~ STAGE 1: "An Irregular Outsider" ~

[START]

A few years prior…

The land they lived in went by many names. 'Land of Fantasy', 'The Eastern Country', 'Eastern Wonderland'. But to those who lived in it, it only had one, simple name-

Gensokyo.

The history of its origin was somewhat ambiguous; only those who had lived in it since its creation properly understood all of the details. Mankind once feared and worshipped the unknown and the supernatural; from that fear, both gods and monsters were born and thrived. But as ages passed and mankind grew more cynical, their collective faith and fear began to die out. The beings born from their belief in the unknown found their existence being replaced by science and new understanding of the world. Without doubt, soon they too would fade away, forgotten by time.

Those in Japan refused that fate, and thus devised a plan to survive amidst mankind's shifting beliefs.

Making a bargain with those of humanity who also rejected the coming era, they sealed away a great region of land from the rest of the world. That land would serve as a shelter for the old world and its ways.

But, such a place would always exist in a fragile peace. They needed a mediator. A central authority that could stand above and between humans and youkai; an impartial guardian who would keep the balance of the land.

To put a complicated story simply, that was her job. Her sworn, solemn duty.

… … … Well.

"Fuwaaahh…"

It usually was, anyways. Today was a slow day for Reimu Hakurei.

"No worshippers. No donations. Nothing."

She yawned again, idly sweeping away autumn leaves with a broom. It wasn't like she'd slept poorly. Rather, the stillness of today was starting to make her lethargic.

Actually, the past year had been surprisingly uneventful.

A mere three seasons had passed since the Spell Card rules she had created were put to their first real test. And yet, every time it seemed like everything was going to settle down, some incident or another had started up. A troublesome scarlet devil who darkened the skies of Gensokyo with an unnatural mist. A spring-stealing ghost who sought to revive a cherry blossom tree. A wild, party-happy oni who caused a festive ruckus. The Lunarians of Eientei making trouble with the moon.

Remembering it all gave her a headache. Not unlike when that yama came to clean up her subordinate's mess, and decided to give Reimu a lecture while she was there.

"Ugh." Perhaps the quiet was a merciful gift from the gods. A small repayment for her hard work. Normally, she would have taken such a blessing with little complaint, but...

It was usually when things got quiet that something really troublesome was about to start up again. It happened again and again without fail. Reimu only wondered when this year's incident would start up, and what it would center around.

She had a feeling it would be soon, and her intuition was never wrong.

-It took about sixty seconds.

"Zz… Zzz…"

Right in the middle of the path to the shrine, someone was lying on the stone walkway. Judging from their snoring, they were taking a nap. They seemed so fully immersed in their sleep, Reimu would have normally assumed they'd been there for hours. Would have, except she was fairly certain she'd just swept that area not even a few minutes ago. And now they were getting their drool all over that very spot!

"Hey. Hey!"

Reimu approached them, hoping she could rouse them from their slumber with a few irritated calls. Unsurprisingly, they didn't wake. Annoying… She contemplated hitting them with the broom in her hands for just a moment.

Then she saw the individual up-close.

A girl. About her age, actually. That wasn't really the strange part; what actually caught the shrine maiden's attention was her attire. It wasn't of a style that would be found in Gensokyo. It looked decidedly foreign, as though it'd come from a time and place quite distant. Almost as if-

"An outsider…? What are you doing here, exactly?"

She ended up muttering it aloud, like she was going to get an answer from this slumbering stranger. No such luck. On closer observation, Reimu had the impression she wasn't quite a youkai, so it was likely that she was human. Unless, in her boredom, she'd accidentally summoned a god that happened to dress and look like an outsider. That probably wasn't the case, though. Probably.

She nudged her a few times (even resorting to a soft kick), trying to wake her up. The girl muttered something in her sleep, but nothing else.

"Well, if you aren't going to wake up…"

With about as much ceremony as if she were hefting a sack over her shoulder, Reimu pulled the girl up from the ground and started a march to the Great Hakurei Barrier. "(Heavy…)" It was a bit tempting to just wake her up with a start, but that would have probably caused its own share of problems. This was a lot less troublesome.

