Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Wow, I didn't know you wrote all this down. Why’d you show me today, though?

“It was only one of the biggest and weirdest things to ever happen to us, I'd be an idiot if I hadn't.” Reimu closes the notebook and slides it back over to her bookbag. “Hey... do you ever wonder what happened to her? Mima I mean.”

“No, I thought you meant Yuuka,” you say sarcastically. Reimu rolls her eyes.

“Seriously, though. She just up and disappeared. You got that weird message from her and that was it. I wonder sometimes if she was okay. I mean, she basically saved our asses and then vanished. Do you think she left to go get into even more trouble? What was her life even like beyond that time she was here?”

You smirk at Reimu. “I’m sure she’d be delighted to hear you worry about her.”

Reimu shoves you playfully. “Shush, you. Anyway, she was Japanese, right? Maybe I’ll stumble on her during my trip and then I can finally give her shit for ditching us all those years ago.”

“If you do, make sure to punch her in the face and then give her a hug for me, alright?”

Reimu nods solemnly. “It is my sworn duty.”

Standing up, Reimu gives you a little kiss on top of your head. “I should get going soon, I guess… better postpone this trip down memory lane for now. I’d leave my journal with you so you can read the rest, but I don’t trust you enough.”

“That’s fair. I’ll miss you!”

“No you won’t, I’ll be blowing up your phone the entire time.”

“You better be.”

You stand up to give your girlfriend a hug. She leans down and kisses you firmly, and you can’t help but smile into the kiss. She’s been looking forward to this trip to Japan for months, and though you know she’s nervous, you’re sure she’ll do great. You just hope you’ll do the same; since she moved in with you six months ago, you two have been inseparable, but now she’s off to another country for a week and you’re staying behind. Your house is going to feel so empty without her around…

It’s important to her, though. She gets to go see her family for the first time since she was a little kid and you’re proud of her for overcoming her anxiety and going on this trip. Hell, you’re proud of her in general. She’s just so smart and skilled and strong and fuck you love this girl so, so much.

“I’ll call you when I can, okay? Love you!” Reimu says, giving you one last quick kiss.

“Love you too, Rei. Have fun!”

“I’ll try not to die from jet lag too badly.”

She waves as she walks away, and you watch her with a completely genuine and not at all bittersweet smile until she disappears from sight.

You’re going to be okay, you tell yourself. You’ve gotta, for Reimu’s sake. Hell, you’re gonna dazzle her with how okay you are. You’ll clean the whole house and plant a flower bed and finally clear out the shed and…

Someone walks directly into you from behind, hard, pulling you from your thoughts and pushing you to the floor.

“Whoops, sorry! Didn’t see you there,” the woman says, offering a hand. You don’t take it, instead standing up on your own. How did she not see you there? And you’re standing by the wall, anyway! How the hell did she even get behind you without you noticing??

“Seriously?” You ask, annoyed. “I’m not even in the walkway!”

“I’m sorry,” she says again, reaching into her coat pocket and pulling out a small wrapped sweet. “Candy? To make up for it?”

“My dad said to not take candy from strangers, you know.”

“Am I a stranger?” she asks, smiling. You raise an eyebrow.

“Uh, yes?”

“Look at me and tell me I’m a stranger.”

The tall blonde woman is still smiling at you as you give her a once over. She wears a long purple coat and carries a frilly umbrella in one hand. A purse is slung over her shoulder with a button pinned to the side showing an image of a crescent moon.

You’ve never seen this woman before in your life??

“Uh, yeah, you’re a stranger.”

“Disappointing. Well, I’ll be on my way then. See ya~” With that, the woman turns and walks away. What the hell was that about?

“Oh, by the way,” a voice whispers in your ear, causing you to jump. You JUST saw her walk away, how in the fuck did she get next to you again?? “Something’s coming.”

You turn around quickly but the woman is nowhere to be seen. What the fuck. First, Reimu suddenly pulls out her old journal that details the weirdest weird shit you’ve ever gotten yourselves into, for no apparent reason, right before leaving for a trip to another country, and then some weirdo drops an extremely ominous message before vanishing into midair? Is everyone in on something that you aren’t?

