Its the middle of Fall. On the grounds of the Hakruei Shrine a young girl with red-white clothes and a bow too big for her head sweeps away the autumn leaves. Everytime she thinks she's making progress, more leaves take their place. She's covered to her ankles in the darn things, and there doesn't look to be an end in sight.
"Augh...!" She groaned as she propped her hands under her chin and laid atop her broomstick with her face slumped, "It never ends!"
After puffing her tiny cheeks the girl looked at the leaves and a cheeky grin crossed her face. With a slight groan she dropped the broom to the ground and pulled out a gohei with two tassels dangling from the top. She waved it out in front of her body and squeezed her eyes shut.
"Come on you cruddy gods...Can't you get rid of these pesky leaves for me?" A wind started to blow from her left, making her smile as she turned her head and gloated proudly "Ha ha!" as she opened her eyes to watch the leaves receive their due punishment.
"Hey! Outta the way!"
"Eh?" Instead she widened her eyes and was forced to throw herself to the ground as something careened on by out of control overhead, slamming into the grounds of the shrine and kicking up a mighty wind that blew the leaves away.
After the wind settled down and the dust finished resting atop her back, the little girl rose to her feet and meekly stared at the front of her shrine. Smack dab in the middle of the front door was a girl roughly her age and size, her black-white witch's dress laying upside-down over her body and giving a clear shot of her bloomers. Beside her lied a broom that was lucky not to be in pieces.
The maiden walked up to this strange as they rolled on their rear and took off their witch's hat to rub the top of their head. The girl had fair rosey cheeks and long blonde hair, some of it braided to her left. Squinting her eyes and patting her gohei over her shoulder, the maiden grumbled, "Just who the heck are you?"
"Mrrgrrgrr..." The other girl continued rubbing her head as she slowly stared up into the maiden's eyes, the two blinking at each other as the maiden leaned a little forward and shrugged her shoulders in an attempt to entice and answer.
Suddenly, the girl sprung to her feet, swung two fingers forth in a "V" shape, and slammed the hat back atop her head as she declared, "Marisa Kirisame! Magician Extra-Ordinaire! At your service!"
The maiden looks back at the streak of black soot running up to the shrine then at Marisa's sneering face to say, "Don't look that extraordinary to me. In fact you look pretty ordinary..."
Marisa laid her hands behind the back of her head and chuckled, "So I'm a work in progress, what's it to ya?!"
The maiden planted a hand on her hip and said after a sigh, "So what, you were trying to learn how to fly?"
"Yep!" Yelled Marisa as she plopped her bottom onto the porch and kicked her legs up, "Someday I'm gonna fly so high that I'll be able to see aaaaall of Gensokyo!"
"When did I...?!" Flabbergasted, the maiden sighed again and sat down beside Marisa, mumbling "This girl..." to herself as the two took a look at the bright blue sky. After a few seconds of silence Marisa leaned right into maiden's line of sight and yelled, "So what's your name?!"
The maiden's heart leapt out of her chest as she dryly fumbled with her response, "R-Reimu Hakurei..."
Marisa's eyes lit up like as stars as she pulled back and proclaimed, "You are?! Wow!"
"What? Who else could I be?" Reimu spoke with a nasty glare.
"I dunno, some squatter I guess!" Marisa said with a smile.
"You're a weird one..." Reimu sighed and shook her head.
Marisa sprung back to her feet like a grasshopper, whisker her broom into her left hand, and pointed it straight at Reimu's face as she declared, "Fight me!"
"...What?" It took a few seconds to process that simple demand with an even simpler response. Reimu tilted her head and mouth and muttered, "You musta hit your head hard..."
"Nuh-uh!" Marisa expressed so plainly, "You're the most prestigious name in all Gensokyo! So if I beat you in battle, then everyone will recognize ME as number one!"
"Grrr..." Reimu stood up, planted her gohei firmly atop her shoulder, and stared aside with one eye open, "Listen you. I only fight Youkai with my tools. Not humans."
