Chapter 2: Patterns of Danmaku

As her time in this strange outside world continued to grow longer and longer, Alice was less and less inclined to think she had been caught up in an ordinary Incident. It had been several months since she had arrived in this outside world, and Alice couldn't remember the last Incident which had taken that long to resolve. It meant that this was something else. That was certainly annoying, but it wasn't anything too terrible. It only meant that it would take more time for her to get back home. Time was something Alice had plenty of. There was even the advantage in this outside world that Marisa wouldn't be able to steal any of Alice's precious things. She was more or less left alone to conduct her research in peace.

Business at The Seven-Colored Puppets was hardly what anybody could consider brisk. Alice would have maybe a couple of sporadic visitors each week. It was enough for her to consider step 2 of her plan to return to Gensokyo well in progress. She had enough paper, cloth, string, food, and tea for the immediate future, but only just enough. It was a mixed curse. She would have preferred to have a larger and more steady stockpile of supplies, but it also meant that she had large blocks of time to focus and put those supplies to good use. The visitors to her store were few enough that Alice rarely got interrupted with whatever she was doing.

With step 2 of Alice's plan in good shape, Alice was able to begin focusing her attention on step 3. She felt very good about that step as well. She was getting close to being able to trace where her puppets were. Rather, she was getting close to figuring out the theory for how she would be able to trace where her puppets were. Closer at any rate. If nothing else, she definitely felt like she was on a viable path to returning home.

The path she was on was the most obvious one to Alice. The thing she knew best were puppets. If she was going to return to Gensokyo by her own devices, then it would be by using them. So in order to tackle step 3 of her plan, she intended to use her puppets. It was one of the few avenues of pursuit she could follow without access to the Scarlet Devil Mansion library and without having any other magicians with which to consult.

One thing she knew for certain was that she had had a large collection of puppets back home in Gensokyo. If she could somehow locate them, then she would have step 3 complete and she would be ready to move on to step 4. Eventually. If she could somehow locate them.

Alice's intense concentration on the puppet she was crafting in front of her was interrupted when Shanghai tugged at her arm. It broke her out of her reverie. Something must have happened. She looked down at the puppet and asked, "What is it?"

Shanghai couldn't actually say what it was, but she kept pulling at Alice's arm.

"Okay, okay."

Alice put her things down and rose to her feet. Whatever it was, it was clearly important. And urgent, given Shanghai's insistence. Maybe it was a robber or something?

Shanghai flew forward rather quickly, and Alice hurried after her. But they didn't stop in the store portion of her house. Nobody was even in the store portion. Shanghai continued out the door, and Alice followed right behind her. She took a sharp right around the side of the building. Then Alice saw the cause of Shanghai's interruption.

A young boy was there. He was maybe eight-years old or so, and he wore a bright orange jumpsuit. He had messy blond hair, bright blue eyes, and what looked like whiskers adorning his cheeks.

As Alice approached, something much more notable took her by surprise and seized her attention. He was the first youkai that Alice had encountered in this outside world. The small amount of power she felt from him suggested that he was every bit as young as his youthful appearance suggested. In fact, she felt no more from him than she felt from the youkai sealed in books that could be found in Kosuzu Motoori's store, the Scarlet Devil Mansion library, or in other random places.

More urgently, and more distressingly, the young boy had a bucket of paint as brightly orange as his jumpsuit in one hand, a paintbrush in his other hand, and he was painting something on the side of her house. In fact, he was painting very quickly. At the speed he was going, he must have only been there for a minute, but already his crude drawing sprawled across much of her wall. It seemed that this youkai was one of the more mischievous ones.

"What are you doing?"

"Ahh!" the boy shouted. He leaped away to a nearby rooftop in an instant. The orange blur of his jumpsuit was hard to make out with the speed he traveled. Alice took one look, but she didn't bother chasing after him. By the time she had even thought of giving chase, she had already lost sight of where he had gone. Besides, there wasn't any permanent harm done.

