Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.

"Ugh…" the young goddess struggled with the stubborn tuber, sweat pouring forth beneath her grape-topped red hat. "Come on…! You weren't this hard to uproot in Gensokyo!"

After another ten minutes of struggling, she managed to unearth the sweet potato in the mini garden of the Yakumo Mansion. Brushing loose soil and dirt from the fruit of her labor, Aki Minoriko kissed the potato as she placed it gently alongside other dug-up potatoes to dry in the sun.

That should be the last one, Minoriko thought to herself. One… two… three… fourteen? I need fifteen!

As a minor harvest goddess in Gensokyo, she had been the more popular goddess of the two Aki sisters among humans, granted that she had the power to ensure a successful harvest. All she really did was to put forth her powers and the crops she had blessed would grow successfully. However, with so many similar goddess around in Gensokyo, her share of faith was, consequently, low, but that had also meant she had lesser work to do compared to the major 'shareholders'.

The older sister of the two, Shizuha, had the powers of turning leaves, symbolizing the shift of seasons to autumn. Being useless to the toiling farmers, Shizuha was seldom given attention, if any. Lack of faith in her had made her depressed and, in extreme cases, jealous of her younger sister.

The same sister strolled past the harvest goddess, now reduced to a simple human being in the Outer World with no special powers of harvest. She spied Minoriko struggling with another tuber in the garden and pretended not to notice.

"Sis?" Minoriko called out, apparently having heard her walking past behind her. "Please help me with this sweet potato! It's really stubborn!"

"Me?" Shizuha replied with a snobbish tone. "But aren't you the goddess of harvest? Shouldn't you be doing it?"

"Come on, sis!" Minoriko begged, still pulling at the tuber. "Ugh… Sis?"

Turning around, Minoriko realized she was staring at the mansion's front door, which happened to be slammed in her direction; her sister had refused to help her. Shrugging in defeat, she resumed work and, after another ten minutes of pulling under the boiling hot sun, she managed to score her fifteenth sweet potato.

Cleaning up and returning garden tools back into the shed, Minoriko returned into the mansion with the sweet potatoes and handed them over to Yukari, who had earlier requested for them for some reasons. Seeing that Yukari had nothing else for her goddess-turned-gardener, the younger Aki sister washed up before heading out to town on her own, knowing that Shizuha probably would want to sleep the whole day off, as she had always done.

Coming to the Outer World, Minoriko, along with the others, realized that Gensokyo wasn't much different, except that it was technologically advanced, almost more than two centuries ahead, and life was very different when compared to the simplicity they were accustomed to. The air, as every one of them had immediately noticed, was almost entirely different. Back at home, the air was fresh of nature's elements and cycles, but on Earth, all they could smell was polluted air in every direction.

The town where she was headed to, despite being a quiet hamlet, boasted many modern facilities, such as automated shikigami that could dispense ice-cold drinks in metal cans (A.N.: vending machines), water taps that made use of the study of gravitational forces and pressure, doors that either slid or opened on their own and more.

Even the farms that Minoriko would sometimes come across were using large machinery to plow their farms, something that the goddess despised. Traditional methods are being lost with technology. I must preserve such methods and spread the good of such practices to these people. While she did admire the automated water sprinkling systems and dams, she, not unlike many of the survivors, were still too used to the old days of Gensokyo and couldn't get used to such conveniences.

However, Minoriko did employ the aid of modern spotlights for times where she had to tend to the mansion's garden when the sun had set beneath the sea level. Garden gloves, which she had never used during her tenure as a harvest goddess in Gensokyo, greatly assisted the manual labor she was already used to for her entire existence, albeit harder without her powers.

Taking breaks to travel out of the mansion between tending the garden was part of her usual routine, unlike Shizuha, who usually tossed her tools after less than an hour under the sun and head back to their shared room to sleep. Minoriko had been responsible for most of the success of any plant growth in the mansion's garden, and while she bore no grudges against her elder sister, she wished that Shizuha would get over being lazy and actually help out.

The town that she was returning from that evening had been revisited numerous times for almost a year since their arrival at the Yakumo Mansion in the Outer World; Minoriko wanted to explore more of Japan, if she could. Maybe I should talk to Miss Yakumo about letting us travel out a bit further-

Huh? Speak of the devil; it's Miss Yakumo in the garden!

…

With Shizuha?

