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Music: 初詣に行こう!

It’s currently nine in the morning. It’s usually around this time that the people are the most busy, and the village gets more and more active, but…




Oh well, it’s fine, right? We can just eat dumplings while sitting on the storefront since there’s so few people.

Yeah, since we’re a bit early for the meeting time, we can do that while waiting. The dumplings they make here are really delicious.

I know right? So we should eat them quickly, before the others arrive.

The meeting point was a dumpling shop facing the village’s main street. And so, the two girls ate without a care in the world, as they waited for the others.

The rainy season was at its end, and the blistering heat was flickering as the early summer season began. Yet, the main street was bereft of residents and their liveliness. The whole village was wrapped in a chilling atmosphere unbefitting of the current season.


That atmosphere’s fine with me. Better than the heat at least.

Yep. This summer looks like it’s gonna be pretty cool this year. I won’t have to go cool myself at Kourin’s place.

You treat your house like a storeroom, and barely give it any ventilation… That’s why it’s so hot in there, even though the forest it’s in helps block the sun’s rays.

…Yeah, something like that could be bad.

Ah, but it’s refreshing. It’s cool and peaceful. Peace is good. Everybody says so.



Oh, hello Keine. There’s still some time before our appointment.

Look at that! Nothing else could scream “incident” more than that. It’s frightening everyone. You need to do something about it quickly.

An incident~? Whaddaya mean? I can’t see aaaaanything at all. Anyway, one more dumpling please.

Of course you’re not going to see “it” while your eyes are glued to the food down there! Look up and tell me again you cannot see it.

No thanks, I’m fine~. The dumpling I have in my mouth might get stuck in my throat.

Just shut up and look.

Guh.

Keine grabbed Marisa’s dumpling-stuffed face and forced her to look up.

Music: Frowaltz


An outlandish towering tree was piercing through the clouds, its leaves and branches growing outward in order to create a maze of levels. The Great Tree’s size was so ridiculous that anyone who raised their head even slightly couldn’t help but see it.

The tree had suddenly appeared in Gensokyo around three days ago.

It appeared suddenly in the Forest of Magic, with no clues as to the cause. Even now, it continues to grow slowly but surely, obscuring the daylight to Gensokyo and creating an ever-growing curtain of darkness.


Do you see it now?

I got it already! Thank you very much.

A big tree like that isn’t something to laugh at. But hey, when looking at something that big, you really can’t help thinking ‘bout human life, right?

To be fair to Marisa, a really big tree ranks about 7/10 on the incident scale at most.

You aren’t even bothered by it…

It would be fine if it just disappeared in a day or two. But it is not likely something that massive will simply disappear if we leave it alone.

The villagers are starting to get frightened by that tree. Furthermore, such a large obstacle to the light will eventually have a detrimental effect on the hearts of the youkai living in the village, don’t you agree? It’s also bad for the growth of the plants.

In fact, a portion of the crops and flowers that were planted in the fields in the village’s outskirts have already begun to wither away. It is not difficult to imagine that if we leave the tree alone, things are only going to get worse.

Ain’t it good though? We get a cool and sunlight-free summer in return. And you can take the opportunity to mass-produce bean sprouts.

This girl….!

The were-hakutaku who set up an elementary school in the human village took anything that would threaten its peace very seriously.

And so, Keine raged on about how “we are going to find the cause of this Great Tree today!”, and Reimu and Marisa were forcefully dragged into it…


Music: 初詣に行こう!

…Well, I also was saying to myself that it’s about time to investigate that Great Tree. The timing is perfect, I would say.

Is that so? Reimu, haven’t you been poking your nose into the thieving uproar that happened at Kourin’s place recently? Are you done with that already?

Of course not. There’s no way we can leave something as ridiculous as the Ame-no-Murakumo being stolen alone, don’t you agree? But, no matter how I looked and searched for the criminal, they didn’t leave a single trace.

……Wait a minute, what are you talking about?

Let me see… Kourindou, was it? A thief broke into that antiques store? What is that and the “Ame-no-Murakumo” about? This is all news to me…



Rinnosuke Morichika, a half-human half-youkai hybrid who runs an antique shop located at the border of the Forest of Magic. He was the last of the four for this meeting.

Oh my, Rinnosuke. You’re pretty late. The last to show up, in fact.

No, I’m right on time. One should be neither too early nor too late for any appointment. Being late is obviously out of the question, while being early makes the other person worry too much about whether they should have come early too.

Yes yes, your opinions reaaally matter to us.

…So, what were you saying about a thief?

It is as they say. A thief broke into my shop…

As you may know, my shop sells items that came here from the Outside World. There are also some other small and rare articles that are not for sale and that I keep for my personal collection…

The value of the “Ame-no-Murakumo” that was stolen around a week ago really stood out from the rest.

