Library of the Scarlets

Scene 1

            It was an empty day in Gensokyo that time.

            Gensokyo? It is a place separated from the World by a barrier, and is where most of the population is coexisting Humans, Youkai or unnatural beings, Oni or demons, Fairies, Ghosts, Sprites, and even Gods and Goddesses.

            The rest of the “Outside World” had gone to advance in the thing they call “technology”. Humans soon lost interest in them, so most of these nonhuman beings migrated to Gensokyo.

            However, I don’t want to spend an Uzuki morning laying the bed, just thinking and staring to my ceiling.

I quickly removed the sheets and jumped off the embracing warmth of my pillows. A pink light took my attention and when I looked at the source, I saw plenty of sakura starting to fall after blooming fully.

It’s flower-viewing season again, isn’t it?, I asked to myself.

After smiling to myself a bit, I immediately fixed my beddings and got myself in the bath for a little amount of time.

            *Tak* *Tak*

            Someone knocked on the door while I was getting myself prepared. I rushed on my white ribbon belt and finished braiding a side of my blonde hair just in time and ran to the door.

            *Tak—*

            “Yes?”, I opened the door as a hand tapped on it.

            I saw a tall girl wearing a formal white blouse and black skirt. The red hat on her head and camera strapped on her blouse made a little remembering in my mind.

            “Oh, isn’t it the newspaper tengu,” I said cheerfully. “What brings you here?”

            “The name ‘Aya, the Journalist’ is a better thing to say, Marisa,” she replied with a pout.

            Shameimaru Aya is one of the oldest youkai in Gensokyo and is the infamous reporter that always takes pictures even in middle of incidents. She might be very old, but she is not that wise, for her mind is probably full of daily-updated gossips all around Gensokyo.

            “Well, have you heard of what happened to the consecutive religious wars yesterday?”, she asked me.

            Religious Wars are contests where strong religious leaders fight each other. The crowd seeing these is allowed to bet to their chosen Religion or Religious leader if two of the same religion are fighting.

There are three religions know most in Gensokyo. Shinto which believes the strength in Gods and Goddesses that are either present or not in Gensokyo, Buddhism which believes in the ability of nonhumans like youkai or ghosts, and Taoism which believes in the power of Hermits and reincarnated humans.

Aya, being a reporter, it is not surprising that she is interested about it.

            However, I only met a Shinto shrine maiden named Hakurei Reimu yesterday, and fought her in the “Youkai Extermination Contest”, another contest made by Reimu herself. I don’t know anything else about the religious wars.

            Sadly, I lost to her.

            “No,” I answered as I tried to forget what happened to our fight yesterday.

            “Well, everything you want to know is in this newspaper~,” she said and put a rolled piece of rough paper in my hand. After that, she turned away and started walking away.

            What a way to advertise things, Aya.

            “Oh, another reminder too, Marisa,” Aya looked back at me. “The Flower Viewing will occur at Reimu’s shrine.”

            As always.

            Flower Viewing, as the name itself suggests, it is a party or a festival occurring at Shrines for every spring that pass. There used to be just one shrine in Gensokyo which is the Hakurei Shrine, the shrine Reimu lives in.

            But, just last year, a pair of Goddesses and another Shrine Maiden moved in to Gensokyo with their shrine named Moriya Shrine after running out of Faith in the “Outside World”.

            Back to the topic, Flower Viewing used to occur at Hakurei Shrine before these newcomers moved here, and even in the present. It is very hard to reach Moriya Shrine, for it is located in the Youkai Mountain. In the end, these Flower Viewings still continue in the Hakurei Shrine, whether Reimu likes it or not.

            The thing that problems Reimu the most though is that because a LOT of nonhumans celebrates the Flower Viewing that Reimu’s human followers feared visiting her shrine. I could say that more than a third of the population of Gensokyo going in the Flower Viewing without exaggerating.

            “Gotta go then.”

            I just smiled forcibly as I saw the tengu fly through the forest, leaving a trail of both black feathers and sakura blossoms.

When the trail faded, I closed the door, and walked back to the dining room and sat down slowly.

            Without anything more meaningful to do while eating my breakfast, I started reading the newspaper for more information.

            “Missing Mask of Hope: Also the cause of people’s misery? Hata no Kokoro, the owner seemed to lose it and …