The village is in quite a buzz by the time you arrive with Santa. Following the crowd to the focal point, you find Chen standing around looking worried while Cupid and another unfamiliar horned youkai in front of a large, red sled looking contraption. Looks like another reindeer was found already, in any case, and this big thing must be Santa's as well, since the two reindeer are sitting on it. The new girl must have been loitering around the village in that case. Shoulder length dirty blonde hair, loose white half-shirt with puffy sleeves over a red leotard, and red and white baggy breeches over the legs. You fly over the crowd with Santa, and a few people in the crowd see you and point you out, and a cheer arises from the crowd, and Cupid once again spots the two of you and flies up to meet you.
“Santa! We found another one!” she cheers, circling the large man.
“I can see that,” he says as the lot of you land, “which of my reindeer are you?”
“Dancer, Mr. Claus,” the girl replies with a slight bow, “I wouldn't expect you to recognize me like this.” Santa nods in acceptance, then rubs the girls head, she smiles at the gesture.
“Excuse me,” a voice rises out of the crowd, and you look back to see a strange box floating through the mass of people. Oh no, it's just Keine's hat. “Pardon me!” she seems to have some trouble getting through the crowd, but with some effort she does break the inner circle and enter the clearing that has formed around the dragon statue, the landmark near where all this is happening.
“Hello Keine,” you say with a slight nod.
“Good morning Reimu!” she says, sounding a little tired, “I'm surprised to see you in town so early, and with someone like this no less.” You smile a bit, for once someone is actually acknowledging your presence over that of Santa.
“Well, I've got a duty to solve problems, right? I think this would count,” you state proudly.
“Would you mind too terribly if I talk to him for a while?” Keine asks, looking over at Santa.
“You want to sit in his lap too?” you muse, smirking all the while.
“Wha- No!” Keine fumes, blushing slightly. She must have thought of it after all. “I mean, he's such an ancient figure from the outside, he must be an amazing source of history, and I can hear about it from someone that lived through it, rather than just in the occasional book.”
“Ah, about work then,” you say. It makes sense, though you do suspect that's not the whole reason she wants to talk to him. “Well, he's probably going to be hanging around town from now on, so you can talk to him as much as you like, but...”
“But...?” Keine repeats with a curious tone.
“The reindeer girls here have been talking about him, haven't they?” you ask, looking around at the crowd.
“They were telling stories about him, yes, but I didn't think that he'd be here too,” she says.
“Well, all the reindeer are here, it seems, and whoever brings them all back gets their hearts desire,” you say quietly, spreading the word to Keine. Her eyes light up at the sound of that, guess she's not above greed either.
“That sounds quite tempting,” Keine says, looking out over the crowd. “This is open to anyone?”
“Of course,” you say, patting her on the shoulder, “you can join the fun too.”
“It wouldn't be proper of me to abandon the town for my own goals, but... really anything I want?” Keine asks, seemingly in conflict over it all.
“Well, he probably can't pull history out of his bag,” you say with a grin. Keine smiles back.
“I suppose it wouldn't hurt to just take a quick look around the outskirts of the forest,” Keine reasons, stepping away, “I'm going to talk with Santa for a bit first though. I'll see you later Reimu.”
“Sure thing,” you say as Keine hurries off. You look around a bit more at the people surrounding the area, looking to see if there's anyone else you recognize in the crowd. You notice a rather unique pair of ears sticking out above the crowd, and a particularly haggard looking rabbit trying to see through the sea of people. Soon enough, Reisen too breaks from the surrounding wall of people.
“Ugh,” she groans as she gets free, “too many people all gathered up like this,” she complains.
“Good to see you too Reisen,” you greet her normally.
“What's all this commotion Reimu? Something happening?” she asks. Right, Reisen's from the moon originally, she probably doesn't know a thing about Christmas or Santa.
“You could say that, it's another incident,” you say, half-turning to look back at the small group of people gathered. “That big man in red is Santa Claus. He's some important man in the outside world, and he needs to be out of Gensokyo by nightfall so he can deliver gifts to all the children of the world. He has a team of reindeer that pull him around, but they've all become youkai and scattered. Whoever collects them gets whatever they desire most,” you explain the situation. Reisen scratches one of her ears, looking contemplative.
“He travels around the world in one night?” she asks, sounding confused. “That isn't even possible by Lunarian technology, and all to give gifts?”
“I don't really know either,” you sigh, shrugging, “but it's what he says, and a few people seem to support it. He seems to be backed by Yukari as well, which is a frightening thought if I think about it.” Reisen blinks in surprise.
“That is a bit unusual,” Reisen says, looking at the man past you, “you think he could be up to trouble?” You chuckle a bit.
“Come on Reisen, even I'm not that trigger happy,” you say, “he seems to be the genuine thing. He's backed by magic, so I don't really doubt his word. He's been doing this for a very long time as well.” Reisen still seems a little confused by the whole idea, but doesn't press on the topic anymore.