Standing before the barrier, an ordinary person wouldn't notice anything different. A landscape that extended out into the horizon, and would keep going and going and going for anyone who decided to walk through it. That was what most inhabitants of Gensokyo would see. Naturally, Reimu saw more. She never really cared to understand every single minute detail, but Reimu knew that the 'barrier' was more than a simple boundary surrounding Gensokyo. It was something far more complex, formed long before she was a distant twinkle in her predecessors' eyes.

Even still, she didn't really need to know all of those details to do this task.

"In the name of the Hakurei God, I command thee-"

The words sounded grandiose, and really weren't her style, but ceremony was ceremony. The Great Hakurei Barrier divided the world of 'fantasy' and the world of 'reality'; common sense and nonsense. It wasn't anything she could handle halfheartedly, regardless of herself.

Any observer would see something that looked like a distortion in space, but that would have been a gross simplification. A boundary of 'common sense' wasn't something anyone could plainly cross; it operated on principles and meanings that went far beyond inhabited space. Opening a path through it could be compared to tearing open a rift between worlds-worlds which followed completely different sets of rules. To do this task and more without causing any serious destabilization was just another of her various, tiresome duties.

Regardless. Despite the numerous complexities that would leave an ordinary person's head spinning, Reimu had done it in about the same time as it took to turn a doorknob. And much as one would treat a stray animal that had somehow wandered into their home, Reimu quietly and unceremoniously flung the outsider back outside, taking care to gently shut the door behind her.

"There. That's taken care of."

Taking a moment to ascertain that the barrier was properly closed, Reimu went about her normal day.

"Zzzz… zzz…"

What.

It'd only been a single day. Reimu was sure she'd sent her back home. At worst the girl would've woken up, confused as to why she'd found herself next to an old, abandoned shrine. But she would have probably just returned home, in that case.

"Don't tell me…"

Reimu squinted at the outsider's sleeping form. Was she squatting in the shrine on the other side? A forgotten human occupying an equally forgotten building on the outside world, in such close proximity to the Great Hakurei Barrier-it would've been a miracle if she wasn't spirited away. To be honest, the living conditions of a stranger normally weren't any concern to her, but if they forced work on her like this, she was bound to get annoyed.

"Hm."

Well, whatever. She ought to look into this, at least.

Reimu went to a kneeling position by the girl, focusing on her appearance first. Though her eyes were closed, Reimu had a feeling they were a similar shade of brown as her long hair. Her clothing seemed unremarkable, even for an outsider. A dark undershirt, similar to the casual attire many of them entered Gensokyo wearing. Covering it was a red jacket made of a rather light material. Black pants on her lower half, the fabric looking like that 'denim' stuff she'd occasionally see on outsiders. On the girl's feet, Reimu could see a pair of comfortable-looking slip-ons.

… Nothing about her appearance particularly screamed 'forgotten human', or even that she was having any kind of troubles. At worst, her clothing seemed a bit worn down, like she'd kept this particular outfit around for a bit too long. Otherwise? She was a perfectly average-looking outsider. But, in this case, that just raised more questions.

Just as she was wondering where to go next…

"Yo, Reimu! What's with the dead body?"

Ah, yes.

"It's not a dead body. Also, hi Marisa."

The ordinary witch, Marisa Kirisame, had come to play. Reimu had been so caught up in her investigation that she hadn't noticed the witch landing her broom right next to her. Not that it was a terribly surprising arrival; when it came to trouble, Marisa had a way of sniffing it out and nosing her way in no matter what.

It didn't take long for the shrine maiden to catch her friend up-to-speed.

"Huh." Marisa adjusted her hat, looking down at the girl with a face that said 'Yeah, that is pretty weird.'. She took her own turn to kneel down and poke the sleeping girl, who still didn't wake in the slightest. "Heavy sleeper, isn't she? And you're sure she's the same one you threw out yesterday?"

