Luigi and Reimu both stepped out the portal. Both were relieved that no more maids have spawned in. Ruukoto smiled. "Ah, mistress Reimu, welcome back."

"Mis-wait, Ruukoto's your maid?!" Luigi shot a wide-eye look to Reimu. This poor shrine maiden could afford a maid?

"Robot maid. She mostly takes care of the basement of the shrine."

"You have a basement?" Luigi got worried a bit.

"She keeps kids in there." Ruukoto smiled, innocent as always.

Luigi sent the Luigi Death Stare at Reimu. "Reimu."

"...No, they show up without my permission. Like some dumb clown..." Reimu could just feel the sneer.

"..If you say so, but I'm watching you."

Clapping was heard to break the immersion. The plumber, shrine maiden and the maids turned to see Doremy floating down. "Well done, Luigi. You've completed ALL three trials, first try. Although the attempts were not as, elegant and dashing as you are."

"Cut the flirting, Doremy. I completed all three of your trials." Luigi got serious.

"Hey, hey," Doremy waved her hands. "I know how desperate you are to free your friend. I really do. But I wanna have fun. And you wanna save your friend. Surely we can meet in the middle, just like your mustache." Doremy made the rare comment that actually commented on Luigi's appearance. "I've got one last battle here. A real heart-pounding one." She giggled.

"Whenever a Gensokyo girl giggles, it immediately gives off bad vibes..." Luigi got PTSD. A little.

Reimu turned smugly to Luigi. She was about to.

Luigi sent Reimu another sneer. "Do not."

Doremy opened one final portal. "This is it." She pointed at it. "All you have to do is go in here and fight the last boss, and I'll give you your friend, free of charge."

"And if you're lying?" Luigi gazed.

"I'll let you punch my face." Doremy offered.

Reimu looked to see that Luigi was already missing from his spot. She turned to see him jumping in the portal. "Works for me!"

The shrine maiden sighed. She turned to the three maids. "Thanks for... supervising him. I've got it from here." She equipped her gohei and jumped in behind Luigi.

The two splatted onto the ground. "Ow my cranium!" Luigi was the first to voice his complaints. Shortly after, Reimu landed on top of Luigi. "...Wait, are those the old-fashioned bl-"

Reimu quickly cut Luigi's sentence off by jumping to the side. "They're safe and comfortable. Where are we?"

Luigi poked his head upwards and got on his feet, lucky the Poltergust still exists. Luigi's eyes were nearly blinded as city lights and neon signs blared all around. Cars echoing their horns and tires skidding.

"We're in some sort of... city." Luigi stated - what was at the least - obvious.

"But why?"

Luigi slowly stepped forward, and as soon as he got into a relatively comfortable spot, he felt a minor rumble. "Reimu. Did you feel that?"

"I haven't felt anything in years."

"The rumbling." Luigi quickly elaborated.

"Oh- yeah, I felt that."

Luigi walked to a giant plaza where he had full view of everything. "What caused that?"

Another small rumble. Reimu looked around frantically. "Where-?"

Just then, they saw a shadow looming over them. Luigi craned his neck up and almost lost his lunch.

For there, was a giant kaiju-like monster, blue and scaly, destroying buildings and setting everything on fire. Speaking of fire, it breathed fire and launched energy balls, adding more to the destruction. Reimu also looked up and she was equally as frightened too. And thus, with Luigi putting both his palms on his cheek, he let out a terrified sentence.

"RUUUUN! IT'S GODZILLA!" Luigi screamed.

"It LOOKS like Godzilla, but due to international copyright laws, it is not!" Reimu pointed.

"STILL! WE SHOULD RUN LIKE IT IS GODZILLA!"

"No it isn't."

They both yelped as Godzilla slammed it's foot down on them. They both dived and ran to the top of a skyscraper. Well, Luigi ran, anyway. Reimu, however, simply decided to float up. They both exhaled in relief as they realised Godzilla wasn't looking at them. Reimu was the first to comment. "Okay, Luigi, what are you dreaming about THIS time?!"

"You think I'm controlling this?! Isn't it obvious it's Doremy's doing?!"

"Well, what can we do to stop this?!"

"I'm trying to thi-WAAAH!" Luigi jumped off the skyscraper when he saw that Godzilla striked the building they were on. "Gooigi! Go!" Luigi fired his green goo, elastic swinging around streetlights and stopping Luigi's impact. He swung around like a certain spider man and landed on a school bus. He then jumped off the bus and onto the ground, the goo returning to his Poltergust in an instant.

Reimu just casually floated down. "Impressive acrobatics for someone with a heavy vacuum."

"Alright, I've gave it some thought, and I know what to do."

"What? Some impossible thing like growing giant?"

"That's exactly what I'm gonna do." Luigi smirked. He focused. Real hard.

