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In the aftermath of the destruction and remains of the Hakurei Shrine, everyone pointed fingers and blamed one another for what was now called the incident of the Hakurei Gathering. They accused their fellow drinkers and deflected off any accusations against themselves. As the verbal warfare turned into drawn/summoned spellcards and eventually free-for-all danmaku in several areas of the Hakurei Shrine, the unfortunate victims moaned one last time and lapsed into an unwelcome unconsciousness.
One small being saw the incident all happen from start to finish, and she glumly watched as the silly and drunk youkai argued with one another over the many things that they thought were the causes.
What had happened that led up to this point? One might ask the small being. He/She would get no answer, because she had no mouth to speak from. But if any of the drunk youkai had stopped to contemplate this question, they would have said that it began with Reimu's letter.
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The invitation was surprisingly formal, complete with fancy writing and lavish stationary. Reimu Hakurei, in a desperate attempt to improve the dilapidated state of her shrine, decided to send out cordial invites to all the humans and youkai in Gensokyo. Her reasoning was, the more people that came to her shrine, the more likely that at least one of them would donate money. And so, after persuading Yukari to help her gap the invitations directly to people (with the promise of some obscure reward in the distant future), every Gensokian received the following letter via gap:
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Dear Resident of Gensokyo,
You are invited to the first ever Hakurei Gathering, celebrating the unity between humans and youkai
There will be:
Unlimited Food
Unlimited Drinks (Alcohol Included)
Raffle Prizes
Music
On Sept 23, 20—
At Hakurei Shrine, Gensokyo
Reimu Hakurei, Hakurei Shrine Maiden (Host)
Yukari Yakumo, Youkai (Host)
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Unsurprisingly, the humans were skeptical of the invitation. The legendary shrine maiden, who, despite all of her accomplishments in solving incidents and exterminating youkai, couldn't prevent said youkai from basically infesting her own shrine? It sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.
Surprisingly, despite many of them being avid drinkers and partygoers, the youkai were also skeptical of the invitation. The ruthless youkai exterminator that left behind a trail of destruction every time she went out to solve incidents was inviting all of them to a party? For what reason? And why would Yukari Yakumo be there helping the dreaded shrine maiden?
In the end, only those who had gotten to know Reimu went to the party. And this was more or less because: 1) they had been mercilessly beaten by Reimu in danmaku, 2) discovered she was a lax and lazy individual, and 3) warmed up and become friendly with her despite the fact that she was a youkai exterminator.
Reimu didn't discover the fruits of her and Yukari's labor until the day of the 1st ever Hakurei Gathering. Right before the party was supposed to start, she walked out of her shrine with a large platter of food with Yukari, who was holding a large bottle. As soon as she saw the usual attendees setting up bottles of sake, food, and music with no unknown humans or youkai in sight, she said "Fuck it," put her large platter of food into the hands of an unsuspecting Reisen "Udonge" Inaba, grabbed the nearest bottle of alcohol (which happened to be held in the hands of Yukari Yakumo), popped the cork, and chugged it.
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Fingers were first pointed at Yukari Yakumo. When she had woken up from her nosebleed, that is. Upon being accused, she merely scoffed and said that the 'gift' she had brought from the Outside World was of the highest quality of alcohol content and meant to be drunk and shared by everyone. Like Reimu, she had held the item in her hands as an expression of unity and compliment with Reimu's food platter. It wasn't her fault that the shrine maiden decided to grab the closest thing to her and drink from it.
Yukari paused.
"And, er, I might have added some of my own supply of sake into it," she sheepishly admitted. "But that was because the original liquor was hardly worth calling alcohol or up to Gensokyo standards!"
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It was an impressive display. Reimu had chugged the bottle down to the bottom, and when she was done, she threw the bottle far away into the trees. As she wiped her mouth and belched a little, the youkai cheered and took it as a sign to kick the party off. The Prismriver sisters started to play a selection, and the happy sounds of people chatting and drinking soon filled the air. The shrine maiden smiled a little at the sight, swaying dangerously on her feet as the extremely potent alcohol flooded through her.
"Hey Reimu! Oh wow, you look really out of it," A voice said close to her.
The tipsy shrine maiden turned and saw what looked like to be Alice. Or possibly Marisa, since they both had blonde hair.
"Hey yoourrselff," Reimu slurred. She stepped once but almost toppled forward face first onto the ground if not for the blondie's arms grabbing and supporting her.
