Touhou Project 1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Gensokyo

It was around the time of sunrise, the time well known to be a symbol of beginnings. As it rose, the sun started pouring light across the land, much like an ocean wave moving across the sands of a beach. The light eventually reached Gensokyo, a mysterious and magical land where many incredible events took place, and where many powerful entities live, both human and beyond. Every time though, there was always one girl in the center of those events, one girl who made sure that Gensokyo got out of trouble unscathed. That girl was Reimu Hakurei. She along with some friends at times, ventured to incredible places from low to high and beyond, fighting overwhelming forces. Soon though, Reimu and all of Gensokyo will face a powerful threat that will pressure them like never before.

The sunlight eventually reached the Hakurei Shrine, where it slowly began to light up the room with the light of a new day. Reimu noticed the morning light shining through the fabric of the shades with the radiance of dawn, causing her to open her eyes. Reimu looked over at the bedroom to her right and then at the ceiling for a few minutes. Then she sat up and stretched, got out from under the covers of her bead, and walked over to her closet in front of her bed. There, she opened the closet, got out of her light blue pajamas and into her traditional red and white shrine maiden clothing. Then Reimu walked to the right of her closet and out of her room through the door.

Reimu thought to herself _'Ah, what a nice morning.'_

Reimu was looking around the living room, pleased to see it so clean after that unexpected party Suika decided to throw, with Reimu being an unexpected host along with her. Reimu was slightly irritated but also slightly grateful to Suika and all who attended since it did relieve some stress with her job with all the recent inactivity. After recalling yesterday's events, she noticed Suika asleep sitting up at the living room table with her head face down on the table.

Reimu became slightly irritated and said "Good morning, Suika."

Suika softly moaned before lifting up her head, looked at Reimu with her tired eyes and said "Oh hey, Reimu. How'd you sleep last night?"

Reimu answered "I slept fine, and I see that you slept at the living room table."

"Yeah, after helping you clean up, I decided to have some more sake before going to sleep. I guess I ended up sleeping here though. A bit uncomfortable at first, but I got used to it." Suika mentioned. She took her drinking gourd she carried around all the time in front of her with her right hand, shook it and said "At least I didn't waste any."

Reimu asked "Did you shower last night?"

Suika thought for a moment about the question before lifting up her left arm to smell her armpit and then replied "No, I didn't."

Reimu said "Ok then, no breakfast for you until you take a shower."

"Fair enough" Suika responded, and she walked over to the bathroom in the back area of the house.

After seeing Suika shut the door, Reimu looked at the table and noticed a spot that was darker than the rest of the brown wood table. Reimu touched it with her finger and it felt oily. She made an annoyed expression on her face upon discovering Suika's body oils from her head, so Reimu went to the left of the bathroom where the kitchen was and came back with a wet, soapy kitchen washcloth. Reimu picked Suika's gourd off the table with her left and wiped the table clean with her right hand. Then she walked up to the bathroom door and asked "Suika, would you like me to wash your drinking gourd?"

"Sure, go ahead, thanks." Suika replied from within the bathroom with the water of the shower running.

Reimu then went into the kitchen where she washed Suika's gourd and prepared some fried eggs, fried rice, and bacon to eat for breakfast.

When Reimu was done cooking, Suika was dressed and out of the shower and the two friends sat down at the living room table to eat.

Half an hour later, Suika got up and said "Thanks for the meal, Reimu. I think I'm going to go walk around the human village a bit."

"Suit yourself." Reimu responded.

Suika then walked over to the front sliding door, opened it and went outside. Reimu remembered that there was some sweeping to do in front of the shrine so she walked over to the closet to the left of the front entrance, took out a broom after opening it and went outside.

Reimu looked over at the donation box in front of the shrine, wondering if maybe she got a bountiful amount of donations. As usual though, there was very little money inside and Reimu let out a sigh at the sight. She shrugged it off though and began to sweep.

After ten minutes had passed, Reimu looked up into the sky and started thinking about the earlier times back when she used to go out on adventures and solve incidents from her first quest to the time she was dealing with Byakuren Hijiri. Three years had passed since then and nothing that big ever happened during that time, which was causing Reimu to feel rather restless. Reimu then focused on the present again, and was about to continue sweeping until she saw a familiar figure flying through the air.

The girl landed feet first on the ground and said "Hey Reimu."

"Hello Aya. What are you up to?" Reimu wondered.

Aya answered "Oh you know me, just trying to get scoops for articles. So, has anything interesting happened lately?"

"No, nothing as usual. You must be bored if you're trying to get a scoop here." Reimu said.

Aya replied "Ah ha ha, kind of. Hey Reimu, can I ask you for a favor?"

"Depends, what is it?" Reimu wondered.

"Can I take your picture? The more pictures of people and places I take, the better my chances of thinking up some articles." Aya mentioned.

"I don't know, I'm not in the mood to smile." Reimu said.

Aya said "I'll throw in a donation."

Reimu replied "Ok, you win."

Aya tossed a silver coin into the donation box and then took a picture of Reimu smiling.

"Thanks Reimu," Aya said "I gotta split now so I can take more pictures and whip up some articles. Catch ya later."

"Bye Aya." Reimu replied.

Aya waved her hand and then flew off in the direction of the village. As for Reimu, she just went back to sweeping.

Another ten minutes later, Reimu sensed someone flying towards the shrine while she was looking at the broom sweeping across the ground. Reimu looked up into the sky and saw a very well-known friend flying on her own broom. The girl landed right in front of Reimu and said "Hi Reimu."

Reimu said "Hi Marisa, how are you?"

"I'm ok; I'm just looking for things to do today after getting bored of studying magic earlier this morning. Once again, that was a nice party you held last night Reimu, and on such short notice."

Reimu added "Yeah I know, it was so quick I didn't know I was going to hold it."

Marisa laughed "Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Well look on the bright side, Reimu. At least you now have experience at quickly getting ready for parties."

Reimu said "I suppose, but that's easy for you to say."

"I know it, ze." Marisa replied with a grin.

Reimu made an annoyed glare at Marisa, but then both girls let out some good laughs.

Then Reimu asked "So what do you think your plans will be for the day?"

Marisa responded "Eh, I don't know. Maybe I'll go shopping at the village, borrow some books from Patchouli, visit Alice and then study more magic for the rest of the day."

Reimu said "You know, Marisa? One day I think Patchouli's really going to get back at you for taking her books."

"I guess I'll have to make precautions then." Marisa spoke. "So how about you, what are you going to do today?"

Reimu thought and answered "I don't know… Oh! I just remembered, I need to get some groceries after I'm done sweeping."

"I see, well I think I'm going to take off then." Marisa said, but just before she left, she noticed Reimu looking up into the sky. This caused her to ask "What's up, Reimu?"

Reimu looked back at Marisa and replied "Oh, I'm just thinking about how we used to go out on adventures. Now it seems like there isn't much for me to do anymore except for taking care of the shrine as usual. Don't get me wrong though, I'm fond of the peace we've had around Gensokyo, I just thought that I would have achieved something meaningful or at least be better off financially."

"Ah, well you did manage to make a lot more friends though, Reimu." Marisa mentioned.

Reimu responded "That's true, that was something nice to add to my life."

"Yeah, and just try to live in the moment and do your best, that's what keeps my spirits up." Marisa added.

Reimu said "I guess you have a point Marisa, thanks."

"No problem, ze." Marisa replied "Well I'm leaving now, have a nice day."

Reimu said "Thanks, you too."

Marisa got back on her broom and took off onto the sky. As for Reimu, she just went back to sweeping for the next thirty minutes.

After the half hour had passed, Reimu went back in her house, put the broom away, and flew off towards the village.

When Reimu arrived in front of the Human Village, she landed on the ground and decided to walk the rest of the way since she didn't want to make a scene. After ten minutes of walking, Reimu entered the village and began her errands. She walked through the streets and marketplaces, collecting the many items she needed to put in the kitchen back home. As Reimu walked, she looked at all of the villagers roaming around, seeing that the young and old were happy and prosperous. After seeing some children run past her, Reimu smiled at how peaceful the village had become, especially after seeing some youkai moving around, which the villagers had become more tolerant of. This caused Reimu to wonder if the residents would soon change the name of the village.

Reimu's walk eventually led to the heart of the village where surprisingly not many people were around. Then she saw Sakuya walking around, holding some grocery bags of her own.

Reimu greeted "Hi Sakuya."

Sakuya looked to her left, saw Reimu and replied "Oh, hello Reimu. How are you?"

"I'm doing fine, I've been going grocery shopping and I'm almost done. How are you?" Reimu replied back.

"I'm doing well, I would have to say I'm doing the same thing, and almost done as well." Sakuya answered.

Reimu said "Oh? I thought the mansion had its own ability to make food and was well stocked up."

Sakuya explained "We do, I'm just getting some special food that can only be found in the village, as well as some blood packs for the master and her sister."

Reimu responded "Wait, where do you get your blood?"

Sakuya answered "At the clinic. They're well paid. Master Remilia thinks it's best that she gets her blood in less disturbing ways for the sake of the peace with humans."

"Oh, that's nice." Reimu responded.

The two girls then heard someone approaching from the left side of town, so they looked in that direction and they saw Youmu carrying a huge, heavy bag on her back.

Youmu set the heavy bag down on the ground, let out a sigh of relief and said "Hi Reimu, Hi Sakuya, how are you?"

"I am well." Sakuya replied.

"I am too." Reimu added "So, shopping for Yuyuko I assume?"

Youmu responded "Yeah, quite the chore, and this is only half of it."

"Oh my! I had no idea Yuyuko was such an eater. And you still need more?" Sakuya said.

Youmu replied "Thankfully, no. I have some help today, and what I have on my back now is enough for a week so I thought I should buy twice as much food so that I wouldn't have to come here next week."

Reimu wondered "So who is helping you?"

Youmu looked behind her, as did Reimu and Sakuya and they Komachi coming towards them from out of a crowd of people, carrying a bag of groceries that was much like Youmu's. After she put the big, heavy bag down on the ground, Komachi said "Phew, hey Youmu, why did we stop? Oh, hi Reimu, Hi Sakuya."

"Hello Komachi." Sakuya replied.

"Hi." Reimu added. Then she turned to Youmu and asked "How did you get Komachi to help you?"

Youmu explained "A few days ago, Komachi was trying to avoid work and she ended up sneaking into Hakugyukurou Manor. After doing some things under our noses, Shikieiki came over to the manor when she figured out that's where Komachi was and flushed her out of hiding. Shikieiki gave a lecture to Komachi and then decided as punishment, Komachi would do chores at the manor for three days, after Shikieiki got permission from Yuyuko."

Sakuya wondered "But what about Komachi's job of guiding the souls of the dead?"

Youmu answered "Shikieiki said that she would take care of it."

Komachi said "I miss my old job; there was so much to do back at the manor."

Sakuya said "Neglecting work only makes it grow, and besides Komachi, work can be quite nice if you look at it the right way."

"I've been doing work longer than you and I don't know what you're talking about." Komachi responded.

Sakuya assured "If you think about it enough, you'll figure it out."

Reimu added "Yeah, just look on the bright side, Komachi."

"The only thing I can think about my work right now is how surprisingly heavy it is." Komachi mentioned.

Reimu said "Yuyuko eats a lot, doesn't she?"

"That's almost an understatement." Youmu replied "Well I think we should be going back home."

"Great, let's get this over with." Komachi mentioned.

Reimu said "Bye Youmu, bye Komachi, have a nice day."

Komachi smiled and replied "I'll try thanks."

Youmu added "Yeah we will, goodbye."

After putting the bags back on their backs, Youmu and Komachi walked away to head back home.

Sakuya said "I think I will be heading off as well."

Reimu replied "Oh, ok."

Sakuya said "Goodbye Reimu."

Reimu spoke back "Bye Sakuya."

Sakuya then walked away from Reimu and went in the direction of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. As for Reimu, she continued to walk around the village to finish getting the last items on her grocery trip.

After getting all the food she needed, Reimu decided to go back home. As she walked down the road she was on, Reimu noticed a tan colored stone wall she never noticed before to her left. Reimu continued walking down the road until she was in front of an archway made of marble. Past through it though was a huge temple made of marble, bronze, silver and gold, with golden spires on the four towers that surrounded the main part of the temple that was a dome with a gold roof. There was also some marble sidewalks extending along the healthy green grassed lawns and a golden rectangular sign on the top part of the archway that had the words "Temple of Atelon."

Reimu thought to herself _'Oh come on! How am I supposed to compete with that!? And just who or what is Atelon? I've never heard of a word like that. Hmmm, I wonder what kind of religion this is…'_

Reimu pondered about what kind of temple she was looking at, but then she shrugged it off and continued walking.

Just before Reimu left the village, she saw that she was close to Myouren Temple and that Byakuren Hijiri was talking to some human and youkai children right in front her. The kids ran off after Byakuren was done talking, passing by Reimu and that was when Byakuren saw her.

"Oh, why hello Reimu, how are you?" Byakuren greeted.

Reimu replied "Hi Byakuren, I'm doing fine, how about you?"

Byakuren replied "I am well. The temple and village have just been prosperous, and the weather has been just wonderful."

"Yes it has," Reimu said "and you sure have made a good deal of progress teaching humans and youkai to get along."

Byakuren responded "Thank you, the reward of seeing the fruits of such labors has been a blessing."

Reimu asked "So how is everyone else at the temple doing?"

"They are well." Byakuren answered "They have been a bit busier than usual, but they are well."

Reimu then mentioned "Hey I just came across a place I have never seen or heard of in the village. It was called the Temple of Atelon; do you know what it's like?"

Byakuren replied "Ah that place. I do not know much about it other that they're new and have started to become quite popular with the local villagers. Perhaps I should visit to extend a friendly greeting and find out what they're like."

"I see, so you don't know much." Reimu said.

"Yes, I have been rather busy myself." Byakuren mentioned.

Reimu said "Ok, well I think I'll be heading back home now, I still need to put away the groceries I bought."

Byakuren replied "Of course, it was nice talking to you, Reimu."

Reimu spoke back "You too, bye."

The two girls waved goodbye and then Reimu walked past Byakuren in the direction of her home. When she got out of the village, Reimu flew all the rest of the way back home.

Once Reimu got back to the Hakurei Shrine, she went inside, put away the groceries and fixed herself some sashimi and rice balls for lunch. After her meal, she did some cleaning around the house for most of the afternoon. When Reimu was done cleaning, she went outside behind the shrine where she set up a hammock a few weeks back. She got onto it, lay down, enjoyed the shade and the gentle breeze blowing by, and then just took a nap. After an hour passed, Reimu heard some footsteps coming towards her so she opened her eyes and saw Suika looking down on her.

"Hey Reimu, it's dinnertime. Can you make something please?" Suika mentioned.

Reimu responded "Alright, sure."

So Reimu got out of the hammock and went back inside the house with Suika. Reimu then made some curry and bread rolls for Suika and herself to eat and the two girls sat down and at the living room table.

Before taking a bite out of her first bread roll, Reimu said "One of these days I'm going to teach you how to cook."

"Ok, if you want me to set your house on fire again." Suika mentioned.

Reimu replied "I've made precautions for that."

Suika responded "Oh c'mon Reimu, I'm not as a good a cook as you."

Reimu said "Exactly my point, it will help you and it will help me."

Suika surrendered "Oh alright."

A few minutes later, Suika noticed that Reimu had a daydream expression on her face so Suika asked "So what are you thinking about?"

Reimu looked at Suika and answered "I was just wondering if we will ever experience exciting events and incidents like we used to in the past."

Suika replied "Hmmm, who knows. All I know is that things have been peaceful, so that means more time to relax."

Reimu said "I wish I could be as carefree as you."

Suika asked "Would you like me to teach you?"

"I'll pass." Reimu answered.

Suika replied "Ok, but if you change your mind, let me know."

Nothing else was said at the table after that, so when they were both done eating, the girls just each did their own thing, with Suika drinking lots of sake and Reimu just reading a book about drama. After doing this for a few hours, both girls got ready for bed and went to sleep. One thing that they didn't know though was that later that night, they were going to get a very unexpected awakening.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Mysterious Boy

It was a dark, quiet night, a perfect atmosphere for sleeping. Little could be seen outside except for the many stars in the clear black sky above. For a good part of the night, everything was peaceful, but then a bit past one in the morning, something started to happen.

A bright, shining orange dot suddenly appeared in the dark night sky. Slowly but surely the light became larger and larger until finally its form was more apparent, a large burning fireball the size of a house. It flew across the sky at an incredible speed until it came crashing down near the Hakurei Shrine.

BOOM!

The loud noise startled Reimu and caused her to instantly spring up fully alert, wondering what just happened outside. She went over to her closet to get her robe on, and then left her room. Reimu was about to head outside until Suika came out of her room, rubbed one of her tired eyes and wondered "Hey Reimu, did you hear that noise too? What was it?"

Reimu replied "I don't know, but I'm going to find out."

Reimu and Suika then walked out of the house. The two girls went over to the backyard and they saw a large crater that was almost as big as the yard, with small flames here and there burning some patches of grass.

Reimu's jaw dropped and shouted "Are you kidding me!? How the heck am I supposed to take care of all this!?"

Suika said "Well, we could turn it into a pool later."

Reimu became annoyed with Suika since she preferred it the way it used to be. But then she looked down at the bottom of the crater and saw something she never expected. Reimu thought that there was going to be a meteor at the bottom. Instead though she saw a brown haired young man with some of his clothing torn up and a sheathed sword behind his back, with the guy only looking to be a bit older than Reimu and he was unconscious.

Reimu and Suika just looked at the boy, then at each other, then at the boy again and then Reimu wondered "How did he survive intact after crashing into the ground?"

Suika replied "Your guess is as good as mine. All I'm wondering about is whether he's alive or not."

Reimu went down into the crater until she was in front of the young man. She kneeled down and rolled him over on his back, and then she put her head on his chest and listened with her left ear. Reimu heard his heart beat as Suika made her way down in the crater too.

"He's alive." Reimu said.

Suika replied "Wow, he sure is tough."

Reimu told her "We need to bring him inside. You carry him in and I'll get the first aid kit."

"Alright" Suika responded, and picked up the boy in her arms and walked back in the house with Reimu.

Reimu quickly got out a futon and pillow out from a closet and placed them to the left of the living room table where Suika placed the boy afterwards. Reimu went into the bathroom where she opened a large cabinet across from the sink where she put the towels and got out the first aid kit, and then she went back to the boy to look at his wounds.

Reimu applied medicine to the cuts and bruises she found on his body and wrapped some bandages around the cuts.

Suika was over by their unexpected guest and said "Something is strange about this guy."

Reimu wondered "What do you mean?"

"Well for one, he isn't burned anywhere where as your backyard was, and even his clothes don't look burned. Secondly, I can tell from experience that the injuries he received were not from crashing down on the ground but from something else. Lastly, just where did he fall from in the first place?" Suika mentioned.

Reimu replied "You're right, that is strange. Just who is this?"

The two girls just stared at the boy for a minute and then Suika said "Well since everything has calmed down around here, I think I'm gonna go back to sleep."

Reimu replied "Alright, I think I'll just watch over him for the rest of the night."

"Hmmm, you seem to be growing fond of him." Suika responded with a playful grin.

"Don't get any ideas." Reimu retorted.

Suika quietly snickered as she went back to her room to sleep again. As for Reimu, she got out another futon and pillow and placed them to by the wall, which was far enough from the mysterious young man to make it look like they weren't a couple. But before she went to sleep, Reimu thought she should watch over her new guest. Two hours later, Reimu got tired enough to finally decide to go to sleep, she went to and got into her futon and slept away.

A while after, morning came around and shined through the front Japanese sliding door, which caused Reimu to wake up. Reimu sat up and stretched and then she looked over at the boy to her left. She got up to see how he was doing, until she noticed that her guest's bruises had somehow disappeared. Reimu got down on her knees to get a better look at him, but then the boy finally opened his eyes up and noticed Reimu. After sitting up, the two just stared at each other for a moment until the young man said "Oh…hi."

"Um…hi" Reimu spoke back.

The two just stared at each other for another moment until the boy asked "Where am I?"

Reimu answered "You're at the Hakurei Shrine in Gensokyo."

The boy thought for a moment and then wondered "What is Gensokyo?"

Reimu explained "Gensokyo is a place that's isolated from the rest of the world where people and youkai live. It's just outside of Japan, protected by the Hakurei Border."

The boy thought about what he just heard of and he said "I see."

The boy got out of the futon and noticed his torn blue shirt and slightly torn tan colored pants as well as bandages in the spots where his clothes were torn.

"Did you do this?" The boy asked.

"Yes, you were injured in a lot of areas." Reimu informed.

The boy said "Thank you, I am alright now."

The boy ended up ripping the bandages off with his bare hands, with surprisingly no sign of the large cuts either.

"How did you do that?" Reimu wondered.

The boy asked "Do what?"

"Heal so quickly." Reimu mentioned.

The boy told her "I went through some special training that caused my body to heal more quickly than an average person."

Reimu thought about what he said and then asked "Who are you?"

He replied "My name is Alex Archwing, and you are?"

"Oh, my name is Reimu Hakurei; I'm the shrine maiden here." Reimu replied back.

Alex said "Oh…well nice to meet you, Reimu."

Reimu noticed that Alex was a bit uncomfortable for some reason so she asked "What's wrong?"

"Oh it's nothing…" Alex responded.

Hearing that it was a sensitive topic, Reimu decided to change the subject by asking "So where are you from?"

"…A very far away place… I don't feel like talking about it." Alex answered.

Reimu could see that their talk was taking a depressing turn so she said "Well…you're free to stay as long as you like, so you can relax and plan what you should do next."

Alex replied "Oh, thank you."

Reimu could see that she improved Alex's mood a bit, which caused them both to smile. Then Suika's door opened up with Suika dressed in her usual attire as she walked out of the room. She saw Reimu and Alex awake and she said to Alex "Hey, you're awake."

Alex said "Oh, I take it you also helped me out, thank you. My name is Alex Archwing, and who are you?"

"Suika Ibuki, nice to meet you" Suika replied.

Alex looked at the horns on Suika's head and he said "Um, excuse me for asking, but what are you?"

Suika replied "I'm an oni."

"What's an oni?" Alex asked.

Reimu explained "It's one of the many types of people that live here. The oni are a troll like race that are known to be big and strong."

Alex paused for a moment and asked "What's a troll?"

Reimu and Suika looked at each other puzzled, then back at Alex and Reimu said "You don't know what a troll is?"

Suika sighed "This could take a while…"

"Well, how about I read about your culture at a library or something?" Alex suggested.

Reimu thought for a moment and then mentioned "I don't know any official libraries, but I know a place where we could go. The Scarlet Devil Mansion has its own library, and I'm well associated there."

"Oh thanks." Alex responded.

Reimu added "But first we should clean up this mess and eat some breakfast."

So after the living room was cleaned up and Reimu got dressed, she went over to the kitchen and made some omelets for Suika, Alex and herself to eat. After the meal, Alex thanked Reimu for the food and looked at his feet wearing some plain white socks and he asked "Where are my boots?"

