Two and a half years had passed when Sara found herself in Narita International Airport, able to understand every sign she passed perfectly.
Not longer after confirming the legend of Gensokyo and realizing her brother was in Japan, Sara had developed a mania for Japan: Japanese language, Japanese culture, Japanese everything. Her parents wondered if she had become a anime geek to cope with the loss of her brother, but no: this was all just preparation for the biggest venture she would ever commit to. Those inventions may have collected dust over the years, but this wasn't something Sara was just going to give up on.
Airport security asked for the necessary IDs and whatnot in simple English. Sara spoke back in shockingly good Japanese: yes, she had an accent, but it's hard to get the pronunciation down when most of your studying was alone. After that, she made a mad dash to the rail station, ignoring the grand metropolis of Tokyo.
Every day after school or her summer jobs, it was two hours of Japanese studying, two hours of Japanese practice, an hour of studying mythology, and then anything else like school work or spare oddjobs to raise money for her trip. Over the course of two years, Sara had amassed a fortune for her junior year winter vacation of "hiking in Japan." At first, people were bemused that Sara would take up this "hobby," but her mania grew and grew. She stopped seeing her friends, her soured relationship with her parents only got worse when she withdrew into her Japanese studies, and at school, she grew bitter and irritable, telling anyone reaching out to her, "I don't have any time. I need to study."
The train trip to Kofu, Yamanashi was surprisingly short: fast train, small island. If Kofu didn't work out, it was then off to Nagano, then Kyoto. Most of the legends put Gensokyo somewhere around the Chuubu region in the middle of Honshu, but conflicting sources said it was near Kyoto. Either way, she had more than a thousand dollars left over and enough supplies to camp out in the middle of nowhere if she had to. Sara had prepared for camping, anyway: with where she was going, camping was the least of her worries.
When mythological research hit its saturation point, Sara focused all of her time on preparing for survival. Despite her thousand dollar stash, Sara asked her parents to pay for martial arts lessons, trips to the gun range, skydiving lessons, and her own backpacking equipment. After non-stop goading and complaining, Sara got what she wanted: it worked for Brett, so of course it was going to work for her, even though they told her, "We'd expect this out of Brett, not you." In the months leading up to the trip, Sara practiced camping out in the local state park, then just out in the middle of nowhere with the aid of her parents driving her home, and then without their aid. She was a fluent Japanese speaker who could survive out in the middle of nowhere, but what was the purpose of all of this? Of all of the random hobbies, why would Sara suddenly want to learn how to camp in Japanese wilderness? Her parents eventually asked why she wanted to do this one winter, and she had no answer other than, "It just sounds like a really neat trip to have. Besides, I'm thinking it through, aren't I?" After all, telling them she was going to Japan to search for a mythical fantasy realm to rescue her brother, who had been pronounced dead for roughly a year, was out of the question.
With a canteen backpack, a week's supply of snacks, and all of the necessary survival gear, Sara eventually was at the foot of the towering, snow-peaked Minami Alps. For as small as Japan is, virtually every stretch of land was densely populated, but the Alps still had some relatively untouched areas. Somewhere between all of these tall mountains, a little northeast of Mt. Yatsugatake, is a particularly empty region few tourists travel through, and the Japanese image boards cite it as a haven for ghost stories and legends. The most common one is this: at the entrance to the this mythical fantasy land is a very modest-looking Shinto shrine, and if you can convince the shrine maiden there to let you through to the other side, you can see the land of Gensokyo, but beware, because once inside, you will be in the land of monsters, demons, and all manner of youkai.
Traveling through dense forests and up high mountain paths, this was the least of Sara's worries. Sara was on a wild goose chase in the Japanese highlands looking for a fantasy realm across what could potentially be fifty kilometers worth of land, and if she was wrong, she'd have to start over all the way in Kyoto.
It was never until this point Sara asked, "What have I gotten myself into?," or, "What the hell am I doing?" When they started springing to mind, she had to stifle her thoughts: she did not want to have wasted two and a half years of her life studying, studying, and throwing her life away all for nothing.
