Follow the Script

Chapter 16

...She couldn't see the man's face, his body was blurry and distorting like the white noises of a radio. She wanted to pretend that nothing was wrong and that was her only way to do so, by keeping herself busy to not question what was going on.

...

...

Calmly approaching a familiar building, a duo of women silently made their way to it, one of them bearing a solemn look while the second one was wearing a rather worried mask. One protected from the sunlight with an umbrella, she observed the path and glanced at her partner.

Yukari: Ran, this is where she is?

Ran: Lady Keine said that miss Kirisame went to Kourindou.

Yukari: Rinnosuke, it must be the reason.

Approaching the shop, the sound of wind being cut apart reached their ears, coming from the back. Exchanging a simple glance, they slowly made their way around and took a peek at what was going on.

The witch was standing there, facing a target crudely made with wood. She was wearing the same dress with the galaxy-like pattern that she gained after losing her friend. However, the blindfold that she was once wearing was gone and her regular witch hat was replacing it. Behind her, floating rapiers were carefully waiting for her orders. With a single hand at the height of her head, she moved it to point the target and one of the swords flew across the distance between the both of them, stabbing through the object.

Yukari: Well... isn't that a surprise.

She mumbled with a slight smile. Ran, not worried about remaining discreet, stepped out of her hiding spot and approached the girl.

Ran: Marisa Kirisame.

Marisa: Ze? You need something?

Unlike before, her speech returned and she asked the woman a proper question, making the flying weapons disappear. The gap youkai entered her field of vision afterwards and the witch understood what was going on.

Marisa: Reimu?

Yukari: Sharp as ever as I can see. I was only informed recently about this incident after all.

The survivor from the library moved her eyes to the target and raised her hand yet another time, watching it become impaled by every sides with sharp blades. Done, she sighed and watched the youkais in front of her.

Marisa: It's a long story, might take a while.

Yukari: I was expecting the whole thing from the start, you don't have to worry about such a thing.

Marisa: ...

So, she began to recite the tale of their downfall. She explained how Reimu turned into a book after being dealt a fatal blow from one of the librarians and how she was also killed by them, only to wake up back at the human village with the outfit that she was wearing.

Marisa: They even broke my Master Spark, Rinno was more than angry about that.

However, she was still smiling while telling them that, clearly not that much affected by it right now. After all, she had enough time to recover from what happened.

Yukari: A library hidden underground...

Deep in her thoughts, she whispered those words to herself, unable to remember such a place to begin with. Surely, she would know something like that but she had nothing, she was in the dark just like everyone else.

Marisa: I was planning on going back there anyway. I ain't going to stick around and forget about it after all.

Ran: Hm... if I may ask, where did you obtain... those?