At one stage, I remember swearing to myself to get this done quickly...and it took like...two three months? Anyways, I'm completly on a block on this story even though I said I have the general idea...it's break time for this one and on to the next story hahaha...Um, for the people who enjoy this story, don't worry, I'm stubborn enough to get back to this even if I end up staying up or night sometime in the future going "..." in front of my computer.

Reflections of not quite the same seasons – Summer part 1 – Running towards the warm embrace

The last day of the school year arrived for the students of Eastern Gensou academy. With exams passed, an odd light feeling could be felt amongst all the students with the heavy load lifted. Free time had come about after a long time, and the girls were making the most of it to hang out before the closing ceremony arrived.

"Three. Two. One. Fire!"

A flash of light was launched from the top of the high school building, exploding into a bright banner spanning across the afternoon sky.

"School's out!" A loud cheer sounded from the rooftop, echoing the same message now flashing brightly in the sky.

"Nothing beats a flashy end." Marisa said in a satisfied voice, leaning back against the wall.

"Agreed." Nitori added, bending down to pack up her Firework launcher, "It's a shame we couldn't make more."

"But why fireworks?" Reimu asked, staring up at the sky above, "It's still the afternoon."

"Are fireworks this bright in the afternoon?" Youmu raised her hand to shield her eyes from the remaining flashes.

"That's because we left the mixture and creation to Patchy and Nitori." Marisa answered brightly, giving the reading girl next to her a pat on the head.

"We left the collection of the less common ingredients to Marisa though." Patchouli added, eyes still glued to her book.

"When you say less common..." Sanae started, looking from Marisa to the fireworks remnants Nitori was packing up.

"It means you probably shouldn't ask." Reisen finished, "It's a good thing no teachers are around."

"But Reisen," Tewi said, poking the other girl's arm, "Kaguya's been standing next to you since we started."

"Eh? Whaaaa! Kaguya-sensei, what are you doing here?"

"Oh my? Should I not be here?"

Kaguya stood next to Reisen, who had jumped and fallen over in shock. Her cheery smile as she looked at the last of the sparks disappear in the air at least showed she approved of the scene. Although how only one person noticed someone in a kimono amongst a group of schoolgirls in uniform would remain a mystery.

"You couldn't really have expected me to miss the fun could you?" The teacher asked, pulling the fallen girl to her feet.

"Of course not," Marisa replied casually, "We just left you off the invite list in case you cared that we were setting off explosives on the roof."

"Oh? But why would I care?"

"You're a teacher, Kaguya, a teacher." Reimu answered, "You're supposed to at least pretend you care."

The girls left the rooftop and headed downstairs after Nitori finished packing everything into her bag. Upon arriving at the second year's floor, a conversation could be heard between two people, who were heading up along the other side of the corridor.

"C'mon Momiji, we can get the interview if we hurry now."

"I'm pretty sure they'll get into trouble if it goes into the newspaper Hatate..."

"It's news reporters." Reisen commented bluntly.

"I think they're looking for us." Sanae added, glancing down the corridor towards the staircase the pair had just climbed.

"I'm actually more surprised Aya didn't crash in earlier." Reimu said, continuing to walk straight ahead down the next flight of stairs, "If the interview happens I'm not related okay?"

"I'll say I warned you all against it." Kaguya said with a smile.

"Please don't bail out on us after enjoying it yourself Kaguya-sensei." Nitori said quickly, noticing Kaguya's increase in pace.

"Hatate, wait," Momiji's voice sounded from the opposite staircase, "They're over there."

"Really? Great, we can get the interview now if we run."

"Momiji's too sharp," Marisa said, "Should we run?"

"It's times like this we count on you for escape routes Tewi," Reisen said,"...Eh? Tewi?"

"She had already disappeared the moment we were noticed." Patchouli said, looking up from her book to observe the two figures now making their way down the corridor.

"Guess we run anyway then." Marisa announced, turning to follow the others who had already left.

"And...as the mastermind of this event, could you give a few comments?" Hatate asked, placing her hand on Marisa's shoulder.

"Fast!"

"I'm surprised you're letting her go round doing interviews Momiji-san." Patchouli said to the white haired girl still running down the corridor.

"Ah, when I thought about it, nothing too bad should happen." Momiji answered, coming to a halt in front of the group.

"Isn't Hatate pushing the interview a little though?" Nitori asked, watching Marisa attempt to shake off the interview, "I thought badgering people endlessly was Aya's job."

