東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 5:Imperishable Night

𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘛𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘒𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘢, 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘳. 𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘥𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘒𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘢. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘨𝘢𝘻𝘦 𝘶𝘱𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘨𝘰 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥. 𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳: 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴.


—13—


At this point, dear reader, I'm afraid I must ask for your forgiveness.

Up until now, I have endeavored to tell these stories from my own point of view, giving you only the facts that I had access to and providing my own subjective lens to the relation of the events I had witnessed without making any pretense toward objectivity or any claims to know the absolute truth. Each of the preceding stories has also followed a similar, familiar pattern which can be summarized down to 'there was an incident, and then it was resolved by Hakurei Reimu, who confronted the mastermind behind the anomalous events.'

The Eternal Night Incident was not like that.

If I were to rely only on the events I was witness to, it would be very difficult for you to build any picture of what was actually happening. With so many different parties involved, and for so many different reasons, there is a wealth of context informing the actions and motives central to this Incident that I never discovered until well afterward.

Therefore, with your indulgence, I would like to now abandon my first-person narrative for a bit and relate to you those facts which I have been able to ascertain through interviewing multiple sources and consulting the official records of the event recorded by Akyuu after the fact.

In fact, if I were to just stick to the events to which Renko and I were witnesses, there wouldn’t be much to tell at all. While the events I am about to relate were occurring, Renko was recuperating in Eientei, spending most of her days playing with Tewi and the other rabbits. While Renko was recovering and I was caring for her, Keine had been informed of Eirin's intentions by Mokou, who came by to check on us occasionally, but generally preferred not to hang around at the mercy of her enemies.

Thus, with little to relate about my or my partner's actions during this time, I will shift our story from the inner reaches of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost to a very different forest further to the west.

This part of the story occurred four days after Eirin had first produced the illusion obscuring the moon.

✱ ✱ ✱

Alice Margatroid had noticed right away when an illusion covered the moon.

Moonlight is an essential part of many magical processes and can amplify and accelerate the effects of even those spells that do not require it. In her personal study of magic, she generally preferred to power her spells with the energies of the forest and shape them through careful and complex workings built into the crafts she used as foci.

Thus, Alice was not particularly reliant on the moon’s presence to work her magic. The fact that she was not reliant on the moon did not mean she did not notice its absence, however. Once she came to understand that the moon had been obscured by an illusion, Alice lost interest. This was clearly an incident and that meant that it would be resolved in short order by the Hakurei shrine maiden. The current situation was simply a passing inconvenience that would fade in due time, and there was no reason for her to concern herself with it. Thus, she resolved to stay at home and read until the moon returned to normal.

She sighed to no one in particular, having just finished her third book of the day and looked up from her seat in a rocking chair by the window in her bedroom to glance at the distorted moon.

"Surely even the humans would have realized this is an Incident by now," she said.

The moon shone, a little less than full and weirdly warped above the trees. By now of course, the moon should have been almost completely full. Anyone would know that, but the moon hanging in the sky was still just barely shy of full. Humans, in general, were awful at seeing through illusions, but surely they would notice that. This was the fifth night that that moon had hung in the sky. Frankly, Alice had expected the Hakurei Reimu to notice right away and correct the distorted moon in the space of a single night, but she had to remind herself that the shrine maiden was well known for not moving to correct an incident until it came to affect her directly. She hadn't seen or heard of any attempts at resolving the issue from the hedge witch who lived in the forest either, and she wasn't the sort to be subtle about it if she was going to act.

"I never realized humans were so indifferent to the state of the moon."

If the moon continued to remain hidden, the decrease in ambient magical energy radiating from it would eventually have an effect on the forest and all of the plants, beasts and youkai dwelling within it. If that was allowed to happen, it would become inconvenient for her. Maybe she ought to see about doing something to resolve this issue herself, she thought, rising from the rocking chair.

Alice stood for a moment, staring out the window, then promptly sat back down.

What nonsense. Even if she were to investigate the moon's strange appearance, she hadn't a clue where to start looking. She couldn't just start flying around fighting everyone she saw and expect to resolve anything. Thinking logically, there were probably not too many people in Gensokyo with the power to cast an illusion over the whole of the sky, unfortunately, Alice wasn’t familiar with any of them.

