Chapter 2

Marisa

At first when Marisa awoke everything seemed normal. The sun was rising, birds were singing, and her house was a mess. Today was going to be a good day!

The first inkling that something was odd came when she stepped outside. While her house and everything in it had been the same as ever, the clearing around her house was larger than she had remembered, and while the birds were singing as they always did in the early morning, there appeared to be less of them than yesterday. She shrugged, pulled out her broom, and shot into the sky. Today was going to be a good day, but first she had an appointment with Alice.

Marisa soared leisurely over the Forest of Magic whistling to herself. A few days ago one of her outfits had been torn during a battle and Alice was the best seamstress she knew. They were friends, perhaps not particularly close, but then again Alice wasn't really close to anyone or anything other than her dolls, and she owed Alice her weekly visit. If she was lucky, Alice would let her have breakfast. If not, then she could go eat at Reimu's place. No matter how much the shrine maiden complained about it, she never turned Marisa down.

Marisa slowed down, a frown on her face. Something felt off about the forest this morning. The miasma that was generated by the magical plants wasn't as thick as normal and she could actually see the forest floor in places. But, no matter, Gensokyo was a strange place on the best of days. It would probably be back to normal later.

She found the clearing around Alice's western-style two story house moments later and descended. Like the clearing around her own house, it too seemed larger than normal. Perhaps Alice had finally listened to her suggestion and decided to start expanding her house.

Landing, she hopped off her broom while it was still moving and rolled to bleed off momentum ending in a perfect pose. Damn she was cool! If anyone had been there to see it they would have applauded her talent. She sauntered up to the door and knocked. No answer.

"Yoo-hoo, Alice! Are you in? It's me Marisa!"

No answer.

She knocked again, harder this time. "Hey, Alice, I know it's early but you don't have to ignore me."

Still no answer.

"Maybe she's out, I didn't see any of her dolls after all," she said to herself. "Oh well, you snooze you lose!" And she opened the door and entered the house.

Looking around Marisa saw a number of dolls strewn about, but none of them were moving. Maybe Alice had gone out but left most behind, and not kept them active…? This, this was unusual. Oh well. If Alice wasn't around then she could grab one of her books and be on her way. That way Alice would know that she had been by and come seek her out. She'd barter returning the book in exchange for fixing her dress, and all would be good!

Marisa left after some thorough rummaging, book in hand, or rather grimoire in hand if she had guessed correctly. It had been hidden within Alice's bed, inside the mattress (there's no way that was comfortable!) and was covered in all types of seals that appeared to be failing for some reason. Alice had better fix those up when she came for it! Oh well, where to next? Rinnosuke's perhaps? She hadn't been there for a while but maybe he'd found something interesting, and maybe she could also swipe breakfast off of him; her stomach was beginning to grumble. Reimu wouldn't be awake this early and was always a serious grump if Marisa woke her, so no point in heading to the Hakurei shrine yet.

Soon she was soaring over a rather more mundane forest heading towards his shop. It too seemed a little thinner than she had remembered, but it had been a few weeks since she came by this way so maybe the Human Village had stepped up its logging. The weather had certainly been nice enough for it.

Landing lightly before his store she barged in without a care. "Yo, Rinnosuke, whatcha got for me today?" There was no answer. How odd. Then again it was barely an hour after sunrise and it was summer, maybe he was still asleep? She pushed passed the piled mounds of random junk from the Outside World into the back of the store. It was empty and his bed was made.

"Huh, I never took you for an early riser," she said to herself. Well, he wasn't there to stop her so she might as well grab something and go. Pity about breakfast though, but she still had options. Leaving the store with her prize (some object that looked interesting, it was blocky and shiny and covered in buttons) she took off once more. Maybe the Scarlet Devil Mansion would prove more fruitful? Her last trip to the mansion had been a week ago so she owed Patchouli a visit, besides the breakfasts there were the best! Or they were, when she was able to sneak past Sakuya to get to them. Stingy maid!

The miles passed quickly beneath her broom as she cut through the air. It was a bit odd that she hadn't seen anyone else yet, it was still early but the sun was above the trees by now so they should be up (and Remilia should be asleep). Soon she came upon the Misty Lake, its vast sparkling expanse shrouded with mists daring intrepid explorers to plunge its depths. She sighed in contentment; the lake in the morning was always a sight worth seeing. The petite vampire had chosen her home well, even if she could not properly appreciate the view being a vampire and all.

Marisa sped across the lake skimming the top of the fog leaving eddies in her wake. Laughing she gripped her broom with both hands and flipped upside-down for a time, before rocketing into several loop-de-loops and corkscrew turns. Ah, such fun, such freedom! Really, being a witch was the best thing ever.

