Prologue
It was a nice summer day in the Hakurei Shrine. The sun is shining, the bird youkai are singing, and Reimu is as broke and grumpy as ever. Marisa decides that in the middle of the Lost Word incident, to visit Reimu, and perhaps maybe convince her to take a little break with her from the Seal Crystal shindig. After all, Seal Crystals haven't been popping up frequently in amount lately, so what harm could be done from it, really? Not much, if anything at all. Reimu has always been busy anyway, and she'd definitely appreciate some leisure time on this hot summer's day. Besides, with how much Reimu has been working to keep Gensokyo at peace, hearing Reimu say "I'm on my break today, go bother someone else." would be quite the rare occassion, like finding a Yeti atop a cold mountain.
"Heya, Reimu! How's everything going in the shrine?" said Marisa.
"Eh, ya know, same old, same old. Lots of people coming to the shrine, lots of complaints about the heat, but I guess that's pretty typical for summer..." says Reimu.
Reimu wasn't exactly the richest maiden in the block, in fact, she was arguably the poorest person in Gensokyo, somehow financially more in the red than Shion, the Goddess of Poverty. One would argue that she herself, is the true poverty goddess. Her job as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden didn't come with any application bonuses or even wages in general. Her only form of income are donations, and seeing her get anything at all from her box is like finding a firefly mid-air and basking under the sunlight's embrace. There were brief stints of success in her past where she was able to get donations through schemes and whatnot, such as that time in the harsh winters where she was able to make a quick buck off the human villagers through worshipping some god or whatever. But the keyword here is "brief", as not long after, the money had already gone in the red once more. And that was why Reimu would only be able to do a bit of work during the summers, when the air was relatively less humid. The rest of the year, she was mostly cooped up in her own chambers. Her shrine to be exact.
She did have a housekeeper, even if it was for this incident, specifically Violet, a human who managed to trespass past Gensokyo's protecting borders through being released by a Seal Crystal, but lost her memory in the process. As staying in Gensokyo's wilds would prove to be dangerous due to the overabundance of man eating youkai such as Rumia and Wriggle Nightbug, she was forced to stay in Reimu's shrine for a while, doing most of her housework while she goes out trying to investigate more about the incident. However, Violet has been MIA for a while now (this was before the Blue Reimu and the Yellow Sanae snatched her away to the C3 Gensokyo) because the writer of this story didn't want to even bother haphazardly inserting her into the story but couldn't make up a good excuse for it because that would have been too complex but at the same time he didn't want to include her either so it's like this for now.
Reimu was currently standing atop a small stairway in the Hakurei Shrine, looking at the seal crystal in the donation box. It was one of those rare moments in which she was actually intrigued by something, seeing how this particular Seal Crystal is different from the rest, being that it had really abstract colours, the kind of colours you'd see in a hippy T-shirt or something of the sort. It also correlates with the incident they're currently dealing with so there's that.
"Hey, whatcha got there Reimu? Something from that empty Donation Box of yours?" Marisa asked. "I dunno, it looks like a Seal Crystal but at the same time it has all these abstract colors, almost as if it's abnormal or something." Reimu replied, to which Marisa playfully replied "Huh, that's strange, usually not even a Seal Crystal would approach that relic of poverty you call a Donation Box." This paved way to Marisa getting a bonk in her head with Reimu's gohei. The shrine maiden didn't like to be teased about her poverty, and she wasn't gonna cut even her best friend some slack about it, that's for sure.
Meanwhile, as the duo were playfully bickering with each other, they didn't notice a playful Kogasa Tatara and an anxious Nitori Kawashiro sneaking up on them from a bush. Then again, who could, they were practically in camo.
"Hee hee, this is gonna be quite a delightful first snack in quite a while!" Kogasa playfully said in a silent, sneaky intonation. "Thanks for helping me out here, Nitori, had it not been for you, I would've still been starving for fear!" "Don't mention it, you did promise in our deal that we'll save the big scare for Marisa last, and who am I to refuse such an offer?" Nitori replied. "Plus, it would be good payback to that witch for and I quote, "borrowing" my number 2 favorite wrench."
Nitori Kawashiro was a good friend of Marisa's. She was an inventor, a master technician, and an expert businesswoman as well. No matter how crappy the products were or if they worked as advertised, she would always gain a quick buck out of it. Sometimes, all it takes is a bit of this kappa's finest razzle dazzle to get the sales flooding. Her skills were only rivaled by Takane Yamashiro, whose species were natural-born archrivals of the kappa in the trade and technologies department. However, just like all of Marisa's friends, being her friend meant she was also victim to her most prominent flaw ; her kleptomania. And while she was working on her shrink ray which she would use as a secret superweapon against the yamawaro in the trading world for not just her but the entire kappa populace of Gensokyo, Marisa inconveniently just so happened to "borrow" her number 2 wrench, which she needed to drive one last batch of loose screws in her machine. Or at least the prototype or first draft. The kappa aren't exactly too keen with kleptomaniacs, being a species that thrives partly out of selling things and inventing, and Nitori wasn't any different either. However, had Nitori taken into consideration the situation at hand, she probably would've rethought this deal through.
"Ok, on the count of three, you jump out the bush and do your thing. I'll deactivate the camo and surprise them." Nitori added. "If the wrench just so happens to fall out of her pocket when it happens, all the better as I can just snatch it right before her eyes." "Understood!" Kogasa cheerfully replied. She didn't really care, she was just happy to finally taste fear again once more. "Three… two… one… NOW!"
"URAIMESHIYAAAA!" Kogasa wailed out loud, jumping from the bush as Nitori deactivated their camo. The incident resolving duo were just as Nitori expected, surprised by the karakasa's sudden appearance and successful spooking attempt. However, it proved too successful as the shock was later drowned by a clicking sound from the Seal Crystal caused by Reimu's shock. Almost immediately, the "AHHHH!"s from the two friends ended up becoming "Uh oh"s.
The crystal shattered into bits as expected, and started pulling Reimu, Marisa, Nitori, and Kogasa in. Each of them screamed in terror as they are pulled into another world that they are unfamiliar with. Even if this has happened potentially thrice now, it still left just as much of a shock as it was the first time they were dragged into a Seal Crystal's portal. Their cries were so loud that it even reached the skies of Heaven, but it would've been no use. By the time the screams were even heard, the four of them were already dragged into another world.