Many umbrellas
Lost without a second thought
Never recovered

“It’s spring!”

…It’s pretty late to announce that. Licorice watched as a fairy flew by, announcing the coming of spring to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The season had seemingly passed by without much rain, which was good for our heroine. Rain meant mud; mud meant that the garden path had to be cleaned even more thoroughly.

Now, with the slow arrival of summer, meant the arrival of much humidity and heat. This was quite displeasing to Licorice, who was only used to dry summers. Breathing was difficult, the constant noise of crickets made one go mad, and she constantly needed to take a break from work to fetch water. This was like Hell, except Hell was a real place (according to Patchouli, Reimu had once ventured there and beat up some of its inhabitants) and she was currently supposedly on Gensokyo.

Licorice intended to go back to work after having seen the errant fairy announcing the spring, but something strange happened. The once clear sky was covered by clouds, and rainfall quickly came along with them. It wasn’t raining cats and dogs, nay, it was raining giant whales and dragons. It was as if all the water left unfallen from the dry spring had suddenly sprung forth.

The flowers and trees suddenly bloomed, and spring finally and truly came to the Scarlet Devil Mansion in an unprecedented manner. Licorice ran around frantically, trying to find the closest space where she could save herself from the sudden rain. She found a small pavilion in the garden, where she took shelter while praying for the rain to be over soon.

“God, I know I haven’t been amongst the best of your flock. But, in this time of crisis, I beg of you to stop this damnable rain. Or, at least, send me an umbrella or something. You can at least do that, right?” Licorice looked up to the sky, but no divine umbrellas fell down. “Come on, you must have a few umbrellas to spare up there in Heaven!” Still, no umbrellas, parasols, or clear weather. “Fine, keep being a stingy old git, won’t you?” The Heavens above her only responded with even more rain, as if God himself was giving the finger to the human below him.

Licorice tapped her foot at the wooden pavilion floor, crossing her arms while waiting for the rain to end. She then slowly began marching in a circle around the pavilion while her arms were still crossed. Our heroine was bored out of her mind.

“Boo!” A voice suddenly rang out from behind her.

“Bog, mamka ma du eb- Ow!” Licorice jumped from surprise, hitting her head on one of the posts holding up the roof of the pavilion. “Hasikter!” Our heroine lost her balance and found herself crashing onto the ground.

In front of our grounded heroine was a girl, smiling in a victoriously cheerful manner. “Yes! I finally managed to get a human!” Despite her effect of causing great fear to our heroine, Licorice’s unexpected guest looked as non-threatening as anyone could ever look. She was a young woman, around the height of Licorice, with her short hair and dress composed of a light blue color that reminded our heroine of the clear sky. Her eyes were unusual, in that one of them was the same sky blue while the other was a deep red. She carried an umbrella, colored purple in a manner reminding an eggplant, which had one eye printed on top of it and a large tongue freakishly hanging out below that one eye.

“Why the- Who are you?!” Licorice hastily took out the emergency frying pan from under her apron. She pointed it towards her foe, as if she was wielding a sword of legend that’d smite her opponent.

Licorice’s opponent took a few steps backwards and sideways, expecting to be shot by a blast of danmaku. She had closed her eyes in anticipation of being annihilated. “Forgive me, Lady Sakuya!”

“Lady Sakuya?” Licorice could guess what was happening. “I’m not the head maid.”

“You aren’t Sakuya? I thought that the only human maid around these parts was that a woman named Sakuya.” The girl with the umbrella quickly became more at ease. “So, you’re just some ordinary human? Though, ordinary people don’t get this scared of me anymore…” She also became a bit depressed upon the mention of unscared humans. “Are you fine? I didn’t break anything, did I?”

