Chapter 5: Leaving the nest
I awoke to an unfamiliar sound and scent; as I opened my eyes the first thing I noticed was the brightness of the sunlight filtering through the window. After my eyes adjusted, I then noticed that Marisa was no longer next to me. I was still a little foggy from just waking up, so it took me a moment to parse all the information presented to me; Marisa woke up first and was obviously making breakfast.
I arose, picked up my sack, and made my way wordlessly to Marisa?s facilities; the candles did not light as a window was opened that allowed light in to the room. I took time to redress myself in the extra set of clothes; they were similar to the ones from the day before minus the white shawl. I spent a few minutes fixing up my hair with the band; much longer than usual? What Marisa had said the night before had weighed heavy on me, and at that point it seemed I actually started to care about my outward appearance somewhat.
When I emerged Marisa was just setting two plates on the table; each one had an egg and a pair of sausages on it. She heard me shut the door behind me, looked up, and said, ?Excellent timing, ze! Just finished breakfast; come on, dig in!?
I sat down in the same spot as I had the last night, picked up the fork provided, and begun eating. The food tasted fresh and delicious, though I?ll admit I wasn?t particularly hungry; this was a startling trend for me since leaving Makai? I only seemed to need food once a week, though I couldn?t explain why this actually was. When I was about halfway finished with my breakfast, I asked, ?This tastes incredibly fresh; how did you manage it??
She never looked up from her meal as she answered. ?I got this stuff from Reimu as an apology for the incident before last; she accused me of having a part of it, even though I was just trying to solve it myself. As for how it?s fresh? it?s some kind of seal that Reimu invented. Food could actually keep for years if you wanted to, but the moment you unseal it, you need to use it; it?ll go bad pretty quickly otherwise.?
I paused to consider this; it seems she broke out something that she was otherwise saving. Marisa didn?t seem bothered by this fact, though. I finished up the food on my plate; despite lacking hunger, I could readily admit that it energized me a bit. As Marisa took the plates away, I said, ?Your hospitality has been amazing, but I really should be getting back?? I gathered my things together and started towards the door; I turned back and said, ?Oh yes, Keine sends her regards.? I giggled as she made a face at that. ?If you ever drop in on the village, I wouldn?t mind if you stop by.?
Marisa turned her head away after I said that; I raised an eyebrow and stared until she gave me an answer. ?I don?t care to go to the village too often; festivals are one thing, but showing up any day of the week?? She grew quiet and barely whispered the next part. ?I?m a witch; the people of the village fear my kind of magic usually. They tolerate me on special occasions since my pop runs that store, but the looks I get otherwise??
I nodded; it had to be hard to only be tolerated part of the time. I myself had feared a similar response should the people learn my origins. A sudden urge had come over me and I crossed the room to wrap the girl in a hug; she seemed a little startled at first, but relaxed a moment later. I suppose it was because a month earlier someone else had done the same for me when I wasn?t feeling too great.
When I released her I smiled down to her and she smiled back. ?Thanks ze; you?re the first person I?ve ever talked to about all this.? With both of us feeling better, she shooed me out the door; even feeling a little better, I was sure she would need a little while to collect herself.
Once outside I took a moment to acclimate my magic before I started floating up above the trees; I hadn?t flown under my own power for over a month. I did a few dives and swoops, then practiced accelerating and stopping before being satisfied with my own abilities. I located the village and started flying towards it, landing at the edge of the forest to heed what Marisa had said about the villagers? fear of most magic; it wouldn?t do to get tossed out now, when I?m only just being accepted by them.
The walk back to town was pleasant, if not lengthy. The people of the village were going about their business as usual and weren?t paying any attention to my approach. I reached the schoolhouse soon after and learned that class had already been let out; Keine was shuffling through some papers at her desk when I walked in. She looked up and smiled. ?So, have fun last night??
It was almost like there was some kind of hidden meaning behind her words; I gave her a look to show that I wasn?t particularly amused at her tone. ?Actually, yes; Marisa was interested in hearing my story and in return she told me hers. It was a fascinating experience, to say the least.?
