東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 7:Mountain of Faith

—19—


Since coming to Gensokyo we have been involved in five incidents. Five times over we had been bystanders to cataclysmic threats and schemes that threatened to destroy the carefully engineered balance of Gensokyo. You might argue that during the Scarlet Mist Incident, my partner was responsible for giving Remilia the idea for it all, or that during the Eternal Night Incident I had been the one to lead Reimu's group to the hidden path to Kaguya, but both of those incidents would have eventually occurred even if we had never come to this world, though their forms might have been slightly different. Remilia would have eventually grown bored and done something to make her mark upon the world and Yukari would have located Kaguya inside Eientei even if I hadn't been there.

Similarly, in this case, even if not for my partner and I, it seems inevitable that Reimu might have eventually headed out in search of the new shrine on Youkai Mountain. What makes this incident different from all of the others, however, is that this time around, we —or more accurately, my partner —decided that she would no longer be content with the role of passively observing the events transpiring around her. No, this time, Renko was determined to stick her nose directly into other people’s affairs.

Perhaps this was because, at this point, we had not yet discovered any mystery at the Moriya Shrine deep enough to capture my partner's interest. Though if, dear reader, you are worried that this book will not contain any of the wild speculations that Renko has become known for, fear not. There was indeed a mystery here worthy of the name, we just hadn't happened upon the key to revealing it yet.

It would be a spoiler for me to reveal any more than that though, so let me return to the story already in progress. It was dusk by the time the two incident-resolvers who had set out from the shrine at the foot of the mountain made it to the shrine more than half-way up it. Surrounded by a blaze of autumn leaves they came streaking up the slopes, dyed crimson by the setting sun.

—

In the few hours since we had returned to the Moriya Shrine, Reimu and Marisa had clashed with two autumn harvest gods, been warned away from the mountain by Hina, been warned off by a kappa, fought the white wolf tengu guard before the falls, and been intercepted by Aya. I heard about all of these stories secondhand after the fact of course, so I will not dwell on them.

You may wonder what the two of us were doing while all of this was going on. The truth is the two of us, along with Sanae, were sitting in her room, casually eating snacks.

"I stocked up on these before we came here, but now they’re all about to expire. We may as well enjoy them now."

"Lucky us, I guess. Let me try those yellow ones." Renko said, reaching over the pile of assorted snacks.

"Renko, you're going to spoil your appetite if you eat too much of that."

"Oh, Sanae, there's something I wanted to confirm, if you don't mind."

"Yes?"

"Your ultimate goal in coming to Gensokyo was to gather faith, right?"

"Exactly. By gathering faith not only will the power of the goddesses grow, but all the peoples of Gensokyo will be united in one system of belief, ensuring peace for the future. It's a win-win situation."

"Peace in Gensokyo, eh? The history of religion in the Outside World is filled with wars though."

"Hmmmm, I can't really deny that..." Sanae said, looking uncomfortable.

At that moment Kanako suddenly appeared on the spot again, standing just behind Sanae. For the sake of my heart I wished she'd refrain from appearing without warning, but Sanae seemed used to it.

"Oh, hello again, Lady Yasaka", Renko said amiably. "Aren't you supposed to be watching the lake?"

"A god can be in many places at once, so long as they are invoked or enshrined there. That's how a single god can be present everywhere they are worshipped."

"So when you appear suddenly that’s just you deciding to exist in another location?"

"That's right," Kanako said proudly. "To use a metaphor you might be familiar with, gods operate more like a program installed on multiple different computers rather than a cloud app in which each host connects to a central server. There’s no ‘main’ version of me, each copy is just as powerful and all of them are me. Just like how each computer can run its own unique and independent operations. So long as there are people supplying earnest faith at every shrine—installing the application on different computers, in this analogy, I can inhabit any number of hosts. Though, unless there's enough faith spread widely around, I'll admit that there's little reason for me to do so."

"Oh, that makes it very clear, thank you."

It seemed unusual to me to think of a distributed application as a parable for religion, but I suppose even the gods have to keep up to date with technology in order to gain faith nowadays.

"So what is it you were asking Sanae about?"

"Well, she was saying it's your intent to promote peace in Gensokyo through the act of gathering faith."

"That's right. Faith, after all,serves to provide a moral standard against which people can judge their actions. It is a sort of mental discipline that people of the Outside World are finding increasingly difficult to understand amidst a culture of increasingly flexible morality." It seemed to me that as she said this her eyes narrowed in suspicion. The two of us had come from a time even further in the future than she knew of though, where the sort of morality she was describing didn’t really apply.

