Part 4: Chapter 1M: Departure - Part 2

We're here. This is Kourindou.

Ehh... Kourindou is in a place like this?

Yep, at the entrance to the Forest of Magic. It's hard to lose your way here.

...I should've known the Greater Tengu's map was too suspiciously confusing.

As long as you got here in the end. Let's head on in.



Quick primer on Marisa and Rinnosuke's (Kourin's) relationship: Rinnosuke used to work for Marisa's dad, and was kind of her surrogate father/older brother while she was growing up. Eventually he left to set up his own shop (Marisa's nickname for him comes from its name), and where he went was probably a pretty big factor in Marisa's decision to move to the Forest of Magic after running away from her home.

Hello Marisa. Hm, I've not seen you before.

G-Good afternoon. I'm Nitori Kawashiro, a kappa.

A kappa? That's a rare type of a customer around there parts. Would you be a friend of Marisa's?

Well, just about.

A friend...?

Hm? Something wrong?

N-No! Human and Kappa are sworn friends after all!

(...I've heard a fair bit about them... But this is the first time I've seen a real, live Kappa. I imagined them more classically, having a shell on their back... And maybe a dish on their heads... But she's actually pretty cute.)

Rinnosuke is very much the epitome of . The book he originated from is just pages and pages of him thinking about all sorts of things.

(Her petite figure, large eyes and twintails... They all emphasize her youthfulness greatly. Perhaps too much. Mm, that one-piece outfit has several pockets as well. Very convenient.)

Hey, Kourin.

Hm? Yes, Marisa?



You're making Nitori feel uncomfortable.

Ahh, forgive my rudeness. Analyzing people I meet for the first time is a bad habit of mine. I doubt a kappa would be here to exchange banter, so what would you be here for?

Ah, right! There's something I'm looking for. Do you mind if I check what you have around here?

Of course not. Feel free to look around.

Ahh, make two helpings of snacks as well. There's still those rice cookies you bought from before right?

...You're as impatient as ever. They're on the table over there, help youself.

Hah, you're getting it. There's rice cookies over there Nitori, so have a bite.



By 'that', you mean...*sigh*. I told you three days ago that it would take around a week, didn't I? Of course it isn't ready yet.

Whaaa? I gotta figure out where all the scarlet mist is coming from... And here you are, taking your sweet time...

I said to wait one week, because it would take one week. Finishing it faster is not feasible, no matter how much you ask.

No way, Reimu's gonna take the initiative from me now... And I'd just thought out my new magic too...

...Good grief, you're the same as ever.



Come back in two days. It'll be completed by then.

Really!? I knew I could count on you, Kourin! The road leading here was weird, but I'm glad I came here today anyway. Helping out kappa is a hero's job anyway.



Kourindou is an "antique" shop that is mostly just Rinnosuke selling all the random stuff he finds lying around. He doesn't get much business though, so everything is exorbitantly expensive.

Hm? A cell phone.. ? The heck is that?

It's an item that allows you to communicate with someone over who's far away. It seems with this item, you will be able to talk to whoever you want. You do not even have to be psychic to do so. Though I do not know how to use it.

Rinnosuke's power lets him look at things and know what they're used for. As he bemoans, though, he has no idea how to actually use them.

It works by transforming your voice into electro-magnetic waves in the air. They're then sent to the reciever and transformed back. It's basically the digital version of having two cans and a piece of string.

Digital? Huh?

Well, it seems you understand how it is constructed, but...



I bet you all can figure out what this is supposed to be.

Those are a mysterious pair of glasses that displays an imaginary world to you. I've tried to use them, but all I could see was darkness.

Hmm, seeing darkness is different from seeing redness.. But I guess it's within the boundary of error.

I have no idea what you're on about. Have you found what you were looking for?

Don't be in such a rush. There's so many interesting things here! Wow, so many playing cards!

Ohh, I know what that is. I'm borrowing that for a bit!



Ahh, we played a lot. You sure find some fun things.

Yeah, you two are lots of fun! I won't ever get bored like this.

It's an honor to hear that from a kappa. Feel free to visit whenever you like.



Alright then, it's about time we head back.

You're going home already, Marisa?

It's getting dark outside. What are you gonna do?

I don't know. I'll be punished if I return to the mountain... And I still havn't found the parts I was looking for...

Ah, so you can't go back home right now, huh?

