Chapter Text
It was a rare evening that Marisa wished to spend it within the confines of her own home. But the plan tonight was to do exactly that. No point flying anywhere, cold and wet as they were. A night next to the fireplace all by her lonesome sounded lovely. Besides, she still hadn’t figured out the magic light gem.
Marisa trudged through the mud, one bootfall after another, with her small lantern held high above her head. Sure they could navigate the forest with their eyes closed, but a sprained ankle didn’t sound very appealing. Nor did flying home; the trees gave a nice canopy from the rain.
A twig snapped up ahead, so Marisa stopped and listened. Another set of boots were trudging through the mud.
Marisa sighed. That was the other downside to walking: dealing with whatever mischief local youkai wanted to cause. But so long as nobody got the jump on her, there wasn’t really any danger. Besides, it’d probably be fun.
She snapped her lantern into the carabiner at the front of her broom, and sat down on it sideways. Silently, they flew towards the noise’s source, past trees and muddy puddles.
There was a figure with their back turned, peeking around trees and carefully stepping through the forest. They wore a long tan coat and a black hat with a bow tied around its circumference.
They noticed the lantern’s light and turned around with a quiet yelp. They reached behind their coat and drew a plastic doo-hickey. Before they could point it at Marisa, the witch grabbed her hakkero and leveled it at the tired figure. It hummed and glowed with raw magic power.
“Move ‘n I’ll shoot!” The person said, clearly very scared.
“Shoot ‘n I’ll move!” Marisa responded. She smiled and put her mini-hakkero away. “Yer human.”
There was a short silence. “Yeah?” They dropped the business end of the doo-hickey and tucked it into a coat pocket. “Are you?”
“Think so. The hell’re ya doing out here alone at night?” Marisa asked. She hopped off her broom and brought the lantern’s light closer to the figure.
“Couldn’t I ask you the same?” With the lantern’s light, Marisa looked them up and down, from brown boots to black hat. They had a white button down, a black capelet, and a black skirt with nice white trim. The woman with long, graying brown hair made the same motion of inspecting Marisa.
“I like your style.”
“Nice outfit,” the two of them practically said in unison.
“Thanks!” They both said in perfect harmony. Marisa brought an index finger up to her witch hat and pushed the brim up with a smirk. The woman made the exact same motion with her fedora, grinning wildly.
“You’re blond,” the woman said.
Marisa held up her braid and mocked a surprised face. “I am?”
“You wouldn’t happen to be an ‘M’?”
“Marisa Kirisame,” she said, placing a hand on her hip.
“Damn, yer not Her,” they said with a grimace, placing a hand against their chin.
“Ain’t this the part where you tell me yer name?”
“Oh, yeah. Renko.” Renko drew a journal from a coat pocket and looked at it under the canopy of her coat.
“Well Renko, ya got a place to stay the night?” Marisa asked. Suddenly, a quiet night all by her lonesome sounded dreadfully boring. Besides, the two of them had a moment together.
“No,” Renko said with a frown. She shut the journal and stuffed her hands into her coat pockets.
“That’s great, follow me.” Marisa unhooked the lantern from her broom and continued making her way towards the house.
Over her shoulder, Renko squelched through the mud to catch up. “You the only blond that lives in this forest?” They asked.
“Nope,” Marisa said cheerily. She stomped into a puddle of water for the hell of it.
“Any of ‘em wouldn’t happen to have an ‘M’ in their name?”
“Alice Margatroid. That count?”
Renko was quiet for a moment. “Maybe? Not sure.” She caught up so she was walking side by side with Marisa. “I’d have to see ‘er.”
“Good. I got a picture ‘a her at my place. But now I’m even more curious, what’re you doing?”
“Searching for someone. She’s uhh… blond. Wears purple, or maybe has purple eyes. Maybe both? Oh, and she has an ‘M’ in ‘er name.”
“Ya don’t sound so sure.” Marisa sat down on her broom sideways so she could face Renko. They stuffed a hand into their pocket and fiddled with the edges of the light gem.
“Well, I’m not. She’s hard to remember.”
“She a closed-eye satori?” Marisa started swinging her legs from the broom.
“Maybe? What is that?” Renko asked, renewed excitement in her voice.
“It’s like someone who's so thoughtless ya can’t remember ‘em.”
“Interestin’,” Renko said quietly. She tucked a finger gun under her chin and was quiet for a moment. “Hey, how’re ya doing that?”
It took a second for Marisa to deduce what Renko was talking about. “Oh, fly? Tons ‘a humans can fly! It’s not that hard. Besides, my broom’s autonomous now.”
“Oh,” Renko nodded with understanding.
“Yer not a human villager, are ya?” Marisa asked. “Outside world, right?”
Renko’s train of thought was visibly thrown off. “Yer sharp.”
“Not really. You pointed a 3-D printed gun at me,” Marisa said with a chuckle. “You friends with Sanae?”
