東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 3:Mountain of Faith

—7—

In Gensokyo, seeing humans or other creatures soar through the air is not uncommon. Reimu and Marisa were humans that seemed to have learned the knack of it, but numerous other creatures including Aya and Keine seemed to manage it as well. That said, it didn't seem to come naturally —other than Keine, no one we knew of in the village could fly. I had never seen Kotohime fly, but Keine had mentioned before that she was a capable combatant against youkai and as far as I could see the ability to fly and the ability to oppose youkai were practically synonymous.

Renko had attempted to gain an understanding of the principles of flight employed by various people we knew, but had quickly given up after finding that not only did the explanations offered by everyone we talked to make no sense from her perspective as a student of Super-unified Physics, but that the explanations varied wildly from one individual to another depending on the nature of their unique abilities. Marisa, for example, talked of flying being the product of a spell which used her broom as a focus and found flying without a broom for any length of time difficult. In Keine's case, flight was something that had come naturally to her after becoming a were-hakutaku. For her, there was no thought or process to it other than willing herself into the air. She described the feeling of flying as being identical to jumping and just not coming down —one could twist one's body in the air or change direction by pushing off from against something, the only difference was that one could jump off of or away from anything, even empty air by simply concentrating one's power in the direction opposite the direction of flight,

Although we hadn't been able to ask them, presumably Ran and Alice flew in much the same way that Marisa did. The only hints Renko had uncovered that might explain how any of it worked were a pair of conclusions she had come to after talking to Marisa. It seemed that hovering in place was more difficult and energy intensive than flying forward or even straight up, which seemed counter-intuitive. This was why Marisa preferred to orbit or dismount when talking to someone stationary rather than just stay in one fixed position. The other thing she had been able to learn from Marisa was that whatever the secret of flight was for people using magic, the way Reimu flew was different. Renko couldn’t explain how yet, but she was completely convinced that the method Reimu used to fly was wholly unlike anyone else's.

Now why would I bother mentioning any of this, you may ask? I bring up this discussion here only because it was immediately clear to us, as we both hurtled through the crisp autumn air toward Youkai Mountain, that Sanae's method or flight was once again clearly different from any other we had experienced. Traveling with Sanae was something akin to sailing: we were very noticeably being propelled by a strong tailwind. I suppose 'sailing' was a poor metaphor though, as a sailboat travels only at the whim of the wind and Sanae's flight seemed to work on entirely the opposite principle: when she turned, the wind turned to align with her.

Sanae had introduced herself as 'wind priestess' and she seemed to very much live up to that name. She needed no ritual, nor magic words or the like but simply turned her head and a great rush of wind roared up to follow her aim. I couldn't help but compare her in my mind to fictional characters with similar powers I had read about in the past, heroes and villains in manga who had used their mastery over air to create vacuums around their opponents or twist tornadoes that could level a city out of clear skies. I couldn't imagine how close to those fictional portrayals her power might be, but it seemed undeniable that she was strong.

"We're nearly there. Hold tight, it may get a little bumpy as I bring us down."

While I had been lost in my head thinking about the physics of flight and old manga, Sanae had flown us nearly all the way to the top of Youkai Mountain, a trip that would have taken us half a day on foot assuming we could have even reached such a position. The strong tailwind behind us cut out and was replaced by a swirling updraft from below. Renko and I had to switch our spare hands from holding our hats on our heads to holding our skirts down as we slowly descended into a dense and steeply sloped forest. The trees drifted up towards us as Sanae directed us to a bare patch of ground then released our hands as we touched down gently on the slope.

"It's quite steep here, so please be careful," she said as she began walking along a dirt path that had been cut into the woods. I wondered why she hadn't taken us all the way to the shrine itself, but I could hardly complain after having bypassed nearly the entirety of the ascent. We followed silently behind her through the gloomy chill of the looming trees.

"We must be more than half way up Youkai Mountain at this point," Renko said as we picked out footholds among exposed roots and rocks.

"Yes, close to two thirds of the way," Sanae replied from up ahead.

"Why build a shrine in a place like this? I don't think any humans will be able to make it here to worship."

Sanae let out a small groan. "It's a bit of a concern, I'll admit. That's why I went to the Hakurei Shrine today."

