Stardew Valley of Gensokyo

A dutiful wooden door can't block anything except the air.

Before the person arrives, their voice precedes them.

Akina Sawa, who had been forcibly pulled back from the brink of sleep, also opened his eyes with difficulty.

What comes into view are two delicate and bright golden hairs.

Huh? Why are there two ends? Am I delirious from the fever? Akina Ze also wondered if he had developed double vision from the fever.

"Mr. Akina, are you alright?" Alice looked at Akina Zeya on the hospital bed with concern. It was the first time she had visited a friend who was sick.

Shanghai and Penglai also floated in the air, and the little puppets tilted their heads, showing a hint of worry.

"Cough cough, it's alright..." Akina Ze forced a few smiles.

His face was deathly pale, which clearly indicated that he was not alright.

"Hey, Marisa," Alice's usually gentle voice carried a rare hint of reproach.

"Mr. Akina is a patient right now. It's not appropriate for you to kick the door down and disturb him."

"Hehe," Marisa scratched her head, her amber eyes darting around playfully. "Alice, why do you say that? I've come to visit Master Akina!"

As she spoke, Marisa sat down on the edge of the bed and began massaging Akina Sawa's shoulders. It was a picture of deep affection between master and disciple.

Even though he was a patient, Akina Sawa felt as if his shoulder was being clamped by pliers.

"Tch, we came here to resolve the anomaly..."

Alice pouted and glanced at the distant iceberg.

“Alright, let’s go and deal with the incident!” Marisa said, standing up with a determined look on her face, as if she wasn’t the one who had forced her way into Akina’s house to torture the patient with pliers.

...I'm really defeated by you," Alice sighed, rubbing her forehead in silence. She knew all about the blonde girl's little tricks.

"By the way, Master Akina."

Marisa pulled a small, dark green box from a pocket somewhere on her skirt and placed it on the bedside table.

"This is medicine for a cold, make sure you take it carefully~"

After saying that, Marisa turned to Alice who was standing beside her and said...

"Let's go, it's time to teach those bastards a lesson."

Although there was some concern about Akina Zeya's health, the situation in the village would become more serious if it dragged on any longer.

The heat emanating from the iceberg exceeded what the village could withstand, and the late-ripening crops could not withstand the onslaught of the cold wind.

We need to resolve this quickly!

I think back to the children who often came to see my puppet shows.

Alice clasped her hands to her chest, turned back for one last look at Akina Zeya, and then left with Marisa...

The small house, which had inexplicably become noisy, inexplicably fell silent again.

The north wind, which served as background noise, gradually took over the cabin.

The weariness of illness came one after another, and my clear thinking slowly sluggished, as darkness gradually enveloped my entire consciousness...

Before completely losing consciousness, a sudden thought stirred up a ripple.

Marisa hasn't explained how to use this medicine yet, has she?

Akina Sawa also fell asleep.

Volume Four: The Serenity of Winter

Chapter One: I promise, this will be the last time!

Akina Sawa slept for a long time. Before he could even come to his senses, the autumn festival was over, and winter had arrived.

Outside, snowflakes the size of goose feathers fell silently, the wind had lost its usual strength, and all things were desolate.

In the warm little house, Akina Ze sat comfortably by the kotatsu, skillfully peeling an orange with his mouth.

"Ultimately, autumn was just too short and there wasn't much of a lively atmosphere. It was over before I even realized it."

Akina Sawa casually complained about how short autumn was, but his attention was actually drawn to the bright yellow oranges in front of him.

Some people have certain principles that are not understood by others, and the situation before us is one of those inexplicable principles that Akina Sawaya has been insisting on.

Peel the oranges using only your mouth, never using your hands!

But peeling a whole orange using only your mouth and without any hand assistance is no easy task.

Only a seasoned expert like Akina Zeya, who has practiced peeling oranges for years, can say that peeling an orange is a piece of cake.

He took a bite of the top of the orange, pulled it down, licked it with his tongue, and with a flick of his teeth, a whole orange popped out of the peel.

Looking at the smooth orange in front of him, Akina Ze nodded smugly.

But before Akina Ze could even feel smug, a blue figure emerged from the kotatsu with lightning speed, opening its enormous mouth—enough to stuff several white radish roots inside—and swallowed the prize whole before disappearing back under the kotatsu.

Akina Ze also instinctively reached to adjust his glasses to calm the shock in his heart.

Why was he so shocked? It wasn't because Niqua ate his orange with such speed, but because he had never seen Niqua's mouth open so wide before!

This is perfect for performing acrobatics, like freezing frogs that eat Cirno one by one.

Akina Ze was also secretly thinking to himself, but he obediently took another one and continued to open the orange with his mouth.

You have to pamper your own pet, it's just an orange.

【Ding dong! 】

Just as Akina Ze was peeling another orange, the system notification sound, which hadn't been heard for a long time, appeared again.

What happened? Akina Ze listened to the voice in his mind, completely bewildered, and a sense of foreboding washed over him.

[System upgrade complete. The following are the new features added in this update.]

To better serve our users, the system will launch an annual benefit event.

[A Winter Treat!]

The rules are as follows...

What the heck?! I thought you were going to announce some big news after all this time, but it turns out this is all you've got.

Akina Ze was relieved. He realized that the lottery was a scam. How could someone as diligent and honest as me do such a thing?

Those who are tempted and deceived by such things do not deserve sympathy, Akina Ze thought firmly.

