Chapter 7: 3, Part 2
Renko wasn't sure how long she'd been reading, and she didn't care. The book she was practically buried in was all about how symbols and runes could be enchanted to use or alter the ambient magic around them, and she was attempting to write a fairly simple series of runes into her Sealing Club journal that would keep it safe from water and flame. She couldn't risk losing her only tangible connection to Maribel to the environment, after all.
Everything was quiet, and peaceful. Mima had floated past and checked Renko's work a few times, and Sakuya had brought some delicious pastries around, but other than that, there hadn't been any interruptions. She had just finished the second-to-last rune.
Suddenly, though, there was an earsplitting crunch, and the floor shattered upwards only about three meters from where Renko was sitting. Renko managed to not flinch and ruin her work.
"Patchy! Sakuya!" The voice that called out sounded almost like a young child's, and was bordering on panic. As the dust settled, Renko could first make out a set of glowing crystals in all the colors of the rainbow. Then, the metallic wing-frames they hung from, and finally, the blonde girl dressed in red and pale pink who was looking around almost frantically and hovering over the new hole in the floor.
"Flandre, what did you do to the floor?" Patchouli demanded, storming over.
"I only broke it a little, but I needed to be up here right away! Patchy, I was playing tag with Marisa, and, and I was chasing her, 'cause I was 'it', and she went like whoosh and I turned real fast and I accidentally hit her with my wing and she fell on the ground and she won't get up! S-someone needs to fix her!" Flandre's wings twitched anxiously as she spoke. Patchouli hesitated, and clear concern flickered across her face.
"…You did the right thing, coming to get me. Show me where you left her," Patchouli said, tone just the faintest bit shaky. "…if Kirisame's pulling some kind of trick, I swear…"
Flandre immediately dropped back down, and Patchouli coughed into her sleeve before following. Renko abandoned her notebook and darted over to the edge of the hole in the floor. Marisa… couldn't really have gotten hurt like that, could she?
The room below was dark, but the crystals on Flandre's wings provided a source of illumination. Renko watched as Flandre led Patchouli over to Marisa, who was lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. Her hat was nearly an arms-length away, and her broom had rolled a fair distance from her.
Even from her vantage point, Renko could see that heavy bruising had started to discolor half of Marisa's face, and that the hair on that side of her head was shot through with a large, slowly-spreading patch of red. Almost mechanically, Patchouli pulled out a small radio identical to Meiling's.
"Sakuya. Basement. Now," she said into it. The maid blinked into existence beside her the very next moment.
"Kirisame needs medical attention, and quickly. Will you…?" Patchouli looked up at Sakuya.
"Consider it done," Sakuya said. She delicately gathered Marisa up in her arms, careful not to jostle her head, and then vanished.
"Sakuya's gonna fix her, right…?" Flandre asked, looking up at Patchouli.
"Yes. Though, Flandre. You should stop playing physical games with humans. Just danmaku and board games, okay? It's much harder to fix humans than youkai," Patchouli said. She coughed into her sleeve a few times.
"I… okay… I don't wanna break my friends." Flandre pouted. "I can still play tag with Meiling, right?"
"Of course." Patchouli picked Marisa's hat and broom up off the floor. "Now, Flandre, I need to take these to Mima. Stay here, alright?"
Flandre's pouting deepened, and she nodded halfheartedly. Patchouli floated back up from the basement, and barely even glanced at Renko as she landed and walked past her.
Renko got up and backed away from the hole in the floor, trying to calm herself. Her heart was racing, and she was struggling to get her thoughts around the concept that Marisa—seemingly invincible Marisa—had just apparently been seriously injured by a youkai.
Accidentally.
While playing tag.
It didn't even feel real.
Renko retreated back to her notebook, and sat back down, staring at the runes on the page. She took several deep breaths to try and calm herself down, and mentally told herself that Marisa was going to be fine, not to worry. She picked her pen back up, and traced in the last rune. The entire enchantment glowed for a second-
"Hiya! Whatcha doooing?" Flandre asked, leaning over Renko's shoulder. Renko screamed, flailed, and fell out of her chair sideways.
"Whoops! Are you okay?" Flandre circled around and crouched next to Renko, staring at her curiously. Her red eyes were brighter than Renko's, and cast a faint glow. Up close, she really did look like a child, maybe a young teen at best.
"I, um, I… I will be?" Renko sat up, and scooted back a bit, biting her lower lip nervously.
"That's good then! I don't think I've seen you before. I'm Flandre Scarlet. You can call me Flandre, or just Flan! What's your name? Are you one of Marisa's friends?" Flandre apparently failed to notice Renko's discomfort, and leaned closer. Her crystal-lined wings made faint chiming sounds as she moved.
"I'm Renko Usami, and yes, I'm friends with Kirisame. Nice to meet you…" Renko hesitantly offered a handshake. Flandre took it, and Renko winced in pain from the strength of her grip. She could definitely see how someone could get hurt even just innocently playing with this girl.