You pull out your phone. You don’t want to worry Reimu, so you won’t mention the weird airport woman, but you do have something to ask her.

marisa ★彡: hey reimu, you never answered my question, why’d you bring your old journal today? just wondering.

You wait a minute, but Reimu must have already put her phone on airplane mode, because you don’t get an answer. Oh well. Time to head home, while definitely not dwelling on the weird airport woman for the entire drive.

(Spoiler: You absolutely dwell on the weird airport woman for the entire drive.)

Chapter Text

You squint at the tarot card that sits in front of you. You thought you’d do a quick single card reading to try to make sense of the day’s weirdness, or at least seek some advice on how you proceed from here, but you can’t make sense of the result. The queen of wands?

Your tarot deck tends to surprise you with its bluntness, but this seems completely opaque. You pick up the card and examine it. A woman in a dress holds a tall staff in her left hand. A white cat sits on the ground to the right of her. Raspberry vines surround her. Is it telling you to get a cat or something? You know that’s not it, but you can’t figure out how the queen of wands is relevant to this situation at all.

Maybe it’d be better if you came back to this after taking a nap; waking up so early to take Reimu to the airport sucked. You’ll probably be able to figure things out if you sleep a bit longer.

You set the tarot card back down in the middle of the mat you were doing the reading on and crawl into bed. Nap time.

You awaken a few hours later to the sound of your phone going off. Shit, forgot to silence it. Must be Reimu getting back to you. Wait though, did you really nap that long? That’s a 13 hour flight, isn’t it? You intended on only napping for a little bit!

You grab your phone off the bedside table and turn the screen on. Three texts from an unknown number. Ugh. You’re about to set the phone down and roll over when you realize something about the texts. Unlocking your phone, you quickly go to read the full messages.

Unknown number: Ah, this is a bit awkward but do you think you could come to the door? Your doorbell isn’t working and, um. I’m stuck outside. Knocking isn’t having any effect, either.

Unknown number: Please, Marisa? I’ll make this up to you, I promise. I just wasn’t sure where else to go, I really don’t know this area that well, after all. You’re the only person living here I know.

Unknown number: ...No answer, huh? Well, I’m not giving up that easily. I won’t break in though, I’m not that rude. I’ll be waiting on the front steps if you decide to acknowledge me. (Please acknowledge me, it’s starting to rain and I hate getting wet.)

Who the fuck? You slide out of bed and head upstairs. Peering out the peephole of the door, you don’t see anyone. Hm.

You open the door and look around. Someone’s sitting at the bottom of the steps, but they get up immediately upon hearing the door open.

“Marisa! Thank you, I was starting to think you wouldn’t answer, or that you didn’t live here anymore, or something.” The woman beams at you.

You blink. What the fuck.

“Mima? What the hell are you doing here?”

Mima’s smile fades. “I don’t know. I swear, I don’t know what happened. I was just… here. Trust me, I wouldn’t have bothered you if I had any idea what else to do.”

Standing there, soaking wet from the rain and suddenly seeming so lost, she looks pathetic. You never thought you’d see her again after she ran out like that two years ago, having turned your life upside down only to vanish. You have half a mind to slam the door in her face, getting back at her for abandoning you and the promise she’d made, but…

To be honest, you always hoped she’d return. And anyway, her “life”, so to speak, is probably far more complicated than you know. Maybe she actually had a good reason to leave.

You sigh. “Come on, I’ll go get you a towel. Just try to not drip all over the floor too much, okay?”

She nods and follows you inside, stopping just inside the door, hovering over the doormat. Looks like she took “don’t drip all over the floor” to heart.

You grab a towel and one of Reimu’s bathrobes (still going to be too small for Mima, but at least it might fit better than something of yours) and toss them at Mima. “Go get changed, I can throw your clothes in the dryer or hang them up if you’d prefer.”

“Hanging them is fine,” Mima says before gingerly slinking off to the bathroom. When she reemerges a few minutes later, bathrobe on and hair wrapped in the towel, you observe that the sleeves are several inches too short. Oh well.

“So, what do you think?” She says, spinning around like she’s a little kid trying on a fancy dress instead of wearing a too-small bathrobe.

