Gensoukyou:Marisa Kirisame

Background
"Once I carve a path to the stars, I'll rain 'em down on ya, just cause I can!" For Marisa Kirisame, life started wholly average. An ordinary girl born to an ordinary family of shopkeepers. Marisa's very early life is quite ordinary for what you would expect for a human of Gensoukyou. She was the only child of her family, and her parents weren't talented in magic.

Marisa was a very active child, and she spent much of her time playing outdoors with the local boys around the village. She'd enjoy romping around, playing in the dirt instead of with dolls, and was generally very active. This ended up lending to a lot of her tomboyish personality, and she much rather would spend time playing outside then sitting inside as many girls did. Being a tomboy, Marisa picked up many boyish habits playing outdoors. She was a bit rebellious, often staying out later then she was told, or going where she wasn't supposed to, and she picked up bad habits like her penchant for pickpocketing, her boyish bravery, and her cocky attitude.

What Marisa learned to love most, however, was the outdoors. Rain or shine, hot or cold, being outdoors was her favorite thing as a kid. Sometimes she and a few other boys would sneak off into the woods to play, although often never too long, and definitely never too far, for as fearless as she and her friends thought they were, the mere sound of a youkai would often send them running right back to the village.

The thing she liked most about the outdoors, however, was the night time sky. Marisa was absolutely fascinated by the starry sky, spending many long nights staying up just to watch the stars, often wondering what it was like way up there, studying the twinkling lights from down below. The night sky was beautiful to her, it filled her dreams of flying about in space, she longed to know more.

It was this desire that lead her to learning magic. Marisa knew that all sorts of youkai, and even humans who were strong enough could fly. If Marisa could fly, she thought, she could be that much closer to the stars. One day maybe she could even fly to the stars themselves. What a thought it was, to be able to fly to the moon, to be able to be in the most beautiful place she could imagine, in the depths of space, among the heavens themselves.

In search of power, Marisa looked near and far, asking her teacher in school, she was only told of great magicians that existed before, but not where she could find them. None of her friends knew magic, either, and she quickly found her parents did not approve at all of her learning the trade. Undeterred, she eventually managed to find an old man who seemed amused enough at her gusto to teach her the basics.

Surprisingly, she quickly found she had a very powerful potential for magic, and an innate knack for learning by watching others, as well. Within just a few days she was already casting the most basic light spell, and within a few weeks she was casting other very basic light spells. She was delighted to know she had the chance to become a very good magician, and she began showing everyone she knew. However, it wouldn't be long before her parents found out.

When they did find out, they were furious. They told her magic was a dangerous thing to play around with, and that it would only bring them trouble. People who used magic were strange, no better then the youkai threatening them out in the woods. With this, they forbade Marisa to use magic. Marisa was devastated, her dreams threatening to be completely shattered.

However, Marisa proved to be too rebellious. If she couldn't learn magic in the village, she thought, she wouldn't live there. She wanted to be free to do whatever she wanted, to pursue her dreams and learn magic. That night she ran away from home, taking many of the valuable things from the shop, and retreating outside the village.

One of the first people she went to seek help from was Rinnosuke, one of her family's former friends, who she was well acquainted with. Marisa had pestered him before, especially when she wanted to learn magic, and even sometimes pawned him stuff she had managed to pocket when she was playing around and stealing. But now that she knew magic, she went to him to seek different advice. Marisa was desperate, offering to give Rinnosuke everything she had taken for something to help her, a book, a device, a place to stay. It was at this point Rinnosuke gave Marisa the Mini Hakkero (although it was a 'trade' for the possessions, he returned them to Marisa's family later).

Marisa took a few other things from Rinnosuke's shop. Having been told stories before about witches and wizards, she decided that if she was to practice magic, she'd need tools essential for a witch to cast magic with, taking some robes, a bit pointy hat, a wand (albeit not magical, it works as a focus), and an ordinary broom to complete the set. With this, she thought, she'd be a proper magic-user, and might even be able to fly on the broom one day. Promising to return, she left Korindou with a big smile, ready to take on the world.

However, Marisa was still afraid of youkai, and she didn't have any real combat magic to deal with them. Her first night in the woods was such a fright to her, she went to go seek shelter somewhere else, eventually coming upon a shrine outside the woods that had been left abandoned while the local shrine maiden was apparently out elsewhere (training in the mountains). It was much to Marisa's luck that she began to stay there while the shrine maiden was gone.

