"Hah! Too slow!"

"I'll get you next time, though."

"Nyeeeeeh!" Chen stuck her tongue out, then dropped to all fours and bounded up another ten or twelve stairs. Reimu ran after her.

Normally, Reimu would have a bit more dignity than to play a game of tag on the steps of Hakugyokurou. After a week spent in bed and anticipating her death, though, she was still exulting in the simple ability to walk. For the first time in almost two weeks, her thoughts were clear, her body felt light and whole, and she could do whatever she wanted. She wasn't about to waste the opportunity.

Reimu moved up the steps at a measured pace, just slow enough to give Chen ample time to see her coming. Chen stayed crouched down with her tails swishing behind her anxiously. As Reimu reached out, she leapt a few steps further away. "Nope!"

"I guess you're just too fast for me," Reimu said, taking care to sound suitably defeated.

"Hah! Watch this!" Chen dropped to all fours again and bolted up the stairway, leaping over four or five steps at a time. From somewhere far below, Ran shouted, "Chen, be careful!"

Without a hyperactive bakeneko bouncing around her ankles, Reimu was able to relax and enjoy the walk. Spring was flower-viewing season in Hakugyokurou, and it was the peak of the season to boot. The stairway was flanked on either side with what seemed like an endless field of cherry trees, every single one in a perfect, full bloom. The air was full of falling petals as thick as a snowfall, and they gave the ground a perfect, light cover of them. No matter what happened in the Netherworld, it conspired to happen artfully.

Flower-viewing had been one of Reimu's requirements for the party that Yukari kept insisting on. She didn't want a party just to celebrate her recovery. Even now, rejoicing in her ability to walk, guilt was still gnawing at the back of her mind: she had eaten human blood, and she had liked it. Loved it, even. Driven onward by her hunger, she hadn't stopped until she'd scraped every last fleck of red from the plate.

It wasn't much, she told herself. A deciliter or two. She'd probably made Marisa spill more than that in some of their rougher sparring matches. But it didn't feel worthy of celebration.

Even so, Reimu was in a good mood. By the time she approached the top of the staircase, Chen had already reached the front door, where she was interrogating an annoyed-looking Youmu. The muffled sounds of music and laughter came from behind the mansion. It sounded like plenty of other guests were already here, and most of them were people that Reimu probably hadn't seen in weeks.

She could worry about moral questions another time. Today was a day to relax with friends.

"Reimuuuuuuuuuu!"

Reimu was barely out the doorway into the mansion's rear garden when Suika tackled her... and when Suika tackled somebody, they felt it. She stumbled a few steps before managing to stop herself, then tousled the tiny oni's hair with a smile. "Hi. I haven't seen you in a while."

"I knoooow." Judging by her drawl, Suika was already pretty drunk. That wasn't anything new. Taking a step away, she grabbed one of Reimu's hands and tugged her along. "C'mon! I saved ya a spot!"

Suika hurried through the crowd, and most of the other revelers wisely cleared a path in front of her. At the back of the garden, a circle was seated under one of the larger trees—Alice, Marisa, Sanae, Aya, Nitori, and Hina—with a sizable collection of bottles and cups sitting in the center. Marisa, notably, was already sprawled on the ground. With her hat pulled over her eyes, Reimu couldn't even tell if she was awake.

A chorus of greetings rose from the group, and before she had even finished sitting, Suika was already pouring her a drink. "You've gotta try this stuff~. Special oni Seven-Flower Sake!"

"... thanks, I think." Reimu settled down and took the cup, but didn't try it just yet. Any drink with 'oni' in the name was best approached with forewarning and a healthy respect. Plus, other things were already tugging at her attention. Just being this close to Marisa and Sanae made her anxious. Logically, she knew that she'd spent plenty of time around humans when she visited the village, and nothing had gone wrong. Emotionally... it was a bit more complicated. Are they going to smell like food if we get close enough?

But today was for relaxing, right. She lifted her cup and took a sip, and a dozen sweet things—violets and honey and the slightest hint of some fruit that she couldn't quite name—dissolved across her tongue. The second it hit her stomach, warmth suffused through her body.

… right, this stuff was going to be dangerous. She sat the dish back down with care. Judging by how quickly it had made her lightheaded, it just might have been explosive.

"Hey, Reimu!" Sanae said, once the round of greetings had finished. She sounded like the only sober one in the group. "Did you ask about letting us visit your house yet?"

"Oh, no, sorry. Some other stuff... kind of came up."

"Oh. Well, it's not a big deal. How have you b—"

"My," somebody said from behind Reimu. It wasn't loud, but there was just something about the tone that made it hard to keep talking over the interruption. "Reimu. It's so nice to see you up and about."

Reimu would know the voice of Remilia Scarlet anywhere. She probably heard it in her nightmares sometimes. She turned aside, and yes, there was Remilia's perpetually self-assured face smirking down at her, with Sakuya holding an umbrella overhead. "Hi, Remilia," she sighed.