"...What a hassle," she sighed to herself. "What I should do is persuade the humans who deal with these things to resolve the issue already."

Would her words be of any use though? If Reimu hadn't acted yet, that suggested she didn't see the current situation as an incident and if that was the case, there wasn't much Alice could do to convince her. To Alice, the issue was as plain as day, but simply pointing at the moon and yelling at Reimu to go fix it wasn’t the sort of gambit Alice was about to try.

Besides, as a puppeteer, Alice was smarter than that. Why charge into an ongoing Incident head on or try to convince the Hakurei shrine maiden herself when she could just take the opportunity to get someone inconsequential to do it for her? The hedge witch who lived in the forest was both closer and would be easier to manipulate. In order to assure the compliance of the witch, she just needed the right bait. Patchouli had been rather pointed in her discussion of the witch's habits, so selecting a suitably tempting prize was simple enough. Alice took the slimmest of her magical grimoires from the shelf in her room. Tucking the books under one arm, she swished her hand in the air, summoning her combat-ready dolls to her side.

With this, she was prepared to see the incident resolved. With the grimoire she could compel the witch's help, and with the dolls she could handle any threats that might interfere. With her own magical expertise assisting the witch's endeavors, maybe Marisa could even get this wrapped up without the need to involve the shrine maiden. If so, that would be something to hold over the grumpy priestess' head. Thinking of how Marisa might enjoy that, she smiled to herself as she closed the front door of her house and strolled off into the fragrant darkness of the forest's night.

✱ ✱ ✱

At that same moment, a ways to the east, the distorted and illusory moon was shining on the still surface of Misty Lake. Towering over the lake was the blocky, imposing silhouette of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and gazing upon the reflection of the moon in the water was the mansion's mistress, Remilia Scarlet. She too had noticed that the moon had been hidden.

For five nights now the moon had both failed to provide any of the magical power she was used to absorbing from it and, perhaps more annoyingly, stubbornly refused to even make a suitably impressive spectacle of itself, annoyingly remaining a few degrees shy of full. Remilia was used to her power waning and waxing with the moon's regular cycles, and even with dealing with the reduced abilities that came with every new moon. But to have the same state of weakness thrust upon her for five days in a row, especially with this illusory imposter moon hanging in the sky was simply too much for her to bear.

Raising her eyes from the reflection in the lake to the pale moon itself, she glowered. She had already asked her maid, who was normally extraordinarily capable, to deal with this situation, surely for someone who could stop time it would be a simple task. Despite that, the fake moon still hung tauntingly in the sky.

"Sakuyaaa what are you even doing?" She called out in an exasperated tone.

Instantly, her maid appeared behind her, saying "You wanted to see me, milady?" Why her servant couldn’t apply that same promptness to resolving this matter, Remilia had no idea.

"Have you done that thing I asked you to do yet, Sakuya?"

"By 'that thing' do you mean restoring the moon to its original state?"

"Of course, what else could I mean?"

"Forgive me, milady, but I don't understand."

"What's not to understand? My instructions were clear and concise. The moon has changed and I want you to change it back. What part of that do you not understand?"

"I'm sorry milady, but I'm afraid I still don't understand."

"Never mind then. If you can't follow a simple set of instructions, I'll go deal with it myself. You stay and watch over the mansion. Or don't. Do as you please."

"Well, milady, if I may do as I please, then I will accompany you as you set out to restore the moon. Would you like me to prepare a snack to bring along?"

Irritated, Remilia scoffed and climbed to her feet. Without the light of the moon, her power was nowhere near its apex, but compared to a human or even the lowly creatures of this world she was still a formidable threat. While she usually preferred not to let her maid handle the sort of affairs that required a hands-on approach for her, going out and wreaking havoc on a night like this would help to reinforce her reputation as a powerful vampire among the residents of this world.

"Forgive me for asking, milady, but would you have any idea where we will be headed in order to restore the moon?"

"If I just start shooting everything that moves, I’m bound to hit the mastermind eventually."

Sakuya shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "That sounds like it might take a while, Milady. I wouldn't want you to have to deal with the sun while we're out though, so if we're going to do that, would it please you if we were to stop the night first?"

Remilia turned, distracted from her thoughts of the impending carnage for a moment. "Stop the night?"

