A/N: (Note/Disclaimer) All recognizable objects and characters belong to their respective owners. Mainly Team Shanghai Alice for Touhou Project or, as per usual, my own characters belonging to me.

Note 2:

("Common Language [Japanese in this case]/Speech")

(‘Foreign Languages’)

(" Thoughts (In their own native tongue)" )

(Attacks/Weapon names)

(Other/Foreign/ Speech & Text/Written, Titles)

(Actions/POV)

(Titles / Flashback/Time/Dates/Place)

(Narration & Everything else)

(“Demonic Speech”)

(‘Demonic Thoughts’)

A Retired Officer’s Shop In The Eastern Wonderland Chapter 8

Gensokyo

August 19th, 2003: 0700

Third Person: Omni

“Just looking through some books?” He asked with a smile on his face as he observed the doll maker. It seemed that she was having a particularly good time today.

“Yeah, these books give me so many ideas in experiments.” Desmond thought to what usual mystic things were… and how dangerous they were in actuality.

“I was wondering, the regular consumption of magic items, are they negative to your health?” He asked with genuine interest… and he would be living for a long time and would like to have others live as long as possible with him.

“Marisa would explain it better to a regular human. But indeed, the ingredients in magic rituals are toxic. I have heard that the Librarian from the Scarlet Devil Mansion is quite ill from when Marisa goes over there to “borrow” some books of theirs.” She explained while touching the grimoire with her. She quickly let go of the piece of literature during the explanation, however.

“Magicians use Eyes Of Newts, and they are made with the inclusion of Mercury and Arsenic. So even youkai Magicians, like myself, would suffer the effects eventually. I haven’t reached that stage myself and it would probably be another eighty years or so before I do if Marisa’s inference of the librarian’s age is correct.”

“I see… Mercury and Arsenic are pretty toxic in long term exposure… have any of you figured out a way to mitigate or negate the symptoms?” He asked while grabbing two basic decks from the Summoner’s Story Isle before giving them to Mokou. She just stared at the objects in her hands.

“Never really thought to… But if what Marisa tells me is correct, it would be a good idea to put that project on a closer date.” She says to herself. It is rather easy for her to have a longer life now that Spell Card Battles are able to keep Gensokyo balanced and not exactly as bloodthirst as it used to be before the miko put the law down.

“Might be a good idea to have a doctor on the research.” He says while putting a set of six booster packs for the other human in the store. Mokou just stares harder at the young man as he keeps adding stuff to her hands. Alice just rolled her eyes while observing the situation, he very much did the same with her when she came back a few times, heck she even got one of the highest rarity of cards through him giving her some packs.

“That would be a good idea… while we do know humanoid anatomy it would be far better to have a good doctor.” Desmond noticed her observation and gave Alice a set of three poster packs. She almost signed with a good-natured smile when he did so.

“So, how have your games been going?” Desmond asked while gesturing to the deck box that she has clipped onto her bag.

“Well, it is a bit stale only fighting Marisa when we are on particular breaks, but it is quite fun. I would enjoy being in a tournament that you would organize at a later date.” She said with a calm tone of voice, now touching the deck of cards.

“Mokou… would you like to know how to play?” Desmond turned to the white-haired woman with them and gestured to the cards in her hands.

“...Sure…” Mokou was just confused as to why he would give her so much stuff. From food, shelter, and now these cards, it was surprising the number of things that have been given to her, it went far past the hospitality of the general citizens when she was wandering Japan in her life.

“Alright then, accompany me to the play table.” He said with a smile on his face, he silently walked to one of the rooms that he designated as a playroom, though it was for more physical games rather than digital. The pair of women and the doll quickly followed him into the inner reaches of the shop. He motioned to a set of screens as they walked into the hallway.

“Those monitors usually display the current public game and highlights when there is nothing going on.” There were actually many such monitors around the main floor, considering the building’s large size, it took several in order to have visibility across the store.

“Since there have been no games inside the shop, I have them empty at the moment, Alice, can we record this match and show it on the screens?” Desmond asked when he placed a card to the electronic shielded lock on the door.

