~Tales from the Forgotten OS~

"WAKE ME UP!"

"WAKE ME UP INSIIIIIDE!"

"I CAN'T WAKE UP!"

"WAKE ME UP INSIIIIIDE!"

"S… Save me from the… I love you, Mima!" Unable to sing a moment longer, Marisa dropped her hair brush, pounced on Mima and squeezed her lovingly. "Gods, I've missed this… I've missed you so much!"

"Missed what? The terrible singing, me using your broom as a guitar?" giggled Mima. "Or maybe you miss the brush…"

"I missed all of it!" wailed Marisa. "I had the best childhood ever, thanks to you, and-and I never wanted it to end! And I'm s-so grateful. And stuff."

"Oh, come on, don't get all soppy on me! You know I would've done the same for any kid with huge inborn magical powers who came from an abusive household," laughed Mima.

"Oh, Mima. I haven't seen you in years!" Marisa hugged Mima again, luxuriating in the soft warmth of her familiar blue dress. "I'm allowed to be a little soppy, aren't I? You mean the world to me!"

"Yeah, I suppose…" Mima wrapped Marisa in her arms. She was surprised by how big Marisa had grown: instead of a small teenage girl, she was a fearsome four-foot-three woman just bursting with strength and energy. Mima leant down and kissed her cheek. "To be honest, you mean the world to me too."

Marisa burst into tears, quickly soaking Mima's dress.

"So, anyway, um… Uh…" Mima waited while Marisa dried her eyes. "What've you been doing all these years?"

"Oh, y'know…" Marisa sniffed. "Fighting, drinking, getting a decent supply of girlfriends…" She smiled warmly, her eyes still red and puffy. "Saved the world a few times, too."

Mima tilted her head. "Reimu told me you were one of the good guys now. Why is that?"

"Eh? Um, I don't exactly think of myself as a 'good guy'… Gensokyo is sort of like my personal playground, and I don't want anyone else messing with it. That's the only reason I'm on Reimu's side. To help her protect it."

Mima smiled and shook her head. "You never could fool me, Marisa. Don't worry, I won't hate you just because you've grown a conscience. Write you out of all my evil plans, maybe, but I could never hate you!"

Marisa could feel her eyes filling with even more tears. Her second-biggest worry for some time had been that Mima would reject her as soon as she found out she was resolving Incidents.

"As for me," Mima carried on regardless, "I've been writing a travelogue! 'Losing Gracefully to Shrine Maidens on Five Hundred Yen a Day', I call it. It'll be just the thing for the Makaian tourist agency!"

Marisa went pale. "They've started a third one?!"

"Um, they have? Have they?" Mima blinked. "I thought the second one was still going…"

"It did for a while, but Shinki wasn't having it. 'Too risky', she said, and she threatened to kick Kana out of Makai… Then Reimu came along to beat Kana up, she found Shinki ticking her off, and they just sort of stared at each other for a minute," Marisa recounted. "It's… It was pretty awkward."

"Ah… Old wounds, eh?"

"A few," said Marisa. "As long as we don't bother Makai, the demons don't bother us." She sighed. "I wish I could make things right between our worlds, but after that Mystic Square business… Shinki just doesn't want to hear it."

"Yuki, be silent! I don't want to hear it!"

The tranquility of Shinki's palace at the heart of Pandaemonium was sorely lacking. The ivory-winged goddess herself was pacing furiously up and down in front of her throne, much to the consternation of the witch petitioning her.

"Please, Lady Shinki, listen to reason! I have been brutally mistreated by-"

"Shut up!"

"I will not shut up! Do you expect me to just put up with this cruelty?!" snapped Yuki. "Mai and Yumeko have gone too far, and they are your responsibility!"

Shinki put her head in her hands and took a few deep breaths. "Yuki, listen. Listen to me. Mai and Yumeko are grown women, as are you. Yes, it was wrong of Yumeko to give Mai an extra scoop of ice cream, and yes, it was wrong of Mai to gloat like that, but I have a terrorist cell in the Magma Labyrinth to deal with, AND this bloody tourist agency that simply won't die! For my sake, just work things out between the three of you!"

"B-but…" Yuki's lip wobbled. "I don't know how to work things out…"

"Well, nor do I, but we've got this far, haven't we?! Haven't we, huh?!" screamed Shinki. "Almost twenty years now, and I haven't blown up a single city with my ultimate attack! NOT ONE SINGLE CITY! If I can accomplish that much, what's stopping you?!"

