Sprinting across the bridge in hot pursuit of the shadow, I reached for my gun in hopes that I could at least slow it down, before realizing that I could hurt Marisa in doing so. As I thought of another way, the shadow disappeared into the castle, with two more spawning in front of the entrance.

"Blast," I grunted. "I need to dispatch these quick." Before, this would have been highly trivial, but with an untrained Persona and a weak shadow as the only ones at my disposal, I knew a high degree of skill would be necessary if I were to come out on top. Moving quickly, I dodged a sword slash from one of them before vaulting on top of it and ripping off its mask, causing it to turn into a Bicorn; the other shadow then turned itself into another Jack 'o Lantern. I quickly felled the Bicorn with Zio, leaving only the Jack 'o Lantern to deal with.

"Let's get this over with," I said coldly, "if you don't mind, I'm in a rush."

"Don't kill me again, ho!" it pleaded.

"...again?"

"Yeah, I remember you from before!" it said, "you're that violent guy who came with that shrine maiden to drive Queen Yuyuko outta the castle, ho! She's a ghost, she'll… well, die? Can ghosts die?"

"They can if they get in my way," I snarked. "Now, are you going to let me through or what?"

"Of course not!" it shouted. "They'll lock me in the freezer again if I do that!"

"Sounds like an abusive workplace," I remarked. "Have you considered changing jobs? Surely the distortion of a Palace isn't the best place to exist." I had no idea why I was giving this shadow any mercy; if this were two weeks ago, I would have just shot it and moved on. But it was as though something inside of me was keeping me from doing that…

"Y'know, they all say I'm weak, just some drunk with a lantern, ho. I cast one Agi and that's it. I wish I could get stronger, ho!"

I smirked. "Then why don't you come with me? I'll give you all the sake you want, and I'm sure even a Jack O' Lantern like you could benefit from sharing my power."

"Why would I work for someone who- ...wait a second, I've heard that name somewhere… aha! I just realized! I don't work here! I'm just a soul who got trapped and brainwashed here! I'm Jack O' Lantern! I'll live in your mask now, ho!" And with that, another Persona got sucked into my mask. Satisfied, I moved on with my mission.

...it really would have been faster to just kill it, I thought.

Inside the castle was a maze of wooden hallways and doors, most of them patrolled by shadows who were now surely on high alert. I had to move quickly but silently; I was on my own, and one mistake would lead to me being surrounded. Searching each room would take a long time, and I didn't have any time whatsoever.

Instead, after a few minutes, I found a couple shadows talking with each other about something. I crouched behind a wall and listened in:

"So they took that intruder down into the dungeon, huh?"

"Yeah, I just got called there. I'll be right back. Shout if you see something."

"Got it. I'm gonna go patrol the courtyard now." The shadow turned away and left, leaving the other one to head down to the dungeon. I closely followed behind, jumping from wall to wall and from one piece of furniture to another, until it opened a locked door leading underground. I quickly dove in just before the door shut, the shadow not noticing a thing.

Predictably, there were several guards in the dungeon, so after looking around I found some crates leading up to the rafters; I climbed them and continued my quiet pursuit from above. After a few minutes I came to a cellblock, with one of the cell doors illuminated; that had to be the one, I realized. I waited for the guard to pass by, before blindsiding it and revealing it to be a mere Slime. This one would be a cinch, I thought. Nobody would miss a Slime.

"...me not some Slime! Me guard of… wait, me not guard here! Me from Sea of Souls! Me Slime. Nice to meet you, suit guy!"

...was what I thought, so why did I let it join me and not dispatch it when I had the chance? Was I getting soft already? That was two times in one infiltration, costing precious seconds to save Marisa… seconds which were spent sparing another soul…

I shook my head. Now was not the time for errant thoughts. I marched down the hallway toward the cell. Looking around, though, I noticed something interesting: these cells didn't have prisoners, but food. Lots of food. In fact, if I didn't know better, I would have thought this place was the cellar with how much food and even wine was kept in the cells. Guess Yuyuko really liked her food… guess her sin was Gluttony, I reckoned.

