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"Well, at least the donation box is still intact! Heh."
Reimu didn't have the energy to respond to Marisa. Her clothes, covered in soot and ash, were speckled with tears and rips, her ribbon lopsided and threatening to fall straight off Reimu's disheveled, matted hair. Marisa wasn't in much better shape; her hat was blown clean away, and it would most likely be fluttering somewhere near Youkai Mountain if it hadn't been incinerated in the blast. Wooden splinters that used to be Marisa's broom littered the debris-covered floors of the former shrine, in no shape to be flying anywhere anytime soon.
"Marisa?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"You just made me homeless."
Reimu had to admit, the box of fireworks Marisa had brought in was certainly very impressive. Bright, neon colors mottled the tips of the explosive spears, the rockets glowing in the dark with magic energy. But there was no way Reimu was going to allow the black-and-white witch to leave such a thing in her shrine.
"No way. Why can't you just keep these at your house?"
"C'mon 'Mu, you know I can't fit anything in there anymore! And it's not like I can throw out anything, y'know? Sentimental value and-" Marisa paused, stumbling as she struggled to readjust her grip on the cardboard box "-all! Besides, what are these going to do, blow up the shrine?"
"Why not Alice's house?"
"I asked! Her dolls fill the place up already; Besides, she started askin' about the books I borrowed from her, so I didn't want to stick around and bargain, y'know? Hup!" Marisa let the box fall to the floor, rainbow sparks flying dangerously out from between the magical missiles.
Reimu grunted as she picked the box back up, her back cracking in the process. "Go store your crap somewhere else, Marisa." She shoved the box back into Marisa's arms. "The last thing I need are ticking time bombs in the same room where I sleep ." With that declaration, the Miko turned back around, fully prepared to block out the rest of Marisa's pleas.
"Shame, I guess I won't be able to give ya this big ol' bottle of sake I borrowed from the Scarlet Devil Mansion... shame..."
Maybe, Reimu thought, I should be a little generous once in a while and help a friend in need.
"You...want to have a sleep over?" Sanae, still surprised by Reimu's sudden visit, quickly looked over the rival shrine maiden; Reimu looked like she had taken a full tour of former hell, with the sweat and grime to boot. A wagon creaked unsteadily beside her, with Reimu's meager belongings (that hadn't been blown to smithereens) messily thrown inside. The Hakurei Miko wasn't able to fly with the wagon and has walked the many, many kilometers up Youkai Mountain, battling her cardio as well as the hot summer sun. Reimu missed the days when life was easier; when youkai would try to eat you rather than point and laugh at your exhausted, battered form after you dragged a heavy cart halfway across Gensokyo.
"A what-now?"
"Nothing, just outside-world stuff!" Sanae chuckled cheerfully, glancing back at the Reimu's disheveled face. "Uhm, if I may ask, what happened to the shrine?"
"Marisa happened."
"Ah." Sanae gave a curt nod. "Well, u-uhm," Sanae, paused, parsing her words carefully. Reimu's scowl certainly didn't help. "Why here? I mean, like, n-not that I'm saying you can't stay or anything! I just don't know why you would choose-"
"Human village is out of the question. Marisa's house is pretty much inhabitable. Alice's dolls creep me out. And this isn't even considering the damage a Shrine Maiden bunking with a youkai would do to my reputation. Where else am I exactly supposed to go?"
“The Scarlet Devil Mansion?”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just suggest that.”
"Okay, okay, I get it, jeez..." Sanae turned her body to leave the doorway to Moriya Shrine open. "Please, uh, do come in! Make yourself at home, I think?"
Reimu barely mumbled thanks as she trudged inside the pristine shrine, leaving Sanae to look over the derelict cart one more time.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU BLEW UP THE HAKUREI SHRINE?!"
"No, that was Marisa." Reimu didn't know why she bothered to put up with Suwako. The now-homeless girl was carrying boxes into the shrine, many of the cardboard containers still soggy and damp from gods-know-what. Sanae, ever the diligent miko, followed suit with a few boxes of her own, helping Reimu unpack her stuff into the "spare" room.
By "spare" room, you should probably know it was Sanae's room.
"Now, now, Suwako. Don't be too harsh on the girl, she probably doesn't know better than to burn her place of employment to the ground!" Kanako hid her giggle behind a robed arm.
