Chapter Text
It had been a month since the Moriya shrine arrived. After initial conflicts with the tengu, the shrine managed to settle on top of youkai mountain.
The two shrine maidens kept a good relationship, despite their role as rivals. So, when Sanae finally managed to get electricity to the shrine, the other was the first person to know.
“What did you say this was called?” Reimu asked Sanae while taking her sit next to her.
“It’s a ‘Wii’ , Reimu. It’s like one of those things the kappa use.” Sanae responded, happily explaining to her rival the white box in front of them.
“You said it’s like a toy. So how does it work?”
“I’m glad you asked. See this very thin rope? It’s called a cable. There is metal inside to move electricity into the Wii” Sanae made her way to the plug next to the wall to explain better.
“I remember the kappa talking about it a while ago. It’s needed to power on the screen.” Reimu recalled
“Yep. Electricity is still pretty rare in Gensokyo, but I managed to strike a deal: If I allowed them to research all my electrical stuff, they’d let us use their power.”
Sanae smiled proudly as she grabbed the controllers from the table and gave one to Reimu.
“And if they managed to reverse engineer it, everyone in Gensokyo could have one” She added, with a bigger smile on her face as she turned the device on.
“I heard a kappa say it once. It means something like ‘getting the problem from the solution’, right? I’m not sure I understand that” Reimu asked.
Sanae nodded to answer. “You got it right. If they know how it’s made, they can replicate it.” As she finished talking, she pressed the small power button on the wii. Then made her way to the shelf
Reimu looked at the weird thing Sanae gave her earlier. “You called this a ‘controller’, right? Is this how we’ll play?”
Sanae made her way to Reimu with a few cases in her hands “Pretty much. Each button will make the game do something different. Here are all the games I have.” She said as she lowered the various cases to show her. “Just pick whatever seems interesting”
Reimu raised an eyebrow at the various covers. “All these characters look so weird. Is this what the outside world people dress like?”
Sanae chuckled. “some of them, but most are just made to look cool”
Reimu considered the games for a couple seconds, before pointing at one.
“Ah, Smash Bros Melee. It’s a popular game, and one of my personal favorites” Sanae explained excitedly. She opened the case and took out the disk.
Reimu was confused as Sanae inserted it into the slot on the wii. “Wait, was the game just that circle?”.
Sanae sat back on the bed and booted the game from the menu. “Yep. You insert it into the Wii and it knows what to do”.
Reimu was still confused, but decided to instead focus on the screen.
She was shocked to see the images moving. She had seen pictures before, but watching them alive like that felt a little uncomfortable to her.
She quickly got used to it, and with Sanae’s help moved to the game’s character selection.
“Now that I think about it, you didn’t tell me the rules yet” Reimu pointed out.
“Oh, that’s right. This is a-” Sanae stopped, realizing she wouldn’t understand things like ‘2D’ or ‘fighting game’. “Mmm… It’s similar to a danmaku fight. Just without the spell card rules. And you can only use one bullet at a time”
“I see…” Reimu didn’t completely understand, but she at least got the gist of it.
She picked one at random, ending up playing as Sheik.
“Funny you picked her. She’s considered one of the best” Sanae pointed out with a smile, as she moved to Fox.
“I’ve got a good eye for that” Reimu proudly claimed with a smile. As she said that, Sanae had picked the arena.
“Wow…” Reimu took a few seconds to understand what she was seeing. She had sometimes played with dolls, or when kappa made some weird machine. But only now did it hit her how weird it was.
After getting more used to the screen, she spent a few minutes learning the controls with Sanae’s help.
“Don’t worry if you aren’t good with this. It takes time for muscle memory to do its magic.” Sanae reassured Reimu, who had just started to understand the concept of combos.
After a few additional minutes, Reimu felt comfortable enough to actually fight Sanae.
As the fight started, Sanae stopped her muscle memory from using a combo she had learned online.
To her surprise, Reimu actually managed to hit her a few times, prompting the shrine maiden to actually focus on the screen with a competitive smile.
As for Reimu, she was having the time of her life with this. Sure, it was not hitting the same level of adrenaline as a danmaku fight, but she still felt a rush of excitement as she managed to get her first combo on her rival.
Reimu audibly cheered, while Sanae watched in horror as she was the first to lose a stock.
“How did you do that!? It took me months to learn that!” Sanae asked her rival, shocked at the fact Reimu, somehow, beat her.
“Don’t know. I’m just that good, I guess.” the girl answered with a joyous smile.
Sanae thought back to their fight during the incident. How Reimu seemed to float away from the bullets, or how the bullets floated away from her.