"Human beings are social creatures, and societies exist through the establishment of laws and shared senses of morality. Laws are merely words on paper, however, and morals are even more ambiguous. And yet, despite this, human societies can and do flourish. How is such a thing possible?"

"It's because people believe in those laws, right?" I ventured.

Kanako nodded approvingly. "Indeed. To keep such concepts solid enough to allow for a civil society to flourish requires mental discipline. It requires faith. Without it, laws are merely words, but faith in those laws allows great civilizations to be built. Religion is no different. Putting one's faith in something greater than oneself requires the will and dedication to adhere to a system of values and practices, but the rewards are sublime—a heightened understanding of the world and the stability to weather the worst of life's trials. The loss of faith in society is indicative of a loss of discipline. Just as a society that loses respect for its own laws is sure to suffer upheaval, a society that loses faith in its gods suffers from moral confusion and a degradation of common decency. Human societies need faith to function. It is a lesson lost on the Outside World."

"Oof, that must hurt for you to hear, Merry. Doesn't Relativistic Noology hold that all things, including morality and reality itself are subjective?" Renko grinned as she poked me in the ribs.

"Relativistic Noology holds that individual beliefs are inviolable to the individual, meaning belief in an absolute morality is a perfectly valid stance for an individual to have. It merely requires a practitioner like myself to treat such viewpoints with scientific skepticism, not outright denial. For the purpose of this discussion, I'm perfectly content to continue under the assumption that faith is a necessity for civil society," I explained calmly, as I grabbed her cheek and twisted.

"Agh, ow! Geez, Merry, nothing civil about you. At this rate I'm going to be the one who ends up with wrinkles," she said, pushing my hand away. "On that topic though, Lady Yasaka, if your goal is to bring peace to Gensokyo by uniting faith, doesn't imposing your own system of morals and beliefs on the world seem counterproductive? Whatever system of belief was already in place here would be different and that would naturally lead to a clash, wouldn't it?"

"All things have two sides, both good and bad. It's inevitable that two different belief systems would clash. Such conflicts have played out countless times throughout history, and the results are up to the humans who are members of those societies. It is not up to the gods to ensure a peaceful compromise between different civilizations."

"I see. Even the gods can't affect fate, eh?"

"I have no desire to enter into conflict with the shrine at the foot of the mountain or its protector. If she can not tolerate our presence, however, I also have no intention to yield. Perhaps there is a way that our faith and hers can coexist."

"You can do it, Lady Kanako. It'll be a piece of cake for you!" Sanae cheered, her fists clenched.

Kanako shook her head and shrugged "Well, that shall be seen soon enough, I suppose. The shrine maiden will be here momentarily." Saying that, Kanako disappeared.

Renko grunted, deep in thought as she sipped her tea.

"Alright, detective," I said, turning to her. "This was all your idea, so what do we do now? Reimu will be here any minute, and I don't think you've got any hope of beating her in a game of danmaku."

"There is such a thing as negotiation, Merry. There may not even be a danmaku match today. It's Reimu though, so you're probably right. I'm going to try to talk to her anyway though."

"What are you talking about?" Sanae asked. "You two look like you're planning some sort of scheme."

"It's a maiden's secret," Renko said playfully.

Sanae smiled, but looked a little worried. Her hand drifted unconsciously to her hair, brushing against the frog and snake ornaments she wore on one side.

Renko noticed the gesture. "Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you about those ornaments, Sanae."

"Oh, these?" she asked with an awkward smile. "They're just good luck charms. This one is for Lady Kanako and this one is for Lady Suwako," she said, pointing to the snake and the frog in turn.

"So Lady Yasaka is a snake and Lady Moriya is a frog? I remember that Takeminakata was sometimes depicted as a snake, but where does the frog come from? Is it just because Suwako lost her domain to Kanako so she became snake food?"

"I'm not sure, really. I wasn't around back in the age of myths. Lady Suwako loves frogs though. She has a lot of froggy friends out on the lake she talks to." I tried to imagine the curse goddess marching along the surface of the lake, an army of frogs hopping in formation behind her. It was a cute image, and only slightly creepy.

"I wear these to remind me that I always have the power of those two behind me. As long as they're around I know I won't lose to a faithless shrine maiden from the bottom of the mountain!" Sanae clenched her fists once more and exhaled defiantly, but a moment later her confidence seemed to fade and she turned her face down, staring almost morosely at the floor. "I won't lose. I can't..."

