Chapter 1: A Land of Many Illusions Indeed

Far, far away, across the sea, there is a fabled land that people speak of as a place of enchantment and wonder, of magical beings of myriad shapes and sizes. A place where one can make their wildest dreams come true.

And by that, we in America are of course referring to Japan. But Gensokyo is kinda like that.

Except for the whole "making your wildest dreams come true" bit. Many Gensokyo residents tend to believe they got a bit of a bum deal. Take for example, the lone miko of a weathered Shinto shrine to a little-known goddess. This miko's name is Reimu Hakurei, and she is easily recognizable by her red and white robe– an outfit which she owns seven copies of, one for each day of the week. Now, despite her shrine's lowly stature and severe lack of funding, she continually finds herself as the designated heroine. Mind you, she never ASKED for the duty of subjugating every single yōkai that causes trouble to constantly fall on her head. You'd think a miko as regrettably unpopular as her would only need to clear out the average low-level troublesome yōkai now and again, rather than continually face down vampires and goddesses and Lunarians, oh my. But so it is. Sometimes Reimu wishes there were other mikos around to share some of the workload now and then.

As a matter of fact, there does exist another, and she will be one of the heroines of this particular story. This other miko goes by the name Sanae Kochiya. If a green-haired girl ever showed up at your door asking if you had time to talk about our Lords and Saviors Kanako and Suwako, that was probably some insane cosplayer pretending to be her. In contrast to Reimu, Sanae is generally cheerful– probably a result of being the miko of the prosperous and prestigious Moriya Shrine: home of two goddesses, and rumored to be the Illuminati of Gensokyo. Ask anyone about Sanae, and they'll probably tell you that she is a "good girl". Of course, people have derived all sorts of meanings from that particular quote, but we're not covering that at the moment. On this fine day, Sanae was visiting the Hakurei Shrine, as she often tended to do. Reimu was out front performing her daily ritual of sweeping the steps of the shrine and checking the perpetually-empty donation box when Sanae arrived.

"Why are you here again?" Reimu asked her.

"Do you resent my visiting?"

"It's just... you do know this does nothing for my shrine's faith, don't you?" Reimu explained.

"Actually, I presumed that endorsement by the Moriya Shrine would help spread your reputation." Sanae replied with a genuine smile on her face.

"Forgive me for saying this, but people seem to be more interested in you than me."

"PRAISE BE TO LADY KANAKO!" one of the Moriya Shrine's fanbo– er, devotees shouted in agreement, toward which Reimu shot a glare.

"Well... Actually, I came here because Chen was at the shrine, and she told me that Ran told her that Yukari told Ran that she was looking for you." Sanae explained.

Reimu tilted her head as she tried to decipher Sanae's convoluted statement. "...What was she doing at your shrine, then? Did she somehow get us two mikos mixed up?"

"Probably." Sanae shrugged.

"And– okay, could you say the first part again?"

"Yukari's looking for you." Sanae replied, deciding it would be better not to confuse Reimu further.

"...Wait, if she was looking for me, why couldn't she just find me herself? Why this runaround? Is she really too lazy to–"

Reimu's words were cut off by her falling into an unmistakable gap that appeared under her feet.

Flash forward to about a week later. When we resume, we arrive in the Land of the Dead, at a mansion known as Hakugyokurou– that's pronounced "HAH-koo-GYO-ku-roh", for those of you who are wondering. Hakugyokurou is the home of the ruler of the Netherworld, Yuyuko Saigyouji– that's pronounced "Sy-gyo-jee"– but this story's not about her. No, our heroine is a powerful half-ghost samurai warrior who serves her. A disciple of the legendary swordsman Youki, capable of moving at the speed of light and destroying ten ghosts in one slash. This warrior's name is Youmu Konpaku. And she would like to make it clear that her name is not pronounced "you moo."

Anyway.

Youmu serves as the gardener of Hakugyokurou, using her blade skills to destroy weeds and prune protruding branches. Hey, those thousands of cherry trees aren't gonna tend themselves. Youmu is intensely dedicated to her lady Yuyuko– a loyal samurai through and through– and will give her all in any task given to her. It is because of this that she is extremely gullible and prone to being manipulated. Popular opinion is that this is a sign of weakness and is a just reason to minimize her badass swordsmanship into a pile of weak, cowardly fluff.

Today, she had just finished her watering the flowers outside Hakugyokurou, and was now performing a flyover patrol of the area. After the Saigyou Ayakashi Incident, Yuyuko had made it a point to beef up security so nobody else could break in to the Netherworld without permission. Well, sort of– really, she just put Youmu on regular patrol duty, which was a bit redundant, as Youmu would catch on to any intruder and intercept them as quick as a flash by default. And we haven't HAD an intruder since the Saigyou Ayakashi Incident anyway, Youmu thought to herself. She couldn't relax too much, but she at least found it enjoyable to fly through the warm spring air.

She suddenly noticed an unfamiliar figure at the gate, and was there faster than you could say "Human Sword: Delusion Of Enlightenment".

