"Piece of cake."

After uttering those words she felt any energy she had in her body leave it. She struggled a bit to stand still, before falling to her knees, panting heavily as the adrenaline provided by the encounter slowly stopped affecting her body. Tears of pain gathered in the corners of her eyes. Her body was in agony and it really wanted to let her know that, considering the amount of pain she was currently in.

Idly, she noticed that the sun which has already settled over the horizon in Gensokyo seemed to still have been up in the sky although covered by dark clouds. She drew in a shuddering breath and gently wiped her eyes, hissing in pain as the skin on both her face and hand reminded her that she's definitely enjoying at least second degree magical burns on most of her body. At least they healed way faster than the normal kind.

"God… I'm… I'm so pathetic." She grunted out between heavy breaths.

She's may have been hit harder than this before but never while so low on her magic reserves. If she hadn't used some of the last bits of her magic for body reinforcement when Marisa cast her Master Spark on her she would be either vaporized completely or unconscious, halfway melted and dying, with an uncomfortably higher likelihood of the second one.

Really, the protection from any real damage offered by the Spellcard Rules would have been incredibly convenient a minute ago.

She realized with not a small of disgust, that if somehow a younger version of herself or even just one who didn't get thrashed by the hag and therefore didn't possess a bit more humility than she normally had found her right now, they would die laughing at her sight, humiliate her even more and then put her out of her misery in that order.

She knew that if anyone outside of her immediate family did even so much as look in her general direction right now she'd kill herself trying to murder them. Her late father's words echoed in her mind.

"You always had power didn't you Rin? Never be afraid to use it to do what you set out to do. Crush anyone who would oppose you. Way I see it, in this place might makes right. The hesitant and frail get trampled and tossed aside to be eaten by the wolves. Don't show any weaknesses or they will shred you to pieces and drag you down to the bottom with them."

Every time she looked back on things, she realized more and more just how damaging the raving rants that her father started going off on after mother's death were to her child self's relatively easily shaped world view. Thankfully, Ayaka Hakurei, her beloved sensei managed to straighten her out enough for her to be capable of social interaction, at least once she could get custody over her. It really would have been terrible if her mentality made her consider civilians thrash that deserved no respect unless they proved their worth in a fight to the death. Sadly, she didn't manage to fully help her out with combatants before she met her untimely death and she was left to regress back nearly to the beginning on that front. Thankfully she was lucky enough not to mess up her teacher's daughter into being complete reject of society by sheer proximity to her. Mima really helped out on that front.

It was really telling that how terrible you really were, when an evil spirit hellbent on taking revenge on humanity did a better job raising a human child than you did. Though Marisa, while more socially capable turned out to be a kleptomaniac with an unrelenting drive to gain more magical power, so it may be that they were roughly equal in that department.

"Gods, I'm such a… piece of shit." She grumbled and frowning she slowly, shakily made her way over to the ruined shrine's staircase a grimace coming onto her face. She knew she had really big issues for years, most of them kick started by father. Keine did admit that both she and Ayaka tried as hard as they could to manipulate the entire situation so she wouldn't end up damaged like she did, so she could be a normal, well adjusted person. She was a living testament to the fact that it only took a single, seemingly good thing to happen for a plan years long in the making to be ruined.

Climbing the shrine's four steps was a challenge like no other she ever experienced. It took her almost a minute to reach the top of them, the task of raising her knees repeatedly too great to do so repeatedly without a break and once she managed to reach the top she immediately collapsed on the half rotten wood.

The floorboards immediately screamed in protest and buckled under her weight, indenting slightly before collapsing under her head. Spikes of wood prickled the back of her neck, threatening to break skin and allow whatever nasty bacteria or mold was on them to get into her bloodstream.

"Motherfucker!" She shouted, quickly rolling over on her side onto her belly and whimpering quietly as her body reminded her why that was such a bad idea.

"Haah… I hate… being this… fucking weak..." She tried to slow down her ragged breathing, if only to focus on something else than the sound of her own heart thundering in her chest.

She just laid there for a while, trying to calm down, listening to the quiet, comforting sounds of nature and the strange mechanical sound in the distance. She took notice of the severe downgrade in the amount of background magic in the Outside World. The recovery of her magic pool will be much slower but at least she'll have the time to get used to being a breathing, living, existing person again.

"Well… on the upside… this cannot… get any worse..."

In response, the sky growled several seconds later as lightning crackled overhead as if she spoke some magic words. In a few seconds tiny droplets of rain started mercilessly bombarding the patchy roof above.

She took in a deep breath. Anger swelled in her mind, her fists clenched.

And after a while she let out a large, tired and suffering sigh.

"Just… fucking end me now..." She grumbled and closed her eyes.

Sleep came and claimed her in seconds.

She woke with a start as a huge magical signature rapidly entered her sensing range before coming to a halt in mere moments a kilometer off or so.

