Marisa continued to speak, "Now that we know the culprit's ability, that should narrow the amount of suspects in Gensokyo! We should go tell Keine that now-" The puppeteer cut in, speaking, "Yes, except that," she raised one finger in a fashion as if she were counting before continuing, "for one, we are supposed to be with Keine and Mokou at the human village two hours ago, Marisa." The monochrome witch turned her serious expression into an sheepish smile, and the blonde girl reacted by raising another finger before speaking, "Secondly, the Hakurei Shrine would be empty, and the 'Reimu' you fought just now could come and clean up whatever evidence she may have left behind."
"Perhaps we should stay behind," the girl with the capelet added on a suggestion as her final sentence.
Marisa nodded in agreement. She would not have any idea of where the evacuation group is, and even if she and Alice found Keine, there would not be much point. It is around eight O'clock at night now, and it would be too dark to use flight to find the teacher and her white-haired friend. The two would have to walk to find them, and the message would most probably arrive, at most, one hour early than if the evacuation group had arrived then received the information of her encounter. Finishing the little reasoning session she had with herself, she asked a question, "So, what should we do now?
The Youkai magician replied, "For starters, we could try and search the shrine grounds to find more clues to the fake Reimu we just fought. We could also start to prepare the shrine to take in that many evacuees."
"Yeah, I think I'll go to prepare the stuff first. You can go and find the clues," the monochrome witch walked towards the back of the shrine. "I'll see what I can do to create accommodation for the villagers. They can't just sleep in the open." The puppeteer only replied with a wave. She was only left with the duty to look for clues.
Walking to the spot that 'Reimu' was last seen before she disappeared, she kneeled down, examining the tiles. There were no obvious markings on the tiles to show that it has been tampered with other than the scorch marks that were all over the tile from Marisa's intense attack. The blonde girl lifted up the tiles, revealing flat, untouched soil underneath. If the doppelganger had physically dug the ground to escape, she would have seen, at least, upturned soil.
What if the imposter had the ability to just move really, really fast or has the ability to stop time completely? That would have allowed her to place back the soil after she had made her escape.
However, the girl perished the thought. Even if the imposter could move fast, she would still be unable to place back the soil she removed so perfectly and replace the tiles back. Besides, Marisa did say that she saw the false Reimu drop into the ground, not dig herself into the ground.
Thinking hard, she arrived at another possibility. Sinking downwards. . . it must be spatial transference magic! If she had done it, there must be a trace of magic around here! Since each magic user leaves behind different amounts of magical energy, I could see if magic was used by the doppelganger to transport herself. The girl closed her eyes as she concentrated hard, trying to 'feel' the residual traces of magic around her.
This magical energy is definitely Marisa's. Her magic leaves behind a heavy amount of residual energy. The puppeteer tried harder to sense other traces of magic around her. This air is laden with Marisa's magic. Either accidentally concealed the traces of the residual energy the fake Reimu left behind with the sheer density of magic that she she had used to attack the fake Reimu, or the fake Reimu used something other than magic to transport herself. At her failure to arrive at a conclusive idea of what the true nature of the enemy's abilities other than an 'either, or' statement left her annoyed, in which she vented the frustration by gripping at her hair and pulling it. However, a loud, distant scream soon diverted her attention. She turned around towards the source of the scream.
"Reimu, what the hell are you doing here?" came a second exclamation in Marisa's voice.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Alice removed the red-and-white's cloth gag as Marisa undid the multiple knots on the heavy cord of tightly intertwined hemp that bound Reimu. The Shrine Maiden refused to stay still, trying to struggle herself out of the bind. Her effort was rewarded with abraded skin from the friction between her moving limbs against the thick, rough rope. "Stop moving, Reimu. At this rate, I'll never be able to untie the knots!" the monochrome magician's words were spoken in vain as the Shrine Maiden continued to try and struggle herself free. The puppeteer noticed that, and by way of deploying dolls and using them to hold the Shrine Maiden still, she immobilized the girl. Marisa soon undid the ropes that bound the red-white's arms to her torso. The thick cord around the Shrine Maiden's legs together also came loose as the black-white managed to undo them as well. As soon as she undid them, however, the Shrine Maiden collapsed onto the ground, limp and defeated.
