I'm here to talk to you about the thing that you and your friend invented very recently. I believe you two called it Spell Cards..."

The words of the so-called Architect of the Hakurei Barrier and First Sage of Gensokyo, Yakumo Yukari, echoed in Reimu's mind. It remains loud there, even five months after Reimu has heard it.

Five months since she became a full-fledged shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine. Five months since the Scarlet Mist Incident. Five months since she and Marisa formed a team called the Guardians of the Sanctuary. Five months since the Guardians defeated Remilia Scarlet. Five months since the Guardians' founding members came up with the Spell Cards. Five months since that woman, Yukari, took interest of the Spell Cards.

Five months since Reimu told Yukari that she would think about it.

"Think about it? Do take your time, Hakurei Reimu, as I am a very patient lady."

...

Hakurei Shrine

"Snowball fight!"

Ako threw a snowball at her friends, who are huddled up behind a snow fort.

The other Little Witches then retaliated by using magic to form a dozen snowballs - some of which are larger than the Little Witches themselves - and hurled them at Ako, knocking her out and obliterating her own snow fort.

"Hey! Not fair!" Ako complained as she dug herself out of the pile of snow. "We were supposed to be using our hands! Not our wands!"

Meanwhile, Reimu stood next to the shrine's donation box as she watched the Little Witch Mob continue with their snowball fight-turned-squabble, having just had her thoughts interrupted by those little rascals.

"Witches..." Reimu massaged her forehead. "Leave it to them to always cause trouble..."

"Weren't you friends with a witch?"

That voice had reminded Reimu that she has other guests in the shrine. Guests that should've left moments ago.

"Weren't you girls supposed to have gone back to your shrines already?" Reimu turned and entered the shrine to address the guests inside.

Huddled around Reimu's kotatsu in the middle of the room are the same four lesser shrine maidens that visited Reimu during her ascension into a full-fledged shrine maiden five months ago, plus the one who for some reason did not show up during the ceremony.

"Our shrines aren't as big as yours, Miss Reimu." Said the shrine maiden with purple hair and a red flat cap.

"We don't live in our shrines either." Said the shrine maiden with blonde hair and a red ribbon.

"We also don't have proper heating or a kotatsu in our homes." Said the shrine maiden with dark hair and a white ribbon.

"I'm just here for the snacks and hot tea." Said the non-Yamato shrine maiden.

That lesser shrine maiden with silvery grey hair and a white hat - the one that didn't show up during Reimu's ascension ceremony - didn't say anything. She also refused to let go of her gohei, which is for some reason curved rather than straight.

Reimu narrowed her eyebrows. She can't really blame these girls, though. The weather in the past two weeks has been rather odd. She has experienced 14 Gensokyian Winters (not counting this one) in her 15 years of life, and none of them have been this cold, and snowed this much. To further this claim, Reimu woke up this morning to a knee-deep blanket of snow on the shrine grounds, when in previous winters the snow never even reached ankle depth.

There's also something else that is wrong about this year's Winter, but the shrine maiden couldn't figure out what it is, she just felt something amiss about it.

"Ruukoto?" Reimu called out to her green-haired maid.

The shrine maiden then slapped herself for forgetting that Yumemi and Chiyuri have borrowed Ruukoto three days ago to perform some "meteorological analysis", and has yet to return her.

The absence of the green-haired maid meant that Reimu would have to take care of everything in the shrine herself...

"It appears that you are in need of some helping hands."

Reimu's thoughts are interrupted by a voice coming from behind her. She hasn't seen the owner of that voice much since they first met five months ago, but Reimu knew of only one person who spoke like that.

"What are you even doing here, Sakuya?" Reimu asked as she turned around to face the silver-haired maid.

The lesser shrine maidens perked up upon hearing that name.

Sakuya, wearing the same maid uniform from five months ago along with an orange scarf, stood next to the shrine's donation box, patting snow off of her hair and shoulders. She also seems to be carrying a bag full of something.

"Delivering essential supplies to the villagers, as instructed by the mistress." Sakuya answered. "I thought you might be in need of supplies as well. That is why I came."

Essential supplies. The human villages certainly needed them. The Scarlet Mist that Remilia had created five months ago has led to a bad harvest due to the crops getting, according to a theory by Yumemi, poisoned by the Scarlet Mist and withering prematurely. Not helping is that the Scarlet Mist has also led to fairies running amok and attacking the villages, with Hoppou-Ri where most of the crops are produced getting hit especially badly. Due to the two aforementioned factors, the villagers weren't able to stock up enough food to last through the whole Winter, forcing everyone to start rationing what they still have left.

Come to think of it, that could be why the lesser shrine maidens have came to the Hakurei Shrine.

"As for why the mistress instructed me to do it," Sakuya added as she reached into the bag. "she claimed it was out of concern for the villagers, and to gain their trusts. But Lady Patchouli suspects that she is doing it just to inflate her own ego..."

"Your mistress, as in the vampire who caused the Scarlet Mist Incident five months ago?" The lesser shrine maiden with the purple hair and red flat cap cut in.

"The same one who got beaten by being challenged to a dancing match?" The non-Yamato lesser shrine maiden added, which elicited giggles from the others.

Reimu noticed Sakuya's lips twitching slightly at the mention of how Marisa helped beat Remilia by literally challenging her to a dance-off, and Reimu herself can't help but do the same. Looks like Remilia will never be able to live that down...

Just as Reimu is about to say something in response to Sakuya, something crashed into the snow-covered grounds of the Hakurei Shrine from high in the sky, kicking up a huge plume of snow. The Little Witch Mob became spooked, as they cut their snowball fight short and ran toward the shrine.

"Something just crashed into the snow!" Ako exclaimed while pointing at the plume of snow.

"It wasn't me this time, I swear!" Markle plead for innocence as she let go of her staff, letting it drop onto the veranda with a thud.

The lesser shrine maidens emerged from the kotatsu to see what is going on. Sakuya similarly turned to face the shrine grounds in order to see what had happened.

The plume of snow quickly dispersed, showing a crater at where the unknown object had crashed.

Reimu snatched up the Sacred Hakurei Gohei in its parasol form, and slowly approached the crater to investigate it.

Once reaching the edge of the crater, Reimu is able to see what is inside it.

It was a person, or more precisely, a fairy with wings that resembles sakura petals, wears a white dress and hat with red wave patterns outlining the edges, and has long blonde hair. The fairy is lying face-down in the snow.

"It...is...Spring..." The fairy lifted herself up from the snow to utter, before promptly collapsing face-first into the snow again.

Reimu became confused by the fairy's appearance and what she just said. She poked the fairy a bit with the Sacred Hakurei Gohei.

"Meh. It's just a fairy. They're usually doing stupid things, anyway..." Reimu told herself, before turning around to walk back toward the shrine...

...Only to stop mid-way as she suddenly realized precisely what she felt is amiss about this Winter.

This fairy is the same fairy that shows up at the beginning of every Spring to announce its arrival. She is only active during Spring, and doesn't show up at any other time of the year, and has been this way for the 15 years that Reimu had been alive. The fact that this fairy showed up today when it is still Winter made Reimu realize what is wrong.

This year's Winter has gone on longer than it was supposed to be...


And so begins the Perfect Cherry Blossom arc.

Well, I don't have much to say here this time, aside from how the world is going to hell due to the Covid-19 pandemic. My only advice for this problem: stay safe, and obey the quarantine measures.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

Afterwords end here.