Yukari's 'few things' for their date with her had turned into a not-insignificant list of requirements. Reimu needed a set of outside world clothing. She needed to brief herself on common outside world terms. She needed to learn about a few outside world hobbies well enough to make small talk about them. She needed, basically, to be able to pass herself off as an outside world native if she got cornered in conversation for a few minutes.

She'd never seen Sanae so excited in her life.

The end result was a lesson covering far more than she'd ever wanted to know about some topics, and far less than she felt like she needed to fit in. Sanae had given her a purse, which held nothing but an old cell phone ("everybody will think you're a weirdo if you don't have one of these," she had said) and some odds and ends to pad it out. She'd spent two hours fishing clothes out of cardboard boxes before she'd found a set that fit Reimu and passed her own criteria for date-worthiness.

Now, after an hour of preparation, Reimu was almost ready. She was wearing her hair down. Without its usual ornaments to keep it in line, it had taken her half an hour of wetting it, brushing it, and re-wetting it before it had settled into something that didn't quite qualify as a frizzy mess. A dark red top, ruffled at the bottom and smelling lightly of mothballs. A white jacket, which Sanae had advised her to wear unbuttoned. Under Sanae's advice, she'd also opted for pants instead of a skirt, and had found a single pair of jeans that fit. And, finally, socks and a pair of sneakers.

None of the clothes felt quite right. Most of Sanae's newer outfits had been too big for her, so they'd had to dig back into some of her older things. Even then, there hadn't been many choices. Sanae had called the end result 'the casual look' with a nod of approval. Looking at herself in the mirror, Reimu wasn't sure if it worked or not. Either way, it was a bit too late to back out now. She'd just have to trust in Sanae's judgment and hope that Yukari wasn't too hard on her.

After resting the unfamiliar weight of the purse on her shoulder, Reimu stepped out into the main room. It was late morning, and Ran and Chen had already headed out for their daily activities. She mentally chastised herself for not thinking to ask Ran for advice before she'd left. Even if it was only a kinda-date, it still seemed like Ran should have something helpful to say. Oh well. Reimu had been dealing with Yukari's surprises ever since she'd become the shrine maiden, and she'd been dealing with them for a long time to come. She was just going to have to get used to it.

She had been waiting for ten minutes by the time Yukari stepped out of her room. Yukari's outfit was simpler, a silky dark magenta dress that was cinched at her waist with a belt. Her hair was down, but she'd done something to it to leave it shinier and filled with strategically-placed curls. She was wearing stockings and a pair of short black heels, and carrying a leather purse.

Reimu suddenly felt very... plain. She knew that it was going to be a long day as soon as she got flustered trying to come up with a suitable compliment. "Y-you look, um! You look nice...?"

"Thank you," Yukari said, and inspected Reimu's outfit in turn. "Hmm, you do too. The 'scruffy twenty-something NEET' look suits you."

Yukari's voice hinted that the comment was probably some kind of teasing joke, but Reimu couldn't make much sense out of it. "Thanks, I guess...?"

"You're welcome. Now then, are you ready to head out?"

"Sure," Reimu said, resisting the urge to fuss over her clothes one last time. "... how do we do this?"

"Gaps don't work well across the barrier," Yukari said. "We'll need to cross it directly. I'll show you the spot."

Without waiting, Yukari headed toward the door. Reimu hesitated. This was her last chance to admit that she wasn't ready, to stay here instead of diving into the unknown.

Instead, she stepped forward and followed Yukari to the edge of the yard.

Reimu stepped through the Hakurei Barrier, the boundary between fantasy and reality, the border containing everything that she'd ever known... and didn't feel much different, really. On the other side, it was the same sunny day that it had been in Gensokyo. The distant birdsongs sounded the same. Across a hundred meters of grassy hillside and trees, a house was standing. Apart from the electric lines and the road running past it, it wouldn't look out of place in Gensokyo.

Yukari was already walking across the field. "Please move quickly until we're across the road. It's best if nobody sees us coming from this direction."

"Um, okay." Reimu had already made up her mind to just not question any directions that Yukari gave her on the trip. At least, as far as interacting with the outside world went. With her hand on the strap of her purse to keep it from bouncing, she hurried after Yukari. "... aren't those shoes terrible for walking on the grass?"

