Blossom of Bodhisattva (Touhou)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DAQA4CFfaI

[She knows Alice, it may help.]

Thanks to @Armoury for the beta!

—

"Shinki, I would ask we take Marisa with us. She knows your daughter, and has visited her more recently than you have."

"Are you suggesting she knows my daughter more than I do?" Shinki hisses.

"Biblically." Sariel muses.

"Wouldn't know," mutters Marisa. "She doesn't mention you at all."

Shinki's eyes flash brightly with barely constrained anger, but a glance from you just about manages to convince her to not do anything irreversible. "She's an insolent pest, and my forbearance is not infinite."

Marisa whirls on the demiurge. "What is your problem, lady? Alice is a grown fucking adult. She doesn't need you wheeling back into her life and dumping more bullshit on her about her decisions! I don't know much about this whole thing but I do know there's a reason she left-"

Your hand raises quickly, interposing itself between Shinki's burning -literally- glare and the young magician. "Now is not the time, nor the place for that matter. Lest you incur the wrath of the shrine maiden."

A glance to the side reveals Reimu… looking calm, for once. Her frustrations, her anger, all the mundane grievances that have built up to this moment… they've been set aside. She looks serene and graceful - even in what should be a disheveled pair of pyjamas, she feels like she is exactly where she is supposed to be. If she was anywhere else, doing anything else, the world would be fundamentally wrong, in a way difficult to describe.

Then you feel a tugging at the cuff of your robes, looking down you see a wide-eyed Cirno. "Boss, we need to leave!"

You stare at the fairy for several moments, then look up at the group. "I assume that is agreeable?"

Sariel tilts her head… then pauses, when the shrine maiden's gaze slowly pivots towards her. "Uh. Yeah, alright. Let's go."

—

The path through the woods is winding and long. It also involves a significant amount of doubling back through clearings and between unmarked paths, some of which are only present on the second way through.

You'd considered taking a more direct route, bypassing the convoluted passageways through this forest's twisted space… until, with her usual lack of tact, the aspiring witch had suggested that Alice might not be particularly pleased if the defenses around her home were to be torn down prior to the visit.

You note that the passageway opens easily at the brush of Marisa's fingers… and that it absolutely does not grant the same lassitude to Shinki, as the goddess struggles to pass through the delicate threads linking the locations to each other without tearing them with a careless expression of her might.

As defenses go… it's a route that becomes more difficult to traverse, the more power someone has. At last, however, you finally reach one last clearing. The open sky above you shows a cloudless sunny day, and an idyllic western cottage stretches across the space, spotless and pristine. Small dolls flit about the perfectly spaced rows of vegetables and flowers which make up the garden, watering the plants and trimming the branches. And the scarecrow… well. It looks nearly indistinguishable from a human corpse, nailed to a cherry tree.

It's a rather macabre scene all in all. The impression of which lasts for approximately half a second.

"Creepy doll lady! I want to plaaaaaay!" Cirno bellows.

Every doll in the clearing, as one, turns to face the fairy, with one, slightly larger than the others and garbed in red instead of blue starting to flit forward… until it suddenly stops in place, a lance and shield appearing in its arms as it turns to face Shinki.

You think you briefly see… fear flit across the face of the otherwise emotionless ceramic doll. Then you hear a click, then another click, then five more clicks all coming from the front door of the house. Then, at once, every light visible from the inside is doused.

"Nobody is home," the doll says in a monotone female voice.

… a moment passes, as everyone considers how to respond to the blatant lie.

Cirno leans in towards you, speaking… not particularly quietly. "I think Alice doesn't wanna see her mom."

"Many children don't." You reply.

Shinki, on the other hand… has managed to recompose herself. She turns away from the doll, and towards the house. "Alice. This kind of juvenile petulance is beneath you."

"No it isn't!" a voice calls from inside the house.

"It really isn't," Marisa concurs. "Yo, Alice! Your mom's a bitch, but let's just get this over with!"

"Miss Margatroid, I dearly wish to speak to you regarding a tome in your possession. I fear this may be your only opportunity to open the door of your own volition before your mother forces the issue."

The doll narrows its eyes at Shinki - who, for her part, is unmoved by all this.

Finally, after a long moment, the clicks return. Alice steps outside, slamming the door shut behind her with more force than is strictly necessary. She's wearing an unassuming blue and white dress… but she seems to have put a strange metal gauntlet on over her left hand in some haste, the straps messily hanging from it, while her other hand holds a thick tome.

A veritable swarm of dolls emerges from all sides of the clearing, while from behind the cottage… with slow, creaking, ponderous steps, a massive figure rises upwards, a lance larger than some buildings pointed squarely towards your motley group.

