Chapter Summaries

Yukari Yakumo brought Saigō to the impoverished Hakurei Shrine, where he met Reimu Hakurei and learned why she was kept isolated there. Saigō offered Reimu gold and discussed a possible way for Yukari to save Gensokyo, leaving Yukari troubled and Reimu eager to serve her new distinguished guest.

• Yukari Yakumo brought Saigō through the shrine’s front gate and introduced him to Reimu Hakurei.
• Reimu mistook Saigō for one of Yukari Yakumo’s former lovers and asked whether he had brought food and tea.
• Yukari explained that Reimu’s power was needed to maintain the Great Barrier and that she kept the young miko away from Human Village to protect her.
• Saigō told Yukari that Reimu was exceptionally gifted and urged her to consider his suggestion for saving Gensokyo; Yukari said she would consider it.
• After Reimu served Saigō nearly plain tea, he placed a gold pebble in the Offering Box, prompting her to return with proper tea and pastries.

At Hakurei Shrine, Saigō warned Reimu Hakurei that Gensokyo and its Great Hakurei Barrier were in danger, then suggested relocating Gensokyo and freeing Reimu from her duties. Before Yukari Yakumo could respond, a poisonous crimson mist swept across the sky, and Reimu set out to deal with the incident.

• Reimu Hakurei guarded her grain of gold and offered Saigō tea and the shrine’s last rice crackers.
• Saigō asked which god the shrine worshipped, and Reimu praised the shrine without knowing the answer.
• Saigō warned that Gensokyo might not endure and argued that Reimu should be freed from maintaining the Great Hakurei Barrier.
• Yukari Yakumo recognized that Saigō was trying to divide Gensokyo’s inhabitants and draw them into his worldview.
• A dense crimson mist covered the sky, and Reimu grabbed her Gohei and promised Saigō she would deal with whoever was causing trouble.

Reimu Hakurei rushed to investigate the Scarlet Mist Incident while Saigō and Yukari Yakumo discussed Gensokyo’s future and the burden of saving the youkai. At the mansion, Remilia Scarlet resolved to defy fate and keep Sakuya Izayoi by her side, while the demons’ immunity to Mystery Decay unsettled her.

• Reimu Hakurei flew toward the source of the Scarlet Mist Incident to restore peace in Gensokyo.
• Saigō told Yukari Yakumo that he understood why she had prioritized the youkai, while questioning the cost her plans imposed on humans and Reimu.
• Saigō agreed to visit the one responsible for the red mist and explained that Gensokyo’s youkai would need to support Yukari’s decision for his proposal to succeed.
• Yukari Yakumo revealed that she had planned to let Gensokyo endure for another hundred years if she refused Saigō’s offer, then asked about his world and its undead.
• Remilia Scarlet vowed to break fate and keep Sakuya Izayoi with her forever, but became embarrassed when Sakuya noted that demons were unaffected by Mystery Decay.

Remilia explained that she had released the scarlet mist to draw out Gensokyo’s administrator and hoped to change Flandre’s fate. Meanwhile, Saigō and Yukari Yakumo crossed Mist Lake, where a misunderstanding with the fairies ended in Yukari wiping them out before she took Saigō toward Reimu’s fight.

• Remilia told Sakuya Izayoi that she had released the scarlet mist to find Gensokyo’s administrator and seize a turning point for Flandre and Sakuya.
• Saigō and Yukari Yakumo walked around the Human Village to Mist Lake, where Yukari explained that the vampires in the lake’s island mansion had caused the incident.
• Saigō and Yukari encountered fairies mourning Cirno, who they believed had been eaten by two strangers, while other fairies plotted to steal her treasure.
• Lily White warned Dai-chan that Saigō and Yukari had arrived, and the fairies fled after calling Yukari an old hag.
• Yukari opened Gaps and annihilated the fairies, then offered to transport Saigō toward the explosion at the center of Mist Lake, where Reimu was fighting the vampires.
• Cirno re-formed from the puddle, declared herself the strongest, and realized that no one was listening.

Saigō entered Scarlet Devil Mansion and overwhelmed Sakuya Izayoi’s time-stopping attacks, then forced Yukari Yakumo out of her Gap. He used the authority of Betrayal to make Sakuya stab Remilia, and the chapter ended with Remilia attempting to rearrange Sakuya’s tangled threads of destiny.

• Saigō arrived in Scarlet Devil Mansion, where Sakuya Izayoi attacked him with time-stopped, magically enchanted knives.
• Saigō resisted Sakuya’s time powers, and her redirected knives triggered explosions that devastated the mansion.
• Saigō tore open Yukari Yakumo’s Gap and pulled her into the mansion.
• Remilia appeared and confronted the intruder, but Saigō’s authority of Betrayal made Sakuya stab her with a silver knife.
• Remilia recognized that Sakuya’s threads of destiny were in chaos and tried to rearrange them.

