>You are Hatate Himekaidou, owner and editor of the Gensokyo newspaper Kakashi Spirit News.
>Your day began with the notation of the unexpected and extended absence of Aya Shameimaru from Youkai Mountain, and you took it upon yourself to locate your wayward friend/rival. To this end, you drafted Ranger captain Momiji Inubashiri to aid you. During the course of your investigation, you had a somewhat unpleasant encounter with a Dai-tengu newspaper supporter Tsubaki Ayatsuji, in which more than a few veiled threats were exchanged between you and she. You're quite certain she was up to something, she didn't break into Aya's house for no reason, but thus far have been unable to come up with any reason for her actions, beyond the knowledge that she and Aya are not on the best of terms with each other.
>You decided to take your investigation out into the rest of Gensokyo, traveling first to the Moriya temple, where you met a somewhat combat-happy youkai named Honoka. Neither she nor Sanae were able to point you directly towards Aya, but Honoka did provide you with a lead on at least a story or two, and offered her services as a guide to the Cobalt Keep, the place that seems to be the center of the Night of Rage incident, and where Aya certainly would have gone.
>Your next encounter was somewhat less profitable. You met a traveling group of musicians and nearly came to blows with the performers for your perceived insults to their boss, a pompous bombastic youkai by the name of Dahlia de la Vega. But with a little diplomacy handed out by Momiji, you and the manager sorted things out between you, and you parted on good terms.
>Traveling down to the Hakurei Shrine, you found that Reimu had a guest already: the legendary Yukari Yakumo. Despite your races almost instinctive fear of the youkai of boundaries, you and she exchanged a somewhat pleasant conversation. She even offered to help you connect with Aya, only to have her effort thwarted by an unknown barrier of some sort, which she described, somewhat unhelpfully, as 'rather orange'. She then drafted you and Momiji into investigating this impediment for her, and she dropped the two of you outside the home of Marisa Kirisame in the Forest of Magic. The house seems fine and normal, but both and Momiji have experienced a noticeable sense of warning that seems to be coming from the house itself...
>"Yeah, that's not gonna work. I really shouldn't think up first drafts on that fly like that."
>Let's have a look into the lower windows.
>"The rest of it wasn't so bad." Momiji offers. "But I have had more flattering nicknames in my time."
>All but two of the windows on the bottom floor of the house reveal the same clutter-choked areas within as you saw on the second floor. You have to wonder how the witch can navigate her home at all. One window reveals what seems to be Marisa's kitchen, evidenced by the cooking instruments and spice racks you see within. Said racks, however, seem to hold almost as many books and scroll as condiments. She is obviously the sort to real while she cooks. Her kitchen also boasts a large black cauldron, covered. The last window, on the right side of the front of her house, is the only one with drawn curtains. Black, with a starry pattern, you note, in keeping with the theme of Marisa's danmaku.
