It was times like these that Reimu Hakurei felt at peace.
The young shrine maiden sighed blissfully as she soaked herself in the bath, letting the warmth enter her body. Her eyes were closed, as Reimu was feeling somewhat sleepy. She knew that eventually she would have to crawl out of the hot bath. But for now, she was content.
Reimu was the Shrine Maiden, or Miko, of the Hakurei Shrine, located in Gensokyo. Not many people came to visit, given that it was quite a challenge to travel to, mountainous paths and mischievous or diabolical Fairy Youkai providing much of it. It was a shame too, Reimu didn't get much company, aside from the wise talking turtle, Genji... and them.
Slowly opening her eyes, Reimu looked up at the ceiling, taking quite a long moment to register that someone - or something - was floating above her.
The thing wore a grin brimming with ill intentions. "I have you now, Shrine Maiden!" It screeched, suddenly lunging at her.
Taken off guard, Reimu shrieked with equal volume, desperately clambering over the side of her bathtub to escape her assailant. Her weapons were in a completely different room, leaving her defenseless.
Shivering from the sudden cold, Reimu faced the assailant, who had stopped short of tackling her and was busy giggling.
Reimu's surprise turned to embarrassment and anger when she recognised the distinctive laugh and green hair.
"Mima!" Reimu growled, apparently unaware that she was currently naked. Not that it mattered much. Mima was female and a Youkai. It's not like there was any interest in Reimu's body.
Mima, the spirit who had 'attacked' Reimu, continued to laugh. "That was too easy! You were completely open!"
Mima wore a flowing blue robe, and a small, blue, pointed cap over her dark green hair. She also had an air of superiority around her, as if others were mere insects to her. Of course, being defeated by Reimu once or twice didn't do much to change that, annoyingly enough.
"Sorry, I don't normally have reason to defend myself when bathing." Reimu growled, her wet, purple hair growing colder by the second. The colour was neither natural nor dyed (After all, hair dye didn't exist in Gensokyo), but the result of a fairy curse from her childhood. She accidentally swatted one, and this was her 'ultimate punishment'.
Mima was a Soul, but apparently not the spirit of a deceased human. According to Mima, she was simply a soul who came to be one day. Only four years ago, Reimu and Mima had met as enemies.
That time, Reimu's shrine had been destroyed by someone, and during Reimu's rampage to 'Hell', she ran across Mima. Mima had nothing to do with her Shrine's destruction, but saw Reimu as an enemy regardless. Reimu, at the time, had next to no experience fighting Youkai, relying completely on her ancestral weapon, the 'Hakurei Ying Yang Orb', which possessed insane amounts of power. It was through that object that Reimu landed a lucky strike, forcing Mima to retreat and allowing Reimu to continue on her search for the culprit.
Roughly a year later, with the culprit soundly beaten and her Shrine restored (thanks to the help of the village locals, who may or may not have been conscripted into rebuilding), Reimu and Mima had met again. That time, Mima had claimed she wanted revenge, keeping details unbelievably vague.
She also had an apprentice magician, Marisa. Having quite a bit more experience and control over her abilities from the previous years' battles, Reimu managed to defeat Mima and Marisa in combat.
Ever since then, Mima just sort of hung around the shrine. Most of her time was spent annoying or scaring Reimu, which was odd. It was like that whole 'revenge' motif was forgotten. Maybe it was a lie just to find an excuse to fight? Maybe this was her revenge? Well, who cared? Right now, Mima was just being a bother. Sure, they may have had an adventure or two together, but those times their goals had coincidentally matched.
"Honestly, why can't you act mature?" Reimu groaned, grabbing a bathrobe from a rack on the nearby wall, slipping it on.
Mima grinned. "Mature? Of course I'm mature. It was a simple test, to see if you could react to surprise attacks!"
"Okay, sure." Reimu sighed, knowing that wasn't the case. Draining the water from the tub Reimu wished she hadn't been forced to vacate, the young Miko marched to her front room, passing by the sleeping Genji and into the kitchen.
Stupid old turtle, couldn't even hear the noise from one room away? Reimu muttered as she passed.
There, she began to make some tea, while Mima 'sat' a table in the front room. After a few moments, Reimu approached with a tray holding three cups and a tea kettle, along with some teabags and milk.
