Sanae could have excused herself from visiting the branch shrine. Even if Reimu was at best indifferent towards it, she wasn't likely to let it fall into offensive disrepair. Lady Kanako and Lady Suwako would probably not even have noticed, and even if Sanae had told them point blank she wasn't going, what was the worst that could have happened?
But, as usual, she had found it easier to put on a smile and give a cheerful wave before descending down the mountain. Maybe she would be lucky. Maybe this time, pretending nothing was wrong would fix the problem. Better yet, maybe Reimu simply wouldn't be at home.
Sanae flew along the wind currents and tried not to sigh. It would help if she knew what the problem was. All she could tell was that a gulf had suddenly opened up between her and Reimu, and unlike most ravines in Gensokyo, it wasn't one she could simply fly over. She had already tried acting like she didn't even notice, then had bitten the bullet and asked if something was bothering Reimu. Well, unless "nothing" was the name of a youkai who had recently begun throwing her weight around Gensokyo, it was safe to say Reimu wasn't going to explain herself.
So what could it be? Did I say something to annoy her? Or is it something serious?
She distorted her face into the brightest smile she could as she flew above the Human Village and waved at those looking up at her. On the upside, she hadn't had any more nightmares lately, but she was beginning to feel like she would've traded peaceful slumber away to see Reimu smile again. How long had it been since the last time? Almost a month, now.
She alighted onto the foot of the steps leading to the Hakurei Shrine. Perhaps she should talk about this with someone, It would be too embarrassing bringing it up to Lady Kanako or Lady Suwako. Marisa, maybe? She knew Reimu better than anyone else and was the most likely person to be able to help, but what if she told Reimu about it?
Sanae paid her respects at the torii, then kept climbing. Each step seemed twice as tall as usual, but she persisted. Finally, she took a deep breath and took the final step.
There were two people present at the courtyard. Maybe that would make things easier. Even so, Sanae wondered just how clearly her discomfort was stamped on her face as Reimu and Marisa turned to look at her.
"Yo!" Marisa grinned without a care in the world. "Good timing. We were just figurin' out how to approach an incident."
"It's not an incident." Reimu looked and sounded as she always did, even if she seemed even more peevish than on average. She turned back towards Marisa. "It's a bunch of fairy nonsense that wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't happening on shrine grounds."
Sanae stepped closer, her curiosity piqued. "What's going on?"
For a moment, Reimu looked like she meant to turn away and stalk back into the shrine at once. In the end, folded her arms and looked aside. "The fairies thought it would be a clever idea to build a monument in my backyard."
"I still think it's a playhouse," Marisa chimed in.
"Shut up." Reimu glanced at Sanae for just a moment. Her eyes were positively arctic. "They've dragged a whole bunch of Outside World junk and anything else they could get their sticky little fingers on and built a tower right in the middle of the path to the storehouse."
"An' you can see the top of it just by lookin' past the roof."
Sanae did exactly that. Indeed, there was a precarious structure just about visible above the shrine's roof. She made out a pram, a flaccid tyre, and what seemed to be a crude flag made out of tarpaulin dipped in finger paints. The Leaning Tower of Landfill, she almost said before she realised neither Reimu nor Marisa was likely to understand the joke.
"I guess it might be an incident," she said instead.
"Right! Wanna help us solve it?"
Sanae shot a hesitant look at Reimu. She had a feeling Reimu had been looking at her just moments before, but now her gaze was once again averted and her expression suggested she had eaten every single lemon available in Gensokyo in one go. "...Would it be okay?"
"What are ya sayin'? 'Course it is? Why wouldn't..." Marisa's frown moved from Sanae to Reimu. Sanae could see the exact moment understanding dawned in her eyes.
Awkward silence ensued. Marisa's eyes shifted rapidly as she mulled things over. Meanwhile, Sanae wished the earth could swallow her whole where she stood, and Reimu looked extremely keen on winning the Sullen Miss Gensokyo pageant.
Finally, Reimu jerked her head. "She came all the way here. She might as well come take a look."
"Right!" Marisa's smile at Sanae was bright, but couldn't outshine the apology in her eyes. "Between the three of us, we'll solve this incident in no time flat. So, let's get goin'."
