Confetti is popped into the air with rapid succession accompanied by lines of sparklers as the Miss Universe model, Yukari, strode to centre stage along the runway whilst the cheers of her fans filled the studio. Waving her definitely-youthful hands with a flair of elegance, she spun round to face her adoring fans with an inspiring smile.

"Thank you, thank you all so much for your endless support!", she said while flicking her flowing golden hair in a grandiose manner. "And thank you, Studio Blank for inviting me to be the host for tonight's show!"

"Woohoo!"

"Yeah!"

"You're hot!"

Yukari felt her cheeks redden as her sensitive ears picked up every cry of adoration for the newly-minted supermodel. She flinched a little when the lights around her were shut off with loud clicks until only a single spotlight remained, bright rays sparkling off the diamonds on her golden gown. Realising that her segment was about to begin, she lightly smacked her cheeks to get a grip. This was a big moment for her. Her debut as a show host started…now!

"My, my such words! You're making me blush! You might just make me forget why I'm here to begin with: hosting this show!", she announced to great applause. "To start us off, why don't have a recap of last week shall we?"

With a snap of her fingers, a cloud of smoke exploded on stage, revealing a large projector screen. Then, the stage went dark with only the beam of projected light from the projector hanging from the ceiling illuminating the studio. The projection itself showed clips from a segment from an announcement titled "Teach me Yukari!" where a very similar-looking blonde can be seen forcefully smiling while in a scruffy lab-coat.

"If you remember last week, Miss Yukari here announced a few things for this show that we will be featuring! Unfortunately, I, the elegant embodiment of youth, Yukari, will have to bear the shame of disappointing all of you faithful viewers at home as we have not received enough responses to get the Q&A segment running."

The sound of sad sighs and disappointed grumbles bounced off the walls of the studio.

"However!", Yukari perked up determined to get the show going, "We have received a suggestion for today's show! Give a round of applause everyone to this wonderful participant!"

"Aw yeah!"

"Yahoo!"

"As expected of our Yukari!"

She cleared her throat gently to regain the attention of the crowd. The studio slowly became silent once more.

"Have you ever wondered what I would be like if I were not the cheerful lady tonight? Have you thought about what it would be like if you woke up and everyone behaved differently from what you expect? That, ladies and gentlemen, is the theme for tonight's episode."

'Ooh's and 'ahs' could be heard in between the crowd's murmurs.

"Well then, without further ado, we shall begin tonight's show! So, sit back, relax, and enter the Void with me!"

The entire place then went dark.

The Confusion of The Unmoving Library

"Would it be weird if you actually started working out?"

The question came out of nowhere and dropped like a 20-ton nuclear bomb in the dimly-lit, dusty and spacious great library of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The resident magician, Patchouli Knowledge, stopped everything she had been doing by her study to turn towards the person who uttered the offending question.

"…ex…excuse me?"

"You are excused, my dear fellow best friend-cum-acquaintance for I am a benevolent creature of the night and I have once again snuck behind you ever so sneakily as befitting a dastardly being of my kind and-"

"Stop."

Patchouli groaned as it turned out Remilia had intruded her private corner of the library again to pester her. Again. For the past few hundred years. She was not sure which century it was that her vampire friend opted to pick up the habit but she was certain that it happened every time Remilia caught wind of a project or experiment that she was working on that deemed interesting.

"What is it this time, Remi?", she sighed.

The vampire's crimson eyes glimmered with childish excitement while her limbs trembled as she tried her best to appear as uninterested as possible.

"I cannot help but wonder what possibilities such a device of your creation may bring upon its completion especially considering its abilities being related to that of alternate realities?"

"Ok, drop the grandiose verbose manner of speech, Remilia Scarlet," groaned Patchouli. "Only the uninitiated would buy the attempt at charisma and sophistry that you're trying to pull. As it stands, everyone in the Scarlet Devil Mansion, the Hakurei Shrine, the Moriya Shrine, the tengu of Youkai Mountain, the Human Village, the Forest of Magic and-"

"Ok, fine, geez!", exasperated Remilia. "Can't a bored girl get any fun around here?"

