It was a sunny day in Gensokyo when Marisa was walking in the forest. Spring had come and the whole area was slowly coming back to life, while it was accompanied by the young spring sun, which had turned the innumerable trunks and branches into a messy twinkle. Armed with a small notebook and a quill, she'd gone into the wilderness - somewhere behind her house, in the big forest, the section where hardly anyone lives - to prove something to a few people hanging out in the store.

A few hours earlier at Marisa's house a small crowd had formed. Nobody really wanted to buy something that would not have been possible in most cases anyway due to a lack of goods; it was much more a gathering of bored characters, some familiar neighbors, some rare visitors, some completely strangers. Somebody had then also procured tables and sake so that the contemplative group could chat in peace.
However, the happy and bored hustle and bustle was interrupted shortly afterwards by a real customer. Suddenly Eirin and Reisen came in close behind, whereupon the conversation fell silent.

"Have a nice day, that's the Kirisame Magic Shop, isn't it?"
Marisa had dozed off a bit, which is why she hadn't really realized the sudden clientele.
"Hello?"
"Marisa! Customers!" Shouted someone from the group, whereupon Marisa raised her head in shock and noticed Eirin.
"Y-yes! This is Kirisame Marisa from the Kirisame Magic Shop, we look forward to your visit, what can I do for you?"
"Travel, tell her what we need, I'll talk while."
"Okay ..." She walked slowly towards Marisa.
"Well, uh, the list says I need 10g nightshade, 5g flax, 14g gecko - either fresh or as a concentrate - a vial of at least ten percent base elixir and a good liter of vegetable stock."
Marisa blushed slightly.
"Well, that's the way it is ... It's not looking so good with my stocks at the moment, that's why I can hardly get half of these ingredients together ... What do you need this stuff for? Instead of zero-tens elixirs, you can also use zero-five a little more stock in ... "
"No, I don't want the whole thing to fly over my head because of something like that. In my laboratory chain reactions would be pretty dangerous.", Eirin shouted from the tables The recipes are from times when there was still relatively great contact with the earth, so that I can't quite get there with the lunar herbs that we cultivate in Eientei. That's all. But apparently you just don't have any decent shops down here ... "
"How was that? My shop is great! These are just storage problems at the moment!"
"That shouldn't be. Herbs grow regularly and are used regularly.Imagine if I had to make an important cure and couldn't finish it because of this shop. "
"Oh, today's Gensokyo is just dangerous. Bad luck."
"Apart from that, you don't really give the impression of an experienced magician, but rather that of a little girl who has nothing on her own."
Marisa blushed and parts of her face began to twitch.
"I'll do it for you ..."
"That calls for a competition!", Aya suddenly shouted in.
"A competition?"
Both parties looked at her questioningly.
"Make your argument an attraction by publicly measuring your strengths. I think we'll shape it so that each of the others sets a task ... How about identifying a magical item or something?"
"Us? Since when has Aya got anything to do with it? I've got something on the stove! Udonge ~"
"Sure! I'll show you which of us is the better!"
"If it has to be ... It can't be that difficult."
"Okay! I take bets. Bet with me!" Shouted Aya, who had meanwhile converted her seating area into a small betting office with writing materials and a till.

After a few minutes of further discussion, two roughly identical tasks were set. Eirin got a kind of diving suit from Marisa and Marisa got a piece of the ingredients that Eirin already had, a small mushroom. They should now find out the magical properties of it ... and this is exactly how this situation had come about.

Such things are best analyzed in the vicinity of their source, she thought to herself, even though this type of mushroom was actually not at home in the magical forest. But this quiet place was better than the talk in her house.

"I hope that some youkai won't get in the way ... What a nice day. I could actually have stopped by Reimu. Oh, that won't take that long."

The forest grew thicker, the shadows became like night. The only thing that reminded me of the warmth of the coming spring was a few clearings that were spread like puddles on the forest floor. In one of these puddles was a remnant of a broken tree, a stump whose roots still held it to a few boulders. In this arrangement she had immediately discovered a comfortable seat and immediately ran to sit on one of the rocks and lean relaxed against the stump. The clearing that now surrounded her was slightly larger and brighter than the one she had seen before, so that she could do her job here without any problems. Even the stones were gently warmed by the sun. A really relaxing place where it was easy to forget about work, but although she probably would have loved to fall asleep after hours of walking, she was more or less determined to finish her job.

She took her notebook and the mushroom, which was wrapped in a cloth, unwrapped it and placed the cloth over the notebook.Then she took out a knife and cut small samples off the mushroom hat. Then she paused for a while, thinking ... sighed and let herself fall back, bored.

"Now comes the trial ... but there has to be some smarter way to find the effect than boring, dull trying. I'm more of a social magician. Time to do some experiments with stupid youkai! Which one has been found so far never a problem. "

After coming up with a reasonably entertaining plan, she packed up her things and set out to wander around the woods.

-
... so far so far. I have to see if I can continue in the next one. I look forward to reactions and non-reactions.