Chapter 5

To the Shrine

"Hey, Keine? I was wondering if you could take me to see, uh… Reimu, I think her name was." Alex says after the last day of classes that week.
"You want to go to the Hakurei Shrine?" Keine says.
"Yeah, I think that's what they said." Alex says, hoping to all the gods the once-atheist now considers possibly believing in that this shrine is where Reimu lives.
"They, who? Where did you hear about Reimu, anyway?" Keine says.
"Oh, some of the kids were talking about her after class. She seemed like an interesting person, and since I'm not allowed out of Gensokyo, I figured I might as well try to make some friends" Alex says, fabricating the story on the spot.

I guess that's not too unlikely. After all, most of those kids want to be youkai hunters like her. And anyway, if Yukari doesn't want Alex to leave, she'd have already told Reimu about him, so it's not like there's any problems with it even if he is lying, Keine thinks. She waits a little longer to respond. She says "Yeah, I guess it's not too much of a problem. Just remember, now that you're working for me, you're doubly not allowed to ask her to take you out of here."
"Wait, she can do that?" Alex says, feigning ignorance.
I guess he really didn't know, Keine thinks while saying "Yes. In fact, I probably would have taken you there immediately if you hadn't told me about what Yukari said."

Shit, Alex thinks, managing to keep his face even. He says "Well, now that you've told me that, I'm sorry, but I can't guarantee I won't ask her. I mean, I like it here and all, but I really do miss my family and friends." He looks down, remembering once more the events that brought him to this fantasy land. "They all think I killed myself. Yukari dragged another me through one of those portals, snapped his neck, and hung him from the light."
Shit, it is Keine's turn to think this. Not only did I tell him who to pester to get him out of here, I also made him depressed. "I-I'm sure we'll find some sort of compromise that'll let you go back. I mean, what threat could you really pose to someplace as well protected as Gensokyo, anyway?" Keine says, hoping to cheer Alex up. "We'll go see her tomorrow, okay?" she says.
"Yeah. Thanks, Keine." Alex says, getting up to head into the school building serving as his temporary home.
"Hey, uh… I, uh, I have an extra room in my house. You… You should sleep there tonight. It's a long walk to the shrine, so you'll need a good night's rest." Keine says, stopping him.
"Uh… OK. Thanks, Keine." Alex says.

BOOM! "OH GOD, WHAT WAS THAT!?" Alex shouts, having thrown himself to the ground in an attempt to avoid any shrapnel that may or may not be heading his way.
"That, I believe, was my friend and the moon princess." Keine says as she continues walking the path around the bamboo forest Alex had found himself in a couple of weeks ago.
Whimpering, Alex gets up from the ground and runs to catch up with the History teacher. "Is that normal around here?" he says, clearly still frightened.
"It's just a Danmaku battle. Although, they normally don't get quite this… loud." Keine says, after another explosion. "I think it's because both of them are immortal, so technically it doesn't matter how much power they put behind their spells, since neither of them can die anyway." Keine says, her face falling a bit.

"I'm glad they weren't fighting when I was here earlier." Alex says, calmer now.
"You've been here before?" Keine says, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.
"Yeah, when I ran away from Yukari, she sent me through one of her weird portals, and I ended up in the middle of that bamboo forest." Alex says, while thinking, and of course, we're going in the direction that Tewi girl pointed me in when she helped me out of here earlier.
I can't really blame him for running from Yukari. She unnerves me more than enough, and she didn't kill an alternate me the first time I met her, Keine thinks.

A short while later, everything goes dark. Damn, Keine thinks. I was really hoping we wouldn't run into any issues on our way to Reimu.
"Uh, Keine…" Alex says.
"Don't worry, she's just a low ranking youkai, not too threatening." Keine says.
So, apparently, I almost got eaten by a wimp. Great, that sure makes me feel confident about surviving here Alex thinks, chuckling nervously to himself.
Keine, thinking that Alex thought she was joking, says "No, she really is, so don't worry. I'm an experienced youkai hunter, myself."
In what kind of place do history teachers beat up monsters? Oh… right. Alex thinks, having momentarily forgotten exactly what sort of place Gensokyo was.

"Go away, Rumia. We don't have time to deal with you right now." Keine says into the darkness.
"But I wanted to eat that guy that's with you." Rumia says, having not forgotten his escape a few weeks back.
"I'd get down if I were you, Alex." Keine says, rising into the air.
Floating History teachers fighting flying lolis. I really hope I haven't just gone crazy, Alex thinks, laying on the ground and covering his head.

Due both to the thick darkness and the fact that he is curled up in a ball with his face on the ground, Alex sees none of the fight between his co-worker and the little girl who wants to eat him. The battle doesn't last very long, and the darkness soon dissipates.

"Thank you very much, Keine." Alex says after she lands back on the ground.
"No problem. Part of my job is to keep people safe, after all." Keine says. "Anyways, we're almost there. I don't think we'll run into anyone else on the way at this point." she says.

"Even more strange information has come to light in the suicide turned murder-kidnapping case of suburban teen Alexander Johnson. The strange skin cells found on the wooden sword at the scene of the crime, in addition to skin samples of the murder victim, have been sent to genetics labs around the world, and they have confirmed that the original information regarding the genetics of these two samples was, indeed, correct. Ladies and gentlemen, it appears we are not as alone as we once thought…" *click*