As I arrived at the lighted cell, I found Marisa sitting on a stool in her cell, her dress partially torn in places and bruises on her arms and face. She had her arms crossed and was staring at the floor, before she heard my footsteps and looked up.

"Took 'ya long enough to get here," she barked. "'Ya see how much they roughed me up draggin' me down here?! They just tossed me in here like some ragdoll and said somethin' about comin' back down to execute me! I couldn't even use magic to fight back, but at least I was strong enough to knock one of 'em down before they threw me down and kicked me in the ribs."

"Let's just say I had a warm welcome as well," I snarked.

"Geh," she grunted. "Never woulda thought that I'd be like some fairy tale princess waitin' for prince charming to come down and bust me outta here." She looked around. "Hey, see if you can find a key, will 'ya? You got me into this mess, so you'd better get me out of it!"

A key, hm? I looked around, and saw the key just on the wall to my right, dangling in sight right in front of the inmates and taunting them with the freedom they would never receive. I realized now that Marisa was entirely at my mercy. And it would be easy enough to unlock the cell, guide her through the castle and back out the entrance to safety.

But then, another thought crossed my mind.

"...why should I?" I said.

Marisa's eyes widened, and she shouted angrily, "WHADDYA MEAN 'WHY SHOULD I?' YER STUPID ASS IS THE REASON I'M IN THIS CELL! NOW GET ME OUTTA THIS THING BEFORE I REACH THROUGH THE BARS AND STRANGLE YA!"

I stepped back out of reach and smiled. "But it was your own insistence that ultimately led you here. Tell me, are you always this reckless?"

"YOU'RE THE ONE THAT BROUGHT ME HERE, DOOFUS!"

"True, true, but I don't deny the wishes of a lady," I said. "It's just as I deduced earlier. You throw yourself into any situation and do as you please, without care or regard for the wishes of others. Why is this, I ask you?"

Marisa banged the bars. "WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING RIGHT NOW? WHY WON'T YOU JUST FUCKING LET ME OUT?!"

"Why do you rush so recklessly into these situations?" I pressed, a little more forcefully.

Marisa hung her head a little. "Okay, look, I just - I just want to prove that I'm strong to everyone here! Gensokyo's not nice to humans, okay?"

I chuckled. "So… you want to prove yourself?" I taunted. "An ordinary little girl who ran away from home to practice magic and survive here… hmhmhm, I really should pity you, here at the mercy of a man you barely know in a place where we could both die at any moment." I widened my eyes, and gave a psychotic look and lisp. "But look where that's gotten you. A little girl such as yourself should never have become involved in matters far beyond anything you can comprehend or handle. You're doomed to die here, all because of your drive to be someone you aren't."

"YOU… BASTARD!" Marisa yelled tearfully. "WHY ARE YOU… YOU…"


"AND YOU WILL NEVER BECOME A MAGICIAN! I WON'T ALLOW IT!"

Memories flashed into my head. Memories of my father tossing all of my books, research notes and experiments into the fire, all while yelling and pointing at me about how all I would ever be was some ordinary girl doing what her father told her to and what society in this small-ass village expected of me. It was then that I knew I had to get out. Get out and be free to do what I damn well wanted, away from my bastard dad and this village. So that night, after he locked me in my room, I gathered my stuff, jumped out the window and never looked back. I swore that day to become the strongest magician Gensokyo had ever known, and stand side-by-side with the giants here.

...I should have known that would lead me here to my end. I guess, in the end, this idiot was right. I was useless, shoulda just stayed in the village and been a good girl… What good were my efforts? Why did I even try?

"My, my, what a miserable little pile of despair and self-loathing you've become."

I jolted around, and saw… me. Well, something like me, but there was like this dark aura around its feet. Then I noticed the space around me was all black, except for her.

"Who the hell are 'ya?" I exclaimed.

"Hmhmhmhm… I see. Of course you wouldn't recognize me, someone as recklessly gung-ho and uncaring about your own well-being as you." She did a curtsey. "I am you."

