You (Kanako) were in the outside world until not too long ago, weren't you?

That's right.

Things are really advancing, huh? Over there.

Advancing? It depends on what you're referring to. Their technology is such that Gensokyo cannot even compare. They have almost everything they've ever wanted, the death rates among humans are extremely low, news gives equal treatment to anyone and everyone, and they are always able to fill a desire for information. It's just like a paradise.

How nice... But have the humans' spirits grown enough to accept that?

Ah, I thought you'd catch that. Hardly anyone disciplines themselves anymore, so the human spirit hasn't changed for a thousand years. However, once the world became such that everyone's material and information needs are filled, even the average human began to realize that material things alone can never bring happiness.

Is that right? I've got lots of stuff I want but can't get, and I think I'd do just about anything (*1) to get it, but I wouldn't be happy if I got it?

1: DON'T

If you get what you want on your own like you do, then you'll be enriched by the effort you spent to do it. But what if you had it from the start, or there was some established method to get it, or it was somewhere that you could never reach no matter what you did?

Hmph. That'd just be plain labor.

Because of the excess of material goods and information, work has become labor. In order to satisfy the hearts of humans over there, a new perspective on work is necessary, but...

That would be 'altruism for its own sake(*2), wouldn't it?

2: An idea that thinks servicing others fully is virtue, and necessary for living a rich life.

Yes, exactly. Things are changing such that working for others' benefit is what enriches those who work.

(Everyone nods)

What're you all agreeing for? I don't get what you're trying to say.

(Ignoring Marisa) But given this country's state and its immaturity of spirit, it hasn't been able to make the transition very well. The essential requirement to achieving fulfillment is to raise one's spirit level, but of course that isn't such a simple thing. It's difficult for anyone who wasn't either born a saint or has achieved enlightenment. That's where gods come in. Humans fear gods, and gods forgive humans, is the line of thought. With this, even an ordinary person can hold this same sense of morality and dedicate themselves to a stranger.

So what, you're just saying 'worship me'? That's all just self-justification. And the outside world doesn't acknowledge the existence of gods, right?

It's quite troublesome. The existence of gods and youkai are necessary for spiritual growth, and yet...

Speaking of which, recently one of my disciples brought back a youkai from outside.

Hm? I hadn't heard that.

This disciple, Nue Houjuu, is a rather troublesome one, you see. Ordinarily, where she is and what training she's doing is unknown(*3), but occasionally it turns out she's done something that I would never have asked for... This time, she actually brought back a youkai tanuki friend of hers from outside.

3: Does she really think she is training?

So youkai tanuki are still around outside. How surprising...

You... you were a god that was still outside, weren't you? There's actually still plenty of you all out there, isn't there? By the way, before Gensokyo entered its current form(*4), what was the world like, anyway?

4: The time when Gensokyo was just a countryside in the deep mountains. It's still connected with the outside world by land, but because of saving the existence of youkai, coming and going freely is not possible.

Let's see... the topic of youkai and evil spirits came up just about every day. Who had been abducted by them, who had exterminated them and become a hero... those were pretty standard topics for conversation over drinks.

They sure were.

Not too different from Gensokyo now, huh.

That's right, it's no different. That's why someone as old as me can blend in without feeling out of place at all. By the way, my followers, Futo and Tojiko(*5), used to be afraid of youkai and curses and such, and then before long, others ended up in fear of "the ghost of Mononobe" or "the curse of Soga" or what have you. (laugh) Maybe that was when I first understood the true nature of youkai.

5: Mononobe no Futo and Soga no Tojiko. I heard they're from the royal clan. A great clan.

And the true nature of youkai is?

It is the human heart, restless and fearful of the unknown.

And so the conversation turns towards "Am I born from the delusions of humans?" Delusions don't sit around talking and drinking sake like this, though. (laugh) (*Saying this, Kanako produces some sake.)

It's not like humans have only started thinking like that lately. They've always thought like that. "A ghost, examined carefully, was withered silver grass" and all. Ah, I'll take some sake.

(*Kanako offers Byakuren sake as well.)

Ah, I'm not having any, thanks. One of Buddhism's precepts is temperance(*6), so...

6: One of the rule that a training Buddhist needs to follow. Good for your liver.

Ah, that thing? There wasn't a monk around that seriously kept that precept, in my time(*7). (laugh) Monks are all unmindful like that.

7: About 1400 years ago. Don't know for now.

I will not yield to such temptation.

"Rather than making pronouncements, with an air of wisdom, it's better to down the wine, and sob drunken tears." Omoto Tabito(*8) wrote a poem like that.

8: A poet from the Nara era (710-794). A man whom loved sake, they say.

How nice! "To drink sake and weep is better than playing at clever speech," or so it goes. You're a monk playing at clever speech, from any outsider's perspective...

Please don't tease me...

(Marisa grabs the sake from Byakuren) Okay, back to the discussion. Long ago, it used to be like Gensokyo all over, at least with regard to the youkai situation. Is that right?

Yes.

Things were similar in my time. But youkai may have been forced into an even more unfavorable lot in life then than they are in Gensokyo.

Ohh.

Youkai were treated as absolute enemies of humans. If they heard of a human who helped youkai, no matter whether it was a misunderstanding or some other circumstance, they would treat them as a friend of youkai and throw them out of the village as soon as they could. The human ideal was "a world without youkai."

In that sense, it's different from the outside world right now. Presently, reality as humans see it is "a world without youkai", and the ideal is "a world where youkai are desired".

A world where they're desired is the ideal?!

That's right. "It'd be fun if they existed, wouldn't it be exciting, but they aren't real" is the thought process of modern humans.

How unexpected...

So in the end, humans have no need of things that threaten their lives, but humans themselves wish from the bottom of their hearts for an enemy to appear. Isn't that right?

