東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 4:Mountain of Faith

—10—

There is so much to say about Gensokyo. From the geography, to the people, to the customs, to the dangers, to the history, to the metaphysics of it all. There is too much to say, far more than we could hope to impart in one afternoon.

After all, just since our own arrival in this world four years ago, my partner and I had somehow already been involved in five incidents, each with the potential to reshape the landscape of power in this world. Just telling the stories of those incidents would fill five books. Between the human village, the various far-flung and wild parts of Gensokyo and all of the various youkai that populate this land it was hard to know where we should begin.

Our purpose in coming to this shrine had been to gather information on Sanae and anyone else dwelling here, but confronted with another Outsider like ourselves who was newly arrived in this land, we had a duty as her more experienced peers to guide and protect her, as Keine had once done for us. Finding out more about the Moriya Shrine would have to come later. In this situation even Renko, whose curiosity normally trumped all other concerns, was able to understand the necessity of postponing our fact-finding mission.

We quickly determined that although Sanae had willingly crossed into this world knowing that she was entering a land of fantasy and illusion, she had little concept of what Gensokyo was actually like. So far, she had only seen a few areas on the mountain, though she knew that the human village existed on the plains far below. Her visit to the Hakurei shrine had been her first venture out into this world. Her trip had been on Kanako's insistence after the goddess had apparently snuck into the village in disguise and heard that it was the only shrine in Gensokyo.

"Our initial goal is to gather the faith of the tengu and kappa who live on this mountain, but it hasn't been easy. Neither of them seem willing to talk to us. They've been ignoring all of our attempts to reach out to them for almost a month now, so going to the Hakurei Shrine seemed like a logical next step."

"And was negotiating with Reimu to take over her shrine something you planned or just something you came up with in the moment?"

"It was a natural response! You saw that place. Being the only shrine in Gensokyo, I expected something grand and awe-inspiring, but it looks almost abandoned. How can you have a land full of such wonder but so devoid of faith? After Lady Kana... I mean after Lady Yasaka remodels the place and we get some proper observances done by a non-lazy shrine maiden, her blessings will revitalize that shrine. We can lift that shrine maiden out of poverty and lift the spirits of the people of this world at the same time!"

It seems like Sanae's bid to take over the Hakurei Shrine was founded on the best of intentions. It was a relief to hear that these newcomers had arrived in this world without any malicious aim. I wondered if you could really classify the Hakurei Shrine as poor or not. Certainly the sparse dwellings there were light on luxuries, but Reimu never seemed to have much trouble providing ingredients or alcohol for the numerous parties we had attended there.

"Do you two know that shrine maiden well?"

"Hmmm, well enough to be invited to parties she holds, I'd say."

"Ah, then I should have you two put in a good word for me. Oh! Before that though, I should be gathering faith from you two. Let me show you the divine virtues of Lady Yasaka so that you can benefit from the blessings of this shrine."

"Ah, well, before we get to that, I'd like to ask you something else. Why did you call out to us as we were leaving the shrine?"

"Oh, um... well, I noticed you both coming up the path as I was leaving. You were humans interested in visiting a shrine, so I thought you might be good people to talk to about spreading our faith. Are you two regular worshippers at that shrine?"

"Well, not exactly."

"Then we extend you and your faith the warmest of welcomes! Simply devote yourself to the glory of Lady Yasaka and you will receive blessings in kind!"

"Ah well, I'll certainly consider it. But on the topic of spreading your faith, has a newspaper reporter come to interview you yet by any chance?"

"A newspaper reporter? No, I didn't know they had such things in Gensokyo."

"They have a few. The tengu produce and distribute newspapers. I take it you haven't been questioned by them yet though?"

"No, but I'd be happy to give any sort of interview they want. Using mass media to spread word of Lady Yasaka's greatness is a wonderful idea!"

I looked over at my partner. "It looks like Miss Shameimaru isn't as obsessed with reporting on new developments as you thought, Renko."

