A tall woman dressed in an unorthodox shrine maiden uniform stood by the Hakurei Shrine entrance, her long flowing black hair swaying to the sudden breeze. Her uniform's oversized detached sleeves and one-piece leotard revealed her lean, solid physique, a figure befitting the holder of the position as guardian of the Great Hakurei Barrier. Her expression was etched with concern as she watched the scene before her: An unknown threat has breached into Gensokyo and somehow the Great Hakurei Barrier is still intact. In the distance, she could see plumes of smoke rise from the multiple human settlements. Due to the high location of her shrine, she easily saw that the smoke and flames seemed to make a path with Youkai Mountain as its origin. Screams of the suffering villagers echoed throughout the air, eerily fitting the night sky that glowed a faint orange from the many fires below. With a cold expression on her face, the woman walked back into the shrine. It had been quite a while since she had seen Gensokyo in such a state of disarray and she had the scars to prove it. If this incident of such a scale was anything like the last time, it meant that she had to be serious again. And that meant the return of the mask that she had worn long ago.

In the shrine, she strode towards her room like a silent gust of wind. Her daughter's room was just across hers and she would rather keep her away from the dangers that were about to come. Sliding the door shut, the Hakurei shrine maiden shuffled around the room until she heard a soft 'creak'. Then, she slammed her fist down through the creaking floor panel and fished out an old chest. With a smirk, she opened the chest. Inside was a pair of red metal gauntlets decorated with ancient holy symbols and a fox mask that had a large crack across the left eye.

She stepped out of the room, donning her gauntlets and heavy duty combat boots. The gauntlets, despite their age, fit perfectly on her lean muscular arms. Her mask was placed on the side of her head as she did not have to wear it yet. Satisfied with her gear, she headed for the shrine entrance with long, steady strides. She had a job to do after all.

Reimu sat up quickly from her futon upon hearing the screams. Whatever sleepiness she had was gone as she felt her intuition kick in. Even though her intuition was, as her mother said countless times whenever she trained with her, underdeveloped, she still generally knew when something was about to happen and whether said something was a good thing. Whatever was happening now definitely was not a good thing. And it formed a cold lump in her gut to think about the severity of this dreaded something.

She looked around her room to check for anything that might jump out at her from the dark. She only had to make a quick glance to ensure the absence of any threat in the vicinity as her room was quite small. The only place in her room where something would even try hiding would have to be the underside of her desk where it was partially covered by a modest flower-print cloth that her mother found whilst returning from her usual youkai extermination duties.

After making sure that no threat or portal-using youkai were around, she slowly crept outside her room. She tip-toed all the way towards the shrine door. There, a tall woman stood, adjusting her gauntlets and placing her mask on the side of her head.

"Mama?", little Reimu quizzed. "Are you going out somewhere, Mama? Can I come too?"

The woman turned around and knelt down on both knees with grace. She then looked straight into her brown eyes as she ruffled her hair, her rough palm incidentally soothing the sudden itch on Reimu's scalp."I'm going out to do something very important. Some bad people have come to Gensokyo and I need to go and deal with it," said the tall woman with a small frown before adding "And, no, you cannot come."

"But why? You always never let me go and I'm scared, Mama!", she protested, her tears beginning to well up. "I know that you always fight the evil and all but I feel like there's something very terrible happening, Mama, and I don't know what to do and it's making me feel lonely and scared and you always come back hurt and-eep!" She let out a surprised yelp when she felt a hand pat her head and ruffle up her hair again.

She looked towards the chaos outside before turning back to her daughter, smiling.

"Well there's no need to, Reimu. No matter what happens, I'll always be there for you. 'Sides, I always come back, don't I? So," she paused for a while before breaking into a huge grin, "Take care of the shrine properly eh, Reimu? You've always been a good daughter and still are. Now, I'm in need to be off. See ya, Rei!"

