I'm so surprised that so many people seem to enjoy this story and support my laziness. No joke. Also, I may find excuses, but it's laziness. It's nothing else. I don't know why I'm lazy, I enjoy writing and I have too much free time, so... Yeah. Also uh... College is starting soon when I'm beginning to write this, and will most likely have started when I'm done, so that's going to make the already slow thing slower.
It was indeed a long end of the week. Sojiro was nice enough to pay Reimu as long as she spent at least an hour in her work outfit without hiding herself, so it was a bit hard and usually took her whole afternoon to work up enough courage, with Boss nagging her to hurry up.
In the end, she was lacking emergency sake in case the onis decided to have one of their spontaneous drinking contests and some of the food was a bit undercooked or not the ripest, but it was still there and done. She ended up limping to her futon the evening before the event out of sheer exhaustion.
When she woke up, she had the most unusual sight which made her jump in surprise, thinking that it might be some creepy pervert that broke into her house to blackmail her or something. But all of that faded away when she saw what the message was.
"Asshole" with a tiny drawing of the author making a v with her fingers and holding her tongue out through a cheeky smile and a small star flying out as signature. The maiden grinned, giggled then full on laughed. Marisa must have planned this during all this time. Reimu dressed up and left her room to hear the sounds of the party and Marisa nibbling on a shroom while humming an upbeat tune. When she spotted the red woman, she simply flashed her her best, happiest and smuggest smile ever.
"How'd it feel to be the butt of that joke~?"
Reimu let out a leftover chuckle. "You deserve a slap on the cheek young miss."
Both women laughed with heart.
"So, I hear the party's already started?"
"Sanae wants you deader than ever for that, so get ready for a fight girl!"
"I'm ready for a war."
They both had sly grins on their faces.
"So, you going or nah?"
"Can't I enjoy the last bit of peace I'll have today?"
Marisa shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah I can respect that. I'm gonna get some booze. Only for myself, get out yourself if you want some. Kay?"
Reimu nodded and basked in the joy. She really missed out on a lot wish Marisa. She definitely knew how to take a joke well.
Why was she this slow to realise that she had a good friend near her?
Oh well, better late than never, she guesses, as she leaves the inside a few minutes after the witch.
"REIMU HAKUREI!"
Red looked at Green. "Huh, thought I'd have at least some time before you showed up."
"I had to do everything while you did nothing but sleep!"
Sanae was starting to get on the girl's nerves. "I was sleeping in because I worked so hard getting everything and making it all ready."
Sanae flinched and her angry expression cracked. "Wait what? But everything you have isn't as much quality as usual, and we have less sake than usual!"
"I've been multitasking."
"And what were you doing on the side then?"
"Personal stuff."
Sanae blinked a few times, stunned by how badly she messed up. But then, her anger came back and she pointed at Reimu with all her might. "You're just making up a story to get out of this, aren't you?!"
"Do I look like a good liar?"
"Eh-"
Reimu was indeed notoriously bad at lying for one simple reason: she never bothered. Too much effort. She would instead bash your skull in with the cold hard truth while looking as expressionless as whenever she is when she does not want to talk about something.
"W-well, uh... Drat. D-did you... Did you really?"
Reimu merely nodded and Sanae started bathing in shame over how she got wrongfully angry at an innocent. Well, in her defense, it was the first time Reimu had a good reason to slack off.
The thing is, the peaceful resolution disappointed the crowd around the two Maidens, for they expected and wanted to see a fight. Reimu could see in the back a very confused Sojiro who was dressed in clothing that definitely stood out: it was clearly from the outside and not many men around these parts would wear white and pink, as those are not manly colors. Now that attention was away from the fight that didn't happen, many people noticed him but just wrote him off as some outsider threw in here by Yukari who wanted to go back home thought the Hakurei Maiden.
Speaking of Sojiro and Yukari, when Boss heard the murmurs around him, he grinned and giggled a bit to himself. None understood why, as most outsiders brought here were scared or, at the very least, irritated, but never amused. But he wasn't questioned about it as it was none of their business.
The man looked around the party. Reimu wasn't lying when she said that probably everyone came to these. There were so many people, he knew that there were probably a few villages but there couldn't be that many people, and right now, there were as many people as there are in the subways during rush hour. Only this time they weren't being cynical, stressed and rude. They were all nice, having fun, drinking, singing, dancing and playing together. The contrast from the city's ambience made him smile.
Boss started looking around, hoping to find the person he was looking for. The reason he even asked to be brought here in the first place. It was selfish of him, and he knew it. He would be staying here for as long as he wanted because he needed to just see a person and confirm a single thing. He had no reason to stay once that was done. But he decided to go along with it. And he did not see the person he was looking for.
