AN: Here's the first chapter of the story! Featuring our first team of protagonists, Yukari and Reimu.
-Chapter 1-
There is an old mansion located at the edge of Gensokyo. Its history radiates a kind of atmosphere that rejects visitors.
Items that look as though they might be from the outer world have somehow found their way into this house. Strange machines, books that make no sense, magazines...
There was something amiss.
Yukari Yakumo tapped her fingers uneasily against the strange iron box that had fallen in from the other world. A television, it was called. The iron box, now used to store wayward spirits, sat there innocently, not making a sound. But it wasn't the television set that Yukari was concerned about.
Even Ran, her shikigami, and Chen, her shikigami's shikigami (that was fun to say five times fast, Yukari felt), could feel it. Chen was sitting quietly on a pillow, but her tails twiched every once in awhile. Ran was sitting against the wall of their mansion, but occasionally, her ears would flicker.
"You can feel it too, right?" Yukari said, looking at the two of them.
Both the fox and cat Youkais nodded, looking nervous.
"It had to be someone powerful to pull something like this off," Yukari murmured, glancing out at the moon in the sky. "And we don't know who it is. Hm, sounds like fun~."
"M-Mistress?" Ran blinked at the sudden happy demeanor that Yukari had.
"I think I'll go check it out!" Yukari clapped her hands together, looking much younger than she really was. For a moment, Ran and Chen stared at each other, and then at Yukari, as if they had never seen her in their lives. Did... she just say she was going to do something? By herself?!
"Wait, no, that's way too much work for just me. But someone has to check it out!" The Gap Youkai opened up a gaping purple hole with red eyes. "Don't wait for me!" she called out cheerfully to the two shikigamis before jumping into the hole.
"Master-!" Ran's cry was cut off as the gap closed.
The journey was instantaneous. Yukari smiled as she reached her location, and glanced over at the girl that was idly sweeping a broom across the floor. With her own natural abilities, she snuck up towards the girl, and suddenly hugged her, scooping her up and hovering in the air.
"Guess who?"
It was a beautiful night, Reimu's aunt was sure.
Fujinchi Hakurei sat just inside the border of the Hakurei Shrine, the turtle Genji by her side. At 40, she was no spring chicken, which was why she had retired from the Shrine Maiden business and had become what she joked was the "Shrine Mother". She was neither the mother of the shrine nor of the current Shrine Maiden, but it was equivalent to being called a Queen Mother.
Genji seemed a bit uneasy with what was happening, and kept looking up into the sky. "I can't help but feel that there is something going on," the turtle said. "It hasn't felt this way in many, many years."
"Perhaps I should ask Reimu to investigate?" Fujinchi said. It couldn't hurt, though it did make her uneasy to have to send the fourteen-year-old girl out there. Reimu was strong and had defeated many threats, but that had been mainly in the daytime. Nighttime was a completely different matter; more dangerous Youkai tended to lurk then.
But before Genji could answer, a sudden scream nearly made her topple off the steps. "Reimu!" Fujinchi was still fit for her age, and with Genji flying beside them, Reimu's aunt raced into the shrine where the scream had come from... only to stop.
There, with a bewildered Reimu in her arms, was the Gap Youkai Yukari Yakumo. She was floating in the air hugging Reimu as if the girl were a child's toy, and she waved merrily to both Fujinchi and Genji.
"Fujinchi, Genji, how lovely to see you again~! Fujinchi, you're looking really old nowadays, slow down with your growing! Don't mind me, I just want to borrow your niece to check things out. I'll bring her back in one piece, I promise! No eating!"
Reimu seemed to find the strength to shove herself away from Yukari, scowling as she dropped to the ground. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" she snapped, a bit irritated and not caring about the fact that she had just yelled at the most powerful Youkai in Gensokyo.
With a dramatic air, Yukari stepped back as if stung. "Reimu, dear, you wound me."
"Yukari?" Fujinchi tilted her head, coming to a stop beside her niece and placing a hand on the fuming girl's shoulder. "What brings you here? Should I get some tea?"
The Youkai shook her head. "You haven't noticed?"
"Noticed what?" Reimu asked, crossing her arms as Fujinchi put her hand on her shoulder but not shoving it off.
"I did," Genji said grimly. "The moon."