"What happened, Reimu? Why was there another Reimu out there fighting us just now? More importantly, why were you all tied up and in the storage shed of the shrine?" the monochrome magician started her question immediately, momentarily forgetting the condition Reimu was in. When her sensitivity to her friend's condition set in, she finally realised that there were multiple injuries all over the red-and-white Shrine Maiden's body, with scratches mostly on her left arm and an abrasion the length of the whole arm on her right, with even more abrasions on her right leg. The arm warmer that the Shrine Maiden wore on the left was tattered, with the one on her right completely missing. The right side of the skirt had holes in in, with individual ends of the fibers sticking out from the torn areas of the fabric.
"She probably fought someone, and was hit with a strong attack towards her left, and sent crashing through some rough ground. It is reasonable that she would probably be too injured to answer," the puppeteer mused. Marisa acknowledged the conclusion Alice had arrived at, for all the evidence she has seen points to that. "For now, our priorities should be changed to accommodate the fact that Reimu is injured. I shall tend to her first, and you should go and see what you can do to create covered shelter for the refugees," the blonde puppeteer proposed. Marisa merely fetched a canvas sheet from the shrine storage and and walked out of the room, leaving Alice to tend to her friend's injuries. After all, the puppeteer would most probably be more skilled with healing injuries than the offense-based magician she was would.
Getting out of the storage shed, the magician with the witch's hat walked to area of the shrine grounds in front of the main building. Laying down the canvas sheet in front of her, she started to spread it out.
Right, now, I just have to get some steel poles. . .
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The puppeteer raised her grimoire and put it in front of her. The thick book showed signs of natural aging on the pages, however the cover was well maintained, bar the words "Grimoire of Alice" printed in faded, gold text. Unbuckling the two straps of fabric that held the grimoire closed, she opened the book. Examining the Shrine Maiden's wounds again, she flipped the pages, running the index finger of her right hand through the lines of text inscribed on the pages in black, she attempted to find a spell that could be used in this situation.
Ah, this is it. A simple curing spell for superficial wounds. . .
Holding up the book, she placed her left hand over the page with the spell, and started to mutter a magic incantation. The wounds on the skin of the Shrine Maiden started to heal, the flesh starting to mend and and the skin starting to pull itself together. A thread of blue, made of pure magical energy went into the skin and out again in a manner as if it were sewing the wound closed. Alice watched as the red-white's expression slowly livened from the lethargic look she had displayed earlier on. It was not long before the Shrine Maiden could stand on her feet, and the puppeteer shut her book. The moment she was able to move properly, however, she attempted to rush out of the storage room, only to suddenly collapse to a half-kneeling position from the strain, and the individual wounds started to bleed from the sudden motion.
"What are you doing, Reimu? My magic isn't true magic: it just seals up the wound for time being and promotes recovery. If you keep moving like that, the magic won't help you, it'll harm you instead!" The red-white stopped moving as told by the puppeteer, not that she could move much from the pain anyways, and spoke, "That woman. . . she actually tried to put me out of commission. I shouldn't have listened to her!" The wounds soon sealed shut from the magic applied to it, though the blood stains from the earlier bleeding continued to exist on her skin. Alice immediately processed the content of the sentence, and asked a question, "What woman? What has she done?" The red-white only widened her eyes, mostly in shock, before managing a sentence.
"GET DOWN, ALICE!"
The puppeteer stood stunned, and before she knew it Reimu had jumped over her and forced her to get down. When she had came to her senses, she found herself under the Shrine Maiden, looking at an amulet dive its way into the wall at the further end of the storage room.
Alice could only stare as Reimu stood up, moving her arms before her in a position to defend herself as she manifested three amulets into either hand and hollered at. . . another Reimu outside the storage room?
