Marisa awoke long before she was able to free herself from the sheets on her bed. They were too soft and warm for her tired mind to fight out of. She spent several hours tossing and turning, jumping in and out of sleep until she could't laze around anymore. So, around noon she crawled out of her bed and looked out the window, sighing.

"I didn't mean to sleep this long," she said. "I'm gonna run out of daylight before I can get anything done!" Marisa pulled her ribbon off the leg of her desk and tied her hair into a braid with it. "I've got a whole lot of nothing important to do, and not a lot of time to do it!" Marisa threw on her hat and stepped out through the door. "Oh, wait!" She cast a quick spell that she had learned to clean her clothes. Her dress was suddenly fresh as a daisy. "There. Much better."

It was a hot day. She could feel the heat already being absorbed into the black fabric of her dress, and her hat was feeling no better. "Ugh, I gotta go before this heat turns me into a tengu's main course..." She trudged off into the forest.

Marisa finally arrived at Alice's house after about an hour. She would have gotten there faster, but a certain drunken oni had rather forcefully challenged Marisa to a fight. It had taken Marisa a whole 20 minutes of frantically dodging Danmaku to decide it was better to turn tail and run. Suika didn't seem happy about it though. "Get back here, you little coward!" Marisa vaguely remembered hearing Suika yell that as she rocketed into the trees on her broom.

She knocked the door of Alice's house, then opened the door forcefully. Alice was standing inside, having one of her dolls spoon tea into her mouth while another held a tengu's newspaper in front of her. Alice jumped when the door slammed, causing the doll to nearly spill her tea.

"Marisa!? I could have just opened the door! Why did you knock if you were just going to barge in!?"

"I have manners, Alice. They always say to knock first." That retort made all of Alice's dolls turn their heads toward Marisa and glare. It was creepy considering they were all moving in unison.

"Don't screw with me today, Marisa. That ice fairy attacked me while I was at the lake today. She caught me by surprise and managed to freeze my dolls. It took me all morning to thaw them out again." Sure enough, when Marisa looked a little closer she noticed some fading drops of water on Alice's dress.

"Maybe when I tell you I was ambushed by a warmongering oni it'll put your mundane problems in perspective," Marisa responded.

Alice sighed. "Because getting ice fragments out of my dolls' faces is totally mundane. And that's not even the worst part! Cirno was trying to stab them through the chest with icicles so she could freeze the icicles!"

Marisa paused. "Whoa, that is weird... Then again, she is a fairy."

"Just my luck, right?"

Alice finished her tea and stood up. She looked over to Marisa, then stopped for some reason. She was looking at Marisa weirdly, her eyes narrowed, but she was looking at Marisa's dress. "Wow, you weren't kidding about the oni, were you?"

Marisa looked down. She hadn't noticed before, but there was a bit of a tear at the bottom of her skirt. "Huh, I didn't even realize that was there."

"Well, no one ever called you perceptive."

"Haha. You're a regular comedian."

"I thought 'ordinary' was your thing, Marisa." Alice smirked, obviously pleased with herself and her wit. "So, was it Yuugi or Suika?"

Marisa sat down. "Suika. I think she was bored or somethin'. She was calling me a little coward human the whole time, when she wasn't guzzling sake."

Alice chuckled. "That girl needs to calm down sometimes. You know, I wonder what would happen if we stopped her from drinking. What would she be like?"

Marisa chuckled too, though her laugh was more derisive. "No girl with that much alcohol is going to react well."

"You're probably right." Alice sat down next to Marisa. "So, what brings you here? Trying to steal some of my books?"

"Well, I could if I wanted to." Alice glared at Marisa. "Fine, I won't. Today." Alice held her glare. "Jeez, you're chipped today." Marisa stood. "I came to ask for a battle. I wanna get some more fighting in."

Alice's face softened. "Well, beating you up might help improve my mood. It'd definitely get my mind off of the Great Frozen Doll Incident."

Marisa smiled. "That's what I like to hear!"

Alice snickered. "I'll take you up on it. Just don't expect me to be sorry if I win."

"You act like I thought you would. We all know you just love losing."

"Touché. Well, what are we waiting for? Let's head to your house."

Marisa paused a moment. "Wait, my house?"

"I'd feel happier if I knew my house was safe from out little fight."

Marisa sighed. She didn't have time to argue. "Fine, be selfish today. I hope you have fun," she said, the sarcasm painfully evident.

"Return Inanimateness!" Marisa dodged quickly out of the way as one of Alice's dolls came sailing towards her and exploded in a pillar of blue energy. I think that doll winked at me, she thought.

"You're gonna have to do way better than that to get me, Alice! Stardust Reverie!" Marisa charged at Alice, spinning like a drill, as Alice was trying to sort out her dolls. Naturally, the distracted girl was easy prey, and Marisa slammed into her quite powerfully, sending her flying into the wall of Marisa's house.

"HA!" Marisa laughed, a bit cockily. "I'm glad we came to my house now. It would have been shameful for you to lose on your own property!"