(Yeah, just go away already. A kappa can just sleep in any river anyway.)



W-Whaaaat!? (Letting that kappa stay here is no joke. If she continues as she's been doing all night long... My products will be all in a mess by the time dawn breaks.)

Nitori has probably been literally dismantling everything.

Well, Kourin? If you've got nothing to say, then I'm heading back home.

(...That's right, I can play that card.) Hmm, I don't mind letting her stay here. But I don't know if it would be more suited to a kappa than the alternative.

Hm? More suited?



Marisa exchanges some of them with me every now and then. So I know there are some interesting things there for sure.

Huh? You always call all of it junk, you liar.

(Whoops, that's right. I'm supposed to keep the value of Marisa's trash secret.) In any case, the parts you are looking for may well be hidden somewhere there.

I see, I couldn't find it here after all.

That's decided then. Marisa, let her stay with you.

Wha? When did that get decided?

Just now. Besides, she's your friend to begin with.

When did I call her my friend?

Hey, you called me a friend when we came in!

Don't pull my skirt! ...Well I don't really care about other people looking at my stuff anyway.



Really!? It's okay for me to be there!?

But don't make too much of a fuss at night. I need to wake up early tommorow.

Doing some incident investigating again?

Yep. I'm planning to go to a magician and ask her about this mist.

I see. I've not decided where to go myself... Do you mind if I go with you?



Anyone familiar with Touhou probably saw this coming from miles away.

Huh, that's got me interested now. Are they radio-controlled?

Radio-controlled...? Well, let's save that for tomorrow. We should head back and go to sleep.

Nah, let's go back to hunting for treasures! I don't need to worry about where to stay now after all!

Shaddup! I said we're going back, and that means we're going back!

N-No way!

See you, Kourin. Take good care of that.

Thank you very much Mr. Kourindou.

Ahh, please come again.

Marisa and Nitori leave.



That Marisa brought yet another noisy youkai here. She's really quite strange, to be able to keep making such curious friends.

...



She will surely set out on a new adventure from here on. I run an items shop. I may have no interest in danmaku battles... But with my skill, I can still lend my support to her. So while sleep beckons invitingly, I have one duty I must finish first.





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Now that I've explained the Intermission menu, there's really not much for me to say here.



Thanks to some poor luck, I don't really have much Points to work with. Marisa gets a MP upgrade (something she'll be getting a lot of), and Nitori straight up gets nothing.

Let's talk skills. Both Marisa and Nitori kind of have issues here.



Marisa's problem is that she wants too many things.



As you can see, her attacks are evenly divided between P and non-P. Getting both Focused Movement and Unfocused Movement is way too expensive though, so you'll probably have to make a choice. There's a case for both sides, but generally I get her Unfocused Movement. An increase in Move is never a bad thing, and Magic Missile is Marisa's best move in terms of MP to damage efficiency.

From there, Marisa's skill wishlist is kind of standard. Predict is a huge help, and while P-Hit (+1 Power for hitting something) isn't needed (since Marisa is Strong-willed, she already gets +1 Power for hitting), I think its effects stack with the normal Power gains. It's cheap too, so why not? P-Evade is a definite no-no though; Marisa isn't nearly as dodgy as Reimu, and she shouldn't really be in range of enemy attacks anyways.

I don't consider the next two skills to be very useful, but they're something to consider I guess.

Instinct Dodge (this skill levels up)


This skill isn't bad, but I think it's a waste of Graze. Instinct Dodge's boosts aren't as immediately useful as Berserk's, Predict is a more dependable way to increase Accuracy, and Focusing or Support Defend are good replacements for Evasion. It can help, but I'd rather spend Graze on the bigger skills.

Tipsy (60 Graze)


Tipsy does exactly what it says it does. I personally prefer the P-action skills, but this skill's cheap enough that it's not a terrible idea. Having 105 initial Power also lets a couple units start off with one of their stronger attacks right off the bat instead of having to wait a turn or two.



Nitori's issue is something I bet a lot of SRW units wish they had: she doesn't really need anything. She starts with both Support Attack and Defend, and that's kind of all she needs. I tend to not get that many kills with Nitori anyways, so I never really have that much Graze to spend on her.

If you really want to develop Nitori though, Berserk and Belief are the obvious picks.



