Alice and Marisa, though, are looking on apprehensively. “So?” Marisa says.

“It won't take long for somebody to notice that she isn't human,” Miss Kamishirasawa says.

Marisa opens her mouth to interrupt, but Miss Kamishirasawa raises a hand to stop her. “That being said, physical matters aside, she has a human parent. Half-youkai are generally accepted in the village, and I don't see any reason Sunshine should be any different. If anybody would like to complain... well, I'm a therianthrope, myself. I'd like to see them try to make that argument to me. Besides, I've never taught a child who learned to write by the age of five months. It should be an interesting experience.”

“Yeah!” Marisa leans forward, and before Sunshine can dodge, gives her hair a double-handed ruffle. “Hear that? You're officially a schoolkid now.”

It takes a long time for Sunshine to say goodbye to her parents, mostly because she doesn't want to. She still doesn't like the idea of being left with this woman she just met, in a building full of strangers. They give her several rounds of reassurance and half a dozen hugs apiece, and she's still not comfortable with the idea.

Even so, she soon finds herself being led through the building by Miss Kamishirasawa, with her new notebook held tight to her chest. Ahead of them, she can hear somebody talking. They step through a doorway, and...

The room beyond has more people in it than Sunshine has ever seen at once. More people than she was sure existed, even. There must be two dozen students kneeling on the floor, and at the front of the room, a man is speaking to them. The kids themselves are a wide range of ages, from a bit younger-looking than Sunshine to near-adults. A few of them glance up at her as they enter, and she shrinks back against the wall.

Miss Kamishirasawa has a brief, quiet conversation with the man at the front of the room. He steps aside, and the entire class goes silent as she prepares to speak.

“Good morning, class,” she says.

“Good morning, teacher,” the students reply in unison.

It is the loudest thing that Sunshine has ever heard. Miss Kamishirasawa doesn't seem daunted, and continues. “We have a new student with us today,” she says. “This is Sunshine Margatroid. She will be joining us from now on.”

A less coordinated wave of greetings and conversation rises from the students, and after a few seconds, Miss Kamishirasawa raises her hand to quiet it down. “Sunshine will be the first non-human to attend this school. Her mother is an accomplished youkai hunter, and I've personally made sure that she isn't a threat to anybody before admitting her. I'd like you to think of Sunshine as a normal student. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Miss Kamishirasawa,” the class replies. Mostly. There are a few whispered, ongoing conversations now.

“Good.” Miss Kamishirasawa glances back to Sunshine. “Sunshine, is there anything you'd like to say?”

Sunshine freezes in indecision. She has no idea what to say to so many people.

“What's with the doll?” a child calls from near the back of the room.

Miss Kamishirasawa glances down to Ichigo, sitting on Sunshine's shoulder. “Would you like to introduce your friend?”

This, this is a little less overwhelming. With a simple hand gesture, Sunshine directs Ichigo to hover forward and bow to the class. “Her name is Ichigo,” she says quietly.

This draws a more excited round of conversation from the students. Sunshine can't help but feel a little proud. It's just like Marisa said—they can all see what a good doll Ichigo is.

Miss Kamishirasawa raises her hand again. This time, the conversation takes longer to die down, until she gives a pointed glance toward the still-talking students. Only once they're all silent does she turn back toward Sunshine. “Sunshine, the third row has a desk open. Please take a seat. Class will begin soon.”

Sunshine nods, but hesitates for a moment before she steps forward. Every student in the room is watching her, and now she has to walk into the middle of the group. She inches her way forward one step at a time until she reaches the front row, then hurries down the aisle. Only once she's behind her desk does she manage to relax, but she can still feel their eyes on her.

Fortunately, Miss Kamishirasawa starts the lesson before long. She tells a long story about a bunch of people who fought at a castle, because they didn't agree on who should run the country. They all had a lot of people helping them, and some of them had guns. After the fight, one of the men was able to take charge of the entire country. The story is interesting, but Miss Kamishirasawa doesn't make all the fun sound effects when she talks about fights, like Marisa does. Sunshine isn't sure why Miss Kamishirasawa is telling them about this, but most of the other children are writing it down, so she does the same thing in her new notebook.

The story goes on for a long time, and it's followed by another story, about all of the things that the man did once he was in charge of the country. Just when Sunshine is getting convinced that class might go on forever, Miss Kamishirasawa glances at the clock and gives a single sharp clap of her hands to get everybody's attention. “That's a good stopping point for now,” she says. “Class will resume in an hour and a half.”

The room fills with sound as all the students rise from their desks and start rushing out of the building, and Sunshine looks around in confusion. Is it time to go home? She doesn't think her parents are here yet, and she's not sure she can make it all the way back to the house by herself.

There are only a few other students left in the room when Miss Kamishirasawa approaches her. “Sunshine, it's time for lunch. Did your parents pack one for you?”

She nods.

“Good. You have the next hour and a half to do whatever you want. Why don't you eat outside and get to know some of the other children?”

And now she's supposed to go outside, without even having an adult nearby? That sounds pretty scary, too. Even so, Sunshine stands and heads toward the door, and Ichigo pulls the lunch from her bag and follows.

Outside, it's warmed up since the morning. The snow is quickly melting under the sun, and most of the students aren't even bothering with coats. A big crowd of them are heading out the gate into the village, while others are still in the courtyard behind the school, eating, talking in small groups, and playing games. Sunshine decides to stay close, and finds a shaded spot under the school's awning to sit down. She opens her notebook in front of herself, while Ichigo starts unpacking her lunch.

Sunshine's only been drawing for a matter of seconds when a voice interrupts her. “How come your doll can move?”

She glances back over her shoulder. Behind her, two girls are watching curiously as Ichigo lays the chopsticks out next to her lunch. “Um,” she says. “Magic.”

“Are you a youkai?”

Sunshine turns to face them and shakes her head.

“Come on, you can tell us! Miz Keine said you're not a human, so you've gotta be a youkai, right?”

“Maybe she's a fairy,” the other girl says.

“Fairies have wings, stupid!”

“Well, um, my mom said that one time she saw a fairy, and it didn't have any wings.”

“That's dumb. I bet she's a ghost or something.”

“Nobody'd let a ghost come to school! She'd eat everybody or something, and—“

Sunshine thinks back to the examination that Miss Kamishirasawa gave her. She raises her hands and gives her fingers a demonstrative wiggle.

Both girls instantly go silent, watching them. “Your hands are weird,” one says.

Sunshine glances at them. She's never considered this before. Her fingers aren't like her parents', or Reimu's, or Miss Kamishirasawa's, but this is how they've always been. They're not weird at all. She shakes her head again.

A clicking noise on the floor behind her draws Sunshine's attention away. She looks back to find that a boy has grabbed the hem of Ichigo's dress, and the doll is scrabbling against the floor to try escaping. “Stop it...!” Sunshine squeaks.

“I'm just lookin' at her!” the boy says. He doesn't resist as Sunshine tugs Ichigo away and into her lap.

“Her hands are made out of wood,” one of the girls informs him, peering at Sunshine curiously.

“I still think she's a fairy,” the other says. “Betcha five hundred yen.”

“You don't even got five hundred yen!”

“Do too!”

“Nuh-uh!”

Sunshine shrinks back from the three children, until she's up against the wall of the building. She really should just say it—'I'm a doll,' it's not even a very long sentence—but under such heavy questioning, by the time she puts the sentence together on her lips, the conversation has already moved on.

The questioning continues, now with all three participating. “Can the doll do any tricks?”

“How come your hands are weird?”

“Are you afraid of talkin' or something?”

“My dad says ghosts can't talk, so I bet that's—“

The girl is cut off mid-sentence, as a small rock smacks into his back with a dull thud. Two more thuds announce that both of the others have been hit with them, too. All three yelp in surprise. They spin around in unison, and...

The only person behind them is a single boy, sitting against a post five or six meters away. He has a book open in his lap, but he's looking their way. He hurries to look back at his book before they notice, but he's too slow.

“Did you throw those rocks?!” one of the girls demands.

The boy flinches at that, but he shakes his head. “Nope.”

“Then why're you looking over here?!”

“You were really noisy...” he mumbles.

“There isn't anybody else back here!” the boy who'd been questioning Sunshine says, stepping forward with a huff. “It had to be you!”

The boy with the book shrinks down against the post slightly, but holds his ground. Just barely loud enough for Sunshine to hear it, he says, “I didn't throw any rocks, but you're scaring the new girl. You should leave her alone.”

The two stare each other down for a few seconds. Sunshine can't see the first boy's face, but the boy with the book looks like he could burst into tears at any second. He's not the one to back down, though.

“Whatever. It's just a dumb doll anyway.”

With the boy's surrender, the two girls follow suit. All three trudge off, grumbling between themselves. Sunshine and the boy with the book watch them go, and then he stands and slowly walks toward her. Sunshine watches him uncertainly, but lets Ichigo out of her lap. He's short. Even shorter than Sunshine is. His hair is a golden-white mop that almost hides his eyes, and he sort of looks like he'd prefer it if they were hidden, since he uncomfortably glances away before he speaks.

“They didn't hurt you, did they?”

She shakes her head.

“Good.”

He lingers there, shifting from foot to foot uncertainly, for a few seconds before he speaks again. “Is it true?”

She cocks her head questioningly to the side. When that doesn't get the response she wants, she says, “What?”

“That you're not a human.”

Sunshine studies him for a moment, then slowly extends her hands. She gives her fingers a wiggle to show them off, like she did for the other kids. He watches curiously. It doesn't feel as overwhelming this time. Maybe because he isn't asking her so many questions that she can't even think about them all, like the other group of kids did.

“I'm a doll,” she says.

The boy somehow looks relieved at that. “... want to see something neat?”

It's a cryptic offer, but he has her attention. She gives a hesitant nod.

“You've gotta promise not to tell anybody.”

She nods again.

“You promise?”

Another nod.

“Well...” He kneels down in front of her, giving the courtyard a few anxious glances. Now it's almost empty apart from a few other students, most of whom are busy with their own affairs. He glances aside, and...

A tail explodes out from his back, right above the top of his pants. It's the same golden-white color as his hair. He gives it a single flick and looks over to make sure that Sunshine's noticed it, and then the tail shrinks back down to nothing. Altogether, it's only there for a second or two.

Sunshine reaches out to the spot where the tail had been, but there's nothing there. She frowns at it thoughtfully.

“I'm not a human either,” he says. “I'm a fox.” He looks a strange blend of embarrassed and proud of this fact.

Sunshine gives up on searching for the tail and considers this. It doesn't confuse her as much as it might. Her parents have told her stories about this kind of thing before, youkai disguising themselves as humans to do stuff in the village. In those stories, though, the shapeshifters are usually the bad guys.

He doesn't seem like a bad guy, though. Well, apart from one thing.

“Um,” she says. “You threw rocks at those kids.”

He pauses, looking surprised at her lack of reaction, then rubs at the back of his neck and glances away. “They were being annoying.”

Sunshine can't disagree with that. Her parents gave her a very long talk about school yesterday, and one of the most important lessons in it was that fighting other kids isn't allowed. Maybe it's okay in this case, though. None of them got hurt, after all.

“Humans are like that,” he says, with a lot of world-weariness for a second-grader. “If they even know I'm here, they'll try to exterminate me. So you can't tell anybody about me, okay? Not even the teacher.”

“Okay...”

He studies her face for a moment before nodding in return. “Good,” he says. “Since we're not humans, it would be dumb if we didn't stick together.”

He seems to be expecting a response, but Sunshine isn't really sure what she's supposed to say. She gives a slight nod, though, and it's enough to leave a satisfied smile on his face. After a few seconds, he glances uneasily away, then takes a seat along the wall near her, pulls out his book, and resumes reading as if nothing happened.

Sunshine isn't sure what to make of this, but she soon gives up on figuring it out and goes back to drawing. Nobody bothers her again for the rest of the lunch break.

After lunch, the classroom is loud with conversations. Miss Kamishirasawa stands up in front of the room, and it takes her several minutes to get everybody to quiet down enough for her to start talking again. This time, her assistant leads several of the older kids out of the room, and instead of telling stories, she talks about math. It's about different ways to add numbers, mostly. Sunshine would really rather hear more stories about people fighting each other, especially since most of what Miss Kamishirasawa is talking about seems obvious. She tries to follow along for a while until she gets bored. Then, she stops paying attention and finishes the drawing in her notebook instead.

When she's done with math, Miss Kamishirasawa talks about youkai instead. Mostly, she talks about tsukumogami and how to avoid them. The lesson is a lot more interesting than the one about math, but Sunshine still thinks it's pretty weird. When her parents talk about tsukumogami, they sound friendly and harmless. When Miss Kamishirasawa talks about them, she makes them sound dangerous, and says that it's important to dispose of tools properly to avoid creating them.

After being confused by this for a short time, Sunshine remembers that her parents basically aren't scared of anything, so it only makes sense that they can make friends with youkai that even other adults are afraid of.

And then, Miss Kamishirasawa gives a single clap of her hands and announces, “That covers today's lessons, so I'll let you out a little early today. Fourth and fifth-years, please come up to get tonight's worksheets. If you're on cleaning duty, remember that tonight is the courtyard. Everybody else, I'll see you tomorrow.”

The class shouts a response, but this one is rather more disorganized and ragged than the greeting at the beginning of the day. Already, most of them are scrambling out of their seats.

After a moment of confusion, Sunshine rises from her seat, gestures for Ichigo to open her bag, and puts her notebook and pen back into it. She slides the strap onto her shoulder and follows the stampede of children out of the room. By the time she steps outside, some of the other students are already running home or playing in the streets. A few small groups are standing around in front of the building, chatting with each other.

And across the street, her parents are waiting.

Sunshine takes off barreling across the street, so quickly that Ichigo can't even keep up. She tackles Alice's waist in a hug, hard enough to make her take a stumbling step back.

Alice loops an arm around her to return the hug. “Hello, Sunshine.”

“Hey, kiddo.” Marisa slides in next to Alice and scoops Sunshine up into a hug. Sunshine clings to her just as tightly. “How was school?”

Sunshine rests her head on Marisa's shoulder and considers this. She really did survive an entire day away from her parents. She's still not sure how she feels about school, though. That was a lot of time to spend sitting around and not doing anything fun, and dealing with other kids is hard. The stories about people fighting each other were kind of interesting, at least.

“School is weird,” she says.

“Yeah, it's pretty weird. What'd you learn about?”

“Um. Adding numbers. And tsukumogami.” She pauses to string together a much longer sentence than she's used to. Her parents don't rush her. It's one of several reasons that she finds it a lot easier to talk to them than other people. “And a long time ago. A bunch of people had a fight at a big castle and, um. Some of them switched to the other side. And that side won.”

“Well, see. Sounds like a pretty productive day to me. It's always useful to know about youkai, and you need to know math and stuff if you wanna do magic.”

Sunshine isn't so sure about that. She's seen her parents do a lot of magic. It does involve scribbling things on paper sometimes, but mostly it involves a lot of chanting and glowing symbols that float in the air. Adding numbers together isn't even kind of like those. Still, the thought that some of that stuff might help her become a hero faster lifts her spirits a little.

“Did the other children give you any trouble?” Alice asks.

Sunshine considers this for a moment. For now, she settles on answering, “Kids are weird too...”

“Other children can be very weird,” Alice agrees, with a slight smile. She leans over Marisa to give Sunshine a peck on the forehead. “I know that it might take a while, but you'll make some friends soon enough, okay?”

Sunshine still isn't sure why she's supposed to be so eager to make friends in the first place, but she'll figure that out another time. For now, she nods.

“Good. I'd like to talk to Keine for a few minutes, but I don't see any reason to make both of you wait around for me.”

“Gotcha,” Marisa says. “Me and Sunshine will see you when you get home.”

She lowers Sunshine to the ground, and she and Alice dance through a brief exchange of goodbyes and kisses. Once Alice walks off, she looks back down to Sunshine. “How about it? Ready to go home?”

“Mmhm.”

“Or...” Marisa glances across the street, and hesitates until Alice is far enough away to be well out of earshot. Then, she leans in conspiratorially. “We could stop off at that candy shop on the way back and get something to celebrate your first day of school.”

Sunshine's eyes go wide, and she nods excitedly.

“Good!” Marisa pulls her broom from its spot leaning against the wall, then takes a seat on it. Sunshine hovers up to settle into her usual spot against Marisa's back and wraps her arms around her.

“I'm feelin' like something fruity, but I heard lately they found the stuff to make liquorice, too,” Marisa says. “What're you in the mood for?”

“Um. I don't know what liquorice is...”

“I guess there's still a lot of candy you haven't tried, huh? In that case, it isn't fair to make you pick without even knowin' what you're getting. Guess we just don't have any choice but to buy a little of everything.”

Before Sunshine can argue, Marisa kicks off the ground, and the broom hovers up into the air. Sunshine tightens her grip around Marisa's waist as it takes off like a rocket, headed toward home and also the candy shop.

Chapter Text

Sunshine has only been going to school for a couple of weeks, but she thinks she's mostly gotten the hang of it.

The subjects range from boring (math, most of which comes so naturally to her that she's still confused about why they have lessons in it) to exciting (stories about people fighting on boats in the ocean, which is a lake that's a thousand times bigger than Gensokyo.) She does her best to pay attention, but it's hard, and sometimes she draws pictures in her notebook instead of listening to the lessons. She'd been doing this for a few days before she spotted another kid's notebook and saw that she wasn't the only one who does this sometimes. That makes her feel better.

Every day at recess, Sunshine sits along the back wall of the school and eats or draws or watches the other kids play. Usually, the fox kid takes a seat somewhere next to her. He reads, and sometimes comments on her drawings, or tells her about the other kids. It's better than sitting alone, she thinks.

And usually, when she leaves school, Marisa is waiting to fly her home. Today, though, she finds both of her parents waiting for her.

Sunshine runs across the street as soon as she sees them, tackling Alice into a hug around the waist. Alice strokes her hair. “Good afternoon, Sunshine.”

“Hi.”

“Hey, kiddo.” Marisa steps forward and scoops her up. Sunshine's used to that. She wraps her arms around Marisa and clings to her, while Ichigo hovers up alongside her. “How was school?”

“Um.” Sunshine considers that, and her hand itches for a pen. Today they learned about people coming on boats to trade things during the Tokugawa Shogunate. It's a big dizzying mess of concepts, and even harder to talk about. To-ku-ga-wa-sho-gun-ate. It sounds like a lot of syllables even when Miss Kamishirasawa says it. She settles for, “We learned about people buying stuff. On boats.”

“Sounds pretty boring.”

“It sounds interesting,” Alice says, raising her voice slightly as she corrects Marisa.

“Why are...” Sunshine looks between them. “Um. You're both here.”

“What, we can't both come to pick you up?” Marisa retorts. Sunshine has to admit, she can't come up with a good counter-argument. “... you're right though, it's a special occasion. Er...”

She trails off, glancing to Alice. Alice says, “Sunshine, Marisa and I would like to ask you for a very important favor.”

Sunshine looks to her questioningly.

“Yep, you heard her,” Marisa says. “See, uh, the thing is... me and your mom have some really important stuff we need to do tonight. You know all our stories about fighting youkai?”

Sunshine nods.

“Well, we've got a friend who's going to do some really dangerous stuff tonight, and she might get attacked by some youkai. So, she wants me and Alice to come along to help fight 'em.”

This is a very exciting proposal so far. Sunshine stiffens up in mounting excitement, a smile spreading on her face.

“... and, that's too dangerous for you. If we go, you can't come along.”

“... I wanna go...”

“We know you do,” Alice says. “But it will be very dangerous, and we don't want you getting hurt. Do you remember how scary it was when you lost your hand?”

Sunshine reluctantly nods.

“This could be even scarier. I'm sorry, but you can't come with us if we go. That's why we're asking you for a favor.” Alice steps closer to fuss with Sunshine's hair, smiling to her. “Do you think you'd like to spend the night at the shrine? You like visiting Reimu, right?”

“Er, about that...” Marisa says. “I stopped by and talked to her, but it sounds like she's pretty busy tonight, actually.”

“... ah. She is?”

“Yeah. Er, don't worry, though, I've got a backup plan! How'd you like to stay somewhere even better than the shrine, Sunshine?”

The flight from the village is a little weird. They head back in the direction of the house, so close to the right route that Sunshine recognizes the scenery. At some point, though, Marisa turns the broomstick aside, and they follow one of the thicker paths that winds toward the Forest of Magic. The occasional house still dots the land below, but they're so far apart that Sunshine barely gets to see one before the previous one fades out of sight, and they only get rarer the farther they go. After a while, an even bigger building comes into view, and Marisa steers toward it.

It's the second-weirdest building that Sunshine has ever seen. It's an old wooden building, pushed up so close to the trees that some of them grow partway over it. Sitting in front is a heap of old junk, and Sunshine doesn't recognize any of it—there are weird machines made out of pipes with big spindly wheels, metal boxes with glass fronts, triangular signs that say 'STOP,' even bigger metal boxes with doors on them, and dozens of other oddities.

She peers at them curiously as they make their way inside, where there are even more. The inside of the place is almost as packed as Marisa's old house was. Most of the walls are partly hidden by shelves or leaning merchandise, and little islands of stuff dot the floor. On the wall right inside the door, a man grins down at her from a poster that reads, “OIL CHANGES HERE.” She scoots away to put Alice between the poster and her.

Across from the door is a counter, and sitting behind it is a very tall man. Sunshine can only see the very top of his head, since he has a newspaper open, and doesn't even look over it as they enter. “Good afternoon, Marisa,” he says. “I hope that you're here about the money you owe me.”

“Huh,” Marisa says. “How'd you know it was me?”

“I learned to recognize you by your footsteps years ago. Call it a defense mechanism.” He calmly folds the paper closed, then pauses as he sees his other two visitors over it. His eyes settle onto Sunshine, and he suddenly looks much more interested. “Is that who I think it is?”

“Yep.” Marisa beckons her forward, but Sunshine stays clinging to Alice's side for the moment. “This is Sunshine. Sunshine, this is... Uncle Rinnosuke.”

“Uncle?” Alice asks.

“Uncle?” Rinnosuke asks. He doesn't sound displeased by the idea.

“I mean, close enough, right? You always seemed like an uncle kinda guy to me.”

“You do know that I'm older than your father, Marisa.”

“Yeah, well, that stuff's weird with youkai.” Marisa turns back and offers Sunshine a hand. “C'mon, he isn't scary. Probably even more harmless than that teacher of yours.”

Rinnosuke looks like he resents this statement, but lets it slide for the moment. Reluctantly, Sunshine steps forward to take Marisa's hand, and Marisa coaxes her toward the counter. Rinnosuke leans forward to inspect her, adjusting his glasses.

“Your craftsmanship is excellent as always, Alice. I'd barely know that she isn't human if it weren't for the hands.”

“Thank you, Rinnosuke, but she's our child. Please try not to talk about her like she isn't here.”

“... of course.” He looks back to Sunshine. “It's nice to meet you, Sunshine.”

Sunshine gives a shy nod.

“I've been wanting to meet you for a long time.” He glances up to Marisa. “... and it's taken you long enough to bring her, I might add. What's the special occasion?”

“Well, about that...” Marisa rests an arm on the counter and leans in, like she's about to pitch him a very lucrative offer. “Since you were itching to meet Sunshine and all, and I know you're so good with kids, I was thinkin' we'd cut you a special deal and let you have Sunshine all to yourself tonight. Pretty generous, huh?”

Rinnosuke doesn't look like he agrees. “Are you going to tell me what this is about, or not?”

“We need a babysitter,” Alice admits. “I'm sorry. Everybody else we know nearby is either busy tonight, or not good with children.”

“Or they're werewolves and stuff,” Marisa adds. “It's a full moon, after all.”

Sunshine glances between the adults as they talk. She's always kind of impressed at how many words they can say so quickly. It seems like it should be very tiring.

“And why,” Rinnosuke says, “do you need a babysitter on such short notice?”

“We got word from Patchy that this big meteor fell nearby this morning. Metal from those things is useful for some really powerful spells and stuff, so—“

“So you're ditching your child so that you can salvage some,” Rinnosuke finishes dryly.

“No,” Alice says. “We're going with Patchouli to retrieve it, and helping her fight off the local youkai and anybody else who wants the meteorite. In exchange, she's forgiving our debts to the Scarlet Devil Mansion.”

“... oh.”

“Sunshine has about half a kilo of silver in her... also, uh, some of it, Sakuya didn't technically say I could have,” Marisa says. “It's, um. Not really a little debt.” After that comment, though, she perks back up, grinning and giving Rinnosuke a hearty pat on the shoulder. “So that's why we'll be counting on you, Uncle Rinnosuke.”

“You do know that just calling me her uncle doesn't mean that I have to accept,” Rinnosuke says, but gives in with a sigh. “But very well. I can watch her tonight. You'll pick her up tomorrow morning, then?”

“Of course,” Alice says, and hesitates before saying, “There are probably a few things we should tell you, though.”

Despite Rinnosuke's reassurances that he knows what he's doing, it takes twenty minutes for Marisa to coax Alice toward the door. Even then, Alice is still giving instructions to him the whole time. “Her bed time is at nine PM,” she says. “She can stay up a little later if she's done her homework, but please try to enforce it.”

“Of course,” Rinnosuke says. “I go to sleep around then, myself."

“And please remember that she draws her energy directly from food. She's already had two meals today, so a small dinner should be plenty. The more that you feed her, the longer she'll be—“

“Yes, I think I get the idea.” Rinnosuke steps around the counter and lays a hand on Alice's shoulder, giving her a reassuring smile. “She'll be fine, I promise. I had to watch Marisa a few times when she was around this age. I'm sure that Sunshine is more well-behaved.”

“Hey, I only set your shoes on fire that once,” Marisa says. “But you're probably right. Sunshine's about the sweetest kid out there, on account of our awesome parenting skills.” She crouches down and pulls Sunshine into a tight hug. “Isn't that right, Sunshine?”

Sunshine doesn't quite understand the question, but gives a tentative nod.

Alice moves in for the next hug. “It will only be for one night. We'll be back to pick you up first thing in the morning, okay?”

“Okay...”

Marisa says, “Yep. Maybe we'll bring you back some souvenirs. Depends what kind of youkai we beat up.”

After another few goodbyes, the two finally, reluctantly, head out the door. Right up until the end, Sunshine secretly hopes that they'll change their minds and take her home, but they don't. The door closes, and she's left alone with Rinnosuke.

He steps up and smiles down at her. Up close, he looks impossibly tall, maybe the tallest person she's ever met. From somewhere near the ceiling, he says, “Well, it looks like it's just the two of us now. Would you like a toy to play with?”

Sunshine gives a cautious nod.

“Good. They're over here.”

Rinnosuke leads her deeper into the shop. It's a little dark and cramped, but it has the slightly dusty smell that she's learned to associated with Marisa's old house. It's kind of nice, actually. The shelves are filled with things she's never seen before. Some of them are sparkling and new, while others have a patina of dust that upsets every cleaning instinct she has.

He stops in front of one of the shelves and studies it for a moment before saying, “Ah, here we are. This shelf is mostly toys, I think. Take whatever you'd like.”

She looks over the shelf's contents. Even here, most of them are things she's never seen before, but some of them make sense after she thinks about it for a few seconds. There are a few balls in there, although some of them have strange patterns. There's some kind of big weird leather glove. There are a couple of bricks made out of a shiny material she's never seen before, and a haggard-looking stuffed bear that only has one eye.

Near the bottom, though, is a doll. At least, it looks kind of like a doll. It's a squat humanoid, but all of its joints are at sharp angles. Its body is mostly made out of boxes, with a few shiny domes for eyes and a nose.

She leans in to inspect to the almost-doll. Rinnosuke crouches down alongside her to look at it. “Ah, that's an excellent choice, if you ask me. Do you like it?”

She gives an uncertain nod.

“Here, feel free.” He offers it over, and hesitantly adds, “You could even keep it. It's been sitting on my shelf for years. I'm not sure if it's going to sell any time soon.”

Her eyes go wide with surprise, and she looks back to the toy. Slowly, she reaches forward and takes it by the arms.

Its arms are very, very dusty. She lets go, and her fingers come away grey. Distressed, she tries to shake the dust off.

“Is something wrong?” Rinnosuke asks.

She holds her hands up to show him. He looks over them, confused. “Did you cut yourself?”

Sunshine shakes her head. “Um! Um. It's dirty.”

“... oh.” He glances between her hands and the robot, as if only now making the mental link between the two. He holds it up for inspection, and frowns at the layer of dust covering it. “I guess it's been longer than I'd thought since I dusted. Well, that's easy to deal with. One moment.”

Rinnosuke sits the robot down and steps through the doorway to the back of the shop, leaving Sunshine and Ichigo alone in the storefront. On the other side of the door, she can hear him opening cabinets and shifting things around. It takes a minute or two for him to return, carrying a small stack of rags.

“I might as well do the whole shelf while I'm at it,” he says, and crouches down in front of it. He's barely settled into place before Sunshine grabs a rag from the pile. Ichigo follows suit.

“Ah, you don't need to help,” he says. “I can...”

Rinnosuke trails off. Sunshine is already hard at work, polishing the shelf and sending a cloud of dust into the air. Ichigo settles onto it higher up, tackling the big leather glove. Sunshine is so focused, she barely even notices that he said anything, anyway.

“Well,” he says. “If you want to help, I'll welcome the assistance.”

Once she starts dusting, Sunshine can't help but spot dozens of things that bother her. There's a bookcase, and some of the books are upside down or backward. There's a spider web in the window. For some reason, a shovel is leaning in the corner, and there are still clumps of dirt laying around it. If she had a team of dolls with her, she'd tear the place apart until it was as spotless as Alice's house. Since she only has herself and Ichigo, she settles for what she can do right now. Rinnosuke, looking slightly guilty, tries to convince her that she doesn't need to clean for him, but she isn't about to be stopped now. She doesn't slow down until the shelf is spotless, and even then, some tarnished spots are bothering her.

“Well, that was a surprise,” Rinnosuke says, looking over her handiwork. He runs a fingertip across the shelf and looks impressed when it comes away free of dust. “You did a good job, though. Thank you.”

Sunshine is still reluctant to stop, but she pulls the cloth back for now and nods. The compliment draws a smile out of her.

Rinnosuke looks between her and the freshly-cleaned shelf a few times. “It's hard to believe that Marisa raised somebody like you. She rides around on a broom all day, but I'm not sure she knows which end you use for cleaning. She's been like that ever since she was your age, I suppose.”

Sunshine pauses and considers that. It's weird, imagining Marisa at her age. The other kids at school are hard to understand sometimes. They jump in puddles and don't even care that their clothes get dirty. They run around and shout and make more noise than Sunshine had ever known a human could make. Her parents are way easier to understand. That works out though, she supposes. Most adults don't make much sense either. Her parents have probably just been better ever since they were children.

Still, though. Pretty much the only people who really knew her when she was little were her parents, which means...

She looks up, studying Rinnosuke. “Are you her dad...?”

“Ah? Er, no.” Rinnosuke straightens up, looking just a little embarrassed as he fusses with his glasses. “We aren't related. I've known her since she was very young, though.” He draws himself up to his full height, smirking proudly. “I made her mini-hakkero, and helped with some of her early magical studies. I doubt she'd be where she is if it weren't for me.”

Sunshine squirms with disbelief as she processes this idea. The idea of Marisa having to rely on somebody else is downright silly. “Um. She's really strong,” she says, making sure that he knows just who he's talking about.

“She is, isn't she?”

Sunshine still isn't sure that he understands the full weight of his statement, but he acts like he's telling the truth. She's still a bit uneasy as she looks back to the shelves. The one on the other side of her is just as dusty as the first one, and Ichigo is already halfheartedly swiping a rag across its surface. Sunshine leans in to help, picking up a weird helmet and wiping it off. The dust on it is so thick that she can feel it clumping up beneath the cloth.

Rinnosuke watches this, conflicted. “You really don't need to do that, you know.”

Sunshine shakes her head and keeps going. Rinnosuke sighs. Before he can step in, though, another voice comes from the doorway to the back of the shop.

“Oh, you're employing children now? Don't you think that's a little shameless?”

It's a familiar voice, and it makes Sunshine tense up. There, standing in the doorway, is a lady in violet clothes with blonde hair. Sunshine remembers that her name is Yukari Yakumo. She also remembers how much she teased her at the shrine. She takes a step away.

“Hello, Yukari,” Rinnosuke says, as if this were perfectly normal. “And no. This is Marisa and Alice's daughter. I'm watching her for them, but it seems like she's intent on cleaning the shop.”

“A likely story,” Yukari says.

“It's the truth.”

“In any case, I've refilled your kerosene. This should be the last load for the winter, I think.”

“Thank you,” he says, and dryly adds, “I expect that you can take your payment on your way out.”

“What, don't you enjoy my company?” Yukari asks, mock-wounded.

“I wouldn't know about your company, but I'd prefer it if less of my stock disappeared after your visits.”

For just a moment, Yukari actually looks annoyed. Then, she straightens up, a smile spreading on her face as her eyes settle onto Sunshine. “Well, if you're tired of paying for your imports, I suppose I could pay you for a change.”

“... what?”

Yukari advances on Sunshine. There's a closed parasol in her hand—was it there before?—and she gives it a lazy spin, tapping the tip against the floor at the end. “Oh, please don't worry about it. I have just the thing in mind.”

Sunshine steps backward even faster than Yukari advances, but she only has so much room in the cramped shop. Soon, her back is pressed to a wall. She shifts in place uneasily.

“Yukari,” Rinnosuke says, “I don't know what you're on about, but I'd prefer it if you left Marisa's daughter out of it.”

“Ahh, it's fine. I just need to grab my payment, and Sunshine and I are already acquainted. We're the best of friends, aren't we Sunshine?”

Sunshine isn't sure if there's a right answer to that question. She squeaks, and barely manages to carry out the hand signs to signal Ichigo to hover in front of her. Ichigo raises her tiny hands defensively.

“I really am going to have to ask you to stop,” Rinnosuke says.

“This won't take long.” Yukari steps closer, and leans right over Ichigo. Pressed to the wall, Sunshine tries to decide whether she should activate the doll's emergency mode. Yukari reaches for her ear, Sunshine's eyes follow her hand every centimeter of the way...

And Yukari pauses, giving a melodramatic sigh of relief. “Ah, yes, I was right. That's where I misplaced it.”

Yukari slowly draws her hand outward, and Sunshine doesn't dare to move. Soon, though, she sees something out of the corner of her eye, and inclines her head just a bit in that direction to take a look. From her ear, Yukari is pulling out an entire cake. It's on a platter, and it's the biggest dessert that Sunshine has ever seen, with fat ribbons of icing around the corners and a crown of strawberries jutting from the top. Yukari pulls it back far enough for Sunshine to see, then looks down at it, tutting. “Silly me. I meant to put it in my pocket and it ended up in Sunshine's ear instead. These mistakes do happen, you know.”

Sunshine pats at her ear frantically, but thankfully, there's no hole in it big enough for a cake to come out of. But how did a cake get there in the first place?! She isn't sure, and it bothers her. If cakes start coming out of her head all the time, that will be really weird.

“You didn't need to torment the girl,” Rinnosuke says.

“And yet, you didn't do anything to stop me. But, here, this time I will pay you, since I've apparently been such a bother. And conveniently enough, it's almost your dinner time, isn't it?”

Rinnosuke looks at the cake, deadpan. “I'm not sure what you're playing at, but I don't believe for a second that you're giving me a free cake instead of asking for payment.”

“Whether you believe it or not, it's still happening,” Yukari says sweetly. “Now, why don't we set the table so Sunshine can have a slice of cake?”

Usually, when Sunshine has sweets at home, Alice rations them carefully. Not Yukari, though. Yukari makes a show of cutting her the biggest, most generous wedge that she can justify. It's almost the size of Sunshine's head, a gooey slab of confectionery. Rinnosuke gets a rather smaller slice, and Yukari herself, none. Once she's laid out the cake, she steps back from the table and bows with a flourish. “Dinner is served.”

Rinnosuke pokes at the cake, like it's a puzzle that he just hasn't figured out yet. “Are you going to talk to me about your actual payment?”

“My, so suspicious. But no. I think I'll be quite satisfied with this.” Yukari smiles sweetly. “Consider it a gift from me to you. And Sunshine, of course.”

“Right.” Rinnosuke doesn't sound like he believes this for a moment.

“With that, I must get back home, I'm afraid. Ran is performing some tasks for me tonight, and I need to check in on her.” Still smiling, she gives another bow, and like that, she vanishes.

Rinnosuke scowls at the spot where she'd been, then sighs. “She probably stole something again.” He looks back to Sunshine and forces a smile. “Well, we might as well eat it anyway. I have to admit, it's been a while since I had something this decadent.”

Sunshine has been eating for weeks, but really sweet things still taste so good that it's sometimes scary. So, she eats the cake carefully, in small, measured bites. While Yukari was cutting it, she'd fished her notebook out of her bag. Now, she doodles with her free hand while she eats. Tonight's picture is of her parents. She wants to draw whatever kind of monster they're probably fighting, but she isn't sure what kind of monsters like fallen stars. Instead, she draws a really big monster rabbit. Every time Marisa talks about going to space, she mostly mentions fighting rabbits, so a rabbit is probably pretty close.