"L-Lady Kanako! That's rude..." Sanae placed down another box. "Sorry about them, Reimu..."
Reimu rolled her eyes. That should've been the last of the boxes, and right on time, the blazing summer sun was starting to set. The Miko allowed herself to slump to the floor defeated.
"Man, I'm beat." Looking up at Sanae, she continued. "Thank, uh, by the way. For helping and all." It felt awkward and stiff, but Reimu felt a little bad for the sour mood she had been in since the red-and-white shrine maiden had arrived at Moriya Shrine.
"A-Ah, it's no big deal! Seriously!"
"Yeah, we would ask you to pay rent, but we know you can't afford it."
"LADY SUWAKO!" Sanae shot the two goddesses a stern look, but the pair were too busy chortling in mocking laughter to notice.
Sanae's room was, well, eccentric if Reimu was honest. Countless paper posters dotted the walls, covered in creepy fictional characters with eyes half the size of their heads. Reimu grimaced; staring back at a particularly creepy-looking cartoon man.
"Oh, that's Goku!"
Reimu chose to ignore Sanae.
The rest of the room was a mixture of familiar and alien, two styles clashing into one. A rectangular she recognized as a Tee-Vee sat upon an ornate nightstand, wires spilling out the back like rubber innards. Attached to the TV was a strange, flatter box, made out of some sort of smooth material Reimu didn't recognize. When Sanae caught her staring at the strange contraption, she allowed herself to place her hands on her hips in pride.
"That's a Nintendo!" Reimu had no idea what that meant. She didn’t care enough to ask further.
“So, uh, Sanae,” Reimu looked around again, just to make sure, “where am I supposed to sleep?”
The green miko, as if jolted by a shock, looked around the room in surprised panic. Sure enough, there was only one futon.
“W-Wait, I could’ve s-sworn that we had extra-”
“It’s fine. I’ll sleep on the floor.” Reimu tried her best to ignore the blush forming on her own cheeks.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’ll see where I can get a futon tomorrow. Sleeping on the floor’s no big deal.” Reimu hated the idea of sleeping on the floor.
Reimu was still in the process of unloading her possessions when Sanae finished dinner. Placing down the sextuple-colored puzzle cube she had found near the barrier next to the (as Sanae put it) “Nintendo”, Reimu stepped out of the room, and immediately groaned internally.
Suwako and Kanako were sitting neatly at the kotatsu, both suspiciously silent and staring at Reimu intently, their hands folded neatly on the table’s surface. Finally, the smaller goddess couldn’t take it anymore.
“YOU LOOK LIKE A DEAD RACCOON! DID YOU GET RUN DOWN BY AN ONI ON THE TRIP HERE?!”
That was all it took. The two goddesses erupted in gut-shaking laughter, Kanako pounding the table with her divine fist a few times for good measure.
“ Waitwaitwait – remember that youkai from a few hundred years ago who got attacked by those mud fairies? And his face was all caked in dirt?” The pair started laughing even louder. Reimu found herself longing for the familiar Hakurei Shrine. At least her Kami didn’t make fun of her, not like Reimu had even met them in the first place.
“I think you should take a bath first.” Sanae carefully placed the platters of food onto the kotatsu, shooting Reimu an apologetic smile. “Bathroom’s down the hall, to the right.”
As Reimu stepped out of the bath, she couldn’t help but release a comfortable sigh. Slipping into the soft, cotton pajamas (the only pair left that weren’t blasted into shreds), Reimu stepped into view of the mirror, her hand wiping the cold condensation off the surface.
Much better. Reimu was at least presentable now, and as she ran a hand through her soggy, black hair, the light shining off the wet strands, a strange machine caught her eye.
It looked like what the outside world called a “gun” , and even stranger, it was positioned right upon a small cabinet. A long wire stretched from the base, vanishing behind the wooden cabinet, out of view.
Ah. Reimu had seen Sanae use this contraption before to dry her hair. She had no reason to take especially good care of her appearance, especially since she didn’t plan on going out, but the thought of not looking her best for Sanae seemed almost… unappealing to Reimu. Ignoring the blush that was definitely a result of the warm air around her, Reimu picked up the hair dryer and turned it on.
Dinner went fine enough. Even though the food was cold by the time Reimu had left the bath, Sanae’s cooking was certainly impressive. The goddesses had left to their respective –whatever it is that goddesses do– so Reimu had gotten to enjoy a peaceful, silent meal.
