An: I do not own Touhou Project, it belongs to Team Shanghai Alice, better known as ZUN.

AN: so I've noticed a lot of people are turned off by how this chapter is in first person, so I'm going to say it right now for those who coming here, see the first person and then leave, only this chapter is in first person, every other is in third person. I just want to point that out because I am seeing a good couple thousand more views on this chapter... And then about two hundred to every other. So for the love of Yukari this is the only chapter in fist person, ok?

Ut exitus ab Illusio

It was a rather rainy day outside. The kind that you would see at the start of those old detective movies, I never really did get the appeal of those. But either way it was raining, in the middle of the week, Thursday actually, around ten in the morning, when most teenagers would be in high school, halfway through… I think second period? But what did I know, I didn't go to school anymore, not since the 'incident'.

Call it an incident and sweep it under the rug. Ha. As if what had happened could be called a simple 'incident' to the one it happened to. Thrown through a door just because I was the one who abided by the rules. Found out about a drug deal between a few students, tried to tell the teacher but they found me first. Never went to the hospital for it, just emergency care, arm in a sling, back problems that they said would go away in a few months, and my left leg in a good deal of pain.

How wrong they were, I had to drop out of high school and take up virtual because of those injuries. There went my shot of getting any job that wasn't for an office worker. And what did the ones who injured me get? A slap on the wrist and told not to do it again, like always. Putting it bluntly, those first few months made me feel like crap. There was an upside though, I didn't have to deal with the… idiots that populated that school anymore. Teacher and student alike, though I would miss my geography teacher… she was the only one who gave a dam about the one student who actually tried to do the work and help others, instead of play game on their cell phones or Ipods, or just put on their headphones. I never really did get all that handheld tech down, seemed stupid to me to stick my life onto a small screen the size of my hand.

But that's the past, or it was until my injuries not old got caught up to me, but aggravated further. I am… was the eldest of five brothers… I don't consider them family anymore, at best the youngest is a friend of mine, a good friend, but not really family. It had been my first day up and walking, my old parents had decided it would be a nice day to go to the mall, it was that day, and it was quite fun, until the end of it. The middle child, Alexander, he hated me to say it bluntly, feeling is mutual to say the least, doctors say he isn't getting enough melatonin, a chemical in the brain that calms you. They don't see how he normally acts, like a psycho always thinking up a new scheme to kill me, for what reason I don't know, but it was probably my fault anyway, I've never been exactly nice to him, but he was never nice to me, so he didn't deserve it. But back to the mall. Alexander decided to jump on me, right on my back, his full weight all ninety-six pounds of bone and skin that he was, followed by his little crony Maxwell the follow with his eighty-four pounds. An even one hundred and eighty pounds, give or take a few, on my stick fragile back. Doctors say I won't be able to walk without a cane for a long time, let alone do anything really trying for even longer. It's easy to see what drove a nice large spike between me and my former family. Still live with them sure, Grandma is a nice lady, as well as the only one who see's Alexander as the psycho he is. She takes care of me, and I try to help her out enough, so she's fine.

Lunatic-Over'9000'Lord: Only the beginning and I already want to murder at least half a dozen people. Wow.

Omega E The Reader: I am more concerned about this kid not reporting these people to the police or something.

Lunatic-Over'9000'Lord: Wouldn't be surprised if he did and they dismissed him. Do not forget, this fic has a twisted and moronic black and white morality.

Omega E The Reader: The real world doesn't work like that. but hey if that doesn't work...murder is the best option then.

Lunatic-Over'9000'Lord: Exactly. So I'd say one sin for every jackass who should've died but didn't.

WildMath55: Good thing I already planned for a combined re-write, then. Also, H-Vaati won't be a cripple like in this one, but they will still experience a near-death experience due to Gensokyo's strength level that is far above what they're used to. Yes, I'm using a gender-neutral term here.

Sin Count: 7

Guess you could say I had a rather bleak future ahead of me. It had been a year since the first time I had my back injured, and three months since the second, neither of them really my own fault. Maybe the first for sticking my nose where it didn't belong but I don't stand for any drug dealing, I'm no officer, but it's not right. Guess that's all I am now, a dead weight with a large brain, a cynical outlook, something every supervillain needs. But no, I have moral standards, and I plan on keeping them for as long as I can in this world. Living in this… box of a room, all five by five feet of it, about twice as tall as I am, not that I could stand up straight really. Guess that's pretty much my life story out of the way, that is if you don't count the time I had my head busted open on the bus… kind of the reason I never took up driving I guess. But here I was, just a guy in a room unable to do more then walk a foot to his computer to do schoolwork for a few hours, and lay back down. Honestly I wish that sometimes I could do more, even before the accident. But who am I kidding, there is no Deus ex Machina or what ever they call it for miracles nowadays, just this world continuing to go to the dogs.

