Hakurei Shrine
Having no stories left to tell and still unable to reestablish contact with the Guardians of the Sanctuary, Yumemi and Chiyuri decided to depart from the shrine, taking Ruukoto with them as they went down to Touhou-Ri to try and help the villagers with the myriad of problems caused by the extended winter.
That leaves the Shrine Maiden Mob in the living quarters of the shrine, huddled around a kotatsu, with the Little Witch Mob as their only company.
"So..." Ako is the first to break the silence. "Anyone up for another snowball fight?"
All the other Little Witches raised their hands.
"How about you girls?" Ako then turned toward the Shrine Maiden Mob.
The Shrine Maiden Mob all turned to look at the Little Witches. They then collectively shook their heads in response to Ako's offer.
"You sure?" Ako asked for confirmation.
The Shrine Maiden Mob nodded in confirmation of their decision.
"Oh, alright, then. You girls enjoy staying warm." Ako acknowledged the Shrine Maiden Mob's decision.
After that, the Little Witch Mob turned and went outside, picking up their brooms from the veranda before making their way to the snow-covered courtyard to initiate their snowball fight. The Shrine Maiden Mob went right back to huddling in their kotatsu.
"Actually," One of the Shrine Maiden Mob, the one who has blonde hair and is not of Yamato descent, suddenly got up from the kotatsu, and stopped the Little Witch Mob. "I think I'd like to take part in that snowball fight." She told Ako.
Ako paused for a bit, before turning to greet the blonde shrine maiden. "Sure, you're welcome to join!" She extended a hand out for a handshake, but quickly withdrew it awkwardly. "Uh, what's your name?" She asked.
The blonde shrine maiden approached Ako. "Shirley. My name is Shirley." She introduced herself as she extended her own hand out for a handshake.
I have never abandoned this, and never will! So here's a long-awaited update to this story!
...Which turned out to be yet another interlude. The fifth one in the PCB arc alone. Man, I've got to get this under control. And by that, I mean no more interludes until the PCB arc is wrapped up.
Anyway, this time the interlude is not for a "something we forgot" joke. Rather, I've noticed that the girls from ZUN's random drawings (which I based all but one of the Shrine Maiden Mob on) have somehow gotten fanarts of them drawn starting from about six months ago, which I only discovered just a few days ago as of this writing. This piqued my interest enough to make me want to write something about at least one of the Shrine Maiden Mob so I can establish their characteristics later like how I established the Little Witch Mob back in Spirit Dream. You can find fanarts of these "random drawing girls" on Danbooru or Safebooru under the tag "portrait of exotic girls".
So here's the names I have in mind for each of the Shrine Maiden Mob, listed as [description of appearance]/[name on the boorus] = [my name for the girl]:
Dark haired shrine maiden with white ribbon/Girl Who Trained on Mt. Haku = Haku
Shrine maiden with silvery grey hair and white hat/Moonlight's Anti-Soul = Tsuki
Shrine maiden with blonde hair and red ribbon/Blonde Shrine Maiden from a Future Era = Mirai
Shrine maiden with purple hair and red hat/Label Girl = Hana
Western-looking shrine maiden with long blonde hair/Hourai Girl = Shirley
In case you're wondering, yes, Hana is based on the girl on the Dolls in Pseudo Paradise CD label.
And that's about it. Next chapter, we'll be straight back to the Guardians vs Youmu fight.
"And that, as they say, is that..."
Afterword ends here.
