Chapter 69 – A Crisis of Faith
Tenma didn't even have to say a word to Hatate, as she knew exactly what to do. She took a multitude of close-up pictures of the severed section of shimenawa rope. To analyze them, however, would take her some time. Time, which Reimu and her company didn't want to waste.
"I can already see we're going to have to chase some random possessed fairy all over Gensokyo. And that's probably going to be pointless even if we succeed." the shrine maiden spoke her mind. "We should focus on solving that puzzle in the temple and opening the portal."
"It's obvious that whoever did this is trying to distract and delay us from doing that." said Aya. "But we can't go back into the temple unless the whole quarry is purged of evil spirits again and the shimenawa fence restored."
"Well, isn't that wonderful?" the miko asked sarcastically. "We've used up all the available materials in Kazemura to make it."
"Why don't you just tie the cut-off ends together?" Marisa asked a question, which probably any logically-thinking person would.
"Because it'd be nearly impossible to do and because it wouldn't work as a protective barrier."
"There have to be better ways to ward away evil spirits…" the witch tried to suggest an alternative, but her red-white friend adamantly shook her head.
"I'm going to the Moriya shrine and see if they'll let me have some of their shimenawa. It'd save me a lot of time and trouble of making it myself."
"That's still quite the trip to make. Are you sure?"
"Better than waiting for Miss Kotatsu Reporter to divine some bogus information from the pictures she snapped."
"What did you say?!" Hatate puffed up her chest and clenched her fists as she asked with a raised voice. Her rival in journalism, on the other hand, was letting out strange snorts from behind Reimu.
"I can get there much faster." Aya presented an offer and a smile.
Reimu turned her head to face her and gave her the "you think I'd trust you with something that important?" look. But before she could put her rejection into words, Lord Tenma made a sudden unexpected step towards the journalist, leaned down and murmured: "Actually, Aya, I have one special assignment for you."
"For me?" the crow tengu repeated, looking surprised. "What is it, Tenma-sama?"
Reimu's sigh of relief was almost audible when she figured that she wouldn't have to convince Aya against her idea, but that's when some other nuisance opened her mouth.
"If you need something hauled, all ya gotta do is ask~! My broom was made for the task."
Of course. Marisa. It wouldn't be her if she didn't want to tag along. Sometimes Reimu just wanted to have some peace and quiet, some alone time to help her re-organize her thoughts. Due to limited privacy, or complete lack thereof, which living in one crowded tent entailed, the shrine maiden would jump at any opportunity to disconnect herself from the stress of dealing with others. Even if it was for a menial errand. It's not that Aya or Marisa couldn't handle the bargaining or the delivery part. On the contrary, they could. Perhaps even faster… Provided Marisa wouldn't find some magical way to accidentally damage the rope like she did the mirror. But that wasn't Reimu's issue. She just needed a breath of fresh air and a change of scenery.
But fate and Marisa would have it their way, it seemed.
"Come, on, Reimu!" the witch already straddled her bamboo broom, impatiently hovering a couple of feet above ground. "Stop spacing-out. We've got ropes to steal!"
She didn't even try to conceal her intentions. Reimu just shook her head resignedly, and with a half-hearted jump, she kicked off the ground.
Reimu's vision of spending some time in quiet solitude dissolved like a grain of sugar in a cup of hot tea.
Not even ten seconds into the flight, Marisa started to chat. "So, Reimu… Suppose we get the rope and fix the fence and whatnot… What's gonna prevent the mysterious culprit from cutting it again?"
"Our vigilance." Reimu replied without giving it much thought.
"Heh. You think you can do better than a few hundred tengu?"
The miko didn't respond immediately. At least not until she and her ever-loyal friend flew over the hill west of Kazemura.
"How can I possibly trust the tengu if they didn't notice anything suspicious? For all I know, it could have been one of them. Or all of them. You said it yourself."
"Oi, oi… Let's not steer into the conspiracy theory territory."
"No, Marisa." Reimu briefly turned her face towards the witch. "I'm voicing a very serious concern. You and I both know how the tengu wanted to reserve the privilege of accessing the temple all for themselves. Now that their negotiations have failed, they created this situation to make everyone evacuate the quarry and use the temple for whatever their intentions are… And of course, they are the ones carrying out the investigation, meaning they can tailor the evidence to give themselves alibi."
Whatever point Reimu might have been making was drowned out in the sound of Marisa's sincere laughter. "You're been borrowing a lot of Patchouli's detective novels lately, haven't you? Do you also suspect everyone else of collaborating in this Machiavellian scheme?"
"Look. The mastermind of this incident is powerful, resourceful, cunning and manipulative. If they could control an army of spirits to possess the fairies, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume they could possess a tengu or two."
"I see where you're getting at, but do you seriously believe ALL the tengu are possessed? Because if they were, I think they would have chosen a more direct approach of securing the temple."
"What if the fairies were a mere distraction?" Reimu continued to elaborate her theory. "What if the spirits controlling them deliberately acted in this relentless violent fashion to make everyone believe that's the only way any possessed creature can act?"
"Well, I don't know, but if I was the villain," Marisa thoughtfully scratched her chin, "I would have possessed more than just one type of youkai to make my deception more convincing."
"And if I was the villain, I would make everyone think that I'm too weak to manipulate anything bigger and stronger than a fairy." the miko rebutted.
"I guess that makes sense." Marisa had to admit. "But I'm afraid the only way for us to confirm or deny your fears would be…. to go fetch Satori again." she finished her sentence after a brief pause. "Or find the Hell's judge."
"Probably… But I'm not changing my plans. I'm headed for the Moriya Shrine."
"Hey, since I'm going with you and all… Why don't we split up?"
"I don't really care." Reimu responded with indifference.
"Oh, yes you do." Marisa chuckled. "You're just too tsundere to say it."
She really had taken a liking to using that new word from the outside world.
Marisa kept on pestering Reimu with her idle, meaningless chitchat and gossip basically all the way to the Youkai Mountain. If this was any normal day when Reimu would be sitting on her shrine's porch, sipping tea with all her chores done, this would have been a welcome distraction, but right now, she couldn't wait for the witch to finally part ways with her upon reaching the mountain.
"Finally… I swear this mountain is drifting further away from Kazemura with each passing day." the miko accelerated her flight by almost double of her standard velocity. Even Marisa had to exert some effort to match her. With thinner air in this high altitude, flight was faster and easier, but one always had to be wary of hypoxia.
"Slow down, Reimu~!"
Before long, they could see the tall onbashira, towering above the Wind God's Lake like guiding beacons. With the arrival of autumn, the mountain's scenery reminded both girls of an older incident, but that was perhaps a professional deformation, and in Marisa's case, a hobby deformation, as neither of the two could travel to any part of Gensokyo without recalling some older incident tied to the location.
"This scenery almost looks… nostalgic, eh, Reimu?"
"I wish I had time to reminisce."
"What are you talking about?" the ordinary magician sometimes failed to understand Reimu's way of thinking, and this was one of those moments. "There's always time to reminisce."
But obviously, Reimu wasn't in the mood. "Hey, weren't you supposed to go to the Palace of the Earth Spirits?"
"I will. But first, I wanna say hi to Sanae and company."
While Marisa struggled to understand Reimu's mind, Reimu in turn wished she could be as easygoing and carefree as Marisa appeared to be now.
The shrine maiden sighed as she began to descend. "Whatever. But I'm not going to wait for you after I get the rope."
"No worries." the blonde witch reassuringly waved her hand. "I'll be in and out of Chireiden before you can say "zun"."
The girls quietly landed at the entrance of Moriya Shrine and the more assertive of the two took the rope hanging over the donation box and gave it a few good pulls to ring the bells above. That was the standard procedure at most Shinto shrines when praying.
Not long after that, a mixture of muffled voices began to react to the unexpected commotion.
