The Golden Room
A Touhou Project fanfic by Achariyth
The Golden Room follows All's Fair in Love and Thievery, "A Book for Her Pillow," and The Adventures of Master Kaku and Blessed Bell.
Girls are now revising, please wait warmly. New chapters on on their way and old chapters are getting a fresh coat of paint.
Chapter 1: The Hakurei Shrine Maiden
"Let us pursue without asking what we chase, and when we catch it, let us chase again!"- Mangos, Tales of Mongoose and Meerkat, by Jim Breyfogle
As the rising sun peeked over Youkai Mountain to chase away the last of the night's sky, a shadowed figure stormed out of the dark Forest of Magic surrounding the Hakurei Shrine. Only a little taller than the fairy she frog-marched before her, the dawn-shrouded silhouette skirted around the shrine's holy torii gate, even if it meant crashing through piles of scarlet maple leaves. She drove the squirming fairy across the courtyard to the shrine's storehouse door.
"Reimu, get your lazy bones up," Marisa Kirisame hollered before she kicked in the door. A scowl darkened her normally cheerful visage. Whether her glower was provoked by the witch's hat missing from her golden head, the star-spangled fairy in her grasp, or the shapeless pink dress over her shift, it was not prudent to ask. A carrot pendant bounced between her breasts as she thrust Clownpiece inside the storeroom. "Come and get your fairy!"
Only the silence of the paper akari shoji walls and the stacked boxes stored within greeted her.
"Stop pretending that you're asleep. I know your tricks." Marisa flounced across the straw tatami mats, dragging the hapless fairy along with her. She threw open the sliding door to Reimu's bedroom. Where a tangle of sleeping shrine maiden, bedclothes, and futon bed should have rested, lay only tatami mats. "Where's all your stuff?"
"In storage, while she's gone," a kindly voice called out behind Marisa, before stifling a yawn. "Although I probably shouldn't have told you that."
The golden-tressed witch whirled around. A shrine maiden in traditional red and white robes blocked the doorway of the storehouse. When did Reimu find help for her shrine? And, more importantly, who?
As questions flooded Marisa's mind, Clownpiece slipped away behind a stack of crates. A trail of brimstone vapors wafted from under the tatami mats.
The star-mad witch's instincts quickly reasserted themselves. After checking her for danmaku and spell cards, Marisa took stock of the Hakurei shrine's new maiden. Darker than raven feathers and ten times more sought after by women throughout Japan's history, the girl's floor-length hair was gathered at her neck by a white ribbon. Her figure was slender but fuller than Marisa's. But what set the witch's teeth on edge was the shrine maiden's wide eyes and round face, the epitome of the southern tanaka ideal of womanhood celebrated in the courts of Kyoto. Such a classical beauty should have set every tongue in Gensokyo wagging until the gossip reached Marisa deep in her studies at the heart of Eternity Manor. But when Marisa met the shrine maiden's eyes, she recognized the fires burning within.
"Mokou?"
The eternal Fujiwara maiden sighed. "Let me make some tea."
Marisa sat on the shrine's patio deck, shifting as her seat grew too warm. She shook her head at the sulfurous wisps rising from between the planks. That hellfire fairy was not as clever at hiding as she liked to think. The witch rapped her knuckles against the deck. Something heavy thumped against the underside of the patio, and the sulfur subsided.
"Thank you for waiting." Lady Mokou Fujiwara stepped out of the shrine with a tray of three heavy tea mugs. One mug she set by Marisa's side, one on the stone walkway by the patio's edge, and the last, the shrine maiden nursed between her bloodless hands.
"Cheers." Marisa clanked her clay mug against Mokou's. Her eyes narrowed as she sipped. Instead of green tea, Mokou had brewed an herbal tisane of lady-slipper and elderflower, a useful remedy for nerves.
Mokou sat in front of Marisa and stared down the starry witch. "Why are you dressed like one of her bunny girls?"
Out on the stone, the third mug vanished with a puff of brimstone.
Marisa tapped her carrot pendant against her cheek and beamed. "Eirin offered me a chance to study Chinese herblore. She forgot to tell me about the dress code." The witch smoothed the skirt of her pink dress. Even after weeks of wearing the rabbits' uniform, Marisa felt underdressed without her apron and her hat. She reached over and tugged on Mokou's ribbon-trimmed sleeve. "She also failed to mention all the changes in Gensokyo when she was sweating botany tomes into me. Why are you here at the shrine? And where's Reimu?"
