Within an hour, Reimu and Marisa make their way down to the village and proceed through the crowds, walking around somewhat aimlessly while talking about where to go; essentially sightseeing. The clamor of the crowds is nearly unreasonable, making it hard to hear, however. After not being able to understand each other on several occasions, they finally just decide to head into the nearest building. To their surprise, they end up in a florist's shop. Not only that, but it is headed by Yuuka, who can be seen just barely, tending to something in a back room which is also behind the front counter.
Absolutely everything in the shop is made of wood or is flower. Even the roof is completely wooden. The flowers practically coat the walls, ceiling, and floor in their sheer numbers with very little space to move without grazing one. There also "windows" lining the walls copiously, which are just square holes in the walls with restricting beams barely covering them. The variety of the flowers is also quite immense, with it seeming like there isn't a single copy of one pot to be seen. The only copied plant seems to be a type of perennial sunflower that is both on a shelf to the right and on the front counter, which is somewhat sparse of decor.
While the two stand, gawking at the surroundings, Yuuka has come up to the counter. She decides to call out to them, "Hey, I haven't seen either of you in a while."
They both snap back into reality; Reimu responds, "Oh, Yeah. We were just getting away from the crowds."
Yuuka smiles, "They're pretty loud. I have to say, maybe a bit too loud." She has an agitated smile during the last 5 words.
"So, I never realized that you were actually going to follow through with this idea." Reimu comments on the existence of the flower shop.
"Well, I did it." she simply affirms. "What are you here for, really?"
"Marisa's not feeling too well." Reimu very vaguely explains.
"Is that so?" an unfamiliar voice yells from the back, which has become oddly dark.
"Who…?" Reimu and Marisa begin to say at the same time before Yuuka interrupts.
"Oh, I hired that darkness youkai-" the person in the back interrupts her.
"Rumia!" she reminds them all.
"Yes, I hired Rumia to deal with the night-flowering plants. She likes to say that a lot." Yuuka finishes her explanation, uninterrupted.
"Right." Reimu pauses after saying that, then notices Marisa poking around away from them. "Hey, don't go swiping anything." she says out of reflex.
"Can you even steal a flower without breaking it?" Marisa retorts.
"If you try to find out, I'll run you over with a horse-drawn plow!" Yuuka yells out to her in the fakest of happy expressions.
"What are we even doing here?" Reimu asks herself aloud. She goes to take a seat in a chair just in front of the counter that is slanted towards it, then tries to lean back and relax.
Yuuka reaches over and slaps her in the back of the head, then scolds her, "You're squishing some. Quit."
Reimu jumps up and yells, "You've got too much fragile crap all over the place!"
"Heeey, you're gonna make her mad!" Marisa teases.
"You are too!" she yells back.
"You two, just buy something and leave already, if you're going to." Yuuka orders them, then comments, "This is really annoying, you know."
The two groan but comply. They begin to look around again and tend to get mesmerized by the sights, but Reimu quickly finds something interesting. "Hey, Marisa, go outside for a minute." She does, at which point Reimu picks a pot of orange-red lilies up and brings it over without saying anything.
"Tiger lilies?" Yuuka asks rhetorically. She has a look that says, "That's cute." Reimu says nothing, so Yuuka presents the price, which is paid, and Reimu is sent off. Yuuka doesn't wave her off after being annoyed.
She comes out and immediately finds Marisa tinkering with her Hakkero beside the entrance. She hands the pot of about 3 lilies over and arbitrarily adds, "This isn't weird."
Marisa puts her thing away, takes the pot, then stares at it for a good, long time before insisting, "Yes it is." with a mischievous smile.
It's not hard to see her intent, so Reimu ignores the attempt and simply pats her shoulder. "So what do you want to do?"
Marisa is caught off guard and can't give a straight answer, so she gives a half-assed one, "Um...danmaku?"
"No. Absolutely not. Not after the last few months. Completely out of the question." Reimu immediately denies her.
The two sit on it for a few more minutes, then Marisa gets another idea, "Oh, look for Shanghai!"
"What." Reimu misunderstands it to be the place.
