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Ch. 11: Miracles are effortless by definition
"Kanako-sama, Suwako-sama, I'm home..." Kochiya Sanae called out. The long green haired miko, wearing braids resembling a frog and a snake, and a traditional shrine maiden's outfit of white with blue linings, had just returned to the Moriya shrine.
"Welcome home!" greeted back Kanako and Suwako. As Sanae stepped into sitting room, she noticed that her goddesses were seated at the table on the tatami, accompanied by two people she rarely saw, one whose name she knew and the other who she just barely recognized by a combination of face and reputation.
"Hello Suika!" Sanae greeted. "And uh... you are..." she tentatively turned to the other Oni.
"Yuugi. Hoshiguma Yuugi," Yuugi extended her hand, and Sanae shook it. What a strong grip...! And what a charismatic look... After having being exposed to Suika, it was easy to think that all Oni took on a cartoonish look in Gensokyo. So there are Oni closer to the Oni of legend after all... minus the charismatic look...
"Um... right," Kanako reluctantly began. "So Sanae, you have already met Suika and Yuugi... they have a... favour," she turned to Suwako with a slight scowl, only to be met by an authoritative beam. "A favour," she continued without further resistance, "To ask of you." Kanako then crossed her arms and huffed, as if to signal to Suwako that the entire matter was out of her hands.
"O-Okay..." Sanae continued to look at Yuugi. Yuugi slightly frightened her... "Um... what would that favour be, Yuugi-san?"
"Actually the favour is for me," Suika corrected Sanae. "My gourd is broken, and I'll like for you to fix it."
Awkward pause. "Please," Suika added, after some time.
Sanae looked back to Kanako, whose arms were still crossed, then to Suwako, who was smiling very brightly. "S-Suwako-sama... Am I," Sanae asked, highly puzzled and a little bit put off, "Am I to understand that I am being requested to fix a gourd?"
"It's no ordinary gourd!" Suwako pointed out cheerfully, "And it takes more than ordinary means to fix it! Only people of your calibre have the ability to tackle such an extraordinary situation!"
"Extraordinary..." Even with Suwako-sama's approval of the task, the request to fix a gourd sounded really... menial to Sanae. Wasn't I supposed to be the living goddess...? Sanae looked at Kanako, who was still huffy; she felt her allegiance to the goddesses start to favour one over the other...
"Sigh... if Suwako-sama says so..." Sanae turned to Suika. "Where- Where exactly is your gourd broken... I mean, is there a hole? Or... something else? W-What is made of?"
Suika looked at Sanae with a wry smile. "If only the problem really was that menial..." she said. As a demonstration, she uncorked her gourd and turned it upside down, letting the umeshu spill onto the living room floor, out onto the front porch and off onto the paved courtyard.
"What are you doing?" Sanae cried out.
"Wait and see..." Suika said patiently.
After a while, it became apparent to Sanae that the umeshu was unending; it formed a clean, focused stream, like that of a river, snaking out of the shrine, out of the courtyard, over the mountain step. Not one drop remained in the living room, all of it following the current of alcohol. It was magic Sanae had never seen before...
"Wait... you're saying this gourd has unlimited, um whatever it is?" Sanae said in wonder.
"Umeshu," Suika said. "It has unlimited umeshu as of now."
"S-So what's the problem?" Sanae asked.
"It used to be sake," Yuugi explained.
"And?"
"We want to turn the unlimited umeshu back into sake, Sanae," Suika picked back up from Yuugi.
"Then get rid of the umeshu then," was Sanae's commonsensical response. "Let it drain out."
"How?" Suika smiled regretfully. "It's unending. For the most part..."
"Not entirely true," Yuugi intervened. "Suika, you drank the sake out the last time didn't you?"
"If you think I'm even going to attempt to drink all of the umeshu..." Suika frowned.
"Um..." Sanae turned to Kanako and Suwako, who gave a shrug and a smile respectively. This task was not so menial all of a sudden... "Um... How am I supposed to fix that?"she asked exasperatedly.
"I don't know? You're the miracle worker, not me..." Suika thrust her gourd into Sanae's hands. "Try holding it in your hands? Maybe that ought to work."