"Make me proud," Yukari patted the elder Aki sister on the head before swinging her arms happily as she made her way back inside, leaving a stumped Shizuha standing under a large tree. As Minoriko approached, she heard Shizuha mumbling to herself illegibly. "What's up, sis?" she asked.

"Uh… uh, never mind!" her sister brushed her away and stomped angrily after Yukari.

During dinner, Minoriko noticed that her sister was absent from the table, and while the others didn't seem to care, the harvest goddess knew Yukari had to be the cause of her sister's absence. Shizuha never skips dinner for no reason, unless a farmer pissed her off so badly that she could not hold herself.

The Aki sisters were allocated a room in the mansion closest to the grand central staircase on the upper floor; Minoriko had no troubles clearing the steps and entered the room, confirming the suspicions that her sister had been crying into her pillow on her own bed. "Shizuha?" she prodded the crying form's shoulders.

The muffled reply told her to leave her alone, but Minoriko remained stubborn and tried to coax her sister out of her misery. However, she gave up after ten minutes and simply laid down on her own bed, hoping Shizuha would snap out of it and speak out her troubles. A hard day's work in the gardens ensured that Minoriko fell asleep, still in her outdoor wear, shortly after her head hit the soft pillow.

...

...

Huh?

Minoriko's eyes opened and she immediately sat up on her bed. The first thing she noticed was that while the room's lights were off, Shizuha's bed was empty and unmade, indicating that her sister had left the room. The next was a large glow outside the window, which gave the room tenant a perfect view of the garden.

Getting off the bed, she went to the window to investigate and noticed a small silhouette figure under the garden's spotlight climbing what seemed to be a ladder. The figure was holding onto something on a left hand and doing something else with her right on the tree that Shizuha and Yukari had been talking under earlier.

Did Miss Yakumo force her to work in the middle of the night? How monstrous!

Disgusted with the master of the mansion, Minoriko marched towards the garden, fully intending to order her sister back to bed and ignore Yukari's inhumane requests. However, as she should had expected, Shizuha had already tossed whatever she was doing aside and met her at the front doors. Pushing past her without saying a word, the elder sister climbed the stairs, seemingly heading back to their room.

Minoriko stepped out to the garden and approached the tree. A bench had been set up near the trunk, fruits and a set of pestle and mortar set on top of it. She recognized them as the fruits that Shizuha would usually use in Gensokyo to paint the autumn leaves, as part of her role as the Goddess of Turning Leaves. An artist's palette and brush containing some of the organic food coloring was discarded just somewhere near the stone path of the garden; Minoriko picked both up.

It is still summer, so why is Shizuha already starting to paint the trees? Did Yukari put her up to it? Looking up at the window of their shared room, she imagined that Shizuha had been given the task to paint the leaves early. Without her goddess powers, hand painting the leaves would take almost an eternity, and Minoriko fully understood whatever challenge Shizuha was facing. With that laid back attitude of hers, she will never finish it on time.

Let's see…

The spotlight showed that Shizuha barely finished her third leaf on the large tree, the previous two attempts being barely the high quality of work Shizuha herself could muster in Gensokyo. Hazarding a guess, Minoriko thought that the amount of fruits Shizuha had gathered for painting the leaves would be sufficient and so began mashing the fruits in the mortar. When she had enough, she poured the food coloring into the palette, climbed the ladder and resumed Shizuha's job.

Autumn is an important season in nature's cycle, because it signifies the end of the sweltering heat of the summer, and, to your fellow human farmers, the season of harvest. Without both of our efforts to maintain autumn's presence, humans will starve from the lack of grain and fruits, and in turn, turn into savages, much like the ravaging youkai that prowl around Gensokyo in search of their next mortal meal.

Both my sister and I are currently living together with Miss Yakumo in the Outer World, where we are still able to do what we do best in Gensokyo; recreating Gensokyo's autumn season, locally! The garden we are tasked to handle may not be as impressive as the natural scenery on the foot of Youkai Mountain, but I can feel Miss Yakumo's faith in us, which in turn fueled my passion as a harvest goddess.

Shizuha, on the other hand, doesn't seem to like her very much, if at all. She usually carried out her garden tasks half heartedly, usually having me to do her job after all. I am not complaining, although I do wish Shizuha will one day realize that Miss Yakumo is our benefactor for both shelter and faith, and that she should respect her more.

Shizuha also seemed extremely jealous of my standing with the others, whether in Gensokyo or even right here. She hated the way the others would smile when talking to me during meal times, while she usually got snarky and curt responses. I don't blame them; Shizuha really had this coming for giving everybody her cold shoulder! Did she give you hers during our first encounter on the mountain? I bet you will remember it, even after your passing!

