Louise looked over the summoning circle. Everything was in order. This time she's show them. She'd get something awesome, like a Griffon, or a dragon. Or maybe even a manticore like her mother!

She raised her wand and channeled the magic into it. It started with a rush, like it always did. As the power climbed she recited the words of her ritual. "I call upon you, who matches my soul, give me your power." Everything was going fine.

And then the power twisted and her heart sank. Not now! Not again! She gripped her wand tighter, throwing all her willpower into it. And this time the magic seemed to answer!

Then there was another explosion.

Louise stared at the slowly dispersing smoke cloud. This wasn't happening. She couldn't have failed again. She heard her classmates giggling behind her and she clenched her hands so hard her palms hurt.

The final bit of smoke cleared, and something was there! A large black bird beating its wings to blow back the smoke. A raven?

Louise peered at the bird sitting in the circle. Relief shifted to disappointment. She hadn't failed, but ravens weren't exactly the most impressive familiars. The only difference between her familiar and the ones that dug through the garbage was a bright spot of red on its chest.

"Is it wounded?" "Must be. No healthy animal would want the Zero as their master." "Maybe it hurt itself trying to get away."

The bird puffed up at the words of the crowd and cawed angrily. And then a beam of searing light flashed out of the red patch and burned a line of fire in the dirt. Louise's jaw dropped as her classmates yelped in surprise.

"Oh my. Ms Valliere, please finish the ritual before your familiar hurts someone," Professor Colbert said. "And the rest of you stop gawking and put out that fire."

Louise moved up and hugged her new familiar. "You're the best bird ever," she said. The raven croaked happily. "My name is Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers; bless this humble being and make them my familiar."

With that she kissed the bird's head.

As the runes started forming she got a better view of the red spot. It actually looked like a gem embedded into the bird's chest. What kind of creature had she summoned? Whatever it was it was no mere raven!

Her musings were interrupted by her familiar's loud protests. "Oh right the runes hurt a little- Hey! Stop pecking my hands! I didn't make the ritual!"

Louise was satisfied with herself when she got back to her room. Sure she hadn't managed to levitate back like the rest of the class, but she had a familiar. A bird who could shoot fire! That would show the rest of those losers. Professor Colbert had said he'd never seen anything quite like it. Which meant it had to be special.

"I'm going to need to think up a name for you," Louise said to the raven on her shoulder. "Can't keep calling you 'it.'"

To her surprise the bird responded. "Utsuho." It was the harsh croak of bird speak, but Louise could make it out clearly.

"Utsuho? Is that your name?" The bird nodded in response. "Strange. Doesn't sound like a name from around here but sure." She wondered who had named the bird. And how they'd taught it to speak.

She yawned. That was a question for later though. She was tired. She carefully placed Utsuho on her table before getting into a nightgown. Then she remembered she needed a bed for her new familiar. There was a pile of straw in the corner that she'd planned to use but that didn't seem quite right. "That's not gonna work for you is it?" she asked Utsuho. Honestly thinking on it, the setup wasn't worthy of a Valliere's familiar. The only reason she'd settled was because money was tight.

A dismissive beak clack told Louise everything she needed to know. "Right. So how do crows build nests?" She looked around. There wasn't really a good place.

Utsuho responded by hopping to her dresser and nudging one of the handles.

Louise blinked at it a few times and then realized what it was trying to do. "You're my familiar, but I don't want you sleeping in my socks."

With a caw Utsuho flew over to the straw and picked up a beakful.

Louise peered at it before finally figuring out what it was getting at. "You want to make your nest in a drawer?" Well that seemed fair. It would do until she found something better. "Alright." She pulled out the dresser drawer and removed her socks before grabbing a load of straw and putting it in the empty container.

Utsuho happily flew over and began rearranging things into a messy nest.

"You're pretty smart." Louise smiled at her new familiar. This was even better than she expected. She was still a little sad she didn't get a dragon. But Utsuho here was impressive all on her own. And much easier to keep.

