Epoch of Ephemeral Incandescence I (Touhou Fan Fiction)

by TheOVJM

How can you fight back that of which you don't know anything? And what do you do after you realize that you cannot trust even your friends? Will you stand your ground and push back the inevitable or will you be the one betraying them all? Or... will just watch silently knowing that whatever happens, it is what fate has decreed? Where will you run when the whole world burns?

Now before starting to read this it should be noted that if you haven't read "Desires of Deepest Red" and "From Black to White and Reverse" there's no point in reading this since this is the aftermath of those two. Reading "Scourge Shrouded in Gold" is advisable too but not required since there are references to that trilogy too but nothing too major. But if you're already familiar with those stories then take a comfortable posture on your chair and proceed. I hope you'll enjoy.

Epoch of Ephemeral Incandescence I

"When you look into a mirror, do you see yourself looking back at you or is it someone else who just looks like you?" Suwako asked from Sanae while squatting on the fence of the terrace of the Moriya shrine. Suwako was one of the two main gods of the Moriya shrine. Her body seemed like that of a child. Suwako was wearing her usual short, simple purplish-blue dress with frog print design, large white sleeves stitched onto the torso, and a white collar. She had fairly long blonde hair, a light brown wide-brimmed hat with two frog eyes on the top and white kneehighs. She was looking how Sanae kept sweeping the autumn leaves that had started to fall around the shrine on top of the youkai mountain.

"Why ask such a question all of a sudden?" Kanako asked from Suwako. She was sitting next to her on the terrace. Kanako was the other god of the shrine and as a contrast to Suwako she had a body of a voluptuous woman. She had elaborate red shirt with long white sleeves and a mirror over the center of her chest. She was wearing a long black skirt with red flower print hem. She also had semi long hair of deepest blue.

"Hush now, I want to hear her answer," Suwako replied and signed Kanako to stay quiet. Sanae just looked at Suwako with a bit confused look on her face. Sanae was the wind priestess of the Moriya shrine, which is basically just a fance word for a shrine maiden. She was wearing blue and white shrine maiden outfit covered in light blue polka dots and stripes. She had a long light green hair with snake shaped hair ornament and a headband with frogs head on it attached to her hair. Sanae stopped sweeping to think. She then put the broom down and walked up to Kanako and took a look at the mirror in the middle of her chest.

"Nope, just light reflecting from the surface of the mirror," Sanae asnwered and looked at Suwako. Suwako then hopped of from the fence and walked next to Sanae.

"Precisely so. It is important to know and understand how the world functions around you. You may hear how these supposedly wise people talk with big words about the complexity of the world we live in. But the truth is that philosophy is just a way to hide your ignorance. Philosophy is for those who don't have the real knowledge or are too lazy to seek it out. The world around us isn't nearly as complicated as they'd like you to believe," Suwako said while looking into Sanae's eyes.

"O-okay. But why'd you say that all of a sudden?" Sanae replied with even more confused look on her face.

"Wait, I'm not finished yet. But then there's the most basic question the philosophers like to play around; why are we here," Suwako continued and turned away to look at the view that opened before their eyes from the top of the mountain. Sanae then just looked at Suwako like waiting for her to finish.

"I'm waiting," Suwako then just said and peeked behind herself with allusive grin on her face.

"Wh-Uhmm... No one knows," Sanae responded after thinking about it for a brief moment.

"Finally, someone understands what I'm after. The important part isn't the knowledge. The thing that is important is to admit when you don't know. Seeking out the truth is a thing on its own but that's up to you to decide wether you chase the knowledge or just be contented with what you have," Suwako said and looked at Sanae with wide grin on her face.

"Uhh, thanks? Was this part of my training or...?" Sanae asked and scratched her hair with a bit awkward look on her face.

"Nah, just so you know I hate philosophy and philosophers. Those cocky little wiseasses," Suwako groaned with her hands akimbo. She then just sighed and started walking back towards the shrine but while doing so continued, "Seems like we're having a visitor. Go on Sanae. Show me how sharp your tongue is and make them turn around. I don't feel like having a guest right now." Sanae just looked after Suwako as she walked back to the shrine's terrace. She then looked at the path leading away from the shrine and saw Reimu walking towards them. Reimu was the shrine maiden of the Hakurei shrine. She had a black semi long hair with a red ribbon tied to the back of her hair and red hairtubes on her sidelocks. She had her usual shrine maiden's uniform that consisted a red skirt, a sleeveless red top with white collar, tied with a yellow necktie, a pair of white detached sleeves and sarashi.

Reimu seemed pissed by the looks of things. Sanae just gulped and stepped between Reimu and the shrine.

"I-I'm sorry, could you please co-," Sanae started but she was pushed aside by Reimu who wasn't in the mood for being interrupted. Sanae fell to a bush next to the path and could just watch how Reimu made her way to the shrine.

"She still needs some practice?" Kanako asked from Suwako.

"Yep," Suwako replied while looking at Reimu who was marching towards them.

"What brings you to our shrine?" Kanako asked with a bit amused and confused look on her face.

"There have been a robbery at my shrine! It is you people, isn't it," Reimu yelled at the two gods in front of her.

"Pretty bold accusation you got there," Suwako replied and tilted her head a little. Meanwhile Sanae had stood up from the bush and was walking towards Reimu to get her to leave but Kanako just lifted her hand and signed Sanae to leave them be.

"Okay so let's hear it. What was stolen? We might know something after all, who knows," Suwako said and shrugged her shoulders.

"What was stolen? What was STOLEN!? Five yen disappeared from my donation box! Have you truly gone so low as to steal my donations!?" Reimu almost screamed at the two gods and pointed her finger to Kanako's face.

"Five... yen...," Kanako uttered and looked at Suwako. After that they both bursted out laughing. This was the common everyday life in Gensokyo. The land where common sense didn't apply any more. The land where the demons and humans lived together in harmony. Well most of the time. Sometimes something bigger happens and Reimu or someone else has to resolve that incident but those kinds of events are rare. Happening twice a year at the most. This year had been quite eventful when it came to those incidents. First the scroll shenanigans withe Kosuzu girl from the human village and then one of the sages of Gensokyo decided that it was time for her to make a scene. But now when those incidents had been dealt with everything had returned to normal. Well quite normal would be more appropriate term.

Reimu had returned from the Moriya shrine after they had convinced her that they weren't behind the theft. Reimu was simmering from anger. Someone had the audacity to steal from her and she didn't know who it was. She was just sitting on her terrace thinking about who she should interrogate next when she saw a familiar figure walking up the steps towards the shrine. It was Kasen. That strange hermit that lived on the mountainside. She usually came to the Hakurei shrine to help Reimu and sometimes to even scold her if she thought that she wasn't doing her job properly.

Kasen had shoulder length pink hair with Chinese-styled double buns. Her right arm was being wrapped in bandages. No one knew how she had lost her arm in the first place other than herself. The bandages in fact didn't have anything under them. And instead they worked as a replacement hand for her. She had her white shirt and green skirt, over those a brown front panel with a thorny wine motif and a large rose-shaped ornament just below her her collar level. She also had a strange broken shackle on her left wrist.

Kasen walked up to Reimu who was groaning to herself in anger. Kasen just looked at her and tilted her head in confusion.

"Something troubling your mind or why so long face?" Kasen asked from grumpy Reimu who then just lifted her gaze from the ground to look at Kasen.

"I've been robbed," Reimu simply uttered.

"Robbed? Is that even possible if you didn't own anything in the first place?" Kasen said with sarcastic look on her face. Reimu then launched herself from he shrine's terrace and grapped a hold of Kasen's collars with her face red from rage.

"Are you making fun of me!?" Reimu screamed at her face. Kasen just shook her head and waved her hand to Reimu to tell her that she wasn't while in fact she was, even though just a bit. Reimu then just sighed and sat back down to the terrace.

"This has been going on for a month already. Every week, every saturday five yen disappears from my donation box. Always five yen and only during saturdays. It's like I'm being mocked by someone," Reimu uttered with frustrated look on her face.

"Really? Doesn't seem like too big of a deal now, does it," Kasen said and rubbed her chin.

"No big deal!? If people get the idea that you can just take my donations I'll go bankrupt. It's not the amount that was taken but the fact that something was taken," Reimu briddled with pissed tone and look on her face.

"Come on, think about it. It's probably just some fairy playing pranks on you," Kasen said but that didn't comfort Reimu.

"I don't have the time and energy to beat up every fairy I come across until one of them confesses," Reimu yelled in frustration.

"Sigh* I didn't mean that. If you just stop paying attention to it maybe it'll stop," Kasen said and shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm not convinced," Reimu just groaned and glared at Kasen.

"That's the best I can think of," Kasen said and crossed her arms over her chest. Reimu just sighed and lowered her gaze from Kasen's eyes. It was then when they heard a familiar swoosh from above them and a thud from the path leading to the shrine.

"Wassup?" They heard Marisa's ever so cheerful voice saying. Reimu just peeked behind Kasen to take a look at Marisa who was standing on the path bahind Kasen and grinning widely. Marisa was a human witch living in the Forest of Magic and Reimu's dearest friend. Marisa had a black skirt and vest on top of a white dress shirt. And on top of her skirt she had a white apron. Marisa had a long golden blonde hair with one plait on the left side of her hair. She had her usual and big witche's hat on top of her head and a white ribbon tied around it.

"Oh, Marisa. What brings you here?" Kasen asked after she had turned around.

"Nothing really. I was shopping doing some shopping at human village and after that decided to do a quick visit to the shrine," Marisa said and showed the bags that hung from her broom.

"By the way, why is Reimu so grumpy looking all of a sudden?" Marisa asked after she saw the look on Reimu's face.

"Someone has been stealing five yen from her donation box once every week," Kasen replied and looked at Reimu who was sitting on the terrace leaning against her knees.

"Some fairy playing pranks on her again," Marisa said, chuckled a bit and shrugged her shoulders.

"Or maybe it is the spooky, scary spirit of the forest," Marisa continued and stared at Kasen with allusive grin on her face.

"The what now?" Kasen asked with confused look on her face.

"Oh just a thing I overheard while doing some shopping. It appears that one kid in the village supposedly heard a some strange laughing from the forest last night. Though someone said that the laughing turned into a scream. It appears that the urban legends are still all over the village," Marisa said and shrugged her shoulders with slight grin on her face.

"And there was no one missing today?" Kasen continued with a bit worried look on her face.

"Nope, if it would be so people would talk about it for sure. I thought that you would be the last person to assume that it would be true," Marisa responded and walked up to Reimu.

"You can never be too careful," Kasen responded with her hands akimbo.

"Come on Reimu, fairies are playing pranks all the time. It's nothing new that things go missing," Marisa said after she sat beside Reimu to the terrace.

"I know. I'm just... Argh! So frustrated," Reimu groaned and kicked a pebble on the ground.

"Well I know what is gonna turn that face upside down. How about we go out and exterminate few of them. That should sent out a message," Marisa said and smacked Reimu to her back.

"You know, that's the opposite of what I proposed," Kasen said with a bit annoyed look on her face.

"Oh, come on Kasen. You know that fairies wont lose interest in you if you just leave them be. They're too stupid for that. Those little squirts have to be whacked into the ground," Marisa said and grinned a little.

"You know what, I could really use some exercise right now," Reimu saidn, stood up and took her purification rod.

"That's the spirit. Oh Kasen, mind keeping an eye on my groceries. Wouldn't want some fairy or Tanuki digging in while we're out. You can cook something for us for when we come back," Marisa said and grabbed her broom before taking off. Reimu was quick to join her. Kasen could just watch how they flew into the distance towards the forest. After they disappeared she just sighed, took Marisa's bags and walked into the shrine.

Reimu and Marisa flew towards the Forest of Magic. The forest was at least five kilometers wide and was the biggest single patch of forest in Gensokyo. It had also the densest youkai population if places like Tengu village, Kappa valley or the Former Capital were excluded. But still none of the places mentioned earlier had as much fairies as the Forest of Magic. It was quite easy to just run into one while walking around the forest. And now when Marisa and Reimu were there to hunt them it was even easier. Once directly above the forest they dove under the branches and leaves of the trees and started their search. And just as expected they ran into a group of fairies quite quickly. Marisa just nodded to Reimu with a mischevious grin on her face and they both started firing at the fairies. The fairies started fleeing frantically. Some tried to respond to the projectiles fired at them but they were the first ones to be blown up.

"You were right. It feels good to let release some steam like this," Reimu yelled to Marisa over the sound of their bullets and fleeing fairies.

"Tell me about it," Marisa responded while shooting. They kept this up for about five minutes till every last fairy was either shot down or had fled so that they couldn't be seen anymore. Marisa and Reimu flew around the area couple of times to make sure they had gotten each of the fairies.

"It seems that that's all. You wanna find another group?" Marisa asked with her arms akimbo and contented grin on her face.