The first thing to do was to remove the graffiti before it had had a chance to set. It was unlikely, but she might be able to get rid of the wet paint without any damage to her wall. More likely, she would need a new coat of paint, but she wouldn't know for sure until she had tried.

Alice manipulated several puppets inside the house to get a couple of buckets of water and scrubs and to come outside. The distance was short enough and she knew her house well enough that it was a simple matter to control them. Moments later, they showed up. They then got to work cleaning the still-wet graffiti off of the wall. She had to be careful to prevent them from splashing themselves as they worked. Cleaning paint stains off a puppet was always a pain.

"Whoa."

Alice turned to the noise. There was nothing there at first glance. Upon reexamination, Alice could see a mismatch of something in the fence beside her. She wouldn't have even noticed it without the noise. She left her puppets to their work and walked closer.

She peered intensely. The fence looked a bit strange. In fact, it wasn't a fence at all. It was more like cloth. Alice reached out, and then fell backwards when part of the "fence" flipped down. The face of the boy she had seen earlier appeared.

"Uhh... hi," he said. He looked ready to bolt at a moment's notice.

"Hi," Alice said back. She regained her feet with as much dignity as she could manage.

Her curiosity had been satisfied, so Alice returned to the more important issue at hand. She turned back to observe her puppets diligently cleaning the graffiti. Her hopes had turned out to be in vain. A large discoloration was still visible where the orange had previously been, and a closer look confirmed the initial assessment. It looked like she would need a new coat of paint on the affected wall after all.

Rather than run away, the boy turned to follow behind Alice. He asked, "You're not going to chase me?"

Alice turned back to him. She said, "I wasn't planning on it." She didn't really see the point.

"Everybody else in the village always chases after me. It's great. When I get lucky, I can even get some ninja to chase me. It's too easy to escape from the civilians. Believe it," the boy said.

"You like them chasing you?" Alice asked. She didn't understand at all. The longer she spent in this outside world, the stranger she thought its people were.

"Sure. It's better than them always ignoring me," the boy said.

"I see," Alice said. It made sense in a fashion. For her part, Alice had never had an issue with being left alone. How could she get lonely when she had Shanghai, and Hourai, and all of her other puppets? However, people like Reimu and Marisa did seem to get lonely. She didn't really understand it, even if she could sympathize.

Shanghai waved in front of Alice, catching her attention. The puppet then pointed in the direction of the wall. The last of the orange paint had been removed, and all the other less autonomous puppets were left floating around aimlessly. Alice nodded to Shanghai and dedicated more of her attention to the squad of idle puppets. She had them get some paint and start repainting the affected area.

"How do you do that? Some kind of super cool jutsu?" the boy asked.

Jutsu? A skill? Alice said, "I guess you could call it that."

"Can you teach me?" the boy asked.

"I doubt it," Alice said. It would take weeks, maybe months, to learn to manipulate a puppet well using physical strings, and that was the easy part. After that, it would then take years to learn enough magic to do what she did.

"Why not? I'm gonna be a ninja too," the boy said.

"I'm not a ninja. I'm a magician," Alice said. She had had to answer the same assertion more times than she could count in the past few months. Ever since her first day in Konoha, from time to time somebody would say she was a ninja. Alice didn't understand why. The confusion made no sense. Ninja were more known for staying out of sight with dark clothing and clever disguises, not for beautiful spell card patterns or masterful puppetry.

"A magician. That's cool," the boy said. "I'm going to be a ninja. I'm going to be the best ninja. Watch me. I'll become the Hokage, and then everybody will acknowledge me. Believe it."

Hokage. The leader of Konoha. Alice couldn't think of a worse position to be in. All that pressure and having to deal with all those people all the time. She asked, "You want all that attention?"

"Yeah. It's better than being left alone all the time," the boy said. It was proof positive that he was far different than Alice.

Now that he wasn't defiling her house, the boy didn't seem that bad. Alice felt more than a bit sorry for this boy she didn't even know the name of. His clothes weren't the best kept, and he looked a bit malnourished.