"...me?! Bullshit! Only I'm me!"

"The other you," it said. "The you whom you deny and bury within the deepest recesses of your heart, the ego who is a reflection of your depression, fear and jealousy of the people and forces around you, who keep beating you in fights no matter how hard you try your best to improve and become stronger." She shrugged. "So, really? Why do you try? Why do you continue to do what you do, even if it could mean death and despite the continued dismissal of your magical colleagues?"

I collapsed to the ground, and gripped my face. "Why… do… I…"

"Is it because you refuse to be held down, chained by the human heart and body that the forces that be burdened you with, the desire to break free of that chain and become a powerful witch? To show the world the tenacity stored inside your heart, the strength, will and determination to stick it to the doubters and show those who don't even try to improve what you're capable of? Because you're a challenge seeker and blood knight who seeks to dominate this realm and crush evil into tiny, whimpering pieces within the iron grip of your hands?"

I got up, faced my shadow, and glared.

"...you're right. I've been flyin' blind and doubting myself for far too long. I WILL show them that I can be a true magician and stick true to my HURK" I felt a throbbing pain in my head and throughout my body as the world flashed purple and distorted around me.

"Let us form a pact, a contract never to lie to yourself ever again."

I gritted my teeth, staggered around and clenched my head as the words echoed in my head, and the sheer weight of the things I kept down came back to me with a vengeance.

"I am thou. Thou art I. The time has come. The time to unleash your fury, and show the world the untamed feral reactor that is your heart!"


As Marisa got back up, a mask with crescent moon designs flared upon Marisa's face. With her right hand, she started peeling it away, barely repressing a scream until ripping it off, spilling blood everywhere and screaming at the ceiling as she became engulfed by a pillar of light and flames, blowing the bars off the cell that held her.

I smirked. It was just as I had intended.

As the light show died down, a ghostly figure in a witch's robe, green hair and a long, crescent-tipped staff swept around Marisa, who was now garbed in a dark dress, with black pants and shoes, a holster with a gun, black gloves with retractable blades on them, a vested, belted jacket, black-and-white checkered scarf, and a black wide-brimmed hat with silver bullets affixed to it.

Once she finished huffing and puffing, she looked up with a wicked smirk, looking at her hands and feeling the power coursing through her.

"This power…" she mused. "So, this is what I had bottled up inside me!"

At that moment, two shadow guards came rushing down the hallway. "The prisoner broke out? We must stop her!" They then turned into a pair of Silkies.

"Nah, I don't think so," Marisa quipped, tipping her hat. "Imma flay you idiots apart! Ain't that right, Mima?" She turned to her Persona, who nodded in affirmation. Marisa then glared at the Silkies with a wicked grin. One of them began to attack, before Marisa dashed up, bared her metal claws and slashed into it like a savage cat, before rolling back and whipping out her revolver and shooting it, knocking it down.

"Hell yeah, this is what I'm talkin' about! Ya like that, bitch?!" The other Silky tried to run away, but Marisa wasn't having any of it. "Oh no you don't," she hissed. "Mima, got somethin' to fuck 'em up?"

"My power is yours," her Persona said. "Unleash the solar flare within you!"

"Solar flare, huh…" Marisa focused. Being a practiced magician, I assumed she would have no trouble figuring out what spells she could cast. And soon, she let out her hand, and her Persona charged up a teal energy ball with her crescent staff. "Frei!" The Frei attack, crackling with radioactive energy, shot through the air and struck the other Silky, knocking it down too.

We surrounded our downed foes and drew our weapons. "Seems the tables have turned, blockheads!" Marisa sneered. She looked up at me. "We got 'em down, should we finish them off?"

"If we do, we must do it with style," I said.

"Whaddya mean?" Marisa asked.

I grinned evilly. "Why, we take out our blades and slash, slice and dice the enemies with no mercy!" Just the thought of leading my own All-Out Attack made me giddy like a schoolgirl. Perhaps that little bit of bloodlust in my heart was reawakening? Either way, we wasted no time tearing into our prey like vicious animals, until only shadow blood, dropped yen and a Life Stone remained, which Marisa of course pocketed.