Reimu pointed to the front door to her left and replied "By the door."

Alex looked over to the right of the front door, found his brown boots and put them on after walking over to them. He also saw his sheathed sword leaning on the wall so he took the strap and put it around his back and chest, with the sword behind his back. Once Reimu was done putting the dishes in the sink, she went up to Alex who said "I really don't think it's a good idea for me to go outside with such raggedy clothes."

Reimu thought for a moment and then mentioned "I have an old rain coat in the closet you could borrow. It's a bit worn out and may be a bit tight, but at least it should cover up your torn up shirt."

Reimu walked over to the closet by the front door, pulled out an old cloth rain coat, gave it to Alex and he put it on.

"So are we off then?" Alex wondered.

Reimu answered "Sure, let's go."

Suika said "I think I'll stay here and take it easy."

"That's fine." Reimu replied.

Just before Reimu and Alex could leave, they heard someone outside say "Oh Reimu, where are you?"

Marisa then came into the house and said "Hey there you are, I noticed a huge crater in your backyard on my way over here and I was wondering, where…" Marisa paused as she noticed Alex and then she asked "Well, well, who's this?"

Alex informed "I'm Alex Archwing, and who are you?"

"Marisa Kirisame, a friend of Reimu and Suika." Marisa replied. "So Reimu is he your boyfriend?"

"Aw, I should have said that." Suika jokingly mentioned.

Reimu angrily said "I swear, you guys…" Then she calmed down and said "So what brings you here anyway, Marisa?"

Marisa explained "I was just on my way to see you because I saw a meteorite of some kind crash down near the area around your shrine through my telescope. I flew around to find it since I thought I could use it for magical experiments or profits due to the rare minerals, but then I saw the crater it made by your house and I didn't see the meteorite so I thought maybe you knew what happened to it."

Suika mentioned "You're looking at him."

Marisa mentioned "What?" She paused for a moment to think and then asked "How is it that he was able to survive crashing down the way he did?"

"I trained my body to endure hits that far exceed normal people." Alex replied.

Marisa retorted "Well you're full of surprises, aren't you?"

Reimu said "Excuse us Marisa, Alex and I need to go to the Scarlet Devil Mansion."

Marisa wondered "What for?"

"We're going to request some books from Patchouli about customs, cultures and people around Gensokyo. Hopefully, she won't mind." Reimu explained.

Marisa said "Oh, in that case I'll come with you. It would be nice to say hi."

"Didn't you visit them yesterday?" Reimu mentioned.

"Well, not exactly." Marisa replied.

Reimu wondered "What do you mean by that?"

Marisa said "Never mind, let's just go."

As Reimu, Marisa and Alex walked out the door, Suika said "See you later."

Just before leaving though, Reimu saw that the big crater in the backyard was gone somehow.

As Reimu was wondering what happened to the crater, Marisa told her "If you're wondering what happened to the crater, I just used a spell to restore the yard the way it was."

"Wow, thanks Marisa." Reimu replied.

"No problem, ze." Marisa said "Oh Alex, me and Reimu are going to fly over to the mansion, do you need a lift on my broom?"

Alex mentioned "No it's fine; I can fly on my own."

Alex then hovered above their heads and Marisa said "Oh, you can fly too."

Reimu could sense that Alex was able to fly much like herself except with a different energy source of some sort. After just wondering who he really was "Well, I'll lead the way." Then the three of them flew off.

After flying for thirty minutes, Reimu, Marisa and Alex reached the Scarlet Devil Mansion. They flew over by the front entrance and landed there, where they saw Meiling sleeping standing up by the gate as usual. Reimu walked up to Meiling with Marisa and Alex behind her and she said "Meiling, wake up."

Meiling woke up and said "Huh!? What? Oh, it's you Reimu. You caught me with my guard down; uh…please don't tell Sakuya, I just got bad sleep last night."

Reimu responded "It's for your own good."

Meiling sighed "Alright, guilty as charged. Oh, I see you have Marisa with you and also – who are you?"

Alex introduced himself "My name is Alex Archwing, what might your name be?"

"Hong Meiling, I'm the gate guard for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, nice to meet you." Meiling replied.

"Alex is new in Gensokyo. We've come here to borrow some books from Patchouli and ask Remilia for a favor." Reimu mentioned.

Meiling said "Alright, just watch over Marisa for me. I don't want to be held responsible for any scheme she might be planning."

"I'll behave." Marisa said with a seemingly innocent smile.

Reimu told Meiling "We'll watch her."

"Thank you, enjoy your visit." Meiling replied.

Reimu and Marisa walked past through the front gate and while Alex did the same, he saw Meiling smile at him as walked and he smiled back in turn. Meiling then focused back on her task as the three visitors went inside the mansion.

When they got inside, Alex looked around the huge lobby with the fancy carpet and furniture as he, Reimu and Marisa walked through some doors to the left. As they were walking through a hallway, Alex asked "Reimu, what favor were you talking about earlier?"

Reimu explained "Well, since it would make me look weird in front of other people if I went shopping for boy clothes for you, I'm going to ask Remilia to see if she can have some of her maids make some new clothes for you."

"Oh." Alex simply replied.

After a few more minutes of walking through the mansion, Reimu, Marisa and Alex opened some doors and saw the large library room. Alex was in awe of the towering bookshelves filled with thousands of books in front of him and above on the higher areas above, with light shining down from the tall windows. As Reimu and Alex entered the room, Alex looked around to see where Marisa was, but he didn't see her anywhere.

"Reimu, Marisa disappeared." Alex informed.

Reimu stopped focusing on leading the way, turned around and responded "Oh great, she must have snuck off."

"Should we search for her?" Alex wondered.

Reimu replied "No, if I know Marisa she'll be trying to sneak into the library some other way so she can steal more books. Let's just continue and keep a lookout for Marisa."

Reimu and Alex continued to walk around in the library, going past the many dozens of bookshelves. When they got to the middle of the room, Reimu walked to the left as did Alex as he followed her, and they came across a girl with long purple hair, dress and hat sitting on a chair behind a desk that had books, paper and pencils scattered on top of it, with one book in the girl's right hand reading it with a focused, expressionless face. Reimu and Alex walked up to the desk and said "Hi Patchouli."

Patchouli turned her attention to Reimu, set her book down on the desk and said "Oh, welcome Reimu. What brings you here?"

"This guy with me, Alex. He's new here and doesn't really know the area well at all, so I thought maybe if you didn't need them, maybe we could borrow some books on cultures, races and history of Gensokyo." Reimu explained.

Patchouli said "Hmmm, I see." Then she opened up a drawer to her left, pulled out a shiny metal bell and rang it. After that, she put the bell back, got out a notebook and started writing on it with a pencil after grabbing it off the desk. As Patchouli was writing something, Koakuma came over to the left side of the desk from behind some bookshelves and said "You called me, Ms. Knowledge?"

Patchouli tore off the paper she wrote on the notebook and informed "Get me the books on the list Koakuma, they're for our guests."

"No problem, right away." Koakuma replied as she walked off and disappeared from behind the bookshelves.

Alex said "So you're last name is Knowledge?"

Patchouli responded "Yes."

Alex looked around at all of the bookshelves in the room, then back at Patchouli and said "Well you certainly live up to it."

Patchouli slightly smiled as his words slightly amused her and then she asked "So where are you from?"

Alex replied "Um…that's a long story. I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh I see I'm sorry…" Patchouli said, wondering why it was such a touchy subject.

Alex mentioned "It's alright."

Koakuma came back with a few books, gave them to Alex and said "Here you are. So, what's your name?"

"I'm Alex Archwing, nice to meet you, Koakuma." Alex replied as he held out his hand.

Koakuma took his hand and shook it and she responded "Oh…nice to meet you too."

After shaking his hand, Koakuma quickly turned around away from everyone as she blushed a little since she thought Alex was kind of cute. After five seconds went by, Koakuma turned back around with her blush gone.

Reimu mentioned "Thank you for the books. Oh, and before I forget, Marisa is here somewhere and she's trying to sneak in here somehow and steal some books."

Patchouli replied "Hmmm, I'll have to take some precautions then."

Just then however, Sakuya and Remilia came walking down from the right side of the library and Remilia said "Ah Reimu what a surprise, how are you?"

Reimu replied "I'm good; I came over to borrow some books and ask you for a favor."

Remilia said "Alright, but before that I need to ask you all something. Has anyone seen Flandre lately? I can't find her anywhere."

Everyone told Remilia that they didn't see her, which caused Sakuya to suggest "Perhaps we should all split up to find her."

But before they could search, they heard a childish voice say "Marisa let's play!"

"Wait Flandre, don't -!" Marisa's voice sounded.

Everyone looked up at the top of the bookshelf behind Patchouli and they saw Flandre play tackle Marisa and they both fell to the floor with Flandre landing on top of Marisa.

Flandre sat up on Marisa's torso and then hugged her after lying on top of her again and said "I'm happy to see you, Marisa."

Marisa replied "Ugh…yeah, nice to see you too Flan."

Marisa and Flandre both stood up and Remilia asked "Marisa, what were you doing up there?"

Marisa answered "Uh…I was just getting a good look of the room in order to play I spy with Flan."

"And she was trying to take some books up high from the shelves." Flandre added with a happy, innocent smile, which caused Marisa to groan on defeat.

Patchouli said "Really Marisa, you need to stop this. If you need books, you should just ask."

"But that doesn't work all the time." Marisa replied.

Patchouli mentioned "That's because you're either requesting too many books or you demand books that I need and won't wait. You need to be less greedy."

Marisa said "Hey, I'm a girl with many needs."

"Tell you what Marisa," Patchouli said as she pulled out a new, blue book of some sort form a right desk drawer and dangled it with her right hand "I'll let you have this special edition magic book if you give me all the books you 'borrowed' from me."

"Ah! You have THAT book!? I've been looking everywhere in Gensokyo for that! Alright, you have a deal." Marisa replied, and ran out of the library like there was no tomorrow.

Then Remilia asked "By the way Reimu, who is this with you?"

Reimu answered "This is Alex Archwing; he's new here and is the main reason as to why I am here. We came here to get some books that will teach him about Gensokyo and the way things are around here. Plus I need to ask you a favor that concerns him."

"Pleased to meet you" Alex said.

Remilia replied "Nice to meet you as well, my name is Remilia Scarlet, owner and master of The Scarlet Devil Mansion. The woman beside me is Sakuya Izayoi, my head maid."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Archwing" Sakuya said.

Alex responded "You too, and please, just call me Alex."

Flandre then walked right up to Alex and looked up to his face mentioned "And I'm Flandre, I'm Remilia's sister."

Alex replied "Oh, nice to meet you Flandre."

Flandre just paused for a moment and then she said "You're tall…um, would you like to be my friend?"

"Sure, let's be friends." Alex answered.

Flandre replied "Yay! Let's play!"

Remilia responded "No Flandre, we're busy right now. You can play later as long as you don't play rough."

"Yes sister…" Flandre sighed.

Alex wondered as to what Remilia meant by not playing rough, but then she asked "So Reimu, what favor were you going to ask me?"

Reimu explained "Well as you can see, Alex's clothes are really torn up, so I had him wear an old rain coat to conceal his wrecked shirt so he could come here. So since it would make me look really odd if I bought clothes for Alex in front of other people, I was wondering if you could make some clothes for him."

Remilia said "Sure, we'll have to measure him first though. Sakuya, make the arrangements please."

"Of course, right this way Alex." Sakuya responded.

Alex replied "Ok" and walked off with Sakuya.

After five minutes of walking around the mansion, Alex and Sakuya were in a sewing room with some tables and fabric and other sewing supplies neatly placed on the tables. Sakuya got some measuring tape and requested "Could you take off your coat? I need to measure you accurately."

"Sure." Alex replied as he took off the rain coat he wore.

Sakuya looked at his torn blue shirt for a moment and then started measuring Alex.

Alex asked "Excuse me Sakuya, but if you can, could you make copies of the same clothes I'm wearing now?"

Sakuya answered "That's fine, but I'll need some sample cloth."

"You can just cut off some loose cloth from my clothing." Alex said.

Meanwhile back at the library, as Reimu, Koakuma, Patchouli, and Remilia were watching over Flandre and talking with each other, Marisa stormed through the library doors on her broom, landed right in front of Patchouli's desk, put a bag of books on the desk, and said "I'm back and here are the books."

Patchouli pulled out a list from a desk drawer on the right and then took the books out of the bag one by one as she looked at the list from time to time.

Then Patchouli said "That's all of the books you stole from me, thank you."

"Of course," Marisa responded with a grin "now for your end of the deal."

Patchouli retorted "Sure, after you're done being suspended from taking books from the library for three months."

"What!? But that wasn't part of the deal!" Marisa replied.

"Actually it was, I just didn't tell you the whole story." Patchouli mentioned.

Reimu added "You had this coming Marisa."

"Oh, and Remilia and I have increased security around the mansion, so if you try to steal again, expect everyone living here to deal with you." Patchouli added further, casing Marisa to groan in defeat.

Then Alex and Sakuya rejoined everyone and Sakuya said "We're done."

Reimu said "Thank you for all of your help."

Alex added "Yeah, you really helped me out, thanks."

Remilia said "But of course, and feel free to visit whenever you prefer, Alex."

"Thank you." Alex responded.

Flandre tugged on Alex's coat and said "Hey, you'll play with me next time you're here, right?"

"Yeah, of course I will." Alex replied.

Flandre said "Yay, thank you Alex! Don't make me wait too long."

Reimu, Marisa and Alex said their goodbyes and they left the library. After getting outside of the mansion, the three flew off in the direction of the Hakurei Shrine. Halfway though, Marisa said "I think I've had enough disappointment for one day, I'm going home to cheer myself up."

"Alright" Reimu replied.

Marisa said "It was nice meeting you Alex."

"You too Marisa" Alex said back.

Marisa then flew off in the direction of the Forest of Magic where her house was at.

After fifteen more minutes, Reimu and Alex were about to land in front of the shrine, but then they saw some unfamiliar men talking with Suika. Four men were wearing plain iron armor with gold on the edges from head to toe, carrying spears and shields in their hands. The last man was much like the other four men except the main part of his armor was blue, he wore a blue cape, had a sheathed sword attached to a black belt and didn't wear a helmet, which showed his blue hair and blue eyes, and all five men had a gold colored symbol on their backs that looked like a cloud surrounded by rays of light with an eye in the center of the cloud.

Reimu wondered "Who are these people?"

When she didn't hear Alex reply she looked behind herself and noticed Alex was gone.

Reimu wondered where Alex could have gone, but decided to figure out that mystery later as she was wondering what was going on in front of the shrine so she landed close to the group. The blue haired man noticed Reimu land to his left so he turned his attention and walked up to Reimu as did the knights with him and he asked "Are you Reimu Hakurei, owner of this shrine?"

Reimu responded "Yes, why?"

The man informed "My name is Ronad; I am one of the Twelve Guardian Saints of the Temple of Atelon."

Reimu asked "What kind of place is that?"

Ronad explained "It is a place of worship where the Talzem religion is taught and where the god of Talzemism, Atelon is served. Recently, we've been patrolling around Gensokyo helping people and enforcing the peace. We learned that a meteorite came crashing down somewhere around here last night, do you know where it is?"

Before Reimu could answer, she saw Alex in the distance in the forest, silently mouthing the words 'Don't tell them about me.' Then she answered "Now that you mention it, there was a loud boom that came from somewhere to the northwest of here."

"I see. Well thank you for your time, we need to make sure that meteorite didn't hurt anyone and restore the damaged area it did to the forest. Have a nice day and feel free to ask us for help with anything in the future." Ronad replied.

Reimu said "Uh sure, thanks."

Reimu and Ronad said their goodbyes and then Ronad and the knights walked off in the direction of the northwest direction into the forest. Suika and Alex came up to Reimu and Suika questioned "Why didn't you tell him about Alex?"

"Because Alex told me not to for some reason" Reimu informed.

Suika turned her head to Alex and asked "What, why?"

Alex replied "It's complicated, and I don't even know for sure how to explain myself yet."

Reimu sighed "I guess you don't have to tell us now, but you do owe us an explanation soon."

"Fair enough" Alex replied.

Suika mentioned "Hey Reimu, it's lunchtime and I'm hungry. Can you make us a meal?"

Reimu said "Sure, I'll get to it."

While looking at the two books in his hands, Alex said "I suppose I'll start reading in the meantime."

Then the three of them started walking back into the shrine, with Reimu and Suika seeing as Alex got more mysterious by the minute.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Rising Shadows

After lunch was over, Reimu finally found some time for herself so she walked out of the house and lied down on the hammock in the backyard and peacefully went to sleep for a nap.

Half an hour later passed though and a voice suddenly said "Wake up, Reimu."

Reimu opened her eyes and saw Chen to her left and she responded "Oh! Chen, what are you up to."

"My master needs to talk to you; she's high in the sky close to the Hakurei Border." Chen informed "And she also said to bring your boyfriend too."

Reimu made an irritated look on her face and then replied "Fine."

"I'll lead you to her when you're ready, I'll wait here." Chen said.

Reimu walked across the backyard and into the house where she saw Alex reading a book in front of the living room table.

"Follow me, Alex." Reimu said.

"Why, what happened?" Alex wondered.

"Just follow me." Reimu insisted.

Reimu and Alex walked out of the house and over to where Chen was standing.

Alex asked "Who is this?"

Reimu informed "We'll explain later, we need to go now."

As Chen, Reimu and Alex flew off into the sky, Reimu was wondering why Yukari didn't show up herself but then she started getting a bad feeling.

Soon after, Chen, Reimu and Alex came to be in front of Ran and Yukari, hovering way above Gensokyo.

Yukari turned her head form a seemingly clear spot in the sky to Reimu, Alex and Chen and said "Ah, there you are Reimu."

"What's this all about?" Reimu questioned the gap youkai.

"Pardon me, but who are these people Reimu?" Alex asked.

Reimu explained "Oh, well the girl who led us here is Chen, the woman with the short blond hair is Ran Yakumo, and the other woman is Yukari Yakumo, one of the creators of the Hakurei Border."

Alex replied "Huh, that's neat." Then he turned to Chen, Ran and Yukari and said "Nice to meet you, I'm Alex Archwing."

Yukari, Ran and Chen however just gazed at Alex with no sign of emotion, causing him to wonder if he did something wrong. Then Yukari asked "How exactly did you enter Gensokyo?"

"Um…I don't really know. All I can remember was that I was drifting around in space after a huge fight I had." Alex answered.

"Wait, you were in outer space?" Reimu responded.

"It's a long story." Alex noted.

Reimu then turned her attention to Yukari and asked again "So really, what's going on, Yukari?"

Yukari turned to her right and replied "Let me show you."

Yukari help up her right hand in front of the seemingly empty space of sky and caused a small part of the barrier to light up for a few seconds, revealing a large hole.

"What!? A gap in the barrier!?" Reimu responded.

Yukari mentioned "Normally I would be able to detect when there's something wrong with the barrier, but some advanced and mysterious energy prevented me from sensing the damage. The only reason I was able to discover this hole to begin with was because I felt like seeing Gensokyo from a bird's eye view to enjoy some good scenery. Now I studied the damaged area and I found three types of energy, one being the dark and mysterious energy that prevented the hole in the barrier from being detected by me, the second being another unknown energy I'm still trying to figure out, and lastly was a faint trail of radiation from space somewhere and gases from our planet's o-zone layer that led to the Hakurei Shrine and which you're new friend still has small, harmless traces on him."

Reimu figured "So in other words you think that Alex may be somehow associated with whoever tore through the Great Hakurei Barrier?"

Yukari concluded "Yes, he is under suspicion. Although to be fair, there are still many unanswered questions and vague factors so I can't draw any conclusions."

"What do you mean?" Reimu wondered.

Yukari explained "Well the two types of energy came through here at two very different times, with the magic that blocked me from detecting the damage to the barrier and which also damaged the barrier occurring two years ago and the other force coming through here one year ago. So there are some questions that need to be answered: Who are these invaders? What are their intentions? Where are they now? And why have they been hiding for so long? As for my suspicions with Alex, I find it oddly convenient for him to fly through the hole in the Hakurei Barrier."

Alex replied "I see, well since I'm new here still it's only natural to suspect a stranger like me."

Even though he said this, Reimu didn't think Alex was the type of person to do something sinister, she just trusted him for some reason.

Yukari said "Anyway Reimu, I need you to do two things for me. One, keep an eye on Alex and two; see if you can find out where these miscreants ran off to. Oh, and no hard feelings Alex, I'm just making sure I'm doing a thorough investigation."

"None taken," Alex replied "Although I was wondering if I could do something. Could I sense what kind of energy it was that came through here?"

Yukari answered "Alright, I suppose so."

"Thank you." Alex responded as he held out both of his hands in front of the hole. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and began to concentrate. After a minute later, Alex felt a familiar, ominous and overwhelming presence from the energy, causing to gasp in shock.

"They're here, I knew it." Alex responded.

Reimu, Chen, Ran and Yukari paused for a second and then Reimu asked "Who's here?"

Alex answered "Atelon and Darvedos."

"And who are they?" Yukari asked.

Alex explained "Atelon is a brutal and deceptive god and Darvedos is a cunning and sadistic supernatural serial killer, and they're both responsible for creating a horrible war in my home dimension that led to the suffering and death of trillions of people."

Ran held her hand to her mouth and replied "Oh my…"

Chen added "I think I'm starting to get scared…"

Alex mentioned "Hold on, these energy readings are more weak than they usually are. They must have been badly damaged after their last battle, so they most likely came here to Gensokyo to rest and restore their strength. The one advantage we have is that they don't get along, but since it has been a few years, they may be getting their strength back and could bring a wave of destruction and chaos over this world."

Reimu, Ran and Chen were stunned at what they heard and even Yukari was starting to get worried. Then she opened a portal and said "I suppose I can't take any chances. Ran, Chen and I will return to my house to figure out a way to fix the barrier and maybe even find out where these new threats may be. Reimu, you and Alex can start the search while keeping an eye on him." Then Yukari, Ran and Chen went through the portal and it disappeared.

Alex wondered "So where should we start looking around here?"

Reimu replied "I have a very good idea where Atelon would be. I discovered that he had built himself a temple over at the Human Village, although I didn't know what it was at the time. Should we try taking him out?"

Alex answered "That would be a bad idea. As I mentioned before, Atelon is powerful and brutal, we would be no match for him right now. Plus if he's already built himself a temple then that means he's probably built some defenses there, such as an army for one, and we wouldn't be able to guarantee the safety of the people."

Reimu replied "Oh, I see. So I guess you knew that those guys who visited the shrine earlier worked for Atelon since they had that symbol on their backs?"

"Yes, that's Atelon's symbol." Alex replied back.

Reimu said "Alright, so since we can't go after Atelon right now, how about Darvedos? Where do you think he would be?"

Alex responded "Darvedos is just as powerful as Atelon, but he'll be easier to attack since he doesn't prefer to stick out. Darvedos can very unpredictable however, so he won't be easy to find."

Reimu said "I see. I guess we should head back and tell Suika what's going on. By the time we explain what's happening, it will be time for dinner so maybe we should start searching tomorrow."

