Hey, sorry for the schedule slip there! I had this really important project that I had to work on. When I wasn't doing that, I was playing Mass Effect, doing other homework, or watching various Touhou videos. I also started a third fanfic, Ordinary Human Spectre, which is a Touhou/Mass Effect crossover AU. With the release of that one, For Want of a Nail will update more slowly, since it's just a side story anyways.

Anyways, here's our next intermission.

…

Abathur wasn't sure just why Mima the Evil Spirit had arrived on his doorstep, but she had. Or, more accurately, wall-doorstep. The bizarre design of the Hercules was not the point, however.

"Do not understand," he vocalized his thoughts. "Your presence, unexplainable."

"I get the feeling that nobody's really taken the time to explain Gensokyo's past to you is all," Mima answered. "Everyone says that you've explained so much about your home, yet you still know next-to-nothing about Gensokyo. And, quite honestly, I get the feeling that you'll get in big trouble with some of the power-players here if you don't know their history."

Abathur pondered this for a moment, before walking back into the Hercules, motioning for Mima to follow.

A Roach crawled over and sat down in front of Mima, as if to offer a seat. Of course, while Mima had no ethical qualms with sitting on a bug, she was still quite avidly against sitting on top of a spiky, durable one. Besides, she was an Evil Spirit. She didn't need to sit.

"What's going on?" asked the lead Zergling.

"I'm giving you a history lesson," grunted Mima. "Are you two ready?"

…

Since the creation of humanity, Youkai, monsters fueled by belief and fear, have also existed. However, as time went on, and science became more and more widespread, Youkai started to die out. In a last effort, Yukari Yakumo sealed off the region of Gensokyo from the rest of the world, in order to make a safe haven for Youkai. Of course, Youkai can't exist without belief, so she created the Human Village, a village that exists purely to keep the Youkai alive.

Every now and then, "Incidents" occur. They're the result of Youkai getting bored, or wanting to rule over something. The most drastic of which was the Two Paths Incident- or, at least, that's what I like to call it. The Incident began with the complete destruction of the Hakurei family, who maintain the border. The only survivor was young Reimu, who was… well, let's just say that she was a lot younger back then. As the Hakurei family is responsible for maintaining the balance in Gensokyo, she had to go solve the Incident on her own. In the end, after fighting her way through Makai, she got revenge on the one who killed her family and ended the Incident.

After that was the Eastern Wonderland Incident. I personally started that one, and Marisa helped. The details are a little fuzzy, now, but even though the Danmaku system hadn't been invented yet, I'm reasonably sure that this Incident gave her the idea for it. The basic magics were very similar to Danmaku.

After that, strange ruins appeared in Gensokyo. We held a competition, and whoever won got to find a fabulous prize within the ruins. Reimu, Marisa, and I all participated, of course. As it turned out, the whole competition was an Incident, the Universal Incident, to be specific. I think. It wasn't until the Scarlet Mist Incident that we started naming them, so the names of the earlier ones aren't as heavily agreed on as the more recent ones. Anyways, the whole thing was a trap- the "ruins" were actually a spaceship from another universe, or something. I didn't really understand what Yumemi was saying, but she tried to capture Reimu for study. As you would expect, Reimu put that plan down.

After that, the Mugenkan Incident. A bunch of Youkai once again invade the Hakurei Shrine, no surprise there, so Reimu and Marisa go find a new border without me. The meanies. They soon found the border between the real world and the land of dreams, and fought Elly, the Shinigami in charge of maintaining the border. After breaking through, they found Yuuka Kazami, who lived in the mansion of Mugenkan. They fought her and won, although I'm still not sure how that stopped the Youkai from attacking.

After that was the Mystic Square Incident. Marisa, Reimu, Yuuka, and I worked together on that one. A bunch of demons were running around all over the place, so we went to Makai, and fought the Goddess of Makai, Shinki. However, something… switched. I was trapped in Makai while Shinki's daughter fled. You've met her already- her daughter is Alice.

…

That was news to Abathur. Abathur felt slightly intimidated, although that may have had more to do with the fact that he didn't tower over Mima like he did everyone else. The fact that she was at his height and not obviously flying was very threatening to him. He was big, but lacked combat capabilities. So, long ago, he taught himself that things that were as big as him were very dangerous. Still, there was the possibility that his feeling of intimidation came from the bombshell that she just dropped on him.

"...Previously unknown," he admitted. "New information. Magician Essence, far more desirable now."

"Just as long as you don't go after her 'essence'," Mima said with a grin, wiggling her index and middle fingers of both hands. Abathur knew from Kerrigan that humans called them "airquotes."

"Do not understand," Abathur narrowed his eyes. "Airquotes unnecessary. Will go after essence anyways."