She slowed to a stop over the center of the lake, laughter done. Where were the fairies? Normally there were dozens of them playing around the lake and she'd have been forced to play with (by racing or battling) several by this point. Not even that ice fairy Cirno who lived nearby was anywhere to be seen. How odd. Marisa continued forward more attentive than before, there were warning bells tolling in her mind, but with the ease of long practice she ignored them.

Soon she came upon the mansions' main gate, Meiling was nowhere in sight. 'Lucky!' she thought as she sped over it, then immediately took back her thoughts as she saw the garden. It was a mess. The normally immaculate gardens with their roses and hedges and flowers and vines (particularly grape vines, the mansion's inhabitants were fond of wine but they had to make it themselves) looked like a drunken oni had been through. Large patches of the gardens were simply missing, as if the hand of God had reached down from heaven and deleted them. No wonder Meiling wasn't anywhere in sight when she had to deal with this mess. Marisa only hoped that Yuuka never found out about this travesty, because if she did then someone would die slowly and painfully. She shuddered at the thought of Yuuka, she had once been lectured about the amount of collateral damage she tended to cause and to please stop doing so. The flower Yokai had been extremely polite and well-spoken, but Marisa knew what lay behind her façade having seen it briefly in her youth, and had always been very careful about where she fired her Master Sparks afterwards. Her eyes glazed over as she thought about the beautiful and cruel master of the Garden of the Sun and their few encounters. That woman terrified her.

'No, no reminiscing!' Marisa thought as she slapped herself back into the present, Yuuka wasn't there, she was on the other side of Gensokyo and she had a job to do- a breakfast to steal! She made a b-line for the mansion before stopping herself, out of habit she was heading for one of the library's windows, but if she wanted breakfast the fastest way was through the front door. The front door that was laying broken on the ground. What?!

The fact that the door was broken wasn't particularly surprising, she'd done so herself multiple times. However the door not only appeared to have been broken from the inside, but looked like it had been twisted into a knot. 'Had Flandre gotten out?' Marisa thought as a bolt of dread went down her spine. She certainly hoped not! While the little sister had gotten better since they had first met several years ago, she still scared the living daylights out of her! Fortunately, it was day and the sun was up. If Flan had escaped, then she had to be holed up in dark place somewhere- maybe a cave or a hollow tree or something.

Having been saved by logic, she cautiously made her way into the building. No one was in sight, good. If she was detected then Sakuya would be on her in seconds and she'd have to fight for her breakfast, she didn't want that, so she snuck in with all the stealth she had available to her, like a ninja! Quietly, quietly, quietl… she froze. While focusing on stealth Marisa hadn't been paying attention to her feet and had kicked something. Still no Sakuya. She was safe. But what was that thing? A stone? She picked it up and examined it. No, not a stone. A stone cherry. A crystalized soul. What was that miniature vampire up to now?

Pocketing the stone she continued to the kitchen. It was empty. Some light was coming in through the windows, but there were no lights on. No fairy workers. No Sakuya. No stoves were lit. No food was prepared. How was she supposed to steal her breakfast if there was no breakfast to steal? Maybe they had all spontaneously decided to go out for breakfast? Yeah, she hoped that's what the case was. Well even if they went out, Patchouli should still be around. She could probably barter one of the tomes she had taken previously in exchange for breakfast. The bookworm would be happy to have it back.

Marisa continued on her way to the library, the corridors and passages stubbornly remaining empty. This… this was really starting to unnerve her. The fact that there were a large number of stone cherries around did nothing to soothe her worries. Soon she had navigated to the library, she had only gotten lost once… er twice on her way, a new record! The library was empty. Lamps upon the walls were filled with flickering flames that only just gave off enough light to read and large shadows cast by massive bookshelves covered the floor.

"Eep!" A lamp sputtered and died as she passed it plunging her aisle into darkness. "Ok Patchouli, this isn't funny!" Marisa called, there was no response. She quickly made her way back to Patchouli's corner, shivering at the imagined (she so dearly hoped they were imagined!) eyes in the shadows. The desk was empty, books and notes strewn about upon it. A sheet of paper sat in the middle, pen fallen on it and ink spattered all about. It was written in Latin, a language commonly used in magical studies. It seemed that Patchouli was researching the creation of new metals using magic, but the last line froze the blood in her veins once she managed to make it out past the ink stains:

"Something's happened, magic has gone crazy. I don't feel so good, I can feel myself fading. Help me Re…"

The sense of unease that had been percolating at the back of her mind all morning suddenly jumped to the forefront and she was no longer able to ignore it. The bookshelves closed in around her and her breath grew short. Something was utterly wrong, she had to get out, she had to leave, she had to go now! A window smashed as Marisa fled the library, tears in her eyes. Something terrible must have happened to Patchouli. It was clear that this was an incident of some sort, Reimu would know what to do, she always did. 'And maybe,' Marisa thought as her stomach growled, 'maybe Reimu will have breakfast ready and I can eat with her, surely she would be awake by now!' Reassuring herself, she forced a grin on her face, it did not reach her eyes.