Her luck wouldn't last long, when she accidentally managed to break a hokora, releasing an evil spirit. The evil spirit, Mima, thinking Marisa might be one of Hakurei's friends out to exterminate her for good, forced Marisa into a fight, which Marisa promptly lost, making a great display of her powerful light magic. Mima thought she could just chase the magician away after the fight, soundly defeating her. However, much to Mima's surprise, Marisa instead begged her to teach the young magician some more. Mima amusingly agreed, only on the condition that Marisa become her minion and do what Mima asked. This was more then enough of a deal, however, and Marisa was quite happy to agree.

Under Mima, Marisa learned all sorts of magic, especially combat spells. Due to Marisa's ability to easily copy magic, it wasn't long before she was quite a powerful magician, although she was too young and inexperienced to compare to Mima herself. Marisa looked up to Mima in quite a few ways, and Mima's 'evil' personality rubbed off on Marisa a bit, making her more cocky and brave then ever. It wasn't long before Marisa learned that youkai weren't really such a big deal, as long as you had plenty of firepower to deal with them.

Even better, Marisa learned to fly on her broom, and finally got to reach her dream of flying about the night sky. It was more breathtaking then she imagined. However, even with this achieved, Marisa had a goal now. She wanted to fly higher, and be better then the rest. No longer afraid of youkai, she wanted to be the greatest witch there was, powerful enough she could live by her own rules.

Marisa trained under Mima for just a few short months, before her real test began. One day she was approached by tough shrine maiden, and she got a taste of her first big fight. Unfortunately, she lost. Shortly after, her teacher, Mima, whom Marisa had thought was unbeatable, got sealed back up by the shrine maiden, leaving Marisa once again alone.

This time, however, Marisa was more prepared for the world. With Mima no longer teaching her, Marisa decided that she would live by herself, and not only learn all that she could about magic, but she would even do it in her own style, and make her own magic. The ultimate freedom to pursue her dreams.

She chose the Forest of Magic to live in, since she thought the name sounded like a place suited for Magicians to live in. No longer afraid of youkai, Marisa quickly set up her own territory in the forest, mostly by marking a place where she would build her own place to live and blasting any youkai who dared get too close.

Marisa borrowed upon the things that got her this far to start her new life as the ordinary magician in the woods. With tomboyish attitude she fearlessly fended off youkai from attacking her as she created her own place to stay. Her skill in thievery proved to be invaluable for the magician, using it to steal building materials and books where she could actually learn to build a house. She quickly befriended the shrine maiden that defeated her under Mima, and decided to spend extensive amounts of time with the shrine maiden, often sleeping over (until she could build her own house). Her love of nature led her to discovering the magical properties of mushrooms in the forest, as well as the nutritional value of many of the fungus and other plants in the woods. With the mushrooms, as well as alchemy supplies (which she stole later), Marisa would end up finding her own style of magic. With her ability to copy magic, each foe she fought tagging along with the shrine maiden on incidents allowed her to improve her ability to fight and gave her new ideas for spells. Even her family's trade rubbed off on her, and she ended up making her home into a shop to pawn off her magical goods.

Finally, her love of the night sky is where she found her true passion with magic, always making efforts to style her spells from the thing she loved most about the world. Her magic was often copied, but with her own style and her research, she could not only make the magic hers, but also make it even better then the original. Always aiming to fly higher, up among the stars.

Many of her habits stuck with her during her journeys through Gensoukyou. Her penchant for stealing became quite the bad habit, so much so that she became infamous for it. She didn't care for what others thought, however, as she played by her own rules and did whatever she wanted, and she had the power to back up her thoughts as well.

Marisa is always looking for new spells to make, new things to discover, and new foes to beat and learn from. Although she calls herself An Ordinary Magician, she's one of the least ordinary people you'll meet.