"O-Okay..." Sanae took the gourd, but otherwise had no idea what to do with it.
"I'll... just serve some sake in the meantime," Kanako muttered.
It had been an hour since Sanae was given the gourd to hold. All five of the quintet was still in the living room, except this time there was sake being drunk among them. Needless to say, Sanae was still clueless, the umeshu was still umeshu, Suika was starting to get disappointed, and Suwako was still smiling.
Sanae was starting to feel like a letdown. For once, a task that required a real miracle came by, and yet she was having trouble granting it. True enough, she had performed several miracles throughout her short existence, but the bulk of them were with the aid of the gods, namely the calling upon of the very goddesses in the sitting room right now. Sure, there were a few that were completely inexplicable, but as they were inexplicable, she herself had no idea how to replicate them...
"Hmmm... maybe I should take the gourd back..." Suika was starting to get impatient.
"No wait, hang on," Sanae continued to attempt all manners of channelling her holy powers through the gourd. Maybe she should try to desiccate the gourd, or overflow it with her own powers so that it will choke up and...? But none of it was working. She had tried those two, among other methods, several times already.
"The girl can't do it..." Suika said curtly.
"No wait, please, let me try a little longer," Sanae was starting to feel really upset with herself.
"Oh, don't put so much pressure on her, Suika," Yuugi calmly sipped a dish of sake. "Hey, Sanae," Yuugi grabbed another dish of sake. "Maybe you ought to take a break for a minute, eh?" she offered the sake to Sanae.
"O-Oh... Thank you," Sanae gratefully took the sake. Throughout the last hour, Kanako, Suwako and Suika had contented themselves with just observing Sanae, and although they had offered words of encouragement, especially Suwako-sama, their incessant and expectant staring put a lot of pressure on her. Yuugi-san however, had chatted up with her cheerfully and made her feel at ease. This Oni was not so scary after all... in fact, she was rather humorous and charming... if she wasn't a woman Yuugi could easily pass for some gentleman...
"Ack!" Sanae startled. Yuugi had suddenly propped her face on both her hands on the table and was staring intently at her.
"Hey, Sanae," Yuugi grinned, "I know I told you to take a break, but I didn't tell you to suddenly daydream and smile sloppily to yourself like that."
"Ah... Huh? I-I was?" Sanae looked around the table. Kanako was eyeing her neutrally, Suwako was beaming (does she never tire?) and Suika bore a look of mixed impatience and curiosity.
"What were you smiling so happily about, Sanae?" Suika asked. At this rate, the gourd was never going to get fixed...
"Oh uh, nothing...!" Sanae fumbled. Gah! That one-horned Oni sure surprised me...
"Not thinking about Reimu-chan, are you?" Suwako cheerily said out of the blue.
Wait... R-Reimu? Where did that come from?
"Huh? N-No! I was not!" Sanae started to flail a bit. Suwako-sama, what was she doing? Bringing up my crush all of a sudden!
"Reimu?" Kanako asked. "What about her- Oh... Hehe..." Kanako caught on. It had been long known to her and Suwako that Sanae had fancied Reimu for some time... "Sanae... the umeshu is bubbling out of the gourd..."
The umeshu was bubbling- Ah! Sanae looked down. The gourd was spouting umeshu all of a sudden, even though she was not doing anything.
"I guess that is a positive!" Suika said, amused. "Sanae... you're letting your feelings for Reimu overflow in my gourd..."
"N-No! I-I'm not! I'm not doing anything-"
"It's no good to lie, Sanae-chan!"
"S-Suwako-sama!"
"Who knew my gourd could react this way? Maybe it only does this in the hands of a love-sick miko..."
"S-Suika!"
"Keep going, Sanae. Maybe the gourd will start putting out love potion instead?"
"Kanako-sama!"
"Heh... How do you know the gourd is not overflowing because of my presence?" Yuugi joked.
Immediately, umeshu stopped flowing out of the gourd. All five looked at the gourd, a little surprised by the sudden change in the gourd's mood. Tentatively, Sanae turned the gourd upside down. Not a single sad drop of alcohol trickled out.
"Oh darn it..." Yuugi said in good humour.