As the moon rose over the star-filled sky, the part Reimu had been dreading the most finally arrived.
“Uh, are you s-sure you want the floor? I can fly out and ask the folks at Eientei for a spare…”
“It’s fine.” The Hakurei Miko replied sternly, before flicking the, what was it , “light switch” shut. Within an instant, the room was filled with the soft darkness of dusk, almost making Reimu jump out of her skin.
How can people in the outside world deal with all of this crazy tech?
With that thought, Reimu lowered herself onto the polished, hardwood floor and opened her mind to the embrace of sleep.
Sleep would not come. Reimu shifted uncomfortably on the stiff wood, acutely aware of Sanae’s thunderous snoring booming from somewhere else in the room. Not only that, it was cold . It didn’t feel right, the day was hot enough to fry an egg on the cobblestone, yet this night would’ve been enough to make even Cirno shiver.
A thought entered Reimu’s mind.
A harmless thought.
It was enough to warm up the freezing Miko, if only for a few seconds.
We’re friends, right? Even if we aren’t that close.
Wait, what!? Nonono, this is nothing like that, platonic! Completely platonic!
She’ll understand. I mean, we’re both girls, this kind of stuff is normal…
Darn it, darn it!
Before she had even realized it herself, Reimu had slipped into Sanae’s futon, her face as bright red as her usual miko robes.
Now what?
It was certainly getting warmer, but Reimu wasn’t sure if that was because of Sanae’s body heat, or her embarrassment. The Hakurei Maiden was as still as a statue, one of her legs still awkwardly poking outside the futon.
“...Reimu?”
Reimu died of embarrassment. And again. And again. Her throat closed up, suddenly as dry as the former capital. She cleared her throat, but the sound was more akin to a squeak.
“Cold.”
“Oh.”
They stayed like that for a few minutes.
“D-Do you want me to move or-”
“It’s alright.”
The Hakurei Miko shifted awkwardly. The silence was almost deafening.
“I t-think I’m going to get a glass of water…”
Sanae’s voice cracked. The weight next to Reimu shifted. The sheets slowly rose off of her body, and a slow chill pricked her skin again; However, that was the least of Reimu’s concerns.
“Reimu? Is everything okay?”
Reimu didn’t even notice it at first. The softness of Sanae’s hand on her own. The red-and-white Miko’s fingers clutching to the green-and-white’s own. Reimu didn’t want her to leave.
Sanae, without a word, slowly lowered herself back down onto the futon.
“Ahem!” The green-haired girl cleared her throat, lifting the blanket of silence filling the room.
“R-Reimu, uh, I wanted to ask, y’know, you are Marisa are pretty close, huh?”
The raven-haired Miko knew where this was going. She didn’t want to believe it. No, Reimu didn’t want to hope .
“Yeah, well, we’ve known each other since forever.” Reimu paused for a few moments, deep in thought. “She’s my best friend.”
“I see.” Silence.
“Why’d you ask?” Reimu was playing a dangerous game. Her heart was thumping out of her chest as if walls of danmaku were being shot at her from all sides.
“Well, you two seem uh, happy together, I guess!” The Moriya Shrine Maiden offered an awkward chuckle.
“Oh, no. We’re not like, a couple or anything.” If the room wasn’t pitch black, Reimu was sure her face had donned the shade of an apple.
“Oh!” Sanae sounded a lot more cheerful than she had probably hoped. “Well, uh, d-do you like, I don’t know, uh, have anybody? ”
If Reimu wasn’t so flustered, she probably would’ve laughed. Sanae was not very good at hiding her feelings, not even in the slightest.
“Yeah, I do.”
“Oh. That makes sense.” The green-haired girl’s voice was level and steady. Her voice only wobbled a little when she continued, “W-Who is it?”
“Who is what?”
“The person y-you’re, y’know, with? ”
“Isn’t that a little personal?” Reimu wishes she could tell her.
“Is it someone I know?”
“Yes.”
A defeated sigh rises from Reimu’s right.
“What’s their name?” Sanae’s voice wavered at the end.
This was it. This was Reimu’s chance. A truth she had been hiding from even herself. Why she chose to bunk at the Moriya Shrine in the first place.
Reimu rolled over to her side. Through the dim moonlight, she could see Sanae, lying on her back, eyes glistening with what looked like faint tears. She was biting her lip.
