Gensokyo my Beloved

by Fonzi the Survivalist

It's late spring, year 125 in Gensokyo when a mass spiriting-away of outsiders takes place. The Hakurei shrine maiden thinks this is just a minor incident, easy to resolve. But is it...?

60. Groundbreaking Event

Chapter 60 – Groundbreaking Event

The month of Nagatsuki began in Gensokyo, showing little difference in weather or temperature from its predecessor. Likewise, a morning at the Scarlet Devil Mansion looked always the same, whether it was a start of a new year at the beginning of spring, or the middle of autumn. Thick white mist rising from the lake enshrouded the whole island and the manor that was occupying its major part.

It was a quiet day at the mansion, especially the library, as its almost permanent occupant was still gone, doing important field research in Kazemura. Only the squads of fairy maids that were chaotically pretending to be cleaning the place up were breaking the otherwise perfect silence in the darkened interior of Gensokyo's largest library.

Fairies never were good at doing anything besides having fun, playing pranks and accidentally braking or dropping things, and yet, the mistress of the mansion still kept them employed so that at least she'd have a feeling like she had a lot of subordinates. The one doing most of the cleaning, cooking and other chores, was the chief maid – a human who received a new name from her mistress, Sakuya Izayoi. Every day was full of hard work for this silver-haired maid, but she had one very helpful assistant that helped her do all her tasks and allowed her to still find enough time to relax. The silver pocket watch, which enabled her to stop and resume time for as long as it was necessary. Some tasks could not be carried out while the time was at a complete standstill, such as cooking, but Sakuya was able to decide which objects or which areas in the mansion were "frozen" and which were not. Right now, it was once again her turn to check on the library and optionally scold a few fairy maids for not doing their work properly before proceeding with thoroughly cleaning everything up by herself. What would normally take at least half a day, took no time at all. But just because there were fewer residents at the mansion, it didn't mean there was less work. Even without Patchouli, the library still needed to be maintained. It was quite easily the largest room of the mansion, so it also required the most effort to keep clean.

"Ah… finally." the head maid exhaled and arched her back while stretching her arms to get some relief. "The hardest part of the cleaning duty is done."

When she took a while to rest up and to bask in the feeling of a job well done, she left the library and made haste to check on her mistress again. It was more or less a part of her routine to regularly check on Remilia in case she'd need something from her ever-loyal elegant servant. Especially during these days, when Remilia needed care the most.

Sakuya finally reached the door to her mistress's bedroom. She resumed the flow of time, and after a while of hesitation, she knocked on the door and spoke up: "Remilia-sama? Is everything alright?"

The reason why she asked that was the fact that the vampire was still in pitiable condition after the battle that she fought in Kazemura while enduring heavy rainfall. Vampires couldn't stand running water, but that did not matter to the older of the Scarlet sisters when one of her best friends was in grave danger. As a result, she could barely walk on her own, hold her cutlery firmly, or stay awake for longer than just a few hours a day.

"Sakuya…" a muffled moan came from behind the closed door. "Please, come in."

The maid obeyed and entered the room that very few people have ever been to. It was a typical aristocratic bedroom filled with luxury furniture. One wide bed with an ornamented canopy was placed opposite the door and a single child-size coffin without a lid rested on its sheets. Sakuya was already so used to this rather morbid sight, that she considered it a norm. As she closed the door behind her and slowly approached the bed, a slim pale hand crawled out of the coffin and grabbed the top of its right wall. A loud yawn in a childish voice resonated from inside the wooden vessel before a small figure clad in pinkish dress slowly rose up to a sitting position.

"Is there anything you need of me, my lady?" Sakuya asked, casting a concerned glance at the blue-haired vampire girl staring back at her with a pair of scarlet eyes.

Remilia yawned once more, spreading both her arms and wings. "Good morning, Sakuya." she greeted the maid belatedly.

"Good morning, mistress. The weather is nice as usual today. If you'd like, I can set up your table on the terrace."

"At least…" Remilia murmured, still apparently sleepy and dizzy, "Patchouli will have a nice weather while she's working over there…"

"It seems that way. But more importantly, are you feeling a little better today?"

"Better? How can you expect me to suddenly get better?" Remilia grumbled as she was clumsily trying to get out of her sleeping coffin. "There is something I'd like you to do for me."

"Of course." Sakuya immediately hopped to the side of her bed and helped her mistress climb out of the wooden container.

"Thank you, but that is not what I wanted."

"Anything you wish, my lady, I shall do my best to fulfill."

The vampire girl took a moment to gather her bearing before she returned her attention to the maid. "If the news from Kazemura is true, Patchouli is not going to return here anytime soon." the Scarlet Devil preambled. Sakuya knew how much she was always worried about her friend, but sometimes, she thought that her mistress was being a little more than just paranoid.

"The library does feel a bit lonely without her," Sakuya noted with a spacey glance in her eyes, "but we must give her as much time as it takes. The fairy… I mean the spirit incident," she quickly corrected herself, "can't be taken lightly."

"I know it sounds uncouth and selfish of me, but I miss her. Even Flandre is starting to grow more restless with each passing day without someone to study with her and divert her attention from destroying things in the basement."

Sakuya had a lot of sympathy for her mistress's concerns, as Flandre has kept her awake during the recent nights with disturbing sounds coming from her basement far more often than usual. "But asking Patchouli-sama to return at this time would be unreasonable." said Sakuya's rationale.

"I would love to play with Flan," Remilia sighed tiredly, "but in this condition… I sicken myself at how pathetic I am right now."

"Mistress, please…" Sakuya gazed at her almost pleadingly, "if you don't feel rested enough you shouldn't try to stand."

Ignoring her maid's well-meant advice completely, Remilia continued in her speech. "I'm sure…" she paused herself for a while, "Patchouli would like to come back too."

"Remilia-sama, rather than Patchouli-sama, I believe you should be more concerned about your own well-being. Instead of bluntly disobeying my advice, why don't you for once allow me to call Yagokoro-sensei to have a look at you? This has been going on for longer than just a week or two."

"No way in Nine Hells am I going to let that smug-ass know-it-all set foot inside my mansion and let her do check ups on me!" Remilia stood up from the bed, her fists clenched tightly in agitation.

"Mistress, you are acting against all reason." Sakuya had to step up on her persuasion tactics if she was ever hoping to get her mistress's attention. And if it meant questioning and directly opposing her ideas, then so be it.

Remilia chuckled weakly, which Sakuya took as a good sign that Remilia has calmed down a bit. "This is why I'm the mistress of this mansion and why you are a maid. Taught to obey and trained to serve, but thinking has never been your strong suit, has it, Sakuya?"

"I am sorry, my lady, for being rude, but your resisting attitude and your Scarlet pride are about the only things standing between you and your good health, so forgive me for not being in perfect agreement with you there."

"But perhaps that's what I like so much about you." the vampire changed her tone to a darker and more serious one. "You are not afraid to talk back to me. Not only that takes guts, but also shows me that you genuinely care…"

"Of course I'd care!" Sakuya put her hand over her chest. "Do you think it pleases me to see you like that for over a month, knowing that I can do something to help, but you'd never agree with?"

"It's useless, even if you called her." the Scarlet Devil sighed and slowly shuffled her feet towards the bedroom door. Sakuya stood there like in a daze, unable to make out whether Remilia wished for a supporting hand or not. With her grimly pale hand on the door handle, Remilia cast her glance to the side, making a direct eye contact with Sakuya.

"There is only one thing that can help me in my current predicament. Even you should know at least that much."

"Then… Then let me provide…"

"NO!" Remilia angrily cut her off before Sakuya could even formulate her thought. She opened the bedroom door and using the handle for support, she slowly walked out of the room with Sakuya in tandem.

"I need you to be in top form and battle-ready at all times. We cannot be sure when Kazemura will become a battlefield again. I cannot be with Patchouli, but you can."

"And leave you alone? Like this?" the maid arched her eyebrow questioningly.

"You are right. This isn't really a good idea either. But I have solved this dilemma."

Sakuya curiously tilted her head, wondering about the solution that her mistress has come up with.

"Please take me to my study, Sakuya." the vampire demanded.

"At once, my lady."

The maid gently took Remilia's hand into hers, snapped her fingers and they were both suddenly standing inside a small study, which Remilia rarely used.

"Thanks… Now please make some light breakfast and come back in about ten minutes."

Reluctantly, the time-controlling maid bowed, and despite her concerns, left Remilia alone in her room and hurried to prepare the breakfast.

When the maid seemingly disappeared in thin air, Remilia walked up to her desk, opened the top drawer and took out a sheet of paper, an envelope, an ink flask and a quill. She gazed into the ceiling while humming thoughtfully before putting her first words on the paper, but she quickly nodded as an idea came to her and started writing.

---

Ten minutes later, Sakuya suddenly appeared by her side with a serving tray in hand. "Your breakfast is ready, Remilia-sama. I also made your favorite red tea."

"Thank you." the vampire replied as she folded the letter into the envelope. She dripped some hot wax from the candle on the table onto the envelope, and out of another drawer she took a seal, bearing the insignia of the House Scarlet. She pressed the seal over the molten wax on the envelope and waited for a few seconds. After removing her hand, there was an imprinted symbol of two roses with intertwined stems on the letter's seal. With a look as serious as ever, she turned to Sakuya and requested: "Now, Sakuya, I want you to call Koakuma."

"What…?" the sudden request took the silver-haired servant slightly off-guard, but she obediently bowed, regardless. "As you say, mistress."

Two pops later, Sakuya disappeared and reappeared in the study with a bemused demon girl with dark red hair, clad in a simple black dress and a white shirt.

"Ah, Koa-chan." Remilia spoke up to her before Koakuma even processed the fact that she was no longer standing in the library. "There you are…"

"Wh-what happened? Huh? Remilia-sama? I didn't do anything bad, I swear!"

It was apparent that the young youkai didn't even know why she was summoned by the owner of the mansion, but Remilia didn't scold her. Instead, she took the sealed envelope from her desk and passed it to the little devil.

"You do miss Patchouli too, don't you?" she asked out of the blue.

"Huh? Patchouli-sama? I… I was told to watch over the library until she returns. Is she coming back soon?"

"I'm afraid not." Remilia swept away Koakuma's hopes. "However," she added, "I have some good news for you."

The crimson-haired succubus silently blinked at her, not even daring to guess what news Remilia had in mind.

"You… are going to see Patchouli."

"Excuse me?"

"The letter you're holding in your hand." Remilia specified and began to slowly savor the breakfast that Sakuya prepared, "I want you to deliver it to Patchouli. Personally."

Koakuma could feel her heartbeat increase in tempo as she heard what Remilia requested of her.

"But… but… That's not what Patchouli-sama wanted me to do."

"Patchouli needs you out there more than here in the library. Just do as I ask and stay with her. Sakuya can take care of the library just fine."

"I… understand." the little devil stuttered out as she nodded.

"You have never been to Kazemura before, have you?"

"No, but… I am bound to Patchouli-sama by a contract. I can track her down no matter where she is."

"So that's the solution to your dilemma." Sakuya smirked understandingly at both Koakuma and Remilia.

"Indeed. With that said, you may depart immediately." Remilia sent her off.

Without delay, Koakuma bowed to the mistress of the mansion, walked up to the window of the study and opened it. As cold morning breeze flowed into the room, Koakuma flapped her bat-like wings and took into the air, silently vanishing in the thick mist.

Sakuya watched the swirling milky vapors for a while before she realized that she was starting to feel a little cold and closed the window.

"Now that one problem has been dealt with, it's about time to think of a solution for your health condition."

"Sakuya…" Remilia addressed her as she took a sip of red tea. "You have already started working on it, even when you weren't quite aware of it."

Sakuya's facial expression was now like a mirror to Koakuma's from a while ago – baffled and questioning. "Would you please care to elaborate?"

"The visit from the Hakurei shrine maiden we've had recently… You do remember that, don't you?"

"Reimu? What about her?"

"She asked something from you, but you had a disagreement, so she resorted to force, but lost to you fair and square."

"Until you summoned me and told me to comply with her demands." Sakuya recalled the recent event. "So… was that all just a…?"

"Ufufufu~!" for the first time in a long while, Remilia giggled in her usual, mischievous chuckle, like she always did when scheming something. "So you see now… that I take every opportunity to reap some benefit."

"But waiting another month? Are you sure?"

"One must be patient for such an ingenious plan to succeed." the vampire smiled smugly and had another mouthful of tea.

"Ingenious?" Sakuya asked with doubt lingering in her voice. "What will you do when the shrine maiden discovers this?"

"That is of no consequence. I will already be at my full strength by that time. I don't care how she reacts. I want to solve the spirit incident too, but like this, I cannot even look at myself in the mirror. And not just because I wouldn't see any reflection…"

---

While Remilia explained the details of her plan to Sakuya, several tens of kilometers away from the mansion, in a valley fortified by steep mountains covered with pine trees, the core crew of Kazemura's expedition team was in for an unexpected visit.

"They recovered another stone tablet. It looks like it fell from one of those six obelisks." a short girl with short purple hair and a flower-shaped hair decoration popped her head into Patchouli's tent just at the moment when the sorceress was studying astronomic charts, which she considered highly relevant to the very purpose of the uncovered temple. Still panting from running, the young girl excitedly awaited Patchouli's reaction.

Patchouli quickly snapped out of her deep thoughts and focused all her attention at the barer of the news.