“That would be fine.” She replied, it was not like the cards in her deck would stay static, nor was it the same secrecy as her magics, such as the ones in her grimoire. When he finally opened the door, the lights were already on. Alice notes the same futuristic lights as the ones on the shopping floor, though these were far closer to the ground than the ones in the actual main area, making it far easier to see their strange characteristics.

“There are three different cameras, one on the main playing field and two for the player’s hands, though, in some formats, I will add another camera per player,” Desmond said while motioning to the strange devices at the table, two ergonomic chairs were set up at the felt top game table.

“Today, we will be playing classic, no tournament banned cards, and standard parameters,” Desmond said while bringing out another card, one that signified that he is a player of the game store. It mainly facilitated a way to show wins and losses.

“One second, neither of you have a card yet right?” Desmond said while opening a locked cabinet with his staff card in order to bring out two of the play cards. The nod to confirm his oversight, though he thought he wouldn’t need to pass out play cards till a tournament.

“Come here for a second.” He waved both of them over to him as he placed a card in a machine before closing the lid, a template for information appeared on the computer screen in front of him.

“Alice, can you write your full name in romaji and whatever native writing you write your name with on this pad?” He asked with a gesture to the table while already filling out a few parameters, such as the games she played and how many times she has come to the shop. He gestured to a pad on the desk with a strange pen beside it.

“Sure.” She said while picking up the pen and writing, a fascinating sight of the pen not having any parts that would be used to write with, and still, it changed the surface. She quickly tapped the confirm option after filling out her name, though it was not without her observant eye.

“Please fill out the forum after reading through the terms and agreements,” Desmond said while opening up another window for Mokou’s player information registration. She silently read through the contract, though it was not magically binding at the very least. She silently filled out the general-purpose questions and signed her name before confirming.

“And stand right here.” Desmond pointed over to the wall with another of what he called a camera. She quickly got into place, standing on the line on the floor with the barest idea of what he was about to do. After waiting for a few seconds, she heard a click as Desmond waved her over once more.

“This looks good to you?” He asked while both of the girls observed, on one screen there was an image that was reminiscent of his own card, but with her information and image. The portrait on the actual formatted information screen had her photo taken in a very flattering position with a background of a shelf behind her.

“Sure…?” She said the statement in a questioning tone as he finished up with the information on the second page, a vast majority of the boxes were split between blank spaces and the number zero. He clicked the confirmation button and waited for a few moments, a beep from the machine a few minutes later signaled that her card was done.

“Here you go, Mokou, could you do the same process as Alice?” Desmond revealed the card to her, it was of an aged parchment’s color with all the information that was on the template screen before, her portrait was to the left corner of the card. She made many movements to the card as he finished the standard starting information for Mokou.

“And just like Alice, please stand on that line, back facing the wall.” Desmond said while fitting Mokou’s full name, he felt like the surname was familiar to him for some reason, like a nagging at the back of his mind. Alice tapped the corner of the card while inspecting it, changing the background transparent, a look of surprise took her to a further dive into a researching mentality that she developed over the years.

“Strange, what makes you work…” She mumbled as Desmond finished up with Mokou’s card. The fire woman’s card had a background of crimson with white writing. The background of her own portrait was the bamboo forest. Alice marveled at the card as she repeatedly tapped the card on the corner, going between the clear card and the coloration of aged parchment continuously.

“Alright then, let's get started.” He switched to another page, this one was to archive games and the various intricacies. He stands up and sits in one of the chairs and flips up a receiver on his side of the table, sliding in the card portrait side first into the machine.

“This monitor allows you to look at the opponents screen without physically touching their cards in order to see card effects.” He stated as he mounted a monitor on a stand to his left. On the screen, it displayed the field opposite of himself, waving a hand on his side of the screen to demonstrate the mirror to his view.

“Playmats go into these squares. You can get them as prizes, from starting packs, or buying them from myself for some coins.” He demonstrated with his own, placing a playmat with the images of a futuristic group of people. On it there were various zones, such as a deck, discard, and banished. He then placed another one down on the opposite side of him, this one inspired by the Puppeteer Legend Characters .

“Alice, could you repeat the same process as me on the other side.” He said while bringing out his own deck and placing it onto the space. She quickly sat at the other side upon his instruction, opening the player card port on her own side and inserting the aforementioned card.

