We remained under something akin to house arrest in the Tower of Dreams for several hours. Renko of course took the opportunity to explore the premises quite thoroughly, but while we were busy investigating the grounds, Gensokyo's Incident resolvers had all begun to move as well. If you have access to a copy of miss Akyuu's Gensokyo Chronicle, then no doubt you already know the story of this Incident, which is related there in more exacting detail than I could hope to provide, being as we were trapped underground the whole time and not witness to many of the events that transpired. In light of that, I shall not attempt to recount a comprehensive and exhaustive record of all of the events, instead, I shall relay to you the personal and private anecdotes of one of the Incident resolvers with whom we have the luck to be good friends. What follows is the testimony of the wind priestess and living goddess of the Moriya shrine as to what occurred. As always, I can make no claims as to the veracity of this account, as the details depicted here are only what Sanae related to me.

-.-.-.-.-

Once numerous ghost-like spirits started appearing on the mountain, not only scattered around the Moriya shrine but also, according to reports, in the city of the tengu and the kappa hideout as well, the first thing Sanae did was head into town and look for Renko and myself at our office. Having heard the stories of previous Incidents we had told her, she figured it best to consult an expert. She might also have suspected that if she didn't rush to catch Renko right away, then my partner might resolve to set out and investigate the Incident without her, but that's me editorializing. As it was, she got to our office shortly after we had already left to follow Nazrin to the Myouren temple.

She waited around for us at our office for a bit, but after an hour or so resigned herself to the fact that she had probably missed us. It was early evening by the time she sighed and left our office, closing the door behind her and walking around the side of the premises to where she had set up a branch shrine to the Moriya goddesses. Bowing respectfully, she called upon Lady Yasaka and explained the situation.

"I see. Well, these spirits don't seem to be causing any harm, but I've been hearing the prayers of villagers who are worried about them all day. What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to resolve the Incident! It's just a matter of figuring out how. You said these spirits are just desires, right? Well isn't a desire sort of the same thing as a prayer? Maybe I can collect them up and then solve the Incident and satisfy all those desires at once! That would be like... double-faith, right?"

"Divine spirits don't work like point multipliers, Sanae."

"Maybe they could! This has never happened before, right? If I gather them up maybe there's a bonus mode! Three million points for the Moriya shrine!"

"Gather the spirits up if you wish, but the more important question is where they are coming from. There's no way to resolve the Incident if you don't discover that."

"What do you think, Lady Kanako? They started seeing them here in the village before we started hearing about them on the mountain, right? It looks like there's more of them here too."

"That's true. That could mean that they're coming from somewhere near the village, but it also just be because the village is more densely populated than anywhere else. These sorts of desire spirits come off of people all the time, but they're usually too weak and too briefly-lived to notice."

"Oh, you think these are leaking out of people? Something like that happened before, right? When the Hakurei shrine got destroyed."

"That was the result of a celestial intentionally extracting people's temperaments. The spirits didn't stick around then because they got turned into a scarlet cloud. These spirits are being strengthened somehow, but they don't seem like they're being used for anything. I don't think this is the work of a celestial."

"Hmm, well then who could it be? I'd be happy to go beat up Tenshi again, but if she's not the one responsible, someone else might get to the mastermind first while I do."

"Why not ask the resident expert on Incident resolution?"

"Reimu? No way! This time I want to beat her to the punch. She said the whole thing with Hisoutensoku wasn't a real Incident and didn't count as saving the village!"

"Well I appreciate your eagerness, but it seems like she's already on the move."

Spurred by a divine premonition, Sanae looked up then to see a pair of figures soaring through the evening sky toward the west. One figure was riding a broom and dressed in black and white, and the other seemed to be chasing her, dressed in red and white. Reimu and Marisa.

"Aaa! I'm gonna be late again!" Sanae said, moving to chase after them.

