Alright! I had to get this out of my chest so here it is! The prologue to Miko Rider Reimu! This is pretty much Touhou if it followed the same vein of story as Kamen Rider Decade. Pretty much a world for EoSD, PCB, IaMP, IN: Kaguya, IN: Eirin, PoFV, MOF, SWR, SA each if Reimu and Marisa did not exist in those worlds. An outsider will take over the role of the Hakurei Miko and will save or destroy the nine other worlds.

I was standing in the middle of a large field.

I look around and find nothing but grass.

I gaze at my attire, a simple white night gown, I do note even have any slippers on.

I wonder why I am here when suddenly a loud explosion rocked from behind me and made me double over. From the distance I can see the shapes of several people running towards me, I was…

Afraid

Awed

Curious

All those things but, mostly, I was Compelled…

Compelled to stay and witness this…until the end.

...

The people that were headed towards me, as they came closer I see that they were all women. The one leading the charge could be no more that twelve years old but the striking thing about her was that she had wings just like a bat and was wielding a blood-red spear. The rest of the ones there also carried similarly dangerous weapons and abilities from knives to swords to the ability to control fire and ice. The majority of them were actually made up of girls that seem to have rabbit ears on their heads while the rest were unique by themselves.

The powers of the women that were charging towards me were all quite impressive and I had not doubt that they could conquer the whole world if they wanted to. But as I dared to admire their strength, a sudden red beam of swirling light rushed past me from behind and impacted right in the middle of a charging swarm of rabbit girls sending them flying in all directions. I could see a girl with long silvery-blue hair with a strange hat that looks like some kind of building with a red ribbon on top; she was wearing a dark blue dress. She was on a large boulder and it seemed that she was coordinating the rabbit girls who were injured to get to safety. She was calling out to someone else in the distance before being caught in another wave of swirling red light. The smoke cleared but the girl in blue and the boulder she was standing on were nowhere to be seen.

The beams of light started to become more numerous as time passed, everywhere I looked, rabbit girls were caught in explosions and the screams could be heard from all directions. I cover my ears to preserve my sanity from the suffering around me. I look to the sky and I saw two figures flying in the sky. One of them had silver hair and was wearing a brown shirt and red baggy pants that was held by suspenders, beside her was a girl with long black hair and was wearing a pink shirt with many white bows, and a long, dark burgundy skirt. The silver haired girl had wings of fire on her back while the black haired girl had several objects floating around her, five to be exact. The two of them fired a combination of flame and multi-colored beams of light toward the source of the red swirling light. Their attack was returned on kind with several beams of red light with large orbs of red and white. The two of them managed to dodge most of the projectiles but the silver haired girl got hit on her right shoulder with an orb and it detonated. The silver haired girl screamed as her right arm was completely blown off but she still stayed airborne. She gave one more scream, more or a roar before the wings of fire on her back became even bigger and she dived straight to the source of the projectiles but it was all for naught as she was caught in a combined swirl or red light that detonated in front of her…nothing remained. The black haired girl called out to her companion in vain, tears could be seen flowing freeing from her eyes before she let out an angry scream and started her barrage again but was quickly silenced as she was surrounded by the large red and white orbs. The black haired girl gave a sad smile before she shared the fate of her companion.

I then noticed that there were others who were flying as well. Most notable were girls who had bird wings. One of them looked like she had a canon for an arm which she aimed at the source of the hostile projectiles before letting loose a powerful dark red beam. The beam was suddenly blocked by a large red square that appeared out of nowhere. Once the beam from the winged girl dissipated, the red square that blocked her attack gave way to several beams and orbs that made quick work of the winged girl. All over the sky, the same story, there was a winged girl who was trying to sing a song in the middle of this chaos and was backed by three other girls with instruments that were floating around them. Whatever they were trying to do was never realized as they were caught in an explosion as well. Only two bodies could be seen dropping from the sky.

I suddenly caught sight of a large rock that was flying across the sky. It had an ornate rope wrapped around it and there are three figures that can be seen riding it. There was a blue haired girl that was wearing a black hat with a peach on it and red blouse with a blue skirt; she was wielding a sword that glowed red. One who was with her and was in the front part of the boulder was a girl with short silver hair that had a black ribbon on it and she was wearing a green a white dress, she was wielding two katanas of different length. The third person there had violet blue hair with a black hat that had a red ribbon on it and she was wearing a white and red shirt, a long black skirt, and a hat with a red bow and two long ribbons extending out and has a white and red shawl entwined along her arms and blouse.

The three of them seemed intent on ramming that large rock into whoever was causing all this destruction but their mode of transport was a large target and was quickly intercepted by several orbs that detonated the rock. The three girls managed to jump off in time and landed on the ground with no injuries and continued to charge in the direction they had intended to go to. They ran past me and I tried to keep my gaze to those three brave girls when I caught something in the corner of my eye. There I saw a little girl who had horns and was carrying a large gourd. The girl opened up the gourd and drank from it and she suddenly started growing. She finally stopped growing at around three stories high and gave a drunken laugh before walking on, behind her I could see the main force charging in as well led by that girl with the bat wings.

My vision started to blur as the girls charged past me and towards whatever was causing all of this, all the while explosions from beams and orbs could be seen flying everywhere. I saw a group of girls flying in the air led by one with blue hair and a blue dress that seemed to have ice for wings. They tried their best to get as far as they could but the orbs eventually overwhelmed them and then they were gone. Around me, the same scene was witnessed. I saw a girl that looked like a black cat with two tails knelt in front of a lying body of a woman with blonde hair who seemed to have fox ears and nine tails. The girl was yelling at the lying woman but there was no response from her, a poll of blood could be seen starting to form around her. Another explosion could be heard and I saw a girl with long red hair who was wearing a green china dress get flung across the field along with a purple haired girl who was wearing a baggy purple nightgown, she was clinging to a book as she was thrown across the sky. I saw another explosion and saw a girl with long green hair who was wearing a shrine maiden’s outfit but with the part that connects the shoulder to the sleeves gone. She was in front of two others a small girl who was blonde and had a large tan hat with eyes on it she was wearing a short simple purple dress with white sleeves. Beside her was a woman with poofy blue hair and had an elaborate red shirt with long white sleeves and a round mirror over the center of her chest and wearing a long black skirt with a red flower print hem, behind her was a large twisting rope circle with hanging paper from it. They had their hands on the back of the girl with green hair who was holding her hands in front of her as a large magic circle appeared before her which started to charge a large amount of energy. Several red beams headed their way but it did not reach them before they let loose what they were building up, a thick green beam, towards the cause of the chaos. That was the last thing they ever did.

I was having enough of all of this. Everywhere I turned was death, despair, why was I witnessing this? I saw a girl with short blonde hair who was clutching a book and had several dolls floating around her who tried to counter the barrage of orbs and beams with her own barrage of beams that were made up of several colors, seven if I’m not mistaken. Unfortunately, her attack was inferior and she was soon dispatched along with her dolls. I once again saw the bat winged girl who suddenly got hit with a large orb that exploded on impact. When the dust cleared I saw that the girl was unharmed but only because there were others who caught the blast for her. One of them was a woman with silver hair who was wearing a blue maid uniform with a white apron. The other was a blonde girl who looked liked the bat winged girl but seemed younger, her wings were like a pair of twisted iron bars with small crystals of different colors hanging from them. The two girls were no longer able to support their own weight and crumbled in front of the bat winged girl who held them both and started crying. I also saw the horned girl that grew into a giant be subdued by a large barrage of orbs and beams and suddenly shrank back to her original size before falling to the ground. I had it! I dropped to my knees, closed my eyes, and held my ears and prayed for this massacre to be over. What felt like an eternity of explosions, screaming, war cries, and impacts later, it all suddenly stopped. I opened my eyes and found that all of them, every last one of the girls that charged into this field were now lying motionless around me. I could not take it anymore and I started sobbing. I knew nothing of them but no one deserved this kind of death.

After several minutes of crying to myself, I noticed that there was a faint glow from behind me. I slowly turned around and saw the on who caused all of this to happen. Her face was obscured from view by a dark shadow but I could clearly see that she was wearing a red and white dress remotely similar to a shrine maiden's outfit with detached sleeves leaving her shoulders uncovered. On her waist I could see something that looked like a large white belt buckle that seemed pretty out of place with her outfit. I notice that the buckle had metallic looking handles on either side which had green, red, and blue yinyang orbs in the middle of each. The buckle itself was white with a round clear glass center; nine icons that I could not recognize were arranged around the center of it. The most striking thing I saw about that buckle was that there was an engraving at the top of it in English. I strained my eyes to see what it was and finally managed to read it out loud.

Hakurei…

Here's chapter 1 of Touhou Rider Reimu!

...

I woke up in a cold sweat and sat up from my bed. I took a few deep breaths, trying to recover from the shock that had just happened. I put a hand over my mouth as I quietly sobbed when I recalled what happened.

What the hell was that? I asked myself. I could vaguely recognize some of the girls there but I couldn’t remember from where. Is shook my head as I remembered more of the dream.

Why did I have that dream? What does it have to do with me? I thought. Those girls and the place they fought in seemed to be set in some weird fantasy story or something. I looked at the clock beside my bed and saw that it was five in the morning laid awake for another hour, too mentally exhausted to do anything right now.

My mother eventually started knocking on my door thinking that I was still asleep. I sat up and called out to her to tell her that I was awake. I stood up and started making my bed. By the way, in case anyone is wondering, my name is Aozaki Tama. I am nineteen years old but currently a ronin as I wasn’t able to pass the entrance exam of the university I wanted to go to. I currently have a job at a local store that sells videogames and anime as a clerk though I really never had any interest in those kinds of things. I stepped out of my room after I fixed my bed and headed to the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror found that my hair was a mess. I have shoulder length brown hair and my bangs were parted on the right side. I have brown eyes and a pretty ordinary face which was probably why I never had a boyfriend before. I sigh at my own misfortune and started brushing my teeth, got changed into a shirt and jeans and headed downstairs for some breakfast.

I got downstairs and headed straight to the dining room where I found my father. He was sitting beside my uncle who was talking to my father about another one of his games. Apparently, my uncle has become quite the cultural because of the games he makes. He’s an independent game developer that only goes by ZUN in the public. Pretty weird name if you ask me.

“Mornin’ dad, uncle.” I greeted the two of them.

“Well, you’re up early for once!” My dad joked. I just laughed along to humor him.

“Good morning Tama! Great news! I’m almost done with my current game!” My uncle said proudly.

“Oh really? That’s great uncle.” I said while sitting down in front of the table.

“Seriously though. You should find a job as a composer. You have a real talent in making music; don’t waste it in making silly games about flying girls.” My dad tried to convince my uncle who just laughed it off.

“Sorry but I love my work. Hakurei Reimu, Kirisame Marisa and the rest of the denizens of Gensokyo as my greatest pride right now and I do not plan to stop as long as there are people that want my games.” My uncle said in a tone akin to a father talking about his child.

Wait…Hakurei? It was the same name as in my dream. I shook my head.

“No way…” I muttered to myself. I looked up and saw that my dad and uncle were looking at me like I grew a second head or something.

“No…don’t worry about me. Just remembering a dream I had last night.” I said. I wasn’t really lying either. But the likelihood of that dream being related to my uncle’s games is idiotic. I haven’t even played any of his games; I just have an elementary knowledge about them since he always talks about them when he visits.

“Aahhh…dreams. You should pay attention to them when you can. Especially those that you can remember as you never know when you will need that knowledge in the future. I remember when I started working on Embodiment of Scarlet Devil the morning after I had a dream about a twelve year old girl with bat wings and had a red spear.” My uncle’s words made my blood freeze.

“Hey now…that’s a bit of a weird dream you know.” My father said as he and my uncle started another debate on how he should lead his life. I didn’t hear any of it as I recalled my dream again. That girl that my uncle was talking about matched the description of that girl in my dream as well. I slapped myself with both hands to get the thought out of my head, once again getting the attention of my uncle and father and my mom who just walked in from the kitchen.

“Oh…hehe…don’t mind me…” I said.

…

I was walking along the streets of Akihabara where I worked trying to get my mind off what my uncle said earlier.

There was no way that the two could be related. I tried to convince myself. I was scared because if one of uncle’s creations was really in that dream I had then there was a good chance that every last one of those girls I saw came from a game he made. I stood in front of the game shop that I work at and sighed.

I have to get this out of my head. I thought before walking inside.

The rest of the day seemed to run by me without me realizing it until a girl around my age walked up to me. She had short messy black hair that was covered up by a baseball cap. She had black eyes and had a pretty mischievous look and feel to her. She was wearing a shirt under a jacket and had her hands in the pockets of the jacket and was also wearing ratty old jeans and a pair of old sneakers.

“Hey!” She called to get my attention.

“Yes…how can I help you?” I replied. She gave me a stupid grin and leaned close to me, to which I responded by pulling back.

“I’m looking for a copy of Phantasmagoria of Flower View, you got one here?” She asked, keeping the same grin.

“Phantasma—wha?” I didn’t think I’ve ever heard of such a difficult sounding name for a game before. The girl pouted and backed away from me.

“Fine…it’s the name of the ninth Touhou game by ZUN, I need another copy because I busted my last one from playing for too long on my computer.” The girl’s words made me blink a few times.

ZUN? One of uncle’s games? In that case…I straightened myself up and smiled.

“If that is the case then please follow me. All of ZUN’s games are in a separate section which is probably why you weren’t able to find it.” I explained as I led her to another part of the store where the independently developed or Doujin Games were kept. The girl’s eyes immediately lit up and ran to the copies of the games. I sighed and made my way back. No one really knows that I was ZUN’s niece which was pretty good since I wouldn’t want to be stalked by any of his fans just because I was related to him.

After a while the girl that talked to her before came back with a handful of games, around four. She grinned at me again as if she expected me to react in some way.

“I decided to snatch some extra copies of other Touhou games in case my current ones decided to crap out too.” She said before walking off to the cash register.

