Work Text:
It's a beautiful early spring morning, so after Sanae finishes her chores at her shrine, she decides to go for a little stroll in the forest down below the mountain.
It just rained recently, so the air smells particularly fresh today. There are a few clouds in the sky, the sun is shining brightly, and in the distance, birds are chirping.
And so, here she is, walking along a fairly well trodden path in the forest with tall trees all around her, filling her vision. The trees' branches are still mostly bare, but it seems that the trees have started budding recently! She approaches a nearby tree bark to take a closer look.
Sanae smiles. It really is spring already, then.
Thank goodness. She was starting to get a bit tired of winter.
A movement in her peripheral vision catches her attention.
She turns, squinting into the distance. Someone's walking here too? As the person in the distance gets closer, Sanae blinks in surprise. She'd recognize that cape anywhere. She waves. "Oiiiii! Sumireko! Over here!"
The high schooler from the outside world spots Sanae and runs closer. "Yo!" the girl calls, waving an arm. "I was trying to find you, but you weren't at your shrine."
"Well, as you can see, I'm taking a little walk." Sanae smiles. "You're visiting today? I thought today was a weekday? Don't you have school?"
Sumireko pouts. "Why does everyone ask that?" She crosses her arms. "I'm just taking a little break, that's all."
Sanae nods. "Oh yeah. I can totally understand." She spreads her arms. "Enjoying nature is really good for mentally reinvorgating yourself! And the air here is so much cleaner than the outside world, isn't it? It's so refreshing!"
Sumireko pauses. "Oh. Yeah, I guess it kinda is."
Sanae claps her hands together. "You should come here at night. The view you get of the sky here is amazing! There's practically no light pollution. There are so many stars visible in the night sky, it's almost creepy!" She giggles. "It's amazing."
Sumireko glances at Sanae. "You were originally from the outside world, right?"
"Yup." Sanae claps her hands together. "I moved here with Kanako-sama and Suwako-sama around the time I was in middle school." She blinks. "Come to think of it, you're in high school, aren't you Sumi-han? It must be pretty stressful. I've heard stories and my teachers warned me a lot about how if we didn't prepare properly in middle school, high school would be too much for us."
"Eh?" Sumireko blinks. "It's not too bad."
"Oh." Sanae smiles. "That's good to hear, I suppose."
"Say," says Sumireko, "do you ever, like, miss the outside world?" She kicks a rock absentmindedly. "I mean, it's gotta suck no longer having access to manga and anime and Twitter and other stuff."
"Twitter?" repeats Sanae, the word unfamiliar to her. "What's that?"
"Oh god how old are you?" exclaims Sumireko, staring blankly at Sanae.
"A-anyway, it's true that I kind of miss things like that." Sanae smiles. "But no matter how much I think about it, I don't ever regret moving here." She spreads her arms. "I feel happier here. I mean, to be fair, it was a pretty low bar to surpass, my life before we moved here. I wasn't having a really good time in my school and home life at all. I didn't really have any close friends or family who cared for me, other than Kanako-sama and Suwako-sama."
Sanae pauses. "And to be honest, I feel like it's kind of like a weight's been lifted off my mind here, not having access to things like TV and the internet. You know, back then, I'd spend hours and hours just watching that screen, not really even that interested in what was airing; just because I didn't have anything better to do. My attention span was pretty shoddy, to be honest." She smiles. "I feel a lot more motivated and focused here, for some reason." She shrugs. "I don't know. It is what it is."
Sumireko lets out a sigh. "You really are something, huh." She rubs the back of her head. "You know, I've considered the idea of moving here before. Magic and youkai and spell card battles and everything just sound really pog, ya know? But I just can't imagine leaving wi-fi and anime and manga and social media behind." She laughs.
"I mean, even if you wanted to move here permanently," says Sanae, "I hear there's a pretty lengthy waiting list and screening process. So it wouldn't be that easy anyway."
Sumireko raises an eyebrow. "Oh. Okay then."
"I enjoy your visits, though," says Sanae. She glances ahead at the path. "I am curious about how the outside world is doing since I left, if you're willing to share. Do you want to come on a walk with me?"
"Sure!" Sumireko smirks, holding up her phone. "I'll have to snap some good nature pics, too. Great wallpaper fodder."
Sanae grins. "That's the spirit!"
And so they go on their walk, with Sumireko updating Sanae on the latest happenings in the outside world, and Sanae updating Sumireko on the latest happenings in Gensokyo.