"Jesus Christ," Marisa exclaimed after collecting the loot. "I've mowed down droves of fairies before, but I've never done anything that brutal. That wasn't knockin' them out, that was straight-up murder!"

"This is the power of our Personas," I told her. "All of the shadows here will try to kill us, and our Personas give us the ability to fight back. Why not relish in the power granted to you by taking an oath to uphold your Justice and make the Palace ruler pay for her sins?"

Marisa looked at her clawed hands again. "Well, yeah, but…"

We heard footsteps running down the hallway. More shadow guards, no doubt.

"We need to get out of here." I looked around and saw an escape route. "This way," I directed.

We clambered back up to the rafters, just as some more guards came in. As we moved about, we could hear them say things like "the intruders were here" and "the prisoner escaped. We need to find them." The entire dungeon was now on high alert, making leaving through the normal exit impossible. Luckily, though, I found a vent, which I motioned Marisa to before crawling inside.

...

Punching out the vent cover, I jumped down into the hallway below, with Marisa rolling out moments later.

"Got real tight in there," she said, dusting herself off. "I've broken into tons of places, but I've never had to do a vent escape. Claustrophobic nightmare right there, I tell ya. Certainly doesn't help that I had to stare at your ass the whole time."

I sighed. "Please don't stare at my ass."

Marisa blushed and stuttered, "er-I mean, I didn't mean it like that." She looked away from me, still red as a beet, trying to calm down in vain. "...dummy."

I sighed and shrugged. "We need to keep moving. Shadows could appear at any moment." I looked around the corner down yet another long hallway with several doors leading to different rooms. "There's quite a lot of these. Getting our bearings will be difficult."

"Can't we find a window or something?" Marisa suggested. "Y'know, so we can jump out. Maybe a statue or something too, so we can have a reference point."

I looked at her. "How good are you at breaking into places?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it 'breakin' in,' but I'm a pro at gettin' into places like this. Not used to havin' to break out, though."

"Don't you just blow everything up?" I asked. "You boasted about doing that."

"Yeah, but doin' heists without havin' all the guards gettin' on your ass requires bein' sneaky and not makin' a fuss 'till you have to fight." She scanned the hallway, before slowly making her way down while hunched over. I of course followed closely behind, keeping an eye and an ear out for approaching shadows. Once we made it to the end, we looked one way and saw a dead end with a vase, while the other way led down another hallway.

"Wonder if there's loot in here," Marisa wondered aloud as she inspected it, before seeing that it was empty. "Pretty vase though. Wish we had a way to store it… I carry around this little stone that turns into a bottomless sack that I store stuff I find inside, but I don't know if it would work here."

"Why not check?" I asked her. "Just because you can't cast magic - other than Metaverse magic - doesn't mean your artifacts don't work."

"Eh, good point." Marisa then fumbled around in her satchel, when the vase suddenly jumped out of her hands.

"What the-?!" She jumped back, and the vase fell to the floor, quivering and rattling before dissolving into blackness and reforming as an ape-like sheep.

"Seems I've caught a pair of greedy thieves," it smirked. "I won't allow your invasion of Queen Yuyuko's sanctuary to go any further!" It then proceeded to lunge at us, which we sidestepped.

"Shoot, it's the Tao Tie!" Marisa exclaimed. "Well, prolly not the real one, but this dude seems like a real threat!"

"The what now?" I asked her.

"Ya seriously don't know this one? Chinese monster of gluttony, one of the Four Evils of the World. C'mon, don't they teach 'ya that in history class?!"

"I know what that is, of course, I've just never seen this particular shadow," I answered. "So I don't know what it will do."

"Well then, let's just kill it." Marisa pulled out her gun and fired, only for the bullet to bounce off the shadow harmlessly.

"What?! It's immune to bullets?!"