"They are, yes. It's all for keeping up appearances. Everybody in the town thinks I'm an eccentric businesswoman with more money than sense. I prefer it that way." Once they were to the road, Yukari paused and glanced both ways. Not knowing the purpose of this ritual, Reimu followed suit.

Only after they crossed did Reimu realize that Yukari was heading toward the house. "... are we going inside?"

"Just opening it up to let it air out a little. It should be safe until we get back," Yukari said, as she pulled a set of keys out of a gap and pushed one into the lock. "The family has been on overseas business for a few years. I look after the place, and they give me a stipend and let me use their car. A mutually-beneficial situation, don't you think?"

"I... guess." Yukari pushed the door open, and Reimu was instantly struck by the smell of stale air. "How do you even know people out here?"

"It's... complicated," Yukari said, as she walked back across the lawn. Sitting in front of the house was a blue tarp, draped over something big and weighed down with rocks. She started moving the rocks aside, and Reimu stepped over to help. "The Hearn family is important to me. I try to stay in touch just to keep an eye on them. The housesitting money is just a bonus."

"Oh." Reimu slid the last rock from the tarp and took a step away. Yukari tugged it off to reveal the gleaming blue object beneath. Car. It was one of the handful of outside world objects that she could identify on sight, and Sanae had included them in her mini-lecture. She inspected the thing and ran through the list of terms that Sanae had drilled into her. Those are tires. That's the driver's side. That's the windshield. That's the... Her thoughts trailed off as Yukari opened the driver side door, and she fumbled with the handle of the other one until she managed to pry it open and slide into the seat. Even more than the house, the car smelled musty and unused. "You said you had business to take care of, right?"

"I need to stop by the post office and pick up some packages. Ran wants me to exchange some library books. I've been commissioned to buy a few things, and we can get in some personal shopping while we're taking care of those. After that, the rest of the day is ours to use as we see fit." Yukari pushed a key into the ignition and turned it; the engine hummed to life, and Reimu flinched in surprise at the sound. "Does that sound good?"

"Huh? Um, yeah, sure," Reimu said. It wasn't like she knew what else to do out here. She uneasily kept an eye on the spot on the dashboard where the noise seemed to be coming from. "... since when are you a youkai shopping service?"

"Since long before you were born," Yukari said. She pulled some kind of lever, grabbed the wheel—steering wheel, Reimu dutifully reminded herself—and the car began rolling backward.

Reimu had been anticipating that, but still found herself holding on to whatever was handy. "You... do know how to control this thing, right?"

"Hmm? Well, as a youkai, you don't need to be very concerned, anyway. This kind of injury would only put you out of commission for few days, tops."

"That's not funny," Reimu said, and tightened her grip on the seat. Yukari backed out onto the road. As the car started moving forward, Reimu tried to relax. At least now she could see which direction they were going. "... you still didn't explain the shopping thing, though."

"Are you sure you want the explanation? It's not very interesting."

"I need something to keep my mind off of this." Reimu looked out the window, and instantly regretted it. The roadside trees were barely five meters away, and moving very quickly. She'd thought that it would feel comparable to flying, but if she ever got this close to obstacles when she was flying this fast, it meant that she'd made a horrible mistake.

"Well, okay then. Where do you think the money in Gensokyo comes from?"

"I don't know. I find—er, used to find—some around the shrine sometimes."

"That's part of it. Anybody who comes into Gensokyo from the outside usually has some, too. Even if they're eaten by youkai... most youkai aren't so wasteful as to pass up free money. And where..." Yukari paused, as the car rolled to a stop at an intersection. Reimu breathed a sigh of relief, only to end up cringing when another car sped past perpendicular to them, mere meters ahead. "... does all the money go?"

"Huh? People spend it on things."

"Yes, but that only moves it from one person to another. People lose money occasionally, but not faster than it comes in. If we left it alone, the money would just keep piling up until it crushed us all. It would be very tragic."

Reimu rolled her eyes at the dramatic description, but thought she got the gist of it. She tried to focus on the dilemma to distract herself from the fact that the car was moving again. "So you have to spend money outside to get rid of it?"