"Maybe some other time. Currently there's something I want to investigate," Reimu responded and then pointed and nodded towards the ground. Marisa looked at what Reimu was pointing at and saw something behind a rock on the ground.

"What do you say if we did some interrogation?" Reimu asked and started descending to the ground. Marisa followed soon after and watched how Reimu walked up to the rock. As soon as Reimu reached the rock she grabbed something behind it and pulled it out.

"Please, let me go," The struggling fairy screamed in Reimu's grip. One of the fairies apparently had stayed there and hid. Bad move on Marisa's opinion.

"Please don't hurt me, I haven't done anything bad, have I," The fairy continued and tried to get free from the hand that was grabbing it from its collars.

"I wont have to if you're cooperative," Reimu said and shrugged her shoulders. The fairy stopped struggling now when it realized that there was no way to free itself by force.

"Hope that your memory is good. You wouldn't happen to know who has been stealing my donations lately, would you?" Reimu aksed and stared Fairy into its eyes. Marisa thought that it looked kinda funny to see Reimu interrogating a fairy.

"W-what? No, I haven't heard that anyone would do something like that," The fairy responded after thinking about it for a second.

"Wrong answer," Reimu said with playful tone and took out one of her charms and brought it close to fairy's face.

"Eeek," The fairy yelled in fright.

"Come on, it's not that bad. You'll be reborn once the sun rises tomorrow," Marisa said with a bit amused look on her face and tilted her head.

"I-I know but blowing up hurts nonetheless even if you're reborn after a while," The fairy responded with frightful look on her face.

"Well can't blame you for that," Marisa responded. Somehow that statement from the fairy reminded her of Mokou.

"Hey, no changing the subject! You still haven't told me who stole my donations. Every saturday, five yen," Reimu yelled while staring at the fairy with grumpy look on her face.

"I swear I don't know who did that. We fairies keep track on what kind of pranks everyone's doing at the time and I'd know if someone were planning to or had already done that but I haven't heard about something like that so it can't be one of us fairies," The fairy yelled with desperate look on its face while struggling in Reimu's grip.

"Reimu, I think it's telling the truth," Marisa said and looked at Reimu and the fairy. After a second Reimu sighed and the threw the fairy into a nearby bush.

"Blah, it was just a waste of time," Reimu bridled and was ready to take off when they heard the fairy yelling from the bush, "Maybe it was that scary spirit that that has caused ruckus recently?" Marisa and Reimu then just looked at each other in confusion and then at the fairy that had just crawled out from the bush.

"Wait, it wasn't one your fairies prank?" Marisa asked with confused tone and look on her face.

"No. We've been too busy running away from that creepy voice. Even the thought of it being around makes me shiver," The fairy responded and hugged her own shoulders. After that Marisa just looked at Reimu and rubbed her chin.

"What's in your mind?" Reimu asked while watching the fairy fly away into the distance.

"How about we do some ghost hunting?" Marisa asked and looked at Reimu. She was planning to capture that newly appeared spirit.

"Nah. Sounds like a waste of time. If that spirit has just recently appeared it most likely doesn't even have a physical form so we probably cannot even see it even if it is real," Reimu said and shook her head.

"Well have it your way. I'm still gonna try and catch that spirit. If it turns out that it has been the one bothering you, you're gonna owe me an apology," Marisa said with self-confident grin on her face.

"Do what you want. Either way I'm heading back to the shrine. You coming?" Reimu said and took flight.

"I'll come in just a sec. I'll go prepare my ghost hunting equipment," Marisa said and took flight herself.

"You have something like that?" Reimu asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"No, that's why I have to prepare some for myself," Marisa said and started heading towards her own house that wasn't too far away.

"Well, you do that. I'll be waiting for you at the shrine. Don't forget that your groceries are still there and that Kasen was supposed to prepare something," Reimu yelled after Marisa. Marisa just waved at Reimu to indicate that she remembered. Marisa's house was just around the corner so it didn't take her long till she arrived to her yard and landed there. Once she was on the ground again she left her broom onto her terrace and rushed in to search for suitable equipment. She knew she had few tomes about spirits and such. She really didn't know what she needed to catch one but at least she could take the books with her and skim through them at the shrine.

"Okay, okay... let's see... something about spirits, newly born ones if possible," Marisa muttered while rummaging through her shelfs and drawers. After a while she had managed to gather a handful of books that had somewhat correct theme. She then lowered the whole pile onto the table and started wondering how she should carry those to the shrine but her thinking was cut short when she heard something clinking on the floor. When she had put the books onto the table something had fallen to the floor. Marisa squatted down to see what it was. She didn't remember that she would have left anything to her table when she left.

"What do we have here...?" Marisa muttered while reaching into the dark space under the table between the chair legs. Finally her hand caught something small and made of metal.

"A-ha," Marisa exclaimed once she found the culprit of the sound and pulled it out but once she saw what it was she was confused and amazed at the same time. It was a gold coin, about the size of her palm. She threw it to the air and catched it to test its weight and then bit it to confirm that it was gold. Once sure that it was a real deal she pushed the books away and sat down to inspect her finding.

"Now where did you come from little fella?" Marisa thought to herself with her eyes sparkling with exitement. Marisa started inspecting the coin in her hands. It was large and seemed to be pure gold. At least she didn't find any impurities. The other side of the coin was filled with strange carvings and text. She couldn't understand any of it. And the other side had some strange insignia likes of which she had never seen. The symbol was a square with a circle in each corner. Marisa flipped the coin in her hand once and then just stared at it.

"Reimu keeps losing money and I just find some. Where did this even come from?" Marisa wondered out loud. It seemed strange. The coin wasn't Japanese that much she could tell so it wasn't the money Reimu was looking for. And if someone had brought it to her that someone must've been really stubid, or rich for pure gold coin size of that was worth a fortune. She decided to put the coin into her pocket and forget about the ghost hunting for now. She stepped out from her house, grabbed her broom and headed for the Hakurei shrine. Maybe Kasen would know something about it. Though she wasn't willing to give that coin away now when she had it. It could cover all her future food purchases for life.

"The spirit can wait. I have something more important on my hands right now," Marisa thought to herself while flying towards the Hakurei shrine. The flight didn't take that long and once she reached the stairway leading to the shrine she could already smell the food from the shrine. Kasen had made something good for them. She landed on top of the stairs and left her broom leaning towards the torii that served as a gateway to the shrine grounds. She started walking towards the shrine and saw Reimu and Kasen waiting for her.

"Took your sweet time preparing your equipment. And speaking of which where is it?" Reimu asked with a bit curious look on her face.

"Nah, I ran into some more pressing matters," Marisa responded and shrugged her shoulders.

"Good that way. I'm pretty sure that I can take care of this 'spirit' better than you two. Reimu told me what you had heard from that fairy," Kasen said with serious look on her face.

"So what did you run into?" Reimu continued and tilted her head. Marisa reached for her pocket, pulled out something and showed it to Reimu and Kasen. On her palm there was a big golden coin. Both Kasen's and Reimu's jaw dropped when they saw it.

"I found this from my house when I was searching for tomes about spirits," Marisa said and flipped it once in her hand.

"I-is it..?" Reimu asked and pointed at the coin.

"Yep, pure gold," Marisa said with proud grin on her face. Kasen rubbed her chin for a moment silently before reaching out for the coin and taking it from Marisa's hand.

"Hey," Marisa exclaimed.

"Don't worry you'll get it back. I just want to make sure it isn't a trap... Nope it's all good. No signs of any magical auras or anything," Kasen said after inspecting the coin and gave it back to Marisa. Marisa just grabbed the coin and put it back into her pocket.

"No fair. I'm just loosing money and Marisa finds more," Reimu bridled with her arms akimbo.

"It's strange though. You truly have no idea where that coin could have come from. Maybe you had it but just forgot about it?" Kasen suggested with a bit confused look on her face.

"No, that can't be the case. I wouldn't forget something like this. And no I have no idea who would think to give me something like this. It just appeared. It wasn't there during the morning before I left," Marisa said and shrugged her shoulders.

"Strange... I'll have to look into this," Kasen said and rubbed her chin.

"You bet I will too," Marisa said and grinned but then happened to look at now depressed looking Reimu. Marisa then just sighed, put her hand onto her shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I can give you some of the income once I've figured out what it's worth and sold it. But for now let's eat. That should cheer you up." Reimu just looked at Marisa and cracked a slight smile onto her face. Marisa could easily tell that Reimu was jealous of her find. Not only because she had just lost some money if only just little but because Reimu had generally a bit greedy personality. Marisa found this situation amusingly ironic for some reason and couldn't help but to grin a little while they walked into the shrine to eat.

While they ate Kasen asked Marisa to show the coin to her one more time and after assuring that she would get it back marisa finally gave the coin to Kasen. After inspecting it once more Kasen gave it back to Marisa just as she promised. Though after taking a look at the coin Kasen seemed a bit more quiet than usual. But she usually wasn't the one who would get excited about strange things so Marisa paid a little mind to it. They finished eating and Marisa gathered the leftovers as she was the one who had originally bought them and put them into a bag. Marisa and Kasen both decided to head home after that. Both for the same reason; to investigate the strange coin that had appeared into Marisa's house. They said their good byes and headed for their own homes. The day was turning into evening when Marisa reached her own house and headed inside. She dag out the coin she had and started examining it but just like Kasen said it didn't emit any kind of aura or magical power.

"So, if you didn't get here by your own then someone had to bring you here, right?" Marisa thought to herself and stood up from her chair and started looking around. There had to be some kind of trace somewhere that the intruder had left while bringing that coin to her house. The coin just seemed too innocent to not have some kind of scheme behind it.

She started to look around the house. Looking through every possible way someone could have gotten in and out and even impossible ones but even still found no traces on how it could have gotten there. This was really strange but even so she still had a piece of solid gold that she could sell. She decided to take the coin and took it upstairs to her room. She then locked it into her drawer so it would be safe there. She was going to sell it tomorrow morning. It was quite late evening now so she decided to get ready for sleep. She could have maybe reached the human village in time if she wanted to sell it now but she thought that it could wait for tomorrow. She then undressed herself and changed on her pajamas. But before going to sleep she decided to go downstairs and grab something light to eat. She casually left her room and walked downstairs. Once downstairs she walked into her living room where she could get to kitchen but was left shocked when she entered her kitchen. There was unfinished meal on the table. Some rise crackers and half drunk tea. After Marisa had recovered from the surprise she immediately readied herself. There had to be someone with her in that house. She readied a simple spell and pointed into every dark corner of her house while looking around herself.

"Come out! I know you're out there," Marisa yelled and kept looking around herself but heard no answer. In fact she hadn't heard anything while upstairs and she had been there only such a short time that it seemed hardly believable that someone had managed to set up evening snack during that. Marisa then cancelled her spell and looked around. She then concentrated but couldn't find any traces magical auras so who ever was in there with her they didn't have any magical abilities.

"Are you just a normal human? You can come out without fear. I'm human too, I'm not going to hurt you," Marisa yelled but still no answer. After that she proceeded to check every room but in the end found nothing that would suggest that she wasn't alone. Only the half finished evening snack on the table of her kitchen. After not finding anyone she returned to kitchen and looked at the snack on the table.

"Well, I came here to eat so might as well," She thought to herself and ate the rise crackers and drank the rest of the tea on the table. It seemed rude at first to eat the rest of something someone had already started but in the end it was her food. After finishing she put the rest back into the cupboard where it belonged and returned upstairs while constantly listening. But even now the only thing she could hear were her own footsteps. She then just walked into her room and locked the door behind her just in case. After that she just layed down onto her bed and pulled the blanket over herself. She was nervous about the strange evening snack appearing onto the table but since she didn't find anyone she just let it slide for now. She was sleepy and wanted to rest.

It was dead of the night and no wind was blowing outside. The sky was clear and the crescent moon and stars could be seen clearly. Only thing that could be heard from the outside was the sound of an owl. The air in the room was muggy and Marisa was rolling on her bed. She had fallen asleep quite soon after laying down but woke up now when the air had started to get hot in her room. She usually slept the door of her room slightly open so the air would flow through but now when it was locked it was no wonder why it was so uncomfortable. Marisa kept rolling on her bed until she came into a realization that she wouldn't fall asleep like this. She stood up from her bed and walked up to the window of her room. She looked through it. The night seemed calm. Stars and moon were lighting up her garden. She then pushed the window ajar so that the cool autumn night air could flow in. She inhaled it. It was refreshing.

"That should do it," Marisa thought to herself and returned to her bed and layed down on it once again. She closed her eyes and let the cool air carry her to sleep but before she fell asleep something snapped her out from her peaceful moment. A sound of laughter. Marisa sat up on her bed. It came from the outside. She stood up and walked up to the window and listened. She heard it again, a distant sound of a child laughing. It sounded like a boy.