"Heeheehee...!" Marisa raised her hands aloft and surrounded herself with a plethora of tiny stars, "What, ya think these are just for show?! I can take ya, no problem! Unless the great Hakurei Shrine maiden is a big chicken."
Reimu grit her teeth and sternly closed her eyes until it felt like a vein was about to pop in her forehead, "Ok fine. You wanna piece of me?"
She twirled aside to face Marisa and proclaimed with her gohei swung down, "Just don't go crying to mommy when I beat you!"
"Ha! No need to worry about that! I ain't got no family or home of my own!" The way that Marisa cheerfully declared that brought a brief look of shock and pity into Reimu's eyes, but then the witch had to ruin it by so bluntly deciding, "But once I've beaten you, I think I'll turn your shrine into a witch's hut!"
"Ha!" Reimu scoffed, "Over my dead body!"
…
…
…
Marisa sits. Alone on the Hakurei Shrine's porch. Reimu's dead body lied cold to her right, her face preserved in that same dead look of shock as before. The witch hung her head in silence with her hands wrapped tight around the knee caps.
A deaf explosion goes off, and she somberly looked towards the night sky to find the red titan had vanished with but a final moan of anguish to its name.
Shedding a single tear while biting the edge of her lower lip, Marisa grabbed the rim of her hat and stood up while muttering to herself, "Guess its time, huh, Reimu?"
She faced the empty horizon with a quiet chuckle. As she did, Reimu's right pinky made a single twitch...
Chapter 16: The Fall of Memories
Alex climbed the long, winding staircase to the Hakurei Shrine alone. The grief that resided in his heart was the only thing that resembled company, but it paid him a hefty cost. His body was numb down to the ankles, and his feet felt like they were chained down by anchors the size of mountains.
He didn't know where he was going, or what he expected to find, but as the world broke down around him he'd forever be reminded of what he had done. All that was left was the hope that killing Yukari would make all these corpses piled up worth it.
He reached the top and paused at the gate. It took him a second to recognize that he'd finished the climb. It seemed so much longer than his feet would lead him to believe.
But there he was. Face-to-face with the Hakurei Shrine, as pristine as he remembered it. It was perhaps the only thing left of beauty in all Gensokyo. But he couldn't look back to check. He had to just keep moving forward.
A couple steps forward and his feet bumped into something soft and small on the ground. That he wasn't surprised that it was Sukuna spoke volumes of how much this world had changed. However...
"Her needle has blood on it...And the blood has pooled near her neck..." Alex closed his eyes and stepped over her. After a couple more steps he looked up again and saw Reimu's corpses lying on the porch...And Marisa standing up beside it. Her face was shrouded in the shadows of her hat.
Alex squinted his eyes and murmured, "So...You're still here."
"Yeeeep!" Marisa said with a smirk.
Alex looked back at Sukuna's body, then Reimu's, and finally everything clicked with him. Tragically, Suika and Ran hadn't been lying. The one responsible for Reimu's death was...
"The Miracle Mallet...Sukuna Shinmyoumaru attempted to wish me away, and the Mallet interpretted that the best course of action was to kill Reimu and hope I die when Gensokyo fell."
"Might've been..." Marisa shrugged, "Maybe...It thought death woulda been an act of mercy for us."
Alex lowered his head a little and bit his lower lip. Marisa shook her head and said in a sour voice, "Though what's it matter now? End of the day its still just me...and you."
"...I'm sorry." Alex said in earnest.
"Sorry..." Marisa laughed dryly to herself and smile, "Sorry...Ya say."
She could be seen trembling as she bit her teeth down and squeezed her hat. Then she muttered out, "Y'know...I'm pretty pissed off right now."
"And you have every ri-"
"Can't you just can it for a moment?" Marisa stamped her foot down and twisted the dirt under her heel. She slowly breathed in and out for a bit, mouthing some words but looking hesitant to say what was on her mind.
"...I-Its just...I've got every right to give ya a piece of my mind. You killed a lotta people I knew today, a-and if it wasn't for you Reimu..." Marisa bit her teeth down and looked ready to throw her hat on the ground.