"I'll need to tamper with time a bit, and I'll need Lady Patchouli's help, but it's something she was researching before. We won't be able to keep it up forever, but we should be able to significantly extend the night. At least until the middle of tomorrow."

"Well in that case, by all means."

"As you wish, Milady."

Sakuya bowed politely, then as she rose up she vanished. Remilia's smile was wide and cruel as she turned back to regard the moon's reflection on the lake.


—14—


Under the light of the distorted, illusory moon, the human village was peaceful. People went about their business undisturbed and unwitting of the twisted veil wavering above their heads. Youkai attacks on villagers had grown neither more nor less frequent in the five days since the Incident had begun. To Keine, that was only more cause for concern. The moon which hung overhead refused to change its phase and shone with a false, unhealthy light. For five days now, it had stayed just the same.

"I’m glad that things are peaceful, but it bothers me that no one else seems bothered by this situation," she grumbled.

"Yes, it’s very upsetting," Kotohime had agreed while stifling a yawn. Five days ago, after delivering Renko and Merry to Einetei, Keine had returned to the village and her duties with the neighborhood watch, only to find things just as she had left them and the whole village unaware of the ongoing incident. As far as she could tell, she was the only person in the whole village who could see how distorted the moon looked, perhaps because of her nature as a were-hakutaku.

Keine had of course told the others about what she saw, but with there being no evident problem with the moon that the others could see and no problems stemming from its illusory appearance in the village, there had been nothing that could be done about the situation except for Keine to volunteer to spend her nights assisting Kotohime in keeping watch through the small hours of the night. With Merry and Renko stuck at Eientei, she had been forced to take over the teaching of all three classes at the temple school as well. There was simply no way for her to deny that she wasn’t getting enough sleep.

"Nothing unusual has happened for four days now," Kotohime began hopefully. "Maybe nothing’s going to."

"The moon still looks distorted though. This isn’t over yet. We have to remain vigilant until things are back to normal."

"Alright, alright. But what is there to do? It’s quiet." Kotohime drawled lazily. "You look tired, you should go get some sleep."

"I will." Keine promised, knowing she didn't mean it. "I'm just going to take a look around first."

✱ ✱ ✱

Near the eastern edge of the Forest of Magic, the smell of burnt feathers fouled the air as the last glimmering puffs of magical stardust winked out.

"For goodness sake! We'll be out here all night if you insist on fighting all of the small fry we come across on our way."

"On our way where? Where are we even headin'? There's no way you'll find a mastermind in this direction."

Alice and Marisa were sailing over the Forest of Magic in the direction of the human village, with Alice in the lead calling out directions and Marisa trailing behind her. Their wanderings, combined with Marisa's brash style of both negotiation and navigation had already gotten them into a fight that had ended with a night sparrow youkai spiraling to earth trailing a tail of black smoke and they hadn't even reached the edge of the forest yet.

"I feel a strong presence in that direction though." She definitely sensed something coming from the village's direction, but whether it was related to the illusion covering the moon or not, she had no idea. She wasn't about to admit that in front of a hedge witch though.

"There's only humans over this way though. You know, good innocent folks like myself."

"The idea that there might be an entire village full of weirdos like you is unbearable."

"I’m not a weirdo, I’m ordinary. Just like the villagers."

"Constantly calling yourself ‘ordinary’ sort of suggests that you aren’t, you know?"

Marisa tilted her head at that, but Alice merely shrugged her shoulders dismissively. To see the usually-gloomy puppeteer go to this much effort was surprising. She was normally the sort to shut herself up in her house for weeks at a time, never talking to anyone but her dolls, but tonight she seemed strangely agitated. She had even made a point of flashing a rudimentary grimoire around as if it were some great treasure. The fact that there was some purpose pressing enough to drive Alice into doing such a thing was interesting though. Interesting, and, Marisa hoped, entertaining.

Marisa continued to stare into the dark. Nights in her observatory had left her with better night vision than most, but she had still flown into enough branches in her time to prefer the daylight. Perhaps because she was trying so hard not to blunder into anything, she was the first to notice two moving blurs in the distance. A pair of shadows swooping in towards the village from the north. For Marisa, the shadows were instantly familiar.

"Ah! Is that your 'strong presence' over there?"

