The girl in the monochrome dress walked through the wooden door, holding it open for the two girls carrying an injured puppeteer. After ensuring that Alice's legs have entered the room completely, the witch closed the door, then attempted to clear the books strewn all over the floor. Keine attempted to raise her fatigued arms, which were having a hard time trying to support the injured girl's torso from beneath her arms.
"You know, you are very heavy for a girl your size," the white-haired girl complained, struggling to keep her hands at waist level as she dug her fingers deeper into the puppeteer's calves.
"Ouch! Can't you be gentler?" Alice yelped, then bit her lip to keep herself distracted from the iron grip the girl holding onto her legs applied. The white-haired girl applied a harder grip on purpose, eliciting another yelp from the injured girl.
"You know, you can always try carrying yourself."
It was not long before Marisa cleared the room adequately enough for a path clear of random clutter to be formed. Though narrow, it was just enough for two people to walk in single-file. Marisa pulled a sofa towards the center of the room as the two humans carrying the puppeteer managed walk past the mountain of junk. Making sure that the injured girl is directly over the sofa, the duo carrying her settled her down softly, then removed their hands carrying her. The monochrome magician fetched another two chairs for the teacher and the immortal, in which they accepted quickly.
Propping herself onto the table, she started, "I am sorry for having you guys wait outside there for so long. I was doing some experiments, you see," the girl pointed at the charred floor before her before continuing, "and I did not notice you guys knocking at the door until you told me a while ago. So, I believe you guys said that you had something to do here?"
Mokou responded, "We discovered this Scarlet Mist at the lake, and although we are not sure what it does to humans, it does cause plants to wilt. Even if it doesn't harm humans, if it kills what little crops the people in the human village have for food, they could all be in danger."
Keine added on, "Not only that, your friend, Reimu, is unwilling to help us-"
"Hm? Reimu, not willing to help?" Marisa questioned in disbelief, almost to the point which made it sound like suspicion. "Did she tell you the reason for not willing to help? Reimu isn't the sort to not respond to incidents."
The Hourai Immortal placed her hand over her forehead, trying to recall the exchange Keine and herself had with Reimu.
"She did say something about 'someone told me not to help you', but she cut the conversation short before we had a chance to ask any questions. Would you happen to have an idea as to why Reimu doesn't want to help?" the white-haired girl questioned.
The magician reacted to that statement with only an incredulous stare. She took a moment to process the statement before speaking. "She really doesn't look like the sort to simply listen to another person to tell her not to resolve incidents. To be honest, I really have no idea why Reimu would ever listen to anyone. She pretty much just does what she wants."
"Yeah, I thought that too," the teacher mused."From what I know about her, she hardly refuses to resolve incidents. However, since she does not want to help us, nor borrow her shrine for us to evacuate all the humans to for time being, we have lost our strongest lifeline," she finished off her sentence, dejected. However, the girl before her grinned mischievously instead. Her eyes opened wide, her two brown orbs staring at the girl before her.
"What's so funny?" the teacher questioned.
"It's funny because, y'know, nobody ever told you that you can't evacuate the villagers there anyways," Marisa swung her hand in an arc and snapped her fingers, "Reimu only said that she would not want to receive the villagers, not that she could not receive the villagers."
At this point, both Mokou and Keine raised their heads to look at the witch. Crossing her left leg over her right, she pushed her hat such that it was now above her eyebrows. "I could always help you guys out," the girl in the monochrome dress smirked, before continuing. "My old man is there after all."
The teacher's eyes' lit up, clearly hopeful. "You are saying that you'll help us in resolving the incident?"
"Why not? I have nothing to do, so does Alice. I'll form a team with her, then we can split up and cover more area," Marisa spoke confidently, as if she had a plan in mind. Alice immediately sat up, going through a series of yelps and cries of pain before managing a normal sitting position. Protesting aloud, she spoke, "Nobody ever said that I was free to help you with your foolish errands!"