"Akyuu-san? Did you say another one? Perhaps this one might help us fill in some blanks in the whole puzzle." she rose from her chair, put on her violet mob cap with a crescent moon ornament and proceeded towards the tent's exit.

Akyuu, the young chronicler, was so excited about this find that she almost forgot to move aside so that Patchouli could leave the tent.

"Umm, excuse me."

"Oh, sorry, sorry." the chronicler quickly apologized and reversed out of Patchouli's way.

The blinding light of the morning sun temporarily robbed the librarian of her sight until her pupils adjusted. Before her, a vast pit crawling with dozens of youkai prospectors spanned for over a hundred meters in both width and length, all encircled by a symbolic, but very important shimenawa barrier. The pit's depth was now an impressive 10 meters and that still wasn't enough to uncover the access to the temple itself. Huge mounds of excess soil from the excavation were now forming a sort of barricade around the western part of the village. But now the human and youkai diggers in the quarry had to deal with a much harder task than removing the soft and supple soil. The bottom of the whole pit was covered in a layer of volcanic rock. For over thirty days, the workers have been tirelessly trying to breach the rock in order to gain access to the temple, but they have counted more broken pickaxes than centimeters of rock removed. That, however, didn't stop them from trying.

As Patchouli's eyes grew accustomed to the sunlight, she noticed two pairs of yama-bito prospectors carrying a heavy-looking rectangular stone slab from the dig site to the provisory crane, so it could be analyzed by the archeological team.

"This one looks bigger than the previous ones." Akyuu commented as she watched.

"It must have come from the base of one of those obelisks then." Patchouli deduced. "Hey! Careful while loading it onto the crane!" she shouted at the four slab carriers, but her voice was too weak to be heard across such a distance.

And while the workers were tying the tablet to the crane, Patchouli shot a sideways glance at Akyuu and asked: "By the way, wasn't Keine scheduled to arrive with someone to assist us today?"

"That's right." the 16 year old girl confirmed. "They should be here around noon." Her happy smile revealed that she was looking forward to their arrival.

"Heave-ho!" the voices of human and youkai laborers shouted in unison as they were pulling the rope of the crane's hoist in strokes to lift the heavy load and transport it safely to the hands of researchers.

"You seem to know this person who's going to help us decipher these glyphs." Patchouli still didn't let her scanning eyes off the chronicler.

"You could say that, ehehe~!" she giggled mischievously. Patchouli's stare was making her a little nervous.

"Well, not that it's any of my business, as long as we can move for…"

A sudden loud snap interrupted Patchouli's last word. A sound not dissimilar to a cracking tree branch was followed by frightened gasps and shouts of the quarry workers and concluded with a thunderous crash. Even Patchouli and Akyuu could feel the ground slightly shaking under their feet.

"...ward." Patchouli finished her word as she shifted her attention to the source of the noise.

"W-what did just happen?!" Akyuu instinctively grabbed onto Patchouli's gown. The mere thought of what could have happened was too scary for the librarian to even say it out loud.

She slowly detached the frightened chronicler from her clothing and activated her levitation spell.

"Patchouli-san?"

The sorceress hovered over to the edge of the pit. The missing crane arm was the first bad omen that her violet eyes registered. Looking down at the bottom, she found out where the crane arm went and what caused the small tremor.

"Is everyone alright down there~?" she called at the group of workers who have formed a small half-circle around the crane's wreck. They only lifted their shocked gazes at her, but provided no answer.

When Patchouli analyzed the crash site, it didn't appear that anyone got hurt. And what surprised her even more was the state of the stone slab.

"Oh, my… It's still intact. I guess when it survived the fall from that obelisk, it has to be quite durable."

"We're sorry about that, Patchouli-san." one of the workers responsible for the transport of archeological artifacts bowed apologetically. "The men said it wasn't too heavy for them to carry, but that crane was not strong enough to hold it."

"Fortunately, the only thing broken is the crane." Patchouli summed up with a relieved expression.

"I'll have the workers construct a stronger crane. In the meantime, we'll carry the tablet over to your tent manually via the access ramps. This will take a while, so please be patient."

"Don't worry about that. Just try to increase the safety of the workers a little. We're already busy enough with digging this pit. We don't need to dig graves too…"

"I'll try Patchouli-san." the yama-bito foreman bent his back once more and proceeded with issuing orders to all nearby quarry workers.

Having a large burden fall off from Patchouli's heart, she decided to float back up to her tent and probably have that breakfast that she skipped, because she was too immersed in her research. She slowly moved upwards, leaving the workers deal with the wreckage, and just as soon as she made it to the surface level, something large, black, white and red flitted before her eyes. It was so sudden that a collision was inevitable.

"Mukyu!"

"Uwaaa~!" the object that made contact with Patchouli let out a cry like a young girl and made the librarian quickly lose her altitude. Just a few meters before Patchouli was about to descend to the quarry pit's bottom, her fall decelerated and stopped. With the sound of her heartbeat resonating in her eardrums, the elemental wizard slowly opened her eyes and sighted a face she would not expect to see even in a crazy dream.

"K-Koakuma~?!"

"Patchouli-sama~!" the devil girl holding her tightly brightened up as she realized who she just hit and subsequently rescued. "I found you~!"

"What? When? How? Why?" Patchouli didn't even know what to ask first.

"I'm happy to see you too, Patchouli-sama~!" Koakuma cheerfully flapped the small pair of bat wings growing out of the sides of her head.

"It's not like I'm not glad to see you, but… what are you doing here? Did something happen at the mansion?"

Koakuma figured that before answering all of Patchouli's questions, it would first be a good idea to find some solid ground to stand on. Still clinging onto her mistress, she floated upwards and landed at the edge of the quarry pit where Patchouli originally planned to settle down, if it hadn't been for the surprise encounter.

After a safe landing, Koakuma drew a letter out of her pocket and handed it to her. Patchouli wordlessly took the envelope bearing a familiar seal. Unable to hold back her curiosity any longer, she tore open the envelope and unfolded the letter. Turning her back at the sun, she skimmed across its lines.

Dear Patchouli,

I hope Koakuma made it safely to Kazemura and managed to find you and deliver this letter to you. While it saddens me that your work won't allow you to return back anytime soon, I am glad that you are putting your best efforts into resolving the spirit incident and finally have the chance to see the world beyond the walls of your... I mean my library. Did you get a little tan on that pale skin of yours? I bet it's now a bit darker than mine.

Joking aside, I think you're probably wondering why Koakuma has suddenly showed up and delivered this message to you. First and foremost, sending a fairy maid to the source of vengeful spirits that have been possessing fairies is not a good idea. Secondly, it is because I cannot shake my worries about you while you're in that dangerous place, even when I trust your ability to look after yourself. Since I cannot be with you due to my current condition, I decided to send Koa-chan to keep you company and deliver you my best wishes. Please don't send her back and treat her like you would treat me. And don't blame yourself for what happened to me. I will get well soon so we can be together again. Until then, good luck with your research. Do your best, but don't push yourself too hard. Sakuya is taking good care of me, so let Koakuma look after you. Flandre is obviously getting bored quickly when you're not here. We are all looking forward to your return.

P.S. I miss those "mukyuus" of yours…

From your best friend

Remilia

A torrent of emotions has stormed across Patchouli's heart as she finished reading this short letter. In the corners of her eyes, a pair of colorless pearls appeared and glittered in the sun.

"Patchouli-san, are you alright?" Akyuu, who saw Patchouli's collision with the devil girl, trotted up to her as soon as she realized that she was once again standing on the surface level.

The librarian quickly wiped her tears with the sleeve of her gown and nodded in reply. "Yes… I'm okay."

"That's good to hear… Is that a letter?" Akyuu curiously tilted her head when she saw the folded piece of paper in Patchouli's hand.

Patchouli just closed her eyes and held the letter up to her chest, as if it was her most treasured object and smiled faintly. "Silly Remi…" she whispered.

Akyuu was too perplexed for words, as her only reaction was a blank stare with her little mouth ajar.

Trying to hold back her tears from overflowing, Patchouli took a deep breath and shifted her face to Koakuma, who was just as Akyuu, silently watching her with a puzzled expression.

"Koakuma." she addressed her familiar.

"Yes, Patchouli-sama?" the devil asked nervously.

"Welcome to the team."

Those words coupled with Patchouli's happy smile were more than enough to start a strong reaction inside the crimson-haired youkai's heart.

"R-really? I can stay with you? YAAAAAAY~!" Koakuma threw her arms around Patchouli and embraced her tightly. The usually unemotional youkai librarian of the Scarlet Devil Mansion now found it extremely difficult to defend herself from the urge to reciprocate the embrace, and so she did it…

Almost half a minute has passed before the two of them separated. And even if Akyuu didn't quite understand the situation, a smile adorned her face. Happiness was probably contagious.

"It was from Remilia-san, wasn't it?" Akyuu referred to the letter she saw in Patchouli's hand.

After a simple nod, Patchouli began explaining the situation to her teammate.

"I see, so she sent you your devil familiar to watch over you… She is nicer than I thought. Or at least nicer than what I wrote about her."

"She's the best friend I could ever hope to have."

"I'm glad for you, Patchouli-san."

"But no doubt you heard, Remilia is not doing well. Even a month after she was subjected to running water, she still hasn't regained her health. I'm starting to question what she is yet waiting for…"

"Waiting for?" Akyuu didn't follow Patchouli's words.

"I'm not sure myself, but I've already seen her once in a similar state before we moved to Gensokyo. Back then she recovered in a mere day; so naturally, I'm getting suspicious… and worried."

"Did she take some cure or something?"

"A cure?" Patchouli chuckled at the chronicler's silly question. "I thought you were more knowledgeable about youkai such as vampires. They don't need to take medicine. Even on the brink of their death, they can recover back to normal. And all they need for that is…"

---

"Reimu… Reimu! Can you hear me?" a woman's voice resonated in Reimu's dream. It was a bleak dream with Reimu standing in a place covered in fog so dense that she couldn't see her own hand if she stretched it out in front of her. The voice she heard sounded so close, yet so distant, and so terribly familiar, that it made her stir about in her futon.

"W-who's there?!" she shouted into the mist, even though she could guess the answer.

"Reimu…" the voice called her name again, sounding more clearly this time. "Listen. I don't have much time to talk. You should seal the gateway when you get the chance."

"Gateway? What are you talking about? Where are you?" Reimu tried chasing after the voice, but no matter how far she ran, she couldn't find anyone in the hellishly thick gray fog.

"Don't worry your pretty head about me. Just do as I ask… I'm sorry…. couldn't…. with you…" the voice suddenly became distorted by a sound that resembled the hissing of sea waves hitting the shore. Although there was no sea in Gensokyo, Reimu recalled hearing a similar sound when she landed on the Moon with Remilia's divine-guided and Hakkero propelled 3-stage rocket about 3 years ago. The Moon had seas, just like Earth, but unlike its older blue sister, the lunar seas were completely devoid of all life. However, the sound of their waves remained in Reimu's memories, which were now refreshed by the sound that was trying to silence the unseen messenger from her dream.

"Hey~! What's going on?!" Reimu tried to yell, but even her own voice was barely audible in the gradually intensifying hissing disturbance.

"Reimu!" the voice called after the shrine maiden once more, but its every following word was drowned out in the artificial white noise. It didn't sound like a rhythmical sound of sea waves anymore. It became continuous and unbearable. Reimu screamed, but she was mute. The tormenting hissing made her want to cover her ears. She wanted to get out… to wake up. The last thing she could remember was reaching her arm into the fog, hopelessly trying to touch the person who spoke to her…

She opened her eyes. She was lying on her back in her shrine's living quarters, in her yin-yang patterned futon, drenched in her own sweat, with her right arm reaching for something invisible above her. Her pulse was racing and her breathing was heavy, like after running hours on end. Still unsure whether she was still dreaming or already snapped back to reality, only one word, one name immediately came into her mind and out of her lips.

"Yukari…"

The shrine maiden reached for the medallion made of silver and gold, which she now wore on her neck and didn't put it away even when she slept of bathed. For a while she just stared at the amulet, thinking about her dream and the words she heard in hope of understanding their meaning and in attempt not to forget them. The voice unmistakably belonged to Yukari Yakumo, but what was it about?

"Did she say something about some gateway?" Reimu contemplated aloud while playing with the medallion in her palm. Ignoring the dream as a mere coincidence caused by her longing to see the youkai again was out of question for the dark-haired maiden. Perhaps if the dream was about Marisa or about any other person she knew, it could pass for an ordinary dream, but not with Yukari. Her boundary manipulation enabled her to enter other people's dreams in order to communicate with them, and dreams weren't the only things she could enter. The fact that she appeared in Reimu's recent dream was not coincidental and neither was the message she meant to convey. It was the first sign of Yukari after 10 long months, and while still questionable, Reimu refused to take it lightly.

"Seal the gateway… when I get the chance…" she whispered to herself. "What gateway? To the outside world? My… shrine?" the more she thought about it, the less sense it made to her.

However, even without understanding Yukari's extra-sensory message, Reimu was determined to figure out the reason for her disappearance and do whatever it takes to see her again. Even when the dream was more or less nightmarish, it filled Reimu's heart with hope. A spiritual boost that she needed so much to keep trying her best.

"Yukari. I will absolutely, ABSOLUTELY find you, wherever you are!" she declared while clutching onto the bimetallic amulet on her neck.

