With a yawn, you stretch and put away the broom. Enough sweeping the stairs in front of the shrine for today. It's time for some tea. It's still quite early in the morning, and you really feel like having some tea, but before you can finish your way back inside, your feet fail to meet the ground and with a momentary rush of vertigo, you find yourself falling through an eerie—though not entirely unfamiliar—space filled with darkness and eyes. 'Grand,' you think, the lazy day you were looking forward to slipping through your fingers like grains of sand.

With a soft *thump*, you land in a well cushioned armchair and find yourself in a gloomy room, illuminated only by a desk lamp, which stands atop the desk that you are now facing. Something feels wrong. There, nature, everything around you is usually suffused with magic, with the old, but here there is nothing. The outside world?

"Reimu~"

The voice is coming from the other side of the desk and it really, really—no, really really—pisses you off, but you somehow manage to hold yourself back from cussing out the utterly flawless face framed by long, golden hair that moved from the shadows into the meager light of the desk lamp.

"Yes? What now?" you snap at her, straining to keep your temper under control.

"Oh, Reimu, it is so nice of you to drop by~ I was just hoping you would do me the teensiest, tiny favor, you see?"

Yukari gives you a wide grin and it widens even further as she continues.

"You see, it seems that you have gotten yourself stuck in the outside world, and we can't have that now, can we? You are needed in Gensokyo to maintain the barrier, so if you help me out, I'll"—she snaps her fingers—"send you home, just like that, isn't that great?"

You cannot help but groan, the fake upbeat, sing-songy voice grinding on your nerves enough that you feel the beginnings of a headache.

"Cut it out, just tell me what you want."

"Oh come on, we are old friends, right~ Don't be so cold, Reimu~" The woman behind the desk laughs softly. She can be utterly obnoxious sometimes, and she knows it. "But alright. I need you to go on stage and dance and sing. Well, it's enough if you pretend to sing, don't worry, you don't even need to memorize the lyrics. Just go along with the backing track~"

What?

"Reimu, if you're going to freeze up like that, I'll shoot danmaku~"

It takes you only a split second after that to come back to yourself.

"Yukari, what the underworld are you talking about?"

"It's simple, I'm managing an idol group. Well, they didn't have their major debut with a proper label yet, so they're indies. Underground idols."

"Why..."

"It's fun! They're cute, the fans are kind of cute, and it's like—hmm, the people here play these games, you know? On their machines with the colorful moving pictures. Right, they call them management games. It's like that, but why would I bother with a game when I can just do it? That's what I thought, so here we are."

How a hyper-intelligent youkai with almost god-like powers can keep on rambling like this, you'll never understand. In fact, you're not quite sure you even understand what she is going on about right now, so you do the reasonable thing and shrug in a non-committal way.

"But I'm in trouble, Reimu~ My center, she got the most awful flu—"

"Center?" you interrupt.

"My center! That's the girl who's the focal point of the songs and gets the most lines! Everyone knows that! Anyway, she's got the flu and she can't perform at today's live, so—"

"So? Just fix her up with your boundary manipulation. The boundary of health or something." You waggle your hands in an annoyed manner.

"No, no, no, that won't do~ No cheating, no using powers for my management game! So anyways, I need a replacement—and the only one who's smart enough, skilled enough, the only one who has the true freedom of movement, who can surely learn the choreography for ten songs before noon, that's you, Reimu~"

Great, now she's complimenting you. That's never a good sign. And what was that? Learning the choreography for ten songs before noon?

"So!" She gets up, walks around the desk, thrusts a bundle of clothes into your hands, and pulls you up. "Come, that's your costume, I'll lead you down to the dressing room so you can meet the girls. They'll teach you everything you need to know."

"Wait, I didn't—"

You are falling again. She'd opened another gap right beneath your feet. In the blink of an eye, you find yourself in a corridor standing in front of a door, the blonde woman next to you. Wait, is she wearing a suit? That's new.

Without hesitation she gives the door a quick knock and pushes it open, leading you inside. Four girls are standing in the middle of the room, talking in a worried tone.

"Girls, I've got a stand-in for Ayaka! This is Reimu. She may look a little funny in her shrine maiden cosplay, but she's actually a retired super idol, the best of the best, and she'll pick up our choreography in no time, guaranteed!"

You blink, dumbfounded, as four heads turn towards you, filled with a mixture of doubt, hope, and finally excitement.

"Anyways, you girls get her changed into the costume and go over the songs with her, teach her Ayaka's positions, all that, got it? You've got..." She checks her watch. "...five hours before the live. Feel free to go up to the stage to practice. The staff there can get the music and lights going. I've got to run now, still need to talk with the organizers and all that. Later, girls!"

"Hey—" is all you can say before she is back out of the door, slamming it shut behind her. With a sigh you turn around, finding yourself face to face with four girls, staring at you with sparkling eyes. You glance down at the clothes in your hands. They seem very frilly and judging by what the four in front of you are wearing, the skirt is probably rather short as well. You sigh again.

One of the girls, still beaming at you, finally opens her mouth and introduces herself.

"