A. N.: Hello my readers! This fic was written for the WSW Fan Fiction Contest. It was based on a dream I had. And thus, since I remembered the dream clear enough, why not make it a fanfic on it? So, just a disclaimer, this story is not 100% canon, but I tried my best to fit in. I hope you enjoy!
Edited for improvements.
Reimu waited at the beginning of the Garden of the Sun. She seemed to be calm at first, neutral expression. Then, she looked again at the invite, written by Yuuka Kazami, and sighed. She crossed her arms and thought about it, impatient.
Yuuka was a youkai that the red-white miko always respected. After living through centuries, she knew a lot of things. She was also very powerful, that inspired fear even over the ones who captured her attention enough to be considered a friend of her and other elder youkai. As the spirit of flowers, she watched over them and everyone in Gensokyo knew better to not mistreat flowers, or else she'd pay a visit to their dreams.
Even though the invite was friendly, Reimu made sure to bring her gohei, amulets and spellcards, just in case she tried something funny. Or probably requesting a spellcard duel.
"I found you, ze!"
"Marisa, what are you doing here?" Reimu said, looking up at the black and white witch flying in her broom.
"Just passing by!"
"Just passing by?" she replied with a scoff.
"You can say that," Marisa said with a grin, after she landed. "Right?"
"Oy, Miss Reimu."
Reimu looked at the person coming from the path of the garden. It was Elly, Yuuka's gatekeeper, holding her trusted scythe.
"Welcome, Miss Reimu. Miss Yuuka is waiting for you." She looked at Marisa and her expression turned serious. "Where is your invitation, Miss Marisa?"
"Oh, c'mon, does this cute face need an invitation?" She replied, grinning ear to ear.
"Yes, it does." Elly replied, deadpan. She turned to a bell flower and said, "Miss Yuuka, the black and white is here as well...what? ... The more the merrier? ...As you wish."
"You should consder yourself lucky, miss Marisa, you can enter as well. Please, follow me."
While Elly led the path, Reimu whispered to her friend, "What's the big idea?"
"C'mon, Yuuka gives some nice treats when she's in a good mood!" she whispered back, "I couldn't waste the opportunity!"
"Welcome to my humble estate." Yuuka said, spreading her arms and smiling warmly. "I'm glad that you accepted my invitation and brought your friend."
Dulled by her effusive compliment, Reimu bowed in respect and said, "I appreciate the invitation, miss. Kazami."
"Oh, still as formal as ever Reimu, you can call me Yuuka."
"Don't about Reimu, Yuuka," exclaimed Marisa, hugging the red and white with one arm, "Reimu may be grouchy but has a good heart."
"And, besides, she's not the type that wastes an invitation for free food." The green-haired added.
"Can we get on with it?" Reimu said, flustered and she blushed a little.
"Of course, make yourselves at home."
During the tea, filled with all the exotic food from the Outside World, such as various flavors of jelly, peanut butter, something sweet and delicious called Nutella and even caviar, all of them to be eaten with bread and cake and followed with tea, Yuuka decided to tell them with she invited them.
"You see, being a youkai as experienced as I, there are a lot of memories that I guard and these days I've been reviewing some of those memories and then I said to myself, 'Why don't I show that shrine maiden a little about the history of Gensokyo?', since the gap hag doesn't do that a lot."
"To tell the truth, I never cared for the history of Gensokyo," she said, sipping her cup of tea. "What matters to me is exterminate youkai and put down the humors of the Human Village."
"Everything I know comes from Mima or Kourin." Marisa said, putting all jelly possible in her sandwich.
"Speaking of Mima," she picked up a picture, "I guess you have never seen this man." She showed them a picture of green-haired man, wearing a blue coat covering his body, adorned with stars and crescent moons. He also had a five-pointed star as a pendant.
"Nope," Marisa said, taking a bite of her sandwich and spreading crumbs all over near her. "Never seen before."
"Don't talk with the mouth full!" Yuuka said, narrowing her eyes.
