Since coming to Gensokyo we had been involved in five Incidents. Five times over we had been bystanders to cataclysmic threats and schemes that threatened to destroy the carefully engineered balance of Gensokyo. You might argue that during the Scarlet Mist Incident, my partner was responsible for giving Remilia the idea for it all, or that during the Eternal Night Incident I had been the one to lead Reimu's group to the hidden path to Kaguya, but both of those Incidents would have eventually occurred even if we had never come to this world, though their forms might have been slightly different. Remilia would have eventually grown bored and done something to make her mark upon the world and Yukari would have located Kaguya inside Eientei even if I hadn't shown her and the others the way.

Similarly, in this case, even if not for my partner and I, it seems inevitable that Reimu might have eventually headed out in search of the new shrine on Youkai Mountain, with the goal of smiting the upstart god and anyone who tried to stop her from doing so.

That is where the similarities end, however. Left to their own devices the conflict between the two shrines would have been a vicious one. Seen by the Moriya shrine as a war of extermination, they would have fought tooth and nail to turn back the Hakurei miko, possibly creating a disturbance of the scale that might have attracted the attention of the Administrator or potentially even the Dragon God, as the Vampire Incident once had before. Already though, Renko's intervention had done enough to convince Lady Yasaka that such extreme measures would not be necessary, and her hope was to negotiate an amenable agreement between the two parties once the dust had settled. In essence, she had decided to change our role in this Incident from passive observer to active participant.

Perhaps this was because, at this point, we had not yet discovered any mystery at the Moriya shrine deep enough to capture my partner's interest. Though if, dear reader, you are worried that this book will not contain any of the wild speculations that Renko has become known for, fear not. There was indeed a mystery here worthy of the name, we were simply blind to it at this point because of our origin as Outsiders from the Kyoto of the Scientific Century.

It would be a spoiler for me to reveal any more than that though, so let me return to the story already in progress. It was dusk by the time the two adventurers who had set out from the shrine at the foot of the mountain made it to shrine more than half-way up it. Surrounded by a blaze of autumn leaves they came streaking up the slopes, dyed in the colors of war.

-.-.-.-.-

In the few hours since we had returned to the Moriya shrine, Reimu and Marisa had clashed with two autumn harvest gods (who they had shot down), been warned away from the mountain by Hina (who they had also shot down), been played with by a kappa (who they thought they had shot down, but had actually merely scared into escaping with the aid of her optical camouflage suit), fought the white wolf tengu guard before the falls (who they had shot down while flying straight up the cliffs), and been intercepted by Aya before they could reach the tengu city (they shot her down too, but Aya held that she had let them do so as part of an act.) I heard about all of these stories second hand after the fact of course, so I will not dwell on them.

You may wonder what the two of us were doing while all of this was going on. The truth is the two of us, along with Sanae, were sitting in her room, casually eating snacks.

"I stocked up on these before we came here, thinking they'd have to last me the rest of my life, but I didn't realize they all have expiry dates. We may as well enjoy them now."

"Lucky us, I guess. Let me try those yellow ones." Renko said, reaching over the pile of assorted snacks.

"Renko, you're going to spoil your appetite if you eat too much of that."

"It's not even 17:00 yet, Merry."

At this time of year the sun set early and here, far removed from the light pollution of any city, a few stars were already visible outside the window. Renko's ability to read time from the stars always seemed to function best at whatever time would be most annoying.

"Oh, Sanae, there's something I wanted to confirm, if you don't mind."

"Yes?"

"Your ultimate goal in coming to Gensokyo was to gather faith, right?"

"Exactly. By gathering faith not only will the power of the goddesses grow, but all the peoples of Gensokyo will be united in one system of belief, ensuring peace for the future. It's a win-win situation."

"Peace in Gensokyo, eh? Well, aside from the occasional human being snatched up by a youkai it was already pretty peaceful here, and I don't think you'll put a stop to that. Besides which, the history of religion in the Outside world is filled with wars, isn't it?"

"Hmmmm, I can't really deny that..." Sanae said, looking uncomfortable.

At that moment Kanako suddenly appeared on the spot again, standing just behind Sanae. For the sake of my heart I wished she'd refrain from appearing without warning, but Sanae seemed used to it.

"Oh, hello again, Lady Yasaka", Renko said amiably. "Aren't you supposed to be watching the lake?"

"A god can be in many places at once, so long as they are invoked or enshrined there. That's how a single god can be present everywhere they are worshipped."

"Ah, so you're sudden appearance and disappearance isn't a matter of teleportation, its just you deciding to be in a greater or lesser number of places at once?"

"That's right," Kanako said proudly. "To use a metaphor you might be familiar with, gods operate more like a network of computers sharing an application over a private LAN than a cloud app in which each host connects to a central server. Every shrine has its own splintered version of a god's spirit with the same powers and abilities, and all of those copies are all me. Each copy of the application can run its own unique and independent operations though. So long as there are people supplying earnest faith at every shrine -installing the application on different computers, in this analogy, I can inhabit any number of hosts."

"Oh, how very modern. That makes it very clear, thank you. It's unusual to think of a distributed application as a parable for religion, but I suppose even the gods have to keep up to date with technology in order to gain faith nowadays, eh?"

"Indeed, that's my intention. So what is it you were asking Sanae about?"

"Well, she was saying it's your intent to promote peace in Gensokyo through the act of gathering faith."

