Bunbunmaru Newspaper

Season 180, Month X

"New Shrine Maiden Causes Stir at Hakurei Shrine."

By Kanoe Shameimaru

-Hakurei Shrine

A crowd of dozens assembled around Hakurei Shrine today as Reimu Hakurei, Gensokyo's beloved solver of incidents and the shrine's resident maiden for the last thirty five seasons, had previously announced that she would reveal something important that would, in her words, be "very very interesting!"

The gathered mob, which consisted of youkai and humans alike, waited with baited breath. Gossip amongst the crowd was a fevered pitch as well. With many quietly speculating as to just what the Shrine Maiden of Paradise woulds reveal. Though there were many theories about the matter, some to steamy to print here, the general consensus that morning was that the announcement would concern the future of the shrine, as Reimu herself was getting older and would soon need to name a successor both for the sake of continuing the shrine's long history, and protecting the peace of Gensokyo as a whole.

"Reimu is starting to go a little gray in the hair," said one local blonde-haired magician attending the event who wished not to be named here. "So its high time she pick somebody to take over when she's to old to run off and solve an incident on her own anymore. I mean, I'm sure she'll be just fine for another decade or so, but it couldn't hurt ze."

As the sun reached its zenith, and the time struck noon, Reimu finally appeared from within the shrine's main building wearing white robes more conservative in design then she had worn at her height a few decades before. Her face was wrinkled and her black hair beginning to show slivers of gray and silver, making her appear wizened to a degree that seemed to paint a look of concern across the faces of her many friends who stood in the audience, many of whom remained unaffected by the passage of time and the ravages of aging despite their long lifetimes.

"It's really sad to see Reimu looking like that." One Oni told our reporter between drinks from a gigantic gourd of sake. "It just reminds me that she's gonna die someday, and then I'll have to find someone new to host all of my drinking parties!"

Alongside the shrine maiden was a girl of no older then fifteen, that many at the scene would later describe as "unsettling" and "otherworldly." She was tall for her age, perhaps an inch or so more then the Hakurei shrine maiden. While her hair was long and colored a bright blond, and her facial features were severe and her eyes sharp. On her back she wore the traditional robes of the Hakurei family, just as Reimu had decades before, but colored a deep purple rather then the typical red.

Reimu's laid her right hand on the strange young girl's shoulder, she then smiled at the crowd. It was an attempt to add an element of familiarity but only bred murmurs arose from the mixed company. Many spoke in hushed voices and asked amongst themselves if anyone around them knew just what going on, while some stood in silence. The shrine maiden of had pulled plenty of crazy stunts in the past, as most of our long time readers may recall, but none of them had ever involved a mysterious child before. So they watched on, waiting with an air of apprehension of what may come next.

"Hello everyone!" the shrine maiden greeted the quiet crowd, eliciting only few cries of "hello!" in return. "I don't like giving speeches, so I will keep this short."

Reimu then closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and exhaled in kind. whatever she was going to say next must have been important indeed. When she finally spoke, her tone was casual in tone and no different then that she used when chatting up guests at a drinking party, or addressing a merchant at a local market. Never serious unless she had to be and casual to the core, Reimu was always like this and everyone at the Bunbunmaru and everyone else in Gensokyo would likely not have it any otherway.

"So I've been thinking a lot about the future quite a bit these past few years, and not to long ago I came to the conclusion that I just can't be the Hakurei shrine maiden forever. Someday I'm going to get old, and even die. And even though I really love you guys, I'm only human, and won't be around forever!" some amongst the crowd chuckled at the shrine maiden's morbid attempt at a joke, but the rest stood in abject silence, unsure what to make of this very strange and very awkward situation. "So, eventually I decided that I had to find someone to replace me... It took a very long time to to find the right candidate for the job. But in the end, I chose this cute girl right here."

