Thanks for the reviews, UnconsciousFake and Derago. And yeah, the all-black 'edgy' character somewhat is one of the cliches, that doesn't mean they're bad if they're well-written. I'm not good at the 'edgy' part, so yeah.
Anyway, let's get to the main story!
After exiting the underground area, Reimu decides to take an off-track route and heads straight to the human village. Since the oni is going to complain more after that tiny sake bottle runs out eventually, and the party needs some more, so…
Getting near the gate of the village, she descends and lands a few meters before walking to it. The gate guards notice her and open it for her to go inside, earning a greeting nod from the girl. She then walks around and finds a grocery shop that she could buy some more ingredients that she found being empty in her shrine.
Though, during the shopping spree, she finds a person who's doing the same thing. "Oh hey, Keine. Your classes are finished?"
"Ah, Reimu. Good day to you." The teacher replies back. "Have you prepared anything for the party tonight?"
"That's why I'm here, to buy more stuffs." The maiden then sighs. "I hope my shrine won't collapse when I return."
"Suika wouldn't dare doing anything, you know." Keine doesn't know what has happened.
"It currently holds two mages from Forest of Magic, the Librarian from SDM, a certain Kappa with her gadgets, an Oni, a Tengu, the maiden of Moriya Shrine and a cursed Yukari with the curse god under her mob cap. If there are more holes on the roof than the one Marisa made when she came, I'm not surprised." Reimu summaries the situation in her shrine while picking up some shiitake.
"…What?" Keine is not understanding. "I understand Suika, Alice, Marisa and Nitori being in your shrine, but the others?"
During the trip, Reimu explains furthermore the situation, and the more she hears it, the bigger Keine's eyes widen. And when the maiden says the name of the outsider, Reimu could clear see Keine's eyes flashing a tick of surprise. Being a little suspicious, Reimu asks: "Keine…did you know this outsider? Was he related to..."
"…I think… I might have heard the name somewhere…" Out of her character, Keine tries to find some ways to answer the maiden… "Maybe from an Outside World newspaper?"
"…He's that popular?" No offenses, but he looks like a generic outsider like everyone else she has met in the past.
"Well, I'm not too sure… Maybe if you go to Kourindou, you can ask Rinnosuke for those ones to check yourself."
Though Reimu sees Keine avoiding eye contact while saying it, she isn't exactly a type to push matters unless it's a serious situation. "Alright then… I'm done here. See you later tonight."
…
"Hey, Rinnosuke? Are you in there?"
"Ah, Reimu, come in dear."
"Call me that again and I'm not letting you set your foot in my shrine. Hey, do you still keep any newspaper from the Outside World?"
"That shelf over there. Lots of them."
After thanking the shopkeeper, the maiden looks at the target and sees layers of paper positioned neatly in it. Picking up one, she skims through the articles… "There's a whole magic community in Mars?"
"Surprised, aren't you? The bunny girl from there was also shocked when she heard about it." Picking a Bunbunmaru newspaper, the shopkeeper reads through it while enjoying his cup of tea. "Although, it's seriously messed up when 'that guy' was indestructible."
"That guy?"
"The below one. Pull it out and read." The maiden follows the instruction and reads… and sees the front picture that looks like a final boss fight. "That guy is one of the world's most dangerous terrorists. Though, he's defeated by the famous mercenaries out there, and he's no longer existed. And from that point, magic started to be recognized."
Reimu nods and takes a closer look on the picture… and sees a familiar face. "Wait, this outsider…" Walking to the shopkeeper, the maiden points her finger towards the picture. "Do you know this guy?"
"Hm? Not personally, obviously." Rinnosuke replies. "But, read that the guy being responsible for the revelation of magic. And one of the important connections between Earth and Mars."
"…He's that important, huh?"
"By the way, why the sudden interest? I thought you didn't want to know much about the outside world?" The shopkeeper asks curiously.
The maiden sighs as she walks back to the shelf. "Yukari just sent him into Palace of the Earth Spirit, right when the Komeiji sisters were taking a bath." That causes the Youkai to spit the tea out while laughing. "Yeah, yeah. It's funny. Anyway, because of that, now Yukari is cursed."
After laughing, Rinnosuke calms himself down, his smile is still there. "Considering how powerful he is, I'm not surprised. So, about tonight…"
"Still the same. Hey, can I borrow this paper?"
"Go ahead. I have plenty."
…
"…Do I want to know?" Looking at the first step stone with water leaking from atop, Reimu is dreadful at the thought of what happened to her shrine. From the look of it, the stone stairway that leads to her shrine is now drenched in water, something that shouldn't happen in a sunny day. Though… "Guess either Marisa or Yukari messed up something…"
Shrugging it off, she decides not to use the steps and instead flies up to her shrine…
And sees water everywhere, with a drenched Yukari from top to toe, while Nitori is apologizing her rapidly. Taking a deep breath and controlling her emotions to not let it go out at once, she lands down next to Patchouli, who is luckily not drenched, and asks: "What happened?"
"A Kappa's device, and a curse god happened." Patchouli decides to summary it, not wanting to say everything happened before her eyes.
Nodding understandably, the girl then looks at the Kappa, who returns the glare with a frightened expression. "Reimu, I will fix it! Just give me a moment!"
"You better should. We have a party tonight, and I don't want the place being out of order." While having a stern tone, she does understand that's not her fault. She then asks another mage: "Hey, Alice? Mind helping me in the kitchen?"
Knowing the reason, Alice nods and follows Reimu to the place. Once inside, Reimu gives Shanghai the newspaper and tells Alice to read it. Despite not understanding why, Alice does so… "This is… an Outsider newspaper?"