"What? Where?" Alice was startled. She had been concentrating so hard on the feeling to the east she hadn't even noticed the murderous aura of power emanating from something much nearer.

"Right there!" Marisa pointed. "That's the lady of the Scarlet Devil Mansion and her maid."

"What are they doing here? Do you think the distorted moon sent the vampire into a rampage? Or could they have something to do with this?"

"One way to find out!" Marisa grinned as she poured power into the broom, accelerating toward the two figures. At the same moment, the figures seemed to notice the witches speeding toward them and adjusted their trajectory to intercept.

Alice turned to follow as Marisa’s broom shot forward.. "Wait a minute!"

Like a missile propelled by a trail of glittering stardust, the witch rocketed toward the figures unabated. A direct collision was only avoided at the last second when Remilia and her maid pulled to a sudden halt in midair and Marisa kicked her foot out, suddenly cutting the speed of the broom with a sharp lurch and diverting her course into a slow, wide orbit around the pair.

"Yo, Miss Vampire. You bringin’ your maid out moon gazin’?"

"If only there were a moon worth gazing upon. My time is far too valuable to waste on such a lackluster moon as this."

"Does that mean this whole moon thing Alice is complainin' about isn't your fault?"

"Hardly. If The Eternally Young Scarlet Moon were to deign it worthwhile to conquer the heavens, I'd put up a bigger, far more beautiful crimson moon. Whoever has done this has no sense of aesthetics whatsoever. That will be the first of several lessons I intend to teach them tonight."

Marisa sighed and shook her head in disbelief as Remilia smiled with cruel confidence. "Better do it quick then," she retorted, turning to Sakuya. "Or else this one is gonna have to sweep up your ashes when the sun rises."

Sakuya nodded her head. "You needn't worry. In case of emergency I prepared a parasol." She had given up trying to spin to keep pace with Marisa's orbit and was now simply standing close to her mistress in midair, tracking the broom with her eyes.

"What a handy helper you are to have along. Not like this stick-in-the-mud doll otaku."

"Doll expert, thank you very much". Alice said, before greeting Remilia and Sakuya herself.

“I don’t suppose either of you might have any idea who is responsible for the state of the moon?"

Remilia turned her nose imperiously skyward with a huff. "No idea. Yet." She admitted.

"How about you?" Sakuya asked, "any leads?"

Marisa drew the broom to a halt, settling into a hover alongside Sakuya. "Not yet. Why don’t we try asking an expert? It'd be more reliable than relying on Alice to sense something."

"Maybe we should have asked Patchy before we left…" Remilia grumbled.

"She didn’t know anything about it either," Sakuya said, shaking her head.

"Not her. I know someone in the village who might know something useful. What's more, if you two show up, I'm pretty sure she'll even come out to say 'hi'." Marisa grinned mischievously.

✱ ✱ ✱

In Keine's conception, the human village could be thought of as the center of Gensokyo, spread out across a broad, flat floodplain formed by the delta of two rivers. To the north of the village was Misty Lake and Youkai Mountain. To the west was the Forest of Magic and Muenzuka. To the south was the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and the Garden of the Sun.

To the east there were only rising foothills and eventually, the Hakurei shrine. Few youkai lived in that direction as the Hakurei shrine maiden was decisive in her extermination of any threats and quick to anger. That left three directions and as many walls around the outside of the village for Keine to watch. The neighborhood watch office had a good view of the western wall of the village and despite Kotohime's laid-back demeanor, she was descended from a long line of youkai exterminators. She could be counted on to handle her side of the village alone.

Keine stood before the northern wall, looking up at the illusory moon. Deprived of the energy of moonlight, youkai would eventually weaken. When they did, they were sure to come to the village in search of a meal. Even if the instigator of this incident didn't plan on raising a youkai army on their own, a crushing tide of slavering beasts intent on consuming humanity was the inevitable outcome. Unless the moon was returned to its natural state, Keine was sure of that.

"I’ll just take a moment to check the situation outside the gate," Keine told herself, pushing the heavy timbers aside with a muted thud. From the opening she looked out over the pathway and toward Misty Lake in the distance.