"Are you sure it wasn't just the wind?" Marisa could make out the words spoken by a mature-sounding voice, most likely belonging to Kanako.
"That was no wind, Kanako-sama! Someone really rang the bell." a younger girl's voice responded. And since Suwako would hardly address the other goddess with an honorific, it could only be Sanae. "You should answer that in your best interest. Every drop of faith counts. You can read my manga later…"
"Alright, alright. I'm coming… Sheesh."
A couple of seconds and footsteps later, Reimu and Marisa could hear the sound of a door unlatching. In the next moment they were staring at the face of the shrine's presiding deity.
Marisa, ever the jokester, put her side braid between her nose and upper lip to make it look like a moustache and spoke up in an altered deeper voice. "Ehm. Hello there~. We're two pilgrims from a faraway land and we've come here seeking enlightenment and an audience with the gods."
Kanako's awkward expression only became more confused after Reimu spoke up.
"Look, we're just here to borrow some shimenawa."
A couple of more seconds of awkward stares and silence, and Kanako was starting to put two and two together.
"Did something happen in Kazemura again?"
"Well… yeah." Marisa dropped the act and her braid back to its natural position.
"And there's no more hemp in the whole village for you to make a replacement?"
"It's not the lack of hemp. It's the time and effort that we're trying to save here." Reimu explained.
Kanako was about to say something, when Sanae's voice called from inside the shrine: "Who's paying us a visit, Kanako-sama?"
"Yo-ho, Sanae~! Howzit goin'?" Marisa called back without hesitation while energetically waving her hand.
The sound of rushing footsteps echoed from within. A familiar green-haired head poked out of the doorway. "You girls? Did you come for a visit, or do you need help exterminating something?"
"Both." Marisa answered, but Reimu thought otherwise.
"Not really…"
"Which one is it then?" the blue-white miko shifted her gaze from one visitor to the other.
"There's nothing to exterminate yet, but there soon will be if we don't act fast."
"From what little they've told me," Kanako interjected, "it seems that the shimenawa fence around Kazemura's quarry pit has been damaged. And now these two have come begging for a spare rope."
"Who's begging here?" Reimu scowled at the wind goddess. "We've come to inform you that we need one and will take it by force if necessary."
"Oh, my apologies…" Kanako corrected herself as she spoke to Sanae. "They've come to rob us of one."
"I can't say that'd be very nice of them, but in this situation… I almost sympathize with them."
"If that place remains unsealed, its influence could spread over all Gensokyo." Reimu warned the goddess and her shrine maiden.
"Not to mention the evil spirits which are probably already possessing fairies in droves as we speak." Marisa added.
"We don't really have a spare." Kanako frowned and noticed Reimu's upward gaze. "And there's no way we're giving you the one hanging over your head."
"How about the one hovering behind you then?" Reimu was beginning to lose patience.
Ignoring her aggressive remarks, Kanako nodded to herself, as if she was deciding upon something. "I could lend you my power to make a length of shimenawa rope…"
"Hey, if you could convert the Palanquin Ship for Byakuren into the Temple of Myouren overnight, a simple rope must be piece of cake for you." the blonde witch smiled encouragingly.
Sanae seemed to agree as well. "This will also gain you a little more faith. That's never a bad thing, right?"
"Whatever little faith I'll get from this, I'll use up by making the rope." the goddess shrugged, but she seemed to be willing to carry her plan out anyway.
"Maybe, but you'll help protect Gensokyo's peace by doing that, Kanako-sama." the green-haired miko reassured her. "People are going to hear about it and we may even get more worshippers in the long run."
"I doubt these two are going to sing praises of my divine benevolence in Kazemura. And I really don't feel like returning to that godless place. The last visit has left me and Suwako nearly powerless. And I thought the outside world was bad…"
"It's not like we're inviting you to come with us anyway." Reimu replied sternly. "Just make that rope and we'll fix the fence."
"That's right." Sanae seconded. "I'll go to Kazemura and give them a hand. And I'll let the people know that they are once again safe thanks to you."
The Hakurei shrine maiden didn't seem to share Sanae's optimism, though. "As long as the mastermind controlling the spirits is still at large, Gensokyo will never be quite safe."
"How did it happen, anyway?" Kanako nonchalantly changed the topic. "The fence damage I mean. Weren't the tengu supposed to guard it?"
"That's what we'd love to know as well." Marisa shrugged her shoulders. "We were in the temple when it happened. Hatate only noticed the severed rope by chance. And nobody seems to have seen anything suspicious."
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The enemy must have a mole infiltrated amongst the villagers or the tengu. You should first work on catching them; otherwise fixing the fence will be pointless."
"Thanks for your wisdom, but we already figured that out by ourselves." Reimu crossed her arms, frowning. "Hatate and others are already working on it. In the meantime, we're here to have the fence mended as soon as possible. Oh, and Marisa was supposed to go to the Palace of the Earth spirits to get Satori, so we could identify the culprit." She threw a sidelong glance at the witch, wondering why she was still standing there and not hurrying to the underground.
Only now did the ordinary magician snap out of her carefree mood, realizing that she still had an important task to do. "Oh, right. Satori. I should get going, shouldn't I?"
"Satori, huh?" Kanako put her finger on her lower lip in a thoughtful gesture. "I might be able to make her come up to the surface to save you the trouble."
"You could?" Marisa quirked her brow. "Are you in touch with her?"
"Not directly, of course. I try to avoid her as much as possible, but I am in touch with someone who can relay the message…" the smile that Kanako showed seemed almost mischievous. "Sanae, why don't you make some tea for our guests while they wait?"
The green-haired girl blinked perplexedly at Kanako's sudden request, but quickly snapped back to reality and obliged. "Yes, Kanako-sama! Please, come on in!" she beckoned the guests to follow her.
Without much arguing, the two followed her into the shrine.
Sanae led them through the living area where a certain earth goddess was lying dozed off with her lower body hidden underneath the kotatsu table. Her unusual hat sat there beside her, its eyes curiously scanning the visitors' faces. Marisa curiously examined the open manga book that lay on the table as she walked past it.
"This way…" Sanae spoke with a hushed voice, as not to disturb Suwako's nap. She slid open a door leading to her bedroom, where she told the guests to make themselves at home while she made the tea.
"So this is Sanae's room…" Marisa was no less mesmerized than Reimu as her eyes trailed around the room's furnishing and decorations. Unlike Reimu, who slept on a futon, this shrine maiden enjoyed the luxury of a comfortable bed. The wall next to it was covered with lots of posters, depicting all sorts of people – some real, some drawn, just like in that book that Kanako was reading. Some appeared to be music bands, some were famous scientists.
"Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Sir Isaac Newton…" Marisa read out some of the names aloud. "What a geeky room."
"At least she keeps it spotless. Unlike someone I know…"
But the posters weren't by far all that was "geeky" about Sanae's bedroom. She also had plenty of bookshelves stacked with colorful books, many of which seemingly had the same cover.
"Quite a decent book collection..." Naturally, that's what Marisa's eyes gravitated towards the most. "But why would Sanae buy so many volumes of the same book?"
Only after taking one to examine it closer, she noticed the difference in cover pictures and the numbering, which told her that the book was a part of a series.
The other half of Sanae's bookshelves was reserved for miniature statues of various characters with crazy outfits and even crazier hairstyles. It didn't take long for Marisa to put two and two together and notice that some of them were from Sanae's picture books.
"Wow… these outsiders sure know how to create some awesome, but useless stuff."
"Handle my figures with care, please." Sanae's voice made the witch jolt up slightly. The hosting shrine maiden was back with a tray and three tea cups."
"Oh, that's what they're called?" Marisa quickly glanced over her shoulder. "Can they move?"
"Well… some figures have flexible joints or interchangeable parts, but otherwise, no, they can't."
"There are more details on them than on some of Alice's dolls."
"That's all thanks to a technology called 3D printing." Sanae explained tersely and waited for Marisa to put her PVC figure back to its shelf.
