It was an ordinary day at the Hakurei shrine. The miko of the shrine was out in the yard sweeping. Just then she heard a sound and looked curiously towards the source. The sound had come from the direction of her shrine, but she didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
"Hey reimu, you shouldn't space out like that" someone called out to her.
"I wasn't spacing out" she called back turning toward her.
It was Marisa Kirisame, the ordinary magician of the forest of magic.
"Well you were just staring at your shrine." Marisa pointed out.
"So what brings you here" Reimu asked casually as she continued to sweep.
"Do I need a reason to just pop in, just felt like seeing how you were" Marisa replied.
"Knowing you, you probably want to borrow something" Reimu commented.
"No, I was just at the scarlet devil mansion, I borrowed some real nice books" she said indicating a sack slung over her shoulder.
"Then perhaps you're here to give a donation" Reimu noted happily.
"Oh, well about that, I kind of didn't bring any yen along," Marisa replied hesitantly.
Before Reimu could respond there was a loud noise and their attention was drawn to the donation box. The lid was off and someone was peeking over the top of it.
"Hey, what do you think your doing" Reimu demanded.
She rose to full height and leapt out of the box. She was around five feet tall. Her brown hair was shoulder length and was kept out of her eyes by a hair band. She wore a simple blue dress with oversized sleeves that covered her hands. She had bat wings and fangs as well as a flower in her hair.
"That was a great nap" she commented.
"You were sleeping in my donation box" Reimu asked.
"Is that what it was, well it was empty" she commented chuckling.
"I don't think Reimu accepts youkai as donations" Marisa commented with a grin.
"Just who are you anyways" Reimu asked.
"That's simple, I'm Eclair presider over the variety of chance" she exclaimed arms held high to emphasis her statement.
Marisa and Reimu both gave her blank stares.
"You just made that up didn't you" Reimu stated flatly.
"I thought everyone knew that the variety of chance means anything can happen" Eclair explained.
"So you control endless possibility, what does that mean" Marisa asked thoughtfully.
"That means I can make anything happen whenever I want, that makes me the scariest youkai ever, doesn't it" Eclair boasted.
"Well it's one thing to boast, but can you back it up" Marisa wondered aloud.
"Well gee, I just woke up, I've got to go find some tasty breakfast before I begin bending reality for kicks" she replied.
She began to fly away, but Marisa intercepted her on her broom.
"I'll see how strong you really are" Marisa said as she began shooting star shaped projectiles at her.
"Oh, if you insist on getting in my way I guess I'll make you my breakfast" she growled as she dodged Marisa's attack.
Reimu sat on the shrines steps to watch the fight unfold. Eclair held up her arms and suddenly a thick fog rolled in. Marisa cautiously looked around as her visibility went down.
"Uh, maybe she wasn't kidding" Marisa remarked.
She heard something and moved out of the way just in time to avoid Eclair who had flown straight at her. Eclair had turned around and was coming in for another pass, her sleeve pulled back and her claws brought to bear.
"Fighting this defensively isn't my style," Marisa said as she dodged the second strike.
She held her hand in the air and a magic circle formed beneath her.
"Love Sign, Non-Directional Laser" she exclaimed.
Four lasers shot outward from her in the four cardinal directions and then began to spin around her. As they began to fade she fired off four more which began to spin in the opposite direction. The powerful lasers burned their way through the fog which was now quickly dissipating.
Eclair had just barely dodged the attack a little singed by the lasers. Eclair held her hand out and shot a burst of crescent shaped projectiles at Marisa causing here to halt her spell as she dodged the attack.
"Your attacks aren't flashy enough" Marisa remarked as she shot more stars.
Eclair had also shot off more of her crescent shaped attack. The two attacks collided in mid air throwing magical sparks into the air.
"I've got to say though, I love your moon shaped attack" Marisa commented.
"You haven't seen anything yet" Eclair replied.
She held her hand up gathering power.
"Fire sign, igneous flare" she exclaimed.
She pointed towards Marisa and a red sphere appeared near her. Marisa backed away as the sphere began to glow and shortly exploded. She began pointing in quick succession making more of them appear, each of them exploding in turn. Marisa was hard pressed to dodge them as she tried shooting more stars at her foe at the same time.
"Well, that's a bit more flashy" she said to nobody in particular.
