Disclaimer: Touhou belongs to Zun, and the only things that belong to myself would be Usagi the mimic, and Moegi the japanese beetle. Everything else belongs to their rightful owner.

A/N: Here we are again.

Y/N: That we are.

A/N: I have been looking forward to writing this story for months now.

Y/N: That you have.

A/N: I am growing so tired of writing the same thing over and over again...

Y/N: Ohh?

A/N: Character A and B sit at home talking. Character A gets gapped. Character A and B talk to Kana. Character A and B enter the party and that's where things finally diverge.

Y/N: My, that sounds grating.

A/N: It is...

Y/N: And you still have four left to do before the finale.

A/N: That's right!

Y/N: Why not mix things up a bit?

A/N: ...How so?

Y/N: You could skip the starting bit, for starters.

A/N: But I already skipped the whole pre-party bit for the whole plot!

Y/N: Do you wish to get through the plot?

A/N: ...Yes, of course I do.

Y/N: Then you know what must be done.

A/N: ...

Some time in the past:

I strained my exhausted body to smile down at the child I now cradled in my arms. "I did it... I... I told you that I didn't need any of their painkillers..."

Smiling from my side, my husband replied, "I knew you could do it, dear. Can I hold her yet?"

Pouting with some of my last remaining energy as my groin continued to smart from the level of pain I had just barely endured, I answered, "No. Not... not quite yet. I want to hold her. You didn't have to... push her out." I tightened my hold on her just a bit, bringing her just a bit closer to my chest, which she pawed at. Smiling, I added, "Besides, she's hungry."

Sighing, my husband asked, changing the subject, "So, what should we call her?"

Undoing my gown so as to expose my chest, I answered, "...She... has a lot of fire in those eyes. Like she could do anything... if she really wanted to. Rika."

Sighing once more as our daughter made her way the short distance between my chest and her mouth, my husband asked, "Isn't that a bit narcissistic, dear?"

Present day:

Krakoom

I rushed along through the dark yet bright night, and couldn't help but feel I was being watched. It was raining heavily, and my clothes were soaked, while the full moon illuminated everything well enough to at least be able to find my way. Grumbling to myself, I said to nobody in particular, not thinking anyone would hear me, "At this rate, I'm gonna catch pneumonia..."

At saying this, the bush beside me began to shake, and I jumped away from it with a start. From within the bush, I spotted a pair of glowing red eyes that looked desperate. Hungry, even. Gulping at the threat of such a thing, I ran away, not looking back to see if whatever it was had given chase.

Growling at the situation I was in, I asked myself as I ran, "W-what the hell was that?!"

Eventually I made my way out of the forest, feeling as if something were at my heels the whole way. Before me was a river with no way to cross, so I changed directions, heading to the right, as I never did like left. "How did I even wind up by a river?! There's nothing like this anywhere near my place... Where am I?" Last I had know before all this madness had begun, I had been taking a leisurely walk through the park on the way home from my job, and ended up having to use the bathroom while half way through the park. Doing the sensible thing, I headed off the path, and into the trees to piddle. When I tried to find my way back to the path, I just couldn't find my way, and ended up finding that strange red-eyed monster.

From there, I began to run for my life from the implied threat of those hungry eyes. They looked like they belonged to something at least as big as a man, and there ain't no man with blood red eyes, not even mentioning the fact that they glowed. As I continued to run for what I assumed to be my life, I heard nothing but the falling rain, and the sound of my pounding heart as I pushed my body to its limits. Ahead of me I saw something that brightened my spirits. What looked like a cave with a door. If I could get inside and shut the door behind me, maybe I'll be safe! Putting everything I had left into my run, I ran hard and fast for the door, and grew closer by the second. Within ten I was inside, and I put my hands on the side of sliding door, finding out that it was made of metal, and began to push. I grunted with effort, pushing and pushing, but it simply wouldn't budge. After a few seconds of pushing, praying whatever it was that was chasing me was still trying to catch up, I gave it my all, already exhausted from the run. After another second of fruitless effort, the door suddenly shifted, and began to slide shut, before pushing itself into the rectangular doorway like a glove onto a hand.

With the door now shut, I slid down the wall, landing on my rear, and began to hyperventilate in an effort to catch my breath. As I breathed heavily, I heard a loud thump as something ran into the door, followed by a louder thump, which ended in eerie silence. I knew I was being chased; call it gut instinct. Seems I was right. As I sat on the ground, sucking in air like a vacuum, I looked around in the inky darkness. It was too dark to see, obviously, but there has to be some kind of light system if there was a door like that.