My name? Yeah right I don't use it anymore, brought me nothing but crazy psychos, drug deals and injuries abound. If I ever have to use it again, It'll be to soon. But I dream, dream of a world beyond this one, a land of illusion, somewhere dangerous, but enchanting, the world of Gensokyo. I had nothing to do but read online legends, and the one of Gensokyo interested me to most. A land lost to time, that Japan used to be bigger a thousand years ago, before Gensokyo disappeared from it. Where all the dangerous Youkai and magic of the world went, where anything forgotten disappeared to. Would explain what happened to legends of magic slowly going away after that time. Call me crazy, but it sounded like a nice place, then again, I'd take my chances with magic Youkai over this world any day. But I'd never get my wish, I'd slowly been forgotten by everyone except Grandma, my own parents don't even care anymore, focusing their efforts on trying to make the other four good people, they don't even remember where my room was in this house. All I'd ever be was an unremarkable case in a world that slowly went crazy. They used to say magic was a source of Chaos… maybe the loss of it was what drove people insane, without their miracles they drove to replicate them, making dangerous weapons of human nature to replace them.

Lunatic-Over'9000'Lord: Man, these walls of text are almost as bad as mine.

Omega E The Reader: Why do you say that dude?

Lunatic-Over'9000'Lord: Just so much text at once, it can be hard to read, sometimes.

Omega E The Reader: Yeah I can agree as it is a better idea to put the text separately overall.

Lunatic-Over'9000'Lord: Or at least keep the walls to a bare minimum.

WildMath55: I can count 200+ words average from these two paragraphs, so yeah.

Sin Count: 8

Well I had spent the past five hours doing work and thinking about all this… reminiscing about how I got here, no clue why, but the pain was getting to me again, so I packed what I had to into the bag I kept, the bag for my personal items. An old Ipad I used for research and music, a pair of headphones, the charger my old game system and things. Never knew why I kept them near me, comfort I suppose, but I was tired and I wanted to sleep. Thinking back at this sudden drowsiness I think it was some sort of fate that I past out when I did. Just after a long reminisce.

But miracles didn't happen these days… or so I used to think until I woke up.

The sun beat down on my bed through the large window, blinking my eyes open I turned away from the window like always, moving towards the computer. Was it just me, or was the sun brighter? There was a small breeze around my feet as well, but that was from under the door as usual. But was it colder then normal? Guess it was. It was just two steps like always, turning around to sit in my swivel chair, looking down to make sure I didn't miss it and end up on the floor. But it was when I looked up did I realize that I wasn't home anymore.

I had looked up from my chair out the window, not bothering to take in the sights for a moment before my drowsy mind picked up on the fact that a large… Forest of tree now sat outside my window. I had felt my mouth drop open for a moment before I moved my hand and shut it. Why was there a forest behind my room? I looked at the door with rapt fascination. Curiosity had overtaken any fear I should have been feeling. I looked at my simple cane next to the door, the one I hadn't used in a month… had it really been that long? It felt longer. I moved my chair closer to the door, and grabbed my cane, moving the chair back so that I had room to actually get up. Getting up on my shaking knees was a hard thing to do, but it wasn't to hard, but the pain in my back made it so. I placed both my hands on my cane and grit my teeth while the pain slowly died down to a manageable level. I hobbled towards the door, and slowly gripped the handle. I felt like I was about to open some ancient tomb or dark secret, something that once I saw I would never be able to turn back from.

Well they always did take a deep breath before doing so in the movies, so that's what I would do as well. One deep breath as I threw open the door, the door opening outwards to what was outside. I instantly felt a large amount of light on my eyes, more then I was used to. I placed my hand over my eyes to shade them from the light, blinking to get the spots in my vision to go away. That was all I got to do before I breathed in sheer awe. It was a lake, a lake about twenty meters from my… room? Could it be called a room anymore? Maybe it counted as a single room house now, but what did I know.

There was a green expense of grass, greener then anything I had seen in the past year. The lake was a shimmering blue, something I had rarely seen in water that wasn't animated on a screen, normally only seeing the polluted waters of the world as examples. Across the lake ii could barely make out a large building, but it was covered by the fog of my vision, not begin able to see that far, but the building was massive if my perspective was anything to go by. The sight was something to truly behold.