"That's right. Faith is, after all, a way of being. A sort of mental discipline that people of the Outside world are finding increasingly difficult to understand amidst a culture of instantaneous gratification." It seemed to me that as she said this her eyes narrowed in suspicion. The two of us had come from a world perhaps even more convenient than Sanae's. Could she somehow sense it's stain on us?

"Human beings are social creatures, and societies exist through the establishment of laws and shared senses of morality. Laws are merely words on paper, however, and morals are even more ambiguous. And yet, despite this, human societies can and do flourish, persisting even without the presence of a leader capable of forcing everyone to follow the rules. How is such a thing possible?"

"It's because people believe in those laws and norms, right?" I ventured.

Kanako nodded approvingly. "Indeed. To keep such concepts solid enough to allow for a civil society to flourish requires mental discipline. It requires faith. Without it, laws are merely words, but faith in those laws allows great civilizations to be built. Religion is no different. Putting one's faith in something greater than oneself requires the will and dedication to adhere to a system of values and practices, but the rewards are sublime -a heightened understanding of the world and the stability to weather the worst of life's trials. The loss of faith in society is indicative of a loss of discipline. Just as a society that loses respect for its own laws is sure to suffer upheaval, a society that loses faith in its gods suffers from moral confusion and a degradation of common decency. Human societies need faith to function. It is a lesson lost on the Outside world."

"Oof, that must hurt for you to hear, Merry. Doesn't Relative Psychology hold that all things, including morality and reality itself are subjective?" Renko asked, grinning as she poked me in the ribs.

"Relative Psychology holds that individual beliefs are inviolable to the individual, meaning belief in an absolute morality is a perfectly valid stance for an individual to have. It merely requires a practitioner like myself to treat such viewpoints with scientific skepticism, not outright denial. For the purpose of this discussion, I'm perfectly content to continue under the assumption that faith is a necessity for civil society," I explained calmly, as I grabbed her cheek and twisted.

"Agh, ow! Geez, Merry, nothing civil about you. At this rate I'm going to be the one who ends up with wrinkles," she said, pushing my hand away. "On that topic though, Lady Yasaka. If your goal is to bring peace to Gensokyo by uniting faith, doesn't imposing your own system of morals and beliefs on the world seem counterproductive? Whatever system of belief was already in place here would be different and that would naturally lead to a clash, wouldn't it?"

"Such is the inevitable nature of things. A morality that concedes its core beliefs to accommodate the beliefs of another society is no morality at all. It's natural that two different belief systems would clash. Such conflicts have played out countless times throughout history, and the results of them are up to the humans who are members of those societies. Sometimes religions clash destructively. Sometimes one is accepted in place of another and sometimes there is syncretism and a mixing of different beliefs and practices into a new whole. The results are not up to the gods to decide. Humans alone bear responsibility for how they chose to settle such disputes. It sounds to me like Gensokyo has at least found a method that minimizes the risk to human lives."

"I see. Even the gods can't affect fate, eh?"

"I have no desire to enter into conflict with the shrine at the foot of the mountain or its protector. If she can not tolerate our presence, however, I also have no intention to yield. If there is no place in Gensokyo for the gods of the Moriya shrine, then we will carve one into existence just as we carved a place for this shrine from the unyielding rock of the mountain."

"You can do it, Lady Kanako. It'll be a piece of cake for you!" Sanae cheered, her fists clenched.

"Well, that shall be seen soon enough, I suppose. The miko will be here momentarily." Saying that, Kanako vanished just as suddenly as she had appeared.

Renko grunted, deep in thought as she sipped her tea.

"Alright, detective," I said, turning to her. "This was all your idea, so what do we do now? Reimu will be here any minute, and I don't think you've got any hope of beating her in a game of danmaku."

"There is such a thing as negotiation, Merry. There may not even be a danmaku match today. It's Reimu though, so you're probably right. I'm going to try to talk to her anyway. If she insists on challenging Lady Yasaka, then we can try to work out a reasonable set of conditions for the match to be fought over."

Sanae nodded. "Whatever happens, I'll do my best to support Lady Kanako. She won't get past me without a fight." As she spoke her hand drifted unconsciously to her hair, brushing against the frog and snake ornaments she wore on one side.

Renko noticed the gesture. "Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you about those ornaments, Sanae."

"Oh, these?" she asked with an awkward smile. "They're just good luck charms. This one is for Lady Kanako and this one is for Lady Suwako," she said, pointing to the snake and the frog in turn.

"So Lady Yasaka is a snake and Lady Suwako is a frog? I remember that Takeminakata was sometimes depicted as a snake, but where does the frog come from? Is it just because Suwako lost her domain to Kanako so she became snake food?"

"No, its nothing like that. Lady Suwako just loves frogs. She has a lot of froggy friends out on the lake she talks to." I tried to imagine the curse goddess marching along the surface of the lake, an army of frogs hopping in formation behind her. It was a cute image, and only slightly creepy.

"I wear these to remind me that I always have the power of those two behind me. As long as they're around I know I won't lose to a faithless shrine maiden from the bottom of the mountain!" Sanae clenched her fists once more and exhaled defiantly, but a moment later her confidence seemed to fade and she turned her face down, staring almost morosely at the floor. "I won't lose. I can't..."

I never got a chance to ask her what had got her so down though. It was at that moment that Marisa Kirisame and Reimu Hakurei rushed into the grounds of the Moriya shrine, shoving and crowding eachother out of the way as they raced through the torii and the sun reddened the western sky.