Crabbea413
Onshi
Summary:
"The Hakurei shrine's god has always been silent, as if it simply weren't there. Reimu of course, couldn't care less. What does she need a god for? The shrine functions perfectly as is with just a human shrine maiden and always has. Everything goes on as normal.
At least, until Reimu learns that she might not be as human as she thinks."
(CW: Emetophobia)
Chapter 1: Blueberry Lemonade
Sometimes, Reimu envies Sanae. Not frequently, not strongly, and she’s not happy about it, but it still happens.
Now happens to be one of those rare times. Why?
Because the Moriya shrine has air conditioning, and the Hakurei shrine doesn’t.
Reimu lays boneless in the doorway to the main shrine, just within the shadow cast by the roof, her feet resting in a bucket of water on the ground. The inside of the shrine is a muggy hotbox with barely any airflow, so she has to be outside enough to get some breeze, but not outside enough to get baked by the rays of the unforgiving sun. As it is, the boundary of the doorway feels best. It still doesn’t stop her from sweating through her clothes.
How is it even fair? Shouldn’t a shrine stay as traditional as possible? Is it even really a shrine anymore if it has all of the modern luxuries of the outside world? Why does Sanae get to have a nice cool and breezy shrine when Reimu has to melt into the ground like an ice fairy!? She really needs to talk to Nitori. Does a promise to not get exterminated count as valid payment?
No, that’s basically just a death threat. Holding youkai at gohei-point never does much but make them run away and hide… or start a fight. They’re useless when they’re in a smoking crater. She’d tried using Cirno by strapping her to a post by the shrine and fanning some of the cool air towards herself, and it worked for a while, but the fairy had melted into a puddle an hour ago. The constant complaining and yelling was annoying enough that she didn’t really want to try it again.
Aunn was no help, just sitting near the front of the shrine unbothered by the sweltering heat, like any statue might be.
What about Yuyuko? It’d be a bit of a trek to the netherworld, but there was that one time where she used her big ghost tree to steal spring away… could she do the same with summer?
Reimu stands up, almost ready to cause another incident just to keep the heat away.
…and falls back down onto the wood with a thunk. Starting an incident meant fighting, probably Youmu and Marisa, and that was way too much effort. A master spark to the face sounded just slightly more unpleasant than wasting away under the sun.
What else was there to do? Go for a swim in the misty lake? Absolutely no way. Fairies and other youkai tend to gather around the lake on days like this, and it's annoying. Her gaze wanders around the shrine, looking hopelessly for any sort of solution that might present itself. She settles on the one thing that she always settles on- the donation box.
She peels herself from the deck and walks up to it, peeking inside out of habit. Obviously, there’s nothing in there- just a few small disc shaped rocks that Cirno dropped into there to be funny. Thankfully, puddles can’t laugh at poor people.
The fairy didn’t even bother to pray, not that many people did. Reimu herself had mostly given up on praying at the shrine, except for the occasional ritual that needed to be performed. She never got an answer anyway.
The Hakurei shrine’s god was… silent. Always had been, even before her own mother took over as shrine maiden. It obviously existed, Reimu had to get her powers from somewhere, but no one had ever heard a single peep from it. It never answered any prayers, never showed any sign that it was around. Not even a whisper on the wind.
Just one more thing that Sanae gets to have over her, a god that actually listens and talks back. Hell, she has two!
It’s frustrating, really frustrating, working in service to something that never so much as notices her. What does she have to do? How many times does she have to save Gensokyou and the barrier to qualify for an audience?
The Hakurei miko pulls on the rope to ring the bell, bows, claps, and prays to an absent god.
“Please, say something. Give me a solution for this awful heat. Say something. Maybe a blessing to bring in more worshippers? I really need more money, I’m running low on food for the month. Say something. Anything. Make one of the orbs twitch. Say a name on the wind. Ring the bell again. Send an image to my mind. Say thank you for cleaning up your shrine grounds all day. Scold me for being an awful, lazy miko. Put a pebble in Sanae’s shoe… Anything…?”
…
…Nothing.
Not a surprise.
Reimu sighs deeply and bows once more. “Thanks for nothing. I wonder, do you even care if you’re worshipped? I know every other god I know cares. They need it to live- do you?”
Why is she the one that has to deal with this? Incident after incident, month after month, year after year, nothing.
It’s truly no wonder no-one ever visits the shrine- it’s empty! It doesn’t matter how many Youkai are around or how offputting Reimu’s personality is, there’s no-one here to even pray to! There’s no reason to come up here in the first place!