Winters in Japan are much colder than you'd think they are: the highs get around to the fifties in Fahrenheit, and the lows drop to the thirties. The dense red and yellow forest was also quite humid, making the cold air stick to Sara's uncovered face. She wore all dark green in hopes of blending into the forest: green jacket, dark green cargoes, green knit cap. Her blonde hair was tied into a ponytail and hidden into her jacket. After hours of hiking, she sat on the damp forest floor and leaned back against her heavy backpack. She drank from the blue tube dangling over her shoulder from her canteen backpack, had another granola bar, and wondered if she had gone too far from the forest. For a while, she heard a low buzzing sound, most likely that of a transformer, and maybe she had accidentally back to civilization.
I'm not crazy, she kept telling herself over and over, I know I saw something took my brother, and everything points to here. This isn't a waste of time. I did the right thing. I didn't just come out here for nothing.
Sara's shoulder's ached from carrying all of that food and camping supplies, her legs were nearly ready to give out, and her body shivered. She wanted to distract herself from this seemingly pointless hike: look at the lush golden Japanese wilderness, breath in the fresh, heady scent of the forest, hear the sounds of the trees rustling, forget the fact you're in the middle of nowhere in another country, looking for a mythological fantasy world.
Staring up at the tall trees, Sara's vision blurred and she instinctively rubbed her eyes. When she looked back at the tree tops, her vision was still blurry. To test her focus, she looked at her hands, which looked perfectly fine, and then out at the immediate ground, which looked fine, and then saw a point in the ground where two sets of leaves blended into eachother. She jumped back to her feet upon seeing this, and this blurring of leaves and foliage continued in a straight line, waving in and out like a curtain billowing in the breeze. When she walked closer, the buzzing sound got louder. Sara nearly giggled at what she had found.
This is it! This is the border to Gensokyo!
Sara jogged along the line where the plants blurred into eachother. She was careful not to actually cross into the border itself, because it was the only thing separating her from a myriad of all sorts of monsters. Though aching joints, Sara paced herself down the slippery slopes, rocky hills, and wet grass and leaves, hoping to eventually reach that shrine and gain safe passage into Gensokyo.
An hour of jogging later, Sara froze when she saw a tree with windows and a small door, just on the edge of the border to Gensokyo. She didn't want to get any closer to that tree, because who knows who or what could be living inside, but off in the distance, she saw, exactly as the books described, a modest Shinto shrine.
Rather than make any preparations against that tiny tree house, she drank from her backpack canteen, focused on the shrine, and made a mad dash through the border, pushing through all of the pain and ache. She kept her eyes fixated on the shrine, never looking back, never looking around. She reached the back stoop, climbed up, and rushed inside.
The inside of the shrine looked brand new, as if it had been built or rebuilt not long ago, but abandoned: dark wood floors, dark wood walls, and altar with numerous offerings (mostly food and alcohol), and a small table.
"Is anyone here?!," she shouted.
"Hold on," said a girlish voice from the other side of the shrine, "I'll be right there."
Sara heard no footsteps or any sense of urgency. She waited for the girl, taking off her shoes in the meantime, but that girl made no sound of any kind of movement.
Then, by the opposite entrance, there was a loud thud and shuffling feet. Coming from the outside was a girl in a red dress and white sleeves tied to her arms, holding a stick with a paper tassel at the end.
"Are you okay?," she asked. She paused, stared at Sara with a thoughtful look, and then asked, "More importantly, can you understand what I'm saying?"
"Perfectly well," Sara said, nodding.
"I see," the girl said. She bowed, and said, "I am Reimu Hakurei, shrine maiden of the Hakurei Shrine."
"I'm Sara Letrain from overseas," Sara said, bowing, "Nice making your acquaintance."
"Same," Reimu blurted, catching Sara off-guard, "How may I help you?"