Sanae trailed after the other two as they trekked behind the shrine, feeling strangely angry. The way Reimu was acting was actually pretty annoying. If Sanae had done something wrong, couldn't she just say so, and if not, then... But if everyone else was going to act like things were normal, she could do it too. No doubt everything would go back to how it had once been. That was fine, right? It was all fine.
The structure looked far more ominous once Sanae and the others stood next to it. Its base appeared almost sturdy with its stack of crates, but the further up the tower Sanae looked, the more she saw nothing more solid than bent umbrellas, sofa cushions missing half their stuffing, and indeterminable metal objects holding it together. It made her eye water to see something which so resembled a rubbish heap from the Outside World in Gensokyo. Even assuming the fairies had spent weeks or even months gathering all the refuse together, it still seemed like far too much foreign refuse.
"...It's definitely an incident," she said in a low voice before she could stop herself.
In the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Reimu nod, but by the time she had turned to look at her, Reimu was glaring up at the tower. "The border shouldn't be this porous even around here. Either this is the prank of the century, or..."
"If we're gonna start investigatin', we should start with the obvious." Marisa raised her voice. "Oy! Sunny and co!"
There was no response, but that didn't signify much: for all Sanae knew, the three fairies were all perched upon the branch-like splinter on an old desk sticking out of the heap, shielding themselves from being seen and heard while laughing their heads off.
From the way she raised her eyebrows, Marisa's thoughts ran on a similar track to Sanae's. "What would you say are the odds they're here?"
Reimu stepped in, now so close to the tower she would barely have needed to hold her foot forward to nudge the nearest banana crate. She narrowed her eyes at the same splinter which had drawn Sanae's attention. "One way or another, this heap of rubbish is gone from here before sunset. If you're sitting on top of it, this is your only warning."
There was no response.
Reimu tapped her foot against the ground exactly three times before she let out a huff. "Fine. Let's take it apart."
Marisa let out a low whistle. "Just like that?"
"You heard me."
"It's gonna take us days at the best of times."
"All the more reason to get started now." Reimu reached for a metal pole of with a rotting wooden handle sticking out from between the crates. She gave it a tug, and when that didn't make the object budge, put all her strength into digging her heels into the ground and pulling.
Sanae stared at her, blinking. Reimu was usually only this energetic when money was on the line or else a serious incident was taking place. "Maybe we should start from the top instead?"
Reimu showed no signs of having heard her. She kept wrestling against the crates when, quite abruptly, the tower shuddered and finally dislodged its treasure. She staggered back, then stared at the square of metal at the end of the pole. "...It's a spade."
"I think that's a shovel," Marisa opined.
"And I think you should shove—" But before Reimu could explain exactly what she thought Marisa should shove and where, the tower trembled again. There was a creak like a massive, rusty door being pulled open.
"Woah." Marisa took several steps back, her gaze rising skywards. "Why does the heap suddenly make me think of kanten jelly about to crumbl—"
Everything happened all at once. The tower exploded into a fountain of debris, sprouting rubbish upwards in seeming defiance of even the notion of gravity. Sanae's mouth fell open as she stared at the streams of junk metal and broken furniture spraying through the air.
In Gensokyo, even rubbish can fly...
The reality of the situation slowly seeped in, superimposed against a strange dreamlike feeling that made the world seem like it was moving at half speed. The myriad objects in the air were slowly claimed by gravity and began their equally slow journey towards the ground. A wide-eyed Marisa's raised her hand up more as a symbol of warding herself than as an actual effort to do so. Reimu wasn't doing even that much: her arms had gone completely slack at her sides as she stared at the disaster about to overtake her back garden and possibly the shrine itself.
It was in that moment that Sanae saw the tin bathtub, so ancient it had to be native to Gensokyo rather than a recent import. Like everything else, it was making its way towards the ground. Or, more exactly, it was on its way to land directly on Reimu's head.
Sanae didn't think. For one, there was no time. Secondly, it likely wouldn't have made a difference. In any case, she was already moving when the words of warning finally left her mouth. "Look out!"
The moment the final syllable left her lips was the exact moment she collided into Reimu. The next thing she knew, they were both flying.
At least there's nothing unusual about— was the final thing she thought before suddenly, the world around her went black.
When Sanae next opened her eyes, she felt like she had been hit by a truck. She immediately closed them again and tried not to groan as something cold and wet which made her think she was being nosed by an enormous dog descended upon her forehead.