If this shrine were so isolated as to be unreachable by humans, it made sense that they would want to have a foothold at another location. The Hakurei Shrine was an odd choice though, it was already far enough from the village to see very few visitors, and even if a secondary shrine was needed, it didn't explain why the goddess of this mountain would try to take ownership of another shrine rather than just ask to have a sacred object of theirs enshrined alongside whatever divinities were already present.

What we had heard so far painted Sanae's goddess as a rather scheming individual. The tengu had been discussing how to deal with her arrival for a month, so she must have had some plan that bothered or confounded them in the works alongside this suspicious effort to take over the Hakurei Shrine from its current god. Or perhaps she was merely a greedy goddess always on the lookout to expand her powerbase. Mentally, I reminded myself to be extra vigilant in her presence and ready for anything.

As we emerged from the forest we came to a section of slope that rose beneath a clear view of the sky to be surmounted by a large wooden torii gate which stood proudly over the path. Sanae hopped jauntily through the gate then turned to us, one hand sweeping behind her and the other extended in welcome. "Welcome to the Moriya Shrine! You two have the honor of being our first human visitors."

With that welcome, Renko and I passed through the gate, and onto the grounds of the shrine proper. It was a much grander sight than the Hakurei Shrine. There was a large, beautifully ornamented and constructed great hall directly before us along with another, smaller, but still impressive hall in front of it. The larger of the buildings, presumably the shrine's main hall, was hung with an enormous shimenawa braided from countless woven cords. It was by far the largest shimenawa I had even seen, and sagged under its own weight as it hung from the support beams of the main shrine building. The Hakurei Shrine had a shimenawa of its own, but this one was much larger. The only place I could ever remember having heard of one this big was...

"The Izumo Grand Shrine?" I muttered to myself.

"No," Renko said, as she turned her head to take in the sights surrounding us. "The knot on this one starts on the right, like at the Suwa Grand Shrine."

"Oh, very good! Not many humans would know the difference," a voice called out. The voice was feminine, older and dignified, but we couldn't see where it had come from.

Sanae, however, turned her head, looking at a fixed point in the empty air beside her. "Lady Kanako!" She exclaimed, jubilantly.

The next moment something impossible happened. To my eyes the space just beside Sanae suddenly and violently distorted. Where the distortion had been, a woman now stood. Her appearance was striking. She was tall and sturdily built, with a look of supreme but amiable confidence on her face. A brilliant circular mirror hung on her chest and a large hoop of braided rope was somehow affixed to and standing stiffly behind her back.

Although looking at us as we stared in surprise, she spoke first to Sanae. "Before worshippers you are to address me as 'Lady Yasaka', Sanae."

"Ah, sorry" the priestess said, bowing her head.

The woman gave her an affectionate poke on the forehead, then turned her head back to us, regarding us with a fearless smile.

"It's been a long time since I appeared before human visitors in a physical body, but such is the way of Gensokyo. You two are the first human visitors to behold me in an age. What are your names?"

"Usami Renko, Pleased to meet you," Renko said with a quick bow.

"...I'm Maéreverie Hearn...You can call me Merry if you like."

"Renko and Merry. Let me officially welcome you to the Moriya Shrine. I am Yasaka Kanako, the deity of this grand shrine."

Having a goddess welcome us in person was a new experience for us, but nothing outside the realm of what we might have expected to see in Gensokyo. The name Yasaka definitely brought to mind places we knew of, though. Yasaka Shrine was not far outside of Kyoto, however, it was dedicated to Susano-o and Kushinadahime as well as their children, none of whom I saw representations of here.

"I see. I suppose that would make you the deity known as Yasakatome in the Outside World?" Renko asked with a grin.

Kanako opened her eyes wide and then laughed pleasantly. "So you are from the Outside World too then. Tell me, were you born in the Suwa region?"

"No, no, but I spent several years in Kyoto."

"I see. I should have guessed as much. I’d know anyone born in Suwa in an instant, but your face is new to me. At any rate, you are both most welcome to come to this shrine and pay your respects. Sanae, please show them around."

