A/N: Hello all, touhoumanic here with my first Touhou fic. Hopefully you all enjoy and please, feel free to rate and review.

Also, many thanks to Spaztique for letting me bounce ideas off of him.

and, even though ZUN probably won't care about what some kid in America wrote, let me cover myself anyway by saying that I do not own Touhou Project.

I'll stop talking now and let the story actually start.

Chapter 1

"Would you like a flower, little lady?"

The raven-haired young man snapped his gloved fingers and a rose appeared in his hand. The little girl, one of the audiences in his street-corner magic show, squealed with delight, and he gave the rose to her. Her mother chuckled, and some of those in the audience clapped.

The young man's figure was nothing short of comical, even if he did look the part, wearing a black–and–white suit, top hat, and red cape. He lifted an eyebrow. "Ah, but I mustn't forget about the rest of my audience, huh? Well, let's see…" furrowing his brow, he theatrically clapped twice, pausing for dramatic effect before bringing his hands together one last time. The audience collectively gasped as roses appeared at their feet, seemingly out of nowhere. The applause that followed this time was even louder than before.

He bowed. "Thank you, thank you," he said, taking off his hat and passing it around to the audience, a look of satisfaction on his face as he saw spare change pouring into it. When he finally received the hat again, he flicked it a few times with his fingers before flipping it over, revealing that it was now empty. Again the audience applauded, and with a final flourish he flipped the hat back on top of his head. "Well folks, thank you for your attention. You were a great audience. Adieu!"

With that final farewell, he again clapped his hands, this time creating a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared, he was no longer there.

The audience stood there, dumbfounded for a moment. Then they gave yet another round of applause until it became clear that the young man had no inclination of reappearing before them. Slightly disappointed, the crowd slowly dispersed, back to their affairs before the street performance caught their eyes.

The young man emerged from a restaurant nearby a short while later. Using all of the money he had earned a few minutes ago, bolstered by the money from his previous five performances, he had managed to order for himself a decent meal, something he had not had for a while. He rummaged around in his coat pocket, pulled out a black notebook and flipped through it. Most of the pages were filled with small, neat handwriting, depicting detailed instructions on how to perform various spells. He skipped through these, having already committed them to heart, and instead skipped to the last page, which, unlike the other entries, were written hastily.

Kukyo, seek out the Hakurei Shrine.

The note was addressed to him. It was the final entry of his mentor. The Hakurei Shrine in question was a shrine she had often told him about in one of her fairy tales; a shrine on the border of another world, where youkai and fairies abound. He had believed it in his early days, but that belief had faded over the years as he matured. Still, he would sit and listen every time his mentor would talk about the fairy tale, for he knew that that was one of her ways to reassure him, give him hope, take his mind away from the thing inside him that had taken everything away from him. So he was surprised at first when he read the note. But, considering the circumstances, he couldn't simply ignore it. He had spent the past week wandering around, trying to gather information on the location of the shrine, which eventually led him to this town. Another quick inquiry of the locals told him that the shrine does exist, somewhere a bit away from the town to the west. If he started on foot now, he should arrive there at around midday.

With that in mind, he started walking.

Kukyo gazed at the entrance of the shrine, partially hidden in the trees. It was slightly disappointing; far from even the outskirts of the town, the shrine stood amidst the trees of a forest, unkempt and abandoned. It was a wonder that anyone in the town even knew of the shrine's existence. With a sigh, he reached out, attempting to brush the dust off of the shrine's sign.

He was more than surprised his hand touched something solid amidst thin air.

Reflexively, he snapped his hand back. A moment later, he gingerly reached out again, and felt his pulse quickening as the air his fingers touched rippled like the surface of water, and felt as solid as glass. He knew what it was; his mentor had mentioned it numerous times in her fairy tale. It was the barrier separating that magical world from the human world. Suddenly, the fairy tale felt very real, right on the other side.

He closed his eyes and steeled himself, splaying his hand on the surface once again. Slowly, carefully, he pushed it in. He winced when he saw his arm disappear in front of his eyes, but he continued nonetheless. Finally the resistance was gone, and he fell through. For a second, he felt an odd sensation of weightlessness surround him, and his vision blurred.

The feeling disappeared as quickly as it came, and he barely managed to catch himself as he stumbled forward. He rubbed his head, looking around to re-orient himself, and what he saw made him pause. Where there were buildings before, now there were only trees. The shrine itself had lost its disheveled appearance, and looked more like a proper shrine. Even the air itself was different; fresher, devoid of the pollution of the city. Slowly, he entered the shrine grounds.

Reimu sighed, sipping her tea.

