Greetings. Hex here. It is finally, FINALLY time to actually rewrite this. Fun Fact: I've had a file with only a disclaimer sitting on my computer for the better half of the past year. It's about damn time I rectified that.

Forewarning right now- swearing. Expect a nice amount of it. When it comes to writing, I typically leave no word unsworn. Especially when I deliberately use all of them. Every single one.

But regardless. Let's get started, shall we?

It was a dark night in Gensokyo, not to be confused with a Dark Knight. Right now, we sit outside the Hakurei Shrine, in the eastern segment of the mystical realm. Inside, on a bed (a later spin-off will show the reason for its presence instead of a futon), lies the sleeping body of Reimu Hakurei. Buuut that's not really important. Let's move on to more important things. First off, let's look at a spot on the Hakurei Barrier not too far south from our present location.

As if on cue, a hole rapidly opens and closes in the barrier, sending a powerful ripple throughout Gensokyo, and waking up a handful of youkai, magic-wielding humans, and other things. Except, of course, that shrine maiden. Because she's lazy. But that's not important. Hovering in front of where that hole had appeared floats a man- dirty blonde hair, scar on the left cheek, piercing red eyes, black shirt, blue jeans (which really don't seem to fit, given the setting), and black boots. He simply… floats. No wings. No other obvious methods of flight. He just… floats. Best not to question it.

Regardless. This being is Seronin Yurami, the guy you saw in Unwelcome and Unholy Destruction. (except you didn't, since it hasn't been written as of the (re)writing of this chapter) He… floats, inexplicably, assessing his surroundings. Not much appears to have changed. Besides of course a couple new buildings in the Human Village, but that's only because last time he was here he torched a few. With cursed fire. Like a boss. But, of course, he had been apprehended by his (strangely similar looking) arch-nemesis, Henix Aurorus, and that blasted shrine maiden. And that vampire. What was her name? Flandre? Yeah, that was it. She was the reason he'd been forced out in the first place. If she hadn't shown up…

Enough. We're not here for internal monologues.

Moving on to do what he had actually come for, Seronin floats over to the Human Village, and sets out to start work on his plan.

The following morning…

Reimu wakes up to the same usual morning. Wake up, get dressed, make (and eat) breakfast, receive an unwanted visitor in the form of Marisa Kirisame… perfectly normal. Until around noon, when something happens.

At this point, our shrine maiden is sitting at the table, having tea with the kleptomaniacal "ordinary" magician, despite the fact that she obviously didn't want to. As if one cue, an explosion can be heard coming from the Human Village, with strange, purple-black smoke rising from the general direction.

Startled, Reimu walks out of the shrine, looking towards the smoke. "Explosions? Did a youkai try attacking the village again?"

Walking up next to her, Marisa ponders for a couple of seconds, then says "Unlikely. Last time they tried that, they got fried, ze. And that smoke doesn't look right…"

Confused, the pair fly over to the village, startled to see that the entire village had been reduced to smoldering ruins, with a sizable crater in the center. The pair immediately drop to the ground and start investigating. Not a soul was in sight.

Even further confused, Reimu examined the crater, picking apart the energies using a trick a friend had taught her, managing to identify fire and dark energy, but nothing she knew met the elements for that. "This is strange. No bodies. No one's here. It's almost as if whatever caused this just… warped them aw-"

Suddenly, Reimu is cut off by Marisa shouting, "Reimu! Come look at this, ze!"

Wandering over to Marisa, who was presently standing in the middle of the ruins of the school… in front of some burning remnants. Reimu gasped, as she almost instantly identified that it wasn't any ordinary fire. It was green. Bright green. "…cursed fire!... Seronin. How is he still alive?"

Marisa sighes, facepalming, as the answer was, truth be told, quite obvious. "Reimu, we're talking about a master of curses beyond even Hina. All honesty, it shouldn't be surprising that he's returned, ze. In fact, I'm surprised it took him this long. I was expecting him to be back within the week, not the year, ze. At least after that previous incident with him we have a way to beat him without Henix's help… in theory, daze."

