Day passes to night.

I find myself inside the shrine's room, this time sitting down on a chair with my arms tied with hemp rope behind the chair, I am positioned with my back on the wall of the room and looking at Reimu, who is sitting on the ground looking upwards at me. I am looking in every direction possible to analyze the room, light from the room bleeds out the paper doors to my right, the ceiling has 2 hanging orbs of sorts which could be the lights, and in the middle of the room there is a dark green kotatsu decorating the room.

"Alright then…" Reimu starts speaking, What are you? " I've never met a youkai of your kind, and a male one too"

"youkai?" I respond in confusion.

"Hey, I make the questions here! What is it that you do?" Reimu demands.

From the time I spent exploring Japan, I knew that youkai is the term for supernatural spirits, like poltergeists and tengus, but one thing is for sure, I ain't a damn youkai!

"I think you are mistaken, I am no youkai"

"nonsense, look at you, you have no form or look human at all, you are all smoke!" Reimu responds to my answer, "and I think that relates to your unusual properties.

"yes you are right, but I am no youkai, I th-"

"Whatever you call yourself, we classify your kind as youkai" Reimu interrupts me.

"Kind?" I respond in curiosity.

"In case you have already forgotten, Gensokyo is a safe place for the youkai that time forgets, there are many like you roaming this world." Reimu says.

There has to be a reason that I have been guided to this world, if she says that there are others like me in this place, then this means that I may not be alone in this curse of mine, but I highly doubt they have originated like I did. Then out of my mind I am intrigued by a certain one that I have met when I first got here.

"That horned girl… is she a youkai?" I asked.

"I see that you've already met Suika" she says, "somewhat, she is an oni, but that falls more into a demon category."

"Well, I guess I am a youkai. As for what I control… I have a certain control over smoke." I said to her, while trying to provide as little info as possible.

"Good, Next one" She says as she reaches towards my haversack, she then pulls the cube out. "What the hell is this?"

Of course, It was inevitable this would happen, but for this one I gotta play dumb.

"I… I really don't know" I say to Reimu.

"Really now? Last time I remember, you said that how you got here was related to the cube, and I TOTALLY remember you using Usami-chan and the cube to get out" she recalls that past experience.

"Shit" I thought to myself, I forgot about that. She is definitely keeping the cube.

"I…I…" I mutter before I go quiet.

"Not so confident now eh?" She mockingly says.

" I guess I can spare more details…" I say back to her.

"What you are holding in your hand, is a key. This key opens doors, and I do mean literal doors, to Realms, hidden beneath the fabric of physical and the Intangible. This place Is a realm of sorts too, but I never expected it to have life and a society within, the realms I encountered are always empty, only leaving behind the layout that is shaped by the link connected to it."

"Miss Reimu, please, this place could mean the answers to my existence and of the cube, I came here by my own will to continue my journey, i am tired of always collecting the scraps and being a scavenger, I want to live a full life knowing damn well, I was… created for a bigger purpose. That's all I hope for."

Reimu only stares at me, and I take a deep breath after my whole speech.

"I think I heard enough, but I don't think you are telling me the whole truth." Reimu says in a serious tone, "First thing in the morning, we are gonna go to Yukari and maybe she'll probably know what to do with you. One thing is for sure, she will make you howl the truth."

Oh great, we are getting more people involved. but, time to involve my ace up my sleeve.

"Well, there is one more thing I can actually tell you, something you probably overlooked…" I say to Reimu in a confident tone. "I myself took my time to know what I am capable of…"

Reimu retaliates by grabbing her gohei and directing it to my head.

"You think I will fall for a cheap trick again? Make any single wrong move, I'll gladly exterminate you." she boldly states, emphasizing on extermination.

"No cheap tricks" I say, "Allow me to demonstrate?"

I take a big, deep breath, as much as I can hold and then I exhale. Deep dark purple smoke emanates out of my mouth, the room is rapidly filling with the smoke, it follows a smooth fluid path from the ground and up the ceiling as it escalates the walls, the lights are slowly drowned out by the purple mist. and in an instant, the room is finally filled.

Reimu can only close her eyes and cough aggressively as I dematerialize my body into the smoke, my binds were basically useless and just phase through my hands, I like to call this…"Phase-shift". I noticed that Reimu dropped the cube into the ground as she coughed her lungs out, I grabbed it and burst out through the paper doors. The smoke aggressively shoots out of the room into the outside due to the massive accumulation of smoke I generated. I may have overdone myself.

But that flowing smoke only gives me the upper hand as I escape once again towards the stairs, this time I am not making the same mistake. I Phase-shift again, this time as a cumulus of smoke and fly off to the horizon, with the night sky Helping me blend in.

Meanwhile on Reimu's side

I rushed outside for oxygen, I almost suffocated there. I get to my knees as I aggressively grasp for clean air, but the strong ash smell is making me nauseous, so I get as far away from the shrine to avoid that horrid mist.

As I get back to my senses, I tilt my head up towards the gate in the stairs, but I see nothing.

That bastard got away…

…

…

…

"I know you're here… why didn't you stop him, the least you could've done at least was to gap out the smoke."

Suddenly she appears… The youkai of boundaries.

"Oh sweety, don't fret yet, I don't consider him a big threat…yet" she says.

"Let us see how he plays his moves from afar, and besides… he will probably attract everyone's attention, thus making my job easier…"

"Specially attract those Scarlet devils…"