Credit for original idea:
@_YV1M4_

For all the friends I betrayed on my journey, especial mention; Meanbraba: I will miss you.

The earth. The books, their smells, their promises. Could it be possible to recall them?

"Hmm..."

No matter how many times a girl, a shrine maiden, fights to protect her land, it always ends with the darkness consuming it, with the Black Souls and sinners taking away everything she treasured.

Reimu, her? She opened her eyes once again, the black void completely surrounding her like a blanket woven from her own decisions. With a small, slow gasp, she found her thoughts on the tip of her tongue.

"Right, I killed my friends because of these stupid trial rules. Was it right to do all of this? They're still there somewhere, aren't they?"

She held a hand against her chest, almost as if she wanted to punch that traitorous heart.

But no matter how loudly she cried or screamed their names, with love or with hate, they wouldn't come back.

Her red clothes were stained with her own blood and tears.

Even though she couldn't know where she was, she had no doubt she was falling. The air still rushed against her clothes, as if they were bound to what she was supposed to protect.

After spending what felt like an eternity falling alone, hoping to find an end to this nightmare, nothing happened.

The void was still there. Her red clothes. Her destroyed dignity.

After what felt like another eternity, she stopped struggling. She stopped falling. It wasn't sudden, but as if her clothes had come alive, as if she could fight against the rules she was supposed to protect, she began to float.

Her brown hair, which had been a curtain while she was falling, slowly parted, allowing her to see.

It was still darkness. It was still the void. But she managed to take ghostly steps before she started moving forward without a destination.

Time passed, and she found a source of light. She rushed toward it until she managed to see her room.

She was there again. Probably. She was home, or at least, where home was supposed to be.

The cool, familiar wood of her private quarters felt real enough under her fingertips, but the heavy fog in Reimu's mind refused to clear.

She sat on her futon, staring blankly at the ceiling. Was she dead?

Honestly, she wasn't sure. The last thing she remembered was a blur of overwhelming energy, a sensation of slipping away from the waking world entirely. Yet, driven by an instinct older than her own memories, she had dragged herself up to visit the Honden.

Everything there had been eerily intact. The air held the familiar scent of old wood and incense, pristine and untouched. The Yin-Yang Orb rested silently on its shrine, gleaming with its usual quiet power, undisturbed by whatever catastrophe had just transpired. It was almost as if...

Her thoughts cut off instantly.

A flicker of movement at the edge of the shrine grounds had caught her eye. Sliding past the wooden pillars was a dark, distinct shadow, uninvited and creeping toward the doorway. A human? A youkai? In that moment, it didn't matter.

She hadn't hesitated for even a fraction of a second. She didn't have the energy for a prolonged battle, but she didn't need it. Stepping into the intruder's path, her voice had rung out sharp, cold, and absolute:

"You can't enter this place. This is a restricted zone."

And yet, you are here.
With me

Welcome to my nightmare