What a truly lovely morning.

Her owner, Satori Komeiji, was asleep, and the reactor was a lovely shade of magma orange that bathed the entire core in its copper light. It was stable, of course. It would take much more than resting for a few hours to destabilize such an advanced core. It was her job to regulate the fires in hell, and she knew she couldn't disobey her owner.

Stretching out, Utsuho examined where she was, wings still flapping despite the raven's slumber. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, and went to look on how the reactor was doing. The gauges said the heat was fine, fusion was steady, and it had enough water to keep the core from melting down. The coolant was working; hopefully no one noticed the accidental change in temperature for a few seconds...

Everything was in check: no damage, no destabilization, nothing. It was going to be a good day today. Maybe, since it was so calm, she could go–

"Not now. You haven't even eaten yet, come."

Satori came in, answering Utsuho before she could even finish her own thought. She knew her owner meant well, but this didn't change the fact that she wanted to go outside. Despite this, she couldn't help but smile; her owner had always been a loving one, so she knew that she had her reasons.

While eating some sunflower seeds (that she accidentally burnt) and other assorted seeds and meats, Satori brushed Utsuho's hair, and preened her feathers for her.

"Hold still. I need to preen you."

The raven couldn't stop bouncing; she always liked these sessions. It felt nice, even if the tangles in her hair and the occasional plucking of a feather hurt, it was nice to be taken care of. She probably would've forgotten to do it herself were she on her own. Plus, the way she was so gentle with her was really relaxing.

"I still want to go outside, Lady Satori," the solar bird pleaded, it'd been far too long

"Fine. The reactor hasn't acted up recently, and you keep bouncing too. Maybe you need to burn off some energy...?"

Utsuho practically squawked she was so ecstatic. Imagining the wind going through her feathers, the nice breeze to cool her off, the sun shining down from the sky and the lush forests below. It was all so beautiful.

"Hey, try not to get too excited. And don't bother anyone, nobody's awake right now."

A cool breeze swept across the terrestrial plane. The morning birds chirped, the sunrise was overcast by the shadows of the forest, and with them, leaves. Too many leaves.

Reimu sighed. Her cleaning duties having been finished early, probably far too early, especially for a shrine that got so few worshippers. She had to keep it nice and presentable for them at the very least.

She walked back to the shrine, and gave a little prayer to that ever-elusive Hakurei god. If they'd just show up, or at least talk to her, it'd make sending faith to them so much easier. But alas, all the miko could do was sigh and make herself a cup of tea. She got up, deciding to go back outside, and took her teacup with her. It wasn't like she was going to spill it.

It was nice to watch the sunrise, it wasn't a sight she'd seen a whole lot, what with focusing on danmaku battles and solving incidents at this hour. She never really got the time to truly intake the colours the sky became as the sun crept its way further up the horizon.

Today was a good da–

*CRUNCH*

Reimu was so startled by this that she twitched and ended up spilling tea on herself. Slamming the door open, she went to investigate whatever that… small earthquake mixed with bones breaking was. As the dust settled from the crash, she slowly was able to make out a stone leg, large, oil black wings, and a cape covering those wings

"Utsuho?"

The raven let out a dazed babble trying to respond, still affected by the whole stone-to-face high-five she'd just been involved in. Before the she could process it, it seemed that she was already being treated by a mysterious red figure. It also seemed like… her nose didn't feel right…

"You okay? You broke your nose pretty bad…"

Utsuho gave a more sober "huh?" response, before a small wave of pain hit her, and then another one accompanied by the sound of cartilage moving, all while Reimu was coming into view.

"Better?"

It took a second for Utsuho to react, but she instantly hugged her in thanks for the help. This came to the chagrin of Reimu, not expecting any physical contact, and especially not a hug that strong either.

"Hey! Hey! You're getting blood on my uniform!"

Reimu pushed the Utsuho off of herself, putting a tissue in her nostrils, to avoid any more crimson staining anything else. Reimu decided that she'd just wipe the blood off of the stones outside of the shrine before changing any of her clothes. She'd probably get blood on it while cleaning, anyways. She kept a close eye on the raven as she walked out, a wooden bucket filled with some water and mop in her hands "Stay here, I need to clean up your impact stains."

"Okay!" Utsuho replied with an almost infectious amount of cheer in her voice.

It took Reimu a lot less time than she'd originally thought it would take for her to clean up the red liquid from her shrine's premises, but it did still eat up a lot of her time. Also, surprisingly, Utsuho stayed inside, even if she was bouncing in place, humming to herself as she waited. She then looked over at the shrine maiden, and gave her wave and a large smile. She's actually kinda cute. Reimu thought. She could see why Satori kept her as a pet.

She let out a large breath, almost as to assure herself that she'd finished the job, and walked back in. She put the bucket near the sink, and the mop close by. She didn't know what to do with all of the bloodied water, but she thought someone might come by and need it for whatever reason. Sometimes, yōkai needed weird things like that.

"Hey, uhh… Are you okay?" Utsuho, looked over responding with "Yeah!" then vigorously nodded her head reassuringly.

To have so much energy… must feel nice… Reimu thought to herself, taking a split second's pause to let her mind wander about. Reimu left the room for a change of clothes, wetted the dirtied outfit, and let it hang outside in the fully risen early morning sun. She then went back over to the table, sat adjacent to Utsuho.

"So, what brought you here?" Reimu asked Utsuho, who in turn tapped her lower lip in thought. "Oh! Um… I was flying, and the wind felt so good through my feathers. I did a flip in the air, and I closed my eyes. Then before I knew it, I crashed into the ground."