Personality
"If people think I'm as dumb as I sound, they won't expect it when I blast 'em down!" Marisa seems to take nothing seriously, treating most of her activities like a game or a challenge. Even in a serious fight, she looks like she's only screwing around, doing barrel rolls or standing on her broom while dodging danmaku, before blasting a foe with a Master Spark or somesuch. She hardly gets angry as a result, even if she loses, unless someone is insulting her. She has a tendency to harass people she dislikes, often giving them a demeaning nickname, and sometimes messes others she doesn't care for. Even people she does like aren't safe from her harassment, although it's never limited to more then lighthearted teasing. Marisa finds a bit of fun in getting baiting reactions from other people, and sometimes it can even come in useful as a distraction, such as in a fight. Notably, she has a general distrust of youkai, especially ones that are normally unfriendly and are known to eat humans. It seems kind of obvious, considering Marisa is a human herself. Albeit, it's not very noticeable with Marisa, since she appears to have the same attitude towards everyone she's unfamiliar with. On the other hand, when it comes to youkai, Marisa is fairly fearless. She's generally stronger then most youkai, and has a good sense of judging how powerful someone is, which leads to an especially cocky attitude when dealing with people she knows she can beat. Marisa has a determined and boyish attitude about things. She doesn't give up very easily on things, and she likes doing things in a loud, flashy way. For example, when researching a new spell, she prefers to make a concoction and fire it through her Mini Hakkero to see what happens, rather then do calculations or test it in a less volatile way. When she comes along a problem, the first solution that usually comes to mind is the one that is most exciting or forceful, often disregarding logic and common sense in the process. Give her a door and something behind it, and chances are she'll blast it down, whether it was locked or not, and take the item. Marisa is smarter then she lets on, additionally. It usually appears to take her a bit to remember someone important she's met, and occasionally insults and things will seem to fly over her head. Her coarse manner of speech also makes her seem less bright then she is, but rest-assured she is highly intelligent and resourceful, she just doesn't care to show it to others. Marisa is also rather selfish and self indulgent. She'll take what she can get, generally, and does most things for her own enjoyment, although she has her caring moments, especially when it comes to her closest.friends. Speaking of "take what you get", Marisa is a bit of a kleptomaniac. She has a penchant for robbing people when she's solving an incident, often taking a sack through her adventures to take some spoils from her fights, the majority of which are books, especially magic books and grimoires. For this purpose she also ransacks Patchouli's library as well, since it's so full of magic books, Marisa really can't resist. She is inherently curious and is always looking out for the next big thing, whether it be researching a new spell she'd like to learn, or investigating any trouble she catches wind of. Marisa is very quick to act on anything interesting she hears about, if only to see what the hubbub is about, and then investigating it further if it is sufficiently interesting. After all, curiosity breeds opportunity. That opportunity could be research for a new spell, or experimenting a new spell by testing it (on the local troublemaking youkai, of course), or the chance to acquire some sweet loot. Whatever the case is, if it sounds like it'd be fun, you can expect Marisa Kirisame to be on the case.

Power/Combat
"'Danmaku's all about firepower!'" Marisa is a powerful magician who is specialized in Heat and Light magic, mostly themed around celestial objects like stars. Aside from the star theme, many of her spells also use lasers, being a natural combination of heat and light. She also has an affinity for water magic, although she doesn't utilize this for combat purposes. She uses her Mini Hakerro and exotic mushrooms as a power source for her spells, as well as for researching new spells or more efficient ways of casting. Being a witch is not an easy occupation, as Marisa must dedicate a very large amount of time doing research and studying spells to become more powerful. Fortunately, Marisa has a strong aptitude for magic, and has become quite the powerful magician in the short time she's been studying (compared to some longer lived youkai). Marisa's magic is very powerful. She's only specialized in two areas in magic, but she's highly specialized in those two fields. The majority of Marisa's magic is used for her attack spells, especially big, flashy ones like her signature move, Love Sign 「Master Spark」. She does, however, know the importance of the utility of magic, and knows her fair share of non-combat spells too. She considers the above quote as her motto regarding combat, and her style in combat reflects that, making the best defense a good offense. Big tactics and bigger attacks are her preferred style of play, and if she can't dodge something, she can certainly destroy it with a large dose of "massive laser". Most of her spellcards are very direct and brutally powerful, allowing her to mow down foes without much effort or time. While her attacks can be dodged, she also has quite a large magical reserve, so trying to stall her out to drain her power is a tall order when faced with increasingly larger and more deadly attacks. Marisa is also able to copy spells others use, provided they're based in light or heat magic, and use those spells, often even making improved versions. These often become her best-known spells, in fact (Master Spark was copied from Yuuka, for instance, and Marisa also uses an improved version, Final Spark). Finally, it's worth noting that while Marisa isn't the most powerful being in Gensoukyou (in fact, far, far from it), Marisa is still one of most experienced fighters there, having been involved in nearly every single major event since she became notable in Gensoukyou. Among them, she's probably second only to Reimu Hakurei in terms of experience in danmaku combat, which makes her a high threat to even those quite a bit more powerful then she is. Worse, paired in a fight with Reimu, they're likely to be nearly unbeatable by anyone except the most powerful in Gensoukyou. Marisa is also skilled in alchemy, and she knows how to make various concoctions, potions, and magical powders using exotic mushrooms and other strange ingredients she can gather around the Forest of Magic. Her powders mostly tend to be volatile explosive powder, which she uses for her firework displays, but her potions can come in many varieties, having all sorts of effects, such as a potion that gives the user increased strength for a short time, a thick drink that lets the user stay up late at night (one of her favorites), or a creamy salve that can be applied to wounds to kill pain, stop bleeding, and speed up the healing process. One of her specialties is a dusty powder that refracts light around things it covers, making it appear invisible. The process for making her potions and powders and even spell components is actually quite complicated, involving taking mushrooms she collects and mixing them together in batches, before drying them out and doing extremely extensive testing with it. Tests range from throwing the powder (some explode when thrown!), to mixing them with known viable powders, to burning them in the Mini Hakkero to see how they react, to sometimes even mixing it with water and drinking the concoction! Marisa has a large number of tomes and grimoires written by her which only serve to list the results of experimentation with her various mixes. She seems to have memorized most of the more viable concoctions and their effects, but when she's testing her things it's common to find her rifling through her own books to see what she's done in the past. In a sense, her method to magic is quite unique among magicians, but if you ask Marisa herself, she'll probably pass it off as quite ordinary for magicians.