"Essentially. Between money making its way across the barrier and the Scarlet Devil Mansion spending their reserves, we usually expect about eighty thousand yen to enter circulation in a month. It's not much, but it adds up over time. Ran has taught herself about this sort of thing, so she keeps track of Gensokyo's money supply. When it needs to be smaller, we accept money to buy things in the outside world."

"Um. Huh." Already, Reimu could feel the new math-inclined parts of her brain chewing on the concepts subconsciously. It was weird, the things that she found interesting now that math came naturally to her. "... she just taught herself that kind of thing?"

"It's what she enjoys doing. She's taught herself a few academic disciplines like that. She's also an accomplished novelist, an excellent koto player, and used to make pottery before the barrier went up. Like I said before, you'd be surprised what somebody can get up to in a few millennia."

"Huh..." The car hit a pothole. Reimu cringed, but death did not come. This time, at least. She needed more distractions. "W-what about you?"

"Me? Well, my last philosophical treatise was well-received by the other youkai sages. Yuyuko insists that I'm a good painter, but I have a long way to go. Hmm. I'm the shogi champion of Gensokyo, but I haven't had a chance to play Lady Yagokoro or Miko yet, so that could still change. And I can cook, of course."

Reimu smirked to herself. "Apart from the cooking, those sound like some old man's hobbies."

"Guilty as charged," Yukari said. "You should think about some new hobbies, yourself. You're going to get bored of sitting around drinking tea and playing with Chen sooner or later."

"I'm not really good at much..."

"You have centuries to practice. Some humans would kill to have the same opportunity. ... besides." Yukari looked away from the road for just a moment to shoot Reimu a playful glance. Reimu kept her eyes glued to the windshield, terrified that the car was going to veer out of control. "You're going to have to learn poetry or writing if you want to send me heartfelt love letters."

"I wouldn't hold your breath," Reimu said. "Keep your eyes on the road."

Around them, the trees and foothills were slowly thinning out, giving way to civilization. The buildings were more varied now. The scenery was a strange jumble, alien and unfamiliar things sitting right next to everyday items. A small building announced itself as Toriyama Bicycle Repair with a hand painted sign that wouldn't look out of place in the village. Pedestrians walked down the street in a mix of familiar and strange clothes. A brick building loomed on one corner, larger than anything in Gensokyo short of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. And everywhere, lights, signs, and wires.

"What do you think?" Yukari asked, once the buildings around them had grown thicker and more regular.

"It's... weird. It's not like I expected, I guess." Reimu wasn't sure what she had expected. All of Sanae's stories about the outside world were about machines to let humans fly, glowing boxes that let you watch plays from far away, buildings that were so tall that they touched the clouds, and sending encyclopedias to people over wires. Her surroundings were strange, but compared to things like that... they were a mundane kind of strangeness, at least. She wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

"This is a small town, all things considered," Yukari said, as if reading her thoughts. "It only has about five times as many people as the human village. We're a short drive from Tokyo or Nagoya, though. If you really want to see some new things..."

"This is plenty," Reimu said. She still hadn't let up her death grip on her seat. The surroundings outside still felt unreal. It was the same sensation she'd had when looking out her window, that first day in Yukari's house. Like the thin layer of glass was the only thing keeping her safe. If it cracked, she'd be sucked out into the strange surroundings, never to be seen again.

"This is our first stop." Yukari's voice snapped Reimu's attention back to the present, and she realized that they were pulling in alongside a building. Once the car was stopped, Yukari pulled the keys out and flipped them into her palm. "... is there anything you need to review before we get out?"

Get out. Reimu was going to have to walk in this weird place, and suddenly felt horribly unprepared. "What if somebody talks to me."

"I've seen you talk before, Reimu. Several times, actually. You'll be fine." Yukari reached over to give her hand a reassuring pat, then opened the door. "Now, come on. Every minute that we waste now is one less minute for our date~."

That wasn't quite the motivation that Reimu needed. The date was intimidating enough in its own right. But, she pulled on the handle and pushed her door open. After taking a moment to steady her nerves, Reimu slipped out, and took her first steps on concrete.