"Wait a minute," Kanako's voice rang in her head. "What's your plan? We still don't know where the mastermind is, right?"

"Well wherever it is, I can't let them get there first, right? I've gotta follow them!"

"I suppose that's not the worst plan. Be careful Sanae. Have fun."

"Bye Lady Kanako!" She called to the shrine as she hurled herself into the air on a gust of wind.

Catching up or passing the two flying girls while they were already racing eachother would have been difficult, but Sanae wasn't trying to. She did her best to tail them quietly instead, keeping a fair ways back and flying low to avoid being spotted. There aren't really a lot of places to hide in the sky though and she was worried that if she let anything get between her and the others she might loose them. They spotted her near the far edge of the Forest of Magic, just before the Road of Reconsideration. Marisa slowed and pointed her out to Reimu, then both girls stopped and turned to wait for her. Doing her best not to look embarrassed, Sanae noticed them both and flew up to meet them.

Reimu was the first to speak, floating in the air with her arms crossed and her gohei firmly in hand. "Why are you here again, do you have anything to do with this?"

"Only that I'm going to resolve it and protect the village. For the glory of the Moriya shrine!"

Reimu glowered at her. "You sure that this isn't you or your friends' doing this time? Where are Renko and Merry?"

"I don't know," Sanae said with a shrug. "I went to look for them, but they'd already gone somewhere without me. They're probably investigating, just like we are."

"Then we need to do this quick," Reimu growled. "Before they get in the way and mess everything up."

"Maybe we should head back to the village an' ask if anyone knows where they went." Marisa suggested. "Knowin' them, they're probably already at the mastermind by now. We could save ourselves some time."

"Seriously, what's with those two?" Reimu sighed. "They're just humans, why are they like this?"

"You should be happy neither of 'em can fight, Reimu! If they could they'd put the Hakurei shrine outta business."

"Shut up. I'm not convinced they're not the reason we have so many Incidents."

"Well at the very least, they were behind that whole mess with the treasure ship."

"That was an accident!" Sanae protested. "They'd never intentionally commit a crime. Renko's a detective and Merry says having a detective be the culprit would violate the rules of a mystery."

Reimu glared at her for a moment, then shook her head. "I never understand what you Outsiders are going on about. Anyway, if they're looking into this we need to get moving. If we chased after them we'd just be behind them, but if we go straight to the mastermind, maybe we can cut them off."

"Oh, do you know who's responsible then?"

"I'm not telling you, just go home." Reimu barked.

"It's gotta be someone in the Netherworld. We're gonna go ask an expert." Marisa explained with a grin. Reimu punched her in the shoulder.

"Ow! Hey Sanae's alright, if someone as strong as Byakuren is behind this, wouldn't it be nice to have her around for the extra firepower?"

"No one like that will show up, it's just going to be Yuyuko messing with the border of the Netherworld again. I'll just go crush her like usual. Ghosts are easy and she won't have that big tree this time."

"The Netherworld? I heard about that," Sanae said, eyes wide in awe "can living humans like us really go there?"

"Oh haven't you ever been?" Marisa asked. "I know you've met Yuyuko before, she's come to a bunch of parties at the Hakurei shrine."

"She's the ghost with the big appetite? She has a girl with swords and a haircut like Yzak that follows her around, right?"

"What's a Yzak?"

"From Gundam SEED!"

"I dunno about that, but if the world's covered in ghosts, they've gotta at least know somethin' about it."

"Oh wow, heading into the Netherworld as the sun sets. This will be like a test of courage!"

"Ooo, a test of courage. I haven't done one of those since the bamboo forest. You remember, Reimu? There weren't any ghosts there. Sorta just the opposite, a human who wouldn't die no matter what."

"I remember. What a pain. How many times did we have to kill her?"

"You killed a human!?"

"Yeah, but it didn't stick..."

While continuing to talk amiably the three Incident resolvers flew on, toward the setting sun and the entrance to the Netherworld.