"I wonder if I could have a figure of myself printed out." the blonde thought to herself.
"You probably could. If you were in the outside world…" Sanae barely finished the sentence when she saw Marisa picking up another item, like a child in a toy shop.
"Haha! Reimu, look at this! What a funny-looking gohei!" she stared amusedly at the pink wand with a circular end and a yellow star-shaped ornament set in the circle's center. The rod also sported a pair of white wings on each side of the circle. "What do you exterminate with it? Dignity?"
"Please, put that down!" Sanae pleaded. Fruitlessly. "I bought that Star Wand at a convention a long time ago. You better not break it."
"Star Wand? What self-respecting magician would use that for a wand?"
"Why, none other than Cardcaptor Sakura from the eponymous manga and anime series. She uses it later in the series instead of her old Sealing Wand."
"Well, Sakuya may be a decent Spell Card captor, but I can't imagine her using this…"
"Not Sakuya. Sakura!" Sanae corrected the silly witch, although the notion admittedly amused her as well.
"I should give it a try." Marisa assumed an action stance with the wand outstretched at an invisible foe. "Masteeeeeer Spa…"
"…it's just a prop." Sanae coldheartedly burst Marisa's bubble of childish delusion. "Anyway, this design is nothing uncommon in the genre. It is a magical girl wand after all."
"Well, it does look extremely… girly." Marisa finally put the toy wand back to its original place, much to Sanae's relief.
"Does she also touch all of your stuff when she's at your shrine?" Sanae cast a glance at Reimu's who's been quiet for a while, only to find her in the middle of trying on a cat-eared headband. "Forget I said anything…"
After thoroughly probing every corner of Sanae's bedroom and examining every oddity the girls finally sat down to have their now lukewarm tea.
"Kanako is sure taking her sweet time…" Reimu's impatience again seemed to be getting the better of her.
"You forgot to say 'nya'." Marisa poked fun at Reimu's adorable pair of cat ears, even though the miko had long since taken them off.
"You have to understand that after she and Suwako-sama left Kazemura, they haven't been doing too well. The forces at work there seem to be most aggressive against divine beings. We humans can recover from the ill effects rather quickly in comparison, but for them…"
"I see. So that's why Suwako's still asleep at this hour." Marisa made a logical assumption.
"Suwako-sama's recovery is going to be a long one. She can only stay awake for a few hours a day. She never was the one to gather faith, that's why she's worse off than Kanako-sama. Sometimes I wish she was a bit more selfish." Sanae looked down into her half-empty cup.
"Similar story as with Remilia." the witch drew a parallel. "It would be a lot simpler if your goddesses were vampires. All they'd have to do is to nibble on a few outsiders and presto. Problem solved."
"That battle had taken its toll on many of us." Sanae nodded. "But we've been getting by. Kanako-sama says that it's harder to gain faith these days more than ever, but despite that, she's recovered a fair portion of her former power."
"If the gods are weakened by that temple's field that much, it must mean a lot of people are losing faith in them."
"That's exactly the problem. Kanako-sama's greatest fear is that this malicious power will engulf all of Gensokyo, turning it into a faithless vacuum."
"That would have catastrophic consequences." Reimu seemed to have understood the direness of the situation only now, and when she did, she became even more impatient. "You should tell Kanako to move it."
Even though there was no evidence hinting towards the void field's expansion, the mere thought of that possibility was unsettling to the Hakurei shrine maiden.
"Hey, if all goes to hell, we can still bury that temple again." Marisa reminded everyone of a possible last resort.
"Not before we open the portal and beat some sense into whoever is causing this mess." spoke the hot-headed Hakurei pride through Reimu's mouth.
"You said you were already close to its opening, right?" Sanae redirected Reimu's attention as well as tension elsewhere.
"So said the big old tengu. Marisa thinks that's what provoked the enemy to cause some chaos by cutting the shimenawa fence, although we have no idea who or how they did it without anyone noticing. That's why we need Satori's help."
The blonde magician hummed. "If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say the culprit did it when the guards were hailing the arriving daitengu. That's how we slipped into the temple undetected."
"No, Marisa. We had to ask Suika to create a diversion, because there were always a few sentries guarding the quarry." Reimu corrected her friend.
"Ah, that's true. My bad~. But what if Hatate and her spirit photography had already solved that case of rope-cutting phantom?" Marisa presented an optimistic, but still realistic scenario.
"Then I'd rather err on the side of caution." Reimu answered as she slurped out the last remnant of tea in her cup.
Meanwhile in the Hell of Blazing Fires…
Deep underground, hidden underneath the Youkai Mountain, there is a place brighter than the sky in daytime. A place of scorching heat and extreme pressure. A place, where no normal human would survive for too long. This gigantic system of caves, where molten lava flows in an endless stream, aptly named the Hell of Blazing Fires, is home to only two types of entities: hell ravens and spirits. Occasionally, a kasha may be seen passing through every now and then, carrying a fresh corpse on her wheelbarrow, or heading out to the surface to fetch one. If one was to follow her trail, they'd eventually find themselves in the center of this so-called Former Hell, where the fires burn white-hot and where the naturally irregular cavernous walls are replaced by an almost perfectly symmetrical vertical tunnel. That tunnel is the Underground's Nuclear Furnace. This tremendous subterranean furnace is capable of what no other similar reactor in the outside world can do, that is, nuclear fusion. Powered by none other than Utsuho Reiuji – the hell raven, who consumed a part of Yatagarasu, a three-legged crow avatar of the sun goddess Amaterasu. It is thanks to that acquired power that the Former Hell is ablaze again. It is thanks to that power, that the kappa and the tengu have their energy to power their industry. Why did Utsuho decide to snack on a divine avatar? She can barely remember herself, even though it wasn't all that long ago. Every day down here is the same for her. In fact, she's barely even aware of the passing of day and night. Her job is as simple as her mind: heat the furnace up when the needle is below the green line; vent the excess heat to the surface when the needle is over the red line. The fuel for the furnace? The fresh corpses brought by her kasha colleague, of course. That is the extent of Utsuho's work. Day in – day out. In a place, where no days or nights exist. In a place where nothing from the surface world would ever come through. Nothing… but that voice.
"Utsuho."
"…"
"Utsuho."
"Unyu?" the hell raven girl interrupted her work and curiously glanced around herself. "I thought I heard something." She shrugged her shoulders before her eyes centered again on the important gauges, which monitored the reactor's status. She only understood the purpose of a couple of them. The rest, to her, were merely pretty distractions.
"Maybe I should dump another corpse down there for good measure." she muttered to herself, completely ignoring the strange voice she thought she heard a moment ago.
"UTSUHO REIUJI!" the voice's origin lost its patience as it roared seemingly right inside Utsuho's head. It even had a slight echo to it.
"Waaaaaa!" the startled hell raven jumped up in panic, bumping her head into one of the coolant pipes. "W-who's there?"
Looking both left and right, up and down, Utsuho couldn't see anyone, and yet, she felt as though as if the voice was somewhat… familiar. It obviously knew her name.
The voice breathed a sigh. "Really? You've already forgotten about our meeting?"
The black-haired youkai girl blinked her red eyes, clearly scraping the bottom of her memories hard for any encounters in her past which corresponded with the voice she was hearing. "Uhh… umm… Have we met?"
"Of course we've met." the voice replied. "About two years ago."
For a moment, Utsuho looked like she remembered, but… "Oh, I see… Hey, how long is a year, by the way?"
"Riiiight… I guess it's not easy keeping track of time down here. But surely you remember my voice, don't you?"
Another long pause in the hell raven's conversation with a disembodied voice. One could almost hear the gears inside her head creaking and grinding even in the constant noise of the nuclear reactor and the sea of lava surrounding it. "Two years sounds like a reaaaly long time… Okuu was probably just an egg back then."
