Okay, I'd like to point out that I'm trying some things for the first time:

-AN ACTUAL FINISHED PLOT AND JUNK. LIKE WHOA. REVOLUTION.

-PachuMari: Before, I was all MariAri... Before that, it was ReiMari... I'm bipolar.

-Using dates and times and crap.

-Related to that, skipping chunks of time. Last chapter was in late April, I think, and now we're in May! You have to stuff more crap and junk in that lets people make inferences and junk about what happened... Yay. Inferring. School's cool.

-FINISHING. A STORY. Like, I really think I will this time. REVOLUTIONARY. SERIOUSLY. I've finished stories before, but those were 1-3 or more chapters long... I'LL TRY MY BEST! ^^

Stage Two: Patchouli Knowledge
She craved attention, approval, power... She despised our inability to suffice.

I looked at the clock when my ears suddenly realized the sound of chirping birds: morning already? Mid-morning at that; I'd been so absorbed in completing my research on the anatomy of a frog youkai [which would have gone faster if only a certain frog goddess would have complied to some minor dissection.] Great, another all-nighter. I was sure I'd have bags under my eyes: not because of the lack of sleep, as that was simply a myth, but because I always seem to have bags under my eyes.

Which wasn't usually a problem, except that it was already 7:59AM. Which meant that in a few seconds...

I stole a final glance at the grandfather clock in the wall [Sakuya had installed it, although with her tendencies, I'd bide it useless.] and braced myself...

...

Three.

Two.

One...

*BANG!*

"Patchouliiiiii! Patchy, Patchy, I brought a teacup and a coin and a hankerchief so we can try that trick, da-ze!"

Mukyuu, her grammar apalls me...

The trick Marisa was referring to was one out of a book, one of Yukari's additions, of course: Cool Magic Tricks for Kids.

The black-white was enchanted by it, but personally...

Cool?
Magic?

"Cool Magic" my... butt!

[I refuse to say the alternative word...]

The end of April had approached fast and departed swiftly, and now, May flowers a-bloom [and with minor abnormalities this year,] my seasonal allergies were not making me too perky. Marisa mostly respected my wishes each day, arriving at 8:00AM on the dot, staying quiet and trying her best to keep from being a bother. As you can imagine, this was an enormous task for Kirisame Marisa.

The particular book, decorated with fools in "magical" monochrome garb, was a ridiculous, oversized, and painfully colorful picture book with pointless pages of directions instructing the reader on ways to make a fool of yourself in an attempt to fool someone very, very foolish.

[You know, I'm trying my very hardest on this 'no cursing' thing.]

I sighed. The girl was really, really enthusiastic about this 'other world' junk, as she was already onto the letter 'C' books, clearing through 'A' and 'B' in a matter of two weeks. It's easier to assume it was none but her newfound obsession driving her.

Koakuma thought it charming.

I thought it... foolish.

At her [mockingly] strict instruction, she had Koakuma and I sit crosslegged on the floor in front of my desk. Rudely sweeping my workthings aside to make room for her dandy little performance, Marisa held up a bright coin with a square cut in the center and grinned. "I stole this from Onozuka-san while she was slacking off under a tree!"

Not too hard to believe. I smiled gently to show her my approval; If you didn't show the human you were impressed when she was trying to show off her burglary or who knows what else, she would get all mopey and upset.

This, and other habits the 'ordinary' magician had, I discovered after spending so much time with her, as quiet as it [usually] tended to be. Mushrooms were her favorite vegetables although they were really fungi, she was the fan of the same occult doujinshi circle as I, she was scared of getting shots, and she loved technology, especially that of the outside world, persistantly preaching to me how amazingly advanced this techie junk was and how powerful it would be combined with our world's magic.

This worried me sick, but I ran a hand through my purple [I say again, it wasn't my choice] hair and watched as she seated herself on my dark oak desk chair and set her items on the matching table.