"Three cups?" Mima noted as Reimu poured the tea.
Another oddity of Mima. Despite not being a creature with a physical body, nor the need to eat or drink, she could do that just fine. Reimu suspected that questioning Mima of such a 'power' would only yield the answer that 'it's supposed to make you waste your resources, tee hee hee'.
"Of course. If you're here, Marisa's gonna burst in here any moment." Reimu answered with a sigh. She wondered why she put up with these two. She'd bested them in fights before, so why not kick them out?
As if on cue, the door to her shrine flew open, with a blonde haired magician marching up to Reimu and Mima. By her attitude, you'd think she owned the place. Reimu poured the last of the tea into the third cup, and set it aside for the approaching witch.
"Heya~!" Marisa greeted, wearing purple robes with a matching, pointed hat (Complete with a crescent moon brooch pinned to the front), and a broomstick in hand. "Found ya, Lady Mima~"
Marisa, the human apprentice of Mima, was a bit of an odd one. She had a penchant for stealing all kinds of things (Or 'borrowing', as she put it) and always flew around on a broom, even though she could fly just fine. In fact, it was her flying! The broom was just for show. Keeping up the 'witch' appearance and all that.
"So you did." Mima replied, sipping some tea. Not the greatest she ever had, but it was at least adequate. Not that she'd tell the Miko that.
Setting her broom on the floor beside her, Marisa took the third cup for herself, Marisa gulped the scalding liquid down as if it were cool water. Reimu had never seen anything like it, and she'd seen some really messed up Youkai before.
"So, any reason why you had to interrupt my bath time, which directly preceeds my bed time?" Reimu asked the two.
Marisa and Mima glanced at each other, seemingly confused. "Reason? What're you talking about?" Marisa asked.
Reimu glared at them. "You know, the purpose of bothering me at this time? I can barely tolerate your visits during the day, but bothering me now is rather annoying."
"I thought this place was open 24/7?" Marisa asked. Reimu sighed once again.
"Yes, to people who seek spiritual advice, not to bothersome idiots."
"Such a kind hearted Shrine Maiden you are." Mima said sarcastically, and sipped more tea. "You'd think it'd make you happy to actually have visitors for a change."
Reimu scowled at her words. It was sadly true, these two were the only actual visitors Reimu had for a long, long time. Maybe that was why she put up with them?
"Oh, by the way Lady Mima!" Marisa piped up, beaming at the Soul. "I've been developing this awesome new spell, I think it'll exceed your expectations!"
Mima raised an eyebrow at her apprentice. "Will it now? Let's hope so, that last spell you devised..." She glanced at Reimu. "...Fell far short of them."
Mima was referring to the last time Reimu and Marisa had battled, where Marisa had devised some sort of barrier made of four orbs that would chase Reimu down and pummel her. That didn't work too well against Reimu's counter spell, sending copies of her Ying Yang Orb to block and then target Marisa.
Undettered, Marisa took of her hat, taking out a slip of paper from the inside. Reimu recognised it straight away - A Spell Card.
Spell Cards were 'tools' used mostly by human magician's, or anything who had a poor magic casting ability. They allowed the user to channel magic into the card in order to produce the desired effect. They were essentially crutches until the user managed to cast the spell without the Card. They were also useful for replicatinf or creating entirely new spells.
Of course, someone like Marisa happened to have a knack for making new spells, or replicating them. Reimu was curious as to what the spell could be.
"Come on outside, I'll show ya!" Marisa said excitedly, rushing back outside. Mima drank the last of her tea and glided after her, with Reimu close behind.
In retrospect, it probably wasn't wise to walk outside on a cold night with nothing but a bathrobe, but it was only for a few moments anyway.
Marisa led them through the small courtyard in front of the sign. A cobble stone pathway led from Reimu's shrine to a set of stone steps descending towards the village. The amount of steps was probably a deterrent to visitors, annoyingly enough.
Once an adequate distance from the Shrine was acquired, Marisa fished a Spellcard from her robes. With an excited grin, she raised it above her head.
"Starlight Duster!" Marisa declared, as the paper glowed a light pink. Suddenly, several small, pink, star-shaped bullets began to form in the air and surround Marisa, circling her. The number of stars grew rapidly, until she was almost obscured, before they suddenly shot out in all directions, stopping short of Mima and Reimu, as well as the trees and shrine around her.