"No, you were just asleep when I first spoke to you."
"In a dream? Now wait a minute…" Utsuho, simple-minded as she might be, finally started to connect the dots.
"If you don't know how long a year is, how do you know how long a minute is?" the voice teased her.
"Oooh… Now I remember." The hell-raven's bright red gemstone on her chest suddenly lit up bright-orange as she lifted her hexagonal cannon-like arm attachment. "You're the Voice… The one who led me to this power!" she recalled at long last.
"Wonderful. You remembered."
"Does that mean… that you're going to grant me even greater power?" the girl's giddy smile looked both cute and disturbing at the same time. "Power to defeat the shrine maiden from the surface and turn the above world into a new Blazing Hell?"
The voice remained silent for a moment. Its owner knew that she had to choose her words carefully if she ever hoped to get this bird youkai to do her bidding and not something else.
"Uhh… sure. If you do as I say, you'll be granted that power." the voice pulled out a lie.
"What must I do?"
"Listen carefully. I want you to go to the Palace of the Earth Spirits and tell your mistress that Reimu Hakurei needs to meet her at the Moriya Shrine as soon as possible."
"Satori-sama?" Utsuho tilted her head. "But… last time you told me that I was never to talk about you to anyone…"
"It took you forever to even remember our encounter, and now you remember this specific detail all of a sudden?" the voice sounded bemused as it asked the question.
The hell raven, affectionately nicknamed Okuu made a wing shrug. "It just all came back to me once I remembered how you spoke to me in my sleep."
"Well, things have changed since then. Satori won't obey her pet unless you tell her that Kanako Yasaka spoke to you."
"Kanako…? Is that perhaps… you, Miss Voice?"
Utsuho could hear three distinct handclaps. "Bravo. How did you guess that?" a sarcastic question echoed in her head. "Your sharp wit is astounding as always. That's why I had chosen you to give you Yatagarasu's power in the first place."
"But Kanako is that lady who came here from the surface once. She had these really old-fashioned clothes, blue hair and a headband made of rope."
Kanako herself was amazed by this seemingly birdbrained youkai's memory. Indeed, she had come down to Former Hell to meet Utsuho personally on more than one occasion, all behind Satori's back. She never liked the idea of having her mind read. Back then she intended to solve Gensokyo's energy crisis by creating a furnace in Former Hell, but a furnace needed an igniting agent. That igniting agent was the divine spirit of Yatagarasu, which in turn, required a proper vessel in order to be controlled. It took Kanako quite a while to find a suitable candidate. Not just anyone, be they human or youkai, could handle absorbing Yatagarasu's immense power. One would have be in a state of clear and empty mind in order to accept such a gift and burden. However, with a bit of luck, Kanako found a particular hell raven, who was, as she put it "much dumber than others". She convinced her to eat the divine spirit, and the rest is history. She successfully created Gensokyo's first and only nuclear power plant. Of course, even as a goddess, she couldn't predict that this docile and gullible hell raven would get a power trip and start overheating the reactor, causing a chain of incidents, but every boon has a price, right?
"Kanako… " Utsuho said her name again. "You are a goddess, right?" Spot-on recollection once again. "That's how you can speak to me, even without being here."
"Look at that… Seems like eating that Yatagarasu has raised your IQ by a couple of points. Good. Now that you remember me, why don't you fly along and tell Satori to kindly come up."
"Okay~!" a bright smiled stretched across the hell raven's face and her dark wings began to flap. But as she was about to take off, her smile almost instantly turned into a puzzled expression. "But… if you can talk to me remotely, why don't you just speak to Satori-sama remotely too?"
Utsuho's mind sure worked in mysterious ways. This usually childish, silly and forgetful ditz could sometimes surprise with bursts of sharp wit and logic. Her question caught Kanako off guard, as was evident by the goddess's long pause.
"Why, of all times, did you choose to wise-up now? Do you want to be rewarded or not?"
"Umm, sure. But…"
"Then don't question me!" Kanako didn't give Utsuho the chance to object. "Now hurry!"
"Yes!" the hell raven finally took flight, headed for the Palace of the Earth Spirits and leaving the huge underground reactor unattended.
"And don't mess it up, you hear~?" Kanako's last warning resonated in her ears, although now her voice sounded fainter than before.
Moments later, in the Palace of the Earth Spirits.
Satori Komeiji sat quietly in her study, in the middle of reading an interesting book on psychology, when three sudden loud knocks on the door nearly made her drop it.
"Who the…?"
"Satori-samaaa~!" a voice called from the other side of the door.
"Oh, but… of course…" Satori recognized it instantly, though she was slightly surprised what made this particular pet of hers leave her work post this early. "Come in, Okuu!"
The door slowly creaked open and the hell-raven's head with her green hair ribbon popped in.
"You're home from work early today…" Satori stated bluntly, waiting for her pet to enter the room properly.
"Well… um… you see… What did I come here for again?" Okuu was trying to string a sentence together as she walked into her mistress's study.
Satori gave her a quick once-over, smiled and nodded. "Yes… I see. Looks like someone urgently needs to meet me."
"Yes, exactly!" the hell raven affirmed with a series of nods. "I've done a good job delivering you this important message, huh?" she puffed up proudly, even though she hardly said anything.
"You've done well, Okuu." the satori slowly walked up to her much taller pet. "Bow." she asked of her.
Utsuho obliged. Satori could then reach her head with her hand and give her a few deserved caresses.
"But whatever that voice promised you was a lie. You know that, right?"
"Eeeeh?! So… no turning the surface world into a new Hell of Blazing Fires?" Utsuho sounded genuinely surprised, disappointed and even slightly angry.
"You were not granted the Yatagarasu's power for that purpose, Okuu, so please stop talking about burning the world."
"But working the reactor is so dull~!" she pouted. "Could I at least come up to the surface with you? Just for a little. The furnace can stay unattended for a while. Nothing bad is gonna happen."
"I'm sorry, but this isn't like the summer festival." Satori turned her request down. "Something serious and maybe even dangerous is going on."
"Uuu… That makes me want to go with you even more~." the hell raven fidgeted around restlessly. The soft-hearted Satori never enjoyed seeing her pets dissatisfied with something, but spoiling them wasn't right either.
"They probably just want to talk about something. I'll be back in the palace shortly. You just stay down here, Okuu, and be a good bird."
It almost broke her heart to see Utsuho hang her head in disappointment.
"That Kanako lied to me…" the raven youkai murmured to hrself. "Next time I meet her, I'll scorch her with my danmaku."
At that remark, Satori let out an amused giggle. "She's just a bit too shy to talk to me personally, like almost anyone from the surface."
"Then she should have just said so."
"Perhaps. And perhaps she was worried you wouldn't do as she says otherwise. Whatever the case, she and I are going to have a few words, if I meet her." Satori put her book back into the shelf and started getting ready to break the taboo of not leaving underground once more.
"Whew, that tea made me feel a bit hot." Marisa opened the door of Sanae's room. "I'm gonna sit on the porch to cool down for a while, okay?"
"Sure, go ahead." Sanae replied with a shrug.
Reimu followed Marisa outside as well. Not just to cool down, but also to ask Kanako how much longer she would have to wait for her to call Satori to the surface.
"Hey, Sanae, where's Kanako?" the Hakurei shrine maiden asked her comrade and rival.
"I'm right here, Hakurei." a door behind Reimu suddenly opened and Kanako's familiar voice responded.
Reimu turned around to face the goddess who was holding a coil of shimenawa rope in an offering pose. "Any luck contacting Satori?" she asked as she took the coil from Kanako's hands.
The sky goddess's look appeared rather sheepish and uncertain as she composed her answer. "Just… give her a few more minutes."
Judging by Kanako's answer, Reimu deduced that Satori was indeed contacted and on her way, which was a good sign. Certainly better than having to descend the underground all the way to Satori's palace. It didn't mean that Reimu wasn't impatient, though.
