Disclaimer: Touhou Project was created by Jun'ya Ōta (ZUN). I don't own any of the Touhou characters used in this story.
Author's Note: Another comedy story! This story was supposed to be written before "The Silver Blade," but I wanted to finish that one, before moving to this one. Hope that it's as good as my Remi/Flan stories. Without further ado, please enjoy the story.
Spring Antics
Yukari opened her eyes and yawned.
She was asleep for quite a while. After all, she was doing her "winter hibernation."
Youkai stretched around in the bed to adjust her body to movement again.
After she was done, she got up from the bed and looked at the calendar.
15 March. Spring.
She smiled, it was just about time to greet her "favorite shrine maiden" once again. A kind of ritual, you could say.
It consists of Yukari showing Reimu that she is present once again. Of course, she does it in her own way.
But first, she might as well eat something and let her shikigamis know that she's awake.
She dressed up in her usual attire, grabbed her parasol and exited the room.
A faint smell of cooking hit her, when she left the room.
Yukari followed the smell to the kitchen, where she saw her shikigami preparing a meal.
-Afternoon, Ran.
The fox shikigami stopped and faced her master.
-Good afternoon, Master. Did you sleep well during your hibernation?
Youkai nodded.
-Of course. I wish that I could sleep a bit more though, however, I have duties to attend to.
-That's good to hear, Master. You woke up at perfect time. I was about to serve the lunch.
Shikigami moved to place dishes on the table.
-What are we having today?
-Beef stew.
-Oh, how exciting! I haven't eaten one of those in a while.
Suddenly, a voice sounded from house's entrance.
-Raaan-sama! I'm back! Is the lunch ready yet?
That was her other shikigami, Chen. Well, not actually "hers" since it was Ran's shikigami, but in terms of hierarchy, Yukari was still her master.
Chen walked over to the kitchen, she was surprised to see the gap youkai awake.
-Oh! Yukari-sama stopped being a sleeping queen!
Yukari raised her eyebrow.
-Chen, dear? Who taught you this?
-I heard it from Ra-
Fox shikigami quickly covered her mouth with a hand.
-She must have heard it from the other children! You know how they are these days, ahaha.
Yukari wasn't convinced.
-No, I don't. I'll let it pass for now, since I'm in a good mood today.
The gap youkai then pulled her shikigami by the neck with the handle of her parasol so their faces touched.
-But, be ready for scolding, when I get back home tonight.
The fox shikigami gulped.
Yukari smiled and released Ran.
-Now since, we are all here, let's eat, shall we?
The trio sat down at the table and started eating.
Yukari managed to catch up on many things during this meal, about what happened during her hibernation in Gensokyo, new people arriving into it and overall state of the Hakurei Barrier.
Other than small incidents which were already solved by the shrine maiden, there wasn't anything really worth mentioning. At least this makes her job a bit easier.
After a bit, they were done with eating.
-Ah, that was delicious. I really missed your cooking, Ran. But I need to be going now, duty calls.
Fox shikigami nodded.
Yukari lightly patted Chen on the head, then opened her gap and walked through it.
Hakurei Shrine, Afternoon.
Reimu was sweeping shrine grounds. It was windy last night, so lots of leaves from the forest got scattered around the grounds. Well, it's not like it mattered a lot whether the shrine was clean or not, there wasn't a lot of visitors coming anyway these days, but she might as well make it presentable for the last regular visitors she has.
After a bit of time, she was done. The leaves were put neatly on the pile near the gate.
Reimu wiped sweat from her forehead and looked proudly at her work.
However, out of nowhere, a gust of wind blew by, scattering all the leaves once again on the shrine grounds.
The shrine maiden was completely baffled at this.
-What is this!? It wasn't supposed to be windy today!
Reimu was furious, all her hard work ruined by wind.
She sighed and started sweeping once again, I mean, she can't get that unlucky again, can she?
Some time later.
Yes, she can. After sweeping the shrine grounds for around 2 hours, once again, wind ruined her neat pile of leaves.
She was tired and left the leaves scattered around the grounds, she might as well try sweeping them again tomorrow, I mean there most likely won't be any visitor today, so why she should care that much.
Reimu retreated back to her shrine, she was hungry after all work, so she decided to cook something up.
She settled for onigiri. She didn't have really energy to do anything fancy, not like that she had money for something fancy too.
While she was eating, she heard the sound of somebody dropping coins into her donation box.
She immediately rushed out to greet and thank the visitor.
-Thank you for your patro-
But there was nobody there.
Reimu was confused. She looked around, but there was nobody hiding too.
She glanced into the donation box, but there was nothing there, too.
Did she imagine it? Most likely, she was tired so she might have misheard.
Reimu returned to the shrine to finish her food, but once again she heard that same sound.
She once again checked, but likewise no money, no visitor.
Somebody must be pulling a prank on her. There's no other explanation.
Reimu thought of the plan to catch the prankster.
She would feign that she was going to the shrine to eat, but instead she would be waiting inside near the door.
As soon, as she heard the sound again, she would pop up and exterminate the intruder for annoying her.
Yes, that was a perfect plan. And so, Reimu went with it.
However, when Reimu popped up to catch the prankster, once again, she found nothing.
How is that possible? That person must be either incredibly fast or have the ability to stop the time!
But that crow tengu isn't really the pranking type and Sakuya has better things to do than annoy her.
She moved to check the inside of the donation box again, but still nothing.
Suddenly, something small dropped near her.
Reimu looked at the object. It was a coin.
Then suddenly another one dropped next to her.
Huh? What was going on? Why are there coins dropping out of nowhere?