"It seems that way," Renko muttered, looking down and rubbing her chin. "I had thought the 𝐵𝑢𝑛𝑏𝑢𝑛𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑢 had stopped publishing because Aya was tied up doing exhaustive coverage of the new arrivals, but there must be some other reason."

While the two of us were whispering to each other, Sanae tilted her head and asked "by the way, how did you two hear about this shrine?"

"We had heard a few rumors about your arrival from a kappa and a tengu I'm acquainted with."

"You know the tengu? Do you think you could introduce us? They haven't responded to any of our requests to meet with their leaders."

"I'm afraid I can't help you there, my connections don't reach as far as the upper echelons of tengu society. I know a newspaper reporter that I'd be happy to introduce you to, but I don't know where she is. No one's seen her in a month, which is why we started asking about what was going on here on this mountain in the first place."

Sanae had leaned forward, eyes alight at the mention of the tengu, but now she retreated back to a sitting position with a downcast look of dejection, saying "I see..." She clearly had a tendency toward emotional extremes.

"So then do humans, kappa and tengu regularly interact and mingle in this world?"

I took the opportunity to answer this question before Renko could give Sanae a distorted impression. "No, they don't. Renko's just crazy that way. Humans stay in the village and the tengu fiercely defend their territory. The kappa are scared and avoid everyone, but are subordinate to and ruled by the tengu. Gensokyo is home to many peoples, but they coexist by drawing borders between societies. Very few people are stupid enough to willingly cross those borders, but my partner here happens to be one of them." I punctuated this last sentence by poking Renko in the cheek.

"Merry, that's a terrible thing to say," Renko protested, while trying to fend off my finger.

"The truth can be ugly, Renko."

"True or not, it's still defamation of character."

Seeing the two of us bicker, Sanae laughed heartily.

"Well, there are also youkai all over Gensokyo, but most of them are solitary, and each one follows its own rules. Some are gentle and will occasionally come into town to shop, but some will mercilessly attack without warning." Renko said, shooting a last glare in my direction. "But no one group ever tries to make war on or eradicate any of the others, so I guess you could call that a form of peaceful co-existence."

Sanae nodded with a look of admiration on her face. "I see. Thank you professor, I'm learning a lot."

"As for the kappa and tengu," Renko continued, "they have their own societies, which seem to be significantly more technologically advanced than that of the humans. I couldn't tell you much about them though, they've never let me inside their villages. I know that they have some things that exceed the sophistication of technology in the human village, though. Like cameras."

"Oh, Lady Yasaka will be delighted to hear that, she loves technology. For now though, I should focus on human society. Can you tell me more about the village at the foot of the mountain and that shrine on the hill?"

"Okay, Professor Merry. Tag. That's your territory."

"What? Why me? You know the village better than I do."

"Because I’m tired from talking all the time. I guess I can keep going though. Alright, I’ll consider this an extension of my teaching duties. Please keep in mind we're Outsiders too though, so we still don't know every nuance of the place. Maybe I should draw you a map. Sanae, do you have anything to write with?"

"Oh, sure." She fished about in a drawer for a moment then came back to the table with a notepad and a ballpoint pen. Renko's eyes lit up at the sight of it.

"Oh whoa! A ballpoint pen. That's a valuable treasure here. Usually we have to make do with horsehair brushes and inkstones."

"Really? Does that mean the collection of cute pencils and erasers in my room is worth a fortune?"

"If you've got some high-quality paper too, yeah, maybe."

"Oh wow, it's like I'm a time traveler!" She said cheerfully.

We smiled back at her, a pair of unsuspected time travelers just across the table.


—11—


Renko went about explaining the village, with me adding the occasional comment or detail from the side. Sanae listened intently to my every word, which was gratifying, and markedly different than trying to teach a classroom full of bored children.

"So the entire society is self-sufficient then? Is there enough farmland to support everyone?"

"I've heard the fields and rivers are blessed with abundance by the local harvest gods. There are some things that can't be produced here that are imported periodically from the Outside World though. Like coffee beans."

"So there's already fertility gods here? Are they the gods enshrined at that shrine on the hill?"

