Chapter 3: The Gap Youkai, Subject Changing, and Magic Dogfights
AN: If having Marisa say ze at the end of practically every second sentence bothers you, sorry. Also a warning: shenanigans galore. AND I don't own the song in this chapter. Sorry guys. Oh, another thing. This is the beginning of a story I have no idea where it's gonna go. Fair warning. It's going to be random, action-filled, and everything in between. Last one, I promise, I own nothing. Touhou belongs to ZUN.
Hoshirou woke up that morning, slightly drowsy but otherwise fine. It took a few seconds to process that Marisa was inches away from her face. When it clicked, however...
"W-wagh!? Marisa!?" Came a stutter from the wolf, eyes wide and light turquoise from shock as Marisa laughed and pulled the slightly taller youkai from the couch.
"Hahahaha, good morning, sleepyhead. I hope you're prepared today, New people to meet, things to try out, n' places to go, ze. Courtesy of yours truly as a token of our newborn friendship." Said the magician, walking over to the kitchen. "We'll head out after we finish eating, ze. How are your injuries, by the way?" She asked, tending to the heating leftovers from the previous night.
"They're fine, I don't feel anything at all. Actually, I have a question. You said Alice was a puppeteer, correct? Why are we heading for her place if we are there for new clothing?" Asked the youkai, who was quickly corrected by the human.
"She makes her own dolls. And fills the combat-oriented ones with gunpowder, but I digress, ze. She makes really good clothing, too. That's why." Marisa answered.
"I see. So she uses them in combat, too? Interesting. So a combat puppeteer, huh. I'd like to see that for myself." Hoshirou inquired.
"Yeah, that's about right. She's an actual magician, too. As in the species. We can stop by her place on the way back if ya want to challenge her, ze. Actually, never mind. She's really good, so I might have to teach you first... Yeah, maybe another time." Marisa drabbled on. "Anyway, we need to eat. Could you get the bowls, please? Second cupboard from the right." Marisa asked. When Hoshirou retrieved the requested items, the soup was poured and they proceeded to enjoy the quiet morning.
"I completely forgot with yesterday's shenanigans, but you retrieved my bag, did you not?" Hoshirou asked as she began eating.
"Oh yeah, that's right. I left it near my room after I checked again in the forest for any belongings. Why, what's in it?" Marisa returned a question to the wolf.
"Mostly personal belongings and whatnot, spare clothing for sleeping in, stuff like that." She replied. "Oh and thanks for retrieving it. Judging by the stuff in your house, I likely have items you can't find here." the silver-haired wolf answered simply.
"Oh, I see, ze. So like mementos and the essentials, crap like that, right?" the magician piled on another question.
"Bingo. Can we go after I change, though? The cloak I'm wearing has had it's fair share of use, as you can see. I probably look like a beaten mess to you, and hopefully I can at least present myself without looking like crap." Hoshirou requested in the most exasperated manner possible, ears twitching in slight annoyance. Truth is, she in fact did look like a mess, though Marisa was smart enough to hold her tongue.
"Sure. Alice can be a bit haughty and silver-tongued, but she's nice when you get to know her, ze. Being dressed at least somewhat nicely is probably a good idea." answered the blonde, rolling her eyes and putting emphasis on 'probably'. "She's also as transparent as plastic wrap. It didn't take too long to find out she had a thing for me." she sighed, shaking her head.
"Oh my, popular, are we? One poor maiden after another falling head over heels to the sexy human magician, no? Well now I know who to friendzone, you foxy witch." joked a ludicrously smug-looking youkai, light green eyes glowing with a equally smug aura.
"N-no fair... That was a cheap shot, ze... It's not like I wanted the harem, y'know... You have no idea how stressful it is to have so many people after you, I've lost count..." whimpered Marisa, face flushed and red as a cherry. By this time both girls were far past finished with their food.
"Sorry, that was a bit cheap... I went a little too far, didn't I? There, there, tis just a bit of cheeky humor. Let me go change and we can go, alright?" cooed the youkai to the human in front of her.
"Y-yeah, sorry for getting sensitive on ya, ze. It's ok, though. Down the hall on the other side, next to my room, the one with the decorations on the door. Can't miss it. That's where your bag is, ze." Marisa directed.
"Thank you. Honestly, at this rate, I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to repay you. You've treated me better than most people have, even when you knew I was a youkai. The only people to surpass that that kindness were my adoptive parents, and maybe one or two of my friends, and they've known me for years." Hoshirou yakked on as she changed out of Marisa's line of sight.
Wolf is changing...
