Chapter 7
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It was a peaceful winter day in Gensokyo. A snowstorm had just rolled over the previous day, so many of the Gensokyo inhabitants were busy clearing away the piled up and unwanted snow. For one particular couple in the Forest of Magic, it wasn't too much of a hassle.
"Come on, let me just clear away the snow with one blast," Marisa pleaded. "It'll be way faster."
Alice shook her head as she waved her arms around, directing her dolls to clean up the densely packed snow. "No."
"Pleaaseee, Alice."
"Again, no. Don't you remember the last time I let you do that?" Alice said almost exasperatedly.
"Ummm, no, ze?"
"You definitely cleared up the snow but also a good portion of the surrounding forest," Her girlfriend lambasted. "Thankfully Yuuka and Sakuya were kind enough to help us replant and grow them, but it was downright embarrassing for me to ask them for help."
Alice suddenly had a thought and paused. She carefully directed a pair of dolls with empty shovels off to an unattended side first and then returned her attention back towards her lover.
"Why?" She asked curiously. Marisa started to shift uneasily, a sure sign that something was wrong.
"W-well. We're kind of in a rush right? So the faster this is done, the faster we can-"
"Marisa."
"-And, um, I can be the one to ask Yuuka and S-Sakuya to help replant the trees, just as long as-"
"Marisa."
"-I'll even start doing chores on time, like you keep asking me to-"
"Marisa."
Marisa instantly clammed up when she hear Alice use the tone. When Alice used the tone, it was another sure sign that the puppeteer was not in the mood for any more delay.
"What are you not telling me?"
The witch finally confessed under Alice's inquisitive and threatening demand, "I, uh, might have forgotten about one of my experiments."
The puppeteer blinked. Marisa often forgot about her experiments. Sometimes she would even forget in the middle of a current one to start a new one, leaving the ruined remains for Alice to clean up. So what was different about this one? Alice narrowed her eyes. "What was it?"
"You remember that one experiment with the mushrooms and me trying to grow them really big really fast, ze?"
"…No?" Alice said slowly.
"Oh good," Marisa said, but she hastily backtracked when she saw Alice's expression. "I mean bad. Very bad. As it turns out, those mushrooms, uh, really don't like water. Like, really, really don't like water. They explode if they so much as come into contact with it. I had buried them, but I didn't think it would snow yesterday."
Alice's eyes immediately darted towards the numerous dolls shoveling around them. She said in a very low and threatening voice, "Marisa, are you saying what I think you're saying?"
The witch didn't answer her, because right then the world exploded into white.
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"So, a doll hit one of your magic mushrooms, which set off a chain reaction around you, and now your house is buried under a huge pile of snow?" Reimu summarized.
"Yup, ze!" Marisa cheerfully said. Beside her, Alice sunk her head down into her hands. Now sitting inside the Hakurei Shrine, she didn't want to look at the clean shrine grounds outside and especially didn't want to look at the insufferably happy witch beside her. "Thanks to my awesome fast thinking, I managed to get us away from the explosion, but now we, ah…."
"We can't get back to the house," Alice explained muffled, her head still face down in her hands. "The 'pile' isn't so much a pile as it is a small mountain of snow. And all my dolls are buried, too."
Sanae, who had been quietly listening beside Reimu, smiled sympathetically at the unfortunate couple across the table. "Do you need our help cleaning it up?"
Alice twitched a little. Marisa looked at her then sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "That would be nice, but actually…we were thinking that we could visit Alice's mother first, spend a few days with her, and then deal with it later."
The shrine maiden couple blinked. "Eh? You want to go to Makai?"
Marisa shrugged. "We were already planning to go before the 'incident.' Alice was a little homesick, and I have yet to meet Shinki in a long while."
"When are you leaving?" Sanae asked.
"Pretty soon, ze," Marisa answered. "We wanted to let you know first in case you started to worry about us and then see the giant snow pile where our house was."
"Have I ever worried about you?" Reimu said rolling her eyes.
"If I recall correctly, you actually were that one Christmas," Sanae said teasingly, turning in place to kiss Reimu on the cheek. The red miko turned a little redder.
The two couples exchanged a bit more back and forth before the magical couple finally left for Makai. Reimu and Sanae waved them goodbye and happy travels as they watched them fly away.
"I don't see why they couldn't just have had Letty or Sakuya help them clear it up in an instant," Reimu remarked. Sanae smiled and shrugged. Once the magic couple disappeared from sight, she gently led them back inside the shrine to resume their private time.
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Reimu settled herself further in the kotatsu and let out a content sigh. She and Sanae just had a simple but delicious meal of soba for dinner, and she was ready to spend the rest of the night lounging around. Sanae lost the rock-paper-scissors round earlier, so it was her turn to wash the dishes. The soft sounds of water flowing and dishes tinkling were soon heard from the kitchen. Combine that with a full stomach and a well-heated room, and Reimu felt herself slowly falling asleep. She was nearly about to when the kitchen door opened again.