But instead she declared, "But she let this happen. She's sat on her laurels doin' nothing but letting us go out there and die. Ain't the first time its happened lately either. The Urban Legend Incident, the Lunarian Invasion...She was perfectly content letting us sort 'em out on our own even with Gensokyo's safety at stake!"
"I don't give a rat's ass what you got against her, or what she's got against you. Both of ya shoulda had the decency to sort it out on your own and leave the rest of us the Hell alone!" Marisa's bitter scream came with a tearful wobbling of her voice, as though these words had to be wretched up from a broken heart.
Alex felt a chill down his spine and lowered his head some more, allowing the magician a chance to weep in silence. When she was done, she pulled her hat entirely over her eyes and murmured, "And you know what's the worst of it? ...I bet if you'd just come and talked to Reimu first, she woulda taken your side."
"...I didn't think she would, since she's the one Yukari paid attention to the most." Alex spoke with pure honesty.
"Heh, guess you ain't wrong...I was the closest to Reimu, and even I had a hard time pegging down the kind of person she was," Marisa chuckled with a slight grin on her face, "Everyone always had these different expectations out of 'er...But she wasn't a saint, or a devil. She was just...Reimu."
"...But I guess I'm just rambling to the wind at this point, ain't I?" Marisa began to frown, "Gensokyo's got maybe ten, fifteen minutes tops left before it all goes kaput. It don't matter what I do at this point...If I fight you like the rest, then I know I lose. And if I can't beat you, I sure as hell can't beat Yukari."
Alex raised his head and was piqued by curiosity, "Then what do you plan to do?"
"...Heh," Marisa's bright smile shone through the dark night as she proclaimed without fault or flaw, "If this is to be Gensokyo's end, then I challenge you to one last Spell Card Duel!"
"A Spell Card Duel...?" Alex was taken aback for a moment. It had felt so long since he had heard those words uttered. In fact, it was surprising that none of his fights to this point had wound up a Danmaku duel. Truly though, the blame lied at his feet.
He raised his brows and inquired, "What can you gain from this Marisa Kirisame?"
"I know you can leave Gensokyo without any complications. So if I beat you...I want you to take me to the Outside World."
"Oh?" Alex wouldn't admit it, but he was vastly intrigued by her intentions now.
"Maybe its a fool's errand, but just because Gensokyo's gone...Don't mean the magic'll go away. Even if it takes me the rest of my life, I'll find a way to reconstruct Gensokyo back to its original state, warts and all."
"That won't bring the people back to life." Alex bluntly said.
"Pshaw! That's quitter talk, and I ain't no quitter!" Marisa's excitement quieted down to a somber tone as she forced a smile and said, "...But be that as it may...If you do happen to beat me, then I want ya to kill me. And make it quick."
Marisa smirked and proclaimed, "But that ain't gonna happen! I may not be the best Spell Card duelist in Gensokyo, but I've sat proudly at the number two spot for over 15 years!"
She finally lifted her hat up and her eyes shone with an undying vigor. She swung her right hand out and her broomstick flew into its firm grasp. With a fierce smile she proclaimed at the top of her lungs, "I'm Marisa Kirisame! Magician Extra-Ordinaire! At your service!"
She hopped atop her broom, sitting with it aligned left-to-right below her bloomers, and laid her hands upon the rest of the stick before taking flight over the Hakurei Shrine. Alex blinked at her a few times then shook his head, muttering to himself, "I didn't even agree to the deal, but..."
He kicked off the ground and lined himself up with Marisa. Swinging his right hand up he smiled for the first time in a while and exclaimed, "Come at me Marisa Kirisame! And prove the strength of your spirit!"
"Heh...!" Marisa put her hat down one more time to mutter to herself, "This one's for you...Reimu..."
The two fighters then echoed a scream to the empty skies of Gensokyo, "DUEL!"
ORDINARY MAGICIAN: MARISA KIRISAME
Marisa swung her right hand up and drew a familiar glowing card between her fingers. She glided it across the air until it was before her chest and called its name, "Unsealed Magic 'Open Universe'!"
