-Part one: A strange encounter with an even stranger visitor
"Don't worry Reimu, I'll be home soon just wait for me, just be patient, it's just a routine patrol, I have come back before and I will again" said a calm, feminine voice coming from a tall woman obscured in shadow, they began to slide the panel door closed leaving nothing in the shrine except deathly silence.
Reimu woke immediately with tears streaming down her face, unable to remember anything about the mysterious woman's voice but that it hurt her deeply. She wanted to drift back to sleep only to hear a "Plunk!" Reimu leapt to her feet and cried out happily "It's time! I hope Tsuki and her mother brought lots of things for the shrine!". As she opened the panel door her expression of excitement immediately turned into one of disappointment.
A small girl with short brown hair, ears and two tails that resembled that of a cat, clad in a red dress with a contrasting green hat was standing outside with a mischievous smile on her face. Reimu with a taking a hold of a wooden rod with braided paper strands said flatly "Hello Chen. What brings you to the shrine today, let me guess Yukari", Chen happily answered "Yes! You guessed correctly, Yukari and Miss Ran tasked me with delivering a message to you". Reimu opened the offertory box and noticed there were several large rocks, a small envelope and a smashed bottle of sake, she then realized why Chen was grinning, she was throwing rocks into the box while waiting for Reimu to respond! Reimu glared at Chen for the girl with cat ears to respond "I had to wake you up somehow! You were snoring really loudly!", Reimu shouted at her "There's broken glass in my donation box! You are going to clear it up or I'll send you back to Yukari in the box!" Chen squealed and said, "Yes Mam!" before carefully picking out shards of glass and pulling the sake-soaked envelope to hand to Reimu.
While Reimu opened the envelope, she noticed it was shockingly dry inside, dismissing it as merely Yukari's meddling she began to read the incredibly fancy letter.
Written on it was the message," Dear Reimu Hakurei, it has recently come to my attention you are two years past the Human Village's standard age of marriage and have yet to be romantically involved with anyone.
This is unfortunate considering one of your duties as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden and Protector of Gensokyo is to pass on your knowledge and traditions to descendants, so they can continue lest you pass.
Besides you are blossoming into a lovely young woman, you deserve a little love in your life, don't you think?
To help you I have taken it upon myself to find some handsome and capable young men from the village for you to meet, they will be arriving at noon and I would like for you to consider at least one of them for marriage… or at least a night of passion.
Sincerely: Yukari Yakumo
PS: You actually don't have a choice, by noon I will find you and bring you back regardless of where you are".
Reimu rolled her eyes and said to herself "Dammit Yukari! I wanted to have a peaceful day today!" before tearing the letter to shreds. Chen cried out "I'm done! Not a single shard in the donation box anymore" Reimu looked to the feline visitor to see she cut her hands badly in the process Reimu was briefly panicked before she remembered the fact the young girl, she was speaking to was in fact a youkai and that such an injury was nothing to them. This warranted a scowl from the shrine maiden, and Chen giggling as the wounds disappeared immediately. The cat youkai started walking off while saying "See you in the afternoon!". Right before Chen was about to disappear from the Shrine Maiden's view, she started sniffing around she then called out to Reimu "You should clean the shrine before Miss Ran and Yukari show up, it smells like something died around here" before disappearing.
Reimu sighed and said, "I just cleaned the shrine yesterday, it couldn't have gotten that bad overnight". She started to start notice the stench of death herself and thought to herself "Oh god, she was right! Did she leave a dead rat in my house or something?" she then heard the patter of small feet and to see tiny human-like footprints around the outside of shrine, she rushed inside to see an open drawer.
She called out loud "Sukuna! If you wanted to visit you could just ask, there was no reason to sneak in!" she as she drew closer the smell became stronger, as she began to peak into the drawer the stench became so strong, she started to feel nauseous.