Here I am, two hours after waking up in the middle of the summer night and finding Shizuha painting autumn shades on the leaves of Miss Yakumo's favorite tree in the garden. Earlier during the evening, I spotted Miss Yakumo talking to my sister, so I'm going to assume she was asking Shizuha to turn the leaves to reflect autumn's arrival. If it was me, I would be overjoye, knowing somebody appreciated my works, but not Shizuha.

I wish I could help my sister… she sure has issues.

Shizuha does not deserve the cold shoulder everyone gives her. If only more people realized that all she needed was attention and appreciation for her existence…

I could use a little less popularity too, you know? As a goddess, I ask myself if I know how much work I have to put in to please my faithful follower in the Yakumo Mansion. She always wished to me for the best homegrown vegetables, and when I first delivered to her a successful batch of sweet potatoes, I had more requests from the other residents, especially Miss Kazami, who only cared about the flowers that bloom in the garden.

Maybe if I convinced them that autumn leaves viewing can be a viable alternative to the annual flower viewing we are so used to back in Gensokyo, Shizuha will have a better standing with the others, and she can then find a reason to lose that horrible mask of jealousy of hers.

Wow, the younger Aki sister has so much work to when being compared to her older sibling! I better stop slacking under the tree and help Shizuha finish her leaf painting-

"Minoriko?" her sister's voice carried itself, despite being soft, across towards the garden from the mansion's front doors. "Are you there?"

Aki Minoriko got up from her spot under the tree. As she did so, Shizuha appeared under the glare of the spotlight in her nightwear, her hair left unmade and messy. "Yeah sis, I was just finishing up." As the younger goddess joined her sibling on the stone pathway, both of them looked at the tree Minoriko had been working on the entire night.

"…"

"Sis?"

"…"

"Shizuha? What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"… Why?"

"Hmm?"

"Why?"

"What's wrong, sis?

"Why would you help me?"

"Because… because you needed help! You are my sister, for us goddesses' sake!"

"But… I didn't help you earlier with that sweet potato-"

The look on Minoriko's face told the older Aki sister all that she needed to know, and before long, collapsed into the waiting arms and cried her heart out, apologizing in earnest between sobs. Everytime Minoriko whispered something into her ear, all she did was to nod her head to show her understanding.

"Uuuu…" Minoriko sighed as she dipped herself into the hot spring bath. "Soooooo good…"

"Yeah, it's been like… more than a decade?" Shizuha replied, her eyes also closed in ecstasy as she let the hot water wash over her body. Both girls relished dreamily in the hot spring, the heat seemingly relieving stressed muscles and aches in their bodies. "It's been too long since we had a good dip in a hot spring since our Gensokyo days."

"Agreed."

It was eleven years since their arrival in the Outer World, and ten years after the night which saw Minoriko convincing her older sister to turn around in her character. Both had been working hard in the Yakumo Mansion's garden year after year to ensure the residents of the mansion had a pretty and soothing garden to land their weary eyes on daily, with the exception of Remilia.

Even Kawashiro Nitori had stepped out into the garden once and had commended both of them on their good job. With further aid from the kappa, they had been able to line the largest tree with mini light bulbs, effectively turning it into a Christmas tree annually. Finally realizing that modern gardening technology was not only effective but also friendly to nature, the Aki sisters began to employ automated sprinklers and greenhouses to enhance the growth of certain plants.

Whenever summer was about to end, both sisters would work to paint every leaf in the garden into shades of red and brown, much to Yukari's delight, who usually brought 'business clients and guests' to the mansion to conduct certain meetings and, as an attraction, have an early autumn leaf-turning view. Nobody really knew nor cared what she dealt with, since she was supposedly the mistress of the mansion; they were simply living off her.

Everybody agreed that Shizuha had turned for the better; their conversations with her, beginning with a simple but polite greeting, extended to lengths meant for good friends. Shizuha smiled more, became less lazy and generally helped lifted the mood of the household with her splendid work, along with Minoriko, in maintaining the garden.

In turn, Shizuha made herself more sociable by taking up her sister's suggestion to solve the widely-missed flower viewing with a simple replacement; autumn leaf viewing. Using knowledge base from the local town's library, she began putting up information and sign boards in the garden, informing the visitor what each plant was and their growth features. Hand-painted images of what the leaves of the plants looked like during autumn accompanied handwritten information.