“I think you need to stop doing that before it comes untied and falls open or something.”

Mima pouts at you, and then the towel in her hair flops down over her face, loosened by her spinning nonsense. You laugh as she lifts it back up, a little undignified. Why does seeing Mima’s antics after so long so easily put your mind at ease, anyway? You were busy worrying about that woman at the airport and then Mima appearing on your porch, and yet now you’re totally content with just watching Mima embarrass herself and be silly.

You shake your head the tiniest amount. Need to focus. Things have been weird today and you need to figure out what’s going on and why, if only to satisfy your own curiosity. After all, you doubt there’s anything too big and important linking these events. Just a weird day, that’s all. Yup.

“If you’re done goofing off, mind if I ask what you’re doing here?”

“I told you, I don’t know how I got here,” Mima says, seemingly serious, as she sits down on the couch beside where you sat while waiting for her.

“Really? No idea? Not a clue? Honestly?”

“Honestly. I was in the astral, minding my own business, and then suddenly, I was falling through space uncontrollably. When I landed, I found myself a few miles away from here. I don’t know how it happened, because I certainly wasn’t trying to leave the astral. Trust me, I’m just as confused as you are, if not more so.”

You hum, considering this. First Reimu randomly bringing up those events two years back, then the woman in the airport vanishing before your eyes, and now Mima falling from the astral and showing up on your porch? Seems connected, but you can’t figure out how. You really can’t wait for Reimu to get off the plane and finally tell you what was on her mind this morning. Only, uh… nine hours to go.

“You know,” you say to Mima. “This is only the third weird thing that’s happened so far today, and not even the weirdest one.”

“Wait, really? What else happened? What was the weirdest thing?”

“A woman in the airport disappeared into thin air after bumping into me from behind even though i was standing by a wall, walking away, reappearing behind me, and whispering ‘something’s coming’ in my ear.”

“What the fuck.”

“That’s what I said!” You exclaim.

“Wait though, why were you at the airport?” Mima asks.

“Oh, Reimu’s going to Japan for a week. I was dropping her off and saying bye, all that good stuff.”

“She is? Now??” Mima looks weirdly concerned by this.

“Uh… yes? Why?”

“So she’s not here. She’s hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away right now.”

“That is correct? Why, you wanted to see her or something?”

“No, that’s not it at all. I mean, I wouldn’t have minded, I suppose, but… that means something fishy is going on, and we’re here without our best weapon.”

“You… mean Reimu?”

“Of course I do. Her spiritual power is immense, far beyond what’s typical for a human of this world. She was key to our victory when we faced Yuuka years ago, and with something suspicious happening now, well… I dread to think of how we’ll fare without her.” Mima says gravely.

“Jeez, calm down. She’ll be back next Sunday, okay? Let’s just hope that whatever’s going on, if it’s actually anything, can wait until Sunday to pick up.”

Mima gives you a dramatically weary look. “Yes, I suppose we must hope for that. Still, I don’t like the sound of any of this at all. And what was the other weird thing that happened?”

“Oh, nothing really important relatively speaking. Just, this morning at the airport while we were waiting, Reimu suddenly pulled out her old journal where she wrote down everything that happened when you were here two years ago. She didn’t tell me why she brought it, and I texted her to ask, but she can’t answer yet since she’s on the plane, obviously.”

“Reimu’s intuition has always been second to none,” Mima says thoughtfully. “Perhaps she senses the oncoming storm…”

“Literally what are you talking about now.”

“Nothing, it’s nothing… at any rate, Marisa! Can you tell me anything about that woman in the airport?”

“Um, not that I haven’t already told you, I guess? She offered me a piece of candy after she bumped into me, she was wearing a purple coat, and she was weird. That’s all I’ve got for you.”

“Candy and a purple coat… hm. Weird.”

“Yeah, I said that a hundred times already.”

“Did you accept the candy?”

“No, why the hell would I do that?”

“Fair enough. Indeed, I’d be more worried if you had. What if she had poisoned it?”

You raise an eyebrow. “I dunno about that, I just didn’t want to accept candy from a weirdo in the airport.”

