Part 10: Silver Servant - Part 2

She ran away...

And was she ever fast at it.

Her ability to teleport is quite a nuisance. A deceptive move indeed.



It's worth noting that despite being human, Reimu and Marisa are very much not the norm. Aside from being The Hakurei Shrine Maiden (which comes with a whole set of accolades and drawbacks), Reimu is ridiculously overpowered and is pretty much the heart of Gensokyo. Meanwhile, Marisa is a human who ran away from a mundane home to dedicate her life to magic, and lives a very busy life balancing her social life, her adventures, and her schedule of obsessive studying/experimenting/training.

What would a normal human be like? Generic Faceless Man C I suppose.

We don't have time for idle chatter. Here I thought we finally found a clue, but we're back to square one!

I wouldn't say that. We discovered that there's a suspicious person about.

Well, that's true.

What does it mean?



That girl with the scarlet hair was carrying a mountain of food. They gotta have a base somewhere.

...I see. So we're facing some sort of syndicate, then.

That seems likely, at least if you assume everything that maid said was true.

Marisa's the only regular liar, so that's a safe assumption.

If we know there's a suspicious person wandering around... Then let us narrow down our methods of investigation... All right. I think we should find out more about that girl.



That might not be a bad idea. I'll try to look at things on my end. But, how about we call it a day for now? We've been working non-stop since lunch. And personally, I'm starving.

Yeah, I'm pretty hungry too. I ate all the cucumbers I bought during the battle.

No, we need to start investigating right now. There should be quite a few people who saw the maid just now, right?

Right now!? It's gonna get dark!

Yo, ma'am. You can't use danmaku on an empty stomach, y'know. Plus, you've got quite a few bags you're carrying there. Won't what's inside go bad if you hang around too long?

Oh, that's right. I need to go make dinner.



You always attack head on so they got pretty messed up.

T-That's true. Fine, I guess we'll take a break for now.

A wise decision. Letting one's fatigue build up results in a loss of efficiency.

It isn't easy to persuade Keine. Well, let's call it a night.

Yeah, the sun's going down.

What should I do...?

Hm? Still can't go back to the mountain?

I mean, I just left. And anyway, I'm super interested about this mist incident. If I went back now I wouldn't be able to leave again for a while.





Sounds rough. You wanna stay at my place again tonight?

Really? Thanks!

...

What's wrong Alice? You look troubled.

Not really. I think it's careless to let a youkai you barely know to sleep in your house. Don't blame me if your liver's gone when you wake up.

This is a reference to a thing Kappa do in Japanese mythology. If you want to know more, google "shirikodama"; I don't want to get into the details myself.



Hey! You're the one that stole my futon.

You two get along pretty well.

Oh yeah, why don't you come along too, Alice? I've been wanting to ask you about your dolls for a while.

Sorry, but I'll pass. I'm exhausted so I think I'll go home so I can sleep on a nice, soft bed.

Oh, okay. I guess I'll ask the next time we see each other, then.

Well, I need to be going. You all should go straight home now. No side trips, okay?

We aren't kids, you know. We'll be fine. Anyway, good work today, Keine.

The next segment plays whether you're on Reimu or Marisa's route.



Hey, Marisa. Are you gonna make another side trip today?

It's not a side trip. I'm lookin' for some rare mushrooms. ...That's weird. I coulda sworn they grew around here.

Maybe it's for the better...



We did get to see that weird maid, though.

Yeah, but we let her slip away. Well, at least we got something out of it.

I made some more human friends and had fun. I guess that's what I got out of it. So, did you find the mushrooms you were looking for?

...No. I got no clue where they went. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place. Hey Nitori, you don't see any rare mushrooms around there, do ya?

What? Why are you asking me? I don't know which ones are rare...



A huge spore? What're you talking about...?

...

...What's this? It ain't a spore. It's a kedama.

Oh, really? It's floating.

Here I go... Hup!

...!



I guess that means it's alive, then.

Why you little...!

Oh man, she's getting all worked up. You better watch where you're going!

You don't need to tell me! Hiyah!

There's a crashing sound.