Wow…some people really love uncle’s games…I thought as I watched the girl pay for the games she wanted with a credit card.

…

I got off work just past five in the afternoon and was walking back home. I had since forgotten about my scary dream and was in a bit of high spirits. Was it because of that fan of my uncle’s?

She seemed pretty knowledgeable about uncle’s games. Maybe she could have helped me identify some of those girls? I quickly banished the thought from my head.

“She might think I’m crazy or something if I told her about that dream.” I said to myself as I continued walking. I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn’t notice that someone bumped into me and fell down. I looked at him and he looked like a salary man no older than my father.

“Hey…are you--” I was cut off when the man suddenly screamed and ran away. I was surprised at his reaction since I really didn’t think of myself as intimidating. I turned back to the direction where I was heading to and found that a lot of people were running to the opposite direction as well.

Why does everyone keep running towards me? In my dreams AND in real li—I never got to finish my thoughts as I saw why. In the distance there were flying human-like shapes with bird wings just like in my dream but this time they were attacking people, carrying them off and dropping them from the sky.

“No…This is…” I started to say before getting hit by another person and getting dropped. I shook my head to get my bearings back and saw that there were more people barreling towards me; the winged people were right behind them. I quickly stood up and headed into one of the alleyways where there were no people and those flying…things couldn’t get to me.

I kept running but sticking to the alleyways to be safe. I stopped behind a dumpster and sat down to catch my breath.

“What is…what is going on? Mom! Dad!” I suddenly thought of my parents and how they were during all this. Tears were forming in my eyes as I started to think that I might not make it out of this alive. I then felt something bump against the dumpster. I stood up and saw a girl with rabbit ears, like the ones in my dream.

“Hi…there…” I tried to communicate in hopes of getting to a safe place. My hopes were suddenly dashed as the rabbit girl’s eyes glowed bright red and she smiled like a lunatic, behind her there were three other rabbit girls with the same expressions.

“No…No…Help!” I yelled as I ran in the opposite direction just before they gave chase. I winded through the alleyways and threw around random objects around me in hopes of slowing down the pursuit but the rabbit girls just leaped in order to avoid the debris and they started to close in on me. I rounded a corner but I quickly fell to my knees when I saw that my running led me right to a dead end.

“Dead…end…” I said out loud to emphasize the irony. I heard the rabbit girls approach and looked around for anything to defend myself with or a place to hide in I then saw something on the ground in the corner of my eye. I ran up to it and picked it up. I eyes grew wide as I recognized the object.

It was that belt buckle in my dream.

…

“What is this doing here?!” I yelled. The buckle looked like it was thrown away and left to gather up dust for years now but after I brushed my hand across it the buckle suddenly glowed and it seemed to become good as new. I looked at the place where the buckle was and saw a brown booklet with a yinyang designed on it. I opened it and found cards. Mostly cards of girls, some I recognize from my dream and the very one on top made me gasp. It was named—A loud crash could be heard behind me.

“It’s them!” I looked at the buckle and the cards, wondering what to do. The rabbit girls were starting to become visible and I panicked but remembered my dream and my uncle’s words.

You should pay attention to them when you can.

Especially those that you can remember as you never know when you will need that knowledge in the future.

“For the love of!” I yelled and placed the buckle in front of my waist…nothing.

“Isn’t something supposed to happen at this point?!” I yelled out and looked back up the rabbit girls were already here and were posturing up as if stalking their next meal. I looked back at the buckle and hit it a couple of times with my other hand that still had the booklet with the cards then I noticed the icons that encircled the clear glass center of the buckle.

“Oh…it’s upside down…” I said so I turned it around and suddenly, a belt came out one end of the buckle and connected to the other end, holding it in place on my waist.

“Great…now what?” I asked as I looked at the belt. The handles on the sides seemed to be calling out to me so I grabbed hold of them and pulled them away from the belt. As I pulled, the center part rotated and stopped as the handles locked up after a few inches. I looked down and saw that there was some sort of a slot in the middle. I put two and two together and I took out the top card. The card itself was about the size of a trading card and designed like those game cards in the arcade with its red on black design and the top of the card looked like a barcode but the center of the card was covered with a picture of a girl. One that I seem to recognize but the words on the card were pretty odd as well.

“Touhou Ride…Hakurei…” That name was on the buckle in my dream and what I was currently wearing. I shook my head again.

“Worry later! Live now!” I said to myself as I looked back up to the rabbit girls who seem to be arguing to themselves on who gets first bite. I didn’t have any plans on letting that happen. I turned the card over and saw the same kind of design as in the front but the words Touhou Ride were written across the edge of the card. The center of the card had a yinyang symbol that looked like it had gone through a shredder because of the black lines running from top to bottom of it but I paid it no mind.

“I hope I put it in right. I might not get another chance.” I said as I put the card in the slot, the yinyang symbol facing outwards.

TOUHOU RIDE!

“Wha!” I was surprised at the sudden deep-robotic voice that came from the belt. I noticed that there was something that looked like a projection in red that read like what the belt just said.

“Touhou…Ride…” I murmured before I took a deep breath and pushed the handles back together, making the buckle rotate back to it’s original position.

HAKUREI REIMU!

The belt called out in a deep but not so robotic voice. It was like a voice of an announcer or something. I never really minded as I felt sudden warmth envelop me. I saw that my clothes changed into what I saw in my dream, a shrine maiden’s outfit with detached sleeves there were also nine monochrome copies of myself that formed a semi-circle behind me before converging all at once into me. I held my breath until the light dissipated. I looked at my attire.

“It’s her…that one from my dream. I’m…her?” I asked myself.

SUDDENLY! CHAPTER 2!

...

I was utterly shocked at my own appearance that I didn’t realize that the rabbit girls have already pounced. I looked up just in time to see the middle rabbit girl come down upon me with a maddened expression and tried to swipe a clawed hand at my face. I instinctively put up my hand to block the blow when I felt something forming in my right hand, my eyes were still closed but it felt like a stick or something. I then heard a shriek and noticed something like a flash of light from my closed eyes. I opened my eyes and saw that there was indeed something in my right hand. It was a stick with some fancy streams of paper at the top end. I looked at the rabbit girl that had tried to jump me and saw that the hand she tried to strike me with was now burnt to a crisp.

Is it because of this? I recalled that some shrine maidens use this to banish evil spirits or something; it’s called a gohei I think. I put up as good a fighting stance as I could while pointing the gohei at the rabbit girls who started to slowly back away after they saw what it did to their comrade.

“Please give up…Please give up…Please give up…” I chanted softly, hoping that they would just leave so I can escape and find my family. They backed away even more, the one with the injured hand as well, so I thought that I was going to be in the clear but then they just stopped several feet away from me. I wondered why and tried to poke the gohei in their direction, trying to spook them, but they held their ground and I soon saw why. Another FIVE rabbit girls appeared from behind the three that were chasing me and were forming up along with the others. I swallowed at the thought of having to fend off all of them at once. I tightened my grip on the gohei as all eight of the rabbit girls screeched and charged at me at once.

“Yaaaaaaaaah!” I yelled as I charged at them as well, swinging my gohei all the while. I managed to hit a couple of them on the head making them tumble away, cringe in pain and disintegrate into a pool of green goo but the rest of them wised up and jumped over me and one of them landed a kick on my back that made be fall over on my hands and knees. I stood up and spun around, ready to defend myself when I saw that they weren’t on the ground anymore but hopping around on the walls like a bunch of ninjas. I got confused at their movements that I didn’t notice one of them lunge at me and clawed me at the chest which made me slam to the wall. I looked at my chest, expecting blood but the shrine maiden outfit remained intact. It managed to protect me from a direct hit but it still hurt like hell. I then realized that I was clutching my chest with my right hand, the hand that was holding my gohei. I looked around and found it a few feet from me, flung away from the previous impact.

“Great! Now what?!” I asked myself before remembering that there were other cards as well in that booklet. I took it out from the pocket of my now skirt, opened it quickly and saw another Touhou Ride card with a picture of a woman that I couldn’t recognize. I didn’t think that I saw her in my dream but I thought that I may have just missed her somewhere during all that chaos. I dismissed the thought and pulled at the handles to get access to that slot in the middle of the buckle.

“Please be someone useful!” I said before putting the card into the slot like I did with the Hakurei card, noticing that the symbol that this card had was different since it had a bunch of points that were connected together by a line, like a constellation or something.

TOUHOU RIDE!

I heard the same robotic voice so I guessed I did it right. I pushed the handles together to find out who I’d turn into this time.

YAGOKORO EIRIN!

I was swallowed again when that announcer voice told me the name of who I just picked and I closed my eyes as a light enveloped me but quickly dissipated as well. I opened my eyes and looked at myself. I was shocked to find that I was taller and was wearing a weird looking oriental dress that was completely red on one side and completely blue on the other side. I felt something on my head and touched it with my hand, it felt like a cap or something but I really didn’t pay attention as I also noticed that my hair was longer now and was white! Not only that but it was also tied into one long braid at the back. The biggest surprise for me though was when I looked at my chest.

Huge! I thought as I saw that my breasts were not a full three cup sizes bigger than what I really am. The sound of jumping around pulled me back to reality as I looked up and saw that those bunny girls were still there, probably looking for another chance to attack. I didn’t see any kind of weapon appear when I transformed again so I opened up the booklet again but it seemed to automatically flip to a set of cards different from the Touhou Ride cards. These cards just had that constellation logo at the front instead of a picture of the girl that I’m transformed as and the writing was different too. Instead of Touhou Ride, the card says…

“Attack…Ride…” I said out loud. Well, if it’s an attack then it should be useful! I pulled at the handles again, I’d better get used to doing that a lot I guess, and put the card in like I did the others.

ATTACK RIDE!

The belt said out in that robotic voice again before I closed the handles almost on instinct now.

MEMORIES OF THE LEGENDARY AGE!

The belt declared in the same robotic voice. I guessed that the announcer voice was only for transformations. I then noticed a bow forming in my left hand but no arrow with it. I decided to go with the flow and pointed the bow upwards, not really aiming since all of the rabbit girls were moving too fast, and pulled the bowstring back. As I did that, a ball of energy started to form at the end of the bow.

“Whatever this is, it’d better work!” I declared before releasing the bowstring. The ball of energy shot up a few feet before releasing smaller balls of energy that darted around randomly but none of them hit any of the rabbit girls which made me groan. I was thinking of pulling the bowstring back again when I noticed that the smaller orbs that the big one released before stopped in midair. I wondered why when the big orb suddenly dispersed into several lasers that bounced around the smaller orbs making a sort of honeycomb design and completely frying all the rabbit girls that were up there. The attack soon ended and a bunch of fried bodies dropped from the sky and disintegrated just like the other two. I was thinking about how disgusting that was when the buckle suddenly popped open and ejected the Touhou Ride card I had put in. I barely managed to catch the card at it was thrown up in front of my face and I saw that I had changed back into Hakurei Reimu. I looked at the card when the picture of Yagokoro Eirin suddenly became blurry and disappeared.

“What the? Why?” I wondered before I heard more screaming from the streets. I decided to hightail it out of here before anything else decides to attack me.

…

I ran through the alleyways again until I managed to get to a construction site of a building that just got started. I went through the fence and sat down on a pile of wooden planks. I looked around and the place seemed to be abandoned but I could still see those flying things in the distance.

“What the hell is going on in this world?” I asked to no one in particular. I stood up to continue on. I had to get home to check up on everyone. I started walking when I heard a moaning sound coming from deep in the construction area.

“Oh what now?!” I whined and my shoulders slumped in despair. Shuffling out of the building were a bunch of slow moving, moaning, translucent zombies.

“What the hell are those?!” They looked like the zombies from those horror movies but they seemed to be more spiritual than anything. I considered attacking them with my gohei but I saw that their numbers were just too great. If they managed to disarm me or surround me I’m dead. I took out that booklet again and opened it up. I picked up the top card; I put the now erased Touhou Ride Card at the bottom of the pile and put the booklet back in my pocket. The new card had a picture of another girl that I didn’t recognize. I turned the card over and saw that her logo was a flower, a cherry blossom to be exact.

“Well, so far the transformations seemed to be pretty useful so…” I said before pulling at the handles again and inserting the card. I was starting to really get used to this for some reason.

TOUHOU RIDE!

That was my cue so I closed the handles again to see what I turn into next.

SAIGYOUJI YUYUKO!

The belt declared as I saw that I was being caught up in a tornado of cherry blossoms. The storm dissipated and I took at look at what I turned into this time. I looked at my clothing and saw that it was a light blue and white kimono with dark blue trim. It looked like I have a hat again and it felt pretty poofy and I have pink hair…yeah…short, wavy, PINK hair. I looked at my chest and saw that they were as big, if not bigger than Eirin’s.

“Does EVERYONE have a huge rack?!” I asked myself before turning to the moaning ghost zombies again. I saw that I had a folded fan in my left hand so I opened it up and saw that it had a pink and purple design with butterflies on it. It was only then that I noticed that a few swirling, transparent, spirit things were floating around me like there were on orbit or something. I didn’t mind them and looked back at the problem at hand. There was really no way I could beat them off with a fan so I took out the booklet again to try to find another one of those attack thingies. I pulled out a card that was like Eirin’s attack ride card but with the cherry blossom logo instead of the constellation on it. I opened up the handles and put the card in.

ATTACK RIDE!

So far so good, so I closed up the handles again to see what I’ll be doing next.

LOST SOUL’S VILLAGE! WANDERING SOUL!

The buckle declared as bright lights suddenly appeared on the fan in my left hand as well as my right hand.

“Okay! Here goes! Haaaaaaaaah!” I yelled out as I threw out the light in my right hand that turned into a large number of multi-colored arrowhead shapes that seemed to snake around to the side of the group of zombie ghosts before heading into the swarm like a wave which started to cut up the zombie ghosts into ribbons. I smiled and opened up the fan where five laser beams extended from it.

“Oh cool!” I said before swinging the fan into the zombie ghost swarm. The beams made short work of what was left of the zombie ghosts that the arrow wave didn’t get. The attack ended in an overwhelming victory for me.

