A whisper of paper flipping as someone slowly intake in the reports, as he reads them one by one, indeed today is a busy day for this man. Small sweat gathers in face despite the aircon in the office in full blast at that day, he picks at one paper, it's a request to open a business in one of the buildings unused at the moment, though he does wonder why as his position hardly needed for that, as he is pretty sure that… He reads the last paragraphs and a specific phrase is written,

Rather no, not really specific when it just bluntly said that it wanted to open a magical shop in one of the districts, though not one of the cities near the port city, though that's weird as it's not that popular for most mages there, he read the reports of one the mages he has hired that it isn't generally the best to set-up shop there,

As one of them reports that it has magical forest nearby, true though the forest could be used for its magical ingredients one of the mages told, but it is also in its nature that not that many want to set-up or rather stay in that place, apparently it is also home to many creatures of myth in there or rather it served to be much more than just a regular magical forest,

Rather it served to be an entrance to somewhere, there has been expeditions in that place, and though there has been three expeditions in that forest and not another expedition has just returned because of that, no not because of the creatures found in the forest, as those were professional mages. As it has been reported that there didn't needed to fight most of the times,

As the creatures found in the area weren't hostile rather it was that they seemed intent on not being seen which from the mages themselves was a boon itself, as they could explore the forest unhindered and had found different types of flora were found in the forest, they picked up portions in the forest for research and they found out different ingredients for magical and medicinal purposes, it was a large forest.

Despite not having explored the entirety of the forest, they decided to stop there after 4 hours of exploration as what they carried weren't for long trips and that there expedition has resulted into a productive one so far, and with that they returned with the results, what was more concerning was the 2nd and 3rd expeditions,

As when the 2nd expedition went with the same mages, with rations and additional herbs and flashlights, things what you would expect in a camping trip, as during the night when they were sleeping, three dark creatures attacked them tearing apart one of the mages as they slept somehow getting inside the wards,

The wizards as professional as they had been, attacked back and quickly killed the three dark creatures that appeared in one of the tents, the mage that was attacked received a bite and a slash to his neck but the other mage was nearby that he quickly healed the damage before the injury become serious,

And after that incident, they added better wards around the area so that they wouldn't be attacked like that again, and for precaution, they set-up a watch switching every four hours so that if the wards failed, they could warn others to wake-up and tackle the invaders, he did believe it first to be to be paranoid,

But it proved it wasn't as a repeat performance made its way in the with the same creatures though they were better prepared that time, however despite that precaution, a pack of dark creatures they may be, it seemed when they attacked earlier has seemed to be dodging and they were attacked twice at that night,

And that it doubled during the night, they weren't as productive as last expedition but they later learned that the forest was bigger than what it seemed due to the fact that markers they set-up seemed to stretch more than the old maps of the forest it seemed, they didn't want to explore that much as before since they as mages weren't expected to have dangerous creatures that could pierce wards easily like it that earlier, as before they didn't note any new magical ingredients but rather the environment they stepped changed,

The mage didn't believe that they were in the same place earlier, but only explored a little bit as they didn't want to get lost in that place after all, there was a lot of things that could be discovered there but they didn't so they back out and went back the same way, He felt a little bit disappointed in the paranoia of the mages and not willing to adventure in unknown lands,

Though that's to be expected though, they weren't fit for the long run type and most of them were minor mages and they couldn't be expected to keep on moving forward considering most of their equipment couldn't be called top of the line as of this generation and some of the foci and they don't know what would happen if the environment was dangerous to them,

And until today, despite having offers for another expedition. There hasn't been anyone nearby that would want to go there or rather there wasn't anyone with the experience to travel there, not someone who was equipped for that thing and that neither had the budget for that same thing, and so he searches for potential mages who had services he wanted to hire,

Most of the papers he has currently were just asking permission to set-up for shop or rather set-up residence and from looks of the paperwork, it wasn't that much but rather from the strange lands they bought. He does understand why most of the few mages who set-up shop in this island went to the capital, it's because there is a ley line directly below it,

