Rated T for Mild Language. Violence.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to their respective owners.

"No Marisa, don't Master Spark the cat… It was your fault it scratched you…" I mumbled in my half-asleep state.

As my consciousness slowly came back to me I rolled onto my other side. I clinged to my blanket, not yet ready to relinquish it even as my time to sleep came to an end. It was quite a bother. I wanted to sleep for just a little longer, especially when I had yet to feel the sun's warmth hitting me through the windows. I was hoping it was still night time, but I was already sure that it was just a cloudy morning.

Really don't feel like getting up. I rolled onto my back and slowly opened my eyes. My room was lit by the dull light from outside, so it was definitely morning. If it's too early then I'm going right back to sleep.

With a sigh I threw my blanket off to the side then sat up. I got to my feet then made my way to the door, stretching my arms high above me as I let out a big yawn. Aww yeah, that felt great! I felt my shoulders crack a little. I really need to stop falling asleep on the floor or I'm always going to wake up with aches all over my body. My futon was even out and ready in the other room, waiting for me to crawl into it. I guess I was just that tired last night.

I slid the door open and was greeted by a gust of wind that nearly blew me off my feet. "Well that's ominous." I commented.

I looked at my lonely donation box. I thought about checking inside, but why get my hopes up? I moved my focus out into the yard, not liking what I saw one bit.

"Oh come on…" I moaned irritably. The stone path was once again buried under the autumn leaves. "And I had just raked them all up yesterday too." I said. The trees really need to shed their leaves all at once in a single day.

I took notice of the oddly dismal mood the trees around me were giving off, but I dismissed it thinking it was just one of those gloomy mornings. Summer is ending after all and autumn is making its way into Gensokyo with no signs of stopping. Bleak is too soft of a word to describe you, trees.

I didn't feel like going outside to rake so I slid the door closed and walked back over to my little table. I plopped right down in front of it and then fell forward, my head hitting the top of the table with a light thud. I grunted then lifted my head up. I rubbed my slightly sore forehead then sighed boredly.

"I really don't feel like doing anything today…" I say to myself.

With no plan what so ever for the day, I decided to just hang around inside. It wasn't like there was anything for me to do outside anyways. Well besides taking care of those pesky leaves, of course. I'm sure I could get someone else to do them for me.

I stretched out on my side across the floor, resting my head on my arm. Who could I get to do those darn leaves for me?

"Yeah~! Party ti~me!" I hear a familiar shout from outside. And we got ourselves a volunteer.

The voice was a bit muffled, but it obviously belonged to that trouble-making oni, Suika Ibuki. This was a good time for her to show up so I wasn't mad at all. I can get her to rake those leaves for me and save me from the bothersome task. I'll ask her nicely first and if she refuses, I'll beat her over the head a few times with my gohei. That tends to work a lot of times.

I got back up onto my feet and headed for the front door again. I put my fingers into the groove of the door and went to push the door open, but I was stopped by a sudden crash from the other side of the door. What in the…! I quickly slid the door open. I was so angry to find what the crashing sound was.

I gritted my teeth as my temper started to boil. "Suika~!" I yelled fiercely.

Where my donation box once innocently sat was now replaced with a giant rock. It of course had been thrown by someone and I didn't need to think twice about who it was. Pieces of what used to be my donation box was scattered around the impact site. Someone short is gonna die.

I stormed down the wooden steps and past the rock that had slain my donation box, stopping several feet out in front of my shrine. I looked around for the little pest. "Suika! Suika, I know you're out there now come out!" I shouted for her. Even with the gloomy wind blowing into my ear, I could hear Suika snickering back around my shrine. I turned right around and headed for the oni.

I fast walked to the back of my shrine and as expected I found Suika frolicking around in the back yard. She's drunk. No surprise there. I tried strangling her with my eyes as I stared at her back. "Hey! Suika!" I called out to her as I stomped my way towards her. I was furious and I was going to show her just how furious. "You can apologize to me for breaking my donation box later after I beat you to a pulp."

