"Yukari visited yesterday." Suwako remarks as she fills her mouth with warm green beans.
The table Sanae and I laid out was full with all kinds of food. Despite me having feasted many times before, it still astonishes me that this small woman is able to gulp down such vast amounts of food.
"Huh?" Sanae looks up, quickly slurping down her noodles. "Why Yukari? Whenever she visits a shrine it's Reimu's and not ours."
Suwako points at the now lukewarm bowl of rice. Much if it has already been eaten, by me. "Anyone eating that?" She looks around with the three of us shaking our heads. The walking black hole then wraps her arms around the bowl and drags it right in front of herself.
"Kinda weird." The goddess shovels the first wave of white grain into her mouth and starts chewing. "She angh jusht ng did shome shmall shtalk." Suwako readies her hand for the next wave of rice. "We talked about stuff like how I am doing, how she is doing, and she was very interested in how you are all doing." She loudly munches on her food after finishing that sentence.
"What a strange woman." The Shrine maiden looks down on the table, her expression is puzzled, and her chopsticks are poking the steamy noodles. "Maybe there's an incident and she's trying to figure out who the culprit is?"
"Dunno, as long as it doesn't affect us, I don't care either." Suwako shrugs. To my awe she finished her bowl in record time and grabs her next target, the beans.
Kanako, who until now stayed silent thus far, dabbed her mouth with a napkin. "The garden has been a sore to my eyes lately." Her pupils shift towards me as she carefully puts the dirty napkin back on the table. "Take care of it, alright?"
I hastily nod and get up as well. "Yes, right away!" Sanae giggles as I bow. "Thank you for the meal." The women keep the chat up, but I remove myself so quickly I cannot discern what it is they are talking about.
Stepping inside the Shrine's garden leads to me being overcome with a grim sight, that makes me dizzy. It hasn't even been a week, yet the grass has grown tall and wild. Flowers hang bleak, yearning for water. And Weeds crawl everywhere.
My mind is reeling. After a minute of standing around, I decide to do the flowers.
Taking care of them takes longer than expected. I eventually return inside for a break, sitting down and greedily guzzling glacial water.
Sanae approaches me from behind, "I was looking for you." She says, putting her hands on her hips. "Some of the plants seem to already be recovering from their drought."
"I really hope they are... it feels like that garden needs more attention than any normal one..." I sigh out, my shoulders dropping down slightly. The water bottle is swiftly put back in place so I can give Sanae my full attention.
"Ding ding ding!" She grins and continues. "You are right. Because our garden uses very special plants, some of them are as ancient as Suwako, they need constant care." Her hand moves to her forehead, massaging it gently. "I'm honestly so very glad you are here to do that. It used to be my job and although I like being in the garden, taking care of it is not my thing."
I simply nod, "I could understand why, though it is enjoyable sometimes."
"Oh! I almost forgot about the thing I came to ask you about!" She vibrates as if she were loaded with electricity. "Wanna go to the village with me again?" Her grin is wide, hopeful for my consent.
"Of course! Give me s bit of time to get ready, and then we can go." I do comply. How couldn't I? Spending time with her is always a joy.
With that in mind, I get up and finish my work in the garden. Tedious, though simple I accomplish it and shower. Once I'm fresh and with a sound mind, as everything but my arcane training being out of my way, I meet her at the shrine's stairs.
The eagerly waiting Sanae greets me with a bubbly, "Ready?" Those eyes are glowing.
"Yes! Ready to depart!"
Down the stairs we go, walking closely next to each other. Her face shines in the sunlight and her hair looks like an emerald river from the breeze. "Is something wrong?" She asks as she notices my eyes on her.
I quickly shake my head. "No, not at all." My eyes jump back to her. "You just look stunning today."
The shrine maiden smiles excitedly. "THANK YOU SO MUCH!" Birds fly out from nearby trees. "Oops sorry." She laughs out heartily with, and I couldn't help but join in.
While wandering through the forest, Sanae curiously looks at me. "I wonder, where do you masturbate?" She asks sounding genuinely curious.
I jump up, almost tripping down. My face turning red by the sudden lewd question. Looking back into her face I try to discern any kind of hint, that would reveal the question to be ironic. The facial muscles are relaxed, her mouth shaped in an "O" shape, while the emerald eyes seem quizzed.
"That's... personal..." I stammer. I'm not sure whether to answer or not. She's probably just getting more comfortable with me, but such a question, especially from a woman, is making my mind race.
Her face turns flushed, "I mean, I just wondered where you do it since I never caught you doing it you know! Sorry I was just wondering since the other two always nag when they catch me!" The shrine maiden breathes out heavily, her hands frantically try to imply her innocence.
"The shower." I end up answering. She gives me an approving nod, believing my words.
The rest of our walk, I'm left pondering about that odd question she asked me. I'm left with two conclusions. Either she's a massive gooner and gets caught all the time like she said. Or she's trying to seduce me in an odd way. I think the first one is more likely since even I caught her doing it in the middle of the night once, it's still a weird thing bring up...