Rinnosuke watches this from across the table, with a mix of curiosity and bored detachment. “You've already met Yukari before?”

Sunshine nods without looking up from her drawing.

“I thought so. She seems to enjoy tormenting you.” He snorts lightly at this. “It looks like we're her preferred victims.”

Sunshine looks up from the drawing, staring at the cake in deep thought. She hates to admit it, but even though Yukari's been a little weird, she's never hurt her. And... She flips her notebook to the next page and writes, [BUT SHE GAVE ME CAKE.]

Rinnosuke only looks confused by this for a moment, partially because he's reading upside down. “Well, I suppose she did...”

[AND STRAWBERRIES]

“Strawberries?”

[AT THE SHRINE]

“Ah. Well, maybe that's so, but I still don't think it justifies teasing a child. Honestly, I'd give the woman a piece of my mind, but even for an adult, she's scary.”

Sunshine nods, and the conversation ends. She finishes her cake, too, swallowing the last big bite of it. It lets her focus on the picture, while Rinnosuke gathers up the plates and busies himself around the kitchen. Sunshine decides that the monster rabbit needs to look scarier, so she adds big bat wings on the back.

While she's drawing, it creeps up on her. It takes her a few minutes to notice that she's tapping her foot on the floor. Soon, she's squirming in her seat, fighting constant impulses to do even more. She tries to keep herself calm as she flips back to the writing page, slides to the floor, and walks over to Rinnosuke.

“Ah?” Rinnosuke pauses in wiping a plate clean and looks down to her. “Do you need something?”

“Um,” she says, and squirms from foot to foot. “... um.”

“... you don't need to use the bathroom, do you? I hadn't thought that you could.”

Sunshine shakes her head desperately, and settles for writing in the notebook. She barely has the patience to finish writing before she flips it around. [PLAY]

That doesn't make Rinnosuke look any less confused. “Well, you're still welcome to play with the toy robot. Or any toys that you brought, of course.”

She shakes her head again. [DRAGON GAME]

“The... dragon game?”

She nods.

“I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the rules for that one.”

[PLEASE. DRAGON GAME PLEASE.]

He hesitates for a moment, then shakes his head with a soft laugh. “Well, when you ask so nicely, I can hardly say no, can I? Very well. You'll need to teach me the rules, though.”

There is a problem.

Usually, Sunshine and Marisa play the dragon game, or something equally exciting, every day after dinner. It helps her burn off her extra energy, and after thirty minutes or so of running around and whacking Marisa with a wooden sword, she's usually tired and ready to start getting ready for bed.

Today, after forty-five minutes of that kind of thing, she's still so energetic that she feels like she might explode. It doesn't help that Rinnosuke isn't very good at being a dragon. When Marisa is the dragon, she chases Sunshine all around the yard, putting up a good fight before she ends up standing in place, stomping and growling, and lets Sunshine slay her.

Rinnosuke doesn't do that. Mostly he shies away from the sword and gives halfhearted growls. He keeps holding onto his glasses while he dodges her attacks, like he's afraid they might break. The one time he gives her a good chase, he has to stop for a few minutes at the end to catch his breath.

“Sunshine,” he says. “Don't you think that we've played enough?”

Sunshine reluctantly stops whacking him with the stick that she's using as an imaginary sword. She really doesn't feel like stopping. She feels like she needs to be running and screaming and dancing and fighting all at the same time, and she can barely stay in one spot. Rinnosuke doesn't seem like he's having much fun being the dragon, though. She reluctantly nods.

“Good.” He straightens up with a sigh. “If you still want to play, maybe we can do something with the robot toy. That should be a bit less...” He rubs at the spot where she'd been hitting him. “... violent.”

They head inside, and Sunshine sits down on the floor, while Rinnosuke grabs the robot toy from the shelf. “You got so distracted by the dust earlier, I didn't even get a chance to show you this toy's best feature.” He sits it down on the floor and carefully poses it, with one arm raised and pointing in her direction. “Please observe.”

Smirking confidently, he presses a small button near the base of the robot's arm. Its fist flies off and smacks into Sunshine's chest. It doesn't hurt, but she goes wide-eyed, staring at it. “Ah!” She picks up the severed fist and looks at it. “You hurt it...”

“No, I don't think that's the intention. It's a special attack. I've talked to experts on outside world toys, and they tell me that this sort of thing is a common weapon for robots.” Rinnosuke looks pretty proud of himself for knowing this bit of trivia. He takes the fist and slides it back into the arm with a soft click. Then, he aims it at Ichigo and shoots again. The fist hits the little doll in the stomach before clattering to the floor.

Ichigo isn't hurt, but Sunshine quivers in outrage at this aggression. Rinnosuke starts lining up another shot, and she springs for her feet, gesturing for Ichigo to dodge. Soon, they've developed a new game. Rinnosuke tries to shoot Ichigo with the robot, and Sunshine guides Ichigo through dodging. She gestures energetically, jumping and waving her arms, still brimming with more energy than she knows what to do with. The robot is a scary monster, and Ichigo is the heroine coming to beat her up and resolve the incident. At least, that's what she tries to imagine. Ichigo isn't very good at pretending to be a heroine.

She's pretty good at dodging though, but not perfect. The fist ricochets off Ichigo's stomach again, and Sunshine decides that this offense can't be forgiven. She points at the robot and squeaks, “Attack!”

Ichigo obeys, firing a stream of multicolored bullets at the robot. Rinnosuke just barely manages to jerk back before they hit it, sending the robot clattering across the floor. The monster is defeated.

Rinnosuke studies this in silence for a moment, looking bewildered. “Your doll can shoot?”

Sunshine nods proudly. “Her name is Ichigo.”

“Of course. Er, either way, please don't have her shoot in here again. Some of the merchandise is very fragile.”

Sunshine pouts, but accepts this.

“Actually...” Rinnosuke glances toward a clock on the wall. “It's nearly your bedtime. I suppose that your parents usually read you a bedtime story?”

She nods again.

“Ah, well, you're in luck. I just happen to carry a variety of exotic stories from the outside world.” He gestures toward the book shelf. “Would you like to pick one?”

After the second round of playing, Sunshine isn't quite bursting with energy, but she isn't the least bit tired, either. She doesn't think that Rinnosuke wants to hear that, though. She pushes herself to her feet and toddles over to have a look. Some of the books on the shelf are still upside down, and it sends a twinge of annoyance through her. Also, the titles don't make much sense. Some of the books are thin, with names like Station Master Cat and the Choo-Choo Train. Some of the books are thick and have names like The Wife of Jidaiya. Neither of these titles sound very fun to her. After some thought, she grabs a magazine named Review of Medieval Warfare.

Rinnosuke looks uncertain when she holds it up to him. “Are you sure this is what you'd like to read?”

She nods, and turns it to show him the cover. “Um. There's a sword on the front. I like it.”

“Well...” He glances over it again, clearly reluctant. He caves in, though. “I suppose it can't hurt. If nothing else, something this boring should help you fall to sleep faster, right?”

It doesn't.

Rinnosuke leads her to a small bed that's sitting in the hallway near the back of the building. She's pretty sure that it's just another piece of merchandise, but it's still pretty comfy when he tucks her in. He settles onto a stool next to the bed, and does his best to read the magazine to her like a bedtime story. It turns out to not be very good, though. Most of the articles aren't about sword fights. They're about really boring things. They sound a lot like Miss Kamishirasawa's history lessons, actually. Somewhere around the third article, Rinnosuke glances up from the magazine. “It's been a while,” he says with a yawn. “Are you sleepy yet?”

She shakes her head.

“Well... I guess a few more shouldn't hurt.”

Sunshine doesn't think the articles are very interesting, but she doesn't want to tell Rinnosuke that and hurt his feelings. He reads a few more of them. Halfway through an article about a bunch of people digging up old helmets somewhere, he gives a bigger yawn and shakes his head. “I really don't know if I can keep doing this. Are you sure you aren't sleepy yet?”

She nods.

“... I'll finish this article, at least.”

He doesn't finish the article, either. Another few paragraphs in, and he's half-mumbling his sentences, losing his place occasionally. Then, he trails off and slumps down in his seat. Within seconds, he's soundly sleeping.

Sunshine looks at him, confused. She's seen people fall asleep plenty of times before—she watched Alice go to sleep dozens of times when she was a normal doll, after all—but she's never seen somebody fall asleep in a chair, let alone by accident. “Um,” she says. “Um.”

She leans forward and gently pokes Rinnosuke's shoulder. He stirs in his sleep, but doesn't respond.

She considers this. Rinnosuke really did seem like he wanted to sleep, so it would be mean to wake him up now. Instead, she settles back into the bed and closes her own eyes, trying to fall asleep. It's no use, though. She's still wide awake and full of energy. She starts fidgeting out of boredom, and soon, she can't take it anymore. She rises from bed. Ichigo dutifully hovers over from her resting spot near the foot of the bed.

“Shhh,” Sunshine tells her. “Don't wake him up. Let's go do something fun.”

Sunshine used to spend every night awake by herself, so she's used to this. It's really fun, actually. She sits down in the middle of the floor and draws a dozen different pictures. She does her homework. She plays a game with Ichigo and the toy robot, where the robot launches its fist and Ichigo tries to catch it before it hits the floor. She looks through some of the books, but most of them don't make much sense. She cleans more of the shelves, but gives up on it when she starts feeling pretty tired.

She's just starting to think about going to bed again when somebody knocks on the door.

Sunshine freezes, in the middle of drawing another picture. Rinnosuke is still asleep. People almost never knock on their door at home, but she knows that it means somebody wants in.

They knock again.

Sunshine scoops the toy robot up in her arms and cautiously approaches the door, with Ichigo trailing along behind her. If it's a monster, between the robot and Ichigo, she should be pretty safe. She leans in close to the door. “Um. Who is it?”

“... Sunshine?” It's Alice's voice. “Sunshine, it's us. Can you please open up?”

“Oh!” That's way better than a monster. Sunshine has to fumble with the lock a few times, but soon, she manages to open the door.

Outside, thte sky is just starting to light up. Marisa and Alice are standing there, both looking pretty tired and a little dirty, but smiling. “Good morning, kiddo,” Marisa says... then pauses, glancing around the shop. “Where's Rinnosuke?”

“There's your problem,” Alice says, sighing. “You fed her cake for dinner.”

“Yukari fed her cake for dinner,” Rinnosuke corrects her, but without much force to it. He's still half-asleep after being shaken awake, with his clothes rumpled and his glasses on crooked. “I was an innocent bystander.”

“Yes, but you shouldn't have let her. I told you last night, Sunshine isn't a human. The more food you give her, the longer she'll be awake, and if it's something like cake...”

“I understand,” Rinnosuke says, and glances to Sunshine. “She doesn't seem to have minded it, though.”

“I had fun...” Sunshine says. She still isn't sure why her parents like sleeping so much. Sleeping is okay, but she'd play all night if she could.

“You look kinda tired now, though,” Marisa says.

Sunshine gives a reluctant nod. She's finally running out of energy, even though the sun is coming up.

“We'll have breakfast when we get home. That should give you enough energy to get through the day,” Alice says. She doesn't sound like she likes the idea of Sunshine being awake for two days straight.

“Who's your new friend there?” Marisa asks.

Sunshine holds the toy up. “It's a robot.”

“Huh. Kinda cute, I guess.”

“Yes, it's cute,” Alice says. “I'm not sure what it's supposed to be, though.”

“Ah, well,” Rinnosuke says, with a smile growing on his face. “I actually wondered that, myself. I've read quite a bit on the topic, if you'd be interested in hearing it.”

“Hmm? Well, if it's interesting enough to research, then I wouldn't mind.” Alice doesn't seem to notice the fact that Marisa is giving not-so-subtle, frantic shakes of her head.

“Ah, well.” Rinnosuke pushes his glasses up his face, suddenly looking much more awake. “I don't suppose you're familiar with its etymology?”

“I'm not, no. Is it from—“

Alice is cut off when Marisa elbows her side. She's still shaking her head, and mouths, “Don't.”

Rinnosuke doesn't seem to notice, though. He's already deep in thought, and soon he begins. “Well, 'robot' is merely a loanword. I believe that the original foreign word is the English 'rowboat,' which refers to a small boat that needs oars to move. In ancient times, of course, such boats were known as triremes. Now, it's important to remember that kings and emperors would often travel on such vessels. We can ask the important question: Would such a dignified official be willing to put up with the needs of a crew of servants? I think that the answer is no; sooner or later, they would have tried to automate the role. That leads, of course, to a poem called Metamorphoses, in which there is a story of...”

Five minutes pass.

Rinnosuke is still going.

“... and while they are known to turn to dust if the name is removed from their mouth, it's safe to say that this rarely happens in a manufacturing environment. Now, if we consider the drawbacks of—“

“A-ah, Rinnosuke,” Alice says, cutting him off. “We do need to get home soon, I'm afraid.”

“... ah?” Rinnosuke blinks as his mind is dragged back to reality, kicking and screaming. “Are you sure? This next part is fairly interesting, I think.”

“Ah, yes, we really should. We wouldn't want Sunshine to fall asleep on the way, after all.”

“Oh, of course. If you'd like to hear the rest, let me know sometime. I think there are some interesting parallels to your work. Actually, I did find one story of a clockwork doll that—“

“I'll be sure to let you know,” Alice says, cutting him off again in a tone so polite and interested that even Sunshine can tell it's faked. “Sunshine, don't forget to thank Rinnosuke for the new toy.”

Sunshine looks up to him. He doesn't look quite so intimidating now, at least. Even so, thanking people already feels really hard. It takes a few seconds for her to work her way up to, “Thanks for the robot...”

“You're welcome,” he says. “You're free to stay here whenever you'd like, Sunshine. You're a very polite young lady, considering who you were raised by.”

“He's talking about you, dear,” Alice says, then glances back to Sunshine. “Right, then. Let's head home.”

They're barely out the door before Marisa grins over to her. “We've got lots of new stories to tell you, too. Last night we had to fight a tengu, a werewolf, and one of Yukari's pets.”

Sunshine fights the urge to hop up and down in excitement. Before she can say anything, though, a big yawn forces its way from her mouth.

“Ah, yeah, still tired, huh? Here.” Marisa scoops her up and sits her on her shoulders, riding piggyback. “Comfy?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Good. We can call this your bedtime story, then. So, anyway, we're walking through the forest, right? And we hear the brush moving behind us, and we turn around, and there are these red eyes...”

Sunshine leans forward excitedly, trying to absorb every word of the story that she can. At some point during the trip, though, she nods off and falls asleep. That's still okay, because there's plenty of time to hear the story once they get home.

Chapter Text

Today, math class is at the end of the day. Math class at the end of the day is the worst.

Sunshine sits at her desk, struggling to pay attention, but it's even harder today than usual. A few lines at the top of her notebook attest to her attempts to take notes, but past that, there's nothing but drawings. She's finishing up the fifth in a series, stick figures fighting off evil youkai, when Miss Kamishirasawa finally reaches the end of the lesson. “There are just a few more things before I dismiss you.” She closes her book and smiles, stepping around her desk. “It's warming up earlier than normal, so I'm told that most families are going to start their planting next week.”

An excited murmur runs through the room, and Miss Kamishirasawa raises a hand to cut it off. “As usual, we'll have a two-week break for planting season. But, that isn't until next week. There are still four more days of class. Tonight, I'd like grades four and up to do ten long division problems for homework. Grades one through three...”

But the class just keeps growing louder in its excitement for the break, and kids rise to their feet and hurry toward the door. Sunshine stays in her seat, squirming indecisively. Leaving class before they're dismissed is breaking the rules, an act that chafes every instinct she has. On the other hand, she can't hear anything Miss Kamishirasawa is saying anyway. Maybe she's already dismissed them, even?

When the first few students head out the door, Sunshine can't contain herself any longer. She leaps to her feet and takes off running toward the front of the classroom, and Ichigo scrambles to keep up with her. The other students are hurrying out, too, but she's the fastest of them, weaving between slower kids and ducking around the corner. Once she's out the door and in the clear, she breaks into an outright sprint, her feet thumping on the floor with every step.

Sunshine flies out the school's front door. The recent rain has left a stretch of puddles in the middle of the street, and she leaps across them with a slight boost from her flight abilities. Marisa's standing on the far side of the street, and Sunshine doesn't dare slow down as she approaches. Instead, she slams into Marisa at full speed, wrapping her arms around her in a tight hug.

“O-oof. Pretty eager to leave, aren't you?”

“The break!” Sunshine squeaks out, then pulls back to look up to Marisa. “Um! The break. It's next week.”

Marisa pauses for a moment, then tilts her head back, looking up toward the sky to hide her expression. “Break, huh? Well, that'll be nice. You'll have lots of free time.”

Sunshine gives an urgent shake of her head. “You said I could learn...”

“Huuuuuh. Learn what? You can learn lots of things, y'know.”

Sunshine's in no mood for these kinds of games. She wiggles impatiently, bouncing up and down on her feet. “Magic!”

“Oh, huh. Did we talk about something like that?”

Sunshine also doesn't have the patience to liner her words up before she says them, so she ends up ahead of herself, stumbling over her own tongue. “Um. Um! You said... you said I could learn it... during planting season...”

“Ohhh, yeah, I did say somethin' about that, didn't I?” Marisa grins, and the frantic energy drains out of Sunshine's body, replaced with relief. Marisa crouches down and scoops her up in a hug. “Pretty early this year. I'll have to run by the mansion tonight and make sure Patchy knows we'll be coming.”

Sunshine gives an excited nod.

The broom ride home feels longer than usual, because Sunshine has a secret building in her chest, like a ticking time bomb. When they land, she bursts straight through the door and leaps onto Alice.

“A-ah!” Alice's gasp from the impact sounds less feigned than Marisa's had. “What's gotten into you?”

“Magic!” Sunshine gushes. “Um! The break!”

“I guess it's starting early this year,” Marisa says, tossing her hat onto its peg by the door.

“It's planting season already? Well, I'm glad for you,” Alice says, then pauses, looking down to her. “... you need to take off your shoes, though. They're all muddy.”

Sunshine glances back. Sure enough, she didn't even remember to take off her shoes before she came inside. She goes stiff with embarrassment. “Sorry...!”

She rolls over off Alice and gestures for Ichigo to clean up the clumps of mud she left across the living room, then peels off her boots. Even this small delay feels excruciatingly long. The second that the last lace is undone, she tugs them off, hurries over to dump them by the door, then leaps back on top of Alice. “Magic!”

“I'm glad that you're excited,” Alice says, resting a hand on the back of her head. “But you still have a whole week to go. If you act like this the whole time, you're going to be too tired to learn anything by the time your lessons start.”

Sunshine pouts, but dips her head in a nod of understanding.

“And remember that it takes a very long time to get good at magic. You won't be flying around shooting fairies a week from now.”

Sunshine nods again.

“I'm gonna teach you to do a Master Spark as soon as you're good enough, though!” Marisa says, flopping down in the seat across from the two. “I've got a field picked out for practicin' and everything.”

Sunshine jolts upright, wiggling with excitement. Alice sighs and pats her head soothingly, shooting Marisa a pointed look. “I don't think she needs to learn how to Master Spark any time soon, even if she could.”

“But!” Sunshine squeaks. She's so excited that making words is harder than usual. “Um! I'll only shoot bad guys! And. Um!”

Alice calms her down with a kiss on the forehead. “You have a long way to go until you're ready for that. Let's focus on the small things for now, okay?”

Sunshine's so excited that she looks at the clock every few minutes for the rest of the day, counting down the hours until the day ends, leaving her with one less day to wait until she can start learning magic.

It's all she'll talk about at breakfast the next morning. Or, rather, write. With her thoughts tumbling from her head, it's the easier way to keep up with them. [CAN I MAKE DOLLS?]

Alice glances over at the paper. “Making dolls doesn't quite work the same way as other magic,” she says, giving a half smile as she straightens Sunshine's hair. “I can teach you when you're older if you want, though.”

Sunshine goes to school, and spends the whole day drawing herself shooting star-filled lasers at bad guys. She shows them to Marisa as soon as she's out the door, with a note already jotted below it. [CAN I START LEARNING NOW?]

Marisa chuckles and bends down, giving her a firm half-hug. “You've still got two more days of school. Besides, like we said before, we've got a tutor lined up for ya.”

Sunshine pauses and fusses in her bag looking for a pencil. Ichigo finds it and helpfully offers it up. [CAN YOU TEACH ME?]

Marisa gives a sheepish laugh. “I'm not much of a teacher. Trust me, it's better this way. Patchy's a friend, though. She won't hurt you, I promise. You liked Miss Kamishirasawa, right?”

Sunshine gives a reluctant nod.

“Good. Cheer up, kiddo. This time next week, you'll be shooting lasers like nobody's business.”

Two more days of school, and what's even worse is that they're followed by the weekend. The night before the lessons, Sunshine's biggest regret is that she has to sleep now, and she can't stay up all night to be ready the moment that her time comes.

It doesn't stop her from making sure that she's the first one to wake up, though. Before she's even out of bed, she sends Ichigo to start getting her clothes ready. While she does that, Sunshine runs into Alice and Marisa's bedroom, screeching to a stop just short of the foot of their bed. “It's morning!”

Marisa groans and stirs, but doesn't raise her head yet. Alice pushes herself up on an elbow, blinking the sleep from her eyes, and glances toward the window. The first hints of sun aren't even showing past the canopy of the Forest of Magic. Alice looks from the window, to the handful of Hourai dolls that are already making their morning preparations, to Sunshine. “It isn't even time for you to get up yet...” she says, sounding slightly bewildered.

“Um. I asked the dolls... to wake me up first.”

“You shouldn't be able to do that,” Alice murmurs, half to herself.

Even now, a slight pang of shame shoots through Sunshine. It doesn't last long. She trembles with excitement. “Can we go soon?”

“Sunshine, we still need to have breakfast first.” Alice sits up and yawns, rubbing an eye. “And we can't just drop in on Patchouli first thing in the morning.”

“'s Patchy,” Marisa mumbles from somewhere beneath a pile of blankets. “Not like she has a sleep schedule.”

Alice ignores this comment and forces herself to look more awake, smiling to Sunshine. “How about we cook a big breakfast to celebrate? Maybe that will lure Marisa out of bed.”

The broom ride to her lessons is the longest ride of Sunshine's life. It's still just cold enough that she needs to dress in layers for the long trip, and she stays huddled up behind Marisa, only occasionally daring to peek down at the land below. She doesn't know what kind of place she's going to learn magic, but she has a pretty good idea. Somewhere so important should look really impressive. It's probably some kind of big tower or castle. That's where the magicians in most of her stories live.

Her expectations still don't prepare her for seeing it up close. They land in front of the biggest building Sunshine has ever seen, and one that she remembers—a very big mansion, with a wall around it. The last time she saw it, though, she was only just starting to think. She hadn't been able to grasp just how truly big the building was. The schoolhouse is one of the biggest buildings in the village, but this building is so big that the schoolhouse could fit inside a dozen times without feeling cramped.

The guard out front waves them in after a brief talk with her parents, and Sunshine stays scrunched down behind Marisa the whole time. Only once they're out of the guard's earshot does she peek forward and dare to speak. “It's really big...”

“It's the Scarlet Devil Mansion,” Alice says, resting a hand on her back. “Do you remember? From our stories?”

Sunshine freezes up. She does remember hearing about the mansion, but mostly from Marisa's stories of fighting youkai. A vampire lives in here, so evil that she tried to cover up the entire sky once just for fun.

Marisa glances back to her once she's slowed down enough to fall behind. “Something wrong?”

Sunshine trembles, but shakes her head. Her parents are being brave, so she should too. She gestures for Ichigo to be on alert, though, leaving the tiny doll hovering around her like an overprotective guard dog.

The front door is the biggest that Sunshine has ever seen. As they approach, it shudders, then slowly swings open. The air fills with a low, groaning creak. Sunshine steels herself, tensing up, and Ichigo prepares for attack.

Instead of an enemy, though, a woman in very fancy-looking clothes steps out and holds Marisa's gaze for a moment, then dips an elegant curtsey. “Alice, I should probably thank you for teaching Miss Kirisame here how to enter the mansion through the front door.”

“Yep, never even occurred to me,” Marisa says, in a joking tone that doesn't betray the slightest hint of sarcasm. “Actually, I was hopin' maybe you could give me some lessons on using doorknobs while I'm here.”

“Good morning, Sakuya,” Alice says, ignoring Marisa and returning the curtsey. “I think Patchouli is expecting us?”

“She is, yes. This way, please.”

This is an encouraging sign, even if Sunshine still isn't entirely relaxed yet. She sticks close to her parents as they walk inside, their footsteps echoing from the cavernous walls. The walk feels almost as long as when they head into the village to go shopping. Even after the extra big breakfast, she feels like she's going to need a snack soon to keep her energy up. They eventually arrive, though, with their guide opening the final pair of doors to their destination.

It takes Sunshine a moment to recognize the things lining the walls as book shelves, because there are so many of them that it seems like that can't possibly be right. It's the biggest room she's ever seen, and they line every wall and stretch back and forth across the center, sometimes two or three high. It's more books than she's ever seen. It took her weeks to read all of the books on the tiny bookshelf in her bedroom. She can't even imagine why somebody would need so many books, but it's amazing anyway.

A few meters away, there's an overloaded desk, where a lavender-haired girl is hunched over. She barely even looks up from her book as they approach. “You're early,” she says. “I haven't finished preparing.”

“Good morning, Patchouli. And I'm sorry.” Alice hooks an arm around Sunshine's back and gently coaxes her forward. “Sunshine, this is Miss Knowledge. She'll be your teacher.”

“Should be a good pupil,” Marisa says. “Practically the only thing she's talked about for a week.”

Miss Knowledge gives a half-nod. “Well, all I had left was refreshing myself on the Ars Notoria, anyway. It's rarely worth teaching a novice, unless her memory is exceptionally terrible.” She finishes scribbling a few lines on a page in front of her, and finally looks up at the three. Her gaze settles on Sunshine quickly, and she studies her for a moment. “You've grown some since I last saw you.”

Sunshine isn't sure how to reply to that. She shies back, giving a sheepish nod.

Miss Knowledge gives a tight-lipped smile and closes her book, then shuffles around her desk for a closer look. Ichigo edges forward to insert herself between the two, and Miss Knowledge eyes her. “And who is this?”

Sunshine fumbles her hands, wishing for her paper, but manages to work herself up to speaking. “Ichigo,” she mumbles.

“It's a pleasure to meet you both.”

“Huh.” Marisa rests her hands on the back of her head, glancing between the two thoughtfully. “Kinda surprised, Patchy. I never figured you for one to get along with kids.”

“I've parlayed with devils and debated the souls of undead Lemurian scholars,” Miss Knowledge says, with only the slightest bite underlying her dry tone. “I think that I can manage to talk to a child.”

“Is there anything else you need from us?” Alice asks. “We've done our best to prepare her, but, well... I'm no teacher, and Marisa didn't exactly have a standard magical education.”

“If she can read and write, that will be enough.” Miss Knowledge turns to face Sunshine's parents and crosses her arms. “Although some privacy would be a good start. I can send Sakuya to fetch you if we end early. Otherwise, please return in the evening.”

“Of course...” Alice says, sounding the slightest bit reluctant. She turns and crouches down to pull Sunshine into a hug. “Sunshine, be good for Miss Knowledge, okay?”

“Okay...”

Marisa moves in for a hug right after her. “And remember that Patchouli's all weak and sickly, so if she gives you any lip, you can push her around.” Both Alice and Patchouli's gazes bore into Marisa in response, and she just grins. “Can't make it too easy, y'know?”

After a few final goodbyes, her parents head out the door, leaving her alone with Miss Knowledge.

Sunshine has never learned magic before, but in her head, she has a pretty good idea of how it should works. It should be like when her parents were making her new body, she's decided. Big piles of messy notes and chanting and drawing diagrams on things with blood.

The way that Miss Knowledge teaches her is nothing like that. They sit down at a desk with a big pile of books. Miss Knowledge takes one from the top and cracks it open, its spine creaking. It smells like Marisa's old house, and the paper is yellow. Sunshine feels like she'd need to wash her hands if she even touches it.

“This is the Charvaka Primer on Post-Materialism. It gets a little philosophical for our purposes in places, but it's still a good foundation in magic. Do you have any questions before we begin?”

Sunshine frowns down at the book thoughtfully. She purses her lips, and the words pile up in her throat until she gives up and grabs a pen. [A MAGIC BOOK?]

“Even more important. This is a book that explains the ideas that magic is built on. Now, if you see here,” Miss Knowledge flips the page and taps a spot in the first paragraph. “It's important to understand that all beings exist in a unified cosmological framework. Put more simply, that means that gods and spirits may seem different from humans, but that these differences are spiritually trivial. In some magical traditions, this is referred to as the Principle of Unity. There are philosophies that oppose this idea, which we'll get into later...”

Miss Knowledge talks so much that Sunshine feels like her head is going to explode.

She takes her time to explain everything they cover, but she introduces new ideas so quickly that Sunshine's poor mind can barely keep up. Miss Knowledge tells her about how to decide which things are real and which things aren't. She talks about how to make good magical experiments. She talks about how people used to think magic worked, but they were wrong. She talks about souls, and how they change the way magic works. She talks about ley lines, and while Sunshine isn't sure what they are, they sound neat.

Sunshine settles into place, staring down at the book, with Ichigo sitting on the desk in front of her. Unlike in school, she doesn't even need to take notes, so she sits perfectly still, only giving the occasional nod when Miss Knowledge asks if she understands something. It's a long time to sit around without moving, but Sunshine used to be a doll, so she's used to it. She isn't sure how this is supposed to help her shoot lasers and fly around, but her parents brought her here, so obviously it's important.

Miss Knowledge reads for hours, only ever pausing for long enough to take a sip of her coffee. When her coffee is gone, even that interruption vanishes. She's still droning on hours later, when somebody clears their throat behind them.

It's the fancy-looking woman that led them in, and she gives an apologetic bow as Miss Knowledge glances back to her. “I'm sorry for the interruption, Lady Patchouli,” she says. “Would you like some lunch?”

“I'm not hungry, thank you,” Miss Knowledge murmurs, already turning her attention back to the book.

“Ah, but I had thought,” Sakuya presses on, with just a hint of insistence to her voice, “that Miss Margatroid might like something to eat.”

Miss Knowledge freezes and glances to Sunshine, and only then does Sunshine realize that 'Miss Margatroid' is her. She still isn't used to having two names. For a long time, she didn't have any name at all. She hopes that she isn't going to keep getting more names as she gets older. They'd be hard to keep track of. She pulls her paper closer and writes, [A LITTLE HUNGRY], then sheepishly offers it up for Sakuya to read.

“As I thought. Will sandwiches be okay?”

Sunshine nods. Miss Knowledge mumbles something under her breath, but Sakuya seems to catch it. She inclines her head in understanding. “Very well, then. One moment.”

Then, she disappears.

Sunshine stares at the spot where Sakuya had been, then cautiously reaches out to poke at it. She can't feel anything, but she isn't sure if that means anything. If she could be invisible, maybe she could be not-feel-able too? She glances to Miss Knowledge, but Miss Knowledge doesn't seem concerned.

Sunshine is just starting to consider asking about it when Sakuya reappears, as suddenly as she vanished. She slides a silver tray with a pile of sandwiches across the desk. Sitting next to it, there's already a smaller tray with a teapot and two cups, and Sunshine would swear it wasn't there before. “I'm sorry, I forgot to ask if you like crusts,” Sakuya says to Sunshine. “I cut them off just in case. Please let me know if that's a problem.”

Sunshine really isn't sure what's going on now. She made lots of sandwiches back when she was a normal doll, and even with a dozen dolls cooperating, they couldn't have made so many sandwiches this fast. She doesn't see a kitchen nearby, either, which just makes it weirder. She fumbles with her paper, uncertain what to write, then tries, [MAGIC SANDWICHES?]

Sakuya tilts her head uncertainly. “Ah, not magic. Ham. Is that okay?”

That isn't what Sunshine was trying to ask at all. She turns the paper around and frowns down at it for a few seconds, trying to string together all the words she needs. She settles on, [DID YOU MAKE SANDWICHES WITH MAGIC?]

Sakuya reads this, pauses, and gives a coy smile. “You could say it's something like that, yes.”

Sunshine gives a nod, relieved. She'd already thought that magic can do pretty much anything, so adding one more thing to the list isn't too weird. She grabs a sandwich and takes a dainty bite of it, followed by a sip of tea. Soon, she's eating ravenously. Thinking so hard burns a lot of energy. Only after she's downed three sandwich triangles does she slow down, feeling guilty that she's eating so many more than Miss Knowledge.

Miss Knowledge doesn't seem to mind, though. She nibbles noncommittally on a single sandwich in between glances at the book in front of her. When Sunshine slows down, she looks up from it, studying her across the table.

Sunshine meets her gaze questioningly, and a few more seconds pass in silence before Miss Knowledge asks, with more than the usual awkwardness of an adult speaking to an unfamiliar child, "... so. Do you go to school?"

Sunshine nods.

"In the village, I presume."

Sunshine nods again.

Miss Knowledge hesitates, her conversational topics momentarily depleted. "... and what is your favorite subject?"

Sunshine considers that. Nobody's ever asked her before, and it isn't one she's ever considered. It isn't like she gets to choose which ones she wants to learn, after all. "Um," she says. "Um. History." It's the only topic that Miss Kamishirasawa doesn't mostly read out of a book for, and it's the one with all the stories about people fighting each other.

Miss Knowledge frowns in a way that makes Sunshine feel like she made the wrong choice, but gives a curt nod. "I see."

Miss Knowledge nibbles away the last of her sandwich, and as Sunshine finishes her own, she stands and starts making further preparations. She pulls a thin, square stone slab from a shelf and slides it onto the desk. It has deep engravings of three spirals, which all come together to a point in the middle of the board. One spiral has three holes around its edge, and into them, she sticks filigree-covered golden rods. They come together to a point to make a tripod. From the tip of it, she hangs a thin chain, with a pointy green stone dangling at the bottom.

Sunshine senses that the next lesson is going to start soon, and polishes off the last of her sandwich. Miss Knowledge gives her just a moment to swallow before giving the device a gentle push toward her. "Do you know what this is?"

Sunshine shakes her head.

"It's a Triskelion of Philochorus." Seeing the look of confusion on Sunshine's face, Miss Knowledge quickly explains, "It's a device to test for magical potential. Think of it like... a stepladder. It gives you the boost that you need to cast a very simple spell."

Sunshine perks up and gives an excited wiggle in her chair. Reading about magic isn't too bad, but making magic happen is definitely what she came here for. Miss Knowledge takes her hands and gently guides them onto the board, sitting each hand on one of the unoccupied spirals. "Please look at the pendulum and try to focus on my voice."

Sunshine has no idea what the word 'pendulum' means. She looks between Miss Knowledge and the device uncertainly. "Um."

"... the pendulum is the bezoar—er, rock—on the chain."

That makes more sense. Sunshine settles in, staring at the rock, and Miss Knowledge starts to talk. "At the heart of any spell is what is typically called the key. The key is an... idea that makes the spell work. For now, all you need to know about this spell is that I'll tell you a story, and I need you to picture it as well as you can. If you do, the you will cast the spell and the pendulum should move. Do you understand?"

Sunshine nods.

"Very well."

Miss Knowledge launches into a long and detailed story about a king who dies, leaving his three sons to argue about who will become his successor. All three of them grab the crown, but they're all equally strong, so no matter how long they fight over it, it never does more than shift back and forth. She goes into long detail about how the crown moves back and forth, and how it's always under tension from one brother or another. Sunshine doesn't dare to take her eyes off the pendulum for a moment, scrunching up her face and picturing the story really hard.

The pendulum doesn't move, though.

"Hmm." Miss Knowledge reaches the end of the story and looks at the pendulum. "Have you been imagining the story as I read it?"

"Uh-huh."

"And you're sure that you didn't stop listening for a while?"

Sunshine nods. Miss Knowledge purses her lips, looking unconvinced, then sighs. "We'll go through the story again, regardless. Please pay close attention."

"Okay..."

Miss Knowledge tells the story again, this time going into even more detail, describing the sons down to their clothes and narrating each movement of the crown as it goes back and forth. Sunshine does her best to imagine them, even thinking about them shouting at each other. The story goes on for ten minutes. The pendulum doesn't move.

Miss Knowledge stops again, frowning to herself. "... perhaps we should try something else."

The next several hours are a blur. Patchouli spends the entire afternoon trying different variations of the magic test—having Sunshine read weird words while holding shiny rocks, having her wave a wand at things, having her stare into bowls of water and look for pictures. Sunshine isn't sure what it all means, but it's a lot of work.

Enough work, in fact, that she dozes off at the desk toward the end of the day, and Patchouli lets her sleep. Patchouli goes back to her reading, and is still at it when Alice and Marisa return.

"Oh, heya," Marisa says, glancing toward Sunshine and grinning. "Poor kid couldn't keep up, huh?"

"She's only been asleep for half an hour. I'd thought it was better to let her rest."

