Under a gushing waterfall, all rock ultimately goes to null.

Despite all of its sages' claims, Gensokyo was nothing but fragile stone, falsely sheltered beneath a thin layer of fabrications and deceit.

And the cataract of anarchy was only moments away from its descent onto the hidden land.

XXXX

It was almost midnight in the human village, however it was in the height of panic, lit faintly by an ominous amber glow. People ran about shrieking, fleeing and searching for one another amid the alarm that consumed the once serene place, some ones even trampling one another in their rush. The cause for their fright was none other than a horrible fire, a raging inferno that had shockingly and frighteningly consumed masses of the village houses in an instant. Water did nothing to stop the wild blaze; even appeared to feed it more and more as the flames grew into bloodcurdling, scorching pylons, stretching far into the night sky. Those who managed to escape were the lucky ones, most have been consumed by the unforgiving fires and turned into nothing but burnt husks frozen into shapes of absolute horror and distress. Once sturdy buildings collapsed like matchsticks, crisp and ashen, crushing beneath them any unlucky pheasant who happened to run the wrong way in their fear-induced agitation. Hours passed in this limbo of insanity, the usually silent forest nearby tainted with the echoing wails of the dead and dying.

Little did they know, it was only the beginning.

Walking off into the forest, retreating from the inferno were two figures speaking amongst one another. "Was this aimless carnage really necessary?" asked the shorter one, walking with unnaturally long steps on mismatched legs. "Their lives are expandable, my dear." The taller figure, cloaked in robes left blighted earth and succumbing fauna in her wake. A crescent moon shone lighting up the night sky, illuminating their inhuman figures. "The first match needed to be lit and now, we observe as this world receives its fitting punishment."

Okina watched from one of her many, many doors, Mai and Satono both on each side of her, the two servants appearing quite shaken by the sight. Unfortunately for them, every sound, every sight, and every degree of heat could be experienced in full. A few seconds of silence passed before Satono mustered the courage to speak. "Master, what is this?" She asked, unsure what to think. "Who could do this?" Despite being human once, probably, she was completely unfazed by the graphic aspects of those deaths, but the notion sent her stomach into a whirlpool.

Okina closed her eyes, placing both palms together in deep thought. Inhaling sharply through her nose, she then gestured to the two dancers. "Mai, Satono, bring me Yukari Yakumo. Tell her this matter is of complete urgency." However before they could comply, the manipulator of boundaries had already manifested in the room. "Goodness me, Matara, you're that uncertain of your judgement?"

"Not at all, I only wished to keep you in the loop." Okina said pleasantly, shutting the door to the human village and banishing it away. She then called another as Yukari took a seat onto one of her many many gaps. "Hmph. I take it they're already here?" In response, the god of backdoors gestured to another door, where many shapeless figures could be seen, with a particular smile both Mai and Satono knew meant that she was up to no good. "I have them right beneath my palm."

XXXX

The village was still rebuilding a couple weeks later, the damage was just too great. The number of both human causalities and property losses had exceeded any other in the history of youkai attacks.

Reimu and Marisa have been investigating the incident for days afterwards with no avail. All the possible suspects – the immortal Mokou, those Lunarian refugees, even the incarnated drum Raiko – denied ever causing such a scene, expressing abhorrence over such a useless slaughter. They had all the right to, after all; such impractical killing only fed the anti-youkai ideology spreading amongst humans – and increased the quiet boiling hostility between them. Not even the most violent youkai admitted to such a crime, which left Reimu staring at a dead end for days and Marisa going on random witch hunts – quite literally. She'd gone around to everyone in Gensokyo – even those backdoor lot – but found no answers so far, told Reimu she was giving up after showing up after a week of endless hunts, looking the most forlorn in ages. Sighing, Reimu dropped the newspaper she was holding to the wooden steps of her shrine; an article on the front page demanding justice for the deceased in the "Inferno Incident", as the tengu reporters have called it. Beating up everyone brought no results, crossing boundaries only got Yukari's attention – for 4 seconds, at least – and not even she could find her own way around this clueless hunt. She looked at the shrine grounds, vacant as always but suddenly giving out a feeling of dread, as if the souls of the dead still hung threating over her head, wanting to be avenged. As the Hakurei shrine maiden, she had to seek the culprit and exterminate them, whoever they were; it was only fair to the taken lives, but where could they be?

It was as if she was looking for a youkai that didn't exist.

"Would you look at that, the oh-so-fantastic shrine maiden can't find a simple everyday arsonist." Reimu looked up from the cobblestone pathway to meet a face she'd rather bash in at the first given opportunity. Seija Kijin casually smiling from her perch over the maiden's forever empty donation box. "Well thank the gods I decided to show up, or don't. I don't need your useless thanks anyway." Reimu stared down the filthy, obviously worn-out youkai, and fought the urge to break every single remaining bone in the amanojaku's body or beat her to a pulp with impossible spell cards. Still, she visibly grimaced at the choice she was being forced into. She needed every help she could get at the moment – even if it came from the most hated person in Gensokyo. "What are you doing here?" she asked, and the youkai's horns bounced along as she feigned surprise. "Why, aren't you just disgusted to see me? Don't you want to kick me in the gut?" Reimu wanted to kick more than just Seija's gut but kept it to herself as she walked away and picked up her old trusty broom, swiping aimlessly at the wooden porch. "I honestly couldn't care less, but I'm too busy to hear you and the princess chew over those crazed revolution fantasies or even beat your ass." To her shock and revolt, however, the arduous youkai burst in laughs. "WHEW, a serious incident? This calls for a celebration – party's at my place!"