All at once a wave of goosebumps coursed over her skin. A sinking feeling of dread clutched at her stomach as the hakutaku blood inside her stirred for the first time in nearly a week. Something was coming. After five nights of nerve-wracking anticipation there could be no mistake. A dark and powerful spiritual presence, replete with a murderous aura was moving toward the village from the north.

She could sense the presence drawing closer. Or maybe there was more than one? At this rate there was no time to sound the alarm or send a runner to the shrine. The safest thing she could do would be to hide the village. Only by preventing the village from being discovered in the first place could she ensure that its people would remain safe, no matter what sort of youkai might be coming. The toll it would take upon her body to call upon such power without the benefit of a full moon to awaken her youkai form was immense, but given the circumstances, what chance did she have?

Now, in this moment of desperate need, as unknown threats closed in on the village from every side, now this terrible curse she had been burdened with might just be a blessing in disguise. As a half-human half-youkai living in the village, there was something only she could do to keep the villagers safe.

Turning away from Misty Lake and looking back at the rows of houses with their few lights glowing warmly and their hundreds of sleeping families, she steeled her resolve.

She would eat the village's history.

✱ ✱ ✱

The human village, which had been visible in the distance as a cluster of dark shapes huddled on the broad plains between rice paddies and gleaming rivers suddenly wavered and vanished like smoke rising into the air.

That was how it looked to Marisa Kirisame anyway. She blinked and leaned forward on her broom, trying to see what had just happened.

"Ehhh?" Marisa blinked again and tried to refocus her eyes to where the village should be. There was no longer anything that looked like smoke, but no sign of the village either. Something was definitely wrong. Alice and Remilia didn’t seem to have noticed it yet though. It occurred to her suddenly that arriving unannounced in the middle of the night in the company of two youkai might be just the sort of thing that would look to the villagers like an attack. Just as she was thinking this, a flying shadow cut across her path, rising up from below to hover in position in front of her.

"Is it you? Are you the ones trying to attack this village in the middle of the night?" Standing in the air directly in the path of the four of them, the shadowed figure called out to them in a hard but dignified voice.

"Milady, let's pass by this place quickly, there's no need for us to fight everyone we come across."

"I suppose you're right, Sakuya. Still, for a human to get in my way like this is completely unacceptable. Even though I’m not hungry at the moment, food should know its place."

"Exactly what I’d expect of a youkai like you. Alright then, if that’s the way it has to be, I'll make this night never have happened!"

Marisa was pretty sure that voice belonged to Keine, exactly the expert she had been hoping to see, though not under these circumstances. Before she could get a word in though, a danmaku battle between Remilia and Keine had begun. Marisa sighed and leaned back. There was nothing to do at this point but let them finish.

"Hey!" she called over the din of waves of bullets and the screech of searing beams. "Be careful not to kill her by mistake!" If either of the combatants heard her, they gave no sign.

A few brief exchanges later, Keine was retreating in the face of Remilia's onslaught. In order to avoid the endless waves of blood-tinted projectiles she had been steadily giving ground. With the village inaccessible to these monsters, a withdrawal hardly mattered. Turning and flying at top speed to avoid another cluster of screaming light, she broke off her attack for a moment, moving far enough back to buy herself a moment to talk.

"What the hell are you even doing here!?" she called out in exasperation.

"Oh so now you want to ask questions? Are you at your limit already?"

"Milady, it's undignified to play with your food," Sakuya chided.

Remilia only grinned cruelly but Keine's determined expression never wavered. "Food? Take a good look around, you devils. There's nothing here for you to eat! You can see that, can't you?"

Sakuya blinked into the darkness, trying to identify landmarks.

"Now that you mention it, shouldn't the human village be right around here?"

"Look closely. As you can see, there has never been a village here, so just move along."

"How rude!" Sakuya responded, with shock. "What have you done with the village and all of its inhabitants?"

"Don't you understand? I made it so that there never was a village here. All of the village's history is inside me right now."

"Inside you?" Remilia smirked. "Sakuya, do you think she'd make a good tutor for my little sister? She could teach local history or some such."

"The last thing our household needs is more bookworms. Milady, will you permit me to take up just a moment more of your time to dispose of this nuisance?"

"Don't forget we're in a hurry, Sakuya. I suppose it can't be helped though. You can use a bit of my time. Just a moment's worth."

"Maybe I'll be the one to eat tonight. I'll take a bite of your history too!"