"Who exactly is this "someone" who is in touch with her that you were in touch with?"
"Well, if I take your past adventures into consideration, I believe the two of you would not need to introduce yourselves to each other."
"That's what I was afraid of." the miko muttered as she breathed a sigh. Fortunately, Marisa was there to help her relive the excess stress…. Or add to it.
"Oi~! Reimu~! Come out for some fresh mountain air too!" the blonde beckoned from the shrine's porch.
"Coming…" Reimu muttered a barely audible reply as she shuffled her feet towards the shrine's opened main entrance.
"If Satori comes, tell her I'm not home, or something…" Kanako made a nervous request before she closed herself in her room.
"Now that's not very polite, you know…" Sanae shook her head as she carried the three empty tea cups to the kitchen area to wash them.
"You're right, she'll just read your mind." Kanako's muffled voice spoke from her closed room. "How about you just tell her that I'm feeling a little sick. That's not a lie, so she should believe it."
"Kanako-sama, Satori-san is helping you too you know… Hiding in your room is very… un-goddess-like."
"Don't make this harder for me, Sanae~."
"I think I see a person in the sky~!" Marisa loudly announced Satori's probable arrival. "Aaaand It IS Satori! Get your tinfoil hats ready!"
Even Reimu now noticed the approaching dark dot on the horizon, coming from the mountain's summit.
"Kanako actually did it." Reimu nodded in acknowledgement. "And she's not bringing any unstable pets of mass destruction. That's a good sign."
As the dot in the sky got closer, Reimu could recognize the pink and blue colors or Satori's outfit.
"Well, hello, Satori! Guess what!" Marisa greeted the youkai mind-reader with a tease.
The petite youkai girl landed in the Moriya Shrine's courtyard, right in front of the miko and the witch. She first looked at Reimu, then at Marisa before she spoke.
"Okuu told me that Kanako Yasaka spoke to her…"
"I knew it!" Reimu exclaimed. "I'm sure glad she didn't come along."
"She wanted to, believe me." said the short youkai girl. "It took all my convincing to make her stay put… Anyway…" she focused her third eye on Reimu. "Looks like… you have quite the problem…"
"That's one thing I like about Satori." Marisa chimed in. "You don't have to waste any time explaining."
"You still loathe me, though."
"Hey, at least I didn't shut myself in a room." Marisa looked away and crossed her arms.
"Yes, I intended to speak to Kanako personally, but… I feel this problem in Kazermura is more urgent…"
"So you know what we want you to do once we get there, right?" Reimu asked Satori, just to make sure there was no misunderstanding.
"You want me to identify a culprit who cut the rope. You suspect one of the tengu is possessed… If they are still in the village, I should be able to do that, but… poople in Kazemra already know who I am…"
"That's… true…" Reimu admitted, scratching her chin thoughtfully.
That's when Marisa spoke. "Oi, Reimu… Let's be smart about this. If we barge into Kazemura with Satori, everyone's gonna recognize her. Culprit and innocent alike."
"I know." the miko frowned. "If the culprit gets wind that Satori is coming to Kazemura, they'll flee before she can identify them."
"Right. But if Satori's arrival and investigation was kept under cover…" Maria elaborated.
"And how do you plan to do that?"
"Hmm… Let's see…" Marisa twirled her braid as she tried to come up with a solution. "We should make Satori change her clothes. Some cape with a hood should do the trick."
"That's so stupid." Reimu didn't mince words when it came to evaluating Marisa's plan.
"Well, I'm open to discussion." the blonde pouted, allowing Reimu to come up with some better alternative.
"Let's see…" the red-white paused for a while. Then an idea sparked inside her head. "I got it!"
"You do?"
"Yes. Nue!"
"Nue Houjuu?" Marisa tilted her head along with her question. As if there was any other nue.
"She defeated me in the summer danmaku tournament." Satori muttered, but didn't seem to protest Reimu's train of thought.
"Marisa… You should go to Kazemura ahead of me. Bring Nue and meet us on our way there. She'll make Satori look like a normal villager. Then she can carry out her investigation without alerting any potential culprits."
"Ooooh. That might actually work!" Marisa grinned mischievously, rubbing her palms together. "Nobody will suspect a thing!"
"She was a formidable opponent…" Satori continued her mumbling, still referring to the events of the summer danmaku tournament at the Hakurei Shrine.
"Right." Reimu assured herself that her plan was perfect. Or, at the very least, better than Marisa's. "You're going on an undercover mission now, understand?" she asked Satori in a serious tone.
"I guess… But my sixth sense is telling me that…"
Satori didn't even finish her sentence before Reimu cut her off. "Great! Okay. So… we're going back to Kazemura now. Marsa, you go on ahead. Bring Nue and we'll meet behind the hill west of the village That's when we'll disguise Satori as one of the villagers."
"Are we like… waiting for something?" the witch asked. "Cause I'm ready as ever!"
"Oh, don't go yet!" Sanae shouted from within the shrine. "I want to come with you!"
"You're not needed, though." Reimu sternly turned her down.
"I owe it to Kanako-sama and Suwako-sama. Let me come with you!" the blue-white shrine maiden walked out of the shrine, gohei in hand.
"Your goddesses need you more." Reimu expressed her genuine concern. She had this strange feeling, like a premonition, that if Sanae left the shrine, something bad might happen. But Sanae would have none of it.
"Reimu. Don't make me delay you with a danmaku battle… I'm going to Kazemura, like it or not."
Reimu let out a heavy sigh.
"Come on, Reimu." even Marisa began to convince her. "She's not going to jeopardize Satori's assignment. Also, it'll make everyone think that we've left Kazemura to call for Sanae's help.
"I guess so… But that will leave this shrine undefended."
"From fairy attacks?" Sanae chuckled. "Kanako-sama can handle them, should they come."
"But she can't handle talking to me…" Satori again interjected with a stinging argument.
"Listen…" Reimu walked up to Sanae, looking right into her eyes. Even though Sanae was pretty much a rival to her, she had at least some respect and understanding for Sanae and her work. She would never wish anything bad to her, and that's why she tried to warn her. "I have a very, very bad feeling about this… And my intuition is seldom wrong. You shouldn't leave your shrine. Your goddesses depend on your protection now. An enemy lies in waiting. Waiting just for the moment when the shrine is at is weakest."
"What are you talking about?"
"Kanako and Suwako are weak. Kazemura's temple has drained them of their powers."
"I know that!" Sanae yelled back. "That's why I want to go to Kazemura and gather some faith for them."
"If you do, something bad is going to happen…"
"I cannot verify the probability of that." Satori shrugged as she read Reimu's mind.
"I appreciate your worries, Reimu-san, but I know what's best for this shrine. It needs faith. And I'm going to help recover it."
"I can't tell you what to do, Sanae… But let me tell you that when I get a feeling like this…. It rarely ends well…"
"I will only stay in Kazemura for a while. Nothing bad is going to happen."
Reimu didn't have the time, or the willpower to convince Sanae to stay at her shrine to defend it.
"Don't say I didn't warn you…" was all that she responded with before she took flight, heading east for Kazemura. Marisa, Sanae and Satori flew right alongside her.
As they were leaving Gensokyo's tallest mountain behind, the squadron of flying heroines discussed the details of their cunning plan.
"I've already told this to Reimu, but…" Marisa spoke to the mind-reading youkai, "it's also likely that Hatate has already found out who cut that shimenawa rope."
Satori knew that well, but she'd still go, just to make sure. Like Reimu, a strange tingling feeling in her stomach was making Satori feel uneasy, but she'd still go to Kazemura to find out the truth.
"If you truly believed that, I wouldn't have been summoned."
"Yeah, you're probably right." Marisa acknowledged. Even she wasn't feeling as calm and carefree as she acted, but she knew that Satori would easily see through her act.