"I'm pretty sure they're different. The harvest gods are regularly invited to seasonal festivals but I don't think they have a shrine. Just some little altars along the roads for offerings."

"Hmm, that sounds like a pretty tough market for us to find a place in then. We may have to find something different to offer..."

No matter what the topic, Sanae inevitably brought the discussion back around to the idea of gathering faith from the humans of the village. She seemed to have a bit of a one-track mind. Still, I could hardly criticize her in this case. Praying to gods for a fruitful harvest was a natural human instinct, probably as old as agriculture itself.

"The level of technology in the human village —it's about what things were like at the end of the Edo period, right?"

"Probably closer to what might be found in a rural village in the Meiji era. The products of human industry and mechanization aren't unknown, but they aren't widely available either. Sometimes craftsmen from the village take to styling their wares off of things that have drifted in from the Outside World and reverse engineer what they can. Other times, things they find are either so far beyond the level of manufacturing available as to be unachievable or so alien in their design or purpose that nobody even tries."

"I see..."

"Whatever you do, treasure your toilet paper while it lasts." Renko added grimly.

Sanae nodded, a serious expression on her face. "I'll keep that in mind." It may sound silly or uncouth to you, dear reader, but I assure you, to an Outsider, getting used to the toilet situation here was a serious matter.

"Thank you for all of the information, you two would both make good teachers."

"Oh, we are, actually. Merry and I both teach at the village's temple school on the side." I was tempted to question Renko's characterization of our teaching positions as a side job, but I let it slide for now.

"A temple school?"

"Yeah, I teach arithmetic and Merry teaches Japanese. The school belongs to Kamishirasawa Keine who is the village historian and a volunteer with the neighborhood watch. There's no public schools here, so most kids just learn to read at home or sometimes retired people act as private tutors. We're doing what we can to teach them a bit more."

"Ah, it must be like a time travel story for you too then! Using your knowledge of the future to shape the minds of a new generation, that's admirable. Have you taught them any science?"

"Not yet, but I'd like to. Back in the Outside World I studied theoretical physics and Merry was getting a degree in Relativistic Noology. We're a long way off from being able to reintroduce either of those disciplines though. It would have been nice if I had been going to medical school or something."

"Relativistic Noology?" Sanae asked.

"It's something like a branch of philosophy." I hurriedly added. At the beginning of the 21st century, where Sanae had come from, Relativistic Noology hadn't been established yet so it was hardly surprising that she wouldn't know about it.

"Well, it sounds like there's a lot of room for technological innovation and improvement then. I think there are a lot of blessings Lady Kanako can bring to these people," Sanae said, crossing her arms and nodding happily. I wondered if I should warn her that trying to change things too much might draw the attention of the Youkai Sage, but I'm sure that's the sort of problem that would sort itself out in time.

—

While we had been talking the sun had made its way through the sky and begun to descend. At one point Kanako appeared again without warning, saying "Sanae, it's evening already. Don't you want some dinner?" The three of us looked outside, surprised to see just how late it was.

"Is it that late already? There's so much more I wanted to ask about." Sanae looked troubled for a moment, then suddenly jumped up, clapping her hands. "Oh! I know, why don't you both stay here tonight? We can have a sleepover!"

Renko grinned excitedly. "It's like high school all over again. I wouldn't want to be a bother though, would that be okay?" She asked, looking up at Kanako.

Before the goddess could answer, I grabbed Renko by the shoulder. "Renko, what are you thinking? We can't have a sleepover now. We'll get a headbutt from Keine. We'll deserve it too, we have classes in the morning."

"It'll be fine, we just have to wake up first thing and have Sanae fly us back. It'll only take a minute for her and we'll be there looking perfectly innocent and ready to go by the first bell. Keine will never be the wiser."

"But Renko, you can't just..."

"You need to be back in the village first thing in the morning? I can take care of that." Kanako said, interrupting me. At that point, any thought of dissuading Renko became hopeless.

"Victory!" Sanae declared, flashing a peace sign. "Thank you, Lady Kanako."