“Still, what about that cat?” Reisen says, looking towards the group again. You're confused at first, thinking she means Chen, but then you notice a fairly large black and red cat crouching inside the dragon statue, looking down at Santa.
“That's another thing altogether,” you say, walking over to the statue. The cat doesn't notice you until it's too late, and you grab her by the scruff of the neck and lift her up despite her protesting yowls. A flash of light radiates from the cat, and you drop it. Rin transforms into her youkai body on impact.
“Ehehe, hi Reimu,” Rin says, looking up from her seat on the snowy ground.
“What are you up to out here?” you ask, crossing your arms and trying to look like you mean business.
“I wanted to play above ground, what, is that a crime?” she complains, standing and brushing off the snow that's sticking to her.
“Just behave yourself,” you say, taking a step back.
“Hey, wait,” Rin takes a few steps forward. “What is all this anyway? What's going on?” And great, Rin doesn't know either. You're already tired of repeating yourself though.
“Ask Chen, she'll tell you, that other cat there,” you brush her off, putting the load on Chen. Rin looks back at Chen, then to you.
“Alright,” she says, turning and bounding off. You look back at Reisen.
“What about you?” you ask.
“Eh? Me? Nothing?” Reisen replies in a confused manner.
“You're not going to do anything about this?” you continue questioning.
“Well... I'll keep an eye out,” Reisen says, looking back at Santa's group, “I don't really think I could be given what I want most...”
“Spread the word then,” you say. “Tell others. The faster this gets done, the better.”
“I guess I could do that,” Reisen says thoughtfully, “I should get going anyway, I'm out of medicine for the day.”
“Alright then,” you say, taking a step away, “see you around.”
“Goodbye,” Reisen says, flying off over the crowd. As you see her leaving, more people catch your attention in the air. Sanae, returning with Kanako, Suwako and even Aya. Why not bring the entire mountain? The group greets you as they descend, but Kanako seems the most anxious of the lot of them.
“That's him, right?” Kanako asks, being among one of the few so far that have ignored one red-white in favour of another. “The real Santa?”
“Sanae said it was, didn't she?” Suwako says, looking up at Kanako.
“I need to talk to him,” Kanako says, sounding eager, her eyes are practically shining. Without hesitation, she rushes off ahead to meet the man, leaving a sighing Suwako and smiling Sanae behind.
“It's nice to see Kanako being so youthful,” Sanae sighs.
“You mean acting like a kid, right? I thought that was my game,” Suwako sighs, crossing her arms. “Is she really a goddess? I can't tell.”
“So you brought everyone down, because...?” you ask, looking at Sanae. She smiles a bit.
“Well, I know Kanako wanted to meet him after I mentioned him being here. She said she wanted to learn his secrets about acquiring faith,” Sanae explains, and you sigh.
“I'm here on business!” Aya chips in, waving her notebook. “Something like this has got to be in the news, and I might even get a new camera out of it.” Aya's put her position out in the open so quickly.
“So everyone knows about the offer made, right?” you ask in general, not directing towards anyone in particular.
“Yep,” Suwako says simply, “I thought it would be fun to get out and stretch my legs a bit too, meet him myself as well, but Kanako is all about getting the kind of belief he gets.” You can't help but smirk.
“He wouldn't be here right now if he really did get that kind of belief she wants,” you state. Suwako mirrors your smirk.
“Well, I couldn't exactly tell her that part, it would crush her spirit,” Suwako says.
“Have you gone looking for any more reindeer?” Sanae asks you. You shake your head in response. “Then, shall we go together?”
“I suppose we could,” you say, looking at Aya and then Suwako.
“I'm going to stay with Kanako,” Suwako says, “a big kid like her, I feel like a mother all over again.”
“I'm going to try to get an interview, then get back to the mountain,” Aya says.
“Everyone seems to have their plans, then,” you say. You're glad things are turning out like this. While technically you only wanted to foil Marisa's greed at first by spreading the word, seeing so many people pitch in help to the situation is a nice thing. Namely, you won't have to work as hard. Now, so long as no one else tries to get in your way...
“Reimu?” Sanae breaks your train of thought.
“Ah, yes?” you ask.
“Should we get going? We shouldn't waste time,” she says. You nod in approval. You really don't have the time to waste if you want to get this over with.
Choose order
[] Sanae & Reimu
[] Kanako & Suwako
[] Aya & Momizi
[] Chen & Orin
[] Keine & Mokou
[] Reisen & Tewi
[] Flandre & Meiling
[] Patchouli & Koakuma
[] Remilia & Sakuya
[] Marisa & Alice
([] ??? & ???)
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>>108670 It's when I get comments like this that I really enjoy writing the most. I like to see people enjoying my work, I'm glad you like it!
Now, I'm presenting the only choice in this story now, the order you want to see the pairs individual scenes. There are 10 choices, and 7 reindeer left to find, so not everyone will meet one. The 11th choice is not a write in, but an optional extra scene.
Three votes is all that's needed, though I will continue to write scenes and post them if no consensus is reached. This is solely to decide the order if there's a preferred one, otherwise they'll be in an order of my choosing.