She wanted to say something in return but at the moment all little Reimu could manage was a weak nod. She didn't really want her mother to go but she knew her mother did not want to go either. The distant look in her mother's eyes was all she needed to know that whatever it was her mother had to deal with, it was serious enough to make her worried. It has to be. As far as she could remember, the last time she looked this worried was when she was about to lose against Yukari in a game of mah-jong. Needless to say, sake bottles were sent flying along with a certain parasol-wielding blonde.

"Mommy?" she asked.

"Mmhm?"

"Does this have to do with Miss Yukari again?"

"…"

"Does it?" she questioned again.

"…hehehe."

"…?"

*phbt* "Wahahaha!"

"Eh?" said Reimu with her face blank with confusion as her mother burst laughing.

"No, silly! This has nothing to do with that slimy hag!"she exclaimed, her face red as she tried her best to contain her giggles.

"Then what is it then?" Reimu flinched when her mother's expression turned dark for a brief second before smiling again.

"Nothing I can't deal with that's for sure!", she assured her with an energetic thumbs up and a toothy grin. She then stood up straight and cracked her knuckles. "As the Hakurei shrine maiden, all those who dare disturb the peace of this land will have to go through me!", she exclaimed, her eyes gleaming. "No mercy, no prejudice!"

Reimu felt a huge sense of admiration towards her mother, charisma and pride gushing out at her as if she was graced by the presence of a great warrior. However, she never had a chance to voice it out as a huge ball of fire suddenly came crashing down towards them and exploded in a violent burst, sending both mother and daughter flying.

She felt herself slam hard against of the shrine's pillars. She tried to get up but could not do so. Her legs were trapped underneath the shrine's remains. Her vision was slowly dimming. She could only make out a silhouette of two women fighting a lot of creatures. One woman, who was wearing something she could only guess as a mask, made quick work of the oncoming monsters with her bare hands tearing them apart limb from limb as she fought. The other shorter woman, who she assumed was a friend of the bare-handed brawler, mercilessly blasted the demons to giblets with a weapon that looked akin to a rod or a stick. Then came a third person, presence announced through blowing bits of demon into the air, who joined the women and fought using both their methods to visceral success. That scene that, even as simple silhouettes, she could only describe as pure violence and brutality was the last thing she saw before her eyelids finally closed, feeling the warm embrace of darkness…

She woke up to find herself back with her face buried in her arms by the hospital reception desk. She took a peek towards the waiting chairs in front. 'Sanae's still there,' she noted. She also made note that Marisa, who was supposed to be on the floor with her face in her hat, wasn't. Yawning and stretching her arms out, she scratched her face a bit before setting off to find her. As she began her search, she smiled to herself, a small grin, reminiscing the fun times she spent with her mother. She felt as if she's forgetting something in those memories, though. But it had been a long time so it was only normal for memories to be fuzzy.

The entire floor was almost pitch black save for a few convenient emergency lights lining the walls. The reception area was wide and spacious, having about five rows of ten chairs and still enough room for busy staff to zip through. 'If there were any people here to begin with, that is…" she mused. With the exception of the occasional whirring of the security cameras, silence reigned.

A cold eerie lump began to form in her gut. Everything in this hospital seemed to be in perfect order. Too perfect. She was never one to fear the dark but the darkness made the whole thing worse. The pamphlets in the waiting area were arranged nice and sharp by the waiting area. Not a single drop of blood nor a footprint smear tarnished the floor tiles. The wards, whilst empty, showed no indication of having been inhabited at all as if it never had patients to begin with. The silence seemed to grow louder with each passing second.

"Hello?", she called out in the dark corridor. The wards stayed quiet. "Hello? Marisa? You there?"

Still no response. She took a look behind her to make sure no one was tailing her. Nothing out of the ordinary save for a lock of green hair sticking out from behind a door of one of the wards. 'Is she awake already?', she wondered. "I can see you, you know."

"Boo, you're no fun," whined Sanae as she lumbered from her hiding place and walked up towards her. How silly. Did she not know of the Hakurei intuition? Reimu simply smiled at her antics. She's still her junior, after all.

