Whatever the story I had expected Reisen to tell me was, it was not the one she spent the next ten minutes recounting. But the gusto with which she spoke only served to hammer home the reality of her narrative.
True to the legend I had once heard in the outside world, Kaguya Houraisan had been born as part of the royal household that ruled the Moon. She had lived a life free of worry, every need handed to her on a plate, every want scoured from the farthest reaches of their realm and duly delivered to her doorstep. But such was the nature of Lunarians, who were cousins of the human race and thus shared their tendencies for both good and evil, that even one who was sheltered from the evils of the world inevitably sought to stir up some chaos of her own. Restless in her comfort, Princess Kaguya sought to extrapolate the extravagance in which she lived… by any means necessary.
"Milady, Eirin Yagokoro, was the most senior advisor to the Lunarian court, possessing knowledge far beyond that of any mortal – and even that of most immortals. In confidence, Kaguya beseeched her to create something that would prolong her utopian life: an elixir of immortality. Milady could not say no; she was duty-bound to help the Princess, even if she knew what consequences would soon follow."
The price of immortality proved to be steep, though Kaguya's own physical form suffered no lasting harm – quite the opposite, actually, as she was now eternally young, and eternally beautiful. But such experimentation went against the principles by which the Lunarians lived, and there was to be only one punishment for such transgression. Yet Kaguya's newfound immunity to death precluded her from suffering the prescribed sentence, and so instead of being executed, she was cast out from Lunarian society, doomed to live a solitary and humble life alone in exile on Earth.
She thought she might eke out a bare living in one way or the other, and whittle eternity away bit by bit, but fate had other plans for her. Word of her ethereal beauty spread amongst the land, and suitors from far and distant lands came seeking her hand in marriage. In order to repel them, she set them a series of tasks that she knew to be impossible, and eventually the number of suitors dwindled, leaving her at peace once again. But not for long.
One day, representatives from the Moon arrived at her earthly abode, telling her that she had been granted clemency for her crimes and was thus allowed – or rather, forced – to return. But Kaguya had grown fond of life on Earth, in all its filth and foulness; the Moon was a clean, pristine place, yet such overwhelming perfection was restrictive in its own way. With the help of Eirin, who happened to be one of the Lunarian emissaries sent to retrieve her, the two of them absconded, escaping deep into what was now known as the Bamboo Forest, the Forest of the Lost. Eirin herself partook of the elixir she had created, and joined Kaguya in immortality, both to atone for her sins and to look after her mistress for as long as Kaguya needed her to.
"And that's where I come in," said Reisen cheerily.
The somber air that had descended upon us was abruptly lifted. "What?"
"I am a Lunarian, after all, even though I am no longer of the Moon. There no longer was a place for me there, and so I came to Earth to seek refuge."
"What happened on the Moon?"
"The humans invaded us and claimed the Moon for themselves. Not to worry though, traveler," Reisen hurriedly added, "I do not bear any ill will towards you for that, and neither do milady or Princess Kaguya. Many of us simply felt it was no longer safe for us to remain, even if the barrier surrounding the Lunar Capital was still intact. It might only be a matter of time before we were discovered, so I and several of my companions traveled to Gensokyo via the same route that we're taking now. Thankfully, milady and the Princess understood our plight and were willing to take us in."
"You'll have to forgive me for saying this, but last I recalled, we had not been to the Moon in several decades," I said. "The manned missions came to an end in 1972. No humans have been back since."
"Yes, well, it has been several decades since I left." Reisen sighed wistfully. "If what you say is true, then perhaps we were too hasty in our retreat. Many of my compatriots would jump at a chance to return. But I do not regret the choice I made, for serving milady has given me more joy than I could ever hope to find back home. Earth, and Gensokyo in particular, is a beautiful place. It is dirty and contaminated in parts, but I have come to realize that you must first know hell before you can know heaven. And by my estimation, there is no more of a paradisal realm than Gensokyo, a world trapped in stasis, untouched by decay and rot."
"I recall Eirin once saying you were a slave there, on the Moon," Miko said. "Is this true?"