"She said something about wanting to find out how Aya's style would work for her."

"Speaking of which, where is Aya?"

"Um..." Momiji thought for a bit before answering, "She said something about needing to be far away and high up for the photo, and then ran out of the school grounds."

The news reporter who had ran out of school grounds some time ago, had successfully acquired her photo of the fireworks. The camera was now replaced by pen and notebook as the report was written...on the rooftop of the school building, just not the one she was supposed to be at.

"I can really write something good with this photo." Aya said to herself, admiring the photo she had taken.

"That's good and all, but..."

"Yes Suika-san?"

"Wasn't it a bit much to run all the way out here?"

The younger girl stood and watched as the report grew longer than necessary, particularly with the already obvious exaggerations Aya had crafted into long paragraphs.

"What's this bit?" Suika asked, taking a seat next to Aya on the bench.

"This is based on the other photo I took. Umm...here we go." Aya reached into her bag and pulled out a mini photo. Flicking through to the most recent page, she passed the album over.

"Oh...I get it now." The brown haired girl laughed at the photo she was shown, "Are you going to tell Marisa you took this?"

"She'll see it eventually." The reporter answered cheerfully, taking back the album containing Marisa's school laboratory heist. "By the way, have you got anything planned for the break?"

"Remi was planning something, seems like she wants to invite us somewhere."

"Is your sister going?"

"You want to know why?"

"Because scoops follow her."

"If I tell you, onee-chan will kill me."

"Guess you're right," Aya closed her notebook and stood up, "time to get some interviews, see you later."

"Okay, see you later." Suika waved as the energetic reporter ran towards the stairs, "time to get back to class I guess."

Suika set off towards the stairs after Aya. Upon descending to the third floor, the news reporter could already be seen sprinting out the school grounds. The girl grinned and mumbled "fast as always," before making the remaining way to the first years classrooms.

"I'm back," Suika said, walking towards her friend, "hey Remi, where did Suwako-sensei disappear to?"

The classroom had grown a lot louder since the girl had left, and for their classroom to become that loud meant that the teacher was absent.

"She got excited about the fireworks and bounced into the neighbouring classroom and was promptly knocked out." Remilia answered, smiling slightly from the memory, "She's unconscious in the infirmary right now."

"That's a nice way to end the school year."

The two girls laughed happily together, stopping when a tall figure appeared in their doorway.

"The closing ceremony is starting, so go down to the gymnasium," Kanako-sensei said, "If your teacher wakes up I'll bring her down later."

"School will be over after this." Remilia said, standing up after the teacher left to her own classroom.

"Yeah, guess it's time to sleep standing with our eyes open." Suika added.

"It wouldn't hurt you to listen for a change."

As said, Suika stood next to Remilia during the ceremony, her quiet breathing showing she was asleep, although her eyes weren't open. Luckily, Suwako-sensei took no notice after arriving, or rather, the teacher herself could be clearly seen sleeping while leaning against the wall, with a clearly annoyed Kanako standing next to her.

"Well, that was boring." Suika stretched her arms lazily as the girls walked towards the bus stop.

"You slept through nearly the whole thing." Remilia commented with a shake of her head.

Just then, a loud bang shot across the sky. Looking up, a bright, "Well, that was boring," now shone across the sky above the high school building.

"See, someone agrees with me."

"It makes me wonder if they have a, 'Well, it was actually interesting for once,' prepared."

"Onee-sama!"

"Fran?" Remilia turned around at her sister's voice, instinctively grabbing hold of Suika's arm after catching sight of the blond girl.

"Huh? Wha..."

"There's fireworks!"

"Ah! Whoa."

The three girls spun round unsteadily from Flandre's flying hug caused the weight of the two sisters to swing around with the support of Suika's arm.

"Ow ow ow...haven't felt this in a while."

"Fran, I told you it was dangerous to jump at people like that."

"Ehehe, sorry onee-sama." Flandre let go of her sister, hopping excitedly as she pointed into the sky, "but look, fireworks in the sky. Aw, it's gone now."

"Are you three okay?"

The worried voice came from Daiyousei, who was being pulled through a gap in the crowds of students by Rumia. That odd gap most likely, was created when the younger sister had made a straight dash through shocked and surprised people.

"We're fine," Suika answered, massaging her right arm, "nothing we're not used to."

"Um, I think I have something to help your arm." Daoyousei said, quickly rummaging into her bag.

"A first aid box..." Remilia stated, looking at the white box the green haired girl extracted from her bag.