The blast of air signaling the card's release was followed by Marisa's body becoming surrounded by seven moon-like objects that traveled outward in a clockwise pattern. They zoomed through the skies and left large trails of tiny blue stars in their wake, creating something resembling a multi-pointed star for the briefest of moments.
Alex swung to the right and started throwing fireballs between the gaps in the moons to pummel Marisa, who took the attacks in stride and kept sending out more moons without batting an eye. These moons went counterclockwise this time, not even allowing the prior set of disappear before they sped off across the sky.
Alex was hit by a few of the stars they left behind as he grazed the southern most moon and swung his right hand against the empty air, smashing Marisa with a large lightning bolt. He then backed away and swung his hands down, building up fire below his palms in the midst of gliding around the many stars that littered his path.
The Danmaku tickled his body and made him feel somewhat nostalgic. His muscles that had grown accustomed to fighting brutal battles swiftly readjusted to the high-paced kinetic rush of dodging Danmaku, and his heart started racing as he found himself unable to get rid of this smile on his face.
He lashed his hands out and flung the fireballs as comets that streaked back and forth, guided by the waves of his hands. He blended them in with the moons to keep Marisa guessing where they'd come from next, but she didn't appear as though she'd be budging anytime soon.
Alex swerved to the right and narrowly pushed his whole body away from one of the moons spiraling out, which instead smacked the bottom of his legs. He swam into the dazzling sea of stars and used the closer proximity to deal greater damage to Marisa's Spell Card, starting by drawing forth flamethrowers from both his palms.
Though it turned out to not be a sustainable idea in the long run due to how thick the Danmaku flowed around him. Being battered by dozens of stars in the couple seconds he got to attack Marisa made him quickly withdraw to the rim of the battlefield and use those flames of his to hurtle more fireballs her way.
The amount of Danmaku was incredible. It was like flying amidst a snowstorm. Though all the stars looked the same, they each had their own unique feel to them that only someone like Marisa could have the dedication to pull off. She smiled with pride in her work as the bullets kept chipping away at Alex's body little by little.
But when it boiled down to it Alex had the superior firepower and managed to break Marisa's card after a little more back-and-forth from the two of them. Marisa floated amongst the glittering stardust that remained of her Danmaku and grabbed onto the rim of her hat.
"Oi! Reimu!" Marisa, now a few years older yet still pretty short, flew down into the Hakurei Shrine as Reimu was attempting to enjoy a cup of tea inside. She took her broom into her hand and walked in with a smile.
"Did ya hear about those new 'Spell Card Rules'? Its supposed to be a way of settling conflicts without causing mass destruction to Gensokyo!"
Reimu grimaced as she put her cup of tea down on the table and turned her head. She had a somewhat narrow glare to give to the magician as she stated, "I know. I had to give them my approval the other day."
"Heh! Ain't that fortunate for ya? Now we can fight without the shrine paying for it!"
"...You mean without you paying for it. You still owe me for the last dozen times we fought. The Spell Card Rules change nothing." Reimu made a minute effort to force her will upon Marisa, who merely shrugged it off with a wave of the hand and proclamation of, "I'll pay ya back once I become a world famous magician!"
Reimu closed her eyes and picked her tea back up, while Marisa took to facing the sky with a smile on her face and a fist planted firmly on her hip, "Today's a nice day out ain't it? You really oughta come out and get some sun Reimu, you're looking pale as a ghost!"
The shrine maiden glared daggers into Marisa's back as she responded, "Are you kidding me? Its sweltering out there. Sometimes I wish the sun would just...go away!"
Marisa looked back up and noticed a strange scarlet mist begin to cover the skies and block out the sun. She squinted her eyes tight and murmured, "Hey Reimu, have you been keeping up your training with the gods or something?"
"No. Why?" Reimu turned towards the outdoors and fiercely widened her eyes. She stood up and ran for the door, pushing Marisa aside gently as she drew her gohei and proclaimed, "An Incident!"
"A what now...?" Marisa muttered in bewilderment.
"A Youkai must be creating this scarlet mist! Therefore, it is an Incident!" Reimu proclaimed with utmost certainty.