Kazami Yuuka, the second oldest youkai living in Yakumo Mansion, after Yukari herself, had desired to view sunflowers one day. Shizuha had acted on the request and quickly dedicated a small part of the garden, which had been facing Yuuka's room on the second floor, to grow sunflowers. With some tips from both Yuuka and books from the library, both sisters managed to bloom their first sunflowers roughly two months after planting the seeds.

"So… sis?" Minoriko spoke suddenly, interrupting Shizuha's reverie of the past ten years."It's… really nice of you to bring me on a holiday, but why here?"

"Look," the older autumn Goddess of Turning Leaves pointed just ahead of their current location into the distance. "That's the mountain the humans of this world liked. It's called Mt Fuji. This ryokan (Japanese traditional-style inns) has rooms that faces the mountain itself, claiming that we can see it from our private hot springs if the weather is clear, and it is clear today."

"I see," Minoriko closed her eyes once more, adjusting herself until she was touching her sister's arm. "You know, sis, I have always missed Youkai Mountain."

"Me too."

"To be able to see something as majestic, if not more, than Youkai Mountain itself," Minoriko wrapped her arms over her sister's. "Is truly a blessing."

"Yukari once said that Gensokyo was actually within the Outer World itself. Who knows, we might have had been living on the other side of that mountain all those years without knowing?"

"Maybe."

"Do you desire to trek up that mountain?"

"I wonder how it looks like from up there."

"We can't just fly up to the peak as we had always did, Minoriko."

"What a shame…"

"But," Shizuha tilted her head down to face her sister. "I was thinking of going up anyway."

Minoriko looked up from her embrace. "Take me along!"

"I can't believe I'm letting you do this!" Minoriko laughed as she grabbed her unseen sister's hands, her cheeks blushing when she realized there were other people nearby watching them. "What's up with the blindfold, sis?"

"Shhhh…" Shizuha placed her finger on Minoriko's lips. "It's a secret. You will find out when we get there."

"Do you even know where to go?"

"It's just a short distance away from here."

Having travelled all the way to the Fifth Station on the mountain by bus, the duo was ready to check out the view from more than two thousand kilometers above the sea level. Both agreed that a mountain tour was nothing new to them, but having one in the Outer World would be a fresh experience for them.

There were many other people around on the station, most of them either simply touring the area while a smaller group were preparing to ascend further up Mount Fuji. A few shops littered around the station, some of them catering to climbers with their selection of climbing equipment, such as pick branding services and oxygen tanks. They had been told about a restaurant existing somewhere on the station, but from their arrival point, the Aki sisters had not seen it yet.

However, before they could even decide where to go, Shizuha had insisted her younger sister to put on a blindfold, apparently already having somewhere in mind to go and was planning it as a surprise for Minoriko. "I'm holding really tight, sis!" Minoriko said, face still blushing red. "You better not let me trip over any rocks! I don't want to repeat that head-over-heels roll down a slope fifteen years ago!"

Shizuha smirked at the memory before pulling Minoriko behind her and leading the way to their intended destination. An impatient and excited younger sister, coupled with blindfold and a seemingly young-looking face, gave the impression of two young girls having lots of fun on their own without any parents on the mountain. Shizuha smiled in return whenever passer-bys stared at them, some of them pointing and laughing.

They were almost at their destination when suddenly Shizuha felt a tug on the hand grabbing Minoriko's arm; her younger sister had stopped walking. "Minoriko?" Shizuha asked with a small frown. "We are almost there, aren't you all too eager to get there?"

"Umm… sis?"

"Yeah?"

"Actually..."

"What is it?"

"I… I didn't really want to go up the mountain in the first place."

"Huh?" Shizuha released the arm in surprise. "You were the one asking to be taken along! What's with the change of mind all of a sudden?"

Minoriko's arm went back to her side, her other hand rubbing the area where Shizuha had gripped on earlier, her head slightly lowered. "I was just humoring you, sis."

"Why? Why are you 'just humoring' me?"

"Because I know you brought me out here on a holiday to simply thank me for turning your life around."

"You knew?"

"Of course," Minoriko took a couple of steps towards Shizuha, her sense of direction based solely on Shizuha's voice. "Coming here has made me feel like we are really back at home, sis. This is the best present you could have gotten for me."

"I had hoped you would like it, Minoriko. Do you not like it?"