“Hold on,” Renko stopped walking. “How do you know what a 3-D printed gun is?”
“Cuz Sumi shot me with one.” Marisa looked up and thought back to that incident. “Hurt like hell.”
Renko blinked a couple times. “Sumi who?”
“Sumireko Usami? She’s some kid from the outsi-”
“What year is it?” Renko interrupted.
“This one. It’s winter right now, well it’s supposed to be,” Marisa glared up at the sky. It responded with a raindrop to her eye. They blinked it away and forged onwards towards the house.
“Wait, hold on, hold on,” Renko jogged to catch up. “You don’t keep track of years?”
“That an outside world thing? I got star charts at my place, would that help?” Marisa posited.
“My astronomy is rusty, but yeah. If only there weren’t all these clouds overhead.”
“Yeah.”
Renko grew quiet for a moment and looked up at the sky. “Where’s my evening star,” she mumbled quietly to herself.
Marisa gave Renko a sympathetic face, then shone her lantern towards the porch. “We’re here.”
After having cleared enough items from the couch and an adjacent chair, the front room was looking pretty good. Enough space for two people to sit and chat, at the very least.
Marisa was down to just her undershirt and bloomers, the majority of her clothing hanging up by the fire beside Renko’s trench coat. The witch lay spread across the couch as she turned the light gem in her hands. Renko sat in the recliner beside her, journal in one hand, star chart in the other.
Having presumably consulted the star chart enough, Renko chuckled to herself and handed it back to Marisa.
“What is it?” Marisa asked.
“Nothin’.” They pointed at the magic gem in Marisa’s hands. “Whatcha got there?”
Marisa held it up for Renko to see. “Magic light gem. Only thing is, it has no magic signature.”
“Lemme see that,” Renko said with a smile. Was that recognition in her eyes? Marisa tossed it over, and Renko fumbled it around in her hands for a little bit, eventually catching it. “You got a light source?”
The witch picked up their mini-hakkero and shot a white beam of light at Renko’s stomach. With a smirk, Renko placed the gem in front of the beam of light, and rotated it slightly. Then, all of the colors of the rainbow shone out from the other side.
“The hell? How’d you do that?”
“It’s a prism. It splits white light into its constituent spectral colors. No magic here, just optics,” Renko explained.
Marisa sat upright. “What? No. White light is made up from the combination of heat and metal magic, not the rainbow.”
“What?”
“Watch,” Marisa said. She conjured a basic sigil for heat magic, and another for metal. She joined the two in the air, and a little ball of white light formed. She shaped it into a little star and let it fizzle out.
“Woah,” Renko cooed, starstruck. “Teach me.”
Renko sat in the front room, staring gleefully at the ball of light floating above her hands. “How’s that picture comin’?” she asked, not taking her eyes from the small incantation.
“It’s in here,” Marisa responded, flipping through old books and papers. Finally, she came across the photo in question. They grinned at it. Alice certainly looked young in it. “Got it,” Marisa said, holding it up towards the other woman.
Renko let the ball of light fizzle and ran over to the pile of papers on the other side of the room. Carefully, she accepted the photo. Eyes wide, she inspected it up and down, but soon disappointment spread across her face. Renko shook her head and handed the photo back, burying her face in one of her hands for a moment.
“Darn.” Marisa placed the photo on a counter nearby.
“Got any other photos here?”
“A couple,” Marisa said, gathering the small stack.
One by one, Renko inspected each photo with bleary eyes. One by one, she tossed them aside. She sighed dejectedly when they had been completely exhausted. “What’s that?” They pointed at a large, folded up sheet of yellowing paper.
“Old map ‘a Gensokyo.” The witch pushed a few books off of it and straightened out the piece of paper. She had to blow a layer of dust from its front, but it still looked pretty good. She really ought to hang it in her room some time.
Unfazed, Renko continued poking through other papers. “What’s that?”
Marisa peeked over the top of the map, and saw the chained up book Renko was pointing to. “Don’t touch that,” Marisa said, folding the map and putting it down. She grabbed a nearby stick and pushed the book out of Renko’s reach.
“These?” Renko asked. She gathered a stack of rainbow colored cards in her hands, and started flipping through a few.
“Ability cards,” Marisa answered. They drew one from the top of the deck and looked at it. She held her arm up, and shot an icicle from the card. “I collected all of them,” she said with a proud smirk.
Renko set the stack down. “No other photos?” she asked with a sigh.
“Nope.”
“She’s blond and she’s got purple eyes, you know anyone like that?” Renko asked.
“Well, hair n’ eye color ain’t the best way to look for someone. I used to have red hair n’ red eyes, y’know?”
“You still have red eyes.”
“Yeah but they were gold for a while in between,” Marisa explained. Renko sighed and covered her dejected face once more.
Marisa sat down next to the woman. “Look, if she came to Gensokyo, you will find her. That’s just how things work.”