"Alright, I guess that's fine." Alex replied.

With their plans settled for now, Reimu and Alex flew in the direction to return to the Hakurei Shrine, with Reimu alert and excited that she would be solving an incident again just like she used to.

As time went by, night came around and Reimu, Suika and Alex went to sleep after Reimu and Alex told Suika what was going on.

Meanwhile, in a forest far away from the Hakurei Shrine, an ominous event was starting to unfold. Dark spheres where moving about through the trees and bushes, gathering in a clearing near the heart of the forest, creating a shadowy figure of some sort. When the spheres were done gathering, a vile figure stood in their place. He had black shoes, black pants with a single blue stripe going down each leg, a black leather jacket with blue eerie symbols across the back and the arms, a gray shirt underneath that had a big black symbol on the middle where the jacket didn't cover, a small clear sky blue skull on a chain necklace that was around his neck, a pale white face with black, merciless eyes with white irises, pale white hands, and long black hair that seemed to move in the air like tentacles.

The figure spoke "Finally… I am me again. It took much longer to regenerate than I had expected but at long last I am complete."

The vile being looked at his surroundings and said "Hmmm, I sense that there are many unique and strong beings that live here. They won't be a problem though; however I can sense that Atelon has been quite busy since I hitched a ride on his spacecraft under his nose to get to this land. He's even built himself a temple, although I should stop sensing Atelon out before he finds me and tries to hunt me down, even if I can't help but wonder what he's up to. I guess if I'm going to have a chance to find out, I'll have to figure out where dear old dad is, but before I do that I think a test of my power is in order."

The dark being flew up into the sky above the forest, held out his right hand as his index pointed at the forest and then pointed downwards. Suddenly, the gentle wind in the air vanished and the plants and anything else unfortunate within a one mile radius died, creating a small, lifeless wasteland.

"Ah it seems that my powers over fear and negativity still serve me well. Now to find my father, Darvedos." The being said.

So he used his senses as he went in a deep, meditative state for a few minutes until he found out where Darvedos was and grinned as he flew off in his father's direction.

Meanwhile, over at Darvedos' mysterious location, a special meeting was starting to take place in a temple like area. The room was large and circular, having four stone lanterns that each had a glowing blue flame, a mysterious low fog of some sort across the stone floor beneath the stone floor of the room and the dark corridor over at the front wall. There were also eleven large pedestals that each had a flight of stairs going down the middle and iron thrones with red cushions on top. But there was one pedestal that was larger than the rest in the center of the back wall, where the throne was made of silver instead of iron, with a bunch of strange glowing red symbols on the wall itself, a big red symbol in a black circle above the throne, and a huge metallic skull with horns above all the symbols.

In the room already in the corners were two men, one on each side. The man on the left had sky blue hair, yellow eyes, a black shirt and pants with a white hexagon on the shirt with six circular colored gems serving as the corners, each a color of the rainbow, and a white gem in the center, with other white lines going across the shirt and pants. He also had gold shoulder guards, a gray cape and shoes, and a sheathed sword with a gold handle that was leaning on the left armrest of the throne he sat on.

The other man wore a shiny metal mask that almost looked like a star except the top part was longer and curved to the back, and through the two eyeholes of the mask were his glowing green eyes. He also wore a black and purple patterned robe and held a staff in his right hand that was made from bones, black raven feathers, and small green and purple crystals, with one being a red crystal that was on the top tip of the staff.

"A long time has passed since we have shrouded our presence. Now at last comes our time to rise, with creation itself soon to be under our submission." The robed man said.

The other man replied "True Musovek, but we must focus on the present, Lord Darvedos demands this of us."

A sudden shadow then crept across the floor that had no body casting it. The shadow moved up to a throne about two pedestals to the right of the swordsman, where the shadow morphed into a shape of a figure with orange glowing eyes, a black robe with pointed shoulder guards going upwards, a gold necklace with three hollow squares on the front, and a deadly gray scythe with black steel down the middle of the blade connected by a purple orb generating some type of energy.

"Ah, it looks like I'm early." The dark being said, then he looked over at the silver throne and asked "Where is the master?"

The swordsman informed "Lord Darvedos will not join us until all our key members are present for the meeting, Slyvek."

"I see, well you and Musovek must be very eager to finally put the big plan in motion since you're both so early, huh Sylon?"

"I am just here to remain active for our lord, as is Musovek." Sylon retorted.

A few minutes later the remaining key members came into the room. The first was a being made entirely of light blue electrical energy with claw like hands, yellow eyes, and a metal chest plate with a yellow circular energy core and some hi-tech electrical spires on his shoulders.

The next person was a tall, gray, intimidating hi-tech robot with a face that looked like a helmet with a red visor. He had a large, advanced hunting rifle, jetpack and katana behind his back, strong multi plated armor all across his body, and a hi-tech belt that had a revolver, a knife and a small square metal box on each side.

The third person was a young man that looked like shockingly like Alex, except he had spiky white hair, red eyes, a red and black jumpsuit, silver shoulder guards, a black cape and a sword in a gray sheath behind his back.

The fourth was a woman with long pink hair, green eyes, a pink and purple hat with a golden eye symbol on the front, a pink and purple jumpsuit with a purple chest guard and boots, plus she wore black gloves that had purple lines that made an eye symbol on both her palms with three lines going from the eye to her wrists.

The person after was a muscular man with black hair and green eyes wearing a red boxing robe with a golden symbol of a male lion on the back. He also wore white wristbands and black and white shoes.

The next one was a gray haired, brown eyed man wearing a green and gray coat, a white handkerchief, a black sailing captain's hat, gray boots and a black belt with a pistol and sword attached. He also seemed to have a powerful ghostly presence.

Another man came walking through wearing a plain white stage mask with hollow eyes and smile, a red and white jester hat, a red and black jester suit with the four classic playing card symbols around his neck, a red cape, a brown belt with a card holder on each side, red and white boots, sleeves and white gloves.

The last person was a blue haired, blue eyed woman wearing a white coat with a blue glittery dress underneath. She also wore a necklace made of sapphires around her neck and also wore sapphire bracelets around her wrists. Plus she wore white high heels to top off her look.

The people who came in took their places, with the electrical entity sitting next to Musovek, the robot sitting between Sylon and Slyvek, the Alex look alike sitting next to the electrical being, the pink suited woman sitting next to Slyvek, the brawny man sitting next to the white haired swordsman, the pirate captain sitting next to the pink suited woman, the jester sitting next to the strong melee fighter, and the last woman sitting on the other empty side of the captain.

Sylon then rose up and announced "Now that we are here, Lord Darvedos shall now show his presence to us."

The place where the silver empty throne was became filled with a pitch black darkness until the throne could no longer be seen and then two large evil red eyes suddenly appeared.

A haunting, thundering voice came from the darkness saying "It has been two years since we arrived in this land and at last we can finally begin with phase one of our plan. But first, Virak is the Temple of Darkness fully operational?"

The electrical entity replied "Yes, everything is in working order."

"Good," Darvedos responded "and is our army prepared Sylon?"

"Yes, they are set my lord." Sylon informed.

"Ah, and I assume that you're all prepared as well?" Darvedos further questioned.

The rest of the people present replied "Yes Lord Darvedos."

Darvedos said "Excellent, now we can discuss the details of our plan."

The robot mentioned "Finally, I've waited a long time for this. Now I no longer need to practice hunting in the meditation room."

"Oy, save some worthy opponents for me, Sigma." The red robed man said while grinning and snapping his knuckles.

Sigma replied "If I find any that aren't worth the hunt, I'll let you know, Nolrok."

Nolrok said "Lord Darvedos, do we really need a look alike of one of your old foes? I think you have more than enough power on your side, especially with me."

The captain said "It's important to use all that you know at your disposal properly Nolrok, for it is a key for victory. Besides, if Lord Darvedos says Xedar is as strong as he says he is, he must be a good addition for our elites."

"Well said, Holus." Musovek agreed.

The pink haired woman asked "Can we start already? We need to stop wasting time."

"I agree, this is getting very boring." The other woman added.

The jester added "Yes, let's just let the games begin already."

"Galace, you're not here for your sake, and Jindor we're not here for entertainment." The first woman retorted.

"Enough!" Darvedos shouted "Marlis has spoken wisely, we should – wait…who's coming down the corridor?"

Everyone turned their attention to the corridor and saw a mysterious entity walk in the room.

Darvedos noticed who it was when the person got closer and said "Well, well! I didn't expect to see you again. Welcome home, Selvus."

"Hello father." Selvus said as he stepped into the dim light of the room.

Musovek responded "This person is your son, my lord?"

Darvedos replied "Yes, I made him in my lab back in our home dimension with some of my own DNA during the legendary ten thousand year war with Atelon. He was one of my finest warriors."

Selvus asked "So what happened to you at the end of the war, dad?"

Darvedos answered "During that surprisingly difficult battle with Atelon and that young maggot Alex, we had accidently created a powerful galactic explosion in our three way face off, destroying our dimension in the process. I didn't know what happened to those two after that moment, but my body was critically damaged, falling in and out of consciousness for what seemed like hours. I knew if I didn't do something soon I would die, so I put my body into a deep sleep through meditation and used a small remainder of my energy to fuse with my consciousness, resulting in the form you see now. I was still in trouble though since I could only maintain my form as long as my body was functioning so I warped to the nearest resourceful dimension I could and went there. There was an odd barrier in my way however, which was also connected to a strange entity after I quickly sensed it out for a way in. I couldn't risk getting detected by her and get destroyed in my weakened state, so I used another part of my power to blast open a hole and conceal the damage at the same time. I then made a special pocket dimension for me to hide and rest in the land I entered. I managed to restore some of my power and create the Temple of Darkness and create a new army, which is the place we're in now."

Then Darvedos paused for a moment and then asked "So how did you get here? I thought you were dead."

Selvus explained "I thought so too after I was defeated by Alex in the halls of Atelon's space fortress. Then the next thing I knew, I woke up to an explosion and my body was blown to bits. I used the last of my power to turn into my Incarnated Fear Form to stay alive, but I ran out of power and I split into a bunch of dark orbs as I drifted into empty space. A year later I had managed to get all of my drifting parts back together as I could still fly, but then I saw Atelon's new battleship and I hitched a ride on the side of the hull. The ship came through a portal that I knew you lured him into and ended up in this place, and I fell off as my essence scattered again in the air. After I landed, I used my scattered parts to gather up negative energy from the beings of this land in order to restore my original form and powers. A year later I succeeded and I sought you out with my restored senses and here I am now."

Darvedos replied "I see, well I suppose I'll have to renovate the room and make a new pedestal for you to sit on."

Holus wondered "Pardon me Lord Darvedos, but why did you lead Atelon here?"

Darvedos answered "Because even though he's a pain, Atelon can be quite gullible since he's so brutal and deluded, making negative energies grow rather strong and useful to collect, and I will need a LOT of negativity if I am to restore my body."

After pausing again for another moment, Darvedos said "Now that the surprises are out of the way, let's start the meeting. As I have told you before, we need to gather as much negative energy as we can to restore my body. I have managed to detect some powerful negativity located in a bamboo forest in the southeastern part of this land. To retrieve the energy located there, I shall send Slyvek."

Slyvek replied "I am honored my lord."

Darvedos continued "When you're done, you must kill the targets making the energy. However these particular targets can't be killed through normal means, so I have made some special weapons in order to ensure their deaths permanently."

Suddenly two daggers appeared in front of Slyvek that had black handles, glowing red blades and a black metal wire going around each blade.

Slyvek took both daggers with his left hand and put them against his shadowy body, which engulfed them. "Thank you my lord." Slyvek grinned.

Darvedos continued "As for Sigma, Marlis and Jindor, I need you three to spy on Atelon to see what he's up to and gather as much negativity around his forces as possible without being detected."

The three members stood up, bowed and replied "As you wish my lord."

Darvedos concluded "Good, as for the rest of you, you're all on standby until further notice. The meeting is adjourned."

Everyone except Holus, Selvus and Darvedos left the room.

Holus asked "We still have our deal, right?"

"Of course, we still have it." Darvedos responded.

"Alright" Holus said, and left the room.

Selvus wondered about what they were talking about, but then Darvedos said "I will show you around the temple later. Until then you're dismissed."

"Yes father." Selvus replied and walked out of the room.

Darvedos then summoned a sky high view of Gensokyo and stared at it for a little while. Then he said "Soon I will fulfill the true destiny."

The image suddenly disappeared and Darvedos vanished from the room as the blue flames went out.

-**-Author's note-**

**Hey this is nostalgic1 here**

**I'm sorry that chapter took so long to put up but I am still kind of new at this and I was going through some stuff, but it's up now that's nice. Anyway, I'm going to try posting more chapters more frequently since summer break is around, so stay tuned.**

**On a side note, you'll be seeing some action stuff soon as well as some danmaku moves and even a small number of moves I thought of.**

**It's nice to be back.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Fury in the Forest

As the sun rose from the horizon to create the presence of morning, Reimu left her room as she closed the door to it, yawning as she started walking around the house. Immediately after her yawn, Reimu heard a knock at the front door so she went over to open it and saw Sakuya holding a white box in her arms.

Reimu responded "Oh, what brings you here so early Sakuya?"

"I came here to give you Alex's new clothes and I must say, it was rather challenging." Sakuya replied.

"What do you mean?" Reimu wondered.

Sakuya answered "His outer garments were made out of rare materials that were known to be very durable. I and some other maids had to consult Patchouli since we neither knew some of the fabrics nor how to acquire them and so we asked her to make the fabrics we didn't already have. It took a long time to make the clothes but we completed making them. He also requested that we make him some durable brown leather vests when he and I talked about how to go about making him some new clothes, and so you'll see them in the box as well."

"Thanks. Oh by the way, I forgot to say that Meiling fell asleep when we arrived at the gate yesterday." Reimu replied as Sakuya handed her the box.

Sakuya retorted "Really? I'll have to think of a way to deal with that then… So since learning that he wore such durable and rare clothing, it caused me to wonder if Alex was an advanced fighter back where he came from. But anyway, since my errand is done, I'm going back to the mansion."

"Alright then, bye." Reimu said.

Sakuya then flew off into the sky and disappeared over the horizon. Reimu then thought about what Sakuya said as she carried the box inside the house and shut the door. She then saw Alex come out of his room, which was by hers, yawning.

Alex looked to his left and said "Good morning, Reimu. What's in the box?"

"Sakuya dropped by with this box that contains your new clothes." Reimu told him.

"Oh really? That was fast, I'll have to thank her the next time I see her." Alex replied.

As Reimu handed Alex the box of clothes, she mentioned "Alex, there's been meaning to tell you for a while now."

"Hmmm and what's that?" Alex wondered.

"Get yourself in the shower and get out of those torn rag clothes." Reimu insisted.

Alex embarrassingly replied "Eh heh heh, yeah I'll get to that."

After taking the box to his room, Alex took some clothes to the bathroom with him under his right arm and closed the door.

A few hours later, Reimu and Alex went outside with Alex wearing his hole free new clothes.

"Ok, if we're going to find Darvedos, we'll need to think of a place that can offer seclusion and be unpredictable. Do you have any ideas where a place like that would be?" Alex said.

Reimu replied "I can think of one place right off the bat, there's a forest in the southeast called the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, which is known to make anyone who enters it completely lost due to the rapidly changing environment."

Alex retorted "That sounds like a good place to start, let's go."

Reimu mentioned "Wait, if we're going there, we'll need a guide to help us through, and I happen to know someone outside the forest who could help us."

Reimu and Alex then took to the skies to meet up with the guide. They eventually came to a house in the southeastern part of the Human Village with the bamboo forest in the horizon.

"So who's this guide we're going to see?" Alex wondered as they landed not far from the house.

Reimu informed him "Her name is Fujiwara no Mokou. She has a small self-employed business where she guides people through the bamboo forest, usually to Eintei."

"What's Eintei?" Alex asked.

"I'll tell you later." Reimu responded as she knocked on Mokou's front door.

Alex and Reimu waited for a little bit but they heard no answer.

Reimu said "Mokou, are you home? It's me, Reimu. I need you to help guide me through the bamboo forest."

Again, there was no answer.

Alex responded "It doesn't seem like she's here. What should we do now?"

Reimu thought about their small problem for a moment until she saw Tewi walking by a little ways behind Alex, moving towards the forest.

Reimu called out "Oh Tewi!"

Tewi turned her head and saw Reimu and Alex, which caused her to walk up to them.

"Hi Reimu, what's up?" Tewi greeted.

Before Reimu could answer though, Alex asked "Excuse me Reimu, but who is this?"

Reimu introduced "Alex this is Tewi Inaba. She lives inside the bamboo forest and also is a guide for people who want to go through there. Tewi, this is Alex. He's new here in Gensokyo and is helping me with a new incident."

Tewi replied "Nice to meet you."

"You too" Alex replied.

Tewi then wondered "So what new incident are you dealing with?"

Reimu explained "Yesterday we found out that there was a hole in the Great Hakurei Barrier, which was made a powerful evil entity named Darvedos two years ago. He's been hiding here in Gensokyo, regaining his power and unless he's stopped soon, he'll terrorize and kill everyone he can."

Tewi replied "Whoa, that sounds bad, but why do you need my help?"

Alex replied "Because we think he might be hiding somewhere in the bamboo forest. Please Tewi; can you remember seeing anything strange or ominous?"

Tewi answered "Uh…no, sorry. But I'll make you a deal, if you escort me back to Eintei safely as we search while I lead the way for you, I'll ask my fellow rabbit youkai if they've seen anything and have them help you look in the forest if they haven't. I think I should tell Eirin and Princess Kaguya about what's going on too."

"Alright, deal." Reimu replied.

Tewi said "Alright, let's go."

The young looking youkai rabbit started leading the way for Reimu and Alex through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost to help on their quest.

As they entered, Alex looked around the forest, analyzing his surroundings. He noticed that the ground was mostly flat and the bamboo trees were rather tall. When he couldn't see the edge of the forest anymore after a few minutes of walking and searching, Alex said "I can see how someone could get lost in here, there are so many bamboo trees and the ground is flat for the most part, making it appear like you weren't going anywhere even though you're moving."

Tewi mentioned "Yeah, but us youkai rabbits have been here a long time so we know how the trees around here grow and are familiar with pretty much every scent around the forest, so we really know our way through here."

"Impressive." Alex said.

As they continued through the forest, Reimu thought of something and asked "Hey Alex, what kind of abilities do you have?"

Alex informed "Well aside from being an expert sword wielder, I'm an advanced user of an ancient magic art from my dimension called metaconception. It's difficult to master, but what it is really is a power achieved through very deep meditation and strong conviction to the point you can fuse it with your own life force and then use the fused energy to bend an entire concept and do almost anything, such as flying, restoring energy, sensing what's going on across an entire planet and create special energy blasts. How well you do with it depends on how well you've developed your state of mind."

Reimu responded "Wow…that's amazing."

Tewi, who listened in, added "Yeah, who taught you how to be that strong?"

"Well…I had some good teachers in my life; let's just leave it like that." Alex answered.

As they continued walking, Reimu, Alex and Tewi came to a thick, darker part of the forest. Alex suddenly stopped, which caused Reimu and Tewi to turn around and stop too, with Reimu asking "What's wrong?"

"Something's here." Alex told the girls.

"Huh, where?" Tewi wondered as she started to get nervous.

Reimu used her aura senses to feel out the presence and felt it, there was definitely something dark watching them. Then she sensed something aiming for her head from the right and was barely in time enough to quickly back up as a shuriken went flying in front of her face and into a nearby bamboo tree. Instantly after, a bunch of ninjas made of black and red matter appeared seemingly out of nowhere, some drawing many types of single edged blades.

Two ninjas disappeared for a second and then reappeared behind Reimu for a surprise attack, but she had already sensed out what they were doing and blasted the ninjas with some energy spheres after turning around and then turned back to use some more on two other ninjas that were flying towards Reimu with their swords. Four ninjas flew into the air in front of Reimu, with two throwing stars and the other two shooting out red, eerie spheres from their hands. Reimu flew into the air to dodge and said "Fantasy Seal Spread!"

Reimu launched a bunch of powerful spiritual orbs and charms in the direction of the direction of the pursuing ninjas, who in turn dodged the attack except for one who turned into some black and red smoke after exploding before fading away. This caused Reimu to wonder what kind of opponents was she fighting as she continued her attack.

On his end, Alex was clashing swords with five ninjas that surrounded him, with occasionally dodging a slash or jab while fending of swords in front of him. His sword began to glow a sea green color a bit further into the fight and he quickly flipped his sword around to stab a ninja behind him then flipped it again to slash one in front of him. Two ninjas tried attacking him both at once from each side but he back flipped over the blades and spun around to attack them in midair, slashing the one on his left and kicking the right one in the face and then finished the right one off with a jab. The last one came rushing towards Alex with a bunch of wild sword movements but he countered by gathering some strength and then swung his sword in a fast circle, creating a ring of energy and hit the ninja who was blown away and landed on its back on the ground. As the ninja got half way up, Alex jumped in the air and defeated it with a downwards slash, finishing off his close range opponents.

He then noticed three ninjas flying around him in a complete circle in the air that started shooting energy spheres. Alex flew up into the air to dodge the assault, gathered his strength in his arms and sword and said "Dicing Twister!"

Alex spun really fast in the air with his glowing sea green sword, creating a twister made of slash waves. The ninjas were hit by the twister as they were being flung high in the sky beyond sight. When the tornado disappeared, the ninjas fell downwards through the air until they hit the ground and burst into black and red smoke which soon faded away.

Back with Reimu, she noticed that her opponents were getting used to her attack so she fired random patterned shots of charms and orbs. The ninjas weren't fazed by this new maneuver and then they started moving so fast that Reimu could barely keep up. The next moment, two ninjas combined their power spheres to create a big one that was launched at Reimu and blasted her. As she fell, the third ninja waited for her on the ground and kicked Reimu in the gut which sent her back into the air. The ninja flew behind Reimu to hit her with a charged shot, but Reimu spun around, dodged the attack, struck the ninja with a kick to the back and finished it off with a bunch of charms.

The other two launched another strong sphere at Reimu, but she countered with her Fantasy Seal Spread to cancel the opposing blow and said "Yin-Yang Orb!"

A large red orb with a yin and yang symbol suddenly appeared in front of the ninjas and destroyed them with a powerful explosion.

Alex flew over to Reimu and she wondered "Where's Tewi?"

"Eeeeeaaaaaah!"

Reimu and Alex heard Tewi's scream somewhere from the left, deeper in the forest and they immediately took off in the air towards her direction.

Before they could reach Tewi though, two ninjas flew at Reimu from both sides with swords in hand in an attempt to ambush her, but Reimu managed to detect them close to the last second and say "Duplex Barrier!"

When they ran into the barrier, it caused the ninjas to blow up while Reimu and Alex continued their flying.

Then they were ambushed by five ninjas as they threw shurikens and shot energy spheres that weakened Reimu's barrier and caused Alex to defend himself by deflecting the attacks. Reimu used her Fantasy Seal Spread move again to preserve her barrier by holding the opposing moves back and think of a way to beat the attackers in front of her. As Alex defended himself, he noticed Tewi on her back a distance away with a ninja holding his sword backwards that was getting ready to kill her execution style.