Moving my hand away from my face I put it by my side. Testing the ground, I put my cane onto the grass, it sitting nicely in the firm soil. Dirt was the least of my problems now that I thought about it as I looked at my bare feet. Slowly I walked out of the door, grimacing in pain a little bit with each movement. It was a very slow walk to the shoreline, taking what felt like an eternity with how slow I was moving, not that I could help it. It was easy to tell when reached the edge of the water, now noticing there was sand under me as well that my cane sunk into slightly.

I placed my cane in front of me and set both my hands on it, taking in the sight of the lake, it was something truly beautiful in the world, something mystical. The air was chilling; I could tell that easily. Looking closely there was small patches of ice floating in the lake as well, which was odd considering the lush forest around it, only reinforcing the thought of the lake being mystical. Closing my eyes, I felt the cool breeze on me, but slightly wrinkled my face as it suddenly became cooler, like the source of the cold was coming closer. And fast if the sudden drop was anything to go by.

Opening my eyes, I looked at the lake, trying to spot just what was coming at me. Whatever it was it certainly had a chilling aura to it, and not the scary kind. Squinting I saw a small blue figure FLYING towards me. That certainly explained the speed that it was coming at me. I wouldn't get able to get out if it's sight fast enough when it got here, it was to fast and I was to slow. I decided to stand there, cane still in the sand waiting for the figure to get here.

It didn't take long as the small figure was there in less then a minute, and to my surprise it was a small girl, who looked about ten floating there. I took a moment to look at her, she had her arms crossed over her chest in an arm fold, like she was trying to act tough, she was wearing a blue sundress with a white bit under it, like a pattern of blue and white triangles. Her eyes where a deep blue, and rather large, and her hair was short and blue as well. She was of a tan complexion and had a large blue bow behind her head, tied into her hair most likely. But behind her were six icicles, giving her the appearance of wings.

"I challenge you to a battle!" the girl yelled after that one moment. Was she joking? Challenging someone she had just meet, let alone at all? This was a bad situation, one that could quickly turn worse, I had to think fast and act faster. But I could only do the first half of that, my mouth would have to do.

"Can you explain to me why you want to challenge me?" I asked, my voice cracking slightly. It had been so long since I had spoken, to me my voice was alien sounding, a high pitch, almost androgynous, if it hadn't come from my own mouth, I couldn't have told it if it was either a boy or a girl's voice. "I want to be the strongest! And I'll be that by beating everyone!" the girl said, pumping her arms. Despite her cold aura, she seemed like a nice girl, if a little aggressive. I didn't want to lie, lying was what people did to cover something up, and I had nothing to hide.

"I'm sorry little lady, but I'm in no condition to fight, I haven't been for a year now." I said, looking up at her. The cold she was eluding did have a rather nice effect on my pain, numbing it a bit, enjoy it while it lasted I supposed. The girl seemed sad, before perking up again. "Well when will you, I want to be the strongest, so I'll have to beat everyone!" she yelled again, doing her little arm pump, it was quite cute to be honest.

"I don't think I'll ever be in a condition to fight, I had my back broken twice, one of my legs doesn't let me move right, and my left arm is weak as well from injuries." I said, it was truthful, and hopefully she would not want to fight now. Her expression seemed to falter as she looked at me, tilting her head as if to get a better look. "You don't seemed that hurt, if you were why are you not on the ground?" Her grammar was off by quite a bit, like she had tried to piece the sentence at random to fit her. She didn't seem that dumb, but she was only ten if I had to guess, so there was that. "I've been injured for months, so I've been dealing with it for a while." I said, nothing special about it, nope not a thing.

"Then why didn't you get better, I always get better after a fight in a little bit?" She was inquisitive, I'll give her that, but getting better near instantly? Well seeing as the very air around her was cold it wasn't a stretch. But who was she?

"Enough about me, do you mind telling me your name?" I asked. At this the girl seemed to forget her previous question instantly perking up before speaking. "I am Cirno and I am going to be the Strongest!" She yelled. Cirno… cute name, and quite fitting for such an… Ice person. I felt a smirk form at my own inner joke before going back to a neutral expression.

"Well Cirno, why do you want to be the strongest?" I asked, there was a myriad of things I could have asked, but this girl seemed nice, and if I wanted to get anywhere, better to know someone, then not to know anyone.

She puckered her face as she closed her eyes, scrunching her face as she seemed to be searching for an answer, before she finally opened her eyes in a forlorn expression, almost a sad one. "Fairies are the weakest in Gensokyo, always seen as pests. I am the Strongest fairy and I want to prove that I am the strongest to everyone!" She yelled, growing louder and bolder at the end of her statement. So she was part of a race of fairies that were the weakest in… wait she had said 'Gensokyo'… did that mean…

"Excuse me Cirno but did you say this place was Gensokyo?" I said, hope in my voice. "Yes, why wouldn't it be? Gensokyo is Gensokyo." Cirno said, cocking her head to the side again. "Let's just say I'm not from around here Cirno. See that small building over there." I said, slowly turning around and pointing at my room. Looking at it from the outside it looked rather odd. The insides of the walls on the outside, the roof thankfully attached to the wall, which was rather thick. About six inches.

