Next day

I Started my tasks first thing in the morning, so I had my things prepared beforehand. I brought my haversack with essentials like clothing, water, first aid stuff, some little cash, Usual stuff. I did bring one thing for my own personal defense, An improvised blunt club made out of a thick cogwheel. I may not have my main weapons now, but anything for at least giving me a chance to survive is nice.

By the time the sun had dawned, I found myself back in the Shrine, standing once again in the big red gate, taking a look at the view behind me and in front of me. there was the shrine, with the paper door that I bursted covered in some sort of tape.

I walked to the entrance of the shrine, decorations and a donation box adorn the front. I stayed a bit there contemplating not only the adornments, but the damage I did. I also realized that I left the place with a strong birch and ash smell from my escape. I really took it out on the poor maiden.

I look down upon the donation box, it's empty. out of pity and compassion I take a thousand yen bill out of my pocket and drop it into the wooden grids, Reimu appears out of nowhere and snatches the bill before it had time to slide through the grinds, Reimu then inspects the bill, taking a look at it while pointing it at the sun. After a small while, she concluded it was real with a nod, all while I looked in amusement.

"You don't get many donations around here do you?" I asked her.

She didn't respond to my question, as she took the bill and put it in her pocket.

"You're here early." She says.

"The earlier I finish, the better."

"It's the first day, you don't even know what you're gonna do. follow me, I'll show you the ropes." she says and walks towards the broken door as I follow behind.

"Your set of tasks are simple enough for the first day, when you finish those, then I will give you new ones as I see fit. Your first set tasks are as follows: the smell of ash and smoke really got impregnated in the walls and furniture, so I want you to wash my futons, scrub the furniture, floors and walls with some white vinegar and water. After you're done with that, I have a replacement paper sheet for the door, frame it and replace the broken door with the one you've built, I'll show you the steps for that later on."

I guess it's as simple as it gets, if not time consuming.

"oh, one last thing"

"hm?" I grunted.

"Put these on too, those clothes will kill you in this heat" Reimu said as she handed me a set of folded clothes. they appear to look like…

Oh motherfucker…

"Come on out, I wanna see them!" Reimu said to me as I finished changing the set of clothes she gave me.

I came out and there I stood, wearing a white haori jacket, a red cloth belt and a red hakama. My face was a mix of unamusement and embarrassment.

"What are you embarrassed about, they look good!" Reimu tries to cheer me up.

"May I ask why I must wear this? I brought my own change of clothes." I asked while keeping an awkward stance.

"Remember, do MY bidding, and besides, I like to keep tradition in my workplace, take it as the official uniform of the Hakurei shrine." she added

"I never thought I'd be wearing this, I somehow feel bare…"

"You're lucky I threw out that brand new fundoshi long time ago"

"WHAT?!" I exclaimed.

"Come on now! let's get workin'!" she says as she hands me the tools to work with.

First thing first, I had to wash off the smoke smell of the walls, so i had to work with an atomizer to cover all the walls in the white vinegar, after which I let them rest for a day, in that meantime took all the furniture out in the sun to wash them too with a bit of the vinegar, some soap and water, It took me more than 2 hours to finish washing the rest of the furniture, but since it was about to be noon, the sun was enough to let the furniture lay in the sun to dry and remove both the smoke and vinegar smell. With all that out the way, I began scrubbing the room from head to toe, Reimu explained that i had to be careful with the tatami mats in the floor, so she teached me how to clean them without damaging them, with a dry cloth, using little vinegar and scrub within the grains, not against them. For the walls it was simple enough as cleaning drywall so no complicated steps needed.

However, cleaning the paper doors or shoji, was its own unintuitive process. She explained to me that I was to use a special type of tool called a hake brush, spray the brush with little amounts of the vinegar and carefully stroke each individual panel of paper, that meant I was stuck there for 3 hours cleaning the screens carefully. Time passes by and it's about to be night, so I take all the furniture back in again.

"I'm impressed you managed to get this done within a day!" Reimu said.

"It's not done yet, open all the windows and doors to circulate the air and vent out the smell of vinegar, it's not strong but will annoy you. the smell should be gone in the morning." I responded back to her.

"Problem is, assuming you don't want to be annoyed by the fumes, where do we sleep?" I asked Reimu.

"Well… There are some extra futons I reserved for guests in the shed, and we can move some stuff in there to sleep there just for today." Reimu responded

"Sounds ok."

It's night.

Reimu and I are already on two separate futons besides each other, with some stuff surrounding us as we took the stuff and placed it around the walls to make space for the futons. The night is cold but the shed keeps a cozy aura. As I tried to close my eyes for the day, reimu started talking to me.

"Hey," she says in a calm voice.

"Hm?"

"How are things on the outside?"

"Hmm" I think for a while.

"I know it seems like a weird question, but you were the only one that not only knew about Gensokyo, but actually came back. How has everything evolved so far?" she asks.

"Nothing has changed so far, people said 2012 was the day the world ended, alas we are still here, 2013 had nothing much to say, 2014 Russia annexed Ukrainian territory, 2015 saw a growth on communication technologies, I don't remember much of the years now, but after 2019 and beyond world got weird. A global pandemic which has diminished greatly in the present day, threat of a third world war, Idiots roam the Web, countries being taken over by their people, but eh, it's not the end of the world yet. Everything seems to runs its pace, only thing that did change was the rate in which technology advanced"

"When were you born?" she asked.

"… I dont know" I responded, although I don't really recall it, I don't like to think about it.

"How about, what year was it when you were eighteen? she once again asks.

"Around the eighties" I said what I mostly recalled about it.

"Wait, How do you sound young then, by this point you should be 60!" Reimu said in surprise.

In response, I lifted my upper body in an angle and turned my chest facing Reimu, who was still laying but facing her head towards me. I commanded myself to clear the smoke in my chest, and showed her my core.

"My mind never left, only my body"

"Oh my…" Reimu only got that to say as she stared for a while.

"It's not like I wanted it, but the circumstances when it happened were in a way so celestial, so divine and poetic, I find it Hilarious how it happened, and not in a good way."

"You really have no intent to hurt do you?" she asked

"Why would I? There is no need to hurt the next of kin, I'm a coward, I've stolen from dead warzones and abandoned bases, rare times I mess with the living"

"you desecrate the dead?" She responds in a serious tone.

"Don't get me wrong, I am not a grave robber, I simply take the unnecessary things from those who died unnecessary deaths fighting for unnecessary wars, If anything, robbing a place where the dead were accommodated to rest eternally is sacrilege, and when you are killed in no man's land, there is nothing to accommodate your way into the next life, you die in a matter of seconds trying to get to the other side, you have no thoughts of saying my family goodbye, making a last will or passing down your fortune to you pet, the only thoughts are boiled down to 'please don't get hit'. It all goes away so quickly."

"..."

A silence surrounds us, as I cover my chest back again with smoke, and gradually see Reimu's face of seriousness turn into one of resolution and understanding.

"Maybe I was wrong about you, but you still have 3 weeks to prove yourself about that. As for not hurting anyone, tomorrow I shall teach you the spell card system." She said

"Night Reimu" I say as I lay back down upon my futon.

"Goodnight…"