A new god in Gensoukyou

Do you think she feels it?

The first time Renko ate the flesh of her own, of course, was gentle. Yukari seemed to know how to make it seem like something other than it was, perhaps an extent of her power or perhaps a skill learned the hard way, during all the miserable time spent away from each other. But over time, she felt something shift in her mind. Not only had she become okay with it, that had happened long ago, but now...she started to want it. A carnivorous desire that had never gripped her before, wanting to sink her teeth into something real. All she had known for her whole life was fake, compared to this even the best meal she had before Yukari found her feels like cardboard in her memory.

Do you think she feels it, when her body begins to betray its origin? When her bones ache and warp, eyes and teeth just underneath her skin, aching to break free, to feel the light of the moon? Because, certainly, there was no room under the sun for her anymore. She is pale, and thin, eyes wider than they had ever held themselves, but she is alive!

Her mind no longer has room to care if she's found. When she's told another unfortunate soul had wandered past the boundary of artifice and organic, her feet hit the ground as soon as she leaves the conversation. She's running through the trees, laughing and out of breath all at once, almost on all fours as she propels herself faster and faster by grabbing the trunks of trees and pushing herself forward. As soon as her handclaws grace warm flesh, it's over.

Do you think she feels it? When her hands are betwixt the ribs of a man she does not even register the face of? When she hears a soft crunch of detritus and snaps her head back up, blood flying from the corners of her mouth, only to be met with the saccharine smile of her beloved? The woman she had chased to the end of the known world, into that which is truly unknown. Do the new eyes protruding from her skin see different wavelengths; ultraviolet, gamma, infrared? Do her sharper teeth form a different smile, after a short exhale of relief, of happiness?

I hope she does. Feeling is the act of living, after all. This is what she wanted.

theres gotta be a few hifuu brains out there who, even if just to be subversive, imagine yukari becoming merry instead of the other way around, right? ⏪️ like despite all best efforts towards maintaining gensokyo, eventually fantasy becomes a thing of the past and the youkai sage transforms/reincarnates/benjaminbuttons into a human.

my personal renko hc is shes the thing in the gaps

so like the eyes and shit hmm... that's interesting and also pretty funny tbh yukari just chilling with her girlfriend inbetween boundaries. also you know i think it's interesting that for the most part, all the humans with special abilities in touhou who aren't particularly youkai like or a god or something have their special ability tied to their sight.

but everyday I think about the way yukari loves and remembers

You stare into your beloved partner's eyes. "What's your fursona," she said? What does that even mean? [Scholar of the 21st Century - Success: Easy] - A fursona is what you would look like if you were an anthropomorphic animal. [Whimsy - Success: Easy] - It is a matter of utmost importance. 1. That sounds lame. 2. That sounds rad. 3. So what's our fursona?

[Gensou Premonition] - A fox. Regal and dangerous. Easily the most youkai-like animal. [Relativistic Psychology - Success: Challenging] - The self contains multitudes upon multitudes. Singling out a single animal to represent that flowing river of consciousness is a losing battle. Renko begins to stare at you, as though she's trying to trace your mental process through the movements of your face. You've been silent for a while now. [Lily Vision - Success: Trivial] You can't just leave her hanging! Just say something, anything. [Beyond the Border - Success: Impossible] A rat. A rat. A rat. I think you'd be a rat. You'd be a rat. [Gensou Premonition - Success: Medium] Hush, that's overplayed. [Scholar of the 21st Century - Success: Easy] Best not to dwell on this-- you don't want to know what happened to him. Renko - 'Hello? Merry are you feeling alright?' 1. 'I think I'd be a rat.' 2. 'I think I'd be a fox.' 3. 'Sorry, what'd you say?' 4. 'What animal I would be? What an odd question. It's not like I think about eating people.' 5. 'Do you remember what happened to Jerma?'

on the flipside i do still think it'd be funny if doppel sumireko was still in gensokyo when renko gets there. still looks and acts like a high school girl (that's her youkai species). even better if renko has no idea who this is

As someone who is- at best- a Touhou secondary, can you offer any insight as to why there appears to be/is so much drama surrounding whether or not Merry is Yukari? “Seemingly Unrelated Character B grows up into/otherwise becomes Character A” is not an especially world-shattering story beat, and after reading your document it seems unbelievably obvious by 2005.