I sighed, my mouth still open, as I had been about to try to talk Renko out of staying. Renko grinned smugly at me. Closing my eyes, I pressed my palm against my forehead in resignation.

"If they're going to be staying, then we should prepare dinner for our guests."

"Right! We can continue this discussion over dinner. Let me just go whip something up for us all."

"Thank you so much!" Renko said. "Make double for me."

"Renko, don't be rude. Sanae, I'll help you out in the kitchen."

"Oh no, I couldn't ask that of a guest. I've got everything under control. Help yourself to any of the books in the living room, I'm sure there are lots you haven't seen from the Outside World." With that Sanae stood up and she and Kanako left the room.

How Renko could keep blundering into these situations, ingratiating herself instantly with the face of every new power to arrive in Gensokyo, and then emerging from the encounter unscathed, I couldn't imagine. In both the Scarlet Devil Mansion and Hakugyokurou she had done the same, walking around like she owned the place from the moment she first introduced herself.

"It's only polite to allow a host to demonstrate their hospitality, Merry." She said, still grinning insufferably.

"Even hospitality only goes so far, Renko."

"Oh, so I suppose you have no interest at all in trying to find out what's in that warded off area between the pillars then?"

"Kanako saw us the second you started thinking about that, remember?"

"And then she asked us to stay the night. Doesn't that strike you as a little odd?"

I glared at her in silence.

"It's been a while since we've been able to do any club activities together, hasn't it?" she said with a smile.

"Club activity? Earlier you were trying to convince me this was an important case for the financial future of our detective agency. Which is it, Renko?"

Seeing the way she smiled at the thought of it, not with her usual troublesome grin, but with the genuine, warm smile edged with the childish excitement that exploring the unknown had always brought out in her, it was the only criticism I could mount. As much as I might protest, it was a smile I had been dearly missing for nearly two years.

—

"Thank you for waiting. Dinner is served," Sanae said with a bow as she opened the door.

We followed her into another room to find a table with a small gas burner sitting on it —a cooking appliance completely unknown in our world. On top of it was a cast-iron pot which was bubbling merrily and which was surrounded by heaps of chopped enoki mushrooms, shirataki noodles, baked tofu cubes, chrysanthemum greens and rolls of thin-sliced marbled beef. A spread like this could only mean...

"Sukiyaki!" Renko cried jubilantly.

"I bought this meat before I came here, and it will just go bad if we don't eat it, so dig in. It's previously frozen though, so it might not be top quality."

"I don't mind one bit. Merry, look at this feast!"

I was about to chide her for being uncouth, but before I could speak the rumbling of my stomach drowned me out. I have no intention of complaining about the salary Keine pays us as two teachers with no credentials, but our life was not an extravagant one and the lack of profitability of our detective agency did nothing to alleviate that. And so instead, I said the only thing I could:

"Let's eat!"

The sukiyaki was delicious. Sitting next to my partner, who embraced gluttony with abandon, it looked like I ate almost nothing, but I was nonetheless extremely grateful to have my belly feel comfortably full in a way that was uncommon for us. Amidst this happy atmosphere, the conversation was lively, with Sanae asking probing questions, Renko expounding at length and Kanako listening intently from beside her, eating her own portion of Sukiyaki and drinking sake from a small bottle.

"Oh, I see that gods eat food just like humans do." Renko observed.

"We do, but not for survival." Kanako said, matter-of-factly. "This food is an offering of faith in material form. Do the harvest gods of this land not join in the feasting in the human village?"

"They do. That makes sense." Renko said with a nod. We had seen the local harvest gods eating, drinking and dancing at the harvest festival we had attended after all.

The sun had vanished completely by the time we finished our meal and contentedly leaned back from the table with a sigh.

"Thank you for the meal."

"Thank you for all the compliments. I suppose I had better get to the dishes before it gets much darker."

"Oh Sanae, don't worry about that, I'll take care of the cleanup." Kanako said.

"Are you sure, Lady Kanako?"