When she finished, she was in a gray and black striped long skirt and a thin knit tank top with intermixed black and white. Another tank top, this one black, was worn underneath to prevent any excess skin from showing. Along with it she had a blue fleece jacket. The only thing these garments had in common was they all looked slightly battered and worn, though they were more than passable.
"Continuing what you said, I don't need any payment, ze. Seriously, I don't. Honestly, if I hadn't spotted the portal you created, you would've ended up with a rude awakening via jerkass youkai, who probably would beat you up black and blue, and that would not end well, ze. On the plus side, I'm now friends with a potentially lethal deity. Anyways, shall we set off?" asked Marisa.
"Well, we'll see how powerful I'll get, and yeah, I'm good to go. To the shrine!" cheered Hoshirou, as she held the door open for Marisa as the magician grabbed her broom. She then proceeded to head out herself and closed the door.
"Holy crap, this is amazing. You did say you lived in a forest, but by the stars above, this place is awesome. So much magic energy is in the air. It's like Muir Woods on steroids." Hoshirou breathed. "I bet I could find plenty of plants for oils and medicines."
"That's the Forest of Magic for you, ze. Anyways, we don't have all day. Can you fly? You've probably never flown before, have you?" Marisa asked the questions in bunches.
"I have, once. I was disguised as a bird at the time, but yes, I can fly." the youkai answered.
"Well that leaves you with two options. You can fly by yourself or you can conserve the little magic energy you have left and catch a ride on my broom. There's room for two." Marisa offered as she hopped on her trusty broomstick.
"I'll take the latter option, thank you very much. I'd like to save my energy for Alice's house to do something special, and I think I'd rather do it without fainting." Hoshirou deadpanned as she sat on the broom behind Marisa.
"Good choice. Now you may want to hold on, takeoff is a little bumpy, ze. Ya ready?" Marisa gave a cheesy grin as she asked. She was answered with a nod as they took off into the sky.
"Mmm... I haven't felt this free and refreshed in years... It's... like the weight of everything I've done has been lifted from my shoulders. Almost atonement for my sin. If I wasn't the Heaven Wolf, I'd surely be going to hell." Hoshirou commented. "Flying like this is much better than what I'm used to." She whispered before starting to sing a song unfamiliar to Marisa's ears in a soft, yet fitting voice. Unknown to the magician, it was 'Dance, Dance' by Fall Out Boy.
She says she's no good with words but I'm worse.
Barely stuttered out a joke of romantic stuck to my tongue.
Weighed down with words too over-dramatic.
Tonight it's "It can't get much worse" vs.
"No one should ever feel like..."
I'm two quarters and a heart down.
And I don't want to forget how your voice sounds.
These words are all I have so I'll write them.
So you need them just to get by.
Dance, Dance
We're falling apart to half time.
Dance, Dance
And these are the lives you'd love to lead.
Dance
This is the way they'd love if they knew how misery loved me.
You always fold just before you're found out.
Drink up it's last call, last resort, but only the first mistake.
I'm two quarters and a heart down.
And I don't want to forget how your voice sounds.
These words are all I have so I'll write them.
So you need them just to get by.
Why don't you show me the little bit of spine,
You've been saving for his mattress, love.
Dance, Dance
We're falling apart to half time.
Dance, Dance
And these are the lives you'd love to lead.
Dance
This is the way they'd love if they knew how misery loved me.
Why don't you show me the little bit of spine,
You've been saving for his mattress.
I only want sympathy in the form of you,
Crawling into bed with me.
Dance, Dance
We're falling apart to half time.
Dance, Dance
And these are the lives you'd love to lead.
Dance
This is the way they'd love.
Dance
This is the way they'd love.
Dance
This is the way they'd love if they knew how misery loved me.
Dance, Dance
Dance, Dance
Dance, Dance
Dance, Dance.
"Holy crap, was that just random, out of the blue singing? Because that was good. Really good, ze. Even if I didn't understand any of it." Marisa said. This struck a chord in Hoshirou's head.
"Wait, you didn't understand any of it?" the aforementioned wolf asked. She was meet with a nod from Marisa. "This is going to sound weird. But what language are you speaking? More specifically, what does my speech sound like?" she questioned.
"Perfectly fluent Japanese." Marisa answered. "Why?"
"Shit. I won't be able to read much. The auto-translate spell only does so much... Ahh, I wish I read more textbooks..." Hoshirou muttered, ears twitching in annoyance.
"We can worry about that later, the shrine's in view, da ze. Let's lan- hmm?" Marisa cut herself off when a tear in space opened up right in front of her. From the gap fell out a deck of cards and a note.
"Yukari, explain. Now." Marisa growled.