“Either way, I suppose it doesn’t matter now. Ah, right, I hung my clothes over the shower curtain rod, is that alright?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. So, uh… now what.”

“Well, I have to remain here at least until my clothes dry,” Mima says, shrugging.

“What will you do after that?”

“...I don’t know. I tried to return to the astral after finding myself in this realm, but I couldn’t manage it. Maybe I was just too shaken up still, I don’t know. It’s strange though, because for a spirit like me, passing into the astral is as simple as passing through an open doorway. Yet, this time, it’s like the door was shut. Only for me, though. I couldn’t sense any other spirits having the same problem.”

“Huh. Did you hit your head when you fell or something?”

“Marisa, dear, I’m a spirit. I don’t have a physical brain that could be injured by hitting my head. But no, I did not.”

You have to fight yourself to not make a joke about her being brainless. It’s a difficult battle, but you prevail in the end. Mima watches you closely, as if waiting for you to say something, her gaze falling on your smirk. You force yourself back to a neutral expression.

“So… that means something’s interfering? Or maybe you were injured in some other way. Non-physically, I mean.”

“It’s possible,” Mima admits. “It might just be me, and it might not. The problem is that I don’t know, so I have no way of tackling the problem. I’m stuck in this world until then, with nowhere to go.”

You know what she’s not saying: she wants to stay here, even as she seems to regret having to.

“Well, if you’re hurt, I’m not gonna let you go risk making it worse by heading out on your own into an area you barely know, got that?”

“Really?”

“Of course. Even if you did abandon us over two years ago, I’m not a complete asshole.”

Mima winces. “I know it’s far too late, but… I am sorry, truly. I regretted leaving as soon as I did it. However, I just… couldn’t figure out how to return without making things worse. Plus, I was worried that Yuuka had targeted the area due to my presence here, and feared that returning would put you and Reimu in danger again. Trust me, I really did want to see you two again. It’s awfully lonely living in isolation in the astral, and you two were, well, my only friends.”

“Then why did you even leave?” You get where she’s coming from, but that never made sense to you. She just left.

Mima stares at a spot somewhere behind you, clearly not wanting to meet your eyes. “It’s… complicated. Let’s just say that you and Reimu reminded me strongly of two people I knew in the distant past. Especially you. And… in that past, it didn’t end well, which was entirely my own fault. So, I was scared, I guess. Scared of repeating the same mistakes, but because of that fear, I messed things up anyway. I’m genuinely sorry.”

You think about what Reimu said earlier, about not knowing what Mima’s life was like. She’s obviously pretty old, and you’ve always gotten a vague feeling that her past wasn’t happy, Hell, it almost certainly wasn’t, considering she’s a vengeful spirit. Whatever was wrong, it’s probably more complicated and personal to her than you can imagine.

“It’s alright,” you tell her. “I can tell this is probably super personal, so you don’t have to try to explain any further. And anyway, it was dumb for me to have even been so upset about you leaving, it’s not like we knew you for more than a few days.”

“I wish that was different,” Mima said. “It’s… nice, being here, and probably not just because it’s so lonely and dull where I was before.”

“It’s alright,” you repeat. “If you wanna stay here for a while, you can, especially since you don’t have anywhere else to go right now, anyway. Reimu’ll be back in a week; I think she was a tiny bit worried about you, so she’ll probably act pissed off that you’re here but secretly will be happy.”

Mima laughs. “That sounds about right, yes. So!” She stands up from the couch suddenly. “Mind showing me your bedroom?”

“Hey now, I have a girlfriend, you know,” you say in a jokingly serious tone.

“Not like that! Your bedroom’s where you keep all your magic stuff, right? I wanna take a look, that’s all!”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s not exciting though, I haven’t had as much time for magic as I’d like lately.”

“But you do still practice, right?”

“Of course. That’s not gonna change no matter how busy I am. Just haven’t had the time and energy for any big spellwork or anything, that’s all.”

Mima nods. “I’m glad to hear you’re still a practicing witch then. I was a tiny bit worried you may have quit after I left, considering, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s fine though. Actually, you helped more than you probably know.”

“Really? Did I now?”

