Patchouli blasted a laser beam towards the Merking to temporarily stun it as Koakuma swam for Marisa who had just lost consciousness. Koa had managed to scoop up Marisa's unconscious body was getting ready to swim up to Patchouli when she felt a tug on her leg. The Merking managed to grab her leg with its hands and pulled her down. Koakuma was prepared and delivered a kick to its jaw which only served to further anger it. It started to swim towards her with its claws extended, but luckily Patchouli protected her by trapping it inside a rune prison. She looked at her master who gave her hand gestures to swim away. She nodded and began to swim away with the drowned witch in her arms.
Now with the two away from the Merking's vicinity, Patchouli took out a magic tome(that's waterproof, no less) and began to chant a magic spell on the Merking. From within the rune prison, a small laser beam started shooting the fish from one direction, but it was deflected by its scaly hide with ease. Just then another laser beam struck it, and then another one, and then another, and another, and another... Soon, many small laser beams started firing at the trapped fish in an attempt to weaken it. It seemed to not have any effect, but not too long after, its scales started to have cracks appear on them. Then, one by one, the lasers started to penetrate through its thick scaly hide and it started to scamper and spasm around in pain before it would soon lay unconscious. Patchouli breathed a sigh of relief through her mouthpiece as she put away her magic tome.
'That was tiring... Its defenses seem to have grown sturdier. I need to try and find a way to send him away, fast...' Patchouli thought before she swam away towards where Koakuma was. Resurfacing, they began to swim towards land as they dragged Marisa with them while being careful enough to not let her swallow water. Upon reaching land, they let Marisa down on the floor where the water won't reach and took off their diving gear.
"Are you alright, Master? You look tired." Koakuma asked as she went over to her master.
"I'm fine... The Merking has gotten stronger, so I needed a lot more energy to seal it..." Patchouli said as she panted in her exhaustion. "If he keeps building up his resistance at this rate, I don't think I'll have enough power to contain him in the future..."
"Master! Marisa's not breathing!" Koakuma shouted to her master as she laid the unconscious witch down.
"What!? Crap, crap, I totally forgot about her!" Patchouli ran up to them and sat down beside Marisa where she began to cast a healing spell to her. "Dammit, I don't know any spells to help her in this situation! No healing spells are for treating drowning or suffocation!" she said in a little panic as she just went with her healing magic while Koakuma began to do CPR. Patchouli tried to calm down to focus her magic on Marisa, but the thought of her dying made her waver a little. Meanwhile, Koakuma was doing chest compressions on Marisa, hoping that she would recover. She then leaned down to give her mouth-to-mouth, hoping she could blow air into her lungs to expel the water out. But Patchouli noticed that something was wrong. Marisa's chest wasn't rising or falling whenever Koakuma would blow air into her.
'This is bad... Her chest isn't rising...' Patchouli thought before she turned to Koakuma. "Koa, her chest's not rising. Try again." she said to her as she focused her magic into her healing spell on Marisa. Koakuma then proceeded to try with the chest compressions again...
Marisa felt heavy. She didn't know where she was. Everything was pitch black. She seemed to be floating in an endless void, but for some reason her body just wouldn't move no matter what she did. She could see nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing, even feel nothing aside from her strangely heavy floatiness.
'Where... am I...?' she thought. 'Am I... dead...?'
Just then she could see visions in front of her. She recognized some of them as she had been through them before. She couldn't believe it. Her life's flashing right before her eyes, but everything seemed to go by fast and she couldn't even see which memory is which. Shortly after, she could see the images of everyone she had come to know in her life, friends and enemies alike.
'Reimu... Alice... Nitori... and even Cirno, huh...? Everyone...'
She could see the images of her friends leave her one by one, and each time with a bad thing she might have done to them. She could feel sadness well up inside her, but she just couldn't cry no matter how much she wanted to as she watched them fly by. Just then one image stopped by. It was the last image, and it's someone she didn't think she would think of at the time of her death.
'Patchy...'
The image of the lavender-haired librarian stood in front of her, looking fairly disappointed and angry.
"This is why I don't want you to go around stealing my tomes, Marisa! You should know the dangers my tomes can hold!" Marisa remembered the words Patchouli said to her some time ago. She then found herself looking at a particular memory where the entire library was engulfed in flames from a failed lava spawn magic test that she tried to do in secret when she sneaked in to steal her books.
*Flashback*
The entire library was in flames and all exits blocked. Her and Patchouli were trapped amongst the fire with Koakuma unconscious. She could not remember much of what Patchouli said, but the next thing she knew Patchouli flooded the library with water all the way to the top, and that's saying something considering the size. Marisa watched as Patchouli swam over to her unconscious servant and placed her hand on her mouth and nose to prevent her inhaling water as they both held their breaths. But even with the water, the fire just won't put out; in fact, it got even stronger and even heated up the water.
