The moment of truth had come.

Sanae's heart pounded in her ears. She took a long breath, then blew it out, imagining all of her anxiety and tension going with it. Somebody had told her it was a good way to relax. It wasn't helping at all. Nothing to do but forge ahead anyway.

"So! Um, Reimu, do you think we could talk? Like... somewhere by ourselves?"

Five people were sitting in the circle, and every eye turned toward Sanae. "Can't we talk right here?" Reimu asked.

"A-ah, well, I just have one thing I think it'd be better to talk about in private. It will be really quick, I promise!"

Sanae could swear that for a moment, just a moment, she saw a smirk tugging at Reimu's lips. She took a quick sip of her drink, and when she lowered it again, her expression was back to a friendly smile. "Well, sure. … somebody save my seat, alright? And don't eat all the snacks while I'm gone."

Kokoro was nibbling on one of the mochi that Sanae had brought. She met Reimu's expression blankly, while her masks fluttered around her head in an indecisive flock. Her Hyottoko mask settled into position, and she sighed out, "They're really tasty, though..."

"I'll keep an eye on them," Kasen said. "Go talk to Sanae."

"Good."

Reimu reluctantly rose from her spot and led Sanae down the hillside. Finding some privacy was easier said than done. The Hakurei shrine's first flower-viewing of the year was always one of Gensokyo's biggest social events, and today's was no exception. Dozens of visitors were scattered across the shrine's grounds. Only once they were well out of the cherry grove did the two really escape the party, and even then, they passed a few groups of relaxing youkai.

Reimu came to a stop at the edge of the shrine's clearing. "So, what's on your mind?"

"Something really good, I promise! There's, um, something I wanted to give you!"

"Eh? You couldn't have given it to me back there?"

"Nope! It's special!" Sanae reached inside her robe and slipped a hand into a pocket. "You'll see when—Um." She checked another pocket. "A-ah."

"What?"

Sanae wasn't usually the type to overthink things, but she'd put a lot of thought into the love letter she'd brought today. She'd gotten Kanako to help her with the calligraphy. She'd run it past Suwako, who had even taken it seriously enough to refrain from teasing her about the contents too much. She'd spent an hour digging through one of the shrine's rooms full of outside world leftovers to find a thesaurus. (And now worried that she might have swapped 'love' out for 'adoration' a few too many times, but it was too late to fix that.) It was a meticulous work of art, a heartfelt expression of her feelings.

It was also, she was discovering, not in any of her pockets.

"Um!" Sanae squeaked.

"Cat got your tongue, eh?"

Sanae glanced back in the direction they'd come from, but wherever the letter had disappeared to, it wasn't somewhere quite so convenient. If she was lucky, she'd dropped it somewhere on the long stretch of wilderness between the two shrines. If she was unlucky, she'd dropped it somewhere around the party. Just about anybody could be reading it now, making fun of the super-secret love letter that she'd poured her heart into.

Sanae tried to work up the nerve to make her confession then and there, but she couldn't. Not without some time to mentally prepare, and definitely not when she was already off-balance. She hunted frantically for some excuse that would let her end the conversation without tipping her hand. "Actually...! I just wanted to show you, um... this!"

Apart from the missing letter, Sanae only had two things in her pockets—a coin purse, and the key to the Moriya shrine's living area. The key was the only one she needed these days, but she still kept it on a chain. Now, she thrust it in Reimu's face. A little acrylic keychain dangled from the bottom, half-faded after a decade in Gensokyo. "It's cute, isn't it?" she asked desperately.

Reimu stared at the dangling piece of plastic. "That's what you brought me out here for?"

"Yep...! Just that! It's my favorite pokemon." Sanae was babbling now. "Its name is Heracross."

"Uh-huh. Sure you didn't get me mixed up with Sumireko?"

"Y-yep!"

"Er. Well, I guess it looks cute. Is that, er, everything you needed?"

"Yeah!"

"Right... I, uh, I think I'm going to get back to the party now."

