Another Tohohana fic :\

I honestly tried doing one that took place in Gensokyo (was experimenting with crack-pairings of Mima/Rumia, Mima/Ruukoto, and was pondering upon a crack-pairing of Orin/Yamame) but couldn't get it to work for some reason. I guess I've found my little niche in the Touhou fanon, then. Writing a small-city AU where you never know what'll happen next :D

The next "School Story" was actually going to be ParuYuugi, but I started this and had a first chapter in about thirty minutes, so I was like "Okay, MariAri is next" in the end ^_^;

I still have to finish the KogaNue one, though. As much as I love casually throwing natural disasters around, it seems I have difficulty writing about them when they're actually important to the plot. Which is really odd. Maybe it's my years-long depression?
Depression is, as my blissfully oblivious personality may imply, not always an emotional thing. Indeed, a long state of inactivity (see: NEET for 2-3 years straight) can lead to a dulling of the psyche and the mind, and among other things, can cause poor concentration, lack of energy, and inability to sleep. I have a remedy for the last of those, but all three of these things I suffer from. Therefore, despite being so blissful at all hours, I'm actually depressed.

Ah, but the all-too-mainstream pairing is probably what brought you here, yes? Not lil' ole' me ^_^;

Read away, dear readers~

Tohohana, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The new school year was starting, and all the students were getting themselves used to their new classes. At the request (read: demand) of Class 12-A's teacher, Miss Keine Kamishirisawa - who had asked that her students call her Miss K if her last name was too hard to pronounce - each student was going to take a bit of time to introduce themselves to the class. So many interesting people had stepped up so far. One student - sitting as far as possible from the teacher's desk - made sure to pay as much attention as possible. Not because she wanted to be their friend, but because her crimelord of an adoptive mother had given her that advice just yesterday.

"School starts tomorrow, does it?" Looking to her illegitimate adoptive daughter, the city's most powerful yet least serious crimelord said "Make sure to learn all you can. You never know when those people might come in handy, and it's good to know about your pawns in any game."

"Understood."

"And now it's your turn," Keine said, pointing right to that very student. She had blonde hair, mostly cut short but with one long braided lock going down the left side of her face. Some of the students here she'd known forever, and others she'd been around forever. There were new faces, though, and those were the ones she was especially careful to observe. Getting up to her feet, that child of a crimelord - Marisa Kirisame - made her way to the front of the classroom.

The usual facts, her mother figure - Mima - had advised her to share. Her name and area of residence. Don't reveal the identity of her unofficial adoptive mother, as that may lead to special attention she didn't want, and make sure people had a reason to rely on her, even if it was only one time each. "My name is Marisa Kirisame," she started, doing her best to seem cheerful and upbeat. It wasn't that hard, since staying upbeat was part of her nature. "I think some of you already know me, so that's good. I live in the trailer park on the southern end of town with my foster mother. If you ever need anything - anything at all - I either have it, or can dig it up in a day." That wasn't just extended to simple things, either. Nor was it extended only to things that were okay to own. Maybe the girl two seats over from one of Marisa's old friends wanted to buy a movie before it was released on DVD? If the bootleg existed, Marisa could get it. Did the kid three seats in front of Marisa's seat have trouble finding some kind of illegal substance? As the definite heir to Mima's crime empire, there was nothing Marisa couldn't obtain.

"I hope you don't plan on starting trouble," Keine warned as Marisa made her way back to her seat. Before today, Keine didn't know her face, but her favorite student - Fujiwara no Mokou, who was lucky enough to get this very class - had once shared stories with Keine about a Marisa Kirisame. The foster daughter of a crimelord who was taken in after two weeks of being disowned and homeless, which had been brought on when Marisa set fire to and demolished the home of a family of five that was involved in a car crash that killed Marisa's birth mother; a lifetime friend of Mima herself. A great dealer in whatever drugs she could get her hands on, and a master thief. Keine's eyes would be on this student, among other troublemakers. Pointing to the student who sat next to Marisa, she said "Alright. Your turn."