Just then she was caught in the edge of one of the explosions and knocked from her broom. She began to fall to the ground below. Eclair pointed beneath her causing a sphere to appear and begin to glow. Marisa was however able to call her broom to herself and escape the blast in time. She flew back up into the massive blind spot behind Eclair, and while the youkai was scanning the area for any sign of the witch,She hit her with more star shaped magic. Eclair plummeted for a little while before spreading her wings once more and regaining her altitude.
"Hey, that was mean. I thought you went boom" Eclair told her scowling.
"It'll take more then that to take me out" Marisa replied.
"Well that's fine with me, it would be too boring if you were to die so soon" Eclair said smiling.
She held up her hand once more preparing her spell.
"Chaos sign change the world" she declared.
A strange ripple formed and began to spread outward. Marisa braced herself but it did nothing to her as it passed. Soon the ripple began to distort everything inside it besides Marisa and Eclair. A nearby flock of birds was affected changing them into shadowy creatures with sharp claws, fangs and a wispy ghost like tail. They immediately dove towards Marisa to attack. She fled from them trying to get her bearings, as the sky warping and shifting was very disorienting. She managed to dodge them and fired off stars making them burst into puffs of darkness. These converged and then suddenly became one large one.
"What in the world is going on" Marisa exclaimed only to be hit from behind by some crescent shaped magic making her wince.
"I told you, I can make anything happen" Eclair told her.
"Why you" Marisa exclaimed as she turned to attack her.
Yet as soon as she faced Eclair she was reminded of the creature that had formed from the smaller ones. She moved just in time to evade the attack.
"That's cowardly, you fight with misdirection, don't you" Marisa commented.
"So what if I do" Eclair chuckled.
"It's time I stopped messing around" Marisa said pulling out her Hakkero.
She began to concentrate as she dodged the youkai and her strange creations combined attacks. She muttered something into it and thrust it forward unleashing a massive rainbow laser towards Eclair. She was struck by the attack and plummeted to the ground bellow her spell wearing off. She landed With a crash in front of the Hakurei shrine unconscious. Marisa landed shortly after and looked down at the youkai.
"What do you think we should do about her" Marisa asked Reimu, who was now sipping tea.
"Take her inside, I'll be back soon with something for her to eat" Reimu told her setting down her empty tea cup.
Eclair slowly woke up, yawned loudly and looked around. She was inside the shrine on a futon with a blanket on her. She sat up and noticed Marisa was on a cushion next to her reading a book.
"Breakfast" she exclaimed leaping to her feet and rushing towards Marisa.
She held her back with one hand placed on her head while Eclair flailed her arms in the air drooling a tad at the thought of fresh meat.
"I'm not your breakfast, that is" Marisa said pointing to the nearby table.
On the table were some fresh cuts of meat that Reimu had bought from the human village. After one glance she was stuffing it all into her mouth, some blood dripping from her mouth as she chewed the raw meat. Finally she swallowed it looking quite content.
"That was rather good" she said wiping the blood from her mouth with her sleeve.
"You always eat like that" Marisa inquired.
"Huh, was there something wrong with how I ate" she asked confused.
"Never mind" Marisa sighed.
"Well see ya, I'm out of here" Eclair said as she began to head towards the exit.
"Wait, don't leave, Reimu told me to keep you here" Marisa told her.
Eclair's response was sticking her tongue out at her. She then walked outside and flew away.
"Gee, I didn't want to have to look after her in the first place, but now what do I tell Reimu" Marisa said aloud.
Just then Suika came in through the open door grinning.
"Reimu, you home, you mind if I come in" she inquired.
"She's not here, she went somewhere and left me to watch over the shrine," Marisa told her.
"Really, that doesn't seem like her," Suika remarked thinking about it.
"To be truthful, I was supposed to be watching a young youkai," Marisa admitted.
"Well it seems you didn't do a very good job, I didn't know you babysat" Suika teased.
"Not really, it was either that or go back to scarlet devil mansion," Marisa replied.
"Then, don't you think we should go find her," Suika inquired.
"Sounds a lot better then waiting around for Reimu" Marisa agreed putting the book down.
Marisa packed up her books and took her broom in hand.
"Before we go let's check the shrines stores for sake," Suika suggested grinning even more.
"Sounds good to me" Marisa said smiling.
A little while latter the two of them set off, Suika now in possession of a bottle of sake. Suika drank from it happily, Marisa having already had a little at the shrine.
"So, where should we look first," Marisa asked.
"Leave that to me," Suika replied handing her the almost empty bottle.