Saying that, she instantly vanished from the spot. There was no great distortion like the one that had accompanied her arrival this time. She was simply there one moment and gone the next. I wondered if the woman we had seen before us might have been some sort of illusion. At the very least, she was different from anything we had seen before, as she neither dissipated into something else as Suika had been known to, or concealed herself by manipulating phases as Reisen did. If she had been using either of those tricks, my eyes should have been able to see it.

"Oh wow," Sanae cooed in awe. "You guys are really lucky, it's rare that she comes out to talk to worshippers directly. Okay, I'll give you guys the grand tour then!" With a determined expression she whirled around and began marching off, her boots crunching on the gravel. Renko and I looked at each other then hurriedly followed her.

Taking Renko's hand, I held her back just enough that we could whisper without being heard. "Renko, who was that goddess you mentioned, Yasakatome?"

"She was one of the gods worshiped at the Suwa Grand Shrine, the wife of the god Takeminakata. If she's here though...." Renko furrowed her brows and looked up at the giant shimenawa hanging above her as we made our way into the shrine.

"Then would that mean the entire Suwa Grand Shrine had come to Gensokyo?" I asked, finishing Renko's question. The shimenawa, the name Yasaka and the mention of the Suwa region all seemed to suggest that this Moriya Shrine we were now exploring might be the illusionary counterpart to the Suwa Grand Shrine outside of Kyoto. There was just one problem with that.

The Suwa Grand Shrine still existed outside Kyoto in the 2080's where Renko and I had come from. Both of us had even been there.


—8—


Sanae led us happily around the shrine grounds, rattling off a memorized speech that wouldn't have been out of place coming from any tour guide in the Scientific Century. She showed us the raised stage adorned with numerous paper lanterns in front of the main shrine building and gave us a brief lecture on the enormous shimenawa before leading us around to the worship hall in the back. As we walked, Renko whispered in my ear, confirming something I had been suspecting: the layout we had seen so far was identical to that of the 𝐴𝑘𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑦𝑎, the lower autumn shrine, one of the four shrine complexes that, put together, made up the Suwa Grand Shrine we had visited in the Outside World.

It was a difficult paradox to square. The Suwa Grand Shrine existed in the Outside World, and yet here it was in Gensokyo, going by the name of Moriya Shrine. Certainly, I had never heard it mentioned if there was a period near the beginning of the 21st century in which part of the Suwa Grand Shrine had disappeared. Clearly, then, the shrine that had existed in our world could not have been transported to Gensokyo and if it hadn't, then what did that make this place? A clever replica? An imitation? Renko spotted me puzzling it over in my head as we walked and gave me a nudge.

"Don't worry about what this place is or isn't too much just yet, Merry," she whispered. "We don't have enough information to make a deduction and we wouldn't want to get so caught up in the what-ifs we miss something important. Besides, adding more mysteries to the ones we already knew of just makes this more interesting, don't you think? What is the nature of the Suwa Grand Shrine that appeared in Gensokyo? What happened to the Suwa Grand Shrine of the Outside World? This incident is going to be a good one, I can tell." I let out a small sigh as I wondered if there was anyone else in this or any other world who would get so excited at the thought of being caught up in an incident.

"By the way, Miss Sanae, what sort of things do people come to this shrine to pray for?" Renko asked loud enough for Sanae to hear.

"Anything you want! Lady Kanako... er, I mean Lady Yasaka is the goddess of the whole mountain and everything on it, so anything on the mountain is within her domain. The kanji for Yasaka means 'many slopes' and the goddess provides as many blessings as there faces to the mountain." Sanae spread her arms out and whirled around as if to encompass the whole breadth of Youkai Mountain. She seemed to be ceaselessly energetic.

"There are amulets and prayers you can buy for just about anything. I expect prayers for a good harvest will be our best sellers, but we have prayers for success in marriage, prosperity in business, health and long life, pain-free childbirth, protection from evil spirits and traffic safety! Oh, I don't suppose the last one will be very popular in Gensokyo though."

"Well maybe not, but there are already numerous gods worshiped here that count those other domains among their own. Do you think arriving here with a goddess who can offer anything and everything will cause some strife among the native gods who already call this place home?"

