Good news. First of all, new chapter for you, my awesome readers, when I originally planned to publish on Wednesday.
Second, I may have thought of a way to push aside my writers block for the time being, by pushing back act 2 to a future time (I'm already about 75% finished it), and instead writing a new act 2 or a sub-act as a filler.
Since what I'm having trouble with is one scene during act 2, I figure I'll go with one of the other ideas I've had planned for this act, and make the future act 2 show up later.
...The bad news, a few things I've had planned to reveal in act 2 will unfortunately need to be pushed back as well, but with a little bit of editing I think that I can ease the damage, by instead revealing more characters with this upcoming act, instead.
Anyways, we'll see what we can make of this, and I'll try and get back into the swing of somewhat regular updates as best I can, and as quickly as possible. Until then, enjoy the new chapter.
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Yet another uneventful day began for Reimu Hakurei as she found herself startled awake by someone jumping on her bed, "Damnit Cirno-Chan!"
"Hey Reimu-chan! Are you up?" The younger girl asked, looking right into the frustrated girl's eyes with her own bright blue ones, which helped to diffuse some of the girl's attitude. That still wouldn't be enough to save the little idiot though.
After whacking the younger girl over the back of the head as punishment for startling her awake, Reimu quickly got changed into her school uniform and grabbed Cirno's hand, walking the girl down the stairs with a small smile.
Of course she found her friends seated around her house again, and she groaned in her head. Letty was currently cooking breakfast for the girls, while Marisa seemed to be holding up a surprisingly tame conversation with Alice, and Patchy appeared to be attempting to ignore her classmates, with her nose deep in her own book that Reimu couldn't read the title of.
Spotting the shrine maiden coming downstairs, Marisa began waving enthusiastically to the girl, "Happy first day of winter Reimu-chan!"
"What are you babbling about now Marisa-baka?" Reimu asked as she took a seat on the other side of the Monochrome thief, "It's still at least late summer, the cherry blossoms are still out, and the leaves haven't even begun to change colour yet," she argued.
"It would appear that the weather likes to make a fool out of you, Reimu-chan," Letty said, putting down a plate in front of the shrine maiden before moving on, "We saw light snowfall last night, and the temperature dropped rapidly in the area."
"Ah great...does that mean we should change to our winter uniforms early?" Reimu asked, but the girls shook their heads, "So we'll just freeze to death then."
"I don't know why you guys are complaining, I think the weather is nice," Cirno chirped out, before digging into her meal and promptly ignoring her friends, and her sister chiding her about eating slower.
"We'll just need to remember to bundle up appropriately," Letty continued, patting her little sister on the head affectionately, then crossing the room in order to begin cleaning up after herself, in addition to tidying up the younger girl's place.
"Has been some strange stuff happening lately," Marisa commented idly, "There was a huge thunder storm that night after Reimu got attacked, the other day it got dark super early, and today it's snow of all things."
"Maybe global warming is finally catching up to us?" Letty joked, but no one laughed.
"I'm sure whatever is causing all of these strange weather patterns will reveal itself in time," Alice said, as she continued to eat at a leisurely pace.
"Hope so, this is throwing off all of my after-school plans," Marisa grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest in annoyance.
Patchoulli gave the blonde girl an incredulous look, "You mean harassing me at the library, going to bother Morichika-San, and thinking up pranks to pull on Alice-san?" She listed off, all without looking up from her book.
Marisa had the decency to look sheepish, "Well, I didn't say they were all good plans," the blonde corrected, "and besides, what I do with my free time is up to me, what does it matter to you ya shut-in bookworm?"
"Absolutely nothing at all," Patchy replied sleepily.
"Then why even bring it up," Marisa groaned, and Reimu had what was most likely the best answer for the girl, "So you'll rat yourself out to Alice-chan."
The blonde stiffened as she turned to her friend, who looked absolutely livid at the mention of pranks her Monochrome friend might be planning to pull on her in the future, "I cannot believe you Marisa, I only just forgave you for breaking one of my dolls, and I just managed to finish repairing it the other night!"
"Now, now Alice-chan, I didn't say that any of them involved damaging any of your precious dolls, did I?" Marisa attempted to back peddle, but all of the girls could tell that the seamstress wasn't buying it.
