Author's notes: By popular request, from now on speech will be written inside brackets instead of italic. When/If I have the time I shall go back and change the previous chapters as well.
Somewhere in Gensokyo.
The ice fairy grinned at the humans. Sakura made a nervous smile, clearly not knowing what she was supposed to say in that kind of situation.
"So you were the cold one."-asked Syaoran with a frown, breaking the ice that was forming on his sword's surface.
"Better than being hot, don't you think?"-replied Cirno with another frown.
"It's just another fairy, and a glorified air-conditioner with wings at that. And here I was hoping a worthy opponent would show up for me to really shine."-commented Meiling with a bored expression, playing with a needle between her fingers.
"Strange, fairies didn't always come out in groups? This one is all alone."-asked Tomoyo with a curious face, recording everything.
"Sunny-chan is also by herself, isn't she? I don't see the two other fairies she's always hanging with anywhere."-grinned Mystia.
"I'm the strongest of us three fairies of light! I'm gonna go all out against you Mystia-chan, Rumia-chan and Wriggle-chan, so get ready."-smirked Sunny.
"Hey, be a bit more surprised! You've got a formidable enemy right in front of you!"-shouted Cirno, punching the air.
"Yeah, a darkness youkai, bird youkai and insect youkai may be a bit of a problem."-nodded Syaoran, glaring at the youkai.
"Could you help us out a little Cirno? We seem to have had a war declared on us by Rumia-chan, Wriggle-chan and Mystia-chan."-asked Sunny with a calm smile.
"Is that so?"-grinned the blonde youkai.
"Actually, somebody else organized us to attack you. Mystia-chan, I think it's your time to do the honors."
The bird youkai cleared her throat then rose in the air, closing her eyes and starting to sing:
"This is Cirno, and now
The adventure is going to start
And one day the magic
Awakened so the evil she could beat up!"
As Mystia singed, she flew over Cirno and showered the ice fairy with flower petals.
" Come and see, come and see
That dreams will become reality
Just need to want it, you'll see, just need
To believe in it!"
As she ran out of petals to throw, Mystia beat her wings to create a breeze blowing over Cirno, increasing the dramatic effect.
"And if you want to she can be your friend
And you'll see that it's not hard
With Mystia, Rumia, Wriggle and Daiyousei
And many more you'll meet
To draw and play with you
And so~
Sing this song! "
The human girls and Sunny ended cheering and congratulating Mystia's performance. Even Syaoran clapped his hands a bit although he was still frowning.
"...What the hell is with what kiddy warm song? I asked for a terrifying battle theme!"-Cirno cried, a sweatdrop-shaped ice crystal forming in her head.
"I can't help singing whatever comes up in my head!"-smiled Mystia.
"Cirno-chan, did you by chance see a star fairy and moon fairy?"-asked Sakura with a warm smile, clearly more relaxed.
"Oh, they're right over there. We rescued our fellow fairies from you humans while under Rumia's darkness."-Cirno waved a hand and some of the cold mist cleared.
In the revealed area Star and Luna were enjoying themselves eating bowls of colourful ice cream while drinking something from small bottles.
"Hmmm, it took some time, but Cirno finally learned how to make some really good ice cream!"-smiled Luna.
"After years of explaining, I finally managed to get Cirno to understand that most beings prefer some kind of flavor besides plain frozen water."-Mystia puffed out her chest in pride.
"My bugs helped collect the sugar and fruit."-smirked Wriggle.
"The ice cream is nice, but chilled sake is the best!"-giggled Star.
"So you abandoned us for candy and booze. What kind of lousy familiars are you?"-sighed Syaoran.
"Syaoran, don't yell at them! Kero-chan also gets distracted by candy and alcohol all the time! What matters is that we all know how to forgive and make up with each other and everything will be fine."-Sakura reprimanded the boy right away with a serious look on her face while approaching and holding his arm.
"Best. Mistress. Ever."-giggled Star.
"You heard your girlfriend, Syaoran-kun. You can't punish us."-grinned Luna at the boy.
Sunny meanwhile seemed lost in thought, then she finally spoke out:
"Wait, so perhaps the one who declared war on us-"
"It was me all along! Those two human magicians defeated the mighty Marisa, which means my title as the strongest since I beat up that magician is being challenged! "-Cirno declared with a face of triumph.