As she approached her, however, Reimu suddenly felt uneasy. Her intuition just spiked. It felt strong, telling her to run far, far away from this person that was coming closer. Her eyes began to dart around for any possible threat but the only other living entity besides herself was Sanae. Her breathing grew short, her heart pounding. Then, she saw it: her hair was far too green and her smile looked like as if it was plastered to her face. The feature that stuck out the most, however, were her eyes: shining a faint orange glow with a tinge of her usual green. "What's wrong, Reimu? Are you feeling well?"

"Oh, nothing's wrong, Sanae. Nothing's wrong," she replied, trying her best to keep herself from shaking. She put one hand behind her back and asked her a simple "How was your nap?"

Sanae then stopped in her tracks for a brief moment before proceeding to continue her advance, nice and slow. "Oh, I've had a great nap, Rei! I owe you one, hehe~!" she replied with a wide smile. "I wonder how has yours been? I imagine that it'd better than the floor I slept on."

"Oh, I slept well." She felt a small sense of security as the hand behind her managed to slip her gun out without a sound.

"Are you sure you're okay, Rei?"

Her instincts now through the roof, Reimu steeled herself for the anticipated outcome. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you-"

"Then why are you moving away from me?"

Without a second thought, she broke into a run while firing away in 'Sanae's general direction. 'Drats!', she cursed inwardly as none of her shots hit. As she ran, she never looked back but she knew that 'Sanae' was about to catch up to her as she heard her footsteps grow in tempo and weight. Whatever it was that was chasing her, she was certain was not human as people never roared nor shrieked in such a horrifying manner.

She tried to take flight but every attempt was promptly shot down with a rocket from behind. However, none of them actually hit her. The rockets would zip past her and hit the wall or the floor near her but never at her. 'Damn it! Bastard's toying with me!'

She stole a quick look and then ran faster: 'Sanae' was now a towering skeleton, patches of flesh on its bones like rags, eyes hollow and flaming orange. The monster was freakish as it looked like someone installed jetpacks and missile launchers to a giant's rotting corpse, which would've been funny if it weren't out for her blood. It seemed to cackle in amusement as it chased her, echoing down the corridors.

In a last ditch effort, she erected several magic barriers behind her and kept on running before slipping into a random room. Never once did she look back.

"Demonic presence detected. Initiating lockdown", announced the PA as soon as she entered the room. Metal panels then slammed the entry shut, sparing her the trouble of locking the door behind her. 'Where am I?', she wondered while she tried to regain her bearings and calm down. The room she was in appeared to be the facility's security and surveillance room as she noticed that there were multiple weapons cabinets lined up along the wall and a multi-screen surveillance monitor at the end of the room. She then went up to the monitor and examined the cameras' current footage.

The outside of the building seemed to be clear and so was the reception that they slept in. 'I knew it! I knew the monster outside isn't Sanae! Who else could this be then with Marisa snooping around the archives? Hm? What's this?' She was intrigued to find out that the medical centre surveillance not only covered the whole facility but also areas that she did not expect to see; the geyser entrance on the surface and a laboratory in an undisclosed location. The laboratory appeared to have an ancient-looking scroll hovering above a table in a display case. Upon zooming in towards the scroll, a sudden flurry of images flashed in her mind, causing her immense pain.

"Arghh!", she grunted as she clutched her head in a tight embrace, dropping down to her knees. Scenes of an unfamiliar land of blood and death, childhood memories with her mother but with an unknown man with them, Yukari's sad face moments before grabbing her face; all of them flooded her head. Her face was contorted in agony; tears ran down her cheeks as she tried to endure it. Her fingers threatened to draw blood from her scalp; her body now on the floor, writhing. Then, after a gruelling three minutes, the images stopped popping up when she heard a voice say,

"Do not fear, child, for Salvation is near,
Do not fear the blood, child, for the pain will be over,
Do not fear the Unseen Mastermind, child, for the Scroll of His Testament shall shed light for you and guide you.
Rejoice. The Slayer, he cometh. And He is never one."

A calming wave of relief washed over her as soon as the voice disappeared from her head. Panting and drenched in sweat, she wanted nothing more than to slump into a chair and rest. However, she was back on her feet again when she heard some loud noises and screeches right outside of the room she was in...