"Argh, you are insufferable sometimes Marisa-chan!" Alice cried, before packing up her sewing supplies and storming out. Marisa was quick to grab her own things and hurry after her fellow blonde, crying out for her attention, "Alice-chan, wait for me, I'm sorry!"
Reimu turned to regard the oldest member of the group, and blinked twice up at her, "Well, time with Marisa and Alice is never boring, at least."
"Indeed, oh, are you done Patchoulli-san?" Letty asked, noticing the quiet girl push away her plate.
"Hai, thank you for the meal sempai, but I should be off, I need to go and prepare the library for the day, and I have a feeling the weather is going to take a turn for the worse before it gets better today," The purple-haired girl explained.
"What makes you say that?" Reimu was quick to ask, and found herself unnerved by the crooked smile Patchoulli gave her in response, "Because a storm is brewing. It may not strike today, or next week, but it is coming, and it is going to be massive," the girl announced cryptically, before scooping up her book and leaving after the two blondes.
That was especially odd, Reimu mused to herself. She wasn't usually one for premonitions, but from how it sounded, Patchoulli was implying she could tell something was coming. And like she said, it was going to be big.
Ah well, something to worry about in the future, when she could get some more information out of the girl, and maybe a more clear reading on what could be happening. Until then, she still had a life to live.
"So Letty-chan, Cirno-chan, maybe we ought to head out as well, if Patchy-chan's cryptic message is anything to go by," Reimu suggested, pleased by the quick agreement her two friends offered in response.
Helping out Letty to speed up the process of after-breakfast clean up, the three girls made short work of the dishes, and were out the door quickly, Reimu having to stop but a moment to lock up, before tightening her scarf around her neck securely, and following after the Whiterock sisters.
The girl would be lying if she didn't think it odd how little the sisters were wearing to combat the suddenly cold weather though. Cirno was only wearing a light jacket, and Letty was in a trench coat, neither jacket really made for combating the winter chill she could feel dampening the air.
"I hope it's not going to get worse than this," Reimu commented, "Winter is always such a hard part of the year."
"Maybe we should all chip in to buy you a heater then, Reimu-chan," Letty suggested, but Reimu was quick to shake her head, "No, that's way too expensive for you all to buy. Especially for my birthday, Cirno-chan," The girl added when she noticed Cirno preparing to make an argument, "Really, I'll be fine, I've survived plenty of winters before, this one won't be any different for me."
"We will be bringing you a few extra blankets if the weather worsens over the next few months, at the very least," Letty stated, and quickly interrupted Reimu's objections, "No arguing about this Reimu-chan, we worry about you enough without having to be concerned about you freezing to death."
Reimu pouted the rest of the way to school, to hide how her cheeks reddened from her friends kindness.
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As the three girls stepped out into the courtyard that afternoon, Reimu found herself shivering for the umpteenth time because of the sudden cold weather.
"Seriously, what is up with this weather the last couple of days," The shrine maiden complained loudly, "If you're going to start winter early then give us a bit of warning!"
"I don't think yelling at the sky is going to help much Reimu," Marisa joked, her fingers interlocked behind her head as she followed her best friend. The two girls quickly took their normal table, and were soon joined by Letty and Cirno, who had needed to cross more of the school to reach the front after their fourth period classes.
Just as she was about to dig in, Reimu noticed something out of the corner of her eye, "Hey look, Sanae-chan is back."
Just coming onto the school ground was a familiar green-haired girl, with the ever-adorable (Even Reimu had to admit it) frog hairclip, wearing a heavy jacket to combat the chill.
"Good to see that she's back to health, now let's dig in!" Marisa cheered, and prepared to do just that, until Reimu suddenly got up, gaining the blonde's attention, "Huh, something wrong Reimu?"
What the other girls hadn't noticed while they were distracted, but Reimu had caught, was the way the girl was shivering, and how her breath was visible from the cold air, which made the brunette concerned.
"Just a moment, you guys go ahead without me," Reimu said, grabbing her scarf which was half-hanging out of her backpack, and hurrying over to the green-haired girl, "Sanae-san, wait up!" The shrine maiden called out.
Catching Reimu's eyes, Sanae politely waited for her classmate to catch up with her, and then offered her a small greeting, "Hello Reimu-san, how are you doing?"
"I'm good, how are you feeling after getting over your cold?" Reimu asked.
"Fairly well, I just can't believe how quickly the weather has dropped off, my aunts weren't expecting the sudden shift, so they're kind of sluggish today," The girl replied while biting her lip, obviously worried about her relatives.