A short investigation of it brought rather interesting results. It was a near perfect match in magnitude to Reimu's and while not feeling anything like her adopted daughter's or teacher's signature it had a certain sense of… familiarity, to it? She couldn't quite put her finger on it but thankfully she didn't recognize it as that hag's and any of her shikigami.

Which meant that there was at least one outsider who possessed an unnaturally large magic pool. Sort of similar to herself, only her own was even larger still, if completely filled, due to sheer luck and practice. She slowly stood up, carefully analyzing the signature. It was raw, in constant shift; Whoever it's owner was, it was clear they didn't have much control over it. Their magic was constantly leaking out of their pool in incredibly minuscule amounts, instantly replaceable by the natural draw from the environment everyone had. They weren't close to any standards set by any self respecting magician or at least no one halfway capable ever showed them the ropes. And since they had so much naturally, they probably used it before, even if they didn't realize it. Unconsciously manipulating your surroundings was only natural if you had so much power at your fingertips. Given they were an Outsider who had a really small chance of contact with any real magic users however, it was possible they kept using it and rationalizing it as something else. If they didn't believe magic was possible. Some did from what she learned from talking to random people who were spirited away into Gensokyo. Some also apparently truly believed in shape shifting space lizard men that were taking over the world governments by replacing politicians one by one. Her father even seemed to believe in an organization called the "Illuminous" or something stupid like that controlling the world. Which was preposterous, of course.

Maybe she could try cutting a deal with them? Serve as a tutor in the magical arts for a few months, hide her own currently nearly untraceable signature under their massive one (just in case), while she regained her strength. Then, once she's done with teaching them go back to Gensokyo.

She looked herself over. Her clothes were a bit torn and burnt, courtesy of Marisa's Master Spark. Thankfully magic burns healed rather quickly, as more often than not if you lived through the damage, your body tended to assimilate the harmful magic's residue on it's own. Though the cosmetic damage they left behind tended to last at least a day.. Her skin had a rather visible red tint to it, but otherwise she was fine, if not really presentable. She certainly didn't feel she'd have an urge to murder anyone who saw her currently, so she must be feeling reasonably confident in her appearance.

As she walked down the stairs, she felt around her own magic reserves. She clicked her tongue; They were incredibly low – barely enough for a few magical light spells, few wind slices, maybe a fireball if she pushed it. Should be enough to convince them magic is real if they turn out to be a skeptic.

She really hoped they wouldn't though.

It would be such a waste of talent to leave them to their own devices. Really, she disliked few things in life and hated even less. She actually tended to be disliked and hated much more. But amongst the few things she felt particularly strong about, the biggest contenders were that hag, a rather recent addition to the list all things considered, anyone who dared to threaten, heaven-forbid hurt her family and wasting potential. And if she managed to find herself a powerful ally? Well that would just be a small bonus.

And so she walked through the forest, with a small spring to her step.

The woods were oddly quiet around her. The usual forest ambiance lacked the typical singing of various birds and if it weren't for the occasional sound of a snapped branch off in the distance, she'd think there was no animals in here. She wasn't all that bothered about the lack of animal calls, given that she was more of a "whisper of the wind in the leaves" kinda gal.

"How strange. Perhaps their animal instincts register me as dangerous?" She mused. The thought certainly stroked her ego in the right way. However, it was simply far more likely the animals in the Outside World were simply afraid of all humans, unlike the ones in Gensokyo. Which was fair, since the usual human in Gensokyo was as much a prey animal as a common bunny. Most people never left the village outside of special occasions.

She snapped out of her thoughts as she spotted the end of the treeline. The signature's owner remained in place, thankfully, not moving too much over time it took her to get here. They were probably just wandering about in their house. How convenient.

She felt around with her magical sense again. It was a bit harder since their huge signature would suppress any other in the vicinity. After a few moments she was able to confirm there weren't any humans in a large radius but the two of them. Perfect.

With her next step, she broke the treeline. There in the middle of a forest clearing was a house. It was two stories tall and painted bright blue, with a gravel road leading to a smaller building connected with it and a smaller path branching away towards a small flight of stairs leading up to what she assumed to be the front door. Looking at the windows she didn't see anyone walking around inside, but still, she approached cautiously.

She idly noted that size-wise, the house could be called a small mansion in Gensokyo. The human need for food already limited the amount of space they could dedicate towards housing and expansion was nigh-impossible with smarter and more observant youkai immediately taking notice and attacking the outer verges of humanity's territory. There were limits imposed on the sizes of housing for everyone unless they wanted to really try their luck and build a bigger house on the outskirts. Few had the money and even fewer had the political clout required to build anything larger inside the village. Keine had her school because the entire village was taught by her, and everyone generally just let her do her own thing without any complaining. Hieda's family was quite frankly the richest by a long shot, with entire families of servants working for them at their absolutely ridiculously over sized mansion as she focused on compiling human knowledge of Gensokyo. She herself has the status necessary or rather had the status necessary, given the current circumstances, granted to her by her position of the village's greatest alive defender but she never actually did anything with it.