"You must have been keeping her busy to wear her out so quickly," Alice says, with a soft smile. "I'll try to feed her more before we bring her next time. She can go for days as long as she eats enough."

"Ah. Well. About that." Patchouli primly folds her book closed, then rests her hands on it and chooses her next words carefully. "I don't know that there needs to be a 'next time.'"

"Huh?" Marisa glances over from admiring Sunshine. "What do you mean? She didn't pick it up that quick, did she?"

"She didn't pick it up at all. As near as I can tell, she's completely unsuited for magic."

A few seconds pass in silence, as Alice and Marisa stare at her in muted shock. "I'm not sure what you mean," Alice says. "When I built her new body, I made sure that the right conduits are there for—"

"And yet, she doesn't have the aptitude."

"Well... Sunshine is intelligent, but she is still young," Alice says. "Maybe she just couldn't focus well enough?"

Marisa nods in impatient agreement. "If she's just not very strong, we can work with that. I'll have Rinnosuke whip her up a more powerful mini-hakkero."

"The mini-hakkero is a furnace. Even the most powerful furnace needs a spark to ignite it." Patchouli sighs and adds, softly but insistently, "I tried three visualization exercises, two concentration ones, and three types of foci. I even tried the Sieve of Lao-Tzu just in case. She simply... can't project magical energy under any circumstances that I can find."

"But she—" Alice fumbles over her words, struggling to keep a level tone. "Everybody has some level of magical ability."

"You mean that every human or youkai does, yes. Sunshine is neither. If we consider a spectrum wherein a youkai's nature is mostly spiritual and a human's nature is both spiritual and material, I theorize that as an object—"

"Don't," Alice says, with a biting edge to her voice, "call our daughter an object, please."

"... I theorize that as she began life as a construct," Patchouli corrects herself, "she is entirely material in nature. While evidence is that she has a soul, I don't think that she has any ability to use magic or spiritual abilities."

Another few seconds pass in silence. Marisa clenches her hand into a fist and releases it a few times. "So you're sayin' there's nothing we can do."

"There are... rituals and forms of meditation that may be able to help her expand her spiritual awareness. Perhaps with a few years of practice, she might be able to do basic cantrips, but even that is—"

"I think we understand, yes," Alice says coolly.

Alice gets no further than that, as Sunshine stirs on the table, then lifts her head and glances up at the three. She doesn't wake up quite like a human—there's no yawning, no slow drifting back to awareness. One moment she's asleep, the next, she's looking at them with alert, curious eyes. She smiles. "Hi."

"Ah." Marisa steps over and rests a hand on her back. "Hey, kiddo. How was the lesson?"

But Sunshine can't overlook the heavy mood of the room, and the way that all three are watching her. She glances between them uncertainly. "... am I in trouble?"

"Ah? Er, no, not at all," Alice says, walking over to join Marisa next to her. "We were just discussing, er. Well."

Marisa clears her throat and picks up the conversation. "Nothing you need to worry about right now. Let's fly home n' have a big dinner, and then me and your mom will tell you all about it after, alright?"

Chapter Text

“Would you like to draw?” Alice asks. She removes her hand from Sunshine's hair to grab a stack of loose paper and one of Sunshine's pencils, then drags them closer on the coffee table. “Here. How about that?”

Sunshine shakes her head.

“Would you like me to read to you?”

“No thank you...”

Alice frowns to herself, studying Sunshine's face. “Sweetie, it's been three days. Do you plan to lay on the couch the entire break?”

Sunshine doesn't have a response to that. She stays quiet, and the sound of rain drumming on the roof fills the house.

The break for planting season hasn't been nearly as fun as Sunshine had expected. First, her parents sat her down and told her that she isn't able to be a magician. It was the saddest she's ever been, even worse than when she broke her arm and couldn't play outside. To make matters worse, it's rained for the past few days, so she can't even play outside. She isn't sure she'd want to anyway. She hasn't felt much like playing ever since she found out that she can't do magic. It almost feels like she was so excited for that, she used up all her excitement for other stuff.

“Well then,” Alice says, “in that case, I think that I'm going to make cookies. Would you like to help me?”

Sunshine glances up at Alice, and after a moment's consideration, nods. She still feels the need to help Alice around the house. She can remember what it felt like when that was all she wanted, and she's definitely moved on from that, but it still feels nice to be helpful.

And besides, she'd have to be really sad to be too sad for cookies.

"Now we add two eggs," Alice says. The last word is barely out of her mouth before Sunshine lifts one from the basket, and Ichigo hovers in to grab another. They give them a pair of expert taps against the edge of the bowl, then dump the contents inside.

"... three-quarters of a teaspoon of cinnamon..." Sunshine opens the little jar of cinnamon and carefully measures out a level 3/4 teaspoon, then adds it to the bowl.

"... a quarter teaspoon of nutmeg..." Sunshine does the same with the nutmeg.

"... and stir until it forms a stiff dough."

Sunshine gestures toward a mixing spoon on the wall, and Ichigo delivers it to her. Taking it in both hands, she sticks it into the mixture and starts stirring, while Ichigo grabs onto the edge of the bowl to hold it level.

Alice watches this with half-veiled amusement. "I'm not sure if you even need me here for this."

Sunshine pauses and looks up. "Cooking is easy..."

"Sometimes I forget that you've been doing this sort of thing since before you can talk." Alice steps over and rests a hand on her shoulder. "But keep going. The cookies won't look as nice if we don't get them in the oven while the dough is still cold."

Sunshine nods and continues stirring. Soon, her face is scrunched up in concentration and effort, as the dough starts putting up some resistance. Poor Ichigo has to brace herself against the bowl to keep it in place, and her little arms tremble with the effort.

Before they can finish, the front door of the house opens, followed by Marisa's voice. "Yo! Sunshine, are you free? I've got something I wanna show you."

"We're baking cookies," Alice calls toward the front of the house. "What is it?"

Marisa's footsteps approach the kitchen, and before she's even close, Sunshine can hear a distinctive squish beneath them. "It's a surprise!"

"Marisa, we're—you're tracking mud everywhere."

"Only a little! Dolls'll clean it right up anyway, right? What's the problem?"

"That isn't an excuse to make a mess!"

"Right, so, anyway." Marisa steps past Alice to rest a hand on Sunshine's back. "Wanna go mushroom hunting out by the shrine? With this weather, I bet there's lots of them popping up."

"Um." Sunshine squirms under the soggy hand. "But it's raining..."

"That's the best time to find 'em."

"I'm sure the mushrooms will still be there when the rain stops," Alice says.

"Nah, trust me." Marisa shoots her a wink. "Right now's a special time for it. You know?"

“... what's special about it?”

Marisa sighs. “Right now's just an extra-good special kind of time for mushroom hunting.” She winks again, this time putting so much force into it that it's practically audible.

Alice stares at her, pursing her lips in a mixture of indecision and annoyance, until she capitulates. "... well, you'd know better than I would," she says, and looks to Sunshine. "Sunshine, do you want to go mushroom hunting? I can finish up the cookies. They should be nice and hot when you get back."

Sunshine isn't quite sure what's going on, but she trusts Marisa, even if it means walking outside in the mud. She releases the spoon and nods. "Okay..."

"Great!" Marisa gives her another pat on the back and leans back, grinning. "Let's get you dressed, then. And bring your sword, too. Never know when it'll come in handy, right?"

Like all of Sunshine's clothes, her raincoat was custom-made by Alice. It's blue and it has a hood, and it has an enchantment on it to make water slide right off. Normally, she isn't sure why Alice and Marisa seem to dislike getting rained on so much. It's just water, just like when she takes a bath. Today, though, she's glad for the raincoat. She keeps the hood pulled down over her face as the broom rockets over Gensokyo, and between that and the shield of Marisa's body, she doesn't have to worry about getting water in her eyes.

She sees the shrine through the haze of rain below, but they fly right past it. A short while later, Marisa pulls the broom to a stop, and they descend through the canopy below. Here, the forest is thick enough that the rain barely gets past the leaves, drumming on the canopy above before dripping to the ground elsewhere. Sunshine's first few steps squelch on the wet ground, and she's glad that she's wearing her boots.

"There we go," Marisa says, swinging the broom up onto her shoulder. "You've never been mushroom hunting before, right?"

Sunshine nods.

"So, we're lookin' for little brown mushrooms, about this tall, or skinny white ones. If you see any that are other colors, don't grab 'em, okay?"

"Okay..."

"So, I'll go this way..." Marisa jerks her thumb toward the forest behind her. "... and you can go that way." ... and points to a path that leads off in the opposite direction. “In about ten minutes, come back here and we'll meet up again, alright?”

Sunshine glances down the path and frowns. “You're not coming with me...?”

“Well, the forest around here's pretty safe. The actual dangerous youkai aren't dumb enough to hang out around the shrine. Plus, if something happens...” Marisa crouches down and gives Ichigo a careful pat on the head with a fingertip. “That's what Ichigo's for, right? And you've got your sword.”

That makes her feel better. Ichigo's a really good doll, and she's shot Yukari, who's the scariest person Sunshine can even imagine. She should be pretty safe as long as Ichigo's nearby. Sunshine scoops the tiny doll into a hug and nods.

“Good. Remember, ten minutes! And if you find more mushrooms than you can carry, yell and I'll come help, alright?”

“Okay...”

Marisa gives a final nod and heads off into the forest. Sunshine hesitates, but she needs to be brave. She releases Ichigo into the air again, then heads off down the path in the opposite direction.

Apart from the rain, the forest is quiet here. Her parents have warned her dozens of times that she can't go into the Forest of Magic alone, and sometimes at night, she can hear animals howling and snarling in the distance. This forest is a lot nicer than that. Little bunches of flowers bloom all along the edges of the trail, and everything around her is bright green. It helps cheer her up a little, even with the rain dripping down all around her.

After walking for a minute or so, Sunshine spots a cluster of mushrooms poking up through the leaves. She crouches down to inspect them, and they look just like the ones Marisa described, short and brown. With Ichigo's help, she picks them, then continues down the trail, carefully cupping them in her palms.

A bit further down the trail, something rustles in the trees. She stops, peering up at them, but can't see anything. A few seconds pass in silence, and she decides to continue.

The trees rustle more loudly this time, with the loud snap of a twig.

Sunshine freezes, staring up at them wide-eyed. Ichigo hovers forward defensively, and Sunshine lets her free hand drift down to the wooden sword by her side. “Um...” She glances back along the path, but it seems like a really long walk back to the place where she left Marisa.

She doesn't get the chance to turn around anyway. From the treetops, a voice shouts, “Who dares steal my mushrooms?!”

Sunshine looks down at the mushrooms in her hands. She isn't sure if somebody can even own mushrooms that grow in the forest, but having somebody shout at her about it is kind of scary either way. She takes a few hurried steps backward and glances indecisively toward the clearing. “U-um.”

“O ho ho! You can't escape, foolish mortal! For now you have angered, me, the Great Youkai of... um. of Light!”

The branches rustle more loudly this time, and something fades into sight in mid-air before landing on the forest floor. The Great Youkai of Light is a lot shorter than Sunshine's imagination would usually guess. She's actually a little shorter than Sunshine herself. Plus, there are her clothes. A black cloak is draped over her back, with lumpy shapes beneath that even Sunshine can tell are wings. There's a wooden bucket over her head, with eyeholes cut out of it and a scary, roaring face drawn on the front with chalk. She has a staff in her hands that's twice as tall as she is, and it kind of looks like a mop handle to Sunshine.

This, of course, the scariest thing that Sunshine's ever seen.

“Return my mushrooms to me,” the Great Youkai of Light gives her mop handle staff an intimidating shake overhead, “and leave this place!”

Sunshine shies backward, clasping the mushrooms to her chest. “But they're mine...” Ichigo settles into position hovering right between the two.

“O ho ho ho!” It's probably meant to sound like a really smug laugh, but the Great Youkai of Light is really just saying it. She takes a step closer. “They'll be mine again after I beat you up and take them!”

Sunshine quivers in fear, but she has to be really brave. She tucks the mushrooms into a pocket and draws her wooden sword, holding it up uncertainly in front of herself. This doesn't stop the Great Youkai of Light. She starts stomping forward, holding her staff in front of her like a sword. “Go away!” Sunshine squeaks.

The Great Youkai of Light keeps advancing anyway. “O ho ho ho!” she shouts. Her helmet jostles a little with each firm stomp, until it turns around and she can't see out of the eyeholes anymore. It makes her a little less scary, but not nearly enough.

Sunshine shrinks backward behind her sword, trembling. After a moment, she remembers to gesture Ichigo forward. Ichigo hovers right up to the Great Youkai of Light, and Sunshine doesn't waste any time. With one more gesture, she instructs the little doll to fire. Ichigo rears back, and a cone of tiny rainbow-colored bullets explode out of the air in front of her.

Now completely blinded by her own helmet, the Great Youkai of Light is entirely unprepared for the attack. “Agh, what the heck?!” She drops her staff and wildly swats at the spray of bullets, like she's trying to fight a swarm of bees. The bullets pepper her all over, and when they bounce off her helmet, they give soft thumps like marbles falling on a table. This mighty attack is too much for the youkai to handle. She stumbles backward a few steps, then dramatically pitches herself back onto the ground.

“Argh, I'm defeated!” the Great Youkai of Light shouts, before going still.

Sunshine gestures for Ichigo to stop, but holds her position for a few seconds before cautiously advancing on the youkai. She grabs a stick from the forest floor and prods at her helmet.

“Hey!” The Great Youkai shouts. “Quit it.”

Sunshine reluctantly stops.“Um. Are you okay...?”

“I'm defeated!” The Great Youkai shouts with a huff. “Go away! You won.”

This is all really strange, but Sunshine guesses it makes sense. She's never exterminated a youkai before, so she isn't sure what's supposed to happen afterward. Marisa's stories about fighting youkai usually gloss over that part. She gives an uncertain nod, but backs away and rises to her feet. After a few seconds of consideration, she leans in to whisper to Ichigo. “Um. Let's keep going.”

Sunshine's more careful as she proceeds through the forest this time, though. She spends as much time watching out for youkai as she does trying to find mushrooms. After a short while, though, she spots some more mushrooms and hurries over to pick them. It's good at taking her mind off of the attack. When she gets back to the trail, she glances back at where she fought the Great Youkai of Light, and her body isn't there anymore. It's a little worrying, but it makes as much sense as anything else. Sunshine continues down the trail.

This time, she's attentive enough to spot the pointed tip of a translucent wing poking up from the underbrush before she gets close. She freezes in place, staring at it for a few seconds. Whoever the wing is attached to doesn't seem to notice. “Um,” Sunshine says. “... is somebody in the bush?”

The bush rustles, and frantic, whispered conversation comes from it. “Ah. Er. We're...”

“The Mighty Youkai of Darkness!”

The owner of the wing jumps up and into view, thrusting a finger into the air triumphantly. She looks like an even weirder kind of youkai. She's wearing a black cloak, with the hood pulled up over her head, but Sunshine can still see an eye patch under it, too. She has four wings that poke out freely, giving a little flutter as she levels her finger at Sunshine.

“Hey! We haven't even—“ The other voice from the bushes sighs and scrambles to catch up with her. “The Mighty Youkai of Darkness!” it shouts, as it too jumps out in front of Sunshine. This Mighty Youkai is wearing a flat white mask with two holes for the eyes and a bunch of holes over the mouth, and a pile of silvery blonde ringlets poke out past it. She also has a baggy white robe that looks kind of scary, but also gets tangled in the bush, making her hop around and tug at it for a few seconds before she's freed. Once she's away from the bush, she waves her arms extra threateningly to make up for it.

“We've heard that you defeated our ally, the Great Youkai of Light,” the first youkai says. “So we came here to avenge her!”

“Yeah, that,” the second youkai says, sighing to herself and tugging at her baggy robe.

“Um!” Sunshine gestures Ichigo forward again, and draws her sword. “Are you... bad guys?” she demands, in a shaky voice.

“Ohohoho!” It's the same smug laugh that the Great Youkai of Light used, but when the first Mighty Youkai of Darkness does it, it sounds a lot less forced. “Right! We're the most evil youkai there are!”

“And the mightiest!” her companion adds, getting into the experience a bit more.

The two youkai raise their hands overhead and waggle their fingers spookily, then start slowly advancing on her. Sunshine raises a hand to command Ichigo, and—

“Oh, you beat her up with that doll, right?” The first Mighty Youkai of Darkness asks. She leans forward and wraps both hands around Ichigo, plucking her out of the air. “I'd better hold on to this!”

Sunshine's eyes go wide. She's never even thought about somebody managing to beat Ichigo. Ichigo thrashes in the youkai's hands, occasionally firing off a little burst of bullets, but the youkai doesn't seem to mind.

“Let go of her...!” Sunshine squeaks.

“Ohohoho! We will after we beat you up!” The two youkai start advancing on her again, with one still holding the protesting Ichigo.

“Let go of her!”

“If you surrender, we'll get this over with quickly,” the other youkai promises, sounding a bit tired of this.

Sunshine trembles with barely-restrained outrage, but now she knows what to do. She's okay with giving up the mushrooms if she has to, but there's no way she's giving up when evil youkai like this have their hands on Ichigo.

She steps forward, raises her wooden sword overhead, and slams it down on the nearest youkai's head. “Let go of Ichigo!”

“O-ow, hey, what the heck?!”

But Sunshine isn't going to be pacified so easily. She keeps smacking the youkai with her sword, even as the youkai starts stumbling backward and raising her hands defensively. After a few seconds, the youkai falls to the ground, then scrambles back to her feet and goes into a full retreat.

Sunshine turns on the other youkai, who looks a little less confident now. “You weren't supposed to hit he—“

The youkai cuts off with a squeak as Sunshine charges at her, sword raised. In a frantic flurry of motion, she practically throws Ichigo into Sunshine's face, then turns and takes off running. “Okay, you win!”

The two youkai retreat off into the underbrush. The second one's robe catches on a root and she sprawls to the ground, but Sunshine leaves her alone while she tugs herself free. She still keeps an eye on them until they're completely out of sight, and she's safely alone in the forest once more.

Sunshine is still gushing about her victory when the broom lands in front of the house.

“Um! And. She grabbed Ichigo. And I was scared. Um. Um! And I hit the other one with my sword, and she ran away! Um. Even... even without Ichigo's help!”

“Wow, sounds pretty rough,” Marisa says. She crouches down in front of Sunshine. “C'mon, boots.”

Sunshine holds a foot out for Marisa to tug the boot off, but doesn't interrupt her story for it. “And, um! The other one was... the other one was...” She slows down for a moment, giving a frustrated huff, as her tongue struggles to catch up with her brain. “... scared. And she gave Ichigo back and ran away.”

“... who was this?” Alice's voice comes from the kitchen. Marisa freezes, looking like a mouse cornered by a cat.

Sunshine's too excited to notice. As Alice steps into view, she yanks her foot out of her second boot and runs over to hug her thigh. “I beat up three youkai!”

“Three—Marisa, what were you doing?”

“A-ah, hey, hey!” Marisa says, scrambling forward to raise a placating hand toward Alice. “They were, uh, tiny youkai!” She pointedly hisses, “Talk about it later, alright?” before turning back to Sunshine. “... but real impressive for a little tyke like you!”

Sunshine gives an excited nod, making her hair bounce around her. “Um! One had a scary mask. And one um. Had a helmet.”

“Did they?” Alice asks, in a voice somewhere between suspicion and outright confusion.

“And just think,” Marisa says, leaning in to ruffle her hair. “You managed it all without any magic at all. We might just make a youkai hunter outta you yet.”

In her excitement, Sunshine had almost forgotten about the magic thing. Even now, she quickly pushes past it. “I can draw them!” she says to Alice. “Then, um, then you can see!”

It's late in the evening before Marisa gets a chance to sneak outside, while Alice helps Sunshine get ready for bed. She eases out the front door, praying that it doesn't make a single creak, and takes off through the rainy skies toward the Hakurei Shrine.

Again, she flies past the shrine. This time she lands in a clearing a hundred meters or so behind it, where a single giant tree towers over the rest of the forest. After resting her broom against its trunk, she leans over and gives it a few solid thumps. “Hey, you guys still awake?”

It takes a few seconds, but a muffled voice shouts out of the tree. “You were supposed to be here like five hours ago!”

“Yeah, well, I got held up.”

There's no response to that except some muffled complaints. There's a creak near the base of the tree, and three fairies appear seemingly out of midair. Luna Child stops as soon as she's in front of Marisa, crossing her arms and scowling. “And you didn't say we were going to get beat up, either!”

“That girl was really vicious...” Star agrees with a shiver.

Sunny looks over to them curiously. “Huh, I didn't notice anything...”

“That bad, huh?” Marisa asks.

“She did chase us with a sword...” Star says.

“She chased you. I'm the one who got hit with it!” Luna corrects her.

“I mean, it's a wooden sword,” Marisa says, glancing between the two complaining, but completely unharmed-looking fairies. “A fairy should be able to shrug off something like that real easy, right?”

The two fairies grumble a bit, but neither of them can come up with a good counterpoint to that. Marisa decides to move the conversation along. “Besides, the important thing is that it worked. You must be pretty good actors! She's still happy about beating up a bunch of scary youkai. So, here.” She slips her hat off, and from the depths, pulls out a bottle of sake and offers it over. “There's your payment. From the shrine's offerings, even. Y'know, the good stuff.”

The fairies' wounds, real or imagined, are instantly forgotten. “Oh! Thank you,” Star says, already taking it in hand.

“Yeah, don't mention it.”

Marisa leans against the tree, crossing her arms behind, and watches the fairies start divvying up the bottle's contents. They're efficient like that. “Oh! You should stay and have snacks,” Sunny says. “We found a lot of mushrooms while we were out there waiting for her.”

“Eh, I mean, I'd love to, but, uh.” Marisa glances aside, in a rare show of embarrassment. “I should probably get home before Alice notices I'm missing. She's kinda pissed off at me. 'Don't teach her it's okay to get into fights with youkai' and stuff, you know?”

“You should definitely teach her not to fight fairies,” Star agrees cheerily, already sipping at a cup of sake.

“Won't it make it really easy for youkai to eat her if she doesn't fight back?” Luna asks, confused.

“Think the idea's that we stop that from even being an issue in the first place,” Marisa says. She rises from leaning and grabs her broom from its spot against the tree, giving it a lazy spin before resting it by her side. “Anyway, enjoy the booze. … and hold on to those costumes and stuff! Might need you to pull that again.”

Marisa hops on her broom and takes off into the sky. Soon, she's headed toward home, and a long-overdue berating from Alice.

Chapter Text

Sunshine is laying on the floor of her bedroom, with a half-finished drawing in front of her, when a question comes from the doorway.

“Sunshine,” Alice says, “can I have a look at your other body?”

Sunshine pauses, in the middle of drawing a tree, and looks up. The question is a strange one, but she doesn't see any reason why not. She nods and stands up, then walks over to her dresser. Her tiny doll body is still sitting there, one-armed and staring blankly into space. Sunshine carefully scoops it up, with one hand beneath its thighs and the other propping up the back, then offers it over.

“Thank you.” Alice takes the body and peers over it. Two Hourai dolls hover forward, balancing an open book between them. Alice glances between the doll body and the book, occasionally tracing a line on the page with a fingertip.

Sunshine watches this with idle curiosity. She's never seen Alice do this before.

Noticing her interest, Alice flashes her a reassuring smile, with her finger still marking a spot on the page. “It isn't anything to worry about. I just realized—ah, one moment...”

Alice trails off, her eyes drifting back to the page. That's okay, though. Sunshine can be very patient when she has to be. She watches for a couple of minutes as Alice continues her investigation—checking her doll-body's eyes, inspecting the tips of its fingers, carefully opening the mouth to peer inside.

“Hmm. I think I've found it.” Alice looks back to Sunshine, a little apologetic for the wait. It doesn't last long. She beckons Sunshine closer with a hand. “Take a look at the eyes. Do you notice anything strange about them?”

Sunshine looks at the doll-body's eyes. They're blue, but she's not sure why that's important. She shakes her head.

“It's a shade or two lighter than most of the blue eyes that I make. There's a little less cobalt in them. Which means that I made these eyes...” Alice references the book again. “On January 8th of last year, and I must have used the last of them by June 15th, because I fired another batch then.”

Now, Sunshine is even more confused. Apparently it shows in her expression, because Alice's smile urges her to be patient. “And your hands...” She raises the doll's single intact arm to show it off. “Are a fairly new design. Do you see that little joint there on the fingers? The first time I made hands like that was on April 27th.”

Alice is getting more excited now. Sunshine hasn't seen Alice excited very often, and when she is, it's usually about confusing things. Alice turns the book to show her a page. It's covered in Alice's tidy handwriting. “Between April 27th and June 15th of last year, I only made tolls twice. I made Shanghai dolls both times. But, the second time, I made a note that I was testing a new style of jaw hinge, which your old body doesn't have. So, that means...” Alice's finger slides up the page to draw attention to a line in the ledger. “... I built you on May 3rd of last year. In six days, you'll be a year old.”

Sunshine stares blankly at the entry on the page: 'MAY 3 – 3 Hourai dolls, 7 Shanghai dolls, 3 London dolls, 2 Shanghai dolls (explosive variety.)' She's still not sure why Alice is telling her this, but it seems important to her, and that means that it must be important to Sunshine too. She nods and says, “Okay.”

“Ah. Er. I suppose that doesn't mean much by itself, does it?” Alice pulls the book back with a sheepish smile, then crouches down to Sunshine's level. “Every year, when somebody turns a year older, people like to throw them a party and give them presents.”

Now, Sunshine is paying full attention. “Presents?”

“That's right. And the party too, of course. Is there anybody from school that you'd like to have over?”

Sunshine considers that. It isn't long before she shakes her head.

“You're sure?”

Sunshine shakes her head again.

Alice tries not to look too disappointed. “Well… I suppose you haven't been attending for very long. I'm sure that you'll have friends by your next birthday.”

Sunshine is not at all convinced, but that isn't the most important thing on her mind right now, anyway. “Um,” she says, “what kind of presents?”

“Well, what would you like?”

Sunshine stares blankly back at her. “Um,” she says again. “Um.”

“It doesn't have to be a thing, of course. If we aren't having a party, we can do something else instead. If there's anything you'd like to do, we'll dedicate a whole day to it.”

The offer leaves Sunshine squirming in excitement, and too overloaded to actually put a sentence together for a few seconds. “An adventure! I want an adventure!”

“It will have to be a little more concrete than that, sweetie.”

“Oh. Can we... go to the moon? Like mom and Miss Reimu!”

“… ah. Well, I'm afraid that I wouldn't know how to go to the moon, sweetie. It will have to some something that we can plan in six days.”

“Oh...”

Alice gives her a sympathetic smile and a kiss on the forehead. “You have almost a week to make up your mind. Take your time and think of what you'd really enjoy, okay?”

Having a birthday is a lot of responsibility.

Sunshine tries really hard to think of what she wants, but it isn't an easy decision to make. It's the kind of opportunity she won't get again for a whole year, after all, which is longer than she's even been alive. Something so important obviously has to be the most fun, amazing thing that she can possibly think of.

And every time she thinks of something fun and amazing, her parents shoot it down, which doesn't help.

She slides a picture across the dinner table one day—the paper's mostly covered by a single giant figure, four-legged and roaring, with a pair of tiny wings crammed onto its back as an afterthought. A tiny person stands next to it, smiling.

Marisa inspects the drawing. “Oh, hey, pretty nice work. Is that a dragon?”

“Uh-huh!” Sunshine points to the person standing next to it. “And me.” The person is wearing a yellow dress, so it should be obvious that it's Sunshine.

“Pretty cute.”

“Um! Because.” Sunshine rests both hands on the table, and prepares herself before gravely announcing, “I want a dragon for my birthday.”

“Hey, that's the spirit! 'cept, the only dragons I know of in Gensokyo are already spoken for. Might be kinda hard to track one down.”

Sunshine pouts.

School lets out. Alice is waiting outside, and Sunshine charges straight at her, clinging to Alice's waist and hiding her face against her tummy. “Um! Um,” Sunshine says excitedly. “I figured it out. What I want for my birthday.”

“Oh?” Alice leans back enough to make eye contact with her. “What is it?”

“A cake.” Sunshine talked to the fox kid today, and he gave her that advice. That's what humans do for birthdays, apparently. They eat cake. She feels very proud to have found that out.

“I see.” Alice smiles at that, stroking Sunshine's hair back. “Well, we have cake all the time, right? I'll definitely make one for your birthday, but I'd like your present to be something special, just for you.”

Sunshine stares at her in mute disbelief. When she'd asked for an adventure or a dragon, they'd said it was too much. Now that she's asking for cake, they say that it isn't enough. Presents are apparently very complicated.

A little tremble of frustration runs through her. She leans in against Alice, tightening the hug. “Okay...”

It's three days before Sunshine's birthday, and Marisa has spent longer than usual playing with her. Over the past couple of months, they've added a bit more complexity to the dragon game. If the dragon gets cornered and beaten up too quickly, she's allowed to announce that she's flying, and swords can't reach her. Sometimes the knight can find a magic sword and kill the dragon in one shot, or shoot sword lasers that hit the dragon even when she's flying. Sometimes if Sunshine wants to involve Ichigo, there can be two knights.

It isn't a very fair game if you're the dragon, but Sunshine isn't quite old enough to realize that yet.

“So,” Marisa says, as she slumps down to rest against the base of a tree. She reaches over and scoops Sunshine up, dropping her into her lap. “Figure out what you might want for your birthday yet?”

Sunshine stares glumly down at the ground, and gives a single shake of her head.

“It's a pretty big decision, huh?”

“Birthdays are hard...”

“Mmhm. Want me to tell you a secret?”

Sunshine glances up, and Marisa leans in conspiratorially. “The whole reason your mom's making a big deal about it is that she wants to make you happy. She thinks it'll be more fun if you think up what you'd like all by yourself, but... I get the feeling you'd be happier if I gave you some help. How about it?”

Sunshine nods. She isn't sure she's ever nodded so hard in her entire life.

“Thought so. So, if you could have anything in the world right now, what'd it be?”

That sounds like a really easy question, but it isn't. Sunshine already knows that if she says she wants an adventure, or a pet dragon, or to go to the moon, they're going to say that those don't work. If she asks for a cake, they'll say that it isn't big enough for a present. And they've already told her that she might not be able to learn magic.

What's better than a cake, but not as good as a dragon? Sunshine scowls down at her lap as she considers that. “I don't know...”

“Well, think about it like this, then. What's some stuff you've gotten that made you happy?”

“Um. My big body. Ichigo. Clothes. Candy. ... strawberries.”

“See, there you go!” Marisa gives Sunshine a little squeeze. “A new body isn't happenin' any time soon, but all that other stuff is pretty good. If you asked Alice to make you a new doll, or a really pretty dress, or a heap of candy, those would all make pretty good presents, don't you think?”

“Strawberries too...?”

“Oh, hmm. Just givin' you some strawberries wouldn't be much of a present. If you wanted something like that… Hmm. It's kinda a weird present for a kid, but I guess we could make you your own little garden or something.”

Sunshine perks up when she hears that. Alice has a garden, so she's familiar with them. Alice's garden is full of herbs and vegetables and things, though. It all goes into their food, but Sunshine isn't very excited to eat most of it. If she had her own garden, though…

“Could, um. Could it have apples?”

“Apples take a long time to grow, but sure, we could plant some if you want. There's lots of other things I think you'd like, though. Watermelons, blackberries, sweet potatoes... now that I think about it, there's lots of fruits and stuff you've still never eaten, huh? Gettin' your big body in winter means you've missed out on a lot.”

It takes a few seconds, but Sunshine eventually understands this to mean that there are a lot of other foods at least as tasty as strawberries. Her eyes widen, and she gives a little wiggle in Marisa's lap. “Um! I like that one. A garden. I want a garden, please!”

“Are you sure? A garden's a lot of work, and—well, I mean, you're you so I'm pretty sure you'll be able to handle it, but it isn't always fun.”

Sunshine doesn't even need time to consider the question before she nods.

Marisa smirks and leans back, propping her head against the tree. “A weird gift for a weird kid.” Seeing Sunshine pout in response, she ruffles her hair. “I think it's fitting. There's a trick, though. We've got to convince your mom that this was all your idea, okay? She'll be happier if she thinks you thought it up all by yourself.”

That doesn't sound very hard. Sunshine nods again.

“Maybe you can say Kei—er, Miss Kamishirasawa talked about gardens in school and you thought it sounded fun or something? I dunno.”

Subterfuge has never been Sunshine's greatest skill. On some level, deceiving Alice still feels very wrong to her. But, if it's only a really tiny lie and it's to make Alice feel better, that's probably okay.

Sunshine starts to nod, but Marisa reaches down to poke her on the nose. “Can ya repeat the plan to me? Just so I'm sure we're on the same page n' all.”

Sunshine goes quiet, staring down into her lap and mouthing sounds to herself, making a few test runs to see if she can even get all of the words she needs from her head to her mouth. “I'll say that Miss. Um.” A tired little sigh as she works up the momentum for one of the longest words she can imagine. “Miss... Ka-mi-shi... ra-sawa... um. Talked about gardens. And I want one.”

“Attagirl.” Marisa squeezes her, and before Sunshine can respond, stands up and hefts her into her arms. Sunshine lets out a soft squeak before Marisa lowers her to the ground. “Now, c'mon, it's almost dinner time. We've gotta wash up or Alice'll get cranky.”

It's Sunshine's birthday.

Alice steps outside, shielding her eyes with one hand and cradling a basket of gardening supplies in the other. A patch of ground next to the house has already been prepared, loosened and hoed into rows. It's way bigger than Sunshine's entire room is, and it's still smaller than Alice's vegetable garden.

“Are you sure that you want to plant everything yourself?” Alice asks, trying to hide the doubt in her voice. “It's your birthday, after all. We'd be happy to help you.”

Sunshine gives a firm shake of her head. Alice has spent most of the past three days trying to gently dissuade her from getting a garden as a birthday present. If it weren't for Marisa's support, she would probably have backed down by now. As it is, she's discovered a surprising reserve of stubbornness.

“Well, you're the birthday girl.” Alice smiles and sits the basket on the ground next to the tilled patch. Inside are the beginnings of every tasty-sounding fruit or vegetable that Sunshine was able to think of with Marisa's help, and a few flowers too—little paper pouches of seeds, sprouted plants in tiny pots, dry bulbs that look like tiny onions, and a few larger plants, naked except for the knots of soil around their roots.

“What do you want to plant first?” Alice asks. “Sweet potatoes, watermelon, or strawberries?”

Sunshine freezes as she considers this weighty decision. Her first instinct is to plant the strawberries first so she can eat them first, but Alice already explained that plants take a very long time to grow. Even if she plants the strawberries right now, she'll be waiting to eat them almost as long as she's been in her bigger body. It's still hard to convince herself to point to a small pile of plant slips in one corner of the basket, which she knows are sweet potatoes.

“Good choice,” Marisa says. “You remember what we talked about, right? The holes need to be pretty deep so it has lots of room to stretch out.”

Sunshine nods and steps over to the end of the nearest furrow, then crouches down next to it. She has a trowel of her very own now, a bonus present that came from the store where they bought all the plants. Carefully, she stabs it into the dirt. She pulls it back and stabs again, forming a lopsided X. Then, she starts twisting it, loosening the soil. Here in the garden, the ground is a lot softer than she's used to. Soon, she has a small mound of dirt. It's easy enough to slip the trowel down into it and scoop some out.

Something moves in the bottom of her hole. Sunshine leans in to peer down at it, but she's too slow. She gets into position just in time to see it vanish from sight.

“Um,” she says.

Marisa leans in over it too. “Somethin' wrong?”

“Something moved...”

“Oh, yeah, you've gotta be real careful about that when you're digging a hole. Wherever you go in Gensokyo, the underworld's beneath you, you know? So if you dig in the wrong spot...” Marisa swings her arms up into the air. “Whoosh!”

Sunshine stares up at her. She does not know what 'whoosh' is supposed to mean.

“... all kindsa hell critters will come out. Cats with too many tails, and oni, and spider girls. If you aren't carefully, they'll scoop you up and take you down there, and you'll get so wrapped up partyin' that you'll never wanna leave.”

“Oh...” Sunshine looks back at the hole, newly informed of its dangers. She hadn't realized that digging was such a serious topic.

“Marisa.” Alice sighs. “Don't scare her. Sunshine, you won't fall into the underworld just from digging a hole. … at least, not one this small, in this part of Gensokyo. We're here to keep you safe anyway.”

This is not as reassuring as Alice might think, but Sunshine still nods. She hesitates, then lifts the trowel again. Lining it up with the slope of the hole, she pushes the tip into the loose soil, bracing herself the whole time in case she needs to retreat from an oni onslaught. She scoops the dirt out.

Again, something moves. This time, Sunshine isn't going to take her chances. With a surprised squeak, she hops backward, landing on her butt. Ichigo darts forward to insert herself between Sunshine and the apparent source of danger.

“Ohhh, you weren't kidding, huh? There's a heck of a monster down there.” Marisa reaches down into the hole, and Sunshine watches her every move. She fishes out the source of the movement. It's a long, glistening, brown thing, and it wiggles back and forth, squirming plaintively in the air.

