The next time Marisa Kirisame woke, it was much less painful... And slightly less confusing. Her eyes fluttered open, focusing a little bit more quickly this time... Taking in the ceiling above her. She was inside.. And furthermore, simply from the architecture, rather quickly realized exactly where she was.

"...You're awake." the voice of Alice Margatroid spoke quietly to her side. Turning her head slowly, she came face to face with her; the familiar girl who lived not too far away from her own cottage in the Forest of Magic, who used her magic to construct and control dolls. She was dressed as Marisa commonly saw her- clad in a western-style dress not altogether unlike her own, but much more intricately sewn and appearing a lot more pricey, short red hair adorned with a red hairband that she didn't think she'd ever seen her without... The dollmaker was looking the witch up and down studiously... In a way that was a little bit out of the ordinary. She seemed.. Unsure of something. Marisa, however, just tried to put it out of her mind.

"Alice, I..." She was at a loss for words for a moment.. But, soon after, looked down at her midsection, from which the immense pain had erupted earlier; Alice seemed to have changed her into some night clothes, which she tugged the top of up a bit. Tightly wrapped around her stomach were white bandages. They looked clean, and furthermore, fresh. Alice must have had to change them at least once... All at once, without even being fully clear of the situation, Marisa felt rather guilty. As much of a snark as she could often times be, suddenly she felt like she had been a massive burden for Alice. She lowered her head.. Her messy blonde hair hiding her gaze for a moment, "...Thank you."

The dollmaker raised an eyebrow at the apology... But seemed a little bit more grounded, that inquisitive glance seemingly satisfied for now, although it still bothered Marisa for some reason. She took a deep breath and sat back down in the red-cushioned chair beside the bed, sitting her grimoire in her lap, "It's fine... Though I won't say it was easy. It took quite a bit of healing magic in addition to almost as much conventional care. Humans are a lot more difficult to patch up than dolls, you know." Marisa could imagine.. Dolls didn't have all those sensitive parts inside of them.

"But.. I mean.. What happened to me?" Marisa shifted her body to face Alice... She felt remarkably sore, but it was like having a stubbed toe in comparison to how she had felt at the shrine earlier. When that question was asked, though, Alice was taken mildly aback.

"You're asking me? Marisa... I found you with a hole punched in your stomach in front of the Hakurei shrine in the middle of the day. You had lost.. I don't even know how much blood." The witch cringed when Alice brought that up; she thought as much, but.. She had a hole in her? What on earth had happened to her, "When I saw you there, I quite nearly had a heart attack... I.. I mean.." Her fingers curled daintily around her grimoire.. She was visibly upset, though as composed as she was she didn't allow it to be displayed much in her voice beyond a drop in volume, "...Everyone had been thinking you were dead."

There was a long silence. Marisa, at first, thought Alice had misspoke and meant to refer to everyone's reaction after she had been found... But the human-turned-youkai dollmaker made absolutely no effort to correct herself. It looked like she was holding back tears.. And, to her credit was doing an amicable job and if it had been someone who knew Alice less than Marisa, it would have gone unnoticed. Under most any other circumstance, she would have at least tried to comfort her somehow... After all, it wasn't often Alice let down her icy demeanor. But this came as too much of a shock for her to properly do so. "What do you mean?" Marisa finally managed to ask hoarsely.

It took a few moments for Alice to respond, but when she did, the weight of her words smashed into Marisa like a runaway carriage, leaving her silenced. "Marisa.. Before I found you, it had been an entire year since anyone had seen you at all."

Alice looked to be in some strange state between overjoyed and terribly shaken. Meanwhile, Marisa was downcast. The impact of Alice's words had hit her hard, and a mixture of fear and guilt stewed in her brain... But more immediate to her, perhaps uncharacteristically, was the reaction of Alice. She had never seen the dollmaker this distraught... Let alone over her. Usually she just got pissed off.

She rose up to try and get closer to Alice, but as soon as she was on her feet, she felt her legs crumple beneath her, falling to her knees with an irritated grunt; they were numb. It felt like she hadn't been standing on them for days (or was that a year?) at least. And, contrary to her original purpose, it was Alice who moved forward, helping Marisa up. The dollmaker's touch was soft on her sore body as she was carefully brought to her feet.

Internally, Marisa was furious. She felt bad for Alice, yes; that was prominent. But there was also a fury at being left in the dark so badly up until now. And there was some, in addition, to still having to be helped even when she made up her mind to try the other way around. Words would have to suffice.