As she was putting on her daily red and white outfit, her mind was still focused on a part of her foggy dream. The part where Yukari's voice became distorted by the hissing…

"Was she apologizing? For what? Causing an incident? Or something else…?" she started to have doubts now. For so long she was convinced that Yukari was the one truly responsible for the outbreak of vengeful spirits and the mass spiriting away of outsiders, but now her hunch was telling a different story.

Finally, after tying up her red hair ribbon and putting on her decorative hair tubes on her side locks, she took all the necessary instruments that her job required. A gohei, a pair of sacred yin-yang orbs, a stack of blessed charms and a set of Spell Cards. Not caring about tidying her room up or even eating breakfast, she left her shrine, plotting her course for the antique shop, Kourindou.

---

At the same time, in the Human Village, a certain duo of outsiders was making preparations for the difficult journey that awaited them today. Or perhaps it was a certain trio?

"Heeey~! Wait up~!" a girl's call could be heard from the opposite side of the marketplace, which was already bustling with activity since morning.

Two young men, one of them tall and long-haired; the other one shorter with more robust build, turned their heads around and witnessed a young female hastily slaloming through the crowd of villagers.

"Is that Midori?" Soudai asked his taller friend who had a better view of the situation, but even he wasn't quite certain, as he suggested by a shrugging gesture.

"I said wait up, you two~!" the girl's voice called out again, apparently getting closer.

"Yup, I think it's her." Kyouichi commented, even though he still couldn't see her well.

Finally, the young short-haired girl emerged from the crowd and stopped before them.

"Phew." she exhaled as she wiped her forehead. "I was worried I'd be too late to catch you…"

"Hi, Midori." Soudai greeted her informally. "Did you want something from us? We were just about to head off to Kourindou."

"What do you mean, "did I want something from you"? I'm going there with you, of course!"

"Uhh, no, you're not." Kyouichi disagreed. "This isn't a sightseeing tour. And as much as I'd like to stay positive, we'll be exposed to mortal danger for the better part of our journey."

"But… Reimu is going to escort you, right?"

"We're not talking about youkai this time." Soudai reminded her.

"Indeed." Kyouichi seconded. "We'll be carrying a load of explosives that, if mishandled, well… you know what could happen. There really isn't any reason for you to come with us and risk your life."

"And is there a reason for you to do it?!" When Midori saw that her tactic to join her friends was being steamrolled by their arguments, she wanted to stop them from going.

"Why yes, we've already given our word to Reimu, so it would be stupid not to go now."

"I'd say it's more stupid to go there and risk your lives for her."

"If that's the case, then why do you want to go with us so badly?" Soudai's question effectively cornered Midori.

"That's… because…" she bit her tongue before confessing her intention to them. Even when she considered herself as their close friend, her pride prevented her from revealing the truth.

"That's a very valid reason there, Midori," Kyouichi started joking, "but I'm afraid we still won't let you come with us."

"We'll see about that!" declared the temperamental young girl and pointed her index finger at Kyouichi.

His reaction to that was a nonchalant shrug before showing his back to her and walking on towards the western gate with Soudai.

Midori angrily gritted her teeth and stubbornly followed them. The two young men pretended they didn't hear her hastened footsteps tailing them and just kept going. Midori followed, but only until her two friends have reached the gate, and the pair of guards checked their papers and let them through. Against all reason, Midori tried to hurry after them, but the militiamen stood in her way and refused to let her through without proper authorization.

"Heeey~! You can't just leave me behind!" she called after Soudai and Kyouichi.

Turning around, they could see she wasn't going to follow them any further. Her face was filled with anger and sadness, which bruised Kyouichi's heart, but he knew that staying in the village was the best thing for Midori in this situation.

"I'm sorry, Midori…" he whispered an apology which could not be heard, and with the same feeling of regret, he turned away and nodded to Soudai. "Alright, let's get this over with."

"I'm both hesitant and impatient to go…" Soudai expressed his strange feeling from the journey ahead, but walked on with the same brisk tempo as his younger friend.

"Damn!" Midori uttered in frustration as she watched her friends leaving the village and heading down the western road. She was still trying to come up with a plan to sneak out of the village and follow them, but not even she liked her own ideas. Kicking a small stone on the ground to relieve her frustration didn't make her feel much better. She wanted to go with them, but it's not like the guards would let her, even if Kyouichi and Soudai would agree with her.

She cast a longing stare at the distant hills on the east, where she estimated the Hakurei Shrine to be standing, and wished with all her heart that she could be there. And her reason? A little selfish, she figured the more she thought about it. But still, she was determined to go the distance… Once Midori set her mind onto something, she more often than not achieved her goal. Perhaps this simply wasn't the right time for her to act. And with that thought, which gave her at least some solace, she retraced her steps back to the village center. She decided to pleasantly waste her time with her favorite activity – browsing through the wares in all shops in the village.

---

Kyouichi and soudai didn't delay themselves on the farm for too long. They borrowed the hand cart, which they always used to make their delivery runs, and off they went to the antique shop called Kourindou. The road from the village to the forest was long, but at least the two outsiders had their cart empty, so their walk was a little easier and faster as opposed to a regular delivery. They didn't encounter anyone on the road, and they could only hope it would remain that way for the remainder of their journey.

When they finally arrived, it was just about noon. An old thermometer hanging outside on one of Kourindou's windows showed that the temperature has climbed up to nearly 30 degrees Celsius. But even without the thermometer, the outsiders knew it was scorching hot today. The backs of their kimonos were soaked with sweat, and the longer and harder part of the journey was just ahead of them.

"Hello?" Soudai called as soon as he and Kyouichi entered the shop.

"Ah, there they are." Marisa Kirisame cast her glance at the two outsiders who just showed up.

The shop's owner was casually sitting at the counter, and opposite of him, Marisa and Reimu were sitting on borrowed chairs and eating something that looked like instant ramen.

"Just in time." muttered the shrine maiden while loudly slurping the content of her plastic cup. "Have you brought a cart with you?"

"We have." Soudai replied and pointed his thumb backwards over his shoulder. "It's parked right outside."

"Good. Then you can start loading the clay." Reimu waved her hand, like a queen telling her servants that they can get to work.

The outsiders grimaced sourly at each other. They thought they could get at least a short rest after their trip to Kourindou, but it seemed that Reimu and Marisa didn't want to waste any time.

"So, where is it?" Kyouichi asked Rinnosuke.

The shopkeeper stood up from his chair. "Follow me."

He led them to the back of his shop, which, apart from storing excess supplies, served as his living quarters. There, he wordlessly guided them to the pile of metal crates neatly stacked in a pyramid-shaped pile.

"Is that everything?" Kyouichi tentatively asked when he saw the crate pile.

"Yes, that's all of them."

"And the detonators?"

"I've put them all in a separate crate, so the transport would be as safe as possible. I even removed the batteries on the detonators." the shopkeeper told the outsiders about all the safety measures he took beforehand.

Shrugging their shoulders, the two outsiders started loading their cart crate by crate. The total weight of the dangerous load was roughly equal to the weight of the supplies they usually delivered from the farms to Kourindou.

And while they were loading the explosives, Reimu and Marisa were watching them from the comfort of their chairs.

"That's a lot of boom clay, ze…" stated the witch as she came up with a slang name for the plastic explosive. "What would happen if it all exploded at once?"

Just her words alone made Kyouichi's hands shaky and his forehead sweatier than during hard field work.

"That's the last thing we want to happen, Marisa."

"I know. I'm just curious, that's all…" she flashed her teeth in a sheepish grin.

"Well…" Kyouichi tried to think of some easy-to-understand comparison. "If all of that stuff went off… It would detonate with the force of 0.00002 microYuukas…"

"Whoa!" the amazed magician exclaimed.

"Whoa, indeed…" the outsider affirmed.

Reimu, acting as indifferent as ever, just shrugged. "Yuuka's not that strong. I beat her several times before…"

"Maybe, but her raw power is pretty damn impressive. Besides, can you defeat an explosion in a Spell Card duel? Unlike the youkai you've dueled, if something would go wrong, the clay would not warn you that it's about to explode."

"If it's really as stable as these two gentlemen told me," Rinnosuke gestured at the outsiders, "then I believe the precautions I made will ensure your safety and prevent any unwanted explosions from happening. Of course, being targeted by a hungry youkai or those possessed fairies is an entirely different matter…"

"That's why we're going with them, of course." Marisa pointed out the obvious.

"We better move it, though." Reimu urged them as she stood up from her chair. "The trip to Kazemura on foot from this place is going to take long. If you two wish to return to Human Village today, we have little time to waste."

"We know, we know…" Soudai sighed. "But we've walked here all the way from the village and haven't even got a moment to rest. Say, Kyouichi…"

"Hm?"

"I'll load the last crate; you go buy something to drink." he tossed him a small satchel filled with a few coins.

Kyouichi caught the con satchel and emptied its content on top of his palm. He looked around the store to see what beverages were there for sale. Naturally, the first thing that came to his field of vision was the old vending machine near the entrance. He slowly approached it, when Rinnosuke's words halted him.

"It's empty."

"Huh? Empty?" Kyouichi turned around and saw the half-youkai male pointing his thumb at the shelf behind him. About 20 empty cans of various drinks were lined up next to each other. Obviously, they were too interesting for him to discard as trash.

"Wow. Quite a collection you've got there… And quite an addiction you've developed." Kyouichi chuckled after his second statement.

"What?" Rinnosuke gave him a defensive stare. "It's summer. It's hot. And those drinks are good, so…"

"Not that I blame you or anything." Kyouichi could understand and relate to his "addiction". "Do you happen to have any other outside world beverages?"

"Some bottles from the outside world can be found in the shelves over there." he pointed in the vague direction of the food section of his shop.

Hoping that these bottled drinks would still be drinkable, Kyouichi followed Rinnosuke's directions and entered an aisle with groceries from the outside world. Near the end of the aisle he saw several bottles of mineral water and some soda drinks. Without taking much time, he grabbed a few random bottles and was about to return to the counter, when he noticed something interesting.

To say that he was surprised would be an exaggeration, because both he and Soudai were more than accustomed to the fact that this store housed truly all sorts of merchandise from both Gensokyo and the outside world. He put down the bottles he was holding and walked up closer to the object that caught his attention.

"What's taking him so long?" Soudai tapped his foot impatiently against the wooden floor as he waited for his friend along with Reimu and Marisa. Rinnosuke was also packing a few things into his waist satchel and looked as though as he was ready to leave.

"Hey~! Ishimaru~! The exit is this way!" Soudai jokingly shouted at his friend on the other side of the shop.

Not a moment too soon, Kyouichi emerged from between the selves, dragging a nice-looking red mountain bike by his side.

"Look what I found!" he grinned at Soudai.

A while has passed without Soudai saying anything at all. He just stared at him with his deadpan expression and shrugged. "What do you want to do with that bike?"

"Use it to drag our cart, of course."

"And you're willing to buy it just for this one trip?"

Kyouichi negatively shook his head. "Not buy it. Just borrow it. Rinnosuke is coming along with us, isn't he?" he cast a glance at the owner of the shop, who nodded in response.

"That I am. But I don't usually borrow my goods. If you want to use that bicycle, buy it."

"Can't you make an exception? Just this once?" he tried to negotiate, but Rinnosuke wasn't in a mood for haggling.

"This isn't a library. Buy it or leave it. Don't boggle."

"Alright, how much does it cost?" muttered the outsider as he observed the bicycle more closely. As soon as he found the price tag, he shook his head once more. "45 000?! No way I can afford it!"

"Then please put it back where you found it." Rinnosuke demanded. But Kyouichi didn't move a muscle.

"No, I won't." he declared bluntly, to which the shopkeeper raised his brow.

"Excuse me?"

"I said I won't." Kyouichi repeated slower and louder, still not moving an inch backwards.

"You're about to commit a theft, and I'd strongly recommend against it."

"Now YOU listen to me, Kourin!" the outsider showed his rare intimidating side as he suddenly raised his voice and lashed out his index finger at the half-youkai. Perhaps he was a little afraid of Reimu, but not of Rinnosuke. Not in this situation… "We are the ones doing YOU a favor! We are the ones risking OUR lives just so that you could see some fireworks and so that Reimu could solve her own problem a bit sooner! We wouldn't even have to be here, if we didn't want to! Do we not deserve to make our journey a little easier?! It's not like you're going to lose anything. You can take that bicycle back to your shop once our business in Kazemura is done. And then you can hope to sell it to the next sucker who'll find any use for it… or even know what it is. And if you don't like my idea, then I hope you won't mind me going back to the village and let you guys blow yourselves up along with half of Kazemura for all I care!"

Rinnosuke wasn't the only one taken aback by Kyouichi's outburst. Soudai, although still bearing his calm expression, has obviously never seen his friend genuinely angry, unlike Midori, who was more impulsive by nature.

"Jeez, dude, calm down."

"I am freakin' calm!" he yelled in a tone that contradicted his statement. "Let's see what you do if I just do as I please!" he addressed those words to Rinnosuke and towed the bicycle towards the shop's exit despite the owner's warning.

Stunned, Rinnosuke cast a sideways glance at Reimu and Marisa in hope of getting some moral support from them.

"That awfully reminds me of how you two usually do your shopping here."

"Hey, don't look at me like that," Marisa defended herself, "I didn't tell anyone to follow my example."