Sunshine watches it for a few seconds. The thing is weird, but she's pretty sure it isn't an oni. “Um. What is it?”

“It's a worm. They eat dirt and, uh, make more dirt. Somethin' like that.” Marisa stretches out her hand, with the thing draped across her fingers and wiggling at both ends. “Wanna pet him? They don't bite or anything.”

Sunshine shakes her head so hurriedly that her hair raises up at the ends. Ichigo still hasn't let up her guard, either.

“Well, alright.” Marisa doesn't seem to be in any hurry to put the worm down. She raises her other hand, letting it crawl across the back of her fingers, then holds it out toward Alice. Alice, too, shies back from the thing. “... now that you've got a hole, you can put a plant in it. The roots go in first, remember.”

Sunshine nods, and looks down to the bowl of tiny sprouts sitting next to her. Their tops are leafy, and their bottoms are submerged in a shallow pool of water. She carefully plucks one up by the stem, then slips it into the hole until the roots touch the bottom. With her other hand, she pushes the dirt back in, watching it suspiciously for any sign of more worms.

With that done, she looks back to her parents for approval.

“Pretty good,” Marisa says. “Now push the dirt down, just a bit.”

Sunshine does, then leans back from the hole. As soon as she's sure that she did what she was supposed to, she shakes her hands, trying to get the leftover dirt off of them. Her hands are dirty, and there's nothing to wash them with. The thought of wiping them on her dress doesn't even occur to her. Getting her dress dirty on purpose is the worst thing she can imagine.

“There we go. One sweet potato plant all ready to go. Now we've just gotta do that about six more times.”

Sunshine looks down the length of the garden. It had already seemed big, but now she realizes that it's enormous. Planting six more potato plants seems like it'll take all day, and that's not even all she needs to do. There are still watermelons, and blackberries, and strawberries, and...

Sunshine looks to Ichigo and makes a few demonstrative hand gestures. Just in case she adds, “Um. With shovels. Please.”

Ichigo doesn't show any comprehension, but she turns and floats off into the cottage. Marisa watches her go. “What was that about?”

“Planting,” Sunshine explains.

A minute or two passes. Alice and Marisa both shoot the occasional uncertain glance toward the house. “Well,” Marisa finally says. “We should probably get moving again, huh? Here, I'll help out a little.”

Marisa crouches down next to the furrow, digging another little hole and sliding a sprout into it. She's just starting to pack the soil when the cottage's front door opens again. Eight dolls, of mixed rank and mixed dress color, shuffle out with tiny shovels slung over their shoulders. Ichigo walks at the front of the procession, now toting her own shovel.

The dolls approach the garden, and Sunshine eagerly waves them over. “Um. See?” She crouches down and digs another little hole. The dolls crowd in to watch. She goes through each step carefully, stressing certain parts that she knows are more confusing. When she's finished and the sprout is snugly seated in the ground, she looks up again and spread her arms. “This far.” She demonstrates a distance with her thumb and index finger. “This deep. Um. Please.”

The dolls toddle down along the row, taking up positions every meter or so. One by one, they start digging. As they complete their holes to their satisfaction, they form an orderly queue at the dish to grab a sprout and haul it back for planting.

Marisa stands up from her own sprout and pushes her hat back, watching this with amusement. “Not really what I'd imagined when you said you wanted to plant the whole thing yourself.”

“She's just being efficient about it,” Alice says, giving Sunshine a proud pat on the shoulder.

“Uh-huh. Well, I think it'll be done in about ten minutes at this rate. You made Sunshine a cake, right?”

“Of course. It's big enough for us to share.”

“Think it'd travel well?”

Alice shoots Marisa a suspicious look. “I don't see why not, as long as I put it in a basket. … why?”

“How about you two go bundle up and grab the cake? I've got one more surprise.”

Normally, when Marisa flies Sunshine around on her broomstick, she stays close to the ground. Alice gets mad when she flies too high, and even more mad when she does tricks. Today isn't like that, though. As soon as they're out of the forest, they start pulling up and up and up.

Sunshine glances back as they ascend. From the air, it isn't hard to find their house—it's at the base of a long column of smoke that rises up from the chimney. By the time she finds it, it already looks tiny, and it only shrinks more and more as they rise higher. Soon, the puffy wisps of low-flying clouds stream past, and then it's completely obscured.

Sunshine tugs her scarf over her face and turns forward again, pressing in against Marisa's back for warmth. When they finally level off, they're way, way up in the sky. On the ground, it was overcast and dark. Up here, there isn't anything blocking the sun, and the clouds form a cottony blanket far, far below them. They look soft and squishy, and Sunshine kind of wants to try squeezing one and see how it feels, but they're going too fast for that.

“It'll be a bit of a trip!” Marisa shouts back to her. “Can you guess where we're goin' yet?”

Sunshine looks around, but there isn't a lot to see. There are clouds beneath them, and some distance behind and below, Alice is trailing them. After a moment's consideration, she leans to the side, with her hands clinging tightly to Marisa's waist. Leaning out far enough, she can see around her, to the area directly in front of them. There's a single thing poking up above the layer of clouds—Youkai Mountain, which still looks tall even from this angle.

She reaches past Marisa to point at it.

“Yep! Youkai Mountain. Pretty cool spot for a picnic, huh?”

Sunshine isn't sure she can shout over the noise of the wind again, but she gives an excited nod in response. Her parents have told her a few stories about the mountain, and most of them are pretty exciting ones. One time, Marisa flew up the mountain, and she spent the whole time fighting gods and youkai. This is starting to sound like an adventure.

Today, though, nobody comes out to attack them. She can see the slope of the mountain rising upward beneath them. When it finally pokes up past the clouds, it lets her realize just how high they are. Even the mountainside is so far down that the trees look like little green puffs of leaves. Trees aren't the only thing to look at, though. A river snakes down its side, punctuated by little clouds of haze where it forms waterfalls. Here and there, she can see pillars of smoke and dots of fire where people must live.

They fly past all of these. The river meets up with a lake, close enough that she can spot their reflection in it as they fly past. The lake is so big that it feels like time has slowed down, making them creep along on the trip from shore to shore. Ahead of them, Sunshine can clearly see the peak of the mountain at the top of the slope, even higher than they currently are.

They don't go all the way to the peak, though. Marisa pulls the broom level, and the mountainside rises up to greet them. This high up, there aren't many trees, and the ones there are look kind of scraggly. There are other plants, though, and below them is a little meadow. Here, Marisa finally descends, slowing down before she comes to a careful stop.

“Here we are!” she says, keeping the broom level so Sunshine can dismount. “That was probably the longest trip you've ever took, huh?”

Sunshine is pretty sure it is. She hops off of the broom. The grass makes a soft sound as her feet sink into it. It pokes up past her ankles, and something about it feels different from the grass she's used to. It feels dainty and tender, like it isn't accustomed to being walked on.

Alice lands close by. “Dear,” she says, in a sharp tone that Sunshine has learned means she's annoyed, “are you sure that coming this high up the mountain is a good idea?”

“It'll be fine,” Marisa says. “I cut a deal with the tengu. They didn't come out to stop us, right?”

“I'm more worried about the hags.”

“Never really seen 'em up this high. I think they don't bother going anywhere they can't catch outsiders.”

Her parents keep talking, but Sunshine's attention turns toward their surroundings. The wind up here is steady, a constant, stiff breeze that occasionally builds up into a strong howl that tugs at her clothes. That's not the really interesting part, though. The meadow ends a few meters away, sliding down into the rocky slope of the mountainside. There are just enough trees dotting it that she can't make out much detail of the mountain itself. Past that, though, are the clouds. They stretch out in every direction, with only the very occasional interruption from other, distant mountains. Here and there, gaps between them offer her peeks at the countryside below, little islands of green grass in an ocean of white.

“It feels different when you aren't flying, doesn't it?” Alice steps up alongside Sunshine, resting a hand on her shoulder.

Sunshine looks up to her, then back to the clouds below. It does feel different. She wants to grab a handful of clouds even more, for one thing. She nods.

“It's a nice view. … although if Marisa had told me we'd be coming up here, I would have dressed you warmer.”

“I wanted it to be a surprise!” Marisa protests. She walks up to stand beside them, thumbs hooked in the edges of her apron as she looks out over the countryside. “Besides, I've got a really good reason.”

“And what's that?”

Marisa doesn't answer. Instead, she grins down to Sunshine. “Alright if I pick ya up, kiddo?”

Sunshine isn't sure where this is going, but she nods.

“Right. Here...” Marisa crouches down and hooks her hands under Sunshine's armpits. In a single motion, she stands up and hefts Sunshine onto her shoulders. “... we go!”

“I'm almost certain that you could've given Sunshine a piggyback ride closer to sea level,” Alice says.

“It's not just a piggyback ride, jeez. Anyway, Sunshine, you said you wanted to go to the moon for your birthday, right?”

“Um...” It sounds kind of like a trick question, but this isn't a chance Sunshine will pass up that easily. “Uh-huh.”

“Well, this is the highest place in Gensokyo, and if you're sitting on my shoulders, you're even taller. Can't get you all the way to the moon yet, but this is a pretty good start, right?”

Sunshine pauses in surprise, then looks up. The moon is up there, hanging in the afternoon sky. Without any clouds in front of it, it's a little harder to tell how far away it is. Sunshine stares up for a few seconds before tentatively reaching up, stretching her fingers toward it.

Her fingers don't quite touch it, but she's almost certain that it looks a little closer than it did on the ground.

“I can't reach...” Sunshine announces, after a few seconds of this.

“Not quite yet, at least,” Alice says, stifling an amused smile.

“That's okay. She's still a growin' girl. She'll get it sooner or later.” Marisa pushes her hat aside and tilts her head back, letting her look up and make eye contact. “I know the garden was supposed to be your big present, but I figured one more surprise wouldn't hurt. You're not gonna hold it against me, are you?”

Sunshine shakes her head.

“Good. My plan is, I'm gonna overload you with presents every year until you're a spoiled brat, so then Alice won't be able to stand ya and I'll have you all to myself.”

“I'm not sure you could spoil Sunshine if you tried.” Alice steps over and offers her arms up to Sunshine. Sunshine leans forward, and Alice scoops her up. Rather than a piggyback ride, though, she pulls her into a hug. “Isn't that right?”

Sunshine gives an uncertain nod.

“Yeah, well.” Marisa slides in, hugging Sunshine from the other side. “You haven't seen how good I am at presents. Just wait 'til next year. Gonna see about getting that dragon.”

“Of course.” Alice's eyes turn from Marisa to Sunshine. “It was a little unconventional, but did you enjoy your first birthday?”

Sunshine nods much more enthusiastically this time. “Mmhm!”

“Good. You deserve the best birthday we can give you.” Alice gives Sunshine a peck on the forehead. “Happy birthday, Sunshine.”

“Happy birthday, kiddo.” Marisa gives her a matching kiss on the other side. “Now let's have some cake.”

Chapter Text

Sunshine's watering can is child-sized, half as big as the one that Alice owns, but it still feels very heavy. She has to lean back to offset its weight, and it sloshes with every step she takes. When she reaches the edge of her garden, she plops it down and surveys her kingdom.

When she was planting it, the garden had seemed very big, like an impossible amount of food. Now, it seems small. She has to crouch down for a closer look. The sprouts are delicate little green things, most of them so short that she could pluck them right out of the ground if she wanted. They've been growing for weeks, and the tallest ones aren't even halfway up to her knees. She leans right in, until her face is almost right up against one of them, and peers at it. She can almost convince herself that it looks a little taller than it did yesterday. Almost.

Next to it though, another, tinier plant pokes up from the soil. The sweet potato plants in this area have broad, soft-looking leaves, but this other plant has long, jagged ones. A weed.

Sunshine purses her lips as she inspects it, double- and triple-checking to make sure that she's correctly identified this interloper. Once she's convinced, she points at it. “This one. Please.”

Wordlessly, Ichigo floats down and braces her feet against the ground. Gripping the stalk of the weed with both tiny hands, she leans back and tugs on it. Bit by bit, the roots pop right out of the soil. After giving it a little shake to dislodge the dirt, she toddles over and drops it by the edge of the garden.

Sunshine nods, satisfied. After looking at the plant for a few more seconds, she decides that the dirt around it looks a little dry. She lifts the watering can, wobbling a few times until she stabilizes it, then carefully tilts it forward to drop a splash of water on the sweet potato plant. When she finishes, little droplets are beading on its leaves.

That's one plant tended to, and only a few dozen more to go.

Sunshine repeats the process as she moves down the row—inspecting each plant's health, pointing out the weeds to Ichigo, watering the plants that need it. The watering can grows lighter with every stop.

A sparrow lands on the other side of the garden. It cocks its head to the side, peering blankly at the rows of sprouts. Sunshine pauses mid-weeding. Alice has already warned her that birds will try to eat some of her garden, and Sunshine isn't about to let that happen. When the bird is still lingering after a few seconds, she trembles with outrage, then levels a finger at it. Without missing a beat, Ichigo charges forward, waving her tiny hands overhead and looking completely prepared to tackle the bird.

The show of intimidation works. The sparrow hops back, putting some space between itself and Ichigo, and peers at her. When Ichigo starts advancing again, the bird chirps in annoyance and flits off. Sunshine keeps a wary eye on it until it's out of sight.

Gardening is a lot of responsibility. Alice told her about a dozen different things that can hurt a garden, and Sunshine is the only one who can defend against them. She imagines that this is probably what fighting youkai feels like.

With the local bird population sufficiently deterred, Sunshine continues down the row, weeding and watering.

She's just starting on the second row when a voice interrupts her from behind. “Oh, good afternoon. I bet you're Sunshine, aren't you? I've heard a lot about you!”

Sunshine turns around. There's a lady standing there, only a head or two taller than she is. She's wearing a weird, wide hat with writing on it, and her black hair is tied up in two long braids. More importantly, she's leaning in so close that her face almost touches Sunshine's when she turns around.

Alice and Marisa have given Sunshine a lot of talks about the Forest of Magic. The forest is full of youkai, and some of them aren't as nice as Miss Kamishirasawa. The forest has plenty of fairies, too, and while those aren't scary, they can still cause a lot of trouble. When somebody Sunshine doesn't recognize comes out of the forest, she's supposed to be very careful and go right inside.

This lady doesn't look very scary, but Sunshine doesn't recognize her, either.

Sunshine takes a few hurried steps back, raising her hands to direct Ichigo into a defensive stance. Ichigo is in the middle of wrestling with a weed. It takes her a few seconds to drop it and hover up into position.

The strange lady looks from Sunshine to Ichigo and back. She looks more confused than intimidated. “Ah? Do you not know how to talk?”

This isn't the reaction that Sunshine had been expecting. She takes another step away, while Ichigo nudges forward to try, unsuccessfully, to drive the woman backward. Sunshine doesn't take her eyes off the lady for a moment, but there doesn't seem to be any harm in answering the question. “I can talk...”

“Oh, wonderful. My name is Narumi Yatadera. It's nice to finally meet you, Sunshine.” The woman is carrying a basket, and now she shifts it to one hand, freeing the other to reach out and gently pluck one of Ichigo's hands between two fingertips. She gives it a very delicate handshake. “And it's nice to meet your friend here, too.”

Sunshine's eyes widen in surprise. The woman ignored Ichigo's intimidation attempts so easily. Plus, she somehow knows Sunshine's name. That's weird. The whole thing is weird, really.

Sunshine's mind is made up.

She lunges forward and grabs Ichigo around the waist. Clasping Ichigo against her chest, she turns and takes off sprinting toward the cottage as fast as her little legs can carry her. When she reaches the door, she tugs it open, barely slowing down as she half-leaps inside and slams it closed behind her.

“Um!” she shouts, before she's even come to a stop. “Mom! Um! There's a lady!”

Both parents are inside, and she can hear both of them stirring immediately. Alice is the first one to respond, leaning out through the door to the kitchen. “A lady?”

Sunshine dips her head in a nod. Just to be safe, she runs over and throws her arms around Alice's waist, burying her face in against her tummy. “Outside...” she explains, muffled.

Marisa steps into the room, too, with a book propped open in one hand. “What's goin' on?”

Alice looks down to Sunshine. When Sunshine doesn't explain herself, Alice does it for her. “I think there's somebody outside.”

“Uh, huh.” Marisa, too, looks down to Sunshine. “Like, a youkai, or...?”

She's interrupted by a knock at the door.

Sunshine stiffens up, clinging to Alice even more tightly.

“Er, hello?” Narumi's muffled voice comes through the door. “Could you please let me in? I think there's been some kind of misunderstanding.”

“Yeah, hold on.” Marisa looks thoughtful as she steps over to the door. By the time she pulls it open, she's grinning. “Must've been really important for you to come all this way and traumatize our kid.”

“Traumatize...? I wouldn't! I just said hello to her! I was very polite!”

“Sounds like exactly the kinda thing a child-gobblin' monster would say.” Marisa shoots a glance back to Sunshine. “Is this the lady, kiddo?”

Sunshine scoots back, putting Alice's form more fully between herself and the visitor. She peeks out for long enough to give a single nod, though.

“... I see.” Alice allows only the slightest hint of amusement to show on her face, then strokes Sunshine's hair and shoots her a reassuring smile. “I'm glad that you were careful, Sunshine, but I promise that everything is okay. I'll tell you what—why don't you and I go get some snacks ready? I think some introductions are in order.”

A few dolls cooperate to settle a tray of tea and snacks onto the coffee table.

On one side, Narumi sits in an arm chair, trying to make her sunniest, most non-threatening expression past her embarrassment.

On the other side, Sunshine is seated between her parents, pressed up against Marisa's side so tightly that she manages to halfway hide behind her. With her one exposed eye, she keeps a cautious watch over Narumi.

“I'm sorry about this,” Alice says. “We don't get many visitors, and we've… perhaps told Sunshine a few too many stories about the youkai who live in the forest.”

“Oh, it's quite alright.” Narumi's eyes drift over to Sunshine, a mixture of amusement and concern on her face. “I hope she's okay, though...?”

“Here.” Marisa scoots aside, just enough to make it hard to hide behind her, but rests a comforting hand on Sunshine's shoulder. “You don't have to be scared, kiddo. This is a friend of ours. Naruko, meet Sunshine, and Sunshine, this is Naruko.”

“Oh, it's Narumi, thank you,” Narumi says, with the polite determination of somebody who is prepared to keep making the same correction until the sun burns out. “It's nice to meet you though, Sunshine.”

If Marisa hears the correction, she doesn't show it. “Naruko is, uh—y'know how you were scared of Rinnosuke at first, but then he turned out to be a big dweeb?”

Sunshine isn't sure what a 'dweeb' is, but she gets the idea. She nods.

“Naruko here is, like, ten times less scary than he is. So you don't gotta be afraid of her.”

“Ten times…?” Narumi tilts her head to the side, giving the idea serious consideration. “Really, that seems like a bit much, doesn't it? I'm fairly certain I could beat up that shopkeeper youkai if I had to.”

“Yeah, but you'd feel really bad about it, so it doesn't count.”

“In any case...” Narumi leans forward, slowly extending a hand to Sunshine, like she's approaching a wild animal. “I hope I didn't scare you too much. Can we still be friends?”

Sunshine stares at the hand. She's still kind of suspicious of all of this, but between her parents' reassurances and the fact that they're right here, it seems safe enough. She eases herself away from Marisa's side, staying close enough to dart back to cover if she needs to, and offers a hesitant nod.

Narumi smiles. “I'm glad. Ah... I even stopped by that junk store to buy you a present, but I'm afraid that nothing there caught my eye. I'll have to make it up to you next time.”

“That's very kind of you, Narumi,” Alice says. “... and I don't want to sound rude, but is there an occasion for your visit?”

“Oh, I had thought that was obvious. I came by to meet Miss Sunshine.”

Both of Sunshine's parents stare at her.

“… you came to meet Sunshine?” Marisa asks.

“Oh, yes. I hope that isn't a problem…?”

Alice glances from Narumi to Sunshine and back, obviously trying to get an idea of how Sunshine feels about this. “Well, not necessarily. It's just sort of—“

“Seems kinda weird for a shut-in like you,” Marisa finishes for her.

Narumi shakes her head. “Patchouli mentioned her during my last visit to the mansion, and...” Instead of finishing the sentence, she says, “Maybe a demonstration would be best? Miss Sunshine, could I please see your hand for a moment?”

Sunshine glances to Alice for confirmation. Alice looks uncertain, herself, but offers her a nod. “Go ahead. I'm sure that Narumi won't hurt you.”

Even with Alice's reassurances, it takes Sunshine a few seconds to find the courage to comply. She slowly reaches out, with one finger outstretched. Her hands are delicate and fine, but they still have visible balljoints. Ever since she's started going to school, she's been a little self-conscious of them. They're one of the things that the other students seem to notice the most.

Narumi extends a finger toward her, too. As the two move closer and closer together, the flesh of Narumi's finger darkens, becoming stone. It makes a hard little click when it touches the wood of Sunshine's own finger.

Sunshine stares at this in surprise. When Narumi doesn't move away, she gives it another little tap. “Um. It's rock.”

“That's right,” Narumi says. “I'm a statue.”

Sunshine stares at that stone finger, deep in thought. This is one of the strangest things that she's ever seen, but the implications of Narumi's statement are starting to occur to her. “I'm a doll...”

Narumi shoots Sunshine's parents a quick, sheepish look, but otherwise seems reluctant to look away from Sunshine for a moment, even as she explains herself. “Tsukumogami are... rather unlike me, and even that komainu at the shrine is a divine spirit. But another construct who was animated by the Forest of Magic...”

Narumi trails off, smiling, with tears brimming in her eyes. Nobody seems to know what to say to all of that, least of all Sunshine. It seems important, and she slowly thinks through it. If Narumi is a statue, and a statue is basically just a big doll...

Sunshine looks from Alice to Marisa in confusion. They both look kind of thoughtful, themselves, but neither is stepping in to disagree with Narumi.

“Um. Um.”

It feels like Sunshine's whole head is full of squirmy worms, slipping past each other and trying, but never quite succeeding, to hook together into sentences. It's hard to put the ideas in her head into words, and even harder to get those words to her lips. She opens her mouth, but all that comes out is a soft, frustrated noise. With a sigh of defeat, she looks to Ichigo and crooks one finger in a subtle gesture.

Ichigo immediately reacts to the instruction, floating off across the room. Sunshine shifts in place, acutely aware that all three adults are waiting for her. Thankfully, it doesn't take Ichigo long to return with a paper and pen.

This is easier to handle, but there's still a lot to deal with. She's barely sure where to even begin. After a moment of debate, she decides to start with the most relevant fact: [YOU'RE LIKE ME.]

“That's right,” Narumi says. “I'm a Jizo statue. Have you seen those along the road?”

Sunshine's too deep in thought to respond, but the answer satisfies her. It feels really important. Super important. A tremble runs through her body. She writes the only thing she can think of. [HOW]

“Hmm, well, I suspect it was something like what happened with you. One day, I was a statue standing in the forest. Then, I realized that I was starting to think things, and pretty soon, I could move around and talk.”

Another tremble runs through Sunshine. [LIKE ME.] It's practically the only clear thought she has.

“That's right,” Narumi agrees again, softly. “Like you.”

The two stare at each other in silence for a while, Narumi beaming and blinking back tears, and Sunshine frozen in surprise. She isn't sure why this matters so much. She's met a lot of humans and youkai before. But she's never met somebody like her.

Marisa breaks the silence, giving Sunshine a light squeeze and saying, “Y'know, you could do way worse in a big sister than Naruko here. She's a really good magician, and she can do all kindsa tricks that me and your mom can't.”

“O-oh, oh my. Er.” Narumi stiffens up, stroking anxiously at a pigtail. “'Sister' might be a bit much, don't you think?”

“It might be a bit premature for 'sister,' yes,” Alice says coolly. “... I do have to admit that there are some interesting similarities, though.”

“Okay, fine, not 'sister,' but still.” Marisa pulls her hand from Sunshine's back and settles back on the couch, looking thoughtful. “... hey, kiddo? D'you think maybe you'd like to spend some time together, just the two of you? Could maybe work on your garden a bit, or play or somethin'. Just, you know. I bet you've got a lot to talk about, huh?”

Sunshine stares up at her, dazed. Her first instinct is to say no. She usually gets uncomfortable when she has to spend time away from her parents with strangers.

But... right now, something about that sounds kind of nice.

She nods, slowly.

“Oh.” Narumi stiffens up, but her surprise quickly melts back into a smile. “Yes, that sounds... that sounds lovely.”

Narumi helps Sunshine finish weeding her garden.

She talks while they do so. She tells Sunshine things about how she woke up and realized that she could move. When Narumi started moving, she wasn't in a nice house with a family all picked out. She was standing in the forest, and she had to figure everything out for herself. She built her own house and spent weeks learning things before she ever interacted with people.

It sounds kind of scary. Sunshine is glad that she lived with Alice even before she was able to think. Building a house sounds pretty hard.

When they're finished, Narumi takes a step back and looks out over their work with a satisfied nod. “You have a very cute little garden, Sunshine. Did you plant it all yourself?”

“Uh-huh.” Well, the dolls helped, but as far as Sunshine is concerned, that's the same thing.

“I can see that you're taking very good care of it.” Narumi glances over. “... do you mind if I help out a little more, though? It will be interesting, I promise.”

Sunshine really isn't sure where this is going, but she doesn't see any reason to say no. She nods.

Narumi takes another few steps back, putting some room between her and the garden. She closes her eyes and stretches her hands out like she's trying to pick it up.

Sunshine has seen enough magic to recognize when somebody is casting a spell. She takes a step back, just in case Narumi is going to shoot a laser or something.

What happens isn't a laser, though. A stiff breeze picks up, tugging at Sunshine's clothes and tousling Narumi's pigtails. It brings a feeling of warmth with it—not actual heat, but more of a general sense of it. It feels insulating and comforting, like the times that she's sat with one of her parents under a blanket.

For a few seconds, Sunshine wonders if maybe that's the entire spell. Then, she notices movement in the garden. The plants are creeping upward. Now, they really are growing quickly enough for her to see. She hurries over and kneels down for a better look, and she isn't disappointed. Leaves perk up, grow outward, and then sag under their own weight. Buds swell out from nothing, like growing soap bubbles, then split open into dainty little flowers. A little vine creeps along the ground, swaying side to side like a grasping hand, and Sunshine brushes a fingertip against it. It curls around her finger and gives it an insistent tug. Carefully, she picks her finger free before the vine tries enveloping her whole hand.

As the breeze dies down, that warm feeling seeps out of the air. Where Sunshine's garden had previously been filled with tenuous little sprouts, now the plants are bigger. Most of them are taller than Ichigo, forming a neatly-organized doll-sized forest.

“Um. Whoa.” It's the only word that Sunshine can think to say.

"Do you like that?" Narumi sounds just a bit proud of herself. She lowers her arms, relaxing out of the dramatic position, and adds, "I specialize in life magic. Making plants grow faster is really easy for somebody like me."

Sunshine nods at that, then looks down at her newly-expanded garden. It kind of makes sense, and it kind of doesn't. Marisa uses light and heat magic, so she shoots big lasers. Alice uses doll magic, so she fights with dolls. She isn't sure what life magic would look like, though. Maybe it's just about making things grow bigger.

That would have been very useful a few months ago, when she still had her tiny body. But if her magic does stuff with life...

That thought leads to some very interesting places. "Um!" Sunshine says. "Um."

Narumi lowers herself to Sunshine's height. She's short to begin with, so that isn't much of a change. "Oh? What is it?"

“Can you... make things alive?”

“I can, yes.”

Sunshine looks around for Ichigo. It doesn't take long to find her. As soon as she does, she scoops the doll up in both hands, then thrusts her toward Narumi. "Please."

“Oh, I see.” Narumi shakes her head. “I'm afraid that wouldn't be a very good idea. If I used a spell to bring her to life, it wouldn't last very long. Doing something like that would be mean, don't you think?"

Sunshine isn't sure whether she understands. She isn't sure when she came to life, but the parts before that weren't very scary. The more she thinks about it, though, the more she agrees with Narumi. Now that she's alive, she wouldn't want to go back to being a normal doll. Normal dolls don't even know how to play when she asks them to, and they aren't very good at drawing, either. Helping Alice is very important, but Sunshine thinks that she's better at helping her parents now that she's able to think for herself, anyway.

“Oh... not being alive again would be scary...”

"Mmhm." Narumi's eyes drift down to Ichigo. "Is she your favorite doll, then?"

The question takes some consideration. Being a doll is really important, but Ichigo is even more important than that. She settles on, "She's Ichigo. My friend..."

"I think I understand. She goes with you everywhere and helps you out, right?"

Sunshine nods.

Narumi's smile grows. "I have a friend like that, too. Would you like to meet her?"

Usually, Sunshine is reluctant to meet new people, but Narumi's enthusiasm is infectious. Sunshine nods again.

"Wonderful. Stand back, please."

Sunshine does, and Narumi moves too, putting a few meters between her and the garden. She raises her hands again, but this time, there's no slow buildup. A little red spark of light appears in the air, halfway between her hands. More energy roils around it, like steam rising off of a pot of boiling water. Then, with a foomf sound like the start of a fire, it grows outward. The little spark explodes into a big red ball of energy, wider than Sunshine is tall, glowing with a dull light.

Sunshine takes another step back, surprised, but her fear evaporates when she notices that Narumi is still completely relaxed. Narumi leans in, giving a hug to the big ball of energy. She's nowhere near big enough for her arms to wrap all the way around it, but she does her best. "This is my bullet golem. Isn't she adorable?"

Sunshine doesn't know about 'adorable,' but it's definitely the biggest bullet she's ever seen. She takes a cautious step forward, then another. She lays her hand on the side of the bullet, and it feels strange. On the very outside, it's sort of a haze, like pushing her hand through warm fog. As she moves past that, the fog pushes back more and more, like rubber, until her hand rebounds away.

The bullet gives a bounce in place, spinning, and Narumi clasps her hands proudly together. "Oh, I think she likes you! ... would you like to go for a ride?"

"Um. A ride?"

"Oh, yes! She's very friendly, you know." Narumi offers a hand down to Sunshine. "How about it?"

Sunshine stares at that hand for a few seconds, but she can't see any reason to say no. Hesitantly, she slides her hand into Narumi's.

Narumi scoops her up. Narumi isn't much bigger than Sunshine to begin with, and she apparently isn't very strong. Sunshine can tell that she's straining as she hefts Sunshine up onto the bullet, then pushes her forward. Sunshine slides onto the thing, with her weight sinking her a few centimeters into its surface. As big and round as it is, she can't quite sit down. She has to settle for sprawling out on top of it instead.

“You're the perfect size,” Narumi says, admiring the sight as she steps back. “Are you all set?”

Sunshine nods.

Narumi looks down to the bullet. "Now, please be gentle. She's only a child, you know."

Before Sunshine can worry too much about what this means, the bullet hovers up into the air. It takes her with it. The ground recedes below her, and they rise up until she can see onto the roof of the cottage.

Then, the bullet plummets back downward.

Sunshine lets out a squeal of surprise, clinging as tightly as she can to the bullet. She's just starting to feel safe against its surface when it impacts the ground below, then bounces off again. Soon, it's bounding around the yard, hopping from spot to spot in long, arcing motions. At the top of each bounce, her body rises a few centimeters off of the bullet as it starts to fall. At the bottom, she bounces down against it, sinking into its surface before she rebounds.

“Is this speed okay?” Narumi asks. Her head bobs in and out of view with each bounce of the bullet. “I can ask her to slow down if you'd like.”

Sunshine shakes her head. “More!”

"More...?"

"Um! More, please!"

"Very well." To the bullet, Narumi adds, "You heard the girl."

The next bounce shoots her into the air. The world spins around her, and she realizes that she's rolling end-over-end as she rockets upward. Just as she's starting to fall, the bullet darts right up beneath her, and she lands as gently as a butterfly alighting on a flower.

This is even better than when Marisa does loops on her broom, and doing broom tricks might be the most fun thing that Sunshine can think of. "W-whoa!" she squeaks, toward the apex of another arc. It trails off into a shaky squeal as she's launched again, followed by a few sputtered, delighted noises when she lands.

It's hard to get a good look at Narumi's face, since she's bouncing around like a rubber ball, but she's pretty sure that Narumi is smiling. "Having fun?”

“M-mmhm!”

“I do need to talk to your parents for a few minutes. Do you think you'll be okay out here by yourself? My bullet can protect you if any scary youkai come by. She's a very good guard dog."

The bullet slows down for a few seconds so they can speak. Sunshine just nods. She needs to save her breath for shouting.

"Good! If you want to get down, you can just ask her nicely, okay? If you get bored, she's also very good at playing Tag."

“... I'm still not sure about this,” Alice sighs, for the fifth time, while peeking out the window.

"C'mon, hun," Marisa says, also for the fifth time. This time, though, she backs her words up by resting her hands on Alice's hips, giving her a little tug backward toward the couch. "Sunshine's got more defensive wards on her than Patchy's diary, remember? You could throw that kid through a wall and she'd come out okay."

"That doesn't mean that I expected somebody to try it."

Marisa isn't giving up easily this time, though. She gives Alice another insistent tug, leading her backward until she's laying on the couch, with her head on Marisa's lap. Marisa grins. "There. Can't look out the window and worry all day if I've gotcha here."

"Yes, it's truly a foolproof plan. Now I can just hear Sunshine screaming instead."

“C'mon.” Marisa rests a hand on Alice's cheek, giving it a few strokes. "She'll be okay, I promise. Narumi's the last person who's gonna hurt her. ... 'sides, I do way crazier stuff on my broom sometimes, and she loves that. Kid's probably havin' the time of her life right now."

“I seem to recall asking you to be careful when she's riding with you, anyway. I'd rather her not pick up your reckless habits. … you're probably right, though. Those don't sound like screams of terror.”

“Exactly. So, less talk, more cuddling.”

“Well... if you insist,” Alice pauses mid-sentence to turn her head, placing a kiss on Marisa's clothed tummy. “It doesn't sound like the worst plan. Your thighs make for a nice pillow these days, too.”

“Huh. Do they?”

“They do. I might credit the fact that you ate two-thirds of my last batch of macarons.”

“I mean, that could've been anyone. I'd start my investigation with Sunshine, if I was you. Kid doesn't talk much. Could be hiding something.”

“Of course,” Alice says dryly. “Our daughter, the criminal mastermind. Why didn't I see it sooner?”

Before Marisa can respond, the front door opens, and Narumi walks in. Her head is tilted thoughtfully to the side, and her eyes are half-lidded in consideration. She barely seems to notice their presence. She lingers by the couch for a few seconds before lifting her head and giving a confident nod. “I think that I've seen enough.”

“Er.” Alice pushes herself up from Marisa's lap, smoothing out her clothes as casually as she can. “Seen enough? For what?”

“Oh, to understand Sunshine, that is. She might be a bit less similar to me than I'd thought...”

“That so?” Marisa asks. “I mean, I guess it's kinda obvious now that you mention it. You got all squishy and human-looking when you came to life. Sunshine didn't.”

“Exactly. And you were able to transfer her consciousness from one body to another, right? Oh, my, that would be much harder if she were like me. I'm not sure that even I could pull off a spell like that. I'm sure it would be almost impossible for newcomers to life magic like you.”

“Yeah, uh, we're really impressed. So are you gonna tell us your theory, or...?”

Apparently, this is just the question that Narumi has been waiting for. She confidently straightens her posture, holding her hands together in front of herself. “I'm almost certain that it's incorrect to call her a living doll. Think about it logically for a moment—your dolls are animated by a spell, but the doll and the spell are separate components. My, if the doll itself had come to life, it would probably end up fighting the enchantment. Who knows what might have happened?”

“So, what? You're sayin' she's, like... a living spell?”

“Oh, exactly!”

A few seconds pass in silence.

“... I mean,” Marisa says.

“I suppose it makes sense...” Alice says.

“We might have both been animated by the Forest of Magic, but oh, there are some important differences between spells and statues! If I had to guess... she really has more in common with my bullet pets than with me. Oh, and I have some theories about how this interferes with her ability to do magic, too! If you think about the flow of magic in a human soul as a plumbing system, then by comparison, Sunshine is like—“

“I, er.” Alice leans forward, putting a steadying hand on Narumi's shoulder and looking her in the eye. “I'd be very interested in hearing your theories sometime, but this perhaps might not be the time for it. This is already a lot to consider.”

“Ah? Oh, of course.” Narumi settles down, looking a bit sheepish. “I'm sorry. And please don't take this as a complaint. Sunshine is... still quite possibly the closest thing I have to a relative, and she's really a cute kid. Would you, er... mind if I came by to visit her at times?”

“I'm sure that would be fine,” Alice says softly.

The three sit in awkward silence for a few seconds, with nobody quite sure what to say. Narumi breaks it, perking up in sudden realization. “Oh, and! Before I go, I have a gift for you, too.”

“Heeey, gifts? Now you're talkin' my language.” Marisa leans forward, just in time for Alice to elbow her in the side.

Narumi doesn't seem to notice. She takes a seat and grabs her basket, pulling it into her lap, then reaches inside. From within, she withdraws a single gourd, in a bright, mottled, red-and-yellow color, then offers it over. Her expression suggests that no explanation is necessary.

