Hey all! This will be my next multi-chapter piece with my best girl Alice Margatroid. Now for some points to note before going into this piece. First is that I am not well-versed in the Touhou fandom; I never played the games and only read some doujins. This means that some aspects of the characters or their abilities may seem incomplete or different. Another factor is that there will be that some characters missing since again I have limited knowledge. I apologize if something seems out of place but this is my interpretation of these aspects.
"Blah" — Speech
"Blah" — Speech in another language
'Blah' — Thoughts
[ Blah ] — Text
*Blah* — Sound effects in speech
(Blah) — Author's notes
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of Touhou Project; they belong to Jun'ya Ota aka ZUN. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
"Did you see that one lady?"
"Which one?"
"The one with the hat."
"...Are you serious? There are so many ladies with hats—Wait do you hear that?"
"Yeah it sounds like—"
Whoosh
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"Hm. Progress but it needs some modifications."
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Morning...
Yawn
Alice Margatroid she covers her mouth. 'Oh my,' She stares at her clock. 'So much time has passed.' She leans back from the table and twitches one of her fingers; a doll floats to the table with a tea pot in its hands. As the doll pours tea into her empty cup, Alice re-examines her doll. The doll has a blue Victorian maid dress where the sleeves cover its arms and a white apron that covers the front. The puppet has some similarities to Alice; it has eyes that are the blue and blonde hair but it reaches to the middle of its back. There is a white capelet that is draped on its shoulders with a small red ribbon tied into a bow to secure the garment. Alice smiles as the marionette finished its task, "Thank you Shanghai."
Shanghai turns around and beams at Alice. "Shanghai!" The doll floats down to the kitchen to place the pot back.
Knock Knock
"Oi Alice. You awake yet?"
The shorter-haired blonde turns her head and raises her voice. "I will be down there in a moment Marisa." Alice stands up and walks to a large mirror in her room. She has a red hairband on the top of her head and the back of her hair is tied into a ponytail. Her dress is similar to Shanghai but Alice has no apron and her shade of blue is so dark it can match the night sky. The blonde has a similar capelet and red ribbon bow. In the middle of her dress there is a different red bow that seems to have a different design and stitch marks. On the other side of her waist there is a gold chain link. Satisfied, Alice clips her grimoire to her chain and makes her way down the stairs.
Alice walks to the door and opens it to reveal Marisa. She has her iconic witch hat on top of her yellow hair. The other blonde has weird black vest on top of her white short-sleeved shirt. She also has a white waist apron that covers her black skirt. On her hand is a broom that reaches over her head. Alice tilts her head up and looks at Marisa's hazel eyes. "Hello Marisa."
Marisa gives a small wave. "Yo."
Alice gestures to her home. "Do want to come in and have tea?"
Marisa shakes her head and grins, "Not this time. We got a little incident and I was wondering if you want to come with us to solve it ze."
Alice purses her lips. "I am visiting her today."
Marisa glances at Alice's waist-ribbon and immediately sobers up. "Oh. Um." She scratches the back of head. "My bad ze."
Alice stares as Marisa fidgets in place. She sighs, "I can come for a while but I will leave on my time."
Marisa brightens up. "Oh sure." She hops on her broom and starts to float. "Let's go ze."
Alice steps out and turns her head. "Shanghai. Hourai. With me." Shanghai and another doll floats to Alice. The other doll has similar clothes to Shanghai but its dress and eyes are red. Alice closes the door and follows Marisa.
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Forest area...
As Marisa and Alice floats down to a clearing, the blonde puppeteer notes the area has withered and died. 'The area of decay stops in almost a perfect circle.' Alice focuses on the center to spot two figures standing over a couple of bodies. 'The shrine maidens.'
They land nearby and Marisa waves at the figures. "Yo. So what do we got?"
One of the figures perks up. "Hi Marisa-senpai. Sanae-senpai and I were waiting for you." The shorter person notices Alice. "A-Ah, hello Miss Alice. I didn't expect to see you." She gives a small wave.
Alice nods her head while the dolls wave back. "I will only be here for a short moment."
Sanae chimes in. "Thanks for your help though."
"It is of no consequence." Alice turns and looks at the shorter girl. She has black hair and brown eyes. The girl is wearing a white haori with a red pleated skirt that reaches to her ankles and a gohei on her hand. The girl notices Alice's stare and crouches back down to the bodies.
"Well," Marisa starts to walk in one direction. "Let's look around the area and search for clues ze."