As she approached the shrine Marisa started to notice little details, small things that were wrong. Things like the fact that the cherry tree at the base of the steps leading to the shrine was missing, or that there were just less trees than normal around the shrine- it was set back in a wooded area and the forest barely looked like one anymore. Or most worrying of all: that she didn't hear any birds. Sure there tended to be less around here for some reason, maybe it was due to the energies that surrounded the shrine or its proximity to the barrier, but right now all she heard was the wind in the trees. It was far too quiet.

Clearly Reimu wasn't up yet as the path leading to the shrine was strewn with leaves due to the wind. Oh well, she'd just have to go wake her up, grumpiness be damned, and have her make breakfast for the two of them… her shoji doors were open. Marisa rushed inside and looked around frantically, where was Reimu?

There was a faint sound coming from farther in the shrine. Carefully, Marisa headed back into it. On the floor next to the door that led into Reimu's bedroom she found the last person she had expected: Remilia Scarlet. The small vampire was curled up in a ball rocking gently back and forth.

"Hey, Remilia, hey!" Marisa shouted after getting over her shock. She ran over and started shaking her shoulder. "Get ahold of yourself!"

"Gone, gone, all gone, all alone, all gone…" Was the muffled response.

"HEY! REMELIA!" She yelled, shaking her harder. The ball of vampire tensed up for a moment, before her head came out. Watery red eyes met brown, and then their owner launched herself at Marisa knocking her to the ground. Surprisingly strong arms wrapped around her waist and she suddenly found herself pinned to the floor by a crying vampire. While she may not have known exactly what brought this on, after seeing the mansion and reading the message she had an idea. It wasn't pretty. She brought her arms up and put them around the trembling girl, rubbing her back lightly.

"Don't worry," she said, "when Reimu gets back she'll take care of the problem."

The watery red eyes reappeared. "Reimu's gone too," she said between the sobs.

"What?" Marisa felt like she had been punched in the gut. "What do you mean 'gone'?"

"I got here at the break of dawn, the mansion was completely empty so I thought 'Reimu will know how to fix this', but she wasn't here. She was never here, her bed's still made. Reimu's gone too." Remilia had calmed slightly and was easier to understand, but her grip hadn't slackened.

"What?" Marisa repeated. The ceiling was spinning and the floor was wet. It felt like the ground had dropped out from under her and she was in freefall with no bottom in sight. She brought a trembling hand to her cheek, and it was wet too. "Gone?"

"Gone."

The girls clung to each other there on the floor and their sorrows poured forth. The sun was high in the sky by the time they were able to stand once more.

"We need to learn what happened," she said to the Ordinary Magician, her eyes a burning crimson. "We need to find out who, or what, caused this and if it can be undone. If it can't, then someone needs to suffer."

Eyes hard and fierce, Marisa looked back at the shorter girl and nodded resolutely. Some semblance of order had returned to her mind. "I'll start at the Human village. We need to know if this affected everyone or if specific people were targeted and we need to know what form our friends being gone has taken. Were they kidnapped? Were they killed? Were they taken across the Sanzu River? Can we get them back? I'll return by nightfall at the latest." She sounded more hopeful than she actually was, Patchouli's note sat heavy in the back of her mind.

She strode out of the shrine, closed the shoji doors behind her, and took off following the path towards the human village. Marisa was about halfway there when she noticed something strange. A girl with a green and yellow dress was practically collapsed in the middle of the road. There was something strangely familiar about her. Red-rimmed green eyes looked up to meet hers, cheeks stained by dust and tears.

"You're… Satori's sister aren't you?" Marisa asked, her memory slow. She knew this girl, had met her several times and even considered her something of a friend during a recent incident. Why had she forgotten?

"You forgot because you could not remember. No one could remember except my sister, not with my Eye closed," the girl responded softly.

Marisa looked at her, startled. This girl, Koishi, was different. A pair of bright green eyes and a violet eye looked back. Koishi's Third Eye was open.

Author's Note:

If you are wondering what happened to the fairies, go read Touhou Sangetsusei ~ Visionary Fairies in Shrine chapter 13.

If you want to know why Koishi is the next character to appear, go watch Brambly Boundaries by MinusT on YouTube- it's pretty awesome (3D animation of Touhou 11 extra stage).