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THE STORY SO FAR:
The world has ended, but five (well, it’s complicated) humans get a chance to do it over, and make things right. Only problem is, for their second go around, they're not going to be 'human'...
Kosuzu, Reimu, Akyuu and Youmu have all remembered their pasts, and through significant trials and tribulations, begun the path of fighting against the doomed future. Of the five Immaterial Children who were wound back in time together, only one’s fate remains unknown - the former magician, Kirisame Marisa.
In this life, she is Houjuu Marisa, raised on the island of Sado in the outside world. Spending her childhood years looking up at the stars, the arrival of the Spiral Comet awoke her inhuman heritage - one she was completely unaware of, and equally unprepared to deal with. Having fled her life on the island, she now searches for a way to get to Gensokyo, ever chased by a mysterious group.
She is not the only one exploring the mysteries of the city she now finds herself in - she is joined by Goutokuji Mike, a young maneki-neko of the modern world also on the run from home. Together, they discovered the Lunar Rainbow Market, and with the assistance of powerful benefactors managed to evade their pursuers.
Their time at the Scarlet Talent Agency ended poorly, yet not fruitlessly - not only were they joined by fellow mystery-hunter Kotohime, but a mysterious shadow of a witch managed to contact the young Houjuu, and point her on the path towards discovering her nature and purpose. This has proven to be another pain point for Mike, who feels herself falling behind the young changeling and wants to catch up. Perhaps the Vanishing Path and the prisoner of the shrine it conceals will give her a chance to prove herself…
Previous Threads:
Redo/Reimu >>205449 >>205720
Again/Akyuu >>206017 >>206302 >>206595 >>206906 >>207202
Yester/Youmu >>207370 >>207705 >>208027 >>208337 >>208664 >>208978
Kaizou/Kosuzu >>209221 >>209492 >>209799 >>210140 >>210522 >>210832 >>211127 >>211466 >>211848 >>212143
Memoria/Marisa >>212437 >>212766 >>213061 >>213602 >>213997
Epilogues and Shorts >>/shorts/2804
Or read the story archive on Ao3:
https://archiveofourown.org/series/4062991
Outside/Omakes (Shorts from Other Writers): >>/shorts/2947
XOR/Xenologue (Speculative What-If Canon) >>/shorts/3129
“The first thing we should ask is, well, how did you get trapped here in the first place?” Marisa said. “I mean, I’m guessing you want us to free you, but-”
“But it would be foolish to open the cage unknowing of the beast within.” The woman nodded in agreement. “I can make no promises, but I will tell you what I can.”
She paused, thinking back. “My capture was the denouement of a fierce battle, if I remember correctly. Sadly, I never got the name of the one who struck me down, and nor can I divine the exact reason we were fighting. I remember more than my fair share of tumultuous places and times - battles were commonplace.”
“Is that right?” Kotohime muttered, looking at the sealed spirit. “...I swear, you seem familiar. Have we met before?”
Marisa gave the phantom a closer look. Now that she mentioned it, something about the shadowed face was familiar. It turned to an apologetic expression as the woman shook her head. “If we met in the past, I have no recollection of it. My apologies.”
“Mmmm.” Kotohime hummed in thought, still staring at the woman. “I see.”
“Maybe the sealing’s meant to make you lose your memories.” Mike’s voice was a whisper. “Are… are you okay? Those thorns look painful.”
The prisoner stared at the thorns around her wrists. “The thorns are an aftermath of the battles between me and my jailer. We have regular bouts, on nights when the moon is strongest.” The prisoner stood up, turning to survey the grounds. “I’d endure their pain for a thousand years to escape this place, but it’d be best if you kept well clear. They’d sap your strength at the touch.”
Marisa had been wondering about that. She wasn’t curious enough to try touching them, but she was glad to know enough that she’d been right to be careful. She turned her gaze to the hackjob carved through the bushes around the side building. “Even your jailer’s not immune to it, huh…?”
The prisoner managed a small chuckle. “The closest thing I have to entertainment is watching her deal with the mess. Ghastly woman. Playing at a miko while dancing to the So-called Devil’s tune, and she has the nerve to-”
She stopped, before sighing. “Apologies. I won’t waste my breath pretending a prisoner can give an uncoloured opinion on their captor. Just know- I pray you won’t meet her for yourselves.”
Kotohime nodded, doubt written plain on her face. “If you say so.” She paused, looking over the bushes. “Using thorns to drain people… what a terrible power.”
“Indeed. And even if one manages to make it through there, you have the outer seals - robust and regularly maintained.” She gave a thoughtful gaze to Kotohime. “You may be fine, milady, but your charges would not - any youkai would be blown back, almost certainly landing in the wicked thicket.”
“Even if we tried to help, we’d get hurt?” Mike’s ears folded back, looking sadly at the trapped woman. “You’re really trapped… I-I don’t know if there’s anything I can do.”
“Perhaps it’s not impossible.” The prisoner gave a small smile. “Especially with a brave young maneki-neko like yourself.”
