The cover image illustration was commissioned from dlartistanon on Tumblr.

"Reimu! H-hey, Reimu, wake up!"

"Ran, please start calculating her survival chances. Hurry!"

"Right away."

"Reimu! Say somethin'!"

"Marisa, calm down."

"Calm down?! Her guts are hangin' out!"

Reimu's consciousness came dribbling back in a bit at a time, but her mind remained fuzzy and untethered. The noises of the outside world lurked beneath her perception, like a half-forgotten dream, until the sound of her own name repeated half a dozen times awakened something in her. Reimu... With that one breakthrough, she once again became aware of her own existence. Her brain struggled to piece itself back together, but it was hard. Everything felt so far away, even herself. Fuzzy, indistinct impressions filtered to her from her body, but she couldn't find a route back to tell it open your eyes or stand up.

"Marisa, we need to move. You're getting in the way."

"Fuck you, I'm...! … okay. Okay. Fuck. Okay, I'm goin'. Whatever."

Marisa and Alice... The thought drifted around in her head for a while before she realized it was her own. It was important, but she wasn't sure why. All the different parts of her brain had been packed into cotton, it felt like, and they couldn't quite hear each other talking...

"It's dangerous to move her. Marisa, you're the fastest. Please go to Eientei and fetch the doctor."

"H-huh? D-doc, right! Don't let her die! You hear me?!"

"Reimu. Reimu, answer me. Reimu, I can help you, but I need you to respond. Reimu! Reimu, do you understand?! You are going to die."

"Her odds of surviving medical treatment are no higher than 14%."

From her abdomen, Reimu felt a sharp spark of pain. It quickly burst into an explosion, a searing wave of agony in her stomach. It sparked something in her mind, though, and she was jerked into temporary awareness. With a sharp intake of breath, her whole body jolted. Her back arched, and her eyes flew open.

It was weird. The pain felt so far away, like it was happening to somebody else. The whole thing did. She could poke at it with her mind, consider it from every angle, but it didn't bother her. Her heart was beating so fast that it felt like it was buzzing. Her breath came in short, frantic gasps.

Overhead, bamboo towered above her, and past it, the night sky. When she tried to lift her head, somebody pushed it back down. She saw all that she needed to, anyway—her stomach had been ripped open. Glistening wet bits were sticking out, in a massive amount of blood. Yukari was bent over her, blood on her hands and tears in her eyes.

I'm dying, Reimu thought, with no more concern than she might normally think I should have fish for dinner. Even as part of her realized that she should be panicking, she found that she just couldn't. It was almost relaxing. Off to the side, she could hear somebody sobbing.

"Reimu! Reimu, do you hear me?! You are going to die. Please, listen. Please. I can save you. Do you agree to be my shikigami?"

It was Yukari. Reimu's eyes struggled to focus on her. The cotton in her brain was getting thicker, and she felt so tired. "Reimu, do you understand me? You're been hurt. You're dying."

Reimu tried to ignore her. She didn't care, she just wanted to rest. Yukari continued, pulling her head up and pushing her face in closer. "Reimu! You are going to die." There were tears in Yukari's eyes, Reimu dimly noticed. She tried to remember if she'd ever seen her cry. Probably not. "Please, agree to be my shikigami."

Reimu could feel her thoughts slipping away. Comfortable oblivion clouded in around her consciousness. But as she slipped under, she managed to silently mouth, Yes.

Reimu drifted back to awareness slowly, coaxed along by her senses. The first sensation was soft covers piled over her and warm sun falling on her face. Outside, birds were chirping. She felt wonderful, right on the border between sleep and full alertness, well-rested but not yet quite fully conscious.

With a content sigh, she rolled over and pulled the covers in tighter. It was the perfect setup to linger in bed for hours. When she got up, she could cook a leisurely breakfast, open the door to enjoy the spring air, and relax all afternoon.

Something seemed strange about the whole situation, though. Even half-asleep, some little corner of her brain whispered that this was wrong. It all just felt... off. Had her futon always been this soft? Since when did her sleeping area get sunlight...? They were small doubts, but they persisted, eroding holes in Reimu's comfortable cocoon of sleep. More thoughts trickled in, and with them, a single memory: seeing her own torn-open stomach. Yukari bent over her, with blood staining her gloves up to her elbows.

She was in danger.

Reimu's entire being clenched in anxiety, and she leapt up to sitting, already prepared to fight or flee. But she found... nothing. She was sitting in a massive bed, piled high with violet pillows, sheets, covers, and comforters. The room around her was a strange mish-mash of styles. An ornate armoire stood against the far wall, and on the wall between, a vanity. The walls were wood, and the only decorations were a few calligraphy scrolls and a vase of violets sitting on a stand next to the bed. The door, at the far end of the room, was closed.

The surroundings seemed safe, but the adrenaline rush still kept her heart hammering in her ears. Her hands were shaking as she pulled the covers in around herself again. She tried to remember where she was or how she got here, but her memories were a foggy, indistinct mess.