"Sure thing! Thanks for coming out here...!"

Reimu gave a final, confused nod before turning and heading back toward the party. Sanae waited until she was mostly out of sight to deflate. The big confession she'd spent weeks preparing for, and she'd blown it. Even if she found the letter now, it would probably be another week before she'd be able to look Reimu in the eyes without getting embarrassed. And that was assuming Reimu didn't start making fun of her as soon as she got back to the party...

"Looks like you've had a pretty rough day."

The voice interrupted Sanae's self-pity. She looked around, but didn't see the speaker. Only after a few seconds more did she spot a pair of fuzzy white ears poking up from the underbrush, a moment before Tewi stepped out from the forest's edge. "Am I right?"

Sanae didn't answer for a few seconds, as her brain strung the implications together. A blush flooded to her cheeks. "Wait, were you there the whole time?!"

"Me? Nope. I was just passing by and noticed you standing out here. So..." Tewi eased over, and in barely a moment, had a dainty arm draped companionably across Sanae's back. "Love troubles, huh?"

"H-hey!" Sanae jerked backward. "No! I mean! Um! … what makes you think it's a love thing?"

Tewi chuckled knowingly. "Hey, listen. I might not look like it, but I'm pretty old and wise for a rabbit! D'you think I haven't learned to spot when a girl's got that twinkle of love in her eyes?"

"Huh? Er, well, um..."

"Besides! I'm here to help you. As luck would have it, I happen to have a little product here that will give you just what you need."

Tewi triumphantly thrust a hand into the air. Sitting on her palm was a tiny, ornate vial, with a cord through its stopper. Sanae crouched down to inspect it. "Oh! It's a love potion or something, right?"

"Nope! Even better."

"Er. … what could really be better than a love potion for this?"

"Look, a simple love potion will just help you hook up with the person. This is something way better. It's a genuine, bona fide dose of Ultramarine Orb Elixir! You know, to let you see the future."

"Ultrama—oh! That stuff we drank when we fought the moon!"

"That's the stuff!"

"... are you supposed to have that? Reisen acted like it was pretty important..."

"Hey, we've got tons of potions around Eientei. Nobody's going to notice if one or two turn up missing now and then. And, since I'm feeling generous and all, I'm willing to let you have a dose!"

"Whoa!" Sanae paused. "Um, how's that supposed to help me, though?"

"Easy. You want to confess to Reimu, right? You just take a dose, and then you've got all the time you need to figure out how to do it right. You know." Tewi shot Sanae a rogueish grin and elbowed her side. "Really put the charm on her! Win over her heart!"

Sanae stared for a few seconds, as her mind worked out exactly what Tewi was proposing. She had taken the elixir during the lunar invasion, and while the day's events were a bit of a blur in her memories, she could remember the experience—charging into the same battle a dozen times, repeating fights over and over until she could dance past every bullet. If anything could let her give Reimu a confession as perfect as her letter, that would be it.

"I'll do it!"

"Great! It's all yours for a simple payment of five thousand yen."

"Er." Sanae patted the coin purse in her pocket. "I think I only have a thousand on me...?"

"Ah, silly me. I got the prices all wrong. What I meant to say was, 'six easy payments of a thousand yen'!"

The price tag only gave Sanae a momentary pause. "Oh! I can probably afford that!"

"Convenient, huh?" Tewi offered the vial up and gave it a little shake. Sanae pulled out her coin purse and counted out her change. When the trade was complete, Tewi gave a satisfied nod. "Oh! The vial's mine, though. You just want to take one drop, so be really careful, okay?"

"Okay!" Sanae looked down at the vial. The whole thing was the size of her pinky, and she wasn't even going to drink all of it? … which obviously meant that it was really potent. She couldn't believe she'd managed to get such a good deal!

Sanae carefully pulled the stopper from the little vial. A slight medicinal smell wafted from the end, and only grew stronger as she raised it to her lips. She tilted it back, watching a drop slowly slide down over the edge...

