As it turned out, Reimu mused to herself, this wasn't going to be better than past winters. It was going to be a hundred times worse, Patchouli's prediction had been right on the money, as the weather grew progressively worse as the week wore on, and she was beginning to regret jinxing herself.
Luckily she had some of the best friends ever, as they brought her things to help her survive the winter chill at night, including blankets and warm food, though she was still adamantly against the girls all working together in order to buy her a heater, under the impression it was a ridiculous price to pay for what a couple of blankets could do just as well.
She was slightly surprised by just how quickly Sanae had settled into the group as well, and was pleased that even Youmu was beginning to be accepted as an annoyance at best (though only Marisa seemed to view her as such, for reasons Reimu couldn't fathom), and the girls were having a relatively peaceful time.
That's not to say that all had been quiet for the two Tenshi. A few lesser Youkai had appeared, and needed to be dealt with, but between Reimu's rapidly developing skills, and Youmu's experience in the art, they were made short work of. The shrine maiden was a bit disheartened that none of them appeared to be affected by their attempts to seal their powers and help them to repent for their actions, but Yukari had managed to make a breakthrough regarding this oddity.
During this time it seemed that the other Tenshi had begun to research the method Reimu and Youmu had stumbled across, and come to several interesting conclusions on the matter of Youkai sealing. Of course the Youkai had to be willing to submit to the sealing, or be attempting to fight their deeper nature (as they found out through continued conversations with the younger girl, Rumia had been trying desperately to overcome her bloodlust, but it had only been because of Reimu and Youmu's efforts that she had been freed).
Next, it didn't work on all kinds of Youkai, though there wasn't much field experience on what it could and could not work on yet, as they hadn't seen that many different kinds of Youkai pop up thus far, and it seemed that Yukari was holding back on sending them after the more dangerous Youkai.
Therefore, Reimu supposed things were okay right now. Youkai hunting wasn't all that demanding, and they had yet to hear anything regarding the Youkai group that had tried to attack on that first day, so she could focus on other things.
It was currently the weekend, and the group of girls were heading towards Kourindou, planning on stopping in to see what the strange man might have picked up recently, as Marisa animatedly recounted one of her stories, along with Cirno, who she had brought along.
"So there we were, with the target in sight, and only several large metal boxes between us and our objective," Marisa explained, "We were all ready to run out and complete the mission, when suddenly Cirno-chan noticed something out of the corner of her eye."
"We had been spotted!" Cirno cheered loudly, making Reimu jump, who'd been lost in thoughts and only paying the barest attention to the excitable girls, though the blue-haired girl's exclamation regained her full attention.
"Seeing no other plan than to go ahead without waiting, We charged out, and made a mad dash for the objective," Marisa resumed the story, patting the blue-haired girl on the head for her help, which made Cirno purr comically. "Unfortunately, then trouble struck."
Apparently having enough of the grandstanding, Alice decided to finish the story for the two girls, "To make a long story short, these two charged out from behind the lockers as I was coming out of the shower, ran right past me, and slipped on the water I'd left behind. The pair ended up crashing into the wall, and knocking my locker the rest of the way open."
"Wait, why were they trying to get into your locker again?" Sanae asked, having been trying unsuccessfully to follow the conversation from the start. but struggling with the way the girls didn't explain anything.
"Obviously Marisa-chan has decided to upgrade to a panty thief," Youmu joked, though no one laughed, "Err, sorry." The white-haired girl had the decency to blush at her bad joke.
"No, actually, Youmu has it straight," Marisa admitted, causing the other girls to give her incredulous looks."
"You and my little sister were trying to steal Alice-chan's panties?" Letty asked incredulously, "Why?"
"Cause Alice-chan needs to lighten up," Marisa explained casually, "And what better way than a harmless prank."
"I think you need to rethink your definition of the word "harmless" Marisa," Reimu mumbled, "That crosses the line into downright disturbing territory."
"Oh bah, you all are a bunch of fuddy-duddies anyways!" Marisa announced, running off ahead into Kourindou without waiting for a rebuttal.