After finding an opening in the wave of attacks, Alex quickly gathered power and said "Light Speed Jab!"

He charged towards the ninja at an incredible speed, ramming his blade through the ninja's torso and then sent it flying through the forest with the energy that trailed behind him that was made by his fast movement, defeating the ninja before it could impale Tewi through her chest.

Alex looked at Tewi's wounds with a stab wound on her right shoulder and a big slash across her left hip, fabric torn where each wound was.

"Stay close to me, we're not through this ordeal yet." Alex said.

Tewi nodded in response and then flew off in Reimu's direction. As they saw her and the other ninjas swirling in through the air while launching their barrage of attacks, Alex said "Jousting Cavalry!"

Multiple energetic joust waves flew through the forest towards the ninjas, with three getting out of the way but destroying the other two.

Reimu said "Time to kick things up a notch, Fantasy Seal Worn!"

The more advanced attack overwhelmed the ninjas, destroying all but one of them which disappeared and reappeared a little ways away. It summoned ten flaming gray shurikens that circled around the ninja and then five shurikens attacked Reimu and the others went after Alex and Tewi. Every time they dodged a piece of the high speed metal, it just circled back from another angle. Reimu put up another Duplex Barrier to defend herself but the stars made quick work out of it. Alex created another Dicing Twister when he had just a moment away from dodging and the cyclone sucked up the stars that were swarming around him and Tewi, with Alex focusing his abilities to control the twister to have it move close to Reimu to suck up the shurikens around her, then finally attack the last ninja. It tried to get away, but the twister ended up sucking it up and destroying the entity before the attack disappeared.

Reimu, Alex and Tewi floated down to the ground and Reimu asked "Tewi, what happened? How did those strange…things beat you around so easily?"

"I don't know," Tewi replied "I tried using some danmaku moves, but that didn't work. Then I used my luck ability to help me give an advantage, but that didn't work on them either, even when I tried to run from them when things were getting too intense. No matter what I did, nothing worked, I don't understand. Plus their swords and attacks really stung and it's not easy to hurt a youkai so easily. Just what were those things?"

Alex informed "I've seen their kind before. Those were ninjas created through negative aura and anticonception, which is the opposite of metaconception, which is bending a negative concept with negativity of any sort to create one of the most lethal forces imaginable. Targets weak enough are erased from existence upon contact from this energy. If the target is strong, it can survive a series of hits, but it can still be erased if weakened enough. Those ninjas were a type of creation Darvedos used during the war in my home world."

"Wait, does that mean Darvedos is here?" Reimu wondered.

"Maybe, it's too soon to tell though." Alex replied. Then he looked at Tewi and said "I'm glad you're alright Tewi, those ninjas were powerful enough to erase a small city in less than a minute. Here, let me heal you."

He held out his hand in front of the young youkai rabbit girl and it flashed a green light. Her wounds disappeared and Tewi's skin didn't show even a hint of a scar nor the faintest pain.

"You saved me from the ninjas." Tewi said. Then she hugged him and said "Thank you."

Alex replied "Of course, no problem."

Reimu mentioned "I still don't get it though, why didn't Tewi's powers have any effect?"

In order to answer, Alex asked Tewi "What were you thinking about during the battle?"

"I felt surprised and afraid." Tewi told him.

Alex mentioned "Those ninjas were channeling power from a negative concept. Since Tewi was afraid, her attacks didn't affect them."

"So I just need to be calm next time?" Tewi asked.

Alex replied "Yes, and keep your focus sharp and pure while bringing out the core root of your powers. It can be a little hard, but you can do it."

Tewi said "Alright, I'll do my best. Let's keep moving."

As they went back to walking, Reimu wondered "Have you ever fought Darvedos, Alex?"

"I have but not much." Alex answered.

"What's he like?" Reimu questioned further.

Alex responded "The first time I fought him I lost almost instantly. The second time I thought I was doing well, but he was just toying with me. The only fight I ever did well was on our last one, but that was because I got a special energy boost from an old friend. In a way of speaking, those ninjas were just a small rock from the large mountain."

Reimu replied "He's that strong? Why are we searching for him ourselves?"

Alex retorted "We're just trying to find him. Fighting him will take a new plan."

After Alex spoke, everyone went back to being alert for any other assaults and eerie events.

Thankfully for them, no such thing happened and they had finally reached Eintei. Once they crossed through the stone archway, Alex looked around the area, seeing the large manor and the many youkai rabbits around it, who were taking care of the plants and gardens and other daily activities.

When they got inside, Tewi led Reimu and Alex through a hallway to the left, then turned right halfway through to another hallway. When they were halfway across, Tewi said "Wait here please."

As the young youkai went through a door to the right, Reimu and Alex leaned on the wall next to it as they waited for Tewi.

"Hey Alex, how exactly did you figure out that you were in a parallel dimension?" Reimu wondered.

Alex replied "I found out as I started reading the books Patchouli let me have. I was reading through the pages as it was talking about the beginning years of Gensokyo and it talked a little bit about Japanese history, with Japan being a country on my home world also, and the history I read about didn't match up with the history on my planet. That and learning of Atelon's and Darvedos' presence here led me to the conclusion I was in an alternate universe."

"Oh" Reimu simply responded.

Tewi emerged through the room wearing a torn free copy of her pink dress with a few carrots in her right hand.

"Um, I know it's not much but I have some fresh carrots I had picked from a garden here this morning. I would like to give them to you Alex as a thank you gift." Tewi mentioned.

Alex replied "Oh thanks, I suppose they'll be a good snack for later."

He took the carrots and put them in his right pocket.

Tewi then said "Ok, now let's go see Princess Kaguya."

When they started walking more down the hallway, a door from the left opened up with a purple haired youkai rabbit taller than Tewi accidently bumping into Alex while carrying a tray of bottled vials of many different liquids. Two vials fell off and were about to hit the floor but he grabbed both vials with his left hand and put them back on the tray.

"Oh I'm so sorry; I didn't know you were there!" The rabbit girl apologized.

"It's alright." Alex replied.

"By the way, thanks for catching those vials, you're good with your hands." The girl added.

Alex said "You're welcome. If it's ok to ask, what's your name?"

"Reisen Udongein Inaba," Reisen answered "and what's yours?"

"Alex Archwing, nice to meet you" Alex responded.

Reisen looked over to her left where she saw Reimu and Tewi standing and she said "Oh, hello Reimu. What brings you here?"

Tewi told Reisen "It's a long story Reisen and we need to tell the princess about it. You should come with to hear about what's going on."

Reisen replied "Alright, but I need to give these vials to Eirin first since she's expecting them."

"Ok, tell Eirin to come to Princess Kaguya's room too." Tewi said.

Reisen responded "Sure, I'll do that."

They walked down the rest of the hallway, with Reisen walking to the left and Tewi, Reimu and Alex to the right at the end of the hallway. The three soon took a left where some stairs were and walked straight down another hallway and entered through a door to the right near the end after climbing the stairs. Inside the room they went in were a row of windows on the left wall with a tall potted plant on each end. There was also a wood, rectangular table in the middle of the room with a row of purple cushions in front of them and another on the opposite side and a folding screen with a picture of a cherry blossom tree on it that covered most of the back wall.

"Hold on a second." Tewi said before walking behind the folding screen by herself.

Alex and Reimu heard a knock coming from a door with Tewi saying "Princess Kaguya? It's me, Tewi. Can I come in?"

Reimu and Alex heard Tewi open the door and close it, faintly hearing speech in the room, but unable to make anything out of it.

Then they heard the door open and shut again with Tewi coming back with Kaguya behind her. The door behind Reimu and Alex then opened with Eirin walking in with Reisen behind her who closed the door.

Kaguya said "Ah good, we're all present. Since it seems we'll be talking for a while, let's all sit down."

Reimu sat down in the middle row of cushions in front of her with Tewi sitting to her left and Alex to her and Kaguya sat down in the middle of the opposite row with Eirin to her left and Reisen to her right.

Kaguya looked at Alex and said "Pardon me; I don't think we've been introduced. Is this your first time here?"

Alex informed "Yes, my name is Alex Archwing, and I take it that you're the princess that Tewi mentioned?"

"Correct, I am Kaguya Houraisen, princess and master of Eintei, pleased to meet you." Kaguya replied "Over at my left here is Eintei's personal doctor, advisor and close friend of mine, Eirin Yagokoro."

"Nice to meet you" Eirin said.

Then Kaguya began to say "And to my right is-"

"Um, excuse me princess but we've already met earlier today." Reisen mentioned.

"Oh, is that so? Well never mind then." Kaguya responded "Now, Tewi mentioned that you have something to tell me?"

Reimu and Alex started telling Kaguya, Eirin and Reisen what was happening in Gensokyo lately and why they came to Eintei.

After those two were done explaining everything, Kaguya said "Goodness, that's some story. And you actually were in danger, Tewi?"

"Yeah, if it weren't for Alex, there wouldn't have been a trace of me left." Tewi confirmed.

Kaguya replied "Then on behalf of all in Eintei, thank you for saving Tewi, Alex. She helps lead the rabbit youkai around here and is dear to us."

Reisen agreed "Yes, thank you Alex. I watch over Tewi when I'm not busy and I don't know what I would do with myself if she ended up dead."

"You're welcome, it was no problem." Alex replied.

Reisen said "I need to keep a closer eye on you from now on Tewi."

Tewi sighed "I would normally say no, but considering what happened I guess you're right." Then she thought to herself _'Nuts, this is going to make it harder to pull off pranks. Oh well, I'll find a way somehow.'_

Eirin said "This sounds serious; I think we should have more security watches around the clock. We should change the daily schedules around to make things more manageable."

Tewi mentioned "I was going to ask the other rabbit youkai if they had seen anything and get them to help search for Darvedos in the forest."

Kaguya replied "Sounds like a good plan, let's make the arrangements."

So everyone stood up and left the room, with Kaguya and Eirin going into Kaguya's bedroom to discuss and make a new schedule for the inhabitants of Eintei and Tewi, Reisen, Reimu and Alex headed outside to gather up and talk to the youkai after walking through the mansion.

Outside in the backyard, Reimu and Alex could see a large silver bell held up with a strong metal bar that was supported by four steel beams on a large stone platform they walked onto. There was a red rope coming out from underneath the bell and Reisen came up to it and Reisen walked over and pulled on it, causing the bell to sound. The other rabbit youkai heard it ring and they rushed to the backyard as Reisen continued ringing the bell. When the inhabitants were all present in the yard, Reisen stopped ringing the bell and Tewi announced to the crowd "Alright everyone, listen up. There's been some unsettling activity outside the forest lately and there is reason to believe that the being responsible may be hiding here in the forest. So, has anyone seen anything strange or unusual in the forest lately? Raise your hand if you have."

Nobody ended up raising their hand which made Tewi pause and say "Okay, everyone who hasn't seen anything strange or unusual raise your hand."

Everyone in the crowd raised their hand in response and Reimu asked "Why did you basically ask the same question twice?"

"Just to make sure and to buy me some time to think of what to say next." Tewi answered. Then she turned back to the crowd and said "Alright, here's what we're going to do then. We're going to have thirty of us stay and look after the princess and Eintei while the rest of us split into groups of six to search the whole forest. If anything looks suspicious, contact the rest of the groups via ESP signals. Do not handle the problem by yourself. Meeting adjourned."

While the groups were getting organized, Tewi walked up to Reimu and Alex and asked "Can you two join my group?"

"Of course" replied Alex.

Reimu added "It's only natural that we do this since we were searching for Darvedos in the first place."

Reisen walked up to them next and said "I think I'm going to stay here to look after Eintei. I know it goes without saying but please watch over Tewi."

"It's alright, we'll be fine." Reimu assured Reisen.

A little while after, the groups were assembled and all the search groups then left Eintei to search for Darvedos. They searched for hours, but they didn't find a single clue to his whereabouts. A bit past dusk, everyone decided to call it a day and go back to Eintei.

Once they returned, Kaguya, Eirin and Reisen were waiting at the entrance, with Kaguya saying "Since you have all worked hard, I decided to throw a large banquet for you. It's over inside the dining hall."

Everyone started getting excited and all but Reimu, Alex, Tewi, Reisen, Eirin and Kaguya rushed in the manor.

Reimu's stomach gurgled unexpectedly, causing her to feel embarrassed and say "And here I was hoping to eat soon before that happened."

Alex said "Thank you for your kindness Princess Kaguya, you're quite thoughtful."

"You're welcome Alex, please go ahead and eat. Also, just call me Kaguya." Kaguya replied.

Suddenly though, Mokou came walking out of the forest and said "Kaguya!"

Kaguya made an upset look on her face and asked "What do you want?"

"I came for the usual." Mokou told her.

"Just after I ate and before I was about to take a relaxing bath. As typically for you, your insolence has no end." Kaguya scoffed before declaring "Let's take this to the courtyard behind Eintei."

Kaguya and Mokou walked around the manor with Reisen and Eirin have worried and upset looks on their faces as they followed them.

Alex wondered "What was that about?"

Reimu said "I'll tell you at the dinner table."

Reimu, Tewi and Alex then walked into the palace.

Halfway through dinner, Reimu started telling Alex about what happened after taking a bite out of a bread roll.

"Remember that white haired woman we saw earlier? That was Fujiwara no Mokou." informed Reimu.

Alex responded "That was her!? Why were Kaguya and Mokou so uneasy around each other?"

Reimu explained as he was eating some fried rice "Well from what I've heard, it all goes back over a thousand years ago. You see, Kaguya used to be a selfish princess who lived on the moon, with Eirin serving under her. One day, Kaguya decides that she should have something called the Hourai Elixir for herself to drink, which was said to make whoever consumed it immortal. She requested Eirin to make the elixir and with helping her out a little, Eirin managed to create the Hourai Elixir, which Kaguya drank from. On the moon however, the elixir was forbidden to make by law, so when the higher ups learned of what Kaguya had done, they turned her into a small baby and threw her into exile onto the earth. This caused Eirin to feel guilty over what happened to her friend since she wasn't found out and was mainly the one made the elixir in the first place."

"Whoa that sounds harsh. Being turned into a baby and then forced to live on an unfamiliar world in such a defenseless state." Alex replied.

Reimu continued after drinking water from her cup "Yes, but she was eventually found by an old bamboo cutter while he was working, and brought her home to show his wife and they ended up adopting her. After that, every time the bamboo cutter chopped bamboo, he would always find that their stems were of gold and he eventually became rich. Eirin told me the reason for this was due to an unforeseen side effect of the spell the lunarians used to banish Kaguya that affected the bamboo trees around the area. Plus the spell that turned her into a baby wore off and she became a full grown young woman again in mere months. As time went on, stories were being told of Kaguya's amazing beauty which caused many men to seek her out and woo her. Kaguya however kept herself concealed in the large palace that her adoptive father had built for her family to live in, with no man outside family friends being able to see her. Then five powerful, influential rich men came to the palace seeking Kaguya's hand in marriage, with one of them being Mokou's father. Kaguya's adoptive father suggested that she should marry one of the five men, but she was repulsed by the idea since they only came to marry her for her looks. So she told each man through a letter that she would only marry one who could complete five requests for rare and special items that were said to be impossible to get. After learning this, the five men set out to complete the requests, although they each failed, with some being caught for cheating with fake copies of the items and others dying on their quest to retrieve the items, which were later revealed to be in Kaguya's possession the whole time, explaining why the requests were impossible to begin with. Mokou and the rest of her family grieved over the loss of her father and Mokou grew to despise Kaguya for her trick."

Alex responded "Whoa, that's shocking. I had no idea Kaguya did something so underhanded."

Reimu continued "I heard from Kaguya that she didn't actually mean for anyone to die, just to leave her alone. But moving on, the stories of Kaguya's beauty came to reach the emperor of Japan and he ended up wishing to see her beauty as well, and through letter he told Kaguya that he insisted that she see him at his palace. Kaguya refused to see the emperor though, so what he did was organize a hunting trip near her home and snuck away from it unnoticed in an attempt to see her. The emperor's plan worked, surprising Kaguya, and he asked her to marry him. She outwardly refused of course, with the emperor leaving empty handed. They did however exchange letters with each other and through those, they became close friends. Then one night, Eirin snuck down to the earth to tell her that powerful emissaries from the moon would come soon to take her back to her former home, and this made Kaguya very depressed as she loved her new life on earth. Soon her parents noticed her sad state and she told them the truth about who she was and what was going to happen. Her new parents didn't want her to leave, so the father told the emperor about what was going to happen and he sent two thousand soldiers to Kaguya's palace to defend her. When the emissaries arrived, they overwhelmed the soldiers and her parents ended up being the only thing between them and getting Kaguya back. The emissaries demanded that Kaguya wear a magical feathered robe which would cause her to forget her life on earth. Not wishing to see harm to her parents, Kaguya surrendered while making a final request. She wrote a final letter to the emperor and told her adoptive father to give a Hourai Elixir she made herself to him too before thanking her parents for everything they did for her. Then the emissaries put the robe around Kaguya after collecting the rare and special items they allowed her to take with and she fell into a deep sleep. With their mission completed, the emissaries left for the moon while taking Kaguya home with them. The parents grieved over the loss of their daughter and soon became ill, but the old bamboo cutter honored his daughter's last wish and gave the things Kaguya requested to give to the emperor to an army officer. The officer returned to the emperor and delivered Kaguya's letter and the Hourai Elixir. After he read the letter, the emperor became so upset that he couldn't live with the pain that Kaguya was gone so he told another officer by the name of Iwakasa to go to the tallest mountain near the sky and burn the Hourai Elixir."

Once he finished the carrots Tewi gave him earlier, Alex said "Wow this is a sad story."

Reimu said "Yeah, but here's the part not many people know about. Eirin was one of the emissaries from the moon and the robe Kaguya was wearing was a fake designed by Eirin that she secretly switched with the real one before the emissaries left for earth, with the fake one only causing Kaguya to sleep. Before Kaguya was going to be presented to the higher ups, Eirin privately woke her up with an injection and told Kaguya that she was going to be assassinated by members of a religious sect that the other emissaries were a part of, which was from a temple on the moon that enforced the law regarding the Hourai Elixir. As they made their escape, the other emissaries tried to stop them but Eirin killed them all and they both fled back to earth to a remote island with bamboo trees. Kaguya and Eirin used their abilities to conceal their presence and after meeting Tewi Inaba and the other earth rabbits, both groups made a deal to live in harmony with each other and Eirin built Eintei for Kaguya, herself and the earth rabbits to live in."

"Okay, but how does Mokou live now with us in the present?" Alex asked.

Reimu went on "I'll get to that. Now Iwakasa, the officer I mentioned earlier, was taking it to a mountain that would later be called Mt. Fuji with a small army of men. Mokou learned of Iwakasa's plan and decided that if she was going to avenge her father and restore her family's honor, she would need to take the Hourai Elixir and therefore humiliate Kaguya the only way she figured she could since she thought it was Kaguya's last request and was never going to see her again. So she followed Iwakasa up the mountain until they came across a territorial goddess at the top named Konohana-Sakuyahime, who told them to turn back since the mountain was active anyway. When Iwakasa tried to light the elixir on fire regardless, Sakuyahime got angry, stopped the fire and started killing Iwakasa's men. Iwakasa surrendered and asked her if there were any taller mountains before leaving. The goddess said there was, but before he could leave with the Hourai Elixir, Mokou snatched it and drank it after deciding to become immortal herself before fleeing him. Back in her homeland however, news of what Mokou done reached there and the incident was said to be an insolent act against the emperor, causing villagers at home to despise her. The hatred got so intense that it caused Mokou to flee from her home. Hundreds of years had passed and a strong typhoon caused the island with the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and Eintei on it to merge with Gensokyo. Kaguya and Mokou discovered each other soon after since Mokou was already living in Gensokyo starting a few centuries back and they started a bloody feud that lasts even today, with Mokou fighting Kaguya after what she did to her family and Kaguya fighting Mokou after learning she stole a valuable gift from a dear friend that she thought she would never see again, killing each other endlessly thanks to the power of the Hourai Elixir."

Alex replied "Whoa, what a story. And yet the way they ended up is…tragic. Have you ever tried to break up their fighting?"

Reimu answered "I have, but they got really mad when I did. One time I invited them both to a party and when they saw each other, they got mad and went outside to kill each other. I had to learn to take turns inviting them when it came to parties after that. I've heard that people who they don't know end up in a world of hurt if they try to stop their fighting. Tewi, Reisen and at rare occasions Eirin try to convince them to stop, but they just won't listen. But aside from all of that, they're both nice girls and are good friends of mine."

Alex said "Wait, I thought the elixir prevented people from getting killed."

Reimu explained "It does in a way. Those who drink it never grow old or get sick. If they get injured they get healed instantly, or if they get their limbs chopped off they get them back in a few weeks, or even if they're dealt with a fatal blow or complete annihilation they are instantly and completely revived."

Alex whistled in amazement and said "That's some drink. Hey, if Eirin never drank from the elixir, how is she alive?"

"Oh that? She's just really good with magic and medicine." Reimu bluntly stated as she looked back to her plate which was now missing.

"Where did my plate go?" Reimu wondered.

Suddenly they saw Tewi rush out from underneath the table with Reimu's plate in her hands and she teased "Thanks for the food Reimu, it'll make yummy leftovers! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Reimu ran after her saying "Hey, get back here!"

Alex slightly chuckled at the scene until he thought of something. He left his polished off dinner plate at the table and walked out of the manor.

As he walked around Eintei, he thought _'This isn't right. Those two girls killing each other endlessly. I can't allow them to do that. It's not just and not the way to settle things. Now, where's that courtyard?'_

When Reimu got her plate back from Tewi, Reimu started eating the last part of her dinner until she noticed Alex was gone.

"Where did Alex go?" Tewi wondered.

Back outside, Alex found the courtyard around the back left corner of the mansion while poking his head out from the slanted roof on top of one of the walls. He could see Reisen and Eirin standing near the wall to the right, with Reisen having a defeated look on her face and with Eirin, a serious one. In the middle of the court were Kaguya and Mokou, exchanging hand to hand combat moves before flying away from each other and shooting projectiles, with Kaguya firing many colored spheres and Mokou firing many scorching fireballs, and the walls took the missing blows with no problem somehow. In order, Kaguya and Mokou each used a special move.

"Lunar Ilmenite!"

"Forewarning of St. Germain!"

The two attacks collided, creating an explosion that Mokou flew straight through and hit Kaguya with a flaming punch to her torso. Mokou used three more blows to Kaguya's face and then sent her flying onto the ground with a flaming kick. Kaguya quickly got back up and fired five random moving spheres that confused and hit Mokou. She got her momentum back after falling through the air a little and Mokou backed away from Kaguya to the other side of the courtyard and they both charged up some more moves, with no one knowing Alex had jumped high into the air.

"Fire Bird – Flying Phoenix!"

"Brilliant Dragon Bullet!"

