Disclaimer: Touhou is owned by ZUN in conjunction with Team Shanghai Alice. Pazuzu was created by ancient Assyrians and re-imagined by Wizards of the Coast. My version of depicting him is inaccurate.

Shard 1: Adventure

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A small globe floats through the void, slowly rotating in silence. Lights dance on the liquid surface, multicolored shifting lights. Inside there are mountains and rivers, land and sky, people and gods, happiness and sadness. A persistent thought, a dream, a world. Gensokyo.

The globe floats, on and on, through liquid spinning wheels and geometry shapes of the boiling chaos around. It has no direction, no purpose, it just moves, because life is in movement. Life is in change, in flaws, in impurities.

The world floats, and the chaos around starts to disperse. The globe reaches an edge of a plain, a smooth reflective plain made of anthracite interlocking plates. The chaos is pressed away from it, and in the distance lines of ziggurats lead to a humongous spiraling tower.

And at the edge of the plain a figure stands, a crooked, misshapen figure, four stumps at its back, stumps of destroyed wings. It raises its right arm as if in greeting, and the world moves closer, flowing, rotating, a constant change, a never ending change.

The broken creature reaches forward and catches the globe, closing the black talons on it, scratching it, breaking the surface. Darkness, oily darkness starts pouring inside. Soon the world will become perfect, perfection and stillness of death solidified in eternity.

The final cycle begins.

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"Yukari-sama, is everything all right? It took me a while to find you…"

Ran Yakumo, the fox-tailed shikigami, or a guardian youkai for short gently touched down to the side of her mistress. Yukari was sitting cross-legged on the grass, twirling her intricate parasol and staring somewhere in the distance. The top of the grassy hill offered a quite a good view on the main valley of Gensokyo, and as usual for the late summer the valley looked vibrant and fresh, flower fields creating patches of color on the green carpet of forests yet untouched by yellow.

Yukari slightly turned, examining Ran with indifference. The shikigami flinched a little and took her usual pose, hiding her hands in the sleeves of her long white dress. She expected to be shouted at, but Yukari slowly turned back to her Gensokyo-gazing.

They spent a while in silence. The wind picked up, a small red ribbon in Yukari's hat flopped a bit and she adjusted it. A small cloud covered the sun.

"Yukari-sama, I am sorry for asking but is something bothering you?"

"I'm bored, that's it," Yukari said and made a gesture covering the valley below. "Everything is so… placid. Don't you agree?"

Ran tried to find the right words. It was her job and, cliché as it sounds, the meaning of her life to protect Yukari from all threats, including the ones the elder gap youkai would invent for herself because of her boredom. An idea that would lead to an "incident" was something she would not want to be responsible for.

"Yukari-sama, if you are bored we could just go and meet some people, talk to—"

"What of that mountain ridge?" Yukari suddenly asked, and stood up, turning to Ran and closing her parasol. Ran held her pose, and glanced at the ridge in question. It was nearly on the horizon, the largest peak being the Youkai Mountain and the smaller crags stretching down the western side of the valley.

"It's… grey, I guess?" she carefully said.

"Exactly!" Yukari exclaimed and rubbed her palms in anticipation. "It's the most boring sight in Gensokyo, so let's renovate! Any suggestions?"

Ran felt relieved. At least they wouldn't be wrecking any fates today, just a little landscaping. Not that bad after all.

"Yukari-sama, I don't think it would be wise to reshape it completely. Let's just add a little color…"

Ran stumbled on the word. She wanted to suggest green, pine trees that would liven up the monotony both in summer and winter, but the thought slipped, and her mind went blank for a second.

Then a featureless voice put a quiet suggestion in her head, a splendid, logical idea.

"…yellow, maybe?" Ran finished, and the voice was gone in an instant, just like it never existed. Maybe it never did.

Yukari chuckled. "Well, of course you would suggest yellow, who would have doubted that, you yellow, yellow fox. But you know, today I'm just in the mood. So, let's do this!"

She spread her arms, and a small gap appeared in front of her. Ran averted her eyes from all the things and eyes that writhed within the gap and saw the reality to tear in the middle of the ridge, something bright and yellow slowly being pushed out. It looked triangular in shape, and after a few moments settled in, a tiny cloud of dust around its base.

The enormous gap on the ridge closed, and so did the smaller one in front of Yukari. She turned and looked at Ran questioningly, expecting a reaction.

"It looks magnificent, Yukari-sama," Ran said, squinting to see what was pulled out from the outer world this time. From such a great distance, it looked no more than a bright gleaming piece of cheese.

