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The Ordinary Magician and the Aspiring Musician1,845 words
The Case of the Missing Shrine2,284 words
Borrowing the Library2,027 words
Timberwolves1,480 words
The Boundary Between Day and Night1,282 words
Welcome to Ponyville2,131 words
Morning with the Scarlet Devil1,605 words
Equestrian Alien1,475 words
The Troublesome Wind Priestess2,945 words

The Troublesome Wind Priestess

"You know, I had my doubts, but this plan turned out even better than expected," Marisa commented at the display in front of her, "though you might want to work on your aim."

In the center of a clearing, Marisa had set a trap in the form of a decoy fairy. Well, it was an actual fairy that she had tricked into being a decoy. She had noticed the wolves liked hunting fairies, though their success was very limited. So using one particularly feisty ice fairy as bait to lure the wolves in then freezing them solid turned out to be a much better plan than trying to capture them the old-fashioned way. Of course, the fairy was perhaps too feisty as she not only froze the wolves, but several trees around her as well, almost even catching Marisa in the blast.

"Hey cold stuff, got another round in you? Or are you all spent yet?" Marisa challenged the fairy as a second pack emerged from the trees.

The fairy thumped her chest proudly. "Who do you think you're talking to? I'll freeze this whole forest if I have to!"

"Great, you do that." Marisa had more power in her hat than most fairies would be able to muster against her. Still, they could put up a good fight against the wolves if properly motivated and the witch had plenty of motivation to offer them, mostly in the form of old trinkets she picked up from Kourindou.

Once the second pack was frozen as well, Marisa turned to Sakuya, who had been patiently waiting a safe(ish) distance from the manic ice fairy. With a nod, she disappeared, taking the frozen wolves with her. "Alright shorty, that should be good. Here's your payment." She pulled a little trinket from her pocket, a plastic wheel with a string wrapped around it, and tossed it to the fairy. "Go nuts."

As the fairy flew away, Marisa considered her next steps. Her usual methods of incident resolution were not useful here. There was no one she could just beat up to learn where the culprit was, because none of these stupid wolves could talk. And every other youkai she talked to was as clueless as she was or actively trying to help contain this gods-forsaken curse. At least she was pretty sure it was a curse. Maybe she should find a god to bless this forest or something.

"Why'd you just give that fairy a yo-yo?" Asked a girl's voice from above. Caught off-guard, Marisa looked up to see the voice belonged to the blue and white shrine maiden from the Moriya Shrine. It took Marisa a second to remember her name. Sanae, that was it. That weird Outside girl with the green hair and two patron goddesses that her and Reimu beat last month.

Marisa shrugged. "Is that what that thing was? It wasn't magical, so it's not like she can do any damage with it." When Sanae had no rebuttal for that, she continued. "Anyway, what are you doing down here? Looking for a rematch?"

"What? No. Well, maybe later. But I wanted to know what you were up to." Sanae landed in the clearing, taking a look around. "And what's up with this forest? It's giving off a spooky vibe. Like something out of Castlevania. Or Scooby-Doo."

Marisa didn't quite know what she was talking about, more odd Outside World speak, most likely. But the spooky part, she had to agree with. The underbrush was starting to get worse, ferns and thorn bushes were growing almost up to her height, and she was starting to get concerned that if this spread any further into the neighboring Forest of Magic that the already hazardous plant life might get out of control. However the unfamiliar plant life also presented a possible opportunity...

"Right... Well, I wish I knew. It just sorta appeared and started spreading. Wait, what makes you think I was up to anything?"

"Well I heard that fox youkai talk with Lady Kanako and your name came up. It sounded serious so I thought maybe it was one of your... Incidents."

"Okay, first off I resolve Incidents, I don't cause them. Mostly."

Sanae raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't comment further.

"Second, whether this is an Incident or not has nothing to do with you, so beat it. Unless you wanna become target practice." Marisa reached under her skirt, where she stored a few concoctions she had prepared earlier in the day. She'd been spending the last couple days dealing with wolves who couldn't even use danmaku, a good proper duel was way overdue.

Rather than fly up and prepare her own spells, Sanae landed softly and started walking up to her. Then to Marisa's utter bafflement (and slight disappointment) the girl dropped to her knees and started begging. "Please let me help! I've been wanting a chance to get out and help collect faith for the shrine, but we've been so busy dealing with Tengu politics Lady Kanako hasn't let me go out yet. Not after my blunder with Reimu's shrine. And you looked like you were having so much fun fighting Lady Kanako, I wanted to try my hand at it too. Resolving Incidents, I mean, not fighting Lady Kanako. I'm three seasons and a movie too early to fight her."

Taken aback by the unusual show of honesty, it took Marisa a moment to get her thoughts together. "You really wanna join us? Reimu really won't appreciate you muscling in on her turf like this."

"It's fine. It's not like that dingy old shrine of hers ever attracts any faith anyway. Besides, from what I gather, she's in no position to complain if I tag in on this one, riiight?" She gave Marisa a knowing grin that explained all she needed to know. Sanae knew Reimu was missing, or at least that she was unable to resolve this herself.

