"The roads are so wide! And everybody is wearing kimonos! I thought everyone here was going to wear clothes like yours, but you two really stand out here, don't you?"

"I think your outfit stands out a little more, Sanae."

"These are the official vestments for a wind priestess!"

"Well there's a lot of people in kimono, but not everyone. That girl over there has a shirt on, and there's a guy I see at the fish market sometimes that wears cowboy boots with his samue."

Sanae continued to look around in wonder, taking in the sights and staring wide-eyed at the eclectic mishmash of different styles, materials, and technologies present in the village. Back when we had first arrived here and Keine was showing us around, we must have looked much the same. There was a certain nostalgia to it, even if we were on the opposite side of the interaction now.

"Oh wow, a rickshaw. There are no cars, trains or airplanes here so how do most humans get around? Just on foot? Are there bicycles at least?"

"I've only seen two in the time we've been here. Some of the upper class families have horses though."

"This is so cool, it feels more and more like I've gone back in time."

"Oh there's boats and barges too. A river runs though the middle of the village, and that's used for most of the bigger logistics."

"It's like Venice, the city of water! Or Neo-Venice! Do you have singing Undines with a cat for a president like on terraformed mars?"

We both looked at her with the same expression I had seen on the faces of numerous villagers directed at me. So this was how it felt to be on the receiving end of an Outsider's incomprehensible exclamations. "What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Really, you guys haven't even read ARIA? They made it into an anime four years ago!"

Since yesterday Sanae had been frequently interrupting our conversations with interjections like this. I had gathered enough to presume that she was making references to otaku culture of the early 21st century, but even though I enjoyed reading mysteries from that period, I couldn't hope to follow the details of such a foreign topic.

"Still, despite how much the three of us stand out, people are surprisingly accepting here."

"Do you think so?" I asked. "I always feel like everyone's staring at me every time I go out."

"Well there's the odd gawk here or there, but I'm used to that. I expected the villagers to be all 'Out with the strangers! No foreigners allowed! Raaarrr'" she said, waving an imaginary torch over her head. "You hear stories about how rural mountain villages are all insular and bigoted, but I guess Gensokyo's not like that."

I watched the people walking by. Sanae was getting her fair share of attention from passers-by, but no more than one might expect to follow a strangely-dressed girl in high spirits.

"Well, the population of the village is larger than you might expect and while most people here are natives, pretty much everyone knows someone who either used to be an Outsider or is the descendant of one. Newcomers pop up every now and then, and a few of them stay. Additionally, there's a bit of a gap between various communities in the village. The farmers live in the south and don't talk to the craftsmen living in the north much. The artisans mainly live in the west, and the east is kinda the slums except for the Hieda manor, but it's walled off. The merchants live here in the center of town and run the shopping district, where everyone comes. If anyone sees someone weird here, they usually just assume they're from one of the sections of town they didn't come from."

"I see, it's almost like there are several villages in one."

"Well, with everyone grouped together for protection that's kind of how it has to be. The fishers, hunters, woodsmen and miners all work outside of town too, so they are always coming and going. Some of them even live outside of town for at least part of the year. Moreover, because there's always people going in and out, there's a few youkai who have been known to sneak into town from time to time, if they can disguise themselves well enough to pass as human."

"Oh really? Is that OK? I mean, is it safe?"

"The village is the safe zone for humans, like we told you yesterday. Any youkai who tried to cause trouble in the middle of town would be risking the wrath of the Administrator and basically issuing an invitation to the Hakurei miko to exterminate them. It's a delicate balance though. There's always the risk that a young youkai might not understand the rules, or a powerful youkai might not be afraid of the Hakurei miko."

Sanae crossed her arms and groaned. "That really seems like a risky way to live."

Normally I might agree with her assessment myself. In our time here though we had learned that Gensokyo operated on a system of interdependencies. Youkai depended on the humans for fear just as gods depended on the belief of their worshippers. Neither could afford to risk disrupting a community like the village where ideas and concepts could easily be spread in a world where recognition held so much power.

