Mentioned Characters: Yukari, Renko

White is the beginning, black is the end. The boundary of fantasy is scarlet and purple. Hakurei Shrine is the sole witness. Only it has seen everything. For ages it has stood on the boundary, and even after the humans perish and all the youkai disappear, its vigil will continue. But who decided that the beginning comes before the end? That within the barrier is inside, and everything else is outside? Is that always true, no matter where you are in time or space?

"How many times has this repeated?" Yukari said with a sigh. How many times has someone who looks just like her, living in a different time and place, uttered those same words? This was such a common occurrence. Only most people tend not to notice it. The world is made up of three layers: the physical layer, the mental layer, and the memory layer. It is the memory layer that prevents things from repeating. Even if two events or moments seem identical, there are always differences. That is the nature of memories. However, if there is no record of an event in the memory layer, it will occur again and again ad nauseam. Again, the shrine is built. Again, Gensokyo is created. Again, humans are born, and they begin to play. They play in the scarlet mist. They play amid the snow in springtime. They play during a never-ending night. The youkai laughed softly to herself, certain she would find what she sought.

"Did you find it, Renko?" Merry's question was met with silence. Why was she here again? Right, it was all Renko's idea. She asked if Merry would like to go with her to see the entrance at Hakurei Shrine. That's why she was traipsing through the mountains looking for her. But she was starting to have doubts. Was there really a shrine out here in the middle of nowhere? Renko showed her a photo, but that doesn't prove anything. That reminded her. It was all Renko's fault. She was late again―two minutes and nineteen seconds late. They had explored all kinds of places together. Starting at the entrance in Rendaino, they snuck through gaps in barriers to explore dreams, Satellite TORIFUNE, the age of the gods, an otherworld at Tanabatazaka, an artificial utopia, and countless other places. This was forbidden, but they did it anyway. Because she and Renko were the sole members of the Secret Sealing Club, an occult club that didn't carry out any of the usual, much more sensible occult activities.

"Irregularities get erased." Since then, all kinds of things wound up in Gensokyo. Such is the fate of things that are lost and forgotten in the outside world. That is how Yukari made it. Just as she herself was made to make Gensokyo. Time flows differently here. But if time is different, the density of space and the strength of gravity must invariably be different, too. Thus, if time didn't flow more slowly, lost things wouldn't end up in Gensokyo. You can't have one without the other. That's why Yukari was content to wait. She assumed that if she waited long enough, what she was looking for would come to her. Each year, something new would happen. Gensokyo was beloved by its inhabitants. The youkai, the oni, the Lunarians, the gods, the hermits, the many humans... they all loved Gensokyo. They lived with Gensokyo, and they― How long would she have to wait? How much longer did she have to keep searching?

"It's like it was left open... waiting for me." Renko wasn't at the shrine. She must have gone through the gap, beyond Hakurei Shrine's boundary, to a far-off land. She's not here, so where else could she have gone? Renko must've already found this gap and gone inside. That's the only explanation... Merry waited and waited, but Renko didn't return. Her life wasn't the same without her. Renko's other friends got used to it eventually, but she never could. That's why she came to the shrine, why she was standing before the gap in the barrier. As Merry passed through the confluence of light and dark, she muttered beneath her breath. "Sorry I'm late, Renko."