I never got a chance to ask her what had got her so down though. It was at that moment that Kirisame Marisa and Hakurei Reimu burst onto the grounds of the Moriya Shrine, racing through the torii and the sun reddened the western sky.


—20—


I heard later that it was Shameimaru Aya who had finally guided the girls here. Upon hearing that Reimu and Marisa had invaded the mountain, she had apparently taken it upon herself to challenge them, intentionally lose, give them an escort to the shrine as their prize, then hang back with a telephoto lens and wait until the danmaku broke out. For this decisive and cunning action, which took place while the leaders of the tengu society were still deadlocked in indecision, she was later highly praised. That was the version she told us, anyway.

At any rate it was just past 17:00 when we heard a commotion from outside. The sun had nearly finished setting.

"They're here. You two stay inside." Sanae said, then turned and walked out the door with a nervous look on her face.

I waited a beat before I turned to Renko. "I take it you plan on going?"

"Of course, now is the time for the negotiator to step in. I'm going to settle this religious war before it can become an incident!"

"If Reimu starts shooting, I'm going to run and leave you behind," I said as I climbed to my feet to follow her into the hallway. I had no idea what sort of a gambit Renko might have in mind to negotiate with, but going with her to see would be less stressful than waiting alone for her to come back, even if I ended up having to run from danmaku. We left the shrine building and walked through the grounds, which were shrouded in the soft darkness of twilight. It wasn't long before I heard voices.

"So you came all the way here. Did you want to join up with us right away then?" Sanae asked, brightly.

"This really does look like a shrine. I guess there was another shrine in Gensokyo besides mine. Was there always such a big lake here though?"

"This is the Moriya Shrine. It was moved into Gensokyo from the Outside World along with the lake."

"You 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 the entire shrine here along with a lake? From the Outside World? That's pretty flashy."

"We’ve already taken over this mountain. If we can take over your shrine too, all of Gensokyo’s faith will be ours…."

"If you do something like that you'd just be inviting complaints from the myriad native gods of Gensokyo. You'd never hear the end of it."

"Hey! You're that shrine maiden that tried to take over the Hakurei Shrine that Reimu was talkin' about, right?" This voice was from Marisa.

"I'm Sanae Kochiya, a wind priestess. I guess you could call me something like a shrine maiden. You're Kirisame Marisa, aren't you?"

"Huh, how do you know my name... no wait, I know. You've met Renko and Merry, right? You Outsiders have some sort of sneaky plan in the works don'tcha? Well, we're the heroes from the foot of the mountain, here to punish any naughty gods with wicked plans."

"Exactly. Your god is plotting something sinister. We’re here to stop her."

"We're doing this for the good of Gensokyo too though. Gensokyo will become weak if it continues in its current state of lessened piety. The power of miracles and the gods could even disappear from this world completely."

"What are you talking about? That could never happen, there are gods all around us. Gensokyo's brimming with them. We don't need your help to restore people's faith."

"Sounds to me like you're exaggeratin' to try to gin up a justification. Just the sorta thing a villain'd do."

"It seems you're determined not to listen to me. Perhaps actions would speak louder than words. Should I show you the awesome power of the gods' miracles then?"

By the time Renko and I rounded the corner and came to the plaza in front of the raised stage, the tension had risen dramatically. The silence was drawn taut as a cord and it seemed that at any moment it would snap, releasing a torrent of beams and bullets to light up the night.

The one who broke the silence, however, was Renko.

"Okay! Very good! That's some impressive posturing from both sides, very intimidating there, but I think that's enough for now!" She called, stepping forward from beside me and raising her voice to carry to the three of them.

"Renko?" Three voices spoke in a unison of confusion as all three of the hovering girls turned to look at my partner with dumbfounded expressions.

"Miss Renko, what are you doing here?"

"Yeah, why are you showing up in the middle of things!? Again!?"

"Wait, how’d you both get all the way up here?"

"Yes, it's me," she said with a deep bow as she removed her hat. "Thank you very much for that warm reception. I'm here in my role as chief investigator of the Hifuu Detective Agency to negotiate a settlement and defuse this religious war before it can tear Gensokyo apart."

"Religious War?"

