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It is quite literally impossible to win a staring contest against a plush toy. But at this very moment, Sanae sure looked like she was trying to.
The plush currently staring blankly back at her had a red ribbon, brown hair, red clothes, and a cutely tired expression on its round, large face.
It was a plush of Reimu. Hakurei Reimu. Renowned Incident Resolver and infamous shrine maiden of paradise, Hakurei Reimu, was staring at Kochiya Sanae. The plush version, of course.
Sanae stared at it with pursed lips, but the expression was more directed at herself than anyone else. Of many questions and thoughts running through her head, there were three in particular that she cycled back to over and over.
Why did I buy this?
What am I going to do with this?
WHY is it so cute?
Indeed, some of the most pressing questions of the modern age.
Sanae had been at Kourindou, at one of her regular visits in search of some magazines or books to keep her updated on the world she once lived in, although that was just the excuse for her to go around looking for some bittersweet nostalgia.
But that one time, for whatever reason, there was this plush just sitting there, on a counter nestled in the corner.
After some blur of a conversation that Sanae had that involved moments that Sanae couldn't remember and moments she refused to remember, she found herself here, staring at this… cute little thing.
She vaguely remembered Rinnouske mentioning it wasn’t actually made in Gensokyo, so at the very least she wouldn’t have to worry about any magicians suddenly popping through a door and asking to take it back after a completely different magician decided to steal and then pawn it off for whatever reason.
So it’s just a normal plush of Reimu. Now in her room. Staring at her from across her bed.
Sanae had already run through several scenarios in her head.
She couldn’t sell it back, even if she was sure Rinnosuke would’ve been fine with her returning it, she ran the risk of anyone seeing her on the way back. Granted, not many people visited that store, but of the few regulars who did… Nope, not an option at all. Sanae would die if she got caught with it.
That last condition also meant she couldn’t go out with it at all. Some tengu might pop out and catch her doing… Anything with it. Throwing it away, hiding it in a bush, discreetly trading it away, or just flat out handing it to a fairy, Aya could pop out of a bush and take one photo while planning out some new nightmare article.
And both of those options have a far more important problem: Sanae couldn’t bring herself to get rid of it. The idea of something happening to it, like if it got torn or drenched in mud, gave her a strange jolt of worry. Besides, there are some living dolls out there that’d probably get mad at her, and dealing with a Tsukumogami using a Hakurei Reimu plush sounds like… a different sort of nightmare to deal with.
So now Sanae’s here, in her room, still staring at it with her eyebrows tensed and questions in her head.
I should put this in my closet, she thought, still staring at it. She still had a couple of plushies on her actual bed, like a little Pikachu plush from her days in the outside world, and a frog plush with a white snake coiled around its neck like a scarf that Suwako had gotten for her and Kanako “improved” for her. She loved them so much; both the plushes and the gods who raised her. Sometimes just hugging the plushies as she drifted off to sleep. Something to hug in bed is a nice thing to have on a rainy day.
But sometimes those two gods she loved so much could be insensitive. If at any point, either of them walked in and saw this adorable plush of Sanae’s rival shrine maiden,... Sanae didn’t even want to imagine. She couldn’t actually, but she just knew that it was a conversation she absolutely did NOT want to deal with.
Besides, the plush was maybe a bit too small to hug comfortably in bed. And hugging a plush of Reimu as she drifted to sleep… was an idea that had Sanae blushing so red she could feel her cheeks burning. So it can’t be on the bed, the temptation would be too strong.
So she should just put it in the closet. She could probably avoid the shikigami problem if she maybe..,. patted its head once in a while. Or made a nice little spot for it on top of her clothes drawer. With some flowers and a nice little stand. Maybe that was too much, actually. Maybe she should just do the head pat thing. And hug it sometimes. Just real close… on a day that Sanae maybe felt particularly lonely, or a day when her mind wandered to the red-white shrine maiden and she just needed a little comfort, and maybe to imagine a world where she was hugging Reimu for real, and now her face was a tomato again. Great.
But the closet was the best idea for now. Sanae finally stood up, and delicately picked up Reimu (the plush). It was light… a bit more huggable than Sanae thought at first, perhaps. And up close… yeah, it really was a cute plush. That funny tired face on it reminded her of a slightly bored yet calm Reimu… sitting in front of her shrine and drinking tea in the light under a gentle breeze of cherry petals.
No one was coming in… No one was looking… No one except Sanae. Sanae could walk up to Reimu, say hi, and maybe just sit next to her, taking in the soft wind as it carried pink into the sky. And maybe she could lean in close to her, getting caught up in that comfortable silence, their faces close together. And maybe Reimu would know what she wanted, and Sanae could see Reimu’s face get closer to hers, as she closed her eyes, and Sanae would close her eyes too and leaned in and then their lips-
“Hey, Sanae, whatcha doing?”
Within a second, Sanae processed several things. First of all, she just pressed her lips up against the Reimu plush. Second of all, the small frog god that she loved so much just barged into her room. Third of all, before she even processed the first two events, she had flung the plush directly into her bed instead of any attempt to hide it.
“NOTHING!”
“Huh… I see, I see.”
Unfortunately for Sanae, Suwako knew full well that Sanae was not doing “nothing.” Sanae was definitely doing “something.” And that something put a knowing, teasing smirk on Suwako’s face. The kind of smirk that put true terror in Sanae’s heart.
“No, no, wai-”
Suwako didn’t even let Sanae finish her sentence before she bounded out the door, yelling “Kanako! You’re not gonna believe this!”
“Hey, what’s up with the plush?”
Marisa sat comfortably underneath the kotatsu, head resting on the table of it, as she suddenly popped that question after her eyes landed on a green plush on Reimu’s wardrobe.
“Oh that? I saw it at Kourindou and thought it was cute.”
It was a plush of a green-haired girl, a snake coiling around one strand of her hair and a frog pin atop her round head. It had round eyes, a smile on its face, and a white and blue shrine maiden outfit.
“Is that Sanae?”
“Yeah. Apparently it came from the outside world. Weird, right?”
“Yeah…”
Marisa turned her head to Reimu, her lips deviously curved upwards.
“What, do you have a crush on her?”
Reimu calmly turned the page of her book as she responded curtly and simply.
“Any more questions like that and I kick you out.”
“Fair, my bad.” Marisa put her hands up, dropped her metaphorical weapons on the ground and closed her eyes, just in time to miss the slight pink dusting Reimu’s cheeks.