The current shrine maiden at the Hakurei Shrine, which lies on the border of Gensokyo.

The Hakurei Shrine exists to watch over the Great Boundary which ensures Gensokyo's existence, and the shrine maidens of Hakurei resolve major incidents for a living (*1).

Compared to previous generations of shrine maidens, her sense of danger in addition to her training is lacking, yet her power is considerable.

She's defeated multitudes of youkai with her keen intuition and her incredible good luck.

1: Because they can't expect to survive on offerings.

She's unusually easygoing and lacks any sense of danger. She treats everyone in the same uninterested manner, neither gentle nor stern.

Perhaps as a result of that, strong youkai tend to like her, while weak youkai fear her.

However, her opinion regarding youkai is that exterminating them is her job, and no amount of arguing will sway her otherwise.

She has the power to defy gravity and fly freely through the sky.

Nothing is holding her up.

In addition, she has the ability as the miko of Hakurei.

The Hakurei shrine maidens control the Great Hakurei Boundary and protect Gensokyo.

If the Great Boundary were destroyed, either from inside or out, Gensokyo would likely not fare well.

Gensokyo relies on the Hakurei Shrine and its shrine maidens to continue to exist as it does today.

As a result, no youkai oppose them.

Due to her easygoing appearance, it's impossible to tell whether she realizes this or not, but the Hakurei shrine maidens really do have all of Gensokyo under their thumbs.

As it would be dangerous for any youkai to defeat the Hakurei shrine maiden, many youkai felt that their existences had become meaningless.

And so the spell card rules were introduced.

The spell card rules allow both parties to show off their skills in a beautiful competition.

The major points are:

*Spell cards are specially-named techniques, and they must be declared upon use.

*The number of each parties' spell cards must be determined in advance of a duel.

*The first party to use all of their spell cards must admit defeat.

*The victor is entitled only to what was agreed upon before the duel. If they're not interested in what their opponent has to offer, they can refuse a duel.

*Winners should generally allow losers a rematch.

* Always prepare for the unexpected.

Following these rules allows for conflict resolution which is almost like a sporting event.

With the introduction of these rules, it became possible for even relatively weak humans to challenge youkai.

At the same time, it became possible for youkai to safely defeat the shrine maiden without worrying about the consequences.

When an incident is not occurring, she is a very ordinary human (*2).

She lazes about the rarely-visited shrine, pretends to clean it, and drinks tea.

She's often seen going out to shop in the human village.

If she catches sight of a youkai on the way, she will surely teach them a lesson.

In this way, she's different from a usual human.

2: She may even be more easygoing than most people.

She is a specialist in incident resolution.

When an incident occurs (*3), her usual laziness vanishes, and she immediately investigates to resolve whatever matter is at hand.

Although the shrine maiden of Hakurei was initially the only one who resolved incidents, these days, there are many imitators who go out to resolve incidents as well.

3: "Incident" means a phenomenon that affects all of Gensokyo and is of unknown cause. Typically this is due to some youkai's whimsy or the doings of a newcomer.

Since the Hakurei Shrine stands on the boundary of Gensokyo from the outside world, one can go to the shrine from either world.

But it normally isn't possible to pass between the two worlds.

People from Gensokyo can go only to Gensokyo's Hakurei Shrine, and people from the outside world can go only to the outside world's Hakurei Shrine.

It's said that the Hakurei Shrine seen from outside is a desolate, uninhabited shrine which no one visits.

Before the Great Boundary was created, the shrine was not as empty as it is now, but it was also not built up to the same scale as the Gensokyo one.

It's said that the Hakurei Shrine in the outside world has mostly been abandoned since the boundary was created.

The incident when all of Gensokyo was covered by a red mist, and the light of the day could not reach the ground.

This incident was caused by Remilia Scarlet.

She disliked the light of the sun, and covered Gensokyo in mist.

At this time, it's said that Reimu went to the Scarlet Devil Mansion alone, and resolved it quite forcefully.

Once the perpetrator came to light, the Scarlet Devil Mansion instantly became infamous.

The incident when it continued snowing even after winter ended and spring came, and the flowers did not bloom.

The details of this incident are not widely known.

She heard that the perpetrator was in the Netherworld, then taught her a lesson and resolved things, somehow.

Although no relationship between the Netherworld and the long winter has been proven, it's true that she noticed something most people didn't, saying "Didn't you see that cherry petals were blowing from the Netherworld?"

In this incident, night lasted for an extended period of time, and dawn did not come for a while.

Although she claims that she also solved this incident, if one asks her about the cause or the perpetrator, she'll only respond with ambiguous answers.

It's an incident with many mysteries and no records of the details.

The Great Barrier is composed of many smaller boundaries, both illusionary and not, but every sixty years it undergoes a period of weakening.

Recently, the second period of this cycle occurred, and a number of smaller incidents sprang up around Gensokyo.

This is the sort of incident that would resolve itself somehow if left alone, but it seems that she was ignorant of this fact and set out to solve it as usual.

Originally, attacking humans was the point of the youkai's existence, but since the erection of the Great Barrier it's become difficult for them to do so, and they've had to find sources of food outside their normal choices. Consequently, the collective willpower of the youkai began to fall.

It was into this situation that a powerful youkai from outside, a vampire, appeared, and quickly amassed a great number of subordinates.

In the end, the vampire was defeated through the efforts of the most powerful youkai, and a settlement was reached through a contract that placed a number of prohibitions on the vampire's activities.

Some of the more willful youkai found these terms distasteful and entered into discussions with the Hakurei shrine maiden.

The shrine maiden, who was also tiring of an uneventful lifestyle, agreed to the youkai point of view that some battles were necessary.

The result of this were the spell card rules, which allowed duelists to seemingly stake their lives in individual combat (*4).

It's said that the raucous Scarlet Mist incident caused by that vampire was the first time the spell card rules were put to use.

Since then, various incidents have occurred with moderate frequency that have had no lasting effects.

The game ends once a victor is decided, although the shrine maiden likes to have rematches until she wins.

4: It appears various other rules were also considered, but as the beauty and volume of danmaku especially appealed to youkai and women, they aren't as popular.