"I… yes, it is." Reisen's ears drooped slightly. "Lunarian society is advanced in many ways, but it is also antiquated in other respects. Traveler, is it true that slavery no longer exists in the outside world? I have heard that this is the case, but I have never had the chance to confirm its veracity."
"Essentially, yes," I replied. "Though serfdom takes many forms, some more subtle than others. Many of us willingly sacrifice our freedom for the sake of material and personal security."
"That is… odd, in some ways," Reimu commented. "Though I am happy with my ascetic lifestyle, I cannot help but wonder on occasion what it would be like to relieve myself of my duties. Is a life of liberty not worth its weight in gold to those who have tasted it?"
"It depends on how you want to live." I shrugged. "Beyond the Barrier, we have grown accustomed to sacrifice in order to maintain the complex and multi-faceted structures within which we live. We have deemed such an arrangement necessary, and thus it is so."
"That's not so different from what we have here." Marisa, who had been unusually subdued up until now, spoke up. "The residents of Gensokyo squabble a lot with each other, but in the end we know that there are certain principles that we must all subscribe to in order for Gensokyo to survive. The same should be the case in the outside world; otherwise, human civilization would have long since collapsed."
"Marisa is right," Miko chirped. "We may have magic in place of technology, and we may wield different modes of power, but the collective humanity within us is transcendent and unchanging. Gods are made in the image of men, and youkai have historically been considered to be products of the human imagination made manifest. It is perhaps the reason why no one entity has attempted to rule Gensokyo or make the realm their own – aside from the potentially momentous damage any civil wars would cause to the land. Of course, you have to take the good with the bad, and we are just as susceptible to malevolence just as we are to benevolence."
"I suppose you are all correct." Reisen looked up. "Watch your step. The terrain can be… unpredictable."
I had been so preoccupied with listening to Reisen that I had almost forgotten to take proper stock of my surroundings. We appeared to be in a realm that somewhat resembled outer space, an endless black void pocked with tiny twinkling pinpoints of light. A network of long, wispy lines had been drawn across the stars to serve as pathways, one of which upon which we now walked. The aetheric roads were dyed in hues of red and indigo, with hints of purple here and there. It was for the better that I had not paid close attention to the strange landscape – a slight feeling of vertigo began to creep in as I noticed the apparent frailty of the pathways, which billowed and stirred with every step, with nothing but a long, torturous fall towards the abyss beneath.
My knees numbed slightly, and I willed them to keep moving. The others seemed unperturbed by the eeriness of this world, though I noticed that Miko pulling her dress closer to herself from time to time. Warm blood might not course through her veins, but evidently the cold of outer space affected her just as it did any other being. I silently wondered if her cold-blooded physical form meant that, like a reptile, she could not regulate her body temperature on her own.
We reached an intersection of two perpendicular lines, and Reisen confidently marched off to the right. It remained a mystery as to how it was that she knew where to go, seeing how homogeneous the environment looked, but I surmised that she must have used this passageway often enough to burn the map into her memory.
A pinprick appeared in the distance. Given that there were so many stars, the appearance of an extra dot didn't seem so extraordinary. Yet whilst the other pinpoints remained static, this one seemed to be growing and taking shape, albeit at something of a snail's pace.
As had been the case so many times previously, an encounter with another unspeakably powerful entity loomed. Not that she exactly looked the part – the figure was dressed in what looked like an extravagant nightgown with little pink cotton balls stitched all over its surface, and her head was crowned by a flowing red nightcap that curled all the way down to her knees. Her navy-blue hair and eyes only made the vibrant cast of her clothes stand out even further. Behind her, a white tail swished from left to right in eager anticipation.
"It's a pleasure to meet y'all again," she said once we had come to a stop in front of each other. The casual tone of her speech caught me off guard – I had very much gotten used to the polite and formal vernacular used by most of Gensokyo's denizens, though Marisa was a notable exception to that rule. "Welcome to my home. You're all quite familiar to me, save for the newcomer. I suppose an introduction's in order." She grasped my hand and bowed, before giving me a quick smile and a wink.
"I'm the ruler of the Dream World; some call me the Ruler of Dreams. The name's Doremy Sweet. Pleased to make your acquaintance."