"Alice's missing doll."
"Oh. Sure." reimu agrees with no protest whatsoever.
Thus, the two set out on a side-quest to find the doll, simply to ease boredom. It's fairly quickly resolved, however. They only need to wander around idly for about 15 minutes before they find it. Unfortunately, it is in the possession of somebody: a young girl. She is practically alone in the middle of a crowd and holds the Shanghai with both arms crossed, around it.
"STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM!" Marisa screams at the girl as loud as possible.
"Idiot!" Reimu yells at her sudden outburst.
As the two seemingly sprint towards the girl, she stands there looking utterly terrified for what's about to happen. Luckily, Marisa doesn't carelessly tackle her and instead just stops to crouch down. That doesn't stop a crowd of people to fall silent and stare at the witch while she harasses the kid. "Hey, where'd you get that doll!?" she loudly asks, peeking out from behind the flowers and using her broom as leverage.
"I...found it." she very slowly says. Just slowly enough for Reimu to slide right next to Marisa and scold her.
"What is wrong with you?"
"Where?" Marisa ignores her friend and instead continues to question the girl.
"Um..." she begins to answer, but is too scared to.
Suddenly, Reimu backstabs Marisa with a persuasion needle and demands, "Quit. You're scaring the spirits out of her." for a frightening total of 1 damage.
Marisa immediately apologizes and stops talking. Reimu takes up her place and tries to talk to the girl instead, "Hey, that doll you have belongs to somebody."
The girl looks down on it, then looks back up and groans, not seeming to want to hand it over. The two think about the situation for a bit, then Marisa comes up with an idea. "I got it! We can just take the girl to Alice!"
Reimu contemplates just stabbing the girl with a persuasion needle to solve the problem, but promptly remembers that there is a crowd around them that is only now dispersing. She settles on the other idea and asks the girl to let her carry her. She is easily persuaded and climbs into Reimu's grip.
"Good, now meet me just outside of her house." Marisa says before hopping onto her broom and flying off by herself.
"This is practically kidnapping. Why do I let her talk me into these things?" Reimu asks herself before taking off as well.
15 minutes pass before she reaches Alice's house and sees Marisa standing out in the open, waiting. She lands right in front of her, they nod, then walk up to the door and knock. No straight answer, but they get the dooming feeling of being watched. A half minute passes, then the latches on the door finally move with loud, clanking noises. Out Alice walks with a very skeptical glare at all three of them. That is, until she sees the doll. She swipes it from the girl by force and heads back inside, then slams the door shut and locks it.
The kid starts to tear up and whine, which makes Reimu sigh and groan and moan in an utterly defeated and exasperated tone. "Come on, you can't just do that!" she yells at the door, trying to get Alice to come back out. No response and the kid is still sobbing.
Eventually, Marisa joins in as well and starts to bang on the door, yelling and being generally annoying, "Alliiiiiice! Look at what you diiiiiid! You gotta come back oooouuuut!"
This continues for just a little bit too long, in which time Reimu has to deal with two screaming and whining children at once and not go completely insane. At just the right time, however, Alice finally becomes annoyed and busts the door open so hard that it sends Marisa's face right into a wall. She comes out screaming, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM YOU DAMN ASSHOLES!?"
"MY FAAAAAAAAACE(ze)!" Marisa also screams from the measurable pain.
"We already know your face is a problem!" Alice yells back.
Reimu interjects, "Hey, you made the little girl cry. We already had to steal her, so apologize."
Alice calms down a little when she sees the tiny human, so she sighs and pets her. She doesn't say a word, but has an idea. She goes back in and rummages around her house for a bit while Marisa recovers from getting her face slammed into a wall. She comes back out and slams the door open again. Marisa narrowly dodges getting nailed by the door and lies on the ground in a panic. Alice has brought what looks like a newly made bare doll out and hands it to the girl. She stops crying and takes it, then holds it tight and grips Reimu tightly, who says nothing and looks as apathetic as always. Alice nods, then heads back inside, still not saying anything aside from a quiet, "Thanks."