"I doubt it. Shinto had always held that Japan is a land of myriad gods and spirits co-existing and sharing the land with mortals. Even other religions mesh without conflict. Lots of people will honor their ancestors on Obon, then celebrate Christmas and enjoy Halloween all in the same year."

"And yet, despite that, you're trying to take over the Hakurei Shrine. Why, I wonder?" Renko asked, taking a step ahead and turning so she could look Sanae in the eye.

Sanae paused for a moment. When she replied, her tone was completely unfamiliar, lacking all of the joy and excitement we had been hearing from her all day. "A god who can't gather faith fades away as the people forget them. A shrine without a god present is just an empty hut."

The mood of the tour had suddenly changed. Renko seemed about to say something more, but Sanae turned away from her, saying "Let me show you something different. It's my special place here, I think you'll like it."

"A 'special place?'"

"Mhm! Follow me."

As she came back towards me, the smile on her face was just as it had been when we arrived, as bright and cheerful as if nothing had changed. I glanced at Renko for only a moment before we turned to follow her.

What Sanae showed us was a lake. We had needed to go around the back of the worship hall behind the main shrine to an animal trail that wound around the side of a slope and out of sight of the grounds. There, after a short descent, the dense trees suddenly gave way to a surprising scene.

"Wow"

Here, halfway up a mountain, was a pristine alpine lake. Just by looking at it you could see it was larger than Misty Lake which lay far below. The river that flowed down from here must later become the magnificent waterfall that marked the edge of the tengu's territory. From there it flowed through the ravine that wound through the forests of the foothills before reaching Misty Lake and then eventually becoming the water source for the village and the farms beyond.

As awe-inspiring as the natural beauty of the lake was, it was also home to another impressive sight. Rising out of the waters of the lake in two precise rows were a series of immense wooden pillars emerging proudly out of the calm surface of the lake. If this Moriya Shrine really was the same as the Suwa Grand Shrine in the Outside World, then these pillars would be...

"Whoa, Onbashira..." Renko said, looking on in awe.

"Ah, you really do know your Suwa traditions. Yes, these are the pride of our shrine." Sanae smiled as she reached out to touch one of the closest pillars, which stood on dry land on the shore of the lake, embedded in the ground and towering overhead.

The Onbashira were immense sacred poles, each carved from a single enormous fir trunk. Towering overhead I thought back to the festivals I had heard about. Every six years a new Onbashira was constructed by teams of celebrants who ascended the nearby mountains to secure the tree by hand then recklessly ride it down the slope of the mountain in a display that was half a religious ceremony and half a test of courage. It was not uncommon for people to be injured during the proceedings and there was even the occasional fatality when one of the trees flipped over or rolled out of control. The Onbashira festival was a unique and signature practice of the Suwa Grand Shrine and, as far as I knew, the pillars could be found nowhere else in the world. It seemed undoubtable that the Moriya and Suwa shrines had once been one and the same.

"These pillars and this lake are as much a part of this shrine as any of the buildings or practices," Sanae said. "When we came to this world, the lake came with us."

Renko nodded to herself, seemingly convinced of something. She flipped her hat, which she had taken off as she looked over the lake, back on to her head. "I see, I see." she said, turning to Sanae. "That has to be the Omiwatari."

Sanae nodded, smiling. "That’s right!

I thought back to the time we had visited the Suwa Grand Shrine on our way back to Kyoto. As far as I could remember, the Omiwatari was a local natural phenomena on lake Suwa that was revered as a miracle. The so-called 'path of the gods,' it consisted of a long, jagged trail from one side of lake Suwa to the other that formed in the ice when the lake froze in winter.

The Omiwatari was another unique feature, not of the Suwa Grand Shrine this time, but of Lake Suwa itself. Its presence here left no doubt that not only the shrine but the lake itself had come from the Outside World. That seemed impossible though. Although this lake was impressively large it couldn’t possibly be as big as the Lake Suwa of the Outside World. Here in Gensokyo the impossible happened on an everyday basis of course, but to transport an entire lake along with the grounds of the shrine and its inhabitants between worlds? If so, what had happened to the Suwa Grand Shrine of the Outside World?