She paused before the stairs for a second and squinting she inspected at the building.

After a short while she decided that she could, at least, say with confidence that it was still smaller than the Tengu's homes.

Seriously it's like everyone up on Youkai Mountain with a wolf tail or crow wings owned an honest-to-gods mansion.

She resumed her approach and walked up the stairs. The door didn't have visible doorbell but rather a weird tiny box with a button on it around her eye level and a handle below it.

Now how to approach this? She gave it some consideration.

"Ah, screw planning for the conversation." She muttered. "No plan survives the first contact with the enemy."

She took a breath, and decided to just wing it, pressing the button. A low buzzing sound made itself known behind the door and she heard someone groan inside in response. A few seconds later there was a sound of feet hitting the floor as the person inside slowly shuffled themselves towards the door.

She felt apprehension for a brief moment before she squashed the feeling. She couldn't back away now.

The door was unlocked and summarily nearly ripped of it's hinges

"How many times do we have to repeat that mother does not take requests for private sho- Huh?"

As she saw the teenager who opened the door she decided that "Huh" was indeed a correct reaction. The girl's brown hair was the exact same shade as Reimu's and the same could be said for her eyes. She blinked and in her head she took off the glasses from the girl's face before superimposing a memory of Reimu's face on the girl's and, oh wow was that a close match. Not identical but very close indeed. How peculiar.

And as much as she'd like to think about that more the girl seemingly got out of her own stupor.

"Are you okay Miss?" She nearly yelled, walking forward and looking her over. "Do you want me to call an ambulance?" She asked taking out what she could only presume was a phone out of her school girl uniform's pocket.

"Do I look okay to you?" She heard herself snap before she could react. The girl cringed and looked away.

"Right. Sorry."

She sighed.

"You don't need to call an ambulance-" She didn't know what it was but she assumed it was something health related "-because I'm here for something else."

Immediately the girl's gaze narrowed and she pointed a finger at her face. "If you think you can get the show by pity you're going to be sorely dissapoint-"

She was starting to get real annoyed by her attitude. She raised her right hand.

"Also what I'm not here for kid. I don't know who your mother is or what kind of shows she puts on. What I'm here for-" She snapped her fingers and a small ball of flames was conjured over her open palm "-is this."

The girl gaped momentarily and fell silent. She looked at the flame as if it was the strangest thing in the world before speaking up, her voice slightly cracking up.

"Magic."

She nodded. Before she could say anything the girl's gaze sharpened.

"How do I know this isn't some sort of trick?" The girl asked suspiciously.

"How would you like me to prove it to you?" She retorted.

"Roll up your sleeve."

She quietly did so.

"No lighting mechanisms..." The girl muttered. "Okay, now throw it over there." She pointed towards the grass beside the stairs. She gently tossed it down. It hit the earth blackening the grass it landed on and wilting the grass nearby.

"Do it again."

Another finger snap. She was going to run out of juice at this rate.

The girl reached out and touched it.

"Ow! That hurts!" She rolled her own eyes in response.

"Well of course it does. You've touched a live flame."

"Yeah, yeah laugh it up." She grumbled, blowing air on her hand.

"Here let me." She reached out and touched the burns on the girl's fingers and casting a small healing spell and immediately swearing mentally. Damned healing, always taking so much. She was completely dry.

"So, convinced yet?" She asked as nonchalantly as she could.

One second later she was dragged inside unceremoniously.

Author's Note: Finally done! I took too much time with this one and then I got stuck at the end! Thankfully I managed to work it out and I'm done with this chapter. Also I made changes in the previous chapters, the big one being completely erasing the mention of our heroine's parent's divorce. During the sweet ass long time I've spent on writing (procrastinating) this chapter I also changed the timeline of this setting a bit as well as solidified the backstory and what I actually want to write here. Previously I wasn't so sure but I think I have what's going to be the final version of the story in my head. It's certainly a lot more ambitious than before and we're probably gonna be here for a few years even if I did pump out a chapter every week or two.

Also I un-emboldened a lot of the mentions of breaking as the power in the second chapter. In hindsight, emboldening it all was kinda silly. I've also made a few minor spelling and grammatical fixes and I'm probably going to be upping the story rating to mature at some point.

Sadly I can't guarantee when's the next chapter of anything since finals are slowly creeping behind the corner. However if it's gonna be anything it'll likely end up being Fairy Tail's Celestial.

Anyway I'm a bit too tired for review responding so off to dreamland with me now! I might edit that in tomorrow though. See you next time!

~Whiskas