In a mystical place known as Gensokyo, creatures and demons who have been long forgotten have come to live without the ties of humans. This land holds the legendary Hakurei Shrine, and within it is the young shrine maiden, Reimu Hakurei herself. Today was a wonderful day, the trees bent with the wind and the blossoming flowers shone in the rays of the glistening sun. The shrine maiden sat in front of her shrine. She stretched her arms out and bent her head, waiting for the crick of her neck.
–Crick- "...aaahh..."
She relaxed her shoulders and lay back, staring up at the beautiful blue sky.
"This is such a nice day," she said to herself.
Suddenly, she saw a black shape shoot past. She sat up, worried it was an evil spirit, but all she saw was the Witch, Marisa Kirisame, slowly drifting down to greet her.
"Oh, it's just you, Marisa. Isn't it a nice day out?"
"Yup! Sure is!" Marisa cheerfully replied. She hopped off her broom and began walking towards Reimu.
"I haven't seen it this nice in Gensokyo since last summer!"
Reimu thought back to the previous year. The last thing she could remember was waking up this morning, and even that was a bit foggy.
"How do you even remember that, Marisa?"
Marisa then laughed quite loudly and said, "Photographic memory!" Then she winked, making it an obvious lie.
Reimu laughed back, and then replied, "As if you could figure out how to use a camera. C'mon, let's go get a drink."
They then began walking away from the shrine, into the forest and in the direction of the human village.
Meanwhile, something was happening on the other side of Gensokyo. In a mansion, far from the Shrine, and even farther from the Human Village was a window. Through this window, a small figure watched the skies of Gensokyo with a bored and annoyed expression on her face. Behind her, a maid with light grey hair poured tea and hummed a happy tune.
"Sigh."
The maid behind her stopped humming and looked up at her master. She was looking out the window at the clear blue sky.
"What ails you m'lady?"
The girl turned, her vampire wings now clearly turning with her, and replied, "Why is it that all of the humans and other magical beings get to have fun outside during the daytime?" The girl's small size was obvious. If the maid hadn't known any better, her master could have been an 11 year old, lost in the mansion. But she knew the real age of her master, and so she stopped pouring and began to listen intently to her mistress.
"How is this fair? Is this my fate, to fear something as simple as the light of day, without the ability to fight it?"
The maid set down the tea and came over to the vampire, "M'lady, if you believe this is your fate, then why not change it?"
The vampire's eyes lit up, their red hue glinting in the sunlight. "I didn't think of that..."
The vampire fluttered over to her chair. The maid walked over and pulled it out for her and then she sat down. "The Scarlet family hasn't done something this big since the Lunarians!
Should we really do it?" She took a sip of her tea, looking at the maid for an answer.
"If you wish, m'lady. No matter what happens, I shall protect you and you know this."
The vampire looked at her maid and smiled.
"Then let's have some fun."
The girls returned to the shrine, exhausted and tired after a long day at the village.
"Woo! That was a great party! Let's go again tomorrow, okay?"
"I'm bushed. I'll see you later, Marisa." The shrine maiden said her goodbyes to the witch, shutting the door to her shrine. Reimu waltzed over to her bed and slid sleepily into it. She began slowly drifting to sleep. Her eyes drooped, but she tried to keep them open a little while longer.
"So...tired..." And then she couldn't keep them open any longer. Her eyelids dropped and she was out.
The next day, Reimu woke up to Marisa on top of her.
"-GAH, What are you trying to do?" Reimu kicked Marisa off of her in shock and began checking herself for anything weird.
Marisa, rubbing her head from being knocked into a wall, stood up and explained, "I was trying to wake you up! It's daytime, but there is a weird red mist covering the sun! No one in the human village is waking up!" Reimu looked outside, and sure enough, there were strange red clouds covering everything in the sky.
"Well, isn't that odd." Reimu bent her head in confusion.
"Any idea where it came from?"
Marisa shook her head. "Nobody knows."
Reimu looked at the clouds closely.
"If everyone in the human village is asleep all the time, then nobody will ever donate to my shrine..."
"Nobody ever d-" But, Marisa stopped herself before she finished that sentence.
Reimu began walking out of the shrine, a serious look on her face. Marisa, looking concerned, hopped on her broom and followed.
"I think we should split up, Reimu. That way we can cover more ground."
Reimu looked up at Marisa. "Good idea. You go on ahead. I'll follow." Marisa nodded and began flying into the forest at a high speed.
The blonde youkai played with her hair. She was sitting in a tree that she had masked in the darkness. Suddenly another blonde-haired girl went flying through on a broomstick, slamming into the dark tree branch. She fell and rubbed her head, cussing under her breath and looking around her for her broom. The youkai chuckled, seeing this as a hilarious prank. She noticed the broom was stuck in her tree though, and realized that the girl couldn't find it if it was hidden in the darkness. She chuckled some more, and grabbed the broom. Floating down, she appeared in front of the witch. The witch, however, didn't notice.
"Dammit, if Reimu was here she'd be saying how nice it was outside and how much she wished people would donate or something...ugh...there's always weirdos out at night...I'm likely to be eaten at this rate...", she continued to mutter under her breath.
"Who are you calling a weirdo?" The blonde girl yelled, annoyed at the fact that Marisa still hadn't noticed her.
"Oh my, it's a youkai. I suppose you heard that mumbling didn't you?"
"Yeah, and my name's Rumia. I control the darkness!" She waved her arms around in a cross-like formation, as if trying to scare Marisa.
Marisa laughed and said, "Well mine's Marisa, and I'm not sure, but are you trying to scare me?"
"Doesn't this look like a crucifixion?"
"Not really."
"Oh. Erm. Well." Rumia looked embarrassed.
"I've got somewhere to be, now if you'll just hand over the broom..." She motioned with her hand for the youkai to hand it over, but Rumia didn't budge.
"I don't think so!" She laughed and disappeared into the darkness of the forest.
Marisa groaned.
"Kids."
She then began walking deeper into the forest, unaware of what would follow, or even where she was going.