"Um…" Yuki had a feeling she ought to leave before her future grew any bleaker. "Thank you for, um, seeing me. I-I'll just, um, go and do that! Yes, of course. Bye!"

Shinki watched in some alarm as Yuki sprinted out of the throne room. She heard the witch's shoes clattering on the floor, growing steadily fainter as she approached the front door.

Shinki cupped her hands over her mouth. "Yuki, DON'T SLAM THE-"

A terrible crash echoed through the palace. At that very moment, Shinki realised her therapist was going to have a difficult week.

"Come on, Marisa, chin up! It's not as if Gensokyo depends on trade with Makai," said Mima brightly. "Cutting yourself off from a beloved trading partner would be beyond stupid, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, no-one would be that dumb." Marisa sighed. "We had some good times in Makai, though, didn't we?"

"You bet we did! Fighting demons, running away from demons, hanging out with Rika and her tank collection, meeting Chiyuri and her hypervessel thingy…" Mima frowned in confusion. "Actually, weren't there two Chiyuris? I saw them talking to each other once."

"There was another me as well," Marisa pointed out. "That was one of our weirder adventures, wasn't it? Still, I did get to sleep with myself, and she is SERIOUSLY good!"

Mima stared at her in amazement.

Marisa giggled. "Have you seen Chiyuri and the rest of the Probability Space gang lately? Mimi-Chan's been a bit down in the dumps, and I don't know why…"

"You still have that sentient atom bomb, do you?" Mima smiled sweetly. "Now, this could have possibilities! Maybe Reimu would lend me one of her orbs in exchange-"

"Don't even think about it! Even if I did help you, Mimi-Chan doesn't want to live as a bomb any more."

"Oh, you're no fun any more…" pouted Mima. "Um, no, I haven't seen Yumemi or anyone. I think they're happy enough exploring time… And space… And literally everything."

"Yumemi! Yumemi, quick, activate the repair bubble!"

Rikako was tearing across the meadow as fast as her one battered combat-boot and one scuffed plimsole could carry her. Behind her, a blocky grey vehicle that looked like a cross between a tricycle and a double-decker bus was charging along in pursuit. The horse-sized machine gun on top was blasting away with a fury.

"What? Repair bubble?!" Yumemi's harried voice crackled out of the decades-old smart watch on Rikako's wrist. "I told you, we don't have the energy! We've got armour on the front, Rikako, that'll have to do!"

"Well, get ready, 'cause it's coming in fast! And so am I!"

Rikako skidded to a halt beside the mining rig, a larger vehicle with two immense drills strapped to the front. Each of its six wheels was tall enough that Rikako could use the tyre as a paddling pool, but the two narrow-gauge laser turrets on top were useless without a skilled operator. Instead of which they had Chiyuri.

Rikako wrenched open the door and flung herself into the vehicle. She had barely got it shut behind her when the first few shots sent her stumbling. She half-crawled up the rusty metal stairs to the cab.

"Rikako! Thank the gods you're all right!" Chiyuri took Rikako by the hand and half-dragged her over to the pilot's chair.

The scanner beeped in a vaguely meaningful way. Yumemi read out the report. "It's a Galactic Survey tech, registered as 'Big Tony'. The tech, not the pilot. Kind of weird. Low-strength armaments-"

An explosion shook the trio's mining rig.

"Ah… There goes one of the boosters," said Yumemi nervously.

"Shut up! Rikako, take evasive action! I'll try to take out his gun!" bellowed Chiyuri.

"Yes, ma'am!" Rikako took hold of the steering sphere and floored the accelerator, almost jolting her out of her chair. Chiyuri scowled in concentration, gazing intently at her periscanner screen as she sprayed laser bolts in the Big Tony's general direction. Yumemi twiddled her thumbs and tried to look as if she was doing something useful.

Rikako tried desperately to wrestle their tech into something resembling an evasive manoeuvre, but it was no use. A wheel blew up, then the armour shattered, and then one of the Big Tony's bullets smashed through the front windscreen, killing them all.

Yumemi was scowling heavily as she pulled off her VR headset. "This game is no fun at all! And you're not exactly making it any better, Chiyuri. I kept telling you we should've gone for a fast, agile tech, but no…"

"If we had just used the repair bubble like Rikako suggested-"

"We'd be dead anyway, and you'd still be blaming me!" Yumemi cuffed Chiyuri upside the head. "That's the last time I play this 'Terror Trek' thing and/or let you be in charge."