"Sorry, Rinnosuke," Reimu resignedly shook her head, "I cannot classify this as a robbery attempt. We are solving an incident here, so borrowing your stuff would be considered confiscation. All for the best interest of order in Gensokyo, of course…"

The half-human shopkeeper thus found himself at a dead end. The only way out was to turn back. "You conspired against me, haven't you? Very well, have it your way, but the bicycle returns to this shop afterwards. In one piece…" he added, as if he expected the worst.

"Should something bad happen to it, you can put it on Soudai's tab." Kyouichi jested as he tapped his friend's shoulder.

"I think the one who borrowed it should be responsible." the older outsider probably didn't take it as a joke.

"I couldn't agree more." Rinnosuke seconded his reply. "Now I ask you all to step out already. I need to lock this place up."

"Like anyone would want to steal your junk, anyway..." Marisa muttered as she was leaving the shop with Reimu and the outsiders.

"Marisa…" Rinnosuke looked at the witch in a way that made it clear he wasn't in a mood for jokes or stupid remarks. "If it was anyone else in Gensokyo who'd tell me that, okay… But coming from you, that just loses all its seriousness."

"What? You think I'd steal anything from you?"

"Think?" the half-youkai chuckled. "It's what you and your Shinto-practicing friend are doing on almost daily basis in broad daylight."

He turned the key and a mechanical click gave him a signal that the door was locked.

"We're simply borrowing." Marisa justified her actions by giving them an innocent-sounding name.

"Hey, at least I pay sometimes…" Reimu said to her own defense.

"And I don't borrow what I don't necessarily need."

"We already are taking one of the most valuable things from Kourindou with us." Soudai referred to the cargo on the wooden cart.

"And using probably the second most expensive thing in Kourindou to speed up our journey." Kyouichi smirked at the mountain bike, which he was now trying to tie to the cart.

"Is that clay really so valuable in the outside world?" asked the blonde girl with genuine interest.

"Perhaps not THAT valuable, but it's really damn hard to get if you're an ordinary civilian." Soudai explained as he was helping Kyouichi with fastening the leather straps of the cart to the bicycle.

"And what if I'm an ordinary magician?"

"Then I'm sure you'd find your way to "borrow" it, if you know where to look."

The group was all set up for journey and the distant village awaited them. Since it was Kyouichi's idea to strap a bicycle to the cart, he got the "privilege" to pedal it. He rolled up his hakama up to his knees, so it wouldn't get in the way, and at a slow pace, he rode the bicycle along the road leading to the Hakurei Shrine – their first stop.

"Is pedaling more comfortable to you than dragging, Ishimaru?" Soudai couldn't spare him from the teasing question when he saw Kyouichi sweating from both the summer heat and the not-so-easy physical activity.

"Just wait until there will be a downhill sloping. Then I'll be the one laughing as I leave you in the dust."

But Rinnoskue was quick to object. "I wouldn't recommend getting too far ahead of us, Kyouichi-san. The whole point of us going together is to prevent you two from being attacked by a youkai."

"Just us two?" Soudai pointed his thumb at his chest and his index finger at Kyouichi. "So you, Marisa and Reimu can't get attacked by youkai?"

"Marisa and Reimu are more than able to defend themselves. As for myself, since I'm a half-youkai, my flesh is quite unappealing to the carnivorous youkai. Of course, they could still kill me for other reasons than hunger, but I know better than to put myself into such dangerous situations."

"Yeah, right!" chuckled Kyouichi, who found Rinnosuke's statement quite ironic. "And keeping over a hundred kilos of plastic explosives under your bed is playing it as safe as it gets…"

"It's not by my will that this stuff ended up in my shop, you know." Morichika defended himself.

"You had over 2 years to get rid of it…"

"I thought we already talked about it before, Ishimaru-san."

"Well, technically, we are getting rid of it now." said Marisa to silence their bickering.

---

Thirty minutes of walking, and for Kyouichi, pedaling. That's how long it took the group to reach the Hakurei Shrine. They had no real business there, but the road leading to Kazemura was accessible from the crossroad just in front of its stone staircase.

"Aren't you tired yet?" Soudai asked his friend when they reached the mentioned crossroad.

"Not yet." answered Kyouichi, refusing to give up on his more comfortable means of transport than walking.

After a short break, the group continued their journey, heading north along the dirt path that led through open fields and meadows and an occasional thicket of trees and bushes. As they marched on, Soudai drew a flute out of his pocket and began plying a tune to make the long journey a bit more enjoyable. Kyouichi surprisedly glanced at him, because he never knew Soudai could play any instruments.

"Where did you get that?"

Soudai paused his playing. "The flute? I bought it in the village. There's this cute little shop in the eastern alley."

"I had no idea you could play a flute."

"I learned it here, believe it or not. From some of the local farm hands like you and me… I became gradually interested until one day I bought myself a cheap flute and practiced with them."

There was nothing strange about the fact that it escaped Kyouichi's attention, since the two of them didn't always work together on the same task on the farms. In fact, quite the contrary.

After giving a brief explanation, Soudai resumed playing, but Kyouichi interrupted him once more.

"Hey, how about you played something a bit more brisk and cheerful? This melody is kind of slow and sad."

"Well, sorry. I only know how to play a few tunes, so my repertoire isn't very rich yet."

---

And so, Soudai kept playing those few melodies he learned all the way to the 3-way crossroad where the roads to the shrine, the lake and to Kazemura intersected. By that time he grew tired of playing just as well as his companions grew tired of walking. They took another break at the said crossroad and replenished their energy by eating their packed lunches. They were about half-way to the quarry village and their journey so far has been safe. But the more difficult part of the road was only ahead of them.

"How about I switched places with you now?" Soudai offered to man the bicycle and drag the cart, since he thought that Kyouichi's been hogging the more comfortable means of transport for too long.

"Fine by me." Kyouichi replied indifferently. He had enough of pedaling anyway. He also knew that the road beyond this point was only going to become gradually steeper, making it inconvenient for a bike to cross. Perhaps it wouldn't be a problem without any extra burden, but the cart and the terrain was about to give Soudai quite a workout before the group would reach its destination.

"Alright, everyone's rested?" Reimu threw a backward glance at her companions before they began marching again. "Let's get moving. Kazemura is still far away."

And as agreed, Kyouichi switched places with Soudai and just walked, while his older comrade became the motor of the bicycle and the cart.

Rinnosuke observed him with the same level of interest as he observed Kyouichi while he was riding it. "I'm guessing that riding a bicycle is considered a basic skill for the humans of the outside world."

"You're saying that as if you didn't know how to ride a bike, Rinnosuke-san." Soudai replied.

"I don't."

"Are you serious?"

"I never even saw one until recently. It always amazed me how riders can keep their stability on it with just two wheels." Rinnosuke expressed his admiration for something so mundane that people often mastered even in their childhood.

"If that amazes you, wait till you see a unicycle." joked Kyouichi.

"A unicycle? You mean bicycle's one-wheeled brother? I saw a man riding it once, but only in a newspaper picture from the outside world. The article below was promoting a circus troupe from abroad." the half-youkai explained.

"What's a circus?" Reimu asked.

Soudai chuckled at her question. "Heh, you never even heard of it, have you?"

"No. That's why I'm asking."

"Well, to put it simply: a huge circular tent, acrobats, animals that can do tricks, clowns, strongmen, jugglers, knife-throwers, fakirs, fire-eaters, sword-eaters, and sometimes people who are considered as "freaks of nature". Oh, and lots of spectators who watch their performance."

"Knife-throwers, huh?" Marisa was already envisioning Sakuya juggling her knives in front of a big audience and throwing them at the apples placed on heads of each of the Scarlet Devil Mansion residents. "What about magicians?"

"Yes, there are magicians too sometimes, but not quite like you, Marisa." Kyouichi answered her question.

"Not like me? Hmm... I see…" and a mental image of Alice and Patchouli putting on a magic show sprouted up in her mind. "What about shrine maidens then?"

That question made both outsiders burst out in laughter. "I'd really like to see one in a circus performance, haha~!" Soudai's imagination has gone wild as he tried to imagine what sort of performance a shrine maiden would do there.

"A circus is no place for a shrine maiden, I'm afraid." Rinnosuke, who had a bit more insight on the matter, explained the truth to her.

"Hmph… That's discrimination." Reimu pouted, but her mind still pondered the nature of other performers which she wasn't familiar with. "What are clowns, by the way?"

"Clowns? There's one good example over there…" Kyouichi jokingly pointed ahead at Soudai's back.

"I don't get it." Reimu confusedly stared at the young man riding a bicycle and dragging a cart behind it.

"Ha! If I'm a circus clown, then you're a circus shrine maiden." Soudai returned the blow to Kyouichi where it hurt.

"So my crossdressing incident is going to drag with my name for the rest of my life, huh?"

"You'll have it engraved on your headstone, no doubt." Kyouichi's senior kept on peeling his old wound.

"Over my dead body! Oh, wait…"

At least the mood of the two outsiders remained light-hearted for the remainder of the way to Kazemura. At least until they reached the village were their minds not concerned by the fact that they were transporting enough explosives to blow them back to the outside world. Or to the Netherworld, for that matter…

---

"Kyouichi~! Won't you switch places with me again~?" Soudai asked the same question as he asked a couple of hours ago, when the group was taking their lunch break. The long and slightly uphill drag of the heavy cart has robbed him of nearly all his strength.

"We should be there any minute now." Kyouichi informed him, giving him a hint that he was not going to do him a favor. "We'll just cross through this forest path and the first clearing we'll see will be our goal."

"And how long is this forest road?" the older outsider panted for air was he was reluctantly keeping the bicycle in motion.

"I don't know; I haven't measured it. But at our current pace, it shouldn't take us more than 10 to 15 minutes to reach Kazemura."

"I want to take a break~!" he yelped in protest, but proceeded onwards regardless.

The long trip was starting to wear even the two girls down and they couldn't wait for the moment when they could sit down again.

"I'm really not used to such long walks." Marisa commented as her feet were giving her an unpleasant ache.

Reimu was not excluded from the list of exhausted people and she wondered herself why she hasn't at least floated the whole time instead of walking. Of course, even floating required some effort, and Reimu was already beyond the point when flying still seemed like a good idea.

Rinnosuke was probably the only one who didn't complain. His youkai heritage probably helped him fight away the fatigue better than his human peers, or perhaps it simply wasn't in his nature to complain about things in the first place.

"I see light ahead! Tell me that's Kazemura ahead of us; please tell me it's Kazemura…" Soudai followed the light at the end of the forest path like a moth.

"That it is." Rinnosuke confirmed his assumptions.

"Woohooo~!"Asakura caught a new breath and hurried towards the goal like a racer on the home stretch.

"Heh. See? You weren't so tired after all!" Kyouichi called after him.

"Maybe he wasn't, but I sure am." sounded Marisa, who was now trying to ease the pain by stepping on with the sides of her feet instead of the soles.

Fortunately for her and for her tired friend, the small mining village was indeed just a few hundred meters away.

---

The thick pines have suddenly given way to the daylight and the quintet of four humans and one half-youkai was finally able to gaze upon the village of the winds. The quarry of Kazermura was now covering an area larger than the living district of the village itself. For Kyouichi this was his second visit, but the quarry has changed significantly since he had last been here.

"This… is Kazemura?" Soudai uttered a rhetorical question as he first gazed on this human/yama-bito settlement. From the expression on his face, one could easily deduce he was in a mental state somewhere between impressed and disappointed.

"At long last!" Marisa was glad that her painful walk has finally come to an end.

"Kazemura…" Kyouichi stopped to have a good look at the whole village from a panoramic view. It certainly didn't look the same as he remembered it. "You've changed."

"Changed?" Soudai puzzledly tilted his head. "Come to think of it, even Human Village has changed."

"Right. The wall..."

"I just want to sit down for now." Reimu expressed her desire as bluntly as she usually did.

"Ah, the fair village of Kazemura." Rinnosuke greeted the settlement with a slight bow. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"When have you last been here, Kourin?" Marisa eyed him quizzically.

After a thoughtful pause, Rinnosuke shrugged. "A couple of years ago. I never really had any reason to venture into this lonely part of Gensokyo since then. Until now..."

"And may I ask what was your reason for your last visit?" the blonde girl in black and white outfit became curious.

"Business…" the half-youkai gave her a brief cryptic answer.

"It might have been a lonely part of Gensokyo until recently, but it certainly doesn't look that way now." Kyouichi was just making a comparison between his memorized image of the quarry village and the scenery spreading in front of him right now. Many things made him think that he has visited some different place. The Kazemura that he was gazing at now was reminding him more of a war camp than a quarry village due to the substantial white wolf tengu presence. Even though he has never seen these subspecies of the tengu race before, their distinguishing red tokin hats were enough for him to figure who they were.

"What's with all the tengu soldiers?" he looked at Reimu, who surely had some insight about the situation in this village.

"Do I really need to explain?" she muttered and yawned. The tiresome walk from Kourindou to this place didn't turn her into an ideal conversation partner. "I thought it was pretty clear. Lots of fairies, big creepy ruins full of vengeful spirits, repeated fairy attacks on the village and the surrounding areas... Kazemura has now unofficially become the center of Gensokyo. Or its attention at least."

"And here we come, going to make even more noise." Soudai humorously commented on their plan to perform a series of test detonations of the explosives they have brought.