"I'm looking for my brother," Sara said, "I came all the way from overseas to get him back. I know a youkai took him from his room and brought him here. She-"
"She was wearing a white and purple dress," Reimu blurted in a flat tone, "and she brought him into a purple gap, right?"
"Yeah," she said, "How did you know?"
Reimu sighed and crossed her arms. She said, "This isn't the first time this has happened. Your brother was spirited away by Yukari Yakumo, who has a long history of doing this. I'm sorry to say this, but I'm afraid your brother is going to be in Gensokyo for a very long time."
"Not if I can help it," Sara said, "I've been studying for years, and I'm more than ready to bring the fight to this Yukari Yakumo lady. I need to learn the lay of the land, learn how to fight her, and bring my brother home!"
"I'm afraid it's not that simple," she said, "I have fought Yukari more than once, and I can safely say she is one of the most dangerous youkai in Gensokyo, if not the single most. Don't think because you have looked up Yukari that you can safely fight her, let alone save your brother, assuming he's even alive. After all, outsiders don't exactly have a very long shelf life here." Reimu paced to the entrance where Sara came from and said, "One of my jobs is escorting outsiders back across the border. Children who have been spirited away by Yukari tend to never want to leave, so I specialize in lost hikers. As much as it pains me to say this, I'm afraid your best option is to return home."
Sara felt a knot in her chest at the very thought of turning back after coming all this way. She said, "I can't."
"I admire your tenacity," she said, "but it is far too dangerous here. Truth be told, you're the first person to have traveled this far for something like this, but unless you have a death wish, turn back now."
"I did my research," she said. She pointed at Reimu's stick and said, "That's a gohei, used in purification rituals and can be used against youkai, and I know you must have amulets. In theory, you can throw them and they'll home in on evil spirits. I also know beans work on a great number of demons. I'm no shrine maiden, but if I have to make my own equipment, I will: I am an engineer you know!"
"I get the point," Reimu said, "It's bad enough your brother is stuck here, and I don't want to endanger anyone else by letting more outsiders into Gensokyo." Reimu leaned in and said, "I won't tell you again: leave. It's for your own good."
Sara gave Reimu an annoyed look and said, "Fine. I guess I'll be leaving."
"Good," she said, "I'll escort you to the border."
"That won't be necessary," she said, walking to the back.
"I insist," Reimu said, following her, "There are fairies living on the border of Gensokyo and they love pranking visitors."
Reimu followed Sara back to the border, but when Sara crossed through, she didn't budge.
Reimu pointed out east with her wand and said, "If keep walking that way, you'll reach a city. They'll help you get back home."
"I know," Sara said, dropping her backpack. Reimu watched in confusion as Sara unpacked a small blue bag, unzipped it, and pulled out a tent.
"What are you doing?," Reimu asked.
"I'm setting up camp," Sara said.
"No you're not," Reimu yelled, "You're leaving."
Sara unfolded the lump of synthetic fabric that was her tent. "If I'm going to travel into Gensokyo," she said, "I need a home base outside of the border so the youkai won't get me."
"That youkai who took your brother can still breach this border," Reimu said.
Sara took the poles out of the bag. She said, "You can't scare me. Yukari hibernates in the winter. I specifically picked coming here in winter to ensure I wouldn't encounter her." She put the pole together, looked at Reimu, and said, "As I've said, I prepared for everything."
Sara took out another pole and put it together, and Reimu just watched, sighed, and looked around in the forest. She put her free hand to her head and said, "There's really nothing I can do to make you turn back, huh?"
Sara slid the pole through the holes on top of her tent and said, "Nope."
Sara took the other pole and crawled around to the other side of the tent to put the next pole in. Before she could slip it in, Reimu said, "You know, you're going to freeze to death out here."
Sara looked up and yelled, "I said I'm not turning back!"
"I know you're not," Reimu said, "but I have a storehouse with a spare bed."
Sara's work on the tent slowed to a stop, and she looked up at Reimu.