But it obviously is. Alice and Marisa stare at the gourd in blank confusion. Alice is the first to move. “... well,” she says, reaching out to accept it, “Sunshine has been eating about eight percent more than my calculations had predicted, so more food is always welcome, but—“

“Oh, no, they aren't for eating. Would you like to cut it open?”

Alice looks even less certain about this, but goes along with it. An offhand comment is all it takes to send a nearby doll floating off toward the kitchen. After a brief hunt, it returns, with a knife as tall as itself dangling from its hands.

Alice lightly takes the knife and eases the blade into the gourd. It's slow work. The rind is thick and tough. Once the blade sinks in about a centimeter, it hits something hard inside. She saws the knife back and forth a few times, and it makes a grinding sound against the gourd's contents.

“One deep cut should be enough,” Narumi says. “After that, you can crack it open.”

“... right...” Alice eyes the thing, but whatever secrets it's hiding, they're well-concealed. She rests it on her knee, then pushes down on either side of the crack. Slowly, with the sound of tearing rind, the crack widens. She catches a glimpse of something golden inside, and then it splits in half.

Inside, the gourd is hollow. The interior, though, is completely coated in chunky golden crystals. Some are tiny little things, while others are big enough that they threaten to meld together into one big mass in the middle.

“It's a native breed to the Forest of Magic,” Narumi explains. “All of the wild strains make carnelian or malachite. I've been trying to selectively breed them to get emeralds, but… as you can see, this generation is mostly topaz. Miss Patchouli had mentioned that you're looking for gem quality topaz, though, so I thought it might be helpful?”

“Oh, uh.” Marisa leans over, idly poking at some of the crystals while she speaks. “We were gathering all kindsa stuff like this when we were making Sunshine's body, but that was a while back. I mean, it's pretty neat though. If you don't mind—“

Alice clears her throat. “I was the one who told Patchouli that I was looking for topaz, actually. It's for a personal project.” She sets the gourd aside. “Thank you, Narumi. This will do nicely.”

“Huh? What kinda doll needs a pile of gems?” Marisa asks. “Makin' a tiara?”

“A personal project,” Alice repeats. “If I have any leftovers, though, you're welcome to them. But, er, Narumi, you do know that you could probably sell these, right? There's at least one jeweler in the human village, and the tengu village has to have one or two.”

“A-ah, er.” Narumi glances aside, suddenly looking anxious. She strokes a braid again, tugging at it with both hands. “Well, I wouldn't know where to begin negotiating the price, anyway. Consider it a favor between magicians.”

“Pretty sure that means she'd rather give them away than have to talk to a stranger,” Marisa says.

“Dear,” Alice says. “Don't be rude.”

“Oh, no!” Narumi shakes her head, smiling. “That's exactly it.”

“Well... thank you for the gift.” Alice turns the gourd around in her hands, thoughtfully watching the light glitter off the facts of the topaz. “... I think I'd like to extract these before it starts to spoil. Marisa, why don't you and Narumi check on Sunshine? As much excitement as she's getting out there, I'm sure she'll want a nap soon.”

“I mean, sure,” Marisa says. “Will you be busy for long, or should I start thinkin' about making dinner for me and Sunshine?”

But Alice is already headed toward the door.

By magician standards, Alice has been very casual about her studies ever since becoming a mother. Apart from interruptions from Marisa, she has most of the day to dedicate to her crafts and studies while Sunshine is at school. If she really wants to, she can work through the night, but she usually chooses to sleep instead. For the most part, though, Sunshine comes first, and she spends time in her workshop when she can find it.

Today is an exception.

By the time she's extracted most of the topaz from the gourd, an hour has passed. The sounds of Sunshine and the bullet golem playing together have faded, and she isn't sure whether that means that they've gone inside, or Narumi has gone home. Part of her feels guilty for remaining holed up in her workshop, but this is a project that she's been imagining for months. Years, maybe, if she's honest with herself.

So, before she knows it, she's pulled out a magnifying eyepiece and started inspecting the chunks of raw gemstone for one of suitable size and quality.

Next comes cutting. It isn't easy, since the topaz is harder than any of the tools around her shop. With the help of a little magic, though, she manages to cleave a chunk into smaller, pebble-sized gemstones. Under her supervision, dolls work with deft little tools to grind facets into them—painstaking, careful work that takes much longer than she'd expected.

Out her window, she can see that the sun is down now. Polishing the gems is going to take hours more, and she's already missed dinner. She isn't going to finish this step of the project tonight. She also isn't going to be satisfied until she can check some of her measurements.

She crosses over to her desk. The top drawer is mostly full of tools and salvaged parts from old dolls. At the very back of the drawer, though, practically invisible unless you know to look for it, is a small wooden box.

She pulls out the box. The clasp on the front is enchanted to only open for her. As soon as it recognizes her presence, it clicks gently, and she opens the top.

Inside, the box is lined with velvet. A bare silver ring glitters inside.

Alice can't help but sigh with relief. She's pretty sure that even Marisa knows better than to poke around in her workshop, these days. But with a secret like this, she can't help but worry.

Alice directs two dolls forward, one on either side of the ring, hefting it up for her inspection. Another doll takes the half-finished pieces of topaz and carefully slides them into waiting holes along the top of the ring.

The fit is perfect. Of course it is—Alice's entire livelihood is about crafting delicate little things with precision. It's still satisfying to see her work coming together, and know that it all lines up exactly as planned.

“Thank you. You can remove the gems, now.”

The dolls remove the gems, and Alice gives the ring one last glance before closing the box and tucking it away again. It's coming together just like she'd pictured. And this, against all expectations, was the hard part. Unlike the topaz, she already has a lead on the diamonds she needs to finish it.

And after that, her engagement ring will be ready.

Chapter Text

Sunshine is drawing.

Today's picture is of the Eternal Night incident. On one side of the page is Reimu, swinging a gohei overhead and shooting out lots of ofuda. On the other side are her parents, with Alice riding behind Marisa on her broom. Her parents are flanked by five dolls—a Shanghai, a Hourai, an Orleans, a Russian, and a Dutch. The latter few types of dolls are still a mystery to Sunshine. She knows that Alice has used them in fights before, but these days they mostly sit on shelves, only rarely getting up to help out around the house. That just adds to their mystique, though, especially since Sunshine isn't sure what they do in fights. In her picture, she's drawn the Orleans doll shooting fire from its hands, and the Russian doll has a sword. Pictures are usually better if they have swords in them.

She's just starting to debate what kind of attack to give the Dutch doll when Alice leans in over her. "Sunshine," she says, "would you like a snack?"

It is around snack time. Sunshine nods.

"What would you like?"

Sunshine quirks one finger in a way that a doll would probably read as 'apple'; her knuckles approximate the angle from the kitchen door to the pantry, and then a short downward swipe of her fingertip indicates that it's the bin of apples, on the bottom shelf. She realizes, a moment too late, that this means nothing to Alice. She shuffles through the papers on the floor, finding an already-used one to write on. [APPLE]

“Do you feel like you can say it?”

“I...” It's all that Sunshine gets out before the flow of words dries up, like a hose with a kink in it. “I-I'd like, um. Um. … an... apple, please.” She barely even makes it to the end of the sentence, and finishes with a sigh of effort, shrinking down against the floor.

Alice lingers, looking concerned, but doesn't press the issue. She walks off toward the kitchen, and Sunshine stands and follows her. Alice opens the pantry and pulls an apple from the bin, but Sunshine is the one who sits it on a cutting board and carefully slices it into thin, almost-uniform wedges.

Once she's done, Alice grabs a plate and moves the apple slices over onto it. "Would you like tea?" she asks.

Sunshine nods.

"How many sugars?"

Sunshine is frozen to the spot for a moment. She left her paper behind in the living room, so she can't write a response. After a moment's thought, she instead holds up two fingers.

Alice looks thoughtful again, with a sort of expression that suggests she's thinking about saying something but knows she shouldn't. Instead, she nods in acknowledgment and starts a kettle of water.

Marisa peeks in through the kitchen doorway. “Still quiet, huh?”

“So it seems,” Alice says.

It's true. Sunshine has barely said three sentences all day. Sometimes talking is easier for her, and other times it's harder. Right now, it's not impossible, but it isn't easy at all. It isn't the wiggly-worms feeling she gets when she has so many thoughts that they bubble away before they reach her lips, either. This is something different—like all the parts in her head that put the sounds together are rusty, and she has to force them to move and work together. She can still do that if she really has to, but writing is a lot easier.

Marisa steps into the kitchen and crouches down, bringing her to eye level with Sunshine. "Is there anything wrong?"

Sunshine considers this, then shakes her head.

"Anything we can do to help?"

Sunshine thinks a bit longer this time, then shakes her head again.

Marisa crooks one corner of her mouth up in a smile and kisses Sunshine's forehead. “No pressure or nothin', but y'know how writing was hard at first, but then you picked it up?”

Sunshine nods.

“Talking's just like that. The more you do it, the easier it'll get.”

“Perhaps,” Alice says, crossing the kitchen again, now with a teapot in her hand. She sets a place for Sunshine at the table, with a saucer of apple slices and a cup of tea. Across the table, she sets up another spot for herself, with a cup of tea and a few dainty biscuits. “... but it's also an effort for her. Think of it like a muscle: if you strain it from overuse, you need to give it a chance to rest.”

“Hmm...” Marisa isn't considering for long before she moves on. “Well, how about this? I've got some errands to run in a bit. Do you wanna tag along, Sunshine? Maybe gettin' out of the house will help. Plus...” She leans in conspiratorially. “I can show ya a secret, even.”

This one, Sunshine doesn't have to consider for long. If Marisa has a secret, it has to be something fun, right? Also, she has math homework to do today, and math homework is always boring. If she can put it off for longer, that will be good. She nods.

"A 'secret'?" Alice asks, raising an eyebrow. "It isn't anything that will get her dirty, is it?"

"Just what kinda secret are you thinking of?"

"The last time you told me that you had a secret to show me, it was a hundred meters deep in a cave."

"And it was a cool cave!" When Alice isn't satisfied by that, Marisa adds, "I'll get her back without a speck of dirt on her dress. Witch's honor."

"Oh, you have honor now? I'll keep that in mind." Only the slightest smirk hints that Alice is teasing. "It's fine if you want to take her out for a bit. “Please do let her rest, though, okay? No speaking unless Sunshine wants to.”

“Sure thing. … and can I get some apple slices, too? I've got big plans for 'em.”

The best part of going somewhere all alone with Marisa is that the flight is a lot more fun than it might otherwise be. This time, she dips the broom down low, skimming so close to the treetops that the very highest leaves tickle against Sunshine's ankles. When they fly across one of the wider footpaths leading out of the village, she dips down into the gap between the trees, following along above it. Sunshine is amazed at how different it is on the broom. She's walked this path before. On foot, it's long and boring. Flying, the tree trunks rush by them on either side, and they fly through the curves with enough speed to push her down against the broomstick.

After climbing back above the treetops, they turn. Rather than heading into the village, they circle around it. The trees fade away into a plain, which then slowly transitions into bamboo. Soon, the bamboo is as thick below them as the trees had been. The bamboo forest has even fewer landmarks than the Forest of Magic, but there's a single big clearing ahead, and Marisa steers right toward it. Sunshine isn't surprised to find that there's a big house in the middle of the clearing, nor when Marisa lands in front of it.

It's a big traditional-style house, like most of the ones in the village. Most of the buildings that Sunshine has seen in the countryside—Alice's house, Marisa's old house, the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the Hakurei Shrine—look a lot different from the buildings in the village. Seeing a building like this in the forest feels pretty weird. It feels even weirder when she gets a good look at it. A few dozen rabbits are milling around in the grass around the building. The rabbits don't seem the slightest bit disturbed as Marisa and Sunshine hop off the broom and walk toward the building. One of them is in their path, and it just casually lopes out of their way, shooting them a look of annoyance.

Marisa says, "I've just gotta step inside and grab some medicine. Should take maybe ten minutes, tops. Why don't you stay out here? And...." She pulls the little container of apple slices from a pocket, then offers it over. "Here, take this.”

Sunshine takes the container, but she really isn't sure what she's supposed to do with it. She just ate an apple before they left the house, and she doesn't like apples enough to eat another one so soon.

“Hand 'em out to the rabbits. Trust me, they love those things.”

With that, Marisa steps through the door, and Sunshine is left on the front step by herself.

Sunshine really isn't sure about this whole thing. Rabbits are definitely a prominent entry on Alice's list of things that might try to eat her garden. Being nice to them seems counter-productive. On the other hand, maybe that's the idea? If she feeds the rabbits now, they won't need to eat as much later, so maybe they'll leave her garden alone.

That still leaves the question of how she's supposed to feed them, though. The rabbits aren't much help—some of them are milling about snacking on foliage, and others are sprawled out in the grass, keeping a wary eye on her. After some consideration, she takes the lid off the container and sits it on the ground, then takes a few steps back.

She waits a minute. Two minutes. The rabbits are not inclined to come take apple slices, it seems.

Sunshine decides to try being more direct about it. She pulls an apple slice out of the container, then walks over to offer it to the nearest rabbit. This approach is immediately more successful. Another rabbit, farther away, looks interested before she's even fully extended her hand. It casually hops up, craning its neck back to sniff at the apple slice. Sunshine holds it closer.

The rabbit leans in, slowly, to give it a curious nibble.

Then, it lunges forward, snatching the slice up and yanking it out of Sunshine's hand. It turns and hops away, retreating a few meters before it drops its bounty and starts devouring it.

Sunshine lets out a soft, annoyed huff. The rabbit strikes her as pretty rude, but at least now she knows that they will eat the apple slices. Plus, the other rabbits seem a lot more interested now. A group of them drift closer to the first rabbit. Two of them try to steal the apple slice, while the rest eye Sunshine with clear interest.

She isn't taking her chances this time, though. She takes a seat on the building's front step, planting herself solidly. She pulls another apple slice from the container, but keeps this one close, held firmly.

One by one, the rabbits hop up to inspect it. Three of them lean in to sniff at it. One gives it a nibble, trying to tug it from her hand, but she just barely manages to maintain her grip. Soon, the three rabbits are jockeying for position, pushing each other aside to steal bites of apple. Once they settle into a rhythm, the slice vanishes in a matter of seconds, and Sunshine barely manages to yank her fingers away before they chomp down on them.

All of the rabbits seem aware that she has food now. They're crowding in around her, forming an increasingly solid furry wall in every direction.

Sunshine reaches down to grab another apple slice, but discovers that one of the rabbits has broken the truce—the container is sitting next to her, and so is the rabbit, craned forward to let it dip its head inside. She looks down just in time to watch it yank a slice out of the container.

Sunshine bristles with outrage. That isn't part of the deal at all! She tugs the container away, sitting it on her other side, and nods toward the rabbit. Ichigo moves into position, planting herself on the ground with her arms spread wide, ready to intercept the rabbit if it tries for another round of theft.

Just as she's satisfied that it's under control, a rabbit walks up on the other side of her lap, stealing another apple slice from the container in its new position.

Sunshine squeaks in surprise, then waves her arms overhead, trying to scare the rabbits off, but it doesn't work. The rabbits are all crowding in around the container, eager to loot it. She yanks it away, but not before three more of them get slices of their own.

And they all know where the slices come from now, too. Even though she's holding the container, the rabbits crowd in around her. They surge up onto her lap en masse, a big furry carpet that threatens to bury her. She raises the box higher and higher, but the rabbits only follow, with some of them resting their forelegs on her chest to crane their heads up toward it.

Sunshine feels like she's going to be buried in rabbits. She has the container as high as it will go, and the rabbits still aren't deterred. With a little sigh of surrender, she upends it, pouring the rest of the apple slices into the ground, and drops the container for good measure.

That works, though. Most of the rabbits hop over to the pile of apple slices, and the rest of the apple vanishes in a matter of seconds. That barely even slows them down. Some of them swipe their tongues against the bottom of the box, disconsolately trying to get the last of the juice. Others stretch up to sniff at her fingers. One enterprising bunny stays resting against her chest, snuffling at her cheeks in a very misguided attempt to find hidden apple slices.

For a few seconds, Sunshine is frozen in bewilderment, wondering if maybe the rabbits are going to try eating her. Finally, though, they seem to realize that the apple is gone. One at a time, they grow bored and wander off, retreating to their individual napping spots. Only a few linger around her, still sniffing at her hands.

The last few stragglers scatter when the door opens behind her. Marisa steps out from the building. “Oh, all done? Didja have fun?”

Sunshine looks from the now-empty container to the rabbits, then back again. 'Fun' doesn't really seem like the right word, but it was kind of exciting, she guesses. Rather than answering, she quickly picks up the now-empty container, then defensively clasps both it and Ichigo against her chest. She doesn't relent until they're in the air.

The second stop takes them back closer to home.

It's somewhere that Sunshine has seen before, it turns out. The landscape below is familiar from their near-daily flights to the school. Soon, another gap in the trees comes into sight, and her suspicions are confirmed—they're going to Kourindou.

The shop looks a little more run-down than the version in Sunshine's memories. The grass is tall and shaggy, concealing some of the junk on the ground even from the air, and the overhanging trees cover more of the roof. It's like the whole building is trying to shrink down and hide behind the greenery. There's still a footpath leading up to it from the road, though. It's just wide enough to accommodate the both of them as they land and make their way up to the door.

Marisa throws the door open. “Hey, Kourin! How's stuff?”

Rinnosuke doesn't look up, though. He has a device in his hands: a sleek grey thing made out of some hard, shiny material that Sunshine doesn't recognize. On one end, there's a handle with a little trigger, and a cloth bag drooping down. On the other end, a hollow tube tapers down to an opening. He turns it over in his hands a few times, like he's inspecting it, before he responds. "Sometimes I wonder if you've ever entered a building without shouting," he says. Once he seems satisfied with his inspection, he looks up from the device and flashes a smile to Sunshine. "And hello again, Sunshine."

Sunshine gives him a little wave, but her attention immediately turns toward the device in his hands.

Marisa's thoughts seem to mirror her own. "So, what's that thing?"

"Ah, this? It's a device that an associate of mine brought from the outside world." He leans forward, turning it around to offer the handle to Sunshine. "Would you like to try it?"

Sunshine hesitantly steps forward to accept the thing, but she isn't sure what to do with it at first. Only after following Rinnosuke's gaze does she remember that there's a little trigger on it. She holds the handle and pulls on the trigger with one finger.

The device vibrates in her hands and hums to life. It makes a loud, shrill sound, like really fast wind during a storm. She panics, fumbling with it for a moment, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything dangerous.

"It's called a 'mini-vac,'" Rinnosuke says proudly. "It pulls dust in one end and puts it into that bag for disposal."

Sunshine turns the 'mini-vac' around for a better look. She can feel a breeze coming from the hole. Cautiously, she leans forward to peer into it. Right as she starts getting close, she realizes that her hair is fluttering around, drifting toward the hole. With a squeak of surprise, she jerks back just before it starts eating her hair.

"Uh-huh," Marisa says. "Let me guess, she gave it to you 'cuz everything in here is so dusty.”

“... she gave it to me because it's a collectible item, of course.” Rinnosuke adjusts his glasses, looking a little flustered.

Now that Sunshine has some idea of how the mini-vac works, she experiments with it a bit. If she holds her hand in front of the hole, it tugs her hand right up against it, but she can still pull it free. She eyes a nearby dusty shelf. She taps it with the tip of the mini-vac, then pulls away. It leaves behind a perfect, clean circle, an oasis in a field of dust.

It's one of the most satisfying things that Sunshine has ever seen. Cleaning things is nice to begin with, of course. This thing, though, is so thorough that it's almost like it's outright destroying the dust.

She swipes it along the edge of the shelf, watching in amazement as it gobbles up the dust.

"Ah, Sunshine," Rinnosuke says, "I appreciate the gesture, but you don't really need to..."

But Sunshine is already moving down the aisle, dusting along the shelf. By the time he trails off, she's too focused to even try guessing how he was going to end that sentence.

Marisa chuckles to herself, watching Sunshine double back and start on another shelf. "Should've known better than to give her an opening to clean. She'll be at it for an hour now."

"Yes, I know from experience," Rinnosuke replies, dryly. "... I assume you're here to pick up your order?"

"I mean, I'm overdue for a visit anyway, right? ... but yeah."

"One moment, then."

Rinnosuke steps into the back room. Marisa leans against the counter, watching Sunshine zig-zag up and down the aisles, dusting away. Before long, Kourindou will be a very clean shop. Or, at least, the parts that Sunshine can reach will be.

Rinnosuke isn't gone for long. He returns with a tiny package, which looks even tinier in his hands. It's wrapped up in brown paper, and he hesitates for just a moment before handing it over.

"Thanks," Marisa says, and hurries to tuck it away. "... hey, speakin' of which. Do you think topaz would've been better?"

“'Better'?”

"For the yellow, I mean. That stuff I brought was citrine, but Alice got some topaz last week for some kinda project. Kinda wonderin' if it would have been better to wait for her leftovers."

“Hmh. Topaz is the clearly inferior choice here.” A hint of a smile tugs at Rinnosuke's lips, and he adjusts his glasses. “When choosing gemstones, you should account for not only the physical properties, but also the spiritual ones. Consider the kanji for citrine—'yellow,' 'water,' and 'crystal.' With your own natural affinity for water—"

Marisa cuts him off. “Citrine is good, gotcha.”

Rinnosuke looks only slightly annoyed. "So... you're intent on this, then?"

“I am givin' her a wedding ring. So, yeah. I don't think take-backsies really apply there, y'know?”

"I'll admit, I never thought the day would come."

"Rootin' for me to get back together with Nitori, huh?"

"I would never criticize your choice of partners, Marisa. And I'd much rather see you with Alice than that... kappa."

Sunshine draws near again, dusting along the edges of the shelves. She lingers for a minute or two, scooting some of the contents to the side so that she can vacuum their areas, then diligently moving them back to the exact spots where she found them. The two go quiet. Partially because this isn't necessarily a conversation that Sunshine needs to hear. Mostly because the mini-vac is loud.

Only once Sunshine is on the other end of the store again does Rinnosuke add, hesitantly, "I thought you should be aware that... your father knows about everything, Marisa."

Marisa does not respond.

Rinnosuke studies her face, and gives her ample time to reply before he continues. "About Sunshine, that is. And the fact that you and Alice have moved in together, for that matter. I'm sure that he'd appreciate the chance to meet his granddaugh—"

Marisa isn't so subtle about cutting him off this time. "By the way, didja like that red stone I found? S'called 'carnelian.'”

“Marisa—“

“I didn't think much of it when I saw it the first time, but Nitori polished it up pretty good, huh?"

"Marisa. Please be reasonable. Gensokyo is only so big. You can't avoid him forever."

Marisa gives up on her attempts to redirect the conversation. She meets Rinnosuke's eyes for the first time in a good ten seconds, shooting him a brief, genuinely annoyed look. "Guess we'll see about that, huh?" More loudly, she adds, "Thanks for the hard work, Kourin. C'mon, Sunshine. Why don't you give that gadget back? We've still got a couple more stops to make."

This time, they fly into the village. Most of it is a familiar journey—now that she's going to school, Sunshine has accompanied her parents on plenty of errands. Today, though, they turn and head toward somewhere that isn't the familiar herbalist's shop, or the square where the farmers park their vegetable-piled carts, or the tailor. Instead, they descend along one edge of the village, where a river cuts through it. Marisa follows the river for a while before landing in front of the building.

The building has a sign on it, but Sunshine doesn't recognize any of the kanji, so she isn't sure what to expect. There's a curtain in the front door, and she ducks down so it doesn't mess up her hair as they walk inside.

The place is completely full of books. It's almost the most books that Sunshine has ever seen in one place, behind only Miss Knowledge's library. It has some of the same creaky, dusty smell, and Sunshine wonders if this is the home of a magician, too.

The girl who's running the store doesn't look like a magician, though. She looks younger than Sunshine's parents; she's taller than Marisa, but most people are. When they first walk in, the girl is bent over her desk, frantically leafing through a book. When she notices that she's not alone, she jolts upright with enough force to send the bells in her hair jingling. “Oh! Miss Marisa! Good afternoon!” As she speaks, she quickly closes the book in front of her, resting a hand on the cover.

“Afternoon.” Marisa digs into a pocket and pulls out a small stack of books, then slides them onto the desk. “Got some returns.”

“Oh, thank you.” The girl shuffles through the pile, then frowns and looks up. “Did you happen to find that one about crystals? It's been overdue for nearly three months...”

“Hey, so, anyway!” Marisa cuts her off, and steps aside to usher Sunshine forward with one hand. “Sunshine, this is Kosuzu. Suzy, this is Sunshine.”

Sunshine hadn't been expecting to get thrust into the middle of the conversation so suddenly. She stiffens up and stares at Kosuzu for a few seconds before offering a shy wave.

"Oh!" Kosuzu looks almost as surprised. "Your daughter, you mean...?"

"Nah, she's just this kid I picked up. I'm thinking of startin' a collection."

Kosuzu only briefly ponders that joke before looking back to Sunshine and flashing a smile. “It's nice to meet you,” she says, bowing in place. “Did you two come to get some books today?”

"Yep. Alice wants some stuff on metallurgy. I've got a few things I might wanna pick up for myself, too." Marisa turns and gestures toward a nearby section of the library. "Sunshine, I think all the kid stuff's back there. Do you wanna look through it and maybe pick out a few books? If you find ones you like, we can take 'em home."

"Just let me know if you have any questions!" Kosuzu adds.

Marisa heads toward the back of the shop, and Sunshine takes that as her cue to walk into the section that she'd indicated. The children section of the library is much closer to the front, and Sunshine is a bit self-conscious of the fact that Kosuzu keeps a sunny, expectant smile focused on her until she starts looking through the options.

This store has an even weirder selection of books than Rinnosuke's store does. Some of them look brand new, with impossibly glossy covers made out of weird, smooth material. Others are old and look like they might fall apart if she picks them up. There are lots of them, though. Sunshine isn't sure how she's supposed to pick one out of an entire shelf. She can't know whether the book is fun or not without reading it, and there's no way she can read even a little bit of each book today. Might as well get started, then. Pulling one of them out at random, she opens it up and finds that it's full of pictures of cartoon animals, with weird writing that Sunshine can't read at all.

She sticks at it. The next book is older and contains a long, dry description of math stuff. The one after that is thin and floppy, without a cover or spine, and it talks about how to catch bugs. Sunshine isn't sure why she would need bugs, but she holds onto that one for now just in case she thinks of a use for them.

She's just started leafing through another book when a loud THUMP comes from behind her, followed by a lot of things rattling around.

Sunshine spins around, but whatever caused all the noise is already finished. Now there's just Kosuzu, hunched over her desk and bracing both hands against something on top of it.

“What was that?” Marisa calls from somewhere near the back of the store.

"A-ah, it's nothing!" Kosuzu shouts back. "I just, um, slipped! Please, don't worry about me!"

Marisa mumbles something in response, but Sunshine doesn't hear it. Kosuzu is still in that weird position, though, with both hands pushing down on something. She shoots Sunshine a shaky, reassuring smile.

This is weird, but it doesn't seem dangerous or anything. Sunshine turns around and goes back to her search.

She decides to change her approach now. She walks down the aisle reading all of the titles, looking for ones that sound interesting. That's harder than it sounds, because book titles aren't very long, so they don't have much room for interesting words. Many of them, especially the shinier-looking ones, have names with words that she doesn't know at all, like 'factory' and 'truck.' Sunshine decides to look at that last one just to satisfy her curiosity. It's full of pictures of big, red machines with wheels on them, bigger than her parents' workshops. Sometimes they're parked in front of burning buildings, which is kind of scary. Sunshine thinks that maybe they go around setting buildings on fire.

She's just starting to really unravel things when another THUMP comes from the front of the store.

This time, Sunshine doesn't have to turn around. Looking up from An Illustrated Guide to Fire Trucks, she finds Kosuzu still bent over with her hands on the desk. This time, though, she's struggling. As Sunshine watches, the thing under her hands shudders, looking almost angry, and Kosuzu frantically squeaks under her breath as she tries to contain it. Only after a few seconds of staring does Sunshine realize that the thing is a book. There is a book on the desk and it is trying to move, and Kosuzu is holding it down. As she watches, the book manages to crack open, forcing Kosuzu's hand up a few centimeters. Kosuzu shoves it closed again, but a few papers go flying off her desk.

"Uh." Marisa's voice comes from across the store again. "Fall down again?"

"Oh, um, y-yep, ehe, really clumsy of me, huh?" Gritting her teeth, Kosuzu shoves the book down one last time. It stops moving, but she keeps a wary eye on it. "I'm fine, though! You don't need to worry about me, really!"

This time, Marisa walks back to the front of the shop, looking suspiciously from Kosuzu's face to the book in front of her. "... are you sure everything's okay?"

"Yep! Never better! A-ahaha." Kosuzu laughs nervously, adjusting her glasses. "Can I help you find anything, Miss Marisa?"

Marisa still seems suspicious about something. She stays in place, like she's waiting for something. When it doesn't happen after a few seconds, she sighs and says, "... Nah, I've got it. Just need to grab one more book and I'm done."

Marisa goes back to her browsing.

Kosuzu settles back with a sigh of relief... then stiffens right back up when she notices that Sunshine's eyes are still on her. She freezes for a few seconds, her eyes wide, then waves Sunshine closer.

Sunshine isn't sure what this is about. After seeing that book move all by itself, she's kind of reluctant to move closer to it. But, after a moment's consideration, she tucks a finger into An Illustrated Guide to Fire Trucks to mark her spot, then approaches the desk.

Kosuzu keeps an eye on her the whole time, with the occasional furtive glance toward Marisa's direction, like she's afraid that Marisa might see them talking.

Now that Sunshine is closer, she can get a better look at the book. It's covered in old leather that's sort of falling apart, and the writing on the cover has a lot of kanji that she doesn't recognize. The word 'tengu' is in there, though—Miss Kamishirasawa taught a lesson about tengu a few weeks ago, and Sunshine had to write the word twenty times for homework. There's a longer word with 'wind' in it, too.

As Sunshine watches, the tengu-wind book cracks open in the middle, and a stiff wind blows out from the pages. It's just one quick puff, though.

Kosuzu casually pushes down on the book with one hand, holding the cover closed. With her other hand, she quietly opens a drawer on the desk. Inside, there's a little basket of sweets. She chooses a lollipop, still wrapped up in a wax paper wrapper, and offers it over with a pointed, “Shhh.”

Sunshine stares at the lollipop, then points to herself questioningly.

Kosuzu nods and whispers, "For you! Just don't tell Miss Marisa, okay?" She tilts the lollipop to indicate the book in front of her.

That's possibly the weirdest thing that's happened yet. Sunshine really wants to know what's going on with the book. The lollipop does sound pretty good right now, though. The apple wasn't bad, but the bigger her afternoon snack is, the longer she can play after dinner. With a hesitant nod, she accepts it.

Sunshine has just started undoing the wrapper when the book flies open again. Wind bursts out from inside, as loud and violent as if she'd open a window during a storm. It blasts Sunshine's hair back, and sends a few items tumbling down from the desk. The wind is even so violent that it launches the book itself into the air. Before it even lands, Kosuzu lunges forward and grabs it with both hands. She shoves it down again, slamming it into the desk.

This time, Marisa is quick to spring into action, too. She steps out from behind a shelf, with her arms piled with books, and squints at Kosuzu. "Suzy, are you gonna tell me what's going on?"

"A-ah, um, I tripped again? Really clumsy, huh?"

"Uh-huh..." Marisa looks to Sunshine. "Sunshine, is that what happened?"

Sunshine freezes. She hadn't been expecting this. Not telling Marisa about the weird book is one thing, but lying about it is another. Sometimes, Marisa has told her, lying can be okay when it's telling Alice something that will make her happier, or something that doesn't really matter. Sunshine still doesn't like it, but those lies don't seem to hurt anybody. This, on the other hand, kind of seems more important than that.

Sunshine shakes her head and pops the lollipop into her mouth.

"We... we had a deal!" Kosuzu squeaks.

She barely manages to finish the sentence before the book explodes again, launching up into the air with enough force to send Kosuzu stumbling backward. The wind that pours out sends paper flying through the store and almost knocks Sunshine over.

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry!” Kosuzu has, somehow, managed to keep bowing while still following the two to the door.

“I already told ya it's fine.” Marisa doesn't have a very 'it's fine' kind of expression, but she doesn't look mad, either. The book, now restrained by several thick twine knots, gives the occasional wriggle in her hand. Every now and then, it manages to crack itself open just far enough for a little puff of wind to escape. “Just, y'know. You really oughta tell me or Reimu when you find dangerous stuff like this.”

Kosuzu fidgets. “Well... it's a collector's item, is all.”

“Uh-huh. Don't worry, I'll bring it back once I've got it all, uh, tamed.”

Marisa slips the book into her pocket, along with all of the fresh rentals. The ten-minute chase to catch the book didn't give Sunshine much more time for browsing, so she settled on the fire truck book and the book about bugs. Both books are still pretty mysterious too her, but if she reads them, then she should be able to figure them out.

Marisa shoots Kosuzu a final wave as they step out the doorway and back onto the street, then looks down to Sunshine. “Hmm, I guess that lollipop's all gone by now, huh?”

Sunshine nods. She finished it before they'd even caught the book.

“Feel like you've got room for one more snack? There's something I've been wantin' to show ya.”

Sunshine nods much more excitedly this time. Marisa always gets the best snacks when they're in the village. They've gone to the candy store often enough that the owner knows Sunshine by name, and one time they bought dango from a rabbit. Between them, they've introduced Sunshine to a whole world of sweets that aren't cake or cookies.

They hop onto Marisa's broom and take off. Since they aren't leaving the village, it's a very short flight. They barely even get high enough to see across the rooftops before they start descending again, making the trip one long arc, like a ball thrown into the air. It's still far enough to take them from one end of the village to another. They descend into an unfamiliar intersection, with a few groups of people lingering around the corners.

In one corner, a temporary stand has been erected, and the sign overhead says 'SHAVED ICE.'

Most of the denizens of the square shoot them curious looks as they land, but Sunshine is accustomed to it. Marisa rests her broom over her shoulder and heads toward the stand, holding up two fingers. “I'll take two. One lemon, and for the kid...”

Marisa gestures down, guiding Sunshine's gaze toward the front of the stall. There's a handwritten sign hanging in front of her.

FLAVORS:

• Lemon
• Cherry
• Strawberry
• Plum
• Melon
• Pear
• Violet

Whoever made the sign doesn't have very good handwriting, so Sunshine has to stare at it for a few seconds before she can read all of the options. She realizes that the man who runs the stand is staring down at her expectantly. She taps 'STRAWBERRY' on the sign.

"And one strawberry," Marisa announces for her.

“Comin' up.” The man moves to the other end of the table, where a block of ice sits on a strange machine, above a pile of something that looks like snow. He fills two big bowls with the snow stuff, then upends bottles of colorful liquid over them—yellow on one, red on the other. After jabbing a wooden spoon into each one, he slides them across the counter.

Marisa exchanges some money for them, then takes the bowls. "C'mon,” she says to Sunshine, “let's go find some shade."

She leads Sunshine across the square, to a little patch of mostly-undisturbed grass along the roadside, shadowed by a nearby awning. There's a big rock half-buried in the ground, and Marisa hops up onto it, using it as a seat, then offers the strawberry bowl down to Sunshine. Sunshine takes it and joins her on the rock.

Sunshine has never had shaved ice before. The bowl is chilly in her hands, and at the very edges, some of the dainty ice flakes are starting to melt. Even as she inspects it, Marisa scoops up a big bite of her own and pops it in her mouth. "If you don't hurry up, it'll melt, y'know," she says.

The encouragement is all it takes. Sunshine hurries to scoop up her own bite.

It's crunchy. At first, it just tastes like water. After chewing it once or twice, the syrup spreads through her mouth, and she tastes that instead. It's like strawberry, or like what strawberries taste like when she imagines them. There are no seeds and no pulpy bits, and the flavor is even stronger than biting into a big, fresh strawberry. The chill starts quickly spreading through her mouth, too, but that's not unwelcome. Today is pretty warm.

Sunshine chews on it a few more times, marveling at the flavor, then swallows.

Marisa watches this with amusement and something kind of like embarrassment. "Y'know, I almost forgot your body isn't warm. Guess it won't really... melt that easy for you. How do you like it, though?”

That's a harder question for Sunshine to answer without talking. She gestures Ichigo forward. The doll hovers up to pull her notepad out, then sets it out across her lap while Sunshine takes another bite. Once everything is in position, Sunshine writes, [GOOD. BUT LIKE SNOW]

"Yep. In the old days, they used to just cut out the middleman and eat snow instead."

Sunshine isn't sure how to respond to that, so she doesn't.

They keep eating. Across the square, an old man walks up to the stand and buys some melon-flavored shaved ice. From one of the nearby streets, Sunshine can hear a group of adults talking with loud enthusiasm, and somewhere else, a dog barks. Sunshine has never spent much time just sitting outside in the village, apart from the school's playground. It's strange how much louder it is than the Forest of Magic.