The raven preened at her compliment and rubbed its soft feathered head against her hand before returning to setting up its nest. After a minute Utsuho was nestled comfortably in her makeshift home of straw.

"Goodnight," Louise said before blowing out the lamp and slipping into her own bed. Today had been a good day. Maybe this was going to be the turning point in her magical studies.

"Wake up Louise." Soft hands were shaking her.

"Mmm, just a few more minutes Cattleya," Louise muttered.

Sadly the shaking only increased. "You need to wake up. People are going to breakfast."

Louise groaned and threw off her covers. Mornings were terrible. She rolled to the edge of her bed. "Fine, Cat-"

She found herself looking at a tall black haired woman in white and green. A woman with massive black wings. The woman might have had Catteya's general figure, but she was a hand taller and had signs of the muscles her sickly sister lacked.

That was right. She was at school. Cattleya wasn't here. And she had no idea who this woman was. "Who-? Who are you? And why are you in my room?"

"Unyu?" The woman blinked. "It's me. Utsuho. We met yesterday."

"Wha-" Louise stared at the woman. Her wings did seem to have the same black sheen as Utsuho's. And there was a large red gem in the center of the woman's chest. "But you were a raven."

Utsuho nodded. "Yep. This is my human form. I had to switch to wake you up." She put her hands on her hips. "That telepathic familiar bond is taking way too long to set up, so I have to use this form to talk to you."

Louise just sat there, trying to figure things out. She'd known her familiar was no ordinary bird. But this was a little much. Finally she managed to spit out. "What are you?"

"I'm Utsuho Reiuji, heir to the Yatagarasu." She puffed her chest out in pride. "I'm the strongest Hell Raven in the world!"

"Hell Raven?" This had to be a bad dream. It had to.

Utsuho nodded. "We're the ravens who live in hell of course. Normally we're weak youkai, but I trained really hard and became the strongest. And then I ate a god and gained the ultimate power!" Her confident smile became a little chagrined. "But Ms Satori said I kinda went overboard, so I'm trying to be a little more careful with my power."

"So you're saying you're a demon?" Louise knew she should probably be panicking. Or threatening the dark forces in front of her to leave. But her brain was running on automatic.

"Oh no no." Utsuho shook her head. "I'm a youkai. The demons mostly left when they moved to the new hell." She crossed her arms. "Honestly I'm glad they did. A lot of them were not nice people."

"Old hell? New hell?" Louise stared at her familiar. This made no sense. In fact why was she trying to make sense of this? Nothing Utsuho had said fit with the teachings of the Church. "Did you fly into a window this morning?"

Utsuho looked offended. "Of course not! I remember exactly what we were talking about-" Her eyes got wide. "Ah breakfast!" She shook her head. "And I can't appear in youkai form outside." She pointed a finger at Louise. "Make sure to get me some hard boiled eggs Master!"

There was a pop, and the woman was gone, replaced by a raven again. Louise slowly picked Utsuho up and placed the bird on her arm. "We're going to need to have a long talk after this." At least her familiar was smart enough to not appear in human form around the other students. Louise wasn't sure how to handle it herself, she didn't trust her idiot classmates to understand.

She walked out to find the biggest idiot amongst her classmates right there. "Kirche."

The busty redhead smirked down at her. "Louise. I have to congratulate you on summoning a interesting familiar. Even if it's not match for my Flame." The salamander cooed behind its master, its fiery tail wagging like a dog's.

Louise found herself sneering back at Kirche. "My Utsuho is way better than any fire lizard." The raven cackled in agreement.

Kirche didn't seem impressed. The jerk. "Utsuho? What made you name it that?"

"I Utsuho," her familiar croaked.

"And she can talk," Louise said proudly. Maybe too much, but Kirche didn't need to know that! The salamander gave Utsuho a hiss, and the raven responded with a mocking call.

Flame spat a fireball. Before Louise could even react Utsuho spread her wings and the flames were snuffed. The two familiars glared at each other while Louise and Kirche recovered.