"That's right. This budding conflict between the Hakurei and Moriya shrines, competing for worshippers and faith in a pointless and destructive clash of old against new. In order to avoid a fruitless conflict that would be of benefit to no one and promote peace in the land, I've appointed myself as your negotiator. Think of me as a peacekeeper, here to spread love and peace to Gensokyo through hard-nosed negotiation. If the incident refuses to come to the bargaining table, then the bargaining table must come to the scene of the incident, right?"

"What the hell are you talkin' about? This is Gensokyo, speak Japanese." Marisa exclaimed, staring blankly at Renko as she floated beside Reimu.

"Ah sorry, that was perhaps a bit too modern of an approach. Let me put it this way: this all started because Sanae here, as a representative of the Moriya Shrine came from the Outside World and demanded that you transfer the operation of your shrine to her, right Reimu?"

"That's right! She barged in like she owned the place and told me to clear out!"

"No I didn't! I was just trying to bring the power of Lady Yasaka to a shrine that had already lost nearly all of its worshippers!"

"Yes, that was the offer. In exchange for restoring the faith of the land and increasing the number of visitors to the Hakurei Shrine, Reimu would have to enshrine the deity of the Moriya Shrine, Kanako Yasaka. Reimu, I take it this is a condition you are unwilling to accept, is that so?"

"I don't know anything about her god. Of course I wouldn't let her take over my shrine!"

"But your shrine is practically empty already! There's almost no divine presence there at all!"

"Please leave any characterization of the shrine aside for the moment. Miss Sanae, do you consider taking complete ownership of the Hakurei Shrine to be an absolute necessity?"

"Huh? Well it would be best if we could take over the whole shrine, I think..."

"So rather than possession of the Hakurei Shrine, your goal is simply to unify the religion of Gensokyo under the stewardship of the Moriya Shrine's practices, yes?"

"Y-yes..."

"But in order to do that you need to first raise awareness of the blessings Lady Yasaka can offer to the villagers, and to do that you need a shrine that they can visit, correct?"

"...That's right."

"And so your intention is to use the shrine at the foot of the mountain as your base of operations so that you can spread your faith among the villagers, right?"

"That's what we were hoping for..."

Renko proceeded rapidly, firing off questions and clarifying statements with such fluency that no one had time to object. "Alright, excellent. We've now clarified and summarized the key points of contention. Sanae, you want to use a shrine at the foot of the mountain to gather faith and Reimu you don't want your shrine taken over. Now comes the negotiation. Hakurei Reimu!"

"Me? What?"

"What if, rather than having your shrine taken over, you were to build a secondary altar on the grounds of your shrine and allow an artifact of Lady Yasaka's to be enshrined there. You would still retain control and ownership of your shrine in that case. What would you think of that?"

"I can manage my shrine's problems on my own. I don't need the blessings of some mysterious Outside World god to get worshippers."

"So you admit that gathering more faith is also in line with your own goals then?"

"Well, if that faith comes with worshippers and donations..."

"Excellent. I see that there is room for us to conduct negotiations here." Renko nodded to herself then took off her hat using its brim to point first to Reimu and then to Sanae. "Now Reimu, you want to gather faith, but don't want to give up your shrine. Sanae, you want to take over the Hakurei Shrine in order to increase the number of worshippers, but that doesn’t seem to be on the table. Although your two positions might seem at first to be mutually exclusive, both parties have something the other wants, so I think we can find a compromise that everyone can be happy with if we're willing to consider a rather outside-the-box alternative."

"What kinda' alternative do you mean?" Marisa asked.

Renko smiled, the same troublesome grin I knew all too well. Flipping her hat between her fingers she placed it back on her head.

"It's simple. If it's impossible for the Moriya Shrine to take over the Hakurei Shrine, then we can achieve the same ends in a way that's amenable to both parties by just doing the reverse."

"The reverse?" Everyone, including myself, was staring at Renko with their mouths agape.

"All we have to do is exchange shrines! We'll dedicate the shrine at the foot of the mountain as the new Moriya Shrine, and use this one as the new Hakurei Shrine!"


—21—


While everyone continued to stare at Renko, plainly flabbergasted, she began to pace back and forth, eloquently explaining the merits of her delusional proposal.

"With this plan, the Moriya Shrine gains the foothold at the base of the mountain it had desired, while Reimu can maintain her ownership of a shrine without having to cede control of it to a new god. Additionally the youkai who live on this mountain are currently unsure of how to react to the Moriya Shrine, but the Hakurei Shrine is a known and well established factor. The youkai will respect your authority if you move to the mountain, settling the question of whether or not the new shrine will be tolerated. Additionally, with you taking over Youkai Mountain, the villagers, especially the woodsmen and fishers who frequent Misty Lake will be assured of greater safety. With that you both stand to profit from the increased faith of the villagers."

