Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.

"Letters To Reimu" is a series of handwritten letters by the populace of Gensokyo, in honor of her sacrifice, while living out their remaining broken lives in the modern-day Outer World. This story is set some years after a fictional ending of the Subterranean Animism, where Reimu Hakurei was defeated and actually killed by Reiuji Usutho, allowing the nuclear hell raven to succeed in conquering the world of Gensokyo.

The result was an irradiated Gensokyo. With surface, water, underground and air tainted with dangerous radiation, Yukari Yakumo had given the order for the populace to evacuate, moving through a gap to the only world she had found hospitable; our world, Earth. Most of the cast survived Usutho's onslaughts, but nobody had ever managed to recover the Hakurei Miko's broken body from Former Hell. After everybody had slipped through the gap to Earth, Yukari had sealed off Gensokyo, leaving only Usutho to her lonely self and, if ever possible, Reimu's corpse in her final resting place.

Each chapter consists of how a member of the cast lives through his/her daily life in a new environment and a somewhat soul-reaching letter to the miko whom they would never get to meet again.

Story title inspired by "Letters from Iwo Jima", but has no other reference to the film or actual event.

Information regarding radiation in this story should NOT be referenced for official uses. They are, by large, inaccurate and do not depict the actual procedures for treatment and control.

"Hmm," the young girl brought up the broken doll for a closer inspection. "It isn't really broken, you know?"

"It is broken!" the much younger girl insisted, stamping her feet lightly on the ground. "Mimi would not speak with me any longer! You gotta help me, Alice!"

"Sure, sure, just let me figure out what's wrong."

Alice Margatroid took a screwdriver and loosened the screws holding the battery pack in place. Removing the old batteries, she replaced them with some of her own and tightened the screws up again. "It must have been due to weak batteries."

The little girl pressed a button on the back of the doll, which suddenly sprang to life. Thanking the doll master, she quickly left the apartment which doubled as Alice's abode and repair shop. Sighing again as she wrapped up a charity job for the small girl, Alice got back to sewing new clothes for her personal collection of dolls.

The Outer World, or Earth as it was known as, was somewhat similar to Gensokyo, except the populace of Earth was extremely advanced in technology. Magic was almost nonexistent and automation was an everyday concession most of the populace took granted for. Gensokyo's populace, which had secretly integrated themselves with the humans, found themselves stripped of their magical powers, only to be left as strong, or weak in some cases, as the next human they could find anywhere.

In Alice's case, she found herself no longer able to maintain a spiritual connection between her dolls. It was as if those dolls were made for either display or ventriloquism, which required physical strings to be attached. However, adapting to her new environment, she had studied the ways of electronics and was finally able to automate her first and favorite doll, Shanghai.

The same doll now shuffled on stiff limbs with a tray in hand, placing it with robotic stiffness on the table where Alice sat. The former Seven Colored Puppeteer Youkai, over the past three years, had felt her human side returning, and slowly noticed herself aging. On the tray were medicines of different types; Alice picked out a glass bottle of pills labeled 'XYZ Iodine' and popped two of its contents into her mouth, washing them down her throat with a glass of water already available on the tray.

Shanghai proceeded to pulling the roller chair away from the table for her master, allowing Alice to stand up without much difficulty. That action was not needed, but with a little knowledge in programming, the former youkai puppeteer thought it would be a nice touch to a personal home service.

Walking into her bedroom, she took off her garments and inspected herself against the technological marvel known as a mirror. Picking up a bottle of lotion from her vanity table, she began slathering some of the lotion across dark spots on her body. "The results of radiation burns, miss," a doctor had told her. "There's nothing we can do. In every case of prolonged exposure, the victim would already have died, but you are showing some exceptional resistance to radiation. The burns are permanent, I'm afraid, but some lotion may soothe the pain it might cause."

Finishing with the lotion, she returned her clothes onto her body and sat down at the study table. A plastic bag containing a pink envelope with intricate designs covering it and a clean sheet of A4-sized paper sat on the table, along with modern stationery she had purchased from the local stationery shop.

Her mind began wandering back to those happy years in Gensokyo and finally ending, with a quiet sob, with Reimu's unfortunate demise. She hadn't known why she had, one day, decided to write a letter to the miko, whom she knew would never have the chance to read it. Reimu's probably resting peacefully, she might find us one day in this world and read it.

Tearing the packaging aside, she began writing the characters of Reimu's full name on the envelope. While every blank was filled in ink, only the address bar was filled with dark wet stains of tear droplets; Alice could not bring herself to describe the exact address, but neither was it needed; she had no idea on how to deliver the letter to Reimu. The postman is gonna wonder where exactly Hakurei Shrine is, much less Gensokyo.

Still in her somber mood, she idly doodled random drawings on the envelope itself, adding them to the already well-designed enveloped she had purchased at an expensive price. Another drop of tear had fallen onto where the tip of her pen was, smudging the ink and leaving a black mess on the surface. Realizing she would only make matters worse, Alice placed the envelope aside and gave her full attention to the white piece of paper. She sat at the table for the next few hours, missing out on dinner and even sleep.

Dear Reimu

Words cannot describe the pain I felt when you left me. Alone. I'm having a hard time coping without you, even as I write this, I'm still trying to live on without your presence, your everyday lonesome self who watched over Gensokyo.