"I-is this the sound of that spirit that people have been talking about?" Marisa thought to herself and kept listening. She opened the window completely and peeked out from the window. She heard the laughter over and over again but each time froma different direction. Marisa rubbed her chin. If this was done by some spirit then it was really weird because the sources of the sound seemed to be far away from each other.

Marisa kept wondering this while leaning against the window frame but then a sudden scream snapped her out from her thoughts. It was just like everyone else had said, a laughter followed by a scream but this time a scream wasn't the only thing that could be heard. A sudden and thundering sound of a lightning striking made Marisa freak out so much that she was thrown away from the window and onto her back to her floor. The deafening sound was also accompanied with a bright flash that further proved to Marisa that it was lightning. Marisa stood up again and rushed up to the window but it had calmed already. Marisa looked up. No clouds. Not even a single one.

"Lightning from a clear sky... Would you look at that," Marisa said with amazed look on her face. She then decided to back away from the window and shut it. She didn't care if it was going to be hot in her room. What had just happened wss so strange that Marisa wanted to play it safe. She shut the window and was about to return to her bed when a sudden thought came to her mind.

"The coin appeared after the strange sound was heard the first time, though not immediately. Better check just in case," Marisa thought to herself and walked up to her drawer and opened it. Her gut feeling was correct. The coin was gone. Just as mysteriously as it had appeared. No traces of any magic could be felt. It had just disappeared. Marisa closed the drawer and walked back to her bed without uttering a single word. Something strange was going on. She was sure about that. But that didn't remove the fact that it was night and she was tired and in the end she fell asleep despite everything that had happened during the night.

It was early morning and the ground was wet from the morning dew. Marisa however was already in the air flying towards the Hakurei shrine. She was sure that Reimu would have heard the thunder last night and was sure to investigate. She wanted to know what was going on so it was wise to be up early. Once reaching the shrine she landed on top of the torii like she usually did and watched what was happening at the shrine. She saw Reimu sitting on the terrace of her shrine but not drinking tea this time. She was accompanied by Raiko. That drum Tsukumogami. Raiko had shoulder length pale red wavy hair. She was wearing black with red cross-hatching that was tucked into short white skirt. She also had a small purple tie around her neck and a white sport coat with long sleeves. Raiko was literally an embodiment of a living drum that had gained a consciousness from being just so old. Currently she was considered as the strongest of all Tsukumogami since she had come up with a method to draw power from the drummers of the outside world.

Marisa hopped off from the torii and walked up the two who were seemingly having a conversation with eachother.

"Yo, what is going on here?" Marisa yelled at Reimu while walking up to the two. Reimu then just looked at Marisa and waved at her but apparently the conversation with Raiko was more important because she didn't bother to answer. Marisa finally reached the two to see what they were talking about.

"So, what bring you to the shrine?" Marisa asked from Raiko who stopped talking and looked at Marisa.

"Reimu here decided to summon me to the shrine. She seems to think that I'm behind the lightning from the last night," Raiko responded with serious look on her face.

"Well everyone knows that you tend to cause thunder and even earthquakes when you practise your performances or do anything else with your power," Reimu said with her arms akimbo.

"Well your name literally means 'thunder drum' so that is to be expected," Marisa said and grinned a little.

"That may be so but I assure you that I wasn't behind the lightning of the last night," Raiko said while keeping that serious look on her face.

"You may say that but the amount of youkai who can make that kind of a lightning is quite-," Reimu started but was quickly interrupted by Marisa.

"Large. Admit it Reimu, it could have also been Ichiri, Iku or Tenshi. Let alone everyone else who could summon a lightning. I know Raiko does it the most often beside Iku but it doesn't seem appropriate that you would blame Raiko for this. Besides I heard it too. That laughter and scream that the fairy and the kids mentioned. Just before the thunder struck," Marisa said and her grin turned into seriousness.

"Speaking of which, why are you here," Reimu then asked and looked at Marisa.

"Well, about time you asked. That coin I found yesterday, gone just as mysteriously as it had appeared," Marisa said with serious look on her face.

"Damn, and here I was hoping we'd get something out of it," Reimu said with a bit depressed tone and look on her face.

"But you know Reimu, this all is starting to seem a bit shady. Think about it. There's a mysterious lightning that struck from the clear sky, strange sounds from the forest, a gold coin appearing and disappearing and five yen disappearing from your donation box every saturday," Marisa said and rubbed her chen.

"Huh? What are you talking about? I said that I had lost ten yen every thursday," Reimu said with a bit confused look on her face.

"What? No you didn't. You clearly said yesterday that it was five each saturday," Marisa insisted and tilted her head.

"You should get your head checked because I did say that and I've bene losing ten yen every thursday," Reimu said with a bit more annoyed tone now.

"Am I just imagining this or am I going crazy? She said that she had been losing five yen every Saturday, I'm sure about that," Marisa thought to herself in confusion. Reimu on the other hand was about to get back to Raiko when they heard someone calling for them from the direction of the torii. They turned towards the sound to see what was going on. They saw two men running towards them. Apparently they were exhausted and in panic.

"Miss shrine maiden this is an emergency," One of the men yelled while panting heavily.

"What? What has happened?" Reimu asked with concerned tone and look on her face.

"A child has gone missing," The other man said while leaning against his knees.

"What!? When?" Reimu exclaimed.

"I don't know. She was found missing this morning and we came here as soon as we could to inform you about it," The first man said after catching his breath.

"This is a serious matter. Marisa, come we have to investigate," Reimu said with determined look on her face and took flight. Marisa was quick to join her and they headed for the human village. Raiko flew after them too. She knew she couldn't enter the human village since she was a youkai but at leats she could help by scouting the area around the village.

"Could this missing kid be the voice you heard last night?" Reimu asked while they were flying towards the village.

"No, I don't think so. The voice I heard was clearly from a boy and the missing kid was apparently a girl. Though I'm not sure if they are completely unrelated," Marisa said with worried look on her face. The things just went from strange to really bad really fast. A human going missing was a serious matter especially now when the human gone missing was a child.

They flew towards the village. Raiko was following just behind them and when they entered the village by flying over the wall Raiko stayed behind and started searching through the area in the immediate vicinity of the village.

Once they entered the village they saw a group of people all gathered at the main gate waiting for Reimu to arrive. When they landed to the ground the people surrounded them and everyone started yelling questions all over the place. Everyone were at the state of panic and unsure what do in the situation. Reimu tried to yell over all the comotion but when she just couldn't get her voice heard she screamed from the bottom of her lungs," EVERYONE JUST SHUT UP!" People then stopped speaking all all turned looking at Reimu.

"Finally. Who's kid has gone missing?" Reimu then asked while looking around herself. Then a woman and a man came forward.

"Our child was taken from our very home during the last night. Please promise us you will bring her home," The woman said while trying to hold her cry. Reimu then just walked up the her and lowered her hand onto the woman's shoulder.

"I'll do everything I can," Reimu said with compassionate tone and look on her face. The woman seemed happy about that even if Reimu couldn't promise anything.

"Okay, everyone search through the whole village. Every last corner. Me and Marisa will search from the outside of the village," Reimu yelled and the crowd started to scatter to look for the missing kid.

"You really think we'll find her? I mean if she was taken or ran into the forest in the middle of the night it is very likely that... you know," Marisa said with unsure tone and look on her face. Reimu then just sighed and responded, "We have to try. These people are terrified." Marisa then just sighed herself and shook her head.

"I'm just saying. Something shady is going on," Marisa said and shook her head.

"I know. Let's just take care of this problem first," Reimu said and was about to take off to look for the kid from outside the village when she saw the Moriya shrine gods and Sanae landing onto the village grounds near them.

"So what brings them here," Marisa asked aloud and looked at the two goddesses and one half goddess walking towards them.

"The same as you do I presume. The word spreads fast. A kid disappearing is a serious matter. And as a divine being it is my duty to help people in need," Kanako said. She had heard what Marisa had said.

"I can assure you that we're here only to help," Sanae said with humble tone. Reimu just looked at them and rolled her eyes.

"If you insist. You can come with us to search around the borders of the village," Reimu said and was just about to take off when Suwako said, "You'll go. Me and Kanako will stay here and help the people." Reimu nodded with indifferent look on her face and took flight with Sanae. Marisa was about to follow them when Suwako grabbed her from her sleeve.

"Keep an eye on Sanae, will you. She's been acting weird this morning," Suwako whispered into Marisa's ear.

"What do you mean?" Marisa asked with a bit confused and worried tone and look on her face.

"This morning when she prepared a breakfast for us she came to us with four plates instead of three. Me and Kanako asked if she waiting for someone to arrive but when we did she stopped and just stared at the fourth plate silently. Then without saying a word she just picked it up, took it away and not once spoke even a single word about it," Suwako whispered silently.

"You know there has been a lot of strange things happenin lately but I'll keep my eye on her," Marisa whispered back at Suwako.

"Thank you," Suwako responded and bowed. She then returned back to Kanako while Marisa took flight over the wall of the village to join Sanae and Reimu. It seemed that they hadn't started searching just yet so Marisa landed next to them.

"So, who will start looking from where?" Marisa asked after landing.

"Let's just fly around the village for starters. After that we'll split up and start searching deeper from the forest," Reimu suggested but Marisa and Sanae had no time to respond when they heard Raiko's voice from behind them.

"No need for that. I already found her," Raiko said with serious look on her face and her arms akimbo.

"What, where?" Reimu asked with a bit more lightened up tone. Raiko then just turned around and signed them to follow her. Reimu Sanae and Marisa all walked after her as she walked a bit deeper into the forest before finally stopping next to fairly big rock.

"There," Raiko said and pointed behind the rock. Reimu went to take a look and was shocked by what she saw.

"What is it," Marisa asked and quickly joined her after seeing Reimu's face but then realized what had caused it. A half eaten body was laying against the rock and there was no doubt if it was the kid who had gone missing.

"Oh my gods," Marisa uttered while watching the corpse that had lost its lower body and other arm. The rest of it was badly torn and rotting in the sunlight.

"She's been here for hours. It had been over a long before it was even noticed that she went missing. There was nothing anyone could have done. I'm sorry," Raiko said while watching the corpse on the ground.

"Is she...?" Sanae asked carefully. She didn't dare to look for she wasn't okay with seeing lots of blood. It made her want to vomit.

"Yes...," Reimu uttered with defeated look on her face.

"S-should we go back and...?" Marisa asked and took a careful glance at Reimu.

"Sigh* No, I'll go. You go wait for me to the gates," Reimu said and waved at them. Marisa then looked at Sanae, nodded and they started walking towards the gate of the village while Reimu took flight and flew over the wall to tell what had happened. Once Marisa Sanae and Raiko reached the gate they stopped to wait for Reimu to return.

"So any ideas who could have done this?" Sanae asked with a bit depressed look on her face.

"Well from thousands of youkai that inhabit Gensokyo it is pretty hard to guess," Marisa said while sitting down to the ground. Raiko gave her a bit annoyed glance after her statement.

"Well maybe not all of them are on the suspect list but still almost any of them could be the culprit," Marisa said and leaned aganist her knees.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," A voice said from behind them. Marisa, Sanae and Raiko turned towards the voice to see who it was. It was Akyuu. Akyuu was the head of the powerful Hieda family that lived in the human village and a dear friend for Marisa and Reimu. She was tasked with the duty of writing Gensokyo chronicles. A series of books that had been written by the Hieda family through the ages. Those books had information of all the incidents and youkai the Hieda family member had encountered during their lifetime. Akyuu also had a special ability; to not forget anything she once saw including even the events of her earlier reincarnations. In fact every part of the Gensokyo chronicles were written by Akyuu in her earlier reincarnations.

Akyuu had purple semi long hair and had a pink flower-shaped ornament in her hair. Her outfit resembled 'wa lolita', a type of Japanese-esque maid outfit. It had yellow flower patterned-sleeves, a green vest and a shortened hakama skirt separated by a red and white laced obi.

"What do you mean?" Sanae asked with a bit confused look on her face after seeing Akyuu.

"What I mean is that during the last night I was out patrolling around the borders of the village. I was planning to investigate that strange sound that could be heard from the forest. You know, that laughter followed by a scream. Well during my patrol I didn't see nor did I hear anyone leaving the village," Akyuu said with serious look on her face.

"How can you be so sure. It is easy to hide in the shadows during the night," Marisa said with doubtful look on her face.

"Yes, but I'm sure you know what my ability is. I remember everything that I see. So I can and will notice every difference there is to something when I last saw it. In the other words if I look at a road that I walk on I'll see the difference if someone else walks on that same road even if I don't see that said person walking on it. I spot even the slightest differences," Akyuu said while maintaining that serious look on her face.

"And?" Marisa asked while waiting for Akyuu to finish.