"So an Incident's a Youkai-caused problem? Heh, well then what are we waiting for?" Marisa hopped onto her broom and leaned to look over her shoulder with a wild grin, "First to solve this Incident owes me money!"
She took off, and after a bit of flabbergasting about Reimu followed close behind...
"Heh...! Round two baby!" Marisa drew her second Spell Card almost immediately and pushed it out before her face, "Magic Sign 'Illusion Star'!"
This time Marisa sent hundreds of green and blue stars in rings clockwise and counterclockwise from her body. They rotated where they emerged from until the emerging points resembled a perfectly round sphere. There was a little less room for Alex to squeeze between as he delivered his fireballs swiftly upon the magician.
But some of the stars appeared to be disappearing prematurely. Surely Marisa was up to some kind of trick but Alex was more focused with attacking than observing his surroundings. He kept up a steady bombardment of fireballs and weaved around the stars as best as he could manage.
Marisa suddenly snapped her fingers out and Alex found the area surrounding the two clouded up by a hefty clout of stars that had disappeared not too long ago. The walls of Danmaku collapsed upon his location all at once, and he just narrowly squeezed forth away from them.
"Whew...!" He panted once before returning to engage the magician with his fireballs. She gave a coy smile and shrugged before attempting this trick again with a new set of stars.
Alex flew to the right and crossed the magician a few feet before her face. Her eyes followed his every move with great attention to detail. He responded by blasting her point-blank with explosive flames then jetting back to the edge of the battlefield before the stars could swarm him.
He swung his arms back and drew flames in both hands. He glided around the stars and kept the growing sphere of fire concentrated solely on Marisa's body. The magician raised her brows and muttered a "Oh-ho!" out of earnest interest before those very flames were left sweeping over her body as a venerable tidal wave of fire.
She kept a hand firmly atop her hat and chuckled before repeating her Spell Card's illusionary trick a third time over. But before the stars could converge upon him like he was a black hole, Alex swung his right hand up and blasted Marisa with a lightning bolt, causing this Spell Card to break.
Marisa puckered her lips into a tiny frown then gave her widest smile as she swiped her right hand out and drew another Spell Card to the front of her body, "Loving Heart 'Double Spark'!"
Then she reached into her hat and messed around a bit inside...
In a night that seemed eternal, Marisa and Alice flew through a bamboo forest that seemed endless. They were musing to themselves about the state of this restless night, passing the time as they mowed down dozens of fairies and rabbits with their Danmaku.
But then out of nowhere, the two ran into Reimu and Yukari, who were also patrolling this forest to resolve the Incident. Reimu was feeling a little crazy that night and was throwing out accusations to Marisa.
"So Marisa, care to explain why you've caused this endless night?" She said while patting the top of her palm with gohei, as though prepared to punish a child.
Marisa rubbed the back of her head with a gleeful smile and remarked, "Well...how do I put this Reimu..."
Alice rubbed her elbow into Marisa's hip and muttered, "Quit the stuttering Marisa, just yell at her to get out of the way like you usually do."
Marisa tilted her head and whispered, "What, and piss her off even more?"
Reimu squinted her eyes while Yukari watched on in delighted amusement without a word, "Oh, more you say? So you ARE hiding something from me about this night."
Alice took the lead and proclaimed, "Give it a rest Hakurei. Can't you see that big distorted moon behind you?"
Reimu glanced briefly over her shoulder and sneered, "Of course I did. What kind of a fool do you take me for? Lemme guess...That was your doing as well?"
Marisa swung her hands up in defeat and shook her head, "Ah great. Guess there's no getting around this is there...?"
Marisa slowly started reaching for the bottom of her hat while explaining to Reimu, "You're right. The endless night, that broken, warped moon...Hiding the human village, and putting hats on the stone statues?"
Marisa thrust her other finger up at Alice and softly admitted, "It was all Alice's fault!"
The puppeteer turned back with her face red with rage as Marisa whipped out her mini-hakkero from her hat, pointed it forward all set to fire and exclaimed, "Now bitch...!"