"Some shadows are," I explained. "But we might still be able to slash it apart. Let's not waste our energy using magic if we don't have to."

Marisa extended her claws. "Well then, if that's the case, time to throw down!" I myself drew my knife, and both of us dogpiled onto the shadow, who kicked, bit and punched us as we went at it. I sustained cuts and bruises, and so did Marisa, but eventually we were able to subdue it.

"Got anything to say before we send ya to hell?" Marisa threatened, looming over the shadow.

It smiled. "You sure are a savage fighter on top of being greedy. Do you mug people on a daily basis?"

"I've beat up youkai with my bare fists, while they're fighting at full power," Marisa boasted. "I've fought a birdbrain god and won, too. You ain't nothing."

The shadow just stared at her. Then, it said, "I see you don't have the power to wield multiple masks, multiple faces, but… perhaps there's another way I could come with you? We seem pretty similar."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

The shadow got up. "I just remembered something, looking at you. I don't work here. I'm a shadow born from the hearts of thieves like you. I'd like to bestow my power unto you so that I may always be at your side." The shadow then turned into light, and shot into an object on Marisa's person.

"What the heck was that?" She rustled around in her bag, and pulled out a peculiar object: a raygun-shaped tool with a green bandit bag on the back of it, emblazoned with the Tao Tie symbol.

Marisa inspected the tool, then aimed it at another nearby treasure, which caused the device to suck up the treasure and store it in the bag.

"I see…" Marisa mused. "Somehow, that thing fused with my bag stone to form this doohickey and make it work here in the Palace."

"Quite interesting," I noted.

Marisa slumped. "But man, I got beat up pretty good, both fightin' that thing and back when they dragged me to the cell, and you don't look so hot either. If only there was a way for us to quickly patch ourselves up…"

At that moment, Marisa's mask turned into her Persona, who cast a spell I recognized as Dia. Energy sparkled around Marisa, and the effect was immediate: her scrapes were healed, her bruises went away, and her vitality shot back up.

"Whoa… did I just… heal myself?" Marisa was amazed: now it was as though she had never been injured. She then looked at me, and cast the Dia spell causing my own injuries to go away.

Recalling her Persona, Marisa was still awestruck. "Wow, I got healin' spells…" She grinned. "Guess that makes me extra important since I'm the medic of this operation!"

"Indeed," I said. "We should get moving. We can talk more once we're in a safe spot."

We made our way down another set of hallways, and could hear the footsteps of approaching shadow guards coming right at us.

"Dammit," I thought. I looked for somewhere to hide, but none of the rooms seemed to be good choices… until I noticed a strange feeling coming from one of them.

"In here," I instructed. I ducked inside, and Marisa followed.

Shutting the door behind me, we came to a room which resembled a nondescript storage room filled with produce, and a table in the center.

"What's so special 'bout this place?" Marisa asked, before the cognition briefly flashed to turn into a regular bedroom.

"Whoa, what the hell!"

I looked around the room some more. "Yes, this place is a good hiding spot for us."

Marisa turned around. "But ain't there guards outside waitin' to jump us?! Can't they just barge in?"

I smiled. "No need to worry. They can't notice this place."

"...wha? But, ain't this room totally visible?"

"Let me explain." I fixed my tie. "A Palace ruler's distortion doesn't necessarily cover every single corner of the location it is projected over. There are weak spots where the distortion is unstable, where the person's perceived control over the location is weakest. As an example, let's say you had a Palace, which was projected over a city you are the mayor of. You see yourself as having wide-reaching control of the place, but there may be places such as underground cellars out of the public eye which you are simply not aware of. Alternatively, there may be people opposed to your corrupt rule, causing your control over them to be weaker. These all weaken distortions and create spots within Palaces called 'Safe Rooms,' and it is these Safe Rooms that our infiltrations are based around. Shadows are directly tied to the distortion, so to them this Safe Room is effectively invisible."

Marisa thought for a minute, then said, "so basically, if someone's control ain't absolute, then these Safe Rooms appear?"

"That is correct."