"No one was out during the last night other than me. I even asked the night guards that had patrolled at the gates but no one saw or heard a thing. Which means that the child didn't leave on its own and instead was taken from her very bed and this person who took her didn't leave a single trace behind themselves," Akyuu said with grim tone and look on her face.

"Well that... narrows it down at least," Marisa said with a bit confused look on her face. She hadn't understood Ayuu point completely.

"You don't see it do you. A youkai came into the village in the middle of the night, stole and killed one of the human kids. That's much more serious matter than you might realize," Akyuu said with dead serious look on her face. Marisa just looked at Akyuu waiting for her to continue.

"The word has started to spread about this. This has shook he balance between youkai and humans. It wont take long until the culprit is found by the other youkai and brought to daylight but what I'm fearing is that a bunch of weaker youkai will see this as a demonstration that they can just attack the human village as they wish," Akyuu said and looked at Raiko this time.

"You don't have fear about Tsukumogami at least. They don't mean harm for anyone," Raiko said with reassuring tone and look on her face.

"I appreciate your words but I cannot trust them, I'm sorry. No offence of course," Akyuu said with a humble tone.

"None taken," Raiko responded and rolled her eyes with an indifferent look on her face. It was then when they saw Reimu returning from the village. Apparently the people hadn't taken the death of that kid lightly. At least the look on her face indicated that. Akyuu then walked up to Reimu and explained her supposition to her as well. Meanwhile Raiko decided that it would be a good time for her to leave before people would start throw blames at her. She knew very well how people behaved during the moment of grief. Marisa and Sanae just looked after Raiko as she flew away. They then decided that it would be wise to start flying around Gensokyo and try to find the possible culprit and spread the word that no such acts would be taken lightly after this. The only way Marisa and Sanae could think that the more feral youkai would stay away from the human village as they normally did was a detrrence and they had to make sure that the message got through. They informed Reimu about their plans and after that started flying around Gensokyo asking everyone reasonable enough if they knew anything and exterminating any youkai that seemed like a talk wouldn't get through its skull. The message was clear; messing with the human village would mean trouble for the youkai and not only to the one who was the culprit.

Though one thing kept bothering Marisa. Akyuu had said that the child was taken directly from her home since a cild couldn't leave the village without leaving some tracks behind. That thought was scary. That a youkai could just enter the village either completely stealthed or disquised. She knew that there were few who could be able to do such a thing but never had she ever thought that someone would have such boldness. She wondered if the supposed spirit she had heard in the night had anything to do with this. There had been just so many strange things happening lately. Though there was the fact that not a single one of the strange occurences lately had been directly connected to each other so she couldn't be sure of anything.

The day passed by with Marisa flying around Gensokyo talking to and exterminating youkai. Every youkai she talked to claimed that they knew nothing about the incident. Though that was only to be expected. The other thing that was to be expected was the nightfall that started to approach as Marisa kept exterminating some random youkai from the Great Youkai forest that was to the west from the Forest of Magic. It was then when marisa decided that it would be a good time to head back home to rest. There were still places she hadn't visited yet. Those being Alice's and Yuuka's place. She decided to visit them tomorrow and just hope that no youkai gets the idea to attack human village.

Once she reached her home she immediately checked her kitchedn to see if someone had eaten anything while she had been gone but she found no traces of anyone eating her food like the last evening. She then walked upstairs after getting something light to eat. After changing her pajamas on again she decided to check her drawer just in case. But it was like she expected the coin was gone and it seemed like it would stay that way. She wondered if the weird laughter and scream would return this night too. She decided to leave her window just slightly open so she could hear if there were any noises outside during the night and also that it wouldn't get too hot. But she still didn't feel too safe even in her own room so she locked the door to her room just in case. After that she allowed herself to finally lay down and shut her eyes hoping that if there was any commotion outside it would wake her up. With these thoughts in her mind she let her mind drift off into the slumber land.

The night was peaceful and not even nearly as hot as the last one so Marisa had fallen into a deep sleep but the world decided otherwise because Marisa was almost thrown out from her bed when the sudden lightning struck again splitting the sky and giving off so loud bang that Marisa almost shat herself.

"HAAAAAAAH," Marisa screamed as she jumped up and was ready to shoot but while standing on her bed and aiming at the corners of her room with her hands she realized that it was just the thunder. Though even after closing her mouth the scream didn't stop.

"Wait, it's the same scream again," Marisa uttered out loud, hopped off from her bed and ran to the window to take a look outside. She pushed it wide open and peeked outside but the scream had already stopped when she had done that. Marisa stayed there quietly for a moment trying listen if there was anything else to be heard but the night was silent again.

"What causes you, what causes you...?" Marisa thought out loud while leaning against the window frame with her elbows. This time it was quite cloudy so it could have been just a regular thunder. Though it would be weird to have just a single lightning strike two nights in a row. And the scream came together with the lightning this night too so it seemed unlikely that it was a natural. Marisa then stepped away from the window. She returned to her bed and thought about all of this. Nothing made any sense. First Reimu's money, then the coin, then the sounds and lightning, the coin disappearing, Reimu suddenly claiming that the amount of money and the day were different all along even though she had said otherwise just the other day, the brutal youkai attack and Suwako claiming that Sanae acted weird. Only thing she had no proof of was the Sanae's case though it seemed like the most harmless one too.

"It is going to be one lousy autumn, isn't it," Marisa uttered, closed her eyes and let her mind drift off once again.

The sound of Marisa's front door being whacked like never before finally woke Marisa up in the morning. She swiped her face with her hand and wondered what time it was but it seemed that the person banging her door wasn't too pleased that Marisa wasn't there in an instant.

"Marisa, this is really important," A voice yelled from the door. Marisa then just sighed.

"Can't they just wait a moment?" She thought as she pushed her blanket away and was about to stand up from her bed but it was too late when she realized that her left leg wouldn't want to cooperate and she fell to the floor. She groaned a little and took a look at her leg. It seemed that she had slept in some weird position since she couldn't feel her leg at all nor control it. She had to wait for the blood to start circulating again before she could stand up. The person at the door kept banging.

"Come on! Wait just a moment! I ran into a sudden obstacle here," Marisa yelled in frustration. Once she could move her leg again she stood up and ran to the downstairs to see who had the audacity to wake her up while she was sleeping peacefully.

"What!?" Marisa yelled when she opened the door. It was Reimu. And by the look on her face she wasn't happy. Not at all. It seemed that she was frantic and angry at the same time. And not just a little.

"What is it now? What time it even is?" Marisa asked and yawned. She had no energy to get angry with Reimu.

"It's half past midday. Get dressed we have a crisis at our hands," Reimu said with chivy tone and look on her face.

"Wha- What do you mean?" Marisa asked with still tired look on her face though she was starting to get more and more confused all the time.

"Damn it Marisa. Get dressed up already. Half of the children in the human village disappeared. All during the last night," Reimu yelled at Marisa. Marisa could see that the look on Reimu's face had turned from frantic and angry to fearful while saying what was going on.

"No...," Marisa simply uttered and stepped one step backwards because of the shock. She then sighed for relief and and cracked a playful smile.

"Heh, almost got me there," Marisa said and looked at Reimu with a slight smile on her face. Reimu then stepped towards Marisa and slapped her to her cheek.

"I don't joke about things like this," Reimu yelled with angry tone and look on her face. Marisa then just held her cheeks and looked at reimu with unbelieving look on her face.

"Y-you don't actually mean that...?" Marisa said with shivering tone.

"Half of the children in the human village disappeared during the last night. Now get dressed up already damn you," Reimu yelled at Marisa and stepped out of her house after that. Marisa could see Reimu flying away towards the human village after she had taken off.

"This is bad...," Marisa muttered out loud and ran to the upstairs to change her attire. Once she was done with that she rushed back to the downstairs, grabbed her broom and rushed out to get to the human village.

Marisa had thought that they had sent clear enough message about what would happen if youkai were to boldly attack human village again. But she had no idea that something like this was even possible to happen. One kid had been bad enough but half of them all was catastrophic. She was still hoping that it was just a prank while flying towards the human village but when she saw the crowd of people all gathered around the gates of the village while approaching it she started to realize that it wasn't a prank. She flew towards the village and upon reaching it landed near to its gate where she saw Reimu, Akyuu, Sanae, Youmu and even Sakyua.

Youmu was the half human and half phantom gardener of the Nether World. Youmu had semi short silver hair worn in a bob cut. She was weraing a dark green and white dress with several ghost insignias along the edges and ghost insignia as well on her breast pocket, and a black ribbon tied off-center in her hair. She was carrying her Roukanken; a long katana with cherry blossom insignia and a flower attached to it, and the Hakurouken; a wakizashi like she always did. Her ghost half was a large formless white phantom circling around her like usual.

Sakuya in the other hand was the head maid serving at the Scarlet Devil Mansion and was the only human living in that mansion. She was known to carry out her graceful posture even when her mistress wasn't there to see her. A true over achiever there on Marisa's opinion though she knew that it wasn't just for show. Sakuya was known to be a lethal opponent with her knives when angered. Sakuya had a shoulder length pure white hair with long braids on both sides of her face with green bows at the end of them and a white maid headband on top of her head. She had her usual white and dark blue French maid's outfit with an apron, short sleeves, short skirt and green ribbon. She also had black pantyhose and a black knife holster that was visible from under her skirt.

Marisa walked up to them to see that Youmu and Sakuya were already having a dispute with each other while Reimu and Sanae were disqussing about the matter in hand. Marisa decided to ignore Youmu and Sakuya for it would have been unhealthy for her to get between a sword and a knife and instead walked straight up to Reimu and Sanae.

"Took your sweet time in getting here," Sanae bridled with her hands akimbo while looking how Marisa approached her.

"Same story, different teller. I was sleeping, how could I have known there was something going on?" Marisa responded while spreading her arms. Reimu and Sanae just rolled their eyes.

"So anyhow, what's the situation?" Marisa continued with concerned look on her face.

"As I said half of the children are missing and this time they're actually misisng. We've already scouted the whole area around the human village but not a single trace of any bloodshed or bodies," Reimu explained to Marisa.

"And this time the culprit wasn't as careful as the lats night. There were few traces of someone moving around the village during the night," Akyuu said after approaching Marisa.

"Where were these traces found?" Marisa asked.

"All over the village. Like small dents and scratches all around the village that weren't there yesterday," Akyuu explained with serious look on her face.

"And the fact that Youmu got the idea to blame the Scarlet Devil Mansion residents about all of this doesn't help the cause," Sanae said while looking at Youmu and Sanae who were still having a quarrel.

"And so, what is the plan?" Marisa asked after taking a look at Youmu and Sakuya.

"Simple, we have to find out what happened to the kids... and a way to prevent this from happening ever again," Reimu said with serious look on her face.

"So we split up and start looking around Gensokyo?" Marisa asked just to make sure.

"Yep," Reimu simply responded.

"Okay, I'll take a look around the Forest of Magic and the Garden of the Sun. Since those are the places I didn't have the time to check yeasterday when me and Sanae were looking for the culprit," Marisa said and hopped on to her broom.

"And remember Marisa that anyone and everyone are on our suspect list. Don't let your vigil down. And by the way, we will gather up at my shrine tomorrow morning and see if anyone found anything," Reimu said while watching how Marisa rose from the ground. Marisa just nodded in response and headed towards the Forest of Magic.

Since yesterday there was a one certain place she aimed to visit that she hadn't had the time to visit back then; the Alice's house. Alice was her friend but she knew that she would need to investigate every possibility before making any assumptions. And besides, Marisa had her own suspections about the whole kid incident.

Alice's house wasn't that far away from the human village so the flight wasn't that long. Luckily so since it seemed that it would rain soon. She could see storm clouds gathering to the sky. She landed onto Alice's yard and marched straight to the front door of the house. She knocked to the front door with the stick of her broom before opnening it and stepping in.

"Yo, Alice! Are you home?" Marisa yelled while looking around herself. Though she didn't need to wait for an answer before the sound of a sewing machine reached her ears from Alice's working room. Marisa then walked to the door of that room and opened it without even knocking. She found Alice sitting in front of her desk apparently sewing a new dress for one of her dolls.

Alice had shoulder length blonde hair with red band in her hair. She was wearing a light blue dress with long white sleeves and a long pink ribbon goinf round her neck and another one round her waist. She was usually referred as the Seven Coloured Puppeteer because of her appearance and occupation as a puppeteer. She was also known to be pretty friendly with humans going so far as to have permission to enter the human village even though she is a youkai magician. One reason for this being the fact that she used to be a human. Though no one but she herself knows how long time ago that was.

Marisa just stood there leaning against the door frame and waiting for Alice to move her attention from her work to her uninvited guest which didn't take that long. Alice shut the machine down and looked at Marisa with tired look on her face.