Saigō confronted Yukari Yakumo about her willingness to die for Gensokyo while Remilia and Sakuya remained under his influence. Meanwhile, Reimu and Marisa entered the Scarlet Devil Mansion, where Marisa got lost in its library and began stealing magical books.

• Sakuya Izayoi kicked Remilia after Saigō’s power drove her to betray her mistress, then resisted approaching Remilia again.
• Yukari Yakumo told Saigō she would sacrifice herself to protect Gensokyo and suspected he wanted her consent to claim its inhabitants’ souls.
• Remilia summoned a blood-red spear as Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame entered the mansion, while a magician rushed up from the library.
• Meiling pretended to be unconscious at the mansion gate, blamed her hunger for failing to stop the intruders, and fell asleep again.
• Marisa lost Reimu in the mansion, found its library, and began filling a sack with magical books.
• Marisa sensed someone watching her and aimed her Eight Trigram Furnace at the unseen observer.

Marisa Kirisame fled from Flandre Scarlet, whose escape from the basement was caused by damage to Scarlet Devil Mansion during Saigō’s fight with Sakuya Izayoi. Saigō calmed Flandre and began guiding her toward seeing Remilia as someone she should break, leaving Remilia shocked and furious.

• Marisa Kirisame tried to steal books from the library, but fled when Flandre appeared and called for Reimu to save her.
• Patchouli Knowledge warned Remilia that Flandre had escaped after the mansion’s damaged barrier failed, and Sakuya Izayoi realized her fight with Saigō had caused the damage.
• Flandre Scarlet emerged from the ruins and approached Saigō, intrigued that her power could not break him.
• Saigō questioned Flandre about her sister, and Flandre said Remilia bullied her and that she could not control the frightening eyes she had to crush.
• Saigō suggested Flandre should play with Remilia until she broke, shocking and enraging Remilia.

Saigō provoked Flandre Scarlet into attacking Remilia, then offered to solve Flandre’s painful condition in exchange for a price. Flandre dismembered Remilia before regaining some of her sanity, and Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame arrived at the ruined Scarlet Devil Mansion as the others faced the aftermath.

• Flandre Scarlet blamed Remilia for keeping her locked away and attacked her, while Saigō explained that Flandre’s visions of weaknesses caused her constant suffering.
• Saigō told Remilia he could solve Flandre’s problem and asked what price she would pay, distracting Remilia during the fight.
• Flandre Scarlet destroyed Remilia’s body, then held her sister’s remaining head and asked whether she could now leave the basement and spend time with her.
• Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame arrived to find Flandre holding Remilia’s head amid the ruins, while the Scarlet Devil Mansion’s residents considered Flandre’s restored sanity a relief despite Remilia’s dismemberment.

Saigō told Remilia that he could help Flandre control her destructive power and recover from her mental instability. He asked Remilia to become a believer in Zoroastrianism, leaving the price of his help tied to her faith.

• Reimu Hakurei and Yukari Yakumo deferred to Saigō when Remilia asked who was in charge of Gensokyo.
• Saigō explained that Flandre Scarlet's power came from the authority of destruction and that he could grant it back to her in a controlled form.
• Saigō promised Flandre she would be able to leave the basement, live wherever she wished, and make friends.
• Remilia asked what Saigō wanted in return for helping her sister.
• Saigō asked Remilia to become a believer in Zoroastrianism, and Yukari recognized him as a demon of that religion.

Remilia agreed to Saigō’s offer to save her sister, but Saigō sensed the Mother of Good Gods’ power and discovered that it had connected with him through the kindness his actions had inspired across several worlds. The connection suggested that the Mother of Good Gods had chosen him as her heir, while also risking that Little Garden’s Second Ranks would discover the worlds hidden beyond its observation.

• Remilia accepted Saigō’s request for her faith in exchange for a new life for her sister, despite Sakuya Izayoi and Patchouli’s misgivings.
• Saigō sensed a trace of the Mother of Good Gods’ power, suppressed its disturbance, and realized his humanity allowed it to coexist with his Treason Spirit.
• Saigō concluded that the Mother of Good Gods’ Spirit remained in Little Garden and that she had chosen him, just as the Mother of Evil Gods had.
• Saigō traced his connection to the people who prayed to him after he improved their lives in World Tree Game, Bloodthirsty World, and Teyvat, with his plan to save Gensokyo completing the connection.
• Saigō worried that the power’s fluctuation could let Little Garden’s Second Ranks locate the worlds hidden beyond the Void and threaten his plans.

