Springtime had finally came back to Gensokyo, complete with Lily White racing in with her pitch of "Spring has come!" over and over again. Thankfully, Nitori had prevented her from taking a megaphone to further broadcast her favorite thing to the lands outside of Gensokyo.
In a small cave, near a running brook, on the side of a mountain, slept a small fairy on a tattered rug. She stirred, as the warm weather rush through the opening of the cave and filled the air with the boundless energy of spingtime. The fairy opened her eyes and slowly crawled back up to her feet and outside to the world. Her eyes caught green flora, light blue water, and various other brighter colors that signaled the warmers seasons had come forward.
Cirno didn't like this. "Last time I try hibernation." She yawned before slowly getting back up into the air and heading out into the open sky.
As part of her plan to become even stronger than before, Cirno decided to sleep all the way through December and all the way to the middle of March. She figured that by getting plenty of rest she would be full of energy and rearing to do more fights, sort like a EXP boost. But no, all she had were sore bones and eyes that demanded to be shut and stay shut. Cirno bobbed up and down in the air as her frail body struggled against the strong currents of wind.
She looked down to the fabled land. Nothing different, maybe a few new buildings in the human village, but it's not like she paid attention to that. The most important thing in the entire realm of Gensokyo still stood tall, if leaning a bit to the side. The Hakurei Shrine, with it's lovely shrine maiden sweeping away dust on the road leading to the shrine, her eyes like a raven looking for treasure.
"Shrine Maiden!" Cirno called out to her, descending down to greet her 'friend'. Reimu let out a sigh as she turned to face the fairy. "Did you miss me?"
Reimu muttered something under his breath, something about the end of a good streak and a 'not really', before speaking in a clear voice: "Oh? You were gone?"
"I hibertated…hibernated." Cirno stumbled before corrected herself. "I thought it would make me even stronger…but I feel bad."
"Oh." Reimu sighed as she stopped sweeping. "Guess you're not up for that."
"Yeah!" Cirno chirped. "Hey, anything big happen while I was asleep? Mad weather, aliens, evil humans, giant thingie…"
"Well." Reimu shrugged as she rolled her head around, her hands balanced on the tip of her broom. "Some magician dumped a great deal of junk into a forest, so me and the usual gang…plus that little girl in the bowl helped us out. One of the smelliest incidents." Reimu shivered at just the memory of how bad the garbage smelled. "Other than that, just the usual stuff. Festivals, birthday parties…nuthin' special."
"Oh, that's good." Cirno nodded, taking in the, rather boring to her, green sight of the forest surrounding the shrine. While scanning around, something golden caught her eyes. She followed the glitter and noticed it emitted from Reimu's hand. Weird, you would have thought that anything that shiny would have ended up in the donation box or in Reimu's wallet. In her usual manner, Cirno reached up and grabbed Reimu by the wrist. "What's this?" She asked in awe.
"You saw it." Reimu groaned before shaking Cirno off. "I was hoping you wouldn't see it." She sighed as she played with her ring. "Yes, this is a ring. A ring I got in…a special event."
"Oooh!" Cirno clapped. "A special event! What special event would give you a ring though?" She tapped the side of her head. "Some sort of holiday? Maybe it's a new tradition for New Years?"
"Cirno." Reimu blankly stated. "I got married." Cirno turned her head, not really sure what that meant exactly. "Me and a person close to me exchanged rings and now we live together." It seems that a few gears started to click in Cirno's mind, but the machine just ain't running. "We share a bed."
"You're butt buddies!" Cirno snapped her fingers with a childish laugh.
"Yes." Reimu groaned even louder. Cirno must have overheard some drunk person a while back. "We are…butt buddies." She sighed as the words left her mouth. "It's a more complex relationship than that. And even though I'm a shrine maiden and we're discouraged from even having a relationship as far as hugs, we do enjoy each other's company, dressed or naked."
"Wow…" Cirno trailed off. "So who's your butt buddy?" She sounded just like she ignored the previous statement.
"Her." Reimu pointed behind her towards a small garden next to the shrine. The garden just got started, so the biggest things were the mounds of upturned dirt. Tending to the garden with a hoe stood a distinctive girl with two giant horns protruding out of her head. The way she used the hoe to strike the ground like one who chops wood with a axe made it clear she had no experience working on plants. Suika Ibuki happily smashed away at the grass to make room for more crops, not really caring if the new ground was level.
"You married Suika?" Cirno gasped.
"Long story." Reimu nodded her head. "But yeah…I'm Reimu Ibuki now."
Cirno looked a bit dazed about this event. The shrine maiden marrying a oni? Wouldn't that be scandalous? Sure, she just learned the meaning of marriage only a minute ago, but even her realized the implications. "Wouldn't the human dislike you being with a oni?" She asked.
"Doesn't change anything." Reimu sighed as she continued sweeping. "My shrine has always been a gathering place for yokai and other weirdoes, so it's really nothing different than before. The same small group of people who make the same donations."
"Maybe I should get married." Cirno wandered off in a different direction, at least in speech.
"Yeah, sure." Reimu shrugged. "With whom? One of your fairy friends?"
"I was thinking…the big ghost lay? I like her."
Reimu stopped sweeping. "You want to marry the ghost princess." She affirmed. Cirno nodded, looking very certain. "You want to marry a incorporable being on the same level of Yukari Yakumo who would most likely eat you as a topping to her meals." Cirno again nodded, her smile big and long as her face. Reimu shrugged and added, "Yeah, sure go ahead. Ask for her hand in marriage. Might to read a book on the whole thing, study the methods…"
"I don't think I'm strong enough to propose to her…" Cirno sighed.
"You don't know what marriage was just a minute ago, but you know what proposing is?" Reimu pointed out.
Cirno moved on regardless. "In order to be a appropriate butt buddy to the ghost lady, I need to be the strongest not in Gensokyo, but in all of reality." Her eyes got all starry as she considered her plan of action. "I must train my body and defeat all the potential mates to win ghost lady's heart."
"Can you at least remember her name?" Reimu huffed, just going along with Cirno now. "It's Yuyuko. Yuyuko Saigyouji."
"I need to make myself to be the most appealing person to Yuckyo." Cirno slammed her fist into her open hand. "I need to start my training now! Later Shrine Maiden!" And with that, Cirno flew off into the sky, heading off in some random direction to start her grand training. Suika finally turned around and saw Cirno flying off and Reimu shaking her head.
"Oh, I haven't seen her in a while." Suika approached Reimu and kissed her on the cheek. "She mooching for something?"
"No." Reimu breathed out of her nose. "She wants to marry Yuyuko."
"Wow." Suika whistled. "That's a tall order."
"I'm guessing this is the start of something rather big…and stupid." Reimu looked up to the sky, wondering what will come next.