Mokou unleashed a big red hot flame in the shape of a phoenix and Kaguya unleashed a trail of rainbow colored bullets being led by one with the shape of the head of a dragon. But before the attacks could clash, Alex landed in the middle of the courtyard, surprising everyone there and made two large square sea green barriers in front of his palms with the right facing Kaguya and the left facing Mokou. The barriers met the attacks and held them until the girls' moves died down, with the barriers disappearing afterwards.

"Who are you?" Mokou questioned Alex.

"Alex Archwing," Alex informed her "and I'm here to end this fight."

"Alex, what on earth are you doing!? This is a personal matter!" Kaguya scolded.

Reimu and Tewi then found Alex as they entered through the archway on the southwest wall and Reimu said "Oh boy, this could get ugly."

Mokou told Alex "You really should listen to us, mind your own business. Or do you really want to upset some immortals like us?"

"No, slaughtering one another is not going to change the past or bring you peace. The only thing it will do is destroy your bodies but not the inner pain inside you." Alex replied.

"And what would you know about it?" Mokou coldly asked.

Alex mentioned "Reimu told me all about you and Kaguya, how you got to hate one another and how you both got where you are today, Fujiwara no Mokou."

"That's none of your business!" Mokou shouted.

"Making peace and working together is everyone's business." Alex said.

Mokou growled "Listen peace maker, get out of the way or I'll make you rest in peace."

Alex responded "I am well trained, I will not be moved."

Mokou flared up "Honestly I swear, you are so-!"

"Enough!" Kaguya yelled, cooling Mokou's rage against Alex. She looked over at Reimu and then said "I believe Reimu and Alex have overstayed their welcome. Eirin, please escort them out."

Eirin sighed and then said "Reimu, Alex come with me."

Before Eirin could perform her command though, a few screams sounded through the nighttime air.

Reisen mentioned "Uh Eirin, wasn't that-?"

"I know, two voices of the rabbits I hired for the new night patrol." Eirin added, finishing Reisen's statement.

Next everyone noticed all the lights in the manor with the screams of everyone inside it sounding moments after.

Tewi quietly said to herself "Ok Tewi be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave."

"What's going on?" Reisen wondered.

Then after a long pause, everyone in the courtyard heard a whisper in the dark.

"…heh heh heh…"

Eirin summoned her bow seemingly out of thin air and said "Who's there?"

For a few brief moments, there was nothing but silence.

"What a surprise, a bunch of young women, a young girl and a lonesome swordsman in a deep dark forest. You know, really bad things can happen in a type of setting like this. Two of you were even stupid enough to injure yourselves, never expecting a situation like this. How unfortunate for you… but how convenient for me, heh heh heh heh." A voice suddenly spoke.

Reisen said "Where are you?"

The voice replied "Ah, that's a good question. I could be anywhere. I could be behind some trees, I could be in the roof of the building, I could be underground, I could be-"

Reisen then shot at the wall behind her and the voice finished "there, although I wasn't. Heh heh heh heh heh."

Reisen looked puzzled for some reason and Reimu asked "What's wrong?"

"I thought I felt something poke my right shoulder…" Reisen replied.

Tewi mentioned "I didn't see anything."

Mokou responded "Enough! Show yourself!"

"Oh? You want me to show myself? Is the great Fujiwara no Mokou afraid to play in the dark?" The voice laughed.

"You're a coward." Mokou spat.

"Ooh, you think I'm a coward? Hmmm…well alright, since you're all going to die soon, I suppose I can grant you this last request." The voice said.

A creepy ghost like shadow slowly emerged from the darkness of the wall across from Reimu into the moonlight on the ground with an orange smile suddenly appearing on it.

"As I said before, bad things happen in the dark and in a way, I am it." Slyvek said while materializing into his pitch black humanoid shape.

**\- Author's note -**

**Ok, that chapter was a little larger than I thought it would be, but it's done now.**

**For those who didn't know, the story Reimu talked about was based off of Kaguya's and Mokou's official backstory with a little creative and experimental tweaking by myself. I'm not saying mine is better of course, just that it's more easy to use in this story.**

**Anyway, Slyvek will be in action soon and I think you may find his fighting kind of neat. I'll have the next chapter up sometime soon.**

**-nostalgic1**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Shadows and Snares

Everyone cautiously stared at Slyvek's strange and mysterious form, never seeing such a bizarre being in all of Gensokyo.

"Who are you?" Reimu questioned.

"My name is Slyvek, a powerful servant of Lord Darvedos, the great being who shall soon be master of all creation." Slyvek informed.

Eirin inquired "What brings you here? What have you done with the other youkai here?"

Slyvek answered "Heh heh, who knows? I'm on a tight schedule so I didn't spend much time with them, although they were easily subdued. As to why I'm here, well… I actually got what I came here for, I'm just tying up loose ends."

"What does that mean?" Mokou asked.

Slyvek laughed and clarified "I came for you, Mokou and Kaguya. My master isn't in the best of shape due to an unfortunate accident, so in order to restore him to his former glory, he needs LOTS of negative energy which can stem through the feelings of others or other chaotic phenomenon. Lord Darvedos sensed that the two immortal girls had rich amounts and he sent me to collect the energy. As I spied on both of my targets, I had sent some minions to ensure that my collecting would not be disturbed by traveling outsiders."

"So you're the one who sent those ninjas!" Reimu retorted.

Slyvek grinned "Yes, and I must pay you back for your little intrusion, especially you Alex Archwing. Ooh, wait until my master hears that I found and killed you and your little company, I'll have wrapped things up better than he expected."

"Big talk for someone who's outnumbered." Mokou mentioned.

Slyvek laughed "Ha ha ha ha ha! Oh you don't need to worry about me, I have plenty enough strength to deal with you on my own, and aside from that, when did I ever say I was alone?"

Slyvek snapped his fingers and fifty of those red and black ninjas instantly appeared high above in the trees.

Tewi said "Oh that makes sense…"

Mokou mentioned "This is ridiculous, you know if you even manage to kill us, Kaguya and I will just be revived."

Slyvek replied "Hee hee hee, just let me worry about that."

He then pointed to his henchmen up above and next down to the opposing team in front of him, signaling the ninjas to descend on their opponents like a swarm.

Reimu aimed upwards with her purification rod and said "Yin-Yang Scattering!"

Eirin did likewise with her bow saying "Genealogy of the Sky-Born!"

The many red symbolic orbs from Reimu and the wave of shining blue arrows from Eirin launched into the air against the ninjas in a wide, complex and alluring pattern that blasted and defeated six ninjas, plus scattering the rest.

Half of the ninjas landed on the ground with sword in hand while the other half remained in various points in the air. Making sure that there wasn't going to be an ambush from above, Reimu, Eirin and Kaguya flew into the air fighting the ninjas while Alex, Reisen, Tewi and Mokou fought the ones bellow.

Down on the ground, Tewi was moving as fast as she could while dodging six ninjas with their rapid sword movements. Taking Alex's advice to heart, she channeled her concentration and shouted "Jeweled Rabbit!"

Four large ruby colored spheres appeared around Tewi and two each hit and destroyed a ninja before bouncing and doing the same to another opponent around her. The other two spheres were sliced by the last two ninjas surrounding Tewi and then they sliced the other two orbs coming towards them. Before both ninjas could stab Tewi, which Tewi knew she could dodge with ease, Reisen leapt into the air and said "Visionary Tuning!"

The taller youkai rabbit fired some red and blue distorting bullets that flew in a confusing patterns from her index and middle fingers from both her hands, hitting and defeating Tewi's last two ninjas before she landed next to her.

"I was doing ok, you know." mentioned Tewi.

"I know, I was just helping out." Reisen informed before they were surrounded by six more ninjas.

Mokou was moving quickly around the battlefield, fighting five ninjas of her own as she shot fireballs in rapid succession, but with no effect.

'_Ugh!' _Mokou thought _'I'm too upset over this! I need to concentrate more clearly. Alright then…'_

Mokou took a deep breath and closed her eyes for an instant before opening them and successfully hitting one of her targets with a fireball, with the ninja falling on its back. She then noticed two ninjas had caught up to her so Mokou jumped over the swinging blades and performed a midair split with each foot kicking each ninja in the face. The two ninjas backed up a little from being hit, then charged towards Mokou to stab her simultaneously, but she responded by spinning around the ninja to her right and kicked it on the back, making her two attackers pierce through each other, and finished them off with an intense wave of fire. The ninja that was on its back came dashing over to slice her, so Mokou grabbed the ninja by its left arm, kicked its chest with her left leg, threw her opponent around in the air and finally slammed it head first into the ground before defeating it with rapid shot fireballs. As she saw the last two of her opponents come after her, Mokou put her right hand behind her back then thrust it in front of the oncoming attackers saying "Phoenix's Tail!"

Five large jet streams of flames emerged from her hands, generating fireballs and waves of flame between each one, and the attack overwhelmed and defeated the ninjas.

Two more ninjas suddenly appeared in front of Mokou, wildly swinging their swords as Mokou backed up while looking for an opening. She soon learned that Alex was behind her fighting some ninjas off with his own sword, back to back with her.

As he fended off the swords on his end, Alex said "For your first time fighting these kinds of enemies, you sure are doing well."

Mokou replied "Of course, I've had centuries of experience so it's rather obvious. Besides, Kaguya told me that I would likely be fighting these things anyway."

"Really? I thought Kaguya didn't like you." expressed Alex.

Mokou explained "She doesn't, but since I was going to be traveling more through the forest later, she figured I could take some of these foes out so she wouldn't have to worry about them herself and told me all that she knew about them. By the way, let's switch."

"Good idea." Alex agreed.

Alex swung around to Mokou's opponents with a strong swing from his sword that blew the ninjas' sword movements back and defeated them with a horizontal wave slash that cut them in half. At the same time, Mokou turned around with a huge burst of fire and defeated Alex's opponents.

"Alex, watch out!" Tewi suddenly warned as she and Reisen were still fighting the ninjas on their end.

Alex turned to his right and was just barely in time to block Slyvek's high speed incoming attack, pressing his sword against the blade of his scythe of the odd shadow entity. Slyvek then tried hitting Alex with a fast series of slashes while laughing maniacally with a bloodlust grin. Alex blocked all the moves, then jumped over Slyvek as he turned in midair for better mobility, but the scythe wielder spun in crazy fast circles before launching into the air and hitting Alex with the rapid, sharp movements of Slyvek's spin, sending him flying to the other side of the courtyard. Alex got up and noticed that Slyvek was coming after him with his spin tactic, so just before Slyvek could hit him again, he jumped off the ground, then off the incoming scythe, and lastly kicked Slyvek in the face, stopping his spinning in the process. Alex hit Slyvek with a combo of slashes and then thrust his sword strongly, which sent Slyvek flying into the wall on the opposite side of the courtyard.

After he instantly got back up, Slyvek remarked "Not bad, but I'm still getting warmed up."

Meanwhile in the air, Reimu, Eirin and Kaguya had already defeated half of the flying ninjas in the air.

Eirin was evading some red, rotating circles of energy spheres that were being controlled by a trio of ninjas. They were trying to make their attacks move in the most difficult way they could, but Eirin was dodging the rings with ease. After some orbs got in the way of their sight, Eirin had vanished, causing the ninjas to wonder where she went.

The next thing they heard was Eirin's voice from above say "Mercury Sea!"

When the ninjas looked up, they saw Eirin fire some silver colored spheres that rained down from her left hand, vaporizing her adversaries with strong chemical explosions.

As for Kaguya, she was dodging a bunch of shurikens from three ninjas that were quickly circling around her. She summoned a black wand with a gold metal piece connected to a glowing red gem that looked like it had image of lava in it, which served as the tip. Holding the wand in the air, she said "Red Stone of Aja!"

Intense red waves of heat melted the metal stars and torched the ninjas. Kaguya descended a bit down in the air, summoned a diamond carved bowl of some sort and said "Buddha Diamond!"

Bright lights erupted from the bowl, blasting the ninjas after they failed to dodge the impending attack.

Reimu went after the last four of the flying ninjas, but then they disappeared from her sight. She managed to sense that they reappeared a distance away behind her above Eintei, so she turned around and saw the ninjas performing a familiar attack.

"Oh great, here we go again." Reimu spoke sarcastically.

Each of the four ninjas made ten gray flaming shurikens for a total of forty and then made them fly all over the area. After Tewi and Reisen had defeated their last opponents with danmaku and after Slyvek backed away with his usual grin, some of the fast flaming pieces of metal took Tewi, Reisen, Alex and Mokou by surprise and were all being hit by the barrage as were Eirin, Reimu and Kaguya.

Luckily one by one, they each got their composure back and started successfully dodging the shurikens as they jolted around. Reisen and Tewi could see that the ninjas that were busy controlling their moves through odd arm movements were near them to their left up above, so as Reisen's eyes started glowing red, she said "Mind Blowing Hypnosis!"

Some transparent hypnotic waves that came from her eyes hit the ninjas, distorting their focus and confused them before launching multiple red and blue bullets at the ninjas, which hit their targets.

Reisen said to Tewi "Let's finish them off."

Tewi agreed "Alright." She aimed for the ninjas and said "Great Fortune Crest!"

"Myopic Firework!" Reisen added.

Tewi shot out a yellow orb of energy as Reisen shot a red one that both went between the four ninjas. After they just got back their focus back from Reisen's last move, the girls' orbs burst, showering the henchmen with huge amounts of yellow bullets from Tewi's orb and a bunch of red colored explosions from Reisen's, completely obliterating the ninjas.

Once Reimu, Kaguya and Eirin had their feet back on the ground, Alex told Tewi "See? You did fine after focusing the right way."

Tewi grinned "Yeah, they do get sort of easy when you know what to do."

"Hey, where did Slyvek go?" wondered Reisen.

Everyone looked around but they saw no presence of the shady being, so Alex and Reimu used their abilities to sense him out. But before they could discover where he was, huge shadowy hands emerged from the darkness of the manor behind them and each held Reimu, Alex, Reisen, Tewi and Eirin in their grasps. Kaguya and Mokou were seized by smaller hands that restrained their limbs with the arms extending into the air. Slyvek flew out of the shadows of the trees, strangely without his scythe, hovering in front of the two girls in the air as he said "I must say, I never expected all of you to prove to be such a challenge. Had I known, I would have brought more pawns with me. Now I'll have to deal with you all myself, but I don't mind since you're not capable of beating me."

Reisen could tell that Slyvek was going to do something bad to Kaguya and Mokou, so she attempted to use her mental powers but then yelled out in pain when the hand that held her squeezed her a bit.

"Uh uh uh, it's rude to interrupt someone when they're working." Slyvek said with a grin "By the way everyone, what do you think of my power? I have the ability to completely control shadows, allowing me not only to turn into a shadow but also to manipulate the shadows of the people and things around me and give them physical form, even to the point of turning them into different shapes. You know if you think about it, the almost full moon is shining clearly throughout the forest, giving me THOUSANDS of shadows at my disposal. Not that I needed the moonlight and so many shadows to begin with, but I must say that it's terribly convenient."

Kaguya said "It doesn't matter though, no matter how many shadows you send to attack Mokou and I, we'll just regenerate."

Slyvek replied "You know what? You're right. I can't get rid of you permanently through my own methods. However, my master gave me a nice gift before I went on my mission."

Slyvek reached inside his pitch black essence and took out the glowing red knives Darvedos gave him a while ago, one in each hand.

"He gave me a twin set of special knives he made especially for you two girls. One stab from any one of them will rid you of your immortality and kill you. Heh heh heh heh." Slyvek mentioned.

Kaguya and Mokou felt a strange and uncomfortable feeling in their bodies simply for being in the presence of the knives, feeling as if their immortality was starting to fade inside them.

Just before Slyvek could stab both girls in the chest, Alex shot a laser beam from his left hand that hit and stunned the dark being after he freed himself by overpowering the hand that held him with brute force. Then he fired another laser that destroyed the arm that held him and the other arms that held his teammates without hurting them, with the arms disappearing and reappearing in the places they belonged to. The instant later Slyvek got his focus back, he saw Kaguya's left fist and Mokou's right fist starting to glow and they both punched him in the face, making him drop the knives as he flew backwards from the impact he received. After Slyvek stopped himself being launched through the forest further, he saw Alex had chased him down, hit Slyvek with a series of slashes, launched him into the air with an upwards slash before using his Jousting Cavalry move to boost Slyvek over the forest and then flew to Slyvek's left, striking him with a point blank Light Speed Jab, causing the shady entity to fly and crash hard on the other side of the forest.

Alex flew back to Eintei and landed on the ground where the rest of the group was. Mokou looked at Alex and told him "Don't think things will improve with me and Kaguya, or much between us either."

"Envious Doppelganger!" Yelled Slyvek from somewhere.

Everyone's shadow materialized and started choking their casters. They saw Slyvek appear out of the darkness of Eintei with scythe in hand in front of them, swinging his weapon rapidly making purple slash waves of shadow magic.

"Why are you choking yourselves?" Slyvek taunted while laughing.

After Reisen gazed at Slyvek to stun and confuse him, she adjusted her arms around to rapidly shoot her own shadow and defeat it before she did the same to Kaguya's and Mokou's, freeing them. Eirin created an energy arrow in her right hand that she used to stab her shadow in the head to free herself and then shot Tewi's shadow through the side of its head to free her. As for Reimu and Alex, she adjusted her arms to put charms on her shadow to beat it, and he flipped his sword around to stab his shadow in the gut then sliced it in half when it lost its grip on his neck.

Just as about Slyvek was going to get his focus back, Mokou rushed up to him and unleashed a combo of flaming punches and kicks before sending him into the sky with an uppercut. Eirin successfully shot multiple arrows at him and Tewi used her Jeweled Rabbit move, having the ruby colored spheres in the air gather and damage Slyvek with explosions as he fell on one after another through the air. As Slyvek continued to fall, Kaguya used her Buddha Diamond technique along with Reisen and her Visionary Tuning, striking him with a strong combo move. Reimu and Alex made a combination as well, combining Reimu's Fantasy Seal Spread and Alex's Dicing Twister into a bright, powerful magic cyclone that really wreaked havoc on the dark fiend.

Slyvek fell straight to the ground after that, remaining still for a long moment. Then he hovered back into the sky with an ominous purple aura.

Slyvek grumbled "So…you want to get on my bad side? Then so be it! Midnight Snare!"

He then summoned thousands of shadows from the bamboo trees to surround his adversaries, turning the shadows into long, sharp spikes.

Reimu, Alex, Tewi, Reisen, Eirin, Kaguya and Mokou all formed a circular stance in the air where everyone was facing the shadows and blasting away at the incoming projectiles, creating a radiant and intense scene.

Huge waves of explosions were spread throughout the sky, which suddenly cleared up in a few seconds with Reimu, Alex and the rest of their team still standing.

"What happened to Slyvek?" Tewi wondered.

Suddenly they heard him laughing behind them and he had a huge shadow that looked like it belonged to the manor hovering above his left hand that he held in the air.

"You've got to be kidding…" Tewi responded.

The shadow then turned into the shape of a giant drill and Slyvek made it move in for the attack.

"I've got this." Eirin informed.

She held out her right hand in front of the large approaching shadow, creating multiple blue and red rings of bullets that were generating a bright light at the center. Then the light fired an intense laser as the magic bullets fused with it to fuel the attack, with Eirin saying "Apollo 13!"

The intense laser collided with the huge black drill, destroying the powerful shadow Slyvek made. As for Slyvek himself, he had once again disappeared from sight.

Feeling tired, Reisen wondered "How much more can this guy dish out?"

"I sensed his aura a little bit ago, he doesn't have much left." answered Reimu.

The next moment, Slyvek abruptly swooped down from the left while spinning with his scythe with rapid, random shape shifting shadows circling around him, hitting everyone as he blurted out in a rage "Berserk Shadow Dance!"

Reimu, Alex and the rest of the team got in control of their movements in the air, and Eirin quickly ascended above Slyvek and shot him in the head with an arrow, stopping his attack. Mokou charged at him after that, but Slyvek either dodged or blocked her close melee moves, then took her by the right arm to swing her around and throw her at Kaguya, who was trying to hit him with a charged attack before Mokou crashed into her. Eirin shot more arrows at Slyvek, but he deflected them back, hurting her before making a bunch of purple slice waves that injured Tewi and Reisen. Alex blitzed over next and punched Slyvek in the face with his left hand and said "Action Ace Siege!"

Glowing sea green with aura, Alex dealt out strong punch, kick and slash combos on his opponent until he threw a mighty punch that made Slyvek feel like he got hit by a bus as he flew a bit back through the air.

Mokou declared to Slyvek "I've had enough of you!"

She flew above the shadow user and struck Slyvek with a burning downwards kick as they moved straight back down to the courtyard. Before they landed, Mokou yelled "South Wind, Clear Sky –Fujiyama Volcano!"

Upon landing, Slyvek was hit with an intense burst of powerful fire that had flames flying all over the courtyard. When the attack was over Slyvek attempted to get up, but then he saw Reimu above him saying "Yin-Yang Orb!"

As the large orb descended, Slyvek said "Oh shoot…"

BANG!

As he was flung into the air from the impact of the explosion, Slyvek let go of his scythe that spun up high, and then he landed on his chest near the back wall of the court as his weapon landed next to him to the left of his head, the blade stuck into the ground.

Reimu, Alex, Tewi, Reisen, Eirin, Kaguya and Mokou landed in the middle of the area and Tewi said with a grin of her own "Now what were you saying about having enough power to beat us?"

"AAAAAGH! How did I lose so terribly!? I had the advantage!" shrieked Slyvek as he struggled getting up.

"An advantage can only be an advantage when used properly." Kaguya philosophized.

Eirin added "You were also rather unrealistic, thinking you had us beat when you didn't strategized accurately."

Slyvek yelled "Even though I'm one of my lord's elites!? OOH! You will rue the day you messed with me and Lord Darvedos' ambitions! GRAGH!"

Slyvek took his scythe and turned into his shadow form, quickly going over the wall and zipping through the forest.

Everyone then breathed in and out after fighting as hard as they did, with Kaguya, Mokou and Reisen bending their legs and resting the hands on their knees and Tewi plopping down on her back, deciding "I'm gonna need a nap soon…"

Reisen said "That was some fight, but at least it's over."

"Kaguya?" Mokou spoke up.

"What is it?" Kaguya asked.

"Let's finish our fight another day. I hate to admit it, but I don't have enough strength to deal with you right now." Mokou stated.

Kaguya replied "Neither do I, it's agreed."

Reimu said "Phew that was quite the workout."

Alex concurred "Yeah, although I wonder what Darvedos will do next."

Tewi mentioned "You two are ridiculously strong, you know that?"

Eirin said "Reisen, come with me. We need to see how everyone else around Eintei is doing."

"Of course." replied Reisen.

"Let's all pitch in." suggested Kaguya.

Everyone agreed and went inside the manor.

During the passing minutes, they learned that Slyvek and his ninjas hadn't injured any of the other rabbit youkai greatly and applied whatever was needed to make them feel better. Kaguya then ordered the inhabitants of Eintei to fix the damage around the manor, even around the courtyard which Kaguya told Alex that Eirin made for the duels she had with Mokou.