Without saying another word, Reimu took the scarf in her hands, and began to wrap it around her class-mates neck carefully and without her consent, earning a surprised squawk from the green-haired girl, "R-Reimu-san, what are you doing?"
"I noticed that you were shivering, and that you weren't wearing a scarf," Reimu explained, continuing with her work, "You know that people who recently got over being sick have a higher chance of coming down with something when the weather gets cold like this, right? Therefore you should properly bundle up, we don't want the class good girl to get sick again, do we Sanae-chan?" Reimu asked, finishing her work, and topping it off with giving the taller green haired girl a friendly smile.
Sanae's face went bright red as she saw the girl's smile, and lost the ability to speak from the kindness her friend had given her. Reimu seemed to take this as an incentive, and grabbed the other girl's hand, beginning to lead her back to their table, ignoring the indignant shout Marisa released as she noticed.
"Oh for the love of...not again Reimu!" The blonde cried, "Stop picking up strays already, we can barely afford the ones that we have."
"Excuse me?" Letty asked coldly, and Marisa immediately shut up at the unspoken threat.
Helping the green-haired girl into a seat beside her, Reimu gave her another small smile before regarding her long time friend, "What's the matter Marisa-chan, getting jealous? Afraid that I'll stop having time to pay attention to you if I continue to make more new friends?"
Marisa said nothing to deny the girl's claims, and Reimu laughed, "Marisa, your my oldest friend, I'll always have time for you."
"Ya better, or I'll show ya what for, just like..." Marisa cut herself off and simply grinned back at her friend, though both knew where she had been going, and knew better than to bring it up, especially now.
Sanae still had yet to say anything in her defence, but appeared to be content with keeping to silence, though she was smiling brightly beneath the scarf she had been lent by her new friend.
For being at the school for two years now, Sanae didn't really have many friends. She knew a lot of her classmates by name, and she did speak to them occasionally, but she was content to keeping to herself thus far, and only now that the hand of friendship was being held out to her did she truly feel the crushing loneliness she had been surrounding herself with for the last two years.
"Hey, you don't have a lunch with ya, do you Sanae?" Marisa suddenly asked, gaining the two girls attention, "Care to split with me, I always seem to make too much," She admitted with a laugh, rubbing the back of her neck.
"Err, sure?" Sanae replied slowly, not sure if the class troublemaker was being honest, or if she was just pulling her leg. She was pleasantly surprised when a small bag lunch was dropped in front of her by the blonde girl, and after looking inside, Sanae swore to never mistrust the blonde again (big mistake, she would later learn.)
"Yes, Marisa-chan tends to be a bit of an overachiever, and making lunches just seems like one of the things she enjoys doing," Letty commented, taking a bite from her sandwich as she continued to watch the girls interact.
"Thank you," Sanae announced quietly, but Marisa grabbed her by the shoulders, "What's with the meek and quiet act all of a sudden, where'd that ever-confident good girl go?"
Sanae hadn't realized that she'd been acting any differently, considering her mind was abuzz with all of this new information, but she seemed to snap out of it at the blonde's question, and a smile lit up her face as her cheeks turned rosy, "Thank you very much Marisa-chan!" She announced proudly, receiving a huge grin from the blonde in response.
"That's the way ya do it!" Marisa stated, giving the green-haired girl a thumbs-up, before the three dug in at last, Reimu even catching a quiet laugh from Letty.
She had to wonder if maybe enough had changed in the last two weeks that this winter wasn't going to be as bad as it used to be, while she took a large bite from her own sandwich.
Though Patchouli's warning was still playing at the back of her mind, putting her slightly on edge.
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Chapter 12 complete
Welcome Sanae to the group, she will now become a regular character along with the cast we have already established.
Just to avoid confusing anyone, the next chapter will be starting after a roughly three week time skip, in order to move the plot along. If I don't do this, then we are going to have a lot of boring filler chapters between foreshadowing chapters, and a very long time before the next sub-arc begins, since I didn't realize how badly I had planned things out (to be honest, I didn't time the story all that well, and am only now suffering for my messed up timeline).
This may also be the beginning of me no longer going on a day-to-day plot, and beginning to jump the plot ahead of pointless days, just to try and speed up to certain events I have planned for the future.
Trust me. Ja Ne!
Stay Tuned for Chapter 13