1. I don't own Touhou Project.
2. Told and composed with self amusement.
3. No flamers.
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Adapted from Abeko Nishimeda
Published by Asian Big Brother Generation
As Though It were Love
- August 8, 2007
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The pages were blank.
"Man, it's not here at all," one hand supported chin on the table. She could feel the wind blew. She shifted her gaze, the curtain.
Light seeped through the opened window.
Her table was simple enough. Mahogany dark brown, waist length (self-made, perfect for her height). On it, a couple of books were stacked in orderly fashion. Along with a bottle of chemical tube, a piece of paper, and few other things.
The curtain swung, and she looked outside.
Mahogany table was shimmered by light. She stood, her hand lifted, and black lengthened from below. Her light steps left resounded, and in less than five seconds later the door swung close.
000
Sky after mid-day was left with less clouds. If looked closely; one could see a broom (brown, medium length, traditional), a person with pointed hat and uniform like clothes completed with pleated skirts. Holding broom in the sky.
Height had its advantage, the view was marvellous. Among the forest path was one storey house, surrounded by trees and bamboo poles, red bricks and timber siding.
She saw Hakurei Reimu, the Hakurei Shrine Maiden.
A girl with long and black hair like silk. Big red bow on her hair and long blue cylinder cloth like ties for either side of her bangs. With simple white yukata and red hakama, both hands held a timber broom handle. Gazing forward and standing, but her mind was obviously elsewhere.
Strong, yet always aloof from the world.
A gaze shifted, and she was found. Pink petals flew, and-
"Marisa," a greeting before her feet had its chance to touch the ground below, "Welcome." Reimu's smile was always contagious.
...she said she likes me...
Marisa smiled back, "They've all fallen huh?"
Among their feet was pink. Petals flying, raining, and then fell. Reimu swept.
Marisa sat on the wooden porch with her hand neatly folded on her lap. She put her pointed hat to the side.
"That's fine. It's better if they fall ahead of time," Reimu said, "All those festival lovers that just drink during the flower viewings annoy me." Her back facing Marisa.
"They're only satisfied by the cherry blossom in bloom?" A hint of curiosity, "They're still pretty now. Compared to that horrible incident..." Marisa hung in mid-sentence.
Reimu looked back, to her, and looked forward again. "Well, thanks to that, it's become quite now."
Flying petals. Reimu was seen through her golden bangs. With pointed hat nowhere in its place, her hair kept shifting and swaying in front of her eyes. Thinking.
Shifting breeze.
"Don't you think it's a bit painful?" Marisa said, she looked up o the sky, "Once a the cherry blossoms try their best to bloom beautifully," her hands were near either side of her hips, on the wooden porch, "Even so, to only be able to see them when they're blooming..."
It was not like it ain't seemed so.
So Reimu replied, "You fool!" With her hands on her hips.
Ain't it so?
"That's why humans are said to be arrogant!" was said with much vigour, convincing much, "The cherry blossoms never think to themselves, 'Let's bloom into beautiful flowers' "
Reimu's hands stopped to where it was, the wooden broom. She stopped sweeping. Reimu looked up, whether to the tree, or the sky beyond that Marisa did not know.
"They exist only because of the seasons. When the time comes, they will bloom. And when it is time, they will scatter," Reimu continued as if she recited a Shinto prayer, and then in a more subdued tone, "Only humans selfishly call them 'beautiful' or 'pitiful' "
It was said like allegro.
"That so?" Marisa said.
"It is," was the simple reply.
Like a finality.
"Perhaps...it's better to think that way," a gradual answer, and Marisa agreed, " 'cause- " smile, "If someone said to me, 'Oh, you're pretty', I'd think I'd be very happy."
A petal like rain.
"I," Reimu looked genuinely..., "...wonder about that."
Her gaze.
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...Why am I...
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"..."
"..."
"..., HEY!"
Loud.
"Don't just leave stuff laying around as if it were your own house!" Yuka was demanding with her hand on the hips, "At least put things back where they belong."
Marisa slumped on the desk. Hands spread, chin face planted, and she felt like hibernating through the whole season. "No good, it's not in any of these- "
"These are all the books I have," Yuka cut. She put a book back to where it belong, still annoyed, "If you want anymore, go to library or something." The last part voiced liked a partial defeat.
Marisa exhaled a sigh.
The pages were blank, she did not understand.
"I, for the most part, have no interest in things."
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"Objects, winning, other people..." sitting side by side with Marisa, a wooden broom was laid forgotten, "Even myself."
Reimu looked forward, as if searching something that was not there.
"If I think about it, I already have all of those. So, if perhaps I were to find that missing part, I thought I would become serious about getting it, no matter the price."
A monotone was something Marisa did not expect from her.
"...It might be that, I've always wanted to try being serious for once," and then, " You appeared before me, trying your best like a fool. I might have been jealous."
So she listened.
"If I was to say that, perhaps I just replaced those words with 'I like you' and followed you around...I wonder, if you'd be relieved."
Because she had nothing to say.
...and then, "I'm joking."
Hakurei Reimu has always been strong and unwavering. She's always been there through the seasons. Yet...
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...Why am I...
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"...I'm...kind of mad at her," Marisa's voice muffled from burying her face in her folded hand on the table. Reimu's smiling face emerged into her mind.
Yuka's hand stopped in between shelves.
"She has everything I want," Marisa continued after resting her chin on her elbow instead, "And yet, she says she's jealous of me. But, if I think about her, I can't help but feel anxious."
She stopped putting books into places and listened.
"Do you know of a way to dispel that kind of magic?"
It was stupid.
Yuka was about to turn around but she stopped herself, she said something, "...What an idiot," she straightened a few fallen books, "There's no way you'd find that in a book, no matter where you looked. After all, that- "
Even so.
"Ah, sorry. Stop there," Marisa cut in, she brought her palm up, "You don't have to say it."
Even so...
Yuka smiled a small smile, "You're such a strange person."
"Yep, I am strange."
It must be that, she was just a little sentimental after seeing the cherry blossoms scatter. At least that's what she would tell to herself.
She denied that three letter word that popped in her head.