"But hey, evil spirits fear you… Maybe just by your presence alone, Reimu and Sanae will be able to make the quarry pit safe for anyone to enter again…"
Satori didn't respond to that. She didn't dare to say whether or not these invading spirits truly feared her. She would have to see the situation in Kazemura with her own three eyes.
The valley in which Kazemura was located was slowly, but certainly getting closer. Reimu was about to repeat the plan to Marisa, when a loud booming sound erupted from the other side of the hill.
"Are they still firing those explosives?" Marisa gave Reimu a puzzled look. But as soon as a series of colorful danmaku projectiles soared towards the sky from behind the same hill, it became obvious that Kazemura was yet again caught in a battle.
"Well, that changes our situation." Reimu drew out a couple of sealing amulets. Sanae and Satori both prepared themselves for a fight, but Reimu halted them.
"Satori, you should stay here while we check out what's going on. Don't follow us unless you see me casting a yin-yang orb skywards, ok?"
"Alright…" Satori reluctantly brought her flight to a hovering halt. "Be careful."
Reimu, Marisa and Sanae jetted over the hill to see what was going on in Kazemura this time.
"First one to shoot down a hundred faeries wins!" Marisa swiftly left the two shrine maidens behind as she flew over the hilltop and took a sharp dive.
Reimu and Sanae were falling a few seconds behind her. Both of them could see more danmaku projectiles randomly shooting towards the sky. They each made last mental preparations before unleasing a flurry of their own danmaku on the unsuspecting flocks of fairies, when Marisa suddenly shot up from behind the hill, heading back towards her companions.
"I think Satori can help us here! There's plenty of fairies for everyone~!"
Reimu stole a hesitant glance at the mind-reader before giving a small nod. A cue that their plan has been completely changed by the current situation.
Sanae couldn't spare Reimu a sarcastic remark before joining the fight. "Where was your wonderful intuition when you were leaving this village?"
"My mind was preoccupied with other thoughts, okay?" said the red-white to her defense.
All 4 girls flew over the hill and began raining their magical projectiles on the fairies, which have yet again invaded the quarry village. A furious battle ensued…
Kanako remained in the Moriya Shrine's courtyard for a while after she ended communicating with Utsuho. Establishing contact with the hell raven as well as hastily creating a spare length of shimenawa had drained her of even that little bit of power she managed to recover since her last visit to Kazemura. She breathed a sigh and sat down on the shrine's wooden stairs. Rarely had she felt so weak, so vulnerable, as she did now. She didn't regret lending what little power she had to a good cause, but she certainly didn't enjoy depending entirely on Sanae or anyone else for that matter.
"I hope at least a few worshippers will come to pray today." she muttered to herself as she sat there. Despite its rather isolated location, Moriya shrine did get a fair share of visitors, namely the tengu. But even they didn't come by every day. As she watched the drifting clouds, lost in thought, she lost her track of time. Only when a chilly wind began blowing, she snapped out of her musings and stood up to return inside. That's when she heard a quiet distant knocking sound carried by the wind. A rhythmical knocking of wood against stone. Kanako perked up, her heart racing from excitement.
"Looks like my wish got answered." she uttered under her breath with a light smirk. She couldn't mistake the sound with anything else. It was the sound of footsteps of someone wearing sandals ascending the stone stairway to the plateau where the shrine stood. But the tengu usually didn't bother walking. Kanako couldn't help but wonder who the footsteps could belong to.
"Okay, Kanako, get your act together and look divine." she uttered a few words of self-encouragement as the sound of footsteps drew closer. Before long a single female figure emerged from behind the plateau's horizon, making her way slowly, but certainly towards the shrine.
"Just one, huh?" the goddess thought to herself as she watched the approaching woman. "Still better than nothing, I guess."
Even from afar, it was obvious that the visitor was not a tengu, in case her method of arrival didn't make it clear enough. The woman appeared to be in her mid-thirties, jet-black hair done up in a bun, dressed in a bland-looking grey kimono with a dark-brown sash. She spotted Kanako right away, but she didn't seem to show any reaction as she silently marched forward.
She stopped just a few steps short of reaching the shrine when she locked eyes with Kanako's.
The resident goddess expected her worshippers to show at least some gesture of reverence when they approached her, but this one just stood there and glared.
"Perhaps this is her first time visiting the Moriya Shrine." Kanako mused as she returned the woman the same silent treatment she was giving her.
Or course, Kanako didn't know the face of every single one of her worshippers, but she would've remembered this one. It certainly wasn't the prettiest face she ever saw. Quite the opposite, actually. But the goddess didn't judge people by their appearance, especially when they went through all the trouble of hiking to the shrine to pray. Kanako found it strange that a woman like her managed to ascend all the way up here by herself when the native tengu populace wouldn't let a human even as much as approach the foot of their sacred mountain. Not without a fight at the very least. But perhaps due to her desperation for faith, she ignored this somewhat suspicious detail.
"Is she mute?" Kanako wondered why the woman just stood there like a pillar. "Even if she is, about now would be a good time to at least bow."
Instead of bowing, however, the woman shook her head lightly, as if disapproving of something.
"This shrine has seen better days…" she finally spoke, thus sweeping aside Kanako's suspicion of her being mute. At the same time, she made it obvious that this wasn't her first time at the shrine.
"It did get attacked by a few possessed fairies recently, but the damage was minimal." Kanako also broke her silence.
"Not just the building itself, but that which it enshrines as well…" the stranger added cryptically.
Kanako raised her eyebrows. Was her lack of power that obvious? In spite of getting uncomfortable vibes from this woman, she still maintained an image of stoic calmness.
"I hope it doesn't deter you from praying."
"Oh, I haven't come here to pray, I'm afraid." the woman replied, much to Kanako's surprise.
"Then what business do you have here?"
"I've come to issue a warning, Kanako Yasaka."
"Who are you and what warning you speak of?" Kanako asked with a demanding tone.
"Forgive my manners." Only now the woman showed a gesture of politeness by lightly bowing her head. "I am Iwanaga, the goddess of immortality and the unchanging and the rightful goddess of Mount Yatsugatake."
Kanako's lips parted in an expression of awe, as well as realization. "Iwanaga… I should have known."
Even though the two goddesses never really met, Kanako knew well of Iwanaga and her history. The way she showed up at Kanako's doorstep as well as her lack of reverence towards her should have been a dead giveaway. That and her legendary lack of beauty. According to the legend, god Oyamatsumi offered his two daughters to Ninigi in marriage. The daughters were Konohana-Sakuyahime and her older sister Iwanagahime, The goddess of blooming blossoms and the goddess of rock-long life respectively. The very sisters who would later come to argue whether Mt. Fuji or Mt. Yatsugatake was taller. Ninigi couldn't bear how ugly Iwanaga was and sent her back to her father. Oyamatsumi then said to him, that he offered both of his daughters with a vow that the life of emperors would be as eternal as the stones, but since he refused Iwanaga, the emperors' lives would be as fleeting as that of the blooming blossoms.
"What warning do you bring then, Iwanaga?" Kanako prompted the other goddess to state her intentions.
"Dark times are ahead…"
"That much I'm aware of."
"Strife in a foreign land, not unlike Gensokyo, is causing a rift in faith of its people for their gods, and the bridge connecting the two worlds is bringing that strife with it."
"Are you talking about the temple in Kazemura?"
"Correct. You've been there yourself, haven't you?"
"That I have." Kanako confirmed. "But what's it to you?"
A crooked smile began to form on Iwanaga's face. "That was a rhetorical question. I know for a fact that you've visited the site. You, your precious friend who once owned this shrine and your dear shrine maiden."
Kanako didn't like the tone of her voice one bit, but she let her continue.
"Faith is like water in a dam. If the dam is released, it flows from the place of its abundance to the place of its lack, until it is distributed evenly… Or until the dam runs dry."
"Do you love talking in riddles?"