"Hadn't you said that it was bad that humans and fairies started working together?"-sweatdroped Wriggle.
"That too."
"So, what? Is our cooperation with humans in error? "-smirked Sunny.
"No, it's actually a pretty good idea, even if somewhat risky. It just pisses me off that you didn't invite me! What if the humans had captured you or something like that? It would've made me really worried!"
"Is that so?"-smiled Rumia.
"...What did I just say? That wasn't what I meant! I'm here to terrorize the humans! That's it!"-shouted Cirno, stomping the air.
"I just recorded everything you said, you know Cirno-chan?"-mischievously smiled Tomoyo.
"Ooohhh, so that's like the Tengu cameras, but can also capture sounds?"-asked Mystia, hovering closer to Tomoyo.
"But it's so tiny! Why are humans nowadays building smaller stuff?"-Wriggle buzzed closer to the blue-haired girl as well.
"Please don't bother the mistress."-Ruukoto swatted away the bug and bird youkai.
"Don't think I won't freeze you as well if you get in our way, you metal scarecrow!"-glared Cirno at the robot maid.
"You're actually a very nice fairy, Cirno-chan, so worried for her friends."-giggled Sakura.
"Quit teasing me! I'll deep-freeze you with some english beef! "
"Ok, this was kinda fun, but Alice's dolls seem to be insisting we keep on moving."-pointed out Meiling to the puppets pulling on the human's clothes.
"You two fairies, get up already, you're only get sick if you try to eat and drink all of that."-said Syaoran to the two fairies still feasting on the ice cream and booze, who giggled before stopping and and floating upwards.
"Owowow, brain-freeze!"-Star fell to the ground holding her head.
"Owowow, stomach ache!"-Luna also dropped down holding her waist.
"HAHA, you can't put up much of a fight if your tummy and head hurt!"-lauged Cirno, pointing at the fallen fairies.
"Don't worry, I'll carry you Star-chan. And Syaoran will carry Luna-chan!"-Sakura knelt to pick up the star fairy and holding her up against the card mistress's chest, who snuggled closer to the human.
"As long as we get back on the move. Gotta keep going now that there's no more obstacles in our path for now."-declared Syaoran, picking up Luna by the collar of her dress and placed her over his shoulders, where the fairy relaxed
"Ignoring me over here?"-glared Cirno as the humans and other fairies started walking away.
"Hahaha, sorry Cirno-chan but we're really in an hurry and just want to get to our destination. But if you want to follow us..."
"Weird human. Your destination is in ice. "-Cirno pulled a blue card from inside her dress.
[Ice Sign] "Icicle Fall"
Hundreds of large chunks of razor-sharp frozen water shot from the card in complex patterns in the direction of the leaving party. Sakura, Syaoran and Meiling instinctively took battle poses, Ruukoto stepped to shield Tomoyo, only Sunny seemed relaxed and didn't do the humans realized the ice projectiles were all going around them. It created a cage of sorts, except that Cirno herself was right in front of them without any visible defense. Meiling cautiously walked to her, then poked the ice fairy's nose. Followed started pulling her cheeks.
"Owowow what are you doing?"-cried out Cirno as her face was stretched by the chinese girl, as more icicles kept being launched all around them.
"Hey, there's no trap or anything, this fairy is completely defenseless right now."-Meiling turned back her head while still holding Cirno's cheeks.
"...That's a completely new low for magic cards. "-sighed Syaoran.
"… Do I really need to capture that?"-sweatdroped Sakura.
"Yes if you want to clear the path again."-shrugged Sunny.
"Then you defeat this one first so it goes to you, Syaoran."-Sakura confidently smiled at the boy.
"Sakura-chan's so cute when she's dumping the boring work on her boyfriend!"-squealed Tomoyo.
"Hmm, Meiling, aren't you always saying you want magic?"-Syaoran asked his cousin.
"I'm not that desperate, why do you think I didn't just punch this idiot fairy already and be done with it?"
"The one's calling someone an idiot is the idiot, you idiot!"-glared Cirno while focusing on her spell.
