Chapter One

11:15 A.M.

Marisa Kirisame flew through the skies on her broom. Some of her long, blonde hair was tucked inside of her broad hat, and the rest waved around with her movement. In her pocket was her trusty mini-hakkero, and half a dozen homemade counter-bombs. It was nice and somewhat cloudy, and there was hardly any wind at all. Perfect weather for flying.

"Hmm…" she said to herself. "Where should I go today?"

She had many options. She could go to the village and see her friends there. She could go to the forest and gather ingredients for her homemade explosives. Or, she could go cause some havoc in the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

"Yeah, I haven't bugged them in a while. I'll do that today!"

And she flew off in the direction of the Misty Lake, behind which lied the mansion in question. Most of the inhabitants of the Scarlet Devil Mansion were youkai; a Gensokyan term for supernatural creatures—creatures that would normally strike fear into the hearts of humans. But Marisa loved to bother the youkai. She was always eager to improve her skills, and competing against youkai was an excellent way to do just that.

Her urge to become better was partly driven by a rivalry with the local shrine maiden, Reimu Hakurei. Whenever a major incident came up, they always competed to get to the bottom of it first. They often worked together, but the two couldn't be more different on the inside. Marisa was all about the glory and bragging rights, whereas Reimu was more interested in protecting the interests of humanity. Reimu had tremendous amounts of magical power, something Marisa was always jealous of. While Marisa had to work her butt off practicing broom flying and making her own explosives to substitute for not having any natural magical abilities, Reimu had all the power right there. But the worst part, in Marisa's opinion, was that she almost never used it! Reimu found her job a hassle, and tried to resolve conflicts in as passive a manner as possible, which Marisa found exasperating.

Flying over the water, Marisa spotted the mansion up ahead. In front of its stony gate, the gatekeeper was standing guard. Her proper name was Hong Meiling, but everyone called her China to annoy her. That was unimportant, though. The important part was that she was in charge of making sure nobody entered the mansion without good cause. And she was pretty good at it, too. She would be the perfect gatekeeper except for one little flaw: gatekeeping was boring, so she had a tendency to fall asleep on the job. That was a flaw that Marisa could easily take advantage of.

Meiling appeared to be asleep at the gate again. If Marisa was walking on the ground, she would run the risk of waking her up. But since Marisa was up in the air, she merely flew over the mansion gate and landed softly in the courtyard. She got off her broom and carried it in with her into the mansion. Although flying was faster and quieter than walking, Marisa found it difficult to fly in the dark hallways. She didn't want to mismaneuver and fly into something. Ramming into stuff while riding on a broom hurt! So, on her feet, she tiptoed her way into the mansion.

On her way to the library, Marisa saw a few maids running about. They were too busy with their duties to notice her. Marisa tiptoed on through the corridors. The library was quite a ways inside the mansion. She descended a flight of stairs, leading underground, and crept through another hallway. Finally, she arrived at her destination. Although she had passed many doors on her way, this set of doors was different. They were much bigger than most of the doors there, as the library was a huge room. With some effort, Marisa pulled one of the doors open and silently slipped inside.

Inside the library, there were seemingly endless rows of ceiling-high bookshelves, made of an old, polished wood. There was low lighting, as the room was mostly lit by candlelight, with a fancy chandelier here and there. The flooring was carpeted but aged, as if it had been carpeted a hundred years ago. Strange, humanoid creatures were moving about, carrying stacks of many books at once.

Marisa began her undercover operation, weaving through the rows of books. Sneaking around like this was one of her favorite ways to get her kicks. She systematically made her way to the very back, staying very low to stay unnoticed by the handful of library staff around. They would have a hard time spotting her in the dark anyway, since she was wearing mostly black. The whole library was probably still reshelving books from her previous escapade. Marisa smirked with pleasure at the thought.

As she got deeper into the library, Marisa's surroundings began to shift subtly. As she went on, the books gradually got older. Passing through the many layers of history, it felt more like a time capsule than a library, with each era represented by its own distinct area. The books gradually became more worn and aged, with covers tearing off and pages fading. Then, the endless rows of books suddenly stopped, signaling that this was the very deepest part of the library. The books here almost certainly dated back to medieval ages, when books were rare and had to be written by hand. They were in a state of disrepair. What existed of the covers was worn ragged, and the handwritten text was in danger of fading from existence. At last, she had made it to her destination.

Marisa perused the shelves carefully, looking for the perfect book. Finally, she picked one up. It was a large book with a thick, faded cover. The binding appeared to have been repaired many times, signifying that it was a book of considerable importance. Marisa slipped the book inside her white apron, which on the underside was actually just another huge pocket. She grinned naughtily. Acquiring her book of choice was only the first step of the antics she had planned for today.


(Author's Notes: This and the next chapter were originally one chapter, but I split them up into two because I don't think I can keep making chapters that big for the rest of the story. Wow, I haven't written anything this big since my science fair paper!)