“Yeeeees!” I jumped up, adrenaline still running high, when the belt snapped open again and spat out the Yuyuko card like the Eirin card. I looked at the card in shock as Yuyuko’s face disappeared like what happened before and I turned back into Reimu.

“Why do they keep disappearing?” I started to ask but then I heard screeching from behind me.

“Oh please no…” I said in disgust before turning around. And sure enough, the bird people saw my earlier display and decided to check it out. There were swarms of them and I sighed at the thought that I had to fight again.

“Oh screw this!” I decided to transform again since it’s been working pretty well for me so far. I took out the booklet and grabbed at Touhou Ride Card. This one I recognized from my dream. I turned the card over and saw that her logo was the outline of a maple leaf with a cross in the center. I opened up the handles again and put the card in.

TOUHOU RIDE!

At the cue, I closed the handles.

YASAKA KANAKO!

I looked at myself and just like in my dream…

She had an elaborate red shirt with long white sleeves and a round mirror over the center of her chest and was wearing a long black skirt with a red flower print hem. She also had poofy intense blue hair and dark red eyes. Behind her is a large twisting rope circle with hanging papers.

I also noticed that, yeah, still big boobs. I sighed at the odd similarities.

Why is Reimu the only one with small ones huh? I asked arbitrarily as I tried to move but the huge rope thing at my back was making things difficult.

“I guess I should end this quickly then…” I said as I opened up the booklet and it automatically turned to the part with the attack cards. I took one out and opened up the handles and put the card in.

ATTACK RIDE!

“Please be something cool like last time…” I said before closing the handles.

GOD’S RICE PORRIDGE!

“The hell kind of attack name is that?!” I complained before four pillar things appeared from behind me and were floating around the rope thing on my back and pointed to the bird people. The pillars looked like cannons from the way they were positioned and surely enough, energy started to form from the ends that were pointing at the bird people. When the charging stopped I took at deep breath and braced myself.

“FIRE!” I yelled as four gigantic orbs fired from the pillars and towards the bird people who started to disperse to try to dodge but the four orbs suddenly broke off into countless smaller ones that quickly spread out all around the bird people and detonated like those old World War II carpet bombing reels. Not one of the bird people survived.

“Whoa…” Was all I could say before Kanako’s card popped up like the others and her face disappeared and I turned back into Reimu.

“Dammit! Why do the useful ones disappear?!” I complained before deciding to leave before anything else appeared.

…

I was walking through the, now abandoned, streets of my neighborhood. I guess everyone decided to leave which made me wonder if mom, dad, or uncle left as well. I took out the booklet again to see what else I had and, to my horror, ALL the cards were erased.

“What? Why? I haven’t used these yet? Why is the power gone?!” I said while stopping several yards from my house.

“It is because of the distortion…” A voice called said from behind me. Turned around and saw a little girl that was like ten or something who had purple hair and eyes and had a light pink flower-shaped ornament in her hair. I also noticed that she was wearing a pretty fancy looking kimono too and was holding a scroll or something under her right arm.

“Who are you? And what do you mean distortion?” I asked and shifted to a fighting stance, the gohei materializing in my right hand again. The little girl said nothing and pointed to something behind me instead. I turned around and saw my parents and my uncle running out of the house. My relief for their safety suddenly became horror as I saw a large red ball of fire descend from the sky and impacted the ground causing a large explosion that was headed for my family.

“NOOOOOO!” I screamed as I ran towards them but the explosion stopped short of my family and I realized that it was frozen along with my family and everything else around me except for myself…and the little girl that was walking up to me.

“What is the world is going on?” I asked her while embracing my mom who was frozen in fear while gazing at the fireball that was only a few feet from her.

“A nice choice of words. Indeed, something about the worlds is the cause of this.” The little girl said.

“Worlds? As in, more than one?” I said while turning around to face her. She nodded in response.

“My name is Hidea no Akyu…a chronicler.” He pointed to my uncle.

“Have you not heard of me from your uncle’s work?” She asked. I shook my head.

“No…I really haven’t paid much attention to uncle’s work aside from what he tells the family about. Are you telling me that you were part of the stuff he came up with?” I asked. Akuy shook her head.

“The man known as ZUN did not create. He only dreamt and interpreted. What he had seen through his dream were memories of a realm known as Gensokyo.” The space around Akyu suddenly became black and enveloped me as well. I looked around and saw that my neighborhood, my family, the fireball, everything was gone…replaced with a view of outer space.

“There is a realm known as Gensokyo where a shrine maiden named Hakurei Reimu and a witch named Kirisame Marisa saved their realm several times from several threats ranging from a vampire, to a ghost, to gods.” Akyu explained as a projection of earth, mine I assume, appeared below our feet.

“And that is what uncle based his games on?” I asked, Akyu nodded.

“Yes. But there was a distortion that disturbed that and now nine alternate worlds have appeared.” Akyu said and on cue, nine other earths appeared around mine and looked exactly the same.

“What do the other worlds have to do with the chaos in mine?” I asked again. Things were starting to make sense but not in the way that I had hoped.

“I was getting to that…” Akyu said in a bit of an irritated tone and pointed to the other worlds around mine.

“Nine worlds. Nine Gensokyos. Nine instances that Reimu Hakurei and Kirisame Marisa did not exist. Nine times, the world fell to chaos and despair.” She said in a sad tone.

“What? Why didn’t they exist?” I asked but Akyu shook her head.

“I do not know but you are the key to fixing it.” She pointed to me. I backed away while shaking my head.

“No way…why me?!” I yelled while clutching my chest.

“Because for all intents and purposes…you ARE Hakurei Reimu now…” Akyu said in a tone that didn’t give room for argument.

“What if I didn’t want to fix it?” I said in a serious tone.

“Then all will end. The nine worlds…and yours.” She said and I saw, to my horror, the ten worlds started to hit each other until they combined into one mass and exploded.

“No…” I whispered as I fell to my knees. Akyu approached me and put a hand on my shoulder. I looked at her with tears in my eyes and I saw that she was saddened as well.

“There are those who choose to be great and those who have greatness thrust upon them. I’m sorry…but please, save us…save us…” She pleaded and started crying as well. I wrapped my arms around her and we both cried.

After we both calmed down, I helped Akyu to her feet and tidied myself up, she did the same.

“So how am I supposed to do this? I don’t even know what to do or even where to start.” I said and Akyu looked at me in complete surprise.

“I want to save my family…and if that means that I have to save everyone else to do it then so be it.” I said with a sigh. Akyu’s eyes lit up and she hugged me.

“Tama! Thank you! Thank you!” She said.

“Alright! Alright! So I’m guessing you know how I need to do this right?” I told her and she nodded excitedly. She picked up the scroll that was on the floor, the same one she was carrying around before and handed it to me.

“This will give you a way into the nine Gensokyos and give you information about them. After that…you have to figure out what to do from there.” She said.

“Oh…okay…” I said as I opened up the scroll and a bright light suddenly appeared from it.

“A-Akyu?!” A called to her. She stood in the distance and waved to me.

“Good Luck…” Was all I heard before my entire vision was taken by the light.

…

I woke up and found that I wasn’t in that shrine maiden outfit anymore and the belt was gone. I stood up and saw that I was wearing what looked like a female ninja’s outfit.

“From shrine maiden to ninja huh?” I said deadpanned. I looked around to find the belt buckle but all I found was Akyu’s scroll.

“Great! Where is that buckle when I need it?!” I said in irritation then a bright light appeared in both my hands and suddenly the buckle was in my right hand and the booklet with the cards was in my left hand.

“Well…that’s convenient I guess…” I said as the buckle and booklet disappeared again and I picked up the scroll and opened it, trying to read the contents under the red glow of the moo—RED?!

I looked up in surprise and saw that the entire sky was covered in a red mist. Everything was tinted in a blood red color and I suddenly felt like I had bit off more that what I could chew. I looked back at the scroll and saw a synopsis of this world, at the very top was what I would guess is the name of this place.

“The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil…”

…

CHAPTER 3 TIME!

...

I walked through the freaky red tinted world Gensokyo I was in…well I GUESS I was in Gensokyo at this point. I looked around saw that the trees, the grass, every last plant looked like it was dead. I sat on a nearby boulder and opened up Akyu’s scroll.

“This place is depressing…” I said as I read through Akyu’s synopsis of the world…The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

Turned out that during a peaceful summer in Gensokyo, an unnatural scarlet mist appeared without warning and covered much of the land. It was strong enough to block out the sun, causing the affected areas to become dark and cold. Hakurei Reimu, a shrine maiden working at the Hakurei Shrine, felt that it was a shrine maiden's duty to find the cause of this unnatural weather. Kirisame Marisa, a black-clothed magician, hoped that the person casting the spell would have some interesting items to collect.

“Reimu doesn’t seem to be a bad person but that Marisa seems like a greedy prick…” I said after she read the respective motives of the two heroines. I read through the rest and found that the reason for the mist is so Remilia Scarlet, the big bad, could take a walk during the day.

“What?! She sends this world into a near death state so she can take walks?!” I was outraged at the reason for all this suffering and made a mental note to smash up Remilia for that. I stood up and put the scroll away. I had to find some civilization to get a lead on what I should do next so I started walking…aimlessly since I had no freaking idea where I was or where I was supposed to go. I assumed that I was supposed to beat Remilia in this world to get it back to normal like in Uncle’s game so at least I had a goal.

I had walked for a couple of hours now and finally reached a house, it was a western-style house with just one floor. I approached it and knocked on the door. No answer so I tried again.

“Hello? Is anyone home?” I called out while knocking a bit harder…a bit too hard as the door suddenly fell over and hit the floor with a crash.

“Oops…” was all I could say before looking around if anyone…or anything noticed that. I sighed when nothing happened. I slowly entered the dilapidated house, tiptoeing to prevent any further noise.

“Hello? Sorry about the door!” I called out and effectively defeated the purpose for tiptoeing in the first place! I then heard something moving from further in the house. I slowly made my way there and saw a man standing in front of an empty fireplace. He had his back turned to me so I couldn’t tell what he was doing or if he was still alive.

“Hello? Mister? Are you okay?” I asked the stupid question considering his situation and the current state of the world in general. I walked closer and reached out to tap his shoulder.

“Don’t touch that!” A voice yelled out from behind me.

“Huh?” I turned to see who it was when that ‘man’ suddenly turned around and gave something of a roar. I barely managed to turn back and see that his face was full of cuts and boils and his eyes were completely black, and I don’t just mean the pupils, I mean the entire freaking eyes were black. He lunged at me and pushed me down on the floor so I got a real close up of his horrible face. His mouth was full of blood and broken teeth and he tried to bite me. I pushed at his shoulders, trying to keep him away from me but he was too heavy. I didn’t have any chance to take out my buckle either.

I knew I should have transformed first before I went in! I though since I was sure I was dead meat when the man’s movements suddenly stopped and dropped limp on me.

“Gah!” I yelped as I pushed him away and started to squirm away from his body. I saw that there was a knife currently lodged in his head that wasn’t there before. I stared at the body for a few seconds before I felt someone pull me up from behind and violently turn me around. I was met with cold blue eyes.

“What is your name and where is your unit?!” The same voice from before yelled at me, a female voice in fact. I replied to her question by blinking a few times.

“Uhh…unit?” I stupidly asked. The eyes I was looking into narrowed and I was pushed away and tripped over the body of that man that just tried to eat me.

“Ow!” I said as I sat up and rubbed my back. I looked up and got a good long look at the woman who just saved me a few moments ago. She had long unkempt hair that went down to her waist and her bangs fell all over her face. She was wearing the same thing I was, a Kunoichi outfit, but was in dark blue and she had a long red scarf that covered her nose and mouth. I was too busy staring at her and before I knew it, a knife few by the right side of my head, narrowly missing my ear and embedding itself in the wooden wall behind me with a thump.

“Hey! What was that for?!” I yelled out to her while I put my hand over my right ear to make sure that it was still there. The woman walked up and knelt down on one knee next to me, pulled a knife from her back, holding it between her middle and ring finger and pointed it at me. I froze as the knife slowly came closer and closer.

“Who are you? Speak!” The woman demanded. I shut my eyes in surprise.

“Aozaki Tama!” I blurted out, my eyes still shut in fear.

“Why are you here?!” The woman continued the interrogation. I still had my eyes closed since staring straight into a very sharp knife isn’t something I’d like to be doing.

“I got lost and found this place! I thought I could find help!” I blurted out again.

“Did you eat any mushrooms?!” The woman asked again, I was starting to get a feeling that she’d do this all—

“Mushrooms?” I suddenly said in a confused voice, opening my right eye but quickly shutting it again when I saw the tip of the knife.

“Yes! The mushrooms on the ground! Have you eaten any?!” She asked again, her voice was between irritation and worry.

“What? No! I haven’t even SEEN any mushrooms!” I yelled back at her. Really I didn’t since I was too awestruck at the world I dropped into I didn’t have time to actually notice any fungi growing out of the dirt. I then heard her sigh, in relief I dared to hope, and stand up. I slowly opened my eyes and saw that she was standing over me and held out a hand to me, her knife was already gone.

“Th-thank you…” I said before taking her hand and standing up.

“Sorry about that…I thought you had already given up and started eating the mushrooms which was why you were here.” She said in a neutral voice which was reflected by her eyes.

“I don’t get it…what does eating mushrooms have to do with me being here?” I asked, making her blink a couple of times in confusion. She quickly recomposed herself, cleared her throat and pointed to the dead man.

“Because you turn into that if you do…” She said in a solemn voice. I gulped when I realized her motive for aggressively asking me about those mushrooms. I turned back to her when I heard footsteps and saw that she was already headed outside.

“Hey wait for me!” I called out to her before starting after her, giving the corpse one last look. I did so because I was worried. The mist indicated that this WAS The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil’s world but I didn’t hear anything from Uncle’s stories or read anything from Akyu’s scroll that said anything about mushroom induced insane cannibalistic tendencies.