Marisa gulped and said, "Sorry."
Yuuka cleared her throat and continued. "As I was saying, this one is Mima's father."
"Really? She told me once she was human before, but I never imagined that I'd live to see him."
"Yes. He was a powerful warlock and a devil in the duels," she stopped to chuckle, "When I was younger and had longer hair, he was one of my favorite opponents."
"He doesn't seem too Japanese..." Reimu said.
"No, he wasn't. During the foundation of Gensokyo, people from all parts of the world were invited to settle here. Lots of adventurers, also lamenting the twilight of magic in the Outside World, found solace in this land," she chuckled again, "Also the youkai needed to be pacified, thus adventurers had a lot of work to do. Those were good times..."
"Really?" Reimu said, unamused.
"C'mon, Reimu! The old battles were awesome stuff! Kourin always talked about, he watched a lot of battles!" Marisa said.
"I must agree with Marisa. I think one your ancestors was an outsider, which explains why you have blonde hair."
"Today's outsiders are a bunch of useless people," Reimu commented, "One weaker than the other! No wonder why they're eaten by youkai, they're so useless that the Outside World doesn't even care getting them back!"
"What's wrong with you?" Yuuka asked.
"Reimu has a bad experience with outsiders." Marisa answered, "When they don't become youkai food or die for other reasons, they're very ungrateful! They go back to their word, yelling the most colorful swear words of all existent languages against us. I know how to drop the F-bomb in thirteen different languages because of them."
"How rude."
"And they also leave saying this place should be nuked, whatever it means..." And she added, whispering, "And because she can't save all of them. She feels kind of guilty when this happens."
"What did you say?" Reimu asked.
"Nothing! And, Yuuka, did you fight in those days?"
"I must say that I used to gather a few youkai and strike the village just for fun." She smiled. "But they were always there, the Hakurei shrine maiden of the time leading them all." She picked up a fork and slashed the air. "Take this, human scum! Your blood is good fertilizer, knew that?"
"Very funny..." Reimu said, placing a spoonful of sugar in her tea.
"It's actually true, human flesh is a good fertilizer, my babies love it! I think it must be their souls, they are special to them. The purer the soul, the better."
Reimu and Marisa looked at each other, exchanging nervous glances. They read each other's expressions, they both thought of picking up her weapons.
"Though, I must admit I have a soft spot for pure souls, like of the children." Yuuka continued. "I prefer them to stay in their original bodies, am I right?"
They didn't reply to her.
"Oh, let me show you another one, this will be interesting!" She showed them a picture of a woman with silver hair, enveloped in a silver cape, wearing a white shirt and a blue skirt, held together by a belt. She was holding a knife in each hand, with a pocketwatch in the pocket of the shirt.
"But it's..." Marisa said, eyes widened.
"Sakuya!" Reimu ended.
"Yes, it is! Let me tell you her story: she hails from a place known in the Outside World as Indonesia."
"Is it a place at the south of Japan? Full of islands? Because I think I saw it in a map at Kourin's!"
"Correct. If she didn't tell me I couldn't believe as well. But as I was saying, she lived a normal life in a village, serving a noble. Then, the noble and his family died in a pirate attack. Since she was an old woman, they spared her."
"Wait... Old woman?" Reimu said.
"Sakuya is older than a few youkai of Gensokyo but I'll explain how she keeps her appearance. As I was saying, after living without a boss, she retired to her home and spent the days waiting to die, until, during one of her walks, she found a knife."
"How convenient..." Reimu said, rolling her eyes.
"But it wasn't a normal knife. It had magic properties. With runes all over its blade, she realized that it was no ordinary knife. Then she started to think and she looked at her arm. She hated the wrinkles of the age at her arm… She always wanted to cut them out. Thus she did the most logical thing: she cut them out!"
"It must have hurt." Marisa said.