However, much to her chagrin, Marisa seemingly waved her comment away with a wave of her hand. The puppeteer continued protesting, though whatever she said after was completely disregarded by the trio that was discussing on their own. Giving up, she allowed her body to go limp and crashed herself back into the sofa.
Reaching and agreement, the teacher stood up and bowed towards the monochrome witch, who quickly corrected herself by getting off the table and standing at attention. After straightening herself, the teacher spoke, "I am sure that having you and Alice to aid our efforts would be a great help." The magician immediately waved away the comment, quickly replying, "Do not mention it, I am doing this in place of Reimu, after all. Just tell me what you would need me to do."
"Well, I suppose you can come to the village tonight, maybe around 8 in the evening," the Hourai Immortal suggested. "After all, we should begin to evacuate the villagers to the Hakurei Shrine as soon as possible. Furthermore, what better time to force the duty to take care of the people upon the Shrine Maiden could we ever have other than approaching her at night? She'd be caught off-guard then."
The witch slapped her hand against Mokou's before replying. "Sure, I'll meet you guys there later on-"
Marisa suddenly turned to look towards the left of her room. Mokou and Keine turned too, but nothing was to be observed, save a low, chiming sound echoing from behind three stacks of books ranging from waist high to ceiling tall. The magician walked towards the piles of books, puzzling her two visitors as she stuck her head behind a pile, seemingly looking at something out-of-view before walking back towards the duo left clueless at her actions. The monochrome witch pointed towards the stack of books, further confusing the two dressed in red and blue respectively before her, before speaking.
"It's already four O'clock. You might like to get back to the human village now to get everyone prepared for the evacuation. Considering the fact that you had to evacuate everyone, there must not be much time left, no?"
Revelation hit the two people standing before Marisa as they finally realised that a clock was behind the books. Although surprised by their finding, they had more pressing matters relating to the time they had on hand.
"Is that so?", the Hourai Immortal asked the question to no-one in particular, in which the magician nodded. The white-haired girl continued, "Well then, let us meet at the Human Village at eight O'clock sharp. Keine and I will make our leave now. Thanks, Marisa."
The witch merely waved as her two visitors stumbled their way through the sea of clutter that covered Marisa's room, thankful that the earlier path that Marisa cleared for them was still there. The blue-haired girl pushed the door open, allowing her friend to walk through before following her white-haired friend through the door, then closing it from the outside.
The girl lying on the sofa turned her head such that her magician friend was in the field of her vision. "Marisa," the girl managed, still recovering from her previous injury, "what are you going to do now?" The blonde-haired witch picked up her Furnace, holding it in the center of her hand,"I'm going to thrash it out with Reimu tonight," then, reaching out her left hand for her broom before continuing, "and get her to help out, that's what."
"Now, if you don't mind, would you send me back to my home now, such that I can prepare myself first before going with you on your crazy errand?" Alice managed the line with such strength in her voice that it almost surprised Marisa.
Marisa set her broom on the air beside the sofa, and the broom started floating of its own accord. Heaving the doll maniac onto the broom, she muttered a few lines of incantations to her broom before lifting her head to face the girl. Tilting her head to the side in a seemingly innocent manner, the magician in black-and-white smiled. Alice immediately picked up the sarcasm in her expression. However, before she could shout 'Stop!', the broom took off, pushing through the closed door and flying out of the house, leaving a trail of the puppeteer's screams. Marisa's smile soon changed into a devilish smirk.
"Have a nice trip home, Alice!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The teacher and the immortal repeated a dreaded journey through the dense undergrowth of the Forest of Magic, encountering a screaming girl being flown to an unknown destination on a broom on the way. However, there was nothing much Keine and Mokou could do to get the girl off, and the broom traveled so fast that it disappeared within the thick flora of the forest.
To pass the time while finding the way out of the forest, the girl in the blue dress tried to start a discussion. Searching for a suitable topic to talk about, she arrived at one soon enough. She tried, "Hey, Mokou," she waited for her friend's response, which came in the form of a "Yes?" before continuing. "You know, doesn't it feel strange that the winter has lasted into the third month of the year already?"
