The Human Village felt eerily empty as we walked in, the usual bustle replaced with an unsettling silence. Only a few people were around, moving quickly with their heads down. Most of the shops had closed up, windows dark, and doors locked. Even the lanterns along the street seemed dimmer than usual, casting long shadows across the deserted roads. It looked more like a ghost town than the lively place I'd gotten used to.

"People going missing all around the village... How did we miss this?" I muttered, shaking my head as I scanned the empty streets. "You'd think we'd have realised something was wrong a lot sooner."

"It's not just the Human Village, you know. It's all of Gensokyo," a voice called out, cutting through the quiet.

I turned towards the sound, only to be blinded by a sudden flash—a camera. I blinked, spots dancing in my vision as I tried to make out the figure holding it.

"Now that's a keeper," the voice continued with a playful lilt. "I can see it now—headline: 'Culprits to the Disappearances Caught Red-Handed.'"

Marisa crossed her arms, huffing. "Very funny, Aya. You print that, and that's slander."

The girl with the camera smirked, though she seemed slightly wounded. "Slander is spoken, Marisa. You're looking for libel."

"Aya?" I asked, finally getting a good look at her. She had long, dark hair, a pair of black wings folded behind her, and a reporter's badge dangling from her neck. "Oh, you're the one who runs that newspaper, right?"

Aya adjusted her camera and rubbed her nose in a smug gesture. "Yup, that's me. Even people from the Outside World know about me." She grinned. "Aya Shameimaru, a journalist for the Bunbunmaru Newspaper. It's actually a tragedy we haven't met sooner, Librarian of Alexandria."

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. "How do you know that?"

"Oh, please. I know everything," Aya replied, waving a hand dismissively. "Word travels fast around here. I've been dying to get you in for an interview. My readers would love to hear about the one who defeated both Reimu and Marisa in a duel."

"I was going easy on him!" Marisa shouted defensively.

Aya flipped open her notepad, jotting something down. "Was going easy on him, so claims the Ordinary Magician," she said aloud, clearly relishing the tease. She turned her attention back to me, eyes glinting. "So, what do you say, Marcus? Up for a little interview?"

"Uh… sure?" I answered, not entirely sure what I was getting myself into.

"Great!" Aya exclaimed, pulling me aside, pen poised at the ready. "Let's talk gossip," she said, clicking the pen a few times with the excitement of someone who just stumbled onto a goldmine.

"Right now?" I glanced at Marisa, who had a look on her face that seemed like a mix between annoyance and panic.

"Of course! Can't let this chance slip by," Aya said, already scribbling something in her notebook. "I want to know everything, and so do my readers. Don't leave a single detail out."

I sighed, not sure where this was going. "Okay… what do you want to ask?"

Aya twirled the pen in her fingers thoughtfully. "Good question. You always want to start with something juicy that grabs the reader's attention, you know? Let's see..." Her grin widened as if she'd just had a stroke of genius. "What's your relationship with Marisa?"

"What?!" I practically choked on my breath as Marisa went bright red.

"Wait, don't answer that!" Marisa shot back, practically leaping forward to snatch Aya's notebook away. "What kind of question is that?!"

Aya just tapped the pen against her chin, her tone as casual as if she were asking about the weather. "It's just a simple question, Marisa. The readers gotta know—what's the deal with you two? Are you dating more than that? Come on, come on."

"We're just friends!" Marisa's voice was loud, almost desperate. Her cheeks flushed more profoundly, and I could tell this was heading into territory that made her very uncomfortable.

Aya leaned in closer, her expression a mix of curiosity and amusement. "Friends who live in the same house together? It doesn't sound like the Marisa Kirisame I know. What do you say, Marcus?" She looked at me, her pen hovering over the paper, ready to jot down anything I said.

The way she worded it made me pause. It felt like I was missing something. Then I remembered what Aya had said earlier, and the words seemed to echo in my head. "What do you mean, all of Gensokyo?" I asked, trying to steer the conversation away from whatever Aya was digging for.

Aya let out a scoff, shaking her head as if I'd just asked an obvious question. "You really haven't been keeping up, huh?" She glanced over at Marisa, who was still fuming. "Disappearances aren't just happening in the Human Village. People all over Gensokyo have been vanishing. And not just regular folk either—some pretty powerful names are going missing, too.

For a moment, I felt a chill creep down my spine. The streets of the village felt emptier than before, the quiet sinking in even more profound. "How… how long has this been going on?"

Aya's smile faded as she looked me square in the eye. "Long enough to know that if you're not careful, you or someone close to you could be next." She flipped her notebook shut with a snap, her usual smugness replaced by something a lot more serious. "And that's not just a headline. It's a warning. Looks like I gotta bring you kids up to scratch. Follow me."


We found ourselves outside a quiet tavern, sitting at a wooden table that had seen better days. The air was thick with tension, a far cry from the usual buzz of conversation and laughter I'd come to expect from the Human Village. I tapped my fingers against the table, my mind racing as I tried to digest everything Aya had said so far. The more she revealed, the deeper the hole seemed to get.

"You're saying this is affecting all of Gensokyo?" I asked, breaking the heavy silence.

