Inspired by the Mario Calamity series of youtube memes
It was an ordinary day for the Ordinary Magician. A day filled with lounging in the sun, tinkering with various alchemical components, and of course - stealing everything in arm's reach. Reflections of sunrays lightly scampered across Misty Lake's tranquil surface as she relaxed on its bank, plotting her next victim. Alice had recently given her some doll-made cookies, so she'd be spared the mallet this time around, and Reimu didn't normally have anything worth pilfering… But there was always one person who she could target, one with a gigantic library and a no-fun disposition. Marisa kicked up her broom stylishly before hopping on, racing across the lake towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
As the crimson parapets of the mansion loomed in the distance, Marisa accelerated her broom to breakneck speed, hoping to easily crash through a window and swipe some books before making a hasty retreat. Today, however, her plans would be abruptly interrupted, as she proceeded to smash herself into an invisible wall extending up from the boundary of the mansion.
"Wh- How- No fair! That wasn't there before… Did that pajama rat put up some magical defences…?" She muttered to herself as she unsteadily propped herself up on an elbow, still dazed from the impact.
"FIIINE. The great Marisa SUPPOSES she can go through the front door this ONE TIME."
Dusting herself off, she reluctantly strode to the gate.
"Oh boy, am I in luck today…"
The snores of scarlet gatekeeper Hong Meiling were audible as Marisa approached, spying her soundly asleep leaning against the side of the gate. Marisa casually strolled up to her, eyeing her up and down to make sure she truly was incapacitated. She seemed to be completely out, that is, until Marisa decided to test it. The witch sharply prodded her on the nose, and immediately felt herself flying backwards from a blow to the stomach. Faceplanting into the ground for the second time that day, Marisa looked up to find the gatekeeper… still snoring?
"How the… did she do that in her sleep!?"
Marisa chuckled lightly to herself.
"I suppose I had that one coming, eheh…"
Marisa picked herself up and jauntily jogged back to the gate. She gave a disapproving glare at the still-sleeping Meiling before trying the gate itself. Digging her heels in, she tugged and tugged at the wall of wrought iron in front of her, but it refused to budge even slightly. Out of breath, Marisa stumbled back from the gate, before dashing forward and kicking it with all her might. This great effort accomplished two things: It made Marisa's foot hurt to an absurd degree, and it proved that the gate would not be overcome by physical force alone. She let out a string of profanities directed at the gate, her foot, and her foolishness at thinking a kick would blow apart the mass of metal in front of her.
If brute force wouldn't solve her problems, perhaps cunning strategy would. Marisa kneeled down at the extravagantly complex look, inspecting it for any vulnerabilities. The carefully engraved bat symbology reeked of Sakuya's handmade touch, and a lock made by her would likely be near impossible to pick, but Marisa was nothing if not stubborn. Her handy lockpicking tools never left her person, and she inserted them into the lock's bowels confidently. As she wiggled them about, she noticed them getting… warmer…?
"Even the LOCKS have magic now? You've got to be-"
A blast of fire propelled itself out of the keyhole, sending Marisa's treasured lockpicks flying off into the lake and her back onto the grass, narrowly avoiding having her face singed off.
"Come on, those were expensive! Not that I paid for them, but still…"
Clearly the answer to this conundrum was the power of friendship! That solves all otherwise-impossible problems, Marisa thought to herself. Flying off on her lightly charred broomstick, she spotted the silhouette of a certain red and white miko sipping her tea serenely and hurtled towards her, skidding to a stop right before crashing into her. Reimu had not moved at all, and looked up over her tea disinterestedly.
"Fifty yen says you get me into the mansion, they've put up some sort of stupid magic barrier over the place. I mean, isn't that just SO rude? I'm their most frequent guest! Everyone in there could use more socialisa-"
"Fifty yen? For the peacekeeper of Gensokyo to go around causing trouble? Don't you understand my job description?
"Think about what would happen to my reputation, Marisa. I couldn't possibly help you with such a nefarious plot."
Reimu immediately jumped up and grabbed her gohei.
"So much for my peaceful afternoon. If they start firing at you, you're on your own."
"Yes, yes, you're very welcome for the money. Now let's go fuck up a door!"
The two of them dashed back to the mansion, alighting on the pristinely managed lawn. Right as Reimu lethargically strolled up to the gate, however, a jingling sack of coins abruptly appeared in her hand, along with a note that read in elegant, flowery handwriting "Leave."
"Welp, Sakuya's made her bid."
"Oooh, this is FIVE hundred…"
"Wait, Reimu? Reimu, get back here! REIIMUU!!"
Alas, Marisa watched as the miko promptly flew back to enjoy her lazy afternoon. Her tea hadn't even gotten cold yet.
"Okay, so turns out the power of friendship is secondary to the power of a fat purse."
Luckily for Marisa, she had someone else to call upon if Reimu was being flaky - Alice Margatroid. A few exploding dolls would blow this door sky-high! Quickly heading over to the forest of magic, Marisa weaved through the trees at unsafe speeds until she reached Alice's abode.
"I'll just grab some of you and head off, Alice'll be fiiine…"
Unfortunately, that would be exactly when she exited her house, spotting Marisa in the act of trying to grab a doll.
"Marisa…? What are you doing?"
"Oh! Um. Well, you see, I just wanted to grab a doll or two, for, um. Business. You don't mind, right?