"Yes, the moon," Yukari said, nodding. "It's... there's something quite wrong with it."
"There is?" Fujinchi asked, puzzled. She looked over at Reimu, who had the same puzzled look. "I haven't noticed anything."
"Me neither," the Shrine Maiden said.
"Oh, it's there. Come on outside, you two~." And with those words, Yukari pulled both Reimu and Fujinchi into a gap, causing them to yelp as they suddenly ended up outside on the steps. Genji flew out not long afterwards, and Yukari gestured one arm to the sky. "There, see?"
Reimu squinted her eyes. "...Now that you said it, there is something funny. What's happened to the moon? It looks... strange. I can't describe it, but... it does look strange."
"I was hoping that we could find out," Yukari said happily, placing one arm around Reimu's shoulder. "You and me, the Shrine Maiden of the Boundary and the Youkai of Boundaries, flying off together to sholve an incident! Wouldn't that be something to tell the rest of your family one day?"
"Yukari... I exterminate Youkai," Reimu said. But the grin on her face and the gleam in her eyes revealed what she was really thinking. "Which is why its my job to make sure that there are no Youkai behind this incident."
"Oh, I knew that I could count on you~!" Yukari said, that happy tone not leaving her voice.
"You two are really going to go right now?" Fujinchi said. "It's almost 10:30. Can you really solve this incident by dawn? Reimu, did you get enough sleep to last that long in fights?"
"Oh, I'm wide awake!" Reimu said, straightening her clothes.
"It would get troublesome if you two weren't able to solve it by dawn," Genji brought up, quietly. "Plus, it would get brighter as you two went. With time being the way it is, it won't stop for anyone."
"There is a way," Yukari said, tapping her chin. "Let's go back inside." And with another pull through a gap, the four of them tumbled into the main room of the Hakurei Shrine, Yukari being the only one on her feet.
"What do you plan to do?" Fujinchi said, slowly getting up with a hand on her back. Falling out of gaps was not good for her back.
"This right here," Yukari said, pulling a strange disc out of a gap called The Aristocats. "Oops, that's Chen's." She pulled a book out this time, a book that looked extremely old and arcane. She flipped to a page, and showed it to the other three.
"This is an old and ancient spell. Do you really believe that we have the magical power for this?" Genji asked.
"Nope, but that's why I'm bringing Ran here, and why Ran is bringing Chen here," Yukari said, reaching into the gap. A sudden yelp and yellow and brown fur later, Ran tumbled out of the gap, Chen right behind her. The shikigamis were bewildered - and nervous - to be in the Shrine, but they couldn't argue anymore; not with Yukari around.
"You wouldn't happen to have anymore magical entities around here, would you?" Yukari asked, even though she didn't sense anything.
Fujinchi, Reimu, and Genji looked at each other. Mima used to haunt the shrine, but she was gone for whatever reason. The Three Fairies of Light didn't seem to be around. The only other resident of the shrine, Ruukoto, as cheerful and friendly as she was, was a nuclear-powered robot and a product of science, not magic.
As the three natives to Hakurei Shrine shook their heads, Yukari shrugged. "I knew that already, but it couldn't hurt to ask."
With Reimu Hakurei the Shrine Maiden, Yukari Yakumo the Gap Youkai, Fujinchi Hakurei the Shrine Mother, Genji the Kamegoro, Ran Yakumo the Kitsune, and Chen Yakumo the Nekomata concentrating hard, they began to weave the magical spell.
The night froze.
-Chapter 1 End-
AN: Fujinchi Hakurei is somewhat of an OC. We know that the Hakurei Shrine had been in Reimu's family, but historically, Shrine Maidens are virgin females. As Reimu's mother would not have qualified the instant that she became pregnant with Reimu, I invented an aunt to have been the previous Shrine Maiden. As for her name, it is a portmanteau of the Japanese words "fujin" which can mean "lady" and "jinchi", which can mean "wisdom", making her name "lady of wisdom". Genji and Ruukoto are also canon characters in the series. Genji appeared in the second, third, fourth, and fifth Touhou games as a turtle that helps Reimu fly. Ruukoto too is a canon character - she only appears in the ending of the third Touhou game, Phantasmagoria of Dim. Dreams.