"You've still got more questions to ask your guests, don't you? Go ahead now, since they have to leave at sunrise. I'll take care of the washing up, then I'll get a bath started for you."

"Thank you very much. In that case, come this way, if you would. I'll show you to my room."

I had never seen a goddess clear a table or do the dishes before. I wondered if leaving things as they were was alright. Sanae seemed to notice my hesitation. "Don't worry about it, we swap chores in this household all the time." Her tone was casual, but I can't imagine there were many humans with the opportunity to swap chores with a goddess.

As we followed her down the hallway, Renko remarked "your relationship with Lady Yasaka seems closer to parent and child than of a goddess and her shrine maiden."

Sanae paused in her march down the hallway, then turned around. "In a lot of ways, Lady Kanako basically is my mother," she said, scratching self-consciously at her cheek. "I've been able to see her since I was a baby, and she's always been by my side."

Renko and I looked at eachother. A priestess for whom the gods were like family. Would she have lived this way in the Outside World too? The early 21st century, where Sanae had come from, had been described in the history books Renko and I had read as a time where scientific rationality led to the decline of many supernatural and paranormal beliefs. Back when the seeds of Relativistic Noology had yet to sprout, the world became dominated by an objective way of thinking and spiritual research had entered a dark ages. In a world that rejected so many things, so many ways of being, would a girl that treated gods like parents have been tolerated by society? I couldn't imagine the answer was a pleasant one.

Even coming from the end of the 21st century, as I had, I could imagine what she had been through. After all, I had lived through similar discrimination myself. Even in the Scientific Century where understanding and acceptance of alternate interpretations of reality and spiritual research were advancing, my abilities and beliefs had branded me a heretic. The things I had seen and the things I had done had marked me as impossibly different, even in an age that claimed to accept all information without bias.

What would Sanae’s life have been like, I wondered, inhabiting what was essentially a different world than those around her, being cared for by figures no one else believed existed. Might that have been enough to convince her to leave that world behind in favor of this one? To eschew reality for this world of fantasy in which I too now lived, cut off from my origins, with only Renko to act as a reminder that I had ever lived any other way.

"Hey Merry, you okay?"

"Hm? Oh, it’s nothing, I'm fine." Renko had turned to look at me questioningly, but I just shook my head dismissively. I pushed any thoughts of the similarities I might share with Sanae to the back of my mind. How much we might have in common or even the question of what she might be concealing from us didn't matter right now. What did matter is that we were her seniors here in Gensokyo and we should be concerned with helping her out. That's what I told myself as I followed the others down the hall.


—12—


Sanae showed us to her room, where we enjoyed a long and lively conversation about the exploits of our detective agency. Being as we had had few cases of note, naturally this meant we told her all about the incidents we had been involved in.

About the vampires in the Scarlet Devil Mansion and how they had covered the world in a maddening mist.

About the spring stolen from Gensokyo and the ghost who ruled over the Netherworld.

About the lonely oni who turned Gensokyo into a drunken feast every third day.

About the aliens who had hidden the moon behind a veil of illusion and mystery.

Even about the spring in which all of Gensokyo had been covered in unseasonal flowers.

In all of these cases, however, Renko made sure that the story she told Sanae was the same one that might be found in the 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑘𝑦𝑜 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠. The official story, so to speak, with no mention of the hidden truths that she had imagined. Sanae listened to each of these tales with a gleam of excitement sparkling in her eyes.

"So people rely on the Hakurei Shrine to resolve incidents. I wonder if that's how that shrine maiden goes about gathering faith for her god?"

Renko chuckled. "You may well be right. I suspect Reimu sees things that way, at least."

"Oh, maybe that means I should be resolving incidents too! Are there any going on right now?"

"They don't happen all that often. The past two years have been pretty peaceful."

"Oh, that's a shame. I should go try to meet the vampire at the foot of the mountain and the oni who used to live here though. They're both almost like my neighbors."

"Well maybe the next time we get a day off we can introduce you to them. They're both still acquaintances of ours."

