This is the first part in what will be a series of tentatively indeterminant length. I welcome any and all constructive criticism. Thank you.
Ennichi
?So, where do I stand, here?? asks Marisa as I raise my camera for her portrait shot, looking for once unsure of what to do with herself. Marisa Kirisame is normally very self-assured, she's the one who calls the shots. But this morning, as the subject of a day-in-the-life profile for Bunbunmaru Newspaper, she's now acts uncertain of herself.
?There is fine,? I tell her, and she leans against the doorway of her home. I raise the camera, and just before I take the shot, she gives me the cocky smile she's known for.
?Anyway, you're wasting your time,? she says. ?I mean, to tell you honestly, my life's pretty boring.? She turns, and I follow her into her home. It actually looks smaller on the inside than it does on the outside. Maybe because the walls are thoroughly covered with books, sometimes two or thee rows deep per shelf, from floor to ceiling, vertical columns of stacked books, some of them teetering ominously, some even leaning against each other. Pushed into the corners are crates of different sizes, filled with a number of things from the human village ? an umbrella, a bolt of dark green fabric, a rake, a weather vane ? but also items clearly taken from farther afield. These artifacts were piled high in their boxes. In fact, I have no idea what color her walls were. The only interruption in books and boxes along the walls were three windows; one in the front room, one in her kitchen (albeit small) and one in her bedroom. From the outside of her home, you can see a lot more windows. I follow her into kitchen, where she takes down a larger wicker basket. ?But if you're happy sitting quietly and watching me read for hours, that's your business. And you're going to help me pick mushrooms.?
I comply. It's a beautiful day in the Forest of Magic. Humans often seem like delicate things to me; it's easy to see why one would choose to live in a gentle place like this. I'm not really sure what mushrooms I'm supposed to pick, and when I ask, Marisa tells me that I'd probably just slow her down having to ask her each time if a mushroom was fine or not, so to forget about helping. Fortunate enough for me, as far as I was concerned.
?So tell me? I begin ?What would you say was the most interesting thing you've ever learned in the course of one of your investigations.?
?Investigations.? she chuckles ?You make it sound like work. Alright, hm ...? After a moment's consideration: ?Ha, alright. I can tell you one thing you probably didn't know already.? Taking a conspiratorial tone, she smirks and says, ?There could be a new arrival in the Human Village, from elsewhere in Gensokyo.?
She has my attention there. ?Oh? And who would that be??
Marisa laughs, picking up a mushroom and casually tossing it into the air over her shoulder, where it lands flawlessly in her basket. ?That I can't tell you. It's liable to get me in plenty of trouble just telling you this much. What I can tell you is, it's a very powerful person, and not one you'd expect to move from where she's living right now.?
I'd be lying if I said I'm not filled with the desire to go immediately to the Human Village and forget all about this interview. But a good journalist sticks to her assignment, after all. And it is entirely possible that Marisa's just throwing me a red herring. So I pretend to shrug it off.
?Well, that's not really a lot to go on, is it? Sounds more like that sort of rumors that get circulated around the village all the time,? I say.