Two Worlds, Starting with Kaguya of Penglai Mountain

There's always this feeling that I'm the one who's drugging the other person.

But then again, it gave the emotionally detached Moon People human emotions all at once.

It sounds almost the same as drugging someone.

Kazuya Kurokawa: "I have a feeling that the art style will become increasingly strange in the future."

Kaguya Houraisan: "Isn't that how it should be?"

Princess Kurokawa Kazuya, holding his hand, gave her answer, seemingly in a good mood.

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PS1: So Kaguya is actually a pure and innocent girl? (laughs)

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Chapter 121 Yakumo Yukari Invites Reimu

Flames burned in the sky, and terror spread through the crowd.

Each household kept their doors tightly shut, silently awaiting the start of the battle.

The little radish head, dressed in a red and white shrine maiden outfit, walked on the empty street, her body gradually growing as she walked.

Like the Hakurei Shrine Maiden currently residing in Heian-kyo, the grown-up Hakurei Reimu is a typical Japanese girl.

Black hair and black eyes, with a lazy and relaxed vibe.

At this moment, an emotion resembling anger appeared on the girl's face.

Perhaps because she has just developed feelings, Reimu Hakurei is not the type to hide her emotions.

Be happy when you're happy, be sad when you're sad, and be angry when you're angry.

It has a kind of childlike innocence.

This may explain why she has always maintained the appearance of a child, even though she could have turned back.

Because as a child, you can do anything without any restrictions.

"I used to really like this place, but now I kind of hate it. Why is that?"

The clear, melodious voice of a young girl echoed in my mind.

Reimu looked around at the deserted streets.

She disliked fighting, and even more so, she disliked fighting that was rife with deception.

As someone who shares almost all of the Hakurei Shrine Maiden's memories, she knew all too well the reasons behind what was happening on the outskirts of the town.

A performance by the upper echelons, a joint message conveyed to the townspeople through battle.

The residents are currently huddled in their homes, shivering, as part of the plan.

The greater the fear now, the greater the shock will be when Kurokawa and Mi use the power of this town to defeat the attacking enemy, won't it?

In essence, this could even be said to be for the benefit of these residents.

From a long-term perspective, Kurokawa Kazuya's attitude towards his subordinates was indeed a hundred times better than that of Heian-kyo.

The city is indeed as safe as they portrayed it.

Everything is correct, but there's no denying that what's happening outside the city right now is indeed a performance.

Dadada~dadadada~

The sound of footsteps echoed as they walked.

The girl dressed in a red and white shrine maiden outfit continued walking through the town.

She didn't really know why she was walking here, just like she hadn't figured out why she had suddenly grown from a child into an adult.

Wandering through the deserted town, I came to the riverbank I've been frequenting lately.

Emerald green grass, flowing river.

The afternoon sun illuminated the surroundings.

At a normal time of day, around dusk, you can see many people washing their clothes and bodies by the river.

This kind of cleaning is actually quite rare for these people.

After all, in the past, they didn't actually need to maintain physical cleanliness, and going weeks or months without bathing was commonplace.

However, in this town today, the main customers are the various cultivators who come here.

In order to earn income from the cultivators through food and various services, the townspeople began to take baths quite frequently.

Clean people are always more likely to be favored than dirty people.

No cultivator would buy anything from someone who never bathes.

"Everything is fine, isn't it?"

Reimu casually sat down on the grass by the river, resting her chin on her hand, looking exceptionally lazy with a strange hint of displeasure.

"According to the plan, the fantasy city in the game should be recruiting a group of weak monsters into the city in a few days. So why am I sitting here alone thinking about such a boring thing?"

The girl was making sarcastic remarks to herself.

"It's all that poor wretch's fault. His mind can't hold anything else but these things."

She started complaining to another version of herself.

Although Reimu didn't want to think, the other Hakurei Shrine Maiden connected to her at that moment was constantly thinking.

Of course, whether this is something the Hakurei Shrine Maiden wants to think about or something Reimu wants to think about herself is a matter of opinion.

—The two people were originally one person.

With her arms outstretched and her body leaning back, Reimu Hakurei lay on the grass, gazing at the white clouds in the sky.

Her shoulder-length black hair and the large sleeves and hem of her shrine maiden outfit parted as she moved.