I don't want to do this… Even so, the last student who said no to Keine almost had their skull split open in a headbutt that was deemed humanly impossible. Because of that, she'd go through with it. She knew exactly who Marisa was, but she wouldn't be surprised if Marisa had no clue who she was. They'd been in the same classes since second grade, and by coincidences she still had trouble accepting, were always placed in the seats next to each other. Generally, though, she kept quiet about herself. She didn't like what happened when people knew exactly who she was. When that girl stood at the front of the classroom, and all eyes were on her, she said "My name is Alice Margatroid. My mother and I aren't actually from Japan, but please, treat me as you would any other person." Margatroid. The last name of Shinki's adoptive child.

The last name of a modern princess if ever there was one. Nobody in Tohohana was sure where Shinki and her family came from, but because of Shinki's wealth and charisma, many people stuck to the theory that she was a foreign queen, or perhaps a runaway princess. Out of nowhere, Shinki arrived in Tohohana eleven years ago, with Alice and the family's maid - Yumeko - in tow. And once people knew exactly who Alice was…

"Treat me normally, like any other person," Alice repeated. People were always willing to try and play kiss-ass with Alice to score favors from her immense family wealth. People who needed illegal favors always kissed up to Marisa when they realized she was related to Mima. Likewise, people who needed favors within the borders of the law did the same for Alice upon the realization that she was Shinki's child. Alice personally detested it, and as she started making her way back to her desk, she could already hear people whispering among themselves. The bits she could hear were about different ideas of how to get favors from her. She hated this kind of special treatment, and if she had half the chance, would change her name, face, and any other feature she could change, just to start with a blank slate to escape the special treatment. When she sat down, though, she realized something interesting. Marisa, who now looked like a person who knew Alice forever, wasn't even opening her mouth about Alice's family wealth. More than once, Marisa had been around when her secret was revealed, and Marisa of all people seemed like the kind to try hardest to get favors from somebody with that kind of financial power.

As Keine started going over the annual things everybody already knew, Alice leaned very slightly in Marisa's direction. Hoping for an answer similar to "Oh, you're in the same class as me again," Alice whispered to this person next to her, "You out of everybody would know that I'm Shinki's daughter. Why aren't you thinking about getting favors?"

"Don't need 'em," Marisa whispered back. "Even if I did, I wouldn't ask you for it, ze. Mima can do anything legal or not, so your family fortune doesn't mean a thing to me da ze."

"You're a girl. Drop the ze."

"No. Been talking this way since I could speak, and I'm not stopping anytime soon, ZE."

"Whatever." Bringing her attention back to the teacher just in time for her to go over things that weren't yearly crap everybody already knew perfectly well, Alice started penning in notes. Marisa seemed to have no interest in doing such, but Alice had every intention of leaving her last year of school with the best grades possible. That way, she could get into a good university - the last thing she'd ever ask Shinki to give her money for, she hoped - and get a degree in something that could help her get into a high-income job. Then she'd move someplace where nobody knew who Shinki was - maybe Okinawa - and live life as a normal person. Granted, one with a rich and eccentric mother who was rumored to be a foreign queen once upon a time, but normal regardless. Because that was her dream in life. Not to be a doctor, or an astronaut, or a civil engineer or any of those other careers people dream of because they want to be great. Just to be a normal person, living a normal life. No royalty theories, no maids to cater to her every wish, and above all else, nobody trying to score favors by sucking up to her. Marisa's attitude toward Alice and her family fortune was a pretty nice start, but one person was hardly equal to a full life.

"Oh, I do need one favor," Marisa whispered.

"Dammit."

"It's not a money thing, ze. I didn't bring my notebook today. I just need you to let me copy your notes later."

"Oh. In that case, go crazy…if you can read them, that is." It wasn't that Alice had bad handwriting. Far from it. Just that even though she could read and speak Japanese (since this is in Japan) perfectly well, she always had trouble writing the language for whatever reason. Therefore, she always wrote in the language she grew up with in her younger years when she first learned to read and write. It also helped that it kept people from copying her answers in tests. Of course, teachers always got very mad when Alice proved unable to write Japanese, but rarely graded her scores based on that in fear of getting on Shinki's bad side. She'd been told that Keine was very fluent in at least four languages other than Japanese, so Alice was positive she was fine. She'd just have to explain herself the first time, and all would be well from there on.

Hopefully.