"You tricked me, you Youkai! I shouldn't have trusted you!" The true Reimu stepped forward as she shouted at the imposter before her, who simply took out her purifying rod, running her index and middle fingers along it.
It's that move again!
The imposter chuckled, before revealing an evil smirk, "Well, what can I say to the Shrine Maiden who even lost her own purifying rod? I might as well take your place, Reimu," The false shrine maiden flew towards the real Reimu, deflecting every amulet shot with her reinforced purifying rod before attempting to grab her by the shirt, lifting her off the ground, into the air. "Come with me, Reimu Hakurei," the doppelganger told Reimu, who kept on struggling.
Alice watched as the Shrine Maiden was carried by the imposter. The doppelganger flew straight, crashing Reimu into the further end of the wall before flying through a hole created by the impact. Alice panicked. She knew that she has to quickly stop Reimu from being taken away by what she apparently called a Youkai, but had no ideas in her head. Just as she reached the point of freaking out, she felt a moment of calmness where her vision became grey-scaled, and time seemed to stop.
A voice rang in her mind.
Quick, Alice!
Alice stopped to listen. It was a childlike voice, somewhat like that of a young girl who was nine years old.
You have to stop that! Just find that spell on the hundred and forty-seventh page of the grimoire!
With that said, colour started to flood back into the Youkai Magician's sight, and she regained her senses.
The blonde puppeteer did not know what hit her, however she had no time to doubt the advice which she just received. Running out of the storage room, she could just barely see the imposter of Reimu in the sky, with her captive Shrine Maiden. She flipped the book frantically, in search of page 147. When she found it, she ran her fingers by the text, trying to find 'that spell' which the voice had talked to her about.
Not this, not this. . .
Drops of sweat formed on the girl's forehead as her eyes darted from sentence to sentence, skimming through the contents of that page.
It had to be somewhere here!
Running her finger through a few more lines, she found the spell.
This spell involves transporting a human through both spatial and temporal coordinates! How am I supposed to carry out this spell with my level of power?
With time running out, the blonde haired girl started to recite the chants to the spell. Ten lines of incantations would probably take thirty seconds, which was more than enough time for the imposter to bring Reimu out of the range of the spell. However-
Alice! I'll do it with you. Just recite the every odd numbered line and I'll do the rest!
The puppeteer felt a slight headache as the voice entered her mind again. However, being in no position to question the voice's words, she could only comply.
As she started to close her eyes and focus her magical energy into the grimoire, reciting the first incantation, a figure of a young, blonde girl, in a white blouse and blue short skirt held to her by straps that went over the shoulder, materialized from light. Adjusting the plain blue ribbon tied to the side of her head, she pointed her left hand at the magician known as Alice Margatroid. Almost instantly, the girl froze in the midst of chanting her spell, her lips forming the shape of the last word that she had managed. The young girl walked towards the puppeteer, gently taking the book from her hands.
I'll take over from here, Alice.
Placing her hands on the page of the book, she muttered a few lines before an elaborate blue decagram appeared below her feet. The book started levitating of its own, and the girl in blue and white brought up both her hands, framing the imposter and her captive Shrine Maiden within a rectangle formed by her hands. The book flared a bright blue as she completed the magical incantation.
Only three seconds had passed.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The captive girl carried on struggling, resulting in thin streams of blood running down the sides of her arms and legs from her earlier injuries. She did not mind aggravating her injuries as long as she caused her captor to lose her grip on her. "You Youkai! I knew I couldn't trust you! Let me go!"
The imposter started to laugh, "It was only a safety precaution to make sure that you wouldn't betray me, Reimu. You know, I can see you from everywhere, and I wouldn't want you breaking you promise."
"So you had to beat me up, throw me into the storage all bound and gagged, attack my friends and steal the Hakurei purifying rod?" the questions that the Shrine Maiden asked only caused the doppelganger to stop.