And this is what they call year-end bonus? A lottery?

Akina Sawa was also greatly disappointed, and even made a mistake with his mouth, accidentally swallowing a small piece of orange peel.

Just as he was about to drink some water to help swallow the orange peel that was already in his throat.

The prize list has appeared.

[Winter Ichiban Kuji (Ichiban Kuji) prizes are as follows]

【Gurren Lagann】, 【Gundam Buster】, 【Unit-01】, 【Space Battleground】, 【...】.

[Lottery fee: One ton of rice (can be converted to other grains)]

Looking at the dazzling array of 3D images in front of him, Akina rubbed his eyes. Although he didn't recognize any of them and didn't know which one to choose, he wanted them all. After all, he had to get one of these cool-looking figurines to keep at home.

"Although I know that lotteries are definitely scams and that anyone who gets scammed is a fool."

Akina Ze slowly lowered his head and touched Niqua's little head under the kotatsu, muttering to himself.

But we have plenty of grain at home, and it's almost moldy in the warehouse.

"But I'll still smoke it, just once, just to add some variety to my boring life, I promise!"

As his right hand left Nikua's soft hair, Akina Sawa clenched his fist firmly, his eyes shining.

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"Alice, Alice~"

Marisa, with a basket in her left hand and knocking on the door with her right, sang as she knocked on the door of the white house, just like a little girl picking mushrooms and inviting her playmates to go mushroom picking in the forest.

Marisa actually came for this purpose, but her destination was not the Forest of Magic, but the Scarlet Devil Mansion, which had suffered many hardships—next to the Lake of Mist.

Incidentally, the Scarlet Devil Mansion is still under reconstruction and is currently an empty lot.

"Marisa wait!"

A commotion arose inside. Marisa kicked a small stone outside the door out of boredom; it seemed that Alice always waited for her for a while whenever she came to see her in the morning. She wondered what Alice was doing inside.

A moment later, the door to the exquisite little villa suddenly opened. Alice stood gracefully in the entryway, her short golden hair gleaming golden in the warm light of the rising sun.

Marisa paused for only a moment before saying what she wanted to say.

"Alice, let's go mushroom picking at Lake of Mist. I heard that because of the previous anomaly, some creatures from another world escaped there, and the fairy who witnessed it said that the creature had a big cap that looked like a mushroom."

"Marisa, are you telling the truth? I'll believe for now that some otherworldly creatures have indeed escaped into the Lake of Mist, but how can you be so sure that it was an otherworldly mushroom that escaped in?"

Alice expressed her doubts. It was absurd that a mushroom from another world would escape into a lake. Besides, it was a mushroom, so why would it go to a lake instead of a forest? She couldn't understand it and suspected that this was just another of Marisa's short-lived enthusiasms.

"Alice, please trust me. I've already prepared a small boat for fishing—cough, cough—for mushroom picking by the lake. Will you come with me?"

Marisa used her signature move, staring at Alice with her large, watery eyes, while she gripped Alice's right hand tightly and shook it vigorously.

Anyone would be confused by this. Alice was no exception.

Although she had seen Marisa in this form many times, she had always been defeated.

Okay, okay, really, I'll go.

Alice patted Marisa's arm and said helplessly.

"Let's make this clear first, I'll only help you today."

"Hehe, it would be great if Alice could help me~"

Marisa laughed, exposing her two rows of white teeth to the air. The sunlight made Alice almost squint, in a physical sense.

“Look at you, you’re not like a girl at all,” Alice shook her head and sighed.

Why can't Marisa just sit like a lady in the greenhouse surrounded by flowers and enjoy the tranquility of winter?

And it's going to a lake in winter; hopefully it won't be too cold there.

Marisa pretended not to hear Alice's complaints; she didn't care how many lice she had, she could just let it go in one ear and out the other.

She didn't care about any of that; she already had the tool for fishing for mushrooms.

I refuse to believe that with so many people around me, I can't catch a single mushroom!

Marisa clenched her fists, gazing at the dolls flying around the puppeteer.

A tiny doll, from Shanghai to Penglai, drifts unnoticed around Alice...

Chapter Two: What if Time Could Turn Back

In the winter village, with heavy snow and freezing temperatures, the atmosphere in the pondside cottage is just as enchanting.

"I was so stupid, really. I knew all those lotteries were scams, and anyone who believed them was a fool, but I still couldn't resist. I'm so guilty, so guilty..."

Akina Ze also stared blankly at the ceiling, as if the world had no meaning for him at this moment, as if his soul had left this walking corpse.

Nikua nestled in Akina Zeya's arms, sipping the lingering orange juice from her fingers as she drifted off to sleep, her sea-blue hair the only splash of color in this gloomy world.

But the little girl had no idea what hardships she was about to face...

The warehouse full of rice and grain has been replaced with rolls of cheap tissue paper, the kind that would tear if you used one sheet to wipe a certain indescribable area.

It's practically useless; nobody would want it even if it were given away for free.

"What should I do now? I've used up all the grain in the house, and the weather isn't suitable for planting..."

The die is cast, and for the sake of making a living, Akina Ze forced himself to calm down and think hard.

First of all, they won't starve to death. If all else fails, they'll take their whole family (Nikua) and go from house to house begging for food.

Fujiwara no Mokou, Kamishirasawa Keine, and Motoori Kosuzu are all in Akina Sawaya's free meal plan.