There's nothing that I can say is the overall reason as sadly I'm not a mind-reader, but I have some theories (some of which may be true in parallel, some of which may not be true at all):

A.) Touhou is a series that many fans believe is highly up to interpretation (due to the fact that they are otaku unused to literary elements such as the unreliable narrator; you can see this in, for example, responses to Umineko) so there's a degree of resistance to anything being "obviously intended".

B.) Many Touhou fans enjoy having opinions on things without reading the works that apply to these things; the music CDs in particular are a case where "fans of fans" are very common. This isn't necessarily a problem when discussing what people like, but it runs into issues when discussing, say, authorial intent.

C.) Youkai are kind of nasty, and Yukari is a particularly nasty variation. Many people don't like the idea of humans in Touhou becoming youkai in general.

D.) Due to B, as well as the obscurity of the two works that are written directly from Yukari's perspective, many people have an incorrect idea of Merry's personality, Yukari's personality, or both; this leads them to have an incorrect idea of the differences between the two. This is the "well, even if Yukari was Merry once, is there anything really left of her since she's so different?" objection.

E.) Many people see the idea of Merry ending up as a youkai as something tragic- they enjoy the idea of her and Renko going on adventures in their modern day forever. This is despite the fact that their sense of ennui in and disgust with the modern world is more apparent with each CD published.

F.) Also coming from E and B, people often have an interpretation of the club members as "innocent" and "childlike"; there's a general degree of belief in sweet, innocent, childish whimsy being what drives their actions in the CDs. Yukari being self-admittedly too tired to have stupid fun like the members of the Scarlet Devil Mansion going to the moon on their idiot rocket can seem like a contradiction in terms, and makes it seem "tragic".

G.) Also coming from E, many people seem to have the mistaken opinion that in order for Merry to have become a youkai, something terrible must have happened to Renko, and she's really torn up about it. Either that, or that she'll never see her again- this latter is common even in more level-headed interpretations, but makes little sense with, for example, the idea of Yuyuko Saigyouji existing. Anyway, people don't like to imagine the club being torn apart so rudely.

H.) An extension from G- people don't believe that Merry could ever be or become a youkai without harming Renko as they simply don't seem to have a strong metaphysical understanding of youkai from other Touhou works (and this idea is often played up for drama in popular fan media).

Generally speaking, it's mostly "she's so unlike this, so either this can't be true or if it was true it would be a terrible tragedy. and i can't stand terrible tragedies, so it can't be true" as large segments of the Hifuu fandom are a little bit immature about the idea of anything ever changing. In a sense, it's kind of treated like Class S yuri. Add to this a good helping of people not reading and not believing that anything not stated in so many words can be true, and you get a perfect storm of idiocy.

Derxwna's Insane Ramblings - The Hakurei God "Headcanon"

So, this is the "Headcanon" I've come up with in regards to the identity of the Hakurei God. It utilizes some of the concepts that have been brought up in Touhou media. Not a whole lot, but there is one key concept that I've latched onto as a sort of "crux" for this insane concept.

I will warn you now: this has holes in it. In no way is this a stable "theory". It's the product of coming up with how I wanted to handle certain aspects of Touhoumon Asteria's story to make it less... depressing. And also to avoid a specific trope that the old draft made. Anyway!

By the time this headcanon takes place, Maribel is experimenting with the abilities she showcased during Trojan Green Asteroid, and they have reached a point where she can more consciously manipulate boundaries. Renko and Maribel take frequent adventures through her use of these abilities. It isn't perfect though, and this is reflected as such on one adventure where Maribel ends up, albeit unintentionally, manipulating the boundaries between past and present, leaving both her and Renko stranded an indeterminate time in the past, long before modern era.