The familiar of a shrine maiden before Reimu started to blink, before it became distorted. However, it was merely the appearance of the imposter that started to change. Her left hand still held on firmly to the Shrine Maiden's shirt's collar, while the image of a hand holding onto a parasol appeared. Long, flowing golden hair waved with the wind as the face of the Youkai turned towards the Shrine Maiden. She started to speak.
"You do know that for one, I like to make sure that my plans go uninterrupted. Besides, I made sure that I did not turn that Spell Card Duel I had with your friend into a lethal one. You are my friend, Reimu, and I acknowledge and respect you for that. Hence I am bringing you to a safe place to wait until the incident is over."
The red-and-white Shrine Maiden struggled even more as her mind rejected the reasoning that the parasol-wielding Youkai gave. "If you had respected me," she turned her head towards the eyes of the Youkai, directly staring into her, "you would have told me every implication and every action that you have taken."
"Reimu, listen," the Youkai signaled the Shrine Maiden to remain silent as she raised her index finger over her lips. Speaking in a soft voice, she started, "Look, you have friends, I have friends too. I am doing this for a friend of mine who has been with me since she was young. . . she gave me her whole lifetime's worth of friendship, Reimu." The Youkai then pointed her closed parasol towards the direction of the Human Village before continuing, "However, Reimu, those humans are easily replaceable, and are not even related to you. So why bother? Or is it that-"
The Youkai paused suddenly, then stared into the Shrine Maiden with stone-cold eyes, "that you do not respect me as a friend, Reimu Hakurei?"
Reimu continued to struggle. Upon hearing that question, she replied without hesitation, "Who needs your sort of friendship?!" The Youkai, taken aback, dropped her from her hands. However, before she could answer, the girl whom she held captive was gone without a trace.
"You'll understand," the Youkai thought aloud, speaking to no one in particular, "when you become like me eventually."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Shrine Maiden stood shocked as she witnessed the surroundings starting to warp around her. Although she wasn't moving at all, the scenery continued to play out as if it were moving in distorted lines around her. A sinking feeling soon played, and the girl dressed in red-and-white felt herself losing her consciousness. . .
Only to be jolted back into awareness as she landed on hard ground. Turning around, she noticed Alice kneeling by her, with Marisa by the side.
"Alice told me whatever that had happened. What is going on with you, Reimu? You never side with the Youkai!"
The Shrine Maiden, reluctant to answer the question, looked away from the monochrome magician.
Marisa was not about to give up. She parted her lips as she was about grill Reimu further, however her mouth was promptly covered with a hand. The witch looked at the puppeteer, who simply raised an outstretched hand to signal a 'stop'. Seeing that the monochrome magician was not about to comply, she faked a yawn, then started to speak.
"Ah, it's rather late now, and I believe both me and Marisa are feeling sleepy." Noticing that Marisa was still not complying, the blonde-haired puppeteer brought her other hand down onto the offending magician's head with a heavy blow. Taking the cue, the monochrome magician shot her magic-using friend a stare before turning around and playing along. "Y-yeah, sure, would you mind showing us the way to a guest room or something around here?" The Shrine Maiden stood up slowly, her left hand clasping onto her right arm to try and misdirect her pain by way of gripping her arm tightly.
"Here, come with me."
Just as the Shrine Maiden was about to lead the two magicians to another shed by the front of the shrine, she started to hear the sound of footsteps.
It was not just the footsteps of one person, however. Walking towards the edge of the shrine grounds, she looked downwards. What lay before her was the scene of what seemed like countless individual lights ascending the stone steps of the shrine. Taking a closer look, she noticed the lights to be flickering, like fires upon a torch, carried by people marching towards the shrine. She took a step back in shock as in finally sunk in to her.
