Reimu Quest (Part 4)

[日巫子]

>"Those are the most influential people around, huh?"

> "Divinity tends to be that way," Keine says.

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>"If I need to find you again later, where should I look?"

[日巫子]

>Nod.
>"If I need to find you again later, where should I look?"

> "I'm here until 4:30, and then I'm having dinner with a friend," Keine says.  "I'll probably be home at around 6.  If you need me after 4:30, just wait outside the school and I'll stop by on the way home to find you."

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>Nod.
>"Alright. If I need to, I will. Thanks."
>Bow and depart school. Procure gohei along the route out.


So, at this point the plan is to beat down Moriyas until such a time as one of them talks, as they are the most obvious culprits. Speak now or forever hold your piece.

[O4rfish]

I still think we should talk with Yuuka first, as our first assumption has to be we're dreaming, and the reason we're doing this weird dream thing is because she basically asked us to.

[Hello Purvis]

Well, first off I don't think we've entirely figured out that we're dreaming.  There's not really been a lucidity trigger, yet.
Secondly, apparently Yuuka doesn't exist. Or if she does, she's completely unknown, which would be odd.
Thirdly, Reimu tends to go for the obvious things first, especially when in beatings mode, which I'd argue she's well into by now, as someone has tried to erase her and her work from existence.

Yuuka might be a second option, though, if beating up Moriyas doesn't work.

[Cheez8]

Yeah, if Yuuka was around she'd be a good choice, but she doesn't seem to be.

Honestly I think even beatings mode Reimu would be well aware that the Moriyas don't have much business erasing the barrier from history. Like we just finished thinking, they came to Gensokyo to get away from the outside world. (That, plus we just finished falsely accusing them less than a day or two ago and probably didn't feel too good about it this time.) If anything, I'd imagine visiting Yukari would at least give us a vague lead to follow, since Yukari always seems to know what's going on even though she won't tell us straight. Plus, maintaining the barrier had partly been her job in the reality we're used to.

...Come to think of it, didn't the Yakumos kind of vanish or something during the flood?

It's not like there are very many people that we could confront to figure things out, though, so if visiting the Yakumo Railways doesn't sound useful then the Moriyas are probably the next best thing.

[Sect]

Actually, Cheez has a point: Yukari is disappeared, so stopping by the Railways first, assuming it's closer than Kanako, would be a good idea.

[Sect]

Also, since she's sort of the driving force behind the barrier (I think?), she MIGHT be the best source of information on why the barrier isn't barriering.

[Hello Purvis]

I am thinking she'd blame the Moriyas for a few reasons, even over bothering Yukari. Firstly, because she has been erased out, and the Moriya shrine is the one group that really wanted her assimilated or removed. Secondly, and kinda related, because they're regarded as the top dogs around here rather than one of many, which suggests they plied things to their advantage. As well, they were from Outside to begin with, so they'd be most likely to want to remove the barrier. Especially with their track record of trying to import various outside world technologies with varying degrees of success.

As such, given Reimu is Reimu in incident mode, I think she's more likely to violence on likely target first then think of Yakumos second. Other characters might be more thoughtful.

[Cheez8]

Even then, I'd expect Reimu to at least make the connection that someone tasked with keeping the barrier from falling apart might know something about the barrier falling apart. Heck, even if she's just focusing on possible culprits, that still doesn't rule Yukari out. You seem pretty dead-set on barging into Kanako's place again though, and I do understand the thought process behind it, so I won't stop you. Maybe we can even meet Sanae while we're there.

[Hello Purvis]

I get the feeling Yukari wouldn't have much to say, if the barrier's down and she let it stay down. But, I concede that Reimu might not think that far ahead.

I won't oppose going to Yukari first, but I feel violencing some Moriyas is more in character right now.

[Cheez8]

Sounds good to me.

> Once we've left the schoolhouse, take to the air and begin making a beeline for Youkai Mountain's peak off in the distance.
> ...And try to do so calmly. We're probably not exactly the law anymore, so looking like we have beef with a couple of goddesses might not be in our best interests anymore.
> ...Okay, well, at least pretend we're calm for the time being.

Actually, not yet. This was a pretty hasty decision for me to make. Sorry about that.

[日巫子]

>Nod.
>"Alright. If I need to, I will. Thanks."
>Bow and depart school. Procure gohei along the route out.

> "Bye, then."
> Keine waves to you as you leave.  You leave the school the way you came, and once you've exited the building you equip your gohei.  What now?

