The Perfect Doll

(I can't seem to find the original image of this; if someone finds it, please let me know so I can give credit to the artist!)

"Get back here!"

The ordinary magician, Marisa Kirisame, was flying on her broom in the Scarlet Devil Mansion's library. She had 'borrowed' yet another book from the librarian, Patchouli Knowledge. Patchouli was chasing after Marisa, her familiar Koakuma trailing along behind her.

"Just you try and catch me!", Marisa yells back, a smile on her face. She flies away even faster. It probably would've been better to just head straight out one of the windows, but Marisa liked to mess with Patchouli. To her, it was entertaining.

Suddenly, a young demon girl with red hair floats in front of Marisa. It was Koakuma. She begins firing bright red bullets at the magician, in hopes of slowing her down just long enough for Patchouli to catch her.

"Outta my way!", Marisa says. She pulls out Mini-Hakkero: AKA Master Spark.

"Wait, Marisa!! Don't use--"

But it was too late. Marisa had already used Master Spark, singeing almost everything in front of her, including Koakuma.

"... Oops..."

"You idiot!" Patchouli hits Marisa over the head with one of her books, causing Marisa to flinch in reaction. "You could've blown up my entire library!"

"Well, I didn't..." Marisa rubbed her head on the spot where Patchouli hit her. "Ouch..."

"I don't need sarcasm from you! Why don't you go bother someone else?"

Marisa chuckles. Not a bad idea, she thinks to herself.

"Might as well. You won't let me borrow any books, anyway," Marisa says with a smirk. She didn't consider her 'borrowing' to actually be 'taking' or 'stealing'. "Well, see ya later, Patchouli!" Marisa flies away on her broom, out one of the open windows.

"Hm... Who should I go visit?", Marisa thinks out loud. Reimu's probably busy with her shrine, and I just visited Patchy...

Marisa sits still in the air for a moment. Then she makes up her mind and flies off to Alice's house. She lands at her doorstep and knocks on the door.

"Hey, you there, Alice?", Marisa calls. I wonder what she's been doing...

The door slowly opens, as if the one opening it was being cautious; preparing for something that might happen. Alice's head appears behind the door. She looked somewhat paler than usual.

"Oh... H-hello, Marisa...", she says. Her voice sounded hollow. "What brings you here?"

"Hey, Alice," Marisa responds. "How've you been? I haven't seen you in town at all."

"... I just... didn't really feel like going outside."

Alice was Marisa's best friend, next to Reimu and Patchouli. Marisa could tell when something was wrong with her, and today, she just... wasn't acting like her normal self. Marisa was a bit worried for Alice. She wanted to figure out why the young dollmaker was acting so different.

"Can I come in?", Marisa asks. She tried to keep her happy-go-lucky appearance, afraid Alice might notice her concern. Alice always tried to convince people not to worry about her, and even if she was acting a bit different, Marisa didn't want to upset her.

Alice nods. She slowly opens the door and moves out of the way, allowing Marisa to walk in. When Marisa goes inside, the first thing she sees is... darkness. None of the usual lights in Alice's house were on, not even her fireplace. Even her curtains were closed, shielding the afternoon sunlight. Her house was nearly pitch-black. Marisa could barely even see her hand stretched out in front of her.