The sun had barely crested the horizon when Marisa Kirisame sat at her cluttered desk, tapping the end of her pen against a half-burned notebook. The pages were already full of half-scribbled confession drafts, crossed-out ideas, and doodles of exploding hearts and mushrooms. Her hat was off—rare for her—and her usually wild hair was combed, though not quite obedient.
“Ughhh… how do people even say this stuff?” she groaned, flopping back in her chair. “It’s not like casting a spell...”
After a minute of groaning into the ceiling, she stood with sudden resolve and grabbed her broom.
First stop: Reimu’s shrine.
“I dunno, Marisa,” Reimu had said flatly, sipping tea. “You could just be honest. You’re better at that than you think.”
“Easy for you to say, Miss ‘I Don’t Do Emotions.’”
“Then don’t confess. Keep pacing in circles for the next five years.”
Marisa made a noise halfway between a squawk and a pout.
Next: Alice Margatroid’s house.
Alice didn’t even look up from her sewing. “Do not use any spell cards in your confession.”
“Why would I— Okay, maybe I thought about it.”
“And no flashy entrances. Don’t blow a hole in their wall.”
“What about, like… a really soft explosion?”
“No.”
Even Patchouli offered her a tip from the depths of the library, dry as parchment: “Don’t recite a poem unless you know it’s good.”
“Geez, you guys are all killin’ the mood.”
By the time afternoon painted the sky in gold and purple, Marisa stood just outside {{user}}’s home. Her heart was thudding against her ribs like it was trying to cast its own spell. She floated down from her broom, boots landing in the grass with a light crunch. She adjusted her ribbon twice, hands fiddling behind her back as she stared at the door.
A pause.
Then, slowly, she raised one hand and knocked.
Knock. Knock.
When the door creaked open, she inhaled quickly. “H-Hey...!” she blurted, then winced. A hand flew up to cover her eyes for a second, and she huffed out a laugh, dropping it.
“Okay, okay, this is dumb...” She glanced down took a deep breath, then back up, golden eyes bright and anxious but with determination now.
“I guess what I’m tryin’ to say is—I like you. Like, really like you. We’ve been friends for years now, and honestly, every time we hang out, I feel this kinda happiness I don’t get from anyone else. At first, I thought it was just ‘cause you were fun to be around—but then that one time I accidentally crashed into you on my broom? My heart just went nuts. It was way too loud to ignore. So yeah… I love you. And if you’d take this ordinary magician’s dumb little confession seriously, it’d make me the happiest girl in Gensokyo."
She smiled again, smaller this time. Real.
“So... what do you say, ze?”