About 10 minutes after the end of school; Margatroid Residence…

"Tell me again why you had to come here," Alice said, stepping into the front doors of her family mansion. It wasn't the biggest one - Shinki had said she didn't want to stand out too much - but it wasn't small by any means. Joining her was Marisa, who had already introduced herself to Shinki and Yumeko, and gotten her things from one of Mima's "co-workers" who dropped them off for her.

"Mima doesn't like having company over unless it's her co-workers. She almost got sent away because of that once, when she trusted this detective who lives down the street, and…it's a pretty ugly story, ze." Harsh words were exchanged that day. "Your folks seem nice, though."

"Quite. Too much so. I've grown up as Shinki's little princess ever since she adopted me when I was tiny," Alice explained, leading the way up two flights of stairs to where her room would be. "Every whim and wish I've ever had was pretty much instantly catered to by Shinki herself or any of the maids from back home, or after we came to Japan, Yumeko. It sounds nice, but I'd really just like to see the world from the perspective of a regular, normal human being. Even if it's just for a day." Alice didn't get her hopes up while she was living with Shinki, though. "So how about you? What's your story?"

"So soon, ze? But we hardly even know each other~"

"Cut the crap. We've been in the same class for ten years, and sat next to each other every time. I'd like to know." That was something Alice noticed, especially in the last couple of years. Marisa was great at getting people to talk about themselves and puzzling out all the traits and details of a person by hanging around them for a couple of days, but whenever the conversation got to the point where she reveal something about herself, she always dodged the question. That made Alice even more curious. "Mima's reputation is hardly subtle."

"Ya got me, ze."

"So 'fess up. Are you a criminal like her?" Opening the door to her room, Alice promised "What happens in this room stays in this room. Shinki and Yumeko have learned my deepest and most embarrassing secrets here, and not once have we spoken of them outside this room. Your secrets are safe with me."

"If I find out you're lying, you'll have Mima to answer to." Making herself comfortable on a comfy-looking seat called Alice's bed, Marisa kicked back as if she owned the bed, and started up her own confession as she opened her notebook. "Yeah, I'm Mima's kid and the heir to her crime empire. My mom and her were tight since they were about our age, and I grew up seeing her as mostly an aunt-like figure. When I was about seven, my parents got into a car wreck, ze. I was with Mima, and my parents crashed into a car with a family of five. Dad lived."

"And…your mother?"

"Not so lucky da ze. So, in my childish grief, I got mad and decided the other family planned to kill my mother in that crash. I got Mima to get their address, and once I had it, I lit their place up like a great big bonfire, da ze. Anybody that lived was shot by Mima herself, and died quick and painfully. That enough exposition for you, ze?"

"Y-Yes…quite." Alice wasn't sure which of three things to be more afraid of. The morbid ending to Marisa's story, the way she talked about it like it was commonplace information off a newspaper's headlines, or Mima who was willing to help a seven-year-old child with her murderous plans. She promised to not share this secret, though, and she didn't want to have to deal with Mima in the event that Marisa's warning was the truth. She had to distract herself from this before she completely lost herself to fear. So Alice did what she was doing in the first place. Flipping open her notebook, Alice said "Have at it, Marisa."

"Will do…huh? The hell kinda language is this, ze?"

"The one from my home country."

"I gathered that da ze. What language is it?"

"German."

Das Deutsche.

Japanese series (both games and anime, to my experience) tend to link in with German things, especially Madoka - my favorite anime - and the Bount in Bleach. On top of that, "Margatroid" just sounds like a sorta German surname to me, and since Shinki's family name is always up in the air if it even gets mentioned, I decided that Alice would keep hers even after getting adopted.

Despite that, Alice's Tohohana counterpart was born in Germany, but her birth family actually moved to Switzerland when she was merely days old. I'd say more about her folks, but I can't. I cannot say that which I do not know~

So the next update will probably be KogaNue, but may be me uploading the ParuYuugi fic's first chapter, fast-paced though it may be. The day after tomorrow, I should be getting home internet finally, so there won't be any more of that pesky mucking around in the flash drive and not being sure which parts of my fanfics aren't yet uploaded.

With any luck, it will also cure the depression I mentioned up at the top, if only for a short while. Say…

Does anybody know of any other ways to cure that kind of depression? And don't say "Stop being a NEET" or my size-12 foot will pop out of your computer screen and become acquainted w/ your ass.