In seconds, the amanojaku's upturned collar was clutched firmly in Reimu's fist, the broom clattering to the floor against the planks. "You better stop playing around and tell me what in the seven hells are you doing here, or else-" she yanked up Seija a few inches off the ground, threating, but she just rolled her eyes in response. "If you insist on knowing, I just came to feed on the hate oozing out from your little beloved fleshy sack Townsville only to realize it wasn't aimed at me." The sarcasm dripped from Seija's tone like venom as she released herself from the shrine maiden's grasp, pointing at herself with misplaced pride. "I'm the most hated in Gensokyo, there are RULES against not hating me-" there weren't, but Reimu was going to let it slide and coddle her on that one. "- and it says so right in my title that I'm the only one who gets to flip Gensokyo heads over heels, so whoever thinks they can rob me of that courteous profession are in for a beating." She pokes out her tongue. "Come on~ you're pissed, I'm pissed, let's make a deal!"

The shrine maiden stared into those ruby eyes for a solid minute, trying to find out if Seija was actually honest. She wasn't telling the truth regardless of the situation, amanojaku aren't exactly the most transparent youkai; but at least Reimu could see that the trickster was genuinely bothered by the whole ordeal, even if her reasons to do so – and literally anything else that came out of her mouth – were all literal bullshit. "So what do you suggest? Not another 'uprising' I hope."

The horned youkai shook her head and grinned with her hands up dramatically, apparently going into some sort of generic amanojaku sales pitch. "No, this one's an original idea, you dig those." The unimpressed shrine maiden deadpanned, and you could sense the spell card tingling in the air. "What." She said through grit teeth. Sweating profusely Seija tried to salvage the situation, being Gensokyo's rust-coated silver tongue and all. "Look here Reims-"

"It's Reimu."

"Yeah whatever Memo… Your main problem is that you have no idea who's causing a scene, right? Well I just may happen to know a way to turn the tables on whoever's running this shit show, regardless of their sleazy backhanded tricks." She sticks a sharp-nailed hand into her… less than average cleavage and pulls out a scrap of paper, soiled and dirty with the amount of dirt and sweat it absorbed. With a flourish she hands it over to Reimu to see, but the brunette refuses her generosity. "Knowing you it might curse me by the touch." Seija looked genuinely offended, but retreated still. "UGH OK, but don't listen – I sound like an idiot when I try to be cinematic." She clears her throat, strikes a pose, and starts to read. "If we keep talking about this we'll get the fucking amanojaku out there who can flip shit on our ass – wait I wasn't supposed to read from that part… uh let me see…"

"Make it quick or I'll sic Yukari on you."

"OH YEAH! Let me tell you chum friend buddy good pal, about Amenosagume."

"Who?"

"Are you stupid? All amanojaku know who Amenosagume is she's like our... ohm... great grandmother or something, who told the truth but got mutilated because a bad omen looks so much like a messenger bird. Long story short she got cursed and is now a heavenly/earth god something amanojaku something but, I found out where she is! She's holed up on the moon and guess who beat up the moon people? You."

Reimu was about to say she never did that, until she remembered boasting about it in a post-incident celebration once. Not willing to decimate her pride in front of Seija – Seija, of all the goddamn youkai offering her companionship, just what has she turned into? – she sighed, unsure how to respond. "What are you suggesting?"

"I say we go to the moon, ask her to use her powers to alter fate in our direction and eventually the big boss behind the incident won't be able to get any murder done – and then show themselves so you can beat their ass! Unlike youkai sages or those lame-ass earth gods who don't give two shits about your humans she'd be totally willing to help a fellow amanojaku and her pet – ah… friend… shrine maiden person." Seija did backflips to face the shrine maiden. "With me on your side, no youkai will be a match for us, but with her on our side we'll solve this incident in no time – and rub it in everyone's faces!"

This sounded so ominously like a the start of a bootleg RPG game, but Reimu didn't know what bootleg meant, or what was an err-pee-gee game. Nonetheless, she had run out of options long ago, and could only shake her head and repentantly agree. "Alright, but if this is a trick, I won't hesitate to exterminate you. I'm serious, complete extermination. I did it once and I'm not scared to do it again."

"SPLENDID! Now, onward! We have no time to waste!" the amanojaku bounced in her step as she ran off, leaving Reimu traveling at her own pace, using the frightened birds and poofing fairies as a guide to her "partner"'s - term used extremely loosely here - path.

Oh, the things she did for the sake of Gensokyo.

XXXX

A/N: [EDITED ON 15/11/2018]

Well isn't this a pleasant surprise, I'm alive! This chapter was edited to tone down some pretty violent themes, blood, etc., and also to add a snippet of information I missed that created some sort of plothole. And nobody wants these now, right?

If you liked it, remember to RR as there will be more chapters soon!