"Ah, fine...KKKKAAAAA!"-Syaoran shouted a battle cry as he performed a flying kick at the ice fairy's face!
Cirno was sent spinning backwards before falling face down, the icicles dissipating into saphire energy which Sakura swiftly captured into a card, that flew into Syaoran's hands.
"Heavens what kind of magic circle is this?"-Syaoran sighed while observing the spell he had just captured.
As the other humans approached to look in curiosity, they saw that the back of the card looked like it had been made by a preschooler with crayons. If one squinted their eyes enough, it was a crude drawing of Cirno herself smiling in front of a multi-color background with what may or may not be green hills under the sky with some flowers and clouds around.
"Looks just like when Kero-chan tried to help me for arts class..."-sweatdroped Sakura.
"The sound effects were quite good, for once I may not need to add in background music, but I really hope the next youkai Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun face have a better artistic value when it comes to visuals. It's gonna be a bother to edit the video image."- commented Tomoyo with a frustrated expression.
"Aaahhh, being on the victorious side at the end of a stage feels good for a change."-smiled Sunny.
"Yeah yeah you can talk while you walk. We're gonna get an air-conditioner cold if we hang here any more. Could really use a tea house right now."-Meiling grabbed Sakura and Syaoran's hands and started pulling them.
"Don't forget to tell your human friends how fearsome we were!"-waved goodbye Wriggle.
"You're giving up already, Cirno-chan?"-asked Mystia, approaching and poking the fallen ice fairy's back.
"This is when a smart person would let their enemy escape on purpose!"-smiled Cirno as she got back on her feet and then hoped upwards, floating once more above ground with arms crossed.
"Is that so?"-asked Rumia, appearing behind Cirno.
"Letting them escape on purpose... umm... Wait, what am I doing? "-the ice fairy made a struggling expression as she seemed lost in thought, then pulled a new card, slamming it against the ground.
[Frost Sign] "Frost Columns"!
Giant pillars of ice burst out from the earth everywhere in the surrounding area, growing more and more towards the sky, until they created a chaotic set of walls with no exit in sight, so high that neither human nor youkai could see their upper ends.
"Hello, invincible fairy here! Make fun of me and you'll get burned!"-Cirno flew upwards with a cold serious face.
"Great, we caught Cirno-chan in one of her motivated days. Was hoping she would give up after just one card. What a bother."-sighed Luna, holding to Syaoran's head.
"We'll just need to beat her up until she can't move anymore."-smiled Star, still on Sakura's arms.
"Is that so?"-grinned Rumia, lowering her arms behind her back, and suddenly a torrent of dark scarlet shots burst out from her front, aimed at the humans!
"Our time to shine isn't over yet!"-Wriggle waved her arm, and the flying bugs around her started glowing brighter and flying in circle, before starting to shoot out pale yellow bullets of energy
Sakura, Syaoran and Meiling managed to jump away in time with the fairies, but then fresh frost columns emerged, separating them. Syaoran managed to use a fire jufu to break out just before being sealed, Ruukoto blasted a path open with her arm cannon, keeping Tomoyo close, while Sakura activated the Jump to leap out just in time. The fairies however seemed to lack speed or power to escape. Meiling tried to punch her way out, and although her fists could crack the ice, new one formed faster that she could fully shatter it, ending up frozen just at Sunny's side!
"MEILING!"-Syaoran slashed his sword at the ice clump where his cousin was trapped, but his sword bounced off, leaving only a small scratch behind, that was
quickly covered by another emerging frost column.
"Syaoran, get back!"-Sakura landed next to her boyfriend, grabbing him and jumping away as more frost columns emerged in the area where they had just been.
"The ones who crawl on the earth are no match for ones who fly in the skies!"-singed Mystia as she swooped down with her claws to slash Sakura's back as the card mistress landed.
[Flickering Light] Fatal Flash
There was a bright orange light momentarily blinding everybody and making Mystia hesitate. The columns of ice where Sunny had been trapped burst out in half-molten chunks, the sun fairy coming out holding a shining card, surrounded by glowing orange orbs and breathing heavily. Then Mystia heard something swiftly approaching her, jumping between the pillars, followed by an invisible fist smashing into her face, sending the bird youkai rolling over the ground! After which Meiling popped up from thin air as Sunny stopped distoring the light around the human.