The Great Tree grew out just a few days ago, and the theft happened a bit before that.

Well, we didn’t know that Rinnosuke had such a thing in his possession. And if it is true, there’s no way we can leave such an artifact alone.

“Ame-no-Murakumo”, huh…… Wait, THE “Ame-no-Murakumo”!?

No, no, wai- Wait a minute, are you sure it’s the authentic one?! This isn’t the time to talk about it’s value! This is the most famous and powerful sword in Japanese lore!

Most of all, how were you able to get an artifact like that?! It’s the first time I’ve heard about a relic like this being in Gensokyo! Wasn’t this heirloom enshrined and worshipped somewhere in the outside world?!

A little history lesson for context. The Ame-no-Murakumo, also known as the Sword of Kusanagi, is the legendary sword with which the storm god Susano-o slew the eight-headed Yamato-no-Orochi. It’s considered one of the three sacred treasures of Japan, alongside the Eight Hand Mirror and the Yasakani Magatama. In Touhou canon, Marisa found it and tossed it into a pile of scrap metal, later trading the lot to Rinnosuke in exchange for repairing her trademark mini-Hakkero.

Oh, Keine didn’t know about it after all?

Me too, I’m really interested to hear about how you found that sort of thing, Kourin.

…Trade secrets.

(I can’t possibly say where I found it, especially not to Marisa, since I kind of tricked her into giving it to me… Well no, it’s not really tricking Marisa, since she didn’t know it was the “Ame-no-Murakumo”…)

(In the first place, I’m the one who wants to know where she discovered that… Once in a while, her hobby of accumulating trash pulls up some unbelievable treasures...That’s how I was able to get it off her hands for dirt cheap…)

Well, whether or not that sword is THE genuine Ame-no-Murakumo handed down from ancient times… It was definitely made of pure scarlet gold, and it was undoubtedly an extremely powerful sword. Of that, I am certain.

After hearing that story, I started looking for the Ame-no-Murakumo and its thief…

But up till now, the culprit remains at large. *sigh*

I see… So while you were searching for your thief, that great tree sprouted forth and caused an even bigger uproar.

That’s how it is. Incidentally, Reimu also mentioned that she had a feeling that the culprit was in that Great Tree.

Really? Well, Reimu’s intuition is generally right in these times.

Well, we can’t leave that tree alone anyway, right? So I figured since Keine was being annoying enough to call this meeting as well, that it was time to investigate that Great Tree and kill two birds with one stone.

…And that’s how we decided to include Kourin in our exploration of that Great Tree.

After all, it’s his fault for keeping quiet about the sword, and not securing it well enough.

It’s clearly the thief who’s at fault. I am the victim here… And really, I’m not even suited for fighting…

He’s not wrong. Right now his main purpose is ‘meatshield’, and soon he’ll be outclassed at even that task. Still, he’s not completely without use.

I’m certainly expecting nothing from you in battle. But there’s strength in numbers when wandering in a big tree like that, don’t you think?

So in short, he’s making up the numbers…

You don’t have to declare that to everyone, you beasts… Ugh, I don’t want to go…

And so, let’s all give this our best. Onwards and upwards!

Ohhh~!

Ooooh……



And now we’re dropped into the main menu. Before we head into the tree proper, let’s take a look around. We can visit the Hakurei Shrine, the Magic Library, Nitori’s Store, the Human Village, Keine’s School and Akyuu’s House.

Hakurei Shrine



The donation box is empty as always too. Nothing out of the ordinary at all.

…Well, when this kind of abnormal situation happens, donating to the shrine is hardly high on anyone’s list of immediate priorities.

Reaaaally? Is that reaaaally the only reason?

……What are you trying to say.

Nothing, really. Anyways, why are we here at the shrine? Do we have something to do here?

No, there’s not really anything to do here at the moment.

We should just come back after we exterminate monsters within that tree and accumulate experience. Then we can level up, and distribute bonus points obtained from levelling up towards any parameter we want here.

Also, if we want to use any special items we find within the tree on a character, here is where we’d do it… But that’s for later. For now, just think of the shrine as the place for level ups and bonus point distributions.

Why, thank you so much for the explanations.

Well, I’m a main character. It’s expected for me to do this.

So what. I’m a main character too.

This game’s relationship with the fourth wall tends to be a little loose at times.

…………

Ahem. Shall we stop this line of conversation…?



Characters accumulate exp over the course of the game, but don’t level up automatically. The Hakurei Shrine is where we come to level them up and distribute level-up points. They can also be leveled down, for reasons explained later on.

Magic Library



I figured you would be coming anytime now.