To my annoyance she wasn't listening to me, just snickering and I think maybe even talking to herself. I thought maybe she didn't hear me, but I was sure I was loud enough to even drown out the noisy wind. She even has the guts to ignore me like that. Stupid oni.

"Hey, you drunk, I'm talking to you!" I yelled again as I approached Suika.

What the…

I stopped walking and stared in curious bewilderment when I noticed something weird about Suika. She was aimlessly walking around in drunken stupor like she always does when she tries to walk after guzzling down on her gourd for an hour, but what was weird was that she appeared to be covered in an eerie darkness that clinged to her form. The clothes she wore were drained of their color, leaving them dull and dark. Her hair was also missing its ginger glow. Even more strange was when I tried to focus my sight on her, my eyes would start to hurt and I would feel a headache developing. I was forced to glance away periodically instead of staring directly at her.

I jumped in surprise when she stomped her foot into the ground, causing a small tremor.

"Here~ will be~ where we~ shall host the GREATEST festiva~l Gensoky~o~ has EVER! SEE~N!" Suika spoke oddly, going from speaking normally, to drawing out random syllables of words to suddenly screaming. She would hang some of her words and pause in between her sentences randomly. Her voice was creepily distorted also and had an echo to it that actually hurt my ears a little. She walked around, seemingly oblivious to my presence. Something was definitely not right with her.

A little reluctant, I took a step towards her. "Hey, Suika… You okay?" I ask her politely. I jumped again in surprise when she abruptly swung around to face me. My eyes widened in shock from the site. "Oh… dear…" A few words escaped from me.

Pure blackness made up Suika's eyes, which she used to stare directly into me. Her skin was pale and dark. Not very healthy looking. What in the world?

Suika grinned inhumanly. "Oh! It's you, Reimu~!" She began to approach me in a hostile manner, stomping her feet needlessly into the ground every time she took a step. I stood on guard, not knowing what to expect to happen. Her grin enlarged, freaking me right the hell out. "Oh, Reimu~! Why you looking at me like that? You shouldn't wear such a face when the greatest party ever is to be thrown ri~ght here~ at your very own SHRI~NE!" She spoke, again in that distorted way. Her shouting made my body tremble.

I slowly backed away as she drew closer to me. I faked a smile. "Hey, Suika. Keep it down a little, please. It's still early in the morning you know." I say as calmly as I could given the situation.

Suika continued stomping her feet towards me. She's ruining the yard! "Oh~, that's oka~y, Reimu~. We are supposed to be LOUD when having a PARTY!" She said. She spoke words of cheer, but she seemed angry whenever she would scream. I'm totally confused.

I fake a laugh. "But, Suika. There is no party going on here today. And why would you want to throw one on such a dreary day like this anyways?" I ask her.

I had to move my legs a little faster when she suddenly increased her walking speed towards me. Don't do it, Suika.

"REIMU~!" She screamed and again increased her walking speed towards me. Her eyes were latched onto me, never looking anywhere else. What the hell was wrong with her? "REIMU~! You forget, REIMU~, that every DAY is a DAY to celeBRATE and PARTY~!" She shook my vision with her thundering shouts.

That was when she suddenly jumped towards me with her hand stretched out and aiming for my neck. I wasn't quick enough and she got a hold of my neck. She pulled me down to her eye level, staring murderously into my eyes as she squeezed my neck.

She's seriously trying to break my neck! With my face already blue from the lack of oxygen, I grabbed her by the arm with both of my hands and shocked her with some of my spiritual power, sending out a blue streak of lightning down her arm. The sparks of lightning were on its way to smacking her square in the face, but the darkness that shrouded her blocked it before it could do any damage. Eh? What the hell?

"You look a little parched, Reimu~. How about a DRINK?!" Suika spoke.

While still strangling me with her right hand, she took her left hand and held it back behind her and formed it into a fist. I have to act fast! I formed a small blue barrier in front of my face right before her fist would have hit me. As expected for an oni, she easily shattered through the hastily formed barrier. I didn't expect to block her punch, only to weaken the impact it would have on my face. Her fist connected with my nose, forcing a pain-filled grunt from me. She broke my nose, sending a stream of blood running down out of it. My eyes watered up badly, obscuring the short oni from my vision.