The two of them eventually come across a shrine, and are taken in by the head priest of said shrine. For free room and board, Renko and Maribel offer to assist around the shrine, lending aid where they can. While this is going on, Maribel continues to practice with her own powers.

Both Renko and Maribel are trained in the practice of being shrine maidens for the shrine they were living at, offering services in place of the head priest of the shrine. People took a shine toward Renko the most, as she was able to help them with her modern knowledge, which people of this era considered to be "miracles". In turn, the amount of faith they were pouring into Renko specifically began to change her from a normal human into an Arahitogami- a Living God.

Maribel's experimentations with her abilities also began to warp her from being a normal human. Traditionally, she would be referred to as a "Magician". But a human who becomes a magician is just one step removed from losing their humanity entirely and becoming something else- in her specific case, a Youkai.

(I think you're starting to see where this is all going.)

Both Renko and Maribel noticed that, while the head priest and their children were getting older, they themselves were not. They did not age any further, did not look any older. Time effectively stopped for the both of them. Both had transcended their humanity, in very different ways. Renko, becoming effectively the de-facto god of the shrine they were staying at, and Maribel, who separated herself from her humanity and became a Youkai with the ability to manipulate boundaries.

The two of them knew that there was no way their future-past selves could learn about this- they themselves didn't know after all. Using the newfound control of her powers, Maribel manipulated the boundary between the Known and Unknown to completely erase hers and Renko's name from history. In order to seal their fate, Maribel adopted a new name- Yukari Yakumo.

Eventually, the shrine the two of them stayed at was merged with another clan when the priests from one married into another family. A clan of powerful Youkai Hunters, with the surname "Hakurei". The shrine was then renamed to the Hakurei Shrine, with its patron, god, a girl flung far from her time, residing in the shadows. And a Youkai, someone who should be vehemently opposed to the concept of Youkai Hunters, acting as its guardian, offering to train its Priests and Priestesses.

BUT THATS JUST A THEORY

A GAME THEORY

THANKS FOR READING

Solid case for Renko being some brand new type of youkai. Or, oni, even. Electromagnetic oni.

The Youkai Expansion Project is almost complete by the mid-21st century, they just need to set the final step in motion to turn the Outside World into a world of youkai and close down the Hakurei Barrier. However, Yukari is dragging her feet on it for some reason. The other Sages spend like seveny years collectively going "come ON, Yukari" and she just will not fire it off. Then one day Renko appears in Gensokyo, her presence and search for her missing wife sets off a miniature Incident which gets resolved, and in the denouement Yukari shows up at the Sage Meeting like "Okay, let's go~" and everyone in the room groans.

ive always wanted to talk a bit about how i feel about the connection between Yukari and Merry because i love the endless parallels and thematic connections (like everyone else on the planet 😁), but wondering if it was ever 'worth' it since i may just be spouting a lot of what is already considered 'common knowledge' among hifuu aficionados. Not to mention i think my thoughts on it are somehow both really messy but also crystal clear. 😐 Well whatever! Its my own head anyway so i'll try not to worry and am gonna attempt to elaborate even if just a little on this post, which may not be entirely coherent due to sleepy, post-medicine fatigue.

i feel like over the years i may have started to become reflexively more 'against' yukari = merry fandom, although 'against' is probably too strong and its much more complicated than just "i dont subscribe to that theory" because thats not even entirely accurate!

it is of course a classic and really cool idea of the Merry one day becoming Yukari has been and continues to be thoroughly explored by many many fans for moving, tragic, bittersweet, or thought provoking work. I love Absolute One-Way Street, and also Dream and Reality among many other works like it 📖

but i also think its a little stiffling to think of that as the one and only story to tell about them? Now its possible that the sentiment im about to express isn't actually common and im actually just making up a person to respond to, but i think taking the teasing connections between Yukari and Merry and treating the idea of them being the same individual as the absolute obvious truth is a bit of a limiting perspective.

Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinions and headcanons! but i want to make a case that when it comes to touhou and especially hifuu in particular, there's also a richer (and possibly deliberate on the author? who knows!) point to treat it more abstractly.

Maybe they are the same person. Maybe one day Merry becomes Yukari, or Yukari becomes Merry. Maybe they're different people. Maybe they come from the same lineage. Or maybe one is a clone of the other grown in a lab or made with a magic spell.

None of that is as important to me as the the roles they serve in their stories. touhou has always had themes about the gap and the bridge between fantasy and reality by taking place in a world where fantasy seeks refuge from reality, and hifuu goes much further in that theme by taking place in a reality that has completely left behind fantasy. That parallel is really cool to me and its embodied perfectly by both stories having a purple-clad blonde girl with the means to poking their toes into the boundary between fantasy and reality.

In the fantastical world of touhou, one serves as gensokyo's powerful (if frustrating, shady, annoying, disagreeable) protector with allies that she watches over (and sometimes manipulates) with her great power, all to preserve their little wonderworld. And I think its sooo compelling how zun introduced hifuu in the music cds and designed a very similar-looking character, who lives in a stifled reality lacking in imagination, mostly spends her day chasing after even the smallest traces of dreams with a partner whose own small logical world expanded with infinite possiblities upon their meeting...

In the last few cds, Merry's powers may be growing stronger and i get why feeds the implication she's becoming something other than human. But my take on that has always been its more of a sign that she and Renko are already outliers in their world simply for daring to believe there is more to the world beyond facts and logic. I dont expect their story (assuming zun ever brings them back. we havent heard what theyre up to since 2016....) to ever end with both or either of them becoming a youkai or vanishing to gensokyo, because frankly that wouldn't serve any purpose for the themes hifuu has been about, which is embracing fantasy while living in a world that has abandoned it.

trying to remember what my point with this post is.... Oh right its that I think all these themes about the nature of gensokyo or the state of reality in hifuu are only made richer when you think about how they contrast with one another. And by extension, I think Yukari and Merry are both richer if you think of them as conceptual and thematic counterparts in two different stories on the opposite end of a similar spectrum, before thinking about what literal or objective connection they might have. Subjectivity definitely means more than objectivity in this case!

if you gave renko, like, 1000 more years in the oven, of course also let her stop being human, she would fit right in with youkai sages i think

equally as funny renkos still there just busy at work

djsfjhsdjhdfs renko is just a random human who lives in the village that no one seems to notice doesnt age. she just goes to like suzunaan every ten or so years and buys all the books they have on science and magic while she does research on strings and fantasy

That ask got me thinking about what character I have been the meanest to in fanfic, and I think these are my rankings.

Since there's a lot of overlap between these characters, I'm not counting bad things that happened to their loved ones.

#1: Reimu Disemboweled by a youkai. Starved to the point of collapse. Lost her powers (x2) Burnt to death about half a dozen times, but in a cartoony way.

#2: Renko Got halfway erased from existence. Got possessed and nearly killed her girlfriend once or twice. Face sliced up from exploding gun. Shot through the arm with a laser.

#3: Sorawo Brainwashed into arson-suicide. Added another head to her doppelganger crisis. A lot of insults and a few death threats from Kozakura, but let's be real, she deserves some of it.

#4: Maribel Got erased from existence (she got better.) Collapsed and nearly died from an infected wound.

#5: Marisa Exploded to death.

If you just go by how distressed the character was by the events, though, Kozakura's at least top 3, and I've never even done anything that bad to her.

Torn between "Renko breaks Byakuren's youkai magician speedrun record a few frenzied months after Merry disappears" headcanon and "Merry is already so youkai-like by the time she time jumps that Renko almost doesn't notice a change when Yukari finally syncs back up with her thousands of years later the next day" headcanon