She sighed as she stepped off of the train, stopping a moment to brush her brown hair back over her ear, before regaining her grip on her suitcase, and carting it along behind her as she stepped out onto the street.
The blast of fresh air that caressed her face as she escaped the tightness of the train terminal was a welcome greeting, as was the relative silence that she doubted could be found back in the building behind her.
"Finally," She mumbled, before starting off again, wanting to make as much distance from the terminal as possible before the rest of the passengers got their own matters in order and began to swarm outside after her.
The area was relatively calm as she walked down the street, with only the occasional car speeding past. The breeze continued to blow gently around her, and she could hear birdcalls in the distance, something she had grown unused to hearing over the last few years in the big city.
"But now that's finally over, and I'm back home, where I belong," She stated quietly to herself, allowing her eyes to roam, trying to soak up all of the sights around her.
After a little more walking, rows of green trees gave way to small shops lining either side of the road, and the overall noise began to rise once more, as pedestrians began to appear again, walking both with and against her, though she paid them no mind, and continued to focus on her own goals, while still trying to memorize everything around.
She could hear people talking around her, and did pick up parts of the odd conversation, but was trying her best not to really listen, another thing she had picked up over the years.
Attempting to keep her mouth from watering as she passed what could only be a bakery, the girl made a quick note that once she had settled in, she would go and visit, and perhaps see just what they had in stock. "For gifts, of course," she tried to justify unsuccessfully.
It was while she was passing a small shop, with a sign atop it that read Margatroid Cafe, that the girl paused for a moment to listen in on a very interesting conversation.
"So, who do you think she is? Some kinda tourist, Ya?" A short, blonde girl asked, gesturing at the girl standing across the street with her tea cup, gripped tightly in her hand.
"Hey, don't be so barbaric as to talk about people behind their backs Marisa," a second blonde girl chided her friend, "I know you were raised by some less than refined people, but please show at least some kind of class."
"Hah! who ya calling unrefined Alice? I learned everything I needed from them "less-than-refined people", and look at where I am now," The first girl shot back, grinning at her friend lazily.
She had to bite back the chuckle as she saw the second blonde, Alice, if she heard correctly, Huff, red-faced, and slump back into her seat. Seeing the discussion as over, she began walking again, but caught onto the last wisps of the conversation as she rounded the next street corner.
"So that girl I was pointing at, ya didn't answer my question. Think she's a tourist?" She heard that Marisa girl say, her slurring, boyish speech causing her to bristle slightly, but she took a deep breath to calm herself.
Who cared how the locals saw her. She was here for only one reason, and if she had to be honest, the less she needed to interact with these people the better.
She had managed just fine on her own in the big city for years, she didn't need anyone in her life now.
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Finally the large, bright red Torii gates came into view, and she breathed a sigh of relief as she saw the familiar winding set of stairs appearing, separating away from the sidewalk.
She had to admit, as she ascended the stairs, her grandfather had done very well while she was away taking care of the shrine in her absence. There was no ivy or moss anywhere on the stairs, and all of the bricks looked as though they'd been freshly laid, so there was no risk of anyone tripping or falling as they climbed up to the shrine.
Though she was slightly embarrassed to find that after only climbing about halfway up the long staircase, she was already beginning to feel kind of winded, though she passed the blame off onto her poor suitcase, which had most of her things in it, and was making it harder for her to get up the stairs.
Really, it had to be the suitcase, she wasn't that out of shape.
Once she finally passed beneath the Torii gates though, she began to think otherwise, "okay, maybe I am that out of shape... no more mid afternoon snacks for a little while I suppose ought to help."
"Oh I don't think that's the only thing you'll have to do in order to get back into shape, my dear shrine-maiden to be," a soft, melodious voice passed on the breeze, causing Reimu to perk up in surprise and embarrassment.
Looking up, the girl's dark red eyes came to rest on a peculiar woman, sitting on the steps of the large Shinto shrine, a cup of tea in her hands, with a small, playful smile playing at her lips. The woman's blonde hair was hidden beneath a large sun-hat, and her purple and white sundress looked far more elegant than it should on the woman.
Reimu blinked a few times in surprise as she inspected the intruder. The woman didn't seem to take offence to the girl's staring, and took another sip from her cup quietly, simply waiting for the shorter girl to break out of her stupor.
"Awaiii?" Reimu finally cried out, pointing at the woman sitting atop her stoop, most likely drinking her tea, and looking as though she owned the place, "Who in the seven hells are you?"