"Thank you," Yukari said, slightly out of breath. She opened her parasol again and sat down, admiring her work.

And the day went on, the residents of Gensokyo unaware of what horror they would have to experience pretty soon because of that innocent-looking yellow triangle.

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The Hakurei shrine has always been an uninviting, run-down building. Even after it was destroyed multiple times and rebuilt anew, it mysteriously and quickly returned to its usual, nearly crumbling look and demeanor. Yet another mystery of Gensokyo that would never be solved.

Well, if one would seek a logical explanation for this mystery then Reimu Hakurei, the one and only priestess of the shrine provided an easy and obvious solution by being extremely lazy and slow when it came to menial work and repairs. Even now, when she had to sweep the courtyard from dead leaves that for some reason littered it despite the late August, she did so with the posture and movements of a convict laborer.

"Wheee~!"

This happy shout came from a girl in black, who tore into courtyard from the surrounding bamboo forest. She was riding the broom, holding her pointy hat with one hand and waving for the shrine maiden with the other.

"Hey, Marisa…" Reimu started, but the broom-mounted girl whizzed past her, creating a spiral of fluttering leaves behind her. She attempted to land, skidding down and stopping in front of the donation box, and as a completion of her movement she dropped a coin in it. She then turned and faced Reimu, smiling broadly.

"Reimu, I am so happy to see you today, ze~!" she announced, and walked closed, spreading her arms wide for a hug. Reimu demonstratively turned away and continued sweeping, or rather, continued to make it look like she was sweeping.

Marisa stopped. "Oh, come on, what did I do this time?"

"Nothing. It's just you are obviously want me to go somewhere with you on adventure, and I am busy with my preparations for the flower festival next week."

Marisa, wide eyed, slowly circled around Reimu, examining her. Reimu stopped sweeping, and Marisa picked up Reimu's sleeve and looked under it.

"What are you doing?" Reimu asked in annoyance.

"I'm looking for a third eye you have developed while I was not looking. Because you obviously can read minds now."

Reimu sighed. "I can't read minds, Marisa. You are wearing your thick combat apron, you donated three times as usual and you are smiling like Cirno. I am capable of connecting two dots with a line."

"But it will be so fun! You see, there is that huge golden pyramid that just popped out in the mountains, and I am going out to explore it. Come on, just like old times…"

She made an amusing begging face, but Reimu just snorted. "Yeah, right. Me, Reimu of the Hakurei shrine, the guardian of Gensokyo going to plunder a pyramid. You know how they say, you raid one tomb…"

Marisa scratched under her hat. "I'm pretty sure the saying involved goats… whatever. If you don't want to, I'm going by myself."

She turned to leave, but Reimu caught her sleeve. "Don't be like that. And don't go alone, it's dangerous. I mean it."

Marisa slumped, not turning back. "Yeah… you know… ah, forget it, everything's fine. I'll drop by tomorrow and tell you how it went."

Reimu released her arm and Marisa picked up her broom, turned to Reimu and grinned. "Unless I step into an insidious trap left by an insane pyramid architect and my head gets lopped off by a golden wall scythe, ze~."

"Not funny."

"Or, even better, if I fall into a pit, and my slender body gets punctured dozens of times by splintered spikes coated in deadly venom…"

Reimu groaned, shaking her head and furiously sweeping, trying her hardest to not to imagine all the horrible things Marisa painted before her. From flame jets and sand-filled rooms to something completely ridiculous, like frescoes of yawning soul-sucking demons or tanks full of electric eels.

"Just go away already!" Reimu snapped, and raised her broom to chase Marisa away. The witch chuckled for one last time and took off, shouting "Don't cry when you cradle my lifeless gear-crushed body!" instead of goodbye.

"If you don't get back safe, I'm going to kill you myself!" Reimu shouted at her. Marisa disappeared in the forest, happily laughing.

Reimu shook her head. She did not doubt for a single moment that Marisa is going to come back safe, if a bit frustrated by not finding any deadly traps or treasure. Yukari never pulled anything dangerous into Gensokyo on her memory, so why she would do so this time?

She returned to sweeping the courtyard, forgetting about Marisa and her pyramid quest soon enough.

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Marisa went for an obvious choice and took Nitori with her. It was on the way after all, and it always took ages for Alice to prepare her dolls and warding spells. The kappa just nodded and stuck some devices into her bulging backpack, and they were all set.

Marisa took point, and Nitori flew silently behind her, her wide blue dress not even fluttering because of all the heavy tools that weighted the pockets at the fringe of it. The pyramid was rather far away, and Marisa quickly grew bored from the silence.