A deep, silky, yet whimsical and humor-filled voice answered Marisa. Yet the gap it came from caught Hoshirou's eye. She swore she saw it before somewhere. Wait...
"Marisa, it's all there in the note. The deck is for spellcards, and to the newcomer, welcome to Gensokyo. You don't seem the type to cause trouble, Heaven Wolf, so I trust you to no cause any. I'll be taking my-" Yukari said, before getting cut off by Hoshirou.
"One thing. Two years ago, my friend disappeared while taking a walk in the woods. I wasn't watching, but I caught a glimpse of a portal of sorts. There was magic energy, which was odd, because there was no magic where I'm from. Do you know anything, Miss Yukari?" Hoshirou asked, eyes cold and tone dead serious.
"Two years ago... ah, yes, I remember. She didn't speak the local language, so I fixed that. I should just break the language barrier and be done with it. There, now you can read Japanese. Anyways, she's fine, running a coffee shop near Kourindou. And with that, I'm leaving. Oh, and don't enter the shrine. Bye!" Yukari finished. By then, Marisa was confused while Hoshirou was crying tears of joy.
Marisa then took the opportunity to open the letter.
"Let's see... WAIT, WHAT?! If Sukima didn't say so, I'd be barging in right now! Dammit, of all things, she's sick?!" Marisa spat furiously. Hoshirou had never seen the magician so angry, and her tears quickly came to a halt as she placed her hand on Marisa's shoulder.
"Huh? Oh, Hoshirou... sorry I flew off the handle there, ze. I can't believe Reimu's sick, especially now... More importantly, how about I teach you about spellcards?" Marisa apologized in a surprisingly quiet and modest manner and grinned. Hoshirou returned the gesture with a nod and they landed.
The duo landed in a clearing not far from the shrine, and Marisa handed Hoshirou the deck. They looked like normal cards, with a white border and gray and white diamonds for the pattern, but the other sides of the cards were blank.
"So. Creating spellcards. Like I said earlier, it's our means of combat. Each has our unique pattern or symbol on it. Made from slips of paper of any sort, they're infused with the owner's spirit and made to the spellcard rules. Try it, ze." Marisa insisted.
Hoshirou breathed in as she focused her energy in her hands, letting them glow a faint teal. The cards themselves started floating and glowing as well, and it grew brighter and brighter until it suddenly stopped. The once-sparkling cards were now a neat deck in her hand, and the back sides no longer blank. Marisa then proceeded to inspect the complete deck.
Unlike Marisa's deck, Hoshirou's deck had a deck of cards theme, the symbol in the center on the back was the same, but each card was different, and didn't have the names of the spell on them. Some had a face card theme with an emblem in the center, some had kanji, and some had symbols accompanied by the letter 'Z'. The symbol on the back of all of them was a crecent-shaped gem in front of a blue rose, both wrapped together with a ribbon. They were circled by a red heart, a white diamond, a black spade, and a gray clubs. In between each suite was a silver star.
"Hmmm... your deck is special. Probably because you used a deck of blank cards as the vessel instead of paper. Mine look the same except for their name. Look." True to her words, Marisa's deck all had two crossed brooms in front of a book, with a small octagon above it and some randomly placed stars. The other side had a rather intricate, monochrome, magic circle. They were also labeled.
"True, very true. Hey, since our magic is sealed inside, it doesn't use up any of yours, right?" Hoshirou asked.
"Good question, ze. And yeah, no energy is consumed, thank goodness. It's kinda annoying when you realize you don't have any magic energy left."
"With that confirmed, let's have a match. It's still morning. We have plenty of time, and if bad comes to worse, I can have Aries make me something, though I don't know how good her needlework is. No risk." Hoshirou suggested.
"Better now than later. And besides, I have a feeling I can learn from the way your powers manifest. Your various abilities adds in even more fun. Illusions, transformation, basic elements, astronomy magic, is there anything you can't do?!" Marisa exclaimed excitedly.
"Unfortunately, there are in fact limits to my power. But those limits have skyrocketed since I arrived here. I'm here to learn, but that doesn't mean I can't release some steam while I'm at it. So, it's wearing down the opponent and calling attacks, right?" Hoshirou said, putting her game face on.
"Bingo, da ze. Though I warn you, clothing damage. Lots of it. You ready?" Marisa asked, reading the mood.
"I certainly am. En garde!" Announced the wolf, pointing her finger at the magician as if it were a rapier.
-BGM: Oriental Dark Flight-
Both parties took to the skies, shots fired at breakneck speeds, a clash of lasers from Marisa and petals from Hoshirou, one trying to outmaneuver the other, before Marisa called her first card.