Marisa stands back up with a large bruise on her cheek and nose. It doesn't look broken, but still looks painful.
"It hurrrrrrts..." she complains while holding the area.
"Let's go, we can't just leave the kid here."
"But I don't want tooooo..."
"Then go home and I'll do it."
The two agree and part ways for now. Marisa walks back home by herself, picking up a few mushrooms on the way. She comments, "I kind of wish she'd have gotten me some of these." On the way, she eats one and starts to feel a bit odd. She eats another and begins to feel exponentially better. Thinking they are painkillers, she sidetracks into picking more and more, as they grow copiously in whatever area she's in. Eventually, she's eaten at least 6 and can feel no pain. In fact, she can barely feel herself standing. Unbeknownst to her, she is now literally "high on shrooms". In her addled state, she manages to wander off into the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and get...lost. Despite them being of no help to her right now, she continues to eat the mushrooms even after wandering in. A few hours pass before she's finally back to a normal-ish state. Once she finally snaps out of her daze, she vomits and says, "That was awesome."
Then she realizes where she is and how fucked she currently is. "I can't even see past the roof of the bamboo..." She then wonders what time it is and begins to walk around, now feeling rather tired and full. She goes on for what seems like forever without making any real progress, but then she comes upon a small bamboo hut. Before she can approach, someone comes out: Mokou. Marisa sucks at hiding, so she is almost instantly spotted.
"Hey, you lost?" Mokou calls out to her. Just then, however, she recognizes Marisa and says so, "Wait, I know you from somewhere...weren't you that witch Kaguya sent out to kill me?"
Of course, Marisa can't remember such things. "Umm...no?" she responds.
Mokou shrugs it off, introduces herself, and invites her over, so she follows inside. It's about as basic as you get: two beds, some shelves with supposedly random assortments of decor ranging from books to musical instruments, a low table with a few Zabuton laid out around it, and the rest is presumably outside or non-present. Mokou welcomes her in, but she's already welcomed herself in. Within seconds, she's already face-first into one of the beds and writhing around in it. Mokou is a bit annoyed but only says, "Or just do that."
"Moko-tan, your bed is unreasonably soft!" Marisa coos out to her.
"Don't call me that." she responds in an annoyed manner while standing against a wall.
Marisa sits up and asks while staring at her, "Why not?"
"We barely know each other!" Mokou uptalks.
"Oh, I think we have met before!"
"You finally remember?"
"Yeah, I kicked your ass!"
Mokou then lights her sleeve on fire. Marisa freaks out and begins to roll around on the floor until the flame suffocates, leaving her right arm slightly singed. When she gets up, Mokou is standing above her and looking down upon her.
"Whaaat?" Marisa slurs.
Mokou sighs and asks, "Do you know how late it is?"
"Um..." Marisa struggles to think of how long she was tripping.
"It's about this time that the Youkai become...aggressive. There's some sort of wolf running around too."
"So..." Marisa begins to ask what her point is.
"If you go out, the monsters will beat you."
Marisa doubts this with good reason, "Naaah, I'll beat them." She waves her hand around and giggles.
"Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say. Besides, I'm tired."
"From what?"
Mokou sits at her small table and gives a short explanation, "Had to escort three people, got attacked at least ten times, had to kill Kaguya for a couple hours; the usual."
"Wait, what?"
"Just wait here for a bit." Mokou sets her head on the table and groans from an headache.
"But I'm not tired!" Marisa lies to herself.
Mokou groans and complains quietly, "Come on..."
So does Marisa, but she takes her broom up and leaps out an open window to take a look outside. Still, the sky seems to be almost completely blocked out by the bamboo. It only reveals the faintest light of a sunset with the rest being dark. She becomes frustrated and tries to rocket upwards to get a better view. For some reason, the shutes just seem to get longer and longer the farther up she goes, continuing on for a few minutes despite her best efforts to speed up. Eventually, she gives up, seeing as there is no end to their lengths. She goes straight down and is perplexed that it takes her at most half the time it took her to fly up. This makes her even angrier, so she barges back into the hut and yells, "The hell is up with this forest!?"