Reimu stepped back because Luigi seemed a little taller. Then taller. Then taller again. Then... then...

Reimu got flabbergasted. Luigi was slowly turning into a giant.

Giant Luigi stood proud. "Oh yeah! Poltergust included! We'll make this easy-" He noticed the kaiju was literally the same height as him. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO! Equal playing field!" And with that, he backed up when Godzilla swiped at him. "Okay, it's a slow one... Definitely more managable compared to the girls I fought earlier!"

Reimu floated onto Luigi's shoulder. "I told you growing giant was IMPOSSIBLE!"

"Sorry!" Luigi apologised. "But it's the only way I can do this. Alright. Let's go."

Major Boss: Godzilla(?)

"Oooh, this is certainly a clash of two titans." Reimu sipped tea while Luigi was cautiously avoiding Godzilla.

Luigi craned his neck and darted his eyes to see Reimu's situation. "Where the HELL did you get tea from?!"

"In my emergency spots. Do NOT ask what my emergency spots are."

Godzilla breathed fireballs, which Luigi stepped out of the way, but in return, the fireballs levelled the skyscrapers. "On second thought, I'm GLAD we're in a dream right now... All this property damage!"

"What are you waiting for? Attack it."

"Not yet - gotta wait for a certain attack.." Luigi stood on guard.

Sure enough, Godzilla fired a ball of pure energy. Luigi smirked. "And that's the one!" He flipped some switches on the Poltergust to 'blow' mode and slowly pushed the energy ball back.

Godzilla was having none of this BS, and exhaled to play keep-away with the energy ball. The only problem with it's idea is that Luigi's blow mode is endless, Godzilla's breath is not.

So, put two and two together, Godzilla lost the exhale war. It got knocked back by the energy ball, glowing a bit and roaring.

"Ah hah!" Luigi grinned widely. "It worked! I just have to keep that up!"

Reimu just watched in awe as Godzilla got up again. "You mean you faced giant beasts like this before?!"

"It's a regular thing."

Reimu couldn't believe what she was hearing from this dude. "Who do you think you are?!"

"Right!" Luigi was reminded. "Time to introduce myself to this boss, since everyone introduces themself to me before they absolutely kick my shins in." He stepped forward, facing Godzilla. "You! I know you're just a beast who drives off pure destruction, but I'mma Luigi! Number one! This tiny girl on my shoulder is Reimu! Shrine maiden of armpits!"

"My WHAT?!" Reimu nearly slapped Luigi before Godzilla grabbed an entire goddamn skyscraper and yeeted it at Luigi.

Luigi ducked, nearly causing Reimu to fall off. "Okay, the last Godzilla I faced didn't have that attack..." Luigi was lucky he dodged.

Godzilla gave no chance and breathed rapid fire fireballs at Luigi. "Oh crap."

Reimu shrugged her shoulders. "Well, whatever, I expect you to take back the comment about my armpits." She lunged forward and expelled the fireballs with her danmaku.

"Depends if we survive this!" Luigi didn't look so confident.

Reimu was casually floating in the air. "We will. With your size and my bullets."

"Okay.." Luigi clenched his fist. "I believe you. I believe in myself, after all."

During his motivational speech, Godzilla breathed a green energy ball at them. Luigi turned his head. "Oh, right. The boss." He blew back the energy ball with his Poltergust.

Godzilla exhaled again, and this time, it was extremely strong. Godzilla was winning this time.

"Okay, I know what to do now-" And with that, the green goo on his Poltergust vibrated, bringing out Gooigi at long last. "Phew... Where were you in my dream world backstories?"

"I do it!" Gooigi simply responded and also used the blow function on the Poltergust.

A two versus one exhale match. Godzilla stood NO chance and got blasted with the energy ball. It looked nearly completely broken. It roared in fury and tossed more skyscrapers at Luigi.

"GAH-" Luigi cowered while Gooigi walked forward and took the hits in Luigi's stead.

The goo being dissipated, Reimu jumped in and launched her danmaku at another incoming skyscraper, it being exploded into mere particles.

"Jeez - when did you get THAT strong?" Luigi sweatdropped.

"I... don't know."

"Final hit! It's game over! It's basically a three-versus one! Let's achieve stardom!" Luigi charged in headfirst.

Reimu panicked. "What on earth are you doing?!"

"I'm cracked!" Luigi prepared his fist and uppercutted Godzilla straight into the ocean. The boss then exploded and Luigi covered his eyes to not get hit by any particles.

Major Boss DEFEATED!

"..." Luigi blinked after removing his eye cover. "Wait, that was it? No third phase attack? I kinda popped off a little too hard. I'm too cracked."

Unfortunately, the popping off only lasted a few moments as Luigi suddenly shrunk in size and suspended him in midair.