I got out of the house and saw the woman with a small group of people wearing the same ninja outfit. They were armed with crude swords and spears and, except for the silver haired woman, looked really weary. I could see that the woman was giving out orders to the other people there, who were mostly middle aged men, and they all started to move away.

“Hey! I’m coming with you!” I yelled out and was met with another knife that narrowly missed my head again, making me stop cold. The woman gave me a nasty glare before motioning for the others to keep going. I guess they didn’t want me around. I stood there in place, mostly in fear, until they were out of sight in the distance. I sighed and looked around for a place to sit, finding none, I decided to go back inside the house thinking that the threat was already gone. While I was walking back I saw a small glowing mushroom. I knelt down to get a better look. It seemed like a regular mushroom except for that fact that it was glowing as red as the sky was.

“So this is what that woman was talking about…” I said before standing up and heading into the house, making a mental note to stay away from glowing mushrooms or anything that glows red in general.

…

I sat down on a chair in the house and opened up Akyu’s scroll again, hoping to get some more clues about this messed up world. I read through Akyu’s scroll and found out about the enemies that Reimu and Marisa faced here, namely the bosses I guess. There was a Youkai girl named Rumia, an Ice Fairy named Cirno, a gatekeeper called Hong Meiling, a mage named Patchouli Knowledge, a maid and knife expert Izayoi Sakuya…

Wait! Knife expert?! I thought when I read that part. I continued to read and the description for Sakuya matched perfectly with that woman who saved me before except that her hair was longer and she wasn’t a maid or one of the bad buys as far as I could tell.

“This makes no sense…this world is nothing like the one described in the scroll or Uncle’s game!” I complained at the inaccuracy of the information provided to me. My irritation to the whole situation was abruptly put to a halt when I heard screams. I put the scroll away and ran out of the house. The screams seemed to have come from the direction where this world’s Sakuya and her followers went.

“Maybe they’re under attack?” I asked the obvious question. I closed my eyes and concentrated and the buckle appeared in my right hand and the booklet in my left. I placed the buckle on and the belt came out one end and locked in place in the other.

“This time, I’m going in prepared!” I declared to myself before opening up the booklet. I saw that all the cards were still blank except for Reimu’s. I sighed at the lack of choices but decided that it was better than nothing. I took out Reimu’s card and pulled at the handles. I then remembered some old TV shows about guys who did this sort of thing, transforming and fighting monsters and stuff.

“Henshin! I guess…” I said with a bit of a pose like in those TV shows, which made me feel like a freak, before putting the card in, the yinyang facing out.

TOUHOU RIDE!

It felt like forever since I last heard that robotic voice. I closed the handles to get it over with.

HAKUREI REIMU!

My outfit changed into that shrine maiden outfit with those detached sleeves but was all grey and those nine monochrome copies of me spread out before going back into me, my miko outfit got it’s red and white coloring back afterwards. I felt my gohei materialize in my right hand again and nodded.

“Alright! Ready!” I cheered myself on before running to the direction of the screams.

…

I reached Sakuya’s group and saw that most of them were already lying motionless on the ground, Sakuya was currently throwing knives at something that looked like a swirling globe of darkness.

Darkness? I recalled Akyu’s scroll and remembered that the one that can control darkness was the Youkai Rumia. I tightened my grip on the gohei and charged in. I extended my left hand because I read that Reimu was supposed to be able to fire sealing amulets, needles and stuff from my Uncle’s games and I hoped that I could do the same. It paid off as my left hand glowed and five, four inch long needles at the dark globe. That caught Sakuya by surprise as she jumped back, away from the globe of darkness and my firing line, and quickly turned to me.

“Who are you?!” She yelled. No surprise there.

“Not now!” I yelled back as a loud scream could be heard from within the globe of darkness which made both of us go on a defensive stance. The darkness dissipated and revealed the source of the scream and the darkness…Rumia.

She mostly matched the description in the scroll: Red eyes, short blond hair with a red ribbon, wearing a black vest and skirt, and a white blouse. I said mostly because her face was covered in boils and scars, her eyes were all black, and black puss was coming out of her mouth.

Must be those mushrooms again…I thought while gritting my teeth. Rumia screamed again and tendrils of darkness came out from behind her and headed straight for us. Sakuya expertly dodged the tendrils while I was less successful and had to block a couple of them with my gohei. The tendrils looked formless but they felt like fully swung swords against my gohei which thankfully held up to the stress. More tendrils of darkness came out of Rumia, which were aimed at me, before she charged at Sakuya who was waiting.

“Gaaaah!” I yelled as I batted away the tendrils with my gohei and saw that Sakuya was expertly throwing knives at Rumia and hit her in the chest, the shoulder, and the side of her head but it didn’t even slow down the fierce assault as Rumia swiped a claw at Sakuya who barely managed to back away. The Youkai swiped at her a few more times before sending out more tendrils at Sakuya who bobbed and weaved through them but got hit in the right side, making her clutch her wound with her left hand to try to stop the bleeding.

“Sakuya!” I yelled out after she got hit and took out my booklet. I opened it up and it went directly to Reimu’s attacks. I was about to take out one but I noticed the card under it. It looked like the attack ride cards but the red parts were in gold, including the yinyang logo in the middle. I read the label on the card…

“Final…Attack…Ride…” I said then I heard Sakuya yell out again, making me look back at the fight several feet away. Sakuya was swinging a knife at Rumia with her right hand. The darkness Youkai was getting hit at the arms but was completely ignoring the damage as she swiped at Sakuya with her claws and tendrils. No matter how you look at it, Sakuya was loosing.

“This had better be strong enough!” I said as I pulled at the handles of the buckle and put the card in.

FINAL ATTACK RIDE!

The belt declared before I pushed the handles back together.

RE-RE-REIMU!

The announcer voice said, the first part seemed like a skipping CD or something. That took a back seat in my mind when I saw that my whole body started glowing. Almost on its own, my body crouched down and placed my hands on my knees. What happened next was suddenly a haze as if I wasn’t in control of my body anymore. Six orbs of different colors suddenly appeared around me and I dashed towards Rumia with the orbs tailing me, noticed that I was actually hovering a few inches above the ground as I zoomed towards the Youkai before jumping up. I leaped up a good two stories and descended towards Rumia in a flying kick with my right leg extended and my left tucked up behind it, the orbs of light spiraled to my right foot fused to it in a bright white glow. Rumia turned to me too late and the bright light from my kick blinded her, making me hit her dead center in the chest. I blasted through the darkness Youkai who was engulfed in an explosion during impact. I skidded a few feet before stopping, my breath labored from what I had just done. I turned back and saw that there was no more Rumia left or her darkness. I then saw Sakuya lean against a tree, still clutching her wound.

“Sakuya!” I yelled out before running to her. But I was stopped when she pointed a knife at me; her glare at me was just as sharp.

“Don’t come near me! Demon!” She yelled out.

“Demon? What are you talking about Sakuya?” I said with my voice shaky.

“Stop calling me that! My name is not Sakuya! I HAVE NO NAME!” She screamed before throwing the knife in her hand at me. I managed to deflect it with my gohei but Sakuya ran towards me and pulled out more knives, her wound seemingly nothing to her anymore. She threw some more knives at me and I blocked again but there were too many and a few grazed my left cheek and arm.

“Wait! Stop! Why are you attacking me?!” I yelled out to her while still going on the defensive. I thought of firing some needles at her but I didn’t want to hurt her more than she already was. She saved my life once afterall.

“You! I was warned about you! You are Hakurei Reimu! And you are here to destroy this world!” Sakuya said in a rage and pressed on her attack.

“Demon?! What?” I was completely confused now. Who could have told her that? Hakurei Reimu isn’t even supposed to exist in this world!

…

As the fight raged on, a girl with long light green hair and yellow eyes and was wearing a blue and white outfit similar to a shrine maiden's with detached sleeves and light blue polka dots and stripes covering the blue areas was standing several yards away observing the battle.

“Hakurei…you do not belong in this world! You must be erased!” She declared before raising her right hand towards Tama and Sakuya, a green magic circle forming from it.

“Be erased!”

…

I jumped back, away from Sakuya when she leapt up and threw four more knives at me. I was breathing heavily from all the fighting and felt like I wasn’t going to last much longer. Sakuya looked like she was really tired too and was heaving as well.

“Please! Let me explain! I’m not here to--” I was interrupted when a grey swirling screen came up from the ground and swept across us. I covered my face and so did Sakuya in fear of any ill effects. I blinked a few times when nothing happened.

“There she is! There she is!” A voice came from behind me, making me turn to it. I saw three girls who were floating in the air and had instruments floating with them. The one in the middle who the voice came from had gold eyes, short blond hair, and had a violin floating nearby. She was wearing something that looked like a band uniform which was black, with white and red trim. Her matching hat had a Red Crescent moon decoration at the peak.

“So…all we have to do it beat her right?” The girl on the right said. She had brown eyes, short brown hair and had a winged keyboard floating nearby. Her band uniform was red, with pink and black trim. Her hat has a green shooting star decoration at the peak.

“No way! We have to kill her! Kill! Kill! Kill!” The one on the left said. She had blue eyes, wavy light-blue hair and had a trumpet floating nearby. Her band uniform is pink, with blue and black trim. Her hat has a blue sun decoration at the peak.

“Who the hell are you guys?!” Sakuya yelled out at the new comers.

“Hey! Screw you!” The one in pink yelled back and flipped the bird at Sakuya, though I doubted that she understood the gesture.

“I am Lunasa!” The middle one declared.

“I am Lyrica!” The one on the right continued.

“And I am Merlin you whores!” The one on the left finished.

“We are! The Prismriver Sisters! The Phantom Ensemble!” They all said at once before they flew at me, intent on doing what the one called Merlin said. I braced myself for another battle…and this time, I was fighting four on one.

…

Chapter 4!


...

“Are you serious?!” I yelled out as the Phantom…whatever started their attack. The one in pink and the one in red zoomed ahead of the one in black while playing their instruments, resulting in a strangely appropriate melody for a battle. I never managed to appreciate their musical talent because I saw that trailing behind them were purple orbs the size of basketballs. They zoomed past me; crossing each other’s path before they got to me and making the orbs close in on me in a crossfire wave. I held up my gohei, ready to bat away the orbs as they were pretty big targets but, just as they were a couple of feet away from me, each of the purple orbs split off into three white tennis ball sized each. I still tried to bat the smaller orbs away but there were just too many and I got hit by a large number of them.

“Augh!” I grunted as I felt the orbs hit me all over my body, one after the other. The miko outfit managed to keep me alive through the whole attack but I can see smoke suddenly rise up from my now smoldering clothes. I was already weak from using Reimu’s strongest attack on Rumia and defending against Sakuya that I knew I couldn’t last much longer.

“Yaaaah!” Screamed the one in black as she lunged at me, using her Violin Bow as a sword that I barely managed to block with my gohei.

“Hey come on! You gotta be better than that if you plan to fight The Phantom Ensemble!” She said before using her strength to push me away, making me skid a few feet backwards. I dropped to one knee after stopping and looked at my surroundings. The three of them were still up in the air, surrounding me. Sakuya was farther away and was looking at the fight but I couldn’t tell what her expression was as her hair and scarf was covering her face.

“Sakuya!” I called out before getting hit by a blast of energy from behind and doubling over. It came from the one in pink. She was holding her trumpet while giving a big smirk.

“Eyes on the fight missy! I hate being ignored during a performance!” She said before blowing into her trumpet again and sending another beam of energy at me. I forced myself up and ran, the beam barely missing me but I could feel the heat from it as it grazed my back.

“Please don’t fight back anymore!” The one in red said before playing her winged keyboard and sending a wave of arrowhead shaped projectiles at me that crisscrossed, making it difficult to dodge. I got hit again and I started to taste my own blood from the back of my throat. I dropped my gohei and held my stomach, coughing out blood and dropping to my knees.

“Looks like it’s already over.” The one in black declared. I looked back at Sakuya who was still motionless.

“Sakuya! Please! I’m not here to destroy this world!” I called out, blood in my mouth and tears streaming down my eyes. I heard someone starting to laugh. I turned and saw that it was the one in pink. She and the one in red had already joined with the one in black, to finish me off no doubt.

“Destroy the world?! She can’t even defend herself! What a joke!” The one in pink yelled out to me.

“Enough! Let’s finish this!” The one in black said. The other two looked back and nodded. The three of them positioned themselves next to each other, holding each other’s hands, forming a triangle.

“Ghostly Wheel Concerto Grosso!” They all said at once before moving back, away from each other. Their hands separated but the remained connected by a beam that connected their hands, keeping their triangle formation.

So…I get killed at the very first stage huh? I thought, bitterly laughing that I even considered that I could save this world. I guessed that this was my punishment for thinking so arrogantly about all this. I looked at the ground and started crying.

“I’m sorry…Mom…Dad…Uncle…I’m so sorry…I…won’t…be able to…save you…anymore…” I said between sobs while shutting my eyes, preparing myself for the worse. I then heard a scream…but not mine.

“YOU b****!” I heard the voice of the one in pink yell out. I opened my eyes to see what happened and saw Sakuya had her right hand outstretched, her steely eyes locked at the three floating girls. I turned to them and saw that she had hit the one in pink dead center of the back of her left hand which she was now clutching.

“Sa..ku..ya?” I managed to say out to her. I didn’t even look at me and just pulled out a few more knives from who knows where and charged at the three girls.

“You’ll pay for that!” The one on pink declared before separating from the other two and making a beeline towards Sakuya.

“Merilin! Get back in formation! We can finish her off with the Concerto!” The one in black yelled out but was ignored by the one in pink who lifted up her trumpet and sent a blast of energy at Sakuya who jumped away at the last moment. Her scarf got singed but she was otherwise unharmed. She proved it by throwing handfuls of knives, one wave after the other, so quickly that some of the knives were actually bouncing from others and changing directions. The one in pink got hit several times by the knives but wasn’t bleeding at all.