"The Moriya Shrine, meanwhile, would benefit not only from easy access to the village and the ability to attract villagers to come and visit them at a more accessible location, but would also have the advantage of gaining an excellent view of Youkai Mountain. With this, they could easily characterize Lady Yasaka as a personification of the mountain itself and give the people a tangible and readily visible object to remind them of their faith. Just imagine it —a torii gate erected on the Northern side of the Hakurei Shrine grounds could perfectly frame the mountain. Just stick an altar in front of that and you're in business! Even the village would benefit both from the additional safety offered by Reimu's repositioning and a new center for community gathering and worship in the new Moriya Shrine. It's a win-win all around! The perfect solution!" Renko finished her megalomaniacal speech with her arms outstretched, looking from face to face to face of the three girls standing before her with her chest puffed out and a smug expression.

Reimu and Sanae opened their mouths at the same time.

"Rejected!"

"Absolutely not!"

Renko stumbled backward, her hat toppling from her head as she tripped and collapsed to the ground. "What? Why not?"

Reimu floated before her, hands on her hips and a withering glare on her face. "Did you even listen to a word we said? Why would I want to move to such a backwards location in the mountains? If I did that I'd never get any visitors and my donations would be zero!"

"And we went through all of that effort to bring the shrine here! We can’t just give everything away now!" Sanae protested from behind her.

"Oh, but you expect me to be fine with the idea of giving up 𝑚𝑦 home, don't you?" Reimu snapped, turning back to Sanae.

"I'm not the one who barged on to sacred ground looking to pick a fight, it's you two who need to be taught a lesson!"

"That's exactly what you did though!" Reimu held her gohei in front of her and began floating toward Sanae with a dark expression.

Sanae braced herself as the winds on the shrine grounds began to pick up, circling and howling.

"Reimu, I'll leave this uppity shrine maiden to you. I'm gonna go find myself a god to hunt."

Reimu and Sanae turned to Marisa, reaching an arm out and shouting "Hey, wait!" in unison. The witch was already gone though, streaking toward the back of the shrine on a trail of stardust. Their glares snapped back to one another.

"Forget her, let's settle this now." Reimu growled.

"I'd be happy to. Miss Renko, Miss Merry, please get back to the outer shrine."

All around us the winds were accelerating, tracing the perimeter of a quickly circling vortex that was drawing ever closer as it sped up. I stepped forward and grabbed Renko by the shoulders. She was still sitting on the ground, staring straight ahead. "Hey Renko, come on! we have to get to cover!"

She looked up at me with a forlorn expression and spoke in a pathetic, moping tone. "Just leave me here, Merry. I've failed at a once-in-a-lifetime chance to solve an incident."

"Oh, we do 𝑛𝑜𝑡 have time for this!" I said, throwing her arm over my shoulder and lifting her to her feet. "Run, Renko! Now!"

Somehow, I managed to drag her back to the living room of the outer shrine, where I let her collapse limply onto the tatami as outside the mesmerizing spectacle of a danmaku match like no other played out.

—

It goes without saying at this point that mere words, penned by my inarticulate hand, cannot hope to describe the beauty or complexity of the dance of barrages the girls engaged in. On this occasion I will try, however, because it was a most noteworthy match. I only ask that you understand that anything I may describe is but a pale shadow of the original.

Sanae began the fight by conjuring into the air numerous large pentagrams comprised of glowing bullets. These hovered close enough to her to act as barriers, but after a few moments each one burst, illuminating all the darkened grounds of the shrine and showering everything nearby with coruscating waves of linked projectiles. Reimu's face, illuminated in the harsh blue-green light of the bullets, seemed almost joyful, smiling with a ferocious intensity as she hurled ofuda between bursts of sharp, controlled movement to dodge the fragments.

Sanae responded by burning the first of the spell cards Renko had instructed her to make, conjuring up an enormous and shockingly bright wave of light which she then hurled forward. As the wave travelled away from her it split in two, leaving a break in the middle but continuing down either side. Another wave followed immediately, and another after that, until the splitting of the continuous waves formed a narrow channel between two undulating pillars of light, forcing Reimu to fly through the winding valley between them. Sanae contorted as she threw out more of the waves, twisting the break between them back and forth, making the narrow path of safety snake from side to side and throwing the occasional charm straight down the middle, but Reimu maneuvered expertly, shooting up the winding path at top speed, not even bothering to return fire, just doggedly closing on Sanae until she was near enough to strike.

