Man, Lawful Neutral's a hard road to walk, it seems.
Reimu's got it pretty hard because unlike Eiki Shiki, who knows objectively what's right and wrong by being a yama, Reimu's only human for better or worse. When you think about it her being isolated so much at her shrine is a way to lighten the burden, less connections or at least more control about them as they have to come to her to make contact.
The comments about her always doing her duty when needed shows just how she kinda built a switch into herself about her job. The expression on her face when the topic of Marisa changing was a flash of that switch flipping on even for a few moments.
Reimu's path is set, she is The Exterminator when it comes to it and as such she needs to do her duty... even if it will end up destroying her other life.
Reimu's only human for better or worse. Reimu's path is set, she is The Exterminator when it comes to it and as such she needs to do her duty... even if it will end up destroying her other life.
Better actually. If she were a god her and the concept of shrine maiden would be one and the same and there'd be no getting away from her "duty". But as a human, she's little more than a replacable cog. If she were to, theoretically speaking, want to quit being the shrine maiden they could replace her in a heartbeat with the next clueless orphan that happens to be available. Which i assume they do anyway everytime the miko drops dead before being able to produce a successor. She's a human being, which means she has true free will, which means she can "theoretically" choose to change anytime she wants, youkai sages be damned. Duty is only ever as important as you delude yourself into thinking it is. Reimu just so happens to think it's the most important thing in her life because it's what gives her life meaning. Who would she be if not "the Hakurei miko"? So she commits, regardless whether she truly wants to or not because in a way, it's all she has. That idea's entirely wrong of course, but good luck trying to convince her otherwise.
Marisa's ironically a prime example of someone that's forsaken duty in the pursuit of said free will, going from merchant's daughter to forest witch, which was well against the wishes of everyone that mattered to her at the time.
Reimu's path is set, she is The Exterminator when it comes to it and as such she needs to do her duty... even if it will end up destroying her other life.
In this particular hypothetical case, the phrase "uh, good luck with that" comes to mind.
Wait, I though that the rule was that people from the human village couldn't purposefully turn into a youkai, but since Marisa exiled herself to the Forest of Magic (in youkai territory), she shouldn't break any rule if she turns herself into a youkai, no?
Wait, I though that the rule was that people from the human village couldn't purposefully turn into a youkai, but since Marisa exiled herself to the Forest of Magic (in youkai territory), she shouldn't break any rule if she turns herself into a youkai, no?
That makes sense given the reason behind the rule's existence FS gave us. if the Human Villagers saw that they could become yokai themselves without repercussion, most of them would actively trying to turn, unwittingly cutting off the very power keeping yokai alive. Marisa, on the other hand, hasn't lived in the Human Village for most of her life at this point, and likely would've been othered by the majority of the people still there by now- a witch that hangs out with monsters likely isn't too different from said monsters, right? As such, the general populace's reaction if she were to turn and get away with it would probably more akin to 'of course that happened' than 'maybe I can do that too?'.
Unfortunately, the rule itself doesn't actually care about any of that- any human that turns within the bounds of Gensokyo must be exterminated by the Hakurei Shrine Maiden. As such, Reimu would actually be duty-bound to take her out when she goes full Magician (which I suspect is the reason why Marisa's seemingly faltered on every opportunity for immortality she's been presented despite showing clear interest and being quite the hard worker behind the scenes). That aspect of their relationship isn't exactly pleasant for either of them...
That said, I don't believe Yukari would actually let Ms. Kirisame be killed this way- the girl's proven time and time again to be too useful a tool to be lost in such a wasteful manner, after all. She would absolutely let them fight it out before intervening, though. (^~^;
That makes sense given the reason behind the rule's existence FS gave us. if the Human Villagers saw that they could become yokai themselves without repercussion, most of them would actively trying to turn, unwittingly cutting off the very power keeping yokai alive. Marisa, on the other hand, hasn't lived in the Human Village for most of her life at this point, and likely would've been othered by the majority of the people still there by now- a witch that hangs out with monsters likely isn't too different from said monsters, right? As such, the general populace's reaction if she were to turn and get away with it would probably more akin to 'of course that happened' than 'maybe I can do that too?'.
Unfortunately, the rule itself doesn't actually care about any of that- any human that turns within the bounds of Gensokyo must be exterminated by the Hakurei Shrine Maiden. As such, Reimu would actually be duty-bound to take her out when she goes full Magician (which I suspect is the reason why Marisa's seemingly faltered on every opportunity for immortality she's been presented despite showing clear interest and being quite the hard worker behind the scenes). That aspect of their relationship isn't exactly pleasant for either of them...
That said, I don't believe Yukari would actually let Ms. Kirisame be killed this way- the girl's proven time and time again to be too useful a tool to be lost in such a wasteful manner, after all. She would absolutely let them fight it out before intervening, though. (^~^;
As long as it's kept under wraps, the human villagers have no way of knowing Marisa turned into a magician. And it's not like just anyone can choose to become a youkai like that either so I don't think Reimu would hunt Marisa down for the sake of some arbitrary rule like that regardless of the interpretation this doujin chose.