Mima, Patchouli, and Alice all rushed out from between the bookshelves, looking tense, but they all quickly relaxed.
"Flandre, I thought I told you to stay downstairs," Patchouli said. She walked over and lifted the girl up and away from Renko by her collar. Flandre crossed her arms and frowned.
"But it's boooring, and I don't feel like sitting still. I'm worried about Marisa," Flandre said. Mima slipped around them, and offered Renko a hand. Renko took it with the hand she hadn't used to shake Flandre's, and Mima pulled Renko to her feet.
"If you don't want to sit around, you can help me fix the floor," Patchouli said.
"Fiiine…"
With that, Patchouli set Flandre down, and the two of them walked back over to the hole in the floor.
"Patchouli told us what happened. I think we should end our visit for today and go to make sure Marisa is alright. Normally, I wouldn't call off a field trip for this sort of thing, but… head injuries are serious, and if anything happens, I want to be there for Marisa. I am the closest thing she has to a parent, after all," Mima said. The end of her wispy tail was anxiously flicking back and forth.
Renko blinked a few times. This really was that serious…
"R-right," she said. She quickly grabbed her notebook, and closed the magical text she'd been working out of. Mima started casting a spell, and Renko blinked again when two starry wings of magical energy materialized on her back. She experimentally fluttered them—they responded as easily as her limbs—and touched one. It felt like cool glass even though it moved like fabric, and she couldn't feel herself touching it. They simply lacked sensation beyond a vague awareness of their position.
"Normally, I'd be patient with your flight speed, but not this time. Come along." Mima took off flying across the library, and Alice followed. Renko tailed after them, easily keeping pace with Alice, and Mima opened a window to let them outside. The sun had set already, and Renko glanced up at the stars. They looked so beautiful, though she couldn't believe they'd really been there for four hours.
"Um, where are we going?" Renko asked as she flew after Mima. She wasn't sure why, but just having the enchantment on her that gave her the wings increased her top speed, and flapping them shifted all the magic in the air around her to make her even faster. It was almost a bit nerve-wracking, flying around at such a high speed.
"Eientei. Yagokoro is easily the best doctor in all of Gensokyo. There's no doubt Sakuya took Marisa there," Mima said. Renko nodded, and fell silent.
The three magicians skimmed several feet over the treetops, and Renko carefully took note of where they were heading in relation to everywhere she'd been so far. They crossed over a river, and the terrain below gave way to a clear area, then to a bamboo forest. Here, Mima slowed, and let Alice take the lead. Alice led them in a sweeping path over the forest, before a clearing occupied by a large building suddenly came into view. Renko tilted her head. She certainly hadn't seen it until just then… ah well.
As they landed in front of the large, low structure, she memorized the location. Mima dispelled the enchanted wings with a flick of her wrist. Light trickled from the windows and around the door into the dark forest surrounding them. Alice walked up, and lightly knocked on the door. For a moment, there was silence.
Then, a young-looking woman with long, shiny black hair opened the door. Renko noticed at once that she was stunningly beautiful. Not like Koakuma, who was almost exaggeratedly sexual—this girl almost radiated a calm elegance.
It was a bit marred by the fact she rubbed her eyes tiredly on her pink, patterned sleeve.
"Mmgh. I'm guessing you're here because of Marisa, right?" she asked.
"Yes, we are," Alice said. The young woman stepped back, out of the doorway.
"Right. Izayoi said some of her friends would probably turn up. You're going to want to take the first left, then the third right, and then the second left, and go straight and you shouldn't be able to miss it. I'm going back to bed," she said.
"Thank you, Houraisan," Alice said. The young woman yawned, and nodded. Alice didn't wait another moment, and Renko and Mima quickly followed her inside.
As they followed her directions, Renko spoke up.
"Um… who was that?"
"Kaguya. Exiled moon princess," Mima said.
Renko nodded, and glanced back over her shoulder almost on reflex. She had read the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter before. It was a bit odd to think that they'd just gotten directions from an apparently very sleepy Kaguya, but then again, well… this was Gensokyo.
Kaguya's directions took them through a doorway that was labeled "Eientei Medical Clinic", and then to an open door where Renko could hear a bit of activity from inside.
"Kirisame. Kirisame, stop trying to move, you're going to hurt yourself. Don't make me tie you to the bed, because I will. Yes, okay. Stay."
Alice and Mima peered around the doorframe, and Renko leaned around Alice to see as well. A silver-haired woman in a red and blue dress patterned with stars was standing over a clean white hospital-style bed. She had her hand firmly on Marisa's shoulder, and was looking her over with a frown. Marisa's head was crowned with bandages, and she was lying on her back and staring up with a distantly confused expression.
Eirin Yagokoro took her hand off of Marisa's shoulder and waited a moment. When Marisa didn't move, she sighed softly, then turned around.
"Hello, Akagane, Margatroid. I would say good evening, but the circumstances aren't exactly good. Come in," she said. Alice stepped into the room, and Renko followed, staying to the edge of the room so she wouldn't be in the way.