“Reimu?”
Sanae turned her head. Their eyes made contact, and frizzles of tension spread like danmaku between their gazes.
The Moriya Maiden’s eyes went wide as she felt Reimu’s soft lips cushion her own. It was a fleeting feeling, fading as fast as a spellcard to the wind, brown eyes meeting green once again.
“Sanae Kochiya. Her name is Sanae Kochiya.”
This time, Sanae was ready. Her hands brushed against the blanket as they moved up to Reimu’s head, cradling it as their lips made contact once more. The room was silent apart from the soft sounds of their embrace, the oh-so-human sounds of their mouths battling for dominance. Sanae let out a soft sound from the inside of her throat, a hum that carried past her tongue and into Reimu’s own.
They shifted. Sanae felt her back impact the soft fabric of the futon, Reimu’s weight suddenly pressed against her form. Sanae needed more. Reimu needed more. They both needed more.
Sanae’s arms wrapped around the base of Reimu’s neck, keeping the red-and-white maiden’s body pinned to her own. Reimu retorted by doing what she does best; going with the flow, letting her tongue slip into Sanae’s mouth, hot air cycling through panting breaths.
Fireworks went off in Reimu’s heart. This was more thrilling than the most intense of her danmaku battles, the blood in her roaring with a furiosity that would leave Remilia drooling by proximity. Her hands danced around Sanae’s body, tossing aside the futon cover as if it were a discarded wrapper.
The black-haired Miko’s hands found purchase, slipping under fabric and meeting the soft skin that was Sanae’s tummy.
With a hastened mumble, Sanae broke apart the kiss, and Reimu’s soul felt as if it may have broken.
“Not yet, please.” Sanae explained, her hands gently wrapping around Reimu’s wrists, removing the latter’s hands from under her clothing. “C-Can we just stay like this for a bit?”
Reimu found herself unable to speak. Her lips were still moist, damp from emotion. Panting heavily, she gave a quick nod, interlocking Sanae’s fingers with her own as Reimu’s head lowered back down, letting out a short moan as their mouths melted together in harmony.
Between brief partings for air, Sanae let out a quickened whisper; “I-I love you Reimu, I love you.”
Reimu’s response was going back down for more.
They didn’t get much sleep that night.
Reimu’s eyes flickered open, an unsatisfied grunt leaving her gritted teeth as sunlight tried its best to pry her eyelids open. Her arm tightened around Sanae’s waist, pulling her body closer to her own as the lazy Miko tried her best to go back to sleep.
Wait, what?
Reimu’s eyes flew open. Her arm instinctively flew back, Reimu herself scooting off the futon in haste. Did she sleepwalk? Was that just a hazy dream, formed by the fantasies and desires of Reimu’s mind?
A dull ache resonated from the Hakurei Miko’s neck. Upon touching it (and giving a quick wince), she found a bruise. In fact, her neck was peppered in them, dull green blossoming on pale skin.
Oh. It wasn’t a dream.
This is the best day of my life.
Reimu couldn’t stop a stupid grin from spreading across her face.
“Mmh… Reimu?”
Sanae’s eyes lazily fluttered awake, her gaze immediately landing on her newly established girlfriend. The green-haired girl shot Reimu a quick smile.
“Good morning, dear!”
Reimu’s face reddened up again.
“Good morning, Sanae.”
Satisfied, Reimu cuddled back up into the futon, stopping when her body found touch with Sanae’s once more.
“This is like getting the true ending in a dating game!” Sanae let out a short laugh, rolling her body over so that their smiles could face the other.
“A what-now?” Reimu’s smile never faded.
There was no hurry to fix the Hakurei Shrine.
“How’d it turn out?” Suwako whispered across the bedroom as Kanako slipped back inside, closing the door silently behind her. The taller goddess gave Suwako a thumbs-up, trying her best to not let out a booming laugh. She was slowly losing.
“See? And you doubted my match-making abilities!” Suwako playfully jeered, her hands preoccupied with petting the bullfrog nestled peacefully in her crossed legs. As they heard shifting weight and shuffling cloth from the other bedroom in the shrine, Suwako’s smug face quickly turned a shade of light crimson.
“Let’s give the lovebirds some space, shall we?” Kanako had never sounded so wise.
As the two goddesses stealthily left the shrine, they made sure to lock their bedroom behind them, with all five spare futons hidden safely inside.