"I'm told that our mansion's cake helped in your recovery," Remilia said, in what was quite possibly the smuggest tone that Reimu had ever heard.

Cake. That really wasn't a conversation that she wanted to be having in front of Sanae and Marisa. Or ever, really. "A-ah, right, but..."

"It is, of course, a rare honor," Remilia continued over Reimu's stammering, and clasped a hand to her chest proudly. Reimu shot Aya her best desperate please-do-something expression. "To be allowed to dine on the same food as the Scarlet siblings."

"Yes, thanks for the help," Reimu said, through clenched teeth, without taking her eyes off of Aya.

"If you'd like, we could arrange to have you over for dinn—"

Aya finally seemed to take the hint. "So!" She said, loudly enough that people on the other side of the garden probably heard her. "Has everybody heard the story of how I kicked Reimu's butt?!"

"What?!" Reimu felt a wave of relief at the interruption, but she couldn't allow it to show. Instead, she whirled on Aya and shouted back. "That's not what happened! I was kicking your butt! The only story here is that your boss makes guests fight people!" She took a swig of her drink for good measure.

"Eh?!" From the sound of things, Aya was just as drunk as anybody else present. After her initial surprise wore off, she leaned forward, resting one hand on the ground for balance. "Hey, hey, he couldn't have known that you were sick or whatever!" Grinning, she more loudly added, "Reimu's just mad because she lost a fight for once."

It seemed to have accomplished its intended effect. Remilia was still standing there, stunned by the unfamiliar experience of being ignored. The rest of the group was staring at the abrupt argument in confusion. "What in the hell are you two shouting about?" Nitori grumbled.

"Weeeeeell," Aya said. "I don't know if Reimu actually wants anybody to hear the story of her shameful defeat..."

A bottle was traveling around the circle. Reimu held her cup out, and Suika was more than happy to fill it until it overflowed. "I'm over it," she said, and took an oversized sip. "Do whatever you want."

"Oho, well then...!"

Aya's story had been exactly the icebreaker that the group had needed. After ten minutes of descriptions of Reimu stumbling through spell cards—complete with impersonations of the way that she had apparently wobbled at one point—all the tension had been dispelled, and Remilia had long since given up on getting a word in edgewise. The group had relaxed into rounds of half-shouted anecdotes, pushing drinks on each other, and at one point, a brief wrestling match between Marisa and Suika.

After the sun sank below the horizon, the guests started drifting toward home. Marisa was one of the first to leave, carried off by a weary and rather more sober Alice. Suika fell asleep beneath the tree, snoring loudly and immune to any attempts to wake her. Nitori wandered off, complaining that the food had been too sweet. By the time that Youmu started carrying the leftovers back indoors, there were only a handful of guests remaining. A rolling game of tag between the fairies was drifting back and forth across the grounds. Aya meandered between the groups, camera in hand in case anybody slipped up. A few couples were scattered about. And beneath one tree, Ran was sitting, with Chen napping in her lap.

"I guess it's been a pretty big day for her, huh?" Reimu said, as she took a seat next to the pair.

"Mmhm." Ran said. "She has a bad habit of getting too excited and wearing herself out early."

"Oh. Sorry if I was part of that."

"What do you mean?"

"We were running on the stairs earlier..."

"It doesn't take much to make Chen run on those stairs. She does it every time we come here," Ran lightly ran her fingers across one of Chen's ears. It gave a flick under the attention. She smiled. "... I'm glad that Chen has somebody to play with now. Did you know that she showed me every picture you drew for her last week? She was very proud. I think she looks up to you already."

"Oh. Well, um, I'm glad. She's cute." Reimu was surprised at how pleased the news left her. She kind of liked the idea of Chen looking up to her. She could be a bit annoying sometimes, but she was pretty bright. Maybe this was what having a kid sister was like.

Now that the sun was down, the stars had come out. They were pretty, but they bothered Reimu for some reason that she couldn't quite pin down until she'd been looking at them for a few minutes. They weren't the right stars. Or, rather, they weren't the stars that she knew from the world of the living. They were dimmer, arranged into constellations and patterns that didn't fit anything in Reimu's quite extensive astronomical knowledge. She was just about to ask Ran about it when she noticed something more important: there, silhouetted against the sky, Yukari and Yuyuko were sitting together on the roof of the mansion, gazing out over the cherry trees together. Thanks to her night vision, she could just make out that they were holding hands.

Reimu glanced over to Ran, wondering if she'd noticed yet. Not that it seemed particularly secretive, now that she thought about it. She'd seen Yuyuko and Yukari being openly affectionate at gatherings before. Which meant...

She wasn't sure what it meant, actually. "... could I ask you something?"

"Of course, go ahead."

"How do..." Now that she had permission, Reimu wasn't sure how to phrase the question that was on her mind. "What is your relationship with Yukari?"