Chiyuri pouted and rubbed her bruised skull. "It's 'TerraTech'…"

"I don't care! Go and scrub the hyper-manifold plasma flux distribution matrix matrix." Yumemi was proud of the fact that she owned enough hyper-manifold plasma flux distribution matrices to put them all in a matrix of their very own.

"What?! But it's my day off-"

Yumemi threw a punch at Chiyuri's face, but found her fist smashing painfully into the Probability Space Hypervessel's shiny interior wall as the young sailor scampered away.

"Yumemi, you really need to stop doing that," said Rikako reproachfully. "She's trying her best, and it is her day off."

"Well, it shouldn't be! We're scientists, not-! Not gaming addicts! I mean, the nerve of it, asking me to play that stupid game…"

"Yumemi," said Rikako heavily, "it was your idea for us to play virtual reality games together. The responsibility rests entirely on your shoulders."

"Oh, shut up." Yumemi threw her headset against the computer screen. "And remind me never to become a miner, won't you?"

"Hey, Mima?"

"Hmm?"

"Have you caught up with Yuuka recently?"

Mima paused in mid-grilled-cheese-sandwich, a foodstuff well-suited to reminiscing. "Um, yes… sort of. Actually, I, um… I think I have to go now."

"What?! Oh, can't you stay a bit longer? You've only just got here!" cried Marisa.

"No, I have to… I have something I need to do. Nothing to worry about, just… A very important thing." Mima shifted nervously. "Which I can't tell you about."

Marisa groaned. "Tell me you didn't challenge Yuuka to a duel."

"Um…"

"Ah, Mima! There you are!"

Bedecked in red and white tartan, the Flower Master of the Four Seasons strode in through Marisa's door. Straight through it. Splintered wood clattered onto the floor and cracked beneath Yuuka's feet.

"You seem to have forgotten about our duel." Yuuka pointed sharply up at Marisa's grandfather clock. "Half past three, you said. It is now thirty-one minutes past."

Mima laughed nervously. "I'm only human. Since you're here, we can, um…"

"Start immediately? Good thinking!" Yuuka strolled back out again.

"You can pay for the door when you get back!" bellowed Marisa. "Good grief, what have you gotten yourself into?"

"Oh, just… Just a duel." Mima squared her shoulders. "I opined to Yuuka that my own Twilight Spark is the most powerful attack in existence, but she seems to believe her own Master Spark is superior."

Marisa snorted. "As if! I've out-Sparked her dozens of times. Well, a few times. Well, once. Sort of."

"Really? You can use Master Sparks as well?" Mima raised her eyebrows. "You never fail to amaze-"

"Will you please come along?" said Yuuka tetchily. "As for the door, I am liable to bite off your fingers one by one if I hear any more complaints."

Marisa scowled. "Kick her FAT, HAIRY ARSE for me, will you, Mima?"

"I don't know, I think it looks quite toned… If I had feet, though, I'd definitely kick it." Mima took a deep breath and unlimbered her staff. "Wish me luck!"

Marisa gave Mima a kiss on the cheek. "I love you… Father."

"…Bit weird, but I love you, too!"

Marisa watched from her shattered doorway as Mima and Yuuka filled the sky with bullets. For one brief moment, she saw that same tired, strangely pixellated woman in pyjamas who had come so close to killing her after their first meeting, and she remembered the vengeful spirit whose anger had never burned brighter than when her apprentice, her sister, her daughter, was in peril.

She remembered her purple dress and red hair, which had seemed like such a good idea back then. She remembered Reimu, in trousers too big for her and hair too purple. She remembered Alice, with a gap in her front teeth, cute little braces to hold her dress and a big blue bow in her hair. Or had that been a different Alice? It was hard to tell with Makai.

Yuuka wasn't pixellated any more, though, and Reimu's trousers fit perfectly on those rare occasions she wore them. Marisa's dress was black, her hair blonde, and the days of her past were stepping-stones she had already leapt across on the road to her future. She had learned countless skills, grown stronger than she'd ever thought possible. She was going to be the strongest witch who ever lived, and she would never die.

Marisa's eyes shone like the sun. Four orbs of glowing light burst into the air beside her as she soared towards the fight, screaming the name of her attack. "Yuuka, you big bully, I'll show you! ORRERIES SUN!"

Once the smoke had cleared, Mima and Yuuka joined forces to scold Marisa for ruining their duel. All was forgiven, however, when she offered them some mushroom wine and blackberry tart.