Reimu continued, "You can stay there in the meantime, but only if you promise to not go out into Gensokyo on your own. I'll look into getting the other incident resolvers to find your brother. Just be patient, and we'll find out what happened to him..."
Sara looked down at her unfurled tent, then back up at Reimu.
Reimu asked, "How does that sound?"
Sara smiled, grabbed the giant lump that was her semi-set-up tent, and said, "Sounds great. Thank you very much."
As they walked back through the border, Reimu said, "I hope you're still thanking me when you realize what you're getting yourself into."
The Hakurei Shrine storehouse was a mess of discarded newspapers, piled around a bed and a storage chest. Sara unpacked everything on top of the newspapers like makeshift shelves: piles of granola bars, water-cleaning tools, and several changes of clothes. She had her phone and a phone charger, but it was shut off: she had to save the batteries for the return home, and it's not like she had anywhere to plug it in. Sara wanted to go running off into Gensokyo, but this wasn't going to work: she had no weapons and no practical knowledge of what was out there. While she could bluff that maiden, this was no longer just theories and stories from a book: this was the real thing. This was a real fantasy world.
This is what I studied for, she kept thinking on that first restless night in the cold storehouse, I can handle this.
The next couple of days were uneventful: Reimu would knock on the storehouse every couple of hours and invite her into the shrine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sara was thankful for acquiring a taste for green tea (especially as strong as Reimu served it). The rest of it was mostly rice, noodles, and on special occasions, shrimp tempura. Sara suspected Reimu didn't eat much, and given how lonely and quiet it was out there in the middle of nowhere, it was a wonder where she got her food from.
"There is a human village not far from here," Reimu once told her, "but don't go there on your own: the trek there too dangerous."
"Do you think my brother could be there?," she asked.
Reimu said, "We'll figure that out later."
Occasionally, Sara would open the door to the storehouse and see what Reimu was up to, but it looked like she was never up to much: she'd sweep leaves off the front path of the shrine, talk to visitors, and sit on the front stoop. The most common visitor was what looked like a classic witch, only she looked to be Reimu's age. Sara just stayed back, watched for a bit, and returned inside.
To fill the uneventful days, Sara looked through the numerous newspapers filling the storehouse: mostly articles on the various happenings and battles accompanied by dazzling pictures of aerial battles.
"Tengu Army in standoff against new shrine on Youkai Mountain." The accompanying picture showed bird-like humanoids firing bullet-like winds from leaf fans, aimed at an army of fairies in green uniforms and helmets, shooting back with what looked like giant flowers.
"Battle Royale at Myouren Temple between Buddhist Youkai, Youkai Hunters, and Hermits." The accompanying picture showed Reimu, that witch, two other girls, and older women in fancier outfits back to back, all surrounded by a swirl of glowing bullets.
One article, however, caught Sara's eye without any well-framed battles.
"Yukari Yakumo, Netherworld Ghosts, Scarlet Devil Mansion, and local Youkai Hunters escape Lunar Army." A group surrounded a pool, holding wine glasses high, and part of that group was both Reimu and the woman who took Sara's brother, that snake-eyed blondie Yukari Yakumo. Reading the rest of the article, it turned out Reimu had actually worked with Yukari once before during another incident. Luckily, the article detailed that she had a rivalry with the residents of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, a group of rather eclectic vampires, so perhaps they could aid her in getting her brother back.
One morning, Reimu didn't show up, and there was the sound of low rumbling outside; like a firework display, or perhaps the outside of the rifle range Sara frequented.
Sara slid open the door and peered outside. The pops and booms were much much more audible, but Sara couldn't see anything until walking out in front of the shrine. There, she saw twisting, smoking trails of glowing shots flying in all directions and small figures chasing eachother across the clouds, and she froze, partly paralyzed by beauty, mostly paralyzed by fear. The number of projectiles was far, far larger than anything Sara could have ever anticipated for a magic battle: as if opposing firework companies were firing their grand finales at eachother at the same time, only there were more than fifty of them firing at once.