I can never forget the very first time you beat me into the ground, and then left me to fend for myself as you continued on with your mission. I swore to myself never to forgive you if we ever met again, and years later, we did. Training hard, I was pretty sure I would be on the same level as you, to defeat you and make you suffer like I did then. How wrong was I, you seemed to had already grown exponentially stronger while I only managed a linear improvement.

Ever since, your living presence at the shrine only served to strengthen my resolve in defeating you in a duel. It was as if you were waiting there, ever so patiently, for my arrival and your own defeat at the hands of a puppeteer. Your days of loneliness served as retribution for kicking and leaving us youkai aside, the lack of donations to your shrine served as a reminder of your evil deeds.

Us youkai, most of us just want to be youkai, but you have forgotten that a handful of us, myself namely, was once human, just like you are… or were. Your cruel methods in resolving youkai incidents, they irked me, some of which still scares me even today. Although I have not been at the receiving end of your 'exorcisms', my hate for you remained unwavering.

Marisa came to me one day and told me about her adventures with you as her sidekick, although it's widely known it was the exact opposite. At first, I pretended to listen while maintaining my loathe for you, but as she continued with the stories, something within me began to sympathize with you. It was as if the Reimu I knew was totally different from the Reimu my neighbor had always been talking about. That was also when I started to realize your reasons for carrying out those missions of yours.

How selfish was I to have thought otherwise; you were shouldering a very heavy burden, one which I would have never been able to hold even for a second. The very existence of Gensokyo was mostly due to your efforts in stamping down incidents that would have destroyed Her. Yukari might be the one who created the world, but you acted as the enforcer, a hero of justice. That had got me thinking, what if one day you decided to ignore a large threat? Would any of my selfish hatred for you solve anything? Would I have been able to step into your shoes and shoulder that responsibility?

You were alone in your life mission, Reimu; nobody else could have understood you. Everybody shunned you for your attitude, yet we were foolishly blind to the One Who Saves Gensokyo. All those talks of faith, of magical powers, of time control, they had nothing to do with what you had to accomplish to keep our lives in Gensokyo stable.

I had realized this, for a fact, only some months before your last mission underground. Those days of me visiting your shrine empty handed while you grudgingly served me tea, they were moments to be cherished. I was resolved to not defeat you in a duel for revenge, but to defeat you to make you realize there were, and still are, people who would gladly support you in your cause, no matter what you had done to us in the past. The purity of our smiles as we chatted through the daylight, it was indeed memorable. When you smiled, you smiled with your heart, and when we left for home, you continued to smile, knowing you had friends after all.

When you finally decided to investigate the Underground, I knew that I could trust you to do your thing, and then emerge to the surface victorious, yet another day saved thanks to the Hakurei shrine maiden. You saving Gensokyo, it was something we, everybody in Gensokyo, had taken for granted. Little did we know, that was the very last time we would ever cherish the peace we enjoyed over the years under your keen watch.

Usutho burst from geysers all over the land, burning down and destroying our lives in the span of half a day. Valiant heroes took it up to themselves to attempt to stop She Who Killed The Miko, but had severely underestimated her powers. The massive battles left many dead, and the whole of Gensokyo was irradiated. Yukari, with her knowledge of what radiation might do to us, ordered us to leave Gensokyo, and here I am, in the safety of the Outer World, while your burnt body is still lying somewhere in the Underground, if any of it remained.

I feel ashamed, Reimu. Ashamed not because I couldn't save you, just like everyone had felt, but ashamed because I did not treasure your presence, right from the beginning. Respect for you was purely out of fear of being sealed away. Deep down within yourself, you knew that too, yet our grudging approval for you did not deter you from attempting this dangerous mission.

Life in the Outer World, as expected, is completely different from Gensokyo. In the days of the old, the air was fresh from your pure intentions, the grass green and healthy with your protection. Here, we live in air so polluted a rare flower I had grown in my back garden in the Forest of Magic would have wilted quickly enough. Back then, food was easily available, but now I have to work my body to the limits just to gain enough money to survive. Heh, that does sound like what you had experienced before, doesn't it?

We did not leave Gensokyo empty handed; everybody brought along a painful reminder of your exploits; radiation poisoning. Fortunately for us, treatment was already available in this world, but at the same time unfortunately, the effects are irreversible. The burns on my body, they will always serve as my punishment for taking you for granted. As I'm writing this, the youkai in me seemed to be diminishing, and the limits of a human are catching up with me. I've lost a lot of weight; my hair is now mostly sitting on the heads of my dolls, my almost-bare scalp only covered by a hat. I don't even know if I will survive past the next decade if this continues.

Reimu, I have a wish, and I hope it will be granted. I wish to turn the wheels of Time back to the very first time we met. With knowledge of the Future in my hands, I will not repeat my mistakes again. I will make sure nobody makes his or her mistakes again. You are Gensokyo's precious thing, the darling of our world. Please, Reimu, allow me to make amends if this wish is ever granted. I plead to you, on my very existence, that I will never hate you for who you are, ever again.

Alice Margatroid

A.N.: Okay, I'm going to admit, this is my first attempt at dark genres. If you have been catching on the other fics I have written, they are usually light hearted and contain a lot of humor. However, life is all about a balance, and I thought I should give this a try.

I'm not exactly capable of writing those full-length confessions or stories some of you out there seemed to be doing so easily, so you could consider this as a beta. Unlike my other entry, this fic will not be a weekly, only updated when I finish writing something worth putting up. To avoid making too many mistakes, I'm afraid I can only write using characters I'm most familiar with, despite Alice not being one of those on my list. Reviews and comments are appreciated.