"Woah there. Here, drink this. It should help you a bit, ze" the kind voice offered. There was a slight rustle of clothing and the sound of a cork popping, and Reimu blearily saw a clear vial filled with a dark liquid in it being offered to her. The usually hyperaware and sensitive miko took the vial and drank its contents.
It took ten seconds before Reimu felt the first effects of the drink kick in. Now, instead of being drunk, she was both drunk and extremely giddy with energy.
"Thanks, Alice! You're the best, best, best, beesssstt friend I don't have!" Reimu sloppily said. She straightened up and started to jump all round. "I'm so happy, happy, happy happpyy!"
"I'm Marisa, Reimu, and you're very much welcome," the witch grinned as her friend jumped around her. It looked like her special mushroom, orange, and coffee energy drink blend worked. For a few seconds at least.
All of a sudden, Reimu felt the energy leave her, and she slowed to a stop and latched onto Marisa for support. Seeing Reimu quiet down for the time being, Marisa adjusted her grip and led her friend over to one of the spread out picnic blankets with several people sitting on them.
"Hey Marisa." One of people sitting near the edges of the picnic blanket had noticed the pair and stood up to greet them.
"Hey to you too, Youmu," Marisa answered back. Youmu opened her mouth to say something further but closed it. She leaned closer and peered at Reimu, who was now slightly drooling onto Marisa's shoulder and starting to cross eyes.
"Er, I think there is something wrong with Reimu," The white haired gardener said, concerned. Her phantom half floated closer to them. Upon seeing the white, pale glob in from of her, Reimu's eyes suddenly focused and brightly lit up.
"Nah, she's-" Marisa began.
"OMYGOSH, IS THAT FLOATING MOCHI!" Reimu suddenly squealed, letting go of the witch and grabbing onto the new object. Alarmed, the 'floating mochi' vigorously squirmed to get free but couldn't.
"-fine," Marisa finished.
"Reimuuu?!" Youmu squeaked, feeling the girl's weight on her phantom half.
"Mooochiii," Reimu slurred, now caressing one hand over the smoothness of the phantom and rubbing her cheek over it.
"Right, I can totally see that she's 'fine'," another voice retorted. Marisa turned towards the owner and grinned widely.
"Hey Alice! Long time no see, ze!"
The puppeteer rolled her eyes. Floating above her shoulder, her doll Shanghai copied the motion with her head.
"You were just at my house this morning stealing one of my tomes," she deadpanned. "Speaking of which, I want it back. Now."
"I will, when I'm done with it," Marisa answered back nonchalantly, waving the issue off.
"Which is when?"
"Reimu, let go of my phantom, I mean me!" Youmu tried to pull the shrine maiden off of her other self, but Reimu only gripped harder on it.
"Noooo, it's mine!" She whined.
"It's mine, I mean me!"
"Mine!"
"Me!"
"Youmu-chan?" A melodic voice called out. From years of habit and experience, Youmu immediately stopped, straightened up, and turned to face the owner of the voice.
"Yes, Yuyuko-sama?"
"Why don't you go get us a few drinks? I think I see a new fruity cocktail that I haven't tried yet," the ghostly princess suggested, batting her eyes at Youmu.
"But, but Yuyoko-sama, Reimu is-" Youmu sputtered.
"Hurry, Youmu, I can see a few of them already being taken," Yuyuko pleaded.
"But-" Youmu attempted one final time. But then Yuyuko turned on her infamous puppy eyes, and with it Youmu had to obey. With a noticeable slump of her shoulders, she bowed towards the group and turned around to find the platter of fruity cocktails.
"Poor Youmu," Marisa commented. She sat down next to Alice, who begrudgingly made room for her on the blanket.
"Did you have to send Youmu away?" Alice asked Yuyuko, frowning a little.
"Oh yes. I did want to try out the new drinks they were passing. Although now that you mention it…" Yuyuko responded. Her eyes slowly drifted over towards Reimu, who was now sitting on the picnic blanket with them and tightly hugging and cooing to the limp phantom. She looked over to where her cute gardener was and saw that she had reached the rabbit girl serving the drinks. A small, mischievous smiled appeared on her face.
Alice warily looked at the phantom princess and opened her mouth to say something. But before she could, Shanghai pulled on her hair. Slightly annoyed, Alice reached up and cradled the floating doll in her hands.