Sanae had to break off her attack to narrowly dodge a flying kick that impacted heavily on the wall of the shrine near the roof. The kick was followed up by several swipes from Reimu's gohei, forcing Sanae to fly backwards, darting under the eaves and around the multi-layered roof of the outer shrine to make space. As the two squared off again, I heard her speak, panting from exertion.

"How is she so strong?" Sanae panted, sounding legitimately worried. She took a moment to breathe then straightened up, calling out loudly "Lady Kanako, hear my plea!" Her eyes closed as she waved another of the Spell Cards. It burned away in an instant and just as before numerous pentagrams comprised of countless bullets blossomed from nothingness into the air.

"I've already seen that trick!" Reimu yelled, threading her way through the barrage as the pentagrams burst and again closing the distance.

At that moment Sanae held up an ofuda of her own. Her eyes sprung suddenly open and the slip of paper stood up rigidly, snapping as if in a stiff wind. "Ready, go!" Sanae cried, raising the charm above her head. It vanished instantly, but as it did, the wind suddenly picked up. It began as a low, moaning roar, but quickly escalated to a fierce gale and from there to a hurricane-force stream, sending clouds of dust and debris tumbling through the air and scouring the shrine grounds.

Reimu, who had been charging through the air a moment earlier, found her progress slowed by the storm, then slowly started to drift backwards in the face of the wind. All the while the pentagrams of bullets continued to close in, their fragments unaffected by the fierce winds. They slowly closed around Reimu's position, forming a cage of interlocking rings of glowing projectiles.

"Now bow down before the incontestable might of the divine winds of Yasaka!" Sanae shouted, her voice magnified to a booming roar as the winds responded to her call.

She waved her hand.

A pressure wave like a thunderclap rattled through the outer shrine and shook the walls as an enormous gust ripped through the grounds, splintering small trees standing on the far side of the torii gate and blowing over bushes as if they were blades of grass. At the same moment all of the rings that had assembled around Reimu's position collapsed in a rush, colliding in a blinding flare of multicolored light.

Slowly the winds dropped, subsiding from a roar to a low moan, and then to silence.

Slowly the light faded, from blinding to a twinkle.

At last, the last of the bullets winked out, leaving the shrine grounds immersed in a quiet darkness.

Above it all, Reimu still stood, windblown but unharmed.

"What?" Sanae cried, goggling at the shrine maiden.

"I'm not so weak I can be blown away by a little wind!" Reimu shouted, releasing a Spell Card of her own.

A jagged, wavering ring of angry light expanded from her palms, growing ever larger as it raced toward Sanae. The light surrounded her, growing with a low rumble that was almost loud enough to drown out her scream.

—

"You're strong..." Sanae groaned as she lay on the stone path. From the tone of her voice it was clear that this was not the declaration of defiance it had been once before, but a clear admission of defeat. "If you're this powerful, why doesn't your shrine have more worshippers?"

"I'd like to know that myself."

"I think you'd probably be able to gather a lot of faith, both for yourself and for us even if you just put a branch shrine to our goddess on your grounds..."

"Well, I'll think about it after I meet your god."

"What? You mean you still intend to..."

"I wonder if Marisa's still alive? Either way, it sounds like I've got an evil god to punish."

With that quip Reimu flew off, sailing leisurely toward the lake at the rear of the shrine grounds. I watched her go for a moment, took a brief second to glance at Renko, who was still moping bonelessly in the middle of the floor, and rushed off to help Sanae.

When I got to her, Sanae was laying flat on her back on the stone path, but she sat up at the sound of my approaching footsteps. Turning to me, she smiled sadly. "Oh, hi Miss Merry. Did you see that?"

"I did. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said with a sigh. "But even after borrowing Lady Kanako's powers I wasn't strong enough." Her shoulders drooped. "Is Miss Renko alright?"

"Don't worry about her, she's just suffering from a severe case of acute, self-inflicted idiocy. Let's head back to the outer shrine, I'm sure Lady Yasaka can handle Reimu."

As I said that and extended my hand to help Sanae up, her eyes widened in surprise. "Miss Merry, you..."

"What?"

"Ah, no, nevermind. Let's head back."

She grabbed my hand and climbed to her feet, shaking her head and trotting off ahead of me. It was only later that I would come to understand what she had been thinking.