Reimu then pushed the small girl forward for all to see, causing her to trip just once before quickly catching herself and standing tall in front of the assembled onl ookers. While the elder shrine maiden was a picture of joviality and good humor, the girl she had described as "cute" looked more like the leader of a small nation and carried herself in such a manner. Standing up straighter then a tree and staring at the crowd before her as if she would soon be addressing an entire nation under her rule.

"Her name is Asumu Hakurei," Reimu explained with glee, then stepped forward and patted the girl named Asumu on the head. "and she is my daughter and the next shrine maiden of the Hakurei family."

Asumu then walked forward and bowed to the assembled crowd of humans and youkai alike. Her movements were proper, and voice elegant. In other words, she was nothing like the woman who had just introduced her save for her manner of dress and shared last name.

"As my mother explained, I am Asumu Hakurei and I look forward to serving you all in the near future." she said before returning to her mother's side and silencing herself once more.

Whispers erupted from the crowd.

"Is she even married?" one woman gossiped quietly.

"That kid looks nothing like her!" a man cried far to loudly.

"Eh, as long as she keeps on protecting us from all those terrible monsters, I don't really care either way!" An old man added while stroking his beard. According to several sources at the scene, this comment was greeted by several nasty looks from the non-human element in the crowd.

The elder shrine maiden then tried to calm the crowd with a few choice words and a hand signal to simmer down."Calm down everybody!" she said. "I know this will be a big change, but Asumu has been training for several years as a shrine maiden, and is every bit as talented as I am. So there will be nothing to worry about at all, I promise."

The rest of the afternoon was spent in leisure, with drinking, food, and other festivities taking place at the shrine grounds from about one in the afternoon until eight at night. Though fun was had by all, our reporters included, an air of unease seemed to hang over the area, as many were still attempting to come to terms with the fact that the shrine maiden that had served them for almost half a century was finally retiring, and that she had a child to boot.

"I'm not sure what I think." another of Gensokyo's shrine maidens told our reporter during the party. "I'm sure this new child will do just fine, especially if Reimu trained her herself. But I have to stop and wonder how it was that one of the most famous women in all of Gensokyo managed to hide the fact that she had a child for over a decade and a half, its simply scandalous!"

By the end of the night everyone assembled at the shrine was either to drunk or their stomachs to full to care about the future and headed home without incident. While Reimu and her "daughter" had disappeared once more into the shrine's innards, away from prying eyes and whispered gossip of friends and worshipers alike.

Epilogue: Boundary

The night sky was quiet, and calm. Unlike the world outside, who's heavens had long ago been twisted beyond recognition by city lights and passing planes, it was a sky filled with a sea of stars that seem to stretch eternally in every possible direction. One could become lost in such splendor, but for the residents of Gensokyo it was a sight not of wonder, but of familiarity. Under those stars mother and daughter sat together on the steps of the Hakurei Shrine, still dressed in their ceremonial vestments, and drinking together from a rather large bottle of sake that stood tall between the two of them like a lone tree growing in an isolated grove.

"Did I do well, mother?" Asumu asked while sipping her alcoholic drink from a small saucer.

Freed from her obligations of the afternoon, Asumu now drank happily and freely to the point that her face had turned a blush. It was a face she would never show to the public, especially now that she was officially a shrine maiden of Hakurei shrine. Truly enough, her mother had been known as a drunk and something of a reveler in her younger days, but the this child had no desire for such honorifics and kept her debauchery a completely private affair.

Reimu then used her free hand to ruffle her child's hair and then smiled a warm and radiant smile. "You did just fine, and certainly better then I did when my mom announced I was going to be the next Hakurei shrine maiden." Reimu's wide smile then inverted into a frown. How long had it been since her mother had dragged her out on stage and declared loudly that her daughter would be the next shrine maiden? By her own memory, it has been nearly forty seasons ago, in a time far different then the present. There were next to no youkai amongst the assemblage back then, she recalled and certainly no party thrown afterwords to celebrate the occasion. In fact it hadn't been fun at all! She had simply been trotted upon the shrine's front steps, shown off like a prized pony, and then spirited back into the shrine to study for the rest of the night while her mother greeted well wishers and other fair weather friends of the shrine for nearly three hours.