Afterwards, she asked her about it, she said it’s just something she has always lived with. Whenever she’d be happy, fortune would follow her.
Marisa later explained that it was an ability of Reimu.
‘She couldn’t possibly…’ Sanae thought in horror. ‘There’s no way it works here’.
Still, she kept playing, trying to imitate Reimu’s calm attitude. She managed to win, but it was such a challenge she couldn’t help but laugh in relief.
“That was fun! Can I try again?” Reimu’s excitement was hard to deny, and Sanae agreed to play again.
Unfortunately, Reimu had gotten more used to the controls, and managed to get off to a great start.
She managed to get 2 stocks off Sanae before losing one.
Eventually, much to Sanae’s terror, Reimu won that round.
As Sanae looked at the screen in shock, with perfect timing, Kanako checked up on them.
“Is Sanae okay?” she asked, seeing as the girl barely raised her hand to greet her.
“I’m not sure… I beat her at this game and then she became like this.” Reimu explained, pointing at Sanae.
Kanako stayed silent for a few seconds, before asking for confirmation “So, you beat Sanae. At smash bros?”
Reimu slowly nodded, not understanding what the big deal was.
Kanako let out a huge laugh as Sanae looked at her in disbelief. “You know, she once told me and Suwako ‘the day I lose to someone at a videogame is the day I fall in love’. Take this how you will” She said, making a mocking ‘young Sanae’ voice.
After saying this, she went back to the living room.
“I said that when I was 10. I’m not sure why they remember it. It doesn’t mean anything!” Sanae said, with a red face.
“I didn’t ask anything though…” Reimu looked down, confused by her friend’s sudden embarrassment.
“Anyway, you didn’t act like that when you lost our danmaku fight. What’s up with that?” The girl decided to change the topic, recalling their first competition.
“This is different. It’s less serious, but I take a lot of pride in my skill at videogames. It was the thing I was the best at back in the outside world.” The girl explained. Although she wasn’t sure Reimu would understand something this silly.
“It’s not that I mind losing. I’m more than happy to find someone to play with.” She added, worried she might give the impression of a sore loser.
To Sanae’s surprise, Reimu nodded. “I think I understand. It’s like when Marisa started Youkai hunting. I’m glad she is helping out, but she stole my whole thing!”
Sanae chuckled. “Yeah, something like that.” She replied.
The two kept playing a few more games. Sanae eventually adapted to Reimu’s unfair advantage. And even managed to win some of those games.
“By the way, Sanae. Did you have any other fights other than when you arrived?” Reimu asked Sanae, after they turned off the wii.
“Not really. I studied the spell card rules, but you were my first and only opponent” Sanae casually answered, much to Reimu’s surprise.
“That was your first spell card fight? I mean, your attacks were fairly simple, but even so. There are more experienced gods much weaker than you” Reimu explained.
Then, a light bulb turned on in her head. “You haven’t explored much of Gensokyo yet, right?” She asked Sanae.
The girl thought for a second about all she had done in the last month. She rarely left the mountain because of the negotiations with the kappa and the tengu. What little she did below the mountain was grocery shopping and some initial preaching in the human village.
“I guess not…” she answered, discouraged. She was so excited about the place when they arrived, but she hadn’t even begun exploring it.
“Since you showed me something from the outside world, why don’t I show you something from Gensokyo?” Reimu offered the other girl.
The red shrine maiden was thrilled at the idea of showing a new friend around. Sanae reminded her of herself when she first learned to fly. She had lived in Gensokyo for 8 years, but flying over it was like a whole new world.
Sanae was surprised by the offer. Reimu was never one to be emotional, yet she heard something similar to anticipation in her voice. It wasn’t different from how she asked to come play that day.
“Of course. I should have done all my work, so I have all day free” In truth, she would have probably found some other work to do after Reimu had gone home. But for today, she decided to try and match her friend’s enthusiasm.
Making sure they both had everything they needed, Sanae went to warn her gods of her leave.
“Lady Kanako, I’ll be going out with Reimu for a while. Is there anything you need me to do?”
The two gods thought for a few seconds, but nothing came to mind. “You can go, Sanae. Have fun with your friend!” Suwako cheerfully replied, waving goodbye to the two shrine maidens with Kanako.
Once Sanae and Reimu exited the shrine, the two gods looked at each other.
“‘your friend’ uh…” Suwako repeated, only now realizing her words
“How long has it been since we called anyone that?” Kanako asked rhetorically. Then, she let out a soft chuckle. “It seems coming here has been a great choice.”
Then she turned to Suwako.
“Sooo, how much are you betting that we’ll find them kissing in one week?” Kanako playfully asked the shorter god.
