Disclaimer: Touhou belongs to Zun, znt belongs to Noboru Yamaguchi.
Louise POV
It seemed all so surreal, from the summoning, to being kidnapped, to learning how to use her explosions, to finally getting to go home. Everything seems to happen one after another like a snowball, leaving her feeling disorientated but none the less happy. It felt like waking up from a nightmare, and seeing your own room in that familiar academy. Everything seem to be moving back in to place for Louise, her life seem to be moving on to a much better track.
When they brought back the news they could go home, many students wept tears of joy and embraced each other, a few mourned for the lost friends who died in the forest they escaped from. But some also worried about the life of those who were still on Yumemi's ship when the rest of them escaped. The most vocal of them were Guiche, who to the surprise of many, asked the professor what are they going to do about those still captured by the crazy scientist. Perhaps he actually cares a lot about Montmorency, Louise thought to herself after hearing it, but to think that Guiche of all people would actually worry seemed like such a strange scene. Louise had not paid much attention to the flamboyant boy, but he no longer act dramatically anymore these days, but then again no one could be as upbeat as before after they had been tossed in to an unknown place with much danger.
But what Guiche said did lower the moral of the group a bit, after all many of the people they knew were on the ship, though personally Louise wasn't that close to any of them, they were still her classmates. The reality that they couldn't do anything about the people still trapped on that ship killed the cheery mood of the group, Professor Colbert said they would seek help from Tristain after they returned, but everyone knows in their heart that such act is meaningless. Just one look at Yumemi's ship was enough to understand it was far above what they could hope to match, but no one said anything, the good mood was already killed, no one wants to drag it down any further.
Over the next week, everyone just waited in the inn, sleeping and eating; occasionally a few students such as Tabitha went to the village in the morning and return at dinner, it seemed that they were bored of merely waiting but Louise felt there were no point of going out, after all time wouldn't move faster either way.
After a lengthy week of waiting, without any events, this long chain of events would soon come to an end, soon… Louise thought to herself as she slept on this bed for the last night.
Bonk, bonk, bonk
But before Louise could fall asleep, a knock came from the window of her room. She opened her eyes trying to adjust to the darkness of the room. Light suddenly reappeared as an annoyed Kirche lit up the candles beside her bed, soon Siesta and Tabitha woke up too.
"Ugh… who is making that knocking sound?" Kirche asked slowly, the as she brought the candle towards the window, the weak flame illuminated the small space around the window revealing a familiar face.
"Master Marisa!" Siesta said in surprise, the Magician that taught them was floating outside the window on her broomstick. Seeing that Siesta recognized her, Marisa took that as an invitation and came into the room through the unlocked window, it seemed the knocking was a formality.
"Hey kids, I was on an errand at the village tonight and I heard you guys are leaving tomorrow, so I'm dropping by to say congratulations!" Marisa said to the group, full of life, how she becomes so energetic at night is a mystery Louise could never solve.
"Thanks, master Marisa, but does it have to be so late, we're really tired already." Louise said with a yawn, Marisa looks slightly offended but her expression quickly change back to a smile, as she took out a small vial and an artifact Louise saw a few times. Marisa tossed the two items towards Louise and Siesta, who both caught one of them, Louise could not believe what she was holding right now, it was an artifact that she saw in action only in a few times but could not mistaken it for anything else.
"The Mini-Hakkero!"
"Only a one-shot replicate, it's my parting gift to you as your Teacher, I can't replicate how Kourin's skill well enough so it'll probably only shot once and isn't that strong. As for Siesta, it is my personal potion smoke bomb, good toy for hide-n-seek, hope it help you where ever you are going." Marisa said to the duo. Louise was thankful, even though the item probably isn't going to be used; it was a good souvenir for remembering the person who helped her out with her magic problems. She and Siesta said their thanks to the older girl, who proceed to climb out of the window and flew away.
"That was touching, but couldn't she come to see you guys in day-time." Remarked Kirche, she was still annoyed that she was woken up from her sleep, but everyone else was too sleepy to talk back, soon the light in the room died down again, as peace returned to the inn.
Marisa POV
Marisa flew towards the Hakurei Shrine, it was the dark of night, but a lot of light was in the Hakurei Shrine. A party was going on, a small one, not on the scale of an incident solving party, but a party none the less. But Marisa was not in the mood of joining the party, she was here to see one person. The very person that Louise's group was going to meet tomorrow.
"You're quite moody tonight, what's the matter?" Yukari asked, she was surrounded by sake bottles while sharing a drink with Reimu.
"I think you know already."
"It isn't good to be too attached to outsiders." Yes, Marisa is quite worried about her to disciples, even if they only been together for such a short time, she still felt she had some responsibility over their well-being. And if there is one thing that is dangerous to their well-being it is Yukari.