"Thank you.. For patching me up, Alice. I was sure I was going to die right before you found me, y'know." the witch sighed. She knew Alice was looking at her funny without even peeling her gaze off from the floor; being openly grateful like this was a bit out of character for her. Then again.. She couldn't exactly say she had ever owed her life to anyone before except...

"It's all right, Marisa." Alice broke her out of her thoughts. Her voice was much more evened out; it seemed she had composed herself, and the witch's attempt at comforting her had failed; Alice was strong enough not to need that sort of thing, she reminded herself, "It just.. Concerns me. You've been gone for an entire year, Marisa. Where on earth have you been?"

"I..." The witch shut her eyes tight, trying to remember. Under normal circumstances, she'd likely crack a joke, but she rather felt like this was no laughing matter. Still, unlike most, she was mainly annoyed that somehow her brain had misplaced an entire year of events rather than terrified, "I don't know. I honestly can't remember anything, but it's not.. Amnesia or anything, y'know? I remember everyone... I just..."

"What's the last thing you remember?" Alice asked, holding up one hand and flicking her fingers in a motion familiar to Marisa; sure enough, one of Alice's dolls, the blue-dressed Shanghai, fluttered into the room, floating thanks to the dollmaker's magic and smiling cheerfully as always. In its hands was a fancy tea set on a platter, from which Alice poured two cups and handed one to Marisa, who had thankfully settled down to sit on the edge of the bed. The witch nodded thankfully, wracking her brain once more.

"I..." she inhaled a whiff of tea, gulping it down.. And then her eyes grew wide. The wheels began to turn in her head.


The smell of sulfur, and blazing stone...A thick smell flooded back to Marisa's nose, like a memory she could still feel herself in the middle of. She remembered flying above an ocean of raging flames... The intense heat striking a feeling of exhilaration in her once again. It felt as if the heat could have burst her broom into flames at any moment, and yet she remembered.. Laughing. And fighting. She was having fun as flames licked at her heels viciously, and explosions tore outwards in the air, greedily swallowing up what space wasn't taken up by the inferno

And at the heart of it all, a dark-haired woman with black feathery wings, and a massive cannon grafted to her arm. Her eyes terrifying and wide, burning with absolute insanity as blast after blast tore out of her weapon. Those eyes... Those childish, and yet terrifyingly sinister, eyes. Getting larger and larger as she grew closer and closer.

And then, suddenly, she was no longer on her broom. Suddenly, she was flying backwards in a way quite unintentional. There would be no dodging bullets in this state. There would be no fancy tricks, no Master Spark... There wouldn't be anything except an inevitable rise.. And then, she would begin to fall. And as she fell, there was a scream, which felt as if it stretched on into infinity; a scream not at all her own. It belonged to Reimu.

"Marisa!"


"Well, that certainly does make sense." Alice muttered quietly, rubbing her temple as Marisa finished recounting her last recollection. She poured herself a second cup of tea. Normally, she would have her dolls do it, but at the moment it seems that she was fine with doing the work herself.

"Whaddaya mean?" Marisa inquired.

"The last time anyone had heard of you, it was when you and Reimu went down into the underground to solve the incident with the Hell Raven." As Alice spoke, memories of the event were starting to flood back into her mind; the fight through the Oni town, the satori in the mansion. She nodded as she digested this information slowly. Alice would know that well; she had been in contact with her during the incident, along with fellow magician Patchouli Knowledge, and Nitori Kawashiro the kappa.

"So when you say that's the last anyone heard of me.. I didn't come back? Did we win? Did Reimu beat the crow?" the witch asked, genuinely curious. The question crept up on her rather fast after what she could recollect had returned to her. She wasn't asking what she was really thinking, due to the fact that she had been found lying at the shrine and Reimu had made no effort to help... Of course that couldn't be true, could it? Reimu had to be fine, right?

But when she looked up, Alice's face had soured noticeably into a rather sullen expression. Marisa's heart sank in an instant until the dollmaker finally spoke: "She defeated her and returned... And she told us that Utsuho had killed you."

Marisa was rendered silent at this... So, Reimu had been put through the same experience as Alice? She wondered how Reimu, the lackadaisical, lazy shrine maiden... She huffed, either way, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling... Part of her not being able to wait to see the shrine maiden's face when she saw she was alive. Eventually, she responded: "I remember.. Falling off my broom. And Reimu screaming. Nothing afterwords."

