Generations ago, before Gensokyo was sealed away, the patriarch of the Sen family led an expedition into the rolling hills along its southwestern side, where the trees grew so thick that it was pitch-black even at noon, and behind each tree lurked a malicious youkai. The legends say he and his brothers and cousins went out with many amulets adorned upon their necks, and armed with crane-feather arrows and blades made from the precious iron of the Youkai Mountain.
They emerged weeks later, battered and scarred but alive to a person, and announced news of their victory. Such fear did they strike into the malevolent spirits of the forest, they announced, that even the foul winds didn’t dare blow while they were there. The governor was so pleased with the Sen family’s success that he granted their dynasty a great swathe of land in the rolling hills between the two mountain ranges.
Then, the Great Hakurei Barrier went up. It was nice in a way, since it meant getting away from the watchful eye of the centralized imperial government, but it also took away the fear of the Shogun deciding you were a bit too uppity and deciding to kill your entire family. Details get much more fuzzy around there — there were border disputes, suspicious land purchases, what may or may not have been a civil war, and so on.
The point being, that sort of thing doesn’t happen much anymore, thankfully. The humans of Gensokyo have reached a tense but solid peace, and the Human Village has grown into more of a large town, with tiny new villages sprouting up around it. Things are comfortable enough that folks have even started growing luxuries like tea and sugar and silk, and some of the braver humans have even started trading with the various types living on the Youkai Mountain, providing both valuable metals and various exotic knick-knacks.
Which ultimately brings the subject to me, Morozumi Goro. Our family is the head of the small village of Magarimachi in those same rolling hills, with a few hundred people living there. The local elders handle most of the domestic affairs, but it’s up to us to make sure the village and the capital-v Village stay updated on each other and don’t s
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