"At least buy her dinner and ask for her consent first," Mima chuckled.

"Do not understand. Eating is not necessary for gathering essence," Abathur continued to stare.

"Oh my god!" Mima laughed. "You're just a goldmine of accidental innuendos! This is the most fun I've had since I tricked Yumeko into pranking Shinki! Oh, man, you should have seen the looks on their faces…"

"It's not that funny," Amanojaku piped up. "Especially not that last one. For an Evil Spirit, you sure have a poor sense of humour."

"My sense of humour is exquisite," Mima defended. "You're the one with a bad sense of humour. In any case, we're still not done."

…

After that, Reimu invented the Spellcard system, a nonlethal counterpart to magic fighting. The next Incident was the Scarlet Mist Incident, where a deep red mist covered the sky of Gensokyo. This Incident was instigated by Remilia Scarlet, the owner of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

…

"Scarlet started Incident? Surprising development," Abathur noted to himself.

"Yup," Mima nodded. "One of the most famous ones. Going on…"

…

Reimu and Marisa teamed up again to stop this Incident. The mission was resolved relatively quickly, given how the guard was having an off day and Remilia herself was… emotionally vulnerable. In any case, she was using the Scarlet Mist in an attempt to go outside during the day. She's a Vampire, and she was getting rather bored being cooped up in that mansion all day long.

Next was the Spring Snow Incident. Gensokyo was covered in snow, which wouldn't be weird if it weren't in the middle of May. The one responsible for this attack was Yuyuko Saigyouji, a ghost and friend of Yukari Yakumo. Reimu and Marisa worked together again, this time with the assistance of Remilia's maid, Sakuya Izayoi. As it turned out, Yuyuko was trying to revive the Saigyou Ayakashi, a demon tree that made people commit suicide.

…

"Demon tree?" asked Abathur. "Could have useful Essence…"

"Don't even think about it," Mima warned. "It's in Hakugyokurou, the afterlife for artists. No way are you going in there. Besides, it's dormant now, but it might try to kill you dead."

…

Next was the Immaterial Power Incident. I honestly never really heard much about that one, but weird stuff started happening at a bunch of parties. Suika Ibuki was the perpetrator in that one.

…

"Suika Ibuki?" asked Abathur. "Oni at Shrine?"

"That's around the time she moved in with Reimu, yeah," Mima answered. "That one was pretty uneventful."

...

Next was the Imperishable Night Incident. Most people in Gensokyo believe that the Incident was night not stopping, hence the name, but the Incident Resolvers were actually behind that one. That was so that they could have more time to solve the *real* Incident- that the moon had been replaced with a fake copy. Four teams of Resolvers went out separately to resolve this one- Reimu and Yukari, Marisa and Alice, Remilia and Sakuya, and Yuyuko and her gardener, Youmu Konpaku. This Incident was started by Eirin Yagokoro and Kaguya Houraisan, two fugitive Lunarians who had temporarily stolen the moon in order to hide themselves more properly.

…

"Kaguya?" asked Abathur. He could hardly imagine the Princess starting an Incident- but then again, she did calm down over the course of their last meeting. Eirin had said that she was just excited that they found life in the Koprulu Sector.

"Yep, the moon Princess herself. She was a bit… more extreme, back then," Mima shrugged.

…

After that was the Flower View Incident. None of the flowers seemed to be dying properly. About half of Genokyo pitched in to help resolve that one. It was a busy Incident. Everyone was convinced at first that Yuuka Kazami, who had since revealed her true nature as a plant Youkai, who was keeping the flowers alive, but the true cause was Komachi Onozuka, a Shinigami who was simply too lazy to reap all the flowers. Sort of. There's also this thing with ghosts that arrive every sixty years and possess the flowers. That Incident was confusing, since there were so many points of view. In any case, there was never really an Incident at all, even though half of Gensokyo stepped up to solve it.

After that was the Faith Incident. Or, that's what I call it- Reimu getting a cease-and-desist letter doesn't really count as an Incident in the eyes of most of Gensokyo. In any case, Reimu got a letter from the new Shrine on the mountain telling her to close down and let the God of the new Shrine take over. Now, of course, this new God was a colossal idiot, since without a Hakurei running the Shrine, the Hakurei Barrier would fail, but they did it anyways. Reimu and Marisa ran up Youkai Mountain to this new Shrine, the Moriya Shrine, and did their thing. The new God in town was Kanako Yasaka, a wind and rain God, and Suwako Moriya, an Earth God, and Sanae Kochiya, Suwako's great-great-great-great-great-great granddaughter, came with Kanako.

…

"Have met Kochiya," Abathur noted. "Seemed pleasant enough."