"Get outta my way!" Marisa exclaimed as she pulled out TWO mini-hakkeros and crossed her arms, their fronts all alit with sparkling raw magical power.
Alex widened his eyes as two Master Sparks blasted forth from those mini-hakkeros before he could move an inch. Getting caught up in one of them felt like having a bit of his lifespan shaved cleanly off, but luckily it didn't last more than a couple seconds.
Marisa started firing off rings of red, yellow, green, blue and orange stars from her body at differing speeds, covering most of the sky by the time Alex finished shaking off the force of the Master Spark from his body. He sought out the gaps in the stars but found that they were few and far between.
Thus, keeping his distance seemed like the best course of action. Not like he didn't have a range advantage on his side. But as he started doing the usual business of tossing fireballs around like crazy Marisa fired off another two Master Sparks straight where he was.
Alex quickly barreled to the right before he was swept up once more, but now he was able to experience the Master Sparks quaking the skies as they traveled into the night and vanished as glittering sparkles in the wind, returning a brief splendor of beauty to the desolate lands.
Alex swung his hands up near his shoulders and thrust them out diagonally, throwing the fireballs in a curved pattern to get around any further Master Sparks Marisa was planning to fire. The stars were a nuisance to evade while dealing with the Master Sparks, so Alex just gave up trying and worried about the biggest threats.
Gensokyo's life was winding down. The cracks in the barrier were so numerous that their glows overpowered the pitch of black in the sky. There were no more raindrops to shed, no thunder to cry out.
Yet here Alex was, entertaining this girl's request for one final duel...And enjoying himself in a way he hadn't felt since he was with Shina. He didn't let his smile show through often, but his heart felt uplifted and was resonating with the energetic outlook on life Marisa continued to display through her Spell Cards.
It didn't feel right though. Not after everything he had done. The only way to truly enjoy this was to ignore the sky and pretend that Gensokyo was as it once was. But that'd just be cowardly, and Alex refused to run from the truth.
He'd keep facing Marisa head-on and not look back. He was giving her his all just like she did the same to him. And if he happened to lose, then he'd honor Marisa's request. He'd still be able to go after Yukari regardless...
While he was deliberating with himself over all this, he dodged a few more Master Sparks and as many stars as there were once trees in Gensokyo. Marisa seemed to be lasting longer and longer with every Spell Card she pulled out, but it didn't take much longer this time before Alex had managed to break her Spell Card.
She stumbled back a bit on her broom but clamped her hands down to remain stable. She lifted her head up and paddled her feet around, adrift in her thoughts. She raised one hand to the rim of her hat and gave it a twist to the right, then smiled and said, "Yep. Its no wonder you and that girl beat all those other guys...You got a lot of spunk, gotta admit!"
On what appeared to be any other day, Marisa dropped on by the Hakurei Shrine and saw Reimu fanning herself while laying back atop her porch. She plopped on down beside her and looked up at the sky.
"'Nother hot day ain't it Reimu?" She said while tugging at her sweat drenched shirt collar.
"You're telling me...Why's it got to always be summer? Can't we have an early fall or a late spring just this once?" Reimu barely had the energy to sigh she was so covered in sweat.
"Hehehe. Oh Reimu, the god's aren't gonna give in to your every request y'know?"
"...You think?" Reimu turned her head aside to glare and then pulled her body off the ground, the sweat flying off the front of her face and onto her lap.
Marisa laid her hands behind her head and leaned back to get a better look at the sun. Without batting an eye she said, "Hard to believe its been over fifteen years since we became friends Reimu."
Reimu squinted her eyes and muttered dryly, "I don't recall doing that. I just remember some crazy girl crashing into my shrine at Mach 3..."
"Yeah, good times...Good times..." Marisa slowly nodded her head then pressed her chin up to her chest and remarked, "But I'm glad I met ya Reimu. You pushed me to soar to greater heights when no one else would..."
Reimu slanted her head and slacked her jaw in an odd manner as she asked, "Did you eat some wild mushroom on the way over? What's with this sudden sentimentality?"