Not that he wasn't a ignorant welch by any means, he was a tad bit ignorant in the ways how mages work in a society at least, he had

At least there was a mage who he hired with but that isn't today's concern but rather today's issue today is with the sudden increase in the sickness that has been permeating within his citizens as of today, and with the current spread as it is, taking no chances he added mages in those leaving the island, to check on the infection,

Apparently there had been a few infected that the mages had pulled at least three people who were suspected of the disease by one of the tracking spells earlier, the use of random checking on the baggage and person as it was announced earlier that one of the zoos in here which he pretty sure didn't exist had lost one of its exotic creatures, that's why they are expecting them by randomly to catch would-be smugglers.

Three knocks to the door appeared in the door, he wasn't disturbed considering him as a magician, though his skill isn't that great and the free time he has which is not frequent were just used for his family and practicing his knack for wards, well with the alarm ward he installed outside door, he would have time to prepare,

He quickly arranged the papers, and he says, " You may enter ", he smiled at the visitor and so did the visitor and the visitor reply, " Good Morning Mayor! I hope haven't disturbed your nap earlier but just I told you in the earlier reports about this mysterious illness, it appears that in research of the disease of where it came from, there has been similar magical signatures toward the forest"

The mayor looks at the visitor rather, no as the mage she was. True, though there have been creatures that were told that have similarity with magical signatures but doesn't necessarily mean they are the same thing, he learned that when he was studying making of wards during his spare time, and that despite the similarity of one ward to another, it's purpose could be entirely different from one another, and in during making wards it could spell the difference between life and death after all,

So, he looked at her seriously as if shifting into some sort of mode and asked, " You suspect that the disease was found or rather made in the Magical forest?". She looked surprised at that but her surprise went away rather quickly considering who she was facing off with, and she says, " Certainly there are similar in its nature but rather with how similar with to the wild life in the magical forest"

He looks at her and sighs, " Which basically means venturing into the forest itself, which I doubt is a matter itself ". the Mage herself looked surprised at that and says, " How is that even a problem? Didn't you hire the mages yourself during the first and the second expeditions?"

The Mayor looks at the cabinet nearby and opens, eyeing a folder in the middle, he removes it and puts in the table and opens up a few documents where there were profiles of three citizens in a white background, and there he points to one of the people in the document and points at his details,

The mage looks at the where he was pointing at, there were details of who he was and which organization he was part of, the mages wasn't really surprised when he was also part of a global organization of the magical community, considering she herself was part of one and that it really isn't a stretch that one of them was here,

Considering what she hears about the goings on the community, she could say it was very crazy and that she would rather stay here where it is peaceful and that most problem she has where minor curses from the creatures here and the occasional dispute between two mages here and she usually was there to mediate and resolve that problem,

Though with the strange magical forest in the new land, she doubts that it would things would stay the same since with along the magical forest, and the connection to the magical forest, She nearly missed what the Mayor said as but she heard along the lines of, " A apprentice and a mage practicing in the forest " and " Supervise them", Wait what…

The mayor looked at the mage with amusement in his eyes with barely concealed smirk and says, "It's just like I said, during your expedition, I trust yourself to handle yourself and with your track record, A mere magical forest won't really but much of a problem for you… But there are people who knows not the danger of that, and I'd be bad if they got injured for that, Jane"

It wasn't even subtle at this point, his eye twitched at the glorified baby-sitting job but a job is a job and he knows that the mayor isn't that much of a manipulator in thar regard but the way he phrases it, Jane sighs exaggerated and says, " Got it… Though how terrible, that no such person is also capable in doing my job, only I myself can do it", She walks out slowly and a smirk slowly went into her smile,

And she continues and says, " Truly such a capable woman myself doing the hard work, and a job for just to supervise people and talk with fellow magicians? Only a woman like myself con do so ". The mayor looked at the mage going out and then sighed at the strange smirk at the mage,

And as a mayor though he doesn't have much time and signing paper works does take time and dedication. The man looks at his desk to realized that the amount of paperwork has somehow doubled in size and he looked at its horror and sighs and tells himself, "Oh… Well, paperwork the bane of humanity…", He glared at the paper willing it to vanish but it didn't, instead he grabbed a pen and sighed.