“Merlin!” The one in black called out to the one in pink and she zoomed towards Sakuya along with the one in red, their laser link was still in effect.

“I…have…to…help…” I said as I reached into my pocket and pulled out the booklet. I opened it and it went to Reimu’s attacks. I pulled out a card with my trembling hand and put the booklet back in my pocket. I forced myself to stand up, barely being able to do so, and pulled at the handles which felt like they were several times heavier than they usually are. I eventually managed to get it open so I put the card in the slot.

ATTACK RIDE!

I took a labored breath and pushed the handles together.

YOUKAI BUSTER!

The belt declared as I saw both my arms glow and they started to rise by themselves and made my palms point at the two girls headed for the third one. My palms glowed bright before several talismans shot out like machine gun fire at the girl in red and the girl in black. They stopped in their tracks when they saw my barrage and sent their own attacks at me. Several shards of black and red came from their hands and the laser between them and managed to take out a lot of my talismans but some managed to hit home and their like was severed because of it. Bad news was that some of those shards managed to hit me as well and flew back from the impact and landed on my back. My vision darkened before I blacked out.

…

“What are those fools doing?!” The woman with green hair said while biting the nail of her right thumb.

“Enough!” She declared before raising her left hand, the same magic circle appearing from it. In the distance, the clash between Sakuya and the Prismrivers was sudden stopped because of another screen of swirling grey that passed over the combatants. Sakuya covered her eyes again until it ended and found that the Prismrivers were gone. She ran to Tama’s unconscious form that had already transformed back to normal, the belt and buckle were gone and she was back to wearing that Kunoichi outfit.

“Hakurei…you will be destroyed…this I swear!” The green haired woman said before she too disappeared when a screen of swirling gray passed over her.

…

I regained consciousness after who knows how long. I slowly opened my eyes and saw that there was a ceiling. I tried to move my body and got greeted by pain, which was good since that meant that I was still alive. I realized that I was lying on a ragged sack cloth mat and tried to pull myself up, barely being able to sit up.

“Don’t force yourself…you are still injured.” Sakuya’s voice echoed in the room. I looked in the direction of the source and saw her standing there with a bowl in hand.

“Saku—sorry!” I covered my mouth with my right hand when I realized I was going to call her Sakuya again.

I HAVE NO NAME!

I was so caught up in remembering that scene that I had forgotten that I had already changed back from Reimu.

Oh jeez…How am I going to explain this? I thought as Sakuya sat down cross-legged beside me with a bowl of what I think was stew or something. Sakuya stirred the contents of the bowl for a bit before looking back up at me, making be flinch.

“Are you okay now?” She asked me. I just nodded in confusion.

“Good…now, open wide.” She said before taking a spoonful of the stew and guiding it to my mouth. I had second thoughts about eating something from a world with almost no sources of ingredients when I remembered that I hadn’t eaten anything since the start of this whole mess back in my world. I gulped and opened my mouth to take in the stew and…it wasn’t that bad. Sure it was pretty strong but edible nonetheless.

Sakuya fed me slowly, allowing me to go by my own pace, the stew seemingly rejuvenating me like a strange elixir. She put the bowl down after I had finished the whole thing and looked at me with a serious expression.

“Why are you here? You claim that you are not here to destroy the world but you are not from this world either…and your power…” She said as her eyes dropped in the last part.

“Yeah…I kinda just got thrown into this mess myself…You see…” I started to explain the events leading up to my arrival here, making sure to leave out the parts about other Gensokyos existing, the worlds going boom if I fail, and Akyu’s scroll.

“…I see…you came here to end the red mist in the sky?” Sakuya asked, her eyes widening.

“Well…that seemed to be the most obvious thing for me to do here since there isn’t much else…where are we anyway?” I asked as I checked our surroundings again. I had thought that she had brought me back to the old house that I went to when I first got here but this place seemed to be more eastern in construction than that house.

“This is an ancient abandoned shrine…I think it had the same name as the person you turn into.” She said as if trying to remember something that was told to her a long time ago.

“Wait…do you mean the Hakurei Shrine?!” I asked with a start. My previous pain and fatigue replaced with a sudden shot of adrenaline.

“Yes…when I had first come across this place a few years ago, not long after the mist started, it was already broken down and abandoned. It seemed that the bloodline had already ended long ago.” Sakuya explained.

So that is why Hakurei Reimu didn’t exist in this world…she wasn’t even born. Is it the same for the other worlds? I thought before looking back up at Sakuya.

“Those people who were with you…are they…” I didn’t have the heart to finish the question. Sakuya stared at the floor and nodded.

“There are very few humans and Youkai left in this realm that isn’t dead or infected by the mushrooms…most of which have sought refuge here.” Sakuya said while balling her hands into fists.

“About those…how did those mushrooms even exist?” I asked because there was never any mention about them in my Uncle’s game or the scroll. Sakuya shook her head in response.

“I do not know…they started showing up a few months ago for some reason. At first, people thought it was nature just being nature and finding a way to survive even here but…well, you know…” She said with a sad smile.

“I see…we have to stop it…” I suddenly said. Even I was surprised at the sudden declaration but even I could tell that there wouldn’t be anyone left to save if this went on any longer. Sakuya gave me a serious look like I didn’t know what I was talking about…she was part right.

“You must be joking…we don’t even know where the mist came from! It just…happened!” Sakuya said in frustration and despair. I shook my head and gave her a determined smile.

“I do…come with me…” I said before standing up, with great effort at first and Sakuya had to help me up.

“Thanks Sakuy--” I stopped my words cold. I looked at her and she was looking at me, confused.

“Why do you keep referring to me as Sakuya?” she finally asked me.

“Umm…well…You see…you…remind me of someone…yeah! She was pretty good with knives and had silver hair too!” I said, not really making it up since I was referring to the Sakuya from Uncle’s games.

“I see…and I remind you of her?” Sakuya asked me again.

“Yeah…you two are more alike than you might expect. Anyway, let’s go outside…I’ll show you the place where we can end this whole thing.” I said, mainly to avoid any further questions. Sakuya nodded and led me outside.

I saw that the place I was in was one of the side buildings of the shrine. Crude encampments were set up everywhere with several people and Youkai alike who looked like that had all but given up on this world. It was depressing to say the least. Sakuya led me to the entrance of the shrine and I saw that it had a bird’s eye view of nearly the whole of Gensokyo which was why I quickly spotted what I was looking for…the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

“There! That mansion is where the mist came from and where we can end it.” I pointed at the solitary island in the middle of the lake. There was an ominous looking castle on the island which was the home of the Scarlet Devil herself…and one of the erased cards I had…Remilia Scarlet.

“That place…I have sent scouts there before but none returned. I’ve since designated that place as a restricted area. So the cause of all this was there all along?” Sakuya double checked.

“Yes. Positive…and we have to stop this mist before there isn’t anyone left to save anymore.” I looked back at the shrine where the people and Youkai were as did Sakuya. We both looked at each other and nodded.

“So be it…we end this…” She said in a grim voice before walking back into the shrine.

“Where are you going? The mansion is that way!” I called out to her. She stopped and looked back.

“I need to make preparations for the shrine’s defense. Blindly traveling there is stupid and could cost us our lives and the lives of everyone here.” Sakuya said before walking off.

Ouch… I thought as that statement hit me dead center.

I just sat at the shrine steps waiting for Sakuya to come back and trying to review everything that happened so far. Rumia has already been defeated and Sakuya isn’t an enemy.

“That leaves Cirno, Meiling, Patchouli, and Remilia…” I said as I ran through the boss list I read before…I then thought of the Prismrivers. They weren’t part of this world as far as I could tell since beings of their power should have been mentioned in the scroll.

“Are you ready?” I suddenly stood up in surprise at Sakuya’s question. I turned to her with a stupid grin.

“Are you alright? We can leave later you you’re still feeling bad.” Sakuya asked me.

“No! No! I’m fine! Let’s go!” I said pumping a fist in the air. Sakuya just looked at me like I was a weirdo and I was getting looks from the residents of the shrine as well. I rubbed the back of my head in embarrassment.

…

It was a long walk…a really long walk from the shrine to the edge of the lake but nothing attacked us on the way in fact, we didn’t encounter ANYTHING on the way…not really sure how I should feel about that. I nervously looked around since it was high time that Cirno attack us but nothing happened. We circled the lake and found a land bridge that connected the forest to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. Again, there wasn’t anything around so Sakuya and I walked across the land bridge.

“Be careful…we are vulnerable to and ambush here.” Sakuya cautioned me as we continued on; I swallowed and nodded at the warning even though we had yet to encounter anything on the way. After a while, we managed to get to the island and got a good long look at the mansion from the outside. It was huge and pretty much fit the description of Bad Guy Lair with the whole medieval castle thing.

“Wow…it’s a lot bigger up close…” I commented, Sakuya simply narrowed her eyes at the sight.

“I can sense and immense evil aura from this place…I can’t believe that I hadn’t noticed it before!” Sakuya said in frustration.

“Well…what’s important right now is to stop the one responsible for all this once and for all.” I said, changing the subject and making sure Sakuya didn’t blame herself for this. She merely grunted in response but then her eyes went wide and she shoved me to the side, just in time before an explosion occurred where we were standing. Sakuya and I were flung in the air away from each other a short distance.

“What the hell was that?!” I said as I stood up, a bit shaky from the impact. I looked at epicenter of the explosion and saw the cause when the dust settled. She had bright red eyes and matching long, scarlet hair that looked more like a mane that extended to her back than regular hair. She was wearing a black dress resembling traditional Chinese clothing but was made of hard leather.

Hong…Meiling…? I thought as I gulped and backed away. Just where did she come from?

“Haaaaaaaaaah….” Meiling breathed out slowly as she balled her hands into fists, tensing up.

“Prepare to defend yourself!” Sakuya yelled out to me and I immediately summoned the buckle and belt and prepared to transform. I saw Meiling turn to Sakuya and crouch, preparing to attack. Sakuya pulled out her knives and went in her own stance. I put the buckle on, opened the booklet, pulled on the handles, put Reimu’s card in, and…

TOUHOU RIDE!

The belt said just as Meiling lunged at Sakuya and threw a punch that the silver haired girl barely managed to dodge. The two began their duel as I quickly pushed the handles back together to help Sakuya.

HAKUREI REIMU!

I went through my transformation sequence and fired needles at Meiling who was relentlessly trying to crush Sakuya with brute force. My attack hits home but all I managed to do was to get Meiling’s attention and she quickly changed her target to me.

“Uh-oh…” I said as the black Meiling charged at me. I knew that I was nowhere near as mobile as Sakuya was so I took out my gohei and swung at Meiling who simply blocked my strike with her left forearm. The gohei crackled in contact with the Meiling’s arm but the black gate guard simply growled at me and shoved the gohei away, nearly breaking my shoulder in the process and prepared to punch me with her other hand.

“Tama!” I heard Sakuya cry out as I saw Meiling stop momentarily as several of Sakuya’s knives embedded at the guard’s back.

“Ghaaaaaaaah!” Meiling roared as she turned her attention back to Sakuya. It seemed that she was only interested in fighting whoever tries to attack her. I took advantage of the distraction and took out my booklet and it turned to the attack cards. I considered using the Final Attack but decided against it, I might need it even more later on. I took out a regular attack card and put the booklet back in my pocket.

“Dammit!” I heard Sakuya curse. I looked at the battle and saw that Sakuya tried to jump away from Meiling but her leg was caught be the black guard and she was slammed to the ground with great force.

“Sakuyaaa!” I screamed before pulling at the handles and putting the attack card in.

ATTACK RIDE!

“You’ll pay for that!” I yelled at Meiling who was already turning to face me as I pushed the handles together. I wasn’t afraid anymore…no…I was MAD!

THOUSANDFOLD FIST!

The belt declared as my whole body glowed white while my hands glowed yellow. I felt something forming around my hands and I saw that they were…Torii Gates?! They were! In each of my hands there was a small red Torii gate like the ones at the entrance to a Shinto shrine. The topmost rail, the kasagi, was covering my knuckles while railing below it, the nuki, served as a grip that my hands held. The columns for the Toriis extended from the rails to the side of my hands. It was like a having Torii boxing gloves. The light around me dissipated just in time for me to see Meiling charge. I braced myself, gripping the nuki handles as tight as possible. The black guard jumped up and prepared to make a diving punch as she dropped towards me. I pulled back my right fist and prepared to counter her.

“Now!” I heard Sakuya yell out in the distance and I put all my strength into my punch, hitting Meiling’s fist. The ground around us shook as we clashed. My Torii fist crackled with energy as it struggled to overpower Meiling’s attack.

“I! WON’T! LOSE!” I yelled out as I pushed my fist into Meiling’s. A yinyang symbol formed at the end of the kasagi and I felt more power surge into me so I decided to turn the tables on Meiling.

“Yaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!” I cried out as I pushed my fist into hers one more time, finally overpowering her and sending her flying to the wall and making a pretty decent crater. The Torii fists disappeared afterwards, ending the attack ride and I dropped down to the ground and sat there while taking deep breaths. Sakuya walked up to me with a smile but I saw that she was favoring her other leg, seemed that the one that Meiling grabbed had been hurt.

“I think I beat her…” I said softly…and prematurely as I heard movement from the rubble that was the wall where I sent Meiling flying.

“No way…” I said in dread as I saw Meiling stand up and stare at us like nothing happened.

“Get inside the mansion…I’ll take care of her.” Sakuya said before taking our some knives.

“No way! We can’t even beat her together! How can you defeat her alone?!” I reasoned. Sakuya looked back to me and smiled.

“You are here to end the mist…I believe that now…and I will do everything I can to make sure you get that chance to!” Sakuya declared before throwing some knives at Meiling and charging.

“Dammit!” I yelled before getting up and running past the gate and into the mansion grounds.