"Oh, she's made friends with Reimu since then," Mima agreed. "They've got a friendly rivalry of sorts. It's a lot more friendly to Sanae and a lot more of a rivalry to Reimu, though."

…

Then, there was the Scarlet Weather Incident. The weather was completely and totally out of whack, and, like in the Flower View Incident, EVERYONE was interested in it. In the end, it was caused by a Celestial named Tenshi Hinanawi getting bored and coming down to Gensokyo to ruin everything. Worse, she had the Sword of Hisao, a weapon that could control the weather, since she was the eldest daughter of the Hinanawi Clan. Her tutor, Iku Nagae, ended up getting involved. Wasn't pretty.

After that was the Underground Incident. There, a geyser appeared not far from the Hakurei Shrine, and it seemed to spew out Evil Spirits, too. As it turned out, Kanako put a nuclear reactor down there, in an attempt to modernize Gensokyo. She put Utsuho Reiuji in charge of it. True, Utsuho had eaten the corpse of Amaterasu, a fire God, but all that did was give her godlike powers. Still, while Utsuho's a bit of a ditz, she at least knows what she's doing when she runs the reactor.

Then, a flying boat appeared over Gensokyo. As it turned out, the boat had been trapped in the ground, but the new Geyser pushed it back into the sky. It was the Myouren Temple, a buddhist temple founded by Myouren Hijiri, and run by his sister, Byakuren. The only thing going on there was that the Youkai who went to the Temple were trying to rescue Byakuren from Makai. Getting her out of there created a small hole, and I started to work my way through that hole. It was a hard hole to get through, though, so it took a little while.

After that was the time those Taoists showed up. There are these really old Taoists who had real beef with Byakuren. Byakuren's return made them get up and moving again. Specifically, Toyosatomimi No Miko, better known as Prince Shotoku… she REALLY hated Byakuren. Like, damn. Then, Mononobe No Futo and Soga Tojiko worked for her, and Seiga Kaku, along with her undead assistant Yoshika Miyako, taught them taoism and dark magic. No, really. I know how hilarious it sounds. Taoism. And dark magic. Those two REALLY don't go together. To be fair, they only paid any attention to the taoism lessons; they mostly just stuck to Danmaku after it was invented. Y'know, like everyone else. Reimu and Marisa dealt with them, as usual.

Then, the Hopeless Masquerade Incident. Everyone started feeling gloomy and depressed, so all the religious leaders, especially Miko, Reimu, and Byakuren, took the opportunity to gather faith for their respective religions. In the end, the mass melancholy was caused by Hata No Kokoro, a mask Youkai. She actually had a prior connection to Miko, and possibly Sanae's Gods, but that's not as important. In the end, the Incident was dealt with.

…

"Incidents resulted from each other," Abathur narrowed his eyes. "Not normal."

"No, it wasn't," Mima shrugged. "There was also something about a giant robot that was sponsored by Suwako, but that's not as important."

Memories of Terran Goliaths and Terran Thors filled Abathur's mind. A burning question lingered in his mind.

"Robot… built by Kappa?" he asked.

"Of course," Mima grinned. "They build just about everything."

"Kappa, too similar to Terrans," Abathur noted to himself. "Should be careful."

"In any case," Mima changed the subject. "The next Incident finally broke that pattern, having nothing to do with Buddhists, Taoists, or the Moriya Shrine."

…

Next was the Miracle Mallet Incident. There's a giant, upside-down castle in the sky, and it's owned by Inchlings. One of them has the Miracle Mallet, an Oni-made mallet that grants wishes. Sieja Kijin manipulated this Inchling, Sukuna Shinmyoumaru, into attempting to revolutionize the world, and make the weak rule over the strong. Of course, it had a side effect- it made Reimu, Marisa, and Sakuya's weapons go haywire. They found out about this plot by just trying to figure out what was going on. In the end, they beat the crap out of Seija.

…

"Have met Seija," Abathur nodded.

"I know. I was there," Mima reminded. "In any case, the next Incident was the Leviathan Incident, and since you yourself were behind that one, I'm sure I don't need to tell you about it."

"Done explaining situation?" asked Abathur.

"Yep," answered Mima stretching. "And, quite honestly, I'm tired of talking. I'm going back to the Shrine."

And with that, the Evil Spirit zoomed off, leaving Abathur with more knowledge of Gensokyo.

"...Could be useful," Abathur admitted, closing the doors once more. He had work to do, and not enough time to do it.

Of course, a letter slipped through the doors before they closed.

…

...And we're back! It took forever to do that Intermission. It was even longer than the StarCraft recap, since Touhou's lore is much more vague than StarCraft's lore, and because I'm so much more busy now than I was then.

In any case, the next two arcs and the next two intermissions should be fun. Assuming they're done anytime soon.

This is Antagonist, signing off, remember to review.