"Dai-chan's always ready to take care of people." Rumia said happily.

"We can see that much." Suika commented, noticing a small bandage on Rumia's elbow.

After an odd home-made ice pack bandage was wrapped around Suika's arm, the girls headed for the bus stop. The students waiting at the bus stop were less than expected, with a moving bus being the reason.

"Is that our bus?" Rumia asked, pushing herself up for a better look on Flandre's shoulders

"It better not be." Remilia mumbled in response.

"I thought you would be getting a lift from Sakuya." Suika replied to the quiet mumble.

"Mmm...I told her I would take the bus so that I could hang out with everyone longer."

"That would be the same as you calling her later, so that she could magically appear seconds later to pick you up."

"Mystia! Wriggle!" Rumia made a dash towards the two girls standing at the back of the crowd around the bus stop, both of which turned at the call of their names.

"Ru...Wait! Don't jump at me like that!"

"Wah? Don't grab onto me! Ah ow ow!"

"If they're still here I guess it wasn't our bus then." Suika commented calmly, watching Daiyousei run forward in panic.

"That's good..." Remilia replied, "By the way, was that supposed to be a copy of Fran's jump just then?" she added, looking at the three girls now collapsed into a heap.

Mystia and Wriggle sat on the ground as Daiyousei began patching them up. Within a minute, both girls were practically yelling various things to calm the green haired girl down after she attempted to bandage Wriggle's arm into a complete medical cast.

"I'm sorry for getting overly worried." Daiyousei bowed her head apologetically.

"Not a problem Dai-chan," Wriggle replied, allowing Flandre to playfully pull at the excess bandages applied to her arm, "If you didn't worry like that I'd have thought you were an imposter."

"Well anyways," Mystia started, pressing the icepack harder against her arm, "Our bus should be coming in about a minute. Oh, and Cirno said to go ahead without her."

"Eh?" The green haired girl's panicky voice started again, "Where is she?"

"Since Cirno is an unfortunate moron who failed the previous test, she's in the classroom being lectured about extra classes."

"Should you talk like that when you two only just scraped pass marks?" Remilia asked curiously.

"That's the difference between a moron and a not so intelligent person." Wriggle replied grinning to herself slightly, "And we had Dai-chan's help this time."

"Help from the top of the year lets you scrap through the test huh?" Suika commented, "then what did Rumia get?"

"Mmm, Rumia-chan beat me this time." Flandre said, finally letting go of the bandages.

"Ah...but aren't your grades fairly high Flandre-san?" Mystia asked slowly, making sure she heard her right.

"Does scoring eighty count as high?"

"Geh...we both only scored just over half that," Wriggle turned her head to face Rumia.

"I scored eighty five." Rumia answered Wriggle's unsaid question, causing an extremely shocked expression to appear across most of the groups faces.

"What? How?"

"You didn't even study the whole time!"

"I was listening though."

"Rumia did well this time." Daiyousei said, reaching up to give Rumia a pat on the head.

"I don't know why...but I got a feeling that I lost." Mystia said in a shocked voice.

"I get the odd feeling she did it just to be praised." Wriggle added, seeing that Rumia had lowered herself slightly so that Daiyousei could pat her head easier.

"Seems like the difference in scores was a real shock." Suika said as a disheartened aura began to form around the two girls.

"It wasn't like your score was all that high." Remilia replied with a smirk.

"At least I didn't get taught by the top of the year and then scrape a pass."

"Then, then, Suika-san, what did you get?" Flandre asked, looking up at the girl with a eager look on her face.

"Um...that...Ah, our bus is here." The brown haired girl spoke out in monotone, quickly escaping onto the bus the moment the doors had open.

"Waaait, don't change the subject so quickly."

"Fran, don't run on the bus." Remilia called out to her sister.

"Come on you two, the bus is here."

"It'll be bad...if...we...miss it."

Remilia turned around to watch the four girls behind her. Rumia hopped straight onto the bus, but Daiyousei was struggling to push both Mystia and Wriggle onto the bus, both of whom were still letting out a depressed aura.

"Here, I'll give you a hand Daiyousei-san." Remilia said, reaching out and began pulling on Wriggle's arm.

"What's this? The rich girl's being nice today."

Another familiar voice spoke out after all the girls were on the bus. The voice's owner was Marisa, who was now making her way slowly down the bus, with both Flandre and Suika apparently caught carried under her arms.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Remilia asked, a slightly annoyed tone in her voice, "And put those two down, it looks dangerous."