"Not as much a riddle as a colorful metaphor." Iwanaga corrected her. "But it rings true. Do you think I can't sense the massive shift in power that the foreign temple has caused? How quickly it drained you and left you nigh-powerless? Like a vortex, it sucks faith and magical energy away from Gensokyo, and it grows larger the more it consumes."
"That's hardly any news, Iwanagahime. I had taken precautionary steps to prevent the spread of the temple's influence, but just a while ago, I've been informed that the protective barrier in place was damaged by an unknown culprit."
"It is of no consequence. Your petty little rope fence was only good at preventing spirits from crossing it anyway. It did nothing to plug the hole leaking Gensokyo's divine essence and mana away. It would only be a matter of time before the hole would eventually outgrow the whole fence. And since shimenawa is a faith-based tool, it would effectively cut it off from its source of power, rendering it useless even at keeping evil spirits at bay. And perhaps that's what already happened."
Now Kanako was beginning to understand why she had a bad gut feeling during the whole conversation. Of course, if Iwanaga's words had even a lick of truth to them, it would mean that at this very moment, the entire quarry village was in danger.
"Sanae… Damn. I must warn her at once! I need to warn everyone!"
Iwanaga just covered her mouth with her sleeve as she let out a loud cackle.
"What exactly do you find so damn funny?" Kanako hissed at her.
"And how are you going to do that when you can barely stay afloat?"
Begrudgingly, Kanako had to admit that in her current state, such a trip would be haphazard at best.
"Now why don't you just stay here and let me finish what I've come to tell you." said the ugly goddess with a teasingly calm voice. "What were to happen should the bad come to worse, hm, Kanako?"
"I really have no time for this nebulous drivel of yours. Either get to the point or get out of my way."
"My question was far from nebulous. It's a scenario that is already beginning to take place. How long it will be before all faith and magic in Gensokyo disappears? Weeks? Months? You and I both know that this will eventually happen if a solution isn't found fast enough. Every god and their servant will lose their power; youkai and evil spirits will run amuck. Such is the future of Gensokyo."
"You seem awfully calm, given the bleakness of your envisioned future."
"All gods but one…" Iwanaga added, widening her smile. "As I am the goddess of the unchanging, this crisis doesn't affect me, but… I can't say the same about you, or Suwako Moriya, or even the dragon god himself. That is… concerning."
"So what? Are you trying to say you're taking over Gensokyo as its sovereign ruler?" Kanako tried to scoff, but her genuine worry was reflected in her voice.
Iwanaga brushed her off with the wave of a hand. "I have no such ambitions, my dear Kanako. However," she slowly turned her back to the other divine as she cast a thoughtful gaze upon the magnificent scenery that the mountain plateau offered, "Mount Yatsugatage is my home…" She spoke with a tone that indicated either worry or sadness. It was hard to say, as Kanako couldn't see her face. "I love my home. I would sooner see the hell freeze over than myself letting this mountain be overrun by malevolent beings. And I'm not talking about the friendly tengu and kappa."
"I don't intend on letting that happen either."
"Ah, but therein lies the rub, Kanako. Despite us sharing the same intentions, you in your sorry state will hardly be able to defend this mountain. I am Yatsugatake's only hope if all hell breaks loose. By creating a field of permanence, I'd be able to turn this mountain into an incorruptible safe haven. But that, as you surely know, won't be possible without some sacrifice…" she paused to turn back to Kanako once more, "…on your part."
"And that would be?" Kanako inquired, even though her gut was telling her that she wasn't going to like the answer.
"That you surrender the Moriya Shrine to me." came the cold-shower reply out of Iwanaga's lips.
The indigo-haired goddess stared at her blankly for a few seconds with her lips parted. Was this really happening? Did she just hear her right? Surely the fierce mountain winds have twisted Iwanaga's words into something else. But the deadpan serious frown on Iwanaga's face remained still like a stone.
A concoction of disbelief and anger was slowly beginning to boil inside Kanako's head.
"You must be out of your mind."
"I know it's not an easy decision, but…" Iwanaga's sentence was cut short by the sky goddess's echoing outburst.
"To think that I'd agree to something as outrageous as giving the shrine to you, is nothing short of madness!"
"It makes perfect sense, if you pause to think about it for a while. I wouldn't be asking this of you if I had a shrine of my own. Well, I used to share one with my sister, but I couldn't stand her anymore. After the tantrum she threw when she learned that Mount Yatsugatake was indeed taller than her home Mount Fuji, I just up and left. I've come to you, because unlike the Hakurei Shrine, Moriya Shrine already has a network of branch shrines all over Gensokyo. Gathering the faith necessary for me to protect the mountain for all eternity would be much easier through this shrine than the other one."
"You are truly testing my patience. Leave. Now."
"Choose your words carefully." the goddess of the unchanging said with a cautioning tone. "You may not have as many options left as you believe."
The nerve of this woman, goddess or not, was more than just yanking Kanako's chain. She was livid, and she let it be known by emitting an ominous glow. She was ready to fight if it came to it.
"Choose my words?! You come here to MY shrine and shamelessly demand me to hand it over. You've already crossed every line there is to cross. I've been tolerating your insolence long enough!"
"It is I who has been tolerating your presence ever since your arrival to Gensokyo. This is my mountain now. You and your shrine are only here due to my benevolence. And I find it ironic that you consider my demand as crossing all the lines, when you yourself sent your shrine maiden demanding the same thing of the Hakurei Shrine only a couple of years ago." Iwanaga laughed in Kanako's face. "Can you spell 'hypocrisy'?"
"…"
This time, the visiting goddess struck a sensitive string, and she knew it. Kanako did indeed try to monopolize Gensokyo's faith in the not-so-distant past. Believing that her expansionist habit, which long ago earned her the ownership of a rival deity's shrine, would bring her success in the land of illusions, she sent Sanae to the Hakurei Shrine in order to make its miko close it down. Needless to say, her ambition never came to fruition, thanks to Reimu and Marisa's intervention. Now, she found herself on the receiving end of a very similar ultimatum. A bitter taste of her own medicine. But just like how Reimu fought for the future of her shrine, Kanako too was willing to fight tooth and nail fur the future of hers.
"My answer is no. Turn around, walk back the way you came and don't come back. Or should I help you with that?"
"Empty threats will get you nowhere, Yasaka."
Kanako grinned and raised a card in her hand. A sudden gust of wind picked up around her. "Why don't you step closer and see how empty my threats really are!"
Iwanaga closed her eyes and sighed. "You truly are a foolhardy one."
As the noises of battle died down and the dust slowly settled after another fairy raid on the quarry village, it was time to assess the damage. A few tents had singed holes in them, a couple of houses had broken windows, some of the defending villagers were wounded, but all in all, Kazemura was pretty much okay.
"Another invasion crushed and again no deaths on the defenders' side!" Marisa smugly grinned as she blew the smoke off from her mini Hakkero. "It wasn't even that hard."
"Maybe because there weren't as many fairies as the last time." Reimu speculated. "The tengu have already cut their numbers down by the time we got here."
"Frankly, you didn't miss too much of that skirmish." Aya chimed in. "The last attack was definitely worse than this one."
"Looks like our mastermind is running out of cannon fodder." the witch stated with the same victorious grin plastered on her face.
"And perhaps not." Patchouli rejoined the group after being separated from them in the heat of battle. "What we've just seen could have very well been just a diversion or a distraction… I see you brought the rope." she added after glancing over at the shrine maiden.
"And some extra company as well…" Aya winked at the short girl standing quietly behind the witch and the miko.
"Well, there goes our plan." Marisa sighed disappointedly. It would be extremely naïve of her to hope that Satori's presence would go unnoticed for long. However, due to the unexpected fairy attack, keeping her arrival a secret from the rest of the village was no longer a concern.
"Good afternoon." the subterranean youkai muttered a quiet greeting.
Aya wasn't exactly hiding her bemusement when she saw her. "May I ask what brought you back to these parts?"