"Hmm?" Ran tilted her head, with one ear lifting in confusion. "Beyond being master and shikigami, you mean?"

"A-ah, right. It's just... I mean. You seem... you know. I've seen you kiss and..."

Blushing, Reimu decided to stop before she made an even bigger fool of herself, but Ran didn't seem annoyed. "... I think I understand," she finally said. "It's like I said before. Yukari's joy is mine, and mine is hers. But, to answer the question that I think you intend to ask, our relationship is a romantic one, yes."

"Oh." Reimu couldn't stop herself from glancing back toward the rooftop. "So it doesn't bother you that Yuyuko...?"

Ran followed Reimu's gaze. Her face lit up in realization when she saw the pair, and she shook her head. "It did at first, I'll admit. But I trust Yukari, and I know that loving Lady Yuyuko doesn't make her love me any less."

"Huh..." Reimu supposed that was true. From the one time she'd accidentally peeked on Yukari's emotions when she was alone with Ran, there was no denying that. "So do you...?"

"Do I what?"

"Do you also, um. You know." Somehow, Ran's calm amusement was only making this more embarrassing for her. "... have other people too?"

Ran let out a soft sigh of exasperation. "You should let me give you lessons on clear communication sometime," she said, in a half-joking manner. "It can be an important skill for a shikigami. But no, Yukari is my only lover. I love Chen, of course, but..." she glanced down and stroked one hand along the bakeneko's side. Chen squirmed in her sleep, tails flicking. "She's more like a daughter to me."

"I... see."

Ran looked back up at the stars, and spent a few minutes in contemplative silence before she spoke again. "You might find youkai relationships to be more... chaotic, than human ones. Most of us are centuries old, and before Gensokyo was created, our identity could change every time that a new myth came along. There's less focus on formal relationships or choosing a single perfect partner. 'Love whoever is around to be loved,' when it comes to romance, at least. … of course, I say that, but it's been six hundred years since I saw anybody but Yukari. I guess I'm not a very youkai-like youkai." She glanced over, with a self-depreciating smile.

"You're too reasonable to be a youkai," Reimu said.

"Maybe so," Ran conceded. "… do you mind if I ask you the same thing?"

"Huh?"

"About your relationship with Yukari."

"... oh. Well, we're..." Reimu had planned to finish with 'friends,' but paused. What in the heck were they? They hadn't done anything overtly romantic, but they could be very... affectionate, at times. Now that she'd stopped interpreting Yukari's every move as an attempt to get a rise out of her, she was surprised to find that she sometimes enjoyed it. "... I don't know," she said, left surprised and blushing by her own answer. "I've kind of had other stuff on my mind."

"That's fair," Ran said. Her tails gave a slight twitch that Reimu had learned meant that she was deep in thought. "I think you should know that taking shikigami doesn't agree with youkai. A youkai's spiritual nature is defined by her personality and actions. We're supposed to be self-centered creatures who follow our own whims. If Yukari started ordering me to do things against my will... I probably wouldn't notice anything, but at some point, I would stop being myself."

"Is that why she was so... hands-off when I was deciding whether to become a shikigami?"

Ran nodded. "Part of it. Yukari and I have had centuries to get used to each other. She knows my boundaries, and trusts me to do what's best for me. With you... she's afraid that you feel obligated to repay her for saving your life. With that hanging over her head, there are some topics that she doesn't feel comfortable bringing up."

"If Yukari wants to say something, she should just say it," Reimu said... then paused, as she considered the comment in the context of the previous conversation. "W-wait, so are you saying that Yukari wants to...?"

"Hmm?" Ran said, tilting her head to the side in feigned ignorance. "I'm only saying that there are things that Yukari won't talk about unless you're the one who raises them."

"Like love."

"... a-ah." Ran froze, looking shocked that Reimu had put two and two together. Now I see why she leaves the manipulation to Yukari. She recovered quickly, though. "Um. Well! Among other things. I'm sorry for meddling, but... apparently I have to meddle occasionally to remind people that I'm a kitsune."

"I should have known better than to think there was a youkai who wasn't going to stick her nose places it doesn't belong," Reimu said with an indulgent sigh. Afterward, she looked back up to the rooftop, where Yukari and Yuyuko were still sitting together. "She's not going to be there all night, is she?"

"It might be a while," Ran said. "If you want, we can go home. I'm sure she won't mind."

"No, it's fine." With a yawn, Reimu allowed herself to sink lower against the tree. She wasn't sure what she would do when she got back to the homestead, anyway. She couldn't get much training done without Yukari around, and practically everybody that she knew was asleep by now. But, for now, Reimu was happy enough to relax beneath the cherry blossoms, stroking Chen's hair and looking up at the stars.

Author's note: "Love whoever is around to be loved" is, of course, a quote from the Kurt Vonnegut novel Sirens of Titan.

I will leave the question of whether this means that Ran has read Kurt Vonnegut as an exercise for the reader.