There's a whole, huge group of people moving towards my shrine.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It took a little more than a hour for the refugees to completely settle in the shrine. With little building material meant that it was harder to build shelter, and all they could do was set up a simply shelter by tying a large canvas sheet that was found in the storeroom to the branches of trees at either side of the shrine grounds, pulling the canvas sheet taught and forming a somewhat waterproof shelter, at the very least. With the flower Youkai's help, walls of vines burst out of the soil below the tiled shrine grounds, rising high enough just to hit the height of the canvas sheet to act as the walls of the shelter they had constructed. Filing in the people took about thirty minutes alone, and although there was about enough distance between each person for adequate elbow room in the temporary shelter, it was nevertheless a tight fit. Distribution of food came in the form of one Minoriko Aki that had rushed to the shrine from Youkai Mountain and one Fujiwara no Mokou handing out food items, namely sweet potatoes and yakitori to tide the villagers over for now.
The seven members of the incident resolving group soon gathered at the room behind the shrine, along with Reimu Hakurei and Hieda no Akyuu. Upon reaching the room, Akyuu kneeled down in a sitting position to roll out an old map with various writings on it, and Keine, Minoriko and Alice and Reimu took their seats respectively. Yuuka opted to stand by the side, while Mokou tended to her newly gained sister. Although with heavy protests from the teacher about the moralities of allowing a child get into fighting, the Hourai Immortal simply waved the concerns away, stating that her sister was coming along no matter what. The short trifle was quickly resolved and the meeting was started by Hieda no Akyuu.
Taking a bow towards the people in the room, the purple-haired young girl started, "Good evening. I have gathered you today because the Humans - no, the whole of Gensokyo - is facing an impending crisis due to the appearance of the Scarlet Mist around Misty Lake." The speaking girl waited for the people in the room to nod in acknowledgement, bar Reimu, before continuing, "As we speak, the Scarlet mist has already arrived at the Human Village, and has probably turned it into a lifeless desert. With the flora withered, the base of the food chain is lost, and the animals that live there would have had died."
The teacher took over, "With that said, we know nothing about what this mist can do other than causing vegetation to wither and die. If we do not find the source of this calamity soon, there would be nothing stopping the annihilation of all life that we know now, for even if we could figure out a way to make ourselves immune to the mist, we would still face death if we run out of food."
"The food we have will only continue to supply the human population for fifteen days, however, so we do not have much time nor energy to resolve this incident. The only thing we can do is to deliver ourselves to the dragon's den and defeat the culprit behind this mist," the god of Harvests added.
Taking out her brush, the writer of the Gensokyo Chronicles circled out an area on the map, close to Misty Lake before speaking, "Our best bet right now would be to try and confront the culprit in this area, for this is where the first sightings of the Scarlet Mist started."
"However, Akyuu," the Hourai Immortal stepped forward, "if that is the wrong place, it would be at least half-a-day wasted, and fifteen days to solve this incident isn't exactly the most comfortable amount of time to have."
"Try coming up with a better idea, then," the writer challenged. Receiving no response, she continued, "It's settled then, our next destination will be the Misty Lake."
Reimu stood up then, banging the table as she did. "What do you mean 'we'? You grabbed me here, put me through this meeting, then used my shrine without my-"
"Tell me, Shrine Maiden of this little slice of Paradise," the flower Youkai stepped forward, lifting the tip her parasol towards the girl before she continued, "would you just stand by after having your pride stolen from you?"
The Shrine Maiden opened her mouth as if she were going to retaliate, then closed it. Yuuka knew that she hit her hard where it hurt.
"Reimu, a Shrine Maiden without her purifying rod is like a tiger without its stripes. It will be disrespected, just like you," the flower Youkai took a page out of the teacher's book, "So, why not join us? We can help you get that Youkai who took the Hakurei purifying rod. You might as well direct your frustration at our common enemy, rather than just welling it up like that."
The flower Youkai lowered her parasol. There came no reply from the Shrine Maiden, which was just as well. The green-haired woman was content with the silent answer, for she knew it was the young Shrine Maiden's way of saying 'yes'.
"Well then, I'll take it that our little Shrine Maiden of Paradise is now with us in this," the flower Youkai gave a subtle grin to the red-and-white, who responded simply by looking away.
"So, what should we do now, acting Chairperson of the Scarlet Mist Incident Resolving Group, Hieda no Akyuu?"