"Yes I see it, I saw it and I wanted to see if there was anyone I could fight from it." Cirno said, floating past me towards the room. "Cirno wait, that's my… house." I said forlornly calling out to her. She turned around before tilting her head. "But you just said you are not from here, why would you have a house that wasn't here yesterday?" she asked. I had to admit, she was slowly getting better, like she was learning from our conversation, slowly but steadily. She had said fairies were the weakest in Gensokyo. Did that mean they were the dumbest as well? She seemed rather smart, acting like a normal ten year old, if a bit aggressive and loud, guess she was the exception. Not only the 'strongest' fairy, but also the 'smartest' fairy.

"Well Cirno, I went to bed last night, and when I woke up I was here, just by this lake." I said, motioning my left arm towards the lake, Cirno's presence having numbed most of my pain thankfully. Once again Cirno seemed to make that 'thinking' face again. "Does that mean you came from the outside world? That you had been… forgotten?"

Lunatic-Over'9000'Lord: So what happened to his grandmother if he has now been completely forgotten from the Outside World?

WildMath55: That implication actually made me completely re-write the entire backstory for H-Vaati.

Sin Count: 9

Good question and good answer, she was definitely smarter then she looked. "I suppose so, yes I did come from the 'outside world', as for if I've been forgotten… well it would seem that I have been." I said, lowering my head. I could act all emotionless for all I wanted to. But this… I would have to be heartless to not react to the statement that I had been forgotten about, just another unimportant speck in history.

Looking up I saw Cirno looking on, her face sad. Well to be honest she looked like a young girl, and probably felt pity for me, if she even knew what pity meant yet. "It's alright Cirno, I'll be fine, it's better this way." The sad thing was, it was better this way, that I wouldn't have to deal with the constant threat of death by familicide or something, or even being in that world any longer. For the first time in a while I felt… free. Free from everything, after everything that had happened to me, I finally had been given a break by the universe.

"Cirno, you said you wanted to become the strongest right?" I asked. If this was my new life, I was going to make the most of it, and helping out Cirno seemed like a nice place to start. "Yes?" she asked, confused by my statement apparently. "If you want to become the strongest, you need to learn, one does not become strong simply by fighting, you need to train, to get better, to practice. Now I'll say it right now, I have never fought before, but I know something or other about fighting, so I should be able to get you started and we will work from there, Sound good?" I asked. That had to be the longest statement I had ever made in a year.

Cirno seemed elated at what I had offered, a chance to get stronger, to get better, to prove that she wasn't some weakling… I could relate, never given a chance to shine, always pushed around by those stronger then you. Well I wasn't about to let the same thing happen here. "Yes please, I want to be the strongest!"

Well that was… quick. But she was just a child so being given any chance she would want to take it. I started walking towards my small… home now I guess, thankful for the fact Cirno's presence was preventing my pain from surfacing. "You coming Cirno, want to see inside?" I asked. Not like she could cause any real harm, training would be done outside, not in a small hovel. Cirno floated farther ahead, going up to the open door and flying in. I got inside myself after a few minutes to see Cirno sitting on my swivel chair, spinning in around in childish glee. It brought a smile to my face, just seeing this young girl happy. "Cirno. Please stop spinning my chair, I need that." She seemed to notice me and floated out of the chair, but wobbled in the air for a moment before flopping down onto the bed with an oomph, evidently dizzy from her spinning. "You ok Cirno?" I asked, slightly worried as I held a hand on the swivel chair to stop it from spinning. Cirno slowly got up and shook her head to side to side, my guess was to clear her head.

"Yes, I am fine. Hey, you never told me your name." She said, tilting her head to the side again. That gave me pause as I sat in the swivel chair, I hadn't had a name fro myself in three months, and I curtained didn't want my old one, to many bad memories. I brought my thoughts to the games I had played, thinking of names I had used during them, something to go by, what I always went by in the mystical virtual world. It seemed only fitting to take my false name in the virtual world as my real one in the mystical world.

"My name… is Vaati Star. So now Cirno, shall we get started?"

Lunatic-Over'9000'Lord: Kind of a dumb way to give the character your pseudo, author.

WildMath55: No comment from me.

Sin Count: 10