She saw in the drawer a disgusting looking creature that looked like a lump of pallid wrinkled flesh with stubby arms and legs. It was munching on a moldy loaf of bread casually as it slowly turned to show its disgusting face with misaligned eyes, a crooked nose and a mouth with sparse teeth. Reimu pulled back in shock letting out a startled gasp, the creature followed suit by running out at a shockingly fast speed and falling flat on it's 'face' which happened to compose most of its body.
Seeing that the creature stopped moving Reimu said to herself "Out of all my experiences as a shrine maiden this is the first time, I found a youkai that exterminated itself. She began to poke it checking to see if it's still alive. It immediately started twitching and then started to roll face-up and then lifted itself to its feet. Reimu at least slightly glad the creature hadn't died forced a smile and asked the peculiar creature "So what is you name and why are you in my shrine? The creature pointed to itself with a stubby finger and uttered "Pppppepppp!", then pointed to the drawer it was found and followed the Shrine maiden's question by saying "Peppp". Reimu sighed and said to herself "Oh joy, it understands me, but I can't make out a word of what it's saying". She then tried to push it out of her Shrine saying, "Look I would like to help you, but Yukari has forced me into something, and I have got to prepare myself to turn down a whole ton of men. If you mess things up Yukari is going to get back at me somehow!". The creature tried to resist but quickly ended up getting shoved out of the front door. It just stood outside the panel door in response, its shadow visible through the paper. Reimu then started looking in the drawer to see what the creature had eaten, much to her surprise it ignored the fresh foods entirely and consumed only consumed what had expired, Reimu said to herself noticing this fact "You know, if this thing weren't so gross looking it would be helpful to have around, that and the smell". She looked back at the creature's shadow and calmly said to the creature "Look you're a youkai and it's my job to exterminate youkai, if you don't leave, I'll have to exterminate you too!".
The strange youkai didn't respond at all, in fact it didn't even moved Reimu was surprised by this seeing how it had seemed to understand her speech previously and opened the door to see it if merely couldn't hear her. She noticed it seemed quite scared and that a small blonde girl wearing a black dress staring at the fleshy lump youkai salivating heavily. Reimu pointed the wooden rod with paper strands at the child and asked them in irate tone "What are you up to Rumia? Are you really so interested in that thing to just stand outside and stare at it?", The child now identified and Rumia a little slow on the uptake responded by saying "Ah Reimu, I found something that smells really tasty outside your door and I was wondering if I should eat it". The shrine maiden thought to herself "Really? this youkai must be crazy to think this thing is anywhere near edible", she then looked down at the creature the girl in black was intending on eating noticing it shaking in fear and Rumia baring a set of sharp teeth waiting to tear into the creature, in that moment feeling a moment of pity for the creature she said "No Rumia, this creature is not to be eaten, it's a youkai just like you".
Rumia tilted her head and said in response "Is that so?" she then smirked and shouted, "THEN I'LL JUST HAVE A NIBBLE THEN!" before pouncing at the small blobby youkai, Reimu however warded Rumia off with the wooden rod she wielded declaring "This creature is not yours to kill! For today it's under my protection!". Rumia drew back saying "Oh come on Reimu! Even humans eat this youkai!" before backing off and saying to herself "And I thought you were starting to get cool!". Rumia then stumbled down the steps and out of view as she forgot to turn around and look where she's going.
Reimu noticing the little youkai was now hugging her leg she said to herself "Well it looks like I have to deal with you now, first I guess I will have to hide your scent, if a youkai like Rumia can smell you stronger youkai are bound to cause more trouble for you down the road and I can only fight so many at once". She then noticed her donation box and said to herself "I wonder if this will work" remembering how the box had a bottle of sake spill all over the inside of it. She then picked the youkai, wincing due to slimy feeling of its skin and set it in the box noticing that Chen had did a good job cleaning the inside of it.
She muttered to herself "Maybe I was too harsh too her, she probably didn't mean to cause a mess, she just got really bored waiting for me", Then noting the scent of wasted alcohol was still quite strong she said to the creature "There, now only youkai with the sharpest senses will notice you. The creature happily announced "PEP!" and the shrine maiden began to carry the box with the creature in it hoping to find the fleshy blob youkai a new home.