"I told you to call me Mima years ago," Mima said with a twinge of annoyance sneaking into her worried tone. She floated over to the side of the bed. Marisa's eyes flickered to her, but there was no sign of recognition. "…Marisa…?"
"She doesn't recognize… well, anything, really. She's technically conscious, but her brain was badly damaged when Izayoi brought her in, and I can only treat physical damage, not restore her mind." Eirin's frown deepened.
"H-how can it be that bad? She was just playing tag…" Mima started to reach out to stroke Marisa's hair, but pulled her hand back when Eirin shot her a look.
"You don't seem to get it. She's human. She still has a fractured skull, which is why I'm not letting her move and I'm not letting you touch her. If she'd been hit much harder, she would be dead," Eirin said.
"You can't be serious. Are you really saying you can't fix this?" Alice looked and sounded calm, but Shanghai was betraying her feelings by worriedly circling over Marisa.
"It's outside the bounds of medicine. I'd need to create a medicine that can force a freshly regrown brain to comply perfectly with a backed-up record of that individual's personality and knowledge. While that's technically possible, I wouldn't have a record of Kirisame to restore her with," Eirin said.
Renko stared at Marisa, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach. Just like that, she was even beyond the hope of magical medicine? She suddenly felt very fragile and vulnerable.
"There has to be something that could help her, right?" Mima tightly gripped her staff and didn't take her eyes off the injured witch.
"Do you have a psychic youkai with an eidetic or nearly eidetic memory who has had extensive contact with Kirisame, possesses intimate knowledge of her identity, and who is capable of powerful hypnosis?" Eirin asked, in a tone that implied it was a rhetorical question.
"I…" Mima frowned, and shifted slightly.
"Actually, yes," Alice said. Mima looked up sharply, and Eirin tilted her head.
"Explain," Eirin said.
"Well, for some unfathomable reason, after the underground incident last year, Marisa ended up befriending a satori," Alice said. "She's been back to visit her several times since. I believe she actually returned from her last trip the day before I met Renko."
"That would certainly do. Could you bring the satori here? Attempting to move Kirisame around in this state would be very unwise, as she isn't fully healed." Eirin tapped her fingers thoughtfully.
Alice shook her head.
"…I can't. The satori lives underground," Alice said.
"What…?" Renko tilted her head in confusion.
"Youkai from the surface aren't allowed underground, and vice versa," Alice said.
Renko blinked several times.
"…You're a youkai?"
"Margatroid, you didn't tell her?" Mima raised an eyebrow.
"Well, she never asked. Yes, Usami, I'm a youkai. A youkai magician, to be precise. I used to be a human, though that's not particularly important right this moment. What matters is that I can't travel to the underground and bring back Marisa's satori friend," Alice said.
Renko nodded slowly. Okay, Alice was a youkai. No big deal. So far, most youkai had been pretty pleasant, and Alice had been very... normal. So normal Renko hadn't caught on, anyways. When Alice had specified that surface youkai couldn't go underground, an idea had popped up in the back of her head. It was probably a bad idea, but she decided to voice it anyways.
"So… if youkai can't freely come and go, that means humans still can, right?" Renko asked.
"Of course. Marisa couldn't have visited that satori all the time if humans couldn't," Alice said.
"No," Mima said before Renko could speak.
"But, but I'm a human, I could go see if I can convince the youkai to help," Renko said.
"Usami, the underground is dangerous, you're extremely slow, and satori are fickle and antisocial creatures. And on top of all that, there are no stars underground, so your ability is worthless and you will probably get lost. I said no," Mima said, and crossed her arms.
"I can declare spell card rules if I'm attacked, you could put the wing spell on me, and if this satori is Marisa's friend, they should want to help," Renko said. "A-and I have a good sense of direction without my ability! Really! I used to explore forests on foot where I couldn't see the sky."
"The 'wing spell' is highly experimental for use on anyone besides myself and I've already used it on you twice today. I have reason to believe that leaving it on you for long periods of time could cause side effects," Mima said.
Renko took careful note of the fact this was the only point Mima bothered to keep arguing.
"Well, isn't figuring out what to do about magic side effects better than this?" Renko gestured to Marisa, who completely failed to react.
Mima visibly tensed, and stared down at Marisa for several seconds. Without looking up from her ex-apprentice, Mima sighed, and spoke.
"…Fine. But you had better get back here with that satori, as soon as possible. You hear me? If you fail at this, you'll officially be my worst student ever."
Renko nodded, and bowed.
"Thank you, Lady Mima. I won't fail you, I promise!"
Author's Notes
This one is a little shorter than the last two chapters, but I feel like enough happened that it'll do. To anyone that was wondering after the intermission whether Satori would come up? Well... yeah, and here's how! But, also, I wanted to show that while the youkai might not intentionally be a legitimate threat to its residents, Gensokyo still... isn't exactly a safe place to live. All it takes is one youkai who doesn't follow the rules, or one accident, and... well, humans are fragile.
