[x] The Forest of Magic. How long has it been since you last met with your constantly wayward apprentice?

[x] The Forest of Magic. How long has it been since you last met with your constantly wayward apprentice?

Fuck yeah Mima story.

[x] The Forest of Magic. How long has it been since you last met with your constantly wayward apprentice?

YES

Note: This isn't going to be connected to Marisa's Magical Misadventure.

[X] The Forest of Magic. How long has it been since you last met with your constantly wayward apprentice?

[X] That mansion in the distance who's name you never bothered to learn. You've never been inside and you're not familiar with the residents, but rumor had it there was a powerful magus within.

No one else wants to go bother the Great Unmoving Library?

[X]The Forest of Magic

Duh.

Votes called. We'll be visiting Marisa, and possibly picking up stragglers.

need more Mima soon.

You decide that visiting your apprentice is your first, best, and only bet. You don’t remember how long it had been since you’d willingly allowed yourself to be sealed, but it couldn’t have been that long, could it have? Marisa had been twelve when you’d been sealed. Not quite old enough to strike out on her own, but old enough to realize she probably wasn’t gonna see you again. She’d taken it surprisingly well, actually.

Pushing all of those thoughts out of your head, you finally begin your “trek” to the Forest of Magic, so named because of its position over what used to be a leyline focal point. “Used to be” because whena Gensokyo was separated from the outside world, it was also disconnected from all outside magical sources. The tress retained the magic they’d absorbed from the leylines, though, which meant that the Forest of Magic was still a powerful magical source in and of itself.

Perfect place to set up shop for a fledgling witch trying to achieve immortality.

Once you’re used to walking under your own power again, you take flight, and everything feels “natural” once more. You spent more time floating and flying than you ever did walking, given that you spent more time dead than alive. As a result, being airborne is like second nature to you, even with the added weight of a physical body. To top it off, when flying, it doesn’t take long to find the clearing that contains Marisa’s house. It’s small and modest, in stark contrast to your apprentice’s highly energetic nature. Honestly, though, Marisa calls it home and there’s very little else that matters.

You land quietly in what could be considered your apprentice’s front yard, taking care not to trip any magical alarms. Just as quietly, and with just as much care, you walk up to her door and rap the tip of your staff against it three times. Some few seconds and some very loud crashing later, Marisa tears open the door, aiming her hakkero at your chest. Clearly, she was expecting to come face-to-face with someone shorter.

“Move and I’ll shoot!” she shouts, her annoyance clear. She’s not even dressed properly, wearing a shirt and shorts, likely bedclothes for her. All you do is smirk as the realization of who she’s looking at dawns on Marisa and she slowly lowers her hakkero. “Master Mima?” she asks quietly, dumbfounded. “You’re supposed to be sealed away! And you’re supposed to be, you know, dead! Like, I have so many questions, I don’t even know which one to ask first!”

You hold up your hand so Marisa knows to stop and calm down. She’d always been prone to being a motormouth when excited and tended to have trouble putting words together if things got too hectic. “If I were to be honest,” you say before Marisa can get going again. “Most of these questions, I don’t know the answers to myself. Similarly, whomever it was that did this to me, they did not leave a note.” You lower your hand and smile. “With all that said, may I come in?”

Marisa blanks for a second as she processes the implications of what you said, but she eventually nods and says “Sure, come on in. I don’t really have anything for guests, but make yourself at home, Master.”

**What topic will you discuss first?**
[] The circumstances of your resurrection. If you don’t know and Marisa doesn’t know, then whoever does know may be looking to cause an Incident.
[] Current events. Despite being sealed away, Reimu managed to keep you mostly in the loop by venting to the grave you were sealed in.
[] The weather. You need to make small talk to get Marisa comfortable, or you’ll never get a coherent answer.

Spot the stylistic differences between the two quests, if you read both.

[x] The circumstances of your resurrection. If you don’t know and Marisa doesn’t know, then whoever does know may be looking to cause an Incident.

Yesssss, more Mima!

[x] The circumstances of your resurrection. If you don’t know and Marisa doesn’t know, then whoever does know may be looking to cause an Incident.

[X] The circumstances of your resurrection. If you don’t know and Marisa doesn’t know, then whoever does know may be looking to cause an Incident.

Votes called! There's trouble bruin and Mima's set to find out what it is.

who ever did this was probably hoping Mima would cause havoc on the shrine maiden and gap hag once she woke up.

You immediately go straight to the point of why you’re here. “Marisa, is there anyone in Gensokyo who has power over the dead?” you ask, taking a seat at her kitchen table.

“Nope!” she says cheerfully, pouring two cups of tea. “Well, there’s Yuyuko, but she can only ‘invite’ people to death and she can’t bring people back.” She brings the cups to the table and sits down across from you. “That hermit or whatever, Seiga, she’s got a zombie for a servant, but that’s different from bringing you back entirely, and I don’t think she’d do it without shouting it to the world.” She purses her lips, trying to think of anyone else who might fit your deceivingly narrow criteria. “So, yeah. Nobody around who can bring people back to life.”

