The Journey Leading to the Illusionary Funeral and the fate of the two from the looping Hifuu.

This page was originally intended to contain the commentary that was included in "Lineage Leading to the End," which was not included in the main compilation, along with some comments. However, since there was some empty space, I started writing comments on "Journey Leading to the Phantom Funeral," and then I thought, "Why not just write two whole pages?" so I ended up filling the page with text. I didn't have much space to write comments on "Journey Leading to the Illusionary Funeral," which is a newly drawn manga, in the main compilation, so I think this is just about right.

The timeline of the series, including "The Journey," is as follows:

Before Christ: Merry time jumps to ancient Japan and becomes a youkai. Later, she begins calling herself Yakumo Yukari. Around 1000: Yakumo Yukari claims to be a disciple of Abe no Seimei and becomes involved in the extermination of a fox spirit. She takes Tamamo no Mae as her shikigami. 1900s: Yakumo Yukari incites the youkai to plan the first lunar invasion. It ends in failure. 2000s: Yakumo Yukari is defeated by Hakurei Reimu, and the Hakurei Great Barrier is broken. She dedicates her efforts to maintaining the barrier. Usami Renko crash-lands at the surface Hakurei Shrine after time jumping. She encounters Hakurei Reimu. Hakurei Reimu becomes an advisor to the Japanese government and takes on the role of shrine maiden serving the Imperial family. Usami Renko finishes her training under Hakurei Reimu. She attempts time jumping and disappears. 2100s (First half): The Japanese government recognizes the existence of Gensokyo. Operation Gensokyo Annihilation is launched. The US government suffers a terrorist attack from an unknown force. It decides to withdraw from the occult industry. Gensokyo disappears. The satellite Torifune becomes uncontrollable. Later, it leaves orbit and goes missing. The sixth Hakurei Reimu relinquishes her role and name and returns to the Usami surname. 2100s (Second half): Maribel Hearn is born. Usami Renko is born.

Although it wasn't depicted in the manga, the two characters meet during the era of the original Touhou games. Reimu simply crossed the barrier and emerged without any time travel. There was also a plan to have Renko, who had traveled through time, ask questions about the present time, but she needed to have lost her memory of what happened before and after, so the story proceeded without her noticing. Since they had traveled more than 100 years into the past, there was also the option of having Renko notice the changes at the Hakurei Shrine, but we prioritized the idea that she would remember absolutely nothing. As a result, we couldn't include the classic "What year is it now!?" exchange that is a staple of time travel stories. I tend to like including rather cliche scenes, so this was a bit of a disappointment for me. Well, Renko has memory problems, and Reimu wouldn't know the calendar of the outside world, and it would have taken up a considerable amount of time if we had tried to include it, so we reluctantly cut it. Incidentally, as some readers may have noticed, the two agreed to cooperate due to a convergence of interests, but naturally, Renko has no sense of direction in the area, so their relationship falls apart immediately after that. Well, neither of them has anyone else to rely on, so I suppose they'll end up helping each other out in the end.