…

…

…

Splash!

"AAAHH! *cough! *cough! Hah! hah…"

"YEOW! COLD!"

"Hahahahaha! Morning love birds!"

"Come on, let's go!"

Several childish voices are exclaiming and bursting into laughter as they flee the room, thudding sounds are heard from what appear to be buckets. The sheer cold had us both awake on our senses in mere seconds.

I get a small glimpse of the mischievous souls that flee the scene, 5 little girls: one blue haired one, a green haired one with a pigtail to the left, one with caramel milk colored hair and 6 drill locks, one with black and long hair and one with light ginger hair color and 2 short pigtails to the sides. They all have one thing in common, they appear to have wings on their back, with the exception of the blue haired girl which look to be "Icicle" wings.

These are without any doubt the famous fairies of Gensokyo, and they have dunked us in very cold water.

"What the hell!" Reimu yells as she gets up to her feet in a flash, "Who was that!"

"Ugh, Some fairies may have just given us a cold bath." I say as I tremble.

"I bet they were those 3 from the tree. If they dare show their faces around I'll smack them till they feel it next time they're born!" She exclaims in the open.

"Jeez dude, calm it. In all honesty I think we needed that… my head is still killing me"

"Yeah" Reimu grunts as she then collapses butt first to the wet futon whilst rubbing her head. That immediate jump probably nauseated her.

"Why you reckon they did that?" I asked her.

"Fairies are known to play pranks on humans regularly, and although It's not the first time I have been on the receiving end, I have never experienced one of such caliber… But I have a slight hunch of who did it." Reimu explained.

"Just leave it… the way I see it, they did a nice job waking us up. I'll take care of the wet stuff" I said as I began getting up.

"Good idea, I'll make us something to eat, then I shall teach you what you need for the door." Reimu said as she walked towards another room.

"Right… that."

Morning was still young, by the afternoon the futon, tatami and bed sheets should be dry. Reimu handed me another wardrobe change and we got into eating a simple egg fried rice and some hot coffee. Reimu and I went back into the shed and took out the necessary materials to replace the old shoji, fortunately I've only broken one door so making one should be easy.

Right?

"The trick here is that you must work with the grid first to make a tight fight inside the frame, so that the paper is as flat as possible, then you can use the other frame to sandwich it in between."

"On it."

I'm working with some wood of various dimensions, and she has a lot of it too! but I suppose they are donations too, some people actually donate items to shrines instead of money, maybe explaining the emptiness of the box. The old frame has the measurements to where the grids must be accommodated so the hardest part here would be to cut each wood piece to fit the grid.

"so… should be about… 2.03 by 0.88 meters? If I divide all that into a grid…" I thought whilst looking at the old shoji, but then I realized I can use the old shoji grid to have a close approximation.

"I could probably use these old grids too to save time!" I thought. Upon analysis I figured that the tight fit was accomplished via a half joint, no nails, no glue, just a good fit!.

I spent from morning to noon making 5 new wood pieces to replace the broken ones and use the old ones to make it faster, so I managed to save myself a whole hour of sawing pieces.

I finish the first frame grid and try to get the other half of the outer frame, but Reimu walks in to check my progress, I feel her standing behind me.

"What is this?" Reimu grunted.

"Oh, um, the first half of the frame is done! so now I'm try-"

"You used the old grids didn't you?" she said in increasing annoyance.

"yeah? I thought it would save me extra ti-"

I was interrupted, as Reimu proceeded to grab the first half and kick the old and new grids of the frame. Wood is heard clanking around the outer wooden floor and sticks bouncing around.

I just stayed still there looking at the spreaded wood,nothing to say and my expression frozen by the sheer surprise of Reimu's actions, and then my gaze turned towards Reimu.

"Your job was to replace the old shoji, not recycle it. do it again." she said as she turned around and walked into the shrine.

…

"Grahh…" I grunted in annoyance and anger. but cant do much about it.

A few hours passed by, and at this point I decided to play it safe and make new grids. This time I made 26 new pieces, 13 for each half frame. I fit them and they seem good enough.

"Miss Reimu! Done with the grid!" I exclaimed.

Reimu gets out from the other room and walks over towards me, she takes a good look at the shoji grid frame and with her fingers pinches it and shakes it around.

