Disclaimer: Touhou Project is property of Team Shanghai Alice, also known as our beloved drunk, ZUN and all other works belong to their respective owners.

...I guess that means, plot aside, I don't really own any of this.

Oh well.

Enjoy!

Fun With Numbers Arc

Prologue: Dreamless Night

Reimu dreamt as she did any other night. Her dreams were as varied as the denizens of Gensokyo and the realms connected to it.

Sometimes she dreamt of epic and magnificent spellcard battles against Gensokyo's denizens be they human, youkai or whatever else. Her feelings about spellcard dreams were neutral. On the one hand, she hates having to expend unnecessary effort, even if it's just a dream. On the other hand, not that she'd ever admit it to anyone, those kinds of dreams were fun and exciting. It also gave her the extra benefit of helping improve her own skills at spellcard battles without actually having to do any work. She always liked it if she could get something accomplished without putting any effort in; that's what natural talent and good luck is for anyway.

Other times, she would dream of her family, past, present and future. When she dreamt of family sometimes they would be of her mother and father, the ones who raised her up until their premature demise in the line of duty. She knew the youkai who were responsible for her parents' deaths, but she knew there was no point in openly holding a grudge against them. Humans have always feared the youkai so they exterminate them. Youkai have always found humans to be tasty morsels and so they hunted them. It was merely the natural order of things and Reimu had neither the desire nor the time to change it; the closest she ever came to doing so was introducing the Spellcard Duelling System and it wasn't as if she came up with it just so she could have a valid reason to mercilessly beat on the youkai responsible for her parents' death without disrupting the natural balance, not at all.

Other times she dreamt of her family in the present. This mainly dealt with the residents of Gensokyo, be they human, youkai or anything else, and how she does or, in some cases, would like to interact with them. Strangely enough these dreams always managed to lead to a spellcard dream one way or another.

She always wondered why.

Then there were the dreams of her family that would eventually be. Reimu had no delusions of living forever and she accepted the fact that one day her life would come to an end, but not before she had a family first. Admittedly it would be hard for an Outsider, or even some of Gensokyo's residents for that matter, to see Reimu eventually marrying a man and settling down considering her choice in friends and acquaintances, the overwhelming majority of whom were female. There was also the fact that the Great Hakurei Barrier needs someone to maintain it and that would be a terribly difficult task to perform if one were dead. Having a husband and children to take care of would be a pleasant change, and convenient excuse, from dealing with Incidents too. She was aware of the fact that she had an excellent track record of dealing with Incidents, but she always hated having to be the one involved in almost all of them and wasting precious time and effort she could spend lazing about...or finding a man that suits her fancy.

And then there were 'those' dreams...Ones which involve her and residents of Gensokyo involved in things she would rather not discuss, even in the safety and privacy of her own mind. Granted, not all of them were unpleasant, far from it, but if they involved either Marisa or Yukari, or worse, both, then she'd rather shoot herself in the head with those things the Kappa and the Outsiders called 'guns'...or repeatedly bash her head against the nearest solid object until all memories of those dreams ceased to exist, but that option was admittedly rather messy. For a reason she couldn't fathom, she just knew those Outsiders were at fault for those kinds of dreams...Either them or Yukari messing with the boundaries of her dreams. If the latter was the case, Yukari had better pray Reimu never finds out, maintenance of the Barrier be damned!

This night was different though. There were no dreams of battle, or family, or things Reimu would never dare discuss with anyone other than Satori short of telling her not to say a word or else spellcard rules were going out the window.

This night was dreamless.

This night was peaceful.

It was perfect...

But you know how the saying goes, "It's too good to be true..."?

With another incident looming over the horizon, let's just say that Reimu better savor her first, and last, night of peaceful sleep...