"Reimu-baby!" Reimu was startled to find herself suddenly in a rather tight bear hug initiated by the strange woman, who had seemingly crossed the shrine courtyard in seconds, and was pushed rather forcefully into the much older woman's voluptuous bust. She tried to struggle away at first, but when she realized there was no way she would be able to fight her way out of the woman's firm grip, and instead went limp in her arms.
"Oh it's been far too long my dear, I can't believe old Genii could ever dream of sending you away to the big city, when you're just a poor old country girl at heart," The woman gushed, "Though, I suppose what you've come back to isn't quite the country life you left behind, but trust me, everyone you probably remember are still here, and all of them are dying to see you."
Finally managing to at least force some distance between the two, Reimu held the older woman at arms length, gave her an incredulous look, and said, rather bluntly, "That's great, but who are you, and why the hell are you in my shrine?"
Reimu watched in some sadistic amusement as the woman's face fell, and she staggered backwards away from the shrine-maiden to be, looking absolutely crushed by the simple question. The girl thought that it served her right after barging into the shrine and practically trying to suffocate her.
She was mildly surprised when the woman suddenly burst into tears, pulling a folding fan from...somewhere, and used it to hide her face from view, and was even more startled when another woman, with equally blonde hair, appeared beside the first, and gently whacked her upside the head, quickly ceasing her crying.
"Lady Yukari, please stop being so overdramatic. Of course Reimu-San isn't going to remember us, she's been gone for many years," The woman explained in a no-nonsense tone, her arms folded, with her hands hiding within the opposite sleeves, and Reimu noted that there appeared to be a young, brown-haired girl hanging from the woman's neck by her arms, looking over her shoulder curiously at the shrine maiden.
"Ran-Sama, who's that?" The young girl asked innocently.
Unfortunately, it appeared that the older woman had regained her composure, and stored away her folding fan, as if nothing had happened, and that there wasn't a large bruise forming on her right cheek, as she answered the girl, "That dear Chen, is the next Shrine maiden that's going to be taking over for Genji-Jiji."
"I have a name you know," Reimu mumbled, though she went ignored by the three woman, as they seemingly began to talk amongst themselves.
Suddenly though, Reimu seemed to recall a memory, like a long-lost thought she had buried away a very long time ago. In it, there appeared to be a younger, cuter (if she dared to add) Reimu, being bounced on the knee of a tall, blonde woman, whom she quickly recognized as the woman who had all but assaulted her a moment ago.
Standing next to the pair, like an owl overseeing it's territory, was a tall, gangly man, with not a single hair atop his head, but a long white beard that nearly touched the ground, dressed in the customary outfit of shrine attendants. A small smile was playing at his lips as he watched the two girl's interact.
standing next to the blonde bouncing her atop her knee appeared to be another young girl, with short blonde hair, that was watching on in curiosity as the pair interacted, whom Reimu eventually recognized as the woman who had called her Reimu-san.
Blinking away the memory, Reimu finally made the connection that these three were at least somewhat close to her family, and a name came unbidden in her mind.
"Yukari-baa-Chan," She stated calmly, with a small smile, gaining the attention of the three women.
"Oh...hey!" Yukari seemed to ignite with anger, "I am not your grandmother you ungrateful girl, I'm at the very least your aunt."
"Please Yukari-sama, act your age for once," Ran commented behind the woman, but was promptly ignored.
"Nah, I think I like Baa-Chan better, how bout you kiddo?" Reimu asked, referring to the younger girl who had been missing from her memory.
"Yukari-sama is Yukari-sama," The girl replied, but Reimu wasn't expecting anything different from her, the girl had to of been raised by the two, and judging by her speech, must have been taught etiquette by Ran-san.
"Well now that introductions are out of the way," "You never introduced yourself, you assaulted me and began to babble incoherently," "I suppose you had better get yourself settled in," Yukari ignored how she had been ignored and Reimu was beginning to lose her patience with the woman.
"That's great, as soon as you guys leave I'll go in and start unpacking," Reimu stated, and found her eye twitch when Yukari let out a haughty laugh in response, "and just what's so funny?" the shrine maiden asked.
"Don't worry about unpacking dear, I'm sure that Ran and I can handle that. No, what you need to do is go out and refamiliarize yourself with the area, seeing as how things have changed since you went away," The woman replied without missing a beat.
"And just why would I leave you three here alone with my things, when I have only known you for..." Reimu stopped to look down at her watch, "twenty minutes?"
But unfortunately it appeared that Yukari was not going to take no for an answer, and grabbed the girl by the wrist, leading her unwillingly towards the stairs that led back down into the town below.
"Oh don't worry so much dear, you can trust your darling Aunt Yukari and aunt Ran, you just go down there and make some friends, you'll need them for when you really begin to do your Miko work.
