"Snow Sign 'Diamond Blizzard'!"
Spell Cards—a fighting style that seemed to belong to Gensokyo.
A dense curtain of icy danmaku rained down, only to be shattered in a single blast by the colossal mana channeled through Yimi's spear.
"Cirno-chan!"
This so-called Strongest of Gensokyo sure was weak. Just like the Yonko back in the seafaring world—nothing but…
"A ragtag bunch," the System helpfully supplied from its limited vocabulary bank.
The little cat planted her spear in the ground and vaulted into the air.
…
Five minutes later.
"What are you going to do to me?! Let go, you stinky ferret!"
The cat grabbed the blue fairy by the ankle and dragged her up the stone steps, planning to hand her over to Reimu in exchange for cat food. Being a kind-hearted kitty, she even kept Cirno hanging off the side of the steps to avoid bumping her head—while casually transferring the fatigue in her arms to Kasen Ibaraki over on Youkai Mountain.
"Please let Cirno go! I'm sorry, we were wrong! We'll never play pranks again!" Daiyousei chased after them in a panic.
"What, you actually won?" Reimu sipped her tea, unbothered, having just finished eating.
"Here." Yimi handed Cirno over.
"Idiot! Moron! Let me go or I'll make you pay, you dummy!" The ice fairy, sporting a fresh lump on her head, was as lively as ever.
"Quiet."
Reimu pulled out a length of rope, grabbed the fairy by her stubby little legs, tied them together, and strung her upside-down from a tree branch.
Then she tore off a strip of paper, scrawled "Gensokyo's Notorious Idiot" on it, and stuck it to Cirno's back.
"Dai-chan, save me!"
"Uuu… Cirno." Daiyousei, who'd come running after them, looked like she was about to cry.
"If you dare untie her within the hour, I'm feeding both of you to Genjii." Reimu shooed Daiyousei off with a threat, then turned to Yimi.
The kid was standing there with her hands on her hips, puffed up like a balloon for no discernible reason.
"?"
"I beat the Strongest." Yimi reached up and patted Reimu. "Step aside and let me take over."
"You're dreaming. You actually believe everything she says?" Reimu dug the frozen frogs out of the donation box with a look of disgust, pried open Cirno's collar, and tossed them in.
"Ngh…"
Witnessing this act of cruelty, the little cat clutched her own clothes and took a step back. She'd eaten ice pops before and made a fuss out in the winter—she knew exactly what that felt like.
"Why are you looking at me like that? You ever heard of an ice fairy being afraid of the cold?"
Besides, fairies didn't die of natural causes no matter what you did to them. Maybe that was exactly why these dimwitted creatures loved pulling pranks so much—like chucking rocks at passersby.
"Then who is the Strongest?" the little cat asked.
"I'm the Strongest!" Cirno was still hollering.
"No idea, and even if I did I wouldn't tell you. Last thing I need is you smashing someone's windows and them blaming me for it."
That damn Yukari, foisting an underage babysitting gig on her.
Reimu pressed a hand onto Yimi's head and turned her around. "Stop looking at the idiot. Stupidity's contagious."
"You're the idiot! Red-White idiot!" Cirno kept yelling.
Reimu pretended not to hear and headed for the steps.
"Are you going out to play?" Yimi scurried after her.
"I'm going for a walk around the Human Village. You stay here and guard the house—don't let the fairies trash everything." Reimu pulled out a mirror to check her reflection, making sure she didn't look too haggard. "If I don't show my face somewhere crowded soon, people are really going to think I'm on my deathbed."
She left.
And she wouldn't even let the cat go out. Yimi had wanted to go find Chen and get some of her never-ending catnip.
Yimi reached out and gave the dangling Cirno a push, watching her swing back and forth cursing up a storm.
"Stinky ferret!"
"Don't touch her…" Daiyousei tried to intervene.
Boring.
The little cat pulled out the textbooks Keine-sensei had given her, determined to study hard for the sake of becoming the Hakurei Shrine Maiden.
"Heave-ho, gotcha Da☆Ze!" Suddenly someone grabbed her from behind.
Marisa scooped her up and spun her around.
"Who are you?" Yimi quickly wriggled free.
"I'm Reimu's best friend. I promised her yesterday I'd help look after you." Marisa struck a strange pose, then placed a bag in Yimi's hands.
"I had a friend custom-make these dresses for you. As a girl, you've gotta dress up nice and pretty!"
Yimi opened the bag and peeked inside. The contents were neatly folded, but it wasn't hard to tell—it was a miniature version of Reimu's outfit, and underneath it lay a miniature version of Marisa's.
"Go on, try them on inside." Marisa nudged Yimi toward the shrine, then glanced around in confusion at the wooden table. "Where's Reimu? She shouldn't be running around when she's not feeling well."
"She said she needed to go for a walk so people wouldn't think she was dying." Yimi fiddled with the unfamiliar outfit, trying to figure out how to put it on. It was actually pretty simple—the tricky part was threading her tail through the hole in the back.
"She's really…" Marisa clutched her chest in shock and sorrow.
She'd read about this kind of thing in those little storybooks at Kourindou's shop. A king enduring terrible illness, forcing himself to appear before his people so they wouldn't panic.
Marisa squeezed Yimi's small hand and had her lie down on the cushion, then grabbed her tail and helped her pull the outfit on. Carefree as ever, it never even crossed her mind that this particular outfit might imply anything about succeeding Reimu—she just figured a cat raised by Reimu ought to wear what Reimu wore. As for why there was also an outfit matching her own, well, that was simply a matter of taste.
She took a deep breath. "Got it. From now on, if you don't understand anything, just ask your big sister Marisa. And if Reimu's ever… not around anymore, I'll be the closest person you have."
"So where can I find catnip?" Yimi launched right into her question.
"Uh… what's catnip?" Marisa scratched her cheek, embarrassed.
So that's the secret behind the Hakurei Shrine Maiden's power—this magical tool? Had she just stumbled onto classified information?
"It's a kind of grass that makes you feel floaty when you smell it, and it's really nice to chew on."
"Never heard of it. Something that smells floaty… you mean fragrant?" Marisa thought for a moment. "The only really fragrant place I can think of, besides restaurants, would be the Garden of the Sun. But it's wall-to-wall sunflowers there—I've got no idea if there's any grass that smells nice."
"The Garden of the Sun? Where's that?"
"It's kind of far. First you go through the Human Village, and then past that there's the Forest of Magic…" Marisa crouched beside Yimi and pointed out the way.
"The lady who lives there isn't exactly friendly, but if it's you and you're polite, it should be fine."
"Got it." Yimi patted her, mimicking Reimu from earlier. "I'm going to the Garden of the Sun. You stay here and guard the house."
"Huh?"
The little cat gave the still-cursing Cirno one last push and bolted, pausing by the pond to poke Genjii with her gohei on the way out.
Genjii: "…"
"Ah, whatever. I'll just wait here for Reimu." Marisa sat down dejectedly on the edge of the shrine. For the first time in her life, she tossed a few coins into the donation box, clapped her hands, and made a wish.
Please keep Reimu healthy.
Gensokyo's map was absolutely enormous. Never mind the former Hell or the Netherworld—even just the surface area was hardly something the word "village" could cover.
Without a map, walking on a child's short legs, it was a very, very long journey. Fortunately, she never strayed off course.
She'd noticed from the information she'd seen back in the previous world—her Luck rating was also EX: unquantifiable.
"Catnip, catnip, catnip catnip…"
Humming a little tune of her own invention, the miniature shrine maiden swung her gohei and found her way to the Garden of the Sun.