Using her ability to manipulate density, she became as a mist and began to spread across Gensokyo. After a while she reformed in front of Marisa.
"I forgot to ask what she looked like," Suika admitted.
She took back the sake and drank it.
"About this tall," she said holding her hand out above the ground.
"She has wings similar to Remilia's and wears an oversized blue dress with a flower and hair band in her hair," Marisa told her.
"I saw her, she was in the forest of magic," Suika said pointing.
The two of them began heading towards the forest atop Marisa's broom, Suika riding behind the magician. Suika threw her arms in the air, enjoying the ride. Before long they reached the edge of the forest and Marisa landed her broom. They continued, Suika leading the way, on foot.
"So, what's so special about this youkai, from what I saw, she just seems like any young youkai," Suika inquired.
"You should have seen her fight, it was something else," Marisa commented.
Suika considered this for a moment.
"If you're impressed it must be something," Suika replied.
There was some rustling in the bushes and then suddenly someone leapt out at them.
"Gotcha," she called out.
Marisa instinctively fired off some star shaped projectiles at her knocking her down.
"Hey, what was that for," Wriggle asked getting up.
"What are you doing here," Suika inquired.
"I'm playing hide and seek with Rumia, Cirno, Mystia, and someone called Eclair," Wriggle told them.
"Oh, that's convenient , we're looking for Eclair," Marisa told her.
"How come," wriggle inquired?
"She was supposed to be watching her and she ran off," Suika explained.
"I didn't want to tell her that," Marisa told Suika a tad annoyed.
"Whatever it is you can forget it, she obviously doesn't want anything to do with it," Wriggle exclaimed.
"So, you intend to get in my way," Marisa replied.
"It's not as if she's done anything wrong, leave her be," Wriggle replied.
"Hold on, if you fight her, sure you'll win, but the fight may scare away Eclair," Suika whispered to Marisa.
"What else could we do," Marisa asked.
"Leave, that to me," Suika told her.
"What are you two whispering about," Wriggle inquired getting a tad aggravated.
"Fine, we'll leave her be, see ya" Marisa told her.
"huh, really, just like that, guess your to afraid to fight," Wriggle replied before beginning to leave.
"You did that on purpose, didn't you, this better work," Marisa told Suika.
With a huge smile on her face, Suika pulled out a handful of hair. She dropped it to the ground where it transformed into a mini Suika clone.
"Follow that youkai," she ordered.
The clone sped away after its target deeper into the forest. Wriggle wandered through the forest looking for her friends, unaware she was being followed. Before long she noticed a rustle in the branches of a nearby tree. Upon closer examination she discovered it was Mystia.
"Gotcha Mystia," she called out.
"Dang, I'm the first one you found," Mystia sighed.
She flew down from her perch and followed Wriggle as she began to look for others.
"Marisa was looking for Eclair, she was too afraid to fight though," Wriggle boasted.
"Really, that's awesome, I can't wait to tell Cirno, they're finally beginning to take us seriously," Mystia practically sang.
"I think that might be her over there," Wriggle said pointing at a wall of ice that looked out of place in the forest. Sure enough, crouched behind the wall next to a tree was the ice fairy.
"Gotcha Cirno," Wriggle called out.
"Huh, how did you find me, I had the best hiding place ever," Cirno said indicating the wall.
"Marisa is afraid of wriggle, she ran away from her too," Mystia told Cirno.
"I wish I could've been there to see that," Cirno commented.
"Let's go find Rumia and Eclair," Wriggle said.
The other two followed her, Cirno flying a foot above the ground.
"Nobody can hide from me, they're as good as found," Cirno commented.
After wandering about for a little while, Mystia pointed out something excitedly.
"I think Rumia is over there," she told the others pointing.
Sure enough there was Rumia, shrouded by a thin darkness.
"Gotcha Rumia," wriggle declared.
"Who else is left," she asked.
"Well, just Eclair," Mystia responded.
"You, won't believe what happened either, Marisa ran for her life after setting eyes on Wriggle," Cirno said happily pointing at wriggle.
"You don't say," Rumia responded.
"Now all I have to do is find Eclair," Wriggle said aloud.
The four of them began looking for her. They looked in the bushes, trees, and even under rocks.
"Where is she, it's taking forever to find her," Rumia commented.
"She must be a great hide and seeker," Cirno stated.
"Well I'm beginning to run out of ideas," wriggle told the others.
Suddenly something dropped down behind them making a loud noise. This startled them causing all four of them to fall down.