"I have know that girl for a very long time," Reimu stated, "and I do not think I will ever understand how her mind works."
"I don't think that anyone could follow the way Marisa's brain is wired, to be honest," Letty replied, laying a hand on her kouhai's shoulder in comfort, while Cirno began laughing.
"On a topic that doesn't involve Alice-Chan's undergarments," Sanae suggested, "Reimu-chan, how have you been holding up so far from this impromptu winter?"
Reimu almost didn't want to answer the girl, as Sanae had a bad habit of blowing out of proportions the girl's unhealthy tendencies, but finally sighed as she answered, "At least it's November now, so it's not nearly as strange to see snow fall."
"I must admit this has been quite the early winter we've received," Letty said wistfully, "almost like a sign of things to come."
"What kind of things?" Reimu tried to ask, but it seemed her friends were ignoring her, as they hurried into the relative warmth of Rinnosuke-san's shop. Turning to her partner, Reimu voiced the question on her mind.
"You don't think that this is a sign of something to come, do you?"
"Who knows, premonitions are not among my abilities, sadly," Youmu said with a small shrug, and Reimu noticed with amusement that the girl's spectre made the same gesture. Patting her friend on the head, Reimu herded the silver-haired girl into the shop, not catching the way the white-haired girl's cheeks lit up at the gesture.
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The wind blew loudly outside as the girls sat around the room at Marisa's place, each borrowing a blanket from the blonde girl to combat yet another drop in the temperature that had arrived alongside a sudden snowfall as they were returning from Kourindou.
Reimu was probably the worst of the lot, as she had always been more susceptible to the cold than anyone, and was cuddled closely to her best friend as they shared a blanket on the black-white's couch, and yet she was still shivering.
"Honestly Reimu, why do you never take better precautions when you know the weather is going to get like this," Marisa asked, but went ignored as Reimu attempted to cuddle closer to her, making the blonde blush.
"Aww!" Letty and Cirno cooed at the pair, while Alice tried to ignore them, and Youmu watched on curiously as the pair played games against each other, as they'd quickly found out the girl was a bit technologically behind.
"Would the peanut gallery kindly shut the hell up," Marisa shot back, trying to keep her focus as her best friend was cuddled up to her, and failing miserably.
Landing the killing blow on her opponent, Reimu cheered, then let out a loud yawn and began to stretch, having just won her fifth consecutive game. Marisa groaned in response, and shut down the system for the night, before turning to regard the girls, "I'm thinking we ought call it a night, Reimu sounds like she could pass out at any moment now, and besides, no one's going home in this weather."
"You don't mind us staying the night?" Sanae asked, and Marisa replied in the positive, "As long as we all promise not to kill each other, I don't see a problem with it."
"I may be able to avoid suffocating you in your sleep as long as you keep as far away from me as possible," Alice warned acidly, but Marisa seemed to laugh off her threat, "That's the spirit Alice-chan."
Sanae snuck over and regarded the swordswoman of the group, "You know, I haven't been able to ignore the fact that it seems Alice-chan is the only one that Marisa-chan uses honorrifics with regularly."
"Yes, I've come to believe that she does it mostly because it annoys Alice-chan," Youmu replied, and the two girls began to nod sagely about the matter.
"Oi, what are you two whispering about?" Marisa asked, but the two immediately played innocent, and gave her matching sheepish grins.
"Marisa, leave them alone, they're probably just talking about you never ending crusade to drive Alice-chan insane," Reimu mumbled at the girl drowsily, "it's any wonder I have any sense left, and I've been dealing with you far longer than either Alice-chan or Patchy-chan."
Cirno releasing a loud yawn ceased the conversation, and Letty took charge of the situation, "all right, that's enough, everyone get off to bed, we still have school in the morning, regardless of a little wind."
"Hai sempai!" The girls replied, and followed the elder Whiterock as she lead the charge up the stairs, half dragging her little sister with her.
Knowing that Reimu would probably not be able to get any sleep without a little extra warmth, Marisa opened her mouth, intending to offer to sleep together with her friend, but was beaten to the punch by her senior, "Hey Reimu-chan, want to cuddle for warmth?"