"Do you really need to barge inside so suddenly. I'm tired, I've been working the whole morning to get this dress done," Alice said with tired and blank tone while looking at Marisa. Marisa could see clearly that she had bags under her eyes.

"I think you know the reason why I'm here," Marisa said with her not usual serious face.

"As a matter of fact I don't. Care to explain?" Alice said and stood up slowly. She really seemed to be tired. She then walked out from the room and sat onto a couch in the living room.

"The kid incident, do you know anything about that?" Marisa asked with her arms akimbo. She didn't bother to sat down.

"Oh that. I admit, who ever did that it was really bold move. Gotta admit this is really concerning. Have you found the culprit yet?" Alice asked and yawned a bit.

"So you haven't heard what happened this morning?" Marisa asked and tilted her head a bit.

"No. What happened?" Alice asked with a bit curious look on her face.

"Half of the children in the human village have gone missing. Half of them," Marisa said with serious look on her face and finally sat down to a couch.

"W-what are you talking about?" Alice asked and jumped up from the couch.

"You heard me right. Half of the kids in the whole village are missing," Marisa said and retained that serious look on her face.

"That's impossible," Alice said and denied that idea immediately.

"Apparently not. You can go and see for yourself. They've gone missing, all without trace... well almost," Marisa said and stared at Alice.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"According to Akyuu there were some minimal dents and scratch marks all over the village but no signs of any struggling," Marisa said and looked out of the window. It had started to drizzle.

"There's almost no one who could make that happen in just one night. Though anyone I can think of has no motive," Alice said with thoughtful look on her face.

"We aren't considering motives here. Every youkai is on our suspect list," Marisa said and looked at Alice again.

"And I believe that it includes me as well?" Alice asked with not so amused look on her face.

"Yes, but that's beside the point," Marisa said with a bit more grim look on her face.

"What is it that you're after?" Alice asked and tilted her head.

"There's something strange going on. There have been just too many strange occurences at once that it cannot be coinncidence. Strange noises in the forest, lightning, kids disappearing, Reimu's donations and all that kind of stuff," Marisa said with her hands akimbo. She decided to leave out the fact Reimu had said said that Marisa had remembered wrong the amount of donations she had been loosing, the day wrong and that there was something strange going on in her own house. She didn't want to be seen as going insane.

"So you've noticed too," Alice said and looked out of the window herself.

"Yes. I should have figured out that you have also noticed the strange occurences," Marisa said with a bit less serious tone and look on her face.

"Indeed. But back to that most recent incident; the kids disappearing. Apparently you haven't thought about one certain option," Alice said and looked at Marisa with strange look on her face. Marisa didn't understand what she meant.

"Even I find it hardly believable that youkai would attack the village so boldly. So what if it wasn't a youkai in the first place?" Alice asked and kept staring at Marisa.

"Go on," Marisa said with clearly curious look on her face.

"It is much easier for a human to slip into the village than for a youkai," Alice said with sinister look on her face.

"What? A human could never get something of such caliber done in a single night," Marisa exclaimed. It felt outrageous that Alice would think that a human could attack human village. It felt absurd and impossible at the same time.

"I was expecting that kind of a reaction. In truth I don't know if any human possesses any capabilities making it possible to do something like that but I surely know that there are motives for... you know, murder," Alice said and looked out of the window again. It had started pelting with rain on the outside.

"Why haven't you told us before?" Marisa asked with confused look on her face.

"Because I had my suspicions but I didn't know about the events of this morning till you told me, though they only strengthen my suspicions," Alice said and looked at Marisa again.

"Just get to the point. Don't tell me that you too think that Sakuya is the culprit," Marisa said with impatient tone and look on her face.

"Of course not. It would be suicidal for Scarlet Devil Mansion to do something like that. Besides, they have no reason to do that. To be truthful there's only one human who has the motive. You," Alice said and stared into Marisa's eyes. It took Marisa couple seconds to comprehend what Alice had just said. She was being accused for murdering and kidnapping children.

"WHAT!? How can you even say that!? And what kind of motive you think I would have!?" Marisa exclaimed with offended look on her face. She had jumped up from the couch upon realizing what Alice had said.

"I think I know you well enough to make this claim. Actually I think I know you the best. I know how you act. From the moment when you got trapped to your current body I knew that there would be a time when you'd try doing something stupid like this," Alice said with accusatory but calm tone and look on her face.

"If that's your only reason to accuse me then you better find another suspect. You know that I'm where I am for the rest of my life and I cannot change that. Besides how do you think that I could have done something like that in only one night?" Marisa defended herself with pissed look on her face.

"No you certainly wouldn't have been able to do something like that. But given the fact that there have been more and more strange things happening around Gensokyo I wouldn't be surprised to find out that you've got some tricks up your sleeve. And when it comes to motives it is more than enough to make me suspect you. I know your type. Desperation makes people do awful things. I don't hope that it was you but I cannot help but to suspect you," Alice said and retained that calm look on her face.

"I don' know how you dare to suspect me but I can assure you that I have nothing to do with this. In fact when I came here I had my own suspect," Marisa retorted while staring into Alice's eyes.

"Now, who might that be?" Alice asked without changing the look on her face.

"The whole village was full of small traces leaving me to believe that it was a group of youkai instead of just one. Though they were too small to be the work of your ordinary youkai. But while too big for a youkai, they're just perfect for your dolls. Besides it is much easier for a group of small dolls go unnoticed and get something as demanding done in just one night than for a youkai," Marisa said and kept staring at Alice. Alice just sat on the couch and stared at Marisa without responding to her claim.

"I think we're done here," Marisa then said, took her broom and walked at the front door.

"It would be the best for you to leave. And about your claim. I have an alibi if you were wondering. Ask from Narumi. She was here most of the last night," Alice said without even bothering to look at Marisa.

"I thought you were better than to accuse your friends for something like this. Let's hope Yuuka provides more pleasant conversation," Marisa groaned as she opened the door of Alice's house and was about to step out when she heard Alice responding, "If you're planning to ask about all of this from Yuuka you're out of luck. She's been nowhere to be found for a week now." Marisa just stared at Alice for a moment. She hadn't heard that Yuuka had been missing. Though she didn't bother to ask any further details. She was full of Alice's accusations already so she decided to leave immediately.

It was raining heavily on the outside. Marisa just stood there on the terrace with annoyed look on her face when she realized that she would need to fly in this weather. Though she was more annoyed by Alice. She tried to forget about it and just fly to Yuuka's mansion. In the end she was innocent. She had nothing to fear. Right? If Marisa was completely hones she didn't know. Alice's claim had made her think. There had been just so many strange thing occuring that maybe she had missed something. She knew that she had no memory of doing anything even slightly wrong for days. She hadn't even stolen anything for a while. But still something told her that maybe Alice's claim wasn't as far fetched as it first seemed.

"No. I'll prove them wrong no matter what it takes. I can't be behind that all," Marisa thought as she took off from Alice's terrace not knowing that Alice was staring after her from the window. The Garden of the Sun was a good few kilometers away from Alice's house so it took Marisa long enough to get there so that she was soaking wet when she finally reached that sunflower field. Sunflowers, sunflowers as far as the eye could see and in the middle of it all was the Nameless Hill. A place where the flowers bloomed no matter if it was winter or summer. A bit further away from that was a quite small western styled mansion. It was quite small for a mansion but definitely too big to be considered to be a normal house. That was where Yuuka lived. Infamous youkai known to be really powerful and even sadistic from time to time. Though even if she didn't like humans even a single bit she was still known to be calm around them and hiding her hatred under her nervingly creepy smile.

Marisa flew towards the mansion till she finally reached it and landed onto its yard. She rushed to the front door and knocked. She hoped that someone would come to open soon. The storm was getting stronger and stronger. She waited for a second but heard no one coming to open. She knocked again with a bit annoyed look on her face.

"Come on. Even if Yuuka isn't here someone has to be home," Marisa bridled and waited but even then no one came to open. She then sighed and decided to test if the door was open. She turned the door knob and was surprised to see that the door opened. She knew that it was dangerous to enter Yuuka's home without permission but if no one was home no one could forbid her from entering either. She stepped in and shut the door behind herself. The mansion was dark. There was a balcony overlooking the vestibule. Yuuka could usually be found from there but now there was nobody. She saw none of Yuuka's servants either. Even Elly, Yuuka's scythe wielding porter was missing. Marisa decided to take a look around just to be sure that there was no one home.

She checked all of downstairs, kitchen, living room and bedrooms before moving upstairs but even that was empty. No trace of anybody. It was just like Alice had said, Yuuka was truly gone. Though even thinking about Alice made Marisa's blood boil. She then just swiped Alice out from her mind and sat down to a armchair on the balcony overlooking the vestibule.

"So now Yuuka and all of her minions have disappeared. I guess that means she is out from the suspection list," Marisa thought to herself and rubbed her chin. She then stood up and jumped down to downstairs and walked to the living room.

"May as well wait for the storm to stop and make myself comfortable while I'm at it," Marisa thought while walking to the living room. She had seen few books there so she thought that she could read something while waiting for the rain to stop. Yuuka shouldn't get mad at her for doing something like that, though she didn't dare to even think about stealing something from Yuuka's mansion. She walked to the living room and sat down to a couch near the window and took a book that was laying on top of a table. She opened it and took a look at it to see what it was about. It had layed there for a quite while it seemed.

"Brain functioning... amygdala... She has some weird reading habits," Marisa thought to herself after realizing that the book was about neuroscience. She had never thought that Yuuka out of all people would be into that sort of stuff.

"Or she just likes to watch human bodyparts... Yeah, seems more likely. Maybe she treats this as a cook book?" Marisa thought to herself and laughed sarcastically. She then put the book down because she wasn't too interested in brains or human anatomy. She looked around the living room and saw more books. She stood up and decided to take a look at them. She picked up the first book that she could get her hands onto and looked at what it was about.

"Mental diseases...," Marisa muttered out loud while looking at the cover of the book. She then put it down and took a look at the covers of the other books that were laying around.

"Mind control and telepathy... String theory...? Multiverse; true or false... Time travel...," Marisa muttered while reading through the book covers.

"Well I gotta admit that she has some weird reading habits for a youkai," Marisa muttered and walked up to the window of the living room. The rain didn't seem like it would end any time soon. Marisa just sighed.

"It is going to be long wait. None of the books she has interests me even a bit," Marisa thought to herself while leaning against the window frame. She then decided to open the window ajar so she could listen to the sound of the rain and maybe get few hours sleep. She did that and sat onto the couch and shut her eyes. The rain drops drumming the window sounded relaxing. Marisa sighed and enhanced her poisture on the couch to maybe get some sleep but then a familiar sound caugh her attention. It was the laughter she had heard earlier.

"Wait, it is just couple hours past midday. That sound has only been there during nights," Marisa thought to herself and jumped up from the couch to take a look outside. She stared outside but could not see anybody. But even then she could tell that the laughter came near, that it was a boy who made it and that it was coming closer. Marisa squinted her eyes to see better but still couldn't anything else but the soaked Garden of the Sun and, the rain and the storm clouds hovering above the mansion and all of Gensokyo.

"Come on, I know you're there somewhere," Marisa thought to herself just before the first lightning of the storm struck almost directly above the mansion and it was then when she saw it. A dark figure running through the sunflower field. But as the light of the lightning faded away so did the figure.

"Holy crap... so that's why no one could see you," Marisa exclaimed to herself with surprised look on her face. She was a bit startled because the lightning caught her off guard. But this time it wasn't like the nights when the mysterious voice was heard. This time the storm was raging outside so the lightning she saw wasn't gonna be the only one so she decided to wait with her eyes glued onto the sunflower field behind the glass. She could hear the laughter constantly. Marisa started counting seconds as the time went by and she waited for the lightning to strike again. And then it hit the second time. The figure was still there on the sunflower field but this time Marisa saw something else too. Another figure. It was as dark as the other and seemed to move much slower than the first one. The lightning lit the place for just long enough so that Marisa could see the new figure stopping before it faded away together with the light.

"So it is lightning that makes you visible... and there's two of you," Marisa's face was almost glued to the window as she kept staring into the storm in hopes of learning more about this mysterious pair. She could still hear the laughter but it sounded like it was going further away from her now.

"Come on, strike again," Marisa muttered as she stared outside. It seemed that those two could move around despite there being no light around. It seemed that it was the light that just made them visible.

"They're like... shadows," Marisa thought to herself and immediately after that the lighting struck for the third time. This time the first figure she had seen was gone and the one that had appeared later was just standing in the middle of the field.

"Did your friend leave you behind?" Marisa thought to herself as she stared at the dark figure that was standing outside. Because the figure was so dark she couldn't tell if it was doing anything specific. She just kept staring at it as it faded away again.