Over at the entrance, Reimu, Alex, Tewi, Reisen, Eirin, Kaguya and Mokou gathered to talk, with Kaguya saying "On behalf of Eintei, thank you Reimu and Alex for dealing with the assassins earlier."

Reimu replied "Of course, you're welcome."

"And I would like to thank you personally Alex for rescuing me earlier." Kaguya added.

"Glad to help." responded Alex.

Mokou said with a bow "Alex, we didn't meet on the most honorable of terms and for that, I apologize for my rudeness, forgive me."

"It's alright." spoke Alex.

Mokou continued as she stood back up "I would like for you and Reimu to know that I will assist you both in your search for Darvedos, and also that you have my thanks for saving my life and my respect, Alex."

"Oh, thanks Mokou." Alex said.

Kaguya mentioned "From now on, you are welcome here freely, Alex. But please do not try to stop me and Mokou from fighting. I know you mean well and that's good, but it's a very deep matter."

Alex frowned until everyone heard clapping and saw that it was coming from Yukari hovering down from a portal with Chen and Ran following behind her.

The portal shut and Yukari said "Well, well, very nice Reimu and Alex, you did a good job. I see I had no reason to step in to help."

Reisen asked "Wait, did you see our fight?"

"Why yes I did." clarified Yukari.

"Why didn't you help us?" Tewi inquired.

Yukari explained "Because you all handled it so good, as I expected you would."

Everyone in front of her had an irritated look on their face except for Alex and Reisen, who were wondering how Yukari could be as calm as she was. Yukari chose to ignore all the reactions though.

"Princess Kaguya!" An earth rabbit called out.

Everyone saw the youkai rabbit come through the stone archway with the twin red glowing knives in the palms of her hands that Slyvek had.

Yukari said "Ah, if it isn't those twin knives that silhouette figure had. Pardon me Kaguya, but may I have those knives? They're made of a unique and powerful magic and could give a clue as to whereabouts of this Darvedos entity."

Eirin mentioned "Excuse me Yukari, but I was intending to research the knives myself. Perhaps we could assist one another?"

Yukari thought "Hmmm, oh alright. I can let you visit me during certain parts of the day to study them."

"Thank you." Eirin replied.

Reimu said "There's just one thing I don't get. If the ninjas were capable of erasing, why didn't they just simply erase Kaguya and Mokou?"

Yukari concluded "They obviously couldn't erase the properties of the Hourai Elixir in the first place. That's the only accurate conclusion."

Kaguya told the earth rabbit "Give the knives to Yukari."

The youkai did just that and Yukari replied "Thank you. Oh, since I'm at it, allow me take you three home, Reimu, Alex and Mokou."

The three thanked Yukari and Reimu and Alex said their goodbyes to Tewi, Reisen Eirin and Kaguya before Yukari reopened the gap and went through it with Ran, Chen, Reimu, Alex and Mokou following her.

Meanwhile after a few hours later, Slyvek had to report to his master inside the shrine chamber, with all the other members present, with Selvus sitting on a new pedestal over the corridor that had steps on each side.

When Slyvek had arrived in the middle of the room, Darvedos said "There you are, Slyvek. Did you complete your mission?"

"I got the negativity you requested." Slyvek started out.

"Ah, excellent." Darvedos delighted.

Slyvek caused a black and red sphere to appear in his left hand and Darvedos made the sphere come to him and absorbed it saying "Very nice, I can feel great negativity from this. How did the rest of the mission go?"

"Wait till you here this though my lord," Slyvek continued reporting "Alex Archwing is here and he seeks you out."

"What!? He's alive!? Are you sure!?" Darvedos replied.

Slyvek assured "Yes my lord, I used my senses on him. He's from your home dimension."

Darvedos responded "How could this be? I'll have to look into this later. Now I ask again, how did the rest of your mission go?"

Slyvek paused for a moment before informing "Uh, about that Lord Darvedos. Alex was traveling with some strange and oddly strong girls and along with the targets… they bet me my lord and I lost the anti-daggers you gave me."

Darvedos paused for a long moment…

"YOU MAGGOT!" Darvedos boomed, hurting the ears of everyone as the room shook. He then used his powers to slam Slyvek into the ceiling, making him fall onto the floor afterwards.

"Do you realize what you've done!?" Darvedos continued "Alex and those other life forms could use the knives after analyzing their power clearly enough and lead them straight to us! You have failed miserably through strategy and battle!"

Nolrok laughed "Ha ha ha ha ha! This is what happens when you send a weakling to do a man's job."

"What a sloppy trick." Jindor agreed as he flipped a deck of cards from his hands, right to left.

Slyvek growled at his tormenting team members and felt quite humiliated before Darvedos said "That's it, you're suspended Slyvek!"

Then the dark lord turned his attention and said "Virak!"

"Yes my lord?" Virak responded.

Darvedos said "Normally I would have you stay here at the temple, but I need you to retrieve the lost daggers."

"As you wish, my lord." Virak replied.

Darvedos continued "As for Sigma, you have nothing to do anymore for now since you completed your end of your previous assignment. Marlis and Jindor, you must now spy on Atelon to find out what he's up to without being detected. The rest of you are on standby until I say otherwise. You have your orders, you're dismissed."

"Yes, Lord Darvedos!" Everyone else spoke.

As the elite members walked out, Virak thought with a smile _'Hmmm, how interesting. I wonder what these resisters here are capable of. I guess I'll have to experiment to find out.'_

**\- Author's Note-**

**I think I should probably mention some things I have been meaning to say for a bit.**

**The spell card moves were given a bit of a creative twist by making them appear just a little bit differently from their appearance in the games, but they should still be recognizable.**

**This story is also covering only the storyline from The Embodiment of Scarlet Devil through Undefined Fantastic Object with also Touhou Hisoutensoku and Double Spoiler. I know that it says on the story description that no other incidents happened during the three year time skip but what it meant was that Reimu didn't have any other adventures during that time. Plus the reason why I didn't include the other games in the storyline of this fanfic was rather a typical one: too many characters.**

**If you're also wondering when the romance will show up, it won't be for a while. But you can see some rather interesting scenes that will help lead up to it as the story progresses.**

**Anyway, I'll hopefully have the next chapter up in a few weeks. See you all then.**

**-nostalgic1**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Electrical Interference

The following morning, Reimu, Suika and Alex were at the table at home, eating some breakfast wraps Reimu made.

"Suika, should you really be drinking sake in the morning?" mentioned Alex.

She replied "Huh? Why is that a problem? I drink sake whenever, I love it so much."

Suika drank more from her gourd as Alex looked at her, puzzled. Reimu just rolled her eyes as she finished off the food on her plate.

"Yoo-hoo, oh Alex?" sang Yukari as she knocked on the front door.

Alex walked over to the front door, sliding it open and asked "What is it Yukari?"

The gap youkai replied once inside "I need you to come with me to answer some things for me. Do you mind that I borrow him for a bit, Reimu?"

"Sure, that's fine." Reimu answered before she took some dishes to the kitchen.

"Excellent, let's go." Yukari replied.

After Alex went through the open door and shut it, they both started moving down the stone walkway that led to the stairs going downhill. Although only after walking a few steps, Yukari opened a portal.

"Where are we going?" wondered Alex.

Yukari answered "Why my house of course."

She and Alex walked through the portal and instantly came to be in front of a different and modern Japanese looking home located in a large clearing within a surrounding forest.

Alex asked "Where in Gensokyo is this?"

Yukari responded "Normally I don't answer such a question, but I suppose I can this time. We're in a northern part of Gensokyo where very little people live, north of Youkai Mountain in a secluded forest."

Alex looked behind as he and Yukari walked together side by side, seeing a tall mountain way in the distance. As they entered Yukari's house, Alex noticed that it was nice and tidy. When they walked up a small set of stairs, he saw a big room with a quality, clean kitchen to the right, where he observed Ran sitting on a wood chair at the counter reading a book that she held with her right hand. To the left, he saw a large, rectangular dining room table with six wooden chairs, four on the sides, and one near the wall at the far end where a window was with some tapestries on each side of it with the last chair was on the opposite end. In front, he saw three sand colored couches, the first being between him and the square wood coffee table and the other two to the left and right of it. At the wall was a fireplace that had burnt wood covered in a little soot. There was a wood shelf above the fireplace with framed pictures and a large painting of the shore of an island above the shelf. Alex noticed at the far ending of the back wall were two hallways, one on each end.

From the hallway to the left, Chen came running to Yukari with a tan rubber ball the size of her palm in her right hand and she said "Lady Yukari, my toy's gotten dull again."

"Has it now? Let me see…" replied Yukari as Chen handed her the ball.

In an odd move, Yukari sniffed the ball in her left hand before she made a small gap above her right hand that had a plant fall onto her palm.

'_Is that catnip!?' _thought Alex as he noticed the plant.

Yukari's hands started glowing with a yellow color that moved to the objects, causing them to fuse together as she used her hands to compress the ball and catnip. When Yukari was done with her magic, the ball looked the same as it did but with an exciting smell Chen detected. Yukari tossed the ball and it flew as it spun around the dining table three times before jolting down the left hallway with Chen in hot pursuit. Ran and Yukari laughed in response and Ran said "Ah, Chen's so cute."

"Quite, and she can be highly amusing." smiled Yukari in agreement.

Alex said "Wow, she doesn't just look like a cat, she acts like one too."

Yukari mentioned "Oh yes, Chen acts much like a cat in every way most of the time."

Alex and Yukari next walked down the hallway to the right, with more tapestries and antique pottery between the row of doors to the left and windows to the right. As they walked, the hallway turned right, next to the left, and then they entered through a door to the left.

In the room, Alex saw a row of bookshelves to the left and right walls with a small couch in the middle facing a dark oak desk with a lamp on it and a comfortable, green cushioned armchair that had its back towards the window which showed a private garden outside in the center of the house. Also there were two wood chairs between the couch and desk.

Alex mentioned "You have a nice home, Yukari."

Yukari replied "Why thank you, please sit down."

Yukari sat on the green cushioned chair while Alex sat on the right of the two wood chairs that faced the desk.

"Now, to discuss the topic at hand." Yukari began "I've been trying to fix the damage to the Hakurei Barrier, but every time I do, the remaining magical residue from Darvedos' spell just erases my work. So tell me, what is the true nature of the abilities of Darvedos and Atelon?"

Alex explained "Well of what I know, they're both masters of elemental magic and were known to be the most ancient beings in the universe where I came from. Atelon uses incredibly strong energy moves of the time, but is physically strong too and he has an ability called 'Divine Radiance.' I don't know much about it, but it's a power said that can only be used by a god and is unbelievably powerful, although I have my doubts that it is 'divine' as Atelon claims. As for Darvedos, his tactics tend to vary, but he is known to use his mastery over anticonception mostly."

"And what is anticonception?" inquired Yukari.

Alex explained what metaconception and anticonception were to Yukari and how they worked.

Yukari responded "What unique and strange powers, although I'm still curious as how these powers are possible to begin with."

"To be honest, I'm not actually an expert myself. From what I've been told, metaconception draws its source from creation's deepest roots, but I'm not sure what that means. As for anticonception, Darvedos claimed that the force he uses comes from that very root, from a horrifying and bizarre dimension called Vorm. It's said that whoever enters it becomes insane and slowly destroys their bodies with the negativity of all living things and from things that once lived, which Vorm has the ability to copy, collect and fuel." Alex continued explaining.

Yukari replied "Hmmm, not the most cheery place I've heard of. But how does Darvedos collect negativity?"

Alex answered "All I know is that it's through an anticonception spell that Darvedos made which allows one to do that. Another thing about is that those who use it need to be able to focus their dark desires in a balanced way. Those who don't and try to use anticonception causes the negative concept they try to use to erase them."

"That's quite a vile power." Yukari said "Moving on, I'm curious about the names of Atelon, Darvedos and the name of that silhouette, Slyvek if I remember right. What language is that in?"

"Those names are from Atelon's chosen culture, known as Taiyulm. He used to collect people that became completely obedient into a paradise nation that floated high in the sky above the nations down on the ground of my home planet, called Taiyhala, where his followers lived luxuriously in exchange to train and command them to perform certain tasks and missions." informed Alex.

Yukari spoke "I see, tell me about those ninjas you fought last night."

Alex explained "Those were called antidrones and they come in four types. They each are made from negativity and are partially black in color and are also colored in a way according to their kinds. The ninjas are fast and furious and are excellent at being spies, with them being red and the most common type. Then there are wizards, which are blue and known to be crafty users of magic and are excellent strategists in battle. The knights aren't as common as common as the ninjas or wizards, but their swordsmanship is more advanced and they're known also for their defense, stamina and yellow color. Lastly, there are the beasts, which are green and the least common but the most powerful type among the antidrones. They look like humanoid lizards that have long, powerful and sharp jaws like crocodiles, strong muscles on their arms and legs, big and sharp claws and a long, tough tail, with their bodies covered in thick scales. Also they can move faster than ninjas and have such intense negativity that they can summon power from Vorm directly, creating the most intense attacks of anticonception. The one thing they all have in common in addition is that they're focused only on one thing after being made; to destroy whatever they can or are commanded to. What's worse is that the ninjas we fought in the forest seemed like they were weaker than I remember but not by much, so we may have a different battle soon if Darvedos manages to restore the antidrones to their former power."

"Hmmm, interesting… Have you told Reimu about all of this?" Yukari asked next.

"No, not all of it." replied Alex.

Yukari said "I suggest that you tell her what you haven't already, as well as tell her the answer to my last question. I've noticed that that strange character, Slyvek, was not made by negativity. So who is he and why didn't Darvedos have a person who was made from negative energy to lead the ninjas?"

Alex explained "I'm not sure as to who Slyvek is, but I do know that Darvedos used to create all types of things in his old lab, ranging from gadgets, machines, magic spells, medicine, potions, deadly hazardous chemicals and gases and life forms through magic or bio-engineering or even both, so Slyvek could be an experiment he made. As to why Slyvek led them, I can think of two reasons. One, as well made as they are, antidrones aren't very smart when it comes to military coordination since they're only made to kill, so someone who wasn't made from anticonception would have a more developed mindset to lead the antidrones. Secondly, not having someone made from anticonception who's trained to lead the drones can create an advantage if someone can take out beings made from anticonception with ease and it creates a more unpredictable strategy through the assigned leader's methods."

Yukari sighed "I have a lot of work to do, what a pain."

She pulled out something out of the top right drawer, placing it on the flat surface of the desk where Alex could see it was the twin set of knives that Slyvek had.

Yukari said "I think I'm going to study these knives for a little while so stick around the house."

"Wait, how long am I staying here?" wondered Alex.

Yukari answered "That depends. If everything goes well, then only till noon."

Just then there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." replied Yukari.

The door opened with Ran coming in the room and she announced "Excuse me Lady Yukari, but our guests have arrived."

"Oh! I forgot about that. Please tell Yuyuko that I'll be with her in an hour as something came up and I apologize. In the meantime, tell her that she's welcome to relax in the garden and that she's free to have snacks." Yukari replied.

"Very well." spoke Ran as she left the room.

Alex suggested "If it's ok with you, I could keep your guests company as they wait for you."

Yukari responded "Why thank you that would be a big help. I have some ideas on how I might be able to fix the Hakurei Border thanks to your info and I need to fix it as soon as I can, so I'll be studying these daggers for a little while."

Alex then thought of something and questioned "Hey Yukari, how did you discover that the barrier was broken if you couldn't sense the damage?"

"Ah, well not many people know about this, but the barrier is known to slightly distort the outside scenery around Gensokyo due to the magic that went into making it, even though the view looks normal. So when I opened one of my gaps to observe some scenery, I noticed that the look from the barrier and from the hole with some clouds in the background looked off so I concluded something was wrong." clarified Yukari.

Alex replied "I see."

After that, there was another knock on the door.

"Come in." spoke Yukari.

The door opened and Alex noticed a young woman in a green, short length dress, short white hair with a black ribbon in it and two swords strapped around her, as well as what looked like to Alex as a small and odd cloud.

Yukari said "Oh, hello Youmu."

"Hello Lady Yukari, Princess Yuyuko is in the garden and she just sent me to ask what's going on as you don't usually delay guests." Youmu mentioned.

Yukari answered "I'm having some issues with the Hakurei Barrier right now. Just tell her that and I'll be with her as soon as I can. Oh and since you're near the door, could you get me a book from the bookshelf in the left corner? It's on the top shelf and is the second to last book on the left."

Youmu walked over and pulled a red book off the top part of the bookshelf. As she went over to Yukari, the gap youkai mentioned "That growth spurt you got over the last two few years must be handy for you, although you still seem a little short."

"Excuse me, being short is fine." Youmu retorted as she handed Yukari the book.

"I never actually said it was bad, you need to know not to make such narrow assumptions Youmu." teased Yukari.

Youmu sulked for a bit until she saw Alex and asked "Who are you?"

"Alex Archwing, I was just informing Yukari about some recent phenomenon. Nice to meet you." Alex informed.

Youmu said "Oh, nice to meet you too. I'm Youmu Konpaku, a loyal servant of Princess Yuyuko."

"If you both don't mind, I would like to study these knives with as little as distraction as possible." Yukari mentioned.

Alex replied "Oh, right."

He and Youmu left the room together as Yukari flipped through the pages of the red book, analyzing and experimenting on the knives with her magic.

Outside the room, Youmu looked at the sword behind Alex and said "So you're a swordsman like me."

Alex said "Yeah and I can see that you use a katana and a wakizashi."

"Yes, you know your swords well. And I can see that you use the classic longsword." spoke Youmu before she asked "How good is your swordsmanship?"

Alex replied "I'm at the expert level, and you?"

"Same as you, maybe we should spar sometime?" Youmu suggested.

"That's a great idea, we can do that now since I'm supposed to stick around in case Yukari has any more questions for me." Alex said.

Youmu responded "Alright, but where should we spar?"

Alex said "I saw through the window in Yukari's office that there was a large clearing in her private garden. We can do it there, but I don't know how to get there."

Youmu replied "I can lead you there, follow me."

As they walked down the way they came next to each other, Alex mentioned "Pardon me if this is rude, but I'm actually new here in Gensokyo and I'm curious, what's that cloud like thing following you?"

Youmu answered "Oh that's actually a part of my body. I'm half human, half phantom."

Alex replied "Really? That's neat. Say, how old are you if you don't mind me asking?"

"I'm fifty eight." answered Youmu as they turned down the next hallway.

Alex replied "Really? You look great."

"Thank you… wait, did you just assume that my kind would be old around my age?" Youmu questioned.

"No, I just asked since I was curious about your kind. I gave you an honest compliment after learning how healthy your race is." Alex informed.

"Oh… thanks." Youmu said before turning her head to the left to hide her short blush from Alex.

At the end of the hallway, they both went through a sliding door in front of them that led to a small foyer with two closets on each side and another door in front of them. After opening the next door, Alex and Youmu walked into Yukari's garden, where many colorful rows of flowers were near the side edges and around the ponds with lily pads and Japanese fountains near the south, east and west walls. In the center was a flat area that looked like it would be a nice place for a picnic. At the north part of the garden was a large tree surrounded by the flowers there and a big white round table with ten white chairs around it in the shade of the tree. Ran was sitting on the left while Chen was sitting to the right, and in the chair closest to the tree was a certain pink haired young woman wearing a light blue dress and hat, consuming some sliced cheese and crackers on a white plate as she dipped them into a glass bowl of white dip before happily eating them.

"By the way, what were you helping Yukari with earlier exactly? Was it about the Hakurei Barrier?" Youmu asked as she and Alex walked down the pathway between the flowers to the flat area.

"Yeah and it's a long story." Alex stated.

Youmu requested "Could you tell me and Princess Yuyuko before you and I spar?"

Alex responded "Yeah, I'll tell both of you since it will be good for the two of you to know. I'll tell Ran and Chen too as I know they don't know all the details."

When they arrived at the table, the pink haired girl noticed them and said "Oh there you are Youmu, who's this with you?"

"My name is Alex Archwing, I'm here to provide Yukari with info regarding recent events around Gensokyo. Nice to meet you." Alex introduced himself.

"Oh, likewise to meet you. I am Yuyuko Saigyouji, princess of the Netherworld." Yuyuko replied.

Alex found this surprising as he recently read about the Netherworld and how it was a big part of Gensokyo, causing him to say "Seriously? You must be busy ruling over such a large place most of the time."

Yuyuko mentioned "Not as much as you might think. Now why don't you tell me what Yukari's up to? I'm very curious."

"I would like to know as well as to what you and the master have been talking about." Ran added.

"I guess I'll listen too since I'm here." Chen decided.

Alex and Youmu sat across from Yuyuko and he was telling everyone around him what was happening recently.

At the same time, Virak was on top of a hill, surveying the Bamboo Forest of the Lost through some advanced, dark blue goggles from a far distance. The goggles allowed him to see through the forest, observing infrared images of the youkai rabbits, Eirin and Kaguya around Eintei, noticing Mokou too as she walked through the trees.

'_Now where are those daggers?' _thought Virak about the question he had to solve.

He could see that there was residual negativity trails going through the forest, with Virak knowing that most of them were made by Slyvek last night. Then he noticed that the trail rose up into the air a bit before ending, puzzling Virak.

'_What happened to the daggers…? Oh that's right, there was that youkai that Lord Darvedos said that could manipulate boundaries and warp around.'_ Virak recalled.

He hit some buttons on the sides of the goggles to change its mode and Virak could see energy traces of Yukari's gap. Through the lenses, the gadget told him that there were more traces and Virak saw that there were more traces from the daggers and from Yukari's portals, one being in front of a house in front of a local village and two more in front of a shrine he didn't recognize, but with no trace of the daggers themselves. Virak wondered if the goggles were out of range or if the knives were taken underground where he couldn't detect them as well, but then he noticed that one of the energy remains of one of Yukari's portals was fresher than the other and he thought _'Good, now all I have to do is copy the energy fluctuations and I can warp to wherever that youkai went. Oh, but I suppose I should adjust the energy output of my artificial gap and myself to make sure I'm not detected.'_

He turned and walked downhill in the opposite direction he faced. The goggles he wore turned into atoms and were fused with his electrical body. Virak then made lightning bolts from his hands that were creating his own gap and adjusted his form to become invisible, making the portal according to the data from his gadget which was coursing through his head. When he was done, Virak went through the portal.

After he went through, the portal closed and Virak was in front of Yukari's house.

He thought to himself _'Now that was handy, but I shouldn't do something like that too much, I'll exhaust my power.'_

Virak next materialized his goggles to find what he was looking for and he saw Yukari studying the knives in her office. He also saw that Alex and Yuyuko were there in the garden along with three other females he didn't recognize.

Virak grumbled before thinking _'There's too many people, I can't risk attacking them and attempt to take the anti-daggers back, and someone might escape with them. I'll have to wait until that gap youkai lets her guard down and the knives are alone.'_

Three quarters of the hour passed by and Alex had just finished explaining as to what was happening around Gensokyo.

Chen said "Ergh… I knew I had a bad feeling about Darvedos the moment I learned about him. At least Atelon doesn't seem like anything new."