"It has the picture of our 'culprit' in it. See the guy with black hair and glasses?" Reimu explains, while preparing the new stuffs she has bought.
Shanghai starts moving the newspaper so the picture could be before the Dollmaker's eyes. "…I see. So why did he curse Yukari? From the look of it, he's not exactly the type to go around and do so."
"She dropped in right in the middle of all girls' bath." Reimu summaries.
"Ah…" Alice doesn't express it, but she's giggling from the inside. "Basically her fault for doing so."
"Exactly."
The two continue the party preparation while Alice also keeps an eye on the newspaper. A few moments later, she notices something: "Uh, Reimu. Did you read the whole thing?"
"No. I only asked for the newspaper so I could read later. Why?"
"Well… you should have pulled him here. He's an assassin."
That makes Reimu stop from her work. "…Are you sure?"
"He has hidden himself over thirty years under an alias called…"
"Wait, thirty years? That guy looked nowhere over thirty…"
"Maybe he's a Youkai?"
"…A human turned Youkai. That must be the case." Reimu should have seen that coming. But, again, he said he has business with Yukari… "Could it be there's a hidden threat in Gensokyo? He said he's working with Yukari."
"Hiring an Outsider is not her usual method, right?" Alice questions while chopping some carrots. "Like when the Imperishable Night, she used you to deceive us, remember?"
"Hm… guess so. But then, what's his and Yukari's business?" Normally, Yukari just drops him inside and watches him from one of her gaps.
"Whatever it is, it's not our concerns now, right? We have a party to organize."
"Right."
…
A few hours later
"Hello Yukari! You're early!" A certain ghost is happily greeting her friend. She then sees everyone else and cheerfully says: "Everyone's also so early!"
"I was expecting I would have to help for the organization… but it seems that it's no need." Youmu says quietly.
"You two, get inside!" Aya just casually pulls them into the shrine. Once they're sitting next to Yukari, she then announces: "Alright, something big is going to happen! One of the outside celebrities is joining our party tonight!"
"Someone from Outside World? Wasn't that one of Yukari's habits, dropping them in here just for fun?" Fujiwara no Mokou asks, not being surprised by the news.
"Oh ho ho! That's where you're wrong! Based on the newspaper, he's responsible for the exposure of the Magic community hidden in Mars!" Aya exclaims loudly while waving a newspaper high in the air.
"There's one up in Mars? How haven't I heard about it?" Reisen Udongein Inaba asks in surprise, not expecting another hidden community other that the Moon Rabbits.
"Here!" Aya shows a picture on newspaper. "All types of creatures are there! Dragons, demons, even humans live together!"
"Are there any strong creatures there? I want to beat them!" Cirno 'the strongest' asks, hoping that she could fight them.
"Our celebrity is considered to be one of the strongest! You could try to fight him!"
"Yes! I can't wait to do so!"
"Aside from Cirno's exciment…" Youmu injects herself into the conversation. "Is it going to be safe, letting an Outsider know about this place…"
"He already knew from the start." Yukari speaks up, and everyone turns to her. "His magic potential is beyond everyone, including me."
That makes everyone widen their eyes in shock, except Patchouli but her question expresses her surprise: "You, the Youkai Sage, admitting that someone is stronger than you? Did that curse do something to you?"
Yukari sighs. "If he's not stronger, how could he even place the curse on me?"
"Well, you could be faking it." Aya theorizes.
"I'm afraid she's not faking it." Reimu walks into the main room with plates of food. "I found the person underground, and he also confirmed the curse. With the evidences in the newspapers, I could tell that the person is a real deal."
"Then, why didn't you just get him undo the curse?" Mokou asks.
"Because, Yukari brought it herself. That's for picking the wrong person to mess with."
"And I'm appreciated that you understand." Everyone immediately turns to the exit and sees the celebrity himself, standing behind Koishi and Satori and escorted by Rin and Utsuho, and Yuugi just comes up to their back a second later.
"Hey! Our VIP is here!" Aya announces first, as she immediately rushes to the person's face, causing him to step back in surprise. "The honest report from Bunbunmaru, Aya Shameimaru! Care for an interview?"
After recognizing who's flying before him, Kuro sighs and composes himself back. "Greetings miss Aya. I don't mind an interview, but can we do so a little later, considering that a certain someone is waiting for me to release the curse on her?"
Everyone turns back to Yukari, just in time the mini-Shion flies out of the Youkai's hat and lands on Kuro's waiting hand. Then, to everyone's surprise, he curbs his hands around her for a second, then opens his hands to reveal a mini-Tewi in place of mini-Shion, who takes a huge leap towards Yukari's mob cap and sits on it.
"Tewi, huh?" Yukari blinks once, then grabs the mini bunny and brings it in front of her face. "To counter the effect of the curse god… is to have much luck. You sure know much about us."
"Well, not as much as you, Yukari." Kuro chuckles and shrugs. "Consider that a little warning to not use my fear for your enjoyment."
"Depends on which fear." Kuro shakes his head after hearing Yukari's reply. "By the way, how's the Palace?"
He points his thumb towards Aya, who looks very excited. "How about you read that from her interview with me?"
…
Those gestures… those choices of words… how he talks with a relaxing manner…
They give her a feeling of nostalgia… it's like, she has met him before…
This Outsider… she knows him… somehow…
She has no idea what it is… but she will find out in this party…
Chapter 3 end!
This chapter is where the crossover AU materials come in. I have hinted this story's potential plots for a while, but since it's going to be long before I could finish my main timeline stories, I decide to bring this story up immediately.
That's it, guys. See you in the future!