The white-haired girl burned a hole through wall of vines, stepped through the newly burned opening, then answered, "I do think that way too. In fact, it even seems as if the Scarlet Mist had something to do with this extremely long winter." The girl waited on the other side of the hole for her blue-haired friend.
"Well," the girl started as she lifted her long skirt slightly to allow herself to raise her leg high enough to cross through the opening created by the flames, "if the two cases were linked, then the person must have something against us. It is essentially a two-pronged attack on both our food supplies and our health, with the winter killing off most of the more fragile crops and the Scarlet Mist being potentially dangerous to humans."
Mokou proceeded to walk in front, burning down an obstructing branch. "However, it does not make sense. To cut off food supplies and try to attack with a mist that would be like how wars are fought in the past by burning the crop and poisoning the water source. I can't think of anyone who would wage war on us, though."
The girl with the square hat walked forwards to the white haired girl before giving her thoughts, "You know, it could be any Youkai. Considering how the humans are now protected by the Spell Card Rules implemented by the Hakurei Shrine Maiden exactly five months ago, I can expect any of those monsters to want to attack us through a loophole in the rules out of spite."
The Hourai Immortal crossed over the last of the many low brushes, walking out into the open and out of the Forest of Magic. The teacher followed soon after, in which the Immortal turned to face her. "You must know that not all Youkai are as evil as you think. Trust me, I have lived long enough to know that." The blue-haired girl strongly rejected her friend's logic, "If they are Youkai, then they are nothing good. They aren't humans, they cannot understand us."
"Well then, you, yourself, are a half-beast, no? That makes you half-a-Youkai by default. Doesn't that mean that you are supposed to be 'nothing good' too?" Mokou ended her sentence in a half-joking tone before turning away to face the direction of the Human Village, then walked away.
Silence. The blue-haired girl opened her mouth as if she had something to say, but closed it.
The Hourai Immortal knew that the teacher still needed time to process what she had said. Leaving her alone was best.
Keine quickly caught up with her friend, and started to walk to the Human Village on foot. She opted not to fly.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
No exchange of words was held throughout the journey to the Human Village. The scenery passed by unnoticed, with Mokou walking in front, leading the way towards the village. Keine followed close behind, progressing with slightly slower steps. The village fence was finally in sight after the long walk that was from the Forest of Magic. However, what greeted them was the scene of panicking people.
A group of people that gathered at the village gates quickly approached the duo, bringing them around the Village. The sounds of children crying was everywhere, and adults rushed from one home to another, with some calming the children, while another group tried to hoard the food items in the shops. However, only a group of people did not join in the rush. Holding onto hoes, they were apparently farmers, they sat by the roadside.
Huh? What is going on? Why are the people in such a chaos! More importantly: Why are the farmers sitting by the roadside?
Keine ran towards the group of farmers, all looked weak and defeated. Tears flowed down the cheeks of the people present in the group, each exchanging words with another person. The teacher arrived, kneeling down in front of an old man with a straw hat, who was one of the farmers. She spoke in a soft voice towards the villager.
"What happened? Why are you sitting here by the roadside?"
The villager fetched a piece of cloth from his pocket, wiping his tears from his face before replying, "Our homes. . . they are destroyed. . . I tried to salvage what I had. . . there was nothing left. . ."
The blue-haired girl probed further. She tried, "What destroyed it? A sudden snowstorm? A fire?" She provided the two most common causes of loss of property in the village as options. However, the old man gave a reply that she would not have imagined.
"This green-haired Youkai holding onto a parasol blasted the village with a huge beam of light. My house was completely gone. I can't even see its remains. There's nothing to be salvaged."
Another man added on, "It was lucky that his wife and his grandchild had not been at home at that time like all of the others. Everyone was at the theater watching a play you prepared while you were away, put up by the school-going children. Nobody was hurt, however, the children cried when the Youkai with the checked skirt walked in and randomly blasted the place. They are really scared."