"So, Nitori, been a while, hasn't it? How's life?" she asked, slightly turning. The kappa averted her eyes.

"I… normal, I guess. Doing projects and inventing things…"

"Ooh, projects. What's your latest one?"

"It's… well, you probably won't understand. It involves infrasound and ergoline extracts… I'm experimenting with detachment of subconscious…"

Marisa slowed down and shifted to the side to match her air speed with Nitori. "Oh, come on, you don't have to be so shy around me, I won't point and laugh. And besides, I experiment with weird stuff myself, mushrooms and… well, mushrooms, mostly."

Nitori looked at Marisa and forced a smile. "Really? Can we… exchange notes, maybe?"

Marisa clapped her on the shoulder. "Sure we can, ze~! If I don't forget that is, so bug me about it. And you should totally visit and help me with plumbing and storm drains and I'll give you some tips on unconventional power sources."

Nitori's smile became more real. She still wasn't used to being around humans, but this one was very helpful and non-threatening, unlike Reimu, for example. She decided to indeed visit sometime soon, maybe next month.

They flew in silence for a while, and reached their destination, a golden stepped pyramid firmly clasped by jagged rocks around it. Well, up close it didn't look like a traditional pyramid and of course it was not plated in solid gold.

It was a massive structure made from polished sandstone, and it would be most accurate to call it a ziggurat. The pyramid had three terraces, and four wide stone staircases led to the enclosed rectangular shrine at the top. The stone was smooth, bearing no frescoes or murals.

"Woah, that's a lot of steps," Marisa commented on the obvious. "It's a good thing we can fly right to the top, eh?"

Nitori didn't respond, and they made a circle around the top before landing on the upper terrace. The stone felt warm and almost inaudibly hummed. Marisa whistled and drew her spell furnace. It glowed slightly and hummed in unison with the stone.

"That's a lot of power here, a bit scary even. Well, probably an aftereffect of the gap transfer, nothing to worry about. Let's start exploring, shall we?"

Nitori nodded, and pulled something out of the one of her many pockets. None of her devices ever made sense to Marisa, so the witch started traversing the steps up to the shrine, leaving Nitori behind.

She entered a small square room at the top of the ziggurat. A single slab of stone was in the middle of it. Marisa half-expected to see bones and dried blood here but no, the altar was smooth and clean, and just as clean were the braziers around it. This place definitely was never used for human sacrifice or any other religious rites for that matter.

Marisa sighed in disappointment. Yukari most likely brought in some museum exhibit and magnified it to look cool. This place probably didn't even have interior chambers, and she could forget about secret passages and treasure. What a waste of energy and time.

A loud beeping from outside caught her attention and she peered out. Nitori was near an unassuming part of terrace wall, moving her device in front of it in circles. The device beeped, and she looked rather nervous.

"So, found anything?" Marisa called out and Nitori nodded to her. Marisa grinned and ran down a flight of stairs. "Is it a secret door? Just like in books, it has to be a secret door!"

She ran to the wall and excitedly started to feel it around, searching for a hidden switch. Nitori took a step back.

"Um… actually my device only shows that there is a cavity behind this wall, it could be anyth—"

She abruptly stopped when she saw Marisa pulling out her octagonal weapon. "I don't think it is a good idea."

"Ha! A mere wall can not stop me! There are riches to be plundered and ancient secrets to be revealed! Stand back and behold my Master Spark!"

Nitori yelped and quickly positioned herself behind Marisa. The witch took a step back and threw her arms forward, unleashing a brilliant white beam into the wall at an angle. Most of it was reflected from the smooth stone, but there was also a resounding boom and the wall crumbled, revealing a long passage that led somewhere into the depths of the structure.

The spell ended and Marisa blew away the smoke from an opening in her tiny furnace. "And that's how it's done. Come on, let's start our adventure."

They stepped inside, and the pyramid greeted them with dust and darkness. Nitori rummaged through her backpack and produced a thin device that created a cone of light, and Marisa created a minor light spell of her own.

They soon discovered they were in a literal labyrinth of identical intersecting corridors. Nitori started marking the intersections with a glowing paint, but they made a few large circles nevertheless. Eventually they found a staircase down and stopped.

"Wow, this place is huge," Marisa said, leaning to a wall. "And this is just the upper level, if it is like this all the way down we could spend till sundown in here, if not longer. So, the question is: got any food?"

"I brought some with me, yes," Nitori answered. It became a bit easier for her to talk, as she slowly got used to this strange loud-mouthed human.