“Oh please. A descendant of mine isn’t that easy. I give her one month” Suwako replied.
Reimu decided to bring Sanae over the misty lake, recounting the events of the very first incident resolved with spell cards.
“It was a little annoying being unable to actually exterminate the Youkai. But I guess all ended well, considering we’re all friends now.” Reimu explained, as she pointed to the scarlet devil mansion.
“That reminds me, why was the spell card system created?” Sanae asked, as the mindlessly flew forward.
“Funny you ask it now. It’s actually related to Remilia. Back when she first arrived… I think that was in 2000? She arrived from the outside and caused mass destruction. I was still fairly inexperienced in fighting, so I had to take a backseat. Meanwhile, Yukari had all the fun and beat Remilia-”
“Wait, who’s Yukari?” Reimu’s story was interrupted by Sanae.
“You haven’t met her? She’s a big deal in Gensokyo. I assumed she was the first to see you” Reimu answered in surprise, but proceeded to explain “Anyway, she is the gap Yokai. Pretty weird lady. She can open portals to go anywhere. Mostly to bother me at the shrine. She was also the main contributor in making the Hakurei barrier”
“She is the one who created the barrier that the Hakurei shrine is protecting?”
“Yep. I dislike her, but at least she seems to be cool with humans”
“And you get your barrier powers from the Hakurei god, who you’ve never seen. Like me with lady Kanako. Right?”
“I think? I’m not actually sure what the blessing is.”
Sanae contemplated for a moment if she should ask the logical question, but figured that Reimu would already have asked it before. So she dropped the subject and asked her to resume her story.
“Oh, right. So, after Yukari defeated her, she came to my shrine with a piece of paper, and after a bit of negotiation, we agreed upon the spell card rules” Reimu concluded her explanation.
But before Sanae could say anything, an ice spike flew towards them.
“Oh god not this again.” Reimu yelled as she looked at the ice fairy in front of her. “That’s the fourth time she attacks me, now… I wish she’d be smart enough to understand the lesson”
“Who’s that?” Sanae asked, managing to avoid further attacks.
“I was just about to talk about her, actually. She’s an annoying, bothersome, overconfident fairy.” She replied, annoyed.
“That’s pretty strong for a fairy. Never seen one using spell cards.”
“Thank you, green Reimu. At least one of you can tell my true strength.” Cirno finally decided to talk, responding to her praise.
‘Can we get this over with already?’
‘What did she call me?’
“It doesn’t matter if there’s two of you. My power has grown ten times since last time we met. This time, I really AM the strongest! Snow Sign - Diamond Blizzard!"
Reimu rolled her eyes, readying herself to send this annoying fairy home.
While she wasn’t putting particular effort into dodging her attacks, she got an idea. “Speaking of spell cards. There is one trick you should learn.”
It was a big risk. If she fails… Well she wouldn’t get hurt too badly. But the idea of losing to Cirno made her chill more than the idea of death.
Still, she was the best at it. And she wanted to show it off.
Reimu stopped her movements, and waited for an attack to come close to her.
“Reimu!” Sanae tried to push her out of the way, but she was too slow. She watched as the attack hit straight into her chest.
“Dream sign - Evil sealing circle” Reimu called her spell card, and all the bullets disappeared.
The attack was enough to finish the already beaten Cirno, who dramatically fell to the ground.
“What was that?!” Sanae flew closer to Reimu to check on her. Her shirt was torn where she had been hit, but below that, her skin didn’t even have a scratch.
“If you activate a spell card just a little bit after getting hit, you negate the effects. Normally, that time is 0.1 seconds. But I can do it until 0.25.” Reimu explained with a boastful smile. “You didn’t notice when I did it during our fight?”
Sanae recalled a moment during their fight last month. She was sure she hit Reimu, but then she activated her spell card. All that time she thought she had misjudged the distance. “Wait, I actually hit you? I thought my depth perception was bad! I had to get checked for glasses!”
Reimu just laughed at her friend’s reaction.
“How did you learn the time limit? Even with a stopwatch, it would be hard to time it right.” She asked in surprise.
“It’s a funny story. Me, Marisa and Sakuya were on our way to the netherworld during the Perfect Blossom incident. Me and Marisa started fighting over who could do it the best and Sakuya eventually offered to use her power to help us.” Reimu explained, but Sanae was already too focused on something else.
“Wait, what do you mean the netherworld? Like, hell?”
“No, hell is a bit more to the right.”
The two decided to go back home, promising they’d show each other more from each other’s world another day. Reimu couldn’t wait to play another game, and Sanae couldn’t wait to see more of this wonderful world that she moved in