She turned solemn after that. ?Yeah, I guess by living outside of the village you didn?t have a lot of friends while growing up, huh?? I nodded and walked on, preferring to drop off my sack to my room and start planning out what I was going to do with the day.
The days fell back into routine, and for a week everything seemed to get back to normal. Things changed at that point, though, as I saw a strange site in the village plaza one day after class was over; Marisa was sitting there with a somewhat troubled look on her face.
Remembering her words about not coming to the village often, I stood and wondered why she would choose to come here at this time. I figured I wouldn?t be doing a good job as a friend if I didn?t at least go and talk, I approached her. ?Marisa??
She jumped at the sound of my voice; after looking up to me she replied, ?Oh, hey Alice.?
Her features relaxed only slightly at my greeting. ?Are you feeling okay? I know you said you didn?t like to visit often??
She shook her head. ?I?m alright; just? bored, I guess.? She leaned back a little and sighed. ?Usually when I get like this, I go pester Reimu at the shrine, but today she had herself locked away somewhere in the depths of the place and gave out a warning not to be disturbed? With nothing to do there, I decided to see if I couldn?t find something to do here.?
I sat down beside her and gave it some thought; in a moment an idea formed and I presented it to her. ?Well, I?m still pretty new here in Gensokyo; mind giving me a tour?? Her eyes lit up perhaps a little brighter than I was expecting, though for some reason that made me happy. Another thought occurred to me and I quickly added, ?A foot tour; I think it?ll be a long time before I mount another broom with you.?
She grinned and blushed slightly. ?Alright, it?s a deal!? She jumped up walked a few steps before turning back and saying, ?Well what are you waiting for? Let?s go!?
I laughed at her enthusiasm and stood up to join her; I was surprised when she grabbed one of my hands and started running off in the direction opposite of the forest. Once we were out of the village our pace slowed a little and we started talking about one subject or another; invariably magic related. A short while into the conversation she asked, ?So why do you still carry around that book all the time? You brought it with you the night you stayed over, had it with you during the festival? What?s the deal??
I had never actually thought about it before, since it seemed so natural to hold it all the time. ?I don?t know? It?s like it?s a part of me, and leaving it behind would be harmful in some way.?
She nodded seemingly in understanding. ?Yeah, I think I know that feeling; ever since getting my Hakkero I?ve never left without it. It?s like I can?t feel safe without having it on my person.?
So she did understand after all. Our conversations drifted again and we continued walking. Finally we reached one destination; a place Marisa called Youkai Mountain. She said, ?This place is mostly home to Kappa and Tengu; humans rarely visit the mountain, so the number of interactions we?ve had with them in the past have been few, but for the most part they?re very civil people.?
I had read literature from both sides of the barrier concerning these two tribes; what Marisa was stating sounded like most accounts of them I?d read about from this side. ?Do the Kappa really experiment with technology from the outside world??
Marisa grinned and nodded. ?Yup; they come up with all kinds of wonderful things, though most of it is currently unusable outside of the Kappa village. I haven?t met many of them, but some of the things I?ve seen would blow your mind if you had the chance to experience them.?
We turned to the south going clockwise around the mountain; it was mid-afternoon and I was enjoying myself immensely. I couldn?t place precisely why, but Marisa was incredibly easy to get along with. A thought tugged at my mind and I decided to vocalize it. ?So what?s the story with you and the Shrine Maiden? Reimu, I think you called her??
?Oh, this is a good one! ? Her face lit up and I could tell she was probably wanting to iterate this story to me since the night of the festival. ?But to get a full understanding, I have to tell you about what happened before we met?
?Three years ago, something happened to the Hakurei Shrine which basically left it destroyed. Since Reimu Hakurei is the resident Shrine Maiden she took it upon herself to go figure out who did it and punish them. I don?t know if you remember this, but it should coincide with something that you would know: she first ventured into Makai to find the one responsible; while she punished several people, including a fallen angel, she apparently didn?t think she had found the culprit, so she tracked back and changed course, entering Jigoku instead.