It dripped onto her tongue. An electric tingle ran through her body. Sanae swallowed.

The universe exploded in front of her.

Sanae's world blurred into a kaleidoscope of possibilities. A thousand fractal Tewis looked up at her with two thousand eyes. They all opened their mouths to speak, but instantly diverged. Here, Tewi peered at her with concern. There, Tewi laughed at her reaction and gave her a slap on the side. They grew further apart with each passing moment, splitting and multiplying, a million billion possibilities all sprouting from a single point in time.

… and, like a rubber band stretched too far, the universe snapped back into place. There was only one Tewi in front of her, curiously peering at Sanae. "Oh! Hey, you're back. I was afraid I needed to start digging a grave for a second there."

"That was... that was weird!" If Sanae didn't take care to focus on the current moment, she could hear her words a split-second before she said them. That was going to take some getting used to. "Like, really weird."

"That's what they tell me!" Tewi rose up on her tiptoes to pluck the vial from Sanae's hand. Within a second, she'd stoppered it and hidden it away again. "It isn't too bad though, right? Not stopping you from doing stuff?"

"Oh, um, yeah! I think I can..." Sanae raised a hand to cradle the side of her head, only to notice that it left a few afterimages, tracing minutely different paths to the same result. She glowered at it and concentrated until she was very sure that she only saw two hands on her body. "... do things."

"Hey, that's great! Because, actually, I forgot to mention. That dose you took is only enough for five minutes."

"Wait. What?!"

"Five minutes, like, forward in time! Or, here, let me just read the label." Tewi turned the vial over and squinted at it. "'Blah blah, contraindicated if'—oh, there it is. 'Five minutes per causally-related series of macroscopic eigenstates within a single future light cone.'"

"I don't know what that means!"

"I'm sure you'll figure it out! I mean, you have plenty of chances, right?"

"But—!"

Tewi raised a hand to cut her off. "Think about it like this—you're already down to about four and a half minutes. Better make the most of it, right?"

Sanae stared at her, sputtering in disbelief... but Tewi was right about that much. Whatever the label meant, there was a timer ticking down. She had to get to work. "A-ah, I'll be back! Stay right here!"

Sanae took off up the hill at full speed. A few lounging youkai shot her curious glances, but she ignored them. If her time was limited, she had to get to Reimu as soon as she could. Soon, she was back in the cherry grove, running through a pink shower of petals. Only when she was within a dozen meters of the group did she slow down, proceeding at a more casual walk and trying to pretend that she hadn't just sprinted halfway across the shrine's grounds.

The small group they'd been sitting in was still in the same positions. Reimu, Marisa, Kasen, and Kokoro looked up at her, most of them holding sake dishes in their hands. Kasen was the first to speak. "Welcome back, Sanae."

"Th-thanks." Sanae tried, and failed, to hide the fact that she was out of breath. She also tried, and failed, to ignore the quizzical look that Reimu was giving her. She settled back into her seat and smoothed her skirt out.

"Want me to top your drink up?" Marisa asked, already offering the bottle over.

"Ah, um, I'll pass!"

"I brought some of the best sake in Gensokyo today," Kasen said, warmly but with just a hint of pride in her voice. "You should at least try a little to enjoy the flavor."

"It's tasty," Kokoro agreed flatly, taking a sip.

"A-ah, well, I don't usually drink much, and today—"

"Ah, leave her alone," Reimu said. "As weird as Sanae's acting today, booze might not be a good idea."

Sanae flushed, but she couldn't let a challenge like that go unanswered. She thrust her dish forward with a huff. "Jeez, go ahead! … but it's not nice to force people into this stuff, you know. It's considered really rude in the outside world!"

Marisa tipped the bottle down to fill her dish. "Got a policy of not arguin' with free booze, myself, but I'll keep it in mind."

