Reimu Quest (Part 4)

[Hello Purvis]

>"Reimu Hakurei, of the Hakurei Shrine. And there's at least two now. Utsuho Reiuji was supposed to have gone nuts with power and I had to beat some sense back into her, a few years ago. And if you never met me, then that means Kaguya and Eirin probably didn't try to hide the moon away either."

[日巫子]

>"Reimu Hakurei, of the Hakurei Shrine. And there's at least two now. Utsuho Reiuji was supposed to have gone nuts with power and I had to beat some sense back into her, a few years ago. And if you never met me, then that means Kaguya and Eirin probably didn't try to hide the moon away either."

> Keine tilts her head and frowns at the scroll.  "Huh."
> She unfurls more of the scroll, tracing along the words with her finger and looking around until she is up to her knees in scroll paper.  She makes a confused sound.
> "That's odd.  Your name doesn't show up in here at all.  Neither do any of these incidents you speak of."
> She adjusts the scroll in her hands so that she's holding it from the end to about two feet across.
> "Oh.  Your last name appears exactly once, two years ago.  This shrine only existed for a time span of about two weeks, from January 11th to the 25th."
> With a flick of the wrist, she rolls the scroll back up and stuffs it back into her mouth.  Once she has swallowed it, she wipes her mouth and continues by saying, "It's normal for things to erase themselves from my scroll without my influence every now and then.  In this case, it has confined itself to a set time frame.  I'm sorry."

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>"What?"

[O4rfish]

>"What sort of things happened two years ago around that time, and how can a shrine exist for just two weeks?

[日巫子]

>"What?"

>"What sort of things happened two years ago around that time, and how can a shrine exist for just two weeks?

> "Nothing of major importance happened then."  Keine folds her hands on her lap.  "It's very simple:  Let's say...we have this pencil."
> She takes a pencil from a cup on her desk and holds it up for you to see.  "Let's say that one day this just appeared on your desk.  It's definitely real, and everyone else acknowledges it, but then one day it disappears.  Everybody forgets about it as though it never existed.  It might have existed for much longer and may have even had a date of manufacturing rather than appearing out of thin air, but by the time it appeared on your desk, it had retconned itself."
> Keine returns the pencil to the cup.  "What I'm saying is, the shrine altered its own history so that it only existed in this reality for a set time.  If you were to ask about the Hakurei Shrine on, say, January 26th, no one would have any idea what you were talking about because the shrine doesn't exist anymore at that point and technically never existed in the first place.  If you were to visit the shrine during its allotted existence times, say on the 17th, people might have memories of it existing hundreds of years beforehand, even though it has only existed for about six days in reality.  The only reason I'm able to track these things is because I have the scroll you saw just now.  Depending on whether or not it's a full moon I'm able to do what this shrine did--that is, erase things--or add things into history and effectively alter it.  Do you understand?"

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>"I think so. But, are your really saying my shrine erased itself? Because it's not supposed to do anything but be a shrine."

[日巫子]

>"I think so. But, are your really saying my shrine erased itself? Because it's not supposed to do anything but be a shrine."

> "Like I said earlier, that's normal," Keine says.  "It's kind of odd, though."
> Then she says, more to herself than to you, "You're here, but you don't appear in my scroll even once.  Not even on the entry for today.  Yet you have a physical presence."

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>"So someone's messed with history a lot. Like, a lot. And I need to know who they are so I can pound on them until they fix it.  You don't think Yukari would do this, would you?"

[日巫子]

>"So someone's messed with history a lot. Like, a lot. And I need to know who they are so I can pound on them until they fix it.  You don't think Yukari would do this, would you?"

> "I'm sure I'd know if something was seriously wrong," Keine says.  At the mention of Yukari, she adds,
> "'Yukari' is a fairly common name.  Are you referring to one of my students or someone else...?"

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>"Yakumo. The gap youkai. Troublemaker. Don't tell me she's disappeared too."

[日巫子]

>"Yakumo. The gap youkai. Troublemaker. Don't tell me she's disappeared too."