"Yumemi's out of control right now Yukari, Chiyuri might keep her somewhat in check, but she is still too dangerous for these people. I have no idea what Yumemi's doing in their world but you do, are you really going to send these people into the meat grinder?"
"Yeah, I'm totally fine with it." Yukari answered without any second thought. Marisa sighed; it was idiotic to argue with a youkai sage, there was no changing her mind, so she has to take a different course.
"Reimu, convince this a-hole here that she should stop this stupidity." Marisa said towards the only person who could change a youkai sage's opinion, but Reimu let out a troubled look.
"Yeah…about that…you see I kinda…sort of…"
"Reimu got paid off by Yumemi to stay off her case and she already spent all the money on this party."
"YOU WHAT!"
"Yukari, I'm so going to beat you up until you cry." Reimu said dryly, and then turned to Marisa, "So yeah, kind of like that, sorry can't help, I don't have money to pay back Yumemi anymore, so if I back off I would have to live off dirt and grass again for two month, sorry Marisa." Marisa can't believe this; Yumemi really did a great job making sure nobody interferes this time, at this point she could only try to convince the sage through danmaku rule, but taking on Chen, Ran and Yukari all at the same time is too much even for her, there is no way she could beat them all without using a continue. So in the end, giving those two some tools was all she could do.
"Yukari, I want you to be honest here, what is the chance that those people would meet an unfortunate scenario?" Marisa asked as she grabbed a bottle of sake and began guzzling down, she really need it to deal with the following info.
"100%, it isn't some complex equation, what Yumemi is trying to do would totally be an incident if she done it in this world." Yukari said as she took another drink of sake. Of course it was 100%, if it wasn't Yukari wouldn't have agreed to send them back.
"But they could potentially overcome it, you could never know, they could be like those fairytales where the hero prevail against overwhelming odds with heroic willpower." Yukari said with entertaining look on her face, it sounds like she believe in the group but Marisa know better. Willpower means jack shit, if the raw power is too different, it is like hoping an ant could stop an avalanche.
"It seems like you don't believe in them at all, didn't you teach a few of them, have a bit of faith in your own students. Faith provides power, right?"
"For gods, which they clearly aren't."
"Puupuu, Marisa you party pooper, you are totally ruining the good mood of the party." Yukari ignored Marisa's bitter words, and decided to act moe to take away some of the tension. It was also to tell the magician that the discussion is over. Marisa ignored the old abominations who was faking stupidity and began drinking heavily again.
"So, should I beat Yumemi up after her work is done?" Reimu asked questioning whether this qualifies for an incident.
"Whatever suits you the best, Reimu dear." Said Yukari, as she drank away, sounding very cheerful despite Marisa's stare. The two main routes are blocked, but there must be another way to stop Yumemi's rampage, despite all the backing she got from…Wait that's it! Marisa suddenly realized that there is perhaps still a way to stop Yumemi, all she need is a distraction, someone dumb enough to hold all the observer's attention, and she got the perfect two candidates in mind. All she need to do now is get the old youkai to agree to bring her too.
"Hey Yukari can I come and see?"
"Sure."
Well, that was easy.
Louise POV
The sun is shining the bird is tweeting; it was a good day for Louise, a perfect start to the day where everything would soon return to normal. Excitement was in the entire inn as her classmates woke up before the sun is even high in the sky, everyone could not contain wait to go home. In every room, sounds of movement rang through as people began packing up the few items they have with them, Louise even felt she might miss the inn's bed despite its hardness and slightly uncomfortable pillow.
Sounds of footstep rang loud, as Louise, Siesta, ran down stairs to meet the group. Coming down stairs, Louise spot the Ran lady, who she saw before, amongst the group talking with apparently about the travel plan. The students who never seen the lady before, pointed and whispered to each other, some with a bit of fear, others with a bit of curiosity, if Ran had heard them, she certainly gave no reaction.
"Hey where's Tabitha?" Kirche who came up behind them asked, the short blue hair girl was not amongst the group despite coming down early. Louise shook her head to tell Kirche she didn't know who then proceed down to look for her.
"Attention students!" said over the excited muttering of the students. As everyone's attention turned to him, he proceeds to explain the plan of going back home.
"As you know, we would be following 's (who proceed to gave a bow of greeting) mistress to go home. The place we're heading to is the south gate of the village, is everyone ready? (a waveof nodding) Good then let's head out." With that the group began to follow and Ms. Ran's out to the streets.