Sanae pouted down at her drink, but she was slowly becoming aware of a bigger issue. She had no idea how she was going to confess to Reimu. It had barely been a minute or two since she'd pulled Reimu away the first time. If she tried again so soon, Reimu would probably think she was crazy. And she didn't have a lot of time to think about it, either...

Something moved on the ground, just out of Sanae's vision. She glanced down. The middle of the circle was full of food and drinks. Among them was a plate of sakura mochi that she'd made this morning... and as she watched, one of them hovered a few centimeters up into the air and disappeared. A few seconds later, another followed suit. Sanae frowned thoughtfully at the plate and tried to make sense of what she was seeing. She could sense something there, but the moment she tried thinking about it, her attention slid away like water from a duck's back.

Kokoro, on the other hand, had no such handicap. "My nemesis!" she shouted, springing to her feet. "You're still a thief, I see."

"Waa!" Whatever was next to Sanae, it shouted. Even then, it took a few seconds for her to focus on it—Koishi was crouched down next to her, with a small pile of sakura mochi in her hands. "Mask girl! Hi~!"

Kasen glanced between the two uncertainly. "Oh? Do you two know each other?"

Instead of an answer, Kokoro sliced her naginata through the air, centimeters above the group's heads. She leveled the blade at Koishi, while her fox mask settled in front of her face, overflowing with so much emotion that it boiled with blue flame at the edges. "I've been waiting for a rematch. Prepare yourself!"

"Oh, a fight!" Koishi peered down the length of the blade, then straightened up and shoved one of the mochi into her mouth, freeing a hand to wave in the air excitedly. "That sounds fun!" she added, spraying pink rice from her mouth.

"Hey now!" Reimu shouted. "Simmer down! There's people trying to drink here—!"

Kokoro lunged forward, moving into the middle of the circle and knocking over a bottle of sake. Koishi half-skipped, half-spun away from her blade, sending her handful of mochi flying in all directions. "Whoooa! No fair, I didn't say I was ready!"

"Jeez, watch where you're goin'!" Marisa shouted, scrambling to get out from between the two.

"Battle doesn't wait for—" Kokoro stepped through a series of complicated slashes, advancing forward and trampling the last few mochi on the plate. "—anybody!"

"H-hey, wait...!" Sanae hurried to her feet and tried to step between the two. "You can't fight here! It's a peaceful gathering and stuff!"

Kokoro ignored her, driving Koishi back with a series of pointed thrusts. Koishi danced backward, countering with a spray of heart-shaped bullets. Sanae stumbled backward and barely avoided the pair of attacks. Soon, the two had settled into a steady back-and-forth fight, and the scattered party attendees quickly moved in to watch the show. Nobody in Gensokyo was above a bit of free entertainment.

"Fighting's one thing, but they didn't have to stomp on all the snacks while they were at it." Marisa sighed. "Could've at least stepped away before they started shooting each other. Y'know, like civilized people."

"I'm more concerned about the booze, myself." Reimu glanced to the spilled bottle, then leaned over to sidle up against Kasen. "But since it was an accident, I'm sure you won't mind getting more for us, right?"

"Reimu, I really don't think this is the time to—"

The two started bickering, but Sanae tuned them out. It had to have taken at least a minute or so to get to the party after she took the elixir, and she'd wasted another minute before the fight started. She'd already used up at least half of her time, and it was probably going to be a few minutes before the fight settled down. Her odds of getting Reimu alone were growing increasingly slim, let alone finding the right mood to confess to her...

As soon as she had that thought, the universe fell apart around her, like an unraveling ball of twine.

Sanae's vision pulled back, and like a cannonball shot straight into the air, she found that she could suddenly see so much more. The entirety of existence was at her fingertips, from the beginning of time to the heat death of the universe. It all made sensenow, fitting together like a satisfying little puzzle. She could see just how it flowed, how a little nudge ten million years ago could become a tidal wave tomorrow.

And just like a cannonball, Sanae came crashing back down.

