Hello. This is a Touhou Project fan fiction.

Before the story starts, I need to warn you a few things. First, I am not English. So if my language sucks, I apologize. Second, the characters' personality in this story is based on mostly my interpretation, canon and loosely on fanon, unlike most fanfics in this site (at least, most fanfics I read). If you can't handle them, try to think that this is a drama with Touhou characters as the actors. And third, I will use Japanese honorifics (-san, -kun, -sensei, etc.) as I mostly have no idea how to translate them to English. I use a few exceptions, though. English names use English honorifics, Japanese names use Japanese honorifics. If most people want it to be changed, then I will change it.

The "-x-"mark signs that the PoV of the story changes.

Also, I have no idea what to name this story, so I apologize once again if it bothers you.

Disclaimer: Touhou Project belongs to ZUN. I merely own this fan fiction.

Touhou Project

- About Borders and Stuff -

- Chapter 1: Awakening -

…

…

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

There goes my beautiful sleep.

I lazily opened my eyes and stretched my body a bit. I sat up to look at my (still roaring) digital alarm clock on my left to see that it's already half to seven in the morning. I pressed the small button on the top side of the clock to stop the agonizing screech.

I stood up and stretched lightly again, letting out a small yawn. I cannot laze around today, as my second year of school has started today.

I brushed my teeth at the bathroom before getting changed to my school uniform and combing my hair. The uniform is just the plain old white and blue sailor uniform. In addition, the school I attend to also provides an optional school coat, which looks like a navy blue business coat. It has the school symbol on the left side. I like to wear it, for some reason.

I also wore black thigh highs, because in my opinion not wearing any thigh highs, stockings, or long socks will leave you very revealed. Considering the height of high school uniforms' skirts, of course.

After grabbing my school bag, I went downstairs to have breakfast. In the dining room, two pairs of breakfast menu can be found on the table along with my mom who slumped to the table. I can hear her snoring lightly.

My mom has long blonde hair, unlike my short one. Her appearance looked like a mess, so I guess she doesn't care about getting ready for work. Sure, she did make breakfast for me and my sister this morning, but actually most of the house chores are done by me. Either my mom wants something from me or she's just trying to not being lazy, which is very unlikely.

I shook her lightly, hoping to wake her up.

"Hey, Mom," I called. "Wake up. You don't want Chen to see you like this, do you?"

A few more tries later, she woke up.

My mom stretched herself and let out a small moan. "Good morning…"

"Good morning, Mom." I replied. "If you want to go to sleep, please do it upstairs."

"I know…" she said after yawning. "For once in a while, I want to cook breakfast for you and Chen. Especially because this is the first day of your second school year."

"You don't cook breakfast for yourself?"

"Too lazy to do it~"

How can someone be too lazy to have breakfast when she hasn't had dinner the night before?

With a sigh, I sat down and started to eat my breakfast, which consists of some rice, eggs and pork. Not soon after, my little sister came down from upstairs.

She is a small girl, just around 3-4 feet tall. Well, she's still in elementary school, so I think that's normal. She has brown hair, unlike my and my mom's hair. I think she got that hair color from her dad. She was wearing her elementary school uniform, which is composed of a white blouse and a red pleated skirt, her randoseru on her back.

"Good morning, Sis!" she greeted. Energetic as usual. She then looked at the person sitting across me. "Ah, Mom! Good morning!"

Good, Chen prevented Mom from sleeping again. Way to go, Chen.

My mom, whose sleep has been interrupted for the second time on the day, tried to put on a happy face and greeted Chen back. "Good morning, Chen."

"You woke up this early, Mom." Chen stated. "Is something wrong?"

"N-no, nothing's wrong. Why don't you start having your breakfast?"

"Okay." Chen sat on a chair and started to have breakfast. I looked at my mom and noticed that she doesn't look sleepy anymore. She smiled warmly towards me and Chen.

… This scene feels very nostalgic.

You see, my dad had passed away a few years ago. Since then, my mom became a lazy woman. I got over it, so did Chen and Mom. When my dad is still alive, we usually have breakfast together. My mom doesn't have breakfast; she usually do after me, Chen, and Dad had finished our breakfasts. We would have a chat on what are our plans for the day and the like, with my mom smiled warmly to us.

Oh well. Those were old times; I need to focus on today.

After me and Chen finished our breakfast, I went to the door and wore my shoes, Chen following.

"We're going, Mom." I said. "Don't be late."

"You know me~" she replied.

You'll know what she means later.

I and Chen take the same train because Chen's school and my school are not so far away. So we're going to the same route. The trip takes about 30-45 minutes. Usually Chen takes a nap on the train, while I cover my ears with my headphones and read a novel.

After dropping off Chen in front of her school gate, I went to my high school, Kekkai Gakuen. Near the front gates, I met Sanae-san. She has long green hair with a small frog-like hairclip on it. I keep wondering about why she would wear a frog-shaped hairclip. Her figure is slim and feminine, and I can't help but envy her… chest area. It is considerably larger than average girls in our school. I decided to greet the girl who is at the same year as me.

"Good morning, Sanae-san."

"Ah, Ran-san, good morning." She replied as we walked together in the school. "How are you today?"

"Just so-so."

"But it's our second year attending high school! Aren't you at least a wee bit enthusiastic?"