Ow, this really hurts. I was already angry before because of what happened to my donation box, but now I was beyond furious. I was not about to let her hit me like that again.

I threw my arms out to the sides, sending out a line of red amulets from out of my sleeves. My amulets flew out a short distance before curving back towards their target. Suika seemed oblivious to my incoming attack, still staring into my eyes with those black orbs. I guessed that whatever it is that is wrong with her, she couldn't sense attacks anymore. At least I hoped that was the case.

My amulets aimed directly towards the sides of Suika's ribs. As I expected, that weird darkness around her moved to block the amulets. Some of the amulets turned to ash as they crashed into the darkness, but some were able to punch through. My amulets struck her in the side, hurting her enough to force her to release me. I leaped backwards twice to create some distance between us then began coughing and gasping for air. I know better than to try and fight an oni up close. Jeez, my face hurts. I hovered my hand over my nose and used some of my power to heal it. I felt my left cheek bone move as I healed my nose. I guess her punch broke more than just my nose.

Suika quickly recovered and had leaped into the air. She aimed to stomp on me, but I was able to easily jump out of the way and take off into the air. The force of her stomp punched an indent into the ground and launched chunks of earth flying into the air.

"Ah, damn it, Suika!" I yelled as I shook my fist in the air to express my anger. Now my backyard was really ruined.

Suika was still on the ground, looking up at me with that frightful stare of hers. She tutted at me. "Oh~, Reimu~! You know better to drink and FLY~!" She told me. Look who's talking. To my displeasure, she pulled out a spell card from her pocket.

"Oh come on! The shrine will be damaged if you use one of your spell cards this close!" I yelled out my complaint at her, but she ignored me again. Damn you, oni!

"It's oka~y, Reimu. I will help you clean up once we wake up." She tries to assure me in that freakishly distorted voice of hers. Her spell card burns up in black flames in her hand. That's not normal. "Throwing of the Rock Door!" She declared her spell card.

I prepared myself as I watched the ground begin to shake. The ground cracked and crumbled and soon chunks of it were torn out from the ground. The chunks of rock were pulled towards Suika's fist that she held above her head. A giant boulder quickly began to form around her fist.

I swear she was bent on ruining everything around the shrine. The ground was completely torn apart. It would take forever to get it fixed up. Once I figure out what her deal is I'm going to force her to fix everything up and then I'll throttle her.

Once the boulder became a few times larger than my shrine, Suika readied herself to throw it. You hit my shrine with that and I swear to the gods you will never taste alcohol ever again.

"Hey! Reimu! CA~TCH!"

With her strength as an oni, she launched the boulder towards me. Moving fast, I was able to quickly fly out of the way of the giant boulder. My hair fluttered wildly from the air it created as it flew past me and into the sky.

I kept my eyes on the darkness-covered oni. "Well that wasn't too bad." I spoke too soon.

A loud bang echoed above me. I looked up to see that the boulder had exploded from within. Volleys of rock were thrown about in every direction with several of them flying towards me. I pulled out some amulets from my sleeves and threw three at the barrage of stone. I destroyed three stones then ducked to dodge a fourth, letting it fly over my head. I threw some more amulets, destroying five more chunks of rock and leaving a single one left flying towards me. I stretched my leg back and took aim. Easy does it now. I swung my foot in a circular motion, kicking the stone in midflight and sending it spiraling towards Suika. She went to dodge, but was ultimately struck by the rock. It smashed through the darkness around her and struck her in the face. She was blasted backwards, tumbling and bouncing across the ruined ground until finally coming to a grinding stop.

I pumped my fist in triumph. "Hi~t!" I cheered for myself. "That's payback for punching me, Suika!" I call out to the oni as she struggled to get back up from the ground.