Tewi leaned in front of her, curiously peering at Sanae. "Oh! Hey, you're back. I was afraid I needed to start digging a grave for a second there."

"A-ah, um!" Sanae scrambled back and tried to get her bearings. "What the heck?!"

"I guess it feels pretty weird, huh?" Tewi rose up on her tiptoes to pluck the vial from Sanae's hand. Within a second, she'd stoppered it and hidden it away again. "It isn't too bad though, right? Not stopping you from doing stuff?"

"I can, but—" Sanae paused. She was back with Tewi. This conversation was feeling kind of familiar, too. "Wait! You tricked me!"

"Hey, that hurts! I take a lot of pride in my reputation as an honest businesswoman. Besides, I think you'll find that potion's the real deal."

"No! I mean, um!" Sanae shook her head to clear it of cobwebs, and the lingering afterimages of all of space-time. Mostly the latter, if she was being honest. "Five minutes is really short! How am I supposed to talk to Reimu in that?"

Tewi's ears drooped down thoughtfully, until understanding rose to her face. "Oh, I get it. This isn't your first time, huh?"

"No! Well, I mean, it's my second time, but—that doesn't matter! I can't even confess in that much time, because Kokoro and that satori girl are gonna get into a fight, and, um—!"

"'Um'?"

Sanae's mind was going at the speed of light. If she was here again, that meant she'd returned back to the time where she took the potion. Which meant that Kokoro and Koishi hadn't started fighting yet, which meant—

"Never mind! I'll be back after!"

Sanae took off up the hill at full speed. A few lounging youkai shot her curious glances, but she ignored them. As she ran, she put together a plan of action in her head. This time, she didn't slow down until she was in danger of plowing straight into the circle of flower-gazers, stumbling to a stop barely a meter from Reimu.

"Welcome back," Kasen said, and gave her a worried look. "Is something wrong? Why were you running?"

"Th-thanks. I, um. Don't worry about it!" Sanae knelt down by her spot at the circle. The looks she was getting this time were even more concerned.

"Well, uh." Marisa raised the bottle of sake and gave it a shake. "Want me to top your drink up?"

"I already told you that's rude! Anyway, I just came here to get this!" Sanae grabbed the plate of sakura mochi and stood back up. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

"Fixing to eat a whole plate?" Reimu asked. "Isn't that a lot for one—?"

Sanae was already gone. She hadn't quite figured out this part of her plan, but she had a decent outline in her head. She walked straight away from the circle, until she was just out of view. She flopped down to the ground, leaning back against a tree. And, she took the biggest bite of mochi that she could fit into her mouth.

"Mmm!" Sanae announced to nobody. "This mochi is really good!"

Nothing happened. She took another two bites, and tried really hard to watch her surroundings for a person-that-wasn't-a-person. "It's really sweet! And tasty!" she said, louder this time.

Still nothing. Sanae took a breath and raised her voice just short of shouting. "I SURE WOULD LOVE TO SHARE SOME MOCHI WITH A SATORI WHO—!"

"Hey." Sekibanki voice was quiet, but her annoyed tone cut right through Sanae's shouting. She pushed her way through a wall of cherry branches a few meters away, scowling past her collar. "Can you keep it down? We're trying to relax over here."

"Oh. A-ah." Sanae shifted in place, embarrassed. "Sorry...! I'll try to be quieter."

"Thank you."

Sekibanki turned and disappeared back through the wall of trees. Sanae sighed, and reached for the mochi again... just in time to see one disappear from under her hand.

"Aha!"

She lunged forward and grabbed an invisible wrist. It took a second or two of additional staring before her brain was able to fill the Koishi-shaped hole in the universe. "I found you!"

"Hi!" Koishi said, tilting her head to the side. "Were we playing hide and seek?"

"Er, nope!"

"Oh." Koishi thoughtfully shoved a piece of mochi into her mouth. "I'm really good at hide and seek though!"

"Well, maybe we can play it sometime. For now... I brought you a whole plate of mochi! It's all yours, if you want it!"