As the group was walking the last few meters of the dirt path before entering the village itself, Kyouichi's eyes drifted away to the second largest building and its wooden sign hanging over its renovated entrance.

"Ah, I remember this tavern… The Hearth, eh? I never even bothered to notice what it was called until now. And by the looks of it, it appears to have changed as well."

The Hearth, as the one and only tavern in the village was called, has undergone partial reconstruction, which was obvious from its facade and roof tiles.

"This became the village's final bastion during the last fairy attack." Marisa explained. "It changed, because those little bastards have made quite a mess here. They even started a fire in here. If it wasn't for that downpour that night, this tavern would probably become a pile of ash. Heh… now its name is all the more symbolic." she chuckled at the irony.

Kyouichi sighed heavily and opened the tavern door to step inside, only to be grabbed by the back of his shirt by the Hakurei shrine maiden.

"Hey, where do you think you're going? The quarry pit is that way." she pointed her thumb backwards.

With an incredulous face marked by exhaustion he turned around. "You can't be serious."

"That's my line. We haven't bothered trekking such a distance so you could go to a tavern. We have work to do."

"We just walked over 50 kilometers under the scorching summer sun. Weren't you whining about wanting to sit down just a second ago? Let's sit down here and have some refreshing drinks."

"I do want to sit down, but not here. We're going to Patchouli's tent."

"Patchouli-sama? She's here?"

"Of course, she's here! She's the one doing research of those creepy ruins. Now stop wasting time and follow me." Reimu commanded and marched towards the mentioned tent at the edge of the excavation site.

Marisa followed her without a word and so did Rinnosuke. Seeing as how the odds were against him, Kyouichi reluctantly turned away from the tavern and headed off towards the tent like everyone else. There were many tents surrounding the whole quarry pit, most of them bearing the hallmarks of the tengu defense force. Their shape very much resembled the tokin hats that every tengu in Gensokyo wore. The white flags flying on their tops depicted a single red aralia leaf – the same symbol the tengu soldiers had on their shields. Another group of tents were those of Kazemura's laborers. Reimu and her companions were just heading towards one of those many unmarked civilian tents. After poking her head inside, the shrine maiden let herself in. Marisa and Rinnosuke silently shrugged and followed her in.

"Can I leave all the... cargo just standing here?" asked Soudai as he was getting off the bicycle.

Since everyone was already inside the tent, he didn't get an answer. He left the bike and the cart standing in front of the tent and entered. He found himself in a crowded and dimly illuminated tent where Reimu was already having a talk with a purple-haired girl – Patchouli Knowledge. The center of the tent was reserved for a large stone slab marked with mysterious symbols of unknown meaning.

"Uh… hello." he greeted everyone inside and waited for what was going to happen.

"I see." Patchouli nodded understandingly and quickly eyed all of her visitors. "If you want, you can put your things here for the time being. I'll let my team know you're here."

"Good. Then we can start testing Rinnosuke's explosive clay." Reimu contently sat down to rest her tired feet. Others followed suit.

"Ahh… Now nobody is going to make me stand up any time soon." Soudai moaned as he was sitting down.

Patchouli left her tent and returned with two girls – Hieda no Akyuu and her own devil familiar only known as Koakuma. The crimson-haired youkai brought something that looked like a serving tray with several bowls.

"Koakuma, please serve our guests. They must be exhausted after walking all the way here."

"Yes." the devil girl nodded and passed a bowl of soup to each of the visitors.

"Oh, hi, Akyuu-chan." Kyouichi greeted the other shorter girl. She seemed to have noticed him only now.

"Kyouichi-san?" she widened her eyes out of surprise. "What are you doing here? And Asakura-san too…"

"Hasn't Reimu told you yet?"

"Not at all… Reimu-san?" she glanced over at the shrine maiden with a look of anticipation.

But Reimu was already eating the soup and didn't seem to have heard Akyuu's question.

"We're here to crack the rock encasing the ruins using Kourin's clay bomb from outside world, ze. It's gonna be a blast! Literally…" Marisa grinned as she replied in Reimu's stead. "Oh, thanks for the soup, Koa."

"Wait… what?!" the shocked little chronicler raised her eyebrows. "This isn't something that we have discussed. Reimu-san! What is the meaning of this?"

Now Akyuu's voice could not be ignored by the Hakurei shrine maiden. She swallowed the last spoonful of the soup and wiped her lips crudely with the back of her hand.

"When it involves a quick means to incident resolution, I don't really feel obliged to discuss it with anyone. I do what I have to do."

"I have no word in the matters of excavation or preservation of historical heritage of Kazemura, but I believe we should first get an approval for this action from the people in charge. Perhaps even the village elder."

"Patchouli is in charge of the excavation team. They have been trying to break through the rock for weeks. I think they'd agree with it."

"Yes, you THINK, Reimu-san, but using an explosive device from the outside world in a quarry pit full of workers… We'll probably need everyone to clear off to avoid possible danger."

"Then we'll let them know. Rinnosuke, Kyouichi, Soudai, prepare the clay. We're going down to the quarry."

It was really amazing how Reimu could completely shrug off any signs of tiredness when she was focused on solving an incident.

Kyouichi didn't really feel like he wanted to part with the comfort of his current seated position and gave Reimu the same look as Akyuu when she learned about the shrine maiden's plan. "What? Now?"

"No, in a month!" she retorted with bitter sarcasm. "Of course now!"

"But we just got here…"

"You want to be back in the village before sundown?" Reimu asked both Kyouichi and Soudai. After getting their confirmatory nods, she crossed her arms. "Then get up and don't talk back! I want that wrecked temple to be accessible in an hour. If you do that, Marisa here will kindly fly you back to the village."

"Huh?" Marisa turned her face around with a noodle dangling from her mouth. "Why me?"

"Because you have the broom. Now get to work, people!"

"I ought to start charging fares for my broom rides…" she muttered and finished the content of her bowl with a loud slurping sound.

"Come on, move it! We don't have all day!" Reimu spurred everyone to activity.

With utmost reluctance reflected on his facial expression, Kyouichi stood up and lazily walked out of the tent. "Sheesh… I almost feel like at work on the farm…"

"Tell me about it." Soudai felt the same way about the bossiness of the Hakurei shrine maiden.

---

"But I guess… umph… we haven't come here for sightseeing." Kyouichi huffed as he lifted one of the metal crates from the cart and put it on the ground. "We'll just take one for now."

"Okay, Reimu-san, which way down to the quarry?" Soudai turned to Reimu who just exited the tent along with Patchouli.

"Follow me." Patchouli took the lead and guided them towards the one of the pit's access ramps. "Unfortunately, our service crane has broken down recently, so we're going to have to carry everything manually until the workers finish building a new one." she added as she noticed Kyouichi lugging the heavy crate.

"WE? You mean the cheap labor force from the outside world…" he grumpily murmured under his nose.

"What's with all the rope around the whole pit?" Soudai observed the shimenawa barrier.

"That's for our safety. And it will be in our best interest not to destroy it by accident." answered Reimu.

"I think I finally understand why Reimu-san dragged you two here." Akyuu noted after she put two and two together. "Just be careful with handling that… clay of yours."

"That's like telling a soldier going into battle to be careful not to die…" Kyouichi was still paranoid and skeptical about testing an explosive, which he didn't even know how to handle.

"Remember, Kyou, we're just here for the supervision." Soudai reminded him. "Let Kourin here do the dangerous stuff." he said nonchalantly as he tapped the half-youkai's shoulder.

Rinnosuke's poker face perfectly managed to conceal his inner excitement combined with a healthy dose of fear.

Kyouichi ignored Soudai's remarks, as he was distracted by admiring the progress of the quarry workers as well as the uncovered ruins themselves. The six tall obelisks and the dominant temple tower were now stretching over ten meters in height from the bottom of the pit. "Impressive progress that they've made here…"

"The tempo of progress is not by far as impressive as it was a few weeks ago." said the youkai librarian. "All thanks to the uncommonly sturdy layer of rock and obsidian that divides us from reaching the lowermost part of the temple yard and from gaining access to the temple itself."

"What sort of temple is it anyway?" asked the outsider. "It looks like something from another country. Or another world…"

"We don't know yet. But we were able to decipher some of the symbols."

"Have you now?"

"Yes, that large stone slab you saw in my tent comes from one of those six obelisks. It contains what appears to be an ancient calendar and the names of several celestial bodies that the builders of this temple used to effectively pinpoint one's current position. Each of the obelisks contains different coordinates of places all over the world. I have no idea what these places represent, as none of them appear to correspond to any cities in the outside world. One of the coordinates even pointed me to a place somewhere in the middle of Pacific Ocean."

"A temple built by an advanced culture that nobody's heard of?" Kyouichi, as a promising student of anthropology would find such a discovery nearly unbelievable.

"Sounds highly improbable, doesn't it? But perhaps it isn't a coincidence that it was discovered here, in Gensokyo, where forgotten things and concepts thrive."

"Are you saying that it was spirited away here from outside? Just like your mansion?"

"I'm working with several theories and that is only one of them, yes. If you take your time to look at the history of "building relocations", you'll notice two types. One – precise relocation of a particular structure from the outside world, such as the Poltergeist Mansion, and two – landscape relocations, where a building was moved to Gensokyo with a part of its original surrounding landscape, such as our mansion or the Moriya Shrine. Of course, the largest-scale relocation that occurred in Gensokyo's post-barrier history was the relocation of Mount Yatsugatake, more commonly known as Youkai Mountain. It's almost hard to believe that the tallest mountain in Gensokyo hasn't been here longer than 125 years. If our temple indeed comes from the outside, then I'm guessing whoever worked on its relocation must have placed it here on purpose, intentionally in the middle of a quarry pit, where it would be only a matter of time before someone discovers it. And if that's the case, they didn't want the temple's presence to be obvious from the start. Perhaps they were waiting for something. If this theory is incorrect, then we're dealing with a civilization that once inhabited these lands. One interesting fact – the symbols on the ruins contain bits and pieces of pictograms and alphabetical systems of dozens of different world languages, mixed into one literary system with its unique syntax. From this I assume it may also be a civilization, which predates all other civilizations."

"Great. Any other theories?" Kyouichi still thirsted for insight.

"Last, but not least, there's a possibility that the building does not originate from any particular civilization, but rather a cult."

"A cult?"

"Yes. A small secluded group of highly skilled architects and intellectuals from different parts of the world, having highly… unorthodox beliefs. Many times in history it were such secret cults that have developed their own ways of communication with its members, which may be considered as the prototype of modern encryption."

Patchouli once again showed that her surname was not just a coincidence. But Reimu and her companions have not come here to learn about history. At least not from Patchouli's lecture. Today they were here to make a literal breakthrough. One that would hopefully help them end the vengeful spirit outbreak once and for all.

Once down at the bottom, Patchouli suggested an area in the pit that was the most suitable for testing the explosives. "We can conduct the experiment here." She stopped at a flat area with a narrow fissure, not deeper than 10 centimeters. The crack in the rocky bottom trailed off from the quarry's wall for about 5 meters towards the nearest obelisk.

Kyouichi could finally take a break and put the metal crate down on the ground, doing it as carefully and gently as he could.

"Kyou… It's C4, not nitroglycerin." Soudai poked fun at his friend's overly cautious approach.

"Then why don't you handle it? I'll watch you guys from a nice safe distance."

"Okay, you two," Reimu crossed her arms and nodded, "help Rinnosuke set up the first clay bomb, Akyuu and I will go and tell all the workers to clear out the quarry pit."

Looking around himself, Kyouichi could still see dozens of busy workers, scholars and tengu soldiers occupying almost every square meter of the pit's bottom.

"Honestly, you should have told everyone to evacuate the pit a bit sooner…" grumbled the outsider as he opened the lid of the crate. Rinnosuke put down his backpack and took out a smaller box.

Reimu and Akyuu have already left to warn everyone to leave the quarry; while Marisa took her broom to observe the obelisks of the ruins form all angles. Only the two humans, one half-youkai and a youkai sorceress remained in the testing area.

"Okay, so how much of this stuff should we use?" Kyouichi asked his teammates.

The explosives were all packed in small palm-size blocks, weighing about 300 grams.

"One charge, for starters?" Soudai likewise wasn't too certain about the amount to use for the test.

"That's a bit too much for just a test detonation. How about we used just half of it?"

Meanwhile, Rinnosuke unclosed the lid of his smaller box and revealed that it was filled with small pin-shaped metallic devices. "Know that these are all the triggering devices we have. If we want to use only half of a charge and get rid of all the explosives, we'd eventually have to mix that half with one full charge."

Kyouichi hummed and spent a moment, considering several options and scenarios. Then he shrugged and took the first charge out of the crate. "Very well, we'll use a full one then. He unpacked the aluminum and cardboard wrapper and started shaping the clay-like matter so it would fit into the fissure in the ground. Once done, he stood up from his crouching position, took a few steps backwards and beckoned at Rinnosuke. "Okay, your turn now."

"Alright, here goes…" he knelt down to the planted charge and inserted the triggering device into the clay. "Okay, that was easy. Now all we need to do is to…"

"STOOOOOOOP~!" a loud yell from behind interrupted his sentence and startled all the members of the group. A hulking yama-bito foreman was charging towards them, waving his arms in the air. Reimu hovered right behind him in an attempt to calm him down, but her voice was drowned out by his bellowing.

