Navigating through the maze of mist proved more difficult than Reimu had guessed. After the third time she stumbled over an inconveniently placed root and nearly careened head first into the deadly fog, she clicked her tongue in defeat and rose six inches into the air.
Why didn't she fly everywhere, she idly wondered after only a few minutes aloft, carefully navigating the twisty path slowly guiding her westwards. As though she hadn't asked herself that question before. As though she didn't know the answer. As though she wasn't aware that if she let herself get fully immersed the freedom of flight, one day she would forget how to land.
Maybe the reverse is true as well, she teased herself. Maybe one day she would try to fly and her feet would stay stuck on the ground. And then she would try to get a head start by jumping from the shrine roof and break her hip or something stupid like that.
She would have smiled, only dragging her nightmares into daylight — or into whatever passed for daylight these days — was neither funny nor relevant to her situation. Far-fetched dread scenarios were best left to the dark hours before sunrise, when all sleep eluded her.
However, her musing had distracted her long enough that when she next took stock of her surrounding, she found the mist drawing closer to her than ever, so thick it looked as solid as the ground.
And beyond it, behind a thin veil of fog, stood the silhouette of a short person wearing wide and skirts and vast pointy hat, with a broom in her hand.
"Hey, Reimu! Finally decided to show up? It's been ages since I've seen ya!" Marisa's voice pierced through the fog, blithe and oblivious.
Reimu said nothing.
"D'you know, you've been gone for so long the villagers have forgotten your first name?" Marisa's laughter rattled like pearls. "Really! I asked around, and everyone said 'Hakurei' and then looked awkward and changed the subject."
Reimu said nothing.
"Dunno if that matters to you though. It's not like that many cared about your name in the first place."
Reimu decided it was time to say something.
"You're right," she conceded. "I'm not here so that people would remember me."
"Then why are ya here?"
"To solve the incident."
"Good luck!" In her mind's eye, Reimu saw a bright grin appear on the silhouette's face. "Glad you're moving ahead. Life's way too short. That's why I'm gonna live forever."
Reimu considered the silhouette in silence.
"You know," she finally said. "You imitate Marisa pretty well."
"Would be kinda shocking if I couldn't imitate myself."
Reimu didn't bother responding. She folded her arms and gave the Marisa-a-like her most withering stare.
"No nonsense, huh? I thought you'd be at least a little bit more fun." As the words drifted towards Reimu, they lost their Marisa-like cadence and gained in its stead an alien drawl.
The metamorphosis was as sudden as it was ultimately subtle. Marisa's hat split in the middle into a butterfly-like ribbon. The curly hair straightened out. The silhouette of a skirt lost volume at the exact moment the sleeves detached and grew downwards like upside-down weeds.
"Of course," the shadowy Reimu crossed its arms in turn, "it is what I expected of you."
The spell card was in Reimu's hand before she had time to think about it. "And I expect you to reveal your true form."
"Would you believe me if I told you this is it?" The misty Reimu silhouette gave a mocking bow. "What if I were to reveal I was born from your nightmares, from the ones where you fail your duty?"
The shadow's voice, though a decent simulacrum of Reimu's own including all the ways it didn't sound quite right, still spoke with the foreign drawl. Reimu held her peace.
"No, I see you would not. In any case, I'm so proud of our intrepid incident-solver finally crawling out of their lair. You're an inspiration to all of Gensokyo, my lady." A head tilt, barely distinguishable in such an indistinct shape. "Only, I wonder... how do you mean to crawl back once it's all over?"
Reimu already knew what she would see before she turned around. Some sensible part of her, the one buried underneath a mountain of ennui and loneliness, had known this would happen the moment she set a foot beyond the shrine grounds.
Even so, her stomach turned to stone.
The narrow path that had led her through the mist was gone.
She was off the ground at once, but too late: the fog closed in above her, forming a vaulted ceiling and leaving her in an odd, grey twilight.
"What now, Miss Shrine Maiden?" The silhouette fell silent, waiting for Reimu to descend before it continued? "Will you cry?" A shadow play followed, with the pretend Reimu miming an unflattering example of bursting into tears. "Will you attack me?" Now it mimicked some of Reimu's standard fighting moves, then went abruptly still. "Or will you see the futility of meddling in things that are none of your concern? You have some time to reflect on it. At least a few days. Or was it weeks? I never remember the limits of human endurance."
Reimu noticed she had rumpled the spell card and stowed it away. Her instinct told her any attack would be her bane.
Instead, she thought of her associates. Their familiar faces flashed across her thoughts, sudden but welcome. How many were around? Could any of them mount a resistance against this noxious foe?
"Certainly, you could call for help." The shadowy Reimu said as though it could read Reimu's thoughts. "In fact, I will happily lend you a hand as long as you ask for it nicely."
Reimu raised an eyebrow.
"No, you wouldn't ask. How about I ask you something instead?" The shadow leaned closer, still remaining wreathed in the fog. "Will all that meaningless pride dragging you down let you soar high enough to be heard before it's too late?"
The apparition melted into the mist like a drop of ink falling into a teacup. Soon there was nothing left but the ever-changing yet uniform sea of fog. And Reimu, counting slowly to ten.
Once the counting was done, she stared at where her newest nemesis had been. Then she sat down, ignoring the dampness of the grass, and settled into her prison of mist.
Something would happen before she died. Either Yukari or someone would find her, or else she would learn to live with herself after having to beg for help. Within or without, something would have to give.
She suppressed a treacherous weasel of a thought envisioning a sun-bleached skeleton sitting where she sat. Instead, she closed her eyes and dreamed of spring.