Reimu tried to make a fuss, and attempted to talk sense into the woman, but found herself suddenly treading air, and was flabbergasted to realize that Yukari had pushed her...down a long flight of stairs.
"DAMNIT YUKARI!" She shouted, the words coming unbidden from her mouth as the first set of stairs came to greet her.
throwing her arms out, the girl thankfully managed to catch herself, and shoulder the burden of both her momentum and weight, and quickly used her speed to spring herself down the next few sets of stairs, until she was finally able to land back on her feet, thankful that she hadn't crashed into a tree, or lost her equilibrium during the fall.
Turning to glare up at the woman standing at the top of the stairs, Reimu had to wonder whether or not the woman had known she'd taken a few years of acrobatics and tumbling while she was in school, or if she was simply that sadistic as to risk the future shrine maiden's life just for revenge.
The latter, she thought, as she did as the woman told her, and continued her descent of the stairs. definitely the latter.
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Reimu did have to admit, now that she had the chance to simply look around, that this little town she had left behind was really rather quaint.
There were trees everywhere, and she was surprised to find how much she had taken them for granted while she was in the city, as they were all rather pretty.
The people all seemed as ready to ignore her as she was for them, and was happy to have her thoughts to herself as she took note of all of the future land-marks.
She had already scoped out where the bakery she had passed earlier was, and the shortest route to it from the shrine, brushing away Yukari's earlier teasing, and knowing that just doing the walk there and back would be plenty of exercise to balance out a couple of muffins every few days.
She had also passed a small bookstore, and though the name sounded familiar, Reimu had opted not to visit it, as she was more interested in sightseeing today, and she already had several books to read that she'd picked up before she left.
Now she was simply wandering the street, allowing time to pass while she breathed in the cool country air, feeling as though an unknown weight had been lifted from her shoulders all of a sudden, and if she only jumped she could float away.
At least, until she heard a voice she'd been hoping not to hear again, ever, "Oi, it's that tourist again, look Alice."
"Marisa, stop acting like such a little kid, what if she hears you," The taller girl scolded, sounding like a mother.
"Aw who cares what the tourists think, they'll all just leave again once the cherry blossoms bloom, and we can get back to our quiet lives, while them city folk rush around like chickens with their heads cut off."
"Careful Mari, you're starting to sound like a country bumpkin," Alice warned, but seemed to go ignored.
Reimu was growling quietly, having stopped to continue listening to the two this time, and was contemplating going over and showing this "country bumpkin" about some of the other things she had learned in the city, but was stopped by only her amazing self-control.
"Just look at her, short skirt, a huge bow in her hair, and what are those things on her arms, socks? She looks ridiculous," Marisa continued to comment, causing the Miko to fume in silent anger, her self-control beginning to crack around the edges.
Suddenly she heard a pained cry, and turned to look over at the cafe, where she found a somewhat comical sight. There the taller blonde, Alice was, holding her shorter friend, Marisa, by the ear painfully, and seemed fairly angry about something.
"Oh I cannot believe I put up with you sometimes Marisa, obviously she heard you, and now you've gone and hurt the poor girl's feelings," Alice said, though Reimu didn't know how it looked like this Marisa girl had "hurt her feelings," if anything she was ready to punch her.
Unfortunately, that was beginning to look like a possibility, as now the pair of girls were crossing the street over to where she stood, Alice still keeping a death-grip on her friend's ear, who was still whining comically behind her.
Once the two were across, Alice got behind her friend, and with a surprising amount of strength, shoved the girl towards her, sternly telling her to "apologize."
Marisa seemed to stumble for a moment, but then took a firm stance and childishly turned her face away, "I have nothing to apologize to this city girl about, she ought to grow some thicker skin."
"Oh honestly Marisa, you are impossible," Alice said, and stepped forward, "Listen, I'm really sorry about my friend here, she sometimes...okay all the time, talks without thinking, and I'm sure she didn't mean anything that she said to be hurtful."
"Hey, don't go putting words into my mouth Alice!" Marisa cried, turning to face her friend.
"And I bet she meant every word of it, you country girls are all the same, putting your mouths where your money can't follow," Reimu snarled back, both girls turning to face Alice, and finally meeting eye-to-eye.
"Marisa?"
"Reimu?"
Alice blinked in surprise as, suddenly, the two girls who had a moment ago sounded ready to start a fight in the middle of the street were now in a tight hug, laughing at the top of their lungs together.
"Err Marisa, care to explain?" The blonde girl asked feebly, feeling completely lost at this point.
