Touhou fanfic part 3

The Investigation Begins (Stage 2)

Having found out about the strange events in Gensokyo, the shrine maidens Reimu and Sanae have decided to begin looking for answers near Youkai Mountain, starting their investigation at the Moriya Shrine. Meanwhile, Marisa was attacked by a pair of familiar youkai for some reason, the two being Patchouli Knowledge and Alice Margatroid.

While flying away from the two, the magician was forced to dodge both Alice's dolls and the numerous elemental blasts shot out by Patchouli, both of them yelling at her in anger. "You'll pay for what you did to our books!!" Confused by this, Marisa tried to reason with them while still busy with evading their attacks.

"For the last time, I haven't done anything yet! I've been at home studying magic and playing with the Hakkero for the last few days!!" While Alice continued her attack, Pathcouli was forced to stop as she suddenly got a coughing fit. She then thought on about what had happened to her earlier as the situation still seemed out of place.

"How can she keep denying it? She showed up near the morning, stole some of my books and knocked down three shelves...I am sure it was her..." As she then realized something, she suddenly called out to the two. "Stop!!" Both mages stopped and turned to look at Patchouli in confusion, though one of Alice's dolls still punched Marisa in the face.

The woman coughed a bit again after yelling out loud, and then floated over to the two. "Something doesn't add up here. Marisa usually just steals books from the two of us, but never really causes a mess unless we attack her first." Hearing this, Alice responded in a cold tone, pulling her dolls away from Marisa before they could attack her again.

"Are you perhaps saying that Marisa is telling the truth here?" The two glared at her for a second, but Patchouli then continued. "I am saying that the possibility exists. After all, I only managed to catch a glimpse of the attacker, and like I said earlier, Marisa isn't the kind of person to wreak havoc, especially if she wanted to secretly steal books."

Seeing her chance to get out of trouble, Marisa then spoke out to the two with a grin on her face. "How about we do it like this? We'll hunt down the imposter who attacked the two of you, and then I get to investigate the strange stuff happening around here in peace, okay? That way, we all get what we want."

Thinking over this suggestion for a moment, the two then nodded, knowing they could attack Marisa again if she really was the actual culprit. Alice also wanted to find out about what was going on around Gensokyo and Patchouli wanted to get her stolen books back while Sakuya and Remilia were busy doing something else.

But just as the three were about to move out from the area, Reimu and Sanae arrived at the scene, having noticed the commotion Patchouli and Alice had caused earlier with their attacks. Seeing this, Marisa rushed over to greet her friend and explained to her that she had been falsely accused of mugging Patchouli and Alice.

Sanae simply looked on and listened as they all told about their own experiences, thinking about the possible effects the crimson sky might have on the inhabitants of the mountain. She then walked over to the group, speaking out to them as they seemed to have finished their own conversation.

"I think we should move on towards the mountain right about now. That crimson color has completely enveloped it, and seems to be spreading to a wider area." Looking up to the skies to confirm this, the five then began to move onward, though Reimu and Marisa were surprised to see that even Patchouli decided to follow them.

After some time spent flying and watching youkai fight among one another while also fighting some off on the way, the group arrived at the lake which resided at the base of Youkai Mountain. To their surprise, most of the kappa living there had run off for one reason or another, though the ones who were still there seemed to be arguing with the resident tengu.

Reimu let out a sigh as she heard them blaming one another of vandalism and sudden attacks, thinking back to similar scenarios with her and Sanae as well as to ones the group had seen earlier while flying around. As they went past the tengu and kappa, they were suddenly stopped by Momiji, who held her sword and shield ready.

"Where do you think you're going?" Noticing her, Sanae signalled for the others to stay back, telling the wolf tengu that they were going to meet Kanako and Suwako and ask them about the recent occurences. Hearing this, Momiji stepped forward, lowering the shield and sword as she spoke out.

"Alright, but I'll have to escort you to the shrine because of the current situation. Ever since the skies turned crimson, the youkai around here have started to go berserk..."