"I heard you the first time." Reimu's voice was just barely audible above the bells chiming in Sanae's head.
"Oh, hey." Marisa's voice moved closer. "Did she wake up?"
"I think she's been awake for a while now. She kept mumbling about strange things when she was passed out."
Although it hurt, Sanae peeled her eyes back open. Reimu's face hovered above her, framed by a faintly familiar ceiling. "What sort of strange things?"
"Something about comets and... helicopters?" Reimu adjusted what Sanae now recognised as a damp cloth on her brow. "I could barely make it out."
"Do you need help?" That was Marisa again. Sanae couldn't see her, exactly, but there was something black and white moving about in the periphery of her vision.
Reimu frowned at Sanae. "How do you feel?"
"Dizzy." Sanae tried to move, then decided it was much easier to stay put and savour the coolness of the cloth. Weren't damp cloths for fevers? In any case, it felt nice. "What happened?"
"You were nearly crushed by that weird western-style bathtub." Marisa hovered into view. "Feelin' sick?"
"Not really."
"That's good news. I don't mind makin' my way to Eientei if ya need some kinda remedy, but—"
"I think we're fine," said Reimu.
"In that case, it's about time for me to head home." Marisa retrieved her hat and returned back to view to wave at Sanae. "Hope ya recover soon!"
Sanae couldn't be certain, but she thought that just before she left, Marisa winked at her.
As soon as Marisa was gone, Reimu stood up. "I'll get you some water."
"Thank you." Already, Sanae was beginning to feel like herself again. It was like waking up after a particularly bad night of sleep: at first, your thoughts were mush and your limbs lead, but after a while the heaviness always receded. In fact, if not for the way her head kept spinning, she thought she could probably have gotten up and flown home. But then, it was cosy lying there on the futon. She would much rather stay in place until Reimu kicked her out.
As it happened, Reimu didn't seem like she was about to boot her from the shrine grounds right there and then. She seated herself next to Sanae, setting a cup of water on the floor, then began sorting through something just beyond Sanae's vision.
"It's just some trinkets that fell from the heap," she explained as Sanae strained to get up and look at what she was doing. "Most of them are probably worthless, but I hope there's something here worth selling."
Sanae nodded. It made her feel like she was at sea in the middle of a storm, so she settled back down again. She wasn't so parched that she needed to drink at that very moment, anyway. "I don't understand why it blew up like that."
"I think the three idiots booby-trapped it. With them, it's hard to tell if they did it on purpose or by accident."
For a while, Sanae waited for her stomach to settle down and simply watched Reimu work. Eventually, she spotted a purpling bruise on Reimu's right temple. "Did something hit you?"
"This?" Reimu paused to raise her hand to the bruise. "This is from when you tackled me to the ground. I crashed head first into a piece of lumber."
"I'm sorry."
Reimu scoffed. "You should take a look at your own face before dispensing apologies."
"...Is it that bad?"
Reimu's smile was like the first blade of green grass after a long snowy winter. "It's fine. Even with the swelling, you're still you."
She returned to sorting through the trinkets as though she had said nothing unusual. Despite that, and despite the fact Sanae didn't want to get her hopes up when there was no way of knowing whether this sudden return to friendship would persist, the air in the room was suddenly much easier to breathe.
At length, Sanae became aware of a persistent drumming, and looked at the door to see slight shadows moving behind it. "Is that rain?"
"Looks like it."
"Do you think Marisa got home before she got caught in it?"
"Probably." Reimu stood up and peered into the drizzle. "It's going to get worse. You're staying here."
"I'm sorry for the imposition."
"Give it a rest." Reimu's tone was blunt, but when she looked back, her eyes were warm. "Do you think you can eat? I'm going to get dinner started."
Although she wasn't entirely sure she could, Sanae nodded.
Without further ado, Reimu vanished from view.
Sanae breathed in and tried to watch the raindrops through the crack in the door, picturing it turning into a flood and washing away all the clutter she and Reimu would regardless have to deal with later. If anything, the rain would make all the rubbish slippery and harder to grab. But that was a concern for another day. Besides, now she was certain they would find a way to deal with it. In the moment, she was sure that one way or another, they could deal with absolutely anything.