Marisa finally broke out of the hug, but left one arm around the other girl's shoulder as she turned to regard her long-time friend, "Alice you'll never guess who this girl is."
"Of course I'm not going to guess, if you would just tell me we could skip this pointless game of twenty questions," Alice chided the blonde girl.
Reimu took the initiative when she realized that Marisa wasn't going to give a straight answer, and held out her hand to the other girl, "Hi there, I'm Reimu Hakurei." She was slightly amused to see the Tall blonde girl's eyes widen in surprise and recognition, and she turned to regard her friend, "Okay Marisa, what horror stories have you been telling her about me?"
"Nothing, I swear," Marisa cried, pulling away and bringing her hands up in a placating gesture, "I just might have mentioned how I used to have a friend living up at the local shrine, who moved away a long time ago to go to some far off fancy school, and never came back."
"Never came back, huh," Reimu growled, and smacked her friend in the back of the head, "I see you still stretch the truth a little, eh Mari?"
"Owwie, and I'm sure your still as cheap as when you were little Rei," Marisa shot back, before both girls began to laugh again. It was stopped as Marisa noticed something, "err Alice-Chan, are you okay?"
The taller blonde had seemingly gone comatose at the reveal of Marisa's supposed long-lost friend, and was now staring open-mouthed at the shrine maiden in shock.
"Um, does she do this often?" Reimu asked, as she watched Marisa poke at the Blonde's cheek in an attempt to get a reaction out of her.
"Oh she'll be fine, Alice-Chan just doesn't take surprises well."
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Reimu groaned as she climbed the long flight of stairs back up to the shrine, as the sun began to set over the horizon, her entire body feeling like it was filled with lead.
After managing to snap Alice out of her temporary coma, the three had returned to the table the pair had taken up residence in, and properly introduced themselves. Reimu had found out the shop belonged to Alice, and had been opened with the help of her mother, who she still lived with because, as she quoted "I can't trust that woman alone by herself."
The rest of the afternoon had been spent catching up a little bit, with Marisa telling her stories of all of the hi-jinx she had gotten into, and about a little shop she'd opened up a few months ago called "Kirisame nick-knacks."
Both girls had promised to come and visit the shrine in the next few days, and Reimu was surprised to find she was looking forward to their visit, though the giddiness didn't deter her exhaustion as she finally made it up to the Torii.
After a quick look around, She determined that The Yakumo family were gone, and breathed a sigh of relief. One meeting with Yukari had been quite enough, and she didn't think that her sanity could stand a second encounter in the same day.
Half-dragging her tired body into the shrine, Reimu had to take a moment to re-familiarize herself with the layout, and finally found her way to the washroom.
after a quick bath, she completed the rest of her bedtime preparation, and found her way to her room, wrapped tightly in a big fluffy white towel, another currently holding up her hair and letting it dry.
moving over to her dresser, Reimu pulled open the bottom drawer, where she had always, always kept her undergarments, and found...nothing.
Eyes widening, she tried the drawer above it, and once again found nothing. She tried each drawer in sequence, but could still not find her undergarments, until she reached the top drawer, where a small slip of paper fell out.
snatching up the paper feverishly, Reimu quickly unrolled the fortune-cookie like slip, and read out aloud what it said.
"Consider this a little welcome home present, my dear Reimu-Chan. Welcome to Gensokyo."
And that night Reimu screamed for the first time since her return to her home town, all of her stress exploding out through her vocal chords.
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Isn't Yukari such a troll? Even in an AU universe, she still picks on poor Reimu mercilessly. Or is it me picking on Reimu mercilessly...hmm..
This chapter wasn't meant to be this long, TBH, and I was working off of a template I had made before, and never gotten around to. I have a little bit planned out yet for this universe, but not right away.
Is this a series? No, I wouldn't call it that. Is this related to my other Touhou Canon? Not in the slightest, so please disregard everything you've learned so far from my other Touhou stories.
This is going to be a set of connected AU stories following the Touhou cast as though they were in the real world, without any fancy powers. and many characters are going to be appearing in the future, I just wanted to cement some of the big players in this one to get started.
More of the back story is going to be revealed in future instalments, so that's why I left it intentionally vague right now.
What we know so far: Reimu was raised in Gensokyo by her Grandfather and family friends the Yakumo, and was a close friend of Marisa. Reimu left Gensokyo to go to the big city for school, and has been gone for a long time.
All of the girls are intended to be somewhere in their 20's, and are intended to be post secondary graduates, even if not all of them have the actual credential (cough, Marisa, cough).
Until next time everyone, Ja Ne!