"Really? That'd be great!" Much like Renko, Sanae seemed completely unfazed by the concept of mingling with monsters.

Sanae was kind enough to lend us each a bath and a set of pajamas. When I emerged from the bath, Sanae waved me over to a guest room. She and Kanako had laid out three futons there.

"It's our very own pajama party!" Sanae cheered.

"A pajama party?" Renko asked. It was a term that didn't exist in the 2080s, but I had come across the concept before in the media. It was easy enough to figure out from the title.

"Have you never had one?" Sanae asked in wide-eyed surprise.

"I guess not. Merry and I are more the type to get out of bed and wander the streets at night."

She gasped, one hand held in front of her mouth. "Really? I wouldn't have guessed you two were a pair of delinquents."

"Well, we've been called worse. Merry and I were members of an occult circle back in university."

"Occult? Like tarot readings and seances?"

"Nothing that cliched. We mainly explored mystery spots and things like that, looking for evidence of the supernatural."

Renko shot me a wink. I suppose that was a way of describing our club activities that wouldn't raise too many questions. To say that the two of us were involved in discovering and crossing boundaries wouldn't have made much sense to Sanae anyways, I'm sure.

"That sounds even worse than being delinquents. It's like you were setting yourselves up to be the people who get killed at the beginning of a horror movie."

"Well, I stand by my track record of never once having been eaten by a zombie or possessed by a demon." Renko said with a smile.

"Sure, we just ended up trapped in a vampire's mansion and spirited off to the land of the dead. Great track record, Renko."

Sanae laughed at my interjection. "There's no demons or evil spirits here at least. Though there are gods, so you could end up getting cursed." She said with a smile.

"Well in that case, I suppose I should give praise," Renko said. "The last thing I'd want to do is end up cursed by a god." She was joking, but personally I made a note not to do anything to Kanako that might come across as rude.

"You don't have to worry about that, Lady Kanako isn't a curse god."

Something about the way she said that stuck with me. The emphasis on Kanako specifically almost seemed to suggest that while Kanako wasn't a god likely to curse a mortal, other gods might. I wondered if a god like that might exist in this shrine as well. Before Renko or I could ask anything further, however, a voice called from outside the door.

"Are you all still awake in there? We have to take our guests home at dawn tomorrow, so you should let them get some sleep, Sanae."

"Okaaay" Sanae called back, reaching out to turn off the lantern. In the darkness that followed I could just make out her silhouette returning to the futon and snuggling under the covers. "This feels just like a school trip" She whispered. Should we have a pillow fight in the dark?"

"I think we should just sleep. I don't want to get cursed."

"Alright then. Goodnight Merry."

"Goodnight, Sanae, goodnight, Renko."

Despite saying that we continued to chat, whispering in the dark until Sanae fell asleep.

—

I suspect it must have been about three in the morning, a time when even trees and grass are asleep that I awoke to Renko poking me. "Hey Merry, wake up," she whispered, almost inaudibly.

Sluggishly, I opened my heavy eyelids to find Renko fully dressed and squatting beside me.

"Mmmn. What is Renko?" I replied, rubbing at my eyes.

"What do you mean, 'what is it?' It's time to explore the other side of that barrier on the lake."

"What? Are you serious?"

"Hey, keep your voice down. Do you think you can get dressed without waking Sanae?" She held out a neatly folded pile of clothes. I had left them in the bathroom after changing. Renko must have already snuck out to retrieve them.

Despite the weariness in my body, I slipped carefully out of the futon and into my clothes. I wasn't thrilled about this idea, but I had sort of suspected something similar might happen.

"You ready, Merry?" Renko whispered.

"I wonder if one can really be ready to get cursed by a god for trespassing."

"Don't worry, it'll be fine."

Where exactly Renko's confidence in the face of gods, youkai or other supernatural entities came from has always been a mystery to me. Nonetheless, I followed her as she softly walked out of the room, carefully stepping around the furniture to avoid waking Sanae. We proceeded down the corridor, suppressing even the sounds of our breathing until we reached the front of the building which contained the worship hall. Here it was nearly pitch black once we closed the door, with only the sound of wind whispering through the trees outside. Renko made her way across the room in total darkness, then opened the outside door. The moonlight seemed brilliant by comparison.