“Am I that much of a failure!? Do you not care that your own shrine maiden has to live in poverty because you don’t answer anyone’s prayers!? I’m stuck playing servant to an absentee god that doesn’t give a damn and won’t even talk to me! I have to take care of everything on my own!”
“Raagh!!” She kicks the donation box. The only thing this succeeds in doing is breaking a jagged hole into her only source of income.
On the verge of tears, she lifts a hand to one of the enshrined yin-yang orbs. It responds to her effortlessly, floating above its comfortable cushion. She drops it.
“I can’t even get you to take away my power, huh?”
Just as she’s about to fly off in shame to herfriend’s competitor’s shrine- get away from the damn donation box and the damn heat- someone coughs from behind her.
It startles her so bad she jumps, falling ass-first onto the stonework and nearly hitting her head on the wooden box.
Please no, had someone just heard all of that!? Quickly standing up to save some of her wounded pride, she turns around with a mighty blush on her face.
Marisa lets out a long, drawn-out whistle.
Hey, shrine god? The Hakurei one? Are you listening? Because if you are, Reimu would very much like to die now.
Marisa walks towards her nonchalantly, tossing over a potion flask filled with some strange cyan liquid. Reimu barely catches it. “You wanna talk about it?”
“No, no I don’t.”
“ ‘k.” The witch takes a spot on the deck, ignoring the hole in the donation box. She unpops the cork from a strange blue potion of her own, and takes a few hearty gulps.
“Pfahh~~! Oh man, nothin’ like a refreshing potion on a hot summer day.”
Reimu tries her very best to forget about Marisa seeing her little breakdown. So what if the Hakurei god was silent? Reimu has one thing that stupid god will never have. Friends.
Friends who steal her things, cause incidents, eat her food, drink her sake, and try to feed her strange potions, yes. But. Still friends.
The miko sits down next to Marisa, the first friend she ever made.
Reimu examines the cyan potion she was given. It’s… very blue, for sure. Mildly glowing. There is glitter of some sort suspended in the liquid, giving it an almost metallic look as it swirls around.
“C’mon, Reirei! Mumu! Take a swig! It’s real good, lemme tell ya’.”
…yeah, no.
“Don’t call me either of those things, and I’m not drinking a random potion you just threw at me. I have enough experience with your ‘cooking’ to know better. What’s even in here?”
Marisa takes another drink, licking her lips. Noticeably, Marisa’s tongue has turned blue. “Eh, just some blueberry lemonade.”
Reimu squints at the glowing, glittery liquid, then back to Marisa. “This is not blueberry lemonade.”
“Doubt me all ya’ want, but what’s in that flask is freshly-squeezed delicious blueberry lemonade- specially brewed by an awesome forest witch to cool you down on a hot day!” Marisa leans back with her arms behind her head, smug as always.
“Why is there glitter in it?”
“S’not glitter. Them there’s blueberry crystals.” She says, as if those are things that exist.
“It’s glowing.”
“Well duh. I used glowing lemons.”
Reimu’s eye twitches. “Glowing lemons aren’t-! Fine, whatever, but if it’s lemonade why is it in a potion flask?”
Marisa looks at her like she’s an idiot. “Cuz’ it’s a blueberry lemonade potion.”
“I can’t wait until you finally make that potion of immortality so that-”
Marisa interrupts, waving her hand dismissively. “-That you can have an excuse to exterminate me, yeah yeah. I’ve heard that one before. Seriously though, just have a drink. I promise it’s good.”
The miko rolls her eyes. “If you tell me what your ‘blueberry lemonade’ actually does, then I’ll think about it. I could really use a cold drink that I can trust.”
“Really bustin’ my balls here, Reimu.”
“You got rid of those when you were 13.”
“Damn right I did.” The witch smirks.
Reimu stares her down. So infuriatingly stubborn. More than likely, the potion had some minor magical effect that was probably harmless. Marisa wouldn’t actually try to hurt her beyond a prank, but Reimu really wasn’t in the mood for a prank.
The heat and her frustration over the shrine god had worn her patience very, very thin. The best thing to do now is just… stare.
The witch squirms under the miko’s relentless gaze.
“Ugh! Fine, yeah it’s got some magic in it, but it really is blueberry lemonade!”
“Why does your lemonade have magic in it?”
“Because those stupid fairies kept stealin’ it! I was sitting out on my porch with an umbrella I borrowed from Alice, made myself some delicious iced lemonade, and was just trying to beat the heat, y’know? But the fairies caught a whiff and they just had to have some.”