Please don’t die Sakuya!
…

I entered the mansion and saw that the inside looked even creepier than the outside. There wasn’t any lighting and the red glow coming from the outside wasn’t helping either. It felt like I was in some sort of horror videogame or something that I expected something to suddenly appear and—

“Gah!” I suddenly felt like I got hit by a hammer on my left shoulder. I held my injury and looked for the cause of it. I saw something move in the darkness of the hallway to my left.

“Why you!” I didn’t give whatever hurt me another chance to as I held out my right hand and fired some needles into the hallway. I heard them impact something soft then I heard something drop to the ground like a slab of meat. I walked up to it and saw that it was a fairy…a freakishly ugly one. It was naked and it’s skin was black, the wings looked all brown and moldy and the green blood coming out of the impact points of my needles didn’t help any either.

“Eww…” I said in a natural reaction to seeing something like that. I looked up into the hallway where the fairy came from and saw nothing in the pitch black corridor. I then heard something hissing from within the blackness…that was when I saw about a hundred pairs of small eyes open up in a red glow.

“Oh shi--!” I said before making a run for it as a wave of infected fairies poured out of the hallway and came flying at me. I ran further into the mansion, not really sure where I was going and really didn’t care as long as it was away from those…things! I rounded a corner and saw that one of the doors in the hallway was slightly ajar. I went inside and closed the door, making sure to lock it…whatever good that might do. I heard the swarm fly past…then, nothing. I slumped down and sat against the door and took at look at my surroundings, I was awestruck at what I saw.

“A library…?” I said out loud at the sight of rows and rows of bookcases. I found that I was on the second level of the library and there were even more books in the lower level. I stood up and saw that the lower level of the library looked like a battlefield.

Wait…Patchouli Knowledge should be here…I thought, recalling the boss entries in Akyu’s scroll. I looked at the damage and saw that there were straight blast and burn marks of the floor, walls and bookshelves…like laser fire. A lot of the books were burned and bookcases were toppled over and there were scattered pages everywhere. Whoever did this managed to take out Patchouli before I could. I looked around and saw another door at the end of the walkway I was on.

“Better than staying here I guess…” I convinced myself before walking to the door and checking the knob, it was open so I went in and found…another hallway, how original. I then noticed that this one didn’t have other doors but led straight to something. What that something was is still unknown but…

“There’s one way to find out….” I steeled myself before walking to wherever the corridor led me.

…

After a while, the corridor finally ended with a single door. I tried to get it open but it was locked. I looked around and didn’t find any keys or any alternate route, going back was sure not an option with those fairy things lurking the main halls. I looked at the door once again before slamming my hand on my forehead.

“What am I doing?!” I complained to myself before holding my palm out to the doorknob and firing some needles at it, effectively destroying the lock. The door slowly swung open and I went inside. I saw that I was in a huge room with nothing but another door to the side, the large windows gave some light…red eerie glowing light but light nonetheless. I then noticed that there was a chair on the other side of the room, it was against the wall and facing the door on the other end. But that wasn’t the problem; the problem was that there was someone sitting on that chair…someone I recognize pretty well from my dream.

“Remilia…Scarlet…” I said when I saw her. She was staring blankly at the door on the other end and didn’t seem to mind me at all.

“Umm…Hello?” I knew I shouldn’t have called out but I couldn’t help it either…Remilia was supposed to be an arrogant, cunning, and powerful vampire…the girl I saw sitting on the chair looked nothing like that. I swallowed and approached the Scarlet Devil making sure to be ready to pull out my gohei or fire some needles at her if she suddenly attacks.

“I…have a sister you know…” Remilia suddenly said which made me summon my gohei and hold it in front of me.

Wait…sister?! I was surprised at the revelation since I haven’t read anything about a sister in the boss entries and Remilia was supposed to be the final boss.

“…she is like me…a vampire…she is like me but…she…is sick…” Remilia said while still staring at the door across her, not even looking in my direction even once.

“…she could not control her power…her hunger…and her anger…” Remilia continued on with her explanation. I lowered my gohei since she seemed intent on telling me about her sister.

“…one day…someone told me that I could help her…cure her…if I was somehow able to remove her immense power from her…” Remilia said with a sad smile.

“…I was so happy…I immediately had my magician research a way to do that…and we found it…” Remilia suddenly frowned again.

“…but she wasn’t cured…so we extracted more power from her…more and more…but we found that we had nothing to contain all of that power so…we let it outside…” Remilia said while looking at the window.

The mist?! I suddenly realized. The mist was Remilia’s sister’s power?! Then it all came together. The reason why anything that ate the mushrooms that grew because of the mist went insane…they were ingesting a vampire’s power and rage…if Remilia’s story was correct.

“…it came to a point that we couldn’t extract anymore power from her…but she was still out of control…so we decided to lock her up and wait for her to calm down…” Remilia said before looking back at the door.

“…we waited…and waited…and waited…and I still wait…for the day that I can embrace my beloved sister again…” Remilia said as she reached out to the door with her arms, I could see that she was crying. I grit my teeth at her words. They got it wrong again! Remilia wasn’t just trying to take a walk outside! She wanted to be able to be with her sister without having to fight her!

“…dammit…” I uttered under my breath. I came in, sure as hell that beating Remilia will end this, then I get blindsided by the real reason for the mist.

“Hey…” I started to say when I suddenly saw a figure from outside the window, it was just a shadow bit I could clearly see the red eyes from it. It came in through the window with a crash. I gasped when I realized who it was, Remilia was still crying and reaching out to the door.

“Sa-Sa-Saku--” I started to say when Sakuya suddenly dashed to the chair where Remilia was and kicked the vampire at the back of the head, sending the smaller girl flying towards the ground. She then slowly turned to me and I covered my mouth with my hands when I saw her. Her scarf was gone, her Kunoichi outfit was battered and torn, blood was on her arms and face. Whether that was her blood, Meiling’s, or a combination of both…I wasn’t sure. What I was sure of though was that her eyes were red…not like the red of Meiling’s eyes or the fairies’ but like her eye color really changed to red.

“What happened to you?” I asked her but she gave no response and just stared at me. I then heard Remilia starting to get back up I turned to her but as soon as I did Sakuya was already there and gave Remilia a swift kick in the side.

“Stop it!” I yelled out to her. She obviously wasn’t acting normally anymore and I had to stop her. I pulled out my gohei and prepared to attack.

“Don’t make me do this Sakuya!” I yelled to her again, trying to get through to her but she answered my plea by stomping on Remilia’s prone form.

“Stop it!” I yelled as I ran at her and swung my gohei at her, I hit nothing. Sakuya casually leaned back and avoided my strike by a centimeter. I tried to hit her again but I still hit nothing but air. It was insane! She’s even faster than before! I looked around but I could find her, then I noticed something behind me and I whirled around and moved to strike with my gohei but Sakuya managed to intercept me and grabbed my wrist. This was the second time I was this close to her, and this time I was looking into red instead of blue.

“Why do you stop me?” The blood covered Sakuya asked.

“Why?! Because you’re gonna kill her!” I yelled out to her while trying to pull away but she held be fast as I continued to try get out of her grip.

“Isn’t that why you are here? To kill the Scarlet Devil and end the mist…” Sakuya said in her old neutral tone while tilting her head to the side. I stopped my struggling and looked down.

“I did…but…I was wrong about her…about everything…she didn’t cause the mist because of something selfish…she did it to help her sister!” I said to Sakuya, tears forming in my eyes now while I looked back at Remilia who slowly got up and turned to us.

“…what I did…I regret…” Remilia said, Sakuya narrowed her eyes at her.

“Regret will not make up for the death you and your blood have caused…” Sakuya rebuked in her neutral tone, still holding my wrist.

“I will repent…and pay for my sins…but…” Remilia turned to the door…

“…only when she is cured…” Remilia finished and looked back her eyes glowed red with determination.

“Sakuya! Please! You have to listen to me!” I called out, Sakuya looking at me in response.

“I’m here to stop the mist…I’m sure of that now…but not by killing Remilia…we can stop it by saving her sister…” I pleaded to Sakuya while looking back at Remilia who was staring at me in disbelief.

“How?” Sakuya asked me. It was a simple question but I didn’t know how we could save Remilia’s sister either.

“I…don’t know…but we have to figure it out together!” I said, my determination not wavering. Sakuya looked at me unconvinced, then back at Remilia. She let go of my wrist and pulled out a single knife…making me thing that this might be her last one.

“I will kill her…then her sister…to end the suffering in this world…” Sakuya said while preparing to attack.

“I will not allow you to kill me…or my sister…human…” Remilia said as she flexed her wings and prepared to attack as well. I was looking back and forth at them, not sure which side, if any, I should pick. I then noticed something strange with the door.

“Hey…the door is glowing…” I said while pointing at the door. Remilia suddenly turned to the door and started to back away.

“No…this cannot be….PATCHOULI! PATCHOULI!” Remilia suddenly started calling out to the hallway where I came from. I then remembered the scene at the library.

“She’s not at the library!” I said to Remilia.

“What? Why? She’s always at the library! PATCHOULI!” Remilia screamed out again.

“She’s not! When I got there it looked like a warzone! She must have already fought someone else and…” My voice trailed off as I had feared the worse.

“No…then there’ll be no one to contain her…” Remilia said as beads of sweat formed on her face.

“Contain? Wait…don’t tell me…” I started to say but I already knew what.

“…Flandre…” Remilia said before the door suddenly flew out of its hinges. Then there seemed like a giant vacuum coming from within the room where the door led to.

“What’s going on?!” I yelled out to Remilia as all three of us struggled to maintain our balance in the face of the ripping wind.

“She’s reclaiming her power!” Remilia replied when suddenly, the room became filled with the red mist and it all started flowing into the room that led to where Flanders was. It was like that for nearly half an hour then it all stopped. I was breathing heavily and my hair was a mess. I looked at Remilia and Sakuya and they were in just as bad a shape, then I looked at the window and saw…

“Moonlight…” I voiced out. The two of them looked at the window as well and gasped.

“The mist…it’s gone…” Remilia said.

“Then…is it over…?” Sakuya asked in her mono-tone. I then felt the ground rumble and a strong red glow came out of the dark room where all the mist went to. Then…something came out…

“Flandre?” Remilia asked the figure that walked out. It was in the shape of a young girl with wings that seemed to have crystals hanging from it but I really couldn’t tell because the entire thing was layered with a deep red swirling color, as if the mist combined and gave form. The figure then looked up at us; its face could not be seen because of the red swirling layer of mist that acted like a cover. Then it formed eyes and a mouth, smiled…and attacked.

She first went after the closest target, her sister. Remilia tried to block a punch from her but she was much too powerful and the Scarlet Devil was thrown back to the wall. Sakuya made her move and dashed at Flandre and swung her knife…which shattered on contact with the mist screen that layered Flandre’s body. Flandre took that chance and grabbed Sakuya by the neck and lifted her off the floor.

“Sakuya!” I yelled out at her and fired some needles at Flandre but, like Sakuya’s knife, shattered as soon as they made contact.

“This isn’t working!” I said before gripping my gohei and charging. I hit Flandre right in the face but even my gohei was destroyed as soon as it hit her. Flandre retaliated by jumping back and throwing Sakuya at me.

“Augh!” I grunted as both Sakuya and I got sent back to the wall where Remilia was.

“She’s…too…strong…” Sakuya said while trying to get back up. I got up after Sakuya and saw that Remilia was already standing and looking at her sister, who was twitching from all the power she had suddenly received, with a pained expression.

“It’s too late…nothing can stop her now…she will destroy everything…” Remilia said while giving a bitter chuckle. Sakuya walked up to her and grabbed her by the collar, Sakuya’s crimson eyes looking into Remilia’s scarlet ones.

“…so you will give up?!” Sakuya yelled at Remilia while glaring at her.

“…yes…as she is now…no single force can stop her…” Remilia said in a sad tone.

“If a single force won’t do it…then we just have to make more than a single force!” I yelled out to both of them, making them look at me with puzzled expressions.

“There are things in this world that you cannot do on your own…no matter how much you want to! That is when you must ask for help!” I said while looking at Remilia.

“If you cannot save your sister on your own…then ask for help…” I said to her with a soft smile.

“…help her…please…help my sister…” Remilia said with tears in her eyes. Sakuya saw Remilia and loosened her grip on the girl. I walked up to Sakuya and put my hand on her shoulder.

“Let’s help her sister then yeah?” I said and Sakuya simply nodded. I then felt something moving in my pocket and then three cards flew out. I held out my hand and all three cards settled there. They flashed for a moment before turning back to normal. I looked at the cards and saw that they were Remilia’s cards. There was her Touhou Ride, Final Attack Ride cards. The third one was new to me and I looked at it carefully.

Final Form Ride…I read in my mind.

“Sis…ter…” We all turned to the source of the voice.

“Flandre!” Remilia replied to her sister.

“He…lp…” Flandre barely managed to say. I looked at the cards again then back at Remilia.

“Remilia!” I called out and she turned to me. I gave her a confident smile.

“Let’s help her!” I declared before pulling at the handles of my buckle.

“Yes…Yes!” Remilia replied to me. I nodded and put the new card in the slot.

FINAL FORM RIDE!

The belt declared as I walked up to Remilia and pushed the handles together.

RE-RE-REMILIA!

“This might tickle a bit…” I said while walking up behind Remilia and touching her back.

“Wha--” Remilia was taken by surprise as she was suddenly covered in bright red light and she suddenly reformed into something that looked like a giant spear with a wide tip.

“Wow…” Sakuya said in awe due to the fact that I just turned a vampire into a spear made of red energy. I took out the other card that was like Reimu’s final attack ride but, instead of having a yinyang symbol; it had the outline of a bat with its wings spread out…which makes sense. I pulled at the handles again and put the card in.

FINAL ATTACK RIDE!

I quickly closed the handles after hearing that.

RE-RE-REMILIA!

The spear that was Remilia suddenly started glowing even brighter and came to my hand. I picked it up and aimed at Flandre.

“This…has all you sister’s love for you! Take it!” I yelled out before throwing the spear at Flandre. It hit home and the two energies clashed for a while, seemingly a match for each other until the red layer wrapped around Flandre started to crack.