It was Alice's turn to be silent. She snapped her fingers, and again Shanghai returned.. This time, accompanied by a matching red-dressed doll that Marisa recognized as Hourai. The pair collected the tea set, and fluttered off. The dollmaker crossed her legs; it looked like there was something on her mind, but she was unsure of what to say. Marisa, meanwhile, was feeling quite a bit more cheery... She felt like everything was all right with the world... She just had to spread the world that she hadn't, in fact, perished (likely to the dismay of several people she had taken upon herself to eternally borrow things from).

"That isn't everything, though. Marisa.. I'm not entirely sure you're going to want to hear this part, but... Things have.. Changed since you were gone."

"...Changed? How?" Marisa frowned.

"It's Reimu, Marisa." Alice finally sighed. The words left her lips in a very slow manner, Alice's mouth seeming like it was having a hard time molding around what she was saying. Marisa, meanwhile, shot back quite quickly to her.. Perhaps a little bit too fast. She wasn't angry, she was just worried. Bit by bit, that happy feeling she had been holding was starting to fall to pieces.

"What do you mean 'it's Reimu,' you just said she came back fine!"

"When Reimu came back, she was different. She was incredibly upset at first. The communicator devices we had been using were destroyed in the battle against the crow, so we weren't able to figure out what happened. All we knew was that you had apparently died...," again Alice's face had taken that sour expression, and her slender fingers gently played with a lock of hair in a nervous manner for a moment. Marisa listened, already having a bad feeling about this. That didn't sound characteristic of Reimu at all; typically, she was beyond open whenever she managed to solve an incident in hopes of getting more visitors to her shrine. And as Alice continued, her fears were not particularly put to rest: "Then, a month later, an incident occurred in the human village with a pair of youkai getting into a fight. Reimu came, and..." she paused momentarily, taking in a deep breath. Alice knew what she was about to say wasn't something Marisa was going to want to listen to at all.

"...Two youkai got into a fight, and Reimu showed up to settle it. She completely ignored the spellcard rules, and killed both of them. Both body, and soul."

Marisa's blood ran cold at the explanation. Alice shivered a little as well, having said it. Both girls set in silence for a few moments, before Marisa finally spoke up:

"No damn way." She hissed. It was a deep snarl as Marisa's fists clenched. Alice looked up, a bit surprised at the seething tone of the witch, who was currently beginning to slip out of the bed, once again getting on her feet.. Bare toes against the fine wooden floor of Alice's cottage. Marisa's stance was wobbly, but a little more steadily this time.

"I know it's hard to believe, Marisa. I didn't want to believe it myself, but.. it doesn't end there. It.. Marisa! Wait!" the witch was at the doorway of the bedroom, not even listening to a thing that Alice was saying.

"There's no way Reimu would kill just to settle a stupid thing like that. Not Reimu." she growled, staggering into Alice's Den. Dolls were flying to and fro, many turning to face Marisa as she stumbled in. Slowly, the feeling of her legs were returning, but at the moment she had a bit of a zombie gait. It would likely be a bit before she managed to properly walk around like she normally did. Alice followed behind her with a look of resignation on her face- she was upset, but not particularly surprised either, so she couldn't particularly bring herself to be too angry at Marisa. The witch looked left and right in the den, her yellow eyes darting along the walls and furniture, "Where's my broom?"

"Where are you going, Marisa? And in pajamas of all things." Alice asked with a bit of weariness. Nevertheless, she pointed to her front door- the trusty wooden broom which Marisa flew upon stood carefully next to it.

"To the shrine. I'm going to see Reimu, just to prove you wrong. This crap isn't funny." she huffed, snatching the broom and opening the door.. Stepping out carefully into the sunlight, still barefoot and pajama-clad. It was warm out, so she could hardly complain, sternly looking up at the sky. Alice continued to follow her, a look of concern on her face as the witch mounted her broom.. Slowly kicking off of the ground, her legs aching in protest with the motion, but soon at east as she began to hover off of the ground a short distance.

"Marisa..." Alice sighed quietly. The witch expected her to stop her, but no such thing came out of the dollmaker's mouth. Instead, it was a quiet warning, "Be careful."

Marisa didn't look back to her as her broom lifted her up above the clearing of the Forest of Magic in which Alice's cottage peacefully sat, and she began to fly over the treetops. She knew she must have seemed ungrateful, but this upset her too much to just take at face value. Alice didn't have a reason to lie to her, of course. Why would she? But Marisa was sure there was more to this story than met the eye. There must have been a misunderstanding.. Or maybe someone framed Reimu. Either way, there was just no way that this could all be possible.