"Speaking of which, Wu doesn't know yet, right? What was the first thing I learned from my grandma. ”

After eating all the dumplings and drinking all the new tea, Reimu and Takeya sat in the quiet corridor, their two pairs of lower legs swinging back and forth leisurely, as if they were children.

Reimu, with his hands behind him, raised his face and looked at the sky through the clouds covered by the eaves, and the question that seemed to be a joke began to drift away with the indifferent words:

"What do you think? Borei's physical skills? The magic of sealing the demons? Or is it the use of yin-yang jade? ”

Reimu's question was too jumpy, and the imaginative trajectory made Takeya completely unable to keep up with the rhythm, he had to focus on the literal part, and let out a long nasal voice like thinking, he shook his head:

"I don't know, what is it?"

"Hee-hee, you won't be able to think of it when you say it."

Laughing out loud like a treasure, Reimu's two little feet swayed more happily:

"It's the 'Soul Splitting Technique'."

"Soul Splitting?"

"That's it, it's a bit tricky to explain...... By the way, Takeya should know ninjas, right? ”

"Ninja ......"

Hear the words. A lot of information related to ninjas flashed in Takeya's mind, shuriken, ninjutsu, and tights, cough, the last one doesn't count.

"If you're talking about the kind of ninja in history, I know."

The implication is that if it's a Gensokyo special ninja, he doesn't understand it at all.

"Haha, even if there are ninjas in Gensokyo, it's the same as the one you know."

Reimu smiled and waved her hand, then said slowly:

"The so-called 'Spirit Splitting Technique' looks similar to the ninja's doppelganger technique on the surface."

"Doppelganger, it doesn't sound very powerful......"

Indeed, compared to the god-level abilities in Gensokyo that Takeya had seen, the clone could be regarded as extremely inconspicuous.

"You're not wrong in saying that."

Reimu spread his hands indifferently, and didn't make any rebuttal to Takeya's contempt:

"Originally, the art of splitting spirits was not a skill used by humans or youkai, but was reserved for the gods."

"Gods?"

"Yes, the gods separate a part of their body from another shrine to receive incense from there, and such a doppelganger will have the same abilities as a part of the main body and enjoy the same offerings."

Wu didn't know what Reimu wanted to say, but her eyes gradually drifted away, as if she remembered something from a long time ago:

"The 'Splitting Technique' that Grandma taught me is a skill stolen from the gods, and it is basically the same as a ninja clone, the only difference is that the clone created through the Splitting Technique can exist forever."

"Hey, that's right."

Wu also gave a little reaction in a timely manner, treating Reimu's words as a small talk after dinner, she didn't care too much, and still said to herself:

"In the beginning, my grandmother taught me a lot of moves that have been passed down from generation to generation at the Hakuri Shrine, with techniques and physical techniques, but she has never had any requirements for me, and like her character, learning is dispensable."

Speaking of this, Reimu seemed to recall the worrying character of the previous generation of shrine maidens at that time, and the corners of her mouth flashed a hint of helplessness, but it was quickly replaced by bitterness:

"However, she asked me to keep practicing every day until I completely mastered this 'Spirit Splitting Technique'."

"Huh? Why do you want to cling to this...... Not a strong skill? ”

"yes, why, I didn't know it at the time, but then I knew."

Reimu's eyes closed slightly, and the smile on her face gradually converged:

"On the day I completely mastered the 'art of splitting spirits', I finally knew that my grandma, who was with us, had always been 'splitting spirits'."

“...... Huh? ”

The smile on Takeya's face seemed to freeze, mechanically maintaining the shape of a smile, and after a while, he asked in surprise:

"What do you mean?"

"Huh."

As if provoked by Takeya's reaction, Reimu snorted softly, and a smile resurfaced on her face, and she said slowly:

"It's literal, the grandma who has been with us from the beginning is the doppelganger she made with her own 'Splitting Technique', the real her, she left a long time ago."

"Isn't that what ...... mean?"

"Well, there was nothing we were abandoned by her in the first place, because from the beginning, she never stayed."

Like a light wheel in the sky, Reimu's smile seems to stay on the edge of rising and falling, making it impossible to tell whether it is the first morning of hope or the afterglow of darkness.

"At that time, I pestered Zi for a long time before she told me the truth, as early as eighteen years ago, Grandma left, exactly one year before Wu Ye was born, which is great."

The corners of his reed-like eyes curved slightly, and Reimu smiled at Wu Ye:

"At first, I was worried about what would happen if I was picked up by a doppelganger, but now it seems that we are all the same."

Reimu ......

Wu also wanted to speak and stopped, for some reason looking at Reimu who was talking and laughing in front of him, he actually felt that she was so fragile like never before.

"Don't look like that, stupid."

Reimu stretched out his finger and poked Takeya's cheek, and after seeing the other party's dumbfounded expression, he smiled lightly and then raised his head and continued to look at the thick clouds in the sky:

"Purple said, a lot of strange things happened eighteen years ago, and the enchantment of Gensokyo also became strong at that time, so after Grandma left, she didn't have anything to do."

"Purple can't ......?"

Wu Ye was shocked, if it was said that the realm monster Yakumo Zi couldn't stop the departure of the previous witch, then where did she have to run to, you must know that the underworld near here, whether it is the other side, it is geographically connected to Gensokyo...... Say?!

Wu Ye looked at Reimu in surprise, only to see her smile and nodded:

"It seems that you have also thought about it, Wu Ye, where did Grandma go?"

“...... Outside. ”

If there is any place where Yakumo Purple can't interfere too much, it's only in the outside world, which is completely isolated from the concept of mystery, that is, the world in which Takeya lives.

"But if my sister is older...... If she goes to the outside world, won't she completely lose her spiritual power? ”

The example of Remilia and the lost shrine is right in front of you, and the special beings of the outside world are theoretically impossible to survive at all.

"So what?"

Reimu's gaze fell far away, without the slightest wavering:

"Have you forgotten Wu Ye, grandma is a human like us, even if she loses her strength, if it is her, no matter where she is, she can easily survive."

“......”

Is this the expectation? Or yearning? Or rather, it's actually ...... Grumble?

Takeshi couldn't understand Reimu's current expression, and in the face of the previous generation of witches who ruthlessly abandoned them, Reimu, as her "daughter", could be said to be the person with the most complicated feelings for her.

For Wu Ye, maybe he should pretend to be stupid and sell a cute now, or hit a blaster on the top of Reimu's head, and then scold, "I don't understand what you're talking about, don't show such an expression, it's not like you at all!" "Something like that.

"Alas......"

It is undeniable that Wu also hates to be given strange expectations, because he has been quietly avoiding these, so he never thought that he would take the initiative to stand in front of others:

"I'll help you, Reimu."

"Huh?"

Reimu was stunned, as if he didn't understand what Wu Ye meant.

"I promise you, I'll definitely help you find her."

He made a strange promise to himself, and in Reimu's gaze, shaken by shock, Takeya gave a thumbs up, revealing a mouthful of white teeth that did not fit his image at all:

"If she's in the outside world, I'll definitely find her, and then find a way to bring her into Gensokyo and bring her to you!"