The four girls walked in an uncomfortable silence towards the local ice rink, Reimu sandwiched between Marisa and Letty, as the blonde glowered at her sempai, and Letty kept shooting Marisa smug looks. Luckily it seemed that Cirno was oblivious to the choking aura, as she was frolicking in the snow, having the time of her life, ignoring her three seniors.
Marisa had pulled her aside, shortly after they left the house, into the shopping district, in order to get the girl a pair of skates that would fit, according to the blonde. Reimu, not knowing anything about the matter, simply nodded and followed, surprised that Letty hadn't raised a fuss about the matter.
She found out when they returned why the elder girl hadn't, as she immediately hooked her arm up with Reimu's, and lead the girl off ahead, claiming in an airy voice that she would be teaching Reimu everything she knew about ice skating. Marisa, being understandably annoyed by this, grabbed Reimu's other arm, and the two practically marched the shrine maiden off, with Cirno trailing along behind.
Reimu let out a sigh of relief when the ice rink came into view, along with the three girls they knew would be waiting for them, and pushed herself away from her friends to run ahead and greet the others, with Cirno hot on her heels, with a big grin on the baka's face.
"Hey!" Sanae called cheerfully, waving frantically and nearly smacking Alice in the face, who glowered at the tall emerald-haired girl, but said nothing, a bag hanging off of the seamstress' shoulder.
"Ohaiyo Sanae-chan, Alice-chan, Youmu-chan," Reimu greeted, glad to be out of the miasma of animosity that had surrounded her for the entire walk here. Unfortunately she forgot they were right behind her, and the feeling returned with crushing despair.
"Okay, I know that I'm going to regret asking," Alice stated, "But what is up with you two?"
"Both of them want to teach Reimu how to ice skate, but neither of them wants the other to teach her how to ice skate, so Reimu is frustrated because they want to teach her how to ice skate!" Cirno listed off with a huge smile, unaware of just how roundabout her explanation had been, and how it had confused the other girls.
"I was right," Alice groaned, holding her forehead as they watched the two continue to glare at one another. Sanae took this chance, and stepped forward to grab Reimu's wrist gently, before beginning to half-drag her towards the double doors into the building.
"Come on Reimu-chan, let's go teach you how to ice skate!" The green-haired girl said enthusiastically, ignoring Reimu's attempts at a protest, followed by Youmu and Alice, who simply refused to get involved with the pairs argument.
It took a moment, but when the pair realized that they had been left behind, Letty was quick to walk inside with a smug smile, and Marisa wasn't far behind, groaning.
Reimu stood there, gawking at the large rink that they could see through the balcony window, right beside Cirno, both amazed at the sheer size, and the few people that were gliding across the ice.
Looking up as her big sister took her place beside her, Cirno thought of something to ask, "Letty-nee, how come we never come here?"
Smiling and laying a hand on her little sister's head, Letty replied calmly, "Because it's much more fun, and less expensive, to simply go skating on free ice somewhere else in the city."
"Pfft, good way to break your neck is what it is," Marisa grumbled, but was silenced by a slap to the back of the head by Alice, who was once again glaring at her in warning. Marisa at least looked sheepish at her snappy tone for a moment, before she perked up and herded Reimu down a set of stairs that led into the locker room, with the others following leisurely behind.
"So do you come here often Marisa-chan?" Youmu asked, as she took in everything they passed, including people with ice skates hung over their shoulders, and laughing together. Alice, who had been walking beside the girl, noticed her shrinking away from the crowds, but brushed it off as the white-haired girl's secret to share.
"Oh yeah, Kourin and I used to come here all the time," Marisa announced loud and proud, "But then he got super busy with the shop (I still don't know what he really does other than collect junk), so I had to start going by myself."
"And you never considered inviting any of us along?" Letty asked quietly, "That seems rather absentminded of you Marisa-chan."
"Well, I never thought that any of you would be interested in it, to be perfectly honest," Marisa replied sheepishly, "Reimu is always complaining about being cold during the winter, and you two are always off doing your own things, so it never even popped into my mind in the first place."
"Acceptable, I will take that as your excuse this time," Letty replied with finality, causing Marisa to gawk at the girl and bristle, her temper beginning to flare up as she continued to lead a disgruntled Reimu about.