Alice pushed herself up with her hands. "I give, I give, ok? Can you at least spare me the arrogant insults until I've actually given up?"

Marisa cocked her head in a mocking state of thought. A second later, she snapped back to Alice and said "Not today," she said with a smirk.

The doll maker sighed, exasperated. "Sometimes I hate you..." Alice stood up quickly "Well, it feels better to move my body around after getting hurt."

Marisa gave Alice an accusatory look. "You're up already? Were you going easy on me again?"

As Marisa thought she would, Alice smiled arrogantly. "Always, Marisa, dear."

"UGH, when are ya gonna use your full power against me!? You and Reimu both do it, it's annoying! Just fight me for real!"

Alice just kept smiling. "Not today."

"I see what you're doing, you're quoting me back to me by going 'not today,' but just you wait, someday I'll fight you for real, and when that day comes I'm gonna Spark you so many times..."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Can we just go back to my house and have tea or something? The trash talk is getting stale." Alice dusted off her dress as she spoke, the blue skirt flowing out around her, being tossed this way and that by the breeze.

Marisa gasped. "Oh, right! Reimu said she got more tea lately! Wanna head over to the shrine and drink some with her?" Alice's eyes narrowed a bit and she looked somewhere to the right, considering the offer. "Come on, Alice, you know how much tea that girl drinks! We'd be doing her a favor."

"Eh... she does drink it a lot..." Alice looked back at Marisa, more focusedly, and Marisa knew the girl was sold. "Let's go save that tea from the lips of the shrine maiden!"

The two magicians looked in the direction of the shrine. "YEAH! Tea party!" Marisa threw her fist in the air. They started walking into the trees, but just as soon as they reached the trees, Alice bumped into something.

"Wah!" She exclaimed.

Marisa leaned to one side and looked around Alice, seeing that Alice had bumped into a young girl. A fairy. Lily White, clad in white and red, like always.

"Wh-... Lily!?" Marisa exclaimed. "But, what are you doing out of spring!"

Lily sat on the floor rubbing her head. "Owie... Oh, hi there!" Lily stood up, smiling, though it was more of a grimace, as her face was showing that the bonk to the head was clearly rather painful. "You act like I don't exist outside of spring's coming..."

Alice was rubbing her head too. Lily must have been flying when they collided. Marisa responded first. "I didn't think you did. Where do you even go in the other seasons?"

Lily made a confused look, as if this was the first time someone had asked her that. "Well, uh... nowhere in particular, really. Anywhere out of the way..."

Alice removed her hand from her head. "Well, I definitely wasn't expecting to see you today of all days."

Lily giggled. "Same to you!"

Then, another fairy emerged from the bushes, this one with green hair, some of it tied into a ponytail on the side of her head. Marisa vaguely remembered the girl. "Lily, come on, everyone's waiting for us!"

Lily jumped. "Ah! S-sorry! I'm coming!" Lily looked back at the two magicians frantically and yelled a quick "Sorry!" before speeding back into the forest after her friend.

Marisa and Alice stood there for a minute, dumbfounded. "Huh," Marisa finally stated. "That was something."

"Yeah." Alice responded. "Let's just go before that happens again or something."

"What, you think you'll run into a fairy twice?"

"Ugh, can't I say one thing to you without getting a snappy remark in return? I'm not Patchouli!"

The two girls walked for about another ten minutes in relative silence, aside from little quips every now and then.

"Was the way there this long before?" Alice asked.

"Yes," Marisa responded. "We haven't been walking long..."

"We haven't? Huh, I thought we had." Alice shrugged. "I'm just tired today... Maybe it's affecting my perception of time."

Suddenly, Alice fell forward, without any form of grace whatsoever. Marisa stopped in her tracks, then burst into laughter. "Did you trip, for real? HAHAHAHA!" Marisa kept laughing for about five seconds. Then she realized Alice wasn't getting up.

"Alice, are you ok?" She leaned over the girl, inspecting her. Alice started moving then, but she looked like she was waking up from a long sleep.

"Ugh... did I trip? All of a sudden my head started hurting a lot..."

Marisa kneeled down. Alice did look a bit pale, but she had been fine just a minute ago.

"You sure you're ok? What if you're sick?"

Alice started to stand up again. "No, I think I'm fine. I'm already starting to feel better. But what was that?"

Marisa shook her head. "I dunno. Let's just get to the shrine. Maybe some tea'll help."

"Yeah, maybe."

Marisa couldn't help but notice that Alice seemed a bit troubled. Then again, Marisa would too if she suddenly passed out a bit. It wasn't like it happened a lot. "Maybe we should fly. We could get there faster."

"Eh, let's keep walking. What's the rush?"

"Well... I guess you're right. Come on, let's go."

Marisa started bouncing her way toward the Hakurei Shrine, with Alice close behind. Marisa didn't know, though, that Alice was troubled still. Marisa didn't notice that the presence Alice had been feeling the night before had suddenly intensified when she fell over, then vanished when she woke up. She didn't know that Alice was scared.

She would know soon. And then, she would be scared too.