Entry 5: A Phantasm of Dreams and Dimensions

Life at the Hakurei Shrine had been quiet for the past year. Well, mostly quiet.

There had been a few more visitors that before, but they were mostly the four troublemakers that Reimu had befriended over the course of the last Incident.

Today there was no Rika or Meira (aw). Just Reimu, Genji, Mima, and Marisa. Marisa looked to have grown her hair out, if that was worth mentioning. Things were quiet, and personally, Reimu was kind of appreciating it. Halfly. The other half was kind of hoping for something to happen.

And you know what they say about 'ask and thou shalt receive', because almost immediately after the thought occurred, a loud rumbling was heard.

All four quickly stood at attention. "What the heck was that?" Marisa was the first to ask. "Didn't feel like a normal earthquake."

"More like a meteor, me thinks," Mima thought. "No idea what could have caused it."

"Another Incident?" Reimu wondered. "Looks like I'm getting to work then. Shame, I was enjoying the quiet."

"There's no rest for the wicked, Reimu-sama," Genji said. "Climb aboard, Reimu-sama, and let's be off."

"Still not quite got flight down?" Mima asked. "Aw, geez. Guess Marisa and I'll have to tag along."

Reimu eyed Mima suspiciously, but shrugged. "Do what you want. Just don't get in my way."

"Confident, ain't she?" Marisa said. "As I'd expect from my rival."

"Glad to see you're getting into this," Mima commented.

Not far from the Hakurei Shrine was a small series of hills. The only thing noticeably unnatural about them, from what Reimu could see right now, was the strange crowd that had gathered, and the new cave.

That cave struck Reimu as strange, to say the least, but not quite as strange as the four people that had gathered around it. She could see: a blonde haired Witch in red, a red haired human in purple, a blonde Poltergeist in blue, and a purple haired human in white.

Truly, a strange looking group. Almost as strange as a Shrine Maiden, a Vengeful Spirit, a Witch in training, and a turtle.

The red haired human noticed them approaching first. "Oro? You are the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, are you not?" she asked. "I suppose you heard that noise too, did you not?"

What an eloquent way of speaking, Reimu found. A bit clunky, but very polite. "How could I not?" Reimu asked. "The shrine's, like, ten minutes away. Who are you, anyway?"

"Oh! Where are my manners? I am Koyohime," the red haired woman introduced herself. "I am something of a law-enforcer, that I am, and these three are..." She hesitated, trying to find the right word for them. "Acquaintances."

"You are allowed to call us strangers, you know," the purple haired one said loudly. "We've literally never met before today."

Koyohime laughed in embarrassment, as Marisa and Mima finally caught up. "Too polite to say it, I guess," Reimu surmised. "And the rest of you? Who are you?"

"I'm Asakura Rikako," the purple haired one greeted. "A scientist of sorts, hoping to expunge the truth of these ruins and expand my knowledge."

"Is 'expunge' even the right word in that sentence?" Marisa muttered.

"Oh! Me next!" the blonde one in red shouted. "I'm Ellen the Witch! Immortal, and my dream's to construct and run a magic shop of my own!"

"One too many exclamation marks in how she speaks," Mima commented.

"Guess that leaves me," the Poltergeist muttered. "Kana Anaberal. I've been haunting the same place for so long that nobody's getting scared of me anymore, and I'm losing my mind."

"My... deepest sympathies, miss?" Genji hesitated. "So, why are you all gathered here, and not exploring that cave?"

"Thing's got a barrier," Ellen stated. "And 'cording to the sign next to it, only one person can enter at a time."

Confused, Reimu got off Genji, and walked over to the cave entrance. There was, indeed, a powerful barrier in place, and off to the side was a sign that read 'To all those seeking our treasure; only one may enter'.

It was, for all intents and purposes, exactly as was described to them.

"And let me guess," Reimu said, "none of you could decide who goes in?"

"That we could not," Koyohime admitted. "As an officer of the law, I wanted to go first, but Rikako-dono desires searching for intellectual curiosity, Anaberal-dono wishes to haunt it, and Ellen-san..."