"I'm almost positive." Reimu cupped her chin. "She doesn't look like the regular 'spirited away' type, but…" She probably had a funny-looking irritated squint on her face. "I'm not exactly sure what she is."

"We could just try wakin' her up and just askin'." Reimu didn't like the way she saw Marisa brandishing her broom, or the grin on her face. "Want me to hit her with somethin'?"

"..." That expression on Marisa's face really was far too eager. But Reimu didn't have any better ideas, so it wasn't like she could convince her otherwise. She sighed reluctantly. "Go ahead, just be mindful you don't hurt her."

"Aw, c'mon~." Marisa's voice was like a child being scolded for a bad habit. She raised her broom overhead, gripping it tightly by the handle. "Don't worry, don't worry. I'll be as gentle as a soft breeze."

The resounding crack as her broom made contact with the outsider's head made Reimu think about setting up a lie jar for the ordinary witch. Every time you lie, put 3 mon in my donations box. She'd probably be rich within a week.

"Marisa, really?" Reimu covered her face with her palm. "Was that necessary?"

"Hey, you saw she wouldn't wake up for anythin' else. I just saved us a lotta time pokin' and proddin' her without any results."

That bit was somewhat true; Reimu could see the outsider stirring slightly, even if it did look like her soul left her body for a few seconds.

"Even still, couldn't you dial it back a bit? I'd rather not have the idea of you accidentally killing an outsider on my conscience."

Marisa made a sound like someone being told their friend was behind on a trend. "Whoa, you've got one of those still?"

"I'm not even going to try to unpack that sentence..."

The two continued fussing at one another for a bit, seeming to forget the waking outsider. The girl seemed to regain consciousness, her eyes hazily scanning around her before settling on the sight of a witch in black and white and a shrine maiden in red and white arguing over something trivial.

"..."

She stared blankly at them for a few moments, a look on her face like 'Am I still dreaming?'.

Reimu was in the middle of a sentence when she noticed the girl had flopped back over and gone back to sleep. Marisa, too, turned to see it once she noticed Reimu's sudden silence.

"..."

"..."

Silence.

"... Marisa, hit her again."

CRACK!

The girl shouted loudly, holding her head, before jumping to her feet far faster than Reimu had anticipated. She yelled some things at the two of them, fussing as one naturally would if they had been woken up by being assaulted.

Nothing irregular about that, except the girl wasn't speaking Japanese.

"...Er." Reimu sheepishly looked at the girl, a confused expression on her face. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

The girl's eyes widened in similar confusion. She said something again, and Reimu had no idea what it was. She might as well have been hearing someone make random noises for all she understood.

"Hm?" Marisa, on the other hand, seemed to pause. She poked the girl's face with the handle of her broom. "Oi, say somethin' again."

Reimu could practically see the vein flare up, and the girl grabbed the broom and pushed it back, barking indignantly at Marisa. The witch didn't seem worried, but instead closed her eyes and hummed to herself as though thinking.

Then, almost out of nowhere, Marisa started saying the same nonsense the girl was saying. The outsider seemed taken aback, before responding in kind. Before Reimu could even interject, the two had launched into some sort of conversation. Judging from the tones in their voices, it seemed like Marisa was questioning the girl, but…

Why do I get the feeling I just got my investigation stolen from me?

After a few exchanges, Marisa nodded decisively, before approaching Reimu.

"Right…" She scratched the back of her head, as though something was actually troubling her for once. "I guess we can start with names. Her name's Luka. Luka East."

"... So, let me see if I understand this correctly."

Marisa had managed to gather a surprising amount of information from just that short exchange. Firstly, they confirmed she was, in-fact, an outsider. However, the details weren't quite the same as normal. The locations and places she described as home were somewhat similar, but also notably different from the regular outsiders. Not one mention of the Hakurei Shrine in the outsider world came up, either, which ruled out Reimu's earlier theory.

Unfortunately, all of it only left them with more questions.