"That's what the desktop I set up for you is for."

"Hehehe…about that…", uttered the vampire sheepishly while scratching the back of her head.

"Remilia…"

"W-well, for starters it's not so bad…"

"Remilia."

"Fine! I broke it because this dumbass bitch with the stupid username kept on killing me over and over again and she always called a scrub!"

Patchouli let out a tired sigh. It was too late in the night for this.

"Let me guess, 'LunarRekter99' again?"

"EXACTLY!", Remilia yelled, her hands shaking in rage at the very thought of that username. In every game she played, that name would be there.

"Remilia Scarlet, you are a centuries old vampire and you have amassed a lot of wealth during that time but you need to stop breaking the things I buy for you."

"But how come Flandre gets away with breaking things?", she whined.

"Because unlike Flandre, you are actually mentally sound and not locked away in a basement."

"Oh."

"Seriously, it's a good thing I suggested that Sakuya and Meiling spend some time with her because she is showing significant progress since you first let her out of there."

While her tone was flat in delivery but there was weight in Patchouli's statement. Even though Flandre had already knew how to properly control her powers by the time her sister unlocked the basement doors, she had a tough time distinguishing fantasy from reality which led to many believing that she was a crazed homicidal freak when her delusions only extended to thinking non-residents as 'toys'. Having Sakuya and Meiling ease her into getting used to society again was a great step in Flandre's recovery.

Remilia grumbled in agreement, her eyes welling up and her hands gripping the ends of her red dress as she shuffled her feet while looking at the floor.

Noticing this, Patchouli let out a dragging sigh and put her hand on the vampire's shoulder. "Hey now, Remi, don't be sad. We talked about this. You're the master of this mansion so it's pretty much expected of you to act maturely. Besides, this is the fifth desktop I've got you so you have to understand how I feel too. Even if you look like the age where such behaviour is expected."

"I know…", sniffled Remilia, her mouth sporting a small pout.

"Tell you what, it's getting pretty late and I'm going off to bed. How about I show you that thing I've been working on tomorrow, okay?"

The vampire nodded enthusiastically, her excitement revived by the prospect of seeing the magician's project in action.

"Alright, g'night…", yawned the purple-haired magician as she trudged off to her bedroom.

"See you tomorrow!", answered Remilia.

However, she did not leave the library. Instead, the vampire waited until she heard the soft click of Patchouli's bedroom locking before quietly floating towards the magician's study.

There, on top of the desk, was a device that looked like a simple crystal ball. It was this device that, based on information gained from eavesdropping the conversations between Patchouli and her familiar, Koakuma, supposedly allowed its user to see into the lives of their parallel universe-selves.

She chanced a quick peek around her. The coast was clear. The time was now. She snatched the device off the table and fiddled around with it, feeling for a switch of sorts.

'Come on… there has to be a thing somewhere that can turn it on! This crystal ball must be the display for the device!'

Minutes passed and her irritation grew. She inspected every nook and cranny of the simplistic object but she could not find anything that she can call a switch. She made a note to criticise to magician on the lack of user-friendliness it had.

Suddenly, she heard books falling from shelves followed by a faint yelp in the distance. Crap. Koakuma was still awake. She did not take this devilish variable into consideration. In a bid to make a sneaky exit, she zipped out of the library through an open window, accidentally dropping the device.

Unbeknownst to her, a white fog began to seep out of the device after clunking on the hardwood floor, an ominous bright glow swallowing all in its path as the fog cloud grew.

That night, the Scarlet Devil Mansion shone like a beacon in the night before engulfing of Gensokyo in a blinding explosion…

"Gah!"

Patchouli woke up in a cold sweat. She frantically checked her hands, room and surroundings. Everything was intact. A small breath of relief escaped her lips.

It was all a dream.

And what a terrifying dream that was too. In the dream she was about to fall asleep after finishing a chapter of a…well… 'work of fiction' involving a character much like herself engaging in less-than-appropriate relationships with a certain ordinary human magician. Next thing she knew, there was a resounding thud coming from her study and when she got out to check, everything was white.