As I pondered, staring across the mirror-bright surface of the lake in awe, I rested my hand against one of the Onbashira. The moment I did, I felt a telltale tingle. My eyes, which had been absorbed in observing the natural beauty of the scene, shifted their view, revealing a fine but complex network of wards and boundaries interwoven between the upright pillars like thread on a loom. Just looking at it, I could see that the pillars formed a powerful boundary, enclosing the space between them. But for what purpose? To keep something in, or to keep everything else out? My eyes, as always, didn't tell me that much, giving me just enough information to spark a dangerous and troublesome curiosity.

"Hey Merry, what's wrong? You're staring into space again."

"Oh sorry. It's nothing. Just a little tired." I gave Renko a significant look. She knew better than to ask me about it in Sanae's presence, but nodded faintly to me.

"If you're feeling tired, why don't we head back to the shrine. We can have some tea to warm up."

Still smiling, Sanae turned on her heel and began walking up the slope toward the shrine. Renko and I stopped to take one last look at the lake before following. Its calm surface was like a mirror, reflecting the beauty of the heavens back from Earth.

If this shrine and this lake were really the ones that had come from the Suwa region of the Outside World, which seemed at this point to be the inescapable conclusion, then what had happened to those places back home? Renko was strolling up the path with an unconcerned expression on her face, but surely her worries were the same as my own: once more we were confronted with the possibility that the world we had left was no longer proceeding in the way we were familiar with.

The Suwa Grand Shrine was here in Gensokyo, that much seemed undebatable. If it had disappeared from the Outside world to come here, then who knows what else might have changed?


—9—


Much like the Hakurei Shrine, the Moriya Shrine's main building combined a front area for worship and offerings with a private residence in the back. It was there, in a Japanese-style parlor behind the room containing a grand display of sacred artifacts and offerings, that the three of us now sat. It must have served as a living room.

"Sorry about the teabags, I haven't had a chance to go into the village to buy proper tea yet." Sanae said as she brought out three steaming mugs. Taking one and sipping, I found the taste nostalgic. Not quite the same as the artificial tea I remembered from the Scientific Century, but not entirely dissimilar either.

"This is really quite a magnificent shrine," Renko said as she took her own mug.

Sanae laughed softly then replied. "It’s not that impressive. Besides, if we can’t fill it with worshippers then all this space is for nothing."

"Is that why you came to Gensokyo then?"

"Yes. To regain all the faith we had lost," she said with a carefree smile.

Renko paused for a moment before asking her next question. "Miss Sanae, do you have a family? I haven’t seen any other humans here so far."

Sanae looked down for just a moment before laughing and waving dismissively. "Well, I don’t have a human family, no, but I have the company of the gods and that's all the family I could need. It's nothing to be worried about."

"Gods?" Renko asked, catching the detail. "Plural? I assume you mean Yasakatome's husband, Takeminakata? If I recall correctly some of their children were venerated at the Suwa Grand Shrine as well. Are all of them here too?"

"Oh. Uh... well... it's not quite... that is to say... Oh! I have some tea cakes! I bet you haven't had sweets from the Outside World in a long time. I'll go get them." Sanae hurried out of the room, looking flustered.

It wasn’t a particularly convincing escape. I turned to Renko and raised an eyebrow. She grinned back at me. "A little suspicious, wouldn't you say?" She asked. "This shrine seems to conceal quite a few secrets."

"We're their first visitors. They may not be ready to show the public everything here just yet. Besides, it's not like they're doing any harm." I leaned in close, lowering my voice to a whisper and told her about the barrier I had felt surrounding the pillars on the lake earlier.

"I see," she said with a nod. "That's probably where it would be then."

"Renko, what is it that you're thinking?"

"Do you remember when we went to the Suwa Grand Shrine? On the way back from the sanatorium you had been confined to? We talked about it there, how the Suwa shrine had some gods on the outside like Yasakatome and Takeminakata that they worshiped publicly and other gods that only the initiated priests and priestesses were allowed to know about that they worshiped in secret."

"Ah, right." I thought back to our visit to the Suwa Grand Shrine. We had seen rites performed to honor Takeminakata and Yasakatome there, but heard it said that the people of Suwa actually worshipped a different god, who was neither Takeminakata or Yasakatome. "If that’s the case then…"

"Then, assuming that this shrine is the Suwa Grand Shrine brought to Gensokyo, there should be another god that’s worshiped here too. We won’t know for sure until we look for ourselves though."