Finally Kirche just sniffed. "Hmph. It seems you're finally starting to become worthy of being my rival." Kirche gave the bird a closer look. "We'll see who's better after a few weeks of training. Come Flame." She turned and walked away.

Louise patted her bird in appreciation. Anything that challenged Kirche couldn't be evil right?

After breakfast the Louise had found a secluded area so the raven could transform again. Utsuho hadn't enjoyed being left outside with the other familiars but the raven had forgiven Louise after she'd showed her familiar the three soft boiled eggs she'd taken.

Louise considered the questions she should ask. She should probably start with the theological ones. She'd felt pretty guilty during the prayer at breakfast.

"So, if you aren't a demon what do you think about the Great Prophet Brimir?" she asked. That should give her some solid ground to work with.

Utsuho blinked. "Unyuu? Never heard of him. Hm... Satori hasn't heard of him either."

"How!" Louise felt her blood start to boil. "How could you not have heard about the great Founder Brimir?" Acceptance or denial she could have accepted but this dismissal was insulting!

"Well he's a prophet in your world right?" Utsuho shrugged. "But I'm from a different world. So I've never heard of him. He sounds really important though. I'll have to grab Miss Satori his book so she can tell me the important things."

"You're claiming you're from a whole different world?" Louise sputtered. This was even more confusing. She appreciated the interest in the founder's words, but that claim was ridiculous. Then she realized what Utsuho had implicated at the end. "And how are you talking to people in your own world when you're here?"

She blinked and suddenly there were two Utushos standing in front of her. The ravens smiled. "Yep. But I'm a goddess so I can be in multiple places at once." The double vanished. "It's hard though. There's a time differential, so keeping the quantum entanglement up requires a lot of work. Still I didn't want to leave you without a familiar."

Louise sat down on a stump. This was confusing. And dangerous. Utsuho didn't seem like an evil demon, but the way she tossed around blasphemies would get her in trouble. Maybe even the entire Valliere family!

Okay, she could fix this. She just needed some more information. "So tell me about yourself."

"Like I said I'm the strongest hell raven around. And since I've consumed the Yatagarasu I've gained power over fusion," Utsuho said. She puffed out her wings. "My other master is Satori, and my best friend is Orin. She's a kassha. Um, youkai cat."

"And what is your world like?" Louise asked.

Half an hour later Louise was marveling at the stories of this Gensoukyo. It was insane, but Utsuho seemed to believe every word. That wasn't going to help Louise at all.

Finally she decided to interrupt. "So, you realize you can't run around calling yourself a god. First off there's only one god, and secondly no one's going to believe anything you say about this Gensoukyo place."

"Well it's all true," Utsuho said. "But I understand. Other humans can be closed minded. So I'll stay in bird form unless you need me."

"And no calling yourself a god," Louise ordered.

Utsuho shook her head. "I need some faith here. Or at least respect. I won't lie. But I'll be a bird most of the time anyway so don't worry about it!"

Louise grimaced. She didn't like how her familiar was questioning her orders, but Utsuho had agreed in the end, so she'd let it slide. "Fine." She took a deep breath. "Well we should head back. Hopefully our bond will fix itself and we can start talking mentally soon."

"Yeah sorry. I think it's the fact I'm in two places at once that's confusing it," Utsuho said.

"That gives me a headache," Louise muttered.

"It fades after ten years or so," Utsuho said. "Trust me."

Yeah I gave in and did the simplest crossover imaginable. I'm quite certain that at least a million other people realized the kanji for Utsuho's name can be translated as void and put two and two together. But the idea rattled around in my head enough that I eventually gave in.

I can say one of the big differences between this and other fics is that Utsuho will be in bird form for a lot of the story, with all the major shifts that implies. And there will be events on the Touhou side as well though only a few will cross between worlds. Expect Satori to be a big player.

Updates will be on a "when I can get my editor conscious" basis. Expect quick short segments to start, and longer ones as things get more complicated.