She thought about it for a moment, and then came to a conclusion. She selected one of the puppets who had been helping clean the wall and beckoned her to come closer. At Alice's summons, the puppet floated over to her. It was only for show. She was actually controlling it directly. However, showmanship in puppetry was important, regardless of if it was for a large pre-planned production for the Human Village during a festival or if it was for an impromptu show for a single boy.

"This is... what was your name again?" Alice asked the boy.

"Naruto Uzumaki. Believe it," the boy answered with bravado.

"This is Naruto. You'll be his friend from now on, okay?" Alice asked. She controlled the puppet to nod to her and then bowed to Naruto. Alice then said to the boy, "I've found that you can't be lonely with company." Shanghai nodded to Alice's truism.

Alice took the puppet in her hands and handed her over to Naruto.

"Awesome. What's its name?" Naruto asked.

"She doesn't have one," Alice said. This particular puppet had never needed one before. "Why don't you give her one."

"I'll name it Sakura," Naruto said.

"That's a good name," Alice said.

And with that naming, Sakura was marked as special. It wasn't magic in the traditional sense, but it was magic nonetheless. That puppet would be Sakura forever more.

Naruto looked at Alice with suspicious eyes. "What's the catch? What do you want from me? I don't have any money, you know."

"The catch is..." Alice started saying. Naruto's eyes slitted in response. "... you have to treat Sakura well. You can do that, right?"

"I can do that. Thanks. I'll pay you back when I become Hokage. Believe it," Naruto said. He then nodded to himself.

"That's a promise," Alice said. She had no intention of making Naruto keep it.

Naruto wandered off with a smile on his face.

Alice felt good for what she had done. Even if she never saw him again, she had made one sad boy's day a bit brighter.

As it turned out, Alice saw Naruto much sooner than she had expected. Much like the day before, and much like most days, Alice was working on her puppetry in her home. It was her most promising path to return to Gensokyo. Moreover, Alice just enjoyed doing it. She probably would have been spending the day working on her puppetry even if she had been in Gensokyo.

Alice heard the interruption far before she saw it. Naruto asked loudly, "You're sure it's okay to come back here?" A pause. "If you're sure."

Shanghai floated into the room. She was immediately followed by Naruto. He said, "Hey! Someth... urk..." He stopped abruptly and pointed across the room with a shaking arm. "W..w..what's that?"

Alice followed his hand to where he was pointing. She answered, "That's Hourai."

The puppet in question was wearing an elegant red dress and bonnet for the day. The overall effect was very fetching. However, Alice doubted that that was what was making Naruto act like that. More likely it was the fact that Hourai was hanging in the corner of the room from a hangman's noose made of string strung around her neck.

"Don't be rude, Hourai. Say hello to Naruto," Alice said.

Hourai reached up, loosened the noose around her neck, and freed herself. She hovered next to the string, placed both of her hands in front of her, and gave a polite bow to Naruto.

"H..hello..." Naruto said back.

Hourai straightened herself, let herself back into her noose, and resumed hanging. She really was a rather odd puppet. She was so similar to yet so different to Shanghai. Shanghai was very active and could usually be found floating around Alice, helping her with whatever she was doing. In contrast, Hourai was much more sedate and usually preferred to literally hang around the house.

"Don't mind her. She just likes hanging," Alice said.

"Why's that?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know. I only made her. It's not like I know everything about her," Alice said. Each of her puppets had her own personality. It's part of what made puppetry so interesting. Each one started almost identically, but each one grew to be completely different from the others based on how she was treated and what her experiences were. Even ineffable details during the creation process would result in small differences in each puppet, and sometimes those tiny details could grow to be major disparities indeed.

"Weird," Naruto said. "Anyway, Sakura's broken. I didn't do anything bad. Believe it."