"Well, I thought that, y'know, since we're such good friends and all…"
"Marisa, this is the third time this month you've tried to steal my dolls. I even baked you cookies! This morning! Was that not enough to get you to quit!?"
"No, Alice, I swear, you've got it all wrong!"
"I don't want to hear it, Marisa!"
She marched forward, hair standing on end from her wrath, and proceeded to slap Marisa so hard she faceplanted directly into the grass. Again.
"And STAY out! Hmph… So ungrateful…"
Marisa unplugged herself from the dirt for the fourth time that day and shuddered thinking about how she'd have to apologise later…
The power of friendship was seeming very impotent right about now. Marisa found herself once again standing in front of the imposing metal barrier, planning her next attempt. Suddenly, she had a realization - She couldn't go over the gate, but she could surely go under! Zipping off to "borrow" a shovel from the Hakurei Shrine, she began to dig with gusto. Soon, she'd excavated a relatively large hole, splattering dirt across the mansion's lawn in the process. Before she could start to dig horizontally, though, she felt a clod of dirt lightly smack her head. Looking up, she spotted a cluster of the mansion's fairy maids cleaning up her mess, sweeping dirt back into the hole seemingly unaware or uncaring of Marisa's presence. Right as she opened her mouth to protest, another clod landed right into it, sending the witch into a frenzy trying to wipe all the mud out of her mouth. The waterfall of dirt seemed to only accelerate as more of the maids arrived to help clean up, burying a very irate Marisa up to her neck. She grumbled and cursed the maids as they flew off, having both cleaned up the lawn and dealt with their hapless intruder.
After spending entirely too long digging herself out of that hole, Marisa was covered in mud and very pissed off. She was getting royally frustrated with this absurd sheet of metal barring her from Patchouli's sweet, sweet store of swipable books. Patchouli, Patchouli… Marisa was reminded of the spell card she stole from her so long ago, a certain Non-directional Laser. How ironic it would be, for the librarian's barrier to fall to her own spell card! Marisa floated upwards and activated it, the beams exploding from her every which way. Marisa grinned deviously at the power flowing through her as she aimed the lasers at the gate. At least, she tried to aim the lasers at the gate. The beams stubbornly refused to abide by her will, glancing uselessly off the walls in their individual patterns. As their lifespan fizzled out, she facepalmed as she recalled the name of the spell card: NON-DIRECTIONAL laser.
Marisa was getting rather impatient at this point. She instinctively reached for her mini-hakkero to blast this gate open in spectacular fashion, but quickly calmed herself upon remembering how much collateral damage such a devastating blast would cause. Looking at it, though, she had an idea. What if instead of blowing up the gate, she instead melted through it…? Fine-tuning her new blowtorch to a lower intensity, she pressed it up against the gate and lightly thumbed the trigger. As she felt the device activate, she pressed it into the metal, and giggled maniacally as she felt it warm under her touch. The slight rainbow shine of the laser reflected in psychedelic patterns off the metal as it warped under its heat. Unfortunately, right as it felt like it would begin to melt, a sudden flash of bluish-white danmaku slammed into Marisa, knocking her sideways and sending her mini-hakkero tumbling out of reach. Looking back Marisa sighed in frustration as a massive clump of crystalline ice erupted from the gate, erasing all her progress. Soon afterwards, a dazed ice fairy slammed into said clump, slumping down onto the grass.
"Damnit Cirno, what was THAT for!?"
"What was what for? I wasn't even fighting you…"
She looked over and spotted her collateral crystals.
"Ah. Stray danmaku, I guess. Must've been pretty strong to annoy you like that, right? I am the strongest, after all!"
"Hey, Cirno? While you're here, ya think you could do something for me?"
"Sure, if you can beat THE STRONGEST fairy in a danmaku battle!"
"Cirno. You just lost to… Who is that, Star? You can't seriously think you can handle me, right?
"I beat you that one time! After the Great Fairy War!"
"I was going easy, and you know it! Look, just take this instead, why don't you?"
Marisa handed Cirno an especially shiny rock she picked up off the riverbank. The fairy's eyes widened as she eagerly grasped her "payment".
"Now go freeze the lock off that gate. Careful, it's-"
"Blah, blah, blah, FREEZING TIME!!"
Cirno rushed over to the lock and began concentrating her power into the lock, trying to chill the metal into becoming brittle enough to smash. As much as she tried, though, it felt like the lock was paradoxically getting… warmer…?
"Hey, is this some sort of prank!? Why's it-"
A blast of fire propelled itself out of the keyhole, blasting Cirno clean into the air. She plopped into the lake, trailing bits of snow like a particularly strong rainbow.
"Okay, that's IT! I am DONE!"
Marisa brandished her mini-hakkero at the gate, thoroughly at her wit's end. After being charred, slapped, outbid, and buried, she had finally had enough. This gate was no longer merely a barrier to her continued pilfering of Patchouli's library - no, it had morphed into a new arch-nemesis that she was going to best no matter what it took. She charged it to maximum power before letting loose a scream of rainbow energy so forceful it took all her might not to get blown backward by it. The impassable gate warped and melted under the constant onslaught, before finally collapsing into rubble - along with the front door of the mansion and a large chunk of the garden. Marisa let out a whoop of elation, but it was quickly cut short when she noticed a certain charred and withered maid standing in the middle of the destruction. In but the blink of an eye, a barrage of knives impaled themselves into the witch, forcing her backwards into the lake, her ambitions of thievery completely foiled. Somehow, Hong Meiling continued to quietly snore off to the side of the crater.