> "Yakumo Yukari?  The founder of Yakumo Railways?  I don't think she's been up to anything lately."

> _

[Hello Purvis]

"Urgh.... That's just not right."
>Ponder for a moment. Who has gained the most out of this, anyways?
>"What have the Moriyas been up to?"

[日巫子]

"Urgh.... That's just not right."
>Ponder for a moment. Who has gained the most out of this, anyways?
>"What have the Moriyas been up to?"

> You think on it for a moment.  Upon immediate reflection, it doesn't seem like anyone has gained anything really significant.  The only things that could count as "gains" at this point would be that certain aspects of Gensokyo might have stayed the same.
> "They hosted a festival last month for the coming of summer," Keine says.  "They might be leading one for the coming of fall in a few months, too.  It's a pretty big event for the mountain shrines."

> _

[O4rfish]

>We ARE still in a dream, right?
>Is it possible that this dream is not an incident, but simply meant to tell us something?

[O4rfish]

>"Do you know someone named Kazami Yuuka?"

[日巫子]

>We ARE still in a dream, right?
>Is it possible that this dream is not an incident, but simply meant to tell us something?

> Is it a dream?  You really have no idea if this is real or not right now.

>"Do you know someone named Kazami Yuuka?"

> "No."

> _

[O4rfish]

>"As a history teacher, you must know the important historic event that took place in Meiji 18, right?"

[日巫子]

>"As a history teacher, you must know the important historic event that took place in Meiji 18, right?"

> "That would be when youkai made themselves known among humans, yes?" Keine says.  "What about it?"

> _

[O4rfish]

>"Hm, I learned that was when my ancestor put up a great barrier separating Gensokyo from the outside world. "

[日巫子]

>"Hm, I learned that was when my ancestor put up a great barrier separating Gensokyo from the outside world. "

> Keine spits up the scroll again and unfurls it partway.
> "...No, that's not what I have written in here."  She wraps it up and stuffs it back into her mouth.

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>"What do you have written?"

[日巫子]

>"What do you have written?"

> "What I just told you."

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>"Then where did the barrier come from?"

[日巫子]

>"Then where did the barrier come from?"

> "The barrier has been around since the earliest recorded histories," Keine says.

> _

[Hello Purvis]

>"That doesn't make any sense, it doesn't work like that..."
>Ponder who would benefit the most by breaking the barrier down. This would probably rule out a lot of youkai...

[日巫子]

>"That doesn't make any sense, it doesn't work like that..."
>Ponder who would benefit the most by breaking the barrier down. This would probably rule out a lot of youkai...

> "That's how it is here, though," Keine says.
> You highly doubt any youkai would want the barrier to be broken down.  However, you're not sure how many humans would be cozy with the idea, either.  Almost all of them--including you--were born and raised inside the border, and have little to no idea what the Outside World is like.  Sanae isn't from Gensokyo, but she and her goddesses came here to get away from the Outside World, so it wouldn't make any sense for them to get rid of the barrier.  You suspect that Sakuya is an outsider as well, but she has made it clear that she's comfortable in Gensokyo.  There isn't anyone else for you to consider at the moment.

> _

[O4rfish]

>I'd bet we can get some information from Yuuka. Also, we should talk to Yukari, Remi, Satori, Eirin, Eiki ... basically the usual suspects, same as with the flooding incident.

[Hello Purvis]

>"So, who are the big names around here, anyways? Everything's weird and wrong, so I need to learn the basics here."

[日巫子]

>I'd bet we can get some information from Yuuka. Also, we should talk to Yukari, Remi, Satori, Eirin, Eiki ... basically the usual suspects, same as with the flooding incident.

>"So, who are the big names around here, anyways? Everything's weird and wrong, so I need to learn the basics here."

> You start thinking of people to visit.  It's a long list...
> Keine arches an eyebrow.  "The 'big names'?  You mean the mountain shrines?  Surely the gods would count as such."

> _

[Hello Purvis]

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