"Stop doing whatever you are doing!" he added once he reached the testing area.

"Oh, great…" Patchouli sighed with annoyance as the quarry foreman made his entrance.

"Who permitted you to perform dangerous experiments at this dig site?!"

"Um… Hakurei Reimu-san?" Soudai asked in an almost provoking, yet jesting manner.

The mentioned shrine maiden arrived just a few seconds after the yama-bito, still hoping to convince him. "This may help us uncover the ruins much faster."

"And possibly damage or destroy this magnificent structure?! Out of question!"

"Wait... Hold on…" Kyouichi interrupted the tall youkai and glanced over at Reimu. "You're trying to tell me you don't even have permission from the village?!"

"Phe…" she replied with a disdainful gesture. "We are here to resolve an incident and keeping Gensokyo safe from vengeful spirits takes precedence over preservation of historical heritage."

"Unless you show me the same words written on a paper signed by our elder, you're not going to do any of your "tests" in this quarry pit!"

"You make us drag our asses over 60 kilometers with a cart of explosives on a hot summer day, just so we could be stopped and yelled at by this guy?" Kyouichi continued staring accusingly at the miko while pointing his thumb backwards at the foreman.

Reimu opened her mouth to counter, but Kyouichi was already grinning wide and on his leave from the pit. "Well, if you somehow manage to convince him, you know where to find me…"

And off he went to the place where he wanted to go as soon as he entered the village.

"Hey, wait for me~!" Soudai snapped out of his reverie and followed him.

"Off to the Hearth, are they?" Marisa finally descended to the ground after she got bored of observing the symbols on the obelisks. "And I was looking forward to seeing some fireworks here…"

"Look, the temple has survived a volcanic eruption. The explosives we've brought here are only going to shatter the rock encasing it." Patchouli tried to reason with him.

"Patchouli-san…" the towering youkai lowered his voice when he spoke to her. It appeared he had some respect for the sorceress, as she was the one in charge of archeology team. "With all due respect, I cannot let you do this. Not without the proper authorization from the chief. He'd have my head if I was to let you do as you please."

"Then I'll go talk to him." the librarian decided.

"I doubt he'll agree with your idea, but if he does give you permission, who am I to oppose his decision?"

Patchouli didn't need any more time to think or words to hear. She floated out of the quarry and headed for the elder's house. Reimu and Marisa exchanged their wordless glances and decided to wait for Patchouli's return in the comfortable shade of her tent.

Akyuu and Rinnosuke followed suit and walked all the way back to the surface level. And just as they were on their way to rejoin Reimu and Marisa in the tent, they noticed a caravan wagon just arriving to the village, escorted by a handful of Ryuuken from Human Village.

Apart from a few merchants, two female figures have stepped out. A tall, long-haired woman and a short girl with light-red hair, not looking any older than Akyuu.

"So, they're finally here." Akyuu apparently recognized the pair of females, and so did Rinnosuke.

"Kamishirasawa-sensei… And the Motoori child… It doesn't look like they're here on a field trip."

"Indeed, they aren't." the smiling Akyuu confirmed with a nod. "I asked them to come here after all."

---

Soudai and Kyouichi have just finished their menu when Reimu Hakurei entered and headed straight towards the table where they were seated. "I hope you two aren't drunk yet. You've got some supervising to do."

"Don't worry, we only had some food and non-alcoholic drinks." Soudai reassured her.

"Wait, are you saying you got the elder's permission?" Kyouichi raised his brow.

"Yup. Patchouli took care of it. The quarry pit is being evacuated as we speak. You and Rinnosuke-san have the go signal from the elder."

"Patchouli-san is amazing…" Kyouichi had to admit.

Reimu waited for the two humans to pay for their menus and they left the tavern together.

"Okay, let's get this over with." Soudai sighed as he walked out of the establishment and gazed at the gaping hole in the ground surrounded by a rope barrier and dozens of tents.

"The other day you mentioned you would provide us with some sort of magical countermeasures." Kyouichi reminded Reimu.

"And I also mentioned how this area weakens all magic, haven't I?"

"What's your point?"

"The enchantments that I, Marisa and Patchouli can bestow upon you will not be very effective, so you ought to still be careful down there. Let's go to Patchy's tent first."

"Better than nothing." Soudai affirmed and followed Reimu's lead.

As soon as they entered the provisory housing of the elemental sorceress, they widened their eyes and parted their lips.

"Keine-sensei?!" Kyouichi uttered at the sight of his teacher.

"Oh, if it isn't my two problematic transfer students. Good afternoon." she greeted them calmly, although surprise was evident in her facial expression as well. "I never would have expected to see you here."

"That's our line!" Soudai butted in. Keine's presence in Kazemura and her encounter with the two outsiders was not a good sign. Keeping their plans of leaving Gensokyo in secrecy was now extremely hard.

"I'm a renowned historian, Asakura-san." she stated matter-of-factly. "Is my work in an archeological research team such a great surprise to you?"

After silencing both outsiders with her question, she asked another. "Now will you tell me what business you have in Kazemura?"

"We're here on Reimu's request." Kyouichi began explaining carefully.

"Is that right? Why would Reimu-san ask two young outsiders to come to a remote quarry village? I don't mean to doubt your knowledge about the history of the outside world, but I highly doubt you have sufficient knowledge about Gensokyo's history to be of any value to this team. Or is there another reason for your presence here?"

"You'll see that in a minute." Reimu saved to duo of outsiders from giving an explanation. "Let's not waste any time and start with the warding enchantments. Patchouli, Marisa, give me a hand here, will you?"

"Sure, sure…"

It wasn't long before the three girls have each cast a couple of their spells and incantations upon the outsiders as well as Rinnosuke.

"I think that's all we can do for you. The pit is clear of all workers and tengu guards. Go and finish what you started."

"Wait." a young red-eyed girl with her red hair tied into two side ponytails adorned by a pair of decorative bells halted their leave. "It would be better if we make recordings of all the symbols on all the monuments before the testing, just in case the explosion would damage or destroy them."

"I already recorded everything into my journal." Patchouli replied from her table as her eyes were skimming the pages of a thick book.

"In that case, you have our permission to go." the young girl addressed those words to the three males in the tent.

"And who might you be?" Kyouichi didn't grace her with a very nice greeting or glance. He has never seen this child before and he couldn't stop wondering what she was doing in the tent, acting like someone important.

"Oh, that's just Kosuzu-chan." Reimu waved her hand nonchalantly, as if the two of them have known each other for a long time.

"Ehh… yeah, I can see that." said Kyouichi after he noticed the girl's name written on the front part of her yellow apron, which she wore over her red and white checkered kimono. "And who is she?"

"Ah, sorry." the girl smiled sweetly and greeted the outsiders with a bow. "Yes, I'm Kosuzu. Motoori Kosuzu. I've come from Human Village after I got a letter from Hieda-san, requesting for assistance in decryption."

"Motoori?" Kyouichi repeated her surname and widened his eyes as the name seemed to have rung his bell. "Motoori, Motoori… Wait. The same Motoori who have recently established a book renting store in the village?"

The girl now smiled even sweeter. "Yes."

"The same Motoori who have replaced the Starlight Glyph with Suzunaan?" he asked her with a slightly bitter-sounding tone.

"The very same." Kosuzu confirmed and her smile faded away a little. "Is there a problem?"

"It's nothing." the outsider gave an avoidant reply, but in his stead, Akyuu took the liberty of giving the redhead a little insight.

"Ah, that's Ishimaru Kyouichi-san. He used to work as Shimizu-san's assistant in the Starlight Glyph bookstore."

Kosuzu's face brightened up with an expression of understanding. "Are you angry at my family for setting up shop in your former workplace?"

After a longer pause with no hint of emotions on his face, Kyouichi slowly shook his head. "No, I'm not. I ended my contract before the Glyph closed down. I would have lost my job even if I stayed."

"I see… And have you ever visited our shop?"

"I didn't. I have no reason to buy or rent books anymore. When Daisuke Shimizu closed down his shop and retired, I had no interest or reason to visit it again."

"Unfortunately, my parents employ me as a part-time clerk and assistant and are not looking for any more employees."

"That's alright… If we hadn't been working on the farms as our new-part time, I don't know how we'd make our plan to leave Gens…" he suddenly stopped himself, and upon realizing his slip, he covered his mouth with his palm. But it was already a bit too late.

"What plans? To leave what?" Keine Kamishirasawa has already caught the crucial part and refused to let Kyouichi leave the tent without getting an answer.

"She would have figured it out eventually anyway." Soudai sighed resignedly, prompting Kyouichi to spill the truth to their half-youkai teacher.

His older friend was right. It was no use trying to deny the truth any longer. In simple and plain Japanese, he and Soudai have revealed their secrets to Keine, and explained their true reason for coming to Kazemura.

"So you were working all this time to transport all your purchased supplies from the village to the Hakurei Shrine without drawing the attention of the militia?" she stared incredulously at her two "transfer students" after hearing out their story.

"That's right. And we have everything we need. But then I made another slip in front of Reimu-san, just as I made in front of you a while ago… That's how she learned about Rinnoskue's interesting inventory and saw it as a possible way to speed up the unearthing of this… temple. This is the one last favor that we need to do for her and then she'll let us go home. We'll depart by the end of this month. Unless you'll use this information to stop us, Keine-sensei…"

"Stop you? Why would I ever want to do that?" she failed to understand the reason for Kyouichi's worries as well as the fact why the outsiders have been keeping this information a secret from her this entire time. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"We were afraid, Keine-sensei." Soudai replied. "If you had the same opinion as our honored elder Fukukane about the potential dangers of leaving Gensokyo through the shrine's gateway, you could easily thwart our plans by reporting this to the Ryuuken."

"And we'd be stuck here indefinitely like prisoners." Kyouichi complemented his friend's explanation.

"Now I understand why your grades have gradually worsened."

"Hehe…" Soudai chuckled. "Grades… We never really cared much about those."

"It's interesting that out of all the transfer students, only you two have started noticeably slacking in your studies."

"I don't understand what my fellow classmates hope to achieve by having good grades either, Keine-sensei." Kyouichi jested about his other friends from the outside world. "It's not like their results here will be of any value when they return to their homes, their schools or their jobs."

"I guess I won't be able to convince you to change your ways regarding your education until the 1st of Kannazuki." the teacher giggled weakly. "In any case, you outsiders have my support. Your willingness to return home is admirable. May your road to Tokyo be safe."

"Thank you for understanding us, Keine-sensei."

"Let us first hope that our little experiment in the quarry pit will be safe." Soudai concluded the conversation. He turned around and together with Rinnosuke and Kyouichi they left Patchouli's tent and descended down to the bottom of the dig site.

---

Nobody but the three of them was there with them. Hundreds of curious heads of the local villagers and the tengu soldiers have watched them from the edge of the pit. The explosive charge was already placed and equipped with a triggering device. The final stage of the test required Rinnosuke to reactivate his jury-rigged detonator. To their surprise, the quarry workers have already built up some provisory protective barriers around the testing area. Wood, sand and gravel were the main materials used in their hasty construction. Kyouichi wasn't too sure if these barricades would be able to withstand the explosion, but at least someone was smart enough to set them up just in case. Both outsiders have already heard on multiple occasions that the whole area of Kazemura was dampening the effects of magic and quickly draining divine energy. Perhaps that was the part of the reason why Reimu was in such a hurry. Staying here for a prolonged period of time could rob her of her powers, which she'd have to wait for days to recover. Having a multitude of protective spells cast on them had at least a little positive psychological effect on the minds of the outsiders. The magic might have been weakened, but at least they were calmer and a calm mind is less likely to make a mistake.

"All set." Rinnosuke announced as soon as he plugged a 9 volt battery to the detonator and its button began glowing red. This was a cue for the outsiders to seek shelter at the opposite side of the pit. A half-circle pile of heavy crates loaded with excess soil and rocks was already waiting for them there.

Once all three of them were in the safety of the provisory bunker, Kyouichi gave Rinnosuke the go signal and the half-youkai pushed the button.

A distant, but loud boom has reached their ears, being an unfailing sign of the explosive's detonation. When they poked their heads out of the cover, the trio of self-appointed "demolition experts" could see a large cloud of smoke, dust and sand swirling at the opposite wall of the pit. Small rocks and gravel was still falling down after the blast has ejected them into the air and the crowd of curious onlookers was watching it all from above.

"Success!" Soudai shouted as he raised his arm victoriously.

"We can't really know that yet." Rinnosuke chilled him down. "We must see whether the explosion has managed to set some of that hard rocky layer loose. One of you, grab a pickaxe."

"Got it." Kyouichi took one that was lying on the ground. The quarry might have been cleared out by its staff, but some have not thought to take all their work equipment with them. Finding a digging tool barely took any effort.

By the time they reached the test zone, the dusty cloud has settled down a bit, making the epicenter of the blast visible. A few curious individuals have gathered the courage to float over to take a closer look. While some of the spectators were impressed by the explosion, others were disappointed by its "weak" force.

"That was it?" Marisa's voice preceded her circular descent on her flying broom. Naturally, Reimu tagged along with her. "I expected something more powerful, honestly…"

"Hey, as long as it gets the job done, I don't care." said the shrine maiden.

Even Patchouli gathered the courage to fly over down to the bottom, but as soon as she landed, the dusty environment made her start coughing.

