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Ch. 16: Sudden-

"My! You look cheerful!" Ibuki Suika was leaning on her side on the tatami of the Hakurei Shrine house, drinking out of her gourd as usual.

"And why shouldn't I?" Hoshiguma Yuugi was lazily joining her. It was the middle of summer, and things were getting ferocious. The heat, the insects… But not just the nasty things, nice things too, like festivals and parties. And the recent events were an added bonus too…

"You're smiling silly again…" Suika observed as Yuugi stared airily into space. "It's kind of creepy…"

"Parsee agreed to go out with me to one of these festivals, see?" Yuugi explained, not letting her gaze leave her mental image of Parsee's face.

"So? She usually does that." Suika drank her sake.

"It's… different this time…" Yuugi replied dreamily. "I can feel my luck turning for the better, I just know it!"

"How I envy you," Suika smiled for her buddy. Just then, bare feet came pattering slowly across the tatami as Hakurei Reimu came into the living room where the two Oni were, bearing with her a tray laden with the obligatory tea and snacks for guests.

"Hey, Oni," Reimu began a little irritated. "Just how long do you two plan on lazing about the place?" Reimu placed the tea on the table a little roughly. "It's bad enough with one drunkard free-loading around here," she said, seating herself down on the floor.

"What? We were just having a toast to the good times, especially for you," Yuugi placed down her sake dish and picking up a tea cup, raised it to Reimu.

"Good times?" Reimu asked quizzically. "For me?"

"Your successful engagement, that is," Suika elaborated matter-of-factly.

"…! En-Engagement!" Reimu instantly perked up. "Wh-What are you talking about? !"

"Ah don't pretend… I saw that summer yukata Sanae had made for you," Suika hiccupped and beamed.

"A-Ah…" Reimu sat up straight and covered her mouth with one hand as she looked away blushing.

"I just hope she didn't use her own body as a reference for you though…" Yuugi sneakily quipped.

"Huh? Why?"

"Your sizes don't exactly match…" Yuugi prepared to smirk at Reimu's reaction.

"… Yah… She's actually got quite a hard figure to match, doesn't she?" Reimu looked down a bit depressed at her chest. "I wonder if it's really alright for us to be going out together…"

Yuugi and Suika starred at Reimu popped eyed, then exchanged glances and unanimous thoughts with each other. Amazing how being in love can change people, huh-

"Wait…" Reimu narrowed her eyes. "That was an indirect insult at me, wasn't it?"

Uh oh. Look out, danmaku-spewing dragon-of-a-miko still has same scales…

"Guys…"

"We're out, we're out!" Suika and Yuugi grabbed their sake and hurriedly exited the room.

Reimu stared angrily after them, then sighed and laid back a bit on her hands. Ah… Sanae…

"Haha…" Suika leaned against the exterior wall of the house, clutching her tummy and laughing. "For a moment there I thought Reimu had gone all soft."

"Heh… something tells me she is distracted," Yuugi grinned widely.

"Ah… What a strange thing, love is…" Suika mused.

"You sound like you're jealous," Yuugi looked at Suika. "Hmmm… Now that I mention it, you could use some if I might add."

"But I can't…" Suika frowned. "I'm already engaged…"

Yuugi stared wide-eyed at Suika. "Since when?"

Suika pouted, "You sound like you don't believe me…"

"I-I'm sorry Suika don't get mad at me," Yuugi chuckled as she held her hands out in front of her defensively. "But ah… who exactly are you engaged to?" Yuugi asked in disbelief.

"Korede! (Here!)" Suika held up her sake gourd.

Yuugi deadpanned and let her hands flop down in front of her.

"Hey! I even go to sleep with the thing…" Suika hugged her gourd and sulked at Yuugi.

"H-hey I'm sorry, I didn't mean to question your love for- Hey why the hell am I apologizing? !" Yuugi frowned as Suika giggled. "T'ch… Suika, you really need something other than sake in your life."

"What? My sake and I sometimes even have fun in bed together…" Suika, still hugging her gourd began blushing with a naughty face on.

"Drinking in bed doesn't count as having fun Suika…"

"F-Fine… But anyways, I need something more than sake?" Suika looked questioningly at Yuugi. "Like you have anything more!"

"I have Parsee," Yuugi stated dreamily again.

"… Just a girl? Nothing more?"

"What? That's all I need." Yuugi then thumped her chest. "And as an added bonus, she's one hell of a beauty!" she boasted sneeringly.

"Hmmm… you have a point there…" Suika grudgingly admitted. "But I don't feel like two-timing…"

Yuugi just stared dryly again at Suika.

"I mean… I don't feel like getting committed," Suika said. "Can't you even take a joke?" Suika sighed. "I mean… I enjoy the freedom of being single, roaming here and there and joining random parties without restraint… Sake's really all I need!"

"Well, if you put it that way…" Yuugi scratched her head. "Why don't you get that particular substitute some people get when they don't want or can't get a real relationship with a person or child?"

"What are you talking about?" Suika asked.

"I'm talking about a pet," Yuugi suggested. (a/n: For all you pet owners/lovers out there, I don't mean to offend, I'm just kidding. Can't you even take a joke?)

"Hmmm…" Suika mulled.

"And so I'm here," Suika explained.

Yakumo Yukari stared at her stunned as Yakumo Ran protectively pulled in a confused and slightly scared Chen.

"You're… here to kidnap my shikigami's shikigami?" Yukari asked in disbelief.

"H-Hey, don't phrase it that way! I'm just borrowing her," Suika motioned to Chen, who, together with Ran, was pulling out a spell card as a precaution (a/n: irony).

"Wh-Why again?" Yukari tilted her head to the side with an incredulous look.

"I just need a cat- Woah!"

-ly Gapped

"Y-Yukari-sama."

"Yes, my dear Ran?"

"Was it really okay for us to appear so briefly in this story?"

"Don't worry, my dear. Some cheap comedy is not the place for us…"