"Yes, Shanghai?" She asked. The faithful doll turned and pointed. The puppeteer looked over and saw the Scarlet Devil Mansion enjoying the festivities amongst themselves. Interestingly enough, Flandre Scarlet, the extremely destructive vampire sister of Remilia, was with them. She looked like she was having a good time, though. Alice returned back to Shanghai with a questioning gaze.
"Um, I don't quite understand," she said. To her, there was nothing out of the ordinary. But Shanghai shook her head and pointed again, this time a little off to the side. Alice followed the doll's hand again, and this time she saw it. Marisa was conversing with Patchouli Knowledge.
"What!" Alice quickly looked to her side and saw no blonde haired witch. Her eyes immediately snapped back to the forbidden pairing, and she stood up to confront her greatest rival (in love).
"Reimu, I'll be back!" She snapped off, and she rode into the foray to do battle with the magician. Shanghai faithfully floated after her.
Yuyuko smirked at the lucky turn of events. Now, she was alone with Reimu. Or rather, Reimu was alone with her. Seizing the opportunity, Yuyuko leaned forward towards the girl, as if sharing a gossip with her.
"Say, Reimu, don't you think that it's…kind of warm today," Yuyuko slyly asked.
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"Yuyuko-sama!" Youmu scolded. The ghostly princess turned a slighter paler color.
"Youmu-chan, it was a joke! A joke!" the older woman hastily said. Youmu merely growled and drew her sword (name). Alarmed, Yuyuko drew out her fan to protect herself.
"You told me it was an accident. Now, you're telling me that it was a joke?!" Youmu said in a low but threatening voice.
Yuyuko shifted her eyes around for an escape route. Seeing none, she fearfully looked back at her now seething gardener.
"Um, yes?" She confessed.
"I can't believe you tripped and involved me in your silly 'joke'!" the white haired gardener exploded out loud.
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Reimu blankly stared at the woman, not comprehending a single word. When she gave no answer, Yuyuko had a hard time suppressing an excited giggle.
This is so fun! She thought, and she leaned closer to the miko.
"Well, I was thinking…since it's still quite hot out, maybe you should, ah, take the chance and lose a little more clothing. After all, don't you sometimes feel sweaty in your opened sleeves and miko dress?" the ghost princess whispered conspiringly.
When she was met again with a blank stare, Yuyuko slightly pouted and leaned back in her seat. Well, time for Plan B. Sorry, Youmu.
But Yuyuko wasn't really sorry.
Soon, Youmu returned to their picnic blanket with a large platter of around fifteen of the fruity cocktails. With a small sigh, she balanced the platter on one practiced hand and took one of the glasses with the other.
"I'm sorry it took a while, but here are your fruity cocktails, Yuyuko-sama," Youmu said, and she handed Yuyuko the offered cocktail.
"Oh, thank you Youm-oops!" Yuyuko made as if to reach out, but then she grabbed Youmu by the wrist and pulled down.
"Kyaa!"
Alcohol and glass fell everywhere, drenching the group. By some miracle, the cocktail glasses did not shatter.
"Yuyuko-sama!" The wet girl accused.
The ghostly princess put up her hands in apology.
"My bad, Youmu. I misjudged and grabbed you by accident," she meekly apologized. Then she ran a finger down Youmu's face and licked it. Her eyes lit up in delight. "My, this is delicious!"
"Yuyuko-sama!"
Reimu merely lifted a hand, stared at the liquid on it, licked, and drunkenly marveled at the taste.
The commotion and sound of many glasses tinkling had caused the other youkai and party-goers to briefly look over and see a drenched Reimu, Yuyuko, and Youmu. The SDM group were one of these patrons, and they watched as the gardener berated her master. At least, some of them were; Patchouli, Marisa, and Alice seemed to have drifted off somewhere else.
"Hey…are you seeing what I'm seeing," Flandre uncertainly brought up, struggling to come to terms with what she was seeing with her very sharp vampire eyes.
"You mean the glutton of a princess being nagged on by her nanny?" Remilia casually responded. It wasn't an uncommon sight to see the ghostly duo act like this in public; in fact, it happened at least once during every gathering or party she has been to. Thus, the five hundred year old vampire had much better things to do than watch a reoccurring event. She slowly sipped her bloody red wine (specially brought from the Scarlet Devil Mansion) and reveled in the aged taste.
"Um, no."
"Then, Reimu licking her hand in a not-Reimu like manner?" Koakuma, the devilish library assistant and familiar of Patchouli, tentatively suggested.