She could remember... she, Marisa, and Sanae had headed into the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, intending to track down a youkai who had been killing villagers for weeks. Yukari had said it was dangerous and insisted on coming along. Marisa and Sanae had brought along Alice and Aya to even things out. And then... Nothing. Hazy memories of faraway shouting and the sight of her own innards.

Sliding to the edge of the bed, Reimu inspected herself. She was wearing a plain white yukata that she'd never seen before. Uneasily, she unwrapped the belt from her waist, then slipped it open to look at abdomen. She was relieved to find it intact. A jagged scar, thin and white like it had been healed for years, ran across her stomach. So she hadn't dreamed it. Hesitantly, she touched the scar, and it throbbed in dull pain.

Slowly, her pulse returned to normal. She was safe. Somebody must have taken her in while she recovered. Even so, something was strange. It should have taken months for the injury to heal that far. Had she been out for that long? Maybe Eirin had treated her. Eientei had all sorts of strange medications, so it wouldn't be hard to believe.

So... now what?

It was a good question. She felt like she should probably get a better idea of what was going on before she let anybody know she was awake. At least figure out where she was and how long she'd been unconscious.

Reimu slid to the floor, and the motion sent another twinge of pain through her stomach. Padding barefoot around the bed, she approached the vanity to get a better look at herself. The moment that she caught her reflection, something about it felt wrong. In new clothes and with her hair down, her reflection had an unfamiliar edge to it to begin with, but it didn't take long for the key difference to jump out at her: Her eyes were violet.

Reimu craned her head side to side in front of the mirror, inspecting herself from every angle, but it stayed constant. Her irises were a vivid, attention-grabbing violet.

A chill ran over her. The healing, she could easily explain away, but this... this was something different. Had the injury done something to her? She blinked her eyes a few times, rubbing at them, but the strange coloration stayed. Whatever it was, it seemed like it was part of her now.

Finding herself barely able to look away from her own reflection, Reimu took stock of her body in front of the mirror. Apart from her eyes and the scar, there was nothing amiss. She felt good. She felt better than she had in years, actually. The perils of a decade of youkai-hunting had taken their toll on her, in the form of a few lingering aches that refused to fade. They were all gone now. Even her energy level seemed higher than usual. After sleeping for so long, she should have taken half an hour to wake up. Instead, she already felt like she could jog to the village and back if she wanted.

When she was satisfied, Reimu tied her robe closed and considered her options. Something strange had happened, and she could no longer be sure that whoever had brought her here had good intentions. It would be best to figure out where she was, sneak out, and head back to the shrine to get her bearings. If everything was fine, she could always thank her rescuer later.

Before she could leave, she needed to get the yin-yang orbs back. There was no way she could leave those behind. She needed to figure out where she was. If possible, she should probably try to figure out who had brought her here... but first things first. Moving to the window over the bed, she took a peek outside.

The landscape looked nondescript at a first glance. Gently rolling hills, covered in trees and grass... it was the scenery of practically any location in Gensokyo. Youkai Mountain wasn't dominating the horizon, which gave her some reference point. It meant that she was facing away from the mountain. In front of her, the sun was hovering near the horizon, so she was facing East or West. East from Youkai Mountain would be toward the shrine, and she didn't recognize the terrain...

As she pondered through that, a bit of movement in the sky caught her attention. Before she could write it off as a bird, she noticed that it was leaving a white streak behind itself. Uneasily, her subconscious dredged up a word that she'd heard Sanae use a few times: Airplane.

Reimu backed away from the window, and found herself uncomfortable with looking toward it. Had the Barrier come down? Had she somehow ended up in the outside world? … neither of those options were particularly reassuring. Calm down, she told herself. I was with Marisa and Sanae when I got attacked, right? Whatever happened, they have to be already trying to fix it.

Or they died, another part of her whispered. She did her best to disregard it. There wasn't time for that right now.

Wherever she was, she needed to get out of here before she worried about finding her way home.

As silently as she could, Reimu searched through the room. The armoire was empty, apart from some clothes hangers. The drawers on the vanity held only an inkstone, inkstick, a brush, and a stack of paper. The place was empty. It was like they'd set it up just for her. Her clothes, gohei, and yin-yang orbs were nowhere to be found, though, which meant that she was going to need to search outside of the room.

Leaning against the wall, Reimu reached over and eased the door open. Outside was an expansive room, decorated in the same strange mixture of both regular and more Western furniture. She crept outward, looked around...

And only then noticed Yukari kneeling at a low table in the middle of the room. Had she always been there? It seemed kind of hard to miss somebody in a pastel violet dress, and yet, there she was. Her back was to the door, but that golden hair was unmistakable. She was holding a newspaper, and seemed engrossed in it. For a moment, Reimu dared to hope that Yukari hadn't notice her, until the youkai spoke up. "Good morning, Reimu," she said, without once looking over her shoulder. "It's nice to see you up and about. We're overdue for a talk, I feel."