Alice nods and walks to the opposite side of Marisa while the two maidens stayed near the bodies. She stops at the edge as she notes the clear divide of fresh and decayed grass. 'It seems to be 50 meters from the center.' The blonde walks over to a withered tree and her dolls take a piece of bark but it instantly crumbled in their small hands. 'There seems to be some residue of energy.' Alice then starts walking along the edge. 'Nothing different from before.' Alice stops as she spots Marisa.
The other blonde turns to the puppeteer. "Hey did you find anything on your part?"
"Anything organic seems to have decayed." Alice looks around. "I did not sense any curses or negative energy."
"Yeah," Marisa scratches her cheek. "I noticed that too." She looks at a decayed tree. "It's like something sapped away anything that was living."
"In any case, let us share our findings with the others." The duo witches walk to the other two.
Sanae is the first to notice them and stands up while the girl stays crouched. "Hey, what did you two find?" The witches repeat their notes. "Hmm," She gestures to the bodies. "It seems to be the same for these youkais." The green-haired lady taps her chin. "I can't think of anything or anyone that is capable of this."
"Same," Marisa puts her hands on her hips. "Do you think a new youkai slipped in?"
The conversation continues as Alice takes out a pocket-watch and clicks it open. 'There should be enough time.' The blonde pockets it and places her fist near her mouth. "Ahem." The three look over to Alice. "I am afraid I have to go now." She looks over to the girl. "I will be visiting the temple soon."
The girl quickly stands up. "O-Of course."
Marisa gives a wave. "See ya Alice."
Sanae slightly bows her head. "Thank you for your time and help."
Alice nods to them. "I wish you good luck for this incident." She and her dolls float away.
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Home...
The door opens and Alice walks through the living room while waving her hands. "Shanghai. Hourai. Cut a sheet of white paper and bring a red ribbon." Several dolls on shelves join the duo puppets as they collect materials. The blonde opens a closet to take out a pair of gloves and a pruner. With the equipment in hand, Alice walks out the door and moves to the side of her house. She stops in front of a crepe myrtle tree and puts on her gloves. With them on, Alice starts to prune the flowers from. One by one, the puppeteer places the branches near her side.
"Shanghai!"
Alice turns to the side to see the dolls with the sheet of paper and a red ribbon. "Thank you everyone." She places the pruners down and collects the branches. The blonde holds them up and inspects the flowers. The yellow stamens are at the center of the flower while the surrounding petals are pink with white edges. 'These are wonderful.' She holds them out for the dolls to wrap the paper around the flowers and tie it with the ribbon. After they finished, Alice gives her pruners and gloves to a doll and then waves her hand; all the dolls except for Shanghai and Hourai float back into the house. Once the dolls settle back in their original positions, Alice closes the door and turns to the duo. "Let us go." The three of them rise from the ground and float away from the house.
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10 minutes later...
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Alice looks down to see the cleaned buildings of the Hakurei Shrine. She watches as several humans walk up and down the stone path to stop at the donation box; they would pray and drop money into the box. Her attention shifts and she floats down to the backyard garden of the main building. Once her feet touches the ground, Alice takes in the scenery; the cherry blossom tree is in full bloom and the sōzu occasionally hits the rock. Taking a breath, the puppeteer makes her way to the tree while the dolls stay behind.
As she walks closer, she spots a slab of rock where it is surrounded by various types of flowers but the area at the front was left empty. Alice stops and places her bouquet down at the empty area. She stays at the spot and stares at the slab.
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After some time, Alice moves her hand close to her face and kisses her fingertips. She moves the hand and places them at the top of the slab. "I..." The blonde takes a breath. "I miss you." Alice stands up and steps back from the stone. The blonde fidgets with the ribbon on her waist. "I will come back soon." She slowly turns around and floats away with her dolls.
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On the front of the slab there are several words inscribed into the rocky surface:
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Reimu Hakurei
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And fin for now.
Oh no Reimu!
Well here is the first chapter and I hope it is a decent introduction.
So for some notes:
-So I had this concept on my mind ever since I got into writing stories which was around 2017. That means certain characters won't show up in this story since there weren't introduced during that time. For example new characters such as Kutaka, Aunn, or Shion won't be mentioned.
-Another thing is that I'm going to assume people reading this would be familiar to the lore and how the characters would look like. I'll probably only describe them if there are some wardrobe or physical changes.
if there are other notes then I'll put them in the next chapter. I'll see you guys next time.
Thanks for reading
Constructive criticisms are appreciated
Bravo Tango out.