"Yup."
"What!?" Remilia immediately spat out her mouthful of wine, which unfortunately landed on Koakuma. Her own vampire eyes flickered over to the bickering couple and off to the side, where she was indeed met with the sight of a shrine maiden doing un-shrine maiden-like things. Her mouth dropped and eyes widened in jaw-dropping surprise as Flandre started to provide running commentary.
"She finished licking her hand and now starting on her arm. But it doesn't look like there isn't much on it. Now she's starting on her other hand and arm. Oh, she finished that rather fast. And now…oh. Now she's licking the phantom blob in her hands. Huh, I didn't know that thing could vibrate that fast," the younger vampire remarked.
And with that, Remilia had had enough.
"Sakuya, I can't stand this. Please go and fix this somehow."
Sakuya bowed. "At once, Ojou-sama."
With a click of her stopwatch, Sakuya disappeared from sight. Flandre turned towards her older sister with a questioning look.
"Say Onii-chan, didn't you mention something about having a funny feeling about tonight before we left the mansion, like how it would be life changing event or something?"
Remilia felt many shivers of dread and fear run up her spine.
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"Onii-chan," Flandre Scarlet groaned. "Don't tell me you accidently changed fate?"
Unforuntately for her, Onii-chan was busy shrinking in on herself in an attempt to not draw any more attention and thus could not answer her.*
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Once she stopped time, Sakuya made her way over to the disruptive shrine maiden and her two companions. Upon arrival, she noticed that Reimu had a goofy expression on her face, as she was in the process of licking Youmu's phantom. A small smirk appeared on Sakuya's own face, and at that moment she somewhat wished that she had a camera, just so she could blackmail Reimu later. But Aya or Hatate would notice their camera's missing or an extra photo taken on their camera, and she couldn't process the photos in a time-stopped world anyways. She briefly contemplated on what to do and settled on a course of action.
The elegant maid gently stuck Reimu's tongue back in her mouth and pried her hands off of the phantom. Then she returned the phantom back to Youmu's side. With one last look at Reimu's face, she stepped back, pulled out her stopwatch and clicked a button.
When Sakuya popped back into real time, Reimu was startled to find that she had licked the roof of her mouth. The phantom stopped vibrating and instead swayed in place in confusion, and Yuyuko and Youmu both blinked at the sudden appearance of the maid. Sakuya bowed respectfully and straightened up.
"The Highly Esteemed Vampire and Self-Proclaimed Scarlet Devil, Remilia Scarlet, would like to know if I may be of assistance," she said. Yuyuko's eyes lit up, as her plan to strip Reimu out of her shrine maiden outfit took a new and delightful turn.
"Er no, we're alright-" Youmu started.
"Of course you can, my dear maid! As you can see, Youmu and I are in desperate need of a change of clothes. Unfortunately, our closest available clothing are back at Hakugyokurou. If you would be so kind and…?" Yuyuko politely interrupted.
Taking the hint, Sakuya raised a hand and snapped a finger for effect. In the next moment, the ghostly master and servant felt warm and clean clothes on them. Sakuya had even washed and cleaned their bodies (phantom included) without changing their postures. Yuyuko clapped her hands in delight. Reimu, for her part, stared in shock at the now dry clothes, which had been a mind-blowing appearance to her addled mind.
"Amazing! As expected from the head maid of the Scarlet Devil Mansion!"
"Thank you, Sakuya," Youmu said. Seeing Youmu's attention now free and less stressed out, her phantom-self nudged her pitifully, prompting Youmu to inspect and comfort her other half.
Sakuya bowed again. "Is there anything else?"
"Oh yes." Yuyuko beckoned Sakuya slightly closer to not let Youmu overhear. "Reimu is not in the best state of mind. So perhaps you can, ah, assist her in changing clothes. Not into her regular shrine maiden clothing, but something different for this occasion. After all, this is supposed to be a special sort of party that Reimu put up."
Sakuya slightly narrowed her eyes in question. She looked at the still speechless and alcohol-covered shrine maiden then back at the ghost princess, who smiled innocently at her. A few seconds passed before she came to a decision.
"…I'll see what Reimu has for other clothing, " She finally said. And with a twirl of white fabric, both she and Reimu disappeared from sight. Yuyuko leaned back in her spot, pleased with her results. All that's left was to see what the head maid will conjure up for Reimu.
"So, Youmu, tell me, when is the raffle for this gathering?"