> _

[Sect]

> Well, time to do what we do best: let's go pay the Moriyas a visit and... put on shades shatter their faith.
> ... That was horrible. Let's never think that again. Let's just get going.
> ... Thank goodness Satori wasn't here to hear that.

[日巫子]

> Well, time to do what we do best: let's go pay the Moriyas a visit and... put on shades shatter their faith.
> ... That was horrible. Let's never think that again. Let's just get going.
> ... Thank goodness Satori wasn't here to hear that.

> You make a very horrible pun.  At least Satori is not present to witness your blunder.
> You take to the skies and start flying over the town.  To the south you see the place that was labeled as the train station on the community center map, and beyond that, the mountain.  Getting closer you see that the ladder-looking roads lead into the mountains as well.

> _

[Sect]

> Those roads must be hell for carts. Who in their right mind would make such a thing?
> And we're flying and we're flying...

[日巫子]

> Those roads must be hell for carts. Who in their right mind would make such a thing?
> And we're flying and we're flying...

> This place already doesn't make any sense to you.
> You go into a sort of auto-pilot as you soar over the buildings, passing over the ladder roads and into the mountains.  Below you see that the ladder roads extend out there, and you even see some sort of long, thin rectangular thing pass over one of them.  You're pretty sure that's a train.
> Nearing the largest mountain you can already see that there are multiple shrines, all of which you recognize from the map you saw earlier today.  You also see that there are some small towns dotted here and there, a surprise considering how uninhabited you're used to this place looking.

> _

[Sect]

> Oh, those trains use those weird roads. How odd.
> Are those... tengu villages? Are they spreading?

[日巫子]

> Oh, those trains use those weird roads. How odd.
> Are those... tengu villages? Are they spreading?

> You learn something new every day.
> From where you are, you can't tell if those villages belong to the tengu.  They normally like to keep to themselves, so it would be odd if they spread out like that.

> _

[Sect]

> Well, if they're tengu then it might be all right so long as they don't revert to what they were like hundreds of years ago.
> Keep going, flying a bit lower to get a better view of those towns.

[日巫子]

> Well, if they're tengu then it might be all right so long as they don't revert to what they were like hundreds of years ago.
> Keep going, flying a bit lower to get a better view of those towns.

> You figure since you're in a more modern era, tengu aren't much of a problem right now.  With that thought in mind, you fly low and look down at the towns.
> The architecture here seems to have been designed with the intent of building around the mountain rather than into it.  The roads in the places you pass by look terribly bumpy, and buildings are even carved into cliff faces and pile up on each other on the slopes.  You don't see a single human here.  Youkai of all different kinds are here, most of them kappa.  You don't see more tengu than you can count on one hand, and as far as you can tell, there aren't any oni at all.  Kappa, tsukumogami, beast youkai, and so forth seem to be the norm here.

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>Do we recognize which shrines are which?

[日巫子]

>Do we recognize which shrines are which?

> From your position, only two are visible: one near the base, near a wheat field, and one mostly secluded by trees.  You'd guess that the former is the Akis' shrine, given its location.  The other one, farther away, is probably the Kagiyama Shrine.

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>Probably not them. Let's keep going forward and up the mountain.

[日巫子]

>Probably not them. Let's keep going forward and up the mountain.

> You keep flying up the mountain without pause.  As you climb in altitude, the villages thin out.  Only a few tiny ones are visible by the time you near the peak of the mountain.  You can see the roof of a shrine from where you are.  All around you, you have a lovely view of the world below.  Everything looks so tiny from this high up, you feel like a balloon leaving the atmosphere.

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>Does the shrine correspond with the Moriya shrine we know?

[日巫子]

>Does the shrine correspond with the Moriya shrine we know?

> What else would be at the peak of Youkai Mountain?

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>Target acquired. Descend upon the shrine.

[日巫子]

>Target acquired. Descend upon the shrine.

> Haha, you got it.
> You fly up the rest of the mountain and descent through the shrine gate.  There are a modest amount of visitors here, all of them youkai.  None of them give you a second glance as you arrive.
> But in any case, the Moriya Shrine sure is impressive.  It's much bigger than you remember, with a small garden off to the side and an orchard visible from the path.  You even hear the sound of the acoustic guitar coming from somewhere on the shrine grounds.  A young woman, wearing a turtleneck and long skirt despite the warm weather, is busy sweeping the area near the donation box.

> _