“I have all sorts of wards around my house so they don’t have an easy time gettin’ close, but it’s just so damn hot today they kept coming!” She yells, exasperated.
“Sneaking up on me and snatching it while I wasn’t looking, or throwing danmaku ‘til I had to get up and sort it out, and then I get back and it’s gone. I made a whole pot of the stuff and they broke into my house and carried out my whole cauldron!”
Reimu snorts. “Getting a taste of your own medicine? I’m sure they were just borrowing your cauldron. You’ll get it back when they’re dead, don’t worry.”
Marisa blusters to her own defense. “Fairies don’t die though, they just keep poppin’ back up! At least when I promise my after-death return policy, I’ll actually die some day! A-Anyway, I was way too tired and beat up by the heat to stop ‘em all.”
“...So you made a new batch of magic lemonade?”
“Exactly!” She proudly declares. “Concocted up a special batch of anti-fairy blueberry lemonade with a little enchantment to keep you feeling cool for a minute or so after each sip. Thinkin’ I might start selling it in the village.”
Oh. That makes a lot of sense actually. Pretty smart. “How is it anti-fairy?”
“Well, it’s not specifically anti-fairy, more like… If you ain’t a human it makes you throw up on the spot. Man, you shoulda seen it! Those fairies stopped tryin’ to snatch it real quick.”
“...Thanks, then. It’s nice of you to bring me a drink for once.” Reimu smiles. It doesn’t seem like Marisa’s lying, and a cool drink with an enchantment like that sounds absolutely divine right about now.
“I mean, ya’ ain’t the only one I dropped a bottle on. I figured it'd be good even for half-humans, so I made a few stops ‘round to give some to Rinnosuke and Kosozu n’ a few others. Glowing reviews all around, by the way. Figured I’d make you my last stop since I wanna hang out.”
“And steal something from my pantry?”
“You know it -ze!”
“Fine, a potion to cool off in exchange for a few snacks is fair enough.”
Reimu uncorks the bottle with practiced ease, a satisfying plop~! accompanying it. Oh, that smells good.
Sweet, tart, acidic, fruity, and cold. Relief from the sweltering summer heat- finally!
The hakurei shrine maiden brings the flask to her lips to take a drink of the sweet nectar-
-and barely manages to bend herself over before vomiting all over the stonework in front of the shrine.
"The Hakurei shrine's god has always been silent, as if it simply weren't there. Reimu of course, couldn't care less. What does she need a god for? The shrine functions perfectly as is with just a human shrine maiden and always has. Everything goes on as normal.
At least, until Reimu learns that she might not be as human as she thinks."
(CW: Emetophobia)
Chapter 1: Blueberry Lemonade
Sometimes, Reimu envies Sanae. Not frequently, not strongly, and she’s not happy about it, but it still happens.
Now happens to be one of those rare times. Why?
Because the Moriya shrine has air conditioning, and the Hakurei shrine doesn’t.
Reimu lays boneless in the doorway to the main shrine, just within the shadow cast by the roof, her feet resting in a bucket of water on the ground. The inside of the shrine is a muggy hotbox with barely any airflow, so she has to be outside enough to get some breeze, but not outside enough to get baked by the rays of the unforgiving sun. As it is, the boundary of the doorway feels best. It still doesn’t stop her from sweating through her clothes.
How is it even fair? Shouldn’t a shrine stay as traditional as possible? Is it even really a shrine anymore if it has all of the modern luxuries of the outside world? Why does Sanae get to have a nice cool and breezy shrine when Reimu has to melt into the ground like an ice fairy!? She really needs to talk to Nitori. Does a promise to not get exterminated count as valid payment?
No, that’s basically just a death threat. Holding youkai at gohei-point never does much but make them run away and hide… or start a fight. They’re useless when they’re in a smoking crater. She’d tried using Cirno by strapping her to a post by the shrine and fanning some of the cool air towards herself, and it worked for a while, but the fairy had melted into a puddle an hour ago. The constant complaining and yelling was annoying enough that she didn’t really want to try it again.
Aunn was no help, just sitting near the front of the shrine unbothered by the sweltering heat, like any statue might be.
What about Yuyuko? It’d be a bit of a trek to the netherworld, but there was that one time where she used her big ghost tree to steal spring away… could she do the same with summer?
Reimu stands up, almost ready to cause another incident just to keep the heat away.
…and falls back down onto the wood with a thunk. Starting an incident meant fighting, probably Youmu and Marisa, and that was way too much effort. A master spark to the face sounded just slightly more unpleasant than wasting away under the sun.