"Claws off Sakura-chan and Syaoran, you night hawk!"-Meiling girl glared at the still half-dazed bird youkai.
"Sunny-chan, have you been so brainwashed by the humans you would release one of them over your fellow fairies?"-asked Cirno.
"Heh, Meiling-chan just happened to be close enoug for the ice to be weakened by my release and strong enough to finish breaking it. Besides Luna-chan and Star-chan are in no condition to fight even if I freed them"-shrugged Sunny.
"I won't let them remain trapped!"-Sakura started to pull a new card.
"Is that so?"-recovered from the sudden flash, Rumia unleashed a fresh barrage of dark red shots, interrupting the card mistress!
"Sakura-chan's so cute when she's worried about weak fairies!"-squealed Tomoyo as Ruukoto shot down the bullets incoming at the blue-haired girl.
"Don't forget about us!"-Wriggle's magic fireflies kept their assault.
"W-Woah! Don't tell me it's the usual cliché where they were holding back and now they're gonna get serious?"-Meiling jumped and tumbled between the growing ice pillars while contorting her body to dodge the varied danmaky coming her way.
"That they are. Now we can fight as much as we like."-smirked Sunny, launching her glowing orbs against the other youkai and... Wildly missing every one.
"We'll confront them head on and put an end to this!"-Syaoran launched a flurry of jufus that burst into several flame explosions, disrupting the opponent youkai!
The tiny moment of calm was all that Sakura needed to activate her card:
FIERY! RELEASE!
The flame card was unleashed with a completely new level of power than some moments ago, a massive wave of bright fire. The youkai flew away in panic from the burning elemental.
"Owowow this food is too hot!"-complained Rumia.
"I don't want to be fried!"-cried Mystia.
"Fly away from the fire! Away!"-some of Wriggle's summons actually flew right into the brigh light.
The ice fairy however flew towards the Fiery with a cold expression. The flame elemental smirked and turned to fly against Cirno, taking it as a direct challenge. Lifting her hands, the ice columns started to raise in front of Cirno, creating a fresh massive wall against which the Fiery crashed violently, producing a massive explosion of steam! Sakura recalled her card since she couldn't see anything anymore. But she felt suddenly worried. The Fiery was hot enough to burn ice right into nothingness. And when the vapor cleared, Cirno's wall of frost pillars had held even if half melted, protecting the other youkai as well.
"How did that fairy managed to stop one of Sakura's strongest cards? It was even against a classic elemental weakness! That's totally cheating!"-cried Meiling, waving her arms in protest.
"Cirno once bragged she had fought the flame of a nuclear raven and managed to fly away on her own. I guess she was telling the truth."-nervously smiled Sunny.
"Hoe... Nuclear... Raven...?"-sweatdroped Sakura.
"I can see now that you beating the mighty Marisa-chan was no simple fluke, Sakura-chan. You're pretty good. But still not good enough to defeat the strongest!"-confidently smiled Cirno, and with another wave of her hand new smaller pillars of ice started forming in the air, descending upon the humans and Sunny!
"This is horrible... I couldn't record anything with all that steam around!"-cried Tomoyo in apparent despair.
"Should't you be more worried about being about to become food"-asked Rumia, launching a new wave of her dark red shots.
"Sakura, using the Fiery was a good plan, but you'll need to add something else to hit that fairy harder. I'll keep them busy in the meanwhile!"-Syaoran stepped forward to slash the approaching dark red bullets from Rumia followed by placing a jufu to launch lighting back at the flying youkai, who cried in pain but didn't stop.
"Go, my fireflies!"-Wriggle's remaining summons scattered and surrounded the humans, launching shots from all sides!
"I'm not backing down from a danmaku duel day either!"-Sunny pointed her hands forward and her new orange orbs were launched in all directions, trying to take down the fireflies, however her aim was still pretty poor and all were evaded.
"KYA!"-Sakura and Syaoran found herself hit by stray shots due to the heavy density of bullets. Tomoyo's fabric protected them from any serious damage, but it was enough to keep them off-balance.
"Ruukoto-chan, cover Sakura-chan!"-commanded the blue-haired girl.