"Woh-ah... AH!" Luigi flailed his arms and screamed as he plummeted down. "I'M FALLING FOR HOURS!" And sadly, there was no magical balloons to save him this time. Luigi closed his eyes and braced for impact-

and he landed on a soft, fluffy pink cloud.

"..." He opened his eyes. "Huh?"

And then... Doremy. "Well done, Luigi! You beat the final boss of the Dream World so easily! Although you probably have Reimu to thank for that.. cheating shrine maiden." Doremy pouted while Reimu grinned. The dream girl sighed and continued. "Sooo, you won't be in any more danger here. I already sent your goodbyes to the three maids, and soon you'll reunite with your friend! I truly congratulate you, mister wimp."

"Is anyone gonna forget my incident with Yuuka?" the plumber deadpanned.

"Nnnnnnope." Doremy finger gunned.

He sighed.

Doremy clapped her hands together in satisfaction. "Now then, I do hope you visit the Dream World again sometime! Not that you have a choice anyway. I'm in full control of all dreams."

"Speaking of-Where's my friend?"

"Oh, right, here he comes now!"

Luigi, Reimu and Doremy all looked up to see a portrait of Yellow Toad float down onto the streets, monochrome as always.

Reimu looked at it... and blinked. "So, wait, your friends are all trapped in things like this?"

"...Yeeeup." Luigi popped the P.

"...They look like they belong in a fancy art museum."

"You wouldn't understand E. Gadd or King Boo's tastes."

Reimu turned her head to Luigi. "Pardon? King Boo?"

"...It's an inside thing. You wouldn't get it."

Luigi stepped forward, pulling out his Dark Light device. "Okay... let's go." He aimed it at the portrait as it became rainbow, physical, then...

A squeaky toy sound was found as a yellow mushroom figure bounced his head onto the floor and onto the ground. Yellow Toad was saved.

"Waaaagh..." Yellow Toad rubbed his head.

Luigi saw his prize treasure after completing those three damn trials. Absolutely worth it.

Yellow Toad looked up to Luigi. "Mario! Thank-wait, you're not Mario..."

Aaaand there goes Luigi's happy mood.

Yellow Toad gave a tiny thumbs up. "Luigi! Thank you for saving me! Some purple haze showed up and I got super scared! I was in fear! But now I'm here and with you, so it's all okay!"

"...yeah... it's all okay." Luigi faintly nodded.

Yellow Toad looked at Reimu and Doremy. "My my, Luigi! I didn't know you were quite the collector!"

"We're leaving." Luigi immediately gave up, dragging both Reimu and Yellow Toad by their hands. "See you later, Doremy, and don't troll me ever again."

"No promises."

"PROMISES." And then Luigi's voice got faded as they walked through a portal.

"Y-you... You're done with me?" One of the figures was heartbroken.

"Of course. I asked you to do... such a SIMPLE task... and you have still failed me. I can't trust anyone with the simplest of tasks.. and hopefully in this new dimension, I'll find someone competent."

"Someone competent...?"

Just then, a portal opened up in front of one of the figures. Of course, it was the disappointed one.

"Yes. Now, if you don't mind..."

The first figure grinned.

"I'm leaving you for double dead."

Blue Toad was examining the dozens of floating dolls. "I never commented, but you have really nice dolls here!"

Marisa smirked. "I know, right? It's like she has no friends or something, but obviously I'm her great friend!"

"...Thank you." Alice addressed Blue Toad and not Marisa.

"But there's one smug aura that mocks me..." Blue Toad jumped and poked a plush of a certain blue ice idiot. "What is this?"

"I believe that's called a Fumo?"

Before they could question it any further, Reimu and Yellow Toad were awkwardly flung out the portal and onto their behinds.

Red Toad was there, too. He saw everything. "Wait, are those bloome-"

"Shush." Reimu threatingly pointed her gohei at Red Toad.

Yellow Toad broke free of the awkward struggle and ran up to the two others. "Red! Blue! I'm alive!"

"You're alive!" They both chanted and hugged Yellow Toad.

Marisa scratched her ear with her finger. "Yeesh, these noises are gonna make me go deaf, ze..."

Alice turned a side eye. "Says you."

Reimu slowly got up. "And now... the big one."

The rainbow cloudy dreamy portal slowly shrunk into pure nothing. Luigi opened his eyes.

When he opened his eyes, only Alice was there. "Huh...? Where did everyone else go?" He mumbled.

Alice looked back. "They went into the la-"

"...So..." Luigi started on his own. "Alice, it's... ah... it's been a rough ride in there."

"But you're still alive, though."

"Yeah, that's one thing I got going for me."

"Well, obviously not. You seem a bit stressed."

"Stressed..." Luigi finally made eye contact with Alice. He remembered the third trial. All those dreams, all those memories... were just fiction to him. He's back in real life now, finally back to the norm, no more cruelty..

Luigi sprung up from the bed and gently hugged Alice.