No sense in denying it then, Marisa wouldn't be able to lie her way out of this one. "...Yeah, you're right there." She just needed to turn her away. Dealing with Sanae and her own shrine's agenda would only get in her way. "Wait, you said that your Goddess hasn't let you down the mountain? So what are you doing here?"

Suddenly the green-haired girl turned a shade of red as she looked away meekly. "Yeah, Lady Kanako has been rather busy lately so I sorta took the time to... sneak away."

...

"You mean you're defying your god's orders like a child defies their parent, just to learn how to kick some ass?"

"...Yes?"

Despite her previous misgivings, Marisa found herself bursting into laughter. "Hahaha! You know what? We might make a proper youkai hunter out of you after all!"

Sanae jumped to her feet, a hopeful smile on her face. "Really? So you'll let me join you?"

"Yeah sure, why not? Stick with me, kid. Together, we'll blow the mastermind behind this mess away no problem." And if needed, Marisa now had an eager distraction to throw at the youkai. Win-win.

"So what are you gonna do about your patrons when you go back home?" Marisa asked as they walked up the stairs to the grove where this all started. Reimu had once expressed worry to Marisa that the path to the Hakurei Shrine was not well-lit enough, that it would repel worshippers. Well now, among these mutated trees that seemed to actively repel sunlight from their canopies, there was no doubt about that anymore.

Sanae seemed to have lost her earlier excitement and confidence, now looking at every shadow like those goddesses of hers could jump out at her at any moment. "I don't know... You think they'll be mad that I snuck out?"

The witch just shrugged. "Probably."

"Maybe this was a mistake. What if they strip my power away?"

"Can they even do that? Aren't you like, half-god yourself?"

"That just fuels my miracles. Most of my regular magic comes from Lady Kanako and Lady Suwako. Could they keep me grounded? Like how you'd pluck a bird's feathers to keep them from flying away?"

"You aren't a bird though. How'd that even work?"

"I dunno, you tell me," Sanae said with a shrug.

"What do I look like, a tengu? I don't have wings, nor do I want them."

"I dunno, wings sound pretty cool to me. I can fly pretty good already, but imagine if I had wings like a tengu. I might even be able to keep up with you!"

Marisa laughed. "Hah, in your dreams maybe. No one can keep up with me!"

"What about that papergirl, Aya? I'm pretty sure I've seen her go supersonic once."

"...Almost no one can keep up with me!"

Sanae giggled at Marisa's awkward boast, her earlier nerves gone. "You know, if Lady Kanako doesn't ground me for life for this, we should hang out sometime. I brought a bunch of manga over from outside, we could read them together."

Marisa clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, don't worry. If they try to punish ya, we'll tag-team them." She'd have to consider the whole "hanging out" thing later.

When they reached the top of the stairs, Marisa noticed that the vegetation around the grove had gotten thicker, and a ring of bright blue flowers had grown around it all. They looked unfamiliar to her, so Marisa quickly picked a few and stored them in an empty jar for later. Perhaps they had useful properties for her magic.

"What's up with these flowers?" Sanae asked, having stepped into the flower patch and picked one herself. She twirled it around in her fingers, inspecting it. "It's all blue. Even the stem. That's weird."

"It seems weird, but I've seen mushrooms with similar colors. These flowers probably have some interesting magical qualities." Marisa commented. "I'm taking some of these flowers for my concoctions. These I bet will give me something with a big kick."

"Yeah, but... aren't these flowers part of the Incident? You really wanna go messing with these?"

"Why not? What's the worst that could happen?"

"Did you really just-"

"Weeeeeeeee!" Came a girl's cry from above, and a brunette girl with cat ears, two tails, and a red dress flew right into the patch of flowers, burying her face in it. "Hey, you gotta try this!"

"Huh?" Sanae turned to the newcomer. "Is that a bakaneko? Who is she?"

Marisa groaned. It was trouble. "That would be-"

"Chen!" On cue, Ran floated down, hovering above the flowers. She glowered down at the bakaneko girl. "Don't go rushing off like that!"

"Sorry Miss Ran." Chen sat up, still patting the flower bed beneath her. "But look, they're so pretty and soft!"

"Chen." Ran repeated, her tone calm but hard. "Here. Now."

"Awwww... fine." Chen dejectedly floated back up to rejoin Ran. It was only then she noticed Marisa and Sanae staring at her. "Oh, hi humans! Are you playing in the flowers too?"

"Sanae Kochiya..." Ran's stern gaze turned to fix itself on the wind priestess. Magic power clearly radiated from her, enough to even give Marisa pause. "I thought I made it clear to your patrons that Lady Yukari would not tolerate-"

"They didn't have anything to do with me being here!" Sanae shouted defiantly. "I wanted to help of my own volition. They don't even know I'm here, probably. Please, don't blame them."

The magic aura faded as Ran's glare became a sigh. "You overheard then? Very well. I hope you can bare with the consequences of defying your patrons. You may not be a shikigami, but I imagine your punishment will be similar to what Lady Yukari gives me."