"I love it, sis, but at the same time, I don't."

"Why?"

"Because it also reminded me of Gensokyo."

"But what is wrong with remembering our home?"

"There's nothing to remember!" Minoriko shrieked. Shizuha was taken aback at her sister's sudden outburst, taking a step back in surprise. "It was destroyed, sis! All gone! Our home, the Youkai Mountain, was a mass of inferno! Have you forgot what that had happened?"

Why is she bringing this up? "Minoriko-"

"I had worked myself almost to point of exhaustion, day after day, in that garden to make myself forget Gensokyo!" Minoriko went on, cutting off the older goddess of autumn. "I thought I could forget about everything and start my life anew in this world, with you at my side. You had changed for the better, sis, that was good enough for me. Why did you have to remind me of our home again?"

Shizuha remained silent as the other girl continued. "I was almost moving on from my past life! Those dreams, nay, the nightmares, they had completely vanished from my mind. After today, I don't even know if I would have a peace of mind to sleep again."

So that was why she was awake that night to paint the leaves on the tree, those ten years ago*. "I had really wished you were joking about coming up here, sis," Minoriko lowered her voice to her usual levels. "But I didn't want to disappoint you-"

"And you didn't."

"But what else is there to see from here? Haven't we seen enough of mountain scenery for the past hundreds of years?"

"Take that blindfold off and you will see for yourself."

"Oh, well," Minoriko sighed heavily, her hand reaching up to the blindfold. "Let's… let's just get this done over-"

Minoriko never got any further as the black cloth came away, displaying the sight before her eyes. From her standing position, beyond the safety guard rails of a viewing house that they were already in, she saw endless field after field of autumn-colored leaves adorning trees in almost every direction. Some trees seemed to have passed their autumn peaks, while other trees readily dominated attention, even from distances such as the viewing house on the Fifth Station.

Tranquil bodies of water lay like basins between the seas of red, their surfaces sparkling, thanks to reflection of sunlight. The wind, at that moment, had chosen to be slightly breezy, causing the trees to sway with it. Just behind them, a couple of trees already bearing autumn colored- leaves swayed as well, showering the entrance with fallen leaves.

To any resident on the Youkai Mountain, such view would have been available annually during the autumn season, especially when Shizuha herself bothered to paint the leaves, but the major difference between that and Mount Fuji was the impossibly uniformed shades of colors. "Almost… almost perfect…" Minoriko finally muttered. "Sis… you had been working very hard-"

"I'm glad you think so highly of me," Shizuha patted her younger sister's head. "But this isn't my doing. This is Nature herself."

"V-very beautiful," Minoriko choked back tears of awe. "Nature, you say? I feel as if we are still minor compared to Her, even when we are goddesses ourselves," she sniffed hard and rubbed her eyes dry. "But I love it, sis. This is really something worth seeing."

"Minoriko."

"Sis?"

"Can you forget about Gensokyo's bad days and remember this instead?"

"What do you mean?"

"From today on," Shizuha turned her sister's around to face her own. "You and I will remember both Youkai Mountain and Gensokyo as what we are seeing today. The freshness of the air, the beauty of Nature, the gentle breeze of the mountain winds and the picturesque autumn leaves below us. And…"

A moment passed before Minoriko raised her eyebrows. "And?"

Shizuha used her thumb and index finger to raise the corners of Minoriko's lips, forming a smile while increasing the wattage of her already present own. "The purity of our smiles."

A gust of wind blew from behind them, causing both their loose dresses to flutter in anthem with the wind, the hats that they had worn on their heads being lifted into the air and out of the viewing house, drifting along with the wind high above the fiery autumn leaves.

If there's somebody I should thank for today, it would be you, Hakurei miko.

Yukari too, actually, since she paid for our first-class stay at the ryokan for three nights. I never trusted her type before, but she turned out to be actually somewhat pretty… human. Not the weird gap youkai that I had been told about since long ago.

Maybe everybody had changed ever since stepping into the Outer World, because I myself did. The Scarlet sisters turned out to be friendly, Eirin stopped being a workaholic and Yuuka is actually a very humble youkai despite her mean and sadistic face. Nitori, however, changed for the worse when she began working on something in her basement room some years ago. Up till now, even after her passing, nobody knew what she had been working on.

Sanae rejoined us three years ago, after the immortal girl from the Bamboo Forest of the Lost deposited her at the Yakumo Mansion and disappeared once again. She pretty much made herself useful by helping out in the kitchen and serving Yukari's guests when they come for meetings. Once in a while, she would pop some odd questions about the soil and earth in the garden, probably hoping to find her goddess Moriya Suwako's essence among them.