"Patchy, you..." Just then she could see Patchouli placing her other hand on her mouth and nose, struggling to hold her own breath. It hadn't been a minute and Patchouli's already struggling. She then watched something she wanted to not remember at all in her life; her swimming towards her and giving her a kiss of life. Not only that, she even went to Koakuma and gave her one as well until she woke up, leaving her with just barely enough air to try something risky, which was to blast her danmaku towards the fire. She could not believe what she saw. The fire actually put itself out when she hit it with her danmaku. Patchouli and Koakuma took note and began to fire their danmaku towards the many placed the fires were, and slowly but surely they managed to put them out.
But then there rose a problem: they're still underwater and were at the end of their breathhold limits. Patchouli tried to call the water away, but she barely had enough air to hold for herself and was on the verge of passing out as well. Marisa began to take quick action and tried to cast the spell the best she could. It took her a few tries, but she finally got it to work and she watch as the library was slowly drained of water. The three of them resurfaced and caught their breaths, Patchouli in particular gasping for air and weakly coughing out water from her system. After the water had fully drained, Patchouli angrily looked at Marisa saying the exact words she just remembered.
Marisa could not believe what she just saw. Her stunts had once almost gotten themselves killed, and Patchouli actually tried to save themselves from it despite her frail figure. She really underestimated how much she cared for their own safety. She was only trying to protect her and to think that even she has trouble casting some spells that she own herself, this must means she's lost much of her power. Now, to think that her stunts had actually killed her, she started to feel regret in herself.
'Patchy... I never knew you cared so much about me...' she thought as she felt herself cry uncontrollably. She then saw the image of her slowly phasing out. 'No, Patchy... come back... Don't...' It was at this time she could feel her consciousness slowly fading away as well...
...until she felt a sudden pain in her chest and something going up from her chest to her throat which she would soon cough out. She could then feel more and more of the same thing coming out of her mouth little by little. Her chest felt tight and burning, her body heavy, and her throat aching. Before long, she found herself able to breathe.
"Thank goodness... Marisa, you're alive..." said a muffled but familiar voice. Marisa would then open her eyes to see the lavender-haired librarian and her servant sitting around her, the librarian in tears. She could not believe it. There she was, sobbing and smiling as she came back to life before she would lean down to embrace her. "Marisa... I thought you were dead! Don't you ever do that again, you hear me!" Patchouli said between sobs. "I told you not to meddle with stuff you don't know! That's why... That's why..."
Seeing her cry like that seemed to have triggered something within Marisa. For some unexplained reason, Marisa started to well up tears in her eyes and before she knew it, she hugged Patchouli tightly, crying out loudly, surprising both Patchouli and Koakuma.
"Marisa!?" Patchouli said in surprise. Neither she nor Koakuma expected Marisa to act like this. 'Why is she acting like this?' she thought. 'Did something happen to her? This is making me uncomfortable.'
Koakuma went over to see what was wrong. Marisa was crying in Patchouli's chest, seeming to be afraid. She even hugged her tightly too. 'This is definitely not how she usually acts. I would try to ask her about it, but she could be suffering from trauma or something.' Koakuma thought as she sat down and watched until Marisa would finally stop crying.
Recomposing herself, Patchouli pried Marisa off from her hug. She took a look at her and she could see genuine fear in her face, but decided to act as if she's uncaring for her. "Now what did I tell you about sneaking into the library and meddling with stuff you shouldn't be messing with, Marisa? Have you learned nothing from your past encounters?" Patchouli said while keeping a poker face. When Marisa didn't answer, Patchouli let out a sigh and set her down on the ground. "So have you learned now? Is that what you're going to say? 'Cause I'm not falling for it anymore, Marisa. You've been shown mercy too many times, but I can see that my mercy was what kept you coming here to steal everything. You think I'm weak, is that it? You think because I'm frail I can't do anything to sto-"
"Patchy..."
"M-Marisa!?" Patchouli was caught off guard again, but this time she was slightly prepared as she leaned down to see what she wanted. Marisa sat up and bowed to her as she asked for forgiveness.
"Please forgive me, Patchy. I've been such a nuisance to you. I've been breaking into your library just for fun not knowing of the dangers this place holds. I'm sorry, Patchy! I promise I'll stay away from here! I-I'll even return your books if that's what you want! I'll do anything! I'll do it all, just tell me what!" Marisa said as she apologized. She seemed to have full regrets over everything, but Patchouli, feeling suspicious about her sudden change of person, still didn't buy them and only slapped Marisa.