“Fighting and defeating a youkai is good for one’s magical self-confidence, it turns out.”

Mima smiles. “Glad to hear I was of some use, then, even if the fight wasn’t quite what I had planned on having happen.”

You smile back. Having Mima here again really feels like seeing an old friend for the first time in ages. It feels natural, and as you lead her down to the basement to show her your magical workspace/bedroom, you almost don’t mind that there’s some kind of potential big threat looming on the horizon. Hell, you’ve been bored lately, so it’s almost welcome! Maybe. You guess you’ll see what happens.

Chapter Text

“So, this is the famous bedroom of Marisa,” Mima says, floating near the center of the room with her hands on her hips.

“Famous?”

“Ohoho, and what’s this?” She swoops down and pulls something out from under your bed - a bra. You throw a book at her, and she cackles, holding up the bra. “Wait a second, this isn’t even yours, is it?”

“Yes, I regularly sleep with my girlfriend, what’s your point?” You say as you jump to try to snatch it out of her hands, even as she holds it up above her head. “Good to see you’re just as mature as ever, by the way.”

Mima laughs and then drops the bra on your head. “You should let Reimu know she left that at your house.”

“What do you mean? This is her house too, you know,” you say as you toss the bra onto your bed.

“Oh? Is it, now?”

“Uh, yeah. She moved in with me a little while back. She’s got her own bedroom though, so I’ll just take this and put it away, thank you.”

“You don’t share a room?”

“She keeps her stuff in her room, then she ignores her futon and sleeps in my bed.”

“I see,” Mima says, nodding sagely. “That’s wise of her. She gets the best of both worlds, her own room and sleeping with you. Very wise indeed.”

You roll your eyes. “Anyway!”

Before you can even begin to change the subject though, Mima’s taken an interest in the mat still holding a single tarot card from earlier. She drapes herself onto the floor (you’re always a little impressed by how effortlessly she maneuvers her phantasmal tail) and picks up the card, looking at it. “Doing a little tarot work?”

“I consulted the cards about the weird woman at the airport and they gave me absolutely nothing useful, if that’s what you mean.”

“Hmm… the queen of wands… Do you think this is a message about the nature of that woman, perhaps, or some advice on how to deal with her?”

You shake your head. “I considered that, but honestly, even if the cards are telling me to defer authority to her or something, I don’t wanna. She was too weird.”

“Fair enough. Then perhaps the meaning is something else, or perhaps there are multiple facets to this card’s appearance. Did you consider the symbolism of the card’s design?”

“Of course. It might be telling me to get a cat.”

Mima laughs, but shakes her head. “Somehow, I don’t think that’s it. You know though, the cat often depicted alongside the queen of wands is often taken to be a reference to the queen’s deeper, darker side. She is both a confident leader and a complicated figure.”

“Interesting,” you say.

“I can tell you don’t care at all.”

“No, I do. That just seems like a lot to get from a single cat.”

“Well, this deck has changed the design slightly, as traditionally the cat is black.”

“Uh-huh.”

Mima shakes her head. “At any rate, I’m inclined to believe this card has some meaning in reference to your current situation. Unless you were entirely unfocused during the reading, tarot cards are rarely meaningless.”

“I didn’t ask for your analysis, but thanks I guess?”

“Of course! Now then, what else do we have in here…”

“Whatcha doing?” Mima asks, and you quickly hit the + button to pause the game you’re playing.

“Video game,” you tell her.

“Neat. What game?”

“Do you even know any video games?”

“Nope!"  She plops herself down beside you on the couch cheerfully. “I liked your bedroom.”

“Oh, you’re finally done looking through every last thing I own?”

You’d gotten bored of watching her shuffle through your boxes of herbs and had gone upstairs to do something else. It’s been nearly an hour since then.

“Nah, I just decided to take a break. I still need to read every book on your shelf, you know.”

“Awesome,” you say sarcastically.

“So where’s Reimu’s room, anyway?”

You point at the doorway beside the couch.

“Oh, wasn’t that the storage room before?”

“Yeah, I cleared it out for her. I don’t think she’d appreciate you going through her stuff though, so stay out.”

“I can’t even take a peek?”