What else was there to do? Go for a swim in the misty lake? Absolutely no way. Fairies and other youkai tend to gather around the lake on days like this, and it's annoying. Her gaze wanders around the shrine, looking hopelessly for any sort of solution that might present itself. She settles on the one thing that she always settles on- the donation box.
She peels herself from the deck and walks up to it, peeking inside out of habit. Obviously, there’s nothing in there- just a few small disc shaped rocks that Cirno dropped into there to be funny. Thankfully, puddles can’t laugh at poor people.
The fairy didn’t even bother to pray, not that many people did. Reimu herself had mostly given up on praying at the shrine, except for the occasional ritual that needed to be performed. She never got an answer anyway.
The Hakurei shrine’s god was… silent. Always had been, even before her own mother took over as shrine maiden. It obviously existed, Reimu had to get her powers from somewhere, but no one had ever heard a single peep from it. It never answered any prayers, never showed any sign that it was around. Not even a whisper on the wind.
Just one more thing that Sanae gets to have over her, a god that actually listens and talks back. Hell, she has two!
It’s frustrating, really frustrating, working in service to something that never so much as notices her. What does she have to do? How many times does she have to save Gensokyou and the barrier to qualify for an audience?
The Hakurei miko pulls on the rope to ring the bell, bows, claps, and prays to an absent god.
“Please, say something. Give me a solution for this awful heat. Say something. Maybe a blessing to bring in more worshippers? I really need more money, I’m running low on food for the month. Say something. Anything. Make one of the orbs twitch. Say a name on the wind. Ring the bell again. Send an image to my mind. Say thank you for cleaning up your shrine grounds all day. Scold me for being an awful, lazy miko. Put a pebble in Sanae’s shoe… Anything…?”
…
…Nothing.
Not a surprise.
Reimu sighs deeply and bows once more. “Thanks for nothing. I wonder, do you even care if you’re worshipped? I know every other god I know cares. They need it to live- do you?”
Why is she the one that has to deal with this? Incident after incident, month after month, year after year, nothing.
It’s truly no wonder no-one ever visits the shrine- it’s empty! It doesn’t matter how many Youkai are around or how offputting Reimu’s personality is, there’s no-one here to even pray to! There’s no reason to come up here in the first place!
“Am I that much of a failure!? Do you not care that your own shrine maiden has to live in poverty because you don’t answer anyone’s prayers!? I’m stuck playing servant to an absentee god that doesn’t give a damn and won’t even talk to me! I have to take care of everything on my own!”
“Raagh!!” She kicks the donation box. The only thing this succeeds in doing is breaking a jagged hole into her only source of income.
On the verge of tears, she lifts a hand to one of the enshrined yin-yang orbs. It responds to her effortlessly, floating above its comfortable cushion. She drops it.
“I can’t even get you to take away my power, huh?”
Just as she’s about to fly off in shame to her
It startles her so bad she jumps, falling ass-first onto the stonework and nearly hitting her head on the wooden box.
Please no, had someone just heard all of that!? Quickly standing up to save some of her wounded pride, she turns around with a mighty blush on her face.
Marisa lets out a long, drawn-out whistle.
Hey, shrine god? The Hakurei one? Are you listening? Because if you are, Reimu would very much like to die now.
Marisa walks towards her nonchalantly, tossing over a potion flask filled with some strange cyan liquid. Reimu barely catches it. “You wanna talk about it?”
“No, no I don’t.”
“ ‘k.” The witch takes a spot on the deck, ignoring the hole in the donation box. She unpops the cork from a strange blue potion of her own, and takes a few hearty gulps.
“Pfahh~~! Oh man, nothin’ like a refreshing potion on a hot summer day.”
Reimu tries her very best to forget about Marisa seeing her little breakdown. So what if the Hakurei god was silent? Reimu has one thing that stupid god will never have. Friends.
Friends who steal her things, cause incidents, eat her food, drink her sake, and try to feed her strange potions, yes. But. Still friends.
The miko sits down next to Marisa, the first friend she ever made.
Reimu examines the cyan potion she was given. It’s… very blue, for sure. Mildly glowing. There is glitter of some sort suspended in the liquid, giving it an almost metallic look as it swirls around.
“C’mon, Reirei! Mumu! Take a swig! It’s real good, lemme tell ya’.”
…yeah, no.
“Don’t call me either of those things, and I’m not drinking a random potion you just threw at me. I have enough experience with your ‘cooking’ to know better. What’s even in here?”