"Too loose…Again" as she janks the middle stick frame out, breaking it in half, with the other pieces falling in domino effect.

So cue the montage in your minds, making new frames over and over again throughout the day.

"too tight"

"too scrappy"

"too short"

"too long"

"too crooked"

too much, too much, TOO MUCH!

Then I decided to break out the carpenter skills and struggle making a new frame altogether, all this working left me with half the wood and I took my sweet time to do it right!

The sun is about to set, and I finished the 2 halves, super welt built and perfect tight. She is gonna drop her jaw to the dirt when she sees this beaut.

Reimu came out again, this time holding tea in her hand, as I stood on the ground below the platform of the shrine. I looked at her with a face mixture of hatred and tiredness, all while beside my creation.

In response, reimu summons a Danmaku pellet out of her hand and flings it towards the shoji. it immediately burst the insides out and the wood is scattered to the front area of the shrine.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?" I yelled

"Too Perfect, again" She calmly says.

"Ok Drop the act here," I get frustrated, "Is this because of yesterday? Did you take offense to those words? I was as drunk as you!" I exclaimed

"This has nothing to do with you yesterday, but more of something about your past within you that I realized by now." She says.

"What about me? what of my past has you torturing me, I wanna make a change and make amends."

"What change?" She interrupted me, "All I see here is you just playing butler to fix things up and act as if nothing happened ever, you think you can make amends with everyone but you cant even make amends with yourself, if you continue this path of running from the past, you won't survive Gensokyo and its denizens."

"A lesson, here? and what does the shoji here have to do with this?" I begged Reimu for answers.

"You are trying too hard… just be yourself!" She said in a serene tone.

"I AM BEING MYSELF!" I yelled at her

"are you?"

Reimu proceeds to turn and walk into the room again.

"change… I'm myself now, fucking horseshit what she said that is, she is just jealous of my… of…" I thought

…

BAH! Just big words to make me pain away for some crap. she just doesn't understand the raider business. I'd like to see her in my shoes for a while, she'll break down in a matter of seconds."

I kept going, way past midnight but made sure to move somewhere else to not wake Reimu up, but if it were for me I would've made as much noise as possible to wake her up or at least something like that.

At this moment I was done with making something new and went to use the old outer frames, and just went on with the grid frame. but my mind is still lingering from Reimu's words.

My hand is adjusting the bandsaw but I do not make the move to the saw… I just linger to my own thoughts

"Come to think of it… I never broke down. everytime I had something in my mind, I used something as an excuse or escape. When I had hardships in missions, I just smoked the stress out, when I could not express my feelings over to the people I once protected, I left town, when my whole squadron was killed… I left the whole movement…"

…

"I've always escaped… my whole ability is just bent on escaping… I've always been a coward haven't I?"

"I've always known it…"

…

Oh…

"I see… Just be yourself."

I woke up early. like about 6 In the morning to prepare the usual routine i had with the shrine, and today I had to prepare a certain ritual to keep beings at bay, now that Plyush has stayed for 3 days now, it seems that Fairies had taken a curious eye on him, probably explains why we were pranked like that yesterday.

Speaking of, I don't see Plyush around, his futon is untouched, so figured he may have been sleeping outside or just escaped altogether. Like it's my issue, as soon as Yukari finds out, I don't wanna think what that hag has in its destiny for him. But I will admit, I may have been a bit harsh on him, but eye for an eye.

I got up and got in my usual clothes, but I was feeling particularly thirsty today so I went to grab some water.

When I got out of my room, I was surprised to see Plyush sitting down in the kotatsu, sleeping with his arms crossed as pillows. Maybe he was kinda mad at me and did not want to sleep in the very room I was in?

But my gaze is then directed to the shoji door, he had replaced it, during the morning or late at night perhaps, did he stayed up all night just to keep working on the shoji? I take a closer glance at it, fidget the inner frame a bit and check the sliding a bit.

Like it wasn't destroyed in the first place.

He did good, I think he finally realized.

"Hey, wake up smokes." I said as I shook him gently.

"Hmmm, ah… *Yawn… Morning Reimu." He said.

"Morning"

"How'd you like the door?" He said as he got up the Kotatsu.