Alex replied "Wait, you mean that there are other gods in Gensokyo?"

Ran informed "Indeed, there's Kanako Yasaka and Suwako Moriya near the top of Youkai Mountain, where the Moriya Shrine is. Although she isn't worshiped, Shikieiki Yamaxanadu of Higan is a yama, which is a type of god and I also heard of another god at the Hakurei Shrine, but it hasn't shown its presence to anyone in a very long time. There's also Minoriko and Shizuha Aki, but they only visit the Human Village once a year during the fall during the harvest festival. The last god I can think of is Hina Kagiyama, who dwells around the Youkai Forest which is between the mountain and the village."

"And what are they like?" wondered Alex.

Ran replied "They're known to be rather peaceful most of the time."

"It seems that Gensokyo has received some shady and unfriendly visitors during the last few years." said Yuyuko as she held up a fan up to her mouth before setting it down and continuing "I will tell the army back in the Netherworld of this news and look for effective ways to deal with them with our magic to deal with Darvedos and his forces. We will try to derail his plans."

"Thank you, but be careful, Darvedos' forces are deadly." Alex responded.

Yuyuko replied "Of course."

Suddenly, a gap appeared to Chen's left and Yukari walked out of it with her open, pink umbrella in her hands before the portal closed.

"Hello Yuyuko." Yukari greeted with a smile.

"Ah Yukari!" exclaimed Yuyuko happily "How are you? Have you done what you needed to do?"

Yukari mentioned "I'm doing nicely, especially after learning a bit how Darvedos is able to harness anticonception, I can undo the damage to the Hakurei Barrier and I have a small clue as to how I can find him."

"Ooh, that's great." Yuyuko replied.

Alex added "Yeah, even I have difficulty detecting Darvedos at times. You're smart, Yukari."

"But of course." responded Yukari proudly.

Yuyuko looked at the bare plate in front of her and she turned her head in Ran's direction and requested "Ran, can I have some more snacks?"

"Sure." answered Ran as she walked over and grabbed the plate and glass bowl before heading back in the house.

Chen said "I think I'm going to go play inside now."

The cat girl walked back into the house with Ran.

Yukari mentioned "So since I've learned what I need to know for now, I'll take you back to the Hakurei Shrine, Alex. Are you ready to go?"

"Well actually, Youmu and I were thinking about having a friendly sparing match here." Alex said "Do you mind?"

Yuyuko replied "Ooh that sounds like fun to watch!"

"Knock yourselves out," stated Yukari "I'll take you home afterwards."

"Thank you." Alex replied, and he and Youmu got up from their seats and walked to the large square clearing, drawing their swords.

Before they could start their battle, Yuyuko spoke "Excuse me you two! Can you wait until Ran gets back? Live entertainment goes very well with snacks."

"So true." Yukari agreed.

"Uh…sure, alright." responded Alex.

Yukari opened a gap to her right, showing Ran to be in the kitchen as she said to her "Have some snacks prepared for myself too, Ran."

"Yes Lady Yukari." Ran replied before Yukari closed the gap.

As they stood across from each other, Alex looked at Youmu's unsheathed wakizashi and katana, saying "Neat swords you got there."

Youmu replied "Oh, thanks. The katana in my right is the Roukanken, capable of defeating ten spirits in one stroke. The other is the Hakurouken, capable of sending ghosts to nirvana and dispel the confusion of those it touches, although it isn't as sharp as the Roukanken. Both swords belong to the Konpaku family."

"_Wait, if her Hakurouken can dispel confusion, does that mean what I think it means?"_ thought Alex.

Youmu looked at Alex's double edged sword. The blade was made of a shiny, white colored steel and the hilt was made of gold with a blue handle and rainbow colored crystal in the tip.

"You have a nice sword too." Youmu said.

Alex replied "Thanks, my sword is called the Ameralik, made from the most rare and legendary ore that was once scattered across my home dimension. I made it myself too."

Youmu responded "Really? You're quite talented. You'll be a nice challenge."

Meanwhile, Ran had left the kitchen while carrying a large tray of snacks on some plates and walked down the left hallway. But no one noticed as Virak snuck through the front door, barely making a noise as he quickly and stealthily went down the right hallway. He snuck all the way into Yukari's office, where he saw the anti-daggers just lying on the desk. He knew he couldn't just take them though as he noticed earlier that Yukari set up a small, magical shield around the objects. Virak simply approached the desk with a grin, having electric bolts from his right hand degenerate the barrier as he thought _'You're going to have to do much better than that, Yukari Yakumo.'_

After his thought, the barrier was gone and Virak took the daggers, turning them into atoms and absorbing them into his electrified body. As he left though, Chen ran into Virak from his left as she was chasing the flying catnip ball that hit his head, with Chen being shocked a bit by his body and falling on her butt, disabling his invisibility. Chen looked up at Virak, who had a dark and angry look on his face, before she shouted.

"MASTER!"

The next thing everyone heard was the scream Chen made as she was being electrocuted. Ran, Alex and Youmu took off in Chen's direction at the same time as Yukari held her left hand in the air and started manipulating a large boundary around her house.

Virak blasted a hole through the right wall of Yukari's house and took off at an incredible speed until he slammed into Yukari's barrier and said "Ow!"

He backed up a bit and turned around, where he saw Yukari, Yuyuko, Alex, Youmu, Ran and Chen, who was leaning on Ran."

Virak said "Congratulations, you caught me Yukari Yakumo, but don't think that this barrier will hold me for long."

"You hurt Chen and blasted a hole in our house! You won't get away with this!" snapped Ran.

"Who are you!?" Youmu interrogated, readying her swords.

"I am Virak, one of the elite members of Lord Darvedos' organization and his most promising scientist." Virak replied.

"Where are the daggers?" Yukari inquired.

Virak snickered "That's for me to know."

"He turned them into atoms and absorbed them into his body. We can get them back if we beat him." Alex informed after sensing Virak out.

Virak was surprised that Alex perceived right through him and he said "You're more resourceful than I anticipated. But don't expect me to fall as easily as Slyvek did."

Virak snapped his fingers and thirty wizard antidrones appeared behind Virak, each of them wearing blue robes and wizard hats, looking at their opponents with glowing blue eyes. They also held a black staff that had a silver cobra at the top with a blue gem in the chest.

Yukari said "I figured that the side you worked for was intelligent, but how is it that you even know my name?"

"Heh heh, oh my master is just that good. He sensed what beings here could prove to be a hindrance and told the elite class to keep an eye on them, such as you and Yuyuko and the two immortals for example, although the reason why Kaguya and Mokou were added in the first place to our list was simply because they were immortal. However, thanks to what some others have done at the bamboo forest did, we've been extending our list of targets and we'll kill everyone that's a target when we get the chance. But right now, we have other concerns to take care of." Virak mentioned.

Youmu said "Well at least we have an opportunity to take him down a notch."

Virak laughed and reminded "Like I said, don't expect me to fall as easily as Slyvek did."

The electrical entity pointed at the opposing team and the wizards rose into the air, firing lasers from their staves as Virak watched from higher up in the sky.

Yukari and Ran held up their hands to make a shield that blocked the attacks, then Chen stood up and said "I can fight."

"Are you sure?" asked a worried Ran.

Alex said "Here, let me heal you up first."

He held up his hand, which lost its green glow after Chen felt as good as new.

"Thank you." Chen thanked Alex.

Their barrier started to fade away though and Yukari said "These wizards are more capable than I thought, the barrier is almost down and they and they aren't even using anticonception yet. I'm going after Virak, can the rest of you handle the wizards?"

"Yes master." replied Ran.

Yukari opened a gap and said "Good." Then she walked through the portal as it closed.

The barrier next shattered, causing everyone to scatter.

Ran could see that the wizards' firepower was vast and calculated, making it difficult to attack them, so she decided to fire a move to deal with the opposing assault.

"Hermit Fox Thoughts!"

After saying her move, Ran unleashed a bunch of large squares made of yellow and green circles that burnt into many bullets and subdued the lasers. The wizards saw that there were still some bullets left so they created a magic wall made of light blue hexagons that blocked the rest of Ran's attack before they fired some exploding fireballs, more lasers and lightning bolts that went through their shield. As Ran and Yuyuko covered them, Alex, Youmu and Chen were evading the opposing attacks, with Alex and Youmu advancing close together.

Alex mentioned "Youmu, when you have a chance, use your Hakurouken directly on the wizards. They'll most likely fade away after one blow since they're made from negative concepts and that your sword has the ability to get rid of confusion."

"Thanks for the advice, I'll try It." replied Youmu "But we need to get rid of their shield first."

Once they both got close enough to the shield after dodging more attacks, Youmu said "Slash of Future Eons!"

"Dicing Twister!" Alex joined in.

Alex spun around rapidly, creating his tornado of slash waves that struck the shield along with Youmu's strong and quick slash that had some powerful cutting aftershocks and both of the moves tore down the defense the wizards made. Chen snuck up one wizard and sliced it up with her long claws that came from her finger tips, defeating it. The wizards realized the danger they were in so they each made a black, transparent, spherical barriers around themselves. Youmu used her Roukanken on three wizards that were grouped together, saying "Slash of Meditation!"

Her strong slash move destroyed their shields and then she finished them with a single stroke for each with her Hakurouken, surprised to see it prove to be such a big weakness of the wizards as they faded away.

"Jousting Cavalry!"

Alex used his joust waves to destroy the barriers of three other wizards before using another attack "Light Speed Jab!"

His fast move pierced through each wizard that had their shields removed thanks to him, and the sea green energy that followed him struck the wizards and sent them flying to a faraway spot that exploded when the energy hit the ground, defeating the three wizards.

Half of the remaining wizards were holding off Ran's danmaku with their own attacks, but they wondered where Yuyuko was since she mysteriously disappeared.

"You know, it pays to pay attention."

The voice from above surprised the three wizards in the back and Yuyuko swooped down, spinning in some rapid and graceful circles with her sharp fans that blew the trio away and got rid of their shields.

Next Yuyuko said "Ghastly Dream!"

Many glowing pink butterflies chased down the now shield less wizards. They defended themselves with exploding fireballs that got rid of half of the swarm, but the other half dodged their attacks and ambushed the wizards, vaporizing them.

On her end, Ran avoided the energy blasts that were sent her way and shouted "Fox-Tanuki Youkai Laser!"

Ran fired red line of orbs from her right hand and a blue one from her left that fused together and then the orbs fired lasers that stopped the wizards' attacks, demolished their shields and destroyed five wizards that couldn't get away. In the confusion, Chen snuck up and defeated another one before speaking "Phoenix Egg!"

Small, flaming birds appeared and chased the wizards until they burst in to fiery bullets that managed to pelt and defeat two more wizards.

The remaining wizards used a teleport spell to appear elsewhere in a group circle. Lifting their staves in the air, the wizards spun around in a fast circle, creating a tornado that was generating electrical currents that shot out thunderbolts.

The tornado zapped Chen, Ran and Yuyuko before it sucked them up in its razor sharp gusts of wind. Youmu and Alex charged up their swords as they gathered their focus and they each used an attack art.

"Slash of Departing Hesitation!"

"Pulse Wave Burst!"

Youmu unleashed her move in the form of a blue slash from her Roukanken so that she wouldn't get electrocuted and Alex made a yellow shaped arrow wave after swinging his sword sideways. The two waves collided with the twister and annihilated it, with Youmu beating three wizards with her attack and Alex beating three others with his. Chen, Ran and Yuyuko got back in control of their movements and regrouped with their other two teammates.

The other wizards broke their circular formation while lifting their staves as they rose again in the air, this time making a storm that pained bullet like hail. Ran created a barrier to protect her team and Chen insisted "Let me deal with this!"

Chen went to the front of the barrier and started moving really quick, making a magic star shape while saying "Pentagram Flight!"

A bunch of white bullets shot out from the corners of the star that passed through the barrier, getting rid of the hail and blasting away two more wizards.

The wizards flew down across from their opposing team, staring. Yuyuko wondered "I wonder why they haven't used any anticonception moves already."

They then saw the four remaining wizards create some black and red, spiraling circles, which caused Chen to ask "Did you have to say that, Yuyuko?"

The wizards fired black and red negative beams that were red on the edges and black in the center. The beams made quick work of Ran's barrier and they hit Ran, Chen, Alex, Youmu and Yuyuko hard. Alex gathered his concentration and made a big, square, sea green shield that blocked the lasers.

"I'm not sure how long I can hold them off, do something quick!" mentioned Alex.

Youmu replied "Right. Ran, Yuyuko, can you both distract the wizards while I try to get in close and defeat them with my Hakurouken?"

"I'll try." answered Ran.

Yuyuko replied "Sure Youmu, hop to it."

Yuyuko and Ran each fired a move over Alex's shield, with them being their Ghastly Dream and Hermit Fox Thoughts attack arts to attack the wizards. The antidrones realized this and aimed their lasers to erase the incoming danmaku. Youmu ran around the shield and made a mad dash towards the wizards. Two of them saw this and aimed for Youmu, but she swiftly dodged. Youmu got to their left and quickly went past the four wizards, slicing them in half from the waist up, making them fade away.

Youmu rejoined the others and Alex said "I wonder how Yukari is…"

During the same time their fight started, Yukari came out of a gap across from Virak, who spoke as they hovered high in the air "Going after the leader, huh? I thought you would be helping your friends."

Yukari replied "They'll be fine, they can beat your goons. Besides, I'm here to make sure you don't sneak away or take me and my allies by surprise."

"Really? That's bold for someone who doesn't know how I fight." grinned Virak.

Yukari said "Well I do know that you can use lightning for one, that's nothing new."

"But I'm so much more than that." Virak clarified "I possess the ability to control plasma to an incredible extent, from creating electrical bolts to distorting the ions of objects into different shapes or simply have them stay as atoms. Also, I can adjust my electrical energies into different types of plasma, making me one of the most deadly members of Lord Darvedos' elites."

Yukari responded "I suppose that's impressive, but I doubt you'll win."

"Oh? Care to test that theory?" said Virak.

Virak shot out a lightning bolt from his right hand, but Yukari opened a gap in front of her that took in the lightning from one end and fired purple colored bullets through the other end of the gap, which Virak didn't see from his point of view. Another gap opened behind Virak that released his attack to strike him on his back.

"Did you think that would hurt me?" Virak responded after being unaffected.

"No, I thought this would." spoke Yukari as a third gap opened above Virak that had her purple bullets rain down and hit him.

"Curse of Dreams and Reality!" Yukari said next.

She created a bunch of purple and blue glowing squares that collided with Virak and they exploded into many bullets that also damaged him.

Virak made electrical waves emit from his body that destroyed the remaining bullets and then he yelled "Ionizing Web!"

He released a bunch of electron spheres that were connected by expanding electrical beams, creating a rotating electric web. Yukari tried to use a gap to swallow the big, impending attack but Virak adjusted the electrical frequency of his move that destroyed her portal and caught Yukari, zapping her as the web shrunk, wrapped around her and exploded.

Yukari was surprised that Virak got rid of her gap, but then she remembered Virak's ability and figured it would be best to use different types of gaps and magic to make it difficult for him. Then she said "Mesh of Light and Darkness!"

Yukari shot orbs of light from her right hand and orbs of darkness from her left that shot lasers of the element that each orb was made of.

At first, Virak was getting damaged by the lasers until he adjusted his energy to make himself immune, but then he got hit by twilight lasers that were made from the lasers of light and dark magic which were combined in various ways, each with a different frequency. Then Yukari made a flashing, rainbow colored ball and a gap behind her that she backed into. Virak wondered where Yukari went, but he then saw that he was enclosed in a sphere made of portals that had the view of Yukari's rainbow orb in the center of each gap. Then from somewhere, Yukari said "World of Residence and Travel!"

The orb burst and various, different colored bullets came out of the gaps. Virak dodged some for a bit until the barrage rained on him so he made a shield, but that didn't last long and he was assaulted again.

"Enough of this! Atomic Calculus!" Virak shouted and made various outbursts of sparks and thunderbolts of all kinds of wavelengths that got rid of Yukari's bullets and gaps before striking Yukari, who was outside the sphere of gaps he was in.

Then Virak said his next move "Plasma Whip!"

He created a glowing, electrical whip that he used to shock and lash Yukari, striking her multiple times.

However, Yukari dodged a few strikes, came right up to him and hit him point blank with a white, rotating barrier as she uttered "Charming Quadruple Barrier!"

The barrier sent Virak flying through the air, making his whip dissipate, and she readied her next attack art "Balance of Motion and Stillness!"

Yukari shot a bunch of fast blue bullets that were flying through a small, complicated maze of still blue orbs that appeared around Virak. After he got hit by some bullets, Virak was being bounced around in the maze as he collided with more bullets and the still orbs that blew up on contact. Virak adjusted his energy to make himself immune to Yukari's move and he destroyed it when he released electric waves from his body. Then he jolted in front of Yukari, hit her with a bunch of punches and struck her with a thunderbolt that sent her plummeting to the ground in front of Alex, Yuyuko, Youmu, Ran and Chen just after they finished the wizards off.

Yukari got up and said "Phew, this guy is quite the workout. Not to worry though everyone, I can still fight."

As Virak hovered down, everyone could tell by his breathing that he was getting tired.

The electrical being shouted "The rest of you beat my wizards!? Agh! That's it, you're toast! Plasma Storm!"

A thunderstorm suddenly brewed up in the sky and from the clouds came some green, electrified goo that came raining down hard. Ran put up a barrier before they got soaked and the goo rained on it and all around the barrier. Then lightning rapidly fell from the sky and zapped the goo, creating powerful electrical explosions. Yukari used her power to help generate Ran's barrier, it was still hard to maintain during Virak's attack.

Chen said "We need to do something!"

Alex and Youmu concentrated deeply while closing their eyes, with Youmu emanating pink aura and Alex emanating sea green aura. Then they opened their eyes and performed their attack arts.

"Saigyou Spring Wind!"

"Concept Lord Slash!"

Youmu and Alex unleashed their attacks in order through Ran's shield. Youmu made a bunch of large and swift pink slash waves and Alex made a huge, white transparent slash wave. Both attacks blew away and got rid of the electric goo and storm clouds, but missing Virak as he got out of the way and came back saying "Electron Field!"

The electric being created a large, blue dome that everyone was inside of, with him being on the ground in the middle, generating an electrical sphere around himself that shot and harnessed lightning which created smaller spheres that made smaller bolts, with the whole attack spinning in a rapid counterclockwise circle, electrocuting Virak's opponents.

Even though they were being shocked, Alex and Youmu hit Virak with a slash wave made him lose his hold on everyone for a moment and they started dodging Virak's move, with some using attacks of their own.

Chen said "Immortal Sage's Rumbling!"

"Banquet of Twelve General Gods!" Ran added.

"Gensokyo's rise from Yomi!" Yuyuko further added.

Yukari finished "Border Between 2D and 3D!"

As Chen rushed around the area, red and blue bullets left behind by her started wrecking Virak's attack and damaging Virak himself. The twelve spheres from Ran that shot various kinds of bullets, the many ghostly orbs that came from Yuyuko as she danced around and the single but powerful projectile from Yukari all did the same thing, ending the field of electrons.

Virak roared in frustration and shot a bunch of wild thunderbolts from his hands. They hit Yukari and Ran, but the rest just dodged. Chen snuck up behind Virak and slashed his back good with her claws, damaging the spires on his shoulders.

"You little brat!" Virak yelled and turned around, grabbing Chen by the collar of her dress and turned back to throw her at Ran, making their heads bonk into each other, stunning them.

Virak said "You're dead! Deletion Beam!"

Virak merged two electrons that he had in each hand, creating a huge laser made of lightning that flew in the direction of Ran and Chen. Alex rushed in between them and the laser, creating a large square shield that protected Chen, Ran and himself.

Everyone was relieved that Alex saved them from Virak's powerful beam, despite it being so quick, except for Virak who replied "Are you kidding me!? Give me a break!"

After Alex absorbed his own shield into his body to raise his defenses, he said while glowing a sea green aura "You're not killing anyone, you're done! Action Ace Siege!"

Alex dashed up and hit Virak with sword and melee combos without getting shocked thanks to his defense boost. Then he thrust his sword hard on Virak and sent him flying into the air and Virak landed on his back, defeated.

Virak shouted as he became surrounded "NO! Inconceivable! How could a powerful genius like myself lose to such lower life forms!?"

"I don't think you could be as much of those things as you think you are if you lost to us." Yuyuko cheerfully giggled.

Virak growled at the princess and then Yukari said "Now I'll have those knives back, thank you very much."

As Yukari started using magic to restore and take back the knives, Virak slowly let out a grin and said "You wish."

The electrical entity then shone incredibly bright, blinding those around him for a moment. When they could see again, Virak was gone.

Yukari quickly used her best magic to find out where Virak went, and found out he fled via an artificial gap. When she figured out where it led, she warped there herself. Yukari looked around, but all she could notice was that she was on a hill overlooking a few distant places on the other side of the land. Yukari then used all the gaps she could make and search with, but there was still no trace of Virak. Yukari warped back to her house where the others were, dispelled the barrier around her home and said "That slick thief got away."

"How will we find Darvedos now!?" responded Chen.

Yukari declared "I'll think of something."

Yuyuko said "Let's not get too worried over this. I say we go back to the garden and eat some snacks."

"Huh!? How can you both be so carefree!?" Youmu wondered.

Yuyuko said "A balanced food wagon travels best."

Confused, Youmu asked "What do you mean?"

"Are you saying that it's good to think things through well enough before proceeding? I agree." Alex deduced.

Yuyuko replied "Ding, ding! Correct! I'd reward you with some chocolate, but I have none with me."

"Maybe I should hire you as a translator for Princess Yuyuko's riddles." Youmu said to Alex.

Ran came back from the right side of the house and informed "Lady Yukari, the wall has been restored."

Yukari replied "Ah, very good. Let's all go back in the house to relax. Oh! I think we're forgetting something though."

Alex wondered what Yukari meant until Chen hug tackled him while he kept himself balanced and she said "Thank you for saving me and Ran, Alex. You're my hero."

"We are in your debt, thank you Alex." Ran added with a smile and a bow.

Yukari mentioned with a playful wink "Well done, Alex. You officially have my trust and respect."

"No problem, just being the best I can be." replied Alex. "Oh yeah, could you take me back home, Yukari? I'm feeling kinda tired."

"Of course." responded Yukari.

Before he left though, Alex turned to Youmu and said "You don't mind that we spar latter, do you?"

Youmu replied "That's fine. I'm a bit tired myself, so it's a good idea. Goodbye Alex, it was nice meeting you."

"Yes, very much. Visit Hakugyukurou Manor too when you can. Goodbye." added Yuyuko.

Alex replied "I will thanks."

Chen said "Bye Alex, come visit again soon."

"We will expect and welcome you. Goodbye." Ran added.

Alex said "Sure thing, see you later."

He and Yukari went through the gap she opened after Alex waved bye to Youmu, Chen, Ran and Yuyuko, who waved bye to him too.

When they arrived back at the Hakurei Shrine, Yukari said "Take care, Alex."