"Cannot follow order, protecting my mistress takes priority."-the robot maid shielded Tomoyo with her metal body.
"Sunny-chan, give me that card NOW!"-demanded Meiling and the fairy obeyed.
The chinese girl found herself surrounded by the glowing orange orbs. Carefully observing the pattern of the incoming shots for a moment, Meiling proceeded to kick and punch her own balls of energy, sending each with perfect accuracy to intercept and explode over the approaching waves of danmaku! Sakura and Syaoran got some reprieve time.
"If the Fiery's not enough, what else's good against ice and birds and bugs...That's it!"-Sakura swiftly pulled two cards.
FIERY! EARTHY! RELEASE!
A massive serpent made of earth and rocks rose from the ground under Sakura's command along with the Fiery that encircled it in flames. The combined elementals managed to smash right through Cirno's ice columns. Wriggle and Rumia were caught by surprise, being blasted away from the attack, their spells breaking and Sakura swiftly capturing the bug and darkness cards.
"Hey, earth attacks are supposed to be useless against fliers!"-cried Mystia.
"The Earthy can also use rocks. Clow-sama didn't make a separate Rocky card."-explained Sakura.
"But he made the Watery, Wave, Rain, and Bubbles."-commented Meiling.
"We'll probably never know."-pondered Syaoran.
Some hundreds of years earlier in China, Clow was discussing with Keroberos.
"How about making the Rocky card, Clow-sama? Ground elements seem kinda unrepresented in your deck in my humble opinion, master"-said the winged lion.
"It may be a good idea now, but my visions of the future warn me that in a few hundred years from now there will be a series of movies with the same name, and so a Rocky card would lead to terrible puns."-replied Clow calmly.
"...What the heck is a movie?"-sweatdroped Keroberos.
Back in the present.
Although her ice was being broken and vaporized faster than she could replace it, Cirno herself managed to dodge Sakura's cards, swiftly flying between the stones and flames:
"Using two cards at once, that's pretty smart. But let me ask you a simple math question, what's the lowest temperature possible?"
Sakura made a surprised face at the question, then her face brightened up:
"I know that one, Tomoyo-chan and Syaoran taught me that for a science exam! It's zero kelvin, absolute zero!"
"Close but not correct!"-Cirno pulled another card.
[Freeze Sign] "Minus Kelvin"
Some tiny white bullets shot from the fairy's cards. As they crashed against the Fiery's wave of fire and the Earthy's massive earth serpent, the bullets exploded with extreme violence, blowing up Sakura's elementals! Pieces of frozen earth and rock scattered everywhere. Pieces of frozen fire and flame scattered everywhere.
Forest of Magic
Descending from the skies on her broom, Marisa sweatdropped at seeing her still half-demolished home. Now that the sun was shining she couldn't lie to herself and procrastinate in repairing it. Marisa sighed as she pulled her deck of cards, looking for some magic help.
"Blasting.. Nuking... Burning... More nuking... More burning... What was I thinking when I made this one? I really still have a long way to go, being a magical girl is no good if you only know how to blow up stuff up... Ah, here is it is da ze!"
SHADOW!
The dark cloak formed and hovered solemnly near the magician, awaiting orders. Perhaps this new mistress wanted to hunt a new target, or lurk again, perhaps spread some havoc...
"Help me clean up the rubble, will ya ke?"-grinned Marisa, pulling up her sleeves.
Sweatdroping, the Shadow obeyed the command to assist her new mistress in the manual labor, making slow but steady progress. Putting things back together was a lot harder than pulling them apart.
"Ah, sure is good having a magic slave that can do stuff other than moving in circles shooting danmaku da ze."-smiled Marisa, pausing to clean some of her sweat.
Then suddenly the ordinary magician's senses warned her that something was approaching from the forest. Something staring at her back.
"Thanks the gods I found you, now this can finally be over..."-said a female voice.
Marisa pulled out her mini-hakkero with one hand and a potion flask with another as she turned around, flinging the container at the nearest trees in a single fluid motion. There was a bright explosion and something screamed.
"Who's there? Come out or I'll shoot more da ze!"
A girl with long green hair and a school sailor uniform, both covered in leaves, dirt and ashes.