Naruto held Sakura out to Alice. It had only been a day, but Alice could tell she had been well treated. Sakura personality had started to rapidly diverge from her sister puppets, too. Up until the day before, she had been almost identical to dozens of other puppets, but being named and being given the unique experiences of being with Naruto had caused her personality to grow dramatically. After a few more days, Alice was sure she would be able to tell Sakura apart from all of her sister puppets with merely a glance.

"She looks good to me. How is she broken?" Alice asked.

"It hasn't moved or anything since yesterday. I tried asking nicely and everything," Naruto said.

Alice gave a laugh. "That's because Sakura can't move on her own. I've been the one controlling all the puppets around here. See? Watch this. I'm going to move her arm." She caused Sakura to reach up and pat Naruto on the arm.

"So it can't move on its own?" Naruto asked. "If I wanted to do that, what you did, how can I?"

Alice had had that question asked of her from time to time. She even had a puppet set up for exactly that specific purpose. She walked over and picked up a control bar where it was hanging on the side of the room. It was attached to a marionette below by strings. She answered, "This is the best way to start."

It was an easy matter to have the marionette walk over to Naruto and give a curtsy. The techniques were well known to Alice. They were merely a very rudimentary form of what she did with magic. It was the best way to start learning the fundamentals of remote puppet control. Thus far she had demonstrated the much more mundane form of control of the marionette a handful of times in Konoha. Nobody in the city had wanted to pursue puppetry any further after she had done so.

"That looks boring," Naruto said. He was another non-interested person it seemed. "Isn't there a more exciting thing I can do to move it around, like you do?"

"That's how I started," Alice said. "And even if you can't move her around like me, it doesn't stop Sakura from being your friend, does it?"

"I guess not," Naruto said. "But I wanted somebody to play with."

"You can play with Sakura," Alice said. She didn't see the problem.

"I mean play with somebody who can play back," Naruto said.

"I see," Alice said. She thought for a second. "How about I teach you a game we play back where I from?"

"What's it called?" Naruto asked.

"It's called danmaku," Alice said. She started to get a bit excited at the prospect of showing it to Naruto. She tended to not start danmaku battles herself, but Alice did rather enjoy them.

"Bullet curtain?" Naruto asked. He suddenly looked scared.

"Yes. Don't worry. It's not dangerous or anything," Alice said. It had once been much more serious and much more deadly than just a colorful game played between girls. That was before the formal rules of danmaku had been established and enforced by one Reimu Hakurei. Danmaku had since evolved to the point where even a 9-ball like Cirno could take a Master Spark to her face and have her only injury be her pride.

Alice looked around her room. It was a bit smaller than ideal, but it could work. There were certain advantages to starting with a more enclosed and controlled environment for a beginning tutorial, too.

She had some of her puppets move the furniture out of the way. Once the arena was prepared, she said, "Here are the rules of danmaku. There's more to it than this, but let's start with the basics. The first rule is that you can't leave the fighting arena. For now, let's just say it's this room."

"Got it," Naruto said.

"The second rule is don't get hit. The person who gets hit loses," Alice said.

"Gets hit with what?" Naruto asked.

Alice didn't say. She simply created a bright sphere of magic and launched the bullet at Naruto. It was the most basic attack in danmaku. The bullet took a second to traverse the distance of the room towards him. It plinked into Naruto with a light impact. It was enough to be decisively felt, but nothing even close to actually hurting. The point was to indicate the hit, not to injure the opponent.

"Like that," Alice said. It was as good a way to start as any. Everybody had to start somewhere.

"What! No fair. I wasn't ready," Naruto said.

"Okay, then let's try it again. Are you ready?" Alice asked.

"Bring it on," Naruto said.

Alice created another bullet and launched it at Naruto. He jumped out of the way. "Easy." Only to be hit with a second sphere which came directly at him. "Hey!"

"I never said there would be just one," Alice said.

"Then do it again. I'll take everything you got. Believe it," Naruto said.

Alice had to admire his enthusiasm. If his tenacity was half as robust as his enthusiasm, then Alice could see him becoming quite decent at danmaku in the coming weeks and months.