With that, the battle was rejoined. Marisa had once again not found a moment to get a word in edgewise. It seemed she'd have to wait until one side admitted defeat to tell them the battle was unnecessary.

Marisa sighed and settled in to wait for the inevitable conclusion. Alice nudged her as she floated in place.

"What are you doing, Marisa? We don't have time to sit around and wait for them to finish a pointless fight."

"Calm down, Alice. That's Keine they're fighting, I know her."

"The village historian? What's she doing picking a fight?"

"Oh boy. Alice, do you know anything about Keine?"

"A little bit. I wouldn't think she'd be the mastermind behind something like this though."

"No, but I bet she knows something."

"That's just a hunch though, isn't it?"

"Yep, just a hunch." Marisa grinned.

Alice sighed. In front of her, a dramatic feast of light was exploding, cutting the darkness of the night with wave after wave of interlocking nets of angry beams and scores of steadily marching bullet patterns. Above them the silent forgery of a moon shone down, illuminating the spectacle in its pale light.

✱ ✱ ✱

"Well that was refreshing," Sakuya chirped blithely.

"You're feeling refreshed even though the village is still missing?"

"Yes, completely refreshed." She smiled. "That was just what I needed." Needless to say, the match had been won by the maid and her mistress. As Keine groaned and struggled to climb to her feet on the ground below, Remilia descended to gloat.

"You may be more than human, but even with history on your side you're short about 500 years of experience if you want to challenge a vampire. You provided some stress relief for my maid though, so I shall allow you to live, mortal. Make sure to spread word of my generosity."

Keine climbed unsteadily to her feet, knees wobbling from exhaustion. Clumps of dirt tumbled from her hair as she shook off the debris kicked up by her impact with the ground. She growled through clenched teeth. "If only it'd been a full moon tonight, I could have...."

As she looked up at the two figures floating above her, two more drew into view. "About that..." one of them said. "We're trying to restore the full moon."

Keine staggered, squinting through the exhaustion suffusing her body to try to make out the figures in the moonlight.

"What? Why didn't you say that?" She blinked, trying to shake off the swimmy feeling of confusion.

"I kept tryin' but you never gave me a chance to talk!" The other figure had a familiar voice.

"Marisa? Is that you?"

Remilia glanced bemusedly at the witch. "Oh, you know her then?"

Marisa adjusted her hat awkwardly. "Well, kinda."

"Marisa, why would you bring this monster to attack the village?"

"You weren’t bein’ attacked, you just misunderstood."

"It certainly felt like I was just being attacked!"

"Well, that's cuz you started a fight! Since you lost though, you have to keep your promise and tell us who's behind all of this. That bein' the promise I made up just now."

Keine sighed in resignation. More than the pain, the shame and sting of defeat, she just felt tired now. Deeply, achingly tired. "You mean the moon? It could only be the people living in the mansion in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. There aren't many others who could manage something like this."

"See?" the girl flying beside Marisa asked. "I told you we needed to head in this direction."

"That's just a coincidence."

While the witches bickered, Remilia appeared to have grown bored. "Sakuya?" She asked, turning toward the bamboo grove in the distance. "Shall we?"

Sakuya floated closer to her mistress, looking away from Keine to follow Remilia’s gaze as she turned towards the forest. "Look at that, Milady. A useful sort of bookworm. She’s told us where to go next."

"Our mansion's bookworm does nothing but read books all day though. I doubt she’d ever be of any use."

"She has an unparalleled command of useless knowledge though.”

Keine wobbled unsteadily "If you have no business here in the village, then go!"

Marisa sighed and steered her broom towards Remilia, who was already flying in the direction of the forest. "Alright then. You should probably put the village back like it was." she called as she and the other magician soared away in pursuit.


—15—


Reimu was completely unaware that anything about the moon had changed. It was still a little early for moon viewing parties, and as such, Reimu had no reason to look at the moon and hadn't noticed anything amiss.

Even if she had noticed, she wouldn't have done anything. As the shrine maiden of Gensokyo, her job was to maintain the balance of the realm for the benefit of all of its denizens, youkai and human alike. This necessarily meant excusing and tolerating a fairly significant amount of squabbles and shenanigans. In Reimu's mind, if it hadn't bothered her, and it hadn't bothered anyone in the village enough for them to come and 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 it bother her, then it probably wasn't that big of a deal.