?This is where my part of the story comes in. The first person she found in hell was an evil spirit named Mima; Mima denies having any involvement, and was so pissed off at being attacked at random that she escaped hell and came to Gensokyo to plan her revenge. That?s when she found me in the forest; I had just moved there barely three weeks before she showed up and decided to take me under her wing. I learned all of her spells, though I didn?t have nearly the proficiency that she did. After a year of training, she unleashed a hoard of youkai in the newly rebuilt shrine, intent on at least destroying it, if not killing Reimu in the process.?
We had stopped walking at this point; I was so absorbed in the story that I hadn?t truly noticed it until after the fact. Marisa continued, not realizing the attention I was giving her. ?As you can probably guess, Reimu survived and headed out to stop us; we put up a pretty solid defense, but that girl was too damn persistent. She had a better control over the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orbs than she had from the first incident and she used them well to totally defeat us.
?Considering that was the second time Mima had been punished by Reimu, she decided to actually learn her lesson and stopped trying to cause trouble; instead she just hangs around the shrine all the time annoying Reimu to no end. I went back to my forest home to sleep off the headache she left me with; we?ve been more or less friends since then.?
I had a feeling that there was much more to the story than that, but my attention wandered as I finally looked around where we had stopped. ?What is this place??
She looked around and said, ?Ah, this is what?s known as the Bamboo Forest of the Lost; if there?s anything in there, nobody knows since you immediately lose your way once you enter. They say a Youkai Rabbit will appear if you stay for too long and will lead you back out, but whether that means there?s anything in there or not, I have no idea.?
The sun was starting to dip in the sky, though we still had a bit of daylight to spare; we started walking back towards the village, talking the whole way through. I had considered her words from earlier, and did in fact remember when Reimu had entered Makai before; I didn?t make the connection when I had met her in battle since I hadn?t seen her before. Sariel had spent weeks in recovery after her incursion, though fortunately we didn?t lose our reclusive Chief Sage.
Marisa and I parted at the entrance to the village. We said our goodbyes to one another as she hopped onto her broom and sped off; I found that I had highly enjoyed myself, though the fact that I couldn?t invite her in for something as simple as an evening tea troubled me slightly. I found myself suddenly wanting a home of my own; I vowed to ask Keine for some time off soon to go looking for such a place.
It took me two weeks to get around to taking that time off; Marisa had been visiting the village more often, though with each passing day she seemed more withdrawn. It seemed that talking with her was enough to bring her around, but something was going to need to be done about it, preferably sooner rather than later.
The day I took off was a beautiful late spring day; I figured to start things off with a walk through the forest. Marisa had gotten lucky by finding a spot to build there, so who knew what I could find if I tried?
I took my three dolls and animated them to float around me while I walked once I left the village. Despite the fact that it was starting to heat up in preparation for summer, I found that it was quite cool under the forest canopy. I walked with my three companions for a couple of hours before coming across the most amazing clearing; there was more than enough space for a house here. Almost immediately I started envisioning what it would look like, both from the outside and from the inside.
I turned to face my dolls just in time to watch them drop from the air; my connection had been severed without my consent. My mind swam at that point and I felt a rush like a wave coming from the east; I doubled over, clutching my head just as a voice I barely recognized flowed through my brain. ?
Youkai of Gensokyo; I am Reimu Hakurei, Shrine Maiden. What you have just felt is a change to the way magic and spiritual power is handled within our world. The days of brutal combat and bloodshed is at an end; conflict is to be resolved using danmaku and special patterns known as spell cards. You should now instinctively know how to form these; failure to adhere to this new system will result in your life force being sealed.?
Once the message was over, the pain had subsided and I could once again think clearly. My first order of business was reestablishing my connection to my dolls; I found that my magic hadn?t been interfered with due to the shift in how magic was used. Once I got my bearings, I turned back around and gasped.
There, in what used to be a simple clearing, was now a house. It wasn?t just any house, though; it was exactly as I had imagined it! It was what could only be described as western styled; two stories and probably a basement, a fully serviced kitchen and dining area, a spacious living area complete with fireplace? I had to be certain, though, and was about to go in when I felt a surge of magic in the distance; it was familiar, though, so I flew straight up into the air and caught sight of Marisa speeding off towards the village on her broom.