Eh? No way that's right. Isn't there a contradiction there?

It may be just as Ms. Miko says. When there are no enemies, just living doesn't let you express yourself fully, after all.

Hmmm. I can't really imagine that. And humans in the outside world wishing youkai were there is really unexpected.

Not just youkai. They feel that way about gods, too.

Then what was the point in you coming to Gensokyo?

Wishing they were there does not equal believing they exist. "I wish they existed, but there's no way" is how they think. Let's take shrines as an example. Gensokyo's shrines are inhabited by gods, humans visit them to show faith to the gods, and the gods that receive the faith bestow some modest power on the humans. This is a blessing.

Huh? If you go to a shrine, you get some modest power?

Well... if your faith is strong, that is. But the outside world's shrines are different. People visit them thinking "I'm not faithful, but maybe something nice will happen or I'll have my wish granted." It's terrible, but you may as well call them 'power spots'...

What's a "power spot"?

Places where if you go there, the natural energy enters your body and something or other happens... Basically, some place that you can easily gain power by going to.

That's awful. (laugh)

Are power spots meant as places for training? It seems like they must refer to miraculous sacred places.

Right, they're definitely meant as sacred places. But while you might be able to gain power equal to that of a hermit by training there, like I just said, humans from outside don't believe in hermits. Basically, they see it as nothing more than a place for a cheap power-up.

What's a "power-up"?

Making your danmaku thicker. (laugh) By the way, the same thing is true of those mysterious episodes people in the outside world have. Humans really do fear ghosts on a fundamental level.

Oh, there are humans like that in Gensokyo, too.

But virtually no human from the outside truly believes that ghosts exists. If they do, it causes discord in their spirit. "They're imaginary, but somehow they're scary. Wait, what if they really do exist? No, no, there's absolutely no way they exist." Like that. (laugh) Actually, in addition to power spots, there are also "mystery spots"... which means places where ghosts appear. I first learned this after I came to Gensokyo, but those mystery spots are actually what happens when ghosts go out to play and such.

Is that so?

I heard it from the ghost person(*9).

9: Definitely Yuyuko or Youmu.

Well, ghosts come and go like the wind, after all. Maybe even the Barrier doesn't do much to 'em.

Mystery spots can get somewhat famous and end up as minor tourist attractions... Cemeteries and old demolished hospitals and schools becoming tourist traps. It makes me laugh. I almost want to try to make a living selling haunted house meat buns or something. (laugh)

So it's basically a test of courage? Comical tests of courage have long since existed. Futo used to be a real coward, see, and anyway, she said she was afraid of Buddhist statues, so she would always burn them down and get yelled at.

Eh?

And then before we knew it, the fire spread to the temple. We definitely went overboard that time...

Uh, that isn't really what you'd call cowardice. (sweat)

Maybe I should turn everything to stone for fireproofing. And make the statues stone, too.

If I entrusted Futo with the job, she'd burn it all down within a night.

By the way, uninhabited shrines and temples and such are also suitable to become mystery spots. Of course, they won't burn down.

Well, using a temple as a training spot isn't anything to fear, though.

And just what's not scary about a temple full of youkai? Maybe it'd make a good mystery spot for Gensokyo?

(laugh)

By the way, I heard this from Mamizou but apparently in the outside world animals other than youkai are also going extinct one after another.

That's right. Sooner or later this won't just be the outside world's problem either.

You mean it will affect the ecology of Gensokyo's animals, right?

I've been thinking, if Gensokyo's animals increase to the saturation point, wouldn't it be fine to let a few of them escape to the outside world?

That's an interesting thought.

Well, naturally that can't happen.

Why not?

I understand that Gensokyo's reason for existing is to be the opposite of the outside world. Things that contradict that cannot pass through the barrier, and even if you forced it that would endanger the youkai inside.

This is the only thing we can't interfere with from Gensokyo. However, extinction is the result of natural selection. There's nothing evil about it. Mamizou wouldn't say that though.

I guess so. But didn't you all say that even though humans in Gensokyo are weak, they're being kept alive? Doesn't that go against natural selection?

It doesn't go against it. Because if the humans went away, that would be fatal to the youkai. Biologically speaking, that's not an unheard of reason for weak things to survive natural selection.

Hm... so the strong people need to let the weak people survive.

Humans are becoming arrogant creatures. When in the outside world they start to fear the extinction of living beings, they also start to think of themselves as beings not included in that category, as different from other creatures.

Sounds like you guys.

What?

"We are different from the normal humans. We are outstanding beings." You think that, right?

Well, I guess I do.

And according to Mamizou, it looks like while they're fearing the extinction of the animals, they're simultaneously fearing the extinction of culture and manners. I don't know if this will have an effect on Gensokyo, but what do you think that means?

There was certainly that tendency when I lived there. It might be good to keep it in mind.

Isn't the problem how we should do that?

Because the youkai of Gensokyo owe their reason for existence to humans forgetting about them, it would be better to accept their extinction in the outside world.

I see.

Yup. Well, I don't think modern humans will ever seriously believe that youkai actually exist, but it might be possible for a new style of youkai to be born.

In the outside world?

Yeah, there's a history of youkai being born from phenomena that harm humans or a fear of the unknown. But the new style of youkai would be different. They'd be intentionally created, or born from permitted irrationality. They might even become mainstream.

You mean they'd be born to smooth out the unbalanced hearts that made made youkai disappear in the first place.

Because the human heart is truly good at dealing with circumstances. In that area, humans surpass youkai.

Hey, I can't understand a word of this explanation. It's like you're all talking in another language(*10).

10: Me too, me too.

I'm sure you could understand it if we had a concrete example of this kind of youkai.