“Adjust the monitor to somewhere easy to look at,” Desmond said while typing in some stuff on a computer, probably to set up the game’s rules. Alice noticed the various words on the screen beside the feed from the tabletop, such as Phases, and a timer off to the top right. Currently, it had prep with a timer counting down from a minute.

“As you will probably notice, we have 100 hit points in this game mode. Some game modes will take the first number of a card and do 20 damage to win, but for standard game modes, we each have 100 hit points.” It was mainly for the video viewers and Mokou’s benefit that he explained, though Alice was learning some things as well.

“Each character card will have an attack value and a defense value. Some of them will have an effect or flavor text inside of this text box.” He had pulled out an example monster card from a binder in order to show off for all of them. Gesturing to each individual area of attention as he does so.

“Every character card will have an affinity, and up to three affiliations.” He said while bringing out another chart to show off, of course, there were 7 symbols, 2 in the middle and 5 at the outside corners.

“We have elements of the 5 standard elements in eastern magic as well as the inclusion of light and darkness.” He gestured to the symbols, each color-coded while saying the elements they represented. He quickly retrieved 7 cards that correspond with elements.

“As you can see, each of the elements has a theme behind them, such as light having holy figures and darkness are those fallen from grace or demonic. Let's take the Nurse and Night Nurse cards for examples.” He gestured to the pair of cards in question.

The Nurse card had a border of white, the character in question wore a white apron on top of a button-up shirt and a skirt that went to her knees with knee-high white socks. An attractive young woman had herself sitting in a chair parallel to the viewer, her long black hair was tied into a braid under the uniform’s mobcap. A pair of slim glasses rested on her nose.

The Night Nurse was a young woman with blond hair sitting on a rooftop, looking over to the night skyline. Her dark blond hair was loose while the wind blew, giving motion to her hair and the black long coat that had a red cross emblazoned upon the back with another on the right breast portion. A pair of black pants and a white button-up shirt covered her body. The card itself has a black border.

“From their lore, the Nurse comes from the church while the Night Nurse was excommunicated, though different versions will have different stories as the game progressed. As you can see, there is the affinity in the top right.” He gestured at his examples.

“And finally, we have affiliations, I will be using the nurses once more as an example.” He gestures to the cards once more while tapping the writing on the bottom left corner.

“The Nurse has the affiliations of the Church and Medical Association. The Night Nurse has affiliations with the Medical Association and the Night Watchers. The reason for affiliations is the other card types and other character card effects.”

“The Doctor is a good effect character card to show this, his effect is a buff to all Medical Association Characters, boosting their healing by 10 points.”

“Besides character cards, there are two other cards in Summoner’s story, Active and Trigger cards, Active can be played in certain situations while Trigger cards need a certain way to activate it. Active cards are played by yourself, and Trigger Cards are played when the opposite player does an action.”

“And that will be it for the most basic rules, today I am with Alice Margatroid to play a round of the Classic ruleset. I will explain the effects of cards and certain advanced rulings as we play.” He finished up with a smile before putting all the cards back into the binder and putting them away.

“We will flip a coin, pick heads or tails, the winner decides who goes first.” He gestured to Alice in order to start the selection process, though there were other ways to decide who goes first, this one was easy to understand with minimal knowledge.

“Heads.” She took a moment to think it over, Desmond nods before tapping the monitor, initiating the coin flip. It spun a few times before settling on both of their screens, revealing the head of the coin, a young woman’s side profile.

“Your pick,” Desmond says with a smile while drawing the five initial cards as she thinks. Mokou looks at the pair with interested eyes, it was something that she had not seen before, and it looked like something to stave off boredom in the coming years.

Word Count: ~2700 Words

Date Completed: 2/2/2021

Notes: Sorry for the late chapter, I had school stuff taking up my time, though I don’t know how well my posting schedule will hold up anymore now that I am in my final semester of Highschool and doing various stuff to prepare for college… such as getting money. But I hope you all enjoyed the chapter anyway, I’ll probably be posting a Warped Commander Chat Rooms chapter to make it up sometime this month. I announce stuff in my discord, which you can find in my profile and on Warped Commander’s Summary.