Given what was going on the last time Marisa was firing off lasers, I'm leaning toward Kanako being appreciative for the help, unless people get it in their heads that Marisa is working with us for some reason. I'm also kinda-sorta hoping that having Eirin as a witness to our non-maliciousness and Marisa's psychopathy will stall for enough time and let us get through to put her down, even with the tengu patrols wary of us.
Or I may just be rationalizing because I want to grind Marisa's face into the dirt. >_>
I suppose I can empathize with that, although it would be even nicer if we had some actual concrete evidence of the true cause, the next time we saw her; something we could actually use to convince her, rather than just beat her. Although I admit there would probably be a certain satisfaction in forcing her to stop being such a stupid inflexible hassle, terrorizing the local populations.
As for Kanako, I think she already believed we were not responsible for the island's falling. I'm just concerned we'll get the whole "Look at what you
did, causing her to come here!" lecture if we show up. Possibly backed by divine fury, who knows.
I guess I see a couple possible outcomes:
a) Marisa leaves the place and intercepts us before we reach it. I actually think this may be one of the more likely things that will happen. At which point a battle is basically inevitable (and we have no terrain that allows an easy escape this time). Assuming Tenshi will stay and fight with us, we may have a chance at victory. Of course, whether engaging Marisa in public view while general suspicion is already on us will do good or bad for our reputation is an open question.
b) We manage to make it unmolested to the shrine while a battle is still in progress. This will almost certainly involve us joining the battle against Marisa. Odds of victory may be somewhat better, depending on which shrine combatants are still in fighting shape by the time we get there. They would at least be a witness to our confrontation, more or less on their behalf, which could probably score a couple points, anyway.
c) We arrive at the shrine after Marisa has departed. The condition of the occupants is probably an open question (ie: Eirin was fine, and we don't know to what degree they'd perpetuate the battle, or whether they would even pull something similar to get Marisa to leave). And depending on their mood towards us at the time over what they may think we 'caused', things could get ugly.
d) We get waylayed by Tengu patrols. It would probably be a bad idea to try and force our way past, if they won't listen to reason, as any altercation would likely be directly damaging to our reputation. Worst-case, they try to drive us away
and we run into Marisa, while away from the shrine.
e) There's some wrinkle to what's really going on there that's not among the immediately obvious. Not much that can be planned around this one.
So, on the whole:
-We very likely end up fighting Marisa, which is almost certain to be a very difficult battle
-If we win, at best she may be out of commission for a little bit, which may be for the good of both us and others, although it seems unlikely to change her view of anything, and is at-best a temporary reprieve
-Our presence may exacerbate other tensions with the Tengu or the shrine
-Alternately, if we manage to prevent Marisa from having her way with them, we may engender ourselves to them a little, as well
Really, it seems that, short of somehow finding out new and unexpected information, that last bit is about all we stand to potentially gain from this, among the various bad things that could happen.
...and after writing all this, I'm beginning to think that a cost-benefit analysis may be almost beside the point, now. This would be something concrete to do, as opposed to continuing to (nearly) aimlessly cast about. Even if it just blows up in our face, in one of the many ways that it potentially could.