Reimu frowns, completely confused. "That still doesn't explain anything. You saw what happened. Flandre obliterated him with a single shot. No one could survive that, not even our local immortal hothead. And that sure as hell doesn't explain where the villagers vanished off to. I honestly would've expected Seronin to kill them all, considering what he's done in the past. And he sure as hell doesn't clean up after himself, not to mention that cursed fire doesn't destroy bone, so there'd at least be a PART of a corpse here."

Marisa looks nervously in the direction of the SDM. "…regardless, we should really check on the SDM. Knowing Seronin, that's probably his next target, ze. Matter of fact, he's probably already there. We should go now, actually, ze. Don't want to miss the party." Not even giving Reimu a chance to protest, the magician grabs said shrine maiden, hops on her broom and immediately flies off towards said mansion, with a startled shrine maiden clinging to the broom.

Meanwhile…

From a mountain near the Hakurei Shrine, Seronin watches as the pair heads towards the Scarlet Devil Mansion. "That's right, go off, trying to save your precious realm. You don't have Henix to save you this time." Taking advantage of the distraction, Seronin summons an orb of condensed Cursed Fire, sending it into the shrine as a… surprise. He then immediately takes to the skies and rockets towards the SDM, intending to meet the shrine maiden and witch there, get them out of the way, then turn the Hakurei Shrine to rubble, followed by the rest of this wretched realm.

And he would do it. Like a boss. Because for some reason he had a knack for doing things like a boss. A knack that could not be explained, and he would not attempt to explain it. Because he didn't need to. He had no reason to.

…except maybe to increase the word count. But I'm not that kind of guy, so of course I won't be filling this with pointless words. Er, anyway.

At the SDM…

Reimu and Marisa land just inside the gates, ignoring the dozing gate guard, immediately walking up to the door and opening it. To their surprise, they are not greeted (almost) instantly by Sakuya, instead finding an empty foyer.

Walking over and poking the nearest vase experimentally, and not getting a response (such as a knife), Reimu looks around curiously. "No Sakuya? That's odd. Normally sh-" She was cut off by a loud, echoing giggle. A very FAMILIAR giggle. A flash of blonde hair briefly appears down the left hall, and from the right a fairy maid appears, looking around as though searching for something.

Marisa, walking over to the fairy, says, "Whatcha' looking for?", successfully startling the poor thing with a "EEP!".

Realizing who it was, the fairy maid calms down. "We're looking for the little sister. She somehow got out of her room and is now playing hide and seek with us… much as I hate to admit it, she is pretty good at it."

Reimu stares for a couple of seconds, then slams her head against the nearest convenient wall. "Just what we needed. Seronin's running around, where we don't know, the entirety of Gensokyo is in danger, and we have to go hunting for a crazy vampire who's playing hide and seek."

The only response is a stare from the fairy, who evidently doesn't have the memory capacity to remember who the hell this Seronin is.

Suddenly, a giggle echoes through the mansion again, this time seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once, followed by the familiar voice of everyone's favorite loli vampire. "Heehee! If you want to get me, you're going to have to come find me~. I sincerely wish you luck. No one has ever beat me at hide and seek."

Reimu immediately facepalms. "Henix, why the fuck did you have to teach her that trick?"

Marisa only chuckles. "Well, on the bright side, it'll make it harder for Seronin to find her, too, ze. Come on, let's go vampire hunting, daze."

And with that, Reimu and Marisa split up- one heading left, the other heading right, with their ultimate goal being finding Flandre before Seronin does.

Touhou, Gensokyo, and all associated characters are owned by ZUN.

Henix Aurorus and Seronin Yurami are owned by me, along with all their spellcards.

Scenario (mostly) owned by me and my mind, with inspiration from various sources.

Ah, I have to be so evil with my cliffhangers. ^_^

And there's Chapter 1 rewritten. As a note, there's going to be a huge inconsistency between this chapter and chapter 2, at least until I rewrite it, so if you're reading this for the first time, or rereading, I recommend not progressing further unless you see at least 3 chapters on this, which'll be a good indication that I've rewritten chapter 2.

Either way, I'll start work on #2 tomorrow, and probably publish it by next Saturday.

Have a nice day. :)