Saigō concealed his worries about the Second Rank and reassured Flandre, then persuaded Remilia to accept his offer of refuge from Mystery Decay. He promised to return and help Flandre control her power after handling his own affairs, and left with Remilia’s reluctant welcome.

• Saigō prepared to use the Mother of Evil Gods' power against the Second Rank while hiding his fears from Remilia, Yukari, and Flandre.
• After the meal, Remilia demanded to know when Saigō would help Flandre, and he said he would do so when the time was right.
• Saigō told Remilia that Gensokyo had less than a hundred years before its end and offered to take her somewhere untouched by Mystery Decay.
• Remilia accepted Saigō’s offer for Flandre’s sake, and Saigō promised to help Flandre control her power once he had handled his own affairs.
• Flandre asked Saigō to promise he would return, and Remilia grudgingly welcomed him back to the Scarlet Devil Mansion.

Saigō took Yukari Yakumo away from Scarlet Devil Mansion and punished her after she admitted she had wrongly suspected him, while promising to save Gensokyo. Elsewhere in Little Garden, a mysterious being sensed the power of the Mother of Good Gods and recognized that the Mothers of Good and Evil had left contingencies behind.

• Saigō left Scarlet Devil Mansion with Yukari Yakumo, while Marisa Kirisame was caught trying to take Patchouli Knowledge's books and Reimu Hakurei had slipped away.
• Saigō brought Yukari Yakumo to a forest, suppressed her powers, and told her that those who made mistakes had to be punished.
• Yukari Yakumo admitted she had little experience with men and tried to persuade Saigō to change her punishment, but he refused and threatened to strip and beat her before Gensokyo's youkai.
• Yukari Yakumo conceded and agreed to submit to Saigō if he truly saved Gensokyo, and Saigō demanded that she take the initiative in her punishment.
• A mysterious figure on a snow-covered mountain in the Upper Layer of Little Garden sensed the Mother of Good Gods' radiance and said that the Mothers of Good and Evil had left contingencies behind.

Saigō checked his Void Sanctuary and then visited Reimu Hakurei, who tried to charge him for staying at the shrine. The chapter left Saigō teasing Reimu by suggesting he might move in with Remilia instead.

• Shiva and Vishnu discussed their plan to defeat the Decadent Wind in the Era of World Destruction, while Zeus worried that events were growing more complicated.
• Saigō helped Yukari Yakumo after their encounter, and she asked him to save her friend Yuyuko, whose situation involved the dead.
• Saigō inspected the Void Sanctuary for signs of damage or intrusion and found none.
• Reimu Hakurei swept the shrine before demanding offerings from Saigō to cover the cost of his stay.
• Saigō joked that he might leave the shrine and stay with Remilia, whose home could offer him better hospitality.

Reimu Hakurei tried to persuade Saigō to stay at her shrine, but Yukari Yakumo took him to the Netherworld as promised. Marisa Kirisame visited Reimu, and Saigō’s arrival at the Netherworld ended with the pair facing a powerful sealed Nether Cherry Tree.

• Reimu Hakurei tried to keep Saigō at her shrine by praising its comforts and cooking him a meal.
• Marisa Kirisame arrived with mushrooms, joked that Saigō was her father, and joined Reimu for lunch after Saigō disappeared.
• Reimu noticed Marisa’s bruises, and Marisa said she had been hurt while borrowing books from the Scarlet Devil Mansion.
• Yukari Yakumo brought Saigō to the Netherworld, where they traveled through its eerie landscape to a long staircase and a courtyard.
• Saigō sensed that the sealed Nether Cherry Tree atop the mountain had reached Fifth Rank and could destroy a small country if it bloomed outside Gensokyo.

Yukari told Saigō how Yuyuko became the spirit bound to the withered Saigyou Ayakashi and asked him to move the tree to save her from true death. Yuyuko arrived with Youmu, and she and Yukari welcomed Saigō as they introduced themselves.

• Yukari explained that Monk Saigyou sacrificed his daughter to replace the Saigyou Ayakashi’s consciousness and seal the deathly tree.
• Yukari revealed that she had befriended the girl, tried to prevent the sacrifice, and later remained friends with her as Yuyuko, who had lost her memories.
• Yukari asked Saigō to remove the tree from Gensokyo, explaining that it was Yuyuko’s body and that she would die if it could not be moved.
• Yuyuko appeared and embraced Yukari, while the two teased each other about their closeness in front of Saigō.
• Youmu objected to Yuyuko and Yukari’s teasing, and Saigō introduced himself to Yuyuko as Zarathustra.

Saigō and Yukari Yakumo visited Hakugyokurou, where Yuyuko Saigyouji welcomed them with wine and food. Yuyuko noticed Yukari’s worries had eased, while Youmu Konpaku was sent back to cook more; the visit continued with Yuyuko teasing her gardener.

