Chapter Text
Reimu paused as she was sweeping the entrance to the shrine and looked to the sky.
It was a slightly cloudy day but not enough for rain to fall, perfect temperature for getting some work done.
Of course Suika did not seem to share this thought, she was passed out hanging over the branch of a nearby tree with her sake bottle in a firm grip.
“Hmm, it's been a while since anything major happened” Reimu thought to herself. “It sure can get boring during the quiet times”.
She saw something move in the sky and focused on it to see where it was going. She soon realized that it was the tengu journalist heading for the human village.
“She must be getting desperate” Reimu mused to herself. “With so little going on she has no real scoops to gossip about, I wonder what poor bastard will become her next victim for a completely made-up story”.
She continued swooping as she let her mind wander. It eventually reached the thought it had been reaching a lot lately whenever she did that. “Is incident solving the only thing I can contribute to this world?”
She stopped and shook her head, irritated at herself. “Incident solving is you duty” she told herself. “Without you this place would have fallen apart long ago, be happy about that instead of lingering on depressing thoughts all the time!”.
Suika stirred on her tree branch but didn't wake up. Reimu finished up and went inside the shrine to make herself some tea.
About 30 minutes later she heard someone land outside the door. “Great” she thought, “Aya must not have found a suitable target in the village and come here instead like she always does”.
Then the door slid open and Reimu was greeted with a huge grin. Her mood lifted a little as she realized it was Marisa that had come to visit.
“Hey there you sour grape!” came Marisa's happy greeting.
“Exactly who is a sour grape?” the shrine maiden replied in an indifferent sounding voice.
“Come on now, I know it's no fun when everything is peace and quiet like this, you must be bored”
Reimu smiled on the inside, her friend understood her better then most people.
“Is that why you came here, to cure me of my boredom?” she asked.
“Well, that kinda depends on how you react to my news” came an odd reply.
“What exactly do you mean by that?”
“I figured it would be better if you heard this from me first” the black magician said as she dropped her smile, “because it is going to sound a bit weird, even by our standards”.
By this point Reimu didn't know if she should be worried or exited, so she simply asked Marisa to go on.
“You see the thing is, Yukari has been taking regular trips to the outside world lately, I've suspected that she was investigating something and I was right, because she came bearing some bad news today”.
She paused before continuing, “Apparently, a certain group of unknowns are trying to break down the Hakurei Barrier, and we can't fight them of to stop it”.
“What? Why not?” Reimu asked.
“They have disguised themselves as humans performing an experiment, and they have cameras looking at everything they do.” Marisa answered.
“Cameras? What's that and how do they prevent us from acting?”
“Think of it as a hand-held eye of sorts that sends the image it sees to other places in the world. Basically, through them a large part of the world is watching these guys work and can see anything that happens to them”.
Reimu scratched her head and asked “So they are trying to attack the barrier from the outside then?”
“Yes, and it looks like they plan to hit the barrier from all sides simultaneously. They aren't trying to poke holes in the barrier, they’re trying to completely destroy it beyond repair and have the whole world watch as they do it.”
By this point Reimu was definitively worried, if the barrier was destroyed all of the youkai would lose their sanctuary, some would attack humans as a response and a war would probably break out between humans and youkai, and that could only end in a very bad way.
“Then we must stop them as soon as possible!” she said in an uncharacteristically high-pitched voice. “Why can't we just attack them?”.
“Simple, because they are expecting that and have cameras on themselves around the clock, as well as some sort of magical security system around their base of operations right outside the barrier. If we attack them it's the same result as if they destroy the barrier” Marisa answered with a dark look on her face.
Reimu began pacing back and forth in the room, she did not like the way this was going.
“So, what are our options?” she asked her friend. “What can we do?”.
“Well, Yukari has a plan, but it's going to sound very odd” Marisa answered.