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Flaps of winds made her hair move but the hat she carried didn't allow to move that much, she moved in the wind as she felt herself arrive town, the place where Mapulon usually goes to during his weekend massage job he applied, for that she saw a red flag just by that,

Marisa looks to the massage spa and thinks to herself about how it unfair for the fact that Mapulon's father isn't home every day and that they somehow managed to function despite Mapulon's father being a single father. Though further look into the dynamic what seems to be some sort of situation where the Father is neglecting but rather the fumbling between father and son,

It looked amusing to see both of them try to talk to each other, If she were the person months ago, then she would try to interfere without not knowing the context, there was an accident with that certain person and they didn't part of with each other that well and because of that she ended up here to the outside world, she learned a lot of things the hard way and some basic things,

Though without the kind souls of the people here, she wouldn't have survive that long and thus allowed herself to take a seat back and resisted the urge to go straight ahead and try to solve the problem, apparently the methods she used back home were very different back then, and caused some issues with the locals, and the stereotypical witch outfit she carried and the way she does is a bit different and some things that aren't common in the outside world,

But other than the technology, there wasn't really anything Marisa that bothered her to much though or too difficult to adapt to, there were certainly those situations but she those were relatively harmless and add to fact that she has also been resolving accidents with a certain friend of hers' allowed Marisa to pick up skills in solving problems or investigations,

But with the problem with the current problem with this current accident, she could see there were Youkai or beasts locally here, and with how the creatures or you could say Youkai were treated as whole were somewhere between beasts and in between intelligent creatures who prey upon humans, but despite they had the attitude in the community that looks really similar to one of her friends,

The ability of to be serious and not at the same time, some situations where people were really skeptical with what the government and then the next they trusted them like the mayor himself was talking to them personally or rather he talked to each one of the people here one by one,

She was at first skeptical at the whole situation and because of that she wasted a little bit of her first months searching for non-existent culprit, when rather she could spend using those in enjoying the scenery and peace around here, it was kind of stupid of her but she learned anyway, and acknowledged the fact that maybe it may have been always part of it and allowed herself to take the backseat,

And now, with friends along in this small island and with the strange disease that seemed to popped up and the strange nature of it, she was no slouch at investigating but other parts of magic where the carefulness needed for rune work and the delicacy needed for certain types of warding and potion-making made her dizzy at it, but her stubbornness allowed herself enough adequate knowledge.

She could at least a certain what type of disease it might be and how to resolve it, but the disease she saw? Was not the type she has known despite it having the symptoms of a regular magical disease, and seemed that most patients that were affected by it where either from bites from dark creatures like those wolves she had eliminated earlier,

Even if it was, the Mages who were recruited in the city should be able to defeat those dark creatures quite easily, and the wards present in the city. And with how easily they are spotted at least one of the mages stationed in the city should have been able to locate those bite marks and base the locations off those who were attacked towards places where nests of those dark creatures they could eliminate,

And with how thriving the export in the city is and how there are so many mages located there who were willing to sell her wares for her equipment in magic and the different stores located here in the magical community, what was strange in the fact how the people in here where used to the magical stuff that is happening here,

That she literally saw someone use magic to light up a stove, she rose an eyebrow at that, it was quite weird for a magical community that developed and with how the community that used to display of magic involved, the mages involved should easily solved the magical disease problem much faster and with the enforcers capable of dealing with the gangs who are involved with magic here,

She speeds up and went towards to the other smaller cities, she could try to gather information there, she has already contacted with Mapulon about it earlier, and agreed that she goes towards the smaller cities as there are far and hard to reach and he goes towards the capital city despite the size of it is located nearby and easy to access, and so they split up to gather information about it.

