Misty Lake

"Is something comin' our way?" Marisa asked as she rubbed her eyes after the bright flash earlier.

Reimu merely blinked in response to the bright flash... until she sensed something. "Or maybe someone wants us to head their way..."

At first, there was nothing. But very soon, the mist began to disperse in an unnatural way.

"Izzat what I think it is?" Marisa asked with doubt in regards to what is revealed by the parting of the mist.

At this distance, it was impossible to see the small details, especially when literally everything looks red thanks to the scarlet aura. But one can still tell that it is a mansion. More precisely, a western mansion painted in different shades of red, topped by a clock tower with a golden clock face.

"That must be what's creating the scarlet aura." Reimu said, taking note of the crimson stream of energy shooting up into the sky from the mansion. "And whoever is living in it must be powerful."

"Whoever they are, we'll just have to kick their asses to end all this!" Marisa proudly said, as she tipped her hat. "Because that's what heroes do!"

"Nobody is a hero here." Reimu countered. "It is my duty as the Hakurei shrine maiden to take care of anyone and anything that threatens Gensokyo, and you are just tagging along."

That said, the shrine maiden then flew off toward the mansion, leaving Marisa behind.

"Tagging along? Jeez, you ain't fun sometimes..." Marisa complained as she followed Reimu toward the mansion.

...

The closer Reimu and Marisa got to the mansion, the more intense everything felt. But the intense feeling is not a mental one. Rather, it is due to them being so close to the source of the scarlet aura.

"No kiddin'..." Marisa remarked, noting the scarlet aura erupting continuously from the mansion. "Whoever's doin' this must be one heck of a powerhouse."

"And probably has an ego as big as Gensokyo itself." Reimu added.

As the girls approached the small island that housed the mansion, they quickly noticed the complete lack of fairies anywhere near it. The ones that have been trailing behind them didn't just hesitate, but outright refused to go any closer.

"The fairies aren't getting any closer, despite us being very tempting targets right now..." Reimu took note just as the fairies dispersed toward every direction save for the mansion. "Whoever is in that mansion, they scared the fairies so much that they'd rather keep away from it than approaching like the arrogant idiots they usually are..."

Nothing else notable happened as Reimu and Marisa continued their approach toward the mansion before touching down on the small island that it resides on.

"Well, someone's tryin' real hard to tell us not to mess with 'em..." Marisa remarked.

"I agree..." Reimu said.

The mansion looked more imposing when the observers are this close to it. Even with the scarlet aura painting the entire atmosphere in a shade of red, one can still see that most of the mansion is painted in such a shade of red that blood is the first thing to come to anyone's mind; the darkness beyond all of the mansion's windows make one wonder what sort of nocturnal beast dwell in it; intimidating-looking stone sculptures of demonic creatures lined the edges of the roof; the extravagant clock tower actually having diabolic-looking spears as clock hands... It is as if the tenant wants to send Gensokyo and its residents a message that they are not to be trifled with...

Although one aspect of the mansion's front gate made the rest of it really hard to take seriously...

"If that's really the mansion's gate guard, then the tenant may have to reevaluate their choice of employees..." Reimu commented.

"Yep..." Marisa agreed with the shrine maiden.

Standing in front of the mansion's front gate is a red-haired woman in a green oriental dress, who has somehow managed to fall asleep while standing upright (and is even snoring in the meantime).

Reimu and Marisa stared at the sleeping gate guard in disbelief.

"Oh well, that just makes it easier for us to get in." Marisa said as she hopped on her broomstick. She then slowly approached the gate guard, and lightly poked her cheek. "Hard to believe she ain't fired yet-"

All of a sudden, the witch felt something wrapping around her right leg. She looked down, and saw that it is the gate guard's hand that's grabbing her.

At that moment, the gate guard's eyes opened in an instant ("Ah, crap..." Marisa uttered), before proceeding to yank Marisa off her flying broomstick and smash her right into the ground several times at the pace of a pendulum, leaving Marisa lying in a crater by the time it is over.

Reimu covered her mouth and gasped as she bore witness to the event.

Despite being smashed several times into the ground, the last of which is hard enough to leave her in a crater, Marisa is still able to crawl out of the crater to rejoin Reimu by her side.

"Are you alright?" Reimu worriedly asked Marisa.

"That hurt a lot, but I'm okay!" Marisa answered as she slowly stood up, with much of her body still sore from the smashing. "Now I know how Loki felt about bein' smashed by the Hulk..."

Reimu blinked in response. That's Marisa G. Kirisame and her gaijin humor as usual, alright. Always have the mood to snark about something...

That being said, though, the mansion's gate guard has already woken up, and has already assume a battle stance as she glared at the two girls.

It looks like she won't let anyone through without a fight, and a fight certainly looks inevitable at this point...


Woo yeah! Finally dealt with the busy times IRL! And boy, am I glad to be able to get back to working on this story (and everything else I'm working on as well)! Although I'm kind of sorry that this chapter is so short, because I wanted to get it over with ASAP.

That being said, here's the newest chapter, where Reimu and Marisa will have to get through our favorite Chinese gatekeeper before they can get inside the SDM.

In other news, I will be putting Exotic Inventory on hold until I finish the EoSD arc of Seasonal Fantasy, while I will be resuming updates to Mystical Knowledge after seven months of hiatus, with the latest chapter to be posted in around today or tomorrow. Speaking of MK, I've been pondering if I should up its ratings to T on Fanfiction Dot Net and Teen And Up Audiences on AO3, since there are some very sensitive topics of the nearly-political kind that are prevalent (despite remaining not the focus) in its later chapters.

Before I sign off, you guys have probably noticed on the YMC Tumblr as well as my FF and AO3 profiles that I've posted Luna Nova: School For Witches, my fan remake of Little Witch Academia. Give it a read if you like LWA as well!

"And that, as they say, is that..."

Afterwords end here...