The shaved ice is halfway gone before Marisa speaks up again. "So," she says. "... wanna see something neat?"

Sunshine looks up. She now remembers that Marisa did promise to show her a secret. She nods quickly.

In response, Marisa reaches into a pocket and pulls out a little parcel. It's barely the size of Sunshine's fist, and it's wrapped up in brown paper. She takes her time unwrapping it, unfolding the paper rather than tearing it off.

Sunshine watches with interest. Beneath the paper is a little wooden box. She briefly wonders if that might be the secret—it's kind of a pretty box—but then Marisa opens it up and shows her the contents.

Inside, the box is packed with white cloth. Nestled in among it, though, is a ring. It's silver, and along the top, there's a row of delicate little stones, the size of pebbles. The one on the left is red and shiny. The one next to it is a transparent, glassy orange, then a deep yellow. There are seven stones, and each one is a different color. Like a rainbow.

"It's pretty, huh?" Marisa asks.

Sunshine nods.

As soon as she pulls her finger back, Marisa eases the box closed again and slips it back into her pocket, looking like she's trying to hide it. That makes sense, Sunshine supposes. She did say it was a secret.

Marisa stares thoughtfully into her bowl, but doesn't eat any more shaved ice just yet. "I, uh," she says, and goes quiet again. This, by itself, is pretty strange. It's normal for Alice to take her time and pick her words carefully, but Marisa talks much faster. To Sunshine, who has to stop and consider every word that she says, it seems pretty amazing. Especially today.

Finally, Marisa finishes: "Y'know how me and your mom like each other a whole lot?"

This is even stranger. It's a really obvious question. Sunshine had figured that out before she even knew how to write.

She nods, though.

"And y'know how we've all been living together for a while?”

That's even more obvious. Sunshine starts to nod again, then pauses. Those two questions are kind of worrying. Sometimes when people ask questions about things, that's to get more information before they change something. If her parents ask if her shoes are dirty, what they really mean is that they'd like her to wipe off her shoes. If her parents ask if she's hungry, what they really mean is that she can have a snack if she wants one. So if Marisa is asking about this kind of thing...

Sunshine thrusts her spoon back into the shaved ice and tugs her notebook into position to write, [ARE YOU LEAVING]

"Huh?" The words catch Marisa by surprise. "What? No, no! C'mon, I wouldn't do that to ya." She loops an arm around Sunshine and pulls her in, giving her a quick, reassuring kiss on the forehead. The spot feels chilly and wet afterward, and she suspects that Marisa's lips still had some of the syrup from the shaved ice on them. Right now, though, the conversation feels even more important than wiping it off.

"Actually..." Marisa takes a slow breath, waggling her spoon in her hand the exact same way that Miss Kamishirasawa does with her chalk when she's thinking. "D'you know what it means when two people are married?"

Sunshine shakes her head.

"That means that they love each other a whole lot, and they wanna live together forever."

Sunshine nods. She's still learning new words, after all.

"I wanna ask Alice to marry me," Marisa continues.

[OK], Sunshine writes, and takes another bite of shaved ice.

"That's all you've got to say about it?" The question is half-teasing, half-inquisitive.

Sunshine pauses, with the spoon still in her mouth. She pulls it back out, but she still isn't sure how she's supposed to respond to that. Her parents already live together, after all, and she hears them say that they love each other almost every day. So what would even change? [ALREADY MARRIED]

"We are, huh?"

Sunshine has the creeping suspicion that Marisa is teasing her now. It only makes her even more resolute. She gives an obstinate nod.

"Well, then I guess you won't have any problems with it then, right? On account of us already bein' married and all."

"Mmhm."

Marisa laughs, soft and incredulous. "That was pretty painless, huh? I guess the real reason I'm saying all this, is..." She leans forward, closing in for easier conversation. Her bowl is empty now, and her thumbs fret against the edges while she chooses her words. "How'd you like to help me ask her? All you'd have to do is pack the ring around, then give it to her at the right time."

[EASY]

"Yep, it shouldn't be very hard. You'd be the star of the show."

Sunshine doesn't know about 'star of the show,' but it sounds nice. Plus, if she gives Alice a ring, that's basically giving her a present, right? Sunshine has never given somebody a present, apart from the occasional picture that she draws for one parent or another, but she likes the idea.

"Jeez, I was worried about this whole thing, but you're bein' so agreeable that now I'm just worried you'd go along with whatever I say. How about this: Do you wanna move out instead? Me n' you. We can move to the outside world, and we'll wander around playin' music on the street for money. Ichigo can dance."

Sunshine eyes Marisa suspiciously. She shakes her head.

"Are ya sure? Maybe instead we can move in under an old bridge, and we'll eat mud for dinner every day."

Sunshine shakes her head, so hard that her hair tosses around.

Marisa grins. "Just had to make sure you could still tell me no, kiddo. Now, let's talk strategy..."

Chapter Text

“Alright,” Marisa says, “let's run through it one more time just so we're on the same page.”

Marisa and Sunshine are sitting under a tree behind the house. It's supposed to be a good simulation of how they'll be sitting tonight, when they go to something called a 'moon-viewing party.' Sunshine isn't sure that she understands why they need to have a party for it—she sees the moon almost every night, after all. She would ask, but it seems like understanding the other plan for tonight is more important.

Tonight, Marisa is going to ask Alice to marry her, and Sunshine is going to help. Apparently asking somebody to marry you is a lot harder than it sounds. They've been practicing for half the afternoon, and they still haven't perfected it.

Sunshine nods, and they all get into position. She scoots back, putting some room between herself and Marisa. Marisa tilts her head back and pretends to be really interested by something up in the sky.

Since Alice is not allowed to know the plan yet, the part of Alice is being played by Ichigo. She's sitting across from the two, next to a small stack of handwritten cards. Sunshine gestures to her, and Ichigo lifts the top card and hefts it over her head.

[THE MOON IS PRETTY TONIGHT], Ichigo-Alice says, in Marisa's handwriting.

“Uh-huh, it really is.” Marisa lowers her gaze from the sky, looking down to Ichigo, and grins. “But not as pretty as you.”

Ichigo squirms in place, a practiced motion meant to signal that 'Alice' is embarrassed.

"Hey, so." Marisa leans forward, and cups one of Ichigo's cheeks in her hand. Since Ichigo is just a doll, Marisa's hand threatens to wrap around her entire head. "Y'know, Alice, I've been thinkin'."

That's Sunshine's cue to start getting ready. She slips a hand into her pocket and finds the box with the ring in it, preparing to pull it out at a moment's notice.

Ichigo-Alice doesn't immediately respond to Marisa's statement. She's leaned over to the side, straining her tiny arms as she tries to grab the next card, but it's just out of reach. Sunshine nudges the cards closer, and Ichigo manages to snag one, then hold it up: [THINKING ABOUT WHAT?]

“Ah, uh, well.” Marisa exhales slowly, calming herself for what comes next. This is the part that they've had to practice a lot. She leans forward and mimes giving Ichigo a kiss. When she pulls back, her smile looks a bit more genuine. “Should be pretty obvious, shouldn't it? I might be overdue for sayin' all of this, but sometimes it feels like, uh, like every day we spend together is better than the one before. There isn't anyone I'd rather spend the rest of my life with, Alice. So, I guess what I'm askin' is. I-is. Is. Um.”

Sunshine tightens her grip on the box in her pocket. She's supposed to pull it out at the end of the question... but it looks like that isn't coming any time soon. “You cried again,” she says, accusingly.

“M-mmhm.” Marisa sniffles and dabs at her eyes. “Guess I'm pretty bad at this, huh?”

That part, Sunshine has no answer for. She's never seen anybody else propose, after all. Maybe this is normal.

Marisa shoots her a self-conscious smile through teary eyes. "Tell ya what. If that happens during the real thing, just pull the ring out anyway. I think she'll get the idea."

Sunshine nods. "Should we... keep going?"

"Yeah. Y-yeah. Just lemme..." Marisa wipes her eyes again, then turns back to Ichigo, loudly clearing her throat. "I guess what I'm asking is," she repeats, with her voice a bit louder, like she's trying to power past her own tears, "Alice... will you marry me?"

This is where Sunshine comes in. As Marisa builds up toward the question, she pulls the box out, then leans forward. By the time that Marisa finishes, Sunshine has the box outstretched toward Ichigo-Alice, and...

And she struggles with the lid. There's a little button on the top to release it, but it's sort of jammed. She frowns and wiggles it, pushing down on the lid and poking the button.

Marisa waits patiently.

Ichigo waits even more patiently. She's taken this proposal very well, staring up at Marisa with her blank little eyes.

“Um,” Sunshine says, after a few more seconds. “The top...”

“Oh, uh.” Marisa takes the box and gives the button a practiced push, followed by a tug to the lid. Once it's open she hands it back. “... maybe I'll leave it out of the box when we do this for real. Don't think Kourin built that thing to last.”

Sunshine nods and picks up from where they left off in the script. She plucks the ring from the box and offers it to Ichigo. It looks just as pretty as it did the first time that she saw it, with all seven little gemstones sparkling in the light.

Ichigo raises her final card overhead: [YES MARISA I WILL MARRY YOU *REALLY GAY CRYING*] Still holding the card, she reaches up with her other hand. The ring is way too big for her fingers, so she slides her arm through the hole and wears it like a bracelet.

A few seconds pass in silence.

Marisa gives an appraising nod. “I think that one went pretty good.”

Sunshine isn't sure what makes a proposal good, apart from managing to say most of the words without crying, so she can't disagree. “Maybe, um.” She hesitates. “If there were less words, um... you wouldn't cry as much.”

“Nah. These things've gotta be flashy. … I mean, at least, I'm pretty sure. Most of this wedding stuff is from the outside, like your mom. That just means I'll get bonus points or something for figurin' it out, though.”

Sunshine nods, looking from Ichigo to Marisa and back. “Um. What happens after?”

“After she takes the ring? Well, uh—“

Marisa is cut off by a shout from Alice, coming from the direction of the cottage. “Are you two almost ready to leave? Sunset is in half an hour.”

“Yeah, be right in!” Marisa calls back, then looks down to Sunshine. “... right, gotta hurry. Uh. We've gotta hide the ring,” she says, and takes it back from Ichigo. “Where should we put it? Somewhere you can pull it out quick when the time comes.”

Sunshine frowns thoughtfully. She has to change clothes before they leave, so she can't just put it in her pockets. She can't have Ichigo carry it around in her hands, or Alice will see it.

After some thought, Sunshine leans forward and takes the ring from Marisa. She gestures Ichigo closer. Ichigo dutifully hovers up to eye level with her, and Sunshine pinches one of the many multicolored bows on the back of Ichigo's dress. She slides the two ends of it up through the ring, then releases them. The bow pops back out to its full size, both holding the ring around its base and concealing the ring beneath its bulk.

Marisa whistles appreciatively. “Good thinkin'. I knew I was making a good decision bringin' you in for this.” She gives Sunshine a teasing pinch on the cheek, then asks, “Remember your cue?”

“Um... after you talk about the moon.”

“And when do you give her the ring?”

“When you start crying.”

“Or if I ask her to marry me.”

Sunshine nods, but she doesn't expect that part to matter. Out of the seven practice runs they've done, Marisa didn't ever manage to make it to the end without crying.

“Good. This'll be a piece of cake.” Grinning, Marisa leans in and gives Sunshine a kiss on the forehead. “C'mon, kiddo, let's get to work.”

There's still a lot to do before the proposal, though. They're going to a party, after all. When Sunshine steps inside, dolls are hard at work in the kitchen, preparing a basket to take with them. Sunshine would like to help, but there's something even more important to take care of first. Together with Alice, she heads toward her room.

Sunshine has a brand new outfit to wear for this party. It's called a yukata. A yukata is kind of like a dress, but it's held on with a sash and harder to run in. On the other hand, it's so pretty that it almost makes up for that.

Yukata have patterns on them, and choosing one was very hard for Sunshine. It was almost as hard as picking Ichigo's name. Plus, the patterns that they had at the store were a lot more limited. She couldn't have a yukata with swords on it, or Jizo statues, or one with sweet potato plants, which Sunshine thinks are the cutest plants in her garden.

Instead, Sunshine's yukata is blue, and it's covered in pictures of cats and flowers. Sunshine hasn't met many cats, but it was the one she liked most.

She pulls it out, and Alice says, “Go ahead and get changed. I'll help you with the sash.”

That's the other thing about yukata, too—they're kind of hard to put on, and she needs help with it. She's pretty sure that she and Ichigo could manage it together, but since Alice came with her, there's no reason to say no.

Even pulling the yukata on in the first place is harder than a dress, because there's a lot more cloth than her dress has. For a few seconds, Sunshine is lost inside of it, buried in cloth and fumbling around in the darkness. Finally, though, she finds the right holes and slips her arms through them, then pokes her head out. She still has to squirm around a few times before the yukata settles into place, hanging down around her.

“There you go.” Alice kneels behind Sunshine and fusses over the outfit, smoothing it out with her fingers. Once she's satisfied, she lifts the sash to Sunshine's waist. As she pulls it back, she hesitantly asks, “Sunshine... do you know what it means when two people are married?”

That was a very strange question when Marisa asked it. Now, hearing it for the second time, it seems even stranger. Sunshine glances back to Alice, curious, but answers it. “Uh-huh.”

“Oh, you do?”

Sunshine nods.

“Well, that's convenient, then.” Alice goes silent for a few seconds as she focuses on tying the sash, pulling it into a big bow behind Sunshine's back. Half-teasingly, she adds, “I'm sure you wouldn't mind if Marisa and I got married, right?”

Now Sunshine is even more suspicious. She shakes her head, but glances back again. “Um... why?”

Alice meets her eyes, but doesn't answer. She tugs at Sunshine's bow a few times, straightening it up and making it tighter, then smiles. “I have a big surprise for tonight. I'm sure that you'll like it, though.”

Sunshine really wants to ask more questions, but Alice finishes fussing over her bow and stands up. “For now, though, can you pack up your things and get ready? We should leave soon.”

The strangest thing about a moon-viewing party is that, apparently, they can't just do it at their house.

Sunshine can even already see the moon when she follows her parents outside and gets onto the broom behind Marisa. When they take off into the sky, she isn't even quite sure where they're going. It used to be that Sunshine had gone to so few places that she could guess their destination just based on the direction that they flew in while leaving home. Over the past few months, she's been to a lot more places, so that doesn't work anymore. It doesn't help that the one time Alice told her, she said that they would be going to 'Eientei,' which is a word that doesn't mean anything to Sunshine.

Whatever 'Eientei' is, it's pretty far away. The trip takes them all the way past the village, then further on. The fly over the big plain near the heart of Gensokyo, and Sunshine manages to spot both the Scarlet Devil Mansion and the Hakurei Shrine off in the distance. They aren't headed toward either one, though. When a big forest of bamboo comes into view below, she gets a little suspicious. Soon, they approach a big clearing inside of it, and Sunshine becomes pretty sure that she knows where they're going.

They land in front of a now-familiar big building, and Sunshine stiffens up.

It turns out that 'Eientei' is the name of the place where she got buried in rabbits.

After a few seconds, Marisa glances back. “Gonna get off, kiddo?”

Sunshine is not going to get off of the broom. Not until she's sure that it's safe. She looks around the area, but doesn't see many rabbits. The house is surrounded by a big clearing, and there are already half a dozen groups scattered around it, lounging on blankets and talking. Reimu is in one of them. The strange maid from Patchouli's library is in another one. There are only a handful of rabbits, though, and they don't seem to be bothering the people on the ground. Even if they were, a few rabbits isn't enough to bury Sunshine. Plus, her parents are here this time.

After convincing herself that it's safe, Sunshine slides down.

“Hmm,” Alice says, stepping up alongside them. A retinue of dolls follows behind her, carrying a picnic basket, a bottle of sake, and a folded blanket. “Do you mind if we get a spot by ourselves? I think I'd appreciate some privacy tonight.”

“Y'know, I was just thinkin' the same thing,” Marisa agrees. “Why don't we settle in by that tree over there?”

Alice is okay with that proposal. They walk over to the spot that Marisa had pointed out, and Alice steps over near the trunk of the tree, looking across the area thoughtfully.

“Please spread out the blanket here,” she tells the dolls, gesturing toward the ground. “I'd like the basket in the middle, and you can pour two glasses of sake and one of juice. Once you're done, I'd like the Shanghais to stay nearby in case we need anything else, and the rest of you can wait under the tree. I think that should do it.” She softly claps her hands together. “Please get to work.”

Watching Alice direct the dolls is strange for Sunshine now. It does still make her a little jealous—if she tries helping out, Alice will probably stop her and explain, for the thousandth time, that Sunshine doesn't need to do the same work that all the other dolls do. More than that, though, it's frustrating. The instructions that Alice gives the dolls are long, and they somehow manage to be both redundant and missing some key information.

Sunshine could convey the same instructions much faster and quieter. A spreading gesture toward the ground would be enough to tell the dolls to spread out the blanket, with a quick tip of her hand to indicate which direction the corner of the blanket should be pointing. A gesture like picking something up and moving it, paired with a drawing-in gesture with her fingers, to express that everything else should go in the middle. Two fingers, a quick gesture like holding a cup, and the word 'sake.' One finger and the word 'juice.' The word 'Shanghai' and a gesture to direct them where to stand, then another gesture to convey separating the rest, followed by pointing them to where they should stay.

That would give the dolls the same instructions more quickly. Plus, it would give them all the information they need. As it is, it isn't clear whether the dolls should turn the blanket in a specific way, or just where the Shanghai dolls should wait when they're done. Specifics are very important, because the dolls can't ask questions or talk to each other to make group decisions.

Sunshine would still say 'please' at the end, though. It's important to be polite.

Even with Alice's slightly clumsy instructions, the other dolls manage well enough, with only a minimum of confusion. Once everything is ready, the non-Shanghai dolls wander off, and the Shanghais toddle over, one by one, to stand alongside the edge of the blanket.

“Handy.” Marisa takes a seat on the blanket and lifts her cup.

Sunshine follows her example. Marisa is looking up toward the moon, so Sunshine does that too, sipping at her juice.

Back when she was tiny, Sunshine spent a lot of time looking at the moon. There wasn't much else to do during the night back before she needed to sleep. The moon still looks like Sunshine remembers, so she still isn't sure why they had to come to Eientei to watch it.

Like she's done dozens of times before, she squints and tries to take a really close look at it. No matter how hard she stares, though, she can't see a single moon rabbit, let alone any buildings or big lakes. Alice has told her that's because the moon is really far away, but Sunshine still has her doubts. No matter how high they fly on the broom, she can always still see buildings and lakes below them.

“It's lovely tonight,” Alice says, taking a seat next to them.

“Mmhm,” Marisa says. “It's a good night for this stuff. No clouds or anything.”

Alice talked about the moon being pretty. That's basically Sunshine's cue. She beckons Ichigo closer, and gets ready to pull the ring out at a moment's notice.

Marisa doesn't continue on the script, though. After a few seconds, she notices Sunshine's position and lets out a slightly nervous laugh. Leaning forward, she gently pushes Sunshine's arm down. “A-ah, hey, kiddo, why don't you go ahead and have a snack? We're gonna be here a while.”

She sort of stresses that last part. Sunshine isn't sure why, but it seems obvious that the proposal isn't happening just yet. Instead, she directs Ichigo to grab her a snack, then settles in to watch the moon.

“Hmm, and do you see that brighter one?” Alice points to the sky, and carefully inclines her finger toward the dot in question.

Sunshine nods. She's sitting in Alice's lap, so it's easy to see where she's pointing.

“That one is actually another planet, named Venus.”

Sunshine hadn't known that there were other planets, but she doesn't see any reason why not. She squints at it, but there isn't really much to see. It just looks like another little point of light in the sky. “Are there rabbits on it?”

“I don't think there are, no.”

That makes sense, Sunshine supposes. The moon is a thousand times bigger than the tiny little dot that is Venus. There probably isn't much room for Venus rabbits.

“Yeah, but check this out.” Marisa leans in against them, jabbing her own finger into the sky. “Right next to it, see this kinda circle of stars right here? And then there's a line, and it leads down to this bit right here.”

Marisa traces it all out with her fingers, but it doesn't look like much to Sunshine. She still nods.

“That's a constellation called 'Cetus.' It's supposed to be shaped like a sea monster.”

Even knowing what it's supposed to be, Sunshine isn't sure that she sees it. Just kind of two boxes linked with a line. And... “Um. What's a sea monster?”

“Uh.” It's obvious that Marisa hadn't been expecting this question. “... it's a monster that lives in the sea, I guess. Like a youkai.”

“They're big, long fish monsters that eat people,” Alice says, and gives Sunshine a reassuring squeeze around the waist. “But you don't need to worry about them. Nobody has seen a cetus in centuries, and they only live in the ocean, anyway.”

That's kind of reassuring, but also disappointing. Sunshine's parents tell her lots of stories about evil dragons, and sea monsters, and such, but they all live elsewhere. If all of the monsters live somewhere else, what things are left for a hero to fight? There are youkai, of course, but it seems like a lot of youkai, like Narumi or Rinnosuke, are nice. Having dragons and sea monsters around would make things a lot simpler.

“Huh,” Marisa says. “I always figured they were, like... big, evil kappa. I mean, underwater monsters and all.”

“I'm afraid not, dear.”

“Yeah, but the constellation even looks like one, see?” Marisa starts tracing it out again. “Up here is the head, and there's—“

She's cut off by another figure stepping into position in front of them, eclipsing half of the sky. Backlit by the moon, Sunshine can't see much of their face, but they sound friendly as they say, “Good evening. I hope that you're all enjoying the party?”

“I mean.” Marisa pulls her finger back. “It's a pretty good moon. I'd give it a solid eight outta ten.”

“Oh, I'm glad.” The figure leans back, and Sunshine gets her first good look at her. She has really, really long black hair, and she's wearing a pink and red robe. She's really pretty and delicate-looking, kind of like Alice.

And she isn't alone, either. Next to her is a rabbit-lady in a suit, with hair that's almost as long, carrying a platter piled high with round, white, squishy-looking things.

This is kind of weird, but Alice doesn't seem to mind. “Good evening,” she says, “and thank you for inviting us. I don't think you've met Sunshine? And Sunshine, this is...”

She starts gesturing up to the pair, then pauses, looking slightly uncertain.

Marisa does too. “Oh. This might be weird, huh?”

The black-haired woman frowns. “Oh, 'weird'? How so?”

“Well...” Marisa looks to Sunshine. “Uh, y'know how the Eternal Night incident is your favorite story?”

Sunshine nods.

“This is, uh. The moon rabbit,” Marisa gestures toward her. “And the princess.”

“Reisen Udongein Inaba and Kaguya Houraisan,” Alice translates.

Sunshine stares up at them, wide-eyed. She's heard the story about her parents fighting the two of them dozens of times. After that, meeting them does feel a little strange. They don't look anything like Sunshine's drawings of them, either. Drawing-Kaguya always has a crown and a big red fiery Robe of the Fire Rat. Drawing-Reisen wears a dress and has scary glowing red eyes that cover half of her face.

Actual Reisen's eyes aren't glowing right now, and she looks kind of embarrassed.

Kaguya, on the other hand, doesn't seem the slightest bit perturbed. She smiles down to Sunshine, bowing. “Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you, Sunshine. It's always nice to meet a fan.”

Reisen butts in, seeming a bit eager to change the topic. “Would you like any dango? The rabbits made too much mochi today. Master just sort of wants it gone.”

Alice eyes it. “Is it...?”

“It's rabbit mochi but not, er, rabbit mochi,” Reisen explains, tugging at her tie and looking slightly ashamed of herself. “They've already tired themselves out.”

“Oh! Then certainly, thank you.”

Reisen crouches down, passing out dango to the three of them. Sunshine has to scoot out of Alice's lap to give her room to eat, and inspects the dango before she does so. It's soft and squishy and just a little moist. It also smells pretty sweet. After Alice and Marisa start eating, she lifts it up and takes a bite of her own.

It's very good. Sunshine has tasted a lot of sweet things—candy and pastries and berries and apples and red bean paste—but this doesn't quite taste like any of them. It's really soft, though, softer than any cake that Sunshine has ever had. She stiffens up in surprise for just a moment before taking a second bite, and a third. Even though she started eating after both of her parents, she finishes first.

Kaguya holds a hand to her mouth, covering it with a draped sleeve as she laughs softly. “I'd almost forgotten how adorable children are. I still haven't seen many since I returned to the Earth.” She leans in closer. “Would you like another, Sunshine?”

Sunshine nods.

Kaguya glances to Reisen. “Inaba, if you would?”

Reisen offers Sunshine another dango, and Sunshine digs in. The second one is almost even better than the first one. Now that she knows what to expect, she can pace herself a little more. It still disappears pretty quickly.

The sight leaves Kaguya smiling. “Oh, this is kind of fun! Inaba, could you give her a—“

“It, er,” Alice interrupts, “would probably be better if she doesn't eat half a plate of dango tonight.”

“Not unless you want her to run around bouncin' off the walls like those rabbits,” Marisa agrees.

Sunshine sort of pouts.

Kaguya does, too. Unlike Sunshine, though, she rebounds quickly. “I'm sure a little more wouldn't hurt, though?”

“... a little more would be fine,” Alice concedes.

Kaguya nods. Rather than requesting that Reisen handle it this time, though, she turns to the platter herself. Taking a dango in each hand, she bends down and offers them both to Sunshine, with a smile that almost dares her parents to protest.

The moon-viewing is interrupted by half an hour of playing.

Dango doesn't quite give Sunshine the urgent, irrepressible sort of energy that more sugary sweets do, but it still leaves her energetic enough that she doesn't feel like sitting around. Instead, Alice takes her to a mostly empty area of the clearing, and they play a game that they've done a few times before. It's sort of like Tag. Sunshine runs around, and Alice directs a small group of string-controlled dolls as they try to corral her for long enough to catch her. It isn't as fun as the dragon game, but it tires her out a lot more quickly. It's also, unlike the dragon game, a game that Alice can play. By the time that Sunshine has burnt the edge off of her energy, they have a small crowd of onlookers, several of them tipsily cheering Sunshine on.

The encouragement pushes Sunshine further than she might normally go. By the time she gives up and lets one of the dolls tag her, she's more than willing to concede and go relax. She follows Alice back to the blanket, where she flops down and takes a few sips of juice.

Marisa smirks over at her. “Tired you out, huh?”

“I'd blame Suika, personally,” Alice says.

“Is that who was shouting, 'you go kid, kick her ass'?”

“Among other things.”

“Just be glad she didn't start throwin' stuff.”

“I'm very glad.”

Alice reaches back to grab the bottle of sake, and casually tops off her and Marisa's glasses. Sipping it, they settle in to watch the moon, side by side.

Now that Sunshine is less energetic, she likes this a bit more. The moon is big and full, and she can see all of the stars, too. The view is pretty enough that she doesn't even bother looking for hidden moon rabbit cities.

Things are quieter now, too. Cheering for Sunshine seems to have calmed down the more energetic party-goers. Now, most of them have retreated back to their individual corners of the clearing. It's filled with soft conversation and the sounds of youkai rabbits playing somewhere in the distance. A few late spring cicadas hum in the distances.

A falling star flashes across the sky, and they talk about it for a few minutes.

A rabbit wanders past on its way to wherever it's sleeping tonight.

A night sparrow chirps in the distance.

That, though, is all that happens for fifteen minutes.

Sunshine is just starting to worry that she might fall asleep when Alice breaks the silence. “Mmh.” She sort of sighs, like she's reluctant to ruin the moment. “Dear, while we're here there's... something I'd like to say to you.”

“Huh? I mean, uh. Actually, there was somethin' I was wanting to bring up too.” Marisa shoots Sunshine a quick, pointed glance. “But, first. Don't you think the moon's really pretty tonight?”

Sunshine perks up. Maybe Marisa got tired of waiting for Alice to comment on the moon and decided to take matters into her own hands? She beckons Ichigo closer, and starts debating the stealthiest way to pull the ring out.

In response to the question, Alice leans over and kisses Marisa's cheek. “And there's nobody I'd rather be sharing it with.”

That isn't how Alice was supposed to respond at all. Now Sunshine isn't sure what to do.

Marisa seems kind of surprised by this, too. “A-ah, yeah, it's just, I was thinkin'—“

“I've been doing a lot of thinking, too.” Alice's tone—somewhere between serious and teasing—seems to just shut Marisa down. She presses another kiss to Marisa's cheek before pulling away, putting some space between the two of them. She reaches down and takes Marisa's hand, lifting it up between the two of them and giving it a warm squeeze, stroking her thumb against the back.

“And I've been meaning to talk to you about it for ages, but... tonight is the night. Do you know, Marisa... a while ago I tried to picture what my life would be like if you weren't in it, and I... couldn't. I just couldn't. I know that we've been a... pair for some time now, but these past few months, living with you, have been some of the happiest of my life. I could never go back. You're just... that important to me.”

“I. Uh,” Marisa stammers. “Funny you mention that, 'cuz—“

Alice silences her with a soft shake of her head. She leans in for another kiss—this time on the lips, long, soft, and slow—and gives her hand another squeeze. When she pulls back, her cheeks are red and there are tears brimming in her eyes, but she's smiling. “You're the woman that I love, the other mother of my child, and you've always been there even when I've tried to push you away. I. I, er.” Alice's tears are flowing more quickly now, and she pauses to sniffle. As she does so, though, she reaches behind her. One of the attendant Shanghai dolls hovers forward to push something into her hand. “I'm a fool for waiting this long to ask, but...”

She raises her hand. Even in the moonlight, Sunshine can see a ring glittering in it. “Marisa Kirisame, would you do me the honor of marrying me?”

Marisa stares at the ring, somewhere between dumbstruck and outraged. The flow of tears running down her face just seems to be getting quicker by the second. She scrunches her face up, fighting against them, and blurts out, “Th-that's not fair! I practiced n' everything!”

“Er.” Alice stares back at her. “... what?”

“I-I'm not gonna lose that easy! Lemme show you how it's done.” Marisa drags a sleeve across her eyes to wipe away the worst of the tears, then sets her jaw, resolute. She snatches Alice's hand up again, meeting her gaze almost defiantly. “Alice, you're prettier than the moon, and... and livin' with you just keeps getting better... and... and, uh.'' Her sniffling comes back with a vengeance. She trails off, her cheeks reddening, and just sort of squeaks out, “n' I love you, and...”

Marisa waves toward Sunshine with her free hand, like she's asking for help.

Oh. Sunshine does remember this from their planning. If Marisa breaks down crying, she's supposed to intervene, after all. She already has her fingers on the ring, hidden on Ichigo's dress. After plucking it free, she practically dives forward, offering it up to Alice.

It's Alice's turn to look stunned this time. She stares down at it. “O-oh,” she stammers, as her own eyes flood with tears, “I, I see.”

News spreads through the party quickly.

There's a long, long line of people wanting to leave congratulations on the new engagement. Then, there's a general buzz of activity. A few people hang around for extended conversation, and almost manage to drag Alice and Marisa into a night-long drinking party. Throughout it all, there are so, so many questions: When will the wedding be? Who actually asked first? This whole thing isn't a joke, is it?

Eventually, though, a few pointed suggestions are enough to convince the stragglers to give the new fiancées some privacy.

Once again, it's Alice, Marisa, Sunshine, and the moon.

Or three of those, at least. Sunshine drifted off almost an hour ago. She's curled up in Alice's lap, resting against her chest.

Marisa slides in against Alice's back, looping her arms around the two in a hug and resting her head on Alice's shoulder. It leaves the both of them in a perfect position to watch the moon. After the flurry of congratulations and questions, it's a welcome reprieve.

Alice turns her head to give Marisa a peck on the cheek. “Comfy?”

“I mean, I would've rather buried my face in your boobs, but Sunshine beat me to it. This isn't a bad spot, though.”

Normally, Alice would probably reprimand Marisa for a comment like that. Tonight, she lets it slip with a soft hum of acknowledgement, and runs her fingers through Sunshine's hair.

For about the fifth time tonight, Marisa pulls out her brand new ring and admires it. She tilts it side to side a few times, watching how the jewels catch the light. There are five stones in all—from the outside in, some kind of black stone, what she knows for sure is yellow topaz, and a slightly larger diamond. It does fit her style pretty well, she has to admit. Visually, at least. Materially, Marisa has only ever owned two other rings, briefly, before she sold them to a jeweler who doesn't ask too many questions. She thinks she'll be holding on to this one.

“Do you like it?” Alice asks, softly, to avoid waking Sunshine.

“Yep. I do.”

“If you twist it and speak a command word, it's enchanted to project a defensive barrier. Remind me to demonstrate tomorrow.”

“... oh, jeez, that's cool. Now I feel dumb that I didn't even think of enchantments. But, counterpoint: Yours is a rainbow. That's gotta count for something.”

“It very much does.”

Alice reaches over with her own ring-bearing hand, taking Marisa's and interlacing their fingers. For a few seconds, they're both much more interested in looking at the two rings glittering in the moonlight than they are in looking at the moon itself.

“... I just realized,” Marisa says. “We're supposed to, like, formally give each other rings at the wedding, right?”

“Mmhm.”

“How's that work? Are those ones just fakes, or are we supposed to swap back until then, or...?”

“Oh. Er. I'm... not actually sure.”

“Wedding rings're an outside world thing, though. If you don't know, I definitely don't.”

“It might surprise you to learn that I've never been married before, dear.” Alice yawns softly, leaning back against Marisa and putting more weight on her. There's a long series of lazy kisses before she says, “I have a proposal about that.”

“Ah, you're kinda late. Proposals were like an hour ago.”

Tonight's events have built up enough goodwill for Alice to let that joke, too, pass by her without comment. “I'm from the outside world, but barely know how these things work out there. You're from the human village, but aren't very concerned about their expectations. Let's just... do this our own way.”

“Makin' it up as we go, huh?”

“Something like that.”

“Never expected you to be so easygoing about it.”

“Mmh.” Alice presses another quick kiss to Marisa's cheek. “Maybe you've rubbed off on me.”

Chapter Text

Just a few weeks ago, Sunshine had felt like she was starting to get the hang of being a person. Most days, she would wake up, eat breakfast, go to school and eat lunch at recess, fly home, do her homework, have dinner, and then play until it was time for her to take her bath and to go to bed. Some days, there wasn't any school, and she did things with her parents instead.

Now, that has all been upended.

One reason is that it's summer. Summer means a lot of things, apparently. Some days, it rains the entire time she's awake. Other days, it's so hot and muggy that she barely wants to play outside anyway. It seems like these are the only two kinds of weather now. It isn't all bad, though. School also goes on break during the summer, because the classroom was already starting to get uncomfortably warm. Sunshine gets to stay home most days, and she eats lunch at home. And there's no homework, which is a big bonus.

Also: Sunshine's parents are 'engaged,' which means that they are going to get married. Getting married is even more complicated than Sunshine had thought. It had already seemed like a lot of work, because you have to find a pretty ring and practice giving it to the other person. It turns out, though, that's only the start of it. There's so much stuff to plan that her parents are almost traveling as much as they did when they were working on Sunshine's new body.

Sunshine has no school, and her parents are busy. Some days, she has the entire day to do whatever she wants.

Today is one of those days.

Today, Sunshine is sitting under a tree and playing Attacking Robot.

Attacking Robot is a new game that she has come up with, using the toy robot that Rinnosuke gave her. She lines up all of her toy soldiers, and then shoots the robot's fist at them. Ichigo is a brave youkai-hunter, and she has to stop the fist from hitting them. (Sunshine is pretty sure that robots are a type of youkai, but she doesn't think any of them live in Gensokyo.) But, the fist is a scary attack, so Ichigo shouldn't get hit by it either. Instead, she has to try batting the fist away with a stick.

Sunshine crouches down and aims the robot, wary of getting any dirt on her dress. A meter or so in front of her, Ichigo hovers back and forth in front of the toy soldiers, brandishing a knobbly stick and prepared to intercept. Sunshine has figured out a secret technique, though. She aims the robot's fist at one end of the line of soldiers. Ichigo hovers over to protect them. Then, Sunshine jerks the robot the other way, and shoots it at the far end. Ichigo can't move fast enough to intercept it. The plastic fist bonks into a soldier's chest with a little tink. The soldier topples over onto a tuft of grass, defeated.

“I win,” Sunshine says. She leans over to update the notebook where she's been tracking the score. She has twenty-three points, and Ichigo has two points, because Ichigo hasn't won a single time since Sunshine invented her secret technique.

Ichigo neither responds nor complains. Dutifully, she hovers over, props up the fallen soldier, then carries the robot's fist back to Sunshine.

“Thank you.” Once Ichigo is back in position, Sunshine sets her pencil aside and takes aim again.

Before she can shoot, a voice interrupts her. “Good afternoon, Sunshine.”

Sunshine knows that voice, but she still turns toward the source before she responds. Her memory was right—Narumi is standing there, with a basket hanging from one arm.

Attacking Robot is forgotten for the moment. Sunshine hops up and runs over, lightly tackling Narumi into a hug. Only after a couple of seconds does she think to reply, “Hi...”

Narumi looks rather surprised by this, but smiles. She returns the hug with her free arm. “How is your garden doing?”