Koishi stared in amazement. Her head gave an excited bob.

"Good!" Sanae nearly shoved it into Koishi's hands. "Why don't you take it and go eat it, um... over there! Way over there!" She pointed away from the group.

"Oh, that does sound pretty fun! Thanks, shrine lady!"

Koishi faded from Sanae's vision as soon as she took a few steps, but she'd seemed to be going in the right direction. Sanae was just going to have to hope that it worked out. She rose to her feet and hurried back to the group—walking quickly this time, rather than running. She'd already used two or three minutes, but she wasn't going to get anywhere if everybody thought she was a weirdo again.

"Welcome, uh, back?" Marisa said, as she settled into her seat again. "Take care of whatever you were doing?"

"A-ah, um, yep!"

"You were yelling," Kokoro said. She leaned forward to inspect Sanae, with her monkey mask wobbling uncertainly to one side of her face. "Ah. The mochi are gone. Did you eat the plate too?"

"I was... giving them away?" It was the best excuse Sanae could come up with. She didn't have time for this conversation anyway. She looked to Reimu. "So...! Reimu, if you don't mind..."

"Reimu." Kasen's firm voice cut her off.

Every eye in the circle turned toward Kasen, then followed her gaze to the shrine. There, the Fairies of Light were creeping along the wall, cooperating to carry a barrel that had doubtlessly come from inside.

"That's the backup booze, isn't it?" Marisa said.

"Yep," Reimu said, "it is."

Kasen raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you going to stop them?"

"Huh? Oh. Right." Reimu grabbed her gohei and stood up, giving it a few practice swings. "Suppose I'll have to teach those tykes a lesson they won't soon forget."

Sanae did some very quick math in her head. If she was being generous, she had maybe two minutes left. A fight, even against fairies, was probably going to take a while, but if she evened the odds a little...

"Um! I'll help too!" Sanae leapt to her feet. "It'll be easier with two of us, right?"

"Hey, yeah." Reimu waved her forward. "Go get 'em!"

"Right!"

Sanae charged forward. She hadn't brought her onusa, but she didn't think she was going to notice the reduction in firepower. After all, they were only fighting fairies.

"Stop right there!" Sanae shouted as she approached the shrine. She swung her hand up, the glimmering core of an attack forming at her fingertips. "And, um, drop the sake!"

The Fairies of Light stopped right where they were at.

"Let's get out of here!" Sunny shouted, and dropped her end of the barrel.

"Run!" Star shouted, and dropped her end of the barrel.

"Wait, should we—?" Luna was cut off as both her companions took off running. She wobbled, and the barrel slipped from her hands with a heavy thud. She stared at Sanae in terror, then hurried after the others.

Sanae leapt over the rolling barrel and fired off a wild spray of bullets. None of them got anywhere close to the fairies, but she was gaining ground. The fairies had gotten a head start, but Sanae had a size advantage. Second by second, she got a little closer, and she shot off a few more attacks to slow them down.

A bit too late, Sanae became aware of a few unfortunate facts. The first was that she was alone. Reimu had just sort of stopped before even reaching the shrine, and she was now watching the chase with idle interest. The second was that she didn't need to chase the fairies—she could have settled for scaring them off.

Third, and most important, was the fact that Star was frantically fiddling with something in her hands as she ran. Sanae saw the black blur as she tossed it backward, but it had almost hit the ground by the time that her mind identified it as a bomb.

"Try not to get hurt!" Star shouted back, a bit too gleefully for the situation.

The bomb exploded. It was more bark than bite, not accomplishing much except releasing a firm pop and a cloud of thick smoke. It was still enough to startle Sanae, and definitely enough to make her stumble to a stop. She coughed and waved the smoke away, pushing through it until she stepped into fresh air again. The fairies hadn't wasted the distraction, and had put a good twenty meters or so between them and Sanae. Reimu, though, was even farther away. All that time wasted, and for nothing. She wasn't going to be confessing this time unless she sprinted back and blurted it out without stopping.