The man pointed leftwards. The teacher walked forward to a junction, then looked left. Indeed, the whole town looked ravaged, with parts of a house ending up in smoke, and another home with a hole blasted cleanly through it. Worst of all, she noticed a long stretched of scorched earth extending from the East of the village all the way to the West end, destroying the whole line of the houses and shops that were there. Turning around to face the farmers, she was about to speak when she noticed a girl talking to the farmer she had conversed with previously.
The girl had shoulder-length yellow hair concealed by an orange hat, decorated with a string of grapes bunched together at the right of the hat. She wore a collared blouse with arm-length sleeves, covering all but her hands in the light brown fabric. Her black skirt was covered by a red apron with two black straps holding it in place, going over her arms and rejoining the apron from the waist. Intricately sewn patterns bearing the likeness of wheat plants decorated the red apron with their gold thread.
The girl extended her hands, grabbing hold of the old man and helping him up. Keine soon found the farmers surrounding the oddly-dressed girl. Out of curiosity, the teacher joined the crowd. Taking a closer look at the girl, who was busy listening to the farmer's complaints, she came to a realisation: That girl is Minoriko, God of Harvests.
"It's supposed to be spring now! We are not able to plant anything in this weather! We are going to die of hunger at this rate," a woman dressed in simple farming clothes complained. The Myriad God only responded by nodding patiently.
Another farmer added on, "Then, this flower Youkai walked into the crop field outside the human village and blasted at all the crop! Now we really have nothing to harvest, much less even the remote hope of having things to eat! How are we going to survive this harsh winter?"
As more complaints were fired at the God of Harvests, more people gathered around her, resulting in even more complaints. However, the girl stood patiently, hearing out every single person's complaints. Finally, when there were no more, the yellow-haired girl addressed everyone.
"I know this harsh winter has lasted for way longer than it should," the girl managed her tone with no less majesty than one would expect from a god, " and that the crop fields have been destroyed by a Youkai." The girl paused, waiting for the uproar in reaction to the word 'Youkai' to stop. She continued, "However, I shall make sure that justice is delivered to the Youkai in charge of this incident. As the God of Harvests, I will ensure that everyone will not go hungry."
The crowd cheered for the yellow-haired girl before quickly dispersing to manage their own matters. It was then that Minoriko noticed Keine standing before her, not too far away. The teacher waved towards the God of Harvest, who responded by walking towards her. When they were face-to-face, the teacher started, "Minoriko! How glad am I to see you here! What brings you here today?"
The harvest goddess replied almost immediately, "I sensed by crops being destroyed by something, however I had no idea what it was being destroyed by."
"Wait," the teacher put on a look of disbelief, "you can feel the crops being destroyed?"
The harvest goddess chuckled, "Since I had to cultivate those crops by hand, I had this telepathy with them, you see. Just a little thing I get for dealing with crops often-and being a god, of course." Minoriko waited for the blue-haired girl to completely process had just said before continuing, "If all of them had suddenly died while it was not harvesting season, I would know. And if that happens, that must mean that a problem has occurred. So, I came running from Youkai Mountain the moment I sensed a problem with the crops."
Keine responded with a thoughtful nod, before asking another question, "So, how are you going to solve this then? Since you are responsible for the crops the humans that worship you grow and all."
"I will just have to find the culprit to this problem. Whoever destroyed the crop field will have to be brought down and brought to the humans to apologize." the harvest goddess stated matter-of-factly.
Just then, Keine arrived at an idea. She immediately started, "It so happens that you will have another incident to settle, too." The teacher waited until she had gained the harvest god's attention. "There has been this Scarlet Mist down at Misty Lake that was discovered just yesterday, and it would be floating towards the human village soon, with the winds that we are getting. Apparently, the mist has caused the plants within the mist to wither and die, so if it were left alone, all the crops would die after the humans have planted it again. Since you are the god of harvests, it is your job to do something about it, no?"
"Do you know the person who has created the Scarlet Mist?" Minoriko asked, with an audible tinge of tension.