Oh well, he might as well go see Reimu then.
And so he looked for her. But she too wasn't here. Well until a local villager came to him, assuming he was here to be brought back to the Outside world, and told him that he could probably find Reimu behind the shrine, as she often went there when there are too many people for her taste. After properly thanking the man, he went where he was told Reimu was. But the first thing he noticed as he came closer to the back of the shrine was a familiar aura, accompanied by the proper smell and voice.
Looks like he found who he was looking for. He turned around the corner and went a bit wide eyed when he saw her talking to Reimu, apparently teasing her about her anti-social nature, but mainly sitting on some sort of tear through space-time which lead to a void of eyes. He quickly got his composure back though.
"So that's where you've been."
Reimu expected her. The Gap Hag. She always came during festivals. She usually came more often, almost weekly, but recently she stopped, but she wasn't complaining since it meant less meaningless and outright mean teasing. And when Sojiro came, speaking to her, she was about to tell him to quiet down, but then she realised. He wasn't talking to her. He wasn't even looking at her. He was looking at the one who was teasing her.
"A-ah... Sojiro... I-I... I didn't expect you here."
Reimu looked at the woman again, cleaned her ears, wiped her eyes and pinched herself to make sure she wasn't seeing things or dreaming. The unflappable woman, the master of trolls, was looking embarrassed, no, ashamed. But it didn't take a genius to know that she isn't ashamed of much, if anything. Plus, she knew Sojiro's name? This is a lot to take in.
"Yukari. Yukari Yakumo... I haven't seen you in a while."
Reimu just blanked.
"Sojiro..."
"You know, I chose to spend my afterlife here because of you."
"S-Soji... Sojiro, I-"
"I'm not here to make you apologise. Not to rub guilt in your face. I only came here for one thing: to know if the woman I knew was the real you."
There was a tense silence, broken by Yukari sighing.
"I wasn't lying to you..."
"You were. By omission. But it's no matter. You often did that after all."
"Sojiro please... I didn't want to leave."
"Considering how often you went to the pond, I figured as much."
"I... I hope you'll-"
"I've already forgiven you, long ago. I was just still somewhat confused. But I moved on. You don't seem to have moved on. I was somewhat worried you would be like that."
Yukari clicked her tongue and looked away.
"You don't know anything..."
"No, apparently, if what you're sitting on is any indication. But now that I am a ghost, I've got all the time in the world to hear your explanation."
The woman sighed. "I... I just..."
The two sat in silence again, Sojiro waiting for Yukari to finish and Yukari failing to make any words leave her throat.
Sojiro sighed deeply and turned around. "How about this: if you come to the café before the end of the week, we can talk it out. But if you don't, I will act as if we never met."
He started walking away and Reimu saw Yukari, usually the oh-so-powerful and untouchable godess, barely stopping herself from reaching out towards the man before she jumped in her gap which closed after her.
...
...
...
What the fuck.
Well, college did start, but it, ironically enough, got my inspiration back up. Also thank all of you for liking and supporting this story. The problem for my writing was never a lack of inspiration or time, my schedule was (and still somewhat is) generous, and I love what I have with this story, I want to continue it. But each time I get the opportunity, I either stay bored on youtube, go talk to friends on discord or go draw a bit. Sadly, there is none to blame other than myself for the lack of uploads.
Also, if you're ever worried: this will probably never be discontinued. I love this story, like I said before. I have such interesting ideas that I want to explore more by actually writing them and share with the world. Plus, there is definetly a lack of calm fics. there's the action and the non-stop crazy romance, man, I just want to be able to spend all my time doing nothing but talking and shit. I want to be able to breathe while reading a fic. And if I have to be the one writing this fic, then so be it. It's why I started writing it in the first place.
Also, if you haven't noticed, I'm getting in the very dangerous territory. This is why there is a Sojiro and Yukari romance tag. And I have no clue what I'm doing. If I butcher your waifu, please, along with the death threat, send me how to fix my mistakes. Blind hate won't get me to improve.
I haven't gotten any blind hate yet, but just in case.
I'm still very surprised that all the review I have are so nice and (aside from a single one which I don't mind) so cunstructive, ready to give me tips and telling me to take my time. I'm honestly stunned. I thought I was walking on a minefield but you guys have apparently dug them all out. Thank each and every one of you for sending me support, links towards wikis and media with the Touhou girls, I am simply grateful.
And on this sweet note,
Farewell, my subjects,
Your Saltyness.