"If Kanako is enshrined here, then whatever's behind the barrier is probably a shrine of another sort. If this were the Suwa Grand Shrine, that would be where the initiated priests worship their true hidden god."

"Doesn't that sound like exactly the sort of thing two non-religious people would be cursed for intruding on, Renko?"

"Hmmm, I wonder. I kind of suspect that Lady Yasaka wants someone to find it."

"That sounds like wishful thinking."

"Not at all. It's just like the Scarlet Devil Mansion or Hakugyokuro. Those who hide something without hiding that they're hiding it are just asking for the truth to be exposed. There's a ton of connections here making it obvious that this is or was the Suwa Grand Shrine. Anyone who knows about that shrine would know that there's a hidden god the public isn't told about there, whose worship is a secret. It's practically out in the open! If you want to hide X and keep it from being discovered, you can't leave up a bunch of signs saying 'I've hidden X,' that's just going to make people go look for it."

"That's the most Renko-like reasoning I've ever heard. How many people do you think know that there's a hidden god at the Suwa Grand Shrine? It's a 'hidden' god, after all. Among those people, how many of them are in Gensokyo? I get what you're saying Renko, but I'm pretty sure things would only look that way to you." Trying to warn her of the danger was pointless though. To Renko danger was merely a spice.

"If we open that barrier and there's some unspeakable horror covered with tentacles inside, I'm going to run away and leave you behind, Renko."

"If I end up with a cursed arm and a doomed fate, I'll tell you 'Live, you're beautiful'"

"My name isn't 'Mononoke.' You should say that to Kagerou instead, she's the wolf-girl."

"She's not a princess though. At least Wakasagihime’s name has the kanji for ‘princess’ in it."

We discussed such nonsense while making our way around the back of the shrine. Squinting, I could see a strong, shimmering barrier distorting the moonlight where it stood behind the main building, between the Onbashira near the lake. We went down the path Sanae showed us earlier during the day until we arrived at the lake. The pale light sparkled on the water, refracted in places to my eyes by the distortion of a strong barrier standing between the numerous upright pillars, starting on the shore, but reaching out well beyond the water’s edge.

"Well Merry, what do you think? Can you break the seal?"

I reached out and laid a hand on the pillar again. The seal in place here was powerful and multi-layered, immaculately crafted, and almost perfectly bound to the wood of the Onbashira... except...

"Right here, it's a little loose."

"That's my Merry. You're getting better at this, aren't you?"

"Gee, I wonder if someone encouraging me to seek out boundaries and then getting me lost in a world surrounded by a gigantic one had anything to do with that?" I asked, flatly.

I poked my finger towards the spot where the barrier was loosest. As I brought the digit closer, the tiny hole yawned, its edges quivering as if in anticipation of my touch. Taking hold of Renko's hand with my right hand, I worked my left into the gap and pulled it open. We stepped through, and into...

The same path we had walked down moments ago. Here the path was no longer an animal trail, but a gravel-lined walkway leading to the lake, lined on either side with Onbashira. There were many, many, more of them here though, lining the entire trail down to the lake rather than just standing at the shore and extending into the water a bit.

"It's the same road we just took. But... not." I mumbled, at a loss for words.

"Yeah, looks that way. Let's see where it leads, Merry."

We walked hand in hand down the path. As we rounded the corner and looked out over the glassy surface of the lake, a voice rang out, seemingly from above.

"Oh, you two made it all the way in here. You're not just ordinary humans, are you?"

We looked up and saw a small silhouette crouching on top of one of the sacred pillars, high above us. The voice that had spoken sounded like a child's but was filled with confidence bordering on a malicious dismissiveness.

"For two mortals to have wandered so far off the beaten path in the dead of night doesn't seem like an accident. If you two have come all of this way and passed through the barrier to get here, then I suppose it's safe to assume you're prepared to be cursed?"