"Hahahaha..." Everyone else except Sanae laughed. "I guess you can't charm everyone can you? You big playboy..." Suika chuckled.
"Ah... just as well," Yuugi shrugged. "Well... that really was quite the miracle!" she grinned at Sanae.
"I-I don't know how I did it..." Sanae looked puzzled. "I just felt... conflicted and..."
"Never mind how you did it! Give me that!" Suika snatched the gourd way from Sanae. "The sake! A dish of your fine sake!" she called out to Kanako, who slided a dish over to her. Without hesitation or consideration Suika took the dish and poured the sake into the gourd.
"Wait," Yuugi called out, "What if this method doesn't work?"
"Too late now," Suika shrugged. For five, agonisingly long seconds nothing happened. Then all of a sudden the gourd glowed a clear, colourless glow, and sake spouted out of the opening. Suika took another five, deliciously long seconds to drink in with her eyes the sight of unlimited sake once more gushing out of her gourd, then without another moment of hesitation tipped the whole damn thing over on top of her head and into her mouth.
"Haha... glug glug glug... HAHAHAHA!" Suika celebrated in a festive downpour of sake. Sake spilled down her mouth, down her nose, down her shirt, everywhere. Kanako and Sanae eyed Suika with disgust, Suwako clapped happily at the sight, and Yuugi settled for shaking her head, embarrassed for her friend.
"Haha... HAHAHAHA! It works! Glug glug glug... ah! IT WORKS!" Suika elatedly exclaimed. She had never been so happy before. "Oh! How I've missed you! Sake sake sake! Sweet sweet sake!" she brought the gourd close to her chest and hugged it tightly. The gourd was still upside down and uncorked, directly above her skirt...
"Suika, you're an embarrassing sight..." Yuugi stood up and started dragging the still celebrating Oni out of the shrine. "Well, I guess that's it then! The issue's resolved! Thanks a bunch," she said on behalf of her already drunken partner. "Especially you, young lady," she grinned widely at Sanae.
"Ah... um, no problem!" Sanae blushed.
"Don't forget to donate!" Suwako cheerfully reminded her.
"Yah, sure, I'll just ah..." Yuugi unceremoniously stuck the entire of her arm down Suika's drenched blouse, and after some rummaging produced Suika's purse. "I'll just ah... leave this here with you." She presented the whole purse to Sanae. "I don't think Suika will mind..." she whispered to Sanae, referencing the completely high Suika.
"I'm sure she wouldn't," Sanae giggled. Suika was, despite being held by the arm by Yuugi, still managing to perform pirouettes.
"Well then, we won't bother you any further!" Yuugi said, and started the long and arduous process of dragging a festive Suika home.
"So, Sanae-chan," Suwako said after the two Oni had left. "How did you do it? How did you fix the gourd?"
"I really don't know..." Sanae shook her head. What Yuugi had said... about the gourd reacting to her presence... it really troubled her...
"A true miracle worker..." Kanako said in wonder of her human representative. "So... Is there any way you could make Suwako a little less cheerful...? I guess not..." Kanako trailed off as she noticed that Suwako had a different sort of smile on her face. When you're in this household, you better learn how to interpret Suwako's different smiles... it's the only clue you'll get.
Sanae chuckled. Then after a moment's thought, she asked, "Kanako-sama, Suwako-sama... Is it okay if I go to the Hakurei Shrine tomorrow?" She braced herself.
"Are you going to see Reimu?" Suwako immediately accused.
"Y-Yes, I'm going to see Reimu... J-Just a friendly visit..." Sanae plainly said.
"Ooh... Good luck Sanae!" Kanako and Suwako wished her luck.
Sanae smiled, then got up and left for her room. She knew she had a crush on Reimu, but Reimu did not know it. So is it betrayal if...? Sigh... Tomorrow, she would go to the Hakurei shrine and confirm her feelings.
She is Kochiya Sanae, and her secret crush was Hakurei Reimu. That much she knew.
"Y-Yuugi... Hic..."
"Yah Suika?"
"Where's my purse?"
What is this? A romance development? How did that come about all of a sudden? Must be some sake I drank...
Also, as mentioned before, my exams are upon me. So expect a long absence... That's all for now.