When Sara unfroze, she dashed away back to the storehouse and slammed the door: with an incident like this, the fairies by the border would most likely be restless, so it was a better idea to just hole up in the storehouse and hope the fight wouldn't come any closer.
In addition to worrying about herself, she kept praying, Please don't let my brother be in that mess...
Hours passed, and the booms and pops reduced to nothing. Sara stuck around in the storehouse, waiting for Reimu to hopefully return.
There was a knock later that night: Reimu opened the door and said, "Sorry I'm late. Dinner is ready."
Sara nodded and followed her into the shrine. From the outside, Sara heard laughing and talking.
Inside, one girl said, "I was this close from shooting her down, but then that last spell card got me."
Another asked, "Did you focus?"
The girl said, "Yeah."
Inside the shrine, a group of all myriad of girls were gathered around the table, drinking tea and having snacks. The witch Sara saw earlier said, "I noticed ya' weren't streamin': that can be a life-saver."
"That's the thing," the girl in the blue dress and green hair said, "I'm still getting the hang of streaming. I just improvise everything, really."
When they saw Reimu and Sara, everyone cheered and welcomed them in. Reimu said, "Sara, these are the youkai hunters and incident resolvers of Gensokyo. Everyone, this is Sara Letrain: she's staying with me for the time being until we find her brother."
They all waved and greeted her individually, all saying, "Welcome to Gensokyo," she sat down at the table, and they wondered where she came from, how she learned Japanese, does she know any magic, does she have any gadgets or gizmos from the outside world, and so on. They all had an infinite number of questions about the outside world, but they wouldn't really let Sara get many questions in for herself.
Then, after the time dinner was wrapping up, Sara asked, "What was that battle I saw earlier?"
The green-haired girl said, "Some youkai thieves were stealing food from the human village, so we all had to find the perpetrators."
One of the girls, some dark-haired girl in a suit a fedora, said, "And I swore we were gonna get away with it, but hey: we could've been stealing humans."
"Wait a minute," said Sara, "You're a youkai?"
"Yeah," said the dark-haired girl, nodding.
Reimu said, "Youkai tend to be more pacified post-incident, so no need to make a big deal out of it."
Sara couldn't help but stare back at the youkai with the strange eyes and sharp teeth staring back at her; she had barely noticed until it was pointed out to her. They had just essentially gone to war with this being, and now they were having a tea party with her.
Sara asked, "So you really treat these incidents like no big deal?"
The witch said, "It's a big deal, but not in the way you think it is. Personally, I just use it as an excuse to blow crap up." The others laughed, and Sara pouted.
She turned to Reimu and asked, "But what about my brother?"
Reimu said, "Your brother isn't a giant priority right now. Immediate incidents are more important than finding just one boy."
Sara screamed, "More important?!" Everyone's palling around ceased, and everyone stared at Sara. Sara continued, "Don't you think it's important if I have to travel halfway around the world to this place just to find him?"
The green-haired girl said, "Whoa. Mellow out."
One girl with pink hair and her right arm wrapped in bandages said, "He may be important to you, but don't you think it would be inconsiderate to force a task on others when they have little idea of who to look for and where?"
Sara looked around at everyone and asked, "Isn't somebody available? Can somebody please help me?"
Everyone was too nervous to say no to the rowdy outsider. They just looked at eachother, waiting for somebody to speak.
Reimu said, "Kasen is right: it would be too much to force this task on others without any idea of where to exactly start on your brother. We'll wait for the next incident, and hopefully we'll find your brother. Until then, all you can do is wait."
Sara couldn't get angry in the sight of all of these youkai hunters and accompanying youkai. She finished her meal, said her goodbyes, and then cussed in English on her way out of the shrine. She'd then go to the storehouse, cry herself to sleep, and then have nightmares about her missing brother.
After Sara left the shrine, one of the girls said, "Hmph. Typical outsider, expecting us to drop what we're doing and do what she says." Everyone murmured in agreement.
Everyone but the witch, who stared out the shrine entrance.