You nod, considering the possibilities. “We must keep three things in mind about whomever it was who resurrected me,” you say, starting to lay out the facts for Marisa. “Firstly, they wanted my resurrection to remain mostly a secret. You clearly weren’t expecting visitors, much less me.” Marisa nods in acknowledgment, but keeps her mouth shut so you can finish. “Secondly, they’re either extremely powerful or have a skill-set similar to Reimu’s, being able to pull a sealed soul to its body. As such, we’re dealing with either a supremely powerful Necromancer, or we’re dealing with a dabbler who also happens to be a shrine maiden or priest.”

You take a drink of tea, which is surprisingly tasteful. Marisa always did have a talent for mixing reagents, and mixing ingredients wasn’t much different. “Lastly, they’re incredibly resourceful. After all, not only did they retrieve my soul without a problem, they managed to find my corpse. Not even I remembered where I’d been buried after my original death.”

“So they’re dangerous,” Marisa summarizes. “Putting it mildly, yeah, but it’s pretty much how I’d summarize any Incident.”

You raise an eyebrow at Marisa’s summation. “An Incident?” you repeat, skeptical. “You honestly think my resurrection constitutes an Incident?”

Marisa shrugs. “Yeah, probably,” she says. “I mean, someone grabbed your soul without breaking Reimu’s seal. Necromancy aside, that takes some serious skill, to the point where I don’t think it’s even possible.”

“It’s possible,” you say. “Particularly if Reimu was lazy with her sealing. As I understand it, seals are just another form of magic. If you don’t cover all of your bases in implementing one, it’s open to exploitation. It’s highly likely that Reimu didn’t consider my resurrection a possibility, and so she didn’t implement a safeguard against it in her seal.”

Marisa opens her mouth to say something, but experience has taught her that Reimu’s laziness is a force to be reckoned with all on its own.

“Anyway, magical theory aside, what are our options?” you ask, returning to the topic at hand.

“We can tell Reimu,” Marisa says. “Before she finds out the hard way, that is. Past that, we can visit Yuyuko and ask if any souls have gone missing from her turf. On the off chance that doesn’t work out, there’s always the Former Hell; Satori doesn’t manage that many souls anymore, but who knows, they might have some information for us, even tangential. The only question is which one happens first.”

**What will you do?**
[] Tell Reimu. Save her from the embarrassment of the situation before it’s too late.
[] Visit the Former Hell. Satori are mind readers, and even the Oni community might know something.
[] Visit this “Yuyuko”. Marisa makes it sound like the woman is important when it comes to Gensokyo’s dead.

**I SAY FUCK IT. I've had this update sitting finished for months, now, and it needs to be put up. In the meantime, tell me what you think of the quest so far.**

[X] Visit this “Yuyuko”. Marisa makes it sound like the woman is important when it comes to Gensokyo’s dead.

I like the idea that we might get everyone in Gensokyo to know about our return except Reimu. And when she sees us and freaks out, no one bats an eye.

[x] Tell Reimu. Save her from the embarrassment of the situation before it’s too late.
[x] Write-In: Get Marisa to do it. You would rather not have a sudden case of Orb in the face when you could be gathering info.

[x] Visit this “Yuyuko”. Marisa makes it sound like the woman is important when it comes to Gensokyo’s dead.

[X] Visit this “Yuyuko”. Marisa makes it sound like the woman is important when it comes to Gensokyo’s dead.

It's way too soon to form a serious opinion, but it does look good.

[x] Visit the Former Hell. Satori are mind readers, and even the Oni community might know something.

I too, cannot yet form a strong opinion. That said, I'm enjoying myself so far and hope to see this do well.

>>63547

I WAS going to vote to do the sensible, polite thing, but now I can't stop giggling. You've convinced me.

Best to start with the most obscure places first if we don't want want her to find out:

[x] Visit the Former Hell. Satori are mind readers, and even the Oni community might know something.

[x] Visit this “Yuyuko”. Marisa makes it sound like the woman is important when it comes to Gensokyo’s dead.

Calling it now. We're gonna visit Youmu! And also Yuyuko (Votes are called. We'll be chatting it up in Hakugyakuro).

Before I update, I just want to add a little metavote: Do you guys want Marisa along for the ride, or are you gonna keep running solo?

Why would leaving our cute apprentice alone be even an option?

>>63558
Because things might develop in a more interesting fashion if Marisa isn't there to handle introductions?

[X] Take Marisa.

Because I want to see more of them together.

>>63559
Sounds good.

[X] Leave Marisa here

Since nobody else is voting, I'll break the tie myself. We'll leave Marisa behind, but she's not the type to take no for an answer and so will follow shortly after we leave.

this is a very promising story