As such, the moon disappearing and being replaced by an illusory forgery was of no concern to Reimu.
An unending night, on the other hand, was exactly the sort of problem that cried out for the judicious application of danmaku-based violence.

"What time is it?" Reimu had awakened to find her room completely dark. Thinking she had awoken in the middle of the night, she groped for the edge of the shoji and slid it open. Outside the moon was shining brightly in the sky. Despite that, she felt refreshed, as if she had had a full night's sleep. Moonlight fell across the room, illuminating the face of the small clock on the wall. Its hands were poised to strike one o'clock, but seemed frozen in place. "It's still this late?"

It was strange. Reimu wasn't the sort to wake up in the night usually, and she felt like she had had a good night's sleep. If it were really one o'clock she should have felt much grumpier and heavy-headed. Her intuition, that insistent voice in the back of her mind that always seemed to flare up right before things got annoying nagged at her.

"Someone is prolonging the night?" She mumbled. "Who would be stupid enough to..." Several faces swam into focus in her mind. Causing big problems also tended to be how strangers introduced themselves. Reimu sighed heavily.

It was self-evident that an unending night would be a problem. Not just for her, but for everyone in the village. Maybe everyone in Gensokyo. Whoever caused this would have to be made to pay. Both for disrupting Gensokyo's balance and for the hassle of making her exterminate them.

Sighing, she got herself dressed. Grabbing her gohei and a pack of ofuda was as much a part of her routine as tying the bow in her hair —familiar enough that she could do it in the dark. Trusting her intuition as usual, she departed to the south, making a beeline for the Bamboo Forest of the Lost.

✱ ✱ ✱

Marisa, Alice, Remilia and Sakuya had all gotten themselves hopelessly lost within minutes of entering the tall bamboo. There was nothing preventing them from flying straight up and escaping the forest, but also no way to notice anything on the ground from above given the density of the leafy stalks.

"Marisa, you're flying us in circles! We've passed by that boulder three times now," Alice whined.

"Shut up, I've been flyin' in a straight line this whole time, that's impossible," Marisa growled.

"If you were flying straight, we'd have come out the other side by now. Surely this forest can't go on forever," Sakuya reasoned.

"I don't see why we don't just burn the whole thing down. We know the mastermind is in here right?" Remilia asked.

The forest had a way of confusing direction. There were no paths through the shade-dappled expanse as little undergrowth could find enough light to flourish beneath the towering stalks. The stands themselves grew at angles, and swayed back and forth in the breeze, confusing the eye and distorting shadows. Where the stalks rose up, anyone entering the forest would have to turn aside to avoid them. Little by little you lost your course. It was maddening.

All at once the dense thatch of blinding bamboo cleared. Without knowing it, the four of them had stumbled into a clearing. The same clearing that Keine had used to compile her histories beneath the light of the moon, though none of them knew that of course.

"Ha! Told ya I knew where I was goin'. I got us here."

"Where's here though?" Alice let her shoulders fall as she peered up at the night sky. Here the fake moon seemed even larger than it had from her house. Logically, it seemed like they might be getting closer to the source, but it felt like whoever was behind this was simply taunting them, waving the oversized illusion in their face.

Remilia looked around at the emptiness of the clearing. "I told you we should just burn it all down."

"If we do something that flashy, you can bet she'd show up, milady."

"I should hope so, then I’d be able to..." Remilia's eyes focused on something in the sky that had caught her attention. A dark red shadow silhouetted against the moon. It dived toward them.

"Nevermind, Sakuya. You won't even have to burn it, it seems."

"Oh, did you find something, milady?"

"Something found us."

"Oh?" asked Sakuya, looking up.

"Oh." Said Alice, following her line of sight.

"Oh no," said Marisa, knowing without having to look.

Like a bolt of red lightning from the heavens, Hakurei Reimu, the shrine maiden of paradise and resolver of incidents descended in a straight line toward them.

"Stop right there!" Reimu braked her descent abruptly, halting in midair to stare at the odd group gathered below her. "So it was you after all. No wonder the flow of time is so weird."

"What are you talking about?" Sakuya asked.