Mokou brushed a loose strand of ink-black hair back behind her shoulder. "It's complicated." Her face grew as scarlet as her name.
A single spell card appeared between Marisa's fingers. "I'm good at making things simple." She walked the spell card across her knuckles. "Although I could have used a hand with last night's incident. Those fairies are getting scrappy."
"I couldn't have helped. I swore an oath." Mokou turned away from Marisa's incredulous stare. "I promised not to use my powers, not to dye my hair, and not to lose my temper so long as I wear the red and white."
A dozen of Mokou's spell card patterns from just as many incidents flashed before Marisa's eyes. The proud phoenix girl always came alive in a scrap. "I can't imagine Reimu asking you to do that." The rightful shrine maiden would be overjoyed at such a willing sparring partner as Mokou.
"My grandfather asked it of me."
The spell card vanished in Marisa's hand. She pursed her lips and stared at Mokou through narrowed eyes. The immortal shrine maiden's grandfather should have died centuries ago. But Prince Shotoku and his entourage had returned from the distant past in the guise of Miko Toyosatomimi and her friends. Perhaps last night's incident was not yet over. "Tell me everything from the beginning."
Mokou sipped her tea for the first time and shivered. "I ran into trouble three months ago. I needed time to think, so I took refuge here at the shrine."
While most of a shrine maiden's duties were too unwitchy to hold Marisa's attention for long, every young woman in Gensokyo knew about the protection offered by the shrine. The starry witch sighed. It must be nice to have a suitor, even if he was too insistent for his own good. "I bet Reimu was thrilled."
"She put me to work on the third day. Then she got mad because I'm better at her duties around the shrine." Mokou giggled, stood, and twirled around. "I was a shrine maiden for a year before the bookbinder's wife introduced herself to my father." For once, the eternal Fujiwara maiden spoke about Kaguya Houraisan, even obliquely, without rancor.
Marisa grinned before taking a sip of her tisane. "I wish I could have seen Reimu's face."
"You know how she looks when's she's fired up?" Mokou hid her laughter behind her sleeve, then dropped next to Marisa. "I wish Reimu was here. Shinto has changed so much, and I can't keep track of all the new ways. I'd check on her, but someone's got to keep the shrine out of Kasen's hands."
"Where did Reimu go? And when?"
Mokou stared once more towards the Forest of Magic. "She left a month ago. In hindsight, I should have realized what was happening when Reimu secluded herself for ritual purification. At the end of the week, she vanished. The next day, an hour before Kasen flounced through the torii gate in shrine maiden's garb, our priestess arrived—"
Marisa held up her hand. "This is Reimu's shrine. Since when is there a priestess?"
"I meant Sanae. She maintains the Suwa mini-shrine." Mokou ignored Marisa's rolling eyes as she pointed to the birdhouse-sized massha shrine near the torii gate. "She said not to worry, that Reimu was safe, but only the Moriya gods knew where she was."
"Time to pay Wonder Girl a visit." Marisa sprang to her feet, tipping over her teacup. As Mokou scooted away from the spreading puddle, the starry witch hustled towards the storeroom. "Thanks for the tea."
"Youkai Mountain is that way." Mokou pointed towards the forest.
"Yes, but I stashed a spare dress in here." Marisa ducked into the storeroom and rummaged through the nearest stack of boxes.
Marisa pulled the brim of her spare witch's hat low, shielding her eyes from the noonday sun while she hiked a switchback path up Youkai Mountain towards the Moriya hamlet. Back in her black frilled dress and apron, she grumbled at an ever-present rustle of leaves followed her, like a child stomping through the underbrush. She glanced over her shoulder. The trail was empty, lined only by swaying brush.
The starry witch resumed her hike, accompanied once more by the crackle of dry leaves. This time, Marisa kept walking, until she passed a bamboo canebrake next to a dogleg in the road. She whirled around once more.
The canebrake shivered in the breeze. Marisa eyed the evergreen leaves. She padded towards the bamboo, parted the canes, and reached into the thicket.
"Do you need another lesson so soon, fairy?" Gritting her teeth, Marisa hoisted Clownpiece out of the grass. "I'm not in the mood for a rematch."
The harlequin fairy planted her fists on her hips. "I let you win last night." Clownpiece quailed under Marisa's stern glare. "Someone has to find Miss Reimu. The shrine's changed while she's been away."
Understanding filled Marisa. Fairies matched the temper of a location. If the shrine changed too much, Clownpiece would have to find a new home. She dropped the hell fairy in the middle of the road. "Stay where I can see you." She motioned for Clownpiece to follow.