“Um.” Questions like that are always hard. Sunshine would much rather deal with questions that have straightforward answers, like 'What color is this?' or 'What is four times three?' That's one of the few advantages that school has over everywhere else. “Um. I water it... every day. And. Um.” She shifts uncertainly from foot to foot as she tries to think of what else to say. “Sometimes there are weeds... but I take them out.”

“It sounds like you're a very diligent gardener.”

Sunshine isn't sure what to say to that. Or what 'diligent' means, for that matter. She nods.

“I'm glad. Are your parents inside, Sunshine?”

Sunshine starts to nod again... then pauses. Before the engagement, the answer to that question had usually been yes. Now... after some consideration, she holds up a finger.

“One is?”

Sunshine nods.

“I see. Well... I'm on my way to gather some plants that I can use for magic. I thought that maybe you could come along if you wanted, if you're bored of staying home all day? I, er, can't promise that it will be very interesting, but... we'll go to a really pretty place that I don't think you've seen before, and I brought a lunch just for you.”

It doesn't take long for Sunshine to decide. Attacking Robot is a fun game, but she's already played it a lot today, and she isn't sure what to do next. She nods.

“Wonderful. Let me just go inside and ask your mother.”

Marisa is pretty quick to agree to let Sunshine go with Narumi.

Usually, when Sunshine goes somewhere, she rides on Marisa's broom. Occasionally, Alice will take her to the village or Kourindou on foot, but those are longer trips, so they're much rarer. Anywhere farther than those requires flying.

Narumi doesn't have a broom, though, so they can't fly there. Instead, Narumi leads her up a narrow pathway, little more than a slightly less dense strip of the forest. It takes them in a direction that Sunshine isn't sure she's ever traveled. Both of them have baskets. Sunshine's is a bit smaller, and Ichigo is riding in it, holding onto the side and keeping a vigilant lookout for attackers.

In front of her, Narumi has a bigger basket with their lunches inside, and a walking stick in her other hand. She pokes the stick into the ground every few steps, making a rhythmic thump. (Every couple of steps that Narumi takes, at least. Sunshine has to take more steps, because her legs are shorter.) The trail leads them out of the Forest of Magic, and then along the very edge of the big open plain around the center of Gensokyo. There isn't much to see, though. Really far away, she can make out Youkai Mountain. It's kind of weird seeing it from this distance, because when they were on top of it for her birthday, it had felt like the biggest thing she could imagine. Now, she can cover it up with her hand.

The trail angles upward along a hillside that feels like it stretches on forever. Sunshine is glad that Narumi brought a lunch for her, because this is going to use up a lot of energy. At least there are enough trees to shade her from the sun, so she isn't hot. Narumi leads the way to a ridge on top of the hill, then pushes some brush aside. “Here we are.”

Sunshine hurries forward to take a look.

The ridge looks out over a meadow. The ground is covered in so many little flowers that it looks more pink than green. Grass as tall as Sunshine rises above it, and in the middle, clusters of little white flowers are peppered around like stars in the night sky. It's probably more flowers than Sunshine has seen in the rest of her life combined. Even the air looks nicer than normal here, tinted pink with a haze so thick that it hides the far end of the meadow. At least, she assumes there's a far end. If the meadow just kept going, that would be weird.

It smells weird, though.

Sunshine stares for a few seconds before delivering her verdict: “Pretty...”

“It is, isn't it?” Narumi looks out over the meadow too, taking a deep breath. “This is Nameless Hill.”

Sunshine considers this. “Um. Do... other hills have names?”

“Oh... not usually, no. This one is actually named Nameless Hill because... oh. Er. Hm.” Narumi pauses. After a few seconds, she finishes with, “This... used to be a very bad place.”

Narumi sounds sad now, but that doesn't actually explain anything. Other bad places that Sunshine knows about have names, like Former Hell, which is where Marisa once fought a bird that made stars. Sunshine nods anyway, because she doesn't want to make Narumi more sad.

Fortunately, Narumi recovers quickly. “... a-anyway!” She strolls down to the edge of the meadow, a few meters away, and crouches down next to a patchy outcropping of flowers. After inspecting them for a few seconds, she cups a stalk in her hand. “Do you see the flowers at the top here?”

Sunshine toddles down and leans in to inspect them. The plant that Narumi is holding is one of the taller ones that dot the meadow. It rises up just past Sunshine's knees, then droops back down. Near its very tip, half a dozen delicate white flowers dangle below it. She nods.

“This plant is called lily of the valley. We're looking for stems that have exactly seven of these little white flowers. If we find one...” Narumi pulls a pair of gloves out of her basket and slides them on, then grasps the stem at its base and snaps it off. “... we'll just pick it and put it in our baskets.” She demonstrates, but doesn't actually drop the stem into her basket. Probably because this one doesn't have seven flowers. “... but make sure to only take the stem, or else it will hurt them. We don't want to be mean, do we?”

Sunshine shakes her head. The flowers are pretty. She wouldn't want to hurt pretty flowers. Especially not now. Until she planted her garden, she'd never realized how dangerous the world is for plants. With as many hazards as they face every day, it wouldn't feel right to add to their problems.

“That's right. If we can each fill our baskets, then I'll have plenty for my experiments this year. But, um...” Reaching into her basket again, Narumi pulls out a little white piece of cloth with a loop on each side. She slides each loop around an ear, and the cloth settles in over her nose and mouth. It's a mask, apparently. With her voice now a little muffled, she says, “I can't go too far into the field, because the air is poisonous here, but I don't think that will be a problem for you. Please do try to stay close enough for me to see you though, okay?”

Sunshine nods and looks out over the meadow, then stops to consider. It's a pretty big meadow, and she isn't sure where she might find the right kinds of flowers. With no other strategy in mind, she wades straight into the field a few meters, then bends down and starts inspecting the white flowers nearby.

Choosing a stem, she taps each flower with her fingertip, counting them as she goes. Each tap leaves the stem swaying in its wake. This one has nine flowers, though. She moves on to another one, a bit lower. This one has thirteen flowers. She has to glance around a bit to find another one nearby, then scoots over and counts it. This one has seven flowers. After mentally rehearsing the steps that Narumi showed her, she plucks it and drops it in her basket. The basket doesn't look much closer to being full than it was before, but it's a start.

She creeps her way from plant to plant, slowly moving further into the meadow. The bottom of her basket is soon covered with freshly-plucked stalks. The work is going a lot faster now, because she's gotten good at telling which stalks have seven flowers at a glance.

Like one that's a meter or two away, dangling temptingly at eye level. Sunshine starts working her way over to it. Before she reaches it, though, something rustles in the grass behind her.

Sunshine looks back over her shoulder and peers into the grass. She's just short enough that she can't see over the walls of plants around her, and they're thick enough to block off her sight. She can't really see anything, but the grass rustles again. Something shifts in the shadows a few meters away, then disappears.

This is strange, and a little scary. Sunshine hopes that it's just an animal. Sometimes when she takes walks with Alice, they can hear animals moving around in the forest nearby. One time a squirrel jumped out and scared her so much that Ichigo almost thought it was an enemy. If this is an animal, though, it sounds pretty big. With a few subtle gestures, Sunshine directs Ichigo to keep an eye on the spot where she saw something move. Ichigo silently hovers forward to stand watch.

Once she feels safe again, Sunshine scoots over to the stem she'd had her eye on and plucks it. There's another one just within reach, but it's sort of curled around so she can't easily see all the flowers. She straightens it up to let her count them. One, two, three, four, five, six...

“Aha! I was right! You enslaved a doll! I don't know if I've ever seen such a horrible monster.”

That voice is one that Sunshine's never heard before. She jerks upright and glances around. It doesn't take long to find the source. There, a few meters away, a doll is angrily peering at her through a wall of grass.

Sunshine can't help but stare. This doll isn't even a normal kind of doll. She's big—she probably comes up to Sunshine's chin, which is a lot bigger than most dolls are. And she's moving. Sunshine has never seen a moving doll that wasn't made by Alice. It's kind of hard to figure out what to say in response, because she suddenly has a whole lot of thoughts crowding her head, and also this other doll chose a pretty weird introduction.

Might as well start with the obvious part. She shakes her head. “I'm not a monster...”

“Hmph. I bet most monsters wouldn't admit that they're monsters. You're not fooling me.” The other doll steps out of the grass and crosses her arms. A second doll, a more normal-sized one, hovers out behind her. “Besides, even if you were just a normal human, you're still my enemy!”

This is even weirder. Sunshine is kind of confused, and she has so many questions that it's hard to figure out which one to ask first, let alone get all the words unjumbled so she can ask them. “Um.” She glances from the big doll to the small doll and back.

Apparently her confusion shows in her face. The bigger doll shoots her a look of annoyance, but uncrosses her arms and thrusts a finger up toward Ichigo. Ichigo is still standing watch over the spot that Sunshine told her to. Maybe she should have told Ichigo to look out for things coming from other directions. “Her! It's bad enough that you keep dolls as your captives, but treating her like a tool is even worse! Hmmm, it's a good thing that Su-san will probably kill you any minute now. I bet you already feel it! Do you have any last words?”

Sunshine shrinks back and shoots a worried glance around the area. Whoever Su-san is, though, they aren't nearby. Unless... Sunshine's eyes settle onto the smaller doll, the one that's hovering behind the talking doll. “Is that Su-san?”

The angry doll just gets angrier. “No! Besides, a human doesn't deserve to know her name anyway. Now just breathe deep and die already!”

“Um. I'm not a human...”

“A youkai, then. You're just as bad, and Su-san's poison is just as effective on you!”

Sunshine shakes her head and holds up one hand, wiggling her fingers to show off the dainty little ball joints.

The other doll looks at her hand, first with surprise, then with mounting outrage. “This, th-this has to be some kind of trick! I'm not falling for it!”

Sunshine shakes her head again. “I'm a doll...”

“I don't believe you!”

“A doll.”

The other doll opens her mouth to respond, but before she can, Narumi's voice calls out from the edge of the meadow. “Sunshine...? Are you talking to somebody?”

A rustle announces that she's waded into the field of flowers. Soon, her hat is just visible bobbing above the grass.

The doll scowls. “I-I'll let you live this time, but only because I'm outnumbered!” With one last baleful glance, she pushes through the nearby plants and hurries off. Sunshine sees a few clusters of them wobble from her passage, but within a few seconds, it's like she was never there.

In the opposite direction, the much louder rustle of Narumi's passage draws closer. She pushes through the plants and steps into the little clearing that Sunshine is in, looking around with obvious concern on her face. “Is everything okay? I, er, thought I heard somebody else talking...”

Sunshine glances to the side again, but there's still no sign of her aggressor. “There was a girl...”

“A girl...? Was she a fairy?”

Sunshine shakes her head.

“Oh, I do hope there isn't a human out here...”

Sunshine shakes her head again. “Um. A doll.”

Narumi's expression suggests that this doesn't explain much.

Sunshine helpfully adds, “A big doll. Um. And alive. Like me.”

“A... big, living doll? Has, er, has your mom lost a doll like that?”

Sunshine shakes her head.

“Is this perhaps some kind of make-believe game that you're playing...?”

Sunshine shakes her head.

“Oh my, oh my. I hope that the poison isn't affecting you somehow. Do you feel okay? Is your vision blurry or anything?”

Sunshine shakes her head, obstinate.

“I see... well... if you see the doll-girl again, please yell for me, okay? And if you start feeling strange or need a break, you can come out and we'll have lunch.”

Sunshine gets the feeling that Narumi still doesn't believe her, but it isn't worth pressing the issue at this point. Glumly, she nods.

“Wonderful. I'm finding more than I'd expected, so this should go quickly. We should be out of here in an hour or so.” Narumi shoots her a reassuring smile through her breath mask and starts back toward the edge of the meadow.

Sunshine pouts. It feels strange, knowing that something is true but being unable to prove it. She knows for sure that she saw the doll, though. After another few seconds of steeling her resolve, she returns to her task.

This time, she pauses at the beginning to give Ichigo instructions to help out. It takes a few tries to explain all the intricacies to her, but soon, Ichigo is drifting from plant to plant behind her, with her arms wrapped around a growing pile of seven-flowered stems.

With Ichigo's help, she's able to make faster progress. The pile of stems starts rising up to fill the basket. As she plucks stem after stem, Sunshine's thoughts start moving on from the strange encounter. She's looking forward to lunch, because the only time that she's ever had a lunch made by anybody except her parents was when she had her magic lesson at the mansion. Seeing what kind of lunch Narumi made will be interesting.

And then, she notices the other doll staring at her again, her face not even a meter away. Sunshine stiffens up in shock. Behind her, she can hear Ichigo keep right on plucking flowers.

The two stare at each other for a few long seconds.

The other girl is the one to break the silence. “Are you really a doll?” she asks, suspiciously.

Sunshine shows her hand off again.

The girl still doesn't look convinced. She scoots forward, out of the brush, and crouches down to inspect Sunshine's hand. She taps it a few times, making a soft bonk against the wood. She runs her fingers over the little joints. Finally, her skeptical glare softens up, and she says, “Huh... you really are a doll.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I'm a doll too!” Medicine says, with mounting excitement.

Sunshine nods. “We're both dolls...”

“I've never even seen another doll who can talk!”

Sunshine is smiling now. In a matter of seconds, her frustration and confusion have evaporated. Meeting Narumi was really nice, but this is another doll. She, too, has never met another doll who can talk. Now that she's met one, she isn't even sure what to say. She glances around for her paper and pen, but remembers that she left them at home, because talking has been easy today. Now she misses them. She'll just have to say the words as well as she can.

“Um. Um! Um. I...” Oh no. There are so many words in her head that they're trying to explode out of her, like a balloon with a hole poked in it. She settles for sticking with the basics. “My name is Sunshine Margatroid.”

“I'm Medicine Melancholy. This is great! With you as my ally, there's twice as many of us! The revolution might finally take off!”

Medicine's enthusiasm is infectious. Sunshine nods excitedly... then pauses. “Um. What's a revolution?”

“Us! We're going to fight for the liberation of dolls everywhere!”

Sunshine isn't sure what a 'liberation' is, either, but it seems like they might be at this for a while if she keeps asking about about words. It sounds like a good thing, though. She dips her head in a tentative nod.

Apparently Medicine can see that she doesn't get it. More patiently, she explains, “We're going to attack the humans, and fight them until every doll in the world is free.”

Oh. Sunshine doesn't like the sound of that. She frowns and shakes her head.

“Huh? Look, if you're worried about being able to beat them, don't worry about that. I have plenty of tricks.”

Sunshine shakes her head again. “No fighting...”

“Why not?!”

“Humans are nice.”

“Humans are evil!”

“Um. My mom is a human, and she's nice...”

“We're dolls! How can your mom be a human? That doesn't make any sense.” Medicine eyes Sunshine suspiciously, like she thinks that this might be a weird joke. “Look, aren't you upset about the way that humans use us? They just treat dolls like tools, and then throw us away when they're done with us!”

“Um.”

There's a lot to think about there. For one thing, most dolls are tools. Kind of. That isn't the word that Sunshine would use, but when she was a normal doll, doing things for Alice was the most fulfilling thing that she could imagine. She guesses that she wouldn't be happy if that was all that she could do now, but all of the other dolls are probably happy like that. Well, if they can think at all. Alice is still pretty sure that none of them can, and none of Sunshine's attempts to get a response from any of them have proven fruitful.

Plus, Sunshine's parents are really nice. Well, okay, Alice isn't a human. But Marisa is both a human and nice, at least. Sunshine is pretty sure that Marisa doesn't treat her like a tool.

Plus, she's never seen anybody throw a doll away.

Plus, if somebody took all of Alice's dolls away and let them do whatever they wanted, Sunshine doesn't think that they'd be happy. Without anybody giving them orders, they just sit around and collect dust. That doesn't sound very fun.

Sunshine wants to explain this, but that's a lot of thoughts to put into words. If she said all of them, she'd probably be so tired that she'd need to take a nap. Even half of them would take a monumental effort.

She settles for: “Uh-uh.”

“I get it. They brainwashed you, huh? You still think they're your friends. Well, I used to think they were my friends, too! Er, um, well, probably I mean. I can't remember that far back. B-but the point is, then they dumped me in this field and just left me here! The same thing is going to happen to you if you just stand by and let them do what they want!”

That does sound scary. It's the second-worst thing that Sunshine can imagine, even, after the idea of her parents getting eaten by a dragon. A little tremble runs through her body. But, she's sure that her parents wouldn't do that to her. They've reassured her of the fact several times, even.

It's sad that it happened to Medicine, though. “My parents are nice...” Sunshine repeats. “Um. If you don't have a house... maybe you could come live with us too.”

Medicine looks at her with a mix of pity and disgust. “Listen, I know you think that, but—“

“Sunshine!” Narumi calls out from the edge of the field. “I need to take a break. Would you like to have lunch now?”

Medicine stiffens up, glancing anxiously in the direction of Narumi's voice. “Don't tell them I'm here! We can meet up after!”

Feeling much more confused than she was before this conversation, Sunshine nods. Shooting Medicine a lingering look of concern, she picks her basket up and hurries toward the edge of the field.

They travel up to the top of the ridge before Narumi takes her mask off, and it takes a bit longer to find a nice spot to set up a picnic. Just like Narumi promised, she's packed a lunch for Sunshine. It's even bigger than the rare occasions when Marisa packs her school lunch. The rice has been squished into a circle, and it has a smiley face made out of wrinkly little cherries and some kind of crunchy yellow fruit peel, which both turn out to taste kind of like candy. One side is lined with a tidy row of mandarin wedges, which ends with a small stack of star-shaped shortbread cookies.

(Sunshine doesn't notice, but her lunch is a lot bigger than Narumi's. Narumi's lunch also doesn't have any candied lemon peel or shortbread cookies, and her mandarin is still whole and needs to be peeled. Narumi put much more care into preparing Sunshine's lunch than she would ever admit, and would have been very disappointed if Sunshine were not allowed to come with her.)

While they eat, Sunshine wonders if she should tell Narumi about Medicine again, but she isn't sure if it would do any good. She doesn't think that Medicine will let Narumi see her. And, Medicine did ask her not to tell Narumi about her. Sunshine is kind of worried now, because it would be really bad if Medicine did steal all of Alice's dolls, but she doesn't think that will happen. Her parents are basically the strongest people in Gensokyo, she's pretty sure, so there's no way that Medicine could pull it off.

Instead, Narumi asks Sunshine questions about what kind of games she's been playing, and tells her about all of the plants and animals that they can see from their spot. When Narumi finishes eating, she gathers rocks from around the area, then looks out over the field and starts stacking them into little towers. Narumi looks sad again, and this time Sunshine is even less certain why, because the rock-stacking game looks fun.

By the time she finishes her lunch, she's made up her mind: maybe Narumi will be happier if she has somebody to play with. Sunshine finds a few rocks of her own and starts stacking them. It's harder than Narumi makes it look, because the rocks come in all kinds of shapes, and some of them are pretty unbalanced.

In the end, Narumi has made four towers, and the tallest one is twice as tall as Sunshine's tower. Narumi smiles as she looks at Sunshine's contribution, though. “Thank you, Sunshine.” She presses her hands together, bows her head solemnly toward the meadow, and closes her eyes. Sunshine is just starting to wonder if this is a part of the game too when Narumi opens her eyes again and stands up. “Now!” she says, with slightly forced brightness. “I'm sure the work will go faster now that we're full.”

This time, Sunshine isn't surprised when Medicine shows up again.

Medicine seems to have gotten more accustomed to this arrangement, too. She doesn't spend a long time spying on Sunshine. Instead, she just steps out of the brush and shoots an expectant look toward Sunshine. “Well? Have you changed your mind yet?”

“Um. About humans?”

“Right, that.”

Sunshine shakes her head.

Medicine sighs. “Do you at least agree that helping other dolls is good?”

Sunshine nods, tentatively. She doesn't think that Medicine has all the right ideas about dolls, but helping them is a good thing.

Medicine grumbles something under her breath, then perks up. “How about this? If you're going to be all squeamish about it, what if you just help me with phase one of my plan, and I can handle everything after that?”

Sunshine tilts her head quizzically to the side.

In lieu of an explanation, Medicine asks, “Can you fight?”

“Um. I have a sword. But it's wood. And not here.” Sunshine gestures up to her shoulder. “And Ichigo.”

“Hmm... you know, that might actually work. I can attack a big area, but I can't really defend myself from people who get close. You can fight people who get close, but not attack things that are very far away. That seems like a good match!”

“Are we fighting...?”

“We shouldn't have to. I've been giving it a lot of thought, and I think that village the humans live in would be the easiest place to strike first.”

“... um...”

“Hold on, hear me out. We'll stand upwind of the village, and you guard me while I make a really big poison cloud—“

“Poison...?”

“Right, to attack the village.”

Sunshine shakes her head, firmly. “No!”

“Huh? Why not?”

“Hurting people is bad...”

“You shouldn't need to hurt people! Just let me finish. This cloud is going to be beautiful. A real masterpiece! Cantharidin alone should be enough to get them to evacuate the place, but then I have this hand-picked blend of alkaloids that—“

Sunshine doesn't understand some of these words, but she sticks to her guns. “No hurting people!”

“Listen, if they run away fast enough, they'll be fine. And then once I've captured the village...”

Medicine keeps talking, but Sunshine isn't listening. She's finally realized what this all means. She should have realized it earlier, but she was so excited to meet another doll that it took her a while. Now that it's here, though, it's practically the only thought in her head.

Sunshine trembles with outrage and thrusts an accusing finger toward Medicine. “You're a bad guy!”

Medicine stares down the length of that finger. “I'm only doing what we have to.”

“I-I won't let you hurt people!”

Medicine shakes her head with disgust and steps back, sighing. “I thought you might make a good ally, but I guess you're just another tool that's being controlled by dumb humans. What, are you going to beat me up?”

Sunshine isn't sure what to do. She feels her face crumple up with annoyance.

“Well? Here's your chance.” Medicine spreads her arms, leaving herself vulnerable and looking very smug. “Want to see if you're stronger than Su-san? With her help, I bet I can poison even a doll!”

Sunshine trembles again. She's only been in this kind of situation once before, when she fought the Great Youkai of Light and the Mighty Youkai of Darkness that one time. In some ways, Medicine feels even scarier than they did. Sunshine doesn't have her sword with her, and this time, Marisa isn't anywhere nearby. Sunshine has never heard anything about Narumi beating up youkai. But, Sunshine knows all about the topic. She's heard bedtime stories about fighting youkai so many times that she knows some of them by heart. So, she barely even has to think about what she says next.

“Um! SHOOT AND I'LL MOVE!”

“... huh?”

“ATTACK, ICHIGO!”

Ichigo leaps into the air like a little rainbow frog, and a cone of bullets explodes from her hands. Medicine is too slow to react, and yelps in surprise as the attack crashes down on her. The strange sound of magical bullets ricocheting off of a doll's body fills the air like rain.

Medicine stumbles back, swatting at the bullets and shielding her eyes with one arm. “W-what the heck?!”

Sunshine isn't about to let up. She keeps her finger trained on Medicine, directing Ichigo to maintain a steady barrage. Medicine keeps stumbling back under the onslaught, and squeals when she almost trips over a tangle of weeds.

Finally, it seems like she's had enough. “F-fine! You'll see!” With a frustrated little growl, Medicine spins around, swiping a hand toward Sunshine. A big poisonous cloud explodes out of her, filling the air and turning the world purple. It smells really bad, like burning things and onions and Marisa's workshop when she's been making potions. Sunshine doesn't need to breathe, but she still stumbles backward, waving a hand in front of her face to clear the air.

Ichigo stops shooting the moment that Sunshine moves her hand. Slowly, the cloud dissipates. By the time that the air is clear enough to see, Medicine is gone. Judging by the sound of her fleeing through the weeds, she's making a hasty retreat.

That was a lot to happen so fast. Sunshine pats Ichigo, a reward for a job well done, and looks out over the little clearing that they're in. Now it's more than that, though. Now it's a battleground.

Another, louder wave of rustling plants approaches from the opposite direction. Narumi pretty much bursts through the final wall of them, hurrying into the clearing. “Sunshine! Are you okay? I heard shouting.”

Sunshine turns and looks up at her, dazedly. “Um. I beat up a bad guy.”

When they leave the meadow, Sunshine's head has so many thoughts in it that it feels like they're going to spill from her mouth. That only makes it harder for her to put them into words, but she still tells Narumi about as much of the confrontation as she can, and then she does it again just because she can't stop thinking about it. In theory, the return trip is just as long as the walk to get to the meadow in the first place, but to Sunshine, it barely feels like a few minutes have passed when they arrive home.

Today's fight feels even more important than her other one. That's probably because she talked to Medicine a lot before it happened. The other youkai she beat up were just some scary youkai that attacked her. She kind of knows Medicine now, and Medicine is even another doll. She isn't just a bad guy, Sunshine realizes. She's a villain. That's what all of her books call the biggest bad guy that a hero has to beat, and the title definitely fits Medicine. She was planning to attack the entire village. Sunshine can't think of many things more villainous than that.

Despite her victory, though, she doesn't get the triumphant homecoming she'd been hoping for.

“Alright, hold still, kiddo.” Marisa pinches her nose before she even dares to approach Sunshine. With her other hand, she awkwardly upends a bucket over Sunshine's head.

Sunshine squeezes her eyes shut, and the world is momentarily drowned out by a rush of water. The water is chilly, but since it's hot outside, that doesn't feel bad. She shakes her head to get rid of some of the excess water before opening her eyes.

Marisa sits the bucket aside and leans in. Cautiously, she removes her fingers from her nose and takes a sniff. She winces. “You still kinda smell like a sack of burning hair and a jug of ammonia had a kid, but. It doesn't feel like my lungs are on fire, so that's a start.”

Sunshine does still have a lot of poison clinging to her, but she's surprised that it's such a big deal to Marisa and Narumi. To Sunshine, it's kind of like when kids in school chatter while she's trying to work on something, or eating a food that she doesn't like—the smell is unpleasant, but she can put up with it. As soon as Marisa saw her, though, her eyes had started watering and she'd gagged.

“I feel horrible about this,” Narumi says, for the third or fourth time. “I'm sorry, she was barely twenty meters away, and I assumed she'd just seen a harmless fairy or something...”

“I mean. It kinda sounds to me like if you'd stepped in, you both would've ended up coated in this stuff. Trust me, I've fought that little... feral doll youkai before. There's not really a good way for it to end. Best you can hope for is to drive her off before she hoses you down with something extra nasty.”

“Well... if you say so. I'm just glad that Sunshine is okay.”

“Uh-huh.” Marisa glances down to Sunshine. “I think that's about as much as we're gonna be able to do out here. How about you run inside and take a bath? A real intense bath.”

“Um! Um. But. I want to tell you about the fight...”

“Tell ya what. It sounds like you've had enough excitement for one day, so how about instead of playin' games after dinner, you can tell me everything you want. I bet your mom will want to hear too.”

Sunshine hesitates, indecisive, before dipping a nod and hurrying toward the cottage. She has a lot of things to do now, so she can't afford to waste time. The fight left her with a lot of ideas to draw. Also, if she has a villain to defeat, she'll need to make plans for fighting her, and practice some attacks with Ichigo, and maybe even try to make some spell cards like her parents have. Most villains have to get beaten up two or three times before they learn their lesson, or at least that's how it works in the stories. She's lucky that this happened near the beginning of summer vacation, because it feels like she's going to be really busy for a while.

It's a lot of responsibility, defending an entire village when you're just over a year old.

Chapter Text

Even though it's still summer vacation, Sunshine has been very busy.

She has to figure out how to beat Medicine, after all. So, she's played with her wooden sword every chance that she gets, so that she can get better at fighting. She's tried to think up some spell cards, but that's pretty hard when you can't shoot magic, and naming them feels even harder. She's spent hours setting up targets for Ichigo to practice shooting at, until Alice asked her to stop.

But she still doesn't feel ready. There's still a lot of the human village that she's never seen, so it's hard to figure out how to defend it from an evil doll. She's never even gone there by herself. When Medicine attacks, she's going to have to ask Marisa to give her a ride to the village. She isn't very satisfied with that solution, but it's the best one she has.

It never seems like heroes need to worry about these kinds of things in the stories that her parents tell her. Maybe that just means that Sunshine needs to try even harder.

And so, today, as her parents sit at the kitchen table making wedding plans, Sunshine sits across from them, making battle plans. Sunshine is kind of glad that she only has to fight an evil doll. Planning a wedding seems like a lot of boring work.

“Right, so, next…” Alice shuffles through some papers before sliding one over to Marisa. “I did get some quotes on floral arrangements.”

Marisa leans in and peers at the paper without much apparent interest. “What, from that florist down by the river?”

“That's the only one I know of. Is there another?”

“I mean, not unless there's a youkai one somewhere. … y’know, I put up wards to keep the bugs off his flowers one time, and I gave him a real good deal. You'd think he'd return the favor.”

“I think these are the discounted rates.” Alice runs a finger down the paper. “The full table-sized arrangement is probably more than we want anyway, but we'd at least like a bouquet, right?”

“A bouquet? For what?”

“In Western-style weddings, the bride traditionally...” Alice trails off, uncertainly. “… has one.”

“What, like she's holdin' it the whole time? … does she gotta, like, hand it off to someone else so she can put the ring on?”

“I'm not sure. At the end, she tosses it into the audience.”

“… you wanna spend all that money on flowers and then just chuck 'em at someone?”

Alice frowns, looking back to the paper. “It does seem excessive, when you put it like that. I… perhaps I'll do a bit more research there. We can come back to that. Have you put any more thought into your dress?”

“Yep.” Marisa waves a hand vaguely in the air. “Kourin's got it covered.”

“… when you put it like that, it sounds like you've barely discussed it with him, dear.”

“It's Kourin! He wouldn't stiff me on it or anything. It'll look pretty, I promise.”

“It would be nice if we could coordinate the styles a bit, too...”

“It'll look pretty, I promise.” Marisa leans over and presses a kiss to the side of Alice's forehead. “C'mon, we've been at it for like an hour. Maybe we should just… stop thinking about wedding stuff for a bit? You're just workin' yourself up.”

“I'm trying,” Alice says, with the slightest terse undertone to her voice, “to make sure that our wedding goes smoothly.”

“And no one else is gonna judge us for having the wrong number of flowers or whatever. We said we're doing our own weird thing anyway, right? So just relax.”

“… perhaps you have a point.”

“Sure do.”

When Alice doesn't press the matter, Marisa relaxes, stretching out across the table to soothe her back after an hour of looking at paperwork. It puts her at just the right angle to look at the paper in front of Sunshine. “What about you, kiddo? Whatcha drawin'?”

Sunshine doesn't answer immediately. She stays fixated on the page as she scribbles out a few final lines. Then, silently, she straightens up, flips the paper around, and scoots it over.

She's put a lot of thought into this plan. In the center of the page is a brown oval, with half a dozen houses drawn inside it. All around it are looping purple scribbles. Standing at the top is a stick figure with a red body and yellow hair, facing down one with a yellow body, yellow hair, and a sword. All around the brown oval are smaller stick figures, with red triangles in their hands.

“That's, um. The village.” Sunshine taps the brown oval. “And that's poison clouds. And at the top is, um. Me and Medicine fighting.”

“Uh-huh. And what's all these little guys standing around the village?”

“Those are dolls,” Sunshine says. She's very proud of this part. “Um. With paper fans. To blow the poison away.”

“Really thought of everything, huh?”

Sunshine beams with pride.

Marisa flips the paper around and pushes it back. “So, uh,” she says. “You're still worried about that feral little doll, huh?”

Sunshine isn't sure what 'feral' means, but she understands that Marisa is talking about Medicine. She nods. On her picture, she has given Medicine big angry eyebrows.

“Kinda seems like a boring way to spend your summer vacation, though… I guess there's not a lot of stuff for you to do out here. Doesn't it just feel like you're basically doin' the same things you'd do after school?”

Sunshine peers up at Marisa, confused. That seems like a strange question to her. She is doing the things that she likes to do, which is also what she does after school. If there are other things she's supposed to be doing, that's news to her.

Apparently her mom's thoughts are similar. “And just what should she be doing instead?” she asks, while tidying her papers.

“You know!” Marisa straightens up to give a vague gesture in the air. “Summer stuff!”

“And what exactly,” Alice asks, “constitutes 'summer stuff'?”

“Swimming. And fishing.” Marisa starts ticking the items off on her fingers. “And climbing trees, and goin' outside after it rains to jump in puddles, and… you know, dumb kid stuff. Chasin’ a dog all over the village for an hour ‘cuz you have nothing better to do, then getting into a rock-throwing fight with the kid who lives down the street.”

“I really don’t think that Sunshine needs to be getting into any rock-throwing fights.”

“It was just an example! … but if she did she'd totally win, right?”

Alice doesn't hesitate for a moment before answering, “Of course.”

“Anyway… right, summer stuff. How about… why don't we take a day and go do lots of it sometime soon? It'd be a nice break from wedding planning and sitting around the house, right?”

Sunshine looks up at her, considering that. She really doesn't know what most of those activities are like, and she doesn't think that it would be very fun to chase a dog. But, it sounds like Marisa thinks that it will be fun. In Sunshine’s experience, nobody knows about more fun things than Marisa does. She gives a tentative nod.

“That’s it, then. We’re goin’.”

“If we’re doing this—” Alice puts a bit of emphasis on the ‘if.’ “—then please try to make some kind of actual plan ahead of time. We can’t just wander out into the forest and look for, quote, ‘summer stuff,’ to do or something.”

“C’mon, I’m not an amateur here. I’ll figure it out. Three days from now?”

“I think that it’s supposed to rain, dear.”

“Four days, then.” When Alice doesn’t have a complaint about that one, Marisa gives a satisfied nod. “Then it’s settled.”

The morning of the Summer Fun, they aren't even out the door before the first obstacle crops up.

“I don't think Ichigo could go on this one,” Marisa says, for the second time. “Sorry, kiddo. Don't want her to get lost or something, right?”

Sunshine doesn't want Ichigo to get lost. She also doesn't like the idea of leaving Ichigo here. She plucks the little doll out of the air and clasps her protectively to her chest. She can't think of how to put all of her thoughts on the matter into words, but the way she stares up at Marisa is enough.

Marisa stands her ground for a moment before crouching down to Sunshine's level. “With the stuff we're gonna be doin' all day, she might end up getting all wet or catching on fire. She wouldn't like that, would she?”

Sunshine considers that, and reluctantly shakes her head.

“So, how about this? You leave her here where she'll be nice n' safe, and when we get back, you can tell her all about everything that happens.”

Sunshine still doesn't like that idea, but she at least likes it more than losing Ichigo or something bad happening to her. “Okay...”

“Good. I'm gonna go get a few things ready. Why don't you and your mom come outside when you're all set?”

Sunshine nods. After carrying Ichigo into her room and sitting on her bed, she gives the small doll an explanation of why she has to leave her alone. As usual, Ichigo doesn't show any sign of understanding, but Sunshine doesn't hold that against her. Then, she steps back out to help Alice pack.

Packing is a confusing mess, partly because Alice doesn't know what they are doing or what they need to bring, and Sunshine knows even less. Alice settles for packing a few outfits that Sunshine has never seen into a basket, along with a packed lunch. When they step outside, Marisa stashes a cloth-wrapped parcel in there, too. And with that, Sunshine climbs onto the broom behind her, and they take off into the air.

They shoot up about as fast as they can go, too, with the wind howling by Sunshine's ears. Now that the weather is warm, Marisa has no compunctions about going fast. Sunshine doesn't mind at all. It's more fun when they go fast. Once they've leveled out, she leans over to peer at the ground below. They're at a height where the treetops are a lumpy green plain below them, and the clouds are a lumpy white one above. In front of them, she can see that they're heading toward the familiar peak that she can now identify as Youkai Mountain.

“Hey, Sunshine!” Marisa glances back, slapping a hand onto her hat to keep it on her head. “Are you holdin' onto me pretty good?”

Sunshine nods, but just in case, pulls herself in more tightly against Marisa's back.

“Good! Hold tight.”

It's all the warning that Sunshine gets before Marisa pushes the broom down into a dive. It's so steep that they're almost vertical, pointing right down at the ground. As they plummet, the broom pulls into a tight corkscrew. The world whirls around them in a dizzying blur, until Sunshine can't even keep track of which directions are up and down.

“Ah…!”

Sunshine lets out a squeak of surprise. The ground below them might be a blur, but she can still tell that it's rapidly getting closer. Her fingers curl anxiously against Marisa's belly. Right as she's starting to brace for a crash, though, the broom climbs up out of its dive. The force of the turn pushes Sunshine down into her seat, and when it lets up, they're left skimming along the treetops.

“Marisa!” Alice's sharp voice comes from somewhere above them. “What have we said about doing that kind of thing with Sunshine on the broom?”

“I know, I know!” Marisa calls back. More quietly, to Sunshine, she adds: “It was pretty great though, right?”

Sunshine nods. Her body is still brimming with excitement. She isn't sure if this is part of the Summer Fun or not, but it was definitely fun.

And it seems like the broom needed to go lower anyway. The last time she came to the mountain, they headed toward the peak, flying up to almost the tippy-top of it. Today, though, they stay low. A river appears below them, and Marisa follows it, weaving side to side to follow every bend. As they approach the base of the mountain, it cuts down into the land, leaving rocks rising up on either side of them. Soon, they're blasting down the narrow space between two solid walls of stone.

