It was an unusually rainy day in Gensokyo. Sure, the rainy season had recently started, and every once in a while it was wetter than expected, but this was different. Absurd, even. Looking out the window in front of her, she couldn't even see the nearest tree, and it certainly wasn't because the Forest of Magic was lacking in trees. The amount of rain wasn't the only thing that struck her as unusual, though. The amount time it had been like this. Five days straight, no breaks. She hadn't left her house at all in that time, and quite frankly, Marisa was getting a bit stir-crazy for it. But who in their right mind would want to go anywhere in this sort of weather? And yet, that still wasn't the most unusual thing to her. No, the thing that bugged her most about it was something she found not just unusual, but outright frustrating.

Every source she was able to get a hold of from the comfort of her home told her this wasn't unusual. That was what bothered her most. Even the Bunbunmaru, a paper that loved to play up the dramatic side of things, went out of its way to state that, despite everything, this wasn't abnormal. A poorly-organized pile of other newspapers in the corner of the room, whenever they commented on the current weather, all said the same thing. Her fingers tapped against the windowsill, their brisk and forceful cadence a clear indicator that Marisa was getting fed up with this situation. Faster, faster, as she continued to glare out her window, into the seemingly limitless amounts of water being dumped upon the world around her as if this was some kind of normal occurrence. Until finally...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAGH, SCREW THIS!"

Marisa stomped over to the front door, angrily grumbling to herself as she unhooked and unlatched the myriad locks she'd haphazardly installed over the years. She yanked her trusty broom from its resting place by the door, then paused as she reached for her hat.

No, I should leave that. It'll get completely ruined by this damn rain in the time it takes me to get anywhere. I can live with a bad hair day, but a bad hair day AND a destroyed hat? No thanks.

Decisions made, and as prepared as she realistically could be to brave the weather, Marisa flung the door open, stepped outside, closed the door, and immediately took to the skies. Marisa had dealt with some uncomfortable flights before, but this was by far the most unpleasant flying experience she'd ever had. It was like the feeling of flying headfirst into a waterfall, except instead of the thrill of a quick splash, all she got was the constant battering barrage of water. She couldn't see anything, her hair was soaked and matted to her body within seconds, and water kept flying into her face. Into her eyes, forcing her to keep them shut, into her nose, prompting her to try and cough it out, into her mouth when she dared to try that, even into her ears. The only reason she could navigate at all was sheer muscle memory. Marisa knew the exact direction she had to fly to reach her destination, and for precisely how long before it was time to descend.

Owing to the dire conditions around her, though, and the response of flying considerably faster than she normally would, it was far from a graceful landing. Normally, Marisa would swoop down, hop off her broom at just the right moment, and confidently stick the landing on the path leading up to the Hakurei Shrine. Not the case this time. Like a comet gone rogue, Marisa rocketed down toward the shrine grounds, unable to see that she was flying straight toward the shrine torii until it was too late to avoid it. The best she could do was change her angle to graze it instead of crashing face-first into it, but even that saw witch and broom separated, and Marisa found herself shooting through the air above the Hakurei Shrine grounds, crash-landing back-first into the shrine, leaving a roughly Marisa-sized dent in the stairs and knocking over the donation box.

For what little it was worth, at least the shrine's roof gave Marisa a welcome respite from the oppressive rain. But every inch of her body was ringing in pain, her clothes were completely soaked through, and Reimu was most likely going to be unhappy about the collateral damage from the rough landing. An unpleasant landing to accompany an unpleasant flight. Marisa couldn't help but find some humor in how that worked. Mere seconds after the landing, just as Marisa was about to get up to her feet, she heard the shrine doors slide open, and that all-too-familiar voice making itself known. As the witch guessed, she didn't sound happy.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"

"Hi, Reimu." Rolling over to re-orient herself so she could get back onto her feet, Marisa brushed some stray bits of wood off her arms and clothes. "It's about this rain. All the papers say it's normal, but that's gotta be a load of crap, right?"

"Somehow, it isn't. Come on inside, I'll get you a dry set of clothes and explain everything."

"Whaddya mean it's not!?" Following Reimu into the shrine, Marisa waited by the door and leaned up against the wall. "Sure, we get some pretty rough rainstorms sometimes, but nothing even remotely like this! This is anything but normal!"

