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.