"Hey, hey Patchy! Can you see this hankerchief? I know your eyesight totally sucks ze, but you can sorta see it, right?"

I was about two feet away, mind you. I could see it perfectly fine, despite my 20/200 vision.

Koakuma, however, whose eyesight was much sharper, instead gazed off into the distance, her bat wings waving softly, dreamily, shifting her red locks of hair gently. She seemed to be staring, as always, at that certain thing that only she could see...

"Okay, anyway, here's this cup, ze." The classic grin on her face couldn't keep even me from brightening up a bit, as exhausted as I was, while she held out the teacup to me. "Okay, now watch the hankerchief, ze! Watch it!"

She put the hankerchief over the coin and the cup over the hankerchief. Wiggling her slender, bandaged fingers [she always busted up her hands doing who knows what's it] as if that was actually necessary for her 'magic' to work, she slid the cup towards her and asked, with greatly feigned curiousity, "Is the hankerchief still there? Is it? Hmmm?"

"Nope."

She looked over her cup, furrowing her brow. "Wait wha-? What, no! Yes it is, ze! Oooo, Patchouli, you're so silly, luv!"

Picking that particular nickname up from a book on Britain she'd read while still in the 'B' books, if she saw me blush, she didn't make note of it.

She slid the cup back onto the hankerchief, and, making a large show of it, flung the cup and the hankie off of the desk [both of which went flying.]

"Ta-da!"

What do you know, the coin had disappeared.

I instantly understood what she'd done; the whole thing seemed pretty stupid. Marisa was like a tiring little child, though; she craved attention, craved approval, and simply needed others to show they were impressed by her. And thus, I couldn't help but say, "Good job, Marisa. That was pretty cool." with an approving nod.

"Really? You mean that?" she beamed, standing and smiling, her blonde braid swinging about.

Really, I didn't. I gave no answer. Unfortunately, Koakuma seemed to have abandoned me silently again, so I couldn't use her to occupy Marisa with the accolades she required given.

"Uwaaa... Patchouli, you think I might be as good as real magicians? Maybe I should have brought glitter or something..."

Now this pushed my buttons. The bad ones.

She moved aside when I came over to collect my work that had been unceremoniously expelled from my desk. I managed to avoid her eye contact-she seemed to have the ability to see right through me-but I was unable to keep myself from contemptuously remarking, "Marisa, you are a real magician."

She smiled at me like I was stupid. "No, silly. The real magicians, like, the normal, ordinary human ones."

I looked up at her with disbelief. Too late now, the anger in my eyes sent a wave of hurt towards hers that was all too easy to see.

"You're human. You're an ordinary magician. I think you're pretty normal." I didn't actual mean this, but she was making me grouchier than I already was. I needed an iron pill.

She sighed as if I was the naive one.

"I meant the normal human ones from across the border that can do this stuff even without powers. Them, you know, because they're-"

"Mukyuu!"

I was quite embarrassed, as that word seemed to come out at the worst times. For example, now.

"Marisa, you can do things with powers, and I can do even more things. You could've made that coin disappear, along with the hankerchief and the tea cup, without doing much more than muttering a spell."

The magician's voice turned defensive, hovering over me as I kneeled painfully on the floor to pick up a pile of spilt books. I tried not to stare at her slender, voluptuous legs...

"But, Patchouli! They don't have any magic or powers, ze, and yet they can clean their room, heat their houses, and do everything that we have to use magic for! By only the year 1903, they were flying, just like we can. Except no magic whatsoever involved."

Ah, this was from the Airplanes book from the 'A' section.

"In 1969, that's just, what, 66 years later? Da-ze, they reached the moon! Alive! They're not Lunarian or capable of teleportation, they just wanted to go and they figured it out themselves!"

She'd only taken half a day reading a biography on some guy called 'Armstrong' and yet had remembered all this information.

"They have ways around everything and anything, without our magic, ze. We have it easy, we're just... cheating!"

