Hakurei Shrine

"Ow!"

"Seriously, Marisa. I can't believe you cheated in language class by using a translation spell." Reimu scolded as she wipes the witch's forehead with a wet piece of cloth. "You definitely deserved that headbutt from Kamishirasawa-sensei."

"Learnin' another language is such a hassle..." Marisa sulked, as she grabs the wet piece of cloth and pressed it against her forehead.

"Another...?!" Reimu was surprised by Marisa's excuse.

"'Ey, I'm not even speakin' the same language as you are, literally!" Marisa argued.

Reimu sighs. "You're hopeless..."

Marisa removes the cloth from her forehead. "Right. Ya do what ya want, Reimu. I'm gonna go for magic lessons at Miss Mima's."

With that said, the witch hopped onto her broom, and took off into the sky.

Reimu sighs again. "Is she...no, are westerners in general always like that?" She asked no one else in particular.

Ruukoto, who is mopping the shrine's veranda, heard what was just said. "According to Miss Okazaki's journals, not all westerners."

...

Mima's House

Calling this place a 'house' is kind of an overstatement. The 'house' is really just a dwelling made from a hollowed-out small hill that was abandoned by its original inhabitant a very long time ago, and calling it a hideout would be more appropriate. Mima just happened to stumble upon it while looking for a new place to serve as her hideout (she decided that Reimaden is ultimately not suitable as a residence due to the troubles one has to go through to reach it), and found it to be just right ("not too shabby" in Marisa's words) and big enough to accomodate her pupils too. The evil spirit had made the old dwelling her residence, and the new place for her pupils to learn magic.

In addition, it also is neither too far nor too near from the Hakurei Shrine. Which means Marisa and her friends could always go mooch off some teas and snacks from Reimu whenever they feel like it.

"I heard that you were caught cheating in Language Class at the village schoolhouse..." That was the first thing Mima said when Marisa entered the hideout. "Is your head alright?"

"If ya mean the pain from gettin' headbutted by the teacher, I'm fine." Says Marisa, as she sets her flying broomstick on a broom rack near the door. "If ya mean what I'm thinkin' that time, same."

As soon as Marisa finishes her statement, one of her witch friends can be heard giggling in response, without stopping what she is doing at the moment (brewing something in a cauldron). Even Mima can't help but find Marisa's statement a little bit amusing.

"Har-har-har. Very funny..." Marisa reacts sarcastically.

Mima then pretends to clear her throat. "Enough with that, Marisa. Now why don't you go practice what I taught you yesterday?"

"I was 'bout to..." Marisa responds before using her magic wand to draw a spell circle in the air.

It didn't take more than a minute for the witch to finish drawing the spell circle. Although it simply faded away without doing anything after just a few seconds.

"You missed a rune..." Mima points out for Marisa. "But good try."

Marisa frowned. "But that was the same rune as the last three time. Why do I keep forgettin' that one...?"

Mima was about to say something, but was stopped by a knock at the door.

"Who could that be? No one ever knocks..." Marisa says. "'cept Ako, when she's goin' to play the doorknob-zapper prank."

Mima scans the room before turning back toward Marisa. "But Ako is inside here with us." The evil spirit says as she points a finger at a corner of the room.

Marisa turns toward that corner, and sees another one of her witch friends sitting behind a desk, and was in the middle of reading a big spell book.

"Maybe you should go fetch the door?" The friend suggested.

The knocking on the door got louder, as whoever is outside began knocking harder.

"Alright, I'll get it. This better not be a prank..." Marisa says as she starts walking toward the door.

...

Hakurei Shrine

"Reimu, you shouldn't leave all your work to that...girl..." Genji says, when he notices the shrine maiden trainee lying on the tatami inside the shrine while Ruukoto swept the courtyard.

"I did the laundry and the dishes myself, didn't I?" Reimu argues, still lying on the tatami.

"But a shrine maiden is supposed to sweep the shrine grounds herself." Genji argued back.

Reimu got up. "That was supposed to be part of my training?" She asked.

"Yes..." Genji answered bluntly.

Reimu procrastinated for a brief moment there. Then she stood up. "Good point, gramps..."

Grumbling, the shrine maiden trainee then walks out of the shrine.

"Ruukoto, give me the broom. Your work for today is done." Reimu tells Ruukoto as she prepares to snatch the broom from the green-haired girl.

Ruukoto did not respond. Instead, she seems to be staring at a particular spot on the ground with suspicion.

Reimu notices Ruukoto's suspicious staring, and looks at that spot herself. "What's wrong? Why are you looking at the grounds like that?" She asked.

"I have detected an unknown subterranean entity approaching this location." Ruukoto answered.

Reimu doesn't understand the choice of vocabulary used by the green-haired girl. "Mind repeating that in proper Yamato?"

"In much simpler words: something is trying to force its way out from right below here." Ruukoto explains.

Genji suddenly appears behind Reimu. "She is correct. There appears to be a powerful aura being emitted by something beneath the shrine grounds..." The flying turtle says.

Reimu tensed up. "Something is...?"

Before the shrine maiden trainee can get any more clues on what she was told, something suddenly burst out of the ground, throwing large amounts of earth and cobblestone into the air, as well as throwing Reimu, Genji and Ruukoto several feet away onto their backs.

As Reimu wipes the dirt off her face and gets up, she takes a look at the entity, and sees that it bears the appearance of a house-sized lotus flower that is radiating a large amount of aura.

"W-w-w-what is that?!" Reimu exclaims loudly.

"Be careful, Reimu!" Genji warns the shrine maiden trainee. "That is a Bewitching Lotus!"

"I don't like the sound of that..." Reimu remarks after having a feeling of dread.

The massive lotus flower appears to gather a ball of magic energy over itself, before unleashing the energy in the form of danmaku at Reimu...


And so begins the Lotus Land Story arc.

First up, the Bewitching Lotus Flower (here simply named the Bewitching Lotus) arrives at the Hakurei Shrine with a bang, then immediately begins attacking Reimu without doing anything else beforehand.

Now, what could this version of Kazami Yuuka be planning? Or does she even have a hand in this version of Lotus Land Story's incident? Read on to find out!

"And that, as they say, is that..."

Afterword ends here.