I shouted, ?Hey, Marisa!? as loud as I could. She changed course suddenly and headed straight for me. I floated there patiently as she came to a stop in front of me. ?What?s the hurry?? It was then that I noticed her appearance; gone was the purple witch robe, instead she was wearing a black-and-white witch costume complete with black sleeveless shirt over a white undershirt, black skirt with white apron, black hat, and white ribbons around her waist and on her hat. ?And what?s with the outfit??
She seemed really excited about something, and didn?t take long to tell me all about it. ?You felt that wave, right? Reimu finally came out of the shrine; she?s been praying and meditating for weeks to make a permanent change to the way conflict is resolved in Gensokyo.? I very nearly stopped her from continuing, but considering that she felt the need to tell me, I had to assume that she didn?t hear the message from Reimu and instead heard about it directly from her after she emerged. ?Reimu calls the new system Spell Cards; they?re used to store danmaku patterns for quick and easy casting.? She took a deep breath and continued. ?You make them by taking plain slips of paper, imagining the pattern you want, then feeding magic into it; Gensokyo does the rest after you feed it enough magic. After that, you?re done! No need to make multiples of the same card, as it will never completely disappear; you just can?t use the same one more than once in a single duel.?
Of course, I knew all of this already; I feigned fascination in order to not give this away. I had a definite feeling that it would be bad if I revealed that I had received that message. I was almost ready to say something when Marisa cut in. ?Say, what are you doing out here??
I took a moment to parse her question before saying, ?Oh, I was out for a walk when I found this awesome clearing; after the wave hit, I reconnected to my dolls and turned around to discover a house.?
Marisa blinked at me. ?Wait, what?? I giggled as I descended, beckoning for her to follow. Once we landed she shouted, ?Holy crap, there is a house here!? She followed me into the house; I stopped to look around and discovered it to be furnished exactly as I had imagined it, minus the personal touches I would be making to it after settling in.
I turned around and smiled as brightly as I could. ?Marisa,? I said, ?welcome to my new home.?
Her eyes widened and a grin spread across her face. ?Congratulations!? She said as she crossed the room and hugged me. ?Neighbor.?
Somehow, the prospect of becoming her neighbor made me extremely happy, though I couldn?t figure out why at the time. Once she released me, I started walking around the house getting completely familiarized with how it felt; I was quite surprised when I walked into the kitchen and turned the knob on the faucet, causing water to pour out and down the drain.
Within seconds of my doing that, I heard a sharp rap on the door. Marisa and I looked at each other in bewilderment before I crossed over to it and opened it; standing there was a gruff looking Kappa man in a shirt and tie with goggles on his forehead and a clipboard in his hand. He said, ?You the owner of this house?? I nodded. ?You hooked in illegally to the pipeline that runs through this area; we?re willing to waive the fees surrounding this breach, but in doing so you need to start paying for the water you use.?
I was more than a little stunned at this development; I said, ?Um? I?ll pay; what do I have to do??
He held the clipboard out and pointed at a few different places on the sheet. ?Just sign in those places; this authorizes us to put up a water meter so we can accurately charge you for only the water you actually used, plus it?s an agreement for the monthly payment. Please read it carefully before signing.?
I did as I was instructed and found the terms agreeable; I still had much of the money I had made from entertaining at the festival, so it was no problem remitting the first few months of payment at that time. After he left, Marisa stated, ?That was a lot smoother than it was for me.? I gave her a funny look, which prompted her to continue. ?Kappa don?t look kindly on attempts to barter.?
I shook my head; despite only having known her for a short time, I could already tell that was very Marisa-like of her. I said, ?Well, now that that?s taken care of, I think it?s time I return to the village to give Keine the news; she?ll probably be a little disappointed, but I?m sure she?ll come around.? I lead Marisa out of the house and took off towards the village.
I didn?t even bother to land outside of town, I was so excited. A few of the villagers pointed and shouted, but in a surprising move it seemed that none of them rallied to the call. I touched down in front of the school and walked in; Keine rushed into the classroom from the back and stopped short of colliding with me. She said, ?I heard the shouting and thought Mokou had gotten herself in trouble?? She paused after seeing the smile on my face. ?What?s going on??