Finally the group arrived in a large woman's locker room, and the first order of business Marisa had on her list was to sit Reimu down on a bench, and with finality in her tone, order her to "strip!"
Everyone gawked at the girl's sheer audacity, and Reimu's face went bright red at the command, before she reached out and slapped her tomboyish friend across the face in embarrassment.
"You could have chosen a better explanation than that, Marisa-baka," Alice mumbled, as she took a nearby locker and began to remove her winter wear.
"I-I can't believe you sometimes Marisa-baka!" Reimu shouted, still blushing furiously, and really feeling the itch to slap the girl again, but holding back only because she had known Marisa for so long, "we may have known each other since we were little, but not even you, especially not you, have the right to order me to do something like that, especially in a public place like this!"
"No, you don't understand," Marisa tried to back peddle, "I meant to say, lose your coat and your scarf, and put em' into one of these lockers."
Reimu turned away from the blunt girl, face still red as she mumbled to herself, "then why couldn't you have simply said that instead, without being so brash about it." She still did as the blonde told her, and followed the examples of Alice and Letty, unzipping and removing her coat.
"Now if we had a skin-tight leotard to give ya, that would be an entirely different story," Marisa commented with a cackle, already at work in getting herself ready as well, but felt a chill running down her spine as a pair of vindictive eyes shot lasers at her back. "Eh heh, just kidding, of course."
"Marisa, please try and control yourself," Alice warned, "Before Reimu is forced to do something she will probably not regret."
Youmu, who had been sitting nearby, listening to the girls harass and argue amongst themselves, nervously wrung the hands in her lap as she sat on a nearby bench, having not even begun to remove her own coat. Reimu, noticing this, turned to the silver-haired girl, and tried to ask what was wrong.
"I, err, that is," The Samurai tried to begin several times, scratching her cheek as it grew more and more red, before she was startled by Marisa appearing behind her, and quickly unzipping her coat in an attempt to "help" the poor girl out.
"Ah yes, for someone so conservative as you, that might prove to be a bit of a problem," Letty commented, as the girls got a look at what Youmu had chosen to wear for the day.
Sitting there in a skirt and a pair of knee highs, Youmu's normally pale face was lit up like a Christmas tree, and she began to wring out her hands more, as she ducked her head down in an attempt to hide her blush. Reimu simply blinked at the girl, not entirely sure what the problem was, and turned to Letty with a question on the tip of her tongue.
"The problem, Reimu-chan," Letty said, returning the girl's questioning look, "Is that often when ice skating, if you get too much speed, things like skirts tend to fly up, and for someone as shy as Youmu-chan here, well..." The woman trailed off, as the answer hung in the air for a moment.
Alice, looking up from around the locker door she had claimed, noticed the girl's discomfort, and gave her a way out, "You know Youmu-chan, I may have a pair of pants that you can borrow, if that will save your modesty at all."
"T-thank you very much Alice-chan!" Youmu was quick to say, happy that perhaps she could escape embarrassment in public this time, and hurried over to the other girl's locker, nearly tripping over her own two feet in her rush.
"Geez," Marisa commented as she was in the middle of unloading her skates from her bag, as well as collecting the pair she had bought for Reimu, who was now beside her in the adjacent locker, "We have really got to take a day to try and break Youmu out of that conservative little shell of hers. Someone that shy just won't survive in this big bad world that we live in."
"Youmu is just fine the way she is Marisa," Reimu warned, "Leave her to be the way that she wants to be, instead of trying to turn another poor girl into a clone of you."
"Oh, and when did I last turn a girl to the dark side?" Marisa asked in challenge, looking directly at her best friend curiously.
Instead of offering the girl a vocal answer, Reimu turned and pointed to Cirno, who was grinning as she waited for her older sister to get finished, while kicking her legs over the side of the bench she had claimed as all hers. Noticing the pair looking at her, the young girl began to wave frantically at them, which only Marisa returned half-heartedly as the shrine maiden's point was made.
"Okay, so maybe I've been encouraging Cirno a little too much," Marisa admitted sheepishly, "but that's only one person."