...

The kedama ran off somewhere. Let's head home. Uh, Marisa?

...

Wah! The kedama got Marisa!

Shut it. I'm fine! I found the mushrooms I was lookin' for. There're a whole bunch of 'em right where I fell!

Awesome! What do you use those mushrooms for?



Sadly, it'll be a while until Marisa decides to literally make (eco-friendly!) bombs out of mushrooms.

With all these, I won't have to worry about running out of ammo for a while. I'll hafta show you how it's done sometime. I sure got lucky. This is my reward for being curious and following that kedama.

You just gotta get angry, huh? Let's head back now. Oh, those mushrooms are a weird color too. Aren't you taking some of those back?

Hey, I thought we were'nt supposed to take any side trips.

...



I have returned, Lady Remilia.

A bit late, aren't you? I was so tired of waiting that I went ahead and ate supper already.

My apologies. I was assaulted by some odd humans.

Odd humans?

Yes. They were able to deal with the fairies and kedama quite handily.



Why are you worried, Sakuya? It's unlike you.

...Excuse me. I was out of line saying that.

I'm not scolding you. Rather, if these humans are enough to make you worry... Things may have just gotten a bit more interesting.

They were...a nonsensical group. I have never seen such humans before.

Pot, kettle.

Heh heh... You want them to come here, don't you?

Excuse me? I am not sure I follow.

It sounded to me like you wanted to see them again.

...You must be joking. I have no interest in humans.

If you say so. Could you bring out dessert?



Remilia is not very subtle about her species.

...As you wish. Please wait for a moment.

Sakuya leaves.

Isn't the cranberry sauce I brought exquisite?

Oh, I didn't know you were there.

I finished what I needed to do, so now I have more time than I know what to do with.



Heh heh. Of course. She's my Sakuya after all.

I'm intrigued, not so much by the power she holds but by the color of her eyes... They're chilling, like a pair of beautiful ice crystals. It feels like they're wasted on a human. Or perhaps it's because she's human...

What are you getting at?

I'm jealous. Honestly, I can't believe you're having her do housework. Truly a waste. She deserves better.

Sakuya is fine as she is. The finest jewel comes to shine naturally. It needs no polishing.

You've really taken a liking to that girl, haven't you?

Of course. Sakuya's on a different level than most humans. So, the fact that she warned me means that she has met some truly rare humans... She's met with such an interesting fate so soon.



I'm looking forward to it. I wonder if they'll manage to make it to me.

Hehe... Who knows? In any case, didn't you say tonight you would begin spreading the mist in earnest? The full moon will come around soon. Isn't this the perfect time to get serious?

I know. Tonight, Gensokyo will sink in my sea of mist.

In that case, it should be about 3 days until the land is completely covered by mist...



Darkness will devour the heavens and fill the land. Soon, the era of night will be upon us! And then...

...Make sure you enjoy it, okay?

Heh heh heh... Mwahahahahahaha...!

You would not believe what Remilia wants to do once the sun is gone. Go outside in the day.



Well, here we are. Home sweet home...

No matter how I look at it, it's just messy.

What? Last night you were running around fiddling with stuff so much. You sure were acting like it was the best thing ever.

Ahaha. Well, I guess my workshop is just as messy. You should probably throw away these weird dolls, though.

I'll give them to you if you want. I'm not really using them. And...



What's with this kedama? I guess it ended up following us back.

I don't remember there being any kedama that had a grudge against me or anything.

All it's doing is floating there... It's suspicious. Maybe we should just get rid of it.

...!

No way! That's a waste. It's kinda interesting, doncha think? From the looks of it, I don't think it needs to be fed. I don't think they snore either. It's perfect for a pet.

I don't know about food, but you're probably right about the snoring.

Maybe I can teach it some tricks. It might even help with my danmaku...



Didn't you fail miserably when you tried to catch it before?

Heh. Did you forget this my house? Just in case something like this happens, I have... ta-da! A bug-catching net!

Ah! A kid's best friend during summer vacation!

Bug catching is a popular activity during summers in Japan.

...!

Hah!

...!!