"You too, Yukari" Alex said back.

They waved bye to each other and the gap closed after Yukari went back through it.

Alex walked over to the house, went inside and saw Reimu to his right and Suika to his left in front of him, while Reimu made an annoyed expression as she looked at the oni. Then Suika said "Hey, Alex is back! –Hey, why do you look a bit worn down?"

Reimu asked "Are you alright? What happened?"

"Let me tell you…" began Alex as he started telling them about what happened earlier.

Meanwhile, Virak was attending a meeting with Darvedos and the other elites in the shrine chamber.

"Did you retrieve the anti-daggers?" Darvedos inquired.

Virak answered as he materialized the knives in his hands "Yes my lord."

"Excellent, see that you dispose of them as they're no longer needed." replied Darvedos.

Virak nodded in response.

Galace mentioned after looking at her face in a handheld mirror "Not that there's much a difference, but you look horrible. What happened?"

"I was attacked by Alex, the gap youkai, Yukari, the princess of the Netherworld, Yuyuko and a few others. They destroyed my platoon and beat me in battle and I barely escaped." informed Virak.

Nolrok said "Hmmm, interesting. They're beginning to sound like an interesting challenge."

"Beware Nolrok, do not take them lightly." Musovek cautioned.

Nolrok grinned "Oh don't worry about that, I'm no slouch."

Xedar grunted suddenly for some reason.

"Problem, Xedar?" Jindor asked.

"Pay him no mind." Sylon spoke.

Darvedos said "Usually I don't tolerate defeat, but I'll let it slide as you got the daggers back, Virak." Then he said to everyone "Listen up, here are your new orders. Near the heart of this land near a lake is a mansion where an interesting bit of negativity resides within two strange winged girls. The ones to retrieve this energy tomorrow night shall be Selvus and Jindor."

"Yes father." replied Selvus.

Jindor said "How lovely, we get to have some fun."

Darvedos continued "As for Sylon, Musovek and Virak, you should work on the structural, army and energy fuel improvements that we can now work on. The rest of you are on standby. You're all dismissed."

"Yes Lord Darvedos!" The elites spoke.

As the elites left the room, Jindor thought _'It will be neat to see later tomorrow night what Selvus and I can do. Oh, this will be so much fun!'_

Selvus only smiled over the fact that he was soon going to create havoc.

**-Author's note-**

**Phew, longest chapter so far, and right on time too.**

**On a side note, instead of the moves being called spell cards, they'll be called attack arts instead. It seems more convenient for the story that way.**

**If you're wondering where the 'from' part went from Youmu's Slash of Departing from Hesitation, I decided to shorten it in this story, plus it still means the same thing. Also, Yukari's World of Residence and Travel move was one of the moves I thought of, as I said I would be throwing in a few custom made moves of my own in this fanfic.**

**Anyway, I'll have the next chapter up soon as I have some free time and it could be set up even next week, if not the usual. Well, I hope you liked the chapter.**

**-nostalgic1**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Promised Visit

It was dark and silent. That's all Alex could tell of his current surroundings. He began walking around the big empty void, hearing his footsteps echo around him. After walking for a little while, he started hearing faint voices.

"Hello?" Alex called out, but he only heard his own echoing voice for a bit.

Alex continued his walk for a little bit more until he heard the faint voices getting louder as continued to walk. They got louder and louder as he went, but then the whispers stopped, leaving nothing except for silence.

Then suddenly he heard familiar angry chattering of a crowd, with a man yelling "There he is, the traitor!"

A woman added "How could he do that after everything his highness did for him!? How horrible!"

"Get him, kill him! He must die in the name of our holy king!" Another man roared.

As the voices of the angry crowd got louder, Alex pleaded "Wait, stop! Please give me a chance to explain!"

The voices of the crowd got more loud and angry until they stopped and then Alex heard ignorant laughter of people. After a while the laughing stopped, making a pause of silence. Then he heard Darvedos next, who said "Evil is forever, boy. It destroys everything, there's no escape."

Suddenly the void got brighter and brighter until it was all white. Alex next heard some familiar and comforting voices.

"You're a strong, dependable young man, son." A man said.

"We love you and you make us so proud." A woman added.

The man agreed "Yup, keep up the work, it does everyone good."

Then an older, wise sounding man spoke next "Metaconception is a powerful force, use it wisely. Also since it is scarcely known, be sure to take it and the lessons you learn from it to heart and teach it to others to create a better future."

Lastly, a friendly voice of an older young man said "For a rookie, you're pretty good."

Waking up right after that, Alex sat up in his bed. All the voices he heard were from his memories, but he tried to ignore them as they reminded him of a truth that he hadn't gotten over yet, being filled with unrest every time he thought of it. Then he remembered the words of his sensei and thought _'I might as well, but I'll need some books to write in. Maybe Patchouli will have and let me have some. Oh yeah, and I suppose I should thank Sakuya and Remilia for the clothes they made for me and visit Flandre like I promised her.'_

Alex got out of bed after his thought and started getting dressed.

As time went by, he was once again as usual, eating breakfast with Reimu and Suika at the table, with each having a plate of fried eggs and waffles. When they were done, Alex mentioned to the two girls "I think I'm going to go to the Scarlet Devil Mansion to ask for some books to write in from Patchouli, as well as thank Sakuya and Remilia for the clothes they made for me and visit Flandre too as I told her that I would play with her the next time I visited the mansion."

"Why do you need books like that?" Reimu wondered.

Alex replied "I figured that since I'm the last person of my home dimension who uses metaconception, I should write down all the lessons I learned about it to make a book for people to learn about metaconception so that it's not forgotten. Also, I felt like writing a journal would be self-comforting as I'm still getting used to Gensokyo."

Reimu responded "Alright, but before you go there's something I should tell you. Flandre has this power that allows her to destroy anything, and I do mean ANYTHING. During the years I've known her, Remilia, Sakuya, Patchouli and Meiling have managed to help Flandre get in better control of her power, but she can't always properly harness it, and in battle, Flandre can be sneaky and hyperactive, making her one of the most dangerous fighters in all of Gensokyo."

Alex said "I see, well unless she knows anticonception, my power should be able to handle hers."

Reimu responded "Okay, but keep your guard up. Flandre doesn't mean to destroy anything or anyone outside of battle, but there have been times where she has wrecked things by accident, although thankfully not people. Her unstable power is the reason why Remilia keeps Flandre inside the mansion, which causes Flandre to feel lonely and at times scared that she could hurt or kill someone innocent or close to her by accident. Aside from her shortcomings, Flandre is a playful, sweet, young vampire girl."

Alex agreed "Yes, she's nice."

Then the shrine maiden had a thought and asked "Hey Alex, do you cook?"

"Yes I do." answered Alex.

"Interesting, I should have you cook from time to time." suggested Reimu as she took the bare dishes to the kitchen.

Alex looked at Suika and wondered "Do you cook, Suika?"

Suika paused for a moment before whispering "Can you keep a secret?"

"That depends on what it is." replied Alex.

"The truth is I can cook, just not as well as Reimu can. Back when I started living with her, she wanted me to help making her meals. But I enjoyed Reimu's food more so I sabotaged my own cooking to convince her to do it." Suika confessed.

"Eh!? But that's not fair to Reimu." Alex whispered back.

"But I'm not as good." Suika said.

"Would you like me to help you sometime?" Alex offered.

Suika thought for a moment and replied "Hmmm, cooking is a handy skill to have. Thanks for the offer Alex, let's try sometime."

"What an interesting fact." spoke Reimu angrily with an even more upset face than usual after eavesdropping. "So did you do the same thing during the time you set a part of my house on fire?"

Suika answered "Uh no, I was experimenting with sake to make the food taste better and things kinda got out of hand…"

Reimu replied with an outraged glare and yelled "You used sake to cook!?"

Suika looked at Alex and said "Have a nice day, Alex."

She then dashed off at an incredible speed and Reimu chased after Suika, saying "Get back here you spoiled oni!"

Alex went outside next, seeing Reimu fire some orbs from somewhere in the forest to the left, as he was thinking _'Note to self, don't make Reimu angry.'_

Then he flew off for the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

When he went the distance, Alex landed at the entrance with the mansion to his right and the lake to his left. He didn't notice it much on his first visit to the mansion and so he looked at it, observing the water to be clean, clear and sparkling from the light of the sun in the middle of the large lake.

Suddenly he heard a scream above him say "Ah! The doll!"

Alex looked up and saw a doll with green eyes and chestnut colored hair falling right in front of his face, but catching it just before it hit him. He also saw that the doll wore a fancy light blue dress and a small, golden necklace with black polished beads.

A girl then landed across from him, who had short blond hair with a red headband in it, and she wore a blue dress with a pink ribbon tied around her waist, a row of pink strings going up from the waist, white sleeves that covered only her shoulders and a white collar up to the base of her neck where another pink ribbon was.

The girl came up to him and said "Oh thank you. I was delivering the doll to a client here and I accidently dropped it."

Alex handed the doll to the girl, saying "No problem, but if you don't mind me asking, who's the doll for?"

"It's for the sister of the mistress of the mansion here, Flandre Scarlet." informed the girl as she put the doll away in a brown, fabric bag that she carried in her left hand "Do you know them?"

Alex replied "I'm acquainted with them. I'm Alex Archwing, what's your name?"

"Alice Margatroid, puppeteer and doll maker magician. Nice to meet you." answered Alice.

Alex agreed "Likewise."

Alice wondered "So how did you end up meeting them?"

"It's a long story, but I can tell you about it inside." said Alex.

He and Alice then started walking up to the gate until they noticed Meiling. The gatekeeper looked drained, but with her eyes wide open as she made a stressed expression on her face.

"What happened to you, Meiling?" asked Alex with concern.

Meiling explained "Sakuya found out I slept on the job and she gave me a shot from a syringe yesterday that gave me temporary insomnia."

"Ooh!" exclaimed both Alex and Alice out of pity for the gatekeeper.

Meiling continued "Sakuya said it would 'encourage' me to do my job more efficiently. It's actually not too bad, the insomnia will wear off at one in the afternoon. She usually uses her knives to punish me or at times by other means."

Alex responded "What!? That's torture!"

Meiling clarified "No no no! I'm a youkai. Besides, Sakuya would never endanger my life, although her punishments can make me feel uncomfortable."

"Even so, there must be a more reasonable way to handle your sleeping issues. You're a nice person Meiling, you shouldn't be going through the penalties that you get." mentioned Alex.

Meiling became touched by his words and replied "Oh…thank you, that's very thoughtful of you, Alex…But anyway, what brings you here?"

Alex informed "I'm here to ask Patchouli for a favor, as well as thank Sakuya and Remilia for my new clothes and play with Flandre like I promised her I would."

"I see," then Meiling turned to Alice and said "and you're here for the doll delivery, right?"

"Yes I am." answered Alice.

Meiling said "Alright, you may both pass."

Alex and Alice passed through the front gate and into the mansion as Meiling continued her watch.

Once they were at the lobby, Alice asked "Can I come with you, Alex? I don't see any fairy maids around here, so I think I'll tag along with you to see Patchouli and ask her where Remilia is."

"That's fine by me." answered Alex.

As they made for their way to the library, Alice looked at Alex as he looked ahead, with Alice thinking about how nice he was and how Alex seemed attractive, making herself blush. Then Alice thought _'What am I doing!? I just met him. Get a hold of yourself Alice.'_

After her blush went away, she asked Alex "So how did you get to know everyone here?"

"I'll tell you…" began Alex as he told Alice about his arrival in Gensokyo till once his first visit to the mansion was done.

When he was finished talking, they were inside the library and in front of Patchouli as she was sitting at her desk as usual, reading a book.

Patchouli said after noticing the duo and setting her book on the desk "Hmmm, this is unexpected. What do you both need?"

Alex asked "Do you have some books I can write in, Patchouli? I just need two, one for making a journal and the other to fulfill an oath I made to someone…a long time ago."

Curious, Patchouli questioned "What oath are you talking about?"

"It's a long story and it's not something I feel comfortable talking about." Alex responded.

Patchouli opened a drawer to her left, gave him two books that were in there and said "Here, you can have these books, but please don't rely on me too often. I only lend people books if they really need them, and I'm not fond of my personal reading time being disturbed."

Alex wondered "Oh does that mean that you would like the books on Gensokyo that you gave me back?"

"I rarely do this, but you can keep the books I gave since you're not native to Gensokyo, so that way you can properly learn about it. Besides, I have books that are just as good as the ones that I gave you." mentioned Patchouli.

Alex remarked "Thank you Patchouli."

"No need to thank me, I'm just being properly reasonable." Patchouli replied before turning her attention to Alice and asking her "And what brings you here, Alice?"

Alice told her "I'm just looking for Remilia, do you know where she is?"

Patchouli informed "She's in the ballroom with Flandre, Sakuya and Koakuma the last I heard."

"Ok, thank you." replied Alice.

"Of course." Spoke Patchouli before she went back to looking at a book that she was reading earlier. As for Alex and Alice, they both left the library.

Once they were out of the room, Alex wondered "Where is the ballroom?"

Alice said "I know where it is, follow me."

He followed her all the way back to the lobby and went down an arched hallway across from the front entrance. At the end was a set of doors that they went through and then they both were in a large ballroom. The floor had a black and white checkered pattern on it that was polished, with gray stone pillars along the edges of the room, supporting a square balcony that was halfway up the walls of the room, with the balcony having red carpet and a wood rail guard along the edges. On the ceiling was a large painting portraying angels and demons coming from their spirit dwellings to fight a war, and a chandelier hanging in the center of the ceiling. Near the corners of the room were many wood tables with red tablecloths, surrounded by wood, red cushioned chairs. Lastly, there were four sets of doors on each side of the room and on the balcony above.

Alex and Alice noticed Remilia, Sakuya, Koakuma and Flandre sitting on a table to the right, with a white teacup on a small plate in front of each person. There were also papers to Sakuya's and Koakuma's right, a teapot to Sakuya's left and a brown, open book to Remilia's left.

The two of them made their way to the table, with Remilia and Koakuma noticing them first as Alex and Alice began to approach and Remilia said "Greetings."

Sakuya and Flandre turned their heads to see who was walking over and Alice and Alex came to be between them, with Alex saying "Hi Remilia, how are all of you?"

Remilia replied "We're doing fine, we're just discussing important matters around the mansion, as well as trying to teach Flandre to use her power more properly. So, what brings you here, Alex?"

Alex informed "I came here to get some books to write in from Patchouli since I needed a few, which you can see that I have them being carried in my left arm. Also, I wanted to say thank you for the clothes you made for me."

"But of course, you were in need." spoke Remilia.

Sakuya added "You are surely welcome. If you ever need something from us, we'll help you out."

Koakuma asked "Are the books that we gave you helping?"

"Yes they are, I've read up to a third of each book. They're very informative." answered Alex.

Koakuma said "Really? Glad to hear that."

Remilia turned to Alice and asked "Have you come to deliver the doll?"

Alice responded "Yes, hear it is."

Alice took the doll out of the bag and put it on the table.

"Can it endure?" questioned Remilia further.

"I think so." replied Alice.

Flandre took the doll after getting up from her chair and said "I have a new toy! Thank you, Alice!"

The young vampire girl played with her new toy as she stroked the hair of the doll, played with the limbs of it, and then threw it up into the air a bit and caught it, but the catch caused it to split in half from the waist in the process.

"Aw…" spoke Flandre sadly.

Alice said "Not again! I thought I had made a doll she couldn't break this time!"

Remilia sighed "I'll pay you for your troubles…"

Alex said "Hold on, let me try something."

He approached the two parts of the doll as his right hand glowed, with one part of the doll in each of Flandre's hands. She held the parts in front of Alex, and his power caused the doll to fuse back together. When he was done, Flandre tried breaking the doll again with her ability, but failed.

"Hey, I can't break this anymore." spoke Flandre before she asked Alex "How did you do that?"

Everyone aside from Alex were shocked at what they just witnessed, as they never thought that there was any magic that could completely withstand Flandre's power of destruction.

He then told the girls about how he could use metaconception and how it worked.

"You can actually bend entire concepts? What a mystifying and fascinating magic." Remilia remarked with awe.

"Wait till Patchouli hears about this." Koakuma said.

Flandre asked Alice "Can you and Alex make me more dolls sometime?"

Alice asked Alex "Do you mind? I'll need to visit you once in a while to have you put your magic on the dolls so that they won't be broken by Flandre."

"That's fine by me." said Alex.

"Alright then." spoke Alice.

Flandre replied happily "Oh thank you, thank you! I would like to have five dolls please. That way I can have the same number my sister has. She has so much fun playing with them."

Remilia responded "No Flandre, I do not play with the dolls that Alice gave me, I merely observe how creative they are upon the shelves of my cabinet in my room."

"But I saw you having a pretend tea party in your room with them a few days ago." Flandre mentioned.

Surprised that her sister saw that, Remilia stuttered "Y-You must be mistaken, I-I was just arranging them in… an artistic display and… practicing my acting. Besides, I am the mistress of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, I have no time to play something so trivial."

"Yes you do." Flandre grinned playfully as she teased.

"No I don't." Remilia scoffed.

"Yes you do." "No I don't." "Yes you do." "No I don't." "Yes you do." "No I don't." "Yes you do." "No I don't."

"No you don't." said Flandre.

"Yes I do. Agh!" Remilia yelled after realizing what she said. Then she stated "For the last time, I do not and shall not play with dolls!"

Flandre replied disappointed "…Does that mean we can't play with our dolls together when I have mine? I was looking forward to having a pretend tea party with all of our dolls…"

Remilia said "Well…alright. You are my sister, so I shall entertain you when the time comes." Although Remilia hid the fact that her sister's idea sounded fun.

"Thank you, Remilia!" Flandre spoke happily before thinking _'Hee hee! Oh sister, you should be more honest, there's nothing wrong with expressing that you enjoy fun and games. At least we'll have fun later.'_

Even Alex could tell that Remilia was concealing her childish side and he thought _'Hmmm, Remilia is polite and classy, but shy when it comes to her young girl interests and Flandre is playful, silly and nice. How adorable!'_

Remilia reached into her pocket to pull out a small blue bag of coins and said "Here's your payment, Alice. Thank you for your services."

Sakuya took the bag and gave it to Alice, who replied "Sure thing." Then she turned to Alex and said "I think I'll be leaving now. Are you coming with?"

"No, I'm going to stay a bit longer. I'm going to play with Flandre like I said I would to her the last time I was here." Reminded Alex.

Flandre responded joyfully "Yay! You remembered!"

Alice recalled that and said "Oh that's right. Well, it was nice meeting you Alex."

"You too, Alice." replied Alex.

Flandre mentioned "Hmmm, Alex and Alice… hee hee, your names' rhyme."

After that, Alice walked out of the door that she entered from.

Koakuma said "I'm going to tell Patchouli about what Alex did just a bit ago."

"That's fine." spoke Remilia.

Koakuma then left the room next.

Afterwards, Alex asked "So what would you like to do, Flandre?"

Flandre said as she thought "Hmmm…I know! Hey Alex, how much do you know about vampires?"

"I've read some things about them." informed Alex.

Flandre said "Ok then, I'm going to quiz you."

Alex wondered why she decided to do that, but replied "Alright, go ahead."

"Ok, first question. When do vampires usually sleep?" Flandre asked first.

Alex replied "At night, but that makes me wonder. Why are you and your sister awake during the day?"

"We just trained ourselves to be awake during certain parts of the day since that's when the servants are more active. My big sister does it to make sure the mansion is in order and I do it to have fun with everyone I can who is awake during the day." Flandre explained. "Ok, next question. What are vampires weak against?"

"Let's see…sunlight, water, garlic, silver and baked beans." Answered Alex. "But why are you awake during the day if you're weak against sunlight?"

Flandre said "The mansion's windows have special magic that prevents the sunlight from hurting us. When we go outside during the day, we need to stay in the shade, but the fresh air is very refreshing and it's very colorful during that time outside. Plus when it comes to water, we need to tamper it with some special herbs so that we can clean ourselves with it. Just thought I'd mention that. But you know, I've heard of legends on how there were a small number of vampires that can withstand water and daylight, but the methods have become lost on how to do that. Still…it would be nice to travel outside and swim without worry. But anyway, next question. What are vampires known for?"

Alex replied "They're known to be fast, strong and…are known to drink human blood."

"Does that make you scared of us, Alex?" Remilia questioned him.

Alex responded "Well…you both do what you need to do to stay alive. I'm sure that humans and vampires can co-exist peacefully."

Remilia replied "Huh, usually humans find that scary that we drink human blood and they hate us for that, but you're rather understanding Alex, thank you. Yes, I think humans and vampires can get along just fine too."

Flandre mentioned "We get along well with Sakuya and she's human."

Alex said "She is? It's sometimes hard to tell who's a human and who's a youkai around here."

"You'll be able to tell after a while." spoke Sakuya "Are you done with the tea, master?"

"Yes." Remilia answered simply.

"Alright, I will put everything away." Sakuya stated.

The maid gathered the teapot, cups and plates onto a tray from a nearby table and then Sakuya left through the doors to the right side of the room.

Flandre told Alex "Ok, one last question. Can you catch a vampire, Alex?"

"Is that a general question or a question for me personally?" Alex wondered.

Flandre giggled "It's for you."

Alex informed "Considering what I've read and knowing the speed I have, it's possible."

Flandre set her doll on the table, walked up to him, touched his chest and said "Tag! You're it!"

Flandre jolted out of the room through the doors to the left side with Alex setting down his books on the table and chasing after her at the same incredible speed as they ran through the hallways of the mansion. Remilia was surprised at how fast he was and then thought _'What a strange human, I wonder what other surprises he has up his sleeve. But I suppose either way, he'll have a good effect on Flandre's life.'_

Alex played an even game of tag for a little while with Flandre until he decided to go back to the Hakurei Shrine to see how Reimu and Suika were doing and learn more about Gensokyo from the books he had there. He took the books off the table in the ballroom and said his goodbyes to the Scarlet sisters before leaving the mansion.

When he opened the front door to the shrine after arriving, he saw Suika to the left of the table with a defeated look on her face and Reimu to the right with a satisfied smile.

Reimu looked to her left and said "Oh there you are, Alex. Suika was about to make lunch for all of us."

"How'd you convince her to do that?" wondered Alex.

Reimu replied "I just told her that I wouldn't buy her some high quality sake at the village anymore if she doesn't help with the cooking here."

"You're mean." Suika whined at Reimu.

Alex said "Oh, I see."

He just walked into his room with his new books, closing the door behind him as he knew he had much he still had to learn and many things to write down.

-**Author's note-**

**Well, Chapter 7 is finally up, sorry it took so long. For those who didn't know, I had a bad leg injury I got awhile back and I've been dealing with some other stressful issues in my life recently. But I hope you find this chapter satisfying. The next chapter will have Jindor and Selvus attack the Scarlet Devil Mansion and so I think that you'll find the next part of the story very suspenseful. However, I'm not sure when it will be coming out, but I'll have it up as soon as I can. Anyway, feel free to write a review.**

**See you all next time.**

**-nostalgic1**


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Touhou Project, Adventure, Romance