After I finally caught my breath, I pulled myself from the ground and began to look around for some sort of switch or button, moving along the wall, feeling up and down. Behind me, I heard a truly worrying sound; this time it wasn't just the sound of something hitting metal, but the sound of something metal punching a hole through metal, and I saw sparks fly as whatever made the hole was wrenched from it. Looking through the hole made in the door, whatever had been chasing me looked at me with it's eerie glowing red eye. Gulping at the very threatening display, I prayed that it couldn't see me. After a few moments of staring strait at me, a childish voice asked, "Are you the type of human I'm allowed to eat?"

Eyes widening at the implications of the question, I answered, "No! I-I'm not!"

Sounding ever so amused, the voice asked with a giggle, "Is that so~?"

From within my mind, I heard something whisper. Moments later, the eye vanished, and the creature presumably fled. I sat there in the darkness for minutes on end, confused by what had happened.

After my legs stopped shaking, and I swallowed my fear back down into my gut, I looked back into the darkness of the room. Wanting light, I moved along, and began to search for something to fix the issue of the lack of light. After a minute of searching, I eventually tripping over something, and banged my head on the ground as I fell to the floor in a crumpled pile. Groaning as my waning consciousness came back to me, I felt along the floor for whatever it was that I had tripped over. Picking it up, I found that it was a control of some kind, oddly enough. Feeling along the surface, I felt a button. Praying that it operated the lights and not the door, I decided to press it.

The lights came on with a flash, and I found myself to be in the center of the sun, going by how blinded I now was due to just how adjusted to the dark I had become. Of course, that thought was a bit stupid; it's far too cool in here to be the sun. If this were the sun, I wouldn't have to worry about catching my death of cold. I'd be perfectly dry, not to mention incinerated. ...Now's not the time to think about this, though, so I suppose I'll investigate if anyone is here.

Squinting my eyes, and blinking a few time, I looked around in the now brightly lit interior. Looking to the steel door, I found there to be a small dent in the middle, with a hole stabbed through the middle of the dent. That door felt pretty thick! Has to be at least six inches of steel... How could anything make a hole in a door like that?

Looking to the rest of the cave, I called, "Is anybody in here...?" In this direction I found what seemed to be a workshop of some sort, with a a very pretty tank off to the side, a table with a red smear on it, and all kinds of tools. There was also a statue of a woman wearing a lab coat and a small pair of glasses. ...I hope that's not blood. Maybe it's paint. Yes, paint makes sense. No way is that blood! After all, the tank has some red on it! It must be where the paint bucket was set. No way could it be blood.

Ignoring the not-blood, I now noticed just how dusty it was in here. "...Nobody must have been here in years; even the floor's covered in a thick layer of dust..." Making my way over to the tank, I began to inspect it. It was pretty huge, for a tank. The treads were red, and look only lightly armored, whilst the turret was a big gray disk from where I was standing, with a big red gun jutting out of the front, covered in vines for some reason. There was oddly not secondary turret, making this thing pretty vulnerable for a tank. There were also plants growing on the back of the turret for whatever reason. How would plants even stay alive in a place like this?

Blinking, I noticed something truly strange about this tank. Stroking my chin, I circled around it, saying, "...There's no dust on it..." To prove my point, I wiped my finger across the red of the tread, finding there to be no streak left behind. Not only was there no dust, but it looked as if it had been polished, too.

Locating the built-in ladder in the back, I climbed up on to the tank, and I was slightly shocked to find a big yin-yang painted on the top of the turret after I had made it through all of the foliage. Finding the hatch in the dot of the yang side, I tried to twist it open, but it simply wouldn't move. "Dammit, it's locked... I wonder if someone's inside? ...No, they would have left foot prints in the dust, wouldn't they have? Then how the hell is this thing so shiny?! Does it somehow repel dust? Crazier things have happened. ...In recent times, too." Such as little girls stabbing through steel doors.

As I thought on the complexities of keeping this monster clean, something fell down behind me, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin, and off the side of the tank at the sound of it. Looking over my shoulder, I found that a chest had fallen off of a shelf. Odd. Climbing back down the back of the monstrosity of steel, I headed over to the chest.

Looking to the shelf the thing had fallen from, I found that one of the supports had given out, causing it to topple off of the shelf, and onto the ground. Ignoring how odd that was, I maneuvered the small chest so that it was upright, the lid facing up. Checking the front, I found that there was no lock. "To open you, or not to open you... Ahh, screw it." With that said, I opened the lid of the chest.

Blinking, I asked, "Cassette tapes and an old recording device?" Scanning over the tapes, I found that they were labeled Flower Tank, Bakebake, Shrine Tank, as well as Alpha through Upsilon. I had no idea what most of the single character titles meant, however, as they were all using the roman alphabet.

Maybe I should listen to them...