You roll your eyes. “One peek, and that’s it.”

“Thank you, Marisa.” Mima floats over and pushes the door open, poking her head in. “Ooh, a tatami room? How unusual for a western building.”

“Reimu had a very specific look in mind once she finally had the freedom to decorate a room however she wanted. Took us ages to get everything set up, but she’d saved up for it and everything.”

“Is Reimu out of school, then?”

“Yeah, she graduated last winter.”

“Already?” Mima sounds a bit confused. “That was fast.”

You frown. “Was it? She went to a four year school and graduated in four years. That doesn’t sound too unusual to me.”

“Huh. I thought it hadn’t been that long since I was last here and she was in her second year.”

“Nope, you just have a bad sense of time, I guess.”

Mima shrugs as she sits back down on the couch. “Well, it’s not like I had any particular reason to keep track of time that closely. When one is drifting aimlessly in the astral, schedules aren’t too important.”

Drifting aimlessly… is that really what Mima does with her existence? You wonder again what her life is really like.

“Sounds boring,” you say.

“Yeah, it kind of is. I do get into fights occasionally, and explore new areas, but… well, it’s been a long time since I’ve had any particular purpose, let’s just say that.”

“You must be pretty glad to be back out here, then, huh?”

Mima doesn’t answer right away, as if she’s considering whether she is or not.

“...I suppose so. I avoid the human world in general usually, but it is a change of pace.”

“Why do you avoid it?”

“It matters not! So, teach me how to play this, would you?”

You know she’s changing the subject, and you’re not nearly rude enough to press any further. Even if you’re extremely curious about her past, you know better than to just ask. It’s none of your business. Still, as you glance over at her while showing her the controls of the game you were playing, you wonder how genuine her smile really is.

Mima pauses the game. “Marisa?”

“Yeah?”

“I wouldn’t have come here if I didn’t want to. Returning to this world wasn’t my choice, but coming here was. I decided I wanted to see you again, even if I knew it’d be awkward at best. Got that?”

“O...kay?”

“You’re really easy to read, sitting there giving me those little sideways glances like you’re expecting me to burst into tears any minute or something.”

Whoops. She read you like a book, and she knows it.

“Alright, fine. You just seem really, you know, sad and profoundly depressed and stuff there, underneath your casual joking facade.”

“I am not profoundly depressed, I’m just disoriented by having been knocked out of the astral without warning and left without anywhere to go but to the home of someone I haven’t seen in years. It’s been an extremely weird day for me.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. But hey, even if we don’t know each other super well, you can, like, talk to me if you need, I guess?” You’re not good at this, you’ll admit. “I know what it’s like to, you know, be profoundly depressed and all that. Ya end up isolating yourself and making things worse so just to put it out there, I’m here if you wanna talk at all, okay?”

Mima laughs. “Offer of friendly counseling noted, but just so you know, this goes both ways. If I start unloading my emotional nonsense on you, you’ve got to do the same to me. It’s only fair. After all, I still don’t understand what led you to desperately summoning any spirit who could offer you a hand in improving your magical skills, you know.”

Shit, she’s right, you did summon in her a time of extreme vulnerability, didn’t you? Whoops!

“Uh, I mean, I was just feeling really inadequate and inferior to basically every other magic practitioner and spirit worker out there and was super frustrated because I felt like I should be able to do more but I couldn’t. I don’t even know why, I just couldn’t shake this idea that I was supposed to be doing more, supposed to be far more powerful, but I wasn’t. I had this concept of myself as an improbably powerful mage but I was just, you know, an ordinary human witch.”

“That’s not a bad thing, though,” Mima says. “To be a human magic practitioner at all is an extremely impressive act of will, especially in this day and age, an age of all skepticism and no belief. And anyway, you summoned me, didn’t you? Not just any old witch could do that, I bet.”

“By accident. I summoned you by accident, remember?” You remind her.

“All the same, still impressive. You were and are a skilled witch. Just because your magic, limited by this world’s lack of magical energy, isn’t super flashy and showy, doesn’t mean it’s not powerful or impressive.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get that now. I just didn’t get that then.”

“Just making sure.”