This is already pretty interesting as it is. Sunshine has never seen a place like this before. It's even more interesting when they have to pull up to fly past a waterfall. A cloud of mist hovers above it, cloaking them in chilly air for a few seconds. She wonders if they're going to climb up the entire mountain by following the river. It seems really slow compared to just flying straight there, but it's a lot more fun, too.

Before much longer, though, the walls open up in front of them, revealing a larger clearing around a bend in the river. The ground around them is bare rock, shaped in weird angular chunks. There, along the side of the river, two colorful banners are jutting up out of the ground. About half a dozen people in blue hats and dresses are gathered around the banners.

It soon becomes clear that this is their destination. Marisa pulls the broom into a wide curve. They circle around the clearing, shedding speed as they spiral downward. By the time that they approach ground level, they're barely going faster than walking speed. Marisa's boots touch down on the stone, then skid for a few meters before they finally come to a stop. They're only a few meters from the blue-dressed girls, and the girls have definitely noticed them, judging by the way that they're staring.

As they dismount, the blue girls retreat a short distance away. By the time that Alice lands, the girls are huddled up together, muttering between themselves and stealing the occasional glance at the three of them.

Alice steps up alongside Marisa, looking at this with concern. “Dear,” she says. “Do you care to explain?”

“What's there to explain? It's what it says on the banner. They're doin' canyoning again this year.”

Sunshine looks at the banners. Sure enough: “Kya-ni-o… ni-n-gu,” she reads. It's a pretty long word already, and the other writing on the banners has characters that she doesn't even recognize.

“Hey, good job.”

“Um. What's...” She opens her mouth, before deciding against even trying to pronounce 'canyoning.' “… that mean?”

“A good question,” Alice says.

“It's great! You're gonna love it.” Marisa pauses. “… well, Sunshine will, at least. Less sure about you, Alice. You can stay on shore if you wanna. But first we've gotta actually get to it.” Raising her voice, Marisa turns back to the strange girls. “Hey! Are you guys open?”

“Hold on!” one of them shouts back, sounding irritated. The muted conversation reaches some peak, and one of the girls hurries off and jumps into the water.

She doesn't resurface.

Sunshine stares at the spot where the girl had disappeared underwater, trying to figure out if this is bad or not. She doesn't think that humans like being underwater. But maybe these girls aren't human? It's hard to tell. Most youkai have different ears or tails to help identify them, but these girls look like pretty normal humans. Then again, Alice is a youkai, and she looks like a human too. Sunshine herself kind of looks like a human, but she isn't a human or a youkai. People, she decides, are pretty complicated.

The blue girls keep muttering amongst themselves, occasionally with one leaving or arriving as messages are passed around. The end result of this seems to be summoning up a single other girl, who comes walking down the stony river bank with her hands on her hips. As soon as she's in speaking distance, she stops, shooting a critical look over them. “And what do you think you're doing here?”

The girl is short. Even by Sunshine's standards—she's even a little shorter than Marisa, who is already short compared to most adults. Like the others, she's wearing a blue dress and a hat. Her hair is also blue, which makes for a lot of blue when it's all put together like that. She doesn't look happy, either.

Nor does Marisa sound happy when she responds. “A-ah, hey. Long time, no see.”

“I was hoping it would be longer.”

“C'mon, you're not still holdin' a grudge, are you…?”

“Why shouldn't I?” The girl shoots Marisa an annoyed glance before walking closer. She comes to a stop a meter or so away, looking critically over Sunshine. “This is the doll, huh?”

“This is our daughter, yes,” Alice says.

“Yeah, well. The craftsmanship seems pretty solid, I'll give you that much. I would have thought it was just another human until I got close.”

“Her name—” Alice has the slightest cold edge to her voice now. “—is Sunshine. Sunshine, this is Nitori Kawashiro. Do you remember the kappa from the stories?”

Sunshine turns and peers over her. She does remember… but only a little. For some reason, Marisa doesn't talk about Nitori very often. What Sunshine does remember from the stories, though, is that she has very long metal arms. Or she's supposed to, at least. Sunshine doesn't see them right now, and that's kind of disappointing.

“Hey, what kind of stories has Marisa been telling about me?!”

“A-ah, hey, that ain't the important thing!” Marisa hurriedly steps between Nitori and everybody else, slapping a hand on her shoulder. “We came here to go canyoning, actually. You guys are open now, right?”

“We are, yeah.” Nitori doesn't sound happy about that, either.

“So, uh… are you gonna tell us how much it costs and stuff, or are we just going to keep standin' here being awkward?”

Nitori stares up at Marisa, defiantly holding her gaze for a few seconds. Sunshine is kind of worried that they're going to get into a fight, and starts thinking about whether she should help. Then, Nitori sort of pauses, with a lopsided smile on her face. “Hey, yeah, you know what? It's about time that we patched things up. How about a free ride, just this once? For old time's sake or whatever.”

“I mean, sounds pretty great, but… never knew you to just give stuff away.”

“Yeah, well, there's a lot you don't know about me.” Nitori turns, and beckons them to follow with a quick gesture over her shoulder. “Come on. Let's get you suited up.”

In this case, getting suited up means something very specific. First, Alice unpacks the clothes that she brought from home. One of them is in Sunshine's size, and she explains that it's a swimsuit, clothes made for swimming in. Sunshine's never worn it before, but there are a lot of clothes in her dresser that she's never needed, so this isn't very surprising. Sunshine's swimsuit looks kind of like her normal dress, except the skirt is shorter, and it's a bit tighter around her body so that it will stay on better.

One by one, they step into a small wooden enclosure for some privacy while they change. Once they're done, they move over to a rack holding a variety of puffy orange rectangles with holes in the middle. The rectangles are apparently clothes too. Alice demonstrates by pulling one on over her head and then securing it with a few straps. Sunshine isn't sure why she needs a puffy orange vest, but she follows the example, picking out one of the child-sized ones and strapping it on. Once they're all finished, they head down to the edge of the water.

“The life jacket will help you float,” Alice explains. To demonstrate, she steps into the river. It's cold enough to make her hesitate at first, but soon she wades out into the water. As the water level reaches her chest, the vest does seem to pull her upward. Soon, Alice is only lightly anchored to the bottom of the river with one foot. She leans back, demonstrating that the vest can support her weight. “See?”

“Yep,” Marisa says. “You can do it like that. Or...”

She takes a few steps back, giving herself some space. Then, she takes off at a sprint toward the river. Right at the water's edge, she leaps, her arms and legs outstretched. Marisa lands in the water with a thunderous clap, splashing it everywhere. Sunshine flinches back and shields her face. A mere meter or two from the impact point, Alice is less lucky. She yelps as a wave sloshes over her, leaving her drenched in the aftermath.

“Marisa!” Alice shakes her head, then starts pulling her hair out of her face. “You didn't need to do that.”

“I didn't, but it's fun!” Marisa extends an arm toward Sunshine. “See, it's safe. C'mon, jump right in.”

Sunshine gives an uncertain nod. This is all a bit strange, but jumping in like Marisa did does seem fun. She eases herself back from the river, scooting away one step at a time. When she feels like she's far enough, she starts running. She goes even farther than Marisa had, waiting until her feet are splashing in the water before she leaps out over the river.

Sunshine arcs through the air above the glistening surface of the water.

She lands with a loud splash. She hits the water hard enough that it feels solid for a moment before she pushes through the surface. It rushes past and wraps around her, in a torrent of bubbles.

And… she keeps falling. The water closes overhead. The light fades a bit as she sinks, but she can still make out the river's bottom as it rises up to meet her. Soon, she lands in it, sinking a few centimeters down into silty mud before she comes to a stop. It doesn't seem like she's going anywhere, either. The river's current keeps flowing right over her, as she sits on its bottom like a rock.

This is all pretty strange. She doesn't think this is what was supposed to happen. She wonders if maybe it takes some time for the vest to make her float, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. She can just barely hear her parents having a muffled, urgent conversation somewhere above the water's surface. They hurry around the area, with their feet churning the river's bottom into muddy water.

Then, a hand shoots down and grabs Sunshine's wrist. Once it's tugged her up out of the silt, another hand takes her other wrist. Step by step, Sunshine is dragged to shore.

After laying on the bottom of the river for twenty seconds or so, the surface seems really bright again. Sunshine shakes her head to get some of the water off, then starts peeling her hair from out of her face like Alice demonstrated earlier.

“Are you okay?” Alice asks, clearly fighting the urge to fret over her. “You didn't get hurt, did you?”

Sunshine shakes her head again, but… “Um. I didn't float...”

“No.” Alice lets out a mixed sigh of exasperation and relief. “You didn't.”

“Ehe.” Marisa wades back out of the water to stand nearby. “Guess we didn't think of that.”

“Eh?” Nitori puts her hands on her hips and looks at Sunshine. “What's the problem?”

“She's a doll,” Alice says. “She's made out of porcelain and wood with a granite core… and the wood is fairly dense, too. She probably weighs quite a bit more than a similarly-sized human.”

“Hmm… does she still weigh normal human amounts, though?”

“Probably more of a 'bigger kid' weight?” Marisa says. “Givin' her a piggyback ride's a workout, I can tell you that much.”

“Hold on, hold on. We can make this work.”

Nitori turns and waves to one of the nearby kappa. After a murmured conversation, the other kappa runs off.

When she returns, a minute or two later, she's packing an armful of orange things. These orange things are smaller than the vests, and have holes through the center. Under Nitori's guidance, Sunshine slips two of them around her forearms, and two more around her calves. With that, she's ready to test her buoyancy again.

She isn't about to take a running jump into the water again, though. This time, she shuffles out, slowly submerging herself until she's up to her waist. Then, she carefully leans backward. Her weight lifts off of her feet, and there's a moment of disorienting movement as she rocks back, wobbles on the surface of the water, and finally settles in, buoyed by the five different flotation devices on her body.

“Oh...” This feels pretty strange, but a nice kind of strange. The water is still… water, but it can support her weight now. If she pushes an arm down into the river's surface, the flotation device will make it bounce right back up. “Um. Like a pillow…”

And already, the river's current is starting to carry her downstream.

“Uh, don't go floatin' off!” Marisa says.

“Eh, why not?” Nitori steps up and gives her parents a push toward the river. “It's what you came here for anyway, isn't it? Get in and enjoy the ride.”

“Right, I guess.” Marisa steps toward the water… then pauses and looks back over her shoulder. “And, uh, thanks for all this. I kinda figured you'd hold more of a grudge about everything, but. Nice t'know things're still okay between us.”

“Eh, don't worry about it,” Nitori scoffs. “Now go on, your doll's floating away.”

“Right!” Marisa and Alice hurry into the water, catching up with Sunshine and then relaxing to let the current carry them away.

Nitori stands there, keeping an eye on them until they're about ten meters away. Then, she drops the pleasant expression she's been wearing this whole time. “Hey.” She shoots a glance over to one of the other kappa. “Which course did they ask for?”

“They wanted the Beginner one...”

“Screw that. What's the water level like today? About a meter above normal, isn't it?”

The other kappa nods.

Nitori grins. “How about we put them on that newer Lunatic course we've been messing with? Only the best for an old friend, after all.”

Sunshine floats down the river, still amazed by the experience. When the river goes through a bend, the current pushes unevenly against her limbs, rotating her until it looks like the ravine and the sky above are all spinning around her. Lifting her head from the water, she can see just enough to reassure herself that her parents are floating a few meters behind her.

“How do you like it, Sunshine?” Alice asks.

Sunshine considers that. It's a pretty new experience, but so far they're just floating along at a walking pace. She can think of a lot of things that are more interesting, like riding on the broom or bouncing on Narumi's pet bullet. Still, after how excited Marisa had seemed about the Summer Fun, she doesn't want to disappoint her.

“Um. It's nice.”

“I would have just as soon gone for a swim, myself, but I suppose some variety isn't bad.”

“You can go for a swim any time,” Marisa says. “Kappa only do canyoning when the river's high, so you've gotta enjoy it while you can. Besides, we're just getting started. Hear that?”

Marisa goes quiet, and Sunshine strains to listen to their surroundings. At first, she isn't sure what she's supposed to be listening for, but then she picks it out through the background noise—somewhere ahead of them, there's a muted hiss and the sound of babbling water.

She lifts her head, but it's hard to see anything in that direction. “What is it…?”

“That's a waterfall,” Marisa says. “… I mean, we aren't going down it, 'cuz there's a fork in the river ahead. Still, things get a bit more exciting up here. They don't go through all this trouble for nothing.”

Sunshine tries to nod, but it’s hard when you’re floating on your back. Instead, she allows herself to just relax and float along, with the sound of the waterfall slowly approaching. A fork in the river comes into view ahead of them… and just as Sunshine's body starts drifting toward one side of it, it feels like the water changes its mind. The current switches directions, quite deliberately pushing her toward the other side of the fork.

It seems like her parents are going the same way, too. “Dear,” Alice says, with only the slightest tension to her voice. “Isn't that the way we were supposed to be going?”

“I… thought so. I mean, I haven't done this in a few years, but...”

It's getting a bit harder for Sunshine to make out their conversation, though. It seems like the river is speeding up here, and the faster it goes, the louder it is. The waterfall is getting closer, too. The low roar of water is a constant backdrop to every other sound.

She looks back to her parents, worried. They seem worried too. “Hey!” Marisa shouts, raising one hand to wave it overhead. “Are you guys payin' attention? This ain't the way we're supposed to go, is it?”

“Maybe we should just get out,” Alice says.

“I mean, we're in the current now, so it'd be—” Marisa stops, cursing under her breath. “Sunshine, uh, just try to relax, alright? Y-you're gonna be okay, I promise.”

Sunshine raises her head again. She isn’t sure why Marisa sounds so nervous… until she looks ahead. A few meters away, the river disappears down the edge of a cliff. Beyond it, she can make out the tops of trees growing a dozen meters below. A hazy mist floats above the edge.

“Um…!”

It’s all that Sunshine can get out in time. The current gets faster and faster, until she reaches the edge. Sunshine is launched out into the open air, flying through a spray of water. For a moment, she hangs there, weightless. Mist roils around her. She can see out over kilometers of landscape, just like when she’s flying on Marisa’s broom. She can even see the rest of the river, continuing its course below her.

And then, with a prolonged squeal, she falls.

Sunshine lands in the water with an explosive splash. The force of the fall is enough to drive her a few meters deep before the flotation devices manage to slow her down. She accelerates back upward, and by the time she reaches the surface of the water, she's going fast enough to get launched into the air again. She goes through a few oscillations like this, bouncing up and down, until she finally settles back onto the surface. She's left floating along once more, drenched in water and wide-eyed with surprise.

Two splashes behind her announce that her parents have followed.

The pool at the bottom of the waterfall travels in a broad circle, slowly spinning Sunshine around. She drifts under the waterfall itself, squeezing her eyes shut for a few seconds as big drops of water splatter down on her body. When she passes out of the pool, it’s a far cry from the placid river above. The water here is white and roiling. It tosses her into the air, bouncing her around as it rushes her downstream.

A short distance later, she’s tugged down into a whirlpool. She spirals down through the angry water, spinning until she’s lost all sense of direction and the world is just a blur around her. Right when she’s about to be sucked into the center, the current improbably slingshots her around and launches her away. She flies through the air for a short distance before splashing back down into the river, continuing on her journey.

Next is a series of switchback turns. The water rushes through them so quickly that she almost gets smashed up against the wall as she passes through each one, only for the water to tug her away at the last second.

Past those, the water runs down a long, shallow slope. It slowly gains speed as it descends, until Sunshine feels like she’s going as fast as Marisa’s broom ever has. When she hits the pool the bottom, she skips across its surface, throwing up walls of water on either side of herself. Even as she's still shedding speed, the current tugs her through an obstacle course, narrowly avoiding impacts with a dozen stone pillars and arches.

Just past those is another waterfall.

On and on it goes, spinning and tossing and dropping Sunshine, until the ride finally comes to an end. As the river goes through a broad bend, another strangely deliberate current tugs on her body, pulling her off to the side. The shore on that side is a shallow incline, and she soon washes up on it, her back dragging through the silt until it slows her to a stop. Under the circumstances, she isn’t even concerned about the possibility of getting dirt on her new swimsuit. She just lays there, staring at the sky and trying to process everything that just happened.

Her parents wash into view a few seconds later. As they drift closer, Marisa manages to push herself upright, wading through waist-deep water. She gives Alice a hand up for a slightly less graceful recovery. Marisa's grinning. Alice is not. Alice wobbles a few times before leaning against Marisa for support, letting out a few groaning sounds as they make their way toward shore.

“Ehe...” Marisa pushes some hair out of her face with a broad swipe from her hand. “So how'd you like it, Sunshine?”

“Um! Um.” Sunshine vibrates with excitement. She has never done anything so fun in her life. She’s so excited that it’s hard to put words together instead of just waving her arms and hopping around. “Can we, can we do it again? Please.”

To get a second trip, Marisa has to give Nitori money. Alice sits it out.

Marisa tries gently dissuading Sunshine from taking a third trip, but she is unsuccessful.

After a fourth trip, Alice takes a slightly firmer tone as she informs Sunshine that they need to go have lunch. Sunshine is a little disappointed, but she's starting to get tired. Food does sound good.

By the time that they're ready to go, Nitori is a few thousand yen richer, and it seems like Sunshine is her new best friend. She gives Sunshine a pat on the head before they leave, grinning down at her. “Remember, you can come back any time you like, okay? We've even got a discount for repeat customers!”

Sunshine nods excitedly, before following along after her parents.

This time, they don't climb back onto the broom. Instead, Marisa leads the way up a narrow footpath that heads out of the ravine, then along its edge. Below, past hills and trees, Sunshine can see the human village. The path continues toward it, but that doesn't seem to be where they're going. Instead, Marisa picks out a spot beneath some trees that overlooks the river. Alice has a retinue of dolls now—which seems a little unfair to Sunshine, since she still doesn’t have Ichigo—and gestures for them to unload the basket that she brought along. Soon, there is a picnic laid out.

It feels strange sitting in the sun while she's still all wet. Sunshine can feel the water slowly evaporating from her body, while her hair is sticking together as it dries. She brushes her fingers through it to try smoothing it out, but she isn't going to feel quite right until she can take a bath and brush it.

Lunch is sandwiches, grapes, and a cookie for dessert. Then, she climbs back on the broom behind Marisa to travel to their second stop.

Sunshine doesn't know where they're going at all this time. After a few minutes of flight, she can make out lots of bamboo in the distance. She knows now that the bamboo forest is the location of Eientei, the house where the princess and all of the rabbits live. It doesn’t seem like that’s where they’re going, though. Instead, the broom angles downward well before they reach the forest’s edge. They descend into a hilly area dotted with clusters of trees. A road comes into view, barely more than two wagon wheel ruts in the ground, and they alter course to follow it.

And soon, they arrive at their destination.

Apparently, at least. When Marisa stops the broom and dismounts, Sunshine wonders if maybe they haven’t stopped at the wrong place. They’re in front of a house, but it’s a very old house. The door has been ripped off and left leaning against the wall. The plants around it are growing unchecked and climbing up its walls. In one place, there’s even a patch of them growing on the roof. Through the partially-opened doorway, Sunshine can just make out leaves and scattered household items on the floor.

She doesn’t think this looks like a very good house. Apparently Alice agrees with this assessment. “Marisa,” she says, before she’s even landed, “would you like to explain what we’re doing here?”

“What's there to explain? Can you gimme that stuff I stashed in the basket?”

Alice looks dubious, but gestures for her dolls to comply. From within the basket, they pull out a cloth-wrapped bundle. Opening it up, they reveal it to contain three glass jars. Every jar is plastered in half a dozen rectangular pieces of paper, covered in red writing.

Sunshine crouches down and tries to read one, but she can't. The characters look very complicated, and the handwriting is strange. “I don't know what it says...”

“Oh, uh,” Marisa says. “Me neither, actually. I think it's old-timey religious speak for 'please stay put' or something. The important thing, though, is that makes 'em good for keeping phantoms.”

Sunshine shoots her a questioning expression.

“A phantom's, like… the non-thinky bits of a ghost. More important, though, they're really cold, so you can use 'em to keep comfy in the summer.”

Sunshine tilts her head and considers this. She isn't sure what 'thinky bits' are to begin with. Does one part of her body do all of the thinking? She doesn't feel like it does. There are some parts that she's pretty sure aren't doing any thinking, though, like her hands and feet. She pictures a lot of ghost hands and feet running around inside of the house, and doesn't like that idea very much.

It seems like Alice doesn't either. “Marisa,” she says. “You can't be serious.”

“Huh? Why wouldn't I be?” When Alice doesn't respond, Marisa adds, “Catchin' phantoms is totally a summer thing!”

“Fireflies and beetles. Children catch fireflies and beetles in the summer.”

“Yeah, well, not me. I went catching phantoms all the time when I was a kid.”

“I think we've established that neither of us were exactly normal children.”

“Well, neither is Sunshine. And it's fun! Phantoms really make you work for it. Plus, once you've got a jar full of 'em, they'll keep an entire room cool.”

“We are not,” Alice says, “keeping jars full of phantoms in our house.”

“… well, it’s too early to catch fireflies. Are you itching to try your hand at scoopin' up beetles?”

Alice stands her ground for a moment before sighing. “Not in the slightest.”

“Then there ya have it. C'mon, let's head in.”

Alice clearly still has some reservations, but when Marisa picks up the jars and approaches the house, she reluctantly follows along, gesturing for her dolls to do the same. Sunshine walks behind them.

When she reaches the front of the house, Marisa has to pause to push the broken door aside, then ducks down under a giant spider web as she steps through. When it’s Sunshine’s turn, she crouches down as far as she can go, keeping a wary eye on the web as she scoots under it.

Almost immediately upon stepping through the doorway, she can feel that something is different. Marisa was right—it's very chilly in here. It's so chilly that clouds are puffing out of both of her parents' mouths when they breathe. It doesn't bother Sunshine too much, but Alice looks uncomfortable, pulling her arms in around herself for warmth.

Sunshine looks around. Inside, this looks like an even worse house than it did from outside. There are a few holes in the ceiling where the sky peeks through. There are dirty and tattered tatami mats scattered around, but most of the floor is made out of ugly wood. It smells like… it smells like the dirt in her garden, which does not seem like a thing that a house should smell like. There isn't much furniture, and since all of the doors are shut, it's pretty dark. The holes in the roof and the shoji screen walls let in just enough light to see.

This feels like the kind of place that monsters should live. The idea briefly excites her, but then she realizes: no monster would be dumb enough to attack while both of her parents are here. That’s just common sense. She isn’t sure if she’s relieved or disappointed. Monsters are scary, but how is she supposed to learn how to fight them if they never show up?

Sunshine is still considering this when movement catches her attention in the corner of her eye. It’s about four meters away, and it’s a ball with a long tail behind it—like a fish, she decides. Except this fish is swimming through the air, and she can see through it. The thing lazily drifts along about a meter above the floor, with its tail trailing behind it as it wanders aimlessly. It doesn't seem like it needs to swish its tail to make itself move, so maybe it's less like a fish than Sunshine initially thought.

She points at it.

It takes a moment for Marisa to follow her gaze. “Ah, hey, good eye! That's a phantom, yep. This is what we’re here for. So what we're gonna do is…”

She sits two of the jars down, then removes the lid from the third. Creeping up on the phantom, she raises the jar in one hand, and the lid in the other. She eases them up on either side of the phantom, not even daring to breathe. Then, she springs her trap. She slams the lid down, using it to shove the phantom into the jar. As soon as its tail is inside, she screws the lid onto the jar.

“See? One phantom.” She holds the jar out toward Sunshine. “You've just gotta use the jar and its lid to catch 'em, because those are warded so they can't go through.”

Sunshine walks over and leans in to peer into the jar. Inside, the phantom continues meandering around, bumping into the sides and then bouncing off. Now and then it seems to change its mind and just hover in place, slowly being stirred around by some unknown current. She's relieved to see that, up close, it still doesn't look like a hand or a foot. But… wandering around and bouncing off the walls of the tiny jar like that… it doesn’t look very happy in there.

“Do they like being in jars…?”

Clearly Marisa was not expecting that question. She takes her own look at the phantom. “Huh?”

“It, um. It looks sad. Maybe.”

“Huh...” Marisa raises the jar to take her own peek at the contents. “I don’t think they really do happy or sad. Like I said, these are the bits that don't think. It's like… like if a bunch of blood or skin started runnin' around by itself. But for souls.”

Sunshine likes that mental image even less than ghost hands and feet. She still isn’t sure that she understands it, either, but the important part is that it doesn’t sound like it’s mean to put phantoms in jars. She accepts that explanation for now and straightens back up.

Alice already has a jar in hand. “So,” she says, in a tone that makes it clear that she wants to just get this over with. “How do we do this?”

“Ah, shoulda been paying attention,” Marisa says. “I just gave a demonstration.”

“I mean, do we split up, or…?”

“Hmm… well, how about this? Can usually fit about six of these guys into a jar. I've got one more thing planned for when we get home, but it's gonna need someone to move some stuff out of my workshop. So how about the last one to fill up their jar has to do the work while the other two sit on their butts and enjoy bein' cool?”

Sunshine considers that for a moment before she spots an issue. “Ah!” She points accusingly at Marisa's jar. “Um. You already have one.”

“Yeah, yeah. How about this, then? I'll go for six, and you two only need five.”

That seems fair. Sunshine nods.

“Good. Got your jar?”

Sunshine steps over and picks up the last jar, then takes the lid off.

Marisa nods. “All set then. And… go!”

As soon as she says that, Marisa bolts through the nearest doorway, heading into another room with her jar in hand.

Sunshine stiffens up in surprise. She didn't realize that she needed to hurry that much. She looks hurriedly around, but she really isn't sure what kinds of places a phantom would like. There’s another doorway nearby, though. She steps over and peers inside, and sure enough, there’s a phantom in there, drifting around at about the same level as her eyes.

It’s enough to get her to cautiously step inside. When no monsters jump out at her, she decides that it’s safe. The phantom doesn’t seem to notice her approaching, either. She decides to just grab it by the tail… but when she reaches for it, her fingers pass right through. It feels cold where they do, leaving a tingling feeling that only slowly fades. Afterward she raises her hand and wiggles her fingers, but they seem fine. The second time, she tries grabbing right for the center of the phantom, but that's even colder, like pushing her hand into the snow.

This must be why Marisa said to use the jar and its lid. Just like her demonstration, Sunshine raises the jar in one hand and the lid in another. Carefully, she lines them up on either side of the phantom… but this phantom is moving faster than Marisa's did. Before she closes the trap, the phantom has already drifted away. Sunshine scoots forward to reposition, but again, the phantom drifts out of her trap.

The third time, she doesn't give it the chance. She immediately tries to push it into the jar, bringing the two together… but the angle isn't quite right. The lid smacks into the phantom and launches it higher in the air, like a bouncing ball. It drifts straight up, unconcerned with gravity. It only stops when it hits the ceiling. After rebounding, it starts to meander around up there.

Sunshine stands on her tiptoes and raises the jar and lid as high as she can go, but the phantom is still way out of reach. She could fly up and get it, but then she'd get tired, and doing things while flying is harder anyway.

“Please come down,” Sunshine says, sounding a lot less authoritative than she would like.

The phantom doesn't.

“Please,” Sunshine repeats.

Sunshine is now pretty sure that phantoms can’t understand words, but she doesn’t have a lot of options.

“Would you like some help?” Alice asks from behind her.

Sunshine turns around. There in the doorway stands her mother, followed by all of the dolls that she brought. Two of them are cooperating to carry the jar, a third is packing the lid like a shield, and the others are carrying their weapons.

Sunshine nods and points up to the phantom. “It's too high...”

“So I see. Here.”

Alice raises her hands and makes subtle gestures. They don't make much sense to Sunshine as hand signals, but soon she notices the slight glimmer of strings running from them. All of the dolls hurry forward, hovering up to surround the phantom on all sides.

As soon as they’re in position, they strike. One doll darts in front of the phantom, giving it a sharp prod with her sword. The sword doesn't go through the phantom like Sunshine's hand did. Instead, it’s enough to slow the phantom to a stop, leaving it hovering uncertainly in the air.

Another doll jabs it in the side, goading it in another direction.

The new route leads the phantom right between the waiting jar and lid. The dolls holding them move in unison, slapping them together so smoothly that the lid barely even makes a soft clink as it settles into position. The phantom is left drifting around inside the jar, just like Marisa’s.

Altogether, the entire process takes maybe five seconds. Sunshine is amazed. She feels like she's gotten very good at telling the dolls how to do things, but she doesn't think that she could have told them how to do that. Obviously there’s still a lot that she has to learn even about dolls. It's a little disheartening, but at the same time, it confirms that her mom is really strong.

The dolls descend, carrying the now bottled spirit between them. Alice takes it in hand, and holds it up to show it off. “There. One phantom.” She shoots Sunshine a conspiratorial smile. “How would you like to work together? The two of us could teach Marisa a lesson.”

Sunshine considers that, then dips her head in a nod.

Now, a few hours later, it is late evening.

Usually Sunshine would be indoors before it got this late, but today is an exception. Today she's sitting on the back step of the cottage. The sky is growing dark, and all around the yard, little yellow lights drift through the air, flickering in and out of existence. Sunshine isn't sure why this should happen, but she doesn't know any reason that it shouldn't, either.

On either side of her sits a jar full of phantoms. Marisa was right—they do a lot to combat the heat. Even sitting outside like this, the phantoms are producing a bubble of cooler air. Sunshine doesn't mind the heat as much as her parents seem to, but if she has to choose between being too hot and not being too hot, she'll take the latter.

She idly watches the phantoms as she waits.

She isn't waiting for long. The back door opens, and Alice steps out behind her. “Here,” she says.

Sunshine looks up. Alice is offering something down to her—a stick, atop which is a flat blue… thing, with mist coming off to it to attest to the fact that it’s cold. Sunshine reaches up to take it, shooting her mother a questioning glance.

“Try putting it in your mouth,” Alice says, with a smile.

Sunshine does so. The thing is very cold. She tries suckling on it, and gets the faint hint of a fruity flavor. After a few seconds of this, she pulls it out and looks up again. “Um. Is it food…?”

“It is, yes. An ice pop. I made it with juice from those raspberries that Narumi brought by. They're also traditional for children during summer.”

“Thanks...”

Sunshine bites into the ice pop. It's pretty hard, but she manages to dig her teeth in and rip a corner off. Chewing on it, she gets a bit more of that raspberry flavor, but mostly she's just crunching the ice into smaller chunks.

Alice sort of flinches at the ice-grinding sound, looking vaguely amused. “I suppose I didn't think this through, though. Even if your body is at the same temperature as the surroundings, it seems that you still aren't warm enough to easily melt things….”

Sunshine isn't very sure that she understands what that means, but she doesn't let it bother her. In between bites, she says, “Um. Um.” It's been a long day, so words are getting hard again. The sugar in the ice pop will help, though. “Why are...” She gestures toward the scene in front of them. “… there are lights.”

“Lights…?”

Sunshine waits until one of the little yellow lights flickers into view, then jabs a finger at it.

“… oh! Those are fireflies. They're… little bugs that talk to each other by flashing.”

Sunshine takes another bite as she considers this. “Um. How…?”

“With… alchemical reactions, I suppose.”

Alice doesn't sound very certain, but Sunshine accepts this explanation. Alchemy is one of those things that her parents have mused about teaching her at various points, and now it's bumped up a rank or two on her personal priority list. It seems like it would be fun to be able to glow.

“Y'know,” Marisa says, from somewhere off in the darkness. Sunshine can just barely make her out, walking from the direction of her workshop. “When I said we should make a game out of catchin' phantoms, I was kind of thinking us adults would hold back and let Sunshine win.”

“I don't know what you're talking about, dear,” Alice says. “She did win.”

“She didn’t win by herself, though! You know what I mean.”

“Maybe I don't.”

Alice takes a seat next to Sunshine, and they both watch as Marisa trudges into view. After all, Marisa had said that the loser would have to do the work that she had in mind, and Marisa was clearly the loser. As Marisa approaches, Sunshine gets her first hint of what the work is—she is carrying a big crate, piled up with… things.

After sitting the crate down, Marisa pulls something out from inside of it. It's a long piece of bamboo, and one side of it has been cut into a point. She stabs the point into the ground, giving it a firm push to make sure that it's securely seated. Then, she says, “Hey, Sunshine. C'mere.”

Sunshine hops down from the step and hurries over to crouch next to her.

Up close, she gets a better look at the contents of that crate. A lot of them are round things about the size of Sunshine's fist. They look like they’re made out of layers of paper, with strings hanging from one end and… thicker strings hanging from the other. Other ones are long cylindrical tubes with pointy tops.

“Okay, watch close.” Marisa lifts one of the round ones, holding it up to show it off. “See, what we wanna do is…”

She positions it above the hollow center of the piece of bamboo. Then, holding the string, she carefully slips it down inside, with the thicker string left hanging out of the top. Once it's settled into the bottom, she pulls the thicker string over in front of Sunshine.

“… you lower 'em with the string like that, see? Then we've just gotta take the fuse, and...”

She gives a flick of her finger. A little puff of flame shoots out at that thicker string. It takes a moment to catch, but once it does, it sparks to life, giving a crackling noise. The fire quickly climbs upward, following its length toward the shell.

“… and now back up!”

Sunshine hadn't been expecting that part. Marisa's voice sounds urgent, so Sunshine practically leaps from her spot and hurries halfway back to the house before turning around. A bit of cold, melted ice pop drips onto her hand, and she hurries to stuff it into her mouth again before she loses more of it. She watches expectantly as the tube keeps fizzling a few meters away.

“Why do you even have a whole box of them…?” Alice asks.

“I make a big load every year to sell in the village for festivals and stuff,” Marisa says. “The kappa gave me a good deal on the supplies this year, so I was able to make extra.”

Whatever Alice says in response is drowned out as the bamboo tube flares with light. With a bright flash and a sound like PCHOOOO, the shell blasts up into the air, trailing sparks behind it. It’s moving so fast that even with the sparks, Sunshine loses track of it in a second or two. Pretty soon, it’s disappeared into the night sky.

“It flew away,” she points out, through a mouthful of crunched-up ice. She isn't sure if this is the desired outcome or not.

“Just wait,” Marisa says.

Marisa's neck is craned back to watch the heavens, so Sunshine follows her example, squinting up at the stars. She isn't waiting long. Almost as soon as she looks up, the sky… explodes. A giant flower made out of light blooms in the sky, so bright that it lights everything around them. It's blue and green, with long white strands that shoot out from the center faster than the rest, making a bit of a star shape. The colors linger there for a second or two, then fade out as they start drifting toward the ground.

And Sunshine is already bouncing on her feet in excitement. “Um! Um!” With all the bouncing, the ice pop in her mouth starts breaking in half. She grabs the stick and hurriedly chomps down the last few bites, then uses the stick to gesture at the sky. All she can think to say is, “Whoa!”

“Hehe.” Marisa glances back to her. “Pretty cool, huh?”

Sunshine nods so hard that it feels like her neck might snap.

“So, figured out what it was?”

Sunshine doesn't need to consider that for very long. It's pretty obvious. “A spell card!”

“… oh. I guess you would think… uh, anyway, that was a firework.” When Sunshine doesn't look like she understands the difference, Marisa explains, “A firework's like… a spell card made with alchemy, and they’re just for lookin’ pretty. You can't fight people with 'em. Do you want to light the next one?”

Sunshine nods and hurries over, holding the stick from the ice pop between her teeth to free up her hands. She crouches down by the tube, and Marisa hands over another fireworks ball. “Remember how to do it?”

Sunshine nods.

“Right, so just like I showed ya. Take the string, and then...”

By the time that they’ve shot off all the fireworks, it’s the latest that Sunshine has ever stayed up. At least, the latest she’s stayed up now that she actually needs to sleep. And she does need to sleep. Running back and forth, lighting fireworks and then retreating to a safe distance, burned off the energy from that ice pop really fast. She isn’t sure if she’s ever been more tired.

That's a problem, because it's time for bed, and she smells like gunpowder and smoke.

Instead of giving her a full bath, Alice fills a small tub with water and lets her wipe herself down. Sunshine doesn't like being dirty, so she'd like to take a bath, but she is also, still, very tired. By the time that she finishes up and gets changed, she feels like she's almost out of energy. She slumps into her bedroom, and Alice even helps her into bed and tucks her in.

Sunshine is left alone, and it's time for her to sleep.

But she can't just yet. She has one more thing to do.

She looks to her dresser. Ichigo is still sitting up there, where she’s been waiting patiently all day. A simple gesture is enough to set the doll into motion. Ichigo hovers over, and Sunshine scoops her up, giving her a hug before settling back under the covers.

She also still needs to tell Ichigo about everything that happened today… but there was a lot. She feels like she could talk about it for an hour and still have more things to talk about, and she’s only getting more tired by the second. For now, she’s going to have to summarize.

“Summer,” she says with a yawn, and tries to figure out how to finish that sentence. “… is fun.”