"'Ritual Sign: [Orries Sun]!" Marisa announced, before four orbs surrounded the magician, and small blue shots pelted the opposing youkai. Hoshirou nimbly danced around the shots while firing her own. The shots turned into lasers, which were a bit easier to handle. This pattern continued for a while, alternating between the two barrages. Eventually, the switching of danmaku and lasers ceased, and Hoshirou called her first card.
'Okay, I got this. Just call the card and shoot. Simple.' Hoshirou thought to herself before pulling out the Jack of hearts and calling her card.
"Dream Sign: [Celestial Nightmare]!" At this time, large, ebony colored stars swarmed the area, forcing Marisa to weave in between. Smaller white stars and a pair of sweeping lasers followed soon afterwards.
'For a beginner, she's good. Her technique is decent, and her spells are being maintained well. She might give me a run for my money.' Marisa thought as she smiled. It had been a while since she last had this much fun. On the other side, other thoughts were brewing.
'So this is what it feels like to use a spellcard... It's... thrilling. And seeing an opponent like Marisa dodge my shots so fluidly... I love it!' Hoshirou grinned madly despite being consistently being battered by Marisa's lasers. She eventually gave out to the stinging pain while Marisa hollered out her next attack pattern.
"Magic Space: [Asteroid Belt]!" Marisa shot s spiral of giant stars as she covered the sides with smaller stars as a ring of guess what, stars, prevented Hoshirou from getting close and personal. She kept steady fire as she focused more on not getting hit by the barrage of stars in her direction, and decided to pull a trick. She left a illusion of herself in front of the magician, and slipped behind her. The illusion was actively dodging and "shooting" as the real Hoshirou shot her in the back. When the spell gave out, she gave Marisa a two-legged kick to the back, resulting in a surprised magician flying several feet away, giving Hoshirou a chance to call a spellcard.
"Trap [Dew-laced Spiderweb]!" True to its name, a card with the King of diamonds summoned a stream of weaving, curved lasers, but even though they stayed and boxed Marisa in, she found them manageable. That is, until they turned into round, clear, water-like bullets that spread out in different directions and gave her a hard time. But, she was having fun. And that was all that mattered.
"Shit, you know how to give someone a hard time. Even your first-ever battle is drivin' me nuts. But, I love it!" Marisa smiled childishly as the words escaped her lips. She was zipping around the blobs of water, each movement quick and precise.
"I get that a lot! Insanity is contagious, isn't it?" Hoshirou smiled back. By the time the bullets had left Marisa's vicinity, Hoshirou followed up with another set of lasers.
"I already was a crazy person. But, now I'll have to kick it up a notch, ze!" Marisa said as the spell timed out after the second set of water droplets were behind her.
"I won't let you! Libra Sign: [Balance of Dance and Death]!" Hoshirou followed up before Marisa had a chance to counter. Behind the wolf was a teal, scale-shaped aura. The entire field filled with small, round, white projectiles, which forced Marisa to move in circles when they started moving. A wave of giant, blue, bubble-shaped bullets pushed the smaller ones aside, forcing the movement described in the title as the "dance". The card this spell was summoned from had a Libra sign on the center and two corners, and two stylized Zs on the others. Before it had a chance to repeat, Marisa decided to stick with her go-to.
"Love Sign: [Master Spark]!" Marisa yelled at the top of her lungs.
The giant laser took Hoshirou by surprise, and was caught in the middle, and sent flying down into a tree. Satisfied with her victory, Marisa flew down to check the body that laid against the tree.
"Owww... damn, she knows how to put a number on somebody. I can barely move." muttered the wolf, who was perfectly fine except for a small tear on her top and a few scratches on her limbs and sides. The tips of her ears and tail were also singed.
"Damn right I do, ze. Nobody, and I mean nobody, likes taking a Spark to the face. I can clean house pretty well, ya know. You don't look too bad, considering how badly most end up. We can get to Alice's before long. Come on, I'll help you up." Marisa offered, her own body slightly battered from the magic dogfight. Her hat had a couple slices, and her back had some as well, but was otherwise unharmed. She wrapped her arm around Hoshirou's waist, lifted her up, and helped the youkai on her broom. The two took off to Alice's house as if nothing had ever happened.
AN: This took forever. Typing on my Kindle sucks. Anyways, first spellcard duel. Did you like it? Was there issues? Let me know! Shenanigans ahead! No planning! May end up really bad! Who knows? Leave me stuff for future reference! With that, bye!
Marisa: And stay sane.
Hoshirou: Thank you. Now go on, go back to bed, Marisa.