Mugen no Mangekyou: The Eastern Wonderland

I do not own the Touhou Project series. OCs, however, are mine.

PROLOGUE

Nearly every student in class was on edge. With mere minutes before the end of school for the vacation, even the teacher was glancing at the clock just over the door, willing it to tick faster as she handed out her finishing statements to the antsy students. Even this would only prove temporary distractions for the inevitable stampede. Finally, the last second clicked away, and the bell rang. The teacher snatched her class folder off her desk, darted to the door and slapped it open before saying the blessed words as she zoomed out into the hall: "Enjoy your summer! See you next school year!"

As the majority of the students cheered and left immediately, one weary teenager slowly glanced out at the setting sun outside the window and yawned as he stood up to crack his stiff limbs.

He surly didn't feel like a happy camper. Not when he had so much to ponder over due to the essay topic he just finished writing.

Packing up his belongings into his single-strapped gray backpack, he slowly followed the speeding students out of school campus before he felt somebody grasp his shoulder. Turning around, he saw that it was one of his friends.

"Yo!" the newcomer said cheerfully. "Now that sophomore year of high school is finally over, what do you suggest we do for the rest of today?"

"Too tired to care," the teenager replied, shrugging his shoulders and slowly grinning at his friend. "I need to finish the damn AP U.S. History summer homework as soon as possible so that I got no worries for the rest of the break. What about you?"

"The summer assignment for APUSH? Bah! I already finished mine." With that, the tall friend waved his skinny arms as he continued to speak in a self-confident manner. "Summer is meant to be a fun time for everybody to enjoy. Besides, we just finished the finals! You got to relax this summer!"

The sky was clear and slowly turning red as the blazing sun gradually began to set. After walking past a small Japanese shopping district half a mile away from the high school and talking about general topics in relation to life, the friend suddenly stopped and asked to the teenager in a serious tone:

"Hey, do the ends truly justify the means?"

Wait… Isn't that one of the English writing prompts that the students had to use in essay assigned in their classes earlier? "You already know the opinions and reasons that I used in that essay," was the blunt reply the teenager made.

"No, I'm quite serious. Do you truly think that the ends justify the means for achieving them?"

When he heard the last word catch a serious tone, the teenager stared back at his suddenly stoic friend. "I honestly don't know. I've been thinking, should I truly sacrifice one to save ten? Kill a hundred to save a thousand, a million for a billion? I honestly do not have a clue."

"And you must seek that answer soon," The teenager's friend finally replied after pondering over what was said. He slightly nodded, as if satisfied. "Your chains of fate are surly shackled, but I trust that you can free yourself from your fate. Whether it ends well or terribly depends on your actions."

After that, he seemingly returned back to his happy-go-lucky self, prompting the duo to chat about normal things before the friend departed for his own home. After cheerfully waving good-bye to the teenager, who returned with a short two-fingered salute, the friend's receding figure slowly blended in with the other group of pedestrians and students heading off in their own directions. The teenager's smile slowly deteriorated into a slight frown. Glancing once again at the setting sun, he muttered softly, "Just what type of person am I? Bounded by morals… no, it's more like I do not know who I truly am even after fifteen years."

~o~o~o~o~o~

The sky of Gensokyo was rent with constant thunder, the land was engulfed in a flood that threatened to submerge it, and for an instant, the skies were completely dark.

The shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine was muttering a steady stream of mantras and prayers at the highest point of this land. She waved her gohei, a long stick with elaborately folded paper at the tip, in a circle as she finally finished her long chant of prayers. A bright ray of light erupted far off in a distance, which then traveled in the same circular path that the shrine maiden had waved until it reached its point of origin. If one was observing this from a bird's eye view high up in the heavens, he or she would also see a large ritualistic rune with a yin-tang orb directly in the middle lighting up in the large circle of light.

One more lightning flashed, and then right after the following roar of the thunder the sky appeared to pulse with energy, before revealing a series of connecting enormous scales the zigzag throughout the dark clouds. It was the Dragon, the highest order god of this land worshipped by humans and youkai alike, in fact, all the living creatures. Appearing as a serpent with hands and horns, thicker than a great tree that's thousands of years old, and so long that it was blocking the sky, few had been able to confirm of its existence until this special day.

The dragon's cry rendered the heavens into this storm that was appearing to plague this land. As its large serpentine body twisted about, the mountains were slowing displaying signs of crumbling and the earth vibrated from the immense presence of the deity. The Hakurei shrine maiden and the nearby youkai sages all staked their existence on pledging eternal peace to the dragon, though the situation seemed ever drearier with no signs of change for the better.

However, after a period of time when the last of the prayers whispered out from the lips of the finished sages against the blaring wind, the constant rumble and flashes of the terrible storm, the waters drew back, the sky was torn asunder, and light returned to the heavens.

It is from here on out that the construction of the Great Hakurei Barrier marked the beginning of the new fantasy known as Gensokyo.