My intense thinking spree ends. We arrive at the village. A barrage of sounds come to my ears, mostly chatter and laughter. Before I can investigate those, a group of carriages move past us.
"Oi Sanae! How have you been girl?" The middle-aged woman asks, stopping her horse after moving to the side so others can move past her.
"Akira! I haven't seen you in ages, what have you been up to? How's Kuro?" I watch her moving towards the beautiful white horse. It stays still as the shrine maiden moves her hand over it.
"I've been doing great. Work has been hard, though at least that means I got business to do." Akira chuckles, her eyes darting to me for a second. "Kuro's still as good as ever, even if she's getting older and older. Who's that boy? I haven't seen him before."
"That's my roommate! He's been living with me recently." I wave shyly at the merchant.
"Cute! I'm almost jealous that you got yourself such a gentleman over there~" That woman makes me flush at her comment. She doesn't know that we're just friends unfortunately. "Oh well, it was nice talking to you again, but I still gotta continue working. See ya Sanae!"
"Farewell Akira." The wagon orders itself back to the road as it makes its way into the village. Sanae's hand goes to her forehead. "What a woman..." She chuckles out, shaking her head while smiling.
"How did you two even meet?"
My roommate starts facing me again, sounding jolly about telling me about her past. "I used to meet her a lot when I was younger. We often bumped into each other while I was shopping. She started talking to me first, and I listened. The topics were nothing too serious, although it was very refreshing having a discord with her every now and then."
Amazed by her story, I listen closely. My thoughts materialize pictures of her youth in my head. I would've loved to meet Sanae during that time. To be with her when she might've felt lonely in a world like this.
Laughter fills my ear. Looking back to investigate it, I see the entrance into a tent in the distance.
"Would you like to go there?" She asks with a gentle smile.
"I'd love to!" I'm excited, since a pretty large group of people have gathered there.
Sanae starts walking ahead and I follow her. The voices get louder, the closer we get into the tent. The shrine maiden takes my hand and pulls it. She leads me to a place where we can see the frog clearly.
"Wow..." Just like a rodeo. I've never been to one before, and this one is much more surreal.
Her eyes shine with excitement, always jumping positions between me and the metal frog. "Isn't it absolutely exciting? Look it's picking up its pace!" Sanae starts to point at the machine.
A man is on top of it, his arms tightly hug the gray back. His face switches from an excited smile, to one of despair. With his mouth wide open, the frog leaps wildly into the air, yet the man remains on top. Then it jumps higher, only taking small breaks once its feet hit the ground.
The crowd starts to get louder as they anticipate the inevitable fall. His hands shake from all the adrenaline, he slips up and once the frog settles down, his ass is sitting down. Wide eyes glance up at the frog; the man gets up and one of the blue clothed girls start to speak up.
"Unfortunately, the man has only survived for two out of three minutes, therefore he doesn't win the prize of one hundred yen!"
"A hundred?" Sanae smirks cheekily. "That amount of money even makes me want to try it out."
"Your poor clothes would get dirty once you fall off that thing."
She pouts. "It isn't that hard, people just have weak nerves. With the right mental, I could survive that thing!"
"Come on who's going to try next?" One of them blurts out. Some people leave the stadium, others join, while the crowd skims for a new victim.
With a smug face I remark, "Now's your time."
She waves her hand, and turns back to the arena, where the crowds' whispers grow louder. "Not yet, I wanna see this first." Sanae points her Pinky at a blonde-haired wizard girl. The same one I've seen not too long ago.
"Have you met Marisa before?" The shrine maiden looks surprised at my expression.
"I have. We encountered each other while I was working. She gave me some tips and then was already gone before I could even thank her for it." My own eyes are now watching the arena as Marisa walks in.
She looks confident, almost full of herself. While facing the crowd, she makes an odd hand gesture before climbing the ladder up to the frog machine. Curiously enough she sits upright, and her expression is unchanging, even once the frog starts.
"That's impossible, how is she doing this?" Sanae speaks up. Even when the frog starts jumping more wildly, she laughs and leaves the crowd speechless.
Once time has passed by, the machine does one last jump. It leaps high up, higher than two humans, but as it impacts the ground, Marisa sits still.
People start clapping, and I can't help myself but follow them. "That was very impressive. Insane how a small woman like her is able to pull something like that off." She must be as strong as she told me, a grand magician or something like that. Someone who isn't just well versed in the arcane but also mastered posture and composure.
Marisa tries to get off, but she seems stuck to the metal at first. She panics and quickly says something in front of her, before her hand finally is released. The workers who saw that, while preparing the ladder quickly responded.
"Oh wow no way she did it again." Sanae lays her head on her fist, watching as the spiel unfolds in front of us.
