AN: I don't own Touhou. Everything in this story is intended to be fictional in nature.

Reimu Hakurei had not been so utterly bored in a long time.

It had been a considerable amount of time since the last incident had been resolved, involving berserk fairies and simultaneous seasons. This, to Reimu, was terrible. The only times her shrine would really get donations would be after she solved incidents, or disruptions of life in Gensokyo, as a sort of congratulatory gift. Otherwise, her donation box was barren as a desert.

Some of this time was spent either trying to cook up a plan to get more donations, or conversing with her few regular visitors: Marisa, Kasen, Suika, or even even Sanae or Yukari. The only other thing she did was an occasional shopping trip for basic necessities. Most days, though, she simply did nothing, as if she wasn't motivated enough to do anything of value. Today was just another one of those sorts of days.

"Reimu?" A female voice called out from the top of the stairs leading to the shrine. "It's me!"

Reimu, who was lounging inside her shrine, recognized this voice instantly. It was that of the mountain hermit, Kasen Ibaraki, one of Reimu's most common visitors, a fairly tall woman with pink hair adorned with traditional Chinese double buns. The most distinguishable feature about Kasen, though, was that her entire right arm was wrapped in bandages, as if it were injured, at all times.

Reimu responded, "I'm inside, Kasen! Just like every other day!"

Moments later, Kasen entered the shrine itself. She was not at all surprised that Reimu was doing little to nothing. In fact, Reimu was currently lying down, staring at the ceiling, as if she had woken up and couldn't bring herself to get out of bed. Despite Kasen's best efforts, Reimu simply could not be pushed into doing anything meaningful when there wasn't an incident going on.

"Reimu, I can't believe you. How often do I have to scold you? Nobody will ever visit if you continue hiding yourself in here. And you wonder why you never get any donations…"

"And I can't believe you, Kasen," muttered Reimu quietly, "expecting to boss me around."

Kasen heard that, but ignored it; she expected that sort of retort. She was more interested in breaking news that may incentivize Reimu to take some form of action.

Sitting down, she remarked, "Well, Reimu, I'll get right to the point. Have you heard about the current… situation?"

Reimu suddenly sat up. "Situation? You finally have something good for me." After spending enough time with the shrine maiden, Kasen knew exactly what to say to get her excited.

"Mhm. I'm not sure if you've heard anything about this, Reimu, but there have been reports from across Gensokyo that various items have been stolen."

"...So what? Whoever had their stuff stolen… it's their problem, not mine."

"You're even lazier than I thought! This is quite serious, Reimu. The objects in question are all very important ones."

"I still don't see what the big deal is. I solve major incidents. I don't concern myself with thieves."

Kasen saw that Reimu would need more convincing. "What if I told you that you wouldn't be dealing with a thief, Reimu, but rather, someone much more sinister. You see, there are also several people who have not been seen in quite some time. People connected to the items stolen…"

Reimu seemed to be more interested again. "And who might these people be…?"

"You haven't noticed? It's been some time since… well, since Marisa has visited, hasn't it?"

"Marisa is missing?!" The shrine maiden stood up with a shocked expression on her face. "I thought she was just..."

"That's not all. Whoever is doing this… they must be extremely powerful. Items were stolen straight from Eientei, the Scarlet Devil Mansion, Shining Needle Castle, among other places. Naturally, these locations are quite well guarded by powerful individuals… Individuals who have seemingly vanished along with the objects swiped."

Reimu struggled to find words. Normally, those who caused incidents had at least a somewhat justifiable reason for their actions, even if it was a bit selfish or short-sighted. But this? This was flat-out malice.

"Among those reported missing are Reisen Udongein Inaba, Shinmyoumaru Sukuna, Sakuya Izayoi, Remilia Scarlet, Aya Shameimaru..."

"What the? Who could feasibly have both the ability and the motive to do this?" Reimu didn't wait for an answer. "Has anyone else been… absent?"

Kasen nodded. "Let's see… I don't know much about her, but Satori Komeiji… oh, and Alice Margatroid..."