Marisa looked around the room once more, and as the room flickered again, her eyes widened slightly.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well… I feel like I've been in this room before…" she shook her head. "Doesn't matter right now. We might be safe here, but I bet those guys are swarmin' just outside that door. So how do we get out?"

I smirked. "Watch this!"

In an instant, we were back at the Palace entrance.

"Wait, what?! Did we just warp here or somethin'?!"

"I just exploited a gap in cognition to warp us from one weak spot to another."

"Okay, who are you, Yukari?! And what was with that voice just now?!"

I cleared my throat after doing my best Sans impression. "We should get going. To leave a Palace, we just walk away from the entrance to it a long distance, and eventually it will fade."

"Whatever you say," Marisa said.


"So you've never been to a bar before?"

"I'm too young. The legal drinking age is-"

"No one cares here, have a glass of Sake!"

It was a while later, and the two of us were at a tavern called Geidontei. A short girl with a whale cap brought me and Marisa drinks, and we were seated at the bar surrounded mostly by older gentlemen; despite this, Marisa claimed this was one of her favorite hangout spots.

I looked around. "To think that they let minors into a bar…"

"They don't serve little kids, obviously, but if you're adult-looking enough, they'll let you in. There are no IDs in Gensokyo, so what's anyone gonna do?"

I poked a piece of fried fish and ate it. "I suppose so."

We were still for a moment, before Marisa slumped and moped. "So… about what you said when I was in that prison cell… did you really mean it?"

"I was merely trying to awaken your inner emotions so that you could awaken your Persona. It was the only way at that moment that you would be able to do so. Sparking that will to accept your flaws and rage against the oppressors in your life is how Personas are awakened."

Marisa hit the table and shouted at me, "so 'ya did that just to get me riled up so I would awaken that thing?"

"Precisely," I said, staying calm.

Marisa got back down. "You… you…" She slumped, and chuckled. "Heh. 'Ya really are a weird one."

"Am I?" I asked her.

"Yeah… y'know, after I awakened my Persona, I felt… refreshed. Like, the weight of a whole buncha crap in my life that I'd been trying to ignore was just lifted right offa my shoulders."

"Your shadow represents all of your repressed feelings and emotions. Accepting them as a part of you has a tremendous effect on your psyche. It certainly did for me when I first awakened mine."

Marisa reached into her bag, and pulled out the capture gun. "So… that thing really did fuse with my bag artifact. Can't wait to try it out in this world too." She looked at me. "By the way… it said somethin' about me not bein' able to 'wield multiple masks.' What did it mean by that?"

"It must have meant the Wild Card," I told her. "You may have noticed me using more than just the one Persona?"

"...yeah, now that you mention it, besides that secret agent you also called out a Slime and a Jack-'o-Lantern lookin' thing."

"That's the Wild Card. It's an extremely rare power, one which I happen to possess, and which the leader of the team I was on also had. Normally, there's only one heart per person, so you can only have a single Persona. A Wild Card, however, can wield multiple Personas within themselves, taking on stray shadows formed by the public consciousness as a part of their personality. Only those who possess the Fool Card have this power."

"Fool Card… 'ya mean like the Fool Arcana?"

"Yes. Everyone in the world, and all shadows, represent one of the twenty-two major Arcana. Fools, like myself, can form bonds with others, and those bonds strengthen the hearts of both of us."

"Heh, I thought witches like me were the only ones who cared about Tarot cards, but you sound like you know more about them than I do!" Marisa took another drink. "Bonds, huh? So, like friends?"

"I… you could say that."

"I'm good at makin' friends, just never had any guy friends before so… eh, forgive me if I mess up." She blushed a little bit. "A-and I don't mean it like that!"

I chuckled. "Sure. But I do ask one thing of you. Would you accompany me and Reimu in investigating that Palace? You already have a Persona, so…"

"Well, it's an incident, right?" Marisa grinned. "I told 'ya I always go with Reimu to solve incidents! And think of all the loot we could plunder! Of course I'll do it! In return, I'll brew up some potions from my mushrooms I think will be helpful for our mission. I'll bring some coffee with me too, we'll prolly need it, solvin' incidents is tiring work."