Oh, that voice is…



Incidents don’t get much more obvious than that, so I figured it was about time the firefighters of Gensokyo started to act.

If you know about it, then just help us somehow already. Like giving us some ancient spellbooks, or strong magic items. We’d welcome those with open arms.

…You really don’t beat around the bush, do you.

……Oh really. Well, fine, let’s see… I’ll raise your stats for you.

Oooh, that’s good! Alright, go ahead. Make it a big one, stat!

Who said I’ll do it for free?

…Honestly, I’m not taking your money for nothing either. This kind of thing requires a lot of items and medicines. I’m just charging you for the materials.

So basically, we pay money here to get stronger?

Yes indeed. So earn all you can, and keep the money coming, if you would.



In the Magic Library, we can purchase upgrades to character stats. Costs are relatively cheap for now, but become prohibitively expensive the more upgrades you purchase. You can also reset skill points here for free, which is a service we’re going to make use of quite often later in the game.

Nitori’s Store





……

Weeeeelcooome!

Marisa, you got a paper fan?

I don’t have one, and there’s none for sale either. Guess this wrench will have to do.

Are these threats normal for trying to greet my customers courteously? The Human Village sure is a scary place…

These are the only humans who’d do something like that, so relax.

But this is surprising. I’ve never heard of a Kappa workshop in the village before.

It’s not really as surprising as Keine makes it out to be. In Touhou, kappa and humans are on fairly good terms (this may or may not have something to do with the fact that all kappa in Touhou look like cute girls), and Nitori in particular can often be found attempting to make a profit whenever the opportunity arises.

But of course. I started this shop just now. With a fun-looking tree popping out of nowhere like that, there must be a lot of humans exploring it.

For those of them who’re not used to fighting, they’ll flock to my workshop in search of all sorts of goods. How’s that? Perfect plan, right?

Very perfect plan.

Except that there aren’t a lot of humans exploring that tree.

Ehh? You’re kidding, right?

You’re obviously using Reimu and Marisa as your base for human behavior… Normal humans are too scared to get anywhere close to that thing.

Eh… Ehhhh…

Aah… now I don’t feel like doing anything. I’ll just close the shop and go back.

Hey, don’t worry about it. We’re just the right customers for you. So make sure you prepare the best for us.

Hah… a workshop whose only customers are the dirt-poor shrine maiden and her companions… My store is already looking bleak from the first day…

Nitori’s store sells equipment and sub-equipment, and later on will forge items out of materials dropped by monsters. Her inventory increases later, but here’s what’s on sale for now. Every character can equip one main equip and three sub-equips.



Miko Board – When used, it increases a character’s equipment mass by 1. It takes 50 to get one character’s equipment mass to max. Don’t even try to imagine the time it’ll take to max it out for your entire party. Max TP +3.

Manga Meat – It’s meat you often find in gag manga. No further explanation necessary. It’s not soft, but it stretches out a lot when you bite into it. HP Recovery Rate +3

Pure Sake – Wild Boar – Sake that’s made with only quality materials, and hand-crafted with much care and effort. Guaranteed to smell and taste good. Max MP +2, Max TP +2



Power Bracer – An item that doubles attack EV gain when equipped. Also, a parent holding it will pass its attack IV to the offspring. A very nice item that greatly reduces unproductive time spent cycling back and forth. Attack +12%

Bulletproof Armor – Armor that protects an EDF soldier’s life. For some reason, in the original it increases HP instead of defense. About 2000 of these will make higher difficulties safer. Defense +12%.

Cantrip Book – Book that records all sorts of troublesome things. It might allow you to use all sorts of status attacks, or it might not. Magic +12%.

Book of Stamp Bingo – A notebook that keeps track of the Stamp Bingo Rally’s stamps. It’s quite fun looking for these throughout the entire game, but they can be really well hidden. Collecting these without a guide is extremely difficult. Mind +12%.

Jagged Leaves – An item that increases agility by 1 when used. A valuable item in a game system where agility is the difference between life and death. They tend to be camouflaged by other green things like grass, and are easily missed. Speed +12%.

Piece of Heart – The good ol’ thing which you collect four of to increase your number of hearts by 1. Make sure you collect lots of them to get a lot of hearts. HP +12%.

Human Village



As I thought, the villagers here’re more restless than usual.

Of course. You two are the only ones who can remain calm… or rather, be excited about this situation at all. Normal people aren’t that strong.

And we’re the type of humans who solve these incidents. The ways of the world works well if ya think about it.

Anyway… It’s been a long while since I was able to take a casual walk around the village. It sure has changed a lot everywhere. We’ve walked in the outskirts for quite a bit, but there are still lots of food and lodging facilities around here.