“Damn! It needs more power!” Sakuya yelled out.

“Then let’s give it more power!” I replied as I took out my final attack card and opened up the handles one more time.

FINAL ATTACK RIDE!

I took a deep breath before pushing the handles back together.

RE-RE-REIMU!

I was on autopilot again as my body glowed and I crouched again, the six orbs of energy coming out of the ground as well. I jumped up and aimed my kick at the other end of the spear. The six orbs spiraled to my right foot and fused it with power and I hit the other end of the spear with the kick, driving the spear forward and finally shattering the red energy and revealed a naked Flandre underneath. A bright flash suddenly consumed the entire room.

…

Sakuya and I walked out of the Scarlet Devil Mansion together…just in time for sunrise. I had since turned back to my normal self and I smiled as soon as I felt the warming rays of the sun.

“Sakuya! Sakuya! Look!” I pointed at the sun like a little kid. Sakuya walked up to me and smiled, her eyes returning to their original blue color.

“Yes…it’s finally over…” She said before looking back at me.

“What are you going to do now?” I asked her. Sakuya looked at the sunlight reflecting on the surface of the lake and sighed.

“There is still much to do before our world recovers…” She said before looking back at the mansion. Flandre had been set free from the curse of her power but still as not woken up. Remilia wanted to sit beside her sister and be the very first one she sees when se woke up.

“She had waited for her sister for so long…but now…” I said, looking back at the mansion as well.

“Remilia Scarlet had spent years waiting…she can wait a little longer…” Sakuya replied.

“Thank you…” She said, facing me with a smile. The gesture made me blush as I wasn’t really used to something like that.

“Oh…uhh…no problem Sa--” I stopped when I remembered that her name wasn’t Sakuya in this world.

“…kuya…” She completed the name. I blinked a few times when she did that.

“…I…like that name…I will continue to use it from now on…” Sakuya said with a smile.

“Yeah…” I smiled back.

“This whole thing started because Remilia Scarlet did not ask others for help. No…it was more like she couldn’t ask anyone for help…I will watch over them to make sure that this never happens again, and to let them know that someone will always be there to help them.” Sakuya declared. I could see the resolve in her eyes.

“That’s good…” I then saw something glowing in my other pocket, Akyu’s scroll. I took it out and showed it to Sakuya.

“Does this mean that your journey is over?” Sakuya asked. I shook my head.

“My journey has just started…but I won’t give up!” I said in true determination.

“Make sure you don’t. I look forward to the day when we meet again Tama.” Sakuya said, knowing that it was time to say goodbye.

“Yeah…take care…Sakuya…” I said before opening up the scroll, the light blinding me again.

…

I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a cave…I guess. I looked around and saw that there were stained glass windows around and something that looked like an altar. I looked at my attire and saw that I was wearing a heavy leather coat and leather pants.

Where am I? I thought.

“You are in the temple of the earth spirits.” A voice called out from behind me. I turned and saw a girl with short, pink hair with a black hairband and dark pink eyes. She was wearing a blue shirt with yellow heart buttons and pink collar, she also a pink skirt with faint flowery pattern and red shoes.

Who is that? I thought again.

“I am Satori Komeiji…” The girl replied on cue, which made me blink a few times.

Can she read my mind or something?!

“Yes…I can read your mind…Aozaki Tama…” The girl said in a bored tone.

…

Chapter 5!

...

“Wha! You can read my mind?!” I said while covering up my forehead with my hands, which was really stupid when I think about it. Satori just tilted her head at the gesture, she probably thinks that it was stupid too.

“What are you doing with you hands Aozaki Tama? Is this some sort of greeting?” Satori asked me.

“What? Oh…no! It’s not! I was surprised that you can read my mind…hehehe. Oh! And Tama is just fine.” I said, putting my hands down. Satori nodded as if to acknowledge my suggestion.

“Very well Tama. Are you here in my sister’s behalf again? Perhaps to coax or threaten me to follow her to the surface world?” Satori said while spreading her arms out and spinning around slowly while standing on one leg like a ballerina doll.

Another sister problem? Wait…Surface World?! I thought as my mouth dropped at Satori’s words. The pink haired girl stopped spinning around and lowered her arms looking at me.

“You…are not from around here…are you?” Satori asked. Damn! I forgot she can read my mind! I started to back away slowly in case she decides to attack me.

“I will not harm you human. Especially now that I know that you are not under the influence of my sister. I shall prepare some tea. Please wait here.” Satori said while walking away to another room…or hole in the wall as the case seemed to be. I took a better look around after Satori left and found that I was in some kind of underground shrine…no…it actually looked more like the inside of a Christian church. There were rows of pews facing a very large stained glass window. The design on the window looked like a giant purple sphere with an eye in the middle and green vines with thorns wrapped around the sphere and spread out beyond it, as if keeping it prisoner. I sat down on one of the pews and took out Akyu’s scroll. I needed to know where I was and what I had to do there. I just hoped that the information will be accurate this time. I opened up the scroll and read the top entry.

Subterranean Animism…I guess that’s the world I’m in this time, which explains why it seems like I’m in a cave. I started to read what this whole thing was supposed to be about. It seemed that there was once a geyser that erupted from the Hakurei Shrine which turned out to be a breach from the realm of the Youkai of the Underground. Since there was an agreement that the Youkai of the surface and the Youkai of the underground should have nothing to do with each other, Hakurei Reimu and Kirisame Marisa were sent to investigate the cause of the geyser and the earthly spirits that came along with it.

“Those two really like doing this kind of thing huh?” I commented about the heroines’ activeness when it came to various incidents in their world and continued reading about the bosses. Like the previous world, there were six major enemies that Reimu and Marisa encountered. A spider Youkai named Yamame, an oddly jealous Youkai Parsee, an Oni named Yuugi…Satori?! I immediately looked at the direction where my host went to after reading about that.

“Satori’s an enemy? It doesn’t seem so…” I said to myself as I remembered the situation with Sakuya before. I read on and saw that there was also a cat named Orin who was left in charge of the Hell of Blazing Fires, and the final boss was a hell raven named Utsuho who had acquired the power of Nuclear Fusion.

“NUCLEAR FUSION?!” I yelled out after reading Utsuho’s entry, with good reason since I knew very well what nuclear power can do in the worse case. I began to wonder if the surface world may be suffering from a nuclear winter or just become an irradiated wasteland of nothingness and—

Wait! I can’t jump to conclusions like last time! I thought to myself. I wasn’t able to get any information about Flandre because I got caught up in Sakuya’s profile. No matter what the surface world was right now, I had to get more information about it. I continued reading past Utsuho’s entry and found that there was one more boss after her, an extra boss. Her name was Koishi Komeiji and is Satori’s sister. Apparently, she can control people’s hearts with her power while Satori can read people’s minds.

“So that was why Satori asked if I was under her sister’s control…” I swallowed at the thought of the possible ramifications of that kind of power. I closed the scroll and put it away and waited for Satori to return. If there were any differences form Uncle’s game and the scroll’s story to this world I might as well learn about it from one of the residents.

Satori came back after a few more minutes with a tray, two cups and a tea kettle on it. She motioned to me to join her at the front pews and I stood to walk there. I sat with Satori on one of the pews with the tea set between us. She poured the tea into a cup, which seemed to be regular green tea from the looks of it, and offered it to me.

“I apologize if this was all I could arrange. I’m not exactly used to having guests…especially recently.” Satori said as I took the cup from her and she started to pour some tea for herself. I blew on the steam coming out of the tea and took a sip. It was green tea, a nice gentle blend as well.

“Not a problem. I should be the one apologizing to you, suddenly appearing out of nowhere like that. You’re probably wondering why I’m here right?” I said before taking other sip of the tea. I looked at her for a response but she just sat there with her eyes closed while drinking her tea.

“Umm…Satori?” I leaned closer after the lack of response from the girl. She stopped drinking her tea, opened her eyes and looked straight at me.

“You come from a world where our realm of Gensokyo is nothing more than the musings of a drunken man, your uncle, and is treated as fiction. For some unexplained reason, your world is in the verge of collapse and you attained the power to transform into notable Gensokyo residents and use their abilities. You then found out that the cause is that nine different Gensokyos have appeared and threatened to destroy each other because their balance had gone awry. You had to take it upon yourself to save you own world by saving the nine Gensokyos in the process. And this…is your second Gensokyo.” Satori said before turning back to her tea and taking another sip.

“You read my mind didn’t you?” I deadpanned, Satori merely nodded in response.

“That’s pretty rude you know…” I mumbled while taking another sip of my tea and looking at the large stained glass window in front of us.

“I apologize…I sometimes do that unconsciously as if the person whose mind I am reading was talking to me. And your thoughts were actually almost shouting at me so I had no real choice either.” Satori reasoned, I merely sighed since an argument won’t solve anything.

“So…why are you alone here? Where is everyone else? Don’t you have a cat and a raven?” I asked Satori for the odd lack of…anyone in the supposed temple of the earth spirits.

“Do you not know? I thought you already had pre-determined knowledge of the world that you enter?” Satori asked me, probably not bothering to read my mind anymore.

“Yeah…about that, I do get information about the world I’m in and the denizens but the last world I was in had very little to do with the information provided to me and I don’t really want to go through this whole thing blind, deaf, and dumb again.” I admitted as I recalled the many times I was almost killed in the world of the Scarlet Devil. Satori stared at me for a few moments, probably wondering what I meant before nodding.

“Fair enough. You probably already know that I have a sister as well as my two pets correct?” She asked me.

“Yeah…her name is Koishi and she can control people’s hearts right?” I replied, and Satori nodded in acknowledgement.

“Yes. Koishi’s ability to do that stemmed from her refusal to use her natural power to read people’s mind because of fear that others would reject her…as they did me.” Satori explained in a melancholic tone.

“She closed her third eye…” Satori pointed to the small purple badge on her shirt that looked like the purple sphere on the stained glass window, including the eye.

“…which in turn, closed her heart. At first, I did not realize the full effects of that because she always seemed so cheerful. Little did I know that this was just her front…she could no longer feel any kind of emotion because her heart can no longer feel anything. Not joy, not sadness, not love, not hate…nothing…” Satori continued. I mentally sighed at another ‘sister causing another sister grief’ kind of problem.

“…this also unlocked a more potent power from within her, the power to control hearts. She could not feel any emotion so she tried to observe what those emotions would do to others by making them feel the emotion she wanted them to. That was when the real problem started…” Satori said with a sigh. She turned to me and saw that I had already finished my cup of tea and offered to refill it. I liked the tea so I obliged.

“…she grew fond of making others feel the emotion called love…so much so that she wanted to feel it herself, which was naturally impossible for her in her state…” Satori said before giving me the fresh cup of tea.

“She then manipulated everyone’s hearts to love only her…but it was no good as she cannot feel the love others were giving to her. She then decided that it was because there weren’t enough people who loved her and decided to go to the surface to make more love her…” Satori said while looking up to the stained glass window.

“…I tried to convince her to do otherwise and to release the hold she had on the hearts of the Youkai here…Orin also tried to convince her but Koishi simply took control of her heart by force and made her see things her way.” Satori said as she gripped her cup tighter with her hands.

“…This angered me so I decided to stay here alone…a self-imposed exile you could say. Naturally, Koishi tried to control my heart as well just like the others but she could not. It would seem that I am immune to her powers for some reason. So, she left with everyone to the surface world…She sends Youkai here every now and then to try to convince me to go to the surface world but I’ve always turned them down. I do not wish to see my sister in the state she is in.” Satori said in a bitter tone. I then realized that this world is different from the one described in the scroll and Uncle’s game. It made me think that this kind of thing would probably keep on going for the rest of the worlds I’ll be in as well.

“Wait…you said that Koishi forced control over Orin’s heart to follow her right? What about Utsuho?” I asked as I didn’t hear anything about the hell raven in Satori’s story.

“Okuu stayed alongside Koishi of her own volition. My sister needn’t use her power to control Okuu’s heart as it was with my sister’s from the very beginning. She had always been fond of my sister.” Satori said, smiling at the last part.

“Well…at least I know where I need to go now…” I said before chugging the last of the tea and standing up.

“What do you mean?” Satori asked, I turned to her with a smile.

“I have to get to the surface and see what I can do about your sister. That’s probably what I need to do in this world.” I said to Satori who put down her cup of tea to stand up as well.

“So…you are here to help afterall…” Satori said, returning my smile.

“Yep…I can’t really think of anything else to do anyway so…yeah…” I said while rubbing the back of my neck. I then looked around and realized that I didn’t even know HOW to get to the surface world from here.

“You are wondering how you can get to the surface correct?” Satori asked me before walking past me and across the rows of pews there.

“Lemme guess…you read my mind again huh?” I said in a slightly annoyed tone before following her.

“No…I simply guessed since you have never been here before.” Satori confidently said as she walked into another hole in the wall, with me in tow this time.

Satori lead me through the corridors of the Temple of the Earth Spirits, which looked more like a cavern than a hallway thought, a stark difference from what the Scarlet Devil Mansion was like. We eventually ended up in the front of a door at the end of the cavern, Satori waited for me to catch up before opening the door. Inside was a small circular room with an elevated platform made of stone in the middle.

“Please…enter.” Satori said as she held the door open for me. I did as she asked and went in the room. That was when I noticed that there was an engraving on the surface of the stone platform, like a magic circle.

“What is this place?” I asked while walking around the small chamber, my eyes glued to the strangely familiar magic circle.

I know I’ve seen this somewhere before…I thought before the sound of the door closing snapped me from my thoughts.

“This is known as the Yasaka Road. It was created and named after a goddess that descended here long ago and bestowed the power of the three legged crow to Okuu. I do not know where the goddess went or what has become of her after she left though…” Satori explained.

Yasaka? I’ve heard that name before…darn…why can’t I remember?! I thought, my face reflecting my frustration. I then saw Satori looking at me curiously.

“I’m sorry…do you need to use the toilet before you depart?” Satori asked, I just dropped my jaw in response.

