A week had surprisingly passed uneventfully, well away from what she'd originally expected. Reimu had really underestimated how dedicated that raven could be when it came to working. She could see why the reactor stayed so stable, and how former hell remained at it's constant, blistering temperature. That mind reader family was crazy to live there, anyone who lived there was crazy to endure such heat…
Right as she rose from her futon, morning pondering out of the way, and grogginess as gone as it'd ever be before actually walking around, a knock from the shrine's wall forced her rise to be swifter. Grabbing her gohei in case it was trouble, she opened the door.
"What do ya want?" She yawned a bit.
"Hey Reimu. I've finished the hell raven's uniform." Sakuya said, passing the outfit toward the miko.
"Oh, yeah, almost forgot about that." She took it, and retreated back into the shrine, and placed the gift onto the table.
"Ah, yes, and mistress would like to remind you to repay a favour to her." The maid said, taking out her pocket watch and checking the time. She nodded to herself, and glanced back at the recipient.
"Yeah, yeah. Okay." Reimu waved her hand dismissively, checking out the Utsuho's new Shrine wear.
"Wow, this really well done!" She admired the clothes, they looked even better than the sketches, and most of the white sections had a small red border in the inside.
"Of course, nothing less from the Scarlet Devils' chief maid." She smirked a bit, checking the time once again. "Ah, I have to leave. I must dim the blinds now that morning rises."
And with that, she disappeared. "Time powers would be really useful…" She mused, imaging situations where stopping time would've aided in solving incidents. And just as her mind wandered, the familiar sound of a very familiar excitable raven landing on the pathway towards the shrine. She got up, rubbing the pants and shirt, and waited for her to come inside.
"Reimu! How's it?"
As soon as Okuu entered, she saw the outfit, her face's features widened in joy. She threw off her clothing, and dressed herself in the uniform. Reimu had to admit, it was cute to see her in it. She approached the corvid, and pat her on the head, a habit picked up from the multiple preening sessions throughout the week.
"Alright Okuu, ready to start the day?"
She nodded as she got the tools for the day, while the miko went back into the shrine and started to brew some tea. When it was done, she sat out on the patio, and watched silently as Utsuho did her work. She smiled, thankful for being able to relax longer. She'd actually crafted a few new spellcards in this new free time she had. Still felt weird looking at someone doing her work for her, but wasn't as uncomfortable as it was the first day.
Flapping came around, but this sounded lighter than what Reimu was used to. She inspected around, before catching sight of a certain tengu journalist. She had her camera ready, and was primed to land right beside the door the inside of the shrine.
"What do you want Aya." She said, her voice coming flat and as mildly annoyed as usual.
"I heard from a certain someone that there's a good scoop here. Now… where is she…? Ah!" She flew around Utsuho and took pictures from every angle that'd be useful to her. The subject of the pictures looked around, quite confused about her current predicament.
"H-huh? Reimu? What's going on?"
"Don't worry, Okuu, she just writes the newspaper." The crimson one approached the avian duo "Could you please leave her alone? She's working."
"Ah yes, but why is she working for you?" Aya inquired, putting a hand against her hip and pointing a microphone towards the miko.
"I'll tell you, just not here." She ushered the tengu back over towards the shrine, while turning back to the other raven behind her. "Sorry, she can be… yeah"
The shrine assistant shook her head, and smiled. "Nah, it's fine. Don't worry!"
By now, Aya had already come back to the group. "I thought we were going back to the shrine?"
"*Sigh* I'll just tell you here, okay?"
As Reimu explained the situation, the reporter jotted down notes like a frenzied hyena tearing apart it's prey, only be interrupted by the occasional 'could you repeat that?' and 'hold on' pausing the conversation. When she looked satisfied, she smiled, and put down a period triumphantly.
"Thanks for the interview! Though, I do have to ask… why did you choose Reimu? Marisa helped solve the incident, too, so why not repay her as well?"
The miko looked skywards. "Huh… yeah… why not thank her?"
Utsuho found herself tongue-tied, not really knowing herself, even after it being asked a week before.
"Oh… umm… I… I don't really know…" The raven started to play with her hair a bit. She was used to being confused about stuff, but this was something she'd been thinking about a lot lately, especially since…
"Oh hey, Lady Satori?"
Her owner turned around, with her every present half closed eyes. "Yes Okuu?"
"So I'm helping Reimu, but the other girl, Marisa, I think, she asked me why I'm not helping her even though she helped me. I don't know why I didn't think of her?"
Satori sighed, and pet her pet's head, even though she had to stand on the table to do so. "I can read your mind, but, if you don't know, well, you'll have to think about it first before I'll be able to know."
It was unusual for her owner to be unable to read her mind instantly. This must've been a big thing if she had to find it out herself…
"Okuu?" Reimu looked at her, extending and arm out to her shoulder, worried.
"Oh, don't worry about it." She replied, being unusually lost in thought. She decided just to get back to work, announcing it even as her sweeping continued.
"Alright, later!" Aya called out, flying back towards yōkai mountain, undoubtedly to write an article about this
When she'd become a speck on the sky, the miko still stood in front of Utsuho, worried. "Hey if you're not feeling good, tell me. I kinda have to care for you while you're here, okay?"
She gave a determined nod, before getting back to sweeping.
Not much happened for the next two or three hours, but when noon hour came around, Reimu was snapped out of a daze as someone picked her up like a cat.