With a grin, I nodded to myself for a job well done. I think she was finished. That rock hit her pretty hard. Not hard enough to take down an oni like her but maybe just enough to snap her out of her strange state.

I descended to the ground and slowly approached the defeated oni. She tried pushing herself up from the ground, but she would fall right back down face first into the dirt each time. She really is done. Though I believed she was pacified, I was still worried about that darkness that was still clinging to her. Looks like an exorcism is in order.

I still had plenty of amulets left on me. I fell asleep in the clothes I wore yesterday along with what was left in them, including my spell cards. An exorcism should be a piece of cake.

I stood over the fallen oni with some amulets in my hand. I walked around her, placing down an amulet every few steps. I made a ring of amulets around her then stood in front of her. I clasped my hands together and began to concentrate. I hoped a simple exorcism was all that was needed because I really didn't want to have to take the time to prepare a more complex one.

With my eyes closed, I inhaled in deep breaths and exhaled them slowly. Relax and focus. Or as Marisa would say… Chill the fuck out, da ze! I giggled to myself, forcing me to start over again. Get serious now, Reimu.

The second I began to murmur my chant, I felt someone grab a hold of my left ankle. I looked down to see Suika, with her face still in the dirt, holding onto my foot.

I happily smiled at the confused oni. "Just relax, Suika. I will have you fixed up in no time. After that I will find out what caused you to be that way. But of course, I will have to do it myself. You will need to stay here and fix up this mess you created." I told her kindly. I didn't want to go out and find out what could have caused that strange darkness around her, but it was my duty so I had no choice.

I went to continue on with the exorcism, but I was reminded what happens when one lets down their guard. A terrible pain shot up my leg from my left foot, causing me to cry out. Suika had just crushed my ankle with her hand, shattering it like it was just a simple glass cup.

My eyes watered up. Brought to my knees, I cried out in agony. The pain I felt was unbearable. This is the first time I've ever had a bone broken so badly. "Ahg! Erah!" I clenched my teeth as I tried to fight against the pain. It hurts so much!

Suika let go of my foot and rose to her feet. She grabbed a hold of my hair, nearly ripping it out when she clenched it. I grabbed her hand and tried to break her grip, but of course I stood no chance in breaking an oni's hold.

She glared at me with those empty eyes. I actually felt a chill run up my spine. Her expression had not changed at all. She was still holding that somewhat-angry looking grin that she's been wearing. She looked almost psychotic, actually.

"Don't be silly, Reimu~. The party has just BEGU~N!" She declared loudly.

She sent a knee into my chest, hitting me so hard that I was blasted out of her grip and across the ruined yard and into the wall of my shrine. I crashed through the wall and landed on my table, breaking it in two. A little of my hair was torn out of my head and was probably still in her grip. The pain in my head and ankle was nothing compared to the pain in my chest. If it wasn't for the protection charms underneath my clothes, I would have been in very bad shape. What was she trying to do? Kill me?

"Ahg! Damn it, it hurts…" I groaned breathlessly.

With my body trembling from the pain, I tried to get up and when I did I heard and felt, oh by the gods did I ever feel, something snap loudly in my side. A pain-filled shriek from me followed the snap. What was that? My rib?

Suika burst through the already damaged wall, finishing it off and pissing me off more. I glare at her intensely as she approached me.

"And where do you think you're going, Reimu~? You still haven't taken a SHOT with me YE~T!"

She lunged towards me with a fist ready as she shouted. I jumped out of the way, careful to use my good foot to push off the floor and not my bad. My ribs seemed to all jiggle in an unnormal way in my body as I moved, making me sick. I was able to avoid the oni's fist, but I quickly figured out it didn't matter. My entire shrine was blown apart from the inside from the sheer force of her fist. I was blown out onto the stone path that led to my shrine, hitting the hard ground with a thud and rolling a few feet before stopping.

Moaning in pain, I managed to sit up on my bottom, allowing me to see that my shrine was no more. Once again it was destroyed by a blasted youkai. I gritted my teeth and held tightly onto my skirt in rage as I held back tears. This was no time to cry over the loss of my shrine. It was hard not to, though.