As a reply, the petite satori lifted both of her hands and pointed her index fingers at Reimu and Marisa.
"Why?" the crow tengu shifted her quizzical gaze from Satori to the duo of incident resolvers.
"To find out who cut the rope, of course." Reimu answered matter-of-factly. "It was supposed to be undercover, though…"
"Ah, about that…" Aya nodded understandingly. "Just before the fairy attack, Hatate reported to Lord Tenma what she learned from analyzing the spirit photo."
"And? What did she learn?" Marisa asked impatiently.
"Supposedly the rope was cut by a being about as old as the ruined temple itself. She said it must have been an evil spirit."
"Nonsense!" Reimu immediately objected. "Evil spirits can't cut a shimenawa rope without a body."
The crow tengu could only respond with a shrug. Her knowledge on the subject of evil spirits and spirit photograpy was rudimentary at best. "I'm only quoting what she said. It's not like I could gather much information from those blurry overexposed photographs that she took. I just saw a bunch of white orbs in them. But if what she says is true, then I'm afraid you've dragged Satori to the surface for nothing."
"We'll see about that." Satori didn't let Hatate's alleged findings demoralize her.
As Reimu racked her brain over the mystery of the cut rope, Sanae stepped in to bring her back to reality.
"Hey, let's go fix that fence already."
Letting out a sigh of resignation, Reimu slowly followed Sanae towards the damaged section of the fence.
After several minutes of hard struggle, the battle between to two divines was nearing its conclusion. Kanako's last Spell Card had just fizzled out, and with it her hope of honorably defending her shrine. With an expression of defeat, she slowly descended until her feet met the ground. They could barely support her weight. She gave it her all. There wasn't an ounce of strength or faith in her. Her knees gave way, making her painfully drop down into a surrendered wariza position. Her fate was sealed. She just lost her home. Not only her, but Suwako and Sanae as well. Oddly enough, she didn't feel bad for herself. After all, she used to live without a shrine for so long. But she couldn't stand the thought of telling Suwako and Sanae that they no longer have a home, all because she was weak.
Iwanaga towered over her in silence for a while, then she stepped toward her and lifted Kanako's chin up to look her in the eyes.
"As you can see, you are woefully unprepared to protect this mountain. Though I must say, I'm surprised you managed to resist me for that long. Regardless, this shrine can only survive with a strong deity."
"Don't think… that winning… some silly… Spell Card duel… will make me surrender my shrine…" Kanako uttered as she panted.
"I could seize your shrine right now if I wanted to… But I am not an evil goddess, so I'll give you a month. One month, not a day more. If you can regain your faith and your power by the end of that month, you can keep your shrine. Not only that, but I swear I'll never show up on your doorstep ever again. Convince me that you are worthy of owning this grand shrine. That your victory over the Moriya goddess was well-deserved. I'll test you again. If you fail to impress, then you can start packing up. Until then, goodbye." And with that, the goddess of Mt. Yatsugatake turned around and slowly walked away, accompanied by that typical knocking sound of her sandals.
"Ugh… what a day…" After catching her breath, the defeated goddess picked her battered physical body off the cold stone cobbles, dragging her feet as she headed back into her shrine. A shrine, which would not be hers for long… Under normal circumstances, losing or winning a duel was not considered a big deal in Gensokyo, but this time there was much more at stake than just pride. This defeat didn't feel just frustrating or embarrassing. It felt devastating. Depressing. Even tragic. The shrine was so much more than just a home. But now it would be a mere memory.
"I'm so weak… I disgust myself." Kanako grumbled to herself as she shuffled into the living quarters. Suwako was still there, napping under the warm kotatsu, completely oblivious to the fact that she would become a homeless deity in a matter of 30 days. How was she going to explain that to her? And to Sanae? She had no idea. She wasn't able to think straight about her immediate actions, let alone near future. She clumsily shut the door with a loud thwack, and with the same lack of grace, headed for her room, almost bumping into the kotatsu, stepping on Suwako's hat and knocking a vase over in the process.
At that point nobody could blame the sleeping Suwako to stir herself awake to see what the commotion was.
"Hm? Kanako?"
She only caught a glimpse of Kanako's back before she secluded herself in her quarters.
"Hey, Kanako, what's going on?"
A muffled voice from behind the sliding door responded: "Nothing. Just feeling a little tired."
The earth goddess yawned and put her iconic hat on. "Where's Sanae?"
"She flew to Kazemura a while ago to help with something."
"Again? And she promised to make the supper today… Hey, how about we made a hotpot?"
"I'm not really hungry…" Kanako turned her brilliant idea down. Even to Suwako, who's been asleep until recently, she seemed to be acting a little off. Kanako loved hotpot, so her response came as a surprise to Moriya Shrine's native goddess.
"Huh? Really?" she slowly approached the door of Kanako's room, "Is everything alright?"
She tried pulling the door open, only to find out that it was latched. Kanako never locked it, so Suwako was starting to become really suspicious. She jiggled the door a few more times to zero avail.
"I'm fine…" came an unconvincing answer from behind the latched door, followed by a dull thud. "I just… need… a rest…"
Suwako pouted at her friend's weird behavior and called out to her: "Your lies stink through the door! Open up and tell me what's wrong!"
Her plea was met with silence. Suwako wasn't giving up, though.
"Kanako! Kanako~!" she kept calling the sky goddess's name, adding a few hand taps on the door for emphasis. "Open the door! Please… talk to me! Do you need help?"
Although it pained Kanako to hear Suwako so worried for her, she remained lying motionless on the floor, staring at the ceiling. A million thoughts raced through her head, but opening the door of her room wasn't one of them. She couldn't bring herself to face Suwako and tell her the truth, even though the native goddess had every right to know it.
"One month, huh?" she whispered into the still air of her room. Iwanaga did give her a chance, but… "There's no way I'll regain my full power in such a short time."
If anything, Iwanaga's "chance" sounded more like an eviction notice. Her intentions might not have been inherently evil, but the goddess of the unchanging certainly had no room for sympathy or pity in her stony heart. Not that Kanako would ask her for it anyway. As a goddess, she had her pride, even if it was now tarnished by her recent debacle. Ideally, she would solve this problem by herself without ever letting Suwako and Sanae know about it, but the reality was anything but ideal.
"I'm going to have to break the news to them one day…" she murmured to the empty and almost quiet room, had it not been for Suwako's persistent, but futile attempts to establish communication. "Surely, they'd fight for the shrine, but… this is my battle and mine alone."
Iwanaga would surely see to it that there'd be no third party interference during the decisive showdown.
"Is this how Suwako felt when I took over her shrine, I wonder…?" the tired goddess kept on musing. "I had little sympathy for her back then. I only let her live in the shrine out of need… I couldn't keep the Mishaguji curse gods at bay. The shrine would have served me no purpose if worshippers kept avoiding it like the plague… Only with time, I became amicable towards Suwako… Hmph. Is this what Buddhism and Hinduism call karma?"
She highly doubted Iwanaga would let the Moriya Shrine residents live alongside her under the same roof, not that Kanako could see herself staying, if that was the case.
"Why did she have to show herself now of all times?" was another question that truly bothered her. Clearly this goddess had been living on the mountain for thousands of years, not intervening even when the tengu founded their village on its slopes, or when Kanako moved her shrine to its plateau. She only appeared when Gensokyo was facing this particular incident. She also seemed to have some insight as to what was happening in a faraway land that was supposed to be linked with Gensokyo via a portal in a ruined temple.
"Does she perhaps have anything to do with what's going on?"
Regardless of Iwanaga-hime's role in this major incident, Kanako had bigger things to worry about now, and worry she did.
By now, even Suwako had given up on trying to talk to her.
With the strange silence settling around her, she closed her eyes.
Perhaps for the first time in her eons-long life, Kanako experienced what it felt like when gods lose their religion.