Notice: This entire entry contained unmarked spoilers for my fanfic Mentor & Protege! if you have not read it, click a different entry NOW!
There were some things about the PC-98 Touhou games that I think carried over to the Windows era. Only problem is, the canon is very vague on what that is, and ZUN seems to have disowned the PC-98 games entirely. So I wrote Mentor & Protege to make up for that. It's not word for word like the games, but it seems I did a good enough job about that. Now, some notes.
M&P is divided into four story arcs. Chapters 1 through 5 is arc 1, chapters 6 through 10 is arc two, chapters 11 through 17 is arc three, and 18 to 20 is the last arc. The chapters themselves are rather short. It's best to read M&P arc by arc, not chapter by chapter. So my discussion will be arc by arc.
Arc 1 is based off The Story of Eastern Wonderland. I wanted to explain exactly why Marisa wanted to become a witch. Since I decided to make her a child, (age eight at this point) I thought, why would a kid wanna become a magician? It dawned on me, maybe she just simply loves magic. Lots of people do, but how many of them get to actually do it? This did present one challenge for me, how to write believable dialog for kid characters. Hollywood is infamous for this; no one except maybe Spielberg actually knows how kids think. I tried not to make her dialog or that of Reimu or Alice's too complex, but, even though they're pre-teens, they're not toddlers either, so they can communicate on a somewhat detailed level at the same time.
Then came Mima. I decided to make her Marisa's mentor, and I also invented the ability to write by using her fingertip as a pen! (Hey, it's Gensokyo. If girls can fly and shoot magic missiles at an early age, who knows what else they could do.) However, I wanted to make Mima a villainess. She really wants to, that's right, Take Over The World. Why though . . . I don't know why. I came up with the scheme for her to teach Marisa just enough magic to keep Reimu distracted, so that she could assault the Hakurei Shrine, take the Hakurei yin-yang orbs assuming that's possible, and also destroy the Boundary, so she could conquer the rest of Earth. This of course backfires because Reimu is much more powerful than she appears, despite being unable to fly. In my opinion, chapter 5 is my favorite chapter in the entire series. It turned out MUCH better than I thought it would. I chose not to include certain boss characters, because I just couldn't think of anyway to create a background and somehow make them relevant. Lastly, Mima does a noblewoman's laugh.
Arc 2 is based off Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream. I'll be honest, this is my least favorite of the story arcs. Most of the characters have next to no storylines, and I ended up axing a good amount of characters, well, I did that in all of the arcs, but it's especially noticeable here. Even then, I didn't wanna slack off. In one of the duels, Marisa fires thin lasers, then wishes she could fire a much larger laser. FORESHADOWING! Also, I saw the cutscenes from the actual games, and I saw that Chiyuri's gun was a Flash Gordon-esque blaster, although in my description, it sounded more like a revolver. I did like writing the scene of how Marisa bested Yumemi in battle, if only so it foreshadows the "Melee" battles later in the timeline. I did sneak in a backstory for Kana, because after listening to my favorite remix of her theme, I got the impression that she led a hard and tragic life before she became a ghost. I also said that Marisa is descended from youkai hunters, although I'm certain every human in Gensokyo is. I then tried to explain Reimu's background, considering that the Hakurei clan has lived for several generations in Gensokyo, even before the Boundary was established. I'll admit, I don't know very much about Shinto. I'm not Japanese, I don't come from an Asian background, I don't know anyone in person who practices Shinto, and my research on the subject was contradictory. Do shrine maidens have to stay virgins, or is that not an issue anymore? We'll just assume the Hakurei clan is very conservative in that regard. I also introduced an OC stand-in, Misao. (She's named after the in-universe anime character Satou liked in Welcome to the NHK. Can you see how my media consumption influences me now?) She can't be Reimu's mom, because the Hakurei believe one child must pass down the genes, and the other one must bear the yin-yang orbs, but an Auntie seemed fine. Of course, her appearance and behavior is basically just like an older Reimu. I will say this, Misao raised and taught Reimu from her age of 5 to 11. Fun fact: I have Reimu's mother's personality fleshed out, but we won't be seeing her anytime soon. Word of warning, she's nothing like Reimu nor Misao.