The out-of-control oni leaped out from the smoking rubble that was once my shrine and landed in front of me, the force of her landing sending out a shock wave that knocked me backwards and sent me tumbling down the stone steps.

"REIMU~! REIMU, WHERE ARE YOU~?!" I heard Suika's horrible shriek. It felt as if my ears drums had popped.

Her footsteps caused the ground beneath me to quake, making it more difficult for me to get to my feet as it already was. I placed my hand over my shattered ankle. My hand glowed light-blue as I healed the pieces back into place. Once I was on my feet I got to healing my chest. The bones that were knocked out of place snapped back to where they belonged.

My head still hurts. I stood prepared for Suika's next attack when she appeared standing on the stone steps above me, looking down at me with those dark eyes.

"Oh, there you are, Reimu! I have an IDEA~! Let's play a game of TA~G!" I swore her shrieking voice produced the gust of wind that slapped me in the face after she spoke.

She leaped into the air with a fist aimed straight for me. I'm ready for you this time. I moved my hands out in front of me, forming a large purple barrier in front of me. She threw her fist forward into the barrier, causing a devastating blast of wind to be produced from the point of contact. I grunted from the impact of her fist against my barrier, but I was able to hold my ground. The blast of wind cracked the stone steps beneath us and splintered the trees around us. The sound of its blast itself shook the air.

"REIMU~! REIMU~! REIMU~!" Suika shouted my name relentlessly. Please stop that. It freaks me out.

My barrier began to crack just when I expected it to. What I didn't expect was for Suika to suddenly explode into numerous smaller versions of herself. I launched my barrier forward, sending it crashing against the stone steps and crushing some of the mini-Suikas. A bunch of the others managed to avoid the flying barrier by flying around it then immediately fly towards me. It wasn't my smartest choice, but these mini-Suikas weren't leaving me with much choice. I engaged them in close combat.

With my right foot glowing blue in spirit energy, I swung my leg into a spinning kick, striking four of the mini-Suikas. With the same foot I crushed another one then jabbed another when it came flying towards my face. Watch them closely. Predict where they are going to go. Several of them swarmed behind me, but I was more than prepared. I jumped into the air when they went to attack me, letting them pass right under me. I took that chance to form another large purple barrier and sent it crashing into the stone steps, crushing a bunch more of those mini-Suikas.

I landed a few steps down the stone steps. I gasped when I felt something grab both of my feet. It was two mini-Suikas sticking out of the ground and they held me down firmly.

"I always hated when you used that ability!" I yelled my frustration at the little pests.

I faked being distracted by the little buggers clinging to my feet, allowing the swarm of mini-Suikas to close in on me. One of my spell cards popped out from under my right sleeve and into my hand.

"Dream Sign "Evil Sealing Circle"!" I declared. This will hurt her a lot in that form.

With my spell unleashed, a shining wave of light-blue light rose around me and into the sky before expanding outward in nearly an instant. The mini-Suikas were blown away, set ablaze in spiritual blue fire. My spell ended quicker than I could declare it, but its purpose was fulfilled. The mini-Suikas lay scattered about on the ground. Some were hanging on tree branches and a few others were falling down the stone steps like one of those toys from The Outside World. Slinkys I think they were called.

I groaned when I saw that Suika was not going to stay down. They never give up easily. The mini-Suikas rose up then began clumping together in front of me, creating a mass of darkness that then formed into Suika's normal form. The second she was whole again she rushed for me.

"You're having fun with me right, Reimu?! YOU'RE HAVING FUN WITH ME! RI~GHT! REI~! MU~!" The louder she was the more distorted and warped her voice became. Her scream was loud enough to pierce my ears and rattle my brain. I involuntarily clasped my hands over my ears, leaving me open to attack.

Suika threw punches after punches at me. The air ripped with each swing she made and thunder clapped with every jab. I was thrown into defensive mode as I struggled to avoid being struck with one of her punches.