"P-Please Marisa-chan, it's me!"
"Oh, hi Sanae-chan da ze!"
Marisa shot a blue laser from her mini-hakkero which Sanae barely managed to dodge.
"You said you wouldn't shoot if I came out!"-cried the green haired girl.
"I retroactively lied. If it's you, I'm ready for a duel, got some new tricks to show you da ze!"
"I'm not here to fight, Marisa-chan! I just got lost in the forest of magic! This place is diabolic! How do you manage to live here?"
"Professional secret. Why did you come here anyway if you didn't intend to challenge me ke?"
"I'm looking for a magician called Sakura Kinomoto my, hmm, contacts told me she was somewhere in the forest of magic."
"Silly Sanae, I'm the only human magician in the forest of magic. I only met Alice-chan in my morning patrol. If that Sakura Kinomoto ended here, either she found a way out already or she got eaten da ze."
"...I'm sure she found a way out. Speaking of which, could you show me an exit, Marisa-chan?"-pleaded Sanae, getting in her knees with tears forming in her eyes.
"I don't help people for free, yah know ke...?"
"You want payment to help a shrine maiden in trouble...? But I didn't bring any money with me, and I'm kinda running low on lucky amulets..."
"That's fine, you can pay me with your body da ze. "
"M-Marisa-chan?"
"Get to fixing my house da ze."
"Oh, that's what you meant. Your house does seem a bit more messy than usual now that I look carefully. But that's no problem for one who can perform miracles!"-Sanae smiled proudly as she pulled a card.
[Esoterica] "Gray Thaumaturgy"
The pieces of rubble started floating in the air, then the walls and ceiling started slowly rebuilding themselves, until Marisa's house was on its old state.
"Wow, so even you know how to be useful once in a while Sanae-chan da ze! Wait, there's somebody else approaching..."
Marisa pulled another flask and threw it to another tree area, but it was stopped by an invisible barrier and blew up in mid-air. Then Yue came out, holding a hand forward to hold his defensive barrier up, followed by Mizuki and Kero hovering over her shoulder.
"You were correct once again, Kaho-sama, we finally found some other humans in Gensokyo."-commented Yue.
"But that one seems even more aggressive than the youkai."-sweatdroped Kero in his plushie form.
"Greetings, allow me to present me and my friends, I'm-"
Before Kaho could speak her name, Marisa interrupted her:
"No need for that. We know who you are, Reimu-chan da ze. How was your little vacation in the outside world? You look a bit different. More mature and calm. Also made some new friends as usual I see. That winged guy's a total hunk by the way. I'm jealous. May steal him from you."
"...What?"-asked Yue with a confused face.
"Please don't mind Marisa-chan too much, she just eats a lot of magic mushrooms, but she's a good girl down there, hahaha"-sweatdroped Sanae.
"I'm Kaho Mizuki, a shrine maiden from the outside world, and this is Kero-chan and Yue-chan. We're looking for their mistress, Sakura Kinomoto the card mistress, and her human friends, who were transported here by accident."-calmly smiled the red-haired shrine maiden.
"Oh, I'm also looking for Kinomoto-chan! I heard that she was in the forest of magic, but I ended getting completely lost... How did you find us here?"
"Your cellphone, Sanae Kochiya. You suddenly disappeared and didn't leave a single trace behind besides rumors and stories. When we found out about Gensokyo's existence, we theorized you may've ended here, and that you would still be using modern technology."
"Oh, so somebody from the outside world still remembers me? Yes, I keep my cellphone charged up out of habit although nobody can call me in Gensokyo (for now). Makes sense that somebody else who knew how cellphones worked could find it once they were inside as well."
"Man Reimu-chan, you're getting pretty good at making stuff up da ze!"-grinned Marisa.
"Marisa-chan, it's fine for a magician to lie to protect important things, but it's not very elegant to provoke other people like that. I may need to teach you a lesson if you keep insisting I'm Reimu Hakurei."-sternly smiled Kaho.
"I also must ask why do you keep claiming Kaho-sama is someone else."-said Yue.
"Well, you're wearing red-white shrine maiden robes, I can sense strong shinto magic from you, and you're leisurely walking around with youkai when you should be exterminating them, so of course she's Reimu-chan da ze."-grinned Marisa.