Boredom had once again set in. Marisa had not come by in a few days, and it had been a while since the last incident. Not that she was particularly complaining about the last part; she had always found incident resolution quite tedious. Still, the sense of boredom today was just too much.

"Maybe someone will come and donate," she mumbled absentmindedly. Of course, that was less likely to happen than another incident. After all, the last time someone donated to the shrine was – well, she couldn't remember if someone had ever donated to the shrine. Reimu sighed again, expecting another boring day.

That was when she heard an unfamiliar sound coming from the front of the shrine. It took her a moment to realize what the sound was; the sound of small pieces of metal hitting wood.

Someone had just donated.

Reimu nearly dropped her mug. She immediately ran to the entrance, wanting to confirm things with her own eyes. What she saw was a young man his hands open over the donation box. He blinked when he saw her, surprised by her sudden appearance. He then smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, was I not supposed to do that?" he asked. "It wasn't a lot, but the box was empty, so I thought you might need it."

"No, no, it's fine," Reimu said hastily before clearing her throat and adopting a calmer pose. "Welcome, I'm Reimu Hakurei, the shrine maiden of this shrine," she said.

The young man tipped his hat. "I'm Kukyo Sainan, a travelling magician of sorts. Nice to meet you, Miss Hakurei."

"Just Reimu is fine." Reimu said. "A travelling magician, is it? I'm afraid I've never heard of you before. What business do you have with the shrine?"

"Well, I was hoping to get some sort of directions," he said. "I'm afraid I'm not from around here."

"Oh… another Outsider, I see," Reimu said, her face growing more concerned. "Well… why don't you come inside? I can provide a bit of an explanation as to where you are."

Kukyo smiled. "Thanks, I appreciate it," he said smoothly.

Kukyo listened politely as Reimu started to explain the nature of this world to him. Most of what she said reinforced what his mentor had told him about this place. Finally, Reimu finished her explanation.

"I know it's a lot to swallow for an Outsider, but did you get all that?" Reimu asked. From the expression on her face, Kukyo could tell she was expecting him to deny what she said or have some sort of breakdown; clearly her explanations did not go well with other "Outsiders."

For a second, Kukyo thought of doing the same, if only to tease her, but decided that it wasn't to his best interest. So instead he picked up the mug of tea that Reimu had offered and calmly drank from it. "Perfectly," he said after putting the mug down. "It's not that hard to believe, really. After all, I've had my fair share of magic." To prove his point, Kukyo snapped his finger and produced a playing card out of thin air.

"Oh. Well, that's easy," Reimu said, clearly relieved by the fact she didn't have to deal with another person flipping out on her. "That is quite a surprise. I would have thought that the outside world stopped believing in magic some time ago."

"They did, for the most part," Kukyo answered. "Most magicians on the outside rely more on tricks or sleight of hand than actual magic. I just happen to be fortunate enough to meet with an actual one," he said. That wasn't exactly the truth, of course, but it was the closest he was willing to give at the moment; after all, he had only just met Reimu. He couldn't simply divulge everything to her yet.

"Well then, Kukyo, what do you plan on doing now?" Reimu asked him. "If you want, I can escort you back through the barrier."

Kukyo rubbed his chin. "Well, actually, I was thinking that it'd be nice to explore here a bit. Maybe learn something new. After all, from what you said, there are other magicians here, right? " Again, that was not the exact truth, but it was close enough. He had to resist stating that he had nowhere to return to anyway.

"Well, alright then." Reimu moved further into the shrine, as if to search for something. She returned with a piece of paper in her hand. "In that case, it would be a good idea if you read this."

"What is it?" Kukyo asked, taking the paper.

"You could say they're like the rules around here," Reimu said, "Invoke it if you feel like you're in danger; it could save your life. Assuming you manage to create a spell card, of course."

"I see…" Kukyo said as he read through the contents before tucking it into his coat. "Well, I shouldn't overstay my welcome." He moved to exit the shrine.

"No problem," Reimu said, moving to escort him out. "If you follow the path from the shrine, you'll eventually come across the Human Village. I would recommend going there first, at least until you get your bearings around here." She looked up at the sky. "There's plenty of daylight left, so it should be a relatively safe trek."

"Thanks," Kukyo said, tipping his hat. With that gesture of farewell, he headed out of the shrine grounds, following the narrow path.

For now, he would follow Reimu's advice and head for the village. Hopefully he would get a bit more information there on who's exactly capable of what around here. With any luck, he might even meet someone with the power he's looking for.

He paused for a moment and lifted his hand up towards the sky, examining the black "glove" over his hand, and the faint runes that outline it; his mentor's final gift to him.

He clenched his fist. He won't waste her efforts.