Glancing at the alarm clock by her bedside, she discerned that it was now noon. She raised a brow in confusion.

'That's odd… Sakuya usually sets breakfast on my small study desk in my room everyday… Could she have…? Well, everyone forgets every now and then. I'll just summon Koakuma and tell her to get Sakuya for me.'

With that in mind, she took a bath and washed off the odd feelings she had when she woke up. If only she knew, her day was about to become very confusing for her.

xxx

Dressed in her pink-purple pyjama-like gown and her signature night cap, she took a deep breath and opened the door to her room…then slammed it shut.

She blinked once. She opened the door again. Slammed it once more.

She blinked again, slapping herself for good measure.

'Eh?', was all she could think of after what she saw.

She gulped. She was a woman of reason and knowledge hence she had to…no…must open the wooden barrier between her and the world beyond her room. Her need for logic demanded that another observation was required to attain a proficient level of certainty and thus, she opened the door but slowly this time.

Peeking through the gap that was widening ever so quietly, her purple eyes felt like they were about to pop from their eye sockets: All of the library-books, tables, everything—was gone. In their place, her worst nightmare; gym equipment. Treadmills, dumbbells, yoga mats; all arranged in an orderly fashion. Her precious grimoires had disappeared.

"Oh hey, you're up pretty late!", greeted a familiar voice in an unfamiliar tone.

Patchouli let her head peek out of the door to address the person greeting her only for her to be stunned in shock. It was her familiar, Koakuma. However, instead of wearing her typical white shirt and black skirt combo while carrying a pile of books, she was wearing a white tank-top with a pair of black tracksuit pants while jogging on one of the many treadmills in her bookless library.

"Come on! What are you gawking there for? Join me for a workout, Patch!"

'Patch?! What sort of nickname is Patch?!', grumbled Patchouli in her mind as she could not believe this casual near-insubordination of her familiar. However, rather than chew her out on it, she hypothesised that her dream might not really be a dream at all. If that was the case, she had to try and go with the flow to avoid any paradox or temporal error that could jeopardise not just herself but her own timeline.

"O-oh, I'm not feeling too well, Koa! I'm gonna go grab something to eat, if you don't mind?", she lied. 'I'm afraid Remilia has done something rash by accident. If my dream was correct, the device might have fell, presumably from a panicked Remi. If that was the case, the device must have malfunctioned and let the temporal reagent out of the display sphere which led to this…parallel timeline. If my calculations are correct from last night, the display should last 30 minutes if unattended for too long. Crap, I forgot if this Koa bought my excuse!'

She did not even have time to fester about this slipup as an energetic 'OK' was thrown her way, allowing the asthmatic magician to float out of the library and time to ponder on her current situation.

'Phew! Thank the heavens or whatever deity is up there for that! Where was I? Oh yes, the device. It should be nearby because it's failsafe mechanism to always be confined to the SDM at all times in the event of damage or malfunction. While I'm at it, I might as well observe the behaviours of the residents of this parallel timeline as it makes me believe that it might one where everyone behaves the opposite from the residents of my timeline.'

She need not look further from the hallways of the mansion to know that something is very different about this timeline's Sakuya: the fairies were actually seen doing the work that the head maid would have relegated to herself. Cleaning the windows, sweeping the floor, taking out the rubbish; it was an odd sight to see. The Sakuya she knew would only let the fairies deal with areas that she would have difficulty reaching or dealing with within her own set time limit so seeing them everywhere was just weird.

One of the fairies noticed Patchouli and greeted her with a smile.

"Good morning, Patchy! Had a good workout today?"

Figuring that this was going to be the trend of conversation, she recycled the 'sick' excuse. Better to have a consistent fib to maintain an alibi. Floating towards the kitchen to snag a meal, she bore witness to something she would have never been able to see even in a lifetime. Make that two lifetimes.