"Look, you're always doing something weird, right? That's just Sakuya being Sakuya."

"How rude!"

"Everyday weirdness I can tolerate, but even for you this has gone much too far. It's like you didn't learn anything from that time with the red mist." Reimu turned her glare to Marisa. "And as for you. Working with a bunch of youkai. What on earth are you plotting?"

"Me? I'm not with them! Well I'm with her, but that was her idea. She's not with them."

"Sakuya is doing something weird, but we're not the ones who're doing the biggest thing. Not right now, anyway. We're actually on our way to teach the culprit a lesson," Remilia cut in.

"That excuse might fool a bird, but you can't trick me. Whenever you two move, time stops and the night gets longer. You two are the ones who are prolonging this night!" Reimu thrust her gohei out towards Remilia, a murderous gleam shining in her eyes.

Marisa clicked her tongue and turned to Sakuya in disbelief. "I thought this night was long. You actually stopped time just so your mistress could go on a rampage?"

Remilia scoffed. "Well of course I had her do that, but that's hardly anything to complain about."

"Milady, stopping the night is not our goal. Please remember that we have a limited time and look at the moon behind Reimu."

"The moon's got nothing to do with it!" Reimu shouted. "The night's stopped and a vampire is running amok as a result. What could be more dangerous than that!?"

"Well, I am the queen of the night, you can hardly blame me for making use of this opportunity."

Reimu raised her gohei and eased into a fighting stance. "I'm going to force you to return the flow of time to normal right here and now. Marisa, I don't know how you got yourself mixed up in all this, but if you're foolish enough to let these youkai lead you around by the nose then I'll have to exterminate you too."

"Reimu, wait!" Marisa cried. "Gimme a sec to explain this. How should I put it?"

Alice shot Marisa an incredulous look. "Why the stuttering? Just yell at her like you always do. 'Hey you! Get outta my way!' Like that."

Marisa turned and hissed in a hoarse whisper. "Not now, moron! She's actually mad right now. If we seriously piss her off, this is gonna get ugly."

Alice frowned then leaned out from behind Marisa to address Reimu herself. "Reimu, there's obviously more going on here, just look at the moon behind you. Surely the distortion is so intense here that it's obvious even to you, isn't it?"

Reimu continued to glare for a moment before chancing a quick glance behind her. Seeing the moon, it did seem odd. Larger than it should be and ever so slightly distorted, as if it were stretched the inner surface of an enormous dome rather than suspended in the sky. Looking at it she realized this Incident was going to be even more annoying than she had feared. She whirled back to face Marisa, glaring daggers. "So you've made the moon weird too? Is this all a game to you?"

Marisa sighed in resignation. She had known Reimu long enough to know that words and reason only went so far with the shrine maiden. That point, it seemed, had already been passed.

"All right, fine." She began. "You're right. The endless night, the warped moon, the disappearing human village, and the silly hats on all the Jizo statues. Every one of them was Alice or Sakuya's fault. Now, get outta my way!"

"Don't pin this all on me," Sakuya demanded. "She still hasn’t figured out 𝘸𝘩𝘺 we stopped the night with how you’re going on. Now's not the time to bicker amongst ourselves."

"There's no need to rush, Sakuya. As long as you're stretching time, this is a good use of it. I don't mind if the shrine maiden is too small-minded to understand either. This gives me an opportunity to pay her back for last time."

"...As you wish, Milady."

Reimu glowered down at Remilia. "I'll send you back to your coffin first then. Are you ready?"

"I told you once before that coffins are only for the dead."

"That gloomy, windowless scarlet coffin is good enough for you!"

Thus, above the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, Reimu Hakurei confronted the four culprits behind the Endless Night Incident. That is the nature of the story told in Akyuu's 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦, the tale of an Incident concerning a night that stretched far longer than it should have. The issue of the distorted moon went unperceived by humanity and hence there is no record of anything that might be called the 'Fake Moon Incident' or the like.

At Eientei, however, we were learning that there was far more to the story than a dawn that refused to come, and the mysteries endured well after that battle had concluded. Enshrouded in a darkness deeper than mere night, alongside Renko who had lost her ability to see altogether, we groped blindly in search of an elusive truth that would, in time, shed a light never before seen on all of Gensokyo.