It's a dream
"If Gensokyo is a dream...then how can you say that you two aren't fantasy either?''"
—Rinnosuke Morichika
—Rinnosuke Morichika
Dream and Reality (Yume Utsutsu) is an illustrated book made by Iyokan and Surrounded By Enemies.
Renko invites Maribel to the abandoned Hakurei Shrine in the Outside World, but suddenly Maribel disappears. Renko is transported to Gensokyo, where after being nearly eaten by Rumia, she is saved by Marisa Kirisame. Now Renko has to find Maribel while finding out the secrets of Gensokyo.
Dream and Reality contains examples of the following tropes:
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Before disappearing together with Gensokyo, Reimu confesses that she loves Yukari and asks if she loves her back. Yukari acquiesces in the end. However, The Stinger reveals that Renko is the first Hakurei shrine maiden, making Reimu her descendant. Thus, Maribel/Yukari loves Renko, so it’s implied that she said those words to Reimu so that she could die happily.
- Bittersweet Ending: Renko wakes up from her coma, but Maribel/Yukari sacrifices her life so that it would happen.
- The End... Or Is It?: The Stinger shows that Renko is a descendant from the Hakurei family. She decides to become a shrine maiden, finds the abandoned Hakurei Shrine in the Outside World and decides to create Gensokyo from scratch.
- All Just a Dream: However, the last words of the novel imply that everything was one of Maribel’s dreams all along.
- Big Damn Heroes: Marisa, who decides not to be on Reimu's side and decides to help Renko find Maribel.
- Break the Cutie:
- Reimu is aware that Gensokyo is ending and Yukari is slowly dying in an attempt to stop the barrier from collapsing. She wants to spends her last moments with Yukari, but refrains to say anything because she is supposed to treat everyone equally.
- Youmu falls into a Heroic BSoD when Yuyuko dies after Gensokyo is ending and the Saigyou Ayakashi blooms.
- Connected All Along: As it turns out, Renko comes from a family of shrine maidens and she changed her surname because she wanted nothing to do with them. At the end of the story, she takes her old surname back. What's the surname? Hakurei.
- Damsel in Distress: Renko, due to being a normal human in a land full of overpowered humans and youkai. First, Rumia almost eats her. And Reimu wants to kick her out, since she blames Renko for Yukari's condition.
- Dying Declaration of Love: Reimu, to Yukari. Yukari/Maribel goes along with it, to let Reimu die happy.
- Face Death with Dignity: Besides Reimu angsting for Yukari's weakened condition and Youmu falling into despair after Yuyuko's death, everyone else is calm about Gensokyo's end. We see the people from Eientei and Scarlet Devil Mansion accepting their fate. Even Yuuka, Aya and Suika decide to have a final match with Reimu before dissapearing for good.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Reimu is jealous of Yukari’s fondness of Renko, upset at how Yukari saved her when the shrine maiden was about to kill Renko. The Reveal that Yukari is Maribel doesn’t help.
- I'm a Humanitarian: When Renko arrives to Gensokyo, she encounters Rumia, who proceeds to throw danmaku at her and later eat her. Luckily, she is rescued by Marisa before it could happen.
- Mr. Exposition: Rinnosuke.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Great Hakurei Barrier is slowly weakening itself and Gensokyo will collapse soon. Renko arriving to Gensokyo only increased the damage to the barrier.
- The Reveal: Renko is in a coma and is slowly dying, so Maribel creates Gensokyo. And Yukari is Maribel.
- Renko is a descendant from the Hakurei family, who did not want to become a shrine maiden and became a college student instead. After Maribel/Yukari’s death, she decides to become a shrine maiden and decides to create Gensokyo from scratch.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Youmu's quest, believing that the recent anomalies are just another incident. First, she finds the ghosts are acting strange and wrongly accuses Marisa of bullying the ghosts. Then, she finds out that the Saigyou Ayakashi bloomed and Yuyuko is dead. Youmu goes after Yukari, blaming her for manipulating the border between life and death for making the tree bloom (which is not the case) and ignoring Reimu's warning that Yukari is weakened. After Yukari/Maribel tells her that Gensokyo is dying, Youmu accepts it and fades away.
- Together in Death: Yuyuko and Youki.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Reimu tries to stop the collapsing of the Hakurei barrier by kicking Renko away from Gensokyo, since Yukari's condition has worsened after Renko came. Nothing will stand in her path and even tries to use Fantasy Heaven on Youmu just because the half-ghost was in her way. As Marisa finds out, it turns out that Reimu is lashing out at everyone because she is aware of Yukari's inminent death and feels powerless since she cannot do anything to stop it.