There, in the kitchen, was the sight of Remilia Scarlet, the master of the mansion too proud for, in her own words, 'menial work for the plebeian masses', was competently ordering around a team of chefs for lunch. Considering she had tasted her own timeline's Remilia's cooking, the smell in the kitchen alone told her that this Remilia was a culinary expert. The other baffling thing that she saw just outside the kitchen window was Meiling scolding Sakuya. The gatekeeper scolding the head maid.

Meiling. Scolding. Sakuya.

To make things weirder, she could tell from lipreading what Sakuya was being scolded for and it confused her to no end. The indomitable elegant maid was being reprimanded for sleeping on the job by the mansion's gatekeeper who, in her own timeline, was known for that very subject of reprimand. Then, something flashed in Patchouli's mind. If Sakuya was lazy and Remilia was actually competent in her job, what was Flandre then?

She made a beeline towards the basement, ignoring many an inquiry on her workouts, and barged into it the moment she saw the double doors. There, she saw everything her current library was not; filled with books. Flandre's living space was essentially what Patchouli had been missing for the past 15 minutes of being in this opposite timeline as it had bookshelves, books on top of books, the faint scent of potions brewing and an elegant custodian of this pristine space to govern it. Wait, what?

"Hello, Madam Patchouli, what brings you here?", inquired said custodian with a gentle smile, her tone silk to the magician's ears and genuine in class. It took a while for Patchouli to notice the iron wings and the shining multi-coloured diamonds hanging off them for her to realise who was speaking to her.

"Flandre? Is that you?", she asked, her mouth quivering in disbelief and relief at the sight.

The blonde vampire chuckled lightly, her mouth covering her mouth in a manner of grace. "My, my… yes, it is me, Madam Patchouli. You need not worry anymore, dear friend. Your sanity is safe with me."

The great magician could not hold herself back any longer and let emotions run through as she jumped in to hug Flandre and sob in silence. "Thank you… thank you so much for this…"

The vampire's shoulders became damp with tears and her coat muffled the cries of her friend. Even though this Flandre had never seen this version of the purple magician, she still regarded her as such as the Patchouli of this timeline also played a role in getting her used to society again albeit more actively. She put her pale white hand on the magician's head and softly stroked it, allowing her fingers to flow through the waves of lavender strands.

Then, a memory shot through her head. She remembered something! Swivelling quickly around her chair, Flandre scanned her workstation for this significant item that she wanted to show the magician. However, her movement was so abrupt, it left Patchouli confused yet again wondering why the only glimmer of normalcy sped away from her before her face paled in horror at the realisation of what she had done.

'Crap! In my excitement and joy, I had forgotten my own rules in engaging beings from alternate timelines! Wait, "your sanity is safe with me"? Did she know? Does she know I'm not from here? Well, judging by the rows of tomes and grimoires, it is safe to assume that she might be the equivalent of me in the arts of magic and alchemy. In that case, she might help me find-"

"I believe this is yours, Madam?" The question whipped her out of her inner ramblings and found herself staring at the device in Flandre's hand. The device that she had been looking for this whole time.

The usually stoic magician beamed with gratitude as she thanked Flandre several times with hugs and deep bows, flustering the vampire. Now her return to her own timeline was secured! Unbeknownst to her, Flandre had been taking photos of her gaping in awe at the return of her own invention. The vampire squealed giddily at the prospect at seeing such a cute face in adorable night clothing!

"You also need not worry about the damage for I have repaired it already."

Purple stares matched those of the blood-red. Time appeared to freeze.

"Flandre Scarlet."

"Yes?"

"Thou art a saint."

"Oh, cease thy nonsensical praise! Tis all but a deed for a friend such as thee."

"Good day, fellow friends! How are you on this pleasant afternoon?"

Patchouli and Flandre turned to reply the greeting from this sudden third party. Flandre replied. Patchouli did not. This truly was an oddity.