"Do you think after everything that you've done you can just ask for forgiveness from me like that!?" Patchouli said angrily. "You're such an idiot! Who do you think was responsible for everything that happened to you? You, right? You brought this on yourself! Don't just expect me to just forgive you for something that's not under my control!" She then stood up and walked away angrily, crying, leaving Marisa dumbfounded and in shock. Koakuma then went after Patchouli to console her. Seeing how the two had just left her be, Marisa stood up and tried walking to them to catch up, but she was still too weak and she fell down face first.
"Patchy... wait...! Patchy...!" Marisa said as she limped along the floor. She looked up to try and see where the librarian was going only to find that she has lost sight of her and her servant. She limped for some distance more before stopping, panting as she tried to catch her breath. "Patchy... please... I'm sorry..."
Marisa really couldn't believe it. Patchouli has decided to not forgive her after all. While she had expected that she won't forgive her, she didn't expect for them to just leave her in that state. She could see nothing but bookshelves around her. Only now has she realized that she seemed to have lost in a bookshelf maze. She cannot move, she cannot even stand let alone sit, and now she's lost in a maze. No way out, no way to get out. She's starting to feel scared now; scared that she would just be abandoned. Now that she's made herself an enemy to Patchouli, what are the odds that she would have the rest of the residents of the mansion turn against her as well? What if she spread this incident to the others? How would they react? Would they hate her too? What would she do then? With all those thoughts running inside her head repeatedly, Marisa could do nothing but cry. She had no one but herself to blame after all.
She didn't know how long she had cried to herself, but she noticed that Patchouli and Koakuma were standing in front of her, still looking rather angry. Marisa felt tiny in front of them now. Not only has she gotten herself in trouble for not listening to her woes, she could've also been saved by them and now they're probably trying to give her a taste of her medicine.
"Patchy... Koa..." Marisa said wiping her tears away.
"So this is where you are. Where were you trying to go anyway? We were just about to get your some meds and we suddenly found you missing." Patchouli said in annoyance. "It's a good thing you only crawled a short distance away, otherwise I would've had to summon a pixie to help find you."
"Here, now don't move." Koakuma said as she knelt down to tend to Marisa's wounds. It only just registered to her that her legs were wounded as well as some of her body, and it also just registered to her that she's still in her underwear; her torn lingerie at that, for them to see, but she could do nothing to cover herself up while the devil servant tended to her wounds.
"So I see that you've finally realized of the implications of everything you did, right? Then I won't have to explain any more stuffs." Patchouli said. "You're free to go now, Marisa. Take your broom and leave this place." Patchouli then set Marisa's broom next to her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'll have to confiscate all the books that you've stolen and to clean up the mess you did in the labyrinth." Just as Patchouli was about to leave though, Marisa grabbed her hand to stop her. "What now?" Patchouli asked.
"Patchy... do you still... forgive me...?" Marisa asked. "You're still mad at me, aren't you? You can't just expect me to just leave like that, right...?"
"Yes I can, just like how you just leave every time in the past." Patchouli said. "Now why are you asking me stuff like that? Are you saying you don't want to leave this place?"
"No... I don't want to leave, I mean, not yet... I just felt that... it's just wrong to just leave-"
"What's this? Marisa's subconscious telling her that what she did is wrong? Are you okay, Marisa? Do you have a fever?" Koakuma asked half-surprised half-sarcastically as she placed her hand on her forehead. "Okay, that is pretty warm, but not enough for a fever..."
Patchouli walked over to Marisa and knelt down in front of her. "So are you saying you rather be punished than to just leave here and forget like how you always do?" Patchouli asked.
"Yes..." Marisa replied. "Just punish me how you like, Patchy. I don't even care anymore. You can treat me like shit all you want, I won't object. You wanna know why?"
"Um... why is that?" Koakuma asked, feeling confused.
"Why? Because... I... I..."
"Yes...?" Patchouli said, waiting in anticipation.
"...I... got you!" Then suddenly, Marisa stood up and knocked them aside, feeling cheerful and bright and looking as healthy as ever. "I can't believe I managed to trick you!" Marisa said loudly. "You didn't honestly believe that I'd change already, did you?" Marisa asked as she picked up her broom.
"O-Of course not! W-Who would in their right mind would-" Before Patchouli could finish her words, Marisa cut her off by laughing.