"What in the world is 'Ah-me-ri-ka'?" Reimu said the word like it was some kind of foreign food. "And since when did you learn… what did you call it, 'ii-gu-ri-shu'?"

"English." Marisa clarified, using a sound that sounded a little strange to Reimu's ears. She beamed proudly. "I'm a witch of many talents. I can't exactly read books on western magic without bein' just a little multilingual, y'know?"

Reimu squinted. She had a feeling Marisa didn't sound nearly as smart in practice as she did in her head. At least she knew enough to translate.

"Hmm." Reimu hummed contemplatively. "So, she doesn't speak Japanese, but an entirely different language. She's also describing her home as someplace that is similar to other places we've heard of in the outside world, but not quite…"

"Think she's from another country or somethin'?" Marisa cut in. Reimu considered it for a moment.

"It's not impossible. But it's unlikely for someone to get spirited away if they're even a moderate distance from Gensokyo's 'location'." She used the word carefully, as Gensokyo didn't exactly inhabit a traditional type of space as any other region. "To speak an entirely different language, and to be from what could be an entirely different country… I'd have noticed if the Barrier was acting up like that."

"Well," Marisa's tone of voice suddenly got really excited. "she popped up in the same place twice, right? Both outside of your shrine. That's gotta be on-purpose. D'ya think…" Uh oh. Reimu could recognize that twinkle in her eyes. "... it could be an incident?!"

"Calm down." Reimu didn't dismiss the idea, but she wasn't about to get riled up if it turned out to be nothing. "It's not like one strange happening means an incident's about to happen. She could just be some random occurrence without any connection to anything."

"Oh, c'mon, Reimu!" Marisa didn't accept that, however. "You gotta know how weird this is, right? We've gotta at least do a bit of investigation'. 'Sides, it's not like you can just chuck her across the barrier again, since we know that's a bust."

Reimu's gaze finally turned to the outsider, who'd been sitting on the sidelines while they talked. She saw her leaning over the donations box in front of her shrine, peering inside it curiously. She wasn't sure what the girl was doing, but there was a hopeful moment where she reached into her pockets… only to find nothing in them. Ugh.

Well, considering the current series of events and her position, Reimu had to make a decision. She didn't really like it when she was forced into doing that, but work was work.

"Alright. We'll take a look into this, then. Just a bit."

"Alright!"

Marisa pumped her fist, jumping to her feet (and surprising the outsider with her sudden outburst). Reimu raised an eyebrow.

"I take it you have a plan of some kind?"

"Yup." Marisa adjusted her oversized hat, a confident shine in her eyes. "First order of business: get her to speak Japanese, 'cuz I'm seriously blanking on some of the stuff she's sayin'."

…

It's going to be a long day, isn't it?

Author's Note:

I'm sure many of you recognize this setup, and I hope me opening it up from a different point of view implies enough that this isn't quite your standard "outsider-gapped-into-Gensokyo" story.

Anyways! For starters, I'd like to thank those of you who've read this far! For those of you who might recognize me from years ago, hello again! For those of you who're seeing me for the first time, nice to meet you! I intended to upload this chapter much sooner (alongside that heavy opening, whew), but you know, work is work.

Right, getting sidetracked again.

I treated these first few chapters as something of a sampler platter; that is, there's going to be different moods to this story. Stage 0 embodies many of the darker, more serious aspects of the story, and raises questions I hope you all keep stored away as you read. Stage 1, on the other hand, is much lighter and meant to be very Touhou-like. I feel like that mixture is generally how this story will be on the whole, and I hope that if you've come this far to read this, it means you're interested in that sort of thing!

As you can assume, this will be a rather plot-centric story, which naturally means this will be an ongoing, continually updated story. I can't promise a professional-level schedule, but I'm aiming to upload something roughly every week. I've written many things in advance, so I hope I can keep to that! But y'know, life is sometimes rough, so no guarantees.

Anyways, I appreciate that you've taken the time to read this! Hope your days are well, and I'll see you all next chapter!