She turned around. “If I’m careful and take my time, I can make a small tunnel through the thorn bushes. Small enough for a little kitten to slip through, without the hole being noticed by my jailer. The seals, though…” She sighed. “They’re made entirely for the purpose of containing me, so I can offer no aid in breaking through them. You’ll need to find your own way past.”
The catgirl hesitated. “But… even if I get past that, what can I hope to do? If this is only the second line of defense-”
“It’s the last line of defense,” the spirit corrected. “The seals within the building have decayed greatly, and would offer no real resistance to any enterprising soul. If you can manage to open the door, freeing me from there would be trivial - and once unbound, I’ll be able to clear a proper path for escape, so we can all leave this broken temple far behind.”
“That’s if we decide to help.” Kotohime reminded. “We still know basically nothing about you, after all. If we go digging and we find out you were lying to us… we won’t be freeing you from this.”
“But I want to help!”
Marisa looked at her friend. Mike was clutching at her chest. “I-I don’t know if I can promise that I’ll be able to free you…” the nekomata turned her head up, determined. “But I promise, I’ll do everything I can!”
After a moment, the islander nodded in agreement. “Yeah. We can’t promise anything, but we’ll go digging, look for some information. Maybe we can tell you some of those things you forgot or at least make things more comfortable for you. We can do that much, right?”
The prisoner sagged, slightly. “It has been years since I’ve had even this much hope. The thought of you turning me away is -” She paused, before regathering herself. “No… before this night, even the slightest bit of aid seemed impossible. I will just have to trust that you will be able to keep your faith - that this meeting is fate, not fortune. And if you decide that simple aid is all you can or should do, then I will just have to accept it. Regardless, thank you for giving me a chance.”
She paused, before looking out into the distance. The faintest hint of light could be seen, down by the road. “I suspect our time has run out, and my power is very much spent. Be safe, all three of you… and I hope to see you again soon.”
The phantasmal woman became even more translucent, smiling at the trio. Even as her body faded, she managed to tousle Mike’s ears one more time… and then she was gone.
Marisa gave a small grin to her friend. “Sounds like you’ve got some work to do, Mike.”
The catgirl nodded, her gaze locked on the shrine - once again back to it’s inert state. “Mmm. Miss Goddess… I’ll find a way to free you, I promise.”
Her focus was only broken when the policewoman’s hand landed on her shoulder. “You kids…” Kotohime sighed. “Let’s get to the car. We need to have a talk.”
...Thorns?
Although Mima, you might be fooling the kids, you ain't fooling us!
Even the Capcha knows who imprisoned you!
...Although I do gotta wonder if Mima will actually do something bad, considering despite being an evil spirit, she's basically nothing but a petty troublemaker after Reimu gives her some smacks.
Since everything this so-called "spirit/goddess" tells us could either be a total lie or the full truth about her situation and her jailer "Miko," there are a few suspects on the list:
- Mima (the most obvious suspect and who most people believe it is, myself included)
- Yuuka (she was supposedly defeated during her incident, and there's been no mention of what happened to her)
- Byakuren (not too likely, since she's supposedly sealed in Makai)
- Eternity (because of her backstory, she could fit into the goddess category)
This is probably not Mima, actually. Unless I'm missing something critical.
See, I'm still banking on Mima because this "goddess" doesn't have a lower body, which is a trait shared by...literally just Mima and Tojiko.
I don't think it's Yuuka, because she was fended away by the Moriyas, rather than the Hakurei...who is the only Miko around, since Sanae is MIA.
It also definitely isn't Byakuren, she's busy chilling in Makai and has not left.
Might be Eternity, though.
Eternity’s hair is blue, the hair of the mysterious goddess is green.
>>214382
I don't think her hair color is mentioned though, in the drawing those seem to be plant vines more than anything?
My guess if it really is green hair would be Yuuka but if she was sealed it wouldn't have been a long time ago, unless she's lying about that? Then again she would have sunflowers and not roses or whatever these flowers are.
All the plant vine stuff makes me think it's Hisami but I really doubt this is her here? Or maybe Zanmu freed her in the original timeline and so she got a stalker loyal follower for herself?
Oops, didn’t realize those were vines.
Hisami has eggplant motifs, so it probably isn’t her. Don’t know much about Hisami tho.
My bets are on either Mima—hasn't appeared yet, had a relationship of some sort with the previous Marisa—or maybe Yuuka—overly mysterious and suspicious, plus an association with plants. Or it could be an original character.
I would also like to remind everyone that there is also a horned creature that appears on nights of the full moon, that we haven’t seen yet.
Maybe it's Kasen's arm? Both Kasen and her oni side on her tabard have a flower. Plus, besides looking for the Hakurei heir, Kasen also said she'd be busy with something dangerous.
>>213362
>>“But while I was out here… there’s something I have to deal with. It’s very dangerous, and it’s proving elusive, but I could have it any night now. So I’m sorry to say that I can’t go escorting any kids until I’ve got that matter sorted.”
That’s a cool idea! The mystery goddess mentioned a “Demon” that the Miko was working for…given that “demon” is sometimes used to refer to Oni, she being Kasen’s Arm isn’t impossible.