I reached out and gripped her shoulders. ?Keine, know that I appreciate everything you?ve done for me since I wandered into the village; my time with you is at an end, however. I don?t know if you felt that magical shift earlier, but something about that caused a house to spring up in the forest clearing I was standing in; I?ve decided to move into it immediately.?
I realized a moment later that I had just done the equivalent of an infodump on her; she appeared to be reeling from the news. I waited until she had processed all of that and she said, ?Well I?m sorry to hear that you?ll be leaving, but I?m happy you?re finding your own way again.? She stopped and regarded me for a moment. ?House in the woods, eh? How interesting??
I didn?t detect the hidden meaning in that statement for quite some time; at that moment I just wanted to get my things together and return to the house in order to actually make it ?mine.? I excused myself back to the room I had been using and gathered up all of my things; it only took a few moments to do so. I was on my way once again, and when I turned back to wave to Keine, she had her palm on her forehead; probably because I had taken off right in front of the school, eliciting more commotion than before. I didn?t care, though, as I had a whole new life ahead of me!
In my excitement I worked extra hard at everything I needed to do to make the home my own; I had retired my two original dolls, as well as the third one and made them places on the fireplace mantle. I had gathered more materials necessary to start the creation of a new, larger type of doll to help around the house and for use in spell card duels. In only a week?s time I had done so much, and it was just in time, too, as Marisa had chosen that moment for her first official visit.
I had been surprised when the door simply burst open before she strode over the threshold. I shouted, ?Marisa! Don?t you know how to knock? Please have some respect for my home.? She looked embarrassed after my outburst, and rightly so; I had to admit, though, that she looked cute like that?
?Sorry ze.? She said. I directed her to my own dining table where earlier I was working on my new doll; she picked it up as I went into the kitchen to fetch us some tea that I found I liked. ?Cute doll; is this a combat model??
I returned with our drinks and set one down in front of her. ?Yes, that?s the plan; I haven?t worked out if I?m going to need multiple copies of her for my spell card or if just one will do for the imprinting.?
She turned the doll over a couple of times before setting her back down and taking a sip of her tea. ?She got a name??
I had to give it some thought, since I wasn?t in the practice of naming my dolls; a name did pop into my head though. ?Her name is Shanghai.?
Marisa appeared to think it over for a moment before saying, ?I like it? Shanghai??
I sat down and we starting drinking our tea in a calm silence; talking about my own spell card made me wonder, though. ?So, have you come up with any spell cards, yet??
She grinned and dug into a pocket of the apron on her skirt; her hand held two cards when she withdrew it. She pointed to each one in turn, ?First of all I based a card off of my old star patterns which I called
Magic Sign [Stardust Reverie]; the other one is based off of the laser attack I can only seem to pull off with my mini-hakkero which I called
Love Sign [Master Spark].?
The patterns depicted on the cards looked beautiful; the one needled at my curiosity and I found I couldn?t help but ask, ?Love Sign? What?s that all about??
For a moment that was almost imperceptible I saw Marisa?s eyes bulge and her cheeks tint a deep pink; she recovered immediately and without skipping a beat said, ?I read once that love is supposed to be the ultimate form of magic; I figured if I could somehow harness that energy I would easily be the strongest person in Gensokyo!?
She finished her explanation with a gigantic grin that I could tell she was straining to maintain. I nodded and said, ?That makes sense; I?ve read similar things, though I?m more fascinated in some of the theories around colors related to magical powers.?
Marisa relaxed and gulped down the rest of her tea; she stood up and said, ?This has been a nice visit; I?ve got to get home, now, but I promise we?ll do this again some time. Later, ze!? She rushed out the door before I could say anything, leaving me to wonder what that weirdo was thinking.
For the better part of the next week I spent most of my time putting the finishing touches on Shanghai; I had her moving around and helping around the house in only a couple more days. Everything seemed to be going alright, though little did I realize that trouble was right around the corner?