"You learn to live with it." Renko said dismissively. "The people here aren't unhappy, but they aren't unaware of the danger either. Back in the Outside world did you worry about being mugged or assaulted every time you went out? I'm sure you took reasonable precautions like not walking around alone at night and not getting into a car with a stranger, and it's much the same here. In all the time we've been here, I've never heard of anyone being snatched away by a youkai inside the walls of the village."

"I see..." Sanae said, pondering the concept carefully. "I wonder though if the humans wouldn't like to change the balance of power between themselves and youkai if they could."

"Are you thinking about how to drum up faith for your shrine again?"

"Yes, but lets put ideas like that aside for now. Right now, for the short term, let's go see some of the farms, that's where it'll be easiest to generate faith quickly!"

-.-.-.-.-

And so we headed to the southern edge of the village, where the rice paddies spread out in their broad expanses and the tall stems on either side of the footpath shone golden with wheat and flax. Somewhere nearby, a frog was croaking.

"The wheat harvest should be just about over and the rice harvest is only about a week away. Once that's ended, the harvest festival will be held."

"I saw the preparations for the festival starting to be put up in the village. It looks like its a big deal."

"Well, it's a big event on the social calendar, but there's not a lot of ceremony. The farmers and brewers and restaurants all put together a big feast and the fertility gods are invited to partake and receive thanks. It's pretty informal though. The last time Merry and I went we couldn't even tell who the gods were."

"Really! Which gods were they? Does Gensokyo have its own native gods?"

"Oh, there were a bunch. Or should I say 'myriad'? There's no organized religion among the farmers and every household has their preferences. The bigger farms put up little altars at the edges of their fields and people leave offerings there, even if the offerings are intended for a different god than the one the altar is devoted to. The humans don't seem to care about it much, but the gods can be a little competitive I guess, boasting over who got the most worship or who's worshippers grew the best crops."

Sanae seemed to be pondering this for a moment, but ran ahead excitedly as she spotted one of the small altars at the side of the road. It was a simple slab of weathered stone with a crudely carved series of small wooden figures and a small box placed atop it. Several offerings of fruit had been left on it and a line of ants was marching steadily up to scavenge from these. Sanae approached the altar with a pitiful smile and clapped her hands together in an almost mocking gesture of respect.

"I see, so the field is packed with competitors, but they're all small-scale operations and already spending most of their time competing with eachother. That's good. I'm sure we can make use of an environment like that."

"What exactly is it you have planned, Sanae? You make it sound like the Moriya shrine is a mafia operation, trying to muscle out its competitors in a new city."

"No, no, its nothing like that. I just think I see an opportunity for greater efficiency here. Our shrine could become something like an Agricultural Faith Management Association, or something. We'd plan the plantings and harvests according to modern scientific farming practices, improve the yield and evenly distribute the faith and gratitude of the farmers to stakeholder gods of the region in an equitable and reliable fashion. In exchange, we take a margin off the top as a management fee."

It was a surprising plan to hear her articulate. Complex, practical and markedly capitalist. I wondered if it was something she had come up with on the spot or something she and her gods had been planning together.

"Of course," she continued, "the foundation of all religion is the concept of salvation from existing or expected hardships, so if the farmers are doing well now, they won't be likely to give up their belief system in favor of seeing Lady Kanako as a divine manager. In that case, it would be best to appeal to the local fertility gods directly and get them to understand the power that working with Kanako would bring. I'll have to arrange for her to come down and give a demonstration..."

"Well, whatever you're planning just make sure to exercise a little moderation, Sanae. If you and Lady Yasaka make a big fuss here in the village, you can bet Reimu won't take it well."

"Reimu? Oh! The Hakurei miko, that's right! Since I'm already here, I should go see if she's made up her mind yet. You two should come with me, you can help me persuade her!" She smiled broadly at us.

I glanced over at Renko. Sanae's upbeat personality and earnestness was hard to say no to, but what either of the two of us could do to convince Reimu to adopt a new religion I couldn't imagine. Renko returned my uneasy look and shrugged.