Why did I suddenly get a little angry?

Perhaps the overly idealistic reality led her to develop unrealistic fantasies, resulting in excessive expectations for everything.

The Hakurei Shrine Maiden did not miss this function.

But Reimu Hakurei possesses memories and constantly recalls her past.

What were Reimu's feelings when she first agreed to take over the priestess's legacy?

She is actually lazy and unambitious by nature.

At the time, she probably felt that thinking was too tiring, and she didn't have the same drive as others.

Thus, by taking advantage of the uniqueness of her own soul, she decisively became the Hakurei Shrine Maiden she is today.

Time seemed to freeze for her at that moment.

When she realized what was happening, Heian-kyo had transformed into a place she no longer recognized.

From a small city with only a few people, much like this town today, it has developed into a complex network of interests with countless connections.

This is progress for humanity, but it's progress that Reimu doesn't like at all.

Now, reflecting on the past, she thinks that if she hadn't become the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, she might have left the drastically changed Heian-kyo not long after.

Don't get me wrong, Reimu Hakurei doesn't dislike cities.

Reimu Hakurei is just not used to it.

She was not used to the deceit and treachery that comes with gatherings of people, nor was she used to her former partners, who were gradually forming power groups and families, starting to differentiate themselves and even scheme against each other for their own interests.

Let me emphasize this again...

Please don't misunderstand, Reimu Hakurei doesn't think those companions did anything wrong, and their relationship remains at the level of friendship; they haven't become enemies.

Reimu Hakurei simply doesn't like it.

Let me give you a simple example—

A child who is loved by her parents gradually makes all kinds of friends as she grows up, meets her first love, and enters society.

Throughout this process, he loved his parents, had a good relationship with his friends, and was very affectionate with his lover.

Everything was perfect, but it just happened so naturally.

He then formed a family with his lover.

When his friends are in trouble, he is no longer able to help them as wholeheartedly as he used to.

He and his lover had a child.

When he heard that his parents had the flu, he had to keep his distance from either his parents or his children to avoid passing the flu on to his children.

If these major events can be considered accidents, his friends may have had a stable career, and his parents may have remained healthy.

What about the little things in life?

How should I allocate my time with my parents and wife?

As parents get older, their health gradually deteriorates.

During holidays, he meets his parents, who have always loved him dearly, but his wife wants to go on a trip.

Perhaps a rational allocation would be necessary...

He can spend one trip with his parents and another with his wife.

Is it really possible to do this?

Is the wife really willing to spend her hard-earned holidays with her husband to visit his parents?

Ultimately, people have to choose between the two.

It's only natural that children and parents gradually drift apart after starting their own families.

People generally refer to this kind of thing as growing up.

"But I don't like it this way."

Why must there always be things we have to give up?

Reimu looked up at the clouds in the sky, her blank face bearing an expression of bewilderment.

The inevitable, the correct, the natural disappearance.

Just like the aristocratic class that has developed in Heian-kyo today, and just like the population cleansing program that she personally participated in every now and then.

Just like the grand drama that is now unfolding on the outskirts of the city, for the entire town of technology.

They deceive and exploit, treating the living, breathing people around them as tools to manipulate them.

But those were living, breathing people.

The stingy chef who would happily cook delicious food for her after she paid, the woman who would try to introduce her to a husband while she was leisurely lying down, and the old man who would point fingers at her for being lazy and not doing her job.

Each of those people has their own personality. Reimu Hakurei may not like them, but they are indeed vivid individuals.

This little deception, in truth, isn't a big deal, but...

Reimu lay in the grass, feeling that she could even imagine the future of this "tech city" that looked so good now.

Perhaps it's a reenactment of the scenes she's already witnessed?

After all, Heian-kyo was like that back then.

Back then, Heian-kyo was truly wonderful. It had learned and admirable cultivators who organized the common people in the wilderness surrounded by yokai, and established the earliest outline of the city.

Driven by the pressure to survive, practitioners at that time taught anyone they encountered.

At that time in Heian-kyo, there was no need to distinguish between cultivators and ordinary people, because everyone could cultivate if they wanted to.

However, some people are simply not cut out for this, and have little interest in transcending the ordinary and achieving sainthood.

These people formed the initial management system within Heian-kyo.

At that time, there wasn't really any strict classification system.