Arc 3 is based off Mystic Square. Here, we meet Alice. I establish why her first name is Alice. (Basically, Shinki is an Anglophile.) later on, I kill off (possibly) Mima and Shinki and also Yumeko collaterally. This was something I planned from the start; just like how Rowling planned for Dumbledore to be killed off later in Harry Potter. When I brainstormed M&P, I was trying to figure out why fan-favorite characters like Mima and Shinki never appeared in the Windows games. The most plausible theory was, "Maybe because they DIED!" I don't know how a spirit or a goddess dies, and knowing Gensokyo, they're probably just chillin' in one of the Hells right as I write this, but they blew themselves up good in their confrontation, so much so, that they have yet to be seen by any canon characters up to the present. However, there is one thing not even I am not sure of; was Mima right in claiming that Shinki also wanted to conquer Gensokyo? Was Shinki an angel . . . or a conqueror? Either interpretation could work. Whether you find her saintly or villainous is for you to decide.
The reader meets Yuka here. I made her smug, arrogant, but not excessively so. She ended up being rather minor, especially since she vanishes before the climax, but she is important for one thing; teaching Marisa the Master Spark. The mini-hakkero is a pretty obvious reference to Chekov's Gun, (Fun Fact: Chekov's play, "The Bear" actually features a gun, but is never used. Was he a troper when he was still alive?) I had a short scene with Rinnosuke, but only a short scene. (This is Gensokyo! Men are insignificant!) I realize I broke canon (possibly) by having Marisa know the Master Spark then, but hey, the fans were pleased.
One last thing, Alice suffers Unholy Hell in her early life. Her original parents got killed when she was only a few months old, and her foster family got incinerated by a spiteful spirit, and yet, she becomes well-adjusted after moving to the Village. I have read in my psychology textbook that a child, if he or she has a strong enough support system, can become resilient to tragedy and hardships, and I'm certain Alice was no exception to that rule. Despite being a youkai, she was welcomed to the village with open arms. Or maybe not . . . Max Knight's fanfiction projects do a better job of portraying Alice during this time period than I did. (Seriously, read his current Adaptation project if you haven't.)
Arc 4 is not based off any one game, but in the time between the two eras. There was a 4 year gap between the releases of Mystic Square and The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, so I figured it would be four years. Chapter 18 features a conversation between Misao and . . . Yukari. OF COURSE! Hey, I wasn't kidding when I said Yukari's the real star of Touhou. Well, in this, Misao reveals that Reimu wants to establish rules that eventually become the Spell Card rules for dueling. Notice throughout this entire series, unlike in A Touhou Fanfiction About Nothing, that the duels do not use any spellcards, and that sometimes, people get seriously injured, possibly even killed. Yukari even said in Eternal Blossom that in her early life, it was unusual for a danmaku duel to not end in death. At first, Yukari refuses, but then Misao counters that Yukari's lucky that the Hakurei clan hasn't died off yet, and that with these rules, the Boundary has a greater chance of survival. She then accepts. As for how all the people in Gensokyo eventually came to accept the spell card system, uh, fill in those details yourself. I'm more concerned with writing gripping plots than minute details.
Chapter 19 shows how Reimu finally learned how to fly. Alright, in case you couldn't tell, it was Misao who tied the ribbon on top of the gate. She took Yukari's hint of how she raised Ran, by teaching her without her realizing it. (Alluding to Yukari's status as a trickster mentor.) Also, Marisa and Alice realize how awesome it is to be a kid in Genoskyo, in that they could live by themselves away from humans if they desired.
Chapter 20 shows Reimu and Marisa behaving like how they do in the Windows era, and A Touhou Fanfiction About Nothing for that matter, as well. Reimu is less easily irritated, and Marisa now says "Da ze!" randomly. Not only that, I came up with a good motivation for Alice to make a sentient doll. Will she succeed? Only time will tell. And yes, in case it wasn't painfully obvious enough, that was Remilia and Sakuya talking in the epilogue. Fun fact, this is the only chapter in the entire series that contains a pop culture reference. Marisa claims that good witches strike it out on their own at age 13. She read it in a book. Soooo . . . the human village in Gensokyo has the original Kiki's Delivery Service children's books? How . . . interesting.
Lastly, I did not arbitrarily set the series to end at 20 chapters. I know better as a creative writer to do that. I was considering making it 21 chapters long, but it ended at 20.
I was considering making an arc set during Lotus land Story, but I decided against it. I had conceptualized Marisa fighting Elly, then Elly saying, "By the way, another girl beat me earlier today. She was about your age, had long dark hair, and wore red-and-white clothes." Marisa would blush in fury, shout "REIMUUUUUUUU!" and charge Yuka's residence. She would then meet Reimu, already fighting Yuka, and Marisa learning the Master Spark then, but I decided against all of this because it would just drag the story out more if I did.
Reimu's role from The Highly Responsive to Prayers is alluded in the first arc, but not elaborated. I think I'll write that eventually, but only as a story arc in my project of character backstories, because it would be a good backstory explanation for Reimu.