Despite the stupidity in it, Mapulon is already strong enough himself and can handle himself, and not stupid enough that when something is a problem and if he couldn't fix it, he would ask help in terms of herself. Despite that she looked around the villages high above and didn't spot anything suspicious, she looked at person who seemed to be wandering quite weirdly despite looking like a local,

And when he started coughing blood, she knew she found her target. She approached the boy for a closer look from the above and landed outside where no one saw her land, though with the area where the boy started coughing, It hardly mattered whether if she was seen or not considering how isolated he was.

She moved towards the boy, she wasn't really much into trending clothes and the like, she prefers her clothing simple and she looked at the boy who was staring at her wide eyed in wonder, he is definitely not part of the richer people of the district but certainly not the lower districts considering they are bunched up and from when she visited, there conditions were poor but not that dirt poor in average,

She went closer to the boy, and the boy seemed to wobbly away as if afraid of her instead, she looked at her and replace her tone to one she remembered that one teacher in the human village she was in before and remembered that motherly tone and tried to mimic it and said, " Are you okay? I promise you, that I won't bite, just let me check your wound?"

The boy seemed to whimper at that as if she might do something to him but somehow for some reason there was a glint of recognition that she saw, he held out the leg that was hurting, and she saw that it had already that there were bandages around here, she looked at it carefully and saw that it already needs just the changing of bandages.

The runes attached to the bandages did help out stop the spread the disease and help out the symptoms of the disease, it was something she would have done and other common mages specializing in healing or in curses. She looked closer at it, and look closely more, if another mage were to look at it for a second, all they would have seen was just an excellent piece of work carved in a bandage.

She looked closer and to see faint traces of something holy, and indeed she did remember what it is not a complex set of runes, that wasn't even supposed to be part of magician. She hasn't heard of any mage that has made sort of equivalent type of element, as it would require the fact that he/she would have been known quite to a lot of people,

She smirks at that, at least considering she knew that there is at least someone who knows what is happening in this problem. She knew that there was a chapel in the small islands, as far as she knew that despite its smallness, the current known practitioner was grumpy person and was famous for her dislike in crowds despite seemingly polite when approached,

From her arrival, she was the one who helped her albeit she did try to kill her with the strange knives she threw at her. And for that was the first time in her life by Marisa, she knew that attacked ferociously like that in her first venture towards the outside world, and because of that poor reputation, she was little scared after that, because of that there was a little bit of combat she experienced earlier and the battles after that,

Though with the experience of danmaku, the battles she usually partakes with along her friend during incidents also helped along the way too, Arriving at the chapel she couldn't help but tense every time she came here so that she could meet up with her unique friend, and that sometimes that when she arrives she couldn't help prepare a battle stance when arriving here,

What awaits her was a chapel despite the aged look of the chapel itself, it was well-maintained, though when she looks at the doors, there wasn't a person nearby though that's expected considering church would be during Mondays and Fridays. She slowly walks as the grass creaks under her weight, there was the eeriness of this place,

She knocks at the door, and finds that no one is answering the door, sweat creeps in her face as despite the humidity of the islands and the breeze. She waits and says, "Excuse me Chenny? Are you here, I don't have time to play games…", Marisa proceeds to wait as the length towards this stupid farce is really annoying her, and she proceeds to do remove something inside her pocket,

It glowed in her hand and hummed in power and she points it in the floor and threatens, " Chen! If you don't come out, I'll put a paint bomb in this chapel", As something as sacred as this, Chen came out with somehow combining of nervousness and anger at the same expression and says, "Alright! No, need to go that far! It was just a small scare, okay!".

Marisa sighs and greets her and asks, " Geez… Don't have to be that angry… I wouldn't actually do that, I'm not type to disrespect people like that". Chen sighs at that and smiles, " Oh okay, then what brings you here? You don't usually visit at this hour". Marisa smiles mysteriously at her as if someone higher than her and as if symbolizing the superiority of it.