"I'm not sure if this is the best place for you right now, Patchouli-san." Kyouichi warned her, but the sorceress refused to leave.

Armed with the pickaxe, the outsider slowly entered the blast zone. The barricades that surrounded it took some damage, but were still standing. However, repeated detonations would surely destroy them. But what interested Kyouichi more than damage done to the barricades was the effect of the explosion on the rocky bottom. The fissure became a small crater and several visible crack lines were spreading from its center.

"Hmm… not bad." Rinnosuke assessed the explosive's effect. "Try prying the rock around the crater."

Kyouichi promptly jammed the narrow end of the pickaxe into the crack and pulled the handle to set the mass of rock lose. With some effort, a large piece of rock was separated from the ground. "I say it did pretty well for a test explosion."

He tried to lever another piece of the rocky mass with his borrowed pickaxe. This time, both his and Soudai's strength was necessary to heave the flat boulder and flip it over, but they have shown to everyone that the explosives had the potential to ease the work in the quarry by several degrees.

"Let's pry that one over there too." Soudai pointed at one of the wider crack lines that stretched back to the wall of the pit.

Without thinking, Kyouichi plunged the blade of the pickaxe into the narrow fissure, and together with Soudai they began prying it. It was exhausting for both of them, but the crackling that the rock made was a sign that it was slowly being moved.

"Shouldn't we break it up a little first?"

"We almost have it lose, Kyouichi, just keep prying."

A couple of louder cracks later, Soudai was again tapping his friend's shoulder. "Uhh… Kyou?"

"Hm?" the long-haired outsider looked over his shoulder and saw Soudai pointing at a section of the quarry's wall. Small clouds of swirling dust appeared around the edges of a particularly large piece of rock and both humans could see as the crack lines were slowly getting wider before their eyes. The ground trembled lightly as the huge mass of rock was slowly beginning to shift from the wall. Definitely not a good omen for anyone standing nearby…

"Holy shit, man! Ruuuuuun!" Kyouichi shouted at his friend and everyone who was currently standing near the testing area. He didn't even make two steps away from the danger zone when the huge boulder from the quarry's wall came crumbling down with about as much noise as the explosion that preceded its fall. Kyouichi lost his balance and fell face-down on the ground, hearing as several smaller boulders missed his body by just several centimeters. He thought this would be his end, but by some miraculous turn of events none of the falling rocks has caused him any injury. With his heart racing from the adrenaline rush, he rose from the ground, shook his head like a dog to rid himself of at least some of the dust that covered him, and noticed that both Rinnosuke and Soudai emerged from the rubble pile unscathed. Reimu and Marisa were fast enough to float away from the landslide and so was Patchouli.

Nobody could believe that this dangerous situation would end without a casualty, except the elemental sorceress, whose face bore a suspiciously calm smile.

"Oh my god, I'm still alive…" Soudai was just processing this fact.

"Me too…" Kyouichi was still catching his breath.

"I was unharmed as well." Rinnosuke was looking all over his body, but the only harm he has sustained was to his clothing.

"How… is that even possible?" wondered Kyouichi when he finally found enough strength in his legs to stand upright.

"Earth ward." Patchouli's quiet murmur reached his ears. "It worked."

"Say what?" Soudai gazed at her like at an angel from heaven.

"In my tent." she reminded them. "I cast five different warding spells to protect you from the elements: earth, water, fire, wood and metal. I didn't bother casting the Moon and Sun wards, though. I'm glad the ward lasted at least up to this critical point. As you no doubt heard, this place doesn't allow for spells to last very long."

"Patchouli-sama is really amazing…" Kyouichi said for the second time today. "We owe you one."

"I think we better leave the unearthing to the professionals from now on." Soudai declared as he distanced himself from the wall out of caution.

"I believe I've learned how these explosives work." said the half-youkai Rinnosuke. "Apart from this minor… setback, I think we can declare the result of this test as a success."

"Let's break through this rock and let the sun shine on the whole temple then." Kyouichi remembered his part of the bargain with Reimu and was still determined to stay and supervise the handling of explosives for as long as it was necessary.

---

Not long after that, the quarry pit was bustling with workers once more. Rinnosuke, Kyouichi and Soudai were making sure that the explosives were being placed and armed properly and that nobody was nearby when they went off. The yama-bito diggers had no problems breaking the shattered rocks apart and moving them out of the pit, but it was clear to everyone that getting into the temple within one hour, as Reimu asked them to, was more impossible than Princess Kaguya's 5 requests.

"We are not going to return to Human Village today, are we?" Soudai asked Kyouichi during a short break.

"What?! Speak louder, I can't hear you!" Kyouihci's ears were becoming insensitive to the sound after over a dozen detonations in the quarry pit.

"I said, we're not returning to the village today!" the older one repeated louder.

"So it seems! There's still a lot of rock to clear! Those yama-bito don't want to risk detonating the charges too close to any of the obelisks or the tower!"

"Do we even have enough charges to do the job?!"

"I don't know! I have no idea how thick this rock layer is! If there's a softer layer right underneath it, there should be no problem!"

---

The sun has set as the day shifted to evening, and despite making significant progress, the quarry workers have still not managed to gain access into the ancient temple. Reimu wasn't very pleased by this outcome, but at least she was less bossy towards the two outsiders. It was a tiring day for everyone, but the thought that they had their goal within their grasp was motivating them to try even harder tomorrow. The outsiders first tried renting rooms in the Hearth tavern, but the establishment had no vacancy. Their only alternative was to settle down in the tent along with everyone else. Fortunately, Patchouli's tent provided enough room for everyone.

"The workers have finally uncovered the roof of the temple's great hall. At this pace, the temple should become accessible tomorrow." Rinnosuke informed the girls about the progress made today.

"Unless its interior is also flooded with the hardened rock mass." Patchouli noted skeptically.

"Damn…" Reimu quietly muttered a curse. Her impatience to get to the bottom of the spirit outbreak was evident even since the start of this day. "They better make it accessible tomorrow, or I'll plant one of those clay bombs on the roof and blast a hole into the temple myself."

"Patience is a virtue, Reimu-san." Patchouli tired to put her mind at ease, but the miko was still stubbornly grumpy for the remainder of the evening.

"Patchouli-sama," Koakuma entered the tent with a thin pile of papers in her hands, "I have finished transcribing the symbols from the recently uncovered lower parts of the obelisks."

The librarian nodded and asked her familiar to put them on her table. "Thank you. Now let's see… This appears it corresponds with the northern wall of the northwestern obelisk… And this one seems to follow the pattern of the southern central one…" she was already fully indulged in her research again.

"May I have a look at those, Patchouli-san?" the young girl Kosuzu suddenly appeared behind her back with begging eyes like those of a puppy.

"You can help me sort them accordingly."

It seemed that Kosuzu was probably the most excited person in the tent as she happily accepted a portion of the pictogram transcriptions from Patchouli. She gently ran her fingertip across the text on the paper, as if she hoped to understand it by touching it.

"Are you familiar with this language, by any chance?" Patchouli asked her.

"No… But we have many different books in our shop that contain similar characters. Some come from the outside world, but I'm not certain about any possible connection between the symbols and the ones in those books."

Patchouli instantly focused her attention at this young human child. "I'd very much like to see those books."

"Ehehe~." Kosuzu let out a sheepish giggle. "I just arrived to this village today. It would take a day or two for me to pick those books up and bring them here."

"Kosuzu-chan is a bibliophile who has read countless books." Akyuu revealed about her friend. "The Motoori family have been known to collect books for decades, specializing in outside-world literature."

"Yes, and our shop contains some rare pieces that are written in languages that nobody has seen before." Kosuzu completed the information.

"I'd really like to see those mentioned books, but I can't leave Kazemura when we're so close to our goal."

A reluctant sigh cut the following silence. "I'll pick it up for ya, Patchy…" Marisa unexpectedly volunteered herself for the task.

"You will?" Patchouli's amethyst eyes have shifted from Kosuzu to the blonde magician.

"Yeah, I will." she replied unconvincingly. "But right now… I need a good rest."

"Yes, we all do." Kyouichi agreed with her. "Once again, thank you for letting us lodge in your tent, Patchouli-san."

"You're welcome." muttered the violet-haired girl without showing much emotion.

"And for saving our lives." Soudai added and stretched himself on one of the bedrolls.

"Don't mention it." said Patchouli in her typical quiet monotone.

Most of the tent's occupants have lain down to sleep, but the lanterns inside remained lit, for Patchouli, Keine, Akyuu and Kosuzu continued in their diligent nightly research until early morning.

---

Like in a typical village, the morning came as soon as the first rays of sun have shone through the windows of the houses. Most of the hard-working human and youkai inhabitants were already on their feet and busy with work. The distinctive sound of pickaxe swings against a rocky surface has awakened the outsiders from their slumber.

"Aww, man…" Kyouichi groaned in utter displeasure. "Can't they keep the racket down for a few more hours?"

"That's your wake-up call…" Reimu was already up, sipping hot tea from a cup and eating some light breakfast.

The girls who were reading books and analyzing the transcriptions were all fast asleep.

"It's amazing how they can sleep so peacefully in this noisy environment." Soudai commented after yawning and stretching his arms. "It almost feels like back home." he recalled the nostalgic sounds of a busy street in Tokyo.

"If it's like that where you lived, then you should be used to getting up early." remarked the shrine maiden.

"Being used to it is one thing… *yawn* and liking it is another…" Kyouichi was slowly regaining his dulled senses.

After washing their faces in a barrel of water and having some breakfast that was served to the quarry workers for free, the outsiders along with Rinnosuke have moved down to the quarry to continue and hopefully to finish their job.

"We still have so many crates left." the half-youkai commented as he threw a glance at the cart, still loaded with over 10 crates of C4.

"At least we won't have to worry about running out anytime soon." Soudai looked on the brighter side.

---

And he was right. After 8 hours and 45 minutes of hard, noisy, dirty and dangerous work, the villagers of Kazemura could finally put down their pickaxes and raise their arms in a wild celebration. They haven't managed to reach the temple's entrance yet, but they succeeded in gaining access to the temple by uncovering several of its window openings.

"We did it!" echoed the loud cheers all over the village. "We've made history today!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk…" Keine Kamishirasawa watched the cheering villagers from the southern edge of the pit while shaking her head. "Don't they know that history is not created so simply?"

"Who cares about history? I only care about the present!" Reimu instantly floated down to the deepened bottom of the pit and demanded the curious crowd of diggers the move out of her way so she could enter the temple.

"Not so fast, red-white." Patchouli pulled her dress from behind. "The interior of this ancient building may not be the safest place to stick your head into. We should first check if it's stable enough."

"Then hurry!" the miko crossed her arms and gave Patchouli quite a mean stare.

With the way clear, Patchouli, as the leader of the archeological research expedition team, had the unique privilege to be the first person to enter the interior of this mysterious ancient structure. However, she did not dare to step or even float inside just yet. What caught her attention and raised her suspicion to maximum was the fact that the temple's interior was perfectly preserved and untouched by the outside elements.

"How is this possible?" she whispered a question to herself as she peeked inside through one of the windows.

"Patchouli-san, Patchouli-san~! Can I take a peek as well?" Akyuu just trotted down to the deepest section of the quarry where she met the librarian and the shrine maiden.

Patchouli silently stepped aside and allowed both her and Reimu to steal a glance at the darkened interior of the great hall. "Tell me if that's not the strangest thing you've ever seen…"

"Nah, that would be a sober Suika." Reimu replied humorously, but her curiosity and impatience have literally commanded her to look inside. "Hmm… I can't see much inside. It's too dark."

"Exactly!"

"Patchouli-sama…" Akyuu tentatively addressed the sorceress. "If this temple was buried by lava after a volcanic eruption... how come the lava didn't flood the interior through the doors and windows and fill it up with the same rock layer that we had to break through to get here?"

"Exactly!" Patchouli repeated herself. "That's what I'd like to know as well… Marisa would surely be curious to see this too."

However, Marisa was currently in Human Village, as she agreed to bring the books from Suzunaan that Patchouli was so curious about. She left Kazemura together with Kosuzu who would help her find the required books much faster.

"Marisa would first strip this place clean of any valuables." Reimu visualized her best friend's behavior if she was here.

Patchouli cast an illuminating spell into the dark hall, but the floating light orb fizzled out not even 10 seconds after it was cast.

"Amazing magic drain." she uttered with her mouth ajar. "Let's perform a magic scan."

Already prepared, Patchouli took out a small glass ball out of her handbag and observed the interior. "Hmm… nothing."

She shifted the globe to take a look at Reimu, but the magic detection artifact barely picked up any traces of supernatural energy around the shrine maiden's figure.

"What are you looking at?"

"Did you know that you've lost nearly all of your power?"

"What are you talking about?" the miko blinked twice in surprise.

"Try flying."

"We don't have time for your games! I just floated down to the pit a minute ago. Someone pass me a torch! I'm going in."

"I'm serious, Reimu!" Patchouli raised her voice, but the stubborn shrine maiden was already given a torch by one of the prospectors and she approached the temple's window.

The librarian decided to block her path with her body, which under normal circumstances would almost certainly result in angering the shrine maiden to the point of open attack.

"Out of my way, youkai!" she angrily pushed the short youkai girl aside, which, considering Patchouli's poor physical strength, really didn't take much effort.

"Mukyu!"

She was about to squeeze through the narrow opening and float into the darkness, when she came to a shocking revelation that she couldn't fly.