Extending Arm and Monster Cucumber are the two attacks Nitori will most often Support Attack with, so pick either Unfocused or Focused Movement. I recommend Unfocused so Nitori can move farther.

P-Damage (60 Graze)


Finally, there's this. It's only ever useful on tanks, and it can quickly turbo charge either Keine or Nitori's Power. As always, though, Graze is in short supply and there are better skills.



The last thing I wanted to note was Nitori's WP screen. As you can see, the second slot is empty. That means that if you spend the necessary 60 WP to get her to WP level 2, you'll get absolutely nothing. Hooray.

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Marisa Kirisame
Initial Stats - Level 20 Stats

Personality: Strong-willed (Hit: +1 Power, Evade: +1 Power, Kill: +5 Power, Get Hit: +1 Power, Ally Killed: +1 Power)

Character Skill: Magician Lvl 1-3 (Increases all weapons' Attack by Skill Level x50 and all weapons' Range by [Skill Level x0.25].) [Levels up at levels 8 and 16]

Character Ability: Magic Barrier (Nullifies Laser damage under [1000 + (Magician level x 100)].)

WP Bonus: Danmaku Power Lvl 1-3 (In exchange for costing 20%/40%/60% more MP, for one turn all attacks do 15%/25%/35% more damage. Way too inefficient to actually use, especially since Marisa already has MP problems. Can only be used once a chapter.)

Spirits: Gain [20 SP, Level 1], Accel (+3 Move to the unit's next movement) [15 SP, Level 7], Alert (guaranteed dodge in next battle) [15 SP, Level 10], Valor (next attack does x2 damage) [40 SP, Level 18]

(Marisa is the only unit in this game with Valor, but she'll only have a chance at getting it if you play her story and specifically feed her every single boss with Gain. Or you could Game Over grind, but that's lame. )

So who likes gameplay and story integration? Marisa probably doesn't. While Reimu starts with everything she needs to be amazing and only keeps getting better, Marisa starts with a bunch of flaws that she'll slowly overcome across the game. Marisa is almost entirely dependent on MP, nowhere near as dodgy or accurate as Reimu, much more high-maintenance, and desperately needs the Focus spirit. If you devote resources to her you can overcome most of these issues early (MP upgrades can soothe her dependence while Mobility upgrades, skills and a bunch of levels can help her Hit/Evade), but in the end it's easier to have the rest of the army make up for her problems until Marisa gets the things she needs. So while Reimu is off murdering half the screen, Marisa will have to stick near the rest of the group, both for protection and for something else that I don't want to mention yet. She's best at mid-range anyways, so it all works out.

In FMW2, MP is no longer a problem for Marisa (or anyone for that matter), but Marisa's Hit/Evade problems come back with a vengeance. She'll be able to overcome it again, but it's something that'll bog her down for a while.

_{Depressingly enough, no matter how much effort you put into Marisa, Reimu will still probably be better.}

Nitori Kawashiro
Initial Stats - Level 20 Stats

Personality: Strong-willed (Hit: +1 Power, Evade: +1 Power, Kill: +5 Power, Get Hit: +1 Power, Ally Killed: +1 Power)

WP Bonus: Extending Arm/Extending Arm + (Lets her use an item on a unit 1/2 spaces away. If there were more consumable items in the game, this might be situationally useful. I've never needed it though.)

Spirits: Scan [1 SP, Level 1], Guard [20 SP, Level 1], Focus [20 SP, Level 13]

Nitori is straight up the most mediocre character in the game and can best be described as a bargain sale Keine. She is not nearly as sturdy or as strong as Keine, but she can get the job done... as long as you have her cast Guard anyways. Her only advantage over Keine is starting with both Support Attack and Support Defend, giving her a headstart in leveling up Berserk... if she actually gets any Graze that is. There's really not much else to say about Nitori. She's okay, but Keine's just better.

Nitori gets a pretty big upgrade in FMW2, but she's still firmly mediocre at best.

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Next time on Fantasy Maiden Wars E: Magicians and Lies

On the search for clues to resolving the incident, Marisa and Nitori paid a visit to the Forest of Magic's puppeteer, Alice Margatroid. But Alice was waiting for them with a barrage of unmerciful attacks. Will the unlucky pair manage to clear up the misunderstanding caused by mischievious fairies!?

"We may look like fairies, but we're actually youkai. The three light... youkai."