Chenny's brow twitched at that and says, " Oh your highness, what has brought upon you to visit the lowly peasant?" Marisa's smiles widens and Chenny's brow twitches more at Marisa's attitude. She didn't know where she got it from, the mysteriousness and the need to make her say it, it's as if Marisa caught her doing something heretical,

Marisa then says, " It's true, I understand that despite what you believe you truly are a good person, who wouldn't conquer that for a small act of kindness".

Chenny looks at her stupid as if dumbfounded, but didn't dare reply as if thinking there was more to that. Marisa then looks at her as if she wasn't convinced at her action, Chenny didn't know what she was supposed to know about and simply replied, " My Highness, oh please spare this peasant of the obliviousness of this topic and grant her knowledge".

Marisa got annoyed at that and simply sighs and says, " I have found people who had bandages and had some sort of runes related to holy element, I wanted to congratulate you for removing that grudge for helping people like them despite your attitude in hating crowds like that" She smiles at her as if she won at the lottery,

Despite her encouraging words, Marisa only received a polite smile and for some reason felt animosity directed around her, but not at her specifically rather the picture she held, and that Marisa sobered at the look, Chenny seemed to notice it and sighs really loud, making her look older despite them being the same age. Chenny looks at Marisa with a look that made Marisa shiver to look at.

Before she started, Chenny chanted a language in Latin, the doors closed and the windows shut, and a door opens. She follows Chenny to see to see a bed for a person, with the strange equipment in the bedroom, Chenny picks it up and Marisa looks at her strangely and Chenny somehow looks tired all of sudden as if in preparation, Marisa looks at the surroundings and did something that would have embarrass her if her old self where to look at her current self,

And Marisa looks at her weirdly and says, " If you have something to say and it involves chains, I'd prefer that you should have start with that first…"

Chenny looks at her dumbfounded even though she hasn't started the story and a sudden realization took place and she looked indignant with her hands clutching the weapon and says, " Hey! Don't go assuming things without knowing what they are for! And for one thing this is important to what I'm going to say. It's not what you are currently thinking! It's not what you think is what is for! It's just.."

Chenny grew high pitched as if trying to justify her chosen object to represent something for the story, what kind of green-minded person would have thought of that first, that eh… Chenny looks at the startled laugh and looks at Marisa who was rolling around the bed and sighs and simply joined laughing as she knew that she would be laughing for a long time,

She waited for her to stop and when she Marisa did, Chenny shivered at the calculating look Marisa gave her, as far as she knew she wasn't that kind of intense type when she first met Marisa, and fumbled her blouse as Chenny tried to ponder where to start, A memory enters and she cluctched her hand at that,

Marisa looks at her and eyes softened and says, " It is going to be a long story, I take it? Why don't you relax for a bit, Don't think I wouldn't notice that you remembered something horrible? I guess your first time solving an accident?"

Chenny nods at that

" Take a deep breathe and I'll just wait for you here, We have time and telling someone your awful experience could be very hard sometimes " , Marisa told her but Marisa herself stiffened a bit but relaxed

Chenny took a deep breathe, and felt relaxed at Marisa's touch and says, " You have experience?"

"Something like that…"

"Does it get better?"

"During your first time? Usually everyone has their way but I don't really see but talking with friends usually helps…"

Chenny nods, her breath hitches. Marisa puts a hand at her back as if comforting and says, " Like I said earlier, calm down.. wouldn't want to clean your sheets that just got cleaned right?"

Chenny nods and meditates for a bit and looks at Marisa with a renowned strength that Marisa didn't knew what she had, and says, " It began during the Early days of January during a trip for school…"

Author notes: Not really good with emotional scenes and added a justification to why Marisa the way she is, and does Protagonist go to Gensokyo? Who knows, like I'd research on the topic and for the most of the part, would be staying in Philippines for the moment, considering the rich lore before the Spanish Era, and the oral traditions, with the amount of material I have, going to Gensokyo might take a while and I already have a outline to what the story will end, so yeah don't get your hopes high on that, and thanks for the heads-up about the summary, didn't notice that I haven't changed it yet!