Easy. Hey Nitori, hand me that empty bottle.

Roger! Wait, what is this? It smells kinda weird.

That's cause I kept enokitake in there.

...!



I bet it doesn't like enokitake either.

Who cares?

...!!

All right, I got it in the bottle. I'll win it over once it calms down.

I think you're on pretty bad terms with it now, though.

...

Enokitake are tasty, right? I won't let my pet be picky about what it eats. Now, what should I call it? It's white, so I guess Shiro's fine.

This might be a reference to SRW; there a talking cat is also named Shiro solely because it is white.

...

Well, that was easy.

Hard to forget, right? I'm pooped from all this excitement. Let's hit the sack.

There's a time skip here.



Hey, with a bit of work I think this refrigerator could work again. I can't believe you just have this in here with a bunch of scrap metal! Hey Marisa, can I have this?

...

Marisa?

...Zzz...

Oh, she fell asleep. That's no fun. I guess I'll just do a bit of treasure hunting on my own. Ooh, what's this...?

Somewhere, Rinnosuke sighs in relief.



Mm...

Ma...ri...sa, Marisa.

Huh? Whoa. Where am I? It's so dark, I can't see anything...

Marisa, can you hear me?

What is this? A dream?

Go to the far side of the lake... Head for the scarlet mansion that lies beyond the lake.

I hear a voice coming from somewhere. What did you say? Could you repeat that?



This Mysterious Voice is polite enough to speak clearly and without ellipses when prompted. All those other Mysterious Voices ought to take notes.

Please hurry. A crisis will soon be upon the humans.

A scarlet mansion by the lake? That's where the boss of this incident is? Who the heck are you? How do you know this?

The devil who leads them is powerful. Please be...careful...

Hey! Answer me!

...!



That was a weird dream. I don't remember eating any weird mushrooms, though... Well, won't do me any good to worry about it now. Guess I'll go back to sleep for a little while... Hm?

*snore*

...Sheesh. Nitori fell asleep in a pile of junk again. It's gonna be a pain to move her onto the futon... Huh.

...



I wonder what's up with this kedama... Kinda weird that it'd come near humans on its own.



I'll take care of him until I change my mind.

...

Oh right, I gotta get up early tomorrow. I better get back to sleep... "Beyond the lake" huh.



So it should be obvious to everyone at this point that Shiro told Marisa what's going on here. In the Gensokyo Chronicles Shiro is classified as a Sanbondo Original, but I have my suspicions about that. That's a chat for another day though.

------



Reimu's killcount continues to rise.



I spend a whopping 8000 Points upgrading Reimu's Mobility one more time. This will probably be it for Reimu's upgrades; the next Mobility upgrade costs 12,000, and I don't think I'll need MP for her.



Reimu and Keine still don't have enough Graze.



Also this. Now all units standing in one of the eight tiles adjacent to Keine get +10% Experience! This is nifty but not all that useful since it means that at the very most someone will get maybe 15-20 extra XP. And usually it'll only be around 7-10.

------

Today we're going to talk about Game Over grinding.



First things first, check out Marisa's stats here.



As you know by now, killing enemies gets you experience, Points, and Graze. There's a hard limit on how many enemies there are a chapter, so naturally there's a hard limit to how many resources you can get.



But if you were to somehow fail a chapter...



You'll restart it immediately, with all the enemies respawning.



And any experience (but not Graze) you gained from the first attempt will be carried over.



Same goes for Points! No matter how woefully unprepared your army is for a chapter, if you try and try again you'll eventually succeed.



The only "downside" is that you won't get any WP at all at the end of the chapter. But really, who needs WP? The real penalty is having your Game Over count increase; that's a hit right to the pride.

------

Next time on Fantasy Maiden Wars E: Battle Amidst the Mist

The day after the pursuit of Sakuya failed, the mist grows thicker at an alarming rate. Reimu, upon hearing that Akyu's condition had worsened, immediately heads for the human village with Keine. They decide to let Akyu take refuge at Hakurei Shrine, but the road is sure to be perilous.

"Please let me get off, Miss Keine."