"...you're thinking about getting up and sneaking off to have a look around the place right now, aren't you?"

"It's not very polite to read my mind like that. You should let a girl have a few secrets to herself."

"Anybody could have predicted that Renko, you're practically wearing a sign that says 'I'm too curious for my own good.' There are actual gods here, Renko. If we go sneaking about behind Sanae's back we might not be able to get away with just having to read Agatha Christie to a vampire."

In case you haven't read it, that's a reference to one of our earlier casefiles, the one concerning the Scarlet Mist Incident. During that time we had ended up trapped in an underground cell with a vampire reading 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑊𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑁𝑜𝑛𝑒 to Flandre Scarlet for hours and hours. The result of that had been that I was still on friendly terms with Miss Flandre, but given the choice I'd rather not fall into another situation where I'm trapped in a cage with what feels like a dangerous beast again.

"Oh come on, Merry. Don't try to tell me you're not curious too. Who knows, the secrets of how this place is related to the shrine in the Outside World may have implications for us too."

"...I know that, but..."

"No 'buts.' We're the Hifuu Club, it's our sworn duty to bring to light the secrets of the world!" I sighed, but when Renko climbed to her feet and extended her hand, I took it. Then, before we could set out—

"Being curious and eager to learn more about our shrine and religion is all well and good, but don't you think snooping around your host's home when they're not looking is going a bit too far?"

I whirled around to find the source of the voice that had said this from behind me. Yasaka Kanako had once again materialized from nowhere, directly behind us. Now that she was here she looked as if she belonged as much as any of the rest of us, with no sign of lingering distortion or abnormality about her. If not for her unusual clothes and accessories, she could have been mistaken for an ordinary, if extremely confident, human. I wondered if this body in front of us was an illusion. If it was, then where did its consciousness reside? Certainly it still seemed to exist after the woman before us had vanished earlier.

The goddess narrowed her eyes as she regarded Renko. "I'll ask that you not go snooping around without permission."

Renko held her hands up, palms open. "Ah well, I guess we're caught in the act. If you don't mind, may I ask you a few questions directly while we wait for Sanae to return?" The boldness with which Renko could turn an admission of guilt into an interrogation was astonishing, but I don't know if that sort of shamelessness is something that should be praised.

Kanako's eyes widened in response to Renko's audacity, but then she laughed. "You're a most unusual human to make such a request, but very well. Ask your questions. I will answer if it is within my power to do so."

"Thank you, that's very gracious of you. I'll not waste time with formalities then. This 'Moriya Shrine' bears quite a few similarities to the Suwa Grand Shrine of the Outside World. Too many to simply be coincidence. Are the two one and the same? If so, what happened to the shrine of the Outside World when you relocated here?"

"You already know the answer to that, don't you?"

"So with you here, does that mean that all faith in the divinities of the Suwa Grand Shrine has now vanished from the Outside World?"

"There of course remains some small faith in the Outside World, but it is shrinking. No matter what we gods do, humans are losing their faith in us.. Rather than cling to their meager faith as it dwindles and recedes, I thought it better to come here and gather new faith from the people of this world."

"I see. So then you came here, along with your husband Takeminakata as well, I presume?"

"No, there is only me."

"So you left him behind? Or was he for some reason unable to come to this world?"

"Neither. There never was a Takeminakata here. There was only me." Did that mean that Takeminakata and Yasakatome were actually both the same god? I do recall that Yasakatome was a goddess unique to the Suwa region who didn't appear in the 𝐾𝑜𝑗𝑖𝑘𝑖 or 𝑁𝑖ℎ𝑜𝑛 𝑆ℎ𝑜𝑘𝑖...

"That's quite an interesting story. I suppose it wouldn't be unheard of for humans to worship two different aspects of the same divinity as different gods. I would have expected that Takeminakata would have been the other deity worshiped in this shrine. The hidden one."

"I just told you that I am the only god worshiped here, did I not?" Kanako's face betrayed no emotion whatsoever as she easily parried Renko’s leading question.

"Ah, I must have been mistaken then, my apologies." Renko said, her friendly smile twisting into her usual troublesome grin. "So in that case, you and Miss Sanae came alone to Gensokyo? One god and one teenage priestess?"