Unfortunately, the crowd is too loud, making it impossible to hear what they might be discussing. "Again? What's going on? Has she done this before?"
The workers get increasingly angry, the one who has the price money gets told to stay back, as one of them tries to grab Marisa's arm.
"Well..." Sanae doesn't turn away from the escalating scene. "Not exactly that, but she's made a bunch of men angry not too long ago. It was published in the Bunbunmaru. She had to apologize to them. It was about some gambling thing."
The witch conjures a broom and wiggles herself free. Then she speeds away above the crowd's heads. "Oh my, she's totally gone now."
"At least she didn't scam the Kappas out of their price money. Wanna go somewhere else?" She gets up. There are so many places we haven't visited yet. With a nod, I get up and follow her.
The sun is still up high, and people are everywhere. "Is there somewhere specific you'd like to go?" I ask carefully.
"Nope. Just wanted to go around and see what happens. What about you?"
"Could we go to a store? Uhm, maybe a flower store or something else?" My voice is laced in an embarrassed undertone.
She looks back at me, puzzled at what my intentions are. "Why?" She simply asks as we walk into the village.
"I uhm... I want to buy a gift for Aya. She's been seeming a bit down lately, and I think it'd be a good idea."
Sanae eyed me with a face, which is hard to decipher. Only she herself knows. "Let's do that later, I want to fill my stomach first." She gives me a cute wink and grabs my hand.
The shrine maiden leads me to a restaurant that's surprisingly far away from any liveliness. In no way do I think the place is boring however, it is fairly well decorated. And the restaurants sweet smell is practically begging me to step in, and order something.
Me and Sanae sit down at a table, surrounded by homes. Above our heads are paper talismans, they softly wave in the little wind that is blowing on this warm summer day. The only things I hear in this very quiet part of the village, are two elders. The pair is playing a board game.
"Oh wow!" Sanae leans into me, whispering while looking at the elders throwing to dices. "I haven't seen anyone play ban-sugoroku in a while. They seem good, let me just-" She moves to my side of the table, nestling herself right next to me.
I'm curious and watch them play this, to me, very foreign game. The dice rolls and the woman throws her fist up high, moving one of her figures. It's quite abstract, though I can guess that they aren't gambling, since there's no money placed on the table.
A waiter approaches us, breaking our concentration. After asking for our orders, Sanae looks to me. "Could I have Ika Sushi please, and some water." The waiter gives me a nod, noting my order down.
When it is Sanae's turn to order, I space out to look at the two old people playing their game. The man takes the dices and blows at them. After that he gives them a gentle push. He quickly moves his piece and leans back in relief.
The waiter leaves, making me able to speak up to Sanae again. "Do you know who's winning right now?"
"It looks to be the grandma, she's been rolling good. Weird that they don't gamble though." The shrine maiden remarks.
Lastly, the old woman rolls one six, and a three. She gets up with a bright smile and shakes the old man's hand. Then they start to put the figures back where they were and go for another round.
The waiter settles our plates down and wishes us to have a nice meal. Both of us thank him and start eating. The taste is unchallenged; I chew extra-long to savour it.
"The food has no right to be this good!" I finally groan out in pleasure.
Sanae chuckles at that and smiles at me. "You're right, the food is great. It's so good that I only ever go once a month to treat myself. I'd gain too much weight if I'd come here too often." Her eyes look down at her stomach, though I could not imagine Sanae being heavy.
We finish up and pay. We it is a great achievement to be able to pay for myself, the hard work paid off well. We get up and leave the dreamy place.
"It isn't all too late, so how about we go and take a walk around the village?" Sanae suggests with a bright expression.
An approving nod sends us walking around. The people around us idly chatting, some dragging heavy things from a to b, makes place refreshing. A change to what I experience on the mountain.
"What did you work before you became a professional gardener?" Sanae asks, surprising me. I wasn't expecting such a question about my life, nor did I ever share much about it.
After taking a few seconds to formulate my thoughts, I answer her. "I used to make websites. At first I thought it was going to be an exciting job, though I quickly realized that we were just creating the same bland website with different text over, and over again." The thought of it makes me grow weary. Eight hours every day, barely anyone ever talking to you.
"Really?" She answers, sounding surprised. "How so? Websites are pretty diverse, at least what I saw out there."
I nod. "It's not like the web you used to know. Back then things were still experimental, and people had more creative freedom. Nowadays everything is just plain white, sleek designs, simple and professional."
The shrine maiden start pouting, giving me an annoyed look. "You talk like it's been decades since I last used the internet."
I can only laugh at that comment, if only she knew how different things have gotten. My nose is the first thing, that notices the shift of smell. The sun is setting, the air growing wet. "We should head back; else they'll worry about us."
After Sanae agrees, we head back to the shrine. Uneventful surroundings cause the walk to be relaxing. At the shrine, I simply get ready for bed. After wishing the girls well, I lie down next to Sanae, close my eyes, and let sleep take me.