"Well, you know," the older girl replied, "Usually you do the spoiled rich girl act."

"You'll only get a rich girl pout if you say that Marisa." Suika said, still trying to wriggle out of Marisa's grasp.

"Onee-sama's gone all gloomy." Flandre said, playfully swinging on Marisa's other arm.

"That makes three gloomy glums. Cheer up." Rumia said, patting Remilia on the head. Noting no change to the continued curse muttering, the girl instead moved over to her two other gloomy friends, "cheer up."

"Whose fault do you think the gloom is?" Mystia asked, clear irritation in her voice.

"Ah, Mystia, you shouldn't..." Daiyousei's panicked voice started, clearly hoping to stop any possible arguments from rising.

Their blonde friend however, didn't take any notice of the irritation and simply answered with a big smile, "I'm sorry."

"I can't tell if she's mocking us or not." Wriggle sighed, hitting her head against the window.

"Wriggle, that's a bit..."

"It's alright Dai-chan, at least we won't end up like that."

One finger and four heads turned to face the commotion still going by the two standing and two carried in the middle of the bus. The rich girl pout was stubbornly facing her opponent who, by the looks of it, had completely lost interest.

"Come on, I dare you to say that again."

"Alright already, calm down girl."

"Ah wah. Don't use me as a shield Marisa."

The Suika shield flailed in protest against Remilia's aggressive assault against Marisa. Flandre, who had been recently released sat and laughed from a seat to the side as the action moved further towards the back of the bus.

"Quiet already." The voice was accompanied by a hand, which stopped the rich girl pout with one blow over the head.

"Ow!"

"Hahaha, nice one Reimu."

"And you too." Reimu said, swinging a second blow at Marisa, who instinctively raised her shield again.

"Wait onee-chan, stop stop!" Suika yelled out, flailing desperately in Marisa's arms.

"Right right, I don't have a reason to hit you," Reimu lowered her hand instead to pull Suika out of Marisa's hold, "By the way Suika, what was the brand of sake at the back of the cupboard?"

"Oh that one, it was oni...ah..."

"So you did drink it."

"Ahhh! I'm sorry."

"It's so noisy." Patchouli raised her head from her book, observing the scene in front of her with bored eyes.

"That's good though isn't it?" Nitori asked, "or...would you like me to...quiet them down with this?" the blue haired girl said, pulling a lethal looking mini firearm out of her bag.

"Before I ask why you're carrying something like that, should I ask what it does?"

"If you get shot by it, you can't make a sound for at least half an hour."

"Did you have to make it sound so lethal when explaining it?" Patchouli replied, a slightly forced smile on her face as she looked at the odd gadget, "But...I'd like to see the development from her, so silence would be a shame."

'Her' referred to the rich girl, now fidgeting silently after the light blow to the head. A deep breath and step forward lead to Patchouli's expected development.

"Rei...Reimu-san."

"Hm? What is it?" Reimu turned around at the call of her name, one arm still holding on to her little sister's arm.

"Would you like to...to...spend the summer with me?" Remilia's head bowed down as she spoke, hiding her now completely red face.

"Ahh?" A pause with a blank stare, "Don't I see you often enough?"

"No...I mean..."

"What Remi wants to ask is," Patchouli said, a satisfied smile on her face, "whether you would like go on a trip during summer break with her."

"Oh...I see," another pause, and then a smile, "that's fine, as long as it's not for the whole break."

"Really?" A relieved sigh left Remilia as she looked up, "then, could we discuss it more at your place?"

"And the real reason for taking the bus is revealed." Patchouli said, returning to her book.

"The first time I've seen the little rich girl so honest." Marisa added, holding back the urge to laugh.

"It's good to be honest though." Suika said.

"And it's because you're too honest sometimes that Reimu has to yell at you." Marisa finished, finally letting a snigger escape.

"Don't remind me."

"Then you can have this Suika-chan," Nitori said, holding out her silencing gun, "With it, you never need to worry about being yelled at again."

"Too lethal, but keep it with you," Suika nodded her head, as the bus began slowing to their stop, she added, "from what I heard from Remi about her plans, forced silence might be useful."

And the chapter ends here. I like trying to form the plot largely through character interaction to expalin things that are left out, rather then straight up linear and chronological storylines, sorry if it confuses people at times, but I'll fill in any gaps I purposely left when I get back to this story. Thank you to all readers for sticking with me this far, the reviews really are great motivation when the mighty writer's block arrives. *bows down deeply*