Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing of touhou and familiar of zero, all character belongs to their respected creator.

Colbert POV

The stairway towards the Hakurei shrine is quite tiring, Colbert stopped and took a break and looked around the surrounding; the village lies in his view as well as the wilderness surrounding it. In the end he decided to go to seek help alone, he does not wish for any danger to happen his student again like in the forest. So after asking Keine to rent a couple tables for the students and Miss Longueville, he set off with Keine to this Hakurei shrine she mentioned.

We need to thank this lady for all she has done for us, Colbert thought, he was very grateful that they have been able to meet a local who was willing to help them. Without her they probably would have no idea where to go or what to do.

"Here's the Hakurei shrine." Keine said, as they finally climbed to the top of the stairs. Colbert looked at the building in front of him and only one word came to his mind, dull. The shrine wasn't anything spectacular; one can see that some part of the building looks old and broken. It gives him the feeling of poorness, as if the people who build the shrine just didn't have enough money so they just built it out of scrap.

"Are you sure this is the right place Miss Keine?" Colbert asked, this did not seem like the place he had imagined. When Keine told him that a shrine was a place where one worship gods, he had thought it would be like the churches of Brimir they had back at home. But this, if someone told him this was build to worship a god he would have thought they were joking, because clearly this building seemed more like a disrespect than respect.

"Yes, this is the place, but Reimu is not at the front yard. Let's go to the back, she's probably there."Keine said as she began to go around the building.

"So this Miss Reimu is the one who take care of the shrine?" Colbert asked.

"Yeah she is the head shrine maiden, actually she is the only shrine maiden at this shrine."

She must be highly respected person like the pope and father at Brimir's church, Colbert thought. To commit oneself wholly to religion, she must be pretty devoted to her religion. An image of an old nun came to mind as Colbert imagined what this Reimu person would be like

Then as Keine reached the backyard she did what Colbert didn't expect her to do, she yelled.

"REIMU YOU LAZY ASS MIKO, ARE YOU IN THERE? WE GOT SOMETHING TO DISCUSS!" Keine's sudden action surprised Colbert; he didn't expect the cultured teacher to yell like that. And then as if answering Keine's call he heard a voice coming from the shrine.

"If you aren't here to donate or talk about an incident then get out of my shrine Keine!" The voice of young girl came out of the shrine.

"We got a problem to discuss, so come out now I know you're in there."

"I got more important thing to do than hear about your problems Keine, if it ain't an incident then go away."

Keine seemed to be angered from the dismissive response from Reimu, as she then proceeded to kick down the back door of the shrine before Colbert could stop her.

What Colbert sees inside the room of the shrine was nothing he had expected. Instead of an old nun, what he saw was a girl dressed in red and white cloth that reveals her armpit. She appears to be in her teens and seemed to be older than his students but not yet a woman. She was sitting on the ground and appears to be counting what Colbert would presume to be local money. Large bundles of money were scattered around the room as if the owner want to show herself how rich she is, or just use it as money shower.

"I hope you pay for that door, Keine. Normally I would nave beat you up already, but since I'm in a good mood today I'll let you off with a warning. Get out of my shrine!"

The girl does not appear to be friendly at all, but if they get chased out of the shrine there goes their chance of going home. So Colbert quickly stepped out and began talking.

"Wait a moment Miss Reimu! I'm sorry about the door and for intruding on your private time but we desperately need your help, can you at least spare us a moment." Colbert pleaded, Reimu appeared to be thinking and then let out a sign and spoke.

"Let's get a different room and be quick with your story I don't have all day." Colbert and Keine began following Reimu into the living room.

"Miss Keine are you sure this girl could help us she appears very young?" Colbert whispered to Keine in a low voice. Despite Keine telling him before hand that the shrine maiden can help them, he couldn't help but have doubts after seeing how young she is.

"Don't underestimate her, she may be young but she is talented beyond your wildest imagination." Keine whispered back to ensure him. Soon they arrived at the living room and sat in the room around a table. Colbert then began to explain his story.

After half an hour, Colbert finished his story, but what he got was Reimu with a confused face.

"So what do you what me to do?" She asked.

"I was hoping you could get Yumemi to send these people back home or get a god or youkai you know to do it." Keine explained, and judging from her words Miss Reimu seems to know a lot of people, this would probably help them a lot. Colbert felt as if they could almost go-

"I refuse."

"WHAT!"

"WHAT?"

Both Keine and Colbert were disturbed by the cold attitude Reimu displayed. But she quickly began to explain before either of them could speak.

"First of all none of us know the exact location of this Halkeginia world, through I could ask some god or youkai for this favor, they probably wouldn't do it. They have prides you know, they aren't people who would solve your entire problem if you just ask nicely. Second of all this is merely a conflict between humans, I got no reason or interest to butt in; if this is an incident then maybe I would do something, but a couple new outsiders is nothing new, we get outsiders all year long. Finally, this is your problem solve it yourself, I'm an incident solver not your bloody servant."

Colbert was at a loss for words, their only lead on how to go home have just refused to help them. How is he going to explain this to his students, it will drive them further into panic and despair.

"If your group want to go home, you guys can try to beat Yumemi yourselves." Reimu kept on saying in a dismissive tone.

"If we could have beaten her we wouldn't get kidnapped in the first place!" Colbert had enough and yelled at her, he was getting tired of this girl dismissing their situation like it was nothing. She doesn't know what they have to endure to get this far!

After hearing that Reimu became silent for awhile, and then after some thinking she began to talk once again.