"Heh, oh I dunno...Guess I just got to thinking after the last two Incidents. Y'know, after seeing the Outside World for the first time and all..." Marisa let her hat sink atop her eyes as she ruffled her lips like she was nibbling on a reed of straw, "Made ya feel a lot smaller, didn't it?"
"I guess so." Reimu responded right away.
"Aww what the heck, this is just silly..." Marisa swung upright and grinned from cheek-to-cheek as she patted her hand firmly on Reimu's back and told her, "Lets have a Spell Card duel! Its been a while since we've just had one for fun!"
"In this weather?"
"Of course! What beats the summer heat like a little Danmaku? The wind in your hair, the breeze of the bullets passing you by..."
"Alright alright. Anything's better than dying in a pool of my own sweat..." Reimu rose up and tapped her gohei on her right shoulder, then turned to Marisa and remarked, "But you better bust out some new Spell Cards. I've already figured most of yours out."
"Hahaha! Well, I do have a secret weapon..." Marisa leaned forward and winked her right eye, "But it ain't ready yet. Just you wait though...It'll blow your socks off Reimu!"
Marisa lifted her hat up and smiled while a single tear rolled down the right side of her face. She swung her right hand out before her chest and called forth a sparkling Spell Card. She spoke the most proudly towards this one, yet her voice was also tinted with a twinge of regret.
"This'll be my Last Word. If this doesn't do it...then that's fine! But I ain't gonna go out quietly! All my years of hard work and dedication...Will be burned lovingly into your heart forever!" Under her breath, she could be seen muttering the words "Please work" ad nauseum as she activated the Last Word with a snap of the fingers.
"Last Word! The Grimoire of Marisa!"
Alex paused in place for a couple seconds and noticed that nothing was happening. Marisa stared blankly out at her extended hand for a few moments and then leaned back, looking quite content with herself.
Alex shook his head and threw a fireball at Marisa to start things off, but it phased right through her and caused her eyes to nearly bulge out of their sockets as she let out a clear, overzealous gasp.
Alex slowly withdrew his hand as Marisa put a thumb at the rim of her hat and propped it up with a grin, "Whaddya no, I finally pulled it off! A perfect copy of Reimu's Fantasy Heaven! Now anything you try and throw at me will just pass right on through!"
Marisa swung her right hand out with her mini-hakkero gripped firmly between her fingers and declared, "I told you didn't I? This is the culmination of all my hard work! Now try and survive it!"
Marisa's body lit up like a disco ball as a plethora of non-directional lasers shot out and spun around her. Quickly following up on that by summoning six of Alice's dolls to her sides, which sent out multiple rings of red Danmaku in rapid succession. When that didn't seem good enough, Marisa swung her left hand out and watery bullets began traveling in from both sides of the battlefield. This was already overkill enough, but then she started firing off her own starry Danmaku to join in with all the rest.
"She wasn't kidding..." Alex said with eyes wide-open as he tried to weave around all these different kinds of Danmaku. But it was impossible. No one, not even Reimu, could feasibly graze all these bullets. This hodge-podge of differing shot types reflected the kinds of people Marisa had "borrowed" knowledge from over the years.
But there was a certain beauty to this chaos. It was the perfect reflection of Marisa's soul, which ran wild and free on her own terms. It also displayed how crafty she could be, and how far she was driven to be the very best. Seeing this much determination shine in her Last Word almost made Alex want to allow her the win right then and there...
But as she declared this to be a Timed Card, this was not something for him to decide. Either Marisa's Last Word would finish him off, or not. All he could do was keep trying to dodge around the Danmaku as best he could. She just sat away on her broom, watching him dance around for her own amusement.
Yet there was still one last trick to pull from her endless bag of tricks. She raised her mini-hakkero up as the first fifteen seconds of this Spell Card had passed and screamed "MASTEEER SPAAAAARK!" until her throat felt hoarse.
A massive beam of light cut a swathe through the Danmaku established already just to get to Alex. He flew out of the way but felt like his heart was about to burst from his chest. Marisa's mini-hakkero was smoking a bit as she put it down and watched Alex get bombarded with Danmaku.