The conversation paused for a moment, as Reimu and Marisa got split by the former going to get something dry for the latter to wear. When Reimu returned though, she tossed Marisa a towel and at least part of the very outfit associated with the shrine maiden. The vest and skirt, at least, and an older set at that, based on some visible wear around the edges. Marisa didn't waste any time obliging, taking off the drenched outfit she flew in with, and drying herself off with the towel. While she worked on that, Reimu replied.

"That's what I said, too. But then Yukari told me..."

"Oh, this just happens." Dangling from a hole, or rather, a gap in the ceiling, Yukari regarded Reimu with an expression that showed some sort of delight at the shrine maiden's confusion. Reimu couldn't tell if it was the sort of feeling an old woman had when a child asked a very silly question, or the twisted pleasure the gap youkai surely got from pulling others along on a string.

"I find it very hard to believe this sort of weather just happens."

"Come now, what would I stand to gain by lying about this? Every couple of centuries or so, Gensokyo's wet season sort of... goes through a phase, I suppose. This is far from the first time it's happened, and it won't be the last. If you don't believe me, perhaps you'll trust those girls behind you."

Reimu turned, to face the girls in question. The constantly-drunk freeloader oni, and by contrast, the ever-helpful komainu who guarded the shrine. If nothing else, she trusted them more than Yukari.

"Yep," Suika nodded. "Happens ev'ry once n'awhile. Whole place gets aaaaaaaaaaaall soppin' wet fer a few months. It'll be fine."

"I haven't been around as long as them, but they're not lying," Aunn added, limbs spread out as she lied across the floor. However, she propped herself up to address Reimu, and at the start of her testimony, pointed in the general direction of the shrine's pond. "I haven't seen it myself, but sometimes when I have free time, I go to the pond and talk to Mister Genji. He told me about it a couple of weeks ago, and said we were actually a bit overdue for this happening."

Reimu didn't necessarily trust Suika. She knew full well an oni would never lie, but Reimu also wouldn't have put it past her to get some details mixed up in her drunken stupor, or forget some important context. But Aunn? She had been nothing but helpful and trustworthy in the time since Reimu met her. Plus, she got her information from Genji, who likewise was always reliable. If Suika and Aunn both agreed that Yukari wasn't lying, then Reimu had no choice but to accept the idea that this was, in fact, normal. After coming to terms with that fact, however, an important question sprung to mind.

"Wait, you knew this was going to happen? Why didn't any of you tell me?"

"I forgot," Yukari and Suika answered in unison.

"I didn't realize it would be this bad, or I would have said something in advance," Aunn frowned. "I thought he was exaggerating."

"What, and we're supposed to accept this?" Marisa asked, dried off and dressed in borrowed clothes, seated across a table from Reimu. "Even if it's a thing that happens naturally, I've got things I'd like to do! Things that happen to require leaving my house, which I can't do in this crap weather."

"You got here just fine," Reimu smiled. "Look, I don't really like it either, but I pressed Genji for some more details on what's happening, and he said it's an important part of Gensokyo's natural cycles. Not sure if you'll feel any better for hearing this, but at least you only have to deal with it this one time, if it's every couple of centuries."

"Uuugh, this sucks. Why'd you have to be so reasonable about this? I was kinda hoping you'd be like..." Marisa sprung up to her feet, firmly planting a foot on the table and pointing to the shrine door as she put on her best Reimu impression. "You're right, Marisa! We can't just take this sitting down! Let's put a stop to this!"

"Well, I'm not. Also, please don't put your feet on the table."

"Sorry."

As Marisa sat back down, Reimu turned her gaze over to the door. Even when the girls were talking, the booming roll of yet-unseen amounts of rain pouring down onto the shrine roof was impossible not to hear, and sliding open that door brought one face-to-face with the source of the noise. "But I don't completely disagree. If nothing else, we can't just sit around the entire time." The shrine maiden paused, tallying up some numbers in her head. Then, not as suddenly as Marisa had, she got up to her feet. "For example, shopping. I was actually about to do some shopping before you showed up. How about you foot the bill? It's the least you can do after wrecking my stairs and knocking over the donation box."