"You know how the first days of a school year are. Just introductions, introductions, and more introductions." I replied. "If Nagae-sensei will do her introductions, I'd better go to sleep."

"That's just the way she is."

We reached the shoe lockers and changed our shoes before going deeper in the school. "Hey, let's see the class roster first."

"Sure."

The bulletin board is usually where important announcements like class rosters, exam scores, and club applications are posted. Looking at the class rosters, I found out that my class is 2-C, with Sanae-san in the neighboring class, 2-D. The homeroom teacher for Sanae-san's class is Yagokoro-sensei. But for some reason, my class's homeroom teacher is blank.

"That's strange." Sanae-san wondered out aloud.

"Exactly my thought." I said in reply. "I think they forgot to write it down or something."

"Maybe." She commented. "Well, we can just wait until the bell rings and we'll see."

We both went to our respective classes after exchanging goodbyes. Inside my classroom, I was quite amazed by the students inside…

There were the famous duo Hakurei Reimu and Kirisame Marisa. There were also Alice Margatroid, Reisen Something Inaba, Kurodani Yamame, and that Koakuma girl from Sakuya-san's mansion. Those were the people I recognized. Reimu, Marisa, and Alice are chatting to each other. Reimu was sitting at the third row, second column from the door, Marisa at the third column right beside Reimu, and Alice in front of Marisa.

Hakurei Reimu is a member of the Student Council. She will be elected as the chief soon. Or so they say. She has shoulder-length black hair with her trademark red ribbon on the back of her head. She was wearing her school coat, as it usually represents that one is a member of the Student Council.

Kirisame Marisa is quite a troublemaker. She is a class clown that is popular among the teachers because of a bunch of different things. Her long blonde hair is slightly curly. The left burn of her hair is braided and tied with a small green ribbon at the end of it. Unlike Reimu-kun, she doesn't wear her coat often; instead she wears her usual black jacket.

Out of the three, Alice Margatroid is the smartest. She is foreign, explained by her name. Her hair is short and blonde, slightly curly. Some people are fascinated by her beauty, and Marisa blurted out openly that she envies her. Alice has a habit of making dolls. She's very good at it, too. But I still can't understand about one of her creations: a large, pillow-sized plush doll of a disfigured head with a very disturbing expression. She claims that it helps her to take things easily, though I think it will never work for me.

"Oh hey, Ran." Marisa greeted.

"Good morning, everyone." I greeted back as I took a seat in front of Reimu.

"Looks like we're in the same class."

You don't say?

"Yeah." I said in reply. "Reimu, aren't you supposed to prepare a speech or something?"

"Oh, that's right!" Alice said. "You're supposed to be the Chief of the Student Council this year, right?"

"Well, yes, but…" Reimu shrugged. "I'm not elected yet. As for now, the Chief is still Sakuya-senpai. She will be making the speech at the assembly."

Sakuya-senpai… well, she's a great senior. Elegant, intellect, beautiful, kind… She's a perfect example. She's the current Chief of the Student Council. Most students in the same year as me look up to her. Though we can't deny that she can be rather mysterious at times as she is not that open to everyone.

"What about our homeroom teacher?" I asked. "It's written as blank."

"Regarding that, I asked Kamishirasawa-sensei about it." Reimu replied. "She told me that we will have a new teacher. She will be our homeroom teacher. It was a last minute decision, so the staff isn't able to write her name in time."

A new teacher, huh? While Reimu, Marisa and Alice discussed about the new teacher (and making bizzare speculations about the teacher), I noticed two girls that I did not recognize before. One of them is a brunette and the other is a blonde. I don't know who they are, are they transfer students? My thoughts are cut off as the bell rang, signaling that the morning assembly will start.

"First, I would like to congratulate all my students for being able to advance to the next grade. Everyone has done their best, I believe. In this year, we will have…"

That was my mom.

She was lazing around back at home, but there she is, standing on the podium, looking tidy and giving a speech as the school principal.

She looks (and acts) like a heavy sloth, but she actually does things in time.

She's just taking it easy.

Anyway, just like in most speeches given by school representatives, I dozed off for some minutes. Alice, as a nice friend, woke me up at the right time. They said that Sakuya-senpai's speech was awesome, but sadly I slept through it.

"She should be here in any minute now."

Looks like Alice is getting impatient to meet the new teacher. Can't say I'm not, though. How does she look like? What does she teach? How is her way of teaching?

"Sorry, I'm late."

The classroom door opens, and…

"Good morning, every-"

-x-

"… one…"

I froze.

Wait, no one tells me that this is an all-girls school! Look at this classroom! It's filled with girls!

They're cute, too!

That explains why I only met female teachers at the faculty office earlier!

The students in the classroom gasped, all of them. Must be because I'm the only male in the school… Oh dear.

… I'm sweating.

-x-

The teacher is a man? No way… I thought even the teachers are supposed to be female. Reimu were addressing him as "her", too! The man has short, white hair. He was wearing glasses (Yay!). He was wearing a black shirt and a dark blue coat. He was also wearing a pair of black trousers. I must admit that he is quite the looker, but it doesn't feel right when he is your teacher.

"R-Rinnosuke-san?"

That was… Marisa?

-x-

Oh dear… even Marisa is in this school?

In this very classroom that I am assigned to?

Why do I suddenly feel like the world is so, so small?

...

...

- Chapter 1: End -