• Yuyuko Saigyouji asked Youmu Konpaku to prepare a banquet, then invited Saigō and Yukari Yakumo into Hakugyokurou.
• Saigō and Yukari traded teasing remarks about their relationship and agreed to stop bringing up their past grievances.
• Yuyuko served wine and told Yukari that she looked less worried than she had over the past twenty years.
• Yuyuko asked Saigō whether he had recently arrived in Gensokyo, saying she would have known him if he had been there before.
• Youmu Konpaku served eight dishes and a soup, but Yuyuko claimed there was too little food and sent her back to cook more.

Yuyuko explained that undead needed attachments to avoid becoming walking corpses, then spoke privately with Saigō after Yukari got drunk. She revealed that she remembered fragments of her life and knew her corpse lay beneath the Saigyou Ayakashi, leaving Saigō to wonder why she had hidden the truth from Yukari.

• Yuyuko told Saigō that undead did not need food but needed something to care about to keep their spirits alive.
• Yuyuko fed Yukari enough wine to make her drunk, then sent Youmu to carry her to a guest room.
• Yuyuko asked Saigō how he had made Yukari afraid and obedient, and he explained that Yukari had been punished for testing him.
• Yuyuko said Yukari had suffered before because of her suspicion, including when Eirin Yagokoro foiled her attempt to conquer the Moon Capital.
• Yuyuko admitted that she remembered fragments of her life and knew her corpse lay beneath the Saigyou Ayakashi, then asked Saigō to guess why she had deceived Yukari.

Saigō spoke with Yuyuko about her desire to embrace true death, then watched her dance beneath the Saigyou Ayakashi. The next day, Yukari agreed to help him take Gensokyo beyond its borders, and Saigō began explaining the world he wanted to take them to.

• Saigō recognized that Yuyuko intended to dig up her grave and embrace true death before she lost herself, and Yuyuko admitted he had guessed correctly.
• Yuyuko asked Saigō to be lenient with Yukari, became his friend, and danced for him beneath the Saigyou Ayakashi.
• Yukari woke from her drunken sleep and found Saigō waiting in the entrance hall; he told her Yuyuko was asleep and asked what she had decided.
• Yukari told Saigō she would help him with everything she had, but asked why he needed everyone in Gensokyo to agree rather than simply moving it by force.
• Saigō criticized Yukari for guessing instead of communicating, then explained that the world he wanted to take them to involved Little Garden and theories of three-dimensional intersecting parallel worlds.

Saigō told Yukari Yakumo how he planned to grant Gensokyo’s youkai Divine Authorities and asked her to gather them, then left to investigate the demons outside Gensokyo. Yuyuko welcomed the prospect of Gensokyo joining Little Garden, while Saigō arrived in the Suwa region.

• Saigō explained that Gensokyo’s youkai could gain Divine Authorities by joining the Takamagahara Pantheon or following Zoroastrianism, and Yukari Yakumo agreed to gather them.
• Saigō told Yukari Yakumo to persuade the youkai and said he would personally discuss physics with anyone who refused; he then revealed he planned to investigate the world’s demons.
• Yuyuko spoke with Saigō at Hakugyokurou, expressed her loneliness, and looked forward to making friends in Little Garden.
• Saigō left Hakugyokurou, and Yuyuko told Youmu Konpaku she was hungry before reflecting that Gensokyo had gained hope.
• Saigō left Gensokyo’s affairs to Yukari Yakumo and arrived in the Suwa region to investigate the demons outside the Great Barrier.

After sensing that Little Garden’s Domain Holders had sent someone into the demon-infested world, Saigō studied its demons and decided to save humanity while using the outsiders’ mistaken assumptions to his advantage. He began identifying which Domain Holders might oppose or support him as he planned to find the hidden Fourth Rank and restore his Spirit Divinity.

• Saigō sensed an aura from Little Garden outside the Great Hakurei Barrier and suspected a Third Rank’s Descent from Heaven to Man or a secretly dispatched Fourth Rank.
• Saigō traveled to the Island Nation’s capital, watched the Special Devil Division kill a Traffic Light Devil, and considered how demons had become part of everyday life.
• Saigō concluded that demons would eventually overrun the world and decided to save it, writing that he was still human despite his demonic identity.
• Saigō reasoned that Little Garden’s Domain Holders likely believed he meant to restore his Spirit Divinity through evil, so he planned to play the villain while protecting his true method and eventually defeating the hidden Fourth Rank.
• Saigō listed the Hindu Pantheon and Christianity as enemies, the Greek Pantheon and future Celtic Pantheon as allies, and the Dual Goddesses, Buddhism, the Norse Pantheon, and the Eastern Pantheon as uncertain.