Aya leaned back in her chair, arms crossed, her expression uncharacteristically serious. "Not just Gensokyo," she said. "It's reaching everywhere—Netherworld, Hell, you name it. People are vanishing left and right. It started with some normal folks here, and a few humans were going missing, but then it escalated. Notable people began to disappear." She hesitated, almost as if she wasn't sure how much she should say. "Eientei was hit first. Kaguya vanished. Then the Celestials—Tenshi included. And after that, it just spiralled out of control." She snapped her fingers. "Everyone at the Scarlet Devil Mansion? Gone. Like it never existed."

Marisa's arms tightened around herself, her brow furrowing with concern. "It's one thing for humans to vanish," she murmured, "but for big players like Remilia, Kaguya, and Tenshi to disappear? That's no coincidence." She bit her lip, looking troubled. "What about Alice?"

Aya shrugged, her wings shifting slightly behind her. "I don't know. She's not exactly the most sociable person, so it's hard to say. But if you think she's gone, too, then it wouldn't surprise me."

Marisa turned to me, biting her thumb as she spoke. "I tried to get help from Alice, but when I went to her house, it was just… gone. I haven't seen her since. At first, I thought it was another incident cropping up, but now I'm starting to wonder if this has been happening in the background the whole time."

Whoever was behind this had to be unbelievably powerful, I realised. Strong enough to snatch up people like it was nothing, no matter how skilled or protected they were.

Aya was scribbling notes as we spoke, her pen scratching the surface of the paper. "Alice's house vanishing too, huh? If that's the case, then I'd say she's a victim for sure."

Marisa's eyes narrowed. "Why do you think that?"

Aya clicked her pen against her temple as if trying to stimulate a thought. "Because," she explained, "whenever someone disappears, the place connected to them disappears as well. Eientei's lost since Kaguya vanished, and the rest of the residents are in disarray. The Scarlet Mansion? There's no trace of it left. It's like someone's not just taking people… they're erasing whole pieces of Gensokyo."

The weight of her words seemed to make the air even heavier, a suffocating presence pressing down on all of us. I took a breath, forcing myself to stay calm. "Do we have any leads at all?" I asked.

Aya shook her head, thumbing through her notes. "None. It's like trying to solve a puzzle where half the pieces are missing."

She glanced at Marisa, who spoke up. "The three who vanished from the village last night—do you know who they were?"

Aya's voice was almost a whisper. "Two humans and… Keine Kamishirasawa."

I could see the dread settling on her face as she realised the implications. Keine was the guardian of the Human Village, the one who kept it protected from harm. If she was gone…

Aya filled in the silence. "Without Keine, the village is left defenceless. The place is already on edge; people are in disarray. Reimu is doing what she can, working with Yukari and other displaced youkai to figure out what's going on, but if we don't hurry, more and more people will keep disappearing."

"Until soon," I whispered, "there's no one left." I thought about the Forbidden Tomes. Could one of them be behind this? It seemed extreme even for them. "This doesn't sound like the work of a Forbidden Tome. Not like any I've ever encountered, anyway. But… it's the only lead we have. Five more are still out there—Purpose, Truth, Freedom, Future, and Power. None of them seem to fit this situation, though."

Aya blinked, curiosity lighting up her eyes. "Forbidden Tomes?" she asked.

"They're ancient, twisted books of knowledge from the Library of Alexandria," I explained. "Each one grants the user untold power based on their deepest desire. If someone's using one of these, they'd need a particular reason to go after people like this."

Marisa and Aya both fell silent, thinking it over. "A few come to mind," Marisa admitted hesitantly. "It might suit someone like Junko, but she's more focused on the Lunarians. I doubt she'd care enough about making humans vanish."

Aya tapped her pen against the table, clicking it nervously, listening to more of Marisa's ideas. "What about Seija Kijin? She's always been one for chaos. Wiping Gensokyo clean, taking out all the strongest players so only the weak remain… it sounds like something she'd do."

"It would," Aya said, a hint of frustration in her voice, "except that Seija's gone missing, too."

Marisa let out a defeated sigh. "Figures. It was a good theory while it lasted."

An uneasy quiet settled over us. I could tell Aya was hesitant about something, glancing at Marisa more than once before she finally spoke. "What about your old mentor?"

The atmosphere seemed to crack like ice. Marisa froze, her eyes narrowing as if she'd been hit with a splash of cold water. "What did you just say?" Her voice was low, almost a growl.

This was the first I'd ever heard of Marisa having a mentor. "You never mentioned you had a mentor," I said, glancing between them.

"Had," Marisa corrected sharply. "It was a long time ago. And no, it's not her."

Aya didn't back down. "But it sounds like something she would do, doesn't it? An evil spirit with a grudge against humanity… this could be one way of achieving her goal."

"It isn't her!" Marisa's voice cut through the air like a blade. "She was banished to the world between worlds years ago. She's not coming back."

I could feel the tension crackling between them, so I tried to change the topic. "How about we focus on what we do know?" I suggested. "The people who disappeared last night—did anyone see anything?"

Aya nodded slowly, looking a bit sheepish. "Actually, there was a witness," she said.

"Good," I replied. "Maybe we can finally get some answers. Who was it?"

Aya rubbed the back of her neck, chuckling nervously. "Well... you're not going to like this, Marisa."

Marisa's eyes tightened, her fingers gripping the edge of the table. "Who was it?"

Aya took a breath before answering. "Your father, Marisa. He was the one who saw it happen."

Marisa went silent, the colour draining from her face. She clenched her jaw as if holding back a flood of emotions. "As if this day couldn't get any worse..." she muttered under her breath.