A tug on the older girl's hand forced her to look down and find her little sister rubbing her eye childishly, "Maa, Letty-nee, can't you sleep with me?"
"Well that takes Letty and Cirno out of the running," Marisa interrupted the older girl's reply, "So how about me and you Reimu?"
"Do you have to make it sound like that Marisa, geez," Reimu replied in annoyance, "Anyways don't worry about it, I'll be fine tonight, it's not that cold.
"Uh huh," The other girls mumbled, to Reimu's annoyance. Now fully awake and annoyed, Reimu grabbed her backpack with her change of clothing (which she always kept on hand, considering she was friends with Marisa) and stormed from the room, determined to not show weakness, and prove her friends wrong.
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Not long after, Reimu was sorely regretting her stubbornness, as she attempted to curl up into a tighter ball for warmth beneath her blanket, her heavier winter sleep wear and blanket sadly doing little to combat the chill she was feeling.
Given a chance to think in silence, Reimu took a quick scan of the room. Laying nearby were the Whiterock sisters, and she noted with some amusement that Cirno was cuddled up tight against her big sister, which just made Reimu want to snap a picture of the pair.
The shrine maiden also noticed that sometime in the night, Marisa had managed to roll her way over to the side of the room that Alice had claimed, and the two were now cuddling as well, and Alice had a small, content smile that was rare to see. It made Reimu wonder why Marisa didn't stop picking on the poor girl, and just admit that she had a crush on her already.
A fresh breeze blew through the room, and Reimu began shivering again, breaking her concentration.
"D-Damnit," The shrine maiden chattered out, cursing whatever was causing this freaky weather, and for how cold it was getting.
The brunette was slightly startled when she felt a pair of hands wrapping around her waist, but managed to bite back her voice when she realized just who it was beginning to embrace her, as a second blanket was draped half over her, and mumbled out her thanks, "Arigato, Sanae-chan."
"I know you said that you didn't want to cuddle for warmth," Sanae admitted sheepishly, "but you looked like you weren't having any luck getting to sleep, and I still owed you for that day that you gave me your scarf, and I feel bad for..." Reimu cut the girl off as she put her hands over her class-mate's own, and gave her a gentle squeeze.
The pair sank into comfortable silence, until Reimu found another person sliding back against her, and she appropriately circled her arms around Youmu-chan, "Thank you both," She mumbled out, as a sudden drowsiness threatened to take her.
"We're partners Reimu-chan," Youmu replied, low enough for Sanae to not hear, "We have to look out for each other."
The next morning, after nearly having a heart attack when she found herself cuddled up against a deeply asleep Alice, Marisa noticed the three girls cuddled together, and couldn't help cooing and taking a picture of the three, "Heh, blackmail," The girl commented, before leaving the room to begin breakfast for the girls.
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A few more days passed in relative normality, as the weather continued to worsen, and Reimu had to try harder and harder to not freeze, until finally, with some annoyance, Marisa finally got tired of seeing her friend like this.
"That's it!" The blonde shouted, making the other girls sitting around the room jump in surprise, having been staring out the window at the falling snow, "You are moving in with me until this winter ends, Reimu, no arguing with me about this!"
Reimu had tried to make an argument with her oldest friend, but the blonde seemed to be having none of it, and practically dragged her back to Reimu's place after school that day, in order to help her pack up everything she might need, before marching her back to the monochrome thief's place, where the other girls were waiting.
Any attempts by Reimu at talking Marisa out of this plan seemed to fall on deaf ears, and her friends were absolutely no help, only encouraging Marisa, and trying to make Reimu see reason on the matter.
"You don't have a heater, and we're already coming over to your place almost daily delivering you hot food and more blankets," Letty pointed out, "At this point, staying with Marisa is better for everyone involved."
Reimu responded to the girl's sensible explanation by spending the rest of the night pouting, as she cuddled with Marisa beneath a blanket.