"Should I go out and try to communicate with it?" Marisa muttered but she could barely finish her sentence when lightning struck for the fourth time and this time Marisa almost fell to her back in fright. As the lightning had lit the area once again, she could see the dark figure she had seen in the middle of the field was now just couple centimeters away from her face on the other side of the glass. Marisa's heart skipped a beat when she stared at the figure on the other side of the glass from few meters away. It then faded as suddenly as it had appeared.

"Okay, and now it has taken interest in me. Well that answers the recent question," Marisa uttered to herself. She then gathered herself and walked hastily to the vestibule of the mansion before the lightning could strike again. She then walked up to the front door and locked it. She then took a chair and pressed it agains the door and the doorknob just to be sure.

"It never hurts to make sure one is safe," Marisa thought to herself and backed away from the door. She then saw a lightning striking again with the corner of her eye. She looked around herself but to her relief saw no one in the vestibule with her.

"Okay, seems like it'll stay outside for now," Marisa muttered and returned to the living room. She didn't know if the figure could get inside or not during the lightning strikes or between them but she still wanted to observe. She walked up to the window, took the armchair in front of it and sat down.

"I've never seen such a creature. That's definitely not your ordinary spirit... Maybe it's some sort of a youkai," Marisa thought to herself while waiting.

The lightning struck few times after that but Marisa couldn't see even a trace of that strange figure she had seen. Neither of them. And the laughter had disappeared into the storm even before Marisa had locked the door of the mansion. And there was no screams to be heard during the whole time. Marisa had assumed that she could hear it at least once but it seemed that she had run out of luck. In the end she waited for so long that she fell asleep to the armchair. The chair was just so soft and comfortable and the sound of raindrops drumming the window was calming. When Marisa finally woke up from her nap the storm had started to calm a little bit. The thunderstorm had stopped and it wasn't too windy anymore. It was still raining heavily though. Marisa yawned and stretched a bit beofre standing up from the chair. She looked out. She didn't know what the clock was but it seemed that she had slept for at least an hour. The weather seemed to be calm enough for her to return home. She would get soaked but it didn't seem like the raining was gonna stop any time soon so she really didn't have any other choice. She grabbed her broom and walked to the vestibule once again. The chair was still standing there and the door was locked just the way she had left it.

"I really need to find out what that thing is... and if it was behind the attacks done to the human village," Marisa muttered while unlocking the door. She then pulled the doors open and looked outside. It was raining heavily. But there was almost no wind so it was quite safe to fly. Marisa then just looked behind herself once more just out of instinct before stepping out and closing the doors of Yuuka's mansions behind herself.

Marisa then quickly hopped onto her broom and started flying towards the Forest of Magic. She was going to get completely soaked before she would reach her home that led her to wonder why she hadn't taken an umbrella with her. She just hoped that her hat would cover her face well enough so that she could see in front of herself. But that seemed like a too much to ask because she could feel how the wind was getting stronger suddenly.

"Oh good, just what I wanted... storm getting stronger," Marisa bridled as she picked up the pace so she would reach her house before she would need to land. She decided to fly lower so the wind wouldn't affect her too much but upon reaching the forest the wind had gotten so strong again that she could barely stay in the air.

"Damn it," Marisa thought to herself upon landing to the ground. Soon after landing she heard and saw a lightning striking.

"Yeah, throw that in too. It's not like I wasn't annoyed enough by the rain and wind or anything," Marisa groaned. She then looked around herself. Her vision was quite bad because of the rain. She couldn't see further than fifty meters.

"I really wouldn't want to get too close and personal with... whatever that was. At least while I'm unprepared," Marisa bridled and started walking after burying her head deeper into her soaked hat. She walked for about fifteen minutes. Every now and then the wind would throw a branch or something else onto her face. She had stumbled a few times too so she was all wet and muddy.

"Yeah, go out to the Yuuka's place. Just wonderful. Damn, stupid, freaking, bastard storm," Marisa kept swearing under her breath while pushing against the wind. And since it was early autumn the rain wasn't that warm either. In fact it was freezing but Marisa hadn't thought to take a warmer set of clothes because the weather had seemed so nice during the morning.

Five more minutes passed. Marisa kept walking through the forest. She knew she wouldn't get lost. She knew the area well enough but even she could admit that it was kinda hard to get around in this kind of weather. She was just searching a new tree with her hands that she could lean against in the wind when she saw some light reflecting from the wet grass on the ground. She then lifted her gaze to see what it was. She had to cover her face but she could see a hause just couple dozen meters away from her.

"Alice's place...," Marisa muttered. At first she thought she would just walk past it. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with her again. But then she remembered the how wet and cold she was. It would take at least an hour till she would reach her home at this pace.

"Gah, just screw it," Marisa bridled and turned towards the Alice's house. She wasn't too happy about returning there now that she had accused her of murders and kidnappings. She walked to the terrace and reached for the door but hesitated a moment when she was about to knock.

"Knocking may not be the best way to approah this situation. She would just turn me away if we met at the door step. Though just marching inside is rude, although I have no reason to be polite with her," Marisa muttered and just pushed the door open. She walked in while preparing for Alice to attack her either verbally or physically but she found herself surprised after there was no sound nor reaction what so ever after she had marched in. Actually it seemed that no one was home. It was quiet besides the sounds of the storm that could be heard from the outside. Marisa then pressed the door shut behind herself and looked around herself.

"Where has she gone off to? What business could she have during a weather like this?" Marisa muttered while taking off her hat.

"Well it's not like it matters. Actually just better if she isn't home," Marisa continued and placed her hat onto a table next to a wall. She walked around a little bit. A lamp or two were lit in the living room and the kitchen. It seemed dangerous to leave an oil lamp burning onto a table while you were away from your home. Marisa then walked up to a shelf in the living room. There were your ordinary books about sewing, doll handling and doll creation. Next to those was doll sitting on a shelf. Marisa poked it. It was as limp as it looked. It budged a little but didn't respond to the touch. Marisa looked at it for a moment. It felt irritating to watch that dolls face that had a slight smile on it. Like it knew something that Marisa didn't.

"You know I could just blow you up? How'd you smile then, huh? Though you're probably filled with gunpowder so you'd probably just laugh at me," Marisa muttered while staring doll into its eyes. She then backed away from the shelf and looked around herself again.

"Pfft, I'm talking to a doll," Marisa thought to herself and swiped the air with her hand. She then proceeded to walk to the staircase. She knew that Alice's room was upstairs and she wanted to take a look at it. Marisa's own suspections hadn't disappeared during the day. For her it seemed like the only plausible explanation for those kids disappearing was Alice and her dolls. But she still remembered what Alice had said. That she had spend the corresponding night with Narumi. She would have to ask Narumi for further details. But now when she was at Alice's house she was planning to investigate. Just before she was about to step to the first step of the staircase she happened to look to her right where there was another, much smaller shelf and on top of that was another as irritatingly smiling doll.

"Tell me that Alice has her own surveillance and I'm gonna be pissed," Marisa thought and continued walking upstairs. Once she reached the second floor she found a door behind which she knew was Alice's room. She reached for the doorknob and turned it. It was open. Marisa pushed the door open and peeked inside. There was another oil lamp burning on the table. Alice's bed was just next to the door. There was a table with drawers opposite of the door and next to that were two shelves one of which had yet another same kind of doll just smiling there.

"And what are you looking at? Gonna tell to your mistress that I'm rummaging through her stuff?" Marisa muttered with sarcastic tone. She then proceeded to walk to the drawer and looked at the papers on top if it. There was nothing interesting. Just recipes for different types of gunpowder and doll blueprints. She then looked at the shelves. There were few books. But nothing that would have woken any suspicions. Finally she walked back to the drawers and tried to pull them open. But she wasn't able because they seemed to have been locked.

"Not going to stop me," Marisa muttered but before she could dig out her lockpicks she remembered that Alice would certainly notice if someone had picked the lock. It would damage the lock and it would be noticed. She would get caught for certain. She then let go of the handle of the drawer, backed away and sighed.

"You won this time," Marisa thought to herself with frustrated look on her face. There was no other place she could think of looking so she decided to return downstairs. She closed to door behind herself and started walking down the steps.

"Maybe I should ask from Narumi. It seems that Alice has hidden all the evidence... assuming that she actually is behind all of this," Marisa thought and was just about to step down from the last step when she noticed something on her left. The shelf where the doll had been was now empty. Marisa's eyes widened and it didn't took even one tenth of a second for her to make her assumptions. She turned around and found that same smiling doll laying on one of the steps just couple steps behind her.

"You little...," Marisa yelled and was just about to jump towards the doll when she tripped over to something. Her other foot was already on the floor level and there was something that had made her to fall down. However, even if she fell down to her stomach onto the staircase she managed to grab the doll from the step where it was laying.

"Hah, got your little puppet, Alice," Marisa yelled triumphantly. She then looked at the doll in her hands for a moment. It didn't fight back like she had assumed it would.

"If this is meant for exposing me as the thief then too bad. Just snap the neck and the body dies," Marisa groaned and pulled the dolls head off so the spell that Alice had cast upon it to make it guard the place would disappear. But what she found from the doll was something that she hasn't expected. From inside the dolls head fell a piece of paper and a metal ring that seemed like a pin of some sort. Marisa dropped the head to pick up the piece of paper. She took the paper to see what was written to it.

"Well done. You're now officially just one hand opening away from your death. Let's hope your grip on that doll is good because I'm not sure if the cotter will stay in place for long enough for you to throw the doll away safely," Marisa read out loud. She then dropped the paper and just looked at the doll without head.

"Oh you little...," Marisa uttered when she realized that she had fallen straight into Alice's trap. The doll was a bomb and if she were to let go of it now it would explode. She then took the head of the doll, the pin and the piece of paper. Even if she had fallen into a trap she didn't want to leave any evidence. She put those objects into her pocket and stood up slowly while clenching the doll constantly. She then proceeded to see what had made her to fall down in the first place and to her surprise there was a loose floorboard that she hadn't noticed the first time she had come to the staircase. She then glanced at the doll and then at the floorboard, gulped and squatted down to see what purpose it had. Marisa lifted the board with her other hand and found out that it had never even been nailed down. She pushed it away and found a switch under it.

"Well, would you look at that. You haven't bested me yet," Marisa muttered and pulled the switch to see what it does. There was a click and then she felt how the stairs started moving under her. She jumped up so that she wouldn't stumble and let go of the doll by accident. She just stood and watched how the stairs sank to the ground and revealed secret staircase that formed once the stairs had stopped.

"A cellar. Now that's interesting," Marisa uttered and stepped down to the first step leading down. She then looked at the doll once more.

"You're not gonna explode on your own, aren't you," Marisa thought to herself before continuing. The staircase was quite dark since there weren't any lamps or candles lighting the place up. But she could still pretty safely find her way down. Once she reached the floor level she tried to reach out for walls but couldn't find any. It seemed that she had arrived to a fairly big room. She then tried to walk forward but her foot hit something fairly soft and big. She almost fell down to the floor but managed to keep her balance.

"Okay, that's it. I can't see anything," Marisa muttered with frustrated tone and look on her face as she cast a simple light spell. But when the spell lit the room she saw something she wasn't expecting. The room was quite large and the walls were covered with bookshelves. It almost looked like a small library. But what she found from the floor was the thing that made her doubt her eyes. Kids, dozens upon dozens of kids. They all were just lying there not reacting to Marisa's presence or light in any way.

"Oh my god... These are the kids that went missing," Marisa uttered with unbelieving tone. She then squatted down and touched one of the kids to see if they were alive. She brought her hand close to the kid's face and to her relief she felt a breath. Marisa sighed for relief and stood up. It seemed that the kids were only sleeping. Maybe they had been put under some spell or something that prevented them from waking up? That's the only explanation Marisa could come up with. But she just couldn't come up with an explanation for why Alice had done something like this. She had doubted Alice but never had she actually stopped to think about what could her motive be if she actually was behind this all. Marisa was baffled. At first she thought that she should take the kids away but soon realized that with the doll problem she had she couldn't do anything, let alone carry them away in this weather. There were no signs of any bloodshed so she figured that all of them were still alive.

Marisa didn't like it but she had no choice but to leave the kids for now and return to save them later.

"Why in the world would Alice go to a such extend as to first kill one of the kids and then kidnap half of the others? It just doesn't make any sense for her to do this," Marisa thought to herself as she started to back away from the room and towards the staircase she had used to arrive to the hidden cellar. And then another thing that didn't make any sense reached her mind. The doll in her hand. There was no way it could be real.

"Alice isn't so stupid as to set up an explosive trap for burgulars. It would destroy her own house, let alone her research material. Besides, if those kids are still alive there has to be a reason for that. They weren't dead and Alice doesn't want them that way... And this doll is just a bluff," Marisa muttered and then threw the doll out of her hand and straight to the wall. She stood there for at least five seconds till she walked up to the doll and picked it up again. It hadn't exploded just as she had predicted.