My heart pounded in my chest when I realized that just one of her hits would easily end my life. My protection charms would not save me from a hit like the ones she was trying to land on me. She really was trying to kill me. Suika, a female oni that likes to sleep over with me and play games. Mostly without my permission of course, but still, she is a frequent guest of mine. Whatever that darkness was that was possessing her it was strong enough into forcing her to try and kill me. Me, the Hakurei Shrine Maiden and someone she rooms with. I realized that moment the seriousness of the situation. I could not play games anymore. I cannot allow myself to die.

Suika's arms and fists were burning from the friction of the air as she swung them around. I ducked to avoid one fiery swing then somersaulted backwards down the stone steps and onto flat ground while also avoiding the explosion that went off just from her fist striking open air. I learned that one from the half-ghost, Youmu.

Just as I wanted, Suika jumped from the stone steps and towards me, her feet stretched out towards me, ready to crush me underneath them. I waited for her to get close to landing, preparing my legs to jump. Once the timing was right, I leaped into the air. Suika past directly beneath me and landed where I had just been standing with tremendous force of several thousand tons. The ground quaked from the awe-inspiring force and chunks of stone protruded upward from the ground. That's when I pulled out my second spell card.

"Sorry, Suika! But this may hurt a lot!" I warned her. The spell card burned up in blue fire and the power it contained absorbed into my hands. "The Dream "Exorcising Border"!" I thrusted my hands down towards Suika as I shouted my attack.

A giant and thick blue and purple barrier formed from the power that flowed out from my hands. Its shape formed instantly and was thrown down atop of the little oni, crushing her underneath it in blinding splendor. Everything around me was basked in its blue glow. I looked like I was wearing a blue uniform for a moment before the light finally died down. I was tired, as evident by my labored breathing, but the job was done.

Phew… That did it.

I descended back down to the ground once the cloud of dust that was picked up by my attack had been blown away by the autumn wind. I looked around the spot Suika was standing before being consumed by the barrier, but I saw no sight of her.

"Hmm…" I raised an eyebrow. Surely she didn't run off, did she? I kept scanning the area. "Oh?" I spotted something lying off to the side of the broken stone steps. I jogged to it then picked it up. "Her gourd?" I examined her precious holder of booze. There was a smudge of fresh blood on it. It looked like I had hurt her quite a bit. I hope not too badly. Even if she is possessed, it's hard to believe she would leave this behind.

I knew that once I got her back to normal she wouldn't come back around for a while. She would be quite upset with herself for what she did to my shrine. It made me sad. I always told her she was a bother when she would stay at my shrine, but I never truly minded her company. It was fun, but I needed to keep those kinds of thoughts to myself. I wanted to tell her that it wasn't her fault and that I forgave her and she could sleep over like she always does, but I would not be able to do that. I would have to let her be alone. That is just how it is.

I sat the gourd down where I found it and looked around me. I tried sensing her cheerful spirit, but it was nowhere to be found. She couldn't have gotten so far away from me so I couldn't sense her so quickly. I couldn't even feel that ominous dark shroud that was around her. Not a trace of her was felt. Her body nowhere to be seen. It was as if she simply vanished completely.

I stood silently, confused and lost. What is going on?

My body quivered when I finally noticed the abnormal appearance of the woods around me. How could I have not noticed it before? The trees, the grass, the rocks, everything seemed to be drained of its color, dull and gray. I looked up into the sky, seeing it completely black. It wasn't night time, far from it, but the land was not being lit by the sun's warm glow. It was very odd to me. I flew up high into the sky to get a better view of things. Adding to my worries, the land seemed to be covered in a strange mist of darkness.

It was yet another incident. I didn't like it. Incidents were always a pain to solve. But this one was already proving to be a threatening one. I most certainly couldn't just overlook it. Just what is going on here?

The wind blew past me, causing me to hug myself as I shivered from its unnatural cold. A sense of loneliness followed the winds chill for some strange reason, like the wind itself was the cause of it or something. I merely shrugged the feeling off and planned what to do next.