"Well, we do not know," Keine admitted. However, she added on a proposal, "Although it is so, we do have a team consisting of me, Mokou, Marisa and Alice that are on the case. If you would, we could always use the help of a god. Think about it - I can help you with subduing the flower Youkai, while you can help us with resolving the Scarlet Mist Incident!"
The goddess of harvest had nothing to lose. "Sure, I will help out. However, I will only help with the parts of the incident pertaining to my duties as a god to ensure that there will be bountiful harvests, and nothing more. Can we agree on that?"
The teacher gave her word. "Agreed."
"Now then," Minoriko spoke, "what is our plan?"
The white-haired girl cut into the conversation. "The plan is that we follow that whole long trail of scorched earth right over there," the Hourai Immortal, obviously displeased, stared into the blue-haired girl's two brown orbs. She continued, "While you two were busy talking to each other, I have already traced the source of the massive laser - the scorched earth was similar to that created by Marisa's laser - to a nearby flower field. Apparently the flower Youkai is blasting away at random due to being in rage that her flower field has encountered the Scarlet Mist, and everything has wilted."
On the mention of "flower Youkai" and "flower field", Keine had already a mental image in mind as to who the offender was.
"Would that Youkai be Kazami Yuuka?" the teacher questioned.
The Hourai Immortal answered curtly, "Yes."
"I told you all Youkai were nothing good," the teacher spoke with a tinge of triumph in her tone. "At least I have half the humanity of a human, that a Youkai would never have."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The trio walked in a tight group towards the flower field that was further down from the crop field, but much nearer to the Misty Lake. As such, all they could see was a woman standing within a graveyard of withered flowers petals, all shed from the dying - or dead - flora. Even the petals on the ground lost their vivid colour, them being a shadow of what beauty they formerly had. The green-haired woman stood within the garden, her red checked vest and skirt being in stark contrast with the browning plants that remained beside her, enveloped within Scarlet Mist.
Minoriko was the first to approach the parasol-wielding Youkai. She started the conversation with a question, "Why did you destroy the crop fields, you terror to mankind? You have destroyed what little they had for food for the whole of this winter!"
The green-haired monster emerged from the mist, holding up her closed parasol before opening it and placing it above her left shoulder. The Youkai known as Yuuka Kazami walked slowly yet elegantly, in a way which almost made her seem as if she were floating towards the offending god. Placing her right hand onto the handle of her umbrella, along with her left, she spoke, "Oh, don't accuse me of doing something that heinious and absurd!" The flower monster twirled her umbrella, while bringing her right palm before her mouth, presenting an expression as if she were shocked at the accusation. "I was merely returning the favour - they should consider themselves lucky that they were not my darling flowers which had to take in this horrendous Scarlet Mist -" Yuuka paused, before closing up her parasol with a loud "Snap!" and bringing her right arm up in an upwards motion, with her fingers pointing in a "C" towards the palm, poised like a claw.
Almost immediately, vines sprouted from the ground, climbing speedily up the the body of Minoriko, running rounds around the hapless harvest god's legs, then progressing up to her torso.
Mokou immediately noticed the danger, and shouted to the harvest god, "Run for it, now! These vines are going to -"
"Ensnare you?" the flower Youkai pointed her closed parasol at the Hourai Immortal. Roots of the grass below Mokou shot upwards, constricting themselves around her arms and legs. Although they were merely roots, they felt like chains of metal, restraining the movements of the girl's limbs. Even as she conjured fire, her hands were unable to move, completely held still by the roots.
The vines ran up to the harvest god's arms, binding it to her torso even as she struggled. As if the vines were made of iron, it was impossible for the Myriad God to break free.
The teacher could not allow her allies to be restrained like such. "Let go of them now, Yuuka Kazami! Or else -"
"Or else? Oh, that must be the most threatening phrase I have heard in ages!" the flower Youkai faked an exclamation, clearly sarcastic. "Well, well. Entertain me. What are you going to do?"