"To tell the truth, no. After she passed the knife, her arm became soft as if she was sixteen again. Thus she cut out all the wrinkles of her body, and when she stared at her reflection in a pond, she saw she was young again, even more beautiful than ever!"
"Eternal youth, huh?" Marisa said, tapping her chin.
"The knife also worked on objects, plants, animals, and even other people. Thus, she earned a lot of enemies. But she didn't give up! She fought thieves, pirates, beasts, evil spirits. She quickly ascended to a legend among her people. Also, with time, she learned to manipulate time itself, the knife could cut off through time and space."
"So, are you saying she used her powers for good?" Reimu asked, somewhat surprised.
"Of course, she used for her own good once in a while, but she was kind of a hero for her people. But," her tone changed, from a cheerful one to a more serious, "Everything changed when the Dutch nation attacked!" There was a sound of thunder in the background. "Thank you, Regenteki!"
The fairy maid bowed, holding a small hammer and a plate of aluminum.
"Long short story, the Dutch turned Indonesia into of their colonies. Her failure to impede this made her people lose faith in her. But how can I blame her? The Dutch had the latest technology at their hands and probably bribed the Indonesian officials. For that reason, she left her country and crossed the sea for a place that still needed heroes like her."
"Gensokyo." Marisa said.
"Of course! Her style was elegant, I liked fighting her. She quickly made a name to herself. But that was her downfall... She challenged the patron of the Scarlet Devil Mansion alone and lost to her."
"She lost to Remilia?"
"Nobody told her to be cocky. Thus, that's the reason why she's her maid and her new name is Sakuya Izayoi. And yet she could leave that vampire whenever she wanted."
"What are you talking about?"
"After some months, I decided that it'd be boring if she stayed in that mansion and not fight youkai. So, I challenged Remilia for a fight in order to obtain Sakuya."
"Did you really go against Remilia in the mano-a-mano?"
"It was one of the most interesting battles I ever had. Vampires are such weird creatures: they have as many strengths as they have weaknesses. Using a secret plant magic provided by my babies, I defeated Remilia."
"And why is Sakuya still at the mansion?" Reimu asked.
"That's the funniest thing. She appreciated the concern, but preffered to stay at the mansion. I saw that it'd be pointless to argue further and I just requested Remilia to let her solve incidents from times to times."
"Did she say why she wanted to stay there?" Marisa asked.
"No, she didn't. I suppose it's because she found something she liked there. Perhaps her first patron was a person whom she respected and Remilia reminded him or she was just tired of solving incidents and preferred to return to her first way of life. Humans are weird, you know."
"Heh, she always have that mysterious aura, I guess it's an act." Marisa said. "But I have to ask something: why do you keep a picture of Mima's father?"
"I like to keep a picture of everyone who fought against me, as a memento of a good fight."
"No, I mean, why is it the first of them and it has a heart and his signature at the back?"
"Ho ho ho, Marisa!" She said, blushing like a red pepper and taking her hands to her face in a vain attempt to hide her blush. "Is that the kind of question you should ask to a distinguished lady like me?"
Reimu and Marisa just blinked. Surely, the next time they find Mima, there wouldn't be shortage of stuff to talk about.
A.N.: I dreamed that Yuuka (or Yukari, kinda foggy) had decided to tell Reimu on Gensokyo's origins. And they touched upon the issue of some characters backstory.
I remember she showed Reimu a picture of Mima's father, who had blue hair and a suit that resembles her outfit in Mystic Square. But things got trippy with Sakuya.
She explains to Reimu that Sakuya was originally a widowed old woman from Indonesia that just spent her days waiting to die until she found a magic knife that could cut through time (and space). She used the knife to de-age herself and turned into something like of an incidente solver. And then she was invited to Gensokyo, during its foundation, to help pacify the youkai, I mean to make them not too dangerous.
Then the segment ended. I guess if it continued, it would show her defeat at Remilia's hands and following her contractual servitude.
I wrote it in two hours, while I was travelling by train today. I tweaked a little when I arrived home and I hope you have enjoyed!