She once again sent a few bullets his way. Naruto didn't complacently stop after the first dodge and managed to avoid about a dozen shots before he accidentally cornered himself and got hit by one.

"This isn't fair. I can't attack you back. Of course I'll lose eventually," Naruto said.

It was a valid complaint. If one of the opponents in danmaku couldn't attack back, then she was destined to lose. That was unless she was a real expert and could keep dodging until her opponent just gave up. Naruto was nowhere near that level.

"How about this. Shanghai and Hourai will partner with you. They'll be trying to hit me while I try to hit you. I'll also give you 3 lives. That means I have to hit you 3 times before you lose," Alice suggested. The handicap she gave Naruto would be a good way for her to judge his skill. She wanted to beat him, but only barely beat him. Defeating an opponent with overwhelming power was boring, not to mention demoralizing to a new player. It would be a good exercise for her to measure her skill and judgment as well as to discover Naruto's natural abilities.

Shanghai floated over to fly next to Naruto's head. Hourai released herself from her noose as well and floated to the other side of Naruto. Even with the two puppets supporting Naruto, it still wouldn't be a fair fight. Alice hadn't actually tried before, but she was reasonably certain that she could go for hours without being hit by the combined efforts both Shanghai as well as Hourai. She expected it would take quite some time to get hit even if she faced the combined might of all of her puppets. She had been the one who had created the attacks and the spell cards they used, after all. But it would still be a good thing for Naruto to experience, as well as an opportunity for him to see some of the more advanced forms of danmaku.

"To make it easy for you to see, all of my shots will be lavender," Alice said. She created an appropriate colored bullet to demonstrate. "It'll be good practice for you to try to avoid everything that Shanghai and Hourai will be doing to try to hit me, too, but their shots won't really affect you. There isn't any friendly fire in danmaku. Just concentrate on the lavender bullets."

"Okay?" Naruto asked. It was obvious he didn't understand. How could he appreciate the beauty and the chaos of a danmaku battle having only seen a couple of individual shots fired one at a time? He would quickly learn.

"Ready?" Alice asked.

"Ready," Naruto said. He was poised to jump.

That was all the cue that Alice and the puppets needed. Shanghai and Hourai immediately launched into their attacks. Alice withheld her own assault for a bit at the start.

Despite claiming to be ready, Naruto was bedazzled by the large bright circle bullets and smaller pointed bullets Shanghai was sending out everywhere with seemingly no gaps. They combined to create something of a floral pattern. Hourai's additional attacks were pattered in a more functional and more dense sphere which added to the chaos and distraction. Alice weaved around them all with the confidence of an expert in danmaku. She barely moved enough that the bullets would only graze against her clothing but not actually impact against her. The precise movement was what separated an elegant master of the game versus a skilled amateur.

After several seconds, Alice decided she had waited long enough and causally launched her first lavender bullet at Naruto. He was so distracted that he almost got hit. He dodged out of the way just in time. It seemed Alice's first hit wouldn't be so easy.

Alice split her attention. She focused most of it on the waves upon waves of bullets surrounding her. The remainder was focused on Hourai, Shanghai, and Naruto in that order. It was very similar to how she split her attention whenever she controlled her puppets. She launched another lavender bullet at Naruto. After he successfully dodged it, she sent several more.

The boy was doing very well for somebody brand new to danmaku. He managed to avoid all of the shots Alice fired despite the visual distraction caused by all of the bullets flying through the air. She did notice he was making a very beginner mistake, though. He was staying on "his" half of the room, and staying near the back wall at that. It was a natural idea as it would give him the most time to react to incoming shots, but it likewise limited his movements and made him far too predictable. She decided to demonstrate the problem to see if he would figure it out. There was no reason to make things too easy for him.

Alice started drifting across the room. She edged her way closer and closer whenever a gap revealed itself. She had to jump back occasionally to effectively herd the streams of bullets headed her way. However, she inexorably made her way forward until she was in the half of the room Naruto had started in. As a result, the amount of time Naruto had to dodge any of her shots reduced until it was less than half of the amount of time at the start of the game. Alice's speed of firing had steadily increased as well. The combination of factors made the outcome inevitable.