After Remilia's death almost four years ago, Flandre seemingly returned to her old ways, but we have misjudged her, as she seemed to quickly recover from her grief and stepped forward in her life, strong and brave. She set herself a goal to find out why her elder sister had worked as a negotiator despite her characteristics, and ever since, Flandre seemed to have matured a lot in her thinking. The younger Scarlet began making her own decisions without consulting anybody and took any consequences that had arisen out of her wrong decisions in stride.

'Crazy Iku', as everyone of us calls her for her tendency to dance really feverishly, somehow turned part of the mansion's halls into a soundproofed discotheque, coupled with a lounge bar managed by her former student Tenshi. Both of them seemed to have an affinity for modern life and spared no expense in preparing for 'Happy Hour' almost every evening. Needless to say, Yukari has been one of the bar's most frequent 'customers', usually accompanied by her clients and guests.

Minoriko, my younger sister, remained her cheerful ways and is well-liked in the mansion. I, on the other hand, was the most unsociable of the odd family. Needless to say, this was all me; nobody in the household was to blame, not even little Minoriko herself.

So what was it that really got me to change ten years ago?

It's simple.

The fact that both Minoriko and I still exist is enough.

Why so?

Coming into the Outer World, I slowly began to realize that our mere existence here is, by large, thanks to the humans here. The people here continue to worship a god for their harvests, in which Minoriko receives a share of it, even though she wasn't able to do anything here, and majority of the population desires the turning of leaves during autumn, which will be me.

In fact, when compared to Kanako herself, both of us probably outgained faith against hers by a large margin. We are just as important as other gods and goddesses of the four seasons. Minoriko might have been more popular in plain sight, but in actual fact, I had been the more popular goddess among all species. I have the faith of humans, youkai, plants and Nature, how could I have been blind to this?

What part in this do you play, you ask? Yukari spoke to us about your foresight of Gensokyo's future some years back, and that you convinced her to invest in something in the Outer World, ultimately enabling her to own something as large as the Yakumo Mansion that we are currently living in. Without that foresight, my eyes would have still been closed and I would have ceased to exist immediately in Gensokyo that day, never knowing that I had an existing purpose in the Outer World.

True, none of us retained the magical or divine powers we had in our home, but aren't our presences here enough? Autumn continues even in the Outer World, not just in Gensokyo. Sunflowers exist here. The field of medicine is the greatest study in ensuring humans' survival in their world. Harvests are still important to upkeep food consumption against supply here.

Honestly, there is no difference in living here than in Gensokyo, save the presence of visible youkai and magic in the air.

However, Minoriko, even after eleven years, chose to remember the burning landscape beneath the slopes of Youkai Mountain. What I did was simply to replace the fires with the fiery colors of autumn, literally pasting this mental image into her mind. I believe that, after today, all she can see in her dreams will be the beauty of autumn and not the destructiveness of fire.

Minoriko had saved me from total despair by acting as my pillar of support despite me being cold towards her even after we left Gensokyo. All I can do, as her older sister, would be to return that favor. I want that cheerful sister of mine back, not one who wears a farce mask of happiness daily.

Once again, thank you, Reimu, for bringing us into the Outer World.

Aki Shizuha
Goddess of Turning Leaves
Messenger of Autumn

"Hey, sis," Minoriko suddenly pointed at a forest in the distance from their position. The sun had set and they were about to depart the Fifth Station by bus after a filling dinner at one of the restaurants. "What are those lights?"

*As usual, one character can never know the true reasons behind another's motives unless he or she has been told about it. Shizuha never found out why Minoriko was awake to help her paint the tree.

A.N.: Both Aki sisters were slated to have their own chapters, but seeing the length of each character, I thought I would just combine them both into one update. Shizuha's title is non-canonical, just something that she would have given herself after realizing her true standing among existing goddesses .

Iku and Tenshi have been thrown into the family, but I have finally decided not to do any letters for both of them, since they don't seem to fit well into what I have in mind.

The last part is a reference to Patchouli's adventure in Aokigahara Forest, where the rescue team used searchlights to aid in their efforts. Both Shizuha's segment and Patchouli's second story happened on the same day.

There would be a couple more before I start to wrap things up, and those were already thought out long ago, so expect a shorter hiatus than before.