"Gotcha," a smiling Eclair said looking down at them.
"Don't you know how to play the game, you hide and I find you," Wriggle told her.
"Yeah, I know, but I got bored," Eclair replied.
"Where were you hiding anyway," Rumia asked.
"Up there," she said absently pointing at the sky.
"That's no fair, you were supposed to hide in the forest," Cirno told her in a matter of fact way.
"Oh well, my turn to seek," Eclair said covering her eyes and turning towards a tree.
"One tasty human, two tasty humans, three tasty humans," she began.
The others ran off to find hiding places.
"Ninety-nine tasty humans, one hundred tasty humans, let the hunt begin," she said finally finished counting.
By that time Marisa and Suika had arrived.
"Oh, it's you again, what do you want," Eclair asked.
"I'm taking you back to the shrine," Marisa replied.
"I don't have to listen to you," Eclair answered.
"You're coming back with us if you like it or not," Marisa growled.
"I'm not fighting you," Eclair told her flatly.
"What, why is that," Marisa inquired.
"That wouldn't be any fun for me, I want to fight her," she said pointing at Suika.
"If that's what you want, go get her," Marisa commented patting Suika on the back.
"I don't get it, didn't you lose to Marisa, don't you want another chance to fight her," Suika inquired.
"As flashy as her attacks are, they're too boring," Eclair answered.
"Why you," Marisa shouted.
"Calm down Marisa, I'll handle this," Suika told her taking a step towards Eclair.
Marisa got on her broom and floated up a ways. Eclair unfurled her wings and hovered about a foot off the ground. Suika smirked preparing herself for the battle. Eclair started off by firing some crescent shaped Attacks aimed for Suika. Suika leap up in the air and fired a dark green sphere at Eclair, who barely dodged it. When the attack struck the ground it split off into several spheres moving away from the point of impact. One of them managed to hit Eclair distracting her for a second. This was all the time she needed. Suika Quickly closed the gap and threw a punch straight at Eclair. Eclair moved but not enough to evade the Attack, taking the punch to her shoulder.
"I'm going to bruise," she pouted rubbing her arm as she flew farther away.
She began firing off crescent shaped attacks, However instead of being aimed at Suika they formed a ring around her that slowly rotated about her. Then she formed a second one. She thrust her finger forward and crescents began to fly off from the rings in quick succession. After firing off her attack however she Saw What Suika had done. She had leapt up into the air almost as high as Eclair.
She held her hands to The side where several stones had gathered from the forest floor, being pulled in by a magical force. Suika held a massive boulder ready to chuck it at Eclair. As the crescents flew towards her she hurled The rock at the winged Youkai. The stone projectile shattered several crescents as it went, Eclair barely dodging. Her rings of crescents moved with her a lot of them taken out by the boulder. Suika got hit by some of the crescents, however they stopped shooting towards her when Eclair moved.
"Eek, what kind of Youkai are you," Eclair commented.
"I'm no mere Youkai," Suika replied.
"Well I was just warming up anyways" Eclair Declared.
"puppet sign, diabolical doll," she declared as a doll appeared before her.
The doll wore a fancy white dress with lace and had long dark hair. There was a large bow in it's hair as well. It had a simple expression with bored looking half closed eyes, and wielded two knives. The doll leisurely floated towards Suika. As it was doing this Eclair flung more crescent shots at Suika. She focused more on dodging her shots still making sure to keep an eye on the demented doll. Then the doll cackled it's eyes glowing red as it began spitting fire at her. Suika moved out of the way and began hurling red spheres at Eclair. Eclair dodged them so they continued their flight erupting in explosions when they hit some nearby trees.
"Watch it would you, I live near here," Marisa exclaimed.
Suika however just ignored her, more concerned with the doll slashing at her and breathing fire. Also Eclair was jovially flying about taking shots at her. Suika threw one of her chain accessories wrapping the end of it around the doll, then she swung it around hurling it straight at Eclair. The youkai was hit and fell to the ground along with the doll. Eclair got back up and pointed right at Suika. The doll immediately responded flying towards her grinning madly wielding it's knives menacingly. Suika prepared to punch as the doll drew nearer. When the doll was almost to her and Suika began her punch, Eclair snapped her fingers and the doll exploded. When the smoke cleared Suika was still standing although a tad charred by the blast.
"that attack seems familiar," Suika commented.