Standing by the basement door were the dynamic trio of Gensokyo: the Hakurei Shrine maiden, Reimu, the ordinary magician, Marisa and the Moriya Shrine maiden, Sanae. And all were the flipside of their usual selves in personality as it was made clear to Patchouli that the polite greeting came from the gentle smiling face of the Hakurei… handing out gifts(?) to Flandre.

"Here is the monthly share of handouts courtesy of the Hakurei Shrine!", said the shrine maiden while giving a thick envelope to Patchouli as well. "Oh? Patchouli, why are you in your night gown? Are you ill?"

The magician did not bother replying. The situation was just too weird. It was even teetering the line towards creepy too. The Reimu she knew was rather rude while still caring, selfish and, most importantly, poor. Opening the envelope, her eyes became saucers as it was stuffed with paper bills. Saucers became pans as it turned out each bill was worth 10,000 yen.

"I-I-I-I'm f-fine, thank y-you…", stammered Patchouli, unable to fathom the concept of a kind, selfless, rich Reimu.

"Oi, how much longer we going to sit here and watch you play the 'good girl', huh?", growled a grouchy Sanae, her mouth a scowl befitting her uninterested eyes.

"U-um, calm down, Sanae, t-there's nothing wrong with being nice…", said Marisa, timidly watching the floor and shifting about the floor.

Bewildered, Patchouli could only watch Sanae shout her head off at the shy Marisa while Reimu tries to break them off with smiles. Her brain had no thoughts. It could not compute. It did not make sense.

Then, the world around her was gradually becoming foggier. 'Yes! I'm finally going to get out of here!'

However, just as the fog was about to engulf her, a loud boisterous voice came running into the basement, catching a glimpse of the newcomer before the fog then dissipated to reveal her library once more.

She should be happy that she had returned, that she was now free from facing incomprehensible versions of Gensokyo's residents. Instead, she stood there. Her purple irises appearing to be lifeless. Her cheeks were a bright red but it could not be determined whether it was out of embarrassment, being flustered, excited or a mix of the three.

What she did know was this: the world must never know of a Patchouli that was lightly tanned, dressed in a school gym shirt and bloomers. And how it made her hyper-aware of the size of her chest.

Bonus Credits

Somewhere in the Void…

The control room was a pretty boring place. Lots of flashing panel lights, the screens, the dull lighting. It made Yukari wish there was more to life than this. She set her safety helmet on her station, leaned back in her chair and reached into a gap to get a bag of chips. It was going to be another day in the office until the loud shrill blaring of the alarm was sounded.

Red lights flashed haphazardly. The word 'Warning!' was uttered repeatedly over the PA.

She shot towards the screen on her station. A violation of boundaries had been breached. She needed to alert the others immediately!

Snatching the telephone off its charge port, she rapidly dialled a number.

In Blank Studios

"…and thank you everyone for tuning in for tonight's show! Have a goodnight!"

The model-turned-show host has just successfully run her first programme. She was feeling excited! She wondered if she could possibly branch out to other fields until she felt her phone buzzing.

"Oh? Who could this be?", she said to no one before picking it up.

"Hello, Yukari here!"

"Yeah, why?"

As the call went on her brows furrowed. "I see… Tell me, which instance was breached? What was that? That instance, you say?"

She then went into a fit of laughter, confusing the Yukari on the other end. "Oh, don't worry! That's pretty much the exception to the rule! What? You don't know why?"

She was met with silence for a while before a confused 'Yeah' came in.

"That's because everyone there is the opposite of ourselves! Unlike every other instance of Gensokyo, it's the only one in existence as the premise itself is rigid and does not provide much room for trouble! Besides, it also means the administrator there is actually doing her job diligently…unlike, well, us."

"Oh…yeah. You know, when you put it that way, it makes us look lazy and less mysterious and cunning…"

"Well, that's because it's part of our character to appear mysterious to hide our cunning and diligence. She just does it the other way around."

"Wait, does that mean-"

"Yup, she's only doing it to hide her own feelings of laziness. We just go about it differently."

And so the crisis was averted almost as soon as it began, leaving Yukari in the control room to make a reminder to ignore any warnings regarding that zone after a good ol' laugh.