"We've met Reimu-chan, and for starters she had black hair." -sweatdroped Kero.
"Big deal. Reimu-chan used to have purple hair, you know? Never figured out if that was her natural color and then she started painting it, or if she used to paint it before and then stopped. Or perhaps it was some mystical incident that made her hair change color. Heck, I myself used to have red hair back when I was working for my old boss da ze."
Reimu suddenly teleported behind Marisa, smiling calmly:
"Good that you remember that. Because your old boss broke free. I've searched all of the usual places and found nothing, so I suspected you may be covering for her. But here I am and I don't feel her presence in your home either. Still decided to clear up this small confusion before moving on."
"Wow, two Reimu-chans! Clearly one of them is an impostor! You now must fight to decide who shall hold the title of red-white in Gensokyo da ze!"
"Reimu-chan, so glad we found you! Do you know where Sakura-chan and the others are?"-asked Kero, suddenly anxious.
"Oh, hi Kero-chan. And Yue-chan. And..."-Reimu stared at Kaho with a faint smile.
"Her name's Kaho Mizuki, and she's just arrived from the outside world! And now Gensokyo's shrine maiden population has gone up by 50%! Isn't it wonderful? We'll be able to split our work better this way!"-smiled Sanae in clear joy.
"I'm afraid Kaho-sama won't stay here for long. We're only here to rescue Sakura-chan."-coldly stated Yue.
"Oh, you're in the business as well? I guess if there were still magicians in the outside world, there would also still be shrine maidens. But I got separated from Sakura-chan and the others while returning to Gensokyo. I have no idea where they ended or may be right now. However those kids should be able to hold their ground and I'm sure they'll find a way out on their own. You shouldn't have bothered coming here. Now it's extra work for me."
"Ok, that's the true Reimu-chan. Lazy bitch as always da ze."-sighed Marisa.
"If you've got any clue that may help us find her, that would be most helpful."-smiled Kaho.
"You're a shrine maiden, just wander around aimlessly and you'll end bumping in her sooner or later. Gensokyo isn't that big after all. It's how I solve most of my incidents. Which reminds me, I must thank you for taking care of troubles while I was out, Marisa-chan."-Reimu pulled out a small sheet of paper and scribbled something on it before slamming it in Marisa's hands, who unfurled it curious.
"Orbs under surveillance. Can't talk openly. Sanae seems suspicious. Wait until I leave with her then make up some excuse to take Kaho, Kero and Yue to the scarlet mansion."
"What's that?"-asked Kero, somewhat suspicious.
"A free exorcism coupon da ze."-grinned Marisa, tucking the paper inside her clothes.
"We heard rumors that you're the two main problem solvers in Gensokyo, and you're just telling us to wander around aimlessly until we get lucky?"-asked Yue, incredulous.
"Yeah, and actually I should be instructing my junior colleague here about that kind of tradition. C'mon Sanae-chan, we've got an unsealed evil spirit to exterminate. You can't call yourself a true shrine maiden until you've done this kind of thing at least once or twice."-Reimu grabbed the green haired girl and swiftly took flight dragging her alone, Sanae screaming in surprise half the way.
"Reimu-chan!"-Kero tried to fly after the shrine maiden but Marisa swiftly grabbed his tail to stop him.
"By Sakura Kinomoto and friends, did you mean a young red-haired magician with a pink star staff, a boy magician with a sword, a kung-fu girl with neddles and a blue-haired voyeur girl ke?"
"Yes! You you do know them after all!"-accused Yue.
"My memory just cleared up. The air's not very good in this place you know, makes your mind all drizzly da ze."
"I'm glad you're suddenly feeling better, Marisa-chan. You may not need extra lessons after all"-politely smiled Kaho.
"So where is she? Sakura-chan may be the card mistress but she's still a little girl, she needs me and Yue to watch her back, I still don't trust that brat to protect her..."-said Kero, even more anxious.
"Can't really explain by words, so I'll personally guide you. Just need to grab some things from my home da ze."-smirked Marisa.
Author's notes: Well, one month and one day for a new chapter, not too shabby. But December will be quite busy, let's see if I don't end up slowed down again...