"Guess who~" The voice came out in a teasing fashion. Reimu was familiar with this voice, one that usually ended with useless conversations and teasing. She looked at the arms grabbing her to confirm her suspicions, and when her gaze landed on arms covered in white gloves that went past their elbows, they were confirmed.
"Urgh… what do you want Yukari?" She asked, already annoyed
"Aww… don't be so cold Rei… can't I check upon a friend?"
The rest of her violet draped yokai appeared from a midnight coloured tear in reality laden with red eyes. She had folding fan placed in front of her face, and looked mock-bashfully at the offending miko.
"Just tell me what you want." Reimu sighed, exasperated.
Yukari sighed, and folded her fan closed, donning a more serious look. "I was just checking to see if the balance of Gensokyo wasn't disturbed. You of all humans should know how important the balance is."
"I know, I know, but I don't see how letting someone help at the shrine is damaging to the balance." She gestured to the sleeping Okuu under the table.
"Normally, no… but this shrine is a yōkai dispelling one. Having a yōkai help out here… I'm not sure if your deity is going to be happy about this. They might even leave. Gensokyo can't have that happen." She glared down at the miko as she explained.
The subject of the glare was at a fault for words, not quite too sure what she could rebut, or even a way to talk around the subject rather than about it. Seeing as they had no way to continue the conversation, Yukari started to teleport herself away, the gap slowly travelling up her body, almost like a reverse printer.
"You can continue for now, but do be wary" She mentioned, before displaying a slightly more playful face. "And as you get older, please do learn to enjoy vaniloquence as it comes, makes for more interesting conversations."
And with that, the yōkai of boundaries had vanished, just leaving Reimu to her own thoughts. They'd occurred to her before, but, it might be time to reconsider… It would be best to tell her soon… but as she'd spent the week watching the raven doing work and caring for her, her smile never fading, it was quite an infectious feeling. It would be hard to tell her that she can't come back to the shrine, especially now that she'd gotten her new uniform.
One sigh later, and she turned around, pushing the table some to get better access to Okuu's wing, starting to preen, the thought of her not being able to keep her in the shrine much longer never leaving her mind.
As the last rays of white sunlight ended, the two occupants of the shrine awoke. They'd somehow gotten in a situation where they were sleeping one on top of the other. The miko got up first, as she was on top, and looked at Utsuho carefully, worried she'd damaged her.
"You okay?"
They let out a subtle noise of affirmation as the raven stretched her limbs, yawning all the while.
"Heh, we should get you back to Satori. She's probably worried about you." She grinned, petting her in the head.
As they egressed from inside the shrine, a faint yell came from down the steps. It was a vague flavour of familiar, but she'd have to make sure. They approached the sound, and their gaze was mimed by the other duo walking up the stairs.
"Oh, so she wasn lyin." A tall, muscular blonde woman with a red horn placed prominently on her forehead called out, accompanied by a smaller girl with orange hair and two larger horns sticking out of the sides of her head.
"He—y reimoo, he-y Oko. Didn't know you two's were workin together." The orange haired one said, in her usual half drunken slur of words. Meanwhile the taller of the two gave a small two finger salute to the two, holding a bright red dish filled sake in her other hand.
Utsuho waved back wildly, her sleeves almost falling off. "Hey Yuugi! Hey Suika!"
"Where've you been Sukia?" Reimu asked the smaller copper haired girl, of whom raised her gourd up, some sake spilling out of it.
"With Yuugi. I wenta former hell n I drank too much, and fell asleep, then I waked up and did it again, now I'm here. Cause of this newspapa"
When they were on the pathway to the shrine, Yuugi handed them the paper, the two reading it over. Seems that tengu reporter was fast to make an article about this.
After they gave it back, they were basically tackled back into the shrine, and by they time they collected themselves, they'd gotten sake pushed into their faces.
"We should have a party for this!" Yuugi half-yelled, downing her entire dish in one quick motion, while Suika did the same, just with her gourd. After this, the orange haired oni went out to do… something they weren't sure of.
"Didn't you just have a party?" Reimu asked, both confused and a bit worried for their health and her own.
"Yeah? So?" Yuugi brushed off the statement, pouring her and Utsuho another glass of sake.
As the two oni partied around, and giving drinks to the other two in the shrine, more visitors came by.
Marisa came by, and only a few minutes of being there, she was already completely drunk, stumbling around, and smashing her face into trees trying to fly while drunk.
The second to come was more modest, Yukari only took a few sips every once in awhile, and her shikigami were brought along as well. In order to try and set a good example for her shikigami, Chen (who also belonged to Yukari), Ran decided to abstain from drinking anything. It didn't seem like that mattered, though, as that little cat girl was chasing Marisa around.
She lost track of who came in when Aya arrived to give her the newspaper she'd written just that day, but seemed like she completely forgot to do that when she saw the amount of alcohol going around and decided to get her fair share of it. She was starting to wonder why she'd become a magnet for all of the alcoholic ones in gensokyo.
Only after taking a break and finding an area dark and remote enough was she able to look at the impromptu party going on. She silently hoped everyone would exit the premises soon, so that she could get to sleep, and hopefully would be able to sleep past the huge musk of ethanol wafting through the air.
After giving the crowd a good looking over was when she noticed how much Utsuho was drinking, and how little the sake being passed around affected her. It looked like she was having fun, and talking to the yōkai and few humans around. Reimu focused on the raven's smile. It looked so pure, honest, she'd doubt anyone would be able to mimic such concentrated happiness in just their smile.
Well, if Utsuho was smiling, maybe it didn't matter how long the party lasted.
