In case you couldn't tell by the many changes in the story's synopsis and genre, there have been a few... changes in my original plan. Not gonna say what.

Well, except that I'm changing a few things about the OC. He will be around... a lot. But the romance still isn't the most important thing in the world. I won't shove it down your guys' throats, I promise.

Jazmin Acrosis Lunar: Thank you, that's actually very encouraging for me!

Safe From the Storm

While Reimu and Saber left to find Cirno, Marisa was dealing with her own problems.

A thunderstorm had started while she was shopping for groceries, and, in her search for shelter, a guy in one of the houses waved her in. Just happy to be out of the heavy rain, she ducked into his house and dropped all of her stuff on the floor.

Then she realized that there were two others that she did not want to see.

First was the orange-haired guy from earlier who ruined her plan to steal the perfect potato, sitting on the floor and wringing his socks out into a bucket. Then there was Seija's Servant, who for some reason was here, sitting down on a chair with his arms crossed.

As for the one who let her in...

Marisa turned to the owner of the house and snarked: "You went for brown hair today?"

Nasupil Feigling shrugged in response. "I wanted to mix up the colors," he said.

She knew this guy, more or less. Nasupil was a shut-in at the Human Village, and apparently he could change the color on anything.

No, really, that's all she knew.

With a sigh, Marisa sat down on a floor pillow and slumped over. She still wasn't pleased that Eiki hadn't allowed her to go with Reimu to save Gensokyo. Usually she'd have gone anyway, but it was Eiki, the Yama that was stronger than Yukari, who told her to back off. She imagined Reimu and Saber going on a grand adventure, facing off against waves of terrifying Servants and youkai, beating impossible odds.

Little did she know that they'd only fought one Servant and one youkai, and they were beaten down physically and emotionally.

"It's you from before, right?" the orange-haired guy asked.

Marisa slightly turned towards him and replied, "Yeah."

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to get to know each other. My name's Shirou. Shirou Emiya."

"Marisa Kirisame."

"Nice to meet you."

Marisa grunted in agreement. She looked over at Assassin and asked: "Does he say anything?"

With a shake of his head, Shirou replied, "No, the only thing he offered was 'Thanks' when he got in here."

Marisa considered Assassin. He was looking straight at her. Something about his gaze freaked her out, even though she couldn't see his eyes...

She heard a thunk and looked up to see Nasupil putting a bright green pot on a stove.

"I'm gonna make a stew," he declared. "Gonna need something warm."

Shirou got up, his eyes bright with determination, and said, "I can help."

With a nod, Nasupil said, "Good. I could use more hands."

Both boys went to the pot and looked over at some ingredients that Nasupil had set aside, debating on what would go in the stew.

This was her chance, Marisa realized. The coloring boy might have good stuff to steal.

Finding a door that must lead to Nasupil's bedroom, she got up and tiptoed over to it. Both Nasupil and Shirou were considering a piece of beef, and Assassin looked at Marisa once but made no move to stop her.

She went to the door and slowly turned the knob and pushed it open. Inside was a bed, a desk with a chair, and a pile of crumbled up papers going up to the chair's seat.

Weird, Marisa thought.

Going over to the papers, she slowly uncrumpled one and read it. Her eyes widened.

Then she felt the hand on her shoulder.

.

Girls do their best now and are preparing. Please wait warmly until it is ready.

.

Marisa was tossed on her stomach in front of the two cooks. They both looked at her and the one who threw her.

"Master!" Leonidas shouted at the top of his lungs. "I found a thief looking through your private papers!"

Nasupil went pale, and Marisa didn't think it had anything to do with his color powers.

"You did what?!" he exclaimed.

Instead of answering, Marisa asked, "Why do you have a pile of crumpled up papers?"

The alarm in Nasupil's expression faded a bit as he asked yet another question: "You saw nothing?"

"Nope. Your room is dark."

He sighed in relief, and the tension in the room faded.

"Hey, I think it's almost done," Shirou announced.

Nasupil went over to him, and Marisa considered the Servant.

She didn't know anything about any damn Outside World heroes, but as far as they went, Leonidas looked heroic. He wasn't as fancily armored as Sigurd, nor as shiny as Saber. However, if one thing was registering in Marisa's head... he had some fine abs.

Assassin was different. He looked fitting to his name. If he slinked out of the trees in the woods, Marisa would assume a ghost had come out to haunt her. He was quiet enough. Creepy. Definitely unsettlingly quiet. And, to top things off, he was cleaning out his gun.

Marisa was afraid of guns. She remembered a time when Rinnosuke was showing her one that he found. After the long process of preparing to shoot it, it let out a loud BANG that frightened her, and she ended up running back inside Kourindou and covering her ears. Not to mention the fact that, from what Rinnosuke had shown her, it was clear that those things could kill people.

Not that it was unusual in Gensokyo, but... why use something that scary to kill?

Looking at Assassin, Marisa decided to find out.

"Oi. You," she called to him.

Assassin looked at her and stopped his cleaning.

With a cough, Marisa built up her courage and asked, "Why would you use that?"

She gestured to the gun, and Assassin gave her the simple answer.

"To kill."

Marisa registered how rough his voice was. And there was something shaky about it...

"Done!"

Everybody turned to Shirou, who was holding up the pot of stew.

"I hope everybody is hungry!" he said.

.

Girls do their best now and are preparing. Please wait warmly until it is ready.

.

"Twelve outta ten," Marisa declared after drinking the rest of the broth.

Shirou waved the compliment aside and said, "That's not an answer."

Leonidas was still eating his seconds, and Assassin was taking his time eating his, and he hadn't said a word since he started.

Considering the two Servants, Marisa turned to Shirou and asked, "Do you have a Servant? It's pretty common these days, ze."

Shirou gave her a baffled look and replied, "No, I don't have enough money for a Saint Quartz. Mom barely gives me enough to buy groceries as is."

He chuckled and lay his hands flat on the table. Marisa hadn't noticed before, but there was a tattoo on the back of his right hand.

"That's a weird tattoo," she remarked.

Shirou looked at it and replied with a chuckle, "Oh, I got that back in my delinquent days. Mom didn't like it, but I can't get rid of it anymore."

"Really? Why did you get a tattoo that weird?"

Shirou's smile fell and his eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "I don't remember," he responded.

Marisa frowned.

From where he sat, Nasupil fell on his side mumbling about how he wasn't used to eating food that good, and Leonidas finished eating his bowl with a loud sigh of relief.

Assassin didn't make a sound and was no longer eating. With the way the light was angled, Marisa could actually see his eyes, and he was looking down at his bowl.