"What the?! Aaaaaaaaaaaaah~!" she slipped and just barely grabbed the edge of the window before she'd fall down to the hall's floor. She dropped her torch and saw it falling for something over 2 seconds before it hit the bottom. A fall from this height could end up ugly for anyone. Now, the desperate shrine maiden was hanging by the edge of the window and screaming for help.

Patchouli was the first to run to her aid, but her body was not built to be able to pull Reimu up.

"Uuuu~. Koakuma~! Heeelp~!" she called for her familiar, hoping that at least she would have enough magic left within her body to save Reimu from falling. The devil girl showed up simultaneously with a group of brave volunteers from the quarry, all of them rushing to Reimu's rescue. In a matter of a few seconds, the Hakurei shrine maiden was pulled out and her feet were once again standing on firm ground.

"W-why…? Why can't I fly?!" she stuttered out, not even mentioning a word of thanks to her rescuers or a word of apology to Patchouli, who wanted to prevent her from hurting herself.

"Because we must be getting closer to the source of whatever is draining magic and divine energy. We must proceed with extreme caution here."

"Hey, Reimu~!" Kyouichi just arrived to the scene after seeing the commotion around the temple's only access. "Are you alright?"

She only lifted her eyes briefly before she looked down at Patchouli again. "I never heard of vengeful spirits being able to siphon divine and magical powers."

"We're dealing with something more than just vengeful spirits and necromancy here. I've read countless magic tomes and every single kind of magic has potential to cast magic disrupting spells. These are generally mastered by only high-tier mages and are rarely ever cast by them, since doing so generally meant for the magician to temporarily lose their power. In battles and wars, magic disruption spells were either used at the beginning of a battle or as a last resort."

"But they wore out eventually, right?" asked Reimu.

"Yes. A few hours at best. But this… If it's a spell, then it must have lasted for millennia… Either that or it was cast recently."

"But Patchouli-san…" Akyuu raised her little hand. "The workers of this quarry have been complaining about being more tired after working here ever since the tips of the obelisks were discovered. And during the fairy attack when we took shelter in the tavern… wasn't Kanako-sama's and Suwako-sama's power drained a little too quickly?"

"Hmm… Indeed." the elemental sorceress hummed in deep thought. "The day when I temporarily lost my voice… We were all worn out rather easily… Although with the amount of fairies we had to deal with, I thought it wasn't anything unusual."

"So it could be that someone or something down there has been constantly keeping a magic disruption spell active all this time." deduced the young, but exceptionally clever little chronicler.

"Great. And we just breached the barrier of rock that has been providing us with at least a little protection from its effect." remarked the displeased shrine maiden. "How am I supposed to exorcise the spirits now?"

"Well, Reimu-san, the first step to that would be to get back behind the shimenawa barrier and wait for your powers to replenish naturally." Akyuu gave her a tongue-in-cheek advice.

And while the 8 times reincarnated chronicler took the whole situation with a grain of humor, Reimu certainly wasn't prepared for being robbed of nearly everything that made her a respected and recognized authority in Gensokyo. Suddenly she started feeling incredibly uncomfortable at the bottom of Kazemura's quarry.

"What would happen if the spirits decided to launch another fairy attack now?! We wouldn't be able to do anything to stop them!"

"That's what the tengu are here for." answered Akyuu.

"The tengu could get drained the same way we were just now. We're all vulnerable!"

"Perhaps so, but neither the fairies would be able to use their powers for too long." Patchouli replied calmly.

"Patchouli-sama~." Koakuma muttered groggily. "I feel a little strange."

"Magic powers and divine powers are being drained away, but youkai powers remain unaffected. Fighting the vengeful spirits here would be impossible. I'm not going to enter this temple without any means to protect myself." the purple-haired librarian declared firmly, despite being greatly tempted to explore the temple before everyone else.

"Hey, girls…" Kyouichi finally managed to weave his way through all the curious quarry workers who have made a circle around the area which led to the unearthed windows. "What's the matter? Aren't you going to explore the ruins?"

"You should really stay away from this place unless you want all your magic… Oh, wait… You don't have any. Well, I guess it's okay then." Reimu tried to warn him, but realized that outsiders such as Kyouichi and Soudai would probably be unaffected.

"You forgot how to fly?"

"All of us did, it seems." Patchouli replied instead of Reimu.

"And how to use spells and danmaku…" the miko complemented her. "Something inside the ruins is leeching our powers away."

"Mind if I…?" he gestured at the great hall's window, meaning if he could take a peek inside.

"You can look, but be extra cautious. You saw what happened to Reimu-san…"

"Ishimaru~!" Soudai's call from behind startled him. "Don't go in there~!"

"I'm not going inside. I just want to take a look."

"Oh… Okay." he shrugged and slowly descended to the dark opening. They both grabbed onto the wall and carefully poked their heads inside.

The faint light from Reimu's fallen torch gave them an idea that the actual floor of the great hall was still at least 12 meters below their level. A safe descent would only be possible with a rope or a really long ladder.

"Is it just me, or is the floor also covered with those odd pictograms?" Soudai tried to focus his eyes at the area that was at least faintly illuminated by the torch's flame.

"Wow…" Kyouichi was still at a loss for words for a moment. "This place looks like something straight out of a freakin' Indiana Jones movie…"

"Hehe, yeah. Or a Tomb Raider game."

After yet another while of silent gazing into the dark hall, Kyouichi finally turned away. "Come on, Soudai. Our work is done here."

"That it is… We've kept our end of the deal, Reimu-san. We've helped you gain access into the ruins, now you keep your part of the promise."

The shrine maiden let out an exasperated sigh. "Alright… You can return to Human Village as soon as Marisa gets here to pick you up…"

As the saying "Speak of the Devil" goes, the mentioned witch has just appeared above their heads circling down on her broom and looking for a place to land.

"And there she is." Patchouli noticed her first as she lifted her chin upwards.

The blonde wasn't alone on her broom. Kosuzu was seated behind her and a large cloth bag was tied to the broom's tail, most likely filled with the requested books from the collection of the Motoori family.

"Maybe someone should give her a warning not to stay here for too long." Reimu suggested.

"Yo, folks~!" she greeted everyone informally as she hopped down from her broom. "I've got all the books you asked for, Patchy~! Oh…" she suddenly paused herself as she noticed the uncovered window. "Oh my… They actually did it? You've gained access into the temple!"

"We did." Patchouli's reply was terse.

"So? What the hell are you all standing around for?! Let's plunder the place!"

Reimu showed her a halting gesture. "Hold it, Marisa. That place is not safe for magic users, gods and shrine maidens. Your plundering will have to wait at least until we figure out a way how to stop its magic disruption effect. No… You go and take these two guys home to Human Village. There's no need for them to stay here any longer." she pointed at Kyouichi and Soudai.

"What? Again?! I've just been in the blasted village an hour ago!" the witch obviously didn't like Reimu's suggestion.

"I second Reimu's suggestion." Patchouli joined the miko's attempt to convince her friend for another flight. "We have a more important mission for you."

"Oh? You call running errands for you "important missions"?"

"You may call it whatever you wish." The librarian shrugged. "The situation calls for the reassembly of the expedition team. Namely Horaisan Kaguya, Saigyouji Yuyuko, Komeiji Satori, and Himekaidou Hatate. Everyone else is optional…"

Marisa stood there like a pillar for a while, unable to find the right words for a witty retort.

And so, Kosuzu decided to negotiate with her as well. "I could let you have one of those books for free for your troubles."

Marisa instantly perked up, but she wasn't convinced so easily. "Just one? How about three?"

"How about none?" Kosuzu showed her negotiation skills by setting a clear limit to her generosity.

"Ugh… alright." she sighed almost as reluctantly as Reimu. "Just let me drop this bag off in your tent." she sat back on her broom and kicked its tail with her heel.

"Huh?" she blinked her eyes puzzledly as the broom seemed to show no reaction to her spurring. "What's wrong?" she tried to take off once more, but nothing happened.

"Oh, perfect… Now even she lost it." said Reimu with a hint of amusement.

"Come on! Fly!" the blonde girl still futilely attempted to wake her sleeping magic broom up, but it seemed the only thing it could be useful for now was sweeping. "Did this thing run out of juice or something?"

The two outsiders who were expecting to hitch a ride to Human Village on Marisa's broom were now getting a little worried about having no choice but to cross the long distance on foot again.

"This is not looking good."

"Crap, I don't want to walk! But I don't want to stay here either…"

Marisa put away her broom and was now trying to fly without its aid, but all she managed to do was jumping. "What the heck has happened to me?!"

"I think you weren't paying attention to what I was saying." said the librarian of the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

And the witch wasn't paying attention even now, as she was desperately trying to fly, hopping on one place and flailing her arms like wings. "I wanna fly~! I wanna fly~!"

This image has managed to make Reimu snicker in amusement. For once her face showed an expression other than a frown or scowl today. "Looks like you two are really going to have to walk." she addressed the words to the outsiders, who could have already guessed this fact by now.

"We should really leave this quarry for now." Patchouli suggested wisely and slowly headed for the access ramp.

"I hope this is just a temporary thing." Marisa grudgingly picked up the broom and the heavy bag full of books and followed her fellow magic user out of the quarry.

"No choice but to agree here…" Reimu saw no meaning in staying down there either. Everyone slowly began leaving the dig site and so did the outsiders. Only the yama-bito and the human denizens of Kazemura have remained there, continuing their work until the sun would set.

---

"We must find a solution to deal with this problem." Reimu declared once she was again inside Patchouli's tent.

"That's why I want to reassemble our team." the sorceress replied. "Kaguya-san would surely be a valuable asset right now… Or Eirin-san."

"Why those two in particular?" wondered Marisa.

"Immortailty. They wouldn't have to risk anything, even if they'd lose their magic, the elixir would keep them alive no matter what would happen to them down there."

"I hate to interrupt your debate, ladies," Kyouichi interrupted them, "but how are we going to get safely to Human Village now? None of you are in condition to escort us."

"I'll go with you." Keine suddenly stood up from the table, looking as though as she was ready to head out any time.

"Keine-sensei?"

"I wasn't down in the pit with the rest of the team, so I have plenty of magic to keep your journey safe."

"Do you really mean it?" Soudai was also pleasantly surprised by his teacher's kind gesture.

"Of course I do. Just pack your things up and I'll go whenever you're ready."

"Thank you… Really." both outsiders bowed to her thankfully and started packing up.

They didn't take much with them in the first place, so it didn't even take them long to tell Keine-sensei that they were ready. They said their farewells to all the girls in the team and wished them good luck with their endeavors. And just when they were about to leave the tent, Reimu stood up to say her parting words to the outsiders.

"Travel safely."

"We shall try, Reimu."

"So… the first of Kannazuki, huh?" she asked them about the day when they planned to depart from Gensokyo. "That's just in a month…"

"Yes. That's the day. Please make sure your schedule is free, so that we could actually find you at your shrine when we sneak out of the village." Kyouichi asked of her.

"Heh." she cuckled softly. "I shall try… But I don't promise anything."

The outsider let out a chuckle as well. "Those are the words I use."

"Sakuya will get you out of the village and I will get you out of Gensokyo as we agreed."

"Thanks for everything."

Kyouichi looked well into Reimu's brown eyes for a longer while, as if he was trying to carve her face into his memory.

"Just doing my job…" she said her parting words with a little sad-looking smile. "Goodbye… Ishimaru Kyouichi and Asakura Soudai…"

"See you in a month, Reimu-san!" the older outsider attempted to sound more cheerful to brighten up the mood, but his heart also felt a strange aching sensation.

"Yes… See you in a month." the shrine maiden repeated and bowed her head lightly.

And so, the outsiders have turned their backs to the village of Kazemura, and under the protection of their teacher, while exposed to her lecturing speeches, they set out on the long journey back to the Human Village.

---

"Where did Asakura and Ishimaru disappear to?" Rinnosuke has just returned to the tent after he left the tavern and cast quizzical glances at everyone inside.

"You missed them by a couple of minutes, ze." Marisa waved her palm. "Keine decided to walk them all the way back to the village. I sure don't envy them…"

"Drat… I wanted them to take the bicycle back to my shop."

"Well, if you hurry up, you may still catch them, Kourin, hehe."

After figuring out that it was probably too late to chase after Keine and the two outsiders, Rinnosuke resignedly sat down on the ground and sighed. "If I at least knew how to ride that thing…"

And while Rinnosuke contemplated the magic required to ride a 2-wheeled vehicle, Reimu suddenly walked up to Patchouli's table and sat opposite of her. "Um… Patchouli…"

As expected, the sorceress was currently focused on the books that Marisa and Kosuzu have brought from Suzunaan, and it took her a while to notice her name being called.

"Yes?" she batted her violet eyes at the shrine maiden.

"I…" she started timidly and uncertainly.

"Hm?" Patchouli tilted her head to the side.

"I… wanted to…. Umm… Sorry…"

"Pardon?"

"I said I'm sorry! I'm sorry that I ignored your warning and pushed you out of my way when I wanted to get into the temple!" she blurted out in a manner that sounded almost as if she was scolding the youkai girl. After that, her cheeks gained a color not unlike her dress and the miko turned her gaze away from her.

Patchouli's stoic expression slowly, but certainly began to brighten up as she showed her rare, but beautiful smile. "It's alright Reimu-san… I have already forgiven you."