“Ok,” Renko said, pulling her face up. “Yeah, ok. You know a lot of people?”
Marisa shrugged. “I get around.”
“When you think purple, who do you think?”
“Patchouli.”
“Could she have been a human in the outside world and blond?” Renko asked.
“Hell no. She was probably born a magician somehow.”
“Ok, what about just anybody who could’ve been an outside worlder before you met ‘em?” Renko asked.
“Anyone I didn’t personally grow up with, I guess. So that crosses off, uhh… Reimu.” She tried to think of anybody else, but couldn’t.
Renko drew her journal and flipped through some of the pages while Marisa peeked over her shoulder and watched. There was a lineart sketch on one of the pages, but she couldn’t get a good enough look.
“Woah, woah, slow down,” Marisa said, pushing a page back.
Penciled in with smeared black graphite and spots of colored pencil was a half-complete rendering of a woman’s face. There were creases under the eyes that should have been there, and blond hair that disappeared before it even fell past the ears that weren’t present. Arrows pointed to specific features: the cheekbones, the purple eyes, the curly blond hair.
It was a melancholic drawing. The way a face looks when it’s mostly slipped from memory.
Marisa, however, was more interested in the garment adorning the woman’s head. “What’s that?” Marisa pointed at the hat.
“Bonnet cap. They’re real popular when I’m from.”
“Hmm. But they’re not here,” Marisa said, running a tali in her head. “I can think of nine people who wear bonnet caps, and four of ‘em are children. Another is Patchi, so that leaves four.”
Renko looked up, her gaze suddenly very intense. “Who? What’re they like? They blond?” She stood up and began bouncing.
“Well one of them’s a ghost, another is a fox, and another… Oh.”
“Oh?” Renko perked up.
Marisa chuckled to herself a bit. “You said purple, right?”
Renko nodded vigorously. “I’m certain.”
“Well, Renko, I think she left you a hint.”
“Who.” It was not a question.
“Yukari Yakumo.”
Renko stood and reached for her trench coat.
“Woah now, even if I felt up to flying you there, Reimu ain’t gonna let you into the barrier ‘til morning,” Marisa said reluctantly.
Renko looked like she was holding back a scream. “I’ve been searching for fourteen years. Mind you, it isn’t easy when you can’t even remember who you’re searching for. I need to see Her. I need closure. It can not wait.”
“Sorry, but it’ll have to,” Marisa stood up.
Renko sighed. “You knew somebody named purple, and didn’t think of ‘em first?”
Marisa shrugged. “Well she’s kinda an ass so it's not like I talk to ‘er much.”
Renko looked offended.
“I’m gonna get some sleep, then I’ll fly you over in the morning. Ok?” Marisa said as she hopped over the couch and carefully made her way to the staircase. “That closet has blankets. Get some rest.”
“Yeah, I’ll try,” Renko said dejectedly.
The stairs gave strained crackles and squeaks, but Marisa made it to her room with no major incident. The hakkero began buzzing with magical warmth, and Marisa set it down on her nightstand. She opened a drawer and grabbed a small potion bottle filled with a clearish liquid and chugged it in one swig. Then, a thought crossed her mind.
She grabbed another small potion bottle and bounded back down the stairs halfway. Renko sat up from the couch and removed her hat from the front of her face. She met Marisa’s gaze.
“You take e?” Marisa asked.
“Yeah,” Renko nodded.
Marisa tossed the potion bottle to Renko. “Cheers.” The witch bounded back up the stairs and turned in for the night.
Sleep eluded Marisa Kirisame. That fact was nothing new, but annoying nonetheless. She tossed and turned, a single thought lingering in her mind. A triangular prism, just ‘optics’.
Another thought wandered in. She had left the fire burning, didn’t she? As much as they wanted dry clothing, they also didn’t want the house up in flames. Renko would have to sleep by embers.
Marisa threw the covers off and grabbed the warm hakkero, making her way carefully to the stairs. They tiptoed down, one step after the other. The least she could do was make it quick and quiet for Renko’s sake.
They flew silently just above the couch so that they were facing the fireplace. With one quick wind spell, she doused the flames – save for the warm bed of embers at the bottom. Marisa looked over to see if Renko had-
Renko was gone.
“Gods dammit,” Marisa muttered to herself. She grabbed her damp clothes and threw them on as quickly as she could. Getting a new, dry outfit would have to wait. They raised a hand above their head and waited for the broom to fly over.
The broom did not fly over. She walked over to the pile of papers where she knew she had left it. Sure enough, it was gone, as well as the map of Gensokyo and a handful of ability cards. Renko must’ve been in a hurry, the way some of the cards scattered the ground lead up to the door. Thank the gods that the chained book was still safely resting on the counter.
Marisa burst through her front door. It was a bit awkward, but Marisa took off into the air towards the Hakurei shrine without her broom.