FYI: Italics indicate character thought

Chapter 1: An Unwelcome Visitor

It was a cheerful morning in Gensokyo, and the Hakurei shrine maiden was lazing off as always, gazing across the human village across from her house. Sipping her tea, she sighed and enjoyed the peaceful morning. Until Marisa arrived, that is.

"Hey, Reimu! It's a nice day today, isn't it?" the black-white shouted, zooming towards the shrine with a huge smile on her face.

"Oh, it's you again," Reimu said indifferently, still looking at the serene scene that lay before her.

"I thought you'd be up, so I came to visit you! Any ideas on what we're gonna do today?" Reimu responded by casually sipping her tea.

"Aw, cmon! There's nothing to do! You wanna go harass some fairies?"

Reimu set down her tea and said: "Don't you think that's a bit strange? Like the lack of things to do. It's been so long without an incident; all the youkai are behaving themselves, nothing's happened in the human village… Doesn't it feel a little strange?"

Marisa thought about it, then said: "Yeah, but that's all fine with me… You don't need to get tangled up in these thoughts… Just enjoy today, okay?" "I guess," the miko responded, stretching.

Flying towards the village, Reimu found the neighboring forest eerily quiet, completely devoid of movement and sound. Stop, she told herself. Just relax and enjoy the day with Marisa. This doesn't have to occupy your mind. "Hey!" Marisa shouted. "Come back!"

In her thoughtlessness, Reimu had accidentally overflown and was now headed towards the youkai mountain. "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about something," Reimu replied. "What do you have in mind?" "Well, we could…" Marisa trailed off.

Suddenly, an ear-splitting boom echoed across the sky. "What was that?" Reimu wondered aloud. "I don't know, but it seemed to have come from that direction." Marisa pointed towards the mansion across the lake, which now had smoke leaking from its windows.

"Think we should investigate it?" And with those words, the two quickly hurried over to the mansion and inspected the rubble, finding a very dazed Patchouli buried under several planks of wood. "Now, what happened here?" Marisa asked the magician. "Umm… I was testing out a new combination of elemental spells, but apparently I wasn't able to control the power and it sort of blasted a hole in the mansion," Patchouli coughed out. "Remilia's going to be pissed when she finds out about it."

"Well, I'll lend a hand… if you let me take out some 'loans'... on your books." Marisa said slyly. "Fine," grumbled Patchouli. "But I get say on which books you 'borrow' from me." "Okay then, it's a deal! Reimu, why don't you help me put this wall back where it belongs?" The miko grudgingly helped Marisa fix the broken wall, and with the two of them, the project was completed before noon.

Marisa mopped her brow with a handkerchief. "That was intensive, but I got these sweet new books to read! You wanna come over and relax?" Reimu said in response: "Only if there's refreshments… I basically did all the work! You're definitely going to pay me back for that."

As they arrived in the forest, Marisa started to pick mushrooms out of the ground and wrap them in cloths that she had pulled out of her pocket. "What are you going to do with those?" Reimu said, glancing over at the myriad of colors peeking out from the cloth bundle. "Oh, I'm going to try something new as well," Marisa winked. The miko responded: "Please don't make me fix your house if you blow it up though… I'm done with building work."

"Aw, don't talk like that… I'll be extra careful." At Marisa's house, the two of them made tea and enjoyed cookies as they sat out on the porch of Marisa's house. "There's been something I've want to ask you, Marisa." The witch nodded. "What's been troubling you?" she asked.

"Well, I guess it's about the lack of incidents lately. And especially the lack of news coming from the youkai… they no longer show up, and except for what happened this morning, everything has been peaceful." "Well," Marisa replied, "I guess that has been true… I don't see any fairies around my house, and Alice seems to be rather quiet nowadays."

As if on cue, the seven-colored puppeteer burst through the brush, glancing around frantically. Marisa quickly ran over to her friend. "Hey, what happened? Calm down and tell us what happened." Alice, after several minutes of shaking uncontrollably, said: "There's been something lurking in the woods recently, and whenever I go out, I feel it following me. But, for some reason, it always evaded my sight or my dolls' attacks. Today I was harvesting plant fibers to replace one of my worn out ropes for my dolls, when suddenly a hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder out of nowhere. I spun around, but there was nothing. It was then that something heavy hit me in the back, and I was knocked off my feet. I couldn't find anything to attack, and the danmaku I fired just cut through the empty air. A strong hand tried to grab my neck, but I slipped free and ran here."

"My, that's an impressive story," remarked Reimu. Are you sure you haven't been eating mushrooms?" Alice shook her head. "I'm sure I wasn't hallucinating, but it happened all so fast…" "I'll be sure to look into this," said Reimu. "Finally, something to work on…" Marisa, as always, muttered to herself: "I'll beat you to the chase this time, Reimu." After several more hours of questioning, Alice returned to her home with a reassured feeling that she didn't have before. Marisa asked inquisitively if she could stay at Reimu's house for the night, so they could watch each other's backs. Reimu relented, saying only if the witch didn't consume all her snacks.

"Aw, don't worry, I just ate." The witch teased as they walked towards the shrine up on the hill. That night, the two of them curled up on their futons and rested, eager to begin solving the incident on the next day. As the two of them lay staring up at the ceiling, Marisa quickly drifted off, snoring quite loudly. Reimu, as a result of this, couldn't sleep, and twisted and turned, unable to find a comfortable position.

After several hours, Reimu was finally able to rest, but as soon as she closed her eyes, a loud knocking came on the door. I wonder who that could be at this time, Reimu thought. Unless it's an urgent incident… I'll take care of this one, Reimu thought to herself as she glanced at the still-sleeping Marisa. The Hakurei shrine maiden quickly donned her outfit and walked to the door with yin-yang orbs in hand, just as a safety precaution. She peeked out the crack of the door, but there was no moon, and thee outside was pitch black. She lit up an orb and pushed it outside before stepping out. There was no one there. Perhaps it was the wind, she thought, but there was not even a simple breeze tonight. She shrugged her shoulders and turned to go inside when she felt a strong force knock her yin-yang orbs out of her hand. She turned to summon them back to her, but a seemingly invisible force knocked her to the ground. She was too dazed to try and fly, but in the end it didn't matter. Ropes of some sort wrapped around her hands in an instant, and a heavy weight smashed into her back, forcing her to the ground. She tried to cry for Marisa, but her mouth was silenced by a thick cloth with a distinctly chemical smell to it. Reimu's head spun, but she managed to collect her thoughts and tried to resist the pungent odor. Suddenly, she felt a sharp jab in her neck, and everything descended into darkness. As she looked at her captor, who was shrouded in darkness, Reimu's last thoughts were: I hope they find me… Then the shrine maiden blacked out.

Hello there! I hope you've enjoyed my story so far! Please do leave reviews, and I don't really care what type of reviews they are, as long as they are related to the story. If you want to rant about how bad my story is, I don't really care as long as I can receive feedback from you guys. Thanks for reading!