Marisa takes another drink, licking her lips. Noticeably, Marisa’s tongue has turned blue. “Eh, just some blueberry lemonade.”
Reimu squints at the glowing, glittery liquid, then back to Marisa. “This is not blueberry lemonade.”
“Doubt me all ya’ want, but what’s in that flask is freshly-squeezed delicious blueberry lemonade- specially brewed by an awesome forest witch to cool you down on a hot day!” Marisa leans back with her arms behind her head, smug as always.
“Why is there glitter in it?”
“S’not glitter. Them there’s blueberry crystals.” She says, as if those are things that exist.
“It’s glowing.”
“Well duh. I used glowing lemons.”
Reimu’s eye twitches. “Glowing lemons aren’t-! Fine, whatever, but if it’s lemonade why is it in a potion flask?”
Marisa looks at her like she’s an idiot. “Cuz’ it’s a blueberry lemonade potion.”
“I can’t wait until you finally make that potion of immortality so that-”
Marisa interrupts, waving her hand dismissively. “-That you can have an excuse to exterminate me, yeah yeah. I’ve heard that one before. Seriously though, just have a drink. I promise it’s good.”
The miko rolls her eyes. “If you tell me what your ‘blueberry lemonade’ actually does, then I’ll think about it. I could really use a cold drink that I can trust.”
“Really bustin’ my balls here, Reimu.”
“You got rid of those when you were 13.”
“Damn right I did.” The witch smirks.
Reimu stares her down. So infuriatingly stubborn. More than likely, the potion had some minor magical effect that was probably harmless. Marisa wouldn’t actually try to hurt her beyond a prank, but Reimu really wasn’t in the mood for a prank.
The heat and her frustration over the shrine god had worn her patience very, very thin. The best thing to do now is just… stare.
The witch squirms under the miko’s relentless gaze.
“Ugh! Fine, yeah it’s got some magic in it, but it really is blueberry lemonade!”
“Why does your lemonade have magic in it?”
“Because those stupid fairies kept stealin’ it! I was sitting out on my porch with an umbrella I borrowed from Alice, made myself some delicious iced lemonade, and was just trying to beat the heat, y’know? But the fairies caught a whiff and they just had to have some.”
“I have all sorts of wards around my house so they don’t have an easy time gettin’ close, but it’s just so damn hot today they kept coming!” She yells, exasperated.
“Sneaking up on me and snatching it while I wasn’t looking, or throwing danmaku ‘til I had to get up and sort it out, and then I get back and it’s gone. I made a whole pot of the stuff and they broke into my house and carried out my whole cauldron!”
Reimu snorts. “Getting a taste of your own medicine? I’m sure they were just borrowing your cauldron. You’ll get it back when they’re dead, don’t worry.”
Marisa blusters to her own defense. “Fairies don’t die though, they just keep poppin’ back up! At least when I promise my after-death return policy, I’ll actually die some day! A-Anyway, I was way too tired and beat up by the heat to stop ‘em all.”
“...So you made a new batch of magic lemonade?”
“Exactly!” She proudly declares. “Concocted up a special batch of anti-fairy blueberry lemonade with a little enchantment to keep you feeling cool for a minute or so after each sip. Thinkin’ I might start selling it in the village.”
Oh. That makes a lot of sense actually. Pretty smart. “How is it anti-fairy?”
“Well, it’s not specifically anti-fairy, more like… If you ain’t a human it makes you throw up on the spot. Man, you shoulda seen it! Those fairies stopped tryin’ to snatch it real quick.”
“...Thanks, then. It’s nice of you to bring me a drink for once.” Reimu smiles. It doesn’t seem like Marisa’s lying, and a cool drink with an enchantment like that sounds absolutely divine right about now.
“I mean, ya’ ain’t the only one I dropped a bottle on. I figured it'd be good even for half-humans, so I made a few stops ‘round to give some to Rinnosuke and Kosozu n’ a few others. Glowing reviews all around, by the way. Figured I’d make you my last stop since I wanna hang out.”
“And steal something from my pantry?”
“You know it -ze!”
“Fine, a potion to cool off in exchange for a few snacks is fair enough.”
Reimu uncorks the bottle with practiced ease, a satisfying plop~! accompanying it. Oh, that smells good.
Sweet, tart, acidic, fruity, and cold. Relief from the sweltering summer heat- finally!
The hakurei shrine maiden brings the flask to her lips to take a drink of the sweet nectar-
-and barely manages to bend herself over before vomiting all over the stonework in front of the shrine.