Reimu and Mima watched the wave of bullets, noting that they moved in such a way to make avoiding them virtually impossible. It seemed like some sort of trap, leaving the smallest of gaps one may squeeze through, only to realize that the opening was far smaller than expected, and you found yourself horribly battered from all angles.
Once the stars had finished their course, they vanished, leaving Marisa to stand proudly. "So? What d'you think, Lady Mima?"
Mima shrugged almost dismissively. "It's a fine pattern, I suppose. Still, there are some gaps one may find."
"Really?" Both Marisa and Remu asked. Marisa couldn't seem to comprehend any weaknesses to her spell, while Reimu was surprised Mima spotted what she herself hadn't. In the last four years, Reimu had become almost godlike in spotting blind spots in spells shot at her, no matter how immensely overwhelming they were.
"Like right here." A voice spoke from somewhere, alerting all three of them. Before any of them could so much as twitch, however, Marisa was struck by a pale orange beam, striking her shoulder and spearing right through her.
Marisa didn't scream, but her eyes widened in surprise as she fell to her knees, her left hand shooting towards the wound in her right shoulder.
"Marisa!" Reimu yelled, making to run to the witch's side. Mima however, glared at the source of the voice and spell that hurt her apprentice.
She was an odd one, the assailant. She had bright orange hair that she seemed to wear as some sort of cloak. It literally covered most of her body, leaving only her face and arms exposed. Her legs were occasionally seen as the breeze twitched her hair.
"You! Care to explain why you attack us?" Mima asked the girl with the insanely long hair, her voice colder than the night air. Mima didn't like being snuck up on, nor did she like having her apprentice attacked and subdued so easily.
The orange haired girl glared at the group, or rather, at Reimu. The Miko was checking the wound left by the spell, which left no blood, but a lot of pain, if Marisa's pale and shocked complexion was any indication.
And I still don't have my weapons... Reimu thought in irritation as she spared a glance at the attacker.
"Answer me, insect!" Mima demanded from the girl.
Mouth twitching into a small smile, she spoke to Reimu. "You are the Shrine Maiden of Hakurei Shrine, correct?"
"You have to ask?" Reimu asked, trying to sound intimidating despite being freezing in her bath robe without any weaponry. Suffice to say, she was less than successful.
"You dare ignore me?" Mima growled, a light flashing in her hands. In an instant, a staff topped with a crescent moon was in her hands.
Pointing her staff at the intruder, she sent dozens of small, star shaped bullets at her.
Grinning in amusement, the girl weaved effortlessly between the objects, her hair seemingly parting of its own accord to dodge the bullets. Thankfully, the girl wore a scarlet one piece costume underneath all that hair, so nothing was revealed.
Practically dancing closer and closer, Mima growled and sent a fresh volley of bullet like objects towards her, larger and far more random in trajectory.
Even this was in vain, for the mysterious girl still slipped between them, eventually coming face to face with a surprised Mima. "Pathetic. I thought you were almighty?"
Before Mima could reply, she was knocked back by one of the girl's spells. Mima flew at high speeds towards the steps that led to the shrine's courtyard, passing the large red archway that acted as a 'gateway' to the Shrine.
The hair-dressed girl turned to face Reimu and Marisa. The Shrine Maiden glared defiantly at the attacker, wondering what exactly she could do. That girl had disabled Marisa and easily beaten Mima! Her power was formidable, and Reimu was currently defenceless.
Panting and sweating heavily, Marisa stumbled to her feet, fishing a new spell card from her robes with her uninjured arm.
The girl didn't move to stop her, instead slowly walking towards the two.
"I got this..." Marisa gasped, holding the card up with a shaking hand. "No one sneaks up on the Great Witch Marisa and expects to live..."
"But, you're shoulder-" Reimu began, but Marisa went ahead with her assault.
"Quadra-Orb!" Marisa declared, and four orbs appeared around Marisa and Reimu, encircling them. A faint line could be seen connecting them.
Occasionally, they would shoot a few bullets at the girl, who would side step them effortlessly.
"Marisa, she danced circles around Mima, what makes you think you'll-" Reimu began, but was again interrupted.
"Cosmic Shot!"