Again, Sanae fell out of time, and it bared itself before her.

Time wasn't a line. Now that she had a good look at it, that much was obvious. It wasn't even a cleanly-branching tree like sci-fi stories always promised her. It was a cloud, splayed and wispy, like an octopus made out of fog. Its long tendrils formed around cores of high probability, growing thinner and thinner as their events grew more strange. Most paths led toward the same few points, orbiting attractors before they spiraled in toward singularities of certainty. Here and there, though, they snaked on toward infinity, forming tiny escape routes from the universe itself. She squinted at one, and caught the briefest glimpse of Mokou's silhouette—

Tewi leaned in front of her, curiously peering at Sanae. "Oh! Hey, you're back. I was afraid I needed to start digging a grave for a second there."

Sanae rubbed her forehead and blinked her eyes, trying to clear the afterimages. "That just keeps getting weirder..."

"That's what they tell me!" Tewi rose up on her tiptoes to pluck the vial from Sanae's hand... then paused. "Oh, hey. Does that mean this isn't your first time?"

"No! I keep having to do it over and over! There's too much stuff that can go wrong if..."

Sanae trailed off, as a new plan of attack occurred to her. Tewi tucked the vial away and gave her a cautiously curious look. "If what?"

"Um, never mind! I have to go, sorry!"

Sanae leaned forward and charged off at a sprint, the fastest she'd run all day. This time... this time was going to be her last attempt. Every time she'd cleared an obstacle, another had popped up in front of her. This might never work if she didn't find a way to power through and confess regardless. So, no screwing around this time. She wouldn't even try to pretend that everything was normal. She was going to sit down, tell Reimu how she felt, and get this over with.

"Welcome back," Kasen said, then trailed off in surprise as Sanae practically skidded to a stop. "Is something wrong?"

"N-...!" Sanae was gasping for air, which made it a little hard to respond. "Nope!"

"Uh-huh," Marisa said. She patted the ground for the sake bottle, then casually offered it up. "Well, anyway, want me to top your drink up?"

After already having this conversation twice, it was all starting to sound kind of familiar. It seemed faster to just get it over with. Sanae yanked the bottle from Marisa's hands, sloshed some into her dish, and downed the whole thing in a single powerful gulp. "Th-there!" she sputtered. She thrust the dish accusingly toward Marisa. "And it's still rude!"

"Uh, Sanae." Reimu sat her own drink down and reached over to rest a steadying hand on Sanae's shoulder. "You're actin' a mite weird today. Everything okay?"

Marisa eyed Reimu across the circle. "'A mite'? Really?"

Reimu ignored her. Sanae did too. "Actually...!" She met Reimu's eyes. Seeing her face-to-face, it was almost enough to give her second thoughts. But, she had too much momentum. She wasn't about to let it go to waste. Sanae lunged over and grabbed Reimu's hand, tugging it into a firm grasp. "Actually... Reimu, I love you!"

Reimu stared at her, wide-eyed with disbelief. Silence hung over the group, as sharp and heavy as an axe.

Reimu sputtered. Her expression fluctuated wildly as she fought to control herself. She failed, and instead burst out laughing.

So did everybody else.

"W-what?!" Sanae jerked back and looked from person to person. "What's so funny?!"

"Really can't hold your liquor, huh?!" Reimu wheezed out, between bouts of laughter.

"Never figured ya for a wild drunk," Marisa added.

"What? No! I've barely had anything!"

Even Kasen had a bandaged finger crooked in front of her lips, feigning a cough as she choked down her laughter. "Being too open with Reimu is one thing, but you should really apologize for shouting at Marisa."

"I'm not drunk!"

Nobody seemed to be buying it. Even Kokoro had joined in... although for her, that meant chortling a steady, "Ha ha ha!" from behind a mask.

There was no way she was going to recover from this.

Again, time drifted away from Sanae.