"You're right. I don't know about your guys' abilities but if you lost to Yumemi once, you would probably do so again. So here's an advice, since you guys are magicians, go to the forest of magic there is a black-white magician who can help you. She will probably offer you guys help if she hear about your stories. That's all the help I'm offering, this discussion is over." Reimu concluded, judging from her tone there is no longer any room for discussion.

"Mister Colbert could you go back to the village by yourself, I have something else I need to discuss with Reimu, I'll meet you back in the village." Keine said to Colbert.

"Okay, thank you Miss Reimu."Colbert said, and began to leave; he needs to think of how he is going to explain this to his students. The good thing is they have another lead, so they have to cling on to it for their dear life. He felt really tired all of a sudden and couldn't help but wonder how long would it take for them to return to their normal life or if they can return at all.

Keine POV

After seeing Colbert leave, Keine let out a sign, she really didn't want these people to hear about their next topic since it would shatter all their hope.

"Be honest Reimu, those money came from Yumemi right? She paid you to keep out of her business and to not offer any help to these people."

"Why would you say that?"

"It was obvious, Hakurei shrine suddenly getting a large donation just when these outsiders came and your tone is too dismissive even for you." Keine said. It was true; Hakurei shrine is usually in a constant state of poverty, so Reimu suddenly getting so much money is definitely strange.

"I'll admit your right Keine," Reimu answered with a sign, "But my previous points hold true as well; more importantly these people should be thankful already. Yumemi didn't pay me just to stay out of her business; she actually paid me to make sure these people 'disappear' so that they wouldn't disturb her research."

"I think you did exactly what she told."Keine said with a tone of anger.

"Don't be like that Keine, look at it this way; if they couldn't reach Marisa alive without the spellcard rule protecting them, then they probably could never go home as well. No matter what happens Yumemi would stand between them and their home, so if they can't overcome a problem like this then they might as well give up."Reimu said.

"So you are going to watch as these people walk to what could be their death."

"If they die then that's that. My job is to maintain the balance; the death of a few outsiders is not much of a concern. In the end this is merely another normal event in Gensokyo. I would recommend you don't interfere with their journey into the forest of magic."

"Are you saying you're going to stop me?"

"Yes." Reimu said with a blank face. Keine then knows that there is nothing she could do, the miko don't joke around with things like this. In the bottom of her heart she hoped that these people wouldn't meet the fate of other outsiders.

Colbert POV

Keine came back from the shrine soon after Colbert, her conversion with Reimu didn't seem to be too long. Though he was a bit curious about what they were discussing, it would be impolite to intrude in others secrets. On their way back to the inn, another problem was giving him a headache; how can he explain this to his students without them panicking? They had so much hope for him this morning, it would totally ruin their hope if he tell them what he had learned.

"Professor Colbert your back!"

"Did you meet the person that could help us?"

"When can we go home?"

Everyone was already gathered outside of the inn; it seems that they were impatient and full of expectation. Just like Colbert expected they asked questions one after another giving him no time to answer, so Professor Colbert calmed everyone down and began to answer their questions.

"I got good news and bad news. The bad news is we haven't found the way to return home yet, but the good news is we were told that there is a mage that could help us." Colbert said. These words quickly cooled the earlier excitement but replaced it with a different kind of reaction.

"You said the same thing this morning!"

"It's useless we are never going home." Some of the boys in the group began to give up, the light of hope in their eyes a moment ago quickly vanished. Colbert could quickly see that many students are at their limit, but he couldn't blame them, they were just kids and they been through way more than what they should experience at their year. So he quickly shot a small flame spell to get everyone's attention.

"We can't give up hopes yet, not when there is still a small chance of success." Professor Colbert said. Through the students still did not appear to have cheered up at all, the sounds of complaints were at least gone. It seem he will have to deal with this atmosphere until he can provide them with more hopeful news.

"Miss Keine could you lead us to the forest of magic tomorrow morning? I would take a few students along with me, while Miss Longueville will look after the rest at the village."

"Why don't we all go" Miss Longueville asked, everyone was confused as well why would Professor Colbert split up their group right now.

"I have no idea how dangerous this can be. I would have gone all by myself, but I know that I would certainly fail if I go by myself. So I decided we would have a better chance if we go as a group, but we will leave some people here in case we fail they can still seek help in different ways so not all hope is lost." Professor Colbert explained. After experiencing what happened in the first forest, he can't help but feel that this forest may be the same or worse.

"Everyone go get some rest, those who want to go with me should make some preparation in case of the worst happens." He can see that he did not need to explain the worst case scenario to his students they all know what he was talking about. Colbert then dismissed the students, and turned to Keine he will need to know as much as possible and prepare for everything if he didn't want to lose another of his student.

Deep down Colbert had a bad feeling and he hoped that is just his imagination.

Author's note: next up, forest of magic. First of all let me thank my reviewer's for reading this fic, considering this is one of the worst (no respect for canon, terrible plot and pacing) and shorter fanfics out there. To CryptIXeeper, I'll try to improve the pacing but you need to say if it is too fast or slow. Now for spoilers, if everyone who read this fic doesn't mind I'm going to kill Colbert next chapter. He is taking up too much of the script, and with him it would be hard to develop Louise (can't have her relying on someone), so I would be thankful if my reviewers could tell me how I should have him die. Currently I'm thinking either feed him to youkai or poison spores, what are your opinions on it. Next up, Halkeginia, as you can probably guess I spend about 30 seconds thinking up plot for each chapter, so I have no idea what to do with it, it would be nice to have suggestions on what to do with it (even if the suggestion is to blow it up). I'm planning to have the human and elves team up against a common danger (created by the touhou characters, also have them solve the windstone problem while creating this common enemy).