"I just wanna see what's in there!"

Koyohime gestured at the Witch, as if saying 'as you can see'. "And now that you and your compatriots have arrived, the queue has grown larger, that it has."

So, they were at an impasse, then. "Well, as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden," Reimu said, "I'd say I've got first priority on this whole 'going in' business."

"With your experience?" Marisa asked. "Please. As the apprentice of the Great Mima, I get first dibs!"

"Over your own master?" Mima poked. "You're having a laugh, kiddo."

All eyes quickly fell on Genji expecting him to posit a reason why he should be the one to go in. "I refuse to comment," he said. "I am, after all, ethically tied to Reimu-sama in the event of Incidents."

Then the realisation struck. Seven people, all interested in the same thing, but only one could go to investigate.

One second passed into ten, then into a minute, before everyone raised both hands, charged with magic, in a Gensokyo example of a Mexican-standoff.

"So, here's how it's going to go," Reimu said. "The easy way: you all back off, and let me do my job. The hard way: we fight it out. The choice is yours."

"As an officer of the law, I cannot abide that, that I can't," Koyohime replied. "Please do not obstruct my work, miss Hakurei."

"Do you have any idea how bored I am?" Ellen asked. "I'm not gonna let this chance pass me up!"

"You're bored?" Kanna propped. "Try haunting the same place for decades on end! I'm not passing this adventure up!"

"Do you people have no respect for scientific intrigue?" Rikako asked. "This is the chance of a lifetime, and I am not passing it up!"

Reimu shared a glance with Marisa and Mima, whom both shrugged. "Guess it's a free-for-all, then," Mima said. "Last one standing gets to go in."

"I'm game for that," Marisa said. "You, Reimu?"

Reimu thought about it for a moment, before answering. "Screw it, why not?"

Two hours. The battle between them all lasted for two hours. The battle was so intense, so chaotic, that it's frankly impossible to adequately portray it in text form.

It was, simply put, a mess of bullets, but in the end, the one left standing was... Reimu. Is anyone really going to be surprised by this outcome?

Reimu let out a sigh of exhaustion. She had started to lose her confidence half way through that battle, but then that ghost got blind-sided by the scientist, and momentum swung back in her favour.

She and Genji walked through the cave, noting how the walls were illuminated by glass light bulbs. Something you don't really see in Gensokyo.

"Are these... really ruins?" Reimu questioned. "Just what is this place?"

Something clicked behind Reimu, followed by something cold and hard being placed against the back of her head. A nameless dread wormed its way into Reimu's heart, as she felt her life was now in great danger.

"So, your the strongest magician out there?" a voice asked. "I'm going to have to ask you to cooperate, if you value your life."

"Who are you?" Reimu asked. "Are these really ruins?"

"Ruins?" the voice said. "Do these look like ruins to you? Now, I won't repeat myself again; cooperate, if you..."

There was a pause, as a series of fast-paced footsteps echoed from further inside. The next moment, something red and large shot past Reimu, and struck the person that was standing behind her.

Reimu and Genji took this chance to turn around, and saw, strangely enough, a blonde haired girl dressed in sailor clothes lying on the ground, and a red haired woman dressed in red looking... very unamused at the former.

There was also that metal object on the ground next to the girl that Reimu was fairly certain was one of those Outside World guns.

"How many times to I have to tell you, Chiyuri?!" the red haired one shouted. "We're here to study! Not abduct the locals like that!"

"Eh?" the one named Chiyuri said. "But just passively studying like we've been doing is getting us nowhere. If we got a local on hand..."

"Easier does not equal ethical!" the woman shouted. "We do things the right way here!" Clearing her throat, the woman turned to face Reimu. "I'm sorry about my assistant, miss. Are you alright?"

"I... guess so?" Reimu hesitated. "Who the heck are you, and what the heck is this place?"