"Hmhmhm… well, alright." I shook her hand, and thus sealed my deal with her.

I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast acquired a new vow.

It shall become the wings of rebellion that breaketh thy chains of captivity.

With the birth of the Magician Persona, I have obtained the winds of blessing that shall lead to freedom and new power…

After dinner, we made a promise to meet back at the Shrine tomorrow. Marisa took off on her broom, and I walked back home. I stayed up for about an hour cleaning up the shop before heading to bed.


It was quiet after Goro and Marisa left. Nothing to do except pray to the kami of the shrine, feed the fairies, brush my teeth and head to bed.

...what Goro was saying about shadows and Personas earlier played out through my head. About shadows in that other world, representing our repressed thoughts and emotions. About distorted desires.

Being a shrine maiden was very tough work, and solving incidents took a lot of my energy. Sure, I was known for being almost unbeatable, and able to make friends with everyone. But it all came at the cost of having any free time whatsoever, since I spent almost all of it either training, praying or cleaning.

Part of me still wished my mother was still alive. I wasn't even meant to take up the duty of Shrine Maiden until I was eighteen, but that fateful thunderstorm changed everything. I was grieving at her grave the day the scarlet mist filled the sky, and Marisa came up to me, yelling about that mansion at the far side of the Misty Lake. My life since then was nothing but unending incidents and organizing parties. I just wished I could have some sort of break, some way to end my ceaseless days alone here in this shrine… someone to share the duty with.

I started talking absentmindedly. "Shadows… Personas… spirits… Ethos…"

The world flashed purple as I lay in my futon. "Ghah!" I shot up, and looked around the room. Nothing seemed amiss, but my gut told me that something wasn't quite right…

I got up. I looked around for the mysterious key, and found it shining. Had I activated it somehow?...

"Balance. It's something you lack, you lazy shrine maiden. Shirking your duties so you can sneak in those little moments of rest."

I jumped around and was met with… me. Well, a figure that looked like me, but surrounded by shadow and with yellow eyes.

"Who are you?!" I pointed at her. "Are you that kitsune again? Or maybe a tanuki?!"

She shook her head. "I am not one of those. I am you. I am your feelings of frustration of the imbalance of your life given form. The duty of the Hakurei Shrine Maiden is placed upon the shoulders of all daughters of the Shrine Maidens here. It is enshrined in Gensokyo's doctrine, penned by the Sages themselves. You, however, fail to live up to that duty. You let youkai into the shrine, just so you can have friends, because you can't talk to humans, and humans won't talk to you. No wonder you don't have any worshippers. You go around solving incidents, and yet you fail to see the incident lodged within your very heart."

"...incident…"

"I'm right in front of your eyes, aren't I? What you seek is an escape out of this endless loop of overwork and loneliness, one which the life of the Shrine Maiden doesn't offer… what if I told you it didn't have to be like this?"

"...what do you mean?"

"What if I told you the situation was artificial, inflicted upon you by the distorted desires of people living here in this valley? Their hearts trapped in a prison of sin, twisting their spirits and making them inflict misery upon the people who live here? These desires can't be erased by physical fighting. Now, I appear before you, offering you your chance to heal these wounded hearts. I have one condition: will you face your fears and uncertainty? That man has a power which will allow your heart to rise up out of the abyss and stand tall against the filth of this world."

I thought about this. I had made a deal with him. I promised him help in destroying these Palaces. And yet my powers didn't work in that world, so I was basically dead weight without a power like his.

...could he really help me? Could getting an Outside perspective really help sort out the issues in my life?

...yes, yes it could. I had to be honest with myself: I couldn't solve everything on my own. Sometimes, I had to suck it up and seek help, both strength and… moral support.

I looked up at my shadow. "Yes. Come to me."

My shadow held out her arms, and smiled. "Very well. The power to mediate the disputes of gods is what all shrine maidens hold. I am thou, thou art I…"