After the unexpected twists, turns, and self-discoveries that had plagued her, Marisa elected to spend the rest of the day at home, doing things she'd normally do, pushing all the new information into the back of her mind to let it simmer and settle in her subconscious. But that was yesterday. Today, Reimu was coming over! And based on everything she'd said yesterday, Marisa was going to be seeing quite a bit of her in the weeks to come. As much as she didn't want to, this house needed a good cleaning once breakfast was done. It was a lot of work, but the final product was... well, at least there were clear signs of a significant amount of effort. There were other preparations to make, too.

A little spell here. Some haphazard maintenance there. Reading some of Patchouli's books, to make sure she did the spell right. Redoing the spell, because she didn't. All said and done, Marisa's house was more than ready to have important company over. That just left the small matter of the weather, and being prepared for it. A practically-free supply of rain gear, and all she had to do was make sure the goods actually worked? Marisa liked the sound of that.

She'd even received her first order just last night. It was... well, normal. The kind of thing she would have bought at full price when she was at Nitori's stall yesterday, if she didn't strongarm the kappa into this haphazard arrangement instead. Just a very simple, heavy-duty raincoat, reaching down to about her knees, and a pair of black rain boots that reached up to about her knees. Nitori was very specific about pointing out this was a "heavy-duty" raincoat, but Marisa didn't see or feel the difference. Besides, with the way this wet season was going to go, why would anyone make or buy anything that wasn't "heavy-duty"?

Whatever.

Marisa didn't want to end up dressing exactly the same as Reimu. She knew that much. So, in contrast to the yellow raincoat Reimu had gotten, Marisa made a point to say she wanted hers to be blue, and Nitori delivered. Her boots were over by the door, but the raincoat was on her person, as Marisa stared at herself in the mirror. She didn't really have the time to appreciate the new raincoat last night, and yesterday was too much of a marathon of surprises for her to warm up to this abrupt awakening of hers, so while she had a moment, Marisa wanted to check herself out. See how she felt about the rain gear thing, now that it was on her instead.

"I think I look hot." she mused to herself, trying all sorts of things as she inspected her reflection. Rolling up the sleeves, unfurling them, opening or re-closing the buttons that ran up the raincoat's length, trying various adjustments with the hood up or down. "Hm. It definitely looks best as-is."

Despite the conclusion, Marisa spent some more time making more adjustments with her raincoat, to see if there was some secret best look she hadn't figured out yet. Right up until she heard a knock at the door, in response to which she quickly undid all of those little changes as she hurried over to let her guest in. Considering yesterday's conversation, and how awfully wet the weather outside was, there wasn't really anyone else it could be but Reimu. Smile on her face, Marisa swung open the door, gave the raincoat-clad shrine maiden a friendly wave, and greeted her with a cheery, eager tone.

"Sup, Reimu! Great weather for a day out, isn't it?"

"There's the Marisa I know. Back to normal already?"

"It's a work in progress." Marisa looked Reimu up and down, seemingly less focused on Reimu herself and more on her outfit. The shimmering, soaking wet sheen of her drenched raincoat, its bright yellow color. The similar shiny glint of her boots. Reimu's hair and face under the hood, looking a bit wet, but not even remotely as much as her rain gear. Instinctively, Marisa reached out to feel the wet surface of the raincoat. Slick with water, and smooth to the touch. She could almost feel the water sliding down the raincoat's length.

"I'm still getting used to this," Marisa further replied, tugging at Reimu's sleeve.

"Good news, you've got plenty of time to get used to it." Reimu squeezed past Marisa, stepping into the house proper to get herself out of the rain. As she started unbuttoning her raincoat, Marisa brought her hands up to stop her.

"Don't worry about tracking water in the house. I did a little spell or two that sends all the outside water back outside."

"You can do that?"

"Magic can do lots of things."

"Huh. Neat." Opting to keep her raincoat on in response to this new information, Reimu didn't close the door behind her as she took a couple more steps into Marisa's house, leaning up against the nearby wall. "As I was saying, good news, you've got plenty of time to get used to it. The rainy season is still young, after all."

"Yeah."

"So let's go get used to it." Nodding toward the open door, she winked at Marisa and teased, "No point in putting that stuff on if you're not going to use it, right?"

"Right!" Without exchanging any further words, Marisa pulled up the hood of her raincoat, and hurried outside into the torrential rain. As soon as she was out in the open, her ears were overwhelmed with the sound of rain pouring down against her raincoat. When Marisa imagined the sound of rain, she always thought of a gentle pitter-patter, but this was most certainly not that. It was more of an endless roaring, crashing noise that threatened to drown out all other sound, just as the rain itself may have threatened to drown anyone who decided to look straight up and open their mouth. The black-white, now blue-black magician liked to think she had a pretty good sense of smell too, and it suddenly found itself drowning in the smell of petrichor. Of wet grass, endless rain, and an undercurrent of the rubber that made up her rain gear.

After she was outside, she heard the door of her house shut behind her, and Reimu's voice after that. She didn't even stop to listen to what Reimu was saying, immediately spinning in place, swinging her arm out as she did and sending a splash of water from both the air around her and the sleeve of her raincoat directly at the shrine maiden. A splash that met its mark, squarely in the center of Reimu's face. The red-white - now yellow-black? - shrine maiden didn't seem happy about it.

"That was for yesterday," Marisa grinned.

"Was it, now?" Reimu paused, clearly considering her next action. As much as Marisa wanted to know what was going on in her head, it was usually something of a coin toss on if Reimu was thinking pretty much the same thing as Marisa, or if her train of thought was so different that Marisa wouldn't even be able to imagine it. Whatever her process was, it seemed that hte course of action Reimu had settled on was to return Marisa's smug look with an even smugger look of her own.

"Since you're so intent on returning the favor, I can expect to see you at the shrine if I ever awaken to any weird fetishes too, right? Coming by every day, catering to my new desires, maybe teasing me a little along the way?"

"Hey, that isn't what I said!"

"Actions speak louder than words, Marisa," Reimu smirked, walking up to and past Marisa. "I thought you of all people would agree with that. Come on, let's go do something."

"Hmph. If it comes down to that, at least be into something cute, okay?"

"What, like raincoats?" Reimu asked, turning her head to look at the magician as she moved to catch up and keep pace with her.

"They're totally cute!"

"I look like a bright yellow potato sack. Dunno what's so cute about that, but whatever makes you happy, I guess."

"Whatever. I think it's cute. How you're all..." Marisa paused to consider what exactly the words she was looking for were. How to describe the appeal she saw in Reimu wearing that big yellow raincoat of hers. It wasn't really something she had an easy time putting into words. "Uh... ready for the weather? Like, "Pah! So what if it's raining more than usual? I've got shit to do, so I'm gonna do it!" I don't know, Reimu, this is new to me! Cut a girl some slack."

"I can tell," Reimu giggled. By the time the girls reached the trees surrounding Marisa's house, the house itself was gone from their field of vision, hidden behind heavy, oppressive curtains of rainfall. "So, what sort of stuff would you normally do? You're supposed to test this stuff out, so let's take it for a spin."

"Hmm. I do need more mushrooms. We're gonna go mushroom-picking!"