Licorice got up from the floor with the help of the strange girl, dusting off her own dress as she did. Our heroine returned the pan to where it belonged under her apron. This girl seemed to be of the youkai kind, judging from her referring to humans as a separate species, fighting her would be pointless and potentially life-threatening for Licorice. “I’m fine, don’t worry. I’m Sakuya’s coworker, Licorice Meidou. Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

“I’m Kogasa Tatara, former umbrella, current human-scarer.” Kogasa bowed to Licorice in greeting as she gave her odd job description. “A youkai needs to eat, and your fear is what I eat! Let me add, your fear today was the best that I’ve tasted in a while. Thank you for the meal, miss! I’ll probably be unable to taste anything for a while, you know…”

First my blood type, now my fear… Am I destined to become youkai food or something? “I see…” Licorice noticed the giant umbrella that Kogasa was holding. “Say, could you help me with a little something?”

“Hm? Of course, as long as it is something that I can do. Not that a measly weakling youkai like me can do much…” Kogasa’s emotions seemed to go to and fro like a metronome, between being cheerful and depressed.

“I need to go back to the mansion as soon as possible.” Licorice was getting peckish, and the rain showed no signs of stopping. “Could you lend me your umbrella? I really need it.”

“You need…” Kogasa made a squealing noise out of excitement. “You need me?! An umbrella?! Really?!” She spun around in another over-the-top show of cheer. “Oh, it’s been so long since I’ve actually done my real job as an umbrella! Or, well, nobody actually ever used me, so I guess this is my first time…”

Licorice was taken aback by the dramatics of Kogasa, but she had gotten used to dealing with youkai by now. “So… Umbrella?” She extended her hand to take Kogasa’s umbrella, only for Kogasa to draw it back.

“Sorry but…” Kogasa protected the umbrella with her arms, clutching it tightly. “…this umbrella is part of my body, I’m the umbrella and the umbrella is me. It’d be like if I requested you to give your legs to me.”

These youkai sure do have weird anatomy… I guess she’s supposed to be the embodiment of an umbrella? “Then I’d like it if you could accompany me, protect me from the rain, you know, the usual stuff that umbrellas do.”

“Yes, ma’am!” Kogasa quickly marched next to Licorice, and held her umbrella up high to cover both of them. Her smile reached from one side of her face to the next. “You shall not have one drop of rain reach you!”

Licorice promptly lead herself and Kogasa out of the rain, and toward the Scarlet Devil Mansion’s main building. The wooden sandals of the cheerful umbrella clopped and sloshed through the yard as the pair slowly walked. Licorice watched the garden that had already become a muddy mess that’d take a long time to sort out with a displeased look on her face.

Thanks to Kogasa’s generous protection, Licorice found herself without a drop of water on her outfit by the time she reached the gate. Our heroine opened the gate, before turning around to thank her umbrella (which was an action that she never thought she’d ever have to take). “Thank you for your… Are you crying?”

She also never thought that she’d see an umbrella crying.

“It’s just- It’s just that-” Kogasa paused to sniffle a bunch of times. “Waah!” The not-so-cheerful umbrella jumped toward Licorice, hugging her tightly. Perhaps a bit too tightly, Kogasa was a youkai and Licorice was a puny human. Our poor heroine could hear concerning noises come out of her ribcage. “I’ve always wanted to do this!”

Young lady, it’s not even been an hour since we’ve met. Licorice didn’t exactly know how to react to someone who was basically a stranger react to her so emotionally. She instinctively embraced Kogasa back, out of a sense of pity and not wanting to be the one making this situation turn awkward by not hugging back. Our heroine was now covered in the rain water that was dripping down from Kogasa’s umbrella (or were they tears?).

After a few more minutes of crying, Kogasa retreated back from Licorice. “Are you fine now?”

“Yeah! Finer than I’ve ever been!” The metronome that was Kogasa had returned back to being cheerful. “Thank you, miss! If you ever need an umbrella again, don’t hesitate to call me!” Before Licorice could thank Kogasa for her service, the cheerful umbrella had already flown off to the distance.

Licorice took this moment of calm to examine herself. All that water from the umbrella… It probably wouldn’t have differed much if I had just decided to wing it and go out in the rain without her. Not to mention… She disgustedly gazed at her shoulders, where Kogasa had just rested. …Is this snot? Can sapient umbrellas produce snot?

Having safely made it into the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Licorice made her way for the kitchen without further thought. Not only did she need food, she also needed water to cleanse herself of youkai snot.