"Yeah, I met this lady with lots of dolls yesterday, and I thought I should try it too," Eclair answered grinning.
"Well don't think it ends there," she said gesturing forward.
A couple more of them were spawned and they grinned evilly as they moved towards their target. This time Suika retaliated by tossing a pair of exploding red spheres and the dolls were blown to bits. Then she ran up to Eclair again and hit her with some punches before the youkai could back away. Eclair winced as she flew into the air once more holding her chest pouting.
"Chaos sign, change the world," she declared.
The ripple spread outward changing everything it touched besides her and Suika. Marisa moved away not wanting to be inside her spells field of effect. Suika didn't seem to be too bothered by the warping reality around her. Nothing really appeared to have happened. Suika ran right toward Eclair when suddenly she was struck from the right and was knocked to the ground. She glanced to her right and saw that the tree had struck her.
She looked around surprised to see that all of the trees were moving their branches. She quickly moved to avoid another of the trees that was lashing out at her. While this was happening Eclair was positively hysterical, laughing at the oni. Before Eclair knew it she was being punched by Suika. Eclair reeled back, some nearby trees grabbing Suika's arms as the youkai irritably rubbed her lightly bleeding nose.
"You really shouldn't underestimate an oni," Suika told her ripping the branches from the trees.
Eclair backed away from the charging oni making trees lash out at her only to have their branches shattered. The youkai panicked animating stones, having the trees hurls fruit and nuts at the oni, and also having the trees launch their leaves as sharp projectiles to slow Suika down. This however only succeeded in staining her dress and giving her several scratches. Suika readied her next attack fed up with the youkai's shenanigans. A black hole formed besides her and began to pull everything towards it. Eclair fought against the pull wildly flapping her arms in a vein attempt at resisting it.
Soon she was pulled towards Suika, who punched the youkai knocking her to the ground. Eclair's spell faded and Suika ended hers as well. she looked down at the unconscious form of Eclair, who now had a black eye.
"You went a little hard on her," Marisa commented as she approached.
"She doesn't know when to quit," Suika replied lifting her with both arms.
"Yeah I suppose your right," Marisa replied as they began to head back to the shrine.
Latter that day, Reimu walked up the stairs to her shrine with a book under her arm. When she reached the shrine's yard, she saw Suika running around with Eclair on her shoulders. Eclair was laughing jovially her hands in the air. Marisa was sitting in front of the shrine reading a book. Marisa looked up from her book as Reimu walked over to her.
"Did I miss something" Reimu asked absently scratching her head.
"Well, nothing out of the ordinary anyways," Marisa replied.
"So, what did Patchy say about Eclair," Marisa inquired.
"She seems harmless enough, she couldn't even beat you," Reimu answered.
"Wait, then why did I have to watch her," Marisa inquired standing up.
"I didn't tell you to do that, what would people say if I had a youkai hanging around the shrine." Reimu replied.
"It was implied," Marisa replied.
"Miss Hakurai," someone called out.
Marisa and Reimu both looked to the source to see a girl running up the steps. She had short red hair braided on the sides with blue ribbons. She had amber eyes and was smiling widely. She was wearing a blue dress with white ribbons. She stopped in front of Reimu panting, trying to catch her breathe.
"Is this a friend of yours," Marisa inquired.
"No, I don't know her," Reimu replied.
"Miss Hakurai, please take me on as your apprentice," she exclaimed.
"What," Reimu sputtered.
Marisa chuckled.
"Miss Hakurai, please train me to be a shrine maiden so I can fight youkai," she insisted.
Marisa began to laugh even more.
"Now just hold on, what do I need an apprentice for anyways," Reimu commented.
"That's a good one," Marisa was saying, "She's too lazy to train herself."
"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Marin Masami," she said ignoring Marisa and bowing to Reimu.
After thinking a bit Reimu told her "If you really want to be my apprentice you need to train yourself first,"
"Oh, well I've been training at the dojo to get ready for this. Will that do," she inquired.
"Uh," Reimu paused trying to think of how to get out of this.
Suddenly Reimu smiled and said" Okay, I guess it wouldn't be so bad, but as my pupil, you'll have to do whatever I say,"
"Sure, anything," she replied happily.
"Well the floors need washing," Reimu told her.
She happily ran inside the shrine and immediately set off to work.
"Why did you agree exactly," Marisa wondered.
"What, are you saying I can't have an apprentice," Reimu replied.
"Oh, I get it, you want her to do your choirs for you," Marisa commented.