"Magic." Mokou blatantly and broadly explains.
"Great." Marisa throws her arms up and casts her broom aside.
"Did you try to fly up?" Mokou asks.
"Yes." This time, Marisa doesn't lie.
"You can't just do that. This is the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Not the Bamboo Forest of the Cheese." Mokou makes a somewhat meta joke.
"Cheese?" Marisa is totally confused by it.
"It's..." Mokou begins to explain the joke as well, but quickly loses interest, "Never mind. Just let me rest."
Marisa puffs her cheeks out and pouts but leaves her alone and just waits outside for a while.
Soon after that, Keine curiously shows up and both are confused to see each other. They stare at each other for a prolonged period but eventually, Marisa speaks up, "Aren't you...?" trying to recall who she is.
"I've seen you before...a few times." Keine vaguely remembers.
They ponder for a moment, but Marisa is the first to guess her name, "Keine...Kam...Kami..."
"Yes?" She encourages her to continue.
"Kamashirosuwa?" Marisa guesses her last name.
"A tea-sipping frog!?" Keine yells at her with rhetoric. She then corrects her, "Kamishirasawa."
"Kama...shiri-sawa?"
"Kamishirasawa."
"Kam-kam...Koakuma!"
Keine slaps her for being an idiot and yells, "That someone else!"
Marisa laughs it off, trying to make it out as a joke, which only marginally succeeds.
"Jeez, why are you here anyways? I thought witches didn't get lost in forests."
"Ah, I did. Mokou showed me here."
"Makes sense. I suppose she's asleep?"
"Yeah." Marisa sighs as she says.
Keine smiles, "Sounds like her." and they both stand there for a short, awkward moment before heading quietly inside. Mokou is curled up on the floor, lying atop two Zabuton and asleep. Keine comments, "She dozed off in her day clothes again."
She takes her hat off and set it on the hut's shelf, then proceeds to pick up Mokou and lay her in the left bed. She starts to gently but quickly strip everything off of her until she's in nothing but her underwear, then casts a quilt over her and stands back up. During that time, Marisa just watches from a distance, out of how strange she finds the sight. She even watches as Keine folds and puts away the outfit. She takes notice of Marisa and figures, "You need somewhere, don't you?"
Marisa assumes she means a bed, so she says, "Yeah." while thinking, "What a nice person." Of course, she also wonders about the more lewd thoughts.
As she ponders, Keine prepares a small setup under the table for her to rest at. It's mostly just an amalgamation of cushioning and a quilt on the floor. "I hope that's fine." she says aloud, which breaks Marisa's pondering long enough for her to nod.
Keine sits down on her bed at the right side of the hut and takes out an odd, metallic canister, then drinks from it. Marisa is immediately attracted to it, so she asks, "Hey, what's that?"
"Oh, a gift." Keine briefly answers.
Marisa sits down in front of her and prods further, "From who?"
"A student." she gives another brief answer.
"Where's it from?" Marisa continues to question with her gaze set on the object.
"I don't think he told me. It must be from Kourindo, though." Keine observes the canister a bit, then comments on its properties, "It looks to be made of steel, but it's a bit stronger than what the humans make."
Marisa is greatly tempted to swipe it, but knows how bad of an idea that would be. To resist, she simply walks to the door and lingers there for a bit. The forest has become visibly darker since Marisa last took a good look as she is now, and she regrets not being physically able to stay up a bit later. When she finally decides to turn back around, Keine has already settled into bed in the bare minimum. Marisa doesn't have her (stolen) nightgown, so she fails to figure out what would be the acceptable thing to do in this situation. Then she remembers that she doesn't care and figuratively rips her clothes off.
She sets the outfit on the table and slides under it, then tries to get to sleep despite the discomfort that a floor with some vague cushioning gives. She ends up lingering awake for the next hour or two, just thinking randomly conjured thoughts. Mostly pondering once again over what has happened so far, over the course of what seems like just a single day. She scares herself accidentally with those thoughts and decides to just try to sleep for now. The night falls rather silently with only the wailing of a wolf to accompany it.