The hell fairy ran in front of Marisa and twirled around. "I promise I won't cause trouble." The jester's cheeks dimpled with feigned innocence. "Much."
Marisa shrugged and continued up the old mountain road, occasionally reining in Clownpiece as the fairy scurried from wonder to wonder. Whether jeweled beetles, incandescent mushroom fans, or even one startled snake, each rock and branch hosted a new marvel for the sheltered hell fairy to discover. But it was at the end of the trail where Clownpiece's eyes grew widest.
A hundred men and women, humans and youkai, bustled through the open-air festival market that surrounded Moriya hamlet. Each reveler wore the layered kasane colored robes of the maple tree, green over yellow over red, like the turning of leaves in fall. At the heart of the hamlet, a thick ropeway cable rose skyward towards the summit of Youkai Mountain and the Moriya Shrine.
As soon as the breeze bore the aroma of chocolate crepes, the harlequin fairy rushed headlong towards the bazaar of tents and stalls. Marisa, however, tarried for a moment, primping stray locks of golden hair back into curls.
The pretty and the handsome swarmed the market. Fair-haired Celestial girls waved their marriage veils at the merchants, farm boys, and tengu guards that walked by. Bunny girls strutted across the sidewalks, advertising for matchmakers. A silvery satori maiden appeared behind a bashful boy, throwing her arms around his shoulders before pecking his cheek. Giggling, she vanished afterward, leaving him a blushing wreck.
For the devout, the stalls sold votives, candles, and charms. Sweets and teas tempted children, and sake, their parents. A small garden of flowers and ribbons grew on the counters, waiting to be picked by a platoon of well-dressed and stocky suitors.
Marisa resolved to come back in her best dress, and soon, before dollish Alice worked up her courage to climb the mountain path.
An indignant cry cut through the bustle of busy shops. The throngs of kasane darlings craned their necks toward the commotion in the hamlet's crossroads.
Spitting venom, Yamame Kurodani, in dried grass colored robes of yellow over light green, rocked a handsy young man onto his heels with a jaw-wrenching slap. A pair of wolf-tengu shield maidens accosted him soon after. A gawking crowd surrounded the tengu as they dragged the young man out of Moriya. A sudden gust of wind from a crow tengu's fan sped him down the mountain towards the Human Village.
A heartbeat later, and the bustle of business resumed throughout the hamlet.
Marisa grinned as she walked down the street. If Yamame of all people could gather that kind of attention in Moriya hamlet, the starry witch would spark some real fireworks—
A tug at Marisa's sleeve stopped her in her tracks. Her hand flew for the octagonal elemental furnace in her apron's pocket.
"Excuse me, my dear." A steel-haired gentleman in black courtier's robes crouched by the wall of the general store. He flashed a grandfatherly smile, and her magical furnace was forgotten. "Are you heading to the shrine?"
Marisa dimpled prettily and nodded.
The elderly man fished inside a coin purse. "My granddaughter went to the shrine for a special blessing." He held out a silver flower. "But she forgot her favorite charm. Could you take this to her?"
Estranged from her family Marisa might be, but the young woman still felt the tug of filial duty. As her daddy told her again and again, good girls helped their elders. She took the flower, a wisteria blossom set in silver. "Who is your granddaughter?"
The gentleman opened his mouth to answer—
A shrill whistle cut through the chatter of the crowd, singing an arpeggio of alarm.
The spell broke.
Marisa found herself alone by the general store, a silver flower charm in her hand. The maple kasane darlings passed her by, unnoticed. She pulled the brim of her witch's hat low over her eyes. What kind of witch gets swept up in another's spell? Time to hit the books again, just as soon as she finished sweating secrets from Sanae.
"Have you seen Koishi?" A coppery satori in velvet rushed over and seized Marisa by the shoulders. Instinctively, the starry witch recoiled from the tin star on the woman's breast. The velvet satori's third eye stared unblinking into Marisa's. The mind reader pushed Marisa towards the cable car platform. "I am not the Yama judge; I don't have time to lecture you on your misdeeds. You'd better hurry if you want to make the next cable car to the Moriya Shrine. And if you see Koishi, please stop that kissing bandit before her lips get her in trouble again."
The satori vanished in a swirl of rose petals.
"Satori mindreaders never let you get a word in edgewise," Marisa grumbled while the breeze bore away the last petals. The starry witch examined the wisteria charm. As she pondered whether to add the silver flower to her collection, the thorns bit into her hand.