"I... don't think they're quite like you and the gap hag..." Marisa hadn't seen what punishment Yukari gave Ran, but to hear her describe it rather nonchalantly, it was quite violent. "But what are you doing back here?"

"My business here is my own. Lady Yukari has a vested interest in seeing the shrine returned, I am just doing my part in that. We've made a lot of progress in that regard and are close to breaching the barrier protecting this grove." Ran looked off to the side, an inhuman, almost predatory grin emerging. "I'm sure your gallivanting around hasn't gotten you anywhere closer to that. Looks like Lady Yukari will win~" Marisa didn't seem to notice, but Sanae did. Ran was egging her on for some reason.

And to Sanae's disappointment, it was working. "Oh yeah!? We'll see about that!" Then before she knew it, Marisa had flown up to engage Ran in a danmaku duel and left her alone with the bakaneko, Chen.

"Miss Ran is gonna get in trouble again." Chen said, startling the Outsider. "She wasn't supposed to fight anyone."

"She wasn't?" Sanae asked. "Then what was with all that? Goading her into attacking?" She motioned up at the duel.

Chen shrugged, floating back down to lay on her back in the flowers. "Dunno. Miss Yukari just told her to make sure the black-white one was still on-track, whatever that means. But you aren't black-white. You're blue-white. What's up with that?"

"...Wh-what?" Sanae stammered, confused by the question. "I'm a wind priestess, the link between the human and divine for the Moriya Shrine."

"Uh huh. Well Miss Ran will probably need my help soon. I should get up... Maybe five more minutes..." And with that, Chen was out cold, evidenced by the ever so soft snoring of this admittedly adorable cat girl. Is this really one of Gensokyo's feared youkai? She seems like any other catgirl I'd find in an anime or such...

So Sanae turned her attention back to the duel. Marisa's attacks were much like she had witnessed in her previous battles the month prior. She was fast, powerful, and incredibly flashy. But the fox... She almost looked like she was toying with Marisa, flinging out intricate patterns while dodging every star and beam the witch threw her way. Her aura was incredible, almost as great as her own goddesses. "So this is what a bonus level boss looks like..." And Marisa was not only keeping up with her, but she was also having fun doing it. She had a lot of work to do to match either of them.

Ran's pattern then suddenly shifted; a new spell card being called. Rather than flying into it directly, Marisa flew up and over Ran, trying to get a clear shot at her. Ran seems to have expected this, and readied another attack, but paused. Sanae could tell something wasn't right. Ran barely got time to turn to look directly at her and Chen before Marisa capitalized on the situation. A massive rainbow laser shot from Marisa, striking Ran directly in the back and sending her plummeting to the forest below. Marisa's signature Master Spark; Sanae had watched it nearly put a hole through her shrine once before. Seeing it here however, it felt even stronger. Just how much did that witch hold back?

But Sanae's train of thought was interrupted as the laser kept going, right for her! She barely grazed past the prismatic death ray as it cleaved through the earth, tore up the flower bed, and continued on, right into the thick grove of trees. When the attack ended, Sanae had a clear view through the trees, into what looked like a clearing with a tiny pristine spring in the center. Beside it sat an old tree stump, gnarled and mossy, yet still somehow alive. And sitting on that stump-

"Whoo! That felt good!" Marisa hollered, startling Sanae away from the scene. Whoever was on that stump disappeared from view, like they were never even there. She floated on down, hopping off her broom to take in the damage she caused. "Might have gone a bit overboard, but I'd gone this whole Incident without a proper fight. I needed that. Plus teaching that gap hag's pet a thing or two always feels good."

"I don't know how you do it. The magic you throw out like that should be impossible for any normal human. You sure you're not like, half-youkai or something?" Sanae questioned, motioning at all the damage that blast caused.

"Nope, human as the day I was born!" Marisa thumped her chest proudly. "I'm just the number two in Gensokyo! You couldn't have picked a better teacher to show you the ropes of Incident solving than me." Then she finally noticed the gap in the trees. "Oh! The barrier is down! It's finally time to see who's behind all this, come on!"

Marisa started walking towards the gap, but as Sanae turned to follow, she stumbled. A sudden extreme feeling of vertigo overcame her and she grasped at Marisa's shoulder to keep herself upright. Her stomach twisted and everything felt heavy. "Wait! Something... Urp, I don't feel right. I need a rest."

"What? But we're so close, I- woah!" Marisa quickly moved to catch Sanae as she nearly fell. "Dammit, what happened? Sanae!? Get up! Or I'll leave you here and resolve this myself!" When the rapidly weakening girl didn't respond, she cast one last look towards the opening. There was the undeniable feeling that someone was in there, watching her, waiting for her. But then she hefted Sanae up and got her arm around her, and that feeling vanished. "Dammit, fine... My house is closer, just hang on."

With that, Marisa helped the nearly unconscious Sanae onto her broom and carefully took off for her home in the Forest of Magic. The mastermind could wait another day, hopefully.

Author's Note:

Yeah, look who's come crawling back after all this time.

It's me. I'm sorry.

Also silly Marisa, Ran was only the Stage 1 boss! You got a long way to go to clear this game~

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