He was starting to feel a little fatigued, especially after the tireless gauntlet of battles throughout the day. But as long as his eyes remained open he'd keep this duel going. Soon enough thirty second had passed on by, and Marisa raised her mini-hakkero for another Master Spark.
Alex didn't get out of the way in time and half his body was enveloped in the attack. He could still keep going just a little bit longer, the end felt close in sight.
Another fifteen seconds passed on by like the spring breeze and Marisa fired another Master Spark. Alex successfully dodged it but ran amok with a bunch of other Danmaku as punishment instead. He kept going strong, but he didn't feel he'd last much longer.
Marisa's mini-hakkero was on fire, smoldering her right hand with soot and ash as she wrapped both hands around it and poised it directly above her face.
Alex couldn't believe it himself. He had fought gods, demons and monsters, but this human, this ordinary girl, was probably giving him his toughest fight thus far, even if the manner of engagement was a far cry from the bloody affairs of the past.
And yet, the two could sense this duel was drawing to a close. Marisa squeezed her teeth together and braced herself atop her broomstick, then as the energy welled up inside her mini-hakkero to the point of exploding she let out one last valiant cry as the Last Word reached the exact minute mark.
"FINAAAAAL..."
"SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRK!"
Her mini-hakkero was obliterated as everything became swallowed up in a flood of bright white light. Alex closed his eyes and became just like the rest of the Danmaku, a simple obstacle to be swept aside without mercy. The searing pain of the attack lasted beyond the Spell Card itself for a good ten seconds, by which point Alex could safely open his eyes and look around.
He saw that Marisa had been knocked off her broom and fell flat on her rear. She lifted her head up and rubbed the back of it like she'd just tripped and fell and was chuckling as she admitted, "...Well schucks, guess I lost after all."
She hopped onto her feet and called her broom down into her hand. Alex landed a few feet in front of her and watched as she tipped the front of her hat up and said "A deal's a deal! Get to it!" like it was no big deal.
But for the first time in his life, Alex shook his head and said, "No. You beat me. I admit defeat."
"..." Marisa snarled her teeth and grumbled, "Ah for pete's sake...I didn't ask for your pity! I gave it 110%...There ain't nothing for me to ashamed about!"
She closed her eyes with a trembling smile and Alex's expression simply sagged in sorrow.
"...I did make a promise..." Alex summoned his sword and angrily bit his teeth down as he charged forth and rammed the blade straight through Marisa's chest. She just stood there motionlessly, suspended in place by the girth of his sword as the blood oozed out from her back.
She held onto her broom and placed her other hand on Alex's shoulder as he shook. Before she fell to death's thrall, she whispered into his ear, "But you better bury Yukari thousands of feet under...Cause if ya don't, I'll be haunting yer nightmares 'til the end of days!"
Dying only as someone of her nature could, Alex did not rip the blade free from her chest. He slowly took it out and laid a hand on her back, lowering her to the ground with her broom still in hand and a smile plastered upon her pale face.
He closed his eyes and felt the emptiness of the world suffocating him. Now there was truly no one left in Gensokyo besides him...
But at the crux of the world's demise, everything felt eerily silent. The atmosphere was plagued with an otherworldly chill, and a wind as haunting as death's touch rode in from the vacant Hakurei Shrine. Alex's body became empty as he opened his eyes and raised his head towards the shrine, where it was vacant no longer...
There stood a maiden. A maiden dressed in clothes as white as snow, and skin as pale as clouds. The only traces of red were the thinly ribbons keeping her sleeves attached, and the faint glimmer in her irises. She stared down at Marisa with an empty expression, and the feelings of melancholy radiated outward from her body and dropped the temperature to sub-zero levels.
Alex's body rose to attention towards this person, whose appearance he could not forget. Yet it should have been impossible for her to exist in this state. It was not truly a part of this interpretation of events. But there she was, redefining what was truly impossible.
Reimu Hakurei...had come back to life.
Next Time: Concealed the Conclusion