"Ah, the important questions," the woman said. "Up there with 'what's for breakfast'. To answer in order: I'm Okazaki Yumemi, a college professor researching the existence of magic for a paper I'm working on, this place is a mix of both our base of research and mode of transport, and breakfast is strawberry jam on toast. The one who so rudely held you at gunpoint just now was my assistant, Kitashirakawa Chiyuri."

Reimu blinked in bewilderment. "That was... a word salad," she said. "And, you said 'mode of transport'?"

"Indeed. Behold," with a clap of her hands, the cavern lit up, revealing a massive structure of steel. "The Probabilty Space Hyper Vessel! We used it to bypass the barrier around this place, but then... well, as you can see, we parked it inside a cave, and the engine's kaput."

"Kaput?"

"Completely fried. No way we could repair it."

Huh. So that meant they were stranded here? "Must such, huh?" Reimu asked. "Trapped on this side of the Hakurei Barrier."

"Eh, could be worse," Yumemi shrugged. "Not like I wasn't laughed out of uni for my subject of choice. Right now, I'm just wanting to finish my paper for the principal of it."

"So... this isn't an Incident, then?" Reimu asked.

"Given that I don't know what you're talking about... No?"

Reimu's shoulders slumped. "Then we got all worked up for nothing." Turning around, Reimu began to walk off. "Screw it. I'm going home."

Yumemi's jaw went slack for a moment. "Wait, what?"

Reimu briefly turned back around. "Look, you want to do your research? Fine. Open that stupid barrier you've got up by the door, invite the idiots out there in, chat with them, and don't cause any trouble. Do that, and you'll be fine, or more importantly, not in my hair."

And that was how her third ever Incident was resolved... What a bloody anticlimax.

The following week, things at the Hakurei Shrine took a strange turn.

Namely, the four people Reimu and company had met and fought outside the 'not-really-a-cave' cave were hanging around the shrine.

That witch Ellen had set up a store of some sort. Kotohime was just wandering around, claiming to be on patrol. The scientist Rikako was nose deep in some book. And that ghost, Kana? She was having a haunt-off with Mima.

Now, what was a haunt-off? Don't know, and frankly, Reimu didn't care enough to find out.

Two figures weaved through the small group. One, Reimu identified as Yumemi, and the second was distinctly not her assistant. This newcomer, after all, had green hair, and was dressed as a maid.

"Hey there, Reimu-san," Yumemi greeted. "I see things are... busy here."

"Not the good kind of busy, mind you," Reimu pointed out. "These people don't exactly donate when they visit. So, what brings you here?"

"Well, first off..." Yumemi made her way to the offering box, and threw a few coins in. "You deserve at least that from me. Second, I wanted to thank you for your suggestion."

"Which one was that?"

"Opening the doors," Yumemi answered. "Actually talking to the locals. Gods know it's helped the research, even if we still can't get back Outside."

"Still no luck there?"

"Chiyuri's been trying to fix the engine, but no luck," Yumemi shrugged. "Still, there's something I wanted to give you as thanks for your advice, and I don't mean that donation." She motioned the green haired maid over. "This is Ruukoto, a robot maid of my own design. Consider her my gift to you."

With a raised brow, Reimu looked the robot maid up and down. Ruukoto certainly looked perfectly human, so either Yumemi was pulling her leg, or robotic technology was way more advanced than she was aware of.

"So," Reimu started. "You any good at... maiding?"

"I have been told my performance is 'satisfactory'," Ruukoto replied. "I look forward to working for you, Reimu-sama."

'Reimu-sama', she said. That had a certain ring to it, and not in the same way that Genji said it. She could get use to this.

Of course, Reimu would later discover, over the course of the next few days, that Ruukoto was... not entirely truthful about her 'satisfactory' performance as a maid, and that most likely, Yumemi was offloading the robot onto Reimu.

But, that's a story for another day.

A/N:

And that's Phantasmagoria of Dim Dream done. Bit of a short one, but then again... it's PoDD. Even by PC98 standards, this one didn't have much to work with.

Now, rather than going on to another Present Day chapter, I'm thinking of doing Lotus Land Story next. No real reason. Just kinda feel like breaking the mold.

So, let's press on.