Marisa's front door buckled from a barrage of knocking; to make things only worse, its opposing face stood as reward for the chosen one who can successfully traverse her collection of knickknacks and miscellany wantonly splayed about the floors, as if they are the results from the razing of an unused factory. Marisa woke up from the knocks in a foggy malaise, due to her downing of all manners of energy drinks; as she had been helping Nitori beat a particularly trying video game boss, the needed effort (not to mention all their yelling and arguing during the boss fight itself) sapped from them so much energy that the crash from the drinks had sent them to an obligated rest. After spending far too much time awakening to then spend far too much time navigating her obstacle course to the door, she, at long last, opened it to reveal the three adventurers; as she was not expecting visitors, especially Meiling and the Scarlets, she was understandably perplexed. "…may I help you?"
"Yes, Marisa," Meiling spoke to her similarly to one playing the lead role in an action film, "You can most certainly help us! Where is your friend that has all the gizmos and stuff with her?"
"…'gizmos and stuff'...Nitori? She's here, actually; you need her for something?"
"Why yes! We are going to retrieve Flandre's clarinet from the school!"
"Hmm, breaking into a school at night…what do you need a clarinet for?"
"You are certainly very inquisitive! Flandre has to study for a music quiz tomorrow, and she would like us to get it back."
"Is Remilia on board with this? Doesn't seem like something she'd like to take part in."
Remilia, although there with them, was trying to be as absent from the situation as possible; behind Meiling, she could only muster a sibilant "…I don't want to talk about it."
"Well, when you gotta get your clarinet back, right? I'm guessing you need her tech to get it and escape without a trace, yes?"
"Exactly!"
"Okay, I'll get her; be right back."
Given the aforementioned collection of knickknacks and miscellany, the three had to remain by her open door for a fair length of time; had it not been for the rug on the entryway section of the floor, the junk behind this door would have slammed it closed with no issues whatsoever. Within the forest surrounding Marisa's house, Gensokyo's sun for the day was nearing its final stage, beckoning the insects and frogs below to prepare their music for the humid night to arrive, and the mild wind that ebbed and flowed about served to make the wait even more awkward, other than its more expected duty of rustling the flora into the air.
After the span, Nitori approached them, in a stumbling manner resulting from the lack of footpaths, before falling out from the threshold. "I…understand that I can avail you all of my services, yes?"
"You most certainly can!" Meiling responded.
"I do believe that I can help you...but what's in it for me?"
As they were unable to answer Nitori for a while, nothing happened for another graceless length, ending when Remilia decided to upstage them. "…what do you want?"
"I want Marisa to come with us."
"Why?"
"Because it'll be dark and scary and I need her to protect me."
"…why?"
"I must admit, I've never fully gotten over my fear of the supernatural; ghosts, especially."
"But, Nitori…you're a kappa."
"And?"
"Kappas are supernatural beings."
"…well, duh; of course I'm not afraid of kappas, seeing as I am one. You are a vampire, so this is like saying you're afraid of vampires. Are you afraid of vampires because you are one?"
"…no?"
"Well, I'm not a ghost; ghosts are freaky scary and you can see through them. I don't want to mess around with ghosts."
"…how does Marisa factor in with this…fear of yours?"
"Are you joking? Look at her; ghosts aren't going to mess with Marisa. She'll protect us in this adventure of ours. Well, me; I don't know about the rest of you."
Marisa immediately could be seen standing with the maximum amount of pride possible; could it be that the two rehearsed as if they were certain that this exchange would actually happen?
Remilia, however, was nonplussed. "Okay…I'm done with this. Meiling."
"Yes?"
"You're the lead, I guess, in this stupid adventure of ours; what do you think of Marisa tagging along?"
"Well…I do need to give it some thought."
"…are you…serious?"
"This is going to be a clandestine operation, after all; we should only take with us who we need."
Remilia, despite being among others, felt absolutely solitary from the dearth of reason. "You are really not just going to say 'Yes', are you?"
"Dear Ms. Scarlet, you must think of the mission that lies before us! Marisa could be to us an asset, but she might just as easily be a hindrance, no?" It was obvious that she was channeling more of her queue of action movies than of reality.
Marisa's reply was, strangely, in tune. "She's right, you know." As Marisa went on, Remilia hid her face with her palms in disbelief. "Who the hell knows what'll happen? I might fall down the stairs or something; it'll be dark, obviously, so I need to watch for those pesky elevation changes, right? And you know I'm not exactly on the quiet side, what with my resplendent voice and all."
After hearing this, Meiling had made her decision. "Marisa, I have taken it upon myself to assent in regards to your request to participate in this endeavor; you may assist."
What did Marisa say as a response? "Oh. Cool."
Remilia had a response of her own. "How about this: I think that Alice's house is around here somewhere; I can just hang out with her, a more…normal person, until you all finally agree on what to do. Sounds good? Great." And with that, she began to depart.
"Remi! Wait! Don't go!"
Remilia decided to listen while her sister continued.
"We need you to be with us!"
"Flandre, this whole thing is a bit too much for me, I hate to say."
"But…I need you to be with me…"
"…you all really need me to get the clarinet back?"
"Yes!" and similar responses came from the group.
Nitori walked away from them with a request to speak to Remilia privately; as they agreed, the two placed themselves just outside of what an earshot can retain, and she continued with the older Scarlet. "Remilia…believe it or not, I've been in these sorts of search parties before."
"…really?"
"Yep, and in my experience, the party always separates itself into roles."
"…like what?"
"Well, let's start with me: I'm the brains; I have the technology and the experience to make this operation even possible to begin with. I've got a laptop, for starters, to hack into any security systems that might be present. And night vision goggles to, you know, see in the dark, among other such tools of my possession. Meiling and Marisa are the brawn; while I doubt their use for actual enemy encounters, seeing as how we'll be in a hopefully empty building, they are the muscle just in case we need it. Do you know your role?"
"…what is it?"
"You are the level-headed one. Think about it: tell me how many stupid experiences you've had from those two."
"…far too many…"
"Exactly. They…are not too smart; but, you must concede that their eagerness is what makes adventure happen, doesn't it? You, the calm stoic of our party, serve to reel them in."
"…"
"If you don't come along with us, we won't have the cautionary, logical answers to any situations that'll inadvertently come up, and they won't be able to make snap decisions, because that's not their role. Dare I say, you might be our most important member, perhaps?"
"…I don't know what to say."
"Your nature does possess a flaw, unfortunately: from the beginning, I can only assume that you were thinking about what might go wrong. Is that correct?"
"…it is."
"That is from how you think; you would rather not do this on account of the immense risk involved…especially for something as trifling in the grand scheme of things as a woodwind instrument."
"…yes."
"Well, those two blockheads could really use some of your reserve to make the mission a success, don't you think? Their hearts are set on getting that clarinet back, because they're only thinking about making your sister happy, not what might go wrong. We need an equilibrium. You serve to balance them out."
"…"
"What do you say?"
From the conversation, the other members stood without a word as Remilia walked up to them. Nitori followed her, certainly, but at a fair separation to ensure that Remilia spoke for herself; nevertheless, her smile was as obvious as the evening sun behind the treetops of the forest, as though she knew for certain what Remilia would say.
"All right; let's do it."