She did have to admit though, after the first week of staying with the blonde, that it wasn't as bad as she'd thought. Marisa was respectful, she didn't harass her mercilessly like she'd feared, and she was always making sure that her best friend was warm and comfortable, when she wasn't busy doing some of her own research, or out harassing Alice and Patchy.
What the brunette hadn't been expecting was that weekend, while the two girls were sitting about in their pyjamas that morning, for Letty and Cirno to show up at their door, with a pair of ice skates draped over their shoulders, and matching smiles.
"What's with the skates?" Marisa asked good-naturedly, leaning over to peek over the girls shoulders curiously, while Reimu tried her hardest to protect herself from the cold breeze coming in through the opened doorway, pulling the blanket tighter against herself as best she could.
"Can we at least come in first?" Letty asked, and Marisa was quick to usher them inside, and set them up with something warm, though neither girl appeared to have been affected by the weather in the slightest, Reimu noted in annoyance as they sat down on either side of her, and pulled her blanket over their shoulders as well.
"Anyways," Letty said as she reached out to accept the cup Marisa handed her, " I realized this morning since the weather has been getting worse, that it's the perfect time to go ice skating, and I figured we should at least try to invite everyone along, even though this is usually just a Whiterock tradition," The older girl explained.
"You guys have been doing this for years?" Marisa asked, as she took the armchair next to the couch in annoyance, though Reimu couldn't imagine why her friend was suddenly in such a foul mood, when a moment ago she had been just fine. If she had to guess, she would imagine it had something to do with them withholding this information from them.
"Like I said, it's been a tradition, we both learned how to skate when we were really young, and just love it," Letty explained as Cirno chugged her tea with a big smile.
"And judging by the fact you two have shown up at our door this morning," Reimu had to wonder when Marisa had changed the way she referred to her house, "You were planning on asking us along?"
"Yeah, it'll be more fun with more people, and we already called Alice-chan, Sanae-chan, and Youmu-chan!" Cirno announced cheerfully with an infectious grin.
"No Patchy?" Reimu finally spoke up, having been simply enjoying the warmth of the two girls on either side of her.
"We tried to ask her along, but she was quite adamant that skating was not her thing," Letty admitted sheepishly.
"That sounds like her," Marisa mused, "poor frail Patchy, can't even go ice skating because her asthma is so bad."
"Don't sound so smug about it," Reimu chastised the blonde, "and I don't know...it's really cold outside, and we're not even dressed yet, and we haven't eaten," She began to list off, not catching the smiles growing on the faces of the other girls.
"It doesn't take you that long to get ready," Letty countered, "and we know the person that owns the rink, so you can get something to eat there."
"But it's cold outside, and it has to be a really far walk if you two are showing up this early in the morning, and I'm completely drained after trying to deal with Marisa for the last week," "Hey, I've been a perfect gentleman!" "And I'm still waking up."
"Reimu-chan," Letty began quietly, catching the brunette's attention and cutting off her rant, "You can ice skate, can't you?"
"E-Err..." Reimu replied, confirming the girl's suspicion as she ducked her head away from the trio and down to her feet, unconsciously beginning to wring her hands out in her lap as her cheeks glowed a pretty shade of red.
"It's okay Reimu-chan, we can teach you how," Letty offered with a much kinder smile, as Marisa squawked in the background, momentarily forgotten, as Reimu looked up at her sempai hopefully.
"Hey, if anyone is going to teach Reimu how to skate, it's going to be her best friend, of course!" Marisa shouted, re-entering the conversation with a blast, and causing the three to look over at her curiously.
"Oh really?" Letty asked with a disarming smile, "and tell me Marisa-chan, how much skating have you done? Since we have been doing it since we were children."
"T-That doesn't matter!" Marisa argued, "besides, Reimu isn't going to be trying any of those fancy moves you probably know anyways, and it'd be easier to learn the simple stuff from someone closer to her own level anyways!"
"N-Now guys, c'mon, I'm sure that you can both teach me something about skating," Reimu tried to defuse the situation unsuccessfully, as the two continued to glower at each other.
It was going to be one of those days.
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Chapter 13 Complete
Stay tuned for Chapter 14.