"Stop! Who are you, and what business have you with Lady Yuyuko?" said Youmu as authoritatively as possible, her sword at the ready.

"I'm Sanae Kochiya of the Moriya Shrine!" said a somewhat startled Sanae. "And I received an invitation from Yuyuko earlier today." She showed Youmu a letter stamped with Yuyuko's signature.

"Lady Yuyuko almost never invites people here– especially humans. If she called you here, it's probably important. Come with me." Youmu motioned for Sanae to follow her. As the two made their way up the thousands and thousands of stairs leading to Hakugyokurou– by flying, of course, how else– they took the chance to get caught up.

"It's been a lot of extra work for me ever since Reimu disappeared..." lamented Sanae. "I think the yōkai know we're short-staffed, and so they know they can get away with causing more trouble."

Youmu looked a bit worried. "And I doubt the shrine is in very good shape..."

"At least my official endorsement of the Hakurei Goddess seems to be keeping the faith alive," said Sanae. "Of course, Lady Kanako told me that a year or so ago, she would have leaped at the chance to take the Hakurei Shrine's faith for herself..."

"She sounds like an unpleasant person."

"I prefer the term... 'ambitious'. But that's all in the past now."

Soon enough, the two girls arrived at Hakugyokurou, where Yuyuko was there to meet them.

"Lady Yuyuko, I present Sanae Kochiya of the Moriya Shrine." They both bowed before Yuyuko.

"What a pleasure to have you. Now come in; we can discuss this over tea..."

Soon the tea was boiling and the table set.

"...Lady Yuyuko, we appear to have two empty seats," commented Youmu.

"Indeed, you are right. I was expecting two more... However, they do not seem to be here."

As soon as Yuyuko said this, an unmistakable portal, filled with unblinking purple eyes and bound by red ribbons, opened up in the doorway. Out of it stepped two figures: a girl with nine fluffy fox tails, and Yukari Yakumo.

Now, I know for a fact that you already know Yukari. But I believe the fox girl here deserves an introduction, as she is our third heroine of this story. Her name is Ran Yakumo, and despite being an EX-boss, she tends to be overshadowed by her mistress Yukari to the extent that her own fandom barely notices her– except, of course, the residents of e621, but we're not going there. Being a Kyūbi no Kitsune, Ran is one of the wisest, most intelligent beings in Gensokyo, and in fact once somehow created an equation for perfectly calculating the width of the Sanzu River– which, need I remind you, changes based on how much money you pay Komachi. It's a testament to Yukari's power that she's able to keep such a being as her shikigami.

And I highly suspect that the only words you paid attention to in that last paragraph were "Yukari", "Yukari", and "Yukari". So, back to the story.

"Good evening, my friend."

"Likewise, Yuyuko. Ah, I see the tea is all ready..." Yukari and Ran took their seats.

"Yukari, I have several things I wish to ask you..." said Sanae.

"First, however– now that we are all gathered here– I would like to explain what has happened to Reimu," answered Yukari as if reading Sanae's mind.

"What?" asked the two younger girls.

Yukari took a breath. "I... was experimenting one day, and I accidentally created a link that connects to a collection of thousands upon thousands of different worlds."

Sanae looked stunned. Youmu was contemplating what she had just heard. The author checked option C on the forbidden template.

"What kinds of worlds are these?" Youmu asked.

"Alternate versions of our very own Gensokyo, containing countless doubles of us. It seems they are affected and created by humans in the outside world."

Being from the human world originally, Sanae was quite intrigued by this revelation indeed.

Yukari continued. "I sensed something in there, something that is trying to find its way into our Gensokyo. And if it gets here, well, that can't be good. So I sent Reimu in to investigate, but it turns out my border powers don't reach into the alternate realm. She just disappeared off the radar– I couldn't track her and I couldn't pull her out."

Sanae was looking worried. Youmu was wondering what a "radar" was.

"I think I may have made a mistake sending in someone as high-profile as her. So that is why I have called you two here. Your mission is to enter the alternate realm, locate Reimu, and report back. Recover her if at all possible."

"She thinks we're 'low-profile'?" Sanae whispered to Youmu.

"Now, you won't be going alone, because Ran is going along with you."

Ran looked surprised. "Mistress Yukari, I am honored to assist in this mission. However, I would appreciate it if you would tell me these details of your plans before they are put into motion..."

"I'll keep that in mind," Yukari answered. "Now, while you are in the alternate realm, you will likely come across your doubles. This carries the risk of possible failure to tell the difference between your real friend and your fake friend. Therefore, I want all three of you to wear these around your left wrists," Yukari said, producing three purple strips of cloth and handing them to our heroines, who tied them on to their arms as instructed.

"And one more thing: If someone wants to fight... teach them a lesson."

"Will do," Youmu replied.

"Any objections?" Yukari asked. The three shook their heads.

"Wonderful. Because your mission begins in 3... 2... 1..."

She snapped her fingers, and a massive portal appeared in the floor, and sucked Youmu, Ran, and Sanae into a dark tunnel to worlds unknown to all but the twisted minds of humans

I feel like we just got ourselves into something very bad, Sanae thought to herself.