"Yeah, sure, that's fair." Marisa got up, turned toward the door, took a couple of steps forward, then promptly stopped. Quickly spinning on her heel, she turned back to Reimu. "Wait, huh!? Shopping!? In this weather!? Seriously!?"

"Yes." Reimu turned a corner, heading into the other room within the shrine. Marisa listened closely, able to pick up a brief exchange between her and someone else.

"Aunn, if is okay if I lend out your coat and boots to Marisa for a bit? I'm taking her shopping."

"Sure! Be careful out there, you two!"

"Will do."

When Reimu re-emerged, Marisa felt like a deer caught in the headlights, and had to take a moment to process that this was even the same Reimu. She had heard the phrase "the clothes make the woman" before, but this was her first time barely recognizing someone just by a quick change of attire. She was used to seeing the typical red-white shrine maiden of paradise, but this was more like...

"Apparently the kappa knew this beefed-up wet season was about due to happen this year," Reimu commented, spreading out her arms to show off the new outfit in full. It really wasn't anything impressive, in the grand scheme of things. Her usual vest and skirt was surely beneath, but all Marisa could see was a bright yellow raincoat, reaching all the way down to Reimu's ankles. Whatever it was made of, it had a bit of a glossy sheen. "So they started producing a bunch of rainwear to make a killing on the profits, based on designs from the Outside World. I heard Sanae personally oversaw the whole process."

"Real sneaky of them..."

"You okay? You look totally stunned by something."

"Huh? O-Oh! Yeah! I just..." That was the same Reimu Hakurei. The same girl Marisa had known for... she didn't even know how long at this point. Sure, she didn't look quite the same as when they first met, but that was only natural, right? But this was different. A quick change of attire shouldn't have been so much of a transformation, especially when Reimu still looked exactly the same as when Marisa crash-landed on the shrine grounds just a few short minutes ago! It was the raincoat. That had to be it.

"I've never seen you wear something like that before."

"Well, yeah? We haven't really had anything like this happen in our lifetimes, so I never needed to. Here, you can borrow Aunn's." Reimu tossed a second raincoat, more or less in Marisa's size and in a bright pink, in the witch's direction, and couldn't help but snicker a bit at Marisa initially fumbling around at catching the raincoat. Then she pulled up the hood of her own raincoat, as Reimu made for the door of the shrine. "I'm not about to let a bit of rain stop me. If that means dressing up a bit different, so what?"

"Right. Yeah." She wasn't sure what the feeling was, but Marisa definitely felt something when Reimu said and did that. She could have sworn she felt her heart skip a beat. Whatever was going on in her head, she was getting way too distracted by it. Marisa tried to bring herself back down to earth, and hurriedly put on the raincoat Reimu had tossed her. Buttons shut, hood up, and then she followed Reimu's example by grabbing a pair of rubber boots that had been left by the door. Just the two pairs, easy to guess which one belonged to who. Reimu's were black, and Aunn's - temporarily Marisa's - were yellow.

Pink raincoat and yellow boots? I'm not some little kid! But I'd rather not get soaked out there again...

"Come on, let's get going. I've got some groceries to buy, but I want to make a side-stop to get you sorted out for the wet season this year. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah! Sounds great! Let's go!"

"Heh. You sure sound eager to get out there all of a sudden."

As Reimu opened the door, she, followed by Marisa, stepped out onto the shrine's porch, minding their steps as they went around the area where the witch had crash-landed earlier. The moment the two stepped out from the protection of the shrine's roof, they could feel the weight of the immense amounts of rain crashing down around them. Visibility was horribly limited at best, and it was hard to hear much of anything over the ceaseless barrage of rain slamming against the girls' raincoat hoods.

"They're pretty good at their job, right?" Reimu asked, raising her voice a bit to be heard over the rain.

"...uh, yeah! I'm pretty much dry under this thing! Amazing!"

Reimu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the pause before Marisa's answer, and the distracted tone she answered with. Whatever was going on in that head of hers, despite her obvious best efforts, it was clearly distracting her. Maybe she was worried about her house in this weather? That made sense. Reimu made a mental note to try and make this as quick as she could, so that Marisa could go home all the earlier.

"Yeah. I had to haggle like crazy to get this stuff for a price I could manage, but it was definitely worth it. Come on, let's get going."