"Now when that's out of the way, better clean up my traces. Wouldn't want her to find out that I know," Marisa muttered, put the dull to her pocket together with the head, pin and the paper and then walked out of the basement. Once she was on the ground level she turned around and just uttered, "Don't you worry. I'll return and get you out." Marisa then squatted down and pulled the lever that had opened the staircase. The stairs started to rise to their original places. Marisa just watched as the slowly slided upwards until they finally stopped after a faint clicking sound that indicated that they were on the right place again.

"Now then. I have to head for the shrine as soon as possible and tell Reimu all about this so we can put an end to this for once and for all," Marisa thought to herself, turned around and headed for the front door. But before she could even reach it she saw how the door opened in front of her. Marisa froze for a second as she watched how Alice stepped inside. She was wearing a raincoat. Once Alice saw Marisa they both just stood there for a moment and just looked at each other.

"I'm in a disadwantage here so let's pretend I don't know about the cellar," Marisa thought to herself and gulped. Marisa just watched how Alice took off her raincoat and hanged it to a stand while constantly keeping her eye on Marisa.

"If I'm completely honest I didn't think I'd see you again today," Alice said with cold tone and impressionless look on her face.

"It got stormy while I made my return from the Yuuka's place," Marisa responded with her arms akimbo.

"And you thought you'd be welcome to just wait for it to cooldown in my place? Well not that I can do much about it for now. Just so you know, you were lucky that I wasn't home when you arrived," Alice said while retaining the tone and look on her face.

"Speaking of which, where were you. Not many people have business outside during a weather like this," Marisa said and just looked at Alice as she walked by Marisa.

"I was doing the same as you," Alice simply responded and walked to the living room.

"Excuse me?" Marisa asked and followed Alice to the living room.

"You didn't find Yuuka from her mansion I presume?" Alice said and sat down to an arm chair while constantly looking Marisa to her eyes.

"Don't change the sub-," Marisa started but Alice just interrupted her by saying, "I'm not changing anything. I just asked if Yuuka was in at her mansion or not. Because that's what I was doing outside. Searching for her."

"During a weather like this?" Marisa continued with strict look on her face.

"Just as were you, you know. I'm not the only one doing suspicious stuff," Alice responded but her responce was met with just cold stare. Marisa just stood there and stared into Alice's eyes while leaning against the door frame. Alice just looked back at her for a moment till she broke the silnence.

"What are you looking at?" Alice asked she hadn't stared back at Marisa for the whole time.

"You're accusing me of murder and kidnap. What else do you think I could do?" Marisa said with strict look on her face.

"Woah, woah, woah, hold on a moment. I haven't accused you of kidnapping anyone. Just the murder part," Alice said back at her. Marisa could swear she saw a hint of confusion on Alice's face while looking at her. But Marisa didn't bother to think about that. Alice's statement had stunned her for a moment.

"That doesn't make any sense, why would she accuse me of the murder of the first kid but not the kidnapping of the rest. It doesn't add up," Marisa thought to herself while staring at Alice with a bit bemused look on her face.

"Unless of course... she isn't the one behind the murder of the first kid," Marisa kept thinking.

"No, I cannot jump into any conclusions nor can I straigth up accuse Alice for the kidnappings even if I have proof. Things could get ugly, especially if she really believes that I'm behind the murder," Marisa thought and then walked up to the window of the living room.

"So, if you accuse me of murder of that first kid, why aren't you accusing me of the rest disappearing?" Marisa then asked and glanced at Alice behind her.

"I'm just being realistic. You're the only one with a motive and a chance to get into the village without being noticed but even you cannot make half of the kids in the village disappear during one night," Alice responded while staring at Marisa.

"And that leaves only you," Marisa started to accuse but couldn't get very far.

"In fact more than I. Let's be real here. How many people you know that have the power to get that done are there? There are more than just me," Alice said with confident tone. Marisa stared at her for a moment without saying a word. The sound of rain drops hitting the window and the roof was almost deafening in otherwise complete silence. But that silence was cut short when Marisa saw a flash and a sound of a thunder following it.

"Shit, again?" Marisa muttered while looking out of the window to the rainy yard.

"But then there are these lightnings... Who is causing them?" Alice uttered out loud like trying recreate conversation between them. Marisa then turned towards Alice with a bit confused look on her face.

"What do you mean with who?" Marisa asked while looking at Alice.

"Thunderstorms don't work like this. Once the lightnings stop they wont start again during the same storm. Plus, lightings follow the low pressure center. That's why it usually stops raining when the lighting storm is directly above you or at least the rain isn't as harsh as it is in the outskirts of the low. I'm sure you've noticed it already but the raining hasn't shown even signs of stopping... So why did the thunderstorm start again?" Alice said while looking out of the window.

"So what you're saying is that...," Marisa started after turning towards Alice.

"Those lightnings aren't real. They're caused by someone or something really powerful," Alice completed Marisa's sentence. Marisa then turned back towards the window and looked out from it.

"That spirit, entity or whatever it is. This has to be its doing," Marisa thought while staring out from the window. It was then when the lightning struck again and Marisa saw it. The black entity was standing on Alice's yard. Marisa let out a brief shriek out of fright.

"What is it?" Alice asked with a bit confused look on her face.

"You might have the culprit of this storm standing right on your front yard," Marisa said after backing away from the window. As the flash of the lightning faded away so did the entity but Marisa knew that it was still there. Alice then stood up from her chair and walked up to the window through which Marisa had seen the black figure.

"I don't see anything," Alice said while glaring through the glass.

"Just wait," Marisa said with her heart pounding quite fast.

"Did it follow me? If it did, then why," Marisa thought to herself as she waited for the next lightning to strike. Her wait wasn't too long and the lightning struck again again revealing the form of the figure standing on the yard. But this time it was couple meters closer to the house.

"There, you see it too right," Marisa exclaimed as she saw the figure standing on the yard.

"Indeed I do," Alice said with thoughtful look on her face. She then backed away from the window and walked up to the front door of her house.

"What are you doing?" Marisa asked with a bit worried tone and look on her face.

"Taking a better look at out 'guest' here," Alice said and pushed the door open. Marisa didn't dare to follow. If that thing was truly powerful eanough to create its own thunderstorm then it had to be at least as powerful as Raiko. And facing someone as powerful as her while you don't even know anything about them, how to interract with them and most importantly, how to defeat it if needed didn't appeal to her. Marisa just followed Alice's moves through the window. She was clearly waiting for the next lightning to straike so she could take a better look at the entity. Marisa also noticed that Alice had left the front door open while going out. Marisa then walked up to the door and was about to close it just to be safe when the lightning struck once again. Marisa's heart skipped a beat as she realized that the black figure was standing right in front of her on the doorstep on Alice's house. Marisa let out a frightened squeal as she fell on her back.

"Alice! You might wanna return inside," Marisa yelled as she gathered herself from the floor. She stood up after the flash from the lightning has faded away. Alice then returned inside and looked around herself.

"Did you see it? Where did it go?" Alice asked.

"I have no idea. It just stood on the doorstep but I'm pretty sure it is currently inside," Marisa said with stressed look on her face. Alice then just nodded and pushed the door pehind herself shut.

"What are you doing?" Marisa asked with a bit worried look on her face.

"Now when we have it here let's try to keep it that way for a moment and see what it does," Alice said while looking around herself. It was completely silent excluding the sound of rain. Marisa started to back away from the door towards the living room.

"I don't like this. If it is already here with us, why is it not doing anything," Marisa whispered while looking around herself.

"Shush," Alice hissed while trying to listen. Then the lightning struck again lighting up the room just when Marisa was next to the window.

"HOLY-," Marisa yelled when she saw that the figure was standing just couple sentimeters away from her. Marisa then backed away from the figure to the back wall of the living room. The figure just stood on place and faded away together with the light again.

"Alice!? I think it's after me," Marisa yelled with clearly frightened tone. Alice then followed her to the living room. She looked first at Marisa who clearly wasn't enjoying herself and then at the window opposite of Marisa. The lightning struck again and this time the figure had once again moved towards Marisa and was standing right between Marisa and the window.

"Alice!?" Marisa yelled now with utterly scared tone and look on her face.

"Wait... of course. Marisa, away from the wall. Help me block the windows," Alice commanded and immediately pulled the drapes in front of the window opposite of Marisa. Marisa just gulped and did what Alice had said. She rushed from window to window and pulled the drapes in front of every single one. Alice then rushed to the kitchen and did the same. In under a minute every single window in the downstairs of Alice's house was blocked with drapes.

"W-why did we do this," Marisa asked carefully after they met again in the living room.

"Simple, that entity is creating these lightnings, not to produce energy or power, but to make bright flashes of light. When it was chasing you it went from doorway straight to the window and when it was there the lightning struck again giving it its form. Now when we're in the dark it cannot get to us," Alice said while looking around herself.

"But that doesn't make any sense. If that's true it should have form during the whole day. Why we haven't seen it even once during the day when it's clear?" Marisa asked nervously.

"It seems that stable light levels aren't enough for it. It seems to need a bright flash to give itself a form," Alice said with thoughtful look on her face. She then started walking toward sthe front door while rubbing her chin.

"Which is also why it couldn't attack you or do anything else to you while you were standing away from the windows," Alice said and pulled the door open.

"What are you doing? Aren't you giving it more space to move in?" Marisa asked with worried look on her face as Alice stepped away from the open door.

"Yes. While it needs a flash to materialize it is still here with us and I believe that it can hear us as well. That's why it is just reasonable to think that it knows when to retreat. Also have you noticed that after we pulled the drapes in front of the windows there have been no lightning strikes?" Alice said while she stared at the open door. After that a lightning struck again and this time the figure formed in front of the open door where the light could get in.

"Holy crap, you're right," Marisa uttered while looking at the dark figure standing in the light that got through the open door. After the light faded away Alice walked at the door again and closed it.

"You sure that's okay?" Marisa asked carefully.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure it left," Alice said and locked the door just to be sure. Marisa then just sighed for relief and sat down to the floor.

"Just what hell was that thing? That's no ordinary youkai or a spirit of any kind, that's for sure," Marisa said while leaning against her knees.

"And more importantly, why was it only after you," Alice said while looking at Marisa on the floor.

"How should I know. I admit, I saw it at Yuuka's mansion... together with another same kind of a figure," Marisa said with thoughtful look on her face.

"There were two of them?" Alice asked just to make sure.

"Yes, though I saw the other one for only a brief moment till it ran off. And after that happened I haven't heard that laughter or scream even once," Marisa said and stood up again.

"Interesting. Our mysterious entity doesn't seem to be alone. And what is more interesting is that it has taken an interest to you," Alice said with thoughtful look on her face while walking back to the living room.

"Hmm, it seems that this might require more attention than I initially thought," Alice said while rubbing her chin.

"What are you implying?" Marisa asked and tilted her head.

"I'm implying that you should leave now. The storm seems to be clearing out. I don't feel comfortable while you're around," Alice said with serious tone and look on her face. The look on Marisa's face too changed to seriousness as she walked to the front door without saying a word and grabbed her hat and broom. Marisa then took a one final glare at Alice before pushing the door open and stepping out.

The rain had seemed to stop almost completely. It was still drizzling a little but not enough to get Marisa any moe wet than she already was from flying from Yuuka's mansion to Alice's house. The entity they had encountered had seemingly drained all the energy from the storm. Marisa looked up and saw how the clouds had started to clear out. It was late evening so the brightest stars were already visible.

"Just you wait Alice. I'll get the word to Reimu about your little secret in your basement and we'll see how you'll blame me after that," Marisa said and took off with her broom.

"And after that we'll solve the mystery behind that entity," Marisa muttered as she flew over the forest towards her house.

It didn't take her long to reach her house and as soon as she did she just walked in and headed straight for her room. She was too tired to eat anything and she knew that she needed to be awake early tomorrow to make sure she would reach the shrine as early as possible. She wasn't gonna let Alice to get away with the kids.

The sun was already high when Reimu stepped out from her shrine. No one had yet appeared at the shrine and Reimu was getting impatient. She herself hadn't found any clues regarding the disappearing of the kids and the storm of the yesterday hadn't made it any better. She stepped to her backyard terrace to strecth a bit and wait for the others to arrive but when she opened the door to her backyard she was met with a surprise she wasn't waiting for. In the middle of her backyard was a stone. By the looks of it, it was a grave stone. Reimu walked closer carefully to take a look at it. It didn't seem like anyone had come to her backyard and dug it there because there weren't any signs of any diggings.

"What the heck is that?" Reimu mumbled as she walked closer to the stone. She touched it. It was real stone and not just some cheap wood block made to look like stone and it was definitely dug deep into the ground because she couldn't make it even budge.

"H-how did it end up here?" Reimu muttered as she walked a circle around the stone. There was no name on it, it was just a plain grave stone.