"Hey now, don't sleep so soon after eating," she heard Sanae lightly chastise. There was a couple of thunks as Sanae placed a few manga books on the table. "At least not without me."
"Sorry," Reimu slurred slightly, and she lethargically stirred herself awake to let Sanae slide in next to her. The green haired girl made herself comfortable and then picked up one of her books to read.
For the next few hours, they remained in that position. When Reimu fell asleep, Sanae adjusted herself so that the other girl was more comfortable resting on her. She carefully made sure whenever she turned a page not to disturb her beautiful lover, though it was hard to suppress her giggles whenever she read something funny.
After some time Reimu woke up, and she noticed that Sanae had pulled her into her lap and wrapped her arms around her to read. Not an uncommon thing to wake up to now, but it was something she idly noted every time it happened.
"Oh, you awake?" Sanae said when she felt Reimu stir.
"Mhmm," the other shrine maiden half responded. "…What time is it?"
Sanae looked over at the wall clock and answered, "It's almost 11."
"Thanks," Reimu said and pulled herself out of Sanae's lap. She stretched her body out a little, feeling slightly sore but refreshed. "Was I uncomfortable for you?"
"Not really, but I wouldn't have minded if you were," Sanae said, and she leaned over to lightly kiss Reimu on the cheek. "Do you want to go take a bath first?"
"Uh, sure," Reimu responded and stood up. "…Do you want to go together?"
Sanae shook her head and raised up her manga, "I'm almost done, but it may be a few minutes."
The red and white shrine maiden thought for a few seconds and sat back down. "I'll wait."
Sanae returned her eyes back to her book to hide the supremely red blush she had acquired. True to her word, she finished a few minutes later and set the manga down. "Ah, that was great."
"What was it about?" Reimu asked as they stood up and walked towards the bathroom.
"Well, you know how a main character sometimes dies and gets spirited away to a new world? In this manga, she ends up in an otome game," Sanae began explaining. Reimu opened the bathroom door and let Sanae in first.
"A what game?"
"Oh, my bad. An 'otome' game is a game where the female protagonist ends up in a romantic relationship with one of several people, usually a male," the green haired girl further explained. Sanae turned on the bathroom lights and began stripping down her clothes. Reimu began doing the same. "In this case, the main character realized she was reincarnated in an otome game that she had played before. Moreover, she was born as the 'villain,' or the antagonist."
"Sounds…weird," Reimu said. She put her clothes in the nearby hamper and turned on the water to fill the bathtub.
"Mmm, a little," Sanae confessed as she lightly washed and scrubbed her own body down. "But I kind of love how lighthearted and fun the manga was."
"So what happens to her?" Reimu nonchalantly asked as she grabbed another bottle of soap and squirted some of it onto her bath sponge. She beckoned towards Sanae so she could wash and scrub her back.
"I shouldn't spoil," Sanae playfully deflected. Having been fully bubbled and scrubbed, she started to rinse herself off. Reimu slightly pouted.
"Oh, come on. I'm not going to read it anyways. Probably."
"It's a really good manga," Sanae tried again. Like earlier, she helped scrub and wash Reimu's back and hard to reach places. She noticed that the bathtub had filled up with enough water, so she turned off the valve. Reimu finished sponging and began rinsing her body.
"But I want to hear it from you."
"Mmm, a small tidbit then. You should really read it for yourself though. She ends up causing all of the male interests and even important female characters to fall in love with her, though she was a little bit too dense to realize that," Sanae said. Reimu finished rinsing, and together she and Sanae entered the bathtub.
"Uh, how dense can you be to not realize that?" Reimu commented. Then she remembered a certain ice fairy. "No wait. There are truly stupid people like that."
"Well to be fair, she was also trying not to die, since that's what happens to her in the actual otome game. That, or banishment in a few of the male routes."
After a couple of minutes soaking in the luxuriously hot water, they both felt they had had enough. Like one seamless team, the two girls helped clean each other off, properly dry their hair, and cleaning their teeth. They changed into their sleepwear inside their room and soon were preparing for bed. Sanae went back to the living room to turn off the light as Reimu settled herself in their futon. Sanae soon came back with her books and stored them away in the closet. After glancing one last time at the manga books, she closed the closet, shut the room light, and slipped into her side of their bed. There was a bit more shuffling between them both, but eventually they had found a comfortable position in each other's arms. Reimu felt around for Sanae's hand and gently held it. It had been a quiet day, and now they were entering a quiet sleep.
"Good night, Reimu."
"Good night, Sanae."
"…"
"…"
"We should go to a hot spring at some point."
"We should."
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