The streets were as usual filled with life, as carts of people selling stuff, street performances and chattering rang loud everywhere. Then Siesta pointed out someone to Louise, it was Tabitha who was holding a small bag and waving to a lady with multicolored hair with a faint smile on her face. Louise was surprised, since the girl usually never changed her expression; she rubbed her eyes to make sure she was seeing correctly.
"Tabitha, there you are." Kirche who popped up next to Tabitha said to her, the girl's expression were back to normal, perhaps it was just an illusion of the sunlight. But as they walked towards the south gate, she and Siesta both saw someone who couldn't be an illusion.
"Master Marisa!" Louise said in surprise, the Magician was chatting with the who they met last time, and carrying a comically oversized black bag over her broom; it was huge, Louise was sure it could fit multiple person into it. Most importantly why was she here as well?
"Everyone, this is Lady Yukari and who would be accompanying us." Ran said was an official tone; most pay their attention to Yukari, only few looked at the black-white magician with looks of curiosity.
"Well it looks like everyone is here, let's go. " Yukari seemed to be excited in her own way, and with those words "something" appeared. Louise couldn't quite explain what she was seeing, the most accurate way to describe the thing behind Yukari is to call it a gap, it was like a gap opened in midair. But gaps don't have eyes in them or float in midair or look incredibly creepy, Louise felt it was the stuff of nightmare and a few students let out a muffled cry of dear.
"Don't worry it's completely safe, it wouldn't bite off your head, see." Yukari, sensing the students fear, began to demonstrate as she walked through the gap and back out. Still uncertain, Professor Colbert was the first to take the initiative to walk through, the students followed him slowly. And with Louise's turn, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and walked through.
The sight that greeted her was a forest, looking around she could see everyone was wondering the same thing, are they back at home?
"Praise Founder! Look!" Suddenly one of the students pointed to a building at the far end of the forest, no, not just any building, it was a building Louise was very familiar with.
"The Vallière Mansion!" Louise shouted in surprise, everyone else seeing that as a reinsurance cryed out in cheer. People hugged each other while crying as they are finally home, especially Louise who can't believe she could meet her family so soon and tell them she's safe.
Only three people weren't reacting at all, Yukari, Ran and Marisa, and Yukari seemed kind of angry.
"Yumemi… that idiot, can't believe the position was off by this much…"
"With all due respect Master, it is within expected error…"
The trio seemed occupied with something, and then Louise suddenly had an idea, as she walked towards Marisa.
"Master Marisa, would you like to meet my family? I would like to thank you for teaching me." Louise said to Marisa, she was truly grateful for the magician and also it would help her family accept that her magic is useful in some way.
"Thanks, but there is something I need to do." Marisa said quickly, her expression was quite serious, there was a strange undertone. Louise took that as the Magician is busy, it is a shame. But Siesta seemed to spot something in the magician's reaction
"Is something wrong?" Siesta asked as she seems to catch up on something. But Louise was happy, she paid no mind to the conversation, she was home at last.
Siesta POV
Siesta can see something is clearly wrong, even though like Louise she is happy to be back, but from the beginning she could see something was wrong. Master Marisa's bag was clearly holding something dangerous, even though no one else seemed to notice it. Perhaps it is because out of all the magic users in their group, her newly gained magic ability was closest to the residents of Gensokyo. Because of this she felt a sense of foreboding ever since she laid eyes on the bag, it felt dangerous and kept her on edge while everyone else dulled from the happiness of coming home. Therefore she easily noticed that there was a sense of urgency in the Magician's words, Siesta was not one to walk away from danger to her home.
"Please, Master Marisa, if it have something to do with our home you need to tell us." Siesta insisted when the Magician tried to brush her off, Siesta eyed the bag Marisa was carrying to show her that that she isn't fooling Siesta. Marisa looked at her with a conflicted look seeing that Siesta had realized it already; on the other hand Yukari was looking at her with a entertained look in her eye.
"She sure is a keen one, maybe we should bring her along."
"No. She is not coming with us!" Marisa hissed to Yukari, "It's not your decision, Marisa." Who replied lazily. But this only made Siesta more worried, seeing this Yukari turned to Siesta and asked.
Do you want to know about everything then, child?" Yukari asked Siesta with a smile, ignorant of what this decision would lead to, Siesta nodded.
"We are off to our own business now, good bye, everyone." Yukari said to the group as another gap opened behind her, one by one Ran, Marisa, Yukari and finally curiosity and worry caused Siesta to follow them.
"Wait Siesta where are you going? Aren't we going home?" Louise said behind her. She was clearly puzzled, but Siesta didn't quite know how to answer.
"There is something more going on, I have to find out." And with that she walked through Yukari's gap, the last thing she saw of the forest was the surprised expression of everyone else and the face of Louise who ran in behind her and with that the gap closed leaving her and Louise in their world but further from their home then ever before.