"That's one," Alice announced as Naruto got stuck in a corner and got hit.

As etiquette demanded, Alice, Hourai, and Shanghai all stopped attacking for a moment to allow the room to clear of bullets and everybody to get their bearings.

"That's not fair. You're on my half of the room," Naruto challenged in the lull.

"Who said it was your half?" Alice asked.

Naruto's eyes grew wide and he scrambled away as Hourai and Shanghai restarted their assault.

His eyes might have been wide, but he had also taken them off of the arena. That was an egregious sin. Alice could have had a second point right there and then, but she instead held off. He was still a beginner, and he had just suffered his first hit. No reason to compound it immediately with another one. She could teach that lesson another day. She let him regain his footing once again far away from her before she resumed her barrage.

Unlike the first time, every time Alice approached Naruto he would maneuver himself to stay away. Seeing how he was only trying to survive and was relying on Hourai and Shanghai to counterattack it was actually a fairly effective plan. The purely defensive strategy he was using would bring with it numerous substantial drawbacks if they ever got to the point of fighting a danmaku battle for real, but for now it was good.

Naruto was making another beginner mistake as well. He was dodging at random. In theory this would be a good way to avoid being hit. However, against bullets like the ones Alice was shooting, which were specifically trained on where a person was were rather than where a person was going, it was a mistake. It resulted in bullets flying everywhere, which ironically resulted in there being no safe haven left to retreat to.

The second hit came shortly afterward, with Naruto being hit with a random shot he had previously gotten out of the way of but had subsequently accidentally dodged back in front of. Alice announced, "That's two."

Once again everybody stopped firing and let the area clear for a few moments.

Naruto did relatively well for his third life. He lasted a surprising amount of time considering he hadn't figured out the concept of streaming and jerking. As it was, it was only a matter of time.

"That's three. Good job," Alice announced. It was the end of the game. Naruto had performed remarkably well. Once he figured out some of the more common strategies of danmaku, Alice was sure that Naruto would become a very solid beginner. She was sure he would do better next time, if there was a next time.

Naruto looked back with a look of fierce determination. He appeared far less tired after the exercise than Alice would have guessed. She expected to see sweat pouring off his face and to see him panting for breath. He barely looked winded despite the fact that he had sprinted probably 10 times further than Alice had moved with her leisurely dodging. At that moment she knew he had it in him to be good at danmaku, if only he could figure out an effective attack and if he decided to dedicate the years to it.

"Now it's time for the most important part of danmaku," Alice said.

"What's that?" Naruto asked. He looked especially interested in Alice's important announcement.

"We have tea," Alice said. Several puppets were already bringing in a teapot, teacups, and snacks while some other puppets were restoring the furniture in the room to make a place to sit.

"What?" Naruto exclaimed.

"This is a tradition in Gensokyo. It's to show that there are no hard feelings and everybody is still friends after a fight," Alice said. In a place as confined as Gensokyo, and with people as strong as Flandre Scarlet and Yukari Yakumo, it was important that good will between everybody was maintained before a problem could fester and become an Incident.

"What?" Naruto asked again. "I don't get it but if you're giving me free food I won't say no. Believe it." He took his seat at the table with Alice, Shanghai, and Hourai. The two puppets couldn't eat or drink, but that didn't stop them from joining in the after-battle party.

Naruto only sipped at his tea, but he ate the cake and pastries being served with the fervor of a starving child.

"What did you think of your first danmaku battle?" Alice asked.

"I think..." Naruto said, but interrupted himself with an unashamed burp. "I think I like it a lot." He plowed into another slice of cake. "Next time we can go for ramen afterward."

"As long as they have tea," Alice agreed. It wouldn't do at all to break tradition.

"I'll check Ramen Ichiraku next time I'm there. They have to have tea. They're the best," Naruto said.

Last Updated: May 22, 2020