The puppeteer tries to glare at Shinki… but can't quite seem to manage it, her gaze skittering away at the last moment. "What do you want?" The question starts out defiant, but settles down to merely tired by the end. Then her eyes shift to the side. "... And why is Koakuma here, and why does she have a ball-gag on?"

"A very good question." Sariel says tiredly.

Alice blinks once, then twice. "And you!?"

"I, daughter, am here because this man wishes to see you. I also wish to question your choice in…" Shinki's eyes shift slowly to Marisa. "... Toys."

Alice slowly reaches up with the metal gauntlet to rub at her eyes. "My choice of… partner is not any of your business, mother."

"It is entirely my business, I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it just as easily, little missy!"

Sariel claps twice. "Wow, straight to the death threats! Mother of the year, everyone."

Shinki whirls to face the angel. "I don't believe that you have anything to say on the topic of parenthood, considering what a deadbeat your own superior was."

Alice turns to look at you, and in a deeply transparent and somewhat desperate attempt to get the conversation topic away from her personal life, cuts through whatever Sariel was about to respond with. "You wanted to talk about the grimoire?"

You smile. "Yes, thank you, might we speak inside? This is a rather serious matter."

Alice narrows her eyes. "No. Or at least, not with her."

"Alice, I have no desire to drag you back home. I have allowed you to stay here, and while I have… issues with your choice in…"

"Partner," Sariel supplies.

"Fling," Shinki continues. "I do not criticize your experiments… though I will want an explanation of how this all happened. Now, please let me inside before I remind you that I am your mother."

Alice takes several deep breaths, before locking eyes with Marisa. Some silent communication passes between the two, before she finally nods. "For not more than one hour and one minute, I grant all those here welcome inside the public and shared spaces of my home, by guest right."

"... She has your flair for the dramatic." Sariel muses.

Somewhat sullenly, Alice opens the door, and peering deeper inside, you can see dolls already flitting into the kitchen to prepare refreshments. The anteroom is messy, with large sections of brightly colored fabrics lining the walls, uneven strips cut out from them to produce the clothing worn by the puppeteer's dolls. Further inside, the main room is a cluttered mess of half-completed wooden mechanisms, strange ritual diagrams, and an entire menagerie of various exotic dolls - pulled from traditions spanning from across the world entire.

Cirno skips inside, grabbing a particularly colorful doll from the wall and spinning around with it, squealing all the while. Alice watches her for a moment, then glares at the lot of you… sans Marisa, who has doffed her hat and hung it up on a hook with the ease of long experience, as you all make your way inside.

Alice hastily clears away some of the mess from a large table, assisted by a team of dolls as she does so - as well as Marisa, who also seems privy to her categorization system. Still, as you all take up places, and one particularly large doll brings in a teapot, Alice's eyes keep being pulled towards… "Alright, seriously, why is Koakuma here? Sariel, Shinki, and…" she narrows her eyes at you. "Who are you, again?"

You bow your head slightly. "I am Hijiri Byakuren's brother, Myouren. I am a travelling monk."

Alice nods. "I'd say it was a pleasure to meet you, but it really hasn't been." She turns to face Marisa, who has pulled out a chair and taken a seat next to Alice. "What's going on?"

Marisa's smile has a bit of an edge to it. "Some big incident is happening, your mom got tagged in by the new guy, Koa… huh." Marisa turns to face you. "Why is Koakuma here?"

"Many people are asking this," Sariel mutters.

"She is a fallen angel consumed by lust and vice," you answer. "Also, useful."

Marisa tilts her head. "Are we still talking about Koakuma? I've beaten her up. Like, a lot."

Sariel considers this for a moment. "Maybe she was into it?"

Koakuma, for her part, just rolls her eyes.

"She is, in any case, not important at the moment."

"Or ever." Sariel mutters.

"At the moment," you repeat. "What is important is the grimoire you carry."

Alice places the book down on the table in front of her, her hand carefully gripping the clasp keeping the tome shut. "I'm well aware of its importance. It is the tome of many colors, the Grimoire that shines with every hue. Its power is great, its danger greater. But to beings such as my mother, mere power is not enough to warrant attention."

Her focus locks onto you. "The book is important in a number of respects. But you are here for something in particular. Which aspect is it that interests you so?"

"It is quite simple really."

—

All of these are true, but only one is relevant.

[] [It is prophesied to bring about the end of the world.]
But one that can be used, unlike the Lunarian threat.

[] [It is a prison, containing someone too dangerous to leave alive and too important to kill.]
The last remnant of a forgotten myth.

[] [It is the only key remaining in existence that can open a particular lock.]
Within which is contained power… but at what cost?

[] [It contains a secret that cannot be known, but must not be forgotten.]
Who is the dragon, truly?