"That's correct. I fear that in bringing her here, I may have done the girl a terrible disservice."

"No you didn't, Lady Kanako!" Sanae had called from the next room over as she came tromping back into the room holding a tray full of yokan. She unceremoniously shoved her goddess aside, making room for herself at the table as she set the tray down. "I've told you many times that that's not true. I knew what it meant to come here and I made my decision of my own free will. You have nothing to apologize for!"

"I know, I know," the goddess said, placing a hand affectionately on her shoulder. Turning, she regarded the two of us once again, looking us over appraisingly. "You two. I believe you had told me your names were Merry and Renko, did you not? You and Sanae are all humans from the Outside World and of similar ages. You should become friends."

"Eh?" I blinked in surprise at the sudden about-face of the discussion.

"Lady Kanako! I'm old enough to make my own friends!" Sanae protested.

"Now now," Kanako chided, tapping Sanae's shoulder. "Being up high on the mountain like this, it may be difficult for you to meet people from the village. These two are Outsiders just as you are, but with a bit more experience here. I'm sure they can help show you around and introduce you to the ins and outs of daily life here."

"Lady Kanako! I—"

"It’s alright, Sanae. You can relax a bit here," Kanako said with a reassuring smile. There was a lot about Sanae's situation we didn't understand, but Kanako was right about her being new to this world. Adjusting to life in Gensokyo is something Renko and I had already had to deal with.

Sanae seemed to have been won over by Kanako's words and looked down with an embarrassed expression. Renko sipped at her room-temperature tea as she watched the exchange, but seeing no more objections coming, she put her mug down and reached across the table.

"Well, the idea sounds great to me. I had hoped I might become your friend from the moment we met. It's a pleasure to meet you once again, Miss Sanae." Renko took one of Sanae's hands in both of hers as she said this, fixing her with the same earnest smile she had used on Kagerou before. Was she determined to try to charm everyone she met today? "Do you mind if I drop the ‘miss’ and just call you Sanae then?"

"Well, um, I don't... That is, I don't really mind..." Sanae trailed off into a mumble as she withdrew her hand and blushed.

"Well, in that case, Sanae, I'd like to learn more about you. Maybe you could tell me your story."

"M-my story?"

"Sure, about your life in the Outside World. Where are you from? Maybe you could even tell us about something we'd never heard about from there."

"Oh. Okay, sure, I'm sure there's plenty to catch up on. How long have you two been here?"

"Hmm, what would you say, Merry?" Renko turned to me with a mischievous gleam in her eye.

"Me? Well, uh, I guess it would be safe to say we arrived here a little over four years ago, right?" It wasn't a lie, at least. I was just leaving out any mention of the fact that prior to arriving here we had been living in Kyoto more than 70 years in the future.

"I see. So you would've seen 𝑆𝐸𝐸𝐷 then, but you haven't seen 𝑆𝐸𝐸𝐷 𝐷𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑦 yet."

Renko blinked in surprise. "𝑆𝐸𝐸𝐷?"

"Oh, don't you watch 𝐺𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑚? Well let's see, you should know 𝐻𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 then. Or had 𝐴𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 started yet?"

Renko and I looked at each other in surprise. The names were utterly foreign. Was she talking about the anime of her time?

"Er, I'm afraid that's a little outside my area of expertise." Renko said, awkwardly.

"Oh... That's too bad..." Sanae's tone sounded deeply disappointed. I looked back across the table to find that once more Kanako had vanished without warning, leaving no trace.

"Well, rather than worry about details like that, why don't you tell us about yourself, Sanae?"

"Me?" She seemed utterly dejected at the idea of changing topics. "There's nothing interesting there to talk about, really." She pondered for a moment, then clapped her hands, resuming the energetic, bubbly attitude she had worn when we met her. "More importantly, I should be asking questions of you! I'm a newcomer here, so please tell me everything you know about Gensokyo. That's much better than dwelling on the past!"

For what seemed like the thousandth time today the mood and topic of the conversation had shifted wildly, careening through highs and lows like a roller coaster. Renko and I looked at each other once more, then, with a sigh, nodded and began.