Mini Hakkero
Marisa's signature weapon. The Mini Hakkero is a handheld device in the shape of an octagon, and etched with the Eight Trigrams on the top. On the outside, it is made of ordinary wood, and looks like an ordinary wood block to anyone who wouldn't recognize it, but the components on the inside are actually made from Hihiirokane, a legendary metal that never rusts or changes properties. The Mini Hakkero is actually a magical furnace, and an immensely powerful artefact, said to be capable of reducing an entire mountain to ashes. The Mini Hakkero burns magical mushroom powder that Marisa concocts, and amplifies Marisa's magic power several times over when a spell is channeled into it. Most of Marisa's flashier spells use the Mini Hakkero as a focus, her various Master Spark attacks being among them. Marisa on her own can use lesser amounts of magic, but her Mini Hakkero is her main power source and rightfully the thing that makes her scary in battle. It also has a couple of more mundane functions. One of the corners has can blow air from it, like an air conditioner, to keep Marisa cool during hot days. It also has the function to clean the air around it, which was added the last time it was repaired. As a device and a tool, Marisa has total control on the output and use of the Mini Hakkero, having mastered it's use long ago. She can use it for just about anything, from heating pots to using it like a flamethrower, and can adjust it on the fly, as long as she has enough powder to fuel it. The Mini Hakkero is on the surface a relatively simple device, but using to the extent Marisa can it is much more difficult, and to Master it like she can would probably take many months. While other hakkeros do exist in a general sense, Marisa's is one of a kind, crafted by Rinnosuke and given to her as a gift

Marisa's Broom
The broom Marisa carries around constantly. It's an essential tool for a magician, according to Marisa, and was crafted by her own hand to make it. In all regards, however, it's really just an ordinary broom. Marisa can fly just fine without it, although that's her secret, as most people seem to think otherwise, and might be surprised when you knock her off and she suddenly stops falling to deliver a Master Spark to your face. Technically, she just siphons the energy she uses to fly into the broom instead in the air. The broom isn't enchanted to aid the user to fly, although Marisa seems to be able to go faster when flying on it, which she attests to being used to flying on it more then without it. She's a very skilled flier when riding her broom, increasing her agility in the air dramatically. She can ride the broom in any fashion too, which she often shows off by standing on top of it, or flying upside down. Marisa's broom also serves as a makeshift weapon, but only as a last resort; she'd much rather be blasting you with danmaku then whacking you with the broom. It can block attacks as well - which has saved her life once or twice. Marisa's had to make new brooms occasionally after breaking the older ones in fights. Usually they're made out of wood or bamboo.. Marisa also has been recently enchanting her brooms to make them less likely to break. Her current broom has an enchantment to make the broom less brittle and more dense while not actually changing the properties or weight. The enchantment makes the broom about as strong as a rod of iron in some ways. She has another enchantment on the broom tuned to make it resistant to heat, so that she doesn't accidentally set it on fire.

