Preparations
Alice knew.
The love/hate relationship with her eldest daughter was nothing new. Of late, it seemed to be directed towards the world at large. Medicine had even, miraculously, addressed Alice spontaneously. Of course, it was to call Alice a coward, a weakling, and an idiot. Alice knew Medicine had a point, so she responded gently, which of course didn't soothe her at all.
Medicine hadn't been alive all that long, and it would take time for her to come to terms with what it meant to have an indeterminately long life-span. Since Alice was a doll, a human and a youkai all at once, and the daughter of a goddess, and perhaps verging on being a goddess herself, if a minor one, she could probably keep age at bay as long as she had the magic and the will to do so. Medicine couldn't understand giving a rival with a Mayfly existence a share in your own Mayfly love. She couldn't understand chivalry. With or without Reimu, Marisa's existence would fly by like a brief greeting at one of Remilia's parties. And Alice would be left in sadness and isolation.
And now, as Alice looked up at a commotion, Medicine grabbed her broom with an angry and determined look, shoved open the door to Alice's cottage, and slammed it behind her. But not, actually, before giving Alice a very meaningful glare. Alice knew it was that, but she wasn't as in tune with Medicine as she was with Hourai and Shanghai, so she didn't know quite what the significance was.
She didn't see or hear a trace of Medicine for over a week.
This hill, where everything started, was Medicine's strength. She could still feel them there - the traces, the ghosts, the wraiths of a century of abandoned children. Many of them, to the degree they recalled feelings, looked up to Medicine Melancholy as almost a parent - such as she was. She wrapped herself in them. In their essence. Their sorrow. She felt her strength increasing rapidly, but she elected to stay still and calm her mind - sheer power wouldn't be enough for her plan; she needed concentration just as much. And after a week of perfect stillness, she had it.
Alice kept her magic studies up, quietly, with no one around but her daughters and the non-alive dolls to witness her efforts. This week, she'd felt urgently compelled to make an extra effort.
Patchouli's purple magic of science she found very cleansing, so that's how she started her week. She'd had an uneasy feeling about Medicine when she left in a fury, and it didn't go away. Contrariwise, she always felt a bit soiled by the Red magic of unmaking. Still, it was among the most powerful, and invaluable when confronted with illusions. She would practice that in the middle of the week, letting the other colors bleed off the feeling. She usually studied the black magic she'd learned from Marisa in the middle of the week, too, for the same reason. And, of course, after studying red, blue, purple, yellow, green and black magic, she always finished up with the white magic of love, compassion, healting and sacrifice. She'd studied the blue magic of music, dancing and her own broomless flight. In her garden she'd used black magic to clear out any weeds or pests, then extended herself practicing her green magic. She turned to the yellow magic of Divination (she'd seized some of Cointreauy's affinity when they battled). If Alice had a weakness, that was it. But she almost felt like she sensed an incident coming, so she guessed she'd at least get a hint of what was going on - especially with Medicine. Shockingly, when she used tea leaves, a crystal ball, her Taroc, the images that came to her were of Reimu and Marisa tumbling in each other's arms, at Reimu's quarters and Marisa's cottage alike. Alice was angry at her lack of self-control, at first. Then she realized what she was really seeing. Reimu and Marisa were part of the Incident - and so was Medicine.
What Alice did next only a youkai magician could have done - and only a one-time human would have done. She took out three images she'd made. One was of Marisa's face the first time she and Alice had joined in Alice's bed. Alice was so focused now, she didn't feel a tear in her eye contemplating Marisa's beauty and joy, no longer only for her. The second had come with more difficulty. One of the Incidents had seen everyone but Alice failing, and the seven-colored magician had had no choice but to expend herself many times more than was normal, and save the day. In the face of that, Medicine Melancholy had produced the first, and perhaps only, smile of her existence. Looking at it now, Alice thought she truly looked like a child, and her daughter, in it. Despite Medicine's rancor, Alice loved her wayward and neglected eldest, and she let herself fill with that feeling. The final image she'd enchanted onto a scroll the first time she and Reimu had made their peace and had tea at Reimu's shrine. Alice had tossed a blessed coin in the box. As long as Reimu didn't spend it, the coin would arrange that somehow she and the shrine would get by. Alice put a small charm on it to make any human reluctant to part with the coin, which she'd brought from Makai and enchanted to seal the peace between her, a youkai, and the shrine maidens. Reimu's calm and polite face looked out at Alice, and she remembered her commitment to peace with this young, short-lived, but spirited girl. Alice could admire her courage even if she was unhappy about her choices.
Alice placed the three scrolls on her table, and took out one of her biggest needles - the one she used to sew a Goliath doll, among other purposes. Hourai and shanghai pushed two chairs next to Alice, and each clung to one arm. They summoned the other dolls that were inside the cottage to place themselves behind their mother. Bowing over the images, Alice bared her breast, and stabbed the needle into her heart. Not deeply, no, for that would not do, but enough so that some of her heart's blood spilled out over the three images. As she did so, she cast a White healing spell on her heart, partly powered by the ceremony itself. Nonetheless, she slumped over the images. Hourai, Shanghai and the dolls lowered Alice to the floor, and they left her where she lay. As she'd slumped into the table, Alice had felt her spell, intertwined with her personal Fate, catch hold. The purity of her intent hadn't faltered, and her sacrifice was accepted. The three girls involved in the Incident were as protected as Alice could do from afar. It wasn't enough, and when Alice healed enough, she'd set out to find them.
Medicine Melancholy thought the mere execution would be a matter of minutes. Of course, her weakling mother would never thank her - quite the contrary. She decided she'd flee to Makai afterward, and meet her grandmother. Surely, a goddess would realize ordinary mortals were a trifle as a rival to whatever Alice was - doll, youkai, human, goddess, the fact remained that she was unique, high status, and secretly very powerful. Hitting Reimu while Marisa was with her was out of the question. First of all, Medicine's powers were the opposite of discriminating, and even if she could avoid Marisa, the black-and-white would rush to Reimu's defense and no doubt be injured or killed in the process.