"You did a good job, what did you do in the end?" I asked him

"nothing special… just followed what my head wanted to see, instead of focusing on what you wanted to see."

"I see…"

Both of us are now sitting on opposite ends of the kotatsu eating some of Plyush's food he brought from the outside. but we keep a little silence as we eat.

"So… how do you reckon I was constantly running?" He asked as he took a sip of his tea

"I figured it out yesterday when we were drunk, but you certainly weren't hiding it before. It struck me weird that you decided to escape the shrine instead of killing me there. You could have easily suffocated me there but you decided not to, and your past really told me a lot. But what nailed my conclusion shut, was when you said that you certainly did not desired that ability you possess, It just came to happen but adapted it to your life, You still escaped the eyes of the world, which I can deduce why Gensokyo welcomes you, a land where the eyes are the most blind."

"I haven't hid it at all?" He asked

"Plyush, you are not a moron, you never were oblivious to this, you always knew it from the start, and you seeked help from those around you, but figured that maybe you risked putting those you protected at unnecessary risk, you where after all a step away from the government's noose."

"But, Yukari has told me that you are looking for your creator. You are not running away anymore, you are slowly embracing your current state, you are not running away from it, you are looking for answers. You are starting to accept your past for once now that you are within reach of your creator, and with it, you are starting to realize who you are."

"You are not a coward, you are simply lost."

"Lost…I guess that was the word I was looking for my whole life…" He said in a cheery tone before downing his tea.

"So what next on the list?" He asked me.

"Well, Ever since you managed to clean my house completely and repair the door, I was gonna make you help me with the Hakurei shrine duties. I gotta prepare a special ritual to keep the shrine protected from the spirits and youkai. Ever since we got dunked in water, I figured the fairies had taken a curious eye on ya."

"I got a better idea, you said you knew where they lived?" He asked me

"Yeah, a big tree way behind the shrine."

"How about this… Let's make some noise." He said in a toothy and devilish grin.

"Clownpiece you had to be there! the look on their faces was priceless!" the blue ice fairy said.

"They were like 'AAARGH' and then 'BRRRR'" The ginger haired fairy continued.

"I never knew that Reimu got himself a boyfriend! it was about time!" A star spangled striped Fairy said.

"Yeah, and one so risque, I never knew the Hakurei shrine maiden had a thing for youkai!" the black haired fairy remarked.

"and one so mysterious… I find him hot." The caramel milk fairy said.

"Bwah! Nonsense, he is short and quite slim, what is that slim jim gonna do against me!" The ice fairy boasted toward her friends.

They all started laughing their hearts out, until they heard a voice in the forest.

"What exactly are you gonna do to me?" The voice said.

"Eep! Who said that!? Dayousei, was it you?" the ice fairy said, to which the green haired fairy shook her head.

"Who was that?! Who's there?" The ginger fairy exclaimed to the direction of the voice.

"Don't you know it's rude to talk about someone who's listening?" the voice said in an eerily manner, and out of nowhere, Purple smoke begins to rain upon the fairies.

"Are you gonna freeze me?" the voice got louder.

"Stay close, don't leave the circle" The caramel milk fairy said to her friends.

"Are you gonna turn me into an Icicle?" The smoke gets denser.

"Are you gonna Turn me into a grape snow cone?" the voice mockingly says, this time very close to the fairies.

"Well, then let's make ground even…"

"How about I turn you into a slushy" The voice is heard atop the fairies

They know what's about to come, they want to delay the inevitable, but all the fairies can't help themselves but to look up, synchronized.

…

…

rawr.

All the fairies screamed in horror at my sight of glowing eyes hidden in the smoke and begging scurrying around themselves, some tripped and some clashed against each other, they kept screaming as they fled towards the deep forest, their screams slowly fainting away as they fled.

I heard Reimu laughing her ass off behind a tree not too far from where the fairies were. and i was just standing there with a big dumb smile on my face, looking as the fairies silhouettes vanished far off.

"hehehe, uff, wow, I didn't know you had such a sense of humor!" she said as she was gasping for air and wiping her tears of laughter.

"Well" I said in a semi blush, "Humor makes the man, great humor makes the best!".