"You've also been trying to get me into most of your harebrained schemes for years, and it's only because of my uncle that I didn't end up in half of those situations that you ended up needing to be bailed out of by Morichika-san."
"Aww c'mon, not all of them were harebrained!" Marisa tried to argue, but went unheeded as Reimu slammed her locker shut, grabbed the recently purchased skates, and stormed past the blonde, being followed by a still blushing Youmu, who was now wearing a pair of sweatpants, and Alice, who had that familiar air of nobility about her, and out the door.
"To be honest with you, I really do think that you are corrupting my little sister, and if I was more concerned about it, I would have already had words with you on the matter," Letty said, as she took Cirno's hand, and lead her out after the other girls, leaving only Marisa and Sanae in the locker room together, in an awkward silence.
"Okay, I'm all ready!" Sanae called, stepping out from the changing room that she had claimed earlier, only to begin blinking in confusion as she noticed nearly everyone was already gone, "Err, Marisa-chan, did everyone leave without us?"
"Yeah Sanae-chan," Marisa replied, bringing a hand to her forehead and groaning, before turning to grab her own skates, and gesturing for the emerald-haired girl to follow, "C'mon, we'd better catch up before they end up lost on their way out to the rink."
"Hai!" The cheerful girl replied, walking out after her blonde friend.
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"I don't know, doesn't it seem kind of strange for people to be able to do this?" Reimu asked as she stared down at her feet, mere inches away from where the carpet ended, and the ice began, her legs shaking from nerves as she held hands with her oldest friend, who was trying to offer her a reassuring smile as incentive.
"Don't worry so much about it Reimu, just look at how Alice-chan and Sanae are doing," Marisa offered, breathing a sigh of relief as Reimu's head lifted to watch the two aforementioned girls.
Despite her otherwise frail health, it seemed that the Alice who had stepped out onto the ice was an entirely different person, as she glided across the frozen surface with a professional ease. Reimu had to admit that the girl made skating look like an art form, and her cheeks began to heat up just from watching her.
Turning her attention to her other friend though, Reimu's wonder was replaced with a small amount of jealousy. Sanae was also making great time from end to end of the rink, but the shrine maiden's eyes had found something else to focus on.
Apparently the emerald-haired girl had done a lot of skating before, and according to her, before they all began to step out onto the ice, she had been entered in a few junior competitions growing up by her aunts. This meant that she had a special skating suit, which she was wearing at this moment.
Unfortunately the skin-tight leotard hugged the girl's body, gaining the attention of the few stragglers spending time out on the ice, either alone or with another, and causing many eyes to follow her, even some that should not have been. a great many number of slaps echoed through the room mere moments after Sanae stepped out onto the ice.
Reimu was of course, envious of the girl's figure, as Sanae was much better filled-out than Reimu would likely ever be, and this caused the dark gnawing feeling to grow inside of her. Thankfully her attention was pulled away for the moment as a new set of hands began to push on her back, startling her.
"Come on Reimu-chan, you're holding up the line," Letty warned, trying to rush the younger girl out onto the ice as she simply stood there nervously with her legs shaking.
"I'm having second thoughts, let me go back in, I'll watch from that balcony!" Reimu tried to reason, before with a final encouraging push from the older Whiterock sister, she went flying out onto the ice, only her reflexes keeping her upright at this point.
She was thankful that Marisa had yet to release the girl's hand, and was still holding on tightly, and Reimu was proud that she hadn't begun screaming when she began to move.
Noticing that she was beginning to slow down slightly, Reimu chanced a look over at her friend, who offered her a reassuring smile, and gently informed her, in a much kinder voice than Reimu had ever heard Marisa use, " use one of your skates to push off the ice, and balance your weight on the other." Then, almost as an afterthought, the blonde added, "don't worry about falling, I'll be right here to catch you."
a small smile began to play at Reimu's cheeks, as she did as instructed, and was rewarded by a small speed increase and more momentum, Marisa easily keeping pace with her, and, as she said, never letting go of the hand Reimu had offered to her.
The pair continued their relatively slow pace around the outside edge of the rink, Marisa never attempting to rush her partner as she got used to balancing and turning on her skates, with small words of encouragement from Marisa every so often.