“What?! No!” I immediately said while raising my hands and shaking my head.

“Hmmm…very well…Please step up on the platform.” Satori instructed. I did as she asked and stepped onto the platform. Nothing seemed to be happening so I looked at Satori who had her eyes closed and seemed to be chanting something quietly.

“Sato--” I started to say before a bright light enveloped all around me and then my vision was completely taken by the light.

“Take care…” Satori’s fading voice said before I couldn’t hear anything more.

…

My vision returned slowly and I could hear birds chirping long before I recognized where I was. I saw patches of green and brown everywhere I turned. I blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes and I finally clearly saw where I was, a forest…somewhere.

“I guess I’m out of the underground huh?” I said no one in particular. I looked around to see if I’m in any place I could recognize considering I HAD been in a Gensokyo before but I was out of luck. This world is too different from the one I had just come from…in that it’s not nearly dead.

“Well…I guess I’d better start walking.” I said to myself before I started my journey in the same way I did the last time, walking aimlessly and wait for something to happen. I hadn’t walked very far when something DID happen. There was a shadow that flew over me from the sky. I looked up and saw that there was someone…something there. It doubled back and headed towards me. Looks like it spotted me as well, I prepared to summon my buckle and booklet in case that the one approaching was hostile. I got my answer when I recognized who it was…a sense of doom not far behind. It was someone I recognize from my dream, and someone that I had recently finished reading about.

Long raven-black hair, she was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with a red "eye" in the center, a short green skirt, and a green hair-ribbon. She also was wearing a cape that's white on the outside and a starry pattern on the inside; the cape is kept aloft by her black wings. Her right foot was encased in congealed matter. Her left foot was orbited by atoms. And most worrisome of all…On her right arm, she has a device known as the "Third Leg", which looks like a cannon and appears to regulate the power of the devices on her legs.

“Reiuji…Utsuho…” I softly muttered as the hell raven slowly descended in front of me. I swallowed at the sight of her. Utsuho touched down on the ground and was…smiling at me? I blinked a couple of times to make sure that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me.

“Hey there!” Utsuho greeted me while waving with her left hand, the one that’s NOT a cannon. I dumbly waved back, too caught up in the surreal experience of exchanging pleasantries with a final boss.

“Hi…” was all I could say. Utsuho gave me a large grin while starting to look around excitedly then back to me.

“So…how’d it go?” Utsuho asked her eyes like a child’s in anticipation of a present.

“Huh? What do you mean?” I asked back while shrugging, the heavy leather coat making it a bit difficult…I was starting to wonder why I even had this thing on. Utsuho stared at me for a few seconds before she started laughing. I was becoming a bit agitated so I slowly started to back away from her.

“Aww! C’mon! I saw the light from up there…” Utsuho said while pointing up to the sky where she came from.

“…it came from the Yasaka road and then I saw you walking away from that direction. And that only means that you came from the Temple of the Earth Spirits!” Utsuho declared, pointing to me with her left hand for emphasis seemingly proud of her deductive talent.

“…ummm…yeah…I guess you could say that…hehehe…” I replied sheepishly to the hell ravens words, Utsuho seemingly nodded approvingly.

“Good! So…will Miss Satori finally come up to the surface with us?” Utsuho asked excitedly.

“Huh?” I blurted out, the hell raven blinked at me a few times before straightening herself out.

“We’re only allowed to go to the Temple of the Earth Spirits if we want to try to convince Miss Satori to come to the surface…don’t you know that?” Utsuho said, her previously cheerful demeanor suddenly disappearing.

“Oh…that…really?” I dumbly said, feigning ignorance. The hell raven’s eyes narrowed at what I just said.

“Yes…Miss Koishi gave strict orders to EVERYONE about that so why didn’t you know?” Utsuho said while starting to walk towards me, I started to back away in response…bad move.

“You…you didn’t go to the Temple of the Earth Spirits to talk to Miss Satori…You probably went there to hurt her DIDN’T YOU!!!” The hell raven suddenly exploded in anger and pointed her arm cannon at me and opened fire. I immediately ducked behind a nearby tree and nearly missed getting fried by a red beam that came from Utsuho’s cannon.

“What the hell?! Facing the final boss right out of the gate?!” I complained as I summoned my buckle and booklet.

“Come out here and face me!!!” Utsuho yelled as she fired another beam at the tree I was hiding behind. I jumped away before the tree got reduced to nothing more than ash. I got up quickly and put the buckle on and pulled out Reimu’s card.

“You could really hurt someone with that you know!” I said while pulling at the handles of the buckle and putting Reimu’s card in.

TOUHOU RIDE!

I had to jump away from another of Utsuho’s attacks and I closed the handles while I rolled away and standing back up.

HAKUREI REIMU!

I got up, fully transformed, and returned fire with some of my needles. Utsuho saw this and immediately took to the air and aimed her cannon at me.

“Hey! That’s not fair!” I yelled at her while trying to hit her with my needles but ultimately unsuccessful as the nimble hell raven simply weaved around them while laughing at me.

“Fool! I have attained the Ultimate Power of Nuclear Fusion! Your silly attacks won’t harm me! Take this!” Utsuho yelled before sweeping her arm cannon across the air while still aimed at my general direction. I found out why as a large number of small blue orbs rained down at me I scrambled to get away but then I saw that right behind those orbs were larger red orbs…a lot larger…I mean FREAKING HUGE!

“Aaaaaahhhhh!” I screamed as the blue orbs impacted around me and one of the large red ones hit the ground near me and detonated, the resulting explosion making me sail through the air for a short while before hitting the trunk of a burnt tree and finally settling on the ground.

“Dammit…” I muttered in frustration. I was outclassed by her as long as she could fly.

Wait…fly? I thought as I suddenly remembered the world I had just come from. I forced myself back up and took out my booklet. I opened it and took out the only other Touhou Ride card I had. I looked the picture of Remilia Scarlet on the card and smiled.

“Looks like I’ll need your help this time Remilia.” I said in full awareness of the irony that came with the statement. I pulled at the handles again and inserted the card in the slot, the bat outline logo facing out.

TOUHOU RIDE!

“Let’s go…Remilia…” I said before closing the handles.

REMILIA SCARLET!

A flash of red light enveloped me and large scarlet bat wings came out of my back and enveloped me before opening up again to reveal the transformation’s completion. I looked at myself and saw that I had a light red poofy hat and dress, with bright red trimming as well as short light-blue hair, pair of black bat-like wings on my back. I also noticed that I had become smaller which was understandable considering what Remilia looked like and most importantly…

My first transformation other than Reimu that DOESN’T have huge breast! I exclaimed in my mind while touching my now SMALLER chest. After my self groping, I crouched down and prepared to face Utsuho on even ground…or sky I guess. I leaped up and spread my wings and saw that Utsuho was looking around for any sign of life but was unaware of my presence.

“Gothca!” I yelled as I flew right at her and swiped her Remilia’s sharp clawed hand. Utsuho managed to turn to me before I struck and got her arm cannon up just in time to block by attack. I didn’t let up though as I kept slashing at her, if I could keep that arm in check then I can wear her down.

“Dammit! Who are you?! Are you an ally of that other one?!” Utsuho shouted at me, not realizing that I had just transformed. I gave her a nasty grin that would make the Scarlet Devil proud…hey…that gives me an idea.

“Me? I’m the Scarlet Devil! You bird brain!” I yelled back at her before kicking her away from me. I quickly took out my booklet and pulled out an attack card. It was the same as the others but with Remilia’s bat logo on it instead of something else. I opened up the handles and put the card in.

ATTACK RIDE!

I started to fly toward her, gaining speed before closing the handles.

DEMON KING CRADLE!

The belt declared as scarlet energy radiated around me and I increased my speed even more as I extended my arms forward, clawed hands pointed at Utsuho, as I braced for the impact.

“Dammit! Scarlet Devil?! The hell is that?!” Utsuho complained as she tried to get her bearings back, just in time to see me bearing down at me like a missile.

“What? Wait! STOP!” The hell raven screamed before I hit her dead on, resulting in a large scarlet explosion in the sky. The energy from the attack ride dissipated and I looked around for where Utsuho was and saw her…still airborne.

“No…way. I hit her perfectly…” I said in disbelief at her sheer tenacity. Utsuho was smoldering and bleeding but she was still in one piece, conscious, and mad.

“You…will…pay…for…that…” Utsuho struggled to say before flying away, seemingly having enough with the battle. I sighed in relief before lowering to the ground, the transformation ending when I pulled at the handles one more time.

“Thank goodness that’s over…for now at least…” I muttered while looking up at the sky where Utsuho and I clashed and starting to walk away before anything else showed up.

…

I walked through the wilderness for a few hours and into the sunset. I managed to pick some apples while I was walking along and decided to take a seat to get some rest and eat.

“I think I’ve hiked more today than I have all month…” I arbitrarily thought before taking out an apple from the leather coat, turned sack, and took a bite from it. I was wearing a black shirt and suspenders under the coat so it wasn’t really that big of a deal. I went through my second apple when I suddenly heard scuffling from the leaves on the treetops. I looked up out of reflex and was met with a falling…bucket?

“Augh!” I grunted as the wooden container hit my face and start to float up again. I held my nose in pain, it didn’t seem broken but it still hurt. I looked at the bucket that was slowly bobbing up and down and floating away from me, that was when I saw that there was green hair sticking out from the top of it.

“HEY!” I yelled and the bucket seemed to shudder in fear. It turned around and did what you might describe as a bow, though I’m not sure what constitutes to a bow for a bucket.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” A voice said from the bucket before a face came out of the top of it. There was a little girl…in a bucket…that was floating…and I wasn’t creeped out or anything.

I must be getting used to these kinds of things… I thought in conclusion. I stood up and approached the girl in the bucket.

“Please don’t hurt me! I didn’t mean to land on you! Please…I…I…” The pleas for forgiveness were eventually garbled into sobs as I saw when I looked inside the bucket. I saw that she had pale skin with sea-greenish hair tied up in pigtails by white hair beads…she was wearing a simple white kimono or something, I couldn’t tell with how she was wrapping herself in the bucket. I sighed at the pitiful sight and rubbed her hair.

“I won’t hurt you…don’t worry…what’s your name?” I asked the girl who slowly looked up at me with teary eyes and a worried expression…it was really cute to be honest.

“Ki-Kisume…” She replied before sniffling and wiping her tears with her sleeves. I took a step back and waited for her to straighten herself out. The stuck her head out of the bucket and looked at me.

“You…you’re not here to hurt Kisume?” She asked. I nodded and took out an apple and handed it to her.

“Yeah…I won’t hurt Kisume.” I said while motioning to her that she can take the apple in my hand she slowly floated closer to me and took the apple with her tiny hands.

“Thank you…Kisume is hungry from all that running…” Kisume said before taking a bite out of the apple.

“Running? Why?” I asked her and as I on cue, a Youkai dropped down from the treetop behind me. I whirled around and saw that it looked like a werewolf…no, it looked more like a stray dog than a wolf.

“Yaaaah! It’s that bad Youkai that is trying to eat Kisume!” Kisume yelled out before retreating into her bucket and dropping to the ground, the bucket shaking in fear. I turned back to the Youkai who just snarled at me.

“Just like a wild dog huh?” I said before summoning and putting on my buckle. The Youkai pounced but it was nothing compared to what I’ve already faced and I managed to dodge the attack easily. I pulled out Reimu’s card and pulled at the handles before sliding the card in.

TOUHOU RIDE!

I ducked away from another pounce from the Youkai and stepped back to get in between it and Kisume. I stared straight at the Youkai before closing the handles.

HAKUREI REIMU!

I transformed and charged, gohei in hand. The dog Youkai charged as well but was too slow as I managed to weave past his claws which barely grazed my clothes and slashed with my gohei upwards, sending the Youkai flying back. I took out my final attack card and opened the handle before putting the card in.

FINAL ATTACK RIDE!

“This is for trying to eat Kisume!” I said before closing the handles.

RE-RE-REIMU!

I automatically crouched down as the six orbs of light appeared around me as usual. I jumped up just as the Youkai was starting to get up and I aimed my kick at it, the six orbs fusing with my right foot and delivering the killing blow to the Youkai with an explosion. I stood back up after the attack was done and turned back to Kisume who was still cowering in her bucket.

“Kisume!” I called out while I jogged towards her.

…

A short distance away the same green haired girl from the world of the Scarlet Devil was observing Tama’s actions. The girl growled at the sight of Tama and raised her hand, a green magic circle appearing from it again.

“Hakurei…this will be the end of your journey. Be erased!” She said as the magic circle glowed brighter.

…

“Are you alright?” I asked while poking at Kisume’s head in the bucket. She slowly looked up at me and blinked a few times.

“Who are you?” She asked, I then remembered that I’m still transformed as Reimu.

“It’s me! The one who gave you that apple…I just changed a bit to make that bad Youkai go away.” I explained to her like I would a toddler.

“Really?” Kisume asked with sparkling eyes. I nodded, I then saw that same curtain of gray swirling color come out of the ground and head towards me and Kisume. I immediately stood up and came between Kisume and the curtain.

“Watch out!” I yelled out to her before the curtain passed over me. I covered my eyes as a bright light blinded me. I opened my eyes and saw that I wasn’t in the forest anymore. No, I was in the middle…of a football pitch?!

“What?” I looked around to confirm where I was and to look for Kisume but she wasn’t there.

“Ayayayayayayaya!” A high pitched voice caught my attention. I looked up and there was a girl that was wearing a white blouse, a black short skirt, and a weird looking hat that looked like a tiny circus tent. She was also carrying a small fan in her right hand that looked like a maple leaf and I saw that she had black bird wings on her back.

“Not another bird…” I said while shrugging at the observation. She pointed her fan at me and grinned.

“Headline! Intrepid Tengu Reporter brings an end to Shine Maiden’s Journey!” She declared before swooping down to attack me. I held up my gohei to prepare to defend myself, at least it’ll be one-on-one this time.

…