"Wa-ah huh...?" Alice was taken back from this... unique approach.

"You're alive..." Luigi copied from Yellow Toad. "Those dreams were scary... I was scared... I don't ever want to see those things in my dream again..." Aaaand he just completely broke down, into tears.

Alice gently hugged Luigi back, tapping him on the back for comfort. "Yes, I'm alive. I'm still here."

Luigi's cries were the only thing that lasted for a few minutes.

Now, Luigi, the three Toads, and E. Gadd were in the lab.

E. Gadd finished putting a pink fluffy cloud into the main portal archway. "Three of ten done! Nice work! I can't believe this is from the Dream World!"

Yellow Toad leaned in to Luigi who was just standing in the lab. "So, did you cry out all your feelings yet?"

Luigi turned red from embarrassment. "Wait, don't tell me you-"

"Those dreams were scary!" Yellow Toad fake-cried.

Luigi grumbled.

Red Toad gave a thumbs up to Luigi. "Hey, at least Reimu left to return to her shrine! Otherwise she'd slap you from how 'cowardly' you act!"

"Thanks, Red Toad..." Luigi gave a thumbs up back.

"Any time."

E. Gadd spun in his chair and pressed some keys on his keyboard. "Okay, with all these coordinates set up, we're ready to find the fourth portrait, and I know exactly where it is!"

The screen blipped to life. Luigi and the Toads looked at it and they ALL froze.

Luigi was the first. "Is that... a mansion?"

E. Gadd continued typing. "It is. I have researched that this is the fabled (and insanely popular for no frickin' reason) Scarlet Devil Mansion. Owned by the Scarlet Devil vampire, Remilia Scarlet."

An unknown voice suddenly resounded in the lab."Oh, I know of them."

Everyone looked around.

A gap with eyes appeared and Yukari emerged.

The three Toads instantly ducked behind cover in fear. Luigi stood his ground. "It's you."

"It's me." Yukari grinned. "And I'm not here to antagonize you."

"I find that very hard to believe."

"Noooo?" She put her paper fan over her mouth. "I can give you the hottest of tips to get through the mansion, easy peasy."

Luigi raised his eyebrow. "Go on..."

A tiny gap portal appeared in front of Luigi. Yukari ordered him. "Open up your hands."

Luigi... hesitantly did so. A bag of candy appeared in his hands. Luigi blinked. "The hell is this?"

"It's fairy candy. It's essential because fairies love to crack up on that. And there are a LOT of fairy maids in that mansion." Yukari held up one finger.

"...Okay..." Luigi put it in his endless pockets. "Anything else I should be aware of?"

Yukari held up two fingers. "Actually, yes. There is a head maid of the mansion that you'll probably have to inevitably face off against. There's a secret word she hates that'll be bound to weaken her."

"Oh?" Luigi tilted his head. "Head maid, huh. So there's even more than three maids. Lovely. So... what's the weaken word?"

Yukari ultimately grinned like a big idiot. "Pads." One word. One word... that's it?

"Pads? Okay... I guess? I guess that works? I'll keep that in mind..."

Little did Luigi know.

Yukari smiled. "Great! Now, please, continue your antagonizing glares towards me. I find them quite fun." And with that, she opened a gap and lazily fell through it, closing it when she entered.

The three Toads peeked up. E. Gadd was too frozen to even speak.

Blue Toad awkwardly smiled. "Uh, yeah, we're going to stay here to emotionally recover from that."

"Okiedokie." Luigi got awfully quiet. "I'm the most qualified for mansion exploring, so I guess I'll do it myself."

"Alright, Luigi!" Yellow Toad seemed firm now that the threat of Yukari was gone, and no longer trapped in a portrait in the Dream world. "Go stomp on this Remilia as if she were Bowser!"

Luigi nodded, grabbing his flashlight. "Okiedokie! To the Scarlet Devil Mansion I go!"

Then, everyone paused. A fear-inducing laugh echoed throughout the forest.

Distant, yet far. So far, that laugh was, yet it was so close. The voice of the laugh was definitely close. Outside both the lab and the house. Right in the middle. But that voice was directed at Luigi. The green plumber's skin practically froze like ice.

That laugh... it was WAY too familiar.

Luigi recognised it. Oh god no. Oh GOD no. Him, of all people...

"Somebody page me?"

Review time, since Arc 3 is now over.

James Birdsong: I'm getting deja vu with your comments.

VolcanicFlare: Y'see, this is why you do your research. (cough, Chapter 12, cough cough). Implementing a world both in Mario AND Touhou allows for some insane combo potential.

somedude11: Perhaps this has left you at the edge of your seat, no?

VolcanicFlare: Luigi carried the entire hero side of Dream Team. But no doubt it was all because of Mario's emotional support. Hashtag, Mario best bro.

James Birdsong: YAMERO