"Well... An addition to the list of absurd occurences. I guess it can stay there for now, I have lot more pressing matters right now. I can deal with it when the missing kids have been found," Reimu thought to herself while rubbing her chin and looking at the stone. She then walked around her shrine to its front yard to see if anyone had arrived while she had been inspecting the strange grave stone.

"Where is everybody? Don't tell me they forgot to return here," Reimu bridled with her hands akimbo while kicking a few rocks on the ground. She then heard someone walking up the steps of the shrine. Reimu lightened up immediately and stood up to see who it was. It was Sanae and Sakuya. Neither of them seemed to be in too much of a hurry so Reimu didn't get her hopes up. Both of them just walked towards the shrine with serious looks on their faces.

"Finally. I was beginging to think that you wouldn't return," Reimu said with not so happy tone and look on her face.

"What makes you say that?" Sanae asked.

"Well, we agreed to meet here early in the morning, didn't we?" Reimu bridled with her arms on her vaist.

"Yes, but at least I am not going to solve any mysteries without sleeping properly," Sakuya responded and shook her head.

"Can't you just stop the time and sleep while it's stopped?" Reimu asked with annoyed tone and tileted her head.

"No, impossible. I have to keep myself concentrated while I am doing that and I am not really concentrated while I sleep," Sakuya retorted.

"Any way, please tell me you found something, anything," Reimu then said with hopeless look on her face.

"Nope, nothing. We interrogated, and exterminated gods know how many youkai but none of them knew anything. It's like the culprit doesn't even exist," Sanae said with clueless tone and look on her face.

"Damn. I was hoping that you'd have at least something," Reimu responded with disappointed look on her face.

"But we still haven't heard anything from Youmu or Marisa. Let's just hope they got something," Sanae continued and sat onto the shrine terrace.

"Speaking of the devil, here she comes," Sakuya said and pointed at the torii under which Youmu could be seen walking towards them. Reimu started walking towards her to ask her if she had found anything but seeing how Youmu just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head made it clear that she too had found nothing.

"Damn. Nothing?" Reimu asked.

"Absolutely nothing. Even Yuyuko had no idea and she's friends with Yukari," Youmu said with tired tone and look on her face.

"Though i still have my suspicions," Youmu said and glared at Sakuya who just glared back with offended look on her face.

"Just cut it off. We still have to wait for Marisa. So let's hope that she found any answers," Sanae said to Youmu with strict tone. Everyone just nodded as an agreement to Sanae's statement. And so they waited. First ten minutes, then half an hour, then an hour and finally two before they started to get impatient. There was no signs of Marisa any where and it was already almost midday.

"Seriously, what is taking her so long?" Youmu asked while leaning against her knees.

"I don't know but I swear if she's just sleeping currently I'm gonna slap her," Reimu bridled and sighed deeply with boredom shining from her face.

"Okay this is enough. I am going to pay a visit to her house and see if she is home. If she is she better hope she has a good explanation for not showing up," Sakuya said, stood up and started walking toward sthe stairs leading away from the shrine.

"I'd be much more comfortable if I were to search for her," Youmu said while watching Sakuya walk away from them.

"Seriously. Why are you so paranoid about Sakuya being behind all of this?" Sanae asked with a bit annoyed tone and look on her face. Youmu didn't bother to respond and neither did Sakuya to Youmu's comment. She just walked silently and then disappeared in a blink of an eye.

Sakuya reappeared instantly on Marisa's yard. Stopping time was truly an useful ability when it came to traveling around. Just disappearing and reappearing on your destination saves so much time, even though you have to move to your destination yourself when the time is stopped. Sakuya looked around herself on Marisa's yard. It was still quite wet from yesterday's storm.

"For your own safety, Marisa, hope that I wont find you here," Sakuya groaned as she started walking towards Marisa's front door. She tried the door handle and opened it after finding out it wasn't locked. She stepped in and looked around herself. She couldn't see Marisa anywhere in the downstairs but that just strengthened her suspicions that marisa was still sleeping. She then just sighed and started walking towards upstairs.

"I swear if you are sleeping...," Sakuya thought to herself as she reached upstairs and the door leading to Marisa's room. She then turned the door knob and pushed the door open. Sakuya stepped in and what she saw was about to make her blow up in anger. Marisa's bed and Marisa laying in it under her blankets. Quite few blankets actually but she didn't care about them. She just walked up to Marisa and just pushed her out from her bed while still being wrapped in her blankets.

"Wakey, wakey sunshine! You better get up in this instant or I'll kick you. After that it is my knives that will start to wake you up," Sakuya yelled with furious look on her face. But even after that threat Sakuya couldn't hear anything else than faint groan. Sakuya then tried squatting down and shaking Marisa but even that was met with only some faint movement and moan.

"Did you drug yourself or something? Get the fuck up," Sakuya yelled, stood up and kicked Marisa again. But this time she finally got a response out of Marisa.

"Sakuya... please, help... me," She could hear Marisa mumbling from under her blankets. Sakuya just looked at her for a moment and tilted her head.

"What? Are you sick?" Sakuya asked with a bit more calm look on her face. But Marisa didn't respond. Sakuya then kneeled before Marisa and lifted the blanket so that she could touch Marisa's forehead to see if she had a fever. She touched Marisa's head but immediately pulled her hand away in shock.

"M-Marisa, your head, it is freezing cold," Sakuya stuttered in surprise. She then pulled the blanket off from Marisa to see what was wrong with her When she had pulled the blankets off she saw Marisa laying there, hugging her feet and shaking all over. She then touched her arms and feet. They too were absurdly cold. Like she had lost all of her body heat during the night.

"God, Marisa what happened to you?" Sakuya asked with worried tone and look on her face but couldn't get a proper answer out of Marisa.

"J-j-j-just... c-c-cold," Marisa stuttered weakly while clutching her knees. It seemed that Marisa had slept with all of her clothes on but even then she was sickly cold.

"We have to get someone to help you. Eientei is too far away... Patchouli, I will take you to her. Can you stand up?" Sakuya asked but the fact that Marisa couldn't even answer her made it clear that she wasn't in the condition to move around. Sakuya then picked her up and took her downstairs.

"Damn, this is going to take a while," Sakuya groaned as she put Marisa down to her sofa. Sakuya then returned upstairs and retrieved one of Marisa's blankets and tied it so that it became something like a hammock in which she could carry Marisa much easier than in her arms. She then put Marisa to the blanket and tied it around her own shoulders.

"*Sigh I look so stupid but there is no helping it," Sakuya said and kicked the door of Marisa's house open and stepped out. She didn't even bother to close the door behind her. She just needed to get to the Scarlet Devil Mansion as quickly as possible.

Marisa was really heavy so Sakuya had difficulties to fly from time to time but she managed to keep herself and Marisa in the air. Marisa didn't utter even a single word during their flight to Scarlet Devil Mansion. She just moaned and shook uncontrollably in the blanket that Sakuya was using to carry her with.

"Damn... What kind of disease have you contracted? Is this a result of your mushroom experiments?" Sakuya thought to herself while flying over the Misty Lake behind which she could see the red mansion where they were headed. As soon as she had crossed the lake she had to land for she couldn't carry Marisa while flying any further. She just simply ran to the gates of the Scralet Devil Mansion until she finally met Meiling who was working as a guard for the mansion and actually a friend to Sakuya even if Sakuya considered her to be just a coworker.

Meiling had a long red hair and on top of that a green beret which had a star with a symbol for a dragon. Her green dress resembled a traditional chinese clothing mixed with red guard uniform. She also had white pants under her dress.

Meiling looked Sakuya with strange look on her face. She just watched how Sakuya ran at her with exhausted look on her face.

"What's wrong Sakuya, I thought you were at the Hakurei shrine? What are you carrying?" Meiling asked with confused look on her face and tilted her head. Sakuya just layed Marisa down and fell to her knees while panting.

"No time to explain, nor could I even explain... *pant Just get her to library... to Patchouli... *pant," Sakuya said between her gasps.

"Huh? What do yo-," Meiling started but couldn't get any further when Sakuya just yelled, "Shut up and go already!" Meiling freaked out a bit, saluted and picked Marisa up. Meiling was a youkai so Marisa practically weighed nothing for her. Sakuya stayed behind for a moment till she could catch her breath. Then she stood up and followed Meiling to the mansion.

The mansion was huge to say the least. It was entirely red and made of stone. The mansion had many huge wings, a built in library and a colossal clock tower which made it the tallest building in Gensokyo. It also had many windows but almost none of them had glass but iron covering them to prevent the sun from getting in. That made sense when you remembered that this was a home for a vampire. And not just one but two. Sakuya was the only human living in the mansion. The rest of the residents were youkai, fairies and demons.

After Sakuya rushed in she headed straight for the library where she had instructed Meiling to take Marisa. The library belonged to Patchouli who was Remilia's friend and one of the most intelligent magicians ever to live on earth. And she was even realtively young when compared to the other youkai. Only about one hundred years old. The library she owned was built half under ground and half above ground so that it could be larger. And when someone would describe the library, saying that it was massive would be an understatement.

Once Sakuya reached the door leading to library she just rushed through it only to find that Meiling had laid Marisa down to a table and was just sitting next to her.

"Where the heck is Patchouli. I clearly told you to get her right away," Sakuya yelled at Meiling with furious look on her face.

"I tried but she said that no matter how pressing the matter was, she would have her coffee first," Meiling said with clueless look on her face. Sakuya just clenched her teeth together and just disappeared from in front of Meiling's eyes. She then immediately reappeared and looked seemingly exhausted and just dropped Patchouli to the ground after she herself fell to her knees in exhaustion.

Patchouli had a long purple hair that had many ribbons tied to it. She was wearing her usual light purple pajama-like robes and a night cap that had a gold crescent moon on it. The asthmatic librarian didn't seem to be too happy that Sakuya had carried her here.

"How hard it is to just rest for a moment!?" Patchouli cried out from the floor where Sakuya had dropped her.

"I am Sorry miss Patchouli but the matter we have at hand is much more important than your coffee," Sakuya said while breathing heavily.

"You see, something is wrong with Marisa. I think she might be sick. And I am serious. Her condition is alarming," Sakuya continued and helped Patchouli up once she had stoof up again herself.

"I don't see why that would be a problem. Just throw her into a cauldron with rest of the meat you use in your cookings," Patchouli responded with indifferent tone and look on her face.

"Damn it Patchouli, I am not cracking a joke here," Sakuya groaned with pissed tone.

"Fine, I'll take a look at her. Where is she?" Patchouli asked and sighed deeply. Sakuya then brought her to the table where Meiling had layed Marisa down. Marisa was still shaking while being partly wrapped in the blanket Sakuya had used to carry her.

"I'll examine her. This'll take just a moment... hopefully," Patchouli said and started examining Marisa. Meiling and Sakuya just sat down to wait to a nearby chairs.

"Say, I've never seen you being so worried about anyone when they get sick. Why is it suddenly so serious matter with Marisa?" Meiling asked while they watched Patchouli.

"I am sure you know that me and the rest of Reimu's small group are investigating the kid incident in the village. We need every last one of us to give it our best for it to be resolved. And since Marisa is with us too, we need her. She might even know something we do not but she really is not too much of a help for us in that condition," Sakuya responded with serious look on her face and her arms akimbo.

"Oh, so that's the reason. But I gotta say, if she is sick I've never seen symptoms like those. I mean she is completely cold. She should have alreayd died of hypothermia," Meiling said with a bit confused look on her face but Sakuya didn't get to respond when they heard Patchouli muttering, "O-oh my..."

"What is it? Are you done already? What is wrong with her?" Sakuya immediately asked and stood up from the chair.

"Well to put it simply she's basically, well... dead," Patchouli said while scratching her hair. Sakuya just looked at her silently and then at Marisa who was shaking on the table.

"Y-you mean that her sickness is so serious or...?" Sakuya asked carefully.

"No, I mean that she is already literally dead," Patchouli said and turned to look at sickly looking Marisa.

"I am afraid I don't get it. Is she beyond curing or what is the problem here. She seems to be breathing still," Sakuya continued asking with a bit nervous look on her face.

"No, no, that's mainly the problem because, you see, her body doesn't show any signs of life. All her vital organs have stopped functioning, excluding her brain and muscles. Though she cannot move around that much since her muscles don't get any oxygen," Patchouli said with as confused look on her face as on Sakuya's.

"You are joking right?" Sakuya said and then walked closer to Marisa and pressed her ear against her chest. But she was shocked when she realized that what Patchouli had said was true. The heart beat was completely gone.

"I-impossible," Sakuya uttered with shocked look on her face.

"Tell me about it. She shouldn't be alive. I've never seen anything like this before. Not with mortals, not with immortals, not even with the undead," Patchouli uttered while she, Sakuya and Meiling all just stared at Marisa who according to all common sense should be dead as a stone.