Reimu looked at the clear night sky dotted with so many stars and a bright moon and sighed, both for the sake of nostalgia and the misspent moments of her own long youth. How many days had she lost to that training, and how many hours wasted sitting in the dark and studying arcane lore that she could no longer even recall? Not even the former shrine maiden could recall, and with no other recourse to those lost moments, she simply sighed again.

"I really hope I've been a better mom to you then she was to me, Asumu." she began to babble, her words flowing like sake from that massive bottle and slurred together as if they were stuck together with paste. "But you know what? Forget about that! The only thing you need to remember from tonight and that is this: there is really is no sake in the world better then that brewed by Oni. You should remember that, Asumu. It might come in handy someday"

"Please just stop, mother. You're clearly drunk, and have no idea about what you're blabbering on about." Asumu stated plainly. "But I will remember that nonetheless, just as I will remember everything you and "her" have taught me these past five years or so. As I believe. no information is truly worthless, and I never know when some useless bit of trivia may be essential to my role as shrine maiden and protector of this phantom country."

Unable to help herself, Reimu laughed long and hard, slapping her free hand against the wooden steps of the shrine as she did. In the process she spilled a great deal of sake from her small dish, causing her daughter to sigh in disgust at the sight of such waste. "When you were born I never thought that my daughter would grow up to be a serious person! I mean where did it even come from?"

"Perhaps I simply take after my mother," Asumu joked in her own low key attempt at humor. "But regardless of where my temperament originated from, I must ask, are you still planning on returning home after the night is through to visit "her?" Asumu asked.

Remiu stopped drinking, tossed aside her silliness for the moment, and nodded. "I am, I've been a shrine maiden for the last three decades so I think I've earned a little time off. Will you be all right for a few months with me gone?" she asked of her daughter with a very serious look.

"Of course, I will. Do you have any doubt in your mind that I'm anything besides a completely capable person? As I see it, the only real question here is if you want to fly there, or if I should open a short cut like I usually do."

"Your mom will take the latter, I'm just a little bit drunk and I don't think I'd get there in one piece if I flew."

"I would say that you are very very drunk. But very well, the usual it is then then."

With a wave of her hand that still contained a saucer of Sake, Asumu opened in front of the shrine a small rip in the fabric of time-space that looked as if someone had taken a knife to the very seams of reality. It pulsated and rippled in time to a rhythm older then the human race and more ancient then the concept of thought. Within it was a black and purple eternity, punctuated only by the sight of endless eyes and gnashing teeth. In fact, so wretched was the thing that that it seemed as if one were to stare at it for to long, that they might lose something precious more precious then gold or jewels in the process.

It was an awful, terrible, and downright discomforting sight, yet Reimu approached it as if she had done so a hundred times before nonetheless. Slowly, as not to topple over in her drunken stupor, she came closer and closer until she finally stood before the pulsing portal. She then finally placed one hand on the rift and looking back at her daughter, several tears ran down her pale and slightly wrinkled face while her lips quivered. "Will you really be ok with your mom? Three months is a very long time you know!"

"I'll be just fine, mother. Now go!" she commanded with great force and a thrust of her open plam. that woman is waiting for you, and you know how much she hates waiting."

"I guess this is goodbye then. Remember to take care of yourself, and clean up the shrine once a day! I never really did that, but you really should. Its important I mean..." she said crying.

"I know all of that, so please, just go already. My sake will go cold if I must sit and listen to you blabber on for much longer" Asumu stated between sips.

"All right then. Have a good time without me, and I will see you soon. And remember that I will alway love you no matter what!" With those words and a vigorous wave, Reimu finally stepped through the gap and left for a place unknown to all but herself, her daughter, and one other person. The gap then blinked out of existence just as quickly as it had came, and with its departure the aura of the area returned to normal as well.

"I love you to, mom." Asumu said quietly to herself. "And I suppose, if you can hear this, tell that to my other mother as well."