The coins started dropping with higher intensity.
She finally looked up and saw an enormous coin pile falling from the sky. They were falling straight at her!
Reimu wanted to quickly move out of the way, but she was too late. She found herself buried in the pile.
She was mad for a few seconds, but then she realized that these were coins! She was rich!
Reimu quickly climbed out of the pile and grabbed one coin and looked at it.
But what was that? United States of America? Quarter Dollar? It wasn't yen coin!
She sighed. Now her shrine grounds were littered with leaves and useless coins.
Reimu was exhausted, she decided to take bath and then retire for today, she would clean this mess tomorrow. She wanted to know who is doing all of this, but she couldn't really catch them. Maybe they got bored already and left? She hoped so.
Some time later, Night.
Marisa was flying over to the Hakurei Shrine. She hasn't seen Reimu in a few days, so she wanted to see how her friend was doing these days.
She landed near the gate and was surprised to see the shrine grounds in such disarray.
There were coins scattered everywhere, along with leaves.
The magician saw her friend sitting on the porch of the shrine.
Her hair was messy, and her clothes were dirty.
Marisa approached Reimu.
-Woah, what happened here? I mean, sometimes the shrine looks like this when we have a party over here, but I haven't heard of you making a party.
The shrine maiden looked at the magician, her eyes were bloodshot.
-Good question. I have no clue. There's somebody that keeps playing these pranks on me. And I look like this, because somebody replaced all of my water with dirt mid-bath! Then, I wanted to go to sleep, but they kept making sounds that would awake me. I tried to catch them multiple times, but no luck.
Marisa looked deep in thought.
-Wait, it's March now, right? Doesn't Yukari sleep for the whole winter, then wake up in spring?
Yukari... When the shrine maiden thought about it, it all made sense.
The sudden gust of winds out of nowhere when it wasn't windy in the first place, huge number of foreign coins dropping from the sky, replacing the water without even touching it and then making sounds without being present there physically.
Reimu was absolutely furious, that was the last straw.
-That's it. I'm going to her house, and will personally exterminate that gap youkai there, and you're going to help me whether you want or not, is that clear?
Marisa wanted to protest, but then again she didn't want to anger Reimu any further, so she nodded.
-Good.
Reimu stood up from the porch and started flying to her destination, dragging the magician along with her.
Girls are traveling now. Please wait warmly until they are done.
At the same time, House at the Border of Gensokyo.
Yukari exited from her gap, she was back home.
Suddenly, something small hugged her tightly.
-Yukaaari-sama! You're back!
The gap youkai chuckled and patted Chen on the head.
-Yes, yes. It's good to see you too, Chen.
Yukari looked around the room and saw her shikigami.
She nodded at the youkai.
-Welcome back, Master. Are you done with your work for today?
-Indeed. I might have gone a bit overboard with some of the things, but she most likely got it, that I am back.
-Aren't you worried that she will finally snap and visit us to retaliate? She does know where we live, after all.
Yukari waved her hand nonchalantly.
-No need to worry, I'll take care of her, if she does.
The gap youkai then looked at the cat shikigami that was hugging her.
-Chen, dear. Can you go to your room to play for a bit? There's something, that I want to discuss with Ran here.
She nodded and released her master.
The cat shikigami then walked away.
Yukari looked at Ran.
-Now, about that scolding that I promised you earlier...
The fox shikigami visibly sweated at the mention of the scolding, but she accepted her fate and stood still, as her master was getting closer to her, carrying her parasol.
The girls are now being scolded. Please wait warmly until they are done.
Some time later.
Marisa and Reimu were standing in front of the house at the border of the barrier.
-After fighting through hundreds of fairies, including Cirno, capturing dozens of spell cards from passers-by, including Cirno, and losing most of our lives to Stage 5 Boss, including Clownpiece. We are finally here!
-Don't you think that's weird that every time we travel somewhere, we have to fight a lot of people?
Reimu looked at Marisa.
-No, that's how Gensokyo works.
She then started violently knocking on the door.
-Open up, Yukari! Give yourself willingly, so I can exterminate you peacefully!
After a while, the door opened, the gap youkai peeked from it.
-Oh my, if it isn't Reimu and Marisa. What brings you to my residence?
-Don't play dumb! I know for sure that you're the one that kept annoying me through the whole day!
The youkai feigned surprise.
-Me? Why, I was here all the day, with my shikigamis, ain't that right, Ran?
They heard a pained voice coming from the house, confirming Yukari's story.
-Y-yes, she was here all day.
The youkai smiled.
-See? Innocent like a child.
Reimu wasn't convinced.
-You're lying, there's nobody else that could do these stuff that I suffered from.
Yukari suddenly pointed somewhere in the distance.
-Oh my, isn't that a youkai carrying your donation box?
Reimu quickly turned around.
-Where?!
Suddenly, both she and Marisa started falling into the ground.
After a moment of disorientation, they noticed that they were back at the shrine.
Yukari used her gaps to send them back to the starting point.
Reimu was fuming in anger at this.
She started screaming with all of her strength, hoping that the youkai will hear her.
-Yukari, I swear, when I will see you again, I will exterminate you using my Fantasy Nature, so you will be dying in the most painful manner!
Suddenly a new gap opened and from it came a few 10,000 yen notes.
Reimu looked at them for a moment, then quickly snatched them and put them in her pocket.
-Fine, I'll forgive you for now, but try something like this again and I won't show you mercy!
Another gap opened and Yukari's head peeked out from it.
-You said the same thing last time.
Reimu bonked the youkai on the head with her gohei.
-Shut up and go away, before I will change my mind.