Best enjoyed with the music: /kOS9qhwahoM
Chapter 2 - 想察郷 ～ Parallel of Dreamland
Yoshimi, caught off guard, remained silent and guarded. The blonde girl approaching her was shorter than her, and despite her outwardly friendly face, her confidence in approaching Yoshimi intimidated her.
"Ah," she said, "you weren't expecting to meet anyone out here, were you?"
"Um, no," Yoshimi said meekly.
"Well in any case, it's good that you stopped heading that way. You seemed to be another person bound to be lost in Gensokyo."
"Gensokyo!?" Yoshimi's excitement escaped her, and the other girl let out a small laugh by this development.
"I guess that means you meant to come here, didn't you?"
"Ah," Yoshimi said, realizing she had let her intentions out without meaning to, "yeah, I did."
"But if this is Gensokyo," she continued, "that would mean this is the Hakurei shrine right? I don't remember it being in a state like this..."
"Well," the blonde girl said, "I hate to disappoint you, but this may not be the Gensokyo you remember."
"What do you mean? And who are you anyway?"
"My name is Kiteiki, and like you I seek a different Gensokyo than the one we see before us. As for what this place is, it is the place between a 'True Gensokyo' and our waking world, where fantasy and reality meet. It is Sosatsukyo, the land of infinite speculation."
"Wait, so is this or is this not Gensokyo? I'm confused."
"Where we stand now is the physical location of Gensokyo, but neither of us will find what we want because we have not mentally arrived at Gensokyo yet, so to speak. Well, maybe you were before you decided to turn around at the end there. But it is for the better that you're here now."
"Why, what would've happened?"
"Simple, you would have died."
"You're…" Yoshimi felt a kind of unfamiliar dread take over, "not serious are you?"
"Ooh, as sure as can be, I am serious. And just as serious when I say that you should just go home. I cannot guarantee that there's anything good for you if you stay."
Kiteiki's face had become deathly serious, and Yoshimi understood that the danger of the situation was very real. She turned around, and began to head back to the road she had come from. But then she stopped yet again.
"My, you are very indecisive, aren't you?" Kiteiki said.
"Well," Yoshimi said, "I was just thinking… I came here because Gensokyo means something to me. It's important to me, and so it's important that I go, you know? Turning around now would mean turning my back on something very important, and I can't do that anymore."
"Is that so?" Kiteiki laughed. "Things must be really bad these days if getting stuck here is preferable to living your normal life."
"It really is that bad! Please, you seem to know more about all this than I do. I need your help."
"I still do not know your name and you ask for help?"
"Yoshimi. Sakumo Yoshimi."
Kiteiki grumbled, then began to contemplate the situation.
"Well," she sighed, "I guess it really isn't my place to tell someone to not seek what's important to them. I'll help you."
"Thank you!"
"But please remember, success for either of us isn't a given."
"Yes," Yoshimi said, nodding, clearly satisfied with the outcome. "By the way, why are you here?"
"Why am I here?" Kiteiki seemed surprised by the question. "I guess it's pretty simple. I'm on a sort of spiritual journey. I think people, and thus the world as a whole, have become too disconnected from the spiritual, and from Heaven. Maybe that's not entirely bad, but I think of all the wisdom lost from this. My hope is that I can bring some back."
"So you don't intend to stay after you've made it?"
"No, not at all. It would not be my place to do so."
"Hmm."
"Anyway, we should get going. You don't want to get caught out at night without shelter."
"Oh yeah."
And so Kiteiki led Yoshimi through the forest at the edge of Gensokyo and the Outside.