"See? You're not being honest with yourself! You were expecting me to be sorry about it! I knew it! Haha!" Jumping onto her broom, she swiftly flew around the library to pick up her loot and fly out of the library through the stained glass window at the top of the library meters away. She celebrated her victory as she escaped, moving her arms and legs in the air. "Woohoo! I can't believe I just did that. I really got the- Ow! My arm..."
Standing there dumbfounded, Patchouli could watch as Marisa left while Koakuma paced around in panic. Patchouli then let out a small chuckle before leaving to clean up the mess Marisa had created in the library.
"M-Master, aren't you going after her?" Koakuma asked worriedly, confused by the sudden turn of events.
"No, Koa. I'll let her go for now." Patchouli said. "She's already experienced enough today and I think she would need some rest to get it out of her head." She then stood up and began to walk away. "And besides, the next time she comes here, I'll have a surprise waiting for her."
Koakuma might've been mistaken, but she could see Patchouli smiling as she turned around. 'Did something happen between her and Marisa?' she wondered before she just left to rearrange the books with a shrug. It's true that they managed to take out at least half of the books Marisa had stolen(and that's like, 50+ books), but what else could've made her so happy. She didn't know, but she couldn't care less as she was happy with the amount of books they managed to take back.
One week later...
Marisa's back at it again. She did her storeroom break-in routine again and went down the elevator like last time. She's set her goals on even larger number of books this time, and since she lost around half of her loot last time, she's decided to take even more loot from them, starting with the high level magics...
"Huh? What the?" she pondered as she felt a drop of water on her forehead. She looked up to see water dripping from the elevator ceiling. "Water?"
The elevator stopped moving and Marisa waited as the doors opened.
"Oh... So they found out..."
A wall has been placed right in front of the elevator with a sign reading "If you want to break in, you'll have to find another way in. Signed, Patchouli." along with the icon of a heart next to her name.
"So I can't use this path anymore... Oh well, I still have tons of ways to break in." Marisa said in defeat before closing the elevator door, missing the warning that tells her to not press the up button on the elevator. Marisa then pressed the up button to go up, but the elevator did not go up. 'Huh? Must be slow.' she thought as she pressed the button again. It still didn't move. She pressed it a third time and suddenly the elevator shook. "Okay, what is going o-oooooonnnn!?" She was cut mid-sentence when she felt the elevator speeding down. The lights started to go off one by one until it became almost pitch black inside the elevator. Marisa held on for dear life on one of the bars as she fell along with the elevator. Suddenly, after what seemed like minutes(it was only 5 seconds), she suddenly felt the elevator stop. "What is happening...?" she said to herself worriedly. Then, one by one, the elevator doors fell off one by one, revealing to her that she's now behind a giant glass window, and right at the other side stood Patchouli and Koakuma, both grinning.
"Hello, Marisa. How do you like my surprise?" Patchouli asked from the other side, her voice sounding muffled.
"How do I like it? That was scary as hell! I thought I was gonna die, Patchy!" Marisa said to her almost shouting as she tried to regain her bearings. "And what's with this place anyway? Why are we separated by glass?" she asked, approaching them.
"Well, isn't it obvious? You're now our captive, Marisa, and you will not get out until we say so." Patchouli answered with her hand over her mouth to conceal her delighted smile.
"Now be a good girl or we'll have to use force, okay~?" Koakuma said to Marisa in a singsong manner.
Marisa only flinched as she realized that she was at a disadvantage. She looked around her and found that, other than a platform that seemed to be a couple of meters high that's separated by a thick glass pane on one side and a small wooden(?) cabin on the other side which isn't separated by anything but a pit that stretches across the room, she's pretty much trapped with no way out. Then, acting quick, she took outher mini-hakkero and shot a few blasts of danmaku at the glass window only for them to be reflected back at her.
"Nah-ah-ah~ This glass is danmaku and spellcard proof, so you can't just blast your way out." Patchouli said. "Now why don't you sit here and wait like a good girl? I've got some business to attend to." she added before starting to walk away with her devil servant.
"W-What business? You never have any- Hey, where are you going! Come back!" Marisa shouted towards them while banging on the glass window, but she was only ignored by them as she watched them walking towards a door and walking through it. Sighing in defeat once again, she began to walk towards the cabin to pass the time. Inside, she found food prepared for her along with a plethora of books, magic tutorial books at that; and a note. She picked up to find that it was from Patchouli, reading "If you wait patiently and not try to destroy the place, then you'll get a personal treat from me~ 3". Looking at the note, Marisa released it and smiled, thinking of all the possible things Patchouli would do to her.
"Seriously Patchy, if you want my attention so much, you could've said so." Marisa said under her smile as she went to indulge herself with the food Patchouli brought for her.