A “long while” from you is probably from several decades ago… Really, you half-youkai and your lifespans…

(Ugh, she realized it…)

W-well, whatever you say. From the looks of the village, there really are lodging facilities popping up everywhere.

Well yeah, with this kind of obvious incident going on, there wouldn’t be anyone who’d be taking a faraway trip or anything. What about it?

From what I have heard, there are a lot of humans and youkai that have entered the tree. If we continue to explore the tree, perhaps we will find others who will help your exploration. As our party gets bigger, we’d need a place to gather everyone around.

With the amount of lodging facilities in the village, we should be able to get a pretty good price on staying at one for a while. If we make use of that, we should be able to accommodate for quite a number of people.

Eh, really?!

I thought that Kourin out of his store would be like a Kappa out of water… That’s really well thought-out. I’m seeing you in a new light now!

I can’t tell if you’re complimenting me or insulting me… I guess I’ll just treat it as a compliment this time.

(Though honestly, I got all the gold from Marisa’s father and permission to use their good name to get a large discount… But Marisa probably wouldn’t stand for this kind of thing. I’ll just pretend that it’s all thanks to me…)

Rinnosuke’s not just doing it to be polite – Marisa and her family are not on speaking terms and she does not care to discuss the subject.



We can have up to twelve active party members, with four on the front line and eight waiting in the wings. But soon we’ll have more members than that, and the Human Village is where they hang out. We’ll have to return here in between dungeon runs to switch characters.

Keine’s School



There’s nothing to do here.

I could ask what the heck you two are doing here too.

Yeah, we’re here for some reason…

There’s nothing interesting going on in a school for you… Or perhaps you want to study?

No.

No.

I don’t want to teach you two either…

What do you do here normally?

Hmm? Well, it’s a school, so normally I teach here. Otherwise… I thought of compiling a summary on the monsters inside the Great Tree. It’ll be useful if they ever get out of the tree, though I doubt that’ll happen.

So basically, if we want to look at the bestiary, we can come here?

…Thank you for that frank summary of what I’ve just went through…

Keine’s school is where we can check the bestiary and our achievement list. There are some events that can only be unlocked by having a certain number of achievements.

Akyuu’s House



Heeey, Akyuu you there~?



We’re thinking of exploring that tree a little from now on, so we were wondering if you had any information to share about it.

Akyuu, do you know anything about that thing?

I don’t know much. At the very least, it’s not something already well-known, like the cycle of ghosts increasing every 60 years.

*sigh* I guess we’ll have to do some actual legwork to know more about that thing.

By the way, I’d be happy if you can resolve this tree incident too. That thing is blocking the sun’s light, and I don’t want to catch a cold.

So I’ll help in what little way I can. If that thing keeps growing, the village won’t be getting any sunlight at all soon. Please do something about it before that happens.

We’ll take whatever help you can give. What can you do for us?

Hmmm… At the very least, I’ll help with what I’m good at. I’ll make a record of your explanations.

A record? …That’s it?

My, exploration records are important. Especially in RPGs.

What do you mean by that?

……Who knows? But if you’re not satisfied with just that… Well, fine. I’ll give you this too.



What’s this?

It’s a key to open locked treasure boxes in that tree. Since I can’t fight in there, I really have no use for this. So I’ll give it to you.

Yay! There’s treasure chests, huh? Now that gets me excited!

However, it seems this key disappears after you use it once. Since it’s not reusable, please consider your options carefully before using it.

It disappears after using it once? …How does that even work?

……Who knows?

Akyuu’s house is where we save and load the game. Pretty straightforward.



We have one last screen to check out before we head in, the main menu screen. Here we can rearrange our party members, change their equipment, level up their skills and check their stats. ‘Rest’ and ‘Leave Dungeon’ are options only available in the dungeon proper.



Our starting formation. We can do better...



Better. Enemies tend to focus their attacks from left to right, so you want your tanks to be on the left and the weaker characters as far to the right as possible.



Reimu’s starting stats, for reference. HP and MP are obvious. TP represents mental stamina, and is consumed to restore HP and MP after battles. ATK and DEF represent her physical offensive and defensive capabilities, and MAG and MND her magical ones. SPD represents how fast her active time bar fills up in battle, and EVA her evasiveness.

Her affinities and resistances are below that. An affinity under 100% represents a weakness to said element, an affinity above 100% her resistance to it. Next to that is her resistance against status effects - the higher the value the higher the chance to shrug off that effect, and the lower the duration of the effect when applied. Debuff resistance refers only to the chance to shrug off debuffs – debuff duration is not affected. Status effects have different effects when applied to allies and enemies, as shown here.






Next time: The Great Tree, 1F