Some days later"But, well, even if it's just a fantasy given life inside the barrier, it's now a living being. It'd be a pity to make it into a show animal. Let's just leave it alone."
"Well, it's not like we can do anything about it anyway. Speaking of which, I guess we can assume rhinos haven't gone extinct in the Outside World after all, huh?"
"I sure hope so."
"Rhinos, huh..." muttered Sekibanki, who'd been listening in silence. "I've never seen an Outside World rhino, but we do have one in Gensokyo."
"Whah!?" Sanae raised her voice in shock.
"She's a nominal member of that Grassroots Network with those stray youkai and Kagerou et al. Apparently they saw her bathing in the lake sometimes and said hello. I'm not a member, though, so I don't really know much." It was obvious to anyone else that she'd already said the important part, but Nazrin and Sanae both let it slide.
"Can that actually be true!?" Sanae seemed interested. She was leaning forward at Sekibanki.
"Uhm... If you ask Kagerou, she'd probably introduce you. I can try talking to her."
"Yes, please do!""Oh, man. That really was terrifying," Nazrin said and panted exaggeratedly. She and Sanae were sitting at the table in Nazrin's cabin. For reasons, the rokurokubi Sekibanki-chan who occasionally comes to this cabin to do odd jobs and so on was also there.
"Sounds like you had a real adventure again," she said like an active listener. Sanae looked more frustrated.
"We were so close. If we caught that, we would've had worshipers for days. I actually came back later with Kanako-sama and Suwako-sama to give it another try, but we couldn't find it no matter how we looked. Kanako-sama says that the area around the barrier can warp the connections and continuity of space, so it's possible that the space and anything in it might get shunted back and forth."
Nazrin had actually expected as much. From the start, behind Youkai Mountain was the Sanzu River, that is to say, a path to another world. It made sense that the barrier might act erratically next to a connective passage like that.