Reimu didn't respond. She immediately gathered her standard supplies for incident solving, like her purification rod, and a large deck of Spell Cards.

Reimu was already exiting the shrine when Kasen talked to her again. "Reimu… please don't take any offense to this, but I don't know if you're up to this task..."

"I don't care what you think I can and cannot do, hermit!" Reimu stopped and snapped at Kasen.

The hermit stood up as well. "You didn't let me finish. The person who did this is evidently quite strong, perhaps strong enough to defeat you if you go alone. I would highly recommend you find some help, lest you end up another victim."

"And who would that be?"

"Well, people associated with those who have gone missing, of course. But, I already know of one person who is very interested in solving this, and they're very close by. You should talk to her..."

Reimu simply glanced quizzically at Kasen, not knowing who she might be referring to.

Kasen waited for her to get the hint, but gave up after a few seconds.

"I meant myself, Reimu," Kasen sighed, "because I happen to have a stake in this little incident… my Ibaraki Box of a Hundred Medicines has been stolen. It's… quite important to me, as you might know."

Reimu froze. She thought she saw Kasen glance at her bandaged arm after saying that, but she couldn't be sure.

Kasen glared at Reimu. "Well? Are we going to solve this, or not? I… We don't have forever."

Reimu nodded. "You said I should find people who are close to those who have been kidnapped… then, let's go to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. You said both Sakuya and Remilia have vanished, correct?"

Kasen affirmed this, and the two of them set off.

Meanwhile, hidden deep within the Forest of Magic, many missing people and items were being brought to a small, hastily constructed hut by a pair of girls. The leader was dressed in black and white with blonde hair. She had a rambunctious personality. Her sidekick wore blue and white with similar blonde hair. As opposed to the former, this girl was much more reserved, nearly to the point of introversion.

"Oi, would you mind helping me out a bit? I'm gonna drop these Eientei vials any moment now, and I really do not want to go back there to get some more. I can't believe I managed to swipe these without alerting more than just Reisen…"

"Can't you see that I'm lugging the maid? I'm really not cut out for this kind of work… I can't believe you made me do this. At least we've got some help, or we'd be here for the rest of your life."

"Just put her down, would you? It's not like she's gonna be waking up any time soon..."

"Fine."

"There, that's much better… and come on, I didn't make you do a single thing. If I remember right, you were the one who volunteered to help."

"Well, I didn't think that helping you get a stupid servant would involve all this… Reimu will beat us to a pulp when she figures this out, all because you just have to have your own unique slave-type spell card. Besides, it kind of seems like you're already making a servant out of me."

The leader turned to the subordinate. "Hey, that's not all! I want actual servants who won't talk back to me. Like your dolls, but cooler. These items may help us out with that. And come on, you know what you're getting out of this. I think you can agree that it's worth it."

"Well, it's true that I have been looking for a method for quite some time, but… is this really necessary?"

"You seemed to think so when you agreed to the plan."

"Whatever. Can we at least finish dragging all these things into the hut, first?"

With a nod, the leader brought the concoctions into the small house, with the follower close behind. There were several small rooms within, each of them containing an unconscious victim or two, along with some basic supplies and two beds in a larger main room.

"Alright," said the leader, "let's put these down and finish dragging in Sakuya and Remilia. Then we can have the tea your little helpers made."

"I deserve it, at this point…" the other grumbled.

Heading back outside, the duo dragged in the maid and her mistress, the vampire.

"I'm surprised you were able to take these two out in succession." commented the second. "You're tough, yes, but the lady of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and her servant? I'm impressed."

"It was pretty rough… if Patchouli was awake when I broke into the library, she would have fought me, and she was probably only asleep 'cause of her, uhh… sickliness, I guess you could call it? Anyways, I was already so tired from those two that she would have taken me out instantly." The leader pointed to Sakuya and Remilia as she said this. "So it's thanks to that frail librarian that I managed to pull off this heist."