The shrine maiden looked at the raven in front of her incredulously, almost annoyed. "So… you flew… with your eyes closed?"

Utsuho rubbed the back of her head, and let out a small, embarrassed chuckle, before closing her eyes then averting herself from looking Reimu in the face.

"Yeah…"

Reimu felt like she was just wasting her time with this birdbrained yokai. Even if this girl wasn't causing an incident… She was getting on this miko's nerves.

"Oh! Also, thank you!"

Utsuho spoke up, catching Reimu off guard. She vaguely remembered her stating this before right after she'd finally finished that hellish mission through former hell. She swore it took a few washes to get all that sweat off of herself. Like last time, though, she was taken aback, and took a few seconds to respond.

"Oh… uh… thanks."

She hoped this satiated Utsuho's cheery pleasantries, and that she could be on her way so that she shrine could be in it's state of eerie, but peaceful solitude. But instead, she felt a bump on the table below her, tipping their cups over. Reimu caught hers in time, but as the Utsuho was stretching, she got tea all over her shirt. Reimu got her a towel, when she locked eyes with… whatever was on Utsuho's chest.

"What's that…?"

"Hmm…? Oh! That's my third eye!" Utsuho chirped.

A third eye… huh. Nevertheless, she helped clean her shirt to some success, but a slight stain remained. It seemed that'd have to be washed out. Even after taking her mind off of it for a bit, Reimu found herself staring at the burning crimson eye.

"You can touch it if you want." The raven replied, even before Reimu could think about asking that question.

She felt like she didn't want to, but the curiosity and the suggestion chewed inwardly at the edges of her consciousness, slowly eating its way to her central focus. After a few moments, she conceded to her curiosities, and went to touch the eye.

It felt a surprising amount like a polished crystal, but, hot, almost burning hot, and her being able to feel a faint pulsing within the eye. It was kinda weird, but, she couldn't stop touching it for some reason, until she got a minor burn on her hand. Utsuho seemed unaware of this though, just smiling and puffing her chest out for ease of access to the eye.

"I can't actually see through it, but if lady Satori says it's a third eye, I guess it is."

Reimu wrapped some bandages around the palm of her hand and some of her fingers while Utsuho mused about the naming of the third eye. Wait, speaking of Satori…

"Hey. Aren't you supposed to be in hell?" Reimu stopped mid-sip to ask, holding her cup out in front of her face.

"No, Lady Satori let me fly out today." Okuu said, her smile being probably one of the largest and most genuine the shrine maiden had ever seen.

"But isn't your job like… heating up hell or something?"

"Oh, nope! I have to cool down the fire and heat in hell by making sure the fusion reactor stays stable. Don't want it overheating or cooling down too much and wasting a bunch of flammable gases." The raven responded matter-of-factly.

"Fusion what?"

"Fusion reactor. It's a big machine thing that uses really powerful magnets to make elemental isotopes like deuterium and tritium or helium-3 heat up and float in mid air. They get really hot and it's like we've made a tiny little sun donut inside the machine, and it gives off a lot of energy. But if it gets too hot, then the magnets melt, and everything just kinda is wasted. Too cold and nothing can smash into each other."

Reimu was completely speechless. She thought the bird was just kinda stupid, but here she was, saying words that she had absolutely no idea what in the hell they were supposed to mean. She just took a loud sip, hoping it would end the hell avian's radioactive fusion lesson and they could talk about things Reimu actually knew anything about, but Utsuho didn't notice this.

What finally brought an end to the lecture was the fact that the shrine maiden's stomach roared, probably from skipping too many meals for the past week due to an even further dip in the shrine's popularity. She wished she could get into better contacts with her seemingly silent god, but she couldn't, and the fact that she wasn't exactly the most social person didn't help get her shrine any popularity, either. Maybe she should try praying to the god again soon?

She snapped back to reality after spacing out for a bit, and had a concerned bird looking back at her. Why was she concerned? It wasn't like she needed any help with much. Really, she can handle herself alone pretty well, plus, she liked being alone, no one to force you to do anythin–

*GROWL*

Her stomach spoke once more. Sighing, Reimu got up and went to get some food, but when she looked in, there was no food left. The search wasn't over yet, and so, she walked over to the donations box, opened it and…

Nothing.

Another sigh, and slumping over a bit, she placed the covering on the box again, and walked back inside when her advance was halted by a sudden large shadow. The miko opened her eyes just soon enough not to smack the top of her head into Utsuho's third eye. This sudden appearance elicited a shriek and some backwards stumbling from Reimu, before regaining her balance.

"Wanna come over to the reactor? I could get lady Satori to get you food." The raven beamed.

Food with the mind reader…? She didn't fancy that. People messing or reading her thoughts kinda felt like an invasion of privacy, but at least she didn't have to talk… Then again, she didn't have anything to eat, but she could probably ask Marisa for a mushroom or something lik–

Suddenly her wrist was grasped, and the shrine maiden was lifted into the air.

"Don't worry Reimu. You don't seem to be feeling very well, so I'll bring you to our palace. Lady Satori always knows what to do when I'm not feeling good."

Suddenly Reimu felt like she was flying at hyperspeed, and the wind threatening to weaken her grasp. Even still, the Utsuho was pretty strong, so the only thing she'd need to worry about is going so fast that her arm dislocated. It seemed like an encounter with the mind reader was inevitable then…

Author's note:

Hey. This is my first fanfic ever, so sorry if it's a bit sloppy ;u; . Any pointers on how I could improve would be appreciated.