Cheating! Really, now? Wouldn't she just pipe down and help me pick up my books? Yes, I could pick them up with a snap and a telekinetic spell or two, but even I had a limit on laziness. I didn't, so-called, "cheat."

"My hakkero, you know, Rinnosuke made it with their technology. Add just a bit of my magic to this mini thing, and I have the power to blow up this entire mansion! Think about how strong the world would be if our magic were a part of it!"

Seeing how many times she'd attempted the feat of bringing my library to the ground, let alone the entire mansion, this was slightly exaggerated. She'd been going on and on about outside world-mumbo-jumbo like this for ever, but I was just about on my last nerve...

"They're so... smart... So intelligent, so knowledgable," she said dreamily, her passionate voice turning less indignant and more wistful.

You know, I think I would know a little bit more about 'Knowledge.'

"Yukari weakened the border of the Netherworld with Gensokyo so we could go through freely, didn't she? In fact, I was just at Hakyugokurou the other day trying to steal my food back from Saigyouji and Konpaku..." She smiled, and I assumed she'd succeeded, which was quite a feat against Yuyuko when the thievery involved anything edible.

"Patchy, don't you think that maybe... Don't you think the Hakurei border wouldn't be too difficult? She weakens it for the youkai sometimes, doesn't she...? Maybe if she-"

"Oh, would you freakin' shut up? Shut up!"

I'd flung myself up off the floor and was now face to face with the girl, her golden eyes wide and huge.

"My goddesses, Marisa! Don't you dare...!"

Halting myself suddenly and squeezing my eyes shut, I took a deep breath, reminding myself that I needed to learn to stay calm. I was tired of having to fighting everyone I knew, enemy and... "friend."
Yeah, friends.

"Marisa, don't you dare speak of things so dangerous. Never again."

All this volume hurt to produce. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I slumped into my respective desk chair, leaving whatever papers remained on the floor neglected.

She tried her best to look unhurt, but the way it was clearly defined on her dampened face was harsh. Straigtening her black witch hat on her head, she turned swiftly on her heel, her albescent apron, brightly contrasted against her dress, becoming slightly off-center in the process.

"Well, yeah, you're right. That would be a little much, I guess. Yeah." she sighed, no feelings in the words. Attempting nonchalance, she bent to pick up her teacup that lay astray on the floor, her dark blond hair, like butterscotch pudding and honey, becoming disheveled in the process.

"But still... Wouldn't you love to go there, one day? Doesn't it amaze you? I mean... I know that I sure might like-"

The sound of my chair scraping against the wooden floor so abruptly as I stood made me cringe inwardly.

"Kirisame-san, I think it's time for you to leave." I snapped.

The smile on her face was such a forced imitation of her grin, I cringed.

"...Okay, okay, Patchouli, I get it, I'll shut up, ze!" her contemptuous sarcasm dripped poisonous. "I mean, if you want to be so-"

"Now. Good-bye."

I refused to look up from the ever-so-interesting paper I was pretending to read as she wordlessly dashed out, her hakkero on high power, mounted upon her broomstick.

The tears she vainly attempted to stifle made me feel the need to choke down my own.

After I had kicked her out so grouchily like the b*tch I am, having allowed my lack of sleep to get the better of me, I expected that the remaining books in sections D-Z would remain untouched for the rest of eternity. However, following another all-nighter, except tonight on the verge of tears, I heard the door click open at 8:00AM on the dot...

She didn't look up at me, but I watched silently, fighting to contain my enormous feeling of relief, as Marisa Kirisame sat herself, criss-cross applesauce, in front of the second to last bookshelf in the third column.

Punctual as always.

She opened up the twenty-first book on May 13th, a thick, hardcover novel by some Neil Gaiman and one of the last in the 'C' section: Coraline.

I don't like this title. Give me ideas.
Oh, and forgive my probably terrible spelling/grammar/whatever. Whatever.
I FEEL SO HORRIBLE RITE NOW BUT I'M SORRY LOVE YOU GUYS KBAI.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu... Myon~