"You know, you could have called for a little support…"

"Psssh. We agreed that I would be the one to do the thievery; that's my style, after all. You're the brains of this outfit."

"I'm the brains? These are your plans. Besides, I'm the one doing as you say…"

"And all of my plans were based on your advice! And now you're helping me carry them out."

"Heh… I guess I'm giving myself orders, then? Isn't the leader supposed to relegate the grunt work to their minions?"

"No, that's what you do."

Both of them shared a laugh at this remark, as they finished bringing in their kidnapped victims. They took care to put them in the correct rooms; this specific part of the plan had been changed many times before its final state.

"Now," the leader said, sitting down, "we've just gotta wait until Satori wakes up. Then it's time to win her over… I'll leave that to you, Miss Manipulator."

"What did you call me? 'Miss Manipulator'? I suppose it's not inaccurate… but I'm not sure if I'm up to the task. I'm not as, ah, forceful as you are…" the other also took a chair and a sip of tea.

"D'aww, you'll be fine. After you ask her some questions, make some demands… then you won't have to do any more work! I'll be the one making sure she doesn't try to pull anything and escape. Or…"

Just then, both of them heard a quiet moan from one of their makeshift cells. Specifically, it was the one farthest from the entrance to the hut.

The leader smirked. "And here I was, thinking I was gonna enjoy some tea. Looks like one of our prisoners interrupted that before I could even get started! Let's see… the final room? That would be Reisen, if I remember right."

The supporter shook her head, while standing up and pushing in her chair. "Reisen is in the second farthest. Satori is in that one. Which means it's time for the meat of our plan to go into action. It also means I get to negotiate with a mind-reader. Oh, joy."

The duo entered the cell, which was occupied solely by Satori Komeiji. Satori, named for her youkai species, was a resident of Former Hell; she was the head of the Palace of Earth Spirits. The Third Eye attached to her like some sort of external organ gave her the ability to read minds, but it also made her hated by anyone who had a thought process for her to follow.

The prisoner slowly looked up at her captors. An expression of shock was evident on her face as she recognized one of them.

"It can't… you… what are you doing? What do you want from me?" Satori quietly addressed the leader of the pair of captors, who then squatted down right next to her.

"I won't be doing anything… For now, anyways. It'll be my friend you're going to talk to. As for what I want… you tell me!"

Satori adhered to the request and focused on reading the leader's mind as well as she could; she still wasn't completely awake from her state of unconsciousness. "You want a servant? But not me… you mean, you want to know how to make one for yourself..."

"That's the long and short of it; guess I'll explain in further detail later. Let's just say it's pretty elaborate." The leader stood up. "Now, I'll be taking my leave, 'cause I've got some tea to drink."

She turned around and walked out of the room. Satori, still confused, started to stand up. The other girl, who she didn't recognize, glared at her. A girl wearing blue and white, with blonde hair…

The leader started yelling from outside Satori's room. "Hey, uhh… You want me to bring you some of your tea, Alice?"

Alice broke eye contact with Satori. "Yes, Marisa. I'll have a doll bring it over, though."

Marisa brought the tea over to Alice anyways. Looking in through the doorway, Marisa teased, "Don't worry, Satori. We don't want too much from you. But we do need you to do some things for us…"

The door closed, leaving just Satori and Alice.

The subordinate to Marisa shook her head. "I don't understand how she thinks sometimes. Rest assured, though, she's right. We don't want to hurt you, or anything like that."

"So she does want to have her own servants," Satori commented, "but how do I work into this nasty conspiracy? You won't be getting my pets."

Alice frowned. "No, Satori. I disagree with some of her methods, but-"

"She wants me… to work alongside you two? As an interrogator…"

This time, Alice smiled cheerfully. "I'm glad you understand, and I hope you have no issues with that. Like I said, we don't want to have to use force, but if we must…" The smile changed from one of happiness to a more menacing version, and Alice produced a small formation of dolls armed with lances and swords to back it up.

"Make your choice, Satori."