As she learned, Reimu found the rest of the world slipping away from her focus, as she began to only notice herself and Marisa, gliding across the ice. Not Letty and her sometimes insufferable wit, not Cirno, who had somehow talked Letty into a race around the rink, not Alice, who had, after noticing how much trouble Youmu was having, taken up the role as the girl's tutor, and not Sanae, who was still making laps around the rink with ease and a large smile.
"Think you might be ready to move on your own?" Marisa asked suddenly, snapping Reimu out of her daze and nearly causing her to slip in surprise, and making the blonde laugh, "Easy there."
"Err, yeah, I think that I might be able to manage, just stay close in case I need you, can you promise me that?" Reimu asked, looking up at her friend. She was thankful when Marisa gave her an easygoing smile and a thumbs-up, before slowly releasing Reimu's hand.
at first Reimu wobbled a bit, now having to focus on balancing all by herself, and several times nearly losing it. She noticed out of the corner of her eye how Marisa kept reacting to her near-falls, apparently ready at a moments notice to catch her as needed, just like she had promised, warming the brunette's heart.
Remembering everything that Marisa had taught her, Reimu began to keep up with the blonde as she lead her in another lap around the arena, her confidence growing in her chest .
"It looks like you're doing really good Reimu-chan!" Sanae commented as she slid up beside Marisa, and chose to keep pace with the pair.
"Yeah, after she got over the initial fear, I think that Reimu started to really enjoy herself," Marisa replied, eyes transfixed on her friend, which did not go unnoticed by the emerald-haired girl.
'Hmm, I think I've spotted something good here,' Sanae thought to herself with a wide grin, before darting off ahead, calling back over her shoulder, "You keep doing what works for you Reimu-chan!"
Next to visit the pair were Alice and Youmu, who had apparently also finished their little tutorial. Alice grabbed Marisa's hand, and began to lead her off from the pair, while trying to hide a small smile, "Hey Reimu, how about swapping partners for a little while?"
"Okay, I'll keep Youmu-chan company for a bit," Reimu said, waving off the pair of blonde's without thinking too much about it. Alice seemed to appreciate it as Marisa spluttered incomprehensibly beside her.
Turning to her partner, Reimu offered the silver-haired girl a small smile as they continued at their somewhat slow pace, "So, how are you finding ice skating Youmu-chan?"
"It's not nearly as scary as I expected, to be honest, Reimu-chan," Youmu replied, matching the shrine maiden's own smile with one of hers, "I am especially thankful that Alice-chan had a pair of pants that I could borrow. I thought that I would die of mortification if I had to go skating in a skirt."
"Hah, at least you aren't being forced to do that," Reimu commented, pointing to the centre of the rink. Youmu turned to look at what had caught her sempai's attention, and had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing.
"Marisa I swear if you don't put me down right now!" Alice warned, as Marisa held the girl over her head, laughing like an idiot, as the two skated in slow circles. Reimu had to wonder how Marisa had found time to lift up the frail blonde, or where she had learned such a move, but was too amused and focused on keeping her momentum to go and ask.
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Chapter 14 complete
Please note these last two chapters were heavily influenced by the interference of Wolfsbane706, whom I've been bouncing ideas off of recently regarding future chapters, and who has been trying to help me settle a few internal matters.
I'm also sad to announce this is the last chapter I have ready for release, and that with this, I am going to be taking a (hopefully) short break from Gensokyo Tenshi, to focus on a few other projects and series that I've been planning to work on and have been accumulating ideas for.
I'd like everyone who may have a problem with this impromptu break (not a hiatus), to keep in mind how drastically my plans regarding this story have changed in the last few chapters, since my original plan was to already be starting act 2 at this point, but, due to unforeseen complications, I was forced to scrap 3 chapters, and am now re-evaluating the story.
This time is not going to simply be spent working on other projects (but that will play a hefty part in this break), but also for me to begin planning what I need to do next to get the story moving once more, and in order to try and create a new buffer of chapters, so I don't feel nearly as pressured to write when I don't have the inspiration for it.
Thanks to everyone so far for your continued interest in this story, and I hope that I may have encouraged some of you to give a shot at reading a few of my other projects in the meantime. Ja Ne!
Stay tuned for Chapter 15.