The Spread Shot of Chimi Houjuu (a Touhou LW original). She stays hidden and isolates her target in this attack. There is a forest within the Yamanba Sanctuary. There are many places in Gensokyo where no humans tread, but this forest is something else entirely―it's wild and untouched as if it's from a time before history. This is partly because the yamanba keep outsiders at bay, but mostly because of the Lunar Capital's facility. It has an aura of preservation, turning the entire area into a living fossil. But whatever's inside that facility is probably even older...

The Focus Shot of Chimi Houjuu (a Touhou LW original). She channels power older than the very concept of youkai. Chimi Houjuu knew something even the yamanba didn't—that the sanctuary's barrier had activated once before, long before the yamanba ever made that forest their home. Chimi had already been living there by then, and the Lunar Capital's facility, the one known as the "altar," had already been built. In a place this untouched by impurity, time itself begins to lose meaning, and that's exactly why the sanctuary's forest has never aged past its ancient, primeval state.

A Spell Card of Chimi Houjuu. She unleashes an unknown attack while hiding in a swamp. As it turns out, Chimi Houjuu is the one who created the dousojin Nareko Michigami, which suggests she has a habit of making things like that. Dousojin are an ancient type of deity, with strong ties to Sai no Kami and jizou. Because they're so old, their role has expanded widely over time, and their true origin is still debated. Going back to the original meaning of the word, dousojin may have started out as nothing more than large stones once used as road markers or warning signs, revealing a shared origin between tools and gods.

A Spell Card of Chimi Houjuu. She unleashes an unknown attack while hiding in the forest. A youkai making a dousojin isn't so strange when you think about it. It's no different from how people once crafted their own tools in prehistoric times. Kappa in Gensokyo, for instance, are known to worship a water god tied to Yamata no Orochi, so it wouldn't be surprising for youkai to have belief systems entirely different from human ones. That same god was depicted as an octopus, even though its true form was never confirmed. An unidentified god that looks like an octopus... makes you wonder whether unidentified youkai might have come from outer space.

The Last Word of Chimi Houjuu (a Touhou LW original). She's wherever nobody is, and never where somebody is. Human history is, in many ways, a history of uncovering secrets—taking what once couldn't be controlled and making it controllable, taking what once couldn't be predicted and making it predictable. That pursuit is what has kept humanity safe, let it grow, and made human life richer. But not everything survived that process. The creatures and cultures lined up behind glass in museums are gone for good. They'll never come back, no matter how well they're preserved. Which is exactly why humans must spend time with the living world now, before it's just another specimen in a case.