Spellcards
http://en.touhouwiki.net/wiki/Marisa#Spell_Cards

In addition, she has other spell cards she's made recently:

Marisa came up with this spellcard in her recent incursion to space. She launches a massive ball of magic, filled with wildly bouncing danmaku inside, and pushes it forwards. After going a short distance, the back of the ball opens up, sending out tons of high-speed danmaku backwards, while Marisa sprays her foe with lots of lasers in a two-pronged attack. Similar to Shoot the Moon but more chaotic.
 * Star Sign "Lightspeed Lights"

Marisa thought up this spellcard in a strange dream. Marisa summons two small spinning magic circles that stay near her broom, which each very rapidly fire out small danmaku in a semi-aimed spray. Meanwhile, Marisa fires larger, slower star danmaku that home in on the enemy and trail small amounts of smaller stars behind them. Meant to evoke imagery of a fighter jet, with rotary cannons and missiles (not that Marisa actually knows this)
 * Magic Bullet "Starlight Vulcans"

Relationships
"'Don't sweat that ya' lost! Instead, let's go celebrate a good fight at Reimu's shrine! On her, of course! '"

Major
Reimu and Marisa are best friends, and probably the only real human friend Marisa has. Marisa and Reimu are an inseparable pair when they're together, and if Marisa isn't at home or isn't hunting in the forest, the next likely place she'd be is at Hakurei Shrine, sitting around and chatting with Reimu. Marisa and Reimu also make powerful allies in battle, together being virtually unstoppable in a fight. Whenever an incident pops up, you can expect Marisa to be out and about not long after Reimu goes investigating. Marisa also tends to take youkai extermination requests that Reimu doesn't, as a source of income. Along with being friends, Marisa and Reimu are often sparring partners, and Marisa makes a big deal off of testing her newest and most powerful skills to try and best the shrine maiden. Marisa's always been a bit in awe of Reimu's power ever since the day she first got beat by the shrine maiden. She's also a little jealous that Reimu can be so powerful when she makes no effort to train her skills. Nonetheless, Marisa's quite close to Reimu in terms of fighting skill - she's got a 40% winrate against Hakurei. Marisa's magician neighbor in the forest. They have a large difference in tastes, styles, attitudes, and approaches to magic, but the common ground in both location, profession, and relative skill level even out what may otherwise be mutual dislike. Marisa gets along fairly well with Alice, considering the seven-colored puppeteer a friend, and is likely to seek her out first for help with magical matters and second (to Reimu) if she's bored and looking for company. Like with Reimu, Marisa often partners up with Alice for serious incidents she doesn't feel comfortable taking on alone. As a fighting pair, they make a good team, with Alice's dolls making for a good tactical support t combine with Marisa's raw firepower. Marisa's childhood friend. Marisa often looks up to him as an older brother type figure, and visits his shop often to talk with him, ask for advice, or look at his wares. Kourin lets Marisa take stuff she likes for free, or at least turns a blind eye to it, but in return Marisa pawns off to him a lot of stuff she comes across that drops in from the Outside World. Unbeknownst to Marisa, the payment she gets for pawning things is much, much less then the actual value, as Marisa often isn't aware of the true value of these items.
 * Reimu Hakurei
 * Alice Margatroid
 * Kourin

Minor
The frequent victim of Marisa's thievery antics. They are on rather bad terms due to this, although somehow they seem to get along anyway. Marisa has been invited to visit Satori, her pets, and Koishi in their abode in Former Hell any time she wants. Marisa is especially friendly with Koishi. Byakuren is a fellow magician and thankful to Marisa for helping unseal her during the events of UFO. Byakuren has told Marisa to visit her if Marisa ever gets in serious trouble. Marisa is somewhat (in)famous throughout Gensoukyou. There's a decent chance that if you haven't met her personally, you've probably at least heard about the magician somewhere. If you're a human who's been around awhile in Gensoukyou, you might have heard about her youkai-fighting exploits, or less commonly, heard about her break-ins in various homes. Though she doesn't actually enter the village very often, rumors of her incident solving do get spread around, and she still goes in to buy food, collect money, or do the occasional break-in. Library Owners beware. If you're a youkai, you might want to be a bit more worried about the dreaded magician running into you and blasting you into submission. Then stealing your books. In that order. Marisa can generally go anywhere she wants, whenever she wants, and there aren't too many people who can really stop her.
 * Patchouli Knowledge
 * Palace of the Earth Spirits residents
 * Byakuren Hijiri
 * Everyone Else