From above, Mima had fired a single, large, silver beam towards the girl, who was in the process of dodging the orbs that were now lashing out at her as she drew closer. Glancing up, she was engulfed by the light.
Mima grinned with satisfaction as she struck the girl. Served her right for her cowardly sneak attack, Mima thought.
Marisa let her orbs disperse and she fell back to her knees, with Reimu catching her before she fell face first into the ground.
"Hey, don't drop dead on me, okay?" Reimu said, surprised at how worried she was over someone who was kind of her enemy. Kind of? Were they? The last few years kind of blurred that stance.
The light from Mima's spell faded, allowing the group to see the remains of the assailant. The surprised looks from everyone indicated that the remains were composed mainly of an uninjured enemy and the bright red and orange flames that surrounded her.
"A bomb spell?" Mima gasped. "When did she-"
The flames parted, allowing the girl to grin devilishly at Mima, before the flames suddenly shot towards her.
Cursing, the Soul tried to fly back and evade the flames, but they easily caught up and surrounded her, flames licking at her ethereal body and apparently consuming her.
When the flames died, Mima emerged looking horribly burned. She panted heavily, her clothing mostly burned and melted away. her body was unmarked, but searing with pain.
"You... You impudent little-!" Mima gasped, before succumbing to her injuries and falling to the ground, passed out.
Marisa watched in awe as her master was defeated humiliatingly easily. That wasn't possible! Even Reimu struggled to defeat Mima, and this person - no, she had to be a Youkai - had wiped the floor with her without even trying!
"Come with me please, Shrine Maiden." The girl spoke, holding a hand out to Reimu. Her voice, Reimu noticed, actually sounded rather sweet and friendly, but overlapped with a much more aggressive and assertive tone. Like two different people talking at once.
"What do you want?" Reimu asked. She would have sounded more demanding if she wasn't so surprised.
The girl smiled slightly at Reimu. "You, of course. Would you come with me please?"
"...What." Reimu stated. "Me? If you want a fight, give me a minute and-"
"No, no, it's not a fight with you I seek." The girl interrupted. "I want your life."
Before Reimu could respond, the girl moved forward, punching her in the stomach with amazing force. Reimu doubled over, feeling her strength leave her. Her vision was darkening...
Reimu slumped into the arms of the girl, who smiled in satisfaction. Marisa growled, trying to will strength into her own body. Damn it, that wound was nothing, it shouldn't impede her so!
The girl spared a glance at the struggling Witch.
"You're her friend? I'll do you a favour and let you live. Then, feel free to come rescue the girl. I'll happily beat you fairly before I kill her, assuming you make it past my allies."
"W-wait!" Marisa called, breathing heavily. The girl ignored her, instead floating into the air, carefully carrying Reimu, and flying off South.
W-who is she? Marisa wondered, her mental voice practically snarling. Her power was unbelievable, if she was able to defeat Lady Mima so easily!
The pain flared in her shoulder as she stumbled towards Mima, hoping she wasn't fatally wounded. Or whatever the definition was for a Soul who would die from wounds.
Mima still lay unconscious, and Marisa had no strength to carry her to the Shrine. It would also be a waste of time to walk back to the Shrine to wake up the old turtle, who had slept through everything!
"Hey, useless turtle!" Marisa roared as loud as she could. "Get your stupid ass here right now!"
After a few moments and another yell or two, Genji eventually flew towards the two, looking rather annoyed. Genji was a remarkable old turtle, who also happened to be able to talk and fly. In fact, Genji was Reimu's only method of flight, since the Miko still sucked at using her own power.
"What is it? Honestly, you can't keep your irritating voice down during the-" The old turtle noticed the state the Witch and her master were in.
"W-What happened here? Were's Lady Reimu?" He asked.
"Explanations later." Marisa groaned, feeling ready to collapse. "Just carry Lady Mima to the shrine for now.
Trying her best to lift Mima onto Genji's back so he could whisk her back to the shrine, Marisa lay panting as he flew away. She didn't want to faint here, it was cold out. Struggling back to her feet, Marisa made it a few steps before Genji returned. It must have taken her forever to make those steps if he was back already.
Gratefully climbing onto the turtle's shell, Marisa felt her eyelids getting heavier and heavier. Before she passed out, Marisa thought of Reimu, and tried to identify the emotion that accompanied the image of her being carried away by the strange girl...