She put her backpack down and opened it, pulling out some apples, cucumbers and two flasks of water. Marisa snatched an apple and bit into it. She washed it down with water Nitori helpfully provided and wiped her mouth.

"Phew. I never thought I was so hungry, so thanks. Now, let's explore another level and call it a day. I've decided to not spend the night in this dusty ancient closet."

She waited for Nitori to pack her bag and descended down the stairs. The middle level was mostly the same, corridors upon corridors. This time, the girls found the stairs much sooner, the fact Marisa announced to be a result of her cunning plan. Nitori contributed it to dumb luck, but remained silent.

This staircase was different, as its frame was inscribed in strange wedged symbols. Marisa squinted, examining the writing. The silence dragged.

"Hmm…" the witch said after a while. "This makes no sense to me. Probably a curse to ward off grave robbers, but it's definitely not magical, so let's push forward. There has to be at least something interesting at the end of this maze."

"Like… cheese?" Nitori awkwardly asked. Marisa turned to her in surprise.

"Cheese? No, it's… oh wait, I got it, it's a joke. We are mice in the labyrinth, and our reward is cheese, hehe."

Nitori blushed slightly. This human seemed to approve and understand. Maybe this would turn out not that bad of a trip after all.

Marisa stretched. "Well, then, let's do this. I want for all of this to have an appropriate payoff in the end."

She went down the stairs, and Nitori followed her again. The lower level was different, wedged inscriptions covering the walls all around them. These inscriptions looked unnerving, almost alien, but Marisa showed no hesitance, so Nitori kept her thoughts and doubts to herself. It still was not threatening in any way, just an enormous dusty enclosed space. Nothing to worry about at all.

The corridor ended in an enormous inscribed room. It was cubic in shape, a single slab of stone at the middle, a single polished bronze figurine standing on it.

Excited, Marisa nearly ran forward and circled around the altar. Nitori followed slowly, the inscriptions and yawning openings of other corridors leading to the chamber filling her with unease. She made her way across the room and took a good look on the figurine.

It depicted a slender naked humanoid with a head of a hawk and four wings, his right clawed arm up as if in a greeting. Of the fact it was a "he" there was absolutely no doubt, as the figurine was extremely detailed, to the point even Marisa blushed a little. The base of the idol was also inscribed.

The witch slowly circled the pedestal again, looking for any hidden switches and pressure plates, but everything around them looked as solid as the whole pyramid. She asked Nitori to check if there were hidden hollows or mechanisms in the walls, but her devices registered nothing.

"And it's not in any way magical either as far as I can see," Marisa thought out loud, disappointment in her voice.

Nitori felt a little nervous. They were not robbing a grave or anything, but she still felt unnerved about taking the statue. Something was off, something at the edge of her perception of reality.

"So…"

"We take it, ze~" Marisa confidently said. "And then the divine inscriptions around us will come alive and choke us like constrictor snakes, a slow and torturous death that will leave our bodies as withered mummies and our souls to be forever trapped inside this demon."

Nitori barely suppressed a scream when Marisa reached forward and lifted the statue up. She then shook the idol around and turned it upside down. Nitori looked around the room in panic, and almost saw the inscriptions move.

"Oh, come on, don't be so Youmu about it. It's just a lump of lead… or bronze, whatever. A lot less than I expected, but still worth something. It's not going to destroy everything you hold dear and leave you an empty shell of a person you used to be. Here, touch it."

The kappa refused, furiously shaking her head. Marisa shrugged and swung the statue on her shoulder for easier transportation.

"Well, this place turned out to be mostly a boring identical maze, our treasure is nothing special, and there are no sinister dark plots to thwart, so let's get out of here."

She left the room, whistling something out of tune. Nitori glanced at the inscriptions for one last time, but still nothing happened and she felt a little ashamed. Really, all those stories of curses and traps turned out to be just that – stories.

And no, nothing horrible or tragic happened on the way back to the surface. Marisa whistled, shifting the heavy statue around when she got tired of a particular position and no mysterious force erased their markings or filled the complex with water or sand.

And so their adventure ended, long before sundown. They made their way to Nitori's house, and after sharing some food and talking about nothing Marisa left, taking the winged idol with her. Nitori noticed that the witch was much less energetic than in the morning, but again she kept it to herself. After all, humans get tired much easier and are much more fragile than even the weakest of youkai.

Nitori sighed. It was all so troublesome and mentally taxing. She should have just spent this whole day on her latest project instead.

After all, time can never be taken back once it is gone.

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